A/N Beta'd By TheCookieMonster77

Road to Konoha present day:

"Jiraiya, how do you know all that, surely you weren't there during their conversation. You aren't just making things up now are you?" Tsunade was skeptical about his information on the elder council's meeting, especially the bit after Sasuke left.

"Hime, I'm a spymaster. Almost nothing goes on in Konoha without me knowing about it."

"Jiraiya-sama, why didn't you stop the poisonings yourself then?"

"Just because I know who's doing it doesn't mean I have enough physical evidence to stop them. Besides, I didn't want to make martyrs out of them by just killing them myself. I needed a court to find them guilty, to show others that Konoha considers it a crime to poison children, no matter what they hold inside of them."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, I guess the next really important thing happens just before the start of Naruto's last year in the academy."

Konoha: One Year, Eleven Months, Nine Days ago

"Hey, ero-Sennin, what are we doing all the way out here?"

"Well Kid, since you finally mastered your nature transformation, and are about to start your final year in the academy, I thought a celebration was in order."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain the ginormous barrel of sake you're carrying."

"Well its part of your gift."

"I hope you don't expect me to actually drink that much sake! I could bathe in it if you wanted."

"You'll see. Just wait till we get to the top of this hill." A few minutes later they came to a large clearing on the large flat top of the hill; it was bisected by a large waterfall and surrounded by trees. "Ah here we are! It's out of the way enough to be private, but it also overlooks the second best peeping spot in the whole village!"

Crossing his arms Naruto scowled at his sensei, "I seriously hope you don't expect me to join you in watching the women bathing, you pervert!"

"I'M NO PERVERT! I'M A…"

"Super pervert. I know, I know, we've had this conversation before," Naruto interrupted Jiraiya before he could get going. "Now, what are we here for ero-Sennin?"

Placing the large sake barrel he had been carrying over his shoulder on the ground, Jiraiya said, "Pay attention, this is part of your gift!" Jiraiya bit his thumb, drawing blood, and began to form hand seals, calling the name of each one as he made them. "Boar… Dog…Bird…Monkey…Ram, KUCHIOYSE NO JUTSU!" Slamming his hands on the ground, Jiraiya summoned Gama, Keeper of the Toad Summoning Scroll, and Jiraiya's good friend. "This is the summoning scroll for the toad contract. I believe it's time for you to sign the contract like your father before you. Congratulations, you've earned it!"

Ever since Jiraiya-sensei (Naruto would never admit to thinking of him like that) had summoned that large scroll Naruto's eye itched. Now if it was his right eye, the one with the purple band in his iris he wouldn't be surprised, but this was his left eye the normal one, and as the itching grew to a burning Naruto became worried. "It's making my eye itch, are you sure it's a good idea?"

"I can't see how it could hurt. Now bite your thumb and write your name in blood on the contract, then make a hand print of your right hand underneath your name."

Jiraiya unfurled the scroll to the first empty spot, right underneath the name of Naruto's father, Namikaze Minato. Seeing his father's name, Naruto swallowed and approached the scroll, still ignoring the burning in his eye. Naruto bit his thumb and wrote his name, all the while his eye was burning. As he made his hand print three red tears fell from his eye landing right next to his hand print. Bringing his left hand to his face he brushed the moisture from his cheek, 'I'm crying tears of blood again, I wonder what it means…' Naruto thought. "Hey, ero-sensei is something wrong with my eye?" Naruto turned to Jiraiya and looked at him with now matching eyes.

"Your left eye matches your right eye now, kid…" Jiraiya stared at Naruto's now matching multicolored eyes. 'The first time his eye changed when he was nearly killed, but his second eye changed when he signed a contract scroll? And that color, why do they remind me of…No…it can't be, I'm imagining things,' Jiraiya thought to himself. Out loud he said, "Put as much chakra into the summoning as you can. I want you to summon Gamabunta, the toad boss, on your first try. The sake is for him, to commemorate you signing the contract."

Naruto bit his thumb, made the hand-seals, slammed his hands on the ground and tried to force as much chakra as he could into the summoning. Oddly he felt nothing; no matter how much chakra he poured into the jutsu, nothing seemed to happen. His chakra just seemed to swirl around, going nowhere. Just as he was about to admit defeat and ask Jiraiya what he was doing wrong Jiraiya spoke from behind him.

"K-K-Kid, j-j-just how much ch-ch-chakra did you put into that?" Noticing Jiraiya's stutter Naruto felt a ball of dread grow in his stomach. Turning around and looking up, Naruto's jaw dropped-they were surrounded by toads! Hundreds and hundreds of toads, from tiny tadpoles to the mighty Gamabunta, every toad on Mount Myoboku must have been summoned here.

Mouth opening and closing like a fish, Naruto finally managed to squeak out a single, "oops?"

"We're going to need more sake," Jiraiya croaked.

"Ah, Jiraiya, it seems you have found him at last," a giant, wrinkled, grey-brown toad with squinted eyes and a large, oddly shaped square hat and a necklace with the kanji for oil on it was the first to speak.

"Are you sure? What are you doing here? Surely he couldn't have summoned all of you!" Jiraiya stared at the surrounding toads, wondering just what had happened.

"The call we answered was both more ancient and binding than the one written in the scroll."

"W-w-what do you mean?" Naruto managed to stutter out.

"Walker of many roads, you bear the gift of the one who made us long ago. When you call, we are honor bound to answer you-no blood or chakra may be taken from you to summon us, young summoner. All you need to know is how to summon us-information contained in the seals on the scrolls of summoning. Find the scrolls, sign them, and the summons bound to the scroll will answer you. Any summon will obey you, even if you haven't signed its scroll. BUT!" The Ogama Sennin raised its voice, "Remember this, for the long journey ahead! There are many roads often tread lying before you! Ignore them and make your own path! Break the cycle, Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto! Free us from the chains of hate encircling the world!" the Ogama Sennin closed his eyes and drifted off, soon he was snoring peacefully.

"Does he just fall asleep like that often?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Only after he's gotten himself worked up over something, brat," A large rust colored toad, with a scar next to one eye and bright red markings around his eyes, lips and the top of his head. He was wearing a blue happi coat, with a tanto style blade sheathed at his hip and a pipe the length of a three story building hung from one corner of his mouth. "Name's Gamabunta, Bunta for short. I'm the toad boss. I see you brought some sake-not nearly enough but Jiraiya's always been a cheapskate."

"YOU'RE THE SIZE OF A SMALL MOUNTAIN! YOU COULD DRINK A LAKE OF SAKE!"

Ignoring Jiraiya's outburst, Gamabunta continued, "I'll send some toads back to Mount Myoboku for some more sake. We're celebrating tonight." Needless to say, three hundred drunken toads make a hell of a racket. By the time the party was over, the hilltop was completely trashed, Konoha hadn't gotten any sleep, and there was a large mob looking for Jiraiya to kill him for something he couldn't remember doing.

"I'm never drinking again…" Naruto staggered back to his apartment clutching his head, gently bumping against walls, lampposts, small animals, other people and the occasional purple elephant. "I swear, I'm never drinking again, if I never see another purple elephant in my life it'll be too soon."

"P-p-purple e-e-elephant? A-a-are you a-a-alright N-Naruto-kun?" A soft voice stuttered from behind him. Unknown to him, Hinata had followed him and Jiraiya last night, silently cheering when Jiraiya had offered him the scroll, crying when she saw his eye bleeding, and cheering again when he got his second eye. Of course, when the toads where summoned she almost fainted, but when she heard his real last name, she actually fainted. When she woke up, the party was raging all around her, the toads seemingly oblivious to her presence and Naruto and Jiraiya were too drunk to notice anything odd about her being there-although Jiraiya did wink at her when he saw her staring at Naruto. She stayed the night, watching the drunken antics of her crush and his godfather, laughing at the reveling toads, wishing she had the courage to join them. "Y-y-you d-don't look so w-well, do you, n-need any h-help getting h-home Naruto-kun?"

"Hm, oh, look it's Hinata-chan, are you really here this time? I thought I saw you at the party last night, but there was a pink elephant next to you so I guess it was the sake…" Naruto was wobbling as he tried to remain vertical. "Ugh, I feel like someone put me through the spin cycle….." Naruto seemed to tip forward in slow motion, Hinata wasn't fast enough and he crashed right into her, knocking them both to the ground. Seemingly unfazed by their predicament, or perhaps he was still drunk, Naruto latched onto Hinata's waist and pulled her into a hug his face resting on her shoulder. Hinata, blushing so hard she seemed to glow, passed out with a faint, 'meep.'

Naruto woke slowly. He didn't remember his pillow being this comfortable, and as he snuggled deeper, his pillow let out a small 'eep.' Suddenly wide awake, Naruto jumped back almost six feet, finally noticing that he wasn't, as he had first thought, in his bedroom, but in one of the small alleyways that he took to get home. "H-H-H-Hinata-chan, I-I-I'm s-s-sorry! I d-d-didn't hurt you d-d-did I?"

Still blushing crimson, Hinata managed to squeak out, "n-n-n-not a-a-at a-a-all! Y-y-y-you w-were the p-perfect g-g-gentleman! Y-y-you didn't do a-a-anything I-I-I d-d-didn't w-want you to d-d-do." Realizing what she just said, Hinata managed to blush harder before running off.

Naruto on the other hand still hadn't managed to put two and two together yet, despite almost half of Konoha (the half that didn't plot his death regularly) having hinted it to him several times, even Hyuuga Hiashi, in a rare moment of benevolence, had tried to hint to the thick headed blond how his daughter felt about him. "Ah man, Hinata probably hates me now…" dejected and finally sober Naruto dragged his feet on his way back to his apartment, "hopefully I can make it up to her somehow, I'd be really sad if she hated me…why do I always have horrible luck with women?"

Road to Konoha Present day:

"He really is clueless isn't he?" They had stopped for a quick lunch and Tsunade was taking the opportunity to ask Jiraiya questions.

"I have never met anyone thicker than he is. The sad part is he thinks he was bad luck when it's the opposite-the Brat's literally the luckiest person alive. Once, he walked past a gambling house and every slot machine in the place hit the jackpot at the same time. After that, I took him to a gambling hall to see if it was just a freak accident, kid got twelve jackpots, won at the roulette wheel seven times, and won so many poker hands, despite not even knowing how to play, that we got kicked out. We were allowed to keep our winnings though, on the condition that he doesn't come within 3 miles of the place again."

"Now I want to heal him so I can take him with me…" Tsunade had ryo signs in her eyes. And she was practically drooling over how much money she could win with the kid.

"Was Naruto's last year in the academy peaceful Jiraiya-sama?"

"No, actually it was the most eventful."

Konoha, One Year, Ten Moths, Twelve Days Ago:

Naruto was excited! It was his last year in the academy and in ten short months he'd finally be a real ninja, one step closer to his goal of becoming the strongest Hokage ever. Maybe he could make rookie of the year! He'd love to see the look on Sasuke's face if he managed to steal the award from him. After racing through the streets on his way to class, Naruto skidded through the door to his classroom. "Aw man! How do you three beat me here every time!" already sitting in the class room was Duck-butt, Dog-breath (his other rival, Inuzuka Kiba) and Hinata-chan, "I ran as hard as I could!"

"N-N-Naruto-kun, the Hyuuga C-C-Complex is a two minute w-walk from h-here."

"Hn." To Naruto's trained ears that was, 'After I figured out you were trying to race me I started sleeping on the roof.'

"My Mom makes my get here two hours before the academy even opens….."Kiba grumbled.

"Arf!" Kiba's hood barked

"Oh, hello to you too, Akamaru!" Kiba's partner, Akamaru, popped his head out of Kiba's hood. Barking again, Akamaru jumped onto the table, his tail wagging. "Who's a good puppy? You are, yes you are!" Naruto cooed while scratching Akamaru behind the ears.

"He's a puppy, not an imbecile, Naruto!"

"Hey Naruto, what happened to your eyes?" Looking up Naruto saw his first two friends Shikamaru and Choji.

"Hey guys, you noticed fast! And I have no idea what happened or if it even does anything different from my right eye." Naruto said cheerfully. Sitting down together, the four friends (and Sasuke) chatted about their vacations and what they did. Naruto would have loved to tell them about the toad contract, but Jiraiya-sensei had told him not to tell anyone yet. "And then, he fell down the stairs covered in pink paint and quacking like a duck!" Naruto was telling them of the many pranks he pulled that summer. "Best part was he woke up half an hour later and had no clue what had happened! They had his face on wanted posters for a week!"

"Quiet down class!" No one seemed to notice the voice from the front of the class room. "I SAID QUIET DOWN CLASS!" Iruka sensei used his infamous 'Big-head no jutsu' and silence descended on the class. "Better. Today we start your fourth and final year in the academy!" Iruka said cheerfully. "During the first half of the year we shall finish our studies and the second half of the year will be devoted to practicing and reviewing all we have learned in the past three and a half years."

It was a tough year for Naruto. His test scores steadily dropped from middle of the class towards bottom rung-it seemed that the harder he tried the worse he did. By the four month mark it was clear to Naruto that he couldn't even get rookie of the year in his dreams now. By the eight month mark it looked doubtful that he would even pass.

Finally the day of the final exam arrived, and Naruto had decided to release some stress with the most awesome prank he ever pulled. The Hokage monument had been painted with a dizzying variety of colors and patterns, and next to the fourths head there was a painting of a chibi Naruto giving the peace sign with a speech bubble proclaiming, "Space Reserved For Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage!"

"Yeah, I'm a bad ass!" Naruto muttered to himself triumphantly as he put the finishing touches on his handiwork.

"NARUTO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! YOUR FINAL EXAM IS IN TEN MINUTES!"

"Crap, it's Iruka Sensei; he always manages to find me!"

Iruka dragged a tied and gagged Naruto through the streets by his ear. "OI leggo I 'as n immug to mantan 'ere" Naruto tried to speak through the rope gag Iruka used to keep him relatively quiet.

Dropping Naruto on the floor of the classroom Iruka began, "Since everyone is here now, we can begin our final exams. The schedule will be: four hours of written exam, then ranged weapons testing, followed by a three minute spar with Mizuki or me, and finally the three academy jutsu."

It was the hardest test Naruto had ever taken in his life-he was sure they hadn't learned some of the things on it. Naruto was the last to finish and he had a splitting headache when he was done which impacted his performance on the ranged test. Instead of tying with Sasuke, like he usually did, he was fifth in the class. By the time of the Taijutsu spar, he was feeling better and was the only person in the class other than Sasuke to last the full three minutes against a sensei, although he could've sworn Mizuki actually tried to kill him once or twice during the spar. Finally, they came to the three academy jutsu. Everyone was sitting in their normal seats and was asked to do the three academy jutsu in front of the class. Finally it was Naruto's turn.

"Alright Naruto, begin"

"Alright time for the ultimate Henge! Orioke no Jutsu!" There was a puff of smoke and instead of Naruto, there was an apparently naked buxom blond girl tastefully covered with smoke. Half the class passed out with a nose bleed (the male half). "I guess ero-Sennin was right! Women really are every man's weakness!"

"NARUTO! TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!" Iruka screamed while wiping the blood from his face.

"But I am! I just knocked the entire male half of the class out with a simple Henge! I even proved that Sasuke wasn't gay!" Naruto said pointing to Sasuke who wasn't passed out, but clearly had a faraway look in his eyes and twin streaks of blood running out of his nose. "You should be thanking me! I just proved the Uchiha wasn't a lost cause!"

"Fine, for the …convincing…if unorthodox Henge, I'll pass you on this part of the test. Next the Kawarimi."

"Fine, fine, Kawarimi no jutsu!" Naruto switched with the handy log provided for this exercise. "All hail the Log" Naruto muttered under his breath.

"Pass, finally the Bunshin Jutsu."

"All right! Take a look at this! Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Naruto made three perfect shadow clones.

"I can give you extra credit for that Naruto but it doesn't count towards your Bunshin grade." Iruka said after consulting the rulebook.

"What! But I can't do the normal Bunshin," Naruto exclaimed while looking panic stricken.

Mizuki did his best not to look smug, if it all went pear shaped, Iruka would be blamed for making the rule up. 'Serves him right for not noticing the Genjutsu I placed on the book.' Grinning slightly, Mizuki said, "Look he did three Bunshin, even if they were Kage Bunshin, and those are harder. We should pass him."

Iruka sighed, "I really wish I could, but the rules are clear. No Bunshin, no pass." Iruka honestly looked upset.

Inwardly Mizuki was dancing-Danzo would reward him quite well if he pulled this off.

It was later when Naruto was sitting on the swing, staring out into space. All of the passing ninja had already gone home. "Hey Naruto, don't give up hope yet! There's a group of ANBU that you technically qualify to join. All you need to do is pass the initiation test. You see, there's this scroll of seals in the Hokage's office that you have to get…"