A/N: Hey guys! It's me, SamHetfield, with the small project I was taking about you a while ago... Now, before anyone asks, The Orange Hokage is still quite alive, I'm just having some trouble writing down the most original aspect of the story, since OoC Academy years are the worst thing EVER to write. But don't worry, by next Tuesday or maybe before that, the next chapter is up.
I'm also working on ANOTHER side project (as large as The Orange Hokage, actually, but it's still a side project nonetheless) called The Gutsiest Of All Tales. This one I'm actually pretty excited to work on, because I'm putting soundtracks, and building the story for this one will actually help me out later down the road when The Orange Hokage hits the time when Naruto and co. become Genin, so that'll actually benefit me, despite writing three stories.
And speaking of stories, I have yet ANOTHER two settings of stories planned out. One will be called Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto: Chibi-Sensei, featuring Minato & Kushina alive and Naruto... well, being Naruto, but with parents and the Kenchi618 smart-ass factor, which I happen to like. The other one is Uzumaki Naruto: Orenji Senkou, featuring a Naruto that has his mother's appearance and Minato's personality. I can't wait to start writing on those two as well, specially Chibi-Sensei, because it may be the most dark-humored story I'll ever write in my life, even more than TGoAT. Anyway, I'm getting way off track now, enjoy the story!
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For more than an hour, it was everything that could be heard inside a giant sewer network. In there, a young boy was laying down on the floor, sleeping. His hair was as yellow as the sun. Each side of his cheeks had three remarkably visible lines that looked like fox whiskers. His clothing was composed of a very strong orange jumpsuit with blue shoulder sides, a white swirl symbol on the left arm and a red version of the exact same swirl on the back.
He also wore a black shirt, a pair of orange pants, blue sandals and a blue headband with a steel hitaiate. The hitaiate carried the symbol of the renowned Konohagakure no Sato, the most powerful of all hidden villages known in the shinobi world, located at the great Fire Nation (Hi no Kuni).
After what seemed like an eternity, the young boy finally opened his eyes, although very slowly. Even within the almost sepia atmosphere of the sewer, you could see that the boy's eyes were cerulean blue as deep as the bottom of the sea. He lift himself up, yawning and stretching his arms. He analyzed his surroundings for a while.
"I've been here before..." he thought. "It reminds me of that time when I was training with Ero-sennin for the Chuunin Shiken... I almost died, but then I felt... it... calling for me. It was so powerful... and evil... and it's calling me again..."
He walked through the corridors, and heard a faint growl coming from the right. He slowly walked towards the source of the sound. He arrived at a giant room, with a even bigger golden jail cell. In the middle of the bars, a great paper tag with Fuuin was written.
As the young boy approached the bars, a huge wave of red chakra started to leave the room, along with a heavy killing intent that could easily make most people faint, or possibly die. Soon, a pair of blood-red eyes with cat slits opened in front of him. The darkness inside the cage was waning off, and the figure of a huge orange fox was visible.
The fox had nine tails, swapping back and forth inside the cage. The young boy was quick enough to make the association. "Kyuubi no Youko... we meet again." he said. For a large amount of people in Konoha, the once almighty Bijuu was believed to be slain by Namikaze Minato, the famed Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, over 13 years ago, in which he died within the process, being hailed as a hero for his deeds.
The truth, however, is that the Kyuubi did not die. It is downright impossible to kill a Bijuu, for it is just a massive form of pure chakra, formed from hatred and other negative feelings. What the Yondaime really did to stop the Kyuubi from wrecking Konoha was sealing it within a newborn baby, with a very complex and strong form of Fuuinjutsu.
With that, the baby became the host of the Kyuubi no Youko, and as he grew older, the seal on his abdomen would slowly but gradually absorb small quantities of the Bijuu's chakra, granting him the most incredible amount of chakra anyone has even seen in all the five Elemental Nations.
But as a Jinchuuriki, a demon host, his life was harsh. With both his unknown parents dead because of the Kyuubi attack, the boy ended up being scorned, mistreated and downright hated by the great majority of the people who knew about his condition. Even if the children were not supposed to know about his poor condition, the adults would simply push the children away from him and give them reasons to hate the boy.
After years of pain and sadness, the boy finally became a Genin of Konohagakure, and his life would slowly become more cheerful, as he ventured himself through the hardships and endeavors of the shinobi life. And now, after a period of intense conflicts and impossible tasks, a time of quietude would take place, but before that, the Kyuubi called out its Jinchuuriki to talk to him.
"Uzumaki Naruto..." said the Kyuubi, growling in anger. "It's about time we had this conversation..."
The Trial of Time
Prologue – The Deadline
"Conversation?" asked Naruto, frowning. "You, of all beings, want to have a conversation with me? This is curious, to say the least. What do you want to talk about? I don't recall doing anything that deserved your oh-so-mighty attention. In fact, I've been pretty fine without your interference, aho-kitsune!"
"Don't mock me, kozo!" growled the Kyuubi. "You owe me for saving you poor excuse of a life in that battle with that Uchiha bastard you call 'friend'... In fact, you only managed to 'overcome' the ordeals of your pitiful existence thanks to me. I'd be more grateful if I were you!"
"Grateful?" Naruto asked back. He was clinching his fists and gritting his teeth out of so much anger he was feeling right now.
"GRATEFUL? I got a fucking DEMON sealed in me! My life has been a hellhole! Everyone ignored my existence! Stores either kicked me out or overcharged me! If I ever got any food, it was probably expired! The reason I'm not dead yet is because ANBU has been covering my ass for Kami-knows-how-long! And everything is YOUR FAULT!"
"And what did you do about it, huh?" asked the large fox. "You worked you ass off, you got some people to acknowledge you, but what good is there to it if you don't give me the proper credit, huh? I gave you power when you faced Haku. I helped you out against Orochimaru. YOU came to me when you were trying to summon Gamabunta, and when you wanted to defeat Neji and Gaara as well. I even went further and gave you power to face off that guys with the tough bones and Sasuke!"
"And what did you do? You utterly failed! You failed to destroy your opponents because of some stupid moral code, while they hurt those who you consider 'precious', you failed to win the hearts of your villagers, who still despise your pitiful existence. You failed to 'save' your stupid friend who, as I recall correctly, never wanted to be saved in the first place."
"And to top it all off, anything you might actually consider a victory was MY doing. You just took my power, called it your own and boasted around saying how awesome you were. Other than that, all your life is utterly pitiful. Maybe that Hyuuga boy was right, once a failure, always a failure."
"...shut up..."
"What did you say?"
"I said, SHUT UP! You only crave for hatred, destruction and death. You never took into consideration that I am not a monster like you. I try not to use your power because it always reminds me of everything I'm trying to stand up against. I want to be powerful on my own. I do not need your power to change people's hearts. I do not need your power to win against my enemies. And I do not need you to keep telling me that I'm useless and weak and all that shit! And you better keep your mouth shut, or else I'll kick your ass!"
"And how exactly are you gonna 'kick my ass', huh? I'd love to see you, of all people, try..."
"Oh, you'll see..." Naruto approached the golden bar that separated them, closed his eyes, and easily enough, he was floating in midair. The Kyuubi widened his eyes and formed a huge grin on its face. "Oh yeah, now that's more like it... Trying to rip off the seal and have a one-on-one with me? You're so regretting this, kozo..."
"Well, this is MY mindscape, right?" said the young Jinchuuriki. "So you might as well get ready, 'cause I'm sending you to whatever hell you came from." Naruto approached the paper tag and slowly grabbed it. He took a deep breath, and readied himself to rip it off. Before he could, though, a strange hand grabbed his arm. He turned around to see whoever stopped him.
"...Just what do you think you're doing, Naruto?" said the man. In a few seconds, Naruto and the strange man landed on the ground again. The Kyuubi once again widened its eyes, this time though, surprised to see the one responsible for its current predicament. "You... you are the..."
"Yondaime... Hokage..." said a stunned Naruto. Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, his personal idol and hero, looked at him and smiled. He let go of Naruto's arm and started talking.
"I put some of my own chakra inside the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki as a failsafe... so if someone tried to rip off the seal by force, or if it somehow you got to eight tails worth of demonic chakra and damaged it, I would come up, fix it and give you some proper advice and a few revelations of my own before going away... I didn't want to do it, specially with you around... Kyuubi." the Bijuu responded with a growl of its own.
"I must say, though, that I never, in my wildest dreams, expected you to try and tell off the Kyuubi. There's a reason why it's the strongest of the Bijuu, you know? And you still try to take on nonetheless? Honestly, you do remind me of Kushina... A LOT. Although, that is a good thing, isn't it... Naruto?"
"… … …Huh?" said a dumbfounded Naruto, who now had quite a few questions to ask the Yondaime about. "Who is this... Kushina? And... how do you know my name...? And of course, the one question that's been bugging me for the last 14 months... Why me, of all people, huh?" Minato took a deep breath. It wasn't the way he expected things to happen, but oh well...
"Well, before that, let's go to a more private place... Having the Kyuubi behind your back doesn't feel very nice, you know?" he said, snapping his finger and sending both him and Naruto to an alternate plane inside Naruto's mindscape. He cleared his throat. "Now then... To answer your first question, concerning Kushina... her full name is Uzumaki Kushina. She was your mother." Naruto widened his eyes. He finally got to know the name of his closest relative, his strongest bond, one of the sources of his existence altogether...
His mother...
"My... my... Kaa-chan?" he asked, shock visible in his eyes, as well as some water. Minato nodded. "I know you're probably wondering why Sandaime-sama never told you about your parentage. I can't exactly blame him, though. He tried to protect you from your parents' enemies."
"Your mother was put in the Bingo Book by Kumo during the Third World Shinobi War because of her high-skilled kenjutsu and fuuinjutsu. Meanwhile, your father single-handily defeated half of the Iwa army in a matter of minutes. So Sandaime decided to keep your identity as part of the S-rank secret that involves your condition as Jinchuuriki... Please don't hate him for lying to you, Naruto..."
"How could I...?" the young boy asked, tears falling from his blue eyes. "He was there for me, all this time... Damn, it hurts like hell to know that he lied to me... I hate liars with a passion... but he still did it for my well-being, I suppose... I just think that of he wanted to keep it a secret, he could have asked me not to brag around and I'd gladly kept it hidden easily enough..."
"Oh well... But, um... Yondaime... do you know... who my father was?" Minato slightly flinched at hearing Naruto's question. But he had it all planned out. He took another deep breath. "Now that question can be answered by the other one you asked before... about how I know your name." Naruto raised his eyebrows. He tilted his head, in a way that made him ask 'what do you mean?' Minato answered him easily enough.
"I was the one who gave you this name." Minato chuckled in amusement as he saw Naruto gaping his mouth like a fish. He wasn't done talking, though. "Jiraiya-sensei had this book called 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja' that I loved. It wasn't like those... *ahem* 'romance-filled' books, let's put it that way... It was a good old-fashioned adventure novel, featuring a hero who never gave up on his grand quest and never went back on his word. It was his nindou."
"I was so fascinated by it, that I couldn't help it but name you after the hero of that book. Jiraiya-sensei asked me if it was alright, since that would make him your godfather, but that was the way I wanted things to be. And Kushina was really happy with the name I chose as well. She thought it was perfect for you."
Naruto listened to everything very carefully, and was still shocked with the information flooding through his head. "So..." he said. "You were the one who gave me this name...? But... why? Not only the Kyuubi, but my name as well... why me, of all people? What makes me so special to you, Yondaime?"
Minato couldn't help but chuckle at seeing how naïve the poor Jinchuuriki was. "I couldn't help it, Naruto. If there's one thing you should know about parents, is that they are the ones who name their children. And I was not an exception. You are my son, after all... That makes you pretty special to me... Naruto."
Naruto stood there, frozen, trying to make sense of everything his father said... his father... his FATHER! Of all the possibilities, of all the people who he could be related to... he had to be related simply and bluntly to THE Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.
The same Yondaime who defeated half of the Iwa army and became a legend by his mastery of the Nidaime's Hiraishin no Jutsu. The same Yondaime who became Hokage at merely 23 years old, the second youngest in history, besides the old man Hiruzen, who became Sandaime at 21. The same Yondaime who managed to save Konoha from the Kyuubi... by sealing it into a newborn baby. His baby. His son. The same Yondaime... who... in a way, turned Naruto's life in a hellhole. He clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and did the one thing that was on his mind.
He punched his father in the gut. Minato grimaced in pain. Naruto's tears ran through his face as he couldn't hold back his emotions anymore.
"You sealed the Kyuubi... inside YOUR OWN SON? Do you have any idea... ANY IDEA of what I've been through? Of how many people loathed me and sought for my death? Do you know how hard it was to me to get ONE person aside Sandaime-jiji to acknowledge me? I had to fail the Academy THREE TIMES, and be fooled by a traitor to be saved by one person who recognized me as Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha, and not the Kyuubi incarnate!"
"It took me months to finally gain recognition form my peers, and even then, I managed to suck at life! I lost my best friend to revenge and hatred, Sandaime-jiji is dead, and despite all my efforts, the villagers still hate me for something that YOU cast upon me! So I ask you again... why...? WHY ME?" he shouted, bending on all four, punching the floor and crying like he never did before. Minato listened to everything with his eyes shut, talking it all in. He knew too well the pain he suffered through all these years. He saw a lot of himself in his son, being an orphan, being ignored, no one believing in his dream to become Hokage...
"If there's anything I can say to you now, Naruto... is that I'm sorry. I know I haven't exactly been the finest father in the world, putting such a burden on you only a few hours after you were born... and I know that I... I shouldn't even ask you for forgiveness considering how much you've been through. But I had no choice." He slowly crouched to stay close to his son, while Naruto slowly leaned his head upwards to look at his father, and listen to his words.
"Kushina and I... we were so eager to have you... so excited to welcome you in our family... we loved you so much... no, we still do! But everything went wrong... The Kyuubi attacked, and someone was behind it all... and to stop it, I had no other choice but to create a Jinchuuriki. Someone who could use the powers of the Bijuu to protect Konoha in the near future. How could I even ask someone else to sacrifice their child? I'm the Hokage, I should sacrifice myself first before anyone else, I should be the example!"
"Not only that, you are an Uzumaki... Just like the wife of the Shodai Hokage Mito-sama, and just like your mother Kushina, you are from a powerful family, whose developed chakra coils, strong vital force and high regeneration rate were the only ones who could hold off the Kyuubi inside you. And most of all... you are my son. You are the one whom I would entrust everything anyway. All my legacy, all my faith, all my dreams... They've always been yours, and that was the decision I made. To sacrifice myself for you, my village and my country. Because I knew I could always count on you to set things right."
Naruto watched that man, the great Yondaime Hokage, loved and feared by many, crouched on the floor in front of him, with tears running down his face. It took but a moment for the young Jinchuuriki to make sense of everything he heard. The reason behind the deceased Hokage's choice for making a Jinchuuriki off of his son, for sacrificing his own life for the greater good, and for placing his faith and the safety of Konohagakure on Naruto's young shoulders. He saw the pain his father was feeling right now. He was sure of what he'd do now. Naruto slowly lift himself up and leaned forward. Minato opened his eyes to see something he truly did not expect right now.
Naruto, his son, moving towards him and embracing him.
It took but a couple seconds for Minato to return his son's embrace, who now was the one to do the talking. "Tou-chan, I... no, forget about it. I hold no grudges towards you, nor anyone else for this matter... It's always been my dream to be acknowledged, to be respected and recognized... and I've been slowly but gradually doing exactly that... The Kyuubi simply took advantage of a moment of weakness..."
"I failed to retrieve my best friend from Orochimaru's greed, and with that he betrayed Konoha... Since then, I've been having negative thoughts over this matter, and I can't believe how stupid I was... I almost gave up and went back on my word for a moment there. If it weren't for you, I... I..." Naruto stopped talking. He just buried his head on his father's shoulder and cried his heart out again. Minato sighed. His son shouldn't be suffering so much.
"That's okay, my son... What's done is done. You've suffered enough. Now it's time to let it all go and take a nice, big step forward and become stronger. You still want to be Hokage, don't you?" he asked, with a smile on his face. Naruto let go of Minato's embrace and looked back at him wiping his tears and giving him his trademark foxy-grin.
"Of course I do! I'm the son of the Yondaime, and I'll be damned if I can't surpass him, -Dattebayo!" Minato was impressed at his son's cheerfulness. It reminded him so much of Kushina... that smile, that never-give-up attitude... it made anything possible. Naruto's smile faded when he saw Minato slowly becoming transparent.
"Well... my chakra is fading away, it seems..." the Yondaime said. "Since no damages have been done to the seal, I'm afraid I couldn't do anything to help you out on that. But I have to warn you, Naruto... next time you do that, ask for Jiraiya-sensei to give you the key first. And at least have some extra strength to back you up, alright?"
Naruto pouted. Minato chuckled at his son's face. "And another thing. Once you fight against the Kyuubi to control its chakra, I've managed to put some of Kushina's chakra to help you out. So you'll get to see her as well."
"Really?" asked a very cheered up Naruto. "Oh, man. I get to see Kaa-chan as well. Anosa, anosa! I forgot to ask you... What's she like?" Minato just put his hand over Naruto's hair, ruffling a bit with it. "Now that you have to find out by yourself... Anyway, also be careful with the man who used the Kyuubi. He wears a mask and he calls himself Uchiha Madara. He will go after the Kyuubi again." Naruto nodded. Maybe this masked man was part of the Akatsuki, who knows? He would be careful, anyway.
"I guess that's everything, then... I believe in you, my son. Take care of Konoha for me."
And with that, Minato became sparkles, becoming one with Naruto's mindscape. A small tears ran down his face, and he smiled once again, clenching his right fist, and gazing at nowhere in particular, but with a new-found fire in his eyes.
"...Don't worry, Tou-chan... I'll protect Konoha with my life..."
Naruto's apartment, sometime close to 6AM...
Naruto's closed eyes narrowed a bit before he opened them. The faint mix between the night's dark blue and morning's faint orange could already be seen through his window. He yawned loudly and looked at the alarm clock. "*groan* It's way too early... Only Gejimayu and Gejimayu-sensei would be crazy enough to wake up before 6... I guess I'll go back to sleep..."
"Oi, gaki. Do you always leave your window open like that? Aren't you afraid of catching a cold?"
Naruto jumped off the bed due to nearly having a heart attack after hearing the loud voice coming from said window. Being 100% woken up now, he turned around to see who it was. Easily enough, there he was. The one who he considered Konoha's number one window stander. Wearing a sleeveless red haori over his green kimono and pants, with a chain mail underneath, alongside his hand bracers, wooden sandals and his Gama hitaiate. His long and spiky white hair and the red lines going down from his eyes confirmed this man's identity. He, the one, the only, the legendary...
"ERO-SENNIN! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY WINDOW, -DATTEBAYO!" shouted a very pissed off Naruto, lifting himself up from the floor. Jiraiya shrugged. "Well now, that's no proper way to greet one of the Densetsu no Sannin in your humble house, now is it?" he said with a smiling face.
"As long as you're a pervert and a house broker, I'll keep shouting at you and calling you Ero-sennin." the blond boy answered bluntly. "Although I should be calling you Ero-kyoufu now, shouldn't I?" Jiraiya's face did a complete 180-degree turn. As far as he knew, he never revealed Naruto that he was the boy's godfather. So where did he find out about that? Before he could open his mouth to ask Naruto, though, the Jinchuuriki started talking again.
"I had a discussion with the Kyuubi, which ended up on me threatening to kick its ass. I was this close to rip off the seal." Jiraiya's mouth gaped like a fish. "You did WHAT!" he shouted. He immediately started going through a few papers and scrolls through his belongings, so he could check on the seal and see if there were any damages.
"Yeah, I was kinda pissed off. But then, before I did anything else, Tou-chan appeared and stopped me." At hearing Naruto saying 'Tou-chan', Jiraiya winced. Since Naruto knew about his heritage, he was pretty much forbidden to lie any longer to his young godson. Instead, he turned around to face Naruto, with a very serious look in his eyes. "*sigh* Go on..." he said. Naruto nodded.
"He told me everything... about both him and Kaa-chan, about how someone called Madara was behind what happened that night 13 years ago, and that I should ask you to hand over the key to me next time I face the Kyuubi, which I promise I'll only do it again when I'm pretty sure I can manage to defeat it and be able to control its chakra." Jiraiya listened to everything carefully. If he was right about Naruto, the Jinchuuriki's questioning should be starting...
"So... where have you been all this time, Ero-kyoufu? Peeking through bathhouses was more important than taking care of your godson?"
Right now.
"*sigh* Okay, I admit. While I do admit that I'd love to watch over you, I had three reasons not to: The first was the nature of my job. Either giving you a proper home or taking you down the road with me, I'd have to deal with people who could easily make the association with your family and would use that to endanger Konoha. And we don't want that, right?" Naruto simply nodded. No problems with that.
"The second reason is Sarutobi-sensei. I honestly believed that he'd take good care of you. I foolishly forgot the fact that he was the Hokage, so he had the whole village to watch. Not only that, he was an old Hokage, so his power was diminishing and he couldn't to that much to begin with. Thankfully Danzou and others who would simply use you as a mindless weapon never get their hands on you, so that's a relief."
"And the third reason? Well, I chickened out. I went back on my word. In the span of five years, I lost... well, a lot. I had three promising students outside Konoha who died in the war, the woman I loved left Konoha in grief, my best friend betrayed the village, and the best student I had, the greatest Hokage who ever lived, and his wife, who I cared for as a surrogate daughter-in-law, passed away. Just like Tsunade, I was afraid to put my faith and trust on another soul just to see it dying on me... I couldn't bear it. So I simply left you behind."
"I don't know how you might ever forgive me, and frankly, I don't even care anymore. Even if you do end up hating me forever, I'll take it all in. I'll protect you from the Akatsuki until you become strong enough to face them. I'll train you to the bone. And I'll finally be the godfather I've never been. But I'll make this one thing clear to you, Naruto..." Jiraiya put a hand on his godson's shoulder.
"I'll never go back on you. Ever again. I promise on your parents' soul."
Naruto looked at Jiraiya, astonished. There was a man admitting his wrongdoings and willing to risk his own neck to keep him safe. Naruto slowly formed a grin in his face, which ended up as one of his trademark foxy-grins. "No need to go all smoothy there, Ero-kyoufu. You have a manly man image to keep, right?" he asked. Jiraiya couldn't help but smirk at Naruto's antics.
"You got that right, gaki. I have men to crush and women to woo, and the great and gallant Jiraiya cannot be seen in this miserable state!" he said, doing his strange dance. Naruto wondered for a moment if Jiraiya cast some sort of sound genjutsu, because there were hyoushigi's*, shamisen's* and shakuhachi's* playing on the background. Not to mention the ancient Raijin that somehow was chanting as well.
"But hey. I almost forgot why I'm here. You remember that three-year journey we were going to take by next month?"
"Yeah... so?"
"I got news to share you. Apparently, one of my contacts have something up on Akatsuki, but I can't exactly postpone it, and I figures you could use the espionage training. So we're going earlier than planned."
"How early is that, Ero-kyoufu?"
Jiraiya put his hand forward, with three fingers open. "Three days, gaki."
"WHAT?" asked a dumbfounded Naruto.
"Yup, you heard me just fine. Three dawns and three nights from now, at 6 AM, we're out of Konohagakure. Take your time to say your farewells, untie loose ends and make some legendary prank if you feel like it. I'll see you in three days from now, at 5:45. Be up and ready to start your epic journey, you hear me?" he asked, making a hand sign to start leaving in a puff of smoke. Before he was completely gone, though, Naruto heard his voice say:
"Be seeing you, gaki! Remember, three days!"
Naruto sighed. He hoped to have more time to say goodbye to his friends. He had to think about the things he would probably do, and the people who he would talk to before leaving, and fast. Damn that Ero-kyoufu for being as unpredictable as he was... Well, no time to waste then.
The trial of time has begun.
A/N: So, there you have it, the first chapter of this short story (when I say short, I say, like... maybe 10 or less chapters). If you haven't noticed by now the whole concept of this fanfic came to life when I was playing Majora's Mask (my 2nd favorite N64 game ever). The whole thing about "you have three days to make, do and say everything you always wanted to do" seemed to get to me somehow, and I just HAD to make a fanfiction out of this. You might already guess where this would go for some of the best couples there is, right?
And now, for translation of terms I used:
Hyoushigi = Wooden Clapper (for opening acts in Japanese theaters - every time Jiraiya does his little dance thing, this plays, because it's Jiraiya, and Jiraiya is awesome!)
Shamisen = 3-string lude (Jiraiya's theme from both Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden has this one wonderful instrument playing)
Shakuhachi = Bamboo Flute (which you can find on nearly EVERY single OST from the Naruto saga)
Well, next chapter starts the cycle. I'll cover up a few things Naruto will do and think about before he leaves. I'll be seeing you guys, then. Take care!
