Chapter 10
"Oniisan!" The real Naruto shouts to his brother who is teaching two of his clones Wind Style: Gale Surge. "I did it! It took me almost seven years, but I healed the damn fish!"
Asuma comes over and claps Naruto on the shoulder. "It's about time!" He starts laughing and ruffles Naruto's hair. "I knew you could do it."
Naruto looks down at the fish and he can't wipe the smile off of face. He's been working on it so long that he didn't think he was ever going to be able to do it, but now he is one step closer to his dreams. He can't help but think of Tsunade. She would want to know that he finally did it, right? Moms are supposed to be happy about this sort of thing, right? And ever since he had learned the truth about what happened, they had grown close, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for that step.
Kurama's always pushing him to open up, saying he needs the connections that he told Gaara he needed to find. It's weird to think that so much has changed in so little time. He's written Gaara about it and his fellow jinchuuriki told him to embraces it while he can because she might turn on him eventually, and even though it will hurt, the pain will be worth it.
"You should go tell your mother." Asuma pushes him towards the village. "I'm sure she wants to know."
"You don't think she's like everyone else and will get upset that I'm getting stronger?" Naruto needs the confirmation. His heart and his head are telling him two different things and he really doesn't know what to do.
"I don't think you're ever going to find some more different than everyone else then Lady Tsunade." Asuma puffs some smoke and grins. "Expect maybe a certain Hyūga heiress."
Naruto eyes are as wide as saucers as he looks at his brother. "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!"
"I know more than you think I do. I'll continue to train the clones. You go impress your mother."
Naruto searches his brother's face and Asuma seems to genuinely think this is a good idea. "Okay…" Naruto hesitates before leaving, halfway hoping Asuma will call him back.
When he doesn't, Naruto makes his way back to the village. His stomach is a ball of nerves. Despite what Kurama is currently telling him. He doesn't think the incubator will really care that he finally made progress in his medical ninjutsu. At least he's not sure… Parents usually are proud when their kids achieve stuff. Obaasan was always happy whenever he or Asuma Oniisan did anything. His relationship with his "mother" was different the other kids his age. He's only known her for like 2 months.
He'll trust his Oniisan and show the Old Lady what he can do. Maybe he should show Shizune too... Naruto pulls out one of his storage scrolls and opens it so he can release Tonton. He knew it was stupid how much this little pig means to him, but no one had given him something like this before. He runs his thumb over carefully sewn thread and admires how long this must have taken her to make.
Shizune had to care for him too, right? Why else would she take the time to make him this? He has so many questions in his head and he doesn't know how to deal with them all. Then comes the emotions. He's never been particularly good at processing his emotion and this isn't making it any better.
Naruto seals the push up before entering the village. He jumps up on the rooftops to make it to the Hokage tower sooner. As he gets closer he starts to worry that she's going to get mad that he just showed up out of the blue. After all, they weren't supposed to meant for dinner for another four hours. Kurama keeps telling him it will be alright but his hands start to sweat. He really hopes this isn't going to be a bad idea.
He scurries into threw the doors and hugs the walls as he makes his way towards the Hokage's office. His heart feels like it's going to exploded out of his chest but he keeps going. He sees Shizune leaning over her desk and he steps up behind her and pokes her in the back. She jumps in surprised and whips around.
"Naruto!" she exclaims, clutching her chest. "You're early. Is everything okay?" She presses her hand against his forehead taking his temperature.
Naruto's face has taken on the color of his clan symbol and his eyes dart around to see the shinobi and civilians in the room looking at them weirdly. "I'm okay, Shizune." He pulls his face away from her and looks down at his feet. "I was wondering if I could see the Old Lady."
Shizune has to suppress her smile at seeing her little brother's reaction. "She just doing paper work for the rest of the day, so you can go on in."
Naruto rubs the back of his neck and his face turns redder. "Can you come too?"
"Of course." Shizune can't help the grin that comes to her face. She hasn't spent nearly enough time with her Otouto. Together they walk to the double doors. They wait until Tsunade's low voice tells them to enter and the Shizune pushes the door open. "Naruto is here to see you."
Tsunade's eyes have already found him and are searching him. "Are you okay, did you get hurt?" She stands from her chair and is running her chakra covered hands over him before he can say anything.
"I'm okay, sheesh." Naruto complains in embarrassment. "Can't I come see you without anything being wrong?" He scuffs his foot and only meets Granny's eyes when she lifts his chin up.
"You can come whenever you'd like." The smile on her face helps his blush subside and his heart clam down. "I love having you here with me."
"Yeah?" Naruto needs to be sure and he looks for any trace of a lie on her face.
"Always." He finds no deception and smiles up at her. Someone besides his three precious people actually want him around. Tsunade leads him over to the couch and they sit down together with Shizune taking Naruto's other side.
He bites his lips, nervous once again. "I want to show you something…" He reaches for the scroll on his back, only to freeze when it's not there. Horror fills him when he realizes that he left it in the clearing with Asuma. Doubt fills him as he berates himself for being so stupid. This is the reason he came here and he forgot the one thing he needs. He was too busy worrying about showing up unexpected to notice that the scroll wasn't on his back. "I forgot…" He clenches his fists as Kurama whispers to him to just ask if she has a scroll here. "Can I borrow a medical training scroll?"
Tsunade runs her fingers through Naruto's hair and kisses his head. "Of course." Shizune gets up and goes to the bookcase to grab the requested scroll. Shizune sets the scroll on the coffee table and rolls it out in front of him and places a fish on the seal.
Naruto wipes his hands on his pants and scoots himself forward in his seat. He molds the Kurama's chakra in is belly and forces into the seals he's inked to his wrists. His chakra the flows into the fish and makes it and his hands glow a soft organe. It takes about a minute, but soon the fish is flopping around on the table and he looks up to see if maybe Tsunade is proud of him.
He doesn't have to wonder because she is looking at him with the biggest smile and a look of wonder. "You did it, baby." He can tell that she wants to hug him and he wants that too. Her hugs make him feel good inside. He leans towards her just a little and that's all she needs to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight. "I'm so proud of you!"
"That's amazing Naruto-kun!" Shizune praises and Naruto's cheeks turn pink again. "We need to go celebrate!"
"What do you want to do Naruto? It's your day." Tsunade pulls back and looks into his beautiful blue eyes. expecting.
"Aren't you working?"
Tsunade brushes the hair out of his eyes and smile down at him. "I only have paperwork left for today and I can just do it tomorrow. Besides," she pulls Naruto up and Shizune leads the two blonds out the door. "I would rather spend the day with you."
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Walking down the streets of the village is a lot different when you're walking next to the Hokage, Naruto thinks. None of the usual whispers are following him and the glaring is at a minimum. It makes him feel a little weird but in a good way.
"Have you decided where you want to go?" Shizune asks.
"I don't know…" Naruto mutters, thinking about the lack of money in his pocket. "I don't really have any money right now…" he whispers and Tsunade almost misses it. She stops the blonde and turns him to look at her.
"When you're with me, you don't pay for anything." Tsunade's voice is firm and brokers no arguing.
"Okay." Naruto's cheeks burn again and he wants to face palm. He hates that he blushes so much around her. He's a man, this shouldn't be such a big deal. He bites his lip and thinks about the things that he needs. Clothes is the first thing he thinks of. He wardrobe has taken quite the beat in the past couple of months and he hasn't made enough money to replace them all. But then she would find out just how poor he really is. After all, he buys the cheapest he can. But then again, if she buys them then there won't be any demon taxes. "Can we go clothes shopping?"
Tsunade is surprised. Clothes shopping is the last thing that she thought he would say. He thought he would want to go to the weapons shop or something more like that. "Anything you want, Naruto."
Naruto guides the trio to the ninja supply store and the bell rings as they walk in. "I'll be there in a couple of minutes!" The store owner shouts out from the back.
The blonde walks straight to the back right and start rifling through the bargain bin. Tsunade holds back a grimace when she sees him looking for his orange jump suit in his size. "Have you looked at any of these other outfits, Naruto?" she asks, trying to distract him from the repulsive orange.
He looks over at the clothes she points out with a longing, which confuses her. "They're too much money…" Looking at the price tag, she sees that a whole outfit is only 5675 yen and the ones he's looking at are 1135 yen. "Remember, I'm paying. You don't have to worry about money."
Naruto looks down and bites his lip. "But I'll have to replace them when they get ruined…"
Tsunade bends down so she can look him in the eyes. "I'll get you new ones then too." Naruto shuffle and then nods and Tsunade couldn't be happier.
Naruto looks at all the different shinobi clothes and picks up a pair black shinobi pants and ankle to shin wraps. He hasn't had clothes this nice since Obaasan was alive. He walks to another aisle and smiles at black top the buttons along the right shoulder seam with three quarter long sleeves. He grabs that a mesh shirt, grey grey arm protectors and grey pants that bunch at this calf. He approaches the older blonde and holds out his arms. "I like these."
"Don't you want more than one?" She prods. Naruto's blush is back and he nods his head. "I'll go get some more. You tell the cashier you're getting ten."
Tsunade and Shizune go to pick out more clothes for him while he approaches the counter with a gulp. He places the bundle down when an older man emerges from the back. He eyes narrow at Naruto and quirks his lip like he smells something disgusting. "What are you doing here?"
"I want to buy these clothes," Naruto can already tell this is going to blow up, and can't help but be glad it will. "I'm with the Ho—"
"56800 yen." He demands.
"I need ten pairs…" Naruto hedges, already knowing what he's going to say.
"113600 yen." The young blonde braces himself for what's coming next.
An angry blonde with fire in her eyes comes out of an aisle. "113600 yen? That more than twice what their worth."
"Hokage-sama!" The man jumps, sweating like a pig. "I didn't see you there!"
"Obviously!" She sneers, grabbing his shirt and pulling him towards her. "Why are you charging him extra?"
"I—i—it's—" Naruto doesn't really blame the man for not wanting to answer. He wouldn't want to either in his place.
"It's the demon tax…" Naruto whispers.
"DEMON TAX!" Both Tsunade and Shizune shout, outraged.
"I told you." Kurama grumbles. "You should have told her sooner."
"I didn't want to bother her…" Naruto's eyes are wide as he watches the Hokage threaten the life of a civilian.
"I highly doubt you could ever bother her about something like this." Kurama huffs. "It's more likely she'll be bothered that you didn't tell her sooner."
"I wonder what she's going to do when she finds out about everything else." Naruto shutters at the thought. The blood vessel in her forehead might actually burst instead of just threatening like it's currently doing. Kurama's laughter echoes in his head as Shizune turns to him.
"Naruto, why didn't you tell us." There is a pain in her eyes he doesn't understand.
"I. . ." He doesn't know how to answer the question. "It's not a big deal. It's been this way since Obaa-san died and Onii-san left." He looks away, the old pain resurfacing. "They say I need to pay back the village for damage the Kyuubi inflicted twelve years ago. It better then what it used to be."
Shizune breaths through her nose. "That wasn't your fault. If anything they should be thanking you for saving them." She gives him a long look. "Is there anything else we should know about?"
Naruto thinks about to all the times he has had to clean up his apartment after the villagers have trashed it. Looking over at the angry blonde that's finishing the transaction with the shopkeeper bleeding from his forehead. She seems angry enough without adding anything more to it. "Yep."
Shizune follows his eyes to her sensi and then back at him. "We'll talk about this later, okay?" Naruto nods his head as Tsunade grabs their purchases and ushers them out of the store, huffing as they went.
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Naruto slows his breathing as he tries to reach that calm place inside himself. He pushed all of his negative feelings, thoughts, and desires into their box and hides that box into the deepest recesses of his mind. After several minutes of meditating he reaches the buji's mindscape and smiles as he feels the warmth of Kurama's fur against his back and opens his eyes. Gaara sat in front of him with Shukaku locked in a cage several yards behind him.
"Naruto. . ." Gaara smiles and this time it doesn't seem to be as painful to form as it used to be.
"I heard the new Kazekage is sending you and your siblings to Kohana on a diplomatic mission in a month." Naruto smiles, looking forward to showing Gaara around Kohana and to his precious people. He's never been able to introduce a friend to anyone and he's looking forward to this chance.
"Baki Sensei wants to help strengthen the relationship between our two villages and he has accepted my request to be apart of it." Gaara plays with some sand between his fingers, avoiding looking at Naruto. The blonde knows that if he stays silent long enough, that the redhead will ask what Naruto knows he wants to ask.
He patience is rewarded when Gaara meets eyes and speaks. "Would you fix my seal."
Naruto opens and shuts his mouth. " I can try." He rubs the back of his neck. "I'm not a seal master yet; you might want someone with more experience to fix it."
Gaara is silent in his way that lets Naruto know that he needs to rethink his stance on the subject. "There is no one I trust more to fix this then you." His hand grips his stomach, as a reminder of what they both share.
"I'll need to make a plan." Naruto moves closer. "Can I take a look at the seal?"
Gaara nods and lifts up his shirt. Naruto's eyes trace the lines on his three incomplete seals. It seems like the person who put the seal there was trying to make a new seal, but since they didn't have enough knowledge on fūinjutsu, they just took pieces from other seal and smashed them together with an incomplete understanding on what they were doing.
"The seal isn't complete." Naruto takes out a paper and pen to copy it all down. "I'm going to have to do some research on how to add the barrier and filter glyphs without damaging the structure that is already in place."
Gaara is silent until Naruto finishes his assessment. "Do you think you will finish figuring it out by the time we arrive next month?"
"I'll have to ask the Old Lady if I can see some more advanced fūinjutsu from the Uzumaki Clan. A complex matrix will have to be added to complete the seal." Naruto muttered while using his chakra to test the flow of Gaara's seal. He would also have to adjust channels in the seal to improve the saturation into his chakra network.
"Do you think you'll have a solution by the time I arrive." Gaara pulls his shirt down and his eyes pleads in the way only Gaara can. His eye show a glimmer of hope while this face is resigned to the disappointment life has taught him is inevitable.
"I will," Naruto gave Gaara a true smile that only a few have seen in his life. It's a smile that comes when another person shows complete faith and confidence in you. "It's a promise of a lifetime." Naruto sticks his fist out for Gaara to bump.
Gaara high fives his first and the cocks his head and and looks up to the ceiling. "Konkaru is calling me, I have to go. We'll meet again in a week?"
"Next week." Naruto confirms as their shared mindscape fades and he's left in his own.
He and Kurama sat in the shade of a great tree in their meadow. White flowers surround them and the sky is a brilliant blue. Naruto lays back against Kurama as he tries to think back to everything he has learned about fūinjutsu, but he can't think of anything he's seen or read that's close to what he needs to do. If his obaasan was here he could talk to her about it. She had been taught by Mito obaasan and had started teaching him fūinjutsu a couple months before she was killed.
He would given anything if either of his obaasans were with him today. He has so much he needs to learn, but he there aren't any real seal masters left to teach him. The perverted sage claims to be seal master but from what he's seen, his seals are sloppy and leaves something to be desired.
Breathing deeply, he knows there is really only one thing left for him to do. He sits up straighter and centers his body and mind. Meditating had always been hard for him. There are just too many thoughts running through his mind to really achieve a true level of peace. As something being hard has never deterred him, Naruto pushes through and searches the memories that Kurama showed him about fūinjutsu. His only hope is to push a little more, to see just a little more, and try to find something that will help him find a solution to Gaara's problem.
He is so engrossed with is thoughts that he doesn't hear the footsteps approaching him, until a voice that sounds like shouting his meditative state. "Hello, Naruto."
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Tsunade is sitting in her office drudging through her paperwork. Somehow, no matter how much she finishes the day before, there is only more. There has to be a way to lessen the stacks. Maybe if she delegates more the problem will be fixed. The only problem with that, is that the only because she could delegate to are her advisors, the elders of the village, and she doesn't even trust them with a marshmellow.
Leaning back in her chair she looks out over the village. In order to replace them, she will need the majority vote in the council meeting. She needs 9 of the 17 votes but it is possible. The Hyuga, Aburame, Hatake, Yamanaka, Nara, Sarutobi, Inuzuka, and Akimichi clans will side with her. The Shimura, Tenma, Kohaku, Hoki, Kurama, and Tenma clans, along with Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane will vote against her. That only left the Lee clan that would cast the deciding vote.
Tsunade smiles to herself. Turning them to her side won't be hard once she finalizes her plans to fix Rock Lee's spine. Those old bastards are being thrown out of their asses if it's the last thing she does. Then it would free up some of her time to spend with her son after selecting advisors she trusts. When he was still a fetus, she had plans on how she would train him to make sure he could protect himself. She would have to make some adjustments to them but she can't wait for the quality bonding time. That is, if he wants her to train him.
She is pulled from her thoughts when Shizune sticks her head into the room. "Tsunade-sama, Naruto is here to see you."
"Send him in." She would think that it was her thoughts that called him here, but as it hasn't worked every other time she's thought of him, she doesn't try to fool herself.
Naruto comes in looking a little shy and rubbing his neck. "Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."
"Anything." Her heart picks up at the thought that he wants her to train him too. That would be too coincidental though, right? Her mind runs through all the different trainings she wants to put him through and all the jutsu she wants to teach him. Earth is her primary affinity so she'll teach him how to develop that chakra, since she isn't any good with wind.
"Can I borrow the Uzumaki and Senju fūinjutsu scrolls and books? There is a project I'm working on." He gives her a timid smile and her heart breaks. He doesn't want to spend more time with her after all.
She only lets the disappointment settle in herself for a second before she's successfully pushed her emotions down. "Of course, sweetheart."