Ninja of the Void

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters associated with it.

"Talking"

Thoughts

The Toad, The Fox, and the Panties

Naruto sat cross legged with folded arms as he stared intensely at the old man who was staring back at him in the same position.

Another week had passed since Jiraiya had become his temporary teacher. However things weren't progressing very well as the old sage tried to explain something important to him to which the young blond didn't understand very well.

Although he was surprised at how much Jiraiya knew about him.

~ Flashback ~

"You know about the Kyubi!" exclaimed Naruto as he was bashful at learning this. But then again if he really thought about it, almost every adult in Konoha should have known he was the Kyubi's jinchuriki. However what really got him moving was what the old sage had said.

"Of course I do, but now I want to teach you how to control it" said Jiraiya thoughtfully. "I think it's about time you put that power to good use".

Naruto then looked away as he slightly shivered a bit. "But . . . . aren't you scared . . . . of the power inside me?" The young blond at this time recalled how many adults reacted around him from just simply his presence alone. Up to his present time, he now understood why they were afraid of him. But then he questioned, was it a good idea for him to learn a power that people were afraid of?

Jiraiya simply grinned at this. "Don't be such a punk. I wouldn't be teaching you if I were scared of you ya know. Besides you remind me of a certain brat I knew a long time ago" as he patted his head. "Besides I know you're a good kid and there's nothing more to it than that". He then gave a smirk. "So I have faith in you to know how to use your power wisely".

". . . . really?"

"Of course!" said the old sage as he then gave wide reassuring smile.

Naruto immediately brightened up to this. "Thanks, so where do we start?"

"First we need to get you to talk to your bijuu".

~ End Flashback ~

But to be rather frank Jiraiya didn't really know how to make this work. What he knew was based on what he understood of jinchuriki's and their relationship with their bijuu's. But from what he heard thus far, it was rather uncommon to practically rare for a jinchuriki and their bijuu to get along. However, what was at least common was that each jinchuriki should have been able to at least talk to their tailed beast. The only problem was, neither of them didn't have a clue on how to make this connection.

As for Naruto, he was aware the orange chakra he used before was the Kyubi's. But the last time he used it was from pure instinct because from then till now he wasn't able to call it again.

"Man kid, you really suck at this" plainly stated Jiraiya as he now looked half bored to Naruto.

"Well maybe you're just a lousy teacher" he then retorted. "Your explanations don't really make a whole lot of sense and how the hell am I supposed to talk to the stupid fox? Besides you said you would teach me something useful by now".

"Tsk" as the old sage then looked away. "You know what my price is".

"What!" as Naruto's face displayed shock, "there's no way in hell I'm doing that!"

"Well I'm not going to teach you anything else unless you pay up".

"I refuse to pay you in that!"

"Well tough luck then and I was even thinking about teaching you something good".

Naruto slightly growled at this as he soon got up to leave.

At watching him leave Jiraiya couldn't help but snicker a bit. "That'll show that brat to get me caught in one of my research missions". But then he looked up as he stared into the sky. As looked, he quietly contemplated what he was supposed to do now. "But how am I going to make this work?" The old sage soon closed his eyes in thought. ". . . . If only his mother were still here . . . . "

~ Konoha (elsewhere) ~

Naruto was fuming as he stealthily snuck around a certain building in the village.

"Damn ero-sannin, making me do such a stupid thing like this" he grunted.

As things were, every person in the world had something they valued. Some valued money, some valued gold, and others valued whatever materialism they had. But for an A-class pervert, there existed only one currency in the world that was universal to all peepers. At this time Naruto was stalking the outsides of a laundry mat to make sure no one was inside to witness him do the deed of stealing some panties. But then he grunted, "damn that old man for making me do this". Upon entering, a nefarious idea came to mind to which he believed would even out the score. "Yeah, this ought to show him", as he started to weave a few seals forming his jutsu.

Upon completing it, he waited a moment before going in casually opening one of the machines taking some of the garments as he casually walked out again.

To some of the woman who were there, "who was that?"

~ Konoha (elsewhere) ~

Upon his return to their training area, he found Jiraiya hiding in some bushes as he appeared to be ogling some girls who were playing at a large waterfall. " . . . . And this is supposed to be some great legend?" "Hey ero-sannin! Here is my tuition" as he dropped the undergarments. "Now teach me something useful".

The old sage soon climbed out looking sour like a child being pulled away from his favorite toy. "Yeah yeah I got ya". Then nicking his thumb as he drew a blood line across his palm, he began weaving a few seals as he then slammed his hand against the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" In a blast of smoke, a toad appeared as he then unrolled his tongue revealing a scroll with a few names on it.

"What's this?"

"It's the toad summoning contract" as Jiraiya unrolled the parchment a bit further revealing an empty slot. "So just write your name here in blood along with your palm print and you should be able to perform the summoning". Then weaving the seals, "and these are the symbols you'll need to do it. So remember it well".

Naruto practiced the order a few times until he was certain he got it down right. "Alright I think I got it now".

"Well give it a try then".

The blond closed his eyes in thought before reopening them. "Alright, here goes nothing!" He then nicked his thumb drawing a blood line across his palm as he began weaving the seals. Upon completion he charged as much power as he could focus into his hand as he slammed it against the ground. "Kuchiyose no justu!" In blast of smoke, it soon dissipated to reveal . . . . A small orange toad.

"Yo! My name is Gamakichi. So who the hell are you? And why did you summon me?"

"Holly crap! I did it!" cheered Naruto.

"Heh, not bad" smirked Jiraiya.

The blond then looked to the larger toad the old sage had summoned. "Hmm, but I was hoping to summon something like that though".

"Well you did well for a first try. So count that as something".

"But I wanted to summon something bigger!"

The pair then heard a cough as they looked down to the little orange toad. "It's not polite to talk little of anyone you know".

Naruto blinked at this as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that".

"As I was saying before, I'm Gamakichi. So who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, the next greatest Hokage!"

The little orange toad blinked at this for a moment before breaking out into a laugh. "That's a really good joke. Please, please tell me another one!"

"Hey! I was being serious!"

"Right, if you're going to be Hokage then I'll grow to be the size of a boulder".

"Fine, I'll show you! I'll summon a toad five times bigger then you!" as he began weaving the seals. "That'll show you I can do it!" He then slammed his hand against the ground as a blast of smoke appeared. As the mist began to clear there was . . . . "A small . . . . Yellow toad . . . ."

"Yeah five times bigger" laughed Gamakichi. "More like five times heavier. I can't believe you summoned my idiot brother Gamatatsu!"

"GamaKichi . . . . Please don't call me that".

Naruto growled at this. "Alright, again!" to which he summoned a small toad. "Again!" repeating the same event. "Again!" doing another repeat. "Again?" to which he summoned another similar sized toad.

After an nth amount of tries it appeared that he summoned an entire family of toads. ". . . . You've got to be kidding me".

"Wow . . . . now you're just being pathetic" sweat dropped Gamakichi to which the rest of his brothers and sisters did the same.

"Hey ero-sannin" said Naruto now looking a bit saddened. "Why can't I get anything bigger? What am I doing wrong?"

Jiraiya looked out to all the frogs that waved to him as he then looked back to Naruto. "You simply aren't using enough power" he said rather bluntly.

"Huh? I'm at the highest of what I can control with this jutsu! How can that not be enough power?"

"Look Naruto, you're still just a kid. Summoning something is directly proportional to how much chakra you're using, and with toads of this size not to mention this many is already pretty damn good for someone your age and rank. But simply the power needed to summon something bigger . . . . well you either need to dump a ton of power into it or your chakra has to be extremely potent to do it". He then poked the blond in the forehead. "So just be happy brat that you were able to do this much".

"No way, not until I summon something just as big or bigger than your toad" pointing out the obvious size difference. "So tell me how to do it! The amount of chakra I'm using can easily summon fifty clones! So what am I doing wrong?"

Jiraiya gave a heavy sigh to this. "Look, every technique requires a different quota of chakra to be used to which in this case you would either need to stabilize a huge amount of chakra or have chakra that was extremely concentrated. Either way it's something you can't accomplish in a day. So stop your whining will you".

Naruto looked downcast at this until he looked up in thought. "What about the Kyubi's chakra?"

"The Kyubi's?"

"Yeah! I could definitely tell how dense its power was when I used it. Is there a way I can use that?"

"Well I suppose that could work. But then again . . . ."

"What?"

The old sage then gave him a scrutinizing look. "You can't even do the least bit of even talking to it".

Naruto gaped at this as he was absolutely right. "Well come on! Then let's learn already how to do this then!"

But at that statement Jiraiya looked directly at him giving the boy quite the serious stare. ". . . . I know of a fast way to get you to talk to your bijuu, but . . . ."

"What? What is it?" then asked Naruto feeling slightly excited of what this solution could be.

". . . . this method is extremely dangerous . . . . I don't want you to be doing it".

"Oh come on! I'm a ninja of Konoha. I refuse to back down from any kind of danger no matter what it is! So tell me what it is already".

Jiraiya looked to the boy once more. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course I am!"

The old sage then closed his eyes in thought before reopening them. ". . . . follow me".

". . . . OK" as Naruto noticed how unusual the old man was acting now.

After a bit of walking they arrived at a ravine. As Naruto looked down he couldn't even see the bottom as it was practically an endless abyss. "OK, so how is this supposed to help me?"

". . . . Before I tell you anything, you have your watch on you right?"

"Yeah, I always like to keep it with me".

"I want you to give it to me".

"Huh? Why?"

". . . . For this method to work, I need you to be focused on one thing".

"Focused? Focused on what?"

"Are you going to do this or not?" as Jiraiya began to seem a bit impatient.

"Alright alright, no need to get all grump on me" as he then handed over his watch. "So what is it already? What is this sure fine way that'll get that stupid fox to talk to me?" as he looked over the edge. But before he knew what had happened, he was pushed from behind as he started to fall in. "What?" And just like that the young blond began to free fall in.

To be rather frank, Jiraiya rather preferred Naruto to learn to talk to the Kyubi with time. But a storm was coming, and the world was going to feel its turbulence. With the power Naruto had resting inside him, he needed to be ready when the time came that the world needed saving. Now looking out to Naruto as he struggled to stay alive, he had faith in the boy.

In order for a jinchuriki to communicate with their bijuu, they needed to look deep inside themselves to meet them in the only place they could be, their soul. For some containers the communication was a slow but gradual process. However the best way to yield the best results was to place the jinchuriki in a high stress situation or in other words under the threat of death to which the most basic human instincts would kick in as they would then be forced to look deep inside themselves for that one moment of clarity to survive. As Jiraiya watched him fall, he was still his god-father which made him worry about the situation he literally pushed him into. Even though he had safety precautions put into place, ". . . . come on kid. You can do it".

Meanwhile the toad family who were watching this was in absolute shock. "Wow that's cold" said Gamakichi.

"Yeah . . . ." said Gamatatsu.

Naruto at this time was panicking like hell as he continued to free fall entering terminal velocity as he couldn't slow down his descent. He tried everything he knew from chakra sticking to the bunshin ladder. But simply he was falling too fast and the rocks were too slippery making it impossible for himself to save himself. As he continued to fall, ". . . . am I going to die?" as he felt like every muscle in his body had just gone numb in fear. Just as he was about completely cave in to fear, everything went dark.

~ Inner World ~

". . . . Where am I?" As Naruto blinked, he double checked his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was right as he quickly checked his body to make sure he was there. He then looked around. "OK . . . . so where am I exactly? I thought I was in the middle of falling".

So not knowing what to do, he began to wander around. As he quietly went along, it started to come to him where he might be. "Is this supposed to be my soul? Why is it so bland in here? And why is the water all the way up to my ankles? Is the plumbing in here broken or something?" He then looked up in thought. "Hmm, I don't think I can get any plumber service in here".

But as he continued to quietly walk around, he started to feel it. The power he felt before back at wave country. So following his senses, he began walking down hallway to hallway passing by from door to door until he ran into a rather large opening in the wall. Upon circling in, that's where he saw it.

"So you've come I see" as the Kyubi smiled to him in its Cheshire like form.

Naruto shook a bit at feeling the booming sound of the demon's voice. "So you're the thing that's been inside me all this time". As the blond stood before the enormous beast he could honestly say he felt somewhat intimidated by it. Even though it was behind a cage, the Kyubi's presence was indeed quite fearsome from just simply standing before it.

The fox demon growled a bit, "So what brings a little brat like you here?"

The blond jinchuriki steeled himself as he approached the Kyubi. Then arriving close enough, he calmed himself as he displayed a rather confident smirk while staring eye to eye with the demon. "I don't really have the time to be chatting it up with you but since I'm letting your lazy a** have a room here, I want you to start paying up the rent. So you can start by giving me your chakra".

The Kyubi watched the boy in silence until it started to let out a crackling howl of laughter. "Rather amusing boy, there have been few humans who would dare talk down to me like this let alone a child". But then staring at the boy, "I'll entertain you for now. So let us see . . . . how things will turn out". With that the fox began releasing its power as it soon surrounded and engulfed Naruto in its malevolent aura.

~ Konoha (physical world) ~

Naruto's eyes soon snapped open as he could feel the fox's power energize every cell in his body. He didn't know how long he was gone, but it didn't appear for long as it seemed as nothing had changed much around him.

Then looking ahead, he saw the last rock formation within sight. Going through his options, Naruto did the only technique he could think of that would get him out of this predicament. So quickly going through the right symbols, "kuchiyose no jutsu!" In a blast of smoke he was surprised to see what he was standing on at it was a giant toad roughly as big as the Kyubi itself.

"Yeah! I did it! I summoned a super massive toad!" cheered Naruto as he was happily jumping around. And his celebration would have continued as such if a large angry voice didn't disturb him.

"Who is standing on my head?" it thundered.

"Huh?"

"I said who is standing on my head?"

"Uzumaki Naruto . . . . the person who summoned you . . . ." as the blond began to shrink back a bit. As he saw it, the giant toad didn't seem too friendly and it wasn't a good idea to piss off the thing that was keeping you from falling.

"my summoner?" scoffed the giant frog. "Do you know who I am? I am the boss frog Gamabunta and I don't just let anyone get on my head! So why should I allow you?"

Naruto was now starting to get a bit irritated. "Hey! I summoned you! So that makes me your master right? So you have to listen to me!"

"What?" he then thundered. "Do you dare to order me around?"

Naruto immediately shrank at this. "Sorry, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

Gamabunta narrowed his eye as he stared up at the small boy on his head. "Very well then from now on you'll be my kouhai, understand?"

"Yes sir!" as Naruto stood up in solute.

Meanwhile up above, everyone was surprised to who appeared. "I can't believe he summoned him of all the frogs" said Jiraiya.

"Wow, pops decided to make him one of his protégés" said Gamakichi.

"That's great, can we get something to eat now?" then said Gamatatsu.

Then for the most part Gamabunta returned Naruto and himself back to the surface to which he confirmed Naruto's truth of being a contract holder. Then after a few words and good-byes, the toad family returned back to their home as Naruto and Jiraiya decided to call it a day.

~ Konoha (Ichiraku) ~ (evening)

"You did good kid. Accomplished quite a bit in such a short time" said Jiraiya.

"Thanks" smirked Naruto. "What did you expect from a future Hokage?"

"Right" then said the old sage as he took a slurp of his noodles. "By the way brat, what's the story about the watch?"

"The watch?"

Jiraiya then gave the young blond a nuggy on his head. "Don't be coy you little twerp. I'm well aware of what that watch is as it's usually my business to know things like that".

Naruto rubbed his head as he continued to eat his ramen. ". . . . It belonged to my dad".

"Your dad you say" as Jiraiya eyes widened in interest. "So how much do you know about the guy?"

"My dad? . . . . Well . . . . Not anything really" as he gave a bit of a sigh. "I don't even know his name and jii-san won't tell me as he said he'll tell me when I get older. But I think he was a pretty amazing guy".

The old sage grinned at this, "you don't even know the half of it". "So what makes you think that?"

"He must have been really smart to be able to come up with such an amazing creation". Naruto then looked up from his meal in thought, "but there are just so many things I wanted to ask him".

"Hmm? Like what?"

"Like who was he? Who was mom? And stuff like that you know. But also, the notes he left behind had a ton of vague things I didn't understand".

"What do you mean?"

"Well" as he looked up in thought. "Like what was the true purpose of the watch?"

"True purpose?"

"Yeah, my dad referenced that for all the abilities it had; it's true purpose was to perform one function".

"And I'm guessing you know what that function is already".

"Well sort of" then said Naruto. "I don't really understand what it means exactly as it seems to talk about a lot of stuff I can't really comprehend. But out of everything, it seemed to stress one adamant idea which was simply that I should never use it".

"Why is that?"

The boy simply shrugged at this. "I don't know, it's one of things I wanted to ask him. But enough about that, let's get some ramen in me" as he started to slurp happily away at his meal.

However Jiraiya's gaze became solid as he understood Minato's words as his former student had explained it to him once. Simply that function could be considered both a great gift, but also a great curse. " . . . . But it's something Naruto must understand on his own".

"There he is! That's the pervert who stole my panties!"

The old sage looked back to see a mob of angry women and kunoichi alike as they brought the entire works such as torches and pitchforks as they slowly began to gang up on him. "Are they hunting a monster or something?" He then looked to his side to see Naruto giving him a cheek to cheek smile. "What did you do?"

"You know, when you had me stealing panties for you it irked me. So I used my henge to look like you as I went from laundry mat to laundry mat getting the 'tuition' you wanted".

"What did you say? You're getting me into trouble for something like that? Don't you remember that you got me busted at the spa!"

"Yeah, But then you pushed me off a cliff. So I think this more or less makes up even".

"But that was for your training purpose!"

"Hence more or less" as he then simply returned back to his ramen.

Jiraiya looked out to the angry mob as he waved his hands innocently. "I swear it wasn't me this time. I'm being set up. Please believe me!"

"No way pervert!"

"It's time you're brought in for your crimes!"

"You should just die already you old fart!"

"Come on girls let's get him!"

"Wait! It's this kid here" as he pointed to Naruto. "It was one of his pranks. Come on you little brat, tell them".

The blond jinchuriki simply looked to him as he slapped one hand to his check as he pointed to him. "Hey! Take a look at what he has in his pocket!"

Jiraiya checked his pocket pulling out a lacy black panty. "When in the hell did he do that?"

"Hey those are mine!"

"That's it, let's get this scumbag!"

"Go! Go! Go!"

The old sage grunted at this as he immediately started to run for his life. Just before getting out of hearing range, "I'll get you for this!"

Naruto snickered as he then pulled Jiraiya's now vacant ramen bowl to him. "Yeah, more for me".

"Was it alright to do that?" asked Teuchi as the mob of woman continued to run by his shop like a stampede. "I mean will he really be alright?"

"He's the greatest legend Konoha has ever seen, hero to those who know his name, savior by those who revere him, and champion for those who know his greatness. For that guy is the great Jiraiya, the toad sage of Konoha!" emphasizing the antic he showed him earlier that week. "Oh yeah, one more thing . . . ."

"What is it?"

"Put all my meals here on his tab as I'll be ordering two more bowls now".

To be continued . . . .

Author's notes: I hope this chapter was up to standard to which I hope you all enjoyed it.

So I thank everyone for taking the time in reading this fic and further extend my gratitude if you can review it as well.