Itachi groaned in pain as he deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan, the pain was getting worse with each use. The exhaustion side effect of the Tsukuyomi was not helping either, another use and he wouldn't last a minute in a serious fight. But he had prepared for this.

The elder Uchiha reached inside his cloak with his right hand and fumbled around for a moment. He pulled out a small container of pills. He twisted off the cap and, like taking a swig of sake, brought the bottle to his mouth and swallowed a few of the contents.

Placing the bottle back in his cloak, Itachi stepped over Kakashi's unconscious body and began to make his way out of the training field he was in. He stopped momentarily and glanced back over his shoulder to look at his old comrade, then continued his path.

A few minutes passed after Itachi's departure when a third man entered the field and landed next to Kakashi. A long, white spikey ponytail swayed as he looked over the unconscious jōnin.

"They're early…"

-With Naruto-

Forcing himself not breakout in a fit of laughter, Kisame crouched next to the barely conscious boy. "Truth be told, this makes a little sad. I would've loved to fight a more mature and experienced you." Seeing it no longer necessary to cut up his prey, Kisame swung Samehada to his back. He grabbed the boy's leg and began to drag him.

Chirp chirp chirp chirp…

The deafening sound of a thousand birds suddenly overwhelmed the area, catching the rouge shinobi's attention. Kisame was forced to drop Naruto's leg and jump as the ground seemingly exploded. Kisame brought his hand back to Samehada's golden hilt and watched the dust settle, a smirk forming on his face.

'Those two really are brothers…it's like I'm staring at a younger version of Itachi…Sharingan and all.'

Sasuke's Sharingan glare narrowed at the strange man's smirk. Shifting his eyes, he noted the current state of both his teammates. Naruto was laid in a pool of his own blood and Sakura had barely moved. Black tattoo-like markings began to slowly spread from his left shoulder.

"What did you do…?"

Kisame completely disregarded the question. "So, your Sasuke, huh? I've heard a lot about you." He continued as he brought his sword forward. "I was hoping I'd get to run into you while I was here. There are a lot of people expecting great things from you, I want to see what all the fuss is about."

Sasuke hid his intimidation by allowing the curse mark to spread up his neck and stop just below his jawline. He could easily tell that this guy was strong if he was able to put Naruto into that state. "What did you do to them?" There still was no response. "Damn it, answer me!"

"Sa…Sasuke…"

A pained call from behind him caused Sasuke to turn back and look at his friend. Naruto was trying to push his battered body off the ground. "Stay down Naruto! You've done enough!"

Naruto slammed his fist into the ground and grit his teeth, he focused his eyes on his teammate. He could see the curse mark spreading up his neck. "I'm…alright, just…give me a minute." He pushed himself even harder.

With his Sharingan activated, Sasuke could see two different chakra signatures being gathered at his comrade's wounds. But the foreign chakra was much more prominent than Naruto's own chakra. The realization coming to him that the foreign chakra was slowly healing the injuries. 'That must be the Kyuubi's influence, normally I can't see the beast's chakra inside of Naruto. From the looks of its Naruto's used up most of his chakra and the Nine-Tails is compensating the rest…I guess that explains why he has so much chakra. But for Naruto to be in such bad shape…these two must've been fighting for a while now.'

It was that black crow that tipped Sasuke off that something was wrong. To Sasuke, black crows were a bad omen. The second he saw that damn bird land on a pole, and he noticed the red tint in its eye, Sasuke's adrenaline went into overdrive. He had only seen that crow once before in his life. The night everything in his life changed.

The night he killed everyone.

Sasuke was sprinting as fast as he possibly could to find him, that crow was an invitation for Sasuke. An invitation for a fight. He had come back for whatever reason and it was today that the nightmare would end. All the pain and suffering would be stopped. Today, the Uchiha clan would be avenged.

He just had to get past a fish out of the water.

Kisame noticed the fast spreading marks on the young Uchiha and was interested by them. He had never seen something like that before, he had an idea where they came from and who was responsible for it but that hardly mattered. This was perfect, if Kisame was honest, Itachi said not to use lethal force against either of these two. But he never said anything defending himself.

Kisame began to run with Samehada being dragged behind him, tearing the ground as he charged. Sasuke's Sharingan flared as he charged head long into this fight. Samehada came in fast and smooth from the Uchiha's left, Sasuke ducked and jumped back up for an uppercut. Kisame was far too advanced for a simple tactic and was already able to dodge the strike. Sasuke had predicted his opponent to dodge and planned accordingly, he executed a series of hand seals and built up chakra in his mouth.

Staring Kisame directly in the eye, Sasuke spit fire out of his mouth. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

The resulting explosion was near instant, the black cloud of smoke trailed off into the air. Sasuke jumped out of the cloud and landed near his original starting point. He was certain he had landed a critical blow; his scorched clothing was evidence enough for that.

"That wasn't bad, I won't lie." Kisame spoke through the smoke. He swung his massive sword and dispersed the smoke, revealing that his left sleeve had been burned up to the elbow. "I can't tell who's stronger right now, you or the fox kid back there. But I will say your Sharingan has progressed very well, whatever that black shit is on your neck really works for you."

Sasuke wasn't necessarily surprised to see that Kisame come out of that last attack virtually untouched. He had hoped for a bit more than a burnt sleeve but if this guy was as strong as he claimed to be then a fireball to the face at pointblank range wasn't going to be nearly enough to beat this guy. He was going to have to go all out from the beginning again…why was this becoming a regular occurrence?

The young Uchiha went through the three necessary hand seals and gripped his left wrist to hold his hand in place as lightning began to arch from his palm with the sound of a thousand birds filled the area. Sasuke's Sharingan eyes glared at Kisame as he funneled every ounce of his chakra into his jutsu. And it seemed the curse mark affected the jutsu because there were flashes of purple in the sea of the blue lightning coming from Sasuke's hand.

Kisame caught a hint of a familiar chakra. 'So, that snake had a hand in those black markings. Itachi mentioned once he tried to take his Sharingan, this must be the second attempt. I wonder how he'll react to that…'

Kisame swung Samehada over his head and attached the sword to his back. Unlike that jutsu Naruto used, Samehada won't be able to block lightning, even if it was chakra. He was going to have to overpower it. Honestly, he might have to get a little serious. Water was a good defense against lightning but that was a double-edged sword, lightning would hurt him greatly if the electrified water touched him. Things were certainly about to get interesting.

Kisame created a single hand seal and the remaining water began to swirl around his lower arm in the shape of shark's mouth. "Suiton: Same Kōshō." (Water Style: Shark Bite)

A tremor seemed to run through the area as Sasuke exploded from his position towards Kisame, thrusting his hand forward. "Chidori!" Just as Sasuke was about to clash Kisame's miniature shark, his movements suddenly were halted. The young Uchiha looked up to the very man he had been wanting to kill, the one who spared him that night to be the avenger that he was always meant to be. Itachi stopped Sasuke's curse mark powered Chidori from clashing with Kisame's jutsu with a simple grip of his wrist, completely deactivating the lightning.

Kisame couldn't help by sigh as he deactivated his jutsu. "You just had to ruin my fun, didn't you…?"

Itachi glanced at his partner out of the corner of his eyes. "I said no lethal force, Kisame…on either of them."

"YOU!" Sasuke's eyes flared as he roared in unrivaled fury, his curse mark spreading further across his face and practically covering his upper torso. He swung himself up to kick Itachi in his head which was easily blocked, but the purpose was to free himself from Itachi's grip and it worked. Sasuke landed back towards Naruto, who was still struggling to even get to his knees. Breathing hard, Sasuke strained his eyes as he glared at his older brother.

The memory of that night was, and will be forever, scorched deep in his mind, haunting his dreams every single night. Every single man, woman, and child of the Uchiha clan had been slain, Sasuke just so happened to be out training late when the massacre happened. He ran through the entire compound hoping that someone was still alive, someone had survived. Tears rolling down his face, Sasuke feared the absolute worst when he reached his home and saw the blood splatters on the windows.

Once inside, he found every ounce of courage to open the door to his parent's room. There he saw his mother and father piled together on the ground with large gashes in their bodies with their killer standing over them. Sasuke's very own beloved older brother, Itachi.

It was him, Itachi had killed them all. Sasuke knew it the second he realized it was him standing over their parent's bodies. He screamed at the sight of his parent's lifeless bodies and collapsed, his fear and disbelief overtook him. He was somehow able to muster the question why. The answer almost seemed beyond comprehension.

"It was to test my abilities. No more, no less. It had to be done for the sake of my own accord."

"…I've been waiting for this for so long!" A third Chidori was slowly being formed, Sasuke's chakra had been utterly drained from the first two. But that hardly matter to Sasuke, everything was going to end today. Blue quickly turned to purple as the curse mark began to compensate for the lack of chakra. "I've lived hating the mere thought of you!" The heat emitting from Sasuke's jutsu was immense, it was burning his hand and scorching his clothes. "And I've lived with the sole purpose of killing you!" Gripping his collar with enough force to tear off his tattered shirt, exposing the black markings across his chest and stomach, Sasuke roared as he charged with his hand engulfed in purple lightning.

"I'VE LIVED FOR THIS MOMENT MY WHOLE LIFE! TODAY IS THE DAY YOU DIE, ITACHI UCHIHA!"

Itachi seemed less than worried that his younger brother was charging at him with the power of a lightning storm in the palm of his hand, he was more focused on the tattoo-like tome that were across Sasuke's entire upper body and head. Predicting every step of Sasuke, Itachi reached out and caught Sasuke by the neck. The lightning disappeared instantly.

Itachi lifted Sasuke off the ground and brought him in close, their headbands practically touching. Sasuke used his remaining strength to try and break free but it was no use. His chakra was all but gone and the curse mark wasn't helping anymore. Was that everything? After all that's happened, that was it? What was he doing all this time? Why was the gap between their power so vast?

Itachi examined the black markings as they were slowly receding back to their origin on Sasuke's neck. He could recognize the chakra clear as day, it was a perfect match. He would have to figure out a way to deal with that later.

"You can't kill me because you don't have enough…hate."

The words echoed inside Sasuke's mind, giving him new life in his drive to kills his older brother. He looked into Itachi's eyes and instantly regretted it. He was thrown into a dark world and was forced to live out the horrors of the night everything changed for an everlasting twenty-four hours, which past in a mere second in the real world. Sasuke's entire body went limp as he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

"So, that was the great Uchiha family reunion…I'm a little disappointed, I expected that kid to put up more of a fight." Kisame commented as he moved next to his partner and noticed his state, Itachi was near exhaustion. "And here you are lecturing me about lethal force while you are pushing yourself to the brink with that ultimate genjutsu of yours. That must've been the second time, right?"

Itachi said nothing as he looked on towards the blonde he had come here for.

Naruto was able to make it to his knees as the Kyuubi's healing factor finally kicked in, steam rose out of the tears in his jacket as the wounds closed. He looked on as Sasuke laid motionless on the ground, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Sakura was still struggling to remain conscious herself. He was out of options and time, he needed to save them both before anything more could happen to them.

"It's time for you to come with us, Naruto." Itachi said as he moved towards their target.

A soft whistle made the elder Uchiha look curiously at Naruto before a quick flash of light caused Itachi to stop in his tracks. The blonde was now holding a black bladed katana with an orange tassel on the end of the hilt. Naruto's facial features had changed as well, his eyes were now demonic red with silted pupils and his whisker birthmarks had widened and darkened considerably.

"I'm not going any-"

Both Kisame and Itachi looked on perplexed, Naruto had stopped mid-sentence and froze. His eyes widened greatly as a small trail of blood fell out of the corner of his mouth. Itachi focused his Sharingan and noticed the irregular beat of his heart, something was wrong. Naruto dropped to the ground face first, Tojin disappeared before it was able to touch the ground.

"Okay then…" Kisame commented as he wondered what just happened. "Is he playing possum?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. I can see his heart beat, it's irregular and can't regain a normal rate." He focused his Sharingan even further to analysis Naruto's chakra system. "He isn't exerting any chakra, so this isn't a jutsu."

"So, you're saying he had a heart attack?"

"More or less."

Kisame shrugged and began walking towards the boy. "Lucky break for him." He chuckled. "Now I don't have to chop off a leg."

The rouge shinobi stopped in front of the young jinchūriki and bent down to pick up the body. Just as he was about to grab Naruto's collar, a strong kick came in and hit Kisame hard. The impact alone had enough force to send the shark man back, the follow through sent him flying. Kisame had no idea what hit him until he had come to a stop after crashing into a decent number of trees.

Itachi watched unaffected as his partner was sent packing through a handful of timber. He wasn't surprised by the man who did it either, it was the only man inside of Konoha that could do that. The Legendary Toad Sannin, Jiraiya, had finally showed up.

Jiraiya immediately knelt down next to his godson and looked over him. He recognized what was happening and his anxiety went into overdrive. He glared daggers at the elder Uchiha. "What did you do to him, Itachi?"

Itachi remained stoic. "What happened to him was not mine or Kisame's doing, it was natural."

"Bullshit! What's happening to Naruto right now was cured a long time ago."

"Believe what you want, Sannin. My conscious is clear about him. No matter if he lives or dies, the Akatsuki will gain control over the Kyuubi. One way or the other."

Jiraiya was not willing to play this game any longer, he had only moments before the other member would return. He had no doubt he could take them both on at the same time until backup arrived, but he didn't want to just fight them. He wanted to end them. Plan or not, Itachi Uchiha crossed a line he shouldn't have.

Standing to his full height, Jiraiya drew blood from a bite to his thumb and smeared down from the inner corner of both his eyes and across the red lines already on his face. He was going to go all out from the start and Itachi noticed this. Kisame jumped back into view and landed next to Itachi, Samehada drawn.

"Finally, someone to give me a real challenge!"

"No Kisame, we did not come here to start a war with this village. We need to fall back and recover."

Kisame glanced at his partner. "What's with your change in tune?"

"This is one of the legendary three we spoke about earlier. Even at full strength, the two of us together would have a difficult time defeating him. Besides, I've used my Sharingan too much today, I need to rest."

Kisame's mind clicked with the information and conclude the same thing, fighting a member of the Sannin was no easy task. Especially with one that was this pissed off, definitely not a good idea. The shark man sighed and swung Samehada onto his back. "Very well, let's go."

The two Akatsuki members merged into a very close proximity and a swarm of black crows appeared around them until the red clouds on their robes disappeared into nothing, the crows soon followed their creator. Jiraiya made no effort to follow, those two were not his priority. The white-haired Sannin spun on his heels and brought his godson into his arms, he placed his hand over Naruto's chest to feel what his heartbeat was like. It was far worse than he expected.

'It's a strong beat but irregular, it's a lot worse than last time. I need to get Tsunade back to Konoha fast!'

Jiraiya hoisted Naruto in his arms and positioned him over his shoulder, he had to keep his other arm free for the other two. That's when he noticed something he missed when he first arrived, something he should have seen but was too focused on his godson to care about anything else.

"Hey!" He called out towards a particular bush. "Get over here and grab your friends, they need your help!"

The shrub shifted momentarily until two girls burst out in a panic. Ino and Hinata had been hiding in that same bush ever since Ino had figured out which way Sasuke had went after he took off. The pair ran up to Jiraiya, unsure what to do next.

"How long were you two out there?" Jiraiya questioned, as he picked up the unconscious Uchiha boy with his free arm. "What did you hear?"

"I-I-I-I-I-" Hinata couldn't help her horrible stutter at the sight of Naruto, and Sakura and Sasuke for that matter, in such a defeated state.

"W-Who are you?" Ino quivered. "W-Where are you taking them? Who were those guys?" She had just witnessed two strangers destroy three of their friends, Jiraiya understood her skepticism.

"I'm a friend of Naruto's, we'll be taking them to the hospital. But whatever you two heard you will not speak of it to anyone, understand?" The two girls dumbly nodded in agreement. "Good. Now, go grab your pink headed friend over there and follow me to the hospital, okay?"

"A-Are they going t-to be alright?" Hinata managed to form a coherent sentence.

Jiraiya forced the best smile he could. "Everything is going to be okay, little one. We gotta go. Now!"

-With Sakura in Naruto and Sasuke's hospital room-

The pink-haired kunoichi of Team Seven sat between the two beds of her fully unconscious teammates and continued to wonder what all just had happened in last few hours. She was barely conscious herself when she was brought to the hospital, the only thing she could remember clearly was that Ino and Hinata were the ones to carry her through the door. Everything leading up to that point was all a blur to her.

Sakura rubbed her bandaged midsection, she didn't think a single kick could crack a few ribs. Then again, Naruto did mention a person who could kill with a single punch, so she figured it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Especially since that shark looking guy was able to handle Naruto without much effort. But that's not why Naruto was in the hospital.

According to Jiraiya, Naruto's heartbeat was irregular, and it was causing his body to shut down. He used another word that really caught Sakura's attention: cancer. That word just breathed something bad that Sakura didn't like. Sasuke was in a similar boat apparently, his mind had taken a considerable amount of damage and trauma that he was forced into a coma. No medic could do anything for either of them.

Sakura looked around the room. Ino was on the other side of Sasuke's bed while Hinata was on the other side of Naruto's bed, while Jiraiya had just left to 'go get things ready'. Whatever that meant, Sakura had no idea.

"Okay, okay, okay…I need some help here, Sakura." Ino began as she moved around Sasuke's hospital bed to stand in front of her best friend. "I'm going to ignore who those guys were that attacked Sasuke and Naruto for now, but I am not going to ignore that guy who just left! Who was he?"

Sakura sighed, she did not want to deal with Ino's outbursts right now. "That was Lord Jiraiya, one of the three legendary Sannin."

The word 'Sannin' clicked in Ino's head and why it sounded so familiar. One of those three legendary shinobi had just invaded the village, with a combination of Suna and Oto forces, and killed the Third Hokage, whose funeral had just been held earlier that day. "You mean he's a teammate of that Orochimaru guy who killed the Hokage?"

"I think 'was' is a better word but yeah, they were teammates. But we already knew that from Iruka sensei when we were in the academy."

"Yeah, I remember. But that doesn't explain why he's around us genin."

"Lord Jiraiya is Naruto's godfather." Sakura said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Ino's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "What?! You mean to tell me that Naruto is related to a freaking Sannin?!"

"Look Ino, Naruto isn't very keen on the whole sharing thing, alright? And they aren't related, Lord Jiraiya is Naruto's caretaker!"

"Alright alright." Ino put her hands up as a sign she wasn't going to question Sakura about Naruto anymore. For some reason she was getting irritated by them. "Then who were the guys who attacked you guys? They didn't seem like normal ninja."

"Y-Yeah. When I used my Byakugan, I saw the one with the sword had e-extremely high chakra reserves." Hinata added.

"I really don't know who those guys are, Naruto didn't seem to either. But they knew him."

"They did?" Ino asked.

Sakura shrugged, though it caused her a bit of pain. "That's what the shark guy said."

Suddenly, the door to the hospital room opened and Jiraiya stepped back in, now with a bag attached to his broad back. He completely ignored the three kunoichi in the room and watched straight up to his godson's bedside. He placed his hand on the unconscious boy's shoulder. "I'll be here when you wake up this time…I promise."

Sakura couldn't help but eavesdrop on the private words. "Are you going somewhere, Lord Jiraiya?"

The white-haired Sannin looked at the pinkette. "Yes…I am. You don't have to worry, I'll be back."

"Where are you going?" Ino asked.

"I'm going to find the one person who can help these two."

"I'm coming too!" Sakura burst to her feet but immediately felt the pain of her injuries, she wrapped her arms around her already bandaged midsection.

Jiraiya smirked, that tenacity reminded him of the very same woman he was about to retrieve. He wished he could go see her under better circumstances, perhaps she'd more welcoming that way, but Tsunade will be running back to Konoha the second he tells her about Naruto's condition. "I appreciate the offer, but I'll be okay on my own."

"Please, Lord Jiraiya, allow me to accompany you…for Naruto's sake. He's been there for me, allow me to be there for him. I made a promise to him too."

Jiraiya mulled over the idea of this girl coming with him, if he remembered right her name was Sakura, he originally was going to have Naruto come with him so it would be easier to convince Tsunade to return to the village but that was no longer an option. "Go home and pack a bag. If you aren't at the gate in an hour, I'm leaving without you. If you can't keep up, I'm leaving you behind. We do not have time to waste."

Sakura nodded as she ran past her two friends and the Sannin, rushing to her home to throw whatever she had whatever available into a bag. She wasn't sure what she'd encounter on this journey, but if it meant she could protect Naruto for a change…Sakura was willing to see it through to the end.

-Somewhere in the Land of Fire, Tanzaku Town-

Tanzaku Town, the capital of gambling inside the Land of Fire. It was home to some of the best bars, brothels, and casinos…not to mention the scum and villainy that came with that. For every game, there will always be a winner, a cheater, and a loser. This town was home to all three. And the most famous loser of them all just lost the last of her money in the most rigged shell game.

Two women walked away from the street game and headed towards their hotel room, that they would need to figure out how to pay for now. The first woman had fair skin and straight blond hair that parted above her forehead, which adorned a purple diamond in the center, that reached her lower back tied in a pony-tail. She was a slender, curvaceous woman with noticeably large breasts. She wore green-grass haori with the kanji for gamble on the back, inside a red circle, over a grey, kimono-style blouse that was held closed by a broad, blue obi belt that matched her pants. The second woman was also fair-skinned and had onyx eyes and jet-black, straight shoulder-length hair. She wore a long bluish-black kimono with white trimmings, held closed by a white obi belt. In her arms was a small, pinkish pig with a white pearl necklace. Both women had open-toed sandals with low-heels.

Once inside their hotel room, the blonde woman flopped on the bed in frustration as she continued to rack her brain on how they were going to pay for their supplies and growing debts. "I hate losing…"

"Lady Tsunade," the black-haired woman began, "maybe that street game wasn't the best idea…those games are almost always rigged."

"You saw that jackpot sitting next to him Shizune! I would've been a sucker had I not played!"

"Well, the 'Legendary Sucker' is your nickname…" Shizune muttered under her breath.

"What was that?!"

"N-Nothing m'lady!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at her apprentice/attendant. She knew Shizune meant well and was always looking out for her, but she wished once the woman would have a backbone and not whisper when saying things like that. The blonde Sannin reached inside her pocket and pulled out a ticket stub for a lottery, the ticket stub had a set of numbers on it and the jackpot was worth her weight in ryo. The overseer of the event said that the winning set of numbers would be announced in the weekly newspaper, which came out today.

Tsunade read the numbers on her stub then the numbers in the newspaper. She repeated the process a few times. "Hm."

"What is it, Lady Tsunade? Did all the numbers match up?"

"…Yeah, they did. I won the five million ryo jackpot."

Shizune took in a deep breath, as if she was about to let out a loud scream of joy, but the noise died in her throat when she noticed her master's expression. She looked bothered, a troubled expression adorned her features. She thought Tsunade would be full of joy winning that lottery, the amount had enough to clear her debts and them some. "Is everything alright, m'lady?"

'How could I win something like this? I've got a bad feeling.'

-With Sakura and Jiraiya-

If Jiraiya was to say anything, he'd have to say he was extremely impressed by what Sakura had done for the past few days in their race to Tsunade. To start off, Sakura was waiting for him at Konoha's main gate with her bag ready to go. She said she was prepared to be gone for two weeks and that she was ready for anything. Secondly, she kept up with him. While the duo wasn't moving terribly fast, Jiraiya set the pace at a decent speed. It was apparent the girl had been doing a lot of speed training to get to her current level. And lastly, she knew medical ninjutsu. They had stopped to catch their breath and eat a quick meal when she used an entry level healing technique to help with the pain of her ribs. When Jiraiya asked where she learned medical ninjutsu, of course Sakura's answer was Naruto. The Sannin honestly should have saw that one coming.

Currently, the pair had stopped for the day and had just checked into a roadside inn. Because they were staying for one night, the inn keeper said they would have to share a room. Jiraiya decided to be respectful and allowed Sakura to do whatever hygiene she needed in privacy. The young girl was thankful for that. Rumors about the Sannin being a huge pervert were circulating around the village since his return a month ago. Naruto never mentioned anything about him being a pervert, but then again Naruto rarely talked about the man as it was.

Once Jiraiya was back in the room, the two sat on separate cots and relaxed a bit. Sakura couldn't help but noticed what the Sannin was doing, he was shifting through a bunch of papers and writing notes in a book.

"What are you doing, Lord Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya continued his actions as he answered the pinkette's question. "I am compiling all of my scratch notes and other ideas into one notebook, so I don't have go looking for them."

"What are the notes for?"

"My fourth, and highly anticipated, book. Icha Icha Tactics!"

"Oh, I didn't know you were an author-wait" The title of the book finally clicked in Sakura's mind, she remembered that it was the first novel in the series that won Team Seven their bell test when they first became a team. "you're the author of that series?!"

A perverted chuckle came from the Sannin. "Yes. That is me, I'll sign your copy if you'd like."

"No way! I'll never own a copy of that smut!"

Jiraiya was visibly offended. "Smut?! Icha Icha is one of the best-selling series of all time! There are even talks of a film adaptation!"

Sakura responded in dramatic fashion. "That'll be a straight porno though! How will any theater be able to show that?!"

Jiraiya huffed and crossed his arms. "Porno?! You've obviously never read a single page. A mind such as yours would never be able to understand the complex love story that lies between those covers. I doubt Naruto ever said one positive thing about my books."

That's when the uplifting, humorous atmosphere changed. "No, he hasn't. Naruto rarely talked about anything personal, it took him a while to open up to us."

Jiraiya dropped his 'offended' demeanor. "Yeah…I guess I'm to blame for that…sorry."

Sakura had a lot of questions for this man, ranging from how he could leave to why he writes erotic novels. But one question stood above the rest of them. A curiosity that had been sitting in the back of her mind since that day in the forest during the Chūnin Exams.

"What was Naruto like before you left him in the village?"

Jiraiya was silent momentarily before smirking slightly at the memories. "He was a good kid…energetic and always ready to help. The kid had a knack for brightening anybody's day, it never failed. Nothing ever got him down and he was always smiling."

Sakura could only recall Naruto smiling a few times. "I really don't see him smile much."

"That's because you aren't looking at him when he does. I know my leaving him has probably changed him forever and that cheerful little guy I remember may never fully come back…that's something I gotta live with. But I do know this: he smiles at you."

"M-Me?"

Jiraiya nodded with a knowing smirk. "I know my godson, I can read him like a book I wrote. I can tell you are a big reason he keeps going. I know a lot of stuff happened to him in the past six years that changed him even further, but you are always a constant in his mind."

Sakura took this information in and sat with it. She already knew this, in a sense. Just the other day, it was revealed to her that Naruto promised to protect her because she gave him a flower on the day he came to the village. But hearing it from the man who practically raised Naruto was something entirely different. It made her feel special to him, the fact he chose her over himself was heartwarming and very sweet. But that only made her want to keep that promise she made to him even more, Naruto wasn't going to be alone anymore.

"Naruto made a promise that he'd protect me everything he had because I gave him a flower after the villagers attacked on that day. He still has the flower, too, he keeps it on him. And I promised him that he'd never be alone again. That's a promise I'm never going to break."

Jiraiya closed his eyes and smiled warmly. He was glad to hear Naruto had a friend like her to make sure that he'd always have someone to fall back on. He felt more at ease now, Naruto was doing alright. "That's really good to hear." The Sannin let out a yawn. "We should get some sleep, we have another day or two of traveling ahead of us before we reach Tanzaku."

Sakura nodded and crawled under covers, snuggling herself in deep as her mind drifted off into slumber. She couldn't help but feel lucky she had someone like Naruto in her life…