Chapter Eight: Reunion after Ten Years
As promised I got the chapter up as soon as I could and also for the final vote was 79-45 with 'No' being the answer so Itachi will remain in Konoha and not join the Akatsuki, so you know what that means right...? I was hoping you wouldn't since this means that I can create a new character to replace him in Akatsuki (Yeah!!!!). And to give you guys this at least Tobi will be Madara in this story.
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* Two Years Later: Konoha: Hokage Mansion *
Kushina was in the garden tending to the new batches of roses that were beginning to bloom making sure they had plenty of water. As she was tending to the plants she felt a presences behind her and couldn't help but smile, in one swift motion she picked up her gardening shovel and blocked a kunai that came down on her head and quickly disarmed her attacker by bending the arm back making the one attacking drop the kunai. She immediately reached out and grabbed the attacker by the collar of their shirt and knocked her attacker to the ground putting the small garden shovel to the neck. After all of that she kept her smile and said, "That was a nice try Haru-chan."
Haru was laying on the ground with her right arm bent behind her back and her mother's gardening tool to her throat. Kushina lifted her daughter up and said, "Keep that up and one day you will surpass me, you just need to work on your stealth." Haru stood up and dusted herself off, she was wearing a dark orange shirt with black sleeves and black ninja pants. Her blonde hair was longer from two years ago reaching the back of her kneecaps. After she got done dusting herself off she happily asked her mother, "Hey kaa-san can Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, and Ino-chan come over to hang out? Pleaseeeeeee, I swear that I'll come back here with my friends." Kushina brought her finger to her chin acting like she was thinking, "Hmmmm I don't know about that after all your still grounded."
Haru laughed at her mother joking and said, "Mom please, I promised that I wouldn't do that again and I really want to be with my friends." Kushina pulled her daughter into a hug and said, "Okay, but you'll still need to come straight home everyday after the academy understood?" Haru jumped up in the air with joy then darted off into the house to put her sandals on to go get her friends. She made it to the front door and put on her black ninja sandals and ran out the door. Her first stop was to Hinata's since her families compound was closer to the Hokage mansion. She wasn't afraid to walk around town by herself as long as she stayed away from the industrial district, weapons district, and the old Uchiha compound. Haru stopped in her tracks and thought, 'Sasuke hasn't been the same since then…' She shook her head free of those ideas shouting, "Why should I care about that baka!"
"I think it's because he might be you brother-in-law one of these days."
Haru looked up into the tree behind her and saw her father sitting in it looking at her. Minato jumped down and picked his daughter up against her will and she shouted, "What does that mean tou-san!?" Minato laughed and said, "So your mother let you out huh? And what I mean by that is that It's no secret that you like Itachi-" Haru immediately slammed her hands over her father's mouth to silence him, because a few people walked by giving sincere hellos to the two. Minato waved back with his mouth still covered by he was still smiling underneath it. Once they left Haru removed her hands shouting at her father, "Tou-san! A few people may know, but I don't want the whole village to know!" Minato giggled and said, "Okay, okay I'm sorry. So hime where you off to on a day like this?"
His daughter hopped out of his arms putting her hands on her hips, "I'm going to Hinata-chan's house so I can pick her up and so we can go get Ino and Sakura as well to come over and hang out back home." Minato made an 'oh' expression, but Haru pointed a finger at her father asking, "And I thought you were at the tower tou-san, what are you doing out of your office?"
Minato told his daughter, "I am in the office, well my kage bunshin is anyway. I needed to get out of that stuffy office and away from all those documents." Haru scolded, "Tou-san you know kaa-san would be mad if she found out that you used a kage bunshin in the office again after that one time. By that way why does she get mad?" Minato rubbed the back of his head remembering it all to well. He left his office one day to do a usual stroll around the village and left a clone in his office to finish up some documents. However Kushina had came by to visit her husband and an intense make out session was in progress, but Kushina had accidentally knocked the clone out of the chair making it hit it's head on the ground dispelling it. Needless to say she was pissed that it wasn't her husband and since then he wasn't allowed to do that ever again.
The young kage asked his daughter, "Never mind that, but don't tell kaa-san that you saw me out of the office okay?" At that moment Haru had a little glint in her eyes and he knew that all to well, if it was one thing his daughter was known for it was how she can turn tables on people and how she could get people to do things for her. She immediately spoke in a superior tone, "Oh well tou-san I guess I could do that, but what would I get in return? I mean if kaa-san would be angry with you, then I should get something out of this." Minato had a sweat drop form on his head as he tried, "Now listen young lady I control your allowance."
Haru though wasn't fazed as she said, "True tou-san, but kaa-san might give me a bigger allowance if I tell her that you left a bunshin in the office while you took a stroll into the village without her. Now how can we resolve this." Minato sunk in and knew that she had him, he hung his head in defeat asking, "Okay what do you want?" Haru leapt up and hugged her dad asking, "Well I want you to convince kaa-san to let me have ramen again I can live with being grounded by not without ramen." Minato also remembered this one, one day Haru went over to Ino's and didn't tell anyone so Kushina was all worried and depressed and when the little girl returned Kushina might has well been an Akuma (demon), Haru was immediately grounded and she was not permitted to have ramen for two months…. She is currently going on one day…
Minato sighed as his daughter kept her hug on his waist, "You are just determined to get me sent into the lion's den aren't you?" Haru simply smiled and nodded happily. Minato sighed and said, "Your an evil child, but I got no choice." Haru climbed up to her father's face and planted a kiss on his cheek saying, "For good luck. Later tou-san." She immediately took off for Hinata's home.
He stood there for a moment and looked in the direction of his home and imagined seeing an evil aura emanating from his house with a sign that red 'Death'. He turned back around and said to himself, "Maybe I'll do that later." He put his hands together and disappeared in a swirl of leaves back to his office.
* Hyuuga Compound - Konoha *
Haru was standing in front of the Hyuuga compound, Hinata's clan was now the most prestigious clan and now the most powerful since the Uchiha clan were wiped out. Before the villagers would say that the Uchihas were stronger, but once they were killed Hinata's clan was now the dominate rain of power in konoha next to her father of course. One of the gate guards went to fetch Hinata and had her wait outside with another guard.
She didn't wait long as the door opened up with the Hyuuga guard walking out and Hinata right behind him. Hinata was wearing a dark lavender kimono. Haru noticed that Hinata was depressed again asking in a sincere tone, "You okay?" Hinata looked down so Haru couldn't see her face and then looked back up putting on a fake smile, "Hai I'm okay." Haru knew why she was depressed, Hinata had told her that her father was disappointed in her progress and said she held no promise as a ninja. But Haru kept Hinata going saying that 'Watch Hinata-chan, one day you'll become a famous and strong ninja and when that day comes you'll prove your whole family wrong. Just wait and see.'
Those words kept Hinata going when ever she was depressed. Haru nudged Hinata saying, "Come on let's go get Ino and Sakura so we can hang out." Hinata happily agreed hoping that spending sometime with her friends would cheer her up.
The two girls walked into the busy part of town where Ino's family flower shop was located to go and see if she was in. They waded through the crowds of people, right now it was busy since Konoha was about to host a festival for the day Konoha was founded and a lot of people in the Fire Country come to the festival. The two kept walking through everyone and Haru shouted to Hinata, "Come on let's jump from building from building like real ninjas." Hinata agreed, but the only problem was that they weren't very good yet in terms of stamina aside from Haru who had an inhuman amount of stamina. The two ran next to a building and jumped up high enough to grab the edge of the roof, Haru pulled herself up and then helped Hinata up. Once they saw where they were they started jumping building to building.
As they ran building to building Haru looked down at the crowds and saw many people gathering for this event, but she suddenly stopped and saw someone in the crowd that interested her. Hinata stopped to and stood next to her and she followed her line of sight to the crowds beneath and she saw a young boy walking in the crowd who had a mask covering the lower half of his face, long blonde hair, black shirt that was ripped and torn, black pants that were in the same condition and he seemed worn out and cuts covered his body. They saw him sit down with his back leaning against one of the shops to catch his breath.
Hinata and Haru looked at each other and then jumped down to the boy. Hinata leaned down to look at his face, normally she would be to embarrassed to do so, but embarrassment was replaced with concern and worry, "Um excuse me." The young boy looked up and Hinata's worry and concern disappeared and she was now shocked and astounded, she started to blush since she saw that he had the most beautiful blue eyes she's ever seen. Haru also saw his eyes and thought, 'He's the only other person I've seen outside of my family that have those color eyes.'
Hinata struggled to find her words, "U-U-U-Umm a-a-a-are y-y-you o-o-o-o-o-okay?" He didn't answer, but he shook his head no. Haru kneeled down so she was eye level with him asking, "What's your name?" He didn't answer at first, but he told her, "My dad called me 'Naruto' before I lost track of him." Haru and Hinata looked a little shocked. Naruto stood up and asked them, "Do you know where the hospital is so I can get my wounds looked at?"
Hinata told him, "W-W-W-Well l-l-let u-us t-t-take y-y-you t-there." Naruto's eyes remained unchanged and he said, "I don't want to be a bother." Haru wanted to know a little more about this guy and said, "It's no bother at all. Besides me and Hinata wouldn't feel right letting you go off by yourself in your condition." Naruto shrugged it off and said, "Lead the way."
Hinata and Haru started walking ahead of him and he was following behind them at least seven feet away. Haru and HInata would look back every now and then to make sure that he was following them which he was. Hinata leaned next to Haru whispering, "Haru-chan he looks like your tou-san, nii-san, and yourself." Haru looked back again and whispered to Hinata, "I thought so too, but my dad always said 'Leave your mind open to the possibility that your wrong'. It's to much of a coincidence…. After we take him to the hospital can you watch him? I need to tell my dad about this."
Hinata was beat red, but she reluctantly agreed. Haru nodded good and she looked back at Naruto, "Hey we'll be there soon so don't worry." Naruto responded, "I'm not worried nor am I in any hurry." Haru frowned and said to Hinata without whispering, "He's not very cheerful like the rest of my family." Hinata put her hands over her mouth to stifle a giggle. The three young kids made it to the hospital and Haru walked up to the reception desk asking, "Excuse me. Um my friend and I found this boy injured in town." The woman at the reception desk saw Haru and Hinata though she drifted her attention to the boy and saw him covered in cuts. She looked around and saw a medic-nin off to the side reading a report, "Excuse me sir, this young boy needs your assistance."
The medic looked up from the clipboard he had and saw Naruto, he walked over to where Naruto was and placed the clipboard down on the reception desk. He placed his hands over Naruto's chest and a green light emitted from the man's hands as he did a diagnostic, "Let's see, he has no life treating injuries, no broken bones, no kind of sickness, all in all he's healthy aside from the cuts." He stands up and says, "All he needs is some antibiotics and to be bandaged, don't worry young ladies he'll live."
Both girls let out a sigh of relief at those words. The medic told Naruto, "Alright follow me this way and I'll take care of those wounds." Naruto complied and followed the man. Haru nudged Hinata a little bit, she got the message and ran after them. Haru watched them leave and then ran off to see her father and tell him what happened.
* Hokage Tower *
Minato (the real Minato) was going over the work his clone had done in his absence. He however had a visitor, Arashi had dropped by and was off to the side reading one of his godfather's old books 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'. Both of the blondes were so into what they were doing that they almost missed the knock at the door. Minato snapped his head up and rubbed his eyes to focus calling out, "Come in."
The door opened revealing his secretary who told him, "Hokage-sama you have a visitor." She moved off to the side and in his view now was his daughter. Haru was breathing a little heavy and she walked up to her father's desk. Minato smiled and said jokingly, "Hey Haru-chan, what's up?" Haru was trying to catch her breath and she asked him, "Tou-san just a little while ago me and Hinata found this boy who was injured and we took him to the hospital."
Arashi chuckled a little asking, "Did some of Kakashi's habits rub off on you and your trying to come up with an excuse to stay out later?" Haru looked to her older brother and said seriously, "I'm not lying! The boy was really hurt and… and…" Minato and Arashi could tell she was really serious. Minato walked around his desk and kneeled down in front of her placing his hands on her shoulder, "That's very nice what you did Haru-chan, so what happened to the boy?" Haru looked in her father's eyes and she saw the strange blonde boy. She shook her head and said, "Tou-san the boy looked like you and he said his name is Naruto!" She saw the look in her father's eyes was that of shock and she looked over to her brother who was now standing up and no longer seated with the same look of shock.
Minato picked his daughter up and carried her out with Arashi following behind him. Minato passed up his secretary telling her in a strict tone, "Find me Ibiki Morino and have him go to the Konoha hospital to find me!" She did as she was told and headed off to relay the message. Minato asked Haru, "Would anyone know where he is in the hospital Haru?" Haru managed to answer, "The medic who looked at him left his clipboard on the reception desk."
Arashi asked his dad, "What are the chances it's him?" Minato couldn't think straight right now, the thought of his son that he's never seen yet here in Konoha was all he could think about. Arashi tried asking, "Should we tell mom?" Minato immediately said, "No, by the off chance that this isn't Naruto then I don't want to get her hopes up and it turns out it's not him." The moment the two left the building the dashed off at amazing speeds that made them out as yellow blurs. Minato and Arashi were running so fast that the ANBU who follow after the Hokage couldn't keep up and Haru was holding onto her father with all her might.
* Konoha Hospital *
Arashi and Minato flung the doors open and they walked over with Haru still in Minato's hands to the reception desk. Everyone watched the blondes move over to the desk, Arashi saw a clipboard on the desk and quickly snatched it reading the name off, "Takamora." He looked to the receptionist asking, "Was Takamora the one who is healing a little blonde haired boy?"
The receptionist answered, "Y-Yes he is. Umm the girl right there came with him, umm they treat children in the room down that hall over there room 17." She pointed to a hallway that was on the left side of the lobby. Minato and Arashi immediately headed down the hallway toward the room number. Arashi started reading off the numbers on the doors, "14, 15, 16…. 17! Right there!"
They saw the room and Minato reached out for the handle, but froze. Haru climbed out of her father's now loose grip and just saw him stuck looking at the room number, she reached up and touched her father's hand who in turn looked at her, she seemed to give him a sincere look and nodded to him. Minato smiled and placed his hand on the door knob and opened the door.
Inside was Hinata, Takamora, and the other little boy who was called Naruto he had a mask but it was off of his face and around his neck. All three looked at the door and saw their visitors, Takamora and Hinata bowed and politely said, "Good morning Hokage-sama." Minato walked in front of the boy who did look a lot like him and Arashi, he stood directly in front of him and saw that his wounds were all bandaged.
Minato mustered a smile and asked the young boy, "What's your name?" Naruto still held his uninterested look in his eyes and answered truthfully, "My name is Naruto, I don't have a last name." the kage asked next, "How old are you?" Again the boy answered the question given to him, "I turned ten years old last October 10th." Haru said, "Hey that's my birthday, I turned ten as well."
Minato looked at the medic asking, "Did you get a blood sample?" The medic nodded and Minato unraveled his sleeve showing his bare arm, "Take a blood sample from me and send both mine and Naruto's here to get analyzed… You know what I mean too." The medic really did understand so he took out a syringe and took some of his blood and then he took a second syringe that was already filled with blood and left the room. Arashi looked the boy over and saw many similarities and did not think this a hoax or a coincidence that a boy looked so much like his father. He placed a hand on his father's shoulder and said, "I'm going to send a shadow clone to alert mom. She deserves to know." Minato wasn't really listening, but nodded anyway. Arashi summoned up a clone and watched as the clone ran out of the room to go get Kushina.
Naruto was still seated in his chair looking at the man in front of him not saying a word, he wasn't showing any emotion at all nor was he worried or concerned about the whole situation unraveling in front of him. Haru and Hinata walked next to him and pulled two chairs on both sides so they could sit with him. Hinata asked him, "Naruto-kun where are you from?" At this point Hinata was to curious about the boy and she didn't even notice that she didn't stutter at all in that sentence.
Naruto looked at Hinata and he looked straight into her eyes and said, "My home was in Moon country, but we haven't been there since ninjas from this village went over there." Minato and Arashi were both simply flabbergasted that he talked about that since Arashi went on the mission to capture Kakuzu in Moon country two years ago. Naruto continued by saying, "Since then we've been sleeping in forests."
Haru poked his arm and asked, "Did you live with anyone else? Because I remember you said that you had a dad before you said that you lost track of him." Minato now was confused that Naruto would refer to Kakuzu as father, but then thought that since Naruto was possibly only around Kakuzu then it was natural that the boy would refer to him in someway.
Arashi grabbed a scroll from his ninja pouch and unsealed it's content which was the picture of Kakuzu that was made two years ago, he held it up to Naruto and asked, "Is this who you traveled with?" Naruto looked at the picture and immediately nodded, "Yeah that's tou-san, but when we did missions his name was 'Ragdoll' or he'd use his real name 'Kakuzu'." There was not a doubt in both men's mind that this was without a doubt Naruto Namikaze, but it seems ten years with the criminal has made Naruto emotionless and that he has taken to calling Kakuzu as his father figure, something Minato feared. Minato kneeled down in front of Naruto and said, "Listen Naruto-kun… Ten years ago my son was kidnapped when he was a newborn, now Kakuzu got ahold of you and we got word from a now extinct village that they were offered money to kidnap him, but Kakuzu killed both of them and took their money."
Naruto cut in saying, "That sounds like him." Minato continued, "But we don't know who he was taking him too, but me, my wife, Arashi here, and even Haru the girl sitting next to you believed that he was alive and well somewhere and we did everything in our power to find him and bring him home. However it seems that he came home on his own." Naruto remained silent for a moment and he said simply, "You think…. no wait, you know that I am your son is what your saying."
Minato nodded and pulled Naruto in for a hug and the boy didn't refuse. Naruto was still seated and just let the man hug him and Naruto could hear slight sobbing sounds coming from him, Naruto then said, "I don't understand… Ninjas never show emotions and I always thought even a kage was above that." Arashi told Naruto, "That is true Naruto, but ninjas are just as human as the civilians, daimyos, soldiers, and the rich. We are not emotionless 24/7."
Naruto was able to see the man since he was glancing over Minato's right shoulder. Minato broke his hug from his son when the door flung open revealing Kushina who came back alone, Arashi at that moment gained his clone's memories and saw that the clone also found Ibiki who was on his way to the room so it disappeared. Kushina was panting heavily and her eyes were glued to the boy sitting between Haru and Hinata. She walked over to Naruto and Minato moved out of the way so she was kneeling in front of him.
The little blonde haired, blue eyed boy that she only caught a glimpse of ten years ago was sitting right in front of her now, without warning she pulled the boy off his chair and into her arms hugging him and crying profusely. Hinata and Haru were shedding a little tears as well watching how Kushina brought her right hand up to her son's head and started to stroke his long blonde hair. Naruto remained in her arms and asked, "Who are you?"
It stung, it stung a lot to Kushina to hear those words from a son she hasn't seen in ten years, but forced herself to remember that he was kidnapped and that he wouldn't know of any of them. Kushina broke from her hug looking him in his eyes that immediately reminded her of her husband, oldest son, and daughter, "Minato-kun, this is him, this is our son. A mother knows these things." Naruto's eyes were remained on hers as he said, "Your my mother?" Kushina nodded and he said, "I have a pretty mother." Kushina again pulled the boy into a hug happy to hear that. After awhile Ibiki came into the room with a few ANBU and he saw the scene before him. Minato walked over to Ibiki and had him meet him outside the room.
Minato closed the door and told him, "We are waiting for the test results to see if he has a blood match with me, but I want you to take him and ask him a few questions and get Inoichi involved. It's not that I don't trust him, it's that I DON'T trust Kakuzu." Ibiki nodded agreeing and said, "I'll make sure to do a full check and I'll have Inoichi do a complete search of his mind. You have my word." Minato thanked him and moved out of the way. Ibiki walked into the room alone and saw that Kushina was still hugging him and he asked, "Kushina-sama, I'm sorry but we need to borrow him and ask him a few questions about his captor." Kushina only held him tighter not wanting to let him go. Minato came back in and said, "Kushina please. Naruto will be coming back home, that's a promise."
Naruto felt her grip loosen and she moved back enough to see his face. Kushina leaned forward and gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, "I'll see you soon." Naruto looked to Haru and said, "Thank you for bringing me to the hospital… sister." Haru blushed and started rubbing the back of her head out of embarrassment. Naruto turned and looked at Hinata who was already blushing and said, "Thank you for keeping me company… Beautiful angel." At that moment Hinata's face turned so red that made the original color look pink and she fainted in her seat, Kushina caught her and thought, 'Yeah he's Minato's son alright." Ibiki walked over to Naruto and held out his hand, Naruto looked at his hand and took it without question and left the room with him. Arashi walked out of the room as well telling his father, "I need to watch over this." Minato agreed and watched both his sons leave with Ibiki and the ANBU.
Minato leaned into the doorway and told Kushina and his daughter, "Come on let's go home and don't worry Kushina I will alert you when Ibiki is done and when 'you' can pick him up." Kushina walked up to him and kissed hims square on the lips and Haru said, "Ewwwww! I don't wanna see my parents kiss!" She walked over to Hinata and picked up Hinata carrying her on her back. Kushina broke the kiss from her husband and looked to Haru who was carrying Hinata like a backpack and said, "Come on Hinata can sleep at the mansion." Haru agreed and passed up her father and stopped, she looked at him with an evil grin and said, "Oh kaa-san! Tou-san would like to ask you something about my punishment!"
Kushina stopped and looked at Minato who was now sweating bullets. Haru began to snicker thinking, 'This is gonna be fun. I bet he thought I forgot all about that.' Minato stood there and thought, 'Yup this is an evil child.'
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Okay now that I got that chapter done I will remind you that I will be gone this weekend and I will have no writing done this weekend so I'm gonna shoot for writing over the next week, so wish me a fun trip and I will upload next week... not sure when though. But in the next chapter a few questions might be revealed and some interesting things as well regarding what will happen if Inoichi goes in Naruto's mind and how Naruto will fit in with society. So until then my friends 'Stay Gold'.
