A Brother

by The Right Stop

Many have heard the story of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, but barely any have heard the story of his brother Naruto Ōtsutsuki, the Elemental Sage. God-like Naruto.

14. Chapter 14

Title: The Brother

By: The Right Stop

"Humans Speaking"

'Human Thinking'

"Human Telepathy"

Jutsu in Use

"Bijū/Non-Human Talking"

'Bijū/Non-Human Thinking'

"Bijū/Non-Human Telepathy"

AN: First of all I want to say I am incredibly sorry for the wait for this chapter, I simply couldn't get this chapter to cooperate with me.

Meanwhile, Naruto has ended with an epilogue in which Anko gets chubby, Sasuke goes free despite ditching the Leaf and nearly enslaving the world, something happens to Orochimaru, and Naruto gains a Mini-me.

Fourteen chapters in and we haven't even made it to the Second Shinobi War, this is going on for far longer than I imagined. I really have to pick up the pace.

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Chapter Fourteen

"Orochimaru, show me the sealing array for an explosive tag." A voice snapped. Orochimaru quickly scribbled out the design on a small piece of paper in front of him, his hands a blur as he used the skills taught to him to do as required. Within twenty seconds the tag was done, Orochimaru stood up from his position on the ground and stepped back, letting Naruto inspect his work.

Orochimaru didn't show it but he was nervous, his teacher could be quite demanding when he wanted to be and more than once had made him redo a seal over and over until he could do it perfectly. Even Orochimaru's own vision of perfection apparently didn't match up to that of his teacher, though he should expect that, in exchange for not forcing them to memorise or learn several seal designs, his teacher demanded that they perfect the ones that they would be learning. Both he and his teammates had argued that because they were ninja, there would be several seals that they would never use, like a seal to keep a plate warm or that acted as a doorbell. This had the benefit of allowing them to skip several levels that weren't completely required for someone to master fūinjutsu, but it also caused his teacher to crackdown on them when they were either not paying attention or did something incorrectly.

After inspecting the seal for a few seconds, Naruto let out a 'hm', before turning to the person next to him, Jiraiya. Orochimaru let out a small breath he didn't know he was holding, his teacher had passed him on the test they were having. Having been cleared with a pass, Orochimaru then took the time to turn to his other teammates to try and predict whether they would pass. Looking at Jiraiya who was just finishing a seal that would lock a door and prevent it from being opened, key or otherwise, Orochimaru knew that he would be lying if he said that he wasn't slightly impressed at his teammate's skill in the art of fūinjutsu.

Despite not having any natural talent in fūinjutsu, or having the intelligence of a genius, Jiraiya had made it through the art with hard work and determination, constantly asking their sensei questions on the subject or when he discovered a part he didn't understand and needed someone to break it down. Orochimaru grudgingly gave his teammate some of his respect, for his persistence if anything. Orochimaru had to admit that if he was in Jiraiya's position, having no talent in a subject, he would have given up.

Looking at his final teammate, Tsunade, Orochimaru had to admit that she was the best out of them so far when it came to the sealing arts, 'her Uzumaki heritage finally shining through' in their teacher's words. Tsunade had breezed through the first several seals that they had attempted, drawing them all almost perfectly on her first attempted. Orochimaru wouldn't ever say it out loud but he was jealous of Tsunade's skill in fūinjutsu, the girl seemed to instinctively understand the rules of fūinjutsu, able to soak up the knowledge that their teacher presented them with and perfectly relay it to anyone she chose, and yet she didn't seem to care. Almost straight away, Tsunade had made it clear that she had no wish to master the art of fūinjutsu to the extent that Jiraiya and himself did, preferring to explore the medical possibilities of the art. A part of Orochimaru was quite angry that Tsunade had such amazing skill in fūinjutsu, and yet didn't wish to use it to its full capacity; she wished to only partially use her skills.

Orochimaru shook himself out of his thoughts when his team's mentor gave another 'hm' of approval to Jiraiya before then moving on to Tsunade, who then quickly began to draw the sealing array for an explosive tag, much like he had. All three of them would pass, Orochimaru was certain of that, and then they would begin to move on to the second half of their four months of training. Naruto hadn't given any of them clues as to what they would be practicing, only that it would have to do with the questions they were asked at the beginning of the four month period.

Naruto said nothing as he looked over Tsunade's exploding tag, checking for any mistakes; a line out of place, an incorrect stroke or blob of ink that could interfere with the sealing array. He didn't find any, her explosive tag was almost perfect, all that was left to improve on was the speed at which she drew the seal but that wasn't necessary for her to do.

Taking a step back, Naruto looked over the three ten year olds that had been his students for the past two months and would continue to be for another two months. All of them had advanced quite quickly for their age, all of them up to the fourth level of practice of the sealing arts, though it was now fifth with the passing of this exam. Letting them skip several levels that weren't strictly necessary for one to learn fūinjutsu wasn't incredibly harmful to someone learning the art, fūinjutsu had originally never been classified as a 'ninja art', and therefore had several levels early on that focused on seals that a shinobi would never use.

While Naruto would have liked for them to learn those seals, for the experience if nothing else, but even he had to admit that several of the first few seals that were taught he himself had never used, though that was because he had more convenient alternatives. Even so, Naruto made it up by drilling them relentlessly on the stuff that they did learn, constantly drilling the knowledge into their heads until stuck.

"Congratulations," Naruto announced to the three, "You have all advanced to the fifth level of practice of the art of fūinjutsu." Immediately, Jiraiya began to celebrate, raising a fist into the air. Tsunade gave a smile at the achievement of the team, while Orochimaru's lips twitched upwards for a few seconds before it left, Naruto quickly learned that this was Orochimaru's own way of celebration for his achievements. After giving the three genin a chance to wallow in celebration, Naruto cleared his throat in order to get the ten year olds' attention back onto him. "Your two months of fūinjutsu are up, it is now time to move onto the other half of your training. You three may research and practice fūinjutsu in your own time, or ask me questions, but your training with me is no longer primarily about fūinjutsu." Looking over the three genin, Naruto could see that all three were ready and serious about what was coming, even Jiraiya. While two months ago, the joker of team seven probably would have mucked about a bit, Naruto had quickly impressed on Jiraiya that there was a time and place for everything, and that when he was training, he was to train, not mess around and act like an idiot.

"However," Naruto told the three of them, "What you must remember is that by skipping the levels that you have deemed as 'useless to ninja', none of you will ever gain the kind of skill that an Uzumaki would with fūinjutsu."

"Why is that, Naruto-sensei?" Orochimaru asked, wondering what their sensei meant.

"Because you have skipped a few levels," Naruto explained, "You have also missed out on the theory that is also involved, and it is the theory that makes Uzumaki so amazing with seals. While they can also draw them incredibly quickly, it is an Uzumaki's ability to be able to look at a seal and instantly what it does, what are its limits and how to remove it, that make Uzumaki so feared when it comes to seals, and it is their theory that helps them do that, not the practical work."

Naruto then reached into his cloak before pulling out three blank pieces of paper, each one was square with no markings on either side. Tsunade and Jiraiya get a bit confused about the action while Orochimaru's eyes widened, recognising the squares of paper in his sensei's hand. Naruto let a small smile appear on his face when he noticed the pale haired boy's expression, Orochimaru was always so eager to learn new things, and from the look on his face, he recognised what Naruto had pulled out from behind his back.

"I see you have an idea about what I'm going to teach you next Orochimaru," Naruto said to the genin who nodded, "Well I'm going to tell you know that it's not jutsu that I'll be teaching you three though it will have something to do with the elements." Tsunade and Jiraiya were still a bit confused, but luckily for them, Orochimaru decided to explain what was happening.

"Naruto-sensei has chakra paper in his hand, it's used to determine one's elemental affinity. Ninja usually start learning about their elemental affinity when they reach chunin. An elemental affinity dictates what elemental jutsu you can use the easiest." Orochimaru explained with an almost textbook answer. As soon as the information sunk in, Jiraiya began grinning like a mad man while Tsunade didn't look all that interested, slightly disappointed if anything. Naruto couldn't really blame her, the female Senju had little to no interest in ninjutsu, something that Naruto was secretly very happy about.

"So we're going to be learning jutsu?" Jiraiya questioned, though he didn't wait for a response. "All right sensei, we're finally getting to the good stuff." Naruto had to refrain from bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, all the work he had done on the boy's attitude seemed to have only partly worked. At least they weren't technically training.

"No Jiraiya," Naruto said, shooting down Jiraiya's day dreams of saving princess and whatever it was that ten year old ninja's thought about. "I won't be teaching you ninjutsu, I'll be teaching you three something better."

"What's better than jutsu?" Jiraiya questioned Naruto, the man in question said nothing but held out the three pieces of chakra paper.

"Use the paper and find out." Naruto told the three. Once each of them had a piece of the paper in their hand, Naruto told them what to do next. "We'll be doing this one at a time, starting from Orochimaru, then Jiraiya and finally Tsunade. All you need to do is channel a bit of chakra into the paper and it will do the rest."

Orochimaru channelled a bit of his chakra into the paper and watched as the paper was sliced in half down the middle, signifying his affinity to wind, which surprised Orochimaru. He was sure that he would have gotten either earth or fire, one of the more common elemental affinities in the Land of Fire, but apparently he was wrong and received the rarest of the five elemental affinities.

"Congratulations Orochimaru," Naruto's words broke the pale boy out of his thoughts, "You have an affinity to wind, the rarest of the five basic affinities. Jiraiya, your next."

The white haired youth wasted no time, quickly channelling his chakra into the paper in his hands. He quickly dropped the paper when it ignited, setting itself alight and burning the paper to ash. Looking at the remains of his paper, Jiraiya looked to his teacher for an explanation.

"You have an affinity for fire Jiraiya, the most common elemental affinity found in Fire Country. Judging by the reaction you had with the paper, I'd say that you have a slightly stronger affinity than most." Naruto explained, before turning to the last person to discover their elemental affinity, Tsunade.

The female Senju simply looked at her paper with disinterest before directing her chakra into the paper, causing the paper to crinkle around her hand. Unlike her two teammates, Tsunade didn't really care what her affinity was, it was only really important for ninjutsu and she wasn't anywhere near as interested in the ninja art compared to her two teammates.

"Tsunade, you have an affinity for lightning, an affinity common in the Land of Lightning, but there are a fair amount of users in Fire Country." Naruto noticed his goddaughter's uninterested expression but said nothing, he knew she would be interested when she found out what she would really be learning.

"So what's better than jutsu, Naruto-sensei?" Jiraiya asked his teacher again. Naruto didn't respond, but held out one palm, and summoned a flame to life on top of it. His student's expressions all became one of slight awe and wonder, neither had seen any movement other than their teacher lifting his palm up.

The flame then grew in size, growing upwards before it then began to snake around their teacher's body, coiling around it. The length of flame then sprouted four legs and a head, while the end detached from Naruto's hand, the now fully formed dragon then suddenly swerved and raced at a tree on the edge of the clearing. Contrary to what the three genin thought would happen, the fire dragon didn't explode when it hit the tree, it instead continued through it, going through the tree behind and the one behind that, before it then dissipated against the next one. The trees that it had gone through, then all snapped and fell over, most of trunk that was touched by the flames had been reduced to cinders and weren't able to bear the weight of the rest of the tree. The trees hit the ground with a thump.

The eyes of the three genin returned to their teacher when they heard a loud whistling sound, like wind begin forced to travel through a thin space. Their teacher's palm now housed a small ball of wind, air currents visible as it spun. With a small flick of their sensei's hand, the ball of air shot off in the opposite direction of the flame dragon, drilling a clean hole through the trunks of several trees at it went before it lost its power.

"That is what I will be teaching you, Orochimaru, Jiraiya. It will take years of practice to get to that level of competence in manipulating your respective elements, even longer to be able to use it against multiple enemies at once, but I will teach you what I can." Naruto noticed that Jiraiya, instead of having a giant grin on his face like he expected, he had a small frown on his face.

"But what about Tsunade, Naruto-sensei? What will she be learning about?" The white haired orphan questioned. Naruto simply let a small smile come to his face at the consideration that Jiraiya held for his teammate, it was nice to see when the three got along. Getting back to answering Jiraiya's question, Naruto made a motion for his three students to move back a few meters. Once they had done so, Naruto explained.

"I know that Tsunade has no interest in learning about ninjutsu, as such, she most likely wouldn't have been all that interest in learning how to manipulate an element, am I right Tsunade?" Naruto asked. When Tsunade nodded, he continued. "So I have decided to teach her something that would utilize her great control. Observe."

Once he was done talking, Naruto raised his foot off the ground, showing his students his black pants and bare feet, before he brought it slamming down. When their teacher's foot hit the ground, none of the three genin were expecting the ground to shake as a result. The rumbling and churning of the earth knocked the three genin of their feet, landing in the dirt. None knew how long the rumbling went for, an hour or a minute, it wouldn't have made a difference to how relieved the three were when the earth finally stopped shaking, allowing the genin to try and make their way back to their feet, albeit, without success the first few times.

When they finally managed to get to their feet, they were shocked at the devastation their sensei's technique caused. For around fifty meters in all directions, any and all trees were knocked down, uprooted from the ground, and several near the edge of the fifty meter radius were slanting. Looking to the epicentre of the technique, they saw several large cracks in the earth make their way outwards. Their sensei simply stood there like nothing happened, looking unruffled.

"So," He said, clapping his hands together, "Let's begin."

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The two months that the three genin had left training under Naruto was put to good use. Working on Jiraiya's and Orochimaru's advanced nature manipulation took far longer than originally thought, the two genin, while what many would consider genius or prodigious, Jiraiya less so than Orochimaru, neither had any experience in manipulating elemental chakra. Orochimaru was slightly ahead of Jiraiya in the control and precision aspect, his status as a genius making itself known as he constantly analysed what he was doing and learning from his mistakes, but Jiraiya was able to get more power behind the manipulation, where Orochimaru was able to make a small gust of wind, Jiraiya was able to make a small pillar of fire, about half his height, quite an achievement considering that there were many almost twice his age that couldn't do what he could.

Tsunade on the other hand wasn't making much progress with her 'Super Strength', as she liked to call it where Naruto preferred Enhanced Strength. Unlike Orochimaru and Jiraiya, what Naruto was teaching Tsunade required for her to have incredible control of her chakra, far more control than she had currently. That was why for the first month, Naruto had only doing chakra control exercises, beginning a new exercise at least once every week, it was quite tough on Tsunade who wasn't use to the kind of pressure that Naruto put on her, but she quickly adjusted.

When the day came for their last lesson with Naruto, none of the three really knew what to expect, only that it would be different from their other lessons, from what Naruto had told them the day before. As they approached their training ground, their sensei was standing in middle of their training ground, as he had all the other times that they have met for training. Naruto didn't make any movement as they approached, standing with his arms inside the cloak he seemed to wear constantly. It was only after they hadn't moved for a minute that Naruto broke his silence.

"Over the past four months, I have trained you, I have taught you and I have guided you. I will be giving you three your last lesson today, and it is one you must remember if you remember anything I teach you." Naruto paused for a moment and gave the three ten year olds a hard look. "If I find out that you use what I have taught you for the enslavement of others, for nefarious purposes, or for any other reason besides defending your home and loved ones, I will end you." As Naruto spoke, his voice got sharper and sharper as an unearthly pressure seemed to appear on the shoulders of the three genin. It made them slump over slightly. The pressure seemed to reach its peak as Naruto opened his mouth again. "I will end you. Your life, your existence, your very being. I will erase you and everything you ever touched from the mortal plane if I must." This speech was nearly identical to the one that he gave to Hashirama and Madara, the only different being how much harsher it was than the one he gave the two legends of the shinobi world. Had Madara, and Hashirama to a lesser degree, not broken the promises that they gave him, perhaps he wouldn't have been as tough as he was on the three children before him, but the matter of fact was that they had. And Naruto had paid for it dearly with the loss of Hagoromo's artificial children, his nieces and nephews.

He was going to make Konoha clean up their mess, should one of the three go rouge or turn from the 'Will of Fire'. It was not his fault if one of them went rouge, it wasn't his job to right the wrongs of Konoha, and it certainly wasn't his job to clean up the mess of others. Should one of them fall from grace, he would be sad, yes, maybe even depressed, but he wouldn't stop them from doing whatever it was they were trying to do, unless it began to affect the entire world or himself personally. Short of plotting world domination, destruction or whatnot, he would leave it to Konoha to deal with, but that wouldn't mean that he would at least try to prevent them from using what he taught them for darker purposes.

Looking over the now terrified genin, Naruto reigned in the chakra that he had projected on to them and began to speak normally, though his voice still held a sharp edge. "Am I clear?" A chorus of 'Yes sensei' was his response from his three temporary students. Naruto then gave the three a small smile to try and ease the tension that he had created before continuing. "I am quite proud of the three of you, you have all learned much from me in the four month time period, but that time is now at an end." Naruto was glad that he had decided to 'end' the training period today, he simply wanted to leave the village at the current point in time, and having Tobirama and Hiruzen hovering around him when he was finishing up wasn't what he wanted. He simply wanted to leave Konoha, and go back to searching for the rest of the tailed beasts that were still imprisoned in their jinchūriki. It may seem pointless to continue searching if he couldn't find them in the six years he had before returning to Konoha, but he still wanted to try. Other than that, all he could do was to routinely observe the villages for any sign of change. It may seem bleak, but then again, Naruto had all the time in the world.

"Before I go," Naruto told his students, "I have one last thing to give you three." Naruto then pulled out three identical scrolls and one each to the three students. "Inside the scrolls, you will find a location with directions on how to get there. Don't tell anyone where the places are, and don't lead anyone else there, doing so would be a very bad idea." Naruto's voice turned stern again, trying to reiterate the importance of what he was saying. "Once you reach each location, you will be given a test of some kind, pass it, and each of you will be rewarded."

"What kind of test is it Naruto-sensei?" Jiraiya asked as he opened the scroll to look at the contents. All that was on the scroll was a map of Hi no Kuni with a spot marked 'X', along with markings leading from Konoha to the 'X'. The 'X' on his map appeared to be over some sort of mountain range that he vaguely remembered seeing when Hiruzen-sensei taught them about the geography of the Land of Fire.

"I don't know Jiraiya, all I can say is that it will not be easy. Good luck, all three of you. Maybe I'll see you all again sometime," Was the response. Wanting to gain more information about what the test was, Jiraiya looked up in order to question his sensei about what was going on, only to find him gone.

It would only be later, after a fruitless search that lasted an hour that Jiraiya would look at the map again, that he would notice a name at the very bottom of the scroll, underneath the map. Jiraiya could only guess that it was the name of the place he was going to be travelling to.

Mount Myōboku.

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A part of Naruto wondered if it was wise to give the locations of thee clans of Summons to three children who weren't even twelve, but that part was quickly squashed when he thought of exactly why he gave them the locations.

Contrary to what one might think from what he said, Naruto didn't give them the locations because he was proud of them or for any reason like that, nor did he do it out of the kindness of his heart. Naruto was proud of them yes, but it didn't mean that he would hand out the location of a clan of Summons because of it. No, Naruto had another reason for handing out the locations, this being to prevent the destruction of the Summon animals. Much like humans, the Summon animals eventually went to war with each other, natural enemies began to attack natural prey as animalistic instincts began to rise as none of the clans had much to do, nothing to distract them from the natural call that they had even after they were given chakra. Even with the summoning contracts left by Hagoromo and himself, many of the animal clans were never found and as such, began to go to war with each other as the instincts began to rise. The Mountain's Graveyard is one such place where the Summon clans did battle, the place itself was the location of a particular violent encounter between the Mammoths of Mount Ookina Ki (Big Tree), the Tigers of the Kiri no Mori (Misty Forest), that resulted in the near extinction of both clans of animal summons.

Naruto tried to find many different ways to ease the fighting that had embroiled many of the Summon clans, but his words could only go so far before they began to fall on deaf ears. There were many that fought against their animal instincts and tried to isolate themselves from the other clans in order to resist the lure of their more animalistic side. However, there were also those that didn't listen, whether they were too far swayed by their animal instincts, or they simply refused to listen, several clans of Summons attacked other clans for land, food, or to satisfy their instincts. It wasn't until Naruto began to observe the Summon clans that didn't attack others that he finally realised a way to prevent the rise of the instincts of the Summon clans, and it was an answer that he would have never suspected.

It was human interaction. The constant human interaction suppressed the instincts that all of the Summon Clans possessed. Talking like humans, to humans, repressed the instincts, by making them act more like humans and less like animals, it was something that Naruto would never have been able to guess. That then left the problem of giving all of the Summon clans their needed amount of human interaction, he was only one person and there was no way that he would be able to do it all on his own, no matter his powers. But the problem was quickly answered by the summoning contracts.

It was from the point onwards that Naruto made a point to look for those who might be worthy enough to give out the locations of the homes of the Summon Clans, though he sometimes left several of the summon contracts in hard to reach places, before then going to a town and spreading a rumour that a summoning contract was located in the surrounding area. If they were able to get the summon contracts then they would be worthy enough to be tested, and not be some idiot that managed to stumble across one by mistake. Naruto knew that by doing this that Summons would become a form of weapon to the ninja world, something that could turn the tide of a battle, but he also knew that a majority of the Summons were made for battle, first and foremost. Even millennia after they were first conceived, the Summon clans had barely changed, most were still a warrior people, though some more than others.

After a lengthy evaluation, Naruto finally decided that he did the right thing, doing what he did, he knew that all three were young and thus, less likely to use the Summon Clans that he had given them for anything less than decent. While they may be a bit young, Naruto had learned enough about the three during the four month training period to know that they were more mature than he gave them credit for.

Standing up from his position on the head of the Third Hokage, Naruto gave one last look to the Village Hidden in the Leaves before, in a flash, he vanished.

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It was the sound of cruel laughter that let Naruto first know that something was wrong as he walked down the dirt path near the border that the Land of Fire shared with Kusa no Kuni (Land of Grass). It was when he heard the crunching of leaves underfoot and the sound of someone panting for breath that he got a guess of just how wrong it was. As the sounds got closer, Naruto came to a stop in the middle of the path, drew the hood of his cloak over his head and began to scan the surrounding foliage for the source. The trees were far more spaced out then they would be if Naruto was closer to the centre of Fire Country, this allowed him to see further than he would have normally, thus, he spotted the person running towards him immediately.

Now looking towards the person that was running towards him, Naruto's eyes were then immediately drawn to those chasing them. There were several, that much was obvious, the weapons on them were visible, the metal glinting in the sunlight that managed to pierce the canopy above. As they got closer, Naruto managed to discern what it was that men were laughing about, and it made him sick.

"Come on sweet thing, we only want to play. I promise I won't bite." Naruto heard one yell.

"Why are you running away baby? We just want to show you what real men are." Another shouted, Naruto could practically feel the lust in his voice.

"Yeah, those other guys didn't know how to properly treat a woman. Just slow down a bit and I'll show you." The yells kept going on and on. It was obvious what they planned to do with the woman that they were chasing. As soon as they made their intentions towards the woman known to Naruto, their fate was sealed. These kinds of people were the lowest of the low, and there was only one kind of way to deal with these kinds of people. Death.

As the woman got closer towards his position, Naruto managed to finally get a good look at her. Her blonde hair was her most defining feature, looking like liquid gold almost, the hair went down to her mid back and streamed behind her as she ran. The woman was dressed in what looked to have once been nice clothes, but was now littered with tears, looking like nothing more than rags now, held together by miracles and luck. Yet even in their poor state, the clothes managed to reflect the kind of life the woman must have had before coming in to her current situation. What was left of the dress was dirt brown, yet if one looked closely enough, they would be able to see spots of red, showing that the brown was actually dirt and mud that must have clung to the dress as the woman ran. A white undershirt was visible and mostly whole with the exception of several tears.

Finally, the woman burst through the tree line, and quickly made her way to Naruto, hiding behind him as soon as he was within range, clinging to the back of his cloak. Naruto could feel the terrified woman shaking as she held onto his cloak like a lifeline. But Naruto kept his gaze towards his front as the men chasing her finally caught up and came through the tree line, seven in total, though Naruto didn't discount the possibility of more coming.

At a glance, Naruto could tell the men were bandits, the poor quality iron armour was a dead giveaway, and the various weapons on their persons did nothing to dissuade this theory.

Upon noticing Naruto and their prey behind him, the males stopped their laughter and simply grouped ahead of him in the middle of the road. Finally, some form of leader in the group stepped forward.

"Step away from the woman mate, we're on ofical...ofacal..." The man had a very poor education, if at all, from how he tried to say 'official', Naruto could guess that the bandit had probably never picked up a book in his life. After stumbling over his words for a bit longer, one of the bandits behind him decided to provide an answer.

"Official." He supplied.

"Yeah, what he said, we're here on o-ffi-cial busyness. If you could move for a bit, then we won't 'ave to hurt you." The pseudo leader then tried to give Naruto some form of a menacing grin, but to Naruto it simply looked like he was smiling funnily. Looking past the man's butchering of the native language of almost every sentient being on the planet, Naruto could see that there was no persuading these men to walk away. A few of them had their hands roaming over their weapons, while the others looked at the woman behind him with lust written all over their faces, there was no persuading them to leave, not that he was going to try.

Naruto didn't say anything to the soon-to-be-dead-men, but slowly began to walk forward towards them. The blonde behind him gave a squeak of fear as her shield deserted her, but Naruto paid her no mind.

A burst of speed and Naruto was standing in front of the leading bandit, his arm then rocketed forward, Naruto's fist meeting the face of the bandit, the jab faster than any of the observers could track. The man didn't fly back from the impact, Naruto's fist was moving too fast for that, instead, there was a sickening crack as the bandit's head snapped backwards, further than the spine was meant to bend. The body stood up right for a few seconds before it slumped to the ground.

Before the rest of the bandits could react, Naruto's large forearm blades slide from their sheaths before both were plunged into the chests of two bandits. Using the blades stuck in bandits' chest as leverage, Naruto leapt upwards and slammed the heels of his feet into the faces of two other bandits, launching them back.

Naruto ripped his forearm blades from their position in the chest of the two bandits with a spray of blood before he spun around to his right and decapitated a bandit that was reaching for his weapon. His other hand was then raised up to defend against a descending sword that was aimed at his head, the outlaw didn't like long enough to realise that he should have run as blade on Naruto's free hand quickly found a sheath in their face.

Taking his blade out of the now dead bandit's face, Naruto looked around to take stock of the damage that he had caused. Five dead; one decapitated, one with a snapped spine, two with chest wounds that will bleed out in minutes and one with their brain pierced along with two incapacitated with possible broken bones around the face, definite broken noses, concussions and brain damage. Both would suffer permanent injuries regardless of any medical attention they managed to receive.

Turning back to the woman that used to be hiding behind him, Naruto found her staring at him with shock, fear and awe. Eventually the woman came out of her shock when Naruto, finally growing tired of her staring, turned and stared to walk away. The woman watched as Naruto continued walking down the dirt path before turning to look at her surroundings, after a few seconds of searching and not finding what she was looking for, the unnamed blonde hurried after the ancient man.

Naruto didn't react as he felt the woman come up behind him, continuing to move forward as the woman began to walk beside him, matching his pace. After a few moments, Naruto felt eyes looking at him and turned in time to witness the blonde quickly turn away.

Naruto then suddenly stopped walking, the woman doing the same a few steps later. Naruto just looked at the woman, who seemed to find the ground incredibly interesting. After a minute of silence, Naruto finally broke it by addressing the blonde haired woman.

"Do you plan to follow me until we reach the next town?" Naruto questioned, though he could already guess what the woman would most likely say, and like he thought, she gave a nod. "Don't act so timid, use you voice." The woman seemed to hesitate for a second before she mumbled something ineligible. "Use a louder voice and look at someone when you talk." Naruto told her. The woman then looked up at Naruto, allowing him to get a good look at her eyes for the first time, which were a surprising blue. It wasn't the colour that truly took Naruto by surprise, but the shade, Naruto had seen blue in many shades before but the shade before him was one that Naruto had only seen a few times before. Yet even as he was momentarily startled by the cerulean eyes, Naruto couldn't help but notice that she couldn't meet his eyes, staring as some other part of his face.

"Thank you for saving me." The woman managed before her eyes retreated to looking at the ground. Naruto just continued looking at her for a bit before he asked her another question.

"What happened? Why were those bandits chasing you?" Naruto asked the woman.

"They attacked my family's caravan," She told him, raising her eyes again as she spoke, but once more failing to meet his gaze. "Killed the guards we had in an ambush. They then began to raid all the supplies we had before they turned their attention to my family. They…" The blonde seemed to have difficulty getting her words out, for good reason. "They raped my mother, in front of my father, brother and myself while they restrained us. They passed her around like some sort of common whore." Naruto noticed angry tears beginning to gather in the corners of her eyes as talked about her mother, before she lowered her head back down. "They then killed my brother and father before then they began to take me back to their camp, I heard some of them muttering about me being... me being reserved for the 'boss'." Naruto heard some sniffling, but couldn't see because of the makeshift curtain that the woman's hair had created, but even if he could see it, sometimes it was better for someone to let out their troubles than to stop them before they could. "I saw a chance to escape and I took it. When they weren't looking I ran. You know what happened after that."

"What's your name?" Naruto asked softly after giving the woman a few moments to compose herself. The blue-eyed woman raised a hand up to her still hidden face, most likely wiping away tears before she raised her head, her now slightly blood shot eyes visible.

"Manami," She said, "My name is Manami." The now named Manami seemed to fidget for a bit before opening her mouth. "Um, could I know you name as well?" She asked uncertainly. "Could I also see your face?"

Naruto simply gave the young woman a look, before slowly moving his hand up to lower his hood. Once he did so, he revealed twin emerald irises along with a long mane black hair that disappeared underneath his cloak. The different colour of eyes and hair were the leftovers of a genjutsu that Naruto had been using to disguise himself in order to infiltrate Kusagakure, he had used the disguise to see if the minor village had managed to capture any of the bijū or if they had noticed any signs of jinchūriki around their area. Kusagakure, unfortunately, had been a bust, he hadn't found any sign of them having even a clue about where a jinchūriki or bijū could be located, but after four years of searching the various Hidden Villages since leaving Konoha, Naruto knew that it was going to soon become impossible to find the location of any of the jinchūriki.

Looking at Minami, Naruto noticed that the woman hadn't made a sound since he had lowered his hood, nor had she moved. Giving a fake cough in order to snap her out of her staring, Naruto had to withhold a slight sigh when he noticed the red tint to her cheeks. In the many millennia that Naruto had been alive, he had lost track of how many people that had 'fallen in love' with him, he had, over his lifetime, women, and men, confess their love to him. Nobles, princesses, peasants and common folk, people from all walks of life had approached him and told him that they were in love with him or that they wished to court him. Naruto had actually seen two people fight each other over the right to court him, even though he had not said anything about saying yes to either of them.

It wasn't that any of them were ugly or that he simply didn't like them, a few of them were his friends, when he stayed in areas long enough to develop any, when they asked him, but at the thought of going out with someone else, Naruto would always get a flash of a woman with red hair and violet eyes, and he would immediately feel guilty about even thinking about possibility of dating anyone. Naruto knew that Rina would have wanted him to be happy, to find someone new and settle down, maybe have a few more kids, but he couldn't. Rina was his wife, even in death. Naruto knew that it was possible to find someone that could share a place in his heart next to Rina, but he had never had the chance to find out if any of those that asked to court him were 'the one', the face of his deceased wife would always stop him. A part of Naruto wanted to find someone to love, the part of Naruto that wished to be able to travel the world with someone, to share experiences with them, but another part was afraid of replacing Rina.

"My name is Naruto." He told her while she simply looked at him with a blush on her cheeks. "Now tell me Minami, what are you going to do now?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Before meeting Minami, Naruto wasn't sure he believed in reincarnation, the whole idea of the soul of someone else being reborn into the body of another with no memories of their previous life or lives seemed not only stupid, illogical and downright near impossible, there was simply no way that Naruto was going to believe that the Shinigami would let any soul out of its grasp once it managed to get a grip on it.

So it was surprising to find out that Minami shared a lot of similar characteristics with his long dead wife, Rina, to the point that Naruto honestly theorised that his wife's soul, or some sort of spiritual manifestation of his wife, had somehow managed to possess the blonde woman. But several discrete checks at night disproved that theory.

So it was no wonder that, after several nights in the woman's company, when her true personality began to emerge after witnessing the horrific fate of the rest of her family, that Naruto began to want to spend some more time with her. It was strange, wanting to spend time with someone, Naruto could only really remember wanting to spend time with Tsunade when the girl was still a baby, and even then it wasn't as much as he did now.

When they finally managed to make it to the nearest town, Minami immediately tried to find a carriage to take her to her family's home further north, and when she did, asked Naruto to accompany her. Whether because he missed his wife more than he originally thought, or because of some weird mental breakdown, Naruto agreed and accompanied the carriage taking Minami home.

Naruto was then surprised to find that her home wasn't a large house the size of one of the clan compounds that he had seen in Konoha, but simply a house that was made for around five people to live in and sleep in, located near the edge of a rather large town. Minami would later tell Naruto that she had gotten to choose the house when her family moved to the west from Yu no Kuni (Land of Hot Water).

Naruto then stayed, for one night, then another, then another and then another until finally Naruto ended up staying with Minami at her house. During the time that he stayed with her, Naruto could say that he was, for a time, happy. He didn't see Minami as his wife, he knew she wasn't, yet, he couldn't help but compare the two and notice the similarities. Both were driven, quite passionate and not afraid to speak their minds, Minami also confided in Naruto that she wanted to have a family one day.

During the time that he spent at Minami's house, Naruto still remembered his mission of freeing his remaining nieces and nephews, but in the time that he spent in Minami's house, when he was alone and thought clearly, he realised that he needed a different approach to finding the rest of the bijū. It was during one of the times that he was pondering this that he realised what it was that he could use to find the bijū, bait. As loath as he was to do it, using the free bijū as bait and causing the Hidden Villages to use their jinchūriki to capture whatever bijū appeared was his best bet of locating the containers of the other bijū. This unfortunately meant the waiting game, when Matatabi, Chomei, Son Goku and Saiken reappeared, it could be almost anywhere, it could be right in the middle of a hidden village or in one of the most remote parts of the world, it could have already have happened as far as he knew.

Yet throughout his time at Minami's house, Naruto never forgot that the woman had a crush on him, thus, it didn't shock him when, a year after he had first 'moved in', she asked, quite shyly, if he would like to go out to dinner. It surprised Naruto to see the usually strong woman become so shy, but it surprised him even more when he said yes. There was no flash of Rina's face, no lance of guilt that speared him, he simply said yes.

The two went out the day after Minami asked him, it was to a popular restaurant in the town, one that Minami said that several people had told her was quite good, they had dinner, and left. It was only as they began to walk back to Minami's home that he realised that he had been happy with her, that he had enjoyed her company, that he loved her in much the same way that he loved Rina.

It wasn't some big thing where he then saw the world in a different light, but it was something that made him look at Minami slightly differently, made him stare at her eyes slightly longer, made him hold her slightly tighter and smile at her for no reason. So when they finally walked inside of the house that he had called home for a year, and when they came to a stop in front of the door to Minami's bedroom, he gave her a small kiss on the lips before departing for bed, leaving Minami staring after him with a blush on her face before she retired to her own room.

After that, Naruto's life with Minami seemed to roll together, they got closer and closer, before they got confident enough to share a bed together, though nothing happened at first. Naruto felt like his life once again had a true meaning, a meaning that he got to choose to pursue, and it felt great. Naruto still kept his senses open in case one of the bijū materialised somewhere but so far he hadn't encountered anything yet.

Now it was roughly two years since Minami and Naruto had first met and Naruto was currently listening to his love screaming in pain. Each time, Naruto visibly winced and contemplated using his healing ability to ease her pain, but he knew it would only be detrimental to what was happening.

His blonde lover was currently lying on the edge of their bed, her legs propped chairs, sweat dripping down her face and his hand gripped tightly. A scream was ripped from Minami's throat and echoed around the room.

"It's okay Minami-san, keep breathing. One more big push, the head is already through, it is simply the body that must follow." Said the female doctor in a calm voice as she knelt between Minami's legs, keeping her voice calm so to not cause the woman to panic. The woman was one that both Minami and Naruto had been seeing for a few months, helping them through Minami's pregnancy. With short brown hair and black eyes, the doctor wore an apron and face mask as she watched the birthing of the child of Naruto and Minami.

Three months after their first date, Naruto had proposed to Minami, using a ring that he had made himself. They hadn't had a lavish celebration or anything like that, neither really wanted anything big, and when Naruto had asked Minami why, she had told him that all she needed was him. Naruto wasn't going to argue with that.

Now, nine months later, he was witnessing the birth of his third child, not that anyone but himself knew that. To Minami, he was simply Naruto, a black haired, green eyed fighting expert and her husband, and now the father of her child. That was the way Naruto wanted to keep it. He didn't want anyone targeting Minami or his child for revenge, and the best way to do that was to appear like he was a different person.

Minami screamed again as the pain from the contractions became too much for her to hold in, Naruto gave her hand a squeeze in order to give her some comfort through the pain from his position kneeling next to the bed. As he was about to give his wife some more words of comfort, a cry echoed within the room. Not from his wife, but from the baby that the mid-wife was holding in her hands, the child was covered in blood but Naruto could still make out a tuff of blond hair on the head. Much like the mother, the child had hair like sunlight in physical form, this was only made more pronounced as the female doctor began to clean of the blood with a towel.

"Congratulations," The doctor said as she began to wrap the still crying baby in a clean towel, "You both have a wonderful baby boy. He is completely health, I can't identify anything medically wrong with the child."

"My baby," Minami said with a rough voice, a result of screaming for several hours. "I want my baby." The doctor simply gave Minami a smile.

"Of course," She said before handing over the bundle over to the mother who began to coo at the small child. The doctor then looked to Naruto and put a hand on his arm to get his attention away from his cooing wife and newborn son. "While the baby is healthy, I will have to stay a few more days simply to make sure nothing happens. In the meantime, I know that your wife will most likely want to spend some time with her son, so I'll give you some space, but I will need to comeback to make sure that everything is okay, so I'll wait on the other side of the door. I will also need to stay close by in case anything happens to Minami after the pregnancy, or the baby, is there a place that I can stay nearby or a spare room?"

"Of course doctor," Naruto said, "There is a room down the hall to the right." Naruto then watched as the doctor vacated the room quickly, wanting to give him and his family their privacy. Once the door was closed, Naruto turned to look at his wife who was still cooing over the small boy in her arms, the baby gurgling back, gripping one of her fingers. Naruto smiled at the scene, Rina had done the exact same thing when Kazama had been born.

"What shall we name him?" He questioned his wife, neither had managed to decide on a name during the eight months that they had been aware that Minami was pregnant. Eventually, they had just decided to name the baby when it was born.

"Minato." She whispered after a short pause. "His name will be Minato, the perfect blend of our names. Minato." Minami caressed the newly-named Minato's head as the small child slowly began to drift off to sleep. Naruto didn't say anything, Minato was a good name for his son. Minami and her family were never truly rich enough to have a family name, and Minami hadn't really cared all that much for family names. There was also no way that Naruto was going to give his son his own family name.

Naruto didn't know how long he stood there, staring at his wife and child, but he didn't care. This was his family, and he would treasure them for as long as he lived, much like he would Rina, Kazama and Mushina.

"He looks so small," Minami told Naruto as they watched their newborn son sleep. "I want another one." She said out of the blue, causing Naruto's eyes to turn to her in surprise. "A girl." Naruto had to choke back a cough, his wife wanted another child after just going through child birth.

"Minami, don't you think that it is a good idea for you to recover a bit before having another child." Evidently that was the wrong thing to say, judging by Minami's reply.

"Are you saying I can't have another child?" Minami asked with faux sweetness. Naruto immediately began to sweat as he was reminded of one of the differences between Minami and Rina. While both were passionate and would fight for what they wanted, Minami was a whole lot more...aggressive... in her methods. Where Rina would give diplomatic reasons for why she should get something or why someone should do something, Minami would verbally, and sometimes physically, destroy someone in order to make her point. She would make you question why you would ask such a stupid question in the first place when before, you could of had a perfectly good reason.

"Are you going to be the one carrying the child?" Minami asked before he could reply, the faux sweetness still in her tone.

"No." Naruto said, managing not to stutter while backing up a bit. He may have godlike abilities, but how could he use said abilities on his wife?

"Do you know how I feel? Or what my body can go through?" She asked again. Naruto could never tell if she was joking when she did this and simply like to see him sweat, or was extremely angry.

"No." There was simply no arguing.

"Then what reason do you have for telling me that I can't have another child?" She questioned him.

"I'm the father and your husband." He told her, but immediately, he knew that he had just walked into a trap. That feeling was confirmed when his wife began to sport a grin.

"Then be a good father and husband and support your wife." She told him sweetly.

"I'm also looking out for your health." Naruto told her in a vain attempt to get her to see his side, but it was for nothing.

"So am I and when something comes up, I'll tell you." She said before turning back to her sleeping son. Naruto simply blinked.

Verbally destroyed.

The sad part was that he should have known better to than to not say anything at the beginning, why couldn't he have just backed down as soon as he heard that tone in her voice?

Naruto shook his head before turning back to his wife, taking in her current condition. She was still covered in cooling sweat and wearing nothing, losing all of her clothing during the labour. Little Minato was cradled in her arms at the level of her breasts. When Naruto looked at Minami in the face, it was only then when he saw how tired and fatigued she was, dark circles were under her eyes and Naruto could see her eyes beginning to droop, showing just how little energy she had.

"You need to get some sleep Minami." Naruto told his wife who simply shook her head and held Minato a little closer.

"In a little bit, I just want to hold Minato some more." She said, but Naruto could hear the fatigue in her voice. Despite how aggressive Minami was acting earlier, she was drained and Naruto knew it. Minato's birth had gone on for twelve hours, from the twenty fourth of January, at around three in the afternoon, to three o'clock on the morning of the twenty fifth of January. The adrenaline of becoming a mother and holding her son for the first time was beginning to wear off, leaving a beyond tired new-mother.

"You can hold him in the morning, Mina-chan. For now, you need your rest." Seeing the Minami was about to go on another of her rampages where she verbally destroys someone, Naruto quickly intervened. "I promise that first thing in the morning, as soon as you wake up, that you can hold him for as long as you want. But right now Minami, you're more likely to drop Minato than hold him, you're barely staying awake as it is. You need rest." Naruto said soothingly, trying to get through, past Minami's motherly instincts, to the more rational side of her.

Minami just stared into his eyes as she debated what to do, Naruto could see her instincts as a new mother going to war with the mind of a grown woman who knew better than to hold a child when they were tired. Seeing that she needed a little more persuasion, Naruto gave her a little bit of a push to get her to agree.

"I'll stay awake until you do, holding Minato so that you'll always be near him, is that okay?" Knowing that she would be near Minato until she woke up, Minami nodded, and slowly, almost reverently, she handed Minato over to his father. "I'll go get the doctor, she simply needs to check you over to make sure everything is fine and then you can go to sleep. Is that okay?"

When Minami nodded, her eyes becoming half-lidded, Naruto walked up to the door and opened it to allow the doctor inside the room to do the rest of her job. Naruto stayed by his wife through to operation, trying to keep her conscious until the doctor finished.

Twenty minutes later, Naruto was lying down in his shared bed with his wife, said wife next to him, sleeping deeply after the birth of her child, while he held their son in his arms. Looking down at the boy, Naruto rubbed the tuff of hair on his head. Minato looked so much like his wife that the majority of people would think that Minato had inherited nothing from him, but Naruto knew better, because Naruto could look beyond his son's physical appearance and peer at his chakra. Discreetly, Naruto activated his Byakugan, breaking the genjutsu that hid his eyes, and peered at his son's chakra network.

Scanning his son's chakra, Naruto found that Minato had quite a large chakra reserve, at least for a new born child. Naruto also noticed something peculiar about Minato's chakra, it seemed to travel around his body faster than he knew it should. Chakra usually moved around the body at a constant rate, of course with subtle differences in speed from person to person, but Minato's was going drastically faster than anyone else's he had seen, bar his own when he wanted it speed up.

Searching for any other gifts would have to wait until his son was old enough to use chakra, but he was glad that it seemed like Minato hadn't inherited his ability to use sub-elements, that would have called for some explanations that Naruto wasn't sure he was ready to give, either that or a very good lie. Still, the quickened rate at which Minato's chakra moved gave Naruto pause before he dismissed it, he would deal with it when the time came, no point fretting about it now when he could do nothing.

If there was one thing that Naruto was relieved about, it was that Minato would never have the 'eternal youth' ability that seemed to plague him. After the birth of Kazama and Mushina, Naruto had wondered why his own sons hadn't received all of his own abilities, or at least half each, much like Hagoromo's sons. It was only until years later that Naruto would put it down to, what he called, the Mother theory.

The theory simply stated that in order for a child of his to be able to wield all of his abilities, at their full power, that they would have to be born to an 'altered' mother, much like his own mother had been when she first ate the fruit of the Shinju tree. Naruto theorised that when his mother ate the fruit, and therefore, eating part of a god, that she, in turn, became part god, and then passed that trait, in lower potency, on to both Hagoromo and himself when she gave birth, giving them their awesome power compared to the rest of the chakra wielders in the world. This led Naruto to the conclusion that human body had a limit to how much power that it could contain and what it could accomplish, at least before something happened, though what, Naruto wasn't sure. Naruto put down why none of his sons had gained his 'eternal youth' ability as it was simply too much for the body to be able to handle, though it was possible for one of his children to gain his healing ability.

Of course, this could all be wrong, but it was the best reason that Naruto had for why his sons seemed so weak in comparison to him when he was a child.

Letting the chakra drain out of his eyes and then reapplying the illusion he had placed over them, Naruto lied back down in the bed with little Minato's head resting on his chest. Relaxing, Naruto simply stared at the ceiling before a small simile appeared on his face as he lay in the bed with his family surrounding him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Despite his seemingly relaxed demeanour, Naruto was alert, for an attack. Even though he was physically relaxed, Naruto had his chakra spread out around, like a blanket, detecting anything that came within a kilometre radius to his family.

Speaking of said family...

"Minato," Minami called from her place beside him, "Don't run to far ahead. You might get lost." Wearing a rather plain, in her opinion, green and white kimono, Minami carried his second child to her, a daughter. Born only a year after Minato, Konan had surprising blue hair and amber eyes, which Minami had told him came from her mother and father.

Naruto had been quite nervous when Konan was born, he had never had a daughter. As he looked at Minami holding that small baby with blue tuffs of hair on her head, millions of thoughts had run through his head; would he be a good father to her? Would he raise her correctly? Would he accidently pay attention to Minato more since he was a boy?

But when Minami finally handed her over to him, he felt all of his troubles be washed away as he looked at his daughter's amber eyes. She looked so innocent. She looked perfect.

Now four, Konan rested her head on her mother's shoulder, sleeping softly, tired from the constant travelling they had been doing over the past few days, still dressed in the light blue dress that Minami picked out for her on the day they had left. They had been displaced from Minami's family home when Iwa ninja began to push south east into the Land of Fire as the 'Second Shinobi World War' entered its second year. Though it wasn't truly the occupation by the ninja of Iwagakure that made them move, neither husband nor wife really cared that their town was 'captured', but rather what the Iwa-nin then began doing to several of the townspeople.

To help relieve the pressure on their various troops, Iwagakure began to introduce forced conscription to anyone who they deemed had large enough chakra reserves to use several jutsu. Naruto, knowing that Minato had higher than average chakra reserves, convinced Minami to move with him towards the south. Unlike himself, Minato didn't have the skill to mask his chakra signature. Going further north wasn't an option this time, with Takigakure allying itself with Konoha for payback after Iwa stole their jinchūriki, neither was east because of Konoha and a neutral Kumo having several scuffles that, from what Naruto heard from several travelling merchants, seemed to be close to escalating. Moving west wasn't an option as that would put them right back where they started, running from Iwa's forced conscription.

That left south, towards the neutral Land of Rivers, which, unfortunately, was also the most dangerous as it involved walking along the border of the Land of Fire to reach it the fastest, and right now, Naruto valued speed. Part of Naruto simply wanted to simply use his abilities to get to their destination quickly, but that involved telling Minami just who he was, and he didn't want to explain how a supposed forty year old man still looked twenty. That and Naruto wanted to grant a normal life to his children, and he couldn't do that as 'the Yōso Sennin (Elemental Sage)', but he could do that as Naruto.

"Then hurry up Kaa-san. I want to go visit our new house, I don't want stay here anymore." Minato told his mother from further up the path with a slight scowl on his face, wearing his favourite blue shirt with green pants. 'Here' was the border that the Land of Fire shared with the Land of Rain, a place plagued by a constant torrential downpour that seems to never give up. The rough kilometre they were from the actual border meant that they weren't getting rained on, but even so, the swampy marsh that seemed to make up most of the Land of Rain had spread to far, meaning that they have to walk through the muddy ground, thankfully they were all wearing geta so their feet weren't getting too dirty.

"Be patient Minato," Minami said with exasperation, "Simply because you can run doesn't mean you should." Naruto simply gave a small chuckle, Minato was always so impatient when he was around something he didn't like, wanting to quickly get it over and done with before moving on.

"But if we run then we can get out of the mud quicker, and I know that you don't like it either." Minato pointed out with as much logic as a five year old could use. Naruto pushed back a small smile when he saw his wife grimace, Minato was quite smart for his age and had obviously gotten his mother's debating skills yet none of the aggressiveness that she showed, at least not yet.

"Minato," Naruto told his son, "Sometimes you have to look around you and see how your actions will affect, not only you, but those you are with, and sometimes those that aren't."

"What do you mean, tou-san?" Minato asked his father.

"If we run, then Konan will wake up. You have to remember, Minato that your sister doesn't have as much energy as you, and needs more sleep. So you have to let her rest." Naruto explained to his son as both himself and his wife finally finished walking up to where the blond haired boy was standing.

"So," Minato said as his brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what he was told. "I need to see if what I do does something to someone else?"

"Exactly." Naruto said, proud of his son's logic.

"Okay boys, keep moving." Minami told the two males. "We still have at least another five days of travel and we are going to need to make a camp soon to eat." Naruto then saw his wife release a sigh as she shifted Konan over to the other shoulder. "I really don't fancy sleeping on the ground. Please tell me that you managed to pack a blanket or cover of some kind Naruto when you sealed up all our stuff." She pleaded with her husband. Before they had left, Naruto had 'bought' several sealing scrolls for them to use to take all of their possessions with them. When asked how he had used chakra, Naruto simply told Minami that he had learned how to manipulate his chakra a bit out of curiosity during his travels.

"I'm pretty sure that I di-" Naruto froze as he sensed something coming from the east and was approaching them fast, too fast for any animal or civilian in a horse drawn carriage. "Everybody into the bushes. Now." Naruto said in a voice that broke no argument. He didn't want to wait to see where the ninja that were coming were from.

Naruto quickly led his family into the bushes on the side of road and knelt down prompting his family to do the same, though Minami seemed reluctant about getting her kimono dirty. Naruto was just happy that he'd been smart enough to wear some black pants and a long sleeved shirt under the cloak he was wearing, instead of the kimono that Minami had originally wanted him to wear.

As his family was crouching, Naruto focused on the nine or so ninja that were moving in the direction of both himself and his family, quickly covering the kilometre that was originally between them at fast rate. Just as they were about to reach their immediate area, Naruto motioned for his family to be quiet, knowing that any kind of noise could potentially tip them off that there was someone in the area.

As soon as he turned back around, Naruto watched as seven shinobi and two kunoichi landed in on the area that his family was just standing in. Dressed in a light purple long sleeved shirt and pants and gloves, along with a dark purple flak jacket, sandals, head covering, mask and forehead protector, the nine shinobi almost looked exactly the same and it was almost impossible to tell the females from the males if not for the larger chest area. Each one held a scroll in one hand.

"You all know what to do, so be quick about it, we only have half an hour to meet up with the other groups." One of the males said, the one that Naruto guess was the leader of this group of ninja. As he looked at the forehead protectors, Naruto felt that knew which country these represented but for the life of him he couldn't remember.

"Hai," The rest of them said as they all moved to open the scrolls and place them on the ground before unsealing whatever was inside with a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, it showed several clothes along with several weapons that Naruto knew were used as standard to ninja, somewhat confusing Naruto. He was sure that these ninja were going to fight, for whom he didn't know, but why would they need to change into different clothes?

Naruto watched as the nine shinobi stripped down to their undergarments before then putting on the other clothes that were unsealed before sealing the clothes they had been just wearing into the sealing scrolls. It took a moment for Naruto to realise why they had done what they had done, but when it did, it only confused him more.

They looked like Konoha ninja, wearing the dark green vest that Konoha had introduced in four years ago, along with the headbands of Konoha ninja. This only made Naruto's eyes narrow, why were these ninja impersonating Konoha ninja? They then began set their scrolls on fire with a quick Katon jutsu. At least, they were, until a snap echoed around the area. Turning around, Naruto saw Minato, eyes wide, standing as stiff as a board.

Looking down, Naruto saw that his son had stepped on a stick which had broken under his weight. When he swivelled around to face the ninja, praying that by some miracle they hadn't heard the breaking of the twig, he came face to face with several now alerted ninja facing his direction. Naruto cursed softly.

"Of course, the only group without a sensor gets eavesdropped on." He heard one of them mutter.

"Come out," One of the ninja commanded, one of the two women, drawing his attention to them. "We know your there."

Realising that he wouldn't be able to outrun the ninja with his family, Naruto decided that he would have to try and pass his family off as harmless to the ninja. Naruto didn't know if the village that these nine ninja belonged to took prisoners, exercised mercy or simple killed those that they caught eavesdropping on their conversations but it was better for him try and see if he could get them to simply let them go rather than run and get either the first or last option, because neither was preferred.

"Sorry ninja-san." Naruto said with a harmless smile as he stood up and exited the bushes, Minami walking out moments later holding a still sleeping Konan with Minato trailing behind her. "Me and my family were merely resting off the road when we heard you arrive. I thought that you were bandits so I told my family to be quiet. It was only when you called us out that looked and saw that you weren't. But now that we know, we can continue on our way and stop interfering with whatever it is that you were doing." With that, Naruto turned around and tried to quickly get his family away without making it seem obvious, but before he could, the one that Naruto had identified as the leader spoke up.

"Actually Traveller-san," He called out to Naruto, causing him to turn around, with a heavy amount of reluctance. "There is something that you could help me with, if I could just have a moment of your time." The man had a smile on his now visible face, but Naruto could tell it was fake, which only made the feeling in his gut worsen. Plastering a similar fake smile on his face, though his own much more realistic, Naruto walked up to the male ninja, who in turn, met him halfway.

"What can I help you with ninja-san?" Naruto asked. The man's smile then dropped as Naruto approached.

"Cleaning up loose ends," With that, the man struck, taking a kunai from the pouch on his leg, and quickly moved to insert it into Naruto's stomach.

It was quickly stopped by Naruto's own hand which grabbed the weapon wielding arm at the wrist, with his unoccupied hand burying itself in his opponent's throat, causing the Adam's Apple to push back against the larynx, temporarily closing it, making the impersonator choke and hesitate for a second, more than time for Naruto to capitalise on. Leaning back, Naruto gave a fast kick to forehead of the man in front of him. The force of the kick, combined with the geta on his feet, caused Naruto's kick to make the man's head snap backwards with a sickening crunch before the body fell backwards, landing with a thump on the ground and the neck at an awkward angle.

With the moments reprieve from his opponent being dispatched, Naruto twisted his body at the waist to give Minami an order.

"Run, now!" He yelled. He didn't wait to see if Minami actually listened to his order, his best bet at keeping his family safe was to engage the shinobi before him and defeat them. He then rushed to attack the ninja, wanting to keep their attention on him and not his, hopefully, retreating family.

The ninja, while initially shocked by the defeat of their leader, quickly recovered in time for Naruto to approach them, so when he approached the first one, they were ready. Naruto launched a kick at the side of the male ninja that he had targeted but it was blocked by the man's shin, said ninja then retaliated with a punch to Naruto's midsection but Naruto leant back to avoid the punch.

Naruto's hand then leapt to his side to catch the kunai that was thrown at his head, while using his arm to pin the leg that was aimed at his waist to his side. Spinning the kunai around so that he was holding it by the handle instead of the blade, Naruto stabbed the weapon down into the kneecap of the male ninja that he had first engaged, causing a scream of pain to rip itself from the man's throat as his kneecap was destroyed by the metallic weapon.

Wanting to dispose of the man in front of him, Naruto simply raised a leg and gave the man a tremendous kick to the stomach that caused him to crash into a tree, splintering the bark, before his body then landed on the ground. Naruto then ducked down to avoid a kick aimed at his head that came at him from behind while sweeping his leg at his opponent's, causing them to fall down with a grunt. While still crouched down on the ground, Naruto lifted his leg high into the air before bringing it down quickly in the form of a devastating axe kick that buried itself in his opponent's stomach, causing them to spew up a bit of blood and a small crater to form underneath their prone form.

Naruto leapt to his feet in time to roll out of the way of a fireball that burned through his former position horribly burning the downed ninja before slamming into a tree. Naruto's eyes were quickly drawn above him when he saw a glint in the corner of his eye, which turned out to be a ninja descending through the air towards him, a kunai in each hand ready to find purchase in his flesh. With his timing perfect, Naruto managed to grab the wrists of the falling ninja, before falling backwards with the momentum of the person. Falling back, Naruto rose his feet so that they were planted in his attacker's stomach before pushing off while releasing the wrists that he found his grip, causing the ninja to be launched off.

Naruto then extended the larger of the two blades that were in the brace on his left wrist, very glad that he had decided to wear them today, which blocked a kunai that had been descending towards his face. His right foot then came across and kicked ninja in the face, giving him to moments reprieve to allow him to get to his feet while retracting the blade that had been extended. Catching a glint coming towards him from the opposite direction that his attacker was, Naruto grabbed them as they were still recovering and brought them in front of the kunai that was making its way to his face, making the ninja take it with their own.

Naruto then charged at the ninja who through the kunai, who turned out to be one of the two female ninja, who also charged at him. While running, Naruto managed to dodge several other kunai that were thrown at him while grabbing one, before reaching his opponent, who, when he was in range, jumped up and tried to land a kick to Naruto's face. But the man simply dropped to his knees and slid under the airborne ninja, thanking the muddy ground for allowing him to slide. While still sliding, Naruto managed to twist around and throw the kunai he had managed to catch at the descending kunoichi, whose back was turned to him, and thus, didn't see the kunai that quickly made a hole in the back of her head.

Naruto got to his feet after coming to a stop but was once again forced to move as heard a voice call out a jutsu.

"Doton: Dosekiryū (Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon)." Naruto simply leapt, jumping up into the air as the dragon of earth crashed down where he had been previously standing. Coming back down, Naruto immediately set off again, seeking to quickly finish this fight.

The remain shinobi had all grouped together, finally seeing that they wouldn't be able to defeat him without some kind of coordination, for all the good that it would do them. Naruto quickly charged them, covering the ground in between them in seconds while bringing out both of the larger of two blades from the braces on his forearms.

Having taken out kunai to block the charge, Naruto's opponents were understandably shocked when a moment before Naruto would have reached them, he dropped to his knees once more and slashed at their ankles, causing all of them to collapse as their support was taken from them. With the ninja on the ground, immobilised, it was quite easy for Naruto to finish all of them off with a stab to the back of the head with either of his still extended blades.

When they were all finally dead, Naruto took a deep breath, before releasing it and beginning to spread his senses out to find his family, but even as he did so, he felt a sinking feeling settle in his gut. Taking one last look around him at the fallen ninja, Naruto felt his blood run cold when he realised something.

There were only eight ninja dead.

Yet there were originally nine.

A female scream reaches his ears before the sound of an explosion cuts it off and Naruto feels the sinking feeling in his gut worsen.

"Minami!" He yelled before setting off with a burst of speed, far faster than any normal person, ninja or not, would have been able to achieve. Naruto darted through the trees to wherever his wife had managed to run to. It took him seconds to arrive where he heard the sounds originate from, and when he got there, he almost wished he hadn't.

It was a clearing marred by an explosion, blackened earth spread for ten meters in any direction at the centre of the blast where a crater lied. The scent of burning flesh seared the inside of Naruto's nose but he payed it no-mind, he wanted to find his wife and children. He saw burned trees and other areas from fire jutsu along with blood splattered across the ground.

"Minami." He called as he began to inspect the clearing, trying to find out if there were any clues to as to what happened to his wife and children. "Minami." Naruto then began to expand his senses as he searched, trying to locate his wife.

"Mina-" Naruto's call was cut short as he inspected the crater caused by the explosion, his eyes widened and his throat became dry. "No...No, please no." He begged as he began to walk into the centre of the crater, before he fell to his knees.

There, in the centre of the explosion, her body mostly blackened and burned, her once blonde hair mostly gone, the melted slag of a kunai buried in what used to be her stomach and her kimono so burned and shredded that it was almost unrecognisable, was Minami.

Dead.

His breath began to come out quick and short as his eyes began to water, as he looked at his wife, his dead wife. He didn't know how long he simply looked at what remained of his wife before he pushed himself off the ground. He couldn't breakdown, not yet, not now.

"Minato!" Naruto screamed into the wilderness around him, "Konan!" Nothing answered him, not even the animals. He focused on his senses, and began to extend them out at a faster rate, checking for any sign of his son or daughter.

One kilometre.

Nothing.

Further.

Two kilometres.

Nothing.

More.

Three kilometres

Nothing.

Just a bit more.

Five kilometres.

Nothing.

No.

Nine kilometres.

Nothing.

There still alive.

Fourteen kilometres.

Nothing.

A little bit further.

Twenty kilometres.

Nothing.

"AH!" Naruto screamed to sky. Pouring his anger, sadness and rage into a single scream before dropped to his knees once more. His screams then reduced to sobs as he cried. For the dead wife that he would never be able to hold, for the dead son that he would never be able to watch grow up, for the daughter that he would be able to spoil and dote on, but mostly for the family that had been ripped away from him.

He twitched, just a bit, when he sensed it, the chakra signature of one of the nine ninja who had attacked his family. Overlooked originally in his haste to locate the chakra of his son and daughter. One of the ones who had ripped away the best thing that had happened to him in years. He would track them as they ran away, towards the north-east. He would find them, and he would kill them.

It would only be later when he was able to move, and after he had wrapped the body of his now dead wife in a blanket, and coming to the conclusion that the bodies of his children had been incinerated, by either a fire jutsu or the explosion that took his wife, that Naruto would return to the clearing where he had defeat the other ninjas to retrieved one of the only surviving scrolls that contained their original clothing. Unsealing the clothing, Naruto would ignore the rest of the clothes in favour of the forehead protector, which he brought up to his face for a closer look. It was only now, with a closer look, that he recognised the symbol on the forehead protector, and which village it belonged to.

Naruto then curled his hand into a fist, crushing the headband in his grip. He knew who would pay and where he could find the one who had killed his wife, he also knew now where he could have his vengeance. They killed his family, so he would destroy theirs.

The Land of Sky would pay.

But before he did that, he needed to give his family a burial, and there was only one place that they deserved.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter End

Well, that took too bloody long to write, it felt like this chapter was fighting me every bit of the way.

Now we're getting more into the plot where some questions are popping up.

In know that many people would hate that I made Konan Naruto's kid but I feel that Konan's paper ninjutsu is actually kekkei tōta, because, when you look at her Narutowiki page, it says that she can wield Earth, Water, Wind and Yang yet she only uses Paper ninjutsu, leading us to believe that Earth, Water, Wind and Yang make up paper ninjutsu . This is what I believe makes up Konan's paper ninjutsu, paper is made out of Wood (Earth and Water), and a part of the process to make paper involves steam or heated air, Yang is then used to make her paper clones and such. Now unless Konan has come to the past or is incredibly intelligent, I don't believe that a ten or so child can create something more complicated that Dust Release, so basically, her being a kid of Naruto is basically me validating her use of paper ninjutsu other than luck to extreme.

I am sorry to those who feel that the start was a little rushed, but I simply couldn't get the right way to end it.

Thank you to Ezylryb who provided me with the translation for Elemental Sage, your help was appreciated.

For those who are annoyed that Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru seemed to go through fūinjutsu a little too quickly, what they did by skipping a few levels of fūinjutsu was akin to skipping several chapters of a long book, they may get to the end before someone who reads the entire thing, but they won't be able to recall the entire book. Hence they will still be of lower skill than someone who completes all the levels of fūinjutsu.

Thanks to all those who liked, reviewed and favourited, once again I am sorry that this chapter was so late. I will try to get the next chapter out quicker than this one, especially because the next chapter will involve Naruto fighting with the Land of Sky, and something else happening that not many will see coming.

I'll see you all then.

The Right Stop