Chapter 13: From Walking To Running

I... may have been a bit too rough on Sasuke, but I did need to snap him out of his madness. I always knew that telling Sasuke most of the truth about the Uchiha massacre was a massive risk and that he would likely react in the way that he did, but it was also necessary.

Obito and Orochimaru had both used Sasuke for their own means by using the Uchiha massacre to their benefit. Orochimaru had used Sasuke's weakness as a means to sway him to his side and Obito... He neglected to tell Sasuke that the massacre was mostly his fault, that he was the reason the Uchiha were ostracized and that he himself had helped Itachi massacre the clan.

Now that Sasuke knew those who truly were behind the massacre, he wouldn't blindly follow Obito and he was less likely to try destroying Konoha. I'd painted a target on Danzo and Obito's backs... But sadly that didn't do much for his mental health. He had spent years of his life training to kill Itachi... hating him with all his heart and now, suddenly, Itachi seemed to be a victim of Danzo and by extension, the Sandaime.

In the end, I had written off Sasuke's attempt in killing me, he wasn't going to be imprisoned or executed... hell, he wouldn't be getting any punishment at all. Was I happy about it? No, but that didn't matter. I had far too many things to worry about other than Sasuke's half assed attempt on my life.

Sasuke had been sent back to his apartment, completely exhausted, emotionally drained and utterly beaten with dirt coating his entire front.

Sakura had left in a daze. Finding out that one of her teammates had tried to murder the other... and the fact that it was her crush of all people attempting the murder... and that said crush might just try and kill her... it had been too much for her.

Jiraiya placed his palm on my shoulder. "You alright there, Naruto?"

"Yeah," I sighed tiredly. "I was kind of expecting Sasuke to snap sooner or later."

"It's never easy when a team breaks up, but sadly we don't have the luxury of time," Jiraiya said seriously. "The elders have decided that it's time we pick a new Hokage. You and I... we're going to fetch her, and we're going to need to be fast about it."

"Okay," I replied. It seemed it was finally time to fetch Tsunade... but didn't that also mean that Itachi and Kisame were right around the corner? "Why do we need to be fast?"

"Because there are several candidates and one of them is Danzo. I don't need to tell you that it would be a bad thing for him to become Hokage."

"Right," I said slowly. But if I remember correctly, Jiraiya was also a candidate for becoming Hokage.

"There's also something I need to ask you... well, actually, I need you to ask the Kyuubi if he can help find the new Hokage, Tsunade," Jiraiya explained. "She's the granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Mito."

"I'll ask," I began.

"You know as well as I do that my sensing mainly works on negative emotions, not by the size of their chakra, especially not someone I've never met before," Kurama announced, not needing me to even ask. "Besides, finding Tsunade faster might interfere with our plans, or did you forget that we need to be there for when she fights Orochimaru."

'yeah, I know, but Jiraiya doesn't,' I thought back, before shaking my head. "He says he can't... that his sensing doesn't work like that. He would need to be familiar with Tsunade first before he could tell where she was."

"Damn," Jiraiya cursed. "I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

"There's... something else as well, but it could alter things," Kurama explained. "Remember that Uzumaki girl, the one you saved in the forest of death?"

'Yes, Karin.'

"I've sensed Danzo and his root Shinobi around her a few times."

"Shit. Is he there now," I asked aloud. I brought Karin to Konoha to keep her from being used by Orochimaru, to give her a better life. I'll be damned if I let Danzo fuck that up now.

"Naruto, what..." Jiraiya began.

"One second," I interrupted him.

"No, he's not there right now. He seems to have been scoping her out."

"That fucking asshole," I muttered angrily. There was no doubt that Danzo was considering inducting Karin into root, after all, it wouldn't look too suspicious if the defector disappeared, especially when there's no Hokage.

"What's going on?" Jiraiya asked.

"It's... We're going to be bringing someone else along with us," I replied. "Back in the forest of death, there was this Kusa Kunoichi that I saved and she ended up defecting to Konoha. As it turns out, she's an Uzumaki... and it seems Danzo is aware of that as he has been observing her along with Shinobi that seem to be loyal to him."

"Root... that bastard was supposed to have disbanded that branch of the ANBU," Jiraiya grunted. "Shit... right, we're definitely bringing her with us."

"Naruto, are you sure you want to do this? Bringing Karin along runs the risk of changing things. This is one of the main points to prevent Madara's resurrection!"

'Yeah, I'm sure. My main worry isn't that Madara is brought back, but rather that he's brought back by Kabuto. Even without Kabuto and Orochimaru's death, so long as I prevent Sasuke from defecting, Orochimaru won't die thus Kabuto won't go off the deep end and start experimenting with Edo Tensei.'

"Zetsu might lead Orochimaru to Madara's corpse, he might be resurrected in an even stronger state."

I let out a breath. 'If that happened... Well, I've got an idea on how to beat him. It's not a plan I'm particularly interested in using though.'

Kurama let out a chuckle. "I see. Fighting fire with fire. Yes, that should work... it would stack the odds in your favour, but you're also forgetting something, Naruto. If you follow that plan, you'll have to use it first, before anyone else can."

"We'll see," I smirked.

At Kurama's direction, I soon found myself standing at the door to Karin's apartment. It had been a while since I last saw her... come to think of it, I hadn't seen her since the preliminary round of the chunin exams, I had been so busy training that I... just kind of forgot about her.

I felt a little bad about that, but then again, I was under a tone of stress at the time, I had a invasion to worry about, not to mention Shukaku, the Akatsuki and I didn't have anyone that I could truly count on. Things are different now.

Raising my hand to knock on the door, I flinched and forced myself not to react when it was thrown open, slamming into Jiraiya's face.

"Long time no see, Kari-"

"Naruto," Karin breathed, before grabbing me in a crushing hug. "It's been so long. I... I wanted to go talk to you when you were training, but then I felt that scary chakra that always appeared around you and... and..." Karin babbled. "Then there was the invasion and then one of your clones saved me from some Oto Shinobi."

Wait, I saved her during the invasion? It was a bit difficult to recall when I literally had hundreds of clones fighting that day... and what did she mean 'scary chakra?' Right... Kurama. "Oh, sorry about that," I wheezed as she hugged me tighter. "I'll explain that later, but for now I need to talk to you."

"You need to talk to me?" Karin asked with a blush as she pulled back from the hug.

"Yeah, I... we wanted to ask you for your help," I replied.

"We?" Karin pulled the door back to reveal an unimpressed looking Jiraiya. Gone was the blush as Karin readjusted her glassed with a neutral look on her face. "Who's the old man?"

"Old man?" Jiraiya started.

"That would be my sensei," I answered immediately. "He might not look like much, but he's really strong... he's also kind of a pervert."

"Gross," Karin shivered.

"Why do you always introduce me like that?" Jiraiya grumbled.

"Because it's true, you're both strong and a pervert." I shrugged. "But that's not the reason why we're here. We… kind of need you to come with us. We're looking for someone and your sensing abilities could really come in handy."

"Oh… I suppose I could help you," Karin said, smiling bashfully.

"I can't believe history's repeated itself again. A red head obsessing over a blonde," Jiraiya muttered under his breath.

"Oi… what was that, pervert?" Karin snapped.

"Nothing," Jiraiya held his hands up. "Just thinking about how much you remind me of this other red head that I knew."

"You have a problem with red hair?"

I let out a tired sigh. I could already see that this trip was going to be tiring.

"You could always leave her here."

'If I do that, I'm just leaving her to Danzo. As much as I want to preserve things for the proper moment, I always knew that change was inevitable and that I can't solely rely on my knowledge of the future.'

"And you're not worried that Danzo might do something to Sasuke or Kakashi?"

'No. If Danzo does anything to Sasuke, Itachi will make him regret it, whether that means spilling Konoha secrets or even coming back to kill him… and for Kakashi… I'm not too sure. From my memory, Danzo has never been that interested in Kakashi. Now, if it became common knowledge that Kakashi has a mangekyou, then I would worry about what Danzo might try.'

"Very well," Kurama sighed.

Turning my attention back to Karin and Jiraiya, my eye began to twitch when I realized they were still arguing with one another.

"Jiraiya, I thought that this… mission was time sensitive?!" I interrupted.

"It is," Jiraiya snapped, before recomposing himself. "Erm, I mean, it is. I was just explaining that to tomato head over here."

"Tomato head?!" Karin squawked, her face flushing red. "Is that the best you can come up with you dick for brains 50 year old virgin pervert?"

Jiraiya's jaw dropped.

I couldn't help it, I let out a snort at that. "Ok… Ok, if we don't stop with all the arguing and name calling, we'll be here all day," I said as I put my palm on Karin's shoulder. "Karin, the mission we're on is to fetch the next Hokage, a woman by the name of Senju Tsunade, student of the Sandaime and this perverts' old teammate."

"Wait… if Tsunade was a student of the Sandaime… and you were her teammate," Karin shakily pointed her finger to Jiraiya.

"That's right," Jiraiya puffed up his chest. "I too am a former student of the Sandaime!"

"The Sandaime taught a pervert," Karin commented. "Or he was a pervert too!"

Seeing another argument coming, I let out a pained sigh. It would seem that between Jiraiya, Karin and myself, I was the one who was going to have to be the adult and stop any fights and arguments from breaking out. From deep within my mind, I could hear Kurama laughing.

Leaving Konoha with Karin in tow had been a surprisingly quick and painless affair. I had sent a clone to pack for me, and Karin didn't have much to take with her, mostly just a few changes of clothes and we were ready to go.

We were ahead of schedule… It would be more accurate to say that we were ahead of canon. Kurama had sensed Itachi and Kisame still some way off from Konoha. At the rate they were traveling, they would be in Konoha within an hour.

I felt more than a little nervous. In the month that I spent training for the chunin exams, I became the most powerful genin in Konoha, there weren't even chunin that could beat me… Hell, I could honestly say that I could probably beat quite a few Jonin, Kakashi and Gai withstanding, but Itachi and Kisame… they were on a whole other level.

I was almost thankful for Karin and Jiraiya's constant bickering, they made for a good distraction from my fears… Almost… They were still incredibly annoying.

"So? you're just a pervert who writes smut."

"And how would you know that I wrote smut in my books, unless you've read them?!"

Karin let out a choked sound as her face flushed red, before she took a swing at Jiraiya who easily sidestepped her.

I was tempted to not intervene… to just watch where things were going, but if the last hour had been anything to go by, things were going to repeat and there was going to be a lot of arguing and yelling.

"Break it up," I began as I stepped between Karin and Jiraiya. "We're going to be on the road for a few weeks. If we don't at least try to get along, it's going to be a very annoying few weeks."

"Fine by me," Jiraiya shrugged.

"Like hell," Karin snapped. "He… he called me a pervert!"

I would never understand how that was an insult. "Karin, everyone's a pervert," I replied. "If no one was a pervert people wouldn't have sex and no sex means no children or future generations."

"Wha… but… but…" Karin's face turned a brilliant red as Jiraiya began to laugh.

"And what's the harm. So long as they're not harming anyone or intruding on their privacy," I gave Jiraiya a pointed look on that last point. "Unless both parties are consenting and they're into that…"

"What?!" Karin squeaked.

"Oh, you know, some people like to be watched when they're naked or… doing stuff with themselves," I explained, putting special emphasis on the 'doing stuff.' "And others might even like a little pain, like being spanked for instance."

Apparently that was too much for Karin as her eyes rolled up and she fell forward in a faint. Catching her, I let out a snort of laughter. It had been really annoying listening to their arguing, but teasing her had been hilarious.

It was odd that it was mentioning spanking that made her faint though. It's not like she… likes… pain. Crap, I had completely forgotten that originally, when she had a crush on Sasuke, she enjoyed being bitten by him to such a point that she moaned whenever she was healing him. That was probably going to bite me in the ass later.

Picking Karin up, I held her in a princess carry and turned towards Jiraiya.

"The hell are you doing?" I asked as I saw him scribbling furiously into a small black book.

"Ah, Naruto. What was the thing you were talking about? You mentioned spanking, could you please tell me more about that?" Jiraiya requested almost pleadingly.

"I should have seen that coming," I sighed. "Can't we talk about anything else? Literally… anything else?"

"Naruto," Jiraiya began seriously. "You're the first one of my students to show even a hint of being interested in such a fine topic as perversion. I'd be a fool to let this go."

"How about this. When I fought Sasuke earlier, I managed to copy his Chidori. That's gotta be worth a topic change."

Jiraiya stopped mid step and blinked, before letting out a sigh. "You really know how to spoil my fun. Make no mistake, Naruto, you're not getting away from the topic of perversion so easily, you're only delaying it with a slightly more… relevant topic."

I smiled. I didn't really have an issue talking to Jiraiya about pervy stuff, but right now, I wanted to learn something new. By goading him with my knowledge of the Chidori, I was hoping that he would decide to teach me the Rasengan. It was after all a powerful jutsu that when used in conjunction with nature release became a one hit delete move.

"You already know the steps, you could have learned the Rasengan on your own."

'True, but then Jiraiya would wonder where I learnt it from.'

"He already knows that you've met Minato, you could have said he gave you the steps… Also, the Rasengan is based off of the bijuudama, you could have said that you learned it from me!"

'I'm a complete fucking idiot,' I mentally cursed. All this manipulation shit and I could have just skipped it… I could have learned the Rasengan much earlier.

"So the Chidori huh? That must have pissed Sasuke off severely," Jiraiya chuckled. "How'd you do it?"

"Well I already have the nature transformation down, so all I had to do was copy Sasuke's hand seals and focus lightning chakra to my hand. It wasn't that hard," I shrugged. "But then again, my Chidori wasn't as good as Sasuke's."

"It wouldn't be," Jiraiya commented. "Sasuke probably spent the entirety of last month learning and practicing with that Jutsu. Although you managed to copy it, you're nowhere near efficient with it… which brings me to my second question, why use it at all?"

I smirked at that. "Why not? The angrier Sasuke got in that fight, the easier he was to beat. I used the Chidori to distract him so my clone could ambush him from behind."

"Smart," Jiraiya snorted. "So what can you tell me about the Chidori?"

"You mean how to use it?" I asked.

"No. What do you make of it?"

Ah, that would make more sense. For a moment there I thought that Jiraiya wanted to learn it too. "It's pretty powerful, but kind of shit if you don't have a sharingan… or doujutsu of some kind. When I used it, my hearing was overwhelmed by the chirping, I couldn't see out of one eye and the speed I was going at gave me tunnel vision. Outside of using if with a doujutsu, it could only come in handy in very specific situations, like overpowering other lightning style techniques."

Jiraiya hummed in approval. "That's a pretty good analysis. The Chidori, while a powerful technique, needs a sharingan to account for its many failings. The number of Shinobi that would be capable of using it without a sharingan can be counted on one hand and all of them are already so strong that the Chidori would be useless to them."

"I'm… not sure why you're telling me this," I said, genuinely feeling confused.

"I'm telling you this because it's what a master would tell their disciple," Jiraiya explained. "The Chidori is powerful, but using it in battle without a sharingan is dangerous. There are plenty of Shinobi out there that grow powerful without it."

"I… see," I replied slowly. I wasn't sure, but it seemed that Jiraiya was worried about me. "You know, I'm not exactly planning on using the Chidori in a real fight."

"I'm simply making sure," Jiraiya shrugged. "The Chidori is great, but I've got an even better jutsu that you can learn… As a matter of fact, your father was the one who created it."

"Well, what's it called?" I asked almost giddily, already knowing what Jiraiya was going to say.

"It's called, the Rasengan," Jiraiya announced. Holding his hand up, a blue sphere filled with spiraling energy formed in his hand. "You won't be able to copy this the same way you copied the Chidori."

"Probably not," I replied. "But that doesn't mean that I won't try."

"That's the spirit," Jiraiya chuckled as he dispelled his Rasengan. "When we get to the next town, I'll show you the first step to learning it."

"Can't you tell me the first step now?" I asked, feeling a little eager. From memory the first step needs a water balloon, but I'm sure that I could at least practice moving similarly to the Rasengan.

Jiraiya shook his head. "No, we don't currently have anything for you to practice with… not to mention you're carrying your little girlfriend there."

Feeling Karin stiffen minutely in my arms, an idea came to mind that would at the very least stop her from trying to pursue a relationship with me… for at least a few years. "You know… A relationship with someone so young wouldn't work for me. Between gaining memories and experiences from shadow clones and experiencing a thousand years from connecting to the Kyuubi, I feel a bit too old. Dating someone my age for me would be like Kakashi or even you dating a thirteen year old."

Jiraiya briefly shivered, before shooting me a look. "Really?"

"Pretty much," I shrugged lightly. "Mentally, I've already experienced quite a few years. It would feel… wrong for me to date anyone right now. Maybe in a few years from now when everyone else matures I'd be up for it, but not right now."

"That… that's kind of hilarious," Jiraiya chuckled. "So if you wanted to date someone right now, it would have to be a woman."

My eye began to twitch slightly. "Yeah. Probably someone like Kurenai or that Anko lady… Hell, I might just go for Tsunade."

Jiraiya broke into laughter. "You… you ask Tsunade out?!" He said, fighting to gain breath. "I'll tell you what, if you can get her on a date, I'll give you my title of toad sage."

Originally, I was planning on letting it go, but seeing how Jiraiya reacted, I felt a sudden need to crush him and take his title. "You know what… deal."

I felt Karin stiffen in my arms, glancing down at her, I saw her face twitch in annoyance.

"What'd you say, Kid?"

"I said deal. During our trip, if I'm able to get Tsunade to go on a date with me, you'll give me the title of toad sage!" I smirked. It shouldn't be an impossible task, she'd probably agree just to piss off Jiraiya.

Jiraiya held his chin and let out a hum. "Interesting bet, but there's nothing for me to gain from it. How about this, when you lose, you'll personally be helping me with my next book. I want to hear all your ideas, specifically the ones about… a woman enjoying spanking…" Jiraiya let out a little giggle.

"That's fine by me," I shrugged.

"Oh, and also, your date must end in at least a kiss," Jiraiya added, smirking victoriously.

That… would be difficult, but not insurmountable. Jiraiya didn't specify what kind of kiss and if I recall correctly, Tsunade originally kisses Naruto on the forehead.

"Fine… but then you must also agree to not trying to sabotage me. If you do, then you lose the bet."

"Trust me kid, I won't need to do anything but sit back and watch," Jiraiya chuckled lightly.

A small smile grew on my face. The bet served as a great distraction from my other troubles, like the immanent confrontation with Itachi and Kisame, not to mention finally dealing with Kabuto and Orochimaru. Trying to get Tsunade to go out with me… that just seemed like stupid fun to me, nothing was really going to come of it, and even if I failed, all I had to do was help Jiraiya with his next book, something I feel I would have been stuck doing anyway.

"You best say your goodbyes to your title, because when we arrive back in Konoha with the new Hokage, it's going to be mine," I smirked.

Lucky number 13 has been posted.

There's not much action going on, but things are being set up for future conflicts. Karin's still involved in the plot. She hadn't been completely forgotten. Jiraiya believes history is repeating itself again with Naruto and Karin all the while Danzo was scheming and wanted to abduct Karin.

Things are really going to really heat up in the next chapter. Tensions are going to run high.

There's one last thing I want to address and it's about the pairing... well, it's concerning if this story was going to be a Harem or not.

Naruto's going to have a lot of chemistry with several female characters, but in the end it's only going to be a single pairing.

However, once it gets to a certain point (Sometime during Shippuden) I am going to release a what if story separate from this that will contain the Harem pairings. (It's mostly going to be character interactions and lemons.)

At the end of the day, this is an action adventure fic that follows character interactions and an altered plotline, so romance was never going to be a major element in it. There is still some romance with the pairing (Pre timeskip) and lemons later on (Shippuden), but its main purpose is to add additional depth to the story.

I hope you'll all continue to enjoy this story as it progresses.

Anyways, I'm up to chapter 18 on the spooky P word website, I'll always be 5 chapters ahead on there and any future fics that I publish will appear on there first, but they won't be there permanenly. They'll be posted here later on. (Harry Potter, RWBY, Avatar, etc...)

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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

See all you dudes and dudettes on the 29th of March.