A/N: A little late, but thankfully not as bad as SOME of my stretches of non-writing. Mostly because this time it was all real life hating me with little to no writers-block related issues. Once the universe stopped hating me, it was pretty easy to write it all!

Ironically, the reason it's three days late from my normal Sunday/Monday posting is cause I got kicked out of the coffee shop on Sunday cause they were closing, but this chapter just wanted to be LONGER.

Like.

Reverse-writer's-block I guess. This chapter was just like, bruh we're gonna be long, and I'm just like THEY LITERALLY CLOSE IN TWO MINUTES BRAIN!

So yeah, I hope that means it balances out? Lol

Also, warning to those who care (and don't mind minor chapter spoilers) – I have chosen to introduce one of my favorite fanon tidbits into this fic.

I will be honest, I actually forgot it WASN'T Naruto canon until my roommate was like, BRUH I DON'T REMEMBER THIS DID I MISS SOMETHING? And then I was like oops but I decided to keep it in anyway. Cause I very much love the angst-potential of Kushina and Minato wanting to adopt Kakashi before they died.

Oops.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy! I'm a little nervous because this chapter didn't have as many issues pointed out in it as last chapter, and I am ironically the kind of person who feels better when my beta readers find LOTS of errors instead of only a couple I do not know why please don't ask-

ANYWAY yes thanks for reading again I'm gonna stop rambling now.

Naruto hadn't even realized how much time had passed while they were practicing their water-walking, but it's almost dark by the time Jiraiya starts the fire, and it's cold.

Wind blows through the trees, and he shivers, scooting closer to the fire while shrugging off his jacket. One glance at Sasuke nearly has him choking on a laugh, the jerk practically sitting on the firestones, goosebumps up his arms, staring at Jiraiya and resolutely refusing to shiver.

He sneaks a glance at Natsu, already snickering as he pictures Natsu all huddled up and shivery, only to stop and gape once he turns around.

Natsu's sitting cross-legged, leaning back on his hands with steam wafting off him, every now and then a little bit of fire showing up and disappearing again and that's so not fair-!

But also really really cool.

He leaps over, his own chill all but forgotten as he tries to ask how Natsu's doing it, cause he said he was out of chakra, 'ttebayo-!

Natsu's warm.

Waaaaaaay warmer than the fire, even just sitting next to him it's like Naruto's in one of those fancy onsen where the room's enclosed so everything is suuuuuper warm and cozy and he cuts off his questions as he scoots closer.

"So waaaaaaarm," he melts, sprawling over Natsu's legs, and in the time it takes him to blink, Sasuke's showed up too, not touching but still sitting close on Natsu's other side.

The goosebumps fade away, and the jerk stops looking like someone swapped his spine with a metal rod, gradually relaxing as the chill fades away.

Jiraiya whines.

"What, is my fire not good enough for you brats?" he asks with a stern expression.

Naruto sticks his tongue out at the man as Sasuke gives a disinterested 'hn', like he always does, seriously, it's not like it makes him cool or anything, 'ttebayo!

Natsu's the only one who really answers, voice tinged with bemusement. "I was just trying to dry off?"

Jiraiya sighs.

Jiraiya's not blind, or an idiot, despite what some people would say. He sees the wisps of flame flickering over Pinky's body, sees the careful focus on his face and the way he'd pressed his fists together when he first sat down - some foreign-style handsign, or just a focusing aid? - so it's easy enough for him to understand how Pinky's warming up.

What he can't understand is how it's possible, because everything he knows about elemental chakra says it's not. Even someone with full mastery over an element shouldn't be able to use it like that, not without burning so much power just by converting their chakra into pure heat, which isn't impossible for fire natures but the kid would be a literal beacon to anyone with even the vaguest amount of chakra sense if that was what he was doing, so Jiraiya knows it has to be something else.

Kakashi was right about one thing, his abilities just don't make sense, not to anyone who knows more than the bare minimum of how chakra works.

As a seal master, Jiraiya knows a lot more than the bare minimum.

Now if only the kid would let him figure it out.

Pinky's just way too observant, at least when it comes to a fight though. Jiraiya had been planning to fall in, fake a distraction and make it look like they won, just so he could test Pinky's skill with elemental chakra - he was gonna put the kid on the actual leaf-training exercise to see if his spirit chakra responded differently to it, but at this point he's half-wondering if the foreigner's got a sixth-sense for people trying to go easy on him, cause his attention always sharpened, lightning-quick, whenever Jiraiya even tried to fake a falter.

And he's a spy, he knows how to fake a fall and make it look perfectly natural, there's no way the kid should be able to see any physical signs of his subterfuge - in the safety of his mind, he groans.

He doesn't want to just give the brats jutsu, they'll start to think they deserve it, and they'll never stop pestering him for more, but if Pinky's not gonna let him fake a loss, he's going to have to consider it.

For now though, there's an entirely different subject he's going to need to consider.

He slips easily around the fire, until he's sitting directly opposite the three genin, and has to take a moment to wonder if he could work this into a novel - a lovely lady, blessed by the spirit of a natural onsen, who gives warmth and comfort to anyone close to her…? - he jots down the idea for future reference, because if he has to put up with these brats, the least they can do is keep giving him good material, and at least they haven't disappointed him in that yet-

His pen freezes, mid-way through a stroke, as he catches sight of Sasuke rubbing his shoulder.

Natsu's hand twitches simultaneously, and oh that was foolish.

Considering how much of the seal didn't graft properly to the kids' chakra networks, he thought it would be safe enough for them to use their chakra - it's not like he can put an imprisoning seal atop Orochimaru's work when it's so fragmented, he could very easily kill the kids if even the slightest thing went wrong, but he'd been pretty certain that the seal was poorly-anchored to their networks enough that they should be able to use their chakra safely.

Perhaps that's unrelated…? He muses, because he didn't see any signs of it after the bandit fight, and Sasuke used a few jutsu then, so-

Fugaku's brat did, yeah, but Natsu?

He thinks on that for a moment, but… he's pretty sure that's right. Natsu used his fire, of course, hard to miss that, but Sakura-chan's chakra? Not at all.

And if Pinky's fire-spirit-chakra isn't affected by the curse seal, then maybe there wasn't a reaction - not until both of them were using their chakra, simultaneously.

"Your seals bothering you?" he asks, only to blink in surprise as Naruto's hand jumps towards his stomach.

This entire team's a mess, he thinks, maybe a little fondly.

"Not you, Naruto, though if something feels wrong with it let me know immediately. You two - anything changed at all?"

"It just itches, a little," Natsu muses.

"I can't ignore it, it's like it's demanding my attention." Sasuke all but growls, though his eyes stay night-black as he glares at the campfire.

"I guess, maybe a little?" Natsu agrees, tilting his head. "Ne, Sakura-chan, does anything feel weird for you?"

Naruto sits up, staring in concern at his teammates, as they wait for Sakura to answer.

Natsu shrugs after a moment.

"Sakura-chan says she doesn't feel weird, but that she's gonna holler and see if Sakuni's got any problems right now. D'you think there's a problem?"

His tone is casual, but his eyes are serious as he meets Jiraiya's gaze across the campfire.

"The seal, from what I can tell of yours and what I know of Anko-chan's, is designed to infect your chakra network - the more you use your chakra the easier it's supposed to be for it. But all those components are pretty badly degraded on both your and Sasuke's marks, to the point I rather doubted it would work at all. But now, after both of you used your chakra so heavily, if it's reacting… perhaps those segments aren't as defunct as they looked. If you don't mind, before we get back to the talk I had planned for you three, I'd like to take another look and see if anything physically changed."

He (reluctantly) puts away his Notebook to swap out for a different book, the one he'd purchased blank specifically for Orochimaru's fragmented seal. Sasuke slips off his shirt with a scowl, while Natsu has a brief argument with Sakura before finally sliding off his qipao.

Jiraiya pulls out his brush and ink, making a couple delicate strokes across both their curse-seals, unfurling the full depth of Orochimaru's work.

He carefully goes through everything he can see, comparing it line-by-line to his painstakingly drawn copy, and finds himself squinting suspiciously at one of the shattered lines sweeping down Sasuke's right shoulder.

"What's wrong?!" Naruto yelps, leaping forward to try and look over Jiraiya's shoulder, and he pushes the kid away with half a thought, hastily flipping pages in his notebook and looking for the comparative matching-point on Natsu.

He ignores Pinky's commentary as he has to push the qipao up a bit to study his thigh, but-

He compares the marks again, and scowls.

"Is it… repairing?" Natsu asks, sounding confused but not at all worried.

Jiraiya hates kids.

"Noticed that, huh?" he asks gruffly, already feeling a headache throb behind his eyes.

Natsu shrugs. "Sakura-chan did, actually, they all just look like squiggles to me."

Jiraiya chuckles, shuffling over until he can see Sasuke's back. "Oh come now, they aren't that bad-"

"Are Natsu and Sasuke... gonna get worse, 'ttebayo?" Naruto asks a bit hesitantly, squinting as he tries to spot the changes.

Jiraiya shrugs a bit, brushing Natsu's hair out of his way. "Well, half the reason we couldn't remove Anko-chan's seal was because of something similar - the seal's pretty large, as you can see, even though Orochi did a pretty good job at condensing it for easy application - but that just means that there's a lot of parts you have to try and remove. Normally, for large seals like this, if you want the person to survive removal, you pull it apart in sections - figure out which ones are critical, save those for last, and sort of chip away at the seal, pulling off the smaller and less vital components first. When we tried that with Anko-chan though… they just grew back. And with how deeply the critical components of the seal were worked into her chakra network, lifting the entire thing off in one go was almost certain to kill her. Technically I could remove it from her, but in even perfect conditions I'd say there's less than a two-percent chance of survival, and Anko-chan eventually agreed not to risk it until I could make something better."

He pauses a moment, turning Natsu's hand over as he studies the mark's heart.

"We never found the self-repair at all, so we weren't able to isolate it," he continues, trying not to let the displeasure seep through his words, "and I didn't see anything that looked like that on your seals either. Are you feeling more sleepy than usual?"

Pinky shakes his head, glaring lightly at Jiraiya's grip on his arm like it offends him. "Sakuni says she hasn't noticed anything changing, but she also said somethin' 'bout that Oro guy bein' slipperier than a snake and that she can't be sure, so…"

He shrugs, annoyed but not worried, and Jiraiya sighs.

"Seriously, kid, does anything freak you out?"

"You mean like that time Gray was making ice cubes for everyone cause the freezer broke, but he took off his clothes and then he was just laying on the counter naked and making them? That was really freaky. I actually wished Erza would show up then, it was too horrifying to watch…"

Jiraiya's never been one to question his own sanity, but he's pretty sure he didn't hear that right. He takes a deep breath, glancing over to the rest of Team 7 - the Uchiha looks rather disgusted, where Naruto only looks curious and excitable.

Uzumaki through and through, he can't help but muse.

"Was it like my Sexy jutsu?" he asks, leaning into Pinky's space with a foxy grin, and Natsu scowls while pushing him away.

"Ugh, no, he's just a stripping pervert, that's normal, the freaky part was the way everyone was still getting ice cubes from him like- like- I dunno, it was weird!"

Natsu crosses his arms, scowling, and Jiraiya rolls his eyes as he tugs the one he was re-checking back over.

"You've got some weird friends there, Pinky," he muses with a grin, turning around to go over Sasuke's legs.

"Wha- he is not! He's a pervert! And he always gets on my nerves, and he keeps saying he's better than me even though he really isn't, I could kick his ass from here to Konoha and back if Erza didn't keep getting in our way-!" Natsu pauses for a moment, then finishes, "And he's always naked!"

"I, uh, think you said that already." Jiraiya offers, trying to keep his grin out of his voice. The suspicious stare he feels drilling into his back makes him think he might not have succeeded, but luckily Naruto's such a good distraction.

"Y'talk about Erza a lot, but who is she?" he asks, an air of innocent curiosity about him, and Jiraiya doesn't need to see more than the curl of his lips to know Naruto's more mischief-making than asking.

He turns a bit more, just in time to catch Natsu's full-body shudder.

"She's one of the strongest people in our guild, I guess. I haven't beat her yet, but I'll manage it for sure soon! She uses swords mostly, and just cuts people up and stuff. She always gets mad if Gray and I are fighting though…" he shudders again, eyes haunted.

"What's she look like?" Naruto asks, voice soft but eyes sparkling, and Jiraiya almost feels bad for Pinky, really, cause the kid's too into missing his friends to realize the trap he's walking into.

Doesn't feel bad enough to help, though.

"Well… she's got really red hair. Like, super super red. Happy always said it looked like the blood of everyone she beat up… and she's always wearing armor, and her eyes are brown… I dunno, I've never really bothered describing anyone before."

Jiraiya really tries not to jump to conclusions, but how common can redheads with terrifying auras really be?

"You could always show us with a henge!" Naruto says eagerly, and oh Jiraiya hates to be the ruiner of good fun, but…

"Not without a full night's sleep he's not, with all the chakra he's burned. I don't wanna tempt this seal anymore than we already have, at least until I have a better idea of what's going on. Got it?"

Naruto pouts at him, as Jiraiya puts away his supplies and brushes himself off.

"Nope, put that look away blondie, we've got a real talk to get to now. You two can get dressed again, I'll go over these notes some more later and see what I can figure out, and you guys can have your little friend chat tomorrow, yeah?"

He sits down again, facing the kids, and holds back another sigh.

He really should have kidnapped a jonin, any jonin, if only to spare himself the duty of being responsible.

He can all but hear the arguments, and he hasn't even said anything yet.

Kami why did it have to be kids again?

"So," Natsu starts, trying really hard to ignore Sakura-chan's complaints about perverts, "is this that talk about the bandits, or is it a different talk?"

Jiraiya huffs a laugh. "You don't let things go, do ya kid? We'll get to our would-be attackers in a bit. For now, we've got some more important things to discuss."

Sakura's thoughts almost immediately turn to Naruto, and Natsu sighs.

She's not… scared, really, he thinks, but she's a lot more uncomfortable. So far she hasn't really said anything as to why though.

Naruto looks pretty uncomfortable himself though, and Sasuke downright annoyed, though that's probably half losing training time and half really wanting to hunt down those bandits and get revenge.

Natsu can't really blame him - they tried to kill a member of his team after all, and he's still not sure why it didn't succeed beyond the knowledge that the demon healed him.

"First up, you two - since we're on the subject." Jiraiya begins, leaning forward as he makes eye contact with first Sasuke, then Natsu. "I don't want either of you using chakra if you can avoid it until I've had time to go over everything and evaluate it. Yes that includes your dojutsu, Sasuke."

Jiraiya stares down Sasuke's glare, and Natsu tilts forward to clasp his ankles. "Does my fire count too? Cause it's not really chakra-"

"In the interest of fairness, yes. Kami-sama knows I probably can't enforce that, since you use it for everything, but I will find a boat to stick you on if I catch you. Honestly, I should only need tonight and part of tomorrow to go over everything. The two of you can behave yourselves for that long at least. If anything comes up that might make it take longer, I will let you know but seriously - this isn't a forever thing, this is just to be long enough for me to figure out exactly what all the changes are and maybe come up with a few theories as to the whys and hows. Alright? We are going to go after those shinobi later, I just want to know what the consequences will be for you guys before we learn the hard way. So behave."

Natsu feels a sudden swooping sensation in his gut, and can't help protectively curling his arms about himself.

Boats are awful blackmail… he grumbles to himself.

He has a vague sensation of Sakura-chan patting at nothing as she coos a soft, "There there."

He wishes he could console himself with the knowledge that Kakashi would never threaten him with a boat, but honestly Kakashi-sensei would probably make him try to fight on a boat as training and it would suck, why are all his friends like this-!

"Oi. I want some verbal confirmation here, brats. Day and a half. No chakra."

Natsu and Sasuke trade glances, Sasuke scowling fiercely.

"Maybe ask him to teach us more about seals? That way we could still learn things, and you, me, and Sasuke made a pretty good team breaking those seals at the safehouse, before…" Sakura-chan offers, a little nervous, and Natsu attempts to give her the impression of a groan.

He doesn't want to learn something boring like that… but it could be useful, especially since Sakura-chan's already pretty good at recognizing stuff, and it would let her train a little too, so…

He sighs, shifting to prop his chin in his palm as he looks up at Jiraiya. "W'll you at least teach us some of that fancy seal-crafty-stuff if you're gonna make us promise something like that?"

Jiraiya looks for a moment like he's going to refuse, before Naruto all but leaps forwards. "Really?! You can teach us something like that?" Natsu grabs him around the waist before he can vault into the fire, as Jiraiya groans.

"Yes, fine, if you two promise to behave yourselves I can teach you some basics. Deal's off if I catch either of you doing anything without my say-so. Got it?"

"Fine," Sasuke bites out, definitely not happy.

Natsu shrugs, offering a casual, "Sure!" to Jiraiya's hard stare, which only makes his focus sharpen.

Natsu grins, and Jiraiya visibly rolls his eyes. "Alright, now onto your part, kiddo." he turns toward Naruto as he speaks, still being held by Natsu.

He feels his teammate gulp, tensing in nerves.

"Why can't we hold Sasuke-kun like this? And why's he so nervous anyway!" Sakura-chan groans, and Natsu sighs as he lets Naruto go, patting blond hair briefly when he glances back in confusion.

Natsu's pretty sure Sasuke would try to tear his arms off if he ever held the Uchiha like that, but he doesn't say that to Sakura-chan. He's learning! Somewhat.

"Whaddu I need t'talk about?" Naruto grumbles, arms crossed.

"A lot," Jiraiya starts, before softening his tone. "But for now, why don't you tell me what the Kyuubi said to you that was so bad it had you crying earlier. Don't bother looking surprised, the kind of injury you'd had it's the only thing that makes sense kid. But I'm in charge right now, and I need to know what the demon was saying to you. So let's start there."

Naruto twitches a little, glancing over at Sasuke, shoulders creeping up to his ears.

Natsu's not really surprised when Sasuke actually decides to help. "Nothing bad. He deserves his privacy, doesn't he?" lip curled into a sneer, Sasuke's body language all but screams stop wasting my time.

Natsu's not impressed.

He isn't.

It's a cool trick, but anyone could do that, just say everything without saying anything.

Sakura-chan's not impressed either, but that's because she's fantasizing and Natsu wishes plugging his ears would help.

Jiraiya pinches the bridge of his nose.

"It really doesn't work like that, kid. Sorry, but I need to keep aware of what's going on here. So. Do me a favor and make this easy on everyone, yeah?"

Naruto shuffles a bit nervously, before drawing his legs in and wrapping his arms around them. He doesn't look at Jiraiya as he speaks.

"H-he just… talked about my mom and stuff… an' he said somethin' about how her village sold her to Konoha so she could be his jinchuriki when your other one died, and…" he tenses, like if he curls deep enough into himself he won't have to hear if that was true or not. Natsu's already shifting to pull him into a one-armed hug that Sakura-chan doesn't even pretend to protest.

"They WHAT?!" She spits, scathing fury burning through Natsu's mind, as Naruto uncurls just enough to throw himself back into Natsu's hug.

Jiraiya sits frozen, all but gaping in shock.

"-sold her to Konoha? Like a slave?" Sakura snarls, and… Naruto hadn't mentioned that before.

Natsu wonders if he just hadn't got around to mentioning it, or if he'd been avoiding it before. He tightens his grip around his teammate as Jiraiya hastily starts waving his hands, shaking his head vigorously in denial.

"No, no, Naruto, I swear it wasn't like that!" he yelps, all but leaping over the fire to try and approach. Sasuke slides between them smoothly, arms crossed, though his Sharingan isn't active.

Natsu wonders how long that will last, even as he carefully ignores the extra loud pops spit up by the fire.

Jiraiya falls back on his heels a little, then crouches down.

"Naruto-kun, I swear your mother wasn't sold. That- the situation was a lot more complicated, I- Sensei asked me not to tell you, you're not supposed to be told anything until you actually get promoted to chunin but-" he stutters, shrugs a little, then fully sits down.

"Uzushiogakure, before it was destroyed, didn't really do Kage like the rest of the shinobi villages," Jiraiya starts, voice soft. Sasuke shuffles back a little, until he's standing just ahead and to the side of Natsu and Naruto.

Natsu's not even sure when he pulled the kunai, and if Jiraiya notices he doesn't say anything about it, only continuing his tale once he's certain Naruto's paying attention.

"They passed their rulership down like the Daimyo do, through families. And Uzumaki Mito married Senju Hashirama, back when he founded Konoha. Our villages were allied from the very beginning, and Mito-san was the very first jinchuriki, not only of the Kyuubi, but ever. She invented the sealing technique, and she did it to save Shodaime-sama and the village. But when she started getting old, not only had the other villages all made jinchuriki of their own, but the Kyuubi was furious. Partially from what Madara had done, and partially I'm sure from being imprisoned by Mito-sama. She was afraid that if she just released the Kyuubi, it would rampage and destroy Konoha in vengeance. So she sent an envoy back to Uzushio, requesting an Uzumaki who could take the Kyuubi and keep it from killing anyone. They sent the daughter of their Kage, all but a princess of their village, and I know the Kyuubi wasn't transferred immediately. When your mother, Kushina, came to Konoha, she spent a few years in the village, both learning from Mito-sama on how to control the Kyuubi and attending the Academy and getting a Konoha-style education." He pauses for a moment, a fond if sorrowful smile on his face.

"Kushina-chan was- amazing. Vibrant and full of energy, and she loved pranks and ramen and she would never shut up, and she ended all her sentences with dattebane, and you're so much like her, you know." Tears drip down Naruto's face, and he doesn't even try to scrub them away, staring desperately at Jiraiya.

"Did she really want to be a jinchuriki though?" Natsu asks, dropping his chin on Naruto's head, a small comfort as the blond's breath hitches. "It sounds like your Mito lady asked for a replacement, and her village leader, her dad, just sent her over. Did she even want to?"

Jiraiya opens his mouth, closes it, then takes a deep breath before answering. "Someone had to. If she'd refused, they'd have just had to find a different Uzumaki. It's not like we could just let the Kyuubi go and hope it didn't kill us all. She was always the kind of person who wouldn't stand to see her people suffer a burden she wasn't willing to carry herself. But no one forced her. It- it wasn't like with Naruto, she did have a choice. The choice may have been her or someone else, but she could have said no if she'd wanted. Back then, Uzushio was still standing strong, the Uzumaki clan hadn't been slaughtered to the last yet, there were other choices. Now… well, there might be one or two who managed to run away, but if they did I've certainly never found one. Naruto probably is the last of his clan, and only the Uzumaki have the special chakra required to keep the Kyuubi sealed. Anyone else would die."

Sasuke tenses, when Jiraiya mentions Naruto being the last of a clan, and Sakura-chan, Natsu gets the impression, is crying.

"That's so unfair…" she says, and Natsu hugs Naruto tighter, responding to her impulse.

Personally, he's half-way towards plotting the logistics of burning down the entire village, but he can agree that Naruto deserves more hugs.

That's about when Naruto starts sobbing in earnest again, turning to fully curl into Natsu as he cries.

Jiraiya looks heartbroken, edging cautiously around Sasuke to rest a hand on the blond's back.

"I… your mom was a great lady. She… she wanted to adopt Kakashi, you know? After his dad died. I don't know if it was ever finalized, but that's half the reason he was chosen to be your team's sensei. The other half was his Sharingan, but… I know he refused to train Sasuke unless he could train you too, and that's why you guys got put on a team together even though you didn't get along well. I've got some great stories of pranks your mom's pulled before, if you ever…"

Jiraiya trails off awkwardly, clearly trying to give comfort but not quite sure how, and Natsu decides he really is a good guy.

The way Sasuke plops down, not touching but well within group-hug range, and doesn't resist when Natsu reaches out to pull everyone together, says he probably agrees too.

Natsu figures the bandit-shinobi talk can wait a little while longer.

Though the next time he sees Kakashi-sensei, the man's gonna be lucky if he gets away with only his hair set on fire. Practically Naruto's brother and he didn't even say anything-!

Maybe Naruto will feel better if they come up with a good joint prank.

They could get that green muscle guy to help too again… hmm...