Chapter 6 – The Long Road Home

"Kaaakashi! We should engage in a youthful contest of who can patrol the caravan the fastest…"

"What was that Guy? I was keeping an eye on that bluejay nest over there."

"You are always so attentive to our surrounds Kakashi, it's so cool."

Guy and Kakashi continued their back and forth. They had become used to this; their friendship expressed via their jonin quirks. They and their support teams of chunin had met the Uzumaki caravan when it had been on the road for over a week. At first, they had been concerned that they would arrive to find a caravan suffering from repeated besiegement but instead they found a happy group protected by more shinobi in terms of numbers and power than a small army. So, it was easy to work out a patrol pattern in coordination with the forces led by the legendary Uzumaki Anzo, the Mountain Breaker.

Kakashi and Guy as elite jonin had separate single shinobi missions related to their expertise. They were performing covert evaluations of the Uzumaki and those accompanying them. Guy's mission related to categorizing their health, attitudes, and approach to being shinobi, as well as their overall capability. Kakashi's mission related to evaluating them in terms of threat level i.e., to determine if they were a threat to Konoha rather than an asset. Kakashi was happy that they seemed on all levels, well all levels except for the party hard brawler fests that occurred every night when they stopped to camp, to be assets. He was especially happy because of his own mission given to him by Jiraiya-sama regarding the effect on Naruto.

It still angered Jiraiya, Kakashi, Senju Tsunade, Yamanaki Inoichi, Inuzuka Tsume and even elder Koharu the horrible approach to Naruto that the Hokage had chosen. The group had come together over Naruto after it was discovered that he had been kicked out of the orphanage and had been living on the street for over 5 weeks before an incredibly angry Ichiraku Teuchi carried the starving, dirty, smelly, neglected boy into the Hokage's office through the window that very few were granted the privilege to use. Teuchi had not been seen using his shinobi skills since he had retired shortly after making chunin at the end of the Second Great Shinobi War. While it was known that he kept in practice, he had become disgusted with war, especially after the destruction of Uzushio. While he was not an Uzumaki, he had friends and family who had lived there and died.

Teuchi had not been happy with the Hokage's response and approach, so he had gone to his jonin sensei, Utakane Koharu. Koharu herself had observed the growing imbalance between Danzo and Hiruzen. Essentially while Danzo was falling deeper into Darkness, Hiruzen was falling deeper into the light. Formerly the two had a great sense of balance and their friendship, rivalry, and willingness to work with the other plus their devotion to Tobirama-sensei had made for a great partnership that saw Konoha through two wars and all that it entailed.

Koharu had called a private meeting with the group of shinobi and Uchiha Mikoto, Kushina's best friend and Naruto's actual godmother. She had been forbidden not only from adopting him but from supporting him covertly or even having anything to do with him. became convinced that was a great part of why Mikoto had come to support the coup, she wanted justice and a better life for her best friend's child.

It was in that secret meeting that each person's individual dealings with Hiruzen, and to a lesser extent Danzo, regarding Naruto had been brought together. A clearer picture came about. Hiruzen did indeed love Naruto like a grandchild. But he also, like Danzo valued Naruto as a military asset. However, whereas Danzo wanted to weaponize him as a tool, Hiruzen wanted Naruto to weaponize himself as a Hokage and be the ultimate protector and servant of the village. This of course blinded Hiruzen to the flaws in his isolation of Naruto from all of what he perceived as 'political' or 'selfish' influences. This was compounded by Hiruzen not understanding Minato's plan regarding having the population see the jinchuriki as a hero. Minato had planned public education on sealing, the nature of the bijou, the concept that the Kyuubi had not willingly attack Konoha either time or other factors. Hiruzen simply released Naruto's status to the public, thinking that Minato had faith in the people of the village to understand his intent.

Danzo for his part, after Hiruzen's ill-advised release of Naruto's status as the Kyuubi Jinchurki, had exploited it to spread misinformation about Naruto's status. He had also arranged for those ANBU like Kakashi or Yugao, a student of Kushina's, to be out of the village on special missions more often. Then he had arranged for Naruto to be kicked out of the orphanage while those ANBU were all out of the village on long term missions. Why Danzo thought this was a good idea, Koharu never knew. All she did know was that once Naruto was brought to Hiruzen, the only reason that Danzo lived that day was because Jiraiya found out within an hour of Naruto being brought to Hiruzen. Hiruzen's anger and desire to kill Danzo was tempered as he restrained and prevented Jiraiya from going after Danzo, his foundation, all of Root and anyone who was in his political circle. Hiruzen had to send Enma to get Lord Fukasama and Lady Shima to help stop the Toad Sage. Hiruzen's fiery anger melted into a cold hate for Danzo that still simmered. It was the last straw for Hiruzen who began gathering evidence to move against Danzo and actively countering him politically.

Hiruzen had also made Jiraiya swear a blood oath that he would not tell Tsunade directly or indirectly what had occurred. Luckily Teuchi had come to Homura. She had put together the meeting and the group had coordinated facts. It was realized that extraordinarily little could be done to help Naruto directly. This of course probably influenced Mikoto to favor the coup. The group restrained Tsunade by putting together as subtle a plan as possible to help Naruto as they could get by Hiruzen and Danzo. Food was the most difficult but providing Teuchi with secret funding to feed Naruto and to protect him from the boycott that supporting the boy generated helped. Extra funds being snuck into his Gamachan via the special seals that Jiraiya built into them. Naruto always had a Gama-chan once Jiraiya gifted it to him. And the group now had a way of always tracking Naruto, providing him money in the form of Gama-chan never emptying fully and even somewhat being able to detect certain dangers.

They also monitored his building. So, when the landlord cut off his power, heat and water, well they had work arounds, like insulating and heating seals hidden within the walls. Third parties black mailing the landlord to keep the water and electricity flowing and so on. The goal was to get Naruto through the Academy, to Kakashi as his sensei. Kakashi would then repair the damage from the Academy. Koharu herself could then intervene and help the boy with non-shinobi matters such as improving his reading and overall education. And the Jiraiya would take him as an apprentice.

Kakashi was glad that the returning Uzumaki essentially solved their problems. Naruto would now have not only a family but a powerful clan. The most powerful clan in the village once they arrived and settled. And not even the Hokage or Danzo could stop them.

Guy had noticed that as the caravan traveled to Konaha it took a more roundabout route than might otherwise be warranted. At first, he thought that it was for security reasons. Guy and Kakashi had both been briefed by Anzo and his team on much of the intelligence that the Uzumaki had gathered prior to their return. The caravan was seemingly avoiding certain possible threats.

But as they traveled Guy had noticed groups of Uzumaki shinobi leaving the caravan and returning after various periods of time. They returned with additional people. Many of whom had various shades of red hair. Guy suspected with a high probability of it being the correct conclusion that the Uzumaki caravan's route had been specifically designed to recover either Uzumaki agents who were in the field prior to their arrival or Uzumaki who had survived the fall of Uzushio and made it into the diaspora.

Guy did not know it, but his conclusion was 100% true. The landing and route chosen were enough to recover most of their field agents who had scouted for the return and as many of the survivors of Uzushio who had remained on the continent. All told, Anzo expected that between recovered Uzumaki and married in relatives or close allies, the caravan's population would grow by over 100 members.

Later as they made camp for the night, made easy using more of that highly youthful Uzumaki fuinjutsu, Guy settled in for his evening meal. This evening was a tasty grilled pork and vegetable mix, that came in a slightly spicy sauce. The Uzumaki, as usual set up their cooking fires around a large area protected by fuinjutsu barriers and divided into two. One for adults and the other for children. Guy rather enjoyed the Uzumaki customs of essentially partying hard every night, starting with food and then basically have family wrestling matches. It was a good way to keep stress under control.

He watched amusedly as a tall, lanky looking teen with pink hair made his way into the brawl of the youths, tentatively shoving his way around as Uzumaki folk music rang out around them. And then a young girl whom Guy had determined was irrepressible and most youthful came forward and knocked him on his ass. She stood over him, hands on her hips as her red hair, not quite as long as an adult's, flared and floated with her chakra. She wore a youthful red battle kimono over some training armor. A white haori with red and dark blue lighting floated over the kimono.

"I am the awesome Uzumaki Honoka! Who are you gaki to come into my pit, dattadane!" she roared.

The lanky teen answered, somewhat but not nearly as loudly, "I am Uzumaki Turo. I just joined the caravan today."

The girl answered. "Is that all? Are you a true Uzumaki or just some random guy with pink hair and the wrong clan's name?"

The boy looked over to where he had entered the pit and Guy saw an older woman, of an age to be his grandmother, smile encouragingly at him and gave him a pumped fist sign. Then he turned back to Honoka and shouted as he leapt up and tried to tackle her, "I am Uzumaki Turo!"

Honoko responded in glee, "then show us what you got!" as she caught his tackle and with insane agility for a pre-teen, flipped him over in a full body Supplex. Guy smiled as the new Uzumaki lad was welcomed into his clan. Guy returned to his food as he heard another older Uzumaki yell out, "Dammit it Karin, remember to seal away your glasses before you jump into the Pit!"

The next day, Guy and Kakashi were walking beside Anzo. They were about four days out from Konoha. Guy and Kakashi had spent some time coordinating their observations. Kakashi asked, "So Anzo-sama, how many more Uzumaki are there to recover before we return to Konoha."

"Caught on to that did you?" Kakashi and Guy nodded. "Had we not returned, we had slowly been gathering them along this route for an extraction. There are two more small groups that should return today. After that, if the timing is right, the day before we arrive at Konoha, there should be three people. One of our agents, with an older couple who had been living about ten miles outside of Konoha. They all would have been gathered up, escorted secretly to a one-time harbor and our fleet would have picked them up. With these all recovered, as far as we know, there are less than 10 Uzumaki remaining elsewhere on the continent. One of whom I will have to discuss with your Hokage. She has been taken into a new shinobi village, Otogakure. And that village seems problematic."

Kakashi, "We have had some very sketchy intelligence reports on the formation of Oto, but we have not been able to find it. And only extremely limited contact with representatives making some preliminary contact. We will appreciate any info that you have to offer."

"Well, that's another benefit to our return. You can thank the gods that we discovered Uzumaki Naruto."

Kakashi, more than most was thankful that the Uzumaki had returned. He and Jiraiya-Sama had had a plan to work around the Hokage's mismanagement of Naruto's life. One they no longer had to bet everything on.

They continued casual conversation for the rest of the afternoon into evening. As had been mentioned, two small groups of Uzumaki, totaling seven people, joined the caravan. The trip to Konoha continued and as they drew near, three more Uzumaki joined the caravan, as it wound its way slowly but steadily towards the main gates of Konoha. In the distance, Anzo could see his beautiful wife standing there, holding the hand of what must be the young Naruto, his adopted son. Standing next to them was a welcoming group of Konoha shinobi and civilians, led by his old friend Sarotobi Hiruzen. The return of the Uzumaki Clan to Konoha had finally begun.

Notes

- - In this fic, Ichiraku Teuchi is a retired chunin. He retired as a chunin sometime after the end of the Second Great Shinobi War and the destruction of Uzushio, after becoming tired of war and violence. He had friends who lived in Uzushio.

- - Tsunade still returns to the village every two to three years briefly, mostly to transfer funds from the protect reserves in the Senju compound to her external accounts. In this story there are still some civilian Senju living in the less sealed parts of the compound, but they are mostly like 4th or 5th cousins of the main branches. And none are shinobi. But Tsunade ensures that her distant cousins have needed access to clan resources and maintains the protective seals on their areas.

- - I have not settled on whether I am making Naruto to be Tsunade's grandson in this fic. Its something I like to include in most of my fics. If she is his grandmother, she does not know it. She thinks of him as one of those distant Senju cousins that she maintains some interest in. But she is still deep into the mental depression over her grief at this point, just maybe on the way up out of it and not at the bottom so to speak.

- - Utakane Koharu is being portrayed somewhat less harshly than the limited exposure in the manga an anime portray. I was inspired by how, unlike how Danzo would have acted, when the 4th Great Shinobi War started, she put everything aside, dove right in and helped prepare the village for war. She was also Teuchi's jonin sensei in this fic.

- - It might not quite fit the timeline but in most of my fics, Uzuki Yugao was either a genin for Kushina as a jonin sensei or a special apprentice to Kushina (in those Kushina was a member of ANBU. Not sure which way I am going with it in this fic. While its like 75% fanon, there is a perception due to retcon that Neko was also more protective of Naruto. So, it makes sense to me to make her have a relationship to Kushina.

- - I am keeping a deliberately vague timeline on the exact ages of Mariko and Anzo. Anzo is old enough to have been an accomplish jonin in the Second Great Shinobi war, where he earned the nickname The Mountain Breaker. Mariko was either an older kid in the Academy who graduated during the war (earlier in it) or a teen chunin as it ended. She and Anzo have an arranged marriage. It was arranged when she was young, but they did not actually marry, ceremonially until Anzo returned with the rescue fleet from Urubune to save the Uzumaki refugees in the fall, Mariko married Anzo (they did not consummate until years later, no icky stuff in my fics). Anzo, as the most powerful Uzumaki shinobi swore to protect the clanhead too. They were friends and eventually did come to love one another. Most of their children were born decades later, as Mariko dedicated herself to training as a both a combat and mednin and having to take the burden of clan leader very young.

- - Anzo is from an Uzumaki branch clan, that for the most part are not shinobi. They are engineers and funny enough musicians.

- - Uzumaki Honoka is based on a character from episode 222 of Naruto Shippuden. She does not appear in the manga. In the episode, without outright saying that she was an Uzumaki, they confirm it every other way. I think that this was done to keep compliant with Kishimoto and his continuous reveals about the Uzumaki, not that he did anything much with them. In any case, this Honoka is from an Uzumaki branch clan, I have not completely worked out her background. Without being specific, she is similar to Naruto in terms of a burden that they bear HOWEVER she is not a Jinchuriki. Her burden relates to a role her branch clan plays in the seal-based defenses of Uzushio and now Urubune. Honoka had to come on the trip due to adding Konoha to those defenses. She is being cared for not by her parents who remain back in Urubune, but by undetermined Uzumaki on the trip. She is almost like a girl Naruto in terms of personality. Though Naruto is more intelligent due to his dad's genes. She is not Naruto's romantic interest. I will tell you right now, Naruto's "ship" is either Karin or Ino. She will be one of Naruto's best friends and will help him deal psychologically with being a Jinchuriki. Honoka is also the "alpha" of her ages Uzumaki. She has the most Kushina like personality (yes much of Kushina's aggressive personality is fanon).

- - The pink haired Uzumaki is not related to Sakura, nor is Sakura and her family related to the Uzumaki. Pink is just what happened as that kid's dad married someone when they were refugees. Not all the Uzushio refugees made it to the ships, a noticeable amount had to go inland.

- - I am side stepping the Hinata problems by a) Hinata is not the first born, Hiashi and Hitomi (no name ever given, so I am going with Hitomi), b) Hitomi is not dead therefore Hiashi's heart never hardened. c) Hinata is still naturally shy, but she is not stunted. D) Hiashi's son and heir despises the enslavement of the branch family. And given that he is on his way to being an S rank shinobi, the Elders of the Clan know that their time is numbered. Hiashi's son also loved his uncle and was outright advocating for war rather than to let Hiashi or Hizashi die.

- - Neji is still an asshole due to what happened to his dad.

- - I am making the verbal tick a full Uzumaki thing. To keep it simple, since I only know fanon manga/anime bad sub Japanese (lol), females use dattabane and males use dattabayo. It is uttered when emotions fire up

- - The Uzumaki anger/chakra hair thing is my canon.

- - If you are wondering about Hiruzen's depiction, to be perfectly clear. Hiruzen due to training and having had to live with the experiences and consequences of 3 shinobi wars and associated shenanigans instinctually commoditizes people and things in terms of military value. He knows this and tends to work against the instinct ie he works for peace and to allow Naruto to become a shinobi by choice, etc. But he cannot get it out of his decision-making process because its too ingrained, so when he makes decisions like not letting anyone adopt or care for Naruto, he instinctively concludes that they will weaponize him.

- -Yes Mikoto was Naruto's godmother. Kushina was Itachi's godmother. She was intended to be Sasuke's. Kushina is not coming back to life in this one. Fugaku was an asshole and Mikoto and Fugaku had a troubled marriage. After reading some interesting takes on the Uchiha massacre and Mikoto surviving in some of those. I have decided to make the "coup" a more complex issue. I don't know if Mikoto or any other Uchiha survived yet. You will note above that there is speculation that Mikoto supported the coup in part because of what the village was doing to Naruto. That is not the case, Mikoto did not support the coup. That is all that I will say for now. If, however I do not use this in my narrative I will outline the actual events surrounding the Coup and Massacre for you readers