AN: Alright, here we go! Next chapter. Here's the disclaimer, and without further ado, lets get on with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Naruto or Spiderman. I only write this because its fun and I'm usually bored during the week.

The Faith That Wavers

Cerulean blue eyes blinked open, the owners mind fuzzy and his body tired. He lay there, staring unseeingly up at the pristine white ceiling of the hospital room he was in with his mind going over the events that happened, for him, only moments before he awakened. His eyes closed as he remembered the black substance that had attacked him and the fox, his meeting with his father of all people and… the promise he'd made with the fox just before he left.

Flashback

"You're weak, gaki."

Naruto's head whipped around to face the fox so fast, his neck cracked. He'd just saved this gigantic furry son of a bi-

"I'll be training you to fix that. So go outside and get some rest."

Naruto frowned, obviously puzzled about things as they were. He crossed his arms and stood his ground, his deep cerulean blue eyes glaring hotly at the gigantic orange mass before him. The fox had the nerve to look amused.

Smug son of a-

"Why are you bothering to train me? There's more to this than just the 'supposed' respect you have for the yonda- My father."

The fox seemed to accept this and sat up to give the boy its full attention, red eyes closing and its voice sounding rather meek for one of such stature.

"It's because I know only you can kill him. You're the only one who has a will strong enough to kill someone like him. Uchiha Madara can and will end this world and I think it's up to you to stop him. He killed your parents, after all. Well, he planned their deaths by using me, but you get what I'm saying."

The boy's ire grew and before he knew it, the boy had boiled over in a fit of rage so intense that even the great fox was startled for a moment. This, however, did not mean it showed.

Naruto stepped closer to the fox, completely uncaring that this beast could smear him where he stood. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that he now knew he was in his own mind, and that he was lord and master.

Maybe.

The boy's scowl lessened and he sighed altogether as it disappeared. Now that he actually thought about it… This damned fox might be the reason he had been beaten and abused his entire life, but it was also the reason he was still alive. He'd always healed up, perfectly fine, and he'd always had more stamina and strength than the others that did play with him.

The fox had been there, in some small way.

The fox cared, even if it didn't want to show it.

"Kyuubi, th-"

"Natsumi."

Naruto blinked up at the fox, his head tilting.

"Eh?"

The fox turned gigantic red hues to face the boy, its booming voice echoing around them.

"My name is Natsumi. Kyuubi is just a title. Be ready to train tonight."

"Wha-"

The boy gawked at; the now identified as female, fox before him for a few moments just before his vision began to swim. He heard a clearly feminine voice ring out to him from all directions.

"I'll be in touch, Naruto. I promise you'll be the strongest anyone has ever seen."

Flashback end.

Naruto sat up, grunting from the effort. He rubbed his eyes and blinked away the lethargy in his body as he stretched. A knock on the door had him turning to look at the door, the mahogany swinging open to reveal Inu and his gravity defying hair.

"Hello, Naruto. Glad to see you're awake. How're you feeling?"

Naruto didn't know how to feel at this moment, his eyes closing a moment in a bid to collect himself. In truth, he didn't know anything about how much anyone knew. The only person he had a sure feeling about was Sarutobi –jiji.

He would cross that bridge when he came to it.

"I'm fine, Inu-san. Where's jiji?"

Inu stepped a bit closer, standing right across from Naruto as he crossed his arms over his chest with an eye smile at the small blond.

"He should be just finishing up a council meeting, Naruto. He told me to come and see if you were awake and if you were, he wanted to see you for himself. Are you feeling up to a visit to the Hokage's office, Naruto?"

The blond smiled, and hopped to his feet. He pulled on his sandals and ran to stand in front of the older Anbu.

"Always!"

With the Hokage

Sarutobi finished signing off on the last of the documents he'd needed to see to for the day. He'd only just returned from a council meeting regarding Naruto and the incident that had occurred three days ago. As he lit his pipe, he mused over what had been discussed in greater detail and frowned when he recalled some of the councils slights against the small boy that was his charge.

Flashback.

"Hokage-sama, we all know why we're here."

Danzo Shimura, the war hawk of Konoha glared impassively at the aged leader before him.

"What remains to be seen is what you want done about this incident. You claim the boy was not there, but in the same breath state that he arrived shortly after and was attacked."

He inwardly smirked, his lone eye turning from the elder Kage to look at Homura and Koharu. These were Sarutobi's advisors, and they were the biggest supporters of Danzo since he'd lost the race for Hokage all those years ago.

"We think that the boy set this up to get attention. He's been a prankster in the past and would not put it past him to be one again. The only loose end here is the Anbu that tailed him from the forest back to where all this happened."

Sarutobi sighed and pulled gingerly at the brim to the Hokage hat he was wearing, his eyes being hidden from view. He hated it when this happened, because he knew what Danzo wanted from him.

"They never lost sight of him, but where were they before any of this happened? They were ordered to watch him, and they didn't."

It was at this point that one of said Anbu cleared his throat and looked to the Hokage for permission to speak. Sarutobi smiled and spoke, his head nodding toward the bear masked Anbu.

"Do you wish to speak, bear? Please, by all means."

The Anbu nodded and began to speak, his gaze fixed forward on the far wall and away from anyone he could offend.

"I would like to point out that we had been observing Uzumaki Naruto since he'd awakened that day. He had no time, while any of us were watching, to plant any explosives or to even find any to plant for that matter."

Sarutobi smiled but remained silent, watching from the corner of his eye as Danzo began to grow annoyed at what the masked male was insinuating. The Hokage gestured for the Anbu to continue speaking, as he obviously still had more to say.

"I would also like to point out that the type of explosion that occurred was from something impacting the area from a very high velocity and height. Whatever made that explosion happen… Uzumaki could not have done it."

Danzo remained impassive, but inwardly he was outraged that this underling would dare to insinuate he was a liar. Danzo nodded to the Anbu while Homura spoke.

"There was nothing found at the impact site, but we acknowledge that the boy could not have done this alone. We will investigate further."

With that, the meeting was called and the council dispersed. Sarutobi left with a grimace on his face, knowing his long time rival would not allow this to just blow over. They were simply fishing for time to come up with something to make it so that Danzo could wrap his greedy claws around him and mold him into a killing machine.

Flashback End.

Sarutobi looked up at the sudden disturbance of a white haired man climbing in through the window to his office, his hand stowing the Kunai that had been grabbed in haste.

"Jiraiya-kun, it's good to see you. I assume you got my message?"

The white haired man nodded as he folded his arms over his chest, his eyes fixed pointedly on the old Kage for more information.

"I need you to train Naruto for a while."

The old sage's eyes widened for a moment before he frowned a bit. He knew things were bad, but not as bad as to have Naruto gone for a bit and trained. The Akatsuki was a pretty big threat to the boy's welfare, but they weren't going to be active for a while. They were gathering funds because a certain member robbed them blind when he quit.

Right?

"What's going on, old man? The plan was for me to lay low and gather information, but now you're altering it. Why?"

Sarutobi sighed and stood from his desk and walked around it to stand beside Jiraiya, facing the windows so that he could gaze out over Konoha. It looked peaceful and serene.

He wanted to keep it that way.

"I cannot, in good conscience, keep Naruto here with the knowledge that my council will try to harm him over something he did not do."

This made Jiraiya roll his eyes, his arms crossing as he listened. The old man was right, even if he was a bit late in his realization. They already had their cruel hands wrapped right around the boy's jugular, figuratively.

It was only a matter of time before he suffocates.

"I think I'm getting what you want me to do. I'll train him, and keep him out of the village so you can smooth over the problems that have been caused by this unfortunate event."

The Sandaime smiled and clasped his hands behind his back, his eyes scanning the calm expanse of the village visible from his office window. He turned his head in Jiraiya's direction, speaking softly.

"He needs to be as strong as you can make him, Jiraiya. He has too many people out to get him for him to be anything less."

The younger man smirked and scoffed. As if he couldn't get the kid strong enough to deal with at least some of his problems.

"He'll be strong enough. He's already stronger than some of the people in this village in willpower alone."

The Sandaime turned back to his window for a moment, his lips parting to speak just as a knock split the air at his office door. Walking back to his desk, the older man took a seat and spoke with a tone that demanded respect for his power and for his stature, and all with one word.

"Enter."

The door swung wide to reveal Naruto and Inu, the former sitting on the latter shoulders with a grin plastered on his face. As the owners cerulean blue eyes fixed on the elder Kage, however, the smile wavered only for a second before it was brought back up in full force.

The Hokage noticed, and began to wonder just what happened to make something like that happen.

"Naruto, Inu, it's good to see you both. Naruto, how do you feel?"

The smile evaporated faster than a puddle in a heat wave.

"Fine."

The masked Anbu quirked a brow under his mask, but otherwise remained silent as he settled his young charge on his feet. The blond fixed his 'grandfather' with a stare that was both angry and sad, somehow.

"Is something wrong, Naruto?"

No one had even addressed the sage standing near the windows, and he didn't plan on drawing any attention to himself unless he had to. It seemed like the boy was upset, and he didn't want to be in the middle of a temper tantrum from a temperamental child.

"I found out a lot of things while I was asleep, jiji. Like, what's inside of me and why and even who put it there."

The Hokage paled, his eyes staring silently at the boy before him. The reaction he received from meeting his gaze was like staring into his fathers eyes when he was angry, worse still, when that rage was directed at you.

It was suffocatingly intimidating, the way this boy loomed so tall like a giant before him, who was considered the most powerful man in his village.

"I see. And how did you come across such information?"

There was a pause, to which the child sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. Natsumi took this opportunity to speak to her charge, her voice a soft whisper in his consciousness.

"You can tell them everything. I don't think they'll do much, aside from more questions and a little precaution."

Naruto didn't react to her voice, though his eyes opened and turned to look at the unknown, to him at least, white haired man standing with his arms crossed near the window.

"Who's he?"

Jiraiya smiled and stepped forward, introducing himself.

"I'm the great toad sage of Mount Myoboku, Jiraiya the gallant!"

Naruto sweatdropped, his stare going from his earlier intimidating one to another of complete disbelief and confusion.

"Who?"

Jiraiya face vaulted, the young blond before him itching the back of his head sheepishly as he turned back to Sarutobi. Suddenly, his eyes were settled once again on the elder Kage, who resisted the urge to squirm.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you lie?"

Naruto's tone was subdued, his eyes going from sad to enraged as he took a few steps toward the Hokage's desk.

"You couldn't tell me about the fox, why? Because of some stupid law that YOU made? And what about my parents, huh? I understand about dad, he told me… But you could've at least told me about my mom!"

No longer was his tone subdued. It had risen from that well beyond pissed and all the way to murderous. Throughout all of this, the Hokage sat in silence wand waited patiently for the boy to expend all of his anger. Through that, the elder was ashamed to say that the boy had a point.

He'd dropped the ball.

"Now, wait a minute! Sarutobi had a good reason for why he did the things he did! He was keeping you safe!"

Naruto's ire swelled even more, his head whipping around to glare at Jiraiya as he pointed a finger at him.

"Who asked you?! You don't know me! I don't even want to know you, so why the hell are you defending him for things you know nothing about!"

Jiraiya was silent for a moment, stunned at the rage coming off the boy.

"I do know. I was your father's teacher. And I'm your godfather."

The boy's breathing picked up and he yelled in a fury, turning on Jiraiya as he glared with fiery intent at the white haired sage. The yell was unintelligible, his words coming out as not really words at all, but an outpouring of emotion in a rhetoric as old a time. Long story short?

He was pissed.

"Where the FUCK have you been?! I've been here all alone for years, enduring all of this… this... SHIT because you were off doing what anyone could guess!"

Sarutobi sighed, drawing the blond's attention off of Jiraiya and onto himself. Sarutobi winced as the boys volume increased yet again, his lungs probably rattling as he screeched out his displeasure..

"And you! Yet another thing you didn't see fit to tell me about! Am I not important enough to know about my own life?! Am I... Not important to anyone...?"

With that little utterance, the boys rage broke into a downpour of sadness that seemed to knock the wind out of him. He sank into a chair and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands covering his face as he doubled over and cried.

All three of the rooms older occupants looked at one another, and of them could feel the weight the boy carried inside of himself. Sarutobi had fucked up, royally, and now they had broken him a little more than he was before. It nearly broke Sarutobi to see his surrogate grandson this way, but he knew that he did what he had to do to keep the boy safe. He'd get over it, and this would all blow over.

Right?

"Naruto."

Sarutobi wasn't surprised when he'd been ignored, but he tried a bit harder.

"Naruto."

"…"

"NARUTO."

The boy sat up with a start, his expressive blue hues being focused on Sarutobi. A moment later, the glare returned, but the boy said nothing.

"I'm sorry about this, I truly am. But I did what I thought was right to keep you a little safer than you would have been had I not done it."

The boy scoffed and snarked out loud, his eyes closing as he turned his head away from the elder Kage and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, I think being beaten daily is so much better."

All three of the older ninja winced at that jibe.

"I'm sending you on a training trip for five years with Jiraiya and Inu. They'll teach you everything you need to know about being a Ninja and will keep you safe and away from the hurtful people of this village."

Naruto scoffed again, and turned petulant eyes on Jiraiya before turning to look at Inu. He realized he didn't know this man besides his mask, but he felt he could trust him because of that fact.

"Hokage-sama."

The aged Kage flinched slightly and frowned as Naruto addressed him as such. It showed how little faith the blond had in him now, and it served as a way for him to know that he wasn't being trusted fully anymore.

"Yes, Naruto?"

"I want all of my father's techniques and I want them, now."

The hokage sighed and nodded. He didn't need to know how Minato had spoke to his son, he and Jiraiya already knew the details behind the sealing. Sarutobi stood and walked to a picture frame that held the Yondaime's face and removed it, releasing a seal that had been applied to the wall so that he could get into a safe that contained Naruto's things.

A letter from his parents sat on the top of a stack of scrolls, but Naruto wouldn't be reading that in his present company.

"I'll go on this little training trip. I'll get stronger. But I am not doing it for this village, or for any of you. I'm doing it for me, and I'm telling you lot first before I tell anyone else."

The young blond turned his eyes on Sarutobi and leveled a glare so fierce it froze the old Kage's breath in his chest.

"If I am attacked again when I come back, I won't stand there and take it."

The atmosphere in the room was heavy and growing heavier still. With that, the young blond looked at Jiraiya and crossed his arms.

"I'm going to extend a bit of trust to you and give you a second chance to make good on being my godfather. You can watch over the stuff my father left me and keep it safe until I need it, since you're going to be my teacher. "

Turning towards Jiraiya and looking at all three of the older Ninja in turn, her uncrossed his arms and stuck them in his pockets.

"When do we leave?"

AN: Alright, that was chapter three! Once again, please review and tell me if you spot anything out of place, like spelling errors and the like. I've already started the fourth chapter, so it might get posted before my usual time. No promises.

-The New Sage Of Six Paths.