Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Three: Fallout
Itachi was observing the scene in front of him with a frown on his face. The dark-haired Uzushio ninja was holding Naruto's hand and the five of them were now making their way to the festival. If he had to guess, he'd say they were headed towards the Hokage and the Head of Uzushio.
He could see no way to peacefully retrieve the boy. If he tried to intervene, it would result in a four-against-one fight, one that he couldn't win without backup. Using his Sharingan, he had seen that each of the four Uzushio shinobi was more powerful than him. It wasn't a surprise, really. Itachi was talented, but he was still an eleven-year-old boy. He had a long way to go before his chakra reserves could back up his talent.
The logical thing to do would be to immediately inform the Hokage about—
Never let Naruto out of your sight.
Kakashi's words echoed inside his head, halting him before he could move.
In the almost five months he'd been guarding Naruto, Itachi had seen enough to make him hate human beings. Every time he returned home from this particular guard duty, he embraced his little brother and told him that he would always be there for him.
Itachi examined the four Uzushio shinobi again. The black-haired one and the redhead had the red spiral on their backs, proof they were members of the Uzumaki clan; the absurd amount of chakra each of them had only confirmed this. The man with the orange hair and the woman were also wearing the Uzumaki crest, but on their shoulders —a mark of allegiance to the clan bestowed on a trusted non-clan member.
His frown deepened.
He remembered his mother's best friend, the red-haired Uzumaki Kushina. She was loud and short-tempered, but not malicious. If her clansmen were like her, then there was no reason to fear they would harm Naruto.
The man's comatose state…
Itachi suppressed a sigh. He would rather face the Hokage's stern disapproval than Hatake Kakashi's homicidal rage. He was not strong enough to survive the latter; not yet, anyway.
Trapped, he kept his place behind the small procession.
-XOXO-
There were only three things that were stopping Naruto from running away to escape the cold eyes of the crowd of people gathered for the Rinne Festival.
The first was Kaji's hand, which was gently holding his much smaller one; he tightened his grip and felt the young man squeeze his hand lightly in return. The second was the knowledge that Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan were walking right behind them; the three of them had surrounded him and the dark-haired man and were glaring right back at everyone else. The third was the sight of the Hokage's red-and-white hat and robes in the distance; nothing would happen to him while jiji was around.
Bracing himself, he raised his head to look around again. If he wanted them to see him, then he'd have to be able to stare them down.
To his surprise, there were fewer cold looks directed at him than he'd feared there would be. Instead, many people were looking at him with open curiosity –some were even smiling at him.
'What's going on? Did everyone around here go crazy today?'
The blond boy noticed that a large part of the crowd was made up of shinobi, and that most of them didn't have the leaf on their hitai-ate, but a spiral –just like the four walking around him. Strange. Hadn't Kaji-occhan said that Uzushio shinobi didn't come to Konoha anymore? Naruto certainly didn't remember seeing any before he met the dark-haired man, not even during the festivals.
The five of them stopped walking in front of the raised platform where the important shinobi of the village were sitting.
"I apologize for the delay, Father," Kaji said with a small bow.
Naruto's eyes nearly flew out of their sockets before he realized that the dark-haired man was not addressing the Hokage, but the man sitting next to him. He was old, but most of his long hair was still flaming red. 'Just like my scarf,' Naruto thought suddenly. He frowned and shook his head; where had that thought come from?
The red-haired old man slowly left his seat and walked towards his son. Or, at least, that was what Naruto thought he was going to do before the old man kneeled in front of him.
Naruto gulped as the old man stared at him with an expression the boy couldn't even begin to understand. The old man's mouth was moving like he wanted to smile, but his eyes, purple-blue just like Kaji's, were strangely bright and watery. 'How can a person be happy and sad at the same time?'
He tried to take a step back, but Kaji held his hand tighter; the young man was smiling at him softly. "There's no need to be afraid, Naruto. He's the one I told you about. Allow me to introduce you to my father, Uzumaki Kenjiro. He's been waiting to meet you since before you were born."
Naruto finally accepted that this day was weird. Nothing made sense anymore. There were more people who wanted to see him? Was someone playing a prank on him?
And why was the red-haired old man still staring at him like that? It was as if... as if he was searching for something in Naruto's face. The boy opened his mouth to tell him to stop that, but a tear fell from the old man's eyes before he could get the words out.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, grandson."
-XOXO-
Hiruzen almost cursed out loud when he saw young Kaji walking down the main street, holding Naruto's hand. Beside him, Kenjiro had stopped his nervous tapping of the chair's arm with his fingertips and was sitting straighter.
A random Uzumaki coming across the boy would be worrisome, but not overly so. This was a disaster. Kaji had spoken to Naruto again and, this time, it seemed that he wanted to introduce the vessel of the Kyuubi to the rest of his clan.
No, 'disaster' was too mild a word for this fiasco. When Hiruzen found out who had let Kaji come within a ten-meter radius of the blond boy, heads would roll.
Unlike his son, Kenjiro was known for paying great attention to detail; he would instantly notice the boy's resemblance to Minato. Then again, anyone with functioning eyes should be able to see that Naruto looked just like his father. And, even if by some miracle the old seal master failed to spot the obvious, Hiruzen would be damned the moment a 'dattebayo' fell out of the boy's mouth.
The aging Hokage racked his brains trying to come up with a plausible excuse to have an ANBU escort Naruto as far away from here as possible. Glancing at the Uzumaki clan head again, he felt his breath catch in his throat. The redhead was absolutely still; his eyes were fixed on the small, vibrant blond boy next to the tall, black-clad young man and he was smiling.
A horrible suspicion took root in Hiruzen's mind. He scanned the crowd and noticed just how many Uzushio shinobi were scattered among the citizens of Konoha –far too many to be an honor guard for the three visiting clan heads.
It hit the Hokage like an avalanche in the Land of Frost during winter.
'They know.'
Kaji, that infernal brat, hadn't accidentally ran into Naruto just now. No, he knew. He already knew about the boy. He'd been playing them for fools for weeks and they didn't have an inkling of what was going on.
And how in the name of every kami in existence had the Uzumaki managed to sneak an army inside Konoha without raising any suspicions? Rinne Festival or no, security should have been tighter than this. Had Danzou gone soft when Hiruzen hadn't been looking?
Before Hiruzen could mentally berate himself for his own lapse in vigilance, he saw Rei nodding sharply at nothing in particular. Like someone had flipped a switch, the Uzushio ninja stopped smiling, laughing, and mingling with the crowd of revelers; suddenly, dozens of foreign shinobi in the middle of Konoha tensed as if in anticipation of a battle.
"I apologize for the delay, Father." The brat had this smug smile on his face, making the aging Hokage's blood boil.
From somewhere on Hiruzen's right came a faint mutter of 'troublesome'. Of course Shikaku would have figured out everything from a simple exchange of introductions. Now, if only there was a way to ask the Nara for a strategy to deal with this without getting the civilians present involved in a bloodbath.
Hiruzen heard a strangled exclamation from Homura and felt more than saw Koharu wringing her hands in helpless fury as Kenjiro left his seat and walked towards the young man and the boy standing in front of the platform. Naruto was looking distinctly uncomfortable being the focus of the old seal master's unwavering gaze, but the Uzumaki brat didn't let go of the boy's hand. "There's no need to be afraid, Naruto. He's the one I told you about. Allow me to introduce you to my father, Uzumaki Kenjiro. He's been waiting to meet you since before you were born."
Kenjiro –that old, conniving bastard– was kneeling in front of Naruto now. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, grandson."
And there it was. The moment everything came crashing down in flames.
There were gasps coming from the honorable heads of Konoha's shinobi clans, as well as from a few of the more sharp-witted jounin and chuunin. If it didn't mark the beginning of the end, Hiruzen would have laughed at the perversity of the universe and the folly of man.
'Now that it's been rubbed in their faces, they finally see.'
-XOXO-
Naruto closed his mouth and blinked; he must have heard wrong. He blinked again.
"'Grandson?' What are you talking about, jii-chan?"
The old man looked up at Kaji. "You didn't tell him?"
"No. I thought you should be the one to tell him, Father," the young man said with a small smile.
"I see." The old man turned his eyes to the boy again. "Your mother, Naruto, was my daughter. Therefore, that makes you my grandson."
"My m-mother?" Naruto asked shakily.
"Yes. Her name was Uzumaki Kushina." The blond boy knew that name; he'd heard it before, along with another, more well-known one. But, if this Kushina lady was his mother, then... "And your father," the old man raised his voice at the last word, "was Namikaze Minato. The man you know as the Fourth Hokage."
There were more gasps from the crowd, along with shouts of 'Impossible!' and 'There's no way this is true!', but Naruto didn't care one bit about them right now.
The Yondaime was his father. And he also had a grandfather.
No, it couldn't be –it was too much. This had to be a dream, like the ones he used to have back in the orphanage.
From what seemed like a great distance, Naruto could hear people shouting and arguing with each other. A woman's voice was audible above the noise, telling everyone to shut up and take a good look at the kid before opening their mouths again. The blond boy ignored all of them; instead, he looked up at his dark-haired friend. "Is this real?"
"Yes, it is." Kaji squeezed Naruto's hand and gave the boy a warm smile. "Nephew."
Grandson. Nephew. The words finally started to make sense. He had a family. He had a family! But, then…
Naruto pulled his hand out of Kaji's grip and took a few steps away from the two men. The red-haired old man was up on his feet in an instant, but neither of them tried to approach the boy.
"If you're my family, then where have you been all this time?" He clenched his small hands into fists. "Where were you when I needed you? Why did you leave me ALONE?"
His breaths were coming in hard, shallow gasps now and he was trembling, but he didn't care. He kept glaring at the two men who had the nerve to call themselves his family after abandoning him to deal with all of this every day of his life.
"We didn't know about you, Naruto," the old man said softly.
The boy snorted; yeah, right. How could they not know about him?
"I'm not lying, child. We were told that you had been killed along with your parents five years ago."
"You were told?" Naruto asked in disbelief.
"I know this will sound as a flimsy excuse, but after Kushina died, I was... devastated." The incredibly sad look on the old man's face made Naruto heart ache, even though he wanted to stay angry with the geezer. "I had already lost two sons; losing my only daughter was..." He shook his head; another tear fell from his eyes. "I didn't want to set foot anywhere near Konoha so soon after that, so I trusted Sarutobi's word."
Sarutobi…
…The Hokage? The man who called himself his grandfather had been told he was dead by the Hokage?
"It was a stroke of luck that Kaji met you in that ramen stand that day," the red-haired old man, his grandfather, said. "If he hadn't, we may never have learned that you were still alive."
Naruto turned towards the man he trusted more than anyone else and had been calling 'gran'pa' his entire life.
This will be your new home now, Naruto. What do you think?
It's awesome! Thanks, jiji!
Tell me about my parents, jiji.
They died when the Kyuubi attacked. I've told you this before, Naruto.
Yeah, but you didn't tell me who they were.
They were great people, and they loved you very much. That's all I'm going to say about them. It's best to let the dead rest in peace.
Do I have any brothers or sisters, jiji?
No, Naruto. You don't have any other family.
Lies. He'd been told nothing but lies by the Hokage. Naruto had never been so angry in his life. His belly felt as if it were on fire; soon, the feeling spread to the rest of his body, making him tremble.
"Yes. The Hokage has been lying to you your entire life. He made you stay in this place, kept you away from the people who might have cared for you. He's the reason you've been suffering for as long as you can remember. Do you want to make him pay for this, boy?"
'Yes! He has to pay for taking everything away from me.'
A low, rumbling laughter echoed inside Naruto's head. "Good. But you can't do it alone. I will give you a bit of my power. Use it to hurt him as he has hurt you."
Red. It was all around him now, a gift from the voice inside his head. It enveloped him, held him tightly, until red was all he could see. His body, too small to contain such a force, felt like it was going to be ripped apart. But once the pain faded, came power. He didn't know how else to describe it, that feeling that he was now able to do anything he wanted, that nobody would be able to stop him.
And what he wanted to do was hurt the ones who had hurt him.
Starting with the lying old man.
-XOXO-
Hiruzen felt his heart break when he saw Naruto's face. Those expressive blue eyes, which had never truly managed to hide the boy's sadness and pain from him, were filled with an agony he had never seen before on the blond boy he had come to regard as a grandson.
Then, the boy's eyes narrowed in an expression that was just as familiar but a hundred times more terrible. He had seen that look many times in his life, but never on a five-year-old.
A gust of red chakra tore through the crowded street, making everyone quail in abject terror. They all knew that horrible, dark, suffocating chakra; it had been five years since they'd felt it, but no-one would ever forget.
Kyuubi.
Hiruzen looked at Naruto, that wonderful splash of sunshine who had always managed to find something positive in life and kept fighting despite bearing everyone's hatred, and felt his blood turn to ice.
The boy was surrounded by a shroud of red chakra. Somehow, it was changing Naruto's appearance. The unruly spikes of his hair had turned wilder, his hands ended in claws, and the thin whisker lines on his cheeks were now harsh marks. But the most terrifying part of this transformation were the boy's eyes; the bright blue irises were now blood red, with slits instead of pupils.
Those demonic eyes were fixed on him, cold and merciless. He could see Naruto's hatred in them, as well as and older, deeper hatred that demanded blood to be satisfied.
People were wailing now, scared out of their minds by the oppressive chakra. For five years, they'd been treating Naruto like a demon, thinking that by ignoring the boy and denying his existence, the demon would not hurt them. The truth, however, was much different than that. Naruto was not a demon; he was just a little boy who held a Tailed Beast in check with help from a seal and his own willpower. And now that he had been pushed well past his limit, he was willing to break that seal and use the Kyuubi's power to get his revenge.
The people of Konoha had created their own nightmare.
And Hiruzen had allowed this to happen.
-XOXO-
The Hokage was staring at him now with a look of sorrow and pity on his face.
Naruto glared harder. How dare the old man look at him like that? Like… like he was worried about the boy. If he really cared, then he wouldn't have left him to live like this; he wouldn't have lied to him.
"It's infuriating, isn't it? The way he looks at you like he's your kind old grandfather."
'Yes.' A small part of him, the one that could still think calmly, wondered who that voice belonged to and why had he never heard it before, but the rest of him didn't care. The voice knew him, knew what he wanted. It was enough.
"Kill him, Naruto. It's the only way to make him stop looking at you."
The boy bared his teeth in a mockery of his usual smile, revealing long fangs; he liked that plan.
Before he could jump on the platform to slice the Hokage to ribbons, a dark figure flashed in front of him and grabbed his shoulders.
"Naruto! Calm down! Look at me, kid!"
Kaji shuddered when Naruto turned his crimson eyes at him, but didn't move.
"That's right, look at me. Keep your eyes on me." The young man spoke every word slowly, clearly. "Calm down. Take a deep breath. Can you do that for me?"
"Why should you listen to him, boy? What has he ever done for you? You heard what the old man said; it was only luck that he found you that night. He never looked for you. He never cared to find out if you were alive."
The voice was right. "Why should I do as you say? You left me alone all these years."
"Yes, I did. And I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm so sorry. I wish I could go back and change everything."
Naruto saw something flicker behind Kaji, and his head snapped up. The gray-haired old woman next to the Hokage had frozen when she felt his glare; her hand was still raised in some kind of signal.
"See, boy? The Hokage is not going to let you go with your family. He can't let you go, because if he does, he's going to lose our power. You will never be free as long as he lives."
"Don't move!" Kenjiro barked. "Everyone stay where you are!"
"Don't look at them, Naruto! Look at me! Focus only on me." The boy turned his attention back to the dark-haired man. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. I promised, didn't I?"
Yes, he had promised that.
Naruto did as the young man –his uncle– told him. He took a deep breath.
"That's it," Kaji said with a small, encouraging smile. "Hold it for a while… Now let it out… Good. You're doing great, Naruto. Again, deep breath…"
"Do you honestly believe that things are going to be better with 'grandfather' and 'uncle'? How do you know they won't betray you, just like your 'jiji'?"
"Breathe. Please, Naruto, you need to keep breathing…" The dark-haired man sounded desperate.
'Kaji-occhan won't betray me; he's my friend.' Naruto took another deep breath. 'Please, I don't want to hurt him.'
"Very well. But remember, if things don't turn out the way you want them to, I'll always be here."
Breath by breath, the red power faded. Without it, however, Naruto's body felt really weak. The boy swayed, unable to stay standing; one by one, the other colors faded as well, leaving only black. The boy's last thoughts before he fainted were about that strange voice.
'Where is 'here'?'
-XOXO-
Kaji caught the wobbling Naruto and cradled the boy in his arms, listening to the sound of his breathing.
The Hokage had already taken control of the situation and was trying to calm the panicking crowd. "Naruto needs to be taken to the hospital. That amount of chakra could have seriously hurt him."
Kaji instinctively held the unconscious boy closer to him. At the moment, he didn't care that the man who had given the order was known as the God of Shinobi and had decades of combat experience over him. He didn't care that the Professor was stronger than him. All that mattered to him was that Sarutobi Hiruzen had asked him to let go of Naruto.
That would never happen.
He rose to his full height, glared at the Hokage, and hit him with the full force of his Killing Intent. "No."
Uzumaki Kaji was not in a Kage's league yet, but he was close. He had made a name for himself as a master of the sword during the Third Shinobi World War. He was an expert at fuuinjutsu, effortlessly combining it with his kenjutsu. He was willing to do anything for those precious to him and had the raw power necessary to back up his stubbornness. As such, even though he had neither the sheer amount of chakra nor the daunting presence a jinchuuriki possessed, his KI was nothing to laugh at.
The crowd cowered in fear once again; the dark-haired man had the satisfaction of seeing some of the heads of Konoha's most powerful clans do the same.
Kaji felt a hand grip his shoulder tightly. "Calm down, son. No-one is going to take Naruto away." Kenjiro turned towards the platform where the other two Uzushio clan heads were standing. "Hiro, could you…?"
Before his father could finish his sentence, Hiro was already next to the dark-haired man and had placed his hands over Naruto; the middle-aged man's palms were glowing with chakra as he used medical ninjutsu to examine the blond boy.
After a few tense moments, Kaji couldn't stand the silence anymore. "How is he?"
"He's fine. Just a mild case of chakra overload. Not surprising, considering…"
"Indeed." Rei had also approached the black-clad Uzumaki holding the unconscious boy. "To be honest, I never thought he'd be able to draw out so much of the Kyuubi's chakra at his age."
There was a collective gasp from the crowd as the most closely guarded secret of the Leaf was revealed so nonchalantly. The brown-haired head of the Akashio clan didn't seem to pay them any mind.
"Neither did I," Hiro said, still holding chakra-infused palms over Naruto. "At least we know now that anger is the trigger."
"He must have really trusted you, Hiruzen," Kenjiro said solemnly.
'Though not anymore, from the look of things,' Kaji mused, remembering the struggle he had gone through to convince Naruto not to tell the old coot about their secret meetings; the boy had trusted the Hokage implicitly.
Hiro withdrew his palms and took a few steps back, giving Kenjiro some room to approach his grandson. Kaji's father looked intently at the unconscious boy before placing a hand on his blond hair, moving it away from his forehead. "Is there anything more you can do for him, Hiro?"
"No. I may know a bit of medical ninjutsu, but I'm not a medic. Don't worry, Kaji," Hiro said, raising his hands to forestall the young man's protest, "he's fine. The damage to his chakra coils has already started to heal. He's got an amazing recovery rate; I don't think he even needed my help. Just let him sleep for a while."
The dark-haired man nodded and hugged the boy closer to him; Naruto's orange shirt and blond hair stood out against the young man's black coat. His father ruffled the boy's hair one more time before drawing back his hand.
"Kaji, take Naruto and go to his apartment. Fortify it and barricade yourselves there. I will be with you shortly." Uzumaki Kenjiro, head of the Uzumaki clan and leader of Uzushiogakure, turned towards the Hokage and his advisors; his eyes were as cold as ice.
"Sandaime Hokage-dono, it's time we talked."
-XOXO-
Nagato sighed and rubbed his temples as he watched Yahiko trying –and failing– to keep the other Uzushio shinobi under control.
He wondered how long it would take his friend to realize that it was a lost cause.
Everyone had been on edge for days. They came to Konoha fully expecting a battle; hell, some of them were hoping for one. Bad blood had festered between two villages in the past few years, even in shinobi who were not part of the four great clans. The 'detainment' of the Uzushio Head's grandson was just the drop that made the glass overflow. The way the people of Konoha had treated the boy in question had only served to turn that drop into an ocean.
However, instead of venting their anger and frustration for past, present, and even future slights, they had all been told to sit back and wait.
Guarding the child was important, of course, but even Nagato was feeling restless. He wasn't a bloodthirsty man –far from it. He hesitated to take a life, knowing that every death was more fuel for the never-ending cycle of hatred. It took a lot to make him cross that line.
The Rinnegan bearer could have happily gone through life without ever finding out that 'mistreating a child' topped 'hurting my friends' in his reasons-to-kill list. He was ashamed to admit –even to himself– that, if his friends and comrades hadn't been standing right next to him when the citizens of Konoha had started muttering about the 'demon child', he would have given into the impulse and used a Shinra Tensei to turn the Leaf into a crater.
"Everyone, SHUT UP!" It sounded like Yahiko had finally realized the futility of his undertaking. The easy-going man was glaring at the gathered ninja, daring them to speak another word and test his obviously fraying patience.
One man –who didn't seem to be particularly adept at reading the atmosphere– opened his mouth to say something before he was elbowed in the gut by the guy next to him.
"You think I don't know what you're all thinking right now?" Yahiko said, loud enough to be audible to everyone. "That was a five-year-old boy they just called 'demon' and 'monster' and kami know what else in front of us. If that is how they act in front of visiting foreign dignitaries, then how do they normally treat the kid?"
Nagato saw many men and women scowl and nod and Yahiko's words. Glancing at Konan, he noticed that she had a dark look on her face, along with a few paper shuriken floating around her.
"But what about that chakra?" The elbow in the gut had obviously failed to teach that fool his lesson. There was another series of nods among the crowd, though considerably less this time.
"What about it? Don't tell me you've started believing that bull about jinchuuriki," Yahiko scoffed. "The basics of storage seals: you can put anything inside the seal, but the scroll it's written on remains a scroll –it doesn't turn into a cabbage or a pair of socks or whatever. Come on, I thought you Uzushio-born ninja learned about this stuff while you were still in diapers."
A few chuckles were heard, marginally easing the tension.
"Still, if you really want a confirmation, then let me tell you this. I spoke with Naruto briefly and I can tell you with absolute certainty that he's no demon. The Kyuubi has no hold over him."
"Then he willingly did that?" The fool –whose name Nagato wished he could remember for… future reference– just didn't know when to shut up. "That's not exactly reassuring, captain."
"I would like to see how you would react if you'd just learned that everything you've been told your entire life was a lie." Konan's voice held none of her usual gentleness; it felt sharper than a kunai and ten times as deadly. The rapidly spinning paper shuriken only added to her aura of menace.
The man flinched and tried to make himself as small as possible to avoid the dark looks everyone was giving him; Nagato heard faint mutters about idiots who spoke without thinking.
Yahiko chose to ignore both the scowls and the muttered insults, grabbing on to the opening Konan had given him, instead. "While I doubt everyone would have the same reaction, I think that all would fall under the category of 'violent'."
'It's fortunate that Yahiko is so good at talking to people,' Nagato thought as he listened to another round of chuckles going around the crowd. However, there were plenty who didn't appear to be mollified.
"Shouldn't we be doing something, then?" A kunoichi from the middle of the crowd asked. "I've got a kid that age; I wouldn't let anyone treat my son like that and get away with it."
"Don't worry. Kenjiro-sama, Rei-sama, and Hiro-sama are already giving Konoha's powers that be a piece of their minds," Yahiko said with a wicked laugh. "I doubt we can do better than them."
"If that's the case, then why are we all here?"
"We're here to look intimidating. If the shinobi of the Leaf get clingy and decide they don't want to let us go with the kid, then we'll fight them. But" Yahiko looked daggers at everyone again "we're not here to attack civilians and children."
There was some uncomfortable fidgeting among the Uzushio ninja.
"So all of you had better get back to your posts and watch for any approaching Konoha shinobi. We're in enemy territory now and we have a non-combatant to protect."
With cries of 'Yes, captain', the ninja dispersed and went back to their posts. Some jumped to the rooftops of the apartment complex and the buildings around it, while others stayed on the streets, concealing their presence. Many of those bearing the red spiral of the Uzumaki started drawing sealing arrays to secure the perimeter, trusting their comrades to watch over them while they worked. The red-haired man smirked; in half an hour, the entire block would be impregnable.
Nagato exchanged a nod with Yahiko, making sure his friend was in control here, and headed inside the appropriated apartment complex. He stifled a groan as he looked at the flight of stairs he had to climb; Naruto's home was on the top floor.
The small apartment wasn't what one would call roomy or lavish, but it was decent. Although filled with the kind of mess only a small child living without any adult supervision could create, it felt... cozy. The potted plants on the windowsill certainly helped, both aesthetically and by giving the room a pleasant smell. Nagato didn't know anything about botany, but he could guess from what Kaji had mentioned about Naruto that the purple-blue flower was an iris; the name of the orange flower, however, would remain a mystery to the Rinnegan bearer.
Kaji had lain Naruto on the small bed and had covered him with a blanket. The dark-haired man was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, watching the boy with a thoughtful frown on his face.
Nagato didn't want to intrude on this peaceful scene but, as Yahiko had said, they were in enemy territory now. There would be time for compassion later. "Looks like the crisis has been averted for now."
"Good."
Nagato furrowed his brow in confusion; where was the man who had been so excited about meeting his nephew that he could hardly talk about anything else for the past few months? "Is something the matter, Kaji?"
"No." His dark-haired friend looked up, saw the dubious look Nagato was giving him and sighed. "Yes. For a moment back there, I..."
The red-haired man kept quiet. He knew that if he interrupted now, Kaji would just bury whatever was troubling him deep inside and would never speak of it again.
"...I was afraid, Nagato." Kaji turned to look at the sleeping boy again. "For a moment, I looked at Naruto and all I could think was 'Kyuubi'." He buried his face in his hands. "Is this how it all began here? Is this what's going to happen in Uzushio, too?"
"No," Nagato said with conviction.
"What makes you so certain? Familial bonds don't preclude people from hating each other, you know"
It all became clear. Kaji was not afraid of Naruto; he was afraid of himself. He was terrified that one day he would not be able to see his nephew, but only the demon inside, and that thought was clearly tearing him apart.
"I'm certain because I know you and Kenjiro-sama. Neither of you could ever hate Naruto."
Nagato's suspicions were confirmed when Kaji lifted his head from his hands; his eyes were frantic, desperate for some kind of comfort. He could not show his friend what he was seeing, but he could try to explain.
"If you truly believed that Naruto was the Kyuubi, then you wouldn't be sitting by his side now, waiting for him to wake up. You wouldn't be so worried about what will happen to him in Uzushio." He smiled. "You wouldn't have hit the Hokage with Killing Intent when he suggested that Naruto should be taken to the hospital."
Kaji laughed nervously and rested his head against the wall. "I really threatened the Hokage," he whispered, closing his eyes. It seemed that this little bit of foolhardy bravery hadn't registered with him yet. "What was I thinking?"
"My guess would be: 'you're not taking my nephew away from me, old geezer'. Or something along those lines."
"Yes… I would have fought him, too, had my father not intervened. And…" Kaji's eyes went wide with wonder as he finally realized what Nagato was trying to tell him "…I would do it again. In a heartbeat."
The Rinnegan bearer smiled. "That's what family is for, right?"
"That, and beating each other up," Kaji said with a lopsided grin.
Nagato bit back a snort; he'd seen enough playful brawls between the Uzumaki siblings to know that Kaji wasn't joking.
"You're right, Nagato," the dark-haired man said after a few moments of silence. "Father and I will never hate him."
"Neither will Konan, Yahiko, and I," he assured his friend. "He's a good kid. Besides, he's not the only one carrying a burden he never wanted." Nagato pointed at his ripple-patterned eyes. Even though they had helped him get his friends and himself out of some very dangerous situations, they had also caused him a lot of grief.
"What burden?" someone asked weakly.
"Naruto!" Kaji practically flew across the room and knelt next to the boy's bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired." The boy sat up and groaned, placing a hand on his head. "What happened?"
Kaji narrowed his eyes, examining the boy closely. "You don't remember?"
"No." Naruto scrunched up his face in concentration. "We were at the festival… and then everything turned red. After that…"
Nagato and Kaji exchanged a look. The boy was clearly hiding something, but whether that was a conversation with the Kyuubi or something else entirely, it hardly mattered at this point. What Naruto needed most right now was time to come to terms with all the changes the last couple of hours had brought in his life, not to be put through an interrogation.
"You got angry and built up a great amount of chakra, but it was too much for you," Kaji said carefully. "You passed out from overloading your chakra coils."
"Oh." Naruto's face fell in a scowl. "The Hokage…" he growled.
"Father is taking care of it," the dark-haired-man said hastily; neither of the adults present wanted a repetition of the incident at the square. "By the time he's done talking to the Hokage," Kaji said, smirking, "you'll be free to leave Konoha and come live with us in Uzushio." The smirk faded. "If that's what you want, of course."
Naruto just stared unblinkingly at Kaji, completely silent. Then, he sighed. "I knew it. This really is a dream."
The dark-haired man frowned and pinched Naruto's arm.
"OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR, OLD MAN?"
Kaji looked entirely unrepentant. "Still think this is a dream?"
Naruto glared at him, rubbing his forearm.
"Dreams don't hurt, kid –at least, not physically. Also," the dark-haired man added as an afterthought, "I'm not old."
"You're way older than me." Naruto flashed a bright grin stretching from ear to ear; there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Old. Man."
"So that's how it's going to be," Kaji muttered. "Very well."
With a speed even the Yellow Flash would have envied, Kaji grabbed Naruto and slung him over his shoulder, ignoring the boy's strangled squawk.
"Put me down, old man!" Naruto's indignation was ruined by the way his voice was shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Nope," the dark-haired man said with ill-disguised glee. He stood up and Nagato saw the boy's eyes lighting up in pure, unadulterated joy.
A rustling sound next to him alerted him to Konan's presence. Soon, the square pieces of paper turned into the blue-haired woman; it was a rather handy trick she had perfected a while ago. She was surveying the scene in front of them with a flabbergasted expression.
"False alarm," Nagato informed her unnecessarily.
She smiled. "I can see that."
"Now then," Kaji said to Naruto, ignoring the two of them, "your punishment for disrespecting your elders is to help me pack your belongings."
"But you said it yourself," Naruto said cheekily, looking like he was having the time of his life. "You're my elder. So I can call you old man."
The boy shrieked with laughter when Kaji shrugged, lifting and dropping his shoulder in an exaggerated motion. "'Elder' doesn't mean 'old', you little pest. Just accept your punishment!"
Konan's smile was even wider now. "I'll go back to my post and let everyone know that there's no cause for alarm."
Nagato simply nodded at her, not trusting himself to speak. If he opened his mouth now, he was certain he'd burst into guffaws. It was downright weird to see the glum, broody Kaji acting so… silly.
With a final look at the duo currently raiding the closet, the blue-haired woman dissolved into confetti again.
After a while, there was a pile of clean clothes and undergarments on top of a sheet.
"Anything else you want, little squirt?" Kaji asked the boy. Naruto was no longer fighting to break free; he had 'reluctantly' given in to his fate. "We won't be coming back here, so you'd better make sure to grab everything important."
"My flowers!" the boy shouted immediately. "Also…"
"Yes?" Kaji prompted kindly.
Naruto bit his lip. "… a few of my toys."
"Okay. Show me where they are."
-XOXO-
Hiruzen examined his opponents, acutely aware that this 'talk' could turn violent at the slightest provocation. The rage in Kenjiro's eyes said that he'd rather fight all of them than talk.
In the relative safety of the Council chamber, surrounded by the heads of Konoha's most powerful clans, and having a staring contest with the three most powerful shinobi of Uzushio, the only thing the Hokage was certain of was that whatever was about to happen would make the Hyuuga incident pale in comparison.
Hiruzen remained silent; all his shinobi senses, honed by a lifetime of conflict, were screaming at him that he had somehow walked straight into a trap. He decided to be prudent and let his opponents make the first move.
He didn't have to wait long.
"I'm taking Naruto with me back to Uzushio," Kenjiro declared, leveling a cold, disdainful look at the assembled Konoha shinobi.
"Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage and the last scion of the Namikaze family," Homura said as diplomatically as possible. "Like his predecessors, his every breath protects the people of Konoha –and Uzushio, for that matter– from the Nine-Tailed Fox." Thankfully, the elder had enough sense not mention Kushina's name directly. "I'm afraid that what you're asking is not possible."
"I was not asking," Kenjiro growled.
"I was unaware that the Namikaze family held such a prominent position in Konohagakure's hierarchy," Hiro said with mock skepticism, cutting off the Uzumaki before things got out of control.
"Currently, it does not," Koharu admitted, eyeing Kenjiro warily; she too had noticed the cracks in the redhead's veneer of calm. "As Naruto is the last Namikaze and unable to defend himself against assassins, we have hidden his heritage from the populace in the hopes it would offer him a safer childhood. Unfortunately, this has led to… other problems."
"Like being considered the reincarnation of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox?" Small amounts of Killing Intent were leaking out of Kenjiro.
Every Konoha shinobi in the room tensed. This was really bad; Hiruzen had never seen his old ally so eager to kill.
"He's not the demon," Koharu said vehemently. "Only a vocal minority of civilians believe such a ridiculous notion and hold Naruto in contempt. The rest of us respect him for carrying this burden and honor the boy's sacrifice."
Technically, she wasn't lying per se. It was a vocal minority that openly expressed their dislike towards the boy. The rest were content with silently pretending that Naruto was just a piece of the scenery.
"Is that what everyone was doing back there? Honoring him?" Rei snorted. "If that's how you treat your heroes, then I'd hate to see how you treat your criminals," she muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Don't waste your breath, Rei," Hiro said with a slightly unsettling smirk. "I doubt they think their behavior was reprehensible in any way. After all," the smirk took a sharp edge that made warning bells blare inside Hiruzen's head, "isn't that how demons are supposed to be treated?"
The aging Hokage knew right then that he had lost this fight long before this meeting had even begun.
"Enough of this. I know you didn't find out so much about Naruto today." Hiruzen heard someone –or was it more than one person?– sputtering behind him. Well, it wasn't his fault that the fools didn't know when they were beaten.
"Who told you about the boy? And don't say 'Kaji' –I know he'd never be able to learn so much on his own." The Hokage's eyes narrowed. "Who helped you?"
'Who betrayed me?'
Hiro's smirk faded in a carefully blank expression, revealing nothing about his thoughts. "Well reasoned, Hokage-dono. You're right; we already knew a great deal about Naruto before we came to Konoha. However, you are mistaken to believe that we had any inside help." His lips curled in disgust. "It's surprising how much people are willing to confide in someone if they think that person shares their views. Kaji-kun speaks with great distaste about the conversations he had with various citizens of Konoha."
The last part was definitely true, if Kenjiro's murderous scowl was any indication. As for the rest... There was a reason Hiro was a master of the illusionary arts.
Hiruzen decided to try a different approach. "Let's assume for a moment that I believe what you told me was the truth. What happens when you leave Konoha with Naruto?"
"That's all you have to say, Hiruzen?" Kenjiro's fury was almost palpable. "No apologies? No justifications for your actions?"
"No." No apologies –only a mountain of regrets about not being able to give Naruto a normal childhood. "I did what I had to do to protect Konoha. The boy had to stay here and you were not going to listen to reason."
The head of the Uzumaki clan ground his teeth and removed a scroll from his belt holster.
As one, the heads of Konoha's most powerful clans had fallen into their combat stances. Tsume was already using her Shikyaku no Jutsu, looking as feral as her enormous canine companion. Fugaku and Hiashi had activated their respective doujutsu; the Uchiha was holding half a dozen shuriken in each hand. A buzzing sound came from Shibi's direction. The Ino-Shika-Chou trio were already in position; Shikaku's shadow was starting to move towards the Uzumaki.
Before a full-blown battle could break out, however, Rei caught the redhead's hand. "What are you doing, Kenjiro?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Rei's eyebrows knit together in a fierce scowl. "I thought you said you wanted to avoid starting a war."
"I changed my mind."
"Then change it back," she snarled.
"Your grandson is safe, old friend," Hiro said evenly, placing a hand on Kenjiro's shoulder. "It's over. Don't do something you're going to regret."
Kenjiro took a deep breath and nodded; Rei released his hand. The other shinobi in the room visibly relaxed, since they were no longer in immediate danger, but didn't release their jutsu.
Kenjiro replaced the scroll on his belt and removed another one, much different from the first. Unfurling it on the large table, he formed a hand seal, making a massive folder and a much larger scroll appear from the storage seals written inside. He passed the two items over to the Hokage and rolled up the storage scroll, placing it back in his belt holster.
Hiruzen took the folder and pushed the scroll over to Nara Shikaku, not caring if he inadvertently insulted his advisors and the other clan heads. Right now, he needed the genius's analytical skills if he wanted to prevent the war that the enraged Kenjiro clearly wouldn't mind starting.
The first thing he saw when he opened the folder were the words: 'Agreement with Suna'. The paper was informal, more like notes that an actual treaty. How many kilograms of metal Suna had to send to Uzushio. How many seal tags they would receive in return. A promise to provide the Hidden Sand with a limited number of seal-inscribed chakra blades in the coming years, should this agreement prove fruitful for both parties. Turning a few more pages, he found an official looking document bearing both the crest of Suna and the seal of the Kazekage; they were right next to the crest of Uzushio and the seal of the Uzumaki.
The Hokage's breath caught in his throat. 'No. It can't be.'
"Keep reading." Rei's grin was showing far too many teeth for it to be considered even remotely friendly.
Cursing inwardly the sudden trembling of his hands, Hiruzen kept turning the pages. 'Agreement with Tani': notes and signed treaty. 'Agreement with Shimo': notes and signed treaty. 'Agreement with Kumo': notes and signed treaty.
Hiruzen looked up from the documents that spelled the death of Konoha with every word, pale as a ghost. Kenjiro was watching him with cold, merciless eyes that made Naruto's demonic red ones look kind in comparison.
"There's only one thing left to make everything official," the Head of Uzushio said in a regal tone of voice, presenting a small, official scroll to the Hokage.
"I hereby dissolve the alliance between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure. From this point forward, all shinobi bearing the crest of the Hidden Leaf on their hitai-ate are barred from the Whirlpool; any shinobi of Konoha caught within our borders will be viewed as a spy and treated accordingly. All Uzushio shinobi presently serving under the Hokage are recalled from their posts, regardless of their current assignments. All unfinished joint projects are terminated forthwith.
"Failure on Konahogakure's part to comply with any of the aforementioned terms will be considered an act of war."
Without another word, Kenjiro turned on his heel and marched out of the Council chambers, followed closely by Hiro and Rei.
The shinobi of Konoha were standing there, petrified, long after their footsteps had faded.
"Those bastards!" Uchiha Fugaku snarled, startling the stunned crowd. "They think that we're going to allow them to just walk away from this alliance and abandon us?"
"It would appear that we have little choice," Aburame Shibi said in his usual monotone. "Why is that? Because—"
Inuzuka Tsume cut him off before he could explain what he had deduced. "We could sic the ANBU and the Military Police at them." She bared her teeth, revealing her fang-like canines in their full glory. "Or we can just attack them head-on. This is our turf, after all."
"Have you gone insane?" Inoichi asked, incredulous. "You want us to attack seal masters in a place they have probably rigged with a metric ton of explosives – if we're lucky?"
"And suppose we do defeat them," Koharu said, picking up the thread the Yamanaka had abandoned. "Then what? Will we take them hostage? Will we kill them?"
"Such action will only lead to a war with Uzushiogakure," Shibi concurred.
"In any event, this is a moot point. We are not going to fight them inside the village's walls," Homura said harshly.
"We can't just–"
"Would you all be quiet?" The Nara's lazy drawl somehow managed to convey its owner's annoyance. "Things are troublesome enough without all of you yammering and trying to start a war we can't possibly win."
"You know something we don't, Shikaku?" Tsume asked, eyes flashing.
"By all means, enlighten us," Fugaku sneered.
"Be quiet and let him explain," Chouza growled. He and Inoichi were standing protectively around their brilliant team-mate and longtime friend.
"We can't touch the Whirlpool," Shikaku said without any preamble. Seeing the dubious looks everyone –save Hiruzen, who already knew what the Nara was going to say– was giving him, he sighed. "Take a good look at the map they gave us."
There was a moment of silence as the other clan heads studied the map of the elemental nations Shikaku had spread on the large table. The Hidden Sand in the Land of Wind, The Hidden Valley in the Land of Rivers, the Hidden Frost in the Land of Frost, the Hidden Cloud in the Land of Lightning, the Land of Tea, and the Land of Hot Waters all had a spiral next to their crest. In contrast, the spiral next to the Hidden Leaf had been crossed out.
It wasn't too hard to figure out what that meant.
"Shit," Inoichi and Fugaku said simultaneously.
"There must be something we can do," Koharu whispered. "Anything…"
"There isn't." Hiruzen placed his hand on top of the massive folder. "It's all in here –in great detail, I might add. The elders of Uzushio wanted us to know that we can't lift a finger against them without jump-starting the Fourth Shinobi World War."
"Check and mate," Shikaku muttered.
-XOXO-
Hyuuga Hiashi was sitting in his wife's private garden, wallowing in shame. His tea lay neglected beside him on the stone bench as he tried to pinpoint the moment he had failed his village and his clan.
This was turning out to be more difficult than he had imagined –probably because it wasn't just one moment.
His first shortcoming was, without a doubt, his failure to recognize the son of the Yondaime for nearly five years.
He had first looked, really looked, at the boy only a few months ago, after one of his paint bombs had landed a little too close for comfort. In hindsight, his blindness was nothing short of staggering. It had all been right there in front of him. The blond hair, the blue eyes, the facial structure, the hot-blooded personality, and even the dream of becoming Hokage… But he had never made the connection between this boy and his two deceased friends.
His second failing was his zealous protection of the Hyuuga clan's honor.
The boy was a pariah to a large part of Konoha's population. As such, the precious honor of the Hyuuga could not be tainted by any association between the clan and the demon vessel. Hiashi could not speak to the boy, speak about the boy, or even acknowledge that the boy was in his general vicinity.
His third and by far his greatest failing, however, was his rigid adherence to tradition, which demanded that the clan came above any and all personal feelings.
It didn't matter how much Hiashi wanted to help Naruto. He could not abuse his authority as the head of one of Konoha's most powerful clans to do even a halfway decent thing for the boy. He could not pressure the civilians into accepting the boy's presence. He could not go to the Hokage and ask him to place Naruto under his care. And even if he had somehow decided to disregard tradition and approached the Hokage anyway, he would have to fight every day with the clan's elders to keep the boy as his ward.
Kami forgive him, he couldn't even protect his own brother from the clutches of the so-called 'fate' the elders had decided for both of them.
When the head of Uzumaki clan had delivered his ultimatum, Hiashi had kept quiet. There was nothing to say in Konoha's defense. The Hyuuga clan head didn't know whether Hokage was right to claim that Naruto had to remain in the Leaf or not. What he did know was that the boy shouldn't have grown up an outcast.
There must have been another way.
It was a novel thought for Hiashi. He had lived his entire life believing in following the unchangeable fate that had been set for him as his father's firstborn child, acting as was always expected of him. He was not accustomed to searching for alternatives to a situation.
Today, however, he had begun to seriously doubt this ironclad belief on a preordained destiny. He found it to be… eye-opening.
He had failed to see so many things; what else had he been blind to?
-XOXO-
Kakashi stepped inside his one-room apartment and turned on the lights. Immediately, he froze. The barrier seal on the window had been disturbed.
His visible eye darted around the room, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Behind his hitai-ate, he opened Obito's last gift to him. While the dark cloth covering his Sharingan prevented ordinary sight, it was not enough to completely muffle the eye's ability to see chakra. In the current situation, it would have to do.
He couldn't see any chakra signatures in the room. Growing bolder, he lifted his hitai-ate, revealing the red eye with the three comma-like tomoe. Still no chakra; however, he spotted something that had definitely not been there when he had left this morning.
Standing on his desk was a small origami dog.
Focusing on the paper canine with his Sharingan, he saw that there was something written inside. An explosive tag, perhaps?
Well, there was only one way to find out.
Leaving the door open in case he needed to make a quick getaway, he walked to the window and picked up the little dog. Unfolding it, he saw that it contained a set of coordinates. If memory served, they corresponded to somewhere in the forest around Konoha; he'd have to consult a map to be sure.
Who could have left this?
Closing his door, he sat on his bed and lifted the paper to examine it against the light. Underneath the numbers, there was an almost invisible pattern. Someone had used white ink to draw a spiral on the white paper.
He knew who that 'someone' was and was seriously considering wringing his neck the next time they saw each other.
What had that idiot been thinking, leaving that thing here? The Hokage hadn't called for him yet, but it was only a matter of time until the old man started sniffing around for possible traitors. Kakashi had already spotted two Uchiha shadowing him. One of them could have found the origami dog and delivered it to the Hokage. Then, Kakashi of the Sharingan would have been handed over to Morino Ibiki and his team in T&I.
Well, if that was to be his fate, at least he would die with considerably fewer regrets.
He turned his gaze to the photograph sitting on a shelf behind his bed. The four –technically, three and a half– faces frozen in a much happier moment stared back at him.
'He got away, sensei.'
-XOXO-
Nara Shikaku was nursing a cup of sake, trying to make a critical decision. Should he sip his drink or just down it?
He was halfway through his third –or was it fourth? – bottle of the strong drink and felt absolutely no inclination to stop. As long as the number of bottles was in the single digits, it was not nearly enough to help him deal with the world.
Today had been a disaster of monumental proportions –and that was putting it mildly. In his current state of intoxication, he didn't want to think of any impressive analogies to describe this screw-up. He didn't want to think at all, but that was just not possible.
And all this over a little boy.
Shikaku was not just a genius, he was also observant. He'd known who Naruto's parents were since he'd first seen the boy, which was why when he'd gone to the Hokage to ask for explanations, he hadn't made a fuss. He knew that Minato had made a number of vicious enemies during his life, enemies who wouldn't hesitate to kill his son. He had accepted –after copious amounts of grumbling– that it would be in Naruto's best interest to remain anonymous. He hadn't pushed to adopt the boy into his family. He had been a good little soldier and did as was told.
Yet every time he looked at the boy, he would think 'this could have been Shikamaru'. It could have been his own son on the receiving end of so much hatred. But he had kept his mouth shut. It was all for the good of the Leaf; genius or no, who was he to question the Hokage and his advisors?
In retrospect, he should have shouted Naruto's identity from the top of the Hokage Monument years ago. He would rather take on Iwa assassination squads daily than deal with the fallout of Uzushio breaking away from Konoha. Hell, he'd take the freaking Kyuubi over this snafu any day. Gladly. With a smile on his face.
Ugh. Maybe this was all a nightmare, a horrible dreamscape phantasm he could escape by waking up.
Or maybe his salvation was at the bottom of the next bottle.
Yoshino, his beloved, nagging wife, walked inside the room as he was contemplating the merits of abandoning the cup in favor of drinking straight from the bottle. She took one look at him and scowled.
"I heard what happened today."
"I imagine everyone's heard by now about Konoha's downfall." He gave her a mirthless laugh because it felt more dignified than blubbering. "I don't know how long they'd been planning this, but they really backed us into a corner."
He took a swig of sake, emptying his cup. He refilled it and poured one for Yoshino as well. She sat across the table, holding the cup but not drinking; she seemed to be waiting for something.
"It's all fallen apart. Well, not yet," Shikaku corrected himself, "but it will soon enough.
"They were kind enough to show us the agreements with the other villages, you know." Another swig of sake, another refill. "They have Suna, Kumo, Tani, and Shimo backing them, along with the daimyo of the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Tea. They've pretty much formed a defensive line, ensuring that if we try to make a move against them, we'll leave our flank wide open to retaliation from their new allies."
In some regrettably still sober corner of his mind, he admired the strategical brilliance of their former allies. 'Enemies now, I guess.'
Yoshino drew her brows together, equal parts confused and annoyed. "How can you be so certain, Shikaku? Suna and Kumo aren't known for dancing to anyone's tune."
"Oh, they'll dance alright." Swig, refill. "How can they not, when they've been tempted by the possibility of getting their hands on seal-inscribed chakra blades?"
Yoshino drew a sharp breath; her eyes widened as she connected the dots, figuring out what her husband had left unsaid. "They offered the same terms to all these villages, didn't they?"
Shikaku chuckled; his wife was a very clever woman. "Not the same, but close enough. It really is troublesome."
Yoshino bit her lip. "How long can we hold out on our own?"
"I don't know." He took another swig of sake; Yoshino joined him.
-XOXO-
The building didn't look like much to Naruto. It was completely unimpressive, just two stories tall and a little run-down. He didn't understand why his grandfather had called this the most important temple in the Land of Fire.
Maybe it had something to do with all the masks that were hanging on the walls.
"Good, they're all here. Kaji, I want you to organize everyone; gather up the masks and the tomes from the library. Make sure you don't leave anything behind."
"Yes, Father." His uncle turned around and started giving orders to the other shinobi. Some began taking down the masks, while others used the small staircase to go to the basement.
"This way, Naruto." His grandfather touched his shoulder lightly and guided the boy to a corner of the large room. "We should get out of their way to let them work unhindered."
It was strange to suddenly have a grandfather and an uncle. Still, the blond couldn't say it was unpleasant. So far, having a family was turning out to be a good thing.
"Why are we here, jii-chan?" Naruto asked after they sat down.
"We're here to take back the masks."
The boy had already figured that out on his own. "Why?"
"This is the Uzumaki clan's Mask Storage Temple, Naruto. When the alliance between Konoha and Uzushio was formalized decades ago, this temple was built in the Land of Fire to strengthen the bond between the two villages. However, seeing as recent developments have rendered the temple's continued existence unnecessary, we're taking everything back."
"Oh." There was a brief pause as Naruto considered asking about these 'developments', but the boy decided they were not more important than this mystery. "But what are these masks?"
"These" the red-haired old man waved his hand around, pointing to the masks all around them, "are priceless artifacts called the 'Masks of the Youkai'. Each of them is marked with a unique combination of seals, giving it the properties of one of the spirits."
The boy's eyes went wide. "That's so cool! So anyone who wears one of them gets the powers of a youkai?"
"Not quite," Kenjiro chuckled. "It's… a really complex subject and you probably won't understand a word of explanation until you've learned enough about seals."
Naruto opened his mouth to protest –loudly– that he could understand anything the old man was going to say, before something else drew his attention. The shinobi had rolled many scrolls marked with those strange drawings on the floor and were placing the masks on top of them. That wasn't new to Naruto; his uncle had done the same thing to pack the boy's stuff for the trip. But there were so few shinobi here; Naruto was sure he'd seen dozens of people walking with them to this place.
"Why are only the ninja with the red spiral here? What happened to the others?"
"Ah, so you noticed that," Kenjiro said, sounding very pleased for some reason. "Only members of the Uzumaki clan can get inside this temple; all others are barred from entering by the protective wards placed around the building. Did you also notice what everyone did before entering?"
Naruto nodded. "They touched that weird disc near the door. It glowed for a moment and then they walked in."
It had been one of the coolest things the boy had ever seen.
"Very good, Naruto," his grandfather said with a smile. "The 'disc', as you called it, is programmed to recognize the subtle variations of chakra unique to the Uzumaki. In short, it's keyed to our bloodline; only Uzumaki and our blood-relatives can enter this temple."
"But I didn't touch the disc," Naruto pointed out.
"No, you didn't." The old man looked at him expectantly.
The blond boy tried to remember what had happened when he'd entered the temple. 'I was looking at the masks, trying to figure out what they are, then jii-chan touched my shoulder and… That's it!'
"You were holding my shoulder when I passed through the door!" Naruto said with a bright grin.
"You're half-right," Kenjiro said with the brightest smile the boy had ever seen on the old man's face. "I had been holding your shoulder since I primed the blood seal –since I touched the disc," he corrected himself, noticing Naruto's confusion. "We passed through the door together, so the wards registered us as one person."
"But why couldn't I..." How had his grandfather said it? Oh, right! "'Prime' the seal thing on my own?"
"I'm afraid that's not something you can do yet. You'll first need to learn how to properly build up and channel your chakra."
"Build up and channel…" the blond mumbled. "You mean I'm really going to become a ninja?"
"If that's what you want, then certainly," the old man replied.
"AWESOME!"
"I take it you have a particular goal you want to reach?"
"You bet! I'm going to become Ho–" Naruto snapped his mouth shut when he realized what he was about to say. He clenched his fists and turned his head to the side, glowering at the wall. Why would he want to become Hokage anymore? So he could one day become like the old man and hurt little kids like him? Who would ever want to be like that?
"You know," his grandfather began, acting as if he hadn't noticed the boy's anger, "aspiring to be like the Hokage is not such a terrible thing. Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage, united the Senju and Uchiha clans and brought about a new era of peace in the shinobi world. Your father, the Fourth Hokage, also strove to achieve peace, even though he spent most of his life fighting in wars."
Naruto unclenched his hands and looked at them; he didn't know a thing about his father aside from the man's name and title. Who was Namikaze Minato, other than a face on a stone monument? Would he have cared for his son? And what about his mom? What was she like? "Can you tell me about them?" he whispered hesitantly. "My parents?"
The old man's face softened. "Of course. What do you want to know, Naruto?"
"What were they like?" he blurted out before he had time to think. "Kaji-occhan, um... Uncle Kaji… told me a bit about my dad –although I didn't know who he was back then and thought he was just talking about the Yondaime and—"
Kenjiro stopped his nervous babbling by patting his head. "Then we'll simply have to start over and make sure you learn everything there is to know about Kushina and Minato. Now, where to begin…" He clasped his hands and placed them on his lap. "Do you want to know how the two of them met?"
Naruto nodded eagerly. "Yes!"
The old man gave him a warm smile. "Alright. It was more than twenty years ago. Kushina had been sent to Konoha to carry on the legacy of Uzumaki Mito, the wife of the First Hokage –I'll tell you about her another time," he added quickly when Naruto opened his mouth to ask. "She enrolled in the Academy, wanting to train as a kunoichi. There, she met a boy—"
"My dad?" Naruto was bouncing on the floor now, unable to contain his excitement.
"Yes, your father, Minato." He gave the blond boy a crooked grin. "Kushina wasn't too impressed with him at first, though…"
Naruto listened to his grandfather without interrupting him for questions, a rare thing for him. He was completely drawn into the old man's story about the hot-tempered, loud-mouthed girl with the fiery red hair and the quiet blond boy who admired her for her strength and determination. His mom and dad.
Not wanting to miss a single word, Naruto scooted closer to his grandfather.
-XOXO-
The sound of raucous laughter could be heard all across the Hidden Cloud.
While merriment had not been outlawed in the village built high in the mountains and hidden by clouds, far from it, the source of the guffaws was certainly out of the ordinary.
Yondaime Raikage Ay was laughing his ass off.
That would be troubling in and of itself, even if the man in question wasn't looking like he'd have a heart attack from laughing so hard. Several shinobi of Kumogakure were beginning to suspect that their leader had been replaced by an impostor. The Raikage's personal assistants had refrained from calling for the medical corps and the ANBU only because they'd seen the cause of their leader's euphoria.
The small, unremarkable scroll containing the report from one of Kumo's spies in Konoha had been delivered by a messenger bird earlier that day. The Raikage had skimmed through it at first, before re-reading it with a puzzled frown on his face. Then, he'd read it a third time and burst into laughter.
The scroll was still on the Raikage's desk; one glance at it was enough to send him back into a fit.
"That sneaky bastard," Ay said when he calmed down enough to breathe properly. "So that's why they were suddenly so eager to work with us."
Dodai, the one-eyed man who had served as an elite instructor during the Third Raikage's tenure, was worried –and not just for his boss's mental health. "Should we revoke the agreement with Uzushio, Raikage-sama?"
"No," the Raikage said firmly. "I know they're playing us against Konoha, but I don't care what their motives are. As long as they're willing to keep their end of the bargain, then so will we.
"Though I wish I could have seen Sarutobi's face when the Uzumaki broke the news to him," he added with another hearty chortle.
Dodai shared that sentiment, although he believed that the Tsuchikage's face would be even more priceless. He wondered which piece of information would drive old Ohnoki the Fence-Sitter over the edge. Would it be the fact that the Yellow Flash, Iwa's nemesis even from beyond the grave, had a son? That the aforementioned boy was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi? Or that the Uzumaki, the clan Iwa had failed to exterminate decades ago, had taken the boy in their custody?
The one-eyed man with the puffy hat couldn't help it; he laughed.
-XOXO-
"So, Konoha messed up."
Tobi was aware that his assessment underplayed the effects of Uzushio's secession from Konoha to an almost obscene degree, but he couldn't bring himself to care about such trivialities.
"It appears so," a half-white, half-black plant man called Zetsu said as he melted from the ground. His appearance was unnerving; he looked like an unholy cross between Go pieces and aloe. "The Uzumaki have already removed all the masks from the old temple in the Land of Fire."
"I see." A pity he couldn't get his hands on one such mask earlier. The wards protecting the temple had been formidable; not even his Kamui could get Tobi inside the Noh Mask Hall.
"It looks like the Kyuubi will be living in Uzushio now," the white half of the plant man said.
"The defenses around the island are tighter than Konoha's. This could be trouble when we need to capture him," Zetsu's black half added.
"It doesn't matter. Eventually, he'll have to leave the safety of the island. We'll grab him then." Tobi was willing to wait a little longer; after all, once his plan was completed, time would cease to be important.
"What about Nagato?" Black Zetsu asked. "We need his Rinnegan in order to summon the Gedo Mazou and complete project Tsuki no Me."
Nagato, the little thief who had taken the Rinnegan and hidden behind the safety of Uzushio's borders. Tobi would like nothing better than to gut the bastard and rip out his eyes. Well, the last part was the whole reason he wanted to capture the redhead in the first place, but it would still feel damn good.
"We could grab him now," White Zetsu suggested. "He's outside Uzushio."
"No. There are too many Uzumaki surrounding him." It was unwise to go up against so many shinobi with the ability to chain someone down and seal away their chakra. Not even someone as elusive as Tobi could escape from this. "There will be other opportunities.
"For now, we gather our strength and wait."
-XOXO-
In an establishment of ill repute, a middle-aged man with a shaggy mane of white hair was reading a report written by one of his informants in Konoha and delivered to him by a messenger frog. He put the scroll down, frowning.
The report only confirmed the news that had been flying around lately.
When his sensei had told him about the plan to keep Naruto in Konoha, he had immediately dismissed it as a harebrained idea. He knew that the Uzumaki would find out about the boy sooner or later and raise all kinds of hell. As it turned out, it was much sooner than anyone had expected. Still…
Things just didn't add up.
The Uzumaki throwing a fit and taking Naruto with them to the Whirlpool was expected. No matter how well the boy had been living in Konoha, they wouldn't have been willing to leave him there under the care of the Hokage.
No, the problem was in how they had taken back the boy.
Shattering an alliance as old and prosperous as that between the Leaf and the Whirlpool was, in a word, preposterous. Regardless of how slighted the Uzumaki were feeling or how hurt their pride was that the child of their clan head's daughter was being trained as a shinobi of another nation, they could not arbitrarily force the breaking of an alliance. Yet not only had such an inconceivable thing come to pass, it had the blessing of all four of Uzushio's great clans.
The clans of Uzushio were not overly antagonistic towards each other. They acknowledged the Uzumaki as their leaders and were content to follow them, but that didn't mean that there was no friction among them for various reasons, both petty and major. Even though they got along with each other much better than most of Konoha's clans had even done, the Akashio, Takashio, and Nagare would object vociferously to something that would hurt their interests. In fact, the Sandaime and his advisors had been counting on the other three clans to keep the Uzumaki in check until they found a way to smooth things over with the hot-heads.
What could possibly have happened to unite the four to such a degree?
Were they after the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox?
Jiraiya sighed and shook his head; speculating was pointless. He needed more information, and there was only one place he could get it. He started packing his bags; it was time to return to Konoha. He'd probably be receiving a summons back any day now.
After all, someone had to run damage control and fix this mess.
Author's Notes:
Adamantine Chakra Chains for Naruto: Yes, Naruto is going to have them. That had been the plan from the very first draft of this story; the only thing that troubled me was whether to make them a Hiden (secret jutsu known only to a certain clan) or a kekkei genkai.
In canon, the Adamantine Chakra Chains seem to be a secret technique that was lost after Uzushio was destroyed. I hope you don't mind me turning them into a bloodline limit.
-X-
Defensive line: In Narutopedia, search 'geography' to find the map of the elemental nations. You'll see right away what I mean when I say that Uzushio created a passive-aggressive defensive line.
1. To put things in perspective: Kumo and Shimo are north of Konoha, Suna and Tani are southwest, and Uzushio is east. If Konoha moves against one of these targets, then they'll open a war on three fronts. Nobody can win that –just look at what happened to Ame during the Second Shinobi World War.
2. The other villages: Taki and Kusa are located between Iwa and Kumo, so they won't risk getting caught in the crossfire; ditto with Ishi, who's between Iwa and Suna. Ame is firmly under the control of Hanzo, who is not willing to work with outsiders. The shinobi of Iwa would rather collectively commit seppuku than work with Konoha. Kiri is having internal conflict, though they're keeping it under wraps for now. And the others are too minor, able to offer only a handful of shinobi.
-X-
Additional Notes:
1. Itachi's POV: I call it 'karma' and it's a cold-hearted bitch. Any other ANBU guard –save Kakashi– would have grabbed Naruto and ran the moment he saw an Uzushio hitai-ate.
2. Why 'Head of Uzushio' and not 'Uzukage': Because only the Sand, Stone, Leaf, Cloud, and Mist have the right to name their leader a 'Kage'. I know, it sucks, but that's how things are. Not even Hanzo of the Salamander took the title of Kage, and he was pretty much a legend.
3. Youkai: (妖怪, ghost, phantom, strange apparition) are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore. They range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them. They usually have a spiritual supernatural power, with shapeshifting being one of the most common. Kitsune (foxes), tanuki (raccoon dogs), bakeneko (cats), oni (demon-like beings), and tengu (bird-like beings) are only some of the many kinds of youkai.
4. Go: (literally: 'encircling game') It's a board game involving two players that originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago. The two players alternately place black and white playing pieces, called 'stones', on the vacant intersections ('points') of a board with a 19x19 grid of lines. It's similar to Reversi (or Othello, as it's commonly known), only on a much larger board.
5. Tobi hesitating to grab Nagato: Not even Kamui can save someone who's pinned down and has his chakra suppressed (either by seals or by the sealing chains). Yes, the un-killable villain has a weakness.
-X-
Answers to Reviewers:
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan: They are all S-class ninja. You know Konan's power; if she has time to prepare, her enemies are screwed. Yahiko is just as –if not more– powerful, but more straightforward: kenjutsu and ninjutsu. Nagato is completely broken: Rinnegan plus five elements plus sensory abilities minus canon Nagato's mobility handicap. Does Nagato have any weaknesses? Yes, he does. The Hyuuga Incident: Yes, it happened (and so did Kushina's kidnapping). How will this affect the relationship between Naruto and Hinata? Let's just say that when they'll meet again as genin, neither of them will be thrilled –at first– to find they're starting to like each other. (They'll come around.) Uzumaki Honoka: She will show up at some point. Since Uzushio was never destroyed, the Uzumaki were never scattered across the world (Nagato's mother left voluntarily in order to live with her husband).-X-
Why is this fic different from any other Konoha bashing fic: Because it's not a Konoha bashing fic. As I said in the Prologue, I hate it when things are black and white, 'my way or no way', 'with me or my enemy', etc.…
From the Uzushio characters' POV (especially those associated with the Uzumaki), the people of Konoha will be the bad guys. But from the Konoha characters' POV, the people of Uzushio will be the irredeemable ones. It's exactly like how the Yellow Flash is a great hero in the Leaf, but a mass murderer in the Stone.
Thank you for the excellent question, by the way; it never even occurred to me.
If you feel like it, check my new story: 'The Masked Demon'.
Thank you for reading. Please, review and share your thoughts.
Edit: 13 March 2016 - Fixed some spelling mistakes.