Homecoming

Three days later at the gates of Konoha "Tsu…Tsunade-sama, welcome back!" Kotetsu stammered out while Izumo went to inform the Hokage. Tsunade simply marched through the gates headed for the Hokage's office, the rest of the party following. As they arrived Tsunade burst through doors yelling "Sarutobi-sensei, you've got some explaining to do!" Sarutobi composed himself as he spoke "Naruto, you've returned." "Good to see you again, Old Man." Tsunade was growing more irritated at being ignored. "Why did you lie to me, why was I told he died?!" "I sent for you and got no reply." The Third said. "What about the Anbu?" Tsunade asked more calmly "In never sent an Anbu" Sarutobi replied narrowing his eyes. "…The one with the kanji for 'Ne' on their mask." Tsunade urged "ROOT" he said venomously, as the words left his mouth Tsunade was read to tear Danzo apart. "We can't prove anything, it's useless go after him mom." Naruto interjected before things got out of hand.

"He right Tsunade." The Third said, sighing dejectedly. "More importantly I have some news for you, Old Man." Naruto said as he told all he knew of Orochimaru's plans and handed Sarutobi a vile of vitality elixir. "That's quite the scheme Naruto thank you for informing me, now would you care to introduce the rest of your companions and what is this?" "No problem" he said, the girls stepping forward to introduce themselves. "I'm Haku Naruto's…apprentice." "I'm Fu, Nanabi jinchuuriki and formerly of Taki." "I'm Tayuya…" "…and I'm Kin Tsuchi." Tsunade chimed in "The vial contains a vitality elixir created by Naruto it'll restore you to your prime." With that said Sarutobi wasted no time in chugging it "It should take full effect in about a week." Tsunade added, the old man grinned already feeling the effects. "This," Naruto said gesturing to Aimi "is Aimi, I figured out how to safely release her from the seal." The Third greeted her saying "It's nice to finally meet the woman who's taken such good care of Naruto." He already knew of her background from the last time he spoke with Naruto, both Naruto and Aimi blushed as she dropped the henge she'd had on since she entered the village; revealing four furry red white-tipped tails and two furry fox ears.

"Well Naruto these past few years have been quite fruitful for you." "Yes they have, can you have Anko meet with me tomorrow so I can remove her seal; luckily Orochimaru hadn't marked either of you two." Naruto said looking at Tayuya and Kin. "Well I've got a few more people to see before the day is over." "Wait Naruto where will you all stay?" Sarutobi asked "I bought a few properties while I was away; I own a few apartment complexes in Konoha we'll stay at one of them until I can claim my clan compound." "Why don't you just move in now?" the old man asked, Naruto sighed and said "The Council wouldn't accept it even if I presented them with evidence of my lineage. I'll have to do this the roundabout way and spend my academy days making allies of the clan heirs." "Oh, and when graduation rolls around I'd like to be put on a team with Haku and Fu-chan." With that said Naruto and company turned to leave with a bow, as they left Sarutobi began writing a message to the Mizukage.

Leaving the tower Naruto showed everyone to the nearby apartment complex he owned and told them to pick anyone they wanted "I'm going to check on my old place and some old friends; I'll be back by dusk." He said to them walking off towards Blade Edge the weapons shop owned by Tenten's father where he'd been apprenticed. Naruto walked in to Blade Edge in a henge as he spoke to Ken "It's good to see you again Ken, how's Tenten?" At the sound of his voice Tenten appeared from the back ready to castrate him. "How could you leave without saying goodbye, and that letter's a poor excuse!" she yelled at him; Ken observed everything from behind the counter. Naruto sighed replying "I'm sorry, I was in a bit of a rush once I found out about my heritage and my godparents." Tenten's anger faltered and she dropped the kunai at his crotch; she was misty eyed for a moment before she suddenly kissed with all she had four years' worth of lost time to make up for "From now on, you don't make a move without letting me know first." Tenten demanded from the weak kneed Naruto who simply nodded, all while Ken smirked behind his counter this had been a long time coming.

"We haven't really seen you in a very long time, how about dropping the henge?" Ken said "Right, I almost forgot." Naruto grinned as he went from brown haired and brown eyed to blond haired and blue eyed. His shining blue eyes set of by his dark attire and complimented by his hair. Naruto's hair had grown out a little and he was certainly taller than his blood clone, Tenten notice his physique had filled out a bit more and blushed as she copped a feel. "While I'm here I have these for you." Naruto said retrieving a stack of anti-rape seals he developed for Haku. Ken looked at them curiously and asked "What are they?" "There some seals I developed to help protect my companions from the perils of kunoichi life, when faced with unwanted advances the seal reacts to their anxiety and certain hormones releasing a pulse of lightning chakra to incapacitate the offender and a castrating burst of wind chakra. How lethal it is depends on the amount of chakra put into the seal." Naruto answered and Ken said "That's quite the accomplishment Naruto I'll put them out right away, so how much would you like for them." "Nothing, this is just to help protect Konoha; I'd prefer if you just gave them away." He replied and Ken nodded.

Curious Tenten asked "Who are these companions of yours?" "I made some friends traveling; I bought my apprentice, godmother and sister of sorts, a fellow jinchuuriki, a couple we freed from captivity and Aimi-chan." Tenten frowned at the mention of 'Aimi-chan' and asked with a bit of hostility "Do the rest of your friends have names?" "My apprentice is Haku-chan, my fellow jinchuuriki is Fu-chan, Tayuya-chan and Kin-chan, and my godmother and sister figure are Tsunade Senju and her apprentice Shizune." He answered; Tenten had stars in her eyes when she heard him say 'Tsunade' completely disregarding everyone else and the 'chans' added to their names. "Your godmother is Tsunade… the greatest kunoichi to ever come from Konoha?!" She said excitedly "Yes you can meet if you want, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow; we have to get settled in." Tenten nodded earnestly as Naruto turned to Ken. "So how's my clone holding up?" he asked "He's doing great, he's quite skilled maybe even more than Tenten. He'll have completed his apprenticeship in the next six months when the next batch of academy kids start." Ken replied. "Good to hear well I'll be going now see you all tomorrow." Naruto said as he left the shop.

On his way back to the apartment complex Anko sensed his chakra signature and appeared behind him five minutes later. In a moment Naruto found himself up against an ally wall in the grip of a constrictor, fangs at his throat "We meet again Anko-chan, it good to see your doing well." "Why didn't you tell me I could've helped you more, been there for you!" She seethed. "You had enough to deal with, being hated all on your own; no need for me to complicate things." He said and Anko was trembling "Screw that! None of that matters, you're important to me Naruto. No more secrets I don't give a damn about the villagers or the council. You owe me four years'8 worth of free dango, and I will collect." She said with a sly smirk. "I'll gladly treat Anko-chan, meet me at the Old Man's place tomorrow; oh have you made jounin yet?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, why?" "…because I'll need a sensei in four years." He said as he flashed away. It took a full minute for Anko to register everything after that and she smile to herself as she left the alley "I like the new look brat."

When he finally made it back home he found the ladies had all gone to sleep, since he had nothing better to do he decided to dispel his blood clone.

The blonde had led a very productive life in Konoha as well. Over the last four years Naruto had all but mastered the art of forging and continued in his own training. In Konoha Naruto had created some of the best weapons shinobi had seen in many years, this bought Blade Edge a lot of good business; he had even developed a few techniques of his own for forging better weapons. However he hadn't shared them as much as he liked Ken and Tenten he just didn't trust the village as a whole. Naruto had creating Forging Jutsu, "I did it, the perfect blade! Well almost… I still don't know if I can do this with chakra conducting metals." Naruto had created seamless work of art solid yet flexible blade. He did with his own two hands no mold that just compromise the integrity of the materials with minute deposits of whatever the mold was made of. This he made by using his chakra he super charged the metal molecules with his lightning chakra and manipulated the iron ore's form to his will.

Once the blade was formed he could focus on sharpening its edges, shaving it down molecule by molecule. To make certain that the iron he used remained absolutely pure had a clone create a dome of air around him. With his blade finished he set it in a hilt and tested against regular kunai and swords, his blade went through them like a hot knife through butter. Satisfied Naruto added a couple of seals to preserve his work; it would repel blood to the material from diminishing it could be used of extended periods of time without the need for maintenance.

To top it off Naruto had created some new jutsu as well. Having spent a lot of time working on his accuracy with weapons during his apprenticeship he learned of all the things that can affect a weapon's effectiveness and accuracy like the balance of it and what materials work better to suit certain purposes. This made him revisit his studies on anatomy; going over everything again he stumbled upon something on the workings of the mind. Digging deeper he found some information on the specifics "…communicates through the nervous system using electric signals sent through the nervous system to control the body. The memory center of the brain is the hippocampus, different parts govern different functions. Interesting…"

Base on that bit of knowledge Naruto delved deeper into the field of neurology. He knew the brain almost as well as a Yamanaka. With all he learned he created a jutsu he called the Mind Pulse; using lightning chakra he could probe the brain for all its knowledge, even completely wipe someone's memory. That was only if he focused on the hippocampus, if he targeted different areas of the brain he could do more but it would take time to master. He had divided his time developing his forging techniques and this jutsu.

Needless to say Naruto was impressed with his clone; he drifted off to sleep as he sorted through everything. The next morning Naruto awoke to a summons from the Hokage, he left a note for the ladies and was on his way. In the office he met with Anko as well as the Old Man, not that he was surprised. "Good morning Naruto, I just wanted to let you know that the Mizukage will be here by the end of the week." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"Mei-chan is coming what for?" that had Sarutobi and Anko curious, but the Third shook it off. "She would like to discuss an alliance between our villages, centered around you apparently you left an impression." Anko was stunned; Naruto just grinned "Well I'm sure Haku-chan will be happy to see her. Now let's get rid of that nasty little hickey Anko-chan." Sarutobi and Anko watched as Naruto's right hand stretched out and disappeared before reappearing with a vile of blood. Looking at their curious expressions Naruto explained "This is a vile of Orochimaru's blood, his chakra in the curse seal should react to it; and then I can overload and remove it."

Sarutobi was skeptical "Naruto are you sure?" his answer was a simple nod. "Then let's get this over with!" Anko exclaimed standing in front of Naruto. Naruto popped the cork on the vile and dripped a single dropped onto the curse seal. Orochimaru's chakra flared in the seal while Anko grit her teeth, Naruto quickly placed his left hand on the seal and surged his chakra overpowering Orochimaru's. The seal wavered as it faded while Naruto steadied her. "Anko-chan, how do you feel?"

Anko slowly opened her eyes and noticed her shoulder was sore, but she didn't feel that tingling burning feeling that was always nagging at her. "I feel great thanks brat." The blond smiled happy for her, and then Sarutobi spoke up curious "Naruto where did you get that vile, you pulled it out of thin air." Naruto replied "Pocket dimension safest place to keep my things." "So you know space-time jutsu." The Old Man said shocked. "Like I said before Seal Master, I'm probably better than my godfather." Sarutobi nodded dumbly.

"Well I'll be going now, I'll be back by the end of the week so don't come looking for me." Anko stopped him before he could leave "You just got back brat, where are you going now?" she demanded. "Sage Space my training dimension, I've got some jutsu to work on." Naruto said, and Sarutobi chimed in. "Why not just train here?" sighing the blonde replied "Time passes differently in Sage Space I could train for a year there and only a month would pass on this plane; It's how I grew up so fast." He said walking out and leaving them speechless.

Naruto faded away as he made his way home, by the time he got back he was greeted by all the ladies. Tayuya spoke up first "And where have you been blondie?" she questioned and the girls nodded wanting answer as well. Sweat dropping he said "The Old Man summoned me, any way I'll be in Sage Space for the week anyone want to come?" Fu, Tayuya, Kin, Shizune and Tsunade were confused "What's Sage Space?" Fu asked. "My training ground, my own world I'll explain on the way if anyone wants to come." Naruto said as he opened the space Fu, Tayuya, Kin, Haku, and Aimi nodded as they went along. "See you in a week mom, sis." He said stepping into Sage Space and leaving Tsunade and Shizune alone in the apartment.

AN: Hope this reads better, I've been told the stories a little too clustered together