The walls and bars returned. So did the small volume of water on the floor. As did the empty void that stood where a ceiling might have been.

"Welcome back." The Nine-tailed fox greeted his visitor. Naruto stared up at the mountainous creature. "I guess you were right. That weird hazy feeling is how to get back here after all."

"I must admit, I didn't expect you to be back here so soon. What's the occasion?" the fox asked, lying down on its claws. "The geezer sage decided to go out for a bath. He definitely needed one too, so I decided to try and figure out how to get back here." Naruto's face lit up a little. "So what is this place huh? Some kind of dreamworld?! That would be so cool I could be Hokage here, and you could be uh…" he paused. The boy wasn't entirely sure what role his new 'roommate' could fill alongside the leader of the village. "Ooh, I got it, you'll be my secretary!"

"As honorable as that would be, I'll answer your question now. This is not a dream world, so much as the space where our minds interact. While it's a bit more complicated than this I'll give you a summary. Your body hosts my chakra, as well as your own. Since chakra partially comes from the mind, our minds are somewhat connected through our chakra. To an extent, this can even reach out further to others that share the same chakra as you, although no such humans exist."

Naruto processed the information as best he could, scratching his head in a vain attempt to make his mind work better. "So because you live inside me… and your chakra is really close with my chakra… our heads are linked up somehow?"

"Yes. I would recommend taking both your teacher's and sister's advice and study a bit more. It'll help you understand the whys of many things rather than just the hows. You'll probably even get stronger faster." the fox suggested, closing his eyes. He knew the suggestion would be shot down, but he was curious as to how it would be rejected. After all, a good understanding of the boy in front of him would certainly help when negotiations finally came up.

"Maybe I should." The fox contained his surprise to just opening his eyes. "Jiraiya-sensei said to be more considerate of others' feelings before he left. Is taking advice a good place to start?"

'Already starting to learn, are you? Maybe I'll be able to bring this up sooner than I had thought.' With an inward smile at the pleasant turn of events, the fox replied to the question. "Yes, It would be a good place to start. Especially with your sister. She values your opinion of her much higher than you might think. If you didn't notice, she practically flew her way out of the room after you compared her cooking to that ramen place's. After all, how would you feel if you were compared to someone you know you can't beat?"

Naruto thought back to his conversation with his new sensei. 'Think about what the other person might be thinking. The words you speak can change a lot more than you might believe.' Jiraiya had said. Naruto pondered what might have been going through Natsumi's head, how it might bring her to act the way she did. "Like… like I wasn't good enough. Like I could never be good enough… to be… what the other person… wants." A pause echoed through the chamber while reflection turned throughout the blonde's thoughts. "Crap." The fox couldn't contain his smile this time. He was finding exactly what he wanted from his newest host.

"It seems you've come to a conclusion."

"Yeah, I've been rude to some people who probably didn't deserve it. Plenty of others may have, but that shouldn't extend to everyone."

"And what will you do with this realization?" the Nine-tails asked, truly hoping he didn't need to wait any longer.

"I'll fix what I can, give apologies to those who deserve them, and try to become better in general."

"Exactly what I was hoping to hear." Naruto's eyes sharpened slightly across the bars. "Coming from anyone else, that would be nice, but from you, it just freaks me out a bit. You're still the giant fox who tore through the village on my birthday, ya know."

"That's to be expected. After all, I haven't been completely transparent with you." The fox spoke his sentences almost jovially now, as if he was truly happy with the outcome of events. "I told you the last time we spoke that the Fourth Hokage split me in two while sealing me. Those two halves of me are not identical." Tails were fluttering behind the creature with every word it spoke. "My chakra, and in turn I, was split into Yin and Yang halves. The Yang half contains many of my positive emotions and most of my goodwill towards humanity that was fostered by the Sage of Six Paths, while my Yin half is essentially the opposite."

'That must mean that sis has all your negative emotions.' Naruto thought regretfully. "Because of this, I've been able to find a new solution to the predicament that is my freedom. In the past, my whole self simply tried to break free on power alone. Doing this would also severely injure my host, making death almost a guarantee. So now, I wish to form an agreement with you." Naruto was growing very curious. "What kind of agreement?"

"I will assist you in growing stronger as best I can, and in exchange, when you are about to die, whether in bed or on the battlefield, you will set me free. Of course, I will do everything in my power to keep the latter from happening, but unexpected circumstances are common in this world."

Naruto pondered the agreement. It sounded great! A constant aid in getting stronger on his road to becoming Hokage. 'Even an extra source of chakra if the geezer was right!' His expression was giddy with excitement. The dream of Hokage seemed a little bit closer now. "Alright fox, you have a deal!"

"I'm glad." The waving tails finally lowered back to the ground. "That being said, I'm not going to give you free reign over my power. It-"

"Hey, you said you would help me get stronger! How can you help if you're not gonna let me use your power?!"

The Nine-tails' expression turned deadly serious. The dramatic change caused Naruto to unconsciously take a step back. "I won't allow you to use my chakra because you need to prove yourself worthy of such power." the fox declared with a small snarl. It pushed itself up, now standing on its claws. "My chakra is one of the most powerful weapons in the world when used properly. I believe that you have a good heart, but I will not simply give such a weapon to an eight year old boy on nothing but faith!"

The fox's voice was so loud it echoed off the surrounding walls. When the echo finally faded, all that was left was a deep silence born of fear. The fox sighed. "Throughout your life, you will inevitably face many challenges. If I believe you handle a significant enough challenge well, then I will open some of my power for you to use if you need it."

"So basically… I have to earn your respect! Then you'll give me your help!" Naruto declared confidently.

"I'm glad you understand the gist of it."

"Sorry about that earlier. I shouldn't have thought about taking advantage of you like that. You're a person… Well, not quite a person, I guess, but you have your own thoughts and feelings. That was kinda selfish of me." Naruto said, ruffling his hair sheepishly.

"Either way, you should go to bed. It's late, and you need your sleep." the fox said with a huff.

"You talk like old man Hokage." Naruto grumbled. "Fine. I'll see ya next time you giant fox." With a large wave to his new ally, Naruto pushed himself out of the shared mental space. It didn't take him long after that to fall asleep.

He awoke the next morning to a loud clang. The boy sat up quickly, looking to his door to find the origin. Right next to his door was Jiraiya, getting out of the mattress he had borrowed, moving to find out what had happened. Naruto decided to follow his lead and got out of bed.

When they entered the kitchen and living room, they saw Natsumi staring down at a pan on the ground. "Uh, you alright sis?" She raised her voice just high enough to be heard. "Yeah." The young girl crouched down to pick up the fallen metalware. "Just spilled some eggs."

"Do you want some help cleaning up?"

"If you don't mind."

Naruto immediately made his way over while Jiraiya hung back for a moment. He noticed the rather disappointed face Natsumi had had before Naruto spoke up. The worrying part was how much she seemed to be affected by the simple mistake she made. 'Hopefully she doesn't do this often.'

"Oh, Jiraiya-sensei, I met the Nine-tails again last night."

'He seems calm about it, but that doesn't mean that nothing happened either.' Both Natsumi and Jiraiya thought simultaneously.

"What did it say?" Naruto's face lit up when recalling his agreement. "He said he was going to help me be Hokage! He said that I would have to prove my worth to use his powers, but he would let me use it and help me get stronger!"

"Don't trust it…" Natsumi whispered, mostly to herself. "But we made an agreement!" Naruto argued. "He said that he would help me, and all I have to do is let him go once I'm really old."

"That's why you shouldn't trust it Naruto. It clearly has its own goals in mind with this deal, and it probably doesn't care what happens to you so long as it gets what it wants." Jiraiya explained.

"But…" Naruto looked to the ground and went silent. 'He seemed pretty nice…'

Jiraiya looked at the twins on the floor. Both of them were clearly thinking to themselves about the Nine-tails. Natsumi seemed concerned. Meanwhile, Naruto looked remorseful, almost as if he regretted speaking up about the interaction. They would certainly be an interesting pair of students to teach. "How about we eat first? Then we can get back to arguing about this." Jiraiya suggested. "Sure." both siblings replied.

Naruto quickly cleaned up the rest of the mess left by the spilled eggs, while Jiraiya and Natsumi prepared a new set for everybody. Naruto looked over at the two, making the fresh meal with a tinge of guilt. 'I should learn to cook with sis. Maybe that can be the start of my apology to her.'

When the food was brought to the table, Naruto stayed quiet. He didn't want to accidentally hurt his sister's feelings even more than he had last night. Breakfast passed awkwardly for the twins, both just eating slowly without talking.

Jiraiya decided to interject the silence. "Do you two want to do more training after we finish this?" Naruto welcomed a distraction at the moment. "Sure, let's do it!" Natsumi also nodded her head a bit in approval. The remaining food quickly disappeared from the plates on the table, and they were shortly off to the unique part of the forest they used the previous day.

"Hey Jiraiya-sensei, why are these trees in the wrong season? They look like it's fall even though it's spring."

"That's a story that dates back to before Konoha was created." Jiraiya replied with a look of reminiscence. "A lot of the forests around the village were actually created by the First Hokage and his famous wood style techniques. As for this part of the forest, according to Sarutobi-sensei, this part of the forest was made during the fall, but all the trees that were born thanks to the First, started their lives as if it were spring. As time went on, the trees kept growing, but followed the opposite seasons. If it was summer, the trees looked like it was winter, and as you're seeing now, if it was spring, they looked like it was fall."

Naruto stared up at the trees with a mix of confusion and awe. 'They were all made by the very first Hokage.' Naruto looked over to Jiraiya with a burning curiosity in his eyes. "Is there anything else special about these trees? Wait, do they have the First's chakra in them?!"

"Uh, no and no. These are all just trees that follow a strange seasonal cycle. Now then…" Jiraiya looked over to explain to Natsumi what new exercise to practice only to find her already sneaking over to what seemed to be her new favorite spot. Turning back to Naruto, Jiraiya asked "You've done some warm-up exercises in the academy, right?" Naruto nodded with a grunt of affirmation. "Great. Do that for a bit while I explain something to your sister."

Jiraiya found Natsumi already sitting on the stump, looking up at the small gaps in the leaves. "You ready to learn, kiddo?" The girl nodded, silently looking down. "The essence of this exercise is using your chakra to manipulate small objects you touch. By concentrating your chakra at certain points in your body, you can stick to surfaces, and in turn, small objects can stick to you." Jiraiya crouched down to pick up a few tiny leaves off the ground. He moved them to the palm of his hand beforing positioning it to face forward. "As you can see, despite these leaves being in a position to fall to the ground, they stay put. Understood?"

"Yeah."

"In that case I'm off to help Naruto. Good luck." With a casual wave, Jiraiya left Natsumi to her work. He walked back to find Naruto doing push-ups at a rapid pace. "Don't go too fast, kid. It's a warm-up, not the training itself." Naruto jumped off the ground. "I guess. But hey, I've still got plenty of energy!"

"Are you ready for more of yesterday?" Naruto grinned brightly. "You know it!"

Naruto instantly shot towards his sensei at a speed that surprised even Jiraiya. He started with a kick towards Jiraiya's stomach. While the older man blocked it, he immediately brought his leg down and threw two punches in rapid succession. Jiraiya pushed the fists slightly with an open palm before dodging to the left to avoid the now incoming kick. Jiraiya grabbed Naruto's leg and threw him up to the tree branches just like the day before. They continued to spar for hours, with Naruto constantly being forced to haphazardly regain his balance on the branches he was repeatedly thrown to. The breaks his new sensei was enforcing on him were certainly helping, but it certainly wasn't making him less annoyed. Eventually, the blonde was fed up with just heading back down and resuming the brawl.

"You're getting better, brat. Noticeably so." Naruto proceeded to jump out of the clustered leaves and drop towards Jiraiya, positioning his leg to kick at his head. "That being said…" The sage moved to the left and let Naruto fall to the ground before grabbing his arm and his head. "You need to stop using moves that leave you wide open. You were doing this yesterday too." Jiraiya let go of the boy and waited for him to stand up. "You should only do those kinds of moves if you're either one hundred percent sure they're going to hit, or if you have an ally around who you confidently believe can bail you out. In all other situations, keep yourself safe as much as you can."

Naruto frowned. Safe didn't really feel like his style. He moved fast and could hit hard, so he believed he should fight the same way. "But don't we need to take risks?" The blonde retorted. "If we don't then a fight could probably go on forever." Jiraiya was feeling a bit of pride welling up in him. Students who questioned things that didn't quite add up were always his favorites. "Let me rephrase then. The important thing is balancing the risk of any given action. With that kick you just did for example, it might catch an opponent off guard if they expect you to jump down before attacking again, but if they see it coming, they can dodge like I did and do any number of things while you're about to hit the ground. But if, say…" Jiraiya bit his thumb and weaved several hand signs. He crouched and pushed his slightly bloody finger to the ground, causing many black lines and circles to surround the pair. A second later, smoke erupted from the innermost circle.

When the smoke cleared, the toad Jiraiya was standing on the day prior during his dramatic introduction reappeared, while the lines that came into being faded from the terrain. "...you have a companion with you, they can cover you when you go for those risky moves." Naruto reached out to touch the amphibian. To his surprise, he felt its coarse skin. He had thought it was some type of genjutsu, a simple illusion to prove a point. The realization started making his brain turn. "Did you… make this guy?"

Jiraiya couldn't help but laugh a little at the imagination Naruto possessed. "No, I didn't create him. I summoned him." The red-skinned toad opened its mouth and unfurled its tongue, revealing a large scroll. "Back when I was a genin, I signed a summoning contract owned by the toads." Jiraiya gestured to the scroll. "By signing my name in blood, the toad clan allows me to summon its members for assistance, whether that be for battle or for some advice."

"Woah, are they really strong?!" Naruto asked the sage.

"Indeed they are! They were the reason I was granted the title of toad sage back in the second war after all."

"Can I sign a contract too?" the eagerness in his voice spilled out in droves. "Like you said, I can cover myself by having allies around, so summoning toads would be perfect!"

"Hm, well, I won't give it to you right now. A summoning contract is a contract for reason. While the toads may be lax in their standards for the summoner, it would be rude of me to let you sign it as you are now."

"Standards? What kind of standards would toads even have?" Jiraiya's thoughtful expression turned serious. "Firstly you seem to be under a misconception. Summoning animals are intelligent creatures who have their own thoughts and feelings. This guy here is named Gamatsuba. He's practically mute, but he likes getting outside as much as he can, so he's my go-to for whenever I need to perform basic demonstrations." he said, rubbing the top of Gamatsuba's head. The toad responded in kind with a nearly silent croak. "If you want to sign this contract, you need to treat them like you would another human being. That may not be one of their considerations, but it is one of mine."

Naruto looked down with a bit of shame. "Sorry. I didn't know…" The boy quietly apologized. "It's alright. I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to sound like I was blaming you. I'm just trying to get you to understand that they deserve respect as well." Naruto didn't seem to respond much. 'Maybe some motivation then.'

"How about this? When you become a genin I'll make sure to stop back here and see if you're ready to sign it. Once you do sign it, I'll start teaching you techniques that compliment the toads' abilities." Naruto regained his smile even if it wasn't quite back in full force. "Alright, sounds great."

'Not as helpful as I had hoped. Let's see…' It took only seconds for Jiraiya to realize what he might need to say.

"You mentioned a restaurant last night. How would you feel about heading there soon for some lunch?" Now the smile was easily a full grin. "Sure thing geezer!"

Hey people. I know I've gotten reviews about Natsumi being a mary sue and what not. For the most part I think it should be fine in the future of the fic, but either way hopefully its been at least enjoyable to read thus far. The next chapter will be the last pre-part 1 bit of the story so thank you to everyone who's been patient with me. you know the drill with reviews. Thanks a lot.