Chapter 26

"Uh, hey, Mom," Naruto began. "I have a question. Or two."

Meara sighed deeply. "You're going to ask where I learned to fight like that, aren't you?"

Naruto nodded. He'd been thinking about it ever since they'd brought the bandits in, which was about fifteen minutes ago. After the clerk had called for more officers to come in and arrest the bandits, one of them had escorted Naruto and Meara to the room they were in now. Naruto figured it was some official's office, because of all the plaques and certificates hanging on the walls. He turned his attention back to his mother. "Well, where did you?"

She turned her head to look at him, green eyes cautious. "I'll have to give you a bit of a history lesson before you can understand," she warned.

"Okay," Naruto agreed.

"Oh, where to start?" she murmured, tilting her head back and looking up at the ceiling. "First of all, you know that the Hidden Villages of today are relatively young, right?"

Naruto cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"The Leaf Village, for example, was only founded about 60 years ago," she explained. "We're only on the Fourth Hokage. The Fourth Kazekage is in charge of the Sand Village, the Fifth Raikage is in the Village Hidden in the Clouds, the Seventh Mizukage, only because the Mizukages keep getting assassinated, and the Third Tschuikage is reigning in the Rock Village. All of these villages are very young, yet history goes back thousands of years."

Naruto frowned, he'd never considered that before. There was a minor section in the Academy about history, but it only detailed the ninja wars of the past few decades. "So, there were no ninjas before that?"

Meara chuckled. "No, there were definitely ninjas. About fifteen hundred years ago, however, there were no ninjas, or Hidden Villages. Humans were still a relatively small race, gathered somewhere in the western part of what we call the Fire land. Someone, whose name has been lost to history, discovered chakra. At the time, he thought it was merely life force. He used it mostly for healing people. A few hundred years later, Churaeah Horae uncovered his Areah Broah. He recognized that it was not life force and that it could be used for many things other than healing. Horae left his village, and traveled up the river they lived on into the mountains, to the valley we just left. There he founded the Churaeah tribe."

"About nine hundred years ago, a man by the name of Jutsu Karati accidentally found that his chakra wasn't his life force, and more, it could be used as a weapon. He began manipulating it in different ways, naming these manipulations after himself, jutsus."

Naruto frowned. "Wait, I thought that 'jutsu' meant 'technique.'"

"In today's language it does," Meara acknowledged. "But language was different back then. It was actually closer to the Churaeah's language than it is to Japanese. It has evolved since Karati's time so that his last name simply means a technique. He'd probably be crushed. Anyway, he began training people in the ways of his chakra manipulation. Eventually, hand signs developed and the basic jutsus we know, Transformation, Clones, Substitution, were created."

Naruto propped his chin on his fists and listened to his mother's tale, enthralled. She continued, "Karati had wanted to use these jutsus as weapons to take over the world, to unite all of human kind under his rule. For a short time, he did, but then his prized student killed him and took over. Then that man's student killed him. This trend of assassinations continued for another fifty years, until some ninjas decided they'd had enough. They left the village, then only called the Ninja Village, and formed their own, called the Great Village. Others also wanted to get out of the Ninja Village, but didn't like the principles of the Great Village leaders. They formed their own village. After about a hundred years, there were seven villages, none hidden. Wars between the villages broke out every ten years or so. These seven villages were stable, regularly switching leaders, for two hundred years, until a great war came and they wiped each other out."

Meara sighed and rubbed her eyes. "The ninjas that survived this first catastrophic war reformed new villages. But seventy years later, the same thing happened. According to our history, that is the cycle of the ninjas. Villages will be formed, remain for anywhere from fifty to three hundred years, and then annihilate each other in a gigantic war. Back then, the ninja villages were the only sense of government, at that time there were no country borders or daimyos. Every time the villages were gone, the rest of the world was thrown into chaos. The Churaeah had been watching from their mountain perch for centuries. The fourth time they saw the world destroying itself, they decided to step in. Some powerful mages moved out of the valley and formed the Whirlpool Country, whose borders stretched from the Western Ocean to the mountains of the Earth Country. Others founded the first hidden village, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool."

Naruto grinned. "Creative name."

"They weren't trying to be creative," Meara responded, raising an eyebrow. "They were trying to be stable. The two struck a bargain. The ninjas could stay as long as they protected the Whirlpool Country's borders. After seventy-five years, the founders of the Whirlpool country had died. But they had set an example. Over the next hundred years, the Whirlpool country's territory had broken up into the countries we know today, Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning, Wind and the numerous small ones. Most of these countries made the same deal with the hidden villages that formed in their territories."

"What about the Whirlpool village?" Naruto asked.

"Well, that stayed in the Fire Country until the next great war. This is where your question gets answered. The last great war was about one hundred years ago. As usual, all great villages were destroyed, but the civilian population remained stable due to the daimyos. The Whirlpool village was destroyed, but the ninjas weren't homeless. Since childhood, they'd learned about why their village had been created and about their roots in the Churaeah. Their home destroyed, these ninjas came back to the tribe."

Naruto's eyes lit up as he put the pieces together. "And they taught the clan all the jutsus they'd learned!"

Meara nodded. "That's right! The ninjas returned and taught the clan head and other powerful mages. At that time, my great-grandfather was clan head. He learned them and taught them to my grandfather. And then my grandfather taught me. I learned many jutsus as a child, but I learned them using my Areah Broah, so they were actually more powerful than regular jutsus."

"Cool! Can you teach me?" he asked.

"Sure, I can. I tried to teach your father when we first met," she admitted. "But he didn't have Areah Broah, so he couldn't use it. He was very frustrated; of course it didn't help that I lost my temper very easily back then."

"Back then?" Naruto asked. "How old were you?"

"I was twelve," she confessed. "I had run away from the tribe for the first time."

"You ran away?" Naruto interrupted. "Why? The valley's a great place."

"I was only known as the Head's granddaughter. Cliché, I know," Meara laughed. "But I was young and impulsive. I wanted to go somewhere that I was just me, but I couldn't let my grandfather find me. Ironically, to be myself I had to change my name and dye my hair."

"What color did you dye your hair?" Naruto wondered. "I can't see you with anything but blonde hair."

Meara sighed. "Red. I dyed my hair so that it was an almost garish bright red and translated my name, Churaeah Meara, into Japanese. When Jiraya and I met, I punched him in the nose and introduced myself as Uzumaki Kushina."

"You punched him in the nose?" Naruto wondered. "Why?"

Meara rubbed her top lip. "When I ran away, I'd never been outside of the valley. I was a little twelve year old girl in a forest I didn't know and I was attacked by a missing nin. I held him off for about five minutes, until Minato found us. He was on a team that had been sent out to capture the ninja. He was the first to reach the man and the two began to fight. A few minutes later, Jiraya and the rest of the team showed up. Minato's teammate helped him take the missing nin down. Jiraya helped me up, introduced himself and giggled."

Naruto snorted. "You mean that perverted bathhouse-peeping giggle?"

Meara nodded and Naruto threw his head back and howled with laughter. "No wonder you punched him!"

When Naruto had calmed himself down, Meara continued. "Yes, I punched Jiraya and called him a white-haired pervert. Minato's team had tied up the ninja by then and your father was on his way over. When he heard that, he fell apart laughing just like you did."

"Wait a minute," Naruto said. "Three twelve-year-olds took down a missing-nin?"

"No! Your father's three years older than me, remember?" Meara chuckled. "He was fifteen and a Chuunin and, as embarrassing as it is, when I first met him, I did have a crush on him."

Naruto laughed. "You had a crush on Dad? What did he do?"

"Nothing," Meara snorted. "He was completely oblivious, as most fifteen-year-olds are. But anyway, during the fight, his teammate, a redhead named Hideharu, had been injured slightly, so I healed him with some spells. They took me back to the Leaf Village, where I met Sarutobi and explained everything to him. He sent a message to Grandpa and the two agreed that I could stay in the Leaf Village for one year, to improve my ninja skills. I ended up staying with Tsunade. She volunteered because she'd heard about the medical practices I used to heal Hideharu and she was interested."

"During that one year," she continued. "I passed the Genin test and became a Chuunin. I still saw Minato occasionally. I didn't want him to know that I had a crush, so I tried to be like one of the boys, brash, loud, always telling jokes and pulling pranks. By that time, your father was already becoming a regular name. Namikaze Minato. He wasn't known as the Yellow Flash yet."

"What happened when the year was up?" Naruto asked. This is so cool. I never knew this about my parents.

"I went home," Meara answered simply. "In truth, I had missed the valley and my friends. I was glad to be home. But listen to me. I came back to Konoha after that, several times and in the Ninja War, I did make a name for myself as Uzumaki Kushina, Whirlpool ninja."

Naruto grinned. "So both my parents are famous?"

"Being famous isn't always a good thing," Meara said, biting her lower lip.

"Why not?"

"Enemies. Listen to me. I want you and Tama to take credit for capturing the ninjas," she said. "If I admit that I fought them, it may somehow come out that I am Uzumaki Kushina. When I went by that name, I had a lot of enemies. None of them have figured out who I am since I changed my name back and married Minato. I don't want to be found out, okay?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "But, you—"

"No, Naruto," Meara interrupted. "I am known as Namikaze Meara, wife of the Hokage, not Uzumaki Kushina, Whirlpool ninja. I don't want to bring danger to my family, okay?"

"Dad has enemies, too," Naruto argued.

"This would put a double target on your back," Meara insisted. "As the son of the Hokage and the Whirlpool ninja. I will not take chances with your safety."

Looking into her deep green eyes, Naruto deflated. "Okay, but I will tell Dad the truth."

"That's fine," his mother agreed. A knock came on the door. Meara stood up. "Come in."

Before the door opened, she swatted Naruto's shoulder. "Come on, stand up! Show some respect."

With a huff, Naruto stood, only to slump back into his chair as the clerk, who Naruto had dubbed Glasses, strode through. "Naruto!" his mother scolded.

"It's that dumb clerk! The one who told me to 'Get them myself!'" Naruto snapped.

"Really?" Meara asked. She considered Glasses.

His response was to sniff and pushed his glasses up his face. "It was the only logical thing to do."

"The only logical thing to do?" Meara repeated.

The nameless clerk nodded firmly. "I am sure you will understand."

Meara was silent for a moment. When she spoke, it was in a sweet, kind voice. "Oh, I understand. I understand perfectly. There was simply nothing else you could do."

Glasses preened while Naruto gaped open-mouthed at his mother. He nearly voiced a protest, but she held up her hand and kept talking, her voice slowly losing its gentle undertones.

"There was nothing else you could do because you are a clerk. You are a spineless little nobody who sits at a desk all day pushing papers and getting pushed around by your superiors. You hate it, every minute of it, but you just aren't man enough to do something about it, are you?"

The clerk tried to stutter a response, but Meara kept talking, her voice rising with every word. "No! You're not! You simply don't have the balls to stand up to someone who is above you, so like the coward you are, you take it out on anyone you can! Anyone who comes in that room, you boss around and you control with your papers and your prissy attitude! Because you can't control your life, you control theirs!"

"You call yourself a man?" she sneered, giving Glasses a shove in the shoulder. "You are nothing but a cowardly, passive-aggressive imbecile who abuses what little power he is given! In case you missed that class, the government is supposed to help and protect people! But instead of responding to a threat to your town and your people, you dismissed it and sent my son out on his own! You are damn lucky that my son is as good a person as he is! Anyone less would have let the bandits go just to spite you!"

"You make me sick!" Meara shoved him toward the door and turned her back on him. "Get out of here! I don't want to be in the same room as you!"

"B-but—" The clerk fiddled with his glasses.

"GET OUT!" she shouted. "Get out and get someone competent in here, NOW, or I will rip those glasses off your sniveling face and crush them!"

Sweat dropped down the Glasses' face and his eyes widened to the size of saucers at her threat. He shook, rooted to the spot. Seriously ticked off, Meara lunged for the spectacles and whipped them off the clerk's nose. Dangling them off her index finger, she smirked and let them drop to the hardwood floor.

The clerk whimpered.

Naruto closed his eyes and savored the crunch of foot meeting glasses. Meara ground them into the floor, making sure all the glass was out of the frames. She then picked up the empty wires and, holding them in front of the clerk's nose, twisted them into a pretzel. The woman stuffed them back into his hand and grabbed him by the hair.

"Now," she snapped. "I am seriously losing my patience!"

Meara dragged him to the door, opened it and threw him out into the hallway. "If you don't get someone, I will make sure that you can never fill out another damn form again!"

People in the hallway stopped and stared at the display. The clerk stared up at her, still terrified. Meara took a step forward, cracking her knuckles. "GO!"

The clerk scrambled to his feet and tripped his way down the hallway, unable to see clearly without his oh-so-precious glasses. He looked back at her once before rounding the corner and Meara, to Naruto's ever increasing amazement, did something he never would have thought.

She flipped him off.

Clearly, the clerk could somewhat understand what she was doing, because he whimpered a bit and ran off. Once he was gone, the hallway exploded in applause. Apparently, no one like the clerk formerly known as Glasses. Naruto stepped out and wrapped an arm around Meara's shoulders.

"This is my mom!" he shouted proudly. This is my mom.

Meara bowed once to the assembly and led Naruto back inside, where he promptly glomped her.

"I love you! You are the best! You are awesome! You are the most fantastic mom in the world! I love you!" Naruto picked her up and spun her in a circle, grinning from ear to ear.

She laughed and returned the hug. "As well you should. I love you, too."

Meara sighed contentedly and sat down. "Oh, I haven't yelled at someone like that in ages. It felt good."

"I have never seen this side of you before," Naruto said, still grinning.

"I know. I've calmed down a bit as I grew up," she answered simply. "But back to what we were talking about before that moron interrupted us. "You promise you'll take credit for the ninjas."

Naruto sighed. "I said I would," he reminded her. "But I don't like it."

They slipped into a comfortable silence until an official opened the door. Naruto and Meara stood and welcomed a graying man in a sharp blue suit. He bade them sit and moved around to the other side of the desk, sitting himself.

"I must say, this is an honor," the man began. "I am Hirsoa Yuki, the mayor of our humble town. And you have our eternal thanks for ridding our countryside of those terrible highway robbers." He directed his comments to Naruto.

Naruto, for his part, smiled and nodded. I'd be more excited for the praise if I'd actually deserved it. It just doesn't feel right.

"These bandits have been plaguing us for over five years," the mayor continued. "We would like to do something to honor you and your sister."

Naruto shifted. "Ah, well. I don't know," he muttered. "I really just want to go home."

"But you can stay the night, can't you?" the mayor asked, his bright face beaming. "It would mean the world to this little village."

Naruto could feel his resistance waning. The eager earnestness was hard to say no to. Pressing his advantage, the mayor kept talking. "I mean, we don't get celebrities in here very often. The son of the wonderful Fourth Hokage and the man who has rid us of the villains that have terrorized us for years. Really, will you indulge us country folks?"

Naruto shrank in his seat. How the hell can I say no to that? "If it's okay with my family," he muttered, giving in.

Meara nodded and Yuki beamed at them again. "Wonderful! What time is it?"

"About three-thirty, sir," his secretary called through the door.

"Let's see," Yuki mused. "What can we do to honor you in the next few hours?"

Naruto rubbed his forehead as his mother and the mayor discussed several options, most of which Naruto shot down. Eventually, they decided on a small ceremony in which Naruto and Tama would be given a little medal of commendation and the reward for the bandits' capture, followed by dinner in the mayor's house.

"Aw, don't be like that, Naruto," Meara teased as they walked back to the hotel where Tama, Kenji and Raidon had been waiting. "It won't be bad and this hotel is a lot nicer than the little road-side inn we were going to stay at."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Besides," she continued. "Your sister will probably need a lot of rest to recover, as will Raidon."

As the pair reached the hotel, Naruto stopped and grabbed his mother's arm. "There's something that's been bothering me."

"Is it about me being a ninja?" Meara asked, her brow knitting in concern.

Naruto shook his head. "No, this is something that has been going on for weeks," he explained.

"The ANBU."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, where have they been? When Mizuki attacked me in the woods, they weren't there. When Kenji and Raidon ran off from the pet store, I couldn't find them. When Raidon was kidnapped coming here, they were gone. Just today, when we were attacked, they weren't there. What's wrong with the ANBU?"

Meara sighed and kept walking, tugging on his sleeve to tell him to follow. "I don't know, but I have a feeling that's what your father was called back for," she said quietly. "For years, there's been trouble between him and the head of the ANBU, a man named Danzou. I'm afraid it's reached a head recently."

They reached the hotel and the concierge bowed deeply and brought them up to the room the others had been waiting in. Although Naruto hadn't had the sense to send a message to them, Meara had. The tiger cub who'd brought it was now happily chasing a shoelace dragged around by Raidon.

"Hey, Mom, can we keep him?" the boy asked excitedly, giggling.

Meara chuckled. "I don't know, we'll have to ask his father."

She reached up and bit her thumb, smearing the blood on her palm. She did the handsigns and pressed her palm to the floor. "Summoning Jutsu."

"You have a summons, too?" Naruto asked in amazement.

"Of course she does, cub," rumbled a deep voice from the summoning cloud. "Most powerful ninjas have summonings."

Meara laughed and waved at the smoke to make it go away. "He didn't know I was a ninja until today, Torakingo. Give him a break."

The smoke disappeared to reveal a huge, white tiger. The large feline padded up to Naruto and sniffed his face. After a second, the tiger named Torakingo leaned in and rubbed his face against Naruto. "You smell strong."

"Uh. . . thank you?"

"Torakingo?" Meara called.

The tiger turned around, tail twitching slightly. "What is it, Kushina?"

"You know that's not my name," Meara murmured. She reached out and rubbed behind his ears. "I need you to run to Minato and tell him that we were attacked by rogue bandits on our way home."

Torakingo growled and demanded, "Why didn't you summon me, Kushina?"

"Will you ever stop calling me that?" she asked. "I didn't summon you because they weren't worth it. I need you now because you're the fastest of my summons. Will you tell Minato we were attacked, but we're fine and we'll be a bit delayed."

A growl rumbled in the giant tiger's chest. "Very well, I shall tell him. Cub," he snapped.

The little tiger playing on the bed perked his ears. "Yes, Papa?"

"Do you want to stay here and play?" Torakingo asked.

"Uh-huh." The cub attacked the shoestring for another minute, then abruptly stopped and licked his paw, rubbing it behind his ear.

Torankingo nodded. "Then you may stay for a while longer." He leaned in and rubbed his face against Meara's leg, then sprang out the window. Torakingo was gone into the afternoon with a switch of his striped tail.

Naruto watched him go, hearing the startled cries of the townspeople as they saw a huge white tiger run across the rooftops.

"So," Meara clapped her hands and grinned. "We've got to get ready!"

Kenji frowned. "Huh? Aren't we going to keep moving?"

His mother shook her head. "No, we're going to rest here for tonight and move on tomorrow," she explained. "The mayor wants to give Naruto and Tama a medal for taking out the bandits."

Tama frowned. "But, Naruto did—"

"I know. I've explained this to you before, Tama," Meara interrupted. "You know no one can learn who I was. You and Naruto will take the credit for it. They'll give you a medal or something at a small ceremony tonight and then we'll have dinner with the mayor. Nothing big. Are you up for it?"

Tama closed her eyes and nodded after a moment. "I'll have to go to bed right after that, though."

----------------------------------------

"How long is he going to talk?" Naruto muttered out of the side of his mouth. They were at the ceremony and had been through several speeches from officials of varying importance. The one speaking right now had been droning on for at least thirty minutes, more than twice as long as anyone else.

Tama didn't respond and Naruto shot a glance at her. She wasn't asleep, exactly, but she was as close as you could get with your eyes open. He gently nudged her with his elbow and Tama snapped out of the stupor she'd been in. "Hmn."

"Wake up, there, little sister," Naruto encouraged, disguising his words as an especially wide smile.

"Shut up," Tama responded, grinding down on his toe with her heel.

OwowowowNaruto gritted his teeth and shifted so that he "accidentally" jabbed her side with his elbow. She hissed and put her arm behind his back, pretending to give her brother a one-armed hug, but just used the opportunity to dig her nail into his spine.

Naruto searched for a way to retaliate but at that moment, the mayor stood up. "And now, without further ado, I would like to welcome our two heroes to the stage."

Putting aside their antics, the twins stood up and moved to the front of the stage to thunderous applause. Naruto grinned and waved at the crowd, which just encouraged them. Encouraged himself, Naruto began blowing kisses to the assembly until Tama gave him a bony elbow in the ribs. Chastened, the teen stood calmly next to his sister as the mayor spoke for a few minutes about their heroism and what they'd done for the town.

And at last, the mayor declared. "Finally, this ceremony is about over and we can all go home."

Earning a few chuckles from the people, he smiled. "For a great service done for this town and these people, I am proud to give you each a medal and the reward promised. Please step forward when I call your name."

"Namikaze Tama." To a thunderous round of applause, Tama stepped forward and allowed a medal to be placed around her neck. She smiled at the crowd and bowed slightly.

"Namikaze Naruto." When Naruto stepped forward, most of the crowd responded with applause, but it was drowned out by the squeals of the teenage girls. Their noise was so sudden and loud, Naruto instinctively reached for his kunai holster before realizing he was not, in fact, under attack from enemy nins.

So, these are fangirlsNaruto gulped and bowed his head so that Yuki could place the medal around his neck, then, like his sister, smiled and bowed to the crowd. Again, the fangirls went nuts.

Oooooooookay Ah, should I say no? Ignore them? Flirt back? Well, definitely, not flirt back. I don't think encouraging them will be a good idea.

Deciding on ignoring them, Naruto moved back and let the mayor finish with his speech. At long last, just as the sun was setting, the dreadful ceremony was over. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come as the twins had to receive the personal thanks of nearly every citizen. It wasn't that bad for Tama, who mostly got handshakes and a few pecks on the cheek from old ladies. For Naruto, however . . .

"I want to have your babies!"

Tenth time he heard that, Naruto wanted to rip his hair out. He gently shoved the screaming brunette along and shook the hand of the next man. He desperately tried to strike up a conversation with him, anything to stave off the girls for even a minute, but the other man clearly was as terrified as Naruto and escaped immediately.

Lucky bastard.Naruto thought, watching the man's retreating back. His attention was dragged back to the girls as one leaped forward and tried to eat his face.

Augh! What the hell! I'm being attacked! Is this some plot? What the—

Naruto froze as he felt something wet and rough jab at his lips. What the hell? What is going on!

But he didn't have any more time to think as someone ripped the girl off of him. The blonde started licking her lips and screaming in ecstasy.

At that point, the Yuki decided to intervene. He called in the police and they started shoving the crowd back. Naruto stepped back and wiped at his lips, being sure not to open his mouth.

That's an interesting poisoning technique, he thought, scraping the saliva off his mouth. But how did she do it without getting sick herself? And didn't she think that I would notice that obvious attack?

Naruto froze as he heard a few not-quite-disguised snickers from behind him. He spun around to see his mother with her hand over her mouth.

"Mom!" he yelled, outraged. "Why are you laughing? This isn't funny! That girl just tried to poison me! We have to find out who was behind it and what kind of poison she was using!"

Meara stared open-mouthed at her son for a moment. Then she gave a little half-laugh and shook her head. "Naruto, that girl wasn't attacking you."

"Yes, she was!"

"No," Meara shook her head. "She was kissing you."

" . . . WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"