Disclaimer: No, I dont own own Naruto, be it the series, manga, or any characters or ideas pertaining there to. I do however have original characters within this story, Tohya Kuren, Omey and Arana.

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A/N: Second Chapter in 2 days. Been feeling quite inspired. I had to cut the emotional stuff short so that I could move on with the story. Was going to do some other stuff with this chapter, but I need to plan it better before I move on. At least I have a solid start on 4. Please keep reviewing, still need some info on that translation engine and then I can go back and fix the Bolded English.

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Chapter 3 - In which Naruto finally confronts that which he has been avoiding

Kiba and Akamaru, both in half beast form, flupped back and stopped spinning, their breath coming ragged and heavy. Kuren was not in much better shape. His clothing was a mess, dust and dirt was clotted in his flat black hair and blood trickled from a wound on his shoulder. The twin Kiba's dashed forward and began to spin in their devastating attack

"Gatsuuga!"

Kuren retaliated with another defensive jutsu, spewing mud into a solid wall around him. The pronged attack of Kiba bounced off, creating a crack in the wall. Kuren lept over the remainants of his wall and slashed some blood from his shoulder wound across his eyebrows and looked at one of the Kiba's, all while in flight. The Kiba froze in place, and was then sent flying by a powerful kick landed by Kuren. In a puff of smoke, Akamaru lay stunned on the ground and the former rock-nin turned his dojutsu on the real Kiba, who also froze.

"Match."

Tsunade marked some notes on a piece of paper and went to confer with Neji and Lee was still professing apologies to Omey, who, after realizing the damage she did to the taijutsu masters foot, was doing the same thing. Iruka was waved over to Tsunade, and Kiba was tending to Akamaru, and the others had left, save Kuren, who lay in the grass a little away from the others. Naruto wandered over towards Arana and kneeled down beside the tiny kunochi.

"Nervous, Arana-chan?"

She shook her head and replied in a soft voice, "No, Naruto-sensei, as I know that you will not allow me to be hurt, even if it is us battling." Naruto looked puzzled, so she continued, "The spirits of this area speak of you a lot Naruto-sensei, they tell me what kind of man you are, they tell me of you spending days on end training in this very field. They tell me that your greatest strength is your honour, and your ability to protect those you care about. They also tell me the lengths you have gone to protect your comrades, and to try and pull them from darkness." She paused on this, noticing Naruto's eyes darken at the reference to Saskue. " Naruto-sensei, though it may pain you, please, tell your greatest companion of your mutual loss after our battle. That job weighs heavily on you. It is time to confront it."

Naruto was stunned at the depth with which this mere child spoke. With her forehead protector still bound tightly around her eyes, she stood and walked to the center of the field. From the other end, Tsunade called out to him.

"Oi, Naruto, you're up!"

The blonde jounin smiled and stood, saluting his leader "Hai, Hokage-sama!" There was a tiny hint of mockery in his good natured voice but he jogged out to the field and squared off against Arana. Narrowing his eyes, he slipped out a kunai and threw it at the child with deadly accuracy. With nothing more than a mere wave she brushed it off.

"You will have to come at me seriously Naruto-sensei. The spirits tell me that is the only way this will be a true test. Please, try your hardest."

Naruto nodded and activated his signature jutsu. Eight Narutos shimmered into existence near the original. They rushed her, encircling her quickly. Before the circle was complete, Arana had touched one of the seals on the back of her hand, and pumped chakra into it. In front of her, a pair of ghostly hands appeared and struck out, catching the real Naruto in the jaw unexpectedly, then snapping out and striking all the illusions. The jounin skidded across the ground a good distance, then slowly stood up. By this time the child-like kunochi had preformed another jutsu.

"Kyuchoise no Jutsu!" A half dozen translucent wolves poofed into existence around her and snarled at the lone Naruto. He preformed the Kage Bunshin again to throw them off, but the lupines formed into a phalanx and rushed the real one again. Again Naruto was thrown back and the wolves were on him again.

"Konoha Senpuu!" In a whirl of arms and legs Naruto knocked the dogs off of him. He silently thanked Rock Lee, who was beaming from the sidelines, for teaching him that technique. "Well, it looks like I am going to have to get very serious here, Arana-chan" Naruto grinned. "Rasengen!"

The jounin ran forward, the glowing blue ball of energy spinning on his palm. He leapt high, twisting his body into a barrel roll and directing himself at Arana. The impact caused smoke and dust to fly around as if a small explosion had just occurred. Naruto stood struggling against aranas new defense, a chield of pure chakra surrounded her. Her right hand was placed against the back of the left, activating the seal on there. The rasengen faltered and then flared loudly, basking the area in a blue errie light. He let out a semi-feral growl and pushed harder against the crackling shield. Arana stood implacable in the center of the energy, though this was taking no effort. Seeing this, the jounin roared, the sound echoing through the trees. It infuriated him, this mere child was taking the full brunt of his most powerful jutsu and not even breathing hard. Forgetting all control, he released his wrist and readied his other hand

"Twin Rasengen!"

The second glowing ball of energy flared to life in the young mans hand and he slammed it too against the shield. Inside, Arana groaned, her knees shaking slightly. More and more chakra he pumped into the jutsu, it spun faster and glowed brighter. Flecks of red began to show in his eyes as he began to tap the Kyuubi chakra in his frustration. Feeling her shield weaken, Arana collapsed it then leapt back high onto a treebranch. Naruto stumbled forward, both rasengens slamming into another tree, completely shredding bark and wood. Groaning he stood, and watched the little girl throw herself from the tree branch, twisting and flipping in the air to land and face her opponent. He watched her pull up her sleeve, revealing yet another seal, one he recognized, well sort of. It looked sort of like the seal that appeared when….

"OH SHIT!" Naruto leapt back just in time to see a giant wolf appear infront of him. He hit the ground and nipped his thumb with a fang and preformed several hand seals.

"Kyuchosie no Jutsu"

When the smoke settled, Naruto stood on the head of a giant frog. Gammabunta looked around, "Oi, Brat, why did you call me out, I was in the middle of a bottle of sake!"

"Look infront of you Gamabunta, battle."

"Oh, look at the cute little puppy," the massive frog chuckled, which received a growl from the wolf. "Well then lets get to this. Oi, kid, where is that pervert you hang around with, where is Jiraya?" The words struck a chord with the jounin, and Arana sent off her wolf.

"It is over Tsunade-sama," she stated quietly, "I concede."

The others had left the field, and Naruto sat quietly on the nose of the frog boss. His head downcast and tears filling his eyes. "That day, against Orochimaru. The snake-bastard got him, I don't know what happened. I—I—I couldn't save him. I killed the bastard, but ero-sannin…..ero-sannin didn't make it." Tears openly streamed down his face. "I haven't summoned you in three years because I couldn't bear to tell you. You two were always fighting, but he cared for all of you, and I know you did as well. I just…"

"Naruto-san" Gamabunta rumbled, "we know what happened. The scroll was never passed on, and so returns to us. Here," Jiraya's giant scroll appeared in the frog's webbed hand, "He would have wanted you to have this. Take good care of it. It is not your fault he died Naruto, you have to move on from this. It will always hurt, just as it hurts me still. And will again when you leave. He is part of a bigger thing now and will always be with you as long as you remember him."

Naruto sighed and looked up a bit, "That is what Kakashi and Sakura said too, it's just not right, its not fair. Why couldn't I save him?"

"You did, in a way. You saved Konoha, you saved its people from Orochimaru's threat. You did what a Hokage and a Sannin couldn't. Both Sarutobi and Jiraya are proud of you boy. I am too. I have hated that snake bastard as long as anyone. You sure you got him, he isn't coming back. Naruto nodded.

"He was in pieces. Trapped him between 2 rasengens I think. I don't remember much of it, its all a haze. I was just so hurt, Jiraya was near dead and that bastard, that bastard was laughing!" Naruto began to cry, sobs wracking his body. He cried long into the night until he passed out.

Naruto awoke in the morning feeling better. Sort of like he had been hollowed out and cleaned with a scouring pad, he didn't feel good, but better. He was ready to move on, he was finally ready to lead this team. He was prepared.