The mighty toad sage rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger while releasing an exasperated sigh. He could feel his headache growing, a little knot of stress right around his forehead. He had named the knot of suffering 'Little Naruto.' He felt it was appropriate.

Jiraiya risked a downward glance at his mulish apprentice. He sighed again, 'Little Naruto' grew.

The namesake of Jiraiya's favorite migraine glared up at his teacher, determination and stubbornness written in equal parts all over his whiskered face.

The two stood in the middle of the street of a small town in Wind Country, a year into their journey.

The toad sage sighed once more, "You're not letting this go, are you gaki." Jiraiya didn't know why he asked the question, he already knew the answer.

If anything, his stubborn apprentice's expression grew even more dogged. A deep frown developed on the whiskered boy's face.

Jiraiya sighed once more, he felt as if he'd been doing that a lot lately. 'Little Naruto' throbbed in sympathy and Jiraiya's fingers returned to their task.

"Fine." The Toad Sage was resigned to it, really. As soon as the few innocent words left his mouth he regretted it. He knew he'd jumped head first into this, besides, it was the right thing to do. Even if he would be dragged by his foolish little apprentice across a good deal of hostile territory. Tsunade-hime would kill him, but he's sorta grown used to that over the years. A sigh escaped him once more, it was becoming a bad habit, that.

Somewhere in Naruto's brain, a switch flipped, and the Naruto Pouty Disapproval Face evaporated like a dream. A brilliant smile lit up his face as he danced around his perverted teacher, hopping around like some sort of drug addled rabbit.

"Really, really Ero-Sennin?!" Naruto danced in excitement, jumping and hopping and shouting far too loudly for his teacher's taste.

"Damn it kid, stop calling me that," Jiraiya covertly scoped out for any ladies who may have heard his apprentice call him such a lame title, several pedestrians gave the pair some concerned glances.

Naruto stopped prancing in an instant, and looked up at his teacher with a heartbroken expression on his face, eyes suspiciously watery he moaned, "B-but sensei," Jiraiya could not handle looking at his young apprentice's face at the moment, so he grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and shook him for a bit.

Naruto yowled like a cat as his teacher disciplined him. The mighty sage held his student at arms length, a suddenly serious expression on his face.

"Naruto, if we're going to do this, you have to obey my every order, no more running off at every shiny thing that grabs your attention. Got it."

Naruto had a surprisingly mutinous look on his face for someone being held up with one arm, "Fine, fine, just put me down will ya!"

The sage smirked and dropped is troublesome apprentice on the street, ignoring his hollers of protest.

He was not looking forward to this leg of the trip, a single offhand comment, and their journey would be extending by months. He had only said that the brat was lucky someone as magnificent as his beautiful self had taken in interest in him, after all Akatsuki would have snatched him up otherwise.

This led the brat to thinking of the other eight who shared a burden similar to his own, a road Jiraiya would prefer he not go down. Jiraiya was training the kid to be an S-ranked shinobi, but a Jinchuriki was something else entirely. A Jinchuriki was practically a force of nature, terrifying to behold, threat to friend and foe alike. Jiraiya didn't want that for his apprentice, he really didn't. But, Naruto, the bleeding heart that he was, insisted that they go and tell every other Jinchuriki of the threat they faced. Akatsuki.

It wasn't that Jiraiya was opposed to telling as many as he could about the threat of Akatsuki, on the contrary, he was all for the villages working together to stop this threat, standing side by side, as allies, brothers. His problem with the plan was the bit where his precious apprentice came face to face with a variety of S-ranked crazy people. 'Little Naruto' grew exponentially at the thought of it.

So, Jiraiya told the kid they'd go to Suna, after all Naruto was already friends with their Jinchuriki, little harm could be done there after Naruto already beat the crazy out of him. Besides, it would do some good if the people of Suna saw the mighty toad sage and his Jinchuriki apprentice march right up to the gates of their hidden village and walk in without protest. Remind Suna that Konoha hasn't forgotten the events of the Chunin Exams, keep them on the strait and narrow. S-rank nin tend have to have that sort of effect, the Sannin even more so.

"Well, come on then kid, we better get a move on if we want to get to Suna." Jiraiya felt he should be more concerned about his apprentice's seeming bipolar mood swings, he thought to himself as he watched Naruto switch from rubbing his tailbone on the street, glaring up at him to on his feet flashing him a dazzling smile in an instant. Several passerby looked concerned over the boy's shift in attitude, but Jiraiya was ambivalent to it, after all, the best shinobi were the ones who were at least a little bit nuts.

Naruto was a very happy ninja. This was not unusual for Naruto, he was a generally easygoing young man, but today he was especially happy. He was going to Suna to visit Gaara! Gaara was pretty much his best friend ever, other than Sasuke, but he was a missing-nin right now. But not for long! Cause Naruto will totally rescue him from the weird snake-pervert and drag him back to Konoha kicking and screaming. Uzumaki Naruto never abandons his friends, that was his nindo!

That was also the reason he was so insistent that he and Ero-Sennin go and warn all of the other Jinchuriki about Akatsuki. Naruto had never met another Jinchuriki, except Gaara, and he was curious about how it would go. Would they be like him, holding his friends close, or would they be like Gaara once was, homicidal in the extreme, letting none close, keeping his heart safe, yet alone. He could hardly wait to meet them!

As Naruto thought about it, hands cradling his head as he walked diligently behind Ero-Sennin through the hot steppe region of Wind County, he realized that the other Jinchuriki were pretty much the closest thing he would ever have to family.

Jiji was gone. Orochimaru had killed him, at the thought he felt a burning flash of rage, and pushed it out of his mind to who knows where. Jiji may be gone, but he still had his precious people.

Sakura and Sasuke and Kakashi and Konohamaru and Gaara and Baa-chan and Shikamaru. And Ero-sennin, of course. Naruto figured that Ero-Sennin wouldn't have made him his apprentice if he didn't like him, so naturally Ero-Sennin was one of his most precious people. After all, everyone else had become his precious people because of chance or Naruto had stuck to them until they gave up and became his friend. But Ero-Sennin had chosen him to be his apprentice. Not Sasuke, not Sakura, him. Naruto the Dead Last was the apprentice to the Mighty Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin. That meant a lot in Naruto's books.

He figured it was because of the Kyuubi at first, probably on Jiji's orders or something.

But only at first! Then Ero-Sennin had seen how great he could be and had him sign the Toad Contract and made Naruto his apprentice properly. He, some unwanted orphan, signing the Toad Contract! Naruto was not as foolish as he seemed at first glance, he realized the significance of signing a master's summon contract. He, Uzumaki Naruto, unwanted orphan Jinchuriki, had been signed on to the Toad Summon Clan. It was the greatest of honors, and besides, Toads were just awesome.

Naruto had a small handful of precious people, but he loved them all more than his own life. He would do anything for them, because they had given him the greatest gift someone like him could get. Acknowledgment.

And now he was going to meet a whole bunch of new people who were just like him! Like Gaara! He knew most Jinchuriki didn't have it near so good as he did according to some offhand comments from Baa-chan and Kakashi-sensei. After all, he had precious people to call his own, but he knew he could be a precious person to them! And then they would be precious to him too! Naruto's smile grew just thinking about it.

Uzumaki Naruto, orphan Jinchuriki, apprentice to the Mighty Toad Sage smiled. It was a small smile, delicate and fragile. He was going to meet his brothers and sisters, not in blood, true. But they were siblings in their budens, and that was enough for him.