A/N: Sorry for yet another late update, but it is going to continue happening with this story as I have so many others. But on the bright side the chapter sizes are at least decently long, though I wish they were longer….

As for telling Sarutobi and Jiraiya the truth last chapter, I had written myself into a corner and all other outcomes would have been worse for my story development. I didn't want to, it just happened. Also, I plan to go back on that and delete some of what I written so they won't know as much.

And those waiting for the reason why Tsunade was evil in the beginning, you will have to wait as it will be a while before it's finally explained as I don't want to ruin what I have planned. Same for Sakura.

I Do Not Own Naruto

"You lied to me Tenshi." Arashi stated as he looked towards the battered and chained form of Tenshi before he slammed his fist into his gut.

Tenshi said nothing as he felt another stabbing pain in this stomach. He didn't even have to catch his breath as he was quite use to blows like this. It was a part of his training to become tougher then anyone else for what he contained.

"Speak dammit! Why did you lie about Keisha being kidnapped by those black cloaked fools with Konoha is obviously to blame?" Arashi yelled as he drove his fist into Tenshi's gut once more.

Once more, there was nothing but silence as Tenshi absorbed the pain. He could here Shichibi within his mind to hold on as help was on the way. It didn't make him feel better that the demon had called for help, but at the moment he really didn't care. He had no allegiance to the man in front of him. Not after this.

Seeing that he was ready to punch him once more, he began to gather what chakra he had left when an explosion ripped through the wall, knocking Arashi back a few feet.

"Damn fools! Do you really think you could keep me trapped here, yeah? I'm an S-rank missing ninja for a reason you dumb fools. BOOM!"

As debris scattered through the room once more and Arashi rushed towards the maniac bomber, Tenshi took his opportunity and broke the chains keeping him bound with a burst of Shichibi's chakra.

Not having much strength left, Tenshi used a shunshin and teleported away as far as he could, just to get away from this land.

Sasuke was relieved that the medics had finally deemed him okay enough to go visit his brother. He didn't know exactly what they were worried about as he wasn't physically hurt. But that didn't stop them from doing tests on him, using this weird scan on his head and asking questions about how he felt and if he was okay. Sure, he was physically okay, but his heart was hurting.

It was the most painful sensation he had ever felt, more painful then the time when he tried to follow his brother jumping through the trees but fell and broke his leg. It felt like something had gripped his heart and begun to rip and tear at it all the while stabbing it over and over again. The more he thought of his mother lying coldly in his arms as his father stood over both of them the more intense the sensation grasping his heart became.

His blood began to boil as his eyes flashed red for a brief second as his Sharingan momentarily activated itself before it faded back to their normal onyx. His father had killed their mother and had tried to take his and his brother's lives as well.

Due to his growing rage and sorrow, he didn't notice Naruto walking over to him with Keisha trailing feeling slightly out of place.

Naruto sighed and shook his head as he noticed Sasuke and knew he was thinking of the events that had transpired two days ago. Hell, if he was him he would be doing the same as he knew from personal experience that what he had just witnessed was traumatizing and the effects had only just begun. But having a dark past himself and the knowledge of his eighteen years of life before hand, he would find a way to help the young Uchiha.

But first thing was first, he had to be himself to pull Sasuke out of his dark thoughts. "Oiy Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked somewhat startled as he came out of his thoughts and turned towards the owner of the voice to see Naruto. He was somewhat surprised to see him wearing different clothing then he normally was. He was definitely surprised not to see Naruto not wearing anything orange as he was only wearing a navy blue mesh shirt and light black shorts with some combat boots.

He noticed the girl behind him, but didn't pay much attention to her as he quickly covered up his surprise with a scowl. "What do you want dead last?"

Naruto easily shrugged off the insult as he knew that was technically true but wouldn't be the case for much longer. Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto walked besides Sasuke. "Well, I was here to see your brother Itachi as I've known him for a while."

Narrowing his eyes hearing this, Sasuke glared at Naruto not believing his story. Why would his brother know the worse student in his class? Not only this but he seemed to be acting like he knew him which was farther from the truth. "Get real dobe. My brother wouldn't care in the least for a loser like you."

Not liking Sasuke's tone, Naruto almost acted like he would have in the past and yelled at the young Uchiha. Catching himself before he exploded, he calmed his mind down before he tried to answer.

To his surprise, Keisha suddenly seeming more like her normal self walked in front of the two with an anger expression written on her face. "And just what is your problem? Naruto only stop to say hello because you looked troubled. But if you are going to act like a royal ass and discredit whatever we say, we'll be on our way."

Sasuke was caught off guard by her outburst as he honestly wasn't expecting it. Hell, it was the first time he had a girl of his or close to his age that just straight out told him off.

For some reason he found that reason to pay more attention to her as he got a better look at what she was wearing. It was nothing like other girls her age would wear as it just a plain white t-shirt with a pair of creamy white, long sleeve shorts and finally a pair of white tennis shoes. In all it matched well with the girl's snow white hair and hazel eyes.

Suddenly blonde blocked his vision of her as Naruto stood in front of her and growled loudly enough for Sasuke to catch. Realizing that he was staring, Sasuke blushed in embarrassment before calming himself down and looking at Naruto. "Sorry, I'm just… still adjusting to everything now."

Not expecting Sasuke to apologize, both Keisha and Naruto were taken back. While it was a nice change in pace, it was completely unexpected as in both of their memories of the brooding Uchiha he had never apologized once even if he was wrong.

Shaking that thought off, Naruto nodded lightly as Keisha moved out from behind him once more. "It's okay, but we better hurry. Visiting hours for non-family or friends ends at five."

Sasuke realizing the time was quite surprised at this as he hadn't eaten anything all day, so nodding lightly he motioned for them to lead he way. He would have led them himself, but he wasn't quite sure which room his brother was in. The directions they gave him were confusing.

Honestly, he didn't know hallways were given names like Jounin's Hall or Gennin Mishaps.

One hundred forty-two thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight dots.

That was how many little dots on the tiles on the ceiling of the hospital in this particular room there were. For one to count all of them was either unable to move or extremely bored.

And for one Uchiha Itachi, it unfortunately had to be both. Well, he could move, but it hurt way too much to try.

Unfortunately his very own wakizashi had struck his spine causing massive damage that the medics had an extremely difficult time to cure. If it wasn't for the fact that the blade had barely grazed his spine they wouldn't have been able to do anything at all. For that he was grateful, but at the same time he knew had been weakened drastically. Due to the fact that it was his spine that was injured, his nervous system had taken damage as well.

The medics had informed him that his body would respond slower as his body wouldn't receive his brains alerts as fast. Now this would hamper him, but he was already working on how to overcome this. A small part of him wished Tsunade was there to heal him, but after his visit in Naruto's mind he wasn't too sure that he could contain himself around her.

Shaking that thought off, he returned to what he was dwelling on. He knew he would no longer be in the top five strongest within the village as his physical ability would take a dive after this. Sure his chakra reserves would still be the same, but his taijutsu and ninjutsu to some extant had been affected.

He knew he would overcome his physical disability or turn it to his advantage, but it was still a blow to his self esteem that it would take him longer to achieve his goal in becoming the first Kage level shinobi for the Uchiha clan since the formation of Konoha.

The only bright side was that he didn't have to worry about the pressure his tou-san put on him. Itachi subconsciously activated his Sharingan as he thought of his traitorous father.

He had killed their mother, his very own wife in cold blood just to gain the final form of his Sharingan. He not only killed her but he had full intention of killing both Sasuke and himself just for more power. And not only that, he had convinced the one he thought to be his best friend to help him kill of their entire clan just to prove they were strong enough to do so.

Or was it something more that that? Could there have been something they were trying to achieve by murdering the entire clan? If so what could they benefit from it?

As he was lost in thought and as his Sharingan morphed into the Mangekyou, he failed to notice as the door opened to reveal his younger sibling along with a certain blonde and snowy haired girl.

The blonde noticed the changed eyes along with the far away look instantly and made his presence known to knock the elder Uchiha out of his thoughts. "Hey Itachi-sensei!"

Just as he planned, Itachi's eyes instantly faded into their normal onyx as he attempted to snap his head in the voices direction. He would have if his entire body wasn't in pain. But since it was he cursed out loud, teaching Sasuke a new word or two, as a jolt of pain surged through his spinal column.

"SHIT! God Dammit Naruto! Do NOT do that again, especially to people in a hospital bed again!" Internally, he was glad that the boy had the presence of mind to bring back to earth as he knew his Mangekyou activated. However, he was still a little pissed that he was in pain once more and wanted to reached out and strangle the boy because of that.

Of course Naruto got a slap in the back of the head by both Keisha and Sasuke for that making him glare at the two.

Rubbing his head gingerly as their slaps had stung a little; he nodded at Itachi's statement before bowing lightly in apology. "Sorry sensei, but you kind of were…" He didn't finish the end of his sentence knowing better then to do so as it would make him seem a little too knowledgeable.

Keisha catching on felt a little sheepish as Itachi grunted in acknowledgment.

Sasuke on the other hand was confused as his brother had verbally confirmed whatever Naruto had left off on. Not only that, his brother was responding to Naruto calling him sensei and didn't reprimand him for doing so like he had done for so many other kids and even some gennin that asked him for help. Narrowing his eyes at this, he would confront his brother or Naruto about this later; more then likely both as he would want the full story from both ends.

Putting that aside for now, Sasuke walked besides his brother before giving Keisha a quick glance. Of course all in the room noticed it, including Naruto who was refraining from growling as Keisha rubbed his back gently, refraining from laughing at the poor blonde who was getting a little too over protective.

Itachi could only mentally shake his head at his brother. He finally was taking interest in a girl and it had to be one that he had no shot in hell at getting. Sighing, the elder Uchiha spoke in his normal bored voice. "Naruto, why exactly are you here?"

"Hey, I can't come and see how you are doing sensei and drop by to say hi?" Naruto said in an all too innocent voice making Keisha shake her head at the idiot she called a boyfriend.

Even though he couldn't glare at him, Itachi did his best to make sure Naruto got the feeling he was doing exactly that. Feeling him shrink back a tad gave the Uchiha some satisfaction as it got the exact reaction he wanted out of him. Feeling somewhat better, Itachi spoke in an almost indifferent tone. "I know you better then that Uzumaki. You came here for something, now what is it?"

Naruto snapped his finger at being found out so easily. He absently wondered why he was acting more like a kid with each second that past by, but figured it to be his mind adjusting to his young body. Plus he could once more start pranking people again and could get away with it, sometimes. Just as long as the old man Hokage wasn't the one to catch him.

Shaking that thought off as his more child like mind continue coming up with rather daring pranks, Naruto sighed as he pulled out a bundle of cash before tossing it to Sasuke as Itachi couldn't exactly catch it at the moment. "That the Hokage's payment for the last mission. He sent me to give it to you as I was on hand and it dealt with me anyways… Oh, and the old man said he was going to drop by here later to discuss something with you. He wouldn't give me the details, but I figure it something important."

As Sasuke pocketed the money, he narrowed his eyes while his brother grunted in response once more. What mission could his brother had been assigned to that dealt with the blonde haired dead last of their class? He did notice the blonde wasn't in class the last two days, but had just thought he was skipping class like he had done before. But then again Iruka always chased down the blonde during breaks in the class to drag the said boy to class, but he hadn't done so.

While he was thinking about what his brother's mission could have dealt with the blonde, he missed Itachi speaking in a slightly annoyed tone. "Seeing that it is only three in the afternoon and the academy doesn't let out till four, shouldn't you be going now?"

Of course he knew that the academy would have been closed today, but he kind of wanted Naruto out of the room. And sensing that his brother was trying to piece everything that happened together along with what he was doing with Naruto, he just wanted him to leave so he could handle him. But sensing that Naruto had other reasons for staying, probably to make sure he didn't go off the deep end like the version of him in Naruto's memories, he mentally sighed as Naruto answered him in a lax tone.

"They canceled school today because of what hap…" Naruto's words died at the end as he momentarily forgotten Sasuke was in the room.

The room went deafly quite as all attention fell upon Sasuke as a light killing intent surrounded him.

While it was nothing special as they all had dealt with much worse, it coming from Sasuke was a shock on its own. If anything from Naruto's recollection, Sasuke rarely showed emotions and very rarely ever got pissed, only frustrated. To Itachi, it was further shocking as Sasuke was nothing but kind if not a little depressed. Keisha didn't know Sasuke all that well as she was only around him for a short time, but during that time the Uchiha never seemed to lose his cool.

All of them were knocked back into reality by Sasuke's cold and menacing voice that was softer then a pin drop, but loud enough for all to hear. "Don't. Talk. About. That. Ever!"

Naruto couldn't help but shrink back slightly as Sasuke, even for his inexperience at controlling his killing intent, had focused it upon him and was hitting him with every ounce. Mentally he wasn't afraid, but his body seemed to be so he made a mental note to start training harder then before as it was getting on his nerves that he seemed to have little control over himself other then the normal functions.

Getting over that, Naruto regained control of himself and stood up straight as he looked over at Sasuke and nodded before turning to Itachi. "Alright sensei, I'll guess I'll talk to you at another time."

"Hn, see you Naruto, Keisha." Itachi responded, slightly glad that they were leaving so he could deal with everything that was going on.

Soon as they left, Sasuke began pacing frantically back in forth as he sputtered incoherent words that he struggled to understand. All he could get was an occasional word that seemed to deal either with Naruto being an idiot or something about the massacre. Itachi had half a mind to call for help as he wasn't in best condition to deal with this when he caught a few sentences that Sasuke had mumbling.

"Who does he think he is? Aniki doesn't need someone like him around. He's just a distracting loser."

Narrowing his eyes hearing this, Itachi turned his head to his brother, ignoring the extremely sharp pain in his neck that it caused. "Sasuke, don't ever say that about him again. He is more then you think. Without him, I would be dead as of right now. In fact we would all be dead without him."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he heard this and turned to his older brother as he silently cursed at himself for letting that last part out. While he meant for the first part about him not dying because of Naruto's actions, he didn't mean to let out the little slip that could end up helping Sasuke figure out what happened those nine years ago.

Quickly covering it up, Itachi decided to continue hoping that Sasuke wouldn't remember what he had said. "Otouto, Naruto is distracting but it was because of his distracting nature that saved my life. He was at the Uchiha district, coming to help you. Do you know why?"

As Sasuke shook his head not knowing why, Itachi couldn't help but let a small smirk grace his lips as what he was about the say was the truth. "It's because he thinks of you as a friend, otouto. And to him, every friend is precious enough that he would do all he could to protect them, even if it meant his life."

Sasuke was in shock. Naruto, the loser of his class, considered him a friend. While he knew the blonde had made attempts to talk to him on occasion, he just ignored him as he believed him to be trying to leech on his popularity.

But now knowing that he was trying to become his friend he felt a knot in his stomach for blowing him off all those times. And even still the blonde thought of him as a friend and even went to help him with almost certain death awaiting him. His face drooped as he looked down at his shoes, feeling a lot worse then before but it was almost physical like pain he was feeling before.

Watching his brother, Itachi's smirk turned into a smile as his brother looked somewhat sorrow for everything he had been saying and probably for ignoring Naruto in the past. Shaking that off, he continued watching his brother till his face finally settled on one face before speaking in a brotherly tone. "Now then, I think you owe him an apology."

Sasuke nodded and was about to head for the door when his brother chuckling stopped him. "Not right now otouto, later will be fine."

Itachi, being somewhat comfortable now as the pain died down a little so that he could move a little bit, watched as Sasuke nodded and walked over to the window and looked out of it. Remembering the blush on his face as he was looking at Keisha, Itachi grinned in a sadistic way, but for now decided to keep it to himself for ammunition later on down the road.

That was what he was going to do until he saw him blushing again and using the windows reflection to see what he was blushing about, the elder Uchiha grinned to himself as he couldn't help but embarrass his brother more. "So otouto, interested in girls are we?"

Sasuke light blush turned into a full blown one as he realized he had been caught looking at the girl once more. While he had to admit she was different from the other girls so naturally he was more curious about her, mainly because he wanted to figure out why she didn't act like the other girls did around him.

It didn't help that in his opinion that she looked better then the other girls in his class. Wanting to get his brother off his case, he turned to him and quickly shook his head, trying to cover up his blush. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Seeing that Sasuke's voice was much higher then normal, Itachi couldn't help but laugh at his little brother.

"Naruto?" Keisha's voice echoed through the clearing as she tried to find the blonde.

She knew he was training and he was here as the old Hokage had told her that it was his favorite place to be as it was secluded and others really didn't come there. She had to admit, with good reason why no one came there. It was in the middle of nowhere within the forest and the wildlife was plentiful. In fact, she was slightly worried as she had seen a few wolves and even a tiger along her way here.

Hearing a small explosion not too far away, Keisha jumped onto a nearby tree and bounded towards the direction she knew it came from. It was only a few leaps before she was at a clearing and the person she was looking for was in the center.

Naruto panted heavily as he wiped the scuff marks off his face. He was close to regaining it, but he was still a long ways off. Concentrating for a second, he placed his hand in a cross seal before a clone popped into existence. Extending out his left hand, his clone began moving his hands in an erratic sphere like shape as he concentrated his chakra to his palm.

A blue orb began to develop in his hand as his clone continued to erratically shift its hands, guiding the chakra around and around. Wisps of chakra gently swirled around in almost every direction but ever so slowly picking up speed and strength as it compressed towards the center until a dazzling blue orb of chakra was formed and the clone dispersed.

He knew this feeling very well. After many failed attempts, this was right. It was... perfect. He couldn't help but smile as he looked at the spinning orb of pure chakra. But now, there was one final test.

Shifting his stance, Naruto stared down the training log in the middle of the clearing. With a quick strike, for a nine year old striving to become a ninja, the blue orb met the wood and began to grind into sending pieces of bark flying across the clearing.

Keisha was astonished as she watched the orb tear into the log with ease. While she had seen the technique before, she never really comprehended the true power and force of the jutsu. She was sure that it was an A-rank on its own and could easily kill its opponent with a critical strike. But then her thoughts came to a stop as the log suddenly exploded into splinters cutting into the flesh on Naruto's arm.

Without hesitation, she jumped down from her perch and ran towards Naruto as he slumped to the ground, clenching his bleeding arm. As soon as she was at his side, she knelt down in front of him before she spoke in a panicked voice. "Naruto! Hold on and I'll get you to the hospital..."

"Keisha, stop." Naruto responded in a low but pained whisper. He knew she meant the best, but she was panicking and that was only going to lead to more problems.

She instantly became quite as she looked at Naruto with worried eyes as her heart was beating rapidly. She knew that he was in terrible pain, but why wouldn't he want to go... Her face fell as she knew why he didn't want to go there.

It wasn't just the fact that he didn't like hospitals, which was true, but because he wouldn't get proper treatment right away and when he did, he would be asked how it happened and if the medic ninja didn't like the answer, they could have the Anbu use their hypnosis technique and have Naruto tell them what happened.

Looking into Keisha's eyes, Naruto knew she understood why he couldn't go to the hospital like this. But another problem remained. He could not heal his arm properly without removing the splinters of wood that were lodged into his arm and some into his chest.

Knowing his options were limited, he bit his lip before turning to his white haired girlfriend. He wouldn't deny it, he was hurting and while it wasn't the greatest pain he had ever felt, this younger body wasn't use to taking pain like he was use to so it hurt a hell of a lot more. "Keisha, go get the Hokage and tell him I had a training accident that no one else can learn of. At the very least, he'll bring a medic in that won't ask how the hell I did this to my arm."

Understanding where Naruto was coming from and wanting to help him, Keisha nodded hurriedly. "Alright, I'll be right back."

"Thank you..." Naruto responded in a soft voice before he gently leaned into her and pecked her softly on the lips.

Keisha's heart fluttered from the gesture and momentarily forgot what he had asked her to do. For that brief moment, she wanted nothing more then to dive into him and mesh her lips against his. Even if they were only children in body, they were adults in spirit and they could not stop thinking like they were still in their elder bodies.

But reality snapped back into Keisha and she stood up, ready to rush towards the Hokage tower when a lone figure ruffled through the bush, growling loudly.

Both children slowly turned their heads towards the lone figure and both could only gulp as they looked down a lone grizzly, sniffing the air as a sweet smell had caught its nose. Its head lowered towards both of the young children as it bared its fangs as its eyes gazed upon Naruto's bleeding arm.

"Oh... FUCK!" Naruto yelled out to the world as the grizzly's attention was almost completely on him.

While he was satisfied that it was mostly ignoring Keisha, he was in no condition to fight a full grown grizzly. Hell, most gennin would be killed and eaten by a damn grizzly and as much as he hated to admit it, a gennin could probably beat him.

A small part of his mind told him to play dead and the bear would leave him alone, but the scent of a recent flesh wound would only entice the bear to stay there and attempt to eat his flesh until its stomach was filled. He could call upon Kyuubi, but the fox would not be able to give him much chakra to make much of a difference.

So there was only one option. They had to run.

Breathing deeply and ignoring the agonizing pain in his arm and the left side of his chest, Naruto turned his head towards Keisha ever so slightly while keeping his eyes firmly on the grizzly. "Keisha... When I say to run, you run and head towards the village. I'm going to try and out run it through the trees and lose him."

Seeing the look of worry in her eyes, Naruto could only bite his lip as he turned towards the bear, only to see it stand upright on its hind legs and let out a vicious roar.

"RUN!"

Both Naruto and Keisha bolted away from the bear in different directions and both taking to the tree tops to keep the bear from easily getting to them.

But something happened that Naruto hadn't predicted after only a few bounds on the tree. The grizzly had not chased him, rather it went after...

He didn't waste a second as he turned around and raced towards the sound of Keisha screaming and the roaring of the bear.

Keisha cursed mentally as Naruto's plan had back fired. Even so, she was knew Naruto was out of danger and that was good. But she knew that Naruto would not hesitate to throw himself into danger as she was in trouble as the bear was far quicker then either could have anticipated.

She knew how to increase her chakra flow to make her faster and was doing so; the problem was the grizzly was keeping up with her. It wasn't catching her, just keeping up and even then it was losing ground. That was good as sooner or later, the bear would give up and if it chased her into town, there would be trained shinobi waiting and would take care of it in seconds.

Seeing the bear was quickly beginning to fall behind, Keisha smirked as she began to pick up the pace even more. That was one thing she always was glad about. She was faster then almost everyone else and had ultra quick reflexes to maximize her combat potential in taijutsu. Not that this was a moment she was going to stand it fight, it was just good that she could out run wild animals even with her young body.

But then it happened. The branch she had landed on suddenly snapped and she plummeted to the ground. She shrieked loudly as she hit legs first and a loud snap filled the forest.

Gripping her leg, Keisha could help but cry out as tears spilled from her eyes. Her right fibula had snapped and pierced through her skin. While she had mild fractures before, they were nothing compared to the extreme pain coursing through her entire body now.

Then the one thing that could only make things worse had caught up towards her and slammed against her, sending her rolling on the ground as it skidded to a halt.

Naruto could only watch in horror as he watched Keisha crash through the tree tops and heard bone snap as he raced towards her. To make things worse, the bear was on her in seconds and knocked her senseless as a thousand pounds of pure muscle rammed her. And to add onto his horror, he was too far away to do anything.

There wasn't a thing he could do as he watched the bear slowly stalk towards her, drooling from the mouth as Keisha was barely conscious from the blow she had received. His body began to shake as he rushed towards her as fast as he could go as a mantra filled his head.

'Dammit! Why am I so slow?! Why am I unable to save those I care for when it matters the most?! Why, dammit, why?! Come on, I need more speed! I need to be faster! I need to be stronger! I need to have more power! I need to be stronger and faster so I can protect those I love! I NEED MORE POWER!'

With every word and every step, his chakra level continued to rise more and more as dust particles began to slowly swirl around him. Naruto didn't even notice it as all his focus was aimed at the grizzly and his lover. He didn't just want to save her, he needed to save her and he was generating power from the thought alone.

As blue chakra dazzled around him, Naruto knew he wasn't going to reach Keisha and time as the grizzly raised its paw. He needed to distract it, if only just for a second. But he had no long range jutsu...

Remembering the seals that Itachi constantly used while training him in his advanced version of tree walking, Naruto focused and molded chakra in his lungs as he went through the same seals that Uchiha used that day.

Taking one last deep breath, he formed the tiger seal as his eyes glowed a dazzling electric blue before loudly declaring his attack. "Katon: Hosenka!"

Everything was a blur for her, but she knew she had to get up otherwise she would be dead. The grizzly had caught her and would devour her if she stood still. Feeling a moist yet hot breath on her neck, she couldn't help but shiver as she slowly looked up to catch the sight of the bear standing on its hind legs, ready to slam it paws into her and crush her.

She couldn't help but feel afraid, believing this could be the last moment of her life. But more importantly, she was afraid that Naruto would never forgive himself for letting this happen. All she could do was pray that he would live his life and get over her untimely demise.

As if the Gods themselves had different plans, she heard Naruto's voice carry over the foliage before seven large flames slammed into the bear, knocking it off balance as it roared in pain. Then suddenly, Naruto appeared, with a fierce chakra blazing around him, and slammed his right shoulder into the grizzly, knocking it onto its back.

Keisha couldn't help but gasp as she recognized the chakra quite well. It was Naruto's chakra, but not his as of now. It felt like his before they traveled through time. But not only that, it felt like it had regained it potency and had became even greater then it ever was. It was as if... He was fighting for something more then what he was back then.

The sight of the blue chakra blazing around Naruto would have frightened any inexperienced shinobi and even some of the more experienced ones just because it was coming from a young child that wasn't even a shinobi. But to the grizzly, it was meaningless. He was the toughest and he was hungry and no little cub was going to stop him.

As it stood back up and reared itself up onto its hind legs once more, it roared violently as it lunged towards Naruto with claws extended and fangs bared.

Everything became deafly silent for Naruto as everything began to slow down for him. He wasn't sure if it was because he was about to die or if he was activating so latent bloodline, but it did not matter as he couldn't react. But he could still hear some noise, it was just extremely faint. But he was sure of what the sound was as it became ever so louder by the passing second.

It sounded like that of birds chirping on a Sunday mourning.

Blood suddenly splattered on Naruto's face as the bear suddenly dropped to the ground with a great thud. Both Naruto and Keisha could only look on as shock as they weren't sure what happened until their eyes slowly began to focus and a lone figure pulled his hand out from the back of the grizzly's skull with a sickening plop.

As Naruto began to slowly recognize features of the man, the world slowly began to dim as the darkness closed in on him. He tried to fight it, but nothing was working as he felt himself falling to his knees. With the last of his remaining strength, he looked up to see an all too familiar masked face and silver hair that defied gravity. The largest smile graced Naruto's face as he fell to the ground as he could no longer stay awake.

Kakashi had rescued them.

Kyuubi awoke from his slumber within the cage as he felt this surge of chakra through his vessels body. It was not unlike the boy's chakra from before the time travel, but it wasn't possible for him to carry some over from that time. The jutsu wasn't designed for the user's chakra to be brought back with them.

This puzzled the great fox as he looked into it, long after the boy had passed out after his silver haired sensei had saved him and his mate. There should be no reason that the boy had called upon his own chakra, but not from this body. So the question remained, where did it come from?

His old body would have had to survived to time travel and that just wasn't physically possible. He had used the jutsu twice before in desperate times, both to get away from one man that tried and succeeded into turning him into a slave and neither time did his old body's power transfer back with him. But in this case, the boy shouldn't be able to have his power as he was the one...

Kyuubi stopped in his thoughts as he forgot one huge part of the formula. Both Gobi and he had used the jutsu, not Naruto and Keisha. So it was their true bodies destroyed, not the humans. And if they're bodies weren't destroyed, what happened to them?

He wasn't too sure himself as he never brought anyone with him as he traveled back into time. But it stood to reason that their bodies would be destroyed as well. But that chakra surged from Naruto changed the entire game and was doubting if his theory was sound.

Beginning to grow irritated, Kyuubi paced through his cage trying to solve his conundrum. Then a voice caught his attention.

"It seems something has caught your ire, aye fox?"

With a quick look in the direction he heard the voice, Kyuubi growled loudly as he slammed both paws against his cage as he quickly recognized the man in the shadows. "YOU! DAMN YOU! HOW ARE YOU HERE HOKAGE?!"

The said 'Hokage' merely chuckled at the fox's response as he walked out of the shadows. "Ah, don't get all pissed that I'm here. I'll only be here shortly... It is too bad that I won't be able to speak to my son, however. As for how I am here... I designed the seal for part of my conscious that I sealed into the seal would awaken when Naruto used eight tails of your power."

Kyuubi growled even louder and banged against the gates that contained him. Oh, he wanted nothing more then to be free and rip the man in half for sealing him within the boy. No matter if the boy had slightly, very slightly, grown on him, he wanted nothing more the freedom and that would be forever denied thanks to the man in front of him. "COME HERE YONDAIME! I WANT YOUR BLOOD!"

"And why would I do that? I'm not a masochist my friend. But since you don't want me here, I won't tell you what I've learned." Minato simply replied and shook his head softly and shrugged at the fox.

The fox instantly stopped attacking the gates as his crimson eyes focused onto the blonde haired human. How he hated being forced to listen to one but he wanted to know what was going with Naruto more then he wanted revenge on the Yondaime. Besides, he could get it afterwards. "What do you know, human? Speak quickly otherwise I will cut out your tongue and drain your blood from your body to drink."

"Well... That's quite disturbing. I don't know how Naruto has put up with you all this time." Minato answered as he shrunk back from the fox demon.

Getting a deep growl from Kyuubi, Minato sighed and knew he should play around as his time was limited. Besides, whenever his son died, he could pick on the demon some more and get to know his boy better. Sighing lightly, he shook his head before an iron door suddenly materialized in front of him. "Instead of telling you... I'll just show you."

With a firm pull, the door barely opened and even with all his strength, the door only opened a hair. But that was all Kyuubi needed to see within it. "No way..."

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself... Your time travel jutsu worked. But it had a side effect as two of one being cannot exist at the same time. ...So something had to be done with Naruto's old body. But this..." Minato explained as he looked into the crack himself.

Inside the iron door, Naruto's eighteen year old body was chained by the limbs as he held onto what seemed to be Naruto in his nine year old body, who was clutching onto him tightly as if he was frightened. But to make the picture even weirder, besides the fact that both were in their birthday suits, was that it seemed that there stomach was fusing into one another.

"Is unbelievable... The power is unfathomable. How is this possible? No time travel has ever ended like this before?" Kyuubi question as he looked over at the Yondaime, hoping he might have a theory as for once, Kyuubi was astonished and had no clue how to handle this.

Minato only shook his head as he pushed the door as hard as he could just too barely close it. Panting lightly, he turned to the fox and shook his head. "I do not know myself, but if I had to take a stab at it... I think it is because the two Naruto's agreed to exist with one another. That's why it seems that Naruto is more childish then he really is... They are fusing, fox and when this Naruto reaches the age that Naruto was when he came back... His power will multiply by ten fold."

"And with that power... He would be even stronger then any living creature... Including myself. ...There must be a way to stop this. That kind of power cannot be born!" Kyuubi roared as he tried to break through the gate and reach the door.

But as if sensing this, the door vanished as Minato shook his head. "As much as I hate to agree with you... You must find a way to stop the fusion from completing. ...Because once it happens, it will not be Naruto any longer and there is no telling if this Naruto will have the restraint and the will to keep from using his power like the masked one."

"Wait, why only me?!" Kyuubi roared once more as he tried to slash at Minato but was stopped by the gate once more.

Shaking his head, Minato only sighed as his body slowly began to destabilize and evaporate. "Because my time here is done... It is up to you and Naruto now to stop this from happening. ...And I hate to ask you this... But tell my son I love him and I'm sorry I couldn't see how he has grown."

Kyuubi scoffed and was half tempted to tell Minato to blow himself, but he couldn't find the words to do it. Growling, he clawed the ground as he glared straight at the forth. "Ningen, that boy has grown far greater then you ever could be, that is all that needs to be said. ...And I might tell the boy your message, but only when I feel like it."

Minato could only smile before his body became nothing but particles that drifted away. Kyuubi frowned at this, but now at least he knew what was going on. Now he would have to find a way to deal with it. But there was still one problem that he could not solve.

When did both Naruto's agree to exist with one another?

Both Naruto and Keisha were glad that the Ninja Academy had reopened. It had only been three days since the Uchiha massacre, Konohamaru had been absolute hell those three days. And then count being chased and having to fight the grizzly bear yesterday, things weren't looking up for them.

Naruto's arm had completely healed after the splinters were removed, thanks to a certain fox that was very reluctant to heal him for getting into trouble once more. Keisha had a brace placed on her leg as it would take some time for the said bone to harden so it would break as easily. Of course the medics had requested they rested today, but neither wanted to deal with Konohamaru for one more day.

They were also glad that the Hokage had gotten them an apartment and they would be able to live there after class let out. While both were excited and overjoyed about this, they were also very, very embarrassed and nervous about living with each other. Thankfully, it was a two bedroom apartment so they could sleep in opposite rooms and eliminate some of their tension.

However, it would still be odd to start their relationship when they were only young children. While they felt much older and truly were older mentally and spiritually, it was just going to be a tedious process that the two would have to overcome.

Having Naruto lead the way, Keisha was ignoring the looks that some of the other kids were giving her. While she mostly didn't care of what they thought, it was a little awkward or all these people to be looking at her the way they were.

Most didn't care; others were looking at her intrigue while others were looking at her in disgust for following Naruto. She frowned at and when they reached the door, she placed her hand on the door to keep him from opening it and speaking a very light tone so only he would hear her. "Naruto… Are you sure we've done the right thing by coming here?"

Catching where she was going, Naruto only shook his head as he walked over and hugged her lightly. "Don't worry about it and try and ignore the looks… If they look at you the same way, tell me okay. I'll handle it, alright? I don't want you to feel any more uncomfortable then you already are."

Smiling softly at the blonde, Keisha nodded to him before releasing her hand from the door. "Okay… But don't do anything too drastic okay. I've already received a few looks…"

Seeing her look down at the end, Naruto closed his eyes before reopening them and leaning over and lightly kissing her on the lips. While it felt gauche for his body, it was just right for him mentally. He would just have to get pass the limitations of his body. "Don't worry about it then. If it starts really bothering you, I'll take the fall."

Keisha cringed at this, but she really didn't any time to respond as he opened the door and beckoned or her to enter. Sighing as she would have to wait for later to talk to him about this, she entered the room and Naruto followed suit. She instantly recognized some of the faces from past experiences.

Shino was there and seemed just like the way she remembered except much younger.

Kiba was there making her sigh as the boy always hit on her before he died in combat at Sakura's hands.

Shikamaru was there, sleeping which made her wonder what happened to get rid of the boy's laziness in the future.

Hinata was there as well. She was a little worried as she knew the girl had a serious crush on Naruto and wondered what kind of trouble that was going to cause in the future.

Sasuke was apparently back in class which made her feel a little better thinking that there might be the chance that he would recover in this time line.

The final one she recognized caused her to growl as her entire body went rigid. Haruno Sakura.

Her instincts told her to attack as she knew this was when she was weakest and wouldn't become the threat she did in the future, but her reasonable side told her not to. She was slowly giving into her instinct and was ready to attack when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She instantly knew it was Naruto's and regained her composure as she took her eyes off the pink haired girl.

Hearing the bell ring, Naruto quickly led her to the seats near the end as Iruka entered the room. She couldn't help but smile as she saw Iruka, knowing him to be an important part of Naruto's life and had basically was his father when he was younger.

"Alright class, quite down." Iruka spoke in a calm, pleasant manner which seemed to work as everyone began to quite down.

Taking a moment to take attendance, Iruka turned Keisha and nodded. "Class, we have a new student with us today. While she is a few years younger then the rest of you, she is quite gifted. Please give a warm welcome Kazekiri Keisha."

As Iruka frowned, knowing the clan name very well, the rest of the class look over at the white haired girl. While he knew there was missions here and there to try and gain another clan into their village, why in the hell would they go after the current Tsuchikage's family?

Naruto twitched at this and felt like throttling Iruka, but he thought better of it as Iruka didn't know that she was having a little trouble adjusting to everything. Still, he had to do something to draw the attention from her as she fidgeted in her chair. Of course it came through his ever devious, fox like mind making him grin as he placed his hand in a familiar seal below the table. He just hoped it would work.

A loud pop caught everyone's attention in the center of the floor where the most gorgeous blonde haired woman could be seen through the smoke surrounding her. As the smoke cleared, Iruka nearly passed out while most of the boys looked at her with wide eyes as she was completely naked. The girls in the class were just as shocked so they didn't really act when the girl suddenly popped out of existence when a loud smack was heard.

Naruto was rubbing the back and front of his head as Keisha had slapped him and due to the amount of power, his head smashed into his desk giving him twice the pain and a crack in the desk. As he was rubbing his head, trying to get the ringing out of his ears, Keisha whispered to him. "Next time… Don't do that again otherwise I'll do something worse, got it?"

The blonde nodded his head hurriedly, knowing that Sexy no Jutsu was going to be off limits due to the danger it caused… Towards him.

Iruka noticed this little exchanged between Keisha and Naruto, but said nothing as he had no real proof that the blonde was at fault. Sure, the woman had the three whiskers on each cheek, but that didn't automatically mean it was Naruto's prank. There was just no way the blonde could be in two spots at one time. He wasn't even a gennin yet and that was at least chunin ability.

Shaking his thoughts off and wiping his noise, making sure there was no blood, Iruka put up his attendance clipboard and smiled at his students. "As Mizuki is out today on a mission, I've decided to move today's lesson for tomorrow as we have a special guest speaker today."

Naruto's face fell as he knew who it was instantly as there was no mistaking his presence. He had to put up with the bastard for a few years of his life and even though he was another one of his father figures, he could only mentally groan as there was about to be grand entrance and probably a giant toad that was unwilling to be involved in the said entrance. He just hoped it wasn't Gamabunta…

Unaware of Naruto's thoughts, Iruka continued on. "He is considered one of the greatest shinobi this village has ever produced and even trained the Fourth Hokage. Please welcome…"

"BEHOLD!" Naruto nearly face faulted as smoke covered the center of the floor and knew he was quite accurate with his prediction as the white haired pervert become visible.

Doing a slight dance and ending in an awkward pose on top of the armored toad he usually used, Jiraiya smirked as a few sparklers went off behind him. "I am Jiraiya of the Sannin, the great toad sage!"

Naruto was slightly happy to see Keisha slammed her head into the desk as the rest of the students looked on in aw. However, seeing that the man's training made him into who he was, it was quite embarrassing to see him act more childish then he was. And he was now nine years old again!

Keisha just couldn't believe it. All the stories Naruto had told of Jiraiya were quite accurate. She really began to discredit everything she had heard the gamma-sannin had done to Iwa in the war as a stroke of luck as there was no way this ridiculous man could have done what he done on skill alone.

Jiraiya almost frowned seeing Keisha slam her head into her desk as Naruto only placed his hand in front of his face to keep from being embarrassed. Still, he at least knew Naruto knew him on a somewhat personal level from what he gathered and Keisha probably was told stories of him. Putting that aside for now, Jiraiya gave everyone in the class room a smile.

Iruka, however, was picking himself off the ground, grumbling about all the top shinobi being show offs. Dusting himself off, Iruka regained his normal smile as he looked over the class. "Because Jiraiya-sama is here with us today, we'll be having some demonstrations of ninjutsu, demonstrate what you can all do along with a few stories that he is willing to tell us."

"I just hope they're suitable for children…" Naruto mumbled under his breath knowing the pervert very well and knowing the majority of his stories involved a woman in the nude and certain things following afterwards.

Of course Jiraiya heard Naruto's mumble and nearly face faulted before grumbling under his breath about brats that knew him far too well for his liking. Shaking that off, Jiraiya smiled at the kid while mentally he was cursing his sensei for ordering him to do this. It would just be some much easier, to him at least, just to take them out of class and train them. "Now, seeing that I don't want to be cooped up in a small room, I have a special place of mine that I'll be taking you to. Now if you will all gather down her near me, I will take you there."

Every student did as they were told, Naruto hanging in the back with Keisha having an idea what was about to happened. He just really, really didn't want to get motion sickness right now. However, he was pushed into the group by Keisha, who really didn't mind all too much.

Jiraiya nodded at everyone before using a single seal. "This will be the first jutsu demonstration today so brace yourselves… Shunshin no jutsu."

In a pop, every single child was on the ground in a clearing near a waterfall, groaning in protest as their eyes swirled wildly. Iruka only sighed as he glared at the smirking Jiraiya before his face fell seeing that both Naruto and Keisha were unaffected, for the most part.

Naruto was merely swaying around, trying not to trip over his own two feet while Keisha just looked sick and ready to throw up. Iruka frowned at this knowing that shunshin always made everyone sick the first time they were put through it both neither was effected like the rest meaning they had more tolerance or they've been through a shunshin it at least one.

It wasn't long till all the children were back up on their feet, some having thrown up, and led near the waterfall. At the waterfall, Iruka motioned everyone to sit as Jiraiya walked out onto the water. Once again, mostly everyone was in aw at this.

"Now everyone, I want you to pay close attention as I will be demonstrating some ninjutsu that you might learn in the distance future and a few that made me and those who I trained into who we are now." Jiraiya spoke with a smile on his face before he made a single cross seal and three versions of him appeared.

While a lot of the students groaned, thinking it was a simple bunshin no jutsu, Naruto rolled his eyes as the pervert had to use his all time favorite jutsu.

Jiraiya shook his head at everyone before he had one of his clones walk over to a tree and explode, surprising mostly everyone as the tree collapsed. "That was Kage Bunshin and Bunshin Daibakuha. Shadow clones are physical imitations of the user while the great explosion takes advantage of the chakra that was used to create the clone and destroy an unsuspecting target."

The rest of the clones disappeared in plums of smoke before Jiraiya went through a series of hand seals before biting his thumb. In another plum of smoke, the same armored toad he had left in the class room had been summoned to the area, earning a lot of uhs and ahs from the students that didn't know of summoning.

"This is a summoning, one of the techniques that made me who I am today along with Tsunade and even Orochimaru. Now, a lot of you will more then likely sign a contract of your own and it will be different then mine as there are hundreds of different summoning contracts in this world."

Getting bored with the demonstration, Naruto leaned back and looked up at the clouds as he knew of all these techniques as the toad sannin had trained him in them. After a few moments, he got an elbow to his gut and was forced to watch the demonstration as Keisha glared at him before whispering. "Hey! At least try to pay attention otherwise you might make people suspicious!"

Nodding as he really didn't feel like arguing with her, he was thankful as the white haired pervert was on his final jutsu. "Now, for a little information on this last jutsu before I use it. …I am not its creator; my apprentice developed this before he eventually went on to event a jutsu that ended the war with Iwagakure. Now, before I use it, I will say that the only way to learn this jutsu is to become my apprentice… Which is part of the reason I am here today."

Naruto mentally sighed as everyone looked excited, hoping to become Jiraiya's apprentice as he had personally trained the Yondaime Hokage. He already knew that he was his apprentice in the future, so it more then likely wasn't going to be any different now. Plus, he had an idea that the old man wanted to keep and eye on him to try and learn more about what happens in the future.

Seeing a familiar blue orb being created in the sage's hand, Naruto watched as the Rasengan tore through a tree like butter and shattered the area it after having connected with it.

Getting his students to give Jiraiya a round of applause, Iruka smiled before taking center stage and walking besides Jiraiya out on the water. While he was disappointed that there was the possibility that he was going to lose at least one child, he knew better then to question the Hokage's decision. "Now class, we'll be having a little demonstration to help Jiraiya with his process. Yes, there is a chance at least one of you will spend a lot of your academy days training with the toad sannin. However, you will still be coming to class two times a week to learn from the text books."

"Now, we will be going alphabetic..."

"Excuse me; may I call upon the children?" Jiraiya interrupted as he really didn't want to watch all the children perform basic jutsu. He wanted to get through it and have Keisha and Naruto go first as they were the reason he was there.

Iruka simply nodded, not wanting to say no to one of the legendary sannin. Also, he was figuring that Jiraiya had somewhere to be and he wanted to call out the ones he thought had some potential to save time.

Looking over the group, making it seem like he was trying to choose who he wanted to go first, Jiraiya motioned at Naruto. "Hey you! Blonde haired gaki that wasn't paying attention through the demonstration! You're up first."

Many of the other students snickered hearing this as Naruto stood up and walked out front. Not caring about their snickering, he noticed that Sasuke and Shino were the only ones not laughing, not counting Keisha as she had to make him pay attention. In fact, he was paying so little attention that he nearly missed what Jiraiya had said. "So gaki, how many jutsu did I use?"

"Seven, eight if you include the shunshin to bring us here." Naruto answered immediately as he began to focus chakra to his feet. Hearing the majority of the class beginning to snicker and laugh, he could only roll his eyes as he knew he was correct.

Jiraiya only smirked before nodding. While he wanted this to go as fast as possible, he had to make it seem that he was being fair to the others. "Yes, I did indeed use eight. Now can you name the others as you've already got the first right?"

Everyone in the class became silent as the sannin said Naruto was correct, leaving Keisha and Sasuke smirking as they knew the blonde was correct. Naruto only rolled his eyes before taking a step onto the water. "You use Kage Bunshin, Bunshin Daibakuha, Kuchiyose, Gokakyu, Gamyu Endan, Rasengan and Water Walking."

Iruka's eyes widened as Naruto had named all seven correctly and began to walk out onto the water, albeit struggling to keep his balance. He hadn't thought Naruto could perform such a difficult chakra control exercise and name all seven of the jutsu that the toad sage had used. Something was off about this as Naruto a few days before he left could not have named those techniques as easily as he did, if at all.

The smirk on Jiraiya's face had grown as he could see that Naruto was purposely going showing off, probably to get back at a lot of the kids for the hell they gave him. Hell, he knew he was as if he could go back in time to when he was the boy's age, he would do the same. So he was all for Naruto getting some well earned revenge. "Correct, now let's see what other jutsu you know as it seems you are doing Water Walking decently."

Naruto nodded and smirked as almost every single person in the class was shocked, excluding Keisha and Shino. Placing his hand in cross seal, he created a single shadow clone. He wanted to attempt the Rasengan next, but he knew he shouldn't as there would be questions on where he learned it so he skipped that and went with a new jutsu he had learned from being used on him enough.

As multiple fireballs flew from his mouth and into a nearby training dummy, Naruto stopped Hosenka before thinking about what other jutsu he wanted to use. Before he could think of one, Jiraiya placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, basically informing him to stop. "That's good gaki. Now, does anyone want to try and top what they just saw…? And no blood line techniques."

Out of the entire class, all but three where stunned. And out of the three, only two stood up that believed they could top what Naruto had done. Both Keisha and Sasuke stepped forward, the latter's chakra begin to surround him excitedly as he looked over at Naruto. He finally had someone to compete with in class.

Iruka nodded at both of them before motioning for Sasuke to go first as Naruto and Keisha stood to the side, knowing exactly what jutsu Sasuke was going to perform first. With a few hand seals later, a blazing flame burst from Sasuke's mouth and evaporated the water it touched.

As soon as it finished, Sasuke smirked as he turned over towards Naruto before Jiraiya, who was slightly impressed. "Hm, a pretty complex fire jutsu, especially for one that is only a shinobi in-training. Do you have another?"

Sasuke frowned as he heard this before looking away as Gokakyu was the only jutsu he knew outside of the basic three the academy gave. He wanted to know more, but that was the only jutsu that was taught to him and now he didn't even want to know it anymore because of who taught it to him.

Nodding as he figured as much, Jiraiya patted Sasuke on the back before turning towards Keisha. "Well young lady, let's see what you know."

Keisha could only smirk as she did two simple hand seals before a figure began to form from the ground besides her until it formed a perfect replica of her. But as soon as the clone was created, she grabbed it before throwing it far enough away as she went through a few more seals and slapped her palms to the ground.

Suddenly, the ground beneath the clone spiral around it and slowly began to drag the clone towards the center of the vortex. It took some time, but the clone was eventually buried underneath the ground but even then, Keisha knew she hadn't destroyed it. "I'm still working on that one... It isn't as strong as I like it to be."

As mostly everyone there sweat dropped from what she said, Jiraiya could only chuckle at her. "Most gennin don't know jutsu like that, so don't worry about out. You three are far ahead of the curve from what I've seen... So I've decided, not to just take a single apprentice… But a team. And you three are it."

Iruka's jaw dropped as he heard this and the entire class was in shock, Shino included. From what he had been told, Jiraiya was only going to take one at the most if that. But now it seemed that he was impressed with three and wanted to see how all three would prosper under his tutelage. But carefully looking at his choices, he could begin to see why he had done it.

Sasuke had just witnessed his entire clan outside of his brother be murdered and probably would not handle social life too well. Besides, Jiraiya was more capable of handling someone that had seen the harshness of life.

That brought him to quick realization of why he had choice Naruto. While the boy hadn't shown this much skill until just now, the blonde haired boy needed someone that would train him fairly and to the fullest extent of his abilities. While Iruka held no grudge against him and even was beginning to care for the boy, he wasn't sure he was really helping him learn.

And the final choice, the daughter of the Tsuchikage, Keisha. There was no doubt in his mind she was who he thought her to be and therefore was better off to be with the toad sannin, especially when Iwa shinobi would be sent to bring her back home. And if they didn't succeed bringing her back... It was quite possible their cold war with Iwagakure could turn hot.

Shaking his head, he stood in front of his class before beckoning towards Jiraiya that he wanted to speak to him later before confronting his groaning students. "Alright class, we'll be heading back for lunch. And who knows, if you are good on the way back I might just call it a half day and send you home."

Not a single protest was offered as they all stood up and quickly got into a line. Iruka had a large bead of sweat on the back of his head before smirking as he found something that would work on the class to keep them in check. Giving one last glance at the three students Jiraiya had picked, he led his current students towards town, knowing where he was.

As soon as he knew they were out of ear shot, Jiraiya turned towards Keisha, Naruto and Sasuke before shaking his head as the blonde haired purposely moved himself in-between Keisha and Sasuke having seen the boy eyeing his girl. Having an idea for a new Icha Icha, he stored that away before he motioned for someone to join them.

All three turned to the direction he motioned to as a person walked out of the foliage, his silver hair defying gravity as it always did and his face stuck firmly in a certain book. Naruto could only slap his forehead as Keisha softly sighed as he still was reading the same book series as he was before.

"Yo, Jiraiya-sama! When is the next addition coming out?" Kakashi asked as he put away his book as he stood besides Jiraiya and took in the three students Jiraiya had picked and he was pretty sure it was a good team choice from what he saw from their demonstrations and what happened yesterday.

"Soon enough my young apprentice." Jiraiya answered in a Darth Sidius type of voice before his attention focused onto all three of them, more particularly Naruto. "This is Hatake Kakashi... And when you three take the gennin test in two years time, he will become your jounin sensei and he will be working closely with all three of you as I train you and test your mental stabilities."

No one liked this, none more so then Naruto. But Naruto and Keisha understood there reason why they were going to have to be watched as they had been through a lot and now there was a chance that they would be subjected to it again.

However, Sasuke did not like this at all and voiced his opinion. "What?! Why do we have to have our mentality checked? I'm fine..."

"Your brother requested it and I will not object. Besides, I doubt any of you three are fine. One of the reasons all three of you have been taken out of the academy for training is because you are flight risks and could come back to haunt us. So by having me watch over you three for the next couple of years along with Kakashi, the Hokage hopes for you to be fine when it comes time for you to become ninja." Jiraiya commented as he knew were Sasuke was going with his argument. It helped that Itachi filled him in on how his brother had been acting since the massacre.

Kakashi nodded in agreement as he looked over at both Naruto and Keisha. "He also knows that there is a good chance that Iwagakure shinobi will be sent after Keisha here from now on to recover her, so he wants to have her on a team that is suitable for dealing with such an attack. And believe it or not, but you three have the capacity to become not only Iwa's worse nightmare, but a dangerous team that could be feared around the world as the sannin were until Orochimaru defected."

Mentally, Naruto already knew this as when he was teamed with Sakura and Sasuke that was true. Not a single village dared attack them when all three were united and honestly in his opinion, Keisha was stronger then Sakura. But he couldn't act like he knew this so he made himself look shocked and that wasn't hard to do for him.

Glad that Naruto and Keisha were playing along, Jiraiya stretched out a bit before smirking. "Now let's get to work. I want all three of you to have water walking down by the end of the day so that you could avoid senbon being thrown at you."

Naruto froze as he heard this and looked at both Kakashi and Jiraiya with wide eyes as he knew exactly what they were getting at. "You wouldn't dare!"

All he knew was by the end of the day, he was going to have a few senbon surgically removed.

"Is this him?" A young blonde haired teen with rather pale skin and emerald eyes asked as she poked a stick a young man with brown hair and many bruises over his body.

A larger man with ripped muscles and a dark skin and a white beard looked at the young man for a moment before taking the stick away from the girl and breaking it. "Yes this is him, Yugito. The one with Shichibi inside of him and the one that called out to our demons."

Yugito looked up at her sensei before looking down at the brown haired man with a tilted head, wondering how he was able to tell so with such ease. But she quickly forgot about that as she noticed that he was barely breathing. "What do you think could have happened to him, Kirabi-sensei?"

"I don't know," Kirabi answered before he lifted the young man over and onto his shoulders as he looked towards the burning village of Iwagakure, "But I do know... Iwa is uneasy and war will come if what I was told is true. We needed to learn more, especially about the time travelers so we can make a decision on which side to help."

"Huh?" Yugito blurted out as she didn't understand what her sensei was talking about.

Kirabi only rolled his before patting the young teen on the head. "Never mind, I'll explain it to you later. Now we better head back. God knows brother is going to be pissed that we've been gone so long. You know how over protective he is when it comes to me and you."

"Yeah... I wish daddy would stop worrying so much. It isn't like something bad is going to happen to us." Yugito commented before she looked at the young man on Kirabi's shoulders. "You know, he would be pretty cute if he wasn't so banged up."

Kirabi's heart skipped a beat as he almost tripped over his feet at what Yugito said. Glaring at her for a few moments to make her uncomfortable, he sighed before he began to lead the way back towards Kumogakure.

God, he could only hope his brother didn't take it harshly that his daughter was beginning to notice guys in that way.