A Sage's Story

 

Naruto stared into the little fire he'd made and let his thoughts wander as the tongues of flame danced. He'd been traveling long enough to pick through his meager belongings, just enough to find the little treasure his father hid for him. It didn't glitter or shine but it was priceless nonetheless, the little frog toy he'd carried everywhere as a kid was nestled in his clothes.

 

He put a hand in a pocket and pulled the toy out to look it over in the flickering light. He was sitting away from the rest of the caravan so he could have some peace to think about what lay ahead of him. All he had was a name to go by and no clue where the person lived.

 

“Um… excuse me, Naruto?” A young girl around the blonde’s age approached the small fire, a warm smile on her face. Her long red hair shone brighter than usual from the residual light of the burning flames and her pale skin seemed to glow.

 

The young man jerked out of his thoughtless trance and looked at the girl, her name was Aiko and she had been one of his best friends since childhood. "Oh, hi Aiko. Sorry, I didn't see you come over."

 

The girl’s bright green eyes shifted slightly, her gaze moving down toward the ground. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just wondering if you wanted to come join us… You look so sad sitting here all by yourself.”

 

"It's okay I was just thinking about..." he gestured with the toy before he realized he was still holding it and he stuffed it into a pocket quickly, hopefully before the girl could get a good look at it.

 

Aiko giggled and her eyes trailed back up to Naruto’s face. She had had a crush on the blonde boy ever since they had met when they were kids. She had just moved into the village, her brother having just discovered his toad Overseer. Naruto had made her feel welcome from day one and they spent a lot of time together after that first day.

 

Pushing herself back into the present, the redhead sat down next to the young man and looked into the fire. “Are you thinking about your dad?”

 

"Yeah. I thought I knew him better than anyone but I really didn't. It just makes me wonder about the rest of my life, you know?" He looked at her and smiled to hide his sadness, they were good friends and he didn't want to worry her.

 

“Well, if you want to… we’ll be more than happy to welcome you to sit with us.” Aiko stood then and smiled before heading back to the group and her mother.

 

Naruto got up after a moment and followed her to sit with the rest of the caravan. Feeling sorry for himself wasn't going to change anything so he might as well enjoy himself until he got to the city.

 

"That's a good idea." He strolled over to Aiko and her family and decided to have a good time.

 

~*~

 

Naruto woke up the next morning still feeling tired and yawned. he wasn't a morning person no matter how early an apprentice’s day was supposed to begin. He would wake up slowly until he was fully awake and until then he'd just have to be careful not to run into anything that could shove back.

 

The blond waved at a few of his friends on his way to a stream to wash off the previous day’s dirt and kick start him into the morning. Already things were different from what he'd known, the ever present humidity had all but vanished and he felt like he was not comfortable so much as missing something he'd taken for granted.

 

The stream was broader than any he'd seen near the temple but it was still cool. Small frogs hid in the undergrowth and fish darted in the water the same as they always had. One of the bigger differences aside from the size of the stream were how bold the slugs were here, they just lay about whenever they pleased and didn't have the dignity to hide in the plants when the sun was up.

 

He stripped his clothes off but kept his underclothing on since there were women in the caravan and walked the short distance to the stream. He cringed at the only clear part of the riverbank and shuddered. He didn't even want to think about what would happen to him if he was caught completely naked with these people but he wasn't eager to find out either. The tanned teen didn't notice the slug between him and the water, much less that he was about to put his foot on it.

 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, kid?!” The ground rumbled slightly as the voice of a woman boomed across the stream from where Naruto stood forcing the boy to stop in his tracks. Her golden eyes were filled with rage as the heavily endowed blonde woman made a jumping leap over the flowing water, landing with a loud thud right next to the teen.

 

“You should really watch your step, brat; you almost squashed one of my slugs!” Her perfectly manicured hand shot out and smacked Naruto upside the head, her eyes still filled with fury.

 

Naruto landed squarely on his ass in the dirt and blinked before he put a hand on his head where the strangely strong woman had slapped him. He hadn't had enough time to see where she had spoken from before he'd gotten hit and he stared at her while his thoughts tried to catch up to what had happened.

 

"Your slugs? what are you-" the teenager stopped talking and looked at the ground at the woman's feet. Between her heels was the biggest slug he'd ever seen and he cringed to think about what it would have felt like if he'd actually stepped on it. "Are you a Sage?"

 

The blonde woman snorted indignantly as she leaned down to let the large slimy thing slowly move up her arm to her shoulder. “Well, look who’s observant.”

 

Her eyes suddenly moved back to the boy, looking him over a bit more closely. A smirk appeared as she placed a hand on her hip, leaning her weight on one leg. “Huh, if it isn’t little Naruto… I didn’t think you’d grow up to be so destructive. But what do I know? You were raised by Jiraiya after all.”

 

"How do you know who I am and how do you know my father. I've never left the Toad Temple or the village around it!" The pain from the slap was fading but the humiliation from getting hit in the first place and falling on his backside got deeper the more he thought about it, followed swiftly by anger.

 

“Of course that bastard wouldn’t tell you about me.” The smirk never left the older woman’s face as she pulled the angry boy up to his feet. “The name’s Tsunade… You could say I was almost your mother.”

 

"WHAT??! What do you mean almost my mom? my dad would never-" The teen stopped as he thought about what the Slug Sage had said. Technically he wasn't Jiraiya’s son so she might be talking about Minato and he had no idea what that man was like. "Who are you even talking about, who are you?"

 

“You’re a bit slow aren’t you, kid?” Tsunade crossed her arms over her large breasts and shot Naruto a pointed glance. “Jiraiya and I used to be an item… of sorts.”

 

"Yeah, I can see how that could happen but isn't he a bit old for you? Not that there's any problem with liking older guys but you look like you could have been my sister for all I know." The blue eyed apprentice Sage shook his head and finally looked his attacker over. She was a good looking woman with longish blond hair piercing eyes and plenty of curves.

 

The woman looked as if she was ready to strike again but stopped short and just sighed. “I’ll let that one side since you did say I looked young. I’m actually as old as Jiraiya and you were right, I am a Sage.”

 

Her expression became serious as she moved over to sit on a large boulder. “I’ve been looking for you. Jiraiya told me you were heading to the city and that he’d told you everything about your parents. While that’s all well and good, there are some things you should know about why your father was taken and your mother killed.”

 

"Well that's great, You know all about me and I don't know a thing about you aside from the Sage part and you hit harder than anyone I know." Naruto settled himself comfortably on the ground and tried not to look at Tsunade's generous endowments and found himself looking at her slug instead. He was curious why the Toad Sage had only said his mother was dead but the old man had been reluctant to say anything about it and the blond had left the subject alone out of respect.

 

“Just shut up and listen!” Tsunade huffed in exasperation before she began. “There’s a lot you don’t know Naruto. Your father was a very powerful man in this nation. Not only for his leadership, but also his Sage abilities. He was able to utilize multiple animals and had more than one Overseer. But that’s not the reason your parents were targeted. There are people looking for those with the Sage abilities, they want to utilize people like us as weapons. Your father was one of their targets and your mother… was used as a bargaining chip.”

 

"You can't be serious. What kind of twisted person would do anything like that? Sages aren't supposed to use their talents for greed or power, that's not what being a Sage is about! You're supposed to keep balance with nature." The blond could hear the old Sage’s words echoing in the back of his mind when warned about the rogue Sages and found it hard to believe that anyone would want another war like the one that had scared his forest home.

 

“These aren’t rouge Sages Naruto; these people don’t possess the abilities of the Sage. Their goal is to exploit the power for their own by capturing those who are Sages.” Tsunade stood and walked over to the blonde boy, her hand extended to place on his shoulder. “I know this will be your first time in the city; it’s a dangerous place for someone like you. Kakashi knows about these people as well and he’ll protect you but you have to keep your mind alert.”

 

"What do those people have to do with me? I can't do anything right with animals and I haven't seen any Overseers, not a one even with dad’s training. Why would they want someone like me?" He knew that answer, it was all about bloodlines but he didn't want to admit it to himself. The old Sage had told him Minato had power over many animals and so had Tsunade but he still didn't think of himself as the son of the faceless man he was supposed to be related to.

 

Tsunade sighed and removed her hand from Naruto’s shoulder. Without the teen having noticed, the large slug had moved along the older woman’s arm to perch on Naruto’s shoulder. “They wanted your father for a specific reason. His first Overseer was the Kyuubi, a very powerful fox spirit. Since I’m sure you know by now that the art of the Sages is passed down through family bloodlines, it would only make sense they would be looking for you as well.”

 

"Kyuubi..." He knew what that Overseer was supposed to look like and he felt a tingle go down his spine. Kyuubi was said to have powers unimaginable and no fox could compare to it since they all had just one tail to draw their strength from instead of nine. Except he'd seen one with a pair of tails.

 

The leader of the caravan called out that everyone had ten minutes to get their things together before they moved out once more and Tsunade growled at the time restraint. “Take Katsuyu with you, I’ll be able to track you more easily. She also knows how to get you in contact with Kakashi once you’re in the city. I’ll be returning there in about a month.”

 

"Who is Katsuyu?" The young man looked around to see if anyone had walked up while he'd been distracted and cursed himself for not getting up sooner. With the caravan about to go he would barely have enough time to pack his things and splash the dirt from his face and arms before the carts got moving again.

 

“On your shoulder, brat…” Without another word, the woman was gone; in her place a small package was left with a note that read ‘Don’t overdo it on the snacks, I sent enough for the rest of your trip. Miss you already Kiddo. Dad’

 

Naruto looked at his shoulder and made a face at the slug, he didn't remember it sliming its way to his shoulder and it was just looking at him. Wait maybe it hadn't actually crawled up him, that Slug sage had put her hand on his shoulder after the slug had climbed onto her!

 

"Don't slime me up all day, alright?" He shot the slug a look and put his clothes back on before picking up the package from the boulder. No time to clean up before everyone got moving again but he had gotten a lot more from the meeting than just a bath.

 

Aiko smiled as Naruto joined the rest of the caravan as they set off once more. She noticed the slug on his shoulder and quirked a thin red brow. “Naruto, did you know you have a slug on your shoulder?”

 

The young Sage-in-training sighed internally and wished that the slug had gone someplace less visible but decided not to make an issue of it. Tsunade might still be around and if he started messing around with her slug she might come out of nowhere and lecture him about being destructive which he didn't want to deal with at the moment.

 

"Yeah I picked it up this morning from one of Dad's girlfriends, Turns out she's a Slug Sage and she had some heavy stuff to tell me before I got to the city." He felt the weight of the woman's news weighing on him like wet robes and didn't know what to do with it. It was one thing to have missing or dead parents, that wasn't unusual no matter how bad that sounded.

 

To have parents that were abducted and used to make them do unspeakable things that could hurt other people was too horrible to believe. Top that off with being stolen away from them and hidden as a baby to be kept safe before you even knew what they looked like was so much worse. "Hey, can I ask you something? it's kind of serious."

 

The young redhead’s expression became serious as well, hearing the importance of the request in her friend’s voice. She didn’t know much about the blonde’s circumstances but her parents weren’t very helpful when she had asked about it a few years ago. “Sure, you can ask me anything.”

 

Naruto took a deep, steadying breath and took a moment to calm his emotions and thoughts before he exposed a question that had been eating at him ever since his father had revealed the through about the blonde’s parents. "What would you do if someone you trusted more than anyone told you that you were adopted and your real parents were still out there somewhere?"

 

Aiko knew that Naruto was talking about himself and she looked away for the briefest moment. She was sure that the teen didn’t want any pity but it was hard not to feel it when the truth was confirmed. “I guess… I would feel a little betrayed and want to know why they kept it from me for so long. But I think I would be more curious than anything. I do know that I would still love whoever raised me and always think of them as my real parents… They would have been all I knew.”

 

"And if your real parents were-" tortured because bad people wanted to use them as soldiers. Naruto stopped short of finishing the sentence. These people Tsunade mentioned seemed like real bad news and if they were real then it would be best if he didn't tell anyone about his parents’ circumstances. "-dead? or at least your mom was. Would you try to find the one that could possibly be alive? I really don't know what I should do here."

 

“Well…“ What was she supposed to say? It wasn’t like she had been through anything like that before but she still wanted to help her friend. “I think the only thing you can do is love the person who raised you and trust that they will tell you what you need to know when they think you’re ready.”

 

She looked away for a moment; maybe that sounded a bit too harsh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to sound insensitive or anything.”

 

"No, that's okay. I don't know if I should even try to find this person that's supposed to be my dad or if I even want to. I don't even know where to look if I decided to find him, it’s just so confusing." He looked at Aiko and cracked a smile, He didn't want her to worry about him too much but what she said did make him feel better. Just because Jiraiya wasn't the father he was related to didn’t mean Jiraiya was a fake or that his life was a lie.

 

Aiko smiled and they changed the subject after that, content to just be in each other’s company. She knew that Naruto would undoubtedly find whatever he was looking for; he was always stubborn and never gave up when his mind was set to something and she knew that his journey would be no different. She just hoped he’d be careful, the city could be a dangerous place; even she knew that.

~TBC