Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I expect for this disclaimer to hold up for the rest of this particular story.

A/n: I'm basically writing this from scratch, so if this chapter seems good, then the rest seem kinda 'meh', then that just means I haven't rewritten it yet. Bear with me here.

Amegakure=Village Hidden by Rain (Rain Village)

Konohagakure=Village Hidden in the Leaves (Leaf Village)

Sensei=Teacher

Prologue: Us too!

There in the grey, gloom land stood four figures in the midst of all the rain. The rain was said to never end due to the land having to have endured the war that was mutually decided to take place there. It never asked for anything, and now the land had nothing much left on it aside from dead, fallen warriors from their own respective homes, stray weapons that no one bothered to pick up, candy wrappers, and ruined homes.

"Well," Jiraiya smiled, "Looks like I'm going home. See you kids later." He turned face and began walking off with a tune, that is, until the orange haired boy named Yahiko tackled him to the forever muddy ground and wrapped his arms around the man's torso with a death grip.

"C'mon!" He shouted, though it was muffled by the Sannin's shirt. "At least give us a meaningful good-bye, idiot-sensei!" Jiriya could feel the warm tears soaking throw his material, and he patted Yahiko's head sympathetically.

"No need to cry." He teased, but Yahiko let it slide for the sake of this very well being their last possible meeting. Jiraiya gently pushed the boy off himself and got up, feeling a little icky about the mud on his back.

"So do we get a meaningful good-bye then?" Konan asked warmly with sadness in her eyes. Jiraiya sighed with a scratch of his head and crossed his arms.

"Okay you three, if you're going to make me sentimental, then you are all held responsible if I cry." He joked as he pointed to the three orphans in an accusing manner. Jiraiya quickly let it up and went to his 'serious mode' where he told them each about how he would miss them all as individuals, but they'll definitely grow up stronger as a team, to keep fighting for their goals to save their homeland, and to never give up.

They were all in tears now, but it was only noticeable on Yahiko due to the snot dripping from his nose. Everyone else kept a straight, but sad, face. Jiraiya wouldn't doubt it if his perfect façade was undistinguishable.

"I have taught you all you'll need to know," were the words of their caretaker, teacher, and the closest thing each of them had to a father figure. "You three have grown so strong…"

Yahiko, seeming to have wanting to suddenly change Jiraiya's mind to staying longer as he sensed that his meaningfull good-bye was coming to a close, protested, "Y-you can't leave us! I won't allow it! "There's still so much more you can teach us!" crossing his arms in to an 'X' and shaking his head furiously. "Stay a little longer, please!" Jiraiya shook his head.

"At least take us with you!" Nagato blurted, seeming to have gotten caught up in Yahiko's moment.

He shook his head, "There's no way I would take you three away from your home, you three belong in the Land of Rain."

"B-but…" Nagato interjected, speaking up from his usual silence, "if we did go to Konoha, then we could continue our lessons and learn much more. Patience is a virtue, right? We train even harder for the next few years, then when we become adults we'll be more than strong enough to defend Amegakure with everything we're capable of!" he said with some newfound enthusiasm.

Konan didn't look as convinced, "But… we have to protect our land now. It's in desperate need and can't wait for us to grow." She reasoned, "If we left now, then we'd just be leaving it in pain…"

"Exactly!" Yahiko agreed, needing to shout in his own opinion. "We don't run, we fight for peace!"

"Not run away!" Nagato shook his head, "Not at all! It's just… we're still just kids, and we've only had three years of training, and look at how far we've come! I don't think we could stand up to the big shots like Hanzo, but maybe in another three years…" he trailed off suggestively, then looked at his teacher with a pleasing look, "Please, Sensei?"

Jiraiya was taken aback, to say the least. He had never even considered taking these three with him, let alone back to the Leaf. He had a future of writing, or so his fortune teller fortold, and journeying, said his gypsy-toad. He was meant for an adventure! But… it wasn't exactly a future written in stone, now was it? He could still have an adventure if he took in these three, set up the rooms, he could sleep on the couch while Yahiko and Nagato shared his room, Konan could have the guest room to herself and Chibi…

Wait, what? No!

"You guys," he took a step back as though the peer, or more like, discipline pressure would physically hurt him somehow, "I don't have any plans to stay in Konoha, I was only going to stop in to see one of my student's graduate, of sorts, then I'd be leaving town."

"But Nagato has a point," Yahiko said as though it were the most obvious fact in all the world, and Jiraiya just needed to hear it to get it, "We could just live in your house while we train with other ninja's. I'm sure you're not the only one how to fight in that town." When Jiraiya made a move to counter that argument Yahiko spoke first, "You said there's a lot of skilled shinobi there."

"Er…right…" he cocked a brow, were they seriously going to do this without his consent? There had to be something illegal about this.

"Please sensei?" Konan said, who had changed minds to match her two friends.

"Uh..."

"PLEEEEE-AAAAAASE?" they said in unison while bearing similar looks. Chibi barked in the background, agreeing with his owners and sporting his own natural pair of puppy eyes (well, not so much of a puppy anymore, being three years old and whatnot.)

The toad Sannin scratched the back his head, these kids deserved to be in a good environment, and hey, these guys were practically like his own kin. The more he thought about it, the more he loved the idea. "Of course! You guys will get along great with the village!" he laughed. Of course, the three ran to their teacher and toppled him with a hug, honestly, they were excited at the idea of living in Konoha and better yet, the fact that they could stay with their teacher for much longer. They didn't want to say good-bye. Who knows what would happen to them after a few years on their own in this rainy land?

A/n: I'd like to think in my mind that my writing has improved in the last year or so…

NEW EXPLANATION for this AU: The war has ceased, but the land is still in the ruins of the aftermath. Not to mention that there are still some who are not satisfied with the Leaf winning *cough* Hanzo *cough*, so Amegakure is still a danger of sorts. Leaf ninja are pretty okay with the way things are and most of them have gone back home, but their dim-witted Anbu are 'Egads, there is fighting to be done! Let us- op, we dead.' Kind of thing, so that's how that works.

The three Ame orphans aren't running away, their plan is to go to the Leaf for a while, get super strong, then go back with Leaf skills and save the Rain.

Hiruzen is the current Hokage, Minato is a Jounin and is Hiruzen's choice for the next Kage. Same reasons as canon as to why his own diciplines aren't his next choice, Orochimaru doesn't fit the bill, Tsunade is off and about gambling, and Jiraiya doesn't want te title