He stormed out, body tight and clenched and angry. Wiping his face he brushed past a pair of Chuunin, scattering their tall stacks of papers all over the hallway.

"Hey!"

He didn't stop, his feet going by themselves. Left and right and again and then out of the Hokage's tower and into the street. The sun was too bright and he turned away, the still wet ground sticking to his sandals.

Damn him... he thought, not knowing to be sad or angry or both.

Slamming the door to his apartment shut, he flung his drenched poncho to the floor and kicked his muddy shoes off to some desolate corner. Only the piles of used ramen cups greeted him, forlorn and empty.

"Bastard," he muttered, pacing restlessly. How the hell did he get himself killed? Wasn't he supposed to be a Legendary Sannin? What was he doing?

Naruto sighed in exasperation and sat on the edge of his bed, running shaking hands through blond spiky hair. This wasn't helping. He shouldn't have yelled or stormed out. He shouldn't have let Sasuke get away. He shouldn't have...

No, shaking his head he forcibly stopped that train of thought. It didn't do any good thinking about 'what ifs'.

No, he decided, blue eyes narrowing into determination, there would be no 'what if'. He would make that bastard Pein pay.

The funeral was large, civilians and ninja both in attendance. Naruto smiled, knowing the pervert would've appreciated all the attention. All that were needed were some wailing women. Well, Naruto spared a quick glance over his shoulder, Kakashi-sensei was as close to wailing as they came, desperately holding the latest volume of Icha Icha to his chest.

It wasn't until afterwards that Tsunade-baa-chan came to him, "Naruto."

He turned and started when he realized who was speaking, "Ah... sorry about earlier," he said sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head, and looking at his toes.

She smiled a bit, "Come with me."

"Eh?"

"I don't have all day," she said simply while walking away.

He shrugged and followed, tense and eager and not knowing what to expect. At the least, he figured she wouldn't hit him, but she was too calm. A calm Tsunade was a dangerous Tsunade.

She took him to her office, a new desk strangely cleared of paperwork, and sat down her brown eyes staring at him.

The silence was too much, "Tsunade-baa-chan?"

She sighed, picking up some manuscripts and boxes filled with personal affects from behind her desk, "He left everything to you, Naruto," her voice weary.

What? "Why?" he asked, his mind reeling, "Why me?"

Tsunade smiled sadly, her gaze far away, "He was your godfather," at his shocked face she continued, "I bet you didn't know that."

"I..." he stopped, not knowing what to say. Sadness welled up in him, then confusion, "How?" he shouted, needing to know, "How? Why didn't he tell me?" tears were welling up against his will and he hastily wiped them away.

She leaned back in her chair, oblivious to his distress, "Perhaps the memories were too painful," a shrug, "Even a legend cannot escape that."

"What are you talking about?" he nearly shouted, "I don't-"

"-I miss him," she interrupted, "I never thought I would, but..."

"Tsunade-baa-chan," Naruto deflated, his fists dropping to his sides.

The Fifth Hokage closed her eyes tightly and shook her head once to clear her malaise, "It's all yours, do what you want with it. I can't stand the sight of it anymore," she growled, pushing the piles towards him, "It's taking up too much space."

"But..." he started, his arms straining to hold everything, "What should I...?"

"Go home, Naruto."

It wasn't often Naruto could be found at home mid-afternoon. If he wasn't on a mission he was bothering Tsunade-baa-chan for one. If he wasn't being a annoying brat he was training, and if he wasn't training he was eating ramen.

So besides having Ero-sennin's stuff in it, his apartment was rather unfamiliar to him, almost sinister in the way the shadows fell at all the wrong angles. A flick of the switch changed that to the more ordinary glow of incandescent lighting though.

Squatting down, Naruto surveyed the odd cache he had inherited. Half finished manuscripts and old volumes made up most of it, a hand full of shuriken and kunai that looked older than he was, and the gigantic summoning scroll. He moved that to the side first, wondering what Gamabunta would think.

The books came next, Icha Icha volumes and 'study material'-he made the mistake of opening one of those, and one nosebleed and faint later he kicked them under his bed. He could almost hear the old pervert chastising him, "Naruto you idiot! How dare you treat my precious research that way!"

Chuckling, Naruto put aside his now complete collection of Icha Icha first editions. He turned back, noticing one more book and picked it up and then nearly dropped it.

"The Adventures of Naruto?"

Had Ero-sennin been writing about him? he wondered, a frown on his face, no... the book was too old. A quick check to the publish date confirmed that it had been printed sixteen years ago. Curious he flipped through the pages, at first skimming but then engrossed in the protagonist's determination.

Huh, I never knew the old fart could actually write, surprised as he turned the last page to find out he enjoyed it, why did he write all those dirty novels then?

About to close the book, a few more lines of additional writing caught his attention, one in a scrawling hand the other much more precise. Had someone autographed the old pervert's book? He hoped it wasn't someone even more perverted.

Don't let the low sales get you down,

you have to live up to Naruto's

determination too!

Namikaze Minato

Where had he heard that name before? It sounded so familiar. Not one to be worried about such things, Naruto read on.

What do the stupid publishers know anyway?

You just keep on cranking them out!

Uzumaki Kushina

The smile he had while reading froze, and he almost dropped the book again. He read the name a second time, and then a third. Uzumaki...

Now, Naruto wasn't dumb. Lots of people had the same last name, and when he was younger he even looked for other Uzumaki's just to satisfy his curiosity. Or maybe it was to combat his loneliness.

He never found any.

Not a mention, not a trace. He had started to wonder if he had sprung out of an old bowl of ramen, or several other impossible scenarios his overactive imagination came up with.

Uzumaki Kushina... that was a woman's name. Did she know Ero-sennin somehow? Umm... he blushed.

He put the book down and started going through several manuscripts and journals stuffed with loose papers and several pictures. It seemed about half way divided between outlines for Icha Icha and notes for jutsu. The notes looked promising, so he started to stack those when he came across a picture.

It was old, the edges yellowing. A blond man and a red headed woman stood smiling in front of the Hokage monument, scaffolding obscured most of the face of the Third and the area next to his rocky profile. But Naruto had seen the three story high faces nearly everyday of his life, dreaming of his own right up there with them.

The blond man was a dead ringer for the Fourth, and he could see him holding the traditional red and white Hokage hat. His other arm was around the woman who was very pregnant.

Naruto flipped the picture over:

Minato and Kushina, 6 months

28.9.573

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

AN: Well, I've always wanted to start a Naruto fic. And the latest manga chapters are a great springboard. A couple of notes:

All the personal affects Naruto inherits were not on Jiraiya's person when he died except the summoning scroll. I would assume the frog summons would ensure that the next living person on the scroll would receive it, and the rest were probably stored at Konoha's U-Store equivalent. For the date on the back of the picture, that's September 28th, and a year I made up. I know that is very close to his birthday of October 10th, but there is a reason for this.

Anyway, thanks for reading.