(Just off the coast of the Land of Whirlpools)

Naruto looked over the bow early in the morning. His trip to the Land of Whirlpools was almost over. Over the trip, he had mostly done two things one plan on what he wanted to do for his training and two what to do with his life.

He thought 'My goal was always to become Hokage, but now I really don't want that anymore. I am still unsure, but I will start with dealing with the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki are coming after me and Gaara and I can't let them win.'

His thought's continued 'after I am done in the Land of Whirlpools I'll go see Gaara.' Has he was finishing his thought Ise said "We will be making landfall shortly and we can't stay long. Are you sure that you don't need a ride back in a few weeks."

Naruto shook his head and said "No I'll be fine. And I'll be ready do get off when you land." Naruto then went to his room and grabbed is stuff and headed up to the deck to get ready to disembark.

(Coast of the Land of Whirlpools)

After carefully navigating through the Whirlpools the boat stopped 100 feet from the shoreline. Ise called out to Naruto "This is as close as I can get and you have to leave now."

Naruto nodded and jumped off and started to water walk to the shore. Ise thought 'So he's a shinobi, interesting.' And with that, he turned around and went back out to sea.

Naruto started to walk inland and soon found a road that led to a small town. 'If I remember correctly from the maps I read there are 10 small towns in the Whirlpool and all around the center, the Hidden Whirlpool Village. All of them should be abandoned but I should keep my guard up in case someone or something is here. After a quick look in the village he determined that there was nothing of interest and started walking towards the center of the island. The road Naruto was using was still intact but was obviously deteriorating with a lack of maintenance.

(Outskirts of the Hidden Whirlpool)

It had taken about half a day but now he was standing on the outskirts of the village Hidden in Whirlpools. The first and most obvious thing that he noticed was that it was destroyed, most of the buildings lay in ruins. Naruto noticed that there were some larger buildings that were still mostly standing. They looked to be the Uzumaki clan buildings and building of the Hidden Village's government. Naruto decided that he would start in those buildings to see if there was anything left of interest.

(Village center of Hidden Whirlpool)

Naruto looked up at what he believed to be the main administration building of the village. He entered and started to look around. On the upper floors of the building he found what looked like offices. Most of them were a mess with papers everywhere and smashed furniture.

In one of the offices, a piece of paper caught Naruto's eye. It had the symbol of the Hyuga clan. After reading it Naruto said out loud only to himself "So the Hyuga made a request to the Uzumaki clan to update the Caged Bird Seal, so it would only seal away the Byakugan and remove the ability of the main branch to inflict pain onto the side branch through the seal. I wonder if anyone made any progress. If they did then maybe I will be able to keep my promise to Neji." Naruto put the paper in is backpack he then looked around to see if there were any more papers about the Hyuga clan. Naruto found a few and added them to his backpack.

Naruto continued to explore the building until he determined that there was nothing left of interest and decided it would be best to set up camp for the night. As most other buildings were destroyed Naruto settled for setting up in one of the rooms in the administration building that was completely enclosed to the elements and also had an intact chair and table.

Naruto made dinner and pulled out a scroll he had decided to read first from his collection. It was a scroll detailing the taijutsu style of his father and Naruto was considering learning this style, but adding some modifications to it. Naruto knew that he was a lot more durable than his father, so Naruto was thinking of adding in more blocking moves to take advantage of this. Also, Naruto wanted to add more power strikes to the style. Naruto did like the fast paced nature of the fighting style and that wielding a kunai or tanto could easily be incorporated with minimal changes.

Naruto slowly went through the kata's of the style for now not doing any modifications just trying to get an idea of how the style felt. He did this for an hour before he called it a night and went to bed.

(Next day)

Naruto got up and left the administration building and headed to a large cluster of buildings of above average size. He was thinking that this was the Uzumaki clan compound. Once he got to the entrance he was proven correct with all the whirlpool symbols everywhere. The symbol was all over the village but this place had the most.

Naruto started exploring to see if there was anything of interest. Most of the buildings were empty and bare of anything. 'Well this place has been abandoned for decades, so there being nothing makes sense.' Naruto thought as he walked through the empty streets.

Naruto then came to the biggest of the buildings in the compound. After a short inspection of the door, it appeared that there was a seal on it. 'It looks kind of like the blood seals at my parent's house. Well, I guess there is only one thing to do.' With that, Naruto bit his thumb and smeared some blood on the seal and added chakra. Naruto heard a latch slip and turned the knob and pushed the door open. 'Well, it looks like I am enough of an Uzumaki to get in.'

Naruto started to explore to see what was in the building and if there was anything interesting. He found the clan library and was disappointed when he found nothing. 'Well, it seems that someone else from my clan had the same idea and cleared the place out. Oh well, at least it was likely other Uzumaki's.'

Naruto continued to see if there was anything when he stumbled into a very weird room. Naruto looked around it seemed that the entire room was covered in a very complex sealing matrix.

At the center of the matrix looked a little like some of the blood seals that he had seen and before Naruto thought too much about it he bit his thumb and applied blood and chakra. The matrix started to glow a light blue. Naruto quickly got up to before he could take a step he heard a voice from behind in the direction of the door. It said, "It's been a long time since anyone has activated that seal."

Naruto spun around and backed up and said "Who are you?" in a semi scared voice.

The now revealed man had long white hair and white goatee. He wore a long sleeve black robe that when down to the floor with the Uzumaki symbol on each shoulder. Over top the robe, he had a blue chest plate. He started to laugh and said, "Don't be afraid I mean you no harm." Naruto relaxed a bit but didn't let down his guard. The Man continued "Well I supposed I should introduce myself. I am Ashina Uzumaki former head of the Uzumaki clan. I made the seal you just activated."

Naruto asked, "What is it supposed to do?"

Ashina responded "You don't know? You just found a random seal and activated it having no idea what it would do?" Naruto glared at Ashina and Ashina chuckled a bit and said, "Oh don't be so mad I am just teasing you a little bit."

"Well, I supposed I should explain. But first, I will first have to determine if you are worthy of knowing." Ashina stated.

Naruto in a confused voice asked, "How do I do that?"

Ashina then asked, "Why did you come here?"

Naruto sat down feeling he would be talking for a while then said "Well I was banished from my village. Before I was banished I learned that my mom grew up here. I know that this place was destroyed but I still wanted to see it just to learn a bit about my lineage."

Ashina then replied, "So you hoped to learn about your mom's side of the family."

"Ya, I was also planning on staying for a bit to start my training. There is a group of very powerful shinobi that want to find me and kill me."

Ashina asked curiously "You don't seem like the type of person to have many enemies. So why are they after you?"

Naruto answered "I am the Jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox. The group is called Akatsuki and they are trying to collect all the tailed beasts."

Ashina looked shocked and said "Why would they do something like that. Do you know what they are planning?"

Naruto shook his head and replied "I don't know. I don't even know if anyone outside of the Akatsuki knows their plans."

Ashina said, "So you are training to protect yourself?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yes but not just myself. I don't know if you know how Jinchuuriki are treated, but we are mostly shunned and ignored, and that's at the best of times. Not too long ago I met another Jinchuuriki his name is Gaara and he had it much worse than me. His tailed beast drove him insane and his father tried to kill him six times. After I fought him and beat him he started to get his life turned around and I consider him a friend. He is the only person I have met that understands what it is like to be shunned and hated by everyone you see. I don't just plan to protect myself I plan to help Gaara and any other Jinchuuriki I can. I have realized one thing that Jinchuuriki have to stick together because if we don't then sometimes no one will."

Ashina nodded and said, "What if I told you I could help you train."

Naruto looked up at Ashina hopefully and said, "You would help me?"

Ashina nodded and said "Of course I wouldn't be much of an Uzumaki if I turned down a fellow Uzumaki in need. I'll tell you how this will work but not here." After he said that a door opened out of the wall. Naruto looked in all he could see was black. Ashina said, "Follow me."

(Not too far away)

A pair of slitted eyes watched the interaction between the two Uzumakis. Then a voice came from near the eyes and said "It seems an Uzumaki as returned here and has been let into the Uzumaki training vault. How interesting boss will what to know about this." With a puff of smoke, the eyes were gone.

(Back with Naruto)

Naruto watched as Ashina walked up to and then through the door of darkness. Naruto looked at it for a second and then followed. Once his eyes had passed through the blackness Naruto saw something he was not expecting. It was a massive library with many rows of books and tables to work at.

Ashina then said "Now that I have let you in I will explain what this is. This is a pocket dimension that was created by the Uzumaki clan to safeguard our secrets. How this is done is by making only an Uzumaki able to activate the seal to get in but also, there is a guard to make sure only those worthy of entering can come in. I am the current guardian of the 'training vault' as we have decided to call it. I am not actually real I am a projection of my memory that I have encoded into the seal that created this place."

Naruto gave a confused look and said, "I don't get it?"

Ashina said, "Don't worry it's just some complicated seal thing, that I will explain to you when you are ready."

Naruto nodded still confused and said, "If you say so."

"Now we should talk about your training. I can only really help you with sealing and maybe a bit with jutsu but everything else you will have to do on your own."

Naruto responded enthusiastically because now the topic was something he understood. "Yes I already have a plan it's not complete, but its most of the way there. I got a bunch of scrolls before I left my village. I have picked out a taijutsu style that I want to learn, I also would like to start to work on my elemental affinity, get better chakra control, and work on my physical conditioning. One of the jutsu that I am really good at is the shadow clone jutsu. One of the interesting things about shadow clones is that they have physical form and when they dispel their memories return to me. I was thinking that it may be possible to increase the speed at which I train if I use lots of shadow clones."

Ashina nodded interestingly and replied "That sounds like an interesting idea that you should try. I think it would work best for things like jutsu, elemental manipulation, and chakra control, and learning from books. However I will not teach a shadow clone I will only teach the original."

Naruto nodded in agreement and thought about it for a minute trying to come up with a plan and when it did he said "How about in the mornings I will make a bunch of shadow clones that work on the things they can outside, as I don't think this place is the best for learning jutsu and they will do that all day and in the evening I will dispel them. Original me will do the physical training I need to do in the mornings and then in the afternoon and evening, I can learn sealing from you. If I still have some chakra I can make clones that will read books and scrolls in the afternoon."

Ashina said "That sounds like a very intense plan but you have vast reserves of chakra so it might just work. Just be sure to start with only a few shadow clones and build up so you don't overdo yourself and pass out for a few days."

Naruto nodded in seeing Ashina point. Naruto was pleased that there was a plan for his training. Naruto then asked, "there wouldn't happen to be any chakra paper here I don't know what my affinity is."

Ashina nodded "There is some in one of the supply rooms. I'll give you a quick tour so you know your way around. Then at the end you can find out what your affinity is." Naruto nodded and followed the tour was pretty quick as there was not much to show. During the tour Ashina showed Naruto the various sections of the library, a small kitchen area, and a few amenities that were available.

They ended it at one of the supply rooms. They both walked in and Ashina pointed out a small box. Naruto when and opened it, inside was a bunch of small papers. Naruto pulled one out and then put the box back. He then ran some chakra through the paper and it violently ripped in half.

Ashina noted "So you're a wind type. They are not that common for our clan Uzumakis are mostly water types."

Naruto nodded and was about to say something when a yawn escaped him. Ashina chuckled and said "looks like you are getting tired it has been a long day for you. How about you get to bed and we can start your training in the morning."

Naruto nodded and was about to go when a thought hit him. "Where should I sleep most of the city is destroyed, so I don't think I can stay there."

Ashina thought for a minute and said "While this place is not really setup for someone to live in here most of the amenities you need are here like a bathroom and a kitchen. Your best option is probably to pick a spot and sleep there."

Naruto nodded not liking sleeping on the floor but since he didn't have any other ideas he realized it would have to do. "Also, I only have about one month's worth of food any ideas on where to stock up."

Ashina thought for a minute and said "I can give you instructions on how to navigate through the whirlpools while water walking. If you go straight to the mainland and a bit north there should be a town I don't think it is that big since the destruction of this village but it should have everything you need. So once a month you will have a break from training and go to the village and resupply."

Naruto nodded now that the plan for his training had been flushed out he was happy. "Well, it seems that everything is planned out so I am going to go to sleep."

(One month later)

Naruto had just crossed the water and was now in the land of fire. He had transformed so that no passing leaf shinobi could recognize him. Naruto also thought that at this point no one would give him much of a second glance as he was in a very remote part of the land of fire.

Naruto started to think about all the training he was doing as he walked north. His day started out with waking up at 5 am and eating breakfast then he would exit the vault and make shadow clone he started with only 10 and increased it and soon found his limit to be about 80 clones per day. After making the clones he would do physical exercises. He also did a bit of ninja training with throwing kunai and shuriken while doing various maneuvers. At noon he would leave his clones and go back to the vault and eat lunch. After lunch he would work with Ashina on sealing till 7 then eat dinner and then dispel his clones. Naruto dispelled his clones 5 at a time every minute so the mental burden of the clones didn't hit him so hard. He would then go to bed usually too tired to do much else.

In just the one month Naruto was making lots of progress he almost mastered the wind element something that took some people years to do. And his control over chakra had also improved he was thinking that in a month or so he may be able to do the rasengan one handed. He had also had a small growth spurt going from 4' 10'' to 5' even still a bit short for his age but not by much. He had also burned off what little baby fat he still and was starting to get a more muscular build.

(Land of fire)

The town was now coming into view and he noticed it was not that big of a town but it was not small had about 5 to 7 thousand people living in it. Naruto thought this was perfect as it was small enough to be out of the way but big enough that he could go unnoticed.

When Naruto got to the town the first thing Naruto did was go restock on food as that was the most important thing. When he went to the grocery store he sighed and pulled out a list that Ashina had told him he was supposed to buy. Ashina was not happy when he learned that Naruto mostly had ramen for food and told him if he was going to get training he would have to buy healthier food. Some of the first seals that Ashina had Naruto learn were modifications of the basic enclosing seal to do special things. One of the seals he learned could keep things like meat, vegetables and fruit fresh for over a month. So now Naruto had no excuse for eating poorly he had more than enough money and the ability to keep good food for a very long time.

Naruto quickly paid for the food and left. He went to a side street that no one was on and sealed everything he got into the scrolls he brought and moved on to the next thing he needed to buy.

The next place Naruto went was a clothing store to update his wardrobe. While he still liked his orange jacket and pants they were starting to get a bit small and worn out. So he picked out a simple outfit that would work for his training of a black t-shirt and black cargo pants. 'I would have liked to get some real shinobi gear but this town doesn't have a shinobi store. I will just have to go to a hidden village and get new gear after I finish my training.' Naruto thought has he left the clothing store now in his new outfit.

The next store was a home supply store where Naruto bought a futon and some other stuff so that would make staying in the vault easier.

(A dark cave unknown location)

One hologram of what looked like a person appeared. Shortly after the first came eight more came.

The one that held himself like the leader said, "Has anyone got any information on Komei?"

A man with red Sclera and green pupil said, "I have heard the small rumors about him but nothing that we can do anything about."

When no one else said anything the leader glared and said "He needs to be found he is the same priority as the Jinchuuriki he knows too much to be left alive. Now I want a report on the Jinchuuriki."

They were standing in a circle and one of them spoke "The nine tails has been banished from the hidden leaf. He disappeared and we have been unable to track him. Not even the hidden leaf knows where he is." The man who spoke could barely be identified as a man. His face was split into two colors and there was a strange plan like appendage that surrounded his head.

The leader then said "This is a problem but not insurmountable. We still have three years till we can seal away any of the tailed beasts. It will be a few more years till the three tails reforms, so those two are unaccounted for. Have you all tracked down the other Jinchuuriki?"

The red and green eyed man said "The seven tails is still in its village and the five tails roams the Land of earth. I have a spy tracking his movements." The leader nodded

A man with a bang of hair covering one eye and ponytail said "The one tails is still in his village. He is sent out on missions so we will need to watch when he goes out on mission to capture him."

A hunched over man next to him said "The two tails is in the same situation as the one tails. She mostly takes solo missions and we can time our strike to when she is out of the village. The eight tails doesn't leave the village much as the Raikage likes to keep him close to the village in case of attack." The leader nodded.

A man that almost looked like a shark said, "The four tails is in the same situation to the five however he is more allusive and we are trying to pin down his exact location."

A shorter man next to the shark with red eyes with three black spots in each said "Rumor has it that the one and nine tails are friends it is possible that he will seek asylum in the sand. I will start my investigation for him there. Also, he has ties to the Lands of Waves, waterfall, and spring. He may also seek asylum in those countries."

He then said, "Has anyone heard anything about the six tails?"

The plant man said "He ran away from the mist when an operation to change his seal went wrong and he killed his sensei. Currently, I am tracking a group of Mist ANBU tasked with bringing him back now that the civil war in the mist is over."

The leader now not very happy that now four tailed beasts were not tracked down said "We have three years to find them. You all have your assignments and I want those Jinchuuriki and Komei tracked down as fast as possible."

(With Sakura)

Sakura was currently working on medical ninjutsu. After Sakura had stopped crying over Naruto's banishment and Sasuke's defection she had convinced Tsunade to take her on as an apprentice. Sakura thought back on that conversation.

Flashback

Sakura walked into Tsunade's office and said, "I would like to become your apprentice and learn Medical ninjutsu from you."

Tsunade looked at her for a minute and said "Why do you want this training. I am not just going to teach you because you think it will be fun or even think that you will be good at it. There are plenty of people who can teach you, so why me specifically?"

Sakura got a determined look on her face and said "I lost two teammates and I want to bring them back. I will admit that I am weak. I thought I knew what it took to be a ninja in the academy, but I was wrong. I thought all I need to be was smart and follow instructions. I now realize how wrong I was. I want to be strong. Strong enough to bring back both of my friends."

Tsunade nodded this was the answer that she wanted to here. She walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled out some scrolls. She walked up to Sakura and said "I want you to read through these and memorize the information. You will need to know it if you what to learn medical ninjutsu. Also, one contains a chakra control exercise I want you to master it. Once you have done these two things come back and we can start your real training. I expect you to be done in one week."

Sakura nodded and left the Hokage's office determined to complete the task given to her.

End flashback

Sakura continued to concentrate on the task Tsunade had given her. Tsunade was watching her student practice, mostly to get away from paperwork, was happy with how Sakura was doing. 'Her determination hasn't faltered and she is progressing faster than Shizune. She might just become a great medic at this rate.' Tsunade thought.

(With Shikamaru)

For the whole month, Shikamaru could not get the mystery of Naruto out of his head. He was now sitting in the chunin section of the library with a pile of notes, scrolls, and books in front of him.

The notes contained every think that he knew about Naruto. Some of the facts were sticking out to him. One Naruto's birthday was on the same day the nine tails attacked. Naruto was never at the academy on his birthday and the days before and after Naruto was a lot quieter. Naruto also never told anyone about his birthday. Something that surprised Shikamaru because based on Naruto's personality Shikamaru would have thought Naruto would be telling everyone about his birthday and act a lot happier. Shikamaru had learned about it when he heard Naruto and Iruka talk about it. Also the day after his birthday Naruto always looked more tired than usual and commonly had some scratches and bruises.

There was also Naruto's massive amounts of chakra. While in the academy he knew Naruto had a lot of chakra but after he graduated he learned that Naruto's were above an average Jonin's reserves. Something that is almost unprecedented. He learned about this when Ino was arguing with Choji soon after graduation.

(Flashback)

"I definitely have the most chakra of all of us," Choji said.

Ino retorted and said, "No Sasuke's an Uchiha and he definitely has the most."

Their conversation went back and forth going nowhere till Asuma showed up to start the team meeting. When he saw his two arguing students he sighed and said, "What are you two arguing about?"

Ino in an annoyed voice said, "Choji insists that he has the most chakra out of our class while it is clearly Sasuke." She said Sasuke in a dreamy voice.

Before Asuma thought about it too much he said "Well your both wrong Naruto has the most out of all your class. If I remember the file on him correctly he has about as much chakra as I do." He said this while looking off into space not realizing that he wasn't supposed to tell his students that.

Ino then shouted, "No way he can't even do make a clone how can he have that much chakra."

Asuma then realized what he had done and tried to redirect the conversation. "Well, it mostly has to do with chakra control since he has so much it's hard to control it. You can have all the chakra in the world but if you can't control it you won't be able to cast jutsu. Which leads to today's training tree walking." Asuma patted himself on the back mentally for coming up with such a great redirect and then started on his students training.

(End flashes back)

Shikamaru pulled out one of the books he had collected, it was about tailed beasts. He opened it up and read the table of contents and one of the chapter names caught his eye. It was titled Jinchuuriki. Shikamaru looked at it for a second and thought 'Jinchuuriki that means Power of Human Sacrifice. I wonder what that is all about.' Shikamaru opened to that chapter and started to read.

The first thing he found was the definition of Jinchuuriki as a person who is the container for the storage of a tailed beast. Shikamaru was shocked that something like that was even possible and continued to read. He later read how tailed beasts could not be destroyed so the only way to defeat them was to seal them away. That's when it clicked for Shikamaru 'That explains everything. From how he was treated to his unusual chakra supplies.' Shikamaru thought as he continued to read after an hour he had a read everything there was to read.

He got up put the books back and collected his things he and walked out. He had to go talk to some people about this.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade was happy for once the last month had been hell. Several of the countries Naruto had helped in the past were not happy with his banishment. One country the land of snow now the land of spring had cut off all trade with the land of fire over this. None of the others did this but stated that they would be looking elsewhere to have their missions done. While this was annoying there weren't enough to make that much of a difference. Tsunade was happy because Sakura was making fast progress. Tsunade thought 'Sakura just might be able to surpass me one day.'

While thinking about the training she was going to give Sakura she heard a knock on the door. She then called out "come in." After that the door open and Shikamaru stepped in.

Tsunade then said, "Is there something you need Shikamaru." 'It's not like Shikamaru to come to my office to talk and he usually looks bored now he looks kind of mad. I wonder what's going on to get him so worked up.' Tsunade thought with a hint of curiosity.

Shikamaru walked in and took a deep breath and began to speak "I have been thinking a lot about Naruto recently. There something that everyone wasn't telling us."

Tsunade leaned forward in her chair and was thinking 'so it seems he has either figured it out or he is going to demand some answers let's see where this goes.'

Shikamaru continued "So he's the Jinchuuriki of the nine tails." Tsunade then said, "Yes, so you figured it out."

Shikamaru then gave a quick explanation of how he came to his conclusion. Tsunade then asked, "Does this change how you feel about him?"

Shikamaru then sighed "Well it makes him more troublesome but he is still my friend and I will help him." Tsunade smiled but then got serious and said. "Not long after Naruto was born Sarutobi sensei made a law that no one could tell anyone that did not know of his status which is why your generation doesn't know of it. I was planning to have Naruto tell you all when everyone became a chunin but well that might not happen at this rate. By the way, the law technically doesn't apply to the Hokage or Naruto, but it does apply to you I would like you to keep this a secret."

Shikamaru nodded and left the Hokage's office thinking about troublesome blonds making things complicated.

End of chapter

I am still looking for advice on how to do a set up a beta, so any suggestions are welcome.