After several days of studying his butt off alongside his pack of clones, the spiky-haired genin felt he was finally capable of writing a somewhat coherent piece of literature. His comprehension of spelling, grammar, literary devices, and plot construction was at higher levels than he ever thought possible. While he still had a long way to go before he mastered the craft of writing, he believed that he would continue to get better once he began putting pen to paper. Like being a ninja you can develop all of the skills you want, but without proper field experience, those skills were meaningless. It had all been surprisingly easy to grasp for him. He was unsure about whether this was simply because of his use of clones to expedite the process, or if he truly had some natural affinity for writing that he was unaware of until now.

He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room with his hands resting on his lap. The energetic blond let out a frustrated sigh while staring intently at the ground. He shifted slightly, leaned back and placed his arms on the ground behind him, propping himself up so he didn't fall backward.

While all of this new knowledge was great and all, there was a caveat. 'There's not much use in knowing how to write if I have no idea what to write about.' He thought, slightly dejected. His ability to write had improved exponentially, yes, but knowing how to do something does not mean you have the ability to apply it. Technical abilities are much easier to obtain than natural creativity. Both are necessary tools that an author must possess to make an interesting story. "I still don't know what my story is gonna be about…"

Naruto has begun thinking about possible story ideas almost immediately after he and his clones had finished their study session. Initially, he thought it was a brilliant idea to keep the clones around so they can help him on deciding a topic for his novel. However, that soon proved to be a very bad idea. Naruto was hopeful at first until one of his clones said their story had to be about ramen and only ramen. He was practically insistent on it. To make matters even worse, all of his clones agreed with the stupid idea! Before he knew it, he was having a screaming match with his clones about how ramen could not be a topic for any respectable story. They aren't writing a cookbook! The exchange got a little heated and one of his clones had to be forcibly dispelled with a smack to the head. After that idea went south, it was up to a singular Naruto to come up with the foundation of his story.

So far, after several days of trying his best to think of something, the results were not looking too good. He had nothing.

"What do people even read about?!" He yelled out in exasperation. The voice echoed back to him from the walls of the empty hotel room. The blond was suddenly regretting never reading a book his entire life.

"Gotta think." He repeated to himself as he rubbed his temples, praying for some sort of inspiration to pop into his head. He glanced over at the book Jiraiya left him that was still resting on the table. He shuddered. 'Not that kind of inspiration.' He thought to himself dryly.

As if on cue, Jiraiya walked through the front door. Naruto's head swung around to see who was responsible for the disturbance. When he saw it was just his master, he huffed. "What are you doing back already? Finally tired of staring at women for a living?" He asked mockingly.

Jiraiya looked the blond dead in the eyes, his round orbs blazing with a nearly unmatchable fierceness that his student had only seen from him a few times.

"How could you even say that?" He deadpanned. His tone was so serious that Naruto had to hold in his laughter. But this was no laughing matter to the white-haired sage. "The female body is one of utmost beauty, my eyes will never get tired from seeing their delicate figures swing and bounce around in a hot spring…" He trailed off, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks.

Naruto's eye twitched. You would think after spending so much time with his teacher he would be used to the ridiculous things that come out of the Sannin's mouth. However, you would be very wrong. The genin is continuously surprised by just how excessively perverted and self-diluted his master can be sometimes. He allowed himself a faint smile at the sage's antics. 'He's never boring to be around, though.' He chuckled to himself.

"Why are you back already?" The blond repeated his first question, completely ignoring the sage's over-the-top reaction.

"Well, you see…" He began, but then trailed off. He scratched the back of his head and let out a small chuckle. "I-I just wanted to see how my little protégé was coming along. Make any progress yet?" His hand remained behind his head as he waited for an answer. His sudden interest in the well-being of his student didn't sound very convincing to the blond.

"You got caught by a bunch of women again, didn't you?" His student asked without an ounce of humor in his voice.

"Hehehe." Jiraiya turned around and revealed that he wasn't actually scratching the back of his head. He was attempting to conceal a rather large bump that he got when a woman, who was much stronger than she appeared, kicked him in the back of the head. "How did you know?" He asked weakly.

"When you said you came here for my benefit." Jiraiya sweat dropped. His student had so little faith in him. "Normally you stay out quite a bit later than this, so I figured there had to be a reason you had to come back. Which brought me to the conclusion that you pissed off a bunch of women and had to go into hiding while everything outside cooled down."

"Well, isn't someone a little sleuth." The older man shot back sarcastically. Jiraiya sat down on the ground roughly 8 feet away from the boy and eyed him curiously. "But seriously, how are things coming along?" He asked genuinely. Jiraiya seemed more interested in women at times, sure, but that wasn't the case. He cared deeply for the boy he just has a hard time showing it.

Naruto opened his mouth to tell his master that everything was going great and that his book would be completed in no time. But something stopped him. Normally, his bombastic confidence would erupt out of his mouth and alleviate the worries of the people around him. It was a different ball game this time. He was out of his comfort zone and he knew it. Maybe asking Jiraiya for some of that advice he was talking about earlier wouldn't be the worst thing in the world? Unless, of course, he pulls out that pervy book again.

"Actually, can I ask you a question, Pervy Sage?" He asked with much less sassiness than he had during their prior exchange.

The change of tone was not lost on Jiraiya and he gave his pupil a questioning glance. "What is it, brat?" He, too, asked with a much more serious tone than before. The sudden shift in conversation interested the Sannin.

"Why do you need to spy on women to write those books of yours?" When the blond genin refers to his sensei's books, it's normally an insult or said with a mocking tone. However, this was different. He was genuinely curious. The sage was the self-proclaimed 'Super Pervert', after all. The man didn't have a shameful bone in his body, there was no need to make up excuses if he wanted to spy on women. Why call it research if the only intention was to be a perv?

Jiraiya looked intently at the boy as he flashed a proud smile. "Why, to ensure that my novels become the masterpieces that they are, of course!" The ever-present pride he exuded when referring to his works was as strong as ever.

"Yeah." Began the blond, not taking the easy chance to insult his master once more. "But why do you need all of that peeping to write your book? I thought you were a 'literary genius.' Shouldn't you be able to write them without your research?" He teased his teacher lightly. Okay, maybe he couldn't resist taking a shot at the older man. God, he loved doing that.

Jiraiya continued on, not even seeming to notice that his genin disciple was making fun of him again. "Yes, but you should know that almost every successful author implements his own life experiences into their finest works. Not only can it assist them in telling a compelling story, but it also gives that story a very realistic feel to it." Despite the perverted undertone of Jiraiya's words, considering the type of books he writes, his words were very wise.

Naruto's eyes lit up. Of course, how could he have been so stupid? It was in front of him the entire time. His mind was spinning in a dozen different directions. He thought about his life, his childhood, how he was treated, all the pain that it caused him. And despite all of that hardship, he still wanted to become Hokage and protect those close to him. These were perfect elements he could incorporate into a cohesive story.

A hero. His story would be about a great, strong hero who protects those around him with a power that is difficult for him to control. A potentially dangerous power that causes even those that he saves to be wary of him and treat him as more of a nuisance than the hero he actually is. A hero that continues to protect even those who shun him.

Jiraiya, completely unaware of the explosion of inspiration he set off in the boy's head, stood up abruptly. "Well, I should get back to it." A hint of excitement laced his voice. "All of this talk about peeping has got me in the mood for some more research." At this point even Jiraiya was using the words 'peeping' and 'research' interchangeably.

Naruto tore himself away from his overflowing thoughts at the sound of his master's voice. Under normal circumstances, he would berate his perverted sensei for going back out to spy on women so soon after getting beaten up. However, this time he wanted Jiraiya to leave so he could write down all of his thoughts before they leave his brain, undisturbed. "Thanks for the advice. Don't get yourself killed." He said harshly with a wave.

"I can't die yet" He responded with a thumbs up as he opened the door. "I haven't seen enough women from the Cloud Village, yet. I hear they're gorgeous." He finished as he shut the door behind him.

Naruto shook his at the older man's antics. 'He may be goofy ninety-percent of the time, but he really helped me out.' He thought to himself. The boy finally felt like he would be able to make some actual progress. A wave of relief washed over him.

"Time to get to work! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Suddenly, there were now seven identical Naruto's in the small hotel room. Each of them had an identical determined expression on their face. Well, except for one…

"Don't you guys think it's kinda dumb that we're basically writing a story about ourselves? Like, how self-centered can we get? I really think that the story about ramen would be a bette-"

There was a low thud, followed by a 'poof'.

"Does anyone else have anything to say?" The original blond-haired genin looked at his clones. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

The five remaining clones shook their heads vigorously.

"Good! Let's get to work!"

"Okay!"

It turned out that this time around, using clones would be very beneficial. Even though he and the clones were all the same person, they were useful when he needed to bounce ideas around. His clones did not hold back any criticism when they thought an idea wasn't any good. It was very odd to be repeatedly called an idiot by yourself. The blond began to contemplate if he was that big of a jerk to his friends.

When you're on the exact same page as the people that you are working with, it allows you to be able to work like a well-oiled machine. That became apparent to the child when he saw just how much the group had completed in just a few short hours of work. Some of his clones even went as far as to help him outline the story, develop a setting, and name the main character. His main character's name would be Menma. Naruto's reasoning, you ask? Ramen. The irony of that occurrence eluded him.

The genin finally stopped writing and put down his pen as light shined through his hotel window, temporarily blinding him. He was surprised. The fact that is was light out meant he had stayed up the entire night. 'Maybe we were working for longer than I thought.' He thought to himself as he rubbed his eyes. After his vision returned to him, he looked around his room.

There were four other Naruto's littered all across the floor, sleeping soundly. What happened to the fifth, you ask? About mid-way through the writing session, the aforementioned clone got upset with the original Naruto. He claimed to have a good idea regarding the direction the story should go. However, his idea was shut down. Naruto, being the petty child he can sometimes be, clearly had clones who acted the same way. The disgruntled clone took it upon himself to read some of the book that Jiraiya had left behind. When he was found out, an angry Naruto quickly dispelled the rogue clone. However, that didn't stop the memories of the book to be transferred back to the original.

Naruto shuddered as he tried to shake off the images that the book caused to creep into his mind. 'I'm really starting to think that these clones are more trouble than they're worth.' He thought to himself, slightly annoyed.

The disciple of the toad sage yawned as the exhaustion was finally starting to catch up to him. He gathered what he had completed so far and glanced over it. Three decently-lengthy chapters of a rough draft were what they had completed in just one day. Considering Naruto was aiming for a story with about 10-12 chapters, this was a better start than he could have ever hoped for.

Words could not describe how much pride he felt at the moment. This was by far the best work he had ever done by himself. When attending the academy, never thought he'd be able to achieve this quality of writing on his own. Hell, at that time he had no interest in being able to learn how to write, at all. All he cared about was becoming Hokage. 'So much can change in just a few months.' He thought to himself fondly. For once, he could look back to something from his past and not feel dejected or sad. He wasn't thinking about Sasuke, or how he was treated for the first twelve years of his life. It was nice.

He dispelled his clones and hid his completed work from the prying eyes of his mentor. 'Can't have that nosey little perv finding out just how much I have done. I wanna see the look on his face when it's all completed.'

After making sure everything was well hidden, he glanced over at the clock and a groan escaped his lips. It read 8:30 AM, meaning he would barely be able to get any sleep before Jiraiya came back and forced him to wake up.

Despite his busy schedule peeping on girls all day, the sage still somehow found the time to make it his mission to ensure Naruto never slept in. If his pupil wasn't up by 9:00 AM, Jiraiya would retrieve the coldest river water he could find and dump it on the unsuspecting blond. The sage said it was a great way to get his student used to the life of being a full-fledged shinobi. Shinobi had to be alert and ready to wake up at a moment's notice to respond to potential enemies.

While that seemed like a reasonable explanation, Naruto didn't buy it. He knew his master just enjoyed annoying him. Otherwise, he wouldn't go out of his way to get borderline ice-water. Room temperature water, or even loud noises would do the trick just fine.

Naruto glanced back at the clock. Taking into account his 10-minute mental rant, he only had about 20 minutes to get ready for the return of his teacher.

…

…

…

Twenty minutes passed by quickly, and to no one's surprise, at 8:59 the door to the apartment opened slowly. A head surrounded by spiky white hair poked out from the opening. The lack of noise told the sage that his target was definitely asleep. Perfect. Sharp eyes scanned the room intently, trying to locate the sleeping figure. His eyes settled on a tuft of blond hair that was sticking out over the back of the couch. 'You make this too easy, kid.' He thought to himself deviously.

Jiraiya crept slowly into the room, using every ounce of his renowned stealthy abilities. As he crept closer and closer to the wild-haired boy, he slowly reached into his pocket and took out one of his many storage scrolls. He slowly unraveled it, revealing the kanji for 'water'. 'This is gonna be good.' He mused.

The sage sprung forward with great agility and a devilish grin. The intent to ruin the genin's slumber was plastered on the Sannin's face.

…

He blinked. Instead of the goofy little apprentice, he was expecting to see, a Naruto lookalike scarecrow was on the couch, covered in a blanket to complete the effect of a sleeping child. "Huh?" Confusion evident in the man's voice. "What is this?"

'Bang!'

Jiraiya immediately regretted that question. His target, Naruto Uzumaki, the Leaf Village's number one prankster, appeared out of nowhere and smacked the great sage in the back of the head with a comically large frying pan.

Naruto laughed hysterically at the way the powerful leaf jonin crumpled to the ground. He clutched his sides in an attempt to alleviate the painful cramps his intense laughter was causing him. A large bump could already be seen forming on the back of his mentor's head.

"Ha!" The student shouted triumphantly, towering over the master. "That's what you get for trying to mess with me, Pervy Sage!"

Jiraiya, who was still recovering from the surprise attack, just grumbled something incoherently.

Naruto continued to laugh at the expense of his master. His stomach grumbled. "All this fun has really given me an appetite." He continued teasingly. "I hope we have some ramen!" He joyfully made his way to the kitchen, already thinking about the noodle-laden deliciousness that was his favorite food.

"We don't." Jiraiya, who was partially recovered, was still nursing the back of his head. 'Why does everyone always hit me in the same spot.' He thought to himself humorlessly.

Naruto's nose scrunched up in disapproval. "Huh? Why not?!" This was simply unacceptable.

"Because you have to start eating things besides ramen. That stuff is no good for your health." Was his wise master's simple response.

Naruto frowned. "Well, what if I don't want to." The blond shot back defiantly.

"Too bad." Jiraiya had to me admit he somewhat enjoyed seeing the crushed look on the ramen fanatics face. "Besides, if you ever want to make it past 5ft tall, you're going to have to eat a wide variety of nutritious foods. It may seem sadistic now, but trust me, you'll thank me later."

Naruto shivered. "Ugh, that word. Don't ever say it again." He didn't even wanna think about it. While he certainly wanted to be taller, if he had to give up ramen in the process it wasn't worth it.

The sage facepalmed. "Nutritious is not a bad word, brat." He continued as Naruto's face got even more twisted in discomfort at the second utterance of that evil word. "I'm not saying you can never eat ramen again, kid. All I mean is that you have to put other things in your body if you want to get taller, faster, and stronger."

"Okay." The blond said weakly. He just wanted to change the subject. All this talk about less ramen and more 'nutritious' foods was making him depressed.

The sage let out an exaggerated sigh. It wouldn't do him any good to press more. For the time being, he'd leave him alone about his eating habits.

"So…" The sage began innocently. "Get any writing done today?" He had a curious glint in his eye.

"Not really." The blond answered vaguely with a shrug. "You were right. Writing is a lot harder than I thought it would be." On the outside, he tried his best to look defeated, but on the inside, he was far from it. He had gotten a lot more work done today than he had ever thought possible, but he couldn't let his master know that. He wanted to hide his progress from the sage and crush his hopes all at once.

Jiraiya smirked, completely unaware of his disciple's intentions. "Well, one day you're going to realize that I'm always right!" He said proudly.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah… right." The sarcasm in his voice was audible.

"Shut up, brat…"

-A Couple Weeks Later-

It was dark, cold, and damp. It was relatively silent, except for the periodic sound of drops of water lightly thudding against the ground. Stalactites hung from the ceiling as water slowly ran down to their tips.

A lone figure stood in the center of the dark cave. However, there was something odd about this figure.

A stalactite hung right above the man, a water droplet was forming at its tip. The surface tension of the rock was doing its best to fight against gravity. The reservoir of water eventually became too big and the water droplet began falling, on a collision course with its target.

Only for the drop to… pass right through the figure?

The figure did not appear to be a solid being. The staticky, ethereal figure seemed to be some form of a hologram. He had spiky hair, and his face was heavily pierced with what appeared to be some sort of odd, black metal. Despite not being physically in the cave, he stood with a commanding authority that could still be felt. A type of authority that exuded power and demanded the respect of all who would stand before him.

And most of that power rested in the figure's eyes. The cave was dark, yes, but those eyes appeared to shine as brightly as the sun in that damp, little cavern. They were purple, with deep black circles going around the pupil to form a rippling pattern.

He has been standing there for several minutes. He had not made a sound or moved an inch since he had appeared.

"You're late." He finally said. Oddly enough, he was still alone.

As if on cue, a few seconds later, another figure rose slowly from the ground. This being differed vastly from the other. He was solid and had what appeared to be a something similar to a venus fly trap surrounding his body. Half of his body black, half white. Whatever it was, it did not appear to be human.

"Hehe. Sorry." The creature's voice was surprisingly light, almost playful. It did not match his appearance in the slightest. "I have a job to do and didn't want to leave early and potentially miss anything important." His demeanor also contrasted heavily with the individual he was talking to. He was playful and goofy, while the other was stoic and intense.

"I suppose you have a point." The hologram figure said after a short pause. "Let us be quick. What is your report, Zetsu?" It was clear by the way he spoke that he was the one who was in charge.

"Uh, well…" The one now named Zetsu began slowly, sounding unsure of himself. "Will you hurry up and spit it out." A much gruffer, agitated-sounding third voice cut in abruptly. "We don't have all day."

Three voices, but only two figures stood in the cave. A normal person would have reacted to this abnormality, but the hologram figure did not even twitch. "I agree with black Zetsu, what is your report?" He commanded, looking more intently at the left side of Zetsu's face.

"They seem to be stationary for the time being. And by the looks of it, they do not appear to be moving anytime soon." His goofy tone was replaced with a slightly more serious one as he relayed the findings of his espionage to his leader.

"Why do you say that?" The leader questioned, referring to the latter part of the report.

"None of their stuff is packed up. If they were planning on leaving soon, they would have begun readying some of their things for travel." Was his simple reply.

"Interesting." The ethereal figure said after a short pause. "I would have thought they'd be constantly moving from place to play to avoid being detected." He closed his eyes for a moment, appearing to give something some thought.

"Why don't we just move in now?" Zetsu's voiced caused his leader's rippled eyes to snap open. He eyed him curiously, waiting for him to continue. "He is by himself for most of the day and vulnerable, it would be easy." The white half of the creature spoke with such enthusiasm.

"There's no sign of him?" He asked cautiously.

"No. For several hours out of the day they are separated."

"You're a fool if you truly believe that." He spoke with a harsh, unforgiving tone. "Do not underestimate that man. It will be your undoing."

White Zetsu recoiled slightly at those words but did not say anything further. He knew to listen to his leader when he spoke.

"I do not believe this is the proper time to take action." The pierced man looked down at a puddle of water on the cave floor. When he spoke the water rippled ever so slightly. Not enough for the average human eye to notice, but his eyes were far from average. His gaze shifted back up to his subordinate. "Even if we were able to capture the nine-tails, we would not be able to seal him right away. You know this. And because we cannot allow him to die before then, we run the risk of the Leaf Village attempting to get him back before we have a chance to do anything else." Zetsu nodded, seemingly following his logic. "More importantly, as long as he is being protected by him, the nine-tails is untouchable."

The intent of his once vague words finally revealed it was obvious who this man was. He was the leader, or at least a very high ranking member, of the S-Class criminal organization, the Akatsuki. And their target? Naruto Uzumaki.

"He's really that strong, Pain?" Zetsu looked as if he was about to say something else, but the eyes of his leader caused him to stop. It was not his turn to speak yet.

"Yes," The now named Akatsuki leader, Pain, said. "However." He began slowly, several possibilities running through his mind. "If the opportunity ever presents himself, perhaps there is a chance we could move early." That was all he had to say on the matter, he had some things he needed to think about. "Continue your surveillance. Let me know of any significant updates." He turned away, signaling that their meeting had now come to a close.

"Understood." White and black said in unison. Their body slowly lowered back into the ground until they fully disappeared.

The hologram of the man named pain remained stationary in the middle of the cave. His eyes remained shut as he began to think about his past. For a split second, a brief flash of an indiscernible emotion flickered across his face. No. He felt nothing. He was sure of it.

"Jiraiya-sensei, huh? How nostalgic." The hologram disappeared, his words echoed in the now empty cave.

AN: I don't know what the reaction to these first few chapters will be. Some people may find them a little boring and uneventful, but personally the interactions between Naruto and Jiraiya are some of my favorite things about the series and I hope I replicated them in a way that all of you can enjoy. I have a lot of big ideas for the future of this story, I'm just not sure if my sub-par writing skills are up to the task. That, and my busy schedule, makes it difficult for me to promise any consistent uploading. (As you can see it took me over a year just to get this chapter out.) Then again, I doubt there are people losing sleep over me not uploading

Reviews about your overall thought and opinions on the story so far would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!