Naruto fanfiction

The Family

Summary: Rising from the ashes, freeing themselves from the chains of the past. Coursing though their bodies, a power to protect, a power to destroy. Family above all, Peace above all. They are stronger together for Chakra is thicker than Blood. They see the truth for it can't hide from them. They are The Family.

Chapter 1

Today, it has been exactly 23 years. 23 years, since he lost everyone and everything he ever had. It took him nineteen out of those twenty-three to terms with it . He was getting old, he mused. While many wouldn't consider 44 old at all, he himself was getting tired. Some four years ago he had picked up work again. It had cost him a lot of willpower, doing what the family had done. But he did it anyway, to honor their memory. The memory he carried. And with their memory, he worked. He disposed of danger, menace and monster or whatever else threatened peace.

Of course he was hired for money. Still, if they couldn't pay he helped anyways. Just as Hana always did.

His Hana. His wife, his love, his everything. He shook his head. Dwelling on the past was not how the family worked. With his lone right arm, he pushed himself of the stone he had been sitting on. Before him was a pack of mutated tigers. Or whatever was left of them. Another job well done. Another threat neutralized.

He looked up in the sky, but his eyes were covered behind white cloth with intricate patterns on it. But by no means he was blind. No, not at all. He could see just fine. It was tradition, mandatory at that. A hawk was circling in the sky above him. He knew the bird. It was his own after all. He lifted his arm and the hawk dived down and landed on his forearm bracer. The reddish-brown bird stretched out his leg where a scroll was fastened.

The seal of Konoha? he thought. He hadn't been in the village in ages. The only ones who had really known him had died over a decade ago.

Sighing heavily he took the scroll and dismissed the bird.

Demon slayer Shiro,

He felt the urge to roll his eyes at whomever had wrote this. The moniker had come up three years ago and shouldn't have reached the Land of Fire.

We, the council of Konoha, have deemed it necessary that a threat is to be exterminated from our village.

A demon in human form walks among the villagers and poses a threat, we, the Konoha council are unwilling to tolerate.

Your payment shall be whatever you deem fit.

The bird will lead you to the leaf.

The Council of Konoha.

Shiro looked up at his bird and the hawk started to fly to the south. He wanted to scoff. As if he wouldn't know where Konoha was. Hidden Village my ass. The white haired man shouldered his blade and bag and moved after the bird.

If a demon was endangering lives, he wouldn't stand by idly. A demon had to die. It was what he did, what the family did, and what he would continue doing to hi dying day. The others had done so, Hanna had done the same. Shiro knew he would follow them eventually.

It took the better of two days to reach the walls of Konoha.

He didn't want to be bothered by the guards at the gate so he activated the seals in his grey cloak and vanished. He always wondered how they actually worked, the one that had made them for him was just too much of a genious with the things to explain it in terms he could grasp. Far behind the gate, he reappeared on a water tower. His hawk was leading him towards the mountain with the faces etched into it. He sighed as he saw them but moved on. Dwelling on the past was wrong.

Shiro jumped through the trees of a great park. He saw children play on a playground and farther back he saw something he didn't like. A girl with short black hair was surrounded by kids, a little older than she was. He could hear her crying.

Just as Shiro was about to kick the shit out of the boys, a blonde kid, about the girl's age, burst out of a bush, and dragged the surprised girl with him, fleeing with her from the tormentors. The bullies seemed confused, the blonde had moved quite fast. Shiro smirked. He hoped that the blonde boy would protect the girl. He moved on, out of the park and over a training ground with a lake and on into a residential area. Behind the are was a red tower with a wooden roof. The hawk was circling over the tower. It

Shiro wasn't one to knock on doors so he choose to go for the open window. Apparently the council was in session.

"When is the slayer going to arrive?"

"His bird has been seen. He should be here any minute-" The bald man was interrupted by a blade that embedded itself into the big round table.

Everyone jumped when Shiro appeared besides his blade, a short sword, double edged.

"I'm here," he said in a cool voice, his eyes scanning the whole council, not that they could tell. All of these old man and the one woman were scared shitless. He sighed inwardly. But he was here for a job. "Where is your demon?"

"Ah... uh... Shiro, I presume?", one of them asked.

He didn't answer.

"Ah... ok, yes the target. Sakaki?"

The woman flinched and produced a picture she slid across the table to Shiro.

With a flick of his wrist the picture bounced of the table into his hand.

It was a blond boy with blue eyes, whisker marks on his cheeks. Sign of possession? Remnants of a transformation? Shiro mused. The boy was 14, maybe 15 years old, a child, not even old enough to enter the academy in Konoha. Enrollment age was 16 since the Fourth had reformed the system.

"This is your demon?" he asked the council.

All of them nodded and affirmed his question.

"It shall be done," Shiro said, kicking the blades hilt, sending it to fly out of the window. Soon afterwrds Shiro too was gone.

"Well, that was weird."

Shiro stood on his blade that was sticking horizontally out of a wall across the street from the tower.

"Time to hunt," he said before vanishing.

Finding a blonde boy in Konoha was difficult. None Yamanaka fit the picture and and the three other boys did not have whisker marks neither did they have blue eyes. After about five hours he found another one. He could hear him talking.

"We lost him, Hinata. That guy's going to be on a fake trail for a while."

A female voice replied. "Uhm... T-Thank you! I... uhm... you didn't have to-!"

"Don't sweat it. I'm just glad I could help!"

"Oh... uhm... ok..."

"You are cute!"

"W-w-what?! N-no! I... uhm..."

"Haha! Calm down Hinata."

He put a hand on her head, ruffling her hair.

Hinata turned red enough to illuminate the alleyway.

Oh boy, I don't need my eyes to see she's head over heels Shiro mused.

"Oh! You... err... didn't tell me your name!" she finally managed to say after a lot of pocking her index fingers together.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I dragged you through half of Konoha and you didn't even know my name," the boy said sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

Shiro nearly fell of his blade.

An Uzumaki! Former family! Shiro wasn't aware that anyone had survived the massacre in Uzushiogakure. The job could wait. He needed to talk to the Uzumaki. He managed to not throw his blade.

Instead he appeared in front of Hinata and Naruto with the sword on his back. Both teens jumped. Naruto in front of Hinata and Hinata into Naruto's arms.

Her poor heart Shiro thought, shaking his head.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked with his back to him and head slightly turned, Hinata still in his arms, passed out.

"Easy there, Uzumaki. I mean no harm," Shiro said, putting up his hand.

"Oh yeah? Many people told me that already. They always lie!"

"I do not lie. I cannot lie. Therefore I will not lie, Uzumaki," Shiro said, his voice even. "You may want to sit her down until she wakes up."

Naruto turned his head back around.

He got as red as Hinata had when his face was only an inch from hers. Naruto placed her on a bank not far from their position and sat down besides her. Shiro didn't move. He didn't want to destroy what little trust the boy could bring up. When Naruto turned to face Shiro, the hunter's heart almost stopped. The whisker marks, the eyes and even the clothes. The boy was his target. And somehow he looked vaguely familiar, now that he thought about it.

He cursed inwardly. Now he needed to use his eyes.

As Naruto walked up to the white haired man, he took off the cloth that covered his eyes. Shiro opened them and looked staright at the boy. There was no white in them, all black. The iris was solid gold with no pupil, instead there was a red, three pronged crown.

The moment Shiro made eye contact, he knew. All of it. Everything.

Naruto had stopped his approach when he stared into these weird eyes. He felt weak, unstable and transparent. The mans eyes drew on him, he couldn't stop looking into these mysterious eyes. Suddenly the man closed them and Naruto managed to shake his head.

"What was-?" he wanted to ask but the man in front of him started to cry. Naruto was confused. He was used to people being really aggressive around him or just very cold. That someone started to cry was new.

Shiro spoke, trying to suppress all the information in his head. "Naruto, you do not know your parents, but I do. You do not understand the name Uzumaki, but I do. You do not know why they hate you, but I do."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You liar!" he shouted and backed away.

Shiro shook his head. "I cannot lie, Naruto, my eyes don't allow it. I did indeed know your father and mother. Still... I wonder when Kushina got pregnant...?" Shiro got lost in his musings.

"Kushina? My mothers name?" Naruto stammered, eyes wide.

Shiro nodded. "But you look all like your father, well aside from the whiskers." The blonde nodded slowly.

"And my father?", he asked.

Shiro looked at Naruto with closed eyes for a second. "Your father was one of my best friends, but with the war, we got separated. But I was at his wedding. Kami he didn't sit still at all..." Shiro chuckled, "But I digress... Naruto. Your fathers name was Minato. Minato Namikaze. And yes, the fourth Hokage and hero of this village and all that," he said a little nonchalantly.

The blonde was hit by the realization that he did indeed look like a carbon copy of the fourth. Could that man be telling the truth?

"Boy," Shiro said after a long silence, "Tell me, do you want a family?"

"W-What?"

Shiro shook his head. Hopefully this was the right decision. "You heard me. I offer you a family."

Naruto frowned. "What does that mean?"

The boy was obviously distrusting, which was actually the right way to react to this situation. "It means that I owe your parents and my family. You are alone, Naruto, your mother was the same. But your father became her family and she was no longer. I offer you the same. I will be your family and you will no longer be alone. I will be your father," Shiro said and added quietly, "Hana would have wanted me to do this..."

"You mean you want to adopt me?" Naruto asked. He had been long enough in the orphanage and had never been adopted, no matter how much he wished for a family. Now, over a decade later, some stranger tells him who his parents were and offers to be his father, his family. Weird did not even come close to describe what he was feeling.

"Not really. You would be my son, by all means of the word," Shiro said, smirking slightly. They, the family, had played the same trick on his late little brother.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrow. "How is that even possible?" he asked.

Shiro chuckled. "That's how the family works. If I want you to be my son and you are willing to, it shall be. That is what makes the family the Family."

Naruto frowned. "I don't think I understand... I don't know why, but I want to trust you. Something tells me to. To have a family." He smiled. "I don't really know why... I just feel it's right!"

Shiro smiled as well. "That is how the family works, son." The word son made Naruto's heart skip a beat. "Give me your hand."

Naruto nodded and closed the distance between them. When he put his hand in Shiro's, and intricate seal spread all over his arm. But instead of something uncomfortable, it was warm and felt right. The seal ran up to his heart and the same happened to Shiro. The seal encircled both their hearts and sucked a minuscule amount of blood straight out of it. The black ink turned red as the blood sped back to their joined hands. Once the two red pulsed collided, the seal turned white, blindingly bright.

Right then, something happened to Naruto. Then and there something changed. His eyes grew hot and heavy. His head pounded and his limbs ached while Shiro steadied him. Before he faded into the comforts of sleep he heard Shiro speak.

"Welcome to the family. I am Shiro, your father."

Hinata wasn't exactly having a good day until she was saved by this mysterious blonde boy. After a moment of peace, her caretaker, Ko, started to insist on her return, something she did absolutely not want. Her father would be furious and she didn't think she could take that.

So Naruto dragged her through half of Konoha and back in the effort of losing Ko. Once they had done so, she managed to tell him her name.

He called her cute! She was about to ask him if he wanted to eat something when suddenly that man appeared behind him. She jumped an managed to end up in Naruto's arms. Her poor heart could no longer take it, and she drifted of into the land of dreams. Now she was returning and blinked owlishly against the light. Apparently she was still in the same street she had "fallen asleep", sitting on a bench. She shifted and noticed the weight in her lap. Looking down, there was Naruto, sleeping soundly and snoring softly.

"Ah... so, a dream?" she asked aloud.

She jumped a little when her question was answered from behind her.

"No, not at all, little Lady." Shiro was standing behind the bench, leaning on his sword. "Though, if you treat it like one, my son here won't object," he smirked.

Turning quite red, Hinata coughed once. "So you are Naruto's father?" she asked.

Shiro grinned even wider. "Am now," he simply said and walked around the bench to stand in front of her. "And I understand, that you have taken a liking to him."

Right now, Hinata wanted to run and hide under some rock or even the waste bin right across the street, but the blond mop of hair in her lap stopped her from moving.

"I-I...N-Naruto is... I-I just met him, I-", she stammered but Shiro's laugh stopped her.

"Don't worry girl, I'm not one to tell, my son here ought to figure things out for himself. But...," his voice grew serious,"... if you want your thoughts to be your own, don't look into his eyes from now on."

That, of course, confused Hinata quite a bit. "W-What do you mean? About being his father and his eyes?"

Shiro looked at her intently through his bandages. "Hmmm... well... you will be part of the family, eventually so..." he whispered to himself before taking an elaborate bow.

"Let me introduce myself for now. I am Shiro, current head of the Family. And the boy that sleeps in your lap has just become my son. Now, mind you that I am not the one who fathered him, no. I knew the man actually, shame he died... Still, after just now, Naruto here is officially my son, by law and blood. And about his eyes, they are now, or in about a minute, like mine. The Eye of Truth. Wonderfully fitting name. I'm not going to elaborate all of it's abilities, but know that direct eye contact with his or my own eyes, would give away all your thoughts, feelings and knowledge, even memories. Because we do not want to know all this stuff and because we deem it polite, we wear these bandages to prevent such unintended intrusions. But we see just fine through them, but no longer would we intrude in another's mind by accident."

Hinata nodded along while Shiro explained with flashy gestures, all done with one hand. She had never heard of these eyes or this clan. And now Naruto was part of it? Blood adoption? Was that even possible? She had to cut her musing short when Naruto sat up abruptly, eyes still closed.

After turning his head, looking around he finally faced Shiro. "How am I supposed to sleep if I can see through my eyelids?"

Shiro chuckled. "All in due time, son. Now, won't you thank the nice lady for offering her lap as your pillow?"

Naruto jumped of the bench with a yelp, landing on the ground. He apologized so fast Hinata could only make out the words "Sorry!" and "My fault!". She couldn't hep but laugh at his embarrassment and soon enough, he too, was laughing. He was about to look at Hinata, when suddenly Shiro stepped in front of him.

"Hey-! What are you-?!" Naruto yelped. When Shiro stepped back again, Naruto was wearing the same bandages as his father. "Wow. Everything's... normal again," he said and looked around.

"Well, why do you think my eyes are hidden, kid?" Shiro laughed and clapped his shoulder.

"So... wanna go home?" Naruto asked after he saw Hinata to her compound.

Shiro nodded. "Let's." He started walking, but Naruto didn't. "What?" he asked, turning around.

Naruto smiled at him. "Thanks, dad."

Then and there, Shiro knew that the Family still had a future. He would do his utmost to make sure of that. Because Chakra is thicker than Blood.