'internal thoughts'

"Normal conversation"

" How did the sealing go?" the hokage asked as he stared at Kushina who was sleeping on the bed.

"Do you see a giant nine tailed fox near by, if not, then the sealing was a success." Naruto replied.

"No need to get smart with me" hokage snapped.

"The seal is ingenious" Jiraiya started, ignoring both of them in favour of further studying the seal. "It doesn't need a constant flow of chakra to keep the beast sealed, the chakra used in modifing the seal was huge but you divided it between your own chakra and Kushina's so it wasn't much burden any one of you, the seal will only absorb user's chakra if it was damaged in someway else it will use the nine tails own chakra to sustain itself." Jiraiya continued, very impressed with the seal, " But the seal itself is designed in such a way that it could be opened completely, allowing the nine tails complete access to Kushina, why is that? "Jiraiya asked with a frown on his face.

" Its designed in that way because I believe that Kushina is capable of truly mastering the nine tails chakra. The seal will only let a small part of nine tails chakra out in the beginning when she starts accessing it. With training, she will be able to access more of its chakra."

" But why? "Jiraiya asked.

" Why not? "Naruto countered, " Besides, with this seal, she will have a very small chance of actually losing control as it will cut off the flow of chakra from inside the seal. And since it is an lock and key type seal, it will be impossible for the kyuubi to actually break out of it without a key, which I have for safety reasons, the most kyuubi can do is make Kushina go berserk for sometime after which the seals countermeasures will kick in and suppress all of his chakra". Naruto explained the working of the seal to both of them.

"

Give me the key "Jiraiya said " I'll be able to help her".

"That will not be necessary, I don't trust any of you very mich" Naruto replied, causing both the sandaime and Jiraiya to widen their eyes in shock.

"Why are you acting all surprised?, you, Jiraiya are not capable enough in fuinjutsu to actually give you something so important, you are much less qualified to train her in that area and I don't trust the sandaime, not to release the seal in an important battle just to attain victory",Naruto explained, " You have to understand that I am only doing this for Kushina's own safety and besides I already gave the key to my summons for safe keeping "

" When did you get summons? "Jiraiya asked in surprise," and when did you give it to them, I didn't see you summon anyone"

"That doesn't matter now, Just know that the key is safe and so is Kushina." Naruto replied, finishing that line of conversation.

"Now that all this sealing business is done, I want to request a 4 years training leave with my summon" Naruto continued.

At first the hokage had refused, saying that with the kidnapping incident which had occurred, they had entered a cold war of sorts with Kumo. None of them were actually fighting openly, but soon even that would start as iwa too had started making their move.

But, after Naruto explained that he would not really be needed during this cold war, only when the war actually starts will his skills be really needed and that too would take atleast 3 more years and with his training completed, he would be very strong by then.

The hokage, after much deliberation, had finally relented, so after a few days of preparation, Naruto was finally ready to leave, but first he had to make sure that Kushina and Mikoto, both would train and become strong, so he went to visit them.

Both of them were currently training really hard it seemed as he appeared in their training field.

"Naruto!!" They both screamed and ran towards him.

"What is it that we are hearing that you will be leaving for 4 years?" Mikoto asked with an angry voice while Kushina just nodded furiously.

"Its just a training period that my summons asked me to complete, so that I master their teachings" Naruto explained, this mostly calmed both of them down quickly.

" How is little Kakashi by the way?" Naruto asked while looking at Sakumo.

"He is fine, but he keeps asking when will he see you again" Sakumo replied with a smile, since Kushina and Mikoto had become his students, they along with Naruto visited Kakashi occasionally to play with him, during this time Kakashi had developed a strong attachment to Naruto as he would teach him cool tricks and bring him toys to play with.

"Tell him, I'll meet him soon, I'll even teach him some new tricks and tell him not to slack off in his training" Sakumo just smiled and nodded.

"Now this is an top secret that I am telling you so you can't disclose it to anyone", Naruto started, looking at both, Mikoto and Kushina "I asked the hokage his permission to disclose this information" now he was looking towards Kushina "Do you want to explain it or should I?"

Kushina just widened her eyes "But it..."

"Mikoto needs to know about it, Sakumo probably knew from the beginning since he was the one that brought us to Konoha".

Kushina looked down, then after few seconds looked back up and nodded, she then explained who she was, what she contained and why did she have to do it. After the explanation was finished Kushina expected Mikoto to fear her instead, Mikoto just hugged her while Sakumo smiled proudly at bravery of such a little girl.

"Sakumo, you will also be training her in controlling the nine tails charka" Sakumo looked surprised and was about to speak but Naruto cut him off.

"Don't worry about you not being able to fight of the nine tails on your own, nobody expects that's from you, take these chakra suppressing seals, they are specifically designed to contain its chakra" Naruto continued while giving them each a scroll, "I have sealed plenty of suppression seals in the scroll to last 2 years along with the information on how to use them. Kushina your scroll has advanced fuinjutsu books and some new techniques which I have created myself practice them and increase your level in fuinjutsu then you too would be able to create more of these suppession seal." Kushina nodded "And don't forget about the rasengan, you can teach it to Mikoto and Sakumo, but no one else." she nodded again.

"Mikoto, come here I want to talk with you in private".

After walking a few meters away, Naruto started, "These are called the mangekyou sharingan" Naruto said turning his sharingan on, " they are a further evolution of the sharingan, I have written all the information you'll need about it in your scroll, talk to your father about it but no one else, it is a highly guarded technique of our clan, so it must remain a secret, do you understand? " she nodded, "good".

"OK then, that is all for now, I'll be seeing you all again in 4 years" Naruto finished as he begun to leave.

"Naruto wait, I want to talk with you in private" Kushina requested, Naruto motioned her to follow him.

"So what's this about?" Naruto questioned

"Minato" Kushina started "He asked me to go out with him"

"And?"

"I rejected him ofcourse , I told him that I love you very much and have no intention of leaving you for him, he took it rather poorly and ran off".

Naruto felt sad for Minato, he really did but he couldn't help him anymore even if he wanted to. After the night of Kushina's birthday, he had thought a lot about what she had said. And he had came to the conclusion that in the end it was her decision to make, he couldn't force her to love someone else and if she loved him then he should just considered himself lucky.

"Do you want me to have a talk with him?"

Naruto asked, unsure what he should do about it.

"No, It was my decision to make, I'll take care of it later." she replied

"That's very matured of you" Naruto replied, "Now enough about that" , Naruto quickly changed the topic to avoid any more awkwardness, "with the new seal in place did you notice anything different?"

"Not really, but it's very easy to mold chakra now, I am guessing, since you minimise the fluctuation of my chakra with this seal, my control has increased?" Kushina theorised.

"Good, you are getting smarter Kushina too"

Kushina just blushed at his praise.

"Kushina, there is one more request I have for you" Kushina nodded telling him to proceed.

"I want you to start talking with the nine tails"

Kushina looked at him in horror but he continued before she could argue,

"Look, I have talked with him, he is not as bloodthirsty and mindless as people make him out to be, he is just misunderstood, I have already gotten him to give me his name, with time, patience and love, he will open up with you too. I want you to befriend him and try controlling atleast 7 tails worth of his chakra, I believe you will be able to do that, that's how much confidence I have in you " Naruto said with confidence in his voice.

Kushina looked unsure but nodded anyway,

" I'll try. "

Naruto just smiled and kissed her on her cheek.

"Thank you Kushina, but now I must really get going" with that he turned around and reverse summoned himself to his wolf summons to start the training.

"I will not fail you, Naruto" Kushina replied with as he left.

Xxx After 3 years of training xxX

Naruto had completed his 4 years worth of training in only 3 years, but during those three years, lot had happened in the elemental nations. After two years from his departure, the war had officially begun with the destruction of Uzu. Kumo and Kiri had banded together to destroy Uzu because they feared that if Uzu was to enter the war then Konoha's victory would all but be guaranteed. Konoha had tried to send assistance but it was already too late.

This had acted as a catalyst to cause an all out war around elemental nations as each nation tried to attack each other in hopes of securing more land and resources for themselves.

During the war, Minato became a jounin and came to be known as "Konoha's yellow flash" due to his speed and use of the flying thundergod, which he perfected using the knowledge he got from the sealing scroll of Tobirama Senju and a little help from Kushina, they had become good friends after she had set things straight with him.

Kushina too had became a jounin along with Mikoto, both had made a name for themselves in the war due to their power, their skills and their beauty. Mikoto had opted to not date anyone, instead she waited for Naruto to return. Kagami had informed the clan that she would be marrying Naruto instead of Fugaku, this did not sit well with Fugaku as previously she was his fiancé, and losing this marriage meant losing his chance of becoming the clan head and gaining more power, he had tried everything he could to convince her to marry him but she didn't pay him much attention and most of the time completely ignored him.

When Naruto arrived back in the village, Konoha was already fighting a three fortier war with Iwa in the west, Kumo in the North and Kiri in the east. Its forces were running thin by maintaining a 3 faced defence. The situation was so bad that students passed from the academy were being sent to the war.

The news of his arrival had spread fast and by the time he reached the hokage's office, many were already waiting for him in there.

As he opened the office doors, a red blur crashed into him and grabbed him into a tight hug.

"Not fair Kushina, we had decided to wait for his briefing then jump on him" Mikoto whined with a pout on her face. She had grown into an incredibly beautiful woman, with fair skin, long, straight black hair with bangs hanging on either side of her face to frame her cheeks and her charcoal black eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief and confidence. She wore an custom black jounin flak jacket which hugged her figure nicely, with an dark purple undershirt and a mesh armor with black shinobi pants which were taped off at the end and black shinobi shoes.

"I couldn't help it" she replied as she still clung to him tightly "I just missed him so much", Naruto just smiled at that.

The room was then filled with perverted giggles belonging to Jiraiya, who had taken out a notepad and was furiously scribbling onto it. There was a huge bang, courtesy of Tsunade, who had punched Jiraiya through the wall and out of the room "Your welcome".

By now Kushina had stopped hugging him and was now looking at him with a blush on her face. She too had grown a lot. She had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, waist length, fiery red hair — a common trait among the members of the Uzumaki clan — with strands that framed both sides of her face and the black clip given by Naruto that parted her hair to the left, keeping it out of her eyes, she wore a blueforehead protectot with her hair tied up in a high ponytail. Her attire consisted of a standard Konoha flack jacket anda black short-sleeved shirt and black form-fitting pants that reached her calves along with black shinobi sandes.

'He looks much more handsome now' Kushina thought as she kept staring at his face. Naruto too had changed, he had lost all of his babyfat, making his face more chiseled, giving him a square jaw-line, which, when he reached his prime would no doubt look even dashing on him. His hair had grown to reach past his shoulder, while there were bangs framing both side of his face, no doubt, having not cut it for 3 years. His hair had take a more red tint to it, appearing more burgundy than black. His eyes had become more blushish too, the voilet in his eyes now even than speckles. He was now standing at 6 feet of height, with bulky muscular body, every movement he made seemed to cause ripple through his muscles, he was currently wearing a white, full-sleave t-shirt with an short, black sleaveless jacket and black pants which reached his calves, he was currently not wearing any shoes.

"Is there something on my face" He spoke in a deep voice, puberty had definitely done wonders on him. Kushina immediately blushed a deep red, almost matching the color of her hair, and looked away mumbling incoherently.

"How did your training go, did you get any stronger?" Tsunade inquired, getting everyone back on topic.

"Something like that" Naruto replied vaguely,

"Anyway, enough about that, Mikoto said something about briefing me, has the war started?" and just like that, the room was filled with serious faces again.

After the third explained the situation, Naruto was really sad at the loss of his home village, but he couldn't have helped even if he had wanted to. The soul king, in an letter had explained it to him, he can't interfere if the loss of life is of great magnitude because doing so would cause an imbalance in the soul stream, many lives were lost on Uzu that day, if he had saved those life's and had helped Uzu he would have drastically changed the flow of souls as new lifes would have been born which were never meant to be. He could kill as many people as he wanted, it wouldn't affect the afterlife, the letter explained, he could even choose to save some lives, the damage done would be managable as only a few 100 souls wouldn't create much disturbance. The letter further explained that this would only be needed followed till his original birthday date. Since he was in the past and his existence here was an anomaly, the stream wouldn't naturally correct it's course but after his old birth date passes the stream will adjust itself and continue as it should.

"Are you ok, Naruto?" sandaime inquired as he finished his briefing on the on-going war.

"Yes, I am alright" Naruto replied as he put the loss of his home in the back of his mind.

" Now, since you were technically a genin when you left, you are still a genin now, so to revaluate your rank, you will be facing a jounin in combat." the Hokage explained, "since it is still early morning, your revaluation will take place in the afternoon, after you've had some rest" Naruto nodded and turned to leave, by now everyone had already left, "Oh and by the way Naruto, I have let the information slip that you are the grandson of Madara Uchiha, it was a tactical decision, decided by the council. It was to make our enemies think twice before they attack us. I know I had told you that this was your secret to share but with the state our village is in right now, this information has boosted lots of morales and increased the motivation of ninjas to push on. I am sorry Naruto, I did what I had to, it was for the village, that is my duty as the hokage"

Naruto didn't reply, while he was pissed that the old man had did something so underhanded, he understood his point of view, after all, everything is fair in love and war.

He stood there for few moments but couldn't find anything to say to the hokage, so without giving him any reply he turned and walked away.

He saw Kushina and Mikoto waiting for him near the office exit. "The hokage told you what he did right?" Kushina asked, as she saw his expression "It was not his secret to give" Naruto replied, still little angry with him but soon sighed and let his anger go "But I can understand why he did it".

"You should have been here when he confirmed that rumor, the morale was never so high in the village after the war started" Mikoto spoke, Kushina had already told her the truth.

"Well, I guess it was going to come out at some point and if it helped the village, then it can't be helped, what's done is done." with that said Naruto started to move in direction of his apartment.

"Naruto, we have moved your stuff in with us" Mikoto informed. "After Uzushio was destroyed, Kushina was devastated and since she didn't have anyone's shoulder to cry on, I decided to buy a house and move in with her, to help her cope"

"We later on moved in your stuff too, no point in leaving it there we thought, since you will be marrying us now" Kushina continued with a blush on her face when she said the last part.

The house itself was situated close to the Uchiha compound but not inside it. It was a fairly huge house, with a huge backyard and some tress in it. The house had 4 bed rooms, 3 bathroom, a hall and a kitchen, every room was fairly big. Kushina showed him his room which was down the hall to the left while Mikoto made some breakfast.

After freshening up and having breakfast, which he enjoyed a lot and complimented Mikoto for her cooking, Mikoto and Kushina told them about their training, some stories of the war and such.

It was already lunch time by the time they finished talking and catching up. Lunch this time was made by Kushina and it was the most delicious meal he had, had in a while, not counting Mikoto's breakfast. He explained that his summons weren't exactly cooks, all they ate was raw meat, which he wasn't a big fan of, so he had to make do with what he had there. He ate so much that Kushina had to cook once more.

After the meal was done, he throughly thanked Kushina and Mikoto for serving him such delicious food, while they just blushed in embarrassment and nodded, he decided to have some rest since it was only 2 in the afternoon and his match was at 4.

By the time he reached the arena, where his fight was going to take place, he had already figured out who his opponent was, It was not that hard as everyone was talking about a fight between "The leaf's yellow flash" and "The Grandson of Madara Uchiha". He met lots of his old classmates who were now jounin too, Inoichi, Shikaku, Chouza and many others welcomed him back after his training.

He had even met Kakashi and Sakumo, though, Kakashi didn't seem to remember much about him as he was still 3 when Naruto left. He had passed the academy in 1 year and was now a genin at the age of 6.

The arena was full of people and ninjas wanting to see the fight and it soon begun when the hokage called out for the two combatens, he had made this fight public because he wanted to showcase the skills of his ninjas and increase the morale among them.

Soon, Naruto and Minato were standing face to face as the crowd went wild, cheering them on. Minato had also changed in appearance but not by much, he still had blue eyes and spiky, blonde hair, which reached his jaw and framed both side of his face. His attire consisted of a standard Konoha uniform with two bands on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket, blue forehead protector and blue sandals.

Minato was the first to speak, "I want to apologize for the way I behaved with you after I learned that Kushina liked you instead of me, I was jealous and behaved poorly but Jiraiya-sensei talked some sense into me. I have already apologised to Kushina for my behavior, I hope you may forgive me too" He finished with a subtle bow.

Naruto nodded and accepted his apology "Its alright, I guess its all water under bridge."

"Thank you, Kushina is very lucky to have you"

"On the contrary, I am lucky to have a girl like Kushina".

While their conversation was going on the hokage had already explained the rules of the match which were pretty much same as that of a spar, no deathblows, no crippling strikes etc and now he was standing between us.

"Start" with that hokage moved back.

None of them moved an inch, both just kept looking at one another with a serious face.

Minato was first to make the move by throwing kunai's and shurikens at Naruto, who just dashed at him while dodging the projectiles. As they met, they quickly engaged in a taijutsu battle, both avoiding each other's strike while trying to get a hit in.

"They are almost evenly matched" Mikoto remarked as she watched the fight, but soon Minato was gaining an upper hand as he started increasing his speed.

"Why isn't he using his sharingan?" Kushina inquired, "He could just predict his attacks using it, can't he?".

"Looks like my student is kicking your students ass" Jiraiya boasted.

"Doubt it" Tsunade replied with a smirk.

"What do you mean" Kushina asked as she looked at Tsunade, they were all sitting in the kage booth with the hokage.

"You haven't noticed it?" she asked looking at Mikoto who had just turned on her sharingan to watch the fight. "His muscles seemed to be coiled really hard, it's as if he is.."

"Holding back" Tsunade completed.

"But why?" Kushina asked.

It was Jiraiya who answered this time, finally understanding the reason, "Since he hasn't fought a human in 3 years as he was training with his summons, he doesn't now how much strength, speed and chakra he should use on a normal human"

"He is adjusting his speed and strength to familiarise himself with fighting humans again" Tsunade explained "And looks like he is already done".

Down in the arena, as Minato was slowly increasing his speed and strength and was overwhelming him, Naruto had finally adjusted himself, with a smirk on his face Naruto suddenly increased his speed and smashed his fist into Minato's chest who looked surprised at the sudden increase in speed.

There was a loud cracking sound, similar to bones breaking, as Minato was launched into the walls of the arena with neck breaking speed.

"Still too much strength" Naruto muttered as he stared at his fist.

Everyone looked in shock silence as Naruto had seemingly defeated Minato in a single punch.

"Did he kill him" Kushina asked in concern "I heard sound of bones breaking", Tsunade smirked and motioned her to look at the place where Minato was smashed. As the smoke cleared, in Minato's place was a wooden log which was completely smashed to dust.

"That could have killed me" Minato snapped appearing many feets away from Naruto.

"I know, I am sorry, I am still adjusting" Naruto replied with a sheepish smile.

"I noticed" Minato replied looking back at the pulverized wood "I think it would be better if I don't engage you in hand to hand, after all your teacher was Tsunade and after seeing your strength, I don't really want to be hit by it". He jumped back and started performing hand signs "Wind Style: Great Air Cannon" a huge ball of wind about the size of a human was expelled from Minato's mouth.

Naruto countered using a single hand seal.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu" a fireball 5 times the size of Minato's technique, was spat out by Naruto. It completely engulfed the wind technique and crashed on the ground where Minato was just standing, cratering it. The entire arena was silent again as they watched the smoke settle near the crater, there was another wooden log.

"Are you really trying to kill me?" Minato screamed, he had used another body replacement technique to get out of there.

"Looks like I'll have to seal more of my chakra" Naruto replied, as he made some hand seals and slapped his hand on his stomach and gave a twist.

"Now, let's try this one more time"

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu"

This time the fire ball was relatively small, but still bigger than average.

"Water Style: Great Water Canon Jutsu" Minato countered.

The area was filled with steam as the fire and water cancelled each other out.

2 clones of Minato rushed out from the steam towards Naruto and engaged him in taijutsu to distract him while the original Minato was making a long series of handseals with lightning fast speed, it took Naruto only few seconds to dispel the clones but that was all the time Minato needed to complete his jutsu.

"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt", Minato thrust both his hands forward and a huge bolt of lighting was shot out from it in the direction of Naruto.

Naruto had already sensed the buildup of chakra within Minato, so he was already prepared for it.

Performing a single handed seal, his hand from wrist up (towards the fingers) was covered in dark blue lightning, the sound of chirping birds filled the arena. As the lightning bolt reached him, he made a slashing motion with his lightning covered hand.

"No way"

"What the hell?"

"Seriously!!"

Shouts of disbelief soon filled the arena.

"Did your student just..." Jiraiya started, disbelief clear in his voice, "cut a lightning bolt in half. Yes, yes he did" Tsunade completed, looking wide eyed at Naruto.

As the commotion from him cutting a lightning bolt died down, Naruto released the technique while saying its name.

"Raikiri (lightning cutter)".

Minato stared wide eyed at him, he had expected him to dodge or atleast get hit by it. He did not expect him to freaking cut it in half.

Breaking out from his stupor, Minato started

"That was really something, I really didn't want to use this technique against a fellow shinobi but I really can't resist using it against you. I'll show you why I am called the yellow flash"

With that Minato removed a handful of his special three pronged kunai from his pouch and threw them at Naruto, who didn't react to the kunai's, as some passed by him, Minato sudden appeared behind him with a yellow flash and slashed at his exposed back.

But instead of blood pouring out from the wound as he expected, the Naruto in front of him blurred out of existence.

'A clone? ' Minato thought 'No, he didn't have enough time to create one, shadow clone?, no, the clone would have popped' Minato widened his eyes 'It was an afterimage!!!, that's the only explanations'

"That was the Hiraishin no Jutsu (The flying thundergod technique)" Naruto started, who was now standing several feet away from him, Minato looked in his direction as Naruto continued speaking "It was created by Tobirama Senju, the second hokage. Using this technique allows the user to immediately teleport to a seal marker with its formula on it. It will work against almost any opponent, but it won't work against me. It has some weaknesses which I won't disclose for obvious reasons but I will reveal how one can counter it" Naruto explained.

Everyone looked shocked that he was going to disclose a way to counter a technique which made Minato who he was today 'The yellow flash of Konoha'.

"I will explain to all of you how I countered it, its quite easy really " Naruto exclaimed "The key is speed and chakra sensing" Naruto begun "all you have to do is sense the chakra from the seal where he is teleporting to and move away in time, That's what I did anyway." Naruto explained with a smile on his face, while everyone in the area just had an anime style sweatdrop on their heads.

"Everyone already knew that!!!" Minato shouted, he almost had an heart attack when Naruto said that he was going to tell everyone a way to counter his most prized technique.

"That's the way to counter almost all the techniques, react and move away from it, you were only able to do it because you are so freakishly skilled in sensing, no one can sense that minuscule amount of chakra flicker, much less have enough time to move away from it but you somehow did it " Minato ranted, Naruto meanwhile decided to pull a Kakashi on him by acting aloof and staring at the wall, as soon as Minato finished his rant Naruto looked over him with unfocused eyes then blinked several times before asking.

" Huh, did you say something?".

Minato had completely lost his cool by now and was screaming obscenities at him.

"He certainly knows how to get under your skin" Jiraiya commented, he kept staring while his pupil made a fool of himself.

"He certainly does, doesn't he?".

By now Minato had finished his screaming and was now breathing heavily.

"Anyway, where was I?" Naruto started, completely ignoring Minato again, "Oh yeah the hiraishin, I can do that too, it's not that difficult really" with that said there was a crimson flash and Naruto appeared in front of Minato with his hand over his heart.

"See?"

There was absolute silence in the arena as everyone stared at Naruto in shock once again, they seemed to be doing that very often, Naruto remarked.

Slowly putting his hand down Naruto walked back, meanwhile Minato's breath was hitched which he slowly released as he looked down at the place where Naruto's hand was 'That could have been a killing blow' he thought while looking back up at Naruto with wide eyes, who was now looking in the direction of the hokage.

The hokage stood up and announced the winner.

"Winner is Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha!!!"