This was started by an idea given to me by Star Josherson, and has grown quite large. Enjoy.

Lies and Truths

Seven year old Naruto looked down at the textbook open in front of him and grinned for the first time in a while. There were his heroes. As Iruka droned on and on at the front of the classroom, Naruto decided to use the time to study the two pictures and blurbs in front of him.

Senju Tsunade and her teammate Jiraiya. Both were declared Sannin along with their teammate Orochimaru after battling Hanzou in the Second Shinobi War and determined to be the strongest three shinobi in the village, and some of the best in the world.

He wanted to be like them.

But none of the three resided in Konoha any longer, and no reasons were given. He was always curious why they had left, but even Sarutobi-jii-jii refused to give him an answer. Well that was fine. Someday when he was the best shinobi ever, he would go and find them on his own. Then he'd know.

Twelve year old Naruto leapt from tree to tree, keeping his eyes peeled on the ground in front of him. He had been sent out on a D-ranked mission, just a standard message delivery. But the target was two days away, and so just to be on the safe side Sarutobi-jii-jii had made him promise to be careful when looking for traps and ambushes. He was going to be going very close to the border of Fire Country, and 'one could never be too careful' in the old man's words.

The mission drop went just as expected, handing the message scroll off to an old man waiting in a secluded building – a guard outpost. Naruto didn't know what was in the scroll, and didn't ask. He had learned that lesson the hard way after Kakashi had put the whole team through a week of punishment for opening a scroll on a mission – even though the information in that scroll was harmless.

It was on the way back that he caught the scent of campfire. He should have passed it by – he should have – but curiosity got the better of him. Naruto leapt along the trees branches to the smell, taking care to keep his footsteps silent in order to better prowl upon whoever was camping this close to the border.

Whoever he had expected to see, it wasn't a middle aged pair – one blonde, and one with shocking white hair. The surprise had him dropping from the tree branch with a muffled curse, and landing flat on his face right on the outskirts of the firelight.

The two were immediately on alert, one pressing a kunai against his jugular and the other with a hand poised right over his heart. "Where are you from?" The voice was rough with hostility, not the golden song he had expected from such a beautiful woman. Well beautiful in the textbooks at age twenty, anyway. This woman had hard lines on her face, and while she seemed to retain the figure of her youth, it was obvious life had put its mark on her.

When he didn't answer right away she pushed her hand onto his chest just slightly, and he gasped in pain. "Answer, brat, or you'll be dead in five seconds."

Well that wasn't much of a choice. "Konoha." He had expected them to relax, but instead both tensed further.

"Who sent you?" That was the man, his black eyes hard as obsidian as they glared at the boy.

"No one."

"Don't lie to us." There was a strange glint in both their eyes, as though they had seen their share of liars and were ready to do anything to get the truth.

"I'm not!" Now he was a bit annoyed. Why didn't they believe him? Some heroes they were shaping up to be. "I was on a mission, and I saw the fire!"

A few seconds silence as they seemed to communicate with each other, before both looked back at him. "Name and rank."

"Uzumaki Naruto, genin." He really didn't have a choice in the whole 'tell them' thing. Give up information or die. And it wasn't like this information was worth protecting with his life. Especially not against former Konoha shinobi.

He could see them both relax at that. A genin. A genin wasn't any threat to either of them, unless he decided to run his mouth.

"Scram gaki." Tsunade glared at him even as Jiraiya vanished the kunai he had been holding to the boy's throat and moved to pack up camp. She made no effort to help him up when she rose fluidly to her feet. "And if you know what's best for you you'll forget you ever saw us."

He scrambled to his feet as well, glaring daggers at her. "You know for heroes you aren't very nice."

Jiraiya let out a bark of laughter from where he had just put out the campfire. "Heroes? Us? Kid, you're delusional."

"But you are!" The textbooks didn't lie! "They tell us you beat Hanzou all by yourselves, you," he pointed a quivering finger at Tsunade where she stood with her arms crossed, regarding him like an interesting insect, "revolutionized medicine at the hospital, and you," another finger pointed at Jiraiya, "trained the Yondaime Hokage!"

"So? Those facts mean nothing." The blonde's tone was flat as she turned away from him and helped her companion to put away the few pieces of cooking gear lying around. "When it matters, nobody cares."

"But, you left to go make the world better, right!"

"Kid, where do you get these ideas." Jiraiya's voice was tired as he sealed the last of his supplies in a scroll. The site looked as though no one had stepped foot there. "We left because we had no other choice."

"But…but…" his brain felt like it was stuttering. Nothing was adding up anymore. "Everyone says Tsunade left to cure the world with medical jutsu, and you left to train with the sages!"

"Another pretty lie." Tsunade's fist lashed out, and suddenly a tree ceased to exist. "Just for you we'll tell the truth. Maybe you can go back and screw over those old farts who think they're a good councilwith the facts. You want to know why we left? Listen carefully."

He eyed her fist warily and stood well out of arms range – not that it would save him – then looked at both Sannin. "Fine. Tell me."