Naruto frowned as he looked over at Jiraiya. They had been walking down the road for several hours and neither had really said much to each other. Not that there was much to say, but Naruto had never been comfortable with any long moments of silence, even to this day he hated silence. And so, he did the only thing he could think of.
"Hey Ero-sennin, I was wondering, who are we searching for exactly?"
Jiraiya sighed as he realized that name was never going to leave him. Ugh, his mom called me that too. "We're looking for my teammate, Senju Tsunade."
"She's another Sannin right?" asked Naruto, "The Slug Princess I believe was one of her nicknames. I hear she's a legendary healer known for her ability to heal near-fatal injuries, as well as her super strength that can crush a mountain with a single punch."
Jiraiya laughed, "Yep, that's her alright." He looked down at his blond companion. "I'm actually surprised you know so much about her."
Naruto shrugged, "My friend Tenten is a really big fan of Tsunade's. In fact, her whole life's purpose is to one day be a kunoichi as great as Tsunade is, to prove that women can be just as strong as men. So naturally I learned a lot about her idol whenever we hung out."
"Ah, I see, and is this Tenten your…" Jiraiya trailed off and wiggled a pinky at Naruto.
Knowing the meaning Naruto frowned rather than blushed like he used to, "No…at least, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure we're just friends."
"Pretty sure?" The white haired sage raised an eyebrow.
"Honestly." Naruto sighed, "I don't know if I'm cut out for any kind of relationship. Aside from being a shinobi, which is a hazardous profession in and of itself, I also happen to be Kyuubi-chan's Jinchuuriki, and while there is nothing wrong with that, it will make any relationship hazardous for the other person."
Jiraiya frowned at the boy's response, though he could not deny the truth behind that, especially with what Jiraiya knew. He also filed away Naruto's use of the '-chan' suffix for Kyuubi. Of course, he already knew the Kyuubi was a girl, Sarutobi had told him of Naruto's encounter with the fox. Jiraiya had to admit he was surprised, not only because the fox had a gender, but that, from what Naruto said, she did not seem to be quite the evil entity everyone thought she was.
"Say, you were the Yondaime's teacher right Ero-sennin?" asked Naruto after another poignant pause.
"Yeah, that's right. Now there was a real shinobi, a true genius among geniuses," Jiraiya said, his eyes glazed over a small fraction in reminiscence. "Why do you want to know?"
Naruto shrugged, "I was just wondering what it was like to train him. You know, what was the Yondaime like."
"Hmmm…well let's just put it this way, the Yondaime was one of those once in a generation geniuses that very rarely came along. He was smart, talented, brave, strong and really good with the ladies. He was like the son I never had," As Jiraiya spoke he looked at the blond and had to shake his head when he saw the image of Minato overlap Naruto's. "You kind of remind me of him in some ways."
Naruto blinked as he looked away from the road and at Jiraiya as he grinned, "I guess that means I'm pretty awesome huh Ero-sennin?"
Realizing his mistake Jiraiya scoffed, "Don't think I meant anything like that. What I was talking about was your ridiculous blond hair and stubbornness."
"Bah! Then you obviously don't know talent when you see it. Stupid perverted hermit."
"Goddamn brat!"
Two pairs of eyes watched as Jiraiya and Naruto entered the town.
"Great so the brat's with a Sannin," Kisame muttered. "This could spell trouble for us."
"That is true, however even the greatest of ninja have their weaknesses," Itachi said. "Come, our best bet is to distract Jiraiya and take the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki then."
The two black cloaked figures headed into the town.
Naruto sighed as he sat down on his bed. They had just gotten into a town not too far off from Konoha, and had decided to stay for the night. However, upon their arrival Jiraiya had gone off with some woman who showed a mild amount of interest in him. Not that he particularly cared what the man did in his free time.
Laying down on one of the beds Naruto paced his hands behind his head. Now that he was thinking more clearly than he had since Sarutobi's death, he needed to think about what his goals were going to be, or to be more accurate how he was going to accomplish them.
His first and foremost goal was to get stronger. It was becoming blatantly obvious to him that he was not strong enough to protect the people important to him. If he had been, then he would have been able to protect Sarutobi in some way. It may be a little off thinking, after all the man had been fighting a Sannin, a Kage-level ninja. And it would take years to reach that level. But in Naruto's mind, he felt there should have been something he could have done to protect the man he called jiji.
He also needed to focus on his shinobi career. Now Naruto was fairly positive that he would be promoted to Chunin after his performance in the exams. After all, he had gone up against the likes of Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee and Nii Yugito, beating out both the Hyuuga prodigy and the taijutsu specialist fairly easily.
Well, maybe not so easy for Lee, but Neji had not been all that difficult. And while he may have lost to Yugito, there was no shame in that, she was simply better, had the benefit of training from a young age and was a Jonin in all but name. If Naruto did not become a Chunin after this, it would be because of a blatant showing of biased opinions due to his Jinchuuriki status.
Of course rank would also have to wait until they got a Hokage who could give people ranks…
His thoughts were cut off when a knock came at his door.
"Did Ero-sennin get dumped already?" Wondered Naruto as he stood up. The door knocked again and Naruto grunted, "Yeah I'm coming! Keep your goddamn pants on!"
He opened the door and glared, "I didn't expect you back so early, I guess she must have dumped your sorry ass… already…"
The blond trailed off as he saw that it was not Jiraiya at his door, but instead was two people wearing black cloaks with red clouds. As Naruto got a good look at their faces, his mind began to analyze what he could of them.
He easily recognized the shorter one in front, who had knocked on the door as Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's younger brother and the man who had slaughtered the Uchiha clan in one night. If the fact that he looked like an older version of Sasuke did not allow him to figure that out, then the freaky red eyes most certainly did.
The second took a little longer to place, but he was soon able to figure out that it was Hoshigaki Kisame, another S-rank ninja, this one being a former member of the Kiri Shinobigatana Nananin Shu (Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist), the same group that Zabuza belonged to.
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