9/14/16 update : my laptop is broken. No new chapters until my new one comes. Won't be long. Likely to release next chapter next week sometime.

Not much to say. After a few more chapters, I'm going to take a break because I have to prepare a speech. In the meanwhile, I'm going to rewrite the first chapter.

Pst... I don't own Naruto.

Two weeks ago Naruto signed the toad contract with his blood. However, he has yet been able to conjure up the nine tail's chakra and use it to summon anything bigger than a fist. He was exhausted every day after training, but this morning was the first one Jiraiya didn't wake him up at dawn. The blonde had just woken up a moment ago and was now sitting at the dining room table. Jiraiya left a note saying he and Fu should take the day off. Naruto didn't mind, he drained his chakra each day summoning the toads and has been longing for a day off. As he drank his glass of milk, he thought about what kind of training Kakashi and Sasuke were doing.

Fu was still laying on the couch, sleeping without a worry. She usually woke up along with Naruto, but upon finding out they have the day off she fell back asleep. She had been acting a little weird lately, sometimes starting a sentence but stop short and then ask Naruto to drop it. The blonde finished his milk and walked into the bathroom to shower. The green hair girl stretched when she heard the shower turning on. She wasn't ready for the day just yet and quickly cuddled her blanket to sleep for a few more minutes.

Inside a dark cavern, Orochimaru and Deidara made secret meetings a habit. The snake sannin gave the Iwagakure ninja a stern look, "What do you mean it won't be ready on the day of the chunin exams?"

"Just as I said, something of this caliber is a work of art. It needs patience." Deidara matched Orochimaru's stern look with a stern voice. But the man decided to instead diffuse the situation.

He put his hands up like he was admitting surrender, "Alright, alright. Maybe we should use it as a plan B, after all. I had a plan all along on how to burn the leaf, but it's only with your help that I can entirely exterminate them. Do you have information on the secret scroll? And what about any reinforcements from your village?"

"Yeah, I do. I know where the scroll is located, but I'll need to take precautions before getting it. As with the reinforcements, I was informed that once a certain ninja arrives home he will be sent to hunt down any last leaf natives.."

Orochimaru thought about the scroll he desired so dearly. He had no intentions of returning to the leaf after the first plan, but Deidara did not need to know that. "Alright. But after we are through with the leaf, I want that scroll." He demanded the object, but Deidara wasn't taken back.

"You'll get your damn scroll, my man. I just want the Namikaze dead."

The snake man let out a chuckle. "He will be."

Fu waited outside of the front door while Naruto locked it. "So, where we going?" She was excited to have the day off from training, as the pattern of training every day by the stream was getting boring. Naruto was jealous of the amount of energy she seems to have.

"I thought we could go visit Rock Lee later, but other than that, we should go to Yakiniku Q's for some barbecue." Naruto scratched his cheek, knowing that the sound of barbecue will make his friend jolly.

"Really?!" She took Naruto's hand with both of hers. "Let's get going!" The blonde expected the smile, and also Fu dragging him along.

Hours later after they ate, Naruto thought it was time to see Rock Lee. The two walked near the barbecue parlor and noticed familiar faces on the other side of the opened window. "Hey, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sensei Asuma."

Choji was the first to talk up, more cheerful than Naruto. Probably because he has food. "Hey Naruto! Fu! You wanna join us?" Asuma's wallet cried.

"We were on our way to see Rock Lee, but we ate earlier, anyways. How's training going, Shikamaru?"

"It's a drag. You might want to hurry up to the hospital. Both Ino and Sakura were going the same way, so you might as well catch up to them." Shikamaru said bored as ever.

"Is that so? Let's go!" Fu pinched Naruto's sleeve and used it like a leash to force him along, leaving him no chance to say goodbye as she hurried Naruto to the hospital.

The nurse was reluctant to allow Rock Lee to have visitors but caved into Fu's happy-go-lucky attitude. After being led, they entered Lee's room. "Hey, Lee!" Naruto usually let Fu talk first, she was always excited to talk to people.

The dark hair boy laid comfortably in his hospital bed, with his head on his cloud like a pillow. "Oh, hey guys." Lee sounded as if he was in pain, which made sense after what happened. "What brings you here?"

Naruto looked back to made sure the nurse wasn't there and pulled out something out of his back pocket and threw it to him. Lee managed to pick it up from where it landed without the need to sit up, and brought it up above him to look at it. "It's chocolate. Thought you might like some," Naruto explained.

Lee let out a huge grin, "Thank you, Naruto." Unwrapping it and taking a piece to punch on. "I should probably keep this hidden from the nurse." He didn't usually eat sweets, but he did need something to calm his senses.

The green hair girl glanced over to the flower vase, "Are those from Sakura and Ino?"

"Must be, I think I did hear their voices earlier." Rock Lee didn't want to mention his little training session he had outside earlier. "Thank you two for coming to visit, but I think I should get some sleep." Naruto walked slightly to stand over his friend, reaching his hand to his friend. Lee grabbed his hand and the two made a frozen handshake. The blonde grinned as Lee gave out a giant smile before pain made him minced.

"Get better soon, bud. You still owe me a fight." Naruto meant what he said, and Lee chuckled to agree. The blonde and green hair girl walked out the door, leaving Lee to sleep in peace.

Before exiting through the hospital Naruto walked up to the nurse's counter. "We'll be leaving, but how soon can Lee continue as a ninja?"

There was a dreadful silence, "..as it seems, his days of being a ninja are done." Electricity shot through Naruto. It wasn't the nurse's fault, but the boy couldn't help but shoot her a look. He slowly rotated to the entrance to make his leave.

"Naruto?" Fu was trying to get his attention to calm him down. It was obvious he was angry. "Naruto, please..."

He halted his fast pace to stand still. "I'm fine, Fu. Let's just get outta here." Naruto began a much slower walk, but still leaving the green hair girl behind. Fu was concerned for him and begin to feel guilty she didn't know how to brighten him up. The girl was also sad to hear the news about Rock Lee, but Naruto was the one to meet him in the exams and befriend him. She wanted to make friends like he does, but her best friend had priority before anyone else.

Naruto's mind was in a fuss about Lee, he couldn't keep his thoughts straight. Trying to think of a way to help his friend, only being disappointed in himself when he knows he can't help his friend. No one deserves their dream to be taken away, especially when they're as young as Rock Lee. The walk home was entirely silent, but Fu knew he wouldn't talk once he was inside. He stopped his grasp of the doorknob when Fu put her hand onto his wrist. "Naruto...?"

The blonde gave a warm smile, "I'm alright, I'm just a little upset."

"No, there is something else that is bothering you." Fu's implication did not fail to make Naruto stiffen up.

"I'm fin-"

"Naruto, please?" Fu asked desperately.

Naruto gazed straight into her orange eyes, knowing she was serious. He sighed knowing there was no way out of this. "I'm being hunted, and now I'm in a bingo book." Fu's eyes widened with horror. She was about to cry. "My father was a war hero for killing thousands of the enemy. He's dead and now they want revenge by killing me." She couldn't remember where she had heard the name before, but that didn't matter right now. Fu needed to be there for her friend.

The blonde had a distraught look upon him, but once again his grasp to open the door was halted by Fu. This time, she took both his wrist and pulled them over her shoulders, forcing him into a hug. "You made sure I was protected while I've been here, so now it's my turn. We'll watch over each other."

He chuckled at her words, "you've got it.." Naruto gave her a hug back, feeling slightly happier knowing he had friends. Naruto has been worried a person who wanted him out of the village may try to claim the reward from the bingo book. It was during the preliminary rounds that Jiraiya told him.

Jiraiya sighed, knowing the questions won't be easy.

"Alright, first off. Why didn't anyone tell me about the nine tails?" Naruto understood that there had to be a reason. It made the village's disgust with him a lot more logical.

"Danzo didn't think it would be a good idea. In fact, it was only the shinobi were meant to know of the jinchuuriki but word got out to the civilians somehow. I don't know any of the younger generation that knows about, so the grown-ups must have agreed to keep it secret from them. As for you, it was a hard subject to bring up. I wanted to wait until you were thirteen, but I wasn't here." Jiraiya's answer made enough sense, but Naruto was not satisfied.

"Okay. Second. Who the hell is Orochimaru?" This was the tougher question.

The man took a moment before answering, "He was Tsunade's and mine teammate, he's the third sannin. Student of Hiruzen Sarutobi."

"What?" Naruto sounded pissed. "You told me he disappeared!"

"He did disappear, Orochimaru is a traitor. He betrayed the village a long time ago and fled. He's the reason why I was gone when you were young, I was looking for him. We are currently looking for him as he's in the village." Jiraiya made no attempt to mislead his godson, he just wanted Naruto's questions answered.

The blonde stared at the man, studying his sincere face. He already answered Naruto's third question. "One last question.." Jiraiya nodded. "Why the hell are there Iwagakure ninjas after me?"

Jiraiya sighed again as he took out a black bingo book. He begin to explain the third shinobi war and why the fourth Hokage was hated among other villages, Iwagakure included. The godfather then showed Naruto the bingo book, it ranged from several criminals to a few Konohagakure's top jonin. The newest entry was Naruto, which was much to the boy's surprise. The two finished their talk and begun to walk back to the rounds. Jiraiya mentioned how there are others with jinchuurikis, and that each major hidden village has at least one. Naruto was the only one host that belong to Konohagakure, however.

Another week has passed, and Naruto has not gotten any closer to summoning a giant toad. But Fu can now turn completely invisible. The morning was out of the ordinary, as Jiraiya took the two to Ichirakus as a treat. If Fu didn't accompany them, Naruto was positive that his godfather would have just left him there to pay for everything. But much to his surprise, Jiraiya told the two to eat however much they wanted. Afterward, they returned to their training spot by the stream of water. "Hey, Fu.. I forgot a scroll at home. It's by my dresser, mind running back home and grabbing it for me?" Jiraiya gave her an innocent grin.

"Sure. I didn't know you were so lazy." Fu teased the man, grabbing Naruto's arm so he would accompany her.

The sage grabbed onto Naruto's other arm, "Actually, I need to talk to Naruto about something. We'll be right here, Fu." Naruto's eyebrow burrowed. What could be so important?

"Oh, alright. I'll be right back!" Fu sprinted away, leaving the two boys alone. Naruto crossed his arms.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Say, Naruto.. You like Fu, don't you?"

"Yeah, we are great friends," Naruto answered with confusion. She was Naruto's best friend. It was obvious he liked Fu if he let her stay at his house for so long.

Jiraiya put his hands on his hips, "Kiss her."

Naruto eyes widened, "what?"

"If you don't take risks, you will never be able to use the summoning jutsu the right way!" Jiraiya was lying, but he was about to risk Naruto's life. He needed to sound convincing. "You need to do things without being entirely sure that you will succeed, that it was summoning is all about! Stare death in the face, and once you do, you can use the nine tails chakra whenever you feel like it."

The blonde's head was swimming. It could just be Jiraiya' perverted pranks, but his voice told him the opposite. He sighed before agreeing. He gave Jiraiya an angry, irritated look. "Fine."

Fu returned in no time, but Jiraiya hid in the bushes to observe. she had the giant scroll in her left arm that the perverted sage wanted, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where did Jiraiya go?! Off spying on women?" She gave her friend a cheerful look but quickly became focused. "Naruto? What's wrong?' She inched closer to him. He appeared super nervous.

"Fu... uh.." His heart begun a drum solo. She immediately knew his intention when he slowly inched his face closer. Petrified as her heart beat faster. Fu knew she was always drawn to the boy, and found him interesting. But this was way too sudden for her to act normal and calm down.

Naruto's mind wasn't any better, he kept cursing at himself for letting Jiraiya talk him into this. His gut was the world's tightest knot. He was still trying to close the gap between their lips despite Naruto already regretting this.

Fu tilted her upwards. She was nervous, even dropping the giant scroll. She can't do this. She was way too scared. Fu didn't even know Chomei was cheering her on like a seven-year-old.

"No!" She suddenly punched Naruto with all she could, making him fly backward. His gut was in pain, but he was more confused on to why he was soaring through the trees. Luckily enough, Jiraiya caught him just before he went into a large crack in that divided the world. A drop of sweat beat down as he looked into the abyss.

Naruto couldn't help to stutter, "Th-thanks, Jiraiya.." He was extremely thankful for saving his life. Suddenly Jiraiya let him go. "What the hell?!" The man laughed at how angry his godson was. Naruto started his descent into the abyss. He felt the weight of his entire body leave as he watched the daylight fade from above.

"Summon a toad!" Jiraiya's words echoed down the crack to the free falling Naruto. If not for the situation, Naruto would think the man was insane.

'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..' Naruto's mind was in a panic as he gazed at his legs above him, it looked like he was trying to stand on the clouds. He was in shock at the turn of events in the last minute. Trying to kiss Fu was probably the worst idea ever, of all time. To gain traction of the situation, he rolled backward in the air so that his feet were straight down. He felt slightly calmer to be the right orientation.

'I will die if I don't save myself!' Images of his friends appeared in his head. Obito, Iruka, Sasuke, Sakura, all the leaf genin. Even his blasted godfather, they never got that much along but they had their moments. But Fu's several expression, be them happy or sad, hugging him tightly or crying on his shoulder, he couldn't leave Fu. 'Come on..'

Naruto opened his eyes. Laying in an inch high layer of water, he realized he could not have survived that fall. Much less be indoor in a long hallway, with many openings. He got to his feet and followed the pipes on the ceiling. It was dark here, with only trivial light. The pipes led to a large room that had a large cell door, over the lock was a seal. Naruto was smart enough to realize that he must be in front of the nine tail's seal. "Hello?"

The call was answered by two large, red eyes opening from within the darkness. Naruto doesn't even know if tailed beast even spoke. "Do you understand m-"

"Of course I understand you, you illiterate brat." The nine tails spoke rather arrogantly, and Naruto instantly thought he was conceited. "What do you want?"

"What do you mean I want?!" Naruto was annoyed at this point. "First, I was falling to my death, now I'm here!"

"Was?" The chuckle of the fox beast made Naruto feel uneasy.

"What do you mean 'was?'" The blonde was even more confused. Perhaps this is all in his mind.

"You really are hopeless, aren't you?" The fox came closer to the chamber's bars, letting Naruto get a look at him. The nine-tailed-fox was just as the stories and legends describe him as. It was indeed, a fox. He was huge, red, and had nine tails. But what wasn't mentioned was that it had a pure expression of anger and hatred.

Naruto sighed as he put his hands up as if he was surrendering. "Look, you can berate me all you want, but if this is inside my mind or something, then I'm still falling. I can summon a toad to get us out of here, but I can't do it without you."

The fox glared at him, studying Naruto. It's the first time meeting the boy but was able to look to the outside world with seldom peeks. "You really are an idiot for listening to that perverted man and getting into this situation. But very well, here is some of my chakra. I can't say that I was not slightly impressed at the times you've used my chakra before."

Chakra escape from the prison, it was strong enough to be visible. The chakra was red like Naruto imagined. It came around Naruto and engulfed him, disappearing back to reality with it. The nine tailed fox glared to the right, to the corner of the room. "What are you staring at? Leave me be." A chuckle came from the shadowed figure before they retreated to darkness. The fox also retreated but to the back of his chamber, disappearing from the small amount of light to sleep.

Naruto was back free falling, and he felt the powerful chakra. It didn't feel evil like before, but just pure energy. The blonde bit his thumb to draw blood, followed by doing the required sequence of hand seals, then slamming his hand downward in the air. "Summoning jutsu!" The red chakra was truly powerful, he smiled when he saw the giant sphere of chakra eloping from his hands.

He felt solid under his feet, and gravity no longer pulling him to the core of the earth. Naruto couldn't stand up straight as the sudden stop of motion made him dizzy, he fell over on the giant red toad. "Awh, my head.."

"Where am I?!"

Naruto damned his luck, he did not sound friendly. 'Why is every giant animal angry?' After blonde struggled to get to his feet and spotted that the toad's grasps were what was holding the two up from falling to their death. The giant toad had many scars, stud piercings, a blue happi vest, and a dosu blade. Completed by a large kiseru pipe. Naruto slowly walked onto his head before making a jump to his snout, letting his presence to the toad.

"You little snot, why are you on top of me! I am the wise and powerful Gamabunta!" The giant toad did a vicious yell, it even had enough force to push Naruto back. He managed to catch onto the toad's giant pipe, thus able to focus chakra to his feet and stand on it. Somehow keeping his balance when Gamabunta balanced the pipe on his tongue. "Just when I'm breathing fresh air that isn't stale from Mount Myoboku, some weird child is playing on my head!" He started to dangle his pipe, trying to make Naruto fall off. "Hey, Jiraiya, where are you?! Just what do you think you're doing?!" The toad let out another yell.

Above the crack of the world, Jiraiya hid behind a tree. "Hmm, this doesn't look good. Even I can't handle that Gamabunta sometimes. He's a real handful."

"Here, pervy sage." Fu snuck up on Jiraiya, making him squeal just a bit. She was holding the toad contract scroll out to him.

"Don't sneak up on me!" Jiraiya took the scroll but noticed the pouting Fu. "Hey, squirt, what's wrong?"

After a few seconds, she spoke up, "I punched Naruto... hard." He felt bad. He felt extremely bad. Her tone was dreaded with guilt, and it was all Jiraiya's fault.

Jiraiya saw the whole thing. He knew first hand how hard she could punch, but the one that struck Naruto was even harder. "Hey, don't worry about it. He's a tough guy." The man put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to guide her away from whatever was about to happen in the abyss.

"But, he didn't do anything wrong.. I was just scared." Each sentence she made, Fu sounded even more guilty.

"What? Scared of what?" Jiraiya did want to know why she punched Naruto. She was about to kiss him back but suddenly punished the poor boy.

The giant toad tilted his pipe to get a closer look at the kid, "Hey, little snot?"

Naruto was crouching on top of the pipe, he was somewhat surprised he could keep his balance on it. "Yeah, what?" He was irritated at the toad tossing him around.

"Where is Jiraiya?!"

"He's up there! Why, what's your business with him?" Gamabunta retracted his tongue to bring his pipe back into his mouth, so Naruto jumped back onto his snout. Staring straight up facing the chief toad.

"Because he summoned me in a place like this!"

"But he didn't summon you. That was me. The dumbass dropped me off the cliff." The giant eye observed the small, before he erupted into a giant laughter.

"Give me a break, what does a puny little kid like you know about summoning?! There is no way a little squirt like you could summon a guy like me!"

Naruto tried to match the loud tone, "Well when you're the fourth's son, the sage's godson, and the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox you find a way!" He didn't mean to sound full of himself, but he wanted to rival the toad's arrogance.

That made Gamabunta silent for a while. It seemed reasonable enough that this was Minato's son, but that didn't mean he couldn't poke fun at him. "A squirt like you claiming to be the fourth's son? Who isn't even old enough to exchange cups of sake as a pledge of friendship. I will never work with you!" He began to tighten up his legs and arms. Naruto felt what he was about to do and grabbed onto the toad to hold on. Gamabunta lifted off with an amazing jump that made it back above ground. The blonde was barely able to hang on. He felt sick at the acceleration to the top.

"He tried to kiss me..." She pouted even more. Jiraiya let her continue, but she came to a stop and looked up to Jiraiya. "I trust Naruto, more than anyone else. I just.. I don't want my heart to get broken."

Jiraiya realized that she is just a scared girl who didn't want to face her crush yet and being a jinchuriki it's very hard to trust people. She just doesn't want to ruin her friendship with her best friend. The man did something he couldn't believe he would do, even if it had been his own daughter. He got on both knees so that Fu overlooked him, "Squirt, Naruto is the most trustworthy person you could ever meet. He's been through enough pain to know what it feels like to have his trust misguided. He's never let anyone down, including me. And now, he won't even let you down. Got it?" Jiraiya gave her a reassuring smile, and she returned one. The man got back up from his feet, "now let's get somewhere high up for the show."

Fu burrowed her eyebrow, "what show?" Suddenly a huge shadow ran over the two of them. She looked up to see what could have caused it to only see a titan sized toad. She gaped her mouth. "Naruto?! Why is he on that giant toad?!"

A blast of wind hit them, and Jiraiya looked over. "Well, it looks like he emerged on top, that Gamabunta.."

Fu already started running towards her friend, waving in an attempt to grab his attention. "Naruto! Hey!" Jiraiya grinned, wondering what she will do before walking away to seek a high place. A few minutes have passed, but the toad kept on jumping from place to place. Naruto was determined to stay on his back for whatever reason. She chased them for the entire day, except when the toad tried to drown Naruto in the water. Fu didn't feel the need to chase them during that. She was used to running all day due toManita's training but having the seven tails stamina helped a lot, too.

After a while, she decided to just stay at a high place to watch the frog ride of the century. It has become dusk in the sky, and it looked like Naruto was becoming tired. Suddenly the two stopped, and Fu realized this was her chance. She made the jump, landing safely right by Naruto. "Hey!"

He squealed, not even noticing the green hair girl right by him. "Fu?! What are you doing here?!" His voice cracked, making the girl laugh.

Fu played along with the yelling though happier than the concerned Naruto. "I wanted to apologize for punching you!"

Their attention was grabbed by the chief's toad yell, "Well, Naruto Namikaze! I hope you don't hold it against me if you die!" He jumped up like he did back in the crack, forcing the two to grab to the toad's back.

"It's alright! It's Jiraiya's fault, anyways! He put me up to it so that I could summon a toad!" Naruto yelled out as they were ascending up to the air.

"What?!" Fu's scream was heard by Jiraiya. He felt a flash of heat come across him as he imagined her punches.

The giant toad's jump was more magnificent than before. Both Fu and Naruto let out a small cry as they felt the presence of earth leave them, and barely managing to hold on as Gamabunta landed near a waterfall. Chief toad descended too fast for them, making them land with a bounce. Fu let out an angry face, "Pervy Sage!" Jiraiya's color left him, he knew Fu's angry tone.

Naruto stood up with a giant grin. "Pervy Sage?" He erupted in a weak laughter, "That's perfect, Pervy Sage! That's what I'm gonna call him now." Fu let out a grin at that remark. Naruto closed his eyes, passing out and falling off the toad.

"No!" She ran in an attempt to catch him, but it was too late. Her hand was still reaching out. It was unneeded, as the toad's tongue caught him and laid him to the ground. Fu sighed in relief.

A few seconds later, the scroll that Fu retrieved for Jiraiya appeared in front of the toad and unraveled itself. It had many names, including Jiraiya's. But the latest one, written in blood was 'Naruto Namikaze.' The toad gazed at it for a moment, before taking Naruto into his tongue again. Fu was still on Garabunta's back, so she went with them on his jump. "The hospital?" The toad poofed from existence, leaving Fu standing by the sleeping Naruto. Nurses looked outside the windows, making Fu slightly nervous. She let out an awkward smirk as she scratched the back of her head. Good thing the toad was probably seen by everyone, but the story she was about to explain was going to sound like a tall tale.

Hmm, I'm not so sure if I should rewrite the Gaara fight. It would largely be the same, wouldn't it? Maybe I'll focus on Danzo during that time. Anyways, any ideas? Advice? Lemme know.