Chapter Six

The next morning saw Naruto's class at the Academy (nicknamed by some the "Little Head" class due to the inordinate number of clan heirs among its numbers — a grand total of six) once again out on the training field for taijutsu practice. This, of course, made it very difficult for Naruto to keep quiet, much less still. Though he didn't know it yet, he was a kinesthetic learner, one who learned by doing. And the opportunity to burn off some of his energy in a sanctioned activity was like the light of the Pure Lands within the purgatory that was the Academy.

As usual before taijutsu practice, Naruto glanced at his chosen rival in all things: Sasuke Uchiha.

Naruto pressed his lips together as he brooded over the kid so many teachers "whispered" about being a prodigy. And as he brooded, he thought back to Cousin Ken's story about the Six-Way Wise Man, or something like that. About his two sons, one a natural and one a hard worker. And in the end the hard worker won, because he worked hard and never gave up.

That thought coolled his animosity and he returned his attention to Instructor Daikuko explaining the sparring exercise. "The match will end if one participant resigns or if I call the match. If I call the match, you will stop immediately. This is just a spar, we don't want anyone getting hurt." Naruto scoffed at that. He'd been hurt way worse than anyone else in these and Daikuko had never once called the match to spare him. Not that any injuries had stuck around, and now he knew why.

"What was that, Uzumaki?" Daikuko snapped.

"Just ready for you to finish up so we can actually show what we've got, y'know!"

The instructor grit his teeth, the veins in his forehead throbbing. "Very well, Uzumaki. If you're so eager, you're the first one to go!"

Naruto pumped his fist and leapt into the sparring ring, loosening himself up for his favorite part of the day, besides ramen. "I choose Sasuke Uchiha as my opponent!" he shouted dramatically. Everyone groaned at the completely unsurprising choice. And he was the only one who consistently chose Sasuke, as if he enjoyed being beaten into the ground.

Sasuke entered the sparring ring with a resigned air. "Let's get this over with, idiot. So I can move on to those who can actually test my skills."

Naruto almost fired back a (less than) witty remark, but bit it back. Ken had warned him about getting distracted or wasting your energy on words. Actions speak louder than words, he'd said. Time to show this jerk loud and clear that he was not someone to be overlooked!

"Hajime. Fight!"

"A D-rank?!" Aoba cried, genuine despair lacing his tone. "Please, Lord Hokage, you cannot be serious!"

"I am quite serious, Yamashiro," Hiruzen replied levelly. "Yes, I am aware of each of your ranks, particularly your own. But this new team is hardly two days old. You need time to polish your teamwork and to understand each other's abilities and limits before you can take a serious mission."

While Aoba hung his head in despair, an imaginary dark cloud almost visible over his head, Ken stepped forward. "Lord Hokage, I have some mission experience," he pointed out. "It's in the file I gave you with my registration forms."

"Yes, I know. I looked over those this morning. And while I will admit that your mission record does permit a C-rank, my earlier point still stands, as does my decision."

Ken nodded and stepped back into line. Frankly, as long as he started bringing in money, he didn't care what kind of missions they got. He was only making the case for his new teammate's sake.

"Now then, you're options are walking a pack of the Inuzuka's dogs, weeding a vegetable garden, painting a fence-"

"Painting a fence!" Ken shouted abruptly. He blushed under everyone's sudden scrutiny and took a breath. "If it's okay with the rest of the team, I request the fence mission."

Tomoko shrugged, still looking puzzledly at Ken, and Aoba straightened up and resigned himself to the inevitable. "At least it's not that damned cat," he muttered to himself.

"Very well," Hiruzen agreed, handing Tomoko the mission scroll. "Report to the address as soon as possible." The three ninja bowed and left, but not before Ken passed the Hokage a sealed envelope and a level look. Hiruzen placed it on his desk to look over when the morning's mission assignments were done, already anticipating lines of questioning and replies.

When Team TAK left Hokage Tower, Ken made an immediate beeline for home, only to be stopped by Aoba grabbing the hood of his shirt. "I know you're new to Konoha, Uzumaki. So I can tell you that the client's location is that way," he said levelly, pointing in the opposite direction.

"If you say so, but we're not going there yet," Ken explained.

"Uncle said to get there ASAP," Tomoko pointed out, more to prod the situation than anything.

"Yes, but I've got something at my house that will speed it up. And since I don't know Konoha well yet, I'll need at least one of you to guide me to the address."

Tomoko and Aoba looked at each other and shrugged. "I'll go with Red, here," she said, "you rendezvous with the client as the ranking officer. We'll be there as soon as possible." Aoba shrugged in resignation before taking to the rooftops. Ken nodded his thanks for her support and took the lead toward the Sarutobi compound, and by extension his current home.

"I just realized how close we actually live to each other," Ken commented. "Assuming, of course, you live in your clan compound."

"Of course I do," she smirked. "It's a clan compound for a reason. But what I can't seem to figure out is where you would have accumulated mission experience before now. Didn't you just join Konoha's shinobi corp?"

"I did. That's why I'm eager to get this mission done and on to the next. I need to start up real income. Which reminds me, if you know anyone who needs the services of a sealing specialist, let me know."

Tomoko nodded and thought it over a bit more. "So you've been a member of a different village before?"

"Nope, just here."

"So how does that work?"

Ken chuckled sardonically. "Not every village is as large or as influential as Konoha. The hidden villages of smaller nations have smaller budgets, few if any ninja clans, and much smaller overall populations — which means fewer ninja, which means fewer exceptional ninja. Very few of repute, like Konoha's Professor, Yellow Flash, Sannin, White Fang, Copy Ninja … I could go on."

"Okay, I can understand that. But it doesn't answer my question."

"Well, because of their low number of ninjas, a lot of the smaller villages have taken on a much more freelance-friendly mission system that is open to whomever will take the job. So long as someone passes a basic exam and is willing to take a mission, it's theirs. The village gets their money, and so does the ninja. Heck, Tanigakure, the Village Hidden in Valleys, has a big tackboard covered in mission fliers. You take one, register with an administrator, do the mission, bring back the mission scroll signed by the client and get paid. Simple, easy, quick."

"And you did missions for these villages? In that kind of system? It sounds like something that would attract mercenaries," Tomoko commented.

"I have, and they do. Small hidden villages can only compete with the big boys because of location and low mission costs. Few poor farmers so far away can afford a Konoha mission, much less pay a courier to make the request. Unless it is dire or the client is moderately well-off, the close-by and cheaper local hidden village gets their business. And even then it's usually barely enough to keep the village afloat."

Before Tomoko could really process this revelation about the hidden village system, they were passing the Sarutobi clan compound and landing at the front door of the Uzumaki's assigned quarters. "I'll be right back," he called. And true to his word he was back in less than five minutes.

"Let's go!" he cried, leaping for a rooftop before hopping back. "I still don't know where we're going," he admitted.

Tomoko giggled and took the lead.

"Winner, Sasuke Uchiha!"

Such an announcement was not unexpected in these class spars. Sasuke was easily the best of the class, Uchiha blood or no. Few of his classmates could give him a genuine challenge, something that he both derided and secretly enjoyed. True, he had no real way to test his skills unless he fought the instructors, but it was a continuous sign that he was better than the norm. And that fed both his one goal and his pride.

But today was a bit different.

The idiot Naruto had challenged him again, which Sasuke didn't really mind as much as he seemed to. Naruto was unfocused, sure, but he was also wily and unpredictable. If nothing else, these spars let him gauge his own stamina and to hone his reactions.

But today Naruto had gone from unpredictable to totally out of left field. Rather than come at him with some unrefined variation on the Academy taijutsu style, he'd held back and seemed to try and anticipate Sasuke's own attack. Thrown off guard by this, Sasuke could in hindsight see he had gotten impatient and decided to get in the first attack.

An attack that was batted aside with one hand while the other launched a quick palm-strike to his upper-sternum, right below the throat. For a moment, Sasuke had been impressed … then Naruto had laughed out loud and proclaimed loudly that "He did it!" That had convinced Sasuke that that devastating counter (for a seven-year-old) had been a fluke.

But it hadn't.

Oh sure, Naruto was still leagues below Sasuke in raw talent and practiced skill, but he'd clearly gotten better. And not just in his new style, but in strategy and (by the barest amount) in self-discipline. Which led Sasuke to one clear conclusion: Naruto Uzumaki now had a teacher.

Which made no sense. From what he could tell, most people in the village, if not all, held some kind of negative regard for Naruto, ranging from muted dislike to silent hatred. So where would he suddenly find a teacher who knew a taijutsu style that Sasuke was completely unaware of and was a good enough teacher to improve Naruto's skills so clearly in just a weekend?

Sasuke didn't like being in the dark. So along with his resolution to push his own training up a bit, he decided to keep an eye on the hyperactive blond. Something was changing in the schoolyard … and he wondered if it could benefit his goal.

"That is a lot of fence," Ken commented. And it really was. The fence, a clear head taller than any of them, extended over a hundred yards from end to end.

"What is even the point of a fence that long?" Tomoko asked.

"The owners of these houses," Aoba explained, gesturing to the row of single-story houses barely visible behind the top of the fence, "pooled their money for a single mission to paint it. They figured it would be faster than even hiring a civilian contractor, not to mention overall cheaper."

"Well, they're about to be proven right," Ken smirked as he started popping open the provided cans of white paint.

"I'm glad you're optimistic, Uzumaki. Because this mission you chose is going to take all day," Aoba groused.

"Would you like to pace a wager on that?" Ken asked.

Aoba's eyebrows rose behind his shades. He'd always prided himself on his intuition, and it was screaming at him that accepting any kind of wager at the moment was a bad idea. But then again … "What kind of wager?"

"I'll bet you half your share of the mission pay I can do this in less than half an hour. And if I succeed, we do another mission for the day before training. If I lose, I'll give you half of my mission pay and paint your portion of the fence." He grinned mischievously. "And to sweeten the deal, I'll even swear off shadow clones for this bet."

Aoba was silent for a few moments as he seriously considered it. His intuition was screaming at him that something was not right. This bet was stacked way too high in his favor. But the idea of getting time-and-a-half mission pay was enticing, and no matter which way the wager turned out, he wouldn't have to paint at all!

"Fine, you have a bargain," Aoba agreed, holding out his hand. Ken shook, and the wager was set. He removed a stopwatch from his gear pouch and set it to count down from thirty minutes. When he'd removed the lid from the final paint can, he started the timer.

But rather than lunge for the paintbrushes, Ken removed a small notepad from his pocket. Wait, not a notepad … a book of sealing tags?

Ken began removing tags and placing them in the paint. With a puff of smoke, the complete contents of each can would disappear. After emptying each and every can, Ken began methodically pacing in front of the fence, placing the tags at regular intervals. After barely three minutes, the tags were placed and Ken made a hand seal to activate them.

The seals lit up — and snow-white paint began to smoothly flow from each of them, like ink spreading from a spilled inkpot, to uniformly cover the fence. In less than thirty seconds, the fence was white and shining with an even coat of paint.

"Unbelievable," Aoba groaned as Ken began removing the spent tags.

"Not bad," Tomoko smirked. She wondered how long Ken had been considering the exact wording of that bet. "I'll go get the client. We'll report to Uncle and get our second mission."

"Now who can tell me the name of the First Hokage?" Iruka asked the class. Several hands shot up, including Sakura Haruno's and, surprisingly enough, Naruto Uzumaki's. "Naruto?" Iruka called.

"Hashirama Senju," Naruto replied confidently. "His brother Tobirama Senju was the second, then Gramps is the third, and Minato Namikaze was the fourth."

"Naruto, you should not speak of Lord Hokage like that!" Iruka scolded, then he gave a soft smile. "Other than that, very good."

Naruto grinned and listened to this particular lesson on the achievements of Konoha's past Hokage. This topic had always interested him ever since Grandpa Hokage had brought it up during one of their occasional meals together, hoping for any hints or directions to becoming Hokage. The only thing he'd ever pieced together was that family ties and teacher-student ties had linked them together. And Cousin Ken's story about where the Uzumaki came from actually made him even more determined. He was a distant relative of the Senju, which meant he was family!

And even more than that, the Fourth had always been his hero for defeating the Nine-Tails — the revelation two days ago that it had been sealed inside him of all people hadn't changed that. He was sure the Lord Fourth had done the best he could with what he had.

Naruto placed a hand over his belly at the thought of the Fox. To think that a monster powerful enough to take on an entire hidden village and almost win was sealed inside him. As it had been sealed inside his mother. Kushina.

Naruto shook his stray thoughts away and tried to pay attention to the class. But a part of him filed away the thought to ask Ken if he knew anything else about his parents.

"So what's the story behind those sealing tags?"

Ken jerked the potato plant he'd been harvesting a little too hard, drawing the shouts of their employer to be careful. Ken smiled apologetically in the client's direction, which seemed to mollify the farmer, and returned the plant to the soil to water it thoroughly.

"What makes you think there's a story?" Ken asked.

"Because I'm at least somewhat familiar with sealing theory," Tomoko replied with a grin. "And a seal with such a specified task takes a while to develop, trial and error and experimentation. Those tags of yours worked way too efficiently to have been made up on the spot."

Ken shrugged in compliance. "You've got a point. The truth is that I did several D-ranks just like that one when I was starting out. My grandfather began my sealing training when I was very young. After my first painting job, I began playing around with the idea as a kind of side job. After a few tries, I got it down and used them for the exact reason I did today. I could do a job that took several hours in a few minutes and work in one or two more D-ranks in a single day."

Ken grinned at the memory of their report to the Hokage, who had been quite amused with Ken's handling of the mission. And when they had been paid, Ken had held out his hand to Aoba, who had handed over the half from their wager without complaint.

"Was money really that tight?" Tomoko asked.

"Why are you asking me so many questions?" Ken asked with a forced laugh. To be honest, her curiosity was starting to bother him. Years of paranoia about his heritage being found out didn't go away quickly.

"Just curious," she said, pulling another plant out and pulling away the tubers before replanting it. "About that, and about how much you actually know about sealing. You clearly have some skills given this," she patted her back where her new anti-genjutsu seal would have been, "but that doesn't give me any real idea."

"I was named a sealing master by my grandfather last year, based on the Uzushiogakure system. And that system is way more strenuous than anywhere else in the world. Our skill with sealing is one of the things that led to the downfall of the village."

"One of?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ken replied, his tone ringing with an air of finality. She shrugged and let it pass. Ken's demons were his own business, for now.

Tomoko straightened up and cast a glance over the large potato field they had been hired to harvest from. Given the time of year it was to be one of the last potato harvests of the season, so the farmer was eager to get them done so the plants could churn out one more round before the first frost of the year.

Upon being assigned their task, Ken had taken the liberty to create two shadow clones, which had then each created five more. With a dozen extra hands, the work was going even faster than she could have hoped. And that had made her want to learn that particular technique even more. She'd have to talk to one of the clan elders for permission to learn it, assuming they judged her chakra levels high enough.

"So how's it going with the little kit?" she asked, with a smirk.

Ken stabbed his gardening fork into the ground and fixed her with a genuinely angry look. "What did you just say?" he snapped.

Tomoko held up her hands. "Sorry. It was just a joke. Like I said, I know some of the theory behind seals, and Uncle was very clear to explain to us who didn't know when it became apparent that people were treating the kid so badly. I just thought it was a cute nickname, what with his whiskers and all."

Ken narrowed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "It's going fine, I guess?"

"You don't sound too sure about that."

"I'm not, Tomoko. I don't have any experience with kids and I'm scared I'll do something stupid before long."

Tomoko chuckled. "Oh you will, I can guarantee it." He glanced at her nervously, his eyes practically screaming 'Not helping'. "You're human, and so is he. You're going to make mistakes. The important thing is that you want to acknowledge them and move forward. It's like any relationship, especially in a family."

Ken thought over her words and continued his work. "How do you know all of this?"

"Not a lot of people realize it, but the Sarutobi clan is a pretty big one. I've had to watch out for my cousins for most of my life, and I've gotten a good look at family dynamics because of it. Heck, my little brother is a handful, himself, and I've made my share of screw-ups with him. But I've learned that kids are resilient. You'll do fine as long as you keep him in line and love him." Ken smiled, genuinely smiled, at the advice and nodded his thanks.

With that, the two silently agreed to finish the mission as efficiently as possible in companionable silence.

After night had settled onto Konoha, and after extra training, dinner, and more chakra control exercises, Ken finally had time to look at the letter he had received from Lord Hokage after their second mission. Ken had asked in his own letter about any unusual traits that Naruto may have due to his tenant, and now he had his answer. And the results were most … intriguing.

According to the Hokage's predictions, the Fox's influence on Naruto's physicality would serve to amplify his stamina and healing abilities even further than his Uzumaki heritage. And in addition, thanks to the Uzumaki style seal that contained the beast, it's chakra would leak from the seal and naturally mix with his own, amplifying his chakra reserves to remarkable levels, even now.

Ken tapped the letter to his lip and came to a decision. It was time he used his best Uzumaki skill for something other than security and parlor tricks to speed up D-ranks. He had not wanted to push things, but it was high time he did what he should have done the day he'd learned about Naruto's unique status.

"Naruto, come in here, please." Ken set the letter down and took a deep breath to prepare himself. When Naruto came bounding in, already dressed in a sleep shirt and nightcap, Ken gestured to the couch. "Lay down on your back. It's time I took a look at that seal of yours."

Naruto's eyes ballooned and he took a step back before regaining control of himself and nodding resolutely. He lay down and lifted his shirt. "Okay, focus your chakra into your belly, if you can." Naruto screwed his face up in concentration, but he managed to do as Ken asked.

Ken knelt and examined the seal closely. Though he was unfamiliar with the seal itself, he could definitely pick up on the Uzumaki influence. Odd … eight trigrams were unusual for an Uzumaki seal, unless this was- ah, it was a double seal specifically rigged to allow for the chakra leak and assimilate with the host's reserves. He noticed a pair of aberrations consistent with chakra imprints … failsafes, perhaps? The seal was even designed for customized integrity through a sealing key, which would allow one to do anything from totally restrict chakra leakage to release the Fox in an instant.

Given the complexity of the seal and the apparent circumstances in which it had been created, Ken had to admit he wasn't just impressed, he was stunned. Lord Minato had clearly known his sealing arts, especially with Uzumaki teachings from Kushina. The only flaw he could really see was that the leakage would gradually weaken the seal, like miniscule cracks in a dam slowly widening to eventually compromise the structure. The sealing key would no doubt be able to fix that, but he had no idea where it was.

Hmm … Well, until he could track it down, he'd have to keep an eye on the seal. The weakening, if his mental calculations were right, wouldn't become a problem for several years.

"Okay Naruto, you're free to go." The boy sighed gratefully and put his shirt back down as he got up.

"If you say so." He gave a wide yawn and stretched, scratching his back for good measure. "I'm headed to bed. Gotta get a good night's sleep if I'm gonna have to stay awake in class tomorrow."

Ken chuckled at that. Iruka had cornered him as he'd picked Naruto up and informed him of Naruto's tendency to sleep in class, somehow extracting a promise that he'd talk to Naruto about it. He had done so, using the idea that falling asleep meant he would fall behind on his pursuit of the Hokage mantle. He hated taking advantage of Naruto's dream like that, but he wasn't wrong at all.

He bid Naruto goodnight with a ruffle of his hair. When he heard the door to Naruto's bedroom clase, he glanced at the living room chair and decidedly turned away. He'd done enough thinking tonight. Naruto was right, it was time to sleep.

But as he lay in his bed, Ken couldn't help the feeling that the peace he and Naruto had shared for their first few days as a new family would not last forever. Sooner or later, the other shoe would drop. And he did not look forward to what may result.

Another chapter. I got to explore a bit of world building in this one and am happy with how it turned out.

*The idea of minor hidden villages being more freelance-style is my own head canon. The line about Tanigakure having a mission board was inspired by "Fairy Tail" and the mission board in the guild house.

*For any of you who is concerned about Naruto getting crazy strong too fast, rest assured it's not gonna happen. Naruto has just started learning under a dedicated, one-on-one teacher and will progress about as naturally as I can conceive. He will get better and even reach a higher class ranking, but he won't be rookie of the year.

*The idea that the Sarutobi clan is quite well numbered is based on a shot from the Shinobi Forces battle with the Ten-Tails. A line of at least sixteen Sarutobis stretching into the distance lit up the quicklime used to trap it. That's at least sixteen active shinobi who would all have families. To me it's not a difficult leap in logic.

*Ken's quick assessment of Naruto's seal is due to 1) Him being a seal master, and 2) His extensive experience with Uzumaki-style seals.

Hope you all enjoyed it! If so, leave a review! I love hearing support from all of you.