Continuing this update train, doo-dah, doo-dah, I'll continue updating all the doo-dah day.
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Review response time!
1. draven32: I'll be honest, I toyed with the idea some, but in the end I've decided not to go down that road. Even though it's a thing in the Naruto-verse for huge clans to inter-marry because they're so damn big that it's not incestuous, two people getting it on and having the same last name before marriage gives me the fuckin' willies, whether or not they're actually related. So...yeah. Nix that idea
2. OneLunchMan: Eh, my brain is good at coming up with random shit that'll happen in fics. The trap is when you get caught in a, "I wanted this to happen, but the way I've written this character up until now means that something else will happen," situation, hence why I'm not writing this with any kind of plan in mind. Truth be told, I feel kinda bad for how I wrote the reveal to them, but maybe I'll get back to that as a plot point later? I don't know. I do enjoy leaving cliffhangers, though. Good to know it kept you waiting!
...speaking of reviews, last chapter only got 3, as opposed to the previous average of about 6 per chapter. Was it just not well-written, or were you guys just less than impressed? Either way, I'll try harder from now on; I won't beg for reviews, but they're the most tangible way to let me know you appreciate the story, so they're always welcome!
Let's get this trainwreck moving.
"So you're telling me that I was right in guessing what it was...and those who didn't have permission to use it would be sucked into that maze?"
"If it doesn't recognize the chakra's signature, then yes, it will pull you in. I used it in a last-ditch effort to keep the village from being invaded and ransacked after its destruction." Oboro said.
"But then, why were your body, and Naruto's, still here? Those two," Jiraiya motioned to Rei and Kouga, "didn't have bodies."
"I never cut off my chakra flow for the technique. It's likely that those two didn't use any chakra at all, but because they have chakra, they were more susceptible to its pull."
"Yeah, we can do some really cool stuff!" Kouga said. "Watch this one!"
The twins weaved their hand seals seamlessly, though each one went through different motions, and they pointed their hands out toward the ocean.
With a horrendous roar, flames exploded outward in a cone before lightning shot fort from the center of the vortex. The flaming gyro widened further, and a pressure-jet of water spewed with enough force that Jiraiya and Oboro could cleanly see the electrical current get bisected; that was a feat that only one other technique had accomplished, as far as Jiraiya knew: Hatake Kakashi's Raikiri, the Lightning Blade.
"Ugh...that always makes me hungry." Rei said as the technique finished, a pained look on her face. "Still, that's our favorite area attack. Hashirama-itoko said that one day, we might even be strong enough to beat him and Madara-itoko combined!"
"Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara?" Jiraiya said, his brain filling in the blanks for the only people he'd ever heard of with those names.
"That's what they told me when I found them. They'd never heard of Konoha, or the Hokage." Naruto said.
"Are you saying they've been stuck in there for almost a century? Konoha was formed when Hashirama and Madara finally put everything aside and joined forces. That was more than eighty years ago, and they were almost thirty when that happened!"
"Thirty? No, you must be talking about a different Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara than our cousins! They're two years older than us, so they should be ten years old!" Kouga said.
"Oh boy..." Naruto groaned. "...let me handle this, I'm good with kids."
He took both of them by the hand, wandering off.
"So...you're Jiraiya, all grown up?" Oboro looked at him. "You got tall."
"You know me?"
"You were Hiruzen's student. One of three. You, the Shodaime Hokage's granddaughter, and the one they called White Snake."
"Tsunade is the Hokage now. Orochimaru turned out to be...too dangerous to allow inside Konoha's walls. My generation's Danzo, as it were."
"My condolences, then. When we stood tall, we were proud to not have a single nukenin from our ranks...but the loss or betrayal of a comrade is never something that can be taken easily."
"A pain that we all have to bear." Jiraiya added. "The life of a ninja is a life of loss, and death, and regret. I'm trying to make sure that I don't have any more regrets once I'm gone, and your grandson is one of them. I'm his godfather."
"Then he's in good hands...I hope. You weren't exactly the most studious shinobi, from all I heard."
"War turns you into a quick study. Two wars turns you into an expert."
"A third war?"
"Yeah. Let's get you up to speed."
"Do you know how long you were in that maze?"
"Uh...it didn't feel like much! Maybe a few hours?" Kouga asked, hopeful.
"No, not even close. It's been almost a hundred years."
"What? No way! You're joking, aren't you! Any day now, the Clan Wars are going to end and we can settle down peacefully, for good! At least, that's what Hashirama and Madara both say."
"I hate to break it to you, but there's no getting around it: Hashirama and Madara are both died about sixty-five years ago."
"Liar! Nobody could kill them!" Rei said, angry and beginning to pout.
"They killed each other." Naruto dropped the words like bombs, watching the shocked and horrified expressions on the twins' faces. "There's a valley between Hi no Kuni and Oto no Kuni that's dedicated as the battleground where they fought each other to the death. We call it the Valley of the End, because it's where they fought their final battle."
"What about Tobirama and Izuna? What happened to them?"
"Senju Tobirama was the Nidaime Hokage, after his brother's death. I've never heard of Uchiha Izuna, so he probably died before the end of the Warring Clans period."
"Are you...are you being serious, Naruto-onii? This isn't a big joke?"
"I like jokes. I like jokes a lot. This isn't one of them. I'm from Konohagakure no Sato. The Warring Clans period ended eighty years ago, and it was replaced by the Hidden Village system where groups of ninja from different clans allied in the same land. Think about it...was this village here when you touched that stone?"
"Um...I can't remember. tou-san said he was gonna start building a village here when the wars were over, though!" Kouga said. "Is that what this is? The Uzumaki village?"
"That's what it was. Before I was born, it got destroyed. My mother was born in Konoha after it was wiped out, and Oboro obaa-chan is my grandmother who was stuck in that stone with you two. The four of us are the only Uzumaki left."
"What?" The twins cried out simultaneously.
"I'm sorry. It's true. But hey, if you hadn't gotten stuck in there, you never would have met me! Instead of worrying about what you've lost, think about everything that's still out here! You're kids, you should have fun, not worry about fighting for survival every day!"
"But we need to get more powerful!"
"Then train with me. Three Uzumaki are always stronger than one!"
The two children nodded, their inner turmoil crushed by the elder Uzumaki's charisma. That was just the kind of effect Naruto had on people, and children were especially susceptible. They would likely have doubts and reminisce painfully in the future on all the things they had missed, and he wouldn't be able to protect them from that misery forever, but they deserved the chance to live the lives that they had been given; just because they were born in the past, didn't mean that they would belong to that past.
They had a future, and Naruto was determined not to let the newest additions to his family live with any other road before them...no matter how bad it made him feel to sideline their feelings about having lost everyone they used to know and love. It was clear that they had really cared for Hashirama and Madara.
That thought made Naruto wonder how the Clan Wars, and the founding of Konoha, would have gone if these Uzumaki children had been there for it.
"Hai, Naruto onii-sama!"
"Good."
"You've managed to clear away a decent section of the rubble." Oboro said, walking around. "The village is empty, and in disrepair, but it's not broken anymore. Thank you."
"Aw, it was nothing. I figured it was the least I could do, out of respect. Anyone else would have done the same." Naruto replied.
"No they wouldn't have." His grandmother remained grateful, if stern. "They would have looted it...like the scrolls you took from the office. But, since you're my grandson, I guess I can overlook it."
Without warning, Naruto enveloped the older woman in a hug.
"I never had a family." He told her. "I lived in the street for fifteen years, all I had was a name that I didn't know the meaning of."
"Poor boy...it's okay now. You have a family, and we aren't going to leave you. I promise."
Bones rattled in the wind, and the pair looked down to see a severed skull roll backward toward its headless corpse. In one hand was a sword they both recognized; Naruto from the Genjutsu, and Oboro from being married to its wielder.
"Josuke..." She looked to Naruto. "...please, excuse me. I'd like to be alone now."
The younger Uzumaki nodded, vanishing in a smooth shunshin that would have been impossible before he'd left Konoha.
It must be a hard thing, he thought, to finally come to face the loss of a family you'd known.
"I told you we'd talk later, didn't I?" Tayuya had him cornered.
"Keep in mind, it only feels like a few hours for me, okay? I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was-"
She smacked him with her palm, and then on the other cheek on a backhand swing.
"Don't you dare!" She exploded at him. "Don't you dare apologize to me! You stupid son of a bitch, we thought you died! You don't get to apologize!"
"I..."
"No!" There were tears in her eyes. "Stop it!"
"No." His arms reached around, pulling Tayuya close to him while immobilizing her. "I'm not gonna."
"You son of a-"
"You don't get to cry for me. Not until I'm really dead...and you've seen my scars. I can't die."
"That logic is bullshit, and you know it."
"I don't care." Naruto sighed.
"Well, maybe I do. You may not think it, but I actually like you. I think I'm okay with calling you my friend, and you're the first one I've had since I went to Orochimaru. So I'm gonna be fuckin' worried when your stupid ass decides to do some kind of shit that looks like it kills you!"
"I'm sorry." He sank to the floor, carrying her with him, holding onto her as she stopped trying to break herself free. "I'm so, so sorry."
That was when Tayuya finally broke, letting loose the tears she'd been trying to keep in; even if he wasn't dead, she and Jiraiya had thought he was. They stayed like that for a few minutes, holding and being held. Finally, Naruto's grip loosened, and Tayuya was free.
"I'm gonna stay mad about that for a while." She told him, tear-tracks still visibly fresh in her eyes as she looked at him. To her surprise, he looked like he'd silently cried with her.
"You have a right to." He whispered back, so low that even her refined hearing barely picked it up. "But you deserve to know that I really am sorry about what happened. I just...I got curious. It hurt like hell when I touched it, like my hand was gonna get washed off by acid. And that maze was huge. About half the size of Konoha. I was being stupid. I know. I've never made a whole lot of smart decisions, I just kind of make due with however I can play to my strengths. That ball, since Rei and Kouga were sucked in there long before the Clan Wars ended, is an endless nightmare unless you've spent time really learning how to study a map...and even then, if you ask the right question, you're fine."
"Sounds like you didn't have that much of a problem anyway, piss-brain." Well, if she was calling him that name again, then she was feeling at least a little bit better.
"Eh, it got better once I found those three in there. Company always makes travelling better."
"Even mine?"
Naruto couldn't tell whether the girl was fishing for a compliment, or genuinely worried about how he saw her.
"Especially yours." He replied. "It's never a bad thing to have a friend along."
His smile came on like it had been cued, lighting up his face and bringing a small grin to hers. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay mad at that face.
"Okay, fine, you win. I fuckin' forgive you, asshole."
He felt like he'd just won the lottery.
Naruto's training resumed the next day, and he knew that Jiraiya's sadism was his way of venting frustration at him. Still, he was glad for the harder training; it made thinking a little easier when he was focused on doing other things.
His clones were broken up into three groups: Fuinjutsu, Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu. While each of them worked in their assigned areas, and a smaller group of clones continued his restoration efforts, Jiraiya had amplified the pressure of the chakra limitation seal as well as add what he called a, "Slog Seal."
"It will make it feel like you're moving through mud, or a strong water current." Jiraiya had told him. "So then, when you take it off, you'll be a whole hell of a lot faster. This is the first level of the seal. When you get used to it and can move like you always do, I'll give you the next level."
The exercises he went through after that had been put on him were completed very slowly...slow enough that Naruto had been suspicious about whether or not Jiraiya's true motivation was just to be able to write more of his supposedly prize-winning smut novellas.
Lust was a terrible vice; that was the only conclusion he could come to. Wrath, greed and pride were the standard shinobi sins, and envy could also be passed off as reasonable. Lust, gluttony and sloth, though? There weren't many ninja who ascribed to those.
In Naruto's opinion, Jiraiya was a student of all three. Still, the blond had to admit to himself that the older man knew what he was doing. Even though they had only worked on control exercises and non-elemental techniques so far, he already felt like he'd come leaps and bounds ahead of where he'd been. Plus, the Kage Buki no Jutsu, which allowed him to make replicas of his weapons, was a fun area-of-effect attack. Jiraiya had said, however, that they would start elemental techniques in the near future.
It looked like that day was today, a week after his return from the Labyrinth.
He and Tayuya stood with Rei and Kouga, with Jiraiya and Oboro standing in front of their ragtag quartet.
"Alright, moment of truth." Jiraiya said. "Luckily, Naruto, your efforts to clear away debris from the village gave me the chance to find some chakra paper. What that does is tell you your affinities for elemental chakra. For example, my primary affinity is Katon, and I have a secondary affinity for Doton techniques. That means it takes less chakra for me to perform jutsu with those two elements. Some people have an immensely strong affinity for one element and no secondary affinity, but that's less common than having one strong and one weak nature. Every so often, you come across some weird jackass who's got three or more affinities, though that's usually due to having a Kekkei Genkai or being a Jinchuriki. In all of recorded history, though, there have only ever been two people with an affinity for all five elements."
"Who?"
"The Rikudo Sennin, if you believe in his legend, and my sensei...which is the real reason he earned the nickname, 'Shinobi no Kami,' during the First Great War."
"The older a shinobi gets, the deadlier they are, and not many ninja live to their eighties." Oboro added. "When the Clan Wars were at their height, everybody was fair game, because you never knew who could grow up to kill you. When every war starts, ninja of all ages are sent off to the battlefield, and the young are always the first to die. Deprive a village of its elder, stronger shinobi, and you cripple it...slaughter their children, their next generation, and you've finished them."
"The Sandaime's only problem was that he was too old to keep up, physically, with Orochimaru. His chakra reserves were almost as large as an Uzumaki, and he still maintained all his wits, but an old man doesn't have the strength or speed to keep up with someone thirty years younger." Jiraiya added.
"Hey, before you get lost in that train of thought, you said something about chakra paper and elemental affinities. You can get sentimental later!" Naruto said.
"Right, right. Sorry. Anyway, you charge a little bit your chakra into these little slips of paper," the Sannin held one up to exemplify, "and it'll have an effect on the paper that will tell you your affinity. Futon cuts it in half, Katon burns it, Suiton makes it damp, Raiton will leave a scorch mark where you hold it, and Doton will make it crumble into dust."
He handed out a slip of paper to each of the children, and the two older ninja watched the proceedings.
Rei and Kouga's papers both became damp, though Rei's had a blackened mark and Kouga's lit itself on fire, and they showed each other in excitement; those effects had happened simultaneously, leading Jiraiya and Oboro to a strange conclusion: the twins didn't have secondary affinities, but two equally strong elemental natures. While they shared a Suiton affinity, Rei had a Raiton nature and Kouga had a Katon nature.
Tayuya's crumbled, but the dust was wet and blackened. She had a primary Doton affinity, as could be expected from someone born in Iwa no Kuni, with Suiton and Raiton as secondary affinities; that made Jiraiya raise an eyebrow, as it was likely a product of Orochimaru's experiments...or the girl was just that talented, and nobody had bothered to find out.
All eyes were on Naruto, whose paper practically exploded.
"Ah!" He said, throwing the ashes and shaking his hand.
"Geez, kid, I told you to just use a little bit! Here, try again." Jiraiya laughed, handing another piece of chakra paper to his student. Just to be safe, though, he strengthened the seal limiting Naruto's chakra.
Slowly, painfully slowly, the paper began to tear itself across the middle. As its top half burned, Jiraiya could see the scorch mark forming around his fingers as the bottom half became wet. A primary affinity for Futon, with secondary affinities for Katon, Raiton, and Suiton.
It looked like he'd inherited all four of his parents' elemental natures; maybe a side-effect of being a Jinchuriki whose mother was also a Jinchuriki, so his chakra coils had steeped in the Kyuubi's energy from conception? Maybe a byproduct of the Shiki Fuin having been used to seal the Kyuubi, an unintended consequence leaving him to inherit his parents' power? There was no way to tell, really. He would just have to make it work into the boy's training.
"My affinities are a primary for Suiton, and a secondary for Futon." Oboro added. "But I know a few jutsu from all the five basic natures, so I can help all of you a little bit."
"Now that we know what elements to train you in, it's time to really get to making you work for your education." Jiraiya's grin, directed at the older children, promised two of things:
He was going to have a lot of fun with this.
Naruto and Tayuya weren't.
