Chapter 1: Beginning of a Legend

Hello! The Dark Dragon Emperor here with a new story for you to read! This time it's a Naruto one! Isn't this gonna be exciting?

Okay, before we get started with this, let me tell you how I came up with this. I read a lot of Naruto fanfics, and I've seen ones where he gets the abilities of Akatsuki members. Like the Sharingan, Samehada, a connection to Jashin, but only ONE about him getting the Jiongu.

Now let me tell you, I like Kakuzu, and I think that the Jiongu is awesome. So, why not make a fanfiction about Naruto getting it? And give him the abilities we've seen Kakuzu use while he was fighting. Plus, I'll be making up a couple of abilities as we go, just to give it a little bit more...uniqueness.

Also, this is going to be a small harem of three people, Naruto, Hinata, and Fuu. Why you ask? Because, NaruHina is my NUMBER ONE FAVORITE PAIRING. And I like Fuu, she's my number two favorite Naruto female, and 7's always been my lucky number. And we don't have enough fanfictions where Fuu is in a pairing with Naruto.

I won't be putting the Japanese names for all of the jutsu performed, because I don't feel like typing in a language I won't understand. I will put the Japanese names for stuff like Shinra Tensei, Edo Tensei, Kuchiyose, and some others, but not everything.

There will be a lot of bashings in this story. Mostly to characters who I don't like to much.

Now that that's done, on with the show!

(Konoha-Sandaime's Office)

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a tired man. He had retaken the position of Hokage only a year ago, after his successor, now predecessor, Minato Namikaze, died after the disaster that was the Kyuubi attack. Hiruzen sighed as he gazed at the picture of the blonde man. Why did he die when he had so much to live for?

He remembered the night clearly, he was sitting in his office writing in his journal while his wife, Biwako, Minato, and his wife Kushina, were in a secret location so Kushina could give birth. Kushina was a Jinchuuriki, a container of one of the Nine Bijuu, of the Kyuubi. And when a female Jinchuuriki goes into labor, the energy holding their seal together weakens and the Bijuu has a chance to go free. Minato, being the expert seal master that he is, was in charge of holding the seal together while Kushina was giving birth, everything was set up perfectly.

However, something happened and the Kyuubi was freed. And it severly damaged the Village, and killed countless civilians and shinobi alike. Minato was able to take the Bijuu out of the village, and seal it away, inside his own son no less. Hiruzen was forced to witness the sealing as Minato put up a barrier around him, Kushina, Kyuubi, and their son, Naruto.

The Sandaime was confused as to why Minato felt that he had to do the sealing. He knew how to perform the Reaper Death Seal, all Minato would have to do would be putting the Eight Trigrams Seal, and he would be able to live with his family. But then again, he never did tell anyone that he could do the Reaper Death Seal now that he thinks about it.

When the barrier was lifted, Minato was already dead, the Reaper Death Seal, which summoned the Shinigami, had taken his soul as payment for the sealing, but Kushina was still hanging onto what little life remained within her. The Kyuubi had pierced both her and Minato when it attempted to strike Naruto and prevent itself from being sealed. Both parents had sacrificed themselves to protect their child. Kushina was able to tell Hiruzen Naruto's name, and that both she and Minato wanted him to protect their child. Both of them were dead with a smile on their faces.

Hiruzen knew that Jinchuuriki were treated harshly, but because Kushina's status as one was kept a tight secret, he didn't know HOW harshly.

The meeting that followed changed everything, for both him and Naruto.

(Flashback-Council Chambers-One Year Ago)

"THERE WILL BE ORDER IN THIS ROOM!" Hiruzen yelled as the chaotic sounds threatened to make everyone deaf. Especially from the civilian side.

Everyone was silent at the Sandaime's voice, not to mention the annoyed glare he was sending to people he KNEW would cause problems. A baby Naruto was in his arms as he, somehow, slept through the noise that was the council.

"Sandaime-sama! How can you expect us to be calm at a time like this?! We've only just survived a crisis!" a civilian member pointed out.

"I understand that you are all still nervous," Hiruzen said. "However, we will not be acting like children who were just let out for recess!"

"Where is Minato-sama?" Hiashi Hyuuga asked, pointing out the absence of their Yondaime. Everyone else had noticed this as well and began asking where he was.

Hiruzen let out a deep sigh and began, "Minato...has died sealing the Kyuubi."

"Sealing it where?" Shikaku Nara asked.

Hiruzen knew he was going to regret this, "Inside this little boy."

Almost immediately, the entire civilian side of the souncil erupted into chaos.

"It's the demon!"

"Kill it now before it's too late!"

"The Yondaime turned it into a baby so we could have our revenge!"

"SILENCE!" Hiruzen yelled, using chakra to make his voice louder than necessary. The civilians quieted down, but sent intense glares towards the baby. Naruto was able to feel the glares and shifted uncomfortably in Hiruzen's arms, his face twitching with fear. Seeing this, Hiruzen slowly rocked his arms in an attempt to soothe the baby. Naruto stopped squirming, but was still looking afraid. Hiruzen called over an ANBU with a Horse mask, and handed Naruto to him.

"This boy is Minato's legacy, he sealed the Kyuubi inside him so that he could use its power to defend Konoha. He is NOT the demon," Hiruzen said with a glare. Hiashi noticed something familiar about the boy, especially his blue eyes, and made a note to talk to the Sandaime later.

"Effective immediately, I shall be reinstated as the Hokage, and everything that has been said in this room about the Kyuubi is to be an S-Rank secret punishable by death," the Sandaime declared with a heated glare.

"DIE KYUUBI!" While everyone had their attention on the Sandiame's declaration, nobody noticed a civilian council member sneaking behind Horse and knocked him over, grabbed Naruto, and used the knife he had on him to attack Naruto. However, because of his shaking nerves, he cut Naruto from his right shoulder down to his hip, slicing the boy into two pieces.

Hiruzen was instantly upon the boy, using what little healing knowledge he had to try and help him. Uma had his kunai piercing the councilman's throat, killing him instantly. All while Naruto was crying loudly from the pain and from the red aura that was surrounding him. Instantly, the civilians began to panic.

"The demon's going to kill us all!"

"Finish it now you old fool!"

The Sandaime began barking orders, "Bird get everyone out of here, Hiashi, Shikaku, Choza, and Inoichi stay! Rabbit, get me an available medic nin! Horse, make sure that we have no more attacks! GO!"

All three ANBU jumped into action. Bird shoved all of the uncooperative civilians out of the door while the clan heads went silently. Some of the civilians had to be threatened with the ANBU's tanto. Rabbit had jumped out of the window and raced towards the hospital, hoping that there was a medic available.

Meanwhile, Hiruzen was desperately trying to slow down the bleeding with the Mystic Palm Jutsu. While he was able to use it to a decent degree, he was only able to slow down the bleeding to a small amount.

"What can we do?" Choza Akimichi asked.

"Unless any of us knows a healing jutsu that is more powerful than what the Hokage's using, then there's nothing that can be done," Hiashi said.

"This is extremely troublesome," Shikaku said as he stood wide awake

"I'm afraid that you're right," Inoichi Yamanaka sighed as he looked away from the crying baby.

(Inside the Seal)

The Kyuubi was growling in frustration as it pushed its chakra through the seal into his container's body. His nine tails were waving around in a frenzied manner, showing his hidden nervousness.

"Human stupidity will never cease to amaze me," Kyuubi growled as one of its tails began to slowly shrink.

"That Hokage of theirs better come up with something soon, I don't know how long I will be able to do this," he muttered as he continued to push chakra through the cage.

(Council Chamber)

"Hokage-sama," Rabbit said as he appeared back into the room. "There is no available medic, they are all treating victims of the Kyuubi attack."

The Hokage cursed as he continued working while sweat began to gather on his brow. He had used too much chakra during the attack and was starting to feel the strain.

"Horse, carry Naruto while I continue to heal him, everyone, come with us into my office. Rabbit, head back out into the village and try to find anymore survivors," the Hokage said while Horse carefully picked up the wailing boy. Rabbit bowed and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"And...please pick up his arm," he added. Inoichi decided to pick up the dismembered appendage since he's seen worse things in the minds of prisoners.

The party of seven slowly made their way to the Hokage's office. Choza opened the door and everyone entered.

"Hiashi, can you take over the healing while I get what may be able to save him? Horse, I want you to stand guard and make sure that NOBODY interupts us. I don't care if it's the Rikudou Sennin himself. Nobody enters." Hiruzen asked. Hiashi nodded and activated his Byakugan while using the healing jutsu his wife had taught him. While Horse handed the crying Naruto to Choza before he exited the room.

"Let's be thankful that Hitomi taught you a couple of her healing jutsu's," Shikaku said as he watched the healing. Hiashi just nodded as he kept concentrating.

Hiruzen walked towards the picture of the Shodaime, Hashirama Senju, and picked it off of the wall, revealing a small seal on the wall. He bit his thumb and made a few hand signs and smeared his blood on the wall. In a puff of smoke, came a medium sized scroll. He placed the scroll on his desk and began to unravel it, searching through the scroll desperately.

"Here it is!" Hiruzen shouted triumphantly while spreading more of the scroll out, revealing what appeared to be a sealing formula.

"What is it?" Shikaku asked as he looked at the scroll.

"The only thing that may be able to save Naruto," Hiruzen said. "Bring him over here."

Choza and Hiashi slowly walked over and placed Naruto on the desk, Inoichi placed his dismembered arm next to him.

"What I'm going to need of all of you is that you channel you chakra through Naruto when I activate this," Hiruzen said as he beckoned everyone around the boy. Hiashi was still healing him, but the injury was starting to get worse. The clan heads and the Hokage placed their hands around the boy and began molding their chakra.

'Please forgive me Minato, but if I don't do this, Naruto will die!' Hiruzen apologized in his thoughts.

The Sandaime then made several hand sighs before ending on dragon and shouting, "Kinjutsu: Jiongu Transfer!"

The scroll began to glow, and hundreds of black tendrils erupted from the seal before they lunged towards Naruto and began to burrow their way inside his body. Everyone began to feel a drain on their chakra and saw that the tendrils were touching their hands while absorbing the chakra at a fast pace. Eventually, Hiruzen dropped down to one knee as he ran out of chakra to give. Following him was Shikaku, Inoichi, and Hiashi. Choza was able to hang on for a little while longer before he had to pull back, his face covered in sweat.

Everyone was forced to watch as Naruto was enveloped in red chakra that the tendrils were also absorbing. They were slowly turning a crimson color as the chakra was absorbed.

(Inside the Seal)

Even the Kyuubi was feeling the drain on its chakra as the tendrils began to nestlein Naruto's body. All that he had left was two tails worth of chakra

"This...may be draining...but I can see the benefits that this will give the kit." Kyuubi noted as he observed the changes going through Naruto's body.

"It's done...but I'm going to have to sleep for a while because of this," The chakra beast mumbled as he laid his head on his paws and began to close his eyes.

Before he closed his eyes, he thought, 'I'm interested in seeing how this will play out in the future. I've got my eye on you kit." With that, the Kyuubi closed his eyes and entered a well deserved rest.

(Outside)

Everyone was taking deep breaths as they tried to recover some of their chakra. They looked and saw that the tendrils had stopped moving through the boys body, but several of them were still wiggling out of the space where he was dismembered. The tendrils shot out and grabbed his arm before pulling it towards him and stitching the arm back to his body. The arm began to move around as Naruto began to use it normally. He was still crying due to all that happened.

"What...was that?" Inoichi asked as he shakily got to his feet.

Hiruzen used his desk to get up and said, "A kinjutsu that the Shodaime stole from Taki after they tried to assassinate him."

"What does it do?" Shikaku asked as he observed the now sleeping blond.

"It turns the person using it into a host for thread-like tendrils and gives them a wide range of abilities," the Hokage explained.

"What kind of abilities?" Shikaku inquired.

The Sandaime took a deep breath before starting, "It will allow Naruto to absorb the hearts of his enemies and gain their elemental affinity, plus the knowledge of whatever jutsu they might know. I'll have to look though the scroll for any more information."

"As if he didn't have enough of a burden already," Choza sighed as he pitied Naruto. It wasn't even two hours after his birth and already his life was being turned upsidedown.

"There is a question I have for you, Hokage-sama," Hiashi started.

"Yes? What is it Hiashi?" Hiruzen asked.

"Is this boy Minato and Kushina's child?" Hiashi asked. Hiruzen's eye's widened along with Choza's and Inoichi's. Shikaku just closed his eyes and muttered 'Troublesome' under his breath. The Sandaime reached under his desk and activated the Privacy Seals that closed off the room from anyone outside.

"How did you figure that out?" Hiruzen asked.

"Two things stood out to me," Hiashi began, "One, I noticed that Naruto had very distinctive blond color in his hair, and that his blue eyes were almost exactly like Minato's. And two, I knew Minato since he was my teammate, he would never ask anyone to give up their child if he was unable to give up his own."

Hiruzen sighed as he closed his eyes, "Yes, Kushina told me that this was their son, just moments before she moved on. She asked me to protect him to the best of my ability. However, I can't do too much without making it look like favoritism."

"He could enter one of our clans, after all, we were all friends with Minato and we would want to make sure that his son would be taken care of," Choza suggested.

"Unfortunately, I can't allow that," the Sandaime said.

"Why not? Don't you want the best for Minato's son?" Inoichi asked.

The Sandaime sighed, feeling his age as the years began to weigh down on his body. "I can't allow it because if I were to give one clan a Jinchuuriki, it would cause a shift in power and create a civil war over who would own Naruto."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, even though we all want to help Naruto, we need to think about what would happen in the future," Shikaku stated.

"What about Kakashi? Shouldn't we tell him about who Naruto is?" Hiashi asked.

"No, think about it, he's already in a depression because he lost both his sensei and Kushina, if he tell him now, he'll fight tooth and nail just to claim ownership of him and practicly make him a target because all of the other villages will think that the Copy-Cat Ninja is training an apprentice," Shikaku said.

"When will he be told?" Choza asked.

"After he gets out of his depression, he'll be able to handle the situation better when he has a clear head," the Sandaime said.

"What can we do to help Naruto then? I don't want him to have to go through life without someone to properly help him. You know that those civilians won't keep quiet with the knews that he's the Jinchuuriki," Inoichi said.

Hiruzen put his hand to his chin and said, "You three have children, correct?" The Ino-Shika-Cho Trio nodded, "And you're wife is expecting in two months right?" Hiashi nodded his head. "Then you can push your children to become his friends, Kami knows that he'll need plenty of close friends throughout his life." All men nodded in agreement.

"Now I believe it's time we return for the night. Hiashi, could you send Hitomi to me tomorrow? I would like a woman's opinion on how Naruto should be cared for since I'll be taking care of him until the orphanage is repaired," Hiruzen said.

"Would you like me to tell her about what happened tonight?" Hiashi asked.

The Sandiame shook his head and said, "I'll take on that task, you all need your rest if you want to lead your clans through this crisis. I trust that you all know not to speak about the events that happened in this office? The only reason I'm trusting you with this information is because you were all Minato's closest friends."

"No Hokage-sama," all four men said. The Hokage then lifted the Privacy Seals and dismissed the men before he wrapped Naruto in a cloth and held him in his arms, slowly rocking him to sleep.

(Flashback End)

The Sandaime shook his head to get out of his remembering. He looked at the time and saw that it was almost 2:00.

'Time to see how he's doing,' Hiruzen thought as he stood up. The date was October 10th, the Kyuubi Festival, or Naruto's birthday to those that cared. The Hokage left the Hokage Tower and walked towards the orpahnage that Naruto was placed in. He and the four clan heads were planning to spend the day with Naruto while he played with their children.

As Hiruzen walked into the orphanage, the caretaker immediately bowed to him.

"Hokage-sama! We weren't expecting you!" the woman said.

Hiruzen waved her off and said, "ITts fine, I was just stopping by to pick up someone. A Naruto Uzumaki?"

He didn't miss the flash of disgust that passed through the caretaker's face once his name was mentioned. She quickly put on a forced smile and lead the Hokage to a room where a small crib was. Inside the crib was a tiny baby with blond hair and blue eyes. Hiruzen noticed that he was unhealthily thin, and that there were faded bruises on his body.

"Why is he so thin? And covered in bruises?" The Hokage asked, already knowing that the woman would lie.

Hiruzen must have been a fortune teller, because the woman said, "He refuses to eat most of the food we give him, and the bruises are because he keeps bumbing into things when he crawls around."

"So you just let him crawl around unsupervised?" Hiruzen asked, raising an eyebrow to make it look like he was believing the tall-tale.

"Of course not, those are from when he gets out of his crib when he's supposed to be napping," the caretaker said as she believed that the Hokage believed her.

Hiruzen knew just how to do two things, make Naruto hapy and piss off the 'caretaker' that was clearly doing her job to care for ALL children.

"Well, it looks like you're a little genius, aren't you Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen said as he picked up Naruto. The small baby just looked at him with a small hint of fear on his face, something that didn't escape the aged Hokage's eyes.

"Well, we better get going, there are some people expecting us," Hiruzen said as he took Naruto in his arms and left the orphanage, leaving behind a fuming caretaker. She was hoping that the Hokage would get angry at the boy for the lies that she was telling him, but she didn't know that a shinobi was trained to detect lies. Only a trained shinobi could truly hide the truth from the lies.

The Hokage then performed a Shunshin and appeared at the Akimichi compound where Naruto was welcomed openly. He walked into a large, small in Akimichi standards, dining room where waiting for him was the Ino-Shika-Cho trio and their children, and Hiashi, Hitomi, and Hinata Hyuuga were also present. All of the children were in a small play area surrounded by a fence.

Like his father, Shikamaru Nara was sleeping in a pile of stuffed animals. Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka were playing with some building blocks, a small smile on their faces. Hinata was just sitting by herself while playing with a small stuffed fox and monkey.

Hiruzen walked over to the children and placed Naruto in the play area, where he just nervously crawled over to the pile of stuffed animals and timidly picked up a stuffed from before hugging it gently.

All of the adults watched as Naruto moved to a far corner and continued to hug the frog like it was a shield. Hiruzen saw how he would look at the other children with some fear in his eyes. Obviously there was more going on in the orphanage than he was aware of.

"I've failed all three of them," Hiruzen softly whispered.

"What are you talking about Hokage-sama?" Inoichi asked.

Hiruzen sighed and said, "It appears that Naruto has had poor treatment in the orphanage. When I picked him up, he was very thin and there were bruises that were slowly healing."

"How can you allow them to continue doing this to him?" Hitomi demanded with a glare.

Hiruzen cringed at the woman's glare and said, "I've had all the civilians who attempted to assassinate him executed, but I can't do anything to the people who work in the orphanage because it's controlled by the civilian council."

"All we can do is make sure that he gets the bonds that he needs," Choza said.

"Hey, look at this," Shikaku said, lazily pointing at the play area. All the adults looked and saw what was happening.

Hinata had crawled over to Naruto and held out the stuffed fox for him to play with. Naruto looked at the fox before gently taking it. He then held out the stuffed frog for her to take, but Hinata just shook her head and gave him a small smile. Naruto then gave a small smile of his own before he started to play with Hinata.

"Kawaii!" Hitomi softly squeeled at the cute sight.

Hiruzen chuckled and turned towards Hiashi before asking, "Weren't you and Minato planning on a betrothal between your children?"

"Yes, but we were planning on going over the details after Naruto's birth since he had no free time to spare before hand," Hiashi said.

"Me and Kushina-chan supported it!" Hitomi said.

"Did you think that they would like each other?" Inoichi asked.

"Think? We knew that they would! Mother's intuition after all!" Hitomi declared proudly.

Shikaku sighed and said, "Troublesome, women just seem to know almost everything about their children."

"Well they did give birth to them," Choza pointed out.

"Has there been any changes with his Jiongu?" Hiashi asked.

Hiruzen shook his head and said, "The stitching is still there, and some of the threads will wiggle out of his skin every once in a while, but there has been nothing else."

"Why doesn't the stitching go away?" Hitomi asked.

"It stays there because the Jiongu allows the user to extend their limbs where they are stitched together," Hiruzen explained.

"When do you plan on telling him about it? or the Kyuubi?" Inoichi asked.

"I think I'll tell him about Jiongu when he's either four or five. Of course, I'll have to come up with a cover story. He'll learn about the Fox and the real reason he got Jiongu when he's a Gennin," Hiruzen said.

"That seems like a good idea," Shikaku said. "Most clan children start training around that age so he'll be just like them. And he'll probably be mature enough to handle the knowledge that he's a Jinchuuriki when he's a Gennin. But, what if someone tells him about the Kyuubi beforehand?"

"We'll cross that bridge if it comes to that," Choza said.

"Choza's right, we shouldn't worry about that right now. We should be celebrating Naruto's birthday," Hiruzen said.

"You know, speaking of telling people things, what are we going to do about Kakashi?" Inoichi asked.

"He's still in depression. And it seems like he's taken a part of his lost team and made them as his own hobbies," Hitomi told him.

"Obito's chronic lateness and Sharingan," Choza said.

"Rin's concern for teammates," Shikaku said. "Though he's not as worrisome as she was."

"And Minato's love for Jiraiya's books, though he only reads the smut while Minato just read his adventure story," Hiruzen said. Inside he was crying, 'I can't believe I had to call his holy work smut!'

Inoichi sighed and muttered, "At this rate, he'll never know about Naruto's heritage."

"Not unless we stick Naruto next to a picture of his father," Hitomi said.

"I believe it's time we bring out the food," Choza said as he clapped his hands. Several servants came out with dishes in their hands. They set the table for all of the adults and children. All of the adults picked up their children from the play area and placed them next to them. Naruto was sitting next to Hiruzen and stared at the food hungrily.

"I was right," Hiruzen muttered as he saw how hungry Naruto was.

GRRRRRR

"Choza!" Inoichi scolded.

"It wasn't me!" the Akimichi Head protested. Hitomi began to giggle behind her hand while Hiashi was fighting a smirk that was forming on his face.

"Something you'd like to share Hitomi?" Shikaku asked.

"That was Hinata's stomach!" Hitomi laughed. A few moments later, everyone was laughing at that little piece of information, though Hiashi was just chuckling.

"Now that I think about it," Inoichi began, "it's a good thing Minato was your teammate Hiashi."

"How so?" the Hyuuga Head asked.

"Back when we were in the Academy, you were as cold as your father was. When you trained with Minato, you began to open up more, not to mention you were starting to smile instead of just giving everyone either a cold glare or a arrogant smirk," Inoichi explained.

Hiashi sighed and said,"I still have to act like a cold bastard with a stick up my...arse around the Hyuuga Elders so they think I'm still 'the Hyuuga image of perfection' instead of how I am now."

"You must be an amazing actor then," Hiruzen said.

"Well Jiraiya-sensei did make me the inside man when we would perform an infiltration mission," Hiashi explained.

"Minato-kun WAS a horrible actor," Hitomi remarked. Everyone noded in agreement. Hiruzen looked down at his plate and saw that Naruto was practically inhaling whatever food he could reach.

"Choza, I think there's someone who could eat more than an Akimichi," Hiruzen said. Choza looked over and saw that Naruto was eating at a fast pace.

"Oh Hell no! I'm not losing my title of biggest eater to a baby of all things!" With that, Choza began to eat whatever food he could grab. Hitomi had to smack his hand away when he tried to grab a portion of Hinata's.

After several minutes of watching the two, Naruto was eventually defeated by the round man. The small blond yawned before he fell asleep in his chair.

"Oh Kami, he's going to eat everyone out of house and home!" Hitomi cried.

"Please, just wait until he's introduced to ramen, then we can worry," Shikaku pointed out.

"It's a cursed Uzumaki gene to love ramen," Hiruzen said. "It also doesn't help that Minato was a ramen addict himself."

So throughout the night, all of the adults talked about Minato and how they expected Naruto tobe just like him. Inoichi pointed out that the Uzumaki personality would always be the dominant thing in his life, making them shiver at the pranks he would perform in the future. They just hoped that they wouldn't be targets of any of them, though Hiashi said he wouldn't mind if he targeted the Hyuuga Elders for any of them. Later into the evening, Hiruzen received a message from a small green frog with violet markings.

"Ah, news from Jiraiya," Hiruzen announced. "He said that he's convinced Tsunade to come back to Konoha. But it willl take them about seven months because they are on the far side of Yuki and the boats are in need of repairs."

"Tsunade-sensei is coming back?" Hitomi asked, surprised.

"How did you convince her?" Shikaku asked.

"I had Jiraiya tell her about Naruto, and I decided to allow her idea of there being a medic nin on each team with her running the training program," Hiruzen said.

"When did you send Jiraiya after her?" Choza asked.

"It was a month after Naruto was born, he had heard about the attack and raced all the way here from Iwa. He made it here in two days."

"But it takes at least two months to get from Iwa to Konoha!" Inoichi yelled.

"Gamabunta," was all that Hiruzen said. Everyone nodded in understanding. They knew that the Toad Boss could cover great distances easily, especially if motivated with sake.

Later into the night, all the children had fallen asleep, so the adults bid each other goodbye and left to their respective homes. Hiruzen dropped Naruto off back in the orphanage and signaled his personal ANBU guard.

"Hokage-sama," Cat and Tiger knelt down before their leader.

"Make sure that nothing happens to Naruto tonight, if anyone comes after him, bring him directly to me," Hiruzen commanded.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," both ANBU said before they jumped back into the shadows.

Hiruzen let out a sigh as he adjusted The Hat and began walking to the Sarutobi compound. His thoughts directed towards the future.

Whew! That was a little tough to write! I had to look up a lot to make sure that I got several facts right! Though, I did make a few interesting changes.

Since nobody knows who Minato's teammates were, I just changed a few things around and made Hiashi one of them.

I thought long and hard about how the Sandaime would give Naruto the Jiongu. I had a solid reason to do so, the only thing I had to wrack my brain for was Kinjutsu: Jiongu Transfer. I think that I was able to give it to Naruto in a believable way.

Next chapter is going to feature Naruto when he's four years old, he'll get his first heart for the Jiongu, besides his own, and Hiruzen will be forced to tell him the reson why he has Jiongu. Of course, it'll be the cover story.

Please Review! Ciao!