"Minato!" Kushina screamed in fright and fatigue. She had just finished giving birth, and was extremely exhausted from the entire ordeal. She was so exhausted in fact, that when she saw the mysterious man kill the nurse and take her daughter, she had not notice that she had given birth to a son as well. In fairness to Kushina, before she was able to see what was inside of the small bundle in the nurses arms, her son had already disappeared to another place.
'At least I was able to rescue one of the kits, hopefully the elders will protect it, and maybe rescue me as well' A deep voice rumbled inside of Kushina's seal before going back to sleep. That kind of technique came with quite a lot of exhaustion after all.
Once Minato heard Kushina's scream, he turned around to see a masked man holding his child in his arms.
(Not going to cover what happened, since it is the same as the manga/anime except for the fact that Minato and Kushina both live)
Back to the main character, the son of Minato and Kushina:
Far, far away, a child with blond hair and blue eyes suddenly appeared in the middle of a grassy plain. It's wailing disrupted the sound of the natural wild, and before long creatures went to investigate what was causing all this racket in the middle of their territory.
Once the four-legged creatures arrived at the source of the noise, they began to yip curiously at the bundle of cloth that was making so much noise. Luckily for the human, a rather larged sized animal arrived on the scene and began talking to the creatures.
"What is going on here, kits?" a large fox questioned.
A series of yips met his question because the foxes were unable to speak human tongue yet due to their young age.
'The smell on this package is that of a human, but on top of that I can smell something very powerful. I should report this to the elders, it has the faintest smell of an old fox.' The kitsune thought to himself.
"Alright kits, go play around a while longer. I will take this thing before the elders." The kitsune said before grabbing the bundle with his teeth, careful not to hurt whatever was inside, and walked off into the surrounding woods. The fox kits just yipped happily and began playing again.
The large fox carried the young child all the way across the forest to the far side, where an extremely large burrow extended deep underground. Into the darkness the duo went, until the fox halted in front of a large room that contained two small chairs and a large throne of sorts made up of elaborate cushions. One of the occupants decided to ask the question that was on the three elder's minds.
"Miji, why have you come before us with a package that keeps making noise?" a rather small yellow fox asked.
"Elder Fox Sages, I found this bundle in the middle of the West clearing with nothing else on it. It smells like a human kit, but I can also smell an ancient fox inside his Chakra." Miji replied.
"Bring the kit up here so that I may smell it." The red fox spoke up for the first time, the true Elder Fox Sage just sat back and contimplated how a human child could end up inside his territory.
Once the red fox was able to smell it, his face instantly lit up in recognition. "This kit was brought here by Kurama-kun! We haven't seen Kurama-kun in so long, but if he sent this kit here, it must be for a good reason. I say we keep the kit here for the time being."
His partner, the yellow fox looked at the child for no longer than a second before succumbing to the natural caring nature of all foxes, and agreeing.
The Elder Sage decided then to make his announcement that he had been pondering for centuries. "The child will become our Summoner, as we have been in need of one since the last one passed away so long ago. To become our Summoner, this kit will need to be trained in the ways of the foxes, eventually including how to harness Nature Energy. I will monitor his progress, as well as the Fox Clan's. We have gotten lax in our training since our last Summoner, but we will retake our Title of being as powerful as the Toads and the Snakes!"
At this point, one of the lesser Sages asked a question, "Who will train the boy?"
"Seeing how your wife has already taken a shine to the kit, you both will raise him. I hope we will all get stronger because I sense a great evil that is plotting to take over the world."
Nodding their heads, the large fox, and the two small Fox Sages all left the room with the Sages holding the child. This was going to be a difficult few years before the boy was old enough to fend for himself.
Timeskip Six Years"Naruto-kun, it's time for you to come inside from playing!" Naruto's "mother" called out from inside their little den.
"Be right there!" Naruto yelled back before bolting towards their home. He was extremely excited to get to his home because today was the day that he would begin learning how to become the next Fox Summoner. He had be given a childhood with the other fox kits, but today was the day that it ended. As he walked into the den, he looked back and waved to his friends before disappearing inside.
"Naruto-kun follow us." His "father" said before leading his wife and Naruto down a dark, but warm, hallway.
"Since we are the Fox Sages tasked with teaching new Summoners, we know all about how humans fight as well. Behind this door was where we always housed our Summoners while they trained, and this room is filled with items that a human shinobi will need to be powerful. We will not return to this room until you are 10, but we agreed that showing you what you will be learning will be acceptable. Let me just open this door and… here we are!" Naruto's "father" swung the door wide open and the trio all walked inside.
Suddenly, they were all stunned by the light inside before Naruto's jaw dropped to the ground. He had always known about the Fox Warriors of his Clan, but to see weapons and armor that humans used for combat was something else. The large room was filled with weapons of every sort, and shelves housing different scrolls of every size.
Before Naruto could become too attached to this room, his parents escorted him out and shut the door. All the way back, Naruto was going on and on about the different cool things he saw in there before they finally emerged from the den and stood outside.
"Okay Naruto, we are going to train you to the bone for 6 years." His mom said before Naruto raised his hand.
Upon being allowed to speak, Naruto asked why he would only be getting trained for six years. The answer was that he was going to infiltrate Konoha in the human world to find out the identity of the Jinchuriki who housed the Boss of their Clan, Kurama.
"I'm going to meet humans?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Yes, son. But first we need to get you strong enough to take on your opponents. Starting at this point, we are no longer your parents, but we are Fox Sages training our Summoner. Begin, Naruto!"
Timeskip 6 years:
All of the foxes had gathered to see the young kit they had all grown to love leave their world and join the humans in Konoha. Over the course of the training with the foxes, Naruto's appearance changed drasticly. Of course there was the usual muscle, height, weight, and clothing difference, but Naruto's hair and eyes changed as well. After dealing with Nature Energy all the time for years, his inner Uzumaki traits emerged and his hair turned into a vibrant shade of red. His eyes changed in favour of his real mom as well, and they became a violet shade. All in all, he looked just like an Uzumaki, and that was what they were going for. The foxes were hoping that he could enter Konoha under to guise of him being an Uzumaki, none of the foxes actually knowing that he in fact was of the main branch of Uzumaki.
"Well it was nice getting to know you all, I hope to return soon with Kurama-sama!" Naruto yelled before getting reverse Summoned by his "mother" outside the gates of Konoha. After seeing her return to their world, Naruto turned around and made his way to the front gates.
Naruto stopped and stared at the impressive size of the gates that towered over him. The Chuunin who guarded the gate, Izumo and Kotetsu, saw the kid staring up at the gate and called him over.
Upon hearing himself being called over, Naruto walked towards the guards.
"Hello." Naruto kindly said, wary of talking to another human.
"Hey kid, what's your reason for entering the Hidden Leaf?" Izumo asked, having already noticed that the kid in front of them was a ninja from the gear he had and the way he scoped out everything around him.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm here to join this village as a ninja."
'Well, the kid does look a ton like Kushina-san, so he's deffinitely an Uzumaki, but just to be sure…' Izumo thought before saying, "Well if you are who you claim you are, then might I ask where your parents are?"
"Ah, Shinobi-san, I sometimes ask myself the same thing." Naruto said while pretending to look upset at that topic being brought up.
After realizing that it would be too much work to deal with an emotional brat, Kotetsu helped his partner out by just giving Naruto a passport and telling him to head to the Hokage Tower in the center of the village.
The walk to the Hokage Tower wasn't too far, and before long Naruto found himself standing directly in front of the Fourth Hokage.
"Ah, another Uzumaki. That's good, my wife will be glad to hear that we have located another family member. Well Naruto, as you are an orphan just coming to the Leaf, I will arange for an apartment to be given to you with the first two months already paid. By then you should already have either a job or a career as a ninja and will be able to afford the rent yourself. Here is the key to your apartment, and if you do decide to become a ninja, the Graduation at the Academy will be occuring tomorrow, should you decide to go."
"Yes, Hokage-sama. I would like to join the students for their test if you don't mind." Naruto replied.
"Of course not, I'll let Iruka know that you will be coming. Welcome to Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki. If you will excuse me, I have another apointment." Minato wearily said before walking off into another room.
Seeing no other option, Naruto left the room as well, having noticed the 3 ANBU hiding in the room with his Nature Chakra skill.
Deciding to take a walk to explore Konoha, Naruto set off in a random direction. Before long, he came across three kids his age walking out of a BBQ place. One of them was kind of chubby and seemed extremely excited about food, the next one was loud and arrogant sounding, based on his facial markings Naruto knew he belonged to the Inuzuka Clan. Finally, the only kid who seemed to notice Naruto observing their group. Nothing about him really stood out, but deep beneath his eyes, Naruto could tell that this person was extremely intelligent. Deciding to greet them, Naruto walked across the street.
"Hello there, my name is Naruto. I'm new to Konoha, and I was wondering if you three would be so kind as to tell me where my apartment is located at."
Naruto already found his apartment, having walked passed it on his way here, but he wanted to test what these humans would say.
"Welcome to the village, Naruto. My name is Choji, and these are Shikamaru and Kiba. Your apartment complex is is probably back down that road behind you." The large one named Choji replied.
"Ah, okay thank you Choji. Are you three going to be taking the Graduation Exam tomorrow?" Naruto hesitantly asked.
"Yes we are, why?" Shikamaru asked.
"Because I am taking it as well, and I thought it would be a good idea to get to know possible future teammates."
"Well as much as I wish we could stay to help you out, Naruto. It's getting rather late and our mothers would unleash a Hell upon us if we were late getting back home." The one named Kiba replied before the three separated and went home.
That last comment about mothers actually made Naruto a little sad at the fact he never knew who his mom really was. Sure the Fox Sage's had been like parents to him, but Naruto always knew that there was someone out there that was his real parent.
On his way back to his apartment, Naruto wasn't watching where he was going and accidently hit someone. Neither one fell to the ground, signifying that both were shinobi.
"Sorry lady. I wasn't watching where I was going…" Naruto broke off having seen the face of the person he bumped into.
"It's okay, kid. Just be more careful next time." Kushina replied before walking off, never noticing that the kid she bumped into was an Uzumaki, or that it was actually her son.
'She looked just like me! Could she have been..? No. I gave up that hope long ago, just focus on why you are here Naruto.'
Determined not to be swayed by the appearance of someone who he might be related to, Naruto ran back to his apartment complex by using the rooftops. Tommorow he would be meeting his possible teammates, and he would be ready. After deciding that he would need furniture in his apartment, Naruto fell asleep on the bed wondering how he was going to fit in with the human kids.
Naruto awoke to the sound of his alarmclock beeping loudly. Annoyed, Naruto threw the offending item across the room where it shattered. The good thing about shonobi alarm clocks was that they were meant to break upon waking up an annoyed shinobi, so they were easily put back together after shattering. Naruto got dressed into his black and orange outfit, strapped on his shurkien pouch, and headed off to the academy.
Once he arrived at the academy, Naruto had a little trouble finding his class. Instead of locating his classroom, he found Kiba, and together they walked to the classroom.
Kiba went and sat in a certain seat while Naruto just looked around for an empty one. He noticed one at the far back between a cute girl with lavender pupil-less eyes, and a tall someone mysterious boy wearing dark shades. He took his seat in between them and focused back on the front, not noticing the girl glancing at him every now and then.
Abruptly, a Chuunin instructor walked into the class and everyone quited down.
"Alright class today we will be taking the exam to see if you pass and become a Genin. First up is the written part of the exam." Iruka said before he began passing out papers along with his silver-haired assistant. Once he got to Naruto, Iruka announced to the class that they had a new student who would be taking the exams with them. He smiled at Naruto and finished passing out papers.
"Alright everybody, begin!" Iruka ordered before all the students dove into their test.
Naruto was a little bit worried, after all he was never really good at written stuff, but his "parents" trained him well, and he knew he would pass. Luckily, since the Forth Hokage's rule, the Academy had cut out a lot of the unimportant stuff like Chakra theory and history, so Naruto was able to answer most of the questions with upmost confidence.
After the written exam was taken up, they were all led outside.
"Alright everyone line up, and we will begin the accuracy test. Kiba, looks like your first." Iruka announced before stepping back and allowing Kiba to throw his kunai and shuriken. Surprisingly for one of that paticular clan, Kiba was able to land 7 shuriken and 8 kunai out of ten each. A small chorus of clapping met his actually decent score.
This continued with most of the civilian students averaging around 5 each, while the clan students averaged around 7, a blonde haired girl with stunning blue eyes scored a nine on both, 'her name was something like Natsiki or something' Naruto thought. Finally, there were only two students left, a black haired boy that most of the girls swooned over, and Naruto himself.
"Sasuke Uchiha, please come up and throw." The boy did just that while somehow maintaining his arrogant posture, he made sure that his fan girls were looking before launching all his weapons at once. All of them arced in the air and flew into a perfect bulls eye, all except one that flew too far to the right, and bounced off the post completely. Sasuke scowled in annoyance before walking back to talk to his girls. Ever since the Hokage had eliminated conspirators inside the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke has trained harder than ever to catch up to Itachi, but with no avail, Itachi was just a protegy.
"Last we have Naruto Uzuamki!" Iruka called out, excited to see what this young kid could do.
Naruto, despite not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, decided on copying the Uchiha's movement to put the arrogant sudent back in his place. Suddenly, all of his weapons flew at once, nearly double the speed Sasuke threw them at. And sure enough, they all hit true. Naruto was awarded a perfect score as he went back to stand beside the pretty blonde haired girl that showed she was serious about being a ninja.
"Wow, where have you been all my life? I've been trying to put Sasuke in his place since I first met him, but with no avail. My name is Natsumi Namikaze, yours is Naruto right?" At the sight of him smiling and nodding, Natsumi continued, " Well hopefully you'll be on my squad, I'd hate to have to put up with many of these other students who hardly take being a ninja seriously."
"I wouldn't mind being partnered up with someone strong like you. Compared to these other students minus Sasuke, you might as well already be a Jonin." At the sound of hearing her laugh, Naruto felt a strange attraction to her. Before he could ponder it much longer, the class was led away to the sparring ring, for the Taijutsu test.
One by one, students got called up to face against the instructors. No one really did much damage to the instructor Mizuki except for Natsumi and Sasuke. She sent him flying out of the box from the force of her kick, and Sasuke swept him onto his back before axe kicking his chest. Seeing that his assistant could no longer fight, Iruka himself got into the ring to face off against the only remaining student, Naruto.
"Begin!" Iruka called and settled into a defensive stance, expecting Naruto to do the same; however, Naruto, using the Fox style of fighting, jumped forward and lashed out with a flurry of feints and light hits. By focusing on speed rather than strength, Naruto was able to completely demolish his stronger but far slower opponent. Once he felt he scored enough hits, Naruto stopped and helped his instructor to his feet.
"That was good Naruto, I had completely forgotten that you would probably be using a style different than the normal academy taught style, and that cost me the match. Alright everyone, come inside for the final test, the ninjutsu portion." Iruka said before limping into the classroom.
"Wow Naruto, you're just full of surprises aren't you?" Natsumi laughed before walking beside Naruto and sitting in her seat. Naruto didn't reply, but he did smirk at her, and that sent shivers down her spine, but she didn't know why.
One by one, the academy students were called up to enter the back room to take the final test and receive their headband. Some came out with a Konoha symbol, some did not. All of the Clan kids did, and soon enough Naruto was getting called into the back room.
"Alright Naruto, all we need is a Kawarmi, a Henge, and a Bushin. Begin." Iruka announced.
Before Iruka could sit back down, he found himself in the middle of the room while Naruto sat in his chair. Naruto switched them back before Iruka could complain, and soon enough Naruto appeared like Sasuke before removing the henge as well.
"Excellent so far Naruto, now all we need is a Bushin and you pass." Iruka called out.
Naruto slightly paled at the news because he new through all his training that he still had way too much Chakra to use for something so small as a Bushin. Deciding that passing the test was more important that his honor, Naruto used a Genjutsu he was taught by the Fox Sages to create what looked like three regular Bushin.
"Alright Naruto, you pass!" Iruka said before let Naruto choose what color head protector he wanted, Naruto went with black and exited the room.
"Alright students, you are to come back here tomorrow to be assigned your Genin squads. Good luck out there in the ninja world, I hope to see all of you surpass myself and become powerful shinobi. Dismissed." Iruka said, beaming with pride at his students.
Iruka selfless desire actually made an impact on Naruto, and change the way he was taught to feel about humans. 'Maybe there not all bad like The Great Elder Sage says.'
As Naruto was leaving, he caught sight of Mizuki talking to Natsumi in a hushed whisper. After seeing her speed off, Mizuki laughed evilily before heading off in a different direction. After deciding that something wasn't right here, Naruto decided to follow Natsumi.
It was about dinner time when Natsumi burst out of the Hokage Tower with a large scroll around her back, and took off into the woods. Naruto then saw, Mizuki emerge and run off to somewhere else. 'Somethings not right here, I should wait and then make my move.
Somewhere far away, Natsumi was busy reading a jutsu from the scroll. Before she could write it down and practice it, Iruka jumped down in front of her and started demanding answers from her. Before she could give a detailed reason, Mizuki appeared and disabled Iruka from fighting. He then told Natsumi about how she was the Demon Fox Himself, but of course her parents had already told her that at a young age. Still, she ended up being no match for Mizuki and just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, Natsumi disappeared right before his very eyes. He stopped about mid swing, and stood straight up expecting a shunshin. He was unprepared, however, when the new kid Naruto Uzumaki stepped out of the forest.
Deciding to take out another threat to Orochimaru's plans, swung at the boy and severed his head from his shoulders. Before he could gloat over his apparent victory, he felt a sharp pain in his right foot. But when he looked down, he saw nothing. Deciding that he should be focusing on the boy, Mizuki stayed still and tried to understand his surroundings. Somehow, Mizuki was having trouble making out the tree lines because they all swirled together. Suddenly, a similar pain to his left foot appeared, but he hadn't noticed anything, in fact, he was feeling very tired. It couldn't hurt to just rest his eyes for one moment right, in fact, he felt a small pain at the back of his neck, and his wish was granted.
Outside of Mizuki's dream world, Naruto was tending to Natsumi who was slightly wounded. Just a light scrape here and there, but Natsumi was too busy watching Mizuki stare out into the distance to watch Naruto.
"How come he isn't attacking us, Naruto?" Natsumi asked.
"I have him in a powerful genjutsu, he could have broken out of it once he felt my first Kunai nail him to the ground through his foot, but his mind had already been manipulated before so this was easy." Just as Naruto was about to carry the scroll and Natsumi back to the village, a bright yellow flash appeared blinding everyone before the Fourth Hokage appeared holding a tri-pronged kunai in one hand, and a fully formed Rasengan in the other. He looked around wildly before noticing Natsumi and Naruto.
"Step away from my daughter, theif." Minato began before, Natsumi pointed at the figure of Mizuki.
Upon turning around and seeing Mizuki, Minato began to understand the entire situation. After a few questions that Naruto and Natsumi answered, a squad of ANBU arrived and took the scroll and Mizuki back to the village.
"Well what an evening, I found out that my one of my own ninja was a traitor, and that another of my ninja is a hero. Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki for protecting my daughter."
"It was nothing, Hokage-sama." Replied nervously, not used to this much gratitude.
"It was not nothing, and I would very much like to have you over for dinner tomorrow evening if that is okay?" Minato beamed with a twinkle in his eye.
"Um, sure Hokage-sama."
"Please just call me Minato." Minato replied before teleporting them all inside his office.
"Of course, Hok..Minato-sama" Naruto replied.
"Well I feel like all three of us could use a good night's sleep, so goodnight Naruto, Natsumi and I are heading home."
"Bye, Naruto-kun!" Natsumi said brightly, with the tiniest of blushes adorning her face.
Before Minato or Naruto could ask about the "-kun", the seal activated and Minato and Natsumi disappeared, leaving Naruto to run home at near Jonin speeds.
After the usual routine, Naruto awoke and found himself back inside the academy to find out who his squad members would be. He just hoped that he would have Natsumi on his team, last night he was assualted with dreams involving him and Natsumi, and he just always felt tingly whenever she was around.
"Alright ninjas, today we are going to announce who your squad is, along with your Jonin teacher. Team 1…" Naruto zoned out as he and Natsumi had a small conversation about Genjutsu vs. Ninjutsu. He had been trained by the foxes to be exceptional in Genjutsu, but she had been taught by her parents to use ninjutsu.
"Team seven, Natsumi Namikaze, Sasuke Uchiha, and…" everyone waited on the edge of their seats as the cruel author continued writing meaningless words to keep the suspense growing, "…Kiba, sit back down and shut up I'm still going over the list, where was I? Naruto Uzumaki! Your Jonin instructor is Kakashi Hatake. Team eight will be Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka, your teacher is Kurenai Yuhi. Team nine is still in rotation, so team ten will be Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara, your teacher will be Asuma Sarutobi. Every, good luck in your career! Your Jonin sensei's will arrive to escort you." With that, Iruka left the room, leaving all the Genin to talk about their teams.
Ino was a bit sad that Sakura didn't pass the exam because of her poor throwing and taijutsu. Sakura was all book smarts, and it was better that she be given another year of training instead of getting herself killed in the field.
Naruto was both happy that he got Natsumi, but a bit peeved he got the almighy Uchiha. Deciding to make amends, the two walked over to the Uchiha and tried to get a conversation going. Sasuke either replied with "hn", or not at all, and eventually Naruto and Natsumi just started talking with each other, neither one realizing that what they were doing would be considered flirting. They were just having a good time while watching the students leave in groups of three. Before long, their sensei appeared and took them away as well.
Once they got to the rooftops there sensei ordered them to sit and begin going over introductions.
"Okay you three, my name is Kakashi, and I have a few likes, but also a few dislikes, my hobbies… I have a couple dreams. Okay blondie you're next." Kakashi said before gulping at the dead look in their eyes. It appears they were not amused by his little game at not telling them anything.
Regardless, Natsumi stood up and said, "My name is Natsumi Namikaze, I like training, and learning jutsu from my parents, I dislike traitors, and people who can't tell the difference between a weapon and a shinobi, my hobbies include training and eating ramen. My dream is to become the first female Hokage!" Natsumi proudly announced before reclaiming her seat in the middle.
"Alright, Strawberry you're next."
Naruto stood up and scowled at being called strawberry because of his hair. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I enjoy training as well, I like foxes," at this Natsumi silently gasped but no one noticed, "and I dislike people who put anything above family. My hobbies include playing with foxes, and testing out new Genjutsu. My dream is to locate someone that went missing a long time ago." Kakashi looked at Naruto for a bit before moving on to their last member.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, member of the elite Uchiha Clan. My likes are limited, but my dislikes are very large. My dream is to surpass my brother and become Head of the Clan." Sasuke said before sitting back down.
'So a dedicated kunoichi, a fox-loving genjutsu Uzumaki, and an envious Uchiha, great.' Kakashi thought before standing up once again.
"Alright kids, we will meet at Training Groun 7 tomorrow at nine in order to take the real Genin test," at the sight of their inquisitive looks Kakashi decided to elaborate, "The test at the academy was just to weed out the hopeless causes. This test is to see if you have what it really takes to be a Genin. Oh and don't eat breakfast, or you'll throw up." And with that final note, Kakashi disappeared.
Sasuke left after that, saying something about needing more training to beat Itachi, leaving Naruto and Natsumi to train until dinner at the Namikaze's. They both went to a random training field in order to spar.
"Are you sure you want to spar against me, Natsumi?"
"Definitely! I'll show you how powerful I am!" Natsumi declared before rushing towards Naruto at incredible speeds for a Genin; however, Naruto was used to far faster.
Naruto jumped over her punch and sent a kick down to her shoulder, which she barely managed to dodge. Naruto smirked, this would be fun.
After about half an hour of a one-sided match, Natsumi dropped to the ground, completely spent. Naruto looked at Natsumi while panting slightly. In an ordinary fight, he would have finished it a long time ago, but because he was taking it easy it was tough. Natsumi had definitely learned the Hummingbird style of her father and was very adept as using it, Naruto's bruised ribs were proof of that.
The two were not still for long, as Natsumi suddenly jumped up and began peppering Naruto were ninjutsu attacks. It was obvious that she had gotten a water affinity from her Uzumaki ancestors, which was demonstrated by the sheer number of water bombs launched in his direction. Naruto skillfully dodged all of them before running through handseals himself. He was not going to Summon the Foxes for something as insignificant as a spar, so Genjutsu it is.
Natsumi watched on as Naruto promptly disappeared before her very eyes. Suddenly, she felt lightheaded and sleepy. Upon realizing that her opponent had begun to use Genjutsu, she focused her Chakra and broke out of it. Just in time to dodge a punch to her face, she retailiated with a kunai and widen her eyes when it sunk into Naruto's chest. But then suddenly Naruto turned into a fox and molded into the ground. The area cleared away and suddenly she was aware of laughter behind her. She was abrupty pulled out of this Genjutsu and found herself tied up with rope as Naruto laughed at her misfortune.
After a couple minutes of her screaming at him to untie her, he finally gave in. She, of course, attacked him as soon as she was free with a flurry of kicks. He was able to dodge most of them, but one managed to sneak through, and sent him flying behind a tree.
Suddenly, Naruto grabbed her from behind and held a kunai up to her neck, signaling his win. She stopped struggling, and began pouting at her loss.
"Yes, Natsumi?" Naruto said with mirth.
"Not fair, how did you do that?"
"Well a ninja isn't supposed to give away his secrets, but I suppose I'll tell you." Naruto playfully said, "I let you hit me behind that tree where I would be hidden from view, from there I was able to Shunshin behind you. Seeing as you're fresh out of the academy, I doubt you could have possibly detected my Shunshin." Naruto explained.
"Can you teach me the Shunshin, Naruto?"
"Since we're going to be teammates, I guess I will. Besides, who am I to turn down such a cute girl like yourself." Naruto said before he shunshined home to get ready for dinner at Natsumi's house.
Meanwhile, Natsumi just stood in the middle of the clearing sporting a huge blush. 'He thinks I'm cute! Dattebani!' Natsumi mentally yelled before doing a fist pump and running to her house to get cleaned up as well, tonight was going to be important after all.
Meanwhile, Naruto was busy getting ready in civilian clothing, it wouldn't do to dress in his ninja attire, even though it was pretty stylish. He donned a simple short sleeve T-shirt and shorts before deciding to walk there. All he had to do was ask some random civilian where the Namikaze estate was, and bam, he was on his way.
Even though he barely knew Natsumi, his heart seemed to beat slightly quicker with every step. Soon enough, Naruto found himself knocking on a door that led to a large house.
The door was opened by none other than Minato, who welcomed him gratiously into the house.
"Thank you Minato-sama." Naruto replied before entering the house, remembering to take off his shoes at the door. The foxes had taught him human manners as well.
"Naruto, what did I tell you about calling me "-sama'?" Minato asked with a smile.
"Sorry Minato-san, force of habbit I suppose." Naruto nervously replied.
"Quite okay Naruto, this way please the dinning room is just over here." Minato replied before leading Naruto into a smaller room filled with a square table.
Minato sat at the table next to the women that Naruto had bumped into the day before. She introduced herself as Kushina Uzumaki. To her left was Natsumi, Naruto took the only available seat left to Minto's right, all together they formed a square.
"So, Naruto, mind telling us a little bit about your life before Konoha?" Minato asked, wanting to know more about his daughters savior.
"Well in all honesty, I don't really remember that much. I remember training day after day with a family, but then I can only remember being next to a large lake, somewhere down the line someone told me of Konoha, and I came here to find someone."
"Who could that be?" Kushina asked.
"His name is Kurama, but I don't know where to start looking." Naruto said, not wanting to give them too much information.
"Do you know what he looks like, Naruto?" Minato asked, raking his mind for a ninja named Kurama but coming up blank.
"I'm sorry I don't, all I know is that I am to find him." Naruto replied.
Meanwhile, once Naruto said Kurama, a large set of red eyes opened deep inside of Natsumi's seal. He peered through their shared vision at the boy across the table. He recognized the scent of the boy he teleported so many years ago. Kurama knew he could not contact his host yet, so he just waited until one day when she would appear before him.
Back to the table, "Well I'm sure you'll be able to find him." Natsumi announced.
"I hope so, Natsumi." Naruto replied.
"Well Naruto, I was wondering if you could possibly tell us how strong you are and what techniques you use. To not only defeat Iruka in taijutsu, but to also defeat Mizuki in the same day, only few could be so strong at your age." Minato calmly asked.
"Minato, you can't go around asking people to give away all their secrets!" Kushina said before she saw that look in Minato's eyes. It appeared that even though he appreciated what Naruto did for their daughter, he didn't fully trust him either.
"Actually Kushina-san, It's quite alright. Well if I had to rank myself, I would say that I am at least a Chuunin, maybe a Jonin in speed. One of my most guarded secrets is that I hold a Summoning Contract with the Foxes," at this, all their eyes widened, "and I am extremely proficient with Genjutsu."
"Impressive for one so young, would you possibly humor me with a small spar after we have eaten?" Minato asked.
Before Kushina could beat her husband for being so straight forward, Naruto agreed. The rest of the meal was enjoyable, including the part where Naruto mentioned sparing with Natsumi. Her parents laughed at her embarrassed blush, and internally vowed to step up her training.
Before long, Naruto and Minato were looking at each other across a wide open field. With a start both fighters launched themselves forward at breakneck speeds. Both intending to start with Taijutsu. With a clash, the fight had begun.
