Chapter 1.

Pairing: Naruto x Kurenai.

A JIRAIYA TAKES NARUTO'S TRAINING SERIOUS STORY.

A/N: First of all, I hope all of you are safe during this time of Corona-Virus and doing as instructed by your respective governments. Second of all, I want to say that I'm truly sorry for neglecting my other works, but as it is at the moment, the will I had before to continue them has just kind of disappeared. I know it's a bad excuse, but I couldn't find any motivation, so I tried this trick about trying to write something else in the meantime, and well, we'll see how it goes.

Konohagakure no Sato - Market District.

Waltzing side by side with his sensei and master over the last four years, he dug his hands deep into his pockets and walked with his eyes glued to the ground. It was all the same as before, the same atmosphere, the same people just older. Well, there was one exception. Baa-chan had gotten her face right next to his dad's on the Hokage monument.

"You okay gaki? Thought you'd be happier about finally being back home." The words shook him out of his trance, so he looked back with a surprised gaze.

Smirking lightly, he tilted his head back to look at the blue skies above them, "I am Jiraiya-sensei, don't get me wrong but… I'm not looking forward to getting yelled at."

"Why would you get yelled at?" Jiraiya suddenly asked, the question came after a few seconds, and he looked over with a questioning gaze.

"Aside from being over a year late?" Naruto countered, raising a brow at the old sage.

A nervous gulp was heard beside him, before his response came, "Well, we had work to do. You wouldn't have gotten so strong without the extra time, I'm sure when Hime sees our results, she'll forgive you in a heartbeat."

Snorting at his mentor's words, Naruto ran a hand through his golden locks, "Perhaps, if we are so lucky to get a word in before she punches the both of us to see Gaara that is…"

"You could stop her punch in a heartbeat…"

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto chuckled sheepishly, something would never change.

Shaking his head Jiraiya clapped his pupil on the back, "You don't even have to catch it, just flash a seducing smile in those new clothes of yours and she'll be on cloud nine."

Looking down at his clothes, Naruto smirked again at the memory. He was wearing black cargo pants, a white high-collared sleeveless shirt, a haori with two different patterns, one solid red and one geometrically patterned with green, orange, and yellow and lastly forearm guards that were mostly worn by the ANBU.

Jiraiya had promised him back in the day that if he got a more acceptable wardrobe, he would teach him some useful stuff. Saying this outfit was acceptable enough, would be a huge understatement.

"She's old enough to be my grandma…" Naruto commented after some time.

"Well, she doesn't look like it…"

"Touche…" Naruto groaned while shaking his head again.

Suddenly grinning his usual perverted grin, Jiraiya moved behind his pupil and placed his larger hands on the younger male's shoulders and turned his head around. "Just look at all those intriguing female figures looking your way, I bet they wouldn't say no to a tour to the shack motel."

Looking around him, Naruto took in all the glances and hidden giggles that were directed at him and blushed a mild pink.

"Don't be ridiculous. I have more important stuff to focus on than getting every STD there is…" Naruto grumbled while looking at the ground, and pushed Jiraiya's hands off him.

Jiraiya sighed loudly, and smacked Naruto's lightly, "Ungrateful gaki! You got the gift to seduce such fine women by merely being in their presence! And you don't use it at all!"

"Well, perhaps you would have more luck if you started thinking of them as real humans, and not as your next book subjects!" Naruto yelled back with a twitching eyebrow and a fist clenched so hard that his knuckles became white.

Gulping slightly at the threatening display, Jiraiya backed off holding his hands up, "Easy there! We don't want another episode in the middle of the village."

Groaning louder than before while smacking his forehead, Naruto looked out of the corner of his eyes, "I haven't had an episode the last two years! Plus! I won't have them anymore."

"Why? Because you and that big ball of hatred inside you have become best buddies?" Jiraiya countered with a snort, folding his arms across his chest.

"No, but we've come to an agreement."

Jiraiya rubbed his temples, and reached over to squeeze the blond's shoulder, "You can't just take its word for it…"

"It has a name, and of course not, I'm not dumb enough to let my guard down like that…"

"Comes from the guy being so blonde he almost walked into a wall a few miles back."

"Can you just shut up and walk, ero-sennin?!" Naruto suddenly yelled out and punched the sannin on the shoulder, almost sending the older Shinobi crashing to the ground if he hadn't caught his footing first.

Gritting his teeth, Jiraiya roared out as well, "Stop being a brat! You're making a scene!"

"Oh, so I'm making a scene?!" Naruto yelled back, grabbing Jiraiya's haori while the Sannin grabbed onto the blond's hair, both looking with death glares at the other.

"Naruto?" The two suddenly stopped as a feminine yet familiar voice hit their ears.

Turning their heads, keeping their respective grip on the other, they came eye to eye with a family Kunoichi with pink hair.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked while the student and teacher let go of each other.

Unable to believe his eyes, Naruto looked surprised at her. Out of all people they were to meet here on the streets of Konoha, it was his old teammate. She had grown, being both taller and looking more mature than she did four years ago.

"How long has it been? It feels like ages since I last saw you! Wow, you've gotten tall…" She blurted out, standing right in front of him while measuring their heights with her hand.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Naruto pulled her hand down, "It has been what, four years now? And yeah, I suppose eating something else than ramen did do quite the change…" He replied cheekily.

"You're quite right about that, it wasn't a healthy habit at all! And as I studied the human anatomy under Tsunade-sama, I figured that was what had stopped your supposed growth rate." Sakura remarked while giggling into her hand.

"I suppose you can study it more on my dead body, because as you know… We're quite late. So two potential outcomes are that Baa-chan either punches us to Suna or uses her medical ninjutsu to chop our heads off…" The blond replied with a shiver, feeling a bit hesitant about going up to the Hokage's office.

Shaking her head, Sakura gave a light punch to the blond's shoulder, "Yeah, but she has missed you a lot. Just make a good and respectful return to her office, and I'll guarantee you won't be a corpse." She sighed, stressing on the word respectful.

"I can be respectful."

"Pff, sure." Jiraiya suddenly commented, and Naruto looked back at the old man with his eyes flashing red for a second.

"You're pushing me toward making 'the scene' sensei…" Naruto replied in a whisper, and the toad sage quickly moved in and dusted the blond's shoulder off with a nervous stare at the people around them.

"Now, now, no need to get you arrested by the ANBU on your first day back… That damn scene put that entire village we were in under lockdown the last time, so don't you dare cause panic here…" Jiraiya replied harshly, making Sakura look at them confused, unable to get this reference.

"Relax sensei, I was only kidding, but if you keep pushing my buttons I'll take that risk…" Naruto threatened with a smirk, making the old man sigh with utter regret of ever teaching Naruto how to create that technique.

Hearing a soft giggle from the pinkette, the duo looked at her as she shook her head slowly side to side, her pink locks following with her. "You two are as bickering as ever."

"Only because this senile old man thinks it's a good idea to mess with me." Naruto chuckled, glaring out of the corner of his eyes at the white-haired toad sage, that looked back at him with a murderous glare.

Shifting uncomfortably on her feet, Sakura tugged on Naruto's jacket with a minor glare, "Hey now, I don't think it's a good idea to piss off one of the Sannin…"

"Pff, I can take him."

"I thought you said you could show respect!" Sakura yelled with a throbbing tick mark on her forehead while sending a punch flying to Naruto's head.

But no explosion was heard, or cry of pain, on the contrary, the sound of Sakura's mumbling unformulated sentences made Jiraiya smirk as he looked at his student who had effortlessly captured the pink-haired girl's fist in the palm of his hand.

"You've learned Baa-chan's monstrous strength technique! Impressive!" Naruto commented with a big smile.

"H-How did you?" Sakura stuttered out, retrieving her hand while looking at Naruto who just dug his right back into his pocket.

Jiraiya took this as his cue, and swung an arm over the tall blond's shoulders, "I trained him to be the best, that's how."

"Yeah, yeah, I suppose you did. But Sakura, I really would appreciate it if you didn't try using me as a punching bag anymore, it got old long ago…"

Taking a step back, looking at the blond like he grew a second head, Sakura tilted her head trying to find some kind of response. "You've really changed Naruto, it looks like you finally grew up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sakura found herself unable to let out a soft laugh as she pointed a finger at him, "Oh let's see, there are so many scenarios to choose from… Like that time where you ruined a mission by farting? Arguing with Sandaime-sama over our missions? Threatening to skin Tora alive in front of the Fire Daimyo's wife?"

"I get it, I get it…"

"You wouldn't if I hadn't taken my sweet time to teach you some manners and discipline!" Jiraiya smirked, deciding to add his own two cents.

"You speak about avoiding a scene, but you keep provoking me sensei…" Naruto growled lowly, looking back at his mentor who got that fearful look again.

As this happened, Sakura looked on with her interest peaked, 'What happened to make Jiraiya this fearful of Naruto getting angry? How strong did you become Naruto? Could you really take on Jiraiya-sama and win?' The questions flew around her head, as she watched the two bicker again.

"Weren't you two already late enough?" She suddenly managed to speak out, and the two stopped and looked at her.

Naruto somehow found this laughable, and chuckled loudly, "Indeed we are, anymore late and she'll send us flying through the wall, all the way around the nations until we crash right back through her window."

"Don't jinx it gaki, we need to get a move on!" Jiraiya yelled out and started leaping through the rooftops, leaving Naruto to stand with Sakura.

"Shouldn't you go after him?" She asked curiously, while Naruto just shrugged an answer.

Tilting his head to look at her, he smirked, "I'd rather not be on the receiving end of her anger yet."

"It's only going to get worse if you stay away, she's really been missing you." Sakura smiled, as the two started to walk toward the Hokage tower at a high tempo.

Sighing and rubbing his head, Naruto closed his eyes, "Yeah I know, but I needed some extra time…"

"For what? Your change of wardrobe? It looks good on you, it seems fitting somehow"

"What? This thing? Oh, Jiraiya-sensei told me he would teach me something useful if I changed into an outfit that wouldn't scare his research material away, and this is what I ended up in. He says it has the opposite effect now like I'm a magnet attracting them." Naruto explained, a small smile forming on his lips.

Sakura giggled at that and lightly jabbed his arm, "You're really dense if you can't see it, look at all these girls and even women turning their heads to look at you."

"Yeah, until the point they realize who I am."

Shaking her head, Sakura looked around the people watching them, "You've never given up on gaining their recognition, why'd give up now?"

"Frankly because I don't care anymore, I don't need the civilians' approval to become a good Shinobi. Some people are blinded by the past, and while I find it really annoying that they blame me, I learned to look the other way and ignore it." The blond tried explaining, a tired tone coming out with his words.

"But you said you wanted to become Hokage, right? You need the people to be with you for that." Sakura retorted with a frown.

"That is what I wanted yes, but, not anymore."

"Why not?" She asked surprised, her eyebrows flying to the top of her forehead.

Naruto took his time to answer, and started out with a small sigh, "I have… 'New goals' that requires me not to be stuck in an office doing paperwork, but if I finish this mission earlier than expected, I suppose I could give it a new shot."

"New goals?" Sakura asked, her interest now peaked more than before.

Chuckling Naruto bumped his elbow against Sakura's arm as they arrived at the Hokage's tower, "That's a story for another time, you wouldn't get it without context and that would take too long to explain now, and I'm already late."

"I see, well, I have to be at the hospital for my shift in a few minutes, so I guess I'll see you later. I suppose we could catch up over some ramen if you want?" Sakura asked, a mild pink blush forming on her cheeks.

"Ramen? After all this talk of bad habits?" Naruto joked lightly, but it earned an enraged Sakura punching his arm roughly.

"Way to ruin the mood, idiot…" She sighed while walking off, leaving Naruto to stare at her back before shrugging and opening the door to walk inside.

Slowly walking up the stairs with his hands buried in his pockets, he tried imagining how the scenario was going to play out. Eventually figuring out that he would either have to dodge a few punches or take one in the face, he sighed and stood beside the Hokage's door.

About to knock on the door, he suddenly heard intense yelling from the inside and took a step back as he watched his mentor fly through the door, and then through the wall beside him. Raising an amused eyebrow, Naruto looked out of the hole and watched the perverted sage fly into the distance.

"Huh, at this speed he might actually reach Suna sooner than expected…"

Chuckling to himself, Naruto stood straight up and knocked on the broken door before entering, and looking at the back of the female Sannin, and Godaime Hokage with a small smile, "Going to punch me to Suna too, Baa-chan?"

Freezing in her step, Tsunade slowly turned around and stared at the one daring to call her Baa-chan. Her eyes widened as she saw him, taller and more muscular than when he left, stood her precious knucklehead, smiling at her for the first time in four years. Giving in to a leap, she grabbed the front of his jacket, making Naruto gulp.

'I guess I'm going to see Gaara sooner than expected…' He winced and closed his eyes, waiting for the punch to hit him. But when he instead of feeling a stinging pain to his head and the air flying through his hair… He felt a comfortable warmth, so he opened his eyes and noticed he had been grabbed into a bone-crushing hug instead.

"You're late… Gaki." She whispered in his ear, clutching onto him as the blond raised a surprised brow but returned the warm hug nonetheless.

"Yeah, but we were quite busy, it wasn't for nothing I promise," Naruto said in a whisper too, as he hugged Tsunade.

Hearing a pained groaning from behind them, the two broke the hug and looked toward the hole in the wall Jiraiya started to crawl through, "He gets a hug, but I get a fist to the face?"

"How was Gaara?" Naruto suddenly asked, and Jiraiya just laughed sarcastically.

"Ha… Very funny…"

Tsunade snorted at the old pervert, and moved down to sit in her chair, "So, now that all of us are assembled I would like to welcome you home Naruto, and I would also like an explanation as to why you are so late…"

"Let's just say, his training has proven fruitful. Who knew that under the shell of the former orange-clad gaki was a prodigy beyond Sasuke Uchiha." Jiraiya shrugged with a large smirk, crossing his hands over his chest as he looked proudly at the blond.

"I see, so, how strong is he?" Tsunade asked, looking at Naruto casually inspecting the village by looking out over the village from the window in her office.

Jiraiya chuckled a bit and pointed at him with a thumb, "Let's just say, if we fought I'd lose."

Tsunade roared out laughing, making the two males look at her funnily.

Realizing that she was the only one laughing at this, she stopped and looked at them like they told her Iwa wanted an arranged marriage between Naruto and the Tsuchikage's granddaughter. "You're serious?! How is that possible?!" She yelled out, standing up from her chair with her fists on her desk.

"Well, I decided to… uhm…"

"Get your hands out of your ass? Yes." Naruto finished, and Jiraiya scowled with a throbbing tick mark.

Looking back to Tsunade from Naruto, Jiraiya sighed heavily, "Yes… That."

"That doesn't explain much, what could possibly make him stronger than a Sannin in just a small four years?" Tsunade asked while her surprise and outrage had yet to quiet down as she slumped back into her chair.

"Naruto has a lot of uhm, perks, let's just leave it like that. The easiest way to explain it before it gets dark is that he's an Uzumaki and got the Kyuubi, both allowing him to regenerate over a hundred times faster than you and I, so he's able to train more and harder with added benefits. Plus, with his massive chakra pools, he can train with shadow clones. In essence, we speed up his training with hundreds of clones a day, making the gain of training resembling more that of two lifetimes, instead of four years, if my calculations are right." Jiraiya tried to explain, but it just caused Tsunade to have a headache and a pang of hunger for some sake to calm it.

"If you had to put that in simple terms, where is he between low-level Genin and the old man?" Tsunade asked again, and Jiraiya looked deep in thought.

"Well, he obviously isn't a match for the old man in his prime, because he was damn near unbeatable back then, but in his old stage? I think Naruto could give him a pretty good fight, thus leaving him as a prime candidate for fighting people like Orochimaru." Jiraiya thought out loud, making Tsunade open her desk and pull out a bottle of sake.

Sighing she poured herself a cup, and downed it in one go, "This is too much of an outrageous claim for me to simply take it by the word. No offense Naruto."

"None taken." The blond shrugged, causing her to raise a brow at him.

Smiling a bit she poured a second cup, and slid it across the table to the blond with a calculating gaze, "You seem so much more mature, it makes me wonder what the pervert did to you."

"As I told Sakura! I beat manners and discipline into him." Jiraiya burst out, his face pouting as he looked at the sake, wanting a cup himself.

"Learning manners? From you?" Tsunade said out loud, looking between the two before she snorted. "Yeah right.."

"He's not exactly wrong Baa-chan, as much as I hate to admit it, the tough training did bring out some of it to me, but I wouldn't say that ero-sennin deserves all the honor..."

"Yeah right, I brought out all of it."

"Hush you old pervert! I'm speaking with Naruto now." Tsunade shushed, causing Jiraiya to fall face-first onto the floor in surprise.

Downing his cup of sake slowly, groaning a bit at the burning sensation going down his throat along with the liquid, Naruto chuckled, "You were saying something about not just taking our word for it?"

Nodding her head, Tsunade crossed her arms under her bust, making Jiraiya giggle a bit at the sight, "Right, I need to see some first-hand evidence and proof of this, a spar between you and one of our strongest Jounin should suffice."

"Challenge accepted, so, who is the poor fella? Guy, Asuma, or even Kurenai?" Naruto asked with a small smirk, mentioning the first names coming to his mind until he heard the window open.

"Mah, it hurts my heart that I wasn't one of the first ones mentioned, Naruto." The voice was familiar and made Naruto smile brightly as he turned his head and looked at his Jounin sensei entering through the window, his usual eye smile present as he waved.

Standing up from his chair, Naruto walked over and chuckled lightly, "Well, we save the best for last, isn't that right, Kakashi-sensei?"

Chuckling as well, Kakashi scratched his cheek with his finger, "I suppose that's right."

"It's good to see you, sensei, you've been missed," Naruto admitted grinning a bit sheepishly, while first bumping with his sensei.

Looking quite curiously at his student, Kakashi tilted his head, "I can't put my finger on why, but while you seem the same, you also seem different. Well, aside from the wardrobe change, which is definitely a new but good thing."

Finding herself giggling a bit at the mention, Tsunade nodded, "Agreed."

"Why is everyone praising my wardrobe change so much?" Naruto asked, raising a brow, looking between the three older adults in the room.

Shaking his head with a long sigh, Jiraiya clapped Naruto on the back, "Sorry to be so brutally honest, but in that hideous orange jumpsuit, you stuck out more than a water user in Suna would…"

Deciding to save his student from this talk, Kakashi eye-smiled again, "Anyhow, it's good to see you too, Naruto. I'm looking forward to seeing where your training brought you. Hope you weren't slacking."

"Pff, as if that kid could slack at all…" The toad sage snorted with a smirk, looking mischievously smug.

Finding this amusing, Tsunade looked back to Jiraiya from her seat behind her desk and asked, "What do you mean?"

Jiraiya's smug face fell, as he looked back to the busty Hokage and smirked, "Contrary to popular belief, it was this blond brat that woke me up at five o'clock, every morning, at the same time every day. To train. Some days when we got to bed late, I had to send a shadow clone in my place in the morning so he could train because I was so damn exhausted! He's like an overcharged battery."

As Jiraiya finished his rant, everybody looked back at Naruto who just stood with a minor embarrassed look as he scratched the back of his head, "Oops?"

Rubbing the bridge of her nose Tsunade sighed loudly, "Alright, so, I want a battle between you and Kakashi to test your strength, Naruto. But, for now, I think it's about time you go and say hello to your friends and catch up with them, I'll entertain the old pervert in the meantime."

"Oh, Hime~"

"Shut up, it's not like that." Tsunade glared, making Jiraiya slump over.

Naruto chuckled at the rejected look on his mentor's face but nodded at the Godaime Hokage. "Alright, but when is this fight happening?"

"Sundown, at your team's training ground. Kakashi and Sakura will be there, I want to test your fighting capabilities along with your ability to function in a team after being away for so long." Was the answer he got, and with a simple shrug, and afterward nodded and shunshined out of the room.

Walking side by side with his sensei, Naruto gazed up at the older man and raised a brow at the book he was holding, "Still reading the same old book, sensei?"

Kakashi hummed and looked at him from the corner of his eye, and chuckled, "Well, there hasn't been a release in years due to you taking all Jiraiya-sama's time."

Smirking Naruto pulled open his haori and reached in, but it was not what he was reaching for that suddenly caught Kakashi's attention. Grabbing the blond's haori and pulling it more to the side, his eyebrow rose at the sight of a sword sheath, and the brown and black handle of a katana sticking out.

"Kenjutsu?"

Pulling a book out of his haori, Naruto sighed and held it in his hand, "Yes, Jiraiya took me to Uzushio on our third year, and told me about my mother's origins…"

This statement made Kakashi take a step back, letting go of Naruto's haori while looking at him with wide eyes, "Y-You know about them now?"

Naruto gave a short chuckle and crossed his arms, looking at the ground with a small frown, "Yeah, he told me about my dad as well, and I'm not holding any grudges against you sensei, I know you were just following orders…"

"I wanted to tell you, I really did…"

"You don't have to explain yourself, Jiraiya-sensei made it all very clear to me. I was mad at the beginning, and I might have lost my cool in the middle of a town, but I'm fine now." Naruto explained, waving his hands in front of him.

Kakashi sighed with relief, his tense composure dropping as he leaned against a fence, "I guess I can finally tell you about them then…"

"I'd like that, Jiraiya-sensei told me a lot, but you were my dad's prized student, so you must know a lot about them too." Naruto smiled softly, leaning in beside his sensei as they watched people pass.

"I will later, but I'm still curious about that sword," Kakashi admitted, peaking at the hilt of the blade sticking lightly out from the blond's haori.

Giving a nod the blond pulled lightly on the hilt, unsheathing a few inches to reveal the black blade with a dark blue edge. "When in Uzushio, sensei told me a lot about my clan's history, their ability to use fuinjutsu, and we eventually got to talk about my mother, and her skills, including her use of swords. So I got a burning desire to learn how to use the sword, it was a tough time, but it was worth it."

"So, what do you know of techniques?"

"Trying to figure all my tricks out before our little spar, sensei?" Naruto asked smirking, making the Jounin chuckle.

Kakashi shook his head, and took a seat on a nearby bench, "Merely trying to catch up, and I already know you can use that sword of yours, what does a little more information hurt?"

Smirking a little wider with closed eyes, Naruto sits down beside his Genin team sensei, "I suppose it won't matter even if you do know, I'll still win."

"Getting cocky, huh?"

"I'm confident in my abilities, but not cocky," Naruto stated simply, making Kakashi simply nod in response.

Closing his book, and putting it into his shuriken pouch, Kakashi eye-smiled, "So?"

"Well, there were some notes my mother had collected or written herself, I don't really know, we came back a year ago and found them and got out again," Naruto said, enjoying the overly surprised expression on Kakashi's mask covered face.

"You were back in a short period of time? And you didn't even come to say hello, I'm hurt."

Snorting Naruto rested back against the bench, "Relax sensei, we were there for about an hour, collecting scrolls and notes and putting them together with the stuff we found in the ruins of Uzushio."

"Still, you could have dropped by." Kakashi sighed and rested back as well.

"I suppose, but at the time we were still busy going after some leads on Orochimaru's whereabouts, we just quickly got in and out, not even Baa-chan knew we were back, and I'd like it to stay that way, she'll kill me if she finds out." Naruto shivered, feeling utterly terrified of the memories of an angry Tsunade.

Kakashi gave a short laugh and seemed to be smirking, "If you truly did become as strong as Jiraiya-sama says, I doubt you'd have such a hard time defending yourself."

"Jiraiya-sensei did work me really hard, and I asked for it every day as he said. In the beginning, it was all about becoming strong enough to get Sasuke back, but then stuff happened around us and my horizon was widened severely." Naruto commented, scowling at the memories.

"Did something bad happen on the road?" Kakashi asked with mild concern, keeping an eye on the blond from the corner of his uncovered eye.

Naruto started frowning, and looked up at the sky, "A group of bandits decided to raid a village we were staying in at our first stop after we left, we stopped them of course but the damage had already been done…"

Fire and pillars of smoke rose to the sky as he stood on top of the hotel's roof. Screaming and the sound of death hit their ears, as they watched the massacre. "We need to stop this endless bloodshed."

Naruto looked back up at his mentor and nodded, grabbing onto a kunai as they leaped down from the roof. The fighting was easy, they were only bandits, but that didn't change the fact that for the first time in his life, blood covered his hands.

The thug's body had just dropped before his eyes, and onto the ground, the man's body going limp as his breathing stopped while the blood ran down Naruto's kunai and onto his hands and fingers, soaking them in the crimson liquid.

"HELP ME!" The scream hit his ears, the sounds muffled as his view looked groggy. Turning his head slowly, his field of view almost spinning as he looked at a woman dragged away by her hair, before a dagger was pushed through her neck.

Her blood sprayed out of her neck, covering his face as he looked on for a few seconds before he started puking on the ground. As he was kneeling on the ground, emptying his stomach for his dinner from earlier, a kick was sent to his chest and he rolled across the street.

Growling he looked up from the ground, damning himself to hell for losing his cold against a mere thug, the horror and pain from taking a man's life still rushing through him, rendering his usual unbeatable resolve useless.

"You killed Ryujin! You'll pay for that-" But before the man could finish, a kunai was struck to his head, and Jiraiya landed in front of him.

Throwing the blond across his shoulder, Jiraiya leaped onto a nearby rooftop and placed the blond on the ground, "You okay gaki? What happened?"

"He's dead, that man, I killed him... " Naruto whispered, the scene playing over and over before his eyes.

Creating a dozen shadow clones to end this raid, Jiraiya turned around and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Naruto-"

"And that woman, if I hadn't frozen up, she wouldn't be dead… Her blood is all over my face…" Naruto kept on, wiping his forehead to see the crimson liquid staining his sleeve, making him feel like throwing up again.

"Why are people this evil? Why do they do this?"

"Greed, kid, greed."

"The last thing I knew, I woke up and couldn't remember anything after. Jiraiya-sensei must have washed me up because I was clean and in fresh clothes, but this feeling of dry blood in my hands, it wouldn't go away…." Naruto muttered, looking at his hands with a frown.

Kakashi felt sorry for his poor student, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I'm both sorry and happy it happened, you had to take a life sooner or later with this line of work, but I'm sorry about the woman and all…"

"Jiraiya-sensei told me something similar back then, I'm still feeling it now, but I guess I learned how to live with it." Naruto groaned, clenching his fists and leaning back.

Shaking his head, Kakashi decided to change the topic, "Back to our original conversation though, how does this tie-up with you training for something else than bringing back our lost teammate?"

"I hated what happened so bad, that my resolve… changed… While I still wanted to bring Sasuke back to the village, my hatred for such people just kept growing as we traveled, I wanted to end such corruption, and I still do, so I trained harder and fought harder than I ever have! So I can try erasing all that evil…"

Kakashi closed his eyes with a tired sigh, "Not trying to kill your resolve, but you do know that people like those appear like weeds in a garden, right?"

Nodding Naruto surprisingly gave a small smirk, "Despite how much I want them gone for good, their existence gives me a reason to keep on fighting, even when all my other goals are accomplished, there will still be people worthy of being punished."

"Seems like you got a job for a lifetime then, that's good. Need a job to pay your bills and get food." Kakashi commented, making Naruto only nod in return.

"Yeah, got bills to pay and a mouth to feed, so ain't no rest for the wicked right?" Naruto commented back cheekily.

"I'm glad you haven't completely changed, you seem so much more calm and mature now, made me wonder what Jiraiya-sama did to you, but I guess hard training and those experiences caused it," Kakashi replied, grunting as he stood up from the bench.

"After my first kill I had a bad time, it made me open my eyes on a lot of fronts, and I found out that life was about more than fancy techniques, and having fun. I had to get a grip of myself and grow up, I didn't have time to behave like a kid anymore." Naruto smiled back and stood beside his sensei, dusting his haori off.

Nodding Kakashi looked at the book Naruto had been holding throughout this entire storytime. "What's that by the way? I never got to ask earlier."

"This thing? Oh yeah, you talked about nothing new being released in all those years, but he did make a new book that has yet to come out, it's yours if you want it. I've already read it, so no point in me keeping it." Naruto chuckled, holding up the book.

Kakashi all but snatched the book out of his hand, opening the book as lights seemed to glow out of it before he closed it, "You read these books now?"

"Don't tell Baa-chan, it'll only give her about a thousand more reasons to punch me over to Suna and say hello to Gaara." Naruto sweatdropped, shivering again at the thought.

Grabbing onto Naruto's wrist, Kakashi giggled with a perverted glance, "I got all the other versions of Icha Icha at home! If you haven't read them all yet, we know what to pass time with before our spar. I'm so proud at least one of my students decided to get lost on this road of life with me!" Kakashi all but yelled with glee and tears of happiness while dragging Naruto with him.

"Oi! Relax sensei, it's not like I'm going anywhere!"

"You had no right to tell him about his heritage without consulting me first, Jiraiya!" Tsunade roared and slammed her fists onto her desk, cracking the wood.

Jiraiya sweated nervously, and took a step back as he looked at the royally pissed off slug sannin, "Would you rather have me tell him before or after he was strong enough to rush back here in a day from Kumo, and set everything on fire?"

"Don't be ridiculous you old fart, Naruto loves this place, it's his home!" Tsunade argued back, her temper showing greatly in the form of a large throbbing tickmark on her forehead.

Jiraiya snorted and leaned against the wall with a huff, "Don't lecture me about how he would react, I was there! And I seem to remember fairly clearly that he was beyond pissed off!"

Sighing loudly Tsunade banged her head against her desk, "You should have at least sent a messenger toad to let me know! This changes a ton on shit Jiraiya! He got a lot of things that need to be delivered back to him, the elders are going to go crazy, and all that damn paperwork from transferring his parents' belongings out of storage and into his custody!"

"Look on the bright side Hime! Instead of fighting off a very angry pissed off blond brat, capable of beating me, with all the village's strength, you only have to sign the same line on a couple of papers!" Jiraiya tried to argue back but instead got a book in his face.

"That doesn't change the fact that you went beyond your authority, and told the Jinchuuriki S-Class secrets, without permission!"

"I'm still fairly certain that avoiding a crisis with S-Rank Naruto, was a much better alternative than getting a mouthful right now…" Jiraiya mumbled, rubbing his sore nose.

Tsunade sat up with a groan and rested her head back against her chair as she took a large sip of her opened sake bottle. "Are you really so certain that he is stronger than us, and even S-Rank already?"

"We went all out in a sealed-off area a month ago, and he beat me with minor injuries after I entered sage mode," Jiraiya admitted shamefully, almost regretting making his student so strong.

"Oh don't look so full of self-pity! You trained the strongest Shinobi in the village, you should be proud of yourself and him." Tsunade snorted, downing the entire bottle to calm her headache.

Sighing tiredly, Jiraiya sat down, putting the toad summoner scroll down on the ground beside him, "I know, and I am, trust me. I'm just feeling like there is nothing left for me to teach him, he absorbed everything like a sponge, and I'm utterly lost for new things to teach him."

"Chakra affinity?"

"Oh don't sell me so short Hime, I made him test his affinity the first year, and had him basically master it by the end of it." Jiraiya laughed, enjoying the shocked and unbelieving look on Tsunade's face.

Looking sadly into her empty sake bottle, she threw it onto the ground with a sigh, "This shadow clone trick, it really did wonders huh…" Tsunade said, more of a statement than a question.

"It sure did, one week of training multiplied with the number of clones and time we used, probably resembled a gain of maybe one or two years of training," Jiraiya said in a whisper, a large smirk on his face.

Nodding Tsunade gave a small smirk herself, "I'm glad you decided to take his training seriously, we can't afford to have him any less strong than he is now, not with the threat of Orochimaru and the Akatsuki looming around in the shadows."

"So, what affinity did he have?"

Jiraiya blinked before answering, "Surprisingly enough, water."

"Water? I would have thought he'd have wind or lightning, but water? That was Kushina's second affinity if I'm not remembering wrong." Tsunade mused.

"You aren't remembering wrong, it was her second affinity. And despite how small of a chance he had of getting it, he did, but that didn't stop me from teaching him a bit of some of the other elements. He hasn't mastered them to the same extent though, because we focused a ton on control, and physical strength too." Jiraiya explained.

"What about the Kyuubi? You had any time to teach him how to control its chakra?" Tsunade asked, her interest suddenly peaked as Jiraiya chuckled with a sigh following after.

"Yeah, about the Kyuubi…"

A/N 1: As in my other stories, I like asking questions so I can get some dialogues going with you guys, so here is the question for this chapter: What kind of sword techniques do you think Naruto got up his sleeve? I've left a few hidden hints.

A/N 2: Thanks for reading, and yeah I know this might not be as satisfying as my other works. But I'm rusty at writing and using this to get back to my old level again, plus, I've thought about this story for a while now and wanted to do it. If you got some feedback or criticism, feel free to leave a review or private message! I love hearing from you guys.