Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The fight was not going well for the Konoha shinobi. With Jiraiya still weak from Tsunade's drug, Tsunade herself frightened to immobility by the sight of the blood in the area and Shizune also out of commission there was only one person between Tsunade and Kabuto, Naruto. The problem was he too was no injured, Kabuto just used his chakra scalpel to injure Naruto's leg when he tried to hit the glasses wearing Oto-nin with the incomplete Rasengan. With great effort Naruto stood up and glared at his enemy. Kabuto found this amusing and decided to taunt Naruto a bit.

Kabuto pulled out one of his Nin-Info cards and showed it Naruto. "Naruto," he said. "Isn't this a picture of you from around the time of the test?" Naruto gave no reply except a questioning look. "You're nothing special, Naruto." Kabuto was looking at the picture with Naruto's information. "You should run, if you can still move. It was luck that you became a Gennin, but with that exceptional spirit it would fitting for you to become Hokage," Kabuto paused and gave Naruto a condescending look. "But for that you cannot be cowardly." Naruto looked surprised and Kabuto smirked knowing he was getting to the Gennin. "Now, do you think that you could possibly become something like that?"

Tsunade being so close could hear everyone of Kabuto's statements. It was reminding her of the argument she and Naruto had just a week prior with her ridiculing Naruto and saying his dream was foolish. She could not help but feel sorrow as she compared herself to the person trying to kill the one protecting her.

Kabuto's condescending smirk vanished however when Naruto's face became one of absolute determination. "You say I'm nothing special and yet you don't know a damn thing about me!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What's with those eyes?" Kabuto taunted. "They'll get you killed. If you die here you'll never attain your dreams or anything else."

"I won't run away. I'll become Hokage," Naruto said.

"Then die," Kabuto replied as he charged the injured Gennin preparing a fatal blow. To his surprise Naruto stood his ground even with the bad leg. To Kabuto's further surprise Naruto began to made hand seals. This surprised him because all his information about Naruto said he could only do two jutsus, Kage Bushin no Jutsu and Kyuchiose no Jutsu, and the seals Naruto was doing were longer than either Ninjutsu.

When Naruto was finished he called out, "Mokudon: Koeda Shibaru no Jutstu! (Wood Element: Branch Bind Skill)." To the amazement of everyone watching the battle several tree branches suddenly sprouted from the ground and encircled Kabuto stopping him mid- stride.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Kabuto shouted, sharing the thoughts of everyone there completely stunned, non more so the Tsunade, by this development.

"hey Tsunade-obachan," Naruto said forming another hand seal, this one much more familiar to everyone watching. "You remember the arrangements of the bet," Tsunade did not answer still too stunned by Naruto's jutsu. "Now you'll have to give me that back luck charm amulet of yours, Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" a single clone appeared to Naruto's right.

"One Kage Bushin?" Tsunade thought. "What's he doing? And how did he…?"

Her thoughts were cut off when the Kage Bushin started to help Naruto form the Rasengan. It provided a second and third hand that balanced as well as put pressure on the swirling chakra in his right hand. When the ball of chakra was fully stabilized the Kage Bushin vanished into a cloud of smoke just as Naruto dashed straight towards Kabuto, "Let's see you avoid this one! Rasengan!" Kabuto showed fear for the first time as Naruto plunged the chakra ball into his gut.

The result of the attack was a sudden burst of spinning air pressure that ripped apart the wood bindings holding Kabuto in place as well as catapulting Kabuto backwards. For nearly ten meters he flew with the ground being torn apart by the trailing vortex of wind. What finally stopped him was a large boulder that crumbled because of the impact.

To Naruto's shock however Kabuto was still standing at the end, "Those were impressive jutsus." The wound of Kabuto's stomach started to shrink right before Naruto and Tsunade's eyes, "If I hadn't started to heal the damage at the point of impact I would have been done for." The wound all but disappeared as Naruto dropped to his knees do to chakra exhaustion, "They seemed to have tired you out." Kabuto took a step forward to finish Naruto off but suddenly double over in pain, "What is this?" his mind screamed as the second part of the Rasengan's effects occurred, the delayed damage from air pressure that resulted after the initial hit of the Rasengan.

Orochimaru after seeing the jutsus Naruto displayed came to a decision. "Those jutsus," the Snake Sennin thought. "He could become a threat to my future plans. I must kill him now while I have the chance! I'll find out how he has the Shodaime's power afterwards." With his decision made Orochimaru jumped away from the still distracted Jiraiya calling on his sword Kusanagi (Grass Cutter).

Naruto saw the attack but was too tired to move out of the way. In fact he was too tired to even stay awake, but just as the sword reached him Naruto saw Tsunade step in front of him saving his life. He blacked out soon afterwards faintly hearing, "Because I'm the Godaime Hokage."

When Naruto woke up the first thing he noticed was that his location was inside a hotel room. The next thing he discovered was that it was dark out meaning he had been out for several hours at least. "What happened?" he asked quietly. The battle he recently fought came back to his mind, "Oh yeah! The fight with Orochimaru and Kabuto. Since I'm alive I guess we won."

Naruto's ears then caught noises outside his room and he strained to listen in. "Alright Jiraiya!" he heard Tsunade say loudly, "You have a lot of explaining to do!"

"You think I know how he managed that jutsu?" Jiraiya replied. "I haven't go a clue, he never used anything like that before. At least not in the few months I've known him!"

"You expect me to believe that?" Tsunade asked.

There was a dead silence afterwards and Naruto could imagine the two Sennins glaring at one another in anger. The silence was broken by a muffled third voice. A few seconds later the door opened and the three that were speaking in the other room entered. When they saw Naruto was awake they gave him a piercing look. It was not one of anger or malice but one of curiosity, like they were trying to probe deep into his being to try and figure him out. Naruto knew why, it was because of the power he displaced in the fight. A moment later Tsunade's face softened as she approached Naruto's bed. "I'm glad to see you're awake," she greeted as she reached for her necklace, "Here this belongs to you."

Naruto gave his fox-like grin and took the necklace and put it over his head, "Thanks Obachan."

Tsunade smiled for a moment but it became serious very quickly, "Naruto about the jutsu you used to bind Kabuto…" she trailed off when Naruto looked away. It was clear that he did not want to say, but this was as issue that they absolutely needed to know.

"We need to know Naruto," Jiraiya said beating Tsunade to it.

"I was first able to call on when I was five," Naruto began…

A young Naruto was alone in the woods trying to call on chakra like the Sensei at the Academy said. It was one of the first lessons they taught and Naruto, like everything else, was forced to practice alone. He was having great difficulty in the exercise even more so then others for some reason. The only consolation was that he was not the only one having trouble calling on his chakra as it was difficult to begin with for children so young. But Naruto had seen others do it and they got high praise for it, and Naruto would do anything for praise. As he continued to try and draw out chakra he began to notice something about the small trees around him, they seemed to be growing as he concentrated.

He stopped trying to call his chakra and the young trees stopped growing. He called on his chakra again and the trees grew a little bit. He was confused and repeated the process several times and his five year old mind could only come up with one conclusion, "This is weird." A chuckle from behind Naruto told him he was not alone. When Naruto spun around hoping it was not more people that looked at him with hate he saw it was the closest person he had to family, "Ojiisan?"

"Yes Naruto," the Hokage said. "And what you're doing isn't weird just a little unexpected."

"Did I do something wrong?" the five year old asked innocently. He was always getting yelled at for doing something wrong he did not know about.

"No, come with me I need to tell you some things," the Sandaime said…

"We talked in his office and he told me it was something I got from my mother," Naruto said. "He told me to keep it a secret because people would want to hurt me because of it. Never told me why, though I figured it was why people hated me, so I agreed." He gave a sad smile at the memory because it brought up the fresh scars of the old Hokage's recent death. "Four years later in History Class I learned about the Shodaime's ability to control wood. I asked him about it and he said I had the same power and that people might try and kill me to get it. After that he let me read a couple of the Shodaime's scrolls and I learned some of his jutsus. I still kept it a secret to this day."

"Did Sarutobi-sensei tell you your mother's name?" Tsunade asked.

"Jiisan said her name was Doshaburi Minako," Naruto answered. "Said he had to change my family name to keep me safe."

When he was done the Sennin gave each other look saying they needed to talk some more away from Naruto, mostly to decided how to tell him the rest where the Sandaime left off. "Get some more rest Naruto," Tsunade instructed. "We'll be leaving early tomorrow to head back to Konoha."

"But I'm not tiered," Naruto tried to say but his yawn at the end indicated otherwise, much to the amusement of the others in the room. "Ok some I guess I am a little tired," Naruto relented. "Just don't let Ero-Sennin make us late when we leave tomorrow because he's to tired after getting slapped from girls all night."

"Don't call me that brat!" Jiraiya yelled. "And I never get slapped by girls, why in fact they flock to my side because of rugged good looks." He then took a thoughtful pose for a second before a perverted smirk appeared on his lips. "Although that can be kind of fu…"

Tsunade driving him into the floor boards with a downward punch to the head cut him off, "Danm pervert!" she scowled. She turned to Naruto who looked worried because he did not want to be hit by Tsunade knowing what she could do. When she arrived at his bed she lifted his Hitei-Ate and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, "Get some sleep Naruto." Naruto nodded with a smile on his face as Tsunade picked the Super Pervert up by the back of his shirt and dragged him to the door.

When the three elder shinobi were out of the room Naruto fingered the necklace happy that another person had acknowledged him. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered what he would have to do once the returned to Konoha, "Will I be able to tell everyone I can use the Mokudon jutsus or will I have to keep it a secret like before. I hope I can tell people because I'm sure Sakura-chan would go out with me then."

Once they were out the door Jiraiya miraculously straightened out just as Shizune joined them. "Doshaburi Minako that explains a lot," Jiraiya said. "One of two the people that survived Orochimaru's experiments in recreating Shodaime's ability to control the Bijuu's chakra."

"Because she never showed any of the abilities of the other one it was thought that even though she survived the experiment it was ultimately a failure," Tsunade continued.

"Apparently not as much as one as first thought," Jiraiya said.

"This also seems to confirm the theory that Shodaime's ability was carried on the Y-chromosome and so only his male descendants could use the power," Shizune joined in. "That also explains why Tsunade-sama was never able to use the same power. But I wonder why Nawaki…" she stopped herself after realized who she mentioned. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade waved the apology off because of more important matters at hand. "The question is why was Naruto able use the Mokudon so early in life? Even the Shodaime didn't start using it until he was well into his teens," Jiraiya stated.

"The Kyuubi maybe," Tsunade guessed. "But I can't confirm anything here. I will need to do a full examination of Naruto and seal when we get back."

"I wonder if Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in Naruto-kun because he thought me might be able to use Shodaime's power to affect the Bijuu's chakra?" Shizune asked.

"That is a possibility," Jiraiya answered. "Unfortunately we'll never know for sure." He became thoughtful for a moment recalling what happened when he first used the Kyuubi's chakra, "Now that I think about it that would explain his ability to use the Kyuubi's chakra without being overwhelmed by it. And now with the necklace he should have even more control."

"The Kyuubi's power combined with the Shodaime's," Tsunade said. "Looks like Naruto has become more of a target then you first thought Jiraiya. He'll need to be trained in how to fully use his abilities."

"Looks like I'll have some help in training him," Jiraiya stated. "And to think I first took him on just because I saw the potential for him to be just like me." He realized the error in his words when he saw Shizune frown at him and Tsunade start to crack her knuckles.

"Jiraiya," Tsunade said with clenched teeth, "You had better not try and turn him into a pervert!"

Jiraiya jumped back waiving his hands in placating gesture, "No, no, I wouldn't think anything of that. I was just saying he could be the next Kauru-Sennin is all!" the two kunoichi looked at one another then back at Jiraiya. Their gaze became harder clearly indicating that they did not believe him. Knowing that he would get a sever beating unless he changed the subject quickly Jiraiya said, "We should all turn in. The longer we're out in the open the greater the chance someone might come after Naruto. I doubt Orochimaru is willing to give up on targeting him."

Tsunade continued to glare at Jiraiya for another ten seconds before nodding in agreement. She knew he was just trying to change the subject to avoid pain but he did have a point. "Yeah we should get some sleep." Jiraiya let a breath of relief escape as Tsunade went into her room. Just before she entered the room she turned back to her old teammate, "Oh and Jiraiya don't let me catch trying to peep at any women or I'll remove what defines a man from your body."

Jiraiya visibly flinched at the threat, "There goes my recreation for the trip back." It was too bad Jiraiya said this out loud and that he forgot Shizune was still standing next to him. A smack to his face was good reminder however as Shizune stomped off to her room giving him a similar warring.

The next day Naruto, Shizune with Tonton, and Tsunade were waiting outside the hotel for Jiraiya. When they informed the front desk they were checking out and asked where their fourth member was the clerk told them that Jiraiya had left just after sun up. He made a comment that Jiraiya had an unusual grin on his face as he left following a pair of attractive ladies out of the hotel. It was easy to see what Jiraiya was doing while they were waiting. "So who should go get Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked.

"Don't bother brat I'm right here," Jiraiya came up to them. He had two slap marks on his face showing the result of another failed attempt to get a date.

"Serves you right Ero-Sennin," Naruto said pointing at the marks.

"Stop calling me that!" Jiraiya shouted. "Well anyway let's get going." He walked away quickly because of the killing intent radiating off of Tsunade. He did not want to test validity of Tsunade's threat from last night.

After they left the city Shizune decided to start up a conversation with Naruto about his newly revealed powers. "Naruto-kun?" she said drawing his attention to her. "You said that you looked at Shodaime's jutsu scrolls when you were younger. How many of Shodaime's jutsus do you know?"

"Only three," Naruto answered. "Mokudon: Koeda Kanazucki (Branch Hammer), Mokudon: Seicho (Growth) and you of course Mokudon: Koeda Shibaru."

"Those were only his most basic jutsus," Tsunade said. "Let me guess you can't do any others because of your problems with chakra control." Naruto nodded in confirmation, "Not surprising my Ojiisan's more advanced jutsus require pretty good control it ran in our family actually. In fact that's where I got mine natural control."

"If you want to learn those jutsus you're going to have to really work hard on your chakra control brat," Jiraiya said joining in. "Though it shouldn't be as much of a problem now."

"Why's that Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked, Jiraiya's eye twitched at Naruto using the nickname once again.

"The necklace is the reason," Tsunade answered. "One of the Shodaime's powers was the ability to affect a Bijuu's chakra. Combined with the special properties of that stone it can control wild nature of the Kyuubi's chakra. Of course you'll have to learn how to use the ability first to gain better control."

"Hey can I start now?" Naruto was excited with the prospect. He, like everyone in Konoha, knew the Shodaime's personal jutsus were very powerful. And if there was one thing Naruto enjoys as much as ramen it would be learning powerful jutsus.

"Sorry Naruto," Tsunade said. "No of know the right way to train in that. You'll have to learn from the scrolls when he get back." Naruto frowned in disappointed and started to pout about the unfairness of the world. This caused the women to giggle thinking it was cute and Jiraiya to smirk in amusement.

The rest of the journey past quickly and quietly, well as quietly as you could with Naruto in the group. And with in only a couple of days they were approaching Konoha once again. "Naruto," Tsunade spoke up suddenly. "For now do not show anyone that you can use Mokudon jutsus." Naruto frowned he was hopping to show Sakura and Sasuke, after Tsunade healed him that is, his hidden powers. "After everything gets settled we'll set up a training schedule so that you can learn more of the Shodaime's jutsus."

"Ok Tsunade-Obachan," Naruto replied causing Tsunade's eye to twitch. The trio of adults had learned on their journey that Naruto had a tendency to give the people he cared about nicknames on how he saw them forming a surrogate family; Shizune an older sister, Iruka the teacher, Tsunade an aunt, Jiraiya the perverted uncle that no one talks about, and so on. In a way it was rather endearing but in other ways it was rather irritating, Tsunade did like to be called old and Jiraiya did not like to be called a pervert in public because of the beatings women would give him. So they tolerated the nicknames even though they did not like them.

At Konoha Hospital a certain pink haired Gennin was paying her daily visit to her hospitalized crush. She had come to see Sasuke everyday since Gai-sensei brought him back. When she asked what happened Gai gave a brief explanation and assured her that Naruto and a new sensei of his were bringing back someone that could not only heal her teammates but also his student Lee. She was happy for the news that help would arrived but as the days turned into weeks she became depressed wondering how long it would take.

Just as she finished replacing her flower, and throwing Ino's away, she heard a commotion outside the door. When the door opened she was surprised to see the familiar orange clad Gennin dragging some woman through the door, "He's this way hurry up and heal him!"

"Naruto stop bothering that poor woman!" Sakura chastised.

Naruto turned to Sakura with a smile on his face, "Hey Sakura-chan you can stop worrying." He gestured to Tsunade, "She's a great doctor she'll fix him and Kakashi-sensei up in no time."

Tsunade walked over to the comatose Uchiha and placed a green glowing hand on his head. Turning to the perplexed Sakura she smiled, "He'll be alright now." She then

removed her hand and no sooner than she did then Sasuke's eyes opened.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried as she lunged at Sasuke embracing him in a powerful hug.

Naruto observed the interplay between his crush and hers with sad eyes. Quietly he stepped out of the room not wanting to get in the way. Tsunade watched Naruto as he left, "Looks like Naruto is more sensitive then I thought," she said silently.

Once she was out in the hall Naruto was back to his usual self and began dragging her to heal Kakashi. When they arrived Tsunade immediately revived the Son of the White Fang but not without saying, "Two people did this to you, some genius."

Naruto seeing his sensei recovered decided to leave and visit his team. As he left Tsunade spoke up, "And remember Naruto, don't tell anyone." Naruto stopped and gave a nod before leaving.

After his loudest student left Kakashi asked, "What was that about Tsunade-sama?"

"Some new developments about Naruto have come into light recently that you need to be aware of," Tsunade answered. Kakashi could only sit up in his seat in confusion wondering if anything bad happened to his student while he was out of the village.