Hey readers! I hope you enjoy this update! It's got some Wave content but I know some of you may not be too happy with me at the end of the chapter- (Cue evil maniacal laughter). Anyways, please do read and review, there is a fair bit of fluff in this chapter though I know that doesn't make up for the end of it and the fact that it's kinda sorta maybe a cliffhanger.
Naruto stayed in Kiri with Fu for three days before she decided it was time to move on.
She told the girl privately in the morning before she left, drawing Fu outside to speak.
"I know you want to stay here a bit longer-"
"It's nice here. As much as I love Takigakure I feel free here, no one is judging me and Utakata-san's been really kind to me, he's been teaching me about how he talks to Saiken."
"I know." Naruto hesitated, "I just... worry about leaving you here. You'll want to go home eventually won't you?"
"I will." Fu nodded, "But I'll make it back on my own-and if anyone comes after me I can just use this." the girl grinned widely, pulling a familiar kunai out of her pocket, "I know how to call for you if I need help Naruto-chan." the change in address didn't slip Naruto's notice, and the blonde surged forward, a huge grin on her lips as she hugged her tightly.
"I'll miss you Fu-chan." Naruto let out a breath. "You'll call for me if you need me."
"Of course I will. And I'll miss you too Naruto-chan." Fu grinned. "Will you be saying goodbye to everyone?"
"I don't think so. You can tell 'em all for me. I'm not in the mood for long goodbyes."
"Then I'll make sure everyone knows you said goodbye." Fu promised, "Be careful okay."
"I'll be fine. I want to go to Wave before Konoha and I have Hirashin tags everywhere there."
"Then go." Fu grinned, "Enjoy yourself Naruto-chan."
"I will." Naruto pulled away, "See you around Fu-chan." she gave a little wriggle of her fingers before her hands flashes through the familiar signs, and then she was in her childhood bedroom and she closed her eyes, letting out a breath before she scrambled off of it and rushed out of the dusty room and down the stairs, looking around as she went.
It was all untouched, a fact that made Naruto feel oddly warm, it had been left how it was in case her and mom wanted to return.
She couldn't wait to see her family.
Naruto's hands flashed through the signs and then there were six clones, which all nodded, one of them saluting her, and then Naruto was taking off out of the house, sprinting along the familiar path that led to her families home, knocking on the door excitedly.
She could hear footsteps and voices, muffled behind the wood of the door, and then it swung open, a familiar face-even with a couple of extra years on it, with a little big less baby fat greeted her, his face turned back into the house, "I've got the door mom!"
"Good boy Inari-kun."
"Hey there 'Nari-chan." Naruto greeted lightly, and Inari's head snapped around lightning fast, his eyes going wide in shock as he actually took in the sight in front of
him.
"Naruto-chan." his voice was a breathless whisper, and then she had an armful of ten year old as he threw himself at her, arms wrapping around her shoulders as she wrapped her arms around him in return, a huge grin on her lips as she pressed her face into the top of his head.
"I missed you 'Nari-chan."
"I missed you too Naru-chan." Inari squeezed her tightly, "It's been way too long."
"I know right?" Naruto laughed as Inari released his grip and stepped back slightly, still grinning widely.
"Inari-kun who is it?" the familiar voice was somewhat exasperated, "If it's one of your friends tell them you're not coming out today! Your grandpa said he wanted you to come join him and your father later, since you wanted to help them out."
Inari gave Naruto a wide eyed look and Naruto grinned, winking as she pressed her fingers to her lips, and Inari giggled and nodded before calling back; "I know mom!"
"Good!"
Naruto slipped inside, letting Inari close the door behind her as she slunk through the hall and towards the kitchen, where she could hear Tsunami clattering around, undoubtedly cooking.
She peered around the kitchen door carefully-she knew better than to interrupt without making sure that her aunt wasn't handling anything potentially dangerous like boiling water or a knife.
Thankfully it seemed that she was just getting some pans out right now. Naruto smirked to herself, the woman had her back to Naruto. Perfect.
Naruto stepped fully into the kitchen, and she could hear Inari stifling his giggling, and then "Hey Auntie 'Nami, what'cha doing?" and Tsunami jumped with a shriek, whirling around, clutching the metal pen tightly as she span to face Naruto-and then the pan clattered to the ground and Tsunami was surging forward, a huge smile on her lips as she folding her arms around Naruto.
"Naruto-chan! Kami look at you! You're so grown up." there was unmistakable pride in the womans voice as she brushed Naruto's hair out of her face, "You're beautiful princess."
"I missed you so much." Naruto admitted, pulling back slightly from the hug, taking in the familiar kind features of her aunt, she hadn't changed much.
"I missed you too Naruto-chan." Tsunami beamed, "Is your mom here?"
"No, she's back in Konoha still." Naruto shrugged, "I've been traveling, I went on a training trip and then sort of branched off on my own y'know?"
"Sounds like you've been having a lot of fun. Have you proved yourself to the Shinobi in Konoha."
"Yeah." Naruto grinned, "Multiple times."
"I did hear rumors that you helped fight off some terrible shinobi?" there was a question in Tsunami's gaze and Naruto laughed, "A few years back, yeah that would be pretty accurate honestly. I'll tell you everything later if that's okay."
"Of course. You'll have dinner with us. Your grandpa and Kaiza are helping build some new houses-Wave's gotten a lot more populated since the bridge was built."
"I knew it would. Do you think I could go and find them?"
"I can show you where they are if that's okay mom?"
"Of course it is. Bring them home with you." Tsunami ordered, "I think I have the ingredients to change the meal for today. I'll do some ramen for us."
"I love you Auntie 'Nami." Naruto laughed, kissing the woman's cheek before whirling around to face Inari, who grinned widely at her, and together they took off, rushing out of the house, Inari grabbing the blonde's hand, and Naruto let him drag her along.
It was perhaps a fifteen minute walk, and Naruto grinned when she heard the familiar sound of hammers on wood as she and Inari slowed, and she took in the sight of a crew of men working on a new house, her grandpa giving orders and Kaiza helping lift and carry things to the other men.
Naruto tugged her hand free from Inari's, taking off, sprinting towards the worksite, her eyes glued to her grandpa.
Kaiza noticed her first, if only because he turned to talk to the old man who was stood with his back to Naruto. She saw his eyes widen, saw his mouth move, and then Tazuna was turning around, a side smile spreading across his lips as he started moving-and then the blonde was colliding with her grandpa, her arms wrapping around him tightly as he stumbled backwards but managed to catch himself before he fell over, squeezing her tightly.
"Naruto-chan." his voice was warm and proud, "Look at you!" he pulled back so that he could cup her cheeks in his hands, his expression unbearably soft, "Oh look at you. You're so beautiful. You're growing up so fast." he pressed a kiss to the top of Naruto's head. "I'm so happy to see you again. We've heard quite a lot of rumors about your activities I must admit."
Naruto laughed softly, "Yeah, Auntie 'Nami said as much."
"Will you be staying for long."
"I don't know. I'll stay for a little bit." the blonde decided, "Dunno how long but I'll stay here for a couple of weeks at least."
"Good." Tazuna smiled, "What about Rin-chan is she here?"
"No, no she's back home in Konoha."
"Oh? Now that does surprise me." Tazuna laughed fondly, shaking his head, "Did you run off on your own or were you allowed to leave?"
"I was allowed." Naruto laughed, "It was a long term training trip. I was travelling with my godfather but he had to handle things so he left me to my own devices and after a while of exploring the Elemental nations some more I decided where best to go before I return to Konoha than to Wave?"
"Well I for one am glad you decided to visit home." Tazuna stated firmly, brushing Naruto's hair out of her face. "We've all missed you far too much."
"And I missed you guys too." she hadn't realized just how much until she'd seen them all again and felt a part of herself settle comfortably.
"I think we should call work to a halt today-"
"You don't have to do that grandpa-"
"Nonsense. We'll go home and spend the day with you." Tazuna declared, "I want to know everything about your life since you left us."
"Okay." Naruto laughed, "Okay if you insist."
So Tazuna quickly called to the men, ceasing the work today-though he promised that they'd get full pay despite the fact that they'd only worked for a few hours. After all it was a day of celebration in the old man's mind, and before long they made their way home, where Tsunami had already prepared several riceballs to tide them over for a few hours until the proper meal in the evening.
Which was how they ended up, all five of them gathered around the kitchen table, with Naruto regaling them with tales of her adventures-leaving out the unpleasant details-she knew her family would be worried if they knew the truth of some of what she'd seen and done.
The blonde enjoyed herself, especially Inari's reactions which were always amusing-when she told him the tale of how she'd helped fend off Orochimaru and his revived corpses.
It was a good story to get great reactions, by the end of it Inari was wide eyed and awed.
The day only got better from there, and it was spent with her family.
Naruto had enjoyed her time traveling and getting stronger but she had to admit that it was nice getting the chance to just sit and relax-there was no one to fight here, no need to train for a few weeks-though at Inari's pleading she agreed to take the boy out to practice kunai throwing the next day.
When the evening came Naruto headed to the now cleaned up home that she'd grown up in, and she curled up in her old bed and slept, and the next day she headed back to Tsunami's house, and she'd spend the days with her grandpa and Inari, laughing and messing around with her younger cousin, teaching him how to aim until he could at least hit close to the center of a still target and helping the old man with his building.
Time passed, a few days turned into a week, which turned into two weeks and then three-then a month had passed.
Of course Naruto was going to go home, but she had time, it wasn't as if they couldn't contact her if they needed to, she hadn't seen her family in so long and she knew that she'd get caught up in the excitement of things in Konoha and she'd likely end up not seeing them for another few years and they deserved better than that, so she'd spend a little while with them, it would hardly do anyone any harm, she hadn't given an exact date that she'd come home after all.
Her birthday came and passed-they had a comfortable little celebration, a cake and presents.
Inari had made her a carved fox necklace that she knew she'd cherish, Tazuna had brought her a book on sealing, and Tsunami and Kaiza had gifted her a whole new set of clothes-since admittedly she was growing out of the clothes she'd had-they'd been brought over a year earlier and she'd hit a bit of a growth spurt in her months in wave.
She had to admit that as much as she wasn't into fashion she did like the new outfits, the sleeveless kimono tops that Tsunami had picked out were cropped, stopping just above her belly button, black shorts that stopped just above her knees.
And she had black fingerless gloves that extended to just above her elbows.
It looked good on her she had to admit, and it made it easy to get at the seals that covered lots of her skin.
It was a week after her birthday that things went wrong.
When Naruto went to her old home to get some sleep after a long day of helping Tazuna, as she made her way inside she noticed that things were out of place, a photo was missing from the wall-one of her and her mom taken when she was still a little baby, she knew the story-Tazuna had managed to snap the picture just as Naruto had reached her mom during her first steps, and Rin was reaching out, a wide eyed look of joy on her face, to counter the little girls determined look. And it was gone.
She swallowed hard, tensing as she slowly crept through the house, checking in each room downstairs before she inched her way upstairs, heart pounding in her chest.
When she got there she moved straight to her mothers room, flinging the door open.
And on the bed that hadn't been used since they'd left she could see the way the sheets were crumpled from someone sitting on it.
And next to the spot that someone had sat, was a familiar orange mask.
