Chapter 27 The Mistake

Kakashi jumped a little when the door of Naruto's apartment slammed open violently, enough that he wouldn't be surprised if the door was no longer on its hinges. He came out of the kitchen and saw a very very unhappy Naruto. In fact he could see the faintest bit of a Kyuubi cloak forming around him, which Kakashi prayed meant that Naruto was trying his hardest to not lose control of himself. It was one thing to let loose on the battlefield, it was entirely different to do so right here in Konoha where everyone could see it and claim it as proof they were right about him all along.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, though he regretted it when he saw red eyes bore into him. Naruto then rushed at him and swung a fist, but Kakashi was alert and attentive enough to dodge it. "What's wrong?"

"Get the fuck out of my house and my life Hatake! I don't want to kill you, but if I have to keep looking at you I will!" Naruto warned.

"Tell me what's wrong? What can I do?" Kakashi asked, worried about his student.

"Now I know why you were willing to let me die all this time! It's because you wished it had been me that died instead of my father, don't you?!"

Kakashi gasped. "What?"

Naruto hurled a plate at the cycloptic jounin who ducked under, resulting in the plate shattering against the wall.

"You knew the entire time who my parents were! You knew and you said nothing! Admit it, you wished when the Kyuubi attacked that I had been the one that died instead of your precious sensei! That's why you never trained me, you want me dead but you don't have it in you to do the job yourself! Your sensei in the afterlife will absolutely hate you if you kill me, but he'll hate you less if you just ignore me and claim my death is my own fault!"

Kakashi froze in shock. "Naruto, that's not-"

The whiskered blonde took out a kunai and came at him again, looking like in that brief moment he really was willing to commit murder. Kakashi did the sensible thing and shunshined out of there, leaving nothing but leaves behind.

With no one left to fight, Naruto jabbed the kunai into his table and went into his bedroom, where he laid on his bed and allowed himself to weep and sob.

Jiraiya had been out of Konoha for some time, glad to have some me time again. While he hadn't hated his time with Naruto, he had to admit it was nice to no longer be expected to keep an eye on the whiskered blonde. Being out here with no one to dictate his behavior, directly or indirectly, was a relief. Jiraiya had always disliked that about people, he couldn't be himself around them. Being around people came with the expectation to behave in ways that they approved of, or at the very least didn't disapprove of. It could get exhausting having to keep doing that nonstop, and being around Naruto for three years didn't give him ample opportunity to unwind as he wished.

As he got comfortable, Fukasaku appeared before him. "Jiraiya, we just got a request from the slugs for your location. Apparently your female teammate wants to speak to you immediately and she's not taking no for an answer."

Jiraiya sighed. He knew that if he refused, the toads could still pass along information to the slugs who'd pass it along to Tsunade and bring her to him anyway. "Fine, at least you caught me before I could get started on anything."

Using reverse-summoning, Fukasaku brought Jiraiya to Tsunade's office. Saying the slug sannin looked unhappy was like saying Orochimaru looked pale.

"Jiraiya, you rotten bastard." Tsunade hissed.

"If you called me here just to insult me I'm under no obligation to stay here and take it." Jiraiya interjected.

Tsunade stepped towards her former teammate. "When I agreed to let you take Naruto for that trip, I gave you permission to inform him of his heritage. When you brought him back, I assumed you did exactly that. Just moments ago, I discovered that you did not. What the fuck do you have to say about this Jiraiya?"

"You gave me permission, not an order." Jiraiya replied.

Tsunade blinked, keeping her glare but now she was confused. He responded too quickly, too certainly. There was no confusion on his part, no surprise. He either knew ahead of time that this was the exact reason he was summoned to her, or more likely he had predicted that this exact subject would come up someday and had been prepared for it. Either way, he knew what he was guilty of and he was more prepared to defend himself than apologize.

"You knew damn well what I meant." Tsunade declared.

Jiraiya crossed his arms and glared back at her, not a common look for him. "Oh yes, but that means I also know what you intended Tsunade."

"I intended for Naruto to hear the news and have time to come to terms with it away from Konoha. So that when he got back he'd be able to embrace his legacy with dignity and maturity."

Jiraiya snorted and rolled his eyes.

"You've got something to say?" Tsunade challenged.

"Hell yes. You may have envisioned Naruto enjoying the reveal of who his parents were, but there's more to that and you know it. You were setting me up."

"I beg your pardon?"

"How did you think Naruto was going to react to that news? With awe and wonder? Motivation to be worthy of Minato and Kushina? No, he'd be pissed that someone knew this entire time and never told him. Then he'd ask how I knew and why only now I was telling him. And after he found out I was his godfather, any respect he had for me would be like yesterday's piss. I'd be stuck with an angry teenager who'd refuse to listen to me for three years. And there's no way you're too shortsighted to know that. You wanted me to be the one to tell him so that by the time he got back here he'd had gotten his anger out of his system by taking it out on me. All you'd have to do is sweet-talk him with hokage promises and you'd essentially be off the hook, while I'm just the punching bag when you need to direct Naruto's anger somewhere else if it flared up again."

"I expected you to tell him in a way that wouldn't make him angry." Tsunade insisted.

"Pretend I'm Naruto. Tell me who my parents are in a way that won't make me angry at you."

Tsunade found herself unable to answer.

Jiraiya scoffed. "Not so easy, is it?"

"You should have done it anyway and dealt with his anger." The slug sannin proclaimed.

"That would defeat the entire point of the training trip, which was to train him. If he had no respect for me, why would he listen to my instructions?"

"Speaking of which, exactly what training did you give Naruto?"

"I already explained that to you when we came back." Jiraiya reminded her.

"I trusted you to tell him what he needed to know and you failed to deliver. I'm no longer convinced that your 'training' is what you claimed it to be."

"I told you I helped Naruto to better handle the Kyuubi's chakra so he wouldn't be so easily controlled by it anymore." Jiraiya pointed out.

"And?"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"Is that it? Three years teaching him one thing and one thing only?"

"That was the priority."

Tsunade then punched him in the stomach, making him fall to his knees. "Three years and you only taught him one fucking thing?! Three years on one subject?!"

"It was... his best advantage." Jiraiya wheezed, getting back up.

"His advantage?" Tsunade repeated, clearly not buying it.

"Naruto's a powerful resourceful fighter, but he's far more predictable than he gives himself credit for. Clones and rasengans, that's all he uses. He doesn't even take taijutsu seriously. He's got the Akatsuki after him yet he doesn't take it seriously, so I had to convince him that using the kyuubi's chakra was advanced training. If he refuses to use all his skills, then the best I can do is make him more powerful in terms of brute force."

Tsunade stared at her former teammate, processing this explanation. "Are you saying that Naruto is handicapping himself? That he has dozens of jutsu but he chooses to only use two over and over again?"

Jiraiya looked confused by this question. "Do you have a better explanation for his lack of variety? He's got a jounin teacher who knows over a thousand jutsu and he made it to the finals of the chuunin exams his first time taking them. Plus even if people weren't allowed to tell him about Minato and Kushina, obviously some of their friends helped build up his repertoire. They'd never just leave the son of the Yondaime to his own devices."

Tsunade felt very uncomfortable about this line of logic. The thing is it did sound reasonable. Naruto had access to Kakashi of the Sharingan who also had several connections, and there were people who knew about his parentage and would feel honored to make sure the Yondaime's son was seen to. Sure the boy may have done poorly in class, but not every kid excelled in a classroom environment. Besides, Naruto had been considered eligible for the chuunin exams before his first year as a genin was over, and he had overcome Orochimaru, the Hyuuga prodigy, and Suna's jinchuuriki who was now the kazekage. There's no way Naruto could do all that with minimal training and sheer luck and determination.

But it was the way he said it that bothered her. Jiraiya was saying that despite all his training, Naruto was as lazy as a Nara. That didn't fit his personality and determination at all. Not to mention when she took Sakura as an apprentice, one of the first things she discovered about the pinkette was that she was quite lacking in personal skills. Sakura practically had to be rebuilt from the ground up, because Kakashi had been rather hands-off with her training to the point of neglect. Was it possible that Naruto's training had been neglected too? Even if there were several reasons to assume otherwise.

'Wait, assume. I had assumed that Naruto knew the truth about his parents and was being egotistical because of it. Is it possible that Jiraiya assumed Naruto was more skilled than he actually was and treated him as lazy as a result?'

"Jiraiya, did you ever confirm Naruto's abilities beforehand?" Tsunade tested.

The toad sannin looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"When I took on Sakura, I tested her. I evaluated her abilities, asked her questions, and had her perform small trials. All to give me an idea of what she knew and what she could handle from me. Surely you did the same for Naruto."

"I worked on toad summoning to help him with chakra control. Rasengan training helped with that too. And I threw in some genjutsu testing to help make it better."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "So you tested his control, but what about his skills?"

"I told you, he's been covered by those that respected his parents. He should have skills out the wazoo."

Tsunade frowned. "In other words, you assumed he had skills and decided to focus on using kyuubi's chakra with them rather than perfecting them or adding more."

"That's it in a nutshell." Jiraiya agreed.

Tsunade tried to punch him again, but this time Jiraiya dodged and swerved around her.

"You spent three years trying to turn Naruto into the very thing he doesn't want to be! A weaponized version of the fox! He wants to be hokage, not just a domesticated bijuu with a human face!"

"Making him hokage is your job! Making sure he doesn't die was mine!" Jiraiya argued, dodging more punches being thrown his way.

"You complained about him being a one trick pony, and your solution was to turn him into a one trick pony with a different trick?" Tsunade countered, getting in close this time. Jiraiya had to jump out the window and she followed him to the roof of the nearest building.

"What is this really all about Tsunade? What got your panties in a wad like this?"

Tsunade wanted to slug him more, but doing so now risked property destruction and that would cause a lot of trouble she didn't want. "Naruto resigned."

Jiraiya's eyes widened. "What?"

"He resigned. Because you didn't tell him who his parents were. I thought this entire time he knew, so when he told me he wanted to be promoted I thought he was expecting a promotion to just be handed to him. You told me he had accepted the truth and chose to be humble, so I didn't try to make things better for him. Three of his friends told me he deserved more and I brushed them aside, making them go on strike. Even Shizune left her job. I've lost five of my shinobi now, maybe forever, and it's all because you didn't do what you were supposed to do."

"I can fix this." Jiraiya declared.

Tsunade scoffed. "You? You had three years to fix this before it broke. And you chose to keep your mouth shut because, how did you put it? Naruto was going to be angry and take it out on you? Now you're willing to take that responsibility and for what? To prove that you can clean up after my mistake?"

"Well someone has to. Besides I know what he can do in a fight, while you've never had to spar with him. There's very little he can dish out that I can't take." Jiraiya claimed, gingerly touching the scar he got from Naruto's first time accessing three tails worth of chakra.

"And then what? What do you think will happen if you wear him out? Force him to take his job back? Refusing his attempt to go on strike is one thing, but downright forcing him to work against his will only proves his point and risks him turning traitor." Tsunade challenged.

"Who said anything about forcing him? How about you give him what he wants? Is that really so bad?"

"I don't think that's enough anymore." Tsunade sighed.

"If you've got a better idea I'm all ears." Jiraiya challenged.

"Honey? I'm home." Sahino greeted when she returned to the apartment. There was no response. "Naruto-kun?"

She smelled something good, and went into the kitchen, noticing the lights were all off. She came into the kitchen and saw a cake on the table complete with white frosting and decorated with pink, purple, and lavender flower designs. It obviously wasn't professional, she could see the messy dishes in the sink, but she was touched by the effort he had put into this.

"Where are you Naruto-kun?" She asked, wondering why he wasn't here to greet her with this.

She went towards his bedroom and now heard the soft sound of a shower. That confused her since he had already taken one with her today. Did he get messy making the cake? She went to the bathroom door and slowly opened it.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Sahino-chan?"

There was something about the way he said her name that bothered her. He didn't sound normal. She stepped inside and saw the shower curtain closed with water running behind it, along with his orange jumpsuit on the counter. She opened it and saw Naruto sitting down curled up in a black shirt and white shorts, looking like he had been crying.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?"

"Everyone betrayed me. My parents... the Yondaime was my father."

Sahino gasped. "He was? But that's a good thing. You've wanted to know for so long."

"The hokage knew. Ero-sannin knew. Kakashi-sensei knew. The clan heads knew. Everyone I ever looked up to or trusted knew. And none of them told me."

Sahino felt her heart seize up, understanding his pain now. That was the biggest form of betrayal the whiskered blonde had ever experienced, including when Sasuke abandoned them and tried to kill him. The fusion girl cried a little too and stepped into the shower, kneeling down to hug the man she loved.

"You're ruining your new clothes." Naruto warned, noticing her new attire but not rejecting her embrace.

"It's just clothes." Sahino protested, rubbing his back. "How did you find out?"

"Baa-chan... the hokage, I dunno what to call her anymore, she said I'm a spoiled brat no different than Sasuke just because I want to be treated better. Apparently I don't have the right to go on strike, even if I am the Yondaime's son. She somehow thought I already knew."

"She said that? For real?" Sahino asked, horrified.

"No one sees me as a person. I'm just property to this village, nothing more nothing less. I spent my entire life trying to prove this village wrong about me, and I don't even know if it's worth doing anymore. I know my nindo is to never go back on my word, but what am I supposed to do? Keep risking my life for these people? It's been sixteen years, if they don't respect me by now they're never going to. I... I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Sahino asked.

"I feel like I'm letting you down. I'm supposed to be the guy who never gives up no matter what, and here I am giving up. I'm supposed to be better than this, but I'm not."

Sahino moved his head to make him look at her and she kissed him. "You never needed to be perfect to be worthy of love Naruto-kun. I love you, I'm not going to think less of you just because you don't want to do be taken for granted."

Naruto hugged her back and cried a little more, and she did nothing but let him. That was all he needed her to do.