Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

"Windows to the Soul"
by Chronos Astral

Chapter 3:

'Impressions'


Jiraiya was angry. No, far from it. He was very angry. Not because he was interrupted from his 'research'. Not because he was beaten senseless by the females who discovered him 'researching' their naked bodies. None of those.

'He' was here. And his seemingly beautiful day turned a 180 on him.

Trying his best to suppress a deep scowl, he hurriedly marched into the designated training area he was told to go, his former teacher, the Sandaime Hokage, in tow.

"Where is the bastard!?" The Sannin asked in thinly veiled contempt, not spotting his target anywhere.

"You must calm down, Jiraiya. We will find him." The Sandaime consoled.

"How can I calm down!? He's training the Uzumaki kid! Who knows what he'll do!?" Jiraiya snapped back, holding on to what little patience he had left.

It was then that he spotted him in the corner of his eye. The blue-haired, pony-tailed man was lounging peacefully with his back leaning against a tree, smiling as he soaked in the tranquility of the flora before him. This seemed to have pissed Jiraiya off some as he approached in a faster pace and without warning, slammed the man's neck against the rough bark of the tree, pressing his palm into the man's throat without actually choking him.

"You..." Jiraiya growled, venom dripping from the tone of his voice.

The man was unfazed and still smiling as he turned his head to regard the older man through his sealed eyes.

"Hisashiburi ne, Jirai-san?"

Jiraiya frowned. It was him, alright.


Let's see... What'll I do today?

Naruto trudged absently along, gathering his thoughts as to what activities he may indulge in today. In the very few times he was free from training he would usually just tag along with his surrogate brother, but today was one of the rare days he was told to go by himself. It wasn't that he was displeased by being left out of whatever his 'nii-san' was doing, it was just that not many things besides his 'nii-san' entertained him to a certain degree.

I guess I'll go to the playground or something...

As he walked, the usual glares came his way, though instead of ignoring them, he returned them with a serene smile, one that wasn't forced or strained. His older brother had taught him to do so whenever they gazed upon him with hatred and told him that whatever they hated him for, he assured him that it wasn't his fault. They were all just insecure with something, he said, and if Naruto were to smile, they might stop to think about it. It worked too, since some of the villagers only ignored him now and would even stop hawking him when he beamed at them. It had a strange though positive effect, he noticed, and was glad for it all the same.

Upon reaching his destination, the sound of demeaning laughter caught up to his ears and, for once, it wasn't directed at him. With closer inspection he distinguished what appeared to be a group of boys his age surrounding the crying figure of a small pink-haired girl. He caught ear of their taunts of 'big forehead' and 'pinkie' which irked him greatly.

Calmly thinking over the situation, he strode over with confidence, equipped with only a smile. Maneuvering through the crowd of boys, he approached the weeping youth, ignoring the protests of the tormentors.

"Hey, wait. Isn't that the loser kid that the grown-ups hate?" One of the smaller ones pointed out.

"Yeah, that's right! It is the loser!" And thus they began hounding the blond, condoning their previous target for a much more entertaining one to toy with.

Naruto kept his smile despite the painful insults and small rocks hurled at him. He knelt before the small girl who only stared back at him with awe.

"Are you okay?" He asked sincerely as a stray pebble grazed his face.

"W-w-why a-are you helping me? sniff Y-you're getting hurt b-because of me..." She sniffled, guilt wracking with each word pelted at him.

"Shhh... It's okay..." He reassured her. In a few moments, the commotion slowly died down.

"Feh! This is boring. Let's go." After casting a few more rocks and choice insults, the group of miscreants left to find something else to do.

Naruto dusted himself of the dirt and picked bits of stone from his hair. "Glad that's over..."

"I-I'm sorry..."

"Wha?"

"I'm sorry. I'm -sniff- so sorry. You got hurt a-and all I did was cry and-"

"Shhh..." Naruto cut her off with a pat. "I said it was okay. I did it because I wanted to. It's not your fault."

After a few hiccups and tears, she calmed down to a few hitches in her breathing. Naruto handed her a handkerchief which she gratefully accepted. It was patterned with swirls that resembled that of the fishcake that decorated ramen, a testament to his name sake and love of his favorite treat.

"Now, do you wanna tell me why they were picking on you?" Naruto asked, gently helping her up from her crouched position.

The girl winced at the question. "Th-they were making fun of my hair and f-forehead. It's because my hair's pink a-and my forehead's big."

"Hey now," He put a hand on her small shoulder, and spoke in a slightly disbelieving tone. "Why would they do that? I think they're stupid if they thought your hair looks dumb. I think it makes you look cute."

"And besides, your forehead doesn't look that big. They're just jealous 'cuz you look smarter than they are." He gave a small grin at her wide-eyed reaction.

The girl softly mouthed a reply. "A-arigato..." She looked up at him with a questioning gaze. "But... didn't that hurt at all?"

Naruto sheepishly grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Not really. I've trained myself a lot so it doesn't hurt that much. Besides, I can't let something so little get the better of me if I'm going to be Hokage."

"You're want to be Hokage?"

"Yup," He held his head high with a mix of pride and determination. "I'm going to train hard to become a ninja. Then I'll go to the academy to get better. Then I'll train even more, and go on missions, and stuff. Then when I'm strong enough, people will pick me to be Hokage and everyone will recognize.."

The blond then gave a playful smile. "Then when I become Hokage, my first rule in the village will be that all bullies that pick on others will be made to dance on the Hokage monument for the village to see, wearing a clown suit, including the red nose and rainbow wig!"

The girl failed to suppress a giggle as he puffed his chest out. She knew he said that to cheer her up and it worked too. "Do you think I could be as strong as you?"

"Of course you can. My nii-san told me that through hard work and deter... determin... determ... uh... not giving up will get you what you want. That's why I train really hard almost everyday, even if it hurts so much, 'cuz I'll be good enough to reach my dream and protect the people that I care about, like Nii-san, and Ichiraku-jiji, Ayame-chan, Oyaji, and you... er... I didn't get your name yet..."

She let out another light giggle at his semi-impressive speech cut short before introducing herself. "Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

"'Sakura'? That's a pretty name. It suits your hair." To prove his point, he twirled a few strands of her fuchsia locks, eliciting a small blush from the girl.

"So um... What's your name?"

"Wha? Oh right! It's Uzumaki Naruto, future Konoha-nin and hopefully someday, Hokage." He flashed a charming grin. If you were to ask him the same question before, he would have shouted his answer out for everyone to hear and would flat-out say that he will be Hokage. Believe it! Confidence is one thing, but his surrogate brother had to teach him the values of humility and consideration for other people's ability to hear.

"Naruto..." Sakura whispered softly to herself as if testing how his name rolled off her tongue.

"You can do it."

"What?" She asked, not really getting what he was saying.

"You can be strong. I know it." He elaborated.

"I'm not strong... I only cry a lot..." She put on a downcast expression.

"'People become stronger when they desire to be.' That's what my nii-san tells me. And he also says that this desire comes from other people," His eyes once again flashed in a mark of determination "I train because I want people to acknowledge me, and I train because I want to protect the people who do. That's how I find strength. From my nii-san, and my friends."

"Finding strength..." She told herself, soaking in the strange yet comforting concept.

"Sakura!" A feminine voice cut through her thoughts. A blonde girl of her age waved cheerily as she hastily approached the girl.

"Ino!" She waved back with the same mirth at her best friend, Yamanaka Ino.

"What are you doin' out here Sakura?" Ino asked curiously, seeing nothing particularly entertaining to do by herself.

"I was just talking to..." When Sakura looked around, her new Hokage-aspiring friend had disappeared.

"Talking to who?" The blonde girl peered over her friend's shoulder, finding no one there. "Wait, were you crying again?" She noted the slight redness in the pink-haired girl's eye.

"Well... yeah..." She answered sheepishly.

Ino sighed tiredly. "I've told you already that if they bully you, you can come to me, right? I'll fix them good..." She cracked her knuckles menacingly to prove her point.

Sakura only smiled and fondly shook her head. "No. I'll stop being a crybaby from now on. And I'll get stronger so that I won't need you to always look out for me."

At this, Ino was both surprised and impressed. She had said those words with much conviction that she found it hard to believe it was the same little girl she had found a friend in. Looking at her more closely, her eyes did not betray her words and her face was steeled with a newfound certitude she had never seen in the girl.

After a few moments of questioning herself whether this girl before her was really Sakura, she asked the question that had just begun bugging her. "Wow, Sakura. Where did this come from?"

Sakura looked to the object clutched in her hand, the wrinkled tear-stained handkerchief crumpled in it. Her smile widened.

"From a new friend of mine."

The side of Naruto's lips twitched upwards as a few tears fell from his deep cerulean eyes. Climbing down silently from the tree he had hid himself in, he wiped the salty waters with his arms. He'd need to get a new handkerchief later.


"You look like you haven't aged a bit and you stopped dyeing your hair." Jiraiya observed monotonously.

"Funny how that works eh?" The man replied, still held in place by the Toad-Hermit's fierce hold.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just resting, Jirai-san. And it would be a much more pleasurable endeavor if you would be so kind enough as to remove your hand from my windpipe. I find it a little uncomfortable." The man told him in a sweet and humble tone that nearly drove the white-haired Sannin off the edge.

"Don't give me that shit! Now tell me what you're doing here!" He commanded with more force while applying more pressure to the man's neck.

"Jiraiya. You need to calm down, otherwise you may end up killing him." Sarutobi said from the side, eyeing the two cautiously.

"I'm here to pay a visit to Konoha. A break from my long travel isn't so much to ask for, is it?"

"Bullshit! How do you plan on taking responsibility, huh!? Is that why you're here!?" Jiraiya shouted with greater force and rage evident on his seething face.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The blue-haired man continued to smile despite the older man's exertions.

A part of Jiraiya's self-control snapped and he slugged the man hard across his cheek. His lips leaked blood, but he kept his smile. "Like FUCK 'you don't know what I'm talking about'!! It's because of you that Minato..." He trailed off, anger still boiling inside of him.

"Jiraiya-" The aged Hokage warned again, but was cut off.

"SHUT UP!" The Sannin cried fiercely before sneering at the young man's facet. After many deep ragged breaths, he let go of his neck and gave him a glare that radiated with killing intent that promised pain in most unbearable amounts. "Do anything to the kid..." He left his words hanging, assuming that he knew what he would do.

He grinned in a way Jiraiya saw as too sickeningly sweet. "I'll take care of him. Don't you trust your student?"

"You're not my student... Not anymore..." The older man turned and walked away, hiding his eyes within the shadows of his bangs, a grim scowl plastering itself on his wrinkled face.


Done.

For those of you who don't like Sakura, tough luck. I'm not biased when it comes to these things. Though this will improve her attitude significantly in the future so that's a plus at the least.

More girls to come in the future. Most of the girls Naruto's age will definitely be included (Ayame, Hanabi, Hana, Kin, and Tayuya left for debate) (Another note: If I do include Hanabi, I think I'd have to adjust her age a bit). Anyone older have little probability of being included unless given good reason to. No harems for 'yet-to-be-named'. It feels a little off for an OC to have a harem.

Debating on whether to have Sasuke still be angsty and jealous of Naruto's future progress or have Naruto become his friend though still be a little envious.

Also debating on whether or not Naruto will be placed in same Team Seven genin team or become a sort of 'special genin' that accompanies other teams. (Something put to my mind by reviewer, Avatarofrage)

Another thing I'd like to point out to a frequent reviewer, Amorphusshadow: When he asked if 'brother' used to be a sannin, it would have already been a 'no' considering that the 'san' in 'sannin' means 'Three' and therefore means that there are only three of the Legendary Sannin/Three Ninjas, namely: Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. No offense to Amorphusshadow but I would just like to point this out to those who didn't know. Actually, I had originally thought of putting him as a sannin but had realized the error in this and instead made him one of Jiraiya's unnamed(coincidence?) students besides the Yondaime. It was actually a near valid observation.

There's a group picture of the genin team somewhere which had Jiraiya, Yondaime, a shaved slightly tanned kid, and dark-haired boy/girl. Look it up at: en. wikipedia. org /wiki /Image:Jiraiyageninteam .jpg (Remove the spaces)

Review please!