Naruto was just walking, minding his own business.
it had been 5 days since he started training with Ebusi, and it went relatively well. he had learned to use his natural jinchūriki abilities to the best of his own.
as the blonde walked down the street, he was suddenly stopped by a large man with long white hair.
"hey, you're Uzumaki Naruto, right?" the man asked.
the blonde raised an eyebrow at the man, before realizing who he was "yes, I am, say aren't you Jiraiya?"
"oh, you've heard of me? yes, it is I, Jiraiya, stealer of women's hearts, writer of icha icha paradise, and the toad sage."
"yeah, I know. you're also the man who sealed nine bijūs in me."
the toad sannin froze 'crap, he probably hates me. this isn't good, if he hates me, he'll-' his thoughts were interrupted by the blonde.
"thank you for that." the blonde said with a huge smile.
the toad sannin was taken aback by that "you're... you're not mad at me?"
"no. why would I be? it's thanks to you, I'm the most kick ass ninja ever and I have a bunch of friends." the blonde said while smiling.
'oh yeah, Kakashi did mention that he befriended the bijūs at a young age.'
flashback
"so that's where, Naruto most likely is." the cyclops said.
"thank you, Kakashi. I'll be off."
"before you go, you should know something."
the toad sannin looked back at his #1 customer.
"when teaching him, don't ask him his control over the bijūs or if he would like better control over them, he won't take it well."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow "why?"
"he doesn't like using the word control when describing his friends."
Jiraiya went wide-eyed at this "friends!?"
Kakashi chuckled "yeah get this, apparently Naruto has managed to befriend the bijūs. he recently befriended the ichibi, and is currently trying to befriend the kyūbi. hell, he's recently learned their names too."
Jiraiya stood there shocked "does anyone know about this?"
Kakashi shook his head "no, only me, Sasuke, Hinata, Tsunade, her apprentice Shizune, and the Hokage know about Naruto's befriending of the bijūs."
Jiraiya sighed in relief for his godson's safety "well thank you for telling me."
flashback over
"anyways, why did you want to see me?"
Jiraiya shook his head and recollected himself "simply put, I want to take you as my apprentice."
the blonde was surprised by this "really? why?"
the toad sage chuckled "simply put, you have potential, potential to surpass me, a sannin, and I want to help you get to that point."
the blonde's eyes were sparkling.
"to add to that, I'll teach you the 4th's signature technique."
"REALLY!?"
Jiraiya nodded.
"I ACCEPT, HOLD ON, I'LL INFORM EBUSI-SENSEI!" and with that, the blonde was off.
Jiraiya yelled "MEET ME AT THE HOT SPRINGS!" he then sighed "guess I'll get some water balloons."
timeskip
it had been a week since Jiraiya started training the young jinchūriki.
he had finally mastered the rasengan.
"rasengan"
the tree the blonde aimed at then exploded.
"great work, Gaki." Jiraiya said with a smile.
"thanks ero-sennin"
"I've told you multiple times, not to call me that." the sannin said with a tick mark.
the blonde chuckled "hey, is it possible to add other affinities?"
Jiraiya sighed "should be, but so far, not even the fourth could find a way."
"really?"
"yeah, believe me, I saw him try. whenever he tried adding another element, it quickly became unstable and exploded."
the blonde hummed to himself for a bit before getting an idea "what if I tried using clones?"
"huh?"
"what if I made a rasengan, and used clones to add the element and keep it stable?"
Jiraiya stood there silent, before bursting out laughing.
the blonde grew angry at the sannin's laughter "HEY! IT COULD WORK!"
"oh, I'm not laughing at your idea" his laughter died down "I'm laughing at how you, someone who just learnt the fourth's technique, overcame a problem that he struggled with for hours, even days."
the sannin took a deep breath and sighed "go ahead, let's see if it'll work."
the blonde nodded "I'll try using fire."
he then spawned two clones, one to help keep the rasengan stable, and another for a dummy.
he took a deep breath, and made a rasengan, the clone then slowly added fire to it.
"fire rasengan"
it worked.
"YES!" the blonde yelled out.
Jiraiya smiled "I'm proud of you, Naruto." 'and Minato would be proud too. after getting over his bruised ego.'
"thank you, ero-sennin."
ignoring the ero-sennin part, Jiraiya sighed "well, now for something else cool."
the blonde gleamed "what is it?"
"summoning."
"ummm. question, which animal?"
"huh?"
"which animal. cause if it's tanuki, cat, turtle, ape, horse, slug, beetle, octopus, or fox. I'm not signing it."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
"the bijūs don't get along with their summon counterparts."
"oh, well it's toads."
'guys?'
"we don't have any grudge against the toads, so don't worry gaki." Kokuō said.
"alright then."
Jiraiya made some hand seals and bit his fingers. summoning a toad "hey Gama, I need the contract."
the toad did just that and gave the toad sage a summon contract.
"just draw some blood and sign your name here."
Naruto did just that "okay then, now what?"
"now, just do the hand seals I just did and try to summon a toad."
Naruto then did just that.
it was then, after the smoke cleared, a giant toad with pipe appeared.
the toad looked down at Jiraiya "Jiraiya, why have you summoned me?"
Jiraiya stood there silent 'and that's another bruise to Minato's ego.' he thought, remembering all the times that his former student failed to summon even the smallest toads.
"ano... I didn't summon you 'Bunta."
the toad raised a non-existant eyebrow "then who-" the toad cut himself upon noticing the nearby blonde kid.
the jinchūriki smiled "hello, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."
"don't tell me, he summoned me."
"I'm right here ya know? either way yes, I did." he said while smiling.
sighing, the toad accepted that a mere child summoned him "whatever, hello gaki, I'm Gamabunta. nice to meet you."
after getting to know Gamabunta and the other toads, the sun was setting.
"welp, it's been nice training with you, ero-sennin. but I got to-"
"wait, before you go, you need to know something."
the blonde looked towards the sannin.
Jiraiya sighed "there is a group, called the Akatsuki. they're after you, more specifically, they are after the bijū inside you."
the bijūs all collectively growled.
"they're composed of S-class missing nins. why do they want the bijūs? I don't know, all I know is that they are dangerous and after you. you need to be careful and cautious. that is actually why I wanted you as my apprentice, to protect yourself from them."
the blonde stood there in silence, before quickly becoming angry.
"DAMMIT! why is it like this? first most of the world is after me, then this root organization, and now this Akatsuki? you've got to be kidding me."
flashback
Naruto, along with his sensei Kakashi, entered the hokage's office.
"hey jiji. why did you want to see me?"
"sit down Naruto."
Naruto did just that.
Hiruzen sighed "Naruto, do you remember Danzo?"
the blonde raised an eyebrow "that creepy old bandaged man?" Hiruzen nodded "what about him?"
"Naruto, Danzo is behind the random ANBU attacks."
Naruto froze, before an angry scowl appeared on his face.
Hiruzen continued "Danzo has been looking after you in the shadows, so that he may mold you into a mindless killing machine."
Naruto's scowl only grew "why did he attack my friends?"
Hiruzen held back a sigh "to make sure that 'his weapon' was safe."
"THAT BASTARD!"
Kakashi put his hand on the blonde "Naruto calm down."
"look Naruto, Danzo has recently left the village, what he will do next, I have no clue. I'm telling you all this, so that you are aware of the threat."
flashback over
Jiraiya sighed "I'm sorry, Naruto."
the blonde frowned "it's fine. anyways I should get going, thanks for telling me this.
omake 1: pranking the pervert.
Naruto was annoyed, the legendary toad sage was focusing on being a pervert, peeping on the girls.
"oh hey Naruto."
Naruto turned to see the red haired suna shinobi.
"oh hey, Gaara."
"what are you doing here?"
Naruto sighed "waiting for him." he then pointed at the sannin "to stop acting like a creep and peeping on the girls in there."
Gaara gave a disapproving look towards the toad sage.
suddenly an idea popped up in suna nin's head.
he grinned evilly "hey Naruto, wanna pull a prank on him."
Naruto shrugged "not usually a prankster, but sure. what do you have in mind?"
meanwhile within the hot springs itself, the slug sannin was currently enjoying herself.
"man, I can't tell you how good this feels Shizune. especially knowing that pervert, Jiraiya, isn't here peeping."
Tsunade's apprentice chuckled "I'm sure it feels great."
while the Hyūga heiress was enjoying herself, she suddenly noticed something. she squinted at what she was looking at.
"is something wrong Hinata?" Kurenai asked.
"no, it's just that there's sand in the air."
everyone in the hot spring looked at where the byakugan princess was staring.
they all saw that there was indeed sand in the air, but the sand spelt something.
'there is a white haired pervert, named Jiraiya, staring at you through a hole in this direction.'
Hinata had read that aloud.
silence filled the room.
a tick mark grew on the slug queen "JIRAIYA!"
the toad sage looked towards his student who was standing next to the red head "Naruto, how could you?"
the jinchūriki and the suna nin gave an Anya face "you should probably run."
"I'M GOING TO FREAKING CASTRATE YOU!"
omake 2: bruised ego.
in the afterlife, a certain sun kissed blonde haired man was crying his eyes out.
"there, there, it's okay." his red haired wife comforted him.
"I'm so proud of him, yet at the same time... MY EGO!" Minato then cried harder.
Kushina said nothing, she only continued to pat her husband's back.
that is all, leave a review and tell me what you thought.
either way some important things to note.
1. I have decided to continue this story into shippuden.
2. the next story I'm going to write will be the end at the valley.