A/N: This is an AU where Naruto's training trip with Jiraya bored him to death, so he took his training in his own hands and forced Pervy Sage to follow him rather than the other way around. What could a Jinchuuriki chased by Akatsuki do in two and a half years?

No elemental nature for Naruto because I thought of something cooler for him with even more destructive power than the wind style rasengan. You'll see, it's pretty amazing and fits his character especially when you remember his fight against Gaara. He's just not the kind to take so much time to put his element into something as complicated as the rasengan when other methods can make it as much or even more powerful without having to train nature transformation. More is less and less is more. Instead of something big, he went for something small. And oodama rasengan is the most stupid way to empower a grinding ball of chakra.

X

Chapter 1

Izumo and Kotetsu were guarding the gates, as usual. The eternal chuunin duo didn't change much in the past two years. They looked at the trio coming towards them.

"Is that boy Naruto?" asked Izumo.

"Yeah!" replied Kotetsu. "Finally, our ball of energy comes back to make our lives less boring!"

"Hey! You two still guarding the gates?" asked Naruto.

"Why would I want to do anything else? That's the safest job around for us," answered Izumo.

"Where did your old jumpsuit go?" asked Kotetsu.

"I've blown it up during training. I've had to buy new clothes very often."

Naruto's top was a black sweater with an orange toad in the front with metal armguards. He had a new pair of goggles and a metal mask in the shape of Kakashi's hanging around his neck. His bulky pants were covered by shin plates on the front to block hits with his lower legs. He had given up on sandals and replaced them with worn leather boots.

"It looks more…professional…" stated Izumo.

"Oh! Sorry! Welcome home, Lord Jiraya!" the gate guards exclaimed in unison.

"Who's that foreign girl with you?" asked Kotetsu.

"Problems, I bet…" said Izumo when he noticed her scratched Taki forehead protector.

"A new recruit!" answered Naruto with a thumbs up.

"Hi! I'm Fuu! Nice to meet ya!" she exclaimed.

"Same!" replied Kotetsu with a wave and a smile.

"We have to go see the Hokage, please let us pass," interrupted Jiraya.

"We need to verify your IDs," replied Izumo.

They proceeded to check Naruto and Jiraya's identities and since Fuu was an unknown missing ninja, there was no real way to verify her ID.

"You can pass. Please keep Miss Fuu with you inside the village."

"Of course!" replied Naruto.

They entered Konoha and the boy climbed a building to look from a higher viewpoint.

"I missed you, Konoha! You didn't change much in the end! Huh? Granny's face has been engraved on the Hokage Mountain?"

"I see you've toughened up, Naruto."

The boy and his traveling companions turned to look at the new arrival.

"Yo!"

"Kakashi sensei! You haven't changed at all!" shouted the blonde. "Guess what! I've got a gift for you!"

"What? But you know…"

He was holding his gift, a green book written by Jiraya himself. Flirting Strategies was the title.

"It had been three years since the last Strategies book…well, the text is cringe worthy, but I'm sure you're gonna like it!"

They got down from the roof, Kakashi already lost into his new distraction.

"I'm going straight to Ichiraku! Come, Fuu!" he exclaimed.

"Okay!"

"As we agreed, I give Naruto back to you," stated Jiraya. "Akatsuki should make a move soon. I'm going back to my investigation."

"Woah! Sa…Sakura?"

The pink haired girl was wearing a cut gray skirt over skinny shorts, a red sleeveless jacket, gray elbow warmers, open toes protective black boots and her red forehead protector to keep her pink hair out of her face.

"Is that you, Naruto?"

Silence.

"So? Don't you find me more girly? …Honestly?"

"You mean you're gorgeous!"

Everyone including Tsunade who was behind Sakura made round eyes…except for Fuu, who knew how much he had changed in the time he had been away from his home.

"Hold on! You're taller than me now!" the pink-haired girl stated.

"What? You think so?" he replied like an idiot.

He tried to compare his height to hers from where he was standing. Sakura was eyeing him to see how much he had changed physically and noticed that he looked less goofy.

"Naruto! Sexy Jutsu!" shouted a young boy's voice.

A gorgeous nude dark long haired girl appeared from a smoke effect, her nipples covered by the smoke while her womanhood was hidden by her front leg in a magazine pose, her back curved in a doggy style posture but slightly on the side to show her assets.

Jiraya was openly leering at the newcomer, Kakashi was showing his back, Sakura looked shocked, Naruto and Tsunade were dumbstruck and Fuu…was laughing.

"What do you say? Good curve, right?" boasted the boy after turning off his transformation.

Naruto smirked.

"Konohamaru, I'm not a kid anymore. Stop wasting your time with useless techniques."

Sakura looked at him in admiration. He had come a long way from that goofy and shameless child…

"There's more to it, Konohamaru! I'm gonna show you naughty ninjutsu done right!"

"Haha…his naughty ninjutsu…" said Sakura with a smile. "You jerk!"

The girl punched her old comrade in the face, knocking him down.

"I haven't seen your face for more than two years and all it took you to disappoint me was barely two minutes! Have more respect for my young lady illusions, huh?! You're pathetic!"

"Calm down, Sakura…you're frightening Konohamaru…" intervened Kakashi.

"Jiraya, I see that in two years, you've rubbed off on this brat," stated an ashamed Tsunade.

Jiraya noted that Sakura seemed as violent and beautiful as Tsunade.

"Let's cut the homecoming," interrupted the Hokage. "Naruto, would you mind telling me who this Taki girl is?"

"Granny Tsunade, this is Fuu! She's…like me!" he explained.

"So you just proceeded to bring her from Taki without reporting to me? You know how much of an international incident this could lead to?"

"It's fine! Her village sold her to Akatsuki when they came with the big guns and when I saw the exchange, I forced Pervy Sage to help her since we're in the same boat. She's no longer a ninja of Taki since they sold her off."

"The brat didn't think about it much, but he took a wise decision in the end," helped Jiraya. "She's got nice control and would be an asset for Konoha…"

"Alright, you three are gonna come to my office later to fill in her new ID. Let's find you a new name, girl, and a new look to avoid giving off your identity."

"We've already thought about this," replied the black and green-haired girl. "My current look is completely different from the old one."

Her hair was long and braided down her back, reaching her shoulder blades. She was wearing a short black jacket, a guitar holder strapped to her back and skin-tight black pants. She had piercings on the ears and half of her hair was died black.

"I thought she would look like a rock star," boasted Naruto. "She looks like a client who paid for our protection, it made it easy to travel without letting anyone recognize her."

"Actually, it's not completely stupid," agreed the Fifth Hokage. "She sure looks more like a client than a kunoichi. Can you fight with that outfit, girl?"

"Yes, but I have to hold back. If I were to go all out like that, my clothes would be torn into pieces."

"Well, it was good enough to travel around, but you're still gonna need shinobi clothes if you want to fight. Did you come here to join Konoha as a kunoichi or to seek asylum?"

"I didn't get to choose to become a ninja, but now that's the only thing I'm good at. And I don't mind, sometimes it's funny!"

"Okay. You're gonna become a kunoichi of Konoha, then. Gotta work for us if you want our protection."

"It's fine, thank you Lady Hokage!"

"Kakashi!" Tsunade called.

"It's been a while…" Kakashi stopped for suspense. "Now you two are going to follow me on missions. We're going to be a team. Unlike before, we're no longer sensei and students. We will be on an equal footing. But beforehand, I have to see your progress for myself." He pulled two bells from his pocket and put them in front of him. "The rules are the same than last time. Go all in if you want the bells."

"Let's use this little teamwork exercise to see how well Fuu can work with your team, Kakashi," suggested Jiraya.

"Are you suggesting to put her in their team?" asked Tsunade. "She hasn't even joined Konoha yet, I don't think I can trust her that much…"

"She proved her loyalty to Naruto and myself during our little training trip," replied the Toad Sannin. "They have a common enemy and are already good friends. Why not give her a chance to show it to you?"

"…Alright. Kakashi, you're one versus three. Are you sure you won't need help?"

"Let's test them before asking for help. I'm still the best Konoha has to offer among the elite jounin. If I'm not enough, then it means only someone as crazy as Gai could handle them…and suddenly I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares tonight…"

"Then let's begin."

They went to team seven's old training field.

"The goal is to grab the bells," reminded the gray-haired jounin. "You have until dawn."

"It reminds me good memories…this place," said Naruto.

"Yes…" nodded Sakura.

"That's right. It was your first training place," commented Kakashi.

"Team seven…" said Sakura.

"A three people team," added her comrade.

"At that time, there was also Sasuke…" reminded the adult.

Their mood darkened.

"But things change and we're three!" beamed Fuu.

"Yeah, that's right…" commented the blonde, his expression slowly going back to a smile.

"Yes! And now there will be two girls! Girl power!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Actually, three if I use my sexy-ju…"

"Don't!" cut the pink haired girl.

"I bet it would help us defeat Kakashi-sensei!"

"Don't! Do! That!"

"Alright…your ability to turn the enemy's weaknesses to your advantage really suck, Sakura…"

"It's true that you told me your sensei was a pervert, Naruto!" chirped the fake rock star.

"Please Naruto, don't ruin to reputation outside of Konoha," said Kakashi.

"Anyways, you won't be reading during this fight," declared the boy.

"Maybe you've already finished this volume?" suggested Sakura.

"No, I'm keeping it for later," he answered while uncovering his sharingan. "This time I feel like I can't take it lightly…"

They readied themselves…and stepped into motion. Naruto threw five shuriken that Kakashi dodged while throwing three of his own. The boy jumped over them and made a clone to pull him away from the next wave in mid-air. He changed the clone into a giant shuriken while landing, but Kakashi grabbed the shuriken in one hand while pressing another one to the boy's neck. That's when he felt something pointy against his back.

"Good use of the shadow clone jutsu, but you're as impatient as ever. I didn't give the signal…"

Kakashi vanished in a smokescreen. Sakura looked everywhere and then to the ground. She punched it, cracking it into chunks of solid ground.

The jounin and the blonde were surprised by her new strength. Fuu, flying over the wrecked ground, whistled in contemplation before pointing at the gray-haired man.

"He's right there!"

Kakashi switched to offense, targeting Sakura. The missing ninja from Taki rushed between them and turned around. Suddenly, her guitar holder changed into Naruto and a rasengan shot towards the jounin, who barely dodged thanks to the sharingan. A drop of sweat ran down his temple.

Fuu, still rotating, kicked him, sending him flying horizontally. He swapped with a log to avoid hitting something upon landing on his back, but twenty Fuus and a hundred Narutos appeared out of nowhere, filling the clearing and the part of the forest where he reappeared. The girl's clones shot some insect fluid towards him, forcing him to replace himself again and Naruto's clones reshaped the landscape by destroying the trees around, offering a clear view to Fuu and her clones who could oversee the arena.

Focused on these two, Kakashi didn't realize Sakura was right behind him until she grabbed the bells. He barely dodged her punch.

"We won!" she chirped happily.

"So, how do you find us, sensei?" asked Naruto.

"…I think I can find myself a nice cottage house and enjoy an early retirement. Konoha's future is secured."

Fuu disabled her clones and laughed.

"Your teamwork was great. When did you swap with Fuu's guitar holder?"

"The moment you got my clone in the first exchange," answered the boy. "And I used tree walking to stick to her with my back."

"I didn't even consider that fact. You've been taught well…"

"I taught myself well, you mean? Jiraya taught me jack shit! He was there, trying to make me use more tails. He even got himself hurt in the process. Since I hit a wall in my Jinchuuriki training, I decided that I had to make progress in other areas. If I had waited for him to tell me what to do, I'd still be as bad as I was before the trip, just bigger and stronger.

"I used shadow clones and noticed that I remembered everything the clones knew, so I used the clone trick to learn faster and make up for the waste of the first year. I learned to read better, to write properly, I caught up on the important theory and knowledge about ninjas, chakra and History. Then I learned about chakra natures, but the book was telling me it takes years to even be able to transform chakra into an element, and that's for your natural affinity. Since it seemed complicated, I decided not to try. In my limited time, I needed real improvements. Akatsuki wouldn't exactly wait for me to learn elemental manipulation and if I didn't master it, it would be pointless in combat against S-class ninjas."

"So…what did you learn instead?" asked Sakura.

"I took something that had already proven useful against Gaara. I found a way to combine explosions and the rasengan. It took me some time and a few times blowing myself up, but I completed the rasengan to be able to throw it so that I could avoid taking damage myself. Then, I used friction and compression to make the rasengan more compact and increase its' power. The chakra heats up and when the ball hits something…BOOM!"

"So you learned physics…?" asked a dumbfounded Kakashi.

"Hell yeah! At least what's relevant to explosions!"

"Kakashi-sensei…I think we will have to let him fight alone…" said Sakura.

"It seems so…I don't think any of us can stay around if he just throws bombs that can blast the landscape during his fights…"

"Don't worry, I'm used to fight with him!" exclaimed Fuu happily. "Since they've rescued me eleven months ago, we've been working on complementing each other's skills. I can fly and Naruto can throw his rasengatomics. A real bombardment!"

Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other with cold sweat running down their backs.

"Okay, so maybe you can leave us some clones to transport us into the air while the real you fights with Naruto. You could certainly find some use for an air ship…" declared the jounin.

"That's not all!" exclaimed the blonde. "I can use Sage Mode too!"

"What?!" shouted Kakashi in surprise.

"Well…it's not perfect, but it's still there!"

"How do you gather nature energy while fighting?"

"I make clones. One clone gathers energy, four clones make a barrier around him. That's something I got from Orochimaru's tactics to beat grandpa Hokage! And the rest of me and my clones do the fighting! And I've also learned another rasengan variant. When I use the fox's chakra, it's corrosive, right?"

"I suppose," confirmed Kakashi.

"Well, while playing with a ball, I thought it would be amazing to make a rasengan that can bounce around and explode into a corrosive acid-like thingy when I release it! I've completed it last week and it's amazing! Except for my targets, of course…"

"That's…cruel…" winced Sakura.

"That's…effective," said Kakashi.

"And when he told me about his idea, I decided to make my own acid projectiles!" added Fuu. "I can launch dissolving spit balls from my mouth! It's very useful to get rid of my sticky web! But it's also very effective against hard materials! I thought it'd be very useful to have against Kakuzu, another missing ninja from Taki. He joined Akatsuki. He can use an earth jutsu that makes his skin super hard! I couldn't damage him with taijutsu, but with this new weapon, I could dissolve it instead!"

"What else do you know about this guy?" asked Kakashi.

"He can use multiple elements. He's super strong and tough and he's fast too! He uses elemental combinations to boost the power of his jutsu. He burned a whole forest area in one fire jutsu when he combined it with wind! He can spam jutsu like he has a bottomless chakra pool!"

"Not really reassuring…" whined the jounin.

Naruto's stomach growled, closely followed by Fuu's.

"Eh, I guess we should go to Ichiraku now…!" suggested Naruto. "Kakashi-sensei will be paying the meal, it's been so long!"

"I'm all for it!" agreed Sakura. "I'm really hungry!"

"Sorry, I have to go do some planning. See you…"

He vanished.

"Crap! He ran away!" cursed the boy.

"I bet he's going to read his smut…" grumbled Sakura.

"My big meal just got away with him…" whined Fuu. "I bet he's loaded…"

"Then it's on Naruto, he's a gentleman, he will surely invite us…?"

The blonde looked into his wallet and grimaced.

"Shikamaru! Temari! Look who's back!"

The two teens walking by stopped to look at the trio.

"Hey! It's Naruto!" saluted the pineapple boy.

"Shikamaru!" replied the toad collector.

"Oh! You're the guy who helped my brother during the…invasion…right…?" asked Temari, ashamed.

"Yep, I came back less than an hour ago. Shikamaru, we have a new teammate! Say hi to…huh, what should we call you? Since we must keep your identity a secret?"

"Call me…call me…Firefly! Yes, it suits me!"

"But that's a code name, not a name…"

"Then what about…Hikari! Light, reminding of fireflies and the song Hotaru no Hikari! And it's like, super common, so it's not an absurd name! Just like Rin or Hana!"

"Yeah, Hikari suits you well, you're that light in the dark when people around you are in a bad mood!" agreed Naruto.

Sakura looked at him, then at her, back at him…

"Are you two…? You know…"

"We're friends!" answered the fake rock star.

"Okay, so, Hikari," interrupted Shikamaru, on a tone that meant back to business, "you're new, how long have you known Naruto for?"

"Eleven months! Hey! Soon we're celebrating the first year since we've met!"

Sakura, Temari and Shikamaru exchanged looks of understanding.

"Clearly something a couple would do," stated Temari.

"Obviously," added Sakura.

"No, you can't understand. Naruto and I are…similar…in a certain way! We share something unique!"

"Yeah, you two are like gender bender versions of each other," said the talking pineapple. "I bet you can end the sentences of each other."

"How do you know?!" they asked in tandem.

"I didn't, but now I do. Two airheads with a light personality, both too honest for their own good…yep, you two are a perfect match."

"Actually, that's not what we meant by sharing something unique. It's the same thing that makes me able to connect with Gaara, yet he's completely different from us!"

Temari's eyes lit in understanding.

"Your favorite number is seven, right?" she asked.

"Yes! The number for luck!" answered Fuu.

"Got it," said Temari with a smile. "I'm glad you're not a mad girl like my brother used to be before Naruto here knocked some sense into him!"

"Oh! Yes, he told me about that! It must have been hard to live with someone so violent for so long, right?"

"Well…yes… My brother Kankuro and I were terrified of him. But thanks to this boy, we now have a nice little brother! By the way, he's the Kazekage now."

"What?! Gaara is kazekage?!" shouted Naruto. "How did he beat me to the title?!"

"Well, there was a power vacuum and we needed someone powerful to take the position, and he's the Fourth Kazekage's son, after all. Since he's stopped killing people left and right and father is not here anymore to give him reasons to be violent, he's earned the respect of Suna. Then it was between Kankuro who's recently been promoted to jounin," Naruto gaped," me but I'm still a chuunin and I'm the ambassadress of Suna, I don't have time to manage the village and no one else could take my place."

"Were you two going on a date?" asked Naruto.

"Not really…" answered Shikamaru.

"Is that a joke? What would I do with someone like him? I'm just the emissary for the briefing of the chuunin exams."

"It's troublesome, I'm responsible for the exams…I have to escort the Suna emissaries."

"The chuunin exams…brings back memories…" said Naruto.

"By the way, what will you do?"

"About what?"

"The chuunin exams! The only genin left from our promotion is you, Naruto."

"What?! You're a chuunin too, Sakura?"

"Yeah!"

"And Neji, just like Kankuro, is a jounin."

"WHAT?!"

"So, will you take part in the chuunin exams? Did you think about a team that would take you in?"

"…Shikamaru, you just destroyed my heart…" sniffled the blond boy.

"I guess you didn't even think about it at all…troublesome blondes."

Temari smacked the back of his head.

"Ouch!"

"Don't include me with him. I'm not an airhead."

"Anyways, you have until tomorrow to find a team if you want to participate. Come to me if you've found one," said the pineapple to the goggles.

"Alright…how will I find a team in less than a day…?"

"Hey, my youth radar has detected a fellow training maniac!" exclaimed someone loudly.

"Lee? Is that really you?" asked Naruto.

Lee's hair was cut short and he was wearing a green yukata. Hung onto his arm was a beautiful girl with pale eyes in a white and lavender yukata.

"…Hinata?" asked the blond boy in disbelief.

"Hi, Naruto!" she saluted. "Welcome back to Konoha!"

"You can speak normally?"

"Yes! Ino and Lee have been helping me with my self-confidence! Oh! And I'm with Lee now…"

"I'm happy for you! I guess being his partner's cousin made you meet often!"

"Indeed, my youthful second rival! When I went to visit Neji, he shamelessly feigned not to know me. That's when Hinata saw me down and came to lift my spirit. It was love at first sight!"

"Did you forget you had already seen her in the chuunin exams?"

"Well, love at second sight! After that, we met more often and I found her with Ino. I learned that she was taking self-confidence lessons and decided to give her a hand. Then we met a lot more often and she finally reciprocated my youthful feelings! It was the best day of my life!"

"Sorry Naruto, I didn't wait for you…" she said, avoiding his gaze.

"Huh? Did you say something?" he asked.

"N-Nothing…"

"See you soon for a spar, Naruto! We're in the middle of a date, let's meet another time!" concluded Lee.

"Goodbye Naruto!"

"Bye Lee! Bye Hinata!"

"Her hero worship seems to be under control," commented Sakura.

"Hero worship?" asked the two Jinchuuriki.

"Hinata used to worship Naruto. She was following him around and watching him. I think he was everything she aspired to be. Brave, focused on his goals and refusing to give up even under pressure. She used to lose consciousness if he just looked at her."

"What? I thought she had fever…"

"You're so clueless…" commented Shikamaru.

"And did Mister Smart find himself a girlfriend?"

Shikamaru's cheeks turned red.

"Well…not exactly…"

"Shikamaru and Chouji are dating," said Sakura in brutal truth.

"…Didn't expect that," replied Naruto with a sheepish smile while scratching the back of his neck.

"Troublesome… Why did you have to say it like that…?"

"To avoid beating about the bush for days, pineapple. I'm hungry and we're wasting our time here."

"She's dating Ino," Shikamaru said abruptly, leaving Naruto in shock.

"Tcheh! I didn't think you could bite!" she commented.

"You…and…Ino…for real…?" asked the boy.

"Well, once I surpassed her I looked back and realized that all I ever did was to show her how good I was. I turned it around in my head for days. Then we went to the restaurant to gossip and I felt butterflied in my belly whenever she focused her attention on me and I liked her touch. After the denial passed, I understood that I loved her. I invited her to her favorite restaurant and confessed."

"And she accepted…"

"No. She rejected me. We stayed friends and continued seeing each other as if nothing happened. Then I went on a mission and came back seriously injured. Ino rushed to the hospital and healed me in the middle of the night. That's when she started feeling the same for me. Now let's go eat or I'll leave this story unfinished."

"Don't be so cruel! I want to hear the happy end, even if it's not with me…!" whined Naruto.

"Then invite us to Ichiraku!"

"But I'm broke!"

"Then put it on your tab! I know you can put as much as you want on your tab in your favorite restaurant! Use your best customer privileges, dear teammate! Save two hungry girls from starvation!"

"See you!" said Shikamaru while leaving.

"Bye Shikamaru!"

"So?"

"Okay…man, they're gonna hate me…I'm barely back and I already put meals on my tab…"

"Don't worry, you're with a chuunin and a jounin now. We won't be forced to do D-ranks anymore. We'll get paid real money for any mission assigned to us. By the way, I managed to get paid for a C-rank to clean your flat after you left so that it wouldn't reek of death when you would come back."

"Greedy bastard! Still, thanks for cleaning. It was a real mess."

"I asked for a B-rank pay but Tsunade told me to shut up and go before she made me do it for community service."

"Shameless on top of that…"

"Naruto, your teammate is funny!" exclaimed Hikari alias Fuu. "I think we're gonna be friends!"

He smiled and they went to his favorite restaurant, where he proceeded to tell some of his tales to Teuchi and Ayame with Sakura listening closely and Iruka joining them.

X

The next morning, Kakashi was late like in the old times and told a bad excuse when Naruto called him out on it.

A shadow flew over them.

In the Hokage's office, while Tsunade was trying to give their team a crappy mission for the trouble Naruto had caused her by bringing a foreign missing ninja without a warning, a kunoichi interrupted the boy's rant to tell them that Suna had just sent them a message saying that their Kazekage had been kidnapped by Akatsuki.

"New mission for team Kakashi," decided the Hokage. "Help Suna retrieve Gaara. Find Temari on the way and bring her along."

"I can carry everyone while flying!" suggested Fuu. "We will gain a lot of time! I'm really super fast!"

"Let's do that once we've found Temari," agreed Kakashi. "Send us reinforcements as soon as possible. I'll send you information when we know more about the situation. If the other team can reach us faster thanks to what we will discover on the way, our chances will increase greatly."

"Of course. Team Asuma will follow you as soon as they're available. Shikamaru had to go to Suna anyways, might as well make it worth the trouble."

"Let's go rescue Gaara! There's no time to lose!" exclaimed Naruto.

The group left Konoha immediately after that. He wouldn't let Gaara die.

X

A/N: I've skipped the scenes that don't involve Naruto. I might put some scenes not involving him later, but most of them will be when there's action on different fronts like in the fight to come.

Get ready for an explosive fight in the next chapter! Yeah, Fuu will completely change how the first Konoha vs Akatsuki fight goes. Because she flies and she's faster than Deidara! And Naruto can actually do something more than growl and run pointlessly after someone he has no way to catch! No more dumbass Naruto fights where he loses it completely from the beginning and gets completely defeated by enemies way out of his league! He beat Gaara in beast mode in p1 without Kyuubi and got two years and a half of training since then, he shouldn't be completely outmatched by the Kazekage.

As you can see, my story will be based more on interactions than on fights and I'm retelling the story with the butterfly effect of each of the changes I've made. Some totally unnecessary elements like Jiraya stopping them at the gates of Konoha when they left for Suna will continue being cut because I'm not there to inflate my word count with useless things that don't bring anything to the story.

Write you next time for the Gaara retrieval arc!