Title: Admit Defeat

Author: Kisu

Rating: PG? For…blood. XD

Pairings: none major ones in this chapter

A/N: Sorry for the long wait…I got sidetracked on the world of life. (coughs)

Disclaimer: Naruto and Co. belongs to Kishimoto-sama I do not earn any profit from..writing this.

Chapter 16: History Lesson

Listen carefully to this story I will tell you.

It is important to you in the future.

Otousan once told me this story.

And you must pass it on to the next generation.

This is of the essence of Konoha.

"Naruto."

He would recognize his voice anywhere. It had a richness that made it seemed like his name rolled off his tongue like sweet honey. He remembered the same voice that lulled him to sleep with stories. It was also the same voice that comforted him when he was hurt or scared.

Now he refused to turn around. It was because Itachi was dead and the dead can't talk.

Or can it?

"Itachi-nii." He said, hoarsely as his heart quickened its pace. He turned around slowly, his eyes clenched tight as he faced the source of the voice. He opened his eyes slowly and stared at the figure before him.

Itachi's eyes were blood red.

"Naruto, it's cold here." Itachi shivered and wrapped his arms around his torso. "It's also lonely. I don't have you or Sasuke."

"Itachi-nii." Naruto repeated as he stared at the man in shock. The man, his adopted older brother had never shown any weakness in his entire life. Was death this bad?

"Help me, Naruto." Itachi pleaded. "I need you here. Are you going to stay with me?"

"Itachi-nii." He blinked stupidly and Itachi lunged forward. Crimson liquid welled up from Itachi's blood red eyes and streamed down his pale cheeks.

His eyes shot open and he inhaled sharply. Quickly scanning his surroundings, he forced himself to relax and tiredly draped an arm across his eyes.

That was right. He was in a car and they were heading to his godfather's house.

"Are you okay?" A voice to his right asked softly. He gave a slight nod in response and he heard the person sigh. Slender fingers slid through his hair and cupped his head. Another touched his shoulder and he was guided to a lap.

"Are we there yet?" He asked.

"Almost." Strands like silk tickled his face and he slowly lifted his arm to stare at the curious brown eyes that stared down at him. He grabbed a lock of hair and examined it.

"You have really nice hair." He commented. Haku laughed and Naruto let go at the sound of Zabuza's voice.

"We're here. I don't know why someone would live all the way away from civilization." Zabuza complained.

"He's an author and likes his privacy." Kakashi replied. "But he takes many trips for his research."

"I wonder what kind of research." Zabuza said, dryly. Kakashi cleared his throat and turned around to glance at them.

"I see you two have been busy." He commented. Naruto glared at him while Zabuza gave Kakashi a good whack in the head.

"Go hang yourself." Naruto said coolly as he gave Haku's hair a tug before sitting up and reaching for the latch on the door.

"My pupil is so mean to me!" Kakashi cried.

"You deserve it." Haku said as he exited the car and shut the door behind him.

Once outside, Naruto inhaled deeply and stretched. The knots and kinks in his muscles loosened as he experimentally flexed his arms. "The air is good here." He said as he looked around.

"Come on." Kakashi gestured as he turned to walk toward the house. He pulled the rope at the door and very soon, the door slid open. They stared at the man in surprise and the man stared back. "Yo Ebisu." The man crossed his arms and opened the door wider, revealing the inside of a dark house. The man had on dark sunglasses, a black bandana and clothes equally dark.

"Kakashi, you are back with guests." Ebisu greeted the silver haired professor.

"Yes. Your boss is expecting us." Kakashi beamed. Ebisu nodded and gestured for them to walk in. They took a minute to focus in the dark house and Naruto raised an eyebrow. The Japanese-styled was house divided into three small rooms. But what was really strange was that there was so furniture. It was clean and spotless but it seemed like nobody lived here.

"Please take off your shoes and put on these slippers." Ebisu said. They did so quietly and when they were finished Ebisu gestured for them to follow him. They walked straight to the other end of the house where Ebisu reached out and slid open double doors. They blinked as bright sunlight filtered into the house.

Ebisu simply walked out while they stood there in a daze in an attempt to come back to their senses. When they did, they gawked at their new surroundings.

They were facing a courtyard with a very large koi pond and it was the interior of a Japanese mansion. Ebisu flagged down a servant that was rushing down corridor in an errand. He took the armful of scrolls from the servant. "Take Jiraiya-sama's guests to the reception room. I will inform him that you are here."

"Thank you." Kakashi smiled.

"Hai!" The servant gestured for them to follow him. "Ah! It is very good to see you again Hatake-san!"

"You seem to know this place rather well Kakashi." Zabuza said, grimly.

"Hai! Hatake-san is a regular here." The servant said happily.

They all stared suspiciously at the professor.

"Jiraiya-sama! You have guests!"

The man looked up slowly. He was dressed in a traditional Japanese brown yukata. Despite his age, his body was well toned and it showed as his chest was revealed slightly from his lazily tied attire. With flourish as the well named novelist he was, he reached up and took off his reading glasses.

Ebisu smiled nervously at this because no matter how hard he tried to keep his eyes focused on the man in front of him, the environment he was in was absolutely erotic.

Especially since the great novelist, Jiraiya had an interesting hobby of writing trashy romance novels and collecting data—or porn so to speak.

The walls of the study screamed 'SEX' in bold red letters of females, scantily dressed on gleaming posters.

Drip. Drip.

His boss stared at him with criticizing black eyes as he slowly grabbed a tissue and handed it over to his employee.

"Oh, my apologies sir!" The man babbled as he quickly accepted the tissue and held it to his nose.

"Who is it? It better not be Hatake. My next edition of Icha Icha Paradise will not be out until next month." Jiraiya said as he leaned back in his leather chair. Folding his hands on his desk, he eyed Ebisu.

"It's a party of four, sir. Kakashi brought two men wearing business suits and a younger man with blonde hair." Ebisu informed him.

Jiraiya shot to his feet.

Arashi's son?

Quickly, he rushed out the door of his office. Ebisu ran after him, trying to keep the tissue to his bloody nose. Turning quickly toward the wing where the reception room was located, he rushed down the hall, slid open the doors with a loud clack and landed on his vacant cushion with a mighty yell. His guests stared at him blankly and a servant rushed in to begin depositing tea and snacks.

With an almost majestic attitude, Jiraiya slowly raised his head up and calmly opened his eyes. The man who sat across from him at the other end of the table regarded him in curiosity. Kakashi sat on his right and two other people sat on the other side. Ebisu rushed in and took the vacant seat next to Kakashi while trying to catch his breath.

"Yo." Kakashi saluted him. Jiraiya nodded a greeting to him and took a deep breath before leaping over the table to the unsuspecting blonde. Haku narrowed his eyes and delivered a strong kick so that Jiraiya flew back. The man did a somersault in the air before landing on a foot and leaping toward Haku. There was a flash of metal as Jiraiya easily avoided the senbon that embedded into the wall behind him.

"Jiraiya-sama." Ebisu laughed nervously. "This is not how you greet your guests."

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Naruto asked as he watched the fight in interest. Kakashi shook his head.

"This is his way of saying hello." He replied as he leaned to the side. A couple senbon flew past him. "How many of those damn things does he have up his sleeve?"

"He hasn't gotten serious yet." Zabuza said as he closed his eyes.

"Hey, watch it! It's interesting!" Naruto said, poking Zabuza in the side. Zabuza shrugged uninterestedly.

"This will come to an end." Haku spoke up. He released a shower of senbons onto Jiraiya as the old man somersaulted randomly around the room. One of them managed to snag his robe and damage the cotton fabric.

"Okay. Okay." Jiraiya said as he landed back into his seat. "You have an excellent bodyguard, brat. No wonder you're still alive." Naruto narrowed his eyes and Jiraiya chuckled. "No need to mug me, kid. Damn you look so much like your old man."

"Now I know why your name sounds familiar." Naruto spoke up. "You write porn in a book. Kakashi read them in class all the time."

"It's not porn!" Kakashi protested.

"Hey, hey kid." Jiraiya frowned. "It's called art."

"You are a horrible role model." Haku stated. "I should have killed you off."

"Kill off your host?" Jiraiya gasped in mock terror.

"You're not much of a host either." Haku replied with a sniff.

"Che, you've got such a pretty face but such a dirty mouth." Jiraiya grinned. "How about you and me get together later? You can help me in my research." The old man blinked as Zabuza suddenly held an unsheathed katana right between his eyes.

"Don't think about it." He told him. Jiraiya raised his hands in surrender as Zabuza slowly withdrew the blade and sheathed it. Then it disappeared underneath his clothes as fast as it had appeared.

"What an uptight bunch." Jiraiya muttered.

"Enough already, I want to know why I'm here." Naruto said, tiredly. "You're my godfather right?"

"I am." Jiraiya nodded. "But since Arashi died, I don't see why I have to keep a secret that have been harbored so long."

"Secret?" Naruto repeated.

"I am actually your grandfather." Jiraiya announced. The cup of tea in Naruto's hand cracked and Jiraiya stared with interest as Naruto carefully placed it back on the table.

"How does that work?" Kakashi asked as he turned to look at the old man.

"Arashi was my son." Jiraiya said carefully. "He never knew me as his father but as a teacher. I was his mentor and I taught him everything in fighting, leadership, and the morals needed to be a strong head in a clan. He suppressed my level and I decided it was time to leave. By the time I heard of your birth, the Uzumaki Clan had been taken over by Orochimaru's gang and Orochimaru had announced you to be his heir."

"Why didn't you tell him that you were his father?" Naruto asked, curiously.

"It is all because of your grandmother and her status." Jiraiya said. "She was a prestigious daughter and I was just a writer. Or better yet we just had a short term fling and she got pregnant."

"I see." Naruto frowned.

"Well." Jiraiya smirked. "Your bloodline is very complicated. Since your lineage extends way back to one of the great clans that founded Konoha. The three oldest clans are the Hokage Clan, the Hyuuga Clan, and the Uchiha Clan. 'Gang' is just a relative term to bond together groups of clans and clans would group together to keep order. It is also another way to extend power. You already know the Hyuuga Clan and the Uchiha Clan went under the Ryuujin name, the Hokage Clan did not establish into a gang. It has been independent for a long time."

"I've never heard of the Hokage Clan." Naruto said.

"Of course not, Brat." Jiraiya laughed. "It's older than your generation. I guess you can call it an underground clan, since it seems to not have stirred in ages. But the Hokage Clan was created by your great great grandfather and your great great uncle. Your great great grandfather was Japanese and he married a Celtic princess. Your great great grandmother belonged to a clan of her own, which was known as the Hime Clan. The Hime Clan only allowed women leaders."

"That explains your phenotype." Haku said quietly as he touched Naruto's shoulder.

"Right." Jiraiya nodded. "Your great grandmother's brother was the one who branched off from the Hime Clan and created the Uzumaki Clan. So basically in summary, your bloodline extends from three Clans; the main Hokage Clan and the two branch clans, Hime and Uzumaki."

"So that's what happened." Kakashi said thoughtfully as he tapped the table.

"Your grandmother gave your father to her uncle in order for him to have a successor to the Uzumaki Clan. It was also the only way she could keep him and not bring shame to her family." Jiraiya finished. "But it is a mystery how a branch of the old clan went under Orochimaru's influence."

"Do you still keep in contact with grandmother?" Naruto asked.

"Of course." Jiraiya grinned as he bared his teeth ferally. "She is the leader of our gang."

"And what gang is that?" Kakashi asked in interest.

"Shinzui."

All of their eyes widened at Jiraiya's answer.

Listen carefully Naruto. Of a story I will tell you.

The strongest clan lurks in the shadows.

It is the true essence of Konoha.

No one has seen them but only their name has been whispered through alleys.

Speaking their name is to conjure their presence.

They are called the Shinzui.

TBC

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it. XD I will start making a list of the clans/groups under the name of the gang they are in. Also, you see Japanese suffixes and language because some characters are Japanese in the story. Like Jiraiya and Sasuke. (SenbonHaku's needle-like weapon)

Shinja: sacred snake

Uzumaki

Sound

Ryuujin: dragon god/king

Uchiha

Hyuuga

Inuzuka

Haruno

Nara

Aburame

Akimichi

Shinzui: essence/spirit/soul

Sarutobi

Hime

Uzumaki

Hokage