Naruto: Sage Advice
Set during the 3 years Jiraiya takes Naruto under his wing, certain truths are brought to light for Naruto. Read on, as these revelations begin to mould Naruto into someone more ready for his journey ahead.
Chapter 1: Revelations
One year has passed since the departure of our young hero along with his new teacher. They briskly traverse a large expanse of golden fields, as the horizon beyond swallows the borders of the land of fire. The shinobi pair lounging in comfortable silen-
"Oi pervy sage! Where are we going?"
Jiraiya tiredly sighed at his young apprentice "Just a little further up ahead kid, we're almost there."
"Graaahhh!" Naruto incoherently yelled, ruffling his own hair in the process. "We've just been running around in the middle of nowhere for weeks now! When are we gonna get to do some training? All we've been doing since we left the village is work on taijutsu and basic chakra control! You haven't even taught me anything since the rasengan." Naruto whined.
Jiraiya groused under his breath as he spared his student a glance. "Tell you what brat, lets have some training right now." The sage declared.
"Really?" Naruto sprang hopefully.
"Yeah, it's stealth training, let's see how long you can mute yourself for." Jiraiya stated.
"Grrrr, I should've known it was trick" the blonde grumbled as Jiraiya chuckled heartily.
A small glimmer of light in the encroaching dusk approached ahead, signalling their long awaited return to civilization. "Alright Naruto we're here. Let's head on over to the inn I told you about earlier, my contact should be waiting for us inside."
"Woohoo, finally a bed! No more sleeping on the floor in a tent anymore." Naruto cheered.
"You're a shinobi brat, you shouldn't be complaining about the lifestyle." Jiraiya countered.
"I'm just saying, if you were the one sleeping next to a slobbering perv dreaming about god knows what, you'd be just as excited."
"I'm more surprised YOU aren't slobbering in YOUR sleep considering your age." Jiraiya mused out loud, more than used to this line of conversation from his trainee.
"I don't even know what I'm supposed be dreaming about, all I know is you seem to enjoy it so it's gotta be dirty."
"I can't believe you're a teen already, how did they not teach you this stuff at the academy?" Jiraiya shook his head in disbelief.
"They didn't teach me anything there anyway, only Iruka sensei taught me enough to pass. That's why we're wasting my time training all this basic stuff in the first place." Naruto spat as Jiraiya frowned at the statement.
Reaching the entrance of their temporary new home, Jiraiya casually surveyed the lobby for his designated liaison. "Jiraiya-sama" a decidedly mature feminine voice came from a corner of the room. Both men turned towards the voice as a woman came into view. A beautiful woman was whom the voice belonged to, dark brown hair tied upright in the traditional kabuki style, deep blue eyes focused on the two men, who at this moment seemed unable to shift their gaze away from her sultry figure, bound ever so tightly in an ornate kimono suggestively accentuating her more than ample proportions. Unfazed by their obvious leering, the woman strode forward to meet her two targets. Jiraiya quickly snapped out of his perverse reverie to lay a mischievous glare onto the girl. "Ah! Hinowa there you are." The woman politely nodded as Jiraiya motioned for her. The elder man noticed a tug on his pant leg to see an entranced young boy staring unashamedly at his intrigue. "Hey pervy sage who's that?" Naruto blurted out. The woman giggled openly at the nickname as the sage puffed out a surrendering growl at his student's label.
"Naruto meet Hinowa, she's one of my most reliable agents." The woman beamed at the statement.
"Hi" the shinobi in training breathed out waving dumbly at his infatuation, his stare still transfixed on the beauty causing Hinowa to lash out into a full guffaw before catching herself in surprise at her own reaction, swiftly drawing her fingers up to cover her mouth as her eyebrows raised. Jiraiya snorted amusingly, placing a gentle hand on his charge's gold locks "Easy there lady's man, she's MY date tonight" Naruto grinned sheepishly up at his teacher, who in turn switched to a more serious tone "We've got some catching up to do." Noticing the shift in atmosphere, Hinowa quickly shifted her demeanor to match, giving a curt nod to her master.
Guiding everyone to the register, Jiraiya hastily scribbled out a fake identity, shoved the keys into Naruto's hand and pushed him towards the hallway with the room. "I'll see you in the morning kid, get to bed" The man ordered.
"Eh? Why can't I ever join your super secret meetings? I bet you're just gonna perv on her!"
"It's in the name brat 'super secret'. Maybe I'll let you in on it one day when you're a little older… and a lot wiser...hopefully. Now get some rest, I promise I'll start up training again properly tomorrow alright?"
"Alright fine!" Naruto resigned, getting in the room and closing the door on his teacher. Naruto smirked quickly before poofing a shadow clone into existence.
"Alright listen up, hurry up and transform into a set of these keys. I want you to listen in on their conversation and dispel before he comes back tomorrow, got it?" The shadow clone complied with a salute before turning itself into an identical copy of the keys. Hastily opening the door Naruto called out to Jiraiya, noticing with a little annoyance as the man walked arm in arm with the target of his infatuation out the inn's exit. Jiraiya turning his head back, deftly caught a set of room keys aimed directly for his face. "Oii, you're gonna need those to get in" Jiraiya nodded before placing the keys into his breast pocket before offhandedly waving off his student. Naruto receded into his room, smiling slyly as his impromptu plan seemingly worked. Glad that Jiraiya finally taught him something useful about his most favoured jutsu so far.
A few hours later…
Jiraiya sat stoic with Hinowa sat across from him at a table in a private room at the back of a bar, pondering the information he received so far concerning Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, as well as the general gossip surrounding the different countries. He closed his notebook and placed it hastily within a seal on the lapel of his coat.
"Good work, this will really help plan my route of travel with Naruto". Hinowa seemed surprised at this "Speaking of that master Jiraiya, who exactly is this boy you're taking such a great interest in?" Jiraiya leaned back in his chair as he let out a defeated sigh
"Naruto…Naruto is someone who I owe a debt to" Hinowa stared at him confused "A debt?".
"...That kid has done a lot for me without him even realizing, he saved the woman I cared about from a life of sorrow when I could not, he showed me my purpose once again, where I had lost it, and more importantly he showed he could survive anything life threw at him, where it was my duty to protect him from that suffering, a duty that I failed". Hinowa gestured for him to continue, encouraging him to elaborate on his story
"And that kid is amazing, he really is. He's no genius by any stretch of the word, sometimes it seems like I'd have an easier time teaching a tree, but what that kid lacks he more than makes up for it with sheer force of will. I don't think I've ever met someone with the pure hunger Naruto has to learn, the absolute determination he puts into every effort, and he doesn't do this just for the sake of getting stronger either, he wants this power to protect those whom he considers his friends and to show the world that no matter how much try to put him down he will always get back up and achieve his goal" Jiraiya proclaimed heatedly with a massive smile on his face.
"You sure do take pride in your student master Jiraiya" Hinowa smiled.
"Why wouldn't I? He's my very own apprentice and Godson...not that I have the right to call him that" he laughed bitterly."The kid doesn't even know he still has family".
"Then why don't you just tell him? I'm sure he'd at least hear you out." Jiraiya shook his head.
"No...no, I lost that privilege the day I let that old monkey of a teacher convince me to abandon him in favour of the village. A village that scorned him mercilessly, while I was lied to about his well being. A lie I happily accepted to ease my own conscience, like a fool. But that won't stop me now, I'm going to damn well make sure that kid achieves everything he wants, Konoha and prophecy be damned, Naruto, my family takes priority. I stake my life on that."
The clone silently dispelled itself as soon as it heard the end of the conversation. Naruto jolted up from his bed as the memories returned to him, shaken with the information he just learned about himself and his teacher. He slowly laid back down in his bed after a while of aimlessly staring at a blank wall.
"Hell of a way to find out huh?" Jiraiya stated quietly from the window sill. Naruto suddenly turned his head towards him.
"H-how?" he barely managed to get out.
"I'm a spymaster kid, you don't think I'd notice a cheap trick when I see one?"
"Then why? Why did you tell me?" Naruto cried in desperation, as he slowly choked on his tears.
"I don't know, I just couldn't hold it in anymore I guess. Plus it was more you finding out about it rather than me telling you face to face… It made it easier for me..." The only noise in the room were the silent sobs Naruto let pass in his grief.
"Naruto, I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me. But I want you to know... I am so, so sorry. I am so sorry and ashamed of what I did! I don't know how I can ever make it up to you, but I..." Naruto lunged himself at Jiraiya and wrapped his arms around the sage in a tight embrace.
"How can you forgive me so easily?! I thought you would be furious with me!" Jiraiya exclaimed
"I am furious with you! But that doesn't matter! You're my family, you've done more for me than anyone else ever has, I may be stupid but I'm not letting anger get in the way of me finally having something I've wanted all my life!" the young ninja shouted through his tears. Jiraiya took pause for a moment before desperately clinging on to his newfound Godson, afraid to let go for fear of losing him once more.
"You have no idea how happy I am right now kid. No idea." Jiraiya whispered to himself. As they begrudgingly broke their hold on each other.
"This doesn't mean you're off the hook by the way" Naruto stated authoritatively, squinting and crossing his arms. "You better take teaching me seriously from now on!" Jiraiya chuckled happily.
"You got it kid. I mean how would it look if the Godson of the great and gallant sage Jiraiya is weaker than a puppy. I hope you don't regret this later 'cuz I'm gonna make sure you know everything I'm able to do by the end of our trip. Believe it!" Jiraiya added in with a shit eating grin, as Naruto smirked right back.
Just a quick not at the end of the 1st chapter. This is my debut with fanfic so I hope you enjoyed it. This chapter was kinda sappy and slow but I plan on having it pick up along with the plot very very soon. The story will follow the manga fairly closely except for the few changes I make for my own wish fulfillment (it is fanfic after all). Well anyway thanks for reading, and stay tuned if you continue to do so.
Thanks
Lemonsqueeze13
