After a short break, Naruto was asked once again to step up to the center of the clearing, this time he stood opposite Jiraya. "This isn't going to be a spar. Jiraya will throw certain jutsu at you and we will judge your response to them. So the challenge here is for you not no get hit, alright?" Sarubobi explained. Naruto nodded earnestly, smiling up at the old man.

Jiraya and Naruto took positions with enough space between them for the jutsus. Again Kakashi stood between them with his hand raised. "Ready..? Go!" Kakashi jumped back and Naruto turned his attention to the Toad sage. Seeing Naruto's eyes filled with determination, Jiraya decided he was going to go all out right from the start. He made a few quick signs before slamming down his hand. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (summoning jutsu)." A puff of smoke filled the area around Jiraya and settled to reveal Jiraya standing on top of a giant toad, smirking and expecting Naruto to be at least impressed. When he saw the boy hadn't moved an inch, not even looking up, an irk mark appeared on his forehead. "Hey, brat! At least you can be surprised!" He yelled down, a fist clenched in passion. A collective sweat drop went through the crowd, but Jiraya ignored it. "Fine, than let's see how you do!"

Jiraya made a few more hand signs, his movements syncing up with the toad underneath him. "Katon: Gamayu Endan (Fire release: Toad Flame Bomb)!" Both Jiraya's and the toad's cheeks bulged, before the toad spit out a large amount of oil and Jiraya fire. The flaming oil hurled at Naruto and people that were standing too close scattered away, including the two kage. Nobody had expected Jiraya to go straight to jutsu's of this magnitude.

The flames hit Naruto dead on and it didn't seem like he did anything to stop the flames from engulfing him. It took a few seconds before Jiraya relented his attack and let the flames die down. The area where the jutsu was aimed slowly revealed itself again from the smoke. Nothing but scorched earth and in the middle of it a bundle of purple. The bundle broke apart, long chains hovering in the air around Naruto, who hadn't suffered so much as a sooth stain. The chakra chains hovered around him menacingly. They almost looked like snakes protecting their master with the way the ends of the chains followed Jiraya's, but as suddenly as Naruto had called forth the chains, he let them disappear again.

Jiraya stared at him in disbelief. "You know your mother's Jutsu?" He asked.

"My mother's? She was an Uzumaki, right?" Jiraya nodded and Naruto smiled. It was nice to know a little more background on his mother. His former Jinchuuriki had had a kind heart, though she was ruthless when she needed to be. "I've seen her use them. To restrain me when they sealed me again. Her and the blond man." Naruto let out a humorless laugh. The man and the woman, so protective over him. Of course those were his parents. And he killed them. He looked down to his hand. This was his human hand, but he clearly saw the claws he could have, the claws he did have when he ran them through his parents. Naruto's parents. His parents? Had he known those were his parents? Maybe, somewhere deep down he did, but he couldn't make out whether he knew because Naruto had known but it being unknown to Kurama, or if it was the other way around. His hands shook at the idea he had killed his parents. Knowingly or otherwise, the part of him that had killed his parents was within him, and so should the guilt be.

The problem was that he didn't feel guilty. It hadn't been Naruto that killed his parents, and Kurama could hardly be blamed, being controlled by Madara. Really, if you got down to it, it was the fault of Kushina and Minato themselves. They knew the seal would weaken and hadn't done enough to safeguard Kushina. It was their own fault. They were responsible for all the death that got blamed on him, their son. He had been the one to suffer for their selfish need to reproduce.

It stung, though. If only. The eternal wonder of what something could have been if something else was different. Had he missed his parents? No, just the idea of having them. How could he miss what he had never had? Did he blame his parents? Somewhere he did, but he couldn't really. Human nature was to nurture and what better way to nurture than to have a child out of love for each other? At least he knew he was made with love. Then how he had been forced to live. That wasn't anyone's fault either, jet even without something to blame Naruto still felt anger and a need to find the cause of it. In a way, that made him like the villagers that had tormented him for most of his life.

Naruto sighed, and looked back up at Jiraya, who was still standing on top of his giant toad. Contemplating life would have to wait for later. It didn't matter. It was in the past. His eyes were empty and cold as he looked up, making Jiraya feel uncomfortable. Where had the burning determination from just a few moments gone?

Instead of dwelling on the sudden change, Jiraya prepared his next attack. It was going to be grand! He gathered chakra into the palm of his hand. A momento learned from his apprentice, Naruto's father. The blue chakra swirled in a tight ball, the speed of rotation high enough to influence the air around it. A whistling sound penetrated the silence that had settled in the area. "Rasengan!"

Jiraya jumped down, using the fall to increase his momentum as he charged straight for Naruto. He wasn't sure why he used this destructive Jutsu against Naruto, but it felt right to do so. If Naruto could take this, or at least counter this, Jiraya was certain Naruto could handle just about any Jutsu thrown at him.

In half the time it took for Jiraya to reach Naruto, Naruto had gathered an unnatural amount of chakra in the palm of his hand as well. A perfect mix of Kurama's and Naruto's energy gathered in bubbles before combining in his palm. Purple light emerged from it, but the center was such a jumble of intense colour it looked to be black. The chakra that escaped the Bijudama settled in the air like a purple dust, equal parts red and blue, and charged with electricity. Naruto placed one foot back, ready to catch the inevitable collision head on.

Jiraya didn't stop and Naruto didn't step out of the way. The Jutsu met and an intense pressure pushed back anything and everything that was too close. The nearest trees were uprooted and slammed backwards into their unmoved companions, only for those to bent and break down as well. The spectators scurried to find a hiding place, bracing themselves against the sheer force. Kakashi and Sarutobi were one of the few able to stand their ground, watched between their arms that guarded their faces. The first thing that visibly happened was the disappearance of the giant toad, followed by a figure being flung out of the dust cloud on both sides of the cloud. Jiraya landed on the trunk of a tree that had managed to stay up, using his chakra to stick to it as he looked back at the clouds of dust, trying to find a trace of the blond he had just attacked.

Naruto was flung back as well, but didn't recover as well as Jiraya. Or didn't really try to. Instead, he skidded across the ground and slammed into nearby rocks head first. Jiraya winched at the impact and he saw a spider-web of cracks run through the stone. He hadn't meant to actually injure Naruto. Jiraya jumped down from the tree and made his way over to the rocks, followed by Kakashi, Sarutobi and Morino.

The force had smacked Naruto deep into the stone, and all they saw at first was a deep hole smeared with blood along the right side. The blood started at a razor-sharp, protruding point of stone. As they peered into the hole, dreading to find a seriously injured boy, they found themselves staring at nothing. Just more rocks.

"What are you looking at?" A voice spoke from behind curiously, and a very familiar head of blond hair wiggled his way in between them, and peered into the hole along with them. All four stared at him, not knowing what to say. "What? Is there something on my face?" He asked innocently. He wiped his face with his left hand, only to smear blood over his face. Morino's eyes trailed to Naruto's side to find a large gash in his side. Blood was running down Naruto's side in copious amounts, soaking his clothing and pooling on the ground quickly, but the blond didn't even seem to notice.

"Oh, my Kami, Naruto!" Morino yelled, placing a hand over the gaping wound and pressing on in an attempt to slow the bleeding. Naruto looked down and blinked a few time. His foot was wet. He didn't like it. His own blood wasn't nearly as interesting as someone else's, but at least he still bled red like everyone else.

His side was stinging painfully and Morino made it worse. But Morino cared for him, so he would be helping, and Naruto let him. The simple trust of a child in his guardian was enough for Naruto to accept that Morino was hurting him more to help him, though he didn't quite grasp why he needed help. He had been injured before, worse even. Was his throat not pierced by a kunai not ten minutes ago? The blood that had run down his throat still irritated his lungs. That didn't render any care from Morino, so why did it now? Was it that much worse?

Kakashi called a few medics to Naruto with a little panic in his voice, telling them to help him and when they didn't make haste like they would have done for anyone else, Kakashi yelled at them to hurry it up! It were only two medics, but Naruto didn't like it. He didn't want to be crowded and he didn't need their basic medical attendings. He looked at Morino again and when he saw the worry in the man's eyes, Naruto sighed and let the medics do as they pleased. He closed his eyes and stood still, his arm up in the air to give them room to work.

He had to admit. Medical attention actually sped up the healing process. Who knew? Still, as soon as they were done, Naruto chased them of by glaring at them. He walked to Morino and let himself fall face first against the man's chest and covered his ears with his hands. He was tired. There were too many people here and he wasn't used to that kind of attention anymore. He didn't want to be judged by strangers anymore. Their eyes were boring holes into him and just for a little while he wanted to be sheltered from them again like he had been in the department.

Morino wrapped his arms around Naruto's head and shoulders and secluded him for as much as he could, reading the mood of his pseudo-adopted little brother perfectly. Naruto let out a single sob for the truth about his parents and his role in their deaths before he collected himself with a long, steady breath. No tears left him, but that didn't mean he was unfeeling. The arms around him slowly made him relax a little again.

"Hokage-sama, how about we break for lunch? Give the dust some time to settle?" Morino asked. It was well past noon anyway and he figured some food could help settle Naruto's unsteadiness. Sarutobi nodded and Kakashi agreed with his mentor. Morino couldn't even guess where the mind of Naruto had wandered to to gain the emptiness his eyes held now, but he did know a little secret about Naruto. A way to cheer the boy up with a single word. "Ichiraku's?"

It didn't have as much effect as Morino had hoped. Naruto looked up at Morino, eyes still slightly damp from unshed tears. "Really?" He asked in the saddest of voices. "Yes, really. Come, let's go." Naruto followed Morino, but his melancholy didn't seem to break, not even with Ichiraku's as a prospect.

"Welcome!" The phrase was shouted by Teuchi as soon as Morino touched the cloth hanging in front of the small property. Morino stopped in his tracks. "Ahaha, thanks?" He laughed awkwardly. Naruto walked past him without really seeing anything, sat down at the table and leaned his face down on it. "Old man, one large Miso Chashu Pork ramen with extra bean sprouts, extra green onions and extra Chashu Pork..." He mumbled into the table. It might have been a few years, but he still knew what the best on the menu was.

Ayame walked up to him and placed a menu in front of him. "I'm sorry, but we don't serve Ramen anymore. Here's the new menu with a selection of Tsukemen. After all, times are changing and we need to adopt to the customer's taste." She said happily.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Morino asked.

"No, Ramen is noodles served in broth with various topping. Tsukemen has the noodles served separately from a sauce, in which you dip the noodles before eating!" Tauchi answered.

"Like I said, isn't it the same thing?' Morino pressed again.

"It's the principle that's different!" Ayame answered.

"I just want Ramen..." Naruto said softly, still with his head on the table.

"One serving coming right up!" Teuchi said, walking over to Naruto with a flourish. Naruto looked up, happiness playing in his eyes, but the bowl was interrupted by Ayame. "No, these noodles need to boil for another minute, because unlike Ramen, they won't finish cooking in the broth." Naruto face-planted again as he saw his food being swiped away.

A few minutes and some soft grunts of complaints later, Teuchi placed two bowls in front of Naruto, who once again looked up happily. "Wait, where's the soup?" It was just a dry bowl of noodles. The soup had been swiped away by Ayame, who didn't agree with the taste of the broth. "This is savoury enough, but it needs to be more refreshing, like how it was at Yuugao village." Again the dish was remade, leaving Naruto to silently contemplate suicide as he needed to wait again. Morino just sat there patiently waiting for his own order.

"Alright, this time it's perfect!" Teuchi said. This time, two bowls were placed in front of him and no-one took them away from him. Naruto smirked with his face still on the table. He grabbed the bowl with the sauce and poured it right over the noodles, disregarding the other bowl. "Ha, if I do this, it still counts as Ramen!" He yelled victoriously.

"You could have at least tried! Now you'll miss the authentic Tsukemen experience!" Ayama snapped at Naruto.

"Who cares? I just want my Ramen, damn it!" They kept bickering back and forth, but as they did, Naruto ate three large orders of it, so really, even if it frustrated Ayame to her very core, there was very little for her to complain about since the business was good...

Morino smiled as he watched Naruto have a happy and healthy social interaction with someone. He only had one serving, finding that quite enough and having eaten it in the authentic Tsukemen way. He barely noticed that Naruto had already worked away a third portion until it was time to pay and, of course, Naruto had no money at all, meaning Morino needed to dig into his own wallet.

Teuchi reassured him that this wasn't the biggest bill anyone had ever gotten stuck with at the hands of Naruto and that the ANBU known as Cat even had to have a tab opened at one point over Naruto's Ramen gluttony. Naruto had grinned proudly at that and Morino couldn't help but smile back.

"So, are you feeling better?" Morino asked, as they walked through the village back to the training field.

"I guess." Naruto answered. He liked this. It was peaceful and he felt a little more in control of himself again.

Morino looked at Naruto. "Are you gonna tell me what happened?"

Naruto took a deep breath and stared ahead of him. "No..." It was sad sounding and dragged out, so Morino didn't press it further. It wasn't like he would never see Naruto again and over the past few years he had learned that Naruto had very little he wanted to keep private, usually opting to shout is with enthusiasm when something bothered him, so he knew Naruto would tell him sooner or later. He'd leave it for now.

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