Hello everyone, sorry it's been a while. I mentioned that I would try to get a chapter out before the 4th but didn't, the reason I didn't post ON the 4th is because I work as a pyrotechnician with my father on the 4th. We had a great show this year, got my cousin to come work with us too.

The usual disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or the characters therein, Darious is another story though.

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Chapter 9: Family

"We're still not done here, the fighting may be over, but we still have to get Tazuna to his home." the teens seemed to groan and slump at that comment until Tazuna spoke up in a rather bright and uplifting way.

"Sorry about that everyone, rest up all you need at my house." the entire time holding onto his hat and speaking as if it were as simple as he came across some friends in the street and invited them to come to his house.

Kakashi turned and started to head past Naruto "Okay everyone, let's cheer up and head out." He didn't take more than another step before falling flat on his face like a sack of potatoes. Everyone ran up to his side calling his name, checking if he was okay.

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Hiruzen sat at his desk, looking over today's mountain of paperwork that stood piled on and beside his desk. "I swear this stuff breeds..."

"It could just be an insidious jutsu created by an enemy village to keep you occupied by a never ending flow of paperwork." Hiruzen smirked and shook his head before sitting back in his chair and looking back at the window to see one of his students sitting on the window sill wearing a smirk of his own. "Hello Sensei, not working too hard I hope." Hopping down and moving to have a seat in one of the chairs in front of Hiruzen's desk.

"It's good to see you Jiraiya, is your student with you?"

"He should be here, we came through the gate together." A knock sounded at the door before being opened to reveal said student.

"It seems that at least one of you knows how to use a door." Hiruzen let out a chuckle as Darious made his way to the chair beside Jiraiya. "Welcome Darious, it's good to see you again in good health."

Darious bowed before dropping the formalities and smiling back at the aged Hokage. "It's good to see you too. Looks like you still have plenty of paperwork to keep you busy for the foreseeable future. I'm surprised you haven't thought to use kage bunshin to help you with that." Hearing this, Hiruzen's eyes went wide, then forehead met desk as he started to grumble before quickly making a couple clones to take care of the papers before moving over to the couch at the side of his office and taking a seat with a pleased smile as he lit his pipe.

"So, what brings my spy master and his student back home?"

Both men turned their chairs away from the now working clones to look at him, Jiraiya speaking up for them. "A few reasons, mostly revolving around my godson. We have some good news, and some bad. I know you want the bad first, so we'll start with that." earning a nod from Hiruzen, Jiraiya proceeded. "Akatsuki now has both of Iwa's jinchuriki. We don't know where the six or seven tails jinchuriki are. Other than Naruto, I know that Kumo's jinchuriki are still okay, so is the Ichibi. I'm not sure, but rumor has it that the Sanbi is sealed inside Yagura. The ones still in villages should be okay for the time being, but the six and seven tails... for all I know, they've already been taken."

Hiruzen sat there puffing at his pipe as he listened to Jiraiya. "How long before you think they will make their move on Naruto?"

Jiraiya took a thoughtful breath before answering. "I'm not sure really. I get the feeling that the ones they got already were only because, from what I would guess and from hear say, is that they were outcasts and living away from the protection of a village. So for the fact that Naruto is under our protection, they may well try to save him for last, combined with the fact that he contains the Kyuubi."

Nodding "I'm inclined to agree, so what's the second reason?" Jiraiya turned to Darious this time.

"Sir, I think I've found another Uzumaki."

Hiruzen's eyes lit up at hearing this. "That is wonderful news, have you confirmed their lineage?"

"Not yet, she's currently in Rice country. Her chakra signature reminds me of Kushina's though. We would need to perform a blood test on her to confirm, but I'm almost certain of it."

Hiruzen puffed on his pipe a little while longer before looking Darious in the eyes. "I want you to go back, find her again, and extend an invitation. If need be, let her know about Naruto indirectly, she may be come willingly knowing there's a living Uzumaki here." Now, looking at them both. "As for Naruto, he's actually out on his first C-ranked mission right now with his team. They should be gone for another couple weeks if the construction crews are on or ahead of schedule."

"It's good to see that the gaki's moving up in things."

"Indeed, he really is developing quite splendidly as a young man and shinobi. Minato and Kushina would be so very proud of him. Now, I would like if Darious here could head back and check on the Uzumaki woman and see if we can get her here. I think it would be a wonderful surprise for the boy if he returned home to find he has a blood relative waiting for him. When can you leave Darious?"

"If you don't need anything else of me?" looking to both Jiraiya and Hiruzen, who both waved him off, "Now" he left in a simple shunshin.

"Is it really such a good idea to send him back into Rice country?" Jiraiya looked back over to Hiruzen.

"You trained him didn't you? Do you not trust your own teaching skills now, after having already trained a kage?"

"I guess you're right. Now, unless you need me around, I think I'm going to go and do a little research." Giggling a little as Hiruzen waved him off, Jiraiya left the office through the window. Hiruzen looked around for a moment before grinning and reaching into his robes of office and pulling out a familiar orange book and opening it with a little giggle of his own.

"Now Hitomi, what are you doing in that hot spring?"

(Konoha main gate)

Around an hour later Darious was making his way out the front gates when Jiraiya stepped out beside him. "I've been waiting here for a half hour, I thought you would have been here sooner."

Darious shook his head. "Master, I wanted to double check everything, I am going to be heading into unknown territory, without permission or intel. Why were you waiting for me in the first place? I would have thought you to be out "researching" with the time this would give you."

"Yes, normally I would, but I have something for you to take with you." reaching into a pouch and pulling out a small scroll before handing it to Darious. "That caries an Uzumaki blood seal. It's nothing important, but it will tell you if that girl is as her chakra tells your senses."

Pocketing the scroll, Darious bowed. "Thank you Master, Hopefully I'll be able to get to her and if she is an Uzumaki, bring her back."

"I'm glad to hear that, now, let's get going."

"You mean us? Are you coming with me to get her?"

Jiraiya chuckled a little as he started walking, guiding Darious along beside him with his hand on his shoulder. "No, we're going the same way, same general area, different mission." Darious nodded before leaping up into the branches beside his master.

(Hi ~ Ta border)

Master and apprentice made good time to the border, finding an inn in a small village about an hour away from the border to Ta no kuni around sun down. They found themselves sitting in the dining area of the inn, Jiraiya sipping happily at a saucer of sake, working his way through the bottle sat before him as Darious slowly nursed a drink from the far west that he had come to enjoy during their travels called whiskey. As Darious sat there sipping at his drink, he watched his master sitting with a trio of women hanging all over him and beside him. He know that it was one of his master's ways of gathering intelligence. He would come in, after taking some alcohol inhibiting medication that his former team mate had created in her time as a medic nin in the second war, sit down and go through a couple bottles of sake and act drunk while giggling and acting the part of the pervert with local "working girls". Though he never liked the idea of doing so himself, he had to admit that his master's ways were rather well thought out and worked amazingly well. The reason it did was because most men would come in and do what he was doing, but in reverse, instead of gathering information, they would actually get drunk and spill any information they had just as much as they would their drinks after a while. Nearly half an hour later, Jiraiya had "drunkenly" bid his student good night and led the giggling gaggle of women with him to his room for a night that would never happen, but the women would never forget.

Darious shook his head as he watched his master lead the women off to be placed under a pleasurable genjutsu that would make them think he had given all 3 women the best night that any of them had ever had alone or together. He set his glass down when he felt someone come up behind him then sit down where Jiraiya had been sitting moments ago, then slid the glass over to the man. "Thanks for waiting for Master to leave with the women before showing up, Hatori, it would have run them off had you come when they were here."

"Thanks for remembering my taste in foreign drink" The man lifted the glass and took a drink before setting it down. "And it's not the cheap stuff either, you must really want to know where this girl is, she pick your pocket, steal a scroll... your master's illegitimate child?" The man smirked before he saw Darious maintaining a straight face. "Sorry, here." Reaching into his pocket, the man pulled out a small envelope and slid it over to Darious. Sipping at the amber liquid as he watched his "employer's" apprentice read over the information, then reach down and set the rest of the bottle of whiskey on the table beside the glass.

"Good job, I don't even want to know how you got a hold of this info... all I care is that it's reliable." pulling the bottle back to himself as Hatori went to reach for it, eying the man as he looked back at him.

"It's reliable, I wouldn't lie to you or your master, I know what you two are capable of!" he then looked down at the bottle and motioned with his hand as if beckoning the bottle to come to him of its own volition, tho which Darious slowly slid it back to the man. Hatori quickly took the bottle, leaving the empty glass and left the inn, leaving Darious to sit and look over the documents before him a few times over to absorb the information as best he could.

Around two and a half hours later, the three women that Jiraiya had taken up with him came back down giggling up a storm and stumbling a little at their perceived exhaustion, letting Darious know that he was clear to come up so that they could maintain Jiraiya's cover as a womanizing old man. Reaching the room, Darious found his master sitting at a small table writing, as he so usually did. "Find some new inspiration for the next installment of Icha Icha?"

Looking up at his student, Jiraiya grinned and shook his head a little. "You know as well as I do that I get exceedingly bored while the women sleep through their imagined romp. What did Hatori have for us?" Spotting the envelope. Sitting down opposite his master, Darious handed him the envelope containing the information.

"It looks like we're going to be spending more time together Master, at least until I go for my objective. It seems the girl is at some sort of base that is the southern most of some kind of military installations for Otogakure no sato, and is also a member of a personal guard for the Otokage. Speaking of, there's nothing in there at all that gives any information about the person, there's no word if we're even talking about a man or a woman." Jiraiya quietly sat there reading through the information as he listened to Darious' appraisal of the information and the situation.

"Think you can get to her to even test her, let alone get her out? We can wait to take care of your objective until I'm done with mine and I can join you." Darious thought it over for a moment before shaking his head.

"I appreciate your concern and offer Master, but I should be able to take care of this alone. You have taught me well after all. There is one thing I would still like to learn from you, but I understand your reasons for not teaching me." Jiraiya looked up from the papers again.

"I'm glad that you understand, I will ask permission though once I get the chance, even though I know it will be a yes, I still want to ask first. So, do you have a time frame you think you can pull this off in?"

"I say a day to get to the base, a day or two to infiltrate and locate her, then a day and a half for extraction. So, safely five days."

Nodding his head, Jiraiya looked back down at the papers. "That gives me plenty of time, I should be here waiting for you already by the time you get her, alone, or with company. Get some sleep, tomorrow we head out early." putting away the envelope and his manuscripts, the men set up the room and got some sleep.

(near southern Oto base)

A day an a half later, Darious found himself crouched one a branch, high up in a tree, his chakra suppressed to levels close to that of a squirrel. His perch was above what looked like a scared, nearly destroyed training field. If the info that Hatori had given him was correct, this was the training field that the possible Uzumaki girl used on a near daily basis. He had been sitting there since sunrise and had started to wonder if he would need to change his time table since he possibly missed her today, that is until he heard movement coming from the path under him.

He would have been more concerned about being spotted had he not been using his master's most prized and used jutsu, the Toton Jutsu. Though a part of him believed that the jutsu was created so that his master could peep on women, the more loyal part of him believed that it was created by the true spy master that his master was. Which ever was true, Darious used it for its stated purpose, and used it well. He watched as the young woman headed to the center of the field and started to stretch and warm up.

After a good hour or so, Darious figured that she was tired enough that if she did want to fight, there wouldn't be much of one. He let his chakra flare twice to catch her attention before stepping out of the tree line and dropping his shimmering camouflaging jutsu. The young woman dropped into a defensive stance, clearly tired and a bit sore. "Stop right fucking there shithead! Who the fuck are you?! What the fuck are you doing here, I fucking know you don't belong here!"

Raising his hands, he slowly stepped closer until he was close enough to be heard without raising his voice. "Who I am isn't important right now, but I'm not here to fight, not even to argue, I'm here to offer you something. Something you have been without for a long time. The only thing I need to do is check to make sure that you are who I think you are, are you agreeable to this?"

She looked on suspiciously at the stranger, not able to tell where he's from, only seeing the kanji on the hitai-ate on his head. She knew that she should attack and take him prisoner, but something about what he said struck her. "Something I've been without for a long time... the fuck are you talking about, and why the fuck do you need to test my fucking blood you crazy shithead, and how the fuck do you expect to do that? We're not in or even close to a fucking lab."

Shaking his head a little at her language, he slowly reached into a pocket and pulled out a scroll. "This is how, as to the why, we'll worry about that if the test comes back as positive, deal?"

"What do I have to do shit stain?"

"This is a blood seal, a clan blood seal. If you are who/what I think you are, then it will open and I'll explain further, if not, I'll leave and you'll never be bothered by me again." He slowly stepped closer, holding the scroll out before him as he got within reach of the young woman. "just smear a little of your blood across it."

The young woman hesitantly stepped forward and bit her thumb before slowly reaching out to swipe her bloody thumb across the seal on the scroll, then stepped back and waited with a little trepidation. The seal started to sizzle as it took in the DNA from her blood, then a soft pop sounded as the sealed scroll came open. Darious smiled at the young woman before him. "Well, looks like I was right, I'm happy to tell you that you are from a clan, and you are not alone anymore. You have a cousin, and if you would like, I can take you back with me and be with family again."

As she took in this information, her hard, vulgar attitude faded into one of near disbelief mixed with overwhelming joy and hope as her eyes started to water. She stood there for a few more moments before tears started to fall freely. The logical part of her mind wanted to argue with the man before her, to question the validity of his statements, to claim it was a trick to take her away from here. The lonely little girl in her that missed her parents told her that this was probably her last chance to see anyone in her family again. She had spent years searching for anyone that might recognize her, know who she was or where she belonged, but not being able to remember her own last name made that search very hard, nearly impossible. Little did she know how impossible it really was for her to find anyone. "I... I have family? I have a relative? Why didn't they come for me?! Why didn't they bring me home?!" Her tears started to flow as she started to hiccup from the strain and emotional break that was overcoming her now.

Darious stepped forward and softly placed a hand on her shoulder for comfort, then was surprised when she latched onto him in a tight hug and cried into his chest. "He didn't come to find you because he's your age... and he's an orphan as well. He doesn't even know that he has any family outside of his parents. Other than him, he thought his mother was the last of your clan. If you come back with me, you and he can restart your clan."

As he said this, the girl pulled back and looked up at him with a scowl. "He's my cousin you sick fuck... that's just gross!"

Darious chuckled a little at that. "That's not what I meant, he already has someone he loves back home, what I meant was that we can petition to reinstate your clan and you two can work to build the clan with your own families."

She stood there for a second before a small blush covered her cheeks. "Oh..." She stepped back and recomposed herself, then punched him hard in the shoulder with a scowl. "If you tell ANYONE that I did any of that... I'll castrate you myself!"

Chuckling a little nervously at the threat. "No worries, not a word. Now, here's the important question." Looking her in the eyes, letting her know how serious he really was at the moment. "Are you willing to leave Oto, leave your Kage to come find and be with family? You don't have to answer now, though it would be very helpful, I can come back tomorrow so you have a..." He wasn't even given a chance to finish his question before she answered.

"I'm leaving this shit hole, I don't care where you're from, it has to be better than the shit I go through here!"

"Do you need to pack anything?" to answer him she shook her head and pulled out a small sealing scroll.

"Everything precious to me is packed away in here, let's get the fuck out of here before my dumb fuck team, or some security shows up!" She started to walk away from the middle of the field, leaving a smirking Darious to shake his head while holding the scroll in his hand. "HEY SHIT HEAD, LET'S GO!"

(Inn on Hi side of the border)

Another day and a half later, back at the inn they had stayed at on the way in, Jiraiya sat alone at a table, sipping away at his sake, waiting for his apprentice, and hopefully the young Uzumaki woman. He looked up when he heard the door open and saw his student walk in, almost disappointed for a moment until a young girl stepped out from behind him and looked around the place. He was about to offer a greeting to them both once they reached the table until the girl spoke up. "What a shit hole, couldn't you have sprung for some place fancier if you were bringing me along, who's this old bastard?"

"Quite the mouth I see... almost like Kushina... but with profanity. I, am The great toad sage of Mt. Myoboku, all women want me, men wish they were me, I..."

"This is my master, Jiraiya of the Sannin." Jiraiya deflated at the interruption of his introduction. The girls eyes widened a little at the name, knowing who he was already, but not by sight.

"You always have to interrupt me when I do that, don't you?"

"Only when it's not a woman that's old enough for you, or an enemy that is too stunned to act." Grinning as he watched his master pout a little, then seem mildly offended. "We should go ahead and get a meal, then get some sleep. I'll set her up a room for herself, she doesn't need, or likely want to sleep in the same room as you or myself."

"Damn right, now let's get some chow, I want to meet my long lost relative!"

(Konoha)

Two days later, team 7 entered the village, and were greeted by Izumo and Kotetsu, who both smiled, then waved them by after Kakashi signed them all in. "Hey Naruto, you should go with Kakashi to see the Hokage, he wanted to see you as soon as you got back." Naruto nodded and waved Sasuke off before getting a tight, lingering hug from Sakura and a kiss on the cheek before she blushed and ran off as well. Naruto stood there with a light blush of his own, watching Sakura run off before Kakashi caught his attention and started heading to the Hokage's office with him.

Naruto followed Kakashi into the Hokage's office to find not only the elderly Hokage, but also Darious and his master Jiraiya of the Sannin. Having had the knowledge of manner pounded repeatedly into his head by Tsume. She may have made sure to let him know that he didn't have to use them all the time, but she made damn sure that he knew when he should, and right now was definitely one of those moments, "Hello Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, Dar-nii" mostly one of those moments. All three men stood there smiling at the young blond as he stood before them.

"Hello Naruto, I trust you did well on your mission?" Hiruzen smiled at them both as Kakashi gave a firm nod in testament to Naruto's performance during the mission. "Now, I know that you're probably wondering why I wanted to see you after the mission, and you're probably also wondering why Darious and Jiraiya are both here as well." This earned a nod from Naruto. Seeing this Jiraiya spoke up.

"Now, you know your true heritage, and that Sarutobi-sensei asked you to keep it between you, Tsume, and everyone currently in this room. There is something that you did not know, and we wanted you here to learn about it. Darious went over the history of Uzushiogakure with you and how it was destroyed, we've come to find out that there were survivors." Naruto's eyes widened as he heard that. "The few survivors spread out around the elemental nations. Naruto... we found one." Naruto's jaw hung open as he took in the information. While he was stuck in his own disbelief, a young woman with long red hair, partly hidden below a cloth watch cap, wearing a coral tunic bound by a thick purple rope and a pair of black spandex style shorts stepped out from behind Jiraiya, her red hair clear as day to her cousin, a look of hope and disbelief of her own adorning her face as she took in Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki, may I introduce you to your cousin, Tayuya, Tayuya Uzumaki."

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Jutsu list:

Toton Jutsu: Transparent Escape Technique: near invisibility, created by Jiraiya.

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And there it is, Chapter 9. Now, I know that a lot, if not most, or even all of you were expecting the wave mission... sorry, I felt that it had been done WAY too many times, and in every way that can be thought of, so I decided to bring Darious in a little bit and do something different. I know that there is a chance that some of you will leave because of this chapter, but it's my story, my telling of the tale. I know that SOME people will like it, and the way I took it, and this is not just for myself, but for those that DO like what I'm doing.

Now, as for my delay, I would site the fact that I was busy and had no comp for the week of the 4th, the fact that I slept most of the time till Monday... but the major thing is... I got bad writers block till just about a day ago, then my muse showed up, a little tipsy, kicked me in the head, and said "get to work you bastard!"

I really hope you all enjoy this chapter, please read, review, and tell me what you like. It really helps to know what parts of the story you like and don't.

As always... don't even bother saying that you don't like Dar and want him gone, he's here to stay.