TIME SKIP! I have been waiting forever to do a time skip in this story! and it is finally here! I'm so excited! Two chapters in Two Days! I am on a roll! This is also chapter twenty! Plus over 1000 followers! You guys are the best!

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The Letter and The Return

Jiraiya,

The Kage Summit has just finished up. Just as I worried, there is a war coming. Most of the other Jinchuurikis have gone missing. Aside from the Kyuubi, Ichibi and the Hachibi, the Akatsuki have obtained all the tailed beasts. In light of that, the Kazekage and I have just made a pact with the rest of the Hidden Villages. We have formed the Shinobi Alliance. I will explain more upon your return.

We will need every shinobi we have. I know you and Naruto have been away from the village for almost three years now, but with the impending war, it is high time you made your way back home.

Have a safe journey. I will be anxiously awaiting the return of my son.

Bring him home safely.

-Minato The Yondaime Hokage

Jiraiya sighed as he finished reading the last part of Minato's update. He and Naruto had been traveling for a while out a forest. They had stayed in villages when they could, but tried to stay out sight due to the Akatsuki being on their tail for most of the time. Right now they were on the very edge of the fire country in a large forest. Naruto was working on adding wind to the Rasengan, but had taken a break to bathe the near by hot spring. He had been a great student, and he reminded him of Minato a lot. Naruto had come a long way under his tutelage. They had even spent time with the Toads, so Naruto could become a sage. Jiraiya was hoping to teach him how to use the Fox's chakra before they head back, but it looks like he was out of time.

Jiraiya looked over to the hot spring, "Naruto!"

Naruto climbed out of the water, pulled on his pants and threw his towel over his head when he heard the call of his name, "yeah?"

When the blonde reached him, Jiraiya handed him the letter. Naruto read it once over, "So we are heading back?"

"Looks like it," Jiraiya nodded, "Excited?"

"Yeah," Naruto smiled softly at the letter, "I can't wait to show Tou-san how strong I have become."

"I bet he will be impressed," Jiraiya laughed as he stood from the rock he was sitting on.

"I hope so," Naruto replied handing him the letter, "If not, I think you're going to be one in trouble!"

"Oi! Don't go throwing me under the bus like that!" Jiraiya laughed.

Naruto chuckled and walked back to the hot spring to finish getting dressed and gather his things. Once everything was packed, they head out.

As they walked Jiraiya studied his young student. In strength and personality, Naruto became more and more like Minato every day. He had traded in his old orange and blue outfit for the traditional Konoha uniform. Under the green flak vest, his clothing was black with orange trimming the edges of his shirt, black pants and simple black sandals. He mimicked his sensei by carrying around a large scroll on his lower back that aided him with his sage techniques. The major difference between Naruto and his father was the length of his hair. At the beginning of his trip, Naruto decided he was going to grow out his hair to his father's length but even when it got there, he kept letting it grow. Now it was really long, his bangs framed his face like Minato's but the rest he kept pulled back into a low ponytail. When Jiraiya asked him about it once, Naruto just shrugged it off and said he wanted to be different from the little boy the villagers knew.

Naruto had grown up and matured. When they were first out of the village, Naruto became this loud and energetic child. Minato was right, being out of the village allowed Naruto's personality to come out full force. However over the years, Jiraiya taught Naruto how to control his wild personality. Naruto was still loud and energetic but on the more mature side now and used to his advantage. Minato was happy with the updates that Jiraiya sent him over the years and urged him to continue training Naruto until the right time comes.

That time was now and Jiraiya was certain Minato would be happy the change in Naruto.

~O~

"It's been about three years," Naruto commented as they walked through the front gates of Konoha.

"Indeed," Jiraiya replied casually.

They walked a little ways and then suddenly Naruto dropped his things, jumping up on a high pole.

"He's certainly cheerful today," Jiraiya laughed as he watched the young blonde in his antics.

"Alright!" Naruto yelled as he landed swiftly on top of the pole in a kneeling position, "This place really hasn't changed."

Neither Naruto nor Jiraiya knew that Minato caught sight of Naruto jumping up on the pole from the large windows in his office. It took a minute for him to recognize the younger blonde but a wide grin came on his face when he did. "Naruto," he whispered jumping up from his chair and heading out the door.

"You've really grown up huh?" a voice came from the rooftop of a building next to Naruto catching both of the due's attention.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed and jumped in front of the silver haired shinobi, "You haven't changed at all! Oh! I have something for you."

"Oh?" Kakashi replied watching Naruto dig through his pouch.

"Here!" Naruto said throwing a book at him.

"How…? This is…?" Kakashi stuttered, as he looked at the small book in complete disbelief.

"The latest in Icha Icha. It's kind of boring but I bet you'll like it," Naruto said proudly then standing up he declared, "Now to Ichiraku's Ramen!"

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha, marching on the familiar path to his favorite place. Jiraiya and Kakashi walked slowly behind him.

"Ehhh!" Naruto yelled as the reached the ramen stand catching both of his sensei's attention, prompting them to catch up to the young blonde, "Tou-san!"

"Naruto," Minato smiled as he stood from one of the seats.

Taking two swift strides Minato stood directly in front of his son. They stood eye to eye with each other. Naruto was almost the same height as his father, give or take an inch. Naruto smiled brightly at his father who pulled him into a tight embrace. Naruto leaned into his father and wrapped his arms around him.

"Sensei really missed Naruto," Kakashi whispered to Jiraiya, "Basically threw himself into his work while you two were away. He rarely ever wanted to go home, I guess because he knew Naruto wouldn't be there. I was kind of worried about him for a while."

"Ah, well, now he is home," Jiraiya shrugged.

"Naruto," Minato called pulling away from his son, "You've changed so much."

"Yeah," Naruto smiled a goofy grin.

"You are just about as tall as me! And what is with this hair?" Minato asked, "At least you finally changed out of that orange stuff you were wearing. You look like a true shinobi."

"Thanks," Naruto laughed, "and I like my hair long!"

"I guess I'll just have to get use to it then," Minato laughed and tried to ruffle the boy's hair, "I just can't do that any more!"

"Its kind of awkward when you do seeing as how I am just about as tall as you," Naruto laughed swatting his father's hand away.

"Come and sit," Minato said leading him over to the bar, "tell me about your travels."

"How did you know I would be here?" Naruto asked taking a seat.

"Please, I am your father," Minato chuckled, "I'd say I know you rather well."

"True," Naruto shrugged and nodded to Teuchi indicating he wanted his normal order.

~O~

Several hours later, Naruto walked out of the ramen stand with his father and Jiraiya. After waving good bye to Kakashi and promising that he would meet with him and his team in the morning, Naruto finally made his way home.

"Jiraiya," Minato called as they all walked together, "I assume you will be staying with us tonight?"

"Of course," Jiraiya laughed.

"I thought so," Minato nodded.

"Man, I can't wait to sleep in my bed tonight," Naruto commented as he threw his hands behind his head as they walked.

"I bet," Minato nodded, "You will need to get your rest for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Naruto asked glancing sideways over to the other blonde.

"Oh, lets just say that Kakashi has something planned," Minato laughed.

"What? Tell me!" Naruto yelled waving his arms.

"Nope," Minato laughed, "You will just have to wait and see!"

"Ah come on!" Naruto pleaded.

Minato just shrugged leaving Naruto to pout a little.

Once they reach the Hokage's house, Naruto rushes up to his room to hop in the shower. Minato and Jiraiya make their way to the dining table where the eventually talk over a couple cup of sake.

"He's change," Minato noted.

"Indeed, he has," Jiraiya nodded, "for the better I believe."

"Yes, for the better. He is so much more open and happy," Minato ponders, "I wonder if it will stay that way now that he is home."

"I think so," Jiriaya replied.

"Whys that?"

"I just have a feeling," Jiraiya explained, "and he's got this new resolve."

"Resolve?"

"Yea," Jiraiya nodded, "He's decided that he's going to be him self. He told me once that he is a lot stronger than he was and because of that he can't let the villagers or the other shinobi get to him anymore. He can't be afraid of them anymore."

"Oh, I see," Minato smiled then looked up at his sensei, "so how strong is my son?"

"Stronger than you think," Jiraiya smiled slyly, "he is stronger than you were at his age. Or so I think anyways."

"Really?" Minato asked, "what all did you teach him?"

"Well, he is a sage now," Jiraiya said, "and he is currently working on adding the wind element to the Rasengan."

"Seriously?" Minato asked a little to enthusiastically.

"Yes, seriously," Jiraiya laughed.

~O~

Naruto just about sprang out of bed the next morning. He hurriedly got dressed and ran down to the kitchen, where he found his father making breakfast. Naruto almost laughed out loud when he saw his father wearing his famous pink apron. According to his father, the apron belonged to his mother and that would be why he wears it.

"Morning, Naruto," Minato smiled.

"Morning," Naruto replied taking a seat at the table.

Minato's eyes lingered a little too long on Naruto, causing the younger to ask what was wrong.

"I just have missed you is all, sorry," Minato shrugged then turned back to what he was doing.

After breakfast, Minato and Naruto went their separate ways. Minato headed to the Hokage's office while Naruto was headed to the very familiar training field to meet with his team. Naruto couldn't remember if he had ever been this excited to see his team. He couldn't wait to see how strong Sasuke and Sakura have gotten. If he remembered correctly Sakura was studying under Tsunade while Sasuke was training with Orochimaru and Kakashi. Naruto stopped dead in his tracks.

They were all training with one of the legendary Sanin!

Naruto collected himself. He hadn't realized just who was teaching them. They could be the next legendary Sanin! The thought of this only made Naruto more excited to see his team. Naruto picked up his pace and started traveling to training ground via the roofs. As he leaped from roof to roof, Naruto's smiled grew bigger and bigger.

Finally making it to the training ground, Naruto found Sasuke and Sakura standing with their backs to him in the center of the field next to the three logs sticking up from the ground.

"Sasuke! Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto?" Sakura said turning around followed by Sasuke doing the same thing.

When Naruto reached his teammates, he noticed they had too matured and probably gotten a lot stronger as well. Sasuke was about the same height as Naruto, while Sakura was a little shorter than they both of them.

Sasuke had definitely gotten stronger as Naruto could see his muscles were bigger, due to the sleeveless, tight, black wrap top that went past the raven's waist and was secured with a red belt. It was a low V-neck and revealed bandages that were wrapped around his stomach. Underneath his shirt was a pair of black pants and tall black sandals. He had long black, fingerless gloves that went up past his elbow. His flak jacket was over his clothes but he worse it unzipped. Sasuke also had a long black, hilt-less sword on his waist. His hair and face were basically the same.

Sakura had changed more than Sasuke had in appearance. She still kept her red dress but it was shorter and sleeve-less. It secured at the waist but a black band across her stomach and black shorts underneath. She had tall black boot-type sandals. She wore plain black gloves. Her pink hair was still long, but was pulled back into a tight ponytail, with her bangs trailing the sides of her face. Her blue hitai-ate was replaced with a red one. She also wore her flak jacket unzipped.

"Wow," Sakura said when she saw Naruto, "You've grown up huh?"

"I'll say! Look you at you!" Naruto smiled then turned to Sasuke, "and don't you look all shinobi-like in your flak jacket."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, "I hope those new looks come with some actual skill."

"I can probably beat your ass," Naruto replied.

"Now, now," a voice came from behind Naruto, "the only person you need to beat is me."

"Sensei," Sakura said, "What do you mean?"

"Now that we are all together again I want to see if you still have the team work that you use to have," Kakashi explained, "so we are going to have a little test."

"Test?" Sasuke repeated.

Kakashi reached into his pockets and pulled out two familiar silver bells, "remember these?"

"We are doing the bell test, again!" Naruto whined.

"Stop whining," Sakura complained punching Naruto lightly on the shoulder.

"Damn!" Naruto yelled, "What the hell did you get super human strength or something!"

"Why, yes I did!" Sakura yelled back.

"Alright," Kakashi said, "rules are the same as before. Two bells. Doesn't matter how you get them from me."

"What? Not going to read this time?" Naruto asked tightening his hitai-ate.

"Nah," Kakashi said lifting up his hitai-ate, revealing his sharingan, "I have a feeling I should take this a little more seriously than last time."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted activating his sharingan and unsheathing his sword.

"But, sensei, you will be in danger," Sakura said sarcastically cracking her knuckles.

"I think I will be alright, Sakura," Kakashi replied, "Begin!"

At the sound of his word, all four of the in shinobi scattered.

Unbeknownst to the Chunins, their test with Kakashi was being watched. Minato, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru were standing off a little ways up in the trees, far enough where they weren't in the way but close enough where they could still watch the battle. They could still see just how far their students had come.

Right. Left. Above. Behind. Then he must be…

Sakura gathered chakra in her fist and released it when her fist collided with the ground. Sasuke and Naruto jumped up to avoid the shattered ground beneath them. The two boys looked at each other with the same expression. Do Not Piss Off Sakura.

"Found you!" Sakura exclaimed as Kakashi climbed his way out of the rocks.

Sasuke took the moment Kakashi was climbing out as an opening, gathering lighting in his blade and short towards him. Kakashi barely noticed in time and was barely able to dodge. Sasuke and Kakashi pushed back. Kakashi only pushed back to a shadow clone of Naruto who locked on to him.

"Sakura!" Naruto called and the pink hair kunoichi throw a punch at her sensei only to find a log had replaced him.

"Damn it!" Sakura cursed.

"We need to move," Sasuke said to his teammates and in a matter of seconds they each flashed to the same location, immediately masking their chakra.

"Nice team work but they are going to have to do more than that to beat Kakashi," Minato laughed.

"I don't know about that, Minato," Jiraiya said, " Sasuke does have the Sharingan."

A few hours later, team seven had been playing cat and mouse with Kakashi. Each time they got close to him, he would fight right back. They had pulled away for a moment to gather themselves.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked as Naruto pulled out his large scroll.

"Preparing," Naruto stated as he laid out his scroll and unrolled it, "Kakashi is extremely good at hiding. My sensing skills aren't good enough yet to be able to find him so I'm going to need to rely on nature chakra."

"What the hell is nature chakra?" Sasuke asked, "Why the hell did you not do this earlier?"

"I'll explain later. And we had been on his trail the whole time. I didn't need to, but now I do so, cover me for a sec, will ya?" Naruto asked as he finished his preparations and reversed summoned a clone that had been sitting and gathering chakra. Once the clone was dispelled Naruto felt the rush of chakra in his body.

"So your boy is a sage now huh, Minato?" Orochimaru asked.

"I guess so," Minato chuckled as he watched in a amusement.

"So? Can you find him?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said, his eyes yellow with straight black pupils and rimmed with orange, "He's not far, but he is moving."

"He's expecting us to try and follow him," Sakura said.

"We should make him think we are following him," Sasuke suggested.

"Then cut him off," Naruto finished, "catch him by surprise."

"Exactly," Sakura agreed, "So how do we do it?"

"I've got an idea," Naruto smiled slyly.

"Lets hear it then," Sasuke said.

"I wonder what their plan is?" Tsunade pondered out loud.

"Naruto has become a pretty good tactician," Jiraiya said, "So whatever it is has to be good."

"They have been giving Kakashi a run for his money," Minato said.

"Sasuke's been using his skills well," Orochimaru stated.

"Praising your self now are we?" Jiraiya mocked him.

Orochimaru didn't reply but Minato did, "Sasuke is a pretty damn good shinobi."

"That he is," Jiraiya agreed.

"They are actually following me?" Kakashi questioned when he felt a small amount of chakra catching up to him, and then he figured out what their plan was. However it was too late. The small amount of chakra behind him vanished and Kakashi fell right into their trap.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto had him surrounded in a small clearing, so there was nothing to switch with if they attacked.

"Kakashi!" Naruto called, "The truth about the character in Icha Icha Tactics is…"

"What! Wait! NO!" Kakashi yelled and covered his ears.

Wait, with the Sharingan I can read his lips…

Kakashi screwed his eyes closed, so Sasuke and Sakura took advantage and swiped the bells from his waist.

"Damn it!" Kakashi swore when he realized what happened, then sighed, "you three have done well."

"I honestly didn't think that was going to work," Sasuke commented.

"I told you it would work!" Naruto replied tossing a bell up and down.

"Well done!" a voice called.

"Tou-san!" Naruto smiled.

"You three have really grown," Tsunade commented, "You guys gave Kakashi a run for his money!"

"You actually used you sage mode in battle this time!" Jiraiya said placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "normally you aren't sure how to use it practically."

"Well, I wasn't fighting one-on-one this time," Naruto replied.

"How about we all go to Ichiraku's for some lunch!" Minato suggested.

Everyone started making their way to the ramen stand but Minato held Naruto back to speak with him for a moment.

"Tou-san?" Naruto questioned, "What's up?"

"I just wanted to tell you how impressed with you I am," Minato said placing his hands on the younger shoulders, "You have truly grown up and matured. You have gotten so much stronger."

"Its all thanks to you and Ero-Sennin," Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Not just the training," Minato shook his head, "Jiraiya told me about this new resolve of yours, about how you aren't going to worry about the villagers any more. That you are going to be you, no matter what. I can't tell you how proud I am of you for that. It takes real courage to not be worried about what others think of you."

"Thanks tou-san," Naruto smiled softly.

"Did your new resolve lead to this?" Minato asked pulling at the end of Naruto's ponytail.

"Sort of," Naruto shrugged.

Minato swung his arm around Naruto's shoulders and they started to follow the rest of the group to Naruto's favorite place.

~O~

Yes, Orochimaru did NOT defect from the village. Minato was alive and therefor handle the situation differently. Plus I want Sasuke to be trained by Orochimaru. I went back and forth on how to handle that so I stuck with every remaining in the village!

Also, I know the fight between team seven could have been way longer, but if I wrote the fight out how I imaged it in my mind, it would have been about 5 chapters long. This was only suppose to be a transition chapter not a whole arc! Speaking of the next arc! You guessed it!

The WAR! is the next and finale arc of the story! I hope you enjoy it!

ALSO! Vote for my story on Inkitt when I get it posted!