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Chapter 7; Meeting Up, Settling Down, and Getting Started.
They stopped to camp at the foot of the biggest mountain. Tommorrow her friends would return from their missions and she would release the genjutsu to let them through.
But today she and the others relaxed and began speaking of plans in their new home.
"I guess I'll teach at the academy when it's opened." Iruka sighed, what to do until then, he wondered. "Till then I have no idea what to do."
"Who says you have to wait for it to formally open?" Naru asked him. "Isamu here began his learning under me but I barely remember my academy days. He might need help with reading and writing, but he's a sponge. He'll soak up anything you dish out for him."
Isamu's chest puffed a little hearing lady Uzumaki praise him so highly. She wasn't stingy with praise, but he had lived a long time with only curses for company. It felt good to be liked instead of hated.
Iruka hadn't known what to make of the web-fingered boy when they had first met. But thankfully, teaching the pariah of the village had given him practice in looking underneath the underneath. So he hadn't judged.
Now he looked the boy over more closely and was a little confused by what he saw. If he didn't know any better, he'd say the kid was a male version of Naru, without the blonde hair or blue eyes of course.
They weren't the same color, but his eyes shone the same way Naru's had when he first met her. Like a kicked puppy begging to be pet.
"Sure, we'll start when we get to Uzu no Sato." He decided. He missed teaching kids. It was always nice to see a kid learn to do new things.
"We have to wait until tommorrow for the others to show up." Naru sighed sadly. "I should have taught them the genjutsu needed to get through the mountain. I'll do that later tommorrow, Haradai should get it easily, he has good chakra control." While she made plans on showing her friends how to get home by themselves, she unstoppered a bottle and began toying with the water.
Which is how everyone in her group, (Other than Isamu) learned she could control water as easily as breathing. "NANI!"
Naru lost her concentration and the water that had been curling around her fingers landed with a splash on the ground.
"Aw great!" She groaned. "That was my last water and now it's mud." Huh, would it work if it was mud? Deciding to try it out, she tried to enforce her will on it again.
A ball of mud came flying up, slowly. Before a second had past though, the dirt had fallen off, leaving only the water.
"Cool." She muttered, passing the ball back in forth between her hands.
After explaining her power to her startled friends, the day passed fairly quickly. The next morning, they waited for her companions' arrivals.
At noon, Haradai arrived with five kids tagging along. The oldest was twelve and carried a long bow. He had short cropped black hair and piercing grey eyes. The next were three triplets. Judai, Jono, and Johan. They all had red hair and green eyes, a mischevous grin permantly set on their faces.
The last was a little girl sitting on the back of the horse. She had long white hair and was playing with a cloth doll. Her name was Hana.
"Haradai!" Naru cried, running forward to meet her friend. She couldn't explain it, but seeing him after so long, made it harder to breathe. Like she was holding her breath.
"Lady Uzumaki!" He greeted her happily, jumping from his stallion. He was hardly prepared for the tackling hug he got right after.
"Your too slow!" She told him, flasely angry. "We got here yesterday!"
Jiraya and Tsunade exchanged a single look after witnising the hug. Without a single sound, they agreed. Haradai and Naru were going to get married, one way or another.
Maybe not today, maybe not tommorrow. But one day, they would get married!
It was only half an hour later when Diedara returned, carrying a large sum of money in a sealing scroll. A month was plenty time to make pletny of cash after all. If your a ninja.
"Deidara!" Naru called, waving him over when she sensed his presence.
Deidara took a look at the large group before raising a quizical brow to Naru.
"Most of these are old friends." She began explaining. "The five kids Haradai found in Iwa."
With everyone gathered and safe, Naru released the genjutsu, revealing the cave. "Step lightly!" She told them, running inside, eager to be home.
On the other side was the ocean, and underneath that, Naru knew was Uzu no Sato.
"Okay, I want everyone to stick close." She ordered, suddenly very serious. "I can only hold it for so long."
Without another word of explanation, she concentrated on moving the water away from the stairs. It had been a while since she had used her power, so it was harder. The ocean barely recognized her gentle proddings.
But the awed gasps from her companions were more than worth it. She liked having something to show off. Something no one could condemn her for. Something people thanked her for.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" She asked them mockingly. "This isn't easy you know!"
Without any hesitation, Haradai, Isamu, and Deidara led the horses and packs down the stairs, followed closely by everyone else.
When the last of them had started down, Naru joined them.
Unable to completely hold back the ocean after so long, Naru settled for surrounding them in a sort of portable orb of air.
It wouldn't last long, the oxygen would get used up, but it lasted plenty long enough to get to Uzu no Sato.
Akane was waiting for them in front of the gates. Little Ichiro squeeled in happiness upon seeing all the people.
Akane wilted a little seeing so many people at once, but seeing Naru leading them there gave her courage. Naru wouldn't let anyone hurt her here.
The protective gates opened and the weary group entered their new home. Naru turned extravagantly to her new citizens and announced. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the legendary Uzu no Sato!"
They could hardly believe it, even when they touched the amazing designs on the walls and smelled the heavenly aromas of the city's flowers.
It was almost too good to be true, yet there it was. In all it's exquisite beauty, the city of Uzu no Sato, home to the outcast.
"Gotta say gaki, you never cease to amaze." Jiraya mumbled, nearly giving himself whiplash turning every which way to take in the view.
"Of course, what did you expect?" Naru asked him mockingly. "To be honest though, I don't know what I'm going to do to top this. Maybe I'll create an unbeatable ultimate jutsu!" He half hoped she was joking, but knowing the gaki, it would most likely happen just as she said.
Naru helped everyone settle down before seeing to the newest orphan additions. The eldest, Kisuke, seemed to have grown up living off what he could fire down using his bow. He'd been trained enough to know how to use chakra but was far below genin levels in every other aspect.
The triplets, Judai, Jono, and Johan had been orphaned when their father died protecting them from some hunter nins. Apparently their father had been a missing nin left with them after a one night stand with some woman.
The little girl Haradai caught trying to steal from their food stores on the way back to the mountain whilst traveling through Tea country.
Now she lay on her bed in the tallest tower, at the tip top of the amazing structure. She felt like one of those princesses that she'd read about.
But she didn't want to be like any of those weakling princesses, waiting for someone to save her. She could fight her own battles. She didn't want anyone to have to save her, she wanted to do the saving.
For the next few days, Naru trained her ability to control water. Yesterday had taught her something, she had to remain at the top of her control, otherwise it could be fatal.
If she had been anyone else, even Pappy-sensei, they would all have died during the trek down the stairs. She had to get stronger, learn to control even more. So that no one would suffer because of her.
"Lady Uzumaki?" It was the elder boy, Kisuke. "Is your ability a bloodline trait?" He had been watching her for some time by then and had grown outragously curious about this power she held.
"No it's not." She confided in him. "Would you like to learn?"
Soon Naru had him set up learning chakra control techniques. It was hard for him because he rarely used chakra, but he was making progress at least. He could make it four steps up the wall before falling.
Finished with this aspect of her training, Naru decided to work on another part of it. So, she trained on the Rolling Waves taijutsu style for the remainder of the day.
By the time she had stopped her onslaught, the training stump looked like nothing more than a twig lying in a crater.
"Heh, I'm another step closer." She muttered happily, panting with the exertion.
Haradai, who had been watching her for the better part of six hours shook his head exasperatly as she collapsed onto the ground.
He had to get stronger as well, in order to be of some use to his mistress. What good was he if he could not help her in her quest? But tonight he wouldn't train. It was late, and it was getting cold. The entire month he was seperated from her, he couldn't seem to get his mind away from those impossibly blue eyes or that loving smile.
But right now he had to get her into bed. What a troublesome mistress he had.
Naru woke up in bed, staring up at the blue canopy that hung above her head. She felt so weird looking up at something like that first thing in the morning.
Without waiting around to think on it more, she remembered what her old sensei had told her when he began teaching her how to bend the water. He said it was all a matter of will, and if one had enough of it, in theory they could bend any element. Even maybe mix elements to make sub elements!
She had an affinity for wind, so that might be the easiest to train in first. Then she'd move on to fire, then earth. She already had mastery of water, so it didn't matter.
At the training grounds, she began the excercises that helped her control water, but used them with wind instead.
Flashback
"Remember Naru, you can't force an element to do what it doesn't want to." Pappy instructed her patiently as she tried to summon water from the lake they were practicing at. "You must let the water flow freely, and convince it to follow your will's commands."
End of Flashback.
Which brought Naru to wondering if she could apply the same principles to other elements. For a few hours she tried to assert her chakra into the wind to make it do her bidding, but had little success.
Panting from exertion and chakra loss, Naru decided now would be a good time for the instant ramen lunch she'd brought.
Just as she was finishing her meal, she felt a presence reveal itself from up in the tree she was leaning against.
"So what's your next move gaki?" Naru nearly choked on her ramen as Jiraya jumped from the tree and landed in front of her, grinning from ear to ear.
Naru growled before deciding to answer the guy that had taught her a lot. She owed it to him anyway.
"To be honest, I was thinking about how to spread word to other people faster about Uzu no Sato." She confided to him. "You said that you have this huge spy network right? Well could you spread some rumors for me then?"
Jiraya would be lying if he said that he wasn't surprised by this request. He, like many people, thought Naru was too impulsive and needed to cool out. Whatever training method the old man, Pappy, had put her on had improved her in that aspect.
He really wished the old geezer had been able to share his secret.
"What about everyone else? What's your plans for them?" He asked curiously, eager to see more of this legendary smart Naru.
"Shizune could stay here in the village to fix up the hospital, we'll be needing it sooner rather than later." Naru went on, listing her plans. "I was hoping Baa-chan would find a way to guaruntee a steady supply of medical supplies and food. Deidara and Haradai I was thinking of sending off together to perform more missions for us. Anko I wanted to have patrol the surrounding area of the cave, these mountains are not as secluded as I'd like them to be. Iruka-sensei would stay with Akane and the little ones, exploring the place, getting everything fixed up and so on."
As he listened to the well thought out plan he couldn't help but feel pride well up in his chest. Naru was becoming the wise, strong leader a village needed and he had no doubt who would end up leading this village when it got really going.
She had actually managed to assign the perfect jobs to the people best suited for them! That took a lot of thought, which meant her mind had not been idle while her body trained.
"A sound plan all in all, but what is your job?" He asked. He had noticed how she hadn't said anything about her going anywhere and he knew that she would never vote to stay in the village with nothing but training to do.
"Well, I was going to do some more travelling." She said vaugely. "I'm thinking about going to Kizu to look for orphans. I figured during the civil war going on there that there must be a lot of war orphans, maybe some with bloodlines. I want to save as many lives as possible."
That settled the matter for him. He knew Naru was much stronger now, and it was time he began training her more. When she got back from her recruiting mission he'd see about training her a little more.
He believed she was more than mature enough to handle the truth about her parentage. If Danzo was going to hold it over her head, it would be better for her to learn it firsthand anyway. Less chance of her freezing up in battle if she were to suddenly discover the fact.
"Well, you had better find those hitaites and hand 'em out before leaving." Jiraya told her, shooing the girl away to start whatever endeavors she had in mind.
Elsewhere in the Land of Fire!
Konohamaru punched the tree as hard as he could over and over again. The bark was stained with his own blood and stained bandages were wrapped around his fists.
He could already feel the improvement in his abilities but he knew it was nowhere near enough. He had been moving every day, from one part of the country to the other, avoiding villages.
He really didn't want to be caught by Danzo and taken back to that horrible training regimen.
After leaving Wave and Naru, he had thrown himself into training. He used shadow clones, as his old sensei had told him of their benefits, though they tired him.
Thanks to them he had already mastered the rasengan, the steps of which had been shown to him by Naru. He was getting stronger, and soon he would be able to save the people of his village!
He made a promise to himself, and he would keep it!
In Konohagakure!
Sasuke was seriously considering leaving to find Naru. It couldn't be that hard to find this mountain range she talked about. The council was arguing back and forth amongst themselves about which girls would be 'perfect' to rebuild the Uchiha clan.
They even had the gall to ignore the fact he was standing, glaring, right at them, KI leaking off him like a waterfall.
Either that, or they were extremely stupid.
Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed, if only he hadn't come back. Naru had to be having an easier time than him. He wondered if they had started rebuilding that village he'd never been to yet.
Which reminded him, he was suppossed to be glaring in the council's direction. If only he could be one hundred percent certain he was actually glaring at them and not at the wall or something. He hated being blind.
Current time, Uzu no Sato tower council room!
"And that's the basic run down of all I'm hoping to accomplish." Naru finished, heaving a sigh of relief that she hadn't stuttered during the entire speech.
She bet Teme was having a wonderful time back in Konoha with all their friends. He was probably talking about what a dobe she was during the academy or something equally embarrassing.
If only she could get out of these forever boring council meetings. Somehow, she knew once they became a real village it would only get a hundred times worse.
She was not looking forward to that particular aspect.
"I gotta say brat that's actually pretty well thought out." Somehow, it irked her that no one had any faith in her thinking capabilities.
She hadn't been that bad had she?
"Thanks Baa-chan, anyway I brought a bunch of Uzu hitaites too to help us get known." She opened an old box she had brought from the basement to show many wave themed hitaites.
On the thin pieces of metal was a design akin to a wave washing over some sand, similar to the beach hiding the stairs to their haven.
"Mistress, I have some grievences about you travelling alone." Haradai spoke up. More, he did not want to be seperated from her for so long right after being reunited.
"I know but there's a lot to get done and until more people join us this is all I could think of to best accentuate everyone's talents." Naru said, effectively passifying him. Which brought them all wondering if she knew she had that affect on people or not.
The ability to convince them to anything. They shuddered. It was a good thing she was on their side.
Plans were made for them all to regather in a month's time. The only changes to the original plan was that Haradai would be accompanying Naru instead of going with Dei to do more missions.
This suited Haradai just fine as it meant he could travel with his mistress, to be certain of her safety.
"Lady Uzumaki, how do you intend to transport the number of children you hope to bring back?" Haradai asked curiously. While they did have the horses, he knew the kids wouldn't be able to all ride at the same time, greatly slowing their progress.
"Well, I brought some money with us to buy a wagon for them to ride in." Naru said bashfully, showing him the pouch of money.
She felt a little irked that none of them had any faith in her thinking skills. Had she truly been that bad when she had lived in Konoha?
She supposed maybe she had, she remembered running into obvious traps a lot as a genin.
"I don't know if I should take it as a good or bad sign that everyone seems to think I really am an idiot." She muttered tiredly, changing opinions required a lot of energy after all.
Haradai's laugh, she was certain, would haunt her dreams that night.
This is a line!
LC; Alright, another chapter done and ready for uploading!
Naruto; Not bad, you got some more Konohamaru action in there.
Sasuke; My part was the best.
LC; Conceited ego-tistical maniac.
Sasuke; *Goes to emo corner*
LC; Good, that's where your kind belong.
