Disclaimer: If you recognize it from official releases, it isn't in my possession.
Chapter starts off a wee bit angsty and emotional, but it clears up within a few hundred words. I don't like writing angst, having had enough of it during my pre- and early teens.
Version 2.
Child of the Fox
Kushina blew gently on her son's whisker marks while humming old soothing tunes from Uzushio. She giggled lightly when he tried to lean into the gentle stream of air and met the resistance of the tails she had wrapped around him, letting out a soft whine when he was barred from moving closer to the source of the air lapping at his whisker marks.
She'd missed out on holding him for the past twelve years, she was going to take every opportunity she had to make up for lost time. It took a few minutes for her son to recover from the shock of learning the Kyūbi was his mother, and soon his eyes cracked open once more. When they had fully opened they fixated on her face, as if he was trying to burn it into his memory.
"So you were real," he said with no small amount of awe in his voice. "I thought I dreamt you."
Her heart broke upon hearing his words. She'd witnessed most of his life until now and had cried herself to sleep more than once that she couldn't be there to hold him. "I am real, musuko-kun," she said, trying to reassure her kit, her precious, precious kit that she was here, that she was going to stay, and that she was going to stay for a long, long time.
"Why did you not talk to me earlier, why wait until now?" he said, his voice filled with doubt, self-loathing, and something more that she didn't want to identify. The few emotions she could readily identify hit hard, so she didn't want to dig deeper into his current mental state.
"Because, musuko-kun," she replied in as strong a voice as she could muster at the moment. "Your mind is a veritable bastion. I was able to see and hear all of it because of the seal, but communicating to you was nearly impossible because you weren't aware of me, except in very short bursts that required me to recover for a while." She could feel tears drop from her eyes. It was rather undignified for someone of her station, but right now she didn't care. "I had to sleep for a year to recover from the two messages I sent to you when you were eight."
Naruto nodded numbly, tightening his grip on his mother to almost painful levels.
Slowly, reluctantly, Kushina steeled herself for the information she was about to impart. "Right now, there are two things you must be aware of before you wake up."
Naruto looked up at his mother's face and tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"As much as it pains me to say, you're not out of the woods yet. There are consequences to being my son," she said, and she could see Naruto responding with a curious mixture of dread and despair filling his eyes. "There are rather a few people, mostly Inu and Ōkami oni, who will want your head so that they can hurt me. There are also a number of humans on that list, but that's not because you're the offspring of the Kyūbi, but because you are my container.
"Secondly, being my son means that you're a Hanyō, or half-demon. Specifically, as I am a Daiyōkai, you are a Daihanyō. What that exactly entails for you, we will discuss later. For now, suffice to say that I placed a seal on you shortly after you were born to suppress your demonic blood until you were ready to learn how to control it. However, I had not counted on this seal," she spread her arms around to indicate the seal they were currently inside of, "to be added to you, and definitely did not expect the seal to be designed so that my power would slowly bleed into your own and be only partially transformed into chakra. This has caused your suppressed demonic blood to destabilize, with potentially catastrophic results. I will be removing that tomorrow."
Naruto raised his eyebrows and gulped.
"Third, I have a home on the outskirts of the village. I was intending to raise you there, but events twelve years ago decided otherwise. It's isolated and the perfect place for you to train."
"Home?" Naruto mumbled numbly, but with traces of hope in his voice. The hope of an orphan that he was wanted all along, that there is someone out there that cares for him, and the hope for a better – brighter – future. She'd heard similar tones from other orphans.
"But as of this moment, you need to go catch some z's. That is, sleep," she added upon seeing her son's confused expression. "You have a long day ahead of you."
Naruto nodded, and tightened his grip on his mother's body once again. Nestled in the comforting warmth of her arms and tails, he soon found himself unable to keep his eyes open. He fell asleep with a content smile on his face, not dissimilar to the ones she had felt on his face when Kurenai had tucked Naruto in at night, but different in a way she couldn't really place.
– – – –
Naruto awoke to the bright morning light with a yawn and a slight headache. Last night had been crazy. He was the son of the freaking Kyūbi no Kitsune! He wasn't entirely sure if he liked the idea of releasing the seal holding back his demonic heritage, though, despite the ominous sound of 'potentially catastrophic results'.
'It's going to have to be done, kit,' his mother said without so much as a 'good morning'. 'If it's not released you'll go on a rampage, killing all in sight and then going hunting for more.'
Naruto paled. That sounded so very much worse than whatever the villagers would do if he showed up with, say, fox ears. He gulped and tried to steel himself. Perhaps releasing the seal wouldn't be all that bad?
He could only hope.
'Kaa-chan, should I speak to jiji about you?' he inquired curiously. The man who was his grandfather in all but blood had seemed very sad when he spoke of his mother. The fact that he could help Naruto navigate the murky waters of village politics and subtly prepare the village for the day his heritage came to light was naught but a far-off consideration to his mind.
'Might as well. Only four people knew about what I am, and it appears that two of those are now dead, and one of them is so rarely in the village it doesn't matter,' his mother replied with an unseen nod. 'The last is so doggedly loyal that she'd literally die before speaking of it without my permission. Having the Hokage knowledgeable would be to our benefit.'
'I'll go visit him later then,' he said. 'Now, where did you say that the house was?'
'At the outskirts of the village. Make your way to training ground 43, and stand near the waterfall. Leave a note for Kurenai that says something about secluded training. Do not, for now, include anything about me.'
'Why not?'
'She used to be on my genin team when I was a jōnin-sensei. She deserves an explanation in person, but I'm going to be selfish and claim bonding time between the two of us, and only the two of us. There are also some things that you need to be trained in, and it's probably going to take the whole fortnight to get them down.'
Naruto nodded to show he had understood, but decided that he would first pay Ichiraku's a visit. Something told him that his ramen intake was about to be drastically reduced even further than Kurenai-nee did so he was going to make the most of what little time he had left to fully gorge himself on the divine food.
– –
Inside the seal, Kushina followed his train of thought and shook her head. Of course he was going to have his ramen intake reduced; she was fully intending to make him follow a proper nutritional diet. Kurenai had fixed a lot of the issues, but as a half-Kitsune, and an Uzumaki to boot, he had some specific dietary needs that weren't met by following a purely human one. It would fix his stature and weight issues in time, but for now she merely opened a link to share senses with his taste buds to taste the divine food, silently thanking Minato for creating the seal in such a way that this was possible. Ramen was the favourite food of kitsune both male and female for a very simple reason; it worked similar to a mild aphrodisiac and euphoriac. Enough to get horny and happy, not enough to jump any random attractive individual and become overly exuberant.
There was a reason the phrase 'Ramen is Inari-sama's gift to all of Creation' got started, and that reason was disguised Kitsune not watching their tongues.
– –
Naruto screeched to a halt in front of the stand and froze. This can't be, can it? He asked himself, desperately wishing that this was an illusion. He put his hands in a Ram seal and swiftly pulsed his chakra in the way that Iruka-sensei said would disrupt genjutsu. A wave of chakra, similar in size and scope to the pulse he sent in his desperation four years earlier washed over the stand – and half the village – but nothing changed. That meant it had to be real. But, why? Why would the Gods Above pull such a horrible trick on him? Was it Karma, finally catching up with the backlog from all the pranking that not even Kurenai-nee could put a hold to? Was this Inari-sama's idea of a prank?
With a grumbling stomach, he fell to his knees. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled out to the heavens, arms raised as if pleading for the gods to change this catastrophe. "WHY?!" he cried out as his eyes once again locked onto the sign taped to the very familiar curtain of the Ichiraku Ramen stand.
'Ichiraku Ramen is closed due to illness.'
His heart broken from the absence of the Heavenly Noodles, he slowly stood up and shambled towards training ground 43.
– – – –
'So here I am, okaa-chan. Training ground 43.' Naruto looked at the twenty-metre high waterfall five metres away, a feature he was sure wasn't natural for this part of Hi no Kuni, and wondered what relation it had to the mentioned house.
'Indeed you are, musuko-kun,' his mother replied. 'Now, the house is behind the waterfall. You don't yet know how to water walk, but the bottom is free of rocks so you can swim.'
Naruto nodded and started stripping. 'Random question, kaa-chan, why are the stories all about female kitsune? Why never the males?'
'Random indeed,' his mother said. 'The reason for that is actually very simple; male kitsune are rare. For every six female kitsune born, there is one male on average, though it's not entirely uncommon to have a litter with twelve females and no males. As a result, male kitsune are usually hoarded within kitsune territory, and them having a half-dozen to a dozen mates is the norm. Partly because of this, several human social taboos do not apply, particularly those relating to incest. My father, for example, is also my uncle, and his father is also his grandfather and great-grandfather.'
'Truly?' Naruto asked as he removed the last of his clothing. Perhaps that was the reason why the concept of incest didn't bother him as much as it did his classmates when Iruka-sensei talked about it during their lessons on genetics?
'Truly,' his mother confirmed. 'It helps that we kitsune, like all demons, do not suffer from genetic degradation as a result of parent-child unions, which is the reason the incest taboo got started among humans in the first place.'
Naruto dove into the water – with a brief mental thank-you to Kurenai-nee for teaching him how to swim – and struggled to make his way past the waterfall, trying to distract himself from the images that had popped up from the short conversation, most of them typical teenage fantasies. He wasn't a particularly good swimmer, nor was his upper body strength very good – outrunning ANNBU after a prank required only leg power after all was said and done – so it took him a while, but he eventually reached the rocky dock-like structure behind the waterfall with a successful side-objective; he hadn't thought about his mother's supremely beautiful naked body draped over his own, her sweaty skin glistening beneath the pale moonli...
Inari-sama damn it! He'd almost made it to the other end, too! Curse you hormones!
He clambered up to the sort-of dry rockface, and his eyes widened as he took in the sight before him with a gasp that wasn'trelated to his earlier activity. A truly humongous garden was laid out before him, with plants so exotic he was sure Ino would have entered and not come out for decades, unless forced. Despite being a cave, it was well-illuminated with what appeared to be natural light.
'Some of my finest work; light-transmission seals. They're two linked seals and if you shine a light on one it appears out the other end, but not the other way around. I wanted to perfect them so that one collector seal could be used to transmit light to more than one emitter seal, but I didn't have the time to do so before I was sealed inside you.'
'I will want that story sometime, kaa-chan,' Naruto said as he walked along the designated path and drank in the ambience of the garden.
'And you will get it, Naruto-kun,' she replied firmly. 'But not today, we have a lot to do.'
Naruto's reply was stuck in his throat as he saw a house among the flowers, approximately fifty metres from his position. It was built in the traditional Japanese style common to the Elemental Nations, all wood and traditional shogi doors.
'Welcome home, my son,' Kushina said fondly.
A strange warmth spread throughout Naruto's body. His apartment had never felt like a home, just a place he'd lived. Yet, he had not even set foot in this place and he already felt relaxed, completely and utterly at ease with the world and himself, a feeling entirely foreign to him.
A small smile, full of hope for the future, spread across his face.
– – – – Two Weeks Later – – – –
Umino Iruka whistled a jaunty tune as he walked into the classroom where the recent graduates had assembled carrying naught but a single file. Or rather, a single sheet of paper. Team assignments only required the team number, genin names, and their jōnin instructor, all of which usually fit on a single line. They'd need dozens of teams to even start to require a second sheet. However, it was not the lack of files that had Iruka in such a good mood today, though less paperwork usually made any administrator happy.
Today was the last day he'd have to be stuck with the Twin Banshees, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura. Ino on her own was acceptable, and showed a maturity not often found in children so young, though he suspected that her clan, which specialised in the mind and the manipulation thereof, helped with that.
Put her together with Haruno Sakura and he wasn't sure his eardrums would survive any given day at the Academy, however. He personally suspected it was only partly from actual affection towards Sasuke-san, and part ingratiating her with the civilian side of the gossip fence. As most ninja, but especially the Yamanaka, knew, gossip was powerful. Out-of-town merchants took gossip with them to other villages – and vice versa, of course –, which sometimes paid a premium for rumours. Civilians on holiday spread gossip around the Nations, and many decisions were made from the gossip, after intelligence analysts boiled the rumours down to what was the likely core truth. For this reason, the gossip networks – and their kings and queens – were very important to any Hidden Village and were closely monitored. It could of course be from genuine fangirlism, but he didn't think the Yamanaka Patriach, Inoichi, would allow his daughter to be a True Fangirl for very long.
Haruno Sakura, on the other hand, was completely and unequivocally a True Fangirl, as was most of the Uchiha Sasuke Fanclub. Loud, shrill, and utterly devoted to gaining 'their sasuke-kun's' affection. His heart went out to the kid, it truly did. No one deserved a gaggle of fangirls. He'd had half a mind to ask Mitarashi Anko – who had a near-perfect track record of breaking the 'fan' out of 'fangirl' – but decided that all he'd do was recommend her services to whatever jōnin-sensei ended up with Sakura-san on their squad. It wasn't worth the paperwork introducing Anko to the class would inevitably cause, and the other civilian girls were unlikely to be accepted into the elite program under a jōnin-sensei.
Placing the single sheet of paper of the desk, he surreptitiously put his hands in his favourite handseal, a modified Reverse Ram. The Akuma Kokubi no Jutsu was created for the sole purpose of shutting up children that wouldn't ordinarily do so. The other teachers had begged him to teach them the jutsu after seeing its effect, and they looked so desperate that he had complied with little argument. He had learned two months later that someone had apparently leaked the jutsu out of Konoha, because he got a thank-you card from an Iwa Academy teacher two years ago, expressing their undying gratitude for his invention of the jutsu.
After it had been thoroughly checked for traps, of course. It was Iwa, after all.
"SHUT UP!" he roared, head enlarged to six or seven times its usual size with complementary red skin and vicious horns. Within a single second, the class was silent and he dismissed the jutsu.
"Congratulations," he said simply when he was sure no one would start talking. "All of you gathered here have proven yourself worthy of joining the shinobi force of Konohagakure no Sato."
Before he could continue, the door creaked open. The light of the hallway illuminated the figure of a child that Iruka had not personally seen since he visited his bed a week ago. His shoulder-length red and blond hair was still shoulder-length – though far spikier than it had been seven days previous –, his eyes were still that brilliant amethyst-ish shade of blue, and he had abandoned his orange tracksuit for a pants-shirt-geta ensemble featuring primarily red, black, and white.
A long sheath was held diagonally across his back, appearing approximately four and a half shaku in length. The only thing that stood out about the katana was the rather unique cross-guard; a bronze four-point star that went well with the lighter blue hilt and darker blue sheath.
The entire look was completed by the three whisker marks adorning each cheek and the Konoha hitae-ate worn like a choker.
A sheepish expression appeared on the child's face after his eyes saw that the unofficial ceremony was already underway. "Sorry I'm late," he said.
"It's fine, Naruto," he assured him. "I've literally just congratulated everyone on making it this far before you came in. Take a seat," he finished with a hand extended into the classroom.
"Wait," a voice spoke up, and most faces turned towards the speaker, one Haruno Sakura. "Didn't Naruto fail the exam?"
"His failing was staged so that we could make use of his pariah status to catch a traitor," Iruka explained patiently, causing eyes everywhere to widen in shock. "During the apprehension of said traitor, Naruto behaved like we expect Konoha shinobi to do and he gained a merit promotion to genin," Iruka continued, sending astonished gazes – plus one calculating one from Sasuke-san – toward the half-blond.
"With that bit of excitement over, let's continue," Iruka said with a clap of his hands to gather the attention of the class.
"You have graduated from the Academy. Four years of learning are past you, but your ninja path is only just starting, and it'll only get more difficult from here. You have earned the rank of genin, but this is only the first step, and the easiest one.
"I am proud of all of you, and wish you the best of luck on your continued journey through the marshes of what we call life. If there is only one thing you remember from your time at the Academy, let it be this:
"You are now Konoha shinobi, the pride of the Hidden Leaf, the oldest and strongest of the Great Five. You are now representatives of the village, and you are allowed to take pride in that fact, as long as that pride doesn't go to your head."
Iruka's gaze swept across the enraptured faces of the genin in front of him, and wished that he could speak as well as this during the more traditionally boring courses, like history.
"Now then, as is tradition, you have been divided into teams of three under a prospective jōnin-sensei.
"Team 1, under jōnin Shiranui Genma, consisting of...
– –
"Team 7, under jōnin Hatake Kakashi, consisting of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke..." at this point Iruka made to protect his ears from Sakura's squeal. He wasn't fast enough.
"TRUE LOVE PREVAILS!" she shouted, deafening everyone in the classroom. Naruto and Kiba in particular, being in possession of heightened senses, were not appreciative of their classmate's volume and pitch, and both pitied the as-yet unannounced third member of team seven.
"... and Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka finished. Naruto turned a betrayed gaze toward the scarred teacher. Iruka responded with a shrug and an apologetic expression. "I don't make the teams, Naruto."
Naruto grumbled even as Kiba reached forward from the row behind him to pat him on the back. They may not always get along, but being on the same team as the Banshee Queen was not something either of the two wished on their worst enemy. He made eye contact with the dog-nin, trademark dog resting on his head, and nodded before turning back to face Iruka.
"Team 8, under jōnin Yūhi Kurenai, consisting of Aburame Shino, Hyūga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba.
"Team 9 is still in circulation from last year, so team 10, under jōnin Sarutobi Asuma will consist of Akimichi Chōji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino.
"Your sensei will be here after noon to pick you up, for now we will have a one hour recess, after which you will return here and be picked up by your sensei. Dismissed."
The majority of the class began to chat excitedly as they rose from their seats.
– – – –
The next four hours were spent in a variety of ways by the prospective teams. Teams 2, 8, and 10 decided to go for lunch to properly get to know each other as teams – though the latter were already familiar with one another, they weren't a team up to that point –, while teams 1, 3, 4, and 6 were already friendly with one another and went their separate ways for now.
Team 5 had a three-way mutual dislike relationship and spent the first hour sulking before meeting up with their sensei, who then proceeded to swiftly fail the team within half an hour. They didn't even make it through the introduction without fighting amongst themselves.
As for team seven... Sakrua spent a full hour trying to woo Sasuke, who proceeded to attempt to ignore her very existence, though if one looked closely they could see that his hand twitched in the general direction of his kunai pouch every once in a while.
The third member of team seven, on the other hand, was sitting in a lotus position, quietly reflecting on the happenings of the previous two weeks.
– – – – Two Weeks Ago – – – –
'Alright, first things first,' his mother said resolutely. 'I'll need a fair bit of your blood for this, about a half to three-quarter pint will do. I'll heal the cut when the required amount of blood is in the air. After that, I'll be giving you the images of a few handseals you have to perform.'
Naruto nodded hesitantly. Iruka-sensei had impressed upon them all the importance of blood; it could uniquely identify someone, it could be used to discern the secrets of your body if the examiner was skilled enough – very, very, few were but there were people out there that could –, and it could be used in sealing to bind a seal to your chakra signature. Summoning seals worked like that, but binding or caging seals infused with the blood of the bound or caged were almost impossible to break out of.
Spilling blood, let alone voluntarily spilling three-quarters of a pint of blood, was dangerous to a ninja. Nevertheless, he found himself a knife in the kitchen and proceeded to bleed all over the floor. While that was going on, images of handseals appeared in his mind's eye and he followed the sequence exactly.
"Onipō: Chishio Bunshin," he intoned at the end of the seal sequence. The spilled blood bubbled and rose into the air, using the chakra inherent in the blood and the chakra that he had just channelled through the handseals to multiply and take on a vaguely human shape.
Over the course of five minutes, the shape taken by the blood gained definition and started to coalesce into vein-like structures. When it had gained all the definition it could and nearly gave Naruto a nosebleed because it was very obviously a female form with tails that reminded him so very much of his mother's, there was a bright flash that forced him to close his eyes.
When the spots in his vision had cleared, he gingerly opened his still hurting eyes.
The next thing he knew was his head smashing into the wall from the force of his nosebleed. His mother, once again, stood naked before him.
– –
"Ara," Kushina said with a tilted head. "Such a good perverted little kit. Your sister is going to be overjoyed.
"Still," she added after a moment's pause. "He needs to get seduction resistance. Can't have a pretty female enemy shinobi flash him, knock him out, and then slit his throat, now can we?"
She knew that there would be, it was the number one reason why kunoichi dressed rather provocatively out in the field. There was a far greater chance to meet male nin on the opposing side than there was to meet a female nin, and a male nin that thought with his second head was one swiftly reduced to only one head. And not the one whose loss meant you could still live if you had medical attention swift enough. She sighed and steeled herself.
"I apologize, musuko-kun, but this is going to hurt," she said to the unconscious body of her son as she gathered chakra onto her fingertips.
She rammed her chakra coated fingertips into her son's stomach. "Akuma Heitei: Kai."
Red electricity raced across her son's skin as the seal suppressing his demonic blood evaporated into nothingness. She had initially wanted to remove this seal from the mental representation of Naruto's stomach last night, but she pushed it back to now because she was fairly certain there was only a fifty-fifty chance of the seal being removed from the Naruto's physical stomach as well, and she wasn't sure if she could live through watching this twice. Perhaps if she had been older, but as it was she was only slightly more than a century old and seeing her son convulse while unconscious from what must have been excruciating agony hurt.
Her trials were not without reward, though. Naruto's human ears were replaced with two vibrant red furry ones sticking up from his mop of blond hair and seven equally red tails with white tips sprouted from his tail bone.
"Ara," Kushina exclaimed in shock. "Twelve years old and seven tails already?" She whistled appreciatively. "And I didn't even feel the loss of that portion of my power. Minato-kun did such good work with this seal, however lamentable its necessity."
She watched as her son's short, spiky blond hair grew to his shoulders in much the same manner as his late father's. When it had stopped growing, however, she saw that approximately half of his hair changed colour from blond to red. It was a rather mesmerizing display, if Kushina was honest with herself. A quick inspection told her that the red and blond hairs alternated each other, rather than the left half of his hair remaining blond as she initially suspected it would.
After the transformation was finished and the red electricity had subsided, Naruto stilled once more.
It took another hour for him to wake, time she filled with planning a training regime for her son.
For now, she decided that going fully clothed was most beneficial to her son's education. She could work on seduction resistance later. With a thought and a mild application of chakra she was dressed in her usual attire; tight pants, shirt, metal-plated wooden geta of the same model Jiraiya wore though hers were painted white with a red Uzumaki spiral on it, and her hitae-ate around her right upper arm. The principle was similar to the mythical Banbutsu Sōzō, but unlike aforementioned jutsu the Kitsune version could only ever affect the self and those in direct contact with the kitsune in question. Once the object or person in question left direct contact with the kitsune who had created the object, it disintegrated rapidly. Unfortunately, this included throwing weapons.
Beyond that, however, there was no limit except what chakra reserves or yōki pool, and the user's imagination, imposed. It appeared she was just in time too, for her Naruto-kun was already waking up once more.
Naruto sat up gingerly, softly rubbing the spot that had impacted the wall in an effort to reduce the pain. With a groan he cracked open his eyes, and gazed upon the still-lovely but less nosebleed-inducing visage that was his mother in clothes. "You're out of the seal?" he asked, audibly resisting the urge to stutter.
"Not exactly, Naruto-kun," she replied. "This is a jutsu that I call the Blood Clone, for obvious reasons. It's similar in principle to the Shadow Clone merged with an Earth clone, but it uses blood instead of earth. It allows me to send my consciousness out of the seal and into the clone, rendering the original me inside your seal comatose for as long as I am in this clone. The advantage of this clone is that it is almost as sturdy as the human body and can bleed, making it rather lifelike. It allows me to manifest outside the seal at approximately one-tenth to one-fourth of my power.
"Because it is similar to a Shadow Clone, whatever I experience while in the clone body will flow back to the original me when the clone dispels."
His eyes lit up at the statement in that particular manner she knew indicated a 'eureka' moment. "Is that what that psychic feedback thingy I read on the scroll yesterday is?" he asked.
"Indeed it is," she confirmed with a nod.
"Does that mean I can use hundreds of Kage Bunshin and learn all about everything in moments?"
"No," she curtly said, not wanting her son to entertain dangerous thoughts like that for more than a few moments. "While the clones do transfer memory and experience, and can therefore be used to train the mind, there are diminishing returns. Too many separate subjects at once and the memories will just slip away and you will gain knowledge of nothing instead of everything. I've personally found that the limit is three completely separate subjects at once, or seven related subjects. Any more than that and the mind will not retain any of the knowledge you've gained."
"Aww," Naruto whined with a pout. There went his dreams of becoming crazy knowledgeable overnight.
"The only exceptions are chakra control and muscle memory, which can be trained with clones and fully passed on regardless of what other clones are doing, though even then I don't recommend doing more than one exercise simultaneously. Create a few Kage Bunshin, Naruto-kun," she ordered.
Putting his hands in the modified Ox seal, he yelled the name of the jutsu and five hundred clones appeared. Kushina looked around with and exasperated expression. "Right, definitely need to work on control," she muttered. "I want one hundred of you to start calligraphy exercises in the room down the hallway. One of my own Kage Bunshin will guide you," she said and created two Kage Bunshin, one of which motioned for the designated hundred to follow. When the veritable army of clones had disappeared into the room she and Minato had set aside for fūinjutsu when they built this house she continued, "the other four hundred will follow my second clone to the river and practice water-walking."
"OSSU, KAA-CHAN!" the four hundred copies of her son yelled with picture-perfect salutes.
"Add volume control," she half-muttered.
When these had marched out after her Kage Bunshin she turned to the original. "Alright, Naruto-kun," she said. "We are going to work on your senses."
"Why?" he asked with the most adorable confused expression on his face. "My senses are fine."
"By human standards, yes. By kitsune standards – and indeed that of most demons – you're practically deaf, blind, and your nerves are burned through," she said. "You've not yet noticed because there's a second seal that locked away those that I've not yet taken care of. Prepare yourself," she finished seriously.
Naruto gulped but hardened his expression. Kushina nodded in approval as the fingertips on her right hand lit up with chakra once again. "Rokkan Fūin: Kai," she said as she slammed the fingers home in his stomach.
– –
The moment her hand hit his stomach, Naruto's world became alive, for want of a better word. He could smell things he had never smelled before, he could hear things he had never heard before, are those individual molecules zooming through space that I hear?, and he could feel things he had never felt before; his skin felt super-sensitive and there was a variety of feelings emanating from the village, from something that resembled the fleeting wind to the elusive water to the hard earth, the raging fire, and the crackling lightning and combinations of them all and then there was the blazing inferno coming from the woman just in front of him and –
He blacked out from information overload. His mind simply wasn't ready to accommodate that much sensory input yet.
– – – – Two days later – – – –
Once his brain had rebooted from the blackout, it had taken him two full days to control his new senses to the point that he wouldn't immediately be rendered deaf once he left for the village proper, though it did mean that his meeting with jiji was postponed for a few days. He was simply glad that his clones still had the seal on them when he made them or he'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble.
It made him appreciate the danger of neural overload on a completely new level. On another note, clones apparently didn't dispel upon the creator being knocked unconscious, which meant that their chakra networks were completely separate from the caster. He'd have to investigate how the memory transfer worked later.
He created another wave of two hundred clones to augment the handful of the original clones still active. "One hundred of you work on water walking, sixty of you work on senses, ten each, and the rest work on calligraphy," he ordered. Mom had said that she'd teach him the sealing arts if his calligraphy was perfect and because it was technically a clan technique he did not even need permission from his jōnin-sensei!
While the clones rushed off to their assigned duties, the original walked into the garden, intent on finding his mother. He did not have to search long, as soon as he exited the house his mother – still exuding that aura of a blazing inferno – walked out from between the plants she had been tending to. Twelve years without maintenance had left the garden a mess.
"Good morning, kaa-chan," he greeted her brightly. It was still rather hard to believe, truth be told; he had a mother!
"Ohayo, musuko-kun," she returned in the same tone. "Let me put the tools away before we start today, okay?"
"Sure," he said. "Outside or inside?"
"Outside," she answered as she walked into the house – was that just his imagination or did she shake her delectable posterior just that bit more? – and placed her gardening tools in the hallway closet. Within moments, she had joined him outside on the porch.
"All right Naruto-kun, stand back a bit, 'kay?" she asked and he dutifully stepped back a few paces.
His mother bit her thumb and raced through five handseals before slamming her bloodied hand on the floor, spreading a large sealing array across its surface. "Kuchiyose: Amatsukajiya: Ōetsu!"
A large cloud of smoke erupted from the sealing array that had appeared on the floor. Naruto watched with wide eyes as the smoke cleared to reveal the strangest-looking man he had ever seen in his short life. His skin was dark, a trait only appearing in Konoha if Kumo parentage was involved, he had thick black hair styled in such a way that it looked to grow diagonally from his head, the oddest sunglasses he'd ever seen, shiny blue lenses with a bright yellow frame, and a stylish white suit that somehow complemented it all.
When only thin wisps of the smoke remained, the newcomer looked around in confusion and his brows furrowed in confusion once he saw Naruto, complete with tails and ears. A spark of recognition lit up in his eyes when he spotted his mother.
"Kushina-chan?" the man asked.
"Indeed, Etsu-kun," she confirmed. "How have you been, old friend?"
"Man, am I glad to see you," he exclaimed with a relieved sigh as he stepped forward to engulf his mother in a hug. Naruto barely held back a growl, before he adopted a confused expression. Why did he want to growl?
"You may want to release me now, Etsu-kun," his mother said teasingly. "Musuko-kun looks like he wants to rip you apart."
"Does he now?" the man, apparently called Etsu, asked, but didn't let go of her. "And can he?"
"He's twelve and has seven tails. I'm pretty sure you'd win on combat experience only," she replied. The eyes belonging to the blond widened once again. What did his mother mean, 'he has seven tails'? Part of him wanted to look back to find out if he had actual tails, but the other part that wanted to keep the blacksmith in sight won.
"I noticed that," Etsu said dryly, releasing the hug.
"Allow me to introduce you, then," Kushina said. "Naruto, this is my old friend Ōetsu, the best blacksmith in all the realms."
"You flatter me, Kushina-chan," the blacksmith in question responded with a minor blush.
"Etsu-kun, this is my son, Naruto."
"Pleased to meet you," Ōetsu said pleasantly.
"Charmed," Naruto replied curtly. A grin appeared on the visage of Ōetsu and he muttered, "as expected of a male kitsune according to the stories," softly enough that Naruto was sure he was not on the list of intended recipients. Ōetsu turned toward Kushina, a serious expression on his face.
"I take it the time is now, Kushina-chan?" Ōetsu asked.
"Indeed it is," she confirmed with a short nod.
"Alrighty then, Naruto come here. I've got a present for you," the blacksmith said with a grin. Kushina scowled.
"Don't act like this is anything other than a commission from me, Etsu-kun," she said, stressing the honorific to get across her desired message. She'd given him a crash-course of demonic alliances and friendships yesterday, and he now knew that this meant that their families were friendly, which in demonic terms meant that they weren't actively trying to kill each other. From the nervous expression appearing on the blacksmith's face for a brief moment before it flattened back into the serious if somewhat cheerful visage, the message was received in the spirit it was given.
"Right. Doesn't change that Naruto has to come here, though," Ōetsu said. Naruto cautiously walked forward until he was only two metres from the other male. The blacksmith responded by grabbing a scroll from a sleeve and opening it with a minor application of blood, courtesy of a bitten thumb.
With a poof, a katana as long as Naruto was tall appeared in the blacksmith's hands. The sheath was a dark blue, the hilt a lighter shade of the same colour, but it was the guard that caught Naruto's attention. He'd seen katana before, but none with a guard in the shape of a bronze four-point star.
"Alright, listen up, these are the most important words you'll ever hear in your life, got it?" The serious tone in which the blacksmith said those words, so at odds with his earlier laid-back one, drew the notice and undivided attention of the fledgling seven-tailed kitsune.
"This sword is my masterpiece. Nothing I've created before matches it, nothing I will ever create will surpass it, and only a small handful of blades even come close in the history of the Outer, Northern, Western, Eastern, and Southern Lands, only four of which currently have wielders. You may be familiar with the Northern shark-skin sword, Samehada?"
Naruto drew a blank. It must have shone through in his eyes for Ōetsu continued without much delay.
"Unlike all the other swords, this blade has achieved true sapience, and gained even a spirit; though her name is for you to work out. Even Samehada and its nine sister blade only ever achieved sentience. Kyūbi fang, generously donated by your mother, Dragon scale, and Chimera horn combine to form this blade, the blade that will aid in holding back your developing demonic power from destroying everything around you as it did for your mother nearly a century ago when she first came into her power, though Inari-sama was around then to keep it from getting out of hand."
Naruto swallowed. Before he could comment, the older male went on, "Such is the curse of all Hanyō born to Daiyōkai such as your mother. This sword was tailor-made to your power, and it should perform more than adequately in keeping your demonic nature from killing all you hold dear.
"The sword has three stages, each with abilities of their own. The only thing I am at liberty to say about them is a single word; ice."
"Ice?"
"Ice. Everything else will be explained by the spirit residing in your sword, once it's completed anyway."
Both red-heads raised an eyebrow. The sword had been slightly more than twelve and a half years in the making and it wasn't complete yet?
"Relax," the man said with a wave of his hand, "all you need to do to complete it is expose it to your blood and chakra, binding the blade to you, and only you. Not even your children will be able to wield this blade once it has bonded."
Ōetsu unsheathed the sword, revealing a blade covered in hundreds of seals. He held out the sword for Naruto to take, who did so with extreme care.
The partial blond sat down in a meditative state, channelled chakra through his left hand and ran the hand through with the 140 cm long blade.
The world seemed to freeze over before it shattered into hundreds of tiny fragments, revealing a frozen landscape of such beauty he did not have words capable of describing it. In the distance he could see the outlines of literal mountains of ice, while the whitish-blue plains in between himself and the far-off mountains were filled with moving animals a shade lighter in colour and towering obelisks that appeared to be made from a single chunk of ice each. There appeared to be butterflies flying around in the sky, but when one landed on an outstretched finger it was revealed that the butterfly was actually made completely from ice. He suspected that the other animals were made from ice as well.
A loud roar sounded from overhead, and Naruto turned his gaze skyward. "Woooaaaah," he said with reverence in his voice at the sight that greeted him.
A white dragon, dragon, was flying above him in an intricate pattern before rapidly descending and landing with an earth-shattering thump – or was the proper term here ice-shattering? – a dozen metres from him.
Naruto stood up to walk towards it, but stopped when the dragon started to emit a white glow. Not bright enough to hurt, but he closed his eyes regardless. When he felt the light show had stopped, he re-opened his eyes and blushed fiercely. What was with him and beautiful women lately?
The woman in question was a voluptuous woman; generous breasts – though he absently noted that his mother's were still bigger, but not by a lot –, long hair that looked to be a shade or two darker than Sakura-chan's, brilliant emerald eyes, and 'dem legs', to use one of Kiba's phrases. It seemed appropriate enough in the situation.
The woman's clothing befitted the environment, her winter's dress a soft shade of blue that blended with the ice surrounding the pair. The entire picture was completed by a pair of icy wings jutting from the woman's shoulder blades.
"Woah," he repeated. A light blush appeared on the woman's face.
"Thank you, Naruto-kun. I must admit, you look decidedly more delicious than last week," she said.
"Are you the sword's spirit?" he asked. It looked very much like she was, but it never hurt to have confirmation, right?
"I am," she said with a nod. "Though that is not all of me. Because you were already born when the sword was commissioned, and at the urging of Omoikane-sama and Tenjin-sama, when Shinigami-sama was summoned into this realm, the Northern Lands, he bestowed a gift upon you that was tied to your very soul; me.
"The Kyūbi fang donated by your mother for use in the sword worked as a beacon for my energy, my body, to stay while my consciousness made its home in your soul."
She sat down in seiza in front of him. "I am ."
Naruto frowned. He had seen her lips move, but no sound came forth from her mouth after she said 'I am'.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" he asked.
She frowned before shrugging. "It seems that you are not yet ready to wield the true me. No matter, you will in time.
"Now, before you go, there are two things I must say; the first is that this is your soulscape, not your mindscape. Despite their functional similarity, they are not the same; your mother cannot visit here. I can, however, enter your mindscape with impunity, even though I can't leave it like your mother can. I am tied far too closely to you to ever leave.
"The second is that I am your companion just as you are mine, our souls are intertwined until the end of time. And quite frankly, I think that the pair of us will be the most disgustingly overpowered pair in the history of the realms," she finished her monologue.
He grinned, he quite liked the sound of that. Disgustingly overpowered meant that he would be able to protect those he held and would hold dear, for he didn't doubt that the list would expand with time. It had at his eighth, it had just a few days ago, why would the future not hold such an expansion?
"For now, though, you have to return to the overworld, I'm sure your mother is quite anxious to speak to you," she said.
She kissed him lightly on the lips. "Until next time, Naruto-kun," she said as she underwent the mesmerizing transformation back into the beautiful white dragon.
The frozen landscape seemed to melt away, revealing his prone body being fuzzed over by his mother with the weird blacksmith guy watching in the back.
His mother didn't let him go for another half hour, despite numerous attempts from him to convince her he was all right.
– – – – Three Days Later – – – –
Naruto walked into the living room after his mother had called him here. Things had calmed down over the previous day, after the most pressing issues had been brought down manageable levels through dedicated meditation and generous amounts of Kage Bunshin. That is to say, his brain wasn't in danger of overloading at the drop of a hat from sensory input should he move around in Konoha and unless someone deliberately pissed him off he wouldn't fly into a killing rampage.
"Alright Naruto-kun, it's time for you to get the story you wanted," his mother said with the most forcibly neutral expression he'd seen her wear yet. Not that that said a lot, he had only met her face-to-face three days ago after all.
Naruto swiftly sat himself down and focused the entirety of his attention on his mother.
"This story starts almost exactly one hundred and ten years before today with my birth. I was born Uzumaki Kushina, the older sister of Mito, who went on to marry Senju Hashirama. I was normal in every way by Uzumaki standards, except one; I had a disease that would not allow me to live past my sixth birthday because we didn't have the medical knowledge to treat it. My parents didn't particularly like that," she said with a sad smile. It was similar to the one jiji wore when he remembered old friends, in his opinion.
"They prayed to Inari-sama for aid, and they got it when I was five. Inari-sama's oldest daughter, Akane, was dying, so Inari-sama bonded the two of us together since practically all human diseases are burned away with Yōki exposure; it's why you're so poison resistant. You have the standard Daiyōkai Hanyō package of Yōki and human Chakra, which will paint a large target on your back. People don't like Daiyōkai Hanyō in general. Too much potential for overwhelming power."
"Human chakra?" Naruto interjected.
"Yes. Human chakra is made from Yin and Yang. Mental and Phyiscal. Form without energy and energy without form. Demon chakra is made from Yōki, with Reiryoku as a separate energy. Yin and Reiryoku are two names for the exact same energy, by the way. Yōki is more powerful, but is rigid. It will allow change into one element, and will stay that way. Mixing with Reiryoku makes it more flexible, but it is not easy so extremely few demons ever do so. Yang is extremely flexible, and mixing with Yin rigidifies it so that if it is transformed to an element it won't immediately fall apart into raw energy. Pure reiryoku manipulation is rare to the point that only three demonic clans do so, one of which is the kitsune.
"We're getting off track," she said. "After the infusion, I was taken from my parents to be trained. The deal Inari-sama struck with my parents was that I would take over the guard of Fire Country, the Northern Home of the Kitsune, as the new Kyūbi, filling the void his dying daughter was about to leave. I was allowed to return and visit my parents quite often, but Inari-sama was grooming me to take over the protection of Fire Country so I rarely did so.
"Twenty years after I was born, and five years after I'd completed my training under Inari-sama because time flows very strangely in Inari-sama's realm, the very first ninja village was founded. I watched as my sister, who I barely knew because she wasn't born until I started my training, married Senju Hashirama shortly after Konoha was founded by the alliance of Uchiha and Senju.
"Shortly after that I met my first mate and had your older sister, Kimiko, who will be celebrating her ninetieth birthday this year. I decided to keep my distance from everyone so I could properly raise her. The next few decades were rather quiet, truth be told. Sure, there were two human wars, but as the Kitsune never suffered from either of them, I didn't have a reason to interfere." She sighed. "Perhaps I should have, I don't know." She shook her head. "It won't do to dwell on that.
"It was during the second of these wars that I decided to visit my parents' graves back in Uzushio. They had died shortly after my last visit because of a wasting disease they'd kept secret until it was far too late to treat them." A nostalgic smile appeared on her face. "Stubborn to the last, like true Uzumaki." She shook her head again to get her thoughts back on track. "It was supposed to be a rather routine trip of mourning, so I assumed the form of my younger self in order to not let anyone know I was, in fact, the Kyūbi.
"I should have remembered that routine trips and missions are the first to go to hell in a hand basket, for Uzushio was attacked and destroyed by a coalition of Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa on the second day of my visit. We gave better than we got, and the army of a hundred thousand versus less than three thousand was whittled down to twenty-thousand. Shortly before the KKI Alliance breached our walls, most of the women that weren't en route to be evacuated killed themselves to be spared the indignity of rape. The rest turned themselves into living bombs to take some of the enemy with them to the grave while saving them from the same indignity." She was so caught up in her memories at this point that she completely missed the stars in the eyes of her son when he heard of the sheer level of badass exhibited by his late clan. Sure, he would miss not being able to properly meet his clan, but they went out the way he himself had always wanted to go out – by his own choice, and with style.
"They took out another four thousand enemy shinobi in their final detonations. To keep up the façade, I allowed myself to be escorted to Konoha with the other refugees and soon joined Konoha's shinobi program." A wistful expression appeared on her face. "It was there that I first met Minato.
"We didn't get along, at first. I thought him a wuss, he thought me a boy in a girl's body. I didn't do much to correct him at the time, I was too busy beating up bullies," she said with a somewhat sheepish grin. He grinned as well, beating up bullies was a perfectly acceptable way to pass the time.
"That changed when Minato was ten. I had, of course, been slowly ageing my human form to not stand out, which had the side-effect of Kumo shinobi thinking I was a jinchūriki like you, rather than actually a Bijū. During the month's lull between the second and third round of the Chūnin Exams that were hosted in Konoha at the time, they found me, slapped a high-power Yōki suppressor on me and carried me away. I'll admit to being caught completely off-guard, which was enough for the Yōki suppressor to take hold, though it was only geared for seven tails, not nine. It wouldn't have held until Kumo, but Minato didn't know that.
"Minato saw me being carried away, and didn't think twice before sprinting after them and beating them up, despite them being genin and him not even being graduated yet. Naturally, once he tore off the Yōki suppressor I joined him in kicking Kumo ass."
Naruto nodded. "Naturally. A question if I may," he said. When he received a nod he hesitantly asked, "is this Minato my father?"
"He is," she confirmed. "Now shush, the real reason for me being in here and not out there raising you comes soon."
Naruto snapped his mouth shut with an audible click. I know my father's name! Now where have I heard the name Minato before...
"Soon after we graduated, now the best of friends and maybe even closer, and your father was assigned Jiraiya of the Sannin as his teacher, along with Hyūga Hizashi and Inuzuka Tsume, while I was apprenticed to Tsunade because I was pretty skilled with medical jutsu, the basics of which were still taught when I attended the Konoha Academy.
"When we were thirteen, Minato and I received our promotions to Chūnin, and I decided to tell him about the real me. To say he was shocked is a massive understatement, but he accepted me, in spite of all the horrible stories about the Kyūbi floating around. I marked him as my mate then and there, and promised him I would help him achieve his ambitions and bear him as many children as time would allow.
"As you may be aware, promises are binding to kitsune. If we give our word, others can expect us to adhere to it unless the other party reneges on it first, which is why we don't give them lightly, and watch our wording when we do. In this case, I fulfilled both my promises; I gave him the son he wanted, and I helped him achieve the right to wear the Hokage Hat."
She stopped and gazed directly into his eyes, as if waiting for him to make a connection. Minato... Hokage Hat... wait, my father was the – "Yondaime?!" he exclaimed in shock.
"That's right, musuko-kun," she confirmed brightly. "Now, that is an S-rank secret," she continued seriously. "If you thought you had it bad, remember that the civilians of Konoha are untrained. Iwa and Kumo assassins are definitely not."
Naruto nodded absently with a somewhat paler than normal face, still in shock. My father was the Yondaime! How cool is that!
While Naruto was thinking, the visage of his mother twisted. Lips were pulled back, her eyes narrowed, her brows furrowed, and an incandescent rage appeared in the twin pools of brilliant amethyst. It was an expression that would have many people soiling their pants in fear if it had been aimed at them.
Being the focus of the anger of an Uzumaki woman was not something a sane man wanted.
"Now," she continued, her voice close to a growl, grabbing the attention of her son once more. "We had a few good years, but a week after you were born, just after my return from commissioning the sword Etsu-kun gave to you, HE came."
Naruto recoiled from the pure venom in her voice when his mother said the word 'he'. Kushina's expression softened slightly when she saw his reaction, but thinking about that man and what he had done never failed to make her angry and vow revenge.
"It was rather foolish of me to travel so swiftly after your birth, but I wanted to commission the sword as soon as possible, to potentially have it ready for you at your seventh birthday, when I would be starting to teach you the art of the blade. I was not yet recovered from your birth, and would not be for another month, but I took the trip regardless.
"When I returned, severely weakened by the journey, I was attacked by a man I thought long dead, killed by my brother-in-law only a decade after the village's founding. A man wielding an upgraded Mangekyō Sharingan, a concept I didn't think possible but that apparently was.
"His name was Uchiha Madara. His Tsukuyomi, not a particularly nice genjutsu to begin with, trapped me in my weakened state to be mentally tortured for what felt like weeks before I lost all reason and reverted to my full demonic form."
His jaw was introduced to the floor when his mother mentioned the hated name. Uchiha Madara is supposed to be dead!
"Your father knew something was wrong the moment he saw my full form, but nothing he did worked to snap me out of my Sharingan-induced rage. Eventually, he was forced to summon the Shinigami to seal me within you, in hopes that that would break the genjutsu. It did, but at the cost of his life."
Naruto just nodded silently. What could he say to a story like that? He felt his mother wrap her arms around her, swiftly followed by her tails. She pressed her lips to the top of his head and he could faintly hear her mumble, "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, musuko, to hold you as you should have been held, to care for you as you should have been cared for, to love you as a mother should love."
He could feel the tears dropping from her eyes, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, as if to say without words that he had forgiven her.
Truly, he had. It was Madara's fault she wasn't there, not her own. It wasn't her fault that someone with a petty grudge against the village chose to enslave her to destroy it, nor was it her fault that the village had suffered. It wasn't like she was thinking rationally on that night, right?
They remained in that position for a few minutes before her tears dried up and they released each other.
"Ara, Naruto-kun, what do you say we go and visit Saru-jiji?" his mother said with a watery smile.
"Sure, kaa-chan," he replied. Anything to get his mind off the recent revelations for a few moments.
The pair took to their feet, the elder casting an illusion over both their ears and tails. Naruto looked at the space where her tails were, and raised an eyebrow in confusion as he could still see the tails quite clearly, though there was a red haze surrounding them, and if he focused on the haze the tails seemed to disappear.
"You're probably wondering why you can still see the tails. I'll explain later, but it will suffice for now to say that it is because of an ancient pact that applies to illusions cast over the ears and tails."
Naruto nodded, and accepted the fact that she would explain in due time. "Shall we?" he asked instead.
His mother grabbed his shoulder, and in a swirl of leaves they vanished from the home.
– – – – Current Day – – – –
To say that the Hokage was pleased with his friend's reappearance and so very much not pleased to learn of the continued existence of Uchiha Madara was like saying the ocean was merely wet.
Naruto was brought out of his reminiscence when the door to the classroom opened and Team Seven's jōnin-sensei entered. The man wore the standard Konoha jōnin flak jacket in forest green, but Naruto got the impression that this individual was as far from the average jōnin as a jōnin was from a five year old civilian child. The rest of his attire did nothing overt to reinforce this opinion; a face mask, hitae-ate slanted to cover one eye, standard shinobi pants – even if they were higher quality than most – and a standard shinobi vest underneath the jacket.
Absolutely nothing he wore, except the face mask and slanted headband pinged Naruto's senses as anything other than 'average', which in itself made him wary. The Hokage would not have assigned an average jōnin to be the sensei of both the village Jinchūriki and the last loyal wielder of the infamous Sharingan. In addition to this, it was a barely-kept secret around the Hokage Tower that the Sandaime had been grooming him to take over his spot when Naruto had reached sufficient maturity.
Their sensei turned a lazy eye toward the three children, getting two murder-filled and one assessing glare in return. Evidently finding what he was looking for in his two teammates, the cyclops' sole visible eye turned towards him, and they swapped measuring glances.
Their sensei gave a barely visible nod before he clapped his hands. "My first impression of you is... you're boring. Meet me on the roof in five minutes," he said before he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto stood up and swiftly walked towards the door, pausing at its frame because his prank sense had just started pinging something fierce.
"What is it, dobe?" Sasuke asked bluntly, having followed the blond.
Naruto didn't respond, but grabbed a kunai and cut a wire barely visible even to his enhanced eyesight. If he hadn't been setting traps that were catching ANBU since he was six, he would have missed it. Two seconds later a tile ahead – the tile they would have been close to had they tripped the wire and continued walking – exploded, spreading paint everywhere in a three foot radius.
"It seems Kakashi-sensei has already started teaching us," he simply said. Sasuke grunted, but Naruto had enough experience decoding Uchiha-style grunting to know that he was pleased the 'dobe' wasn't a total dead weight.
"How do you know his name is Kakashi, Naruto?" Sakura asked curiously, and far calmer than he had expected her to be in the presence of 'her Sasuke-kun'. "He hasn't introduced himself yet, and I doubt you can predict the future when not even Sasuke-kun can."
"That's because I was at the Academy when he did his mandatory year-long stint as a teacher, the year before you two started the Academy, Sakura-chan" Naruto replied calmly. The past two weeks had forced him to re-evaluate his life, and he had come to the realization that while he still had a crush on Sakura-chan, she didn't return his feelings at all. He would still try to win her over, of course, because he was stubborn like that. If she grew up to look like his sword's spirit, it was going to be so very much worth it. "His trademark phrase is 'look underneath the underneath'."
"Oh, so that's where it came from," Sakura said.
Without further ado, the trio walked out of the classroom and onto the stairs that led to the roof. They kept a weary eye for additional traps, moving barely faster than normal walking speed. Unfortunately for them, the walk from the classroom to the roof of the Academy took longer to complete than the five minutes given to them. They didn't make it in time, and paid for their tardiness. When they were a few metres from their sensei, who was leaning against the railing reading an orange book and giggling like a pre-teen schoolgirl, he used his free hand to form a one-handed handseal.
A rather large sealing array inscribed on the roof lit up, freezing the three aspiring genin in place before releasing paint bombs at the trio. "Lesson one," he drawled. "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is dead."
He released the three pissed off genin from the array. "One should always check for traps. If the party you're meeting is late or you are the late party to a meeting, be mindful of traps and ambushes. It's not unheard of for enemy villages to set up meetings only to ambush the shinobi they're meeting. I used the three hours I was apparently late to set up the array you were just trapped by."
Despite their glares and irritated states of mind because their outfits were ruined just to make a point, the three genin could see the wisdom in the advice and nodded their now partially orange heads.
"Maa, Maa, don't worry, the paint should wash out without problem," he said with a dismissive wave as he clicked the book shut.
"Now then, I think we should introduce ourselves. You know, name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, all that stuff."
"It's rather rude to demand introductions without introducing yourself, sensei, why don't you go first?" Sakura said calmly, and the three males frowned. Where had the fangirl Sakura gone? Did someone replace Sakura with a body double while they weren't looking?
"You have a point, pinky," Kakashi admitted, while silently wondering why her file mentioned her as a fangirl when she obviously wasn't. "I am Hatake Kakashi, I have a few likes, there isn't much I dislike these days, and my dreams... my dreams for the future are not for your ears yet," he concluded with a giggle. The three genin looked at him with three near-identical deadpan expressions.
'Typical Kakashi, all we learned was his name.'
"Why don't you go next then, pinky?" he said with a finger pointing towards Sakura.
"My name is Haruno Sakura, I like... My dream for the future...," blushes and giggles filled the silences. Kakashi groaned softly in tandem with Sasuke.
"Right," Kakashi said soft enough that only Naruto heard, and he was pretty sure Kakashi didn't intend for him to hear. "So the file does hold true. Note to self: introduce to Anko and Inoichi." In a louder voice, he asked for her dislikes. 'Inoichi? Gotta ask kaa-chan who that is.'
"INO-BUTA," she yelled, causing the three males to wince at her volume.
"Next up, duck-butt," Kakashi drawled. Sasuke glowered at his sensei but stayed the scorching remark that was sure to be on his tongue. Apparently Sasuke had also noticed the sheer mediocrity emanating from their sensei and drawn the conclusion that he was anything but. Whether that was because he was convinced that he required only the best teachers as an Uchiha 'elite', or because of the accurate conclusion that in the Shinobi world, the more average someone appeared to be, the more dangerous they usually were, Naruto didn't know.
"I am Uchiha Sasuke," he said moodily, and both genin aspirants could swear they saw hearts fly from Sakura's eyes in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke suppressed a shiver. "I like training, I dislike fangirls and those who waste my time, and my dream is to kill that man."
Naruto was impressed in spite of himself. Not even thirteen and he could put almost as much venom in his voice when referring to an individual as his century-old Daiyōkai mother. It was well-known that the Uchiha clan was massacred two months before he turned nine, and it appeared Sasuke knew who did the deed. Sakura swooned at his perceived coolness. Did she have multiple personalities?
Kakashi frowned lightly, but nodded regardless. "And you, whiskers."
"I am Uzumaki Naruto," he answered clamly. "I like training and being in the garden, I dislike arrogant idiots who can't look beyond their hatred. My hobbies include gardening. My dream for the future is to utterly destroy those that threaten those I hold dear, past, future and present."
Kakashi nodded again, frown still firmly in place. Sasuke looked at Naruto with a strange expression in his eyes. Sakura just raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed.
"Right then, meet me at training ground 7 at 0600 tomorrow for your genin exam."
The three genin blinked thrice before Sakura asked what was on all their minds. "But sensei, we already took the genin exam."
"Nope," Kakashi drawled. "You took a genin exam. This is the genin exam. This is the test that determines if you're actually worth the rank of genin, or if you get sent back to the Academy for a year," he explained. His eye shut and formed a sort of inverted 'u', evidently some sort of smile. "Don't worry too much, there's only a 66% chance of failing it," he said cheerily.
Sakura paled. Sasuke gained a determined glint in his eyes, while Naruto displayed no outward reaction to the news. On the inside, however, he was furiously thinking. 'There's something wrong there, but what? Maybe kaa-chan has the answer.'
"Ja ne, see you tomorrow. I recommend not eating breakfast," Kakashi said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto turned to his two teammates. "Wanna go grab something to eat?" he asked.
Sasuke grunted a 'no' and walked away without looking back. "Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed before she ran after him, leaving Naruto alone on the rooftop.
"Guess not," he said with a shrug. As he walked off the side of the Academy building he wondered what the jōnin had in store for him tomorrow.
One thing he felt fairly comfortable claiming; whatever it was, it was bound to be extremely troublesome.
– Translations courtesy of jisho dot org:
Musuko: Son
Akuma Heitei (平定): Kai; Demon Suppresion: Release
Uzushio no Kuni: Country of the Whirling Tides
Kawaii: Cute
Hi no Kuni: Country of Fire
Dobe: dead-last (lit: lowest ranking, worst (in a test))
Akuma Kokubi no Jutsu: Demon Head Technique
Shaku: unit of length, approximately 30.3cm.
Onipō: Chishio Bunshin; Demon Art: Blood Clone. The use of chishio (血汐) rather than chi (血, blood) specifies that the blood has been spilled from the body.
Rokkan Fūin: Kai; Six Senses Seal: Release
Kuchiyose: Amatsukajiya: Ōetsu; Summoning: Heavenly Blacksmith: Ōetsu
Omoikane: God of Wisdom and Intelligence
Tenjin: God of Scholarship, originally (and literally) Sky God.
Seiza: proper sitting.
Tsukuyomi: Moon Reader
Mangekyō Sharingan: Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye.
Buta: pig
Reiryoku: Spiritual Power
– – – –
A/N: The scene with the blacksmith was inspired by Chridz's A Foxes Tale (once again). Ōetsu and the blade, as you may have guessed, originate in Bleach, my ownership of which is covered in the disclaimer above. It should be noted, however, that the similarity with Bleach ends with the blade's looks and the principles underlying its function. The spirit that inhabits it, and the powers it grants Naruto, are wholly my own, to the best of my knowledge.