To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's

Chapter three! I managed to post it today! hurray! :) all in the same day I managed to post a total of 20,000 words. Take that FF!

Enjoy the prologue come to an end!

Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)

Flashback/EMPHASIS

Jutsu/Magic/Techniques

Ch. 3; Prologue pt3

There was a road. A road that was made of dirt, dust and gravel, and was surrounded on either side by forest. This road was seemingly without travelers, except a single group that had been walking for several days now, consisting of a Human-like Toad, a short old man, a warrior of legend, and a young teen laying on a floating piece of earth.

The group, which had been in silence for most of the time since they had received the boy, seemingly found a subject to talk about as the Toad struck up conversation,

"He has been out for some time hasn't he?"

"For being in that type of mental trauma I wouldn't think it past him to sleep through another week of travel," the man sighed, "Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about it Numachi, the Sandaime told us that he needed to get very far away from the village before he could truly come to terms with everything he's been through."

"And don't bother trying to hide the gloom and doom either," Gildarts added on, "If we give the kid looks like we are now, I think it wouldn't help him to get over much of anything."

Shitou nodded, "I agree with Gildarts, when the lad wakes up we have to help him settle into things easy, maybe the constant travel will help?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Gildarts shrugged, "It depends on what the Kid is going to be going through when he gets up. If he wants to try and set up a new life super-fast than he wouldn't like it one bit, but If he's still trying to come to terms with what he has to deal with now than yeah, He might like the changes."

"So we have no idea what we're in for..."

"No need to be so down Umachi,"

"I know Gildarts-san," he replied, "But you make it sound like he'll never be happy again or something."

"I'm sorry"

"Gildarts-san, please be quiet or you'll wake Naruto-kun!"

"Ugh, sorry... but dang it I need a good fight! There is nothing worth doing around here!"

0-0-0

'mhm... don't go yet Ramen-chan! Oh my sweet Ramen-chan come back to me!' Naruto chased after the bowl that was his ramen, chasing her through the flowery field, both of them laughing and having a great time,

'Ramen-chan, come back!' the Ramen suddenly tripped and fell, causing all the Ramen to spill down the hillside as he watched and trembled, RAMEN-CHAN!

0-0-0

"Ugh, Sorry... but dang it I need a good fight! There is nothing worth doing around here!"

"SORRY? YOU NEED A GOOD FIGHT!"

The party turned around to see the blonde boy who was sleeping soundly moments before clenching his fists and shaking them in his face threateningly, "WELL I'LL GIVE YOU A GOOD FIGHT, YOU RAMEN KILLING SON OF A CARROT!"

Before anyone could register what had happened the boy had closed the distance between himself and Gildarts in seconds, hitting the man with a strong right jab, getting a clean hit on his face,

But he didn't budge,

"Heh... aren't I lucky today. Now I actually get to hit back-"

Before Naruto could even register the meaning it hit him. Hard. Like a punch to the face by a man over three times his age.

But then again that was the gist of it,

Sent airborne, Naruto felt the wind move past him as he sailed into the brush of a nearby tree, which cushioned his landing compared to what it would have been, and let him get his head together,

'What the heck? That felt like getting hit with THREE Sakura-chans, not even counting the other fangirls lined up behind her!' Looking back at the party below him he looked hard at the man with the orange hair, 'I remember Jiji telling me that I was going to travel for a bit with Shitou-jiji and Numachi-san, but who is that guy?'

"Gildarts-san what was that?" Numachi had walked up to the man and had started to rant at the man, "You could have killed him! A man as strong as you shouldn't be so rash with their power?"

"I'm sorry but I kind of already told you, I need a good fight, bad," the man sighed, "But it doesn't look like the brat can give me one though, shame. Thought that maybe I could get a few kicks out of him, being a ninja and all,"

"Guess not though."

Narrowing his eyes at the speaker he let out a low snarl, 'Ok then, this is war.'

"But in any case we better look for him we don't want him to get los-"

The man turned in the direction he had sent the blonde to receive a dropkick to the jaw, causing him to stumble backwards and look at the blonde with his own narrowed eyes before beginning to laugh, confusing him, "Nice one kid, I haven't gotten a clean hit on me like that in a while. But now,"

The man took a step forward and cracked his knuckles, "You better hope you can run fast kid,"

The blonde stared back, holding his ground, "Come and get some than, Carrot-top!"

Easily provoked the man ran at him ,cocking his fist back to hit the blonde only to see the kid smirk more and hear him say something, almost in a whisper,

" Bunshin Daibakuha! (Shadow Clone Explosion!)"

Completely unsuspecting he took the blunt force of the explosion, forcing him to shield his face and back up as he noted that he needed to watch out next time, 'Not half bad. I hope He isn't dead though, this kid will be a great punching bag-'

Gildarts looked up to see the blonde kid coming at him from the air, preparing to put a kick on his head

Bad move,

"Heh, you were doing pretty well before kid," Gildarts looked up and stood up straight as the boy came closer, "But you really underestimated me here,"

Naruto came in, closing the distance between him and Gildarts, his foot inches from his face,

Only for the man to slap him away,

"Eh... hmhm..." GIldarts looked in the direction the kid had flown, "Great punching bag. This mission may not be so boring after all!"

Watching as he ran after Naruto, Shitou and Umachi looked on and sweatdropped,

"Did he really need to vent out THAT much?"

"Afraid so Umachi,"

0-0-0

'Whoa,' Naruto tried to think of a battle plan as he saw the man come into the forest, 'This guy took a straight explosion to the face, what the heck?'

"Hey Gaki!" Naruto looked down to see the man staring up at him, a grin plastered on his face, "You'll have to better than that to hide from-mhmph!"

Naruto cut him off as he landed his foot on his face and jumped off, trying to put some distance from the two, 'There is no way I can take this guy! Not like this!'

Clap!

Naruto looked back and realized the older man had grabbed his leg, "Nice try!"

He looked in horror as the man began to swing him around, not hitting any trees thankfully, but it wasn't too fun,

ESPECIALLY when he let go.

"GAH!" Naruto was sent flying headfirst into the brush, going through leaves and branches, until he finally hit the ground,

'Ugh...' Naruto stood up from his small dent in the ground and looked around him- no crazy-strong guy, no trees, nothing.

On the other hand he saw a town not far from where he was standing,

"GAKI!" Naruto shivered as he heard the man shout as he looked for him, 'Yeah, he needs some downtime,'

Seeing the man emerge from the forest in front of him didn't change his opinion, 'Dang it this guy just doesn't stop!'

"What happened with the explosions Gaki?" Gildarts taunted him, "Come on, that actually tickled, if you don't do something interesting soon this will just get boring!"

'So he liked the explosions huh?' Naruto grew a smirk on his face, 'I'll show him explosions,'

Putting his hands together he cried out, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

The older man raised an eyebrow as he saw thousands of different Narutos appear all around him, 'What type of monster is this kid? This is a kinjutsu and he just plays it casually,' He got his own smirk, 'This might be more fun than I thought,'

"What now kid?" he asked, "Now that you have this one-man army, what's it going to do? Just rush in and attack like you would?"

He let out a sweatdrop as the thousands of orange kids began to charge in, 'Really?'

The first blonde that came up to him he smacked aside with the back of his hand, which ended up taking down two more that were also in the path, and when bringing the hand back he took out more, 'This is too easy. The kid better have a plan or something, because this won't work.' looking at the oncoming hordes of blondes he sighed, 'I don't want to break it to him too hard though, Ugh, so troublesome. How am I going to tell him without looking like a jerk?'

He ducked around an assault of shuriken and kunai in order to smash the ground, causing short tremors that took out all the clones in his facing direction, 'This is going to be fun once he gets how to use it though.'

Turning around and smashing a fist into an oncoming blonde, he was surprised when he didn't burst into smoke,

Instead he promptly smirked and several other clones did the same,

"BOOM!"

0-0-0

Watching from a tree off to the side, Naruto smirked as he saw the explosion his clones had made, 'No way he didn't get hurt with that one!'

Seeing the smoke continue to billow from the spot, he watched on with victory in his eyes-

Until he saw feet emerge from the smoke, than legs, soon followed by the entire man himself

Without a scratch on him?

"WHAT THE HECK?" Naruto jumped down from his spot and pointed at him, his finger shaking, "HOW could you not at least take SOME damage from that? That was the only thing I could friggin' do to hit you, and now It apparently doesn't do crap! Why?"

Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Umachi and Shitou at his side, "Naruto-kun you don't understand, Gildarts-san is one of the most powerful men in the world."

"There was no way for you to beat him after just becoming a genin," Shitou agreed, "Kinjutsu aside, at your age not many could get this far."

"But... I was powerless..." Naruto fell to his knees and tears began to come from his eyes, "Just like yesterday with Iruka-sensei, he's dead because I couldn't defend myself, and I was completely useless the entire time!"

"Then do something about it!" Naruto looked up to see Gildarts standing in front of him, "What do you think I did to get strong? Sat around and cried about how weak I was, how I felt useless in the grand scheme of things? Or do you think I trained my but off and kicked myself in gear?"

Naruto sniffled as he continued to wipe away his tears, "If you want something to happen in life, you got to do something about it yourself, never count on somebody else doing it for you. While you should have people around you to help support the load, you should always remember that only you will be around yourself long enough to pick up baggage they leave behind,"

The man kneeled down in front of the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder, "Losing someone close to you hurts. I know. I have lived through so many horrible things that I will never tell again, and you will live through worse. Or you might have already, I don't know. Use that as your driving force, because knowing where you don't want to go, or don't want to happen is a step closer to knowing where you want to go than you were before."

Standing up the man walked back to the road "Oh, and you might want to wipe those tears off before we go into town kid, we don't want to look bad."

Clenching his teeth Naruto hit the ground with his fist before standing up, Umachi and Shitou looked on in worry as he walked down the road ahead of them,

"That might have worked out better than I thought," Shitou said, "But it wasn't enough. While I don't expect Naruto to immediately forget about his loss I was hoping Gildarts would be able to shift his attention from that."

"So... what now Shitou-dono?" Umachi asked,

"We move forward."

"To Junction?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"The boy will be fine..."

"I know, but are we SURE?"

"Oh Umachi," Shitou chuckled, "You'll just have to find out when we get there."

Umachi sighed in defeat, "Yes, Shitou-dono..."

0-0-0

'Naruto is very strong for his age,' Gildarts said to himself as he walked down the road, Umachi and Shitou not far behind him, and Naruto not far in front, 'VERY strong. But he is a loose cannon. He has no idea how to coordinate his attacks, which is why he kept landing single hits on me before running away,'

He looked forward and saw the blonde kid in question, power-walking with clenched fists, 'I just hope he doesn't let his anger be kept up like this, I can't let him turn out like Ivan. I won't let him turn out like Ivan.'

Remembering Ivan gave him a spike of killer intent- which hopefully nobody noticed, 'And I won't let him become anything less than what you would want, Minato. This kid will be a true man by the time I bring him to Fiore.'

0-0-0

'Gildarts...' Naruto thought to himself as he walked down the path, 'He annihilated me. I had no chance. He took my best attack and kept going...' remembering the battle Naruto clenched his fists harder, 'and he didn't look scratched...'

Thinking about that battle wasn't the only thing on his mind though, Iruka's death was the main point of his entire frustration. Eternally banished from his home, his dream crushed, his innocence to the demon inside broken, and his weakness exposed. He was weak.

That was the entire problem with his situation, he was weak. The entire encounter with Mizuki (that he remembered) he was getting dominated, running, or hiding. How could he think that he would have graduated with crap like that? Was that really all he could do? Now that he thought about it, until yesterday, it was.

And truth be told he needed to get himself in gear, because he would beat Gildarts one day, and prove himself.

He would become strong.

"Hey kid!" Naruto turned from his internal rant to see he had already reached the town, "State your name and business, we don't like strangers."

"Oh... I um..." Naruto let off a sweatdrop before turning and pointing down the road, "I'm with them."

"What is your name?"

"Uh... N-"

"Josho Yajima," Naruto turned around and saw the rest of his party gathered behind him, Shitou was the speaker, "That there is my grandson."

"Ah... I see," the man turned to the other two members, "And you?"

"Umashi."

"Hakate Yajima."

"And what is your buisness?"

Shitou stepped forward again, "We have been travelling on the road for quite some time, and we hoped to rest before continuing to the next town."

"Permission granted," the man took out several slips of paper and handed one to each, "Have a good day."

As the party walked into the town the Naruto turned to his 'grandfather,' "What was that about Shitou-jiji?" Naruto asked, "Why didn't you give them my name?"

"Be quiet!" Gildarts grabbed his head and pulled him close, speaking in whispers, "Sandaime has spread the word that you are dead. If we say your name in public you might get found out!"

Oh.

Gildarts released his headlock on him and he rubbed it, 'Geez, the guy really is strong.'

"So what's the plan Shitou-san?" Gildarts asked, "Should I go book a hotel for us while you go 'see the sights'?"

The old man smirked in response at the hidden question, "That would be excellent Gildarts,"

"Alright then," Gildarts turned slightly, "I trust Numachi will be enough of an envoy for this trip?"

"Yes Gildarts," he nodded, "If I need you you'll know."

"I'll take Naruto with me I guess," Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to follow Gildarts, "Later Shitou-san"

"Take care!"

The group separated, leaving Naruto and Gildarts walking through the city to find a hotel of some sort. The town was somewhat lively, and the streets were lined with buildings; convenience stores, flower shops, a couple of cafes, it wasn't very dreary for a small town. But there was one thing that bugged him.

The people

They weren't staring at him, or glaring, or bumping into him randomly, or throwing stuff at him, or saying things just so he could hear them, or anything! It was mind boggling. How could they not hate him like Konoha? Why?

"Hey Gaki," Naruto turned away from his thoughts and looked up to Gildarts, "Ok, just making sure you were awake. Anyway I see a place over there," the older man nodded his head in its direction, and Naruto turned towards it, seeing a small building with the name 'Comfort Lander' written across the top of the doorframe.

Walking with the older man, Naruto approached the building and walked in. He was immediately overwhelmed with a powerful scent- fluff and sweet perfume. Looking around though, it was nothing but wood. It didn't even look like the wood had finishing on it.

The lobby was somewhat bare, having only a few wooden chairs and what he assumed was the main desk, which wasn't that fancy itself, but then again the place wasn't very fancy anyway,

"May I help you?" Naruto turned his attention to a man with short brown hair, black eyes, and a tan skin. He wore a white dress shirt and khaki pants, brown sandals, and had a cigar in his mouth,

"Yes," Gildarts replied politely, "Do you have any rooms available?"

The man let started tapping his fingers on the desk, "How many 'you need?"

"Two."

"Method of payment?"

"Touch."

"Name?"

"Gildarts Clive."

"Coming right up," the man started using both of his hands on the desk at once, suddenly stopping to push two keys towards him, seemingly appearing from nowhere, "Room numbers are written on the keys. Have a nice day."

The man slumped in his chair and snapped as a staircase fell from the ceiling, causing Naruto to jump, 'No concern of customer safety around here...'

"Thank you sir," Gildarts waved over his back as he ascended the stairs with Naruto close behind. Reaching the top of the staircase Naruto put his head through the hole to find himself in a similar place to where he was before, wooden floors, wooden walls... nothing interesting. They were in a hallway of some sorts with doors and numbers on either side,

Noticing Gildarts duck every once in a while as they walked he wondered why this place had so many rooms if the conditions were so crappy, "How do they manage to get income like this?" he thought, "Is it some special low rate or something? My apartment was better than this,"

Looking to his companion he watched Gildarts laugh, "These hotels are the best around. They are essentially for elites only, since only wanderers and people that already know the chain actually stay after they walk in. The 'Lander' chain is in a class of its own compared to what you know about housing,"

"What do you mean 'best'? All I see is wood, wood, and wood!" Naruto replied stingily, "There weren't even any cushions on the chairs in the lobby? I'm not a spoiled brat or anything but that is ridiculous."

"You'll see," The two stopped as Gildarts took one of the keys and slid it in the wooden lock, twisting it, and opening the room,

Oh my- what the?

Naruto stood in bewilderment as he looked into the room and saw the exact opposite of everything he had seen throughout the entire hotel,

Soft, fluffy, cushions. Everywhere.

Forget that, the whole room looked like it was painted gold! It had two master-beds and a soft green carpet floor. As soon as you entered and took a right there was a bathroom/shower area, and if you kept going you found yourself in the bedroom, which had the beds, two coffee-tan couches of pure soft, three chairs, a desk, and several lamps around it and a large TV in the middle.

Wow

"Told you kid," Gildarts took off the small sack on his back and laid down on one of the beds, "But that's not all,"

Naruto looked in interest as Gildarts picked up the remote by the bed and flicked the TV on, showing the face of the man at the counter,

"Hey, Room service order for Room 213," Gildarts smirked as Naruto awed at the idea that they communicated through the TV,

"Yes sir, just select the items on the menu with your remote," the screen of the man shrunk to half-size as a menu of various food appeared on the right, taking half the screen, "Depending on the line, the chef, and the food you select, it could be about thirty minutes before your order comes in,"

Naruto frowned, that was a long time. But Gildarts' smirk grew larger, "That's an EXTREME maximum correct?"

"Of course," Naruto perked up at the man's reply, "Thank you, have a nice day."

With that the menu came up and the man started clicking several items that seemed of interest to him before handing the remote to Naruto, "Pick out whatever you want, just don't stuff yourself so bad you'll have trouble walking tomorrow."

Taking the remote and scrolling down the menu he looked for something interesting, not sushi, not eggs, not soup-

Then he spotted it.

RAMEN.

Gildarts looked at the boy in surprise when he saw him mashing the 'ok' button like his life depended on it, "Whoa, you sure you can eat all that?"

"Uh-huh."

"No, are you SURE you can eat more than 20 bowls of ramen?"

The boy stopped clicking momentarily and turned to him, "Is that a trick question?"

Gildarts sighed as the remote was put in his hand again, pressing several buttons before the menu showed a message saying their order was placed and gave the price, which caught Naruto's attention briefly,

"Naruto, we need to talk,"

Naruto looked over to Gildarts, "About what?"

"I'm sorry about you and Konoha," Gildarts said, "And I'm sure it's a touchy subject from now on, but what do you want to do now?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked at him as if taken aback, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you want to do in life?" Gildarts continued, "You will be traveling with us for a while, but you need to think ahead and determine what you want to do when we are done here."

Naruto looked at his open hands before clenching them, "I... I want to become strong..."

"To do what?" Naruto continued to look down, "You have to have a goal Naruto. Just becoming strong is something that leads to madmen. The world is much bigger than you think it is."

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto muttered, "It's for Iruka-sensei."

"Are you talking about revenge?" Gildarts shifted in his seat on the bed, "If that's what you mean-"

"No," Gildarts stopped as Naruto continued, intrigued by his immediate response, "Not for revenge."

"Than what for?"

"To keep more people like him from dying," Naruto looked into Gildarts' eyes with a bold fierceness on his face, "I need to become strong to prevent this type of thing from happening to me again."

The two sat in silence before Gildarts stood up, looking down at the boy, "That's a tall order kid, how do you plan to accomplish it?"

"I..." Naruto sighed, "I don't know."

Gildarts sat down next to him, "Will you let me train you?"

"Eh?" Naruto looked over to the man next to him and saw that he was honest, "Really?"

"Yes, but there are a few conditions," Gildarts held up one finger, "I will not teach you my Crash Magic. It is something that I and only I can do, it's similar to a bloodline limit."

"Second," Gildarts put up his second finger, "You must acknowledge the Sandaime's wish to leave Konoha. I know it may be more difficult than I make it out to be, but this is something you're going to do anyway."

Naruto looked down, "But even if I leave and go with you, I still want to be a ninja, I can't just leave that behind."

Gildarts smiled, "That is something the Sandaime expected."

"Huh?" Naruto watched Gildarts get up and walk over to his small bag, "What do you mean?"

"He knew you would still want to be a ninja Naruto," He suddenly tossed a small scroll to him, "So he left me with this,"

Grabbing the scroll out of the air, Naruto opened it and looked inside, the first thing he saw was a note,

'Dear Naruto,

So you decided to continue being a ninja eh? That's my boy! I knew you wouldn't leave what you've dreamed of behind so I packed this scroll for you. You may be wondering what this scroll contains beside the letter though. Look directly below the letter Naruto,'

Stopping and looking down, he saw a seal of some sort, full of Kanji,

'That is a Seal. Seals can do many things, and this seal can store things. It has no end. There are many seals in this scroll Naruto, starting from the first one down I will give you guidance to your progress as a Shinobi. To unseal a storage seal, apply charka to it with your fingers. The item inside should appear afterwards. These seals are specially designed for your chakra, but that doesn't mean Gildarts or any of your new friends can't look over them.

Good Luck,

Sarutobi Hiruzen'

Naruto looked up from the letter and saw Gildarts continue to smile, "Rule number three, you must learn everything in that scroll."

"What?" Naruto looked at him funny before unrolling the scroll, seeing more, and more, and more, and more! There was seemingly an infinite amount, "This is insane!"

"Rule number four," Gildarts continued despite Naruto's protests, "You are expected to train yourself with the Ninja stuff. I can help, but this is your department."

"That's ok I guess," Naruto looked at him expectantly, "Is that it?"

"Yup," Gldarts smiled again, 'Sandaime, I will watch over the kid. We will take care of him.'

0-0-0

"I don't know how to answer your request," In the midst of a dark room two shite-haired men, one short and one tall, one balding and one long, sat talking to each other in the presence of a Toad, "It honors me that you would ask me, but this is something to talk over with the Hokage,"

"Jiraiya-sama," Shitou replied, "There are... Circumstances that prevent me and my party from going to Konoha. If your spy network is as legendary as they say you should know."

"I do." the man seemed calm, but his fists were clenched, "The Jinchuriki died while trying to fight off enemy ninja. But how does this relate to what we are talking about?"

"This has very much to do with a treaty between our countries Jiraiya-sama," he continued, "For the boy was entrusted to Fiore for his own safety."

Jiraiya leaned forward in his chair, "What?"

"From what Sarutobi told me, the village would become too dangerous for him if he returned after the betrayal of one leaf ninja, and the death of another. Let alone the fact that both were his sensei," Shitou looked solemn, "The boy is heartbroken at the injuries of his one sensei,"

The other man held his head, "This is grounds to institute a treaty, and it would be secret as you want," he paused, "But I don't know how easy it will be to get this treaty without a certain curiosity and suspicion arising about it. But Sarutobi-jiji pulled a fast one?" he smirked, "Knew he had it in him."

"I understand that it may be difficult on your end," he replied, "But it will be for us also, having secret treaties as a neutral country is a risky move. We still also be at risk politically."

"Indeed," Jiraiya nodded sagely, "I do have one request though- concerning the boy."

"The boy?" Shitou smiled, "So I guess that Gildarts was correct about his 'Yondaime's Legacy' idea. You're his godfather correct?"

"Yes." the man sighed, "Although I haven't been a good one. The council scares Jiji and he thinks that the village will retaliate behind his back if we did something, but now I have a chance."

The two men locked eyes, "I accept your wish Shitou-sama, but in turn I would ask you to accept mine."

"Which is?"

"I want to train the boy."

"When?"

Jiraiya stood from his seat, "Whenever is best," he turned to leave, but looked back, "Give the Magic counsel my best regards."

Shitou laughed, "I will."

Watching the other man leave Shitou stood himself, "Well, now that that's over," he looked to Numachi, who was beside him, "We should hit the road again. The guise of the trip might give way soon to these foreign countries. Setting up contacts in all these different places is difficult."

"But we have already done many so far," Umachi chimed in, "And Gildarts only knows of this last one. We only have several small countries we actually have to go to in order to establish conections with before we head home."

"Home," Shitou sighed before chuckling, "Oh the memories... Good old times."

X=X=X

Cut!

I posted this one out of boredom, which is funny to me since I managed to get more chapters out in a single day than IchiRuki Ramen… Like?

Couple of important notes to this chapter;

Also, thank you everyone who reviewed the story, since that was the only reason I could get this chapter out (would have been sooner if I had not been met with rl)

~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D