Mariko's first impression of her nephew brought a smile to her face. He practically radiated energy, though she could already see that some of that was due to the damage that his chakra coils and other metaphysical organs had undergone diue to a combination of being a half Uzumaki and a Jinchuriki. Well, it was nothing that she could not correct. To her gross inspection, his seal looked superb, though of course she would examine it in more detail later, when her husband arrived in Konoha as his seal would be more a matter for her husband to fully evaluate. She had unsealed a sofa from Kushina and Minato's things. Hiruzen sat on one end, she sat on the other. Hiruzen directed Naruto to sit. Mariko patted the couch next to her and gave a motherly smile to Naruto. She was also reaching out to him with her chakra, sending waves of comfort and peace. She saw him reacting to it.
Hiruzen spoke, "Naruto, I have brought you here to your new home, for a very special reason." It truly delighted the 3rd Hokage that he could finally do something for Naruto. He saw Mariko's secretary Kana, already unsealing some furniture and items and preparing several rooms. Life was returning to the Uzumaki home, earlier than he had planned. He saw Naruto sort of processing the information, and he saw a tentative but real smile, not his usual façade smile. Naruto came forward but he did not sit.
"Hey Old Man! Are you bullshitting me!"
Naruto was about to be exposed for the first time to motherly and especially Uzumaki supernatural abilities. Mariko's hair began to float in the air… "Naruto Uzumaki! You will never express that foul language in my presence again! Believe it!" And she gave him a gentle bop on the head.
Naruto shuck laughed and for the first time focused on the pretty red-haired lady sitting on the couch. He did not know why, but he just felt comfortable with her. He rubbed his head and give a childly cringe, "Ok, ok lady…you don't have to go hitting a guy, ya know!"
Mariko had to hold back a smile; she knew that she needed to establish motherhood to him first. She just raised an eyebrow.
"Ok, Ok, I promise that I won't drop bad words in front of you lady." And then he said louder, "And Naruto Uzumaki always keeps his promises, believe it!".
He turned back to Hiruzen, "So gramps, is it true can I really live here? This seems like too nice a place for a guy like me, ya know."
"Well, I don't know about being too nice, but this home belonged to your birth mother. And now it belongs to her sister, your aunt sitting next to me, Mariko Uzumaki."
Well, they all expected it, but it was both amusing and sad to see at the same time. The village outcast, who should have been treated by everyone as a hero, dropped back onto his butt. Sitting on the floor, just thinking about. He responded robotically as Mariko reached and picked him up, effortlessly sitting him on her lap. She rubbed his back gently and patted his knee. After a few more moments he looked up at her. She spoke, yes Naruto, I am your aunt, Mariko Uzumaki. Your mother, Kushina was my baby sister. And I have finally been able to return here to the mainland and travel to Konoha to meet and take care of you." The small boy, who had already learned to dump his grief and pain deep inside, turned into her and hugged her deeply. After a few seconds he began to cry, and cried for the better part of 10 minutes, with his head on Mariko's shoulder.
Mariko spawned two shadow clones and asked if someone could escort them to Naruto's home so that they could pack up his things. Hiruzen gestured and Inoichi Yamanaka led the clones out. Thank the gods for shadow clones. Mariko thought no one could appreciate how beneficial to the Senju and the Uzumaki, as well as a couple of other chakra juggernaut clans, this jutsu was.
As the boy regained his composure, she placed him on the couch next to her, but she still held his hand. Kana brought several trays, with tea, juice and snacks to the area. Naruto looked like he was about to dive in, but then looked at her for approval, already falling into the role of a son. She nodded and he pounced on the food like a pack of wolves on a crippled moose.
She kept the talk light as she asked some questions of and about Naruto. She knew that she would probably have to have an extensive talk with the Hokage about Naruto and his status with the village, due to being a Jinchuiki. While they chatted, she was using her sensor ability to analyze Naruto more closely. She could already detect some of his problems. The major ones seemed to be that his chakra coils were contorted and out of alignment, his tenketsu were also offset from his chakra network, several of his gates were cracked open…hmm it looked to be primarily due to only being half Uzumaki, compounded with the bits of bijou chakra being absorbed into his system, pushing to expand his own chakra capacity. He would need some work, though mostly the standard medical ninjutsu needed for those who had side effects from being part Uzumaki.
"Kana, why don't you let Naruto pick out a bedroom." She lifted Naruto off her lap. "Afterward, lets order some food, lots of it." Once Naruto had run off, with a giggling Kana behind him, gods above and below, that woman still had her girlish spirit, Mariko spoke to the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, can you book us a procedure room and a hospital bed for tomorrow. I need to begin resolving some issues that Naruto has, the sooner the better, Kana can take care of most of the other business that I need to do before the rest of my clan arrives."
"What treatment does Naruto need?" She left out the signs of neglect, malnourishment, and abuse, those, for an unprotected Jinchuriki, were par for the course. "Well, you probably know that Uzumaki have some special issues with our genetics?" Hiruzen nodded. "We have found over the centuries, once we had split off from the Senju, that while we gained certain bloodline advantages, we lost some of the health flexibility of the Senju. What this means in simple terms, is that when an Uzumaki has a child with anyone who is not a Senju, there are a range of known issues that arise in the chakra system. Over the centuries, we have come up with solutions to most and work arounds to the few we can't solve. In order for Naruto to… well let me put it this way. Yes, Naruto has psychological problems due to how he has been treated. But he will have other problems due to several issues I have already sensed. Tell me, does he have trouble reading stuff? Is he also hyperactive, beyond the degree of a normal kid?"
"Yes, Lady Mariko. Those of us who care for him noticed these things, though admittedly we thought that it was due to growing up as he has."
"As I said, he has psychological issues. We can help him with those in the long term, most of those will be fixed with a normal family loving him and proper discipline. But we need to fix the other issues."
Hiruzen gestured and an ANBU agent appeared as if from nowhere. He instructed her to proceed to the military hospital and make the requested arrangements.
The next day, Mariko let Naruto sleep in. He looked adorable in his toad night cap and blanket. She let her anger at his mistreatment and the state he was in simmer itself into nothingness, as Ninshu taught, never empower an emotion by thinking upon it. Just let it be to judge it properly and use it as a source of power not to make decisions. She herself prepared breakfast. There were only four of them in the house now, so she could cook easily for the group. She did load up a bit on the meat. She knew that she had to start getting more protein into Naruto's diet. If not for the Fox inside him, his malnourishment might have led to permanent damage. But all that the Fox could do was keep healing and only mildly cover for the lack of proper nutrition.
After breakfast, she took Naruto into the yard and watched as he engaged in some light training. A more formal assessment would come once his treatments had progressed. He needed a lot of work. His accuracy was off, and he almost had to throw wrong to accommodate that. But he had good power. After a light spar, she could see a total lack of high-level skill even as one his age should possess after 2 years in a Ninja academy. He had power and stamina and he never gave up. Afterward they meditated together. She could sense him fidgeting. "If you keep fidgeting, I will have to show you a secret jutsu of motherhood, so as you would have a reason to fidget".
Naruto thought, 'wow that might be why Shikamaru is so afraid of his mom. Still, it can't be that bad.' Of course, he did try to concentrate and stay still. He could feel his chakra and all. But even the sounds of birds around him made him want to get up and go look at them…and so fidgeting resumed…
"Secret ninja art, motherhood release:" ….
"Naruto opened his eyes and gulped…"
… "Great Tickle Jutsu!" and Mariko pounce on him… began some ferocious tummy, neck and under arm tickling. Within a couple of moments, she had him breathless and laughing on the ground.
"Sto..ple..stop haahah…"
After a quarter of an hour, she relented. Once he caught his breath, she helped him up, gave him a gentle head bop and told him to go shower and get dressed. She herself proceeded to do the same. She had several standard outfits sealed away on special seals permanently on her skin. But she chose to dress in her standard mednin attire, wearing her formal kimono over that. It was nearing 10am when she and her small entourage left for the hospital.
Arriving there, she entered with Naruto. The man she had met yesterday, the Jonin commander, Shikaku Nara, was waiting for her. He had a folder with several documents. After some brief discussion and signatures, she had essentially claimed Naruto as a member of her clan. Once that was done, no formal legal adoption process was needed, just a formal notice from the Uzumaki clan head, which was her, that he was being adopted as her son. Shikaku had very helpfully prepared that. She recalled that the Nara's were purported to be a clan of high intelligence.
She leaned down a bit and hefted Naruto up so that he could see her sign the document on the top of the Nurse station counter, which was his head height. "Naruto-kun, when I sign this, this means that I have adopted you as my son. You are safe now, ya know."
"He practically leaped out of her arm and into the air, "I'm gonna be the best dam…err sorry darn son ever, ya know!" and pumped his fist in the air.
"I know".
From Shikaku, "Lady Uzumaki, the Hokage has also asked if you can attend tomorrow's Clan Council meeting. Both to begin formal acceptance of the Uzumaki clan into Konoha and to…express your adoption of our existing Uzumaki clan member."
"Let Kana know the time that I need to be there and please provide her with the rules for the Clan Council sessions."
"Of course, Lady Uzumaki."
"And please call me Mariko. Not only are we both Clan heads, but we will be working closely on issues in the future I suspect."
"Thank you, Mariko, then you must call me Shikaku. Perhaps after you and your clan are settled you and your family can come to our compound for a welcome dinner."
"That sounds wonderful Shikaku."
It did not take long to Naruto to be registered and then get to the procedure room. He was settled on the procedure bed. "Mo..um is it ok to call you mom?"
"Of course, Naruto. I would be honored to share that title with your birth mother."
"Mom, is this going to hurt?"
"I won't like to you Naruto-kun. There certainly will be some pain and discomfort, but nothing extreme, ya know. I am after all a great mednin, believe it!" They smiled at one another. "Now lay down." She turned to the others in the room, including, unbeknownst to Naruto, an older mednin who had treated Kushina and was considered an expert on Jinchuriki and two regular doctors, the units head nurse and Naruto's assigned nurse. "What I am going to do is prepare and initiate a detailed chakra scan of his body. That should take a couple of hours. I will put him to sleep during this, because otherwise he will fly out of bed like a coiled spring due to boredom. After that, I want to send him for conventional medical tests like a CT Scan of his head, neck, spine and major joints, full blood works, including arterial bloodworks and a spinal tap."
The medical staff nodded to her. "Now Naruto, I am going to put you to sleep for this part. Because I need you to stay perfectly still and some of the procedures will have a little pain." She could see Naruto flashing some fear and then his naturally exuberant nature reasserting itself. She bent over and kissed him on the forehead, then pushed chakra to her fingers and traced a series of symbols on his forehead… "Sealing Art: Pain Free Slumber". Naruto quickly fell asleep.
Several hours passed as Mariko completed her initial scans. She then handed Naruto over to the medical staff for the conventional tests, but she sent Kana with him to ensure that he was not mistreated. She wanted to head over to the Ninja Academy to meet with his primary sensei to get an assessment of where his education stood.
After a brisk walk to the Academy, accompanied by her bodyguard Shinjo and, as she sensed, a squad of ANBU hoping along on the roof tops, she arrived. She spoke to the secretary at the entrance, who said that Iruka was in class, and after looking at the schedule, said he was almost due to release the class to a break before afternoon taijutsu practice. Mariko followed the given directions to Iruka's classroom and waited a few more moments until she heard Iruka tell the class that they can prepare for their break that would begin in 5 minutes. She knocked on the door and waited a moment before opening it.
Iruka looked up and a smile emerged from his face. Having heard yesterday about the Uzumaki return, and quickly thought of the benefits to Naruto, he had been happy since then. "Ah Lady Uzumaki, I have been expecting you."
That got quite a few students attention. Naruto had been absent for 2 days in a row. Not completely unusual for him. However, the many children of clan heirs in this class had almost all been given a lecture on Mariko Uzumaki, the soon to be established Uzumaki clan in Konoha and had all at the very minimum been somewhat interrogated on their relationship with Naruto. The common gist of the discussions was that Naruto was now to be considered one of the clan children and while they could personally have any relationship with him that they want, like any other clan child he was to be protected against civilians.
For Naruto's several friends, like Choji and Shikamaru, they were happy and in the case of friendly rivals, like Kiba, the notion of Naruto finally having a pack pleased him. Hinata of course was happy for her crush. Ino was intrigued. She had been raised with psychology from an early age and the intellectual part of her was curious how having a clan and a family (she had in fact been unaware that Naruto was an orphan until the prior night) would change him. Sasuke Uchiha just kept staring out the window. Shino was of course curious. Naruto was rather fun at times if unruly and like Shikamaru, Shino had noticed an undeveloped potential for intelligence in Naruto that manifested as a form of cunning.
Mariko and Iruka engaged in conversation, "Umina-san, I am pleased to meet you. The Hokage tells me that you have Naruto's best interests at heart."
"Eh, its nothing Lady Uzumaki."
"Call me Mariko please Umina-san"
"Well then you must call me Iruka" The two adults smiled pleasantly at one another. Mariko sensed only good emotions towards her son, though there was a hint of anger in the past, true anger, not anything current or motivating in him.
"Thank you Iruka. I know that you are busy now as your class must head out to their taijutsu practice, so we can have a more extensive meeting about Naruto with a bit more planning sometime in the next couple of days. I mainly wanted to catch up to you now for two reasons. Firstly, to say that Naruto will miss classes for between two to four weeks. He is undergoing medical treatment to correct some issues due to him only having one Uzumaki parent and to undo the years of malnourishment and abuse he has suffered from a large percentage of the population. Secondly, I would like to get work assignments for him. I have a feeling that our clan will need to tutor him extensively to correct his educational neglect, not at your hands Iruka, the Hokage himself reassured me that you are largely responsible for working to correct that neglect." Mariko reassured him.
Iruka at first wondered why Mariko was so blunt in front of Naruto's classmates, but after a moment he saw underneath the underneath. As part of reestablishing the Uzumaki clan as a clan of Konoha, both overt and subtle messages needed to be sent. Naruto was in the class with all the shinobi clan heirs and many children of prominent civilian clans and companies largely because of his own importance as the Jinchuriki and Iruka sensed whom at least one of his parents was. That of course was confirmed as Kushina Uzumaki now. Even though he was from the next generation, he remembered the legends of the Fiery Red Hot Habanero, starting as a student, much like Naruto and then extending to the battlefield in the Third Great Shinobi War. Iruka strongly suspected that Kushina had been the Jinchuriki for the Nine Tails before Naruto. Iruka suspected to a large degree of confidence that many of these children would be interrogated multiple times about anything related to Naruto by their clan heads and parents.
"Of course, Mariko, I will prepare a summary and bring it to you myself, so you know where he stands academically and what we will be covering over the next 4 to 6 weeks. We can arrange a more detailed discussion when I bring that to you."
"Thank you Iruka. May I address the class briefly?"
"Of course, Mariko. By the way, can I visit Naruto in the hospital?"
"Yes, surely, just give it two days. He will be mostly unconscious or when awake, highly annoyed by the testing I need to fully diagnose him and determine his plan of treatment."
"You will be treating him Mariko?"
"Yes. Though I have a reputation in war, I am in fact an accomplished mednin, ya know. After the Second Great Shinobi War, Tsunade's example convinced me and my oldest sister to dedicate ourselves to medical ninjitsu and also to begin an extensive mednin program in Uzu. In fact, from what I understand, while our mastery of sealing is the main reason for why Uzu managed to hold out against the combined forces of three invading Shinobi villages for as long as my home did, our mednin program was a strong second, allowing our shinobi to return to the walls repeatedly before the village was overwhelmed. In fact, Iruka, perhaps you might consider for your class a history lesson Uzu before Naruto returns to make his transition easier, ya know."
"That's actually a good idea. I will be brief however with it. While we have some decent historical material, perhaps after you are settled, we can have a formal meeting with your Clan historians and set up the Konoha Uzumaki's standard lesson for the shinobi clan curriculum?"
"An excellent idea Iruka. My husband should be arriving with the rest of our clan and retainers and materials between one and two weeks from now. It will probably take a solid month to get somewhat settled in so we can begin putting together our proper clan grounds and establish ourselves. So, during that time period I think...yes. Approach my aide Kana in about a month and she will help you set it up. Now let me address these wonderful children." With a nod to Iruka who gentlemanly offered her a hand up, she rose and stepped forward two steps to center herself in the student's attention.
"Now, hello students. As I am sure some of your parents and clan leaders have already told you, I am Mariko Uzumaki, former Kage of Urobunegakure, ya know. Urobune is a hidden village founded on a place we call the Isle of Glass. My father …was the Kage of Uzushiogakure. He sent me and my younger brother and second youngest sister to lead an expedition to establish a branch of our clan on a large island called the Isle of Glass deep in the Ocean. The reasons for that are beyond what I would like to tell you. Honestly, we had no plans to return, but then I found out my baby sister Kushina Uzumaki, who had been sent to Konoha as part of our exchange program had a living son. And the Uzumaki do not abandon our own. So, I handed leadership of Urobune over to my brother and led an emigration of part of my clan to found a branch of our clan in Konoha, so we can properly support my nephew."
One of the students, Shikamaru, who Mariko thought must be a Nara and who felt intensely intelligent and even somewhat concerned about Naruto, raised his hand to ask a question. Mariko acknowledged him. "Lady Uzumaki, why couldn't you just take Naruto to your homeland?"
"Ah a good question Shikamaru." Mariko had anticipated this question. The Hokage was not going to lift his restrictions on discussion of Naruto being the Jinchuriki, even though most of the adult population knew it, until the Uzumaki were present and established as a power in Konoha. Mariko had already had some side discussion with the man she now suspected was Shikamaru's dad, Shikaku, about the Hokage using the reestablishment of a powerful clan to begin seizing power back from civilian elements. Mariko was fine with that. One area of disagreement in terms of population structure between Uzu and Konoha was the fact that Konoha has a such a large civilian population which was not tied to any clans, let alone the shinobi clans. "Shikamaru, I believe that I have met your father, Shikaku, who has been very helpful, ya know?"
"Yes, Lady Mariko, that is my father."
"Anyway, there is an answer to that question. Many of your parents know it though they are not allowed to speak of it but that should change, as with the return of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto's status, for which he has suffered will no longer be tolerated in a disrespectful fashion."
A blond girl, sitting beside what is clearly an Uchiha raised her hand. Mariko acknowledged her. "What's you name dear?"
"Ino Yamanka, daughter of Inochi Yamanaka who is the lord of the Yamanka clan."
"Thank you dear, I have also met your father, ya know. He seems like a good man."
Ino bowed, "thank you lady Mariko. If I may ask a bit more about Naruto's condition, is he really going to be ok? I mean don't take this wrong, but Naruto has often been very annoying. I kind of understand that he was dealing with stuff but that does not excuse his behavior. But even with all that, I don't think anyone wants Naruto to be really sick or anything. How did he become so sick?"
"Well dear, thank you for your well wishes for my son. And before anyone asks, while Naruto is technically my nephew, my husband and I are adopting him as one of our children. The reasons he is so ill well…um, well some of those reasons will remain hidden for now, but some of you may have noticed that most people in this village do not treat Naruto very well. However, one reason that he has some problems, including being somewhat hyperactive, ya know," the class giggled a bit, "is because Naruto is only half Uzumaki. Now those of you in shinobi clans know this but essentially, we have been bred for hundreds and hundreds of years to maintain, develop and enhance the special traits in our families correct?" She saw many of the student's nod. "We Uzumaki have our own special traits. One of them is the nature of our chakra and chakra networks, ya know."
A young girl with pink hair raised her hand, Mariko acknowledged her, "Can you explain the difference Lady Mariko?"
"Well, some of it is a little complicated, but firstly Uzumaki have a lot of chakra. Naruto for example, well the only person in the village right now with more than him are me and the Hokage." She saw astonishment and disbelief on many faces. "Naruto in fact has something like 3/5 of the chakra capacity of a full blooded Uzumaki of the same age. Uzumaki also regenerate chakra very quickly, though no where nearly as quickly as our Senju cousins. If that were all, it would not be so bad, but Uzumaki also have what would have to be described as dense, clumpy chakra. If you want a technical description, Uzumaki chakra is variably dense at multiple points in multiple chakra streams. Naruto like his mother and I or anyone in our immediate family have pretty much the most clumpy, dense chakra an Uzumaki is known to have. And where it is made most worse, His chakra coils and tenketsu are not Uzumaki enough and not in proper alignment. So, his dense, clumpy chakra smashes his way through his chakra network, sputters out of his tenketsu and makes him very moody and hyperactive. It makes chakra control exceedingly difficult for him and influences him to be moody and hyperactive."
One of the students, a brown-haired civilian girl whose mother was a well liked doctor in the shinobi hospital sputtered out… "that sounds horrible, how can you even approach something like that?"
Lady Mariko smiled, "Well like any clan who has had to deal with preserving their genetic legacy while also not becoming inbred and stagnant, we have come up with work arounds and for lack of a better word, repairs. As a mednin, once we are settled into the village, I will be joining both the shinobi and civilian hospital system to apply some of our Uzumaki techniques towards helping the whole village." Shikamaru and Shino were the only students who noted how well Mariko changed subjects. She went on for a bit about medical ninjutsu and her personal love for it. One of the final questions from several of the students involved if they could visit Naruto. She said that he would probably be in the hospital for at least 5 days, but that they could visit him starting 3 days hence. Afterwards Mariko let every know that she had some more business to attend to and said her goodbyes.
Mariko decided to handle one more significant matter of business. She had sensed it from Kushina's house. There was an Uzumaki mask shrine nestled into the corner of the property. This was highly likely why Kushina had purchased the land that she did. Mariko did not know but she thought it likely that Mito Uzumaki had established the shrine. That shrine had to be secured. The gods only know what masks were in it. Once they had approached the property, she followed her sense deep into the forested grounds. She could already see how she would want some of the landscaping done. Once out of site, she accelerated in a series of body flickers, Orinjo following her. Mariko stopped when she entered the clearing. She concentrated her chakra more intently, working on actively scanning the area and the shrine. Detecting nothing, she gestured at her waste and pulled out a large scroll from a storage seal. She knelt and then rolled it out. An array of seals could be seen across it. Mariko flicked a small cut ono her thumb with a chakra scalpel and using her blood and chakra charged the array in front of her. She did not have time to thoroughly investigate whether Kushina or Mito had placed any protective seals on the place, so she would simply seal the whole area up and let Anzo process it. Its not like there was a rush on the issue and what good was having a seal master for a husband if not for this type of stuff. She thought that his lazy ass could do with some extra work with a laugh.
Using her chakra to target the seal projections, she laid an array of concealment, repulsion, and barrier seals over the shrine. After a few moments of concentration, where before there appeared to be a somewhat dilapidated shrine, there now was a wild grove of trees and shrub. That done, Mariko returned to her new home and began to deal with the pile of paperwork for while that had begun to accumulate, before spawned two shadows clones to finish it and heading back to the hospital to work with Naruto. She wanted to spend several hours going over the first days tests and beginning to plan his treatment…
NOTES -
Well you can probably see how existing canon is going to explode.
- Naruto is going to have a family and proper shinobi training for his last three years in the Academy
- He's also going to know how to deal with his large chakra pool and attendant issues
- Mariko is a borderline Tsunade level mednin with a master in the fuinjutsu specialization of medical fuinjutsu
- Mariko and her husband are both Kage level. There are enough Uzumakis and support members of allied clans to make a noticeable difference for certain events. Konoha for example will be getting a massive upgrade to its protective seals.