CHAPTER ONE
"Hey Kiba, who's that? He has those same stripey-things you got on your face."
The wild boy stopped petting Akamaru at Naruto's loud question, glancing over his shoulder in the direction the blonde was pointing. The two of them were in the yard of the Academy, where their class was learning kunai throwing. Their little group of troublemakers (though it was somewhat debatable as to how much Naruto was really a part of the crew) had been hanging at the back of the playground, nearer to the entrance gate, where a small crowd had formed.
In front of the Academy stood the Hokage himself, clad in his long cloak and signature hat, his own office joined to the school building. Next to him stood some old people Kiba only vaguely recognized as the advisors that usually hovered around his leader whenever he made a public appearance. They were joined by some of the Academy's staff and senior teachers. In front of them was a striking collection of people. Three children, around Kiba's own age if somewhat older, stood together, all of them with straight backs and wary looks.
The one in the middle and the front, designating him the leader of their trio, was a lithe boy with snow-white hair, green eyes and two red dots in the middle of his brow. Kiba thought he had a very regal appearance, somewhat like the Hyuuga famously had.
He disliked the stranger already.
Standing to the left of said stranger waited a tall, heavy-built boy (though he was positively anorexic compared to a healthy Akimichi) with spikey orange hair, while the boy on the right side of the arrogant looking one was the smallest of the trio, sporting light-brown, almost grey-ish hair and striking pink eyes.
While the orange haired one certainly looked like he could hold his own in a fight, the pink-eyed one seemed like a wimp in Kiba's (obviously expert) opinion.
Standing behind the three boys were a man and a woman. The woman was certainly pretty, with indigo hair, dark eyes and a fair face. She was clearly a shinobi herself, though not one that Kiba recalled ever seeing before. She also didn't wear a Konoha headband, he noticed. When Kiba's eyes landed on the man Naruto had indicated however, he frowned deeply in confusion.
"What? C'mon Kiba, the hell is wrong with you? You know 'em or not?" An impatient Naruto called out, now getting the attention of Shikamaru and Choji as well.
"I... do? Maybe... he looks familiar somehow..."
"Huh? Well tell us then!" Naruto said, excitement in his voice (which was… pretty much his standard voice), Shikamaru now studying the newcomers with a searching gaze as well (which was… also pretty much his standard gaze).
"That guy… pretty sure that's my uncle." Kiba said.
"You have an uncle?" Choji asked surprised around a mouthful of chips, the scent wafting over towards Kiba's sensitive nose (BBQ flavor this time, which was... also pretty much the standard smell that hung around the rotund boy).
"Or had. He might be dead for all I know. This guy has the marks and everything though, so he's definitely an Inuzuka, but I've never seen him before. And I'm pretty sure Mom had a younger brother, which would make him the right age, I guess..."
"Kiba, your marks are just tattoos: anyone can get them. Naruto here can get them. I know they are important to your clan, but if someone wanted to pretend they were a long-lost Inuzuka..." Shikamaru cautioned the wild boy, who waved his concerns away with a clawed hand.
"Nah, he has the smell of Inuzuka. Our ninken don't smell like your normal dog. 'Cause they're awesome." Kiba refuted, getting weird looks from the other boys.
"You can smell him from here? I knew the Inuzuka are famed for their tracking abilities, but still..." Shikamaru mused, while Naruto began jumping up and down in place.
"Hey! Hey Kiba! What do I smell like!?" the blonde yelled excitedly as Kiba turned towards him with a frown and a vindictive gleam in his eye.
"Like you should shower more often." The young Inuzuka immediately shot back, causing Naruto deflate as he went red in the face.
While mean, it wasn't untrue: as always, Kiba could smell several days' worth of off-brand ramen and cheap laundry detergent on the hyperactive blonde. Though that was perhaps a bit harsh, all things considered: at least on some days, the ramen would be of higher quality.
"Tch. I showered two days ago you mutt…" Naruto muttered under his breath, turning his back on the grinning Inuzuka as Shikamaru and Choji shared a glance, before they both surreptitiously checked their breath.
Shaking his head, Shikamaru elbowed Kiba in the side before he and Naruto could start a brawl, indicating Kiba's maybe-uncle who was apparently saying something to the assembled teachers and staff. While they were too far away to hear what was said, all the boys noticed the way that the Academy staff blanched at the wild man's words. Given that many of them were hardened active duty or ex-shinobi, whatever it was that the would-be Inuzuka had told them must've been spectacularly and creatively violent indeed.
"Alright, so the smell is harder to fake. Still, your uncle? The Inuzuka clan is hardly small. How do you know he's your uncle and not just some long-lost relative or halfblood or something? Is there anything particular you remember about the guy?" the Nara offered, while Naruto was standing on his tiptoes behind the fence, his blue eyes narrowed as he stared kunai at the small group of people opposite the Hokage.
"You okay Naruto?" Choji asked, tearing open a new bag of chips as the blonde nodded back distractedly.
"The Old Man is nervous. He doesn't show it, but I can tell. He's never nervous…" he muttered under his breath.
Meanwhile, Kiba had shrugged his shoulders in response to Kiba's prodding.
"Could be some rando. Maybe. I don't know much about my uncle. I probably never even met him, since he left such a long time ago. And mom doesn't like talking 'bout him. Pretty sure it's 'cause he did something bad. Really bad, like betray the village bad or something. I wouldn't even know she had a younger brother if it wasn't for a faded family picture she keeps in her bedside drawer."
"I see… wait, what were you doing in your mom's bedroom?" Naruto said, shooting a suddenly sweating Kiba a suspicious look.
"Oh, that's not important! Look over there! The Hokage is speaking with my uncle and those other strangers!" the wild boy said with a nervous laugh.
Thankfully, Naruto was an easily distracted person and Shikamaru, for all his laziness, couldn't help himself when presented with a mystery. Choji couldn't care much either way.
"Wonder why he's back after so long. And why the Hokage is talking with him. You think those other people are his family? The hair and eyes are all different, but stranger things have happened." The young Nara mused to a relieved Kiba, who shrugged.
"I dunno. I just know that guy looks like the pic my mother has of her little brother. Though he doesn't look so little anymore."
It was true, the man that was supposedly Kiba's long-disappeared uncle was the tallest guy any of the children had ever seen, standing as tall as Choji's dad, and as broad at the shoulders (though of course slimmer at the waist). He had the same triangular red marks on his cheeks that Kiba and his mother and sister had, the same slit-eyes (though Hana didn't have those) and the same wild, spikey dark-brown hair (which Hana also didn't have) which the man let flow down to the small of his back. All in all, there was definitely some family resemblance there. But his face was heavy-set and even more animalistic than even the wildest of the Inuzuka members, with thick brows, a rough-looking beard and lower canines that poked up from a thick lower lip. His hands, which were covered with fingerless gloves with a heavy metal plate on the back, were clawed and even his ears were pointed. He was clad in a heavy-looking trenchcoat with the sleeves rolled up with a tanktop underneath and rough cargo pants with a pouch strapped to his left leg.
All in all, he looked more like a beast-man or demon out of a tale instead of an Inuzuka shinobi.
"Scary looking guy, your uncle." Naruto said in a small voice as they kept observing the crowd.
The other teachers and staff looked somewhat weary, but Kiba was surprised to see the Hokage and his advisors seemingly surprisingly pleased instead, the aged Sarutobi even shaking Kiba's uncle's clawed hand.
"You sure the Hokage is on edge Naruto? They look pretty friendly to me." Choji voiced the other boys' doubts, but Naruto vehemently shook his head, his tone adamant.
"I know the Old Man. Those old geezers next to him look like they just won a year-supply of Ichiraku's, but the Hokage is definitely on alert. He only ever looked like that when he caught me snooping through the top drawer of his desk. He doesn't trust Kiba's uncle." The blonde said authoritatively and the other children accepted his judgement.
For all his trouble-making, the blonde's close relationship to the Village leader was hardly a secret, if profoundly strange to his exasperated classmates.
"You were caught looking into official state documents? No wonder Lord Third looked pissed. Honestly Naruto, it's a miracle you haven't turned up in T&I yet." Shikamaru drawled, only getting a dismissive shrug from the blonde.
"That's the weird part: there was this secret compartment, but there were no papers inside, just a little orange book. Dunno why the Old Man was looking at me like I had a kunai to his balls."
"Naruto!" Choji exclaimed somewhat scandalized, almost choking on a chip, though the blonde just shot him a weird look.
"What? He's very fond of those balls. Polishes 'em damn near every day! I mean, I probably would too if mine were as big and shiny as his are."
"Naruto… are you talking about Lord Third's crystal balls which he uses for his famous Telescope Technique?" Shikamaru eventually realized as Naruto looked at him in surprise.
"Uhm… yeah? Why? What balls were you thinking of?"
"We-… you know what, don't worry about it. Seems like the kids are about to be sent to the Academy." The Nara quickly diverted the conversation, and the ever-hyperactive Naruto easily let himself be distracted as the four boys continued observing the large group of strangers.
Even though the Hokage and the enormous Inuzuka had quietly been conversating and shook hands once more, it seemingly did little to defuse the tension amongst the Academy staff, that still regarded the man with the same apprehension as when he had first addressed them. For their part, the little family (if they were a family?) looked uncomfortable and highly alert themselves as well. When the Hokage stepped aside and indicated one of the teachers, the woman engulfed the pink-eyed one in a strong hug, while Kiba's uncle sunk to a knee, placing a hand on both the white and orange haired boy's shoulders, clearly instructing them on something important, though from this distance none of the troublemakers could make out what.
As the three children made their way over to the teacher (who shot the intensely staring adults a nervous look before leading them inside the Academy), Shikamaru spoke up.
"I recognize that guy. He teaches the class above us. Hinata's cousin is in that year."
"Who's Hinata?" Naruto asked, getting a dumbfounded look from the other boys.
"She's in our class, dumbass. The heiress of the Hyuuga clan?"
"Well, she's never talked to me, so how was I supposed to know?" Naruto asked loudly, sounding offended.
"Forget about it, what are we going-… oh crap, my uncle's coming this way!"
"Wait, what-?"
Turning around, Naruto found himself staring up (and then up some more) as a large figure loomed over the low fence surrounding their school yard. Kiba's uncle and his lady friend and the group of troublemakers stared at each other in silence for a long moment, before the beastly looking man spoke up, his voice low and gravelly.
"Well… hello there, Kiba. You probably don't recognize me. You were still a baby last I saw you. Well, ahem. I… this is more difficult than I thought. I'm your uncle, Inuzuka Hamaru. Younger brother of Tsume, your mom? I don't know if she talked much 'bout me, or showed you pictures… though I probably don't look much like them anymore, huh?" the man trailed off with an self-conscious chuckle, while the woman next to him shot him an amused glance, though her expression quickly became frigid once more as she regarded the group of boys.
"Wow… for such a scary looking guy, you sure don't talk like one." Naruto spoke up, once more showing off all the social graces that were to be expected from the village pariah.
"Naruto! You can't just talk that way to a stranger!"
"What?! It's true!"
"Just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it out loud!"
"… but you just said it out loud too-"
"That's different!"
As Naruto and Shikamaru kibbled, Kiba coughed somewhat uncomfortably, having picked up Akamaru and holding him protectively close to his chest. He was too young to actively consider it, but Naruto's words had triggered something in the animalistic boy's mind. As an Inuzuka, he was more keenly aware of body language than most and while he thought nothing of it, the blonde Uzumaki had accidentally made a very good point.
Why was a man, apparently scary and powerful enough to cower a whole group of experienced shinobi, and an Inuzuka no less, suddenly acting awkward around a group of preteens? The question briefly rattled around in Kiba's hindbrain before he remembered that this was the brother to the woman who had scared off her own husband.
If Hamaru had shared his entire childhood with her… yeesh.
It was the wrong conclusion of course, but there was simply no way for the eleven-year old to possibly know that.
"Hi, uhm… uncle Hamaru." He said instead, briefly hesitating on the title of familiarity.
The question and mistrust in his voice was unmistakable, and to Kiba's surprise he saw genuine hurt flash across the large man's rough-hewn expression before it disappeared again. Then again, they were all shinobi here (or, well, they would be in a year or so), which meant that they could be convincing actors when needed.
Though that was somewhat debatable as far as Naruto was concerned.
Feeling somewhat awkward under the intense gazes of the adults, Kiba gave a small cough as he continued.
"Uhm, yeah, mom doesn't talk much about you, but I saw a picture, once. You, uhm, yeah you look a lot different. A lot different. What happened to you?" Kiba asked, only then noticing the absence of something very important, something that every Inuzuka should always have with them.
"Where is your ninken? Wasn't he called Shiromaru or something?" he spoke up, even standing on his tiptoes to glance up and down the street while Naruto and Shikamaru kept bickering behind him.
This was very strange. The now-named Hamaru smelled overwhelmingly of ninken (and specifically ninken, not just dog or animal), so much so that Kiba half-expected to be tackled by one of the giant mutts any minute now, as they so often liked to do whenever one of the Inuzuka returned to the compound.
But there was nothing. The street was empty save for the Hokage and his advisors still standing in front of the Hokage Tower, the aged Sarutobi hiding his face in the shadow of his hat as his advisors seemingly tried to convince the man of something as he kept staring holes in the back of the enormous Inuzuka, though Hamaru either didn't notice or didn't care.
Focusing back on his supposed uncle, Kiba was once again surprised at the emotions he saw, the man's beastly face taking on a saddened expression when Kiba mentioned his dog companion.
"Yes, he was called Shiromaru and in a sense, I still carry him with me every day. Which is part of the answer to your earlier question. What happened? Well… it's a long story. A very long, sometimes funny, but overall very depressing story. In short, not one that should be told on the Academy's playground."
"Oh." Kiba said, somewhat disappointed now, still ignoring the three-way brawl now going on behind him (Choji having of course jumped to his friend's defence when the smug Nara got punched in the nose by a frustrated looking Naruto).
Kiba still wasn't sure if he believed the elder Inuzuka (it's not everyday someone just walks up to you claiming to be a long-lost relative after all, so it was only natural the boy felt somewhat wary), and if he did, it would mean that the man had done something so unspeakably awful Tsume hadn't uttered more than his name in over a decade. Still, he was intrigued at this point and the familiar smell of ninken had already begun to put him at ease with the enormous man.
"I would like to tell you about it though, if you want. I… I'd like to get to know my family here in Konoha better. It's been so long since… well. Maybe you can meet us for lunch?" Hamaru said, the pain and hope in his voice easy to pick up on even for Kiba.
"You're not staying at the Clan compound?"
"I'm not sure there'd be much of a compound left should I show my face to your mother there." Hamaru chuckled awkwardly, before pointing vaguely south.
"We have our own place in the village, not far from here. It's pretty huge actually: the Hokage owed me a big favour. Even if he's not exactly happy with me, the man fulfills his debts at least. So, why don't you go ahead and bring your friends too?" the tall man proposed suddenly.
At that suggestion, both Kiba's and the woman's eyes widened.
"Wait, they're not really-"
"So, one of them is that one? Which one is it? I can't feel anything." She spoke up, interrupting Kiba.
He frowned at her odd question, immediately paying more attention to her smell. While it was true that about 80% of what you said was how you said it, the Inuzuka also included a very important, yet often overlooked aspect of your physicality in this: how you smelled when you said something. Stress, deceit, confidence, they all influenced a person's chemicals and as such their smells and a trained Inuzuka would be able to pick up on such details easily enough.
While not fully trained, Kiba's nose was still leagues above the average, and yet all he picked up from the woman was a sense of sterile coldness. It wasn't a scent he was familiar with or really understood how to translate, so he kept a wary eye on her. Akamaru had a little more luck, softly yipping into the boy's ear from his position on top of his head that the woman faintly smelled of snake as well, but the scent was faded. Not that that told them much either, though judging by Hamaru's piercing look he had heard (and understood) the white puppy's barks quite clearly.
"You wouldn't, at least not in a situation like this: the Fourth's sealwork is like nothing you've ever seen. As for who it is, it's the blond currently being sat on by an Akimichi while a Nara is laughing in the visible parts of his face." Hamaru dryly responded, causing Kiba to turn around as the woman leaned over to look past him.
"How… impressive." She said dryly as Naruto's muffled screams reached them, getting a deep laugh from the beastly man at her side.
"Give him time. He'll grow into it. Eventually"
Unsure as to what Naruto was supposed to grow into (besides an even bigger nuisance) and wanting to get the conversation back on track, Kiba turned towards to his grinning uncle (and wow… that's a lotta sharp looking teeth…), once again speaking up.
"Sorry uncle, but these aren't my-"
"There'll be plenty of food, on me." The man said, shooting a calculating glance past Kiba's shoulder.
"Really now?" Choji immediately responded, somehow appearing at Kiba's side, making the boy jump a foot in the air.
"And just what kind of food we talking here?"
"BBQ?"
"How much?"
"As much as you can pack away."
"Deal."
"Wha- deal? Choji, there's no deal, this is my uncle-"
"You think you can hold a party without me?! Fat chance Kiba, I'll be there too dattebayo!"
"Of course you can come over if you want Naruto, that's no problem at all."
"Deal!"
"… dattebayo?" the woman asked, now shooting Hamaru a questioning glance, who for some reason was still grinning like a madman.
"It's a whole thing, you'll get used to it."
"I'd rather not." The woman groused.
"Guys, maybe we don't follow the complete stranger to his unknown house in the middle of the day-" Shikamaru tried, but by now Hamaru's teeth-filled grin was on full blast.
"It'll get you out of school and we have a backyard where you can cloud watch. One of my kids is a pretty talented Shogi player as well and has been looking for a challenge."
"Deal."
Feeling the situation spiral out of control, Kiba once again tried to interject.
"Will you all just shut up and-!"
"What's going on here?! Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, why aren't you practicing your kunai?!"
The voice of Iruka sounded out above their discussion, silencing the young troublemakers while Naruto turned white as a sheet. Prepared for a dressing-down, the kids turned around to face the music… only to see that Iruka was now just as white as Naruto as he stared past them and up at Kiba's uncle.
"There a problem?" Hamaru asked slowly and this time he sounded every bit as scary as he looked, his voice low and gravelly as he leaned on the gate-link fence surrounding the schoolyard.
The metal quietly groaned underneath his weight as his slit eyes stared straight into Iruka's widened ones, the earlier grinning, somewhat goofy looking man suddenly replaced by this deadly-looking shinobi. The shift was sudden enough the boys didn't even realize it at first until their sensei managed to stammer out a response.
"Inuzuka Ha-Hamaru. N-no, there's no problem. Ah, but my students here need to practice their throws and-"
"I was conversing with my cousin and his friends, inviting them for lunch so we may catch up after my years having spent outside Konoha. I trust that that is alright?" Hamaru pressed, Iruka swallowing heavily.
"But their kunai-throwing…" the teacher pressed once again, but Hamaru immediately interrupted him.
"Will not suffer from one missed lesson. As long as they stab the enemy with the pointy bit, they're fine."
"The Hokage-" Iruka tried once more, though by now the children had the feeling it wasn't so much their bukijutsu skills their sensei was worried about as the man tried to stand in-between them and the annoyed looking mountain of muscle.
"Has already approved me and my family staying here in Konoha. He may not have liked it, but even with my past, he accepted me into his Village, and allowed my kids to attend your school. Are you certain you wish to go against the Hokage's welcoming example, Umino?" the man rumbled dangerously as Iruka grit his teeth while attempting to stand his ground.
The children stood in mute awe as they observed this stranger effortlessly going against their sensei without a shred of fear. In fact, the lower and more growl-like Hamaru's voice became, the more frightened Iruka looked, which was almost a foreign concept to the group of troublemakers. They half-expected Iruka to whip out his famed Big Head Jutsu at this point, just to so he could hold his own against the beastly Inuzuka.
"Do you know who I am?" the woman at Hamaru's side suddenly interrupted in an icy voice, her expression dismissive, bordering on arrogant even.
To the surprise of the children, Iruka nodded, looking just as uncomfortable in her presence as he did with the looming (and far scarier looking) Hamaru.
"Good. Then there will be no problem if I teach them some bukijutsu after-hours in order to make up for a missed lesson."
It hadn't been phrased as a question and judging by her hard expression it hadn't been meant as one, so Iruka finally gave a defeated nod.
"Very well, I'll arrange permission slips so that Kiba and his friends can follow remedial lessons. But they will have to pass competency tests!" he finished on a surprisingly firm tone, putting his foot down on this at least, but it didn't seem like either of the other adults much cared.
"You teach and test your students however you want Umino. I just want to reconnect with my family. I'd have figured someone who preaches the Will of Fire to the next generation would understand better. My mistake, I guess." Hamaru merely shot back, sounding bitter until his girlfriend laid a restraining hand on his arm, shooting him an understanding look.
"Hamaru…" Iruka muttered with a surprised look, briefly appearing conflicted as the two men stared each other down.
The kids weren't sure exactly what was going on between the adults, but right now all they had heard was that their sensei had signed off on them missing school and having an Akimichi-sized lunch, so truth be told they didn't really care that much in the end.
They might be trained to be child soldiers, but right now they were still just children instead.
Kiba tried one final time to explain that, while he did indeed hang around with these guys, they weren't exactly his friends (they were hardly Akamaru after all), but seeing a triple set of puppy dog eyes (not very accurate ones in his expert opinion) aimed full-blast at him caused him to eventually relent with a sigh.
"Very well uncle, we'll go have lunch with you."
The other children cheered at that (which of course caused the rest of the class to give them weird looks as Iruka sighed in defeat) while they quickly packed up their gear. All of them ignored Naruto's suggestions to go to Ichiraku's for lunch instead with practiced ease, though Hamaru's girlfriend? Wife? Kept shooting the blonde strange looks. Being ninja in training, the four simply hopped the fence, looking up expectedly at Kiba's uncle.
"Kids… be safe." Iruka called over to them across the fence, struggling with what to say before finishing with a sigh as he looked between Kiba and Hamaru.
His glance rested on Naruto for a long moment, before the scarred man nodded to himself and returned to the rest of the class as he began yelling instructions and whipping them back into shape as they had all stopped to gawk at their sensei's confrontation with the unknown giant.
"Iruka's a nice guy. Why'd you have to act all mean with him?" Naruto spoke up softly as he stared at his teacher's retreating back before falling in line with the rest of the group, Hamaru remaining silent for a long moment.
"A nice guy! He gives you more detention than anyone else?!" Kiba asked incredulously, the blonde turning defensive.
"At least he only gives me detention when I did something wrong! And he actually sticks around with me!" the whiskered Uzumaki yelled back.
"Umino Iruka is a good guy." Hamaru suddenly agreed without turning back, stunning the boys.
"He tries at least, which… well, in this Village that's not always a given. And I'm sure that he's a fine teacher in the bare basics, such as reading, writing, history, how to not poke your eye out with a sharp metal pointy bit… I guess that was why I was disappointed when he looked at me with that same fear people have been looking at me ever since I returned to this place, to what should still be my home. Jumping in-between us as if he were protecting lambs from a prowling wolf." The beastly Inuzuka glanced back at them with a somewhat saddened smile, making his fangs stand out all the more.
"Give him time! It took him a long time until he didn't look at me like all the others do, I'm sure he can do the same for you!" Naruto tried to encourage the large man, who blinked a few times in surprise as the indigo-haired woman shot the blonde an appreciative look.
"I suppose I shouldn't blame him. I'll wait and see if he can change his mind about me as well, in time." Hamaru eventually conceded, his expression softer as he led the way again.
As he walked, he finally introduced the woman at his side.
"Kiba and friends. Meet Guren. She's an amazing woman and ninja. You can learn a lot from her." He said, pride clear in his voice, which was reciprocated with a beaming smile from the now-named Guren, the first positive expression the children had seen on the quiet woman.
"How did the two of you meet?" Shikamaru asked, his curiosity still overpowering his laziness.
To the surprise of the children, the two adults briefly looked uncomfortable, before Hamaru glanced back at them over his shoulder.
"How much do you know of what I did while outside the Village? Or why I'm now back?" he asked in a low tone, causing the children to share confused glances, before Kiba shrugged as he answered his uncle.
"We were asking that ourselves. Like I said, Ma doesn't really talk about you."
"What have you done while outside the Village? And why are you back, for that matter?" Shikamaru asked with narrowed eyes.
"As I mentioned before, that's a conversation better held behind closed doors." Hamaru curtly stated.
Intrigued, the children kept quiet as they continued following the adults to their home, which turned out to be about ten minutes away from the Academy, on the outskirts of the village's centre but still decently far away from its imposing walls. During their way there, it hadn't escaped the children how the people they encountered took one look at the towering Hamaru and either blanched in fear, or gained an expression of distrust and disgust. Whatever it was that Kiba's uncle had done while away from the Village had clearly been a big deal, though the whispers that followed in their wake were hushed enough that even Kiba's enhanced hearing couldn't make much sense of it.
Things came to a head when they passed a butcher's shop, Hamaru suggesting they buy in some extra stores now that they had promised an Akimichi an all-you-can-stuff-in-your-face lunch. Choji of course enthusiastically agreed, so the group quickly trooped inside. However, when they had eventually brought their stacks of ribs, steaks and whatever else Choji had deemed worthy enough for their lunch to the check-out, the clerk began to cause a scene.
The man had looked both frightened and appalled when they had all entered his store to begin with, though the boys had automatically assumed it was because of Naruto, including the blonde himself, who had gained a depressed and furtive look until Hamaru had dumped a bunch of frozen steaks in his arms and told him with a friendly grin to keep up.
When they tried to pay however, the clerk quickly revealed that it wasn't Naruto (this time) that he had a problem with, as he stood on trembling legs looking up at the towering Inuzuka as he swallowed heavily.
"W-we don't… ahem, we don't serve your kind here!" the clerk managed to spit out, covered in cold sweat.
Hamaru had stilled entirely, and Kiba caught how the man's shoulders briefly drooped before the man took a deep breath and straightened them, easily slipping into the same confrontational pose and voice that he had used on Iruka. Did he put up a front, or did he let out his real self? Kiba had no way of knowing since the elder Inuzuka's scent had barely even shifted despite his apparent cold anger, so he quietly observed the confrontation instead.
"My kind…?" Hamaru asked in a very low, very dangerous voice.
"And what kind would that be exactly?"
"T-traitors!" the clerk managed to shout back, his voice high and almost cracking.
Despite standing in a butcher's shop, Kiba was still almost overwhelmed with the stench of fear wafting off the man.
"You don't serve traitors here?" Hamaru slowly repeated, and in lieu of having his voice crack again, the butcher merely rapidly nodded instead.
Still staring the smaller mean dead in the face (a common intimidation tactic amongst Inuzuka and their ninken, Kiba noted), Hamaru's large claw came up and rested lightly on the clerk's shoulder, the smaller man rooted to the spot in fear.
"Good man! Konoha appreciates your loyalty! It does a Leaf Shinobi good to see a traitor-free store in this Village, which it is, because, after all, there are no traitors here!" The beastly Inuzuka suddenly exclaimed in a loud, cheery voice.
Before the boys could even keep up with the sudden tonal shift, Hamaru forcibly dragged the terrified clerk forwards as if he barely even weighed anything, his voice more a snarl than actual words.
"Right?"
Finally the clerk's self-preservation overrode the man's prejudice as his terror took over control from his (clearly not very clever) brain, the man nodding rapidly until Hamaru's signature large grin returned and he let go of the clerk, even patting him on the shoulder.
"Good man." He repeated calmly, before turning on his heel, addressing the boys.
"Let's go. We're done here." He curtly stated, stalking out of the butcher's shop without a second word and with the boys hot on his heels.
It was only later that they realized they had never actually paid for Choji's extravagances.
"You shouldn't have done that." Naruto said darkly, surprising both the adults and his fellow classmates, who considered Naruto of all people to be about the last person qualified on the moral injustices of shoplifting.
Not that he often did, but on the few occasions that he had done so, it had been loud, messy affairs which had been more reminiscent of pranks than actual theft, the blonde screaming back just as loudly as the shopkeepers as crowds inevitably formed around them.
It had happened only a few times, but even then, while people had stared, pointed and whispered at the blonde, none had actually interfered with him, which was oddly par for the course when it came to Naruto's pranks. For all that they complained about the blonde, none of the adults in the Village seemed willing to step in and oppose the blonde menace, which had likely fed into the boy's ongoing (and escalating) prank war against shopkeepers like the butcher Hamaru had just terrified.
"Oh? Why's that?" the large Inuzuka asked calmly, clearly thinking along similar lines, but instead of looking judgmental, Naruto merely looked saddened.
"He won't forget. And he'll make sure everybody else won't either. You mess with one of 'em, they all start talking behind your back." The blonde said with morose certainty born from experience.
"They already do." Hamaru merely muttered back while carelessly shrugging as the group trudged on in silence.
"We're here!" his uncle finally called out, and while his voice sounded relaxed, Kiba saw how the large man's shoulders were tensed.
Clearly, Hamaru had been paying attention to the whispering and staring villagers as well. And he had been paying attention to something else as well, since for some reason the man turned around, looked to a nearby rooftop and gave a cheeky wave, while Guren merely let out a sharp grin as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"This is what passes for stealth these days in the Village Hidden in the Leaf? Color me impressed. Not in a good way, but impressed nonetheless. That this is the level of skill deemed sufficient to join Konoha's ranks of 'elite'." The woman said haughtily as she glanced up at a different rooftop to the children's growing confusion.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto exclaimed warily as the boys now began looking around themselves as well as Hamaru let out a small laugh.
"Our ANBU tails. Clearly, the Hokage prefers a more hands-on approach to surveillance when it comes to me than merely his Telescope Technique." The large Inuzuka said with a shrug, surprisingly unbothered with being shadowed by Konoha's most illusive (official) task force to the surprise of the boys.
However, the knowledge that their Village's strongest shinobi were nearby and keeping a watchful eye on them did put the boys more at ease.
"Psst… Shika… what's ANBU?"
Well, those who even knew about their Village's strongest shinobi at least.
"Naruto, you really are troublesome, you know that?"
As the sighing Nara explained just who ANBU were ("basically ninja among ninja" "cool!") Kiba kept glancing around the neighbourhood, trying to spot the black ops shinobi himself as well. As he looked around, he quickly realized Hamaru's house was just a walking distance away from his own clan compound. As much as his uncle seemed wary about being there, he certainly picked a place nearby. Said place turned out to be closer to a small mansion than a house, with multiple stories and a decently sized backyard. There was a training post there, but it didn't seem used yet.
Something that went for most of the house the children quickly figured, seeing many moving boxes still stacked up in hallways and even some rooms with old furniture still covered in white cloths.
"You haven't been back long I take it?" Shikamaru mused out loud, getting a chuckle from Hamaru as they finished the tour in the kitchen, the only room in the house that seemed well-used.
As promised, Guren was already firing up the hibachi, Choji immediately coming over and eagerly offering his help as he unloaded bag after bag of meat cuts, while the others took their places around a large dinner table. Akamaru got his own cushion, of course. This was an Inuzuka household after all, former exile or no.
"Only been back in Konoha for less than a week. This house was made available to us the day before yesterday. Most of this stuff isn't even ours, it's just crap that came with the place or was taken from Konoha's storage."
"Must have been one big favour from the Old Man." Naruto said, both awed by and slightly jealous about the spacious house and doing a bad job at hiding both.
Guren raised a surprised eyebrow at the rude moniker, but Hamaru merely seemed pleased for some reason.
"You could say that." He nodded, studying the saddened blonde as the kid kept glancing around the spacious kitchen that was larger than his own living room.
"What… uhm, what exactly did you have to do for the Old Man to give you… all of this?" Naruto asked, desperately going for a casual tone but not fooling anybody.
"Let me guess: said favour is part of the story you're finally going to tell us?" Shikamaru spoke up, his curiosity now fanned enough he had begun tapping his fingers on the tabletop.
"Indeed. Though… I'm not entirely sure where to even begin…" Hamaru mused, getting a snort from Guren.
"A wise, but insane, man once told me that its usually easiest to begin with the beginning." She said, Hamaru chuckling in response.
"Very well."
He turned to face Kiba, Shikamaru and Naruto, his face serious. He took a deep breath as the children leaned in closer in anticipation. Finally, Hamaru opened his eyes and spoke.
"I killed Orochimaru."
"… love, that's hardly the beginning." Guren whispered from behind a facepalm as the children kept staring at the beastly man with large eyes.
"… Orochi-who now?" Naruto broke the silence after the dramatic pause, almost causing both Guren and Hamaru to face-fault.
"Wait, seriously?!" Guren called out, her face red with anger even as she brandished a spatula at the innocent youths.
"I mean, the name does sound familiar…" Shikamaru attempted to placate the woman.
"Honestly, what are they teaching you at that Academy?" she said frustrated.
"Boring stuff!" Naruto helpfully explained, causing Shikamaru to pinch his brow.
"Boring? Well, the next time I see that prissy little teacher, I'll-!"
"Easy, dear." Hamaru interrupted with a smile, causing the woman to whirl around to face him with an imperious expression.
"We're withdrawing the kids. Clearly, they're not being taught properly."
"It's not even been a day-"
"And these children have been taught for years and don't even know about Orochimaru-sam-… one of Konoha's biggest traitors! Better for our children to be home-schooled." Guren argued, catching herself on the honorific before forging ahead, though Kiba noticed how her scent sharply spiked for a moment.
"You know they need the socialization-"
The argument was interrupted when Shikamaru snapped his fingers, a satisfied smile on his face.
"I remember now! Orochimaru was one of the Sannin who went rogue! He was Lord Third's student until he was banished from the Village and…" slowly, the Nara fell silent as he stared at the massive man on the other end of the table with eyes as large as the dinner plate that had just been placed in front of him.
"… and you killed him? You killed one of the Sannin?"
"Indeed I did." Hamaru said with a grave nod.
"How did you kill him?" Kiba asked eagerly.
"I'm not telling you." His uncle dryly responded, completely deflating his nephew as the searching gleam in Shikamaru's eyes intensified.
Clearly, the young Nara wouldn't let this new mystery rest. Meanwhile, Naruto was frowning in confusion.
"Wait, hold on! You killed one of the Old Man's students and he owes you a favour?" the blonde asked incredulously, only to get poked in the side by Kiba.
"Haven't you been listening? Orochimaru was a traitor to the Village. Of course he owes my uncle: all traitors have to die." Kiba said proudly, only to be surprised by the melancholic expression on his uncle's face.
"I was a traitor as well, Kiba." He said sadly, causing his nephew to stare at him in shock.
"Love… is it wise, to tell them this much? They barely know you… if you wait-" Guren cautioned, getting a bitter laugh from Hamaru.
"If I wait, then they're going to learn about it before I ever get the chance to tell them, Guren. Konoha loves its gossip after all, just ask Kakashi or Naruto here. No, better they hear it all, right here and now from me, than from hearsay. I won't allow their minds to be poisoned by ignorance." Hamaru stated firmly.
Guren stared at her man for a long moment with a melancholic expression on her face, before shaking her head with a sad smile.
"You said something similar to me once, long ago. I guess you really haven't changed a bit since then, huh? Very well." She conceded, getting a warm smile in return from Hamaru before he turned back to the confused boys.
"Yes Kiba, I too left the Village, following my sensei, though it was always my hope to someday return here, make up for my sins… You see, in order to kill Orochimaru, I first had to gain his trust. I had to choose him over the Village. Had to do… bad things, in order to remain by his side. Grow stronger, until I had reached the point where he was weak enough, I could kill him off and return home. Bring my family home." Hamaru explained in a grave tone.
"But… why did it have to be you? Why did you have to leave the clan… leave Konoha?" Kiba asked (the 'why leave us' question unspoken but obvious), not sure what to think of the large man anymore.
On the one hand, this Orochimaru sounded like he was really strong, so that made his uncle really cool for being to take down a traitor of that level. But needing to abandon the village to do it?
"I felt that it had to be me. There are certain… challenges when it comes to making sure a shinobi of Orochimaru's level is truly dead. I was the only one who knew about these difficulties. His failsafes. I was the only one who could see the monster he truly was at the time. Or perhaps, the only one willing to see what he had become."
"How come?" Shikamaru questioned, a grim smile forming on Hamaru's rough face.
"Well, I was his student after all."
That little revelation was enough to make all the boy's jaw drop (including Akamaru).
"For a guy that was the student of Konoha's most infamous traitors, you… well, uhm…" Shikamaru began, looking somewhat flustered as Hamaru cocked his head at him with a grin.
"I don't sound as scary as I look?" he suggested and now Naruto went red.
With a bitter chuckle Hamaru explained as he helped Guren set the table while Choji remained preoccupied with preparing the food, not seemingly particularly invested in the ongoing discussion.
"There are two ways to survive a man like Orochimaru: you adapt to become like him, cynical and monstrous and… hollow inside. Or, you can choose to become the opposite. To be a light whenever you find yourself surrounded by darkness. It was… hard. Incredibly hard to keep that outlook, that attitude. Sometimes I wondered if it was even real, or just an illusion Orochimaru allowed for his own twisted entertainment. You couldn't be certain of anything with that monster. Other times, I felt like a hypocrite, putting on a smile and acting like I was a normal person, a good man even, when I was stained from head to toe from the assignments and experiments Orochimaru forced on me."
"The how did you do it? How did you not give in to all that darkness?" Naruto whispered, a small hand coming up to rub at his chest as his eyes were downcast, Hamaru shooting him an understanding look.
"I realized that my light was needed. Not just for me, for the sake of my own sanity. But to illuminate the world and hearts of my precious people as well. To drive away the darkness that Orochimaru was trying to cultivate, in the hearts of Guren here and those of my kids. If I had let him… if I had given in to the darkness, to despair and apathy, if I had become the weapon that Orochimaru wanted to shape me into… then their worlds would've remained dark. I knew, from the very moment I met them, that the Snake Bastard would've corrupted them to the very core of their being and I also knew from that same moment I would never allow him to, no matter the cost."
Hamaru's words were strong, even if the man's expression was tired as Naruto stared at him with widened eyes. Guren placed a kiss on the Inuzuka's cheek, making him chuckle as he visibly shrugged off the melancholic aura from before, swiping a few pieces of half-cooked meat from the Hibachi despite Choji's valiant usage of various Chopstick no Jutsu's.
"To start at the very beginning of the beginning: I was born twelve years after your mother, Kiba and incidentally also twelve years before you. I attended the Academy with my ninken Shiromaru, much like you now do with Akamaru. I finished at the top of my class, though after prodigies like Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi, my scores weren't that amazing. Still, it got me put with both the strongest kunoichi and the class' dead-last. In my case, those were Anko Mitarashi and Ren Watabe. The performances of Anko and I had caught the attention of Ochimaru. Originally, he had only desired Anko as an apprentice, but when he wanted me as well, the three of us got formed into a Genin team and placed under his supervision."
Hamaru shook his head sadly, even as he began piling up his plate with rice and meats (which looked suspiciously raw to Choji's visible distress) and the boys, enraptured with the story (even Naruto) quickly followed suit as they kept staring at the morose looking beast-man.
"In hindsight, Ren never should have joined our team. Orochimaru isn't the patient sort. Or the forgiving one. Which is why he ended up dead." He said darkly, causing Kiba to choke on his food.
"How… how did he die?" Shikamaru hesitantly asked while Naruto vigorously (and somewhat excessively) began slapping Kiba's back and it took a long moment before Hamaru answered in a low tone, his eyes downcast.
"I killed him."
Again, deafening silence blanketed the kitchen as Guren took a seat next to Hamaru, laying a supportive hand on his arm.
"Why?" Kiba managed to whisper, getting a deep, heavy sigh from his uncle.
"Because that's the sort of cruelty that Orochimaru delights in. As I said, the man is a monster and nothing delights him more than cultivating pain and despair in others in every possible way imaginable. The man is as methodical and creative about torture as he is about chakra theory." Hamaru spat angrily, before shaking his head as he continued his story.
"Ren died less than a year before the Kyuubi would attack. You were barely a month old, Kiba, and Namikaze Minato had just been declared the Fourth Hokage."
As expected, the mention of his hero caused Naruto to sit up straight and start paying (even more) attention.
"While the Village celebrated the appointment, since the Fourth was a respected and well-liked man, my sensei seethed. He felt the position should have rightfully been his. Angered, he threw caution in the wind as he pushed his projects even further… eventually being caught by the Third himself as he began experimenting on citizens from Konoha. The Third could not bring himself to kill his own student however, so Orochimaru got away. The Village held many legendary ninja at the time, too many for the Snake Bastard's comfort, so he became a missing nin instead. But right before he left, he performed one final experiment, one that required, and ruined, live test subjects. The first of those subjects being Anko, my teammate."
Hamaru fell silent as the kids digested his words, drawing a deep breath as he made to continue.
"He had gathered our team a little distance away outside of Konoha. Before we knew what was going on, he had implanted a Cursed Seal on her and offered her a chance to come with him. Even as his foul chakra ravaged her body and left her convulsing on the ground, she remained loyal to Konoha and rejected his proposal. Brave, but not the answer Orochimaru had been expecting."
Hamaru fell silent as he glanced at the enraptured children.
"Like I said: the Snake Sannin is not one for mercy or forgiveness. As she kept crying and rejecting him, he was contemplating killing her on the spot. Which is when I intervened and accepted the offer in her stead."
He fell silent for a long moment, before shaking his head and glancing at the enraptured children.
"Orochimaru was pleased, but suspicious. Something about me… I must have done something wrong, revealed my true intentions somehow… because he didn't trust me. Didn't want to take me with him to his secret new base, the one that I knew Konoha would never be able to find by themselves. I had to earn that right, prove that his secrets would be safe with me. So, he implanted his Cursed Seal on me… and then ordered me to kill Ren. If I didn't, he'd decapitate all three of us, in a single swing. He was very explicit about that. I think he saw it as a self-imposed challenge, a game of sorts." Hamaru said darkly, before closing his eyes.
"To choose between killing a teammate or condemning you all… that doesn't sound like much of a choice to me." Shikamaru muttered darkly while Naruto, Choji and Kiba could only look on in silence.
"W-what… what did you do?" Kiba hesitantly asked his uncle, who had a faraway look in his eyes as he slowly responded in a soft voice.
"I did what I could to protect as many lives as possible at the time. So, I took out a kunai and slit my own teammate's throat. Like I said, Ren was the dead-last of my year. It was easy… so much easier than it should've been… I had nightmares for months, years even. Ren and I had never been close, but he had been my teammate for over a year at that point. But it worked: Anko was allowed to remain in the Village, unharmed and unmolested beyond the Seal he had already placed on her. Not that the villagers gave a shit about that, the way they kept treating Anko." Hamaru muttered darkly as he leaned his bearded chin on his clawed fist.
"He took me to a country far away from here, where he began building his support base as he continued his experiments, each one more bloody, demanding and insane than the last. Don't bother asking me what he was researching. That knowledge deserved to die right alongside him." The large Inuzuka warned the boys, Shikamaru's frown instensifying as the man blatantly admitted to keeping back parts of his story.
Which was fair enough: what he was telling them was pretty heavy stuff, especially since they barely even knew him. Clearly it was important to the large man to get this all off his chest before the villager's suspicious attitudes could influence them against him.
Briefly, Hamaru fell silent, for the first time looking truly haunted by recalling his past experiences and the boys briefly wondered if this would be the part where the ninja would clam up and kick them out of his house. Still, the beast-like man continued in a pained voice.
"He even kept experimenting on me, which in a way eventually cost Shiromaru his life."
Kiba gasped at that, intuitively grabbing Akamaru close to his chest as the puppy let out a small cry. After a deep breath, during which he distractedly rubbed his left shoulder, Hamaru continued and by now the children could understand why he wanted them to learn this from him instead of hearing it through rumours and hearsay on the streets.
Naruto especially had personally experienced just how twisted and harmful gossip could become, even if you didn't know what was even being said about you in the first place.
"But we didn't stay in his hidden bases. As his hideouts grew in size and number, we kept travelling throughout the lands, mostly the Land of Water as it was in a state of violent civil war at the time. I can't tell you exactly where we went or what we did there: bunch of that stuff are is considered a state secret. All I can tell you, is that our presence certainly didn't help matters. During our travels there, we picked up Guren here, as well as the three boys you saw outside the Academy. They'll be a Genin team together soon. Several others joined us as well, but they did not become part of my precious people and they aren't important to talk about now: either they're dead, or they should be, or Konoha, Kiri and Oto prefer that they were."
Glancing at the woman at his side as he talked about their (apparently adopted) children, the earlier stress bled out of Hamaru's voice and posture, his signature grin returning as he radiated vindication and pride.
"But what Orochimaru didn't know, was that after our return I kept him from corrupting them as best I could. I kept intervening in their tests, called them away on extended 'training' trip sand did everything in my power to spend as much time as possible with them, and away from him. It wasn't always possible and sometimes our quarters were more like cells or labs, but we pulled through. We managed to rely on each other and I made them see that, even though we were hidden underground, there was a whole other world out there, a different, better way of life. It came at a price, but we managed to fight for at least a measure of separation and independence, during with I tried to reach them as best I could, strengthen the bonds that we had formed, to the point that they realized and strengthened the bonds between themselves as well. It was these bonds that gave us the strength to resist Orochimaru's torture and programming and in turn we kept relying on them more and more, so much so that we grew into a family. This was what allowed us to beat him, because it was something that Orochimaru could never understand. To a man like that, the idea of loved ones, of having precious people to protect, to draw strength from and more importantly share strength with… that is a power that he will never grasp, not even if he fulfills his dream of learning every jutsu ever made."
Naruto sat up straighter in his chair as Hamaru told them of his precious people, how he saw the dark path that their loyalty to Orochimaru was leading them down and how he tried his best to keep them from falling too far. The words resonated with him, the idea of gaining strength, not out of a sense of devotion to a superior, but out of a wish to defend a loved one, just feeling right to the blonde.
None of the children at the table were aware of it, but the first seeds of the greatest hero the Great Nations had seen in over a century had just been planted, almost two whole years ahead of schedule. Hamaru and Guren on the other hand had seen the gleam in the blonde's eyes as he gained a thoughtful expression and the two of them shared a hidden smile as the beast-like man wrapped up his tale.
"It was thanks to the strength of my family that, when Orochimaru was at his weakest… I killed the son of a bitch, burned several of his main bases and labs down to a cinder and applied for asylum here, back in Konoha." He finished.
The boys got the distinct impression that there was much, much more to that story, but judging from Hamaru's tone it was also abundantly clear that said story was done for today. In the privacy of their own thoughts, all four boys resolved to return to this house with the scary looking man and pretty looking woman in the future, for their own reasons.
Kiba wanted to learn more about his long-lost uncle.
Shikamaru wanted to learn more about this shinobi that had rubbed shoulders with some of the most famous and infamous figures in Konoha's recent history.
Naruto wanted to learn everything the man knew about the Fourth, assuming it had to be more than average if his sensei had been the Fourth's rival.
Choji wanted to BBQ more often.
"Well, that's quite enough history I think! Let's talk about you! When are you going to be placed in Genin teams?" Hamaru quite clearly changed the subject, putting on an obviously fake smile and since they didn't want to push the large (and obviously very dangerous) man, the kids followed along.
"We still have one more year to go, Inuzuka-sama." Shikamaru said, his tone more polite after the harrowing story the man told them, though he clearly shouldn't have bothered when Hamaru shot him and Kiba a confused look before he realized the Nara had been addressing him instead.
"Ha! Speak for yourselves! I am gonna take the Genin test at the end of this year!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping up from his seat and proudly planting his fists on his hips.
Before any of the kids could berate the blonde for his claim (as they had so often done these past two years), Hamaru spoke up in his rumbling voice.
"Are you ready for the Genin test this year?"
There was no ridicule or judgement in his words as he calmly stared at the proud blonde, who shuffled somewhat awkwardly as Guren turned to glance at him as well, interest clear to see on her fair face, not that Kiba understood why. The woman had seemed unusually interested in Naruto from the start, but like Hamaru himself had said, Konoha liked its gossip, and Naruto with his frequent pranks and annoying antics was more often than not the topic of said rumours.
Though something told Kiba that the way the woman looked at Naruto was different from the way most mothers tended to sneer at the loudmouth. Even his own mom had been uncharacteristically touchy around the subject of Naruto, though she didn't go so far as most civilians did in forbidding Kiba from playing with the blonde.
Looking up at the now red-faced Naruto, Kiba wondered if perhaps there was something more to it all? Though he was at a loss as to what it could possibly be: Naruto didn't have any family and his grades were pretty awful.
Which he and Shikamaru were quick to point out when Naruto tried to claim that "of course I'm ready, I'm the strongest ninja in our Academy!"
"Bullshit Naruto, I could beat the crap out of you right now if I wanted to!"
"Naruto, you have some of the lowest grades in our entire class. That includes Kiba and myself." Shikamaru spoke up dryly, resting his face in his palms, his eyes drooping once more.
"Hey!" "Hey!" the two wild boys called out, but before either of them could pounce on Naruto, Hamaru's deep voice halted them in their tracks.
"It was an honest question Naruto. Are you ready for the test? Do you know the answers to the questions they'll ask? Do you possess the skills necessary to overcome the challenges they'll pose you?"
Naruto stammered his way through an answer to the large Inuzuka's question, his usual bravado disappearing before an adult's genuine interest in him. After a few awkward moments, Hamaru took pity on him.
"I'll take that as a no, Naruto."
"It's not my fault! How am I supposed to know what questions they're gonna ask or what skills I need?! The teachers never tell me any of that stuff anyways!" the blonde exclaimed angrily as he dropped down in his seat again with an angry huff.
"Naruto, they tell that sort of information to the entire class. It's hardly their fault if you're not paying attention, or not even in class to begin with." Shikamaru pointed out, Naruto turning away from him with a pout.
"You know they don't like me there. You guys said it yourselves: Iruka is the nicest guy there and even he keeps yelling at me and giving me detention all day." He said under his breath, but sitting at a table full of ninja meant that everyone had heard him clearly and for once Shikamaru didn't have a rebuttal, shooting the blonde an apologetic glance.
"Well, then it's a good thing that we like you Naruto." Guren suddenly spoke up with a sharp grin.
"You do? Wait, you do?! That's… uhm, why though?" the young Uzumaki shouted, before his expression became somewhat confused and guarded.
"Why? Why not?" the kunoichi shot back, her smirk growing wider when the blonde just kept staring at her with a dumbfounded expression.
"Besides, as atrocious as his lesson plan apparently is, I did promise that prissy teacher of yours I'd teach you some remedial bukijutsu, didn't I?" Guren said with a smile as she rose from the table and to the amazement of the boys flicked her wrist, pink crystalline kunai suddenly appearing between her fingers in a deadly fan.
"Whoa! How did you do that?!" Naruto yelled out in awe, while Shikamaru's eyes went wide.
"A Kekkei Genkai?" he whispered to himself, the kunoichi shooting him an appraising look before glancing towards a widely grinning Hamaru.
"My, those Nara really are clever."
Guren made true on her promise to Iruka, leading the boys to the backyard and demonstrating a few straightforward throws with her crystal kunai, an added bonus of which were that she didn't have to retrieve them: merely releasing the chakra construct like one would dismiss a clone would cause the sharp knives to fall away into tiny flecks of glass-like dust before dissipating entirely.
It was why she wouldn't be crashing any economies any time soon, as the constructs, while incredibly durable, weren't permanent unless she fed them a constant stream of her chakra. Which had been of course Shikamaru's first question, after which the immediate second question had been for just how long she could keep such a crystal going, which had caused both Guren and Hamaru to laugh out loud.
Apparently, they had swindled a village or two during their mad escape from the Land of Sound as they travelled towards Konoha whenever the locals had been particularly unpleasant. The sound of a snooty noblewoman wailing in despair when she found that the gorgeous necklaces she'd been given had somehow turned to dust overnight, had been a soothing symphony to their frayed nerves.
The boys eagerly began following Guren's instructions, awed at the prettiness of her blades and the obvious ease with which she expertly manipulated them. It quickly became clear why Iruka had been easy to convince that the kunoichi would be an effective trainer in bukijutsu (besides the scary looking tower of muscle that was always at her side) as Guren showed herself to be a demanding taskmaster. Still, they apparently were more hands-off with training back in Otogakure than they were here in Konoha, with Guren dismissive of the potential dangers of wielding sharp pieces of metal.
"If you throw a kunai well, it'll be a good lesson. If you don't throw it well… it'll be an even better lesson." The woman had said with a sharp grin.
While Choji had blanched at the look and Shikmaru had muttered a "troublesome" under his breath, the warning only seemed to have fired up the other two boys and it wasn't long before Kiba and Naruto began holding a competition to see who could make the most extravagant, cool looking throw.
On the side, Shikamaru and Choji were betting snacks on which of the wild boys would be the first to spear themselves in the foot. Shikamaru had three gummy bears riding on Naruto being the one by doing a backwards somersault.
Choji had an entire bag of chips on Naruto doing that and then trying to play it cool by continuing the game, only to end up stabbing himself in the same foot again.
Sadly, their betting game was never finished, since before things could truly escalate, the group heard the front door open as a voice called out.
"Mom? Dad? We're home!"
"We've lived here less than a week. There have been literal holes in the ground we've spent more time in." a voice replied coolly, though the first speaker didn't seem to mind.
"Those were hideouts. This is a house. A house all of us are staying in, so, this is now home!"
"You are far too optimistic Yukimaru."
"And you're far too serious Kimi. You need to- oh! Uhm, hello!" the speaker suddenly halted in his tracks as the group entered the backyard, causing Naruto and Kiba to halt their throws (much to the disappointment of Choji and Shikamaru.
Immediately, Guren seemed to chance in front of the boy's eyes, going from scary kunoichi and supporting wife to beaming mother as she engulfed the pink-eyed boy in the front in a strong hug, lifting him clean off his feet. Even Hamaru seemed to soften as he approached the remaining two boys, hugging the orange-haired one to his side as he shot the white-haired on a proud smile.
Kiba was glancing at the three newcomers with narrowed eyes. Going by Hamaru's story, these were all people who would've been manipulated into Orochimaru into giving into their 'darkness' (whatever that meant, Kiba wasn't entirely sure though for some reason Naruto of all people seemed to get it). Again though, much like Hamaru himself hardly acted like he was the student of the Snake Sannin, these people hardly looked like they were just a bad day away from becoming deranged psychopaths who enjoyed putting people in emotionally devastating, impossible to win scenarios.
Their smells were interesting as well. The wimpy looking one (who was steadily growing slightly blue in the face as Guren kept a hold of him) smelled like the sea for some reason, despite the Land of Fire being a landlocked nation. The tall, orange-haired one smelled like forest and small birds and animals, which Kiba privately thought was pretty cool. Maybe the big guy would like to help around their kennel sometime? Hana was always complaining how busy it was and understaffed they were 'cause their man-sized wolves kept scaring people off.
The regal-looking boy in the front though… Kiba's nose curled at the scent he gave off. It was the sent of death, the sent of graveyards. Though interestingly enough, Akamaru (who had jumped onto his usual spot in Kiba's hair when the newcomers had entered the garden) yipped that he smelled some strange herbs and chemicals on the boy as well.
Maybe he was sick? It would explain the white hairs, Kiba supposed, though he still thought the red dots looked silly. Was the boy trying to imitate having pimples or something? His marks had nothing on the awesome, cool looking fang-marks Kiba and his family had, so there!
Said boy meanwhile was staring down the quartet so intensely they quickly began to feel somewhat awkward, which naturally meant that Naruto relied on his usual defensive tactics.
"What?! The hell you lookin' at weirdo!?"
Which was of course to begin yelling very loudly.
The pale boy frowned as he began lifting his arm, but Hamaru's massive clawed hand on his narrow shoulder halted him in his tracks as he glanced up at the towering man with a suspicious look.
"Easy there Kimimaro. These are guests." The large Inuzuka drawled, and while judging by the now-named Kimimaro's guarded face the boy didn't agree, he did relax his posture.
"Very well, Hamaru-sama. By your judgement, I shall refrain from teaching these interlopers that-" the pale boy began in a cold voice.
It would never be known just what exactly Kimimaro had intended to educate the other children in, since Hamaru shot forwards, his large claws engulfing the Kaguya's head before lifting him bodily off the ground. The movement was so sudden that the group of troublemaker's barely got a shout off before they realized what was going on.
Instead of being the one attacked, Kimimaro was looking furious, appearing red-faced and pouting. Though the latter was probably because Hamaru's palms were smushing his cheeks together as he held him aloft. Meanwhile, the large Inuzuka himself had an exaggerated look of pain and despair on his face as he cried up at his adopted son.
"Why do you insist on hurting me so, Kimi-chan? I know you can say it! Please say it! Call me 'tou-san', go on! Do it for your ol' pops, huh?" the man almost roared in his son's face with tearful eyes, before suddenly getting a boot to his face as Kimimaro desperately gave it his all to escape the giant's immense grip.
"Gerroff a me!" the boy shouted, though his words came out muffled from behind smushed cheeks.
Meanwhile, Hamaru himself seemingly didn't even register his son's desperate moves as he kept crying to the heavens about how his son was so cold and distant despite his best efforts at raising him right and how much of his love and heart he had poured into him and that he really wasn't asking that much, honestly etc. etc.
Standing in stunned silence, Kiba and his friends could only look on in mute shock until the orange-haired son (who looked… particularly unbothered by having one brother nearly choked out by his mother and his other brother man-handled by his father) merely approached Hamaru from behind and slipped two arms across his middle.
"I will call you tou-san." The boy said in a calming voice, causing Hamaru to gain a look of pure happiness.
"So let go of Kimimaro, you damn geezer!" the orange-haired kid continued suddenly in a far lower, more monstrous voice as both his scent and chakra spiked, before to the utter and continued shock of their onlookers, he lifted Hamaru up and over, slamming the large man down into the ground in a picture-perfect suplex.
As Kimimaro jumped to his feet with an embarrassed huff, rubbing his now reddened cheeks, Hamaru easily clambered out of the small crater his largest son had formed, not even a scratch on him as he merely engulfed said child in a leaping hug.
"Oh, Jugo-kun! I can always rely on you to call me tou-san!" the man roared in glee, the orange haired boy merely patting the large man on his shoulder as his voice returned to normal.
"There, there… you're embarrassing us all in front of our guests…"
"Right!" Hamaru called out as he jumped up, the earlier dirt and tears disappeared as if they were never there and all that the boys could do with that point is just accept the madness seemingly inherent in this family while hoping for a stealthy getaway.
"Allow me to introduce you all. The loudmouth at the front who just greeted you boys is Uzumaki Naruto. To his right are Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji. And on the left is my nephew, Kiba and his ninken Akamaru."
At that last one, all three boys picked up as they stared at the younger Inuzuka with interest.
"He's your family?" the pink-eyed one said curiously, having finally been put down by Guren after he (breathlessly) pointed out she was squeezing the air right out of him.
"Indeed. Hopefully, you'll meet others of the clan in time as we settle in here. Kiba and friends, meet my precious people. Kimimaro is the uptight one here in the front, the big guy here at my side is called Jugo and momma's boy over there is Yukimaru." The large Inuzuka said with a proud grin, which widened when both Yukimaru and Guren simply shrugged at his dig.
"I apologise for nothing." Guren boldly stated with her hands in her hips, getting a chuckle from Hamaru as he gave Jugo and Kimimaro a light push in the back.
"Go on, say hello. They will be your future comrades. After that, I think it's time for you all to go home, no?"
Choji easily agreed, while both Shikamaru and Kiba shared a nervous glance between each other as they realized they had never told their respective mothers they'd be out late today. Naruto on the other hand remained quiet.
Hands were quickly shook between all the boys (Kiba tried to squeeze Kimimaro's hand to no noticeable effect) before the Clan boys quickly ran off, one of them already thinking of what would be for dinner while the other two were mostly trying to come up with good excuses and running-away techniques. They were in such a hurry to leave in fact, that they hadn't even noticed that Yukimaru's handshake with Naruto had been strangely long.
Very long in fact, to the point that the blonde began looking creeped out by the other boy, who kept staring intensely at him.
"Uhmm… you can let go now… please?" Naruto stammered, getting a surprised look from Yukimaru.
"Wait, you don't feel it?" which caused the Uzumaki to blink in surprise as he stared at their clasped hands.
"What? Feel what?"
Seeing Yukimaru's baffled look, Hamaru spoke up.
"It's alright Yuki. Most of them, aside from B in Kumo, won't be nearly as connected with their burden as you are. Naruto here doesn't even know about it yet." The large Inuzuka explained, causing Naruto to frown.
"I don't know about what? I'm not dumb you know! I know lotsa stuff!" he began shouting, getting worked up even as he was still holding hands with Yukimaru, which made him look somewhat silly.
He appeared so utterly non-threatening in fact that neither of Yukimaru's brothers activated their own jutsu, which was somewhat of a blessing in disguise, given that they both looked scary enough in those forms that Naruto's screams would've attracted the personal attention of the Hokage himself.
"You're like me! We're Jinchuuriki." Yukimaru helpfully explained, which caused Naruto to halt mid-shout as he blinked at Yukimaru in surprise while behind him Hamaru face-palmed with enough strength to leave a red imprint of his clawed hand on his brow as he grit his teeth.
"Crap… guess that particular cat is out of the bag now… and I fucking hate cats…"
"We're a what-now?" Naruto asked as he rubbed his head, causing Hamaru to peek at the tiny blonde from between his fingers.
"… well, maybe not just yet."
"Maybe it's best that we leave that particular lesson until tomorrow? You know, given the state secrets involved?" Guren interjected, shooting a very obvious look towards a nearby rooftop.
Had Kiba's hearing been on the same level of his uncle (and had he not left already), he would've caught the muttered 'not again' that sounded utterly exasperated before the sound of a Shunshin sounded from atop the rooftop.
"Besides, I'm sure Naruto has to get home as well." Guren continued, though her gaze turned surprised when said Uzumaki's head dipped down.
"Ah, yeah sure. I mean… yeah, got plenty of people waiting for me, ha!" the blonde tried to brush off the woman's looks with an obviously pained smile and Guren glanced towards Hamaru with a questioning look.
When he mouthed 'orphan' back to her with a sombre expression, her eyes widened while the three brothers shared a look with her as well. Yukimaru was already nodding rapidly, moving his head just as fast as Kimimaro was vehemently shaking his 'no' instead. Jugo merely gave Guren a firm nod, displacing the small songbird that had nestled in his spikey hair. It tweeted in aggravation until Jugo gently picked up and placed it back among his orange locks. Meanwhile, Kimimaro pouted (though of course he'd never admit it) as he knew that he had been beat, shrugging his shoulders as he turned away from the group.
Yukimaru pumped his fist in silent victory as he punched his tallest brother friendly on the shoulder (Jugo being large enough he barely felt it) as Guren looked on with her hands on her hips and a proud smile.
"Uhm… are you guys ok?" Naruto's hesitant voice snapped the odd little family out of their mimed conversation and it was a widely grinning Hamaru who placed an enormous hand on the kid's shoulder, smiling down at the surprised looking blonde.
"How'd you like to stay for dinner as well, Naruto. The house is plenty big and we like having guests over. Or we can go out to these Ichiraku you were talking about earlier, I could go for some ramen." The large man offered, his deep and gravelly voice sounding warm.
Naruto's expression was gob-smacked for a long moment, before he hurriedly rubbed his suspiciously wet eyes with his sleeve as he tried (and absolutely failed) to play it cool.
"Uhm, yeah. That'd be cool. But…" Naruto spoke up hesitantly, before taking a deep breath as he steeled himself.
"But… are you sure you me want along? You're new here and people were already whispering about you… and they whisper about me too and-"
Hamaru seemed surprised at the thoughtfulness the blonde exhibited, before kneeling down with a smile that was somehow comforting despite the large canines he displayed.
"Let 'em whisper. Anything anyone has to say about me that they can't say to my face, is talk I couldn't care less about."
Naruto seemed stunned by the man's words before giving him a teary-eyed nod as Guren and Yukimaru looked on with smiles on their faces. Kimimaro was still shooting the blonde analysing looks as if he was picking apart a threat towards his family (which was true in a way, depending on how you looked at it and how aware you were of Konoha's ugly underbelly).
And Jugo was absorbed in the songbird's story about the noisy children its neighbours had just hatched and their atrocious parenting skills.
Fun Fact: Originally, Masashi Kishimoto wanted to write a story where the titular character was studying to be a chef. That story didn't make it to print, but Kishimoto did keep the character name for a one-shot he created for Shonen Jump. The idea was of a young boy named Naruto who could transform into a giant fox, though his father would be the fox that rampaged and destroyed a village.
