Naruto almost ran to Konoha's gates. While he was reluctant to leave Arashi's side, he was excited to meet his former mentor again. Maybe he would get to train under Jiraiya once more, this time around?

Naruto heard his father saying that Arashi's seal had Jiraiya's signature in it, but Naruto didn't want to believe it. Pervy Sage wasn't a man with mean intentions, why would he hurt Minato's son? Naruto couldn't find any good reason. And he knew his father struggled to believe his mentor was behind Arashi's problems. But it was the only lead they had yet.

Kakashi wasn't late, this time. The man knew how important this mission was to Naruto, and his own sensei as well. Arashi's life depended on it. Their mission scroll was clear. Find Jiraiya, tell him Konoha needed his seal expertise and bring him back. They couldn't mention what exactly the seal was about, and if Jiraiya asked questions, they needed to lie and pretend they didn't know which seal it was. Minato would be the judge if his master was involved or not into making it, but he'd only claim his belief when Jiraiya would be back. And the Hokage trusted his former student to be able to bring Jiraiya home. Kakashi's former Anbu experience also could be of use if Jiraiya was bad-intentioned and tried to run away from them or something.

Naruto noticed his teammates weren't there yet, and clench his teeth. "Come on, Sakura and Sasuke! I want to go now!" Naruto was impatient. Why were they late, if Kakashi, for once, was on time?

"Calm down Naruto. Ten minutes is not going to make a difference. I wish you had your summon contract with the toads, it would have made things a lot easier."

Naruto's eyes grew wide. His father had teached both Naruto and Arashi the basics of Rasengan, with Naruto getting it much quicker due to having learned it in a past life, and his mother had shown them some fuinjutsu. But the Hokage had yet to bring up his contract with the toads. Because Minato didn't know yet he was surrounded by time-travelers, Naruto couldn't really mention it out of the blue either, without revealing his secret. The time-travelers sometimes had a hard time keeping the information secret but had never given in, so Naruto couldn't blow their cover for something as futile as a summoning contract.

Sasuke and Sakura finally joined them and they left Konoha. Knowing the Sannin's perverted tendencies, their goal was to look mostly at the baths of the region and hope someone had seen him recently. Surely, he was known in the whole Land of Fire and someone would point them to the right direction.

As they were walking from village to village, trying to follow people's indication that most of the time was contradictory, making them take guesses, Naruto started losing hope. At least, he still had a way to know how his brother was doing, and one night when they were in an Inn, Naruto started to do some meditation, leading him to the mindscape he shared with the Nine-tail fox.

"Kurama, how is Arashi?"

"I can hear your parents talking from time to time. If they knew how the deviation of the seal was made, they'd cut me out of Arashi, but it's too risky and chances are that Arashi wouldn't make it alive if i'm extracted away from him. What I know is that he's somewhat stable, but I tend to avoid contacting him. I understand my attempts at saving him were in vain and caused him more problems, so I keep my energy for you instead. I only contact Arashi once everyday to know how he's doing in case you ask me. I know how worried you are. I won't tell him you haven't found Jiraiya yet, unless there's news since yesterday?"

"No, still nothing."

"Arashi has not lost hope that you'll find him. We trust your team to find Jiraiya, we have faith in you."

Naruto smiled, but it wasn't a big one. It warmed his heart that his family believed in him, even if it wasn't much. But he was so scared of letting his brother down. Of failing his mission. Arashi was still stable, that's what mattered for now.

"Hey, do you know when the seal got messed up? Could Jiraiya really have done that?"

"I don't love Pervy Sage, but I'm sure he's not behind. While he knows about both your seals because he's close to your father, it's not Jiraiya's thing to mess up with loved ones. Whoever did this was subtle enough, I didn't notice it until Arashi was admitted to the hospital with a chakra exhaustion. When you came here to ask me how I let him get this bad. I wish I knew, Naruto."

Kurama looked guilty. Naruto knew he meant well, and regretted making things worse the other week when Arashi almost died from internal bleeding. Naruto tried to cheer Kurama on a bit, now. It wasn't his fault. He tried what he thought was best at the time, they didn't know the seal had been fucked up.

The next day, they left for another village. When they ate in the morning, a woman in the same restaurant claimed to have seen Jiraiya the day before. Her description of the man fitted, and for the first time in weeks, hope filled Naruto's chest. They ate as fast as they could, leaving money on the table without waiting for the exact price, and rushed out.

The next village felt familiar to Naruto. He had been here before, in his other life. He couldn't remember if it was with Kakashi or Jiraiya. Sasuke let out a grin.

"I'm pretty sure that's the Inn that Jiraiya destroyed when we fought against Itachi and Kisame."

Naruto's eyes grew wide. Of course. His memories came back to him. He was quite convinced of where the Sannin was now. They rushed in that direction, asking some ladies if they had seen the man today.

"He tried to spy on me and my friend while we were in the baths. I tried to report him, but the people at the reception didn't care. If you see him, can you beat him up?"

Naruto wanted to laugh. He couldn't count the number of times he was in trouble because of Jiraiya's habit of peeping. But that woman would slap him if he dared to laugh.

"Which direction is it?" Kakashi asked.

The lady pointed North, and the group of genins followed that direction. They tried to go around the baths. Sure enough, Jiraiya was spying on the women's section. Sakura's immediate face was disgust, and she put her arms in front of her breast. Naruto started laughing. Sakura was fully dressed and Jiraiya wasn't a Hyuuga! But it was probably enough for his friend to imagine the old Pervert watching her. Naruto snorted. There was nothing to see on Sakura, with her flat chest.

"Jiraiya, we need to talk with you," Kakashi said.

The man was clearly surprised by someone calling him by his name, but kept on watching by the little hole in the wall.

"You're disturbing my research, it's better be…" Jiraiya turned his head and suddenly had a surprised face. "Naruto and Kakashi! What brings you here?"

"Minato sensei sent us," Kakashi said. He rarely addressed the Hokage by the title. To Naruto's knowledge, it didn't bother his father when it was an informal matter. But when clan heads were around, it annoyed the Hokage a little bit.

"Why? I haven't been in Konoha in months. Has something happened? Is the village suddenly in trouble and you want me back?" Jiraiya seemed a little annoyed.

"My parents have trouble with a seal that was brought up to them, and they wanted your help to understand it," Naruto said. He wanted to bring up that it was to save Arashi's life, but if Jiraiya knew something about it, it could be dangerous territory to mention that.

"Kushina and Minato are not able to solve it? Oh, I guess I can visit the village, then. If your father agrees and you're off mission, maybe I could train you and Arashi for a week. Who is Arashi's sensei?"

"Yamato. But Arashi might not be able to train. He's injured right now," Naruto said. He hadn't said anything regarding the seal, and Arashi could have been injured on any mission or training, so the lie wasn't much of a big deal.

Naruto was happy when the Sannin followed them to Konoha without looking slightly suspicious. He seemed happy to visit home. Last time Naruto had seen him visit his father, Naruto was still at the academy.

A few days later, they were back in Konoha. They sent Jiraiya himself to the Hokage's tower to report to Minato. Just showing up his face there meant that Team 7 succeeded in their mission, so the genins didn't bother going. Kakashi was enough to report. It's not like they had much to write in their report scroll. It was an easy C-rank, and if it wasn't that they left the village, it could have been D-ranked. They hadn't even met anything dangerous on their way to Jiraiya!