Author's note: So I've been gone longer than I meant to be due to having surgery and no computer access because of it. I'm finally getting better and have been able to get to my computer, so I can finally update like I have been wanting to.
They had been standing inside the hokage's office for about an hour now. They knew the kage was busy, but they had a duty to report to her before going anywhere else. She had been in a meeting since the day before though, if it was going this long just how long would they be waiting.
"God I need more saki… oh you guys are back" Tsunade walked into the office holding her head, bags under her eyes showing how tired she truly was. "Took you lot long enough," she stopped talking to let out a yawn. "To get back, fuck I'm tired. Alright give me your report Sasuke."
"I don't have one, there is still no sign of him, with your permission I would like to request Shikamaru back on our team and to join Lord Jiraiya and Kakashi sensei in Amegakure in searching for Naruto" Sasuke said bluntly.
Tsunade sighed she really needed a nap, "Fuck it all, follow me I need to show you something. I'm done explaining things a thousand fucking times. My kage bunshin got drunk and dispelled and now my hangover is worse. My head hurts, and I don't feel like dealing with anything. So you're going to follow me and if you ask me any questions I will punch you as hard as I can." All three shinobi gulped, but did as they were told and followed the women. Hopefully not to their deaths, because someone angered her quite a bit.
The three very quickly recognized where they were going, but still nothing. They didn't know why they were heading to where they were, but they didn't question it. Maybe there was a clue or something that would help them, but they weren't dumb enough to ask any questions.
It didn't take long to realize they were at the Namikaze compound. What could be here that was so important. The three started to wonder if Naruto was here the entire time, Sakura and Sasuke both knew they would kill him if that were true, but also knew that wasn't the case. If he was home it recently happened.
"OK BRAT GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE" Tsunade screamed out. Instantly Naruto, Minato and Kushina were all at the door, Naruto was smiling, Kushina and Minato had weapons in their hands ready to fight. Tsunade just looked annoyed, "Naruto how many times do I need to tell you not to make your clones transform into your parents, they're dead and should stay that way goddamnit, I do not have time for your antics, as you can see your retrieval team are back home" Tsuande said.
Minato and Kushina both felt their hearts pull, and the tension in the air quickly turned into sorrow as the two looked at their child. Tsunade quickly read the room and realized something was up before anyone could speak. Lee spoke up, "Oh Naruto-kun if I knew you were so lonely that you did this I would have made a harder effort to be there for you! I am so sorry Naruto-kun!" Lee said with tears in his eyes as he tried to wipe them away.
"Naruto why aren't your clones dispelling" Tsunade's voice got very quiet.
"They're not my clones, Hokage-sama," Naruto said, his voice a little sharp because of what she just said.
"Minato… Kushina" Tsuande didn't know what to say, and everyone else felt really awkward now. They felt like they shouldn't be here to witness this but now it was too late to back out.
"It's okay Tsuande you didn't know, we returned yesterday. It's a long story, but I think those three should leave and the four of us should return to my study to discuss" Minato said, immediately taking charge of the situation.
"I'll walk them out dad, I'll meet you three in the office. They have questions for me most likely and I have some things to answer for." Naruto stated, Minato nodded as he, Tsunade and Kushina walked away. Once the three were out of sight Lee tackled Naruto with a hug almost knocking the boy to the ground as he cried, "It's good to see you too Lee, I'm sorry this took so long and I hurt all of you. It's been crazy" Naruto met Sasuke's gaze expecting to see his sharingan raging and anger in his face but was surprised by what he saw. Sasuke was visibly upset, sorrow filling his face, his eyes their normal black.
"What happened? I know your strength, so how did you get caught" Sasuke asked, searching Naruto's face for an answer. Lee had backed off from the boy by now.
"I was overconfident, cocky and I let my power get to my head. I don't know what kind of genjutsu that man used on me, but it was one of the most powerful I've ever been put under. He got me and Kumara in an instant. The next thing I know I'm in Ame covered in chakra suppression seals barely able to stay conscious. In a twist of fate I convinced the leader of Akatsuki to change sides and he helped me escape. He and his partner are old students of Jiraiya, so that'll be a surprise for sure. We can talk more later, for now we are not to let the village know I'm back… but if you see Hinata send her here please I need to apologize to her." Naruto said very quickly.
Sasuke nodded, "No one will know, we will talk more later I'm still pissed at you" Naruto smirked as Sasuke's lip tugged upward.
"You still can't beat me in a fight teme," Naruto said smiling.
Sakura had enough of this and grabbed Sasuke by the scruff of his neck pulling him away, "Were leaving now" Sakura was obviously upset but it was clear Naruto needed to get going and she knew she was going to be the one to go and find Hinata. "There's still gonna be a lot of damage with you being home and a lot I'm most likely going to have to explain to people. It's best if we get going" Sakura said before turning around and getting ready to leave.
"No one's to know I'm home yet don't forget that please. Just wait until Tsunade gives the ok" Sakura just sighed as she walked away, Sasuke met Naruto's eyes and nodded. Their bond even in this new life of Naruto's transcended over and Naruto couldn't be happier he was able to save his brother.
Naruto turned around walking back to his fathers study to meet everyone, he hesitated before walking in. He decided to knock first just in case, "It's ok Naruto you can come in" Minato stated after hearing the knocks on the door.
Naruto opened the door up to see everyone but Minato standing, it looked as if he was the Kage in this moment with how much control over the entire situation he had. "So how much does Tsunade-baachan know?" Naruto asked, Tsuande grew a tick on her forehead but let it slide seeing as how she didn't want to upset Minato and Kushina.
Kushina chuckled to herself, "Baachan huh? It fits, seeing as how you still look like you're in your twenties Tsuande-san" Kushina said, trying not to laugh outright.
"I see my son picked up Kushina's habits of nicknames hokage-sama" Minato said chuckling, "Anyways we've explained everything, from here on out we need to figure out what the plan of action is. What are we going to do next tsunade?" Minato asked, becoming more serious, his voice completely even but showing that he was also in charge of the room.
"It's best to keep you a secret, but I also don't think that's completely possible unless you never leave this house. I don't know how we could even begin to explain this to the populace seeing as how you won't even be around forever anyways, you said at best you have a year? There's no good way to go about this"
"Uh… I actually have an idea" Naruto said, getting everyone's attention. "Why not just have them use transformation jutsu's so they are someone else and no one questions it. That way they can go out in public and no one will be the wiser." The three adults all sweat dropped at this explanation.
"How did none of us come up with this?" Minato asked as everyone chuckled.
"Because we were so focused on the fact that you two are alive is a huge accomplishment in and of itself, we wanted to find a way to introduce yourselves to the populace. We never thought of changing your identity, you could think of it as a undercover mission, except you could keep your names if you so chose to." Tsunade said, Minato and Kushina both nodding.
"OH! Kaa-chan, I have to bring Arashi-san by sometime! He said he watched over you when I met you before, he lives in the leaf now he's started on rebuilding the Uzumaki clan, and has had a LOT of kids!" Naruto said Kushina looked at Naruto dumbfounded before falling to her knees and crying.
"Arashi has been alive this entire time, and I never knew… oh my god" She started to break down, not knowing the man had survived the war. Minato quickly was by her side comforting his wife.
"It's okay Kushina, you didn't know, but it's okay, he's here and he's alive and happy. He even has a family, we can meet him. Just give it some time because it will be emotional for everyone" Minato said, Kushina took a minute to clean up her tears, she was so happy the man was alive. That he out of everyone survived and was doing good for himself.
"Minato, if you really want to be of some use, I could use your help with village reform, I want to get the village back on track to being one of the strongest village's out there. While we are a strong village, that's only because of a handful of strong ninja, I want our ninja coming from the academy to be on a higher and better level. I want better standards for our village, can you help?" Tsuande asked.
Minato smiled, "Of course, I had a lot of reform ideas that I never got to put into place seeing as my early release from the position." Minato quickly did a transformation jutsu, he didn't change much but he looked incredibly different. "Kushina, if you're gonna go out make sure you change your looks too, no one needs to know we're back besides the people in this room, save for Naruto's three friends from earlier." Minato stated as he got up to leave with Tsunade.
Naruto hugged his dad, "I'm glad you're back, I'm gonna take mom to see Arashi-san" Minato smiled and hugged his son.
"I'm proud of the ninja you've grown into" With that Minato grabbed Tsunade and instinctively hirashined to his mark in the hokage's office.
"Your father is gonna have to learn not to use that jutsu of his, alright now it's time for us to go see my favorite person ever!" Kushina said with an excited squeal before transforming into a new person, Naruto also used a transformation jutsu seeing as how he's not supposed to be home yet either.
The two now looking like whole new people left the house moving over to the Uzumaki compound. It took the two about ten minutes to get to the compound where little Uzumaki kids some with bright red hair other with different colored hair running around or waddling around with a bundle of mothers. The oldest kid had to be at least five. They were all so young, and there were so many, Kushina started to tear up. One of the moms approached the duo.
"Hi there! I'm Ameneka, how may I help you?" The woman said with a smile, it must not have been easy to join a brothel of women who share one man, but everyone here seemed happy nonetheless.
"Yes do you know where Arashi is? I'm an old friend of his from a long time ago and I know he would be delighted to see me." Kushina said with a friendly smile.
"Oh Arashi-kun, he's in the main house, do you two know where to go?"she asked as she soothed the child in her arms.
"I do, don't worry, I can lead the way for her. I've worked with Arashi a few times in the past when he was active duty" Naruto said, acting as if he was just another ninja. The woman nodded before walking away soothing the child in her arms as he started to wake up crying loudly.
Naruto led the way through the compound amazed at how different it looked, it seemed as if every time he came by here there was a new wife and more kids. He got to the main house where it seemed almost vacant, Naruto knocked on the door and Arashi answered, "Oh hello there how may I help you two?"
"May we come inside please? We have something important to tell you and it's not best to be shared with wandering ears" Naruto said, getting the man's attention as he seemed more serious. He led them inside to his private office after closing the door he gave the okay for them to say what needed to be said.
Naruto looked at his mother and she nodded, they both dispelled their transformation and when Arashi saw who was in front of him he fell to his knees. "Kushina-sama… Naruto-sama." His eyes started to tear up as he was overjoyed seeing the two, not even questioning how or why. He ran at them and held them tight crying, Kushina couldn't help it and she broke down with him. "Have you been alive this whole time Kushina-sama? Why did you leave me all alone, I waited! I waited for so long" The man cried hard and Naruto could see this was between the two of them as he backed off and sat down letting them get out their emotions as they needed too.
"No! That's not the case I swear to you Arashi! I would have never left you there if I knew you were alive. I was told from reports from the village after the war that no one survived! If I knew I would have come back for you I swear it." She was balling her eyes out, as was Arashi who was beyond ecstatic to see her.
"I've missed you so much Kushina, I did good, I've seen your son grow up to be a fine ninja, and I met someone, well more than someone, I have 12 wives now and I have kids with all of them. I'm bringing the clan back Kushina! I'm bringing them back, and the leaf has helped me so much with bringing them back they've given me so many resources it's amazing. Give us another 15 years and the Uzumaki clan will be remembered. It's law in our clan to learn fuinjutsu, I made sure of that. I've brought back almost every library from our home and they are here underground. Only an Uzumaki can get inside and even then, you need level's of fuinjutsu just to get to most scrolls, very few are even accessible to just anyone. Our clan's heritage will be safe and it's all because of Naruto, my first son is named after him, my first daughter was named after you!" Arashi was rambling and he didn't care. He was so happy to be able to see his little Kushina again.
After about ten minutes of the two going back and forth about all of Arashi's kids Naruto finally intervened. "Are you happy I'm alive too Arashi-san" Arashi quickly looked back to NAruto.
"I'm so sorry Naruto-sama! I didn't mean to forget you" Naruto was attacked with another hug.
"I offered to help look for you but Tsunade-sama wouldn't allow it, after you were captured by Akatsuki I was so worried, but she wouldn't allow me, and I had my family I couldn't just leave but.." Naruto cut him off, not even worried in the slightest.
"I would have been mad at you if you left your family for silly old me and got killed. Someone needs to teach your family the way of the Uzumaki and only you can do that correctly. I'm glad you didn't just up and leave Arashi." Naruto said, Arashi sighed a defeated sigh and smiled.
"How are you alive Kushina? How did that come to be?" Arashi just couldn't believe it.
"That would be my husbands doing actually. Before I got pregnant with Naruto here, I helped him create a jutsu to sustain and hold a blood clone of me and him in stasis and collect chakra while in stasis so to be around in case something happened to one of us. We were trying to have a kid and decided that in case something happened to one of us it would be good to have a backup just in case even if they could only be around for a little while. Well being in stasis for 18 years has given us enough chakra to survive for about a year as long as we don't exert ourselves too much. Also since we are blood clones we can actually be cut and take physical damage without disappearing right away. The first thing me and Minato did was replace the clone in the seal just in case after we got out." Kushina said Arashi was hanging on to every word she was saying.
"So you're saying you finally perfected the stasis seal! Just imagine if we had that before the war, how many people we could have brought back now. It would have changed so much, I know we can't focus on the past but just imagine." Arashi said. Kushina grinned and walked over to Arashi's desk grabbing some parchment and ink. She then took her time and wrote out the entire seal formula. She didn't condense the formula into the seal instead called over Arashi who came and looked at it. His eyes widened as he saw the complexity of the seal, but he understood it.
"How… how could we have been so dumb as to forget such a simple piece, human preservation, how could we have overlooked it, using time space seals to preserve the person as they are and to stop the aging process by holding them in a single moment.. It's brilliant, your husband is brilliant!" Arashi was gonna start rambling but thankfully stopped himself. The Uzumaki are smart when it comes to seals, and even the best of masters can be surprised by anything, even simple things can be surprising when a creative and imaginative mind is put to work.
"Minato truly is something else, he's a genius above no else, it's part of what attracted me to him." Kushina had a very nostalgic look on her face, clearly remembering better times with her significant other. "But that's not the only thing of course, that man is an idiot let me tell you, for as smart as he is, he's an idiot as well" Kushina said with a chuckle. "But for now we need to get going, we're staying at the Namikaze compound. Seeing how long you've been here and how acquainted with Naruto you are I can assume you know where that is. If you ever come by I'll make sure to introduce you to my husband." Kushina said, Arashi smiled widely and nodded before coming in to hug Kushina.
"You have no idea how much I've missed you Kushina. I will definitely come by and see you and your husband. You also should be proud of your son, he's done extraordinary since I've met him. He's a beast of a ninja, no one can stop him." Arashi told her before backing off. He went and hugged Naruto as well, surprising the boy, "It's good seeing you again Naruto-sama, I'm glad that you're safe after the whole Akatsuki ordeal."
"Yea that was a bad situation all and all, I was going through a lot, but I'm back now. Physically and mentally, and I'm ready to do things the right way this time to stop the Akatsuki." Naruto stated while making a fist and punching his hand. Arashi smiled and gave Naruto another quick hug.
Kushina and Naruto transformed once again before the two took off. They passed through the Uzumaki compound and Kushina couldn't help but almost cry as they walked through when she saw all the red headed kids around, and all the babies and all the smiles. Something she didn't think would make her so happy. The two walked through the village taking the long way back around to their home. Kushina couldn't help but see how much had changed in the village in the years since she had been dead. It was strange to her to think that even though she was here and walking around, that she was also dead, and buried somewhere in the village next to Minato. It was crazy to her, her stomach started to rumble and she realized she was hungry.
"Are you hungry? I'm getting hungry" Kushina said off hand to her son as they walked through the busy village.
"Want some ramen? I know a great place" Naruto said with an excited smile.
"I actually can't stand ramen, I think its disgusting," Kushina said, making Naruto stop in his place.
"You are no mother of mine," Naruto said, appalled by the words that came out of his mother's mouth.
"God, you are just like your father. He's obsessed with ramen, used to take me to this little stand all the time, and I hated it, would only ever eat one bowl. Let's go to a dango shop" Kushina said, meanwhile Naruto was trying not to cry. How could his own mother hate the food of the gods, even Arashi loved ramen. He faked anime cried while he walked them to a good Dango shop that wasn't too far from them.
It didn't take long for them to get their dango and start eating. Kushina had the biggest smile on her face as she ate the food, she was even doing a little happy dance while she ate. Naruto could see what his father saw in his mother. It was really cute, he couldn't help but chuckle, "Aye! Don't laugh at me, I'm your mother! Dattebane!" Kushina said, which made Naruto laugh even harder, Kushina couldn't help but smirk before she chuckled too, "What's even so funny anyways" Kushina said as they calmed down.
"Nothing, I could just see why dad fell for you when you were dancing while eating the dango." Naruto said while scratching the back of her head. Kushina smiled and went back to eating her dango, it was crazy to think that it was just yesterday she was made as a clone and put into a seal, and now it's years later, and she's eating food with her 17 year old son in the future. She tried not to cry knowing that she never got to see him as a child growing up, and never got to love him how he needed. She looked up at her son eating and saw him doing a little mini dance of his own and she smiled. She could see the little bits of her and Minato in him and she was happy with how her son turned out.
Authors Note: Letting this chapter end on a happy note, it was a bit of a filler chapter, but there is plenty more to come. I hope you all enjoyed this. I will do my best to try and update as soon as I can. Until then, have a great time!