Twelve years later: Land of Waves
Naruto hissed as he massaged his arms, that yesterday where turned into porcupines by Haku, Zabuza's accomplice during the battle on the half-finished bridge. The result of the battle left both of them dead, Sasuke porcupine'd, Kakashi exhausted, the local midget overlord Gato dead and him, Naruto, the hero of the land of waves. Despite the rest of his teams attempts to make Kakashi and Sasuke look like the hero's.
"Are you alright Naruto?" Tsunami, the bridge builders daughter asked worried
Gracing the kind woman with a genuine smile "I am fine Tsunami, Thanks for asking"
Feeling his arms a bit more, he decided he needed to use more of his loveable, sealed in your stomach, fuzzball's power to properly heal his arms before Kakashi allowed Sasuke to 'challenge' Naruto again.
"I am heading out for a bit" Naruto said to Tsunami
"Where are you going Naruto" Came the hateful tone from Kakashi, including a glare from the lone eye. His other sharingan eye hidden behind his tilted headband. Plastering on a fake smile he gave all the Kyuubi haters . "I am just going around town to get some fresh air and walk off the soreness from all those needles" he spoke with fake cheer. "That's not a problem is it?"
Getting another glare from Kakashi, but no denial. Naruto waves to Tsunami and runs off while Kakashi turned around and checked on the still knocked out Sasuke.
Tsunami could only sigh at the exchange, she couldn't understand why the slightly loud, but reasonably polite Naruto would be so hated by his own team. A sentiment the otherwise cheerful boy seemed more than willing to return.
The rage she saw in the boys eyes when her son Inari started whining about the unfairness of life made it quite clear Naruto knew way more about suffering then a twelve year old should. But the rest of his team either didn't know, or choose to ignore it like Sakura did.
Tsunami just wished she could do something.
Talking pleasantly and waving off praises was a new, but very pleasant experience for Naruto. Who reveled in the positive attention he got the villagers. Unlike the constant hatred, glaring and abuse he normally got back home.
'Maybe I should injure Sasuke a bit more so we could stay here longer' Naruto mused 'Kakashi wants to go back to that hellhole as soon as possible for some reason.' Naruto soon squashed that idea, he was far to kindhearted despite everything to do something like that. Despite his unpleasant upbringing with very few friends.
Moving out of town, and doing his utmost to make sure he wasn't spied upon, he gently drew upon Kyuubi's power, channeling to his arms who took the brunt of all the needles Haku tossed around. As usual, the beast took this opportunity to 'talk' to him.
You could just use my power to destroy that 'hellhole'
Ignoring the mindreading beast, he focused the demonic charka on his arms
One of these days you will use my power! The beast roared, not taking kindly to being ignored.
'I told you before, I am not going to rely on your power'
A thunderous snort echoed through his mind One of these days you will realize power is the only thing that counts in this world, and you will come begging to me!
Naruto barked a short laugh 'Never' before he stopped pulling on Kyuubi's power and settled down, it would take a while before the connection closed again. And the last thing he wanted was getting caught talking to the beast. Despite being the evidence they weren't the same as Konoha seemed to think.
A deep growl emanated from Kyuubi You are just like my previous hosts. Never using my power unless I force it upon you.
Naruto startled in surprise, usually his shorts conversations over the years was Kyuubi offering power, Naruto ignoring it and so forth, rarely breaching other subjects, unless it was advice that Naruto had to admit kept him safe, like playing ignorant about being Kyuubi's host in the first place until Mizuki conveniently revealed it to him.
Losing himself in the recent memories, he remembered playing along with the obvious fake second exam after the normal one was so clearly sabotaged, he nicked the forbidden scroll, learned a neat jutsu from it, got Mizuki to reveal the so badly hidden secret about his jinchuriki status and got a dubious 'friendship' with Iruka, an original Kyuubi hater who admitted he was wrong.
Didn't mean the bastard did something with it, aside from giving some free ramen he never bothered making up for ignoring all the sabotage attempts.
Now that I think about the beast went on, ignorant of Naruto's moment of introspective Your family name is Uzumaki isn't it?
'Yes, what about it?' Naruto responded in his thoughts, still unsure when Kyuubi was going.
Hrmph, my previous host Uzumaki Kushina was a fiery, loud woman with an unhealthy love for that slop you call ramen. Heh, you could be her son. The fox spoke carelessly.
Excited he might learn something about his family, Naruto drew a tiniest sliver of Kyuubi's power to keep the link open. 'What happened to her?!'
She is dead the beast spoke bluntly, taking delight in Naruto's deflated expression. Deciding to elaborate No host survives the extraction of the tailed beast.
Naruto tsked in disappointment, trust Kyuubi to ruin something positive into something horrible. Still, he trusted the enormous being of chakra more than he did to anyone else, so far the fox stayed true to his promise to only speak the truth as it knew it.
Still… you are probably her son, crazy woman was birthing a child shortly before I was released.
Naruto sighed. 'Well atleast I know my mother's name now.' The beast already having told him about the events as far as it knew to him.
Stopping the draw of power, Naruto mediated until he felt that presence disappear from the back of his mind while formulating a decent response to give to the old lying man Hokage about the power he got from Kyuubi when things became too sticky for the beasts opinion.
Satisfied he could talk his way out of it should the old man get suspicious, Naruto headed back to Tsunami's house.
Ignoring the obvious biased debriefing in front of the Hokage. Naruto barely held in a snicker as the last two sharingan users in Konoha embellished their efforts. 'Oh the irony when I tell them that the reason Kyuubi attacked Konoha was that damn pinky eye.' Naruto thought as Sasuke showed off his eyes, while Sakura squealed in delight and Kakashi nodded in pride.
Afterwards Naruto spun a convincing story how Sasuke's knockout by Haku's needles convinced him he died as the duckbutt haired bastard tried to hide behind him pushed him into a rage that caused him to go berserk on Haku.
That Naruto was in full control was something the Hokage and Kakashi did not need to know.
Both the old monkey and the copycat bought the story. And reminded him not to depend on the power of the dangerous fox, because he could hurt his friends and allies. 'Like I have that many' Naruto snorted to himself.
As Naruto was dismissed, he heard Hiruzen remind Kakashi about the Chuunin exam's, freezing Naruto's blood ice-cold as he stiffly kept walking. 'No way the 'team' is ready for that. Dammit, that single pinkeye will sign us up for the duel pinky eyes.' Naruto ranted to himself.
Naruto was fairly aware what the chuunin exams contained, having paid attention to the contestants around 3 years ago when they happened in Konoha. Still, he needed advice and quickly made his way to the hospital to find his longtime friend Kabuto.
Sneaking his way past the inattentive chuunin guards, he soon made his way to the break room, hoping Kabuto would still be having dinner before he started his evening shift.
Lady luck was once again on his side, and he saw the grey haired boy cleaning up the dishes behind himself. "Hey Kabuto!" Naruto hollered carelessly through the room. Kabuto sighed and turned around to face the blond boy. "Naruto-kun" he spoke, his voice soft "What did I say about your manners?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Sorry, Good afternoon Kabuto-san" he recited. Kabuto chuckled in response "You will learn one day Naruto-kun, why did you come here?" "The Chuunin examns are coming up, and I am sure Cyclops will sign us up." Kabuto nodded, agreeing with his logic. "I don't think the team is ready. Me and duckbutt.." the nickname got a disapproving look from Kabuto ".. might be strong enough, but the stupid thing is a team efford, which we clearly aren't."
Kabuto frowned, he was under orders to convince the entire team to participate. "Don't worry too much Naruto-kun, the final part is nearly always an individual showcasing of skills, judged by chuunin and jonin."
Kabuto's words had the opposite effect than he intended, and Naruto deflated further. "I might as well not bother. It's not like they'll promote the 'demon boy'. No use risking my life just to get duckbutt promoted." Kabuto withheld an improper word, wishing he could smack himself for making such a mistake, taking another tack. He sighed in agreement. "That might be true Naruto-kun, but think about the trouble you will get into if you don't show up."
"Heh, like that pinky eyed Cyclops trains me." Naruto complained, but before Kabuto could respond "But you are right, as always. Thanks for the help as always Kabuto." Remembering Kabuto's efforts to teach him manners, he bowed slightly. Kabuto beamed that his lifelong efforts finally had some results. Before coming back to earth and remembering his mission. "Naruto-kun, whatever happens, keep an open mind." He spoke, before turning back to his dishes, ignoring the confused look Naruto shot him.
Knowing Kabuto could be cryptic time from time, he decided to remember the advice, and quickly snuck out of the hospital.
As the starting date of the chuunin exams approached, Naruto slowly gained the hope Kakashi showed up late to whatever registration was supposed to happen, and the 'team' would not participate.
Of course, in typical Kakashi fashion, on the day before it started, he appeared with forms in his hand, cheerfully informing the team to fill them in and appear at room 301 the next day. Before disappearing again, leaving the group who waited for 3 hours just to receive some forms.
Predictably, Sasuke stormed off, intent to train. Followed quickly by his pink haired groupie. Leaving Naruto behind on the field. Who looked at the form like it was a death sentence.
"What to do" He started to mumble to himself, replaying Kabuto's advice in his head. Lost in thought, he did not sense a person approaching him.
"Era era, Thinking about the chuunin exams?" a female voice called out, shocking Naruto out of his thoughts, whirling about, he saw a bright red-headed woman with blue eyes with black pupils that had a slit in them. Despite her long hair, she wore plain grey garbs with a jounin vest. Indicating her rank, her headband a musical note on it.
"Uh.. yes, yes I am…I am not sure if I should take them.." Naruto hastily answers, still distracted by the, in his opinion, beautiful hair.
"And why would you not? You should be strong enough" Seeing Naruto's frown at the question "Surely Konoha trained its jinchūriki well." The woman drawled on carelessly.
Naruto, shocked, took a step back. "Who are you, how did you know?"
The woman laughed "Why Naruto-chan, nearly everybody in Konoha knows about the little fox inside you, surely you didn't think the rest of the world would not pick that up? As for my name… Kensaku Oto, jounin of the genin team from Oto."
Naruto felt like banging his head against a rock for the first part. 'Like I need an even bigger target on my back. Hello World, I am the container of the nine tailed evil fox of doom' he thought sarcastically. At the second part he narrowed his eyes at the obvious alias.
"Well, what do you want?" he asked rudely. Still unnerved about his secret known to the rest of the world.
"Era era, I bring a message from your mother" the woman replied. "My mother is dead" Naruto interrupted. "Era, you know who your parents are?" the woman asked surprised. Naruto was silent for a moment, weighing his curiosity for this supposed 'message' against giving away information, he decided to play safe. "Only my mother's name, and that she could not survive the night I was born."
She slightly tilted her head, processing his response before a slight smile made it to her face. "Era, of course you'd think she didn't survive the extraction of the beast." Smiling further when Naruto took another step back in surprise, his eyes the size of saucer plates. "Clearly you haven't been told about your clans bloodline limit ne?"
"Clan? Bloodline limit?!" Naruto sputtered out. 'How much did that damn fossil lie to me about?!'
"Era era, not even told about your clan?" she laughed "Haven't you heard in class or looked in the library?"
Naruto's face crunched in concentration. "No.. I never heard of it, and I did read most of the books about clans…" '…Mostly so that I know who or what I could face since nobody would teach or help me, damn fox does have good ideas time from time.'
The woman chuckled again "Era era, they really didn't tell you anything did they? Well, your mother is alive, she misses you and she will come to get you soon."
Naruto scowled "And why would she wait, Oh I don't know, 13 years?"
The humor from the woman's face disappeared. "She survived that terrible night, you were stolen from her arms by the fourth Hokage to be used for the sealing. She was kidnapped and sold away that same night. The people responsible are very important in Konoha, by the time she awoke she was far to weakened to do anything."
Naruto was taken aback by the venom in the woman's voice, but soon softened "She truly wanted you Naruto-chan, and never wanted to burden you with the Kyuubi. It is well known jinchūriki are poorly treated." She looked away, as if hearing something far away. "I have to go" she said abruptly.
"Wait.. where is she, what about my clan, who is my father?!" Naruto wanted to shoot more questions, but the woman already disappeared behind the trees. Naruto quickly ran to follow her, but she was gone.
"Make it far enough in the chuunin exams and I will answer some questions Naruto-chan"
Looking around to spot the voice, Naruto groaned in disappointment, wondering why the woman suddenly left.
His answer came twenty seconds later, as Kakashi suddenly poofed in near Naruto.
"Naruto" he spoke coldly.
"Hatake" Naruto replied evenly cold.
"I do hope you are considering to participate in the exams."
"Don't worry Hatake, I found my reasons too"
"And what might those reasons be?"
"None of your damn business" Naruto snarled
Kakashi narrowed his single eye at Naruto, clearly considering to use force to get the reason out of the boy. But he relented. "I see you tomorrow Naruto"
"Whatever" Naruto replied, still deep in thought about what the woman said.
'So I have a clan, a bloodline… I still don't know for sure who my mother is, who supposedly is kidnapped by somebody from Konoha and sold off. And I don't have a clue who my father is, and what happened to him. And apparently people in Konoha should know all of this… and that woman.'
AN:
Von Kreuz: As described, I am inspired by this story. I will follow Vanex roughly for the first few chapters with a few changes/branches. But as the story progresses, these changes will cause the story to (hopefully) branch into its own.
PS: Review motivated me to post this chapter, who knows, perhaps chapter 3 is also already done.. kukuku.