Chapter Seven
Over the next two weeks that Team TAK was relegated to D-ranks, life for the Uzumakis developed something of a pattern. After dropping Naruto off at the Academy, Ken would meet his team for training, both to hone their skills and to learn how to cooperate with each others' abilities. Then they'd take a few D-ranks (often bolstered by shadow clones), Ken would pick Naruto up, they'd train until they couldn't stand, talk about their day as they ate dinner, meditate (it had been a thorn in Ken's side to teach the ever-energetic and zero-attention-span Naruto to do so) and go to sleep. Then rise and repeat the next day.
The only hiccup in that routine had been the Hokage's pronouncement of the dissolution of the Nine-Tails Secrecy Law. Ken had held Naruto close to him as they stood at the front of the crowd and Lord Hiruzen had delivered not only the news, but his assurance as the fabled Professor and God of Shinobi that Naruto was his own person and not the Fox, along with his vast disappointment in the people of the village for how they had treated Naruto all these years. He'd cut it short after that to prevent any allegations of favoritism, but the damage was done.
Naruto's peers now knew the truth.
Ken was relieved to hear that Naruto was not rejected in his class, at least no more so than usual. He'd acquired quite a reputation as a troublemaker over the years, and even then it would take time for the students to open up to the idea that Naruto wasn't dangerous, as their parents had said. But the word of the Hokage, backed up by Iruka on a more personal level, seemed to ease their minds. Iruka himself had been kind enough to inform him of that.
It was early in this time that Lord Hiruzen had also issued the promised blood and chakra tests for his council's sakes. The redhead had been less than pleased, but he could understand the risk of a false Uzumaki running around the village and had participated without complaint. As expected, the results were positive, matched against the records of the legendary (among the clan) Mito Uzumaki and Naruto's mother Kushina. The event had, as a side effect, also left Ken with a distaste for the faceless Danzo Shimura who had apparently spearheaded the tests.
In addition, Ken was given materials to study for a citizenship test, which he passed by the skin of his teeth. It was lucky that the history of Uzushiogakure so clearly mirrored that of Konoha or else he would likely have failed.
The pattern was only truly broken by the Hokage's latest pronouncement for Team TAK.
"A C-rank?" they chorused in surprise. Aoba seemed thrilled, even if he quickly retreated to his stoic facade, while Tomoko was more subtly pleased and Ken was just stunned.
"Indeed, a C-rank. I believe the three of you are ready to handle such a thing." He passed the mission scroll to Tomoko who, after a glance for permission to her uncle and a nod granting it, opened the assignment.
"We'll be escorting a trio of caravans, and the merchants who own them, from Tanzaku Town to the Land of Cliffs, where we'll rendezvous with Takigakure ninjas who will take them the rest of the way home."
"Given that it's a C-rank, I assume there's no reasonable chance of shinobi involvement," Aoba noted.
"That is the assumption of the merchants," Hiruzen confirmed. "But, as they say, it is wise to hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
"And we are considered preparation for the worst?" Ken asked.
Hiruzen smiled. "I have faith in the three of you to handle this. Besides, it will allow each of you to work outside the village. At any rate, you have your assignment. Take no more than an hour to prepare and you will have time for a relaxed pace toward Tanzaku Town. You'll be leaving with the caravan at dawn tomorrow. The team leader will be decided among yourselves. You are dismissed."
With a respectful bow, the trio left the Hokage's office. But as they left the Tower, Ken was hurriedly trying to come up with a solution to the problem it presented. An escort mission like this would take several days at the least … so what would he do with Naruto in the meantime?
With these thoughts in his head, he couldn't help but glance at the Hokage Tower's adjacent building, the Academy. Very few people seemed to be able to tolerate Naruto, in fact the only one that came to mind was— Ken stopped in his tracks as the best and only idea he had slowly unfolded.
"-meet at the west gate in a half hour," Tomoko was saying.
"Right. West gate in a half hour," Ken confirmed. With that, he rushed into the Academy building.
"Now then, class, we'll be continuing our lesson on the Five Great Nations, starting on the Land of-" Iruka's lecture was interrupted by a brisk knock at the classroom's door. "Um, come in," he called hesitantly. The door opened to reveal a familiar redhead looking embarrassed. "Mister Uzumaki?"
"Hi, Cousin Ken!" Naruto shouted from the back of the room. "Are you teaching here now?"
"Naruto, do not yell in my classroom!" Iruka thundered.
Ken chuckled nervously. "No, Naruto. I just need to borrow Instructor Iruka for a moment." Ken looked at him with a pleading expression, one that brought Naruto himself to mind.
Iruka sighed and appointed Sakura Haruno to keep an eye on the class before stepping into the hall. "What can I help you with, Ken?" he asked.
Ken scratched the back of his head before answering. "Firstly, I apologize for interrupting your class. But I don't have much time."
"Time for what?"
"The Hokage has assigned an escort mission to my team. Which means I'll be gone for at least a week. And I was wondering if, um, maybe … you could keep an eye on Naruto for that time?"
Iruka raised an eyebrow at that. "You want me to babysit one of my students?"
Ken sighed through his teeth. "Essentially, yes. I know it's sudden, but I can't think of anyone else I can trust with him. You, at least, seem to honestly care about him."
Iruka looked down as he thought it over. On one hand, Naruto had been fine on his own for all of his life before Ken showed up, and he really didn't need a child running around after class. On the other … it was Naruto.
"I'll do it," he finally said.
Ken sighed with relief. "Thank you, Iruka. I'll happily pay you when I get back, of course."
Iruka shook his head with a smile. "That's not necessary. I'm just looking out for a student."
Ken chuckled and pulled a roll of bills from his pocket. "Well I insist you at least let me pay for Naruto's care. And I insist you use our home."
Iruka was about to refuse when he caught the look in Ken's eyes. The last part wasn't a polite offer — it was a demand. "Uh, o-okay."
"Good," Ken said. "Naruto has a key to get past the security seals inside the house. The doors stay closed and locked when not in use and do not, under any circumstances, let someone in. Is that clear?"
Iruka felt he should be affronted that this genin was making demands of him during a favor, but the intense way he was talking made him more worried than anything. "Ken, is everything alright?"
The Uzumaki tensed for a moment. "Let's just say that letting you into that house is a gesture of immense good faith. There's things in there that … people … would pay through the nose, among other things, to get their hands on."
Iruka processed that for a moment before nodding resolutely. "You'll find the house exactly as you left it," he promised. Ken smiled tightly and nodded in turn and handed the roll of bills to Iruka before departing with last-minute thanks.
As he left, Iruka noted to himself to do a little research on the Uzumaki clan. What on earth could be in that house that was as valuable as Ken had implied?
In less than the given half hour, Team TAK was mobilized, packed, and passing through Konoha's western gate for Tanzaku Town, jumping in the trees when they could. Aoba, as the ranking officer and therefore voted as mission leader, estimated that they would arrive at the town by early evening at their relatively leisurely pace — an estimation that proved spot on.
As the sun began reached the midway point between noon and the horizon and they entered the town, Ken — now wearing a transformation seal like the one he'd had when he'd first entered Konoha to hide his fair skin and Uzumaki red hair — tensed up at the number of people in such a small space.
The town was even more populated than the Leaf Village and covered far less area. People seemed to be packed onto the sidewalks like sardines, children running in the streets when there weren't carriages or carts making their way through. He began to get twitchy as years of conditioning to avoid crowds and remain out of the public eye prodded him to do something about it.
He finally broke out of his trance when Tomoko took hold of the headband around his neck from behind to halt his pace. He'd almost taken a wrong turn, too distracted with trying to keep everyone here in his line of sight to keep his focus on his teammates. You know, the ones who actually had the client's location.
"Ken, are you alright?" she asked, her voice pitched high over the clamor of the crowd.
"I'll be fine!" he shouted back. Which was true — he'd be fine once they were off the streets. "Let's just find a place to stay!"
After a bit of searching, the trio found an inn that struck a good balance of cleanliness, affordability, and the all-too-necessary vacancy. Tomoko, showing a surprising penchant for haggling, was able to barter a good deal on a pair of adjoining rooms, one for Tomoko, and one for Aoba and Ken to share. They took the keys and climbed the rickety staircase to the rooms, Ken passing them each a scroll he had sealed their gear and provisions into before leaving the village. (Ken himself never went on a mission carrying a pack — that's what storage seals were for.)
Aoba unsealed his gear and began gathering a change of clothes for the morning when the crinkling of paper caught his attention. He turned to find Ken placing sealing tags all over the walls and on the room's small window. He could only stare as the Uzumaki continued his work, the movements so practiced as to seem almost ritualistic, finally finishing with a trio of tags on the door.
With that done, Ken turned and froze in the wake of Aoba's shaded stare. After a few moments of awkward silence, "Do you ever take those shades off? Even at night?"
Aoba snorted with a grin. "No. If I ever did, no one would recognize me. Which is exactly the point." His faint grin faded and he gestured to the room. "What is all this?"
"Habit, I suppose," Ken replied, clearly dodging the question.
"Habit?" Aoba pressed. He was aware that paranoia could save a shinobi, but placing over a dozen sealing tags (whose purpose he could only guess was security-based) in a rented room seemed a little close to overkill.
"I'll take them down before we leave. It won't take a minute," Ken added sharply.
Aoba decided to drop the subject, at least for now. He too had seen how Ken reacted to the close crowds, lights, and noises of a town built on tourism and gambling. He decided to give the man some slack on what was his first escort mission, a fact he had divulged during one of their brief bits of chatter on the way here.
A knock at the door diffused the tension in the room. "Guys," Tomoko said through the door, "I'm heading down to the dining room for a bite. Don't kill each other while I'm gone." The words were playful, but neither man could ignore how closely apt they were.
"Hungry?" Ken asked.
"Starving," Aoba replied quickly. And both ninjas rose and followed Tomoko downstairs.
"Ah, Naruto. Welcome back, my boy," Teuchi said warmly. "And Instructor Iruka, always a pleasure, of course."
Naruto grinned widely back while Iruka just smiled. "The usual please, Mister Teuchi," he said. Teuchi nodded and returned to the kitchen of the stand, leaving the front open for Ayame to greet their favorite customer and his instructor.
"Hello, Naruto. Good evening, Iruka," Ayame smiled. "We haven't seen you around as much, Naruto. Everything okay?"
"Oh yeah!" Naruto realized, "I guess I haven't been back since I met my cousin."
"Cousin?" Ayame asked with genuine surprise. She had many fond memories of the energetic and rambunctious Kushina Uzumaki from before the Nine-Tails Attack that had claimed the woman's life, memories she was sad to have to keep to herself by order of the Hokage. "Who is that?"
Naruto opened his mouth to answer, then thought of something better. "Do you remember a guy who came in and talked to me last time I was here? The one who reheated my ramen and said your dad's was the best ever?"
Ayame tapped her chin in thought, a little over the top for Naruto's benefit. "I remember a polite man with red hair," she admitted.
"That's him! We met by total accident before we realized we were cousins! Ken's an Uzumaki, just like me! And just like my mom!"
Ayame's eyes went wide at the revelation that Naruto knew about his mother. Did this mean he knew about his father? She bit down on the question just before it could leap from her tongue — and good thing she did with their next customer.
"Naruto, boy," Lord Hiruzen said with a warm smile, setting his ceremonial hat down on the seat on Naruto's other side, "I hope you're not getting into mischief with your cousin away."
Naruto pouted a bit before answering. "Nope. Instructor Iruka's looking after me and between him and Cousin Ken's instructions, I really can't afford to. Ken threatened to cut off my training if I did anything too dumb."
Hiruzen couldn't hide a chuckle at that. For any other Academy student, holding off training would be considered a reward rather than a punishment. It seemed Naruto had the same approach to training as his parents: dive into it until you can handle no more for the day. Befitting an Uzumaki.
"And how is training going, anyway?"
"Awesome! I mean, except for the meditation stuff, I hate that. And the chakra control stuff. It's so boring! But he's teaching me Uzumaki style fighting and he promised that he'd start teaching me ninjutsu when he says my chakra stuff is good enough!"
Hiruzen listened with half an ear as he accepted a bowl of his usual from Ayame and began eating. He glanced across Naruto and caught Iruka's eye, who shrugged with noodles hanging from his lips. As Hiruzen dug into his own meal, he couldn't help but be pleased that Naruto was being taught the fundamentals so early.
"Has he taught you anything else?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yeah! He told me about how we're descended from an old wise guy, the first ninja! And that gives us a chance to get really strong with extra hard work! He also mentioned how our old village isn't around anymore, but he won't tell me more about that." Naruto scratched his head as he tried to remember more. "I dunno. A lot of the stuff he says just kinda goes over my head and he has to dumb it down a bit."
Iruka chuckled. "Don't worry about that too much, Naruto. Yes, knowledge is important, but you've just got talents in different areas. True, you'll need to work extra hard in the classroom, but you can pick up physical skills way faster than most."
"Even faster than Sasuke?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Does it matter? What's important is that you pick them up well."
Naruto wilted a bit at the response, knowing full-well that it was grown-up talk for "No, not faster than Sasuke." What made that jerk so quick on the uptake, anyway?
"I believe what Iruka is trying to say, Naruto," Hiruzen supplied, "is that you should focus on honing your own skills. Do that and the strength will follow. Don't compare yourself to others quite yet, as you're all still in the beginning of your training. Just work on your own skills and you'll rise to great heights."
"Exactly! Thank you, Lord Hokage," Iruka said.
"You are quite welcome. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me," he said, leaving his empty bowl with his payment and a generous tip, "I must sadly get back to work." He replaced his ceremonial hat and left with just a wave to Naruto.
The boy waved back with a grin before more pensively returning to his third bowl. "Don't compare your worth to others …" he repeated. Maybe Iruka and the Hokage were right. His rivalry with Sasuke made him want to beat him at everything, but maybe that wasn't the way to go. Oh yeah, he'd definitely rise up to outclass that jerk, but … maybe it was time to figure out what he could do better.
And he was certain Cousin Ken could help him figure that out when he got back.
As promised, Ken had cleaned up the room with time to spare for the team to meet the clients by dawn.
Team TAK arrived at the rendezvous to find the merchant employees of the caravans finishing their preparations. Upon their arrival, a man and a woman dressed in fine robes approached to meet them. "Ah, the Leaf shinobi. Right on time." The man introduced himself and his wife as Itsuki and Sana of the Aoki family of wine merchants who had taken it upon themselves to travel across the various nations and buy up local wines for some specialty shops in the Land of Cliffs.
"And you fear that your wines will be targeted?" Aoba asked.
"It never hurts to be careful," the lady replied. "Anyone from shrewd competitors to any number of collectors could want our stock, after all."
"Your reasons are your own," Tomoko said with a grin. "We'll just make sure nothing happens."
"That is a relief," the husband sighed. "We should be ready to go, but first-" he turned and cupped his hands, "-Kaito! Come here!"
The door of the rearmost caravan opened to reveal a young man in his late teens in a suit that was clearly designed to appear uncaringly disheveled. He was a handsome man, but the haughty sneer on his lips, now twisted with displeasure, toned down the effect.
His sneer only deepened at the sight of Team TAK. "Ah, the Leaf rabble. Father, I still don't see why we couldn't be bothered with our own hired hands." As he spoke, his gaze alighted onto Tomoko, and his eyebrows rose. "Then again, perhaps there are some advantages," he smirked and strode up into her personal space. "Good morning, miss. What might your name be?"
Tomoko's gaze was as deadpan as could be as she lazily crossed her arms. "Does it really matter?" she asked.
"Ah, a girl with her priorities straight," Kaito grinned. "Care to join me in the caravan? I'm sure I could make your task a little less tiresome. Or perhaps more so in the best of ways." Sana gasped at her son's words while Itsuki groaned in embarrassment.
"Hard pass, rich boy," Tomoko replied. "I doubt you could keep up with a shinobi." With that, she (somehow) flipped her short hair and strode away to speak with some of the merchants' workers.
"Hmm, I like a girl who plays hard to get," Kaito smirked. He glanced at Aoba and Ken and his grin disappeared into bored apathy. "Don't you two have work to do?" With that, he strode away with a carefully cultivated swagger.
"Please excuse my son," Itsuki said. "He's an only child. I'm sure you know how they can be."
"I was an only child," Ken replied testily, "raised by my grandfather after my home was razed to the ground." Aoba lowered his brows at Ken in what passed for a scowl from behind his shades. The message was clear, Do not insult the clients! "But that's neither here nor there," Ken recovered. "How about I do some work on reinforcing your caravans with ninja sealwork."
The Aokis took the silent apology with surprising grace and led him to the caravan that housed their property. Ken left behind a shadow clone to discuss guard strategies with his team, and Aoba took the lead to gather Tomoko and begin planning. Within fifteen minutes, the short train was ready, Ken's pre-prepared sealwork already applied, and the mission was underway.
As the train left Tanzaku Town behind, a figure hidden in the trees surrounding the town a distance from the road watched through a spyglass. The figure scribbled a message and attached it to the foot of a carrier pigeon, then tossed the bird into the air. The bird circled a few times to get its bearings before flying northward.
The figure watched it go before glancing at the caravans one last time. With a nod, they bolted through the trees with remarkable speed. It was time to start their operation. And no nameless Konoha ninja were going to stop them.
Lucky number seven, guys! Hope you all liked this update, the first in an arc that will last a few chapters. If you liked something in particular, leave a review!
*The Land of Cliffs is the name I gave to the nation that has the Takigakure/Hidden Waterfall. It was never named in canon and only really displayed in a non-canon movie, and I figure cliffs would explain waterfalls.
*Itsuki, Sana, and Kaito are top-ten most common names in Japan. They're one-off characters and so I just wanted run-of-the-mill names. The names respectively mean "tree", "vivid/color", and "sea".
*Ken was able to reinforce the caravans because he had already prepared seals beforehand. An Uzumaki sealing art in this universe is "transference", which stores a seal in a scroll that can then be spread out over a surface very quickly and then infused with chakra to start operating.
And as of this chapter, "Spirals" has 84 favorites and 116 follows! Hope everyone liked it! See ya next time.