Enter, the Pervert!

Jiraiya lay on the ground limply, his body smoking.

"Why in the world did you never come back to visit? Minato-kun was so worried about you, you old pervert!" Kushina yelled, a clenched fist slamming home into his face.

"Well, I had to tend to my spy network and I had no time-" Jiraiya started to explain.

"Couldn't you have visited even if just to meet your godchildren?" Kushina asked, anger flushing her cheeks red.

Jiraiya hung his head, "Sorry...."

Kushina proceeded to beat him to a pulp.

Minato used his Hiraishin to flash to the position he felt his sensei's chakra signature suddenly appear at.

"Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato questioned, his expression perplexed as he raised an eyebrow at the man who lay face-down on the ground with steam rolling off a large bruise on his head that was already swelling rapidly to the size of a large egg.

"Ah, Minato," Jiraiya said, finally noticing his apprentice.

The older man bounced to his feet, the bruises and scratches littering his tan skin vanishing without a trace as ruffled clothing turned crisp in a mere second.

"How have you been?" Jiraiya asked, his tone friendly and seeming unaffected by his previous predicament.

A vein began to pulse on Minato's temple, "How have I been, you ask? Absolutely wonderful, I'd say. I had such a great time looking all over the Five Great Shinobi Countries for you!" Minato replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, I'm glad you had fun-" Jiraiya responded, seeming to not notice the tone his apprentice had used.

"Sensei!" Minato shouted, interrupting the older man. "You were gone for three years. Three whole years! Where in the world have you been?"

Jiraiya winced, "I have been managing my spy network and doing information-gathering, of course."

"Oh? Why do I not believe you? I heard from Kakashi that you had released ten books during the time you were gone. Are you sure that that is something beneficial to your network and for Konoha?" Minato said disbelievingly.

Jiraiya lowered his head, observing the grains of dirt on the ground as he wondered how he should tell Minato about it.

Jiraiya was quite excited. He had been called to the Great Toad Sage to receive a prophecy that could very well mean everything. Even though the old senile toad did not seem to even remember him, he had called for him. Once the Sage decided to be serious, he cleared his throat.

"Now then... in my dreams, I see you becoming a pervert without equal... and a shinobi of incredible talent... Someday, you will take on a pupil..." the huge toad began, causing Jiraiya to twitch uncomfortably.

'A pervert? Jeez... Did he really have to be so specific?' Jiraiya thought in disgruntlement.

"This student will become the harbinger of a great revolution in the world of shinobi... I have seen as much in my dreams," Gamamaru continued.

"A revolution?" Jiraiya echoed, his expression showing his confusion.

"He will finally bring peace to the world... or utterly destroy it. The result of his revolution will be one or the other..." the toad continued sagely, his words cryptic and only serving to confuse Jiraiya.

"One or the other? What do you mean?" Jiraiya questioned, his tone serious without a single hint of mischief.

"You will be his master, his teacher... and eventually, you will be forced to make a difficult choice," Gamamaru continued, ignoring Jiraiya's question.

"What... choice?" Jiraiya asked hesitantly.

"The path you take will determine the fate of the world," Gamamaru explained mysteriously.

Jiraiya thought over his words, barely managing to stutter out, "M-Me? What do I have to do? What is the right choice?!"

"You will travel the world... and write a book," the toad sage told Jiraiya.

"A book? Why do I have to-" Jiraiya asked, only to be cut off once more.

"I myself do not understand the nature of these actions, but you will walk across the globe and observe all of creation and watch as nature takes its course," Gamamaru explained.

"Umm... Great Sage... have any of your predictions ever been... uh, wrong?" Jiraiya asked, dubious about the sage's prophesy.

"Nope. I predicted that a young boy would stumble upon Mount Myōboku and that I would gift him with the power of the toads. That was a vision I had of my own future..." Gamamaru told the toad summoner.

Naruto, who had been committing a severe invasion of privacy by watching the flashback, finally realised something.

"Oh... so that's why he's called the Toad Sannin and reeks of the damned amphibians..." Naruto muttered quietly to himself.

Jiraiya, in the meantime, was thinking, 'At least, that was the prophecy that I had been living my life by. Even though I did not believe it at first, things gradually began to come true. I told Minato about it and trained Nagato because of it. I never would have expected it all to come crashing down on me...."

Jiraiya recalled what had happened a few months before the Kyūbi attack, about the same time he found out about Naruto. He had been honoured that his student saw fit to name his son after his book character, but he was saddened that the couple had kept the pregnancy — which never happened, not that he knew about that — from him. It made him realise how much he had been betting on one of his two students being the subjects of the prophecy.

Jiraiya had been sitting under a waterfall on Mount Myōboku, meditating in silence when he was interrupted by Gamabunta — much like he had been the time where he had received the prophecy about his student.

"Oi, Jiraiya! The old man is calling for you again!" Gamabunta said rudely.

"The Great Sage? What is it this time? One prophecy is more than enough for one lifetime..." Jiraiya grumbled.

"I don't know. I think he said something about a change in the prophecy..." Gamabunta replied with a shrug.

Jiraiya went up to the old toad and bowed lowly.

"Have I been summoned, Great Sage?" Jiraiya said respectfully.

"Yes, my boy. I would have tried to joke around like we did last time, but this time is serious," Gamamaru said solemnly.

"What happened?" Jiraiya asked, starting to get worried.

"There has been a change in the prophecy," the toad stated simply, but that one statement meant much more than it would have seemed.

"What?" Jiraiya shouted in outrage.

"The new prophecy is rather different. To this world will come the undying, the one who has lived through horrors and miseries. He is of the lost mirrors, the lost among the lost and the ones buried deep in time. He would be able to reshape the world with barely a thought and will be able to do as he wishes with it. The fate of the world lies in his choices for there is one that only he can defeat. He will unite those that have been separated since their creation and make the impossible possible..." Gamamaru trailed off.

Jiraiya's eyes widened. What kind of person is this? This was no longer a human they were dealing with!

Before Jiraiya could speak up, Gamamaru continued, "He can bring peace to this war-torn world, but he can also lead with unending cruelty as the world's fearsome new god. The world is in the palm of his hands."

Gamamaru sounded fearful and even panicky as he finished, "He can be Yami, but he can also be Kami. He can destroy the world, only to recreate it as he pleases, or he can bring us a new era of peace. No one will be able to stop him."

Jiraiya felt his heart thunder in his chest and gulped painfully, 'Crap... I should have been glad about my own prophecy. I hope that this god will not kill us all.'

Jiraiya decided that there was no way to avoid saying it outright.

Naruto wondered what the prophecy meant. He knew that he was the one mentioned in the prophecy, that much he had understood. However, he did not understand how he was powerful enough to be a god. He sure did not feel like it. He is immortal, of course, with every ability belonging to his lost clan. He can take any power in the world for his own, but that did not equate to godliness... right? Well, it did not matter... much. The toad might just be wrong about him.

Naruto was brought from his musings by Jiraiya telling Minato the truth, "There has been a change in the prophecy, Minato. I am now sure that it does not involve you..." Jiraiya then completed the sentence in his head, 'or Nagato.'

Naruto felt perplexed by this statement.

He just had to look for this "Nagato" character and his gut feeling told him to try Ame.

"What?" Minato cried out in disbelief, his eyes wide.

"That's not the most shocking part," Jiraiya said grimly.

"The rest should be said in private," Jiraiya told Minato when he noticed the blond give him a look of anticipation.

The Hokage nodded reluctantly, deciding that respect the Sannin's decision to keep this matter hidden. He began to walk towards his home, leading the way even though everyone already knew how to get there. Minato sat down heavily on the couch, Kushina seating herself more carefully beside her husband.

Jiraiya took the one-seater opposite the love seat the couple shared before starting with a question, "Is it really wise to allow your eldest to listen in?"

Minato finally noticed Naruto who was seated beside Kushina on a padded stool. Just as he was about to tell Naruto to go somewhere else to play with his siblings, Kushina shook her head and placed a hand on his arm. When Minato looked at her questioningly, Kushina smiled a little, her eyes reassuring Minato.

Kushina decided to let her husband in on part of her baby boy's skill set, "I'll tell you all about it later, but Naruto is smart. He is even more prodigious than Mikoto's kid."

Minato was dubious, but Jiraiya nodded in agreement. Minato wisely chose not to pursue the matter, deciding to trust his wife when she said that she would explain.

"Okay then," Minato agreed reluctantly as Kushina activated the silencing seals around the room.

"You do notice that there is an ANBU right behind you, right?" Naruto pointed out to Minato before Jiraiya could start talking.

The masked woman quickly began to try to escape without getting caught when her presence was revealed, but Kushina easily caught her with chakra chains.

"ROOT... this must have been Danzō's handiwork..." Minato muttered when he saw the 根 [Ne] on the forehead of the mask, the kanji for root.

Kushina quickly placed a pre-written unconsciousness seal on the ANBU's back so that Minato had proof to corner Danzō with afterwards. She allowed her chains to loosen and return to her, leaving the woman unbound but unconscious. Jiraiya just shook his head, the only thing in his mind disappointment that the old war hawk had yet to kick the bucket.

"The thing is, the person within the prophecy was described as undying or something of that nature. The old Sage's words were cryptic, but that was the first keyword. It might mean someone who is constantly reborn when they die, like a phoenix. It might mean that person is not really a person, but rather, a god. It can also mean that the person is immortal. The next keyword is 'lost mirrors'. The sage said that the person 'is of the lost mirrors, the lost among the lost and the ones buried deep in time'. It either means a forgotten clan or some sacred mirror from the past that had been lost somehow. In that case, he would have some sort of connection to the mirror. The person could have been sealed in the mirror and forgotten or part of a clan that guarded the mirror until it got lost. There are many possibilities... too many..." Jiraiya explained, his eyes becoming unfocused.

"He also said that the one in the prophecy can reshape the world without difficulty and do as he wishes with it. There was something about a great unbeatable enemy that only the one in the prophecy can defeat and uniting beings that have been separated since creation itself," Jiraiya said what he was able to recall, unknowingly getting the last part wrong.

Naruto noticed, but he wished to neither set them straight nor reveal his own ability to read minds.

"He is supposed to be able to make the impossible possible," Jiraiya continued after some thought.

"He? Was it specifically mentioned by the sage that the prophesied person was male?" Kushina could not help but ask, curiosity getting the better of her.

"I don't think so. The sage referred to the prophesied one with male pronouns but did not seem to mean anything by it. He never mentioned anything about the person being male. It could very well be a female," Jiraiya replied after thinking about it for a bit.

Kushina nodded in understanding. Male pronouns were normally used when the gender of the person was unconfirmed. This has been so since ancient times.

Jiraiya managed to remember what the toad said after that and quoted, "He can bring peace to this war-torn world, but he can also lead with unending cruelty as the world's fearsome new god. The world is in the palm of his hands. He can be Yami, but he can also be Kami. He can destroy the world, only to recreate it as he pleases, or he can bring us a new era of peace. No one will be able to stop him."

Minato was worried. Very worried. None of them will be able to stop this person if he decided that he wanted to do something that would end at their disadvantage. They will not even be able to kill the person of the prophecy even if they were off-guard simply because they cannot die. It was plain unfair.

Kushina shivered, "That is terrifying. Why would he wish to bring horror to the world?"

Jiraiya, hearing the word 'horror', finally recalled another important part of the prophecy of the Great Toad Sage.

"To this world will come the undying, the one who has lived through horrors and miseries," Jiraiya muttered, successfully quoting the first sentence of the prophecy.

"So he would put people through the very suffering he endured? Is that not extremely selfish?" Minato asked, irking Naruto.

"Think about it this way, tou-san. The people may not necessarily be innocent. For all you know, the people of the world may very well have done something to provoke the person in the prophecy to act in the first place. That would explain his actions as it is normal to wish to place your torturer through the pain they forced you to endure," Naruto spoke up for the first time since they began the discussion about the prophecy, surprising the adults who had seemingly forgotten that he was there.

None of the shinobi noticed the bitter way the boy said 'tou-san'. They were too focused on his other words.

"That makes a lot of sense," Minato admitted.

"Isn't my son smart?" Kushina boasted, though her mind was on something else altogether.

'Why would Naruto think that way? I had made sure to keep him from the crueller parts of the real shinobi world. How would he understand a concept like that when he has never had such an experience in his life?' Kushina worried, concerned for the blond four-year-old.

Jiraiya nodded, his expression grim.

"That would mean that the person is less likely to have mercy on this world. He will be able to end the world without remorse," Jiraiya stated, worry causing his white brows to wrinkle.

Kushina and Minato gulped at the thought while Naruto just wondered how they got to that kind of conclusion, 'I have never intended to take over the world! Perhaps I may have entertained the idea of killing Minato a few times too many, but I will not do it just yet. He has children who do not deserve to lose their father, regardless of how much of an asshole he was. I will do it after showing those children how cruel he had been in his life when they are older. I am not as evil as he is. I'm not that low.'

"The prophecy seems true enough." Kurama commented, "You are different from all of your predecessors. You seem stronger, better. You always had been able to use your eyes from the very beginning, but most main branch Kagami actually take several years to unlock them and even longer to actually master them. For them to be capable of copying complex bloodlines like other dōjutsu, it might even take decades. Moreover, copying the entire genetic structure of the person like you have with the Uzumaki bloodline and changing your whole body to be able to adapt to it is something that even the other immortals took at least a whole century to accomplish. You felt pain as your body was still young, but you were still able to do it. You are different, with your own set of capabilities. You even have more chakra than those before you."

Naruto could not think of a way to refute his friend's words. They were the truth, no buts about it. Naruto was special and the prophecy described him. Unfortunately, he felt tempted to wipe their memories as well as those of the frog sage. The prophecy just revealed far too much about him for comfort, however far they were from the truth.

"Is that all?" Minato asked his sensei, already forming a shadow clone to take over his Kage duties as he really could not bring himself to go back to work.

"Indeed, though I would like to speak with your son here," Jiraiya told his apprentice.

"Go ahead, I will be with Kushina. Watch out for the twins if you're staying in the compound. They are most fond of their big brother," Minato replied, following his wife into their room.

"Sure thing," Jiraiya called back, already turning toward Naruto.

"How about I take you out for some ramen?" Jiraiya suggested kindly.

"There's no need for you to treat me," Naruto said politely.

"No, no. I insist. I'm your godfather and had missed out on most of your childhood. Though many at your age are still children, you seem much more mature..." Jiraiya replied, prodding a bit at the boy in hope for a reaction.

Unlike both his parents would have done, Naruto did not respond much. He shrugged his shoulders slightly, the movement small but changing his posture enough to show any onlooker that Naruto honestly did not care. It was a strange but effective form of body language which carried his meaning better than words and did not require him to change his facial expression.

Right as he was about to continue to try to get a reaction from the child, twin blurs of red and yellow flew into the room and crashed into Naruto who had somehow retained his balance and narrowly avoided falling to the ground. Jiraiya took a closer look and saw that the "creatures" were actually children, in fact, they were his younger godchildren Natsume and Naomi. Minato had warned him about the two children before, but he did not expect them to be clingy. Naruto, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by the attack launched at him.

"Naru-nii!" the boy said cheerfully while the girl shouted gleefully at the same time, "Aniki!"

Jiraiya noted that the boy with blond hair with red highlights acted more like Minato and had his eye colour despite possessing his mother's facial structure while the girl had crimson hair that matched her mother's along with the same violet eyes she shared with the said woman and acted a lot like her mother despite having her father's more angular facial features. Along with Naruto, they looked like the perfect trio. The sad part was that Naruto was taller by a significant amount and about a year older, meaning that they would end up in different years and classes. The two had managed to escape the clone of their mother in favour of looking for their precious big brother.

"Would you like to go have ramen with your nii-san?" Jiraiya asked the two three-year-olds, ignoring the feeling in his gut that told him that it was a terrible idea to bring three Uzumaki children or at the same time.

"Ramen!" the twins cheered, getting off their brother so that he could get off his chair before clutching tightly onto his arms.

Jiraiya placed a gentle hand on Naruto's back, the boy rather effectively hiding his flinch of surprise and discomfort from the man. The Sannin decided to take the three Uzumakis to Ichiraku's Ramen stand for the first time - Kushina preferred to let her children dine in as she felt that outside food was unsuitable for growing children. Kushina loved and respected the ramen at Ichiraku's, but she knew that it is not suitable for children as it was high in both oil and salt.

They did not take long to reach the ramen stand, where they were greeted warmly by Teuchi and his eleven-year-old daughter Ayame.

"Long time no see, Jiraiya-sama. Are these three the little Uzumaki-Namikazes?"

"That's right. The red-haired girl is Naomi, the younger boy with red highlights is Natsume and the eldest with blond hair is Naruto," Jiraiya introduced the children.

"Say hello to Teuchi-oji-san and Ayame-nee-chan," Jiraiya told the three children.

"Konnichiwa, Teuchi-san, Ayame-san," Naruto greeted politely.

The two fumbled, surprised by the manners the child displayed, "Please, just call me Teuchi. Ojii-san is fine too."

"You can just call me Ayame or nee-chan," Ayame added.

Naruto relented, "Hai, Teuchi-oji-san, Ayame-onee-san."

"Isn't that a bit long?" Jiraiya asked Naruto with a comical sweat-drop hanging from the side of his head, only to be completely ignored.

Seeing their older brother greet the two strangers, Natsume and Naomi saw fit to do the same, "Hello, oji-san, Ayame-nee-san."

The older girl could only squeal at how adorable the twins were. The two children cocked their heads to opposite sides at the same time in confusion, only making Ayame mutter about overly cute children. The two decided to ignore the girl and turned to their adopted brother for assistance.

Naruto helped his younger siblings up onto the tall stools, knowing that the two had better coordination and balance than most children and that they would not fall off. Jiraiya did not know that but did not know that young children needed special chairs either. Naruto got up on the stool beside the younger of his adoptive siblings while Jiraiya chose to seat himself beside the boy.

Jiraiya ordered standard miso ramen for the three children while he got himself one with a spicy tonkotsu broth before beginning to address the blond beside him, "So, how much have you learnt?"

Naruto turned to face him and shrugged his shoulders, his demeanour slightly more relaxed — only slightly — when he was with his twin siblings, "I only 'unlocked my chakra' today," he made mental air quotations over it. "After that, kaa-san made me practice the tree- and water-walking chakra control exercises which I did not take that long to finish. Then she made me learn the three basic academy ninjutsu that I managed to do on my first try. She made me learn how to do them without hand seals because she thought that it would not be too difficult for me. Next, she 'taught' me the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and made me learn it without hand seals. Afterwards, she tested my elemental affinity and trained me in my manipulation of the various elements before telling me to make some shadow clones to train in a few elemental jutsu. She decided what she had made me do was not challenging enough and made me learn the Rasengan. I watched how she did it and used my sensory to find out how much chakra she put into it and how she rotated her chakra and completed the first stage easily in one try. I did the same for the second and third steps. You came in when I finally tried out the attack on a target. Before that, you had been going around the village. I presume that you were checking on what you had missed via your informants?"

Jiraiya was stunned. If it was not by the number of things the boy had accomplished in a single morning (on the very day Naruto was supposed to have unlocked his chakra on, no less), then it was by the fact that Naruto described all this in such an uncaring manner and acted as though it was not a big deal at all. Even the Rasengan sounded easy to handle and learn with the way Naruto described it. And that was the most difficult form of shape transformation that was done without the help of hand seals.

"You are unbelievable. You did so much in one morning, sensed a Sannin when said Sannin was purposely hiding from detection when even the Hokage could not do, acted as though the Rasengan was easy and even brought up such a good point during our discussion that you were not even trying to get involved in that a few of the greatest shinobi of all time were unable to think of. You're only four. How will you be like when you're older, I wonder?" Jiraiya said bluntly.

"Pretty much," Naruto replied casually, though his words were still polite despite him ignoring the final bit.

"Do you even know how to drop formalities?" Jiraiya questioned, sounding frustrated.

"Who knows?" Naruto answered with a question not very helpfully.

"A spicy tonkotsu for Jiraiya-sama and miso ramen for Naruto-sama, Naomi-sama and Natsume-sama," Teuchi shouted from the kitchen area.

Ayame took the trays laden with large bowls of ramen and served the bowls of noodles to the hungry Uzumakis plus Jiraiya. The two younger ones began salivating at the heavenly — to them at least — scent of the delicious ramen. Even Naruto had to admit that it smelled really good.

"Itadakimasu!" they said at the same time, digging into their food.

Naomi and Natsume abandoned all the lessons on table manners their mother had put them through, gorging messily on the noodles and slurping up soup noisily. Jiraiya was also going all-out, though he did not eat as messily as the twins. Jiraiya slurped up the noodles quickly, having missed the delicious noodles in his time away from Konoha. Naruto was the only one who ate elegantly in a refined manner. However impossible it seemed to eat like that when it came to ramen, Naruto was doing it. He enjoyed the ramen, but he chose to slowly savour the taste of the noodles instead of gobbling it up.

The Ichirakus watched indulgently as their newest and youngest customers ate with one of their long-time patrons, enjoying their meal immensely.

💣

Naruto finally managed to get away from the toad Sannin, distracting him by taking a scenic route around the bathhouse. The Sannin had irresponsibly abandoned the three young children in favour of peeking at the women in the bath. Naruto could only sweat-drop at how easy it was. All he needed was to show the man a woman.

'Perhaps I can develop a jutsu like that... it would certainly be useful in information gathering, infiltration and several other things,' Naruto mused to himself.

Naruto tucked away that bit of information for future development as the three children neared the house. Naruto easily got past the gates and doors as his chakra and blood had been calibrated into the seals by his two adoptive parents to prevent him from becoming suspicious and dropped his two siblings off in their room. Naruto then retired to his own room, making a clone unique to jinchūriki known as a blood clone.

Naruto left the very realistic clone in his room while he entered the mirror realm and used his bloodline to bring all the exits into Amegakure to him. Naruto looked through all the mirrors, not seeing anything of importance until he saw an individual with ripple-like eyes. Naruto almost instinctively activated his dōjutsu to copy the famed dōjutsu of the Rikudō Sennin, now unaffected by the slight sting due to his DNA adjusting to support the kekkei-genkai. Naruto then noticed, since his dōjutsu was still activated, that those eyes did not belong to the one who held them. However, they were so well connected to his system that he must have had them since he was an infant.

Naruto then noticed a female teen with dark blue hair who had a kunai held against her throat, its blade rested lightly on her fair skin by Hanzō of the Salamander, the well-known leader of Ame. Naruto decided to watch for a little longer before interfering. He soon noticed a strange plant-like creature present not too far from himself that was also quietly watching the exchange. Just in case, Naruto quickly made a perfect replica of each of the three shinobi squaring off against Hanzō.

"Damn it!" the orange-haired teen, clearly the leader from his posture and reaction, cursed rather loudly.

"Your group is a hindrance to my plans. Yahiko, as the leader, you will die. If not... the girl here gets it," Hanzō said threateningly, the kunai nicking the neck of the girl.

"You with the red hair. Use this to kill him. I might just let this girl go if you do that," Hanzō stated cruelly.

Naruto guessed that Yahiko, the leader, was the orange one, Nagato was the Uzumaki with the implanted rinnegan and the girl was their friend. Naruto was right, obviously. He prepared to quickly replace the person who is chosen to be sacrificed with a fake body that he would temporarily shift their consciousness into.

Nagato felt his head snap up in alarm.

"Don't, Nagato! Don't worry about me, just focus on getting the two of you out of here!" the girl, who Naruto found out was called Konan through Yahiko's thoughts.

Nagato was silent, his head pounding as he searched for a solution to the situation, only to be interrupted by Yahiko's calm demand.

"Nagato, kill me."

Nagato's breath quickened as he stared at his friend with wide eyes, a miserable thought flashing through his mind, 'I just wanted to protect them, no matter how much pain it will cause me.'

"Nagato!" Yahiko pleaded.

"Don't!" Konan screamed.

"You'd better do it unless you want the girl to die!" Hanzō yelled.

Nagato began to hyperventilate, panicking over what he should do when Yahiko began to walk toward him. Naruto knew, right then, that Yahiko was going to sacrifice himself. Naruto quickly swapped the real Yahiko with the fake body and transferred his "soul" into the body.

Yahiko grabbed the wrist of the hand that clutched the kunai and used it to plunge the sharp blade into his own chest all the way down to the hilt, leaving Naruto extremely glad about what he had done as the blow was fatal and to the heart. The impact with which he shoved the blade into his chest was enough to send all the water droplets from the never-ending rain sprinkling off his body. Nagato could only stare blankly into space as his best friend embraced him painfully.

"You... and... Konan. You've... gotta stay alive... somehow..." Yahiko breathed out, blood spilling from his lips.

"...You... are... the Messiah... You can... truly..." Yahiko continued, only for his breath to stop short and his words to get cut off.

"Yahiko!" Konan screamed in anguish.

'It's the same as when my parents died... My answer was completely worthless,' Nagato thought to himself, dazed by the death of his closest friend.

Naruto winced at the damage the shinobi tried to do to himself before observing the peaceful rise and fall of the supposedly dead teen's chest as he remained unconscious. Naruto cursed under his breath when he realised that he had nowhere to leave the orange-haired teen. He should really have put more thought into it before he decided that it was a good idea to keep one of Nagato's friends as a bargaining chip for when he had to deal with Nagato in the future.

Naruto decided to first pay a trip to Yagura, easily using his kekkei-genkai to temporarily alter the Ame nin's memories to think that he was and has always been a loyal Kiri nin and that his friends had died in the war at some point instead of himself dying. Naruto also changed the boy's appearance such that he would not be so easily recognisable. All of this was reversible, after all.

Naruto fell out of a mirror that appeared from thin air in the middle of Yagura's office -- the older boy had previously heard his friend's thoughts and helped clear away the other shinobi before Naruto entered. Naruto flashed the Mizukage a tired smile and dragged the teen onto the couch on one end of the room. Yagura shook his head at the blond and extended a hand to him, offering it to the younger boy.

Naruto accepted it gratefully, feeling Yagura's energy replenish him thanks to the bond that they had because of their contract. Naruto still had a lot of chakra to spare, but his mental exhaustion was catching up to him. He really needed to hurry to finish up his business in Iwa and return to bed. It was just different when he slept through his shadow clones.

Naruto mumbled, "Thanks, Yagura. I believe that you will know how to settle Yahiko. I changed his name to Kenshin, remember to refer to him by that. The two of you are supposed to be not-so-close friends but know each other well enough to go places together."

Naruto fell into a mirror that appeared under him so quickly that it was almost as though he had teleported.

Naruto looked out of the mirror that was hovering around Iwa, trying to search for his brother. Naruto gave up on that and simply searched for Deidara's distinct chakra signature. Naruto made an invisible mirror at the location he sensed the chakra from and peeked out of it to see a tired blond with shoulder-length hair that matched his own in colour and eyes that looked exactly like his own.

"I have to get stronger..." Naruto heard Deidara mutter, "I need to be stronger to get my otōtō back."

Naruto decided that it would be good to reveal his presence.

"And your wish is granted!" Naruto said with a flourish, falling out of the mirror and landing smoothly in front of Deidara.

The older blond rubbed his eyes disbelievingly before mumbling under his breath, "I think that I'm so tired that I'm hallucinating."

Naruto was annoyed, so he casually made a small harmless bomb and exploded it on Deidara's nose. It left his nose smoking and slightly blackened but otherwise uninjured. Deidara felt a slight pain and heard the loud sound from a bomb exploding within close proximity and sighed in relief.

"Naruto!" Deidara exclaimed, hugging his younger brother and squeezing the life out of the smaller blond.

"Dei-nii... can't... breathe..." Naruto choked out.

"Oops!" Deidara said sheepishly, letting go of the younger boy.

"I missed you. I was so worried! How did you get here?" Deidara said quickly, as though Naruto would disappear if he was not fast enough.

"I used our kekkei-genkai," Naruto explained while forming a mirror out of his chakra to show his brother, who watched in awe.

"Teach me!" Deidara demanded childishly, pouting. "It's not fair that you can do it while I can't!"

"I will leave a blood clone here to teach you? I have to leave, lest I get found out by the cradle-robbers," Naruto explained.

"Cradle-robbers, huh? It definitely fits. Why didn't I think of it too?" Deidara commented.

"Exactly!" Naruto said, smirking proudly.

Naruto made a blood clone that used the kekkei-genkai to physically transform into a brunet with exotic orange eyes. The clone was the same age as Deidara due to the transformation. It could easily pass as his friend without drawing suspicion from anyone.

Naruto made to leave, but he turned around as an afterthought.

"Dei-nii, mind letting me check you for something?" Naruto requested.

"Why not, un?" Deidara asked, confused.

Naruto shrugged and went behind Deidara, pulling the taller blond to his height. Naruto smiled when he saw the birthmark in the shape of the Kagami clan symbol hidden by the yellow locks of hair. Naruto moved to the front and stared into his brother's eyes, confirming that the older boy had swirling undercurrents in his eyes as well.

"Dei-nii, you're immortal too! You cannot die. My clone will teach you how to fake your death and the like," Naruto explained, sounding way too happy since he now knew that he did not need to fear for his brother's life.

"Really?" Deidara questioned disbelievingly.

"Yes, but avoid sacrificial jutsu. Completely running out of chakra, bleeding out and being beheaded will not kill you, but you might just accidentally use a sacrificial jutsu that can. Most sacrificial jutsu do not really do anything to our health, but those created by the Kagami clan for use by us immortals as a last resort can and will kill us. I don't want you to risk it at all," Naruto revealed.

"Alright. See you once I get this mirror thing down, Naru-chan," Deidara told his brother, a grin on his face.

"I'll hold you to that, Dei-nii," Naruto replied, a similar grin on his face as he slipped into a reflective surface that was already in the corridor.

"Yep. Definitely need to learn that," Deidara muttered, making Naruto's clone snort in amusement.

"Shut up," Deidara mumbled sulkily, punching his brother's clone weakly in the shoulder.