from Academy to Anbu by theriku260

chapter 6

With Naruto and Jiraiya…

Once Naruto stepped into the training grounds of Ro Jiraiya could feel his godson's anger. Shit. Was the toad sage's thoughts before his jewels barely escaped a chukoto ramming into them. He dodged flurry after flurry of well timed jabs. At one point a kawarimi protected his head from flying as Naruto pulled off a perfect shunshin to get behind into Jiraiya's blind spot. If Naruto had just a couple more years practice at suppressing his chakra it would have worked. The worst part was that the whole time, his godson was behind his ANBU mask, meaning he couldn't tell what exactly he was feeling: as soon as the boy got into the battle his emotions became unreadable. Tenzo's trained him well. But who taught him that level of shunshin? And the kenjutsu is rough but deadly.

With the…spies(?)/ well meaning observers…

"Hah- stupid sage, that will teach him to abandon his family" Dragon said as he watched Naruto almost lop Jiraiya's head off for the third time. Sarutobi gave him an incredulous look.

"Dragon, he didn't abandon your subordinate, he had important duties and"

"Can it Hokage-sama; I've read his real file. As has Tenzo with my permission: he was stuck in the past and left Naruto to rot." Dragon was fiercely protective of all those under him; mess with one of them and you would be facing the fourth most powerful loyal leaf shinobi on active duty. When he discovered what Jiraiya saw as 'reasonable excuse' to not check up on or send money to his student's legacy he was tempted to break out of his disguise and use every ounce of his skill to murder Jiraiya; in other words, the dragon wanted to awaken.

But seeing his current youngest subordinate elegantly channel his teachings towards mission: skewer a toad was enough for the commander: for now, at least.

"I know you're both angry with Jiraiya but he's here now" Sarutobi tried but stopped as he could feel the room of glares from behind neutral masks. "Okay so he deserves this, but I just hope he survives- not fighting back while Naruto's like that is either brave or stupid."

Back with Naruto and Jiraiya…

"Naruto stop. Naruto!" Jiraiya held a fist with a chakra conductive kunai, wind blade centimeters from his jugular. After dodging without any response from the boy Jiraiya had fought back- big mistake. Naruto took that as permission to coat his sword and the kunai in wind chakra, and demonstrate his mastery of several low ranked but deadly jutsu. Though he was hardly putting an effort in Naruto's un predictableness almost cost the pervert on no less than six occasions (AN: No one's invincible and I hate it when high class opponents seem to appear so for ever- no, everybody is vulnerable to pointy objects aimed at vital spots if they're careless). "I know I screwed up by not being there but I'm here now- why are you attempting murder?" Jiraiya had not been so fearful in years as when Naruto used shunshin to appear several feet in front of him and pulled off his mask, eyes slitted red.

"You abandoned me. I want to know why. Not some bull crap like Iwa or spies or your network- I know ANBU runs over eighty percent of the village's intelligence gathering." Naruto growled through ragged breaths. He knew the real reason but wanted someone to admit it. Kurama in the seal was quite enjoying himself- his container was certainly more entertaining than he thought he would be and the older human deserved the pain.

"Sigh… you look just like him, that's why. Seeing you now is hard but I can tell you're your own person." Jiraiya got on the ground and bowed his nose to the dirt. "Please forgive me, for I have failed you." He asked. Naruto's eyes turned blue once more.

What will he do, I wonder. His emotions are fluctuating. Kurama didn't know whether to be disappointed or proud at his container's reply.

"No. I can't forgive you."