Konoha's Lonely Wolf

by DhampyrX2

Naruto was being mistreated and ignored for most of his early life in the village hidden in the leaves. worse yet, he was ignored by those that should have cared the most for him, his own surviving family. Lucky for him, his uncle Shiranui Genma has seen

2. Chapter 1

Title: Konoha's Lonely Wolf

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: Drama/humor X-over

Rating: PG-13 to R at some point

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

Summary: Naruto was being mistreated and ignored for most of his early life in the village hidden in the leaves. Worse yet, he was ignored by those that should have cared the most for him, his own surviving family. Lucky for him, his uncle Shiranui Genma has seen enough. Of course Konoha's #1 bachelor jounin can't raise a small child due to the danger in his job. But, his dear cousin Mai and her husband Andy, who live beyond the boundaries of the elemental territories, are willing to step up where the rest of Naruto's family has failed.

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"indicates speech"

indicates thought

indicates Kyuubi speak

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/Twelve Years Later/

"I've got you this time, Rock-niichan," Bogard Naruto warned with a smirk as he tested himself in a spar with his Uncle Terry's first, and arguably best, student.

"We'll see, kiddo. You haven't won yet," the son of Geese Howard taunted with a matching smirk of his own. He remembered something his young sparring partner had apparently forgotten. Namely that the younger boy had snuck away from his family's compound outside of Okayama to meet Rock and fight him in the empty lot they currently occupied. When one considered that Naruto's mother, Bogard Mai, had little to no desire to see her son end up a battle junky like his uncle (and his father too if she was being honest with herself and not watching Andy like a hawk) and had forbade him from sneaking away for a spar without someone to watch him after he took off for nearly a month when he was eight to train with his Terry-ojisan, well let's just say Naruto was in for an earful when the kunoichi in question saw the boy anywhere near someone associated with her brother-in-law that she had not signed off on.

In fact, Terry still had to ask permission, in writing, to visit his brother and his family more than two weeks in advance after the last time Andy took Naruto and his little brother Ataru with him for a 'Boy's Day Out' that ended up with the whole lot bruised, bloodied, and filthy for a formal dinner with the rest of the Japanese branch of the Shiranui Ninjitsu Clan. That incident had only been two years ago, and Andy was still sleeping on the couch whenever Mai thought about it for too long. (Not that he ended up all that lonely on the couch most of those nights. Mai had to give the man something to think about besides fighting, after all. A fact that taught the Shiranui children to bypass wherever their parents were supposed to be sleeping in if they needed to use the restroom or get a drink of water. The mental trauma of seeing what their parents got up to just never leaves a child if they witness it.)

"Today is the day that I beat you, Niichan. Burn Knuck-" Naruto began only to be cut off as someone pulled back on the collar of his dark orange gi, cut to look like a miniature version of his father's, and held him to dangle in the air.

"I thought I might find you here," came the steely words of Bogard Mai as she held her middle child aloft.

Naruto kicked pathetically in the air in a vain attempt to get free. In reality he knew how to get down several different ways from his current position, but he also knew that the more pathetic he looked, the better his chances of reducing his punishment. Finally he ceased his struggles and grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head with his right hand, just under his long bushy blond ponytail, and asked, "Hiya, kaasan. What brings you out here today?"

"Bogard Shiranui Kazama Naruto, what did I tell you about sneaking off like this?" was the kunoichi's icy response.

Naruto winced at bit as his mother continued to hold him in the air. She had used his full name, complete with both his birth clan names. He was in it deep now. "Um, not to wander off without someone to watch me?" he asked uncertainly.

Mai smiled dangerously as she replied, "That's right. So what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Um, Rock-niichan is here to watch me?" Naruto ventured with carefully crafted faux innocence, only to see the last images of his sparring partner's angel wing jacket as Rock rounded the corner to leave the young Bogard to his fate. "Traitor! Coward! Athena fanboy!" Naruto cursed after the son of Geese Howard who had left him to his fate.

Mai just sighed tiredly as only a mother of three energetic kids could sigh. Kimiko wanted to start dating, and Naruto was very much his father's (and uncle's) son. Kami-sama help her if Ataru took after his oniichan in a few years. It was bad enough the deadline she had agreed upon with Sarutobi was coming up. Did she have to chase after her adopted middle child just to spend time with him before she had to send him back to the hell that was Konoha as well?

"We'll discuss this when we get home, young man," Mai stated with finality as she took Naruto by the ear and dragged him off, roof hopping no less, toward home with her son complaining and whining over the treatment the whole way.

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Naruto grumbled to himself about the general unfairness of the world as he scrubbed down the dojo floors by hand as part of his punishment for sneaking off, AGAIN, to spar. Why was he always the bad guy? His sparring partners always agreed to fight him. It wasn't his fault his family all loved the thrill of combat. Even his mother's face lit up when he managed to make her work for her victories against him.

Besides, he needed strong sparring partners to test himself against before he returned to Konoha. He could already beat his older sister, and he was too used to his mother's and father's styles alone, and they to his, to rely on them for an accurate gauge of his fighting abilities. Without a way to better mark his progress, how would he know if he was ready to face the challenges the more than likely hostile shinobi village would throw at him?

He understood he would return not only to the fear and hatred that had driven his Genma-ojisan to summon his kaasan to free him from Konoha, but he would also face the fear and loathing of being an outsider on top of it. And then, on top of that, his being raised by Keiko-sama's branch of the Shiranui clan would ruffle more than a few of the Konona Shiranui Clan's feathers, especially Tsubaki-sama's.

All in all, Naruto knew the road ahead of him would be a difficult one and he was worried he wouldn't be strong enough to face it as he was.

His ruminations were cut short as a throat was cleared off to his side and a voice called out, "Kaasan and tousan want to see you in the family room, otouto-chan."

"Hai, oneechan," Naruto answered back as he moved to put away his cleaning supplies and followed his sister Kimiko out of the dojo and back into the main house. He figured it was time for another round of lectures and punishment for him.

What he saw when he entered the family room was quite a shock for him, then. All around him were family, friends, and senseis of his. In fact almost everyone Naruto had ever met since Mai and Andy had adopted him was there. Terry Bogard, Joe Higashi, Rock Howard, Blue Mary, Kasumi Todoh, King, Chizuru Kagura, Iori Yagami - who had trained Naruto in how to direct the energy and rage of the Kyuubi trapped within him when it stirred, the Sakazakis, Kim Kapwhan and the Justice Team, his various friends from school (well those that were the kids of fighters and thus able to understand that he had to leave to go to a ninja village someday), even Genma-ojisan, they were all there.

"What's all this?" Naruto asked in confusion.

Mai had tears in her eyes as she replied, "It's your going away party, Naruto-chan. Genma-chan has been sent to collect you to go take the genin exam."

"Already? I thought I still had nearly a month?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Hokage-sama thought it might help for you to have a couple of weeks before the exams to get to know some of your peers, Naruto-kun," Genma explained as he chewed on a senbon needle as usual. He had to say Naruto looked good. In fact, he looked like he could probably tear a top level genin squad, minus their jounin instructor of course, apart all on his own much less an academy student his own age. Even stunned as he was Naruto was settled into a neutral stance ready for an attack, and he had a tight reign on his chakra that kept Genma struggling to sense it at all. It was clear Mai and her husband had trained him well.

"Oh," Naruto responded, a bit shell shocked at the news. He supposed it made sense. Still the early departure just reinforced Naruto's earlier misgivings about his village of origin, he didn't dare think of it as home. How could you call a place that would spit on your birth father's dying request as he sacrificed his only son to protect you all home? Quite frankly it would take something miraculous to make Naruto stay any longer than either reaching chuunin or taking the exam three times.

"Now, now, this is no time for long faces. We're here to party. We even bought extra meat to keep Iori happy," Andy interjected from where he had put an arm around his wife's shoulders to support her. He bore his heartbreak and worry over his adopted son's impending journey a bit more stoically than Mai did. But heaven help them if his son was mistreated in any way and Andy heard about it.

From there the party began in earnest, including cake, ice cream, and gifts from the attendees. Naruto received everything from training weights, to technique scrolls, to the basic compliment of shinobi weapons such as kunai and shuriken from his uncle Genma. From his mother and sister he got a set of Shiranui battle fans, their shared weapon of choice, as well as a black belt/sash to use with his mother's Ryuu Enbu flaming spiral jutsu. His favorite gifts though, much to his mother's ire, were several sets of training/battle clothes tailored to look like his Uncle Terry's usual vestments but done in Naruto's favorite color of orange instead of red, complete with a 'Fatal Fury' baseball cap to top the look off.

Needless to say it took more than one person to restrain Mai from launching into a Chou Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi on her brother in law for his blatant attempt to turn her son into a battle junky clone of himself. Blue Mary cheering Mai on probably didn't help the situation, either.

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Several hours later as guests began to leave and the party started to wind down, Naruto found himself walking Iori-sensei to the gate.

"How's the furball, brat?" the insane Orochi warrior asked as he lit a cigarette with his cursed flames. He had had to wait until he was outside to light up as he had learned his lesson years ago about trying to smoke in Mai's home. Iori was crazy, but he wasn't stupid.

"Alright. I think he's still mostly asleep. How's the dragon-teme?" Naruto asked in response.

"Still dead. Or as dead as the Orochi gets," Iori responded evenly. After a few tense moments, the red-haired warrior asked, "You worried?"

Naruto knew what the curt inquiry was referring to as he answered, "Yeah. I mean they hated my guts there before I was an outsider. And I barely remember the place. If kaasan hadn't promised, I'd probably tell them to shove it."

"Fox still makes it hard to go back on your word?" Iori asked gruffly.

"That's what Chizuru-san says, anyway," Naruto affirmed.

"She's usually right," Iori agreed grudgingly.

"Yeah," Naruto echoed.

Soon after the pair reached the gate. "Thanks for coming, sensei. It means a lot to me," Naruto said with a bow.

Iori just grunted in response and started to walk off. He was a few paces away when he paused and said, "Kid? Don't worry about those bastards. You're more than they'll ever be able to handle. If they can't appreciate you, then to hell with them," without even turning around to face the young Bogard.

Naruto smiled, touched at Iori's uncharacteristic tenderness in his attempt to reassure the Kyuubi vessel as he replied, "Hai, Iori-sensei."

With his piece said Iori walked off into the night with a negligent wave of his left hand, his right buried into his jacket pocket, still not bothering to turn around to face Naruto.

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The next day was filled with much crying, mostly from Mai, Kimiko, and Ataru, as Naruto and Genma prepared for their journey back to Konoha.

"If they get too uppity you don't hesitate to put them in their place, otouto-chan," Bogard Kimiko instructed Naruto with a bear hug that nearly cracked his ribs, and mashed him into her growing... assets, much to his embarrassment. At sixteen, Mai and Andy's eldest child was already a stunner just her mother had been. She stood five foot seven, with the toned lines of a warrior in her custom battle uniform. It was similar to her mother's blur uniform, although she and Andy had both insisted on adding a skirt that was cut at the thighs for movement, a modified tank top to replace Mai's favored twin strips over her breasts, and a pair of bicycle shorts to go under her skirt. Her hair was dark brown like her mother's, but her stunning crystal blue eyes showed her mixed heritage nicely.

"You mean like I do with you, oneechan?" Naruto impishly inquired with a foxy grin.

"Little brat," Kimiko exclaimed with a giggle as she whapped her brother on the head with her battle fan.

Any further comments Naruto could make were cut short as Ataru latched on to him and began to bawl. "Don't go oniichan! You belong here with us!" the boy wailed.

"Hey there Ataru. Come on, calm down. You know I have to do this. Kaasan and I promised before I ever came here. And I can't go back on a promise, remember?" Naruto comforted as he pried the younger boy off of him.

Ataru still sniffled a bit as he wiped his nose on his sleeve and said, "'Cause the fox in your tummy can't break its word and the seal that holds it means you can't neither," the child recited from memory.

"That's right," Naruto praised as he ruffled his younger brother's blond hair. "Besides, it's not like I have to live there forever. It's just a couple of years," he assured his family.

"Assuming some hussy of a kunoichi doesn't catch your eye," Kimiko snorted as she crossed her arms defensively. That was one of her worst fears, that some girl not good enough for him would sink her claws in her brother without Kimiko there to protect him. Not that she felt any girl would be good enough for her little brother.

"Hey now, you know most of the hussy kunoichi there are family. I don't go for stuff like that," Naruto joked as he gave his sister the red eye.

Genma had to hold in his own chuckle at the boy's comments. Oh yes, Naruto would definitely be getting under Tsubaki-sama's skin. The jounin could hardly wait to see just what shades of red the blonde would cause to spawn on her face in the coming years. "Enough of that, oigochan. We have to get going if we want to make it back on time," Genma gently rebuked.

Naruto looked like he wanted to protest but finally nodded in agreement. "Hai, ojisan," he acquiesced.

"Safe journey, son. I know you'll make us proud," Andy said with a nod of encouragement and a small hug for his middle child.

"Be careful, Naruto-chan. If you need us for anything, we'll be there as soon as possible. I promise," Mai fretted as she hugged her son just as tightly as Kimiko had earlier.

Naruto looked decidedly embarassed by all the affection as he squirmed a bit in his mother's arms and said, "I will, kaasan. Now let me go or you'll kill me before I even get there,"

"Oh! Gomen, Naruto-chan," Mai responded sheepishly as she released her now red-faced son.

"You always were a force to be reckoned with, Mai-neechan," Genma commented with a chuckle.

His jest was met with a steely gaze from both of Naruto's adopted parents as Andy said, "We expect you to watch out for him too, Genma-san. Please let the Hokage know that if anything happens to Naruto-kun while he's in Konoha's care that there will be several people here that will be most displeased. I assure you the Japanese branch of the Shiranui will be the tip of a very large iceberg."

Genma was torn on how to reply to that obvious threat. On one hand he knew that the handful of his family here couldn't do too much damage alone, although there would certainly be casualties if they put their minds to attacking Konoha. On the other hand, he knew they had powerful friends with certain reputations. The force they could spearhead could be troublesome to quite a few shinobi. There was also the fact he agreed with the sentiments behind the message. "I can't speak for the normal things that might go wrong on missions, but I assure you the Hokage and I will both do everything in our power to keep an eye on Naruto while he's in Konoha," Genma finally responded.

"We know you will, Genma-chan. We trust you. It's the rest of them we don't trust," Mai assured her cousin.

"I know," Genma replied sadly. His village had certainly earned every iota of mistrust the family before him displayed. He sometimes wondered if anything they did could ever absolve themselves of the sins they committed against the Yondaime's legacy, and his son. His face turned to Naruto as he asked, "You ready to do this, gaki?"

"Just try to keep up with me, Ojisan," Naruto replied with carefully hidden concern. He would keep up a brave face, but this was tearing him apart inside and he knew it.

"Well then, I guess we're off," Genma said as he made his way toward the gates of Mai and Andy's compound.

Naruto followed after his uncle, and only turned to look back once as he waved and shouted, "Bye everyone. I love you guys. I hope I'll see you soon," before he turned and disappeared into the surrounding trees with Genma.

"You think he'll be okay?" Andy finally asked after a few moments.

"Hai. He's our son. Of course he will be," Mai responded with conviction.

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"Welcome back, Naruto-kun," Sandaime greeted the child standing before him in his office. Genma had had just enough time to drop his nephew off before he had to leave for a patrol duty.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Naruto responded formally with a proper bow. His mother had drilled into his head to always show respect to the leaders of the hidden villages. It also helped him keep a cool distance from Konaha's leader, something that would make his eventual departure far easier.

Sandaime could pick up the cool detachment the boy was enforcing in his presence and it saddened him a bit. He knew Naruto would not be the same exuberant and naive child he had been nearly eight years ago that referred to Sarutobi as 'Ojiisan' and even 'Jiji' on occasion, but he found he missed that closeness with Arashi's son.

Speaking of Arashi, Naruto looked more like him every day even if he was dressed in what looked like a modified version of the traditional Shiranui Clan gi. The boy was an average height for his age with, but already carried himself like an accomplished fighter. His hair was a wild blonde mane that was grown out to ponytail length and held in place with a simple balck hair tie.

"So, how does it feel to be back?" Sarutobi asked as he tried to gauge the emotional state of the future genin.

"Most people that saw me coming in seemed afraid or wary of me before they noticed the cheek marks the Kyuubi left me with when otousama sealed it within me. I have to say the welcome has been less than warm," Naruto reported emotionlessly.

Sandaime looked appropriately abashed at the behavior of his citizens for a moment before he responded, "Well some tentativeness is to be expected. You are somewhat of a new face and we don't get many of those around here. Although I'm a bit surprised at how much information you seem to have about your, uh, condition."

Naruto actually scowled at the old man for a second before he reigned his temper in visibly. "My parents didn't see the point in hiding any kind of truth from me. If I'm to be a shinobi and expected to fight, kill, and possibly die for Konoha then I have the right to know who and what I am. I'm know of my birth family tree, what my father sacrificed to save these people, and just how little my mother's family outside of Genma-ojisan will want me here. I'm also aware of the law that forbids the older generations from telling my generation about the Kyuubi, but my parents aren't members of your village. They can say what they want. Besides they had to explain to my senseis that helped me learn to control the furball that he was there. It's hard to train me in control if I don't know what I'm learning about," Naruto explained.

"A good point, I suppose. Although I must ask just who Mai-san got to train you in how to control the Kyuubi?" Sarutobi replied a bit non-plussed.

"Yagami Iori taught me how to direct the rage and power of the beast in healthy directions when it manifests. Kagura Chizuru taught me to meditate and how to purge some of the more negative side effects a build up of the Kyuubi's chakra might create later in life, as well as helping to tighten up Yondaime-sama's seal. Father was a genius, but he was working on the fly. Kagura-sama had years to patch up the bits he didn't have the time or experience to think about. The best terms they could come up with for what we tried to accomplish was a controlled Riot of the Blood. The Kyuubi could drive me into a feral state if I become angry and desperate enough on my own when it's not dormant, but at least now I'll be able to distinguish friend form foe. From what we can tell the damned lazy baka has been asleep since otousama sealed it in me so that's just a guess but it's better than nothing," Naruto answered.

"Hmm," Sarutobi commented with a nod as he thought over the explanation. It was clear Naruto was reciting facts as he had been taught them until he referred to the Kyuubi as a 'damned lazy baka'. It was nice to see the child still had some spirit under his cold veneer. Still the fact that Naruto knew everything about who and what he was raised several concerns. Concerns that had to be addressed. "It sounds like your adopted family was very careful making certain you were well prepared for all things Naruto-kun."

"My family loves me. They had no reason not to prepare me for life," Naruto responded with a shrug.

"Indeed, although their frankness does bring up some concerns. You knowing about the Kyuubi is one troublesome thing. In reality it's only fair, but I had hoped to spare you the burden and stigma of that knowledge until you were older. There is another concern, however," Sarutobi began as he looked out the window to the face of Naruto's birth father etched in stone upon the Hokage monument, "Namely you knowing who your father is."

"And how is knowing who my father is a bad thing? You know, other than the fact that it shows just how ungrateful this town is to the man that saved them all?" Naruto asked hotly.

The Sandaime raised his hand to stall the boy's anger a bit as he replied, "It's not the village that concerns me, Naruto-kun. At least, not this one. Your father had many enemies. Enemies that feared him and would do anything to deny an offspring of his a chance to live out of either revenge or fear that you might one day reach or even surpass his levels as a warrior. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to keep the information of your heritage a secret for your own safety."

Naruto thought over the Old Man's words for a minute before he countered, "Part of my heritage. I'll keep quiet about otousama to any idiot on the street, but I can claim my rights as a child of the Shiranui, and I can tell anyone I trust about who my father is so long as they agree not to blab. I want the public to see that I'm a good fighter and know I'm born from the Shiranui so I can rub it in Tsubaka's face that there is another good male fighter in the family besides Genma-ojisan."

Sarutobi had to chuckle a bit at the boy's reference to his great-great aunt Tsubaki. He certainly wasn't the first to show pique with the rigid head of the Shiranui clan. "Agreed. And what of the Kyuubi?" the old man asked.

"Who I tell is my concern. I'm here to fulfill my promise to come back like Kaasan agreed to. I'm not going to hide who and what I am to make people feel better. I'm not here to make friends," Naruto answered with a stubborn look.

Sarutobi looked a little unsettled by the boy's words but he knew to look at him that this was the best he was going to get. "I suppose that's fair, Naruto-kun. Now, if there's nothing else, I suppose I can call someone to lead your apartment," he said as he moved toward his intercom to summon a shinobi.

"There is one thing, Hokage-sama," Naruto interjected, stopping the old man where he was.

"Oh, what's that, my boy?" the Hokage inquired.

"Am I still living in the same place the council stuck me before I left Konoha?" Naruto asked.

Sarutobi sighed as he nodded and replied, "Yes Naruto-kun. It's still yours after all this time."

"Probably couldn't rent it after the demon kid spent a couple of weeks there," Naruto snorted to himself.

The Hokage diplomatically refrained from inforing the child that hsi statement of derision was entirely accurate.

"Anyway, I brought some money with me. I know you guys still use the old ryou system instead of yen, so Kaasan and Tousan had it converted into gold for me. They said it was good training to carry it and I could have you convert it into ryou. I was hoping you would take care of that so I could get a nicer place. Well, and that way the council won't have to worry about supporting me," Naruto informed the Hokage. With that said he took out three gold bars each weighing a kilogram a piece.

"That's quite sum of money, Naruto-kun," Sarutobi commented in a state of shock.

"Fighting tournaments, international stardom from the KoF, and the actual work the Shiranui do away from the public eye all pay pretty well. Remember, we don't have a village to act as the middle man for missions. And Keiko-sama was a pretty shrewd investor. Besides my parents wanted to make certain I was taken care of so they sent more than I needed. Kaasan remembered that merchants liked to overcharge me when I was too small to realize it," the blond replied.

"Well you have my word that I'll take this and set up an account for you so you can find appropriate accommodations. Until then will your old apartment still suffice?" Sandaime asked as he pocketed the gold bars.

"That's fine. Just make sure some of the people near the forest areas are willing to rent to me. I prefer to be away from the city," Naruto responded.

"I'll do what I can," Sarutobi assured him.

Once those matters were taken care of the Hokage finally reached his intercom and summoned a jounin to take Natuto to his old apartment.

"Ah, Anko-chan. Could you please escort Naruto-kun to his old home? He'll be staying there until I can help him arrange better accommodations," the Hokage ordered as a purple haired woman in a fishnet top, brown miniskirt, and tan trenchcoat arrived in his office.

Anko looked over to the boy for a moment before looking back to the Hokage and nodding her assent. "Come on, gaki. Let's get moving. The longer we take, the less time I have to hit the dango stand," the Jounin said as she motioned for Naruto to follow her.

Naruto just nodded in agreement as he followed her out the door and back into his life in Konoha.

End Chapter 1