A/N:  There we go.  :)  All caught up now!

Chapter 19 – Unlucky Number Seven:

6:00 o’clock came around very early the next morning. Naruto had been up nearly all night listening to the sounds in his apartment building, missing his family, and thinking about Kyuubi, the worries nearly eclipsing all of his excitement for this new stage in his life. Consequently, it was later than he would have liked before he finally managed to fall asleep.

The shiny new apartment felt very big and empty to his sleep-fogged mind. No ‘Zune around to make him eat breakfast. No Kaa-san to stumble in and demand coffee hours after she should have been up. No Ero-jiji to kick him out of bed early to train only to constantly try to sneak away to spy on pretty girls. “At least you’re still here, Ivy-chan.” He muttered, rubbing one of Ivy’s leaves thoughtfully between his fingers and noting she felt a little dry.

He crawled out of bed and pulled off the sleeping cap he’d had as long as he could remember, then dragged himself into the shower. After a quick wash and spritzing Ivy down, he found his traveling bag from where he’d dumped it the night before and dug through it for his extra set of clothes. Now that he’d be staying in one place for a long time, he thought he’d better go shopping to put some variety back in his wardrobe. He’d gotten far too used to living out of a single bag. Jiraiya had been promising to teach him how to make sealing scrolls so he could carry more, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe he could let Gaara show him how next time they met?

After dressing and running his fingers through his hair to straighten it out as much as possible, while spiking it up a bit out of its natural state, the blond settled his leafy pet around his hips and sleepily stumbled his way into the kitchen to see what Iruka-sensei had stocked his cupboards with. He found milk in the fridge and cereal on a shelf he could reach without a stool, so he decided to stick with that.

His mom had a strict ‘no ramen before 10:00’ rule, and even though she wasn’t around and Gaara’s parting gift of the Magical Ramen Bowl™ sat temptingly in a place of honor on the countertop, he knew enough about nutrition from growing up with two medic-nin that he thought he’d better try to keep to the rule. He’d never hear the end of it if he fell off the ramen wagon on his first day on his own.

Besides, he was short enough already without stunting his growth on bad nutrition, even if it was plainly obvious to anyone with taste buds that said innutritious food was proof that the gods loved them and wanted them to be happy.

After breakfast, he felt a little more awake, so he sat on his bed and meditated, trying to tap into his earth and water affinities without much luck. It didn’t help that Ivy seemed jealous of the acorn he carried around to practice on, but he was thoroughly sick of the stupid leaf cutting exercise and figured trying to get a feel for the other affinities as opposed to the now familiar wind chakra, couldn’t hurt anything. After an hour, he gave it up with a sigh.

It was nearly time to go by then, so he taped his thigh, attached his kunai holder over the top, and then fastened on his weapons pouch after checking to make sure it was full of senbon and the other necessities he always carried with him.

Deciding he was as ready as he was ever going to be, and feeling eager to meet his teammates and captain, he quickly slid his sandals on and headed out towards the bridge Iruka-sensei had pointed out to him yesterday on the way to his apartment. A lot of ninja were early risers so he wasn’t surprised to see a lot of people out and about already.

As he walked, his thoughts wandered a little. As the number of days until he could move to Konoha permanently had steadily decreased, he’d found himself thinking more and more about it what it would be like to finally make a home there. He‘d grown up thriving on tales about Konoha. When he was very little, Ero-jiji had tucked him into bed with stories about the wonderful things his father and great grandfather and great granduncle had done, all of the fun adventures his mother and Ero-Jiji had within these walls, and the ideals and strength that this place his ancestors had founded really stood for. It was in his blood, his heritage. His forefathers had bled and sweated, and died for this land and way of life.

All of his life, his family had moved around so much that he had never been able to form an attachment to any one place before. Even having never seen the Hidden Village of the Leaves until he turned 11, it had always FELT like home to him, and he’d always known that it was where he belonged. It stood in his mind like a shining ideal off in the distance, and in a way, he felt like all of his travels had always been leading him here. All of his roots were here and settling here now, for good, was an amazing thing to the lonely little boy who had never been able to connect with civilian kids and their civilian cities.

He’d always yearned for the CONCEPT of Konoha and loved it in the same way he loved the father he’d never known. Walking these streets and meeting these people where his father had once lived made him feel a little more connected to the man he’d always strived to emulate – much to his mother’s frustration. He deliberately ran his fingers through his hair and had to stop himself from smoothing it back down a little into his old customary style. He understood the need to offset his physical resemblance to Tou-san, but he’d always secretly been kind of comforted by looking in the mirror and seeing his father’s face staring back at him, just like in Ero-jiji’s photographs.

He sighed; maybe he’d just grow his hair out like the Toad Sage’s so he could learn Hari Jizo. At least that way his mother would stop bothering him about stuff like that, and he’d get a cool defensive jutsu out of it.

His gaze rose to the face of the Yondaime carved into the mountain and a small frown tugged at his lips before he pushed away more thoughts on his father and Konoha. Subconsciously he knew he NEEDED to believe that Konoha was the idealistic place of his childhood dreams, but he didn’t want to analyze that need too closely. The Yondaime had died and made Naruto a sacrifice for the sake of this village – depriving his son of a father and sentencing him to a Jinchuuriki’s existence in one swift stroke. To know that in some ways, that meant the father he’d always yearned for as a little boy had loved Konoha more than him, well intellectually he could reconcile that with the importance of duty and the high cost of lives if he’d chosen differently, but that didn’t stop it from hurting a little…

He had to believe that the Leaf deserved his being deprived of his father or he might start to resent it and the man who had sired him, and he’d seen what blaming a village for its dead did to a person. His mother was getting better about it, but he knew how much hurt and bitterness she still carried around, and he knew as her son, he probably had that same capacity somewhere within himself. It was a trap and a mindset he didn’t intend to fall into.

With those negative thoughts firmly tucked away, he threw the past Hokage’s visages a cheeky grin and a wave as he continued on his way. Even taking the long route, he’d started out with plenty of time and managed to make it to Team 7’s meeting spot with five minutes to spare before the scheduled 8:00 a.m. meeting. A dark haired boy and a strangely pink haired girl were already there, leaning casually against the railing of the bridge. He thought they looked kind of familiar, but couldn’t really place them. ‘Maybe I saw them at the Academy the day I took the graduation tests?’

The pink haired girl was so busy casting obviously adoring sidelong looks at her silent companion that she didn’t notice the Senju approach, but the dark-haired boy must have been more aware of his surroundings because he straightened up right away, though he didn’t deign to greet the blond with more than a serious and considering stare.

The girl followed her companion’s intent gaze at his sudden change in posture and immediately spotted Naruto, “Oh! Good morning! You must be our other teammate!” She greeted.

Naruto nodded and flashed them his best grin, his earlier contemplative mood evaporating completely, “Yup! At least, whenever you need me for missions! You must be Haruno-san, and Uchiha-san. Nice to meet you. I’m Naruto.”

Sasuke’s lips twitched into a bit of a frown, his eyes considering and cataloging every detail about the unknown ninja he and Sakura would have to work with from now on. In his perusal, his attention briefly focused on the vine wrapped around the boy’s waist and the strange leafy markings on the side of his face and shoulder.

“Naruto? Like Senju Naruto?” Sasuke had heard the rumors about the last heir to the Senju clan; everyone had. The gate guards hadn’t been able to keep their mouths shut the night he’d first arrived, and he’d made a pretty big impression on several of chuunin instructors in the Academy on his only day there. He hadn’t been in the village very often since then, but his visits were inevitably gossiped about for days afterwards. Rumor had it the boy was an extremely talented prodigy and had somehow inherited the Mokuton abilities thought to be specific to the Shodai.

The last Uchiha had no idea what to think about the other genin. He thought he should be thankful to have the village’s scrutiny occasionally turned elsewhere, but at the same time, he got an odd twisting feeling in his gut every time he overheard someone speak glowingly of the Senju. It was achingly similar to the feeling he’d had every time his father had talked about Itachi, but he WANTED Konoha to leave him alone, so he didn’t know where that feeling was coming from. In the end it didn’t matter, so he chose to ignore it as he did most of his emotions. He couldn’t afford to let anything, especially something as ridiculous as that, distract him from his path of vengeance and the revival of his clan.

“Yep. I’m Senju Naruto. My sensei thought it was time I got some team experience before the next chuunin exams, so I’m being added into your unit when you need another person for missions. Is your Jounin-sensei usually late?” he frowned, glancing around at the training field as if expecting the man to pop up out of nowhere.

“Well, we’ve only met him twice, ourselves,” Sakura frowned too, glancing at the boy next to her as if for affirmation. Ino had told her all about Senju Naruto, of course – she rarely spoke of anything else – but Sakura hadn’t realized he’d be their fill-in teammate. She guessed he was sort of cute, but nothing compared to Sasuke – Inner Sakura agreed with an enthusiastic “Cha!” -- “but he’s been really late both times, so I’d have to say, ’yes’. Are you really slated to take the chuunin exams already? ”

Naruto nodded, “Jiraiya-sensei says I’m ready for them if I can get the requisite team experience.”

“Hn.” Sasuke frowned and turned away.

Naruto felt his hopes for team bonding sink a bit. He knew, of course, that not all teams got along really well, look at his mother’s genin unit, but he’d hoped they might have something in common to build on if they would someday have to depend on each other with their lives. He mentally sighed, and reminded himself that these two were rookies, just days out of the Academy, and couldn’t be expected to take things like that into consideration.

He hoped they matured quickly. He didn’t really relish the thought of fighting and trusting his life to a fangirl and a loner prodigy with a bad haircut, not to mention an obviously chronically tardy captain. He supposed it could have been worse…he could have been stuck with them full-time. He shook his head to clear those thoughts out of his mind. That was a horrible attitude to have! They’d shape up once they got some field experience, they’d just gotten off on a bad foot! He knew ninja life had certainly matured HIM.

Sasuke cast a sideways glance at Naruto under his lashes so the other boy wouldn’t know he was looking as they all continued to wait in awkward silence. He’d found a few mentions of the Senju in the Uchiha family records when he’d decided to look them up one rainy afternoon after hearing old ladies gossiping about Tsunade-hime’s son in the market place. Unfortunately, all of the accounts from just after the founding of Konoha seemed incomplete and patchy at best. Nothing had been recorded well until the birth of the Military Police in the Nidaime’s time, and as the founding clan of Konoha, by that time, every Senju not very closely related to the Shodai or Nidaime by blood had sort of integrated themselves into the village as a whole and so were rarely mentioned as a clan unit.

What he had discovered was that the Senju were supposed to be excellent shinobi – the Shodai and the Nidaime had been the heads of that family, after all, but reading between the lines, he thought there might have been some sort of rivalry between the two clans at some point. Whatever it was, they’d obviously gotten over it since his clan had joined up with Konoha at its inception. He was mildly curious to know how they had all ended up under the leadership of the Shodai, though. The Uchiha line was obviously the stronger one since they had thrived much longer than the Senju, but even if they hadn’t been, he couldn’t really see his entire clan of ancestors signing up under someone else’s banner. Even within Konoha, they’d always kept themselves separate, and all of his memories of his father and older Uchiha men were of proud and noble figures – second to no one.

Well, that was the past, and it had no bearing on his current situation or his goals, so he decided it was unimportant. He let his eyes wonder over the still Jounin-less training field and then over his two silent companions – though Senju had started to fidget impatiently and looked like he’d die if someone didn’t say something soon.

Sasuke hadn’t been feeling very hopeful about his team when his number one fangirl had been called as his teammate. He had been sure she would hold him back. He’d felt a little more confident when they’d been told a more experienced genin would be filling out their ranks since someone like that shouldn’t need their hand held or protecting as much as someone who cared more about their appearance than about being a serious ninja.

Now knowing that the more experienced genin teammate was to be the much talked about Senju made him feel a bit ambivalent. It was obviously good to have strong people around to test your strength against – the strongest weakling was still weak, after all, but at the same time he couldn’t help but think it said something that they’d let someone else his age graduate a year early when he hadn’t been offered the same consideration. He didn’t want to be constantly reminded of that fact. It felt too much like a failure. He owed it to the memories of his family to be the best.

A flash of his father’s disappointed eyes floated through his head, quickly morphing into his blank dead gaze from the night of the massacre, and Sasuke clenched his fist hard enough to make his palm bleed a little, so he turned his thoughts to the rest of his team.

His opinion of Sakura had been cemented when he’d had to practically drag the pink-haired girl through their sensei’s Genin Test – a sensei who had shown up three hours late. Ironically, he had to admit he might not have passed if he had been teamed up with anyone else when they’d learned the object of the test was teamwork, but he hadn’t expected her to perform well, and she certainly hadn’t. True, in a way they owed their passing to her obsession with him, but that was hardly an accomplishment to be praised.

That being said, he’d never had occasion to feel grateful to a fangirl before, but she’d immediately suggested working with him and offered to let him keep the bell. If he’d known all he had to do at that point was offer her part of his lunch once she’d been tied to the post at noon, he wasn’t sure he’d have put so much effort into keeping Kakashi-sensei’s attention away from the much weaker girl. Something inside him had compelled him to do it, even though it had definitely been confirmed that she’d be nothing but a burden when she’d fainted dead away at a rather pathetic genjutsu.

Naruto at least seemed to carry himself well and was from a prestigious clan with a strong bloodline limit. If all of the hype was true, he was already as strong as some of the chuunin in the village. Some of Sasuke’s tension faded a little. It was a bit of a relief to know he probably had at least one capable teammate. They’d be stuck together for a long time, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to get strong enough to beat Itachi if he constantly had to babysit two incompetents. If everything went well, NARUTO could be the one stuck watching out for Sakura.

“ARGH, I can’t take this broody silence anymore.” The object of Sasuke’s contemplations finally exploded. “Do either of you want to spar or something while we wait?” Iruka-sensei had said Sasuke was some kind of genius obsessed with getting stronger; looking at Sakura’s impractical outfit and hairstyle, he had no delusions from that direction, but he couldn’t stand the thought of just standing around and waiting. Naruto hated inactivity.

For a few moments, the Uchiha genius seemed to be sizing him up again and thinking hard about something, but in the end, he nodded sharply and pushed himself off of the railing. Without looking back to see if he were being followed, he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way over to the clear area around the training logs.

Naruto rolled his eyes, “Mah, so stoic!” He muttered under his breath. This kid needed knocked down a few notches. Even Gaara was more talkative than this. Maybe he’d try out how well he’d managed to sink up with Ivy during combat – though his brute control of her movements when his chakra wasn’t running high from fighting was still almost completely null, sometimes he could get it to click, and she almost seemed like an extension of his body when they fought like that. The technique had really thrown Shizune last time they’d been in Snow Country and he’d shown her what they could do.

†

Sasuke watched Naruto’s approach with clinical eyes. His gait was smooth, and he moved, in general, like he knew what he was doing. The bright, “kill me” orange was a little disconcerting, but there wasn’t that much of it, so maybe it was just this kid’s ninja quirk. In the 12 year-old Uchiha’s limited experience, every ninja eventually developed a stupid quirk sooner or later to cope with the lifestyle – none of the older shinobi he knew were completely sane anymore – just look at their sensei.

“No chakra, just a friendly spar.” Naruto stated.

Sasuke nodded, settled himself into the first form of his taijutsu stance, and watched as his opponent did the same. Naruto’s form was a little different, balanced up on the balls of his feet, but nothing too exotic. Sasuke found himself completely unsurprised when the other boy made the first move, lounging with a feint, but he was completely thrown off balance when the feint turned out to be a straight out dodge with nothing to follow it up even though his instincts had screamed at him that it was an attack and automatically thrown him into a defensive position. What the hell was that kind of move for?

He didn’t have time to think about it as he nearly tripped over the vine that shot out from Senju’s waist while he was trying to slide out of the guarding stance and back into an offensive one. Since he didn’t know what Naruto was up to with that weird tactic, it only made sense to throw him off by becoming the aggressor.

Sasuke quickly made a sharp jab of his own where his instincts told him the blond should have gone after that opening gambit, but of course, the kid wasn’t there. He sensed a leg coming towards his back in a high arcing kick that was a little clumsy on technique but that was more than made up for by the flowing way Naruto moved. He barely managed to duck and nearly lost his balance, having to change direction midway through to avoid an elbow to his face. He felt the sharp sting of the vine slap against his back as he spun, but quickly disregarded it because the other boy was already coming around again.

‘He’s fast!‘ He danced backwards to avoid another swipe from the vine at his head, smoothly following the sweep of its master’s fluid movements, both of them flowing together like water – it took all of Sasuke’s speed to keep ahead of the plant’s snapping tendrils. They did little damage when they hit, but left stinging welts in their wake.

They exchanged hits for a few more moments, Sasuke blocking extensively and taking the occasional strike from the vine, and Naruto moving so quickly he avoided all retaliatory blows, but hardly taking a swing of his own. The more experienced genin seemed to almost be playing with him, but his weird taijutsu was throwing Sasuke off so much that he couldn’t take the time to really be sure. His style was almost completely unstructured like a weirdly acrobatic street thug’s, but unlike the rough free-form fighting styles favored by brawlers, it seemed to focus on nonchalantly avoiding all contact initiated by the opponent.

‘It’s like…aggressive defense or something…Is this how medic-nin are taught to fight?’ He had the extremely disconcerting feeling that Naruto could have taken him out before he even knew what had happened if he started utilizing that quickness in more offensive blows.

As frustrating as it was to be so easily beaten by someone with such SEEMINGLY rough taijutsu, it was absolutely infuriating when he found himself playing a demented sort of jump rope with the bastard’s vine whip!

For some reason, he couldn’t explain, he felt himself smiling a little.

He couldn’t grow stronger without a challenge, after all, and the rest of the genin in this place were complete jokes. If Senju was just playing with him, then so be it. He’d enjoy forcing the bastard to take him seriously! He felt an odd rush in that.

‘THERE! Finally, an opening!’ He lunged, in textbook perfect form, every inch of his body completely aligned for a hard strike to his opponent’s kidney. Before he could blink, Naruto brought an arm around in a quick sweeping motion to block and Sasuke gritted his teeth as his whole forearm seemed to go temporarily numb from the power behind the defensive move.

It was fairly obvious what Naruto had been putting time into training in place of learning a formal taijutsu style. ‘Who needs offense when defense causes this much damage?’

Senju had to be crazy strong on top of that speed. Sasuke would lay money on him being the most physically fit of all of the ninja their age, and while he didn’t appear to have been tutored well, if at all in a formal fighting style, Naruto seemed to have an almost a preternatural sense of where blows were coming from, and Sasuke’s arms and legs were really starting to ache and tingle unpleasantly from the force of the blond’s blocks as he seemed to slowly start using the plant a little less and his own body a little more.

The Uchiha flipped backwards, desperate to get a little space, his legs spinning up after him to catch his opponent in the chin, but again, Naruto almost seemed to see it coming – like he could sense the blow before it fell, and his vine was there to meet his kick instead, nearly succeeding in tangling him up in its length.

He needed a plan if he wanted to finish this soon, and he knew he had too, or his own speed would begin to slip from the punishment his arms and legs were taking when his attacks were blocked. His straight taijutsu STYLE was definitely better than the blond ninja’s, but it decidedly wasn’t enough to keep him from getting his ass handed to him if the boy went all out.

Seeing that Naruto easily let him have the space he’d been vying for even after neatly and efficiently dodging his maneuver, it was obvious Senju could have avoided all of his hits and was only blocking at all for the damage it caused. Sasuke gritted his teeth a bit in frustration. Senju didn’t even look WINDED yet, but the Uchiha felt like they’d been sparring for hours instead of minutes. It felt a little like going up against Kakashi-sensei yesterday, and he KNEW the Jounin had been holding out of them or he and Sakura would undoubtedly have been hurt or killed in that stupid bell test.

Naruto’s vine seemed to get impatient and snapped out at the Uchiha again, and the spar was back on. They whirled across the training ground in a graceful dance, but Senju still wasn’t even breathing hard and hadn’t been hit once. Sasuke wondered where all that energy was coming from! His stamina was unbelievable! Could this boy really be the same age as him? Did having a Sannin train you really do that much to increase your strength?

They continued to exchange blows until Sasuke saw his chance. He blocked with both arms crossed before him, purposefully tangling the vine up around his wrists and simultaneously lunged, forcing the other boy back and making prolonged contact for the first time since they’d begun this spar. He was determined to make the Senju take him seriously, if it was the last thing he did.

Naruto neatly slipped aside and flipped backwards to give himself more space, Ivy nearly tugging him off balance as she tried to match his speed while untangling from around the Uchiha, but before they could rejoin the fight, they were stopped by a masculine throat being cleared from the direction of the bridge.

“Hn.” Sasuke huffed, crossing his arms and turning away in an attempt to hide his heavier breathing, and his gaze slid over to rest on Naruto. He was disappointed in himself. He’d NEVER been out-classed like that by a peer, but he couldn’t protest the outcome. The differences between them were plain to see. He could only hope that his own progress would now increase at a faster rate under a proper Jounin instructor. The other genin did have a year in the field on he and Sakura, and therefore a year of advanced instruction, so he would just have to work harder so he could close the gap. He had to gain the strength to kill Itachi.

He decided to be tentatively optimistic about the situation. He couldn’t help but be a little pissed off at not being taken seriously by someone his own age, but he couldn’t deny the current difference in their levels. Once he managed to awaken his Sharingan things would even out, and all the Sannin training in the world wouldn’t prevent the Uchiha from holding his own or wiping the floor with Senju, Sasuke thought, but until then, more spars like this one were bound to make him stronger.

…and the results of this fight might have been different if they’d been using chakra. The Uchiha was fairly proud of his arsenal of fire jutsu. Naruto had to have been putting all of his training time into building up his strength and speed; surely there was no way he’d know very many techniques.

That being the case, maybe he could figure out how Naruto got so strong so quickly if he got to know the other boy.

If nothing else, he at least now had hopes that he’d found someone he could use in his quest to improve enough to take out Itachi, and he’d been validated in the hope that he could leave Sakura to drag down Naruto so he wouldn’t be held back in completing their missions. He further consoled himself that if he’d had a Sannin or two to train him all his life instead of having to do everything on his own for the last several years, he’d definitely be even more skilled than Naruto currently was since he knew enough to balance out his taijutsu and physical conditioning while training.

No matter how hard people tried to hold an Uchiha back, they always came out the best in the end. It was in their blood.

†

Hatake Kakashi had been visited yesterday by his number one idol, the great author, Jiraiya-sama. He’d been eagerly expecting the man to pop up since the Hokage had told him he’d only be testing two genin this time around because his third had already passed. There was only one new but un-teamed-up non-rookie genin in Konoha at the moment after all, and Kushina always let slip a little more than she thought she did after a sake or two.

The Copy-Nin had seen Jiraiya around more than usual the past year or so and had been pretty curious about the familiar looking blond kid he’d always had in tow, but no one seemed to have any RELIABLE – rumors were certainly rampant - information on the gaki aside from his name and that he was evidently Tsunade-hime’s son by an unknown father. Among the rumors were those that he was the bearer of a genuine Mokuton bloodline, somehow inherited from his grandfather, the Shodai, and that he had a killer attack plant, but all Kushina-nee would say up front was that he’d been a “damn impressive toddler.”

If nothing else, Kakashi figured having someone like THAT on a team with two green rookie genin ought to be pretty amusing.

So it was that he hadn’t been at all surprised to have a run in with his favorite author in his favorite reading spot. He knew enough about his hero to know the Toad Sage wouldn’t turn the first pupil he’d taken an interest in since the Yondaime over to someone else without having a chat first, especially if the story about Tsunade’s fit of madness in making him the godfather was true.

Sure enough, not even two hours after he’d turned in the results of his team’s Genin Test (which he was fairly sure they’d passed on a fluke, but what could he do?), he’d been tracked down at the memorial stone where he’d been indulging in some quality smut time with his favorite series.

“Hey, volume 4, huh? If you like that one, you’ll love the one I just sent out to the publisher.” The older man giggled perversely and settled himself on a log near Kakashi and his ever-present orange book.

“Oh?” the silver haired ninja’s visible eye widened happily, “Do the twins make a comeback?” he asked through the mask covering the bottom half of his face.

“You bet they do, and they’ve become NUNS!”

Kakashi wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by the stars he could feel sparking in his eyes. “Jiraiya-sama! You are my god!”

“Heh, heh, heh,” the pervy sage chuckled. “I know.” He patted Kakashi on the head, ruffling his spiky silver locks, like he’d done when he’d first found the kid moping here after Minato’s death and given him his very first copy of ‘Icha Icha Paradise’. Kushina had been trying to steal the books from Hatake ever since. She had sort of taken Hatake in. “But I’m really here to talk to you about Naruto. There’s some stuff I think you should know if you’re going to work with him.”

“Is it about his kekkei genkai? I’ve heard he’s got Shodai’s Mokuton skills – They really should pull Tenzou from ANBU for the kid if he’s having problems with that. It’s only fair if I have to teach the Uchiha because of the Sharingan.” He eye-smiled.

“Er, well – it’s sort of about that, too, but mostly it’s about Minato.”

Kakashi felt his heart stop for a moment, all trace of teasing gone, his eye sliding towards the stone. He spent so much time staring at it that he could immediately focus on the Yondaime’s name without having to scan through the others at all. “Sensei--?” he breathed.

Jiraiya nodded, “I can’t tell you everything, but hey, you’re a smart kid, you’ll figure it out. Tsunade cleared me to tell you some of it so you can keep him out of trouble. Once you fuss out the rest, we’re both trusting you to keep it to yourself.” The sennin privately thought it was pretty stupid to expect Kakashi not to figure out Naruto’s paternity right away. It was easy to forget sometimes, that the perverted and laid back attitude of the Jounin cloaked the sharp mind of a genius, and with Naruto’s appearance and the fact that he was already following in his old man’s footsteps, it was only a matter of time before those who were close to Minato started putting two and two together. Tsunade wouldn’t be convinced of it though – she’d thrown around every disguise suggestion from elaborate masks to just making him wear glasses.

Yeah…like that would work – about as much as messing up the kid’s hair a little differently than it usually fell would do, but if it appeased Tsunade’s paranoia a little, he and Naruto were willing to let her have her delusions.

Kakashi nodded, though he was completely confused about what his more experienced genin could have in connection to his own dead sensei. He supposed it would make more sense when he finally met him.

Jiraiya brought his mind back to the matter at hand. “Well – You were there that night. You know the Kyuubi wasn’t killed…Minato had to seal it away, as much as he could of it, anyway.”

Kakashi’s eye widened, and he was glad he’d tucked his book away or he’d have surely dropped it, “Naruto’s not--? Surely even Sensei wouldn’t have dared turn Tsunade-hime’s son into a demon!” …Although that did explain his willingness to use a suicidal jutsu. He wouldn’t have survived her wrath anyway, once she’d found out what he did.

“NARUTO isn’t the demon!” Jiraiya barked, his face going quickly red in anger, causing the silver haired man to flinch back in shock, “He’s the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet! Every bit as stupid and noble as his father, and if I EVER hear you infer that again, I’ll never publish another novel ever again, just to spite you!”

‘Were Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-hime’s secret lover that close?...’ Kakashi wondered before the weight of the threat hit him like a kick to the gut, “No!—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean – well, I’m very confused. If he’s not the demon, why did you bring it up?” He hurriedly back-pedaled. Seals weren’t his strongest point – one of the few ninja skills of which he didn’t consider himself a master.

“Because, well, you were on the right track, but he’s not the Kyuubi. He’s the Kyuubi’s jailor.” Jiraiya sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He had known getting acceptance for Naruto would be hard when the truth came out, but he’d hoped people wouldn’t automatically jump to the worst conclusions. If even Minato’s own student automatically assumed the brat was the Kyuubi, how could they expect the rest of the village to take it any better, and how hard would that rejection be on his godson?

Well, he could only hope that maybe by that time the people of Konoha would have gotten to know the boy. There was no way you could spend five minutes with the little punk and not realize he didn’t have a malicious or even selfish bone in his body - the weird Naruto-effect, Mokuton driven or not, had a universal influence on people, that definitely wouldn’t hurt the situation.

And if they didn’t take it well, well, then he’d just have to MAKE them take it well. Jiraiya had found himself sometimes regretting lately, that he had to shatter Naruto’s childish naiveté, to turn a kid who had once followed him everywhere dragging a huge plushy frog into a tool for killing and espionage. Ninja life would’ve inevitably broken that part of Naruto, and the Toad Sage knew it was his responsibility to try to mold him into that mindset, but it was still hard to see the changes it was making in the brat, and he’d do anything in his power to protect him from unnecessary pain…

He hadn’t understood, at the time, why Tsunade had cried the night she realized there was no hope for keeping Naruto stuck to a noncombat medic-nin’s life, but now, well – there was no point dwelling on it now. Being a ninja was in Naruto’s blood, he’d very likely have become one even without his godfather’s help and guidance, and his initiation into their ways could certainly have been a hell of a lot rougher. Somehow, that didn’t really help Jiraiya sleep any easier at night when he occasionally lay awake thinking about it.

Seeing Kakashi looking a little impatient, he sighed and continued his explanation. There’d be time to beat himself up over this kind of thing later, just like there’d been time before. “Yondaime sealed the fox into the kid, but the demon doesn’t affect his mind or personality in any way. His bloodline sees to that. As for how he got a hold of Tsunade’s son for it, well, I can’t tell you that part, but Naruto inherited the Shodai’s gifts, especially his ability to control Bijuu chakra, and it’s made the seal really efficient.”

“Hmm, Wow…I thought the Kyuubi-vessel was dead. I think we all did.” Kakashi murmured, the wheels spinning in his head to try and put the pieces together. “Does it hurt him, having the demon there? I’d think his native chakra wouldn’t get along well with the demon’s.”

‘He figured that out pretty quickly. Guess that genius mind is still working.’ Jiraiya’s face fell and he sighed, “Yeah, that’s why I’m telling you about it. This whole business is an S-class secret, but you need to know, especially if you’re going to fight and train with him. You’ll find he’s not that jutsu based yet, though he’s constantly working on his chakra control. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he knows quite a few tricks including a fair few of his mother’s basic medic skills, her strength, and Kage Bunshin, but it’s his aim, speed, and stamina you’ve got to watch for. Well, that and Ivy. That little vine is a total bitch. Back before his chakra reserves got freakishly high he got in the habit of being extremely conscious of his chakra output, so he used to have a tendency to fall back on his physical conditioning and senbon.”

Kakashi nodded to show he was listening, and Jiraiya continued on, “The energy conflicts were rough for him growing up, but it’s given him excellent chakra senses – he can tell how much and how many nin there are around him at any given moment, and oddly enough, that makes him extremely unpredictable. I think his senses have got the potential to develop to the point where he could blind fight, though I wouldn’t be surprised if part of it comes from his connection with the plants around him. They might be giving him feedback to his surroundings without him noticing.”

There were lots of implications of that, Jiraiya suddenly realized. With the kid’s chakra capacity, if his connection to the plant life around him kept increasing, and he was sure it would since the brat didn’t even have conscious control of it yet, there could come a day when he’d be able to sense nearly anything happening in a huge area around him, maybe all of Konoha! With a Hokage like that, no enemy armies could so much as step foot --

“Impressive, but you still haven’t explained WHY he’s got to monitor his chakra so closely or how the Nine Tails adversely affects him, though I have no doubt the two are connected.” Kakashi interrupted his thoughts to get him back on topic.

The Sannin nodded, “sharp as ever. Naruto’s kekkei genkai doesn’t like Kyuubi’s power. When he’s got enough chakra to reinforce the seal, none of the fox’s energy can leak past it until it has been converted into his own chakra. Minato designed it so it would constantly drain the Kyuubi into Naruto until they eventually merge, leaving the fox just a powerless mind trapped inside his body with no chakra of its own. The thing is, he didn’t know about Naruto’s bloodline limit when he made the thing. Originally, bits of the fox’s chakra were supposed to leak into Naruto’s system to be naturally converted as it circulated. The Mokuton acts like a filter, purifying those chakra bits before they hit his system. This is also speeding up the merging process much faster than it was supposed to, but that’s a completely different concern.”

“So what you’re saying is that when he doesn’t have enough chakra of his own left for this ‘filter’ layer, the seal acts as it was originally intended and lets Kyuubi’s power through. I take it this has an adverse effect on the kid?”

“You could say that. He’s kind of allergic to it. It makes him sick.”

Kakashi’s eye widened again at that. “Sick, how?”

“Seizures, muscle cramps, internal hemorrhaging, fever, the whole works. It’s not so bad when he’s run his own chakra down as when the filter layer falls due to injury, at least not right away because then the seal just acts like it was originally intended to do. I would bet he could even use the demon’s chakra for a little bit at that point if he had to, but as soon as he’s got enough of his own strength back, it gets bad. As he regains his own chakra it attacks Kyuubi’s residual chakra in his system, and his body gets caught in the cross-fire.“

“I think I understand, but how is it worse when he’s injured?” Kakashi frowned. It seemed like there wouldn’t be very much extra chakra for his system to fight off if Naruto hadn’t been using any of the demon’s power or just had his own levels drop far enough to let it through.

“If Naruto dies, the fox dies. That’s how the seal was made. When the kid is hurt badly enough, the filter is weakened and the kitsune can force its regenerative power out as a sort of self-preservation technique. It can heal him of almost any wound. It does a damn good job of it too, until he’s well enough for his own system to get the best of him for it. It usually doesn’t have time to complete the job before the filter goes back up, and sometimes tissues are redamaged in the resulting chakra clash. Since those clashes happen most often close to the already weakened or wounded areas being healed by the Bijuu…”

“Ouch.” Kakashi winced, “Double edged-sword.”

“Yeah, but the best part is the kid can’t control his Mokuton abilities yet because they’re tied up with the fox which has pushed his secondary elemental proclivity into being his primary one instead. He is, in fact, a WIND type!”

The new Jounin-sensei sighed, “Why couldn’t you have left me with a nice, even tempered Hyuuga if I had to deal with another kekkei genkai kid?”

“Shut up, you.” Jiraiya scowled. “Just watch him in the woods. He’s getting better with at least keeping his excess Mokuton energies in check with all the work he’s been doing to learn elemental control, and I think he’s near to a breakthrough, but he had another power boost a while ago, so any control he might have gained was sort of mitigated. Plants get a little friendly if he’s distracted, and you might find him being molested by a shrubbery.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Nope! But once he gets the wind chakra under control, his Mokuton ought to come naturally to him as it should have from the beginning. My prediction is a huge and almost instantaneous upswing in his arsenal then.”

†

‘Well,’ Kakashi thought, watching Sasuke and Naruto break it off and come trudging back to him, one with an exhilarated grin and a madly thrashing vine waving happily in the air behind him, and the other with his customary blank expression, but a very thoughtful look in his eyes. ‘At least the boy can fight, even if his technique is really strange.’

Sasuke looked winded, though he was obviously trying to hide it. ‘And it doesn’t’ look like Jiraiya-sama was exaggerating about Naruto’s stamina.’

His genin team was so going to kick Asuma’s team’s asses. Things were looking up.He’d been a bit worried when he’d been forced to pass the rookies on a technicality. What were the odds he’d get a fangirl willing to sacrifice her chances to be a ninja for her precious Sasuke-kun?

If only he could figure out why Tsunade’s kid looked so damned familiar and what it was about him that he was supposed to be able to figure out. He’d bet his Icha Icha collection the two were connected.

†