Chapter 4. Already over 550 Hits and over 250 Visitors! Nice!

Review answers:

EX10: Thanks!

kakashidex: Thanks for the thoughts on the early chapters of the story. I didn't think I was too close to the manga originally, because I was covering scenes which so far the manga and the anime hadn't touched, but I see what you were saying- Until chapter 3, I hadn't deviated from the major story at all, but it was all set-up anyway. Hopefully you like the direction where this is going.

Anyway, onto the story.

-pp

Recap: The Toad Sage, Jiraiya, has taken custody of Naruto and moved into the Namikaze mansion. It was necessary because the information about not only the boy's heritage, but also his status as a jinchuriki, has been leaked to Iwa. Now that Jiraiya has learned this, he decided to stay and raise the boy.

Approximately Four Years Later

Jiraiya looked at his godson with a smile. "Now kiddo, you are starting the academy next year, and you are going to show them what you can really do. So that means we train hard for the next year, right?"

"Yeah gramps, I'll do my best!" The boy smiled. Jiraiya was impressed at how far he had come with just a year of training and at such a young age. Dressed in a simple orange t-shirt and blue shorts with open toed sandals, Naruto Uzumaki looked so much like Minato that it scared Jiraiya. He had decided the leave Kushina's last name with the boy, he already had enough people looking for him, there was no reason to put a billboard up.

Iwa had only made five attempts on the boy in the first few years of his life, and none of them were even close. The first three had been stopped even before the village gates, a case of some newly appointed jounin getting too eager to impress their superiors. They were quickly dealt with by border patrols. No serious threat.

The fourth occurred on Naruto's second birthday. Jiraiya had taken Naruto to a small park on the outskirts of the village. He had let Naruto play with the children and taken a seat on the bench overlooking the meadow where three maidens were picking flowers. He had taken out his notepad and started writing an outline for his next novel, when he noticed a chakra spike near the playground. He quickly sprung from his seat and shunshined to the tree behind the sandbox. Quickly doing some hand signs, he created four clones which he henged into a bird, two rocks and a branch.

Looking over at Naruto, Jiraiya noticed that he had began to happily play with the Akimichi and Nara heirs in the sandbox. None of the toddlers seemed to have noticed the odd fluctuation, but he wouldn't have expected them to. Silently, the Toad Sage cursed himself for getting distracted. He knew the pulse had come from this area, but he couldn't tell from where. Stretching out his senses, he tried desperately to locate the source of that chakra, but he had no luck. He was never a sensor type ninja, and this shinobi was clearly hiding his presence, which did not bode well for the children.

Jiraiya lay in wait, silently praying, when suddenly some odd movement in the sand caught his attention. Underground! How could he be so stupid! Of course and Iwa nin would be underground. He made some hand signs and thumped his palm onto the ground next to the tree that was sheltering him. A chakra pulse confirmed his suspicion that the would be assailant would be underground, but he didn't expect there to be six of them. There was no way he could disable all of them before their target was captured. He needed a plan.

Suddenly, he got an idea. If he couldn't stop them from enacting their plan, he would just have to spring the trap. Quickly making three more clones, Jiraiya made a very subtle gesture. Sitting in the place of the clones were the three toddlers, while the clones were now transformed and in the sandbox. For their part, the children looked confused, but they remained silent the moment they saw the Toad Sage put a finger to his mouth. Then, he flared his chakra while making another clone to carry the three kids to safety.

The moment Jiraiya flared his chakra, three sets of hands reached out, grabbed the transformed clone toddlers and pulled them underground, while three Iwa shinobi leapt to the surface, kunai in hand. Jiraiya smirked as he planted his hand into the gut of the first foreign shinobi. The ninja's eyes bulged slightly and blood flew from his mouth, as he was sent backwards in a flash through a tree on the far side of the playground. Jiraiya turned with a rasengan still active to deflect three incoming shuriken.

"Who is next to challenge the great Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin?" he shouted while flexing his right arm over his head and standing on one foot.

The two remaining shinobi were not amused. "Earth Style: Earth Spear!" The taller one shouted as his skin turned dark, and he rushed the Sannin.

"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Prison!" The second ninja, shorter and stouter than his comrade, placed his palm on the ground. Immediately, pillars of rock enclosed Jiraiya on three sides. The worst part, Jiraiya realized, was that the pillars were placed so tightly around him that he couldn't move his arms.

He formed another rasengan in his right hand and shattered one pillar, but that only afforded a few inches of movement as the taller shinobi reared back with his fist. Jiraiya closed his eyes as the blow came crashing down where his head was. POOF!

The tall Iwa shinobi looked shocked as the Toad Sage disappeared in a plume of smoke. Looking into the tight earth prison, he heard a cry from his stout comrade. Turning around, he saw the man, face down, blood seeping out from underneath his body. The white haired Sannin was no where to be seen.

Suddenly sensing movement from his left, the foreign shinobi turned to see the three bodies of his previously hidden teammates stacked up on a bench, all unconscious. Now in a state of panic, it was all the Iwa nin could do to just maintain his jutsu. He knew that as long as he held it, his skin became like steel, giving him the most protection possible. Although the technique used a tremendous amount of chakra, he had trained for years, and he could maintain the jutsu for close to twenty minutes. Of course, trapped behind enemy walls, and against one of the legendary three ninjas, that was of little comfort.

The Toad Sage had wiped out all the other members of his team within a minute, and didn't seem to be breaking a sweat doing it. This was bad. The Tsuchikage had personally approved this mission with the six of these ninja. That boy had skyrocketed into the Iwa Bingo Books, and become a high ranked priority among the Iwa ninja. The Tsuchikage has specifically withheld the information from the civilian populace, as he felt that the information would be too disheartening. The entire nation had celebrated October 10. They called it: Shinpan no hi (Judgment Day). The day that their greatest foe had been smoten for his sins against Iwa. The Tsuchikage obviously must have known that this boy could not be a threat for years, but he didn't want to lose control over the civilians over a small child, no matter whose loins he had sprung from.

The three shinobi that were now stacked on the bench were extraction specialists! They had trained from the moment they became chunin in every conceivable scenario. The top of their field, they had been hand-picked for this assignment. Of course, the program was designed to extract captured comrades, but the principle was the same, especially because they were after a two year old.

The other members of his team were elite combat specialists, trained in tandem attacks and individual taijutsu and ninjutsu. He and his team had been together since they were genin. They had graduated right after the Third Shinobi War, and had been promoted rapidly, due to both their prowess, and the dire need for higher ranked ninja. He had the Tsuchikage's trust as one of Iwa's strongest, but now he was more helpless than a newborn babe.

Eighteen minutes left. The Iwa nin kept his senses heightened. A noise to the left! He turned, finding nothing but a swing, swaying in breeze. The right! He turned again, seeing a ball bounce across the abandoned pathway.

"You shouldn't have come here." The voice seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere! He shuddered involuntarily as killing intent like he had never felt filled the air. He needed to run, and run fast. As he tried to move, he found his legs stuck. As he tried to force his legs from their position, he felt the presence directly in front of him. "Earth style: Swamp of the Underworld." The voice calmly said.

"P-please, no! Don't..." His voice was trapped in his throat as he found the Toad Sage wrapping his left hand around his neck.

"You come to my village. To attack my godson. You want mercy? MERCY!" Jiraiya raised his voice and tightened his hand. His voice becoming soft again, he generated another rasengan in his right hand. "I've heard about this technique. Earth spear, huh?" Jiraiya mused, "It seems you trained hard to hold it for a very long time. Judging from your chakra reserves I'd say you have at least fifteen minutes left. Time to experiment."

Jiraiya smiled darkly as he pushed the rasengan into the trapped shinobi's leg. "It's remarkably resistant to attacks, I see. I'm going to test those limits." The Iwa nin tried to swallow, but he had no control over his throat. He had to hold the jutsu. Hold it as long as possible. Maybe there was a way out, he had to think! The pressure on his neck kept growing, and the shrill grinding sound emanating from his limbs filled his ears. The constant pulsing of the attack was wearing on his chakra. He could not survive this for much longer. His only thought was escape, but it was impossible.

Minutes later, the white haired sage chuckled darkly and poured more chakra into his attack. The Iwa nin knew he was finished. He mouth was completely dry, and he was nearly drained of all of his chakra. In seconds, the jutsu would fail. He would die. The Iwa nin prayed that he would lose consciousness, but he knew that the darkness would not come quickly enough. He shut his eyes, and silently whispered goodbye.

Over the hill, the three toddlers played with the Jiraiya clone, blissfully unaware of the torture going on a few hundred yards away. The clone looked skyward as the faint cries of terror and pain rang out. A few birds scattered to the winds. The clone just smiled.

That was the closest that Iwa had come. The fifth attempt was during Naruto's third birthday. Again, Ninja had snuck in under the walls of Kohona. This time, however, they had attempted to enter the Namikaze compound. The various seal arrays installed by the 4th, and reenforced by Jiraiya had not only stopped the attack, but frozen the attackers underground and sealed their chakra, while simultaneously transporting the foreign shinobi to the ANBU interrogation cells. It was a handy seal array thought up by the 4th based upon the hiraishin. Minato had wanted to install it under the village walls, but he had fallen to the fox before he had the opportunity. No one else in the village, or the world for that matter, had the technical expertise to complete the project, so it remained only under the Namikaze compound.

While Jiraiya was pleased that the array worked, he knew that Naruto needed to start training. At three, his motor skills were still developing, and he had never been tested for his chakra capacity. Jiraiya knew that it was a little early, but Naruto was a special case. That was one year ago.

Naruto looked up at his godfather, who he had called gramps since he could talk. Seeing the far away look in his eye, Naruto sighed. He was thinking about the past again- or a girl. Honestly, he never understood what gramps saw in them. They were always running from bugs and frogs and stuff like that- all the cool stuff he liked. "Earth to gramps! Hello? Am I going to have to do that leaf thing again? Can I try the tree thing today. I can get it, I swear!"

The sage looked at the boy and laughed. "You want to try the tree thing again? Alright kiddo, go and get the mats, and meet me out by the pond." The boy's eyes lit up as he ran to the shed on the edge of the clearing. 'That kid,' Jiraiya thought, 'he hasn't even made it one foot up the tree, he doesn't have close to the control of muscle needed. Why can't I just tell him no?' He sighed as the young blonde struggled across the field with two large and heavy mats.

"Hey kiddo," Jiraiya called as he walked over to the tree, marking it at four feet with a kunai. "If you can walk up this far by lunch, we go to get ramen. If you don't, then I make you vegetables, and you spend the afternoon on physical fitness. With the weights on this time!"

"I'll do it this time for sure gramps! I'll never give up!" The boy shouted as he held his thumb up. Holding his hands in a sign, he channeled chakra to his feet and ran directly at the tree, only to explode backwards at the first step.

"Kid, what have I told you about controlling yourself! Try again!" Jiraiya yelled. "I'm going to practice some katas on the pond. I'll leave you with a clone." As he turned, the sage smiled. Holding his fingers in a cross sign, he called "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and fifty copies sprung into existence. Sending one to watch over his charge, he sent fifteen to meditate, twenty five to practice forms while water-walking, and five to work on new jutsu. The remaining clones henged into various animals, which he sent to the various hotsprings around Kohona. He had a book to finish, after all.

After a lunch of vegetables, during which Naruto had pouted, they went back to the training grounds. "Kiddo, you are making great progress. Maybe some day you might even be strong enough to over take me!" Jiraiya laughed at the boy's reaction.

"Really gramps? Am I doing that good?"

Jiraiya sighed, "Well, Naruto, 'am I doing that well.' But yes, you are far ahead of me when I was your age. I must be a great teacher! After all, I trained your dad, and you might even be better than him someday, if you keep working hard."

The blonde's eyes widened so much that they looked like they would pop out of his head. Even better than his dad? He had to get strong! He would pass his gramps and his dad, and be the best ninja ever!

"Before we start this afternoon, I need to review some things, ok kid?"

Naruto looked up at him quizzically. "Again? Ugh!"

"Shush kiddo. Why do shinobi exist?"

"Gramps! That's so easy! They are around to protect everyone! And they are AWESOME!"

"Why do you get stronger?" Jiraiya sternly asked his godson, ignoring the outburst.

"You get stronger through working hard. There are no shortcuts."

"That's a good answer kid, but that's an answer to the wrong question. You skipped to the next one. Why do you get stronger?"

"OH! Sorry gramps! The reason for getting stronger is to protect the people who are precious to you!"

"Good! Now Naruto, seeing as you answered the next question, I will move on. What would you do if someone you care about is threatened?" The Toad Sage looked at his charge seriously.

"Jeez gramps, you never asked that one before. Ummm... I will use my power to protect them?"

"Is that a question?" Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at the boy.

Naruto looked down at his sandals. "No. I guess that's my answer."

The Sannin smiled at the boy and laughed. "That's a fine answer kid. It shows you're thinking. You know what my answer is?" His voice edged dangerously as the blonde shook his head. "I attack without mercy. Those who threaten the ones you love are not worth a second thought. You strike, and strike quickly to protect your precious people... That is my answer."

Naruto looked shocked. His godfather had been serious before, but he had never seen gramps act like that. It was cool, but very scary, especially for a four year old who had never even seen a fight. "T-that's a little scary gramps... Gramps?" Jiraiya had gotten that far off look in his eye again.

Snapping back to attention, the Toad Sage relaxed and laughed. "Sorry, that may have been a little intense for you. Understand that there is good and evil in this world, and everything in between. There is right and wrong. I want you to think about what is right, but do not hesitate to protect those that you care about. Sometimes, as a ninja, you will have to do terrible things. If you do them for the right reason, you could save many lives. You need to become stronger so that you can protect yourself, and everyone you care for. You also must be prepared to use that strength. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded with a serious look in his eyes. "Good kiddo, now, let's get to work. Put on your weights, and hold these two leaves on the back of your hands with chakra only. Were going to go laps, pushups, squats and sprints. You're going to work until you can't stand, is that clear?" Naruto put on a determined face and saluted. "Alright, let's go kid."

A/N: Chapter 4 DONE! This was my first fight scene. Sorry if it was a little choppy, and the set up for the first action was bad. I'm trying to get better every day! (Cue sunset scene).

Also, I seem to have made Jiraiya a little darker than I expected. Hopefully that doesn't turn people off.

On a complete side note, I still need help figuring out what to do with Orochimaru... I'm stumped and have no ideas. In reality, his defection should have happened during this time skip. I may deal with it in flashback, but I currently have no ideas. Consider this a cry for help.

As always, hit me up if it turns out that I took something from someone. So far, so good, I think.

(You can also write me for other reasons. I'd like to know whether people actually like or hate this story, my writing, my character assessment, etc.)

See, I told you I'd pick up the pace... Well, not of the story, really, just of the action... I'm working on it...

'til next time

-pp