(A/N) – And so the story truly begins, with the return of Naruto in Konoha society. I felt the desire to represent one of the most underused characters in Naruto fanfiction, the pig Tonton, mostly on a whim. Thanks goes out to Mylo and Telepopmusik for getting me through the initial writing of this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in the series. This story is not endorsed by the people who do.
Chapter 1 : Remigrare
Two pairs of eyes, one blue and one green, peered out from behind a bush at the chuunin who was currently on guard duty for the gate into Konoha.
"Alright short stuff, think of this as your first undertaking for the good of Konoha. You'll need your top game for this B-class mission, you understand me?" Naruto turned to his young companion with as serious a face as he could muster.
The young boy snapped to attention behind the bush. "Affirmative!"
Again, the imitation skills of the Third came in handy. "As Konoha has been missing the presence of myself over the past five years, I fear for the security of the village. With no one around with my...outstanding qualifications..., I believe the skill of the guards may have depreciated. A good guard must always be on its toes, ready for any surprise. We will infiltrate Konoha, all the way to the Hokage, as a test of their current capacity." As Naruto saw the serious, yet eager, look on his companion's face, it was hard not to burst out into laughter. "Your job, since your identity is not yet known in this village, will be to act as a decoy, allowing me to gain entrance. Once inside, you must gain access to the Hokage of Konoha, which from this moment on will act as the rendezvous point. This mission will include contact with ninjas at least of chuunin rank, and possibly even jounin. Are you willing to accept this mission for the wellbeing of our future nation?"
"You can count on me sir!" Perhaps he had gone too far, he almost felt guilty tricking the kid into a prank like this. Almost.
Jiraiya had made sure Naruto had gained at least some leadership training over the years, even so far as to get him involved in some politics during their extended stay in Rock. While he knew that he hadn't been taught these skills for such a trivial reason, the results of this endeavor would be well worth any nagging feelings of guilt.
"I knew that you had what it takes. Make me proud son." With that said he ruffled the boy's hair and moved back further into the woods. It was going to be a little tricky to sneak around, but certain abilties given to him by a perverted hermit had more uses than just not being seen while peeping.
Naruto watched as the younger blond approached the gates, wailing and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. 'Good thinking kid, you're a natural at this.' He got a good chuckle as the chuunin caught sight of him; the poor kid had no idea how to handle the situation.
"Uhh...kid...you okay over there?" The blond played the part perfectly; as soon as the chuunin called out to him, the crying increased and he sat down right in the middle of the road. This forced the chuunin to move out, allowing Naruto to sneak right up to the gates undetected.
"My momma...she's...she's..." Naruto had no idea how the boy managed to sob even louder. The chuunin was panicking at this point; ninja training unfortunately lacks any information on how to deal with an upset child.
"Umm, it's ... ok, yeah that's right, everything is gonna be ok. Here get up and I'll bring you inside and see if we can get you some help kid. " He helped the blond boy up onto his feet, and immediately tugged on his hand back towards the gates.
"What's your name kid?" Apparently this chuunin had at least some experience with younger children as he knew one of the most important rules; distractions are key in controlling the normal, volatile youngster. Naruto just hoped this kid wouldn't get distracted from the mission at hand.
" sniff Its Kenichi, Pengaki Kenichi. " The younger child wiped his eyes as he followed the chuunin up to the gate. The ninja was so worried about dealing with his current situation, he failed to notice as Naruto hid himself as a small frog doll attached to the boys backpack.
"Kenichi-chan is it? We'll have you help in no time. Just head with me and we'll see what we can do." The boy nodded slightly, his eyes still tearing up.
The two walked through the streets of Konoha, heading towards the Hokage tower. The first kink in the mission appeared as Kenichi's eyes lit up at the appearance of a shop that served dango. Naruto's time as an amphibious plushie was to be extended.
'I swear, that boy's love of dango will be the end of me.'
Tonton the pig was having one of the worst days of her life.
It had all started this morning with with the loud groan of the current Hokage of Konoha. Tonton's bed was located in the Hokage's office, as this was usually where she spent her days, and it allowed her easy access to the women who gave her affection. An unfortunate outcome of this situation occurred on the mornings after the Hokage had "worked" late into the night, leaving Tonton in the difficult situation of dealing with an extremely powerful, hungover ninja who had spent her entire night asleep at the desk. This morning had been one of those mornings.
However much Tonton loved Tsunade, she had to admit the woman could be scary as hell when hungover. The normally attentive and caring Tsunade she knew was replaced by a grumpy, absent-minded zombie, whose only goal in life was the removal of her own pain. Tonton had to literally jump out of her bed to avoid being stepped on, as the Hokage rummaged through the shelfs above the pig looking for some medicine. Needless to say, after five minutes of weaving and dodging the moaning monstrosity, she was left alone in the office, forgotten and hungry.
The obvious decision in this case was for Tonton to take matters into her own hands. This included going out into the waiting lobby to see if there were any people nice enough to give her some food. Even if it was a bit embarrassing, Tonton would admit as a pig she was willing to eat pretty much anything.
This plan would have worked well, as it had done before, if not for one thing. In between Tonton and the life-sustaining material she so badly desired stood one thing, an obstacle to even the most respected of pigs: a door. Tsunade, apparently, was able to remember to shut doors behind her, but no to feed her own pig companion.
30 grueling minutes later, the door was opened by the mail boy, dropping off the first load of paperwork, and the starving pig was able to use her final bit of energy to dash out into the lobby. The rest of the morning preceded fairly well, with Tonton managing to sneak some of a bagel away from the lady who worked at the front desk.
With her hunger satisfied for the time being, Tonton returned to the office to proceed to her job of stress reliever for the day only to find that Tsunade was visibly excited about something, walking out of the office smiling with a letter firmly grasped in her hand. Tonton, for the second time, had been completely forgotten.
This was where the day took a turn from unusually bad to downright horrible. A young blond boy, dango in hand, had been escorted into the lobby by a chuunin, and took a seat to wait for an audience. Tonton had never seen this boy before, but felt oddly comfortable around him, as her logic put everyone who liked dango in the list of trustworthy people. Never had she been more wrong.
As the boy caught sight of her, an odd feeling of deja vu washed over the pig, as his wide grin and scheming glint seemed all too familiar. The chuunin escorting the boy was currently explaining the situation to the lady at the front desk, and the boy bent over and made a beckoning gesture directed at the pig. Tonton accepted, and soon found herself being lifted into the boys lap and offered one of his dango. Excited she had made the right choice, the pig completely focused her attention on consuming the delicious treat. She was oblivious to the boy as he pulled one of his many paint brushes from his pocket, and ignorantly thought he was showing her affection through petting as he used brush the express his creativity with her body as the canvas.
The gravity of the situation hit Tonton as the brush ran over her face, finishing the boy's masterpiece. She immediately jumped down and ran from the boy's laughter, squealing all the way out of the room.
And now, here she stood in front of a mirror, trying to figure out what the boy had done. A mustache had been drawn across her snout, and glasses across her face, sealing the image she knew to be stereotypical of such a prank. She was extremely confused by the strange runes written across her side though, as Tonton had never been taught to read. She let out a pig-like sigh though her snout; she would never know that the scribbles spelt out, "Free Bacon."
Three dango stops later, Naruto was finally closing in on his goal, and the chuunin escort was closing in on an empty wallet.
He had almost lost his henge as he saw his son abuse his artistic skill on Tonton. Why had he never thought of that? This boy had a bright future ahead of him.
As the doors to Tsunade's office creaked open, Naruto detached himself from the boy's backpack, and was able to keep out of sight with a slight alteration of the jutsu, waiting for the right moment to appear.
"Hokage-sama, I'm sorry to bring such a trivial matter to your attention, but the boy requested this matter be brought to you once we arrived at the tower."
"Thank you Goro-san. You may leave while I talk to the young man." Same baa-chan – straight to business.
As the door clinked shut, Tsunade brought her attention to the boy.
"Now boy, what is your name and what can I help you with today?" Naruto slowly snuck around the edge of the room, silently positioning himself behind the Hokage. With a glance at Kenichi, he knew he didn't have much time; the boy had never been able to handle himself well around positions of high authority due to his past.
"Uhh, M-my name is Pengaki Kenichi...and...uhh..."
"Of the Pengaki clan of the Rock? What brings you all the way out here to Konoha by yourself?" The strong glare of the Hokage was overbearing to the boy. Naruto would need to act soon.
"Y-yes, and well... I ... uh..." The poor boy was sweating bullets.
Now or never.
With a giant poof of smoke, the current Hokage of Konoha found herself in a very dangerous situation. An unknown assailant was positioned behind her, with a kunai pressed against her throat.
"My my, getting sloppy in your old age are we? Maybe you should spend less time scaring the shit out of young children and more time keeping Konoha secure, eh Tsunade-baachan?"
The eyes of the legendary sannin went wide at the name she had just been called.
"Hahaha, baa-chan you should of seen your face. It was priceless."
Needless to say, Tsunade had been pissed. To think that this boy found threatening the Hokage of his own village amusing. After a complicated explanation to the ANBU who had arrived, Tsunade found herself with a young man and a small boy in her office, and even though they may have caused a few problems, she was happy to see them.
The young man was very different than she remembered him, but this was to be expected after five years of seperation. Although still recognizable at the blond prankster, he stood before her well matured, his 6 ft height a testament to that. His blond hair had stayed unruly, although he had let it grow out and kept it in a ponytail, so that it mirrored his perverted sensei's own hair. He had followed his sensei in another manner as well, giving himself red face markings by painting over his whisker marks, she assumed so that they could be passed off as simply facial tattoos.
His face had become well defined, as all young men's faces do in time, and he had finally ditched his orange jacket for slightly more respectable clothing, now dressed in a dark red long sleeve shirt, with a black ninja vest worn on top. He had removed the left sleeve of the shirt, as his left arm was completely wrapped in bandages up to his hand. Strange glyphs were written across the bandages, most of them unknown to the Hokage, but the ones she recognized scared her a little bit; they were wards used to seal off evil.
He wore black, fingerless gloves with a metal plate across the knuckle, clearly intended for combat use. Another shocking revelation came to her as she realized he had three medium-sized, clay pots strapped to his right hip, the kanji for sake written across each one. She would have to kill Jiraiya later; he was 17 for god's sake. She also noticed the ends of several brushes poking out from inside his kunai holster strapped to his black pants.
All of her questions would have to wait for now, until the situation with the young child who also shared the room could be resolved. He was around 7 or 8 she guessed, wearing a dark green shirt with what she assumed to be his clan symbol, and a pair of khaki shorts.
She let out a sigh. "I know you enjoyed the prank Naruto, there's no need to remind me. I just received the letter from Jiraiya today stating that you would be heading back, but where is the old pervert?"
"He had some last minute business with our publisher, so he took a detour on the way back to deal with it."
"OUR publisher?" Naruto broke out a wide grin and nervously scratched the back of his head.
"Hehe, well you see it's a long story, and that can wait until another day. The matter at hand is why I'm here right now." Able to avoid topics he didn't want to talk about; Tsunade was impressed. He was closer to his goal than she would have thought. "Last month we had a small run in with Itachi and Kisame, and it seems they have their hands full for the time being. While they were trying to capture me, the other Uchiha made a surprise appearance, and now they have their hands full enough trying to deal with him and his posse. Ero-sennin and I agreed that this is as safe as it gets for now, and decided to make a return trip to Konoha in order to deal with a few matters." Tsunade noticed Naruto's glance at the boy and figured she would learn the details of these "matters" later when he was not around.
"Well in any case, I'm glad to see you're back brat. Your contract with your apartment was lost while you were gone, but I had your stuff put into storage for safe keeping. I'll set you two up with a hotel room until we can find a more permanent solution. I expect you back here later tonight Naruto for a more detailed report, but you two should rest up for now." 'Plus this way he won't notice I'm completely unprepared for his return.'
"Hai, I'll see you then baa-chan."
The two blonds stood up to leave, the younger of the two obviously excited to get out of the current situation.
"Oh and Naruto..."
"Yes?"
"You better have a good reason for being the successor of Jiraiya's perverted legacy." With a slight chuckle Naruto shut the door behind him.
(A/N) This turned out a bit longer than I originally intended, but I needed to give a good description of the new Naruto and his companion. Hopefully you were able to pick up on his personality changes, although he still kept his love of mischief. The boy follows after his father, but I wanted to show he is his own person with his own troubled past (to be revealed later). Tell me what you think of this chapter, and if you contacted me about becoming a pre-reader I'll get in touch with you before the next chapter. Reviews are appreciated – the more you tell me, the better this story will be in the end.
