Nothing about this mission was going as planned. Naruto assumed it'd be easy since it was only a D-ranked mission, but he realized now that he should've spent more time training instead of messing around. But no, he thought that buying cool clothes was more important than improving his ninjutsu.

And now, here he was, surrounded by enemies that were a much higher rank than he was. He was still just a Genin, afterall, and these guys were likely all Jonin. And very menacing.

He'd somehow fought his way through several enemies and was finally to the worst of them. Their leader, who had murdered his entire team already. So Naruto was, understandably, out for blood. However, he was already almost out of chakra…

All he could do was try, though he knew he would probably die here.

Which was alright with him.

He'd just start back at the last checkpoint and train his character a bit more before accepting this mission again.

Naruto had been sick with the flu for three days already. It was almost Christmas and he was really hoping he'd feel better by then. Fortunately, he was still allowed to play video games in bed all day, so he really couldn't complain too much.

His mom had come in and out several times each day to check on him, but all she really did was stand in front of the TV and annoy him. It was no wonder he hadn't trained his character properly.

And once again, here she was, hand on his forehead, asking him how he felt.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure I'm getting over it. I feel fine!" he told her impatiently as he tried to shrug her off of him.

"Alright well, your grandfather is here to see you."

Naruto rolled his eyes at her. "Can't you just tell him that I'm sick?" he said as he forced a cough.

"You're sick? That's why he's here."

"But he'll ask me about my love life. I hate that!"

"Well… maybe he won't this time," she said as she poked his nose gently.

"Hey!" Jiraiya said as he burst into the bedroom, almost on cue. "Naruto, buddy! How you feeling, kiddo? Got a girlfriend yet?" he asked as he pinched Naruto's cheek.

Naruto looked over at Kushina as if to say, I told you so.

"Alright, well, I'll leave you two to it," Kushina said as she headed towards the door. "You guys better behave," she sang and then shut the door behind her.

"I got you a gift, kiddo. Here, open it!" He shoved a wrapped present into Naruto's hands excitedly and sat down in a chair next to Naruto's bed to watch him open it.

Without any hesitation, he immediately started ripping at the paper. "What is it? What is it?" Once all the wrapping was off, his face went from excited to disappointed as he looked at his grandpa. "A book? Really?"

"That's right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a very special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I'm gonna read it to you, buddy."

"Does it have any fighting?"

"Are you kidding me? It's got everything! Fighting, fencing, giants, monsters, pirates, revenge. True love. It's the perfect book! The most perfect book if I do say so myself," he said affectionately.

"Oh… brother. I mean… I guess it sounds ok. I'll try to stay awake." Naruto turned his TV off and sat back to listen as Jiraiya opened the book.

"Oh well, thank you sooo much," Jiraiya said sarcastically. "Your vote of confidence is overwhelming. Truly." He cleared his throat as he put his glasses on and turned to the first page. "Far Longer Than Forever by M. Kishimoto, chapter one."

AN- Please follow for more. This one is a WIP!!