Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters within nor am I making money from this Fan Fiction.

Thank you all for the reviews so far and please keep them coming! I know this chapter has a lot of flashbacks in it, I decided to try several flashbacks for the important events in Naruto's early life rather than constantly jumping forward in time, let me know how you like and if you think it would be better a different way! Enjoy!

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A few months later

Jiraiya wasn't sure what possessed him to take this kid in but he was currently regretting it with every fiber of his being! The child cried, pooped, cried, snored, and cried without remorse! Nothing Jiraiya did seemed to get him to stop and it was always at the worst time. He grimaced wondering if he could exchange the boy for maybe a death match with Orochimaru.

He sighed as he looked down at the child in his arms, it was almost 3 in the morning and he hadn't had a good nights sleep in what felt like weeks. They had traveled for several months, Naruto had been so quiet in the woods and on the roads, the trees and insects and nature seemed to amuse him and keep him occupied. They had reached the border to the earth country and he thought it was time to conduct a bit of "research"!

"Everything had started out so perfectly too! All those pretty girls and they were all so interested in me!" He was almost to tears when he noticed all the potential "research assistants" in the small town.

Of course, that lasted all of maybe twenty minutes. It was as if once Naruto realized they would be staying for a while he wanted it well known he did not like it inside this town and had started to cry. At first it had worked to Jiraiya's advantage as all the girls had come over to talk to him.

Flashback

"Oh he is sooooo cute!" A high pitched voice squealed. "Is he your grandson?" "Oooo, look at his cute cheeks!" "You must be so proud, and handsome too!" The girls giggled and cooed over the child as his guardian grinned to himself.

"Well, that's how I've always felt about him, he is my pride and joy, sadly his parents were lost in a tragic accident." As the girls bent over to look at the small child in Jiraiya's arms their more than amble bosom's were laid open for the older man to see and his face reddened and caused him to smile. Naruto, you are a treasure, keep it up my boy! He chuckled to himself.

Naruto seemed to have a sixth sense about his guardian though and immediately began to cry even louder. The girls grimaced at the screaming child and quickly lost interest when their attempts to quiet him failed utterly leaving Jiraiya alone with the screaming baby.

End Flashback

Jiraiya sighed again, ever since he had been stuck in the hotel trying to find a way to quiet the little one. As he rocked the baby back and forth he spied the Toad contract in the corner. And a brilliant idea struck his sly mind, brilliant, and dangerous. Jiraiya placed the little Naruto down on the bed and walked to the scroll. Opening and releasing the scroll he unwound it until he reached the right spot, biting his thumb he pressed his hand on the contract.

There was a puff of smoke in response and two small toads lay before him. One was wearing a small night cap with a short white beard and snoring very loudly. The other was wearing a bonnet and had a small nightgown on. Naruto continued to scream in the background, the toads were not asleep for much longer as the noise continued.

"Ma! The kids awake again" The one with a beard said without opening his eyes.

"It's your turn to see to the kiddies Pa" The other responded sleepily.

A moment passed as the two suddenly sprang up and looked at each other, "WHAT KIDDIES?!"

An argument immediately erupted between the two as to which one had had another child, "how could you have gone and gotten pregnant again me Ma!" Pa cried, "what had she been thinking!" Ma immediately countered with how she had seen those "young biddies" eyeing Pa and knew he wanted them and started crying about how she had given him the "best years of my life!" After a few moment Jiraiya's chuckles caught the attention of the two old frogs who then turned, for the first time realizing they were no longer in their own home.

Pa was the first to recover, "Jiraiya-boy, what do ya think yer doing summonin us like that? Whats the gods awful racket?!"

Jiraiya was about to point to little Naruto on the bed when he realized the child had crawled toward him… and the edge of the bed. Just as Naruto began to fall Ma sprang forward to catch him. "Jiraiya! I would have thought you'd have better sense than to get one those "research assistants" pregnant! Where is the hussy?! She should be taking care of her child!"

"Aye boy, whats happened and since when do ye have a child?" Pa asked.

Jiraiya placed his hands in front of him, noticing that the three could actually speak in the same room at a normal tone as Naruto quieted down for Ma as she rocked him back and forth humming. "That's the first time he's been quiet since we got here. I had forgotten what silence was like. Well on the bright side he seems to like toads quite a bit."

"Ok Jiraiya-boy, tell us what's goin' on here." Pa asked him, his meaning clear he was brook no gaps in Jiraiya's story.

After placing a silencing Jutsu around the room he began explaining the entire situation to the old toad sages. He told them of the attack by the nine-tailed fox demon, Minato's sacrifice of himself and the binding in his son, and how he had taken the child in. "Everything was fine until we got here and he just started crying and won't stop and I don't know what to do so I, uh, kinda thought you guys might help." His hands were behind his head looking toward the ceiling with a silly, "By help, I mean do the work for me look on his face."

Ma sighed and immediately hopped to the table where Naruto's formula had been and practically gagged. "Jiraiya-boy, you do know ya have to mix the powder formula with water before feeding it to the child right? And why does it look like you've been using rice-balls mixed in with the formula? Didn't you at least think before this? No flys or ants or anything good for the poor child either!"

"Well, ya see, when we got here I ran out of the liquid stuff and I thought, well, it said it was the same and uh, I tried it and he wouldn't eat it, and so I thought maybe if I put it on the rice-ball he'd eat it ya know?" Jiraiya was many things but a father, as he was discovering, was perhaps not one of them.

With another deep sigh Ma got out a pan and began to mix together some formula while Pa spoke with their not-so-thinking pupil. "Jiraiya-boy, you did a noble thing, so I guess we won't leave ya entirely out in the cold with this little problem of yours, but, my god boy what were ya thinkin?! You should know we're sages, not babysitters! We have stuff to do back up on the mountain and can't sit here takin care o'the child every day. So MAYBE when ya need some help we'll give ya, but don't ya been callin us again at 3 in the morning unless…"

Pa was about to continue his lecture when Ma jumped down with little Naruto in her arms, the look on the child's face as he suckled his bottle was enough to stop the old toad from ranting. Ma always did look so perfect holdin o'child. He thought to himself. He also couldn't help but notice how happy it seemed to make Ma, "Well, if Ma wants ta help, then I guess we'll help, but we gotta pull double duty cause Gamabunta's kiddie Gamakichi's been stayin with us a bit and he's just learnin and all with his new legs."

"Any help you guys can give me would be great! It was so easy at first and the girls loved him and then he started all this!"

"You stay away from them girls you old pervert and keep them away from the baby here, he's ta grow up protected, not used to help you with that terrible 'research' you do!" Ma told him strictly. But then sighed afterward at the look on Jiraiya's which clearly showed he had not been listening.

The night wears on as Ma and Pa begin to once again take Jiraiya under their tutelage but instead of the ninja arts this time they are teaching him about how to properly care for a child. Of course they stayed with Jiraiya for several more days before leaving back to Mount Myōbokuzan. Jiraiya, now armed with the knowledge given to him by the Sage Toads cared for Naruto with much greater success, although Naruto still did not take well to any of his prospective "research assistants".

3 years later

Three years passed rather uneventfully for the pair as they wandered the five great nations. Naruto had grown from the young infant to a very inquisitive toddler. While Jiraiya may not have been much of a father figure for the young boy he was a great ninja and a sage. Along with Ma and Pa he had begun to teach Naruto about the toads from the time the boy could walk and understand.

Sadly though when Naruto began to speak it was to everyone surprise, or perhaps not as surprising as it should have been for some, that his first words had to do with Jiraiya.

Flashback

The toads were helped Jiraiya once again with watching little Naruto, who was currently trying to walk on his own with Ma calling to him from a few feet away in a small hotel room. Jiraiya had just come back after meeting a contact in the town they were in, the village was a small one and its name escaped the sage's because it was so tiny. But Jiraiya had been able to meet an informant who had information on the possibly activity of Orochimaru so they had taken care of Naruto for the past day while Jiraiya met him and got what information he could.

"That it little Naruto, come to Ma!" But as Ma called to the child about to take his first steps he stopped and look at Jiraiya and began to say something.

"Pa!! Jiraiya!! Its Naruto's first word!!!" All three gathered around the child as he struggled with the words coming from his mouth.

He seemed to think a moment "Eeee" with intense concentration he tried again, "Eeeerrrr" everyone held their collective breath as Naruto looked right at Jiraiya and finally said his first words, "Ero-Sennin!"

All three of them fall back in faint at the child's first words with Pa howling in laughter and Ma yelling at Jiraiya and shaking a suddenly appearing rolling pin and smacking him on the head.

Flashback End

As it was, however, the first true memories the child had were of his guardian attempting to convince girls to come back to their hotel room constantly. Naruto, however, had figured out very quickly it was easy to stop this and made liberal use of it.

Flash Back

Jiraiya was currently speaking to two rather vivacious young women in his room, "Oh yes girls! You are just perfect for my 'research assistants'! Perfect in every way… shape… and form…" The girls giggled at the old man as they sat down next to him on the bed.

Just as he was about to begin to bestow his new "research assistants" with their official titles a quiet knock came to his door and it opened and a small two year old child looked in. "Ero-Sennin, I has a nighmer, can I sweep wit joo?" Naruto began to tear up just a bit and, holding a small frog toy that Ma and Pa had given him, looked at Jiraiya with those piercing azure eyes.

The girls immediately got up and picked up the poor child, "Oh you poor thing! We'll take care of you, come on and get in bed! You never told us you had a child and how could you even think of doing some kind of perverted research with him in the next room! For Shame!" The girls admonished Jiraiya as a pervy old man as they held the now sleeping child between them.

Jiraiya simply sighed and grumbled to himself as he got up and left the room looked back at the child, not sleeping peacefully, wishing he could be that affective. Well, if nothing else, I guess I am rubbing off on him a bit haha!

End Flaskback

Naruto was walking along with Jiraiya, Ma, and Pa as they taught the boy, who they had proclaimed their great-grandchild through Jiraiya being his self proclaimed guardian and godfather. Jiraiya grimaced as Naruto ate another beetle, I am going to have to break him of that habit soon… most people are going to find it odd if he is eating dinner and dumps a slug into his soup Jiraiya thought to himself.

"Now Naruto, you have to understand that everything around us has a life force. You can feel the Chakra that runs through your own body and but in the years to come we'll show ya that there is a much greater energy surrounding the world and in nature. But to understand it you have to be able to be silent and not move."

Pa was once again trying to explain nature energy to the toddler causing both Ma and Jiraiya to sigh, the boy was three years old and there was no way he could understand those concepts but Pa kept trying. The boy had shown a genuine intelligence and gift with the toads and as soon as he could write had signed the toad contract under the supervision of the three sage's. He wasn't up to summoning a toad yet himself as his Charka system wasn't able to sustain enough energy to do that but the old toad sage's kept explaining to him everything they could so when he was ready he could do it with or without them.

Naruto had lived a strange life up to this point, only staying in hotels and spending most of his life on the road. The toads and Jiraiya did their best to raise the child but he was obviously lonely. It was nice to have the toads when they could be there, which was much more often than they would admit, but he had never met any children his own age. Which was what made this trip so special for Naruto, Jiraiya had told him they were going somewhere new and somewhere he would be staying for a while. He smiled at the child as he walked and listened to Pa, it had never crossed anyone's mind to actually tell Naruto the toad sage's actual name and so the child simply called him Pa and his wife Ma.

Today was a special day though for Naruto, he was going home to Konoha. The third hokage had summoned Jiraiya back home for an important mission having to do with Orochimaru. It would be the first time he would actually see where he was born and the place he would one day protect. Jiraiya had spoken about the village many times to the child and told him about Konoh'a Will of Fire and regaled him with stories of its great Shinobi including the other Sannin, Kakashi's faith the White Fang, the third hokage called the professor, and many others.

Naruto watched as Ma and Pa jumped along with him and he ran ahead looking forward to seeing the village for the first time. But before they could arrive a man met them, standing in the middle of road blocking their path.

"Greeting Hiashi! How are things?" Jiraiya called to the man in front of him. Hiashi was wearing his traditional robes of white with black symbols stitched in them covered by a light forest grey on his shoulders fading to white as they went down his sleeves.

"Jiraiya. I had hoped you would do what was right by now." He said his head not even indicating he had accepted the presence of either Naruto or the Sages who both looked more than a bit upset as being both ignored and the obvious vicious intent of his statement.

White a quick nod of his head to Ma and Pa the two toads took the child and jumped off to show him something in the forest. "Hiashi, you know you're not supposed to speak of that in front of him. I had hoped you would realize that what happened was not Naruto's fault."

"How can you say that? He carries that demon inside him! We only just barely finished rebuilding after three years! The village is finally recovering and you think to bring him back so he can release that beast again and cause more damage? I will not allow it Jiraiya, if you lack the strength of will to see what must be done then I will do it for you."

Jiraiya was normally a jovial man who enjoyed life and preferred to laugh and have fun but he had grown fond of Naruto, despite his lack of 'research assistants'. In a silent flash he was gone and stood behind Hiashi with a Kunai pointed at the younger mans back neck.

"Let me make something clear to you Hiashi. You may rule your clan with an iron fist but you do not rule that boy's fate. The Third Hokage has decreed he not be harmed and if he is harmed while I am gone you will have me to deal with as well as the Sages of Myōbokuzan. That child has done nothing wrong to deserve your ire and you would be best to remember that the best you hate is locked inside him, not the child himself."

Hiashi felt a drop of sweat fall down his back, he, as many others in the village could easily forgot that behind the laughs and toads the old ninja had gained the title Sannin for a reason and was considered one of the three legendary ninja of Konoha with good reason behind him. He had not even sensed Jiraiya's chakra being used. However, Hiashi was not one to be threatened by anyone, even one of the Sannin.

"Just remember, what he does will be on your head and when he steps out of line I will be the one to finish what Minato should have years ago." As he finished his statement he nodded his head, Jiraiya lowered his Kunai knife as Hiashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Ma and Pa returned shortly after, "Well Jiraiya-boy, quit the welcome home eh?"