"So you fought Orochimaru and the only thing that you lost was your blade?" asked an old, brown-haired man incredulously of the blond standing in front of him. A nod was his response, causing the older man to sigh.
"And you somehow managed to come out with your life and limbs intact…do you know what his objective was?"
"I found it out later from Kakashi. Apparently the man wanted to give Sasuke the cursed seal of heaven, the finished version of the prototype found on Mitarashi Anko. It is already affecting his manner of combat, speech, and basic personality, bringing out the arrogance that he had previously managed to suppress." Naruto said, having seen the results of that seal on the boy already, as Sasuke had arrogantly demanded training from Kakashi before he found out that Kakashi was going to train him anyways.
Danzo shook his head, sighing lightly as he wondered just what the man wanted. He was curious about the mobilization of Suna's shadow corps as well, but he prayed that they were not related.
"So what are you planning to do for this month?" he asked Naruto, as he knew Kakashi was training Sasuke and Danzo himself was needed to devote his full attention to the shadow theatre.
"I am going to increase what I have rather than learn anything new, seeing as my elemental manipulation can always be improved. I nearly have the third level of Earth, and I need to better what few Suiton jutsu I have." Danzo nodded in approval, but left him with a few pieces of advice.
"Two things Naruto; first, Jiraiya of the Sannin is in Konoha. You'll most likely find him in or around the hot springs after he gets done with his meeting with the Hokage. Second, remember that the Chunin Exam is to make Konoha wealthier. You are there to provide a show, so no instant win the way you did with Kiba. It's the only time you will ever show off, so be sure to use as many flashy jutsu as you can while still dominating your opposition."
The boy nodded, and the two parted, Danzo to his command room after handing Naruto a new, custom-made Ninjato that he had been intending to be Naruto's second, and Naruto to the training grounds, where he would soon be sought out by an unexpected face.
~Break~
Sarutobi jumped as his former students hands slammed onto the aged desk in front of him.
"Screw you old man! I am going to train my godson, even if I have to kill you to accomplish it!" The fire shadow, remarkably calm considering just who was furious at him, took a moment to observe his student and create an argument to convince the man to see his side of things.
The man in front of him was Jiraiya of the Sannin, standing at 192 centimeters with waist length white hair and two red lines running down from each eye, making an imposing figure with the furious visage he was sporting. A horned forehead protector with the kanji for "oil" covered his forehead, and had a large scroll on his back. He wore a short green kimono with matching pants, mesh armor underneath it. A red haori and arm guards completed his look, the traditional shinobi sandals unseeable at the moment but adding several inches to his already tall frame.
Having stalled enough for the moment, Sarutobi began to speak. "I told you earlier Jiraiya, Naruto is unstable. You did not see his battle with Kiba, the obvious joy he took in damaging a comrade." That was stretching the truth, because Kiba had knocked himself out against Naruto's technique while Naruto looked on emotionlessly.
"I suspect that the Kyuubi is…" "Bullshit!" The man screamed at him, his angry appearance increasing to the point where even Sarutobi was frightened, killing intent raging uncontrolled throughout the room, knocking the ANBU in the corners out from the pressure alone. In a moment of clear-headedness, Sarutobi marveled at Jiraiya's control, as while the KI was raging throughout the room, there would be no trace of it outside the room.
"I know for a fact that the Kyuubi cannot influence Naruto, and even if he could, the seal would prevent anything other than simple conversation! And on the off chance that Naruto did enjoy hurting a comrade, which I doubt, the brat probably deserved the pain! After all we both know just how many people have attacked my godson, despite your efforts to hide it!"
Sarutobi damned the man in his mind, knowing it had been Jiraiya who started the boy off on his Shinobi life right after he dropped the three year old off in his crappy apartment. The man had used his skilled seal manipulation to plant several needs in the boy's mind, which lasted even now, to ensure the boy remained healthy. The needs were two, one was to eat healthy and the other was to be careful. It was a brilliant piece of work that ensured that Naruto would never rush into anything unless he had no other choice. He even used seals that temporarily increased his intelligence and strength for the night, and refused to let Sarutobi learn the designs of the seal, despite the use it could be to Konoha.
"And how do you know that? You haven't been in this village in years, despite my demands to the contrary so we can finally get something on Danzo!" Jiraiya scoffed at the older man.
"To your knowledge! I have checked up on my godson biannually for every year he's been alive, if not more! Now, why the heck am I not allowed to teach my godson, the boy that I hovered over as much as I did Minato, the boy I loved like my own son for the only six months I had him, why can I not teach him?" Jiraiya had calmed down enough he was no longer cursing, which was a good sign, but Sarutobi could see the little twitches that told the man the Sannin's temper was close to blowing.
Jiraiya was like a volcano, unlike his teammates. Tsunade beat the crap out of the offending person right away, while Orochimaru got a subtle revenge on the offender. Jiraiya on the other hand took a long time to anger, or something terrible like this, and then his rage was far worse than those of his former teammates. No one was ever left alive when Jiraiya let go.
"And what about your lack of obedience regarding Danzo?" Sarutobi snapped at the white-haired man, attempting to change the subject while giving himself more time to come up with a valid reason. The cold glare that was leveled on the aged fire shadow even as he explained in an icy tone let Sarutobi know his attempt was not working.
"Danzo has only the best interests of the village at heart. While we may not agree on the methods, our goal is one and the same, Konoha thriving in this troubled world. Now, explain." The obvious "or suffer the consequences" was there, but left unsaid.
Hiruzen sighed, lowering his head, playing the guilt card. "I cannot let another Orochimaru appear Jiraiya. You know that." The moment he looked up he thought better of his decision, seeing Jiraiya regain control of himself just in time to stop his hand seals for a lethal jutsu.
'It didn't work on Danzo; I should have known it wouldn't work on Jiraiya. Kuso (damn), why can't anyone see that I am doing what is best for the village? All those years of manipulating the civilian council to ensure the pure imbeciles that are there now came into power so that the Hokage would be able to manipulate any laws he wanted while still maintaining a good image, all those years of backbreaking work I've put into this village, and only now are people questioning me.'
"Try something else old man." The once affectionate title was now filled with hate and loathing, and Sarutobi knew that he would lose Jiraiya if he didn't make this concession.
"Fine Jiraiya, you can train Naruto. However," his voice became hard, returning to his 'Kami no Shinobi' mode. "If, for any reason, Naruto even attempts to betray the village, I will make sure you regret it." Jiraiya snorted, knowing that there was nothing the old man could do to him. Two of the man's three students were stronger than this wreck of a man, and even if he hated Orochimaru for betraying him and Konoha, he would happily team up with the teme to take the old man down.
~Break~
Jiraiya left the Thirds office, intending to go and actually perv at the hot springs for the first time in several years. A small smirk crossed his face as he recalled the deception he had pulled over the entire world.
His spy network was one of the best in the Elemental Nations for several reasons, one of which was the unorthodox method of delivering information. His spies would use toads (summoned from special seals on their bodies) to paint a unique ink on the wall of the women's hot springs. His special little telescope was the only thing that could read, or even see for that matter, the ink. Summons could be tracked; in fact he had lost more than one set of valuable information because the summoned toad had been intercepted, so he came up with this method.
His world-wide reputation as a Super-Pervert, which, make no mistake he was, was of great use in this. He advanced that reputation quite often, such as writing Icha Icha from his ideas when he actually peeked, and took many opportunities to prove it right. Because of this no one expected him to use hot springs, or brothels even, to do anything other than screw women or peek on them. He actually spent most of his time "peeking" decoding the information. His many exploits in bed ensured that his enemies even thought that they could distract him with genjutsued women, a source of infinite amusement to him.
Unfortunately, his heart belonged only to one, despite her falling from grace with an unparalleled eagerness, and despite his many efforts to sever his affection it had only grown stronger in time, every other woman paling in comparison to her.
Shaking away his morose thoughts, he walked towards the hot springs, only to see a blond blast from the past.
Standing at 153 centimeters with grey pants and a black shirt, along with a beautiful obsidian Haori with a lifelike crimson Kyuubi on the back and two hawks on the front. Spiky blond hair framed a tanned and whiskered face, a black-clothed forehead protector above icy cerulean eyes.
Shaking Minato from his mind Jiraiya looked at his godson, striding towards a training ground with a new ninjato hanging from his waist. That puzzled Jiraiya, as he knew the former one would have been incredibly difficult to break. It was just as plain as the previous one, with grey thread on the handle, so that was the only way he could tell it was new.
Deciding that he had best learn a bit about his godson, not having seen him for seven months, he hid himself and followed the boy. Soon enough they reached an obscure training ground, no one around except for the two of them. The boy's training started soon enough, making two hundred clones after a moments focusing and all of them started training, fifty on earth manipulation, fifty on fire manipulation, fifty on kenjutsu, and the final fifty were working on fire and water jutsu.
Jiraiya was blown away, in a mere seven months he had this many jutsu and was working on two elemental manipulations? 'What the…why in…how…' He was unable to even think straight, the sheer impossibility of what he was seeing destroying his coherent thought. This was unheard of! Especially when the entire village was out to ensure that the boy in question was stunted and weak!
When Jiraiya had left, Naruto had been low to mid-chunin, possibly able to take on a low jonin if he had surprise on his side. Now Naruto was high, maybe even elite jonin, just from what he was seeing! Then the original did something impossible, purely impossible. He ran on air! After muttering something the boy had just taken off, blasting through the air faster than most people could move on the ground, a little blue wave splashing out from each foot.
Jiraiya's amazement wound up with his concentration on stealth slipping, which alerted Naruto's superior senses to the fact that someone was watching him, someone powerful. "Soru" he muttered, vanishing from view, reappearing in front of Jiraiya and kicking him out of the tree.
'Today is just not my day' thought Jiraiya as he got up to seven blades pointed at lethal parts of his body. He kept his hands spread apart, knowing that even with his speed he couldn't take out all seven without getting stabbed, and the only jutsu he had to escape other than the substitution would give the wrong impression.
"So…heh…hello, how are you today?" Jiraiya tried, dying of shame mentally at the failure of a first meeting with his godson. The icy eyes of the original glared into him, making him see a shinigami behind the boy. 'Crap…he has the same look Kushina did when she caught me gathering information at the hot spring she was in. I didn't even know she was in there!'
"Jiraiya of the Sannin…why are you spying on me?" The voice was completely emotionless, reminding Jiraiya of Sasori of the Red Sand. "Eheh, eheh, I was simply curious as to how…" the pressing of a blade to his throat cut him off.
"Don't try to bullshit your way out of it." Jiraiya sighed, before deciding to be honest. Due to his watching Naruto, he knew the boy was far too smart to accept any excuses.
"I was watching you train because I was curious about how far my godson had come." He watched as Naruto's eyes took on a tinge of satisfaction, like someone who had had a long-standing suspicion confirmed for him.
"So that would make Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime, my father, correct?" Jiraiya winced, and that was all the confirmation Naruto needed. "Alright then." The blades around him poofed into smoke, and Naruto steeped back as the shadow clones dispelled ten by ten.
"So, what do we do now?" Jiraiya grinned at his godson, hoping with all his heart that they could become as close as they should have been to begin with.
"Now I take you out to eat, get to know my godson and you get to know me, before I train you. There's an organization full of S-rank ninja after the…" Naruto's head snapped up, finishing his sentence for him.
"Jinchurikki, and the organizations name is Akatsuki. Known members are Itachi, formerly Orochimaru, and Deidara the mad bomber." Jiraiya was surprised again, as he hadn't known about the last one. Jiraiya wanted to know just where he got the information, but he had his own suspicions and would let it go for now.
"Alright then, let's eat!" Jiraiya said, happy and eager to get started.
AN: "Instead, the old man threw him to the wolves at the orphanage, where he was beaten daily, malnourished, and typically made miserable. He stayed there the first three years of his life, and then was thrown out onto the streets.
The next three years of his life were pure hell, but taught him a lot at least."
That is an excerpt from my very first chapter of this story, which says that Naruto stayed in the orphanage for three years before being on the streets for the next three. He was six when the story really began to kick off. That answers one thing you all ask about.
Second, to NarutoCanon, a guest reviewer, I am telling you that Naruto cannot beat Akatsuki in an open fight at the moment. Stealth or ambushes, or if the ninja underestimates Naruto, then he stands a high chance of winning.
To 3ch0, thank you for giving me your honest opinion. I may not enjoy reading about how much my story sucks, but at least it's letting me know someone thinks that way. I do request that you tell me how you would make it better though.
Happy holidays.