Naruto looked around the small village he and Ero-Sennin had just entered, like most of the villages he had been to in Hi No Kuni (Fire Country) the buildings were all made out of a mixture of wood and bricks, and were modeled in a western style with flat rooftops and square architecture. Most of the buildings were shops that sold various wares and goods, which was obvious when Naruto observed the numerous people that were milling around looking in the windows. It had only been about a week since Naruto had left with Ero-Sennin on this training trip and the two had already been in two other cities in Hi No Kuni.
"So what are we going to be doing here Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked as he looked up at the larger male.
Jiraiya was a fairly tall man, standing at about 6'5" making him taller than most of the people in Konoha with the exception of Kakashi. He had white hair that spiked up before going down to about mid back, it was held in place by a Hitea-ate with two horns and the kanji for oil on it. He was wearing a green gi under a red vest and had wooden geta sandals rather than the standard shinobi sandals.
Jiraiya looked down at his student and scowled, "what have I told you about respecting your elder's gaki?"
Naruto shrugged, "you'll get my respect when I feel you've earned it. So far all you've done is go to whore houses or peek on women and I have yet to actually learn anything from you."
Jiraiya sighed at his students rather apathetic attitude, ever since they had left Konoha Naruto had… changed. He had become a lot more quiet then the loud mouth the Sennin had met during the Chunin exams; in fact he hadn't spoken more than a few words since they left Konoha, it was like the loudmouth had suddenly vacated the boys head and this new person took his place. Most of the time Naruto stared at nothing and seemed to be in deep thought, Jiraiya was not sure what was bothering his apprentice but figured that he would find out what was wrong in time.
"Alright, alright," the Toad Sennin sighed, "I have to meet a contact here who has some valuable information for me. After this is done I'll begin training you, how does that sound?"
Naruto nodded, "that's fine."
Jiraiya frowned at his godson's lack of enthusiasm but left it alone for now as he headed off.
Naruto walked around the town, not really bothering to pay attention to where he was going at the moment. Truth was he had been thinking a lot, mostly about himself and how he had not really taken his training seriously. When he was in the academy he had been more concerned with playing pranks to get attention, which had seriously hampered his ability to learn. Of course half of the problem was that by the time he had found a teacher willing to actually teach him rather than try to sabotage his training, Naruto was so far ingrained in his pranking and loudmouth tendencies that it had simply become a habit. He shook his head and sighed, despite that it still wasn't an excuse for not bothering to learn when he was able to. Had he actually applied himself to learn what he could he may have been able to keep Sasuke from leaving the village.
There was another of his problems, Sasuke Uchiha had been someone he had considered a brother. He had always thought that even with the small rivalry they had going that they were still friends and always would be; that feeling had been dashed when Sasuke plunged to Chidori's into his chest not once but twice. Naruto was no longer sure if he could keep his promise to Sakura by returning the boy, not that it would matter anyways. Naruto was beginning to doubt that Sasuke would ever willingly return, even if Naruto forced him to come back; he doubted team 7 would ever be the same.
Naruto shook his head of the morbid thoughts, now wasn't the time to be dwelling on such things. Sasuke's defection had opened Naruto's eyes to the reality of his situation. He needed to get stronger, he had to train and try his hardest to become a real shinobi, not the loud brat who could not even bring back someone he considered a brother. As he was now Naruto was lacking in every aspect of being a shinobi, sure he had the Rasengan (Spiralling sphere) and Kage Bushin's (Shadow Clones) but that was really it. In every battle he had fought so far if it were not for the Kyuubi, Naruto knew he would have died. During the battle on the bridge, in the Nami No Kuni (Land of Waves) he had used it to fight Haku. During his fight with Orochimaru in the forest of death he had been forced to use it. His fight with Gaara, his fight with Sasuke, every major battle he had been in he had used it. Add on that he could not even use the Rasengan without the aid of a clone, he did not have proper control of his chakra and no set taijutsu style, or rather he just swung until he hit something, Naruto knew he had a lot of problems to fix.