'Thinking'

"Talking"

"Talking in mind-scape"

'Demon Thinking'

"Demon Talking"

Chapter 29: Training starts? ! ?

Anko arrived at the designed training field a bit late, she had to finish a report, and it took her a little time. When she arrived, she found Naruto and Tomomi both doing sit ups.

"I see you brought Tomomi-chan with you, good evening Tomomi-chan." Anko said waving at them.

"Yeah, she wants to train to be a ninja, so I thought that I could use the time I train to help her." Naruto replied, rising.

"Well, I think I can help on that." She grinned a sadistic smile. "Tomomi-chan, how good are you at throwing?"

The girl did not reply, just raised an eyebrow while wrinkling the other.

"That" Anko grabbed a kunai from her pouch and launched it.

"Whoa!" Naruto had to dodge the kunai, aimed at him.

"Don't know" replied Tomomi.

"Then, you'll improve." She took a scroll from a pocket of her coat and took a box out of it and placed it in front of the little girl. "Take one, be careful they cut. Is it too heavy? Try to throw it, like that" She took one and made the movement slowly to show Tomomi how to throw.

Tomomi lifted the kunai, it was a heavy thing of the five years old, and she tried the movement, but her wrist was too weak.

"No problem, I have something that will do." She took another scroll. "I planned to use them if Naruto was too slow for real ones, but that will do also."

Tomomi took another kunai from the other box Anko unsealed and made the move. The throw was short, the trajectory was poor, but the kunai flew...

"Not bad for a first try." Anko said, smiling. "So, for the next three hours, we get to practice throwing. It will be a bit hard for you, as Naruto will probably try to dodge, but the goal is to hit him. Ready?" She looked at the girl, who nodded. "Then, fire at will." And she started to throw the kunais from the first box. "You have to stay at five meters Naruto, or Tomomi-chan will not be able to reach you."

And that went on for 15 minutes.

"You move too much Naruto-nii!" Tomomi was starting to get frustrated.

"OK, I'll give you an easier target." Naruto replied, and a clone popped in front of Tomomi. "He will not move."

"Just aim here" the clone said, showing his heart.

They took a break after an hour of non-stop throwing/dodging.

"You're improving fast Tomomi-chan." said a bit winded Naruto. "You've nearly dispelled the clone. But you should try to aim before putting force in your throws"

Tomomi nodded.

"Otouto, you should add one thing to your training." Anko said

"What is it?"

"This" She tossed him a scroll.

Naruto unfurled the scroll, discovering a storage seal. He looked at Anko, and back at the seal. He pushed chakra in the seal, then a bit more as nothing came. Then a white wrapping came out. In the wrapping, Naruto found two fingerless gloves, in a bright red leather.

"What are..." then he saw the red metal plate on the back of the hands. "... That's..."

"The Uzumaki Whirlpool" Anko replied. "They were ordered for your mother. It seems your father wanted to give them to her as a present. In the palm, there are three seals, I know that one is a storage seal of some kind, but I'm not sure for the other two, you'll have to find out."

Naruto turned one and looked at the seals.

"This one is the storage, it's a small one, I'll have to test what it can hold, but I assume it will be not much. It's a specific design, there are intriguing part... The other two I don't know exactly, but this one has parts from a storage seal, so it will probably have to work quite the same way. And it seems like this one has parts that looks like thunderbolts, so it may have something to do with Raiton... I'll have clones analyzing them..." He paused a bit, looking at the gloves, in different angles, and as he made gesture to try one, he stopped, and a tear dropped from one of his eyes. "Thank you nee-chan, thank you very much"

"It's more the old man at the weapon shop that you should thank, he had them for a long time and gave them to you through me."

Naruto put on the gloves, and they fitted exactly to his hands.

"They suit you perfectly..." Anko said with a bit of surprise "I thought that they would be a bit too big..."

"They should have been, but when I put them on, it's like they tightened" Naruto replied with a mixture of surprise and marvel. "Hold down a sec..." he said looking at his right hand "It's not just plain red, there is some sort of pattern... But it's a strange one... I'll have the clones looking at that too..." He rose his head "Why don't we get back to work?"

"You're hard to find, you know that?" A happy voice behind her said.

"You too, but mostly because there aren't that much people that want to see you..." Karin said, turning to face her cousin.

"Yeah, I'm working on that, and I'll need your help for it." Naruto replied.

"I heard tuesday that I'm considered as dead by my team, they left somewhat happy, so Kusa will get the news tomorrow, and at that time I will have lost my status as a ninja."

"They already know." Naruto cut, as he started to walk.

"Like you know it."

"I had lunch with Hokage-jijii today. We talked about you." He made a sign to follow.

"Hokage-jijii? You are the grandson of the Hokage?" Karin asked, surprised, running to get to him, and starting to walk with him.

"Not really, but he was the only one looking after me, like a grandfather would have… I had no other family..." Naruto let his voice trail a bit. "… Anyway, I asked him to talk with Kusa to transfer you."

Karin was stunned

"What? Why? How?"

"As I said, I don't have that much family, and I'd rather have my family around me, and maybe reinstate the clan."

"I will not bear your children." Karin was fuming.

"And I don't want you to." Naruto reassured her quickly. "Strategically, it would be better to have separated lines, so the clan can diversify its blood, and I don't like the idea to be forced into marriage."

"So, you plan to recreate the clan with the two of us?" Karin asked, to change the subject.

"For now, it would be the two of us, which means that we will not be a clan regarding Konoha's laws." Naruto explained. "But we have to be prepared, as soon as a third Uzumaki is found, we can get clan status, as we had it in the past."

"And how do you transfer me from Kusa, if I'm dead? When they'll discover that I'm still alive, they won't take it lightly..."

"Jijii sent someone to negotiate. But he said that as they consider you dead, and that report has been made by your team as they exited the forest, while we were going for the tower, he said that it would probably not be too much of a problem. It would be better if it came as a request from a Clan Head, but I need you for the clan to be official, so it's a kind of deadlock. Jijii will find a way..." Naruto said, confident.

"O...K… So, what do we prepare?"

"Everything. We have to dig the old rules, old traditions, old ceremonies, see what we keep, see what we change, and what we drop. Possibly create new rules, if the previous don't fill the gaps." Naruto explained.

"And I think you got all this in the library you told me about?" Karin asked.

Naruto stopped and pointed the bottom of the wall on his left.

"Just see by yourself."

Karin looked at the wall and saw a small hole, like a tunnel entrance.

"Follow me" Naruto changed into a little boy and entered the tunnel.

"Wait! I can't!" Karin said, making the henged Naruto exit the tunnel backward.

"Why?"

"They probably teach you jounin-class jutsu in your academy, but they don't in Kusa… I can't henge into something this small!"

"Why?"

"Don't they told you that to change the volume of your body, you need a lot of chakra, and that is why we start with Henge, a Genjutsu changing your appearance. You are transforming into another body, it's a A ranked jutsu!" Karin explained, losing a bit her temper.

"Whoa, I didn't know. I always did it that way..." Naruto recalled.

"And this is the only entrance?" Karin asked.

"Well, the only one I found, I'll have clones search for another one, but it may be a security feature." Naruto thought.

"So, I have to start on working on the A class henge..." Karin said, disappointed.

"We can train together if you want. I'm working all the month to prepare for the Chuunin Exam..."

"If you are preparing, you don't have time to lose working with me on Henge..." Karin replied.

"I can give you pointers, while I work on something else. Plus, I started working on Fuuinjutsu with Jiraya , you can join us and just train on increasing your chakra pool and Henge the rest of the time..." Naruto proposed.

"Fuuinjutsu?"

"It's a Uzumaki specialty..."

"I know, but I never thought about it..."

"It's not because it's a speciality of the Clan that everybody shall be an expert in the field, but the basics can be quite accessible"

"I'm not sure I can spare the time if I have to learn Henge, increase my Chraka reserves and still train to be a sensor and field medic"

"Just give it a try, it's kinda fun..." Naruto exclaimed.

"Why not..."

"I'm working with Jiraya on Saturdays after lunch."

"That seems a bit too specific"

"I have a heavy schedule. Workouts all mornings, then trainning alone or with other people, so it helps to have precise timings. You are free to join anytime."

"I'll think about it..."

"Well, I have to go to train with Jiraya, if you want to come, just follow me, if not, here is my address and this is the training field I'm using, come when you want." Naruto left her a paper with the data on it, before leaving towards his training session.