Jiraiya bounded through the trees, making his way to Naruto's training center. He himself was meditating earlier, practicing his own techniques. As he was sensing the chakra around him, he felt it being sucked into this area. "Could he have got it?" Jiraiya finally made it, seeing Naruto and the Sage Toad sitting across from each other. "Did he get it!?" Jiraiya said excitedly.

"Shh!" The toad hushed him. "He's learned to sense it. Now he needs to absorb it." Jiraiya took the opportunity to sit next to his old teacher.

The two watched Naruto sit. Except for his quirking eyebrow, Naruto was completely still. He was being careful not to let himself get too frustrated, or he would have to start the process all over again. Suddenly, he felt a sudden rush of energy. "This must be it!" Immediately, Naruto started bringing more in. And then he felt a sudden surge of pain. It caused Naruto to break his concentration, but the influx of energy continued. "What the-!?" Naruto felt his left cheek start to expand, his eye socket changed shape, and he felt his muscles contort. "Ah-AH!" Naruto shouted as the pain continued.

"Old man!" Jiraiya shouted.

"I'm on it!" The Sage Toad picked up his cane, and as fast as any ninja, whacked Naruto on the head. The jinchuriki fell back like a ragdoll as he practically saw stars floating around his head.

"Ohhh…" Naruto got up, rubbing his head. As he cleared the cobwebs out of his head, he felt himself. He was certainly back to normal now! "Wha-what happened?"

"I have good news and bad news." The toad said. "The good news is that you have learned to draw in the natural chakra. The bad news, and this is frequent among new practitioners, you drew in too much."

Naruto blinked. "You can have too much?"

"In the case of natural chakra, yes. Your own chakra will change with time, depending on age and physical health. Even taking into account Kyuubi inside of you, your chakra is still finite. The chakra in nature, however, is vast. To mere mortals like us, it is practically infinite."

"I get that." Naruto said. "But why was I changing?"

"The natural chakra seems to have an unusual side effect. Those who take it in begin to turn into frogs."

Naruto nodded, then his eyes widened. "Wait…you mean you were…human?"

The toad nodded, looking sad. "A long time ago. Me and my family sought to unlock the secrets of chakra, and meditated on it for weeks. We found we could sense the chakra of the planet, and tapped into it." The toad lifted his cane. "But we couldn't control the flow, and here I am, as I am today." The toad looked away. "My wife and I are the lucky ones."

Naruto blinked. "How?"

The toad didn't look at him, instead placing his cane on the ground. "Let me show you something." The toad hopped away, leaping a great distance that contradicted his size. Naruto followed after the best he could.

They came upon a cave on the adjacent mountainside. "Inside." The toad ordered his apprentice, who obeyed. Surprisingly, it seemed there was enough light inside the cave for him to see. And inside were toad statues.

They came in different shapes and sizes, but they were all uniformly amphibian. And all were sculpted like they were meditating. "Who are they?" Naruto asked, at first figuring they were religious totems.

"My family."

Naruto nearly choked. "Your what now!?"

The sage sighed. "The technique of drawing chakra turned us into amphibians. However, my wife and I were the only ones who were able to stop it in time, at least to live. The others couldn't cut the connection, and in addition to their new forms, they petrified."

Naruto gulped. "C-couldn't you reverse this?"

"This isn't like your silly stories, boy!" The sage yelled, smacking him over the head with his cane. "Turning into stone is fatal! Your heart and brain are destroyed in the process! Even if I could turn them back to flesh again…." The frog sighed again, and turned away. "…they would just be lifeless lumps of meat."

As Naruto looked at the statues, and then at him, he came to a horrible realization. They were alone. A feeling he had identified with his whole life. "I'm sorry." Naruto said. "That was rude of me."

"Well, you should be!" The toad huffed. After a moment, he sighed. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. This…this is just a sensitive topic for me."

"I don't blame you." Naruto agreed. Looking at the statues, Naruto then said "If you don't mind me asking, what were you all trying to do anyway? When you got the natural chakra, I mean?"

The toad chuckled. "Seeking enlightenment, really." The toad answered. "Mankind was at war on all fronts, and we thought helping others attain power on their own would bring about peace. We were skilled in manipulating our chakra, but felt that tapping into the chakra of the world would sate the dark side of man." The Sage then nodded his head. "What fools we were."

"And you were the only ones who tried?"

"Yes. My brothers couldn't stop it…." The sage rubbed his webbed hand across a statue. "…And my wife and I can never go back to being human again. In time, I communed with all the animals, eventually making them sentient and able to make contracts with the humans."

"So that's where summons come from." Naruto said. "You've been around a long time, haven't you?" he asked in both horror and awe.

"For a millennia." The toad answered. "And I've seen a lot of things…" Breathing, he turned back to Naruto. "Now you know the risk. Are you prepared?"

Naruto only smirked. "What choice do I have, remember?" The sage smiled.

"Good." Hopping towards the opening, he said "I think we had enough for today. Take the rest of the day to calm down; we'll start again in the morning."

Naruto leaned against a tree, watching the sunset across the horizon. "Pretty heavy stuff, huh?"

Naruto looked above to see Jiraiya sitting on the branch behind him. "Yeah. Heavy." Naruto agreed. "How do they live like that?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "They have each other; for some, that's enough."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah…I can relate." Looking back at the horizon, he said "It's beautiful."

"Definitely one of the highlights of being here." The sanin agreed.

Naruto just smiled. "Sakura would like it here."

The next day, the training began anew. "At present, you know how to draw the chakra in." the sage said. "Now, here comes the hard part: controlling the flow." Naruto nodded. "You remember what it felt like. You need to try to find the point where you need to cut it off before the flow consumes you."

Naruto groaned. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"

"And it's going to take time to narrow down." The toad added. "Are you ready to begin?"

Naruto, nodded, and began. Drawing in the chakra was much easier now, having done it once before. However, the flow came in faster, and his transformation began once again. "AH…AH…!" Naruto shouted in pain. "A WIVVLE HELQ TERE!" he yelled, his bloated mouth making it impossible to say exactly what he meant to. His master rushed in and whacked him with the cane again. "OW!" Naruto fell on his back, having returned to normal. With the exception of his eyes: they resembled spirals more than anything. That gave the sage cause to worry for a moment.

"The best way to cut it off, is to imagine the cane hitting you instead of letting me actually hit you!"

"Easy for you to say…" Naruto groaned.

The weeks passed, and it seemed that Naruto wasn't making much progress, as the bumps on his head could attest. There were several days where they had to end the training early, as Naruto's frustration was starting to get the better of him again.

During this time, Jiraiya decided to write again. Ever since officially hooking up with Tsunade, he stopped publishing new material. Once he got with the woman he loved for decades, there just didn't seem to be much point in writing smut (plus Tsunade would kill him if she caught him writing those stories again). "What could I write about instead?" Jiraiya thought as he played with the pencil in his hand, getting ready to write down his random thoughts, hoping he could make a story out of them.

Looking down from the tree, he saw Naruto walk across the forest floor, hands in his pockets. "Wonder what he's up to?" Jiraiya jumped down from his tree as he followed him down the path. Naruto was just standing around in the middle of the forest. Sighing, the Toad Sage asked "Another bad day?"

"Yeah, but that's not why I'm here." Naruto answered.

"Then why?"

"Do you think this would be a good place for a cabin?" Naruto asked out of nowhere.

Jiraiya's eyes blinked. "What?"

"A cabin; I'm thinking of building one."

"We've got the old man's house." Jiraiya said, a bit confused.

"I know, but I'm talking about something I could live in on my own." Naruto answered. "Well, me AND Sakura." Jiraiya's eyes widened in realization. Naruto, suddenly becoming more cheerful, turned around and walked past him. Pushing past the leaves, he shielded his eyes with his palm. "There's a nice view of the valley from here." Naruto answered. He stomped his foot on the ground. "Ground seems to be pretty solid, should be fine to lie on." Naruto continued on.

"Hold up, Naruto!" Jiraiya said, holding up his hand. "Before you do anything, you need to ask the old man first! These lands are considered sacred! You can't just go about changing things on a whim without his permission!"

"I think that's a great idea!" The old sage exclaimed upon hearing about Naruto's project over dinner later that evening.

Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise, while Naruto smiled with glee. "Thanks!" he exclaimed, putting his hands together. Naruto went on with a normal a conversation with the toads, while Jiraiya just ate in silence as he tuned out. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on, with his old teacher agreeing to this.

As Naruto went upstairs to turn in, Jiraiya and the sage remained near the fireplace. "Hey, what's the deal?" Jiraiya asked once he faintly heard Naruto's snores.

"What do you mean? I think it's good to give him something to do while he's banished!" the sage exclaimed.

"But won't this…you know…" Jiraiya twiddled his fingers as he searched for the right words. "…distract him?"

The toad chuckled. "That's the point. Though he has managed it excellently, the young man is still in pain. If his mind keeps wandering back to how much he misses his family, we will never make any progress. He needs something to give him hope until he masters the training."

Jiraiya nodded, thinking back to his own training. "Do you think that's why I never mastered it?"

"Perhaps." The toad answered reluctantly. "If that's true, then I'm truly sorry, my boy. Finding out what to do to help Naruto was outside what I prepared for. I only wish I had chosen to be that inventive with you in the past." After a moment, he looked up to him. "You know, if you'd like, you can join us- "

"It's alright." Jiraiya held up his hand. "Back when I sought you out, I was angry. Tsunade…I thought Tsunade wasn't into me, and I guess I just wanted to get away." Slowly, he began to smile as he recalled the last couple of years. "Now that we're finally together, I just don't have that kind of motivation any more. I guess I just went as far as I was meant to go."

The sage looked at him in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Jiraiya said. "I'm sure. Anything I could do to help?"

"You two traveled together once, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Then it's time you two started treating this like another retreat." The toad sage answered, tapping his cane.

After another botched training day, Naruto went on to begin building his cabin. Naruto took a handmade hatchet, and began hacking at a large but dead tree. It was definitely therapeutic to release his anger. "Hey, if you want to do it right, you need to hold it more level." Naruto turned around to see Jiraiya behind him. "You will want the logs to be as symmetrical as possible, and if you get them exactly as you want them, you'll use less trees." Naruto smiled, and leveled out his hatchet. "That's it." Jiraiya nodded approvingly.

Taking a hatchet out of a scroll, he walked over to another tree he knew the sage wouldn't mind being taken down. "If you want this to be a vacation home, we also need to consider things like heating and plumbing. You don't want to bring Sakura or the kids to home where they'll be shivering all day. Or have to go outside to do their business."

Naruto smiled slightly. "You know, you don't have to help- "

"I want to." Jiraiya answered. "And for the record, you'll need me to get supplies for the cabin. "

"I thought- "

"YOU are banished." Jiraiya corrected him. "I can go as I please. The village only needs me to verify your mastery of the arts." Naruto nodded. "You may want to step back." Jiraiya gestured with a hand wave.

"What?" Suddenly, the tree Naruto was chopping gave off a loud crack and began to bend forward. "Ack!" Naruto hastily drew his foot back as the tree fell over where it was a moment before.

More time had passed, with Naruto balancing his routine between his training and his pet project. Once again, he found himself sitting from across the sage. He brought the chakra in, and felt the changes occur. "Okay, that should be-" Naruto tried, but he couldn't cut it off. He felt his body contort and the pain begin.

"Hold on." The old toad leaped towards him and whacked him in the face again. Naruto fell over, cured of his impending condition. The sage sighed as he watched the young man clutch his nose. "I think that will do for today-"

"NO!" Naruto yelled as he helped himself up. The sage's eyes widened. He had seen Naruto get frustrated before, but this was different. Something truly snapped inside him. "I don't know how long it's been, but I've been at this part long enough! I know what I have to do, but I can't do it on my own! I need another perspective!" he complained.

"I'm here." The toad reminded him. "What do you think has been keeping you from turning into stone?"

"You can see, but you can't feel!" Naruto protested. "It's like I need someone with a body link to me-" Naruto stopped himself as his eyes widened. "Of course!" He suddenly smiled as he smacked his palm. "I got it!" Naruto put his hands together in his trade-mark sign. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Another Naruto appeared next to him.

"Kage Bushin?" the toad asked. He rubbed his chin in skepticism. "You can both draw in the chakra, but…"

"That's not it." One of them said. "I'll draw in the chakra…"

"…And I'm going to see where he should cut it off."

The toad was still uncertain about this. "Even if you succeed, this will mean you will need to have a partner to help you. Not very efficient…"

"Not to worry." One of them said. "Once I dispel him, his memories are mine, and then I will know what to do."

"You're sure about this?" the toad asked.

"It's how I created my Rasenshuriken." Naruto answered confidently. The two took their meditative positions, closing their eyes.

Within a few minutes, the clone on the right said "Watch it! It's about to come in fast!" Soon, they both began to transform. "Okay! Cut it off…now!" The transformation finally halted. Both stood, their forms undergoing a similar mutation as Jiraiya. Their skin was covered in warts, their eyes were frog-like, and their fingers merged together. The second stage was complete.

As the clone dispelled, the sage began to laugh. "You've done it again!"

Naruto looked at his now three-fingered hands. He quietly walked over to a pond, staring at his reflection. Frowning, he said "I'm not as thrilled as I think I should be."

"Neither was Jiraiya, but he learned to accept it in time. Of course, this was where he stopped. If you want to go home, you must take it further."

Naruto then jumped straight up; he took off so fast it looked like he was flying. Landing on a cliff, he dug his hands into the mountainside. They went through without any apparent damage, the rock feeling more like thick paper machete. "Incredible! I wonder if this is what Sakura-chan feels when she uses that monstrous strength of hers?" He pulled, and a whole slab came off. The rock must have weighed tons, and although he struggled a bit, he still managed to lift it over his head without straining himself too much. "Amazing!" Naruto exclaimed. Suddenly, the rock under his feet gave way and Naruto faced gravity. "AHHH!"

The toad sage ducked for cover as the boulder came crashing down on their meditating area. After a moment, he came out sighing. "Yes, the senjutsu techniques enhance your power, but you cannot use it carelessly."

Naruto, back to normal, crawled out the rubble. "Ow…" Feeling down his body, he realized he was okay. "Hey, I'm not hurt…"

"The Sage Mode enhances your musculature, which also makes you impervious to injury." Helping him out, the sage continued. "However, it is only temporary."

"How long?" Naruto asked.

"It varies depending on the person." The sage answered. "Sometimes as little as 30 seconds. At most…maybe 5 minutes."

Naruto sighed. "Doesn't sound useful for all that trouble."

"On the contrary, this is very useful for battle. Normally, you would use this to END a fight, not prolong it. And if for some reason the enemy is really that powerful, this will enhance your other jutsus as well. It's not WHAT you use, it's HOW you use it."

Naruto mumbled as he patted the dust on his clothes down. "So, what's next?"

"To truly master senjutsu, you must complete the transformation. That means more meditation, and learning the frog katas."

Naruto sighed. "Well, it's progress…" "When do we begin?"