A few strings pulled here and a few pulled there. Jiraiya was capable of many things and he showcased just that so he could be the first person that Naruto saw when he woke up. The boy had just come off a long and gruelling mission which ultimately ended in failure. He had failed to rescue his best friend in all but blood; something that Jiraiya himself was all too familiar with.

"Ero-Sennin" Naruto said with joy until his mind caught up with him and he remembered what had happened recently. A sullen look crossed his face.

"Gaki, what happened out there was shit but stewing on what could've or should've happened is not going to change anything. Sasuke is going to be with Orochimaru for the foreseeable future."

"Why!?" Naruto questioned with anger and frustration clearly evident on his face. He was partly angered at his sensei for the way he was dismissing his emotions. He was more angry at the fact that Sasuke would willingly want to go to the man who had killed his grandfather figure but most of all, Naruto was angry at himself for being unable to save his best friend. "Why did he have to go to that damned snake?" Subconsciously, the blonde haired boy knew the answer, he just didn't want to come to terms with it just yet.

"Does it matter Naruto?" Jiraiya quietly asked. It was rare for the man to use Naruto's name. Normally it was some form of insult variant nickname. Upon looking up into the eyes of his sensei, Naruto saw the serious side of Jiraiya which didn't come out often.

"This doesn't leave this room." As Jiraiya said this, he placed his finger on the ground and kanji characters took over the room. Naruto managed to guess that it was some sort of silencing seal.

"Sasuke took matters into his own hands on his quest for power. I can see why he did it. He wanted to become the best so that he could kill his older brother Itachi. He felt that the Leaf Village couldn't provide the training or they weren't going to provide the training that he felt he needed."

"But we could! With Kakashi-sensei and everyone else… we could provide that." Naruto replied, fire slowly coming back into his veins.

"I'm not saying that we couldn't Naruto, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be our highest priority. We would never sacrifice the shinobi required to give the Sasuke the same training that Orochimaru could provide, especially when we are recovering from the recent invasion. At the end of the day the person Sasuke cared about most is himself which isn't wrong to do, he just went about it completely in the wrong way."

"He was being selfish though! There were so many people back here who cared about him!"

Namely me, he was my best friend! Jiraiya heard the unspoken message.

"I understand that Naruto, believe me I do… He made a decision that he is going to have to live with. Being selfish though isn't necessarily a bad thing though. If you want to become Hokage, you are going to have also become selfish."

Offended at the comment made by his sensei, Naruto very much so wanted some clarification! "What! What do you mean becoming the Hokage means that I have to be selfish!? They are the most selfless person, looking after and protecting the village!"

"They do." Jiraiya nodded which only served to confuse his godson. "That's not what I said though. I said to become the Hokage they have to be selfish. If you want to become the best, then you are going to have to be selfish and put focus on yourself to a degree. It takes a great amount of time to develop the skills required to become the Hokage and you will have to make sacrifices on occasions.

I'm not saying that you would have to lose the friends that you have made but you're going to have to focus on yourself first if you ever want the chance to become Hokage." The Sannin said, having a rough idea on what was going through his godson's mind.

It was quiet but Naruto was dead serious when he spoke. "Train me." Naruto's blue eyes stared long and hard into Jiraiya's black orbs.

A smirk plastered Jiraiya's face. He knew what Naruto meant but he wanted to hear it. "Whaddya think I've been doing Gaki? Haven't you realised how strong you've gotten since before your chunin exam finals? I've taught you the rasengan and the summoning jutsu for crying out loud!"

The look on Naruto's face did not waiver one bit. He definitely knew how much pervy sage's training had been helping. For the first time ever, Naruto finally felt like that he was closing the gap with his measuring stick that was Sasuke. For the blonde, it highlighted how good of a sensei was. He even trained the freaking fourth Hokage! If I could get him to train me and I take it seriously, then who knows how strong I could become!

There is also the Akatsuki who are all S-ranked…

"Train me Jiraiya-sensei. Please."

"Alright kid but don't think for a second that this is going to be easy. I'm going to make our previous training look like child's play. After all my reputation is on the line and I might as well make two Hokage's!" Jiraiya mentally took a picture on the face of Naruto and couldn't help but wish Minato and Kushina were here to see this.

He knew that he hadn't been the best godfather the past 13 years and it was moments like this that Jiraiya had been missing out on.

No more. I need to be there more for Naruto. He didn't have much else going on for him people wise in his life and here was lady luck giving him one chance to right all of his wrongs as a person.

"On one condition though." The side splitting grin on the face of Naruto receded. He waited.

"I'm going to be out of the village for the next three years working on my spy network for the village. I'm not going to be coming back at all during this time."

Naruto paused. That was definitely a big condition. He would be leaving his friends and more importantly his support network for 3 years. One thing ran through his mind though. "Sometimes you have to be selfish right?" Naruto questioned with a tiny smirk on the corner of his lips.

Jiraiya nodded. Internally however, he was surprised. I thought he would have put up more of a fight when I told him he wouldn't be coming back for 3 years. It's good to see him maturing a bit.

"Good. I've got a few things to do but in 3 days we will be leaving the village." It will give you time to say goodbye to your friends. See ya soon kid." With that said, Jiraiya left the room and the seal on the floor disappeared.

I guess a lot of things are going to change. I wonder what the village will be like when I get back? One thing is for certain is that I'm going to get strong dattebayo!

The blonde haired boy didn't know what to expect from the future. He liked it that way.

Shortly Jiraiya had left, the door to his room had opened. This time however it was Shikamaru who opened it. "I see, well at least everyone is okay." Naruto said, trying to find the positives in the outcome despite the situation.

"So Sasuke…?" Shikamaru asked, letting his question trail off. What neither of the two boys knew was that Sakura was on the other side of the door, listening in on the conversation. She had yet to hear the outcome of the mission.

"Yeah… He's gone." Naruto dejectedly said. In an instant, Sakura was crushed. Reality was setting in hard and fast. Sasuke was not coming back. Not now, maybe not ever. Limply, the hand that was about to open the door fell down by her side and hung.

But he's Sasuke, we were supposed to go on a date! How could he do this to the team!? How could he do this to me!? To Kakashi-sensei, to Naruto!?

Before she could properly process the information overload that she had happened to just stumble upon, someone approached her from the side. "Here for a visit?" immediately, the head of Sakura quickly turned around at the familiar voice.

"News travels fast I see." Tsunade said with an impassive look on her face. With more important matters on her hands than the girl, Tsunade beckoned for Sakura to move slightly to the side so that she could open the door.

Despite The Fifth Hokage walking through the door, Naruto paid her no attention whatsoever. With his heart in his mouth, his vision was solely directed on his pink haired teammate who walked forward.

"Naruto" Sakura said as she stared and at her teammate. A myriad of emotions going through her head. Concern for his wellbeing after seeing all of the bandages, frustration at the fact that he couldn't bring back their teammate and hating herself for being so useless during this whole fiasco.

The Uzumaki tried to maintain eye contact for as long as he could but it wasn't long at all. Seeing the mood of the room, Tsunade took charge. "I had heard that your injuries were pretty serious. You seem to be doing pretty well considering."

"I've gotten hurt so much as a kid that I guess my body just got used to healing quicker than normal." Naruto said as he looked his Kage in the eyes. Sakura and Shikamaru heard what Naruto said. Tsunade heard what he didn't say. Displeasure was evident across her face to say the least.

Naruto wasn't too focus on that though. "I'm sorry Sakura."

Surprised that Naruto spoke to her, Sakura was forced to say something and her mind was struggling to come up with something to say. "Sorry? What've you got to be sorry about." Sakura tried to say in a upbeat tone but everyone in the room could tell that it was fake.

Sakura took a few steps forward. "Let me guess, you got reckless and went off half-cocked again huh? And look at you now, you look like a mummy." Sakura said, resorting to what she knew which was jokingly insulting Naruto to release the tension in the room.

Naruto wasn't having any of it though. His conversation with Jiraiya still in the back of his mind, he knew that this was going to be one of the last times he was going to see his friends for a long time. He didn't want to make a scene at Sakura's comment. "I'm so sorry Sakura." The blonde struggled to say, his voice on the verge of cracking.

"Hey… Why do you have the curtains closed? It's a beautiful day outside." Sakura replied, ignoring the comment and trying to keep the positivity in the room; even if she was dying on the inside at the fact that her crush had joined Orochimaru.

Shikamaru could only look on at what Sakura was doing whether intentional or not.

Fearful of the fact that he might lose his friend since he made that promised, Naruto became the most animated since Jiraiya mentioned being selfish was okay. "I haven't given up! Listen, I am still going to keep my promise" Tsunade looked long and hard at Naruto as he said this and she could see that he was mostly trying to convince himself rather than Sakura. "after all, it was the promise of a lifetime. I meant it!"

When Sakura spoke next, she wasn't as animated as she was before. "It is okay Naruto. Really…"

Shikamaru was frustrated to say the least… "He tried Sakura." He mentioned, entering the conversation.

His voice became slightly harder which the Nara genin picked up on. "If I say that I'm gonna do it, that means that I will. My way of the shinobi is that I always stand behind what I say!" Naruto said with the first smile that had appeared on his face since waking up.

It seemed as if there was a shift in the air as everyone displayed small smiles. Even Tsunade.

Yet another showcase of the seemingly innate ability for Naruto to be able to lift the spirits of the room.

I need to focus on healing my injuries! I need to start training with Ero-sennin as soon as I can! Not just for Sasuke but for the Akatsuki and becoming the Hokage! As these thoughts ran through his mind, Naruto couldn't help but lament on what may have happened, had he been that little bit stronger.

I should've tried harder, should've asked Kakashi-sensei or Pervy sage to teach me more jutsu! It was not lost on the genin that Sasuke knew jutsu how to do jutsu from two different elements! What I'd give to be able to do something like that! I've even got so much chakra; I'd be able to do heaps of them!

At this point Naruto tried to think back to the lessons that he was supposed to learn at the academy about the elemental ninjutsu. Crap! Naruto thought to himself as he realised that he could hardly remember much at all. He didn't know the first thing about it so he had no idea how to go about trying to spit fireballs or shoot lightning beams!

Iruka would know!

Naruto vowed that before he left that he was going to visit his former sensei and see if he could get as much out of his sensei on the things that he missed at the was situations like that this that reinforced what those around him had been saying in that he needed to focus on the basics.

I've been being a kid all this time. This isn't fun and games! I need to start taking things seriously. If I want to become the Hokage, then I need to start being more mature!

Naruto internally vowed. Not everything about being a ninja was as sunshine and rainbows and yesterday was the perfect example.

Little did anyone know just how pivotal one thought on one day by one genin could change the entire landscape of the elemental nations for generations.

Much to Shizune's surprise Naruto, given all that she knew about his personality didn't try and escape the hospital. She didn't know what had caused it but he was confident that she was going to have to chase the boy around the village.

"Alright Naruto, you're officially cleared and ready to train but you probably should go a bit light…" Shizune said although she doubted that Naruto would be able to hear her since he was long gone already.

So far gone that he was already close to the academy where Iruka who had just finished for the day teaching his new students "Iruka-sensei Naruto shouted out, glad to see the academy teacher.

"Naruto, hey how's it going?" Iruka asked with a grin of his own on his face.

"It's been good and bad but guess what Iruka-sensei!?" Naruto questioned to which Iruka couldn't help but smile. He had heard rumours recently but the Naruto of old was on display and he was happy for it.

"What?"

"I'm going out of the village for three years."

"Huh?" The chunin dumbly replied, shock evident on his face.

"Yeah I'm leaving the village, come on Iruka-sensei, I'll tell you all about it over Ichiraku Ramen." The blonde grinned as he grabbed Iruka's hand and dragged him to the ramen bar.

The duo quickly made their way to the bar and before Iruka knew it, an order had been logged. "So care to run that by me again Naruto? You're leaving the village for three years!? Is this some kind of mission!?" A million questions were running through the mind of the chunin and he wanted answers!

"Yeah, nah. Yeah I'm leaving the village but it's not because of a mission. Ero-Sennin is taking me with him on a training trip." Naruto replied. Whilst he was excited for it, he knew he would miss his friends.

"But surely you could train here as well?" Iruka fired back, displeasure clear on his face.

Naruto grinned, it made his heart warm that him leaving made Iruka show how much he cared. "Not enough though. I would be going on missions a lot more and I need to focus on training because people are going to be after this." When he said 'this' Naruto gestured to his stomach.

A silent 'Oh' escaped Iruka's lips. The conversation suddenly got serious. "I see, so it's because of that."

Naruto shook his head. "Not just that Iruka-sensei. I also want to become Hokage and what better way than to get trained by the man who got trained by one and then taught one?"

To a regular, run of the mill chunin, it made Iruka realise just what sort of crowds Naruto was now starting to hang around. Compare that to the ones he did and they were vastly different than his own. Here Naruto was hanging out with clan heirs, high level elite jonin, getting taught by one of the Sannin and is incredibly close with the Hokage. In comparison, he was merely an academy teacher with a couple of other lifelong chunin friends and one special jonin friend if that is what you could call Anko.

To be honest, it made it feel a bit inadequate. Not that he was going to let Naruto know that though.

"You're not wrong there Naruto! Just don't forget that I was your first teacher hah!" Iruka said with a grin on his face. A bit of insecurity showing.

Naruto was affronted. "Of course Iruka-sensei! How could I not dattebayo!? You're the first person that ever believed in my dream to become the Hokage!" When Naruto put it like that, all of the fears and insecurities that Iruka had melted away.

"Thanks Naruto, it's just crazy to see how much you have improved over the past six 9 months."

Naruto grinned. Pride was evident on his face, hearing the praise from one of the people whose opinion he respected the most. "And just think how strong I'm gonna be when I get back! I bet I'm as strong if not stronger than Kakashi-sensei." Naruto replied, quite cheekily in fact at the end.

Iruka liked Naruto's optimism for sure but to be honest, he was a bit sceptical. "Stronger than Kakashi-san? That'll be hard to achieve considering Kakashi is arguably the third strongest ninja in the village behind the two Sannin."

"Hey, you said to dream big right!? Plus, when I've got the world's best academy teacher helping me out, I'll be unstoppable!" Touched at the opinion that Naruto had of him, Iruka smiled."

"Oh and how am I going to be helping you out considering you will be out of the village?"

At this point Naruto got a bit bashful. "Well, I was hoping that you could give me all of the stuff that I should of learnt at the academy Iruka-sensei. I've realised that I should have spent a lot more time at the academy paying attention rather than playing pranks." The blonde sheepishly said whilst rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry can you repeat that?" The academy teacher couldn't help but ask, he wanted to make sure he heard what he thought he heard. Never in a million years would he have thought that Naruto would say something like that.

This only further served to tinge the cheeks of Naruto Uzumaki red. "I said I shouldn't of played the pranks in the academy and I should have focused on my studies!"

"Hahahaha." Iruka bellowed!

"It's not funny dattebayo!"

"You're right! It's hilarious!" Iruka replied as he continued to laugh before settling down. "Yeah, I'll see what I can do Naruto, anything you would like to focus on in particular?"

Naruto nodded straight away. "Yeah, chakra control and elemental ninjutsu. With the amount of chakra I have access to, I wanna become a ninjutsu juggernaut!"

Well if there was someone who could become good at it, it is you Naruto. It was then that Iruka remembered that he had some chakra paper in his pocket due to an upcoming academy lesson he was planning. He figured that he could always get another one.

"Alright, I'll try and get some more on that. Here channel some chakra into this." Iruka stated as he handed Naruto a piece of chakra paper.

Doing as he was told, the genin channelled the chakra and watched as the piece of paper crumpled into a tiny little ball. Unaware of what this meant, Naruto looked to Iruka for guidance and saw a look of shock on the face of his sensei. "So what's so special about this ball?"

"Naruto, as you may or may not know, when you channel chakra into the paper, it produces a response based on your chakra nature. For fire, it catches on alight. For water, it becomes damp and soggy. For wind it splits in two and for earth it crumbles and turns into dust." Iruka said with the look of astonishment on his face.

Naruto was aware that there was one that his sensei hadn't mentioned. The same one that Kakashi and Sasuke used for the Chidori. Say what you will but the move that created a hole in your freaking chest sure left a memory on Naruto. "What about lightning?"

"Well normally lightning crinkles slightly, like a chip almost. This though is the most extreme form of chakra nature I have seen.

"Huh?" Naruto questioned, getting the gist that something was up but he wasn't quite sure what.

"This is telling you Naruto that you are going to be very good and I mean very good at lightning jutsus!"

"Yatta!" Naruto couldn't help but cry out in sheer joy! He could throw it in the faces of Kakashi and more importantly Sasuke when he saw him again that he was better at lightning than what they were.

Ever the one to cut Naruto down to size, Iruka continued. "However, this means that you will basically be unable to wind ninjutsu which may arguably, have been a better fit for your fighting style. At minimum it would be incredibly hard for you to use one of the jutsus. In summary, you will find it a lot easier to create and use jutsus from the lightning element, however, you will find it harder to use jutsus from the other elements, relative to other shinobi." Iruka lectured to Naruto, something the blonde was very much thankful for.

"Minimize your weaknesses and maximize your strengths right Iruka-sensei!?" Naruto questioned, grin paramount on his face as he summarized the chat.

You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Naruto came back on the same level as Kakashi. Iruka thought to himself. He could see a change in maturity and wanted to see where it would take his favourite student.

Before anymore could be said or thought on the topic, the food arrived for the two.

"So you're really going to be taking Naruto out of the village for three years huh?" Tsunade idly commented as she sipped her sake.

"Oh come on princess. You know that it had to be done. Plus, don't be that down in the dumps, you've got Shizune here with ya. Ya haven't even known the kid for that long either haha" Jiraiya said, drunk as a fish.

Tsunade was annoyed. It showed on her face. "Jiraiya! Be serious. This isn't something to joke around about. The brat hinted at how he was treated as a kid due to being the jinchuuriki and I find it appalling. You better not raise him into be some pervert. Kushina would be ashamed if you did that."

The drunk mess that was Jiraiya almost immediately cracked. Gone was his goofy persona. "Tsunade. I am going to say this once and once only. A lot of times has passed since we were teammates and friends. Be very careful with what you say to me about Naruto. After seeing my godson nearly die due his best friend betraying him and stabbing him through the chest so recently after our recent encounter with Orochimaru and Kabuto amde me re-evaluate my priorities. Naruto is the highest priority in my life and I am going to go through everyone including the Hokage if I have to for Naruto.

The fuckin Akatsuki is coming 'Nade! Sasuke is the least of his Naruto's worries! I'm going to take the brat out of the village to solely focus on making Naruto the monster of a shinobi he was destined to be." Passion was pouring out of Jiraiya as he stared at Tsunade in a way that the Hokage had never seen before.

The blonde woman was surprised. She definitely did not expect Jiraiya to be so forceful and protective over Naruto. She knew he was Jiraiya's godson and all but to be honest, she still saw him as the womanizer who didn't ever take anything seriously; Whether that be relationships or kids. Shock evident on the face of Tsunade as she saw Jiraiya like this. This was the serious side of Jiraiya that she saw once a decade if she was lucky.

It was kind of attractive. That power, that focus, that care for his godson.

And just like that, it was gone.

"I've got a challenge for you though 'Nade." Previous thoughts immediately went away as Jiraiya garnered the attention of his former teammate once more.

"What."

"Well with Orochi taking that Sasuke kid and me taking Naruto, that just leaves that Sakura girl and you to complete the Trio." Jiraiya said with a suggestive grin on his face.

"No. I am not taking on another student."

"What? Scared cause you know just how much of a better sensei I will be to Naruto than what you are to Sakura? Scared that I am going to show up the illustrious first ever female Kage?"

Tsunade stared at Jiraiya who had a gleam in his eyes, fully knowing what her answer was going to be. "Fine! You're on! And wide that smug smirk off of your face you smug son of a bitch." If anything, it only further served to intensify Jiraiya looked like he was a cat with a little tweedy bird in his mouth.

Good. Hopefully something to keep Tsunade tied a bit more to the village whilst Naruto and I are gone.

"So what's the reward going to be when we find out who has trained the better shinobi?" Jiraiya grinned.

Tsunade had an idea.

"It's time to go Naruto." Jiraiya said to the boy who looked up at his sensei and nodded. He had just finished signing the last document for the apartment he formerly rented. There was no point in his eyes to pay for place for 3 years when he wasn't going to be in it. He hoped that this would save him some money which he could spend on ramen!

He was interested in what the future would hold for him.

Author's Notes: Hey! This is a thought that I have had and wondered if Jiraiya had taken a more active role in not just training but also raising Naruto during the 3 year skip.

Here is my first story, please let me know what you think, anything I could improve on and if you have any suggestions or potential plot ideas you think may work well let me know!