Dislcamer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in this story.

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"What is it that you wanted to see me about sensei?" Jiraiya asked, with an uncharacteristically serious tone of voice.

"I believe there is something that you have been neglecting to do, one of your most important duties," Sarutobi said from behind his desk.

Jiraiya had an idea where this conversation was going and was hoping that his hunch was incorrect.

"Have you seen your godson since the night of Minato's death, Jiraiya? Have you spoken to him at all? Does he know who you are?"

"I believe the more important question is does he know who he is?"

"No, he doesn't, he doesn't know anything of his parents and is still unaware of the fact that he has a god father, but that is still no excuse to at least get to know him." Sarutobi leveled a glare at Jiraiya that made him bow his head in shame.

"Well what was I supposed to do, walk up to him and say 'hi you don't know me, but lets be friends? How was I supposed to approach him? I've been out of the village for so long!" Jiraiya retorted, his voice raising in anger.

"You should have been there from the beginning. You didn't have to tell him any thing about being his godparent; you didn't have to be his friend! All you had to do was show a little interest in a lonely kid's life." The hokage stood up planting his hands firmly on his desk, getting angry now at his former students selfishness. "Do you have any idea how hard his life has been? The whole village turned against him, because of their parents hate no kid would be his friend, and now the only person who has been remotely friendly to him is dead! "

"I know your spy network is important to the village, but someone else could have been trained to take over those responsibilities. You haven't been back to the village in years, so maybe you don't know about the death threats he's been issued, or even the fact that his own sensei at the academy tricked him into stealing the forbidden scroll and then tried to kill him. Do you think that would have happened if people knew he had Jiraiya of the legendary sannin to watch his back? Because I highly doubt that it would have."

"But sensei, when Minato and Kushina died it hurt—"

"—it hurt all of us, but you have to get over that pain at some point or another, for their sons sake!"

A long silence entailed and Jiraiya knew his old teacher was right. He was being selfish and his godson was suffering for it, but that wouldn't make getting to know him any easier. From the little time he had seen him around the village, he looked like a younger version of his father, and that only served to remind him of what he had lost. The hokage slowly sat back down, reigning in his anger.

"You're right sensei,' Jiraiya said. "I should have been here for the boy, and I guess I'll have to introduce myself soon. Now is there anything else you wanted to talk about?

"As a matter of fact, there is. After this year's chuunin exam, I plan on retiring, and I want you to go find my replacement."

"Go find your replacement?" Jiraiya asked, confused why he had to find this person, wouldn't it be someone who was in the village? Or at least belonged to the village. "Wait a minute, you don't mean…but she hasn't been in the village for years, how am I supposed to go find her"

"You know Tsunade, just go to anywhere with a casino, you'll find her eventually." Sarutobi paused for a moment then suggested; "why don't you take Naruto with you? It will be good for him to get out of the village and it would be a good time to get to know him better."

Jiraiya grimaced. "I'll think about taking him, but I'm not promising anything."

As he was about to leave Sarutobi stopped him.

"One last thing before you leave, why were all those women chasing you?"

"You know me sensei, just doing a little research." Jiraiya said. He then turn and left, leaving the old hokage alone with his thoughts.

'Of all the things I hope he teaches Naruto, his lechery isn't one of them'

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Achoo!

"Naruto, you've been sneezing a lot, are you sick?"

"I feel fine Kakashi-sensei, now what was this special training you were telling me about?"

Team seven was now at the trainings grounds, after getting a quick breakfast they were exited to get to training. Today was their first day of actual training since the funeral.

"Right," Kakashi said, "I was saying that I have been thinking recently about how to cut down on your training time so that you can learn more in a sorter amount of time. I'm sorry Sakura, but you won't be able to use this method."

"Why not?" sakura asked. What can Naruto do that I can't; I mean I'm a lot smarter that him, so how hard can it be?

"It requires the ability to use mass amounts of kage bunshins, which you don't have enough chakra to use." Kakashi answered. "Now Naruto, what are the advantages of your shadow clones?"

"Um...well I guess I can create a lot of copies of me so I can beat up a lot of people at the same time!"

"That's one, I guess, but are there any others?"

"Not that I can think of." Now Naruto was confused, he had used the shadow clone many times and besides the fact that he could destroy an opponent by numbers alone, he couldn't think of anything else it could do.

"Well then let me tell you." Kakashi began. "If one of you shadow clones learns something, it can disperse and you gain any of its memories it gained. Got it?"

"Uhhhh…no."

"What he means is that when your clones learn something you learn it," sakura said, annoyed with how thick Naruto could be.

"Ohhhhhhh!" Naruto said, his face brightening. "But what does that have to do with my training?"

Kakashi mentally faced palmed, but kept his normal aloof exterior. He really thought that Naruto was smarter than this.

"Think about it Naruto, if your shadow clones are able to learn things for you, what would happen if you trained with them?" Kakashi asked, hoping his student would get it. It wasn't really all that hard to figure out

"Ummmm…" Naruto scrunched up his face in his 'thoughtful' pose, and after a few moments of silence Naruto's face lit up. "I could learn things way faster! Right?"

"Right! With this new training method you can learn things way faster than you have before. Shall we get started?"

"Um, Kakashi sensei, is this how you got to be so strong?" Naruto asked.

"No, in fact this is a completely new training method that I just recently came up with. Not to mention the fact that you are one of the few people who could actually use this method."

"Why's that sensei?"

"Because you have extremely high chakra reserves and very high stamina. If someone who didn't have high reserves and stamina tried this method they would suffer from chakra depletion."

Needless to say, it made Naruto very pleased to hear that he could do something that most other people couldn't. Kakashi noticed this and decided to intervene so that it didn't go to his head.

"Enough questions, it's time to get to work. Naruto, you will be sparing with your shadow clones to establish the strengths and weaknesses of you taijutsu, have your clones find any holes in you defence so that you can fix them. Sakura, you will be doing laps around the training feild to increase your chakra reserves. After that we will take a quick break, and then we will be doing group training. Got it?"

Two nods were his reply.

"Good, now get to work."

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Hours later when they were done with training, Naruto was walking through town, exhausted. After sparring with himself, they had a quick lunch break. Then Kakashi announced his plan for their so called 'group training', which turned out to be an hour of him throwing blunt kunai and shuriken at them while they had to dodge. Even though the weapons were blunt they still hurt. Naruto had suffered from many scrapes and bruises that were healing at a slow pace. After training he left to go get something to eat at his favorite eating establishment, Ichiraku Ramen. When he finally arrived he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Welcome to Ichiraku." He heard as he sat on an empty stool.

"Ohaiyo, Ayame-chan." He replied

"Ah, Naruto our favorite customer, what will it be today?" Teuchi said as he enter exited the back room of the store.

"One miso ramen, please!"

"Coming right up!"

A few minutes later Naruto was in peace. He had just finished a long day of training, and now he was winding down with a steaming bowl of ramen. All in all it was a great day.

"When I become hokage I'm going to make this place famous." He said as he finished his bowl. "You'll have to open up a full restaurant and everything; you may even have to open up a franchise! People will be coming from miles around to get a taste of the famous Ichiraku Ramen!"

"Did I just hear someone claim they were going to become hokage?" a voice asked from behind them. In walked a man with long white hair and a red jacket over a green shirt and red lines on his face.

"Yeah, what's it to ya' old man?" Naruto relied.

"Old man? Show some respect you brat you brat, do you know who I am?" This definitely wasn't going how Jiraiya was hoping. He was planning on 'accidently' running into Naruto and introducing himself, maybe getting to know him, asking him if he needed help with his training. He hadn't counted on his own short temper or naruto's lack of manners.

"Why should I? You look like an old pervert to me." Naruto said, happy he was getting a rise out of the old man. The look on his face was hilarious. It was starting to get difficult to suppress his smile.

Ayame and Teuchi, who both knew who Jiraiya was, were worried for Naruto's safety. They knew that Naruto wasn't the most respectful person, but to mouth of to one of the strongest ninjas in history was dangerous.

Jiraiya was outraged. Sure, he was a pervert, but that wasn't how he was supposed to be known. And how could this kid have known? "I am Jiraiya of the sannin, the legendary three! The toad sage! Wildly successful author and Sensei of the fourth Hokage! Show some respect you little brat!"

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down. Did you just say you were the Fourth Hokage's teacher?"

"You bet I was."

"So you must be really powerful and know a bunch of cool techniques, right?"

"Sure do."

"Can you teach me some of them? Please!"

"Why should I? You've been nothing but rude to me."

"Because I need to get stronger!"

This answer didn't surprise him in the least. Most young shinobi wanted to get stronger. What happened next, however, did surprise him.

"Why do you need to get stronger?" he asked.

Suddenly Naruto's whole attitude changed. His head slumped, his face in a state of seriousness, and his voice low. "So I can protect the people close to me."

This, in Jiraiya's opinion, was one of the noblest reasons to gain strength. Naruto was definitely his father's son.

"Okay Gaki, are you going to train tomorrow?"

A nod.

"How about I come by and watch you train. If I like what I see I might show you a few things."

Suddenly Naruto was back to his usual self. He had a silly grin and was practically bounce in his seat from joy.

"I promise you, you'll like what you see, believe it!"

And with that he ran home to get some res for the following day.

"Okay, now that that's over, can I get a pork ramen to go?" Jiraiya asked. "I've got important research to do."

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So that's chapter three. Sorry about the wait, again. I made the mistake many people do when they start their first story, which is to start with out knowing which direction the story was headed. Any way, review please. It helps the process immensely.