A/N: I wanted to say a firm thank you to everyone reading this fic. I never imagined it would do so well when the concept first came to me back at the end of May, and I'm delighted by how it's turned out!
Crystalzap/Vaughn Tyler: Aye.
Dragonist: One of the things I'm trying to do here is not merely center the story around Naruto and his exploits, but showcase things that might or should have been all around. Sasuke had the chance to become something different if molded right from a younger age, and will definitely continue to crop up over time as his character evolves and progresses.
Up to this point we've been getting into the feel of things and starting the wheels for the major changes to occur, and Naruto will definitely not be without foes as the chapters progress. Danzo most assuredly isn't done with even if he is no longer in the spot light for now, but I can't do much with Akatsuki in the current time frame either without shipping Naruto off to interfere and grab at their attention.
greywizard-dumblemort: You've raised some very good points, thank you. Glad to have been able to answer them in the PM :)
When Naruto arrived back within the edges of Konoha's boundary his form was once more that of a small boy again. Walking around in his older henge would have only driven unneeded questions toward him, and the last week or so he had done a fairly heavy amount of consideration over just what the hell he was doing, until finally settling on his realization that things had to change- within himself more than anything else.
He's dead because you couldn't contain yourself. Old man Hokage warned us this was going to happen, but you charged ahead anyway and got him tangled up in a battle that couldn't be won without too great a cost.
He reflected on the events that lead to he and Yamato finding the former Toad Sage only a short time ago, roughly two months or so.
Sipping from the glass in his hand again, Naruto's partially glassed over eyes scanned the locals in the latest bar wearily. How in the world had it taken them so long, through so many taverns scattered around three different towns, to locate one man? It wasn't exactly like Jiraiya was hard to spot if you knew where to look, but either the pervy sages memory was faltering by the time Naruto was taken under his wing in the old time line, or all this drinking was starting to get to him.
Yamato spent most of his time staking the locations out since a stranger that could only communicate through wood-jutsus would hang around in people's thoughts for far longer than either of them wanted.
So Naruto had the pleasure of working through each drink, asking the questions in one henge or another, and trying to keep from losing his concentration long enough to revert. If we don't find him tonight, I'm giving up. Orochimaru can be dealt with down the road. he thought with an unused to irritability.
A slight flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye saw Naruto turning toward another table as a slightly woozy looking man with short silver hair and bland clothing blurred around the edges, revealing for a moment the outline of far longer braids and a flash of crimson, suppressing a hiccup.
Squinting as the blur evened out the jinchuriki carefully stood up and approached the other table. "Whatta ya want?" the silver haired man asked with a strong note of sluggishness in his tone. Naruto sat down and rested one hand in the palm of his hand, examining the older man carefully without answering.
A frown creased the elders face and he leaned in closer. "Whatta ya want?" he questioned again in a sharper tone, the hand not gripping his glass slipping beneath the table. Naruto nodded to himself and said in as crisp a tone as he could manage, "Isn't that Tsunade and Shizune?" and watched as the others features grew panicked for a moment as he looked around warily.
"Funny, brat. Who're you?" Jiraiya demanded quietly when he looked back, finding the dull figure across from him had changed into a pale replicate of Minato himself. The hair was a little less defined and shorter cut, and his eyes looked the wrong color, not to mention he was shorter. But a not bad imitation. he thought to himself.
"Minato Namikaze's son." Naruto answered. Jiraiya leaned back away from him, casting a critical eye over his features once again before delivering his response in two forms.
"Too old to be Naruto." the Toad Sage denied as his hands grasped the table from the top and from the bottom before lifting it and slamming the edge into the others face, dropping it there and surprisingly efficiently shunshining away.
A low groan came up from beneath it as he kicked the table off with blood running down the side of his face. "Ow!" he said and rolled slowly up to his feet, somewhat stunned by the response.
An hour later and they found him snoring in a tree tucked between two houses. "You want to get him or should I?" Naruto asked. Yamato shrugged and put his hands together, bringing his wood releases to use... only to find nothing working.
After a few seconds of staring down in confusion they both discovered why when the area warped and wrapped them up tightly, shifting from a low covered alley with a tree to the throat of a massive toad. Jiraiya slowly stirred and glanced down at them from his position on the higher floor and blinked.
"Wow. You two idiots fell for it." he said in surprise. "Well. Time to consider what to do about that." slipping down to their level he watched in amusement as the dark haired one gave the blond a sharp glance and grimaced.
Sighing the blond closed his eyes and waited, concentrating. Jiraiya watched with a wary amusement, knowing that neither could break free once the toad had them wrapped up, especially taken unawares as they had been to both wander forward, but even still he gathered a degree of chakra to both hands and let it slowly swirl in the center of his palm without forming anything.
After ten or so seconds a change occurred as orange highlights formed around the upper eye and his features shifted appropriately with it, the subtle hints of a toad cropping up in the structure of his bones. What the hell? he asked silently when the eyes were opened into flat slits turned to the side, no longer blue but entirely golden.
"You recognize that I'm in Sage Mode, right?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya stared harder at him and cast about himself for the signs of a genjutsu illusion, wariness doubled. "What reason do I have to lie to you? I'm Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's son, Naruto, you're my godfather Jiraiya, and I know you're trying to track down Orochimaru." Naruto stated.
"That's impossible. You're far too old!" the Toad Sage denied again. Naruto shrugged and gave it a moments thought, then answered him smugly.
"If I showed you a proper Rasengan will you hear us out?" he asked. The other snorted softly, shaking his head.
"You're the idiot, not me, brat. Minato never taught that technique to anyone else and just seeing it observed isn't enough to replicate, but I'd never let you out to try regardless." the older shinobi stated flatly.
Naruto smiled and released his henge, shrinking down in size and rapidly pulling himself free before the bindings could adjust, and then calling up two Shadow Clones he utilized Oiroke no Jutsu in time to halt Jiraiya dead in his tracks.
While the other shinobi was distracted by the cloth less clones the real Naruto summoned one more to help him pull up a Rasengan, waiting until the right moment before letting them fade out and displaying the swirling blue sphere an inch from his godfathers nose.
It took several seconds before Jiraiya came back to himself and when he did he took in the child across from him more fully. "Where the hell did a kid your age learn to create something like that?" he demanded with a hint of reverence in his tone.
"The clones, dad's technique, or the Oiroke?" Naruto questioned in turn. Jiraiya considered it a moment then shook his head again, not sure he really wanted to know.
"The future?" Jiraiya questioned again flatly. Across from him, in a far more isolated section of forest, sat Naruto and the man he had learned was called Yamato. The small kid certainly had a confidence about himself that could be seen as irritable under the right light.
"Yes, the future! Roughly eight years or so. Orochimaru's not the only threat to Konoha, in fact Sasuke killed him a few years ago for me, but like I said I was caught between a pair of space-time jutsus in Sage Mode during a battle and woke up here!" the jinchuriki stated.
Jiraiya considered that, in addition to everything else he had seen so far. "Say I believe you. What happens to me? Tsunade? And how the hell did you learn to access senjutsu chakra at this age?" he asked.
Naruto fell silent for a time at that. Jiraiya waited patiently for the answers, and at length with a sad sigh the boy answered him. "You died in Amegakure trying to put a stop to Akatsuki's leaders. Nagato killed you." he stated bluntly.
The elder shinobi scowled and leaned back as though slapped. Continuing before his godfather could say anything Naruto added "Tsunade took over as Godaime Hokage to replace Old man Hokage, but after your death Fukasaku brought me to Mount Myoboku to train as a Sage in your footsteps." he said.
Jiraiya pushed up to his feet. "Nagato would never kill me." he said flatly. Naruto looked him in the eye and rose as well.
"His life hasn't been easy since you left Amegakure! Yahiko's probably dead by now thanks to Hanzo and Danzo working together, but there's still time to do something about Nagato before he becomes fully emerged in his 'Pain' persona! You're the only person that he can trust enough to change his mind right now..." trailing off at the end he paused and waited.
... Nagato would never kill me. he thought again, looking upon the memories. But he couldn't deny the agony the small red haired shinobi had carried with him, no matter what he tried to do to avail it during their time together.
Eventually Jiraiya sighed and sat back down. "Keep talking, brat, and don't leave out anything of value. I plan to be around a good long time to come." he stated firmly. Naruto glanced to Yamato for confirmation, but the former Root member gave a shrug, and summoned a small sheet of wood that read 'Your the one that wanted to recruit him.'
Shaking away the memories Naruto found his vision bluring for a few moments, and hastily rubbed his palm against his eyes to block out the tears now before it became another flood of emotion.
C'mon, get a hold of yourself! I can't go around altering the past any more than I have been lately... especially not without consulting Old man Hokage. I should have listened to him earlier, and I damn well am from now on. I may not like what he has to say, but at least I'm going to hear what it is. he decided as he found his feet coming to a halt on the edge of the village.
He recognized Kakashi-sensei's house eventually, having done a few of the crappy D-ranked missions around the area so long ago, and despite the sun only just starting to creep over the horizon activity within could be heard.
What am I doing here? he asked himself. A distant memory of wanting to see how Sasuke was changing returned, but he shook it off. Forget it. I've already altered things just be appearing here. Kakashi-sensei will make sure Sasuke doesn't stray off the right path... this time. turning to go he spotted the lone eye of his future sensei watching him from a window all of a sudden.
Grimacing he waved a short greeting and carried on his way back toward the center of the village. There were a lot of things he had to go over with the Old man, especially concerning Ame now that he remembered what was looming in the years ahead.
Kakashi watched him go in curiosity. What's Naruto Uzumaki doing here at this time in the morning? he thought idly until turning and taking note of the other two figures up so early. Ah, there's Guy and Lee now. Good. and like that, whatever thoughts he had on Minato's son were shelved for another time.
Far and away from Konoha and the Kazekage finishing inking his letter, the declaration of war against the hidden village of the leaf, for lack of recompense in the destruction of one of their landmarks and defensive properties, as well as the endangerment of their jinchuriki and biju.
He called Yura into the office and handed the letter over to his adviser. "Take this down to Danzo Shimura and make sure he understands the seriousness of his continual defiance in the face of the question and answer sessions. I've had enough of learning worthless tripe regarding Konoha's defenses and peoples! He has secrets I will know yet!" he ordered with his frustrations apparent.
The one-eyed shinobi nodded and answered, "Yes Kazekage-sama." before carefully rolling the parchment up into a scroll and departing down to the prison chambers. Left in the office the Kazekage turned his frustrations onto another source of irritation, his son Gaara.
True to his word the demon-child was training and sparring seriously. Too seriously. Kankuro had been hospitalized in critical condition after their last encounter and he was beginning to develop a healthy paranoia about even being in the same room without at least two of the jounin as back up.
No one else was treated as such when Gaara trained against them, not even his sister- Who I know for a damn well fact has tormented him just as often as Kankuro. Why the hell isn't she being treated the same way?I he demanded of the desk his gaze fell upon.
He had no way of realizing just how different his children truly were when not within his presence or thought to be spied upon. Kankuro may have wanted to succeed his father in every way possible, including his treatment of their jinchuriki, but Temari still remembered the words of her mother and just what the Shukaku contained within her youngest brother was capable of.
Down in the prison Danzo stirred to life, looking upon the adviser to the Kazekage with silent disdain. "Here. He wants something of value for once, and I know he's willing to go through with it. Sucking back his pride to let those two Konohan's escape has been infuriating him every night." Yura told him.
Danzo merely nodded his head as his good eye looked the scroll over. "You know what to do." the former Root leader stated quietly. Yura swallowed and once more looked around for anyone else in this block of the chambers.
"Unlock the door, Yura, or do you wish me to reveal your allegiance to Sasori of the Red Sand?" Danzo intoned the phrase that would force Yura to respond in the predefined manner. The traitor to Suna paled at the threat and drew out the key to the cell, and slowly henged into the other shinobi's form.
He unlocked the cuffs sinking into the walls that held Danzo with his arms across his chest and his fingers forced into iron gloves, legs restrained underneath the body.
Slowly the elder shinobi stood upright and stretched his weary muscles dearly, breathing a pale sigh of relief. "So much better. Now sit." he ordered Yura sharply, and as instructed he did so and settled the locks back into position as best he could. Danzo finished them and took the key from the lock, henging his body into that of Yura's once again.
This was hardly the first time the exchange had been done between them. Picking up the scroll from where Yura dropped it Danzo ascended back to the Kazekage's office and set to work laying the foundations once more for Suna's destruction, knowing that soon enough the Shukaku will be dealt with.
Sarutobi found Naruto leaning against his desk when he emerged into the office an hour after sunrise. "We need to talk." the boy stated tiredly. The Hokage quite agreed with that and sat down behind his desk, fingers steepled and a grimace in place at what was to come.
"So we do. It ends here, Naruto. I know you wished to change the world- and look around you. You've changed seven lives and ended three of them as well. I don't in particular enjoy those odds, where nearly half of those afflicted end up dead." the Hokage told him quietly.
Naruto pushed up to his feet and turned to look at him. "I know. I never meant for.. for what happened to him to take place. I just wanted him prepared for what was ahead, but I disregarded what you told me at the start. I didn't stop to think what he would do with that knowledge so soon." he agreed in an exhausted tone.
"Regardless of what you intended to occur, Jiraiya is dead, Naruto! Even if only one out of every several lives you alter, only one of the three that will die must be good, than what purpose is there in changing anything from it's path? Both Danzo Shimura and Orochimaru would have been killed in their own time frames without upsetting the natural chain of events!" Sarutobi stated sharply as his own frustrations became apparent.
Naruto took a few steps back at the emotion being conveyed by the Hokage and the force in his voice. That, more than anything else he had thought about or gone over since the funeral, shook him. The Old man had always been patient or at least to some degree understanding.
The closest he had grown to anger was during their occasional chat about events unfolding as they were, but this... was something unpleasant, something new, and something he did not want to look upon again.
"I'm sorry." he said sincerely, voice quiet. Sarutobi leaned back into his chair heavily, raising a hand to his eyes and rubbing at them in exhaustion as well.
"This can no longer go on. We have two choices available to us, Naruto... either you restrain your self and stay within Konoha until you succeed me in life, going only when your memories tell you that you must go forth, changing nothing further than you already have... or I place a seal against all future knowledge you pertain." he stated with no emotion in his tone.
End Chapter Seventeen.