A Family Man: Birth of a Legendary Medic Ninja

by Monumentum

Altered events, a fluctuation in the timeline, and Naruto is born four years before the Kyubi attack. The ripples spread and he watches as his father dies sealing the Kyubi into his newborn sisters while his mother is left a crippled. Family is everything to Naruto and child or not he soon takes up the responsibility for caring for, and healing, his family, no matter what comes.

2. Chapter 2

AN: For those of you who haven't read my profile I work as a cop and let's just say things have been crazy lately and I've been pulling a lot of overtime for the past while, not to mention my case load and hearings I needed to go to. This is the major reason why I haven't been able to finish my writing as soon as I'd have liked. The other smaller reasons being the rest of my life taking priority as writing is a hobby more than anything for me. Anyways the chapter is done now so I hope you enjoy reading. After a bit of consideration, I've reneged on my decision not to list the pairing and have put it at the bottom of this chapter for those interested.

It's been five months since Naruto became friends with Hana and Yūgao and he could easily say they were all now best friends, well they were his only friends but that was besides the point. There had been some initial… complications in the beginning when his two friends eventually told their parents about their friendship with him. Hana's mother didn't seem to hate him or his family but she had warned Hana to be careful around him and didn't want him coming to their home. That had been easy enough for them to get over but Yūgao's parents had been much more… difficult. They had flat out forbidden her from consorting with the "demon spawn" when she mentioned becoming friends with him. That had been an awkward discussion and Naruto had to come up with some quick half-truths to explain it but, with some extra help from Hana, he was able to convince her not to drop their friendship. Her decision put a lot of strain on her relationship with her parents but she said she didn't regret it, which he was more than grateful for.

After that bit of drama their friendship only strengthened, to the point where they acted like they knew each other their whole lives. It was quite the shocking speed of development to be honest, and Naruto might have been a bit uncomfortable about that if he had ever had a friend before but he simply thought it was normal. Still despite their close friendship there were still things they hadn't done together or even spoken about. Mainly Naruto hasn't been to their homes (for obvious reasons) or vice versa and he hasn't told them about his sisters having the Kyubi in them, or his mother being the previous host. Beyond that though there wasn't much they didn't know about each other or hadn't done together so none of them minded those few secrets too much.

He had continued to regularly spar against Hana, and then Yūgao, after that first day and all three of them had improved quite considerably in his opinion. It was clear though that taijutsu wasn't Yūgao's main strength though so both he and Hana had taken up kenjutsu earlier than they planned in order to help her with her specialty. Naruto had gone with a wakizashi until he could handle a full sized katana properly and used the traditional Uzumaki kenjutsu as reference for his style. Hana had gone for something a bit more unique, a dual tantō style of combat, after she found out how difficult using metal claws like she had initially wanted was. Of course because Hana's style was unique there wasn't a formal style she could use for reference for it but she hadn't cared. Neither of them came close to beating Yūgao in a kenjutsu only fight despite working on it for two and a half months however, though everyone, even Yūgao despite their disparity in kenjutsu level, saw much improvement.

Naruto's other studies, on the other hand, had gone better than his kenjutsu practice, even though it was kind of unfair to compare himself to Yūgao of all people in the art considering he had just started and she was a prodigy with a blade who had practiced for years. The Academy had been mostly useless in this regard though there had been a few good lessons again over the past few months, so most of his results were from self-study. His chakra control had actually finally eclipsed his reserve level to the point he had didn't have to be as rushed in his efforts to maintain pace with his continually growing reserves. This meant that he theoretically had "perfect" chakra control but practically speaking it just meant that he no wasted any chakra on what techniques he knew. Speaking of his reserves he had reached mid-Chunin level, if only barely, and he was now contemplating doing something incredibly dangerous, namely practicing the Kage Bunshin.

It was one of several jutsu in the Uzumaki home's library that he had wanted to learn at some point in the near future, mainly because of its utility. Since Kage Bunshin were solid clones, transferred their memories back to the user and wear nearly identical in thought pattern/personality of their creator they were a perfect way to be two places at once. Mainly in the Academy and back home taking care of his family. While his mother never said anything he knew his absences for any amount of time were difficult for her, especially during lunch. He had taken to getting up earlier to pre-make meals for her and his sisters but that wasn't the only problem so he was always searching for a solution, which was how he had found the Kage Bunshin. Of course the reason why he hadn't learned it yet was because of its high chakra cost and the inherent dangers of the technique, it was a kinjutsu after all. Unlike what others commonly thought however it didn't actually cost a person half their chakra reserves for each clone, if it did anyone could technically use it. Instead it cost half the reserves of an average Jonin, which was roughly analogous to the full reserves of a mid to high level Chunin depending on the individual.

He had barely just reached that level and really shouldn't be trying it but he didn't feel like he had a choice to wait any longer however after what happened while he had been at the Academy that day. Luckily it hadn't been another assassination attempt but someone did chuck several bricks through the windows, one even clipping Mito in the head leave a light scar on her left eyebrow despite her healing factor. Naruto was fairly certain that was because of how…dirty the brick had been, meaning her healing had needed to fight off infections and other foreign elements on top of healing her skin. If he had been home at the time he could have cleaned the wound well enough that Mito wouldn't have the scar, as faint as it was, but he wasn't.

That incident had been a poignant reminder to Naruto that many people still hated, and feared, his family. It was a reminder that he had needed after being lulled by the happy and peaceful days he had been experiencing ever since he became friends with Hana and Yūgao. The guilt he felt at forgetting about the danger his family faced had been immense and that was before he saw what the attack did to his mother's mental health. Which was why he was now currently in the library pouring over the Kage Bunshin scroll as closely as possible in order to learn its secrets.

"One hand sign? That's way too simple, why… more about control and visualization then… and reserves. An automatic process? …No but close. It can be automatic but the threat of complete chakra exhaustion is high if you don't manually control it without sufficient reserves. Recommended reserves... low Jonin level if skilled in chakra control, mid-jonin if only average, which was expected. Unfortunately, I don't have that and can't wait. Might as well give at try then, my condition won't improve further no matter how long I just wait around after all."

Despite being a kinjutsu the Kage Bunshin wasn't actually a very complicated technique, at least compared to the others stored in the library he had peeked at. Which was a good thing considering Naruto could likely only make one attempt before facing chakra exhaustion, assuming he didn't kill himself in his attempt of course.

"Kage Bunshin no Justu!"

With a cry and a puff of smoke Naruto fell to his knees, his vision going blurry as his chakra reserves hit rock bottom. He forced himself to stay conscious however and took out a pre-prepared protein bar to snack on. It wasn't a soldier pill but food, especially food high in calories and nutrition, did help recover chakra quicker than normal according to his studies and it was enough for him to shakily stand back up. Looking over to the side to see if his attempt at a clone bore fruit he caught sight of a sickly version of himself.

"You ok?"

The clone grimaced. "Not really boss, I think I'm going to pop soon. You definitely didn't use enough chakra."

Naruto frowned, he had expected that to be honest but he had been hoping to have made a hundred percent successful clone the first time. "Right, try and last as long as you can then. Need to learn how far off I might be and I did anything wrong."

"I hate you boss."

"Suck up, you know why we're doing this."

That worked to cease all complaints from his clone, who gave him a firm nod at that despite looking like he was going to hurl. Both Narutos decided to make the most of their waiting time by studying medical books. He had been practicing healing small cuts on captured vermin (like rats and squirrels) for the past couple of months and had recently reached the point he could do so consistently without killing them, which he was happy about. He might be desensitized from killing rodents by this point but that didn't mean he enjoyed it, not to mention that it was annoying having to search for a new one to practice on each time. Still his success meant he could move on to something different to practice on now and he wanted to be as prepared as possible before that happened.

"Naru-chan? Naru-chan!? Where are you!? NARU-CHAN!?"

The frantic yelling from his mother caused him to pale and drop his book while his clone went so far as to pop in its surprise. The added cries of his sisters when they were woken up by Kushina and influenced by her panic made things even worse.

'It was the middle of the night why did she wake up? She's never done that before.' Naruto thought panicky, ignoring the memories that his popped clone dumped into his mind as he did so.

Kushina had, literally, not let any of her children out of hands reach since the incident (and after he returned from the academy) and it was only after waiting until the middle of the night that he had managed to slip away from her iron grip on him. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do now that he thought about it but he had wanted, needed, to train more so he hadn't bothered considering the fact that she might wake up to find him gone. She had never done so before after all, then again he never tried to slip away so soon after an attack before either.

"I'm here Kaa-chan!" He yelled as he rushed back to Kushina's bedroom after where he and his sisters had been forced to sleep in. The first thing he saw upon entering the room was the sight of his mother struggling to fully get into her wheelchair from where she had, apparently, fallen to the floor. The frightened, almost manic, look on her face was what he noticed next as she constantly scanned the room after getting into her chair, until she caught sight of Naruto opening the door. Upon seeing him the sheer relief she expressed at seeing him safe, along with the tears falling down her face made Naruto feel incredibly guilty.

"Naru-chan! Thank god! I thought- I though…" Kushina choked up and needed a few moments to recover, and when she did she was pissed, to a frankly scary degree. Like she was contemplating seriously hurting him in her anger she was so pissed.

"Where were you!? How dare you leave!? Do you know- You left me! Why did you leave me!? You can't leave me!" She screamed at him her eyes briefly flickering red, causing Naruto to back away slightly in confusion and not a small amount of fear. He had never seen his mother like this and the raw fury in her voice and eyes scared him, as did the storm of dark emotions he felt with his sensing ability. Seeing his reaction Kushina's eyes widened and she frantically looked at Naruto in guilt and fear, her emotions doing an immediate turn around as she did so.

"No! No! It's fine Naru-chan. I'm not mad. Kaa-chan isn't mad. So please don't look at me like that. Kaa-chan wouldn't hurt you. So please don't look at me like that. Please, I'm not a monster. Please don't leave. Please don't look at me with those eyes." There was a clear note of begging in her despair filled voice as she pushed her wheelchair forward harshly in her attempt to reach him, accidently knocking into one of her bed's legs as she did so, which caused her to spill out onto the floor once more.

"Kaa-chan!" Came the cry from all Uzumaki children as they saw that happen. Mito and Natsuki started crying unable to understand what was really happening in their confused and sleep addled minds other than their mother was hurting. Naruto wanted to go and comfort his sisters but first he had to help his mother, who was now curled up into a small ball and whispering constant apologies to Naruto.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please don't leave me. Kaa-chan didn't mean to be mad Naru-chan. Please don't leave. I'm not a monster. I'm sorry. Please, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Naruto was quick to pick her up and start giving her reassurances, his mind idly noted that she had lost even more weight since last month even as he did this. Kushina barely reacted to his presence however as she continued her rambling, using it almost like a mantra. Placing her back on the bad next to Mito and Natsuki, Kushina was quick to latch onto her daughters as she continued to cry and whisper apologies to him, and now her daughters as well. This was despite her not even seeming to be aware of her surroundings.

It took half an hour to get Kushina out of her catatonia and for both her and his sisters to go back to sleep with tear stained cheeks after that point, leaving Naruto feeling exhausted, guilty and emotionally drained. He wasn't sure how long he could deal with this on his own if things like this were going to continue to happen or, even more terrifying, get worse. More than that though he wasn't sure how much longer his mother could deal with everything, he had never seen her like that before and it was horrible. Thankfully the dark embrace of unconsciousness soon took him, letting him escape such heavy thoughts, at least the next few hours. Though they would be back soon enough when he woke up, they always did after all.

---

-2 months later-

"Naruto-kun?" The concerned voice of Hana asked from her seat to his right.

"hmm?" Naruto replied, his exhaustion readily apparent as he turned bleary eyes towards his best friend.

"Are you ok? You've been skipping the Academy a lot the past couple of months and when you finally start attending regularly again you've look exhausted every day; we're worried about you." Hana said while Yūgao, who was sitting next to Hana, nodded her head in agreement.

Naruto forced himself to look more awake as he replied with a poorly faked smile. "I'm fine, just worried about end of the year exams is all."

Neither of his two friends look convinced at all by his words or smile, Naruto didn't blame them. "Are you sure?"

Naruto's false smile cracked slightly as he saw the honest concern in his friends' eyes. Sighing heavily, he decided he might as well be honest. "…Not…really I guess."

This admittance got both Hana and Yūgao to perk up slightly, happy that Naruto was willing to share his problems with them but wary about what was causing him problems in the first place. Yūgao decided to bite the bullet and be the one to ask him what was troubling him. "Do…Do you want to talk about it?"

Naruto grimaced and both of the older girls realized at that point that he looked far older than he rightfully should. "It's my family. Things… aren't going very well at home. My sisters are fine… mostly. But my mother… she's… not doing well. The reason I skipped a lot the past two months is because I needed to stay home to look after them. It's only because of exams and the fact that I found a way to make sure they were cared for while I was at school that I stopped skipping this past week."

It was true too, though he was omitting a lot of the details and it wasn't in the way Hana and Yūgao both likely thought he was doing either. He never mentioned how… broken his mother was to them ever. Nor had he told them about how the village saw his family as a whole (and why), so they couldn't infer that either, though they knew something was wrong in that regard just based on their families' reactions. Naruto trusted them a lot but he by no means wanted to burden them with that kind of knowledge, especially when there was a risk they'd turn on them once they learned the full truth as well. His mother's teammates had done that after all, based on what he had heard from her during her breakdowns the past couple of months at any rate.

Kushina had been… delicate since that night two months ago, more so than usual, and he had been afraid she might hurt herself if things continued as they were. She suffered another couple of breakdowns that were, thankfully, not as severe as that night but he had once caught her staring blankly at one of the kunai he had accidently left out on a table for several minutes. Which was why he stayed in the house as much as possible, even going as far as skipping his classes, for the past while and it worked. His mother had recently started to, slowly, improve though and hadn't gone catatonic on him again for the past two weeks. Unfortunately, she had continued to lose weight and her features were now looking decidedly gaunt despite the improvements to her mental health. He was working on fixing that by forcing her to eat more but he now knew that her digestive system was damaged so it was a difficult endeavor. This was especially so when combined with her paralysis causing her legs to atrophy, even with the exercises he helped her do.

Still, he had ended up only actually gone to the Academy a total of five times in a span of seven weeks, and that was only to pick up assignments. He hadn't even left the house for anything beyond groceries beyond that during that time frame. It had drained him immensely taking care of his family full time without any breaks now that he had experienced being apart for so long thanks to the academy. He didn't regret his decision to take care of them fulltime of course, but he wanted, needed, a break and exams had given him a good reason to take one. Taking care of his mother and sisters had never been this difficult however, which might have been the reason he was feeling so drained. He had been worried about what would happen to his mother once he started leaving regularly for the academy again though, which had made him a bit hesitant to do so.

Thankfully there hadn't been another bricking, or any other incident, during the last two months as the Hokage had come down with the wrath of god on the one who did it, so that wasn't a factor he had needed to consider. Naruto was starting to actually love that old man, though he wished he would have brought the ANBU to look after them like before despite that. Regardless of this however he had still been uneasy, though not enough not to go back to classes. He had felt like he was being selfish. Thankfully he had finally made his first stable Kage Bunshin the weekend before his return to classes so he was able to leave guilt free. Creating a clone left his reserves barely above what he needed to function (as in thinking clearly and walking at a civilian pace) but the clone lasted several hours, even if it still looked a bit sickly, which was enough for almost the entire time he was at the Academy, so he didn't care. He was now able to be in two places at once and take a small break

Of course his rock bottom reserves meant he had finally gotten his butt kicked during the practical portions of classes this week, especially in taijutsu. It was frustrating, especially as some of the other kids had taken to mocking him for it, but he couldn't do anything besides suck it up for now. He wouldn't leave his family alone anymore now that he had an alternative, and he could also enjoy his "breaks" at the same time, even if it left him exhausted both physically and mentally. The silver lining of the whole situation was that he felt his reserves growing faster than ever now and his clone was also able to get its own training/studies done while watching his family. That clone didn't suffer the same chakra problems as he did, it was a pure chakra construct and was where all his reserves went after all. Thanks to both these factors he had finally fully mastered surface-walking and all its variants and combinations (adding in leaf-concentration + variants as well) sooner than expected.

"-to-kun. Naruto-kun!"

Naruto was shaken out of his thoughts by the loud voice of Hana in his ear as she shook him with a concerned expression on her face.

"What? Sorry did you say something? I spaced out for a bit there."

Hana frowned as Yūgao replied to his question. "You really need to take better care of yourself Naruto-kun. And we had merely offered our sympathies as well as any help you might be need."

Naruto had to think a bit before replying, trying to figure out if there was anything they could do to help him, but ultimately decided there wasn't. His mother wouldn't let anyone into their home after all besides the Hokage on rare occasions. "Thanks, I appreciate the offer, a lot, but there isn't anything you can do. If something does come up that you can help with I'll let you know though, ok?"

His friends seem mollified by that and the trio soon moved on to more pleasant conversation. They mostly stuck with topics like school or training but others cropped up now again as well. Things like humorous stories of Hana's younger brother, who was the same age as his sisters, or the newest mystery novel Yūgao was reading. It was just what Naruto needed if he was being honest. Unfortunately, this was the last day of the academy before break and he wasn't sure if he'd get time to hang out with them during that time. His schedule for the break depended on his upcoming meeting with the Hokage.

"So what are you plans for the break? I got an internship at a veterinarian clinic so I'll likely be working their when I'm not being tutored in my clan's affairs." Hana asked near the end of their lunch break.

"I'm not sure, you know how my parents have been lately." That got a grimace from both Hana and Naruto as they nodded sympathetically.

"I'm hoping to figure out why they dislike me being friends with Naruto-kun and hopefully get them to see that, whatever their reasons, they're wrong." Yūgao shot Naruto a look as she said that but he kept his face impassive. He wasn't going to tell her the reason for their dislike himself but he wouldn't stop her from trying to find out on her own. Seeing that Naruto wouldn't be forthcoming on the topic this time either Yūgao continued to speak as if nothing had happened.

"I know my parents are good people and I hate seeing them like this, especially since I can barely talk to them without it devolving into an argument anymore these days. I'll likely not be able to spend much time with you guys if I want a chance to fix things, especially since I have to keep up my training as well, sorry."

Hana waved it off, not bothered at all as it was the pretty similar for her as well. Naruto didn't mind either and said as much. "It's fine Yūgao -chan, I'll likely not have much time either. I'm going to try and get some training from an actual medic-nin, or bar that a doctor, over the academy's break so I won't have much time either. I also have my family to look after on top of my personal training as well. Guess that just means we'll have to make up for lost time when the Academy starts up again ne?"

Naruto got tentative smiles from his two friends at that and then all three focused on their lunch for the last five minutes of their break. Following that was another few hours of testing, in which he was able to do well in thanks to the fact that the subjects were purely academic in nature. With his physical/practical exams dragging him down however he was fairly certain he only managed to place somewhere in the middle of the class. Not ideal for someone hoping to graduate early but it was something he had been planning on talking about with the Hokage anyways and Naruto was fairly certain the old man would understand once he explained.

After a quick stop at Hana's and Yugao's classroom to say final goodbyes and exchange promises to try and meet up at least once over the break Naruto made his way up to the Hokage's office. He got a few nasty looks from some of the administrative staff as he walked by but the ninja he saw only looked at him indifferently, if they even noticed him at all. Thankfully the Hokage's secretary was actually an on leave kunoichi and not a civilian so he didn't receive any trouble seeing the old man, especially since he had made an appointment beforehand.

"Ah Naruto-kun. It's good to see you again. How is your family doing?" The old Hokage asked with a pleasant smile as he put down the pipe he had been smoking.

"They are doing better Hokage-sama but there have been some… difficulties for the past couple of months."

Hiruzen frowned slightly. "What happened? I'm assuming it's related to the…incident that happened around that time? And does it relate to the reports I've received on your almost complete absence from the academy until this week?"

Naruto hesitated to respond, unsure if he should tell the old man the details. On one hand he felt he could trust him to keep things confidential and not do anything that would harm him or his family. On the other he wasn't sure if it was his place to say. He hadn't come here to talk about his problems in detail after all. Hiruzen, upon seeing his hesitance, decided to try and coax Naruto to open up.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to Naruto-kun but I am here to offer you any help or advice you might need. I am quite old and have a lot of experience to pull from I'll have you know." He joked, getting a small smile from Naruto in response.

"Plus…I know I have failed you and your family in a lot of ways and I'd like to make it up to you as best I can if you'd let me." The old Hokage finished with a self-decrepitating smile.

After a few moments more of wavering Naruto decided to tell the Hokage pretty much everything that happened over the last two months. The thing that made him finally decide on this course of action was his own worries about his mother. Her breakdowns had been incredibly distressing to see, especially worrying however were some of the things she had said. So he told Hiruzen everything, from his training efforts with the Kage Bunshin, that first breakdown, his decision to stay home and watch over them full time until recently, the several other breakdowns that happened during that time, Kushina's deteriorating health and his recent success in making a stable Kage Bunshin. Throughout it all the experienced Hokage just sat and listened calmly until Naruto was finished speaking.

"I see…How much do you know about your mother's childhood Naruto-kun?"

Naruto, feeling a bit perplexed, answered the question anyways. "Nothing really, kaa-chan doesn't like talking about it. Though she has…let slip some things unintentionally recently."

"Right…" Hiruzen sighed heavily. Straightening up in his chair the old Kage gave Naruto a serious look.

"You know that your mother held the Kyubi before your sisters right?" Naruto nodded his head.

"And you know how many in the village feel about your sisters?" Another nod only this time filled with bitterness.

"Well, let's just say it wasn't any better for your mother growing up. In fact, in many ways it was worse as she had no family to rely on, one of the reasons why she is so protective of you and your sisters I'd wager." Naruto was surprised. Sure his mother had never talked about her family before but he hadn't quite made the connection that they might not have been there for his mother growing up.

"Why?"

Hiruzen's expression grew grim. "The destruction of Uzushiogakure and the Land of Whirlpools. Our village and theirs used to be close allies up until the start of the 2nd Shinobi World War. Three of the great hidden villages teamed up to destroy Uzushio as a preemptive start to the war as a means to weaken Konoha's position. They ended up succeeding in their efforts before we managed to send aid I'm sorry to say, though not without paying a high price. Kushina was the only survivor we managed to find in the ruins after an extensive search, she was only four years old at the time and her parents had buried her under their clan's dead in order to hide her from enemy ninja, all of which Kushina saw die in front of her I'm afraid to say."

Naruto felt sick at that and Hiruzen nodded sympathetically.

"Naturally we took her back to the village and took care of her but less than a year later another problem came up, the previous host of the Kyubi, who your sister Mito was named after, was dying. As the strongest of the Biju the Kyubi could only be successfully sealed in those of the Uzumaki lineage due to your clan's natural high longevity and chakra coil density, anyone else would die in months. I managed to keep quiet her new status for a couple of years at which point an… incident occurred. Your mother suffered a lot of problems as a result of witnessing the destruction of her village firsthand and one day someone said something they shouldn't have which set her off. In her agitated state she tapped into the Kyubi's chakra unconsciously and severely injured a number of civilians and even active duty shinobi. What was even worse was that after receiving medical attention the majority were left permanently crippled in some fashion as a result of the Kyubi's corrosive chakra."

"That…" Naruto breathed out already catching on to the implication.

The old Hokage nodded his head severely, secretly impressed by Naruto's quick deduction. "Yes, as you could image that caused a lot of fear and resentment to form amongst the village. It didn't help that despite the previous container being the Shodai Hokage's wife she was never quite trusted either for her use of the Kyubi's chakra during the 1st Shinobi World War. People feared her and the seed of the idea that a Jinchuriki is no different from the tailed beast they hold started then.

After that incident, and the knowledge of her burden, a large portion of the population started keeping their distance from Kushina, though thankfully she suffered nothing worse than isolation until two years later. It was a different situation, one of the family members of the previous incident's victims had gotten drunk and decided to harass your mother. When she didn't take the abuse lying down he got physical. Kushina tried to defend herself but the man was a retired shinobi and easily overpowered her... the Kyubi's chakra made an appearance once more only this time we were too late to prevent fatalities during her rampage."

"And that's when they started calling her a monster…" Naruto whispered out sadly.

Hiruzen winced. "Just so… things never improved after that and your mother was never able to really form bonds amongst the villagers despite her efforts. She was isolated, discriminated against and faced constant harassment. Despite this she still remained an optimistic outlook towards life up until the last year she spent in the Academy, or at least that was the front she put up. I'm fairly certain, as sad as I am to admit it, that she was hiding a lot of pain and fear behind that optimistic mask, even from me… Tell me, how much do you know about Kumogakure?"

A bit off balance by the non-sequitur Naruto responded to the question by rote. "Kumogakure, the most militaristic of the five great hidden villages located in the land of Lightning, considered the 2nd strongest village over all but possess the largest active shinobi force around. Has a propensity for the usage of kenjutsu and ration ninjutsu in their forces. Also has a history of… coveting bloodlines."

Hiruzen nodded in a pleased manner, happy by both Naruto's knowledge and his ability to catch on to the implication of his question near the end. "Very good. As you seem to have realized Kumo made a play to kidnap your mother for her Uzumaki bloodline during her last year at the academy. The team that carried out the attempt received no opposition from any of the ninja on patrol, most having been happy to accept the bribes once they learned about the Kumo-nins' target. I won't say what happened once they got her out of the village as even I'm not sure of the exact details but what I do know is that it took two days to retrieve her and that was only because she had gone on a Kyubi induced rampage enabling our sensors to find her location that way.

This rampage was worse than the others and resulted in severe injuries to all the members of the retrieval team, two of whom later died after succumbing to theirs. Needless to say that the village's opinion of your mother tanked to new lows when that news was leaked and never recovered. Your mother herself was also quite changed by the incident despite putting up her usual brave front. I'm guessing that with everything that's happened in the past few years has simply brought all of her problems to the surface."

Naruto was silent and the old Hokage watched him with tired old eyes before heaving a heavy sigh.

"Naruto… I'm not sure if you truly understand just how important you are to your mother." Naruto looked at Sarutobi questioningly. "You see; you are probably the one good thing in her life that is not tainted in one fashion or another. When she found out she was pregnant with you that happy mask she put on everyday became real and the darkness in her heart started retreating. Unlike your father or sisters, as sad is it is to say, there is absolutely nothing about you that was a negative in her eyes. Your father was in the same class as your mother and she had a crush on him but his failure to ever reach out to her during those years colored their relationship somewhat. As for your sisters… they are, unfortunately, a reminder of her own past and the losses she suffered that night. She still loves them of course, of that I'm certain, but again it's tainted somewhat by those facts. Which is why she seems prone to have extreme emotional outbursts in regards to you I'd wager. It is also why it likely hurts her so much when you aren't with her and why she appeared to get better once you stopped going to the academy."

"…Is there a way to help her? The medical texts I've read have mentioned psychiatric help in regards to recovering from mental trauma. Is that something that could help her?"

Hiruzen grimaced. "Theoretically? Yes, a Yamanaka healer or even a normal psychologist could help her with her problems but…"

"No one would be willing to do so. No one has been willing to do so, at least not without ulterior motives"

"That and it is doubtful Kushina herself would be willing to accept such help either." Hiruzen confirmed gravely.

"…So what can I do?"

Hiruzen leaned back into his chair tiredly. "What you've been doing really. Simply be there and be patient, try not to get upset at any future breakdown or overreaction she might have. Your ability to use Kage Bunshin will help you with the former and your new understanding of the situation will help with the latter. Just remember that no matter what your mother loves you and wouldn't intentionally hurt you. That being said I'd recommend trying to stay home as often as you can during the break, it should help her recover back to how she was before the latest incident as you've already noticed."

Naruto winced minutely but the experienced Hokage easily caught the gesture. "What's wrong?"

"Ah…The main reason I came here today was to see if you could get me an internship under a doctor or medic nin. I've been able to finish all the required texts for a beginner and I can heal cuts and bruises of a variety of types on rodents with a complete success rate but some actual instruction would make further progress much easier."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow in shock. "That's quite an impressive feat Naruto-kun."

Naruto shrugged uncomfortably. "I have a lot of motivation."

Hiruzen nodded, a grim smile on his face. "Indeed…I have a couple of potential options for a short term internship and even a medical training course available depending on which you prefer. The hours would be quite long however and you wouldn't be able to get away with leaving a Kage Bunshin with your family if you wanted to get anywhere in them I'm afraid."

"Can't you have the ANBU look after my family again? Just for a short amount of time? I'm sure Cat wouldn't mind."

Hiruzen sighed. "Your mother would never allow them into the house even if I could spare the manpower as you well know."

Naruto caught on to a bit off the hidden tension that the Hokage was projecting. "What's wrong? Why is manpower so tight? I know the Kyubi did a lot of damage but…"

Sarutobi stared at Naruto for several moments seriously, a debate going on his mind about what to say and, more importantly, how much to say. "I'm going to need you to keep the information I'm about to tell you secret is that understood Naruto-kun? Even from your friends and family. If you can't do that I won't tell you."

Naruto hesitated before ultimately agreeing with the stipulation.

"To put it bluntly there's a threat of a war breaking out between Iwa, Kumo and us. Tensions and small skirmishes have been breaking out across our borders for the past year and a half now and I need all available shinobi either running missions or protecting our borders."

Naruto sat in his chair stunned, his mind furiously going over all the information he knew about Iwa, Kumo, their history with Konoha and the bare bones theory of politics taught at the Academy. It painted a very obvious, and bad, picture about what would happen if they perceived the "greatest hidden village" as being weak now that he knew to look for it.

"I could, in theory, have kept my ANBU on guard detail for your family permanently despite that however if I wanted but you need to remember that many of my best ninja are ANBU and, as harsh as it sounds, they are all needed for more important duties than simple guard duty. The village always comes first."

"…I understand."

Hiruzen nodded gratefully, albeit sadly, at that. "Now… I can still get you an internship if you want but you're going to need to decide if it's worth leaving your family alone for several hours each day to have it. If it's not the offer will remain open for your future breaks as well. I'd imagine you'd have enough chakra by then to leave a Kage Bunshin with your family and still conduct training at that point properly if you wanted. You are an Uzumaki after all."

Naruto thought long and hard about his options for several minutes but ultimately there really wasn't much of a choice. He didn't want his mother to backslide and he could still make progress training by himself after all. "Thank you, Hokage-sama, for meeting with me and giving me the time to come to a decision. I've decided to not pursue an internship during my break this year."

Hiruzen smiled in understanding. "Very well, if you believe yourself capable of doing so next year just let me know and I'll get you that training then. Feel free to visit again, it does this old man good to see your face. Now, if there's nothing else I need to get back to doing paperwork. The damned stuff never seems to end."

"Thank you Hokage-sama, I'll do that if I have free time." Naruto bowed and got up to leave after seeing Hiruzen start working on his paperwork. He stopped when he got to the door however as his curiosity got the better of him. "Why aren't you using Kage Bunshin to help you with your paperwork? They give you their memories after all."

Naruto saw the old Hokage's eyes go dramatically wide before he started slamming in his head into his desk. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

"Are…Are you ok Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage straightened in his chair and effected an aura of nonchalance, as if he hadn't just been bashing his own head in. "I'm perfectly fine Naruto-kun, it's just old age seems to be getting to me is all."

"If you're sure…"

"I am. Also…" The Hokage fished out a few books and what looked like a mission pay stub. "For helping the Hokage deal with a serious problem in the administration of the village you deserve a reward. The books are on advanced medical knowledge and chakra manipulation and the pay stub is for a C-rank mission. I can't give you anything higher than that unfortunately as you aren't an active duty shinobi."

Naruto was surprised but took his rewards readily anyways. "Um... thank you Hokage-sama and it's no trouble. I wasn't expecting a reward anyways."

Hiruzen smiled softly. "Well you deserve one anyways, now run along I have a lot of ground to cover." The old Hokage finished as he summoned up three Kage Bunshin and started tearing into the massive stack of paperwork on his desk.

Naruto bowed once more and left the office. He had a lot to think about and even more to do with the new books Hiruzen gave him.

---

It was a couple hours after Naruto left that Hiruzen received his next visitor and by that point he had gone through over half of his accumulated paperwork. Surprisingly he didn't find anything shady in what he went over, or shadier than what normally passed through the leader of a ninja village's desk at any rate. If he was being honest he would have expected someone try a power play or something sneaky like that but none of that was there. It could have already happened of course but now that he had more "manpower" he'd be able to slowly work his way back over the books to double check.

"Ah…Danzo… what can I help you with?"

Hiruzen's old teammate stared at him steadily, barely raising an eyebrow at the sight of the Kage Bunshin working on his paperwork. "I see you've finally come up with a way to deal with our mortal enemy. You continue to live up to the moniker of Professor."

Hiruzen took a slow drag of his pipe before breathing out heavily as he stared at his former rival. "I can't claim the credit I'm afraid, young Naruto was the one who pointed out this possibility to me."

That got a bit more of a reaction from the old warhawk, slight as it was. "I'm guessing he's been playing around with the technique himself then if that's the case. It would explain his recent results at the Academy."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "You've been watching him then…why?"

"Why wouldn't I? He's a future asset to Konoha after all."

The old Hokage put down his pipe. "I won't let you put him in your Root program, him or his sisters."

Danzo actually snorted at that comment. "You think I don't know that?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, causing Danzo to elaborate.

"I think obviously think you're a fool for not doing so, especially in regards to his sisters. You know just how volatile their mother was because of her emotions in regards to the Kyubi's chakra. But you're the Hokage and unless you keel over or give me the hat I know that doing things my way in regards to them is not possible. Besides, I doubt the boy would reach his full potential under my training anyways, my ninjas make for poor medics after all."

Hiruzen grunted, not really surprised by his former teammates thought process or his arguments. "So why watch him at all then?"

"I told you, he's a future asset to the village and I want to make sure he lives long enough to fulfill that potential."

"…That's not really like you, old friend."

Danzo crinkled his nose in distaste at his friend's naivety. "And you think letting him or the Jinchuriki die or grow to resent the village is?"

Hiruzen had nothing to say to that, he had a point after all.

"I may want them under the village's control and trained using my methods but I'm not so foolish as to make it so that no one else could use them if I cannot. That would just be a waste of a valuable resource. Why do you think there haven't been more assassination attempts after you pulled your ANBU after all? I assure you that further attempts were made, or would have been at any rate."

Hiruzen seemed to age ever so slightly at that tidbit. He didn't doubt Danzo's words but he had hoped the reasons for a lack of attacks had been because the village's temper had faded for the most part not intervention on someone's part.

"I see… thank you."

Again Danzo snorted. "I don't need your thanks Sarutobi, everything I do is for the sake of the village. This is just one more of those things."

"And is that why I haven't seen Kakashi ever since the attack? For the sake of the village?" Hiruzen shot back in barely concealed bitterness.

Danzo ignored that however and simply nodded. "Of course. The village will need a new Hokage at some point after all and he has the potential to be a good one, especially using my methods. Minato proved that they were quite effective after all if even you didn't object to his ascension to the office."

The old Hokage's flashed dangerously at his old friend's words but said nothing. He could already see parts of Danzo's plans. The old warhawk might have said he wouldn't push his authority in regards to the Uzumaki family but that was out of respect to his office and not him, himself. And if his future successor just so happened to agree with Danzo well…

"If that is all then get out of my office Danzo, I have work to do."

Danzo nodded his head in acquiescence his head a carefully blank mask, though through decades of experience and interaction with the man Hiruzen could tell he was feeling both amused and smug. After watching his old teammate leave his office the aged Hokage slumped in his chair, looking quite defeated, an action mirrored by his Kage Bunshin.

"…Hashirama-sensei, what would you say if you learned what the village has become I wonder? When you see that the Will of Fire is nothing more than embers…"

---

-3 Months Later-

"Hey Naruto-kun, did you hear?" Hana asked.

"Hear what?" Naruto said with a quizzical tilt to his head, unknowingly causing Hana's heart to stutter at the cuteness of the action.

"Apparently a delegation of Kumo is coming to the village today to set up a formal peace treaty."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly at that. "Really?" He asked, slightly doubtfully with Yūgao expressing similar sentiments.

Seeing both of them doubting her Hana was quick to defend her claim. "It's true! My mom told me that the whole council was instructed to prepare their clans for his arrival. Apparently there's going to be a big party or something if the talks go well."

Both Naruto and Yūgao felt Hana's claim was a bit more believable now that they knew it had come from her mother, the clan head of the Inuzuka, herself. "That's interesting then. Are you going to be going to the party then if it happens?"

Hana grimaced slightly. "Yeah, and I'll have to wear formal clothing and everything, it's going to be so annoying?"

Yūgao raised an eyebrow in interest. "You're talking like the party is a sure thing, you think the treaty is going to be signed then? Or rather does your mom believe that?"

Hana nodded. "Yup, apparently the meeting is mostly a formality. Things could still go bad which is why everything is only a possibility but mom doesn't think anything will."

Naruto hummed thoughtfully and starred off into space, attracting the attention of his two friends.

"What are you thinking Naruto-kun?" Yūgao asked.

"Just picturing Hana in a formal kimono." Naruto stated absentmindedly.

Hana blushed slightly and tried to act non- chalant, much to Yūgao's amusement. "W-What do you think? Does it seem strange?"

Naruto pondered her question for a bit before replying. "Sort of." Hana hung her head in defeat though perked back up as Naruto continued talking. "You're too much of a free-spirit to be comfortable wearing those kinds of clothing. Though I think you'd be cute in a kimono, especially a green one."

Hana turned red like a tomato and Yūgao had to shove her fist into her mouth to keep herself from cracking up hysterically. Not that Naruto noticed, bust as he was picturing both his friends in a Kimono now.

"Yūgao suits a kimono more I think. Something white or silver, it would really go well with her beautiful purple hair in my opinion."

Now it was Yūgao's turn to blush red, though it wasn't quite near the level of Hana's. Naruto was able to shake himself off of those thoughts at that point, luckily after both his best friends stopped imitating lobsters.

"Anyways, a peace treaty with Kumo is good news. We should go out to celebrate after the academy, assuming of course you can spare the time Hana."

Said Inuzuka perked up at that though her expression quickly morphed into one of regret. "I'd love to but preparing for a formal party takes quite a while and mom said I needed to come straight back to the compound after classes today."

Naruto frowned in disappoint. "I see, tomorrow then maybe?"

Hana nodded eagerly. "Sure, though if you want to go celebrate don't let me not being there stop you. I'm sure Yūgao can keep you out of trouble well enough by herself."

Naruto stared at her with deadpanned eyes. "Says the girl who regularly spends time out in the hallways for pulling pranks on her teachers and fellow students during class."

Hana blushed but shrugged her embarrassment off to retort angrily. "Don't act like you had no part in that at all!"

Naruto nodded sagely. "Of course I did, you couldn't come with any good ideas without my help after all." Hana growled. "The difference however is that I'm smart enough not to get caught, unlike a certain someone."

Said someone proceeded to launch herself at him in a flying tackle, though Naruto, having expected the move, easily dodged it, resulting in Hana plowing face first into a chuckling Yūgao much to her surprise. From there things devolved into a cat, or rather dog, fight between the two girls as Hana's ire was successfully redirect by Yūgao's retaliation for the surprise attack. Thankfully (for the other students) the fight didn't have a chance to evolve into full blown combat by the lunch bell ringing and the two friends were quick to act like nothing happened as they went back to class. Naruto just chuckled in amusement. It was great to have friends.

As Naruto sat in his class he let his mind wander towards to interesting news about the Kumo ambassador and peace treaty. Based on what he knew of the situation, both historically and currently, between Konoha and them there was really no reason for such a situation to occur. Kumo obviously knew that the village had gotten weaker due to the Kyubi attack, as evidenced by the conflicts at the border with them. They should also know about the problems with Iwa that ran along a similar vein. Why the peace treaty then?

He could think of several reasons, and the only good ones were either too optimistic, unlikely or just flat out naïve. Which meant the reason was not a good one for Konoha, as it likely had to do with deception of some sort. Which might actually be the reason for the "party" Hana was talking about as he doubted that the Hokage hadn't thought about the same things he had. The clans, despite only making up roughly a third of Konoha's total fighting force, tended to produce the strongest shinobi. Combined with the wide range of clan specific techniques made the potential secret agenda of Kumo/the ambassador much harder to pull off. That and the clan heads and heir would serve as good witnesses both to the treat itself and the ambassador's actions on the international politics scene.

Satisfied both with his line of reasoning and deductions Naruto decided to stop worrying about the issue and go back to studying his medical text. The book was one that the Hokage had given him for his help with the "dreaded paperwork" and went into detail about Kekkei Genkai, genetics and even the transferring of genetic data and Kekkei Genkai. It was an interesting, albeit difficult, read and Naruto wondered just why the Hokage had given this book to him. Maybe he thought there was a solution that this book offered for his goal of healing his mother? He'd have to check out a listing of known Kekkei Genkai and their abilities at some point then, he was pretty sure he saw something in that regard in the Uzumaki library.

Naruto absentmindedly caught the piece of chalk Tadao-sensei had flicked at his forehead before flinging it back at the man, who just as easily caught it and nodded in acceptance. The man cared little if his students slacked so long as they kept proper situational awareness, which meant he randomly flicked objects at those who decide not to pay attention in order to test them. So far only Naruto succeeded in passing this "test" much to his amusement as his class currently had three different Nara, all of whom proved to be natural slackers like the rest of their clan, and thus always asleep in class.

Eventually the bell that signaled the end of class rang and the various kids rushed out of the room as if they were escaping from prison. Naruto, for his part, simply calmly finished his page in his book before taking a much more direct route outside, namely the window. Tadao-sensei didn't care that he did so after all so why not take advantage?

Like always Hana and Yūgao were waiting for him by the tree that he had met the former nearly a year ago, and that all three had subsequently claimed as their own during Lunch. They proceeded to walk together for a few minutes before they parted ways, Hana heading off to her clan compound while Naruto and Yūgao veered off towards Ichiraku Ramen. Ichiraku's was the first, and only, restaurant Naruto had actually been to. Partially that was because he had only ever eaten out a grand total of four times so far and partially because it was one of the few places run be civilians that didn't dislike him or his family. It helped that the restaurant had ramen in its name and made the dish incredibly well, love for ramen was genetic in Uzumaki according to his mother after all. As he and Yūgao sat down and ordered their meal Naruto couldn't help but ask the question he had avoided for the past month.

"So… Yūgao-chan. How are things with your family? You never said how things went over the summer."

Naruto didn't miss how his friend tensed up when he asked that. Obviously things didn't go so well, something that Yūgao quickly confirmed.

"Things…" Yūgao paused as she formulated just how she was going to explain things. "went better than I feared but worse than I had hoped. They…can you please just tell me why they hate you and your family?" She begged him.

"I know my parents are good people but…whenever I bring you up or they talk about your family they act like completely different people. I don't even recognize them sometimes anymore. Please, I just want to know."

Naruto remained silent, grateful that the ramen stand was empty save for them as he waged an internal war within himself about what to say. He trusted Yūgao a lot but…this was about his family and his family always came first. More than that however he was simply afraid. So he took the coward's way out and refused to say anything. Yūgao was severely disappointed by this and looked like she was about to cry, though when he tried to comfort him she refused his attempts. Needless to say their meal was tense and awkward after that point, neither of them talking and Yūgao going so far as to refuse to look at him. Teuchi, the owner of the Ichiraku's, and his daughter, Ayame, tried to lighten the atmosphere but that didn't work either. As a result, the two friends, after paying for their respective meals, parted ways without further word. Yūgao, because she didn't want to talk to Naruto right now, and Naruto because he was feeling guilty and didn't know what to say.

He didn't feel like going home right away after that and, knowing his clone would be good for another few hours, opted instead to go to a training field to burn off his frustration. He had never been to one before, having done all his training at his home or at the Academy's grounds, but he knew where they all were, and which were available for academy students. Which was how he found himself at training field 17 attempting to separate his chakra into Yin and Yang for three hours.

The separation of chakra between Yin and Yang was a concept and exercise described in one of the books the Hokage had given him three months prior. Naturally, as a result, it was also incredibly difficult to do. In direct proportion to said difficulty was how useful the ability to do so would be not just for medical ninjutsu but all aspects of his shinobi techniques. Yin chakra featured heavily in things like genjutsu and the legendary medic Tsunade's techniques while yang release featured heavily in regular medical-ninjutsu and physical related things like taijutsu. As much as he hated to admit it the revelation that Tsunade made heavy use of Yin and Yang chakra to get her legendary status was the main reason he was learning how to do so. After all, whether or not he liked (no matter how irrational his reasons) she was the world's greatest medical ninjutsu user for a reason. As such he figured a good way to at least equal her skill, if not surpass her, is to not ignore what made her so great for petty reasons.

That being said, despite his excellent chakra control, he was nowhere close to being able to separate his chakra into Yin and Yang. He hadn't even finished perfecting water-walking after all, despite being about half way through all the variant exercises. Even then the book recommended perfecting kunai floating and tenketsu manipulation (where you expel chakra from a single tenketsu at a time) before working on it. Naruto, of course, planned to do that but he also wanted to work on splitting Yin and Yang before then. After all, just because it was recommended didn't mean it was necessary and the sooner he learned the technique the sooner he could move on to more advanced techniques. It would also help him immensely in coming up with his own techniques, both for medical ninjutsu, genjutsu, regular ninjutsu and even fuinjutsu. All of which was a good thing as no currently available techniques could heal his mother.

Again though, it must be said that he was attempting an incredibly advanced technique and was seeing no progress, or at least no visible progress, despite focusing purely on it for three hours. The fact that the vast majority of his chakra was being tied up in his clone might have hindered him in his attempts but then again it might not have. It was hard to tell whether having a larger amount of chakra would have made the technique easier or harder as even the book didn't mention anything in that regard.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts just as violently as he snapped his head to the side. There was someone rushing through the forest nearby at high speeds. Scratch that it was three people though one felt incredibly weak while the other was about as strong as his sisters had been at one years old. It was the one that caught his attention that paid the most attention to seeing how his chakra levels were easily in the Jonin range. That and what he could gleam about the man through his chakra made him incredibly wary. He felt vile. Not like the people who tried to kill his family felt but more like the kind of person he occasionally bumped into that looked like they belonged to the seedier parts of the red light district. That didn't bode well at all.

Considering that the other two signatures felt nothing but fear and confusion, and that they were so weak, meant he had two options in front of him. As much as he held generally dislike or apathy to the village as a whole he didn't feel the same towards the younger children, which the two other signatures likely were. So he could either attempt to try and stop the person himself or he could try and get/attract attention of someone would could stop the person. Both had their own problems however. The former meant he had to go against someone who was likely Jonin level while he was fatigued and low on chakra while the latter meant that the individual could potentially get away. His decision ultimately boiled down to his family, like it always did in important matters. Mainly in that he had a high likelihood of dying with the former option and he couldn't leave his family alone to deal with his death to try and play the hero for strangers. Family came first after all.

Luckily, in his ongoing practice with his sensing ability he had learned how to do the opposite of sense people, have people since him. He did this by projecting pulses of agitated chakra full of emotion, namely the feeling of danger and urgency in this case, in a circle around himself. Not everyone could pick up the "signal" of course but any competent chunin, jonin or ANBU could. Which was what he wanted as a genin would likely just be killed needlessly trying to intervene.

Of course the, likely enemy, jonin noticed his signal as well but thankfully they didn't stop to investigate, too intent on fleeing to bother investigating. They did pick up a bit more speed however at that point and Naruto ended up losing track of him less than a minute later. A minute after that was when a familiar "face" came to investigate his signal.

"Cat-chan!"

The cat masked ANBU looked at Naruto and he could feel the affection she felt for him as she did so, though he also felt an undercurrent of tension and anger. Deciding to not waste time he quickly spoke again.

"I sensed a Jonin level ninja with vile chakra fleeing at high speeds in that direction a bit more than a minute ago with two much weaker signatures in tow. I think they were young children."

"Stay here! If other ANBU or ninja show up direct them in the same direction. Tell them I said that's the direction of the kidnapper. They'll understand."

Cat wasted no more words and promptly disappeared in a burst of speed that Naruto's eyes couldn't keep track of, though his sensing ability could. Even that couldn't keep track of her for long however as Cat took even less time to leave his range than the, now confirmed, enemy nin did. Two minutes after that a full squad of ANBU, though with curiously blank masks, appeared in the clearing and, after Naruto told them what Cat said, they quickly followed after her. Naruto waited a few more minutes after that but, after no one else showed up and he didn't detect the ANBU coming back towards him, he decided to leave and inform the Hokage. One of the ANBU might have done so with a method he didn't know but it was better safe than sorry. Besides, it was quite obvious a serious situation had occurred and he would need to make a statement about his role in it, no matter how small.

Unfortunately, he had nowhere near the same speed as the ANBU even when he used what little chakra he could to enhance his legs so it took him nearly fifteen minutes to reach the Hokage's office and another three on top of that to get permission to see him.

"Naruto-kun. Now is not a good time, if it's not vitally important I need you to leave immediately." Hiruzen said in a grave, authoritative voice that caused that young Uzumaki's spine to stiffen unconsciously.

"It is important Hokage-sama. I was in Training Field 17 when, about 25 minutes ago I detected the kidnapper fleeing East at high speeds with two others in tow. Two minutes after that ANBU Cat entered in the clearing after detecting a signal I released and proceeded to chase after the nin after informing me to direct any other Konoha-nin in the same direction. Two more minutes later a squad of ANBU with blank masked followed her. I waited a few more minutes for any more ninja before deciding that none were coming and made my way here as fast as I could."

The veteran Hokage's eyes widened in surprised before they narrowed as the "God of Shinobi" adopted an extremely serious expression as he started barking orders.

"Sparrow! Take your squad and go to Training Ground 17 at once! Pick up Cat's trail and follow her as quickly as possible. Yatsui! Take one of the ready squads and try to cut off their projected path. Aoba! Take the remaining squads and make your way to the eastern border, make sure you have sensors and trackers in your squads! Ibiki! You know what I want you do to. Question everyone stationed in that sector, everyone!"

The three experienced Jonin saluted their Hokage before flickering out of his office. Nodding in grim satisfaction the Hokage then turned his attention back to Naruto.

"Thank you for getting this information to me Naruto-kun but if there's nothing else you can head back to your home for now. I'm sure your mother is getting worried even if you left a clone. I'll likely call for you sometime tomorrow to have you give a full statement but not now."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Naruto sketched a bow before turning to leave, knowing both that his words were true about his mother and that he was no longer needed, or even wanted, at the current time any longer.

Thankfully Kushina wasn't too worried or upset about his coming home so late once he explained himself. Though that was only because she was worried about him by himself in a secluded area for so long and especially him getting that close to an enemy ninja. Needless to say he wasn't let out of arms reach for the rest of the night, or the next morning either for that matter. Luckily it was the weekend so he didn't have to go to the Academy so that wasn't a problem. He very carefully didn't think about how he felt relief about it being the weekend meant he didn't have to see Yūgao again for a little bit. He didn't believe that they'd suddenly stop being friends but that didn't mean things wouldn't be a bit awkward.

The Hokage did end up sending an ANBU to collect him in order to get a statement from him but the man thought better of it when Kushina sent him an absolute death glare when he mentioned him having to leave. The bull masked ninja beat a quick retreat at that point letting a different ANBU come back to give him the written statement form instead, as well as a message to see the Hokage on Monday after his classes. After that the man also beat a hasty retreat as his mother directed a similar malevolent look his way for getting to close to him/their home.

"Kaa-chan, you need to stop doing that." Naruto sighed in exasperation from his place on his mother's lap.

"Doing what sochi?" Kushina asked innocently as she pulled him into a deeper, and tighter, hug, though Naruto could sense a lot of inner turmoil bubbling beneath that façade.

"…Never mind." He eventually replied, unwilling to push the subject after feeling her emotions.

"mm." Kushina hummed happily before she nuzzled her cheek into the top of his head, drawing comfort from both the sensation and her son's, the real ones', close physical presence.

"What do you want for lunch kaa-chan? I need to start it pretty soon and you need to go check on Natsuki and Mito. You know how those little balls of energy get if you take your eyes off them for long." Naruto asked after a couple of minutes of letting his mother "recharge herself" as she had called it on occasion.

"Hmmm…"

"…It's ramen isn't it?" Naruto deadpanned.

"Yup! Sochi knows his kaa-chan so well." Kushina chirped happily as she nuzzled him with renewed force, much to his mock annoyance.

"Or it might because you request ramen every time I cook lunch and dinner."

"Of course I do! You know ramen is the food of the gods! It's sacrilege to not have it as often as possible."

"Right…" Naruto wasn't going to ever argue however because one, it was true, and two, ramen was the one thing his mother would always eat completely. He might not always acquiesce as, thanks to his medical studies, he knew the need for a proper diet but he did still concede more often than not. He was fairly certain that if he didn't make the noodle as often as he did he mom would be short even more pounds that she already was after all.

"Well come on then, I can't make you ramen if I'm stuck on your lap kaa-chan."

Kushina pouted and Naruto could tell she was actually feeling sad and disappointed. "Can't you just make a clone to do it and stay with me Naru-chan?"

"My clone is busy training kaa-chan and I can't make more than one right now remember?"

With great reluctance his mother eventually let him go, though she refused to move away from him and occasionally brushed her hands against him as they made their way to the kitchen, as if to make sure he was still there. He couldn't help but to frown briefly at that before he quickly hid the expression from his mother. He wasn't upset by the contact but rather what he meant. He kind of regretted the fact that the Hokage explained as much as he did about his mother as he did that day three months ago. Now he couldn't help but equate such actions to the reasoning behind them and Kushina's past. It was unpleasant and tainted the contact somewhat now. Thankfully his mother didn't seem to notice that fact and he was careful to keep it that way.

"Mito-chan! Natsuki-chan! I'm making ramen for lunch!" Naruto yelled out and, almost instantly, he heard the rapid pitter patter of the twins rushing down the hallway.

"Onii-chans ramen!/Food!" were the respective "battle cries" of Mito and Natsuki, causing both of the older Uzumaki's to laugh in amusement at the three year olds. The two were simply adorable, even if they tried their brother's and mother's patience quite often. They were rambunctious little devils with way too much energy for everyone else's good and Naruto loved them to pieces.

"Yes, yes. Now be good for kaa-chan while I'm cooking ok?" The twins nodded cutely at that, their heads bobbing up and down quickly causing their messy hair to flail around wildly. "What flavor do you want?"

"Shrimp!/Pork!/Miso!" Came three different enthusiastic cries, causing Naruto to stare at his sheepish looking mother in amusement.

"Alright then, I'll make everyone a separate bowl then."

"Yay!" The Uzumaki family cheered in response. Naruto smiled at his family, he loved moments like these.

---

"You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked as he entered the man's office.

Hiruzen puffed out a bit of smoke and turned to face the young Uzumaki, his clones ignoring him as they continued about their work. "Yes. I got your written statement but I wanted to get a chance to talk to you as well as I hope my ANBU informed you. He was…quite rattled by his interactions with you from what I gathered."

Naruto's face adopted a strange expression that was a mix between an amused smirk and a grimace. "Yeah…Kaa-chan was not happy to see either of the ANBU you sent."

The old Hokage chuckled lightly at that. "I should have guessed….so was there anything you didn't put in your statement that you think I should know?"

Naruto shook his head. "No Hokage-sama. I put everything relevant in my statement."

"I see… do you have any questions you have for me?"

Naruto paused for a moment but asked the one question he really wanted answered hesitantly. "Is Cat ok? Was she hurt at all?"

Hiruzen put down his pipe before he answered. "ANBU Cat is still out in the field and I'm not sure as to her condition I'm afraid. I'm confident that she'll be fine however, she's one of my best agents after all."

"Oh…Thank you Hokage-sama." Naruto said, slightly disappointed.

Sarutobi just waved his thanks off. "No need to thank me Naruto-kun, you've helped me out quite a bit with your aid. Telling you something that small is nothing."

"…What exactly happened Hokage-sama? Things were…tense amongst the clan members at the Academy today, especially the Hyuga. Did…something happen with the ambassador from Kumo?"

The experienced Hokage raised an eyebrow in faint surprise. "An astute observation Naruto-kun. I can't tell you much as it's still quite the sensitive issue but I can confirm that your line of thought is correct."

Naruto shuddered slightly, his mind already making the connection between Kumo, bloodlines, the Hyuga and the two additional signatures he felt that night. The Hokage was right about the issue being sensitive. "Thank you for telling me that much Hokage-sama. If that's all can I be excused? I promised to meet up with my friends fairly soon."

The Hokage's weathered face smiled at that, happy that the young lad he was coming to see as a pseudo-grandchild had such good friends despite the circumstances. The fact that said friends were both female and, if their parents were anything to go by, liable to grow up into quite the beauties made that smile all the wider. A manly tear almost fell out of his eye at the thought, before it was crushed by the thought reminding him of one of his wayward students.

'Dammit Jiraya where the hell are you?'

None of his thoughts showed on his face however and outwardly he maintained his smile as he gave Naruto the go ahead to leave. He did make a mental note to send a tracking squad out to find him in the near future. The sole remaining (loyal) sannin needed to come home now, even if he could use this whole fiasco to pressure Kumo into backing off like he hoped he could.

---

"Hey Hana-chan…Yūgao-chan." Naruto waved cheerfully at his friends, though his bright expression dimmed slightly as he spotted Yūgao. Like he had thought they were still friends but things had been very awkward between them today. Even now Yūgao still refused to look directly at his face, still upset by what happened on Friday. Hana of course noticed this instantly but her attempts at mediation didn't work out.

"Hey Naruto-kun." Hana replied. "You ready to get your butt kicked again today?"

Naruto smirked at that. "Don't you have that the other way around Hana-chan. After all I distinctly remember me getting the better of you in our spars last week."

Hana growled in response, though Naruto could tell it was more playful than anything. "Bring it on short stuff!"

Naruto adopted a tick mark on his head and plastered a fake, way-too-sweet smile on his face. "OH? I suggest you see a doctor to check your eyes Hana-chan. I happen to be the tallest person in my year group you know."

Hana smirked. "True, but you're still short to me chibi."

"Least I don't smell like wet-dog all the time, mutt-girl."

This time it was Hana's turn to adopt a tick mark as the two went forehead to forehead with slightly feral grins on their faces. Though almost instantly the two did a complete 180 and started laughing, the earlier tension fading away without a trace.

"Do you want in the spar this time Yūgao-chan? Or are you going to referee for us?" Hana asked her first friends.

Yūgao debated internally with herself for a several moments before coming with a decision. "I think I'll stay out of this one."

Hana just shrugged. "Ok."

Turning back to Naruto the Inuzuka heiress dropped into her taijutsu stance, a cocky grin on her face. Naruto mirrored the action and, after a brief look to confirm that they were ready, Yūgao started the match.

Instantly Hana launched herself forward, a swift claw strike coming in towards Naruto's face from his left side. Naruto simply ducked under the blow, making sure to block the follow up knee from Hana he knew was coming, before retaliating with a scorpion kick to her chest. Despite his, relatively, small frame Naruto packed quite the punch, or rather kick, in his blows and Hana's guard was almost broke through by the attack. It was only almost however and Hana's retaliation was as swift as it was brutal, coming in the form of an elbow drop to Naruto's spine.

Due to his rather awkward position the young Uzumaki didn't have a way to guard against the blow so instead he used of the surface clinging technique to stick to Hana's arms with his leg in order to provide himself enough leverage to dodge. He was mostly successful as, instead of hitting his spine, Hana's elbow only clipped his side. Naruto tried to use his chakra sticking to pull Hana down towards the ground with him but she rapidly caught on to his trick and broke the connection but channeling her own chakra to the connection.

Undeterred Naruto simply pushed himself off the ground with his other three limbs, launching himself into the air where he transitioned himself into a spin kick that Hana dodged rather than block. This move proved prudent as the ground Naruto's foot impacted with crated slightly from the blow. Her dodging also gave her a good opening to launch a counter attack, a speedy straight punch to his temple. The young Uzumaki twisted his head to the side, letting the fist pass a scant couple of centimeters in front of his face. Acting on instinct his arms snaked out around the limb to bring Hana down to the floor in an arm-bar.

The Inuzuka heiress grunted in surprise as Naruto rarely made use of grapple techniques in his taijutsu style. That didn't prevent her from slipping out of the hold before she made contact with the ground completely and lost the chance. She tried to seize the opportunity to respond with her own grappling technique in response but Naruto quickly broke off and put a bit of distance between the two of them. The two friends exchanged excited and happy expressions with each other briefly before they resumed their sparring. This time it was Naruto who made the first move in the form of a rapid flurry of punches and sweeping kicks.

Hana either dodged or deflected all the blows, retaliating with claw swipes and sidekicks that Naruto likewise dodge or deflected to the best of his ability. A few still grazed him however as Hana was still both the better taijutsu fighter and had higher physical abilities to him. The gap had shrunk since their first spar, obviously, but just as Naruto had improved so had Hana so they were still not equal. Knowing this Naruto decided to get tricky.

Dropping to the floor with a much wider sweep kick than previously Naruto took advantage of Hana's tendency to jump above those kinds of attacks and, planting his hands to the ground with chakra, launched a devastating kick upwards into her stomach. Naturally Hana saw the blow coming and brought up her guard but, without the ground to stabilize herself on, the momentum of the blow was enough to blow her backwards and leave her a bit disorientated. Naruto didn't waste the opportunity and, with a burst of speed, managed to get behind Hana before she could regain her bearings. From there the match was basically over as Naruto landed a paralyzing elbow blow to her spine, knocking the breath out of her, letting him easily transition into a hold.

"Winner! Naruto."

Quickly Naruto let go of his best friend and helped to her feet.

"Good fight Hana-chan."

"You too chibi." Hana shot back, her small form of revenge for her defeat. Naruto simply decided to take the comment with good grace, he was the winner after all.

"Well, do you want to spar next Yūgao-chan? Kenjutsu only."

His purpled haired friend hesitated before agreeing and soon enough Naruto was standing in front of her with his training wakizashi while Yūgao had her bokken. After asking if they were ready Hana, acting as their referee for the match, signaled for them to begin.

Yūgao rushed forward quickly, her bokken trailing behind her in a reverse grip while Naruto set himself into a defensive stance to parry the coming blow. He was caught off guard however when, instead of a slash like he had thought, Yūgao attacked with a thrust after preforming some fancy sword handling skills. He managed to avoid having his head poked but he got clipped on his cheek despite his attempt at dodging. Yūgao didn't let up however and quickly brought her sword down in a vicious slash that he was forced to dodge wildly to avoid, resulting him in being unbalanced.

The budding sword mistress easily took advantage of the opening and swung her sword in a blindingly fast swipe to his ribs that he was forced to block forcibly with his own weapon. He didn't except the force that Yūgao put behind her attack however and his weapon got knocked into his own body as he lost the strength contest. In an attempt to buy himself some breathing room he lashed out with a low side kick but Yūgao simply stepped back to avoid it before bringing down her weapon in an overhead strike.

Despite being a bit off kilter by his friends overly aggressive change in style Naruto didn't miss the small opening that strike gave him when it failed to connect and brought his shorter, and thus faster, weapon in a quick strike to her left arm. This forced Yūgao to let go with that hand and wield her bokken with only a single arm, slowing down and weakening her counter attack enough for him to parry it successfully. Naruto feinted an attack towards her head before, with a tricky hand movement, brought down his wakizashi in a downward thrust towards his friend's leg. Taking a page out of his book Yūgao responded by launching a kick into Naruto's pivot leg, causing him to stumble slightly giving the purplette an opening to attack his throat. An opening she capitalized with frightening ferocity.

"Winner! Yūgao." Hana called out quickly before rushing over to Naruto, who was on the ground cradling his throat and taking ragged, wheezy breaths.

"Oh god! I'm sorry Naruto-kun! I didn't mean to hit you that hard." Yūgao said, clearly upset by her actions.

Naruto just waved her off, unable to tell her it was alright as he still struggled to breathe properly. Hana however direct a slightly angry, and slightly concerned, glare at her best female friend.

"What the heck Yūgao? Why did you do that?" She demanded.

"I…I was just frustrated and it kind of just happened." Yūgao admitted, feeling uncomfortable.

Hana narrowed her eyes. "Is this about whatever was making you two so uncomfortable around each other today?"

The, now slightly more recovered, blond and purplette shared brief looks before look away. Hana just sighed.

"Right…talk...now." She demanded.

Naruto tried to speak but nothing came out except for a wheeze which meant the explanation feel to Yūgao, so she gave it. Haltingly and with a lot of hesitation, but she eventually told Hana everything. Going into even more detail about the situation with her parents than Naruto got from her that night. It was…enlightening. Apparently Yūgao was going to be kicked out of the house once she graduated if she remained friends with Naruto. She wasn't going to be disowned and lose her family name but… Naruto now understood just why she was so desperate for an explanation from him. He felt a bit guilty now if he was being honest.

"…That's horrible Yūgao-chan. I want you to know you're welcome to stay with me if you need to, ok?"

Hana said sympathetically, causing the, now teary-eared, swordswoman to nod thankfully. Turning her attention to Naruto, Hana had a decidedly less sympathetic look as she brought him to task.

"Right. You've been hiding this secret from us long enough Naruto-kun. We need an explanation, now, if you want to remain friends. You need to trust us like we trust you ok? I know you're not a bad person and from how you speak of your family they aren't either but…even my mother told me to be careful around you and to never go near your family. A lot of the other clan members were less sympathetic but I didn't care because I liked being your friend but…I think I deserve to know."

Naruto turned his head to the side in shame but didn't speak immediately, so Hana added a bit more pressure.

"Even if you think I don't deserve an explanation Yūgao certainly does. She's been fighting with her parents for a long time because of her friendship with you and you heard what she just told us. Despite that she chose to continue being your friend. You can't tell me that loyalty doesn't deserve something similar in kind?"

Naruto sighed in defeat, knowing that what Hana said was the truth. He didn't look at them however, knowing that his guilty feeling would be even worse if he looked at either of his friends. If he saw those looks he knew they were giving him he knew he would instantly cave, and he didn't want that. He needed to honestly think about things without that extra pressure.

"Please…Naruto-kun…please…" Yūgao begged, her voice weak and full of naked pleading.

Like that the decision was made for him, despite his rational mind screaming at him to ignore his friend. So he told them. Not everything, never everything. But he told them enough for them to get a full, unobstructed view on the situation. Which meant they knew the truth about the Kyubi now, from his mother being its previous Jinchūriki, to the Kyubi's attack and his sisters becoming the new Jinchūriki.

"…People are idiots." Hana stated bluntly after digesting Naruto's story. She knew he hadn't told them everything but she also realized what he had omitted was likely very personal to him or his family so that didn't bother her.

Naruto snapped his head towards her in surprise, his eyes unconsciously widening. Hana snorted at his expression.

"What? You think we'd be like the majority of this village once we learned the truth?" Hana asked.

Naruto nodded hesitantly, causing Hana to growl at him in anger.

"You're an idiot too then." Seeing the offended look on his face Hana cracked a smirk as she elaborated.

"We're your friends Naruto-kun and we don't care right Yūgao?" Said girl nodded her head rapidly, her expression honest and firm.

"See? Besides the basics of Fuinjutsu was taught last year in the Academy. We know that a storage scroll doesn't become the kunai you seal inside of it. Granted I doubt the seal holding the Kyubi is as simple as a storage scroll but the concept is similar right?"

Again Naruto nodded his head.

"Then there you have it. We don't hate you or your family for something that that's both not their fault and inherently not them."

Naruto couldn't help but tear up slightly at that. "Thank you Hana-chan, Yūgao-chan…that…that means a lot to me. I…was afraid. My…my mother told me how people turned on her once they realized what she was, even her teammates, so…"

Naruto stopped speaking as he was engulfed on two sides by the warm hugs of his two friends. Unbidden tears fell down his face as he simply took the comfort they were offering. He didn't know if Hana and Yūgao would someday change their mind or not but for now he simply accepted the fact that they were his friends regardless of what they knew about his family. He could deal with it if they did but…He offered a silent prayer that their friendship would never change all the same. It would hurt losing the two girls who was coming to see as pseudo-family members. It was a weird feeling considering what he felt didn't line up with how he felt about his mother or sisters but it was similar enough that, that was all he could equate it to. One thing was certain however, he liked the feeling and he also knew that he would protect the two like they were his blood family from now on. No matter what, or who, stood before him.

AN: Here's the harem list for those interested (the order of the list is random and not an indication on the order they get together).

Kushina

Mito

Natsuki

Karin

Tayuya

Anko

Hana

Those in consideration are Yūgao, Kurenai and Sakura. And before you ask no Sakura won't be bashed (no one else will either) and she won't be useless regardless of whether or not she's in the pairing or not. I'm going actually make use of the promise that Kishimoto showed in her character development during the beginning of Shippuden but ultimately ruined. It was more than a little annoying to me if I'm being honest. As for how the relationships will develop the only thing I'll say is that the CRA is not going to play a role, Naruto isn't the last Uzumaki after all so he doesn't really apply to that trope.

Next Chapter will have Naruto graduating from the Academy and will have more action in it. Speaking of, let me know what you thought of the short fight scenes I wrote. I would like your opinions to see what I can improve on and what to keep doing in the future.

Anyways hope you liked the chapter.

-Monumentum