Chapter 34: A Year Away

I OWN NOTHING I KNOW NOTHING!

a/n: Hope this chapter turned out alright. Love to know what you guys think since I was a little worried when I started it. I personally think it turned out all right. Also, I promise that the next chapter won't skip over time and seem jumpy like the last chapter and this chapter has been/are.

Also, I feel I haven't said this in a while so here it is. I am glad people are liking the story. I know I get busy sometimes and there are long periods of time where I don't write. Yet at the same time, I have several loyal reviewers that are still sticking with me. Thank you all so much. I am getting so close to 200 reviews, it makes me so happy.

(September)

Naruto sighed as he took off his clothes to bathe in one of the rivers that ran through the forest that the Kitsune's den was in. One thing he hadn't mentioned to anyone was that his training actually hurt. Kyuubi pushed the sage chakra out of him, but that was the thing. The chakra was forced out of him through his chakra points. As such all over the blonde's body, there were red marks that lined up with his tenketsu.

Sighing Naruto relaxed in the water for a second before shaking his head. "Try and steal my clothes again Giso and we are going to have a serious problem!" Naruto called before lightly throwing tiny a stone towards his clothes. A small yipping sound was heard from next to where he stripped.

"Your sensing is getting even better, you almost hit me with that. It isn't fair, I can't actually hide from you anymore. The only other person in the clan who can sense me is Honoashi-sama." Giso said as he got closer to Naruto. At that moment a medium-sized black fox with green eyes laid down at the edge of the river.

Naruto shook his head. "Kurama helps me with my sensing. I am getting better at sensing emotions alone without sensing chakra. The mischief you enjoy causing makes you easy to place."

The fox pouted at that. "So Naruto-kun how is the training going? I have been busy training myself, making my fire hotter, making bigger flames, and I am even going to start learning how to make illusions soon."

Naruto shook his head. "So far so good. I have plenty of scrolls from my clan compound sealed into a few scrolls at the den, and every day I have several shadow clones out working while I work on finding the correct balance between my chakra and natural chakra to achieve Sage Mode."

Giso's tails flicked back and forth as the summon stayed quiet, the two simply relaxing after a hard day of training.

(October 10th)

Naruto had taken the day off from training, at the request of both Honoashi and Kurama, but was wondering around looking for something to do. He expected a scroll from Konoha, sent from either the white tigers or the wolf clan, that contained letters from at least Kiba, Hinata, Sasuke, and Tsunade. Yet after staying in this place for even just two months, he was worried that he would learn in the letters how different everything back home was.

Naruto was actually a little shocked when he was drawn into the Kyuubi's Seal. He was standing next to the big tree, staring at the bars and the fox laying down in front of him. "Is everything alright Kurama-Tou-san?"

The large fox nodded before his tailed moved to touch the seal. "The seal is weakening kit, and I have learned something about it just now. Something that will shock you, but something that you most certainly will love. However, in order to get what you want from the seal, it needs to break completely."

Naruto looked as confused as he felt in that moment. "What do you mean, I thought the seal breaking was dangerous for me?"

The demon nodded his head. "In normal circumstances, it would be. Even with me caring for you, without a buffer, my chakra would be too much for you to handle. However, a sage is more resistant to demonic chakra. In order to completely understand I need to tell you a story. More specifically the story of my father. This information isn't something I part with lightly though kit."

Naruto nodded in understanding and the Kyuubi started his tale. "A long time ago humans didn't have access to chakra, but as they always have they still raged war with each other. One woman was sick of the war and did something that was forbidden. She ate the only fruit that was produced by the God Tree. The fruit made her strong and gave her access to chakra. Of course, she wasn't actually sick of the fighting because of the bloodshed, rather, she wanted to rule and the fighting prevented her from doing just that.

With chakra, this woman managed to stop the fighting and take over the elemental nations." Naruto was wide-eyed at this so far. "This was a good thing although it didn't seem like it at the time because it led to the God Tree being sealed away. The God Tree was revered as sacred and thought to be protected by a demon that would drain those who approached it dry. The truth is that the tree absorbed the energy from nature and humans into itself. Back to the story though, this woman had two sons, and this is where a curse started on this family, but that will be explained in a moment."

The demon took a breath before continuing. "The son's were Otsutsuki Hagoromo, my father, and his younger twin brother Hamura. The two both valued the peace of the land and traveled and trained when they were one day approached by the Great Toad Sage. The sage told them that their mother wasn't what she appeared and that a ritual that took place was responsible for the death of many humans. They did not believe the sage at first, but one day a girl that my father was found of disappeared. He tracked her down with his brother to the God Tree and watched as she was sacrificed to it."

Naruto scowled at that, he didn't like the thought of anyone being sacrificed. "My father went to the Toad Sage and trained to become a Sage as well, while Haruma went to his mother to convince her to stop. When she learned that they had chakra as well though she flew into a jealous rage. Hagoromo returned home after becoming a Sage only to be attacked by his brother who had been hypnotized by his mother. My father freed his brother from their mother's control, but she went to the God Tree and completely absorbed the tree, transforming into a twisted creature. She went to her sons, determined to take back what she believed was hers."

Naruto spoke up here. "You mean their chakra right?"

Kyuubi nodded before continuing. "The creature was called the Juubi and was a force of pure hatred and destruction. My father and his brother ran at first until Haruma mastered sage mode as well, then they attacked and sealed their mother away in the end though, with my father splitting the energy from within the God Tree into nine new creatures. That is why the Akatsuki worry me. If they want all nine of us then they might want to revive the Juubi. That isn't the point of this story though. My father at one point had the energy of all nine of us sealed in himself, harmlessly. That is because like the God Tree, we take in our energy from the natural world around us. Learning how to harness sage chakra will make you resistant to the damage my chakra would cause you. This would allow us to safely remove the seal and in doing so, temporary release the two soul fragments sealed inside. Your parents..."

Naruto shook slightly at that information. "You mean if I master Sage Mode I can meet my parents?" The demon nodded and Naruto shot through the bars hugging Kurama. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." Naruto of course, would spend more time focusing on this story and asking for more details in the future, but knowing that he could meet his parents made him extremely happy at the moment.

(November)

Naruto felt warm chakra running through his coils and smiled. His canines were razor sharp and his fingernails looked like claws. His whiskers weren't darkened and if his eyes were normal they would have been slitted and purple in that moment. Of course Naruto didn't care that his eyes didn't work, and didn't need them. In this moment he could sense every single kitsune of the clan. He could also sense a wolf summon approaching the den.

Standing up Naruto walked to where he sensed the wolf coming from and sat down at the edge of the den. The wolf was still rather far away and it would be a few minutes before the wolf arrived. 'How close am I Kurama-Tou-san?'

Seconds later a rumbling sound was heard, a sigh Naruto assumed since he had started asking the question once a day during his sage training. 'You are progressing rather well kit. You are obviously motivated. In fact you can take in about fifty percent of the natural energy you will be able to do when you complete your training. However, remember that there is a difference between mastering Sage Mode, and properly using it. I predict that by January you will be able to take in the maximum natural energy that Sage Mode requires to be fully utilized, but the only other true masters have been my father, his brother, and the first. A good milestone is being able to take in natural energy while moving. I figure that will take you at least until April.'

Naruto sent a mental nod as the wolf showed up. "Naruto-san a letter from Kiba-sama." The wolf said before dropping off a scroll and running off. Naruto smiled and absorbed the knowledge from the scroll.

Naru,

I am glad to hear that you are going to meet your parents. I kind of am a little nervous that when you tell them about me they won't like me, but I know they will accept you. After all you are the most amazing person I know, and I know that I am the luckiest guy in the world, but to create someone as great as you, your parents must have been at least half as amazing as you are.

Now then I conceded once again this year, but next year you will likely be in Konoha and you are getting a birthday party! A cake, presents, and everything else that you deserve to have on your birthday. If you aren't in Konoha though, you will get the party the moment you are back. Anyway, I love you.

Yours Faithfully,

Kiba

(December 5th in Konoha)

Hinata was sighing as she watched everyone from her class, as well as Haku, show up. Well everyone but Naruto that was. That was why Hinata sighed, one of her best friends weren't able to be here today. "Happy birthday Onee-chan," Hanabi called out from behind Hinata giving the girl a hug.

Hinata smiled at that when in an explosion of smoke Giso was standing in front of them. "Thank you Hanabi-chan." She said before walking over to Giso. "Good afternoon Giso-kun, how are you doing."

"Fine Hinata-san, but Naruto sent you a scroll. I would love to talk more, but there is a meeting in the Kitsune Den that I need to be present for." The fox said with a bow as he handed Hinata a scroll with his tails, before disappearing as suddenly as he appeared.

Hinata opened the scroll only to drop it when she saw seals all over it. A second later Naruto was standing there, shocking everyone there. "Yo." He said before being tackled by Kiba and kissed.

Hinata was the first of the shocked teens to speak. "Naruto-kun, h-how did you get here? Was that a summoning seal?"

Naruto, who had finally gotten Kiba to stop kissing him spoke up as he picked the scroll up. "Not really, it is a stasis and storage scroll. I sealed a shadow clone in in it, which is how I am here. Great thing about me being a shadow clone is that the real me gets my memories when I dispel. This way I can be here for your birthday." By the time Naruto had finished talking, Kiba had hugged him from behind and started nuzzling Naruto's neck while inhaling the blonde's scent.

Time seemed to pass pretty fast after that. The group all had a good time, even if they party had to be 'Dignified as is only right for a Hyuga.' As Haishi said. Everyone still had a good time, and Naruto even managed to pull himself away from Kiba occasionally. Naruto's present had been a blanket that was made with faux fur that was extremely soft, and seals were sowed into the blanket. The seals regulated temperature, prevented tearing, and hardened the fur enough that it could stop several kunai and shuriken before being damaged.

(April)

Naruto panted a little as he stopped running and growled. Drawing in nature chakra while moving was a lot harder then he had thought it would be. Kurama said he was close though so he once again took off running in the direction he had just came from while drawing in the chakra. The problem was that while he was moving, the energy from the different areas weren't. He needed to either draw in the chakra faster or get it to move with him.

The speed he drew in the chakra had increased as he got better, but it still wasn't quiet good enough. Moving nature chakra outside of his body to keep what he was drawing in close was even harder, but Naruto was determined and he was close to finding a way. A second later the blonde stopped running and collapsed as all of his nearby clones dispelled. Then he grinned though as he took off running. One clone had found out that if he pushed some of his chakra out of his body instead of drawing nature chakra in, he could chain his chakra with the natural chakra and draw them both in as he moved. 'An impressive shortcut, but you need to learn how to draw it in at a high speed. The quicker you can draw it in, the quicker you can enter Sage Mode, the closer you are to mastering it.' And like that the blonde's smile fell. With that Naruto went back to training after creating several more clones.

(May 1st)

It took slightly longer then Kyuubi expected, but Naruto finally got to where he could draw in natural energy while on the move. He could in fact run at max speed while drawing the energy in, and as long as he kept increasing the rate he could draw the energy in as he got faster things would stay that way. 'So what now Kurama-Tou-san?'

A please hum was heard in Naruto's mind. 'You are getting closer to mastering Sage Mode, your next milestone will be too keep it activated for twenty-four hours straight. This wouldn't be hard if you were sitting still, but you will be moving around and training the entire time. Again this step was only mastered by my father, his brother and the First. The main thing with this milestone is that the user has to learn to refill their own chakra coils with the natural energy running through their body while absorbing more. Plus Uzumaki and Senju would have an easier time doing this. You should get this in a couple days as you have at least some practice with converting my chakra into your chakra. After you finish this you will have one more milestone. Something that only my father and his brother could do, and that is to change your chakra by fusing natural chakra with your base chakra. This will allow you so draw in sage chakra instantly, which the First could do without this training, changes your chakra's color, and it will grant you even greater abilities.'

Naruto found himself in shock at the idea of changing his chakra like that. He would worry about that once he finished this stage of training but for now, he was wondering about something else. 'Kurama, can I ask what you meant about the curse of brothers?'

Kurama knew the blonde would ask about this, after all, he knew Naruto had been thinking about his story the past few nights. 'The curse of brothers is something that has been going on within your family since my father and his brother were born. Brothers in the family have been destined to both fight and in some cases kill each other. It started with my father's two biological sons. Indra and Ashura were both extremely talented and my father wanted one of them to help bring this world to peace. Indra wanted to bring about peace by being the most powerful, while Ashura wanted peace through understanding and friendship. In the end father likened Indra's attitude to his own mother's and chose Ashura as his official successor.'

Naruto nodded his head. 'I agree with your father on that. Ashura is right understanding is the only way lasting peace could come about. Peace brought on by power will just lead to fear and then eventually war.'

Kurama let out an approving sound at that. 'Yes, well anyway Indra rejected his father's decision and challenged Ashura to a fight to the death. A fight that neither of them survived. Since then there have been a curse on their families, the Senju and Uchiha, a curse of brothers. This curse has two parts to it. The first being that two brothers born of the Uchiha line, like Sasuke and Itachi, they are destined to fight. Madara for example killed his own brother. The second part of the curse involves the theory of reincarnation. Ever so often a child born of the Senju line, which includes the Uzumaki as they split from the Senju, and a child born of the Uchiha line are destined to continue Indra and Ashura's fight until a winner is finally clear.'

Naruto shook his head before standing up and getting ready to work. 'Well if that is true then lets just hope that Sasuke is Indra in this fight and not Itachi.'

(July 10th in Konoha)

Kiba was currently sleeping in his room when he smelled something familiar and different all at the same time. His nose twitched and his eyes snapped open. Standing up he moved to his window in the Inuzuka compound to see blonde hair and whiskered cheeks. "Naru?" He asked as the blonde opened the window.

"Shhhh, you have to be quiet remember. Giso could get in a lot of trouble." Naruto said as he climbed in the window. Kiba nodded and his groggy mind remembered the several other times this happened. Giso let Naruto return on one of the days the blonde was supposed to rest and then reversed summoned him back. Honoashi didn't like that the two were doing it so often as traveling to the summoning realm was regulated by an agreement that had lasted since the God Tree had been sealed away.

Nodding his head Kiba pulled Naruto into him and walked to the bed. Falling back on his mattress with Naruto in his arms. "Your scent is different. It is weird, natural scents tend to reflect your chakra they don't change."

Naruto smirked. "Part of my Sage training, my chakra is changing, check this out." Naruto formed a Rasengan in front of Kiba, but instead of the solid blue, the boy's chakra had strands of gold energy swirling in it. "My goal is that before I return home for my chakra to have changed to solid gold energy."

Kiba had gone wide-eyed at that. "That is very impressive. I can tell how much stronger your chakra already is. Still, !even if your scent is changing it still smells like you. Gonna take some getting used to though."

Naruto snuggled into Kiba a little more and sighed. "I love you Kiba-kun. I am sorry you had a mission during your birthday."

Kiba shook his head. "Don't be. I had your scroll, your clone and I spent the night in a cave keeping warm by cuddling. Was a great birthday to me." He said with a grin.

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "I will be meeting my parents soon. It won't be long, but I am scared that they will be disappointed in me."

Kiba scoffed at that. "Naru, you are like kindness and forgiveness in human form ya know. It is like I said in my scroll last November. If they are half as amazing as you, then they won't care about us in the slightest. If anything they will say I am not worthy of someone as great as you." Naruto smiled softly and found himself falling asleep.

(August 24th)

Naruto was sparring with a shadow clone, both of them had claws tipping their fingers and sharp canines. Both formed a Rasengan of solid gold energy at the same time and charged at each other. "RASENGAN!" They both called at the same time, the two orbs slamming into each other before an explosion of energy over took them both. When it cleared they were both panting, but they jumped away from each other.

Naruto and the clone both raised their hands out to each other. "Mille Glacies/Fulgar Sagittas (One Thousand Ice/Lightning Arrows)!" From the real Naruto's hands the air chilled before arrow after arrow of solid ice, while the clone had lightning jumping between his fingers before arrows of lightning jumped from them. The ice arrows and lightning arrows collided with each other and in the end millions of tiny ice particles were dancing through the sky. If Naruto was standing still it would be a beautiful to an onlooker, the light dancing off the minuscule fragments of ice, but Naruto wasn't standing still. He blurred forward and buried his fist into the clone which disappeared.

Naruto smirked as he regained his energy. 'Kurama-Tou-san is it time?'

A second later the blonde was staring at large bars running across the plains in his mindscape with the Kyuubi sitting behind the bars. "Yes kit it is time. What we will need to do is break away the rest of the seal. The easiest way is for you to remove the seal tag. You will want to do it fast though, as I have no idea when your father's soul will appear, the weaker the seal has gotten the more I could tell though. Your father's soul would come out when the seal was about to break while your mother's will come out if the seal is released. Completely breaking down the seal will release both at the same time."

Naruto nodded and as quickly as possible jumped up and removed the tag in one solid movement. In the next second, he could sense two additional chakra signatures in the areas. He turned around and saw Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, his parents. His mother was beautiful with long red hair and violet eyes, and his father looked like a larger version of him. The bars behind him started dissolving when the blonde finally spoke. "Tou-san... Kaa-chan..."

Naruto let out a shaky breath while Kurama stood up and walked away. "I will leave you to talk with your family kit. Infusing them with sage chakra will give you approximately a week with them. Afterward, you will be ready to go back to Konoha."

Minato wasn't really sure on what to say after his on turned his back to the Kyuubi who walked away, while Kushina dashed forward to hug Naruto. "Naru-chan, I am so happy to see you. Are you alright? why did you break the seal?"

Naruto nodded as Kushina pulled back. "I am fine and Kurama won't hurt me. The seal was weakening anyway."

Minato went wide-eyed about that. "What do you mean? Jiraiya-sensei should be checking the seal on a regular basis."

That name made Naruto scoff, although he didn't mean to. Kushina was close enough to catch it though. "Is everything alright Naru-chan."

Naruto shook his head and then nodded. "Everything is fine, but nothing is how you wanted it. A good example is the fact that I have met Jiraiya maybe three times total. the first he showed up in my life after thirteen years without even knowing what skills I had to try and train me. Then spent the next few days trying to get me to see that my life choices were wrong."

Kushina scowled at that. "I should never of let you name that pervert Naruto's godfather Minato, but what about Mikoto and Hitomi, they were my teammates and Mikoto was your Godmother."

Naruto shifted his feet a little. "Hitomi died in giving birth to her second daughter when I was around five and I never met her. As for Mikoto, when I was eight Itachi Uchiha killed his clan when they started planning a coup. I met her once or twice and she was kind to me, but her husband hated me."

Minato was still staying quiet taking all this in. "It seems we have a lot to talk about. What did the Kyuubi mean when he said we could have a week together? Our imprints should only last about ten minutes."

Naruto drew in natural chakra and his parents watched as his eyes turned purple, his nails turned into claws and his canines sharpened. Seconds later gold chakra left his hand and got absorbed by both Minato and Kushina. "I signed the Kitsune Summoning Contract and became a Sage. Using sage chakra I can fuel your imprints since you are my parents our chakra signatures are close enough. Follow me inside and we can talk more." He said before pointing to a door on the tree that was close by.

They walked inside and Naruto sat down on the bed before focusing as a loveseat appeared. His mother though moved to the four pictures. "Who are these people Naru-chan?"

Naruto blushed a little and sighed. "One is my team photo. It is of Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga, Anko-sensei, Kurenai-sensei and myself. The next one is of Kiba-kun during our first chunin exams. All three of us were in the finals, and one of us would of won if Orochimaru hadn't attacked the village and killed the sandaime. The next picture is a date Kiba-kun and me were on while we were retrieving Lady Tsunade to become the Fifth Hokage. The last picture I just added the other day, is a picture of me and all my friends spending the day together before I left Konoha to train. From left to right it is Haku, Hinata-chan, Kiba-kun, myself, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruna, Shino Aburame Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara."

Kushina raised an eyebrow. "A date with Kiba-kun?"

Naruto nodded his head. "Kiba-kun and I have been dating almost two years, Although I have been out of the village for the last year. I sent multiple sealed shadow clones to him and have been sneaking away to see him on several of my rest days. That is what Jiraiya thought was so wrong."

Kushina tightened her fists which shook in anger. "I am going to pound that bastard into dust when he dies. I can't believe we made him Naruto's godfather."

Minato for his part looked down ashamed for a few moments before speaking. "Naruto, my son, I am so sorry that Jiraiya wasn't there for you growing up. I thought when the Kyuubi attacked that you would be taken care of when I gave my life to stop the attack. There is something you should know though, an Uchiha was behind the attack, he wore a mask and called himself Madara, but he wasn't strong enough to be Madara. I sealed the Kyuubi in you to give you an advantage should the man return. I failed you and I am sorry."

Naruto shook his head. "I don't blame you. I have never blamed you for anything that happened." With that Naruto moved over to his father and hugged the man. In a different life, he might have decked him, but he was being honest when he said he didn't blame him for anything.

Naruto spends the rest of the week relaxing the in Kitsune Den, talking to his parents both inside the seal instead of sleeping and through his thoughts like he often did with Kurama. He told them a lot of things about his life. Kushina cried a lot when he described being blinded, and Minato once again said he was sorry, although Naruto's father also said he wished he hadn't stopped the Kyuubi.

Naruto told them of his missions, of his friends, of his abilities, and anything else that came to his mind, and when the week was over he said goodbye, and he let tears slip from his eyes knowing that he would never see them again.

With his training done though, he got ready to leave the Kitsune Den. He was older and stronger now, and ready to return to Konoha with his head held high, proud of mastering sage mode in a year.