Content Warning: Rated T for casual swearing, and series-typical violence in later chapters. Also contains references to canonical bullying, child abuse, and death (e.g., the Uchiha Massacre, the Caged Bird Seal). Please don't read if any of these things might make you uncomfortable.
Advance Warnings:
-This is not a romance fic. There are no intended pairings.
- This is not an OP Naruto fic. He is stronger than his canon counterpart, but not significantly or impressively so.
- I'm not taking suggestions for character techniques or team assignments. You can find spoilers on my profile regarding the techniques Naruto is slated to learn.
If any of these things bother you, I'm... sorry, I suppose? Everyone has different preferences, and I've written this story according to mine. Please feel free to click the back button on your browser and find another story more suited to your tastes. With that out of the way: enjoy!
Chapter One:
Over the Hill and Through the Woods
"Hey, Jiji!"
Along a path shaded by tall oak trees, a boy and an old man were making their way south through the forest.
They made an odd pair: the man was a veritable giant, with broad shoulders and a wide frame. His mane of white hair fell in untidy spikes to his lower back, and he wore an eye-catching scarlet cloak. The boy, by contrast, was small and compact, with blond hair and a stubborn chin. His shorts and dull orange combat jacket were stained with mud, and one of his boots was unlaced.
"I know you can hear me, old man, quit ignoring me!"
With a sigh, Jiraiya glanced back at his godson. Naruto was trotting to catch up with him- though the kid lacked the advantage of long legs, he made up for it with unbridled energy.
"What's up, kiddo?"
"How long till we get there?" Naruto made a face. "If it's gonna be long, can we stop for lunch? I'm hungry, I haven't eaten since that ramen stand in Morita Village-"
"That was an hour and a half ago."
The boy looked nonplussed. "Yeah. So?"
"So you're a bottomless pit," Jiraiya reached out and ruffled the kid's hair. "No, we're not stopping. We'll be there soon, so have a protein bar or something."
"What, really?" That was excitement in Naruto's voice, not complaint- his blue eyes lit up with eagerness and he skipped a few steps forward. "You're not kidding, are you?"
"Of course not."
"How long?"
Jiraiya shrugged. "Maybe another half an hour? The trees are getting taller, so we should be close. We'll probably even be able to see it from the top of the ridge."
"What's it like?" Naruto asked, words tumbling out all at once. "Hidden Leaf, I mean. And will we see any ninja before we get there? How big is it- big like huge, or just sort of big, like that one town in Sugar Country with the tower and the guy in the dumb hat with the tassel and the monkey- though I guess that one was pretty big after all, if you included the palace thingy—"
Jiraiya regarded him with amusement for a moment.
The kid was so much like his mother with his little outbursts. Probably Jiraiya should have worked harder to teach him patience and discipline, like a proper ninja- but he'd never had the heart. Besides, there were enough by-the-book ninja in Leaf. The ones with real promise tended to come off as eccentrics.
"Hey, since the buildings in Hidden Sand are made of sand, does that mean that the buildings in Leaf are made of leaves? Ha, or trees. Like a whole city of tree houses, that would be so cool."
"Hate to break it to you," Jiraiya said with a chuckle, "But they're just normal houses."
Naruto wilted in disappointment.
"Most of 'em are sort of roundish," he explained. "And they have some wacky paint jobs."
The kid frowned. "That's not interesting at all."
"Sacrifices you gotta make," Jiraiya said with a shrug. "When you have a lot of trade coming in and out, you can't very well build your village on the top of a mountain, can you?"
"Hidden Cloud is on top of a mountain," Naruto said mulishly.
"And it's all grand and imposing and picturesque, sure. Incredibly difficult to attack or infiltrate- believe me, I know. But if you cut off their supply lines, they'd have an incredibly hard time in a siege. It isn't easy to cart food and supplies up sheer cliffs, and it isn't as though you can grow it yourself on a mountain."
His godson made a face.
"Hey, this is important stuff if you're gonna be Hokage."
Naruto scowled. "Yeah, I know."
"Sure you want to?" the old man needled. "You could always give up that idea, be an intel specialist like me?"
"No way." The kid turned up his nose. "I'm gonna be a better Hokage than my dad."
Jiraiya turned away, hiding a grin.
Twelve years ago, when he took Naruto into his custody, Sarutobi-sensei had asked him to keep Naruto's parents a secret from the boy as he grew up.
Jiraiya refused point-blank. He'd seen the point, of course: let even the most amiable and good-natured citizen from Earth Country find out that the Fourth Hokage had a kid, and all their efforts toward peace would go to hell in a handbasket. The Yellow Flash hadn't been too popular in Hidden Rock, to put it mildly. But Naruto deserved their memory, at least, and he could keep a secret.
Actually, he'd made a policy of being honest with the kid about everything. His parents were one of Naruto's secrets, and the Nine-Tailed Fox was another.
"Sure, kid." Jiraiya snorted. "You know your dad wasn't that interested in being the Hokage, right? I mean, as a kid he was into the idea, but it was your mom who was really determined."
"Yeah, I know." Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Well, I'll be better than both of them."
"An Uzumaki as Hokage." His godfather grinned, lost in thought. "I suppose it's about time. Two Senjus and a Sarutobi- your dad was making some changes, but we're right back to where we started."
"What?"
"No, never mind," Jiraiya said after a moment. "Just an old man's ramblings."
They walked in silence for a moment.
A warm spring breeze rustled the leaves on the trees, and the patches of the sky that showed through the cover of branches were blue and cloudless. The air carried the scent of rain-washed soil and growing things. Dragonflies buzzed around the tall grass and clovers beside the path.
It was, in short, a beautiful day for a journey home.
Jiraiya hadn't seen his village in twelve long years. Neither had Naruto. But now the wait was over, and his godson would be going home.
Looking back on it, there was nothing he regretted. Raising Naruto was his responsibility- though of course he hadn't foreseen the event actually happening when he'd agreed to be the godfather of Minato's son. Naruto had no family- where else would he have gone? To some vicious, backstabbing noble clan that wanted the prestige of raising the Fourth Hokage's heir? To some ANBU compound in the middle of nowhere? That was no way to go about it- Naruto deserved, if not a perfect childhood, then at least one with some freedom and adventure.
Now Naruto was old enough, it was time he returned to his real home and became a genin.
"Is it nice?" Naruto asked, breaking the pensive silence.
"Huh?"
"Leaf. Is it a nice place?"
Jiraiya snorted. "Come on, kid. I've only told you about it some hundred times."
"Well, I wanna hear it again." Naruto tugged on his backpack- a nervous gesture. "I mean, we're gonna be staying there a really long time, aren't we? So I just want to know-"
His godfather took pity. "Well, if I had to say-"
"Oh, but not about the trade and stuff. That's boring."
"Quit interrupting, brat! Anyway, it's like any big city. The people are nice, very friendly, and the women are quite frankly stunning-"
"Ugh, Jiji, that's gross!"
"Very lax regulations on the bathhouses, too-" Jiraiya caught Naruto's mutinous glare. "Okay, okay. Honestly, you have no appreciation for my art."
Annoyed, Naruto swung a fist at his godfather, who ducked easily.
A small scuffle ensued. Naturally, Jiraiya won.
Some time later, the travel-weary pair emerged from the woods onto the main path on the ridge. In the interim, Naruto had somehow managed to get even more covered in dirt and also had a number of twigs caught in his hair. Despite this, he was brimming with excitement.
"Come on, old man!" he cried in a pained voice. "We're so close, let's hurry up?"
"You're telling me to hurry up? Now tell me, which of us is the one who can't use the Body Flicker technique and get here the convenient way? Which of us hasn't signed a summoning contract and can't reverse-summon himself? And which of us has put up with all these inconveniences and taken the whole journey on foot so that the slow one has company on the trip?" Jiraiya deliberately stuck his hands in his pockets and ambled along even more slowly.
"Darn it, Jiji, I wanna get there now!"
"Patience is a vital virtue for any good ninja."
"Aw, shut up!"
"Oi, show some respect! Damn brat."
Naruto gave him a wicked grin. "Oh, I get it. You're so old that you're all tired out."
Jiraiya swatted at the impudent brat, but he managed to skip away and evade the blow.
"Losing your touch, old man?"
"Oh, now you're just asking for trouble!"
"Catch me if you can!" Naruto took off running full-out down the path, laughter ringing in his wake.
Of course Jiraiya had to go after him- he couldn't let that kind of nonsense go unchecked. When he finally caught up- because he was going easy on the brat, not because he was in any way losing his touch- he made to grab the kid in a headlock and give him the greatest noogie of all his twelve years combined.
Or at least, that was what he'd intended to do.
But when he saw Naruto's face, he paused.
The kid was perfectly still, like time had frozen around him and the world gone silent. His mouth was opened a fraction, but he didn't say anything. His eyes were huge and shining and awestruck, as he gazed in amazement along the path to the south.
Knowing what he'd see, and feeling the warmth of home in his chest, Jiraiya turned to look.
The Hidden Leaf.
There it was. The scene Naruto had imagined his entire life.
From the ridge, the whole of the village could be seen. The tall gates surrounding the city from the north, and the crest of stone and mountain cliffs that cradled it from the south. It sprawled out across the forest, immeasurably immense, with patches of wood even inside the borders of the wall. It was clearly built among the trees, and not merely within the forest's borders. The buildings were 'roundish', just as Jiji had promised, and though they weren't palaces or ancient temples or elegant towers, somehow they still took his breath away. Their rooftops were painted in the bright colors of fallen leaves- scarlet and green and teal and gold and orange.
And it was... home?
He was born here, in this village. It was his home. But he felt no sense of familiarity or belonging, only awe.
Instinctively, he turned to Jiraiya for assurance. Moving from place to place his whole life, he'd never really grown attached to any specific area, never made any friendships that could last. He'd always known that he had a place far away, that was 'home'- but it had always been Jiji that gave him somewhere to belong.
Jiraiya looked back at Naruto with a grin. "How about it, kiddo?"
If Jiji was with him, then anywhere was good enough as home.
"Well," said Naruto mischievously. "Bet I can get there first!"
And then he took off running. His godfather, letting loose an impressive repertoire of vivid and creative curses under his breath, followed him just a step behind.
Chapter Two: 'Chaos, Thy Hue Is Orange': Naruto makes his triumphant-ish return to the village, and havoc ensues. Several bones are picked, responsibilities are dodged, and unlikely acquaintances are made.
