AN: What I meant by the end of Naruto last chapter was that we're reaching near the time skip where the original Naruto ended.

Marquis: Imma be honest, I actually forgot Kono even had parents. They were so rarely mentioned that I just forgot. Oh well, he's an orphan in this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I would be rich but I'm not. It's all Kishimoto's. Enjoy the chapter!


Naruto and Jiraiya met up like they had planned the day before and started their mission. They travelled at relatively the same pace as a civilian. They had no reason to rush as it might take time to find the person they were searching for. Speaking of the person they were searching for, "who are we looking for ero-sennin?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya took out a photo from his pouch and gave it to Naruto. Naruto took it and looked at the photo. His eyes widened in shock and he looked at a grinning Jiraiya in disbelief. "Tsunade Senju? One of the sannin and your teammate? That one?"

"Yup, the very same Tsunade," Jiraiaya replied, his grin still wide on his face.

"No…How?! She looks so young! She's supposed to be 60 or whatever your ages are," Naruto said, appalled at the photo he was looking at. The Tsunade in the photo looked like she was twenty, maybe thirty.

Jiraiya's grin dropped when Naruto basically called him ancient. "I'm only 50…" he muttered with a dark cloud over his head.

"So, she's going to be the next Hokage?"

"Yup. There's not many that are suited for the position and she's the best choice," Jiraiya replied. "If she comes back, Konoha's medical sector will thrive. She is known to be the best medic in the world and no doubt Konoha would benefit from that. When word spreads that one of the Sannin would be permanently in Konoha, people will be wary of taking advantage of our weakened state. Furthermore, I think the village would be happy to see a Senju again." As Jiraiya explained, he had a genuine smile stretched on his face and he had a faraway gaze in his eyes. It was no secret that he had an infatuation for Tsunade and Naruto could clearly see that maybe it was more than just mere attraction.

Something Jiraiya had said made him curious. 'Tsunade permanently being in Konoha…but why was she even out of Konoha in the first place?' "Ne, ero-sennin. Why was she outside of the village in the first place?" He asked.

Jiraiay snapped out of his stupor and contemplated his answer. "I'm in no place to tell her story but, let's just say that she had terrible experiences in the past and staying in the village was not aiding her mental health in any way," Jiraiya said. Although his tone was as usual, Naruto saw his face look crestfallen before it shifted back to normal. Although it occured in a split second, Naruto managed to see it. He hadn't spent most of his time with a Nara and an A-ranked Jonin and not picked up a few things.

Naruto nodded slowly in acceptance. 'Judging from his expression, someone close to her probably died. It seemed she was heavily affected by it…'


A few hours later

Naruto and Jiraiya stopped at a nearby town, it was said that Tsunade had visited the town a few weeks back. The town was actually only about two hours from Konoha if they went at chunin speed. However, since they walked, it took most of their day. As soon as they entered the town, Jiraiya's perverted side took over and he went to the nearest brothel, leaving Naruto on his own to find a place to stay.

Naruto entered their shared room with a sigh. 'Can't he use his other head for once. At least relax before going for a drink and finding some company…' Naruto placed his bags down and laid down on the floor. This was his third attempt at finding an inn or hotel. Every other time he tried, they were fully booked. Naruto was about to close his eyes to rest when he sensed two large chakra signatures entering the building. He jolted awake and instantly prepared himself. 'Their chakra, one is smaller but much more controlled while the other is wild and…Woah this guy has as much chakra as two regular jonin. It's like he's a jinchuriki.'

Naruto tensed when the two signatures went up to his level and made their way to his room. Naruto created a clone to search for Jiraiya while he prepared himself for the two people who no doubt were looking for him or maybe Jiraiya. They stopped in front of his door and surprisingly, they knocked. He opened the door to stare at two men donning a black coat with red clouds.

"Hello, Naruto-Kun." Said the man who was the smaller of the two. Naruto looked up and saw a pair of sharingan eyes staring at him. 'Fuck.' Was the only thing he thought. He looked at the other man and saw that he was blue and carried a large bandaged sword. 'Oh come on…'

Kisame and Itachi were expecting Naruto to run or fight or do something but what he did was something unexpected. Naruto threw his hands up and turned around entering the room. He started pacing around the room and spared glances at them. "Honestly, fuck my life. For fuck's sake, I just fought Shukaku the sand spirit, you know." He said. "And here comes Itachi Fucking Uchiha, one of Konoha's biggest missing-nin. Oh and don't forget he comes with a partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, the missing-nin from Kiri's Seven Shinobi Swordsmen. Great just fucking great! Argh!" He screamed in frustration.

He calmed himself down through a breathing exercise before he faced the duo again. "Sorry about that. Just had to vent out for a second," he said politely.

The two duo were clearly stunned. Kisame let out a slight laugh, taking off his straw hat before he said, "you're pretty interesting, gaki. Usually when people see us they flee, but you're still here." Kisame then grinned, showing all of his shark-like teeth. "I'll have to cut off your legs to make sure though," he whispered, mostly for Itachi's benefit.

Itachi also took off his straw hat. "Naruto-kun, please come with us," he asked politely. This was weirdly the most calm and courteous kidnapping ever. Naruto then flared his chakra and the floor cracked under its pressure. It was mixed with some of Kurama's chakra.

"Then, why did you put me under a genjutsu?" Naruto asked. He could feel Kurama's chakra riling up. The fox had an eternal hatred towards the sharingan, though who could blame him after what Madara did. "If you placed me under a genjutsu, then it must be something bad. Furthermore, I'm not just going to just follow two missing-nin anywhere."

When Naruto flared his chakra to break the genjutsu, Kisame's sword wiggled in excitement. "Samehada is getting excited over the gaki's chakra. He can taste how potent it is. Let me capture him while you hang back, Itachi-san," Kisame said as he took his sword and rushed Naruto. Kisame was onto Naruto in a blink and was already mid swing when Naruto exploded.

Man, the hotel bill is going to be expensive for that.


The real Naruto had watched the entire interaction as he had henged into a fly and suppressed his chakra as much as possible. As smoke from the explosion cleared, he saw Itachi and Kisame looking unharmed, however, Kisame had his sword held in front of him like a shield. They stood at the edge of a gaping hole. Hopefully, Jiraiya had seen the explosion or his clone managed to get him quickly. Suddenly, Itachi turned his head and immediately stared at Naruto with his red eyes.

'He knows I'm here?' Nobody had ever caught Naruto whenever he was henged. Itachi Uchiha clearly lived up to the reputation he had built. Naruto stopped his jutsu and he smirked. "Can't believe you guys fell for that. Aren't you meant to be S-ranked missing-nin?" Naruto mocked. He enjoyed watching Kisame's face scrunch up in annoyance. He bared his shark-like teeth and clearly did not like being mocked. Itachi kept a blank face and showed no emotions.

One moment Kisame was beside Itachi and another, he was right up in Naruto's face drawing his sword. He swung Samehada down to be met with Naruto's blade. "Oh ho ho, a fellow swordsmen. You really are interesting…" Kisame said with a grin. He pushed against Naruto causing to start skidding backwards.

'Damn…he's really strong," Naruto thought before he used a light step to move out of the way. Samehada crashed into the floor throwing up chunks of broken wood and brick. 'I would've been crushed. I tried putting wind chakra on it but it just disappeared.'

"The sword absorbed your chakra before it could even coat your blade," Kurama provided the explanation.

'So, he can absorb chakra and already has an insane amount of chakra and strength. Damn, he really is made to fight Jinchuriki.'

Kisame was shocked to say the least. He wanted to at least chop off one of the kid's limbs but after Samehada crashed into the floor, he was no longer there. He looked up to see Naruto at the end of the corridor watching them both with his gaze.

Itachi was also surprised by Naruto. With his Sharingan on, he saw what Naruto used and he was impressed. 'He reminds me of Shisui. To use the shunshin like that…' if anyone were to observe closely, they would've seen the edges of Itachi's mouth turn up slightly like the start of a smile.

Kisame recovered from his shock and returned to his place beside Itachi. Slowly, a grin made its way onto his face. 'A jinchuriki swordsman and a very fast one at that. He will make a worthy opponent when he is older.' Kisame couldn't help but be excited at the prospect of fighting an older and much more skilled Naruto with their blades.

"It's been a long time, Sasuke…"


As soon as he heard that Itachi was in the village and looking for Naruto no less, he gave chase. Sasuke knew that Naruto was good but fighting Itachi was ludicrous. Luckily, the people from Ichiraku knew where Naruto had gone and he went full speed ahead.

Naruto had sensed Jiraiya approaching fast but he had also sensed Sasuke in the building. 'What is that idiot doing here? To fight Itachi?' He thought.

"It's been a long time, Sasuke…" Itachi said, his back towards Sasuke. Kisame had turned around to glance at the newcomer, "who?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sasuke who was standing on the other side of the corridor. He could see Sasuke's heavy breathing and how his fingers trembled. Whether in anger or fear, he didn't know. His sharingan was blazing as he glared daggers into the back of Itachi's head. "Sasuke, don't be an idiot! You just got out of the hospital two days ago!" Naruto screamed from the other side of the corridor.

Sasuke knew that. He knew that his body was not in top condition, but he couldn't pass up the chance to try to kill his brother. Sasuke gritted his teeth and a Chidori sparked out on his left arm. "Itachi, I'm going to kill you!" He exclaimed as he rushed towards Itachi.

What Naruto saw next was single-handedly the greatest and quickest beat down ever. Itachi caught the Chidori. He literally grabbed Sasuke's arm like the Chidori was a little tickling toy and slammed Sasuke into the floor, cracking it. His body bounced back up from the impact and Itachi kicked him away towards Naruto. Naruto caught Sasuke's flying body and placed him down gently. Sasuke coughed out blood and held onto his ribs which were probably fractured. 'How strong was Itachi? Yes, Sasuke has yet to fully recover but that was a beatdown…'

"Foolish little brother…" Itachi started as his sharingan stared into Sasuke's. "You cannot defeat me. You lack the power, you lack the anger, the hate, the desire to defeat me. You're weak." Itachi basically spat on his already downed brother.

"Sasuke," Naruto called out as he puffed up his chest and collected chakra in his lungs. " Futon: Daitoppa! " Naruto called out as he sent the ball of wind towards the duo. Sasuke blitzed through hand seals and sent a fireball to combine with the ball of wind. The magnified flames burned the wallpaper off the walls and headed towards the two missing-nin.

Kisame smirked and gathered chakra. " Suiton: Sujinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)! " Kisame spat out a large volume of water which clashed against the combination jutsu. Steam rose from the jutsu cancelling out each other. "Nice try but my water jutsu are second to none," came the voice of Kisame through the steam.

Suddenly, Kisame took this as an opportunity and rushed towards Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto brought up Arashi, ready to block or dodge when smoke burst in front of him. As the smoke cleared, Naruto saw a toad with a forearm guard blocking Samehada.

"You sure took your time, ero-sennin."

Jiraiya entered from a window on Naruto's side of the corridor carrying an unconscious lady on his shoulder. She was the lady Naruto saw earlier when they had first entered the town. She was the one who convinced Jiraiya to enter their bar and enjoy some entertainment. "What do you mean, gaki? My timing was perfect," Jiraiya said as he stood in between the S-ranked duo and the genin.

By now, Sasuke had gotten up on his feet again but he knew that engaging Itachi alone again would be foolish. Naruto and Sasuke were about to do a combo jutsu when Jiraiya stopped them. "Don't move an inch you two." He ordered coldly and the two of them nodded. For the first time, Naruto could tell why Jiraiya was considered an S-rank shinobi. As soon as he entered the fight, his aura changed the atmosphere. He had the confidence and felt that he could take on two missing-nin at the same time. He turned to the duo and pointed a finger at them, "you! don't think the great toad sage could be distracted by a mere woman." And immediately, Naruto's opinion of him went down again.

"But you kinda did…" Naruto muttered under his breath. Jiraiya heard it and Naruto swore he saw Jiraiya's eye twitch.

" Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari (Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind) !" Jiraiya exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the floor and the whole corridor transformed into flesh. Kisame and Itachi were slowly being engulfed by the flesh and the more they moved, the faster they were swallowed. Jiraiya smirked, 'this is the oesophagus of a toad from mount myoboku. There's no escaping.'

"Kisame, we should not fight," Itachi said as he saw his partner ready to attack. "It is not beneficial to fight Jiraiya. At most, we would end up in a stalemate."

Kisame nodded and ran down the corridor with Itachi. However, before he turned around the corner, he gazed back towards Naruto and made eye contact. He grinned at Naruto and disappeared.

When Naruto made eye contact with Kisame, he saw his unspoken challenge: to fight him one day in a battle of blades. Then, they heard an explosion. The konoha-nin rushed to chase after them and when they turned the corner, there was a gaping hole in the wall. Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise, they had just burned through an organ of a fire breathing toad.

The group watched the black flames that surrounded the hole moving in the wind. It was fascinating. They had never seen black flames before. Green, blue, orange yes but black. How hot must a flame burn for it to be black? Naruto saw Jiraiya take a scroll out and was about to seal it but he stopped him.

"Ero-sennin, can I seal it? I want to practise my seal drawing," he said. Jiraiya nodded and Naruto took out his own brush and scroll. After 30 seconds, he finished drawing the seal and sealed the flames. "So how was it?" He asked Jiraiya who was observing.

"The handwriting could be better but it clearly improved from when I first met you. It also needs to be faster but other than that it's good," Jiraiya said with a thumbs up. Jiraiya then turned to Sasuke who was clutching his chest. "Ok here i-" before Jiraiya could finish, a blue sandal met his face. " DYNAMIC ENTRY!! " Was the shout that came after it.

Jiraiya was sent flying into the wall by the kick. "Damnit Gai! What the hell?!" Jiraiya growled as he stood from the dent he made in the wall. He was rubbing his cheek which was red.

Gai's eyes widened in surprise before he became pale from realisation. "I'm so sorry, Jiraiya-sama! I'm so sorry!" Gai frantically apologised apologise as he bowed many times. "I had mistaken you for an enemy. I came here to retrieve Sasuke-kun," he explained as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He sweated a bit at the glare he received from Jiraiya. That kick really stung.

"As I was saying, the Uchiha needs his ribs checked out. He also needs his brain checked out because he clearly is not ok if he ran at a missing-nin alone," Jiraiya said as he fixed Sasuke with a glare. Sasuke hung his head trying his best to escape from Jiraiya's glare. "At least you're alive," Jiraiya said as Sasuke nodded before joining Gai and made their way to Konoha.

Jiraiya watched as Gai and Sasuke disappeared into the distance before turning to Naruto. "We should get out of here before the bill comes," he said as he pointed to the burned walls, the huge hole at the side of the building and the many dents in the wall. "You got the bags?"

"Yup," Naruto said as a clone shunshin beside them with their travelling bags. "You didn't think I would blow up our stuff, did you?"

"You have your dumb moments sometimes. Anyways let's go!"


Outside the town

Jiraiya and Naruto had swiftly escaped from a very large and long hotel bill. They were back on the road towards the next town. "Ne, ero-sennin, why were they after me?" Naruto asked.

"They weren't after you per se, rather they were after your tenant," Jiraiya answered.

"Why are they after the Kyubi?" Naruto asked as his hand unconsciously held his stomach.

"At the moment, I don't know. For now all I know is that there is a group of missing-nin who are working together to capture all of the nine tailed beasts. They are called Akatsuki," Jiraiya said grimly.

"Naruto…" Naruto was called into the mindscape by the call. "We need to be careful. Those guys were leagues above you. I don't like the idea of me and my brethren being collected like toys."

Naruto looked up at the huge fox in front of him and gazed into his eyes. "I know Kurama. I will get stronger and I won't let them take you away from me. If I have the chance to, I will help any of the other tailed beasts. I promise." Kurama matched his gaze before closing his eyes and relaxing without another word. Naruto took this as his cue to leave.

Naruto opened his eyes to see Jiraiya waving his hand in front of his face. "Hey, Gaki. Are you there?" He asked as he continued waving to get Naruto's attention.

"Oh yeah. What's up ero-sennin?" Naruto asked nonchalantly.

"Don't "what's up" me. You just spaced out in the middle of the road without any warning," Jiraiya said.

Naruto shrugged. "I was just talking to the fuzzball," he said as he continued down the road. Jiraiya's brain took a pause for a second before it rebooted back and he realised what Naruto said. All he could do was shake his head. 'This kid can't stop surprising me. He truly is your child Minato, Kushina…' Jiraiya thought as he stared at the back of Naruto's walking form. 'He is a mix of you two but with small differences…'


12 Days after leaving Konoha

Naruto and Jiraiya have been jumping from town to town looking for signs of Tsunade. On their most recent visit to a town, Jiraiya finally found a lead and that Tsunade was spotted in a nearby town a few days ago. The town they were currently bound for was Tanzaku and it was apparently having a festival. With the coming festival, Tanzaku was bound to attract many people, from merchants to travellers and most importantly to Tsunade, more people to gamble against.

During their journey, Naruto had asked Jiraiya for snippets as to what Tsunade was like. He had of course read about her in books but listening from her teammate was different. From what he gathered, Tsunade was an alcoholic and an addicted gambler with enough strength to kill you in one punch. 'Man, all three Sannin really have problems. One's a gambler and has severe alcohol addiction, one is a pervert who writes erotica and another is a paedophile who experiments on people.'

Currently, Naruto and Jiraiya are still two days away from Tanzaku. They had travelled all the way east after encountering Akatsuki where they found the lead on Tsunade. Tanzaku was located slightly North of the Land of Fire. To keep his mind occupied, Naruto had asked Jiraiya to teach him a new jutsu.

Flashback to 10 days ago

"Hey, ero-sennin. Can you teach me a jutsu to learn during our journey?" Naruto asked.

"Tsk, what did I say about the name?"

"It's a term of endearment," Naruto said.

"Term of endearment my ass…" Jiraiya muttered under his breath. He then stopped and thought, 'the jutsu does have three steps. Don't see a problem teaching him.'

Jiraiya then took out balloons from his backpack and filled them up with water. He threw one for Naruto to catch and Naruto looked at him confused. "Ok, watch this," Jiraiya said as he placed his hand forward, palm up. Jiraiya focused for a second before a blue ball of spinning chakra took shape on his palm. Naruto's eyes were sparkling due to the light the chakra was giving off and also due to his amazement and curiosity. Jiraiya then took the ball of chakra and slammed it into a nearby tree. The tree exploded out from its back and there was now a hole in it.

Jiraiya turned back to a wide eyed and jaw dropped Naruto, smirking. "That was the Rasengan , and I'm going to teach it. This was a technique that your father created," Jiraiya said. Naruto's eyes seemed to have sparkled even more at the prospect of learning his father's jutsu. Jiraiya took out another water balloon and placed it on his palm. Naruto watched as the water balloon stretched to its limits due to being poked from multiple angles before it exploded in Jiraiya's hand. "That is the first step to learning the rasengan. Now, you try."

Naruto eagerly took his own water balloon and channelled his chakra to rotate the water within. However, instead of the balloon exploding, it was punctured and the water poured out sadly. "I didn't say it was going to be easy, Gaki," Jiraiya said as he ruffled Naruto's hair.

Flashback end

Naruto had managed to make the water balloon explode after three days of trying. He needed to use his chakra to rotate the water as fast as possible such that it created as much friction on the insides of the balloon as possible. After he was done, Jiraiya gave him a rubber ball which he needed to explode like the water balloons. Unlike the water balloon, there was no water to rotate and it was also much denser than the balloon. He was not using shadow clones to learn the jutsu as he felt that it would be cheating to learn a jutsu his father created with clones. He will persist until he learns this jutsu on his own.

"Ero-sennin, can you show me the rasengan again?" Naruto asked.

"Sure," Jiraiya replied as he gathered chakra and started to form the rasengan in his palm. He held it so that Naruto could see it closely before smashing it into a tree.

Naruto squinted his eyes as he thought about what he just saw. "Hmmm…..I got it!" Naruto exclaimed as he excitedly grabbed the rubber ball and placed it in his palm. He concentrated and gathered his chakra, pushing it into the air within the ball. Instead of rotating it like in the water balloon, he focused on pouring his chakra to a single point. When the chakra accumulates, it will increase in density and overall power. Then, the ball exploded just like the balloon. "YATTA! I did it!" Naruto exclaimed as he jumped around excitedly.

'At the rate he's progressing, I'm not surprised if he learns it by the time we reach Tanzaku. If he does, he will be the fastest learner ever. Minato took three years to make it, while I took a few months to learn it,' Jiraiya thought with a smile as Naruto continued to celebrate. "Good job, Gaki! Now try to combine those two steps and you will have the Rasengan ." Naruto stopped his celebrations and nodded. He immediately got to work to recreate the rasengan.


In Tanzaku Gai

Naruto and Jiraiya stumbled upon destruction as soon as they arrived in Tanzaku. One of Tanzaku's famous landmarks was a castle on a hill overlooking the town. However, currently, part of the castle was reduced to rubble. Part of the wall surrounding the castle had been destroyed. Furthermore, there were holes in some of the neighbouring walls. "Looks like we're not the only ones looking for Tsunade. These holes are a sign of Orochimaru," Jiraiya said grimly. Every time his ex-teammate was mentioned, Naruto realised that Jiraiya had a lot of regret in his voice and face.

'I remember the village walls having similar holes in them when Orochimaru's summons broke through. Not surprising that he would look for Tsunade either, considering how Jiji took his arms away.' Naruto thought as Jiraiya and him went back into the centre of town.

After booking a room in an inn, they left to find some food to eat before retiring for the night. They entered the tavern and it seemed luck was on their side. Jiraiya stopped as soon as he entered. "Tsunade?"

A blonde woman with a diamond on her forehead perked up and turned around in shock, "Jiraiya?! What are you doing here?"