Jiraiya chuckled, "True but this is not Konoha I'll be going to, many of these places are most likely not friendly and a few may kill you for who you look like.
Naruto was silent as he thought about that, it was true that he was starting to look more like his father. Each day that passed he grew more and more like the man, no doubt if Iwa or some other country that harbored a grudge against his father were to see him they would send assassins out. Naruto was not stupid anymore; he knew that while he was strong, at least mid to high Jonin by now he was far from invincible. He could hold his own well enough against Jiraiya, but even when the man went all out he held back some so as not to kill Naruto. Others would have no such compunction and would no doubt not hesitate to kill him. It was also as the man said, he lacked the experience to make full use of his abilities and that could cost him.
"So where will I be heading?" Naruto asked having decided this would be a good opportunity to see how well he could do against someone other than Jiraiya.
The Toad Sennin gave Naruto a mission scroll, "you'll be heading to Kiri which is currently locked in a Civil War." Naruto unrolled the scroll and began to read it while Jiraiya spoke, "you will assist the bloodline side until the war is over. The rendezvous point is in the scroll as well as a code word and information about who you will be working with."
Naruto nodded as he finished memorizing the information and handed the scroll to Jiraiya who burnt it with a Kaiton Jutsu. "I'll contact you via summoning from time to time to see how you are doing and give you any info that I feel you can use. Make sure you stay safe, ok gaki?" Jiraiya finished.
Naruto nodded, "don't you worry Ero-Sensei, I'll do my best."
XXXX
Naruto readjusted the hood to his cloak as he got off the ship he had gotten passage on, bringing a hand up to his face he also made sure his face mask was in place to hide his whisker marks before looking around. The port town he was in had definitely seen better days, the ships that would normally be bustling in and out of the port were almost nonexistent with their only being one or two ships in the dock. Most of the buildings were run down and had rust staining many different areas, making it obvious they either did not have the resources or the people to maintain appearances.
The people were even worse off, as Naruto began to walk to the meeting point he saw more homeless people in this port then he did when Gato had been terrorizing Nami No Kuni (wave country). Many of them were sitting off to the sides of the street, begging for money or food while others were hidden in back alleys and side streets. What was worse was that Naruto could see whole families who were homeless, little children who were even more malnourished then he had been when trying to scrounge a living in the streets of Konoha. Just the sight of seeing how terrible these people had it and knowing there was nothing he could do to help alleviate their pain right now was heart rending for the young man.
Out of the corner of his eyes Naruto saw several figures hopping from the roofs, ninja with the Kirigakure (Hidden Mist) Hitea-ate. He took a moment to watch as several patrols passed by, most likely looking for bloodline rebels and or dissidents. Naruto watched the ninja as they passed, trying to get a feel for their emotional position. Living in the streets Naruto had picked up the unique ability to detect what others were thinking and feeling to a certain extent, an ability that had saved him from a number of beatings by drunken villagers in the past by allowing him to avoid the more unsavory people who would wish him harm. Many of the faces on the ninja's here were an open book; the blond was pleased to see that most of them seemed to feel just as bad as he did about the situation. While their faces showed no emotion their eyes showed too much, it had always been said that the eyes are the gate way to the soul; for people like Naruto that had never been more true. Their eyes showed guilt and sadness over what was happening here, small flickers of eye movement as they flicked their eyes over to some of the homeless people showed that they too wanted to help. Naruto knew they most likely couldn't because the Mizukage had more than likely threatened to kill their families. It was strange, Naruto had heard that during the beginning of his reign the Yondaime Mizukage was one of the most compassionate Kage's. Naruto did not know what would cause him to change so profoundly, however the evidence of the man becoming corrupted was right here for him to see. Naruto did notice a few ninja who seemed to derive some sort of pleasure from watching those around them suffer and assumed they were the more hardliners of the bloodline haters.
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