Check out Medicinal Lullaby by shivakashi, awesome concept, and the epic Lost Soul by LD 1449.

---)(---

Once he arrived to a nondescript field Naruto got out Sasori's scroll and sat down. Sasori had told him to do Chakra control exercises, he could set some clones doing that and do some physical training, then he could go try and find out about Elemental manipulation, whatever that may be.

The first exercise mentioned, before the tree walking or water walking or sand walking, was Chakra strings. Naruto was skeptical so he only sent half his clones to try that exercise, he sent the others to do the next exercise in there which was floating a sliver of wood over the forehead or palm, this was also before any of the control exercises he already knew.

Naruto vaguely remembered Iruka trying to teach him to float a leaf on his forehead in the Academy, the memory was fuzzy and he pointedly decided not to think about that. Instead he sent the other clones to experiment with floating leaves on their bodies.

Sasori's notes weren't much help on doing a physical workout since the man himself had rid himself of his own musculature many years ago. Fortunately one of the only things Jiraiya had done other than writing, various activities based on his libido, trying to teach him to control the Nine Tails' energy and drinking was to train him physically, so Naruto knew what to do.

Fortunately for Naruto, his extreme stamina meant that he had plenty of time to go over recent events in his head while doing something kept him from sinking into depression.

---)(---

Tsunade stopped what she was doing just before Jiraiya entered her office through the window.

"What was so urgent you sent a slug? Why not just send a Ninja?"

"Because you avoid the Ninja I send and I'm not in the mood. Sit down."

"Wow, take it easy." Tsunade merely glared at Jiraiya so he sat down. "Okay so what's this about?"

Tsunade adopted her 'intimidating pose'. "You know that I think very highly of Naruto, who also happens to be your godson." Jiraiya nodded slowly, wondering where she was going with this. "You also know that I am familiar with your style as a Seal Master, probably the best there is at the moment."

Jiraiya nodded, his danger sense was tingling though so he didn't react as he usually would at the praise. "Okay, where are you going with this?"

Tsunade sighed, she had hoped Jiraiya would come clean. "Fine, if you're going to be like that. I want you to explain to me the function of every seal you placed on Naruto's head and I want to know why you put them there, each one. Start talking."

Jiraiya's eyes widened in alarm, he was totally unprepared for that. "Ah well it was a long time ago, I'm not sure I can remember everything." Tsunade merely stared at him. "Right, right. Well most of them were for sealing away specific memories, a lot of bad things happened before Teach got a handle on the village after the Nine Tails came rampaging in." Tsunade nodded, she had expected that much. "There were two proactive memory sipher seals which targeted negative imprints about Teach and the Village in general and a Compulsion Seal. Teach managed to convince me that if Naruto were steadfastly loyal to the village and loved it then people would come to love him rather than see him as a monster, if left alone, the way people looked at him, talked to him, treated him, he would've lost it..."

"As he was your godson I believe it was your responsibility to look after him since he became an orphan, am I wrong?" Jiraiya hung his head. "So instead of doing that you brain washed him, brushing it off as Sarutobi's idea then went galavanting off across the continent, not to mention why the hell did you leave the compulsion seal activated?! How many promises do you suppose he's made his entire life?!"

"I deactivated it after Teach had what he wanted, I swear, and I wasn't galavanting, I was running one of the largest spy networks there is, that was just a cover for my travelling a lot."

"Well it was activated until today, morons the lot of you." Tsunade sighed. "Very well, that's all in the past now, there's nothing I can do about it, but I want you to make up something to stop any more seals being placed on him, got that?" Jiraiya nodded. "And I want to see it before you even think of applying it."

"What? You can't possibly think..." Tsunade glared hard at him, her aura screaming of the violence she felt towards him. "Fine, fine..." He finished dejectedly.

"Good, now I want a run down on what you taught him while you were away.

"Okay, well we worked heavily on his physical condition and spent some time on his martial technique but mostly we focused on his ability to draw and control the Energies of the Nine Tails." Tsunade waited a moment, expecting more. "Ooh, that lead to the creation of the Big Rasengan, which utilizes the Fox's energy."

After a while, when nothing more came Tsunade exploded. "That's it?! Three years and thats it?! You said you were going to prepare him to fight the Red Dawn, an organisation dedicated to capturing people like Naruto, you don't think they'd be prepared for him to do the exact same thing as every other damn host that they have already captured, do you?!"

Jiraiya tried to explain. "Ah well, he had a lot more trouble with it than I anticipated."

"What about teaching him techniques?! Chakra control?! He didn't even know the information retrieval abilities of the Shadow Clone technique until one of the Red Dawn told him. What about those Sage abilities, what about seals?! God damn it, you've already trained one ninja capable of fighting off the Red Dawn, it's not like you had to think too hard."

"Come on, Tsunade. That's not fair. Minato was a genius like no other I've seen and it took him many years to get to grips with sealing, how do you expect Naruto to do that in three?"

"Aside from having some faith in your student, or at least trying, you could've trained him for many years, why not have a single naruto working on a different thing every day, it's not rocket science! He must be the only Ninja in history with such an advantage available to him. And what about the other stuff?"

"Ah well, the Toads were strangely reluctant to teach Naruto anything, their combination techniques, summon techniques or the Sage arts, especially the Sage arts."

"Well go ask them again, damn it. It's not just about making a strong Ninja, if they capture Naruto our entire way of life is most likely doomed. If you can't convince them then bring them here so they can explain to me why they don't feel like helping us."

"Eh, okay, I'll try."

Tsunade sighed, she really wanted to beat on Jiraiya, he claimed to be such a great Ninja, even performed like one, but then he goes and does this. "Jiraiya. I'd suggest you find something to teach Naruto before you leave, he's rather disillusioned with you and Kakashi at the moment and that's without knowing you put those seals on him and then abandoned him for his entire life."

Jiraiya nodded and walked out her office door, probably for the first time ever. Tsunade grabbed a bottle of Sake from her draw and took a seaky swig. "God I hate this job, stupid brat with his stupid inspiring speech and stupid heroism, ugh..."

---)(---

It was an hour later when Naruto finally finished his workout. Over that time he had decided he needed to know who he had been forced to forget things about so that he could trust his knowledge of people. As Ino had said he needed to know the person when the seal was applied, that ruled out his friends but everyone else was under suspicion, except Tsunade and Shizune, since they had been out of the Leaf since before then.

Under particular suspicion was Jiraiya, the man was the Third's student and had trained the Fourth, he was intrinsically linked to Naruto but the first thing he knew of Jiraiya was the time he found the man spying on the womens baths. He had thought it weird before but dismissed it as a fact of life, he hoped that it was indeed just that.

Other than that Naruto had decided to let go of the rest. If there were traumatic events in his past he was probably better off not knowing and he would have time to make up his mind about his loyalty since he wasn't going to leave the Leaf with a band of crazy strong criminals after him.

Feeling relieved Naruto decided he would thank Ino at some point. Before that however he wanted to find someone to help him with Elemental manipulation, the problem was the only two people still loyal to the Leaf who he had ever seen use any Elemental techniques were Kakashi and Jiraiya. He knew that to become a Jounin required control over two types of Elemental Energies so he could theoretically pick any of the Jounin and they should be able to help, or he could ask Tsunade. He figured Tsunade would be willing to help but he didn't want to take too much of her time, she was always swamped down with paperwork after all, so she was a last resort, just above Kakashi and Jiraiya.

Naruto still needed to cool down from his workout so he decided to go for a run around the training grounds and just ask whoever he ran into first.

He made a few extra clones and left them to read through more of Sasori's notes. He even had one looking through the spy journals for anything of use, the clone cursed him for getting the boring job but that's life.

Naruto had been jogging for far longer than required to cool down and was just bored when he came upon Team Gai. He was fairly certain Gai wouldn't want to teach him anything as he was close to Kakashi and he wouldn't want to steal Kakashi's student, he also didn't want to deal with a speech about youthfulness so he sent a clone to go ask, it could always dispel if it needed to escape.

"OHO NARUTO! I SEE YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH ARE BURNING BRIGHTLY!"

"Hi, Lee..." Naruto tried to get past Lee, who was frantically destroying a training post. "Gai can I.."

"AH YOUNG NARUTO! HOW CAN I HELP YOU?!"

The Naruto clone thanked it's luck that it wouldn't be permanently deaf because it wasn't permanent itself. "I was wondering if you'd give me a few starter tips on Elemental Manipulation?"

Gai's exuberant mood deflated somewhat. "Can you not ask Kakashi for such help?"

Naruto noticed that the entirety of Gai's team was listening in. "I can, yes, but I'm asking you... Will you help?"

"I'm sorry Naruto, it would be unyouthful of me to teach my Hip Rival's student without his permission." Gai was about to go into a lecture of youthfulness, he could feel it so thinking quickly the clone dispelled.

Naruto was hit with the memory as he continued his job, again he cursed Kakashi and Jiraiya, there was no way they hadn't noticed he didn't know that about the Shadow Clone technique but they never told him. How many near-death situations could've been avoided if he'd known?

After another twenty minutes Naruto got tired of his one man random search and so he made fifty Shadow Clones and sent them off to begin a fifty man random search.

It took half another ten minutes but one clone found Kurenai and Asuma sitting together on a table, they didn't look like they were doing anything special but the clone approached them slowly anyway. "Uh hey, Kurenai, Asuma, are you guys busy?"

Asuma was smoking his cigarette so Kurenai answered. "We were just relaxing Naruto."

"Oh right, okay well um, would either of you be willing to help me learn Elemental Manipulation?"

Asuma stopped smoking and peered at Naruto while Kurenai answered. "Can't you ask Kakashi if you want to learn that?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm asking you, will you, either of you?" He looked at them both pleadingly.

"We can't just teach someone else's student without their permission Naruto." Asuma replied.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Can't or won't?"

Asuma raised his hands. "Wow, no need to be like that. Kakashi's more qualified than us to teach that kind of stuff anyway, he knows more than a thousand different techniques. You've got a perfectly good teacher, why are you asking us?"

"That's just it!" Naruto exclaimed. "I don't have a perfectly good teacher, I never have, nobody teaches me anything! Not Jiraiya, not Kakashi, I learned more from a criminal I killed than I did from either of them and he was just trying to distract me!" Naruto quickly calmed himself. "Sorry, it's just frustrating, will you help me?"

"Sorry Naruto, we still need permission."

Naruto sighed in defeat. "Fine." And dispersed in a small cloud of smoke.

The real Naruto stopped in the middle of the street and sighed. With a flicker of his Chakra he rest of his Clones dispersed, revealing no luck on all fronts but he did learn not to enter the Inuzuka compound over the wall. Better a clone than him.

Since nobody would teach him without permission, his next stop would obviously be to get permission, or maybe just get Tsunade to teach him.

---)(---

"Hiya Granny!" Tsunade jolted awake from her position laying on her desk.

"Damn it! I was having such a nice dream. What do you want?" She noticed Naruto's big grin, probably at her expense. "I see you've cheered up, been to see the Yamanakas?"

"Yeah, I talked to Ino, she really helped. I decided I just need to find who memories were altered about so I know who to trust, I figure the rest is best left buried."

Tsunade smiled. "My, that's a very mature outlook."

"Haha, yeah, I guess so. You must be rubbing off on me, I mean Mature is another word for Old, right?" The next thing Naruto knew he was lying on his back with a lump on his head, Tsunade's partially cracked paper weight lay on the floor in the corner of his vision. "Ow..."

Tsunade carried on as if he weren't on her floor nursing a probably concussion, it would pass. "Yes, well I can help you there. Since I knew what I was looking for I found a brief note about them, it seems that any bad memories you made regarding Sarutobi and the Village in general were sealed, everything else was memory seals."

Naruto groaned and rubbed his head a bit before responding. "Okay, so essentially I've been brainwashed my entire life into loving this village despite everyone here seemingly hating me or neglecting my training. Add to that I was brainwashed to look up to the Old Man and forced to want to become the Fire Shadow and protect this place."

Tsunade grew worried at the direction his thought process was going. "I guess that's accurate."

"Well I still respect you and I've got nowhere else to go. But I don't really fancy being the Fire Shadow anymore." Tsunade's face fell when she heard that. "Does this mean I have to give you your necklace back or else it will kill me?"

Tsunade smiled. "I thought you didn't believe in fate and all that stuff."

Naruto's fist rose from the floor. "Yeah, fight the power!"

"So what did you want to see me about?"

Naruto jumped up, though he was still rubbing his head. "Right! Can I get a letter giving someone not Kakashi to teach me Elemental Manipulation even though Kakashi's my teacher? Or could you help me?"

"A letter?"

"Yeah, I asked around but everyone said they needed permission."

"Permission? I don't see why, there's no restrictions on such things."

Naruto deflated. "Damn it, should have known."

"Now now, don't be like that. Kakashi commands a lot of respect amongst the Ninja force, they may merely be unwilling to be seen as taking his student, you shouldn't feel down. Besides, I can help you, beats paperwork any day."

"Really, you'll help me? Great! Thanks Granny!"

"Hmm don't thank me yet, I do have a lot of paperwork... How about you leave a few clones here to tidy up for me? I don't expect you to do any of my paperwork but It would be nice if my office were tidy for a change."

"Uh sure, I guess. Don't you know the Shadow Clone technique?"

Tsunade got up and walked around her desk towards the door. "Sure I do, I can make quite a few but I can't sustain them very long, it's quite costly on the Chakra just to keep one active you know?"

"It is?"

"Yes, Naruto. You have not only got ungodly amounts of Chakra, or perhaps godly would be the better term... but it regenerates abnormally fast. You may as well have drunk a load of powerthirst."

"What?"

"Nevermind, Youtube joke. Anyway, let's go." Tsunade led Naruto out the door. She caught the attention of the first Chuunin she saw. "Hey, Ayako was it? Go to the stores and get me some affinity paper, meet me at the door to the tower, chop chop!" Ayako ran off to do her new task.

"Say, isn't that an abuse of power?"

Tsunade grinned at him. "Yep, great huh? Now make those clones and let's go."

Naruto sighed before sending five clones to their boredom based doom.

At the exit to the Fire Shadow Tower Ayako met up with Tsunade and Naruto presenting a stack of square paper to them. "Here you go Lady Tsunade."

"Ah, thank you Ayako but, um, I only needed one. Be a doll and put the rest back would you?" Tsunade said as she extracted one square of paper.

Ayako deflated but did as asked. "Of course Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade walked off after handing Naruto the paper, expecting him to follow her. "Channel some Chakra into that."

Naruto hurried to catch up while doing as asked. "It split, what does that mean? Is that bad?"

Tsunade looked to her side as Naruto caught up. "No, that's not bad. That means you have an affinity for Wind natured Energies. The wind is the most offensive of elements, in its raw form it cuts but you can also use it to create forceful air attacks."

Naruto tried to make sense of that. "Does that mean it's the most powerful?"

"No, each element is capable of defeating one and easily defeated by another and equal to the other two. It is like rock paper scissors but with five choices rather than three."

"Oh, I get it, so what beats what?"

As Tsunade launched into a rather complicated lecture on Chakra theory, Naruto wished he hadn't asked. At least he managed to discern that fire was bad for him and he could beat lightning."

Eventually they made it into the training ground Tsunade was aiming for. Naruto had managed to convince her he was listening so she was still in a good mood. "Right, traditionally in the Leaf we use leaves to begin elemental training. In your case you're going to try to cut the leaf right across using your Chakra. To do this your Chakra must gain the properties of the Wind Element."

"Right." Naruto thought back to Sasori's advice. "So do I use a load of clones for this?

Tsunade smiled. "Exactly but first I have a few tips." Naruto listened eagerly. "I'm not proficient with Wind myself but I have studied it. To make wind natured Chakra you need to begin by grinding your chakra against itself as if you were sharpening a weapon. This will give it a sharp edge. As you learn about it you will get to know the feel for making it and it will come more easily. At this point you can begin to use it for techniques in place of regular Chakra."

"Right, got it!" Naruto put his hands together and created as many clones as he could safely manage. The forested area was filled with Narutos, who all immediately ran off to gather leaves for themselves and begin. "Right, I'll come and replace them when my Energy's back up."

Tsunade stared in wonder at the sheer amount of Naruto's in the area, all still energetic and capable of utilizing Chakra techniques. Not only that but his own energy would return even while he maintained so many clones. "Remarkable."

"What?"

"Nothing. So, fancy lunch? My treat, though not if we get Ramen."

"Aww..."

"Don't 'Aww' me, that stuff is bad for you. Sure you may need the calories with how much energy you burn through but that's no excuse for poor eating. Come on, I know the perfect thing."

Naruto followed along wearily after her.

---)(---

Naruto poked at the stuff in front of him. It looked like someone had taken Ramen noodles then instead of putting it in a broth with toppings and such they had put this horrible looking sauce on it then covered it with cheese, as if that would make it better. But the cheese smelled horrible too.

"Come on, just try it. Free food, remember? Besides, it's far healthier than Ramen. Less salt, less fat. Plenty of Carbs for your energy, some protein, come on."

"What... what is it?"

"It's called Pasta, spaghetti to be precise. Now Eat, that's an order!"

"Yes, Lady Fire Shadow." Naruto responded dejectedly.

Tsunade merely smiled and ate her own, watching carefully for Naruto's reaction.

To his surprise it wasn't bad. It didn't compare to the salty goodness that was Ramen, but apparently that wasn't so good, if Tsunade were to be believed.

"Try that, it's called Garlic Bread. It's rather distinctly not healthy, but I'm trying to ween you onto better food gently."

Naruto huffed at the thought that there was better food than Ramen in general, but he tried the 'garlic bread'.

His eyes flew wide, it was a taste sensation! "Mmm! This is really good!"

"Typical, you like the last healthy thing on the table. Well, you still have to eat the rest of your pasta. Feel free to order more pasta, no more galic bread though."

Naruto deflated, having been about to ask for just that.

Tsunade had a thought. "Waiter!" One came rushing. "Can you get me a pen and a piece of paper please?" unphased at the obscure request the waiter rushed off only to return shortly with the requested items.

Tsunade took a moment to scribble on the paper before she handed it to Naruto and gave the waiter the pen back. "Thanks. Here you go, Naruto. Wave this at anyone you like if you want more help with your training."

Naruto beamed. "Thanks Granny!"

"Don't thank me, Naruto. I'm going to make this your mission, train seriously, get as strong as you can. Things are happening and you, more than any of us, need to be ready."

Naruto nodded sadly. "Cheer up, you always wanted to be the best, right? Well now it's your mission and don't worry, I'll be here for you, okay?"

"Yeah, Thanks Tsunade." She smiled warmly at the affection in his voice.

"There's more. I want you to do physical training every day. You don't have to go mad but while your clones do Chakra stuff, you do physical stuff okay?" Naruto nodded, spaghetti hanging from his mouth. "Also I want you to eat a lot of protein, that means meat and cheese, Ramen is only allowed once per day."

Naruto quickly swallowed so he could moan. "Ah come on Granny!"

"No, once a day, I trust you to keep to this." Naruto deflated, knowing she had him cornered by saying that, stupid morals. "Now, I really have to get back to work. Feel free to order more and come here any time. I'll pay for your meals here, but I've told them what to give you, so you can't just gorge on galic bread." Naruto pouted, she knew him too well. Tsunade stood and made to leave, ruffling his hair on her way out. "Do me proud."

Naruto stared a moment at his food, his eyes glistening, before he dug in voraciously.

---)(---

When he got back to the training grounds he replaced the clones and sent some extra to do Chakra control exercises. He began to think on how to improve himself as a Ninja, Sasori had given him lots of advice but he had left him hole texts to learn from. Most of Sasori's techniques seemed to revolve around awesome control and low energy, the exact opposite of the spectrum to Naruto. The perfect example was Sasori's most basic technique, the Chakra string. Something Naruto still had made no head way on.

One thing rang true though, across Sasori's entire style, preparation. Poisoned weapons, needles in particular could easily be shared out amongst clones before, or even during a battle. The same with seals. Hell, clones could draw seals around the battlefield, if he knew any sealing techniques that is.

That in mind Naruto set a clone each to learn about poisons and seals and sent one out to stock up on weaponry.

He himself, as ordered, began another work out, only an hour after his last one. At least he would be getting stronger out of all this.

---)(---

On Mt. Myobokuzan Jiraiya was enacting his foolproof plan to convince the toad elders to teach Naruto to use Nature Energy, the Sage arts.

"Jiraiya, what in the blazes are you doing?!" A small grey haired toad was yelling at Jiraiya, who had just finished extracting some oil from a pond.

"Pa, what's going on?" Another toad came out, wearing curlers in her hair. "Jiraiya! What are you doing?!"

Jiraiya flinched, not having expected to be caught so early in his plan, he wanted at least another minute to compose himself, he had only just got there, stupid toads with their stupid Chakra sensing abilities. "Ah, Ma, Pa, good to see you." Jiraiya surreptitiously hid the water bottle full of oil behind his back.

"Explain yourself Jiraiya, you know it is forbidden to take the Toad Oil from the pond." Pa frowned heavily at his student. Ma walked to his side, adding to the effect.

"I'm sorry, Ma, Pa but this is serious. If you won't teach Naruto the Sage arts, I will, or at least I'll try."

"You can't Jiraiya, you're not nearly experienced enough, not to mention the boy is just far too young. He isn't ready for something like the Sage arts." Both the toad elders crossed their arms.

"He's also not ready for a bunch of S class maniacs to rip the Nine Tails out of his stomach, killing him in probably the most painful way possible, then to go on and do god knows what with them all." Jiraiya shouted.

"Be that as it may, Jiraiya." Pa began calmly. "He isn't ready."

Jiraiya frowned. "How do you know? You barely know him. I don't see why you refused to teach him the combination techniques or any of the advanced summoning techniques, if you had you'd see he's ready."

Pa just frowned, acting as if he were dealing with a petulant child, which he was, really, considering their respective ages.

Jiraiya brought out the water bottle full of oil. "Regardless, it is your choice, he is learning the Sage arts, I would prefer you teach him..."

"I will meet your apprentice, Jiraiya, we shall see if he truly is ready."

Jiraiya smiled, but he knew the old Toad was crafty so he quickly sealed the bottle of oil into a seal on the back of his hand, no one commented on the action but they all knew what it meant.

---)(---