Jiraiya pulled out a map and pointed, "To probably the only place with a jinchuuriki that is on good terms with you besides Suna. We're heading up to Kumo to start. At least we know that they'll listen to what we have to say before they kick us out of the country."
Naruto nodded but had his mind elsewhere, "What do I do from here Ero-kyofu? I think I've hit the wall. I don't think I'm going to get much better than I am now, I can't seem to use anymore of the Kyuubi's chakra, and from the way I was rag-dolled in Suna that won't be enough for a guy like Kakuzu, and he's not even the leader."
A questioning look came from the old sage, "What about the other one?" Naruto waved him off, "I already know how I'm going to beat that teme. But between Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, and Kisame this is looking like one steep mountain to climb. Then there's that Deidara that got away. He knows how I fight so he'll be more dangerous if we meet again." Naruto sighed to himself, he had never asked this before, "I… need your help."
"You what now?" Jiraiya asked, genuinely surprised. Naruto had never asked for his help, not once. Not to learn the Rasengan, not for training to improve his atrophied attributes, not to find out his lineage, not even on how to get a better rapport with his summons, not anything. To be honest he had been wondering when this would come up if it ever would. The kid seemed like a problem solver, "You need my help? For what?"
Naruto looked at his hands and balled his fists, "I'm supposed to be Konoha's ace in the hole, the village's ultimate tool to protect it. Well what good is a tool if it gets stolen by someone else? Gaara's stronger than me now. He's a kage, and I'm just a chunin. I was losing that fight against those two in the desert, it wasn't even a matter of being powerful. I was pumping out three tails worth of the Kyuubi's chakra and they kept coming. Kakuzu just seemed to step his game up that much better to compete and Hidan just would not stay down."
Naruto shut his eyes and walked ahead, "People like to refer to jinchuuriki like me as monsters, as inhuman. Well then what do you call guys like that? Definitely not normal. They're all freaks, and they just get freakier as you run down the list of them… they're all prepared on how to fight me, they can find me anywhere in the entire world, and they can attack anytime they want to." He stopped and looked back at Jiraiya, "How am I supposed to win when fighting at my best wasn't good enough?"
Jiraiya stayed silent until Naruto was finished before walking up to Naruto and punching him square in the jaw. The shot sent Naruto flying off of the path down a hill into a field on the side of the road. Naruto pulled himself to his feet, wiping the blood from his lip and planning to retaliate when Jiraiya spoke, "That's how."
Jiraiya stood at the top of the hill looking down at Naruto who finally stood up, "You want me to magically show you what you need to do? Or do you want me to give you some miracle move that will kill all of your enemies in a split-second, find the answer to world peace, and make it shower down gold coins all across the landscape? I can't give you the answer of how to stop these people, of what you need to do to beat them. If I had that don't you think I would have told you, or better yet used it myself so that you don't have to put your neck on the line?"
He pointed down the steep slope at Naruto, "You walk up here right now. I don't want to see you jump, and I don't want to even sense you channel any chakra or you're going back down there." Naruto did as told and walked up the slope he was knocked down, climb was more of an accurate description as by the time he reached Jiraiya at the top he had to use his hands to keep from falling back down. Jiraiya jerked Naruto by his collar and set him back on the road, "This isn't supposed to be easy Naruto. If it was then someone else would have already solved the problem for you, if it was easy then there would be a bigger problem out there that you would have to face. The only way to do this is to claw your way to an answer. You need to lower your head, grit your teeth, and plow right on through. You move along. Stop worrying about what will happen if such and such shows up whenever and you're doing who knows what and you aren't good enough. You get good enough, you find your own way to handle things and I promise you, you can do this. I believe in you kid."
Jiraiya patted Naruto on the head and walked on down the road, "You take it one step at a time. Just keep climbing, do not stumble, and you're going to make it. That's how you're going to win. I'll be here to help you as much as I can, but if you ever give up like you were just about to again I'll beat you back into your old brain-dead self, because at least he was stubborn enough to never quit. He had guts."
Naruto followed Jiraiya in silence like a zombie from that point forward.
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)
A knock on the office of Tsunade's door brought in Shizune with an uneasy look on her face, "Tsunade-sama. Danzo is here to see you."
Tsunade then understood the look that her assistant wore. Danzo was always a subject that she was sore on. She knew of his clashing of values against her sensei and predecessor Hiruzen Sarutobi, mostly over how Konoha handled its foreign affairs, but the thing with Naruto she didn't know quite what to feel about it. Without Danzo training him and placing him in Root he would never have been as strong as he was when she first met him, but she was well aware that Danzo's detestable training methods were quite harsh. Ino Yamanaka's mental cleansing by her father after her match against Naruto years ago revealed what Naruto had to go through in training.
There was also the fact that he had been very quiet, not bringing things to her or even being seen in public outside of council gatherings… it was odd, the old war-hawk not stirring anything up the way Jiraiya warned her he would the entire time he briefed her when he first brought her back to Konoha.
Tsunade dismissed Shizune and informed her to send Danzo in as she schooled her expression for her meeting with the bandaged man, "Danzo. What can I do for you today?"
Danzo stood in front of her desk, steadying himself with his cane, "Tsunade-hime I've come here today to discuss one of Konoha's assets with you, one that you are very well aware of. One Naruto Uzumaki."
Tsunade planned on nipping this in the bud before anything could happen, she had been planning on this for years, "I will not let you take him Danzo. He is doing just fine, he's more than powerful enough without your training."
Danzo actually let out a chuckle, "Would you send your ANBU out so that we can discuss this properly?" Tsunade gave him a hard look before making a vague hand gesture. The atmosphere of the room changed, signifying that her guards were gone. Danzo cleared his throat and took a seat, still with his hand on his cane, "You and I both know that the reason he is so powerful in the first place is my training, but that is neither here nor there. There is not much more that I can teach Uzumaki other than a few jutsu, but they don't seem to be much along his avenue of usage."
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