Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Legend:

"Naruto" - talking

'Parents' - thinking

Flashback – Flashbacks

"Kit" – Kyuubi talking

'Naruto' - Kyuubi thinking

Chapter 3: Emotions

It had been three days since he had said good-bye to his friends after rescuing Gaara. 'Three days' Naruto thought as he stepped out of the tree line and into the open. 'That means they won't be here until tomorrow, if they stayed the night in Suna.'

He had done what he had needed to do, completing the training with the toad elder as good as possible, which wasn't that much of an improvement since his fight with the Akatsuki three days ago. And like many other things in his life it was because of the Kyuubi Kitsune sealed inside of him. The demon sealed inside him didn't allow Fukasaku to merge with him to complete the sage mode, so he couldn't really use it in a fight. A few seconds was the maximum and that only after several moments of not moving an inch to gather the natural energy. Yet, he had owned it to Jiraiya to finish the training with the toads, even if he wanted to return to Konoha with his friends. 'Tsunade-baa-chan probably already knows that I was there' he thought. He knew that the talk with Tsunade he was about to have in a while would be anything but easy.

Taking another few steps forward he could finally look at Konoha again. 'It doesn't look like it changed much' he thought as he took in the sight of the village he loved. Yes, it looked nearly like he had it in his memories. Taking another step forward he stopped and sat down on the ground overlooking the village from his favourite spot, taking every tiny little detail in. He was sitting on top of the Yondaime's head on the Hokage Monument, the spot were he had liked to sit as a child to think about something or planning a new prank.

'I guess now I know, why I always liked this spot' he thought as a few memories resurfaced. He had sat exactly on the same spot a few years ago wondering why most of the people hated him. 'Now I understand it' Naruto thought as his thoughts returned to the present.

'You sacrificed me in order to save the village you loved, and I now love, and yet at the same time you didn't really sacrifice me at all. I could have turned out a lot different' he thought thinking of how Gaara had been once due to his demon's influence on his mind. "I forgive you, dad" Naruto whispered his voice so low; it nearly didn't even reach his own ears. 'I just wish, that I had the chance to get to know you and mom' he thought sadly as he remembered all he heard about his parents in his last conversation with Jiraiya.

Snapping out of his thoughts Naruto stood up surveying the whole village once again and realized that they added Tsunade's face to the monument right next to his father's face. Taking one look Naruto leaped forward and off the monument his route in the direction of the Hokage tower.

Being nearly there he decided he would have a bit fun first, before the whole conversation turned all serious and sad, and went straight to the window of the office, intending to enter like Jiraiya had done all the time. Leaping towards the open window Naruto saw a silhouette of a person standing in front of the desk. He debated in his mind whether he should enter just like that or wait until Tsunade was alone in her office and came to a conclusion within a split-second. 'It's not like I care about that' he thought with a grin on his face as he leaped on the window-sill and quickly sat down on it, alerting the occupants of the room to his presence, one of them already vanishing, hiding him- or herself.

'ANBU' Naruto thought as he realized that he couldn't sense the presence of said person one bit. Well at least he couldn't sense it without activating the sage mode, which was out of the question for the current situation.

"Ohayo, Tsunade-baa-chan!" Naruto greeted as he leaped off the window-sill and into the middle of the room, only to be met with a fist to the face, sending him backwards into the wall.

"What was that for?" Naruto asked in his loudmouth manner as he stumbled back to his feet as Tsunade sat back down in her chair.

"That was for going on a mission without permission and for becoming like Jiraiya" Tsunade said, her tone indicating that she obviously hadn't liked the fact that he had gone against the Akatsuki without her permission, even if he had grown much stronger from what was written in the short report she had gotten in the morning.

Not liking the silence that settled between them, Naruto decided to break it. "What I don't even get a welcome home or something like that?" he said pouting.

"Welcome home, brat" Tsunade said chuckling at his antics, her anger already beginning to fade into nothingness.

Looking around the room quickly and trying to sense her old team mate, but failing to find him Tsunade turned back to Naruto. "So where is my old team mate?" she asked. "Don't tell me that idiot is already off, peeking again?" she continued with her question, sounding a bit, well more like a lot, annoyed.

Naruto for his part didn't respond, his eyes lowering their glance to the ground, as he thought how it would be best to say it, memories of that fateful day already resurfacing in his mind. Having decided the best course of action Naruto spun around facing the wall. "Would you be so kind and leave the room for this conversation, ANBU-san?" he asked seemingly into the empty room.

Before the wall an ANBU silently rose out of the ground, obviously a woman if the long purple hair and the way she held herself were any indication, Naruto realized. The female ANBU wore the standard ANBU uniform, black pants, white armor, arm protection, ninjato strapped on her back and face hidden by a porcelain ANBU mask. "Tsunade-sama?" the female asked quickly overcoming her shock, which had of course been hidden from the world by her mask, of being discovered by a Genin.

Tsunade hid her shock really quick and quite well, even without the use of a mask, as expected of one of the legendary Sannin. "It's okay, you are dismissed" she said and received a nod from the ANBU in return before said female ANBU vanished in a swirl of leafs.

Even after the ANBU left Naruto stayed quiet eyes cast to the ground again, sadness written all over his face, which Tsunade picked up pretty soon and guessed what it meant. "Don't tell me that …" she began but couldn't finish the sentence as she was overwhelmed by her emotions, even with all her experience in the life and death of the shinobi life. Collecting herself after a second she continued.

"He is dead, isn't he?" she asked even though she could already tell the answer by looking at Naruto's face all the while, yet hoping to be wrong, so she had to ask the question.

"Hai" Naruto muttered quietly just loud enough for Tsunade to hear.

Tsunade couldn't believe it, her team mate was dead. Sadness overcame her, ready to break out in sobs she remembered that she was the Hokage and because of that she couldn't afford to look weak, so she forced the sadness back and tried to keep a blank face, withholding all her emotions. She stood up from her chair and moved to the window overlooking Konoha, which she had sworn to protect, trying to hide her sadness from the rooms only other occupant.

"You know, you don't have to act around me, baa-chan." Naruto said knowing exactly that she tried to hide her emotions like he had always done when he had been younger. He moved towards her, so that he stood behind her, looking at Konoha through the window, too, even if both of their eyes didn't really take anything in. "You don't have to be strong all the time and hide your feelings."

Tsunade turned around and looked at him, his words having pierced through all the defenses she had tried to make since she had realized where her team mate was exactly, as all the sadness she had tried to hide overcame her and tears began to roll down her cheeks. Surprising her once again, Naruto hugged her, tears streaming down his face, too. "You can let it all out, baa-chan." He whispered from besides her as she broke out in uncontrollable sobs.

Naruto couldn't tell how long they remained in this position, Tsunade sobbing uncontrollably and he crying while trying to comfort her, yet failing miserably. After a while Tsunade's sobs began to lessen and finally stopped completely. They remained like that for another few moments, both regaining most of their self-control.

"H… How?" Tsunade asked, her voice weak, as she moved a bit away from Naruto and towards her desk where she had stored her sake. Yes, she absolutely needed some sake and that soon. "How did he die?" she asked again, her voice gaining strength again as she sat down and opened a drawer taking a bottle of sake and a small glass out. Naruto stayed quiet not answering her question. Getting annoyed at him she poured herself some sake into her glass and gulped it down in one shot. Focusing on Naruto again she was about to ask the same question again, when she noticed that he was trembling.

Naruto couldn't help himself, Tsunade's question had brought back all the memories he had tried to forget or at the very least come to terms with, during his time at Mt. Myoboku. His body began to tremble and for a few moments Naruto wanted nothing more than to forget all about it and never tell anybody about it, but he knew that he had to tell Tsunade about it, even if he didn't want to. "I did" he muttered quietly, his voice full of sadness and shame.

"Wha…?" Tsunade began to ask, but was interrupted by the blonde teen.

"I…" Naruto said, his voice getting louder and lanced with anger, anger Tsunade didn't know was directed at himself. "I killed him."

Tsunade looked at him flabbergast, not believing her ears. She couldn't imagine Naruto killing Jiraiya in her wildest nightmares, even if Naruto himself had just said he did, it just couldn't be true.

"I… I lost control" Naruto continued, tears streaming down his cheeks again, after the tears from earlier just had dried a while ago. "I was angry … confused. I didn't know what to do" he looked at her his eyes pleading her to believe him.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. He was so angry at himself, filled with shame and sadness, he just couldn't bear it anymore so he took off and jumped out of the window, but only after he told her once more. "I killed him." And with that he vanished from the office becoming a blur on top of the roofs outside speeding away as fast as possible. The direction he was going was unimportant to him; he only had to get away from there.

Tsunade sat stunned. She couldn't believe it. Naruto had admitted that he killed her old team mate. 'How is that possible?' she thought perplexed by the whole situation as she took the sake bottle and took a huge gulp out of it.

In the shadows Fukasaku had watched the whole scene quietly completely hidden from both of them. He felt sad, that Naruto still hadn't overcome Jiraiya's death at his own hands, but at the same time he knew that it was something he had to come to terms with by himself. Naruto had looked like he had done so, during their time training at Mt. Myoboku, but now the toad elder realized that Naruto had pushed everything back trying to keep everything bottled up inside of him. Taking a look at Tsunade sitting behind her desk drinking, Fukasaku knew that it was on him to explain everything to her. 'I guess it's better this way' he thought as he stepped out of the shadow and into the view of a very surprised Hokage. It looks like he had a hell of a lot to explain to her.

Naruto ran as fast as he could. He had to get away, he just couldn't take it anymore. He had to get away from everything for a while and calm down. He could feel the Kyuubi's power as it flood into him having been triggered by his emotional distress. He fought against it, he had after all promised it over his sensei dead body, so he had to keep it back and stay in control.

Coming to his senses again he stopped running and stood still breathing slowly he tried to calm himself, forgetting all about his surroundings. 'In … Out' he thought as his breathing began to slow down as he calmed down. He knew Jiraiya wouldn't want him to act like this, but Naruto couldn't help it, the feelings he had bottled up and tried to hide, like he had always done in the days as a child, had simply overwhelmed him.

'In … Out' he though for a last time, his head cleared and his emotions back under almost full control. 'You would probably laugh at me for acting like this, wouldn't you kyoufu (A/N: kyoufu means godfather)?' he thought sadly, a smile forcing itself on his face nonetheless as he imagined Jiraiya actually being here and laughing at him. Closing his eyes Naruto pictured Jiraiya standing in front of him, like one of the many times during their two and a half years spent training. How he wished that Jiraiya could actually be there. 'He will never see me becoming Hokage' Naruto thought as sadness once again began to overwhelm him.

Opening his eyes Naruto saw the village he had just run away from. 'I must have turned around after stopping' he thought as he looked at the village he loved. He could see the Hokage Monument, with the faces of each Kage looking over the village, looking over him. And not just the Hokages, his father's face was also on there. He was looking over him, watching every move of him.

'You've always watched over me, dad' Naruto thought as a smile formed on his lips, his sadness vanishing. 'Just like Ero-Sennin will. You'll both look over me and the village both of you loved. Won't you, kyoufu?'

Naruto continued to watch the Monument for a few moments, until his thoughts went on. 'But this isn't the time to be sad' he thought as pictures of the Akatsuki, Orochimaru and sasuke flashed to his mind. 'I'll have to get stronger to protect the village you both loved, now that you can't anymore. I'll protect it with all my strength.'

Wiping the last tear from his face Naruto stretched his sore muscles and looked around for the first time since he had stopped and saw three tree stumps in the middle of a training field ad realized that he had unconsciously made his way to his team's old training ground. A smile formed on his lips again as he thought about the happy time they had as Team 7, until Sasuke had run away.

Realizing that this was their old training ground he also realized that the memory stone was just next to it. The stone were his father's name was engraved to, along with a lot of other heroes of the village. The stone were Jiraiya's name would be engraved in a short time, too, when Tsunade would make it official.

Walking over to the stone Naruto fought back tears again, not wanting to dishonor the heroes on the stone by crying. No, he had to continue the path they had laid down; protecting and serving the village they loved with their lives. He would grow stronger and continue their path, so he promised himself that he wouldn't show weakness here, right in front of them.

Kneeling down in front of the stone Naruto's eyes began to flick over each name, skimming through them until he found one he had searched for.

Sarutobi Hizuren.

"Jiji" Naruto mumbled as he closed his eyes, memories of the old man being kind to him, beating him with his sexy no jutsu and eating ramen with him at his favorite ramen stand came to his mind and flashed in front of his eyes. 'Thank you for everything you did for me, jiji' he thought as he remembered the man he considered his grandfather fondly.

Opening his eyes again, they began to skim through all the names once again until he found the name he had been searching for.

Namikaze Minato.

His hand reached forward and he gently ran it over the engraving of the name. 'Dad' he thought.

'I love you, just like you loved me' he thought fondly imagining his father standing right besides him, his arm laid on Naruto's shoulder. 'I just wish I could have met you, even if it's only for a few minutes' he thought, wishing that he could remember the very first hours of his life, when both of his parents still had been alive.

'You're both waiting for me in after life, aren't you?' he asked silently hoping to get a reply, but also knowing that it wasn't possible. 'You're waiting together with Ero-Sennin. Maybe I should just come to you? I don't know. I'm not sure what to do, but I think you'll have to wait a while longer. I don't plan to die, soon. I don't plan to die before becoming Hokage and I still have to protect the village, even if it would maybe be better to simply go and meet you.'

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a presence behind him. Someone was coming nearer, probably to pay their respect to the dead heroes, he thought as his finger once again ran over his father's name on the stone. Drawing his hand back he slowly stood up and stepped back from the memory stone, before he turned around facing the newcomer.

Walking towards him was a beautiful woman with long purple hair. She was obviously a shinobi and quite a skilled one at that, as one could see by the way of her movements. She was wearing black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt, which showed her quite well formed breasts rather nicely. In her hand she was caring flowers, to lie down at the stone and honor one of the fallen shinobi.

As she stepped closer Naruto could see her black eyes which were fixed on him, locking his eyes with hers. 'She looks really good' Naruto thought and began to blame Ero-Sennin for making him think such thoughts out of the blue.

As she took another step forward Naruto recognized her, having seen her only a while ago; he couldn't tell exactly how long ago, as he had lost track of time while being overwhelmed with his emotions.

"Ohayo ANBU-san." Naruto greeted her with a smile, much to the surprise of said female off-duty ANBU, who hid it through, before it could even show on her face.

It had been an uneventful day for Yugao Uzuki. She had been on another mission together with her ANBU team. Another one of these easy missions, that most chunnins would probably be able to complete, if it hadn't been for the total secrecy that was once again needed for the good of the village.

Her team returned to Konoha and went to the ANBU headquarters, while she went on to report to the Hokage, just like every other time. It had been like any other report, until she had felt a presence of somebody who moved through, or better said on the window. Deciding between hiding her presence and attacking the potential threat to the Hokage's life, who she was sworn to protect, she chose to hide and a split-second later all traces of her presence in the room vanished, before any intruder could have noticed her.

Observing the intruder now sitting on the window-sill she saw a blonde haired teen, wearing an orange-black jumpsuit. He was obviously a ninja, as he had a Konoha hita-ate tied to his forehead and a holster filled with tools strapped on his right leg, not mentioning what else he could keep hidden with the outfit he wore.

"Ohayo, Tsunade-baa-chan!" She heard him greet the Hokage totally without respect as he leapt from the window-sill and into the middle of the room. He obviously felt at ease around the Hokage for acting so careless, she observed. But she had to repress a chuckle from escaping her mouth as his face was greeted by a fist courtesy of the angry Tsunade.

Yugao watched the two interact for a bit more, not really interested in their chatter and just getting the gist of it. The intruder had obviously been away for a while with Jiraiya and went on a mission without permission and returned now. But her interest was soon sparked when Tsunade asked about Jiraiya, seeing as he had yet to appear in the room. She saw the blonde haired teen lower his head, but she couldn't tell why. 'Is Jiraiya-sama really peeking again, or did he not return? Or is it something else?' she thought as several theories ran through her head.

As these theories run through her mind, the blonde teen surprised her by turning around facing in her direction. Thinking that she was totally safe as he couldn't have sensed her, she was even more surprised as he spoke up. "Would you be so kind and leave the room for this conversation, ANBU-san?" she heard him ask politely, yet she detected traces of sadness in his voice she couldn't explain. 'How? He shouldn't be able to sense me' she thought as she dropped her concealment technique and rose out of the ground.

She was glad for her ANBU mask, as it hid her surprise from the other occupants of the room. 'What should I do?' she asked herself, before she proceeded to ask the Hokage, who had hid her own surprise quite well without the use of a mask.

"It's okay, you are dismissed" the Hokage answered he question.

Nodding in acceptance Yugao vanished in a swirl of leaves having used the Shunshin no jutsu only to reappear on the roof of the Hokage Tower, from where she took off running towards the ANBU headquarter to check out for the day. On the way her thoughts went back to the conversation she had just been ordered to leave,

She pondered about it, how could a Genin, or what should be a Genin, be able to sense her. From what she knew he didn't even specialize in this area. 'Did Jiraiya-sama train him so much?' she asked herself, but realized that she hit the nail on the head. 'Something is up with Jiraiya-sama!'

Not having enough information and seeing that she couldn't do anything about it, Yugao decided to let the matter rest for now. If it was anything important that mattered to her or the village the Hokage would tell her or the village sooner or later.

So she cleared her head and went on, stopping by the ANBU headquarters where she checked out for the day and changed out of her ANBU uniform and put on black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt before she left the headquarters. On her way towards her home she realized that she hadn't paid Hayate a visit in quite some time, so she stopped by a flower shop and picked up a few flowers before she walked across the village, through the crowd of non-shinobi's that covered every street during this time of the day.

While walking slowly towards her destination her thoughts wandered to her deceased lover she had decided to visit. It had been nearly three years since he had been killed short before the invasion from the sand and the sound during that year's chunin exam. She had sworn to herself to avenge his death, but she never did manage to find his killer. Now Suna was their ally and the chance was high that the culprit had already been killed in the invasion or the years later of active shinobi duty, or would never brought to justice.

But it didn't really matter anymore. She had realized how stupid it had been to try and avenge his death. She had realized that revenge leads one down a dangerous path, a path she wasn't willing to walk after she had realized that that had been what she was doing. She had sworn to protect this village and its Hokage, which was also her duty as ANBU, so she couldn't allow her personal feelings to intervene with her duty endangering the village she grew up in and loved and which her deceased lover also had loved.

As she reached the end of the street she had took, Yugao continued onwards and crossed the unoccupied training ground in the direction of the memory stone. When the stone came into her field of vision, as she took another step away from the tree-line on the side of the training ground, she saw that there already was someone kneeling in front of it. That didn't surprise her in the least, as Kakashi was often here for hours on end and she had met him here a few times already when she paid her visit to Hayate once in a while.

Stepping closer she recognized the person as the one that had been in the Hokage's office earlier, interrupting her meeting with the Hokage and who had asked her to leave the office to talk alone with the Hokage. She saw his hand run over a single name, but she couldn't make out the name from this distance, before he withdrew his hand and stood up stepping back from the memory stone.

She saw him turn around. 'So he felt my presence' she thought a bit impressed, even though she hadn't tried to really suppress it like she had done earlier in the Hokage's office. When she saw his face she was surprised to see that his eyes were somewhat red. 'He has been crying' she thought surprised and confused, both of which she didn't allow to show. 'Why would he cry?' she silently asked herself.

She took another step forward in the direction of the memory stone, which had been the reason why she came here, her eyes never leaving the blonde teen, whose eyes flashed with recognition as he recognized her.

"Ohayo, ANBU-san!" the blonde greeted her with a smile, much to her surprise, which was yet again able to hide thanks to her years of training. She hadn't known she was so easy to recognize as an ANBU when dressed in normal clothes and off-duty.

"Uzumaki-san" Yugao greeted in return, of course knowing his name as did the whole village. She watched as he walked a few feet away making way for her and then settled down on the ground, his back against a tree. He appeared to be bothered by something; she could tell having spent years as a ninja gave you some insight on people's minds and behavior in different situations.

"So, you have lost someone deer to you, as well?" she asked him, her voice just loud enough that it reached his ears, as she reached the memory stone and kneeled down her eyes focused on her dead lover's name. "You're wondering how I know? It's easy to tell if you know what to look for" she told him, as she could tell that he had been surprised and confused by her statement from moments ago.

It was then that Naruto realized that his face probably still held some traces of him crying a while ago. He didn't know why, but this woman interested him. Maybe it was because she cared which something he still wasn't all that familiar with.

"It's hard to lose someone you love" she continued her voice carrying her emotions over to him. She didn't know why but she thought she could trust him and that she could help him. She knew that he had lived a hard life, from several of her first ANBU missions and yet, at the same time had so much potential to become strong, maybe even the strongest.

"I know how hard it is to leave it behind, wanting to mourn forever. But you have a duty. Not only to the village, but also to your loved one." She told him as she laid her flowers down as her thoughts went to Hayate, memories of them being together flashing before her eyes.

Naruto thought about her words, as she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. He realized that she was right, having come to nearly the same conclusion earlier. His thoughts went back as he remembered the promise he had made over Jiraiya's dead body. 'Yes, I will grow stronger, not only to make you proud, but also to protect the village I love' he thought.

"Yes" Naruto muttered as he stood up his eyes fixed on the memory stone. "I will protect the village you all loved with everything I have."

Yugao heard him mutter something, not understanding what he had actually said. She stood up and turned around seeing him standing, eyes glued on the memory stone as she heard him make a promise to all the heroes on the stone to protect the village they loved.

She let a small smile appear on her face and seeing the determination shining in his eyes she knew that he meant it. Deciding that there wasn't anything more for her to do here, she turned her head to get a last look at Hayate's name, before she began to walk away.

Naruto saw her walk away in the corner of his eyes and turned towards her retreating form. "Wait!" he called out and saw her stop and turn around facing him. "Arigato" he said thanking her for helping him.

"You are welcome" she answered him a real smile gracing her face.

"You know I will become Hokage soon. And I will remember it was you who helped me" Naruto said returning to his normal attitude which he had had before all of these things happened.

"That's nice to know" Yugao replied not really believing that it would actually happen, but she decided to get to know him a little bit more. "Why do you want to be Hokage?"

"Someone once said to me that one's true strength only shows when he is protecting his precious people. I want to protect my precious people. And to me, the whole village is precious, even though some treated me like they did. I would die in a heartbeat to save this village" he said and added 'like you, dad' silently in his mind.

As she looked at him in that moment, she believed that he could really make it. He had said it with such determination, that she couldn't do anything but believe his words. 'He has the right attitude to actually make it' she thought, as her eyes flicked over to the memory stone on which he had earlier sworn to protect the village all the dead heroes had loved.

'What would you have done, Hayate-kun?' she asked herself. 'What should I do?' As she asked herself a picture of the Sandaime flashed in her mind. The Sandaime, who had helped her so much, had always believed in this child. Yes she remembered the old Hokage had once said to her that Naruto had inherited the Will of Fire.

Coming to a conclusion she looked at Naruto, whose eyes were glued on her. "If you really mean what you just said, then I will help you."

Naruto looked at her flabbergast. "How?" he asked curiously.

"When you want to become stronger, you have to have someone to teach you" she said. "I'm willing to help you along your way, but I can only show you the way, you have to walk it on your own." She saw him looking at her confused by her words. "In order to become strong, you have to find your own style. By learning and copying another, you might get strong, too, but to actually reach your whole potential you have to find your own style. Learn from other and incorporate their teachings into your own unique style."

Seeing him nod indicating that he understood, she decided to move on. "I won't be able to teach you may things, but I will be able to at least give you a few hints for your training."

"So are you ready for a spar?" she asked him as her hand reached into a pocket and withdrew a simple looking scroll. Seeing him nod enthusiastically she opened the scroll and put some chakra into the kanji on it, deactivating the storage seals. With that her ninja supplies appeared in a cloud of smoke and she put a kunai holster on each leg, before she resealed the remaining supplies and pocketed the scroll again.

Seeing that both were now ready to begin, they walked over to the middle of the training ground and eyed each other. "Light contact, co deep cuts or wounds" the female stated laying down the rules for the spar before she bowed, to which Naruto followed suit, not taking his eyes of her.

"Ready?" Yugao asked as she observed him closely trying to get as much information about his fighting style from his clothes and studying him for possible hidden weapons. His choice of clothes gave him a lot of opportunities to hide a weapon and the orange easily caught the eyes attention, perfect for a genjutsu user. Remembering all she could about him from her memories and from his choice of fighting stance, told her that he was more of a taijutsu user, preferring straight out combat. Also his control was most likely not good enough for genjutsu, as he had such a high chakra store, so she could rule genjutsu usage out, leaving taijutsu and ninjutsu.

Naruto, too, observed his opponent. It was something Jiraiya had taught him to do, saying he should have known it already, but still teaching it to him. He had seen her putting on the kunai holsters and she was clad in a non ninja outfit, so the two holsters on her legs most likely contained all her weapons. Yet, she still was an ANBU, one of the elite of the village, so she had to be good and that most likely in all three aspects, taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. 'I have to be on guard' he thought eyeing her carefully.

"Hai" Naruto answered to her question as he readied himself for the fight.

They stood there both observing the other's every move, when Naruto decided to act. His hand reached into his holster and took two kunais out, which he launched at his opponent, only to have her sidestep the thrown weapons and counterattack, dashing forwards forcing him into an exchange of blows.

Having just evaded another fist Naruto leaped back covering his retreat with a handful shuriken cutting through the air forcing Yugao to dodge the thrown projectiles rather than to come after him. Naruto had realized that the woman had been holding back a bit during the exchange of blows and that he had been in a disadvantage, having much less experience and inferior taijutsu skills.

Having thought of a quick plan Naruto dashed forward again, only this time with two Kage Bunshin besides him. Covering the distance in a split second, Naruto engaged the purple haired woman in a taijutsu match once again, in perfect synch with his two clones. The clones always attacked when the real Naruto revealed an opening in her defense or in his own, the later happening a lot more and always dodging her every attack as to not dispelling themselves.

Trying to get out of the situation Yugao jumped up and performed a back flip in the air launching a few kunai in the process, one hitting one of the two Naruto clones as he leaped after her, destroying it. Landing on the other side of the training ground Yugao only noticed one Naruto standing where she had come from and readied herself for an attack that was sure to come.

She wasn't disappointed when she sensed somebody to her left she dodged the kick aimed to her chest as she leaped to the right only to be surprised by a barrage of kunai flying straight in her new direction. 'Clever' she thought a bit amazed as she saw him use such a technique, as she herself knew just how difficult the kunai kage bunshin no jutsu truly was.

Taking a kunai in each hand Yugao began to block and dodge the incoming kunais. She dodged as much of them as she could, evading the incoming projectiles quite artistically only centimeters between her and the weapons, only using her own kunais to block if she saw no other way to evade them.

Dodging the last kunai she launched her own kunais at the one who had used the kunai kage bunshin no jutsu, guessing that he was the real one as he had held his distance and was soon to be proved right as one of her kunais nicked his cheek drawing a bit of blood. Seeing an attack coming from behind Yugao blocked the roundhouse kick and counterattacked with a quick strike towards the clone's chest dispelling it. Sensing another attack Yugao ducked barely avoiding a handful of shuriken which were coming at her, having been covered by the dispelled clone's cloud of smoke.

Locating the last Naruto Yugao threw a few shuriken in his direction multiplying them using the same jutsu Naruto had earlier used; using the time he had to dodge the incoming weapons to form hand seals for a new jutsu.

Naruto jumped to the side dodging all the weapons and was just about to attack when he was hit with the body paralysis and felt his body freeze, thanks to the kanashibari no jutsu by Yugao. Quickly shaking off the effect of the paralyzing jutsu Naruto tried to sense Yugao and realized in an instant that he had been caught.

Yugao had used the split seconds that Naruto needed to shake the effect of the jutsu off and moved behind him and took a kunai out, pressing it at his throat just as he had broken free from the effect of the kanashibari no jutsu.

"It's over" Yugao whispered in his ear standing so near to him that she didn't have to talk louder, sending shivers down his spine. Even though she had won easily against him, she had to admit that he was good and could easily become one of Konoha's strongest with a bit of guidance and hard work.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked her as he moved forward, much to Yugao's shock, kunai digging deep into his throat only to have him disappear in a cloud of smoke.

'He is even better than I gave him credit for' she thought as she spread out her senses finding him standing ready to attack on a tree branch in one of the surrounding trees.

"That's enough for now" Yugao spoke just as Naruto dropped down from the branch intending to attack her again. When he heard her words Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, eyes fixed on her.


Author's Note (A/N):

Well that was the third chapter, what do you think about it?

Well here are a few things I have to say:

1) I don't know if Yugao actually has black eyes in the canon, but I couldn't really tell what color the eyes were from the short scene were she appeared in the anime. I also haven't found anything about her eye-color on the net, so I have decided to make the black. If someone knows her real eye-color, please tell me and I will change it.

2) I hope I didn't add too much fluff in this chapter, but this was really hard to write. I also hope that I didn't make Naruto cry too often for your likings, but at this time in my story he is still a teenager and doesn't has his emotions under control all the time. This was necessary for him to actually grow up and become to Naruto I want him to be later on in the story. As you have no doubt figured out while reading, Naruto still hasn't come to terms with Jiraiya's death 100 percent, even at the end of the chapter. And Jiraiya's death will still play a huge part in the plot in the next few chapters (In some more than others).

3) Before I forget to say it and before someone asks, I have decided to make Yugao younger than she is in canon. She will still be older than Naruto, but not by so much like in the canon. How old exactly, I don't know yet, but you will know when I write it later on.

4) As you can see more action between the two of them is set to follow, but don't think they will hook up just like that, because that won't happen for a long time. (Sorry for those that want to see this as soon as possible, but I want to make it realistic)

5) And last but not least:

I have put a poll up on my profile page. There you can vote for what should happen to Sai later on in the Sasuke retrival arc. The possibilities are:

- Sai dies by an enemy's hands (either Orochimaru or Sasuke)

- Sai dies by Naruto's hand

- Sai lives and returns to Konoha and goes back to Root (never to be seen again)

- Sai and Naruto become friends

- Naruto lets Sai live, Sai feels indebted to him and promises to help Naruto later on (spy in root)

The poll is up since yesterday and will be up for about two weeks. I will decide what I will write in detail after the poll is finished, so go and vote for your favorite. The last thing I have to say about the poll is that no matter what, root will play a part in one or more of the plot arcs latter on.


That's it. I thank you all for you interest in my story and feel free to review and ask questions if you have any. Next chapter will contain the return of teams Kakashi and Gai; Naruto meets some of his friends again; Sai's first appearance; and a special scene which will be very important for the plot (at least a part of it).