Third person POV____

Jiraiya was slightly annoyed. Sure he had delt with the akatsuki who'd been after his godson. But now he was stuck with two extra brats.

The trip was suppose to be where he told Naruto all about his old man and recount embarrassing stories about his deceased pupil.

Like how Kushina used to call Minato a Nancy boy. Or how they had ended up naming Naruto.

And although they were orderly and polite, which definitely had something to do with Kakashi's training, Jiraiya couldn't help but feel disheartened.

It's not like he hadn't wanted to be there for his Godson. If Naruto's sabotaged birth was anything to go by, then there would be more assassins sent to finish the job.

And they hadn't been wrong. Iwa and Kumo had been quick to militarize. More patrols in the borders and a few ninja hoping over the border to nearby towns gathering information.

It had been some of Jiraiyas's own spies that had alerted him of the militarization.

Small squabbles became more common and in some places, to the point only high ranking ninja were allowed to take missions in certain places.

Iwa was the first to calm down, but it also became too quiet. Onoki had pulled his forces back and left Konoha speculating on their reasoning. Although they believed it was because Iwa still hadn't recovered from the third shinobi war.

If that hadn't been enough after things seemed to start calming down the Hyuga incident occurred, due to the violation of the treaty and attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga heiress. The village was sent on high alert.

But in the end war was avoided by sacrificing Hizashi Hyūga. After that it took two years for things to start calming down.

So many wild events, from Orochimaru deflection to the shit show that was the Chunin exams.

And Jiraiya was part of it. From the espionage, strategic planning , and the fighter. He was dealing with most external problems of the village.

But in what felt like a blink of an eye, time went by and suddenly his Godson was older.

Some would say that even if he had done all of that, it wasn't an excuse for not being in his Godson's life.

But those years hadn't been Jiraiya's best. His pupil who he had come to see as his own son died along side his students wife.

Then as he is recovering from grieving, his closest friend turns into rogue ninja because he was experimenting on villagers, and the woman he loved deserted the village.

There had been little he could do since he was a vital part of the villages security. But he paid the boys rent, food and school expenses. And most importantly he kept Naruto safe from any outside influences

But by the time everything calmed down, Naruto was twelve years old and a shinobi.

"Jiraiya-Sama who are we looking for?" Sakura asked as they walked down the road towards another town.

"She's a healer, my teammate Tsunade Senju. She's about this tall and beautiful, but she's also dangerous so you three better behave." He says with a shrug as he pouts slightly.

"We will stop here." Jiraiya stated as he came to a sudden halt.

Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other with cocked brows. Naruto looked around at the small clearing by the side of the road.

"Why are we stopping? There's plenty of daylight still." Naruto pointed out in confusion.

"Well we need to set up camp and it's best for us to have a bit of distance from the town for the Jutsu I'll be teaching you." Jiraiya says as he gestured for the genin to follow him into the woods to set up camp.

"What are you going to teach naruto?" Sakura asked and Jiraiya looked around and found a tree he liked.

"Good question. Well there is one thing I want to pass down." He runs his hands through a few hand signs.

All three watched as a scroll was summoned.

It was a good 3 ft, almost 4 ft long. Jiraiya opened the scroll. There were blank spaces but in one of the gaps there is a name written out in neat Kanji saying 'Minato' and finger prints beneath it.

"This is the summoning scroll for the toads. The last person I let sign this died, my pupil Minato.." Jiraiya sighed as he looked at his old students name.

Naruto frowned slightly as he looked at his fathers name. Unlike Jiraiya's name which still held some vibrancy of red, Minato name looked dull and almost brown, it signified that he was dead.

Naruto got the implied 'This was your fathers summon animal as well.'

Naruto nodded. "They will aid you. If you are ever caught alone with Akatsuki and can't fight them off, reverse summon yourself away. " Jiraiya stated.

"Toads are mostly a warrior clan, so you can summon them for battle. You can write your name beside the Yondaime." Jiraiya says and Naruto crouched down and bit his thumb.

He carefully spelled out his name on the scroll and smudged his fingerprints beneath his name.

Naruto looked up at Jiraiya, the older man nodded and rolled the scroll back up and slung it over his shoulder.

"These are the handsigns, you will practice them and when you think you got the hang of it, you will attempt your first summoning." He says and Naruto nods eagerly.

Sakura and Sasuke watched their friend train the new summoning he had been given.

"Hey, Jiraiya can you..ow..I meant Jiraiya-sama, can you teach me a Jutsu?" Sasuke asked as he rubbed his arm where Sakura had nudged him for not using a proper title when addressing a higher ranked ninja.

Jiraiya chuckled and nodded." This is my chameleon Jutsu, you two brats could try to learn it." He says and both of them piped up.

And with that they set up camp and trained together.
_______
Tanzaku town was lively, all three genin were eager to take a look around the place. And Jiraiya kept his senses open.

"Now we are going to do some reconnaissance work, has Kakashi gotten around to teaching you how to interrogate people without them noticing?" He asks and the three genin shake their heads.

"I'm pretty sure most don't start training in that until their Chūnin." Sakura points out as she places both hands behind her back.

"Also we  are a front line team, we are all heavy hitters and aren't expected to do much recon just yet." Sasuke points out and Naruto nods in agreement.

"Ah, well listen up brats. Recon is about how you ask things, given the chance people will talk your ear off, they'll tell you nearly everything about themselves if you know how to ask right. And if you are invested in what they say, and from their ramblings you might hear something you needed to know. And the best places to gather intel are restaurants, bars and the market." Jiraiya starts off as he looks at all three of them.

"You have to be a people person in order to recon as well. So follow me I'll show you how it's done." He says and all three genin follow behind him excitedly.

Jiraiya nods as he starts to lead them through the town. He stopped by a merchant stand and started buying some fruits. The genin watched as he began a casual conversation with the merchant.

He was chatting with the man for a while before he pulled out a picture of Tsunade Senju.

"You see this is her son and she told us to meet her here, have you seen her?" Jiraiya asks as he casually lied through his teeth.

The merchant glanced at naruto and back at the picture of the woman. "Hmm, I think I did see her. She was accompanied by a dark haired woman." The man stated as he glanced up at Jiraiya.

Most people disliked being asked if they'd seen someone. The reasoning was that they didn't know if whoever was searching for said person was a good or bad. Most didn't like snitching because what if they aided someone that was bad. But seeing Naruto and saying he was Tsunade's son then it didn't make them as frightening.

"Ah, It must be Shizune who she was traveling with. Do you know where she went?" He asked casually and the merchant nodded.
"Saw then go to the gambling  district." The man stated and Jiraiya thanked him and paid for the fruits before handing them to the genin and keeping one for himself.

Jiraiya smirked at the three genin." It seems that we have a lead." He says as they head out.

"You just sweet talked that man. Naruto, that guy is good." Sakura says wide eyed as she bit down on the fruit.

Naruto nods excitedly. " So this is what you were doing in the previous town?" Naruto asked and Jiraiya nodded.

"Now come along, in pretty sure I can find you three someone to practice on." He says
_______

By late afternoon they were looking for a place to eat. As promised Jiraiya had found people for the three genin to interrogate.

Sasuke was the one to have the most trouble in the questioning, his questioning was too direct and monotone. Most of the people found him a bit rude and he accidentally made them a bit paranoid.

Sakura flunked the first two times she tried questioning someone, she ended up scaring them off and making them paranoid before she finally started to get the hang of it. Her appearance did make her look less frightening and she charmed them with sweet smiles, she had to also be a good listener.

Naruto got the hang of it the quickest. By the time he was done with a person they had told him almost their whole life story, they even discussed trauma and their woes. People were happy to point him in the right direction.

Both Sasuke and Sakura pouted at how good Naruto was with recon. Jiraiya simply laughed and patted Naruto's back telling him that if he no longer wanted to be Hokage and wanted to take over Jiraiya's post he would be glad to take him under his wing.

Of course Naruto protested saying that being Hokage was his dream, but that he would consider.

They were in the gambling district and they seemed to keep missing her.

That was until they walked in to eat at a bar.

Jiraiya's eyes widened at the sight of his former teammate.

"Tsunade!" He called out and the blonde woman looked up at him.

"Well well lots of familiar faces." She slurs out as she notices him.

Jiraiya grins and gestures for the genin to follow him.

"Got a new team? Thought you'd have learned your lesson after what happened last time round." She slurred as she looked over the three genin.

Jiraiya frowned at her comment. "They're not my team, Sakumo's kid is their Jonin Sensei." He stated as he took a seat in front of her.

"Kakashi? Haven't seen that brat since he graduated from the academy. Good kid, always thought he'd make it big. Didn't all of Minato's kids die except for him? The good ones are always the first to go." She mutters darkly as she looks down at her sake.

Jiraiya purses his lips but doesn't comment for a moment. "They ended up tagging along with me. They'll be making a name for themselves when their older." He says ignoring her comment.

The three genin glanced at each other with confused looks. Wasn't Tsunade suppose to be a strong shinobi like Jiraiya?

Jiraiya let the genin settle down beside him before he spoke.

"Sadly this isn't a social call. I'm not sure if you are aware of the happenings inside of the village." He says and Tsunade snorts.

"Orochimaru was here, bragging about how he finally struck Sensei down." She grumbled before chuckling. "The crazy bastard actually did it." She mumbled as she took a shot of sake.

"He did, now we are leaderless. Konoha has issued a summoning. They believe you are the best Hokage candidate." He says and Tsunade laughs. All three genin stare at the two Sannin in shock.

Naruto was aghast, sure she was a sannin but what the hell was with her attitude.

Tsunade pauses for a second. "Me Hokage? Do I look like a self sacrificing moron! I left that village with the intentions of never going back. Why would I ever return." She sneered and Jiraiya hissed.

"Watch what you say Tsunade, you could be saying something akin to treason." He sneers out as he crossed his arms.

Tsunade closed her mouth and glared down at the table. "Why should I go back?" She muttered.

"My grandparents, my grand uncle, parents, my niece, my fiancé and even my own brother, I've given nearly everything to the village, except shizune." She swallows hard as she clenched her fist.

"Jiraiya, I've given the village everything. I'm the last goddamn Senju. The village has taken it all, why should I have to go back?!" She snapped as she looked at her teammate.

Jiraiya frowned as he looked down, not being able to look his teammate in the eyes.

He bit the side of his cheek and closed his eyes. "You've been summoned, by law and oath, you are to return with us. Even if it is to deny the Hokage post. Your village requires it of you." He says as he opens his eyes and stares at her.

For a moment she looked crestfallen. Her lips twisted into a frown. Before a wicked smile crept on her face and she lover out a laugh.

"Ahaha fuck. So duty bound, huh. Otherwise I'm assuming you are going to declare me a missing nin, huh? Even if you've claimed to have been in love with me since we were young. "She grinned as she leaned in.

"I will do what is required of me, I am no traitor and as long as you aren't one either then there's no reason for any animosity." Jiraiya stated.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were all listening in with wide eyes.

Tsunade glanced at Naruto and her eyes widened before she turned to Jiraiya. "I would have thought you understood, after loosing two of your genin and then loosing that Minato kid." She says as she looks over at him. She could see Jiraiya stiffen at Minato's name.

"Wasn't he like your own? You were over the moon when he married my niece Kushina. Didn't he die in service to the village shortly after becoming Hokage? He didn't even last two years." She laughed, but it was a laugh of exasperation.

"Look at them now, dead. Kushina didn't want to come with me. She stayed and look at her, six feet under." She sighed.

"Well, if you had been there you'd have known. That she had left behind Naruto. Although Kiro -san did a great job in raising him. You can't always stay in the past Tsunade." Jiraiya looked at her with a sad gaze.

She froze, her eyes slowly turning to Naruto before looking back to Jiraiya. She nods as Shizune placed a hand on Tsunade's shoulder. "It would be best if you and I spoke privately, without the audience." She says as she looks over at the genin.

Naruto sat in silence, so Tsunade Senju was related to his birth mother, who would have known
______
I reread last chapter and I'm embarrassed at how bare it is so I added a bit more flare in this chapter.

Rosymalik, rosyhatake