Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does, so thank him for Naruto.
Rated to be on the safe side.
A/N: I forgot to mention this before, but I like a little drama and romance. I'm not sure how good I am with action, but I'll try later. Some of the characters may be a little ooc, also I'm trying to think of the right personality for the oc's when they're older. Most likely I'll change some of the habits of Naruto which should be obvious by the graduation exam.
I might not answer reviews too often, but anyway thanks for the compliments. Sorry Blondy-10-22, but I have another idea for her that should not appear until after the Chunin exam and I think Sasuke has enough fangirls. Dragon man 180 that part was a typo I missed in my last A/N, I was talking about Kurenai when I was talking about being Mina's student. It was suppose to say "As for Rin and Kurenai, well I decided to add Rin since no one knows where she's now and I decided to make Kurenai Mina's former student, since she was about 15 at this time and was said to be a chunin at 13." Also I was going to make a small mention of the Yondaime having Rin train under his wife a little.
"Speaking"
Thinking
"Inner self/ Demon talking"
Demon thinking
The Burden of Three
2. Aftermath
The elderly Hokage was correct when he thought that there was going to be a lot of paper work as a result of the demons' attack and the plan of the Yondaime. Thanks to careful planning and traps to distract more than harm the demons they had lost only half as many shinobi as in the prior war (which the originally guess to be double the last war), so even though they lost many shinobi they were still strong force among the other nations. Also most of the village was intact since the only destruction was caused by stray attacks, one of said attacks had struck the hospital and killed ten percent of the staff along with a dozen patients. The staff members that were killed included the ones that examined Mina. The death of those medic-nin left the truth of the Uzumaki's parentage on his shoulders since Jiraiya had left before it was discovered that she was having triplet and he would assume the "child" had died with it's mother.
The Sandaime Hokage had informed the entire village the next morning from the balcony of the Hokage's Tower and was waiting to see if the children would get the admiration that was requested for them by the heroes of Konoha before they died and so richly deserved, but he was sadden to see that most of the people and ninja of the village didn't see it that way. It seems that despite the great things that those of the village had very little confidence in the work of the strongest ninja of Leaf despite all the respect that they had. They believed that the demons were now personified in the children, which meant that they of the demon and their hosts/prisons were one in the same instead of two separate entities in one body with the children being in control. So they thought that the demons were the children with their powers sealed away instead of the demons sealed as prisoners inside the bodies of the children.
After that the Hokage had went to a meeting with the village council to discuss what to do with the Uzumaki triplets, but told the villagers to return in two hours to hear the decision. The members of the council consisted of the clan heads as well as his former team members, several representatives of the village, and the man that tried to take his position many years ago. In the meeting there were many things suggested that deeply saddened the old man. Among them were ideas of leaving the demons vessels in the wilderness to fend for themselves since they "were once beasts of the wild" or banishing them to another village, but the council soon realized that the children could be used against them if they survived. One idea was to use the children as weapons for the village and have a second seal to control them much like the Hyuga used on the branch house. That idea was denied by the Kage of Leaf, who said that they will be shinobi of Konohagakure and will not be simple weapons trained just to be emotionless tools branded with something the Yondaime was working hard to abolish (He really thought that doing that would eventually really make them into real demons). The suggestion that nearly made the Sandaime fall to the floor in shock was that many of those present were asking for the infants to be executed. He had to brace himself against the table to keep from falling and he made a decision.
The Sandaime stood up and began to speak, "I must say that hearing you say all of this is very disturbing. I believe that the Yondaime would be most ashamed to hear that what you are suggesting. I also can not believe that you have so little fate in Konohagakure's deceased leader. I suppose that this was to be expected. It seems that I can not have you treat these children as the heroes the Yondaime requested, but I can try to make so that they are treated like humans instead of the demons that the protect us from." The Sandaime paused a moment before looking at everyone in the meeting and speaking again, "As of this moment I there will be a law stated that no one will be aloud to speak of what has transpired with the demons being sealed within the three Uzumaki infants, all that are not of age or present to know of what has happened will simply be told that the demons were defeated by the Yondaime Hokage and ANBU commander. Those that break this law will be executed for going against the command of the Hokage."(I'm not exactly sure how he stated the law, but this was my guess)
All those in the meeting were a little stunned that he had accused them of going against the wishes of their previous Hokage and even more surprised by the law that he had just made. Many made their disagreement with his decision clear, but were effectively silenced by the glare of the old man. They soon realized that the discussion was over. Not long after the meeting, the Hokage stepped out on the balcony of his tower and informed the villagers of his decision. Of course he receive the same amount of disagreement from the people as he did in the meeting. It really broke the old man's heart that he had to threaten his own people with death just so they would treat three babies as human, and they were not even a full day old yet.
The elderly man decided to go check on the four kunoichi he left to watch over the children. He thought of the reasons he picked them as he walked to a small house that was on his property. The first reason was that he felt that the maternal instincts that usually lay dormant in females would awaken a little and help them. He was not sexist, he simply believed that women had better instincts concerning children than men. The next reason was their history, each one of them were orphans and did not lose any friends in the demon attack, so the only animosity that they would have to the demon was some of their village was destroyed and some allies died. Lastly was that they were all chunin, which meant they could protect the infant if they had to while he was away. The Sandaime let a small chuckle pass his lips as he thought that each of the young girls had a connection to the children without knowing it.
The first kunoichi was just named Rin since they were never able to find her family name, but she told everyone that tried to help her that it did not bother her because one day the man she would love would give her one. Her connection was that she was one of the surviving students of the children's father, who was like a father to her when she left the academy. She was about thirteen at the time and trying to gain the affection of her remaining ex-teammate with very little luck, but helping with the children would be a positive direction for her energy to be released.
The other three kunoichi were all on the same genin team Mina had taught for a couple of years in between serving ANBU, but despite the age differences that existed they all treated each other as sisters. Their names were Yuhi Kurenai, Uzuki Yugao, and Mitarashi Anko. To say that these young ladies were an odd group would be a serious understatement. Kurenai was always average, but the thirteen year old managed to greatly excel in genjutsu. Yugao was just an amazing ninja all around and once Mina gave her a blade there was no stopping her, this was almost unbelievable for a ten year old girl. (she does wield a katana in ANBU) Twelve year old Anko was the former student of a the Hokage's traitorous ex-student and barer of one the cursed seal he developed before leaving, this caused a lot of hate to be directed toward her and also lead her to Mina.
The unique link that the three kunoichi had with the mother of the three children was established about four years prior, almost a year before the end of the Great Shinobi War. Mina had sustained a small injury that put her off active duty as an ANBU or missions higher than C-ranked. Her husband was preparing to leave with his team when he suggested she try taking on her own team, joking with her by saying that the kids would keep her busy and maybe get her ready for when they start a family. After thinking about it for a few hours she decided to give it a try, she ended up with a nine year old red eyed girl that only strong features was genjutsu and perfect chakra control, a six year old purple haired girl that seemed a little quiet, and an eleven year old dark haired boy with pale pupil-less eyes. She later learned that the girls were orphaned because of the war and that the boy kept the stereotype of the Hyuga clan true by being an arrogant pain that would not pass a chance to talk about his "great"clan was and being "superior" to everyone else.
Mina rarely trained him with the girls because he would usually bring their spirits down by belittling them or he would be called away by his clan for training. About a year later one of the Hyuga main house elders requested that he placed on another team since the "inferior females were slowing down one of their clan's better warriors." It was a good thing that the war had ended and Arashi was back to restrain his wife or the Hyuga clan would have been burying one of their elders earlier than expected. A month prior to the request the Sandaime had announced that Arashi would be his successor and Orochimaru abandoned Konoha with his experiments discovered. With that there was also the problem of the now emotionally withdrawn Anko who was released from her interrogation, which was ordered by the village council. Mina was concerned for the girl and figured that since it was a man that caused this trouble she might be able to respond better if surrounded by females, so with that Anko became the fourth member of an all female team (Mina and the three genin). Anko did eventually open-up to her teammates and vent some a lot of the emotional pain she held inside her. After being a team for two years the three all passed a the previous chunin exam and Mina went back to ANBU, but she would meet with the girls when she could and the three still being young lived together. They never knew their sensai was pregnant over the months between them splitting up and her death because whenever she left home Mina would have a genjutsu placed on her that was so good that even Kurenai could not even detect it.
The girls were able to meet the students of the famous "Yellow Flash of Konoha" as well as the Yondaime himself because of the fact that their teachers were married. They became friends with Rin quickly, but could not get through to the one-eyed Kakashi. Rin later explained that they lost their other teammate in the war when Obito saved Kakashi and that he was still mourning their friend. The months prior to the demon attack it was not odd to see the four girls together, whether it was just talking or training with their former teachers. Many young men began to wonder if it would be as foolish to anger one of the young girls as it was to anger Mina.
The old man kept thinking to himself what would the young ladies do if they knew they were taking care of the children of the people that trained them and acted as their guardians. When he walked in the room silently he was ready to laugh again at the site that greeted him. The girls had standing in-front of the bassinets with their back to him and cooing to the two babies that was watching them with bright blue eyes, very faint giggles escaping the infants' mouths every so often.
The reason this was so amusing to the Hokage was that two of the girls had already developed a small reputation and another was developing one that this site would ruin. Rin he had expected this from since she was always kind hearted and preferred to heal than injure, but was just as deadly as any other chunin and a few jonin. Yugao didn't surprise him that much because of her being ten and never having sibling, but she was planning on being in ANBU like her teacher and her cooing a baby made her look even less threatening than her age. Kurenai surprised him because among the teenage boys she had developed the title of being the "Ice Princess" because of her coldness to others outside of her little group and said that if she kept this up she would be promoted to "Ice Queen" when she becomes an adult, but it seems that seeing the babies was enough to thaw her icy exterior. Anko was the biggest surprise considering her reputation was worse than Kurenai's, it seemed that three years wasn't enough to reduce the hatred that she received for her teacher's crime. Anko seemed to be an angry, sadistic, bloodthirsty loud mouth to anyone that didn't know her, but those that did knew it was a shell to hide the real her. Just like with Kurenai, it seems that all it took was one look at the babies' smiling face for her shell to crack. It warmed his heart to know that these four young girls proved that there are those that could look past the demons that the children held and see the innocent babies that have just been born into the world.
Sarutobi laughed silently before looking speaking, "I take it that these young ones haven't caused you any problems. Judging from your current happy appearance I will assume that you seven get along quite well. Maybe you four can aid me in deciding what I am to do with the little ones, the village council wasn't any help and I rather forget the suggestions that they had proposed." He had let out a tired sigh when he finished.
The girls were shocked at first when they heard the Hokage's voice, but soon relaxed. The looked back in the bassinets and saw Naruto let out a yawn, who was followed by his sister before they both joined their younger brother in sleep. (The Sandaime had informed the four of their names and how to distinguish the boys by their whisker-like "birthmarks")
Like the previous day, the Hokage had one serious thoughts on his mind while sitting in a chair at a rectangular table with two other chair across from him and one on either side for the others. He focused more on his thoughts as the girls began to sit. What do you do with children that all or almost all of their home's population want them dead? How can they even hope for them to have a normal life with so many against them? Can we even protect them until they can protect themselves? I hope that Arashi and Mina didn't make a mistake when they trusted us with their legacy... The final thought made him rub his eyes a little before he looked at the four young kunoichi around him.
Well that's it for this chapter.
A/N: Well this isn't exactly what I was hoping for with this chapter. I wanted to do more and do maybe a little time skip, but this was turning out a little longer than I planned. Instead of going forward with the story I ended up with more background in a day after the tragedy thing to clear up some things.
I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but I decided to make Kurenai and Rin slightly younger. They should both be about 15 or 16 at this time, but I decided to have them in their earlier teens to have them relate to children a little bit more than adults, also making them orphans of war and their age makes them uninfluenced by the hateful adults now and later. Also being the students of the ones that sealed the demons allowed them to have more faith in their teachers' abilities. I also like seeing females treated more fairly and I think that these four didn't appear enough, though creating styles for Yugao and Rin will take awhile since those two only had very few appearances in and out of battle. As for Anko, well Omegaguardian's Cheerfulness Incarnate and VenomLord's Life of Uzumaki Naruto gave me the idea that she acts the way she does to hide her true self and scare others away because of her pain(there are probably other stories, but these are some of my favorites and the only ones I saw this in). The "Ice Princess" thing with Kurenai is from what I seen in several other stories that I can't remember at the moment, they had her called an "Ice Queen" and I thought that a babies melting the Ice Queen's cold exterior would be cute.
I was never sure what was the youngest that knew about Naruto and Kyuubi since Iruka was ten and Itachi was 5 when it happened, but both knew. So assume that everyone at least 7 years old know as well as young geniuses. Also I'm not sure how many were killed in the demon attack but I would assume they would lose as many as they did in a war, so with more demons it would be right to assume you'd lose at least twice or three times as many people. I wanted to make it less because I didn't like that the village lost more of it's defenses right after a war. Also I never was able to find out what was the population of the village or the actual number of shinobi, so I had to improvise a little.
I guess one last thing to say before someone complains is that there is a small mistake, I messed up the Sandaime's name in the last chapter by mixing up two some letter in his name and I have a feeling someone might bother me about the mistake. In the previous chapter I called him Saruboti when it's Sarutobi. I will try to make sure I don't make these mistakes again, but I guess there will be very few complaints since I doubt many call him by his real name.
I have set a specific set of lengths for myself and will try to follow them, but I will not tell them so that I don't get complaints about not following my own guide. Hopefully I'll get them to age 7 by the next chapter or the one after that. Before anyone start expecting chapters to be updated as soon as this one, this came chapter was done because I had the first chapter already done, but had to wait a few days since I was a new user. I used that time for my profile and to start on this chapter.
One last thing, I don't like killing-off people I think are good, so in later chapters you will see that some of the characters that died in the series will still be alive.
The next update by the weekend hopefully and if I'm lucky I might start working on my other story. I have many ideas, just process leading up to them is long.
