Naruto wasn't sure if he liked that Anko didn't meet up with him and Karin after the Hokage dismissed them, nor did he particularly like not knowing what was going on with the prisoners. He had one night to rest but he was more curious about questioning the Nidaime Hokage about certain things, but it seemed like the Sandaime and Nidaime were going to be catching up so he relented to the dismissal.
The blonde definitely didn't like that he had lost track of the Amegakure ninja, he wasn't tired and he saw some ninja moving debris so he made kage bunshin and approached to help, "So what happened with the Ame delegation?" he asked.
The ninja that the blonde was helping personally gave him an odd look, the man was old, likely as old as Danzo or Hiruzen, "I heard they booked it, can't blame them I suppose, they need to report this to their home." the old ninja said as the carried a ruined plank of waterlogged support beam to a bin that had been set up for such things, "You're that Naruto Uzumaki? You made chunin then," the man commented, having noticed the flak vest, "I'm still genin myself."
Naruto almost faltered his stride at those words, "I'm sorry?"
The old man laughed, "Nothing to do with you youngster, you fought admirably to protect our home and proved yourself in those examinations." he acknowledged.
Naruto blinked owlishly as they deposited the wood in the bin, his kage bunshin doing the same with similar pieces of debris. The blonde had experienced being appreciated as a hero in Nami no Kuni, of being acknowledged as strong in Takigakure no Sato, but experiencing it in his own home was another matter entirely.
The two parted ways and Naruto noticed he was far less ignored than he used to be on his way to check on Ichiraku Ramen, most of the civilians just seemed curious about something they'd heard but not experienced, while the shinobi were actually acknowledging him.
The blonde Uzumaki was floored, and to top it off Ichiraku was undamaged, but not open as the man in question was helping mop up neighboring stalls down the street that had been less lucky. Naruto wanted ramen, so he made a group of twenty kage bunshin and set them to work.
Fifteen minutes later and Naruto was savoring his first bowl of ramen for the night, "Thanks for the help kid, those folks sell good eggs." he said with a chuckle, "A shame even this wasn't enough to get an exclusive deal on them." he joked, he hadn't even asked really.
Naruto shrugged, "I just wanted ramen to be honest." he confessed shamelessly and Teuchi laughed as he prepared another bowl, knowing the blonde wouldn't take long to get through the first.
It wasn't until Naruto was back in his apartment resting in the dream when the doll informed him of a visitor and he returned to the waking world to see Anko entering his front door brazenly, "How did you get in?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Picked the lock." Anko answered smugly, but her demeanor faded quickly into a morose frown, "I asked Hokage-sama if I could take you as my apprentice." she said as she closed the door.
Naruto wasn't sure how to take that, he was still processing everything else, like Jiraiya taking him as an apprentice, "Why?" he asked, "No one cared about me before, I guess just being strong is enough for people to respect you?"
Anko frowned, "Well that and you taste good." she joked lightly and the blonde glared, "Sorry, but I already said I'm bad with this depressing stuff." she apologized with a shrug, "It's less about respect and more like, damn I didn't even know about you until recently." she pointed out, "I was aware 'oh the jinchuriki is some blonde kid, Uzumaki sounds familiar' and that is about it." she explained.
Naruto had a blank expression as he registered that, "Oh," he muttered, "so you met me, my blood helps you, and you want to keep your meal ticket close?" he asked dryly.
Anko winced, "Ah, I guess that being able to get a sip whenever my pain flares up is nice but, I also sort of wanted to train you." she confessed, "Maybe let you sign the contract with the hebi clan before we kill Orochimaru if we can convince the current stuck up bitch holding it into letting you."
Naruto sighed, "Well, no chance of that." he muttered.
"Already signed with the gama clan?" Anko guessed.
"Nope, I can't make contracts." Naruto answered, "Not with the senkemono tribes or clans at least." he added with a shrug, "Yet another perk of being Naruto Uzumaki y'know." he grumbled bitterly.
Anko stared at the blonde for a moment, "Oh, shit, why is Jiraiya taking you on then?" she wondered, "He can't even teach you any of the gama hijutsu, most of the jutsu I know are hebi related." she muttered.
"Yeah," Naruto sighed, "at least Jiraiya can teach me fuinjutsu I guess." he pointed out the silver lining to getting the Sannin as a direct sensei, "Besides, I can't sign any of the contracts so I can't get any of them, and I won't say no to more ninjutsu if you want to teach me."
"What's your chakra affinity?" Anko asked curiously.
"Futon." Naruto answered.
"Fuck you." Anko retorted, "You would have the fucking rarest affinity shared by Asuma Sarutobi and-" she stopped, "Actually, I might be able to work something out by the time you get back from your mission." she mused as she smirked, recalling that they had a few prisoners she had access to who could use Futon no Jutsu.
Naruto frowned again, "Speaking of, uh, have you slept yet? Had any weird dreams?" he asked curiously, the woman had bounced back remarkably well.
Anko shook her head, "Despite your ominous warnings I'm fine," she assured with a roll of her eyes, "I even had a nap before I got here, completely dreamless," she added and that was enough to relax the blonde, "but I'll let you rest up for your mission and grill you about what you're keeping from me when you get back and I'm pent up and suffering withdrawal symptoms." she said cheerfully.
Naruto got the impression his welcome wagon when he got back from his latest mission would be less than ideal, "Can't you greet me with home made ramen or something?" he grumbled.
"I'm not your Hahaoya." Anko pointed out dryly, the blonde didn't have a response for that, "Or your Okusan." she added cheekily, the blonde frowned as he processed that, then his eyes widened and his cheeks turned bright red.
Naruto double checked his equipment, with his new flak vest he had a replacement until his bandolier was repaired. Mainly he was taking stock of his scrolls and what he had, only two more blood vials left. He decided he should probably buy more at some point just in case.
Nokogiritsue was left in the dream for now, Naruto had gotten good practice with it but had yet to actually upgrade it like he had the Nokogiribocho which people already knew of. The blonde kept his more brutal weapon enclosed within a scroll, he was doing a mission as a ninja and he might need to be non-lethal, nokogirijutsu was anything but non-lethal.
Mostly Naruto enclosed emergency ramen in sets of four as a just in case, as well as portable cooking supplies to make his life easier and his tool pouch less bulky, spare clothes, spare shuriken, and his blunderbuss. The gun was loaded and the last quicksilver bullet besides that and the one still in the pistol was still in his tool pouch next to the pistol.
Out the front of Naruto's apartment was his cell, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura, along with Karin, "Yo." the blonde greeted lazily, copying the Hatake's mannerisms.
"Naruto, we didn't get to congratulate you yesterday." Sakura greeted with an apologetic smile, "Everything was so busy, and Karin-san wouldn't let me leave the medical tents." she added with a side eyed look at the red head.
"You got stabbed in the lung, be grateful it was a clean cut and that Hanbei didn't twist the blade." Karin retorted sternly, "Do not strain yourself, you heard the doctor, no missions for a week." she reminded.
Sakura still thought it was impressive they'd fixed her up that she'd be fine in a week, but at the same time, "I bet Naruto would be up and fighting Hanbei after an injury like that though." she pointed out.
"Hardly fair, he's practically bred for war." Sasuke pointed out, which earned him a concerned and confused look from the Haruno, "Uzumaki and jinchuriki? I sincerely doubt that's accidental." he pointed out.
Naruto shrugged, "Well, the Yondaime gave it to me, so I guess he figured I'd use it to protect the village." he pointed out, "Lucky I don't do the opposite out of spite." he grumbled under his breath, "I'll become Hokage though so it's my village to protect y'know." he finished possessively.
Kakashi chuckled wryly, "Ah, youth," he joked, "whatever the reason, it's good that you want to help protect Konohagakure no Sato." he praised, "I wanted to have a gift ready, but Hokage-sama sort of sprang the promotion. We do need to bolster our middle forces a bit after that fight, even with your help." he finished with a nod to the blonde.
"Konoha's trump card," Sasuke began in flat tones, "endless Naruto bunshin."
Naruto shrugged, "Hey, as long as it works." he pointed out as he began the walk to the gate.
Sakura frowned, "You didn't pack anything?" she asked.
"Fuinjutsu lets me enclose things in scrolls, its great!" Naruto bragged cheerfully, "Kakashi-sensei probably knows it." he mused, the jonin did not appreciate his now chunin underling siccing the two genin on him, "Oh yeah, Karin-nee, give this to Anko-chan if she comes around." he added as he handed the red head a red scroll.
"What did you do?" Karin asked, a little paler than normal.
"Why would Anko Mitarashi be around?" Sakura asked, concerned from what little she had heard.
"Don't worry about it." Naruto answered both at once as he continued to walk, Kakashi was pretty worried about it. Sasuke followed the blonde's advice though and focused his attention on the bandage that was still around Kakashi's right wrist.
Thanks to the efforts of the iryoninja most injuries had been treated to a degree that only the worst still needed bandages, Sasuke's left arm was wrapped up from his Chidori training still but those were his bandages. Sakura had bandages on her chest under her shirt, the edges of that were visible, and of course Naruto looked as though nothing had hurt him despite the contrary.
"Oi, Kakashi," Sasuke began and the jonin frowned under his mask at the lack of honorific, "what hit you?" he asked, pointing at the bandage.
Kakashi shrugged, "Cursed poison." he joked dryly, it was possibly true though but his students didn't need to know that, "Don't worry about it." he added, mirroring what the blonde had said, "Sakura-chan may have another day of rest, but Sasuke-kun has D ranks." he reminded cheerfully, Karin was technically on iryoninja duty as a volunteer as she wasn't in the paperwork systems yet but they planned on working on that.
Sasuke grit his teeth, "We get C ranks once the blonde gets back?" he asked and the jonin nodded but shrugged, "Hurry up and go find this doctor or whatever it is you're doing." the Uchiha demanded.
Naruto nodded, "I think Hokage-jiji called her Tsunade y'know." he said, Kakashi smiled as he enjoyed the shocked reactions of Sasuke, Sakura, and Karin at the name of the third Sannin.
Anko smirked down at Temari, "Hey, your jonin commander is talking with Ibiki-san, you remember Ibiki-san right? He remembers you." she began the interrogation with her usual excited cheerful manner, it always threw people off, "I wanted a chat with that guy too, so did most of the Anbu, Hayate-san was well liked. Instead we get to have some girl talk." she started darkly but finished even cheerier than before.
Temari was shaking already, "Girl talk?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, see there's this boy I want to impress," Anko joked with a devious grin, "he's got the rarest chakra affinity in Hi no Kuni the asshole, Futon, and I have in my grasp an enemy kunoichi who knows Futon no Jutsu and probably wants to get a good deal for her village right?" she asked, she already had some things she was allowed to offer as long as they got good deals, Konohagakure no Sato enjoyed having an honorable reputation.
Temari was completely thrown off but took a moment to process, "Most of what I know uses my tessen, and I'd sort of be surprised if you guys don't have Reppusho just in a scroll somewhere in a library." she explained.
Anko frowned, "Huh, you calmed down quick, were those breathing exercises?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, "Oh well," she sighed, "tell you what, write down in katakana or hiragana how you trained your Futon chakra and how you apply it to your bukijutsu and I'll ensure your siblings don't get interrogated." she promised.
Temari frowned, "Really?" she asked incredulously.
"Nobody really wants to interrogate Gaara and I doubt they know more than you." Anko pointed out, "You're not a bad Oneechan are you?" she asked teasingly.
Temari's frown became a scowl, "Whatever, I'll take the deal." she grumbled, "Better you interrogate me than Kankuro anyway." she muttered as Anko gave her implements to write with.
Kakashi ditched his remaining students with Shikamaru for D ranks and joined Asuma for lunch, "So, do you think Kurenai-san is upset about Shino not getting a chance to prove himself?" the Hatake asked.
Asuma scoffed as he pulled out a cigarette, "Shibi-san himself said the boy was too reckless in chasing down Kankuro, I'm ashamed I barely caught any of the fight during the chaos, too busy trying to lock down Baki and make sure he didn't cut too many of our forces down." he explained.
Kakashi nodded, "Ah, that explains it, what about Gai-san?" he added.
"Gai-san agreed Neji wasn't ready from what I heard, while he showed good sense in retreating he also showed he didn't think ahead to plan around someone planning around the strengths he showed in the preliminaries." Asuma explained and the other jonin nodded in agreement, the two were silent as the walked past a tea stand.
Kakashi stopped and met Asuma's eye with his own, "A good day for tea, right?" he asked, the Sarutobi nodded and the two jonin made to follow the two cloaked figures with red clouds on said cloaks, each with a hat that had feature concealing ribbons, that were just leaving the tea stand.
The two allowed themselves to be followed for a moment before the shorter of the two sighed, "Kakashi-san, I have no further business here." he said and the addressed jonin lifted his hitai-ate and closed his eye.
"Asuma-san do not make eye contact with the Uchiha." Kakashi warned as his own Sharingan met a pair of Sharingan with deep tear tracts underneath.
"Kakashi-san may have information, I'll retrieve it then we go after the Kyuubi." Kakashi's eyes widened at the words as the taller man flashed a shark toothed grin from under the shade of his hat, "Tsukuyomi."
"So," Naruto began as he struggled to find what to do with his hands without weapons in them, he settled on clasping them behind his head as he walked, "why take me as an apprentice?" he asked.
Jiraiya shrugged, "You're jinchuriki, Kakashi can probably handle stop gap measures if something goes wrong, but since you took an interest in Fuinjutsu, well Sarutobi-sensei and I figured it best I handle your training for now." he explained.
Naruto frowned, "So, Kakashi-sensei won't teach me anything new?" he asked.
Jiraiya shook his head, "Not quite, I'm sure he'll have stuff to show you still, but don't worry, I'll show you something better than Chidori on this mission." he promised with a grin.
"I hardly need a jutsu to shove my hand in someone." Naruto commented dryly, less than impressed.
"Damn, you're more brazen than I thought, but you shouldn't shove your whole hand in a lady." Jiraiya said blandly.
Naruto blinked owlishly as he processed what he heard, "I more meant-" he hesitated, he could not explain the claws, "Brute force, violence, bloodshed." he listed flatly.
Jiraiya scoffed, "I know, you need to learn to lighten up, you're starting to remind me of a young Kakashi." he scolded, "He threw himself into mastering the killing arts of being a shinobi too young too, and you two are hardly the only examples of young minds having difficulty coping with it." he lectured, "That's why D rank missions are basically chores, Shodai-sama wanted to do away with the use of child soldiers during the Sengoku Jidai."
Naruto frowned, "It's my brain so I get to choose the coping mechanism." he argued lazily, "Besides, hitai-ate makes me an adult." he insisted.
"It's not that simple." JIraiya said with a sigh, "Konoha tries to keep genin out of deadly situations until they're fifteen, sometimes that fails." he sighed, "In the case of your graduating year, most of those who passed are those who already have existing aptitude for the shinobi life due to their background as the children of shinobi clans, hell most of your generation are the heirs and heiresses." he pointed out, "With you being Uzumaki the only shinobi in your entire graduating year who isn't from a clan is Sakura Haruno, and even then her parents were ninja, one of them is still in active duty."
Naruto hadn't really considered that until it was laid out for him, "So what?" he asked, "They got hijutsu, Sakura-chan is good at memorizing details and has a good eye for genjutsu, and I've got kitsune magic." he joked.
Jiraiya frowned, "You do not have kitsune magic." he denied.
"I am legion." Naruto retorted, "In fact, Kage Bunshin are for scouting, so why are we searching the slow way?" he asked.
"People are going to notice a hundred blonde kids in flak vests and hitai-ate and if Tsunade-hime finds out we're looking for her she's just going to be harder to find." Jiraiya responded, "Best to remain low key for now." he advised as they approached the first stop, a town that was such a common rest stop it was named after how many hotels and motels it had.
Naruto looked around, he noticed the reactions he got were again different. No one in this town knew him, but they knew what hitai-ate meant and that the flak vest he wore signified he was a chunin. There weren't any other ninja around, but the civilians gave the two shinobi a wide berth.
Jiraiya was a bit more stand out than Naruto was, so he got more strange looks, especially since his hitai-ate had kanji instead of a symbol signifying his loyalty to Konoha, "Why don't you wear Konoha on your hitai-ate anyway?" Naruto asked.
"The kanji symbolizes I trained on Myobokuzan." Jiraiya answered before a woman winking at him caught his eye, "Say, why don't you get us a room, I'll meet you in a little bit." he said as he went after the woman.
Naruto frowned, he vaguely recalled the man watching women playing in waterfalls while training him, carrying a spyglass, and how he had acted towards Anko, "Pervert..." he muttered under his breath.
The blonde didn't waste time looking for a place, he rented two rooms, one room for himself and one for the Sannin with two beds, "White haired old dude, you can tell him where I'm staying and I'll give him his key." Naruto informed the man working the front desk who nodded professionally.
Naruto decided he liked the looks he got from civilians while he was wearing the flak vest, at least outside of Konoha there was some concern but mostly people seemed impressed or respectful of the light armor that chunin wore. He never realized it was so symbolic, he just thought it was armor, the hitai-ate always seemed far more symbolic to him.
Once the newly promoted blonde chunin had secured his room he descended into the dream just in case, "Oh my, good ryoshi your new armor looks good." the doll commented and Naruto smiled pleasantly.
Then the blonde sighed, "I have a busy mission, so I can't hunt for a bit, but I'll be spreading out some more, uh, activated stones I guess." he informed, gesturing to the glowing tombstones.
The doll nodded, "Then I wish you good luck on your mission, what is the importance may I ask?" she questioned.
Naruto frowned, "Hokage-jiji got badly hurt, his student is an iryoninja so we need to find her so she can help." he explained.
"I see." The doll said in a way that indicated she did not understand, "Someone approaches your quarters." she warned.
Naruto returned to his body and got up to hear urgent knocking, "That was fast, she already turn you down?" he questioned as he approached the door and opened it, "Oh you aren't Jiraiya." he noticed.
The man on the left was blue, with a Kiri hitai-ate that had a slash through the symbol and some massive bandaged weapon, likely a club from the shape of it, on his back. His grin was feral and his eyes reminded Naruto of the yaju. The other was shorter and had black hair in a short ponytail, tear tracts in his cheeks, and Sharingan. His hitai-ate also had a slash through it, but the symbol was Konoha.
Naruto failed not to make eye contact, "Naruto-kun, step outside." the Uchiha ordered, the blonde obeyed unwillingly and wrenched his eyes down, panicked he hopped back and searched for an escape.
"Oho, good instincts." The blue skinned man praised with a chuckle, "Should I take his legs? He doesn't need legs to survive, right, Itachi-san?" the man asked and the blonde tensed.
Before Itachi could retort Naruto's left hand blurred into motion, reached into his tool pouch, and retrieved his gun, both apparent nukenin became deathly still at where the blonde was pointing the firearm, "Don't move or my brains get it." he threatened, barrel pressed to his own left temple with a disturbingly feral smirk on his own face.
To Naruto the spur of the moment plan was pure genius, he was immortal, he'd set up a rest spot, and the blue skinned nukenin had commented they wanted him alive, "Shit, he's crazier than I am." the man muttered, lowering his hand away from his weapon hesitantly.
"He's not meeting my eyes," Itachi muttered, "Naruto-kun, do not do anything drastic." he requested, clearly trying to think of a way to de-escalate the situation. There was a risk that Naruto might squeeze the trigger in the midst of a genjutsu.
"Alright," Naruto said, now that he felt in control of the situation his confident smirk became all too smug for someone holding a gun to his own head, "bet you didn't think of what to do if I took myself hostage, huh?" he asked rhetorically, "Now what are you two after me for?" he asked.
"Kyuubi." The blue skinned man answered flatly.
"Kisame." Itachi scolded, although without a hint of actual sternness.
"Itachi." Kisame retorted.
"Naruto." Naruto spoke up dryly, "Alright, well, I'm pretty sure you can't have him, the fuinjutsu is powered by Shinigami-sama and he's not exactly cooperating with me." he explained, the double meaning of neither Shinigami nor kitsune cooperating making his smirk widen, "What do you need a Chakra no Bakemono for anyway? He's kind of a bitch to work with y'know." the blonde rambled as he stalled for time.
Itachi and Kisame exchanged a look, the blonde wondered if the Sharingan could communicate messages with genjutsu using eye contact more literally than the impressions some people who knew each other could manage.
"We're just going to leave." Itachi said.
"Just like that?" Naruto asked, not relaxing his grip on his gun or meeting the Uchiha's eyes.
"We were not prepared for a suicidal jinchuriki to be honest, we probably should have been all things considered." Kisame commented.
Naruto frowned, "Do jinchuriki just always get treated like shit." he grumbled.
"Usually more kept at arms length out of fear," Itachi corrected, "but I see how that would be traumatizing for a child." he agreed.
"Hold on, why are you after jinchuriki specifically?" Naruto asked, "You said you wanted the Kyuubi, but you mentioned jinchuriki specifically, what are you two up to?" he questioned.
"Oho," Kisame chuckled, "inquisitive and insightful isn't he? I heard he was a dumb brat." he mused, "I guess you shouldn't believe all the rumors you hear eh?"
Naruto frowned, "I was a bit of a dunce in the academy," he acknowledged, "I've been working on it." he added, not mentioning the supernatural help.
Kisame scoffed, "Great, a lazy suicidal genius of a jinchuriki is suddenly applying himself, and we can't even put a stop to it." he complained but did slowly back away.
Naruto watched smugly as the two backed off, but the moment of triumph was ruined by Sasuke Uchiha skidding to a halt at the end of the hall with murder in his Sharingan eyes, "Itachi." he greeted tonelessly, then he frowned, "Naruto what the fuck?"
"I know right?" Kisame commented.
"They want Kyuubi," Naruto said with a shrug, "I have politely declined and they agreed thanks to taking myself hostage." he explained, "You may praise my genius." he added smugly.
Sasuke continued to frown, "Why are you two after the kitsune?" he asked, eyes narrowed, "Think you can use the Sharingan to control it and destroy Konoha?" he dared to meet Itachi's eyes.
The older Uchiha's eyes span and the younger's vision swam before he was in an inverse space, "Tsukuyomi." Itachi declared and then they were in the Uchiha distract, that night years ago.
Naruto watched with growing horror as Sasuke's eyes reverted to their natural black, his sockets darkening and his bags growing heavy before his eyes as the boy fell to his knees, "What the hell is a Tsukuyomi?" the blonde asked.
Itachi didn't answer and left instead, followed by Kisame, Naruto frowned and lowered his gun as they left, looking around nervously, "Hostages are convenient." he muttered to himself, deciding not to dwell on using himself as one.
Jiraiya arrived in a puff of smoke, "I want to confront those two, but how in all the nations did you get them to back off?" he asked, taking note of Sasuke's catatonic state with some concern.
"I bluffed." Naruto lied, "They didn't want to risk calling it." he added at the incredulous look he received, "So, already got turned down?" he asked as he put his pistol away.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the gun and the change of subject, "They put her under genjutsu to distract me, a cowardly attempt." he explained, "Damn it, now we need to-"
"Jiraiya-sama!" Gai shouted as he rounded the corner, "Sasuke-san has gone after-!" he began, "Oh, you found him." he realized, "Good, he was going after a dangerous nukenin." he explained.
"Itachi Uchiha." Naruto guessed.
Gai nodded, "Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi-san was also further injured by Itachi, this is how the information on his whereabouts leaked." he hinted.
Jiraiya nodded as he took in the double meaning, Itachi had gotten information on where Naruto was by taking it from Kakashi, and Kakashi had likely been left in a state similar to Sasuke was which was how the younger Uchiha found out.
"Take Sasuke back to the village, we're on our way to find Tsunade Senju, she'll look at these two after she checks out Sarutobi-sensei, I'm sure she'll look at the other injured too." Jiraiya explained and Gai nodded gratefully before he scooped up the unconscious genin and returned to Konoha.
Then the Sannin turned on the blonde, "Two rooms?" he asked.
"I can't sleep around others." Naruto said blandly, "Another presence in the room always makes me jolt awake, it's arcane." he explained vaguely, trying not to smile at his private joke.
Jiraiya shrugged, "Well I guess you're at that age where you should have privacy." he mused, "Alright, rest up, I'll secure the building and tomorrow I'll show you the first step to the A rank ninjutsu you'll be learning while we search for Tsunade-hime."
Naruto stared at the water balloon, "How is this supposed to help me learn ninjutsu? Is this like the leaf balancing thing where doing it helps practice chakra control but it has no practical application?" he asked.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, "I swear I heard you weren't this smart." he muttered, "Ah, sort of, it's step one of learning an A rank ninjutsu that doesn't require hand seals and uses pure chakra control." he explained, then he popped a water balloon with his chakra.
Naruto made an attempt, and nothing happened. He made the seal of confrontation with his left hand and focused his chakra, he closed his eyes as he concentrated. He could practically hear the water moving, feel his chakra flowing into the water and moving it within the balloon but when he opened his eyes he was looking at an oblong water balloon stretched but undamaged by water spinning within.
"What's the trick?"
"Figuring it out is part of the training." Jiraiya answered vaguely with a smug smirk, "Ah, anyway now that we're somewhere secure," he continued and Naruto wondered when the man had made kage bunshin to do that, "Sarutobi-sensei and I agreed that given your promotion, as well as how much you've matured, that you should know, I'm your Nadzukeoya."
Naruto's eyes widened, "My- they trusted you to- you knew them?" he stumbled over his words.
"One question at a time, and for the record, this is the real reason I took you as an apprentice."
Naruto took a deep breath and threw the water balloon at Jiraiya, "Why am I only meeting you now!?" he snapped angrily.
"I deserved that." Jiraiya acknowledged without taking the burst balloon from his now soaked head, "Honestly, those of us who knew your parents best, who knew more about what happened, we didn't deal with what happened very well." he confessed, "Tsunade knew too, Sarutobi-sensei was the only one who held it together, and he kept your heritage a secret to protect you from your parents enemies." he explained.
Naruto crossed his arms and continued to glare, "Who?" he asked bluntly.
"Your Hahaoya was Kushina Uzumaki," Jiraiya began solmenly, "the previous Kyuubi Jinchuriki with more talent for brute force than any ninjutsu," he explained and the blonde was surprised and alarmed to hear that detail, "and your Chichue was Minato Namikaze," Naruto's eyes widened further, "Yondaime Hokage and Kiiroi Senko. The main reason Sarutobi-sensei hid this is because of Iwa, but given you made chunin and displayed a good grasp of what you need to do to survive as a ninja we decided to let you in on it, secretly. Seriously please hide this better than your kitsune secret."
Naruto frowned, "I'll keep the Yondaime thing under wraps," he muttered, "but I have the Uzumaki name." he pointed out.
"People probably honestly guess you're Kushina-chan's, if they knew her," Jiraiya confessed, "some of them can probably guess who the Chichue is from there, but mercifully kept it quiet." he explained, "Just please, don't be open about it."
Naruto frowned, "Fine." he grumbled petulantly, then he grabbed another water balloon and made another attempt, this time he tried to move the chakra with his left hand while focusing with his right. Kyomei Supika screeched and the balloon burst.
"Okay, maybe take that off while you practice Rasengan." Jiraiya suggested.
With the Kyomei Supika enclosed in a scroll, as disrupting the balloon with sound waves was clearly not the purpose of the exercise, Naruto made very little progress. He took balloons with him into the dream, and again the fact he could do that baffled him.
Mostly Naruto kept at it to distract himself from the new information, he put up a strong face but he was conflicted over learning his parentage. His mother had been a previous jinchuriki and his father was the one to put the Kyuubi in him, he wondered what had happened that night but he hadn't thought to ask in the moment.
It also made the comments that the Yondaime had intentionally made Naruto Uzumaki a living weapon intentionally seem a lot worse, he recalled the official story, the Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked and the Yondaime Hokage had defeated it, then Naruto learned that defeating it had in fact entailed locking it into the keirakukei of a child. Now though the blonde knew there had been a jinchuriki in between himself and Mito Uzumaki, Kushina Uzumaki.
Naruto sighed as he stared at the balloon in his hand, he was far too unfocused to make any progress popping it with pure chakra control. The blonde glared down at his navel, "I bet the kitsune would probably help those jerks get himself ripped out of me." he grumbled, recalling how bitter his tenant had been with the fact they were now stuck together for what may be forever.
As soon as Naruto and Jiraiya were on the road again the blonde asked, "What happened that night?" he asked.
Jiraiya didn't need the blonde chunin to explain which night he meant, "I wasn't there, and I wish I had been." he answered, "Giving birth weakened Kushina-chan's Fuinjutsu," he began to explain, "I know what you're probably thinking, but no, not your fault, they knew what they were doing and took precautions." he interrupted himself at the look on Naruto's face, "Sarutobi-sensei told me a man in a mask interfered, broke the fuinjutsu, and unleashed the Kyuubi no Kitsune on Konohagakure no Sato." he explained, "From there, Yondaime-sama sacrificed his life to lock the kitsune in the only available source of chakra who could handle it, since having a Chakra no Bakemono ripped out of your keirakukei is basically fatal."
Naruto absorbed the information, "So, those two were going to kill me eventually anyway." he mused, the fact using himself as a hostage worked in that situation was amusing, but he supposed they didn't know for certain what would happen to the kitsune if he died either.
The blonde continued his attempts, but he was still having difficulty despite having gone through a couple of balloons. No matter how much he spun the water instead of popping the balloon he usually ended up just stretching the material until the balloon wore out and sprung a leak.
"So, Kaachan was no good with this control stuff either huh?" Naruto mused, he supposed naturally bad control came with naturally large reserves, and from the sounds of it the kitsune's chakra was constantly leaking into his.
The blonde chunin stopped, his thought process halted and backed up a step as he registered that he was getting a constant stream of kitsune chakra. The fuinjutsu was supposed to do that, but apparently it eroded over time and let more out, but the kitsune in question didn't actually seem to want this and referred to what Naruto received as dregs.
This did not help pop the balloon, but it did give Naruto an idea, "Maybe if I-?" he began as he attempted to brute force it, make the water explode outwards. Instead the balloon was launched from his hand and splashed down the road.
"Well at least your chakra control will be better once you figure this out." Jiraiya commented cheerily, but he didn't give further hints.