The Hidden Truths of the Village Hidden in the Leaves
Summary: Starting after the trip to the Land of the Waves, Sasuke has developed a sense of overprotectivness a shinobi feels towards their partner and Naruto has to deal with new surprises every day. The secret behind the Uchiha clan massacre is revealed and Orochimaru is scared of one man. ANBU and foxes flock towards Naruto as much as danger does. A whole new take on the life of Team 7 and co.
Jiraiya couldn't stop the beads of sweat that were rolling down the side of his face as he stared at the emotionless white and red mask of the young ANBU before him. Said man was holding twin swords firmly against the Sannin's neck and Jiraiya didn't dare move as he recognized both katanas immediately. Hell, he'd be a fool if he didn't.
One must have been a gift from the Yondaime himself, as he was sure only Minato could have gotten his hands one the Sword of Totsuka. He was sure he had seen it once on the blond Hokage's desk, although he had never seen the Yondaime use it himself.
The past week had been rather pleasant, mostly consisting of his 'research' while Naruto trained his summoning technique. It would seem that despite his seal being free again, there was great trouble for Naruto to control the immense chakra he possessed. It was to be expected, as the Kyuubi no Yoko had great power and Naruto had obviously had little training in controlling his own chakra, let alone the demon's. The boy had great stamina but no control what so ever. The worst part?
He couldn't seem to call upon the Kyuubi's chakra when he needed it, if his life wasn't in peril.
After a week of Naruto trying - and failing - to summon a grown frog, no matter how big it was, Jiraiya decided to intervene as Naruto will obviously keep failing at this rate, even with how much he tried. He just couldn't get the chakra right. Now, Jiraiya suspected it might have something to do with the fact that Naruto's chakra flow was blocked by sealing away the power he could usually so easily draw upon, but he didn't know whether Naruto knew how to draw upon the Kyuubi's power. That would be, as the Nara would say, troublesome.
And so Jiraiya had set about making sure he force taught Naruto to draw upon that power. Well, not immediately, as he didn't want to accidentally cause the kid to die with regrets, so he had set about making one of the greatest, funniest day in the boy's life by making Naruto do all the things he loved doing. Jiraiya treated him to lunch (he wasn't all that surprised it was ramen), walking through the village and chatting with people he could call friends (that pink haired girl reminded him awfully a lot of his own teammate from his younger days and he wasn't exactly surprised that the kid was under Kakashi's command; and those three kids were so cute. Who would have thought Sarutobi-sensei's grandson was so lively! And he called the Hokage jii-chan!), doing things Naruto would never dare do otherwise and many other things. The talk with that chuunin Iruka was touching and Jiraiya kind of feared what would happen if Naruto couldn't do it.
His fear of such a situation only got worse when Naruto couldn't find his best friend anywhere, despite the slightly older boy still needing to be in the hospital. The blond had tried finding out where he was from his other friends, but no one knew and Kakashi seemed to disappear right when Naruto was about to yell out the question when he saw him on the street.
But other than that, he made sure to make Naruto as happy as possible. It was definitely a lot harder to do as Naruto seemed to, at times, space out for minutes on end, staring blankly ahead but still being able to avoid or dodge obstacles so he wouldn't fall. Jiraiya chalked it up to wordy for "the teme" as Naruto called his friend, but he would catch the blond repressing snickers, growling, frowning, pouting and so on every now and then, as if he were having a silent conversation with someone but the genin never uttered a word. Jiraiya decided to let him be and question him another time.
After he made sure Naruto was sufficiently happy, Jiraiya lead them deep into the forest, near that one big believed-to-be bottomless canon and he pushed Naruto with a chakra induced hit right over the cliff and let the boy fall, silently praying that Naruto will manage to save himself but if he couldn't, Jiraiya's help would come far too late.
He had watched as the boy tried to stop his descent with chakra suction but that wasn't going to help, as the walls were too smooth from centuries of rain and other waters molding the rock. Jiraiya had to bite his lip to stop himself from cursing his own stupid mind for coming up with this but, in his heart, he knew this was the only way. He had to force Naruto to grab the Kyuubi's power instead of just waiting for the damned fox to give it to him so that the two of them don't die.
Of course, like many of his other plans (but not all!) in the past, this plan backfired spectacularly. In more ways than one. First off, Naruto did manage to tap into the Kyuubi's powers - Jiraiya had sighed in relief when he heard the popping sound of a kuchiyose being successfully summoned - and that was a great big success in Jiraiya's plan. The first problem arrived when Jiraiya saw just whom Naruto had summoned.
Gamabunta, the boss frog of all frogs, was the biggest frog anyone could summon. He was orange, he wore a kimono, smoked a pipe and was one hell of a swordsman -er frog with a katana. He had a vile temper and a boss like complex, almost as if he were the head of a frog mafia. He often didn't answer anyone's summons just because he didn't feel like it, not even in Jiraiya's case. He did, however, greatly respect Namikaze Minato and had always dutifully answered every call. Gamabunta was also the kuchiyose that helped Minato out when the Yondaime was fighting the Kyuubi no Yoko twelve years ago.
Naruto had really summoned trouble.
Jiraiya, knowing Gamabunta will be pissed and pissed at him, slowly and stealthily made his way away from the canon, through the forest, back towards the village, not wanting Gamabunta to catch him and stomp all over him for 'allowing a stupid kid to summon me with no good reason'. He heard Naruto and the giant frog arguing in the distance (wow, he never knew someone could be so loud to be heard so clearly from such a distance!) and he wished Naruto all the luck in the world, because he was damn well going to need it, planning to go do some 'research' and in his perversion, he didn't even notice until it was too late and two swords crossed at his Adam's apple in a clear threat by a raven haired ANBU.
If the swords weren't where they were, Jiraiya would have gulped, but he didn't want to bleed to death, so he stayed perfectly still. He almost even refrained from breathing as he observed the clearly fuming man in front of him.
"May I ask," poison might as well have dripped in big, fat drops from his mouth with the seemingly cool and calm tone the younger was using, but Jiraiya had been friends with Orochimaru and he knew how to distinguish the rage underneath. It was like the calm before the storm and Jiraiya would never fall for that trick again. "Why would you throw Naruto-sama down a cliff like that?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened for two reasons. One was because this man had obviously been close enough for him to see what the white haired man had done, yet Jiraiya had never felt even a hint of his presence. And the second was the way he addressed Naruto. Not even Konohamaru and his friends (who adored Naruto and often called him 'oyabun') showed this much respect for Naruto as this man did and the Sannin could tell that it was sincere.
Shit, he had just got himself into a whole shitload of trouble, hadn't he?
"I was just trying to help him." Jiraiya defended himself, making sure to speak carefully so his throat doesn't end up being slit, accidentally or by accidentally pissing the man off. He didn't even dare think of maybe using substitution or some -any - other jutsu for he could feel the eyes behind the mask locked on him in such a way that even the slightest movement would be obvious and he feared the man might act accordingly. He didn't know how the other got his hands on Kusanagi and the Sword of Totsuka but he didn't want to test out just how sharp those legendary swords were.
"By endangering his life?" The other growled out and Jiraiya repressed another gulp.
"I don't know if you know just who Naruto is and what power he carries in himself," the snort that he received told him that the young man knew everything about that and Jiraiya wanted to scowl. "But he has had a seal put on him that has greatly disturbed his chakra flow. I thought a near death experience might kick it back into place."
Uchitachi finally withdrew his swords, but he didn't put them away. Oh, what a wonderful day he was having (please note the sarcasm). In fact, this whole week has been rather shitty, what with Sandaime often calling him in for chats about the defense plans he was making for the village. He wanted Itachi's opinion on everything, especially on what Orochimaru might be after.
So, as a result, he had only seen both his younger brother and his charge, like, three times this entire week and he had grown worried. So he was a protective older brother! Sue him. It had kept the two alive and safe for twelve years, so he must be doing something right.
He had hoped both boys would be training together but he knew that that, even in normal circumstances, wouldn't of happened. Naruto-sama and his otouto planned on being the last two standing so that they could fight each other, to measure one another by each other. They wanted to surprise the other with new moves, so they had to train separately in order to keep any new moves a secret. And as great as their devotion to their training was, this situation was tougher on Itachi, who had to watch over them.
He had visited Sasuke and Kakashi first, sending Kuro Onyx to watch over Naruto while the blond practiced the Kuchiyose no Jutsu under the (not so) watchful eye of Jiraiya of the Sannin. Itachi had figured Naruto-sama would be safe with the old perverted hermit, as Jiraiya was more than acquainted with the blond's situation. He had even fixed the problem with the seal and Itachi had been able to tell almost immediately that the Kyuubi vessel's chakra was back to normal. So he had left his raven with them and instead focused on Sasuke, who - as he had predicted - left the hospital the morning after he was admitted, fully healed with only a small scar to show for all the shit Orochimaru put him through.
He wasn't so surprised that Kakashi-san had been going through some of his own rigorous training when he and his younger brother found him. It was just the type of person the silver haired man was. Kabuto would have escaped them had Itachi not been there. Kakashi would feel ashamed and would want to become stronger. But he was leaving his two students who had passed onto the Final Stage of the Chuunin Exams stranded. Or would have, had Sasuke not come searching for him. Though maybe Kakashi had planned on it from the start, as he had left Naruto-sama to Ebisu-san, who then passed the blond to Jiraiya. Really, they were passing his charge around like a hot patato!
But both boys were doing fine with their training. Naruto seemed to be having some difficulties but Itachi didn't doubt that the blond will get it with time. He had honestly been more worried about Sasuke and the after affects of the Cursed Seal and its rather forced removal. But the younger raven was just fine. In fact, he seemed stronger and more determined than ever to get stronger. He did have that great increase in chakra that allowed him to practice more and both Itachi and Kakashi were pleased with his progress. To learn a new element manipulation in a week was impressive to say the least, especially since he had been a genin for only a handful of months. Itachi was very proud of his little brother.
But he hadn't even had the chance to go see his little brother training today because Sandaime had once again called him in for a meeting to appoint certain ANBU to certain posts and Itachi, as the only person who seemed to know which ANBU were secretly working for Danzo. He and the Hokage then spent two hours arranging and rearranging formations when Kuro Onyx suddenly sent a signal to him that Naruto was in danger. He had jerked up and vanished in a blink of an eye, leaving a befuddled Hiruzen behind as he arrived at the scene of Jiraiya pushing Naruto over a cliff.
And then the man had the cheek to turn tail and run when Gamabunta was summoned!
Well, Itachi wasn't going to allow that.
But now that he had suitably scared the wits out of Jiraiya, Uchitachi withdrew his swords but didn't replace them yet. The treat was still needed for the moment. "There are better ways to teach someone other than almost killing them."
Jiraiya seemed to relax when the blades drew away and he crossed his arms. "There are, but I honestly think Naruto learns best in situations like these. If anything, he had just perfected Kuchiyose no Jutsu and chakra suction. That's one step closer to gaining the chakra control he desperately needs."
"Be that as it may, should you do that again," the younger said, making a show of slowly sliding the two swords into their sheathes and allowing them to glint in the light of the noon sun to show the subtle threat. "I can promise you that you will not like the consequences, Jiraiya-sama."
"You've gotta be the first youngster to show me respect while threatening me." The white haired man said with curiosity and amusement. The ANBU ignored him and easily jumped to the top of a very tall tree, getting ready to observe his charge. Kuro Onyx arrived at his shoulder a second later. Uchitachi ignored the Sannin when he joined them in the hights, watching as Gamabunta tried to shake Naruto off but the stubborn blond held on. "He will make a fine shinobi one day."
"He is too young to be thought of as a shinobi." The raven replied, never taking his eyes off of the giant frog and the Kyuubi vessel. He raised a hand to scratch at Kuro Onyx's chest and the raven gawked in pleasure before taking off. He knew when his master wanted him to watch over someone and right now, master wanted him to watch over young master Sasuke.
Jiraiya observed the crow as it left before looking back at Uchitachi. "I know of a boy who was an ANBU at his age. And his father had already been a jonin at his age, too. His sensei was a chuunin at twelve."
"That was the time of war." Itachi never looked away or acknowledged that some of the closest people to him were mentioned or that he himself was brought up. "Wars have been absent for over sixteen years now. Longer, even. Kids should stay kids a little longer."
"You seem very attached to Naruto." The Sannin observed but Itachi didn't pay attention to him.
"After all," he said absentmindedly, remembering the warm smiles of his parents and the proud beams from Minato-sensei when he would come back with a completed mission, remembering a gentle hand messing affectionately with his low ponytail and small arms around his waist and loving black eyes gazing at him adoringly. "We all only have one childhood and that innocence is lost far too soon."
Jiraiya had nothing to say to that and they remained silent as they watched Gamabunta's efforts to shake Naruto off.
00000
It was sunset and Gamabunta had finally started tiring himself out. The blond, however, was still clinging to his back. Gamabunta had to give the boy some credit.
Inside the blond, Kurama was growling like the caged beast he was, hating the frog for wearing his host out and even causing injuries. He also wasn't very happy with Naruto at the moment, as the boy had forbidden him from helping. Something about good endurance training and chakra exercises. Kurama felt like dragging Naruto into his mind space, taking over his body, beating the stupid frog into a bloody pulp before going off to find Jiraiya to kill him for nearly killing his kit.
Naruto, though, found this actually rather fun, if exhausting. He was roughened up and insulted but Gamabunta's jumping around was like a challenge he had to beat and Naruto was never one to pass up a challenge! But he was so tired ... And just as the sun set, not even Kurama's complaining at him could keep him awake.
Uchitachi was there the second Gamsbunta caught Naruto with his tongue when the boy finally slid off. The frog for the first time clearly saw the blond ninja and he couldn't stop himself from staring. This kid was ... No way! But he was, their chakra was similar and Gamabunta - now that he focused on the boy's chakra - could feel the other chakra inside the boy that he was very familiar with and knew his once opponent was there. Talk about walking down memory lane.
And then he looked up and saw the kitsune masked ANBU waiting for the blond to be put in his arms and Gamabunta swore his past has come back to haunt him as he recognized Namikaze Minato's youngest and most loyal ANBU.
Jiraiya will have a lot of explaining to do when Gamabunta sees him next.
