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What's up everyone! Back today with another upload of this unfolding drama that is A Rogue Story. Thanks to all who are supporting it! Even those of you who have differing opinions from mine are very much appreciated. :) That being said, please do enjoy the story as things start to unravel a bit. I felt that the things said here had to be addressed and properly expounded on for the story to be ready to jump to that next place nearer the end. To be honest, I think we're entering the final phases of this story with all that will be revealed. Hopefully, when you all see what I was speaking on you all will feel it had the same necessity. Alright, that's enough from me. Read on!

P.S. Over the Years is also being updated alongside this, and it will be a double upload with two fairly short chapters. I think you NaruSaku fans will enjoy them though. :)

"Did Morgause tell you this? She's lying."

- Uther Pendragon

Confrontation

Formerly, Naruto had condemned the practice of sitting in dimly lit rooms and brooding lowly, writing them off as Sasuke's thing and a very odd habit, but as he lay in his hospital bed, sunlight not reaching through the curtains and little to no sound coming from the hospital bustle going on outside, he couldn't deny it having a twisted appeal. After recent events, what more could he do? Wads of info had been dumped on him like Ichiraku's garbage and he hadn't anywhere near processed it all. His father was the Fourth Hokage? What? A double S rank threat in his time? Basically cemented as one of the most legendary shinobi to ever walk the earth? Why didn't he know any of this? And his mother was the jinchuriki before him? His blood basically that of royalty? His life should have been so different, how did it end up like this?

Groaning, he let his head fall back onto the pillow and shut his eyes. In the dark, the same truth that had been bothering him for the past few hours pounded itself into his mind – he had been lied to all this time.

There was the sound of a flick and the black behind his eyelids burned orange. Frowning, he looked over to the doorway to see who had disturbed his Sasuke channeling. It was the same nurse from before, a polite smile resting on her face. "Sorry to disturb you, I know you're probably tired."

"It's alright," he said lowly.

Walking in, she started writing on her clipboard again, the jerky pen returning in proper form. "But I'm glad you're resting," she continued. "You've been through quite an ordeal."

His eyes fell to the sheets and his smile was faint. "Yeah, I guess I have."

"Now, just give me a second and I'll let you know how things will be going from here."

A smile and nod was his humble reply, but then sounded the rasp from the chamber of the fox. "Something's wrong."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Look at her hand."

As it danced on the paper and board, Naruto squinted lightly, trying to see with the eyes of the fox, but spotting the missing link proved too challenging a task. "What about it?" he finally asked.

"Congratulations on paying attention, genius."

"Yeah, thanks for the lecture. Now can you tell me what's going on please?"

"The lecture is because it's kind of a big deal. And what you're missing is the fact that when we first met her, she was left-handed."

It took a moment for the comment to really sink in; the moment it did, it felt as if the atmosphere had been charged with a jutsu so hot it could melt his face off. The dark blue orbs darted over to the jerky hand and Kurama's observation was confirmed. They were using the wrong hand...

"No chance she can use both is there?" Naruto thought quietly.

"Doubtful."

Naruto could feel the slightest of chills wrapping his body. "Who is this?" he asked, voice the slightest bit shaky.

"I have a feeling we're gonna find out really soon."

First came an unsteady swallow, then he could feel the anxious rhythm of his nervous heart.

"Don't panic," Kurama said. "Try to find a way to get rid of them without drawing attention to yourself. We gotta get outta here."

"Ok."

Looking around the hospital room for a spell, he finally asked, "Can you get me some water, please? I'm feeling kinda thirsty."

At his request, the jerky pen stopped in its tracks and the woman's eyes never left the clipboard. For a moment she stood in absolute silence. Naruto watched her closely, his apprehension not in any way assuaged.

With a heavy sigh, she let the clipboard fall slack in her hands. "Before this gets any messier, I want you to note that if I wanted to take you down, I would've already. Whatever you noticed just now, you noticed way too late." One eyebrow rose. "Can we agree on that?"

"Who are you?" Naruto said.

"You know me," she said, taking a step back and setting the clipboard down on a small portable desk next to his bed.

In an instant, her eyes were closed and her hands in the hand sign he knew all too well. Then came the rushing of smoke and the sound of a muffled poof.

Slowly, the tendrils of smoke started to waft away; as they did, the body starting to show made Naruto's eyes go wide and his heart drop to the floor. It was none other than his former master.

"You..." he breathed.

"Relax," Jiraiya said, throwing up both hands defensively. "I just told you I coulda taken you down anytime I wanted to."

Naruto's breathing was ragged now, like one who had just run for miles on end. "Why didn't you?" he finally asked.

"Because I'm here to talk. Not fight. Not chase. Just talk."

Naruto's breathing did not slow, and his body sat rigid. The room itself was silent, the only sound to touch the air that of his heavy, labored breaths. Through the lingering silence, the former student and master stared, cool blue meeting soft gray in a silent exchange, each set of eyes carrying with it something unreadable, like a question unanswered and a quarrel unsolved. At last, Jiraiya propped himself up against the wall behind him, crossing his arms. "Naruto," he said silently. "What happened?"

There was a brief pause as Naruto recollected himself, mind rushing through the dozens of answers that immediately came to mind. Squinting his eyes closed as he silenced them, he took a steadying breath and regained control. Letting his eyelids open, he silently scoffed and crossed his arms, burying a sniffle as he looked towards the window. "What do you think? I got tired of how things were and I left. That simple."

"I thought never giving up was your ninja way."

His head snapped back to him. "It still is."

"Then how come you're giving up now?"

"I'm not," he said firmly. "I'll be back one day, and I'll be stronger than anyone ever thought I could be."

"And what will that achieve?"

"Well, for one, I'll finally have the respect no one wants to give me."

"Is that really what this is all about? Respect?"

"How else am I gonna become Hokage?"

"You think someone who went rogue as a genin is going to make it to Hokage? You really think the villagers are gonna accept someone who isn't loyal to the village they claim to want to protect?"

"I'll come back stronger and prove myself. They'll have to accept me."

Jiraiya's frown deepened and he shook his head slowly. "No, Naruto... This is not the way."

Naruto scoffed, throwing the covers off the bed and walking over to the window, blue orbs gazing out to the world beyond and the village below. "Then what is?"

"You endure. You walk the hard path."

"Yeah," Naruto nearly laughed. "That's what everyone keeps saying. If only they would acknowledge that my path is way harder than everyone else's."

"Ok," Jiraiya acknowledged. "I'll give you that. It's not easy being you. We all know you're special."

Naruto couldn't hold in his chuckle. "Yeah, let's call it that."

"But that doesn't mean you should quit, Naruto. And it doesn't mean you just take the easy path and leave behind everything you've ever known."

"You think this is the easy path?" he said, turning to face him. "You think leaving everything I've ever known behind is easy?"

"Well, maybe you're right. It's not easy. Leaving things behind never is. But it's still easier than facing the demons that come with those things. No matter how you try to paint this, the truth is you're running away, Naruto."

"Tch," Naruto scoffed, shaking his head lowly. "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"What don't I understand?"

The blond locks swayed as he turned around, one side of his lips pulled down into a scowl. "That I'm not running away from something, Pervy Sage, I'm running towards something."

The sharp gray eyes narrowed.

"You think after twelve years of putting up with being called a demon every Tuesday and a monster on Fridays, that any of that crap phases me anymore? It doesn't. I've heard it all. They could do their worst and I wouldn't change a shade. I'm not running from them, and I'm not running from anything else either. I'm doing exactly what I said, running towards something. And you may not see it yet, but you will the day I get there."

Jiraiya shook his head lowly. "What you're running towards, Naruto, is a fantasy, and a confused one at that."

"No," he sniffled, turning away and rubbing under his nose. "I won't believe that."

"Listen to yourself. What you're talking about doing isn't feasible. Not only the part about coming back and being Hokage, but even the surviving up until that point. The threats out in the shinobi world are real. As a jinchuriki, you're already at the top of the list of some pretty powerful people. You think once more people start figuring out your identity, you're gonna be able to survive the onslaught?"

"I've spent twelve years taking care of myself, and I'm still standing."

"You were in Konoha, not the shinobi world."

"Well, I've been out here for a while now and I'm doing pretty good so far."

"It's been two days, Naruto; you've got a jacked up arm and a banged up leg to show for it. That's what you call pretty good so far?"

Naruto paused, glancing down at his arm. Soon after, he let it fall to his side, the bandaged wound now covered with his body. "Those injuries are almost healed by now."

Jiraiya inhaled through his nose then let it go. "Point is you're not doing as great as you think, your injuries being the first piece of evidence to look at."

"Got away from you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did, and you'd have been captured a few minutes ago if I wanted to. Face the facts, Naruto, you're not cut out for this like you think you are."

"Tch, whatever..."

Sighing and pushing himself off the wall, Jiraiya stepped forward. "Look," he said. "I know you've already been to hell and back, and I know your life hasn't been anywhere near easy, but..." He paused, the sigh on his lips like a mild breeze in Konoha. "Well..." he tried to continue.

"But what?" Naruto barely breathed.

Jiraiya's head soon fell towards the ground, gray eyes staring at the white tile as if the words he wanted to say were written if he just looked hard enough. Finally, he lifted his head. "I don't want things to end this way."

A little after he spoke, Naruto's eyes left the world beyond, and his gaze traveled downwards. The pause before he spoke was like waiting for sunshine on a dark, cloudy day. "They already did, Pervy Sage."

There was a brief pause and then Jiraiya's breathing shifting to the degree that only a ninja could perceive, his arms simultaneously leaving their crossed position and falling to his sides. "Look," he started. "I don't want to have to fight you to bring you in. I don't want to, ok. That's not what I want."

"But you will."

"Naruto," Jiraiya sighed. "All I'm asking is that you try and make this work one last time. One last time, Naruto. Just give me a chance to show you this doesn't have to end the way you think it does."

Naruto's squint narrowed, the first thought coming to his mind being how much of a fool he'd be to consider Jiraiya's offer. His answer was a firm no. No more. Not for Pervy Sage, not for anybody. With a sniffle, he turned his gaze to the world beyond. From his spot at the hospital window, he could see the sun shining brightly from above, the yellow star gracing the world below with its vibrant yellow rays. The trees swayed gently as traces of wind gently ruffled their leaves, and some distance away he could see a group of white birds flying peacefully across the horizon. Jiraiya's desperate pleas resonated in the background and sounded oddly at home in the canvas scene, but that wouldn't help him be heard. The part of Naruto that would have gave an ear had finally bit the dust. It wasn't the first time. There were many times in his life when it had flickered out, and he had been left alone to set it back aflame. He wasn't sure how, but he had actually done it...every single time. And like usual, he emerged from the darkness with that tell-tale smile on his face. But this time he could feel it. It had been blown out so many times and for so many years that it was finally out, for good this time, forever lost to the pains of life.

Slowly, the overhead sun was overtaken by a cloud, the natural light fading from the room to once again paint it in dim greyscale.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said, voice hard as he faced the outside world. "I've already tried, Pervy Sage. But everyone was so busy judging me on what they thought I was that they couldn't see what I was trying to be. I'm done with it."

Jiraiya's jaw clenched, then he shook his head a bit. "You don't mean that," he said. "I know you."

"Do you?... Do you really?" As the statement lingered between them, he turned around with something twisted growing in his eyes.

"Tell me, Jiraiya, when was the first time I thought about running away?"

The Toad Sage stood where he was for a moment, then let his gaze fall to the ground.

"Or when was the first time I realized I would never fit in with the crowd for a reason I couldn't understand?... When was the first time I cried myself to sleep because I realized that unlike everyone else at the academy, I didn't have a family?!" The ocean blue orbs slowly started to glaze.

"You know all the things that don't matter," he continued. "Ramen. The color orange. A crush. News flash – everyone knows those things. Meaningless… So no, Jiraiya, you don't know me. You're not even close."

Jiraiya nodded slowly then bit his lip. "Ok," he said. "Maybe I don't know you as well as I thought I did. I'm sorry for that. I really am. But if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that you're not a quitter. Don't start now, kid. We can still work this out, but you gotta do the right thing. You gotta come home."

"Home to what?!" he yelled. "People looking down on me and treating me like garbage?!"

"Home to the people that care about you, Naruto. People like Tsunade, Kakashi, Sakura, me. I care about you, Naruto."

"Do you? Do they? Cause no one ever told me."

"That was our mistake."

"And now I'm supposed to just act like it never happened," Naruto said, a sardonic chuckle on his lips. "Funny how that works."

"What do you want me to say, Naruto?"

"I don't want you to say anything! Twelve years of being the village reject and you want to fix it with a speech?!"

Jiraiya's lips curved downwards even more than before. "We do care about you."

"I don't care," Naruto said, looking back out the window. "I'm not going back."

"So you're just gonna leave it all behind? Forget Konoha? Forget who you are?"

"Who I am?" Naruto nearly laughed. "WHO I AM?! You wanna know who I am?! I'm the kid who used to act like nothing ever phased me, but cried myself to sleep at night! I'm the kid who everyone saw getting bullied and turned a blind eye to! I'm the kid people would call demon, monster, and every other sick name you could think of, as if they hadn't brought me low enough already!"

"That's not who you are."

"Stop lying to me!" he yelled, slamming a fist on the windowsill as his complexion reddened. "I don't want to hear it! The whole time I was living in Konoha, it was Naruto against the world, Naruto against the bullies, Naruto against this, Naruto against that, and nobody cared, but the moment I actually leave and start living out that reality, you come knocking?!"

"Naruto, don't-"

"I'm not done yet! In every epic story, there's always somebody! They're that one person who inspires the hero to greatness! W-w-w-w-who believes in them when no one else does. Who's more than just another friendly face! When I walked by you that day, I wanted you be that person! Youuuuu, Pervy Sage! I wanted you to tell me that everything was gonna be ok, and that what happened on that rooftop wasn't my fault!" His mouth opened as if to scream, but then he bit back the words and his voice fell quiet. "I wanted you to inspire me... But y-y-y-you just stood there like everyone else! You watched me go by! The only person who even talked to me later that day was Sakura. She offered to go out on a date with me because she wanted to tell me about Sasuke and his curse mark. I didn't really care much to be honest, but I supported her anyway, because she needed it. And, interestingly enough, she tried to do the same for me. She even offered me a date at Ichiraku's, but I said no. You know why? Because I didn't want her pity then, and I don't want your pity now! It's too late for all that, so get the hell out of my face and let me be!"

Jiraiya stood still, a straight-lipped stare now on his visage. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you..." he said lowly. "I thought you'd want to be alone and I was wrong. I realize that now."

"Yeah, now that the damage has been done, you've got a three-tomoe Sharingan."

At his statement, Jiraiya said nothing, and like a fogging mist, the silence drifted back into place. It felt as if there had somehow grown between them a dusty canyon, the open ravine growing larger and larger from both sides, rocks crumbling and shifting in the sand to leave a master and student miles apart, both stuck on opposite sides of an awesome void.

"I'm sorry." Jiraiya finally said. "I would say something else but, to be honest, I don't think it would matter. Yes, I failed you, Naruto. To be honest, I think we all did in some respect."

Naruto scoffed a chuckle. "Don't beat yourself up too hard, Pervy Sage. I kept my feelings to myself. I knew what I was doing then." His gaze fell a bit, and his next words were a whisper. "And I know what I'm doing now."

"That's where we disagree."

Naruto smirked at the statement, but then his gaze fell serious. All at once, the opposing sides of the canyon drew near and he could almost hear the crumbling and shifting of the rocks.

"You know what's funny," he continued, gaze far off into the distance. "I'm not even sure I want to be Hokage anymore."

Jiraiya's lack of movement made him appear a statue, and his lips parting in the shade was the only thing to break the illusion.

Naruto's gaze lowered. "And the truth is that the more I think about why I left, the more I wonder to myself, why the heck I even wanted to rule those people in the first place."

The pause before Jiraiya spoke was the first clue as to his state of mind. "But Naruto...if you really feel that way, what's this all about anyway?"

He shrugged and held it for a bit, then let it go. "I guess I don't really know. I know what I want to do, what I'm running towards, I just...don't know why I want to do it." He turned his hands over and looked down into his open palms. "You run away for the first time and you feel the adrenaline pumping so hard you can taste it. Then you get into the first real situation where your life's in danger, so you fight. You fight to survive..." His voice had fallen oddly mellow, and his tone held a grating sobriety. "And when you end up living to see another day, it feels good. But all the while there's that voice in your head letting you know you could've died, and it's then that you realize your life will never be the same. That you'll always have to be looking over your shoulder, that one mistake could be the difference between life and death. But you keep going," he smiled. "Because it's the path you chose... And that path gets cloudy and a lot darker than you thought it would be." He balled up a fist and let the other fall to the side. "Because it's then you start to realize that all of the things you thought were driving you weren't driving you at all. You start to realize you don't even understand yourself, much less your path, and by the time you realize you don't understand anything at all, you somehow understand one thing that terrifies you – you can't stop. You've just gotta keep runnin'."

"You can stop, Naruto. You can choose to stop."

"No... No, Jiraiya, I can't. I'm not going back to that place, that much I know."

Once again, there fell that silence they could not escape.

"You know," Naruto continued. "We used to practice reading with Iruka. Most times we read stories about crazy things like dragons and horses with wings." His gaze remained on the horizon, as if looking out to a place only he could see. "Fairies and monsters, pixies and giants...creatures of legend," he breathed. "It took me longer than it should have to realize I was one of them."

"That's not true."

"Yeah, it is," he said calmly. "But I'm ok with it. I know I'm a monster, or at least that I have one living in me." He turned back to Jiraiya, eyes hard. "And I tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna embrace it. I'm gonna work with him to get stronger than anyone ever thought I could be, then," He nodded slowly. "Then, I'll come back. Hokage or not, everyone's gonna see just all that Naruto Uzumaki can be. It'll all be worth it in the end." He laughed half-heartedly. "However this all turns out."

"Hm," Jiraiya mused. "If that's the case, then I think we've gotten down to the bottom of why you're doing all this. You just haven't realized it yet."

"Enlighten me."

"This isn't just about respect for you anymore, and to be honest, I don't think it ever was."

Naruto's gaze narrowed.

"If it was, you'd be ok with being Hokage, but you're not. This is something much deeper, Naruto, and something much more dangerous. This is a stubborn quest to nourish your ego and stroke your pride. And this goes much deeper than proving to everyone else you're somebody. I think deep down inside, you need to prove it to yourself, and that, Naruto...that is what you can't let go."

Naruto was silent for a moment, then smirked ever so slightly. "Yeah, sounds about right."

Jiraiya held his peace for a moment then pulled his lips into a tuck. "You know, it sounds like an amazing quest, Naruto – proving yourself to everyone around you and to yourself. Finally grabbing the spotlight and getting the attention you deserve, and it's definitely an understandable one given your upbringing. But I'd advise you to be careful, Naruto."

"What for?"

"Because chasing things like that never quite turns out the way you expect it to. Trust someone with a lot more life experience. You don't want to find out how that path ends."

"I'll take my chances. With all the crap I'm dealing with, I don't got much else to do anyway."

"Well, you may, but I won't."

"So, what? Now we fight and you bring me in?"

"Maybe."

"Good luck. With the fox on my side, I'm gonna give you all the trouble in the world."

"Enough about the fox," Jiraiya said firmly. "You're more than him. You're Naruto Uzumaki – the prankster, the jokester, the loud kid in class."

"You do realize that all of those things only exist because I was trying to cope with being a nobody."

"What about your other skills?"

"Like getting into trouble?"

"Contrary to popular belief, you're a skilled ninja. You think in unorthodox ways, but it works a lot of the time because you think of the solution no one else would think of. You're the most unpredictable ninja I've ever encountered. You mastered the Rasengan so fast that no one could believe it. You're a prodigy, Naruto."

"Maybe. But that doesn't stop people from looking down on me does it?"

Jiraiya sighed and dropped his head. "Maybe not. But with time that may change."

"That's exactly what I'm counting on."

"But you don't have to do it like this, Naruto. This is a harder path than you think, and a more dangerous one at that. Why this path, Naruto? Why not another way?"

Standing in silence with his eyes on the ground, he soon lifted his head and shifted his gaze back to the outer world. "You know, on this roguish adventure, I also found out something else I am."

"What's that?"

"Royalty...at least in some sense of the word."

The silence carried with it a solemn pressure and a shadow darker than the present shade.

"The fox told me who my father is."

A spell of silence passed between them before Jiraiya turned his gaze away, eyes on the ground as the revelation lingered in the air. Naruto stood where he was and made no sound, faint traces of moisture starting to glisten in his eyes. "How could you lie to me like that?" he said, turning around with furrowed brows.

Jiraiya kept his gaze on the ground, seeming to ponder something Naruto could not perceive.

Underneath Naruto's shaky breaths was an even shakier voice, and in his tone a tremble of disbelief. "I had to find out from the fox living in me that the Fourth Hokage was my father?"

Finally lifting his gaze, Jiraya spoke. "We swore an oath-"

"I don't care what you did! It was my right, and you helped them take it away from me!"

Jiraiya's lips pursed as he looked away.

"You and just about everyone else I know has been lying to me my whole life, and I had to learn from that stupid fox that my parents were the ones who sealed him in me." His fists balled up at his sides. "I never thought I'd see the day when I trusted him more than you."

"That's a mistake; you can't trust him."

"The only person I can't trust here is you. And apparently I can't trust anyone back in Konoha either." The hand he flung in their general direction looked like that of someone shooing a fly away. With a scoff, he turned back to the outside world. "So that's the why. This path is it for me. I'm not going back. And I'm most definitely not about to fight for a village that kept the truth from me about my own family."

"We did that to protect you. And we would've told you eventually."

"I don't deserve eventually," he stated. "No one does." Scoffing, he finished, "I'm so glad the fox overheard this stuff. If not, I'd still be in the dark."

Jiraiya nodded a few times, then spoke in an even tone. "You know, with all this talk about the fox, it seems you trust him a lot more now, don't you?"

"Right now, probably more than anyone I currently know, especially you."

"Hm, is that right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"So, the fox, he told you all about your parents, huh?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Interesting," Jiraiya said. "...Did he also tell you that he was the one who killed them?"

"...What did you just say?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya said, still nodding. "I thought he might have left out that small bit of information."

Naruto sat motionless, eyes squinting oddly as his chest started to rise and fall.

"You know, Naruto, I don't deny that a part of me kept this from you for the wrong reasons. I didn't want to face you with all these things, that much is undeniable. But there was another part of me that did everything I did to protect you. I didn't tell you who you were because I wanted to spare you. Spare you from the horror of knowing that the fox trapped inside of you is also the reason your parents are dead."

The cold indifference with which he spoke chilled Naruto to the bone, and he could do naught but stand with his eyes narrowed and mouth slightly agape.

"I wanted to spare you from growing up with knowledge that no child should ever have to bear. That's the truth, Naruto... I never told it to you because it's ugly. You're a twelve-year-old kid. I didn't want you to have to deal with all this."

Finally, he sniffled and shook his head. "No..." he said in what sounded like a tremble. "No, you're lying."

"Then ask him."

The canyon felt as if it had somehow brought them face to face.

That very instant, Naruto appeared in the darkened cage. Kurama was sitting up now, eyes alert and gazing out into the blackness, a scowl etched deep into his visage. There was the sound of one deep breath as Naruto inhaled to collect himself, then he let it go. "Tell me he's lying."

"He's got some nerve," Kurama said.

"That's not an answer."

"Give me control."

"Answer the question!" Naruto yelled.

Kurama half-scoffed, casting his gaze off to the side. "Come on, kid. Can't you see that he's just trying to distract you."

"Kurama," he said, eyes starting to water as he spoke through gritted teeth. "You're not answering me."

"Don't listen to a word from that old perv," he replied, turning back to him. "He's a liar. And he's just pulling some excuse out of whatever smut book he has hidden in those dirty pockets of his to try to tear us apart. We're stronger together."

Naruto's chest rose and fell as he replied. "So he's lying and it's not true?"

"..."

"Did you kill them?!"

Kurama looked down, eyes roaming back and forth in quick intervals as if the answer were dashing across the ripples. "...No!" he finally barked. "I don't know what he's talking about!"

Naruto's ragged breathing never stopped. Instead, it grew all the worse. Finally, he clutched at his chest, soon falling into the pool of troubled water on his side. In the darkness, his form was like that of a collapsed doll, the tiny waves surrounding his body on every side.

"Naruto?" Kurama questioned. "Naruto?! Naruto?!..."

At the lack of movement, a low growl resonated through the chamber, and the blood-red eyes shot up. He did this...

In the real world, Naruto's head lifted and the ocean blue eyes flashed to blood red.

"You..." Jiraiya said.

"Yeah, me," Kurama growled.

Jiraiya's mellow stare shifted to a dangerous leer. "What'd you do to Naruto?"

"Me?" Kurama scoffed. "You're the one to blame here."

"I'm sure that's what you'd like me to believe."

"No, this is all truth," Kurama stated. "He's currently unconscious because of you."

Jiraiya's gaze narrowed.

"And, you know, you've got some nerve."

"Why? Because I've exposed you as the fraud you are?"

"Exposed me?..." Kurama said. "Exposed me?!" he yelled. "Let me do some exposing!"

Jiraiya's lips pulled into a sneer.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you supposed to be this kid's godfather? The one to guide him in Minato's absence? To hold his hand and make sure he was ok? Running away from Konoha doesn't look ok to me!"

"Don't try to turn this on me," Jiraiya responded. "This is about what you did!"

"You wanna know what I did? I made this kid ten times stronger than you ever did. The best you ever did was teaching him one S-rank jutsu. You know what my best was? I gave him something much more valuable. I made him a survivor... Because every time he had a hole in his chest, every time he'd been blown half to kingdom come, I healed him. I brought him through those things. He's alive today cause every time he's at death's doorstep I'm right there pulling him back! He'd be dead without me."

"So now y-y-you're – what – some kind of savior?!"

"Whatever I am, I sure as hell aren't a monster! That title belongs to you. And you're the worst type of monster. Not the plain evil that's right before your eyes. No, you're the monster who won't admit that's what he is. The monster who acts like he's harmless, but has his kunai ready to stab you in the back the moment you turn away. Minato trusted you to raise his son in his absence and where were you, huh? Tell me, old man. Where were you when Naruto had to grow up with no real friends? When he spent all those nights crying himself to sleep? Peering through those binoculars? Know where I was? I was there."

"You didn't do anything for him."

"I don't care. Point is I was there and you weren't. Maybe you were on another one of your research trips, or attending to the important business of writing another one of those smut books you're so well known for. Either way, you weren't there when he needed you and now he's supposed to accept you with open arms? You can take your little high and mighty attitude and shove it. We're fine on our own."

"Spin this how you want. You know the truth, and you'll never escape it."

"Neither will you."

Jiraiya's gaze hardened even more than it already was. "I think it's about time I ended this."

"As if I'd let you."

"You're not going anywhere."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Just watch me." Yet when he tried to take his first step forward, he could feel the ground pulling back at his foot. Eyes widening as he looked down, he saw coating the floor and crawling up the walls mounds upon mounds of pink flesh, the sticky substance wrapping his sandals halfway up to his foot.

"This jutsu," Kurama growled, looking to Jiraiya.

"Yeah, this jutsu," Jiraiya repeated. "And it's called the Toad Mouth Bind if you're unaware, though I'm sure you remember it from when I fought Itachi and Kisame. I had it ready to coat the room in case Naruto tried to escape, I'm sure it'll work just as well on you."

"Don't hold your breath."

Jiraiya scoffed, his hands still together in a hand sign. "If Naruto were in control, I would've held back for his sake, but since it's just you and me, let's just say I won't be pulling my punches."

"Good," Kurama said, a coat of red chakra shooting out over his body and turning his appearance feral. "I'll do the same."

"I don't think so," Jiraiya said, a suppressing tag somehow already spun into his hand. "This fight is over."

"No," Kurama said, biting into his thumb. "It's only beginning."

Immediately, Jiraiya's eyes widened. "Don't!"

Yet the hand was viciously slammed into the ground, black markings exploding out into the pink flesh. That should do the trick...

"What have you done?..." Jiraiya breathed.

"Summoned one of your massively overgrown toad friends right above the hospital," Kurama said, sneer still in place. "And if you don't hop out that window and race to catch him, he's gonna flatten this hospital and everyone in it. To put it simply, you can stay here and catch me, or run out there and save hundreds of lives."

Growling and creating a shadow clone with lightning speed, Jiraiya spun out the window, the sound of his sandals running up the building faintly heard as the room started to be cast in a looming dark shadow.

"You may have gotten rid of the real me," the clone said, suppressing tag still in his hand. "But I'm gonna be more than enough to bring you in."

Kurama's gaze narrowed. As annoying as it was, the clone was right. All that toad trick did was stall for time and get rid of the real Jiraiya. With that suppressing tag drawing near, he was about to be taken out of the equation, and with Naruto already knocked out it meant a one-way trip back to Konoha. He needed a better idea, fast.

But then, something shot through the window with a sharp piercing whizz. With a sound like a sharp splitting of air, an arrow soared through the opening, slicing the tag in half and embedding itself in the pink flesh coating the floor. On its end was an explosive tag already halfway burned.

Both sets of eyes widened, then both heads turned towards the window. On the roof of a building adjacent was a figure holding a bow with red hair dancing in the wind. Both heads had barely turned back to the explosive tag when it happened. An explosion of orange and black and smoky brown blasting into their faces, the caving in of ceiling and wall, the buckling of formerly solid ground, a resounding boom filling the air and penetrating the walls.

"AH!" Kurama screamed, a loud yell flying from the Jiraiya clone's mouth as it also lost its footing. All around were sounds of crumbling debris and falling rocks, and the world immediately shifted to a grayish-black fog. Through the black and crumbling space, the both of them struggled, Kurama using his chakra to stick to a small section of the side wall that hadn't collapsed as rocks and debris rushed past him towards the ground. Jiraiya's clone clung the same just a few feet down. Despite the clouds of grayish black, it was obvious that the floor of the hospital room was now gone. Letting go of the wall meant falling at least two stories, an idea Kurama's injuries made him not particularly fond of, especially since they had already fallen a bit from the explosion. On top of it all, the air was hard to breathe now too. Coughing a bit, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings, blinking a few times as he tried to dispel the ringing in his ear. Shaking his head a bit and letting the double vision clear, he tried to look around, yet a pain in his arm drew his attention.

"Ugh!" he groaned, the single arm holding him to the wall feeling the strain of having all his weight bearing down on it. Taking a few moments to gather his breath, he looked down and grimaced. It was his bad arm that wasn't on the wall. His grimace deepened. Without it having had a chance to fully heal, swinging it up would be a massive pain, and that wasn't counting having to deal with the stupid cast it was in. He'd have to try it anyway... Growling and shutting his eyes, he steeled himself and took a deep breath. "Ok. Here goes..."

"Ahhh!" he screamed, swinging it up to hold on the other side. There was a sound of tearing in the cloth, but still it remained on his arm. It was a sooty gray color now though, and strips of tape had come loose as well, a fair deal of them hanging haphazardly off the sides. "Ok," he quickly rasped. "That's done. Now what next?" But then came the sound of a scurrying beneath and a clattering of rocks below. Looking down, he saw through the gray and black familiar streaks of gray hair dancing in its midst, and then a hand reaching through the darkness and sticking to a higher section of the wall.

"Crap," he mumbled, starting to climb upwards himself. "He's still on my tail." Looking upwards, he saw the hospital window from his room only a few feet ahead. "I gotta get outta here," he whispered, reaching towards a jagged edge as he continued his climb, all the while letting his head dance between eyeing Jiraiya and watching the window. Yet it was only as he lifted his injured arm that he realized what a chore lifting it would be. "Argh!" he screamed, barely able to even connect it back to the wall once he had let go. Groaning internally, he shut his eyes and tried to bite back the pain.

"You won't escape!" the voice called from below. "No matter how hard you try!"

Kurama growled and a burst of red chakra shot out over the cast, then with a strain, he lifted it off the wall and set it a bit higher. Wasn't the best way of making progress, but it'd have to do. The window wasn't too far off, and with only a few grapples he was there, but his fingers had barely gripped the windowsill when something wrapped around his ankle from down below. Looking down, he saw the grayish-white hair extended from the clone's head wrapping his ankle, his hands in a hand sign as he used his feet and knees to stick to the wall.

"ARGH!" Kurama screamed. Red chakra shooting out over his other hand, he rammed it into the wall next to him, the sooty finish exploding as his hand broke into the cement. Pulling out a chunk of wall the size of a soccer ball, he looked down to the clone with something frenzied in his eyes.

The clone's eyes widened as it looked up, and Kurama wasted no time making his intentions known. "EAT THIS!" he screamed, and with a violent toss, the rock was sent careening below.

The clone's eyes widened before he tried to undo the hand seal and let the hair retreat to his head, but it was too late. "DAW!" he cried as the rock hit him square in the face, his footing on the wall coming undone, his dusty form disappearing into the smoke and soot, his red sandals the last thing seen as he spiraled down into the dark. Kurama only heard the poof of smoke as he dispelled below. "Jerk," he mumbled, still sneering at the recently defeated enemy.

"Hey!" beckoned a feminine voice from above, and Kurama's head swiveled to look. The outside brilliance of the sun highlighted the red hair framing her face, and he immediately recognized it as the girl from before.

"Give me your hand," she said, half her body in the dusty hospital and the other half holding her from outside the window.

Considering it for a moment, he reached up towards her and let her pull him up. Grunting a bit, she lifted him through the opening then let him stick to the wall with his chakra.

"You good?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"We gotta get movin'."

Kurama nodded to agree.

The both of them using their chakra and a bit of skilled footing to get down to floor level, they fell into a run. It was only as the rapid clattering of their sandals treaded the ground that Kurama asked the question lingering in his mind. "Why're you helping me?"

"Better question," she responded. "Why do you sound like you hit puberty twice over?"

"Answer the question," he said.

Huffing a small chuckle, she answered, "I thought it'd be obvious."

Kurama said nothing and kept staring.

"I owed you one, remember?"

Thinking back to the warehouse encounter for a bit, he clenched his jaw as he eyed her from the side. "Yeah, guess so."

"Come on, I've got a place not too far from here."

"We can disappear there?"

"You bet."

Setting his face forward, he decided to let her lead the way, cutting with her into an alley. Her help was much unexpected, but there was no way he'd refuse it now. Hopefully, she'd be able to help him better navigate this place, or even better, find a quick way out.

...

Jiraiya stood on the side of the building near the open window he had rushed out of, looking into the room as wads of grayish-black smoke wafted out from within. His shadow clone's memories had hit him only seconds ago, but it would seem he was already too late. Naruto was gone. Where to? Once again, he had no idea. He should've just brought him in when he had the chance. Scowling and making his way down to street level, he considered summoning the toads again. Or maybe he could sense him out... He probably wasn't that far away right now, and if he wasn't being careful, his chakra would stick out like a sore thumb. But before he could do anything at all, he sensed a stirring at his feet.

Performing a deft backflip into a sideways spin, he only barely avoided a series of black markings that had appeared in a circle where he was standing. A seal...

Looking around, he saw four shinobi with Kimyona attire on, their hands only now letting go of the hand signs for their failed trap. "What is this?" Jiraiya questioned.

"This, my friend, is an official notice that you're under arrest," one bulky ninja said, voice deep and gruff.

"Arrest?" he questioned. "What for?"

"Disturbing the peace," said another, voice sharp and nasally. "And endangering the general public."

"I didn't summon that toad," he defended. "My student-"

"Sorry, chief," said another with distinctly spiky, blue hair. "Doesn't matter who summoned what. Truth is Tororu gave you a pass when you caused that midtown disturbance, but almost flattening a hospital is something no one can ignore. So you gonna come willingly, or we gonna have to beat it outta ya?"

Jiraiya eyed the blue-haired man, then glanced at the others. Great. Just what he was trying to avoid. This was now a village-wide incident. Sighing a bit, he let his hands relax at his sides. "I'll come willingly."

Author's note:

Whew! A lot going on this chapter, yeah? Lots of revelations and changes and crazy stuff floating around in the mix. Hopefully, you all enjoyed reading it. I always planned to have these great revelations taking place so I'm glad we've finally gotten to it. Now it just remains to be seen what happens from here. If you enjoyed the read, please consider leaving a review. I'd really appreciate it! :) It really helps with motivation too. Believe it or not, some of these chapters can be a bit tough to write and hearing that people are engaged and interested is a massive help. That being said, you all stay safe, and I'll see you in the next one.