Chapter Two
Naruto Uzumaki Giovanni had just barely dashed out of the window of the ninja academy that a pair of strong arms had already circled around his shoulders, and brought him down to ground level, making him fall face first on the ground with a slight dust cloud.
"Naruto-kun… you passed didn't you!" The cheerful voice came from a slightly tanned female with a curvaceous body, her long orange hair and red eyes made her stand out, especially because her body seemed like that of a pin-up model. She did have a slight scratch on her lower left lip, and was currently dressed in a Flak-vest of a dull brown color; her forehead protector was on her left wrist, tied strongly, as she held what looked like an overgrown shuriken on her back, wearing a pair of military-style boots and long black trousers.
"Lea-chan…you're hurting me," Naruto coughed, as he tried his best to get back on his feet, but the woman kept him in a sort of choke hold down on the ground.
"I love it when you're all M, Naruto…" she giggled, sending a bust of murmurs blaze all around them, as the academy's ground were filled with parents, who were talking among themselves and their sons and daughters, praising them for having passed the exam. Naruto felt just a slight ting of sadness, as he scanned around for Francesco or Elena, but couldn't see either of them.
"Anyway remove your brooding face! Your master here has come to take you to a surprise!" As Lea, whose real name was Leonarda Preziosi, of the Daeva family, chirped that, she brought him back to his feet.
"You'll never stop with all this S&M talk, right?" Naruto muttered as he dusted himself off.
"Obviously not! Cheer up, Emo-guy! Now, let's get going!" The Jounin-level ninja said, grabbing him by the right ear and starting to pull him.
"That's the demon boy." "He's with the Mafia, how can he still be left to roam free?" "They should just cage him" "We should have lynched him when he was younger." These whispers were abruptly halted when a loud dull sound echoed twice in the courtyard, and two walking mountains of muscles barged straight in with a proud and enormous laughter.
"Look at that! The Preziosi Heiress and the Giovanni whelp! Ahah!" Giacomo erupted into a laughing fit, before being helped by Gianni, who giving him the elbow on the side, added:
"They certainly look like a couple alright!" at those words on Lea's face a vein began bulging and throbbing.
"The age difference is a bit high, but who cares?" as Giacomo insisted on that, Naruto thanked the Kami that Leonarda had let go of his ear, but she was moving her hand towards her giant-sized shuriken on her back.
"You two…Dormite con I pesci!" as she yelled that, the shuriken began spinning fiercely, as the woman used precise and always increasing hand movements in the center of it, and then, as she threw it with speed and precision, the two Brujah's lifted their baseball bats just in the nick of time.
In the nick of time to get thrown backwards, their bats slightly dented, but never the less still intact, as they kept on chuckling.
"She's got a fiery temper alright." Gianni said, to which Giacomo replied with a fake coarser voice:
"She's going to end up as a Zitella if this keeps up, really!"
"You two should stop…before she snaps out in the middle of the street." Naruto carefully suggested, as the hair on the back of Leonarda had started raising itself slightly towards the sky, anger fueling said reverse of gravity.
"Oh scugnizzo, she's a Preziosi, what could a Daeva family…" do against two Brujah? The next moment, the two big brutes slumbered down, as the giant shuriken moved swiftly back into Lea's hand, and from there on her back.
"Good. You got lucky I've got no time to mess with you, while you stay paralyzed for a couple of minutes…still," as she said that with a wicked smile, she moved closer to the two brutes, who stood slumbered down in a seating position, "payback is always done by a bitch." And with that, she threw kicks were no man wishes to be hit, thrice.
"Ne, Naruto-Kun, now we can go, right?" as she turned around smiling, Naruto nodded, mentally noting never, ever, to make fun of Lea.
***Scene Break***
Giovanni's had the tough line of the work. It was as easy as that, really, a Brujah's only job was to hit things till they stopped moving, if there was a problem. A Giovanni? A Giovanni had to both talk to the problem, and then hit the problem if it didn't go away. So, when he was once more taken for a fool, Francesco simply snapped.
"Five hundred ryos is a good enough price." The baker said, as he had on the counter the pastries.
"If it were the price you make for everyone, sure. Though you'll have to tell me why…" as Francesco was about to enter another rant, a hand calmly placed herself on his right shoulder.
"Now, now, let me handle this, my dear friend." The voice came from a white as snow skinned male beauty, with perfect lineaments and a heartwarming smile, his lips were full, and even a straight guy would have started doubting his sexuality, the moment they saw him, with his neatly arranged auburn hair and clear sky-blue eyes, his long perfectly trimmed fingers, and a stature worthy of a lingerie model.
"What appears to be the problem with Mister Giovanni?" as the man asked that, the baker stared sideways, putting a hand behind his neck.
"Well, Mister Preziosi, there's been a recent increase in prices, due to a lack of prime materials, and so…"
"Strange, I know one of my sons came here this morning, and the price hadn't increased." As the Preziosi family leader replied that, the baker looked shocked for a moment, but then hesitantly added:
"It just happened so recently that there was no choice, really."
"So, you're telling me there's been a lack of prime materials after breakfast, but before noon?" the Preziosi was slightly smiling, which made the baker at ease, for some sort of reason.
"Yes, so as you can understand, I had to increase the prices and…"
"Then when you baked these pastries, you did so in the after breakfast, right?"
"Yes!" the baker nodded happily: maybe he would pull it through after all.
"Then, explain to me why these ones appear to be at least one day old." As the Preziosi's tone turned colder, like a glass knife, he pointed to a set of pastries whose jam didn't seem too different from the others, "I cook and bake by myself, you know? And this jam is at least one day old, as it's no longer shiny as a fresh one would be. Are you selling to my dear friend stale pastries from days before in an attempt to beg me to mercifully grant you death? If you so wish, I can kill you painlessly in the next three minutes, depending on your answer…or I could leave you to my dear friend, who seems more inclined on doing it in a more hurtful way."
The baker's face turned pale for a moment, but then he managed to blurt out:
"I must have switched the packages! I'm deeply sorry!" dashing back in the backroom, and emerging a moment later with a set of rather expensive looking pastries inside clear paper boxes, to keep the taste fresh.
"I am deeply sorry, please, they are on the house, really." He muttered, handing them over to Francesco, who raised an eyebrow but otherwise nodded.
As both the Giovanni and the Preziosi left the shop, Francesco muttered:
"I didn't know you baked, Romano."
"I don't, Frankie." Before Francesco could actually throw a kick at the man for having used his nickname, the Preziosi had already jumped on a roof, waving goodbye, a pastry in his mouth.
"Only this once, I'm letting him go." The Giovanni muttered, before beginning his walk back towards the Corleone's compound, oh the kid was going to get a surprise all right.
***Scene break***
"Lea-chan, this isn't the Giovanni's compound, why are we in the Corleone's one?" as Naruto asked that, he looked around a bit lost, as the mansion they were practically waltzing in was the one of the Don himself, whose garden seemed to have gone through another hurricane, as it had been completely and utterly razed to the ground.
"Today is special, you got your head protector, you're officially a ninja, and thus you can now enter the ranks of the Mafia. So, first things first, we meet the Godfather." As she said that, Naruto gulped; he had already met the Godfather a couple of times, and while he had never struck him as an evil person, it was clear that he was indeed a powerful one. As they passed through the doors of the three stories high mansion, the guards waved at Naruto with a smile.
"Why is everyone happy to see me today?" Naruto asked.
"Free food and drinks." Lea replied.
"What?" The boy asked again, not understanding.
"You'll see, it's a surprise after all." And, as she said that, they stopped in front of a door, smiling at Naruto who still looked puzzled, and then pushing him through, closing the door behind her.
The room was dark, completely dark, and it did appear empty, if not for a set of tables with dishes, and a single man in the center, who had his hands behind his back.
Naruto widened his eyes, as he recognized the man for the Padrino, Don Gianfranco Bruzzo Corleone himself, who smiled, even though in the darkness he couldn't quite actually perceive it as such, since it looked more like a grin.
"So, I've taken you've passed your Genin Exam?" the Don asked.
"Y-Yes," Naruto spluttered, nervous.
"I ain't eating ya." The Don replied moving closer, which earned himself a surprised look from Naruto, who had never heard anyone, of the entire family, speak in slang, never.
"I…" The blond-spiked ninja was baffled, and surprised, and didn't actually know what to do.
"Oh, that's not how you youngsters nowadays talk, with the Yo-yo thing," moving his hands up and down, "and the *Ehi bella come butta!* stuff?" an anime sweat-drop appeared on Naruto's forehead, as he shook into a no motion.
"I see: I must have been misinformed" as Gianfranco said that, he coughed twice, reassuming a stern face and putting his hands behind his back.
"Well then, I'm sure you're starting to wonder why I called you here." As the Don said that, Naruto nodded.
"You see, since you are, after all, a family member, a Giovanni not by blood, but still by name and soul," saying that, he grinned a bit, "when a member of the Mafia gets of age, he enters the family no longer as a kid, but as a picciotto, and when that happens, he gets *presented* to the rest of the families, by someone who can guarantee that he can be trusted. Still, you are given choice: you can refuse, if you wish, and keep going as a simple Ninja of Konoha, it won't change nothing, and you'll still keep your surname Giovanni, you'll still live, if you want, with Francesco and Elena, and nothing at all will be different, but you'll never have access to the family's secret scrolls, or get called anything else than scugnizzo, but apart from that? Everything will remain the same." As he said that, Naruto was perplexed, did he really have to ask what his choice was going to be?
"On the other hand, if you accept, you'll get access to the full benefits of the Mafia, at least, of what your rank entitles you to. Though this comes also with the probl…" but he was cut short by Naruto, who exclaimed:
"I'm in alright! I'm in! I mean it, really…I never felt at home for the first six years of my life, and in this last seven I felt more happy than ever before, so I don't care about problems or restrictions or what else, I'm in, Godfather, I'm in." as Naruto said that, tears rolling down his cheeks for the emotion, Don Gianfranco smiled at the boy.
"Well then, you should stop crying, especially because I'm feeling a death glare coming at me from your mother, and also from my wife." As he said that with a chuckle, he clapped his hands, and the lights turned back on, to reveal the two women who had one a Tanto in her hands, and the other a Chain and Sickle, and had left their respective hiding places with growling faces.
"Really dear, you made the poor boy cry…" as Maria Grazia said that with a little smile that meant hellish future pain for the Don, Naruto quickly wiped out his tears, and stared in surprise.
"Kaa-san?"
"Oh well, SURPRISE!" his mother exclaimed, slightly red in the face, and the next moment, more and more people emerged from the walls, behind the furniture, from the ceiling and from the pavement, all happily smiling and clapping their hands, congratulating him.
Yes, he had made the right choice, this was his home now, and that was his family, no matter the problems.
***Scene Break***
Naruto was laying, his hand at rest in a water basin, in his bed, thinking about how many times his hand had to shake that of the rest of the family members, he never realized it, but handshakes can be of various forms and types, some strong, some weak, some average, some delicate and other incredibly coarse. His hand hurt, but not that much that he couldn't help but keep a grin on his face, he was now inside the family, really inside, and nothing or nobody could take him out of it. As his right hand cooled down, he looked at his left one, seeing the mark on the index finger, where he had picked it with a kunai, in order to draw the blood necessary to write his name in the Giovanni's family scroll. Naruto Uzumaki Giovanni.
Another reason he was laying down was the incredible quantity of food and pastries he had ingested, some of which he had never even tasted before, as it turned out, the reason the Godfather's garden was nearly destroyed was that instead of his actual pastries, the baker had given over those for the Hokage's grandson celebration, and thus there wasn't even one with his name on. The result had been an interesting fight, at least hearing it from Gianni and Giacomo, which had ended with Francesco reappearing only in the middle of the celebrations.
His father had never shown to be one who enjoyed fighting till the end, preferring a more layback attitude, which kind of reminded Naruto of Shikamaru. Maybe they were somehow parents? In any case, he was now resting; his stomach full, his mind in bliss, and nothing, nothing at all could make him feel miserable that same day.
He hadn't counted on his mother, actually.
"Good, you rested enough. Up we go." As he heard his mother voice exclaiming that, he felt himself being pulled down from the bed, the water basin strangely in his mother's right hand, and she had that sort of evil grin she showed to him when it was time to train with the academy jutsus.
"Kaa-san…can't I rest today? It's nearly sunset," Naruto pleaded, trying his best puppy eyes.
"Nope, a picciotto trains even more! You should be happy, but if you don't even want your graduation gift then maybe I could let you rest…" as she said that with a slight grin, Naruto was already up and about, his puppy eyes glinting with desire to know just what his gift was going to be.
His mother packed a couple of things in a backpack, and while Naruto couldn't see if there was something strange except the usual torture devices…training equipment as his mother called them, he still had a bad feeling, as his father actually made the sign of the cross muttering an Amen as they moved by the kitchen.
"Otou-san, you're not coming?" as a reply, his father carefully stood up, and slowly moved backwards towards the window, muttering:
"I think I'll go and get Elisabetta back from Ma' you know…good luck son, you're going to need…" but he didn't finish the sentence, as a two kilos block hit him straight in the face, sending him on the other side of the window, and falling down.
"What did he mean by that, huh? Is there something you don't like about my training methods, Naruto?" as his mother asked that, her hidden anger clearly shown, Naruto gulped and shook his head.
"No! Everything is fine, really! Mom's training is the best!" nodding then furiously.
"Good boy!" her face distended immediately, as she took on a happy grin and ruffled his hair.
***Scene break***
The Giovanni's training ground was a mixture of mud, more mud, and even more mud. To that end, there was even an underground hot water spring that increased the mud's temperature from cool to scorching hot; the closer one went to the source of the water. It could have been a perfect open air bath, but the Giovanni had no need for open air baths, and so it had become a relatively muddied and stony area. Stones pillars and blocks scattered in the mud, some safe, other fake, other still trapped.
Naruto had usually always trained in the outer circle, were the mud wasn't all that difficult to tread upon, and where the worst you could expect was only one fake stone block that made you slip down, nothing of lethal or problematic.
"So, tomorrow they are going to assign you into a team, right?" Elena asked, jumping from stone to stone, Naruto following her with relative ease, as she moved towards the middle circle of stones and mud.
"Yes, I just hope I don't end up with the Uchiha and one of his fan girls," Naruto answered back, "I couldn't stand all that lovey-dovey idiocy during a mission."
"Naruto, remember to judge a person only after having come to know her," his mother replied, stopping at the edge towards the inner most circle.
"Kaa-san, aren't we a bit close to the center?" he asked her, but all she replied with was a grin, and then the rock pillar on which he was ended up sliced.
That was the cue that training had begun, as he fell downwards, he concentrated chakra on his feet, to avoid falling neck-deep into the warm bubbling mud, and jumped backwards, to climb once more a rock pillar. It was chakra-cost effective to stay on solid surfaces, instead of liquid ones.
As he climbed however, he realized his mother had disappeared from sight, so, as he was about to reach the top of the rock pillar, he jumped to the side, hands wide, and falling on a stone block nearby, just in the nick of time to avoid the hit of his mother's Ninjato.
One thing he had come to know was that, differently from when he trained with his father, his mother never spoke until training was finished, which actually meant only when he was so dead beat and tired that it was no different than hitting a puppy in the street.
Naruto closed his eyes, swiftly moving his hand symbols for the Bunshin no Jutsu, creating seven copies, while each of his replicas jumped into the air in a different direction, some were the target of flying kunais and shurikens, but they all dispersed as soon as the real Naruto landed, unscathed, on another pillar, that however crumbled down immediately, earning himself a nasty fall, that ended with no injury, because he managed to avoid the crumbling debris by swiftly jumping to the side.
His feet pumped with chakra enabled him to dash quickly towards the outer circle, but at that moment, he was gifted with a loud scream:
"Shinkūken!", as a wind slash literally cut him from his intended path, sending the mud flying upwards, and shocking him enough to make him lose control, the mud then fell back down to fill the fissure left by the sword's technique, bringing Naruto down with her.
As he gasped for air, he managed to bring himself back up to waist-depth, and moved while coughing out mud and cleaning as he could his hair, towards a rock footstep.
"You lost control." His mother commented, sitting on top of a rock pillar, nearby.
"Using Kenjutsu against a just graduated Genin is unfair," Naruto replied, coughing out more mud, as he rubbed his eyes.
"Life is unfair. In war there is no such thing as fairness, and if you ever enter a fight with a half-assed intent, then you will not win that fight. Remember Naruto, it's a matter of resolve and determination." As she said that, she grinned and threw at him a wrapped long tube-like thing that Naruto quickly caught with both his hands.
"Your father should have given it to you, but he's a lazy bum, so I preferred to hand it over personally," as she said that, Naruto nodded and after unwrapping it, he stared in awe at two small Ninjato.
"Those are the Uzumaki's famous swirling swords. Getting one of them was a hassle, getting them both even more hellish, but that's the gift of the entire family, so be sure to thank the Godfather when you have the time." As she said that, Naruto stared at his mother in shock.
"Uzumaki, like my first surname?" he asked.
"Yes, from the land of Uzushiogakure, the land of whirlpools, seems like they had a sword-fighting style that required two Ninjato's … which I must warn you not to start using together, and certainly not today. Keep them dear, but don't use them without having trained first, got it?"
"Aw…why not?" Naruto muttered holding them both tightly: one had a red scabbard, while the other had a blue one, the first with a golden whirlpool on the grip of the sword, while the second had it silver. He just wanted to slash something!
"Swords are *not* toys. They require care, dedication and concentration. You'd just hurt yourself without practicing, which is why whenever you'll have time between missions, or when your Jounin-sensei doesn't call you, you will train with me. Did I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Kaa-san."
"No, It's SENSEI!" she snapped back, making Naruto whimper for a moment, before nodding.
"Yes, Sensei."
"Good, now that you've caught your breath, let's keep going." And as a diabolical grin appeared on Elena, Naruto began praying to god for a swift end.
***Scene Break***
The Godfather was keeping his best poker face, as he slowly increased his bet. In front of him, Francesco Giovanni sighed, as the Hokage, the next one in line, called. He folded his hand, and the fourth guy at the table, Kakashi-sensei, folded too.
"So, I change two cards." The Godfather said with a smile, and Kakashi swiftly provided him with two cards, in exchange for two others.
"I'll swap only one." The Hokage replied, taking a puff of smoke, as Francesco aptly did the change.
Then the Godfather silently doubled the pot, and the Hokage stood, muttering something indiscernible, before calling in with a raise. Don Gianfranco stood in doubt; sure, he had nothing, but so probably had the Hokage, if he bluffed any more it would be risky, but he'd never back away from a bet.
The next moment, both set of cards were revealed, as both Kakashi and Francesco grimaced, the Godfather's hand was rubbish, but so was the Hokage, and the highest card among both of them was six of spades.
Which meant they both had cheated, wrongly, trying to get a flush, but since after all both Kakashi and Francesco had cheated to make sure cards had been given out as they were needed, it simply meant that everyone had cheated each other in such a way that they had ended by cheating themselves too.
"Pot stands in for the next hand then," the Hokage muttered.
"Agreed," The Godfather added, as he said that, he gave a nod to Francesco, who was looking for a moment with a slight doubt on his face.
"I had a question; it has come to my attention that Naruto's surname, the first one, Uzumaki, belonged to the land of Whirlpools, specifically to a certain Kushina Uzumaki, who was married with a certain Minato Namikaze," as he said that, the Hokage raised an eyebrow, he was sure the Giovanni hadn't dug up the information by himself, but after all, they did do important things as a family, and he knew all too well the skill of the Falcone family in gathering information, "Who was just so casually the fourth Hokage, if to that we add the fact that he was called *Demon Child* for most of his life, and he is called that still now by some of the people in Konoha, I hate to ask, but did, perhaps, the Fourth Kage seal the Kyuubi, the nine tailed beast that attacked the village, inside of him? I have realized there *are* strange seals on his stom…" as Francesco asked that with ease and politeness, Kakashi had already a kunai ready, as the Godfather instead had already unsheathed his hidden Katana that flew straight out of his right sleeve, and stopped inches from the Jounin's face, while the Hokage simply stared at the scene with his eyes slightly narrowed.
"I think I don't even need to have the question answered. The more you try to hide it, the brighter the answer shines."
"Kakashi-kun, put away the kunai, and please, Don Gianfranco-san, do the same." As both men growled, they still both did so.
"It appears you already know everything, Mister Giovanni-san, so, what is the point of bringing forth the question?" as Hiruzen queried, he took another deep puff, he'd have to verify just how they had managed to get all that information, he highly doubted they had simply placed everything together like this, in an instant, inside work, maybe?
"I intend on telling him everything tomorrow." Francesco replied simply, shrugging, as he began dealing the cards once more.
"It is a classified S-secret, preventing anyone from telling him, if you were to speak, then there would be the Death penalty," Kakashi noted, as he took his cards and stared at them with a disheartened expression.
"He isn't ready for this, maybe when he's a Chuunin or even a Jounin, but till then? He's too young, he might…" as the Hokage was about to say something, the Godfather interrupted.
"He's a picciotto, a made-man. I do not know what you fear, Hiruzen, but rest assured, he'll be more than able to handle it, and Francesco…well, he's got his ways to make people understand stuff." As he said that, the man in question raised an eyebrow.
"Are you telling me I should tell him like I usually speak to the guys who don't pay?" he did have a slightly more threatening tone, but just lightly.
"Not in that way, Frankie! Still, you see? The man cares for the boy: he even twitched his eyebrows when I suggested something! He's a Giovanni for Kami's sakes: they grow them up on loyalty!" as the Godfather said that, he placed another raise on the pot, swiftly followed by the Hokage and by Francesco, while Kakashi folded once more.
"Still, what if he asks questions you don't know the answer to? Maybe you could wait till Jiraiya-san, one of the legendary Sannins, comes back? He's Naruto's godfather, not in your terminology!" The Hokage swiftly added since both Francesco and Gianfranco had been eyeing at him with a pretty murderous glare.
Still, the murderous glare continued, and finally it was Francesco that broke the silence:
"He had a godfather all this time? Yet he was beaten till six years old and left famished and scarred? A legendary Sannin too at that? You know what? Screw it, I'm telling him tonight." As he said that, he went all-in.
"I ask you to keep a cool head on the matter, please, we don't know how this could affect the boys growth." As the Kage said that, with a slight plead in his voice, he called-in too, as did the Godfather.
"Well, let's bet it on who has the winning hand tonight." As Francesco said that, both the Godfather and the Kage nodded, and then suddenly, two royal flush of the same color came down, one of spades, the other of diamonds.
"You two cheated," saying that, Francesco just so casually dropped down two cards that belonged to the Kage's royal flush and two that belonged to the Godfather's one, then the fifth one, that made a couple with another one of those he had already dropped before, marked him as the proud owner of a simple couple of tens.
Then, with a bow, he stood up, and grabbed the chocolate chips that had been used as the wager, together with the assorted candies, and, after placing it all in a bag, he left the room that had fallen into a deep silence. Kakashi wouldn't tell them, but he actually had a poker of tens in his hand…and he was sure he hadn't cheated at all.
***Scene change***
Completely cleaned from the mud, Naruto sat down on the chair of his desk. Staring around at his room, he suddenly realized just how many things *he* had. He felt happy at that, he who had started with barely a half-smashed backpack. He recalled the first gifts, shirts too short now to fit on him, but that he still kept with fierce determination in his dresser, he remembered fondly when in the beginning it was just him and Francesco, eating usually always a variation between Tagliatelle, that were simply flattened noodles, or Ramen of sort with the two Baseball bat freaks, who actually were his cousins, now that he thought about that, their surname however wasn't Giovanni, but Spacca, and they belonged to the Brujah bloodline; it kind of seemed strange how they were cousin, yet held different bloodlines, something that had been explained to him once, but he had not taken much of an attention of it: clashing of the blood to decide the strongest one among family members, or something like that.
He looked at the neat pile of scrolls, that contained his past homework, always kept in check, and then he looked at his ninja utensils, that had been polished and cleaned thoroughly by himself.
Cleaning had become a habit, after meeting Elena for the first time. Actually, it had become a habit *not* to dirty things, so they could keep being clean longer. He chuckled, recalling the first time he had actually vegetables in something that wasn't soup.
As he recalled the fond and happy memories, he felt a nice tingling sensation of warmth inside of him, and fell soundly asleep, on the chair.
A couple of minutes later, at least, for him, he was slightly shaken by a firm hand, and slowly brought back to his senses, staring at him was the smiling Francesco, who made a sign of victory, hauling in the usual sack of sweets.
"You won the match?" Naruto asked, half asleep, as he stared at the vast amount of candy he had earned.
"Got the all-in of the Godfather and of the Hokage: how was your day instead? Except obviously the morning and the early afternoon," he asked back, starting to neatly divide the pile of sweets into form, taste and primary type of chocolate, sugar, or honey.
"Kaa-san trained me in the middle circle, and gave me two cool Ninjatos," he said with a smile, "said I must thank the Godfather for them, and you, and the rest of the family." He added with a bit of pride in his voice.
"Oh yeah, I'll get you a basic set of scrolls to learn to use them. Now, however, we need to have a talk." As Francesco said that, he put on his serious face. Said serious face had been seen by Naruto only in three occasions, the first being when he had nearly punched to the death half a dozen of Konoha's civilians, who had decided to throw things at Naruto, when he was walking down a road together with him. It had taken five Brujah guards to avoid a mass slaughter, and many, even among the Brujahs, had sworn that, next time, they'd be more careful not to meddle with him.
The second time had been when he had heard that he was getting picked on at school, and had thus asked to come and explain a lesson on why you do not meddle with the Mafia. The teachers hadn't expected the entire class, barring Naruto and few others, to be put under a mass Genjutsu and subjected to horrible and painful reasons why meddling with a Giovanni was going to cost grievously.
The third time, it had been rather recently, when he had explained to him that he was going to have a baby-sister, and that, no matter what, he would still be loved as his son, even if he'd have work, or he'd be busy, or anything, and Naruto had understood without a problem.
So, when Francesco said that, Naruto woke up completely, and nodded.
"Now…it's a long tale, listen up: You are the biological son of Kushina Uzumaki, and Minato Namikaze, the reason the people of the city hated you, was because your father, the late Fourth Hokage, sealed the Demon Fox, the Kyuubi, inside of you at your birth. The seal on your stomach is a proof of that." As Francesco spoke slowly, Naruto stared at him, trying to understand his words, trying to comprehend if he was fooling him, or conning him, or anything, but he wasn't, he knew that much, he knew that no matter how much he was good at Genjutsu and Taijutsu, his father wouldn't lie to him with such a serious and straight face.
"To add more, you've got a godfather, not in our terminology, but more in that of an actual godfather, who was nominated at birth, in Jiraiya-san, who is one of the legendary Sannins, a sort of trio of ninja famous for having being trained by the third Hokage himself, and…"
"Wait… Why are you telling me this?" as Naruto asked that, Francesco raised an eyebrow.
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked back.
"Well, it's like a goodbye speech, like I'm about to have to leave and…" as he said that, he got interrupted by his father holding him in a choke hold move.
"Are you an idiot or what! I'm just explaining it simply! For Kami's sakes, you're not going to leave anything or go away anywhere anytime soon! Calm down and stop freaking out like we're going to disappear in the blink of an eye if you turn around." He stopped the violent choke hold, and proceeded to simply pat his head once.
"I'm telling you this, because you need to know your past, I thought you'd be more interested in knowing about having a demon inside of you twirling around inside of you, you know?"
"I don't care about that, you don't care, so I don't care," Naruto replied, staring into Francesco's eyes.
"Sheesh, you learned my philosophy of life pretty well," the man replied with a chuckle, "still, if you ever feel the need to tell me anything, anything at all, just come and talk to me, fine? Oh, and by the way, this is an S-level secret, if you tell someone else, about anything of this, unless you get the Hokage's approval, it's the death penalty."
Naruto nodded, and after the usual good-night, his father left him to himself, and his thoughts.
As he changed into his pajama, his mind stayed blank, until he sat down on his bed, and faced the ceiling holding his hands behind his head, and that, that was the most sleepless night he had ever had, as he began thinking about how, with less than a five minutes talk, Francesco had explained everything to him. He was the son of the fourth Hokage, and he had the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon beast, inside of him. He wasn't afraid; however, he wasn't even surprised. Demon-boy, demon, monster, were now clear to him, yet he didn't feel anything about the men and women who had used them against him. He slightly grinned at the thought of where he now was, at a crossroad, tomorrow, everything would be decided, who he would be teamed up with, who he would have as a sensei, and, he kind of hoped, it wouldn't be Leonarda. Anyone else was fine, but the Preziosi's Heiress? Kami forgive, he'd drop out and become a ramen stand vendor.
With thoughts turning to Ramen, and to the Ramen king fighting the Carbonara king, he drifted into sleep after two hours. After all, that was the most amount of time he could muster laying down in *his* bed, before falling asleep.
Author's notes
Another chapters rolls by. Tell me what you think.
Once again, teams/sensei are yet undecided, but I've got already a gist planned out.
Italian-English dictionary
Dormite con I pesci: Go sleep with the fish! (Either Go die! Or literally You sleep with fishes)
Zitella: Unmarried woman, slightly dispregiative term.
Scugnizzo: Street urchin.
Ehi bella come butta: "Hya! Nice! How's its going!" -crude slang.
Picciotto: simple soldier rank in the mafia organization
Preziosi-Spacca-Galante= surnames, precious-Break-gentleman (literally translations)
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