A/N: In answer to whether this is going to be Naruto or Hinata-centric, I intend to switch perspectives from Naruto to Hinata alternating with each chapter until they meet again, adding additional information as it pertains to the story. We'll see where it goes after that.

Edit Note: Minor grammatical changes have been made. If you're new to the story, welcome. If you're returning, feel free to reread, but nothing in the plot line has been changed.

Important Plot Note: In my adaptation, the successful attempt made for Gaara by the Akatsuki takes place before Naruto goes on his 2 year training. It was from their failed attempt at concealing their actions, and thus informing at the least Suna and Konoha of the Akatsuki agenda, which in turn leads to the two year training with Jiraiya to get stronger. Also, Naruto's training with Asuma takes place prior to leaving Konoha as well. It's a little off from the series, as it is either the first or one of the first things to happen, but allows me to change Naruto's character a little easier. It also adds a bit more mystery to the criminal organization and what else they may have tried and failed or succeeded at doing in the meantime.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Opportune Circumstance

Chapter 4: Reflection

It was a full month after they left Konoha. As a precaution, and since they were intending to travel outside the land of Fire, they hid their Konoha identifiers with their frog summons. The summons could hold their identifying information like their forehead protectors and the like that would give them away as Konoha ninjas. In the event that they were caught and captured, both ninjas knew that they could not allow anyone access to information that could be used against Konoha. Since leaving, Jiraiya had Naruto practice with his clones like his normal sparring sessions, but unlike those sessions, Jiraiya added a twist.

"Naruto, I want you to make only three kage bunshins. Unlike your normal sparring, I want you to focus on your wind element. Show me what you can do. From here on out, I will no longer teach you any new techniques, but will be here in a supervisory role only." Jiraiya was dead serious, and Naruto started to pout, he wanted to learn new and more powerful techniques. "Naruto, I can't teach you everything I have, otherwise you'll have no more surprises and every ninja has to keep their powerful moves a secret. You've already fought with some of the Akatsuki. What would happen if you came across another one? By yourself? Would it have turned out the same as when you went to rescue Gaara?" Naruto looked down, remembering that it wasn't a completely successful mission in his opinion.

'If only I had been there sooner, or urged everyone to go faster. I should have been there to help him, but instead I let him down, and even though Gaara is with us now... a very high price was paid. It won't happen again. I came out here to become stronger, and I will do anything to be strong enough to protect those people precious to me.' Naruto seemed to be quiet for a while as his face reflected his changing emotions. When he emerged with fire in his eyes to continue regardless, Jiraiya nodded. "No matter what happens, Ero-sennin, I will become stronger so I can protect everyone that is precious to me, and everyone in Konoha is precious to me. I will find Sasuke and I will bring him back. I will fight the Akatsuki if they come after me, and if they threaten Konoha, I will drive them away. I will become hokage. That is my promise to myself."

"Alright then," Jiraiya was silently crying inside with pride at his apprentice and his face was beaming, "if that's the case, then we have some work to do. If you want to go after Sasuke, you must be prepared to fight Orochimaru. If you intend to or if you do encounter the Akatsuki, and you know they're after the Kyuubi, then you need to be prepared to do what you need to do to survive. You've fought Orochimaru before with Tsunade and me, but if you're going to his place, you need to be even stronger. When we fought, it was on neutral ground. Nobody had any secret passages or tricks to play from preparation, but you can be sure that if we go to Orochimaru's, there will be more traps like last time you encountered Sasuke, and he will have learned from last time. Before you even consider beating Orochimaru, you have to be able to beat me." He looked at his student with seriousness once more, "I will no longer simply be your teacher. Now, think of me as your enemy. Learn from my movements and attacks and adapt. Now, come at me."

With that, Jiraiya and Naruto sparred. They had made sure that they were within the land of Fire for this part of the training, Naruto's skills needed to be improved in home territory, because out on the field, you cannot afford to go all out to your fullest extent in order to prepare for an event where things take a turn for the worst, and Jiraiya made it clear that they would be moving outside the land of Fire to the neutral areas between the hidden villages' territories. Not only would it help them with their training to be in territory that was not home ground, but the possibility of enemy attack was more likely. The latter part of the two year training would actually take place with information gathering within some of the other ninja nation's borders.

Throughout the next couple weeks, Jiraiya made a point to Naruto that he should set up a training area for himself and develop his own techniques. The daily schedule would usually wind up with sparring until Naruto became exhausted, and Jiraiya would use that time to do his 'research' after securing them an inn room for Naruto to recover. Jiraiya would then go do his 'research' and leave Naruto to himself. He kept up with Konoha by means of a hawk missive. Tsunade would send a hawk to retrieve a report on Naruto's progress and it was also a means to make sure that if something did happen, Konoha could respond to it and they in turn if they were close enough. 'Tsunade is getting pretty worried about this kid now.' He silently chuckled to himself, 'I guess he does have a lot of that spirit her other precious people had. It's only right that she would become attached to him. Of course, being Minato's son doesn't hurt much either.'

One night, after Naruto awoke after training, Jiraiya hadn't come back yet. 'He's probably out being a pervert again. I better go check the bath houses and make sure he gets in trouble if he deserves it... I can understand women are beautiful, but...' pictures of Sakura floated in his mind, 'he should find someone and stick with her... though I can see why he wouldn't want to if he found a person like Sakura... every time I asked Sakura about going on a date, I'd be punched and on the ground with a sore jaw. Then again, there are people like Hinata, who are very shy and wouldn't hurt anyone. Women are way too confusing.' The night wore on as Naruto continued his musings trying to understand the perverted nature of his teacher and identify his own preferences in women. He could sympathize, yet he was appalled that he could at the same time.

It looked like Jiraiya wouldn't be back for some time and he wasn't at the bath houses, so Naruto went back to the inn and continued his musings. "Let's see... the only girls I'm friends with are Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten, at least those I see regularly. If I did decide to hook up with one, I'd prefer Sakura, but she'd never accept it, and her rejection is quite painful… I'd hate to see what would happen if we were together and we did have an argument," Naruto shudders. "I don't really know Ino too well, and she was in the whole Sasuke fan club with Sakura. Tenten is usually with Lee and Neji... I just want to get as far as I can away from Lee," Naruto shudders again as he remembers Tsunade's warning on why you should not wear green leotards. "Hinata... she's weird... kind of like me I guess...I really haven't really paid much attention to the other girls aside from Sakura," Naruto realized with some disappointment, not aware he was talking to himself. "I suppose I should make some effort to get to know them more when I get back. I did promise Hinata to show her my new moves when I get back. If Sakura isn't going to work out, I'm going to have to look elsewhere." Naruto, crushed by the realizations before him, decided to take his mind off of girls and move on to his training and practice.

Jiraiya, meanwhile, was outside the door, listening to Naruto's musings and remembered his own past. He decided that he would tell Naruto about Tsunade and Orochimaru when they left the next day for the border countries. He could see so much of himself in Naruto, along with Naruto's father. When he entered the room, Naruto had already fallen asleep. Apparently, thinking about girls and relationships took a lot out of him. Then again, the past few sparring sessions had been showing some significant improvement with Naruto's taijutsu skills and he did put full meaning into his training considering his goal as Hokage. He took to his own bed and soon joined Naruto in unconsciousness. If Naruto was getting extra sleep, he would need it too, the hyperactive ninja was energetic enough when he was training to exhaustion.

/ Dream Sequence /

Naruto found himself standing before Asuma Sarutobi, Shikamaru's team's sensei, and watching as Asuma's chakra-enhanced blade pierces the target tree and embeds itself in the rock behind it. The scene would repeat over and over, and he would find himself in various views and positions. The first time, it was like how he remembered it. He was talking to Asuma, and Asuma would talk back and demonstrate. He couldn't understand Asuma's words, however, as he didn't quite get it the first time around. Then Naruto would find himself become the blade Asuma was using, and felt a tingling sensation as he imagined Asuma's chakra flowing into the blade/himself and the build up of power and speed behind him as the Naruto-blade object flew through the air and cleanly went through the tree. Then he remembered his training with Jiraiya last time when they were looking for Tsunade, and how he would focus for his rasengan by focusing on a swirl pattern. The next time the scene formed, the scene with Asuma became bizarre, as Naruto would imagine being able to see the wind currents, and he could also see when Asuma was charging his chakra, that he seemed to pull some of the air current from around him and it would swirl and stick to the point of the blade, and envelop it like a cone. When it was thrown, it had a similar effect as the rasengan, except it was focused around the blade with a elongated conical shape. Next it was Naruto that was throwing the blade and Asuma watching. Naruto wanted to be very impressive, so he focused as much of his chakra as he could, forming a very elongated cone, almost like a lance that went far in front of the small blade he held in his hand. He focused on his target and threw the blade. He watched as it went through the tree with a crack and oddly it went through the rock soundlessly. He looked back to his audience and found them gone. Confused, he looked where he threw the blade, and he saw a trail of flame follow the path his blade made. Then he starts to get scared when he feels a presence, a familiar, sinister presence that he knows all too well to be Kyuubi and he awakes with a start.

/ End Dream Sequence /

He looks around the room to see Jiraiya snoring beside him, and that he is still in the inn, Naruto sighs a little at this. It is cold however and feels a draft in the room, so he is about to leave the room to ask for an additional blanket from the innkeeper to cover himself with when he hears a flock of birds take wing nearby. It was rather loud for being indoors, so he looks up to see where the sound came from and notices a peculiar hole in the ceiling. Above his sleeping mat is a hole about the size of his fist. Not seeing anything he could climb onto to get a better look at it, he summons a few clones to help him up, silently of course. He puts his hand to trace the hole and recoils quickly, finding out that the hole is hot to the touch. When he looks through it he sees a clear night sky with stars. 'Odd, it was cloudy earlier today...' some remains of his odd dream came back to him and he shook his head in disbelief. "No... ...no, I didn't do that... that hole must have been there before... but why was it hot? If it was me, I better practice and see if I can do this again." With glee in anticipation, he hastily wrote a note for Jiraiya indicating that he was going to the sparring spot a bit early where they had been at the day before.

When Naruto had left the room, the previously snoring Jiraiya got up and checked the hole in the ceiling. It was one thing teaching shinobi techniques, it is quite something else to create new techniques, and it is something that can be dangerous. Still, he had seen nothing quite like it.

Jiraiya was entering the room when he recognizes Naruto tossing in his sleep. He did this from time to time as his nightmares were frequent, and with his past experience that Konoha's villagers gave to Naruto it isn't too surprising as to why, not even mentioning the Kyuubi. As he got into his own mat, however, he noticed Naruto's hands forming seals by themselves while Naruto himself seemed to be still asleep and chakra started to form around his right arm. This was clearly not normal, but he continued to watch regardless, besides, there are a lot of things about Naruto that could be considereed 'not normal.' Blue chakra started to manifest itself in a swirling pattern of various tints and shades of blue lines, starting at the tips of his fingers and spreading up his arm. His right arm itself was stiff and straight after the seals were formed and the process continued as the chakra crept up his arm. Looking closely, Jiraiya could see Naruto's eyes under his eyelids still moving rapidly in sleep while Naruto jerked his arm upwards in a lazy fashion, almost like a puppet. If it wasn't for the chakra, it would simply look like an extremely over exaggerated knee-jerk reaction where his stiff arm ended up pointing at the ceiling, though that in and of itself would be peculiar. The chakra however, started to swirl at the tip of his middle finger and expand, now engulfing his entire arm and flaring after his shoulder into the wooden floor. Just as quick as it shot up, the chakra was released into the air and sped towards the ceiling and it make a cracking sound as the hole was created in the roof of their room. As soon as the chakra was released, his arm fell down again as if a string that was once attached was cut, and Jiraiya cued his snoring while Naruto woke up.

After Naruto left, he decided to follow Naruto. Though rare, it isn't unheard of that a ninja would create a technique in his or her sleep. Usually the brain would go over events of the day or the person's life while it interprets what it finds in what his friend used to refer to as 'abstract interactive picture landscapes.' He smiled at remembering that. Still, it was late at night and although Naruto's drive to train was admirable, it was also reckless, as senses are dulled at night and things that would normally be easy to see in daylight can be overlooked at night and not discovered until too late. Being close to the border of the land of Fire, it was risky for Naruto, especially if Akatsuki knew Naruto was away from Konoha. Jiraiya finds Naruto in the woods outside the village just as he indicated in the note he left.

Naruto realizes that if he is going to try something new, he doesn't know if it could be dangerous, and would rather not be around people if they might get hurt. More than just his cover could be blown if someone did. The woods had a low hanging fog making it hard to see the ground more than a few feet away, indicating there was probably a water source nearby. When he got to the spot that they had used for sparring during their stay at this village, he stopped and clenched his fists. 'This is it. Just imagine wind currents flowing around.' The fact that the mist appeared to be still and thus there wouldn't be much of a wind current didn't quite register to Naruto that there was no wind at the time. 'Just remember the air currents like in the dream, make the seals, and then release the jutsu... wait... what seals did I use?' Naruto slumped as he didn't pay attention to the specific seals that were used in the dream, or if he did, what they were. Disappointed, he simply tried to reenact what happened in the dream, aside from forming signs... and realized, in the dream, there were none.

Jiraiya watches as his student closes his eyes and replays the dream in his head. Once again, apparently unknown to Naruto, his hands form seals of their own accord, but he opens his eyes as he thrusts his arm towards a tree. Naruto did not lose focus from his intended target, but did notice how his chakra appeared on his arm before he discharged the chakra: quite visible. The effect, however, was quite astonishing. Naruto didn't see it as clearly as Jiraiya, but it was a safe bet that if his target were living, it would take a significant amount of time and effort to remain that way. When Naruto released the jutsu, it immediately rushed from behind his arm where it was building, and collected to the tip of his middle finger of the arm that was pointed instantly. Just as quickly, the collection of bright blue chakra bulleted through the tree and was out of Naruto's sight dispersing a significant amount of mist that was lingering behind him as well. Jiraiya saw that it kept on going through the initial tree, leaving holes in the middle and sides of the trees it went through. Jiraiya did not see it stop, and gave a frog-like croak, indicating to Naruto that he was both there, and not to attack him, before he left to look at the result of the newly formed jutsu.

Naruto was a little startled, not expecting Jiraiya to be there, but reminded himself that they both had to be more aware of their surroundings, and made a mental note to take closer attention to his traveling partner and "enemy" in the future before making assumptions like sleeping. Noting the direction where the call was made, he took off after Jiraiya and followed the trail he had made, now noticing the continuing results as he follows his teacher and enemy and relishing in his accomplishment. 'Well, it looks like I've already got something new to show.' He then remembered his promise to Hinata before he left and the kiss that came afterwards. He smiled as he came to a realization, 'Maybe there's hope for me after all.'

A/N: Well that's another chapter done. As I said, this will highlight important points during the time skip and will in itself skip around a bit. Otherwise two years is an incredibly long time to go day by day and this story would become increasingly large. That said, the attachment Hinata has for Naruto and his realization that he holds a budding attachment to her as well will increase during his absence until they meet… or will it? As always, reviews are welcome.