Chapter Seven: Come With Me, The Time Is Right
Naruto followed Jiraiya into the town of Tanzaku Quarters. The town itself was very lively, having many gambling opportunities and quite the amount of fine women. Jiraiya intended to exploit the latter very much.
Of course, he and his godson had another objective. Once the mission to the Land of Spring (formerly Snow) was completed, the Third Hokage had told Jiraiya and Naruto to find Tsunade. It was time for her to return to the Hidden Leaf.
That is, if they could convince her. Naruto was still pissed that such a prominent ninja left her home village because her lover and brother died in a war.
What a crappy excuse. Seriously? She had to get away from all of that? He had personally seen his allies cut down in front of him. Surely it should have ended up strengthening her resolve.
Jiraiya suddenly trailed away from Naruto, who was using Sage Mode in an effort to locate Tsunade's chakra. "Where you going, Pervy Sage?"
Jiraiya's tongue was out and lolling, causing him to pant like a dog. "My breast senses are tingling, brat! We're going to find Princess Tsunade's beautiful pair!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow. That didn't really offend him as much as he thought it would.
"Perhaps you're a super pervert now," the Kyuubi suggested. Naruto snorted to himself. Super pervert now? He was already a super pervert.
Maybe not quite as open about it as his godfather though. He still admired the female body, of course.
Miraculously, after a few minutes of searching, Jiraiya actually found Tsunade and her apprentice. The blonde woman was gambling and slightly drunk, cursing her luck as she did so. The woman next to her sparked a memory...
"Ah, Shizune," Naruto muttered. Jiraiya nodded to his godson and rolled his tongue back into his mouth.
Then he made a show of smoothing his clothes and brushing his hair before puffing out his chest and gallantly striding up to Tsunade. "So, Princess Tsunade, nice to run into you here."
The woman in question slowly raised her head up from the gambling table and turned it to Jiraiya. Then she snorted and turned back around. "Go away, you old pervert. I told the old man before, I'm not going back to the Hidden Leaf."
Jiraiya frowned down at her. "Come on, Princess. Don't be like that."
Tsunade snorted again. "Get out of here, Jiraiya. Leave me be."
Jiraiya shrugged and backed off. "All right, your turn brat," he said to Naruto.
The blond boy was drumming his fingers on a nearby table, trying to comprehend how fucking idiotic Tsunade was being. "You know," he started, "I'm fucking tempted to bring out nine tails of whoop-ass and level this town."
"What about the citizens?" Jiraiya asked.
Naruto turned his gaze to his perverted godfather. "No one will die. I'll just cause a bunch of property damage. Unless you want people to die, in which case I'll just blow the area up."
Jiraiya face-palmed. "Brat, try to talk Tsunade into going back to the Hidden Leaf."
Naruto shrugged. "Fine. Hey!" He yelled, "Legendary sucker! Get your ass out of that chair and back to the fucking Hidden Leaf!"
Jiraiya palmed his face again at how loud his godson was being. Everyone turned to him, including Shizune and Tsunade. "No, seriously," Naruto continued, "You have ten seconds or I'm blowing this fucking place up."
Shizune walked up to Jiraiya and whispered, "Why does he swear so much?" Then she frowned. "Is he your apprentice? You shouldn't be corrupting him, Lord Jiraiya."
Jiraiya chuckled. "He might have been my apprentice, but he's much more powerful than anyone here. He's at least as powerful as I am. About the swearing..." Jiraiya scratched the back of his head. "I have no idea. I think he thinks it makes him sound funnier."
"All right, time's up," Naruto said. Then he inhaled deeply...
Jiraiya paled. "Holy shit! Get down, everyone! Hit the fucking deck!"
Since Jiraiya was famous as a perverted writer, everyone hit the deck, except for Tsunade.
Tsunade ended up being blasted away by an insane amount of wind that was emitted by Naruto's open mouth. The whirlwind was spread and then thinned to encompass a smaller area. It wouldn't do to blow away innocent people.
The Tsunade-sized hole in the background was totally exempt from that.
Shizune rose from the ground, dusting herself off. She took a look at the controlled amount of destruction and gave the nonchalant blond boy an incredulous look. "What?" he said. "It's not like anyone was hurt."
"Oh, but you're going to be hurt soon, brat," Jiraiya remarked, rising from the ground and dusting himself off in the process. "You seriously think your parents would allow this to happen?"
"Don't you pull the parent thing on me! My mom would fucking help me kick Tsunade's ass."
The perverted sage smirked. Yeah, that sounded like Kushina all right. Apparently personalities remained the same. Maybe.
Most of the people in the casino had run out, afraid of a ninja smackdown. Tsunade barreled through the wall, face flush with anger. "You brat! I'm going to kill you for that!"
Naruto made a 'blah blah blah' motion. "Yeah, I've heard it all before. Anyway, bar pupils go!"
Whoosh. Tsunade was sent flying again as she attempted to smash the blond's face in. She rose from her position on top of a destroyed table and stared at the boy in shock. "What the hell? You can use nature chakra?"
"Duh. Bar pupils mean anything to you? Anyway, I'm the son of Minato and Kushina as well as the jinchūriki of the Kyuubi. I've soldiered through hate, loneliness, and complete fucking incompetence." Naruto put down his last flash card. "Are you convinced yet?"
Tsunade gave him a deadpan look. "Was that a prepared speech?"
"Kind of. I mean, where I came from, I didn't have any of that. I was treated more or less as a weapon and I fully accept that view. However, it doesn't make me blind to your incredible stupidity. Seriously, you fucking left the Hidden Leaf because Dan and Nawaki died?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow and then looked at Jiraiya. "Jiraiya, did you tell him about me?"
The sage guffawed. "Nope! He's from an alternate reality and suddenly appeared in this one! He's the most powerful ninja I've ever met aside from his father!"
"You expect us to believe that, Lord Jiraiya?" Shizune asked.
"Yeah, no one expects it," Naruto said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Ah, how about this."
Naruto bit his thumb and slammed it into the ground. An old frog popped up. Or toad. Whatever.
"Hey, old toad. What's hopping?"
"I am not amused," Fukasaku muttered. "What did you want, Naruto-boy?"
Naruto pointed at the big-breasted blonde nearby. "Can you tell her I'm from an alternate timeline, reality, or universe?"
The toad chuckled dryly. "Princess Tsunade, he's from an alternate timeline. You don't have to believe him, but he can use nature chakra and enter Sage Mode to its fullest, as well as use multiple S-rank techniques. That is a bit too much for a normal thirteen-year-old, is it not?"
Then the elder toad dismissed itself.
Tsunade sighed, accepting Fukasaku's words. "So you're from an alternate timeline. What happened there?"
"Dan and Nawaki never died. You ended up marrying Dan and having a son and daughter. The son ended up having the Wood Release bloodline limit, as did Nawaki," Naruto explained. "Both of them helped me control my inner demon's powers."
Tsunade had a forlorn look on her face. She sighed to herself. "At least they survived in another world. I should be happy about that. Did Dan ever become Hokage?"
"He succeeded Jiraiya."
"WHAT!" Tsunade choked out. "He became Hokage?"
"Yep," Naruto said, examining his fingernails. "After my dad died sealing the Kyuubi in me, Jiraiya took over the seat. He kept it for years until Dan took over."
Jiraiya snorted and Tsunade nodded. "I guess I should go back to the Hidden Leaf..."
"Fuck yes you should!" Naruto shouted. "Seriously, you think your lover and brother would like seeing you like this? They would want you to remain in the Hidden Leaf and help people. That would be a fulfilling life, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," Tsunade said, smiling. "It would."
"Fucking finally," Kurama muttered. "She's going to hurt you though."
What? No she's-
Tsunade punched Naruto through a wall. "That's what you get for launching me through a wall, brat!"
VvVvV
=Land of Waterfalls=
"Huh," Naruto remarked, "I never thought I'd see that waterfall again."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "What, the Hidden Waterfall? You've been here before?"
Naruto grunted. "Yep. Some mission regarding their Hero Water. What a lame mission."
The pervert shrugged and entered the cavern. A ninja on guard duty let both of the ninja enter the pool nearby. After some swimming, the two elite ninja entered the Village Hidden by the Waterfall.
"Wait, why are we here again?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow at Jiraiya.
"Negotiations. I don't need to train you, remember? You could kick my ass if you wanted to. Besides, Waterfall's supposed to have a jinchūriki. Go sniff around." The pervert then left off to destinations unknown.
Such as, for example, hot springs. And maybe a bar, too.
The blond jinchūriki groaned to himself and entered Sage Mode, increasing his sensing radius exponentially. Sure enough, he found the telltale signs of a Tailed Beast chakra within the village.
Eyes snapping open, Naruto vanished from view, speeding towards where the chakra was supposed to be. After a few moments, he found a teenage girl with mint-green hair, tanned skin, orange eyes, and a set of clothes that designated her as important. She was being yelled at by a store owner.
Naruto's first thought was "fuck yeah, orange". He second was "fuck no, discrimination".
"Hey, what's going on here?" Naruto questioned as he walked forward to where the jinchūriki girl was being yelled at.
The fat store owner turned to Naruto and growled. "None of your business, foreigner. I'm dealing with a problem on my own."
"Oh? A problem?" Naruto tilted his head as the female jinchūriki's eyes flicked towards him. "Why are you yelling at this girl? Did she steal something?"
The man growled louder. "This isn't a girl. This is a demonic thing that the village won't remove. Why she-"
Frankly, Naruto was irritated enough before he heard the man's actual whining voice. So he knocked him the fuck out. The Hidden Waterfall wouldn't have an ANBU force or anything strong enough to make Naruto sneeze anyway.
"Are you all right?" Naruto asked the girl, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She couldn't have been more than a year or so older than him.
"Why did you do that?" She hissed. "Now they're going to pin this on me!"
"Who's going to pin what on you? jinchūriki are people too." Naruto frowned at her shocked expression. "I'm a jinchūriki too and when people treat jinchūriki wrong it makes me angry."
"You won't like you when you're angry."
That was horrible. I love myself enough to like myself when I'm angry.
The girl closed her mouth. "You're a jinchūriki?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yep. Naruto Uzumaki, Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi at your service," Naruto finished with a bow and a flourish. "And you are the Nanabi jinchūriki."
"My name is Fuu. How did you know that?" the green-haired girl asked, giving him a curious expression.
"My demon and I are on good terms. I can completely use my demon's power. Honestly, I could level this place if I wanted to, but that's bad business." Naruto smirked at her as she stared at him. It was funny, really. It seemed like she was contemplating asking him to do that.
"Could you really blow this place up for me?"
Oh, she actually did ask him that. Not like he didn't want to do it, though.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why? Not that I won't do it, but why?"
Fuu stared at the ground, shuffling her feet nervously. "I... I hate this village. They treat me like an animal. I live off of food I steal and meat from the animals in the surrounding forest. I can't get sick because of the Tailed Beast within me, but my life is miserable... I'm miserable!" she cried, tears beginning the leak from her eyes.
Naruto was immediately near her, wiping the tears off with his thumbs. "Hey, calm down. Crying never solves anything. If you really hate this place, you can come with me. I won't let them do anything bad to you."
He wasn't very surprised that Fuu leaned into his chest and gave him a crushing hug. The blond knew that some girls liked bad guys, but if you weren't an asshole any girl would take a liking to you.
Well, most girls. Some were... different.
Like Anko. Insane snake-lady with a bondage fetish.
Naruto Body Flickered to the giant tree in the middle of the village to escape the notice of prying eyes. Fuu had stopped crying and sniffed softly before looking up at him. She seemed faintly embarrassed at breaking down like that.
"If I do blow this place up, then we're going to have a war on our hands," Naruto muttered. Hey, he would still blow the Hidden Waterfall up (seriously, he would), but there were always consequences to taking rash actions.
"I don't really want this place to blow up," Fuu responded. "Shibuki was nice to me... maybe he'd let me leave with you."
Naruto had absolutely no idea who Shibuki was, so he nodded like he knew the answer. Well, he did know the answer. If Shibuki said no, Naruto would make him say yes. Therefore, he knew what the answer would be; it would be yes.
Kurama burst out laughing in the blond's mind at Naruto's silly logic.
"I'm from the Hidden Leaf and we're allied with you guys anyway, so that fact might serve to help convince him. But," Naruto said, sitting down on the ground, "I want to speak to the Nanabi. Has it told you its name yet?"
Fuu gave him an odd look. "I thought Nanabi was its name."
"All right, I guess it hasn't given you its name. Come here for a second," Naruto said, beckoning her closer. She sat down on the grassy soil next to him. He leaned back on one of the massive tree roots before hugging Fuu closer to him.
He could tell Fuu was unused to human contact as she tensed when he brought her closer to his chest. "This is going to feel a bit strange, but I'm going to enter your mind."
"How?" she asked quietly, still slightly stunned at the close contact between her and Naruto.
Yeah, Naruto likes hugs. Who doesn't like hugs, anyway?
"Just a little trick I learned from my inner demon," Naruto muttered. Then he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, tapping into Kurama's chakra and enveloping Fuu with it.
The world swirled around them as they lost consciousness.
When Fuu awoke, she noticed she was in the familiar, dark cavern that designated the Nanabi's prison. There were spires rising out of the ground that formed makeshift bars that prevented the beast's escape. The perpetual buzzing of its wings echoed throughout the cave.
"Gloomy place, huh?"
Fuu started at Naruto's voice and then gave him an annoyed look. "Did you really have to scare me?"
Naruto shrugged. "Sorry." Then he walked up to the spires. Although he did hear Fuu's sharp intake of breath, he didn't really fear anything from Choumei. It wasn't as if the bug could kill him.
Really.
"Hey, Nanabi-bug! Are you in there?"
The loud buzzing of the bug's wings suddenly stopped and there was a soft thump as the bug landed. "Sage..." it rumbled in a strange tone.
"Sage?" Fuu asked, turning to Naruto in a confused manner.
Naruto chuckled to himself. "Yeah, I'm kind of the successor of the Sage of the Six Paths. Yes, he existed."
"That's... kind of cool..." Fuu said in an awed tone of voice.
The blond rolled his eyes, laughing softly to himself. "Please don't go fangirl-ish on me."
Fuu scowled. "Of course not. Fangirls are the scum that plague kunoichi everywhere."
"Sage... why have you returned?" the Nanabi spoke again.
Naruto stopped his mirth immediately and looked up at the spires. He made a few seals and thrust his hands out, smashing the spires, much to Fuu's renewed shock. The Nanabi floated out before folding its wings and perching in front of Naruto and Fuu.
"Introduce yourself, Nanabi. You and Fuu will get along better if you explain yourself." Naruto folded his arms and gave the giant beetle a stern look.
The Nanabi turned to its host. "I am Choumei. You are Fuu, my host."
Much to Naruto's surprise (most jinchūriki weren't too cordial), Fuu bowed to the giant beast. "Nice to meet you... again?"
Naruto raised his hand and snapped his fingers, changing the cave into a sea of white. "All right, much better. Now Choumei has some room to fly. Treat your inner demon with respect and equality. Remember, they're the ones that are really trapped. Hash out some kind of agreement and get to know each other more."
After some time of listening to the demon and its host speak, Naruto and Fuu exited the seal and reawakened in the real world. A small amount of time had passed and the sun was only beginning to sink in the sky.
Naruto made to move, but Fuu didn't. "Can we stay like this?" she asked.
"You like the hugs, don't you?" Naruto asked with a sly smile.
Of course she liked the hugs. Hugs were nice and warm. They were gifts of affection. Or should be gifts of affection.
"Yes..." Fuu muttered snuggling deeper into Naruto's chest. "Thank you..." she sleepily said, closing her eyes and drifting off.
Naruto smiled to himself. Helping someone was totally its own reward.
VvVvV
Fuu was latched onto Naruto's side, glancing around worriedly as they entered the Hidden Leaf. Naruto and Jiraiya were heading back to pick up an additional mission and to reconnect with their peers.
Jiraiya wanted to reconnect with Tsunade's chest. Naruto just wanted to sleep in his own bed for once. The problem was that his apartment was ridiculously small and running out of room.
So he was also going to claim his father's mansion, if his father did actually have a mansion in this timeline. Seriously, he was the Uzumaki heir! Where the fuck was his damned inheritance? The Hidden Stone could kiss his ass for all he cared.
"All right, brats," Jiraiya began, "We're here. We gotta get Fuu registered and settled. I'm still surprised Shibuki let her transfer villages."
Naruto snorted. "Shibuki only wanted the best for her. You were sleeping when their council brought Akatsuki up, Damn fools. I'm tempted to blow them up." Fuu tightened her grip on Naruto's arm as a way of saying thanks.
"Besides, the Nanabi and I are getting along better than ever," Fuu said. Naruto grinned at this. Hell yeah, easing tensions between Tailed Beasts and hosts everywhere.
Well, everywhere where jinchūriki need it. Which, admittedly, might not be so much.
Naruto had been helping Fuu draw on the Nanabi's power and had also told her of his heritage and his superpowered overpowered-ness. Oddly enough, she accepted the alternate timeline explanation readily.
The trio, garnering many strange looks, entered the Hokage Tower. They went to the Hokage's room and saw the Third, along with Tsunade, looking through random amounts of paperwork. "Ah," Hiruzen began, "I see Shibuki's ward has come. I received a letter from him on the nature of your transfer."
"Make her a Hidden Leaf ninja already, old man." Naruto slightly flinched when Tsunade raised a fist to address his lack of respect.
Yes, women are scary.
So they went through the process, signed her into the village, and gave her a Hidden Leaf headband. The probationary restriction normally reserved for transferred ninja was lifted. Naruto was just that good. That, and a jinchūriki would be a terrible choice for espionage.
And then Danzo walked in, thumping cane and all. Holy shit, what the fuck happened to his signature? Why the fuck do I feel a Wood Release ability on him? Why the fuck do I feel... Oh... OH...
"That's kind of disturbing," Kurama mused.
No one really was surprised that Danzo immediately knew that Naruto, Fuu, and Jiraiya were in the village. Spies everywhere, Tailed Beast chakra can be sensed, etc.
"Hiruzen... do you really think that a village would give us a jinchūriki? Such a thing would tip the scales and possibly start a Fourth War."
Naruto coughed. "Two jinchūriki right here, but fine. Cool, keep talking."
Danzo glared at him before returning his attention to the Third. "I propose a program in which we can be better... equipped in case of outbreaks. I," he said, motioning to himself and then to Fuu, "Will take the Nanabi for training or for extraction."
Judging from Fuu's trembling, Naruto could see- well, feel- that she was scared. And he was pissed. "God damned fool, stop treating jinchūriki like they're only worth the Tailed Beast within," he snapped at the bandaged man.
Danzo ignored him. "Well, Hiruzen? It would do well to be better prepared."
"That won't be necessary, Danzo," Hiruzen said, casting a sidelong glance at Naruto and the trembling Fuu. "Naruto-kun here is more than well-equipped to train Fuu in the training of her Tailed Beast's chakra."
Danzo growled. "She is not from this village and as such, would be a liability."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Fuu, let's go. We already got everything checked out and I don't care what Danzo tries. If he does try anything, I'll kill him." Then he and Fuu vanished courtesy of a wispy Body Flicker, leaving the four elder ninja to argue amongst themselves.
They appeared on the street, much to the surprise of some people. "All right, we need a new house. My old apartment sucks," Naruto murmured. Then he smirked to himself. "I'm jacking my dad's supposed mansion. It's much bigger and will probably have all sorts of magical trinkets you can mess around with."
"What about Tayuya?" Fuu asked, cocking her head. Yeah, Naruto had told her about Tayuya and his... pleasurable activities with other women.
Needless to say, Fuu was amused. She did read a part of the perverted books Jiraiya wrote.
It was not because of Naruto's insistence. Nope. He totally did not want to do the nasty in various, kinky positions.
Some of them required extremely precise chakra control, but those Icha Icha stories are for another time.
So Naruto shrugged. "We'll drag her with us too. Now," he said, grabbing Fuu's hand and dragging her along. "Let's find us a feisty redhead."
The two walked up to Naruto's apartment. Rather than knock or unlock the door, Naruto kicked it open, causing extensive damage to the lock and to the hinges.
"What the flying fuck!" was Tayuya's response to the explosion of splinters. "Holy shit, shithead. You're back? And with some other girl? Fuu, right?"
Fuu nodded. Previously, Naruto had flashed over to where Tayuya was, surprised her, and told her about the green-haired jinchūriki.
Her only response was, "Damn, who the fuck has mint-green hair?"
After some actual face-to-face introductions between Tayuya and the new girl, Naruto told them what he wanted to do. Mainly, break into the Fourth's mansion that was filled with magical trinkets.
The Fourth was a seal master though, so his mansion was sure to be filled with traps to prevent greedy people from stealing his magical trinkets. Luckily, Naruto was also a seal master. A damn good one, too.
So he had told Tayuya to pack up her crap. Fuu's stuff was in a storage scroll Naruto had on-hand, so he went ahead to the Fourth's mansion to crack the gate open and to find the magical trinkets. Yes, he knew where the Fourth's mansion was located.
When he got there, he immediately began to examine the intricate seals engraved on the gate, bricks, and door. Hell, there were some on the windows too.
As he began cracking the seals via chakra overload in specific places, Team 8 popped up. "Oi, Naruto! What are you doing here in front of... the Fourth's mansion?"
"Cracking it open," Naruto flippantly replied. There was a thunderous boom that caused Team 8 and Kurenai to jump. Then the gate swung open as if on oiled hinges.
"Holy shit!" Kiba shouted. "Dude, this is freaking breaking and entering!"
"Yes, and I advise you to stop, Naruto," Kurenai said, walking forward.
Naruto snorted. "You couldn't stop me if you tried. I'm only claiming my damned inheritance. Fucking old man and his mansion. I don't even think he lived here."
Wait... inheritance? Shino adjusted his sunglasses in shock. Kiba's jaw dropped. Hinata tried to stop herself from fainting since Naruto could now be considered... err, suitable dating material in her dad's opinion? Son of the Fourth or something like that. The Hyuuga could be pompous assholes with a glare that could melt stone.
Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "You're the son of the Fourth?"
"Hell yeah I am. Progeny of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze at your service," Naruto replied, pointing to his blond hair that was eerily reminiscent of a certain Hokage.
"Holy shit!" Kiba managed to blurt. "How the hell did we not know about this?"
Naruto shrugged. "My mom was the last of a dying clan, apparently. The Uzumaki were sealing masters like I was. How do you think I'm getting into the Fourth's house? Plus, my dad kind of wrecked the Hidden Stone's face during the last war. The Third wanted to protect me. Make sense now?"
Kiba nodded hesitantly. Naruto walked up to the door and opened it. There was a deafening clanging noise and Naruto was flung back, his body smoking. Hinata gasped at his state.
Naruto grunted to himself. "Fucking annoying seal."
"Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Hinata said. She congratulated herself on not stuttering.
"I'm fine, but this might freak you all out."
Overpowering chakra surrounded Naruto, turning him into an amorphous, dark-red thing with four solid, flailing tails. Kurenai quickly stood in front of her students, making them back away. "Naruto, what are you doing?" she yelled.
Naruto, in his initial Version Two state shrugged, although it came off looking very strange considering his lack of actual definition. "Seal needs a dense application of Tailed Beast chakra. Specifically, the Nine Tails. And don't give me that look, I don't care who knows."
Then the Kyuubified Naruto burst forward, slamming straight into the door. There was a crack and then a shatter as the seal accepted Naruto as the Fourth's legacy before exploding. Luckily, Naruto had ditched Kurama's cloak before the shattering noise attracted additional people.
Several ANBU had been watching what was happening, but they didn't care. At all, really. In the end, ANBU were freaking useless. They never did anything useful at all except for die.
Naruto smirked to himself. Fuck yeah, super mansion was his. Then he turned around to the gaping looks on Team 8 and Kurenai. "Oh, right. I'm the jinchūriki of the Nine Tailed Fox. Now that you know, ask Kurenai for more information."
He entered the mansion laughing like a mad man.