AN: I'd just like to thank everyone who favorites and follows the stories. The story recently reached 65 followers at the time of writing this and that means a lot to me. All of the reviews have been very positive, as well. They keep me motivated to keep writing so continue leaving them! I'm very open to reviews that critiques, too. Anything that can help me improve is appreciated.

As for chapter updates, I'm hoping to get a chapter out every other week. I am in college, so when the workload gets too heavy each semester, I can't promise that I stick to that. If I remember to, I can post on my profile how the chapters are coming along (like percentage-wise and such). Or PM me, I'll respond directly to any questions or concerns you may have. Just don't ask for me to spoil any of the story for you!

Chapter 6: Old Habits Die Hard

'Only five laps today, Naruto.'

When the blond had heard those words come out of the white-haired sage's mouth, he almost wept tears of utter joy. If had been a week since Jiraiya had introduced the chakra weights into Naruto's training, but this was the first day in which he wasn't required to do fifty laps for his warm-ups. Being happy was an understandable reaction, yes, but now the genin was beginning to feel different about the whole situation.

Naruto, who was currently on his fourth out of five laps, was jogging at a very modest pace. This was a far cry from his first day using the weights and he was proud of the progress he was making so far.

'What is the reason he's only having me do five laps? Is something else going on today.' Despite the great progress he had been making recently, he was currently unable to enjoy it because of the lighter warm-up. The blond has known Jiraiya long enough that he rarely does things, if at all, without some sort of reasoning behind it. 'I guess the only thing I can do is wait and find out what he tries to kill me with next.' He thought to himself as a drop of sweat rolled down his temple.

"This is ridiculous!" The angry shout caused the genin's head to snap towards the direction of the offending sound. It was Jiraiya- leaned up against a tree as always- with an irritated expression on his face. Upon closer inspection, his student noticed that the Sannin was angrily reading through a stack of papers.

"Wait a minute." The blond said incredulously. He recognized those papers. That was a copy of the transcript for his book, which had been given to him when he received his publication confirmation letter from Jiraiya's, now also his, publisher. Naruto also noticed that one of his bags was open and many of his things had been removed and were laying on the floor. Steam comically began to pour out of his ears as he stomped over to confront his nosey mentor.

"Hey, asshole!" The blunt boy yelled. "What are you doing going through my stuff? You left it all out on the floor! It's gonna get dirty!" If Jiraiya was a lot weaker and smaller, Naruto would definitely beat him up!

Jiraiya, ignoring the blond's outbursts how he usually does, matched his anger as he held up Naruto's transcript. "What is this? What am I reading?!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger at the offending text.

"What do you mean?" The genin shot back.

"This!" Jiraiya dragged his finger across every inch of the page for emphasis.

While he appeared animated and upset about something, the blond was unable to determine what he was actually angry about. "What's wrong with it?" He said irritably. He had put a lot of effort into producing that book and he couldn't help but get a bit defensive when someone criticized it. Especially a giant pervert who only writes smut!

"Where do I begin?!" The older man said in exasperation. "I'm already a few chapters in. Where's the romance? Or the drama?!" He rubbed his head in genuine confusion as he spoke, eyes filled what appeared to be a burning passion so intense Naruto could not make direct eye contact with him. "How could a student of mine not know the first thing about writing a successful novel?" He looked to his ward for answers.

Naruto let out an irritated sigh as his anger levels dropped to considerably lower levels. He knew that this was going to happen eventually. After all, it was the super pervert he was dealing with. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he addressed his master's qualms.

"Maybe there are none of those elements in this story because it is not a romance novel?! Did that ever cross your mind, perv?" If Naruto was being honest with himself, he wasn't that offended by anything Jiraiya had said. If the complaint had been about the overall quality of writing, that would have been a different story. In this case, it was just Jiraiya being Jiraiya, something Naruto wholeheartedly accepted as reality at this point. "How am I even supposed to write a novel about romance if I haven't even had a girlfriend, anyway?"

The sage raised his hand to answer the blond's question.

"If the word research comes out of your mouth, I will write a letter to Granny Tsunade and she won't be happy about what I have to say."

Jiraiya slowly lowered his hand.

Aside from being his usual childish self, Jiraiya was acting a bit strange. To Naruto, what the older man was saying did not match what his eyes were telling him. The Sannin's eyes were conveying a different emotion, one that the blond was unsure of. Maybe he was imagining the whole thing?

The truth was that Jiraiya was trying to hide how he was truly feeling. In actuality, he was jealous of his young ward. The realization that he was jealous of his own student was making him feel a tad guilty. These negative feelings stemmed from the blond's novel. Initially, Jiraiya did not have high expectations regarding the boy's writing capabilities. However, that completely changed when he got past the first chapter. The book was excellent, not that Jiraiya would ever admit that to anyone.

He was incredibly proud of his student for discovering his talents for literature, that was not why he felt jealous. It was the book itself, or, more importantly, what it was about. The only action-adventure book featuring a heroic main character that the Sannin ever wrote was, to put it nicely, not commercially successful. It was a failure. A failure that led him to abandon that genre of writing altogether and, instead, write his 'romance' novels. While his Icha-Icha series was a success that made him rather wealthy, 'Tale of a Gutsy Ninja' was something he poured his soul into like no other. He was bitter that people did not receive it as positively as he envisioned.

He shook his head in an attempt to relieve his brain of the negative thoughts he was feeling. Looking back down at his protégé's transcript, he allowed himself a small smile. From the very beginning of the story, he had immediately noticed the similarities between its main character and his favorite little blond. 'Knowing you, Naruto, I feel that this story may have a similar message to the one I tried to write all of those years ago. Instead of being envious like a bratty child, I'm going to hope that this story makes a difference in the world that I wish mine could have.'

Naruto, noticing his mentor's sudden change in expression, frowned in confusion. "What is it now?" He was starting to think that his sensei was bi-polar. The man switched from upset to happy faster than Naruto could eat a bowl of miso ramen with extra pork.

"'The Weight of the World', why did you pick that for the title?" Jiraiya, who was now looking at this disciple, asked with an even tone.

Naruto was taken aback by the sudden question. "Well, uh…" He took a moment to respond while he gathered his thoughts. "The hero has to overcome so much, and so many people are relying on him. That's a lot of pressure to put on one person, ya know?" He finally answered.

"Do you ever feel like that?"

The genin's eyes widened slightly, then he rebounded quickly. "What? Of course not!" He puffed out his chest for effect. "Nothing can ever get me down! I'm amazing, believe it!" Proud smile ever present on his face.

Jiraiya's gaze remained fixed on his student. It was obvious that while Naruto wished that was the truth, it wasn't the case. With the Akatsuki after him, Sasuke going rogue to join Orochimaru, and Naruto's vow to protect everyone precious to him, there was no genin alive who had more pressure on them than him. "Just know that you can talk to me whenever you need it, okay?"

"Uh, sure." Voiced with a twinge of awkwardness. He wasn't used to Jiraiya acting like this. Although he wouldn't admit it to the perv, it felt rather comforting to hear him say that.

"I'm sorry for tossing all of your stuff on the ground, Naruto." The blond blinked. "Would it be okay if I could borrow this, so I can finish it?" The sage said, gesturing to his student's novel.

"Why?" The younger leaf ninja asked. He hadn't expected that question.

"You're my student, so I can't in good conscience let you write a second book without giving you critiques on the first!" The older author had a toothy grin as he gave the younger novelist a big thumbs up.

Naruto huffed. "Whatever, if you can find any critiques, that is." He shot back.

Jiraiya let out a bellowing laugh and placed the transcript beside him. "That's the spirit, kid!" He stood up and inspected his student closely. "So, how are the weights feeling today? Are you getting adjusted to them?"

"I'm pretty sure that my body is adjusting to the weight pretty well." Raising his arms above his head for emphasis. "It's still hard as hell, but I can manage. I was even able to jog the entire five laps."

The sage raised an eyebrow in response. He expected the boy's progress to be fast, however, he hadn't foreseen such rapid development. Instructing the blond to complete five laps as quickly as possible, he had expected the child to be completely gassed by the end of it. 'He's not even breathing hard.' An amazing feat for sure.

"Good. Maybe next month I can increase the amount of weight a little."

"A little? I thought you said you were going to double the weight every time I adjusted to it?" There was confusion and relief evident in his voice. Mostly relief.

Jiraiya waved dismissively in response. "What, are you crazy? Who do I look like? Gai?"

"The-Then what was that whole inspirational speech last week for?!"

"Oh, that?" He said with a mischievous grin. "I just enjoy scaring the crap out of you, brat."

There was a slight pause.

"You know, every time I gain a little bit of respect for you, you find some dumb way to make me think less of you." He shook his head in slight disbelief. "You're just an idiot, aren't you, Pervy Sage?"

Jiraiya hung his head in disappointment. Sometimes, he wished his student would start treating him with the respect a ninja as cool as him deserved. Strength feared by practically every ninja in every village across the entire world… And yet, the respect of his 13-year-old pupil constantly eluded his grasp.

"You may be a kid, but that doesn't mean your words don't sting." Feign tears were streaming down the older writer's face.

With his long, spiky hair he kind of looked like a depressed porcupine. So instead of trying to console his master he, being the nice guy that he is, started laughing at him.

"Okay, Naruto," Jiraiya spoke as if nothing happened. Maybe he was bi-polar? "Are you ready to start the next part of your training today?

"That's what I was just about to ask you about." The sage nodded for him to continue. "How come you only had me do 5 laps today? Normally I do at least 50 laps and then we jump right into those weird drills you have me do."

"I'll tell you why." He began. "You see, I wanted this first week to be about increasing your body's strength and speed. These two aspects are some of the most fundamental abilities a shinobi should have." The blond nodded in understanding. "However, I don't want to be doing the same thing every day. It is also important that we mix in other aspects of training as well. The body needs time to rest and can't do it if you carry around all that extra weight every day."

The blond was getting excited. Could this mean he was going to learn some super epic jutsu today? "Okay, so what are we gonna do today?" Voice not betraying his overflowing cheerfulness.

"You and I are going to spar!"

The boy's face fell immediately. Spar with Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin? Suddenly wishing he hadn't been so mean to his sensei, the blond audibly gulped. "How exactly is sparring with you going to make me better? You're so much stronger than me!"

The older man waved off his student's apprehensions. "I'm not going to kill you, kid. The reason we're going to spar is, so I can evaluate your taijutsu."

Naruto's eyes lit up in realization. "So, the weights were for…"

"Exactly." His master confirmed. "We're going to build up your strength and speed for while also improving your taijutsu at the same time." He made a quick hand sign. "Ha!"

The genin felt the difference immediately. Since the weights had been activated for seven consecutive days, he had almost forgotten what his normal weight felt like. Being 300 pounds lighter, he didn't feel heavy anymore. In fact, it was almost as if he was floating. "Woah!" He exclaimed. "This feels so much better!" Bouncing around and throwing a few mock punches and kicks for display.

Jiraiya took a piece of paper out of his pocket and began reading off of it. "Three days out of the week you will be working on your strength and speed using the weights. Those days will consist of things similar to what I've had you do for the past week. However, there will also be another three days where we will be working on your taijutsu."

"What about the seventh day?" Asked the boy.

"That," Jiraiya said, turning the paper around to show his ward. "Will be a hybrid training session."

Naruto squinted as he read his sensei's odd handwriting. The paper had all seven days of the week written on it. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were circled, while Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday were enclosed by a square. Lastly, Sunday was enclosed by both a square and a circle. Today was Tuesday, so based on that information he concluded that squares meant taijutsu and circles meant weighted training. "What exactly do you mean by a hybrid session?" He asked, slightly confused. "A little bit of both in one day?"

"Not quite." Responded the older man. "During hybrid sessions, you'll be practicing your taijutsu while wearing your chakra weights." The blond's eyes widened slightly. "Because of the fluid and explosive movements executed during combat, wearing weights at the same time will help strengthen muscles that you aren't even aware that you have! "

"If hybrid training is so effective, how come we don't do it every day?" While it certainly didn't sound fun, if it got him the results he wanted, then so be it.

"Ah, good question." The sage acknowledged. "It's because of how physically exhausting it'll be on your body. If your body can handle it in the future, we may increase the number of days to 2 or 3, but for now, we'll start with one."

The blond nodded in understanding.

"Are you ready?" Jiraiya asked as he lowered into a defensive stance.

Naruto's face paled slightly. "Why do I need to fight you? Why can't I just spar with my clones?" If there was an alternative to fighting a Sannin, the boy would most assuredly take it.

Jiraiya chuckled, much to the annoyance of the blond. He wasn't going to get out of this that easily. "I need to see your taijutsu first-hand. That way it will be much easier for me to be able to correct your form." 'Or change it entirely.' He mentally added.

The young author's eyes narrowed suspiciously. He knew that that wasn't the main reason. The sage could easily watch he and his clones fight and correct his form that way. 'Sounds like he just wants to mess with me a little.'

"…Fine." The student said after a short pause. In reality, he knew that he needed to fix his taijutsu. It was sub-par at best. Okay, maybe he was giving himself a little too much credit. He sucked at taijutsu.

Jiraiya nodded and lowered back into his stance. While he was certainly going to have his fun, evaluating the boy's hand to hand combat abilities were the most important thing at the moment.

"Oh, and by the way. You can't use shadow clones."

"WHATTT?" He shouted incredulously. "Why not?!" His clones were incorporated heavily into his own unique style of taijutsu. Being unable to use his best weapon puts him at an even bigger disadvantage than he was already at.

Jiraiya sighed. "Listen, kid. You can't always be constantly relying on your clones to do all the work." Voice stern and unbending. "Shadow clones are a great tool in your arsenal, but you are using them the wrong way."

Naruto was confused. "What do you mean the wrong way?"

"They're a crutch. You've been using your clones to hide your deficiencies. Your taijutsu isn't that good, so you use clones to try and overwhelm your opponent. You can't make a Rasengan by yourself, so you use a clone to rotate the chakra for you." He continued. "What I want us to do is to strengthen those deficiencies, so you don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of chakra to even out the playing field with your opponent by using clones. Imagine what you could do with all of that extra chakra that wouldn't be wasted on unnecessary clones!"

While Naruto was slightly hurt by the words, he understood what his master was saying. And he even agreed with him. In reality, when something took too much effort for the boy to completely master, he used clones to patch up the holes in his skillset. It was a habit that he wasn't even aware he had.

Jiraiya suddenly disappeared, snapping him back to reality. He appeared in front of the blond, aiming a kick at his chest.

Acting solely on his reflexes, he crossed his arms in front of himself as a guard. The force of the kick, which was much stronger than the blond had anticipated, sent him tumbling through the air.

The ground did little to soften the boys landing as he skidded to a painful stop. 'I didn't even see him move!' He thought to himself frantically as he began to pick himself up.

"Don't expect your opponent to just wait for you!" The sage was forced to yell due to the now great distance that was between the two of them. "You must be prepared at all times!"

Naruto sighed. His master could be a real slave driver when he wanted to be. 'This is what I asked for, though. I know I'll get a lot stronger if all of the training is like this.'

His eyes widened as a shadow appeared at his feet. And it was quickly getting bigger. He contorted his body just enough so that he barely managed to dodge the foot that landed where his body had just been. The sheer force cracked the ground beneath them and sent a small vibration throughout his body.

He rolled away and scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could. Without even thinking about it, his hand flew into his signature seal. Realizing that he was about to use his clones, he forced himself to stop, and instead, summoned forth a string of curses.

'Dammit.' He thought angrily while looking at his hands. 'I really do rely on my clones too much!'

"Is there a problem Naruto?" He heard Jiraiya call out to him. Without even looking up at the sage, he could already see that smug 'I told you so' smirk that he would occasionally wear.

Naruto clenched his hands so hard that they nearly shook. He always thought that he was a pretty well-rounded ninja… except for his genjutsu.

But it turns out that he wasn't. While everyone one around him was getting stronger and learning new things, he was stuck relying on the same two techniques to win all of his battles. The Rasengan and shadow clones. And he couldn't even make a decent Rasengan, or passable taijutsu, without the use of his clones!

He was one-dimensional, and he knew it. It wasn't hopeless, though. That's what he was training with one of the Sannin for. A Sannin that already identified something he himself hadn't even thought about. A smirk appeared across his face. 'I'm finally learning some useful stuff.'

"No, sensei. There's no problem." He knew he needed to get stronger as fast as possible. That meant dwelling on the negative, when it would do him no good, would be useless.

Jiraiya's eyebrow rose, but he didn't say anything. Well, more accurately, he couldn't say anything. His student had actually called him sensei for what might have been the first time! He couldn't believe it! He did his best to not mention or make a big deal about it, hoping that saying nothing would finally mean the end of 'Pervy Sage'.

Naruto threw himself at the sage with everything that he had. If he wanted to get even one hit on his master in, he would have to go all out. With his noticeably increased speed, he aimed a punch at the Sannin's gut.

Jiraiya blocked it with an open palm and was almost surprised by how much power was behind it. "Not bad." He appraised. "But you'll need more than just a little power to beat me."

Naruto growled in response to the taunt. Dropping to the ground, he kicked his foot out for a leg sweep. Jiraiya was two steps ahead of him and easily jumped over it. Naruto smirked.

The blond twisted his body and planted his arms on the ground. He threw a powerful kick upwards, aimed at his teacher's sternum. It was met by Jiraiya's patiently awaiting guard, but with nothing to resist the force of the kick except for gravity, he was launched into the air.

Naruto quickly followed him into the air, trying to capitalize on his slight advantage. Just as he got in reach, the sage recovered and brought his fists down on the stunned genin's head.

Spiraling to the ground with no hopes of stopping, he was barely able to shift his body enough so as not to land on his head. His back slammed into the unforgiving ground, causing a grunt of pain to escape his lips.

Picking himself up, he watched his sensei land lightly a few yards away from him. The blond appeared to be favoring his right shoulder but was otherwise in good shape. Reaching for his kunai pouch, he hesitated. 'I don't know if I can use kunai or shuriken.' Instead, he discreetly took out two smoke bombs from his pouch and quickly tried to formulate a plan.

Before he could even use them, his opponent appeared in front of him. "As I said, don't expect your opponent to wait for you." Startled, the boy accidentally dropped both of the bombs.

They went off, forming a rather large cloud of black smoke. Jiraiya, surprised, coughed as he unexpectedly inhaled some of the smoke. Naruto, now aware of where his sensei was, threw several punches and kicks in his direction.

Despite not being able to see, Jiraiya parried every single one. The blond's strikes weren't fast enough and he was able to tell by the shifting of the smoke where they were coming from.

Naruto grunted in frustration and leaped out of the smoke, Jiraiya followed in pursuit. He was putting constant pressure on his student.

Naruto stopped and feinted with his right hand and threw a straight left at his opponent's chest. The punch was far too telegraphed, and the sage sidestepped it. He retaliated with a knee aimed for his student's gut. With Naruto's increased strength, he slammed his palms down on the rising knee, forcing a surprised Jiraiya to stumble forward. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the blond launched forward and slammed the top of his head into Jiraiya's chin.

'Bong!'

The strike found its mark and Naruto almost began to celebrate… only for 'Jiraiya' to disappear in a cloud of smoke, replaced by a wooden log.

"Hey!" He pointed a finger accusingly at the offending piece of wood. "What the hell! No ninjutsu during taijutsu-only sparring!"

Jiraiya, who was walking out from behind a tree, could only grin sheepishly. "I don't know what you're talking about, blondie!"

The blond huffed in annoyance at his teacher's dirty trick. He lowered back into his stance but was waved off by his senior.

"That's enough for now, Naruto."

Upon hearing those words, the blonds apparent fatigue began to catch up with him. He sat down to rest a little. "How did I do?" There was genuine curiosity in his voice. Considering he was a second away from breaking his teacher's jaw, his performance was better than even his wildest expectations.

"You did a lot better than I expected, kid." His mentor said with a big grin. "Even though it has only been a week, I can already see and feel the difference that those weights have had on your speed and strength. I underestimated you towards the end, there."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "I definitely noticed a difference too." He looked at the deactivated weights on his limbs with a newfound appreciation. "No wonder bushy brow was able to get so fast." He said aloud, more to himself than to Jiraiya.

"However." The sage continued. "That doesn't mean that there is no room for improvement.

Naruto frowned. "What do ya mean? I thought I did pretty good!"

Jiraiya smirked at his protégé's defensiveness. "You're too wild when you fight. You have to work on being more patient and controlled." Jiraiya rubbed his chin, thankful he avoided losing some teeth from his dense-headed godson's headbutt. "You're very unorthodox, so I think in the future we are going to work on your counter striking. That, mixed with your unorthodox attacks, will give your opponents fits!"

"I think it's fine the way it is." He grumbled to himself. "It's always worked for me before."

"That was before, this is now!" Naruto was startled by the sudden increase in volume. " You have S-Ranked ninja looking for you, ninja as strong, if not stronger than me! Lashing out and hoping to hit something is only going to get you killed!"

Naruto, who was about to retort, closed his mouth. The sage was right, and he knew it. With everyone in the Akatsuki potentially being on the same level as people like Orochimaru, he would have to improve drastically in every facet of his abilities.

The student sent back a weak nod of confirmation. He was both nervous and excited about the prospect of facing off against the Akatsuki. Remembering his first encounter with Itachi and the man who looked like a shark sent shivers down his spine.

"Good." The older man responded simply.

Naruto shifted, unsure of what was coming next. "So, what are we going to do ne-"

"Ha!"

"Wha-, Ah!" With the weights now activated again, the surprised blond crumpled to the ground.

"What the hell, you bastard! I thought you said no weights today!" Naruto struggled to move, quickly finding out he was unable to. "And this is way more than the usual weight!" He noticed his master's big smile. "How can you go from super serious, to a big idiot in just a few seconds!? Let me up!"

Jiraiya let out a bark of laughter and wiped a single tear from the corner of his eye, all while ignoring the vulgar language of his student. "Man, that never gets old." He said with a wide grin.

"I said let me up!" The angry child repeated.

"Once you get up, I'll deactivate them. Hurry up, I have a few taijutsu scrolls I want to show you!"

After nearly a minute of watching his ward struggle to get to his feet, he was getting a little impatient. "Hey! Get up lazy, we don't have all day!"

His godson just grumbled in response, still valiantly attempted to stand up.

"If you don't soon, I'm going to increase the weight."

"How the hell is that going to help anything!?"

-3 Months Later-

'Poof'

"Heh, there's only 5 left." A very beat up Naruto said proudly after dispelling another copy of himself.

"You shouldn't be acting so smug!" Jiraiya shouted, sitting atop a high tree branch, resting his back against its trunk. "You look like total crap!"

Naruto ignored his sensei and shifted his attention to the 5 remaining clones. He knew his teacher was just messing with him, he was just too exhausted to care.

The reason he was so worn out from just battling his clones was that it was Sunday. For the past 3 months, every Sunday consisted of his hybrid sessions, where he would usually fight his clones while weighed down by hundreds of pounds of gravitationally augmented training weights. As he found out before, clones of seals did not abide by the same restrictions of the original, making his shadow clones very difficult sparing partners perfect for his hybrid training.

"Yeah." One of the Naruto's snickered. "You do look like crap!"

The original didn't appreciate that tone in the slightest. He decided the obnoxious one would be his next victim. Lunging, his muscles burned from carrying all of the extra weight for so long, but he ignored it.

The punch he threw was rather sluggish and the much faster clone dodged it easily. With all the weight the original was swinging around blocking proved completely ineffective, something a few poor clones had found out in the beginning. Because of this, they were forced to evade their summoners strikes.

The doppelganger countered with a barrage of fast punches, putting the real blond on defense. With great difficulty, he was able to block and parry most of the punches. What few blows found their mark were merely light grazes the slower blond couldn't completely evade.

A second clone leaped behind him, hoping to take him out and end the battle right there. The much heavier genin smirked.

Just as the clone was about to land on him and declare victory, his target sidestepped and grabbed the surprised clone's arm as he sailed past him. With all of his strength, he swung the clone around and hit the copy of himself he had just been trading blows with.

This exchange resulted in 2 very satisfying 'poofs.'

'3 left.' He thought to himself.

50 clones were whittled down to 3 in just under 2 hours and the ones remaining did not want to join the other 47.

They jumped at him from different directions as a last-ditch attempt to win.

Naruto's eyes were wide with fear and the clones were sure that he would not be able to evade all 3 of them. He wasn't fast enough.

Instead of panicking, the blond simply reacted. Pumping his legs full of his remaining chakra, he leaped high into the air.

The clone's eyes widened simultaneously in shock. Unable to alter their trajectory, they crashed head first into one another.

'Poof'

Naruto landed on his back with a resounding 'thud' several feet away from where he had been. He was so heavy that the ground cracked beneath him upon impact. Having finally won, the genin would have let out a cheer if a groan hadn't escaped his lips first.

Jiraiya dropped down next to him. "I think that's the first time you've beaten all of them." His master said proudly. "It's especially impressive considering we only bumped up the weight a week or 2 ago."

"Dammit, sensei." His pupil said through grit teeth. "Just how much did you increase the weight by, anyway?"

"I think you're at about 14 times gravity, now. Meaning that the weights are totaling around 420 pounds." The sage said after some thought.

Naruto, despite the pain he was feeling, smiled in response. "I finally beat all 50 of them. I told you I'd do it today!"

His teacher rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You've been saying the same thing for almost 2 weeks now, of course, it was eventually going to come true."

The collapsed blond chuckled. "Doesn't matter. I still did it."

"That you did." He confirmed. "And I have to say, using your clones like this was a really good idea."

"Yeah, I know." The young author said as he got up to his feet. "Not only are they worthy sparring partners when I'm weighed down, but I think the experience I get from them is helping me improve my taijutsu that much faster!"

So far, in the three months, since he had started his training, Naruto has noticed massive changes in his physique. Once a scrawny, malnourished-looking squirt, he was packing on muscle at an alarming rate. Jiraiya told him that it wasn't only because he was training heavy, but because he was eating more than just ramen. Lean meats and nutrient dense vegetables were some of the foods the sage insisted his student eat after every training session. However, the genin thought he was just saying that to trick the blond into eating foods that were 'better' for him.

Strength and speed were also something that increased exponentially. When his weights were deactivated on his taijutsu days, he felt light as a feather. Despite that, his punches generated a lot of force. Enough to the point that Jiraiya couldn't lazily block his punches anymore without hurting the palms of his hands. Lastly, his taijutsu was much more polished than it had been before. While it was a far cry from being complete in the Sannin's eyes, he was working on becoming a more patient, counter-striking type fighter, and it was showing.

If he kept getting stronger at this pace, he couldn't even imagine what he would be like by the time he returned to the village.

Currently, they were using a clearing on the South-Eastern edge of the land of fire, about 20 or so miles from the open waters that would take a person straight to the Land of Water. The sage and student had been there for about 3 weeks, so it was once again almost time to begin to pack up their things and continue on their adventure.

"Kid." Naruto looked up at his teacher, who was sporting a proud smile. "You're coming along great!"

Naruto put his hands behind his head and returned the smile.

"So good, in fact, I think you've deserved the rest of the day off." The Sannin made a hand sign, and the blond sighed in relief as he became several hundreds of pounds lighter.

This caused Naruto's eyes to sparkle in gratitude, but his sensei didn't want him to get too comfortable. "Don't get too cocky, though. We start right back up in the morning with weighted training."

Naruto swiftly nodded in agreement. "I'm gonna celebrate with some instant ramen!" Now that Jiraiya complained whenever he ate ramen too much, the blond usually saved it for times he felt were special occasions.

"That's all you ate for the first month, how do you still have more of that stuff packed with you?" His master asked incredulously.

"I bought a ton of it before we left Tanzaku town." His ward answered simply. "Since you haven't been letting me eat it as much, I still have some left in my bag." The blond realized something. Something of the utmost importance. "Speaking of which, when are we going to be camped near a town? I'll need to buy more soon!"

"Funny you mention that." The older man acknowledged. "I was thinking that we should head of North in the next week."

"What's North?"

"The Land of Hot Water. More specifically, The Village Hidden in Hot Water."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. That village was known more as a tourist spot than a Hidden Village. A tourist spot with a lot of hot springs and pretty women.

"Hey!" He pointed an accusing finger at his sensei. "You better not be thinking of perving around when you said you were gonna put all of your attention into training me!"

The white-haired man began to sob. "I wish!" His continued weeping was similar to a dog being told he couldn't go for a walk outside. "The progress of my next Icha-Icha book is coming along rather slowly, buy my word is my word, and I intend to keep it."

"So, that's not what this is for?" He asked, still suspicious of his sensei's intentions.

"It will be perfect for someone who's training as hard as you." Naruto's ear perked up in sudden interest. "The hot springs will relax and soothe your body's muscles, allowing you to recover faster. Have you been feeling extra sore, as of late?"

The blond rotated his shoulder and grimaced. Now that Jiraiya mentioned it, everything ached. When they had first begun their training a few months ago, he was sore, but not to this extent. Feeling crappy was just something he had grown accustomed to feeling when he woke up in the morning.

"Actually, yeah."

"With all the work you've been doing these past months, it's put some wear and tear on your body. However, I don't want us to lower the intensity of your training, because I believe the progress you're making is too good to stop." He explained. "A month of using the hot springs after long days of difficult training will give your body some much needed TLC, while we train at the same time!"

"Sounds good to me! It'd be great if we could stop by the Land of Waves, too! It's on the way and I have some friends there that I haven't seen in a while!"

Jiraiya was about to reply, but something made him stop. He felt uneasy. Everything in his body was screaming at him that something was wrong. The rate of his heartbeat quickened slightly. 'What is that?' He thought, remaining outwardly calm as not to worry his student. His eyes scanned their training ground, but he could not detect anything. Slowly, the feeling began to go away.

He glanced over at his ward, who was already starting a fire to heat the water for his instant ramen. The look of excitement and innocence on his godson's face only further allowed him to calm down. 'Am I going crazy?'

"We found you!" A voice said from the trees surrounding them.

Jiraiya, and now even Naruto, were on full alert as several figures busted through the dense forest.

"What are you doing here? How did you find this place?"

There were 8 men, each wearing identical black cloaks and different masks that appeared to represent animals. A man with a bear mask stepped forward with a scroll in hand. "Lady Hokage recently received an update from one of your contacts. She has requested your assistance on an S-Rank mission." The man said with an even tone.

Having been recently tasked giving Naruto his full attention while they were away, he relinquished most of his duties regarding his spy network to the village. While he had sent his messenger toads out once or twice in the past few months, he mostly stayed uninvolved and allowed the ANBU assigned directly to the Hokage to meet with his contacts. Couldn't let that rat Danzo get his hands on his network of informants.

The Sannin took the scroll and began to open it. "I'll ask again, how were you able to find us here?" He began to scan the scrolls while waiting for an answer to his question.

The ANBU member shifted uncomfortably. It's not every day you have to deal with a displeased Sannin. The Hokage was bad enough. "Lady Hokage was very determined in finding you. So determined, in fact, that she asked the toads where you were currently located. We came right away."

"Pa ratted me out." He grumbled to himself more than to anyone who happened to be listening.

Coming back to reality, he continued reading the scroll from Tsunade. His eyes widened.

'According to one of your informants, there has been some unusual movement by the Akatsuki around the location of The Village Hidden Hot Water. I know that you have your hands full with Naruto, but because the Hot Water village has demilitarized itself as of late, they do not have the manpower to appropriately react to an Akatsuki attack. Also, they know of your reputation and will only settle for you to undertake this mission, I wouldn't have contacted you otherwise. Tell Naruto that I'm sorry, but they are our ally's and if the Akatsuki are involved we must act.'

Jiraiya sighed in annoyance. 'Guess I wasn't going crazy, after all.' He mused to himself.

…

Several meters away, this time unnoticed by Jiraiya, something rose up from the trees in the dense forest outside of the training grounds. When the Sannin stopped moving and began to scan the area he thought he had been found out. Thankfully, the ANBU swooped in like the idiots they are and stopped a near disaster. The strange being eyed the group, eyes eventually falling on a blond clad in an orange jumpsuit. Face twisted in a cruel smile, his lowered himself back down, disappearing back into the tree. No trace of him left.

AN: This chapter got away from me (7000 words! Wow!). There was so much I wanted to include in here, and it needed to end where it ended. I hope that it doesn't drag on too long, I'm used to writing chapters in the 4000-5000 word range so let me know what you think! I'll still probably try to stick to the shorter chapter lengths, though. Otherwise, it would take a lot longer for me to write them.