A/N: I'm really sorry. This is over a week late, but try to understand that I didn't have a lot of time to write, and this is pretty long considering that. So I hope you enjoy it! And remember to review!

Chapter Nine: Truths

Recap:

Both stare at the figure in recognition; blond hair, blue eyes, a chunin vest, and a Leaf headband. He smiled at them and waved.

"Sensei?"

And there stood the former Hokage, smiling at his only surviving student.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi, his eyes were wide and he was the perfect picture of a completely shocked Jonin. It was to be expected, but to Sasuke there had been no proof of this being the real Fourth Hokage.

That is, until he saw Kakashi's expression. Sasuke knew that Kakashi had been a professional tracker while in ANBU. It wouldn't surprise him if Kakashi still practiced those techniques just as often as he practices his fighting attacks, which meant that this really was the Fourth Hokage.

This wasn't a situation that you find yourself in everyday. People often mistake life for simple irony as shinobi but meeting a dead man is much more than just an ironic circumstance.

"Hello Kakashi, my, my you really did grow up," the man in question said grinning. It seems that it would be safe to say that he was fairly close to the copy-nin, though how close would be a hard decision to decipher from observation through one question and a sentence.

"How are you here? Where did you come from?" Kakashi asked.

"Always straight to the point," Minato sighed, "If I remember right I just came from a lab. I'm not sure what exactly was going on but if I had to guess I'm going with the scenario where I was being experimented on and was brought back to life but the scientist who was conducting the experiment either abandoned the project or died."

Minato scratched his head awkwardly, "Does that sound right?"

Kakashi and Sasuke were both already holding kunai and were ready to do battle if the need for one should arrive. Kakashi lowered his knife slightly giving Minato the signal that he was listening to his reasoning but he was not yet willing to trust him.

"Well, I can't blame you for acting like this; I would too. But let me at least speak to the current Hokage and establish some form of understanding. Whatever he says will be the final decision on the matter, deal?"

"The Hokage is a busy woman," Kakashi answered grateful that Sasuke was willing to let him do the talking, "We may not be able to allow you to speak with her, and who's to say that you won't attack the village on the way there."

Minato sighed, "And I thought time would change you. I've already told you that I don't know what's going on so the only reasonable thing for me to do is to speak with someone who has knowledge of whatever's happening. By the way, who is the Hokage?"

"It's Lady Tsunade of the Sannin."

Minato lifted his eyebrows in slight surprise, "That so? Never thought she'd be Hokage. Mind telling me if I can speak to her?"

"We still don't know if you're safe to bring into the village."

Minato removed all of his weapons and tossed them to land perfectly between Kakashi and Sasuke, afterwards he also removed his vest and through it to land in the same area. He was trying to make it clear that he wouldn't harm a fly, let alone his own home.

Kakashi looked down at the multiple lethal weapons and then lifted his head to bring his attention back to his former teacher. This was a difficult position for him. He wanted to welcome his old sensei home with wide arms but the safety of the village always came first. But he was still happy to see him, even if he wasn't allowed to show it.

"Satisfied now Kakashi?"

Kakashi nodded, "Almost."

"Almost?" Minato questioned.

Kakashi nodded again, "Now that you've made it clear that you don't want to hurt the village, though I'm sure that you could even without tools, you still haven't proven that you are Minato Namikaze. You haven't proven that you're the Fourth Hokage."

Minato blinked, "How do I prove that I am?"

Kakashi smiled as he put one hand on his hip and let the other that was holding the kunai dangle, "You can answer some of my questions."

"Heh, I can do that, no problem."

"That's exactly what an enemy would say."

Minato smiled, "But that's also exactly what I would say."

"Touché."

Sasuke looked back and forth between the two older men. He knew that since Kakashi had trained under the supervision of the Fourth he would easily have more knowledge about the former Hokage than most would. But…

"Do you know enough about him to be able to tell if it's him?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi smiled to show Sasuke that he was listening but still keeping his eyes focused on the potential enemy, "Of course Sasuke, otherwise this method wouldn't work."

"But I don't know enough about you to be able to do that."

"That's because Kakashi is a private man," Minato answered, "He's always been that way. Don't take it personally; he's just not keen on telling people just how weird he really is."

Sasuke nodded, "I'm already aware of his past, or what pieces he would tell me."

Minato smiled, knowing that his antisocial student hadn't completely shut himself off from the world but had instead found new ones that he held precious.

"Ok, first question. What were the names and personalities of your only genin students?"

"Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin," Minato said without hesitation, "Obito was loud and over enthusiastic while Rin was the reserved median of the group. Oh, and what age do you want me to tell of your personality?"

"Twelve will be fine."

"Ok, when you were twelve you were strict and stuck by the rules. You would always scold Obito and you were a bit competitive. Either way you excelled in the shinobi art."

"Good, you passed question one," lightly praised Kakashi, "Now question two."

"Lay it on me."

"When we were traveling to Kannabi bridge what did you tell Obito when we everyone was asleep?"

Sasuke thought that it sound more like a genuine question than an interrogation question, but he had to trust Kakashi's judgment on these questions.

"So you were awake then huh?" Minato asked looking a little guilty.

Kakashi didn't answer but instead waited for the rest of the reply.

"I was telling him about your father," Minato started, "About how he died I mean. I thought it was bad how your own teammate didn't even know that the White Fang was your dad."

"Question two: correct." Kakashi said without much thought.

Minato nodded his understanding that the last two questions had been completely useless. They were questions that could have been answered by reading his mission reports to the Hokage, even though the old man was a bit irritated when he'd heard that Minato had spoken of Sakumo when it was classified information of how he had died.

This question would not be one that was written in mission reports or spoken of among friends. It was something that very few people knew, and that was only discovered by the minds of those who understood exactly why it had been kept a secret.

"Who is your son?" Kakashi asked without a trace of emotion.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi like he had just sputtered nonsense, and perhaps he had but…it doesn't seem likely seeing as how Kakashi wouldn't be one to joke at a time like this.

Minato shifted his eyes over to Sasuke asking for silent permission.

"Don't worry about him; I'm sure he won't mind. Besides, you're the one who told me not to tell, remember?"

Kakashi was beginning to doubt this look-a-like but was surprised by the answer.

"Naruto Uzumaki is what I asked you to name him," Minato's eyes were soft and now seemed silver in the light of the moon, "His first name came from a book that Jiraiya-sensei had written and he received his mother's last name."

Kakashi smiled softly though it went unnoticed by Sasuke, who was used to being fooled by those same petty grins that he could never see. The boy was already a little surprised that the Fourth Hokage was that loser's father.

"Good, you pass."

Minato looked up and smiled but he was now the one doing the questioning, "How can you trust me so easily? This isn't like the Kakashi that I knew."

Kakashi bent down to pick up Minato's weapons, "It would be a simple task to copy someone's looks, personality and memories but to do so you would need to acquire the body of that person to make an exact replica, and I'm afraid it wasn't you're body that was stolen."

Minato breathed a sigh of relief before immediately asking, "Whose body was stolen?"

Kakashi stood up with holding everything that Minato had thrown, "My father's. Tsunade told my earlier today. Apparently my father's body was stolen without a trace but I wasn't told all the details, but I don't think that there's much information on it."

Sasuke was looking at Kakashi with a straight face even though he knew that he was being completely ignored until he decided to speck up, but his arrogance made it difficult for him to admit that he didn't fully understand.

'Oh well,' he thought, 'Here goes a piece of my pride.'

"Kakashi, what does it matter whether or not the body was stolen? We know that Orochimaru was behind it and we also know that he was able to summon souls; so what would be the point of stealing the body?"

"Hm, that's a good question Sasuke," Kakashi replied, "Think about it though. If you would rather steal the body than summon the soul then why do you think you would do that?"

Sasuke thought a moment before answering, "I wouldn't. I would summon the scroll and leave behind the useless body. Unless…"

"There are three scenarios that can happen when bringing the dead back to life," Kakashi explained, "The first is the jutsu that Orochimaru used to bring back the First and Second Hokages. He put their souls into other bodies. Understand?"

Sasuke nodded.

"The second is using the original body to copy the person's looks, personality and memory. This one is more like a clone. It can also use the same techniques as the original soul but to what extent is fully dependant upon the one who cast the jutsu to bring them back. Get it?"

"Yeah, it's more like a doll of the original that's being controlled, right?"

"Right; the last scenario is summoning the dead soul and placing it back into the original body. This takes more time to complete then the other jutsu because you would have to regenerate the body in order to have an effective result. If the body is in the same condition as it was when the person died then the jutsu won't work.

"This is the most complicated forbidden dead summoning jutsu. It's not a clone that is brought back, nor is it a soul in a foreign body. In this jutsu the user completely revives the dead soul."

Sasuke nodded now with a full understanding, "So then the Fourth is the result of the first scenario?"

"Most likely," Kakashi answered, "But then it couldn't have been Orochimaru would performed the technique. The next person I can think of who could be able to perform this jutsu who is still alive would be Kabuto."

"No," Sasuke disagreed, "Kabuto would be the only one who was connected to Orochimaru who would be able to bring him back, but you left out all of the other nations' shinobi. There's no way we can pinpoint exactly who performed the jutsu right now."

Kakashi threw Sasuke Minato's weapons, "That may be so but the only person who has been reported conducting forbidden summonings for the last ten years was Orochimaru. That would mean that someone close to him bearing the ability of performing this technique is the most valid guess we have right now."

Kakashi turned toward Minato, "You're going to be questioned as soon as we get to the Hokage's tower, Sensei. I'm sorry but we need to find all of the information that we can."

"I understand Kakashi," Minato said sincerely, "But if I may ask a question."

"What is it?"

"Was Sakumo cloned or was he revived?"

"We aren't sure that this point. Jiraiya and Naruto will find anything if it's out there."

Minato smiled at the mention of his old mentor, and then blinked.

"Naruto is with Jiraiya?!"

"Yes he is, why?"

"You're letting my son travel around with that pervert?! What's going to happen to him?! He is alright? Did Jiraiya do something to him?!"

Kakashi held his hands up in defense at Minato's yelling while Sasuke just chuckled at the reaction of the former Hokage.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that kid. Who is he?"

"Oh, he's Sasuke Uchiha," Kakashi said putting his hand in his pockets, "He's my former student and Naruto's best friend."

"Best friend?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head in his usual manner, "Well I'm not sure anymore since they haven't seen each other in years. You see Sasuke left the village to go kill his brother and they haven't really been able to act like friends since. Sasuke came back to the village not long ago and Naruto is still out researching with Jiraiya so…"

"Oh, well ok," answered Minato, "So what's their friendship like?"

Kakashi chuckled, "A lot like Orochimaru and Jiraiya's, or mine and Obito's."

"That so? Well then I think I might have to start worrying about what will happen when they see each other again. Can't have them killing one another now can we?"

"Of course not, but I don't think that Obito would have been able to kill me."

"Probably not," said Minato as he put his hand in his pockets as well, "but he sure would have tried."

Minato's eyes show recollection as he remembered hearing Sasuke chuckle, "Oh hey Sasuke, what was so funny before?"

"Nothing, just that you'd throw a fit about Jiraiya training Naruto and corrupting his mind when Kakashi is a pervert as well; it just doesn't make any sense to me."

Minato's eyes widened slightly, "Kakashi is a…pervert?"

"Bingo, you finally got it."

"When did you…um, start being…that thing?" Minato asked Kakashi.

Kakashi laughed lightheartedly, "I don't know if I'd call myself a pervert I just read Jiraiya's Make Out series."

"Oh no…" Minato sighed, "Jiraiya poisoned you. I thought that at least you would be saved from that idiot. You were always strict and had perfect manners. How could this have happened?"

"I am not a pervert. I just like the plot of his books; anyway, we should get going. This is gonna be some big news to Tsunade."

"Why?" Minato asked

"Why what Sensei?"

"Why will it be big news to her?"

"Oh, because we were only expecting Father to be brought back I guess. You were a bit of a surprise package."

"Right, the never important me wasn't expected."

Kakashi smiled as he, Minato and Sasuke began to walk back up the cliff using their chakra, "Oh c'mon Sensei, you're important. You're the one who became Hokage."

"Heh, if Sakumo hadn't had that mission-gone-wrong then he would have been Hokage."

"You think so?" Kakashi questioned.

"Without a doubt; after all that I was never able to stop respecting him."

"Thank you Sensei."

Minato sighed, "Quit calling me Sensei, you're a perfectly capable jonin. I'm no longer your superior, and don't bring up the fact that I was a former Hokage."

Kakashi grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, it's a habit."

"Speaking of which, why doesn't Sasuke call you sensei?"

"Lack of respect I suppose. He does sometimes but I never really take notice."

"Oh, in other words he's a brat."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"He reminds me of you."

"A lot of people say that."

"You realize that I just called you a brat, right?"

"Tsunade and Jiraiya do all the time."

"Still?"

"Yeah," Kakashi answered as they reached the top. He bent down to grab the black and red box before leaving. They were going to travel out of the village's sight; that had been a silent agreement. A dead Hokage seen walking around would cause quite a disturbance.

They stuck to the shadows like shinobi were initially supposed to do. Sneaking through the dark was an easy task for skilled ninja such as themselves. Kakashi was especially good in stealth because of all the assassination missions he was assigned.

It was around 10:30 p.m. when they finally arrived at the Hokage Tower. Kakashi had asked Minato to transform into someone else for the time being, in case he was seen before the Hokage was aware of his existence.

Even though Minato had been transformed and Sasuke now a reregistered ninja, Kakashi didn't feel up to all the trouble it would be to walk through the Tower. Instead he knocked on Tsunade's window, knowing that if she wasn't there then she wouldn't be anywhere close by.

'Shizune's been having her do paperwork until 12am, so she should be here.'

Sure enough there was an answer. Tsunade waved him in and he greeted her with a quiet hello before signaling for the other two to enter.

Tsunade sat at her desk watching Kakashi, Sasuke, and some dark haired young man with blue eyes stand before her. She kept quiet so that Kakashi would be able to explain exactly why he was here and who this visitor was.

"Lady Tsunade, I ask that you don't be too surprised, and if you can, don't yell."

Tsunade grunted to show her understanding, so Kakashi faced the new comer and nodded. There was a poof and then appeared smoke around the figure indicating a transformation.

When the smoke cleared Tsunade found herself face to face with the brat that Jiraiya used to train who, if she remember correctly, was supposed to be dead.

She looked towards Kakashi who was looking a little bit worried that she hadn't screamed and yelled and thrown a tantrum.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" She asked angrily.

"I'm afraid not."

"Explain. Now. Hatake," she said as she crossed her arms to keep her from breaking her desk again. Izumo and Kotetsu already hated their job, and she had just promised last week to try and not make it any worse by splitting her desk in half.

"Well you see, from what we can tell he was summoned."

"Duh, I can get that much!"

"It's the form of summoning where a soul is placed in another body. That means that the person who summoned him is still alive but we can't figure out who that is exactly."

"Ok," Tsunade let out a deep breathe to try to calm herself, "Then whose body is he in?"

"We don't know, but I don't think that it's any of our men. Something like that doesn't go unnoticed in this village and we took extra measures to make sure that he wasn't seen."

Tsunade sighed, "The trouble always revolves around you doesn't it?"

"What does that mean?"

She picked up a file on her desk, "I was just about to have this delivered to you. I think that you'll find its contents very interesting."

Kakashi took the slip of paper and began to read over it. He was done quickly but his eyes were now showing surprise and concern, it made Sasuke curious as to what was written. He figured that he would find out soon enough.

"Is this true?" Kakashi asked.

"Would I have given it to you otherwise?"

Kakashi looked over the paper once more, "But how?"

Tsunade crossed her arms once more, "Well Jiraiya's summoning toad Gamakichi was sent to tell us. From that I concluded that it doesn't really matter how they found him as long as they had found him."

Kakashi let out a frustrated breath. This was just not his week. It had started off with a simple breakfast, a trip to the Memorial Stone, a few missions, and it ended with one runaway student and two dead warriors coming back home.

He had really, really bad luck.

"Where did they find him?" Kakashi asked.

"He was on his way to Konoha, 'seems he was only a few hours away."

Sasuke leaned against the wall, "You're talking about the White Fang right?"

"Yeah, Jiraiya and Naruto found him," Kakashi answered.

He turned to face Tsunade, "Where are they?"

She smiled, "They're in a small town staying at the hotel there. As you just read in that note, Jiraiya has already concluded that it is Sakumo's soul if nothing else. He hasn't figured out which type of summoning it is, but he doesn't even know that Sakumo's body was stolen."

"So when are they coming to the village?"

"Some time in the morning," Tsunade answered shortly.

"As for him," she said indicating Minato, "How can we trust him?"

Minato and Sasuke sighed, "Not this again," they chorused.

Kakashi chuckled, "Well we know that he's a soul in another body. My guess is that he was Orochimaru's next experiment but Orochimaru died before he could complete it, meaning that Sensei is in complete control."

"Kakashi," Tsunade said warningly, "What if your 'guess' is wrong?"

The room's tension grew unexpectedly fast. Sasuke took in the sight of each face. They all looked determined with reason, except for Minato. He seemed worried or maybe that was fear that Sasuke saw.

"We'll deal with that when we get there," Kakashi answered.

"That's not good enough! You know that we can't take chances like that. We could be killed by a mistake like that. Is that what you want? Do you want to see everything you love be destroyed before your eyes? Do you want that to happen again?!"

Kakashi looked down and his only visible eye was covered in shadows. A strangely calm silence filled the room. When Kakashi opened his eyes Sasuke used his own skilled eyesight to see what emotion he could.

What he saw was not an emotion he could describe in the same sentence as Kakashi. He saw smoky blue eyes clear and enlarge. It would normally be said to be compassion, worry, or slight depression. None of these matched what he saw in Kakashi.

"I never want to see that again," Kakashi started.

Minato looked similar to a worried father.

"If anything, I want to protect this village with everything I have," Kakashi looked up, "But I know that it's him Lady Tsunade. At least wait until Father gets here. We can decide what to do then."

Tsunade smiled though everyone knew that it was against what Kakashi said, "We? Sorry, but neither you nor Jiraiya will have any authority in this matter. You're too close to them to have accurate judgments."

Sasuke saw Kakashi's eye twitched but "Yes Lady Tsunade" was his answer.

"Heh, so where is Minato going to be staying?"

Kakashi didn't move.

"Perhaps he can spend the night at your place."

"If that's what you chose, Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade sighed, "Stop doing that to me."

"What are you talking about, Lady Tsunade?" Kakashi asked in all respect.

"Every time I make you mad or say something you don't like," Tsunade growled, "You start speaking every sentence like I'm a queen. I hate it."

"I'm well aware of that, Lady Tsunade."

"Fuck you."

"If you wish."

Tsunade ground her teeth together, "Minato, you're staying with Kakashi. Now get the hell out of my office!"

Kakashi led the other two out of the window. Minato transformed again then followed to start walking alongside the other two down the street to Kakashi's home.

Tsunade sighed as she watched them through her window. Shizune came in.

"Why did I help raise him again?" Tsunade asked.

"Who?"

"No one, never mind," Tsunade answered turning to face Shizune, "Tell me that's not more paperwork."

Shizune dropped the impressive stack of documents on Tsunade's desk, "Sorry."

"Oh, my life sucks!"

--

Minato noticed that Kakashi had switched homes since he had died, but he wasn't about to say anything, not after Kakashi had stood up to Tsunade to help him. He was just glad that Kakashi had changed his tactics on how to aggravate the woman.

Before the kid would've had her beating him into a bloody pulp as long as his words had been understood. Then he would've had her heal him to perfection. Minato was glad that Kakashi had learned to think about his body's health.

They slowly rounded the corner that led to Kakashi's front porch.

Kakashi unlocked the door and went inside leaving the other two to come in at their own pace. Sasuke immediately walked in after Kakashi and went to what Minato supposed was the guest room.

Minato walked in and locked the door behind him even though he was almost ceratain that no one would be stupid enough to break into Kakashi's home uninvited.

It wasn't until now that Minato realized that Kakashi had left the black box in Tsunade's office. To tell the truth, he wasn't even aware of when Kakashi had gotten rid of it. It was a bit unnerving that the genus of his team became a ninja with such skill.

Minato had always known that Kakashi would grow up to be powerful; he made that clear when he passed the chunin exams when he was six. What put Minato on edge was that he had no clue as to exactly how much power his old student now held.

Minato continued to try to understand this as he followed Kakashi into the kitchen. 'When did he grown up? How did I miss it?' Minato thought as he accepted the glass of water that Kakashi offered him.

They both say down at the table knowing that Kakashi would have to further question Minato on what he knew of Orochimaru before anyone could go to bed.

"So Sensei, where did you wake up?" Kakashi asked to start the conversation.

"If things haven't changed then it would be a little north from the town that we had to fight those bandits in."

"I see," Kakashi said as Sasuke walked back into the room. He was now wearing the loose shirt that he had borrowed from Kakashi the night before. It would seem that he really did find the outfit Kakashi brought him to be a bit uncomfortable but that hadn't stopped him from continuing to wear the pants.

Sasuke pulled a chair a few feet from the table then sat down. He crossed his arms and appeared to be waiting on the interrogation to continue.

Kakashi sighed, he was getting tired. This had been one long day.

"Ok, where we fought the bandits would be somewhere close to the Tea Country," Kakashi noted, "Was there any sign that Orochimaru might be connected to your revival?"

"Yes, there were multiple documents containing his handwriting."

"Good, well I don't really have anymore questions for you that I haven't already asked. All I need you to do is write a report about all the documents that you read. This could be important information to the Leaf, so try to make it detailed."

"Of course Kakashi," Minato yawned, "Can we go to bed now?"

Kakashi grinned, "Sasuke gets the couch."

"Hey! That's no fair!" Sasuke protested.

Too bad they were already fast sleep.

"Damn fools."

--

With Naruto, Jiraiya, and Sakumo:

Recap:

Sakumo chuckled, it was good to be back; no matter how short his visit may be.

"And besides life is unfair."

"How?" Sakumo asked.

"Your face hasn't aged since the day you died."

They looked at each other and exploded in a fit of laughter.

Soon afterwards they headed towards their respective 'beds' determined to not be disturbed for at least the next six hours.

The sunlight coming through the window they had been sitting near informed them that it was morning. Jiraiya rolled over in his bed expecting to see Naruto still fast asleep next to him in the first bed.

What he saw was a messed up empty bed.

Jiraiya stood up and looked around the room searching for the boy. He found him in front of the couch staring at Sakumo with big blue eyes.

Jiraiya laughed after realizing that Naruto had never seen Kakashi's face and this was his first time seeing Sakumo's. Though Jiraiya was wondering why Sakumo wasn't already awake, he was usually up before dawn broke.

Sakumo slowly opened one eye and grinned at the gawking blond teen. His first guess was that Naruto had never seen Kakashi's face and was going to try to peek to his own, only to find that Sakumo didn't wear a mask to bed.

Poor kid wasn't expecting it.

"You're awake!"

"Geez, you're loud," Sakumo said rubbing his ear.

Naruto hopped to his feet and pointed a finger at Sakumo, "You don't have your mask on!"

Sakumo sighed, "Jiraiya is this kid stupid?"

"We don't know yet."

Naruto looked towards Jiraiya, "Hey, Pervy Sage isn't this guy Kakashi-sensei's dad?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya said nodding; hadn't they told him that yesterday?

"So wouldn't Kakashi-sensei look a little like him?!"

It was Jiraiya's turn to sigh. If only Sakumo had woken up a little bit earlier and put on his mask then they wouldn't be explaining something this simple to an idiot.

"Yes Naruto, Kakashi does look like his father."

Naruto grinned.

"In fact you could say that you've actually seen Kakashi's face at this point."

Naruto blinked, "huh?"

"Well, I told you that Kakashi grew up to look almost identical to his father. There are only a few differences in their faces. The main one being that Kakashi has that scar and the sharingan. Other than that it's the hair length and the eye color."

"The eye color? I thought they had the same eyes."

"No, no, Kakashi's eyes are blue and Sakumo's eyes are brown."

"So then, this is Kakashi-sensei's face," Naruto said as he slowly turned back to face Sakumo who was staring dumbly at Jiraiya muttering something along the lines of "Scar and sharingan? What the fuck…?"

"So this is the face that Sensei always hides…"

Jiraiya slapped Naruto on the shoulder, "Not what you were expecting?"

Naruto blinked again, obviously confused, "But then why does he wear a mask?"

"Huh?" Jiraiya thought about it for a moment and decided, "I guess it'd be best if you asked him that. And what do you mean? You thought he was deformed or burned?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I mean I never thought that he would even look half way decent if he felt the need to cover half his face. And then seeing that scar, it makes you think about things."

Sakumo raised his hand to get their attention, "What scar? What sharingan? What on earth happened to Kakashi?"

Jiraiya sighed, "You always were overprotective of him."

"Tell me what happened."

"Kakashi got slashed across his left eye during a mission," Jiraiya explained, "On the same day he had another eye transplanted into his left eye socket, that eye being the sharingan. Good enough explanation."

"Uh, sure."

"Good."

"Wait, the sharingan isn't Kakashi-sensei's?" Naruto asked.

"I'll explain later. Konoha is only a few hours away walking; I want to pick up the speed so that we can get there as fast as possible."

Sakumo put back on his mask and headband, "What's the rush? It's only a few hours, besides you were traveling all day yesterday. Think of it as a break."

"I hate you."

"I know."

"Fine, we'll walk. But you better have something interesting to talk about for the next three hours."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll come up with something."

They packed up what few things Jiraiya had thrown about and grabbed their bags, Sakumo not having any, so that nothing got lost. Jiraiya was currently working on his next addition to Make Out Violence and it would suck if he had to redo the whole thing.

They started walking down the exact same road that they had traveled down the night before only heading in another direction. Fifteen minutes passed by in silence before Jiraiya had had enough. He hated silence. Anything quiet was immediately unattractive unless it was a gorgeous woman.

"Sakumo, I thought you said that you'd come up with something. I'm bored."

Sakumo sighed, "Nice to meet you "Bored" my name's Sakumo," he said as he stuck his hand out for the regular hand shake when meeting something.

"Smart ass."

"Well, you could tell about how Kakashi's been. Being dead for the last twenty-somethin' years has put me a little behind date."

"He's a smart ass too."

"Jiraiya…"

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei's dad, I've got something to ask you!" Naruto said walking a bit slower to come beside the two older men.

"It's 'Sakumo' kid, not Kakashi-sensei's dad," Sakumo said before Naruto could make a habit of calling him that, "And what is it?"

"How strong are you?"

Sakumo raised his eyebrows in question.

"I mean are you really stronger than Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakumo looked over at Jiraiya before turning back to answer Naruto, "I'm not sure. I'm positive that Kakashi is at least three times stronger than the last time I saw him, but to what extent I can't be completely sure."

"So then you don't know?"

"Nope, ain't got a clue."

"Then you're weaker than Kakashi-sensei?"

"Jiraiya," Sakumo said addressing the white haired toad sage, "Am I weaker than Kakashi?"

"No, Kakashi still hasn't reached your level," Jiraiya answered, "But I'm sure that he'll get there someday, if he doesn't kill himself with all those missions that is."

"Hm, well then did he ever get any students?"

Jiraiya grinned, "Naruto here is one of his former students, his other ones are Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

"No more?"

"They're the only ones who ever passed his bell test."

"That stupid test is still being used?" Sakumo asked mildly surprised.

"Only Kakashi uses it now. Don't forget that the test is only ever used by a Sensei who has taken and passed it with their own teacher."

"Right, glad I didn't take it."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit, "So Kakashi-sensei took the Bell Test?"

"Uh, yeah," Jiraiya answered.

"And he passed?"

"Yes."

"When did this happen?"

"27 years ago."

"Ok," Naruto thought a moment but was interrupted.

Sakumo sighed, "He was the only one taking the test."

Naruto looked very, very confused, "Then how did he pass?"

"Minato wasn't testing him on teamwork, since no one else had passed at the time Kakashi didn't have a team. Instead he tested him on how well he used his advantages in battle as well as how he carefully used the limited jutsu that he possessed."

"So Kakashi-sensei actually got the bells from the Fourth Hokage?"

"No, he didn't. But he did pass because he had touched the bells about three times as well as showing exceptional early skill."

Jiraiya snorted, "Early skill? That kid was doing acrobats."

"What do mean Jiraiya?" Sakumo asked curiously.

"I mean that a five year old is not supposed to be able to twist like that!"

"Wait, five?!" Naruto yelled.

The two men cringed; man this kid was excessively loud!

"Kakashi-sensei took the bell test when he was five?!"

"Yes," Sakumo started while rubbing his ear, "I told you that no one else had passed at that time. That was because Kakashi passed earlier than the other students."

Naruto frowned, "So he was a gennin when he was five?"

"Precisely," Sakumo smiled.

"So I'm eighteen and still the same rank as my teacher was when he was five."

Sakumo turned towards Jiraiya, "How long has he been a gennin?"

"Um, I think about five years."

"Six years!" Naruto yelled, "I've been a gennin longer than he had been alive!"

Sakumo laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"Kakashi was a chunin by time he was six."

Naruto looked at them dumbly for a moment before deepening his frown and crossing his arms. He didn't talk for the next hour.

They was mild chat between Sakumo and Jiraiya about Jiraiya's porn series but they never lasted longer than what happened that the beginning of the book and how it ended.

"Oh," Jiraiya said remembering something, "Naruto, come here."

Naruto turned slowed down and turned towards his perverted mentor, "What?"

"Give this to Kakashi once we get back to Konoha," Jiraiya said pulling out a white book from his bag, "It's a new series; Make Out Destiny."

"Your books just keep getting worse and worse names," Naruto said while taking the novel. He placed it in his pocket and continued walking.

"Give it to Kakashi?" Sakumo asked, "What would my son be doing with that?"

"Reading it is my guess."

"Jiraiya, what did you do?"

"I did nothing."

"Then how did my son who has perfect manners begin to read porn?"

"He bought the book at a book store."

"When did he buy that?"

"Sometime after he turned eighteen, why?"

"Tell me that Kakashi is not a pervert," Sakumo pleaded.

Naruto started laughing, "Of course Kakashi-sensei is a pervert! He's always been one!"

Sakumo glared at Jiraiya, "What did you do?"

"I already told you, I didn't do anything."

"That means that you did."

Jiraiya laughed nervously, "I might have given him the first edition for his birthday, but try to understand Sakumo. The kid needed something!"

"I'll deal with this after I'm sure that they won't execute me for it."

"Oh god," Jiraiya whined. He knew exactly what Sakumo intended to do. First it would be a full day of the roughest training he's ever had, then a little break, and then once Sakumo was ready he would beat the shit out of him.

Oh, Jiraiya had something to look forward to now. He should have known better than to intentionally turn his best friend's kid into a perv. And he should have remembered how protective Sakumo was before making his decision to give Kakashi that book.

But how was he supposed to know that Kakashi would actually read it? He thought the kid would just throw it away. He was surprised when he found out that Kakashi had been reading the other books in the Make Out series.

They rest of the trip had been quiet and no one talked much as to avoid any more uncomfortable or agonizing topics that may or may not come up in the conversation.

The open gates of the Leaf Village were now in sight and Jiraiya and Sakumo both sighed happily as Naruto grinned. Everyone was a bit relieved to see home again.

"Now that I've seen Kakashi-sensei's face I've got to drag Sasuke back here to get my money!" Naruto snickered.

I wanted to make smiliarites between Minato and Sakumo by their reactions to Kakashi being a pervert. Same thing with Naruto and Sasuke's reaction to Kakashi's face. So which one wins the bet?

For those who read my notes:
Ok,
I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. I'm planning on finishing up this story within the next 2-3 chapters. If anyone has any ideas on how the story should end please tell me! This is my first chapter fic and I've just been writing it as I come up with it.