Bone of Contention
Part 1-2
Day 4
October 13th
"Father." Madara made sure to bow his head just so, his hands resting atop his thighs, fingers curled around his knees and feet beneath his rear. It was the respectful posture of a clan heir, of the clan heir, and he hated it. So damn uncomfortable.
It was the usual weekly meeting, leaving him sat alongside Izuna, with little Nori sat upon his younger brother's other-side, his limbs already trembling from having to hold the whole respectful position. Madara grimaced, already itching to get back to his training. He was the strongest Uchiha born in recent years, or so everyone told him. And he had to live up to that standard. End of story.
"Tajima-sama! Tajima-sama!"
Frowning at the floor, Madara grimaced at the sound of his older cousin. Hikaku was in charge of news when it came to the world outside the Uchiha compound. Enemy movements, he knew it. Big job offers, he'd already have gotten the client in contact with them. Natural disaster heading their way? Time to move. He had his own little spy network up and running, and it'd proven effective. A good many civilians were willing to keep the Uchiha up to date on the latest news in exchange for being the first person they come to when they were in the area. It worked well, the shop-keepers got steady customers and the Uchiha got steady news. But whatever news this was, it had to be big for Hikaku to dare interrupt the clan head when he was addressing his remaining sons.
"Rise boys."
Madara did so gratefully, straightening his back, and not missing the way Nori rubbed the back of his neck with ungainly movements. Madara forced his lips not to twitch upwards in a smile, especially when he noticed Izuna forcing himself not to copy their youngest brother, his hand clenching into a fist.
"It's big news, worrying..." Hikaku trailed off, running a hand across his forehead and gathering the nervous sweat with his fingertips, presenting the scroll he'd been holding to their father.
Relaxing slightly, Madara adjusted his weight about on his legs until he was sat back on a haunches, far more comfortable than what he'd previously been. Folding his hands together into his lap, he waited for his cousin to elaborate upon what was so worrisome, what had seen to him racing into this lesson and interrupting. Izuna and Nori had copied him, he noted from the corner of his eye, but in far less graceful manner.
Ah, the joy of being the eldest.
It was only Nori's third meeting though, brought into the fold not long after Mikobi, his twin, had perished on his first mission. Madara still felt terrible over the death of their second youngest brother, and he'd do anything to protect both Nori and Izuna. Of course, with it being Nori's third meeting his posture was slipping, though thankfully their father was too focused upon the scroll in his hands to notice it. Making a mental note to remind his little brother once they were out of Father's oh so large hearing range, Madara turned his attention back to the two older males in the room, noticing his cousin looked surprisingly ashen.
"The Kyuubi has been spotted in Waterfall Country," Hikaku murmured for the three of them.
There was a low silence as Madara did the mental maths. Waterfall country was a day's trip away from here at full speed for a ninja, something that a demon as large and the Kyuubi could cover at an amiable lumber. He forced himself to keep the nerves at bay, to not let them show upon his face because that was not allowed. Ninja, especially Uchiha, did not show their emotions. Unless they were younger then ten and in the comforts of their own clan compound apparently, because both Izuna and Nori shared a fearful look.
"This is worrying news, but I still see no reason for this to have been brought to my attention right this instant, unless the beast is upon our back-door."
"But Tajima-sama, one of my contacts said the Kyuubi had been, ah, sealed."
What?
Sure, Madara knew that Fūinjutsu could seal things, supplies into a scroll, it was one of the first things most children learnt, so that they weren't stuck carrying their stuff all the time. A basic storage scroll was a life saver, as long as you didn't lose it of course. But, the kind of power needed to seal the Kyuubi into something had to be astronomical, no wonder Hikaku had interrupted their lesson with Father, this was certainly something they needed to know about.
"Who sealed it?!"
"A little girl sealed it, well, she sealed it into her self."
"Into herself?!"
Madara couldn't find the heart to tell Izuna off for his interruption, he'd been close to doing so himself. Was it even possible to seal something into yourself, never mind the greatest calamity to ever roam the earth? What kind of power would that take?
It was as the word power rang through Madara's head that he came to a startling realization.
There was a girl walking around out there with the power levels of a Bijū, of the Bijū. There was a girl out there that could possibly learn to wield the power of that destructive force. He felt sick. Because that power wasn't in the hands of the Uchiha, which meant it was either in the hands of an unknown, or worse, their enemies.
"The girl?" Their clan leader, because he wasn't their father at this moment in time, demanded, face tight.
"Blonde, long hair, tanned skin, about eleven years old. Odd whisker like markings on the cheeks, no known clan affinity. She disappeared in the middle of the night. They haven't seen her since."
Madara was having a hard time picturing it. A girl, no older than he, sealing away a beast like the Kyuubi? He'd heard horror stories, even passed through a village that the fox had taken out. It'd been a wreck, no homes left, littered with bodies of the fallen. Sure whatever ninja that were there appeared to have put up a fight, but it had clearly not been enough. And then suddenly, a little girl takes care of it all?
"Alert the forces," Tajima murmured, a thumb and forefinger rubbing at the bridge of his nose like the very idea of this information caused him physical pain when it came to even thinking about it, "tell them to keep a look out for the girl, and if possible, bring her in. If you meet too much resistance, you destroy her. If she won't join our forces, we can't risk her joining another."
.
Walking out of the main hall, Madara stretched his arms above his head, rotating the limbs and letting out a low purr as they flowed with the motion. Their father had gone to gather up two others, determined to go and collect more information for the source, a little village in Waterfall country. Which left the three of them to their own devices for a while. Izuna had perched himself atop a training long, legs calmly folded beneath him as Nori began working through his katas, trying to mirror all of Madara's movements.
"Do you think it's true brother, that a girl managed to seal the Kyuubi?" Izuna peered down at him, coal eyes bright with curiosity and a funny little frown upon his face. Izuna and Nori, they hadn't seen death like Madara had yet, they didn't have the experience he did. And he planned to keep it that way as long as he possibly could.
"I don't know Izuna," he flowed onto the next counter, allowing a small smirk to twitch at the corner of his lips when he watched Nori overbalance himself and fall forwards, "but if it's true, be careful. I won't lose the two of you."
Both boys nodded seriously and Madara pushed down the uneased that rested within him. Father was on the case. Everything would be fine.
Day 6
October 15th
Letting out a pathetic whimper, Naruto scrunched up her nose and eyes, hoping that whoever owned that blasted foot would get the hint and scram. Yet it once again dug into her side, provoking a lazy swipe towards the general source from Naruto.
A small, light gasp alerted her to the fact that she wasn't alone, and Naruto let out a low sigh. Clearly not an hostile, because otherwise she'd have been killed already. She'd done her damn best to set up a series of traps before surrendering to the much desire sleep, but apparently this person had been damn lucky to get around all of them without setting off a single one.
Cracking open a sleep riddled eye, Naruto stared up at the figure currently blocking out the sun.
"You okay?"
It was a boy, probably about her physical age. His hair was, for lack of better description, awful from this angle. He looked like he'd taken Rock-Lee's bowl cut, ruffled it up ever so slightly and then lightened it to a chocolate brown. His face was familiar, so very familiar.
Grimacing, Naruto sat up from her position laid out on the floor, rubbing sleepily at one eye as she did so. So far, she'd come across two clans already. One had left her alone, watching her walk by with curious eyes but not stopping her progress through the forest.
The other however, the other had been that blasted Iwa clan full of pyromaniacs that liked to blow stuff up. She hadn't even been able to finish her introduction before she was declared an enemy and they turned hostile on her. It was only thanks to years of training, and that little chase with Deidara that she'd gotten away from the sudden rain of bombs. Of course, not unharmed, but the burn she'd gotten upon her forearm was now healed, so she couldn't really complain.
Stupid psycho bombers.
"I think?"
The boy's dark eyes were inspecting her, still leaning over her slouched form with a curious look upon his tanned face. And while the little detective wannabe was completing his inspection, Naruto took stock of her own inventory. Her kunai pouch was still wrapped around her thigh, and her pack looked unopened, so either the boy hadn't gone snooping, or he'd done it well enough that she couldn't tell. One or the other.
"Hey, did you get hit with a fire jutsu? Or explosives?" The strange boy had crouched down beside her now, carefully taking hold of Naruto's right arm to inspect what had been a wound yesterday. Now it was new pink skin, as always she'd bounced right back into perfect health, leaving no scar behind.
"Your clothes say you were hurt recently, but you haven't got a wound," the boy whispered, twisting her arm back and forth, dark eyes fixated on the skin while his fingertips -rough and callous, obviously he'd been handling weapons for a while- brushed against the new skin.
"When did you get hurt?" The boy grinned, releasing her arm to rub sheepishly at the back of his neck.
"Yesterday," Naruto murmured, cautious, "I heal quickly."
The boy looked astonished, eyes darking back to her burnt sleeve before the dark irises were focused upon her face again, taking in every part of it as Naruto returned the favour, pushing down the amusement that swirled around inside her stomach. Now that no one knew who she was, or rather, what she was, they all seemed spell-bound by her instantaneous healing rate. The Iwa bombers certainly had been. But of course, Jinchuriki hadn't been thought of yet. If she remembered correctly, Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage, became the first one to seal a tailed-beast inside a human, inside herself. And then all the nations had been scrambling for one. Naruto mentally snorted.
Not if she had anything to say about it. Not this time.
"That's cool," the boy spoke softly, offering her a hand as he stood up.
Naruto allowed herself to be pulled upwards, standing at eye level with the other ninja who quickly let go of her hand once she was on her feet.
"My name's Hashirama! But I can't tell you my clan name... Clan rules and all."
Naruto wasn't really listening past the first name. No wonder the kid's face was so familiar, she'd seen it on a mountain nearly everyday of her life. And she'd fought beside his resurrected self in the war too. Holy heavens and hell, this was the first Hokage she was speaking to. And he was just a child. It was obvious now why the sight of him had been ringing a bell the size of the Kyuubi in her head.
Curses, Sakura had been right, she should have paid more attention in history. Otherwise she'd be able to help massively with the construction of the Leaf Village now. Only, she wouldn't be able to do so because she couldn't remember anything. Not even when Konoha's was founded! Only that it was Hashirama and Madara who'd founded it.
Not sure how she felt about Madara at the moment, Naruto pushed that thought away, instead focusing on getting her name out passed the frog in her throat.
When it came out as nothing more than a croak, Hashirama offered up a small water skin, obviously his own. Naruto's eyes would have probably narrowed in suspicion had she not already recognised who the boy was. However, never one to pass up anything for free, a mindset drilled into her through years of living alone, Naruto took the offering gratefully, taking a long swing before hacking up whatever had been stuck in her throat.
"Naruto."
"Huh?"
"My name, it's Naruto. Namikaze Naruto." She'd learnt her lesson about giving out the Uzumaki name.
That's what she'd introduced herself as to the bombers of future Iwa, and the second they'd heard that name they'd almost started foaming at the mouth. That's why they'd attacked, the mere mention of an Uzumaki relation, even if she was missing the red hair, and they'd completely lost it. Apparently they had a long standing feud with the Uzumakis, something that didn't surprise Naruto. If all her mother's family shared her temper, then she found she had no shock accepting the fact the equally hot tempered bombers were warring with the red-heads.
Still, it didn't make her life any easier, even if she had learnt the lesson to not use that clan name. Ever. Thankfully, Minato Namikaze had been an orphan from a young age, and as such, there was no Namikaze clan out there.
For what was possibly the first time in her life, it was safer to go by her father's name instead of her mother's.
"Namikaze?" Hashirama repeated, sounding the word out slowly, as if to see how it rolled off his tongue. Naruto knew he was really trying to look through his memories to see if he recognised a clan by that name, and no doubt what their standing with the Senju were.
So, Naruto rushed to fill in the blanks for him with some half-truths. For the best lies were always the ones with a grain of truth.
"My dad was a first generation ninja, he got taught by a wandering toad sage. Only, he died when I was born, so the sage took me in for training too. He died a year ago." A year ago in Naruto's eyes at least.
Bang, nothing but truth there.
Hashirama seemed to think so as well, because he offered up a huge grin.
"No wonder I haven't heard of a Namikaze clan then! So you're a ninja... But you're on your own?"
Of course, at the moment everyone moved about in clans, safety in numbers and all that. But Naruto couldn't have that currently. The only place she could claim a family connection was the Uzumakis, and they'd find the seal on her stomach no doubt. And she would not become a weapon in war. No way, no how.
"Sure am. I guess you are too?"
Naruto eyed the boy's kunai pouch, listening in amazement as Hashirama let out a loud, full belly laugh. No one else she knew really laughed like that, especially as the war had come upon them. It was refreshing. She liked it, liked what she knew of his personality. Which wasn't too surprising considering the fact they had the same spirit, that they had similar tones to their chakra.
"So how good are you?"
"Wanna find out?"
Hashirama eyed her warily, eyebrows knitting together slightly as he thought. Naruto made her way over to the river, stepping out onto the liquid as if it were solid ground. Judging by the lack of a gasp from Hashirama, he already knew the technique. Good. Falling into her favourite stance, Naruto raised a blonde brow at the boy, grinning.
"Well?"
.
They traded blows across the surface of running water, sending little waves crashing to the banks as they shot about one another. Naruto was irritated to realize that her taijutsu was shot to hell, she kept aiming further than she should now that her limbs had been shortened, and if Hashirama had been any better than what he was, she'd have been beaten easily.
Luckily enough, the boy was skilled, but not skilled enough that she had to rely on instinct to take him down. So at the very least she was able to focus on her blows to make sure that they hit, even if Hashirama managed to block or dodge the vast majority. The one time she'd gotten a kick through his guard, Naruto had been forced to stop, otherwise she'd have broke a rib laughing at the face the brunette had pulled as he bounced down the river like a skipping stone. He'd rubbed at his side were her kick had hit somewhat disturbed by the power behind her blow, no doubt it'd be as bruised as a roughly banana in the morning.
Naruto had been seconds away from calling the spar off, when Hashirama had instead let out a joyous laugh, bouncing back towards her and looking as if he'd caught his second wind. Naruto mirrored the sound.
It'd been so long since she'd just sparred for the sake of sparring. Not for training, not full out fighting, but just a competition between two friends looking to further their abilities by pitting themselves against one another. She'd been at war, and after that, she'd been ducking between clans that had no love for outsiders, making her way towards the place she'd forever call home. Only, the village wasn't built yet, leaving her homeless.
For now that was. So it was pleasant to lose herself in a purely physical spar, to forget about everything other than blocking and dodging Hashirama's attacks, and returning her own.
.
As their legs came together in a bodily twisted scissor kick, Naruto flew backwards, taking a dunk in the river from the force of the blow. The water was cool against her overheated skin, and even as the slightly too large clothes began sticking to her skin, Naruto still found a grin upon her face as she surfaced. Hashirama had apparently suffered the same fate, his hair stuck to his skull and hell, she'd just been sparring with the first Hokage and they'd come to a draw. A draw. Forget that he was a kid and her taijutsu was seriously messed up. Naruto would never forget this light-hearted day.
"I haven't had a spar that good for a while!"
Hashirama had crawled up onto the riverbank now, shaking his head and sending dislodged water droplets splattering about everywhere. He was grinning, but it was a bit lopsided, considering she'd managed to land a punch on his cheek that was rapidly purpling. That had to hurt. Though she'd certainly have had a few bruises too, had it not been for some Bijū healing powers. She'd tried not to punch him too hard in the face, but it'd been such an easy shot after all.
"Neither have I, you're good."
That was obvious, he was going to become the first Hokage, leader of the Senju clan. He had to be good.
"There's some fish in this river, wanna stay for dinner before you run off to wherever it is you live?"
The dark haired boy paused for a second, seemingly to internally weigh up his options before happily nodding.
"Sounds good!"
.
"It's peaceful around here, you know?"
Naruto hummed, taking a chunk out of the fish she'd been cooking over the fire.
Though he'd never actually told her who her parents were, the Third had said her mother was the best cook around. So Naruto had worked damn hard to be as good as her mother, or at least, she hoped she was. It was difficult to gauge, considering she'd never actually tried her mother's cooking. Jiraiya had said it was good, but then again, Jiraiya might have just been taking pity on the poor orphan girl and then throwing up later in the night once she'd gone to bed. For a toad sage, he had a surprisingly tender stomach. But her worries had been put to rest, because Hashirama had happily announced the fish was cooked and seasoned -with what little herbs she could find around the clearing- to perfection.
"I mean, if you're not planning on going anywhere, you could camp here maybe? You'll have the river for food and water and the trees for shelter..." Hashirama trailed, off, looking into the red flames of the camp-fire they'd set up, made up of dry wood so there'd be no smoke trail for any nearby ninjas to follow.
"I could even visit, you know, to keep you company..." The last part of Hashirama's words came out a whisper, and Naruto's heart clenched.
She remembered being all on her own, wanting just one friend, latching onto the first people who showed her kindness. And while Hashirama obviously had his entire clan still with him, that didn't mean he had a friend her age, much like Hinata-chan had once been all on her own, despite being surrounded. Rubbing nervously at the back of her neck, Naruto grinned back at the obviously nervous boy. She wasn't too far from the future sight of Konoha, so maybe sticking around, having a training partner as she fixed her taijutsu, would be a good idea?
"I think I will, as long as it stays peaceful, I mean."
"Awesome! I can come by any time I don't have clan duties, and you can set up a shelter, maybe even in the trees, I'll help you get started!"
And so Naruto spent her sixth day in the past getting to know a little more about Hashirama Senju, finding out that he liked mixed mushroom soup, that'd he'd started wood sculpting -and judging by the cagey expression, it had a little something to do with his wood-release- and he had three brothers. By the time he left for the day, Naruto was sure she;d just made her first friend in this time, and slept easy for the first night since she'd woken up in the past.
Sorry it took so long, I've been busy acclimatizing to my new housing, sorting out new stuff and readying for winter.
As this goes on, the chapter's contents will start to change, but I needed this one to remain somewhat similar. Only Naruto knows who Hash is now, because she'd just fought a war with the dude, how could she not?
Any questions?
Tsume
xxx