The Yondaime Hokage

General POV

Outside of Konoha, a small hidden door in a tree opened and a man slowly crawled out. Said man looked miserable, but all that mattered was that he survived.

Danzo always survived, and he would survive everything. Seeing the destroyed Konoha, Danzo had to make an escape and find allies. He would return stronger than ever.

Back in Konoha, Jiraiya regained his vision and quickly realized where he was.

He was a super pervert that enjoyed peeping on women, but he was also the Toad Sage and had lived through 2 Shinobi Wars.

So when he saw his student fighting his former student and seeing Konoha destroyed, he immediately recognized the threat and quickly performed the Summoning Jutsu to summon Ma and Pa for a fight.

"Jiraiya-kun! We are happy to see that you are alive. Your name on the summoning scroll was grayed out but not erased," Ma cried out when she nuzzled into his cheek.

Naruto couldn't believe who stood before him. Jiraiya's death was a lie. Nagato, on the other hand, was frowning at seeing the man he thought he killed alive.

Ishizu stopped as he felt the wind changing. Opening his eyes wider, he looked back to the place where he put Jiraiya and his mouth dropped in disbelief.

A few hand signs later, a panda was standing next to him. The panda raised an eyebrow, seeing not a single enemy around his summoner to fight, and a small smile crossed his face.

"Ah, brother Ishizu. Sometimes I think you summon me for what you humans call 'small talk'. Going roque did quite a number on you. You barely have any human contact outside of Tayuya and Fuka. My condolence."

Right now Ishizu would really like to wring his hands around the panda's neck, but he just pointed to the place he wanted to panda to see.

"Explain! How this is possible?"

Tau turned his head and saw what Ishizu was pointing at. The nature energy coming from Jiraiya was rather potent.

"There is no way Jiraiya should be able to reach a perfect Sage Mode."

This was what made Ishizu look confused. Both Ma and Pa were sitting on the Toad Sage's shoulders, but they weren't helping him with Sage Mode. Instead of an incomplete Sage, Jiraiya was in a perfect form.

"I am not 100% sure, but I believe this is an aftereffect of being sealed away. His body, although frozen in time, grew accustomed to the nature energy while in our realm. Unfortunately, he won't be able to sustain it for long."

Change Scene

While the Jinchūriki boy wanted nothing else than to speak to his living sensei, Naruto and Jiraiya had to focus on the enemy.

Both quickly finished off the Animal and Asura path before Pain got his reinforcement. Kakuzu and Hidan proved to be very annoying and even Hidan was cautious when fighting the two Sages.

Naruto acted quickly and explained to Jiraiya the information he found in Uzu about the Rinnegan and the information Kabuto provided him about Kakuzu and Hidan.

Deep inside Naruto, Kurama felt the anger and hatred inside his jailor rising. Sage Mode was a double-edged sword when fighting in the middle of friends who were dead or dying.

Kurama could feel what Naruto could and he knew that with just one or two more deaths of somebody close, he could try to escape.

Kurama had nothing against Naruto but he wanted to be free and, hey, if there is a door, why not use it?

Naruto POV

My Sage Mode ran out after I destroyed another path, leaving only the Deva one. His ability over gravity proved to be very annoying, but Hidan and Kakuzu were too.

I could feel Asuma's chakra flowing through one of the masks of Kakuzu. This bastard killed him and took his heart for himself. Unfortunately, Jiraiya-sensei was occupied with the two immortals, and so I had to fight the Deva Path.

"Your Sage Mode ran out," commented Pain and then I felt being pulled toward him. I cried out in pain when he pierced my hands with his metal sticks, disrupting my chakra flow.

"You don't understand pain, Uzumaki Naruto. I will bring peace to this world by taking the Kyuubi from you."

I could only see a blue before the Deva Path was blocked a strike from none other than Hinata.

"Hinata?" I could only stare in shock. Why was she here?

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I will protect you," she said before trying to get me free.

"Get away from me!" I shouted at her in panic before she was pulled towards Pain.

I couldn't let her die. That's when I felt power and golden light envelop me.

General POV

With Sage Mode providing a link to Naruto, Kurama could feel the boy's determination to save the girl he loved.

It wasn't as if Kurama 'liked' any humans. Hell, he barely tolerated Naruto as his jailer. He still harbored a deep hatred for his mother and the man that sealed him away.

It was only for a moment that Kurama felt sorry for Naruto's mate and, seeing her in danger, he let go of his chakra.

Unlike any other time, this chakra didn't contain an ounce of anger and hatred. It was his pure chakra.

An incomplete Kyuubi Chakra Mode Ishizu would describe it.

Still, even with this, Naruto wasn't fast enough and Pain stabbed right through Hinata's heart with a metal stick.

'NOOOOO!'

And Naruto saw red.

General POV

Ishizu dropped to one knee as he clutched his chest near his heart. The pain made him clench his teeth and a tear involuntary run down his cheek.

Someone died. He could feel it. Someone he held dear was dead. He has witnessed death before. He has seen the death of loved ones, yet none of them were so painful as this.

"What happened? As a Sage you shouldn't react to death like that," Tau commented, a bit disappointed, but he didn't get a response as the man disappeared.

"Although feeling the death of a student should be excused."

Ishizu POV

I just wanted to get Sasuke and Itachi out of Konoha, but the world wasn't my playground and sometimes things didn't go ask planned. Now, I saw a rampaging 6-tail Naruto wrecking havoc.

I didn't want to intervene in this fight. Wanting Naruto to manage his own problems. How foolish. Now I paid the price of seeing one of my students lying dead on the ground while the other was fighting. It made my blood boil.

But instead of running towards Naruto and Pain, I activated Sage Mode, appeared next to Hidan, and with the Asura Path destroyed Kakuzu's hearts by piercing through his chest with my own chakra receivers.

"What the fu...?"

Before Hidan could do anything, I gripped his head and with the human path grabbed his soul and pulled it violently out.

I should have done that earlier.

Jiraiya was startled for a second before seeing the body of Hinata and nodding for help before leaving to help Naruto with Pain.

Hinata's death was partially my fault. If I killed Hidan and Kakuzu earlier, they wouldn't occupy Jiraiya enough for Hinata to come after her and ruin her life.

I stopped those thoughts from filling my head. The past was over and I shouldn't dwell on it.

I turned my body to Hinata and walked towards her. She died, but I had the ability to revive her. Since it was my fault, I would do the duty.

That's when it happened. When I summoned the King of Hell, his mouth was wide open. Then suddenly a black slender hand emerged from it, grabbed my body and pulled me inside the Human Path.

What… the fuck?!

Jiraiya POV

This was bad. Really bad. I was glad that Ishizu came to my aid after he saw his student's death, but this wasn't the problem. I ran after Naruto before coming to a stop, seeing a small black ball pulling everything into it.

And Naruto in his 7-Tails form was there too. I had to stop it, but I had nothing in my arsenal to do so. I had to find Pain and end this once and for all.

Naruto Mind Scape.

Naruto glared at the cage in front of him while a large red claw grabbed his body. He knew it was his fault to open his mind to the fox. The latter used the moment to put his chakra inside and now was controlling his body. He was seconds away from going 8-tails and when he reached 9, the fox would come out.

"Do you hate me, Naruto?" asked the Kyuubi in a calm and steady tone.

"I knew you wanted to be free, but couldn't you talk to me first?! I promised to help you. Fuinjutsu can do almost anything."

"Not your words. At least you know my reason. Your former Sensei just left saying nothing before coming back with another Sensei, whom everyone thought was dead. Now, enough with the chitchat. Be a good human and open the cage."

Outside Naruto's mindscape, 8 tails and a disgusting-looking Kyuubi pierced through the miniature moon Nagato created with his Chibaku Tensei.

"I underestimated the strength of the Kyuubi," muttered Nagato before feeling Jiraiya coming closer to his Deva Path.

Naruto tried everything to stop his advancing to the seal, but the Kyuubi controlled his body. Naruto was just about to rip open the seal when a hand grabbed his arm and threw Naruto into the water; away from the seal.

"Tsk, should have seen this coming. The brat told me that your chakra was inside preventing such a thing to happen but I didn't believe him," grumbled/growled Kurama as he saw the figure in front of him before laying on the ground and watching the man with a hateful glare, helping Naruto up.

"Who are you?" asked a confused Naruto before he could see better the person who was inside his mind. It was his father, Minato Namikaze. The Yellow Flash and 4th Hokage.

"Dad?!"

The man scratched his head.

"That is who I am. I am surprised that you know me, Naruto"

Naruto just sighed before standing up. He was glad to meet his father, but he had to end a fight.

"Time flows differently in the mind, Naruto. You have enough time," yawned the Kyuubi before giving Minato a glare.

"You don't know how much I want to grab your little body, put it between my teeth and crush you like the bug you are while tasting your blood on my mouth. If it wasn't for this cage," one of his claws scraped against the cold metal.

"I think we should go to another place," spoke Minato, a bit weirded out by the Kyuubi's speech of him before being stopped by Naruto.

"We can talk here. I know he tried to break free, but it was my fault for neglecting him. Before Pain came to our village, I was in a bad mood but when I saw the countless deaths of my comrades and the death of Hinata I just snapped," spoke Naruto before turning around.

"Everything was fine until he betrayed us. He betrayed me. I trusted him!" shouted Naruto, letting his emotions run wild.

"Who are you talking about?" asked Minato, confused.

"One of you students and my former sensei, Ishizu Sasaki. He left the village and betrayed the leaf."

To Naruto's confused his father wasn't looking as if this was something surprising. Minato's right hand over his face as and shaking. It was like he expected something like that.

"Huh? I didn't think he would do it."

"What!? You knew he was going to leave!" Naruto punched his dad in anger.

"He told it to me and your mother one day. He should have mentioned it to you at one point, but Ishizu-kun liked to talk about crazy things. One of them was to find his wife. He was like 6 or 7 when he barged into Kushina's room and exclaimed that when he was ready with his mission, he would leave Konoha and turn rogue," Minato explained before a sweat drop formed on his head and a familiar scene happened in his head.

"Even after hours of tortu... cough... I mean discipline by your mother for even thinking about such things. He stayed strong. He said it would take years, but only after promising your mother that he wouldn't hurt anyone from Konoha did she leave him alone."

Naruto felt bad for Ishizu, having seen how his mother was when she was summoned with the Edo Tensei.

"What you need to know is that Ishizu would never do anything bad to you or anyone else."

"Well, seeing Jiraiya-sensei alive after we all thought he was dead is a big indicator of who did this. Argh, this man is driving me crazy. Wife this, wife that. All the secrecy is coming back to this wife of his. Hell, I don't even know her name. I never asked. He once drew me a picture of her but never told me her name. Do you know it, dad?"

Minato could only shake his head in disappointment. He knew that Ishizu once told him and Kushina her name, but he forgot it because why would you want to remember a name of a person you never saw and thought it was an imaginary friend of Ishizu?

"Naruto," Minato began speaking again.

"My chakra is draining. I want you to know that there was a person who managed to break through the barriers we set up. He killed Hiruzen's wife and fought me to a standstill. It was home who took the Kyuubi out of your mother."

"Who was it?"

"It was a man with a swirling mask. I believe it was Madara Uchiha."