AN: Just a warning for all of you. This fic will eventually have Uzumakicest, as in Naruto will be in a non-platonic relationship with at least some of his biological family. There will also be a harem and possibly Lemons as well depending on where my writing takes me. So if any of those things bothers you don't force yourself to read this, I won't be sympathetic if you do and leave angry reviews.
As of the point I have it planned out where there will definitely be 7 people in the harem, with another 3 I'm considering. I'm going to be making, or at attempting to make, the pairings gradual and I won't just throw them all in and say things worked out it but he will be with multiple women. I will not say who is in it but some of them will likely be obvious if you think about it. That being said, on with the story.
PS: I haven't abandoned my other fic it's just my muse refuses to let me write more than the first third of the chapter and instead is making me write a bunch of other stories.
*RRrrriiiiiiiiippppppppppp*
The sound off flesh being torn apart echoed throughout the clearing. The sight of a mountain sized beast plunging one of its massive claws through a blond man and a red headed woman was reflected in a young boy's eyes. In front of the pair, just barely out of the range of the beast's claws, two crying newborns were visible. The blond man directs a small, hollow smile towards the woman, though it goes unseen, as he starts speaking softly.
"I'm sorry Kushina. I'm sorry that I was never able to love you. I tried ever since you said you loved me… but I just couldn't, I didn't have that capacity anymore. The village is the only thing that matters to me, the only thing that can matter to me. But, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. Konoha will need this power once I'm gone and the good of the village comes above anything else."
The woman, Kushina, grew a pained yet resigned look on her face, as if she already knew the truth of his words but was still hurt by hearing the truth spoken out loud.
"I…I know. As much as I want to blame you I can't. You didn't set things in motion, and you didn't chose to become what you are. My feelings for you were real but as time went by I came to know that they wouldn't be returned, couldn't be returned. I think I've known ever since I got pregnant with Naruto, I just didn't want to admit it to myself. But I'm thankful… The relationship we had may have been based on a lie but it was the closest thing I got to acceptance and love in this village and… you gave me my greatest treasures. I can't hate you for that. All I feel is pity and regret, you are simply the product of the one that made you Minato."
"*Cough* *cough* I'm not surprised you noticed. I was never a very good boyfriend, husband or father. Being Hokage and strengthening the village was always my top priority, nothing else could really register as being close in my mind. However, while I might not have been able to love you or our children my time with you was closest I ever got to the feeling as well and I feel… shame for what I did and what I'm about to do even if I will not, cannot, regret it. For that reason, for the first and last time I'm going to do something that wasn't done simply for the village's benefit."
With that said Minato slowly moved his right hand down to his stomach, dipping his fingers in the blood pouring out of the wound made by the claw still pierced through it. Then, at a speed faster than any untrained eyes could follow, he started drawing out a complicated seal on both his chest and Kushina's back. In the span of time it took for the boy watching the events to breathe he was finished, the hand he used to draw the seal, still caked in blood, held in an unknown hand sign.
"Kushina... I may not haven been able to care about you or our children beyond the scope of my mission and the benefit that you bring the village but I know that you're not the same. I also know that you have enough love in for our children for the two of us. With this technique you should be able to live despite your injuries, though I'm not sure how well you'll heal. Regardless you will be there for your children and my only request, as heartless at it may seem to you, is that you train them to be proud Shinobi of Konoha once they're old enough. And… tell Naruto that I'm sorry for not being a good father and… that I want him to be a better man than I ever could."
Kushina closed her eyes, face locked in a pained expression and tears running down her cheeks, as she slowly nodded her head, not trusting herself to speak at the moment. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that his actions now prove that he did in fact love her and her children, even if it was just a little bit, but knew the words would fall on deaf ears. But if she opened her mouth to say those thoughts she wouldn't be able to keep herself from begging him to reconsider, and she knew he wouldn't do that, so she kept her silence. Minato just kept his hollow smile on his face, as if he knew the struggle she was going throw, as he proceeded to finish what he started.
"Fūinjutsu: Katsuryoku iten (Sealing Technique: Vitality Transference)"
With his declaration Minato began visibly ageing at a rapid rate as he begun transferring all of his current Chakra and life force into Kushina. With his reserves dropping fast Minato rapidly went through a set of hand seals, thankful that this particular jutsu required something other than chakra as the price for its use.
"Fūinjutsu: Shiki Fūjin (Sealing Technique: Dead Demon Consuming Seal)"
This time there was no visible effect of the technique, as only the summoner and their target were able to see the horrifying visage of the Shinigami that the user called upon for the technique. There was no need for words to be spoken as the God of Death was made aware of what his summoner desired as soon as he was called into this realm. Unsheathing the blade held within its mouth the Shinigami quickly split the Kyūbi no Yōko into Yin and Yang and sealed the two halves into the twin newborns lying on the nearby altar. As the mighty beast was sealed away the claw penetrating the forms of Kushina and Minato faded away, causing the two to collapse to the ground now that their support was gone. Of course by this point Minato was already dead, his body crumbling completely to dust now that all of his vitality had been transferred and his soul consumed by the Shinigami. Kushina on the other hand was still alive, and even showed signs of healing, but the shock to her body and mind from the night's events was too great and she fell into a coma.
At the sight of the giant monster disappearing and his mother collapsing to the ground Naruto, who had been watching the scene from the edge of the clearing finally moved. He had been paralyzed by the sight of the Kyūbi no Yōko and the injuries his mother had sustained. It had been easy to ignore the Bijū's malicious power when he had been focusing solely on finding his mother but it became impossible once he was in its direct presence. Now that it was gone he instantly moved to his mother's side, his fear displayed prominently on his young face.
"Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan please wake up! Don't leave me kaa-chan!"
Naruto didn't know what to do. His mother wasn't responding to him, his father was gone and his sisters were crying. He needed help but didn't know how to get it. Usually one of the mask people would have been with him and they could have helped but they had left him a long time ago to help against the Fox. With no one to stop him and feeling his mother's pain and fear he had run away from his safe home out into the burning village trying to reach her.
He had been incredibly lucky to have avoided dying as he ran across the battlefield to her side but he hadn't noticed, too intent on reaching the area he felt his mother was at to notice all the near misses he had. Naruto even managed to ignore all the broken forms of the Konoha Shinobi that had died trying to stall the Kyūbi along the way, though he didn't forget and the nightmares would haunt him for years to come. Naruto was lucky he was an Uzumaki as were it not for his Uzumaki heritage he wouldn't have been able to run as long and far as he did without stopping and would have died anyways. Of course without his heritage he wouldn't be able to sense his mother's chakra either, and thus not have been able to run to her side in the first place so it was a mixed blessing.
Of course none of that would have mattered to the four-year-old desperately trying to help his mother even if he was told such things. To Naruto his mother was his whole world. She was the only real parent he had and the only person who really cared for him. His father was rarely around and when he was seemed to avoid interacting with him if at all possible bar a few rare lessons on being a Shinobi and how great Konoha was. As, other than his mother and father, the only people he interacted with were the mask people it was easy to see how his mother became all that mattered to him. The mask people were nice but they rarely said anything and never played or talked with him so his only source of affection or positive attention was, once again, his mother. He also wasn't allowed to leave the compound as both his parents had said it wasn't safe so he didn't have the opportunity to meet anyone else either.
Of course with him being so close to his mother when she had said he'd be getting little sisters he'd been jealous and upset. He had thought his mom had been replacing him and wouldn't slowly grow to forget him, that she'd ignore him like his dad. Kushina had of course noticed his thoughts and quickly reassured him that wasn't the case, and had even explained why it would be a good thing. He'd be getting two more people in his life that would love him and be with him for the rest of his life, just like she did. He hadn't been convinced at first but Kushina had spent a large amount of time reassuring and comforting him while she had been pregnant so he eventually grew to accept the idea of sisters, and then later even look forward to having some.
That being the case when he had been told his sisters were finally coming home tonight he had been excited and thought that this day would be amazing and maybe, just maybe, his dad would change as a result and finally start loving him as well. Then something happened, something terrible, and he knew his dreams wouldn't come true, for the Kyūbi had been unsealed. Things went dark for Naruto when it first showed up as he felt its presence and the next thing he knew he was alone in the house, lying on the cold floor. The feeling of the Kyūbi was still present when he got up and it almost made him cry from the angry evil aura it exuded, but all that was eclipsed when he felt his mother's chakra. She was far from their home, further than he had ever been able to feel her before, and she was scared, angry and in pain and he had to help her. So he pushed through his terror and ran, ignoring everything else but his goal.
He had reach her location just in time to watch amazed as his parent's restrain the Kyūbi in front of a strange table where his new sisters were sleeping on. His fear had started to disappear as he knew his parents would be fine, but then Kushina stumbled and he had watched in horror as the Kyūbi impaled both his parents with its claw as it tried to kill his sisters. He grew numb at that point, unable to move and forced to watch with a sense of detachment as his father said his last words before fading to dust. It was weird, he felt sad that he was gone but the more like the kind of sad he felt when his mother said she'd be gone for a couple of days rather than what he thought might be how sad he'd feel if his mother never came back. Minato never really acted like his father but Naruto always desperately wished that he would one day show that he did love him. He hadn't understood a lot of what his parents had said but he did know that his dad had said he hadn't loved his mother. Maybe that was why it didn't hurt that much? But then what was that sickening hole he felt in his chest?
All these thoughts ran through Naruto's head as he tried to distract himself from the feeling of helplessness he had at not being able to help his mother. His sisters were crying nearby and he wanted to make sure they were ok but he just couldn't force himself away from his mom. Luckily help soon arrived in the form of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the former Sandaime Hokage, and two ANBU squads. It barely took the veteran shinobi a moment to take in the situation before he silently directed his ANBU guards to secure the area and start treating Kushina.
"Naruto-kun what are you doing here, and where is your father?" The old Hokage questioned firmly but gently. Naruto simply ignored him, too focused on watching the ANBU currently providing emergency aid to his mother. He knew who the old man was, had even met him twice, but they weren't close and he had more important things to do than respond.
"Naruto! I need you to tell me what happened." This time Hiruzen used his 'Hokage" voice, something that even experienced Jōnin couldn't ignore, and this time proved no different as Naruto replied automatically, though he never moved from his position or turned his gaze away from his mother.
"He's gone, he did something to save kaa-chan and turned into dust after the Kyūbi disappeared into my Imōtos. Kaa-chan… she's going to be fine right?"
Hiruzen developed a pain look on his face and gave a deep sigh, ignoring Naruto's question for the moment and asking his own of his ANBU. "I see… Turtle how is she? Will she live? Is she stable enough to move to the hospital?"
The turtle masked ANBU treating Kushina turned his head to face the Sandaime but didn't stop working. "She has massive trauma to her internal organs and her spine, I'm honestly not sure how she still has them at all considering the fact that it looks like she was impaled by a support pillar, If I had to guess they were regrown somehow. Regardless, whatever happened she's still alive and even slowly healing without my help, though I'm uncertain if she'll live despite this, the damage is extensive as is her blood loss. Moving her to the hospital will be tricky but it has to be done if she has any hope of surviving. If she wasn't an Uzumaki and Minato hadn't done whatever it was he did she likely would have died before we had even arrived."
Hiruzen's face became pinched as he listened to his subordinate's evaluation. "Do it then. Tiger, Swallow help Turtle move her to the hospital, make sure she is given treatment immediately. Don't allow anyone to try and interfere or delay you, if they do you have permission to use force. Cat you are in charge of young Naruto, take him to my office and make sure he stays there. Dragonfly, Dolphin, Beatle, Mantis gather the Council, have them in the chambers within the next thirty minutes, don't let them refuse."
Orders received the ANBU immediately executed Hiruzen's commands, ignoring the angry protests of Naruto at being separated from his mother as he was whisked away from the clearing. With his subordinate's gone the Sandaime Hokage was left alone in the clearing with the two newborn Uzumaki. With a tired sigh that expressed the entirety of just how old he felt at that moment, Hiruzen picked up the still crying babies.
"Forgive me children for the harsh life you're going to be forced to live. If what happened to your mother was any indication the village will not take kindly to you due to the burden you now carry. I pray that I'm wrong and that your mother recovers soon otherwise I'm afraid of what might happen to you."
With the babes securely held in his arms, Hiruzen Sarutobi used the Shunshin to travel to the Council Chambers, where a highly unpleasant meeting would soon occur. Like it or not the Sandaime Hokage was out of retirement and Konoha had two new Jinchūriki he needed to introduce.
Naruto stared out of the window in the Hokage's office looking over the village, the tell-tale flicker of flames still visible in many areas. Seeing the movement of something red, thinking it was his mother, before it was revealed to be just his reflection, which Naruto briefly took notice of so as to distract himself from the empty feeling in his chest.
He had been blessed with the red hair indicative of an Uzumaki from Kushina, though it had the messiness of his father's rather than the straightness of his mothers. He had three whisker marks prominently displayed on each of his cheeks, the birthmarks standing out against his alabaster skin. And his eyes were the same violet color as his mother's, a comparison that knocked him out of his musings as his little distraction failed in its purpose. He was trying to not think about his mother so he didn't start crying again. Big boys didn't cry and his mother told him that if he wanted to be a ninja he'd have to be brave. So he did his best, though it was barely enough to keep him from breaking down, and the occasional tear still escaped from his control. He'd been in the office for a long time now with only the Cat lady with him and his fear about his mother and sister's situations were only getting worse. Where had the old man taken his sisters and how was his mother doing? He needed to know!
As if in answer to his plea/demand the door to the office opened and the form of the Sandaime Hokage quickly made itself known as the old shinobi entered the room. Naruto was about to rush him and barrage him with questions when he was stopped by the look on his face. It was in all honesty terrifying to the young boy. The Hokage's face was set in a grim, murderous mask that spoke of untold suffering to the next person that crossed him though if one looked deeper they would find that underneath it all was a deep set look of helplessness and resignation in his eyes.
As he made his way over to his desk more ANBU appeared, two of which were holding cradles that were already set up, ready for to be occupied by the, still sleeping, babies in the old man's arms. Hiruzen didn't spare Naruto a glance as he sunk deeply into his chair after depositing his charges, too focused on reigning in his emotions to talk to the boy at the moment. The atmosphere was tense, with an undercurrent of the threat of violence, as the occupants of the room stiffly stood, waiting for their leader to speak. It took minutes for the Sandaime to regain full control of himself, upon which he finally faced the very nervous son of his former replacement.
"Naruto."
"Y-yes Hokage-sama?" Naruto stuttered nervously.
Hiruzen winced internally at that, not meaning to have scared the boy like he had, but didn't show it on his face. "Your mother is still alive but she's in a coma and we don't know when she'll wake up. Even if she wakes up it is uncertain how much she'll be able to recover from her injuries. Our medics did the best they could but they're no Tsunade and have neither the skill, training nor experience to deal with such grievous injuries, even with her own body helping their efforts. I'm sorry."
Naruto looked at him blankly, a mix of horror and despair barely suppressed within his eyes, as he tentatively asked the old Hokage a question. "… but… but kaa-chan is still alive right?"
"Yes." Hiruzen nodded firmly, reassuring the boy that his mother wasn't dead.
The dark emotions in Naruto's eyes faded significantly, though faint traces still lingered even as he forced himself to reply in a positive manner. "Then… then she'll get better. Just wait kaa-chan is the best and she'll always come back to me, she promised."
It was clear to all the ninja in the room that Naruto was trying to convince himself as much as Hiruzen judging by the waver in his voice.
"…." The old Hokage couldn't bring himself to respond to the naked hope and faith the young boy had expressed, so he remained silent.
"What… what about my Imōto?"
Hiruzen's expression hardened noticeably before he forced himself to relax lest he scare Naruto once more. "They're safe and haven't been hurt, I made sure of that much at least…"
Naruto could hear something in his voice as he said that last part that he couldn't identify but made him uncomfortable none the less. He wanted to ask what it was but couldn't bring himself to voice his question and the moment passed as the old Hokage quickly switched topics.
"I'm sorry to say that your home was damaged during the attacked and will take a while to be repaired. Until it is ready you'll be staying in ANBU HQ along with your sisters. You won't be able to leave as the village is not a safe place for children to be in at the moment." An understatement to be sure, especially for these particular children but Hiruzen wasn't going to mention that to the boy. "I'll come get you when its fully repaired or if your mother's condition changes. Until then Cat will be in charge of you, listen to her instructions and if she tells you to do something do it, without question. Her job is to keep you and your sisters healthy and safe so anything she tells you to do is in line with that, do you understand?"
With a small nod and a quiet "yes" Naruto turns his gaze down, not wanting anyone to see the tears slowly forming in his eyes.
"Good, now come stand near your sisters. Do you happen to know their names?"
"…Kaa-chan was talking with tou-san about naming them Mito and Natsuki… "
A small sad smile formed on the aged Hokage's face as he heard that. "Well those are splendid names, I'll come visit you soon Naruto. Be good for Cat and look after your sisters ok?"
A small nod was all he got in response before the Uzumaki family disappeared in the signature swirl of leaves of the Shunshin. With them gone Hiruzen slumped in his chair, his posture all but screaming his exhaustion, resignation and sadness to the world.
"Why Minato… why did you have to leave and make me come out of retirement? Why did you leave your family? Why didn't you let me do the sealing? I'm old and can't do this job anymore, the village needed you not me. I know the village was all the mattered to you, and that your life never entered the equation where it was concerned but it should have. You kept the village strong and you were the symbol of strength that everyone rallied around after the Third Shinobi War. I can't keep most of those fools on the council in line anymore unless I take extreme action that I just can't afford right now. No one listens to the washed-out Hokage, not after years of you being in charge."
The Council had reacted almost exactly as he had thought they would after telling them the events of the night. The Civilians had called for the death of the two new Jinchūriki while the Clan Heads and his advisors simply watched impassively, doing nothing to stop them. None of the Shinobi truly believed, like the civilians, that the two girls were the Kyūbi reincarnated, they weren't that ignorant. However, that didn't mean they liked them, in fact most hated them, especially now after the attack. Jinchūriki, as unfortunate as it was, were almost always reminders of terrible events in their village and treated as bad omens because of it. That combined with the extremely small probability of a Jinchūriki being able to properly control the demonic Chakra of a Bijū (meaning they were usually berserkers and often unconsciously tapped into the power) meant that there was little trust and even less love to be had for them. They knew logically that they were a potential asset to the villages military strength but that was it. It was potential only and most wouldn't go out of their way to help one if it wasn't a direct order from the Hokage himself.
With Hiruzen's position as Hokage shaky at best currently (he had arbitrarily given himself the position again after all) he had tried reason with the civilians at first. He had explained the very basics of Fūinjutsu, made up a lie about Minato telling him he wanted them to be seen as heroes with his dying breath and even explained how they couldn't be the Kyūbi reborn as he watched them be born (another lie) from their mother, who he knew well. Things seemed to be working up to this point, and he seemed to be making them see reason albeit grudgingly and the calls for their death were all but gone. That was until he had told them who exactly their mother was. That had been a mistake, and one that he shouldn't have made, but by the time he realized that it was too late to take back. He had forgotten how people still viewed Kushina in the village, especially since it was well known she was the previous Jinchūriki.
Once it was known she was still alive despite the Kyūbi being set free opinions towards the new Jinchūriki and Kushina got even worse. The Council, both sides, lost it, thinking she had somehow released the Kyūbi deliberately, and Hiruzen had been forced to suppress them forcefully to get them to back off, an action that he knew would cost him in the future. He had managed to keep them from going after the children or Kushina herself at that point but that was only literally on threat of death if they continued. Thank god that ANBU were forced to undergo intense conditioning to be completely loyal the Hokage (and that they were on board with him becoming Hokage again) otherwise he doubted he could trust anyone in this village to look after the Uzumakis without trying to kill them in their sleep.
In the end it took two hours to move past the whole affair and go on to dealing with the aftermath of the attack… It wasn't pretty. Causalities were horrendous and Hiruzen shuddered to think about how much worse their military would be if they hadn't had a few years to recover from the Third Shinobi War. As it was the total population of Konoha was down by nearly 30%, of which a majority of those losses were either Shinobi, clan members or civilians heavily involved with Shinobi. It was going to take years to fully recover and Hiruzen was going to be forced to use some very extreme measures to keep Konoha's enemies from thinking they were weak enough to attack.
Another three hours later and they had a rough outline of what they were going to be doing going forward and Mito and Natsuki were still alive. Of course he hadn't expected anyone would be stupid enough to attack them in his presence once he put them under his protection formally, despite their feelings and beliefs. They had decades of experience in both life and politics and wouldn't make such a stupid move in the presence of the Hokage, no matter his age or lack of political clout. No, it was their future actions that he was worried about.
He had made the knowledge that Mito and Natsuki were Jinchūriki a SS-rank secret with the penalty for telling someone a trip to T&I before death but he knew it wouldn't stop the news from spreading. All it took was for a Hyūga to mention seeing an "interesting" chakra source in them, or for an Inuzuka to have their ninken walk close enough to smell an interesting scent, or an Aburame to conveniently let one of their various chakra devouring bugs fly near them and the secret would be out. There were too many ways around his order and it was only a matter of time before the whole village knew, if in not so many words. The only way to stop it was to kill everyone that knew, something he couldn't do without being killed in turn by vengeful clan members or without facing civil war.
He was stuck between a rock and a hard place with no decent options and he cursed the laws that required him to inform the council of such sensitive issues like the creation of new Jinchūriki. All he could do however was order an ANBU squad to protect the Uzumaki family to their absolute best ability. But that couldn't last long, he couldn't permanently station that many ANBU in a guard role, not when the village had taken so much damage. He prayed Kushina would wake up and make a full recovery, no one else could or would be look after the children and keep them safe besides the ANBU. Naruto might have been taken in somewhere but not once his connection to Kushina, Mito and Natsumi was known, something that was inevitable thanks to his looks. Those whiskers marks and his red hair did him no favors, not in this village, not after the attack.
Hiruzen needed to find another successor soon. Not only was he old but he was probably the only person willing (and able) to look after the children and stand up to the council at this point in time. The problem was finding someone that was, while being strong and loyal enough to hold the position, were willing to protect the Jinchūriki as much as he was. Of course at this point the only ones who fit any of the requirements were his apprentices and they all came with their own problems. Tsunade, while strong enough, had been away from the village for a long time and, even if he could track her down, it was doubtful she'd come back willingly let alone take up his hat. Jiraiya was both strong and loyal enough, he was also Naruto's (and likely the twin's) godfather, so he was actually the best choice. The problem was he was even harder to find than Tsunade, as he rarely came back to the village (preferring to let his summons deliver messages) and was unwilling to make any kind of big commitment that being Hokage would require. That was the reason why he hadn't even seen his own godson since his birth after all. As for Orochimaru… well he wasn't sure what to think about the only student of his that remained in his village, at the very least he knew he wasn't Kage material. All in all, he was stuck. He just hoped that he'd live long enough to see his village in safe hands and he hoped that the village would grow to accept the Uzumaki family.
-7 Months Later-
Kushina woke up slowly, having no idea where she was and with her mind feeling incredibly fuzzy. The sound of the steady beeping of machinery slowly worked its way into her consciousness, followed by the smell of antiseptic and a deep soreness throughout her upper body. Slowly opening her eyes, she struggled to see past the blinding white of her surroundings, an appearance she soon learned was caused by the sun streaming through the open window and the white aesthetic all hospital's seem to employ in their rooms. At this point her mind was fully awake and with it her last memories before things faded back. Said memories caused an instinctive panic to rise within her as she worried about her children's health, the result of which was an attempt to fling herself out of the bed. An attempt that was thwarted by the realization that she couldn't feel her legs.
Her panic was picked up by the various machines she was connected to, as evident by the sound of rapidly increased beeping. This caused her, until now, unseen guards to appear before her, two of whom left quickly after in search of the doctor and the Hokage. Of the remaining two the female of the group approached the increasingly frantic Kushina, who was struggling to from words around her long unused throat.
"Uzumaki-san, calm down, you're in the Konoha General Hospital. You were badly injured during the attack and you need to relax. Your children are still alive and are safely inside your home being watched by the rest of my ANBU squad so please calm down. You're going to aggravate your injuries if you keep this up and if you injure yourself it'll take you longer to be released and see your children."
Kushina slowly calmed down at those calmly spoken words, though she was still feeling a bit panicky. She needed to see her children and make sure they are ok with her own eyes and she was struggling to ignore the fact that she couldn't feel her own legs at the same time. Fortunately, it didn't take more than a couple of minutes for the Hokage and her doctor to enter the room, escorted by the ANBU sent to retrieve them. The doctor quickly went about the task of preforming diagnostic tests on her so Kushina turned her questioning and anxious eyes to Hiruzen, who looked at her grimly.
"Kushina… I'll just come out and say it. Minato is dead."
Noticing the lack of surprise, or any kind of reaction really beyond a small amount of resignation in her eyes, Hiruzen continued.
"Naruto is safe and remained injured during the attack, though he somehow managed to witness you and Minato getting impaled by the Kyūbi and sealing it within your daughters. He is still shook up about the entire night but is coping the best he can for a child his age, or even when twice his age if I'm being honest."
This news relaxed Kushina slightly at she felt relief that her little boy was ok, thought the fact that he witnessed that whole affair was like a hit to the gut. She'd need to spend a lot of time comforting him when she got out of here. After she took a few moments to process the information she motioned for Hiruzen to continue with her eyes, more than a little apprehensive about what news he'd give her about her daughters.
"Mito and Natsuki, Naruto told us you were planning on calling them that so that's what is listed on their official birth certificates, are healthy. Minato's… actions stressed their coils at first but nothing threatening and it has since ceased to be an issue. However, what they are was leaked to the village as a whole and they took that revelation extremely poorly. There has been a few… incidents involving them that had to be… resolved by the ANBU guarding them. Nothing reached them but… things aren't good. Naruto hasn't been involved yet but news has recently leaked that he, along with Mito and Natsumi, were your children so I fear it is only a matter of time before he is included as well. I'm sorry, I've done the best I could but I simply don't have the ability to deal with this problem, especially since I don't dare mention that their father is Minato to the public with Iwa and Kumo circling us like vultures thanks to the losses we suffered during the attack."
The old Hokage's words caused tears of frustration, anger and sadness to appear in Kushina's eyes. The news that people have already try to kill her babies was too much for her to handle in her state. She wanted to rant and rave at the Hokage, to get off the bed and go on a warpath through the village until she reached her babies but she couldn't. Her body was too weak and she couldn't even speak let alone give Hiruzen a tongue lashing that he probably didn't deserve if she was being honest with herself. As for carving a bloody swath through the village, that was even more impossible at the moment as her body was still too damaged to walk let alone fight, something that would be fixed in the near future. At least she hoped. Unfortunately, said hope was soon irreparably dashed.
"Kushina… there's more…" The red head Uzumaki felt a growing sense of dread at his words, a horrible possibility reverberating in her mind that she had tried to suppress to no avail.
"The injuries you sustained from the Kyūbi were… extensive. To be honest you shouldn't be alive even with you being an Uzumaki but something helped you to live, according to Naruto it was something Minato did. Whatever the case you're very lucky to be alive at the moment…. That being said you didn't come out unscathed. You suffered extensive damage to your internal organs and spine that healed incorrectly due to the Kyūbi's chakra… You're paralyzed from the waist down and likely will never walk again and the rest of your nervous system was damaged to varying degrees as well. What's more due to the internal damage you will find it difficult to process food and do strenuous activity and… you will likely never be capable of having children again. Your chakra coils were also damaged both from your injuries and from the Kyūbi being released from your seal. You can still technically use chakra and preform jutsu but any usage will likely be extremely painful to you and will injure you further if you're not careful, also your reserves will recover at only a fraction of their original rate so you're more likely to die if you ever have chakra exhaustion."
Each word was like a kunai to Kushina's stomach. The full extent of her disability was horrifying and only the thought of her children kept her from simply giving up and willing herself to die. How was she going to protect her children if she couldn't fight? How was she going to help with her daughters first steps if she couldn't be right behind them making sure they don't fall? How was she going to take care of their injuries or illness when she couldn't even take care of herself?
The light was visibly leaving her violet eyes as depression clouded her face and the sheer horror of her current circumstances weighed on Kushina's mind, the sight of which visibly shook the God of Shinobi. It was… wrong to see Kushina like this. He might not have been as close to her as he'd have liked but he was close enough to know how utterly out of character such a look was on her, or any Uzumaki for that matter. It was the look of someone who no longer saw any light in the world, someone wanting to die to end their own misery. He didn't want to continue speaking and risk her mental health further but he had to get the rest of the words he had to say out in the open now as bad as it was.
"… You'll likely have to remain in the hospital for another month before you're declared healthy enough to leave. At that point I'll send a live in caretaker to help you in the house. The ANBU will remain but the detail will be halved unfortunately. I've been putting it off until now but Konoha can't afford so many of my best Shinobi not taking missions after the losses we sustained. Eventually they'll have to be pulled entirely when things in the village settle more, but that won't be for a few months at the earliest. I'll have your children brought to you in an hour, the doctor should be done by then."
There was no response from Kushina beyond a very faint lightening of her mood at the last piece of news, though it faded just as quickly as it appeared. Hiruzen just gave her a pained look before sighing. He left without further words, intent on going back to his office to deal with the still incredibly large amount of paperwork left over from the attack, it was better than dwelling on his failures after all.
The last seven months have been hard for Naruto. He'd never gone more than a couple days without seeing his mother before and she was always the one that took care of him. Well, that wasn't really true. He had been taken care of by the masked people before (he had since learned that they were called ANBU) during those absences but he had never liked it. They weren't warm, they never played with him and they never spoke if they could help it so it was very lonely when his mom was gone. Now however it had been seven months and the loneliness was getting to him. The old man Hokage visited every once in a while but those visits made him uncomfortable despite his kind demeanor as he didn't know the man very well and it wasn't the same as if it was his mom. He had his sisters but they couldn't talk either, the closest they got was crying. He helped the ANBU take care of them the best he could but they were wearing on him, they were family and he loved them like he did his mother but he was only four and crying babies were annoying and he had other things to deal with and think about than them.
That wasn't the only thing that was bothering him about the last seven months. Some people had tried to hurt his family. He didn't know what assassination meant but he understood that it was bad and it involved hurting his sisters. He had, obviousally, reacted poorly to the news and his reaction even worse when the old man had let slip that it was people from Konoha who were making the attempts. The old man wouldn't tell him why and that did nothing to reduce his anger and Naruto couldn't help but start hating the village for their actions. Thanks to the old man and the ANBU his hatred wasn't all encompassing at the moment, as he knew there were some nice people in the village, but for the most part the rest of the villagers were a target of his ire.
The only good thing to happen during this time was that he had managed to get one of the ANBU to start training him as a Shinobi. It wasn't anything super cool like his mom's chains or some other awesome jutsu but they were important basics he'd need to learn them later, at least that's what he was told. It was hard to concentrate on his training in the aftermath of finding out about the attacks on his sisters but each new attempt on their lives drove him to train harder so the lack of concentration didn't matter so much. If he wanted to protect his family he'd have to be strong enough after all. So he trained, doing his basic exercises and drills continuously without complaint for hours on end. At the moment all that his exercises consisted of were stretches designed to increase his flexibility, running to increase his stamina, basic katas for taijutsu and the Leaf Concentration technique. He also worked on his sensing ability whenever he was tired or bored. It didn't work on the ANBU most of the time but he had made a game out of trying to sense them when they were hidden so at least that was entertaining. He could always sense his mother and sisters however, though he had stopped consciously focusing on his mother's signature all the time after the first few months of no change, instead checking on her every other day so to mitigate the disappointment.
Naruto was working on the basic academy taijutsu kata when Cat, who was basically "his" ANBU at this point as well as a sort of friend, appeared in front of him in a swirl of leaves. It was a very cool jutsu that he kept bugging her to teach him but he had yet to succeed in his endeavors. Halting his practice, he gave her a curious look as the ANBU never really interacted with him beyond training unless it was meal time or something important. Considering he had just eaten lunch an hour ago odds were she had something important to say.
"Naruto, your mother is awake and I've been instructed to bring you to visit her at the hospital. Your sisters will be brought by the others."
Naruto's face lit up like a beacon he was so happy. He couldn't even form words over the grin that seemed permanently etched on his face, all he could do was nod excitedly. Cat seemed to understand him well enough though, or simply wasn't going to wait for a reply, and placed her hand on his shoulder before taking him to the hospital via Shunshin. The trip was very disorientating for Naruto, despite it not being the first time he has traveled via the technique, but he didn't let it bother him. His mother was awake and nothing would ruin his good mood or deter his focus. Without waiting for Cat Naruto simply barreled through the door they had stopped in front of.
"KAA-CHAN!"
Kushina had turned away from the window she was silently staring out of at the sound of the door being slammed open. Her eyes still held a dull quality that came from a feeling of deep depression up until she caught sight of who had entered her room. Naruto had grown slightly while she had been in a coma, his hair slightly longer and his body showed signs of training but he was still clearly her son. The absolute joy evident on his face as he happily launched himself into the air and burrowed himself into her arms was enough to break through the stoic mask that she had kept on her face after she had woken up. The tears running down her face fell onto Naruto as she gently wrapped her shaky arms around her son, causing him to look up at her in confusion. Said confusion turned to worry as he noticed the fragile looking smile on her and her dull eyes, so different from the usual vibrant look she had.
"Kaa-chan? Why are you crying?"
Kushina still hadn't recovered her ability to speak yet so she simply shook her head and tightened her hug around her son the best she could. Naruto, while still worried and confused, simply hugged her harder in return, trying to convey his happiness at seeing her awake to her as best he could. That was the sight that greeted the rest of the Uzumaki's ANBU guard as they appeared in the room with Mito and Natsuki. A mother sobbing quietly as she hugged her son tightly to her chest despite her shaking arms, a happy but fragile smile on her face while her young son did his best to comfort her.
The appearance of the ANBU was enough for Kushina to turn her attention away from her son, quickly shifting to the bundles that Dolphin and Dragonfly were carrying. The sight of her daughters brought mixed emotions to Kushina. They were a reminder of that terrible night, what she had lost and the harsh future to come and for a brief moment a part of her wanted to reject them, to blame them for what happened just like most of the village was doing, and for a moment that part of her nearly won. Then she saw the happy bubbly smile on their faces as they made little grabbing motions towards her, as if they recognized her as their mother and were trying to get her love and attention. That was enough for her to ruthlessly beat back her darker thoughts as she unwrapped her arms from her son and motioned for the ANBU to bring her, her baby girls. Whether the ANBU had noticed the brief dark look that crossed her face before that point or not they made no mention and they simply placed her children into her waiting arms without fuss.
As Kushina looked down at her babies she drank in their appearance. Little Mito had the Uzumaki red hair (though it was spiky like Minato's), her pale skin color and Minato's blue eyes. Natsuki had Minato's hair color but it was straight like hers, a peach skin tone, and her violet eye color. Both of them had two whisker marks on both their cheeks, the birthmarks serving as proof they were born from a Kyūbi jinchūriki (her) just like Naruto's. Their innocent faces showed nothing but happiness as they were held by their mother for the first time since they were born, serving to finally banish the last vestiges of resentment in Kushina's heart. For the next half hour all Kushina did was cry with a happy smile on her face as she held in her children close before exhaustion took her, causing her to slip into a deep sleep.
-One Year Later-
The last year had been stressful for the Uzumaki household. Just like her doctor and Hiruzen had told her, it had taken Kushina a month before she was released from the Hospital and allowed to return home. Of course she was still crippled so even returning home didn't mean she was left alone with her children as she required a caretaker to help her with many tasks. Her caretaker was a rather quiet nurse/maid that she had never met before and served to help her bathe, do chores, cook and helped Kushina stay healthy with physical therapy exercises. Naruto didn't like her, though the twins seemed alright with her, while Kushina had mixed feelings about her herself as, while she was invaluable due to her condition, there was something that niggled at the back of her mind about her, something off. There had been nothing to indicate that she disliked any of the Uzumakis and was, in fact, very neutral about everything, simply doing her job nothing more nothing less, so Kushina had eventually put it out of her mind and months without incident.
Despite being with her children and being declared "healthy" by the hospital Kushina was not doing very well, even with the caretaker's help and the presence of her children. She suffered constant bouts of depression and her temper flared often when she tried, and failed, to do tasks she once did so easily before. It got exponentially worse however when there were more assassination attempts on her children, even on Naruto now that his existence was known, resulting in bouts of hysteria that lasted for days. During those periods she wouldn't let the children out of hands reach and threatened everyone that came near, even the ANBU and Hiruzen, despite knowing they wouldn't hurt her children. She was usually snapped out of it with the help of Naruto and the old Hokage but her mental health was deteriorating with each occurrence. Luckily the attempts seemed to have tapered off, with only five attempts since she had moved back into their home the last of which being two and a half months ago, so Hiruzen hoped she start improving now. Of course the lack of attempts did nothing to reassure Kushina that they were safe now, especially since the ANBU guarding them were finally being pulled today, Hiruzen no longer being able to justify their post now that the village and the assassination attempts had finally cooled off to a sufficient degree.
That wasn't the only problems facing the Uzumaki household either. While both Kushina and Minato had a large amount of money saved up from their careers (especially since Minato earned a lot as Hokage) that money wasn't infinite. With the cost of her medical treatment, the salary of the caretaker, food for four Uzumaki (three of which were growing children) and regular bills that money was draining fast with no means of replenishment. There was still a few years' time before they ran dry even at the current rate but it wouldn't last until her children grew up enough to support themselves, not even close. The only way to fix that was to find a source of income, which with Kushina's disability and her children's age was currently impossible. Jiraiya would help them if he knew their situation, despite his rather lacking performance as a Godfather, but he has yet to come back to the village nor has anyone been able to contact him so that wasn't currently an option. Hiruzen had promised to help them some, and already had by subsidizing her medical costs and the caretaker, but he could only do so much without paying with his clan's or Konoha's funds and Kushina was unwilling to ask for more even if that had a possibility of occurring. The only other option that came to mind was utilizing the income Naruto could make as a Shinobi, which meant that he'd have to graduate early if they wanted to stay afloat.
Kushina had railed against the idea of course, not wishing to see her baby put his life at risk for the village at all let alone at such a young age. She also didn't trust a village that tried to assassinate him and his sisters to have a team that wouldn't stab him in the back the first chance they got. The argument she had with both Hiruzen and (to her surprise) Naruto had been massive and the result had left Kushina in a deep depression (again) for two whole weeks. The Sandaime had made it clear that they really didn't have other viable options and eventually Naruto would have to become a Shinobi anyways if she wanted him to be able to defend himself and his family, let alone take over as clan head.
He had promised her that he would handle his team placement personally however, to ensure that nothing would happen to him. In addition, he had also pointed out that if Naruto become a Jōnin by the time Mito and Natsumi graduated the academy (which had been another argument in and of itself despite her promise to Minato) he would make him their Jōnin sensei, no question, thus they too could be put on a safe team. That still hadn't been enough for her until Naruto himself had chimed in, declaring his desire to become a strong shinobi as he couldn't accomplish his dreams if he didn't.
Naruto's dreams were quite simple. He wanted to keep his family safe/happy and he wanted to become the best medic in the world so he could heal his mother. See during the month that Kushina was recovering in the hospital Naruto had learned a lot about her condition from the doctors, probably too much really. There was a lot that he fully didn't understand, complex terms, medical jargon and statistics that he, in his young age, didn't know and couldn't comprehend. What he could understand however, was that his mother was hurt badly, obviously being unable to walk, and that only the best medic in the world, Tsunade Senju, would have a hope of being able to fix her. When he had asked why she wasn't here to heal his mother he had been told that Tsunade had essentially abandoned the village by a disgruntled doctor, taking many of her advanced techniques with her, leaving them unable to treat Kushina the best they possibly could. Naruto had gotten angry at that and soon came to resent the female Sannin for not being here to heal his mother, even if it was childish to do so as she had left the village before he had even been born. He had declared then and there that if no one but the legendary medic could heal his mother than he would just have to surpass her and do it himself.
What followed was a year of rigorous training for a four/five-year-old, as he spent any time he wasn't eating, sleeping or with his mother and sisters improving his Shinobi skills. He had once more asked his ANBU for help believing, correctly, that his mother would not be happy he was training himself so hard and wouldn't (or couldn't) help him herself. Cat had been the biggest help telling him just what being a medical ninja involved and what was needed to be one as she was a medic-nin herself, albeit only at a basic level. Simply put it required a lot of reading, practice and most importantly extremely good chakra control, which actually needed to be perfect if he wanted any hope of accomplishing his goal of surpassing Tsuande. At this point Naruto was also given a crash course on the Uzumaki clan and why his dream would be extremely difficult to accomplish, though not impossible.
The Uzumaki clan, as it turned out, were famous for a few things: their red hair, love of family, fiery tempers, abilities in Fūinjutsu, their vitality and their massive chakra reserves. The last one was the one that mattered in this situation as it was what would hamper Naruto in his ability to become a medic-nin. An average Uzumaki, without Shinobi training, would have around mid Chūnin level reserves at their peak, while with training even the most average Uzumaki had high Jōnin to low Kage level reserves. An Uzumaki jinchūriki, like his sisters were, would have, at the very least, High Kage to low Bijū level reserves with training, depending on their specific seal and genetics, which was a term that had something to do with who their parents were.
Now while Naruto himself wasn't a jinchūriki he had been born from one and had absorbed some of the Kyūbi's chakra in the womb, which had two important results. One, it made him the perfect container for a Bijū, his body already used to their special toxic chakra from birth, and two it meant his reserves would be larger than average even for an Uzumaki. This meant it was likely he would have mid Kage level reserves at the least once he hit his peak, possibly even touching Bijū level like his sisters, especially considering who his parents were (both being Kage level ninja). What all this information led to was the simple fact that having perfect control over so much Chakra was going to be a Herculean task. Naruto had been undeterred however, simply asking Cat for more ways to improve his control.
The result was that currently he had low genin level control over his high genin level reserves. He knew nothing fancy, just a couple of basic taijutsu kata and the leaf concentration technique (along with all the variants of it). He had wanted to learn to walk up buildings like he saw the ANBU do on occasion but he had been told he'd learn that once he mastered what they taught him first. He had been upset, having wanted to learn such a cool ability for a lot of reasons, but got over it eventually. He was almost done with the leaf concentration technique after all, being capable of spinning a leaf (both directions) on any part of his body, and all he had left to do so with multiple leaves at the same time.
When he had told his mother all of this she had lost the will to continue the argument, though had made him promise to not graduate immediately when he entered the academy in a few months. She didn't want her baby to graduate and become twisted by the Shinobi world for as long as possible. It would happen eventually but she knew it was worse the younger the ninja was. She had seen what had happened with ninja like Kakashi after all and didn't want that for her son. As their funds wouldn't run out for at least four years she had made told him he could only graduate after spending three years in the Academy. Hiruzen had thought that for the best as well, giving time for both Naruto to get stronger and for the village's attitude to cool off even further, as well as giving the male Uzumaki a chance to interact with children around his age (thus giving him a better chance at finding him a good team).
The whole affair had left a bitter taste in Kushina's mouth though, and often led to even more bouts of anger or depression when she thought of it too much, but there was nothing she could do to change things so she tried to put it out of her mind. At least she had some good to balance out the bad now that the twins were starting to walk and talk even though both events had been a bittersweet for Kushina. Their first words as it turned out had been "Naru" for Mito and "kaa" for Natsuki (their second words were the opposite). It had been a happy moment that brought tears to her eyes before she fell out of her wheelchair trying to pick them up into a hug. She had cried herself to sleep that night as a result, though nobody but their ANBU guard knew it.
Their first steps left her with a similar feeling. Naruto had been the one to help them and made sure to catch them when they stumbled, Kushina's caretaker not even allowing her to attempt to reach down to grab them this time. Not even when they fell a mere two feet away from where she sat, forcing her to watch as her five-year-old son comforted her crying children and coaxed them to try again rather than doing it herself. She would have broken down then and there if her two little angels hadn't managed to get up and toddle the rest of the way to her, giving her big hugs around her legs to show their happiness at their success (not that she could feel them). She had cried herself to sleep again that night, though this time Naruto had managed to sneak into her room to see what was wrong and try to comfort her slightly. It didn't seem to work as Kushina had simply hugged him to her chest and cried even harder as her confused son just hugged back, watching her with worried eyes before they both eventually fell asleep.
At the present time Naruto was currently out in their backyard, once more diligently going through the exercises he had been taught. He was still only doing flexibility and stamina training so as to not stunt hit future growth but even then it had a noticeable effect on his body. Naruto's stamina, already incredible due to his being an Uzumaki, had increased by several fold, now easily matching that of a genin, three times his age. His flexibility was perfect and all the exercise he had been doing had started to develop some muscle, meaning he could probably start learning to throw some kunai and shuriken effectively now (not that his mother would let him yet). Naruto was just finishing up the second taijutsu kata he had been taught, this one more focused on kicks whereas the first was just general movements for fighting, while also balancing and spinning leaves on his hands and forehead when he felt it. The caretaker was now in his sister's room. Normally that wouldn't be anything to take note of but there were a few things that were suspicious about it. For one she was supposed to be making lunch at the moment, and considering she had only started a few minutes ago was definitely not waking his sisters to inform them it was ready. For another the feeling of her chakra had now changed.
Naruto's sensing ability had evolved somewhat over time as he continued to practice with it. He still couldn't sense the ANBU when they were hiding, and it was still iffy with anyone other than his family, but he had been managed to sense the last assassin that attacked them. In fact, he was the one that had informed the ANBU of his presence, not that they had need him to. In addition, he could also get a much clearer picture about a person's emotional state through sensing their chakra than before. His mother constantly shifted between feeling sad, angry and a sort of tainted happiness. His sisters were balls of joy with an inner detached core of hatred (from the Kyūbi he was later informed). The ANBU, when he could sense them, had simply felt calm, with the occasional sliver of amusement or sadness (like something was bothering them) as they watched over his family. The caretaker however had always felt empty to him, one of the reasons why he was so wary about her though he never mentioned it though as her chakra didn't feel as strong as even his own. Now however something had changed. She still felt almost empty but there was a faint trace of hatred and grief now present, it wasn't strong but it was there. More worryingly though was that her Chakra was now much stronger than before, now equal to the last assassin's.
Naruto didn't like what he was feeling and immediately rush towards his sisters' room, banging the door open just in time to see the caretaker slip a knife out of her sleeve, thrusting it towards the sleeping form of his sisters. Not knowing what else to do he simply moved on instinct, letting out a loud cry as he launched himself at the women in a flying body-tackle. The caretaker hadn't bothered taking notice of his presence, intending to simply finish her task as quickly as possible, and had brought down her knife in a vicious stab towards Mito's throat. Naruto however, managed to knock her off balance when he hit her, just in time to keep his sister alive though the knife did nick Mito's neck causing her to wake up screaming. Naruto didn't have much time to pay attention however as the resulting collision from his tackle took both the caretaker and him to the floor.
Mito's scream caused Natsuki to wake up screaming as well as she felt her twins pain and terror. Naruto could hear his mother's voice calling out in worry from somewhere in the house but was too busy dealing with the caretaker who was currently trying to stab him in the chest. He wasn't fast enough to dodge, and even if they he was they were too close together for him to do so anyways, but if he did nothing he would die. So, once again acting on pure instinct, he thrust his arm right into the knife's path and locked it in place. It worked in that he had saved his life and deprived the caretaker of her weapon but as a result his right hand was mangled while his arm felt broken from the force of the blow. Additionally, his head was now ringing from when it hit the floor from the pushback of the attack. Naruto couldn't keep his pain filled scream from leaving his throat, joining his sisters in their crying.
It was to this scene that Kushina Uzumaki arrived, having furiously rolled herself towards the room in her wheelchair to check on her babies. Needless to say when she saw the bloodied form of Naruto and the line of red on Mito's neck, combined with all three of their pain filled and terrified screams, she lost it. Her Kongō Fūsa ripped themselves out of her body and launched themselves at the blank faced caretaker, who was even now attempting another strike at the Uzumaki twins with her bare hands. Four golden chains impaled her through her chest and stomach before she could follow through on the attempt, lifting her off the ground and into the ceiling, killing her near instantly. Of course using her chains so forcibly wasn't without cost and Kushina gagged on an upsurge of blood in her throat, though she choked it back down as she frantically checked on her children. Mito's cut to her neck wasn't serious though Kushina's heart almost stopped at the sight at first fearing the worst, but it was Naruto's state that caused a break down.
Naruto had fallen unconscious from the pain and shock of his injuries now that the danger had passed, and Kushina had a brief horrible moment where she thought he was dead before she could bring herself to check on him. Even after she was able to determine he was alive the possibility that he might have died haunted her and she left near catatonic though her body managed to move on autopilot to perform basic first aid and to activate the emergency beacon seal Hiruzen had given her despite her mental state. She remained shell shocked even after finishing the basic treatment she knew, gently cradling Naruto in her arms while frantically muttering a mix of apologies and reassurances to his unconscious form. She continued to do this even as Hiruzen and a few ANBU appeared before her and picked her up off the ground, which she hadn't noticed she had fallen on, to take them to the hospital.
Hiruzen gave a soul weary sigh as he saw the haunted look on Kushina's face. Even after she recovered from this incident it was clear it would leave lasting scars on her psyche, incredibly deep ones if her state since she had first woken up was considered. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad but he wasn't optimistic about that. He had decades of experience as a Shinobi after all and his experiences didn't paint a good picture for her mental health. He just prayed that she didn't turn against any of her children because of this, he wouldn't normally think it possibly of an Uzumaki, and Kushina especially, but the mind was a delicate and complicated thing so there was always a chance. It didn't help that he couldn't really trust any of his psychologists with Kushina's mental health, there was no telling what a particularly vicious one, especially a Yamanaka, might do to her in the state she was in. No, he would just have to hope for the best and try and guide Naruto the best he could in how to help her along with his own efforts in that regard. It was the least he could do after all; he was the one who vouched for that caretaker not knowing she would try and kill the twins. Which was another problem, he doubted Kushina would accept another caretaker into her home anytime soon, even if he could find one he thought he could trust more than the one he had the first time, which meant life was going to be even harder for the Uzumaki family. Sigh, he was too old for this crap.
-3 Months Later-
The old Hokage had been right, Kushina had not taken the most recent attack against her children well. When they had tried to separate her from her children to treat them at the hospital she had gone absolutely rabid and attacked everyone nearby and Hiruzen had been forced to order her sedated. Things didn't get any better when she woke up the next day in a separate room and had used her Kongō Fūsa to drag herself out of the room to search for her children, despite the injuries it caused her to do so. She had to be sedated again when they found her. After that Hiruzen had moved her into the same room as her children over the protest of the hospital staff, which worked well enough to calm her down though she attacked anyone who came close to them bar Hiruzen himself, and even that was iffy at time.
The old Hokage was just thankful that with medical jutsu and his Uzumaki heritage Naruto wouldn't be crippled from the attack otherwise he dreaded what Kushina might have done. As it was Naruto made a full recovery and was released from the hospital after a week, his enhanced vitality serving to boost his recovery immensely. The knife wound would scar but it wouldn't be bad enough to impede the movement of his hand at all, which was another plus.
Despite that small bit of good news, the problems didn't stop coming, though only Naruto and Hiruzen really knew the full effects of said problems. Besides the expected refusal of another caretaker Kushina had even refused to allow him to send the occasional ANBU to check in on the house now, stating flat out she would kill anyone who came near who wasn't himself. If not for the fact that she could still use her Kekkei Genkai and that he knew she was willing to kill herself if needed, he would have ignored the threat. As it was he didn't, wouldn't, test her, though that left a whole other host of issues to deal with in and of itself.
Kushina was theoretically able to look after herself now, even if she had a lot of pain and difficulty, but it was just that, theoretical. Even if by some miracle she could somehow manage to take care of herself that didn't equate with being able to look after her children properly. There was also the problem of keeping up the house maintenance, getting groceries, and a large number of other chores after all. Sure she could possibly do most of those things herself if she put in a lot of effort, but that was only if she could bring herself to let her children out of her sight for things like shopping, which she couldn't. For a normal family that wouldn't be a problem but when you were a known former Jinchūriki and your youngest children were the current ones bringing your children on a shopping run wasn't a good idea. Especially since she was crippled and Konoha was still recovering from the Kyūbi's attack, and thus still hostile to them despite their cooling off slightly.
Luckily a couple of the ANBU who had watched over the Uzumaki family, namely Cat and Dolphin, had volunteered to at least drop off groceries outside the property line on their time off so that problem was at least partially taken care of. The drop-offs would be irregular of course and someone, usually Naruto, had to pick them up but it was better than nothing at the moment, especially when combined with Naruto's own trips "secret" solo trips to the store. Hiruzen had accompanied him at first but the stores he went to, and those that worked there, proved to be at least neutral to the young Uzumaki (though he hadn't tested them on the rest of the family) so he stopped doing so fairly quickly. He wanted to continue anyways but he was too damn busy to take the time out of his schedule for such a foray with any kind of regularity.
Speaking of Naruto, the boy had assumed a lot of responsibility for the Uzumaki household since the incident in fact, many of which no child rightly should at his age. Naruto now did all the chores in the house from simple sweeping to washing clothes to making food, all of which he had learned through a self-taught crash course over the protests of Kushina. The Uzumaki matriarch had vehemently, almost violently on occasion, protested him doing this but Naruto was stubborn and Kushina literally couldn't say no for fear of somehow hurting him if the arguments continued. Despite her mental state she still refused to ever hurt her children if she could help it, so Naruto was able to take over all the duties Kushina, or their former caretaker, once did.
It was a blow to the caring mother having to be taken care of like that by her own young son. What was even worse in her eyes however was that Naruto was now forced to help her in the tasks she had trouble managing on her own and that the caretaker used to do. She had tried doing them by herself but it was difficult at the best of times and she honestly needed the help. This meant that Naruto now had to help her change her clothes if she wanted to wear things other than a loose dress, help bathe her, help her exercise her legs to keep them from atrophying too much and those weren't even the worst examples. She hated it absolutely hated it, but Naruto insisted and no one else was willing to help even if she trusted someone to do so.
Surprisingly enough though Naruto didn't appear fazed, disgusted or annoyed by any of these additional tasks, displaying an extremely high level of maturity and determination for a boy his age. Or maybe it wasn't so surprising. Naruto had always been a bit mature for his age and that had only increased ever since the Kyūbi incident, and even more after the assassinations that followed, especially the last one. If not for the way he lovingly treated his family and looked after them one would think he was a member of Danzō's Root program for how cold and emotionless he acted at times. He still smiled and laughed but that was only around his family. When he was training or interacted with Hiruzen, Cat, Dolphin or the store owners however he was as cold as ice. Still he was a good kid and he still acted cordially, even pleasantly, to them so none of them commented, knowing it wouldn't serve much of a purpose so soon after the attack anyways. They would work on getting him to lighten up and be more outgoing, like he was before the attack, now that he had, had time to heal from the mental trauma. It would be difficult for him to make friends with the attitude he had now after all, which was counterproductive towards the goal of finding him teammates at the academy.
Speaking of Naruto his training, once he got out of the hospital, and increased exponentially from before. Every moment he wasn't taking care of chores or looking after his mother and sisters he was training, sometimes even late into the night long after he should already be asleep. The latter was difficult now that Kushina refused to let any of her children sleep in separate rooms from her but all he had to do was wait for her to fall asleep before sneaking out so that wasn't too big of a problem. As a result of his intensified training he had now fully mastered the leaf concentration technique and all its variants as well as made all five of his taijutsu katas completely instinctual to his body. He had also, unbeknownst to his mother (for good reason), started his shurikenjutsu training. He had cut up his hands a lot at first but now he was able to hit his target 5 times out of 10 and no longer accidently hurt himself when doing so, making it worth it in his eyes. He still practiced a lot of course, he wouldn't be satisfied with his training until he had perfect accuracy.
All of this was done in a period of just under 3 months and now it was time to go to the Academy. His mother had not been pleased at all about him attending, literally locking him in their room that morning and refusing let go of him for half an hour. It was only the intervention of the Sandaime, who had expected something like this to happen, that enabled him to leave the house that day, though Naruto had felt uncomfortable doing so after looking back at his mother. Kushina had a broken look on her face when he left despite her protests, which caused him to feel like knives pierced his heart, but he needed to go to the academy so it was unavoidable despite how much he hated himself at that moment. He had been quick to hide his feelings however as he was made his way through the village proper and put his now usual cold expression on his face so as to not show the villagers any weakness. Most of the villagers, while disliking him, stuck to simple verbal insults and put downs in their conversations so, as long as he didn't react to them, they ended up stopping their comments and leaving, annoyed at his lack of reaction.
Naruto remained unmolested as he walked towards the academy, though he noticed that the looks he was getting from the villagers, once they recognized him, were nasty as always. The few Shinobi and Kunoichi he had seen looked at him indifferently, as one would do a stranger which wasn't so bad but the civilians looked at him with fear and disgust. If he actually cared for them, and had he not already experienced the looks several times before, it might have bothered him, as it was, it didn't. It was still a bit uncomfortable to him despite what he showed and how he acted however so he was glad when he finally caught sight of the academy and got out of the streets.
His assigned classroom was easy enough to find, especially since the receptionist, a middle aged Chūnin, actually seemed happy to see him for some reason and was quiet helpful in that regard. When he entered the class he was greeted by a sea of strange and non-descript faces. A few of them looked at him curiously, likely due to his hair color attracting their attention, but for the most part he was ignored, as was typical for children. They already had their own cliques and didn't feel like getting to know the strange new kid so soon. As there weren't many open seats Naruto decided to take the only window seat available, which meant he was sitting in the same row as a boy in a trench coat and sunglasses and a girl with short brown hair in a small ponytail. The boy was sitting in his seat quietly, simply staring towards the front of the class, while the girl seemed to be asleep. That being the case neither of them paid him a glance as he took the remaining seat in the row and pulled out a book on biology to pass the time before class started.
He idly traced the scar on his hand, a jagged thing that was faint enough to only be noticeable to those that knew it was there. It was a bit of a habit he had picked up over the past few months, a reminder of sorts of why he trained so hard, well another reminder at any rate. If he wanted a stronger reminder all he had to look at his mother after all. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he went back to reading his book. It wasn't interesting and was actually quiet dull but it was one of many books he needed to read if he wanted to become a medic-nin so he slogged through it with the kind of stubborn determination that all Uzumaki were known for. Ten minutes later, and 2 chapters further in, he put it his book away as it was finally time for class to begin.
"Good morning class I am Harikae Tadao, a proud Chūnin of Konoha, and I will be your sensei for your time here in the academy. This is Yokono Haruhiro he is also a Chūnin and will be my assistant for as long as he is on leave so treat him with respect while he is here."
"Yes sensei." Was the collective response, to which Tadao simply nodded.
"Good. Now I already know who you all are but for the rest of your classmates benefit I want you to stand up when I call your name. Kawahara Akira…" Naruto tuned out his sensei at this point, knowing his name would likely take a while to be called considering there were 60 students in his class. "Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stood up at this point, noticing the minute frown on the assistant instructor's face as he name was called, but the main one.
"…Inari Yamanaka. Good everyone is here. Now on to some general points of interest that I need to mention before we get to actual lessons. First, as academy students you have unlimited access to the academy's library during your lunch break, the hours of 5pm – 8pm and on the weekend from 7am – 8pm. In the library you will find books and scrolls on a variety of useful topics from Chakra control to anatomy and even a variety of E-rank jutsu, including the standard three you need to graduate from this program. I recommend you all spend at least some time there on your own if you want to be successful ninja."
Naruto made sure to make note of the available hours for the library, knowing he would visit there at least a few times. He had access to the library at home but most of it was on Fūinjutsu and the few ninjutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu and chakra control technique available being too advanced or unsuitable for his body at the moment. Plus, the Uzumaki library didn't have much in the way of medical books so hopefully the academy's could help more, if not he could try asking Cat the next time he saw her.
"As a supplement to the libraries if you have any questions or require some extra help in your studies I will be staying at the academy during the same times that the library is open. I recommend you speak to me only as a last resort however, a good Shinobi should try and be as self-sufficient as possible, you won't always be able to ask for help out in the field after all. On the topic of classes, I expect you to be here every day on time. I will not be repeating lessons so if you miss them for whatever reason it is up to you to figure out what we covered. For those of you who are aspiring Kunoichi the academy has mandatory extra classes every other week on Sunday same time as normal classes would be, your first class is this Sunday so remember to be there. For those of you who are aspiring Shinobi you don't officially have an extra class but a few of us instructors are planning something for you in that regard, expect an announcement next week."
That was interesting, he wondered what that was about. Maybe it had to do with the differences between girls and guys that his biology book talked about?
"Finally as for what I will be teaching you in your time here I won't get into it. The graduation requirements are easy to find out for yourself and it will be good practice for your information gathering skills so I won't tell you even if you ask."
With that said Tadao-sensei immediately launched into his first lesson, the Rules of the Shinobi. Naruto made sure to pay attention, the material itself was interesting enough and his sensei was definitely worth paying attention to. It also helped that he couldn't slack off even if he wanted to, otherwise graduating early would just be a pipe dream, even if he had the Hokage's support in the matter. Still, as long as the lessons remained this interesting he wouldn't have a problem for the next 3 years.
– 3 months later-
Naruto shouldn't have had those thoughts that day 3 months ago, he knew he had to have jinxed himself. Why else would Tadao-sensei switch from interesting topics such as Shinobi rules, tactics, deception (how to lie), how to properly observe people and other cool things to crap like who the 2nd Hokage's advisors' wives were and how to do basic math. It was pure mental torture and he had learned quickly, ironically enough using Tadao's lesson on deception (maybe that was the point?), to hide his personal studies under the guise of following along in the textbook. Those extra lessons for the guys never showed up either which was annoying, apparently the teachers didn't get permission from the council or something like that. At least the practical lessons were still a thing and remained interesting. Of course it was kind of hard to make sparring and learning how to throw weapons boring. He could do without the chakra control lessons considering he mastered what they taught already, and continuously practiced it during the boring lessons while he read his medical books as well.
Speaking of which he had finally gotten his chakra control up to a level that it matched his reserves, meaning he had low Chūnin control over his, now low Chūnin level, reserves. He accomplished this by finally completing the basic level of the surface walking exercise, which was to be able to walk vertically up stone using nothing but his feet and chakra. The next step was walking over something slightly less sturdy/dense, meaning a tree.
Most people tended to skip the first step of practicing on stone as there wasn't too much of a difference between it and trees, hence why Konoha called the exercise the tree-walking technique. Well that and because Konoha was surrounded by trees and Iwa had dibs on calling it the stone-climbing technique. Naruto didn't of course as it was important step in actually mastering the exercise rather than being simply proficient like the majority of ninja. The other steps were walking on a wood wall (it was thinner than a tree), then a chain link fence, a pane of glass and finally a paper screen (like those found on traditional sliding doors). There was also learning to walk in different directions, such as sideways, backwards, walking with his hands instead of feet and sticking to the various surfaces with other parts of his body. He estimated it would take him no more than a year to complete everything after which would be water-walking and its variants (hot water, cold water, still water, rapids, ect.) before he could finally move onto the exercises in Uzumaki's library.
All that excited him of course as it was not only cool but incredibly helpful for furthering his chakra control, but it was his medical studies that truly excited him now. With his control now up to snuff he could now finally practice some of the basic Iryōjustu exercises shown in his books. While he didn't have enough knowledge for most of them, and certainly not enough to start working on a human body, he had enough to get him started. It was his big first step towards fulfilling his dream and he was truly excited about it, though finding some rats or mice to practice on was going to be annoying.
The only bad part about the last 3 months, aside from the boring lessons, was that he had yet to really make a friend. Part of it was because he doubted that any of his classmates would be his teammates as he was planning on graduating early. Another was that he just couldn't relate to any of them or find any of them interesting. The last part was that he simply didn't like any of them at first and it showed. The Hokage had eventually helped him see that they weren't the same as the people who attacked his family or talked bad about them but by the time he did it was too late as the class consensus was that he was that he wasn't friend material. He didn't really mind the lack of friends per se, at least not at the moment (he had his family after all), but in the future it might not be the same. Especially since he was eventually going to be put on a Genin team and, while he knew the Sandaime was going to personally pick his teammates, it would be easier if he was friends with his future teammates. Which was why he was looking around the academy grounds for someone he could try and makes friends with.
He hadn't had much luck so far, most of the other students were already in their own social groups or simply just didn't call out to him in some way. That was until he saw a girl, a couple years older than himself by the looks of things, sitting under a tree reading a book on biology. She was obviously an Inuzuka if the three dogs laying down next to her and the red fang marks on her cheeks where anything to go on. Seeing that she was alone and that they had a shared topic of interest Naruto decided to go for it.
"Hi I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Want to be friends?" Ok so it was not most subtle way of going about things but he was a rather blunt person at heart.
At his sudden appearance and words, the Inuzuka looked up from where she was sitting on the ground, as did her dog companions, and gave Naruto a once over. Naruto, while tall for his age, was clearly younger than her by at least a couple of years so he was admittedly worried she'd dismiss him out of hand for that. Thankfully she didn't, though she only made that decision after taking note of her dogs' reactions towards him. None of them growled at him, a plus, and one of them, after sniffing the air briefly, even started wagging its tail slowly, another plus, so she decided to humor him for the moment.
"I'm Hana Inuzuka, and why do you want to be friends with me? Shouldn't you be making friends with someone closer to your age, like your classmates?"
Naruto laughed sheepishly as he responded. "Well, I don't really click with any of them. They're just too different from me. Plus, I'm planning on graduating early so I doubt I'll be on the same team as any of them."
Hana raised an eyebrow. "You're a cocky little brat aint cha? And you didn't tell me why you wanted to be friends with me specifically."
Naruto had to suppress a twitch in his eye at the little brat comment before he replied. "I'm not cocky, I already meet half the requirements needed to graduate and I doubt it'll be too hard to meet the other half in three years. And to be honest I approached you because I saw you were alone, beside your ninken of course, and you were reading a book on biology. I want to be a med-nin so it's something I thought we might have in common."
Now Hana was surprised. Despite the rather light requirements to graduate the academy compared to what her mother said she had to go through, meeting half of them after only 3 months showed a scary amount of talent, hard work or both. If he was telling the truth of course. Also his desire to be a med-nin would have been rare in a Kunoichi let alone a Shinobi. Maybe being friends with him wouldn't be too bad, he was certainly interesting to say the least.
"That's quiet the claim brat, and very impressive if it's true. Also, just for your information, I don't want to be a med-nin, I just want to know enough to heal my partners if they get injured. Why do you want to be one? It's not a common choice, especially for a boy."
"I'm not a brat and I can prove that I'm telling the truth!"
Hana gave him a slightly feral smirk. "Oh yeah? And how you going to do that short stuff?"
Naruto's eye was twitching violently by that point. "I'm not short! I'm just younger than you! And I challenge you to a spar! That'll show you that I'm telling the truth."
'Perfect', Hana thought as she adopted a feral grin. "You got yourself a spar then brat, meet me here after the Academy ends and you can show me what you got little man."
"You're on!"
The two fell into a heated silence as they glared at each other challengingly for a few moments, before it was broken as the two descended into laughter for several seconds. It was Hana who recovered first and was thus the first one to speak again.
"I think we're going to be good friends Naruto-san. And you never said why you wanted to be a med-nin, care to share?"
Naruto smiled at her when she used his name for the first time, though that dimmed quickly when she asked for his reasons behind wanting to become a medic. Hana noticed that quickly and was going to say he didn't have to tell her but before she could Naruto spoke up.
"My kaa-chan is hurt badly and the doctors can't heal her any more than they already did. They told me that only a medic on the caliber of Tsunade might be able to fully heal her but she isn't in the village anymore. So I decided that if only a legendary medic could heal my kaa-chan than I would just have to become one and heal her myself."
Hana remained quiet after that, not really sure what to do what that information. It was incredibly personal, too personal really, to be sharing with her. They had just met and had barely become friends so she didn't know how to take him essentially barring part of his psyche to her. Eventually she decided to return the favor as it were, her instincts were telling her to trust him and that he would make a great friend, and an Inuzuka always listens to their instincts.
"My mother's first ninken died in front of me during the Kyūbi attack protecting me from falling rubble after I disobeyed her orders and left our clan's shelter." Naruto looked surprised as Hana started speaking before he adopted a serious, though comforting, expression as he realized what she was doing. Hana gave him a tight smile in gratitude before resuming her story.
"It wasn't an instant death, there was still time to have saved him if he had gotten treatment in time but that didn't happen, so I had to watch as he slowly succumbed to his injuries. I'm not sure if you know this or not but us Inuzuka can actually talk to and understand our ninken, and the older ones can even speak like a normal human. They are our family just as much as our human clan members and losing them hurts us deeply. I… blame myself for his death, despite my mother already forgiving me, and that guilt is the reason why I am learning how to treat my ninken if they get injured, I never want to have to sit back and watch another die just because I couldn't help them."
It was clear that this was a hard topic to talk about for Hana and that she was close to crying when she was done so now it was Naruto's turn to remain quiet. He hadn't initially planned to tell Hana so much about his dream so soon, it just sort of happen, and he definitely didn't expect her to return the favor. Not knowing what to say to comfort her he did the first thing that came to mind instead. He sat down next to Hana and simply provided comfort by being near her. He didn't hug her as he didn't know how well she'd react to that yet but he did sit close enough that their shoulders touched, and that seemed to be enough. The two spent the next few minutes in silence before the bell rang signaling the end to their lunch period and the start of their next lesson block.
"…see you after class for that spar?" Naruto's voice was hesitant, unsure if she still wanted to meet up after what had happened between them.
"…Yeah see you there…short stuff." Thankfully Hana did, and that she seemed to be fully recovered from their little heart to heart moment if the short stuff comment was anything to go on, or at least recovered enough to fake it.
"Oi! I told you I'm not short! I'm just younger than you!" Naruto was indignant, though there was a faint trace of happiness in his voice as well.
Hana just laughed at him as she raced away towards her classroom, her ninken following close behind, yipping in excitement. "Whatever you say brat! Hope you're ready to get your butt kicked after classes are over!"
Naruto wanted to fire back explaining how he would be kicking her butt not the other way around, but Hana was already out of sight so that didn't happen. Instead Naruto was left silently fuming, at least until he got over it and a sense of determination replaced it. He'll show her whose butt was going to be kicked, believe it!
The rest of his classes passed by quickly after lunch despite the rather dull subject material being taught. Part of this was because he simply ignored the lessons to do his own thing now as per usual now, while the other was due to his excitement about his spar. His excitement was so great in fact that when class ended he literally ran out of the classroom, using Chakra to boost his speed to avoid any traffic he might run into. Not the most mature thing to do but he had never had a friend before so he found out it hard to care in his excitement.
Naruto was the first to arrive at the meeting point, unsurprising really due to the methods he employed, so he sat down to wait for his new friend. He ended up waiting for a few minutes but eventually Hana showed up, though she wasn't alone. Following her was another girl who looked to be Hana's age and was carrying a Bokken. She also had long purple colored hair, which Naruto thought was quiet pretty. Naruto looked at Hana in confusion and she was quick to explain.
"Ah, this is my friend Yūgao Uzuki and the only other non-fangirl in our class. When she heard about our spar she decided to tag along and see the brat I was going to beat down. Yūgao this is Naruto Uzumaki, a brat who thinks he's going to graduate early in three years." Hana was smirking as she finished her introduction, an action that Yūgao copied as she gave Naruto a casual wave in lieu of a verbal greeting.
For his part Naruto was ticked and let it show. "We'll see who beats who dog-breath! I'll beat you just as easy as I do the fangirls in my class!"
Yūgao faced palmed as Hana grew unnaturally still as a dangerous aura beginning coming off her body. Naruto knew he had messed up at that point and quickly moved into a defensive taijutsu stance. It was a good thing too as Hana launched herself at him with a savage ferocity, her hands extended and her nails/claws poised to slice his face. Naruto dodged backwards, avoiding the blow, and retaliated with a sweeping kick designed to knock her to the ground. The attack missed when Hana leapt off the ground into a front flip kick towards his head. Naruto blocked it by crossing both his arms, though the blow had enough strength to leave his hands slightly numb from the impact. His opponent didn't waste time however and used his arms as a spring board to launch herself backwards with her leg, avoiding Naruto's attempt at trapping the limb by a split second.
The fight paused momentarily as the two fighters eyed each other more warily, and with more respect, before resuming. The two charged at each other and met in the middle in a flurry of punches, kicks and claw swipes. Neither of the two appeared to hold the advantage after a minute of this, until the differences in their age made itself known. Naruto, while in incredible physical shape for his age, was younger than Hana by three whole years. As a result, she not only had more strength than him but she had a longer reach as well, despite it not being as big a difference one would think thanks to Naruto's above average height. It hadn't really been a problem at first but when coupled with Hana's experience advantage, having been in the academy for three years now compared to his three months, hits started to slip through Naruto's guard. A grazing blow from a claw swipe here, a barely blocked kick there and soon Naruto's endurance was being tested.
Of course he was giving almost as good as he got judging by the slight limp Hana had in her left leg and the scuff marks on her arms, face and chest but it was clear he was losing. If not for his Uzumaki endurance and stamina he would have lost by now, as it were it merely prolonged the inevitable. So it was barely 5 minutes into the spar that Naruto finally took a solid blow, a strong punch to the stomach, for the first and last time. It knocked the wind out of him for only a couple of seconds but it was enough for Hana to capitalize on and soon enough Naruto was on the ground, his right arm pinned behind his back and the taste of dirt in his mouth.
"Do you give up?" Hana was panting lightly from the exertion of their fight but it was clear she was ready for more even if didn't yield. Naruto for his part could also go on for longer even though he was more tired than Hana was, but decided not to. He had clearly lost the fight and had no way from escaping Hana's hold after all.
"Yeah, I give." He could almost hear the smirk on Hana's face as she released him, though surprisingly enough he wasn't bothered by it too much. It was a great fight after all and she had won, she deserved to feel pride in that. Thankfully Hana was not a sore winner and didn't lord her victory over him.
"That was a pretty good fight Naruto-kun, I can actually believe that you can graduate in three years if all your skills as a Shinobi are as good as your taijutsu."
Naruto, after he finished brushing the dirt off himself, replied with a happy smile. "Thanks Hana-chan! And you're an amazing fighter yourself, we should spar again sometime."
Hana's smirk turned a bit more feral at Naruto's words. "Anytime, I enjoyed making you eat dirt short stuff."
Before Naruto voice his anger at being called short (again) the, silent until now, Yūgao made herself known. "I would like to get in on those sparring sessions as well if you don't mind. Hana has been the only one who could put up a fight against me in our class for a while now, everyone else was either too weak or" Yūgao snorted in disgust at this point. "refuses to hit a girl. It would be nice to have someone new to fight against."
Hana nodded in agreement with her friend's words, while Naruto simply looked confused and decided to voice it. "I can get fangirls being too weak to be proper sparring partners but why would someone not fight you just because you're a girl?"
Yūgao and Hana adopted identical annoyed looks as the latter answered his question. "It's stupid sexist crap. Basically it's seen as 'wrong' for a guy to hit a girl, even in sparring, due to the belief that we are weaker than guys and thus need to be 'protected' or something like that."
"…That's dumb." The two aspiring Kunoichi couldn't help but laugh lightly at Naruto's deadpanned response and expression.
"Yeah, it is. It's mostly the civilians doing it though, the majority of kids from the clans know better. The problem is I'm the only one from a clan in my entire year." Hana replied.
"I see… Well I'd be happy to spar with you Yūgao-san, especially since I doubt you'd be any weaker than Hana-chan in a fight. Plus, I can always use another friend." Naruto's happy smile was warm like the sun and conveyed just how much he truly meant his words. Something that caused Yūgao to pink slightly, it was nice not automatically being dismissed as being weak for a change.
"Thanks Naruto-kun. I'd be happy to be your friend." Naruto's smile grew even wider at her words. At this point Hana jumped into the conversation, wanting to show her happiness with this result by wrapping her old and new friend in one-armed neck hugs.
"This is going to be great! And if you do manage to graduate early we might even be on the same team! You don't know how much I was dreading the possibility of being on the same team as the rest of my classmates."
Naruto just laughed sheepishly while Yūgao shook her headed fervently in agreement to Hana's words, obviously not liking her classmates any more than Hana did. After that the new trio of friends spent time getting to know each other, sharing their likes, dislikes, ect. They all had a few things in common, such as liking friends, family and training, as well as disliking fangirls so it was rather easy to have a conversation. For instance, Naruto and Yūgao talked about their interest in Kenjutsu (Naruto's interest came from wanting to emulate his mother when he grew up enough to hold a sword properly) while Hana interjected at points about her own interest in incorporating weapons into the Inuzuka clan techniques and taijutsu style. Eventually however Naruto couldn't stay any longer as he needed to go home to take care of his mouther and sisters, especially since he had already stayed here much later than usual and they were likely worried. The three said their goodbyes and promised to meet up again tomorrow at lunch (Yūgao had not been with Hana earlier due to having to talk with their instructor) before heading their separate ways.
Naruto was feeling quiet happy as he made his way through the village back towards the Uzumaki home, not even the comments he heard from some of the villagers were enough to put his mood down. He had two friends now! Not only did he have friends but his friends were awesome. Yes, it was a good day for Naruto Uzumaki.
"Kaa-chan, Mito!, Natsuki! I'm home!"
The rapid pitter-patter of two small pairs of feet was all the warning Naruto got before he was tackled by twin blurs of red and yellow. ""Naru!""
Said identified "Naru" laughed brightly as he scooped up his sisters into a hug, causing them to squeal out in joy. "Hey Chibis, you been good for Kaa-chan?"
The two chibis rapidly nodded their heads with big smiles. "Uhn!" "We good Naru."
At this point Kushina came into entryway on her wheel chair, her smile warm, if fragile, as she watched her children interact even as something dark lurked in her eyes. Naruto, upon noticing her arrival, looked up from his sisters and gave her an extra big smile to assuage her fears, which caused the faint darkness in her eyes to dispel for the time being and her smile to grow just a bit brighter.
"Welcome back Soichi. You're back later than usual and you seem a bit ruffled…you weren't bothered by anyone were you?" The darkness in Kushina's eyes came back with a vengeance as she asked her question, taking in the sight of Naruto's dirty clothes and the cuts and bruises on his exposed skin. Mito and Natsuki also looked up at their brother's face from where they rested in his arm, looks of a worry and confusion on their face at the possibility of him being hurt.
Naruto laughed sheepishly as he hurried to answer. "I'm fine kaa-chan, no one bothered me. I just made some friends today and sparred with one of them after school is all."
"oh? Who are these… friends and which was the one that you sparred with?" Kushina's voice was deceptively calm, too calm, and it made Naruto nervous.
"Ah, the one I sparred against was Hana Inuzuka. She's in one of the third year classes and is pretty strong. I actually ended up losing our fight. My other new friend is Yūgao Uzuki, who was Hana's friend and followed her to watch our spar. She's cool like Hana but I didn't get to fight her yet but I'm hoping to do so tomorrow." Naruto smiled brightly at the possibility.
Kushina's upper body started shaking lightly as a faint trace of fear entered her eyes. Naruto looked at her worryingly. "What's wrong kaa-chan?"
"are…are you going to be home late again tomorrow?" Even Kushina's voice was shaking now, evidently bothered by that possibility. A normal child would likely have not been able to notice, or would have ignored the signs of her anxiety but Naruto wasn't normal and knew what she was worried about. His mother hated it when he stayed at the academy after class to go study in the library as well as leaving the house on the weekends to do the same so it wasn't hard to figure out. She was afraid he'd be out of the house for longer periods of time now that he had friends.
"Not if you don't want me to kaa-chan. We didn't make any other plans beyond meeting at lunch so I can come right back home after classes if you want. I'll also stop going to the library pretty soon, there isn't much left in there that is useful to me so my schedule will likely remain the same at least, if not change so I'll be home more often."
"good…good…" Kushina's voice was soft, barely a whisper, but Naruto caught it as well as the sheer relief in her voice, though he made no mention of it. Deciding to break the rather awkward atmosphere Naruto finally put his sisters back down on the ground before moving to Kushina where he took control of her wheelchair and started moving everyone to the kitchen.
"Now! I think it's time I started dinner. Who wants ramen?"
Mito and Natsuki squealed in delight and rushed ahead of their brother and mother, excited at the prospects of ramen. While both had only eaten the noodle dish for the first time a month ago they were already addicted to it, proving once again that a love of ramen is genetic in the Uzumaki clan. Kushina for her part also smiled in excitement, any and all signs of her earlier anxiety completely gone. Naruto just looked at them all with a content expression, happy just seeming them happy, though he did shoot his mother a brief worried look that she couldn't see. She had changed a lot ever since she first got out of the hospital and it bothered him as she stopped acting less and less like who the woman in his memories. He hated seeing her so fragile looking, as if the wrong word or action will shatter her like glass. It was just wrong and he vowed one again to see her healed, and Naruto Uzumaki does not go back on his word.
AN: I've read many fics about scenarios where Kushina lived after the Kyubi incident but I don't think I've ever read one where it's had physical consequences like mine. Sure I've read fics where its put her into a coma but other than that nothing, and even for those once she's out of the coma she's good as new. She was impaled through the chest by a massive fucking claw for Christ sake. Her spine? Gone. Any organs in the way? Gone. Chakra system? At the very least damaged. Sure it can be written off that she healed due to being an Uzumaki but remember that in canon four tails of Kyubi's chakra peeled the skin off of Naruto's body and reduced his life span. Its chakra is corrosive even to a Jinchuriki if it's not purified and I'm fairly certain that a whole Kyubi (as in not split in half) with full access to its power would have chakra that's even worse. That being the case my thought process was that even if Kushina lived there would be consequences, which was why I made her a cripple, well that and it served as a good motivation for my version of Naruto. Even then I feel like I bullshitted it slightly by keeping the damage as "light" as I did.
A lot of time skipping in this chapter and there will be more as the story goes on but not as much once cannon event timeline is reached. I tried to make it so that the skips seemed logical and that nothing important was glossed over but let me know what you think. Personally I'd think the story would be rather dull if I paid a large amount of time to each time section before Naruto becomes a ninja.
Anyways, that was a rather long ramble. This story idea has been around in my head and on my computer for a while now in various iterations so I'm glad that I was finally able to write this chapter. Let me know what you think.
-Monumentum.
PS: Fun little side note, Harikae Tadao means Rework and Loyalty respectfully according to google translate, which I thought was an amusing name for a shinobi to have.