Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The two years since Naruto and Jiraiya left Konoha passed. For some it was faster than others. For people like the Gennin that took the Chunin Exam during the Oto (Sound) and Suna (Sand) invasion the time passed quickly; what with training and missions to take. For people like the Godaime Hokage and her assistant Shizune the time passed sometimes at a fast pace, both training Sakura or working at the Hospital, and sometimes at a slow pace, Tsunade being forced to due paper work and Shizune having to hunt her down when she got tired of it. For others like the people in charge of Gate duty the time passed agonizingly slow, the tediousness of having to ask every person the same questions overrode the seldom occurrence of meeting new and interesting people. It had turned out that having Naruto in the village made Gate duty actually bearable; the long hours were filled with discussions of the blonde bundle of energy. Whether a person liked him or hated him Naruto would always come up in conversation.

"How long until we get off?" a Chunin guard asked.

"Four hours, fifty seven minutes and fifteen seconds," his friend and partner answered.

"Damn only two minutes and twenty seconds past since the last time I checked," The first Chunin complained. "I wish some thing would happen! A new person coming by! A Shinobi or Kunoichi coming back from a mission with an interesting story! An Inuzuka dog chasing the Fire Daimyo's Wife's cat! Anything!"

As if to answer the plea a shout from the Jounin in charge of the Gate detail came up to them. "A pair of guys are approaching," she said. The Chunins looked at each other then out to the road. Sure enough two individuals were walking at a leisurely pace towards them. "It looks like a tall long white haired man with a shorter man, no wait a teenager with blonde hair," The Jounin paused as the two got closer she was able to make out their faces, "It's Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-san!"

"Looks like things are going to get more lively soon," one of the Chunins said with the other nodding happily. The end to their perpetual boredom was at hand.

The Master and Apprentice moved closer the differences that occurred became noticeable to the Chunin. Jiraiya had not changed too much; he still wore the same outfit he did two years previously. The only real difference was he had a couple more age lines and his hair was little longer. Naruto on the other hand changed a great deal. He was dressed in a similar style of clothing he had two years ago only this time the color pattern was reversed, blue with orange trim. On anyone else it would have looked funny at best, stupid at worse but for Naruto it seemed to work. He also carried a large scroll, almost as big as the one Jiraiya always carried, on his back. His physical appearance had also changed he was taller now by at least fifteen centimeters making him about a head shorter than Iruka. His blonde hair was even spikier than before and his eyes seemed to be an even deeper shade of blue. One thing that did not seem to change was his fox-like grin he had plastered on his face.

When they finally got the gate the Jounin greeted the pair with a smile, "Welcome back Jiraiya-sama, Naruto-san."

Jiraiya looked at the Kunoichi Jounin and a smile spread on his face. It was not a friendly, sorrowful, or even a malevolent smile. No it was the one Jiraiya always got when he met an attractive female, a perverted smile. Jiraiya attempted to move closer so he could try and get a date but Naruto distracted him by kicking him in the shin, "Hey Ero-Sennin! Don't waste my time! I saw enough of you getting rejected on the trip, I don't need to see it now that I'm home!"

"Own!" Jiraiya yelled rubbing his sore shin. "Gaki (Brat) you know I never get rejected! Why women all over the world dream about me every night!"

"Only in their nightmares Ero-Sennin," Naruto said flatly.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Jiraiya yelled as he chased the laughing Naruto into the village.

After the pair left the first Chunin from before said, "Yep things are already looking up!"

In the Hokage's office Tsunade was in the middle of a meeting about the upcoming Chunin Exam with the Suna representative, the Jounin Temari. "How will lodgings be handled this year? Early reports say that this Exam is going to be big."

"Kazekage-sama has set aside the necessary room for the participants and the guests," Temari answered. "He has even arranged for extra room in the stables for…"

Temari was cut off by an Administrator Chunin busting through the door, "Hokage-sama! there is a disturbance in the Market."

"You busted into my office when is was holding an important meeting just to tell be about some pick pocket!" Tsunade said sternly.

"O…Of course not Tsunade-sama," the now frightened Chunin replied. "The disturbance was caused by Jiraiya-sama and Uzumaki-san."

Tsunade's frown, that appeared at the interruption, faded into a small smile at the news, "Very well, thank you for the news. You are dismissed." The Chunin bowed and exited the office as quickly as he could.

While the Chunin left Temari smiled herself a little, 'So that kid is back. I wonder how he's changed?'

"Let's continue," Tsunade said returning to the meeting. "I want to finish this as soon as I can." Temari nodded knowing exactly why Tsunade wanted to finish.

In the Market Jiraiya and Naruto had finally stopped causing problems with the appearance of two Jounins. One was silver haired wearing a mask with his nose buried in small orange book and the other was a dark haired man wearing some kind of headgear and had a small smile on his face. "Don't you think the two of you are causing too much noise?" the dark haired Jounin asked.

"Yamato-sensei, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out running up to the pair. "It's good to see you both."

Kakashi, closing his book, greeted Naruto with friendly wave, "Hey Naruto, you've certainly grown. I'd say you're finally taller than Sakura."

"Hey it's not right to make fun of a person's height like that," Naruto complained, even though he was at a respectable height for a person his age Naruto had some left over sensitivity about his short stature when he was a kid. "Just for that you don't get the gift I got for you."

"Gift?" Yamato and Kakashi asked with a slight surprise.

"Yeah I got one for everyone," Naruto said setting down his traveling pack. He reached inside and pulled out a small bonsai tree and handed it to Yamato.

"A Waterfall Country Bosai tree?" Yamato asked as he took the tree. "These are hard to get in Fire Country. Did that mean you went all the way to Waterfall Country to train?"

"No," Naruto said. "I actually only got the seed from a merchant. Grew the tree myself with my Mokuton (Wood Element) abilities."

"I guess your mastery of the Mokuton has increased," Yamato commented. "These are hard to grow from a seed, even the Shodaime was said to have some problems with them. Thank you for the gift."

"Oh speaking of the Mokuton, here's the Scroll back," Naruto said taking the scroll that was attached to his backpack and handing it to Yamato.

Yamato gently pushed the scroll back to Naruto, "No Naruto, you keep. I've learned all I can from it so you should have it."

"Thanks Yamato-sensei," Naruto said reattaching the scroll to his backpack.

Kakashi decided this was the time he wanted to inquire about his gift. He knew that a rare Bonsai Tree was a thoughtful gift for Yamato and wondered what Naruto got him, "So Naruto what did you get me?"

Naruto eyed for a moment still a little upset about the crack at his former height. With a mischievous smile Naruto reached into his bag once more and pulled out a book about the same size as the one Kakashi had in his hand. "Well I got you this, but I don't think I'm going to give it to you." In Naruto's hand was a book with the title Icha Icha (Come Come) Tactics. "It's the latest addition, not even in the stores yet."

Kakashi went from curious, to surprised, practically begging in the blink on an eye once he saw what Naruto got for him, "Please Naruto! I'm sorry I joked about your height! I promise I'll never do it again."

Naruto looked at Kakashi with a look that was akin to disgust mixed with pity. Here was a grown man and Shinobi, a Jounin no less, and begging for a something as simple as a book. "Fine here," Naruto said handing the book over. Kakashi snatched it from Naruto's hand and began to rub it against his cheek like it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

It was at this point that a few other people, Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura, showed up. "Hey Tsuande-Obassan, Shizune-Neechan, Sakura-chan," Naruto waved then cringed slightly when Tsunade frowned at him and her eyebrow started to twitch. Not wanting to get his Naruto quickly ducked back down to his pack and pulled out another gift. This time a beautifully crafted sake set with the kanji for Gambling Queen stenciled on to the bottle and cups. "This is for you."

Tsunade lost her anger and inspected the sake set, "Hmm very nice Naruto. I'll let you off the hook this time." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, "But only this time!"

Naruto gulped a bit then went back to his pack and pulled out a small jewelry box and opened it revealing a simple but good quality necklace. "I didn't know what to get you so I just got you this," Naruto felt a little guilty about not getting Shizune something more personal.

Shizune just smiled like a sister and took the jewelry box, "Its beautiful Naruto-kun. Thank you."

"So what'd you get me Naruto?" Sakura asked.

Naruto had already dropped back down to his pack for the fifth time by the time Sakura asked her question. Still rifling through his pack Naruto answered, "Well I knew you were training under Tsunade-oba…um I mean Tsunade," Naruto was just able to catch himself before Tsunade's temper got to her, "and so I got you this." Naruto said as he stood up and handed Sakura a medium sized box.

Sakura opened the box and inside was a top quality surgeon's set, "Theses are excellent quality," Sakura said inspecting a particularly sharp scalpel.

"Well I figured you could use them since you're a Medic-nin and all," Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

Tsunade had come over to inspect the set herself and was impressed with the quality. "Usually a Medic-nin uses their chakra for surgery but we always have a back up set incase we need to conserve our chakra."

Sakura nodded in agreement and pulled Naruto, who had picked up his backpack, away from the adults, "Come on lets go find the others. I'm sure they'll like what gifts you got them." She stopped for a moment then asked, "You did get them gifts too, right."

"Of course I did," Naruto said in an indignant voice, like it was an insult that he would be so thoughtless.

Sakura gave no response except to drag Naruto off down the road. Once they left Tsunade had to ask, "How did Naruto afford all of this?"

"Well the book was a birth day present to him from me," Jiraiya admitted a little upset that his gift was given away. But then again he knew that Kakashi was enjoy it more so he was not all that upset. "The others he go the money from gambling parlors." The others gave him a flat look, "What the kid had unbelievable luck when it comes to slot machines. He won all the money he needed and then some."

'That danm Gaki!' Tsunade thought. 'I don't know how but I know he's been taking all my luck!'

"So just how strong has Naruto gotten?" Yamato asked. He had been meaning to ask for a while now but did not have an opportunity.

All eyes looked at Jiraiya, even Kakashi who had put his knew book away. "Naruto is at least a Class-B ninja in terms of over all ability. He knows about a fourth of the Mokuton Justus, a few Suiton (Water Element) and Douton (Earth Element) and some Fuuton (Wind Element). He's still working on controlling Katon (Fire Element) but has made almost no progress in his Raiton (Lighting Element). The last one are the hardest for him as it is opposite of his primary. It'll probably take a couple of years more for him to be able to use Raiton effectively." Jiraiya stopped for a moment as the others had contemplative looks on their faces. "His Taijutsu still has no recognizable style but it is more refined and successful. He'll probably never get above mid Chunin low Jounin. His Genjutsu in limited to only detection and cancellation."

"That would put him on the level of a new Jounin then," Kakashi mused.

"He just needs is experience in real battle and I do not doubt he will be able to pass the Jounin Test," Jiraiya said smiling, "In all honesty if Naruto had not been able to use Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) then we would not have been able to cover as much as we did."

"I'll have to give him a test to see how his abilities work with others," Kakashi said. "But I'll keep what you said in mind."

"Have you figured out why the Kyuubi's chakra was elementally neutral?" Tsunade asked.

"Yeah," Jiraiya answered. "It is a combination of everything that makes the Kyuubi's chakra neutral. His innate ability to control a Bijuu's (Tailed Beast) chakra from Shodaime, the Seal, and your old necklace all act as a filter that negates the elemental nature of the charka. Essentially when Naruto uses the Kyuubi's chakra it is completely neutral but still more potent than a human's. This is why if he were to use the Kyuubi's chakra while performing a jutsu the results are a lot, bigger I guess you could say."

"What is his level when he uses the Kyuubi's chakra?" Kakashi asked. He remembered that Naruto's fighting abilities would increase dramatically if he were to use it.

"Depending on how much he uses, anywhere from Class-A to Class-S," Jiraiya answered. "The problem is he cannot sustain it. Using the Kyuubi's chakra is like opening the Celestial Gates with him. Gives him extraordinary strength but only for a short time. The Human body no matter how tough or what special powers it has cannot use a Bijuu's chakra for a sustained period of time."

"So even with his abilities if he uses to much Naruto could die," Yamato summarized. Jiraiya gave a brief nod, "How much is too much, though?"

"When he manifests three tails his body starts to injure itself giving him a maximum window of ten minutes to fight. At four tails it cuts down to less then a minute," Jiraiya answered. "Any longer and he will suffer from extreme exhaustion and be bedridden for nearly a weak."

"You sound so sure," Shizune said. "Has this happened before?"

"Yes about a year ago," Jiraiya answered. Jiraiya did not go into details but they could tell it worried him. "Naruto knows his limitations and won't push it that far unless forced to." Left unsaid was that they knew Naruto would if he felt someone he cared about was in danger.

"Well if that's all," Kakashi spoke up. "I think I'll head off know. I have a new book to read."

"Kakashi pay extra attention to Chapter 4," Jiraiya said. "I'm sure you'll appreciate it, Hehehehe..GACK." Jiraiya's perverted laugh was cut off but a punch to the head from a very irritated Tsunade.

"Don't talk about your perverted books around me!" Tsunade yelled. "And you Kakashi..." She turned around only to see the place Kakashi stood now empty. "I sware I'm going to burn everyone of those books one day."