Naruto: Rinnegan Chronicles

Enter the Cat

Fire Country: Konoha / Hospital

Naruto groaned as the morning sun shone through the open window. He sat up with another groan and rubbed his tired eyes before checking his surroundings. The room was white and he knew from experience that it was the hospital…even if the villagers didn't physically hurt him he was still an orphan and used to get injured at times.

"Your awake brat; that's good," a voice said from the window and he turned his head swiftly towards it.

"Ero-Sennin!" Naruto said cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"

"To see you of course; what? Didn't think I'd stop by and see how my student was doing?" Jiraiya asked with mock hurt.

Naruto grumbled at that, "I bet you'd rather be off peeking though".

Jiraiya grinned but his expression suddenly saddened, "True True. But I can't right now…tell me; what is the last thing you remember Naruto?"

Naruto rested a hand on his head before answering, "I remember…that I beat Gaara but then…it's a blank".

"That's when you passed out from exhaustion," Jiraiya told him. "Nice work with the Kuchiyose no Jutsu by the way though I wish you didn't use it in the middle of the stadium. Be glad no one was hurt because you'd be in a cell right now instead of a hospital bed," Jiraiya told him.

"Sorry," Naruto said weakly.

"Don't worry about it; you got off lucky," said the Gama-Sennin. He shook his head before he continued, "that jutsu of yours. What did you call it? Shinra Tensei?" Naruto nodded at that, "that's easily an S-Rank Jutsu and an extremely powerful one at that".

"I have an S-rank Jutsu? Heh Heh believe it," Naruto said with a grin.

Jiraiya however had other ideas on the matter, "you weren't able to control it properly though. I was watching you at the end; your gravity manipulation still needs some work".

Naruto nodded saddened, "I know…"

The Gama-Sennin sighed at that, "we'll work on that later…maybe we can work on attracting objects instead of throwing everything away like you've been doing".

"Who won by the way?" Naruto asked knowing that he couldn't have continued fighting in the condition he was in.

"No one…Konoha was almost destroyed right after your match," the Gama-Sennin told him.

Naruto eyes widened at that, "what do you mean almost destroyed? What happened?"

"Suna and Oto launched a combined attack on Konoha right after your match finished. We won and beat them back before they did too much damage but…there were casualties," Jiraiya said grimly.

"W-who died?" Naruto rarely stuttered but he couldn't help it.

"My former sensei…the Sandaime Hokage," answered the Gama-Sennin.

"The old man is…damn it," Naruto clenched his fists as images of the man he had thought of as a grandfather flashed through his mind. "H-how did he-" he was interrupted swiftly.

"It was my traitorous team-mate…Orochimaru–teme. He killed Sarutobi-Sensei with the aid of his Oto nins," Jiraiya answered already knowing what he was going to ask.

"He'll pay for that," Naruto told him.

Jiraiya nodded in understanding, "his time will come but not right now".

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked wondering where they would go from here.

"Well I'm heading out to find an old friend of mine. Her name's Tsunade…the council wants her to become the Godaime Hokage," Jiraiya said with the sigh.