True Heir to the Uzumaki Clan

Chapter Four: Konoha Bound

Naruto woke up and felt…

"Why I do I feel so good? It's like I slept for three days?" Naruto said mostly too himself, not noticing the fact that he wasn't quite alone.

"That's because you've been out for a WEEK! You're such a BAKA!" Karin yelled, she was mad. Naruto had her really worried. They didn't know if he'd wake up or not.

"You know… when you do the ritual, you're supposed to make a shallow cut… not actually stab yourself, you know all the way through?" Nagato spent the week going over the scrolls trying to figure out what Naruto could have possible have done wrong, Karin was freaking out and Mariko was looking to him to fix things. After going over the ritual procedure he could only come to the conclusion that Naruto stabbed into his spiritual energy instead of slicing a small opening. What he did could have been a problem but he was lucky he was a previous jinchuuriki, he had a lot of chakra. Much more than even a higher ranked Uzumaki would even have, so he had an excess and abundance of spiritual and physical energy.

"Well, you're going to be limited in your ninjutsu for a while but at least you're alive. You're Zanpakuto absorbed the majority of your spiritual chakra. From what I read, that means your Zanpakuto will be stronger than average, but it limits you on the other end at least until your body recovers from this." Nagato said in a lecturing tone… Naruto it's just like you to go overboard… at least you mainly used kenjutsu anyway.

Mariko then took charge of the room, "Well you might as well get your rest, you start at the Academy in a week. You're lucky Karin volunteered to take care of you!" Mariko finished with a smirk, her daughter did no such thing, but she wouldn't mind she knew that. Mariko was pretty much dead set on getting the two together at this point. She saw Naruto as a son, and she helped raise him to one day be the kind of man her Karin needs. It worked out for her.

"Alright everyone out he needs to rest!"

The week went by rather quickly, too quickly for Karin actually. Naruto and Karin spent the week mostly together while he was resting. She loved it, she would bring him his food and drinks and pretty much just sit with him. Sure he complained about wanting to get up and train, but her mom told her he wasn't allowed to get up, so when he started complaining she would just sit on him and apply chakra to the bed so he couldn't move her. She thought it was really funny, that and she blushed a lot. But all good things must come to an end and the week ended and they were heading to the academy with Juugo.

As they entered they saw a man dressed in the common chunin uniform of Ame, which was a pale tan long-sleeved shirt under a light blue vest with the Ame Hitae-ite on his forehead. This man was very plain and was their teacher for the next few years.

"Class, I would like to introduce Juugo Henkan and Naruto and Karin Uzumaki. They will be joining our class from now on. Would you care to introduce yourselves young ones?" the instructor said.

"Sure! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like training, Fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, and ninjutsu! Hanging out with Juugo and Karin-chan, and spending time with my dad and their parents, although Uncle Yahiko and Aunt Konan freak me out sometimes! Oh and Guren-nee is awesome! I'm originally from Konoha, and adopted but I don't let that get me down too much as my dad is pretty cool. I hope to make friends with you all!" Naruto said excitedly, Karin wasn't happy when some of the girls looked at Naruto like he was the coolest thing since sliced bread… (Yeah I said that… hehe)

"Hi I'm Karin Uzumaki, and no Naruto is NOT my brother! And I pretty much like everything he said, and I like learning from my parents! I hope to one day activate my dad's doujutsu! Oh and yeah my dad is the leader of the village I guess…" Karin said, totally name dropping her dad in hopes of getting the girls to stop looking at Naruto. Which didn't unsurprisingly work.

"I'm Juugo Henkan, I like meditating and sparring with my friends. Music is amazing! I'm currently trying to master my chakra as it's apparently very hard to master for members of my clan. I hope to make many friends as well." Juugo said not wanting to talk about his chakra problem.

The class eventually calmed down and they started their lesson…

[This is REALLLY boring!] Naruto hand signed to Karin and Juugo. They had already covered all of the information that was on the syllabus… the next four years were going to be rough

[I know! Just act interested and answer when he calls on you! We'll learn more when we get home…] Karin signed back to Naruto. She didn't want Naruto to be a show off, if he showed off the girls would like him more, she didn't need competition, unlike Naruto she finally realized she actually liked him during the week taking care of him. Naruto was hers…

Juugo didn't think it was too bad, it was calm. So no chance of him overdoing it. [It's not so bad, I can practice my meditation during his lectures!]

[Juugo you're a genius! I can do blade Zen during class!] Naruto quickly replied, before setting his Zanpakuto over his lap and focusing.

…the next six years wouldn't be so bad…

-Time skip-

…6 years later…

"You guys, remember what I said the first day of class six years ago?" Naruto asked, not much had really changed for his outfit. He still wore red shinobi pants wrapped at the ankles, black shinobi sandals, and his custom grey tank tops that had chain mesh armor sleeves and connected to the mask on his face. The only difference was the Ame Hitae-ite around his neck protecting his jugular, and his Zanpakuto hanging from his hip. He had gotten a lot taller over the years, in fact the only one taller than him in their age group was his best friend juugo, he was muscular for a shinobi as he had to conserve as much chakra as possible. He still hadn't restored a third of reserves after the Seishin kakusei incident. So he mainly relied on his Kenjutsu and really only used his ninjutsu defensively.

"That it wouldn't be so bad?" Karin replied, much had changed in the 6 years that they had been in the academy. First was her hair. Her hair was much longer and was now symmetrical in the way that she just kind of just made it messy all over, she gave up on straight hair and after she saw how Naruto looked at her with messy hair a year or so ago, she never looked back. (Think Kurenai's hair but with longer and thinner red hair) Next she now wore a white zip up sleeveless jacket that hung down to her knees but split above her belly button showing off her now very toned stomach, under that she wore very-very short light purple short shorts that had her Hitae-ite as a belt buckle. She wore long purple fingerless gloves that reached her mid bicep and purple leggings (not actually leggings they start at mid-thigh and go downward, I'll add her and juugo to the cover picture and you'll see what I mean) that seemed to meld with her purple shinobi sandals. Behind her hips sheathed her own Zanpakuto, hers were two dual tanto length blades that shared a single double sided sheath that hung horizontally behind her hips.

"Well, I take it back… that sucked!" Naruto stated, those classes completely bored him half to death. The only benefit that classes gave him were meditation time with his Zanpakuto.

"Come on it, it wasn't that bad… I thought it was pretty relaxing." Juugo said was he towered over the group the male with the red eyes and orange hair had developed into a power type like his father had guessed he would. He now wore a light blue long sleeved shirt that held a high collar with a red scarf around his neck that covered a small portion of his face. Darker blue shinobi pants and across his back was his father's old sword from when the Akatsuki were a newly formed group. He wasn't anywhere near his teammate's level with a blade but sparing with the two Uzumaki made him pick up a few things. It wasn't his main style by far but he carried one anyway. He didn't carry much for ninja weapons as he was mostly a close range guy

"So are you three ready? We should be in Konoha in a few hours after all." Spoke the voice that they were quite used to hearing. Like the others she had changed a lot, she was 19 years old and turning into a beautiful woman, she had to turn down marriage proposals quite often. She kept her same hairstyle over the years and her dark eyes really pulled men in. Guren was a recently promoted Jounin of Ame and the leader of Squad 13. For her attire she now wore a green kimono with a dark blue Jounin vest over it. On her thighs were pouches filled with special paper that she used to utilize her origami jutsu with.

"You got it, Sensei-nee!" Naruto spoke out in jest, he knew she hated their nickname for her but he loved her reaction.

"How many times have I asked you to stop it with that title…?" Guren growled out.

"Two thousand and seventy-nine times?" Naruto asked, at that joke he had Karin and Juugo laughing as they did indeed keep count on how many times she asked.

"That's it! No unlocking your gravity seals for the exams… deal with it." Guren said with a slightly sadistic smirk.

"B-but! I have mine at 9.5 right now! No fair!" Naruto spurted out.

"Mine's at 3.4! There's no way we can compete like this!" Karin shouted back.

"Well.. I suppose I'll deal with my 8.2 seal…" Juugo stated, completely fine with it.

"Deal… if you guys get first place in the 2nd portion I'll let you take them off. But not a moment sooner."

Meanwhile, while the children were shouting at their sensei Orochimaru was on his way to the Hokage tower to meet up with Hiruzen and his old teammates. Hidden by the shadows he entered the building undeterred as only the best could sense him. Feeling the presences in the room Orochimaru noted that the trio he was searching for were indeed inside so like the snake he was he slithered his way in.

"Long time no see, eh Sensei? Tsunade, Idiot? How have you been?" Orochimaru said with that gleam in his eyes, he couldn't help himself but make fun of Jiraiya regardless of how powerful his old teammate had become.

"Where's Naruto…" It was a question, but it came off more like 'Tell me where he is or you're dead' this came from the already angry Toad Sage.

"Ohh! He's around, I thought you three would want to catch up but perhaps I was mistaken? You received my messages and pictures correct Sensei?" Orochimaru stated.

Tsunade turned to her old teammate and spoke the same words as Jiraiya albeit with more intensity, you know the saying Hell hath no fury… etc., this time Orochimaru deemed it appropriate to respond correctly.

"He's on his way as I said he'd be he's beyond chunin level and trust me when I say it. He will destroy the competition, if you can even call it that." That got everyone's attention they hadn't been aware of where Orochimaru had even been hiding out at so to know that he had gotten him into their upcoming exams without them even realizing it was a surprise.

"You'll know him when you see him. I'll be around" and with that Orochimaru disappeared into the floor like he was never there.

Hiruzen noted the pride in Orochimaru's eyes upon speaking about Naruto, perhaps the boy was good for him still it was a shame to lose him as a leaf shinobi. Jiraiya and Tsunade on the other hand were baffled by the way he disappeared from their senses… with the way they'd improved they figured that he wouldn't be able to do that to them anymore… and Jiraiya was in sage mode as well… Troublesome…

As the group entered the village of Konoha they were given a wide berth as while outsiders weren't exactly rare, foreign Shinobi were. As they were rounding a corner they noticed a kid about their age with dark spikey hair running into a guy…

"Is that a cat suit?" Naruto asked Karin, quite loudly actually. Loud enough to pull the guys attention.

"IT'S NOT A CAT SUIT!" Kankuro shouted, clearly offended. His sister on the other hand was holding her hand in front of her mouth trying to stifle her giggles. He's cute AND funny. So mysterious with that mask… Temari thought to herself as she stared at the red head in front of her. She's glaring at me? Is it his girlfriend or his sister?

"What are you looking at me like that? Your brother is hot!" Temari said without shame. They didn't grow em' like that in Suna that was for certain.

"HE'S NOT MY BROTHER YOU BLONDE BIMBO!" Karin shouted… seriously? Why do all girls that meet Naruto assume she's his little sister? It had to be the hair… first was that daimyo from the land of snow—er Spring. Then there was that crossdressing daimyo from the land of birds. Then that prophet chick with those creepy eyes begging him to give her his child… why is it that every mission we do with a female client that in the end they offer 'anything' as payment when they look at him… it just pisses me off!

"Karin? Are you there? You're zoning out again." Naruto said as he waved his hand in front of her face. The sand sibling's already introduced themselves and left after their younger brother came down and told Naruto and Juugo that he wanted to kill them. It was so casual that it could have been considered creepy, but Naruto just shrugged it off and told him to try his best. Every time Garra had him in his sand Naruto just vanished and appeared behind him in swirl. All he did was dodge all of Garra's attacks effortlessly and Kankuro and Temari looked at him like he was God and that he was going to smite them.

"Anyways, we have to go to this exam room next I guess it's at their academy? Room 302?" Naruto told them as they followed him to the school. Upon entering they saw an odd scene a guy in a green jumpsuit was getting beat up by the Chunin gate gaurds that let them in, clearly in a henge. While they guarded the way to room '302', it was clearly a genjutsu over the sign as they weren't even on the third floor yet. But some duckbutt asshole had to let the cannon fodder on the secret and told them to take the genjutsu down. Figures, now more competition, cannon fodder but still. Oddly after seeing the pink haired one being abuse verbally the green jumpsuit attacked and showed that he wasn't as helpless as he looked, which got him yelled at by his teammates for blowing their cover. Good idea, make yourselves look like incapable ninja to get the leg up on others, too bad their teammate ruined the gag. Next they watched as some white haired genin was talking to the duckbutt asshole about info cards… the asshole asked about them and the suna team. What he said shocked everyone about the sand nin Garra, he had never been injured in battle… ever. But then he talked about them…

"Ah, yes while Garra-kun is quite impressive, the Ame team are all just as impressive. None of them have ever sustained an injury. They've never failed a mission including the fact that they've been on several A ranks already, the male redhead is said to be on the level of Kiri's Seven swordsmen and it says here that any who have seen his blade fully unsheathed died shortly after. His true identity is also fully off the record which is odd for a Genin. He can kill you without even taking half of his blade out of the sheath. He's known to be very fast. But it's safe to say he's probably an Uzumaki, with the red hair, sword skills and fuinjutsu that he has covering his arms." Kabuto stated without a care. Naruto walked up to him afterwards.

"Hey can I see your cards? They look reallyy cool!" Totally deflating everyone's expectations, he sounded funny compared to what they expected. They all thought he would be more intimidate—

Naruto then with a simple touch caused the cards to explode in flames. "That's what I think about your spying." He stated with a more appropriate serious tone and before anyone could truly register the change in demeanor a scarred Jounin and a group of Chunin proctors showed up in a puff of smoke.

[This is so boring, wake me up when the tenth question is asked] Naruto signed to his teammates. They had finished the questions in a few minutes after the proctor explained in painstaking detail the rules for the written exam. The man was obviously an interrogator as he was using fear tactics to thin out the room and the chunin and he were slowing raising their killing intent to weed out the weak ones. After listing the weaknesses and habits of every other competitor on the back of his exam, Naruto laid his head down and took a nap. That is until he felt Karin throw a paper shuriken at the back of his head.

"The final question, before we go over it choose if you want to take it. If you fail you'll be a Genin forever, if you choose not to you can take the exams in six months and hope the rules are easier." Ibiki stated and turned his eyes to the redhead that had been napping for the majority of the Exam, he seemed to be of the lazy variety so he decided to aim his KI directly at him… but it didn't affect him in the slightest?

"Examinee 32… will you be taking the next question? You could let your teammates down…" he started but was sooner interrupted.

"Who cares if I fail? It's not like this scare tactic of yours is real anyway…" he spoke lazily like it really didn't matter either way.

"are you sure?" Ibiki said as he tried increasing his KI.

"Yeah. Can you tone the KI down? I'm trying to relax here…" with that Naruto laid his head back down, clearing not giving a shit about what the proctor was going to say next. A few minutes later the Proctor passed them and started explaining the purpose of the test which Naruto promptly slept through until an orange and purple blur burst through the window…

"This is gonna be fun."