Disclaimer: If I haven't been clear before, I don't own Naruto

"Say that again?"

"Your mom's still alive. Or at least she was the last time I checked."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "When was that?"

The sage scratched the base of his spiky ponytail. "Ah must've been…just before we left Konoha the first time."

"Why'd she leave!?" Naruto demanded, which was the first question Jiraiya expected. Hell, if he'd been a Jinchuuriki and he'd found that his mom was still alive, he would've asked the same thing.

Jiraiya scowled at Naruto's question. "Couldn't tell you."

"Couldn't?" Naruto repeated angrily, "Or won't?" Jiraiya, worn out from his argument with Tsunade earlier in the day, deflated before Naruto's eyes, showing every year of his age in only a few seconds.

"Couldn't. Naruto, she left without warning. I don't know why. Trust me, I wasn't happy about it either."

"They knew you?" Naruto asked, forgetting his anger for a moment. Jiraiya had known his parents? That meant that Jiraiya had known him before he'd even been in the world.

"They were…good friends of mine," Jiraiya answered, smiling as he remembered his greatest student and his wife…or at least his very intimate girlfriend. Jiraiya had been away for some time then when he'd come back, he'd found that Kushina was pregnant. Jiraiya hadn't really cared if Minato and Kushina were married, but his congratulations on Kushina's pregnancy were genuine.

"What were their names?"

"Your mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina. A kunoichi from the Whirlpool country, a small little place on the coast. As for your father…well, we'll let your mother tell you about him."

Naruto scowled, but he was happy that he at least had a name for his mother, even if she had left him when he'd needed a parent the most. What kind of parent just abandoned their kid? Even if they did hate him? Then what Jiraiya had said clicked inside Naruto's head. "Wait, we'll let her tell me?"

Jiraiya grinned. "Pack your bags kid. We're going to Whirlpool."

That night, Naruto packed with a strange mechanical feeling. His mind was spinning, a torrent of emotion. He felt anger, resentment, shock, longing, love, desperation, suspicion, and a host of other feelings, all spinning inside him like a tornado. Mostly, though, he felt anger and resentment. He knew that he probably shouldn't be feeling that way about his mother, now that he finally knew that he had one, but he couldn't help but feel abandoned.

"Going somewhere?"

Naruto jumped and spun to the window, where a shadowy figure was crouching like a tiger in the night. A kunai was embedded in the windowsill next to the figure's head, the knife having flown from Naruto's fingers on habit alone. Then he noticed the gravity-defying hair and the small rectangle of black in the figure's hand that was clearly a book.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The figure closed his book and hopped through the open window, thudding lightly on the floor, before straightening and stepping into the small pool of light thrown on the floor by Naruto's desk lamp. He didn't feel like turning on the main lamp since the darkness seemed to fit his mood more. It was indeed the masked jounin that had served as Naruto's friend and sensei for a time before Naruto became a jounin.

"Kakashi-sensei," The jounin repeated, turning the phrase over in his mouth, "I don't know about that. I never did much teaching did I?" Naruto's mouth quirked up a little as he turned back to stuffing clothes, shinobi tools, and other assorted items into a backpack.

"You taught us a lot, Kakashi-sensei."

"No. I didn't. If I had, then Sasuke would still be here." Naruto opened to his mouth to disagree, to say that the bastard would've left anyway, but something stopped him. Maybe it was the recent revelation of his mother or maybe it was Itachi's unshakable conviction that Sasuke could redeem himself, but something made him murmur a noncommittal "Maybe."

"But, onto another topic. I heard that you found out about Kushina-san."

The stiffening in Naruto's shoulders was the only hint Kakashi got that the blond jounin had heard him. It was all the former ANBU needed though. "So. Jiraiya wasn't kidding when he said he told you. As I understand it, Tsunade-sama was very upset with that idea."

"You know Ero-sennin right?"

"Through my sensei the Yondaime, yes," Kakashi answered as he bit back a snort at the nickname that Naruto had given his sensei. The Sharingan-wielding man felt fortunate that he'd escaped a similar fate.

"So you knew my parents?"

"I did. Kushina-san was a lot like you. She was impulsive, loud, tried for the best in everything she did, and never gave up no matter how bleak the circumstances looked. And she would throw the world away to save her friends. Or save her son."

"What about my dad?"

Kakashi hesitated just a split second. "You look just like him."

"And? A name? What he did as a shinobi, what he was like, anything?"

Kakashi sighed and sat on the end of Naruto's bed. "Naruto, sit down." The blond jounin did. "Understand, Naruto, it's not that I don't want to tell you about your father, but it's that I can't. And it's not that Jiraiya doesn't want to tell you either. However, we know that it's not our place."

"But why?" Naruto asked, hand clenching on the covers of his bed.

"We don't know how you would react."

"Huh?"

"Think of how you resent your mother right now. Your father…did something that we think would make you hate him. Not just have a strong disdain. We, and by that I mean me, the Sandaime, Jiraiya, Kushina-san and your father's will, decided that we would wait until you knew about Kyuubi, had come to terms with the demon being inside you, and were old enough to understand his side of the story."

"So what do I do?" Naruto asked, losing the angry stance and looking more lost than Kakashi had ever seen him. A nagging feeling told Naruto that Kakashi had all but told him who his father was, but he couldn't place it.

"You go to your mom. She has the answer. Your father left a legacy for you, with the express orders that it be left in Kushina-san's care no matter what happens, and that she be the one to tell you when the time was right." The jounin shrugged. "Though I don't think even he could predict your mother leaving the village."

"Why did she leave?"

"I don't know. She left without warning and as far as I know, not telling anyone the reason. I don't think it was because of you. Not for a second should you believe that, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise either. Kushina-san and your father both loved you more than life itself."

"So why, if they loved me so much, did my dad die and my mother abandon me when I needed her the most? Dad probably hated me and committed suicide because he couldn't stand the shame."

"Your father was a hero," Kakashi snapped, suddenly angry. Naruto's remark had, unwittingly, hit two very sensitive points for the jounin. "Just like you are."

"Huh?"

"You contain one of the greatest terrors in the world inside you," Kakashi explained. His mask shifted and Naruto knew that his mentor and friend was grinning. "And I can't think of a worthier candidate." Kakashi slapped his thighs and stood up. "Come on. I came to get you for something."

"What?"

Kakashi's eye curled. Naruto saw that even in the darkness. "You'll see." With that he leapt out the window, bounding away over the darkened rooftops. Naruto sighed then followed after him, knowing that he had no choice. If he didn't Kakashi would find a way to drag him to wherever the jounin's mysterious destination was.

Kakashi led him into the training areas that ringed Konoha and, within seconds, Naruto recognized the route to Team Seven's favorite training ground.

'What the hell does Kakashi-sensei want with a sparring match this late at night? Doesn't he know that I have to leave with Ero-sennin tomorrow?' They rounded a corner and light suddenly flooded Naruto's face, a huge shockwave blowing him backwards. When Naruto got his wits about him, he realized that the shockwave wasn't from an explosion but from a massive shout. Another second and he realized what the shout was.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARUTO!"

"Wha…What is all this!?" Naruto spluttered. In front of him was the biggest picnic cloth he'd ever seen and on it was enough food to feed an army. But that was secondary compared to everyone around it. All his friends, minus Gaara and his siblings, were there, from Ayame and her father, the owner of Ichiraku, to Tsunade and Shizune.

Tenten stepped forward. "Well," she said, "we've always heard that you had a tough time as a kid and you've been down the past few days so we figured that we would do something to cheer you up."

Naruto stood stunned for a second, then a grin, a real patented fox-grin, split his face and the part got started. As they sat down for Ichiraku ramen, cake, and other delicious morsels, Naruto figured that, no matter what the next day would bring, no matter his mother's reasons for leaving, he could handle it. After all, with all his friends around him, how could he feel sorry for himself?

The next day dawned bright and clear. Naruto managed to slip through the throng in the city without drawing much attention to himself. Once or twice he was spotted and forced to run from a drunken band of chuunin, though he lost them just as fast as he was found. He was only a few minutes late when he arrived at the gate. Jiraiya was already there, waiting for him.

"You're late!" He shouted. "You're gonna end up like Kakashi if you keep this up!"

"Oh put a sock in it," Naruto answered, stifling a yawn. They had been up late into the night, celebrating Naruto's birthday and he knew for a fact that Jiraiya had to be hurting right now. "How's the hangover?"

Jiraiya muttered something that sounded very much like "Damn brat," but otherwise didn't answer. Naruto grinned when he saw the sage put a hand up to his head to try and ward off the throbbing that was going on just behind his eyes.

"Well, we gonna go?" Jiraiya asked, giving his temples a final soothing rub.

There were butterflies in Naruto's stomach when he answered with an affirmative. With that, the two stepped off, strolling leisurely through the gate and into the forest. Naruto felt naked without his cloak. He'd left it behind because he hadn't had time to patch it up and get it shipshape again. It was still a tattered mess from the last battle it had been through. Though he still felt some resentment for the mother he had yet to meet, she was still his mom right? What would she think or say if he showed up on her doorstep looking like her worst idea of a Konoha-nin? It probably wouldn't be a nice first impression.

As they headed east, the scenery changed from the majestic redwoods of Fire Country to the rolling, undulating, grassy knolls of Grass country, to the windy hot high deserts that existed between Wind Country and its neighbors. After two solid weeks of nonstop traveling, the scenery greened up again, followed closely by a scent that Naruto had smelled only once before, but would never forget.

It was the salty scent of the sea.

"Almost there," Jiraiya muttered. Naruto bit his lip. He had no idea how he should feel about the situation. The pensive look in his eyes said that Jiraiya wasn't looking forward to it either.

"Hey, Ero-sennin."

"What?" Jiraiya answered distractedly.

"Why do you look almost as nervous as I feel about meeting my mom? She's your friend isn't she?"

Jiraiya frowned. "We…haven't been on the best of terms since she left. I didn't agree with a mom just abandoning her son when she needed him the most."

"What'd she tell you?"

"Nothing. Like we told you, she left without telling anyone why. When I got back, found you downtrodden and abused by the villagers, and found that she was nowhere around, either inside the village or immediately outside of it…well, lets just say that the next enemy shinobi I ran into didn't exactly get off easy." Jiraiya's voice went from apprehensive to almost livid as he spoke.

Naruto was taken aback by the anger on his behalf. "Why are you so worked up about this?" He asked.

Jiraiya seemed to deflate. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

The old man looked him straight in the eye and Naruto was surprised to see a hint of tears glistening in the Sannin's eyes. "I…I wasn't there when you needed me."

Naruto's brows knitted together in puzzlement. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto, I don't want you to hate me for this, but…" The other shinobi hesitated, as if he couldn't get the words out.

"But what?"

"I'm…That first day in the spring, when you caught me doing research…"

"Peeping," Naruto said with a fake cough.

He was ignored. "Well, the truth is, that wasn't the first time I'd seen you. I knew about you before you were even born and…your mom and dad decided to use a name they'd found in one of my earlier books. So…you could say that I'm your godfather."

Naruto stared at Jiraiya with such intensity that the older man felt that he was about to burst into flames. Naruto's mouth opened, as if in shock, and Jiraiya braced himself for the tirade that was sure to come.

"WHAT!!? YOU MEAN I'M NAMED AFTER ONE OF YOUR TRASHY NOVELS!?" Jiraiya blinked, but before he could say anything, Naruto was trying to pull out his blond hair. "I CAN'T BELIVE THIS! MY PARENTS MUST'VE BEEN ON CRACK THAT NIGHT!" He sat on his haunches, hugging himself with one arm as he drew circles in the dirt. "How am I going to be able to face everyone in Konoha again?"

Meanwhile, a vein had started twitching in Jiraiya's temple. "OH WOULD YOU GET OVER IT!?" He bellowed, cracking Naruto over the head with one fist.

"OW! HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Naruto snapped out of it, getting inches from his mentor's face. "You old codger!" Jiraiya's teeth ground, the vein pulsing worse than ever, but, unexpectedly, he smiled, running a hand through his snow-white hair as he started laughing uproariously.

Naruto blinked, his anger vanishing before being replaced by puzzlement. "Uh…Ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya finally got himself under control. "You really are just like your mother," he answered. "And I don't mean that in a bad way. I don't know if anyone's told you, but you look just like your father and act like your mother."

"It still doesn't change the fact that I'm named after a pervert," Naruto grumbled.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Jiraiya asked, as he rummaged inside his gi, before pulling out a small paper-wrapped rectangle. "I said it was one of my earlier works. It's an adventure novel, not an erotic novel." Naruto reached warily for the small package. As he unwrapped it, Jiraiya smiled. "I think the only people who liked it were you parents. They loved the main character, how he never gave up, how he always kept pushing forward, how he never abandoned his friends." The old man smiled. "Sound familiar?"

"A little," Naruto muttered, smiling. He looked at the front cover, doing a double-take when he saw the picture. It could've been Naruto himself, the likeness was so uncanny. The title was 'The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja'. The man flipped through a few pages, eyes catching words like 'abandon' 'Nindo' and lastly, his own name, 'Naruto'.

"You can read that if you want. I've got a few hundred copies just sitting around in cold storage somewhere." Naruto didn't seem to hear him but finally he nodded and pocketed the book.

"Thanks."

They stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, but Jiraiya resumed his journey towards the Whirlpool country.

It was another three days before they arrived at the boundary of what used to be the Whirlpool country. Naruto inhaled when he saw it. It was a beautiful country, a rich and luscious forest that shone like emerald. Off to the left was a distant mountain range, off to the east, the forest kept going. Straight ahead was the sea, the sapphire expanse glistening gently in the dying afternoon light. Naruto could just make out the dark streak of a flood plain and the yellow-white streaks of beaches.

"Welcome to Whirlpool," Jiraiya said with a half-grin. "This is the best place for a lot of things. They have the best pearls, the best sea-food, best beaches, and," here he chuckled his perverted laugh, "the best women at those beaches."

"How big's the country?" Naruto asked, trying to take in the whole majestic scene.

"It's not a country. At least not anymore. One of the big five countries is off to the north, towards that mountain range. Just after the Kyuubi leveled the village, they annexed the country, since they'd had their eyes on Whirlpool for a while, but couldn't do anything about it since Konoha was really tight with them. Ever since, while the rest of the world recognizes the annexation, Konoha refuses to."

"Did they have a shinobi village?" Naruto asked.

"Sure. Your mom was a part of it, but it wasn't a village like ours, which could be a country in its own right. This was more of a collection of shinobi that happened to be fighting under the same banner, like a highly-trained and skilled militia. They were experts in jutsu that boosted their numbers like the Kage Bunshin, and they were fantastic at guerrilla tactics. Still, one of the minor villages can't fight against one of the Big Five without help." He started down the trail, which sat at the top of a hill, towards the forest. "Now come on. We gotta get to your mom."

The butterflies in Naruto's stomach returned with even more force. He was standing at a crossroads. After he came back from this, he knew he would never be the same again. For better or worse, this trip would change him in an irreparable way.

His foot slid forward and he began that change as he walked down the path.

Night had fallen when they reached the only major city in Uzu, and even then, it was only about two-thirds the size of Konoha, but it was just as busy, if not busier. Naruto and his sensei were hard pressed to push through the crowd that lined the street they were on and every other street that they'd been on before that.

"Whirlpool is famous for its beaches and its nightlife!" Jiraiya hollered over the racket of the jabbering crowd and the raucous music coming from the open doors of the taverns and pubs that seemed to crop up every few blocks. "Tourism is the big thing here!"

"I noticed!" Naruto looked around but didn't see anything that looked even remotely like a house where a single woman, or even a small clan, could live. "Where are we going?" He had to shout to be heard over the din. "It better not be a brothel or I'll kick your old and wrinkled ass!"

"As if you could!" Jiraiya called back. "It'll take you another few years before you can beat me without that damn fox!" He laughed arrogantly at the sullen look on Naruto's face.

They wound through the crowd, taking streets, alleys, and an assortment of other passages to get through the town. Naruto was disoriented by the crush of people, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the shouting of both tourists and vendors hawking their wares. He'd long lost any sense of direction and it seemed to him that they were just going in circles.

'Dammit it's too noisy!' the Kyuubi whimpered in the back of Naruto's mind. The blond felt a twinge of sympathy for his tenant. The fox's hearing was hundreds of times better than Naruto's and it was only because he was a fox. It had nothing to do with the fact that the kitsune was a demon.

Miraculously, after what seemed like an eternity, the crowd began to thin, the people growing more and more scarce with every step. Naruto blinked. The crush of people was suddenly behind them and the buildings were suddenly farther apart. Yards began to blossom, the grass scraggly at first, but quickly growing more and more manicured the closer to the outskirts the two shinobi got. Finally there were a few mansions on the barest edge of the city.

Here it was silent. There were crickets chirping in the bushes that sat along the outside of a red-trimmed tan wall with an ornate gate set into the one side, the side Jiraiya and Naruto stood at now. Trees, fruit trees by the look of them, were at each corner of the square complex and flanking either gate. It seemed foolish for a shinobi's home to have that kind of foliage but it also offered cover to potential defenders as well as means for potential attackers to scale the walls.

The compound itself wasn't that big, only a fraction of the grand, sprawling, districts that large clans like the Hyuuga and, to a slightly lesser extent, the Uchiha, enjoyed within Konoha. Nor was it the small houses like the Nara and Yamanaka had. The compound was solidly in the middle.

"Is this it?" Naruto asked, his voice, to his surprise, faint and slightly shaky.

"Yeah," Jiraiya answered, voice soft, as if he didn't want to disturb the tranquility that sat over the place. "This is the Uzumaki mansion. Your mom's in there. Along with your maternal extended family." The notion of an extended family was too much for Naruto's legs. They gave out beneath him and he sat down. Hard. "You alright?"

The blond opened his mouth to reply yes but the word got lost somewhere between his brain and his mouth. What came out instead was, "I don't know."

"Want to come back in the morning?" Jiraiya's voice was soft, kindly, something Naruto hardly ever heard out of the old man. Naruto nodded. The sage nodded in return.

"Alright. We'll come back tomorrow." They went back into the city, but after scouring the entire town, found all the hotels packed to bursting. Finally the two shinobi called it quits and headed a ways outside the city to set up camp and rough it for the night.

They set up camp, spread out sleeping bags, lit a fire, then played rock paper scissors to determine who would be on watch for the first few hours. Naruto lost, so while Jiraiya's snores began to pervade the small camp, Naruto found himself staring outward from the fire, ears and senses pricked for the slightest disturbance. Though he projected the image of a competent watch, his mind and heart were everywhere but where they were supposed to be.

As they had ever since Naruto had found out he still had a mother, his thoughts and emotions returned to her and began to swirl chaotically, once again bouncing from love to livid rage with no predictable pattern. The swirl of feelings finally settled on neutrality. She was his mother. He would give her the benefit of the doubt. Which way he swung would depend on…

'Brat!'

The fox's thundering voice jolted Naruto from his thoughts, just in time for him to see the monofilament wire drape around his neck, as thin and gentle as a spider's web, a loop that would take his head off if it tightened.

Naruto felt a slight tug in the wire.

"Ero…!"

The wire slashed through his neck and Naruto's head popped off his shoulders, bounced off the ground and rolled to a stop against Jiraiya's shoulder. The sage flinched at the call and the bump on his shoulder. His eyes opened.

The flat blue eyes of his student's head stared back at him.

"What the…!" he shouted, flinging away his sleeping back, making a huge scuffle that seemed as chaotic as it was purposeful. In his frantic scramble, the sage kicked out the fire, plunging the small grove where he and his student were camping into darkness.

A shadowy figure emerged from the bushes and stopped just inside the small clearing.

"All your valuables grandpa," the figure said roughly. "If you give it up nicely then we won't kill you."

"We?" Jiraiya started to repeat right before he found himself surrounded by a whole host of men. The sage's mind started running in overtime, quickly processing the number of men, how they moved, how they acted, anything to give him a clue to who they were.

In seconds, the Sannin had his answers.

There were six men, not including the one who'd strode so brazenly into the camp, they had moved with the utmost stealth and precision, surrounding Jiraiya almost before he was able to figure out where they were, but not before he'd sensed them. So, they were rogue shinobi, not bandits, but they weren't anything special. Chuunin at best, jounin at worst, a moderate challenge for someone like Jiraiya. Piece of cake for him and Naruto, who he could just barely sense creeping around in the background.

"Yes," the leader said confidently. "We, the Knights of Whirlpool!"

"Knights of Whirlpool?" Jiraiya repeated, playing the clueless senile old man, though he recognized the name of the band. They were the self-proclaimed rebels in Uzu, mostly former members of the Uzu shinobi corps that, unable to accept their country's annexation, had decided to fight against their conquerors. For years they had held on, really nothing more than an annoyance for the current government, but from what the Sannin had heard, they'd gotten rather bold in the last few months.

"Yes, the liberators of Whirlpool! The time is coming when we will throw off our oppressors and regain our rightful lands! Now. Hand over all your valuables, grandpa, before we kill you like we killed your grandson."

"Killed my grandson?" Jiraiya repeated, pretending to notice the head for the first time. Without a word, he pulled out his checkbook and held it out, making his hand shake to feign terror. The leader grinned as he reached for the book.

He never noticed a dark shape swoop from the bushes, slash the throat of the man behind him, then dart back into the shadows. The victim crumpled to the ground without a noise. Jiraiya figured that the man didn't even know he'd been killed when he'd died.

The leader's palm met Jiraiya's. In a blur of motion, Jiraiya seized the man's wrist with that hand and jerked him off balance, the spare hand coming up, a ball of compressed chakra, spinning like a hand held hurricane, on his palm.

"Rasengan!"

The man shouted wordlessly as his stomach was ripped and twisted by the drill-like effects of the Yondaime's signature jutsu. A burst of wind almost knocked the shinobi away, unbalancing the rest. Unnoticed by all except Jiraiya, Naruto again dashed from the shadows, this time felling three of the shinobi in the chaos of the Rasengan's aftermath.

"What the hell!?" The remaining two shinobi gasped as they noticed that they were the only ones left. "Who the hell are you old man!?"

"Oh no one much," Jiraiya answered. "Just an author doing some research." The two men backed up, quivering, then dashed into the bushes, making a tremendous racket that even an Academy student would have no trouble following.

Naruto emerged from the shadows, a blood-soaked kunai in his hand. His eyes shone with a serious intensity that Jiraiya had never seen before. To be honest, after the bright light he was accustomed to, this new Naruto was downright creepy.

"Didn't know you knew the meaning of the word stealth," Jiraiya said with a laugh as the blond wiped his soiled weapon on the clothes of one of the corpses.

"You learn fast when you're a missing-nin," Naruto answered, stowing the weapon in its proper place.

"How'd you get away from the initial attack? You know, the one that should've taken your head off?"

"Kawarimi. I almost didn't make it," The jounin showed Jiraiya the side of his neck, where there was a small cut that had been oozing an insignificant trail of blood. Already the blood was clotted and the cut was just a pink scar. "Too caught up in my own thoughts."

"Hey it happens," Jiraiya answered.

"Who were these guys?"

"Remember how I told you that Whirlpool was annexed?"

"Yeah. So…these guys are rebels or something?"

"You go it. Though, they've never been this bold before. I heard through my connections that they've been getting bolder in the last few months. No one has any idea why." They looked over the silently bleeding corpses. The two finally moved to the leader, who was laying on the ground, gasping and coughing up blood. When Jiraiya rolled him onto his stomach with his foot, a grisly sight revealed itself.

The man's back had been blown out, the fresh blood pooling underneath him, sections of the man's spine and the underlying muscle laid open. Naruto whistled. "No matter how many times I see it, I can never get over it," he said, referring to the carnage the Rasengan had wrought.

"I know what you mean," Jiraiya agreed. He rolled the man back over and knelt in front of him, slapping the dying shinobi a few times to keep him conscious. "Hey! Tell me why you attacked us!"

The ninja's head rolled on his shoulders, his muscles no longer able to keep it upright. "We…will….lib…er…ate…Whirl….pool…..New…leader…will…" The man's head dropped to his chest as his breath rattled from his lungs for a final time.

"Gone," Jiraiya muttered, dismayed. He stood, gazing in contemplation down at the corpse. "Still, I don't like this talk of a new leader."

"Why?" Naruto asked. "Whirlpool was Konoha's ally right? So shouldn't we be happy the resistance has someone in charge that can get them to fight?"

"Maybe we should be," Jiraiya muttered, "but there's something I don't like. As long as I've heard about them, the Knights of Whirlpool never ambushed travelers or civilians. Any funding they needed, any weapons they needed, anything they needed actually, they either got from civilian members of the resistance or they just ambushed and killed enemy shinobi patrols." He rubbed his head. "This sudden shift in strategy…I don't like it. Something here smells."

Naruto heard a distant rustling. His hand drifted to his kunai holster. "Maybe we should get out of here. Something tells me we don't want to be caught here."

Jiraiya nodded as they both gathered up their belongings that had gotten tossed around in the confusion then blurred away, the trees whispering as sandal sole met tree bark.

And the plot thickens! Hope you all aren't too mad about Kushina not showing up this chapter. Don't worry. It'll happen. And on a brighter note, I'm going home for summer break next week! WOOHOO! Of course, that's why I got the chapter up when I did, since I've got finals next week. Damn. At least there's only three of them right? Well, I thinka that's everything and I guess I'll be seeing you next chapter. As always, remember to read and review!

~WingedFreedom622