We do not own Naruto

Hey everyone, Kotei here with a new chapter of Cry of Raiju, you will have to forgive me for putting this on hiatus for you all; I wanted to work on my new story, as well as prepare for school; there was also the fact that I wanted Kitsune to get ahead of his stories that way he could start his sequel from his DigimonxNaruto crossover.

I am happy that we still have followers for the story, without you all we wouldn't know what would have happened, but I am glad that your need for patience has come to an end.

Now I am prepared to say that it is with great honor that this story will commence.

Chapter Nine: Change

Dark clouds rumbled in the air as rain poured across the ground in the outskirts of town. The heavy rain poured, hitting rooftops of shops and houses around and within the village blocks. This murky, depressing weather matched the behavior of a certain blonde that was standing out in the open in a field not too far from the town. His back hunched and his head was lazily leaned back as he stared up into the sky above and felt the water droplets hit his face.

Naruto stared at the heavens with dull blue eyes. His face was void of all emotion, but in his eyes anyone could see that he was screaming with inner turmoil, that he was holding in emotion that should not be suppressed by any means for a human as it was not healthy. Sadly, he couldn't express it, not in the way he usually would. In all his life he always hid his pain by doing pranks, being brash and loud, acting like an idiot that he would always be, however this was different.

He had let someone die on his watch, he had made a mistake and let someone fall during a mission that he wanted to be truly successful-with everyone coming to the town, to the palace alive and well. That did not happen. He let the Royal Guard of the princess die...he let Hayato die and he could do nothing to bring him back, nothing to make up for the loss. All he could do was blame himself and shoulder the burden and carry the weight of the dead.

He was a shinobi, a demon in the shadows, a person who was meant to succeed in a mission no matter what the cost, to carry the burden of humanity, to be the foot soldier that protected an entire nation within the shadows, to be void of all emotions in the battlefield, to kill whether it was the guilty or the innocent. The blonde viewed himself as a pacifist despite his brash attitude. Though he was not like Haku, who was too gentle and too kind to be fit for the life of a shinobi, Naruto was not afraid to take a life if necessary. No, it was losing a life of someone precious that hit him hard in the Shinobi life. He may have not known Hayato as long as Miu, but he was still a responsibility to the blonde Uzumaki.

There was nothing that made Naruto feel any better. The Daimyou told him it was not his fault, Jiraiya told him it was not his fault, that things such as these should be expected during the line of shinobi work; hell, even Hayato's last words were not to allow himself to feel self-blame for the guard's death. Despite such words from a leader of a nation, a powerful shinobi, and a dead man, Naruto was not the type of person to let this go.

Lightning flashed from behind him, bringing light for only a brief moment before dissipating. Thunder followed, bellowing around him as if Kurama himself was roaming around the place freely as he greatly desired. His clothes were now drenched, his hair damp and covering his face, but not once had he moved.

The two that existed within the confounds of the boy's mind were silent. Kamina looked at the boy's mental manifestation with sympathy and out of respect said nothing to entice the boy in his emotional state. He had watched the behavior of the blonde go on like this for two days and of course he could push the boy, but this was something that was not his best subject; it would be a contradiction for him to tell the boy to move on after all.

On the other hand Kurama had his eyes narrowed, his malevolent filled and blood lusted nature was somewhat gone from his eyes as he showed understanding, but as well as annoyance. The nine-tailed beast rose from its lowered position before shifting a bit closer to the bars of his cage, glaring at the tiny human below him and frowned.

"Naruto get your ass into gear and move on, this is pathetic of you to waste time on something as small as this."

"Kurama, you are out of line on this," Kamina said as he looked up at the fox outside its cage. "There is a time and place for everything and right now this is not the time."

"Oh and when is the time going to be right Raiju? Will it be a week or perhaps a year when he is all pathetic like that annoying Uchiha he is obsessed about?" Kurama narrowed his eyes, "No, the time is now for him to act like the shinobi that he is and grow a pair. The way that he is now, the little respect that I hold for him will be nothing but from ash from a burning leaf."

"Since when did you have respect for the boy, after he was growing stronger or before he was born?"

Kurama snarled at the canine-like thunder beast as gleaming red eyes shone within the darkness within his cell. "You do well to remember that I can crush you as easily as killing a hundred people with my killeing intent alone."

"I'd like to see you try beast," Kamina snarled back.

Lightning cracked the ground as Naruto's finger twitched in reflex to his anger.

"Enough…" His voice crept out in the room as the two looked at him, "You both are bickering about me while I am right here. I don't need to be talked about, I do not need to be lectured about what is the right and what is the wrong time in being emotional as well. I simply just want to mourn for the mistake that I made and be left alone."

"Naruto, it is not our place to say what you can or cannot feel, you have every right to be as emotional as you are now...however, it is not healthy that you stay like this. I am waiting for it to pass, but Kurama is right about something. You need to let go soon." Kamina said.

"I did not say soon, Raiju. I said now. This boy is pathetic, lying on the ground like a worthless insect. He should not even be a shinobi if it means he is going to act like a child if he cannot handle losing someone in at least one mission." The fox huffed in frustration. "This boy is not worthy of being my jinchuriki, he is not worthy of holding my power, and he is not worth of even being the child of that wretched Yondaime Hokage he so admires."

The attention of the fox was quickly changed from the Raiju to the blonde as the young shinobi stared ate Kurama with cold eyes. Kurama felt somewhat startled upon the gaze that held a raging storm within them, but did not lose his gaze upon the boy. The boy muttered something that he did not quite here and grunted in questioning.

"Shut up."

"Hm?"

"I said…shut up you fucking fox," Naruto said receiving a low growl from the titan sized fox "You think it's so easy to lose someone, to wash it off like it's dirt on your hands. I am a shinobi! I am fated to kill, but I am also human, something you will never understand!"

Kurama narrowed his eyes as he reared his head forward to the cage and growled in opposition. "Fool, I am near a millennium old! I am the King of Bijuu, the greatest calamity that walked the earth, the destroyer of lands of life itself! I kill when I wish and destroy what I desire! I hold the malice and hatred of a million souls to know well enough that you humans are nothing more than greedy, hateful, and power hungry enough to kill even the person closest to you!" The malevolent chakra of the tailed beast swayed around the room. "Your hatred and anger is like a raindrop in the ocean compared to what I hold! You cannot hold a candle to my power, power you so desire, that you need to bring back that pathetic Uchiha of yours!" Said Kurama, before a massive bolt of lightning struck at his cage with great fury.

"I could care less about Sasuke at this point! This is not even close to anything about him you giant idiotic fox!" Cold blue eyes narrowed up coldly. "I do not care what you believe your level of anger is; you could have anger that's equivalent to the power of the sun for all I care; however my anger right now at you surpassed even beyond that." The blonde walked up close to the cage and stood right at the bars.

"I don't care if you are one thousand years old as I do not care if you are an immortal beast of unlimited power that even the strongest Kage's cannot comprehend. You do not understand sorrow, you do not understand compassion and love, only the hate that you allowed yourself to wallow in in order to become who you are...a spineless, cranky ass bitch." The words brought fury down upon Naruto with the Kyuubi's rage erupting through the cage, by Naruto pushed back with his mental force.

"I never wanted your power just as much as you never wanted to be within my fucking belly! Our fates sadly have seemingly intertwined, for what purpose can only be known for the future, however, I will not tolerate your behaviour as long as I am like this! I will not be told of my faults and my mistakes! I will not be told I am weak by the creature who himself is weak because he does not understand the meaning of compassion! So as long as you are in my fucking insides, I will expect you to shut up and curl in the fucking corner of your cage, do I make myself clear?!" The young Namikaze said coldly before he turned a full angle and walked away from the cage, leaving a silent, shocked, and aggravated fox.

However the blonde paused as his fingers twitched with lightning and he turned and shot a large fully charged bolt of lightning at the fox's face, hitting him directly in his right side and striking a heavy blow on the beast's eye. This had cause Kurama to flinch back and growl in slight anguish as it covered his right eye in anger.

"One more thing..." The temperature dropped around Naruto as he gazed back "I do not care if you hate me or want me dead, I don't care at this point, however let me give you one final warning..." His eye glowed a cold azure blue as he stared at the Kyuubi no Yoko. "I don't care if you are a god or a tailed beast, or even the first Hokage himself...you will not talk bad about my father and think that your word will not go unpunished. I will make your life a living hell if you want to boast and degrade the works of the dead and the sacrifices that they had to make in order to keep their world safe just a little more."

Kurama's eyes shot widely as he felt a faint memory hit him to the core, the words may have been spoken differently, but they felt so familiar to him.

'You may be the successor to your progenitor Kurama, but that does not mean that I will not punish you if you do not remember and pray for the lives that your progenitor has taken from these lands.'

Kurama stared down at the boy with a faded look in his eyes as if he was gazing upon someone else. He felt a spinal chill for a brief moment before he regained his sense of strength. One of the few things that Kurama could agree with himself on was that each jinchuriki he had always said something unique. As the Juubi was split from inside the Rikudo Sennin's body he learned of life, peace, and honour despite his chaotic nature by birth which slowly turned malevolent by the witnessing of wars by several generations of shinobi clans and imperial kingdoms before the Elemental Nations began to arise. Then when he was sealed upon his first jinchuriki she wanted his malevolence and hatred to sleep within her and embrace the positive nature that she would give him. Kushina as well, while more brash and hardy, had followed a similar approach to Mito's ideology despite not coming to direct contact with him as much as Mito or the old man had done.

Yet while this boy held some form of their ideologies, Naruto had more characteristics of the old man than his Uzumaki predecessors before him now. His pain showed his emotion of desire for something he wanted so much. His respect for lost lives was strong, even if he barely knew them. The blonde even had a moral code that was somewhat similar to the Six Paths' own moral code. He carried the ideals of his parents and those close to his heart, combining it into making it one pure ideology; the ideology of the Six Paths.

Kurama had more respect for this boy than he did his mother or Mito, but his respect for him was only a finger compared to the respect that he held for his creator and despite how much the blonde had acted like him right now.

The great tailed beast gave a low snarl at the blonde before covering himself in the shadows. "Very well, I will not say anything about your parents, Naruto, but I expect you to not be weak. If I see any weakness then your words will be nonexistent when I feast on your body when I break this cage by force." He said before becoming silent.

Naruto narrowed his eyes before he turned away from the cage before fading out of his conscience, leaving the Raiju in the vicinity of the open space with a sigh as his form vanished.

Naruto's eyes shined once more as he saw the dark sky. It had stopped raining, but the thunder had continued to rumble lowly just above him. His breath slowed as he closed his eyes and lowered his head. His eyes opened to slowly become wide eyed, visually shocked by the destruction before him. Around him were craters of large proportions laying heavily around the field, trees were scattered around the vicinity split from their trunks or rather split in half. Some of the trees even seemed to be charred and burnt with what little remains of water steaming off the wood. Naruto just simply stared, fear slowly quaking in his heart as adrenaline pumped ferociously and his mind scattering about as anxiety rose in his mind.

'What happened? What could have done this?' Naruto looked around the area cautiously. 'How did I not sense this or even hear this happening?'

"Because you were lost in your mind..." Kamina spoke out quietly from Naruto's mind. "...your mind becomes distracted whenever your emotions are in turmoil. This...is the consequence of that result."

'What are you talking about?' Naruto questioned. 'Are you saying I caused this?!'

"That is exactly what I am saying, Naruto." The Raiju said with a calm voice. "It is my fault that I had not told you sooner, but I had believed that you would not have such an episode such as this since your progress with your powers has tremendously improved. Sadly, I hoped for too much."

'B-But how?'

Kamina was silent before he spoke once more. "Your bloodline originates from a Raiju, from me. To have that power you were given some traits, of course, of a Raiju, small traits. However, you were unfortunately blessed with our bigger ones." Kamina looked at the destruction of the area through Naruto's sight, "You were blessed with the Raiju no Sakebi, the Cry of the Raiju."

Naruto paused when he heard the phrase, 'Cry of the Raiju?'

"Yes, it is a trait that Raiju have possessed for many years. It is one of the few reasons we are called the Storm Bringers of Heaven. The Cry of the Raiju is a weapon as well as our instincts. It is only called upon by few emotions: love, anger, sorrow...the power is dangerous to all sources. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the power. Few of us have the ability to hold full control of it without using such emotions, a feat that would have made Raijin or the three higher plane gods weary."

Kamina lowered his head. "Your depression had allowed you to become out of sync with your conscious and emotions; your emotions had subconsciously called out your bloodline and accidentally released the natural force by mistake. We Raiju had that happen to us multiple times on occasion whenever we had lost someone of our favor; a friend, a fellow Raiju or Deity, even someone we loved. Your emotions were strong, but not powerful or serious enough to allow Sakebi to be as awe striking as what we Raiju would have when we are serious. We usually cause category level five tornadoes or hurricanes with our Sakebi."

Naruto looked upon the destruction awhile longer before he grit his teeth, how could someone like him be a shinobi if he took one life so seriously. 'Maybe...Maybe Kurama's right. Maybe I am weak?'

Kamina lowered his eyes 'Naruto...'

A step in a puddle of water had caused Naruto to kick him out of his depressive state as he looked back. The large man that was his teacher looked at the blonde with a smirk on his face. Naruto lowered his defenses as his lips turned to a frown and his eyes lowered. "Ero-kyofu."

"Gaki, I would like to say that you look like shit, but I think you already know that." Onyx eyes stared at the destruction and frowned, he knew the death of that guard Hayato hit him hard, Jiraiya just never expected it to hit the blonde this hard. "I guess you are still hitting yourself hard on that mission."

The blonde stayed silent as he lowered his head. The older male smiled sadly as he walked toward the blonde and place his large hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let me take you to your room so you can get redressed, then we can go somewhere that we can talk." He said to the boy as his hand had shifted to the boy's back and slowly pushed him as he let the boy follow him back to the palace to get some warmer clothes for the day. He was going to let his godson release this pent up emotional stress one way or another. What better way than to do it the old Shinobi way.

COR

"You want me to drink this?" Naruto said with a dead panned look upon his face as he pointed down upon the small cup of sake that was before him. It wasn't like he was not surprised, because he wasn't, he just wasn't expecting to drink alcohol any time soon. That and something in the back of his mind felt rather annoyed at the older shinobi for giving a fourteen and a half year old an alcoholic beverage.

"No shit I want you to drink this! You need to release whatever the hell is going up in your mind and what better way than to be drunk and at ease." Said the man as he took a sip of the wine from his cup and gasped with delight. "Ah that hits the spot."

"You do realize that Kyuubi burns poisonous toxins out of my system right? I'm basically alcohol proof." He said before reaching out to the cup slowly with caution before he grabbed it. He placed the cup near his lips before he let the liquid pour into his mouth and swallowed carefully. Naruto could taste the sweet, but very strong bitterness of the beverage, the liquids brought out a strong sensation inside his chest before it died down slowly. The blonde shook his head somewhat violently to shake the liquor jitters off and sighed.

"If I do manage to get drunk it won't be for probably hours."

"That may be, but sometimes drinking fine wines such as sake can calm the nerves down. You don't need to necessarily be drunk, just a little tipsy so that way your mind can travel away from the sorrows." Jiraiya poured a a larger portion of sake in Naruto's cup, giving a sad smile. "Besides, I think I understand your problem quite too well. What better way to get out of this shitty state you are in than to listen to the wisdom of a veteran such as myself."

"Since when do you have wisdom? The only wisdom I recall you having is when you are peeping at hot springs." The blond spoke as he swallowed the substance in his cup, quickly adjusting to the taste of the liquor to his satisfaction after taking a few more sips, slowly coming to enjoy the taste. "Besides, you are not usually the best person to give advice, you tend to be a downer whenever that occurs or take it too seriously."

Jiraiya frowned a bit. "Sometimes in this line of work you need to be serious about it. Too much goofing around and being an idiot can be dangerous and can endanger the lives of others and yourself...I learned that that the hard way in many occasions." He looked at the blonde. "I am not the best person to give advice or to talk about the biggest of problems, I know, this shit I've been through is different from yours. Some of the things I've experienced were little compared with yours, yet it's the same with your problems being a trifle compared to the experience that I had to experience during my whole shinobi career."

The blonde lowered his eyes before closing them and drinking another glass of Saki and sighed. "Perhaps I'm not cut out being a shinobi"

"What makes you say that, gaki?"

"I..." Naruto quivered a bit as he gripped his glass, "I couldn't protect that guard, Hayato. I tried so hard to make this mission easy as sound, I thought I could do this with no trouble despite knowing the dangers of this mission. In the end I had to make a sacrifice instead of helping the guard and protect him from the other rogue ninja, I had to leave him behind with the princess and fight the other one off. I endangered his life leaving there to defend the princess like that." The blonde gritted his teeth. "I let an innocent man die and I could not do anything to save him!"

Jiraiya looked at the boy and smirked. "If I was someone else, probably some other shinobi with a hardcore attitude then I would have either called you a fool or have killed you." The man sad smiled at his student and his godson before he leaned forward and placed his hand on the table. "Though you are not the first shinobi nor the last to feel like this. I felt like this on several occasions: my first big team mission with the old man, my students, my closest friend, my best friend, and even your father and mother."

Naruto looked up at his godfather before he lowered his eyes, "D-did you lose anyone on your first team, my dad's team I mean?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "No, thankfully. Your father's teammates are alive and well, you might know them well enough as Tsume Inuzuka and Hiashi Hyuuga" Jiraiya said as he chuckled. "Tsume was quite the loudmouth and Hiashi was bald and had a pudgy face that almost looked like he was relatied to the Akimichi's. Ah, I never spent as much time with them as I did with Minato after they became jonin, what with the war and all, but also because I was closer to Minato as not just a sensei, but like he was the son I never had."

Naruto looked at the old man and paused, "What was my dad like overall?"

"Smart, respectable, very loyal to his friends. You just developed his skill of intelligence, but you held so much loyalty just like him. Though you have your mother's sense of respect; always not giving it to those who are her elders." He said as he chuckled. "When I met your father he was curious about jutsu, his knowledge of learning new techniques that suited his style of combat made him a genius at a young age. What you should know is that he was the youngest member of my team. He was 10 when he was assigned to me, most of the genin graduated the same age or older than you when you started and very few like your father, mother, Kakashi, and even Uchiha Itachi graduated at ages like theirs."

Naruto nodded, "So he was a genius."

"Hmm, I guess you could say he was a genius by nature. Your father was truly bright for his age. He became Jonin at 14, became the youngest Hokage at the age of 22 and wasn't even in his prime. If he would have lived to this day I have no doubt that your father would have been on the same levels as the First and Second Hokage. He was a natural and one of the few people that took the perspective of being a shinobi both ways." Jiraiya poured the alcohol once more in both glasses as he sadly smiled. "He took the code of shinobi with heart, but later made his own code. He was an excellent Shinobi, but like you he was a pacifist at heart. He wouldn't kill morally unless necessary."

Naruto looked at his glass of sake and then took a sip from it before placing back on the table. "I take it the Third Great Shinobi World War caused that right?"

"Right on the mark with that one. It was the most he had ever killed during that time, as well made him perceive about what a Shinobi was. The war built a strong, but wise and philosophical character about Minato...yet despite that he knew how to keep his head up and live for the moment and enjoy humour."

Jiraiya looked at the blonde, "It was during the time he got famous, during his time when he was announced as the Kiiroi Senko haha, oh yes. He crushed a battalion of 5,000 Iwa Shinobi in less than ten seconds with his Hiraishin, a feat so great that it placed his feat right with the Shodaime Hokage, Madara Uchiha, Sandaime Raikage, us Sannin, Sakumo Hatake, and even your grandfather on your mother's side, Makuro Uzumaki. Sadly your father mourned for the dead despite it being war. When we had some leave time your father was quiet; you could look into his eyes and see that just by witnessing a big battle such as that, that Minato had understood the life of shinobi."

"What did he view shinobi as?"

"The balance to all things." Jiraiya looked at the boy with a smirk spoke once more. "Shinobi are a nature of order of both good and evil. We are the demons in the shadows, the creatures that mortal men fear at night, yet we are also the protectors and watchers of innocent and our most precious people. To protect our people it simply means that we must fight others who do the same. However, Shinobi is but a title for men, it is the heart of men that change the title of Shinobi, to make it a sign of hatred and with that bloodshed and violence is spread a crossed the land."

Naruto focused on the words of his white haired godfather and slowly nodded in understanding. "It makes sense. It's a bit confusing, but I am able to get the gist of most of what you said. Human hatred is the tool the shinobi use today instead of the purpose it was meant to be used as. Instead of being the balance of the world we have become the chaos of it all. Our anger and hatred blinds us and it seeps through and we slowly hate our neighbors and we act in violence and in turn they act in the same accord. We produce the anger and rage, breed the hatred, and lastly bring suffering upon one another."

"Indeed that is another good way to sum it up in his words." Jiraiya chuckled. "He always had a way of making words for something."

"If it would be easier, I think the shortest phrase would be 'living a life of a shinobi is not the easiest one'." Naruto said.

"Thank Kami for that one." Jiraiya said before he heard the blonde's stomach growl and laughed. "Looks like someone is hungry eh?"

"Yeah..." The blonde said sheepishly before the embarrassed grin faded from his face to a sad smile "Though, it doesn't make things feel any better. Not one bit."

"I know it doesn't, gaki, but sometimes we have to live with this life." The white haired man smirked. "How about I tell you a story once we get some food. Hmm? Come on, you know you want to hear another one of the great tales of the world from the gallant Jiraya-sama."

The blonde rolled his eyes and released a laugh at his idiotic godfather. The Raiju holder nodded before the toad sage called out to a waitress and ordered barbecued pork and grilled calamari for the two of them. Their expectancy of their food was not that long as it was until thirty minutes or so that the two had received their meals and had gorged themselves in the pleasures that food could give men despite the mood of the teenage jinchuriki.

In no shortage of time, the two had finished their meals, setting aside the dirty dishes. The older male slouched onto his seat and sighed from both his meal and his train of thought. Jiraiya didn't know what he was going to say to the kid. Eating was one way to get his mind going and to spare the time, but he still didn't know how the blonde would react to the information he was about to give him after all the pent up anger that the boy had after finding out that he had a family...a clan...and they were all gone, leaving him to be one of the few survivors of a noble clan like the Uzumaki. He was worried what the blonde would do with the knowledge about his family on his father's side. All the man could do was take a leap of faith on the boy's reaction of being understanding rather than him going on a stage of fury in his emotional state.

"I think it's time I told you an important story, something that marked me in my life, but at the same time...it changed me and made me more mature about the life of a shinobi. While as carefree as I may be, I'm serious about my duties just as I am serious about training you in order to not only become the strongest you could be in my care, but to prepare you for the gruesome events that will happen to you in the future along the way." Jiraya said as he smirked. "Are you willing to listen?"

The blonde looked at the white haired man with focused eyes filled with curiosity that had balanced out the pain he had felt. Once the curiosity kicked in the boy had consciously nodded leaving the older male to smirk lightly.

"Good, cause this is important as much for you as it was for me." He said as he looked at him. "During my early years as a Jonin I had met a boy about four years older than me at the time who was also a Jonin. He was fourteen when I met him and he was indoctrinated as a shinobi by my sensei two years before the second Shinobi way had begun. His name was Jin. Best thing to say about him was that he was talented and held a sense of honour and moral value on life, especially the life of children, yet he was carefree and selfless. It took me a year to know him well enough that he became my closest friend aside from Orochimaru before his years of following the path of darkness."

Jiraiay lowered his eyes as he grew a wide smirk, "Jin was unique, that much was certain. He placed comrades before himself in the line of duty, but he had not once faced an enemy that could strike him down. Hell, before the war even began he could stand equal ground against Tsunade, Orochimaru, and ,yself and the only person who could do that other than Sarutobi-sensei was Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi's father, who was about the same age as he was. The five of us were close friends during the last days of peace and it wasn't until the days of war that everything had changed." The smirk slowly disappeared, replaced with a deep frown.

The Sannin's eyes darkened as he had reminisced on the scenes of past battle. "During the war I had seen many things and I also experienced many things that I hope you may never have to Naruto. The tide of the war was in our favor during that time until the end. Konoha was allied with Suna, Kusa, and Taki and we had pushed back Iwa and Ame and their smaller shinobi allied countries. Most of the allied forces with Iwa and Ame fell first, then it was Iwa. Not before long, it was Suna that had been defeated. This resulted in the battlefront being held between Konohagakure and Kusakagure against Amegakure after four years of war."

"That was the war you became famous in, right? I remember reading that in the book you gave me about shinobi history." Naruto said.

"It was indeed that same battle, the battle that lasted three days straight against Ame shinobi and their leader. Sansho no Hanzo, Salamander Hanzo. I'll always remember that battle like it was yesterday, we only lasted so long because we were pushed physically and emotionally beyond the limits we had even been through." He said softly. "We would have lost on the second day. Hanzo alone had crippled our forces, killing more than half the shinobi that were assigned to Tsunade, Orochimaru, and myself. I would have estimated that only twelve of us remained after a couple hours or so. We were exhausted, tired and drained from the longest battle we had ever had. His salamander summon, no doubt a boss summon, was even strong enough to hold back Bunta, Manda and Katsuyu all by itself. It's poison was more potent that anything Manda or Katsuyu could conjure up, its hide was thicker and stronger than Manda's and the fact that it could toss Bunta around like he was a ball didn't help at all."

"There were summons like that?" Naruto exclaimed. "But Gamabunta's so strong though. Manda and Katsuyu are too. I mean Manda took on Gamabunta and Katsuyu during that mission to get back Baa-chan and Katsuyu could do that cloning thing and melt boulders with her acid! Just what kind of monster was Hanzo?"

"A practically unstoppable one." Was the immediate reply. Jiraya sighed, rubbing his temples as he brought up the repressed memories of that dreaded battle. "In the end, we were to call a retreat, but the few remaining shinobi we had pushed forward, sacrificing their lives to the poisonous gas of Hanzo's salamander summoning; However, Jin stood against all odds against that and he had held his own well enough to land a few blows on Hanzo."

"Wait!" Naruto said out loud "I don't get it...how did he die if he was managing to stand on certain ground with the strongest shinobi during that time, wouldn't the four of you alone be enough to defeat Hanzo?" He asked.

"We probably could have together...if Jin hadn't inhaled the Salamander's poison." Jiraiya said grimly, "He didn't take much in the first time when Hanzo's salamander shot out it's poison cloud against the remained of us, but when it came directly at us in our weakest moment, he came to our aid."

The man lowered his eyes and sighed softly, "He pushed us just barely out of the range of the gas cloud, the cloud had contained potent poison that corroded even the flesh of human beings and turn it into ash. By the time the cloud had died off the only thing that remained of him was the husk of his body that was crumpled down by the pouring rain that had consumed Ame. I think that's what drove us to fight more. The loss of Jin had caused us to push us beyond our limits and go one more round with Hanzo the Salamander, but despite that we still lost."

"You guys...lost?" Naruto spoke the words with complete and utter disbelief. His perverted godfather, a monster on the battlefield...lost?! Jiraya, Tsunade and lose just didn't sound so good together in Naruto's mind. His shock remained paramount when Jiraya nodded.

"Yeah. However, the battle ended the war by Hanzo's call to end with a ceasefire."

Naruto looked at the veteran, "I don't get it though." The son of the Yondaime tilted his head in confusion. "What's the whole moral of the story if it just ends with you losing your friend?"

"Moral of the story?" Jiraiya pressed his finger to his chin. "Honestly, from what I've experienced from this and all other things is that pain makes you strong as there is that moment it drives you to do something. True, one could dignify it as using hate and vengeance, however, it's really how a person uses the pain we are given to make a difference. I was in pain for losing my friend, I was angry, but what drove me was not revenge, but all the times he and I had spent going on missions, partying, or just talking. I lost family that day and I will never forget the person who is known as Jin Namikaze."

Naruto stared at his godfather as if he was in a daze, but his eyes quickly widened with revelation. He just stared at the man before he spoke.

"N-Na..Namikaze?"

"Yes, Jin 'The Hunter' Namikaze was his name, but don't rush into things too early Naruto." Jiraiya said as he looked at him. "He is related to your father, yes, however...he is not your grandfather...He is your uncle."

"I don't understand though!" Naruto exclaimed. The cycle occurred far too much in Naruto's opinion. Just as he was beginning to piece together things, his mind chose to bring up a whole bunch of shit that made him wonder how the hell this and that happened. "How is he my uncle when he was the only Namikaze that was around the village other than my father? He had to be my father if that was the case." Naruto said.

"That would be true, however that is not in this case." The Sannin said as he looked at his apprentice. "When Jin came he had brought Minato to the village when he was about a year old. He had told me in order to protect Minato he had changed his last name to his mother's maiden name. Jin told me that he and his sister were from a small clan that had been once expert assassins that died out in the first Shinobi war. His father, his sister, and himself were the only survivors of the old Namikaze clan."

"Then if he is originally not a Namikaze, then what is he?" Naruto had asked quietly.

Jiraiya felt sweat dribble lightly from his forehead. "He was sired from the head of the Otsutsuki clan, an old clan that had been rumored to be older than even the Senju and the Uchiha, though the name had died off to this day." He moved the sake to the side as he pressed his hands together as he laid them on table. " Your grandmother had married into the Otsutsuki clan during her young adulthood. Jin said that she was deeply in love with your grandfather and had gotten married. However, her labour with your father was not easy and it had put a strain on her. Your grandmother had died during her pregnancy with your father."

Naruto looked at the older male with narrowed eyes, "Where was my grandfather in all of this? He could have taken care of my father and my father would have been possibly different."

"From what Jin had told me; your grandfather had changed when your grandmother died. He was colder and he was angry. Minato had not been treated well by him: isolated, malnourished, and not cared for by his parent or the main family; he would have not lived long enough if the branch family members were ordered not to take care of him." Jiraiya frowned, "When your uncle found Minato, he was frail and very malnourished. Jin had a strong resentment toward the Otsutsuki clan when he saw his nephew in such a state. As a result, he had kidnapped Minato from the clan and went into sanctuary in the village, became a member of the Shinobi corps, and provided the best care he could for Minato: saving up money for him, providing a small apartment for him when he came of age, and made sure he had been taken care of in the orphanage during every visit he had made before the second war."

Naruto's rise of emotional hostility had decreased, lowering his eyes as he lowered his head. He had more family and the one that had lived in the village died long ago. He felt emotional about the loss of Hayato, but now he felt half full. One half he felt better knowing about more of his family, but the depression was still seeped inside his heart somewhat. He closed his eyes and sighed softly before he looked at his Master.

"Did...Did Tou-chan know about any of this? His uncle? His clan?" Naruto asked solemnly.

Jiraiya frowned before he shook his head. "I didn't have enough courage to tell him that I knew his uncle. I promised I would take care of Minato as if he was my own and I did so, but the thought of your father finding out and him hating me, it was just too much to bare." He said quietly before pouring another cup of saki and took a large quantity of the alcohol. "Though of his clan, I think he had his suspicions. There were people that were looking for him that were from the Otsutsuki clan when he was a chunin, however I believe that the Otsutsuki clan had stopped looking for him around the time the Third Great Shinobi World War came about."

Naruto looked down, before he slowly got out of his chair and looked at his teacher. The blonde bowed his head briefly before speaking "Thank you Ero-kyofu...for trying to make me feel better, as well as for telling me." He looked at the old man, with what little life he still had in his eyes before he gave a faint smile. "I think I understand, if only a little, what you mean."

Before the blonde turned and walked away, Naruto said, "I don't think Tou-chan would have hated you. I think he would have understood what you did in order to protect him and would have appreciated what you did to make him who he was under your care and watchful eye. I think that is what he would have said."

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with briefly widened eyes, before they lowered; his face turned to a warm smile. "Thank you Naruto, I could only hope that is what he could have said and I think it was through your words." The slightly tipsy veteran shinobi looked at his glass and smirked, "Even old men like the Sandaime, old men like me...who had been through war, can hold fear of those close to us; Sarutobi-sensei prized the three of us despite the pain Tsunade went through, the perverted side of myself, and the dark path that Orochimaru had followed. I took great pride in my students as I saw Minato as the one to surpass me and so I tried to pass on my legacy to him and he is now dead. I am teaching you now, just like my sensei had taught me, and like I have taught Minato so that one day you may become my legacy and make a path that I hope that one day everyone can follow."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya, the blonde gave a bright smile that was exuded with energy as he slowly lifted his hand to his chest and balled it up to a fist. "Then as your legacy, no as all of your legacies...I will carry the weight and I will push forward no matter what the cost." The blonde turned as he walked out of the bar.

"Because I never give up, that's my Nindo."

The blonde's blood had burned with an intensity like no other. His drive and energy was slowly coming back to him as if it had been gone for years. He understood that the life of a shinobi was a harsh one that was surrounded with death and sorrow, however, that did not mean he was going to give in to it. He was going to fight for his beliefs, his goal to protect innocence, to protect his loved ones, and strive to do something useful...to make a change in the world that of today.

After he went to sleep off the alcohol that was not purged out of his system of course.

COR

Naruto was prepared during the next day, backpack on his shoulder as he slowly carried himself inside the palace to the outside. He groaned loudly as he held his head in anguish from the bitter-sweet moments of last night's events at the bar. While he had not been on an actual hangover, his head still throbbed greatly enough to make him feel the after effects of being somewhat nauseous from his first night drinking. This resulted in causing him to feel uncomfortable moving around the palace halls, but without feeling of the coming and going of the world spinning around him like it was a merry-go-round.

He would have to get used to drinking so his chakra and Kurama's could get used to purging the alcohol in his bloodstream.

"Kami, how does Baa-chan manage to go through the entire day drinking and then move on to the next day without a damn headache?" He muttered as he shook his head, which was probably one of the worst things he had done for himself as it resulted in causing the migraine to grow more. He groaned louder. "I need some water to get rid of this fucking headache, a hot shower to be exact."

"Senju and Uzumaki blood are unique." Kamina's voice echoed through his mind. One of the downsides of having beings live within your subconscious. When you have a really bad headache, it REALLY fucking hurts.

"Their blood can burn toxins or poison out of their system if they had come in contact with it. Comes with the vitality of the Uzumaki and the natural use of energy from the Senju, though I figure once you take a little more time with your liquor I figure your Uzumaki blood will kill off the remaining toxins." Kamina said in the boy's thoughts. "And I believe coffee is what humans drink to get rid of a hangover."

'And I don't have the luxury to do that right now.' Naruto groaned back mentally. 'Ero-kyofu and I are leaving today to continue my training and I can't let some headache get in the way of that.' Naruto said as he moved forward to the outside. He was going to wait outside the mansion walls while Jiraiya had finished conducting business with the Daimyou which, for political affairs, Jiraiya was good at despite his distaste for it. Though he was smart enough to avoid lengthy talk or getting out of as quickly as possible.

"Well then just let it purge out of your body for the rest of your day, it shouldn't take too long." The Raiju advised in his gruff voice as he got on all fours and stretched his legs. "Once we are outside of the city we will commence the continuation of your training. I think it's time that you learn to excel further into your bloodline, starting on how to control your emotions."

'My emotions?' Naruto was confused before he felt a memory of last nigh's events come to him and gave a slight frown. 'Riiiight...the Cry of the Raiju.'

"Exactly that. Your strength with your new kekkei genaki is impressive, growing at a faster rate than I had thought that you would progress. However, if your emotions go unchecked, you will lose control of that power and only Kami-sama will know what the consequences of such actions may be. For all we know, you might destroy a wide area, go berserk and attack people upon instinct, or not even be able to use your kekkei genaki for a period of time. We must train so that way you can channel or suppress the emotions that cause your abilities to go haywire to become something that may follow in your favour when you are on the battlefield." The Raiju said. "To do so will require a lot of meditation and a lot of tor-I mean training."

'Uh huh...wait did you just make a slip of your tongue for training?!' Naruto exclaimed with a tone of alarm in his mental voice. A sweatdrop formed on the back of his head when he was met with the innocent whistling of the thunder beast. The heir of the Uzumaki sighed at that, but upon doing so, the blonde had noticed something out of place.

Kurama was silent.

The strongest of the Bijuu had been so ever since the events that had happened yesterday evening.

Naruto frowned as he spoke. 'Kurama?'

As expected, the boy had gotten no answer from the Bijuu. He sighed as he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them to reveal himself in his very own mindscape. He stared within the cage, seeing only darkness inside and not a speck of evidence that the fox was ever inside due to his silent nature. The boy got close to the cage before he was mere inches from one of the cage bars. He placed one of his hands on the bar before he looked inside the cage with guilt upon his face.

"Kura-" Naruto gulped as he caught himself. He didn't want to further anger the Bijuu by using his true name. "Kyuubi...you may not want to talk to me and I understand. Whatever trust and respect that you had built for me is probably gone from our argument. You were pushing me to get out of my depression in your own way and I had returned with hostility and anger. I had threatened you and more importantly I had threatened someone who was part of me since I was born. I threatened a part of myself." Naruto bowed his head.

"Despite everything I've ever said and done to you, I do look up to you. I mean, you're the strongest being I have ever come across and after everything that's happened to you you still had the ability to swallow your pride and hatred for me and take me under your wing. After everything that's happened between us, I've actually managed to gain a liking for you, Kyuubi." Naruto released a hollow chuckle. "I may even go so far as to say that I can call you my friend, even if the feeling may be entirely one-sided."

Naruto's blue eyes stared into the blackness of the cage. No ominous red glow, no cracking open of the eyelid to reveal the shining crimson eyes of the demon...nothing. Naruto glanced down at the tiled ground of his mindscape. "Kyuubi, I am truly sorry. Words cannot express how truly regrettable I feel about my actions and no words can ever come out me that will be able to earn back your trust."

There was no return voice from the other party member as he looked to find the fox. Sadly, for the second time that Naruto searched for signs of the kitsune's signs of response, he received none. There was not even a speck of movement or a glistening of red eyes to stare at him in interest. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he gripped the bar and walked inside the cage.

The Raiju, who was observing the scene, widened his eyes in shock. Kamina was going to stop him, but fell to short as the blond was already inside. As much of an influence he had on the chakra flow of the Bijuu, the inside of the seal was Kurama's and Kurama's alone. The divine being could not do anything to manipulate the Bijuu within his own confines, but the thunder beast continued to watch the events that played out before him.

"I will make a promise to you, one that should have been made by all other hosts before me. I am your friend. I say this as a fact and nothing less." Naruto pointed his thumb at his chest with a determined look in his blue eyes. "In my eyes, you are not the Kyuubi no Yoko, natural disaster of the Elemental Nations and apocalyptic demon...you are my ally and my confidant...you my conscience and my comrade. As such, I will do whatever I can to help you." The conviction in Naruto's voice grew as he grew closer to the silent kitsune. "I will get rid of the hate that you hold inside of you and I will bear the weight of it all on my shoulders if it means that I can purge it from you."

The blonde continued to walk closer and closer to the unresponsive Bijuu and made no intention of stopping until he reached his target. "And then..."

His steps echoed through the cage. "...when it is all said and done..."

Naruto stopped in front of the gargantuan, nine-tailed beast. He reached out with his hand and in a show of either great stupidity or great bravery, he placed it on the kitsune's fur and his trademark foxy grin formed on his face. "...I will release you when my time has come to an end and I will be your last jinchuriki...Kurama."

Kamina's electric blue eyes widened and the eyelids of the gargantuan kitsune snapped open. The shining crimson orbs of the Kyuubi no Yoko were filled with nothing but complete shock at the revelation from the blonde. Finally managing to get his chakra made brain to obey his commands, Kurama turned his head, but as soon as he did so...his jinchuriki was nowhere to be seen inside the mindscape.

The feeling of the small human hand touching his fur vanished as if it had never been there. Naruto's existence within his mindscape had been completely removed leaving Kurama alone in his cage. The fox 's eyes lowered as he frowned and closed them once more, laying his head upon his paws. Silence reigned supreme for what seemed to be an eternity within the seal, not even Kamina could utter words to break the silence because of how much he had been caught off-guard by his young student's words.

Then the Kyuubi scoffed. "Troublesome brat."

COR

Naruto opened his eyes as he found himself just standing in the hallways of the massive mansion that was the Fire Daimyo's residence. He was alone and he was a bit thankful for it since it would have been pretty weird if guards, or maybe even Miu, had come across his form as he was talking with Kurama. The blonde Uzumaki unleashed a tired sigh at that thought before walking through the halls once more. He came to the massive doors that seemed to intimidate those who stood before them due to their massive size.

Pushing open the mahogany doors, the light of the sun graced the Toad Sannin's apprentice, forcing him to squint a bit. Once he had gotten used to the light, his eyes widened in mild surprise when he saw the brown haired princess of the Capital. She was dressed in her usual expensive garb consisting of a lavish kimono, but this time it was made up of a brilliant combination of blues and white, though her hair remained in its trademark bun. The symbol of the Royal Family, the golden flame, was pinned to left breast of her kimono.

She standing so she was facing a bit away from him, but it seemed as if she had a lot on her mind from the way her brows furrowed and the way she was mumbling incoherently to herself. The son of the Kiiroi Senko closed the door behind him as he stepped onto the cobblestone walkway that led from the doors.

"Miu-hime?" He asked. The sound of the door closing and the unexpected voice caused the princess of the Capital to jump in surprise. She held her chest as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Naruto released a bark of laughter at her expression before raising his hands in mock surrender when the Daimyo-to-be directed her newly formed glare at him.

"Sorry, sorry...but your face was hilarious." He said as he stopped laughing. "So what are you doing out here, Miu-hime?"

"I..." Miu blushed a bit as she turned away from the blonde. "I just happened to be one of my daily walks through the grounds. It's not like I was waiting for you or anything, you showing up was pure coincidence."

Naruto sighed. He would never understand this woman. "Alright, you don't have to be so snippy about it."

"I'm not snippy!" Miu shot back with a blush on her face. "However...seeing as you're here I did actually want to talk to you about something, Uzumaki-san." Naruto tilted his head in confusion. Ever since the end of the failed, in his opinion, mission, the heir of the Royal Family had never once spoke to him and when they managed to come across each other, they either ignored each other. Naruto, for being reminded of his failure, and Miu was because she had still been holding a mighty grudge due to loss of the captain of the Royal Guard and her friend.

"Y-You do?" He asked. Miu nodded before turning to look at him face-to-face. Her chocolate brown orbs met with his cerulean ones, seriousness clashing with complete and utter confusion. Miu took a deep breath as if to prepare herself for something before she placed her hands together and bowed lowly to her former guardian.

"It is with great humility and the reduction of a great amount of my pride that I bow to you to ask for your apology, Uzumaki-san." She said. Naruto's eyes widened.

"Wh-What?"

The Daimyo-to-be narrowed her eyes as she had her eyes facing the ground, though the main reason for this was to hide her blush of emarrassment. "Do not make me repeat myself. It is a great blow to my character that someone of noble blood such as myself should bow their head lowly to a commoner like you, even if you are a shinobi."

The son of Uzu remained silent for a moment before frowning. "You hate me, Miu-hime. You have every right to and you have absolutely no reason to apologize to me. I have already come to terms with it, but I failed the mission in my own opinion. The loss of your Royal Guard...of Hayato...it is entirely my fault so..."

"But it's not!" Her head shot up, surprising the blonde and caused him to backpedal. Miu gazed at her former guardian with what seemed to be sympathy shining within them. "It's not." She whispered as she looked back down at the ground before looking off to the side, observing the blades of emerald grass, the colourful flowers and dandelions sway slowly in the gentle breeze.

"I...I did hate you at first for everything that happened on to return trip here, to the Capital, but I had a talk with Otou-sama, with the Daimyo."

"What did he tell you?"

"The Royal Guard is a task force created with the sole purpose of protecting the Royal Family and it took many an explanation from Otou-sama to get it through to me that that task meant that the Guard would sacrifice everything, including their lives, if it meant the survival of the Royal Family...my survival." As she aid this, the spores on a dandelion all flew away as the wind speed increased except for one which remained planted to the plant.

"And I'm sure they were happy to do it." Naruto said with a gentle smile. "You are precious to the people of the Capital, Miu-hime, and you hold first priority as the heir to all of this." He gestured to the mansion behind him and everything around it.

"Would you have?" Miu asked. Naruto tilted his head in confusion.

"Done what?"

"Would you have give up your life for the sake of my return to the Capital?"

The Raiju holder sighed. "I bear a hero complex, Miu-hime. It's in my character to go down fighting if it means that I can save the people I am ordered to protect or if I can save people in general. If you had died and I had lived I would have held the guilt of not being able to protect a life as precious as yours over my head for the rest of my life. You were the priority and so yes, I would have given up my life if it meant yours would continue to go on, Miu-hime."

"I...I see." The noble girl blushed lightly at how he spoke those words with such conviction. It made him sound kind of cool in her opinion. Her frown deepened however when she took note of he had said he would have felt guilty if she had died.

"Uzumaki-san...in addition to my apology, I wanted to tell you that you don't have to feel guilty over Hayato's death anymore. I understand now what you've been going through and I don't want you to feel that way anymore simply because I couldn't get over a petty grudge." Naruto looked away from her as she said that, but the noble girl gritted her teeth and walked straight up to the blonde. She raised her hand and slapped him harshly across the face, a look of shock forming along with the red handprint on his cheek. However, his head was roughly pulled to face front and he blushed lightly when he realized that Miu was in VERY close proximity to him, her hands holding his head in place.

"Miu-hime ummm you're..."

"Listen to me." Her stern voice made him gulp in fear as he caught the seriousness in her gaze and tone. He nodded his head and Miu sighed.

"Otou-sama explained to me the burden of guilt that you had been holding on your shoulders, that even though you are a shinobi and apprentice of Jiraya-sama...you are still human and you aren't all-powerful. I realize now that I was being selfish and inconsiderate of what you yourself had had to endure as I antagonized you for, to quote you, failing the mission." Miu's hands fell away from the shinobi's face and she held them tightly against her chest. "If I were the one in your place I know I could not have done half as much as what you had. The mission was the escort me safely back to the Capital, a mission you carried out successfully. I still mourn for my friend and guardian, Hayato, but I no longer blame you for his death. So please, Uzumaki-san...don't shoulder the blame for a mistake of mine."

Naruto stared at the noble girl as he registered her words. The wind whistled softly as it blew through the mansion's front garden where they stood and silence reigned supreme for quite a while. Miu looked at the ground as Naruto's stoic look made her unable to look him in the eyes.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" Naruto suddenly broke out into barks of laughter. The daughter of the Daimyo shot her head up at the sudden noise and her surprise became a look of rage.

"Why are you laughing?! Idiot, I put my heart into those words, how dare you be so crude as to laugh at them!"

"I'm..." Naruto wheezed as he caught his breath. "I'm sorry, Miu-hime. It's just that...this the first time you've ever held such a long conversation with me that didn't involve you insulting my work ethic nor questioning my skills as a shinobi. It makes me kind of happy to hear you say those things, Miu-hime...it really does."

Miu gulped as her face flushed. "B-B-B-Baka! I didn't mean it as a compliment towards you, not at all! I was just telling you this because I felt sorry for you!"

"And I'm still happy for that." Naruto said softly. He raised his hand and placed it on Miu's head with his trademark foxy grin on his face. "Thanks, Miu-hime. It really eases my conscience to know that you no longer think of me in such a bad way. It would look pretty bad for my rep if I was on bad terms with the Daimyo-to-be when I take the mantle of Hokage."

Miu raised an amused eyebrow at that. "You? Hokage?" She buzzed her lips in exasperation. "Please, you'd hardly be able to lead a trio of genin let alone the entire village of Konoha."

Naruto rolled his eyes as a smirk of amusement came upon his face. "Your faith in me is staggering, Miu-hime."

"And your use of sarcasm is abysmal, Uzumaki-san."

The two teenagers smirked at one another before Naruto held out his hand for her to shake. "It was satisfactory to work with you, Hime-sama. I look forward to the day I'll be able to work with you once again."

"As do I, Uzumaki-san. Continue the stellar work you've been doing so far as a shinobi and maybe I might consider hiring you again as a bodyguard, but it's going to take much more if you want me to help you as a reference member for when you try to take the position of Hokage." Miu nodded her head stiffly before clasping Naruto's hand as tight as she could. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that before shaking his head. Even when they were saying goodbyes she was still trying to be the grown up that she really didn't have to be.

Noblewoman and Shinobi separated their hands and the brown haired girl bowed once more to say goodbye to her former guardian. The blonde raised an eyebrow when he noticed the slight emphasis of the sway in her hips as she walked away. Was she...

Naruto shook his head. "Naaaaah!"

"Idiot!" Kamina muttered.

'What'd I do?'

"Nothing Naruto. Just...just shut up about your thoughts regarding the Fire Daimyo's daughter before I feel the need to slap you upside the head."

'Ummmm...ok then.'

The heir of the Namikaze then proceeded to lay on his back and looked at the clouds drift lazily through the expanse of blue over his head.

The jinchuriki of Kurama had waited at the entrance of the mansion for a few more minutes before his ears twitched. He shot to his feet before hearing the loud creaking of the massive mahogany door. Jiraiya came out of the front doors of the large palace and Naruto saw the weary look upon the elder male's face.

The last son of Uzu smirked lightly. "Seems you had a hay day in there."

"Hay day is an understatement. I wish that Tsunade could just make better diplomatic inter-country relations with the Daimyo on her time instead of mine." The man said to his apprentice with a grimace upon his face. "Do you know how boring it is to sign stacks of paperwork? That demon is the main reason why I stopped aiming to be a Hokage when I turned jounin."

Naruto simply shrugged "Nothing we could have done honestly. It was a mission that I was offered and it just so happened she wanted to better the trading relations with the Capital. I think she mainly wanted to do it so she can get a cut of the revenue stream coming into Hi no Kuni that the Capital tends to receive most of and then spend it on the slots. Anyway, we can't really object her orders, Ero-kyofu...at least not most of the time." He added with a sly smirk.

Jiraiya grunted in disappointment, but had to agree with the blonde on the points he had on the subject. The man slung his sack on his shoulder as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and smiled. "Are you feeling any better?"

Naruto looked up at the man and nodded slightly, "It is a lot to think about, especially with a damn headache." Naruto chuckled lightly before he continued "Though I understand. Not everyone can be saved even if you have the power to do so. But the doesn't mean you can't try your best to protect those who still remain."

The older man nodded in agreement before he pushed the boy forward. "Come on, we have about a good week or so before we hit Taki. That gives us time to get some training in before we hit the village for the remainder of your training." Jiraiya said he walked out of the gates.

Naruto looked back for one moment before he smiled faintly before he followed not far behind his mentor onto his next destination, not knowing the events that are about to come.

"Sooooo, tell me about that conversation between you and the princess." Jiraya grinned lecherously. Said grin only widened when he saw his student's face flush in embarrassment and he released incoherent sputters of nonsensical babble.

"What?! How'd you..."

"Kagebunshin. You really think I'd go into a diplomatic situation and not leave some surveillance for you. My clone was just observing and taking notes for my book, but you gotta tell me brat! She talkin' arranged marriage?! How many kids?! Damn I can't wait to be a grandfather figure!"

"DAMN IT ERO-KYOFU!"

END

Sorry it took me awhile to work on this chapter everyone, I need time to think on how to do this chapter as well as spending time with friends and family. So far I think this is probably a good chapter so far after this stories nearly six month hiatus. The next one will probably be kickass since Kitsune is going to write that one, we had discussed the next things on the upcoming three or four chapters before Naruto's return home so the training arc will end very soon.

I'm going to work on Jinchurriki of Apocalypse, do a couple chapters of that story before I go onto the next chapter of this; I figure will work on my primary story (JOA) and do Raiju before I do anything further with my third story, that simply means I will update more often with one over the other so just to warn my readers who read Awakening of the Ancient God.