Chapter 37

An innate hatred of anything hospital-related sat deeply within Naruto's mind. A hospital meant that you were injured badly enough to require medical attention. Getting beaten that badly was usually associated with defeat.

And man did he ever suffer a defeat.

It almost took him back to when he was in the Academy. That had been the very last time he had been overcome so completely when it mattered. He had forgotten how terrible it felt. He had even fallen out of the practice of pasting a smile on his face to trudge through the bad feelings that came with it.

Someone who said that you learn more from failure than from victory… had either never failed and was bored with success, or failed so much that they came up with an excuse for themselves.

Naruto lifted his head off of his pillow and slammed it back into it hard just to feel and hear the thump. Doctors told him he was cleared to leave later that day and it couldn't come fast enough for his tastes. He had been there for two days. That was 36 hours more than he cared to be there for, and that was only because he was unconscious for the first twelve.

No surgery had been required as the bulk of his most severe damage had been handled by his internal protector when Asuma had been racing him and his team back to Konoha. How he did so by himself (at least as far as Naruto knew from his place stuck in bed), Naruto had no idea, but he had more important things to dwell on.

The door to his room opened and in walked Jiraiya, much to Naruto's delight, "Ero-sensei!" He said excitedly upon seeing the tall white-haired shinobi, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm training you, remember dumbass?" Jiraiya said amusedly, chuckling at the corresponding pout on Naruto's face, "I heard you were on the 'ass' end of an asskicking. So how'd that feel?" He asked, his mood sobering up upon asking his question.

Not only did Jiraiya's mood take a nosedive, but Naruto's budding good mood sank right back into the mud and the muck as well, "How do you think? I used the Kyuubi's chakra and I still lost the fight. Guren beat all three of us down."

"So she was strong enough to take all three of you." Jiraiya asked, taking a seat on the windowsill by Naruto's bed and looking out the open window, "Was she the strongest person you've ever fought?"

"Other than you, yeah. But I don't think you count. You weren't trying to kill me."

Jiraiya nodded, still looking out the window as the birds chirped, "Well I've got some bad news for you then. I should have told you earlier but you had enough on your plate with the chunin exams, and then you had gotten promoted and I wanted you to get some time to get that out of your head. Now though, it seems a better time than before to bring this up. In the near future there are going to be ten bonafide badasses of the criminal shinobi world coming for you."

This wasn't going to be brought up if it wasn't important. Naruto knew that much from simply the tone of speech Jiraiya used, "Now when you call them badasses…"

"I mean that they'll make the person you fought look like you when you were fighting that person." Jiraiya explained, "Top class S-rank criminals or so I've heard. Their movements are clandestine and you have no idea how hard it was to get that much info on them. All I know for certain is that my old archbastard of a teammate claimed membership with them, and that should be scary enough that they were able to kick him out and still exist… the hateful son-of-a-."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naruto cut him off with wide eyes, "Are you kidding me? They're that strong and these guys are coming after me? What the hell are they doing coming after me? Did my mom piss them off or something when she was alive?"

If the moment weren't so serious, Jiraiya probably would have burst out laughing since the possibility of something like that happening wasn't out of the realm of actuality at all. Kushina probably did have some kind of hit out on herself when she was alive and kicking. That was neither here nor there though, "It's not anything personal about you per se. It's what you have inside of you that they want."

Naruto looked down at his belly and frowned, "Damn it, it always comes back to you doesn't it?" He looked up at Jiraiya with a displeased expression on his face, "What the hell would anyone even want with this thing anyway? It sucks." He then held his head after being swatted on the head with a paper fan, "Ow! What the hell, I'm supposed to be getting out today! Don't hit me!"

"Then don't ask dumbass questions." Jiraiya replied, slipping the paper fan back into his kimono shirt, "It doesn't matter why, and whatever the reason it doesn't matter. As you are now, you can't beat them. Not even close. Kyuubi or not."

Naruto grabbed a tight hold of the covers and looked at his legs while he was in the bed, "Why are you telling me this? What am I going to do?" He looked up at Jiraiya somewhat expectantly, "You came here to tell me what I'm going to do aren't you?"

"I'm going to train you." Jiraiya said, reaching out and putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, "And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be a complete terror. Your surname will be just as scary as it used to be in the old days, back when the name Uzumaki roughly translated to, 'You'd better think twice about getting into this fight.'" He saw Naruto's face perk up and decided it was time to drive home the final point, "But I want you to go and take the job to become a guardsman."

Surprise showed as clear as day on Naruto's face, "You do? I thought you said you didn't care and that it was my choice."

"I've had time to go through this with some of the people that care about you one way or another; Sarutobi-sensei and your own sensei Asuma." Jiraiya said, standing up to pace around the room, "I was going to take you on a long trip around the region, but this way I can make sure you get tested from time to time with a mission and it can help build your reputation as well."

"I still… don't know." Naruto said, thunking himself on the head to try and clear his mind, "What if someone-?"

"Kid if this didn't get it through your head I don't know what will." Jiraiya said with his arms crossed, "I told you already that the village won't stop if you leave, it's still going to be here when you get back. It doesn't revolve around you, you revolve around it. You just got beat. Bad. That's not even the strongest person you're going to fight in your life. So if anything actually happened that could threaten the overall village, what could you in particular do to stop it that your sensei couldn't?"

Take the job, get his money, get a life experience, train hands-on with Jiraiya, come back home after his contract expires, and he'll be good to go from then on out. That was basically the gist of the point Jiraiya was trying to express.

But could he really just cut and run like that? Would it really be that simple? For better or for worse Konoha was his home and always had been. Could he leave it and fight for another the way he knew he would fight for Konoha in a heartbeat?

"Ero-sensei. I don't feel comfortable about just leaving my friends behind without a clue. It's not right."

"Who says you have to just clear out and head straight there? You have five and a half months."

Jiraiya's reasoning seemed to plant a major seed in Naruto's head. He was really thinking on it, harder than before. Konoha wasn't built in a day, so he'd take that push for now. He reached out for Naruto again to tell him to get dressed so he could get him discharged and grab him a bite to eat of actual food when he was stopped by Naruto's voice.

"I'll go." Naruto said quickly in case he would rescind his own decision halfway through, "If you, Hokage-jiji, and Asuma-sensei think it would be good for me I think it'll be okay." How on earth was he going to break that to Ino and Shikamaru? He was not looking forward to that conversation.

XxX

(Nara Clan Compound – Shikamaru's House)

Sitting on his front porch with Asuma and a shogi board between them was Shikamaru. He had nothing on his torso other than fresh bandages from that morning as he and his sensei were locked in a heated game.

After making his next move and while waiting for Shikamaru to make his, Asuma decided to make some conversation, "I'll tell you this now. Naruto's going to take the daimyo job. I'll do what I can to make sure he knows what to expect and hey… maybe one day he can end up an elite like me before his contract expires."

"Why are you telling me this?" Shikamaru said with a sigh, scratching the side of his bandaged chest, "There really isn't much you can say to make me decide one way or the other Asuma." Now if he were a woman he could just nag and bitch him into leaving, but even his mother wasn't trying to push him into making a decision one way or another.

"I'm telling you this because Naruto's going to leave."

Shikamaru's eyes panned up from where they had previously been on the shogi board to Asuma's eyes as he stared at the man, "He's already made his choice? Why didn't he tell me?"

"Why haven't you two told Ino?" With that reply, Shikamaru's eyes left attempting to stare a hole in his jounin sensei, "I don't know if he's made his choice or not. I'm just saying that one way or the other Naruto's going to leave. Jiraiya-sama is going to take Naruto with him on a training trip if he turns down the offer." The trip was actually scheduled to happen within a few weeks if Naruto had declined the job, "But I like the idea of him and you as a guard. A position like that can eventually end up with you becoming one of his elites and a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Joining them made me the man I am now, so I'd highly recommend it."

"So if we go me and Naruto will end up a pair of chain smoking guys that are whipped by their women?"

"I am not whipped by Kurenai."

"I never said anything about her did I?"

"…Damn it."

Another thought sprang to Shikamaru's mind, "Why is there a training trip planned for Naruto?" Yeah, they lost, but was that a reason to go into panic mode? Maybe it was since Naruto was their jinchuuriki and him losing couldn't really be a regular thing if every village eventually found out who he was. It was a requiem for summoning other jinchuuriki-containing villages to mess with them even though it had been televised that he had defeated two others, "It's not like after that beat-down Guren's going to be coming after us or something."

"What about a group that would make what Guren did look tame by comparison?" Asuma said, staring Shikamaru dead in the eyes, "There's a group out there that wants Naruto's Kyuubi, and they'll be coming for him at any time. If he works as a guard that can buy him some time to train while being a nameless face in the crowd of the daimyo's employ instead of as a ninja in a place where he can be found more often than not. If he actually becomes elite enough to be heard of while working for him it won't matter anymore will it? It will prove that he's ready for them."

A group coming after his friend. Shikamaru doubted that taking the Kyuubi from Naruto would end with only that blight on the blonde boy's soul leaving him; there would be some actual damage done to him to say the very least, maybe even death with their luck. Only Shikamaru, Asuma, the Hokage, Jiraiya, and Naruto himself knew of the possibility of Naruto becoming a guard so that actually would buy him some time since this group didn't know how to find him.

As things currently stood Naruto was the equivalent of a rare animal stuck in a nature preserve with poachers after him.

Speaking of which, "Does this 'group' have a name?" Shikamaru asked, finally moving the piece of his choice on the board.

"Akatsuki is what Jiraiya-sama called them." With the game back underway, Asuma's eyes and the majority of his focus went back to the board, "He implied that if things went south even while I was around I couldn't protect him, so I signed off on him teaching Naruto. He's going to try and steer Naruto towards taking the job in the end." Shikamaru let out an unintelligible grunt and the two sat in silence as they continued to play. A pronounced frown slowly growing on the jounin's face as it progressed.

"Checkmate." Shikamaru said, getting up off of the ground with a sound of effort as he held his bandaged wound, "That one was actually hard to win this time."

Holding back a childish urge to flip the board and storm off, Asuma nodded and lit himself a cigarette as a consolation prize, "I'm going to beat you one of these days, I know I will." There was no way a kid was good enough to decisively beat him each and every single time. He begrudgingly packed up the board as he had only really come to see how Shikamaru's recovery was going after doing the same for Ino and prepared to head off until Shikamaru's voice stopped him at his front door.

"I'm taking the job." Shikamaru suddenly uttered as he seemed to be looking out at the forest that his clan's property sat on, "I'm going. Five months right?" He asked, turning his head to a stunned looking Asuma who only nodded dumbly, "Alright then. Thanks for stopping by." With that, Shikamaru went inside and shut the door only to find his parents sitting in the living room getting him to palm his face, "You both heard that didn't you?"

Shikamaru's mother Yoshino nodded and walked towards her son before engulfing him in a hug, "I'm so proud that at least my son has a bit of a sense of ambition. You sure didn't get that from your father." She let the embarrassed Shikamaru go with a pat on the head to leave the room. It was better than being scolded at least.

Shikaku simply got up out of his chair and headed towards the back of the house, "So you're really taking that job?" Shikamaru nodded without hesitation, "Well as much of pain as it's going to be I can't exactly let you go off unprepared."

This was now officially more trouble than it was worth as far as Shikamaru was concerned, "Now? You want to train now? I'm still hurt here."

"It's not going to re-aggravate your injuries so come on." Even with his father's request, Shikamaru quickly measured the merits of running up to his room and shutting himself in for the next five months until the older Nara spoke up, "I could always tell your mother that you're shirking on training."

As he walked towards the backyard, Shikamaru felt that uttering the word 'troublesome' out loud just didn't sum up his feelings on the situation.

XxX

(Konoha Hospital)

Through observational glass, three high-ranking shinobi looked into a room at Uchiha Sasuke who happened to be sedated at the moment. In addition to the Hokage himself, there happened to be the jounin sensei of the boy, Hatake Kakashi, and someone with experience on what was currently afflicting the boy; Mitarashi Anko. And she had her own opinions on the matter.

"This is going to be more trouble than it's worth…" Anko said cautiously, her eyes never tearing away from the black mark on Sasuke's neck, "If we kill him now it would be something of a mercy because right now I can tell you that all the sedatives in the world aren't making that damn thing hurt any less and he'll still probably die, and if he wakes up it'll be leading to a whole list of problems that no one wants to deal with."

"No one is killing him Anko." Kakashi said, not glaring at the woman since he knew of her own past issues with the seal on his student's neck. First Itachi tries to incite Sasuke again during the exams and now Orochimaru was poking his head around him as well, "This is manageable. Or are you saying that we should have killed you when you came back with your seal?" She noticeably flinched and her hand went to her own neck where she had been branded.

Hiruzen nodded. He was not about to kill a young shinobi in his employ, especially when other measures could be taken first, "I think it is more disconcerting than anything that Orochimaru has ties with the new village Otogakure since this is noticeably his work." A grim look stood on the face of the old man, "A man like Orochimaru with an entire fighting force at his back, and from the reports of young Chouji and Sakura in addition to what my own son told me of his mission they are rather formidable."

A bitter scoff left Anko, "What the hell would a man like that possibly want with leading a hidden village? People to filch new jutsu from maybe. Or he probably has them so he can kidnap people to experiment on for free… sick fuck. And the daimyo of that country signed off on letting him do as he pleases? Nobles are so spineless."

Whatever purpose Orochimaru had for building his own village was definitely not for the benefit of any large group of people at all. It was all for Orochimaru, and he would be the only one that got anything positive out of the endeavor.

XxX

(Ta no Kuni – Otogakure Base)

"You've done very good work Guren." Orochimaru said as the woman in question bowed in front of him, "Even with the damage done to the property he owned, Gato was still very pleased by the extent to which prices in Degarashi Port fell. He'll have a heavy economic influence over that region within the year if he has learned from his mistakes in Nami no Kuni."

"It was easy enough Orochimaru-sama." Guren said with a satisfied smirk. It actually wasn't all that easy. The preparation for the final jutsu she performed on Naruto took quite a toll on what chakra she had left. If she had run into Sarutobi Asuma before leaving she probably would not have won that ensuing battle and would have fallen to the fate of the Fuuma Clan members that died by the man's hand.

"Such a strong shinobi with a valuable bloodline." Orochimaru licked his lips imagining having her Shouton bloodline for his own personal use, just like Kimimaro's. She was certainly top two for a replacement body if he was forced to switch before securing his clear and blatant first choice. The Sound Four had not managed to bring him Sasuke due to Jiroubou's foolish insistence on fighting Kakashi to, 'Get a bite to eat.' In the manner of absorbing the man's chakra.

He paid the price with his life in a quick and embarrassing fashion. And at least in the end the secondary objective was achieved when Ukon, standing in for his injured brother, reported that the finished Cursed Seal of Heaven was successfully applied to Uchiha Sasuke.

That was something. And if he survived, which Kabuto would report to him on, it would be worth watching and waiting until the moment when Sasuke was ripe for the picking. Especially if he came to enjoy the power that the seal would give him. He would need Orochimaru to unlock the seal's full potential and that would be where that particular story ended. Kabuto's main mission while in Konoha was to monitor this.

There was a chance that he could get Kabuto to kidnap Sasuke while he was out cold from the seal's application, but the boy would be steadily watched during that period, and having to deal with Sasuke after he awakened would not be advisable even for someone like Kabuto. Let Konoha deal with that issue.

"I'm thinking of sending you to coordinate the main effort of our more… clandestine operations in Mizu no Kuni." Orochimaru informed Guren matter-of-factly, "I believe that with your special ability to capture complete specimens you will be perfect for helping the Mizukage with his bloodline problem and for helping ourselves to their bloodlines."

With the newer arrangement with Gato, and with him having a way to get back into the transit across the seas, a dual arrangement was worked. Otogakure would supply security for Gato's overseas smuggling and regular transport, and in return Gato would let him use the same ships to bring ninja into Mizu no Kuni when he began his deal with the Mizukage as well as letting him use them to bring the bloodline shinobi they managed to capture with them upon the ship's extradition from the islands.

Hey, Gato was into human trafficking anyway. That was one of his criminal activities. He clearly had no problem with it, thus neither did Orochimaru. Better for the both of them.

Guren nodded before glowering, "I've heard that you have an interest in the Konoha shinobi Uchiha Sasuke." That burned her up inside. Someone that wasn't even loyal to Orochimaru and didn't comprehend or understand how great he was would get the honor of housing his existence one day soon. She would rather it be someone like Kimimaro if it weren't her.

"Don't fret my dear." Orochimaru said in a sickly sweet, patronizingly consoling manner, "Even without becoming my vessel you are still one of my best and brightest. Your skills are valued by me. So don't worry about any of that."

"Of course Orochimaru-sama." Serving this man's whims put a smile on her face. Someone that found value in her talents and saw fit to reward her with the prestige he gave her in his organization, "So you wish for me to prepare to head to Mizu no Kuni?"

Orochimaru nodded with his usual smirk on his face, "Yes, but feel free to take your time with your preparations. The campaign will not begin for quite a while. Handpick those you wish to bring and everything else along those lines. I feel that this will be a very vital endeavor we will be undertaking."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Yamanaka Clan Compound – Ino's House)

Ino sat in her bed with her hair loose, wearing a pair of purple pajamas with a smile on her face, "Thank you for coming and visiting me Goldie-kun. It was very sweet of you." She said as she bat her eyes at Naruto. Her fellow blonde was sitting a few feet away in a chair by the desk in her room wearing a grey shirt with the Konoha symbol on it and an orange pair of shorts with blue trim.

Having never been in Ino's room before, Naruto found that it was very… girly. And that was the only opinion he could give since he could not objectively observe his teammate's room with his lack of experience around girls to this extent. The only other girl's room he'd ever been in had been Shiho's, and he was sure that it wasn't normal for one to have a sea of books lining their floor from wall-to-wall.

But then again, was it normal to have a large purple rug under one's bed, purple bedding, and it just went onward from there.

"Well I'm just happy that you're alright." Naruto told her with a happy look on his face that went along with the tone he used and the message he conveyed, "I can't believe they let you guys go home and kept me in the hospital though…" He sounded rather put out by the latter fact.

Ino giggled at the look on his face and told him why, "It's because we've got people here to keep their eyes on us and because Shika's clan makes good medicine. The two of our clans are so close we're supplied from them directly sometimes."

"If I was still hurt I'd still be in the hospital. You guys are so lucky." Naruto held his broken goggles in his hands, running his fingers over the broken glass of the lenses. He'd had them for almost five years and they'd gotten smashed in a fight.

Ino watched Naruto's attitude over his busted eyewear and shook her head, "What are you going to do with those if you're still carrying them around with you? Are you going to get them fixed?"

The head of Naruto snapped up from looking at his goggles to looking at Ino confusedly, "Oh, well they were still with the stuff the doctors took from me when I was in the hospital. I was just going to try and buy another pair." It was just fortunate that Jiraiya had broken into his apartment and had brought him a change of clothes or he'd have been wearing either bloody rags or a hospital gown out of there. His goggles were still caked with his own dried blood. They now were gross in addition to being broken, "I don't know why I didn't just chuck these into the trash or something."

His attention was then captured when he saw Ino hold her hand out expectantly, "Well give them to me then. I'll get them fixed and if you get a new pair I'll just keep them for myself."

"You'd wear goggles Ino-chan?"

"Hell no!" The thought was simply ludicrous to Ino. She'd never wear those damn things in a million years. That wasn't why she wanted them.

"Then what are you going to do with them?"

A deep red flush sprang to Ino's face as she thought of how weird it sounded in her own head to ask for Naruto's busted eyewear, 'Kami, I sound like a total creep right now! What the hell is wrong with me?' Naruto clearly didn't seem to be thinking along the same lines as his attention was diverted to looking at the pictures of the team that Ino had on her desk; the stunned expressions on their face after they had gotten their first mission, and a picture of them in the hospital at the same time after the end of the chunin exams. Thank goodness for the small miracles that Naruto's attention span provided from time to time.

Apparently Naruto didn't even care about getting the answer to his question any longer as he just set the goggles on Ino's desk absentmindedly.

With the subject dropped, Ino cleared her throat and awkwardly smoothed out the covers of the bed she happened to be sitting in before getting a devious idea in her head while her parents insisted on her staying bedridden for the time being, "It's so good to see a friendly face Goldie-kun but why are you all the way over there. You can come closer you know. Come on." She said, patting an open spot next to her on her bed for him to sit on.

Naruto shrugged and got up to sit on Ino's bed, his eyes widening as he took his seat, legs off of the side of it, "Wow. Your bed is way better than mine." He said, bouncing on the mattress in a testing manner, "Your mattress is probably super-expensive."

"Want to test it out for real?" Ino asked before noticing Naruto's face turn red and how that sounded. She thumped him hard on the shoulder and rolled her eyes, "Not like that pervert. I meant do you want to take a nap? You look dog tired."

"And you're asking me to sleep in your bed?" Naruto said with a deadpan expression.

"I've slept in your bed like a dozen times already." Reasoned Ino off-handedly.

"Without me in it." Whenever Team 10 met at Naruto's apartment after the team training during the chunin exams period, Ino would usually crash in Naruto's bed for an hour or two to get some rest while Naruto and Shikamaru would hang out in the front room. Naruto had never ventured into his room while Ino had been there since after Shikamaru had tried to do so once to beat her to the bed and get some sleep of his own she kicked him right out. He was not about to let that happen to himself. Even if it was his own house, Ino could be scary bossy.

"Oh stop being so timid you big baby!" Ino snapped, getting Naruto to recoil in alarm, "What about the night before the last rounds of the chunin exam? You were just fine with it then."

"Nope. No way. What happens in Tetsu no Kuni stays in Tetsu no Kuni." Naruto was certainly not willing to flip his thoughts on the matter, especially with Ino's father downstairs. The man was a better sensor than he would ever be in his opinion. No chance was he going to crawl into Ino's bed and risk getting his mind jumbled for life by some secret Yamanaka Clan kinjutsu… they had to have at least one, right?

"And just what happened in Tetsu no Kuni?"

Damn it… speak of the devil.

Both Naruto and Ino's eyes slowly panned towards her door and saw Inoichi standing there leaning against the doorframe with an expectant look on his face. The two then turned towards each other with Ino giving Naruto a pointed look that he could just see was screaming at him, 'Why the hell didn't you sense him coming?'

'I can't sense things through walls and closed doors!' Naruto thought to himself as if Ino could hear him yelling in his own mind. Apparently she could read it off his facial expression as she puffed her cheeks out indignantly and looked away from him, 'If you want a better goddamn sensor get a Hyuuga or find Kiba!'

"Well are you two going to stare at each other all afternoon or are you going to answer my question?" Inoichi said again, getting their attention back onto him, "You're obviously not talking about anything that happened during the tournament since it was all televised. So what happened in Tetsu no Kuni?" He then focused his gaze on Naruto with a stern glance, "You should just go ahead and tell me now. I'm just going to find out later anyway."

A month of training and hanging out with Jiraiya had taught Naruto quite a few things. How to begin to deal with someone stronger than you, a few ninjutsu for his trouble, that when you get beat up by a group of women you can either cover your face or your junk but never both, he had even begun to subconsciously glean a few other things, but the thing he had learned from Jiraiya that stuck out at the moment was simple.

"Do not ever let on to a girl's dad that you're interested in the girl or have had some kind of intimate moment with her. Ever. It's just always going to end badly for two of the three of you."

"Why are you telling me this Ero-sensei? And how would you know anyway?"

"Just shut up and listen gaki, if anyone knows romance it's me. I'm teaching you a life lesson here. The cuter the girl, the more protective the dad will be. And they're bulldog-tenacious. Trust me, it's a total pain."

"When the hell am I ever going to use this?"

"…With a teammate like yours I'd say there's a good chance you will."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, now get back to work."

Before the silence became palpable, Ino began laughing sheepishly and reached behind where she was on the bed, "Oh, we were just talking about the day before the tournament started when Goldie-kun won like a billion prizes at the festival." She picked up a small pig wallet from her nightstand and held it up prominently, "See? He won this and gave it to me. I was just wondering what he did with the rest of the stuff he won."

"I gave most of it away, remember?" Naruto said, picking up on Ino's escape topic and going along with it before blinking once something sprang to mind, "Wait, you still have that? I thought you got all upset when I gave it to you, like I was making fun of you or something."

Why wouldn't she have kept it? Giving Naruto a confused look, Ino responded, "It was a gift. It's still a nice thing either way about it. I won't throw out your stupid pig wallet just because it's a bad joke on my name." She then let out a smile and shoved Naruto a bit playfully from behind, "It matches that frog wallet of yours too, so why wouldn't I walk around with it?"

And then it was something like a shark smelling blood.

In the course of the rapport that had seemingly been established right in front of his eyes, Inoichi plucked Naruto up by the back of his shirt and wordlessly carried him out of the room much to Ino and Naruto's confusion… and then to Naruto's horror when he put this together with what he had been told by Jiraiya. Ino was indeed sitting awfully close to him… on her bed… in her pajamas… with the door closed…

As a matter of fact she had moved to where he was sitting with his back between her legs, almost like he could pick her up piggyback-style right from where they were. Apparently that was danger close.

Being stuck with the number two in Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force was not anyone's idea of fun, only being below the extremely imposing Morino Ibiki in that department.

"I like you Naruto." Inoichi said, much to Naruto's surprise once he put him back down at the foot of the stairs, "You've been a very good teammate and friend to Ino and you're an impressive young man for quite a few reasons."

'But…' Naruto thought to himself, nodding despite the fact that he had heard such a start to a conversation to know full well that this was not the extent of what Inoichi had to say to him.

"But…" Inoichi continued, going right along with Naruto's expectations, "I will give you the same speech that I gave Shikamaru when I found out that he was teamed with Ino and the same speech I gave Chouji back when I thought he'd have been teamed with Ino like the way their fathers and I were." He put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and took a breath, "Ino is a very capable young ninja and she's only going to get stronger over time. That I am not worried about at all."

Naruto's face lit up with a big grin. It wasn't like Inoichi was saying anything Naruto didn't already know, "Yeah, I know Ino-chan's good. I wish I had some of the jutsu that she knows how to do. They're really cool."

Naruto's grin then slowly dropped when he felt Inoichi's grip on his shoulder slowly tighten, "What I am worried about though, is her trust being taken advantage of by the young male influences in her life. She trusts you absolutely Naruto… do you understand that?"

A slow and deliberate nod came from a wide-eyed Naruto, 'Ahh! Why is this happening to me? I didn't do anything!'

"Then you also understand that this means that I trust you absolutely as well." A deceptive smile that gave Naruto a chill down his spine appeared on Inoichi's face, "Now being that I am well aware of who you're being taught hands-on by and the more extracurricular activities that he happens to be known for, I would like you to remember to keep your hands and eyes to yourself. Remember, I can read your or Ino's mind if I suspect any funny business."

"Hands to myself. No acting like Ero-sensei around Ino at all. Got it." Naruto said with a shaky thumbs up. Damn Jiraiya and the stigma that came with being his student. It was almost as over-encompassing as the fox in his stomach, "Please don't break my brain with a crazy Yamanaka kinjutsu…"

A look of surprise came over Inoichi's face, "Naruto I would never do such a thing to a comrade of Konoha." A relieved expression made itself known on Naruto's face after hearing that, "…Ibiki would though, and I could just force your body to go to him directly so there's that." The thought of being pressured by Ibiki put a frightened look on Naruto's face and that seemed to satisfy Inoichi, "If we're clear then you can go back in with Ino." Naruto did just that, with heavy and slow footsteps, "Yeah… I'm a good father."

XxX

(One Day Later – Field by the Waterfall)

Both Naruto and Jiraiya sat, silently trying to meditate in the middle of the empty field. On this day with summer pretty much at an end and with the women that had been frolicking there no longer going out as the weather began to chill enough to where it would no longer be comfortable. Even in a place with compliable weather like Hi no Kuni it did get a little cold in later months.

Naruto was back in his usual attire of the zipped up orange short-sleeved windbreaker and orange shorts both with blue trim, blue arm-warmers, his headband in a bandanna-like style around his neck, and a new pair of goggles on his forehead with orange tint that one could actually see his eyes through, just not the color of them.

"The bloodlust you feel when you tap into the Kyuubi's chakra is a limitation." Jiraiya stated out of the blue, though Naruto didn't turn towards him or even register that he had heard him, "You were still overmatched and you should have known that not too long after resuming your battle. You just wanted to get that Guren person back for what she had done to you and your friends didn't you?"

Again Naruto didn't answer, but his face twitched to let on that he understood what Jiraiya was saying. He knew that his teammates were hurt, and he had originally told himself that he just wanted to hit Guren once to get her back. Once was enough to beat her he had figured. After all, who could stand up to the power of a demonically-fueled haymaker? Well now apparently he knew that there were at least eleven people that could. Or twelve if he included Jiraiya… or thirteen if he considered the Hokage. That old man had to be tough to still be Hokage. And then there was Asuma, and Naruto figured he could beat him too when using his chakra shroud.

His frown deepened as he kept thinking about other stronger people he probably knew that could take advantage of his own berserker fighting style when he used the Kyuubi's chakra, 'Calling me weak… you make me weak.' He could hear a hateful growl from the back of his head, but he couldn't care any less about it. What could the Kyuubi do? It held back chakra from him intentionally to torment him and belittle him the last time.

"You say that now. But the moment you need to crush your enemies… to end their lives before they end yours… we'll just see where you choose to hang your hat. You'll see that no matter how hard you try, your powers and abilities as a human simply pale in comparison to that of a biju. Your best will never come close to touching my very worst."

The bad part of meditation that Naruto despised aside from the boring part of it all. With such a clear mind and with no thoughts cluttering his head, Naruto could hear the Kyuubi's remarks as clear as day. At best they were usually rumblings of dark thoughts in the back of his mind since he had discovered its existence within him, but when Jiraiya made him meditate it was like he was forced to mentally interact with the being.

'What about the people that sealed you? I bet you felt that way about them too, and now look at you. Your big furry ass is stuck inside of me.'

"If you're comparing yourself to any of those that overcame me then all you're missing with that evaluation would be a large amount of divine intervention on your part… because that would be the only way you would last any longer than five seconds in a battle with any of them. You're nothing to me compared to them. All mouth and no strength or talent."

'Fuck you.'

A finger then started poking him in the head, bringing his attention back to his physical surroundings, "You were way far gone there. You need to find a true balance when you meditate or an enemy can take advantage of you while you clear your mind."

Naruto nodded but also had a thought, 'When would I need to meditate in the middle of a fight?' He shook that off though because it wasn't an important question at the moment.

'Maybe if I loosen his seal he can get better control over his jinchuuriki powers?' Jiraiya thought before he saw Naruto punch the ground, "What's the matter?"

"If all I think about in a fight while using this stupid thing's chakra is trying to destroy whoever I'm fighting no matter what then how does that make me any different from it when I'm using its chakra?" Naruto said, speaking his thought angrily aloud, "I just went right at her Ero-sensei! I haven't fought like that since-."

"-Since you fought Gaara." Jiraiya finished for Naruto, cutting him off from saying that he hadn't fought like that since he had first become a genin, "You mostly fought Fuu like that as well. The only difference between those two fights and the one you had with Guren was that when you fought Gaara you were able to outmatch him in the end since he fought more berserk than you did. Against Fuu you got your bell rang hard enough that you realized right from the start that you couldn't beat her in a head-to-head fight."

Guren didn't flat-out overpower him until the very end as all she had done until that point was avoid him and use her crystals to divert his straightforward attacks. It hadn't been until he had gotten a hold of her and planned on slamming her straight through the concrete when she had pulled up enough power to injure him badly and leave. Fuu had been beating the daylights out of him right when he started using his powers to try and match hers. That put it in his head that he had to use one of his tricks to get through that battle. When fighting Gaara, Shikamaru's input to fight smart kept Naruto from turning it into a battle of attrition that it had devolved into at that point when he and Gaara started bashing each other back and forth with their demonic influences.

He knew how to fight, but was the Kyuubi's chakra that damaging to his own mental stability that he lost his own sense of base strategy?

Jiraiya clasped his hands and then pulled them apart as a show, "The problem is that you need to be able to filter out the Kyuubi's will when you use its chakra. If you can do that then you can keep your sanity and own mental influence about you while fighting. When we begin your training for real we'll have you get your meditation down, then we'll have you try it using the Kyuubi's chakra… and we'll add on more and more."

"Why can't we do it now?"

"Have you actually paid attention to how much damage you do when you use the Kyuubi's chakra, or how much damage any jinchuuriki does in general when they fight?" Jiraiya asked before using a past example, "You and Fuu tore up a good chunk of that forest part of the field during your exam battle, and you and Gaara went ahead and wrecked most of the rest of it." He gestured around to the tranquil location they were currently seated in, "You're a good kid, but if you start pumping out more and more of the Kyuubi's chakra as your training progresses you'll scare people. Eventually you'll start disrupting the overall environment itself."

Upon hearing that, Naruto thought about it and started to laugh. His laughter lasted for over a minute until he realized that Jiraiya wasn't laughing himself and he stopped, "Wait, you're serious?"

"Remind me to go take you to see the Valley of the End."

Naruto gulped just thinking about such a thing. An entire valley was created by this thing inside of him? Maybe it was best to practice working with a complete aura of destruction away from people he was probably going to have to look in the face the morning after he could possibly go on a rampage?

"Don't be so grim though kid." Jiraiya said, grabbing Naruto's shoulder and shaking him good-naturedly, "If you just think I'm going to leave you hanging for the next five months you're out of your spiky little skull. I'll tell you what. Your birthday is coming up, right? Two days?"

Naruto nodded with a suspicious look on his face, "Yeah. October 10th. But how did you know when my birthday was anyway?"

"I'm not just a ton of sex-appeal and badass ninjutsu skill." Jiraiya pointed at himself in a showy manner, "I am a master at gathering information. You're acting like it was hard to find out when your birthday is. But speaking of my unmatched prowess in the ninja arts, as a present for your birthday and for getting promoted during the exams I'll teach you a strong ninjutsu… and I'll even give you a choice. One is an attack jutsu, one that would probably suit you pretty well, while the other is one of the most versatile techniques for a ninja to learn. An honor for any ninja."

Well Naruto felt he had enough attack ninjutsu for the moment, and he needed more versatile techniques since when Guren went on the attack he had absolutely no defensive answer for her. His desire for bouts of cool destruction had to be fought down for him to make his choice, "I'll take the second one."

A grin spread across Jiraiya's face as he bit his thumb and began making hand-seals, "I was hoping you would say that kid." He said before slamming his palm on the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

Naruto coughed and swung his arms around to get the smoke out of his face before coming face-to-face with a very large orange toad with blue markings on its body and a necklace with beads. He jumped back sharply and reached for his machete, flashing back to the last time he had to deal with Jiraiya's toads, until he saw a scroll wrapped up in the toad's tongue that Jiraiya took and unfurled to show a contract with five names signed on it, "What's this about Ero-sensei?"

"Thanks Gama." Jiraiya said to the toad as he took the scroll from the large amphibian, "This is what you need to sign to learn the technique that I said I'll teach you." Jiraiya pointed towards a pair of names on the contract; his own and that of Namikaze Minato, "I signed it, and my student the Yondaime Hokage signed it. So how about it?" It was for the best anyway. The other jutsu he was planning on teaching Naruto would go easier once he strengthened himself with the cliff-climbing training.

Getting slapped around by toads while training puts a sort of respect for them into you, at least as far as Naruto went because his eyes shined over with the thought of being able to call that kind of a beatdown onto someone else for once.

Able to see the eagerness in Naruto's eyes, Jiraiya gestured for Naruto to step towards the contract, "Go ahead and sign your name on the contract in your blood and I'll teach you the hand-seals for the jutsu." He then palmed his face when Naruto cut his entire palm with his machete to use it like a palette for his other hand's fingers to draw out the kanji for his name, "You could have just bit your thumb and dabbed the rest of your fingers on that hand… oh nevermind."

"Come on!" Naruto said excitedly, ignoring the blood dripping off of the palm of one of his hands. It would heal up just fine in like a half an hour anyway, "What are the hand-seals Ero-sensei?"

"The seals are; I, Inu, Tori, Saru, and Hitsuji." Jiraiya said, watching Naruto go slowly through the seals, "You've got to have some blood on your summoning hand before you make the seals and after you make the seals you have to slam your blood-covered hand down on the ground."

Naruto did just that and with a huge grin on his face he slammed his hand down on the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

A sealing array appeared on the ground where Naruto's hand was pressed and a large amount of smoke appeared at the point of impact.

The smoke started to clear out as Naruto looked around to see what cool combat-ready toad he had just brought from its home of… wherever they were from. He seriously needed to ask about that later.

But when he didn't see anything his size both he and Jiraiya looked down to see a tadpole flopping on the ground.

"Hm…" Jiraiya said in a calm manner, belying the fact that he wanted to laugh as Naruto had a mortified look on his face, "Yeah… we'll work on that." Gama let out a few croaks to go along with the situation and Naruto could swear that the toad was mocking him.

XxX

(The Next Day – Konoha Hospital)

A nurse rushed into Sasuke's room and looked at him in astonishment, "Uchiha-san, you're awake!" That was surprising to say the least. Due to the amount of anguish he was in, Sasuke had been given a steady flow of painkillers and sedatives. Even if his long bout of pain and discomfort was over he still should have been asleep until a doctor came in to force him to awaken, "I'll be back in just a moment with a doctor!"

With that, the nurse scrambled out of the room to hurry and find his physician to report that he had somehow woken up well enough to sit up in his bed.

Sasuke wasted no time in getting up as he swung his legs over the side of the bed facing the back wall of his room and flexed his hands out in a testing manner. Sasuke threw on a pair of grey sweatpants and a loose blue shirt as he looked around for his shoes, not turning to face the door when it opened back up and his doctor walked in.

"Uchiha-san you should really still be in bed right now." He shouldn't even have been walking around with the sheer amount of sedatives that had been pumping through his body prior to his awakening, "I'll have to ask you to lie back down until we can rightly release you."

"I'm fine." Sasuke said as he held his left hand on the side and back of his neck, rolling it out to work out whatever kinks he might have had, "I'm feeling really good right now. I don't think I've ever felt this good in my entire life." He looked at his hands with his back still turned to the nurse and doctor and began laughing, "Just what is this?"

That laughing didn't exactly sit easily with the doctor as he looked at the nurse who nodded and stuck her head outside of the door, "Orderly!"

In a matter of seconds two men quickly made their way into the room, moving swiftly past the doctor and the nurse to try and restrain Sasuke. Their attempt to grab him only wound up with Sasuke substituting himself with the pole that had contained his I.V. with his fluids and sedatives.

The confusion wrought by just how seamless the sudden action was quickly gave way to alarm once Sasuke knocked both men out with a kick that sent them through the glass observation window his room had come with.

The nurse fearfully shrieked as Sasuke jumped out of the broken observation window like a blur and took off down the halls gleefully with this new power coursing through him.

"Damn it." The doctor muttered as he moved to assist the injured orderlies, "Someone call Hokage-sama and tell him what has happened here!" He kneeled down over one of the unconscious men and checked over his cuts from the glass and his probable concussion from the knockout, "And tell him that the seal has manifested as well…"

Omake: Training Day 3

"This is so stupid." A blindfolded Naruto grumbled out as he stumbled around an open field trying to feel his way around with his hands, "This isn't what I said I needed help with Kiba! Why am I here?"

An equally blindfolded Kiba let out a chuckle, "Come on Naruto. I tried to help you that one day, so in return I wanted you to train with my team for one day. It's not a big deal. It's normal." Akamaru popped out of Kiba's jacket with a blindfold on as well and let out a happy yapping back

"Why are we all blindfolded though? This seems all kinds of dumb."

"A question with a quite obvious answer Naruto-san." Even though he was blindfolded, Shino still had his sunglasses on over the cloth concealing his eyes, "Team 8 is a team of tracking specialists. With my insects, Kiba and Akamaru's powerful senses of smell, and Hinata's Byakugan we don't need our eyes uncovered to be effective fighters."

Naruto crossed his arms and if one could actually see his eyes one would find them squinted in thought, "I get why you two are blindfolded because you can find things without seeing. But why did you blindfold Hinata? Doesn't she need her eyes to find stuff?" That was basically the whole thing that made the Hyuuga Clan special.

Hinata silently poked her fingers together bashfully as she was turned to face in Naruto's direction, "Well… about that. You see Naruto-kun…" She started to say demurely until she saw Naruto turn towards her to face her, inability to see notwithstanding, "Um… well." It was a good thing that Naruto couldn't see because if he saw her red cheeks heating up she would have died from embarrassment.

Taking mercy on the cute and bashful female teammate of the tracking specialist squad, Kiba let out a few chuckles and finished Hinata's thought for her, "Hinata and her Byakugan can see through things Naruto. That little blindfold isn't doing anything but making her use her kekkei genkai to see. It's training her eyes to be better too."

"What the fuck am I supposed to do then, walk around with my hands out like a zombie?" Naruto snapped irritably back in Kiba's direction, "Damn… this is just payback because you didn't get to fight me during the exams isn't it?"

"Language Naruto." The cool, collected, reprimanding, and very adult female voice of the Team 8 sensei Kurenai got Naruto to freeze up the moment it entered his ears, "And I was told you had your own way to locate the things that you can't see. You can use that to anticipate where the attacks and your opponents are coming from for this four-way spar." Honestly she was kind of surprised that he had never tried this kind of training before.

"Oh. I guess that's right." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head and laughing at himself sheepishly, "I can." With that, he jumped into a ready taijutsu stance for his fighting style and patted his cheeks hard to wake himself up, "Ok, let's do this. I'm ready to roll. Don't hold back on me you guys, I can take it."

Kiba chuckled as Akamaru jumped out of his coat onto the ground, "You won't be saying that after you're face-first on the ground eating dirt. If you're lucky we won't all gang up on you at once just to take you out quick."

"It would be the wisest course of action." Shino said, holding his arms out to prepare to bring his kikaichu insects into conflict, "The reason being of course that Naruto-san is the rank chunin amongst us all. That has to count for something."

"Ha, ha, ha." Naruto deadpanned irritably, knowing that they were picking with him, "At least Hinata's nice enough not to pick on someone before the fight even begins. That's why I like her so much better than the rest of you."

All Hinata was able to hear from Naruto's last comment was him saying, 'That's why I like her so much.' Nothing more. This being simply because once her brain registered those words it shut off from overheating and rendered her unconscious.

At that point, Naruto whipped his head around confusedly, "Did we start? I heard something hit the ground pretty hard just now." He then released a pulse of his sonar jutsu and gasped, "Which one of you jerks knocked out Hinata before we even started? You don't treat a teammate like that!"

Kurenai, Shino, and Kiba all had the same thought run through their heads as they saw Naruto flagrantly ignore the fact that he had just used a jutsu that temporarily allowed him to see in favor of stumbling around blindly before he finally tripped over Hinata's downed form, '…Idiot.'

"Hey! Are we still fighting? Don't trip me while I'm trying to help her off of the battlefield! Show some common courtesy here!"

Omake: Training Day 4

Naruto stood in the field with Jiraiya pulling at his hair and stomping about angrily, "Gah! A tadpole! I've done this three times already! Why do I keep getting tadpoles?"

'What's the kid's problem with this thing? He should be able to summon pretty much anything.' Jiraiya looked at the pathetic little tadpole flopping on the ground before it desummoned itself back from whence it came, "Wait. I think I have an idea. Are you sure you're using enough-?" He was about to say chakra, but Naruto figured him to be prepared to say something else.

"Clones? That's a perfect idea Ero-sensei! I'll get this jutsu down in a hurry after this!" Naruto suddenly shouted, surprising Jiraiya and breaking his train of speech before he made his favorite and easiest to remember hand-seal, "This'll make the whole training thing go down way faster now! Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

The field was then filled with more than one hundred Naruto clones. With a sharp look in their eyes all of them rolled through five hand-seals and slammed their hands onto the ground with a unanimous cry of the intended jutsu, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

XxX

(Meanwhile – Mount Myouboku)

"Oh Kami! Someone go get Fukasaku-sama and Shima-sama! All of the tadpoles just up and disappeared!"

"What the hell is going on around here?"

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Konohagakure Shinobi

Mitarashi Anko

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 3

Speed: 3

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 25

Ino-Shika-Cho

Nara Shikaku

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 3

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 27

Yamanaka Inoichi

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 3.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 2

Speed: 4

Stamina: 2.5

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 26

Akimichi Choza

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 5

Speed: 2

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 25

About the whole rating system thing. I like it and I like using it in this story, however it is admittedly very vague and is not really explained in any databook, thus I feel that it works like this:

10-15 = Little threat. Most young genin won't crack 15.

16-20 = High potential for further growth. Very skilled genin, possible chunin in my observation. Actually I'd say that most nameless shinobi with no background that are used as cannon fodder for actual characters to run through fall into this category. For example; like the eight Otogakure ninja that Shikamaru stayed back to fight during Konoha's invasion in canon, the ones he had to be saved from by Asuma. I say that they're in this category.

20-25 = They've got some moves, they've got something in particular that they do very well, but probably have a big weakness or something. Not really meant to be trifled with, but can be defeated by one of the two below them… especially when numbers come into play. Can also overcome one of the two above them if the circumstances are right. This is pretty much a happy medium that can go either way with the right setting.

26-30 = Very, very dangerous. High level of skill, raw power, etc. something that sets them apart and makes them better than the people around them that are considered on their rank. Pretty damn elite all things considered.

31-35 = If you are not in the class directly below then I suggest you run for cover, put all of your eggs in the divine intervention basket, or learn how to make some strong friends… because even with them you are probably to-be dead if you're up against someone like this. People like this can more than likely fight a kage (if they are not a kage themselves) and survive or possibly win on their own.

36-40 = Totally not possible since I haven't even seen it in any of the reference tools I've been using (Still, there hasn't been a databook since chapter 389 so there might be a few that go this high… more than likely). Itachi and Jiraiya only go up to 35.5. So for the sake of leaving things open to a time when it may be necessary to use this, 36-40 is classified as: Curl up in a ball, pray, grab your ankles, and kiss your ass goodbye. For obvious reasons.

In the end though, I consider them a rough guiding estimate of a character's talents and not a concrete table of showing who can beat who, because some characters that are rated 5 in one category are clearly more advanced in that particular category than another person rated 5. A great example would be the fact that ninja such as Hiruzen, Kakashi, and Orochimaru are rated 5 in the ninjutsu category... but so is canon Sasuke after the timeskip. You can see the difference there and why there is one.

I just think it's all in good fun to try and figure what characters that didn't have any stat ratings would be though, and characters will be developing differently in this story.