Blue Kitsune: Sorry if it took me so long and if everyone was waiting for updates, just had so much on my schuedule that needed finishing, soccer, trimester projects, stuff like that. Well here's the chapter, enjoy.

Chapter Five

Both men stood still, silently, one not speaking to the other, their hearts beating as if there was to be shed that moment if one refused what was demanded. Naruto turned away from the gravestones and looked over to the town belong.

"I thought of this day to come…. Return to the village, that's what you're here to do? Take me back where I'll be called a traitor or ex-ninja for running away? I don't think that's a very good chance any will welcome me with open arms when they see me? I already had been condemned by others before, what good will that change if I return." Naruto started to walk away passing close by Jiraya but was stopped by him putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll not let you go that easy Naruto, I have been order by the fifth Hokage to find and bring you to the village: alive, half-dead or even your body to take you back where you belong. And I mean it." Naruto pushed his hand away and stared coldly at his ex-ero-sensei. "If it's a fight you want, then so be it. I'll fight you outside here now and I won't let you be keen to take me. I may not be a ninja anymore, but my charka still in good use and so is Kyuubi, so don't think I'll go easy!" He said, using a bluff to tell Jiraya off but this did not faze him the least bit.

Instead he dread to heard what came out of the ero-sensei's mouth. "But what about your children Naruto, what will happen to them? Will you force me to take them from here with you to getting you to return? I won't regret it but it's your choice." Naruto felt his heart stop and his hands gripping tightly into the palm of his hands. What would happened to them? How long did Jiraya know, did he planned to kidnap them all this time to make Naruto come back? And what if he brought them to the village and let HIM know they were his children and take them from him as well.

Countless nightmares haunted him at night before, thinking of that person coming here and sneaking into his home and stealing his children in the dead of night like a monster in a fairytale. If there had been anyone who had dared threaten his family before, he would made certain they would regret it, him and Kyuubi. No one would hurt his nine little kitlings. He remembered what he had told Kagura not too long ago tonight.

…There's nothing I can else do but do what I can to help make certain you're safe and protected. I love you all very much and I will do anything, even give up my life to protecting you and your brothers and sisters.

Those were his words to her, to her brothers and sisters. His own children, he wouldn't dare anybody to harm them like they would to him, whether it be foe…or friend. Naruto looked coldly at him and said angrily, "Fine Jiraya you win. But know this, if you so much as try to dare harm them in anyway by taking them without my consent, you'll be wishing not to mess with this demon. Kyuubi may have once roamed and nearly destroyed our village, but I could be the worst demon you ever seen..." And as if to prove his point, his charka turned enormous and his eye blood red as he stared at him with the glare of the devil.

"This I swear to you!" Jiraya nodded, unfazed yet surprised with this sudden change in Naruto. Naruto, he thought sadly, what happened to you, was this why you left? He watched as Naruto stormed away from him, heading on home to pack…and possibly say goodbye to his home and his children. "Naruto…"

Naruto walked aimlessly, but knowing where he was heading as his feet reached the front steps and made his way inside the house that sheltered him in the past. He headed slowly to his bedroom, across from his children, so to be near them whenever possible. He wanted to head to their rooms first but he had things to do. He went to his drawer and closet, pulling out all sorts of clothing, his weapons that he occasionally trained with along with his children to learn how to fight. Holding a kunai in hand, he remembered all those time when the children learned the best way to throw, hit and strike. Closing his eyes, he recalled the time he tried to get them to take the bell his sensei had did as a trial.

Flashback:

"Children, we are going to have a field run today, seeing how much you improve." Naruto said one day to them as the nine kids looked up at their father eagerly for why they had to be wake up so early and make them skip breakfast.

"Dad, exactly why are we up?" One of them asked, it was Ramne. They were still young, almost close to being three, but strangely yet was how much they had advanced in such little time. From crawling to walking, to saying more than three words, it seem that they had become more and more advanced than any child. Even Tsubane would have been have surprised at these children's fast pace intelligent. If only…but he had shaken that out then cleared his throat.

"Children, do you remember when I told you when I was young, I became a ninja."

"Hai!" They said, "We want to be one too!"

"Well then, I have to 'test' you to see if you can be one."

"What do you mean?" Kagura asked, still a bit nervous of sort. He smiled gently towards them. "You have to grab one of these eight bells from my belt, use all the weapons you want and don't resist on trying to hurt me. Try to think of me as an enemy ninja."

All the boys were growling in excitement. Naruko and Diaya were whispering quietly together, Hana was silent and Kagura was fidgeting nervous, looking down at her two feet.

"All right whoever can get these bells from me, gets lunch while one doesn't." When silent was at close, Naruto shouted, "begin." And the trial started.

End Flashback.

That had been fun, he thought, recollecting how it took almost all nine to gang up on him and get at least the bells, all except Kagura who had been too afraid to attack her father. He had told her he could share his lunch and told her that she was going to do fine someday too. Kagura peek up a little but he tried hard to get her out of her shell. She was like the smallest and most shyest of her sisters. He wished he had found a way to get her outside that shell of hers. But that now he couldn't. Because he was leaving them.

He sighed as he picked up a family picture from the side of his bed. It was a picture of all of them, crowded in the picture, the boys with their fingers up in victory, bunny ears on their sister or grinning their fox smiles. Kagura and Ramne were on Naruto's shoulder and they were smiling along their father when Tazuna took the picture. A teardrop spatter down onto the glass frame and staring sadly at it. Them in picture, with him cut out of their lives. Never again would he be there to take another picture with them, and they would be growing up without their father. Sadly, he took the picture and shoved it deep in the sack of clothes and tied it up tightly, his heart wrenching inside his very soul. Kyuubi did her best to comfort him.

'Be strong, be strong for your children's sake…'

'All right Kyuubi thank you, thank you for being my friend truly, I'm grateful.'

Naruto then went over to his desk and pulling out a piece of paper and taking a pen, started writing a letter to Tazuna. When he finished, he crept quietly passed the children's room and into Tazuna's. Tazuna's loud snores came to Naruto's ear and he knew he didn't have to worry about him waking up anytime soon. Carefully placing the letter under Tazuna's hand, he knew Tazuna would first notice the letter when he awoke and would read it before anyone in the house. The letter inside content the last words Naruto would ever be able to say to this family and his children again. Each word was like a terrible pierce in his heart in what he wrote there. It read:

Tazuna,

I know it's sudden, but I have been founded and I don't need to tell you by whom or what should possibly happen to me.

But let me tell you this my dear friend. I thank you, your daughter and Inari for taking me in and caring for my family and wished for another way for myself to pay for my gratitude. The only thing I can ever ask you of is to take care of my children, raise them well and don't let them forget their father. Perhaps, if I'm fortunate, I may well return, but possibilities are slim and I know that I may never see them again. Don't tell them where I head or what happened, tell them I went on a trip of some sort of business that may take a couple weeks. And if it takes longer, …then you'll know what to do. After you finish reading this, please burn this letter so that none of my children will know what happened.

You were a great person to be with at all times Tazuna, take care of my family.

Your friend,

Naruto.

P.S. please try and help Kagura as much as I could before I begun to fail in my duty to providing her much needed strength as I should have as a father. Give them all my strength and let them live out their hopes and dreams.

Naruto walked silently into each and every one of his children's room, taking one last look at them before he headed to the next, giving them a peck on the cheek or head. Yondaime was snoring with his arm sticking out from the covers and drool dropping from his cheek and Naruto clean it off. Ramne's walrus hat was sliding off his head and Naruto readjust it for him. Iruka and Haku shared a bedroom together, always getting along well, sharing a bunk bed and Naruto pecked them on their cheeks. Sari was sleeping cuddly close to and his covers on the side, Naruto picked them up and cover him and kissed his forehead before heading to his daughter's room. Naruko was smiling in her sleep, probably thinking of a grand victory or some battle won as she was a ninja in her dream. Diaya had a pack of cards underneath her hands, for good luck and fortune. He kissed the two and when he got to Hana, he didn't feel much to be shocked by her waves but feeling not wanting her not unloved, he gave a quick kiss, feeling a slight shock to his lips but he finally went to Kagura's room last. Kagura was huddled under her sheets, cradling 'Kyuubi' in her arms. Each of them had their own little fox doll but Kagura's was named after the fox and Naruto and Kyuubi felt extremely grateful for their daughter. Naruto kissed her and whispered, "Love you, my little kits, remember that, always…" Kagura stirred but didn't wake up. Naruto watched her lips curled into a smile and she hugged Kyuubi closer to her. Hopefully she would become strong like her brothers and sisters.

Be strong together my children, don't lose faith in your family. He wanted to say but his heart was too close to tears as he went to his own bedroom and picked up the bag and check how long it would take for him and Jiraya to leave.

Not too long. They probably reach the village in a couple days. But he wished for longer to extend his recent fate on him.

He went out to where he stood with Jiraya and found him standing exactly where he had been. Jiraya looked at him and asked, "Ready?"

Naruto looked coldly at his ex-sensei and didn't say anything to him. Jiraya took his silent as an answer and said, "Let's go." And he and Naruto took the path, the same path Naruto had taken from the village to here and now heading back once more to seal his fate.