Chapter 8

A/N: For those of you wondering, there was a reason why Naruto said Tou-chan instead of Tou-san. When Naruto went 8-tails during his fight with Pein he called his father Tou-chan instead of Tou-san (at least in the anime version. I started to read the manga after the Five Kage arc, so I don't know anything besides the anime version before that.)

A few days have passed since the Orochimaru incident and things were going relatively well…somewhat. Everyone had to be hospitalized, but none of them had received a serious injury. However, the moment that they were released, Naruto had started to distance himself from his friends. They tried looking from him, but couldn't find a single clue of where he could be. All of them figured that it was due to Naruto's shinobi skills. At one point they went to the Headmaster to see if he knew where he was.

"He has left for an undetermined amount of time," the Headmaster replied. "Although I don't know how long he will be gone, he will return before the school festival."

None of them were completely satisfied by the answer, but at least they knew that Naruto would be coming back. They thanked the Headmaster and left to go to the Newspaper Club room where Gin was getting started on the next addition of the newspaper.

"So did you find anything?" Gin asked smiling while taking a grope at Kurumu.

The young succubus screamed and slapped Gin before answering, "It turns out that Naruto has left the academy for a while. We don't know when he will be coming back, but he will be here before the school festival."

Gin was rubbing the red spot on his cheek as he said, "Speaking of the school festival, we need to write about that in the next addition. All of you get to work and I will be back later." Gin left the room and left the others to do the work.

"Looks like we are doing all the work again," Yukari said as she got the supplies. "Why can't that pervert help us? It would be nice if we got some assistance."

"He is probably going around looking at girls," Kurumu stated. "Anyways, where do you think Naruto is right now?"

"Don't know," Mizore answered. "No matter how well I hide, I just can't seem to stalk him." Everyone's sweat dropped and they all wondered the same thing, 'Is that supposed to be a good thing?'

"Doesn't anyone have any idea at all?" Yukari said in an almost whining manner. There was a moment of silence before everyone turned to Moka.

"What?" the vampire asked nervous from all the stares that she was getting.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Kurumu began. "You were the one who spent the most time with Naruto. So you should know more things about him than us. Do you have anything that may help us know where he is?

Moka thought for a bit trying to recall something important that Naruto may have mentioned at some point. She began to recall a time when Naruto mentioned some sort of specialized training when he was sparring with her inner self. "During one of the spars with Ura-chan, he mentioned something about a Toad Mountain where he could do some sort of specialized training, but I have no idea why he would go there."

"Where is it?" exclaimed Kurumu.

Moka was silent for a bit before answering, "I don't know. He never told me."

All of them were disappointed, but they didn't blame the vampire. The best that they could do was wait and hope for the best when Naruto returned.

At Mt. Myoboku

Naruto had been with the toad summons ever since he had been released from the hospital. He had shown them the cursed seal that was on his neck to see if they had any method of removing it. The toads had studied it for a while before they decided to call Jiraiya. Only problem was, he was taking forever to come since he refused to be reversed summoned for some reason.

"How long is it going to take for Ero-Sennin to come here?" Naruto asked himself as he lay with his hands behind his back in a field. "I can't wait forever. I wonder if he was late when he was training Tou-chan."

A thought crossed Naruto's mind. 'Did he know that he was my father?' Naruto figured that he did. In fact, when they first met, it seemed like the Toad Sage had recognized Naruto somehow.

'He has some explaining to do,' Naruto thought as he got up and see if Jiraiya would be arriving anytime soon. He was told that Jiraiya would be arriving at the shrine where the Great Toad Sage was. In Naruto's opinion, the old Toad was a nice guy, but somewhat senile since he tended to forget things.

Naruto reached the shrine and as he entered he was surprised to see that Jiraiya was there in front of the Toad Sage and it seemed like they were having a serious conversation. As Naruto got closer he heard Jiraiya say in a serious voice, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," the elder toad replied. Jiraiya seemed to grow a little fearful, but all of it disappeared when he saw Naruto approach.

"Hey gaki," Jiraiya said smiling as he walked up to his student. "Why didn't you tell me that you would be leaving Konoha after you returned? You seemed to be eager to meet your friends, but you just disappear."

"I didn't have a choice!" Naruto argued in a child-like manner. "That old Cyclops had sent me to some weird place!" Jiraiya was about to say something, but Naruto cut him off and revealed the seal in his neck saying, "Anyways, I need you to take a look at this."

"Where did you get that?" Jiraiya said sternly.

"That Snake Bastard somehow managed to find a cursed seal that would be able to control me so he could use the Kyuubi's power," answered Naruto. "And that reminds me, you knew my parents, didn't you?"

Jiraiya instantly froze. He hadn't expected to be asked that question. When he first saw Naruto, he had suspicions that he was Minato's son. When he was told that the boy's name was Naruto, his suspicions were confirmed. "How did you find out?"

Naruto noticed that Jiraiya hadn't denied it so he answered, "When I was under the influence of the seal, I fought the Kyuubi so I could use some of his power. Just when I was about to take the power, my father appeared and stopped me. Apparently he implanted some of his chakra in the seal in case something came up."

"I see," Jiraiya said. "Come and follow me. I guess that I have a lot of explaining to do."

Elsewhere

Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi were walking down a path attempting to find a place known as Youkai Academy in order to find Naruto. The duo had been searching for days and one of them was starting to get impatient. "Damn it!" Kisame yells. "I have had it. Follow me."

Itachi looks to his partner and asked, "Where are you going?"

"I am getting the jinchuuriki," Kisame stated.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Itachi said in his usual emotionless voice.

"Do I even look human to you?" Kisame asked. "I am half shark youkai and there was a rumor about some academy that multiple youkai go to. There happens to be some secret passage that can take us there."

Itachi turns and follows Kisame and says, "You are saying this now?"

"I never bothered with stories," Kisame said. "But this is taking forever and I want to just end this." Itachi gave no reply and followed his partner.

BACK WITH NARUTO

"Why didn't you tell me all this earlier?" Naruto practically screamed at his godfather.

"You weren't ready," Jiraiya argued back. "If you were told, you would have gone around blabbering about it to everyone."

Naruto saw that he had a point. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he knew that he would have blabbered it to everyone that he passed by. "But if you are my godfather, then why didn't you at least be a parent figure?"

"I would have, but you have to use your brain," Jiraiya said. "People would grow suspicious if one if the Sannin adopted some random kid. It would only draw you too much attention." Naruto was about to say something, but Jiraiya cut him off, knowing that if he didn't this argument could have gone on forever. IF Jiraiya could, he really would have adopted Naruto. The only flaw would be that it would be possible for someone to make a connection. "Anyways," Jiraiya went on. "Let me take a closer look at the seal."

Naruto scoffed since he was quite mad that he was never told his parentage, but obeyed anyway. He revealed the mark on his neck as his godfather took a look at it. "This is some design," Jiraiya said as he observed the seal. "It is unlike any of Orochimaru's previous ones. It is going to take a while to find a way to remove it." Naruto covered his neck again and this time Jiraiya said, "Follow me."

Naruto raised his eyebrows wondering what Jiraiya wanted, however he didn't question and followed. As they were walking to whatever destination that they were going to, Naruto noticed many toad statues that were made of stone. He didn't think deeply about it and continued to follow. Eventually they reached some sort of fountain and there was an old green toad there that seemed to have been waiting for them.

"Is this Minato's boy, Jiraiya-chan?" the green toad asked.

"Yes Fukasaku-sama," Jiraiya answered. Naruto was a little irked by the fact that another person seemed to know about his parents, but he noticed that the old pervert had spoken to the toad with respect. From his memery, Jiraiya never did that. Not even with Gamabunta and he seemed to be the boss toad.

The toad called Fukasaku studied Naruto for a bit before saying, "Do you think that he is ready?"

"I believe so," Jiraiya answered.

Naruto didn't know what was going on so he asked, "What are you all talking about?"

Both toad and sage looked at Naruto before saying, "It is time for you to learn the art of senjutsu."

"Senjutsu?" asked Naruto.

"There are many things that you don't know about, but it is time for you to get ready for it," replied Fukatsu. "It will help if you know senjutsu to get ready for the future."

"W-what are you talking about?" Naruto said. Nothing was making sense to him.

"There are many people that seem to be after you," Jiraiya said. "It appears that someone besides the Akatsuki seems to be after you. I can't be there forever so it would help if you have something up your sleeve."

Naruto figured that the one besides Akatsuki was Fukkatusu, but he didn't question how Jiraiya knew them. To him, it also seemed like this senjutsu was some sort of training to get stronger. The thought of doing some actual training with Jiraiya excited him since in truth he could have learned more during the three year training trip. Eager to start he said, "So when do we start?"

Fukatsu was amused by the boy's eagerness. From what he knew, Naruto didn't even know what senjutsu was. Perhaps he could get some fun out of the training. "We start with you learning to be absolutely still."

Naruto's enthusiasm fell when he heard that. He had been expecting some kind of cool training; he didn't want to learn to be still without movement. "Is is necessary?" he asked in a very complaiing manner.

"It is crucial," Jiraiya said. "Now I will leave the two of you to deal with the training."

"Leaving to peep on women again Ero-sennin?" Naruto said.

"Sadly no," Jiraiya said. "I have to get your next exercise ready." Jiraiya walked off to who knows where and left Fukatsu and Naruto alone.

"So what do I do?" he asked.

The toad produced a wooden plank and tossed it on top of the spike pillars that were above them. "I need you to be able to maintain balance on that plank."

"Easy," Naruto said as he jumped on top of the plank. The moment he landed, the plank tipped over and Naruto fell screaming. 'I'm going to die!' was the first thought that came to mind because below Naruto the whole ground was filled with spikes. Just before he hit a tongue caught him keeping him from his death. Relief washed over him, but he went into a fit when he saw a 'slimy disgusting tongue' being around him.

'Perhaps this boy can keep me entertained for a while,' Fukatsu thought when he saw Naruto's reaction.

End chapter 8