Naruto had split up from his current team in search of Sasuke, currently in one of who he called the snake pervert's hidden bases in the outskirts of the land of fire. Although he had been in a different base the location and layout were way too similar to be a coincidence. Turning the corner to more of the featureless hallways he moved quickly where Orochimaru kept his most valued 'subjects'. He noticed a door open before seeing his target. He did not know this Sasuke, he had only learned about him through Sakura and Ino, though he was saddened at how boy-crazed both his teammate and a former classmate were. The prospect of avoiding a pending conflict with what he considered a close confidant and what was most likely his best friend due to the difference in memory and not being as close as remembered, though he had warned her against poking around in his head to fix in her words "whatever screw is loose in that empty head of his" he would catch her attempt to do so on several occasions over the past two weeks, but that's story is a story for another time. Back to the present, he was currently staring at the boy named Uchiha Sasuke. "Found you." Naruto said in a relaxed tone matching his current posture. "Now let's head back to Konoha before the snake pedophile finds out I am here." He finished.

Sasuke seemed almost amused by Naruto's comments, so he appeared relaxed as well. "So, it was you Naruto, I wondered whose chakra was heading my way. Dope, what are you doing here?" Sasuke smirked as he noticed the snarl that most likely came as a response to how Naruto was addressed. Closing the distance between the two, Sasuke put an arm around his former teammate. "What's the matter, Naruto? Fox got your tongue... Matter of fact, didn't you dream of becoming Hokage? If you had the time to chase after me, Shouldn't have that time gone to training or something."

Chuckling, Naruto waved Sasuke off. "Chase after you? it's been almost 3 years, what do you think I was doing? Sitting on my ass... And becoming a Kage is a fool's errand. Too much paperwork." He spoke as if his words were coming from experience. "Besides, I am more of a fighter than a politician anyway, oh... A word of warning. '' Naruto paused for dramatic effect, "Genjutsu does not work on me." he said as he brought his arms up in his signature cross-seal.

Not too far away, Sakura was running from room to room checking for any sign of the Uchiha when a large explosion ripped through the compound some distance away. Remembering Naruto's tailed-beast cloak and the ominous chakra in their confrontation with the snake Senin made her face drop in absolute fear. Naruto had seemingly lost control after only four of the nine tails appeared, dropping her search she took off in the explosion's direction. If Naruto found Sasuke she shuddered to think what would happen if Naruto used the Kyuubi again.

(...)

"So... It's been two and a half years..." an older white-haired gentleman began speaking to his young blonde companion. "I would say welcome home, but would you call this home? In your case that is Naruto?" He questioned the blonde as both stared at the entrance gate marking the village they are about to enter as Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves.

Naruto laughed as he entered the village with his 'teacher'. "Of course it is, my favorite spot is here, and from what you tell me Kaa-chan is the Hokage as well." Naruto responded with a toothy grin.

The older man let out an exaggerated sigh as the boy spoke. "At least let me explain things to her before you get too excited." The two entered the village, much to the delight of the ninja guarding the entrance.

"Isn't that?"

"I guess he has grown out of that orange monstrosity." The second Nin commented on the appearance of Naruto. He was wearing a white t-shirt with the symbol of the Senju embroidered on the left sleeve and the Uzumaki swirl close to the collar near the nape of the neck, both too small to make out from a distance, and he had navy blue shorts with his equipment pouch strapped to his leg right above the knee. The headband for Konoha however was nowhere to be found.

"Come on, you said you are buying. Let's hurry and see Kaa-chan! I want to see if the ramen is good here, but knowing Teuchi-san and Aya-nee that shouldn't be a problem." Naruto and the man were halfway to the Hokage's office when the pair heard an excited voice calling out to them, well Naruto.

"No way, Naruto-niisan!" Said a boy that he barely recognized, the boy was the grandson of the late Sandaime Hokage, the man who was his first guardian. Making a mad dash for him, the boy stopped inches from Naruto.

Naruto looked the boy over with a flabbergasted reaction hidden under a smile, he then got a whiff of his chakra. 'Ah, but Hana-chan was cuter.' He thought to himself sizing up the younger boy in front of him. "Long time no see Konohamaru, I'm home." Naruto declared cheerfully rubbing the back of his head.

The boy bowed to Naruto before noticing the other person there, Konohamaru introduced himself. "Uhh, hello I am Sarutobi Konohamaru."

"Ah, the old man's grandson, I know who you are." The older gentleman retorted.

"You do?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I know about my teacher's grandson." The man said with pride.

It was only when Konohamaru's face lit up with recognition did his face drop, not from his reaction but from what the boy said next. "The Ero-senin Jiraiya-sama." Konohamaru said in an excited voice.

Naruto hearing this toppled over struggling for breath and laughing, he held his side as he did so. "That... That's awesome... I am going to call you the hentai kanjin from now on, old man." He said in between breaths.

"Pervy sage huh? Not the worst thing that I've been called," he paused mid-sentence in thought. "Your mother was probably the worst." Jiraiya said, chuckling to himself.

Naruto picked himself up patting the dust off of his clothes, recovering. He gave Jiraiya a knowing glance. "Which one?" he spoke lightly, elbowing the older gentleman in the side.

He gave Naruto an inquisitorial look, before deciding to leave well enough alone. Apparently, his charge knew who Kushina was. 'Who would have told him, I doubt it was Hime, then again she wouldn't have taken in Naruto that easily which begs the question... What was the version that he knew was like?' A question he would like to be answered some time in the future. Kami knows he had to warn his version about a son from a different world. "You know about your birth mother?" He asked.

Naruto looked over to Konohamaru who was lost in confusion, before answering the sage. "Should I not?" Naruto asked. "Honestly everything that you have been telling me sounds like this village is lucky to be standing during the Sandaime's second reign." He leaned in and whispered. "Please tell me that Root has been abolished, and Danzo has no real power outside of the elders in the clan meetings."

For the first time since meeting this Naruto did Jiraiya not know how to answer. From what he just heard the boy knew a lot of Konoha's secrets and he held animosity for the said elder. Jiraiya trying to not stoke any fires stayed silent, but that spoke volumes and Naruto's face grew cold and distant for the first time since he had known him.

A short uncomfortable moment passed before the two of them were brought back to reality and Naruto addressed the horribly confused Konohamaru. "Hey, do you know where the Yamanakas' flower shop is?" Changing the subject entirely, Konohamaru nodded at this. "Then can you show me the way to it? It's been a while and I want to visit an old friend." As the statement left his mouth Naruto had a sudden realization. "Hey pervy sage, the Yamanaka heir is a girl my age right?"

"Yeah?..."

Konohamaru looked at the Uzumaki dumbfounded. "Did you honestly forget your friend's face in such a short time, Naruto-niisan?"

"Trust me Konohamaru, you wouldn't forget her once you see her." Naruto said, thinking to himself as if his words were an automatic response. A smile crept on his face and Naruto went to a gale of hand signs that Konohamaru instantly recognized, but some signs seemed out of place in addition to new ones tying them together. Taking a look around Naruto made sure that they were alone before a plume of smoke took over his body.

The other two's jaws dropped as Naruto was replaced by a near-perfect replica of the Yamanaka heiress Ino in his clothing. The girl looked at the now baggy clothes frowning. "Aww… I thought that my clothes would change with me. Maybe I'm rusty." Naru… Ino said, playing with the collar of the white shirt. The two gentlemen stared at her in disbelief. "What?" NaruIno asked, crossing her arms under her chest. "You two for sure have seen me use a version of this Jutsu before." With that statement, she leaned in to bring her hands to her waist in mild annoyance. It appeared with the transformation Naruto's mannerisms were more feminine.

"That has nothing to do with it… How did you…" Jiraiya began while examining his gender-bent student. The transformation was on another level than the two Jutsu that Naruto would use and it seemed that the boy's chakra had changed with him. Not only did it seem to be lower but the Kyuubi's seemed non-existent in his system. Under closer inspection the girl was a few inches shorter, her lighter blonde hair was styled in a high ponytail that the hair came an inch from meeting her shoulders, and what was on her forehead shocked him. It was a light blue diamond mark reminiscent of his former teammate's Strength of a Hundred Seal. "The Jutsu that you have used before was not this complex. I am actually impressed, kid." The older gentleman said with a sly smile.

Konohamaru on the other hand was in mid-crisis. He was looking forward to showing Naruto the mastered Jutsu that he had learned from him, but now he couldn't brag or impress Naruto with jutsu that now amounted to incomplete techniques. Though he felt this way he had a renewed drive to better himself so the gap between them doesn't get too vast of a distance, the Nanadaime has to be stronger than his predecessors after all. "Woah that's so cool, can you teach me that Jutsu too!"

NaruIno showed off her pearly whites ruffling his hair in the process. "Not a problem, a master should make sure that their student would be able to surpass them someday." With her mouth morphing into a teasing grin she continued. "I am not teaching you everything that I know, so don't get that in your head. But I will make sure that no one under Jōnin would be able to stand a chance against you."

"That's quite the claim kid, you are still a Genin yourself. Also…" Jiraiya pointed at the diamond on NaruIno's forehead. "Hime's student is your pink-haired teammate, and I don't think that she has learned that yet. So you might want to hide that."

"Right…" With that response, she took her hand out of Konohamaru's hair and undid her ponytail messing with her hair so the bangs obscured her forehead. She then went to the pouch strapped to her thigh pulled out the missing leaf headband and tied it so that it hung around the neck. "Happy? Honestly, though something must have happened with Haruno-san that she would get that training. From what I remember she was never the "studious" type unless it served her self-interest." She said dismissively. The look of surprise on Konohamaru forced her to explain further as he had hoped. "We never got along." She finished leaving it at that.

Turning to the Senin NaruIno held out a palm towards him. "Ryu please… I am not going around like this, I need new clothes… and makeup. Ino would kill me if she isn't already. Though I kept telling her that she looks perfectly fine without it."

With a huff, Jiraiya dug into their luggage pulling out a coin purse with their remaining funds from the trip. The two years of training were treated as an S-rank mission by the village so he had received a rather large payout that was mostly used for living expenses for the both of them. "You better repay me for that money, Naruto."

"Yeah, yeah." Turning to Konohamaru she grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her. "Come on, your master's master is treating. Anything you want to celebrate?"

Hearing this the Senin moved to say something but the two teens had disappeared around the corner. "So I guess I am going to Hokage mansion by myself then, if Naruto is any representation of what a kid of mine and hers would have been like… I would not envy the parents that had to take care of them." He spoke to himself. "And he left me with this luggage, great."

(…)

Tsunade was at her desk going through the usual mountain of paperwork that was a Kage's responsibility when one of the Anbu guarding her notified her of an intruder, letting out a low whistle as an alarm. Her attention then was taken away from the paperwork when her eyes met Jiraiya's the very moment the man was climbing in through the window overlooking the main street of the village leading to the mansion. "When you said that you were cutting the training short I did not think that you wouldn't be using the front door, Jiraiya. I see that Naruto is not with you, am I to believe that he is in the village as well."

"Yeah about that..." He said eying every position that each member of the Anbu was in. He then walked over to the desk producing a scroll from his sleeve.

Getting the hint from Jiraiya's eye movements Tsunade dismissed the Anbu telling them that they were not to return until the Toad Senin had left. Three people vacated the room each wearing various animal masks, she did not speak until both were sure that there was no one listening in. "What is this about? Did something happen to Naruto?"

"Well..." He toyed with the scroll in his hands, thinking over whether to show her the contents or not.

"Out with it already." The frustration was clear on her face. "What happened Jiraiya?"

He decided not to, in the end, and he put the scroll back in its place. "Well it turns out that you and Minato were the best teachers for him, it's kind of frustrating in its own way."

Tsunade looked at the gentleman like he grew another head. "What do you mean, did his training not go well? And you know that I can't take another student."

"Don't make me spell it out, Hime. I said that as in the past tense, as in he already has gone through training by you two." Jiraiya said nervously. "And there's a reason that you both were mentioned in the same vein."

Putting two and two together Tsunade's eyes widened. "What? How would that be even possible?"

"It seems that we still have a lot to learn, even in our old age." Jiraiya said, staring off into space. "But if it makes you feel better he is still a half Uzumaki. It seemed that the old man had some tricks up his sleeve that would have forced your hand into returning quicker than you did."

The Kage has a minor mental break, before continuing the conversation. "So where is he now?"

"He went with sensei's grandson to visit the Yamanaka heir..." He answered.

"Ah. You left him alone?" She paused. "Wait why her? I thought neither of them especially cared for the other."

"When I mentioned Kushina, and him possibly not knowing who she was, the air around us changed… Tsunade, he mentioned Danzo and Root, and I think that was not the only thing that he has knowledge of. If I had to bet he went straight to a person that he could trust and do something about whatever Danzo was responsible for." Jiraiya said with a serious face. "We have to look into Danzo on our side of things, if Root is actually still running it will spell trouble for everyone. Though he cares for the village, an old school mentality in a time of peace especially when the Akatsuki are still operating is not a good thing."

Tsunade wiped her face with her hands, she has a lot to think about on top of everything else on her plate, but first, the problem that Naruto's existence causes. Speaking of the devil she heard a trail of voices coming towards her office.