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Flashback – Night Before – Location; Hokage Office - Konohagakure

"Are you absolutely sure of this, Jiraiya?"

"Tsunade-hime, I don't want to believe it either but it's the only explanation!" She couldn't believe it, the blond haired sannin just couldn't believe that he, that Naruto could hide something like that.

"But how? How was he able to hide something like this from us? I can understand the villagers not knowing but US!? We were so close to him, and even we didn't notice!" Her voice was filled with regret and self-loathing, how could she not have noticed the truth about the boy whom she considered family? She wanted to cry and scream in frustration but she didn't, she needed to know how her white-haired, perverted teammate had come to such a conclusion.

Tsunade looked directly into the eyes of Jiraiya, who was completely covered in bandages and should really still be in the hospital if the pained expression he wore was anything to go by. 'Or is it because he feels guilty?' It was probably a mixture of both. But one could easily tell that he was being serious, it was in his voice.

"Here," he placed a file onto the Hokage's desk "Out of all of Naruto's hospital records –and trust me, that's a lot- this was the one that stuck out, this was the one that gave it away." She looked the file over, taking note of every word, every symbol, every line and even every little spot. She wasn't impressed with what she was reading, resisting the urge to rip the piece of paper apart. But she wouldn't, she needed to read what was written and she tried to find something, anything to give her the evidence that her little blond brother –although not by blood or official- had been fully healed.

As she reached the end of the record she found what she needed. She looked from the file she had been reading to Jiraiya with a serious, but questioning look.

"It says here that by the time he was discharged he claimed to be able to see just fine," She pointed to a part near the end of the file "and here," she pointed to the very end of the record "it states that the Kyuubi's chakra bought him back to full health in just a few days." Now it was Jiraiya's turn to speak.

"True, but isn't there something wrong with that? Think about it hime! We both spent a lot of time around Kushina and we should both know two things about the Kyuubi's healing factor." Tsunade's eyes widened, she knew what Jiraiya was talking about but she let him continue. "Firstly, there are some things it can't heal and secondly-" She cut him off, continuing what he had been about to say.

"Whenever Kushina forced the Kyuubi to heal wounds, although they healed fast, they never healed as fast as they did with Naruto. This just doesn't make sense…" She was getting a headache, this was getting more and more confusing 'I need sake… lots of sake….'

"That's just it hime, whenever Kushina forced the Kyuubi. To her, it had always been about forcing the fox to cooperate. When I thought about it and Naruto's reaction to using the fox's chakra I came to a rather interesting conclusion." Well, that was true. Although Tsunade didn't see Kushina as much as Jiraiya did she still knew that the red-headed woman tended to use her chakra chains to force the fox's cooperation when it was needed. Although how she got it Tsunade did not know. 'But what about Naruto?'

"Care to elaborate?"

"Of course!" It seemed that Jiraiya was feeling a bit better about things while he was talking now at least. Although he still had that serious and regretful feeling to him, he was also starting to act like a child when they did something that they considered exceptional and wanted to brag about it to their parents. No that wasn't quite accurate, but it was the best thing Tsunade could compare it to at the time.

"Naruto never hesitated to show how much he was against using the fox's chakra, so much so that he wouldn't participate in any training that involved the use of it. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't want that power. When I asked he would come up with all kinds of excuses, mostly about how he wanted to grow stronger without relying on its power." There was a pause and Jiraiya winced, 'seems like he remembered something…'

It took a moment but Jiraiya continued. Tsunade was paying close attention.

"What he would say wasn't exactly a lie but I could tell that it wasn't the whole truth either. So I thought back, back to when I first told the gaki I would teach him how to use that power and I remembered his reply. His exact words were" another pause.

When Jiraiya spoke next his voice was full of melancholy "But it causes him pain. I couldn't figure out what he meant, who did it cause pain? I had forgotten all about that moment, being all too happy and distracted at the thought of being able to spend time with my godson. I'm a fool for not realising what he meant sooner." The melancholy was gone, replaced with a serious tone, his eyes showing just how serious he was. Tsunade wasn't stupid, she knew where this was going although admittedly she didn't like it.

"He meant the Kyuubi, for some reason or another he didn't want to cause the fox pain. That answered my question but it also created another. How did he know it caused it pain? Only one thing made sense that fit in with all the other things I had discovered. Why did he heal faster than his mother? The only explanation would be that for some reason the Kyuubi was willingly healing him. Why was it willing to heal him? Simple really." 'Yes, it's both very simple and very obvious.' Tsunade couldn't help but think. Sometimes the answer to something complicated tended to be the most simplest of things 'and this is Naruto we're talking about…'

Tsunade took note of the perverted and proud look that had taken over Jiraiya's features as he spoke. "The gaki found a nice vixen to mate with! The lucky bastard!" The fifth hokage slammed one of her super strength enhanced fists into her desk, destroying it as she shouted;

"TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY YOU DAMN PERVERT!"

"Eh? But hime, that's the only reasonable answer!" There was a moment of silence.

"Jiraiya"

"Yes, hime?"

"Research has shown that even though the Kyuubi is a giant mass of chakra, it's male."

Jiraiya looked crushed, but it slowly turned to a look of horror. "W-wait, you don't mean…. NO! I WON'T BELIEVE IT! I TAUGHT HIM BETTER THEN THAT! TO THINK THAT HE WOULD BE INTO M-"

"ALRIGHT ENOUGH!" Tsunade's irritated voice shut him up and she couldn't help but smile at her teammate's cowering form. But there were matters that needed attention. She needed to be serious.

"Jiraiya, it's become obvious from what you have told me that Naruto does, in some way have a relationship with the Kyuubi, although I'm highly doubtful that it's in the way you think it is, it's still a concerning matter that raises a lot of questions…" She trailed off, she really needed some sake, lots of sake.

"Questions that can be answered." Jiraiya said, now back in serious mode. "Sometimes critical injuries, emotional trauma or near-death incidents can force us into our mindscape. It's the same with Jinchuriki, but when they enter their mindscape they are able to reach their bijuu. My guess is that when Naruto was attacked this happened, specifically after the incident that I showed you the report on, maybe even earlier on. That incident brings us back to the beginning, he had his eyes ripped out. Like I said before, the Kyuubi can't heal everything. Its chakra can heal most things but…" The toad sage's eyes wandered, not wanting to make eye contact with the hokage or to say what was needed to say. Tsunade guessed that he was still having trouble accepting what he had discovered.

She, as a medic had more of an idea as to what was going to be said next then Jiraiya himself did, so she decided to continue for him.

"For it to heal something so close to the brain with its destructive chakra could cause lots of damage to either the brain or the mind, especially if it was something like the eye, which is directly connected to the brain with the optical nerve. In a situation like that there wouldn't be many options. Brain damage could possibly lead to death and mental damage could lead to the same conclusion, or worse." She paused for a second, her medic mind trying to come to any other possible outcomes. There was only one. She went to massage her temples as she continued. She could tell her teammate was glad he didn't have to continue.

"The fact that the Kyuubi managed to recreate Naruto's eyes would have been amazing if it wasn't all for show. Yes, the eyes are there and from what I can tell from the time I've spent with him, fully functional but…." Now, how would she word this…? "It appears that fully functional isn't the right way to say it. Most of it is but if I were to guess, when recreating Naruto's eyes the Kyuubi had to sever any direct connections between the eyes and the brain so that its chakra didn't flow in and do any critical damage…."

She trailed off, not wanting to continue but she had to. She knew that Jiraiya only had a little knowledge as to what the actual problem was and what it meant for the blond boy.

"Severing the connection would mean destroying not only the optical nerve but also any and all chakra points that would go from brain to eyes as well. A complicated thing to do, even for a bijuu. Although I'm still unsure as to how exactly it even managed to pull something like that off I can come to a simple conclusion. One simple enough for even you to understand Jiraiya…"

She looked at him and he looked at her with a look that pretty much screamed thank kami, I didn't understand a word you just said. Hurry up and get to the point! She would overlook his hopeless impatience for now, she needed things to stay serious.

"In order to keep Naruto alive both physically and mentally the Kyuubi had to sever all connections from the eyes to the brain, leaving him forever unable to see."

She noticed Jiraiya start to walk out the room through the door.

"Where are you going?" He stopped walking.

"I'm going to find him, Tsunade. I need to." There was longing and desperation in his voice. He opened the door. She smiled.

"Good luck." With that he left. Tsunade had faith in Jiraiya, they would find Naruto. But there was one thought nagging at the back of her mind, 'would he even want to return?'

Finished! I finally updated~

After I had finished writing this chapter I went back and re-read the previous chapters and I think it's safe to say that my writing style has changed a bit. Dunno if it's in a good way or a bad way though, but at least I've started to write again! I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing. Should be updating more often now.

Please note that this chapter was to show how Jiraiya and Tsunade found out, and their theories behind Naruto's disability. Admittedly I only have a bit of knowledge about the eye but using my imagination this was what I had managed to come up with. I also have some knowledge about the muscles connected to the eye however as I do not know a lot about that area I decided that it would be best to leave it out.

Well, that's all I have to say. I don't intend to make up any excuses as to why I haven't updated this in a while but I can say that I'm back!

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I enjoyed writing it.