Prolog

Sarutobi was smoking his favorite pipe. The last shipment of a tobacco was extremely good, so instead of working on never ending paperwork he was procrastinating. Sadly it would come to an end very soon. Heavily layered detection seals, hidden under the paint of his office and attuned to his own chakra, alerted him to a shinobi approaching the Hokage tower at high speed. They obviously didn't have any intention of using the door to enter his office. However Sarutobi was not concerned, because the nearing chakra was very familiar to him. Then there was the soft creaking of the window ledge.

"You're late, I was expecting you three days ago Jiraya," said Sarutobi bitingly and turned around to face his wayward student. "I'll be long dead, when you stop dedicating your life to your perverted hobby, won't I?"

"Of course", smirked Jiraya and dropped onto the sofa to the right hand side of Sarutobi's desk. "Nevertheless I have to say: The reason why I'm late lies somewhere else. Do you want a report now or later?"

"Now, at least I will have an excuse for why I haven't progressed much," puffed Sarutobi from his pipe, while the corners of his mouth turned upwards slightly.

"I thought so!" Jiraya chuckled and continued, "There are two matters that I would like to bring to your attention. First, the Land of Iron plans to raise the prices of some metals…"

"Again?" Sarutobi frowned. "Lately they aren't doing anything else…"

"Yeah but the reason is obvious. The rumors that the Land of Water discovered several large deposits of various metals on the bottom of their sea appears to be true…"

"So it's confirmed… Is this information verified?"

"Yes, from several independent sources. I'm quite careful with information like this, hence the military check I conducted. Everything suggests that there is no hidden purpose."

"Good." Such concerns were seemingly a little bit farfetched, but with similar information there was always a possibility that it was just misdirection. For example, in this situation there was a chance, that the raised prices of metals could reduce the amount of metals bought and by extension even the amount of available weapons in preparation for war. But that alone would be suspicious; therefore, the information about metal deposits.

"But on to more important things," continued Jiraya in a low voice. "There are rumors about a group of missing-nin under the name of Akatsuki…"

"That is nothing new, there are always groups of rogue ninja, but I suppose that there has to be something more if you're mentioning them?" Sarutobi raised his right eyebrow and leaned forward.

"Yes, the problem is that, this group is rumored to be formed of only S-ranked missing-nin."

"That's impossible," Sarutobi reacted immediately, "There were such groups before, but so many big egos could never exist together for a prolonged period of time," Sarutobi frowned. "But still, we should be careful. What else do you know about them?"

"That's the problem. I know nothing. I don't know how many missing-nin belong to this group or where they are. And even less about their purpose. Because of that I plan to focus on this … Akatsuki group," recounted Jiraya with a sigh.

"That sounds reasonable. Do you have anything else?"

"Nothing urgent, you can go through it later," and with that Jiraya passed a big folder to Sarutobi.

"Good…" started Sarutobi and for a moment he looked at the street down below his window. "It seems that your six-year-old godson will be here in a moment. Will you stay?"

"Yes, I would like to see him, but could you introduce me…"

"Discretely … I understand," Sarutobi interrupted him and exactly at that moment the door flew open and a small blonde boy ran into the room.

"Hi Ojiisan," called Naruto and nimbly jumped onto Sarutobi's desk. "You will not believe what I learned!" cried the boy, excitedly bouncing on his feet.

"It's nice to see you again Naruto. It has been a long time since your last visit. And if I remember correctly, you promised to show me the reason why I should give you my hat," smiled Sarutobi.

"That's why I'm here!" responded Naruto, now in a business like voice. "Watch!" and Naruto jumped from the desk high into the air did half a back flip until his feet touched the ceiling. And stayed there like an overgrown bat. "So Ojiisan, will you finally give me that hat?" asked Naruto with arms crossed over his chest.

However, Sarutobi didn't respond and instead stared at Naruto in surprise. The idea that a six-year-old child could learn the tree climbing technique was impossible.

"Hey! Ojiisan! Say something!" pouted Naruto, which seemed to finally wake him up.

"Who taught you that?" asked Sarutobi, noticing that Jiraya looked interested too.

"No one that was all me…" It was at that moment that Naruto noticed the second person in the room and deftly walked above him and without further ado asked "Who is that?"

"This is Jiraya Naruto, a shinobi of the village," Sarutobi told him and puffed from his pipe.

"Ok Ojiisan. But if he bothers you too much, let me know and I'll kick his ass!" continued Naruto confidently not noticing Sarutobi's hard coughing. He dropped down from the ceiling and prodded impatiently "So, will you give me that hat?"

"You really impressed me Naruto, but unfortunately it's not enough…" Sarutobi chuckled, he wanted to continue and say that Naruto was too young, but was interrupted.

"Ok then, I can show you one more thing. It's totally cool!"

Yes, Naruto was many things, but one thing was for sure. He didn't give up easily. "Ok Naruto, show me what you have got!"

"Ok! Here I go!" Naruto cried and closed his eyes in concentration. For a moment nothing happened, but then there was a distortion of space around his body. Then everything was back to normal, except for one thing. From Naruto's behind protruded a two-foot-long-dark-orange-furry tail."

"Cool! Right?" Naruto bounced on his feet exuberantly, not noticing the white faces of the present men. Naruto turned to face the second man, flicking his tail to the side so he could touch it. "And it's really soft! Really, really sof…" Then something struck him in the back of the head and his world turned black.

There was a moment of total silence and then a chalky-white Jiraya asked Sarutobi, who was carefully lowering the unconscious Naruto on the desk. "What should we do?"

Silence. Then there was a quiet: "Seal it… Seal it all."

A/N:
1) IMPORTANT: Just want to say that Naruto will NOT have any fox parts in the future. It was just a thing to force Jiraya and Sarutobi to act how they did.
2) This chapter was corrected by IndianaJohhney - many thanks to him.