Hello, thank you for taking a chance on this fic. I hope you enjoy it.

Naruto was considering getting out of bed. He didn't like how clean the hospital was and it was making him uncomfortable. But if he did, he might run into Sakura, or Shikamaru, or one of the other members of the Sasuke Retrieval Team, and that was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment.

'I can't believe that I actually lost to that bastard,' Naruto thought, 'No, I got my ass handed to me. What's worse, I couldn't keep my promise to Sakura. I'm going to have to train and get stronger as soon as possible, hopefully I should be good for a rematch in a week. Then I'll-'

Naruto had his train of thought interrupted by a loud crashing noise from outside his window. Quickly getting out of bed to defend himself, he slowly looked out of his window to see a giant toad. It was high enough that its head barely reached his window on the third floor, which managed to give the man sitting on top of its head the perfect level to look at the stunned boy. Naruto opened the window, letting in the cool autumn air into the room along with the man.

"What are you doing here, Pervy Sage?"

If Jiraiya was annoyed by what Naruto called him, he hid it well. The man seemed to have a jovial look on his face, which looked far more innocent than normal thanks to how casual he was dressed. His normal horned forehead protector and his haori was gone, leaving him in only his samue kimono. With a toothless smile, he replied, "Don't mind me, I just came here to talk to you about something important. Oh, and to cheer up my apprentice."

"Apprentice? But I'm still on Team 7 with Kakashi, you know! All you ever did was let me sign the toad contract and bring me along to find Granny so you could protect me from the Akatsuki, right?" Naruto said in a confused tone.

Getting slightly annoyed at the accidental disrespect, Jiraiya retorted, "JUST the Toad Contract? I have given you far more resources than JUST the Toad Contract. Or is the rasengan a cheap parlor trick to you, Mister Future Hokage?"

After a quiet apology from Naruto, he continued, "Besides, I just got out of a meeting with Kakashi and Princess Tsunade. From this day forth, you are officially the apprentice of the Toad Sage."

Surprised at the newest information, Naruto did what he always did when he was thrown for a loop, he talked his head off, "Will I still be able to see Sakura and Kakashi and everyone else? Will you be moving into the Hidden Leaf? What kind of cool jutsu are you going to teach me? Am I going to have to dress as goofy as you, you know? When can we go rescue Sasuke? What-"

Jiraiya interrupted Naruto's bombardment of questions with a raised hand and replied, "You're not going to be able to interact much with anyone considering we're going to head out for an extended trip outside the village the moment you're out of this hospital."

"Wait, leave the village? For how long?"

"About three years."

Naruto was stunned by what his new master, Jiraiya, had said. He knew that he would have to get stronger so he could bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf, but three years?

"The Akatsuki are on your trail, and we don't need them interrupting your exercises. There's also the fact that I'm still the Hidden Leaf's Grand Spymaster and I must keep our network running. The only reason I didn't leave before the final stage of the Chūnin Exams is that I wanted you to be my apprentice, officially."

That new information was really starting to get to Naruto, and it was at this point that he realized how weak in the knees he felt. As he laid back down in his hospital bed, Jiraiya continued,

"My spies managed to gather enough info on Orochimaru's 'Living Corpse Reincarnation' to make me very confident that he won't be able to crawl into Sasuke for the next 3 years. There seems to be a limit to how often he can use it, and I have good intel that he's used it VERY recently."

Naruto, letting out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, looked relieved. He was about to continue rambling, when Jiraiya seemed to read his mind and started talking once more. As he continued, Naruto could only look dumbfounded.

"You should probably give up on Sasuke though. I've been around for a long time and seen many, many shinobi. Enough to confidently say that Sasuke and Orochimaru are cut from the same cloth. He did leave the village of his own volition, remember?"

Angrily, Naruto shouted, "You may think he's a bastard, and you'd be right! But he's still my friend, you know!"

"What kind of friend injures someone like that?!" Jiraiya shouted back, gesturing to Naruto, still covered in bandages, "Look what he did to you! Tsunade said the only reason that you survived his Chidori was that damn Kyuubi! I mean really, what kind of fool would think that he can still be saved?"

Clutching the area of his chest that Sasuke impaled him, Naruto looked Jiraiya straight in the eye, trying to think of a response. After what felt like an hour of staring at each other in silence, he responded, "If a fool tries to save their friend from darkness, then I'll happily be one forever."

With a somber look, Jiraiya walked to the door of Naruto's room. Before he reached for the door he said, "I'm going to see how long you need to be here. I don't want us to be in the Hidden Leaf any longer than necessary. Then we can talk about some small affairs, what to do with your apartment, if you want to keep it at all, what kind of mission on the books your sabbatical will count as, things of that nature. Think about that until I return."

As he stepped out into the hallway, Jiraiya knocked down someone who was standing right outside Naruto's door. As he helped the girl to their feet, he took notice of her. She appeared to be a Hyūga, judging on her eyes, and was Naruto's age as well.

'This must be Hinata, the clan heir,' thought Jiraiya, 'She was probably going to check on him. It's good to see that he has at least one friend outside his team.'

Trying to lighten the mood, Jiraiya cracked a smile and said in a boisterous tone, "Hello, young lady! Are you here to check the resolve of my apprentice?"

Hinata started to visibly quiver, and started stammering out an attempt at a response, tripping over every word. The commotion outside made Naruto start to get up to get a better look. When he realized who was trying to visit him, he put on a smile not too different from his new master and tried to enter the conversation, "Hey Hinata! I bet you're wondering how the future Hokage is, huh? Well don't worry! Pervy Sage is gonna take me on a whirlwind tour around the world and teach me every badass jutsu there is, you know!"

Eyeing Hinata's increasingly timid body language, Jiraiya started to leave. "I'll leave it to you to help heal my student with your feminine beauty!" He could not help but leave on that playful compliment. Judging by the reddening of both kids' faces, he seemed to accomplish what he wanted. He walked down the hall searching for a doctor with a smile wider than before.

After a brief, awkward silence, Naruto started talking, "Sorry about Pervy Sage, Hinata. He gets a gross joy out of making cute girls uncomfortable. Don't worry though! I promise not to become like him while I'm gone!" He said, completely oblivious to the fact he just called a girl cute. He was too lost in thought to notice that Hinata looked like she was making an active effort to stay conscious.

After a few more moments of silence, Hinata asked an obvious question, "H-How long will you be outside the village tr-training with Lord Jiraiya?"

Adopting a more serious tone, Naruto answered, "A few years. Pervy Sage is an important figure, for some reason. He has a lot of responsibilities to the Hidden Leaf that will keep us occupied. To be honest, I'm not actually sure if I'll be able to keep in contact with anyone while I'm out."

"O-Oh. W-Well then, I guess it's a g-good thing that I decided to see you now, r-right Naruto?" Hinata asked. She was starting to nervously fidget with the hem of her jacket at this point.

Trying to calm the growing tensions, Naruto cracked a smile and said, "Yeah, I guess you did!" in a tone louder than necessary. "Hey now that you mention it, I have a small favor to ask you. Not that you have to follow through on it if you don't want to!" It was hard to tell with her, but Naruto was sure that if Hinata had pupils, they would be dilating after this.

"I'd be happy to do it!" Hinata said with far too much enthusiasm that Naruto was used to hearing from her. She seemed to have noticed that a half second later as well, as her face once again became red from her blushing. "Um… wh-what is th-that y-y-you need me t-t-to do?"

"Well, you see, Pervy Sage wants to leave as soon as I am able, something about his network. So, I don't think that there would be much time between then and my recovery for me to talk to all our classmates and say goodbye to them. So, if you could let everyone know to go to the main gates of the village, I could say goodbye to everyone at once as I go!" Naruto said in an even tone, trying to make sure that Hinata didn't faint from whatever was making her light-headed. This was an important request, after all!

"And if you um, don't want to do this I totally understand, ya know! It's out of the blue and we don't really talk that much and I'm not even sure if you could coordinate that many people. Plus, you're not even on my team and-"

"I'll do it." Hinata said in a quiet tone. Naruto wasn't even sure if he heard it at all over the sound of his own rambling, but he was confident that he saw her lips move.

"Huh? Oh thanks! I know it seems like a strange request but I want to make sure that the people I know don't start wondering where their future Hokage is once they notice how quiet the Hidden Leaf becomes."

"That-that's very considerate of you," Hinata said, "I-I'm sure that our peers would appreciate it."

"Now all I need to do is to figure out what to do with my apartment," Naruto said as he began thinking out loud, "I know that I wanted to keep it since I am coming back to the village but that means finding someone to dust the place every few weeks. It's not like I can hire someone and I don't think toads can use a duster. I wonder if I can convince Sakura to handle this. My place is small so it would only be a few hours each month to maintain an empty apartment."

"Umm… I…" Naruto was taken out of his thoughts by Hinata's voice. He turned to look at her, noticing her staring intently at the floor and her two index fingers crashing into each other repeatedly. She seemed to take advantage of the silence by continuing, "I… I can al-also take c-care of it f-f-for y-you…"

"What?" Naruto said, "I was just thinking out loud right now, ya know. I am already asking a lot from you, what with talking to the rest of the rookie genin. I can ask Kakashi Sensei or Sakura to do this," While he appreciated the enthusiasm to help him, Naruto did not want to place a massive task onto this girl. He had had only one meaningful conversation with her before, and Naruto could tell that was pushing his luck even with his complete lack of social experiences. Though his attempt to explain this to her seemed to do more to hurt her than help, if her shrinking demeanor was anything to go by.

Letting out a sigh to collect his thoughts, Naruto began again, "Sorry if that was too blunt, Sakura says that is one of my many faults. I just don't think we are good enough friends to ask this from you."

The two stayed in awkward silence, Naruto on his bed and Hinata standing to his side, both in thought, searching for the right words to convey themselves to each other. Hinata surprised both when she began to talk again, in a quiet and sure tone.

"I-I know that we do not talk often, but I think I was trying to repay you for that change you helped me attain." Hinata said. Naruto stared back at the girl, the memory of the conversation before the Chūnin Exam finals coming back to him. 'When you cheered me on, I felt like somehow I became stronger... When the preliminaries ended, I started to like myself more…'

Lost in thought, Naruto did not hear Hinata continue talking until she said, "... and I know that you think I am dark and weird, but-"

"I already said on that day," Naruto interrupted, "That I don't think those traits are bad in people," At this, Hinata raised her head to look at him, "In fact, I said that those are traits that I like in people, ya know!" Naruto's smile widened to the point his eyes closed, hiding again the fact that Hinata was starting to blush as deeply as she did at the start of their conversation.

Oblivious to the situation, Naruto continued, "I think that we could become really good friends if I didn't have to leave the village with Pervy Sage, and honestly I really do want that to happen. It's just that I think right now I don't want to have one person take care of all my things. I hope I am explaining things well, ya know!"

Hinata let out a sigh once Naruto was done talking. She broke eye contact with him when he continued, "But I do have some plants that will need watering…"

"I-I can do that for you! Definitely!"

"Great!" Naruto said with a grin.

The next nine days sped by in a blur to Naruto. It was full of being poked and prodded by nurses, talking to Jiraiya about the state of his apartment, talking to Sakura about his apprenticeship to Pervy Sage, and surprisingly her apprenticeship to Granny Tsunade, and dreamless sleeping in between it all. Finally, early in the morning on the tenth of October, his thirteenth birthday, Naruto was cleared to leave the hospital and the Hidden Leaf.

Jiraiya met him outside the hospital, already having packed what little clothes and possessions Naruto had in his apartment. It was apparent to everyone around Jiraiya was eager to get on the road. Fidgeting with his gear strapped to his back, constantly looking back toward Naruto, and walking far too fast for the crowded village thoroughfare gave the clear sign to Naruto that he had no time to waste.

"I hope you like what I packed up for you. I already took the liberty to clear out your kitchen." Jiraiya said as he herded Naruto through the streets towards the front gates.

"Oh really? Did you at least keep my plants on the windowsill? Because I managed to get someone to take care of them while I'm gone."

"Yeah yeah, we already had this conversation. You got your lovely and demure Hyūga friend to watch over those plants. Those things threw me for a loop the first time I saw them, by the way. You don't seem like the kind of man to garden."

At this, Naruto turned to face Jiraiya with a raised eyebrow. "What? I don't have a garden! I just have a few pots around my window. And don't try changing the subject! I know you have vices but I draw the line at being mean to my classmates!"

"Naruto, you do not have any classmates. You graduated from the academy almost 9 months ago." Jiraiya muttered in an exasperated tone. He sighed heavily before continuing, "Are you sure that this farewell party is even at the gates? The village is still strapped for shinobi and Princess Tsunade was making it sound like some of your teammates were in a bad state from that failed mission."

"Honestly I'm not sure, But I'll be happy if only one person manages to be there. I only managed to tell two other people that I am leaving!"

Thankfully for Naruto, it seemed that his requests to Sakura and Hinata were fulfilled, as he approached the main gates, he saw most of his peers milling about talking among themselves at the side of the road opposite the guard booth, the only one absent being Choji. He put on a smile, trying his best to make sure that they would all remember it before he disappeared for the next few years.

As Naruto approached his friends, he hammed up his bravado and said, "What is this? Are you all here to cry out in jealousy that your future Hokage will be training with one of the Sannin across the world?"

"You idiot, you asked us to be here to see you off!" Sakura replied in an exacerbated tone, shaking her fist with her eye visibly twitching. Naruto only smiled harder at that, knowing that was her way of maintaining her composure at the thought of her last teammate leaving the village, if only for a while.

Shikamaru let out an exaggerated groan, "I don't know about the others, but I'm here to see off our foreign allies who helped us on that mission, Naruto." Pointing to three shinobi from the Hidden Sand standing away from the group. Naruto could tell from his poorly hidden smirk that he was trying to save face in front of the 'foreign allies'.

Naruto clasped Shikamaru's shoulder and turned to the three from the Hidden Sand and shouted, "Gaara! And other Sand shinobi! Get over here so I can thank you!" Waving his hands wildly to get their attention, something already done by shouting over the foot traffic.

Gaara was the first to approach the Hidden Leaf shinobi, cracking a small smile. "We did not know that today was to be the day that you set out on the road as well. I am glad that we can talk. I never got to speak with you since our last encounter at the Chūnin Exams," what little of his smile he had faded at that remark, "I hope that your time on the road will bear much fruit. I'm sure my siblings share the sentiment."

Gaara's older siblings gave a silent bow in agreement, their smiles showing that he was right. Naruto returned the gesture and approached Gaara to embrace him. All three siblings looked stunned as it happened and after a moment, Gaara reciprocated the act.

"I'm sorry that we couldn't talk after the exams too. I'm also sorry that we can't talk now either. But I just know that our paths will cross again!" Naruto whispered to his fellow outcast, trying to expedite this conversation, knowing that he still had an entire group of people beside him to say goodbye to and a Pervy Sage who was already excited to leave before this final roadblock.

Naruto withdrew from the Hidden Sand shinobi and returned his attention to his fellow classmates, focusing on one person in particular.

"Hinata! Thank you so much for getting the word out to everyone! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to say goodbye to everyone before I left. This turned into the best birthday present ever!"

"Oh, its n-no tr-trouble at all, Na-Naruto" Hinata said. She was standing in front of her teammates, both seeming to focus on her rather than the one she was addressing, much to Naruto's confusion.

"I would have not missed your departure for anything, Naruto!" Rock Lee shouted from Naruto's peripheral, "Especially now that I know that this is your day of birth! I apologize that I have no gift to give you! For my poor manners, I will do thirty laps around the village! And if I cannot do that I will do fifty laps around the village on my hands! And if I cannot-"

Rock Lee's proclamations were halted by both of his teammates clasping their hands on his mouth. Over his murmuring, Neji spoke up. "It was courteous of you to think of us as you leave to train with Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin. I would ask that you do not worry about us in your absence. We will make sure to grow in strength as well,"

"Worry about you all? Ha! I'm just worried about leaving the rest of you behind in my dust!" Naruto boasted.

Shino stepped forward and said, "Neji is correct, there is no need to worry about us. Why? Because -"

"I'm afraid that we can't spare any more time. Goodbyes are always hard to say, but you all must say them now! Naruto and I have many places to go, and even more awesome justu to teach!" Jiraiya said in an all too loud voice, announcing to the genin that Naruto must now truly leave them. He gave the rest of his peers a firm nod and wave before setting out of Konoha with the Sand Siblings and his new master.

The 5 shinobi stayed on the same road for only a little while, going in opposite directions not long after the main gates left their sight.

At dusk, Naruto and Jiraiya set up camp a kilometer off the road in a small clearing. They were far enough away from any other landmarks that there were only stars to light up the area. While Jiraiya was setting up camp, Naruto went out to gather firewood. Alone with his thoughts, he began to consider for the first time the road ahead of him.

'I can't believe that Sasuke thinks that the Snake Bastard can help him more than anyone here in the Hidden Leaf. I'll need to show him how wrong he is next time I see him,' Naruto thought while using a rasengan to knock down a dead tree.

He continued this train of thought as he ripped apart the dead trunk, 'Then I also need to get stronger to become Hokage. Though if I'm strong enough to bring Sasuke back, would that mean I'm strong enough? Or is that before Hokage-level strength?'

He paused for a minute and hid in the trees when he thought he heard game hunters, but it turned out to be only a passing deer. After realizing the overreaction, he climbed down and scooped up in his arms a night's worth of firewood and set off back towards camp.

'Will Jiraiya be able to teach me enough skills to be strong enough to bring back Sasuke and become Hokage? I know he's a Sannin, but he's also a massive perv. Not to mention Granny Tsunade and him both couldn't take out Orochimaru. What if the Snake Bastard has too many tricks and cheats that he'll teach Sasuke? Oh man, I forgot that the bastard is being taught by that Snake Bastard. What if he makes Sasuke stronger than me even after being taught by Pervy Sage? What if he'll still not be strong enough to avenge his family? What if I can't get to him in time for Orochimaru to take over his body? What if I can't-'

Naruto's thoughts were halted as he crashed into Jiraiya, knocking all the firewood out of his arms.

"Watch where you're walking! Being unfocused is a sure way to lose in battle, you know!" Shouted Jiraiya as he started to help Naruto pick up the firewood, "What was going on in your head that made you forget your surroundings?" he asked.

Naruto replied, "Sorry! I was thinking, you know!"

"About what?"

"Um... Things"

"What kind of things?"

"Um… uh … Lots of things, you know?"

"Sorry kid, I don't know. You want to enlighten an old sage on these 'things' you speak of?" Jiraiya said, trying to make Naruto open up. "It's going to be just the two of us for months at a time." At this point, Jiraiya started to make a small fire with the wood strewn around the ground. Once sparks started to fly from the tinder-pile, he turned to Naruto with a mischievous expression and said, "If you're not going to tell me now, you're going to tell me eventually. I can only talk about beautiful women for so long, unfortunately."

Making a face of disgust, Naruto muttered, "Gross," A stern look from Jiraiya made him sober up, and with a more serious expression Naruto answered, "Fine! If you must know, I was thinking about how strong I will get on this training trip. And how strong Sasuke will get with that Snake Bastard." After each passing word, he slouched into himself more and more, making his discomfort apparent to every passing rabbit and squirrel.

Jiraiya chuckled at this and sat down near the fire. With a calm smile, he beckoned Naruto to sit next to him. Naruto hesitated, and when it became obvious to Jiraiya that he wasn't willing to relax by the fire, Jiraiya looked at him with a comforting look in his eyes and said, "I wouldn't worry too much about how strong your friend and rival will be in the future. There's only one person I know that knows the future, and you're not him. The first thing you need to learn out here is to not worry about the fate of others to the point it affects yours."

Naruto's face relaxed at this, and after a short nod said, "So then how many cool jutsu do you think I can learn out here? And will you teach me some cool moves with the toads? How many toads are there even? And where is Mount Myōboku even? Will we go there, ya know? What about-"

"ENOUGH QUESTIONS!" shouted Jiraiya as he sprung up and grabbed Naruto by the shoulders. He then forced Naruto to sit down in front of the fire, before sitting across from him. After a few short breaths to compose himself, Jiraiya said to his student, "We are going to cover a range of topics. This will include battle tactics, better control of the Kyuubi's chakra, and meditation. All of this will make you a better Jinchūriki, but that isn't the only thing I'll teach you. Your meditation will not only let you control the Kyuubi's chakra, but it will help you in training with the toads. You're the apprentice of the Toad Sage after all! We'll also be sure to stamp out any weaknesses you have, like your taijutsu skills and ninjutsu arsenal. Any questions?"

"Well-"

"If you throw another barrage of questions at me again, I'll throw you into the fire," Jiraiya warned in a deadpan tone.

"I only had one question!" shouted Naruto.

"Oh. Well… carry on then."

"Humph! This seems like a bunch of things to do. Will you be able to teach me all this while you maintain the Hidden Leaf's spy network?"

"An excellent question! Thanks to a conversation with Kakashi, I am very confident you'll be able to learn all I plan on teaching you." Jiraiya said with a sly smile. He then stood up and clapped his hands before saying, "But before I explain myself, I have my own question for you."

"What is it?"

"How much do you really know about Shadow Clones?"

Author's Note:

I am starting the story where I am because I consider Part One of the story to be mostly perfect, barring not properly setting up characters and themes used in Part Two. But this was a story written weekly so you can hardly blame Kishimoto for that.

As a prologue, I hope this has successfully set up all the divergences that will happen over this time skip and beyond. More changes will come in later chapters.

Please feel free to share your input with me in a review or DM. I have no beta so I have only gotten outside input from my super-weeb friends IRL.