Then, he turned around again, a fierce look of determination in his eyes, as he looked down at the boy in front of him. "Boruto, I... I've been an awful father, but... when we get back to the Leaf village, things will change. I swear on my title that things will change."

"As heartwarming as this little family moment has been," echoed a voice through the forest, "I'm afraid I can't just let you waltz back into the Leaf. Not again, at least, after all the havoc you caused there."

Naruto's determined expression shrank into one of surprise - and genuine confusion. "...What?"

Then, his eyes narrowed as his anger began to rise. "Wait a second... I know that voice..."

"Oh, so you have heard of me, then!" A large, burly figure leapt down out of the treetops to a limb several trees away from the blond duo, arms crossed over his green-and-red kimono. "That saves the introduction time, at least."

Boruto watched in confusion as his father's face contorted into a dozen different palpable expressions, each trying to glean some sort of reason behind this newcomer's approach.

At least, that's what he thought was going on.

And he couldn't have been further from the truth.

Naruto gaped at what he saw before him. A massive, tall, bear of a man stood proudly across the trees, his white mane of hair billowing ever so slightly in the windy morning air. A massive scroll was attached to his back horizontally, casting foreboding shadows onto the tree branches before him. His green clothing, open slightly at the front to expose his armored chest, looked just as it did over twenty years ago.

Jiraiya.

And it was a spot-on impersonation, too.

Naruto frowned at the Toad Sannin less than amicably, his cold blue eyes cutting across the clearing like steel. "I don't appreciate it when the dead aren't left to rest."

A raised eyebrow was his response. "What's that supposed to mean?" Jiraiya said with a confused look on his face, otherwise not moving an inch.

Boruto watched in tense anxiety as the two shinobi simply stared at one another for a few suspenseful moments, the sound of the morning winds whipping through the treetops doing nothing to sooth nerves.

"Who are you," Naruto suddenly stated emotionlessly, his voice holding none of its typical carefree mirth.

Boruto couldn't help but shiver slightly at the palpable aura that was beginning to build in the atmosphere. His father was certainly a very different man than he had originally thought.

Jiraiya's eyebrow grew more annoyed. "I already told you. Do you have short-term memory loss or something? Need I remind you already?"

"No."

The eyebrow continued to raise. "Oh?"

"You are not Jiraiya," Naruto hissed out through clenched teeth, his eyes still completely unforgiving.

"Now this is just getting ridiculous," the Toad Sage said with an eyeroll, shifting his weight ever so slightly across his feet. "I think that I of all people should know who I am." Then, he matched Naruto's seriousness, pound for pound. "And I, at the very least, know who you are."

Another moment of silence echoed throughout the forests. Boruto slowly inched closer to his father almost subconsciously, looking for some sort of protection from the terrifying Killing Intent the strange white-haired man was exuding like a geyser.

But Naruto didn't flinch - not in the slightest. Instead, he merrily frowned. "And who, pray tell, do you think I am?"

"An intruder," Jiraiya replied effortlessly, the oppressive atmosphere dissipating ever so slightly, just as quickly as it had appeared. "An attacker. An assailant. An overall bad influence on society. Need I break out the thesaurus for you?"

"I've had just about enough of this," Naruto spat out, clenching his fists at his sides. "First, some idiot impersonates my father, and now you? You, of all people?"

Then, his eyes flickered in what could only be described as twisted understanding. "Oh. I see."

Then, to the surprise of Boruto, his father let out a chuckle. "I see now. You are attempting to use emotional appeal to fight me. Is that the way it is? Take the form of my father - the form of my sensei. Try and get under my skin." He let out another single laugh. "You know, I've experienced a lot worse. I doubt anything can phase me at this point."

Naruto eyes narrowed dangerously. "And I'm having a really shitty day. So just try me."

For not the first time that encounter, the entire forest seemed to stand completely still in the tenseness, as the two men stared each other down.

The winds began to rustle through the tree branches again, whipping Boruto's hair around his face and around his forehead protector like the grain in an expansive field in the late summer months.

Then, as if by some sudden signal unseen to the genin, both Naruto and Jiraiya leapt into action - each running through a series of hand seals with practiced ease.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

Two massive puffs of smoke proliferated within the clearing, blotching out the steadily rising sun. Dark, foreboding shadows cast across the trees like demons in the mist, deepening with each passing second. Boruto waved his hands in front of his face in an attempt to clear the plumes of white from his vision, to no avail. It was not long after, however, that the winds of the forest banished the smoke from the battlezone, revealing something rather surprising.

Across the clearing, arms still crossed defiantly, stood the man called Jiraiya. What was genuinely jaw-dropping to the younger blond, however, was what he was standing upon-

A massive, four-story tall toad, armed with a colossal two-pronged blade of some sort, perched defensively among the treetops.

Naruto blinked. He may have been a bit rusty, and his chakra control may have been out of whack, but still - still - something should have happened.

But nothing did. And when the dust settled, all he had to show for his summoning was a massive plume of smoke, and an empty treetop - a place where a massive battle toad should have been standing.

He frowned to himself at the thought. The blonde's first reaction had been to show the Jiraiya impersonator what a real Toad Sage could do by wiping the floor with the toads he so brazenly claimed to represent.

But instead, they were alluding him.

Strange.

'Yet another thing to add to the growing list of weird shit that's going on,' Naruto thought to himself with a sigh, as he began to prepare for whatever came next. Lizards? Dogs? Weasels?

Just what exactly would this Jiraiya impersonator summon?

As the smoke cleared away, he got his answer.

And his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

There, standing across the treetops, ready for battle, was Gamaken - the legendary brother of the Toad Chief Gamabunta, and esteemed warrior from Mount Myouboku.

He looked a little smaller than what Naruto had remembered, but Gamaken was Gamaken. Perhaps Jiraiya had summoned him with a little less chakra than normal-

Naruto's brain suddenly lurched into gear, as question after question began to form in his mind. 'Who is this man? How can he have the summoning contract?'

'And why are the toads willingly cooperating with him?'

For a sudden, sickening second, the Hokage paled at the thought that the man standing before them was, in fact, an Edo Tensei - a summon from beyond the grave.

But reason caught up with the more rambunctious emotional side of him, and he rattled off, in quick succession, why that simply was not the case.

For one, the man's eyes weren't blacker than coal. No. They were sharp and lively - just as Jiraiya's had been, all those years ago.

Secondly, Naruto specifically remembered grilling Kabuto, the headmaster at the Leaf Orphanage and former conspirator of the Fourth Shinobi War, on the methods and merits of the Edo Tensei he had performed at the precipice of battle.

Kabuto, at the time, had assured the recently-inaugurated Hokage that Jiraiya's body had simply plunged too deep into the seas of Rain to be of any veritable use; in fact, the snake apprentice had been quite adamant in his claims that he hadn't, actually, ever found the body.

And yet, here he was - in all his glory.

Jiraiya. The Toad Sage Jiraiya.

Just what the hell was going on?

"That settles it, then," came the slightly bored voice of the Nine-Tailed Fox within Naruto's head. "There's no other explanation."

'Wait, what?!' Naruto gaped internally, still staring at his opponent across the battlefield passively. 'You know what's going on?'

If Kurama had an answer, it was interrupted by the loud, barking laughter of the Toad Sannin from atop his toad mount. "BAHAHA! Did you really just go through all that show to try and size me up?" He wiped a tear from his eye endearingly, shaking his head all the while. "I bet you don't even have a summoning contract. What a joke."

Naruto grit his teeth together at the taunting, but otherwise stood his ground. He had fought with Sasuke enough times that, finally, eventually, he had become accustomed to it.

But he would be the first to admit that it certainly took a while.

Fine. If he couldn't attack using the toads, he would attack as if he were one himself.

He took a deep breath, and focused externally, grasping for something-

There!

POOF!

The Shadow Clone he had nonchalantly hidden among the trees after the summoning failed popped, sending all of its gathered Nature energy to the original in a burst of pure energy.

It never hurt to be too cautious, after all.

Instantaneously, Naruto felt the torrent of foreign chakra invade his system like a raging river, fanning out across his extremities with a familiar warmth. He felt his vision warp momentarily as his pupils changed shape, and from the way his son was looking at him now, he could only assume that he had taken on the visual characteristics indicative of his Sage Mode.

"Boruto," he said quietly, eyes still locked with the smug-faced Sannin across the trees. "When I give the word, Henge into me. I don't know who this man is, but he is very dangerous. If he has the Toad Summoning Contract, then there's little doubt about that."

"The Toad Summoning Contract...?" the boy mouthed in surprise, turning to look at Jiraiya once again - this time with a much more analytical eye. Then, remembering his father's words, he nodded once, his own eyes narrowing in determination.

"Really? You're gonna have your son fight me too? Your injured son? That's either the sweetest, or the stupidest thing I've ever seen," Jiraiya said, crossing his arms as he watched Boruto crack his knuckles. Then, he shifted his vision back to the man.

And his mouth dropped. "Wait... wait a second... is that...?"

Now it was Naruto's turn for posturing. "Yeah. This is the real deal, buddy. I don't know how you got ahold of the Toad Summoning Contract, or how you managed to scratch my name off the list without the old fart Fukusaku finding out, but I will always be able to do this."

He moved his hands together into a familiar seal, eyes narrowing as they connected across his chest in a cross.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

A sea of white rippled through the clearing once again, and Boruto heard the voice of his father call out "Do it now!" from somewhere to his left. He blinked, realizing now what his father's plan was.

Boruto concentrated on the form of his father, as he had been moments before - strange eye markings and everything. 'Is it just me, or does he have more kinds of eyes than an Uchiha? First those weird red ones, now these frog ones...'

Shaking his head of the thought, he executed the jutsu just as the last remnants of the fog dissipated once again, still no match for the morning winds the plagued that part of the Land of Fire certain times of the year.

When the smoke cleared, dozens upon dozens - hundreds upon hundreds of Narutos stood atop the trees, all glaring at the toad and his jockey. Boruto gaped at the sight - he had never before seen so many Shadow Clones in his life. Maybe that's why his father seemed to prefer using them over pretty much everything else.

Not that Boruto knew what 'everything else' constituted. His father was still a locked chest in that regard.

Maybe he'd get a chance to see the legendary Seventh Hokage in action, finally, after all these years of simply hearing hushed whispers about his might?

Suddenly, Boruto realized that something was a bit off with his Henge. After taking a glance at the sea of orange and black that ran across his line of sight in every direction, he realized why.

None of them were wearing his father's white Hokage cloak!

He blinked. He had never - never - seen his father without it. It was strange, really - he now seemed almost more like a human being rather than some sort of omnipotent king. He could see the way his orange long-sleeved shirt hugged the curve of his back awkwardly - almost like it didn't exactly fit him properly.

It was weird.

'He must've left it at the Valley of the End or something,' Boruto thought to himself, observing the army of Narutos that were beginning to tense like coiled springs - ready to strike at a moment's notice. 'He's gonna be mad when he realizes it's gone, that's for sure.'

When something began to nip at his heels, he looked down at himself - his father, currently - and realized his mistake.

The point of his father's plan was to make him as inconspicuous as possible due to the fact that he was, understandably so, the weakest link in this fight. And the bright, beaming beacon of white hanging off of his shoulders was very, very counter-intuitive.

With a flick of his wrist he re-executed the Henge, sans cloak, and joined the huddled masses of clones. He knew that his position in this fight was merrily to stay hidden amongst the crowd - herd immunity. His father would be doing most (if not all) the heavy lifting.

Boruto looked up towards where the strange bear of a man was standing, still perched atop his toad. Whatever emotion he had splayed across his face was not immediately apparent to Boruto - was it anger? Confusion? Dismay?

...Amusement?

"Nice trick," Jiraiya smirked, shaking his head. "Sure, you may know what Sage Mode looks like, but it's a far cry from the real thing. And shadow clones? Give me a break. What are you, a newly promoted jounin? I bet half of these aren't even solid - just illusions."

Boruto blinked. 'Sage mode...?'

Before his mind could process anything any further, however, the faux-sage leapt into action. His hands blurred through a series of complicated hand-seals, before he slammed them down atop the toad's head.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

Boruto blinked as the wall was disintegrated in a blinding flash of bright blue light.

He hadn't even seen his father prepare the Rasengan - but there he was, hand thrust through the barrier in an instant, then gone the next.

It took him a while to realize he was using guerrilla tactics - something they had briefly gone over at the Academy.

Except his father was using clones for all of his attacks.

As the wall collapsed, Boruto was shocked to see that both the Toad Sage and his mount had vanished - the latter in a reverse summoning cloud. 'What the hell...?'

Had he not been paying attention, he would not have been able to swiftly dodge the flying kick aimed at his head, coming out of seemingly nowhere.

Boruto was about to break the Henge, thinking that the man had seen through it so easily. But when he turned again on his heels after jumping away, he saw the smoky remnants of an entire platoon of clones, gone in an instant.

He gulped. 'That was close. Too close.'

As he heard another slew of clones cry out before being vaporized, Boruto immediately hid himself within his father's ranks once again.

Why wasn't his father doing anything? All the clones seemed to be disorientated - either that, or they were focused on something else entirely.

It took a second, but after a few moments, the blond boy realized that the clones were protecting him.

As the white blur flashed through the forests, wiping out clone armies, Boruto watched as his father's army positioned themselves very carefully between him and the enemy, distracting him from his primary target.

Jiraiya dispatched wave after wave of clone, seemingly moving through strange taijutsu stances as he weaved in and out of the forest of Narutos.

And he was approaching quickly - too quickly for the clones to redirect.

He was going to fight. And he was gonna have to go up against that man.

Boruto gulped subconsciously. This was not good.

As the strange man rolled and parried through the clone's weak attempts to make contact, he began to edge closer and closer, until suddenly, Boruto was the only 'clone' left in the vicinity.

Jiraiya smirked in victory, reaching out his arm to aim a dispelling strike at the 'clone' he thought stood before him.

BOOM!

Without realizing it, Boruto flinched unwittingly, cowering slightly behind his hands as he did so.

But when no strike came, he slowly opened his eyes.

Standing right in front of him, blocking the blow, was his father - his real, flesh-and-blood, non-clone father.

And he was not happy.

"So," he said calmly, obviously unfazed by the Sannin's fist he had caught nonchalantly with his hand, "You know his moves, too. I had to see it for myself. This is very well done, I have to say."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "But this is over now."

He stuck out his palm, ready to reciprocate with his own strike, but Jiraiya just smirked and dissolved into a puddle of mud.

"You're not the only one with clones up his sleeve, brat," echoed an ethereal voice throughout the forest clearing.

Boruto blinked. 'This is not good,' he thought miserably, 'We have no idea where he is, or what he can do, and he's at LEAST as strong as Dad. If not more.' He frowned. 'I thought dad was more powerful than this.'

He looked up at his father to see just how concerned he was, only to find a knowing smile plastered across the man's whiskered, toad-like face.

"You wanted to know if this Sage Mode was real or not?" He called out with a smirk, turning slightly in a circle in order for his voice to carry.

Then, he stopped suddenly and turned his head sharply to the side, staring directly at a felled log a few meters to his right. Naruto grinned mischievously. "Found you."

A pointed grumble echoed around the corner, and the white-haired man walked around the tree trunk, hands crossed in front of his chest. "So, who did you learn Sage Mode from? Steal it from Minato when he was sleeping?"

Naruto scowled. "Don't you dare speak his name like you knew him!"

For the first time, Jiraiya allowed a fluttering of negative emotion to blitz across his face, faster than a bolt of lightning. "Oh? And you do? What are you, his cousin?'

Naruto and Jiraiya were now standing mere feet away from one another, each tenser than rod iron. From what Boruto could see, neither man looked like they would be backing down any time soon. Eyes locked with one another, they stood apart, arms at their sides, winds whipping at their hair.

Boruto knew that all it would take would be a rustle of the leaves, or a blink of an eye. Then, they would be all over one another.

But, surprisingly, Naruto spoke up first.

"Boruto, drop the Henge. There's no sense to it now."

He blinked, but then nodded and did as he was told. As the puff of smoke dissipated, it revealed that the two others were still locked in a tense game of chicken.

"Hmph," Jiraiya suddenly smirked, "So it's true, then. You two are the ones that broke into Minato's office yesterday."

Naruto bunched his eyebrows in confusion. "What? We didn't break in to anything. As a matter of fact, it's more like you and your impostor Minato broke in there instead."

Jiraiya let out an angry huff, and narrowed his eyes at Naruto. "Why do you keep saying that?! You keep calling me and Minato impostors, or fakes, or something like that. If I'm not the real Jiraiya, then who is?"

Naruto's vision clouded over in a haze of pure, unadulterated hatred, his hands shaking at his sides as he clenched them into rough fists.

"The real Jiraiya, and the real Fourth Hokage are dead."