AN: Thanks for the continued support!
Sorry about the reupload, I forgot that all the formatting gets thrown out the window when you upload to ffn :/
In this chapter we continue where chapter 1 left off.
Hikari no Konoha
Previously: The young man made another vague hand gesture and the syrupy tart he had finished unpacking split into pieces, three of which began to hover toward each seated man and just as they were about to land, small flowery plates appeared beneath them.
"Now, why have you come to visit?"
Jiraya, having subtly checked the sweet for poison, was happily scarfing down the small piece of tart in front of him.
Kakashi, while still quite confounded nevertheless pushed onward.
"We are on a mission to gain the aid of one of Konoha's oldest allies and we have reason to believe that might be you."
The young man seemed to fold in on himself for a moment before refocusing.
"Well, you're not wrong. I suppose the time has come, what is it exactly you hope I will be able to help with?"
Kakashi was caught off guard at the lack of denial from the seeming youth who had gone to such lengths not to be found. -Perhaps a stipulation of the "contract" the hokage had referenced?
"Konoha has been struck by tragedy twice now in a short time and Fire country is in danger of being seen as a soft target for rival interests. It needs to reassert itself as a political power before our neighbours get any ideas of conquest."
Hikari scratched the back of his head reflexively as he thought about the issue at hand.
"I've never been one for politics but I'm willing to help anyway I can. I really should catch up with my beneficiaries anyway, how is the Uzumaki clan doing anyway?"
Jiraya froze with the last bit of tart halfway into his mouth and Kakashi stiffened visibly as he digested the weight of that offhanded statement.
"with the sheer number of them I brought over I suppose they must have their own compound by now?" -how long has it been, twenty-eight years already?
Kakashi was clearly about to reply when Jiraya appeared over his shoulder having covered Kakashi's mouth firmly.
"I-I think most turned civilian." Jiraya managed to get out with a strained smile, still keeping his hand firmly clasped on Kakashi's masked face, using morse code to convey a message to the younger shinobi. "-This strange person is clearly not without power, having seen his inexplicable display, I don't want to risk angering him. Let the geezer take any potential fallout!"
Hikari had always found shinobi to be quite eccentric and was slightly worried this behaviour was some new custom he had managed to miss in his self-imposed exile. Not wanting to appear stupid, he ignored it. Hikari quickly rose and sent the rest of the treacle tart hovering to his kitchen to keep it fresh.
"well who is the current clan-leader, who should I contact on my return?"
Jiraya kept his nervous smile fixed in place and managed to reply.
"Probably best to see the hokage first."
"I'm off then, you must be tired from your journey, please feel free to use my porch to recuperate."
"Wait- "Kakashi's interruption came a moment to late as the youth had once again vanished without a hint of movement.
Hikari Reappeared on top of the Hokage monument looking out over the village.
-Bollocks to that, I'm going to go looking for Uzumaki's myself. He thought.
"Point me Uzumaki" Hikari felt a pull toward the centre of the village, he followed it without haste, apparating down and walking slowly to take in the changed village.
-most of the buildings are new, I wonder what why?
Strolling along, Hikari waved at some passers-by as he turned, he felt the pull grow stronger and he looked around to try and find the source.
His attention was drawn to a small orange blur bouncing across the rooftops ahead, seemingly fleeing from some kind of mortal peril.
Hikari had just managed to identify the orange blur as both a small child and the target of his point me spell. when he was prevented from acting on this new information by sudden finding himself practically submerged in tree sap. Freshly delivered by said blur, who unbeknownst to Hikari, was dumping the evidence of his latest prank on the mean adults of the village.
Hikari calmly turned in the direction of the pulling sensation indicating the culprit and with a gesture cast -Arresto Momentum and -Levicorpus, effectively halting the speedy child mid-air and suspending him upside down by his ankle. He followed this up with summoning the child to hang in front of him at eye level. By this time the child had managed to curse up quite the storm while futilely attempting to free himself from the invisible restraint on his ankle.
"What the hell is going on! Lemmego you bastards won't get me that easily!" The child reached into his back pocket as he started to drift backwards toward Hikari, pulling out a small ball and in a quite acrobatic movement managed to get enough leverage on the invisible restraint to lift himself over his ankle to throw it at Hikari.
Thankfully Hikari had managed to wipe his eyes clear of sap by this time and returned the ball with a banishing charm, straight between the child's eyes. The ball exploded on impact with the kid's brow and created a massive cloud of flour, obscuring everything from sight for a few moments.
"that wasn't very effective" Hikari spoke through the quickly dissipating cloud.
"I still win, flour is easier to clean!" The kid had a smirk on his face even as he hung upside down and pointed with certainty.
Hikari inspected his ruined clothes and looked up to return the smirk while casting -Evanesco.
"oh really?" he asked as the sap vanished, seemingly without him doing anything.
The child turned sullen at this and seemed to admit defeat.
"well ya caught me, what are you gonna do?"
"I'm thinking torture" The smirk on Hikari's face turned evil and all the shadows seemed to grow darker and lengthen.
The kid visibly gulped.
"the method of torture will be, conversation" Hikari cancelled the minor illusion to punctuate the joke.
This seemed ineffectual as the kid actually seemed even more horrified.
-Geeze, how hyper can a kid be?
"Don't worry, this needn't take long. My name is Hikari, I am the Patron, umm let's go with… deity of the Uzumaki clan. I'm sure you have heard of m-."
"No" The kid interrupted abruptly.
"what do you mean no? aren't you a Uzumaki?"
"Of course I am! I'm Naruto Uzuma- Wait, how'd you know that?!"
"because I'm your patron deity. Has nobody taught you about your heritage?"
"No, the adults don't like me." There was a distinct tone of finality to the statement that led Hikari to believe this was something the kid had given up on trying to change.
"What is that supposed to mean? What about the other Uzumaki? Who is the current clan elder?" Hikari probed further.
Even as he spoke Hikari could see the frustration building up in the kid before he exploded.
"There are none! There is no clan! I've never even heard of anyone else with my clan name! I've always been alone! Everyone always treats me like I'm some kind of freak!"
The child was openly weeping now as he screamed his frustrations.
Hikari reeled at that, even centuries after his own abusive upbringing few things bothered him more than that word. Hikari released the spells holding the child in place and set him down gently on his feet and crouched down to place them at eyelevel. He slowly placed his hands on the kids shoulders to get his attention. "That is completely unacceptable."
The kid seemed taken off-guard by this and his eyes snapped back up to meet Hikari's.
"You need to know that none of that is your fault, anyone who can treat a kid that way is a bad person." Hikari asserted seriously, he knew first-hand the kind of long-term damage that kind of derision kan cause in a developing child.
The kid seemed chocked, he had probably never had anyone defend him like this.
"Now, as I have already asserted, I am your patron-deity and if what you say is true and you really are the last Uzumaki. That means that me being able to stay in this realm is contingent on your wellbeing."
The kid still seemed suspicious and confused. It wouldn't matter, one way or another he would have time to earn the kid's trust.
Hikari sighed and stood back up, keeping a hand on the kid's shoulder.
"Let's go have a talk with the people in charge, they have very clearly done wrong by you. Hold your breath or this will be quite uncomfortable."
"What will be?" the kid seemed strangely afraid.
"My rather unique method of getting around." Hikari thought of a quote from a book he read, hopefully it would catch the kid off guard to ease the transition.
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" the kid suddenly seemed very confused.
"You ask a glass of water."
Hikari waited a short moment as he felt the kid relax before disapparating.
Naruto was pretty shaken, he didn't know that stuff had bothered him so much. Having a stranger claim he was part of a large clan and assuming his life was perfect had brought up some really heavy stuff he didn't know he had been carrying. Furthermore, this strange adult didn't even seem angry at the prank, in fact he had treated it like a game of parry and riposte.
He was brought out of his dark thoughts when he felt a gentle hand land on his shoulder, he hadn't even realized the stranger had returned him to the ground. Naruto refused to look up for a moment, he was strangely ashamed of showing his weakness. He refused to show his tearstained cheeks, to reveal how much he had really been affected by the stranger's words. Naruto was forced to look up however when the stranger spoke again.
"That is completely unacceptable."
Naruto was floored, surely this was a trick, adults never defended him, they always assumed the worst of him. Naruto searched the strange man's eyes for any hint of insincerity to his words, but to his surprise he only found serious compassion.
The adult, Hikari was it? Seemed to deflate a little and once more stretched to his full length. Naruto watched as his compassionate eyes turned hard before he continued seriously.
"Let's go have a talk with the people in charge, they have very clearly done wrong by you. Hold your breath or this will be quite uncomfortable."
"What will be?" When he heard that word he was instantly weary, was the adult going to punish him after all?
"My rather unique method of getting around." The adult suddenly got a strange smirk and continued.
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" Naruto knew adults got drunk to relax and have fun, though he had no idea what it was like.
"You ask a glass of water."
The smirk had grown to a full grin by now, was he making jokes? Naruto relaxed involuntarily as the serious atmosphere was dissipated. He didn't have any time to consider how to react before he was overcome by a sudden squeezing feeling, he felt himself get impossibly longer, like he was being violently pulled through a very long and thin straw. Before he could think he found himself in the hokage's office, across the desk from gramps who wore an incredibly shocked expression. He almost laughed at the sight before sudden vertigo overtook him from the god-awful transportation, and he fell to his hands and knees to empty his stomach.
By the time he recovered a lot had changed, the office was now filled with men in black robes and creepy animal masks, all strangely frozen with weapons drawn. Hikari was bent over with a hand planted firmly on the desk and his other pointed threateningly at gramps, he was yelling furiously at the old man.
"YOU ABSOLUTE ARSE, HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?!"
Naruto must have missed the start of the conversation.
"HOW COULD YOU LET A CHILD BE TREATED THIS WAY!?"
Wait, were they talking about him?
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN "THE GREATER GOOD"?!"
What is going on? Gramps isn't responding but there seems to be some kind of back and forth going on.
Hikari's perspective
Upon reappearing in the office of the current Hokage, Hikari only had a split second to savour the shocked look on the old man's face before the office was swarmed with the Hokage's Anbu bodyguards. He had no chance to react before he had several sharp weapons at his throat. Thankfully, they would not attack unless he proved hostile.
The old man across the desk leaned back with a smirk on his face. "Who are you and why have you invaded my office, your response will determine your fate, we do not negotiate with hostage-takers. He gestured to the kid, currently busy emptying his stomach on the floor.
Hikari didn't like the superiority the old man was displaying and decided to take control of the situation. Hikari gathered his power and with a twitch of his finger he sent a modified Full-body bind in a wide wave at chest height, effectively paralysing all the other adults in the room.
Hikari quickly advanced, ducking under a frozen blade and planted both hands on the desk before leaning forward to fix the old man with a penetrating gaze.
"You sent for me, your white-haired emissaries found me to enforce the contract. Unfortunately for you, I came across some information indicating you haven't held up your side of the contract. I really don't like to do this, but I don't believe you would give me the full truth if I gave you a choice in the matter."
Hikari gestured with his hand and cast Legilimens to enter the old man's mind.
"Why does Naruto think he's the last Uzumaki?"
The question brought the relevant memories, starting with the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha and Naruto's birth.
"Were you aware how he is being treated?"
Once more he was shown memories in quickfire, Conversations with the Anbu guards watching Naruto, telling him how he was slowly being more and more ostracized going back as far as his time in the orphanage and continuing to this day.
Hikari was quickly reaching his boiling point and could not contain his own emotional outburst as he realized the extent of the old man's neglect.
YOU ABSOLUTE ARSE, HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?!"
"HOW COULD YOU LET A CHILD BE TREATED THIS WAY!?"
This time Hikari was shown how the old man was justifying every continuous small incident as helping the child grow stronger, more independent, all the while keeping him hidden. Telling himself that it was all for the good of the village.
Hikari lost himself a little at this point, seeing another well-meaning old man in the actions and mindset of the man before him.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN "THE GREATER GOOD"?!"
"YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH EVIL IS DONE FOR "THE GREATER GOOD", NOBODY THINKS THEY ARE THE VILLAIN!"
"HOW DID YOU HOPE TO KEEP THIS A SECRET?!"
"A LAW? MAKING IT A LAW TO KEEP THE SECRET WOULD MEAN EVERYONE HAS TO KNOW THE SECRET, THEN IT'S NOT A SECRET ANYMORE!"
"HOW COULD ANYONE BE SO INFURIATINGLY STUPID?!"
"WHAT OF THE CHILD'S FAMILY? HIS CLAN!?" Hikari probed, what happened to all the refugees from Uzushio?
He was shown how the second shinobi world war had weakened Konoha, how the old man before him, having just been made Hokage, learned about the contract, binding a powerful ally to Konoha, on the condition that the refugees from Uzushio and their lineages were protected and guaranteed to continue.
With this new information he made the decision to send the few remaining survivors of Uzushio into hiding under new identities across the elemental kingdoms. All in an effort to keep the contract that bound Hikari from ever being broken.
"YOU SENT THEM AWAY?! SCATTERED THEM, MADE THEM REFUGEES AGAIN?!"
"YOU ARE LUCKY YOU ONLY BROKE THE SPIRIT OF THE CONTRACT AND NOT THE LITERAL MEANING!"
Hikari broke eye contact, releasing the connection to the old man's mind.
Of course, the Hokage wasn't aware of the original contract, the one Hikari had made with the Uzumaki clan, the only thing keeping him from being sent back to the dust ball that the earth had been transformed into. The original contract bound Hikari, not to the Uzumaki bloodline, but to the clan itself. This was a very minor difference when the contract was signed, the clan and the family being very much the same thing. Unfortunately, the wording of the contract meant that Hikari's continued stay in this dimension relied not on the bloodline to continue, but the name.
Hikari sighed, the extended use of legilimancy and rush of new memories was quickly giving him a headache. He didn't like how he much the thought of being forced back to earth had affected him.
He had come to really love his new life in the elemental kingdoms and quickly realized he would do anything to protect it. Then there was the issue with Naruto. Hikari could never let the kid grow up neglected and shunned after all he had learned, regardless that the kid's continued safety was now the lynchpin keeping him here.
Hikari took a moment and collected himself before continuing.
"Regardless of my feelings on the matter, you haven't broken the contract so I'm yours to command, I will help in any way I can." Hikari refocused, once more pinning the old man with his gaze.
"However, because of your actions, my aid will be conditional. The original contract, keeping me in this realm is contingent on the continuation of the Uzumaki clan." Hikari gestured to Naruto, who had been following the seeming one-sided exchange intensely.
Hikari took a moment to vanish the vomit on the floor before turning fully to Naruto.
"I know this is a lot to take in at once Naruto, but all you really need to know is this."
"Long, long ago, before Konoha existed, your clan summoned me. We made a contract; this contract lets me stay in your realm on the condition that your clan lives on."
Hikari walked over and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, forcing him to meet his gaze.
"This means. From now on, you have me, I will never betray you, not for anyone."
"No matter what happens, I will only ever want the best for you. Because without you, I disappear, gone from this wonderful world forever." Hikari wanted to give the kid a moment to let that sink in so he faced the old man once more before releasing the paralysis.
The Hokage quickly caught himself and dismissed the gathered Anbu with a subtle gesture before they could act rashly.
Hikari could see him gathering his thoughts on the events of the last few minutes and decided to direct his attention to what he needed to discuss.
"So, you see Hokage, I will help you because I must, but not before I am thoroughly assured of Naruto's best interest."