Being the end of spring break and all I thought I should post up what I've been able to write up during the week. It is, unfortunately, not as much as I would have liked but since I did promise to write more I figured I needed to do this for those people who follow my stories with even a micron of interest.

Tamaishi was still fuming days later.

After his horrible defense of the inn from Makkuro's mock attack he'd gone out to see if he could get revenge on the younger nin. The older man knew he wasn't much for sneaking in comparison to most ninja, his specialty always having been his brute physical strength and toughness, but he couldn't very well start an all out brawl with his opponent in the middle of the inn. His limited jutsu selection was mostly off bounds as well seeing as all but the basic ones had to do with massive ground destruction. So he'd opted for the simple approach. Using henge to disguise himself as a bather he waited for a group of guests to begin making their way back to the inn. He joined them and fell into character as best he could. He had gotten as far as the side door when one of his fellow bathers had slid up next to him and smiled. "Care to try again Tamaishi-sempai?" the man had asked nicely. The old stone nin stopped in his tracks and glared at the other man. Once the other bathers had walked out of sight his opponent had smiled and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Tamaishi had tried twice more, each time disguised as someone new and each time trying a different entrance. Neither time had seen him get more then two or three steps inside the building before being confronted by his opponent. The last time he had asked how the boy had known. Makkuro, this time disguised as one of the kitchen staff since Tamaishi had tried to get in through the kitchen, had pointed down at his opponent's right leg. Tamaishi had followed his gaze and had found himself looking at a strange lump on his leg. "You're not quite as good at henge as you thought you were Tamaishi-sempai. Not many people have a lump on their leg that looks exactly like a weapons holster."

Now as he watched his new charge making his way around the baths, attending to the needs of the customers, he couldn't quite make him self hate the younger man as much as he thought he might have been able to. The other's smile and constant good humor effected everyone around him. In the week since he'd started Makkuro had become a big favorite among both the customers and the inn employees. People had started leaving him tips, an almost unheard of thing in the bathing area, and even the inn manager had proposed a slight wage increase, an idea which Makkuro had promptly turned down stating that he didn't need the extra money.

Tamaishi shook his head at the idea of a young man turning down money. Yet he had done it. He sighed. 'I wonder if our new superman would consent to help in the kitchen?'

Naruto flopped down on the couch in Jiriaya's old place, releasing his age jutsu in the process. It was just after five in the morning. Tonight had marked his first full week of employment at the inn. He had quickly settled into a routine. Work would start at eight in the evening and run through till five the next morning. Naruto/Makkuro would then promptly go home, have a quick snack, and drop off to sleep. He would wake up just past noon and have another meal. Then he would tromp into the library and begin his search for information yet again. Another meal at seven thirty and then the whole process would start again.

So far he'd had no success in the library. He'd pulled out and returned the books at least a dozen times. He'd covered every inch of the room and found nothing special about the place outside of the kunai traps he'd found the first day. Then yesterday he'd begun to actually look at the books and scrolls, reading their titles and seeing if any of them could possible hold information that might be of some use to him.

What he'd found, while not what he'd wanted, was still quite interesting. There were books on politics and nation building(a few of which he'd read already), cooking(several of these found their way to the kitchen), psychology(ugh), history(slightly less ugh then psychology), novels of every type(one already had it's place in his utility pouch), and everything else in between.

The blond sighed and got up from the couch. He needed food.

Once in the kitchen he flipped open one of the cooking books he'd pulled out and began to learn how to make an omelet. He had gone to the inn's kitchen yesterday and begged off two arm loads full of cooking ingredients from the cooks. Ramen having lost some of it's interest over the years.

Several minutes later a very crude conglomeration of eggs and cheese was shoveled into his mouth and downed with a bit of sake.

After long shower and another small glass of sake Naruto flopped into bed and was snoring moments later.

>>>>

A year and a half later:

"ARGH! HOW COULD I RUIN MISO SOUP!" Naruto/Makkuro yelled in frustration as he quickly flipped off the stove and pulled the boiling mixture away towards the sink. He plopped the large pot in the sink and began to shovel ice into the sink around it to cool it down. Once that was finished he grabbed a rag and began to clean up the mess he'd made, all the while glaring at the novel he'd dropped in his rush to save his meal. He hadn't intended to read for that long while he waited for his soup to cook but the new book had sucked him in and he hadn't noticed the disaster in the kitchen until he'd looked up to see steam and smoke pouring from the stove.

He finished the mop up and went over to check on his soup. Most of the ice was already gone because of the heat but now the soup was to a point where he wasn't concerned about boiling his tongue alive if he took a sip. He ladled out a bowl for himself and took it back over to the couch. He had to side step several piles of books and scrolls on the way. Once he got to the couch he had to clear a spot on the small table so he could put down his bowl. It was no mean feat seeing as there were so many books and papers piled up on and around the low lying furniture. But after a bit of careful shuffling a spot was created and he settled down to continue his reading.

The book was a real classic. Samurai and intrigue ran rampant through its pages. The twisted mental processes of its major players and the political games they played were massive in their scope. From the beat up appearance of the book Jiriaya had read it several times himself, an incredible feat since a majority of the books in the library room had never been read by the dead sannin.

Naruto wasn't making the same mistake.

After his initial search through the library he had begun to pick out random books to read as a side activity to his search for Jiriaya's secrets. Within several weeks however Naruto had almost totally dropped the search all together in favor of reading. The stacks of books spread throughout the house were a testament to his reading fervor.

The currently blond ninja frowned at a location name that had started to come up more and more often. He flipped back both covers, looking for a map of some sort but found none. From reading the forward he knew the locations described in the book were real but without a map he had no idea where they were in relation to each other. Getting frustrated he set the book down and went in search of a visual aid.

Among the books in the library there was a small section on travel that might be of some assistance. He'd picked through a few of the books at one time, mostly the ones dealing with the elemental countries themselves, but he knew there were others as well. Squatting down amid mountains of displaced books he began to search the now only partially full shelves. Several minutes of careful searching found him a likely candidate. It's cover was bent with frequent use, more in fact then any other book he'd seen so far in Jiriaya's collect.(outside of the hentai stuff of course) Nabbing the book he made his way back to the couch.

Opening up both books he found the word he was looking for in the novel and then began his search in the second. It didn't take him long to find the word he was looking for. The only problem was that the city he was looking for was apparently no longer under the same name. 'So it's Tokyo instead of Edo now. Hmm.' He turned a page and looked at the country itself, several pieces of paper falling out of the book in the process. Catching the loose papers he placed them on the couch and took a look at the book.

The page was heavily marked with Jiriaya's tight handwriting. Arrows pointed to various places on the map with detailed notes below. Most of the notes seemed to be about temples and various holy places. Those that weren't focused on famous bath houses or beaches.

Naruto grabbed the notes that had fallen out and began to read. The first page was taken up by a more detailed list of significant holy places, most with names he had never heard of. After each was a brief sentence or two of a more personal nature. Half way down the list Naruto began to get in inkling of what Jiriaya was writing about. The paragraph at the bottom of the list only confirmed it. His heart beat quickened as he read it.

"No real progress was gained from these sites, all though I did obtain significant insight into the workings of various written wards and barrier techniques. This land's histories indicate that they did at one time have the knowledge I am looking for but it seems to have been lost over time. Though these were unsuccessful I can't help but feel I'm missing something here. This place has a very strange aura about it that I cannot explain and it intrigues me. I will pass on these notes to the shrimp if I ever find the time to explain it all to him. Maybe his inner knowledge dealing with the seal, and the demon itself, will lead him to find that which has eluded me."

A shiver ran down his spine as he read the last sentence. 'The seal, he was looking for information about the seal!' Naruto looked at the notes again. Several had dates next to them. 'So that's where Jiriaya went after the Battle of the Youkai Barrens.'

The old sannin had vanished soon after the battle and hadn't reappeared for three years, the longest Naruto had ever known him to be gone for. He had never asked where the old man went to on any of his journeys. Now he felt almost cheated for not having done so.

Naruto jumped nearly a foot in the air when a buzzer went off in the kitchen. Then he cursed himself for not noticing the time. He had twenty minutes to get down to work. Reluctantly he returned the paper to its place in the book and went off to change.

His arms and legs moved automatically, going through the motions of changing into his work cloths without help from his brain. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do it. His mind was swirling with the possibilities that the notes represented. He hadn't looked at the other pages but his imagination was already filling them out for him. Visions of a life without the fox were the most prevalent. Naruto wasn't even sure what a life like that would be like.

A half heard chuckle echoed down the corridors of his brain, reminding him that the fox was still very much there. The nine tailed demon hadn't spoken up in years now outside of the occasional grumble or laugh. Naruto suspected it had to do with the lack of him tapping the demon's chakra. Fighting Orochimaru had been the last time Naruto had used the demon's chakra. After that Naruto had not partaken in any battles dangerous enough to warrant the fox's use. In fact Naruto hadn't even been mildly injured from that point on. So after thirty or forty years of disuse Naruto's connection to the fox had weakened. He no longer dreamed the fox's nightmare-ish dreams or had rousing mental verbal sparring matches with the demon. It was as if the beast inside of him had lost its voice; or at least its ability to project or communicate to him in all but the weakest of ways.

He shook his head and grabbed up his small bag full of his ninja gear. As he moved towards the door his path deviated slightly. He found himself stopped beside the couch, looking down at the travel atlas. The tip of the loose pages were barely visible in the corner. His hand itched to pick the book up and take it with him. On its own violation it began to slide down the pillow towards the unsuspecting book.

Naruto slammed down on the impulse, exerting his considerable will against it. His hand stopped inches from the book. 'NO! I'll look at them tomorrow. Not Now!' Forcing the hand into motion again he reached past the atlas and snagged his novel. This he could take with him. This was safe. With a mental snort he turned his back on the atlas and willed himself to the door.

A quick check to see that he had everything showed that he wasn't in disguise. A flick of a mental switch later his hair had darkened and his physical age had increased eight years. Uzu Makkuro opened the door to the little house and shut it with a click.

Yes, short, I know. Naruto's stay at the inn is going to be short lived. Things are going to suddenly come to a point in the next chapter. You can already see a bit of this with the travel atlas. If you can't tell or if I didn't make it clear already this will be a cross over fic. With which anime I will not directly say yet but let it be known I already have a good portion of it figured out. And since I like the ideas I've come up with in the cross over department I'm going to hurry along the story so I can get there.

Someone raised a question. Where is Gaara? Ehehehe...good question. Where IS Gaara? Actually I have no clue. I've found Gaara hard to write and I'm not his biggest fan so I've just left him out of the story. Plus I've always gotten the impression that his demon isn't anywhere near bad ass and tough as Kyuubi.