Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews and all the other good stuff that I got last chapter. Again, if I thought that your review deserved a reply, I had sent out a PM to you. Sadly, I still need a beta, so the chapter still has some problems. But I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
It had already been a week since their return from the chuunin exams, and to prepare for the next stage. Naruto was in his backyard, panting as he tried to catch his breath. Even though he had a lot of chakra for a seven year old, he would run out after using a lot of jutsus. Hence the little break he was having right now. Sitting on the bench behind him was Sarutobi nodding his head as he saw the damage Naruto had put out using various Raiton moves. Also, it was not his main affinity, making it all the more harder for him to utilized. "I need to do it again," Naruto panted. "I need to get that move down."
"Naruto-kun do not over exert yourself," Sarutobi said from the bench, worry was in his voice. "You'll force yourself into chakra exhaustion if you try to keep using Raiton: Gaien (Lightning Release: False Darkness) continuously like that." The blond boy nodded and looked at the old man.
"I know that," he answered, "but I need to train as much as I can. I can rest on the last week." Naruto sat up straighter and grabbed the water bottle next to him. "If I'm right, Itachi is training as hard as I am, if not more." Naruto tried to take a step but suddenly lost his footing and fell on his face. "Okay...I might be more tired than I thought." This earned him a chuckle from the old man behind him. him a
"If anything it just means that you should take a break." Sarutobi then looked at his watch and stood up. "Alas, my time here is up Naruto-kun."
"It's been an hour already?" Naruto asked.
"It has been Naruto-kun." The old man walked over to him and patted him on the head before turning around to leave. "I suggest that you take a break before you go to your next training session. Maybe an hour break." Naruto nodded.
"That sounds like a good idea. I think I'll just lie here and look at the sky for a bit." Sarutobi smiled down at the boy as he laid on the grass. As turned to leave Naruto called out. "Hey jii-san," that caused Sarutobi to turn around and look at Naruto, "Do you know where Namikaze-sama came from?"
"Why do you ask Naruto-kun?"
"Just curious is all. Was he born here in Konoha?" Sarutobi looked confused by the question but shrugged it off as the boy's curiosity.
"To be honest Naruto-kun, he was a war orphan from the Second Ninja war. He was raised here in a Konoha orphanage and was then later taken in by Jiraiya as his pupil." Naruto was silent before nodding.
"Hmm, okay then. Thank you for answering jii-san."
"It was my pleasure Naruto-kun." The former Hokage was finally able to leave, and the boy was left to his thoughts. As he laid there staring at the sky, he had a frown on his face.
"That explains a bit then," Naruto said to himself as he stood up. Making sure no one was around. He decided to do a jutsu that he's been trying for the past few days. He had a made a Kage Bunshin ready to help him practice the move. (He was asked by Sarutobi how he managed to learn how to make a Kage Bunshin even though he was only seven, to which the blond replied that Jiraiya taught him.) His hands slowly did a sequence of seals that he'd been trying to be able to do faster. "Tiger, dog, snake, dragon." The Kage bunshin threw up five shuriken into the air and Naruto threw his hands out. From his hands a dull glow appeared, and from the glow shot out five beams of light that hit each of the shuriken. Naruto fell on his butt, from using more than enough chakra for that few hours. "No, that wasn't light…" Naruto mumbled to himself. "Lightning." Naruto looked at his hands as the electricity was dancing slowly, no not dancing, flowing in his hands.
He then sat up and smirked. "Well, well, well. Seems like Minato Namikaze is not from Konoha originally. That doesn't really call for me to do anything just yet. Well, maybe talk to Darui-san when we get back to Kumo, I need to find out the name to that technique I just did." Naruto then stood up and jumped on his feet. "Might as well eat some food before heading off to meet Hayate. Wonder if I should have ramen again, but Baa-chan said to only have twice a week and I had on this morning…" Naruto contemplated as he entered the home he shared with Tsunade and Shizune. As he entered the building, he had failed to notice someone dropping down form the trees.
Jiraiya looked at his godson as he entered the house. He had said that he was going to check up on his spy network, which was true, but he decided to cut through Konoha from his journey near Kiri going onto Iwa. It was safe to say that he was surprised at what the blond boy did, seeing as he's never seen a move like that before. "He seems stronger than I originally anticipated," the sage said to himself. He then looked behind him to another figure who was watching him. "Wouldn't you agree sensei?" From behind him Sarutobi came out as well, looking towards the door Naruto walked through.
"He seems to be very strong Jiraiya-kun," Sarutobi smiled. "Although, he tends to forget that even he has limits. Over exerting himself by using so much chakra within an hour doesn't really show that he is ready to be chuunin."
"I see what you mean by that sensei," Jiraiya nodded, "but you forget, he's only a kid."
"A smart one." Jiraiya rolled his eyes.
"Yes, a smart kid, but a kid none the less. If anything, I'm guessing Naruto will know what he'll need to do in order to become chuunin when the time presents itself. Namely in the third round of the exams." The older man nodded and the two sat there quietly for a bit. "Don't you have some paperwork to get to sensei?"
"Ah...you just had to remind me Jiraiya-kun, Don't you have a spy network to get to?" Both men sighed, hating that they had to get to work. In a gust of wind they both disappeared.
(Time Skip)
Naruto now stood out in the fields swing a wakizashi, a medium sized single sided blade, over and over again. Next to him Itachi was doing the same thing. On the sidelines, Yugao and a pale looking boy with brown hair stared at them. "Um...Are you guys sure that it is a good idea to you know...train together right now?" Yugao asked, unsure if the two young boys knew what they were doing.
"It's not a bad idea," Naruto started."It's not like we'll learn anything different from each other just by hitting nothing in but air."
"Agreed," Itachi put in his two cents. "It's not like we'd be able to use knowledge of the basics against each other."
"It's when we go to train by ourselves that we would be able to use special moves."
"They are right Yugao," the boy next to her nodded his head. "This is only the basics, it's what most kenjutsu practitioners know, so there is no harm in both of them practicing together."
"If you say so Hayate-kun," Yugao blushed. From where the two boys were standing, Yugao heard snickers coming from them. She turned and glared at the two, which caused them to drop their swords and burst out laughing.
"Aw that's so cute!" Naruto exclaimed while holding his sides. "Yugao-senpai has a crush on Hayate-san!"
"We already knew that Naruto," Itachi laughed along side his friend. "It's just her expression is priceless." This caused the purple haired girl to open her mouth in shock and turn to her friend who was sitting beside her.
"Hayate-kun, I," Yugao stopped talking when she saw her crush smiling at her.
"So you like me Yugao?" Hayate gently asked. Yugao opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before just opting to nod her head. His smile widened and he pulled the girl into a hug causing her to blush. "That's great to hear. I like you too." Again Yugao seemed to be shocked by this whole thing and seemed to be mimicking a fish with her mouth once again opening and closing on it's own violation. When she stopped and opening her mouth, she closed it and fell to the ground. Hayate caught her on the way down. This caused both Naruto and Itachi to stop laughing and rush to their last teammate.
"Whoa, is she okay?" Naruto asked as he saw Hayate fanning Yugao.
"I think she fainted from shock...and embarrassment," Hayate chuckled. Both of the younger boys let out relieved sighs. "She got you scared there for a moment huh?"
"Yes she did, suddenly fainting like that," Itachi mumbled. "So she will be okay?"
"Yes." Hayate then took the girl and placed her underneath the shade of a tree. "Now, since she's asleep and not trying to flirt with me. I think we should get into some light sparring between you two. No, Naruto we won't be using real swords. I brought some shinai with me so you don't hurt yourself." The two boys nodded and grabbed the two wooden swords that were offered to them and walked to where they were practicing with their real blades. Hayate instructed them on what they did wrong as they clashed blades, leaving the purple haired girl asleep in the shade.
(Time skip)
In a training field, a rock was sliced around the edges a several times simultaneously by some invisible force. Long gashes were left on the rock where the slices were made. Then a bright blue light had begun to emanate from the stone. A few seconds later, a foot covered by blue chakra slammed into the rock causing it to burst and threw the person back. Naruto bounced on the floor with a thud and he let out a groan. "Ugh… that hurt a lot," Naruto grumbled. "Blowing up a rock in front of my face was not what I intended to do right after lunch."
"You put in too much chakra into your attack Naruto-kun. You need to cut down on how much you put," Kushina advised from the side. She was standing there watching the blond as he laid panting and groaning in pain. She had left her kids in the care of Tsunade as she went to train Naruto in the backyard. "If you didn't put too much force all that chakra into it the force of the attack would explode like that. Hopefully you'll get this down before you try it on a real person or else they'll die a rather bloody death, and you don't want that do you?"
"No…" Naruto got onto his hands and feet, then stood up. "I hope you don't mind I try it again right Kushina-sama?"
"It is okay Naruto-kun, just try to get the amount of chakra down a bit better."
"Right." The blond boy closed his eyes as he drew his wakizashi. Holding it in his right hand, he placed the blade onto his left and focused his chakra. A blue light encased the blade and Naruto opened his eyes. Looking at a log a fair distance away he pulled back his right arm and pointed the blade towards the log. "Koutei no Ryuu: Senten Tsuki (Emperor's Style: Whirling Thrust)." Around the blade several small blades made out of air began to spin around the wakizashi. Naruto then thrusted the blade and sent all the blades towards the log. Just like the rock, several long gashes appeared along the log and it began to glow blue. Putting his leg in front of him, Naruto focused chakra into it, giving it the same glow just like the log. "Koutei no Ryuu: Senten Keru (Emperor's Style: Whirling Kick)!" Naruto ran toward the glow log and jumped up. He did a flying kick on the log. Just like what happened during the battle between Irouh and Kagami in the chuunin exams, the blue chakra that formed around Naruto's leg merged with the one around the log. In that instance the log blew up and shot Naruto backwards. Again, the blond boy let out a groan of pain.
Kushina walked over to him and helped him up shaking her head, but there was a smile on her face as she did so. She took him to the bench she was sitting on and inspected his wounds. He had splinters from the log's explosion and several cuts from the rock. "Here, let me patch you up a bit. I brought a first aid kit just in case this happened." She got a pair of tweezers and pulled out a splinter.
"Ow! Hey that hurts!"
"Oh stop being a baby. From the way you've been pushing yourself, I know that you've been through more than this." Naruto grumbled but let kept silent as she kept pulling out the splinters. He winced when she applied disinfectant on his wounds, but was still silent. After patching up she slapped him on the knee, eliciting a yell from him. "There you go all patched up."
"Thank you," Naruto said with a grateful smile.
"No problem. Although, you still keep putting too much chakra into the jutsu. Are you sure you'll have this move down by the end of the month?"
"Yeah don't worry about it. I got this in the bag."
"Well, with that bad chakra control I'm not so sure," Kushina teased. Naruto pouted, causing the red haired woman to laugh. Naruto rolled his eyes but smiled at the woman in front of him.
"I have better chakra control than that Kushina-sama. I just tend to ignore the voice in my head that says to be careful from time to time." The next thing he knew, Naruto felt a fist slam onto his head. "Hey what was that for?"
"That's for being careless. You should take more care of yourself Naruto-kun. It would be bad to make the people you care for sad if something happens to you."
"Heh, then I have nothing to worry about. I have someone watching my back. Although...he will be an opponent during the chuunin exams so that may be a bit of a problem. Damn, Itachi must be training hard right now."
"You must be great friends with Itachi huh?" Kushina asked with a smile. She took a seat next to Naruto as the blond adopted a far away look.
"Yeah, he's my brother in all but blood. To be honest ever since we were young we were hanging out together, whether it be training or just mindlessly doing nothing. Although running away from fangirls that seem rather insistent on getting us to date them."
"Is that why you were running away from that mob of girls this morning?" When Naruto nodded, Kushina bursted out laughing. "That was hilarious. I thought you were just training, or worse peaked on them in the hot springs."
"I'm not like Ero-sensei," the blond frowned. "Besides I'm only seven years old. Girls in their teens want me to date them. I think that makes them a ped...ped...pedophile. Yeah that was the word Ero-sensei taught me."
"You mean girls that old want to date you?" Kushina asked. In the back of her mind something that was telling her to keep those girls away from the boy. This caused her to frown. This wasn't the first time this happened to her, that her motherly instincts would act up around Naruto who would just say something and it clicked inside her. Oddly enough, the feeling of being motherly to him stayed longer than the previous times. She looked at the boy who was still talking. She was only half listening to him now, as she stared at him.
'Why does being around Naruto make me want to smother him, like a mother would? Why does he look like Minato? Come to think of it, why does Minato keep avoiding the subject Naruto all together?' The frown on her face deepened at the thought of that. 'Why...why do I feel like something is wrong here?' Kushina was broken out of her thoughts as Naruto shook her shoulder.
"Kushina-sama, are you okay?" Kushina stared into his eyes and saw the concern in them. That look made her want to smile, but she couldn't fathom why. She couldn't understand why just seeing him brought out all these feelings. She opened her mouth and let out a sigh.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Yes Kushina-sama?"
"Who are you really?" That caused Naruto to balk up. His eyes widened when he saw her confused face. "Who are you?"
"Wh-what do you mean by that?" the boy stuttered.
"Who are you? Just who are you?" Kushina was turning hysterical. "Who are you? Why do I feel connected to you?" She stood up and started to pace. "Why do I feel like I need to mother you? Why do you keep bring up these emotions that someone would have of their child in me?"
"Kushina-sama please calm down, you're going mad."
"Don't tell me to calm down! I'm finally onto something. It's not the first time I have felt like this towards you! So tell me just who are you!" By this point, Kushina was crying. She was also shaking Naruto. For his part, Naruto was freaking out as well out of worry.
'What is wrong with her? I don't know what to do! Think...what would Jiraiya do...grope her. NO! That is just wrong on several levels. What would Itachi? Lecture her or try to console her somehow. I can't do that while she's doing this. Okay last one, I hate to say it but what would Hokage-sama do...Knock her out." In that instance Naruto did a chakra enhanced uppercut to Kushina's chin knocking her out cold. When her grip let go of him, Naruto immediately caught her and laid her on the grass. He then did the best thing he could think of next. "BAA-CHAN!"
(Time skip)
Kushina got up with a groan and slowly got up from the bed she was in. Clutching her head she looked around and saw that she was in Tsunade's bedroom. "I see that you're up," a voice stated. She looked up and saw Tsunade standing at the doorway. In her hand was a glass of water and a few pills. The medic walked over to the red haired lady and offered them to her. "Take these, they'll numb out the headache."
"Thanks," Kushina mumbled. She took the pills and drank them down with the water. She gave the glass back and looked at the Slug Sannin. "What happened?"
"That is a good question. What did happen to you?" Tsunade crossed her arms under her bust as she looked at her. "Naruto came running into the house shouting that something happened to you." She took a seat on the bed along side Kushina. "You had him worried. Freaking out like that in front of him. He was forced to knock you out."
"He did?"
"Yeah."
"Where is he right now?" the red haired woman asked.
"He had to go train right now. He wanted to stay and make sure you were okay, but I reminded him that if he wants to win the chuunin exams, he'd have to focus on training. I promised him to take care of you, and that he'll hurry on his way back from training by himself."
"What happened?"
"He said you started asking him something over and over again in hysterics and that you were crying. Do you remember what happened?"
"I can't barely remember it. I remember we were training and then I remember asking him something, something really important. I think I asked him…I asked him...Why can't I remember? Did he say what I asked?" The older woman nodded.
"He told me that you kept asking him, who was he?" In that moment Kushina's eyes widened.
"I remember that now. I had to ask him who he was, for a very important reason. I wanted to know why he felt like...like he was my own kid." Kushina stopped talking all of a sudden and grabbed her head. "AAGH! My head! My head!"
"Kushina! What's wrong?" Tsunade moved closer to her and grabbed a hold of her. Kushina began to thrash around and was still clutching her head.
"Something...Something is happening in my mind!" The more she tried to remember what they were talking about, the more she tried to remember the feelings she had for Naruto, the more something in her mind was making it harder for her to think about them. As if they were restricting her from actually recalling anything about him, or associate him with the word family. As Kushina was holding her head, Tsunade was already trying to administer some healing jutsus on her. But no matter what she tried she couldn't find anything wrong with the woman physically. After a few more frantic moments, Kushina fell onto the bed once again unconscious. Tsunade ran a diagnostic jutsu on her and tried to once again find what was wrong with her friend, but once again came up short.
"I can't tell what is wrong with her. This is bad," Tsunade whispered. "How can I help her if I don't know what to do?"
"Tsunade-hime what's wrong!" Jiraiya shouted as he burst through the door. Looking back one Sannin looked at the other. "I heard screaming and rushed over as fast as I could."
"Jiraiya what are you doing here? I thought you went to go check on your spy network."
"I was but I decided to cut through Konoha to go from Kirigakure to Iwagakure. I was about to leave after doing some re…" The old sage had to stop what he was saying when he saw her glaring at him. "Right, I was just cutting through here and when I was about to leave I heard someone screaming in here." He looked at the bed and saw Kushina crumpled on it. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know. She was acting crazy earlier on today, from what Naruto said. Jiraiya can you see if anything is wrong with her. Medically, she is as healthy as a horse. There is nothing I can do about this."
"Well, I don't know what you want me to do. I'm not good at healing."
"Just do something, please." Jiraiya sighed and walked over and brought out a scroll, hoping to whatever deity out there that he can do something to help her out.
(With Naruto)
Naruto was sitting in the park meditating. He wasn't really up to training in anything after seeing what was happening to Kushina. The fact that she was going a bit crazy had him worried. So he just sat crossed legged in the park and closed his eyes and meditated to calm himself down. So far, about an hour of meditating, he was able to calm his worries down. His eyes opened when he heard a pair of feet stop in front of him. Looking up he saw a heavily bandaged man with his right arm in a sling. "May I help you sir?" Naruto asked politely since he was brought up to be polite to strangers.
"You are Naruto Uzumaki correct?" the elderly man asked. Naruto slowly nodded his head, he as already getting prepared himself depending if this was an attack or not. When the old man saw him tense he let out s small chuckle. "Do not worry boy, I am not here to hurt you. No, in fact I am here to help you."
"Help me?"
"Yes. Let me introduce myself. I am Danzou Shimura, I am part of the council of shinobi who work under your father."
"How do you know that?" Naruto grounded out.
"I knew you before the whole mishap two years ago. The one done by by your father."
"He is not my father."
"Fine, the Yondaime. It surprised me when I heard that you had managed to make it to the third part of the exams in Kumo."
"Oh, I didn't know they spoke about that in the meetings. I mean the chuunin exams are pretty small compared to most of the other topics that the council should speak about."
"You get me wrong, Uzumaki-san. I did not hear about this from our meetings. No, I heard about this from my team that I sent to Kumo," Danzou admitted.
"Oh, so those quiet dudes are your students?"
"Yes, I couldn't very well attend due to some, circumstances." Naruto's eyes darted to the bandages before looking back at his face.
"So why are you here Shimura-san?"
"As I said, I am here to help."
"Shouldn't you be helping out your team instead?"
"I should but you did something in the test that made me want to give you a scroll to help your training."
"And what is that I did Shimura-san?" Naruto asked slowly, wondering what did he do to get attention from this person.
"You seemed to be able to use fuuton chakra. That is rare for us in Konoha."
"Oh, yeah I know that. Other than myself, I know that the only other users were Asuma-san, the Yondaime and apparently…" Naruto looked at Danzou with a critical eye, "you."
"Yes. From what I know, Asuma Sarutobi is currently away and you are not going to ask the Yondaime for help. I came here looking to share my wealth on the subject. So I have come to offer you a scroll containing three easy Fuuton jutsus." Using his good hand, Danzou took out a scroll from his clothes and offered it to Naruto. The blond boy looked at the thing suspiciously, wondering if he should take it or not. "Do not worry. Again, I am only trying to help you again."
Naruto stood up and slowly grabbed the scroll. He took the scroll and read through the three jutsus. His eyes roamed and his eyes widened. "You are just going to give this to me? These jutsus are rather helpful to far mid to close range. Some of these are high class moves. Not A or S rank sure, but these are high up there. And you're just giving these to me?"
"Of course, anything to help the new generation." Naruto opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times before offering it back to Danzou. "Oh? You do not want these jutsus?"
"I do, but I can't accept these. I don't know how to repay if I accept this."
"No keep it," Danzou smiled. "All I ask you is to not lose in this tournament."
"Huh? That's it?" Naruto asked confused.
"Yes. I have a lot riding on you. So please do not lose." Naruto put the scroll into his pocket and nodded.
"Thank you then Shimura-san."
"No thank you Uzumaki-san, for doing your best out there in the exams." With that, Danzou turned and left the park. Naruto touched the scroll in his pocket before shaking his head and turned to leave the park as well. He decided to go back home and check up Kushina.
As he walked away, Danzou was watching him from the shadows of an alley. He turned to leave, when he ran into someone. "Hell Hiruzen, how are you?" Danzou asked. Standing in front of him was the Sandaime Hokage, and he didn't look happy.
"What are you up to Danzou?" Sarutobi demanded. He did not like what his old friend was up to, seeing as he did not know what he was thinking.
"Why Hiruzen, you suspect me of something?"
"You are always scheming, Danzou, I have to assume you are up to something. Why are you so interested in Naruto?"
"So you saw our little meeting did you Hiruzen." Danzou smiled at him. "Do not worry, I am truly out to help him out. I see no reason to hinder a shinobi of the leaf after all Hiruzen." As he the crippled man left, Hiruzen watched him wondering, what his old friend up his sleeve.
(Scene change)
As Naruto got home, he was met with the grim faces of Tsunade and Jiraiya. Tsunade had a whole bottle of sake in her hand, and Jiraiya was not making any perverted comments for once. "Hey Ero-sensei, I thought you were going to be gone for the rest of the month," Naruto stated as he entered the living room. Looking over to the side, he saw the crib that held Tsubaki and Yuri was still there, along with the two babies. "Is Kushina-sama still here?"
"Naruto, you better sit down. We have some bad news," Jiraiya sighed. Naruto slowly took a seat on the couch across from the two Sannin. "Something is wrong with Kushina."
"WHAT! What happened to her, is she alright? Is she sick? Did you take her to the hospital?" Naruto was up and worrying, he was about to head out the door when Jiraiya stopped him.
"Kid calm down. She's up stairs resting."
"Why didn't you take her to the hospital!"
"Kid, I know you're worried about your mother and all, no matter what you say, we know that you care for her…"
"But what happened to her is not something we can cure in the hospital," Tsunade replied as she took a swig of sake. "Jiraiya found something on her, in her mind."
"Found what?" Naruto demanded.
"We found a seal."
"A seal?"
"Yes Naruto, a seal," Jiraiya mentioned. The frown on his face deepened. "I don't know what type of seal it is, but from what Ir an on trying to determine what it was I found two words that made it clear what its objective is."
"Which is?"
"The seal on her mind had the words memory and restrict on them. Whatever that seal is, it is keeping some memories locked away somewhere in her mind. Very specific memories."
"Memories of what?"
"Memories of you," Tsunade told him. Naruto gave her a confused look causing her to explain what she meant. "Didn't you notice that she started getting crazy when she was talking to you. All the things that occurred today, the fact that the seal was acting up was due to you being so close to her."
"That doesn't explain what happened, and what do you mean being near me caused this to happen to her?"
"From what I saw, her motherly feelings for you were awakening the more you spent time with her. As if the seal was slowly being undone and some memories were flowing back, that or new ones were being made that made her act all motherly to you. That was when the seal started acting up and violently started trying to suppress some the feelings and memories. That...is my guess on what happened."
"So you're saying that someone put a seal on my kaa-san?" The two Sannin were surprised to hear Naruto call Kushina by that moniker, not after two years. Sure they knew that he wanted to call her that, but this was the first time in two years that he had openly called Kushina 'kaa-san.'
"Uh...yes, someone had placed a seal on Kushina that is keep her memories of you ever being born to her and raising you away," Jiraiya told him.
"What are the chances...Hokage-sama taking it off?"
"It should be easy for him to take it off. Although I don't see why he hasn't noticed it before."
"Probably because it didn't react until she made contact with me." Naruto frowned. "Although...from what you told me Ero-sensei, I have a distinct feeling that we shouldn't bring this to him." Jiraiya paused for a moment before nodding his head.
"Yeah, will all the circumstances of why your disowning occurred, chances are we shouldn't tell Minato about this."
"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Tsunade demanded. "We should take it to Minato!" Naruto looked at her with a raised eyebrow before turning to Jiraiya.
"You didn't tell her what we talked about a week ago did you?" Naruto asked.
"No, I should do that now," Jiraiya sighed.
"Tell me what? What are you talking about?" Tsunade muttered confused.
"Excuse me," a voice interrupted the three of them. Looking towards the doorway, they saw Kushina looking at them. "Sorry I fainted on you guys, I probably inconvenienced you three." Kushina bowed.
"Kushina-sama, how are you feeling?" Naruto cautiously asked.
"I'm feeling better, thank you Naruto-kun. I must have fainted during our training session." She gave him a sheepish smile, which caused him to inwardly frown. "I promise I'll make it up to you later. Although I don't know why I fainted."
"Do you remember what we were talking about before you fainted?"
"Huh? What do you mean Naruto-kun?" He opened his mouth but closed it again and shook his head.
"It was nothing important."
"You should get home right now Kushina, you must be tired and the babies need to get more sleep," Jiraiya advised. "Tsunade go with her to make sure they get home fine. I need to have a few words with Naruto before I leave again." Tsunade was about to complain but saw the serious look on the toad sage's face and agreed.
"Come on Kushina, let's go. I'll take put Yuri and Tsubaki into their stroller and let's go." Kushina nodded at the older woman's words. Putting the babies into the device and sealing away the crib the two woman left, leaving the boy and the old man after bidding both of them good bye.
"I take it you don't want to inform her either huh?" Naruto asked Jiraiya. The man slowly nodded.
"While Kushina is a sealing master, she won't easily believe us if we tell her the truth. Hell, we'll probably be called crazy and sent to prison for treason," the sage answered.
"Damn. Are you sure you can't take it off?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Naruto stayed silent for awhile before speaking again.
"I guess that means I should become a fuuinjutsu master then. To free okaa-san of that seal."
"You do know that will take years to do right?"
"I know, I'll start to learn how to use even more complex seals than all the explosive seals I know so far." Naruto stood up, determination on his face. "I will fix whatever problems Hokage-sama has brought upon his...no...our family, even if it takes me my entire lifetime." Jiraiya laughed and patted him on the back.
"That's great kid, I'll help you along the way. So will Tsunade-hime." This caused Naruto to smirk and nod his head. "Well, I'm off to Iwa now. It won't take me long to get there get my info and come back. I'll personally escort you and Itachi back to Kumo for the exams."
"I'll hold you to it."
(That night)
It was close to midnight in Konoha and most of the people were sound asleep in the homes. However, it were those who were still awake that saw something out of the ordinary. That night drunks, ninjas on patrol and all those still awake saw a glimpse of a yellow blur running throughout the village. None were sure what it was, so they did not report it the following morning. Some said it was a ghost, other said it was just their imaginations, a few called it a rip off the Yondaime's technique. But they all had one thing in common: they heard the crackling of electricity as it passed by them.
Author's End Notes: There's the chapter. Leave a review on how well I did. I'm trying to work on my chapter length too, slowly going from 5 to 6K. Eventually I'll reach my goal of 8K per chapter. But until then please enjoy!