Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does, so thank him for Naruto.
Rated to be on the safe side.
Summary: Simple questions, what if Naruto one of a set of twins born his parents on the day of the Kyuubi attack? What if there was a second demon with Kyuubi that attacked Konoha? What would their live be like?
A/N: I'll admit that this is a remake on my first story, so it will look familiar to those that read that one. Hopefully I improved enough and have enough variations in this story so that everything don't seem too repetitive. For those that notice the similarities between this story and The Burden of Three, this recycled from my original story. I know that there are a few twin stories out there, but I said that this was my original idea before the last story. I still switch between the translations and English, also there will still be translation in this story like the last one.
"Speaking"
-Thinking-
"Inner self/ Demon talking"
-Demon thinking -
"Twin Burden"
1. The Beginning
In Konohagakure no Soto, better known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves or Konoha for short, there are many ninja that have the strength and ability that many others can't compete with. It is because of these ninja that their village is said to be the strongest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. The leader of this great village is known as the Hokage, the strongest and most skilled ninja of Leaf.
The current time is the reign of the village's fourth leader, who was given the title Yondaime Hokage. He has been the leader of the great village for couple years now, ever since peace was gained after the last Great Shinobi War. He was one of the heroes in the war, it was because of his abilities and his caring heart that he was given the title Yondaime, or Fourth, Hokage. He is also know as Kazama Arashi and even better know as Konoha's Yellow Flash because a powerful jutsu that he had created, which is was also the reason that he was able to decimate entire armies of enemy ninja in a matter of minutes. He stands at about five feet ten and a half inches tall (179.2 cm) and wearing his old black ANBU uniform. Over the uniform black hooded cloak with dark reddish-orange flames along the base of the cloak. Some of his most distinguishing features is that he has bright blond spiky hair and bright blue eyes, something of a rare trait in his village that was shared with him by just the Yamanaka clan it seemed and even their hair and eyes were a little different than his.
Arashi is said to be the strongest ninja that Leaf has ever produced, but the truth is that there was another that was almost as strong as him and was one of the few in Konoha or maybe even the entire shinobi world that had been able to defeat him. That person would often prove to be someone that he, or anyone else for that matter, would not want to anger. This person is said to also be the only one that can control the Yondaime and knew him since they were infants, this person was even a member of his genin team. This strong person became his ANBU Commander and strongest kunoichi since Tsunade, Kazama Mina, also known as the wife of the Yondaime Hokage to some and the Flaming Tigress to many. She is about five feet two inches (157.5 cm) tall and usual seen in her traditional black ANBU gear, a black cloak with dark blue flames at the base, and tiger mask. Her eyes are darker blue than husband's and has long white hair that went to her waist.
There were many reasons that she was feared beside her strength, skills, reputation. For a reason that not many knew, her emotions had be acting strangely, at one moment she seemed ready to cry and a few seconds later she was more vicious than even her nickname suggested. It was discovered by many people a long time ago that it is wise not to anger the strongest woman in the village, but that is even more true when that woman had odd mood swings. The reason for those mood swings was that she is in her last month of pregnancy and quite large, but when in public she would use a powerful jutsu that made her appear to look as she normally looked before she became pregnant. The reason for that was that they both had many enemies and the last thing they need was more assassination kidnapping attempts than usual, it was for that same reason that there were few that knew that the two were even married.
Mina and Arashi had first thought that they were going to be having one child until they had a medic-nin examine her and discovered that they were having two children instead of one, twin boys. The information concerning the Kazama children was decided to be kept secret along with their marriage, only those that the two considered family and several medic-nin knew of her condition and their marriage. The only people that knew of the Kazama's marriage would be their former students, the previous Hokage, the three medic-nin that examined Mina, and their former teacher Jiraiya as well as his teammate Tsunade. In fact those were the only ones that knew of her pregnancy, though it was only the previous Hokage and the medic-nin that knew they were having twins.
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The information that was just explained about the strongest figures of Konoha and the village's status was accurate about a week prior. The reason for that is that the current condition of the great village and it's shinobi was very different now. At the moment Kazama Mina is resting on a bed completely tired with two bassinet next to her bed holding her sleeping children. The current bad condition gave the young woman a great amount of stress that caused her to go into a premature labor about two weeks too soon, but she was able to bring her children into the world. She looks up to her husband and smiles a second before a sad expression on her face.
"Arashi are you sure that there is no other way to defeat them?" Mina was beginning to cry while asking this. "No other way without our two little angels having to carry such a terrible burden or us being unable to help them?"
Arashi sighed and rubbed his eyes, "I wish there was another way as well, but you know as well as I do that we have nowhere near enough time to even try to think of another plan. It's either this or these little ones won't even have a chance at life. Not just them but entire village." He then leaned down to his wife and kissed her on her forehead. "I'm sorry love, but there is no other way."
The kunoichi continued to cry while looking at her children. Right now she wasn't the feared Flaming Tigress, she wasn't one of the most well know and powerful shinobi in the world, she she wasn't even the one person that was said to powerful enough to defeat the previous or current Hokage. Right now she was a heartbroken mother that crying about the possible sad future of her children that were only minutes old. "It's just not fair, none of this. Seeing them makes me sad to know that we will miss out on everything. My sweet little boys, they both look like you and probably will have very strong resemblance when they grow up. I really wish we wouldn't miss out on seeing them grow, that we could be there to help them..."
"You're right. It's not fair, " Arashi agreed with his wife, "but it's either this or everyone will die. You know that we are not strong enough to defeat them by ourselves and if we don't go through with this then all of the village would be destroyed, including our children." His eyes turned to the two boys resting as he whispered the last part to his wife.
They hugged each other and watched their children before getting ready to leave out. Arashi was already prepared so he just watched his sleeping children. The two boys would most likely be identical twins and continue to look that way unless one decided to change their appearance in the future. Mina was getting into her old ANBU uniform, which still fit pretty well and helped make her look much thinner than when she was pregnant. Arashi then picked up the elder of the twins while Mina picked up the younger infant as they both put on their masks, they found it quite ironic that he wore a fox mask and she wore a tiger mask. Mina had when into labor several hours before and had her husband carry her to the hospital, they were lucky that the Sandaime Hokage was with them and went ahead to make sure that the medic-nin that were aware of her condition were in the room waiting for them. In the end only the two parents, the Sandaime, and three medic-nin were the only ones that knew of and witnessed the birth of the two new Kazama's on the tenth of October.
Now most would be curious what could be going on that would make these two proud parents so sad and what the talk about the destruction of the village could mean. The truth is that several hundred yards (or meters) away from the gate of the Konoha stood two of the most fearsome creatures to ever walk the planet, two of the nine Biju.
In this world there exists nine great being known as Biju, or tailed demon beasts. Comparing their strength to humans is like comparing a ripple in the water to a tsunami. They are ranked as the weakest being the Ichibi (One Tail) to the strongest being a the Kyuubi (Nine Tail). It can be noted that even though not as strong as those with more tails that Ichibi is said to be stronger than several of the Kage leaders combined.
What has everyone scared is that it's the Kyuubi no Kitsune (Nine Tailed Fox) and Shichibi no Tori (Seven Tailed Tiger) that were attacking the village. It was once said that there were once many villages as large or powerful as Konoha, but were completely destroyed within a day or two when just one Biju appeared. Many of the ninja wondered if there would be any survivors now that there was two outside their village gate. Their only hope was the Yondaime. He had been making a plan to deal with these demons when they were first sited in the Land of Fire two days prior and slowly coming to Konoha while destroying the nearby area. Some of the ninja of the village were ordered to aid the villagers and the the rest of the shinobi forces were ordered to distracted the two demons while waiting for the Yondaime. So far they had many losses, but were doing as they were ordered.
Suddenly there was a huge puff of smoke and a giant toad appeared. The shinobi recognized this as the Yondaime's boss summon and the signal for them to retreat. On top of the toad's head was the Kazama family, Arashi holding their oldest son and Mina with their younger son to his left. Arashi was amazed that Mina was still standing, considering that she just finished giving birth an hour ago. He smiled as he thought what kind of ninja their children would be with not just their ancestors' abilities, but also the chakra levels and endurance they would inherit from them.
As the two shinobi stood on the toad watching the two demons standing in front of them, they began to wonder what their children lives would be like and hoped that they would forgive their parents for what they were about to do to them. With that last thought Arashi held his son in his left arm and Mina held their other son in her right arm, then the placed their free hand together and began to form the handseals that were needed together, remembering how they came to the sealing jutsu they were going to perform.
---------Flashback------------------
He and his wife realized that they would could not kill the demons while they were still in the planning process and that the only way to stop them would be to seal them away, but the question was what to seal them in. They had heard that with the help of an insane priest the Kazukage was able to seal the Ichibi into a teapot, but they knew that would not work because they were too powerful to be put in an object and that even if that could work the demons would be released if the object was destroyed. They then thought a person, but knew that the demon chakra would destroy the person's chakra pathways and kill the person while releasing the demon. The last option would be a child since the chakra pathways were still developing, but they would need a infant to do that since it would most likely kill a child more than a few months old like it would an adult. Though it sounded cruel it was the last option that they had to save the village, a sad reminder of saving the many over the lives of the few.
Once that was realized they needed at least two children to seal each demon they had to decided on who to use. They thought that it was unforgivable to ask a parent to give up their child to be a host and prison to a demon. They finally came to a decision that they had to use their own children and hope they would be born in time. The reason for that decision was that their two sons would make the searc for newly born children unnecessary, they could not bring themselves to ask another parent to use their child for that purpose when they realized how hard it was for them to do, and last they realized that the Yondaime Hokage could not be a proper leader if he ask another to do something that he himself was not willing to do. If he did not then there was a good chance that the villagers would no longer support or respect their leaders for using the children of others instead of their own.
The final thing was to design the seal. In just hours they made the perfect seal that was a combination of two seals, but they ran into a problem. They did not have enough power to place one demon in a seal, so two was almost impossible. In the end they found a way to seal the demons away, but this made them even more depressed than the fact that they would be sealing the demons in their children. They tried to think of another way but time was running out. The ninja were already beginning to engage the demons at the time. They soon realized that they could use the a specific seal that could call a being with enough power to seal the demon, but that would kill both Arashi and Mina. They weren't sure if they could really go through with that plan and leave their children without family. At the moment they were about to make their decision, their children decided to add their opinion, so to speak. Mina went into labor not long after and that leads us to where we are now.
---------Flashback end--------------
As Arashi was finishing his last seals the demons were watching them intently, curious of what they were doing. When he finished the Shinigami (God of Death) appeared behind the two shinobi. The Shinigami then stuck his arms in the back of the adult Kazama's and began to do what he was called to do. Arashi had realized that for the sealing to work that he and his wife would need to give their life energy to the Shinigami and have him pulls the demons into the seals they placed on their children. They were heartbroken that they would be unable to be there for their children when they would be needed, but it was either that or they all face death. They two could not sacrifice the lives of their people and their children because they didn't want to give their children what most, if not all, would consider a curse.
The demons began to feel something pulling them toward the humans on the toad and tired to fight against it, but they soon gave up as they knew they could not escape the Shinigami's power. The were grateful that they also knew that they could not be killed. With little resistance they each had a different thought: Shichibi -Maybe we underestimated the humans if two of them were smart enough to defeat us, but I can't believe that they are willing to use their pups and sacrifice themselves. Does this place mean that much to them?- ;Kyuubi -I can't believe that they stopped me when I even Shichibi to aid me! I was so close, but I failed you again...- Once the demons were pulled inside the seal the infants began to cry and whisker-like marks began to appear on their cheeks. The parents began to calm their children down until the crying stopped.
With the demons pulled inside their seals the Shinigami pulled his hands out of the Kazama's back and waited. He may be the God of Death, but that didn't make him a heartless being. He allowed the two before him a couple of minutes before he would take them to the afterlife.
Arashi and Mina sat down while still on Gamabunta's head (most should know that's the toad boss summon) and both began to cry. They could only hope that the Sandaime is able to take care of their children and keep them safe. Arashi pulled out a scroll that he used to store things and pulled his mask off his face. The then left the mask on top of his head as his wife did the same and he began to explain the reason for the scroll when she gave him an odd look.
"In this I stored all our letters to them as well as our photo album, their original birth certificates, our journals, some of our extra hitai-ites, and a couple of other things for them. The last things I want to put in here are our necklaces." Arashi said as he began to seals to story the last things.
He pulled off the necklace that he held in his hand. Hanging from the gold chain was a gold piece that was designed like the Leaf symbol and about the same size, but in the center of the swirl was a small sapphire as blue as his eyes with a reverse swirl design on it. His wife took out hers, which was on a much more slender chain and slightly smaller.
"I really with that we could be with our babies. Hopefully they can have a good life without us." The sad mother said as her husband placed the items in the scroll with several of his special kunai.
He knew he had the scrolls inside their home, which he placed special seals and genjutsu over, and that they could use them to make more and whatever they wanted when they are old enough. He did have a feeling that it would be many years before his sons would be allowed in their home so that was why his put several jutsu and information scroll with bloodseals on them so that only his children could open them.
The two shinobi said a few words of how they love each other and their children before jumping off Gamabunta, who disappeared once they hit the ground. As they stood there the Sandaime walked up to them and had a couple of teen kunoichi with him. They handed their children to the girls before turning to the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi. They had talked to him before had and they knew everything that was going on and what to do.
"Sarutobi-sama, we would like to ask that the villagers to look at these children as heroes. If it wasn't for them being here we would have never have been able to stop those demons. Their part is just as important as ours, if not then more important than ours. I say that because the two of them are holding and for the rest of their lives continue to hold a power that could easily destroy this entire villages." The Yondaime said to the Sandaime.
Mina then spoke up as she leaned against Arashi for support, "Please take care of them they are now orphans and the only family they will have is each other. Please try to keep them together, if they can't have their parents love then maybe they can have their siblings' love"
Saruboti nodded his head as he watched the the girls step back a little to give them some privacy to talk and asked an important question, "And what are their names? Also I cannot let them have your family name because of all of the enemies that you two have, you are listed in more Bingo Books than any other non-missing-nin."
They both stood there for a second and shared a small laugh at the fact before Arashi spoke, "The boy with three whisker marks on each cheek is Naruto, he is the oldest of the two and holds the Kyuubi. The boy with four whisker marks on each cheek is Hariken, he is the youngest and holds the Shichibi."
Mina began to speak once Arashi was done, "As for a surname you can do what I did, use our clan symbol. After all father took on the name Uzumaki since he had no surname when he became friends with Arashi-kun's mother. I wonder...Uzumaki Naruto and Uzumaki Hariken. Well the names fit, it should be okay for them until they are strong enough to have their father's name again. You will take care of them for us, right?"
The Sandaime nodded his head as he spoke "Yes I'll do my best and when I'm unable I'll be sure to have them watched by trusted and loyal shinobi. What should I tell to Anko, Yugao, Kakashi, Rin, and Kurenai?"
"Don't tell them anything for now, wait until at least one attains ninja status, but my best guess is that they will want to all be genin at the same time. I know they will be curious of the mark on their shoulder, seems that if all else fail you can use that as proof that they are my children. As for my mother and my cousin don't tell them yet either, they will be to sadden by our death to have our children's well being to add to their problems." Arashi said as he felt the Shinigami nearing them.
Mina spoke next, "The same thing with my father, I know that he will be sadden that I passed on before him and I'm not sure if he can raise the two boys on his own, not that I would want them picking up any of his bad habits.." She whispered the last part, but it was loud enough for the other two to hear and all three shared a laugh. "It seems that our time is almost up, we will be watching from the other side. I would say that I can't wait to see you and the boys again, but hopefully it will be many years until then." She had a small smile on her face at the last part.
Arashi smiled too as he places his arm around his wife and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. He the spoke to the Sandaime again while handing over a scroll, "One last thing, when you think they are ready give them this scroll, there are are letters and items that we are leaving for them. Be sure that they are ready because that contains some of our strongest jutsu as well as the truth about them and us. There are number of seals on it that just react to our family's blood and chakra only, so only one of those two can open it. I think that they will be ready to move into the clan home sometime prior to becoming genin and you should give them their proper name when they try out for the chunin exam, I think that everyone would be shocked to see their full names and realize who they are."
Sarutobi laughed a little as took the scroll -Even on the verge of death Arashi is thinking of his next big prank- The Shinigami then appeared next to the Kazama's and prepared to take their souls. When the Shinigami vanished the lifeless bodies of the Yondaime and ANBU commander dropped to the ground. He sighed and rubbed his aged face as he heard the children crying a small distance away, most likely sensing their parents death. The Sandaime had called for a couple other shinobi to come take the bodied of the two now deceased Kazama's back to Konoha and pulled their masks down over their faces. He had a couple thoughts running through his head as he was walking to the kunoichi that holding the infants while the other ninja were carrying the bodies behind him. -I hope that we can do as you two wished, but I do wonder what kind of life your children will live. Not only do they have strong parents and grandparents, but they also have ancestors that were strong even before the villages was started- Of course the last thought that went through his head was -I was really enjoying my retirement, I'm not looking forward to all the paperwork that I'll have to do because of this.-
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The elderly Hokage was correct when he thought that there was going to be a lot of paper work as a result of the demons' attack and the plan of the Yondaime. Thanks to careful planning and traps to distract instead of harm the demons they had lost only half as many shinobi as in the prior war (which the originally guess to be double the last war), so even though they lost many shinobi they were still strong force among the other nations. Also most of the village was intact since the only destruction was caused by stray attacks, one of said attacks had struck the hospital and killed ten percent of the staff along with a dozen patients.
The staff members that were killed included the ones that examined Mina and delivered her children. The death of those medic-nin left the truth of the Uzumaki's parentage on his shoulders since Jiraiya and Tsunade had left before it was discovered that Mina was having twins and they would assume the "child" had died with it's mother. Not to mention that Kakashi and the others probably wouldn't guess that the 'child' of their sensai survived, he would probably have to check the intelligence of his shinobi if they didn't see the resemblance when the two boys were older.
The Sandaime Hokage had informed the entire village the next morning from the balcony of the Hokage's Tower and was waiting to see if the children would get the admiration that was requested for them by the heroes of Konoha before they died and so richly deserved, but he was sadden to see that most of the people and ninja of the village didn't see it that way. It seems that despite the great things that the Kazama's did, those of the village had very little confidence in the work of the strongest ninja of Leaf despite all the respect that they had. They believed that the demons were now personified in the children with their power locked away in the seal, they thought that the demons and their hosts/prisons were one in the same instead of two separate entities in one body with the children being in control.
After that, the Hokage had to go to a meeting with the village council to discuss what to do with the Uzumaki twins, but told the villagers to return in two hours to hear the decision. The members of the council consisted of the clan heads as well as the Sandaime Hokage's former team members, several representatives of the village, and the man that tried to take his position many years ago.
In the meeting there were many things suggested that deeply saddened the old man. Among them were ideas of leaving the boys in the wilderness to fend for themselves since they "were once beasts of the wild" or banishing them to another village, but the council soon realized that the children could be used against them if they survived. One idea was to use the children as weapons for the village and have a second seal to control them much like the Hyuga used on their branch house. That idea was denied by the Kage of Leaf, who said that they will be shinobi of Konohagakure and will not be simple weapons trained just to be emotionless tools branded with something the Yondaime was working hard to abolish. (He really thought that doing that would eventually really make them into real demons). The suggestion that nearly made the Sandaime fall to the floor in shock was that many of those present were asking for the infants to be executed. He had to brace himself against the table to keep from falling and he made a decision.
The Sandaime stood up and began to speak, "I must say that hearing you say all of this is very disturbing. I believe that the Yondaime would be most ashamed to hear that what you are suggesting. I also can not believe that you have so little fate in Konohagakure's deceased leader. I suppose that this was to be expected. It seems that I can not have you treat these children as the heroes the Yondaime requested, but I can try to make so that they are treated like humans instead of the demons that the protect us from."
The Sandaime paused a moment before looking at everyone in the meeting and speaking again, "As of this moment I there will be a law stated that no one will be aloud to speak of what has transpired with the demons being sealed within the two Uzumaki infants, all that are not of age or present to know of what has happened will simply be told that the demons were defeated by the Yondaime Hokage and ANBU Commander. Those that break this law will be executed for going against the command of the Hokage."(I'm not exactly sure how he stated the law, but this was my guess)
All those in the meeting were a little stunned that he had accused them of going against the wishes of their previous Hokage and even more surprised by the law that he had just made, though the did fail to realize that they really were going against the Yondaime's wishes. Many made their disagreement with his decision clear, but were effectively silenced by the glare of the old man. They soon realized that the discussion was over.
Not long after the meeting, the Hokage stepped out on the balcony of his tower and informed the villagers of his decision. Of course he receive the same amount of disagreement from the people as he did in the meeting. It really broke the old man's heart that he had to threaten his own people with death just so they would treat two babies as human, and they were not even a full day old yet.
The elderly man decided to go check on the four kunoichi he left to watch over the children. He thought of the reasons he picked them as he walked to a medium-sized two story house that looked like it could easily support a family or two on his property that he had them take the boys to. The first reason was that he felt that the maternal instincts that usually lay dormant in females would awaken a little and help them. He was not sexist, he simply believed that women had better instincts concerning children than men. The next reason was their history, each one of them were orphans and did not lose any friends in the demon attack, so the only animosity that they would have to the demon was some of their village was destroyed and some allies died. Lastly was that they were all chunin, which meant they could protect the infant if they had to while he was away. The Sandaime let a small chuckle pass his lips as he thought that each of the young girls had a connection to the children without knowing it.
The first kunoichi was just named Rin since they were never able to find her family name, but she told everyone that tried to help her that it did not bother her because one day the man she loved would give her a family name. Her connection was that she was one of the surviving students of the children's father, who was like a father to her when she left the academy. She was about thirteen at the time and trying to gain the affection of her remaining ex-teammate with very little luck, but helping with the children would be a positive direction for her energy to be released.
The other three kunoichi were all on the same genin team Mina had taught for a couple of years in between serving ANBU, but despite the age differences that existed they all treated each other as sisters. Their names were Yuhi Kurenai, Uzuki Yugao, and Mitarashi Anko. To say that these young ladies were an odd group would be a serious understatement. Kurenai was always average, but the thirteen year old managed to greatly excel in genjutsu. Yugao was just an amazing ninja all around and once Mina gave her a blade there was no stopping her, this was almost unbelievable for a ten year old girl. (she does wield a katana in ANBU). Twelve year old Anko was the former student of a the Sandaime Hokage's traitorous ex-student and barer of one the cursed seal he developed before leaving, this caused a lot of hate to be directed toward her and also lead her to Mina.
The unique link that the three kunoichi had with the mother of the two children was established about four years prior, almost a year before the end of the Great Shinobi War. Mina had sustained a small injury that took her off active duty in ANBU or missions higher than C-ranked. Her husband was preparing to leave with his team when he suggested she try taking on her own team, saying that the kids would keep her busy and maybe get her ready for when they start a family.
After thinking about the suggestion for a few hours she decided to give it a try. Her team consisted of a nine year old red eyed girl that only strong abilities were genjutsu and perfect chakra control, a six year old purple haired girl that seemed a little quiet, and an eleven year old dark haired boy with pale pupil-less eyes. She later learned that the girls were orphaned because of the war and that the boy kept the stereotype of the Hyuga clan true by being an arrogant pain that would not pass a chance to talk about his "great"clan and that he was "superior" to everyone else.
Mina rarely trained him with the girls because he would usually insult and belittling them or he would be called away by his clan for training. About a year later one of the Hyuga main house elders requested that he placed on another team since the "inferior females were slowing down the progress of one of their clan's better warriors." It was a good thing that the war had ended and Arashi was back to restrain his wife or the Hyuga clan would have been burying one of their elders earlier than expected.
A month prior to the request the Sandaime had announced that Arashi would be his successor and Orochimaru abandoned Konoha with his experiments discovered. With that there was also the problem of the now emotionally withdrawn Anko who was released from her interrogation, which was ordered by the village council. Mina was concerned for the girl and figured that since it was a man that caused this trouble she might be able to respond better if surrounded by females, so with that Anko became the fourth member of an all kunoichi team (Mina and the three genin). Anko did eventually open-up to her teammates and vent some of the emotional pain she held inside her.
After being a team for two years the three all passed a the previous chunin exam and Mina went back to ANBU a month until she promoted to commander, but she would meet with the girls when she could and the three lived together since they were all young orphans. They never knew their sensai was pregnant over the months between them splitting up and her death because whenever she left home Mina would have a genjutsu placed on her that was so strong that even a genjutsu master like Kurenai could not even detect it.
The girls were able to meet the students of the famous "Yellow Flash of Konoha" as well as the Yondaime himself because of the fact that their teachers were married. They became friends with Rin quickly, but could not get through to the one-eyed Kakashi. Rin later explained that they lost their other teammate in the war when Obito saved Kakashi and that he was still mourning their friend. The months prior to the demon attack it was not odd to see the four girls together, whether it was just talking or training with their former teachers. Many young men began to wonder if it would be as foolish to anger one of the young girls as it was to anger Mina.
The old man kept thinking to himself what would the young ladies do if they knew they were taking care of the children of the people that trained them and acted as their guardians. When he walked in the room silently he was ready to laugh again at the site that greeted him. The girls had standing in-front of the bassinets with their back to him and cooing to the two babies that was watching them with bright blue eyes, very faint giggles escaping the infants' mouths every so often. This was so amusing to the Hokage because two of the girls had already developed a small reputation and another was developing one that this site would ruin.
Rin he had expected this from since she was always kind hearted and preferred to heal than injure, but was just as deadly as any other chunin and a few jonin. Yugao didn't surprise him that much because of her being ten and never having sibling, but she was planning on being in ANBU like her teacher and her cooing a baby made her look even less threatening than her age. Kurenai surprised him because among the teenage boys she had developed the title of being the "Ice Princess" because of her coldness to others outside of her little group and said that if she kept this up she would be promoted to "Ice Queen" when she becomes an adult, but it seems that seeing the babies was enough to thaw her icy exterior. Anko was the biggest surprise considering her reputation was worse than Kurenai's, it seemed that three years wasn't enough to reduce the hatred that she received for her teacher's crime.
Anko seemed to be an angry, sadistic, bloodthirsty loud mouth to anyone that didn't know her, but those that did knew it was a shell to hide the real her. Just like with Kurenai, it seems that all it took was one look at the babies' smiling face for her shell to crack. It warmed his heart to know that these four young girls proved that there are those that could look past the demons that the children held and see the innocent babies that have just been born into the world.
Sarutobi laughed silently before speaking, "I take it that these young ones haven't caused you any problems. Judging from your current happy appearance I will assume that you six get along quite well." He shocked the young kunochi when he spoke but they calmed down when they realized who spoke. " Maybe you four can aid me with the decision I made concerning what I plan to do with the little ones, the village council wasn't much help and I would rather forget the suggestions that they had proposed." He had let out a tired sigh when he finished.
The girls nodded as they looked back in the bassinets and saw Naruto let out a yawn, who was followed by his younger brother in sleep. (The Sandaime had informed the four of their names and how to distinguish the boys by their whisker-like "birthmarks")
The elderly Hokage sat down at the table in the dining room and looked at the young girls that were taking a seat around the table in front of him for a moment before he began to speak, "It seems that most of the village can only see these young ones as the demons incarnate and not as the innocent children that you see them as." He paused and looked at the girls sad faces. "Unfortunately, I was not able to convince the villagers or the council to change their opinion and it is for that reason that I created a law that even you four are to follow. The law is that no one is allowed to speak of the children having the demons sealed inside each of them and anyone who breaks this law will be executed. I hope this will allow them to have a normal life with the younger generation. The only exceptions to this law are the boys themselves when they discover the truth and the anyone that gain the rank of Hokage until I or a future Hokage feel it is necessary to remove the law."
The girls were a little shocked because they failed to see how anyone could confuse such cute babies with demons, to them the whisker cheeked infants resembled angels far more than demons. Since the were all mature for their ages they understood that the villagers were just looking for someone to blame, but they also knew that they didn't have to agree with it. The information hit hardest Anko, since she knew the feeling hatred for something that was not a choice from personal experience. The four female ninja eventually gave a silent nod to the Hokage to indicate that they understood.
Saurtobi began speaking again after closing his eyes for a second, "Well that was one of the most depressing things that I had to do in my long life, but for now I will tell you my decision for these babies. They are now orphaned and it seems that most of the village would rather see the demons die at the expense of these young lives than take care of them." He then paused as he noticed Yugao young face shift a little if pondering something.
The youngest of the group decided to voice her question when she noticed the silence "...Hokage-sama, You said that they were orphaned, do you mean to say that they have no family left, like us?" All four looked towards the older man and waited for his response.
The Sandaime closed his eyes for a few seconds to think of his words and replied "The answer to that question is yes and no. Their only remaining family unreachable at the moment. Their maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, and their father's cousin are all alive, but they are currently away from the village and are extremely hard to locate. Also, they just thought that the children's mother was just having one child not two, so they would most likely assume that the child died with the mother. I'm also unsure if it is wise to just put the responsibility of these two young lives in their hand considering that they don't even know the babies exist and they would probably have to separate them. I can not tell you who they are either, right now it is best that the less that know the better. When I do reveal this information I will be sure to tell you first."
He paused to think. He did not want to tell them that Arashi and Mina had requested not to have their parents informed because it would just cause more heartache for them after just losing their only children, but he was also asked to keep that information from them as well. All the girls looked down, knowing what it is like to be orphaned, but some of them had time with at least one of parents before the war unlike the Uzumaki's.
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Kurenai's parents were a couple of jonin that were sent on a mission to investigate something strange that was reported near Iwagakure no Soto (the Village Hidden Among Rocks) and they were killed with their team, which marked the start of the Great Shinobi War when she was six (wars usually last months to years so I'd say this one lasted 4 years). Their death pushed her to work harder and graduate early. She wanted to help end the war that started with her parents lives.
Anko's mother had passed away at childbirth because of Orochimaru's earlier experiments, which she discovered just before he left and guessed that what he did was one of the reasons that she survived his cursed seal. Anko's father was one of the other experiments of the "experiments" and died two months after Orochimaru left, but he told Anko that her father had died five years ago (two years before I decided to say the Hokage I found his lab) and took her as his apprentice. She spent the last week of for father's life by his side.
Rin was the only one of the four not to know her parents. Rin was about seven months old with she was found by a young Inuzuka woman was training her genin daughter Tsume some advanced tracking skill in the forests surrounding Konoha with the bodies of her parents, who had no identification. The two had gave the parents a proper burial in the forest and took the baby back to their village. They took care of Rin until she reached genin and had Arashi become her guardian, because the sad fact was that only to join the Inuzuka clan was by birth or marriage. They were able to give her marks. The Inuzuka clan had a set red fang-like marks that were on each of their cheeks to mark their clans allegiance with their canine partners. They had placed a set of orange rectangles on her face, this marked her as a friend to the clan and to be known to their canines that she was under their protection.
Yugao's parents were both ANBU and were killed on an S-class mission when she was five. They were to infiltrate Iwa (Iwagakure if you haven't guessed) with their ANBU team and kidnap someone close to the Tsuchikage to use in a deal to end the war. Of course the hostages would have little or no harmed done to them (a little if they fought back) since the village doing the kidnapping was Konoha, but the leader of Iwa would have to negotiate peace if he wanted them back. The couple had went to the village to get their hostage while the captain and third teammate stayed near the outside of the country's border to clear the way of possible enemies.
They were able to get the daughter of the Tsuchikage without any trouble, but when they neared the border of the Land of Earth they ran into the resistance. At the border stood a dozen of Iwa's upper jonin who informed the two that their rest of their team was being distracted by several lower jonin a few miles away. Despite the strength of the two, they were outnumbered by shinobi that were just as skilled and experienced as they were. The two Konoha ninja were able kill all but three of their enemies before they died. The weakened Stone nin went back to their village with their leader's son and left the bodies of their enemies where they fell.
The rest of their team had found battle ground about twenty minutes later, defeating their distraction and wondering where their teammates were. Upon finding the battle field, the two grabbed the bodies of their fallen allies and left their enemy bodies since it would be very likely that the enemies would return to retrieve or destroy the bodies to protect their village's secrets. (Think back to the hunter-nin explanation) When the ANBU returned with the mission as a failure they buried the bodies of their friends in Konoha and informed Yugao. She was crushed, but used their memory to push herself to make genin the next year. Her parents and teacher were the ones that inspired her to want to become a member of ANBU.
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The two children sleeping in the living-room still had family, but it seemed that only the Hokage knew of their relation. This little thought brought the four girls out of their moment of recollection. The four were now wondering what was going to happen with the Uzumaki twins, but then remembered that was what they were talking about before they started to remember their pasts.
The Hokage noticed that he had the girls attention again and began to speak once more, "Well as I decided that for now I have you four take care of them until they are two and after that they will be placed in an orphanage until either they enter the ninja academy or I feel they are able to live on their own. When that time occurs I will give them their own apartment until they are old eligible to receive their parents' home. I would make you their guardians and have you young ladies take care of them as long as you like, but you four also have ninja duties to preform as well." The old man looked at the young kunoichi become depressed as he prepared to continue, "I was planning to search through the village and see if I can find caretakers that could raise them until they were old enough to be on their own, but it seems that it would be harder than I thought. This plan will have to surfice" The girls nodded as he spoke, still a little happy that they could take care of the babies for a couple years.
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A couple days later the Hokage had told the girls his decision he had them move their things into the house. It was a little larger than it appeared. On the base floor there was there was the living area that could easily fit a couple dozen people, the dining room that the five were talking in, a nice sized kitchen, and three bedrooms that were each big enough for two people. On the second floor of the house were four more of the same sized bedrooms that were on the floor below, a master bedroom that was twice as big as the other rooms, and a glass door that lead to a balcony looking over the back yard. Despite the size of the house, it was like a guest house compared to the Hokage's home and the land that it sat on. Yugao and Anko took a couple of the downstairs bedrooms while Kurenai and Rin took two of the upstairs bedrooms. They set-up the master bedroom for the Uzumaki's, because they had decided that it would be easier to take care of them in a larger room.
The Hokage had also informed them that he would count taking care of the children as a mission and that as a reward they would get paid for a low A-Class mission and receive the house as a bonus as long as they would help train the two boys in the future and check-up on them from time to time. The Hokage decided to have items need for the infants sent to the home since he already had the home furnished and stocked for if he needed to house others. A week after the attack the kunoichi were completely moved into the house.
Finding people to help the girls take care of the babies was one of the Sandaime's biggest concerns. He did not want to doubt the girls, but he just thought that they were a little too young to have that kind of responsibility to deal with added to their shinobi life. They had no experience with even younger sibling and would be at less of an advantage than new parents that could usually go to their parents or friends for advice. He was looking over the information when his older sister Asuka had came to his study to see him. She had been lonely since her husband died years ago and she was unable to bare children, which was the reason she help Sarutobi raise his sons, Asuma and Sasumata. She eventually eventually moved into brother's home when he and his wife offered the widow. She talked to her brother about his problem and decided too make a large list for her brother to give to the girl to follow.
The Sandaime thought that his sister's help would be greatly appreciated since his sister did have a reputation for helping raise some of the village's best shinobi. She started by watching Tsunade and Jiraiya, which gave Sarutobi the idea of having them on his team. The she started watching Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo. She would later bring together the two Ino-Shika-Cho trio's and introduce the all the both groups to their future wives back when they were children. She was also the one that was trusted to help raise the twin's parents and Kakashi. Despite the fact that Asuka did not have her own children, most of the shinobi were still asking her for advice on raising their children. That included Hyuga Asahi, Uchiha Mikoto, Inuzuka Tsume, and even the wives of the most recent Ino-Shika-Cho trio. His personal feelings aside, the old man felt that he made the right choice in who were to help the girls raise the Uzumaki twins. -Well I'm glad that I'm going in the right direction with these two, since I have a feeling that Arashi and Mina would have asked for my sister's advice. After all, who better to get advice from for raising the children of The Yellow Flash and Flaming Tigress than the one that helped raise the parents?
A/N: I'll I said in my last Naruto story that I am a Hina/Naru fan so that pairing is in this one. Like I said, this is more of a revision of my last Naruto story, I edited the original story's original text and made subtle changes that can be seen and that is why most of the text is the same as the other story, but I plan on changing their childhood and several things after that. This story is the same because I'm trying to do my original idea and many elements are in my original story, the changes will be apparent later. The problem was that the other story drifted away from the plot that I wanted so I decided to start from the beginning and make some changes. I not sure if I will think of some way to complete the other story or discontinue it, that is why it's just on an extended hiatus until I decide.
I said last time that I decided to add Rin since no one knows where she is and I decided to make Kurenai Mina's former student. I decided to keep the keep the background of the four kunoichi and the slight change in age.. I also said that the ANBU commander thing was just a random idea, I don't know if one exists in Naruto. Each ANBU unit has a captain and reports to the Hokage, but I decided that the commander would be the one in charge of all teams and serving a role between the Hokage and ANBU devision.
I decided to try the original twins idea I had and a twin brother works into my idea a little better than a twin sister. Sadly with that means that Hinata won't have her two best friends like in my other story. Since Naruto is said to mean a maelstrom or whirlpool and Uzumaki is a spiral. From what I learned Arashi is a tempest or storm. Anyway Hariken is from harike-n which means hurricane. I stated that Asahi means "morning sun" last time. I used this since Hiashi is "daytime" and Hinata is "sunny place".
As for the "Flaming Tigress" name, I gave Mina a title like the Yondaime was the "Yellow Flash". I have Mina known for her tiger mask and her fire jutsu(as well as the flame style cloak Arashi gave her). Sasumata will be Konohamaru's dad, but will have little or no mention later unless I change my mind. I said before that I don't like killing-off people I think are good, so in later chapters you will see that some of the characters that died in the series will still be alive.
