There were twenty six children standing in the Uzumaki compound. Their ages ran from seven to fourteen. They were all orphans or else from very poor backgrounds. And they all had the ability to use chakra. None of them had ever been permitted to step foot onto the grounds of one of the Noble Houses of Suna. Even though they had been granted permission and allowed to enter they still looked very nervous. Perhaps they were afraid this was all some sort of mistake and someone would suddenly show up and start yelling at them for being here.

As they all watched a woman with long red hair came out of the large house with five children in tow behind her. All of them were dressed in black and red body suits and they all (except for the young girl) had swords on their backs. Their attention was torn between the woman and the oldest boy; he had sand following him as he moved. They all knew who Gaara was and their instinct was to run, but if they did that they would not be welcomes here again.

The woman came to a stop in front of them and gave them all a reassuring smile. "Welcome to the Uzumaki Ninja academy." She called out. "Now as you all know, you all have the potential to be ninja and to use jutsus. I think it would be a real shame to have all of you be denied that opportunity just because of your circumstances. That being the case I, and my clan, have decided to offer free instruction to any students who have the necessary potential and are willing to work hard to become ninja. Now, there are only two rules but they are iron clad and must be honored at all times. First rule; you are all here of your own free will and can go anytime you like. But if you leave you cannot return. Ninja training is hard and the life of a ninja is harder still. If they instruction is not to your liking it's best for you to find another path. My time is too precious to waste on anyone without the necessary will."

The nineteen boys and seven girls all nodded silently. They all knew becoming a ninja was difficult, but no other profession was as honored or desired. They all understood this was their one and only chance to become shinobi and were ready to do whatever was required.

"Second rule," she said in the same open friendly manner. "You will refer to me and the others who will teach you as, 'sensei.' You will also treat everyone who lives here with respect, no exceptions. While you are here I expect to behave like proper guests. Is that clear?"

All eyes went to where Gaara was. Slowly, everyone nodded.

"Good, then let's get started," she worked some hand signs. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu." With a couple puffs of smoke to bushins appeared.

"Everyone ten or younger come with me." One of the bushins walked off to the left.

"Everyone eleven or older come with me." The other bushin said and walked to the right.

The original turned back to the Uzumaki children. "O.k. kids I'll take care of your instruction today, but so you know each of you will be helping teach these children. You'll all be instructors."

"Even me?" Gaara asked with a blink.

"Even you," Kushina said firmly. Maybe some of the children will eventually figure out you're not a monster.

"Aunt Kushina?"

"Yes Michio?"

"Why are we going through all this trouble to help a bunch of strangers?"

"Because they are all part of the village, and it is a ninja's duty to help the village whenever possible. If even just half these children eventually become ninja then that will be a huge boost to the village's fighting strength."

XXXXXXXXXX

The Kazekage was looking at the report and shaking his head. Kushina and her clan had actually opened a ninja academy and were offering free instruction. He did not know what to make of that. Kushina had brought up the notion of opening a ninja academy at the last meeting of the Council of Wind and been quickly shot down. Suna was a conservative place where traditions were fiercely defended. The village had always relied on family instruction and that had always been good enough.

He had expected Kushina to simply accept her defeat. Instead she had gone ahead and acted on her own. So long as her clan provided the instruction and did not ask for financial support from the village he would not interfere. Suna was shorthanded so if this somehow provided a few additional ninja he would not complain. But the lack of respect for the tradition of Suna was a bit jarring.

The truth was the Kazekage was not sure what to make of the Uzumaki. The truth was when he'd accepted them on condition they take responsibility for Gaara he'd thought Kushina had made a fool's bargain. He'd seen Gaara slowly becoming more and more unstable as his powers continued to grow stronger. He'd been sure the little monster was headed for some kind of breaking point. He'd figured it would be safest to have him finally crack while under the care of some foreigners. Then he could safely move in with the whole village supporting him to clean up the mess.

But something very odd had happened over the last two years. Gaara had not gone insane. He had not gone on a mindless killing spree. Instead he had seemed to grow… normal. He was not often seen outside the Uzumaki estate, but when he was he seemed well behaved. There had been no reports of any sort of violence from him over the past two years, that alone seemed a miracle. He was actually starting to think that perhaps the experiment wasn't a failure after all. But then that left him with the problem of what to do with the Uzumaki, Ninth Great House of Suna.

Financially their arrival had been a windfall for the village. A steady flow of high paying assassination contracts had started coming in for the Uzumakis and Kakashi. Many wealthy patients came to Suna simply to be diagnosed and treated by the famed Tsunade. (Which absolutely annoyed Chiyo no end.) The Uzumaki were not only taking care of Gaara for him they were also bringing in much needed wealth to his village. There was also the fact that Naruto looked to be a very promising young ninja. All of which meant that though he found the Uzumakis and their odd ideas somewhat troubling he was willing to tolerate them.

As he was thinking a servant entered his office. "Pardon me Kazekage-sama."

"Yes? What is it?"

"One of the Sannin has come and asks permission to enter the village."

"One of the Sannin? And why has he come to see us?"

"He asks permission to visit one of the clans.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kushina watched as the children walked slowly out of the gate. She'd been surprised to see just how determined they were to really learn how to become ninja. She'd been half expecting most of them to quit their very first day. But they all made it through at least one day of instruction. We'll see how many of them make it through the first day of calisthenics.

"Recruiting new members for your clan Kushina?"

She looked up and gasped at the familiar sounding voice. "You!"

Jiraiya smiled at her. "It's been a long time Kushina."

"Yes it has," she said dryly.

He was just standing there in front of her before the gate. He was giving her his old slightly perverted smile. She was returning a guarded look.

"So… are you going to invite me in?"

"I'm thinking about it," Kushina answered.

"Heh," he rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "There are some important things I need to talk to you about. Things that are going to affect you and Naruto."

"Like what?"

"I'd rather discuss this in private."

"You could have visited me and your godson anytime in the last eight years. If there's something important tell me now or go on about your way, godfather."

He flinched slightly at her tone. "You're angry at me."

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

He sighed. Some women just have to make things hard for a man. "Sarutobi is no longer the Hokage, he's been replaced by Uchiha Fugaku."

"What? When did this happen?"

"Just a few days ago, now can I come in? There's more."

"Fine," she said. "I'll introduce you to your godson; you do remember you have one right?"

He flinched again. "I remember, but things have been…"

She stopped and turned towards him dangerously. He could feel killer intent leaking out of her. "I swear to kami if you say things have been, 'complicated' I'll take out my katana and skin you!"

He grimaced. Was she always this scary? It's like a red haired version of Tsunade!

Nodding towards the house he tried to change the subject. "You have quite a nice place here, though it doesn't compare to your last home." In fairness few buildings could compare to the Namikaze mansion.

She tossed him a flat look. "Actually my last home was a house in River country so this place is much nicer than that." They began walking again.

It seemed he couldn't say anything to appease her. "I know you were living in River country for five years. I did keep track of you and Naruto."

She halted and turned to face him again. "Then why didn't you come see us before now?" She demanded. "Right now you have important news, fine; I appreciate you giving me some intelligence. But damn it Jiraiya you were his godfather! Where the hell have you been all this time?!"

"I got to Konoha as fast as I could as soon as I heard about the Kyuubi. I went to see you and your son."

Kushina nodded. "I know, Tsunade told me about that. She also told me you left the very next morning. You came for Minato's funeral and were gone almost as soon as it was over."

"I'm sorry," the old ninja said miserably. "But Minato was like a son to me. Losing him so young, and knowing I wasn't even there to help… It was more than I could bear. I needed time to sort things out."

"Are you going to try and tell me you needed eight years to sort out your feelings?"

"No, but by the time I had my head back on straight you were living in River with your family and Tsunade and Kakashi. You seemed to be doing fine so I thought it would be best if I just left you alone."

She stared at him, clearly not impressed. "In other words you didn't want to deal with your responsibilities as a godfather." Though half a foot shorter she leaned forward and forced Jiraiya to back up. "Well listen to me Jiraiya! When Minato and I offered you the position no one had a kunai to your throat forcing you to accept! As I recall you were the one who brought it up when we mentioned we wanted to name him after one of the characters in your book. You accepted the position of godfather so from now on you will live up to your responsibilities, or else I don't ever want to see you again. Is that clear?"

Jiraiya nodded his head obediently. "Yes," he said humbly.

"I don't expect you to drop everything just to spend time with him," she said, slightly appeased. "But I expect you to come visit once in awhile, and you can teach him a few things while you're here. His father was a seal master, there's no reason why Naruto shouldn't be one too."

"I'd be happy to show him some things," Jiraiya said.

"And I want you to let him sign the Toad summoning contract. Just so you know both Kakashi and Tsunade offered to let him sign their contracts. But Minato summoned toads; I want Naruto to have the same summons."

"Actually I was hoping you'd let me do that while I was here, Bunta wants Minato's kid to sign as much as I do."

"And while you're here I want you to do me a favor… for my other son."

"You mean Gaara?" Kushina looked at him questioningly. "I've been keeping tabs on you, and since Hiashi's visit it's not a secret."

"I see," she said carefully. Since he did not mention Shukaku she didn't either. Though she would have to for the favor she had in mind.

"Whatever I can do to help your adopted son I will," Jiraiya promised.

"I'm going to hold you to that," she said. They headed for the house, Kushina in a noticeably better state of mind. "I guess I'll let you live."

"Gee thanks."