Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters involved in it. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto (Although I wish it weren't).

Naruto?

Jiraya was nursing his bruises when he heard someone approaching his hiding place "Ero-Sennin! How many times must you get thrown out of that whorehouse for you to learn your lesson."

Jiraya pulled himself out of the garbage bin he was thrown in and looked at his travelling companion with a look of annoyance.

"as long as it takes brat! Have you finished the exercise I gave you?"

Naruto got a scowl on his face and turned away from his Sensei "Of course I've finished it, what do you take me for? A lazy bum!"

Jiraya reached out and ruffled the blonde's hair "fine, fine; no need to get angry, let's go! my business is finished in this town."

Naruto turned around and smiled" Where are we going this time, Ero-Sennin?"

Jiraya just looked at him with a knowing smile and continued to walk toward their campsite that was outside of town to pack, Naruto yelling after him as they made their way out of town.

Jiraya was known to a lot of people as a perverted goofball that had no care in the world, he didn't have a problem with it and if it made people underestimate him all the better, but right now! Watching his godson sitting around their fire made him use the full force of his observation skills 'he definitely wasn't as happy as I thought he would be when I told him that we were going back to Konoha, maybe he doesn't want to face the rest of his friends, knowing he hasn't improved as much as was expected of him.

Jiraya then unsealed some meat and dropped them in the stew that was on fire all the while, looking at his godson 'I'm probably overthinking this.'

"Naruto!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya got a tick mark on his head "NARUTO!"

Naruto jumped up from his spot all the while trying to hide something behind his back "Jeez! Ero-Sennin you scared the shit out of me, what is it?"

Jiraya then handed him the stew that was in the bowl and went to sit back in his spot.

"Oh! Thanks, Ero-Sennin"

Jiraya just gave him a curious look "your welcome brat!"

It was again during dinner when he saw the orange wearing goofball writing in his supposed journal, Jiraya had tried on many occasions during their trip to see what the brat was writing, but every time he tried to take a look Naruto got a hostile look and hid it away, and Jiraya in the interest of not antagonizing the blonde any further stopped his attempts.

But ever since he had told the blond about going back to Konoha, he had been writing more and more in that journal of his and Jiraya was both curious and worried about him, a plan shaping in his head 'I have to see what's in that journal.'

After they finished their lunch in silence, he went to his tent and pretended to sleep until he was sure the blond wasn't awake, he made his way in the dark without making any noise, as he stood in front of Naruto's tent he second-guessed himself 'if he finds me snooping in his backpack he is going to be very angry with me, but I have to know! For my own peace of mind if nothing else' he thenlistened in 'Okay! I don't hear anything, let's go find that journal.'

After slowly opening the flaps of the tent he went inside and made his way to Naruto's backpack and rummaged through it, only to not find anything resembling the red leather-bound journal he had seen the brat writing in so many times.

He then went to check if Naruto had taken it to his sleeping bag, only to find it empty of life.

Now he was starting to get worried; the brat had been acting strangely for the past week, ever since they started their trek back to Konoha he has been more distant every day.

Jiraya hurried outside, and now that he was actively looking for a trail, he could see the telltale sign of someone moving deeper into the woods.

As he was following the trail, he came upon an open clearing that was encompassed and well-hidden by the surrounding trees. What he would see in there and the subsequent events that'll follow it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Coming into the clearing Jiraya saw his blond companion crouching and focusing on something in the far left corner of the open field, he slowly made his way forward as not to disturb the blond.

Jiraya was only a few meters behind him when he saw Naruto tense and soot up from his sitting position.

Naruto quickly composed himself with an annoyed look and said: "what are you doing here, Jiraya?"

Jiraya was at a loss for words, never in all these three years that he had known the blond had he ever looked at him with that look or said his name instead of just saying Ero-Sennin. It was no surprise then that it took him some time to say" w—what? You look different, Naruto! What are you doing there?"

He then tried to move towards the spot that the blond was standing so protectively over, only to be stopped in his track when said blond moved swiftly and shoved a perfect Rasengan with one hand in his abdomen. Jiraya then was replaced in a puff of smoke with a log and reappeared on the other side of the clearing glaring at the blond.

"What is the meaning of this Naruto? If I had been a second slower, my stomach would have caved in."

Naruto didn't dignify the buffoon with an answer instead he seallessly made a clone and ordered it to finish the seal on the journal and then turned around to face the Sennin, fully committed to dying here on his terms rather than to explode when he ran out of chakra in a couple of days in that hellhole of a village.

Looking at his godson! He wanted to shout out and ask who this imposter was and what had he done with Naruto, but his decades of experience as a shinobi told him that; there was no imposter and for some reason, Naruto had been hiding his progress from him. That information filled him with dread; has someone else been teaching him? Or has he always been this good? Why hide it then?

Jiraya couldn't dwell much on these turn of events because suddenly he was hit with malicious intent that reminisced the time he got the scar on his chest, he unconsciously touched his chest only to get a smirk from the blond shrouded in red chakra with a tail swinging behind his back.

"That was a really good day, wasn't it Jiraya?"

Naruto then walked a couple of steps forward to put some distance between himself and the clone and said: "You! Desperately trying to open an empty cage, me! Pretending to lose control and trying to kill you if I had more of the Kyuubi's chakra, I would have finished the job godfather."

The word was uttered with so much hate that Jiraya had to take a step back.

Jiraya was at a loss for words, 'he is clearly in control and getting ready to attack me any second now, better be prepared.'

Jiraya went through the hand signs for his favourite Doton Jutsu

Doton: Yomi Numa

The ground turned into a swamp devouring the land, both Naruto and the clone jumped up and managed to stick to a tree, and while the clone was still busy with his job on the journal, the original went through handseals that were all too familiar to the aged Sennin

Katon: Karyu Endan

Jiraya didn't have time to wonder how Naruto knew Katon, and before he knew it the heat was licking at his face and it was too late to use the Doryuheki

Jiraya and his side of the forest were engulfed in fire in seconds, while this was happening the clone suddenly landed in front of Naruto and handed him the journal, disappearing in a puff of smoke without uttering a word.

Naruto moved to put the journal in his shirt and wait for Jiraya to appear, he was horribly surprised when two hands emerged from the ground and drew him under, it was in the process of the Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu that he lost his grip on the journal and it fell on the ground near his head.

Jiraya then emerged out of the ground in front of his golden hair student looking like he had lost most of his clothes in a fire and had burns on his forearms, with his hair looking fuzzy in places.

Jiraya started to walk toward his apprentice "you gave me quite the surprise there Naruto! Who would have thought you were hiding so much from me?"

Naruto who was slowly losing his Kyuubi chakra shroud only snarled in his direction.

Jiraya had a curious look in his face, but if one were to look deeper, you could see the hurt that he was hiding in his eyes 'Why wasn't his one-tail shroud more powerful, the last time it almost killed me! And I've got the scars to prove it, Naruto also said that he was in complete control last time which means he wanted me dead, but why?'

Jiraya then crouched in front of Naruto "Why Naruto?"

Naruto who by now had lost the Kyuubi's Chakra-shroud looked up to Jiraya with anger all over his face "Because if you had come sooner, then all of this could have been avoided."

Suddenly Jiraya leapt to the side, avoiding a kunai from his back that was being shoved at his heart with incredible speed, he couldn't completely avoid the wound, and it pierced his left kidney.

Jiraya looked to see a clone of the blond help his creator out of the hole 'Damm it! I was too careless thinking the fight was over, I underestimated his unpredictability.'

Naruto that was now out of the hole took the kunai from the clone, who dispelled soon after and started to walk towards the kneeling Jiraya that was holding his bleeding side "I wish, all of this could have been avoided, master wanted me to last at least another year, but with the Kyuubi chakra I used when I gave you that scar and now this fight, I don't think I can go on anymore, but if there is one thing I'll finish before dying is killing you."

Naruto bend down to strike the fallen Sennin, only to be shot with multiple strands of hair?

Jiraya then slowly stud up as Naruto was falling on the ground in a daze "I wish this could have been avoided too Naruto, I don't know what delusions your supposed "master" has fed you! But I'll take you to Konoha, and there I'm sure Inoichi will be able to help with whatever brainwash you've gone through."

Jiraya then walked towards the fallen journal that was a few meters to the right of his fallen godson 'all of this happened because of that accursed Journal, I have to know what's in there, but that can wait, I'm losing blood fast, and I have to get us both to somewhere that we can be treated.'

Jiraya then slammed his bloody hand on the ground

Kuchiose no Jutsu

Out of the smoke, a small green toad appeared that looked shocked at seeing the current state of Jiraya "Jiraya-Kun what happened to you? Did the Akatsuki attack you?"

"Fukasaku-sama, we need your help, I'll explain later but right now Naruto, and I need your help."

"Of course I'll help you Jiraya-Kun I'll go back and reverse-summon you right away", but before he disappeared in another cloud of smoke, he looked to his right to see the current state of "Naruto" which caused him to have a sad look on his face.

Jiraya seeing that everything was taken care of started to look for the Journal again 'Maybe it has some clues on who this maser that Naruto spoke of is!' but when he looked to where it was moments ago, he had to do a double-take because amid his conversation Naruto had managed to crawl to his Journal and had a bloody hand resting on top of it, his head was turned the other way, and Jiraya couldn't see his face but what he said was clear enough to hear "you'll never catch him!"

Suddenly a light engulfed the journal, and it disappeared.

Jiraya that was a lot angrier than before accelerated his pace "What did you do Naruto?"

When he reached the blond, the most horrifying he had or will ever see in his life happened right in front of him, his godson, Minato's legacy, The child of the prophecy that he was supposed to mentor, his godson, Exploded in a shower of blood.

"w—w—Whaaaaa" before he could finish his sentence he was engulfed in a puff of smoke, and then everything went dark.

Somewhere near Nami no Kuni, a man with wild sandy blond hair was sitting on a rock around a fire, eating his dinner when he felt a seal activate on the back of his hand, he put his meat-stick aside and allowed for the seal to activate, what he received was a blood-soaked leather-bound Journal, he took a look at the seal and saw it disappear and dissolve into nothing.

He opened it and read the first page, he then looked up to the sky with his violet eyes and with a fond smile said: "you did well, I'll never forget your sacrifice."

Doton: Yomi Numa: Earth release: swamp of the underworld

Katon: Karyu Endan: Fire release: Fire dragon flame bullet

Kuchiose no Jutsu: summoning technique

Author's note

Hello everyone, To those that are familiar with the previous version of this fic and showed concern in it changing and being rewritten into an unrecognisable form compared to what it was; there is nothing to worry about, the fundamental and the plot and concept you saw in the previous fic are all here, I just wanted to change the sequence of the events, so those events will happen, just not in the order you saw them before, and as always I appreciate any review's you can spare.

TNX for reading

K.D Out**