From afar, Jiraiya had seen the barrier holding his sensei and his old teammate drop. His heart dropped with it as he noticed the snake sage and the Sound 4 retreating. Quickly abandoning his fight, Jiraiya sprinted across the rooftops as fast as he could muster. When he arrived he saw Hiruzen motionless surrounded by Konoha shinobi with Kakashi, Yamato, and Asuma closest to him.
The Sannin hopped down to his sensei's side, nobody said a word, but their eyes told Jiraiya everything he needed to know. He knelt to take a closer look at Hiruzen. It was strange how Hiruzen could look so old and so young at the same time. His smile and laughter had always given him the air of a younger, more energetic man, however, you could see the man of 70 looked like he had been working for 100 years more than that. The job of Hokage was stressful enough on any man, let alone one who had already been retired and forced back into another 12 years of work.
Jiraiya's thoughts flickered back to Orochimaru and he felt anger invade his sorrow, "Dammit old man," he whispered in anger, "You should have let me deal with him when we had the chance. Your softness killed you." he continued solemnly. "Still. . ." he said, reflecting on his sensei's tendency to be less cut-throat than his counterparts, "What are we gonna do without it now?"
He stayed there for a moment, observing Hiruzen's features slowly coming to rest and looking more peaceful. When Jiraiya stood up he found four ANBU next to Kakashi, who was looking at him expectedly, and he nodded his head.
"Take him," Kakashi told the ANBU in a hoarse voice. Hiruzen was picked up by the ANBU and whisked away.
"What happens now, Jiraiya?" Kakashi asked in a rare moment of confusion.
"You, me, and the other Jounin are the best Konoha has left to offer, our responsibilities are going to be changing a lot soon," he replied.
"Speaking of responsibilities," began Kakashi, "we have some students to check up on," and the two began a sprint into the forest.
"I see you still haven't given up on foolish things," Jiraiya was perched upon a balcony, telescope in hand when he recognized the voice, Homura Mitokado, and he probably had Koharu Utatane with him.
"What business does a committee advisor have with me?" Jiraiya asked them.
"What business are we here for?" Homura asked as if it was obvious, "We have something to tell you. You'll probably understand why." he continued. Jiraiya stood up and faced the two now giving them his attention.
"So you say" began Jiraiya, "even though your faces don't look like it, talks with the Sand are going well," he finished, although he was worried, he sensed this conversation was about to go in a direction he wasn't going to appreciate.
"Right now the relationship with the sand isn't that important. The power of the leaf is declining, people are getting worried. Foreign nations won't hesitate to mount up a force against us." Homura finished. Before Jiraya could form a reply, Koharu continued.
"We know there's something coming our way, and not just Orochimaru, we need a strong leader to rely on Jiraiya, we need a Godaime Hokage. . . ."
Jiraiya was immediately put off, "Well unlucky for you, I'm not the man for that job. I've told you over and-"
"Then who is, Jiraiya?" she cut in harshly, "What are you going to tell us now, that Tsunade is the one for the job? And now you're gonna go on a wild goose chase to find your old teammate while the village remains exposed to another attack?"
Jiraiya frowned, he had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but deep down he knew it was a matter of time. They were right, after all, he was the best ninja for the job as much as he hated to admit it. Even if he could drag Tsunade all the way back to the village in one piece, she would probably spend all day drinking on the job. He knew Danzo had been gunning for the job, and he shivered at the thought of what Konoha might look like under the war-hawks rule. That only left Kakashi, but he wasn't ready for it, maybe a few years from now. The village, however, needed someone to lead now, not someone who would be good in 5 years.
Finally, Jiraiya looked up at the committee members, a look of defeat painted on his face, "Well, if there really isn't anyone else. . ."
Naruto stood at the Hokage's door with his fist raised to knock on it.
"Go on, he's been waiting for you," said the ANBU standing guard who had noticed Naruto's hesitation. Naruto obeyed, pushing the door to let himself in.
"Hey Jiraiya. . . ."
"Naruto, you don't seem surprised to see me sitting here," Jiraiya said lightheartedly.
"Shikamaru's dad told Ino and Shikamaru, and they told me," he replied.
An uneasy silence filled the air, "Look, Naruto I know what you're thinking," Jiraiya began.
"You won't be able to be my sensei anymore," Naruto cut in.
"I'm sorry Naruto. Truly, there's still so much I wanted to teach you. I know I always said I would never take this job, but Orochimaru and the sand have left us vulnerable. There's no one who can really do this job the way it should be done,"
Naruto smiled in understanding, "It's okay Pervy sage, I get it."
"Don't get it twisted, kid," Jiraiya began in his old playful tone, "I'll still teach you as much as I can, but Kakashi will help do the heavy lifting where I can't,"
Naruto's old cheerfulness seemed to return to him, "Okay then Pervy Sage, but you better not slack off on this, no sneaking out to the lake to do 'research' for your 'novels' you hear?"
Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh, "I'll do my best Naruto,"
Naruto frowned again, "How's Kakashi doing?"
"His condition is stable, but nothing's changed. There's hope though, Tsunade sent a message saying she was coming our way," he responded.
"That old granny you told me about before the Third's funeral? I thought you said she'd never come back here," Naruto replied, his face twisted into an expression of skepticism.
"Yeah, I thought so too, but her teammate killed her sensei and her other teammate took her sensei's place as Hokage. All of it happened in a week too, it's a lot to take in. She probably doesn't believe it and wants to see for herself. Regardless, she's the greatest medic in all five nations, she feels she has to help whoever she can. She'll help Kakashi, don't worry too much about it kid."
Naruto nodded, a faraway look in his eyes as he begin recalling the altercation with Itachi again, "It's just they were so powerful before you and Shika's dad stepped in. I thought I was toast."
Jiraiya knew it was best to uproot these seeds of self-doubt before they could blossom into something much more dangerous, "Don't worry about it Naruto, no one is going to let you die. Plus you're shaping up to be a pretty powerful ninja, you beat that Gaara kid didn't you? Kakashi and I aren't gonna let you down, you're going to be an incredible shinobi."
Naruto's face lit up, "Don't worry, I won't let you guys down." he paused as yet another unresolved issue was brought to the forefront of his mind, "What about our promotions Pervy Sage?"
"Yes, about those. . . "
Naruto walked down the Hokage tower's steps and was surprised to see Sasuke and Sakura waiting for him. Sasuke was an especially surprising one; after Itachi and Kisame had attacked Sasuke he had been even more reserved and closed off than usual, and this was their first time seeing each other since then.
"Well, what'd he say?" Sasuke said, breaking the silence.
"About what?" came Naruto's reply.
Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other blankly for a moment, "Oh maybe, Kakashi's condition, our promotions, what we're supposed to do with no sensei, you know, nothing important," Sakura barked sarcastically.
Naruto was taken aback, Sakura rarely spoke to him like that ever since they had become Team 7, "Jeez, Sakura,"
"Sorry. . ." she said in apology.
"Well, Jiraiya told me he has a medic over for Kakashi, he even mentioned she might be able to help Lee," Sakura's face lit up at the mention of Lee, "As for promotions, it's going to be a while"
"Why?" was Sasuke's response.
"Well with the attack and everything, there's a lot of rebuilding to be done, not to mention our loss of manpower. He also needs to settle into his position, the old man was Hokage for more than a decade, there were a lot of projects and issues that were ongoing that Jiraiya needs to be up to speed with. It'll probably be six weeks at least before he gets to us,"
Sasuke looked as if he was thinking hard about something before speaking abruptly, "C'mon Naruto, let's train,"
Naruto was taken aback by the request but decided not to think about it. "Alright,"
"I'm coming too," cut in Sakura, before they all left towards the training ground.
"C'mon Naruto, let's spar," Sasuke said as they made their way into the center of the training grounds.
"What about me? I want to spar too" interrupted Sakura.
"That won't work Sakura, we'll dominate you, and I want to spar Naruto," Sasuke replied, he wasn't used to this eagerness from her to train.
"Well, I can't just sit around here till you're finished with Naruto," she said. Her mind flashed back to the Forest of Death and the battle with Gaara, she was NOT going to be standing behind them helpless the next time.
At this point Naruto intervened, "C'mon are you guys forgetting I'm the great Naruto Uzumaki? You can both have me" and with that, a shadow clone appeared. The clone went towards Sakura as they brainstormed ways to get her fast and strong enough to spar with them, while the real Naruto and Sasuke went to the other side of the grounds to battle.
Sundown had come and Jiraiya couldn't be happier the day was over. He had spent his entire day receiving file after file from his assistants, reading up on the inner workings of Konoha infrastructure since he had left. It had only been a week and he was already tired of the job, he still had many Jounin to be debriefed by. He pushed those thoughts to the side and was about to rise from his seat when his door flung open. Standing before him was a tipsy Tsunade and a nervous ANBU.
"I'm sorry Lord Hokage but she sort of forced her way through . . . ." the ANBU began word vomiting but Jiraiya dismissed him.
"So it's true," Tsunade said through slurred words, "They really made you Hokage. It's a prank, right Jiraiya?"
"No Tsunade, not a prank," Jiraiya frowned. Usually, Tsunade was a functioning alcoholic, but it was obvious she had drank a lot even by her own standards.
"I sit here and do work for the village; after the attack I think at least one of the Sannin should be doing something for it. The time for running away is over." He said the last part with a little venom in his voice, but regretted it as soon as it came out.
"Fuck you, Jiraiya," she spat back at him.
Jiraiya sighed and attempted to de-escalate the conversation. "The village needs you now Tsunade, I thought that's why you decided to come here,"
"I came back to pay my respects to sensei, not to get tangled in village affairs again," she snapped.
"Tsunade please, I know you're not in the best head state right now, but we really need you right now. I'm not saying move back to Konoha, I'm just asking if you're willing to give us a hand. There's a lot of shinobi that were badly injured in the invasion," he pleaded with her.
Tsunade's eyes seemed to waver and come back to reality for a moment, but it wasn't enough. She stared into Jiraiya's eyes for a while and ended the conversation with a grunt.
'Well that could have gone worse' Jiraiya thought to himself as he watched her carelessly stumble out of his office.
Sasuke screamed in his mind as he barely dodged kunai from two Naruto clones. He had gotten cocky initially thinking his superior speed would let him finish things quickly, but when Naruto's clones grew to 5 and kept putting the pressure on him, it became much harder. So far neither of them had landed a blow on the other, and Sasuke felt far more challenged than he did when training on his own. Still, he was disappointed, Naruto was definitely faster, stronger, and more consistent than before, but this wasn't what allowed him to beat that Gaara kid; nor was it the reason that Itachi had come after Naruto.
Suddenly, Sasuke felt himself being swept off his feet. He cursed himself for losing focus in the middle of a fight and activated his sharingan. He grabbed the Naruto clone that tripped him and used it for cover as he rolled away from the other clones. The clone dispersed and Sasuke charged at the ones he had left behind. He knew that he had to get Naruto exhausted before he could really see what the boy was capable of.
"Alright that's enough," said Naruto.
"What, what do you mean enough? You're always the last one to finish training." replied Sasuke as they regrouped at the center of the grounds.
"Yeah well, Sakura doesn't want to admit it, but she's exhausted. Plus it's dark out and we'll probably have a mission tomorrow. There's still a lot of rebuilding to be done." Sakura was surprised at Naruto being the voice of reason for once, but didn't say anything in fear of him changing his mind. As much as she wanted to continue, her body was drained, the Naruto clone alone seemed to have more stamina than her.
"Fine then," replied Sasuke, "but once we're done with whatever mission we might get we should be back here again,"
Naruto and Sakura were again surprised by his willingness to train with them, but Sasuke ignored their puzzled looks, he was going to find out what was so special about Naruto, something nobody was telling them, not even Naruto.
Kakashi had woken up early in the morning to the sound of shifting at his bedside. He groggily remembered the events of his battle with Itachi. He groaned bringing a hand up to rub his eyes open and spoke, "How long have I been out?"
"About a week before I arrived," came a feminine voice, "and then another week afterwards."
Kakashi's eyes widened. He recognized that voice, but only just barely. He had heard it several times when he was younger and a much more clumsy shinobi, "Tsunade? I wasn't aware you'd returned to the village,"
"Don't get used to it kid," she replied, "I don't plan on being here longer, just to work on that Lee kid and a few others still recovering from the invasion,"
"Oh. I see,"
"So, Itachi Uchiha did that to you?" she asked, side-eyeing him.
"Yeah, honestly it was a little embarrassing how fast it all happened. . ." he trailed off.
"To think he's only twenty years old," Tsunade shook her head, "Anyway, I checked your vitals, they all seem to be fine. That sharingan seems to be a little more excited than usual, but other than that, you should be clear for duty again in a few days,"
Kakashi rubbed his eye and became aware of a white box next to his bed, "What's this?" he asked.
"Jiraiya left it for you," Tsunade replied.
Kakashi briefly looked at the contents of the box in shock, these were Minato's things. Before he could ask Tsunade about it he looked up and noticed he was alone. Why would Jiraiya give him a box of Minato's old things? He rummaged through it and found a couple of notebooks. Opening one he saw it filled with Minato's handwriting. At first he was taken aback, thinking it was Minato's notes on Flying Thunder God, but after closer inspection he realized that it was far less advanced than that. He should have figured, Minato always kept his cards close to his chest and he highly doubted that Minato would leave such a notebook in existence once he had mastered the teleportation technique.
Still, this was confusing, why had Jiraiya decided to give these to him now? Deciding that there was no better way to find answers than to ask, Kakashi threw his covers to the side and decided he was going to march over to the Hokage's office. It was a brilliant idea until his knees buckled and he was on the floor instantly, and he dragged himself back on to the bed cursing his body.
Naruto's eyes opened abruptly, it wasn't from a bad dream or anything, he had just gotten used to the commotion of the past week. Had it been a week or actually 3? Naruto couldn't tell. Jiraiya had been giving them two to three missions a day, and when he was done with those Sasuke would basically drag him to the training grounds and they would all train as a team until nightfall. They never really talked about why they were training so much together now.
Naruto knew that Sakura was embarrassed about being left in the dust by him and Sasuke in the forest of death, she had said as much. Sasuke however was a different story. He had always trained alone unless Kakashi had forced them to do a group activity, but now Sasuke wouldn't leave him alone.
As Naruto rolled out of bed, he decided it wasn't such a bad thing, he had felt himself improving much faster sparring with Sasuke than he did fighting his own clones. The mission load was fine as well, Konoha had mostly recovered from the invasion, and he definitely didn't mind how full his wallet was growing after getting paid.
He had almost finished hiding kunai in various parts of his jumpsuit, when he realized today was a day off. Jiraiya had actually forced them to take a day off as he saw how overworked they were. Sasuke had planned on ignoring the order until Jiraiya told him that barrier seals surrounded their training grounds, and that he would enjoy life much more if he didn't know what those seals did when activated.
"Alright then," Naruto spoke to himself excitedly, "breakfast at Ichiraku's it is," He grabbed his wallet and practically flew out of his apartment. Running through the village, Naruto felt at peace for the first time since the Third's death. With all of the rebuilding effort, the village had finally begun feeling like home again. The cool morning breeze airing into his shirt, the shops and towns finally opening back up again. Naruto whizzed and zigzagged past villagers as he took everything in, and as he made a hard right towards Ichiraku he ran right into someone and hit his head.
"Ow, what's the big idea, can't you watch where you're going?" came a familiar feminine voice.
Naruto rubbed his head and looked up to see a girl in purple dusting herself off. If she was anything like Sakura, she'd make a scene over it. But as Naruto was preparing an apology for Ino, she started eyeing him suspiciously.
"Is that you Naruto?" she asked.
Naruto looked down at himself to check if he'd accidentally left his apartment in a substitution jutsu again. He looked up at Ino questioningly, "Who else would I be?"
"Sorry. It's just I don't think I've ever seen you without a headband or goggles, and you're not wearing that orange jumpsuit either." she replied.
Naruto looked at her offended, "I wear other things! And why'd you make that face when you mentioned my jumpsuit?"
Ino huffed, "Sorry, I'm not all sunshine and rainbows Naruto, you did greet me with a bodyslam, don't forget,"
"Oh yeah, sorry about that," he said sheepishly as Ino held out her hand and helped him up.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry anyway Naruto? Today is our day off, and I know it's not training because Shikamaru and I heard what the Hokage told you and Sasuke."
"To Ichiraku's, it's breakfast time," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're having Ramen for breakfast?" Ino replied giggling.
"You don't?" he replied with an incredulous look on his face. " Well, you should," he continued after seeing her still confused face.
Ino thought about it for a moment and decided it couldn't hurt, she smirked as she responded, "Okay Naruto, I'll go but only if you pay for my bowl, it's the least you could do after running into me."
Naruto almost said no, but Ichiraku always gave him a good discount for bringing new customers to the shop, and if there was anyone who needed a discount on an order, it was Naruto. "Sure, it's this way," he responded cheerily.
Ino was momentarily taken back, she hadn't expected that to work on Naruto, but as she had learned the past month or two, the boy was full of surprises. So she let Naruto take the lead as they walked deeper into the village's shopping district.
"Isn't that your family's shop?" Naruto said, pointing off to the left as they walked side by side.
"Yes, unless you know some other place in the village with 'Yamanaka Flower Shop' sign by it's window," she said, teasing him. Naruto huffed, half amused and half annoyed by her antics. Before he could respond she kept going. "Why so curious Naruto? I didn't see you as the type to tend to flowers in your free time." continuing to negg him as they walked past the store and turned onto another street.
"Oh no nothing like that," trailing off before he continued. "I did have some flowers on my windowsill, but they kept dying every time I went on a long mission outside the village.
Ino's face lit up at this, "My mom actually has a jutsu for that, I don't know how it works but it uses seals to release the water and. . . ." Naruto watched her go on about her mother's clever uses of ninjutsu to grow the flowers in their shop.
"Sounds like I'll make my way over one day then," Naruto said as Ino started to run out of things to reasonably say. Naruto paused and looked to the side, "Oh, we're here!"
Ino turned and faced the stand. It was a cute little stand, there were no more than six seats and as they entered into the shade of the stand Ino noticed two people manned it. An older man and a younger woman, probably only a few years older than her and Naruto.
"Hey Ayame!" Naruto chirped at the brown-haired girl as she turned and smiled at them.
"Morning Naruto!" she replied looking over to Ino, "Is this a friend of yours?"
"This is Ino Yamanaka, she's from team ten and she can enter other people's minds!" He told her animatedly.
Ino blushed as he began ordering, "Well that's not exactly how it works," she said as she began ordering a bowl for herself as well.
They engaged in idle conversation until Teuchi joined in with their orders in hand, "Say Naruto, we haven't seen you since the day before your exams."
Naruto frowned and thought about it, "Oh you're right, you guys didn't get hurt during the attack did you?"
"Oh no nothing of the sort," he assured them, "We were very lucky, how about you Naruto, did you get to fight at all before it?"
Ino perked up remembering the events of the early round fights, "Not just that, he beat Neji Hyuga! How did you even do that Naruto?"
"Oh yeah that guy was tough, I'm still mad I didn't get to fight Sasuke though, we had to chase after him chasing after the sand kid." he told them in between bites.
"Wait, you and Sasuke beat that Gaara guy too?" Ino asked in surprise as she looked up from her own bowl.
"Sasuke actually ran through most of his chakra by the time we got there, I sort of had to fight Gaara myself."
Ino was once again surprised, "You fought the Gaara kid alone?" She didn't think she'd be able to believe Naruto if she hadn't seen him defeat Neji in the first round.
Suddenly they were interrupted by a new voice, "Actually he didn't just fight him without us, he beat Gaara." Naruto and Ino both turned around to see the voice was Sasuke's.
"That's not true, I had a lot of help from my summon," Naruto said, correcting him. Ino felt herself getting dizzy at all this new information about Team 7. Naruto beat Gaara? And he had a summon? What else did she not know about him? Just as she was about to get some answers out of them she zoned back into Naruto and Sasuke's conversation.
"Whaddya mean we gotta go? I'm tryna have my breakfast in peace. Plus it's our day off, and you know what will happen if we try to go back to the training grounds." Naruto was obviously annoyed at having his eating interrupted.
"Look I'm not here to interrupt your little date," Ino and Naruto nearly retaliated that it wasn't a date but Sasuke didn't stop talking, "Kakashi woke up and he's ready to see us again."
This was obviously news to Naruto and his demeanor softened, "Well why didn't you just lead with that you stubborn bastard?"
Ino sighed as she realized she wasn't going to get the answers she wanted today, "Well I guess we can talk another time Naruto," she said smiling at him.
Naruto smiled back at her as he got out of his chair and put his money on the counter, "Good luck on promotions tomorrow Ino," And she watched as the most interesting boy she had yet to meet left her alone at the stand with Ayame and Teuchi.
