"Do you think Gaara is our friend yet?" Fuu asks. She and Naruto are sitting on the banks of the stream that runs through Training Ground 3. They are taking a break from some impromptu sparring and are kicking their hot feet in the water.
"I don't know," Naruto says carefully. He feels like maybe they have to hang out with Gaara before they can call themselves his friends, and that definitely hasn't happened. "He didn't look very happy to see us this morning."
They had seen Gaara on their way to the training ground. They'd both waved at him. He hadn't waved back.
But Naruto thinks that's okay. Gaara isn't the type to wave.
"But he didn't look as creepy as usual either," Fuu counters.
She has a point. Then they'd asked if he wanted to train with them, and the look Gaara gave them after they invited him was almost one of surprise. Naruto thinks Gaara's eyes might have widened the tiniest bit.
Gaara's siblings, though, were very clearly shocked by Naruto and Fuu's invitation.
"No wonder he's weird!" Fuu suddenly bursts. "If I had a family who thought I was crazy and scary, I'd be evil too!"
There are tears in Fuu's eyes, and her voice hitches. Naruto is confused why at first. He has never seen her cry. But even in all their months together, they never talked about personal stuff.
"Fuu, you don't have a secret family, do you?"
"No, you dummy," she swats at Naruto's arm and gives him a halfhearted, wobbly smile. "But when I dream about having a mom and a dad and siblings, I imagine that they like me. What if they were like Gaara's family and they didn't?"
"Shibuki likes you though! I think that's proof that the rest of your family would like you too, ttebayo!"
Naruto hoped that the energetic words would make Fuu happier, but instead she gets even smaller and quieter. "Shibuki tells me that my dad died in the war and my mom died in childbirth, but sometimes I wonder if maybe they left me."
"Why would they do that?"
"Who would want a jinchuuriki as a kid?"
"Plenty of people! Gaara has a family—"
"Who hates him."
"And I had my baa-chan, and I'm positive that she died and didn't just leave me."
"Is she even your real family though? What if she's like Shibuki, and she's taking care of you because your parents didn't want a jinchuuriki kid?"
Naruto is about to squawk in indignation, but something about her words makes him hesitate. He had never really wondered where his parents were. Sure, he'd asked a few times over the years why other kids in the village had a mom and a dad and he didn't. But it had never really bothered him much. He'd had baa-chan and Tobi-nii who loved him. He didn't need parents! But he had always assumed that baa-chan was his real grandma. What if she wasn't though? Did it matter? She had definitely loved him a whole lot!
"Well then at least someone loved me even though I'm a jinchuuriki. Just like Shibuki loves you!"
"He has to though! I'm the village's most important asset," Fuu argues, taking on an imitation of Shibuki's voice. But then she suddenly gets quiet. "Plus, he's always so busy, it's like I don't have any family at all."
"And that's why you have me!" Naruto is getting desperate to make her happy again. A sad Fuu isn't really Fuu. She was meant to laugh and smile! "We're family now. And we'll be Gaara's family too! Us jinchuuriki gotta take care of each other, ttebayo!"
He is rewarded by a weak smile through the tears.
"Ready to train some more?" Naruto asks, jumping up and reaching a hand out to help her up. "We gotta get real strong if we wanna kick Kankuro and Temuri's butts and give Gaara the family he deserves!"
Fuu gives a shaky laugh, "I can already kick that loser Kankuro's butt. I'll just get stronger so I can beat him into the ground even harder!"
"I can help you with that!" a voice booms.
The genin jump. They hadn't realized anyone was nearby! But somehow Jiriaya is just feet away, towering over their forms with a smug grin across his face.
"Hey! Eavesdropping isn't nice!" Naruto cries. "How did you find us?"
"I've known where you were this whole time, brat. The only reason you haven't seen me is because I've let you not see me."
"Liar." Naruto sticks his tongue out at Jiraiya who sighs in exasperation, swiping his hand down his face. But he doesn't leave. "Now listen here, brat. When I decide I want to train someone, I'm going to train them, got it? I'm not going to have a student of mine embarrassing me in the final round of the Chuunin exams." When Naruto doesn't say anything in response, Jiraiya continues much more softly than before. "And if you don't want to sign the Toad Contract, I won't make you sign it. I would like you to, though. There's a lot I could teach you if you had the same skills as I do. Just think on it."
It doesn't seem like the old guy is lying, but Naruto is still suspicious. So he asks, "If I don't sign the contract what are you gonna teach me?"
"Oh boy, I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve! Don't you worry, there's a lot we can do. You're already quite good at using seals in battle, but if we put our heads together, two geniuses, we can make you unstoppable. You know, my other student, Minato, the one that you saw on the Toad Contract, he also knows a lot about seals, and he is the very best at using them in battle."
Naruto isn't quite convinced, even if he does like the challenge of becoming the best student Jiraiya's ever had.
" I'll even train your friend here. See, I have a vested interest in seeing that Suna team get their butts kicked."
Fuu seems to light up at the idea of such a famous ninja teaching her how to beat Kankuro, "Yes! Train us!" she cries, jumping at Jiraiya and latching onto his arm. She looks up at him with glittering eyes, and as Jiriaya looks down at her, Naruto can see a flash of uncertainty on his face.
Naruto grins mischievously and harnesses his boundless energy. If Jiriaya is even a little worried about handling them, he's gonna make this hell for him! "Yes!" He shouts pumping his fist in the air. "Me and Fuu are gonna get super strong! You know, Ero-sennin, Fuu's gonna save the world with me, so you better be ready! We're gonna surpass that lame student of yours!"
"Bring it, brat. If either of you can lay a punch on me, I'll teach you a C-rank wind release jutsu."
Neither manage to land a punch, but in the end, covered in paint and glitter and debased with every insult imaginable, Jiriaya declares that his soul was punched. He teaches them Wind Release: Gale Palm, and though Naruto and Fuu don't master it right away, Jiraiya promises to continue working with them.
Over the next week or so, they work on establishing a routine and a level of trust. Fuu occasionally joins their training, and though her presence makes Naruto more comfortable, Jiraiya could do without. The two of them are hellions together. Every burst of energy one has, the other latches onto it and amplifies it. Laughing fits double in length because they start laughing at each other laughing. Jokes at Jiraiya's expense become so much more demoralizing as the two try to one up each other. Jiriaya has never felt old, but he's starting to second guess that now.
He is also starting to wonder if Shibuki has some sort of plans up his sleeve to pawn one of them off on Konoha.
No self-respecting village leader would put up with both of these two indefinitely.
But it's all worth it because Naruto begins to trust him again, and that trust grows to the point where Naruto is even more comfortable than he was before Jiraiya asked him to sign the summoning contract. When it's just the two of them, they goof around and fight like an old couple, and Jiraiya has to concede that he is enjoying himself greatly.
He'd never admit to anyone else that he loved being a teacher. The years that he trained Minato were some of the best in his life. But Minato was a sweet kid. He was quiet, thoughtful, smart, and brutally determined. He was so regimented in his training that sometimes Jiraiya forgot that it was his job to teach the brat.
Naruto, on the other hand, is a whirlwind in all the ways Minato wasn't. He is brash and rushes headlong into things without thinking. He's goofy and exhausts Jiraiya to no end, but Jiriaya likes that he can mess with the brat as much as the brat messes with him. And he can't help but be proud at how quickly Naruto picks things up when he wants to. And with the exam less than a week away, the kid really wants to.
He's slated to fight Sai first, and knowing that he'll be fighting one of the teammates he helped in the woods makes Naruto very excited. Somehow he's both determined to pummel his opponent into the ground while also approaching the spar like a fun bonding activity.
But with the exam less than a week away, Jiraiya is also pressed for time about Sasuke. They need to remove the seal before Naruto leaves, so on a day, when Naruto has been particularly high energy, Jiraiya approaches the subject. He hates to do it and potentially ruin such a good day, but he's a shinobi, and his Hokage gave him a mission.
"Naruto, I've got a favor to ask."
Naruto looks up at him with big, blue eyes. The two of them have been resting after an intense spar, and Naruto is sucking on a lollipop that Jiraiya gave him. His lips are stained red, and one cheek bulges. The stick poking from his mouth moves back and forth as his tongue plays with it. Jiraiya can't help but grin at the sight.
"It's about that kid, Sasuke. He received a curse mark on his neck in the Forest of Death. You remember him?"
Naruto nods.
"You did a fantastic job containing that seal."
Naruto nods again.
"But it could still be a danger to him, so we need to remove it. We can't do that without your help, though. The Hokage can remove the curse mark, but we need you to remove your seal."
As expected, Naruto's eyes narrow in suspicion. "This isn't some trick, is it?"
"I swear it's not,"Jiraiya says. "Your form of sealwork is one that no one in this village fully understands, so we can't undo your work without you."
Naruto is silent for a moment as he considers Jiraiya's request, and after an abnormally long amount of time in which Naruto is quiet—something Jiraiya has found is not normal at all—Naruto says, "I'll do it."
Naruto hasn't seen the Hokage since that day at Ichiraku Ramen, and he's liked it that way. He hopes that means that the Hokage probably lost interest in Naruto and that this meeting really is just because Sasuke needs his help.
Still, when he and Jiraiya step into the Hokage tower, Naruto immediately feels stifled. This is where the Hokage works, and even though Naruto knows he's about to see the guy, he can't help but worry that the village leader is already watching from the shadows.
Jiraiya leads him down along a staircase and into a room with fluorescent lights that is empty except for a single chair sitting in the middle. There are already three people in the room: Sasuke, a lanky man, and the Hokage. Naruto eyes each of them in turn, and they each inspect him back. Sasuke is standing near the Hokage. He is clearly interested in Naruto, but he is trying to cover that and his fear with an air of nonchalance. The lanky man seems unconcerned with Naruto's arrival. He leans against the wall with a bored expression in his one eye. The Hokage, on the other hand, almost seems to melt when he sees Naruto. He gives Naruto a soft smile with warm eyes.
"Thank you for agreeing to help us, Naruto," he says. The warmth has even seeped into his voice. Naruto won't fall for this nice act. "I'm sure Jiraiya has told you why we need your help. For Sasuke's safety and the safety of our village, we would like to ask you to remove the seal that you so cleverly placed on him."
Naruto doesn't respond, and he notices that the Hokage is careful to keep his distance as he pushes Sasuke away to sit in the chair that has been placed in the middle of the room. Naruto approaches Sasuke warily, occasionally glancing back at Jiraiya, who has gone to stand beside the Hokage like they're friends or something.
Naruto reexamines the seal he made spur of the moment weeks ago. It's familiar yet unfamiliar. The basis of the seal is one that he's used in countless seals over the years, but the individual pieces are almost like new to him, and he needs to remember what they were for.
It's boring work, though, so as he studies the seal he chats with Sasuke
"You know, you're gonna be fighting my best friend in the finals. I hope you're ready to get your butt kicked, ttebayo."
Sasuke grunts, clearly a sound of disbelief, so Naruto continues, "She's a super powerful ninja, ttebayo. I can't tell you about any of her cool powers since that would make the fight unfair, but I can tell you about when we pranked that bastard over there." He points towards Jiraiaya, and even without looking, he knows that Jiraiya is scowling at him. He then launches into a play-by-play of how the two of them managed to paint Jiraiya purple. He doesn't give any details on Fuu's abilities, but he makes sure Sasuke knows what an impressive feat it was.
Once he figures out the components of the seal, he needs to develop the counter seal. Naruto has never removed a seal from a person before, but it can't be that hard, right? Baa-chan had made him remove basically the same seal from above Old Man Kuri's bed or else the old grump never would have been able to sleep again. Naruto almost giggles at the thought. It was such a good prank!
But now, the memories of what he did to remove it come flooding back to him, so he pulls out a scroll and gets to work."
"What about you?" he asks Sasuke as he works. "Your teammates seemed pretty cool."
Sasuke grunts and shrugs. "They're fine. Sai is weird and Sakura is overbearing, but we work well together I guess."
"That Sai guy had some sort of jutsu where he turned his drawings into animals, right?"
"Yeah, it's his signature move."
"It was super cool during the prelims. How many can he make at once?"
Sasuke shrugs, "I dunno. As many as he has chakra for."
"Does he have a lot of chakra?"
"I've got more," the boy brags. "He—" Sasuke's body tenses up in a sudden moment of realization, and he turns to Naruto looking suspicious. "Who are you fighting in the exams?"
Naruto just snickers and places his hands behind his head with a cheeky grin. Sasuke looks away and pouts, pursing his lips and filling his cheeks slightly with air. Naruto thinks it makes him look like a little kid, which is funny since he tries so hard to look cool.
Still snickering, Naruto turns his focus to the counter seal. He just has to get the opposite elements in there, the right amount of chakra, and….there!
"All done!" He announces, and he doesn't let himself wonder if he did it right. Second guessing is for weak ninjas!
When he places it on Sasuke's skin, carefully arranging it over the previous seal, there is a flash of light. Sasuke screams, but the seal is removed entirely.
Which means the cursed chakra is flooding through Sasuke's system again.
The Hokage rushes over as Sasuke fights off the malicious chakra. Somehow in that intense moment, the Hokage manages to begin his own work. He has already drawn up a seal, and he just needs to adapt it to Sasuke's skin and the current moment.
Still, in the midst of it all he manages to say to Naruto, "Thank you, Naruto, I can take over from here."
Naruto can feel the sincerity in that voice even as he scurries to Jiraiya's side and the two of them watch as the Hokage fights against the curse mark.
Eventually, silence falls. Sasuke slumps in his chair in exhaustion, and the Hokage himself steps back to lean against the wall and catch his breath. Still, he manages to send the others in the room a wan smile, "It's gone. Thank you for your help."
He's thanking all of them, but his warm eyes are on Naruto who shivers. Not from fear but from something else stirring in his gut.
"The brat did better than you," Kakashi muses. He has just returned home from taking a sleeping Sasuke back to the Uchiha compound. He joins Minato at the kitchen table after pouring himself a cup of tea.
Jiraiya grunts from his relaxed position against the refrigerator. "I'll say. The kid wasn't even tired afterwards. He wouldn't shut up the whole way back to his inn."
Once again, Minato shoves down the jealousy that Jiraiya got to walk Naruto home. All Minato got to do was file a report and flash home by himself. He was too exhausted to even think about working any more. "He did do very well. I was impressed by how quickly he worked. And that he could mess with Sasuke while he did it."
Jiraiya chuckles. "I should have expected that. The brat's a menace."
"Like Kushina was."
After weeks of separation, he had nearly forgotten the impression that Naruto gives. His unwavering confidence and cheekiness fill a room with such energy. Being near him makes Minato feel whole in a way he hasn't since Kushina left. That certainty that Naruto is her child solidifies once again.
"Sensei, did you ever consider that Naruto might be your son too? Not just Kushina's?"
Jiraiya had mentioned it long ago when Minato had asked him to train Naruto. Minato had shooed the idea away then, and Jiraiya hasn't brought it up since. He had assumed that it was because after meeting Naruto, Jiraiya realized that there was no way Minato could be his father.
Bolstered by this obvious interpretation, Minato explains that Kushina would never hide his child from him. Yet, Kakashi shakes his head and responds, "You're letting your emotions get the better of you, sensei."
"My grandstudent here has a point," Jiraiya says, pushing himself into a standing position and joining Minato and Kakashi at the table. "These past few weeks the brat has given me absolutely no information about his parents or even that he has any." Jiraiya suddenly draws inward. "It's actually impressive how little the kid has spilled since that first day. I'm not convinced he has any parents."
"He displayed excellent interrogation skills today," Kakashi says. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was withholding that information purposely."
Jiraiya shrugs. "Maybe. But I'm still not convinced."
"So you're saying that something may have happened to Kushina?" Minato hates the words as they come out of his mouth. Although those around him aren't afraid to bring it up, he has never been willing to voice the thought that something horrible could have happened to her. Only the hope that he has a son lets him even consider it.
Jiraiya grunts. "You're so desperate for her to be alive and well that your brain is clouding the other possibilities."
"And making yourself more depressed for no reason. I, for one, am convinced that Naruto is sensei's son."
"But Kushina was never pregnant!"
"As far as you know."
"It takes awhile for pregnancies to show, sensei. Even I know that."
Minato grimaces at his student and thinks back to the last weeks that Kushina was around. He had replayed every moment that they'd been together again and again in his loneliness. Thirteen years later, he doesn't know if the memories are real or ones that he imagined in his depression. It makes him overwhelmingly sad to think that he could have erased his last memories of Kushina.
"It sounds like you're rather convinced that Naruto could be my son."
"His chakra. It's warm like yours." Kakashi says, shrugging nonchalantly. "Oh, and he smells like you."
Minato balks. "Kakashi! Isn't that information that you should've shared sooner?!"
Kakashi shrugs again. "This is the first time I've noticed. Our other encounters have been brief and in busy places where I was more worried about the well-being of my own team than the identity of a foreign boy." Kakashi gives Minato a reprimanding look that says that if Kakashi was doing otherwise, Minato should scold him.
"He learns like Kushina, but he picks things up as fast as you do," Jiraiya adds.
Minato isn't entirely convinced. He just can't imagine Kushina not telling him about their child. In no scenario—even if something terrible has happened to Kushina—can he come up with a reason why she wouldn't find some way to tell him about Naruto.
Still, for a moment, he lets himself imagine that Naruto is his child, and a sense of warmth fills him. That hole that has been in his heart for thirteen years starts to heal. He imagines what it would be like if Naruto were in this room with them right now. There would be that brightness, that energy that Naruto brings with him everywhere he goes except when Naruto is with…and suddenly that hole in his heart is flooded with sadness "It doesn't matter. Either way, he's still terrified of me."
"We can work with him to let him open up," Jiraiya says. "He's already determined to surpass you and become my greatest student, and what's more sonly than that?!"
"Getting to learn from me instead of you," Minato groans.
"I don't know what you'd get to teach him at this point. He won't sign the toad contract, and he's already mastered the rasengan," Jiraiya says with a wink.
"He what?!" Minato cries in an uncharacteristic burst of emotion.
Jiraiya shrugs and says with a healthy amount of melodrama, "He learned it a lot faster than I expected. You'll at least get to see him use it in the exams." There is the hint of a smirk at the edge of his mouth as he takes in Minato's indignation.
"Sensei!" Minato can see the signs of his teacher's teasing, but coupled with the jealousy that flares in him anytime he sees Naruto's skills, the words cut deep nonetheless. Whether he's his son or not, he can't help but think of all the things that he missed out on teaching Naruto. The kid is already brilliant with seals and he can make shadow clones for Kami's sake! He doesn't even want to think about Jiraiya teaching him the Rasengan.
"Speaking of the exams," Kakashi says, clearing his throat loudly to get the attention of the other men. "I have found no indication that Suna is aware of what happened with Sasuke. At one point their teacher even mentioned Sasuke as a potential threat for Gaara in the exams, and the Suna kids didn't even remember who he was."
"I can confirm Taki is unaware as well," Jiraiya says, adopting a serious air once more. "Naruto and Fuu have had no shortage of conversations hypothesizing who the attacker in the Forest of Death was, and their teachers seem just as baffled at they do."
At the news Minato washes away any thoughts of Naruto and focuses on what is obviously the more important task. "Itachi returned from Oto before the seal removal today, and he had similar news. He found no indication that the participants from Oto were aware of the incident. He has also spent the last two weeks in Oto and has also found no trace of the woman who attacked Sasuke. It's as if she disappeared."
"Did she participate in the preliminary round?" Kakashi asks.
"No, I've gone through the records of the teams that Oto sent, and all participants are accounted for. She's not in any of them."
Kakashi hums thoughtfully. Jiraiya says, "So if none of the contestants are aware of an attack, it seems the attacker was acting on her own volition and was only posing as an Oto nin to avoid raising suspicion in the Forest of Death."
"That was my thought too, but we haven't ruled out the possibility that the leaders of these other villages were aware of the attack even if their exam participants weren't."
"So what do we do, sensei? Should we cancel the final exam? If any of them have malicious intentions, we'll be vulnerable during the exam."
"There's not enough evidence to justify it," and even as he says it, Minato wishes that wasn't true. He doesn't like the possibility of endangering the people of Konoha when he knows better. He thinks of Naruto and shudders at the possibility of him coming to harm before Minato has even gotten to know him. "We must move forward with the exams but prepare as if some of our guests may be our enemies."
Jiraiya and Kakashi's faces harden into those of shinobi with a mission. They know what this implies, and all three will take this threat to their home seriously.
Minato himself vows that no one will come to harm. As idealistic as it is, he can't help but make the promise to himself.
Because if it's Naruto that gets hurt, he will never forgive himself.
He makes another vow.
As soon as the exams are over, he'll stop hiding behind Jiraiya and try to earn Naruto's trust himself. If there's even a chance that Naruto is his son, he can't waste any more time.