Slug Princess II


A Ninja's Weapon


It was night time in Stone Country, and a full-moon night as well, all the residents of Boseki had long since sought out their beds. Yet, not all activity in Boseki had ceased, because walking through town on a pilgrimage was a monk, trailed closely by his four disciples. These monks, however, were not what they seemed, fore out in front of them as plain as day, was a man with steel gray hair, reaching to his mid-back, and carrying two long bundles over his shoulder. The four disciples kept their faces covered and seemed to be interchangeable. A shadow passed quickly over the light reflection from the moon, causing the lead monk to look up, but noted a cloud moving in the direction the shadow seemed to move. He turned back to the path in front of him, thinking no more on the subject.

In a small alcove between two buildings, a man stood watching this band of monks move through the streets of Boseki, without stopping, and into a pass leading out of town. The man, wearing a shoddy, wide-brimmed hat, and a ratty cloak, had blue-green hair and purple-eyes, and had a smirk twisting across his lips. He waited for the group of monks to pass his position, before following them at a discrete distance. The pass was a ravine with walls higher than the ones entering Boseki. Looking down, one would notice that the lead monk, had shifted his position to be in the center, and his subordinates were in a two by two formation of protection. The cloaked man watched and followed them, his serious expression, that of a professional devising strategy to trap his target.

The monks rounded a bend, as the man on the ground, lost sight of them and hurried after. He rounded the turn after them, but found himself coming face to face, with the four henchmen, standing silently in Aoi's path. Aoi Rokushō smiled in resolve, "I'm hunting bigger game, but I don't see him."

"Quiet," came another voice to Aoi's side, "you opportunistic jackal," and Gosunkugi jumped down from his perch, high upon the ridge wall.

"I was wondering when you would make your move, Nail-san," Aoi's lips had a smile on them, as if he knew something his prey did not.

"Unfortunately, I have an important task that needs attending to," Gosunkugi answered, "time… is money, so let's kill you as cheaply as possible." Thus saying, the Nail, reached into his front pouch and pulled out a handful of his namesake, and tossed them high into the air, they came down like rain from the sky, landing point first in the ground. Then they drove themselves into the earth and disappeared, as this happened, Gosunkugi made a hand sign, saying, "Ninja Art: Torpedo Nail."

Aoi drew a metallic blade from his cloak, it was a dual-colored blade, the edge was a silver hue, while the backside was a bluish-green color, the same shade as his hair, "Gosunkugi, it's over." Aoi took a step to charge his foe, when a nail, drove itself up and through his sandaled foot. Aoi appeared to grunt in pain, as his other foot came down, and another nail drove into that foot. The four henchmen took this as their cue to go on the offensive and charged toward the hapless Nukenin. Gosunkugi stood at the side of the brawl, and waited for the inevitable conclusion, when from above he heard what could only be described as a high-pitched, whistling sound. He looked up and in the direction of the sound, which as it got louder was sounding more and more like a shriek from Hell, and his eyes had to have been playing tricks on him, because he saw what he could only describe, as an Avenging Angel, carrying a lightning bolt in his hands.

The Nail still had the presence of mind to dodge out of the way, but he still got clipped by the front edge of the wing, slicing into his side. The keen edge of those wings made a katana look like a dull, rusty, axe blade, they cut Gosunkugi so quickly, his mind did not have time to register the pain until the entity was gone. The Nail looked at his men, and found they had their hands full, dealing with… a red-haired, violet-eyed youth, there was no trace of the other man, leading Gosunkugi to the conclusion that he was a clone using a henge, who did not seem inconvenienced by the nails in his feet at all.

Gosunkugi looked up as the being in the sky reached the apex of its climb, which silhouetted it perfectly in the full-moon. The most unique feature, the Nail, could distinguish about the wings, were that they seemed more bat-like, than bird, with a natural curvature after reaching the middle of the wing, and tapering down to the tip. The wings were located at the center of gravity along the back, and rippled out along the expanse, with concave sections on the trailing edge. In all, the creature had a twenty-five-foot wingspan, and a unique tail design with two sets of fins, one pair of fins, connected the body of the creature to the tail, used for fine control, during flight. The last pair of fins ended at the tip of the tail, which was rather flexible as the creature tucked it into its body, as it keeled over in mid-air, the fins in the tail were obviously used for split-second turns, as it dove directly for Gosunkugi's position.

Gosunkugi was running as fast as he could, zigzagging erratically to prevent the fiend above from targeting him. The Nail, who had struck fear into the hearts of many with his deeds, was himself knowing fear he had not felt since he was a small, and still innocent boy. The creature behind him was silent now, deathly so, Gosunkugi chanced a look behind him, and sure enough the creature was hot on his heels. Gosunkugi may have been afraid but he would not go down without a fight, so he jumped and whirled around, while moving through some hand signs, and shouted, "Ninja Art: Nail Hail," before cupping his thumb and index-finger around his mouth, and blowing, from out of his mouth a storm of small penny nails shot. The creature did not even try to dodge his assault, it did not need to because as the nail barrage struck it, the metallic nails were absorbed into it, and seemed to add strength to the wings themselves.

Which was when the Nail noticed something truly odd, about the wings and tail of the creature, they were all made of metal. In his panic, he had not noticed the shine from the moonlight, reflecting off the blade-like wings. Gosunkugi however should have been looking where he was going, because out of the ground right in front of his feet, sprang a metallic net. The net ensnared his feet, pitching him over for a face plant into the ravine floor. The creature, swooped in and came in for a landing, flaring its wings to come to a complete stop before touching down as gracefully as any bird the Nail has ever seen. Finally, Gosunkugi, got a good look at its face, the head with its narrow pointed snout and long ears, looked like that of a fox. The arms were encased in overlapping metallic, bands, lending the strength of many, while remaining flexible enough not to hinder range of motion, and they ended with very human-like hands, which had five fingers ending in cruel, metallic talons. One hand held the sword, which emitted a lightning bolt from the hilt, and seemed to hum, ominously.

There was a small spike of chakra, and the metal seemed to retreat into the body… of a youth, no older than twelve from the looks of it, with ginger hair, purple-eyes, and whisker-marks running down the cheeks of his face. The humming blade, now that Gosunkugi got a good look at it, was familiar to him, at least from the descriptions he had heard about it, the Raijin no ken, Sword of the Thunder God, the Nidaime's blade. Gosunkugi returned his attention to the hand holding the blade, looked into the young man's eyes, and saw his death, "No please, have mercy on me, I'll give you anything," the coward pleaded with the boy, hoping youth, still allowed him the naïveté to spare his enemies, it did not!

"Spare you," the young ninja scoffed, "have mercy, I wonder how many of your victims, begged you for the very same thing you're begging me for now? One who showed no compassion for others," Naruto stated as he raised his blade, "will never know such a thing at my hands, perhaps Sanbon'nohashira (Three Pillars) will show you mercy, when they reincarnate you as a worm." At that, Naruto brought the Thunder Blade down, the cut was clean and precise, the only mercy Naruto would grant to this man, was a quick death.

Flashback

Naruto had been walking for quite a while, he had picked up a tail, almost as soon as he had left the township. He had come to a lane with thick bushes on the sides, and a few trees in the distance, he had reached the place he wanted and decided, this would be the perfect place for his confrontation with the one following him. "You can come out, you bastard," Naruto said, whirling around to confront his pursuer, who had not even bothered to conceal himself!

The person that had followed Naruto was last seen on a wanted-poster, he had blue-green hair, and cruel, violet eyes, and was three inches taller than the Uzumaki. Aoi Rokushō was looking at the red-headed, purple-eyed, preteen, with a gleam in his eyes, and a leering smirk crossing his lips. "I have to say, the years have been good to you, Demon," came Aoi's confident voice, "all these years on the run from your crimes, and you've decided to become a bounty hunter. Now that's rich," Aoi chuckled, "a murderer catching murderers, and you appeared to have had some training too," he stated wistfully, "and may be by a ninja as well, but not a very good one."

Naruto remained expressionless, "it takes a murderer to catch a murderer, Rokushō-san," was all he said, as he drew his tanto. "What do you want with me," he asked, "I'm not wanted by the Leaf, so there can be no purpose for you following me," Naruto reasoned, "and as much pleasure as you always took to inflict pain on me while I lived there, you are too lazy to track me down just to harm me?"

Aoi just grinned, "you may not be on the Leaf's official wanted list, Demon, but there was a sort of S-ranked standing order, issued by the council," he said, "it stated that if any Konoha-nin found you out in the world, they were to take you down as an enemy of the village. If I bring your head back, then the council will have to reinstate me as a ninja in their ranks. I tried getting on with Rain village, but the leader of the village doesn't allow outsiders, especially traitors to enter her ninja ranks, even when I showed her what I could do," Aoi mumbled, "the red-headed bitch, probably wears the mask to hide how hideous she looks."

Naruto's ears caught what Aoi said, "or she knows damaged goods, when she sees them," he quipped, Ame is a small village, they probably wouldn't want to run afoul of Konoha, one of the Five Great Villages. "What about the Hokage, surely he won't allow you to come back after murdering one of his ninja?"

Aoi's mouth twisted into a sneer, "the Hokage has become little more than an ineffectual old-man, he's just short of being a figure-head these days, the real power is in the council now," then he sniggered, and looked at the red-head in front of him, "another reason I followed you out here, is because I know you are on a mission to collect Gosunkugi's bounty, and I felt the need to kill two birds with one stone. I eliminate you, as competition and get a chance to go back home," he grimaced, "though I may have to endure some measure of abuse from Morino-san, it was his brother I killed after all." Aoi suddenly launched a flurry of shuriken, which Naruto dodged quite easily and flung a few of his own back at the Nukenin, but they did not come from the pouch at his waist, they came from within Naruto's arm, and were moving with pristine accuracy because they left a scratch on Aoi's cheek.

Aoi hissed and Naruto quickly closed the distance, he brought his tanto into play, aiming a slash at Aoi's flank. There was a sudden puff of smoke and Naruto, was just slicing into a log, of course it was a substitution, one of the most basic skills of ninjutsu. Aoi appeared behind Naruto, with a humming blade made of condensed lightning, raised and already coming down on Naruto, "this is the end for you, Demon," Aoi shouted, then snarled, "go back to Hell, where you belong!" The Raijin no ken, sliced Naruto into two glowing pieces, and from the distance one heard two chunks hitting the ground heavily.

Before Aoi could even begin to celebrate his victory, several tentacles of metal erupted from the ground, and tried wrapping themselves around his legs. The blade in his hands, however, lashed out as fast as a viper's tongue flicked, severing the tentacles before they could tighten, "did you really think you could get me, with the same techniques you used on the hapless villagers you murdered, all those years ago, Demon," Aoi gloated, he looked down noticing the red glow, along the bisected halves of the Naruto he had slain? "You seem to have learned a few things since leaving the village, Demon," the current wielder of the Thunder God's blade, told him, "a metal bunshin, is something I've never seen before."

There was a rustling in the brush, as more Narutos stood and looked at the remains of the clone, and tentacles, "Interesting," they all said at once. They acted as if nothing was wrong at all, the only thing they seemed surprised by, was the demise of the clone and the subsidence of the tentacles, back into the Earth.

Aoi, thinking he had the advantage, decided to gloat some more, "what did you expect, this is the famed Raijin no ken, with this I'm nigh invincible. I could probably take on even the Legendary Three Sanin, together," Rokushō then laughed. "Wouldn't it be fitting for the blade that once belonged to Tobirama Senju, to be used to end the line of Senju, once and for all," and he just laughed an evil grin at his thought.

"Will you be quiet, Rokushō-san," a Naruto said irritably, "I'm trying to think here," he mused to himself, and Aoi was confused, why wasn't the Demon, cowering in fear? Naruto looked at Aoi's expression, and smiled his own evil grin, and chuckled quietly, which sent shivers down the missing-nin's spine, "you're far from invincible with that toy of yours, it's just raitonjutsu concentrated into blade form. The same weaknesses against wind, still apply," as he spoke, Naruto flashed through hand signs in a blur, ending in hare, "Wind Blade Barrage – modified," all of a sudden a whirling dervish, swept up around Aoi, and it was like he was inside a blender, as a thousand knives ripped into his flesh, causing the former Leaf ninja to scream in pain and flail about him with the Thunder Sword. It was to no avail, however, as the power of Futonjutsu, even though it was the same level as the blade, due to chakra expenditure could not be stopped by the Raijin no ken.

Aoi just stood there as the ninjutsu ran its course, he was bleeding from several cuts all along his body, but none of them were fatal. "For your information," another Naruto began, "I wasn't saying use of the blade was 'interesting,' Aoi-san. I was just surprised by the results of your cut," Naruto explained, "I've never before found anything that could counteract my metal-release techniques. They're a Bloodline Select, combining Earth, Fire, and Wind chakra," he explained, "it's quite fascinating, because the metal isn't just dead matter, it seems to actually come alive when I manipulate it, the molecules seem to configure into the shape of proteins, which causes them to act like living tissue. The sensations pass back to me, and I can manipulate the metal as easily as I move my own body. The clones share my consciousness, and anything they learn passes back to me when I return them back to the earth. When you killed that clone at your feet, everything he learned while he was alive, passed back to me. I didn't know that was possible, because I've never found any method capable of destroying them. It must be the raitonjutsu overpowering the Earth elemental chakra," Naruto hypothesized, "I wonder what would happen, if someone used a water release jutsu on them? I'll have to get Ma-sensei to hit one of my clones with a jutsu when I return home."

Aoi was confused, "why are you telling me this, Demon," he asked irritably, "I am your enemy, and you're telling me something that I can use to destroy you?" He said that just as his vision started to swim, and he began to lurch forward, he was feeling dizzy.

The Narutos' grins became truly evil, "you lost this battle in our very first exchange, Aoi-san," they informed the other ninja, "did you think I missed you on purpose?" The Narutos brushed their own cheeks with their fingers, and though his vision was fading Aoi mimicked the Jinchuriki's action, coming away with the stain of blood on his fingers, and realizing what his enemy meant: poison. "I am feeling merciful toward you, Aoi-san, you gave me some information about myself I didn't know, so I'm going to give you a quick death," Naruto waved his arm, and Aoi saw three gleams flashing in the moonlight, and realized what they were, the shuriken he had thrown at Naruto in their first exchange. The throwing stars should have lost momentum long before now, "that's one of my kekkei genkai, Aoi-san," a Naruto answered his unspoken question, "Magnet Release, like the Shodaime Kazekage, I was keeping them in reserve, if my poison didn't work. I wasn't going to kill you, I was going to pack you into a storage scroll, and mail you to Ibiki-san, the Head of T&I, I think, he would have enjoyed his work, once he had you in his tender mercies, but I'm thanking you for providing me with valuable information on my metal release, by giving you the quick death, he would have you begging for, for murdering his brother." Despite his weakened condition, Aoi was still on his feet when the shuriken he threw at Naruto to distract him, while Aoi set up his kawarimi to get behind the Demon, buzzed through his body. All three were moving faster than sound, at those speeds, the bones of the body were just a suggestion, one went through the skull like it was not there, and the force, cleaved the brain in half. The other two, entered the body at neck level, which cleanly severed the head from the neck. He was dead in seconds and felt no pain as he passed to the Three.

Naruto searched Aoi's body for anything useful, sealed his head away, and picked up the Nidaime's blade. "I'll give this back to Tsunade-san when I get back, it is her family treasure after all, and the Leaf obviously cannot be trusted to keep it safe," then looking down at the body, sighed, "I might as well perform a hunter-nin ritual. There's no telling how many secrets his body has, anyone of them could bring down Konoha, and as long as my one precious person lives there, its strength is a vested interest," he rationalized. Going through more hand seals, finishing with Tiger, "Katon Jutsu: Kasō (Fire Release Technique: Cremation)," there was a short intense burst of flame over the remains of Aoi Rokushō, and when they subsided, he was nothing but a pile of ashes blowing in the wind.

Flashback End

Gosunkugi's head, of course, was sealed away into a sealing scroll, he picked up the long bundles, opening them both. Inside were two swords, one was just your generic katana, not very special it would fetch a good price from a dealer, the other however was a unique blade forged by a solid craftsman. It looked like a standard katana, but it was in the details were one saw the finishing touches: the blade started from the hilt as wide as a normal blade, but tapered along the edge subtly, but the grip was truly unique, it was a broad, thick, wooden club, perfect for clubbing someone over the head.

As Naruto held the blade, images rose in his mind of the man who forged this blade, he was a swordsmith, and if he had lived, still may not have been world renowned, but he was good at his craft. He picked up images of the smith's time while forging the blade, and the events that led to Tokichi's death at the hands of Gosunkugi. The sword thanked Naruto for getting justice for its forger, and now the last of Tokichi's soul that still clung to the blade could rest in peace.

Naruto smiled and said in a whisper, "rest, Tokichi-san, let the Three take you to where you are most needed, I'll keep this masterpiece of yours with me, as a companion on my journey. I like the option you provided to knock someone out or take their life," Naruto allowed a tear to fall from his eyes. Naruto also took Gosunkugi's pouch and found scrolls that contained his nail techniques, "thanks Nail, these jutsu will pair well with my metal-release," he said to the man. He went through a couple of hand-seals, and said, "Solemn Burial," the criminal was interred in a proper grave, and a modest tombstone was raised at the head of the grave. There was an inscription chiseled into it, which read, [Here lies Gosunkugi, the Nail, the Thief, the Murderer. He died begging for mercy and received none.]

[Time to go home, Kit," came Kyūbi's voice.] {Absolutely, my friend," Naruto said.} Naruto was too tired to walk back to Ryōzanpaku, so he decided to use his alternative means of travel. Naruto deployed his wings again and took off, soaring through the sky. Now normally, Naruto would be too heavy to fly the way he does, and when he first devised this method about two-years-ago, he despaired of ever making it work. When he realized, he has been making things fly for a while now, with his magnet release, he has been very good at making metal objects fly. So, after finding a configuration that would hold him aloft, he learned to coat his entire form with electromagnetic energy, which gave him a buoyancy within the atmosphere, and allowed him to move through the air with ease. He still had to perfect his flying, and the wings still had to comply with the aerodynamic principles of flight, but with his clones, minus a few injuries, and nearly drowning in the river, he became as natural at flight as any bird in nature. It also helped that he could feel the air as it passed over and under his wings, which allowed him to make the minuscule changes in pitch and yaw, that allowed him to maneuver with so much precision.

The Kinzoku no bunshin saw his boss taking off, and head in the direction of his home for the last six years and smiled, before looking at the minions of their prey. These men had fought valiantly to protect their employer, they were honorable shinobi, time to see if they were smart enough to retreat when given the chance, as all ninja must learn. Only samurai would give their lives for a cause, ninja could be more flexible, "Alright boys, my boss has just left, which means your boss is dead, or captured and you won't be getting paid, so do you wish to continue fighting me," the metal clone's left-hand morphed into a chain with a depleted uranium weight attached, and his right-hand morphed into a chain with a sickle on the end? "Keep in mind, now that I'm no longer just here to distract you, I can finally cut loose," he said, with a smile that dared them to make a move. The men looked at the one they thought was a normal man, who had been holding them at bay easily, what could he do when all restraints were lifted, and decided to meet the people in town, really quickly? The clone smirked, then turned to look at the reader, and took a stage bow to the fourth-wall, "thank you, ladies and gentlemen, good night," before liquifying, back into the ground from whence it was formed.


The Gambling Mission


Naruto and Tsunade were now traveling together, they had been on the road for nearly a full-year now. He had only been home from his mission to Stone for a few days, when he was called before the Elder of Ryōzanpaku, and Tsunade Senju. She had been extremely grateful to Naruto, for returning the Thunder Sword and seemed disturbed with what he had told her, about what Konoha had become, at least according to Aoi. Hayato-sama addressed him, "Naruto, good job again, on the swift resolution of your very first mission as a shinobi," he commended Naruto, "you showed great maturity in your battles with Gosunkugi-san, and the unexpected gain of the bounty on Rokushō-san's head, you have been credited the twenty-percent for the mission but were given the full-amount for the bounty, minus the amount for the blade of the Nidaime."

"Thank you, Hayato-sama," Naruto nodded in acknowledgement.

"I also, thank you again for returning Raijin no ken to its rightful owner," Tsunade added, she had unbeknownst to the red-head, given it as a gift to Hayato, the son of Tobirama Senju, who now kept it in a shrine he kept in his apartment on the school grounds. A memento of his father, he would offer it to Miu, and if she did not want it, give it to Naruto, once he was deemed ready to know about his Namikaze heritage.

"Your welcome," Naruto shrugged, "it seemed like the right thing to do, you are the last Senju, and it's yours by rights."

Tsunade nodded her thanks again, and Hayato decided to come to the point of this meeting, "Naruto, the mission we sent you on to Ishi no Kuni, was a prep-mission for another mission, we will be sending you on, which should take the rest of this year and more to complete. It is a mission that we feel you alone could complete, because of your exceptional luck at cards and dice and other types of casino gambling games," he indicated the woman in his office, "this is being commissioned as a familial favor from Tsunade-itoko, my cousin."

That revelation certainly took the twelve-year-old by surprise, but such was his training, that he only allowed one of his eyes to quirk out of surprise. Hayato took a measure of pride at what the training of Ryōzanpaku could produce, before Naruto asked, "cousin, so would that make you a Senju, and for that matter would that be the same for the Fourth Hokage?"

"No, while we are related by blood, we've chosen to keep the Namikaze name, to protect us from exploitation by the Leaf," Hayato explained as much as he dared, "mine and Minato's mother, my sister's father was Senju Tobirama, he was shrewd enough, as he watched his brother's family die-out, except Tsunade here, to keep us away from Konoha politics. Before you ask, she did give me my father's blade which you recovered," Hayato stated with a smile of gratitude, "I will see if Miu wants it, when the time is right." Naruto nodded his understanding, "but my family history is beside the reason you are here, my cousin has run into a bit of financial adversity, because of her life of debauchery, and unfortunately Ryōzanpaku is not in a position to bail her out directly, we are still a young business venture after all."

"I'm just a degenerate gambler, and a drunk, don't make me out to be free with my body," Tsunade growled in warning to her cousin, "I am a carouser, not a slut!"

"My apologies, Tsunade-karūseru (carouser)," Hayato offered with a teasing gleam in his eyes. She just turned her nose up, crossed her arms over her chest, and sniffed indignantly. It was only thanks to Naruto's discipline as a ninja that kept him from cracking up laughing, {their behavior toward each other, just screams family bond,} he snickered to his tenant, who just shrugged, human behavior meaning very little to it. Hayato returned to business, "what we've decided is that you'll go on a bit of a gambling trip with her, to all of the places she owes money. You'll gamble as much as you feel like, until you equal or exceed however much she owes that establishment, but instead of collecting your winnings, except for your entrance fee, you'll waive them if they forgive Tsunade, her debts with them."

"And, what if I don't win, who's money will be forfeited if I cannot win," Naruto asked starting to get angry?

"That's the reason, we had you go on that mission to collect Gosunkugi's bounty," Hayato smiled, "the usual 80% fee we collected, will be used as a stake to fund the mission. Success or failure is not predicated upon winning or losing these games," the blonde man added, "this is a familial favor, if you lose the stake, then nothing changes financially for anybody. You'll still have the Ʀ30-thousand you earned from the mission, Ryōzanpaku gives up nothing it wasn't planning to keep anyway, and Tsunade-chan is still in major debt."

"Very well, what do I get out of it," Naruto asked?

"Well, if you stay out for the rest of the year, then your obligation to Ryōzanpaku is fulfilled, you're free and clear," Hayato explained, "you'll have to return here to receive your official Ronin license, of course, then you may go wherever the wind takes you, though I do hope you keep in touch as a friend."

"As for what you'll get from me, Naruto-san," Tsunade answered, "I have agreed to train you as my apprentice, in shinobi work and as a medical ninja, it'll be something besides the standard ninja work you can offer your clients as you go forward, it'll be an extra source of income at the very least, in addition to your journeyman training as a metalsmith, there is never a shortage of the ill and injured, Naruto. What do you say," Tsunade asked, with a seductive grin as she saw his eye twitch, "do you accept the mission?"

Naruto closed his eyes and calmed himself, and considered the offer, of course accepting the mission was never in doubt, his contract with Ryōzanpaku prevented that, but to be trained by one of the three Legendary Sanin, and top isha-nin in the world was a dream come true for him. But he had to be mature as he accepted, a true ninja, does not let their emotions get the better of them, "I accept, of course, and I'll stay with you for as long as it takes to clear up your debts, no matter how long it takes," she grinned brightly as he accepted the mission, he was not finished though, "but you cannot do anymore gambling, for as long as I'm with you. You pick up so much as a pair of dice, or a card for anything other than just for fun, and no stakes, then we stop, and you still continue to train me for as long as I feel like being your student." Naruto held out his hand for her to shake, "do we have an accord, Tsunade-san?"

Tsunade had a light smile on her face as she looked at him, then raised her hand and grasped his, "Yes, and I agree to your terms," then reached for the necklace around her neck, and pulled it out of her bodice, "and to make sure I keep my bargain, I offer this necklace, it belonged to the Shodai, my grandfather. If I break our deal, I will not only allow you to remain with me as long as you wish, I will give you this necklace to do with as you see fit, it's worth quite a lot, intrinsically and subjectively, some could say its worth as much as ten villages. To me its priceless, I mean, if I wanted to, I could've sold this to a collector and paid off all my debts with interest and have enough leftover, to buy a substantial plot of land, and live comfortably for the rest of my days, but it's yours if I break my word and gamble before you're finished getting me squared away financially. Those are my stakes, by the Three," Tsunade vowed solemnly.

It has been almost a year since that time, and now, Naruto and Tsunade were on their way back to Ryōzanpaku, so he can turn in this mission. In the time they have travelled together, the boy and the older woman, have become incredibly close; for the first time in his life, Naruto had a best friend, Tsunade Senju. He knew everything about her, he had learned about her brother, Nawaki and fiancé, Dan Kato, she had told him about Dan's niece, Shizune, and where she had been for the year. He not only knew that her outward appearance was just a façade, but so was her old prunish shell too. It seems that the Uzumaki and Senju genes created a peculiar mix within her. She has, not only, gained the youthful vitality of the Senju clan, she also gained the longevity, the lifespan if you will of the Uzumaki clan, which she had educated Naruto all about, they even took side trips to Uzushio to visit their ancestral home. Tsunade does not age like most people in the world, she ages five times as slow as most living things, in the world. What that meant, while chronologically Tsunade may have been in her mid-fifties, physically and mentally in terms of brain health, she had just reached her mid-teens. She had the maturity and life experiences of an elder, she believed she could very well, live to see her five-hundredth birthday.

In truth it was not just the genes in her body that she had, but the chakra given to Asura Ōtsutsuki by his father, Hagoromo, the Sage of Six-Paths. Who charged him with making sure the Rinnegan could never again be awakened. To that end, Asura was the founder of two clans, the Senju, to which he bequeathed the Yin-half of the Six-Paths Chakra, and the Uzumaki whom he gave the Yang-half, thinking they would never be brought together again.

She wore the modified henge for vanity's sake, and the shell of an aged woman, to keep the likes of Jiraiya and Huan from creeping on her. Only her sensei, Sarutobi Hiruzen knew what she truly looked like, and now so does Naruto, because at times while they traveled, and when he had gained her complete trust as a friend, she traveled without either guise but as her true self. Not even Shizune had seen her without her shells. The first time she brought it down, the only thing he could say, when he saw her physical beauty was, "Wow!" This actually caused her to blush, such was how close she had come to this young man, that she dropped her ninja bearing when he was around and acted like a girl. That's when they discovered something… weird about Naruto, she went to give him a hug in her true form, something she had not done since Dan, but as she made contact with him, something happened.

Naruto felt something within him… awaken, something neither of them were expecting, Tsunade was expecting the normal reaction a male would achieve, when gaining physical contact with an attractive female. Naruto was at that age after all, but while that did occur, that was not all, while they did not know it at the time, at least not immediately, they discovered that Naruto's metal sense when making significant contact with a similar genetic relative, awakened the dormant or recessive genes of his DNA. In Tsunade's case, the genes she got from her Uzumaki and Senju heritage, awakened in Naruto, also, though he did not know it, the product of the Uzumaki and the Senju clans. While hugging Tsunade, Naruto came alive, truly alive for the first time in his life and he felt elated. Naruto laughed, but it was the Kitsune inside him, after checking out what happened that told him, including the facts about the chakra, everything, except it only told him it was from the founder of both clans, not the name of the founder. Naruto, nor Tsunade, were ready for that information, yet. He was grateful, because he still loved Ayame, and he would not even think of letting her go at the moment.

Naruto told Tsunade what had happened, relaying to her everything the Fox told him. He was astonished that he was related so closely to Tsunade, and he wondered which side of his family it came from. That's when she told him she knew, but he had to wait for the full story, and it was not her place to tell him about his origins. So, instead of lying to him like some others, she was like the Kyūbi, she knew where he was from, but came right out and refused to tell him, which earned her a permanent place of trust in his heart.

Their training together could not be any tougher on Naruto, and he thought Ryōzanpaku was tough on him, but while they were tough on him and did not go easy on him by any stretch of the imagination, at least when compared to his other classmates. Tsunade's training took what he learnt from Ryōzanpaku and amplified it by one-hundred percent, and she was a tireless taskmaster too. She never let him rest, until he reached the pinnacle of perfection, with everything she had to teach him. She ran him like a drill-sergeant in an ANBU boot camp, stressing him in not only the body, but the mind as well. There were times, especially at first, despite their burgeoning friendship, when he seriously thought about murdering her. However, as time went by, he saw that he began to improve. Everything he was good at when he graduated from Ryōzanpaku, he became great at, and the things he needed to work on before, he became perfect at now. His chakra control became equivalent to an Elite ANBU, very close to Tsunade's own in fact, his taijutsu she refined to be even better than before he left Ryōzanpaku.

Whether, his shinobi skills, or his training in medicine, Tsunade trained him thoroughly in everything she knew. She was even more of a slave-driver about his medical chakra, than about his ninja skills, taking him to task over even the smallest of mistakes. He learned so much from this woman, and together, they learned his metal release, allowed him to capture the platelets of the blood and cause them to coagulate faster at injury points. He could accelerate bone growth in a patient, healing broken bones in half the time it took nature to do it, and if he combined this method with medical chakra, it healed these same injuries even faster. Naruto could use magnet release to see inside patients and help diagnose problems, that even medical chakra could not detect. She taught him about medicines, poisons, and other drugs and their effects on the body, even some that affected the chakra-coils. By the time the yearlong mission was coming to an end, Naruto was a qualified medical ninja, though his skill level, only allowed him to stabilize a patient and get them ready for transport to a medical facility. Professionally, he was equal in skill to a civilian registered nurse, not yet doctor caliber, and certainly not ready to perform surgery.

The focus of this mission, was a complete success, with many surprises throughout the journey. The first month Naruto followed the plan laid-out for him by Ryōzanpaku. He entered the casinos and gambling parlors, played until he won twice as much as Tsunade owed to the place, then made a deal to forgive her debts to the place, instead of collecting his full winnings. He made sure to collect a receipt of the forfeiture, so they could not double-cross him and hold her debt to them over her head. This plan held for most of the gambling dens he attended, though not for all of them. You see there were some, who took it as a source of pride that they had one of the Legendary Three, by the nose, and refused to budge on that subject. That was when Naruto, decided to alter the plan slightly, he stopped being Nice Guy-san, instead of playing until he had double Tsunade's debts, he played until the place nearly went bankrupt. Millions of ryo could have been his for the taking, enough to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of his, now, very long life. Naruto, however, had his honor as a ninja, and ninja stayed faithful to the parameters of the missions they were given, he was getting his payment in training, the bonus was coming from making a lasting friendship with Tsunade. When a casino, gambling parlor, or gambling den, reached the point of bankruptcy, they begged with their heads bowed to the floor for him to stop, and only once they agreed to forgive Tsunade's debt, and he took double the amount he began playing with, did he forfeit his winnings. Hey, he was honorable, he was not stupid, he still collected some profit, he would even share his winnings with Ryōzanpaku, the eighty-twenty percent split was a part of his contract with them of course, plus they were like a family to him, he wanted to see them succeed.

There were some who tried to use force to evict him, or get him to stop playing, but that quickly came to an end when the two ninja broke their bouncers, thugs, and henchmen. They never killed anybody, at least during those first few months, he and Tsunade even took time to heal them back to reasonable health, for a fee of course, before departing to the next destination. For ten months, Naruto's Get Tsunade Out of Debt mission, went like that until at one of Tsunade's highest debtor's he found something infuriating, they were cheating. He did not know, if they had been this way, when Tsunade passed through here on a gambling binge, but from the amount she owed them, seven-figures, he very much suspected they were. The dice were weighted, the balls were metallic and wheel, magnetized, it was run by a man named, Seong, a greasy, and unkempt man who seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in ruining people's lives.

Naruto and Tsunade entered the place, and they already had an uneasy feeling, the last time Tsunade had entered this place was last year, on the day of Nawaki's birthday. Needless to say, she had been as drunk as a Daimyo, and did not notice the feel of the place. From the looks of things, it was just like any other of the same type of establishment they had been to a hundred times, but they could feel the corruption of the place like a sixth-sense. Approaching them in a dark-blue, long gown with wide sleeves, that allowed his arms to be tucked inside, was a balding, old man, what hair he had, fell to be even with his shoulder-blades. His bald pate had liver spots, and his eyes looked like a pair of egg-yolks, that have been fried in grease. He was obviously a professional drinker, the rest of him reminded Naruto of a rat, with his pointed nose, wide-ears and stooped posture. He seemed to ring his hands and look around himself in a furtive manner, always wary of an attack it seemed.

The old man came close to the pair at the entrance, his eyes glittering with greed, and an avaricious grin on his face. "Well, well, Tsunade-chan, welcome back to my establishment," the man greeted, "have you come to pay back your debts to me?"

Tsunade returned his grin with a false one of her own, "Not today, Seong-san," she replied, then laid an affectionate hand upon Naruto's shoulder, "I have merely come to introduce my latest apprentice, to the wonders of gaming and thought, this would be a good place to begin. What do you think of that," Tsunade asked?

Seong's grin became positively predatory, and if anything the ringing of his hands became more pronounced, "why yes, my place would be as good a place to start as any, I daresay this would be a good lesson at the very least." The old man put a grandfatherly arm around Naruto's shoulders, who had to suppress the urge to shudder and gag, in that order. The shudder was for being so close to a man of vile corruption, the gag was for being within the miasma of Seong's stench, it was not merely his eyes that reminded Naruto of eggs.

Seong showed Naruto to a small stakes craps table, and if it were not for his fox senses, Naruto may have missed the discrete nod, he gave to the dealer who smiled. Naruto put a modest sum of thirty ryo down as his first bet for the evening. The dice were passed to the red-haired boy, who rolled them in his hand for a few seconds before tossing them and winning, which was something he expected, but as he looked over at Seong and the dealer, he saw that they also expected him to win. Naruto got the dice back and examined them with his senses, and what he felt, angered him immensely, he looked over at Tsunade conversing with Seong, though she kept at least, three feet of space between them. Seong was watching the table like a hawk, not paying Naruto any attention, who sent a discrete hand sign to Tsunade signaling that he was calling an audible to the usual events of the night. The only thing she could do was narrow her eyes, and trust in Naruto's instincts.

"Let it ride," Naruto declared, then looking over at Seong and said to placate his suspicion, "Tsunade-sama has been teaching me the lingo, and even taught me the basics of all the games in here." He turned back and got the dice again and rolled, winning again, he did this two more times before Seong, gave another discrete nod to his employee. This time when Naruto got the dice, they felt different, as if their balance had shifted, [time to go for the throat, Kit," Kyūbi advised]. {That it is, Kyūbi no Kitsune," he answered back, "time to take this place down}, these were the dice designed to make him lose. Seong's mistake was using lead, and having dice made of bone. Now normally, Naruto's honor prevented him from using his powers in these games, games should be fair, and cheating like that was just wrong in his book. Naruto made his roll, and used a little Kinzokūton chakra, to balance the dice and make them honest, and as he cast them into Fate, the same thing happened that happened every time he played games of chance… he won.

Seong and the table manager's face was priceless, they had obviously expected a different outcome. Tsunade was starting to suspect the same thing Naruto discovered a few minutes ago, "something wrong, Seong-san," she asked feigning concern?

He caught himself, and turned to face the Kunoichi of the Sanin, his grin this time was wan, "no nothing's wrong," and winced as Naruto won again, replied some more but in a pained sounding voice, "everything is quite alright." As Naruto won again, Seong hurried over to the table, grabbed the dice from the dealer's hand, and turning an accusatory glare at Naruto asked brusquely, "where did you get these dice, boy?"

Naruto looked confused, "these are the dice your dealer gave me. Why, did he give me cheater dice," he turned an accusatory glare on the dealer?

Seong looked hard at his employee, who glared right back, daring the old man to say something, he knew the only reason his men worked for him, was the money they earned here. It certainly was not, because he was an easy boss to work for, that was for sure. The old man thrust the dice back into his dealer's hand and stalked off, and Naruto continued to play, he never lost, not once. He cleaned-out that first table, and moved to the next table, another low stakes craps table. Naruto went through craps, roulette, demagnetizing the wheel; black jack and slots, were perhaps the only honest games in the joint, because it's hard to rig a shoe, and the machines were guaranteed tamper proof by the manufacturers themselves, by the time six hours rolled around, he had racked-up a cool million, and he was just getting started. Seong's place teetered toward bankruptcy, the longer Naruto remained playing, at the moment Naruto was on another craps table, the highest rated table in the joint, and there was no limit at this table.

Naruto had attracted attention, from several people and had people trailing in his wake like remora, trailing a great white shark. While normally he did not like people doing that, his goal tonight was not just to remove Tsunade's debts, it was to put Seong out of business. He invited the others to place their bets with him, because the higher their chips grew, the easier it would be to destroy, Seong. The aged proprietor was looking ill, the longer Naruto played, and Tsunade remained beside him to make sure he did not try anything. He did try things though, Seong had lived too long to have everything he worked for overthrown by some punk kid.

Seong started out subtly, he had a complimentary beverage with an extra ingredient, sent to Naruto's table, which Naruto sent back because he did not like the taste of alcohol. So, he sent a non-alcoholic drink to him instead, Naruto drank it without thought and nothing happened. The citizens of the Leaf, had tried more than once to kill him, using various means and poison was one of them. The Kyūbi, plus his knowledge, and use of his blood stream, allowed him to not only purge any toxins entering his body, but immunize himself against them in the future. He thought about holding Tsunade hostage, then remembered who she was, so Seong threatened Naruto directly.

Seong sent one of his security staff to bully Naruto, that did not go over too well. A man that would be equal to Sakchai, and Hayato in height, but make two of them in bulk waded through the crowd to stand right behind the boy. Naruto did not even turn around, he just sent his elbow back into the man's sternum, and the next thing that happened was a human-sized hole through the wall. Seong just looked on in agape as a boy demolished his head of security without even looking at him. It had been just a light tap of the same monstrous strength Tsunade was famous for, "I told you, he is my apprentice, Seong-san," Tsunade stated absently, "what did you think that meant, baking cookies?"

Finally, Seong gave up and asked in a shrill voice, "what'll it take to get him to stop destroying my business?"

"You'll have to ask him, Seong-san, normally he would've stopped at just getting double the amount I owe you, and ask you to forgive my debts," Tsunade answered, "but something has lit a fire in his eyes. He seems outraged over something," then looking at the old man sharply, "you wouldn't happen to know what that could be, do you, because it started when your dealer on that first table switched the dice?"

Seong gulped and broke out into a sweat, as Tsunade's KI swept over him gently, he frantically shook his head resigning to face the loss of his business, over his life. At long last, Seong walked over and asked with his head bowed for Naruto to stop, "what will it take for you to cease, young man?"

Naruto looked at him, his happy face grew serious, "normally I'd say to forgive Tsunade-chan's debts, but then you'd still be here, cheating these people out of their hard earned money, with weighted dice, and magnetized roulette wheels. When anybody gambles, losing your money is always a risk you take when setting your money down, but you were just taking it from them, and in my book that makes you no better than a thief," Naruto admonished the old man! The crowd had become deathly quiet as they heard how they had been cheated, there were shouts of outrage, but Naruto was not finished, "I cannot leave here, with you still the owner of this place, because you will just go back to swindling your patrons. So, I will give you all of my winnings tonight," there were shocked expressions, and gasps of surprise, "if you sign over ownership of this place to me. That's ten-million ryo for you, sir, if you leave here, and never set foot in this place again." Seong was startled and looked into the eyes of the man, only twelve-years-old, rebuking him like he was the child, he saw the resolve in Naruto's eyes, and bowed his head in defeated resignation.

Seong signed over the title to the land and the buildings that sat upon them, to Naruto Uzumaki and Ryōzanpaku, Inc., as owner, Naruto not only forgave Tsunade her debts, but did so to everybody he found in the ledger with red by their names. He could not know which of them lost for real and which were cheated, so he issued a blanket forfeiture across the board. Of course, he allowed everybody to keep what they won, but he closed the casino, until he could hold a meeting with his business partners, about what to do with it. The rest of the trip was uneventful, compared to that little episode, and was in the end, quite successful. They had succeeded in clearing out the rest of Tsunade's debts and had completed that part of the mission, a whole two-weeks earlier than planned.


They were walking down the street of the village of Two Rivers, it felt like the end of an era for Naruto. This was the closest place he had ever come to having a home in six-years, Tsunade was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She knew that look, it was the expression of someone not knowing what they wanted to do, now that they had a whole world at their disposal. She also knew what question he wanted to ask, as he opened his mouth, "so now that you're debt free, what are you going to do now? Going back to gambling," he assumed, "now that our contract is about to be concluded, you'll be free and clear to go back to that?"

Tsunade sighed, and shook her head, "no, I won't be doing any gambling, at least not with such small stakes as money. I'll be gambling with lives now," she told him, and at his confused look, "I was deeply disturbed by what Aoi Rokushō, told you has become of my grandfather's dream. He said that Konoha was being more or less run by the council, and sensei is being an ineffectual leader as the Hokage, that just will not do," she said, with passion in her eyes, "so I'm going back into the Leaf and take over the office of Hokage! While there, I am going to drag it back to the path my grandfather envisioned, when he and Madara-teme founded the village," she declared with a closed fist, "the very idea, that a boy of four should have to contend with and endure such hardships, tells me that if something isn't done, before its too late, then the Konoha I remember, will perish and I intend to do everything in my power, using every resource at my disposal as Hokage and a Senju, to see that doesn't happen!"

Naruto was looking at her in astonishment, before remembering his discipline and turning away from her, "I hope you do it, Tsunade-chan," he said to her, "I hope you make it a place, worth living and dying for. I will never love it… like you do, but if you can make it a place like that, then I might be able to return to it. I hear there are some true masters of metalwork there, I would love to be able to learn from some of them."

Tsunade laid her hand on his shoulder, "thinking about, Ayame Ichiraku-san?" He just nodded, but said nothing, he had begun to wonder if he still loved her that way anymore. He had changed so much, would she even want him anymore, he knows he loves her, but he wonders if it's the same type as before? Tsunade rubbed his shoulders, looking thoughtful, as a strange feeling seemed to wash over her all of a sudden, it took her breath away, because she was no stranger to this feeling but the last time, she felt it… the last person, she felt it for… "Dan," she whispered so low, that even Naruto failed to hear her.

They turned the corner and went through the genjutsu to get to Ryōzanpaku, they entered to find all students, working on their craft of being ninja, and the instructors teaching them their crafts. Before they could knock on the door, it opened and behind it was Miu… and she was several months pregnant. She appeared to have been expecting them, not that she contained her enthusiasm, "Tsunade-itoko, Naruto-otōto," she exclaimed, before pulling them both into a hug, that was all the more awkward with her bulk, "welcome home!"

Naruto and Tsunade both grinned, and hugged her back, though significantly more gentle, than Miu's bone-crushing hug, "Thanks, Miu," they replied in unison, and again with, "May I," they asked? Together, Naruto and Tsunade, after receiving a nod of permission from Miu, allow their green medical chakra to envelop their hands, and together assessed the health of the fetus, and the mother to be, while Naruto engaged his Magnetic Vision (Mag-Viz), and Metal-Sense, to add to anything his sensei might need. "Wow, you're coming along nicely, Miu-chan," Tsunade adjudged, "not only are you as healthy as a bull, despite being six-months pregnant, but your baby's progressing very well, too. Did you want to know the gender," she asked, when Naruto added his analysis?

"Genders," Naruto corrected, they looked at him in surprise, but he just nodded at his own analysis, "there are two magnetic signatures within you, Miu-ane, and I'm sensing two different blood signatures besides your own." He stopped his probes and extinguished his chakra, as he looked up and smiled at Miu's expression, it was a mixture of elation and consternation, but from behind her came another voice.

"Don't worry about it, Imōto-tsuma, you know our husband will be there for us, and we'll be there for each other," came a brunette's voice.

Another of Naruto's sisters, the one he arrived at Ryōzanpaku with, "Kaname-ane," Naruto was astonished, because she was swollen with child as well? "Well, it seems you two, have been enjoying your husband immensely, since I've been gone," he snickered, and they both blushed.

Tsunade quirked an eye-brow, "husband, as in one man?"

"Yep," Naruto just confirmed, with a big grin, "you see, Tsunade-chan, I arrived here with Kaname here, when she and her cohorts, calling themselves the Three Pillars, tried to rob Susumu-sensei."

"Really," the elder blonde asked?

Naruto just waved her off, they entered the house and were taking off their shoes, "it's a story for another time, anyway, Miu and Kaname became closer than sisters, but later, ended up falling for the same man," he grinned admirably, "but instead of letting such a trivial thing as a man divide them. They decided to share him, and now the lucky S.O.B. has two beautiful wives," Naruto looked into the distance, "he must be in paradise."

The three women in the room shared a look of derision, and together said, "Men!"

Tsunade reached over and flicked his ear, causing him to squeal and clutch the offended body part, "that would never work for me," she said as she walked on by, as casual as you please, "I've never been very good at sharing my toys with others."

"Huh," Naruto wondered, but the other ladies shared a look and giggled, it seems they were witnessing the start of a very interesting campaign? They showed Naruto into Hayato's office, Tsunade was already there, before leaving to go do other things, but not before he called out, "Kaname-ne-chan, if you stick close, Tsunade-chan and I will give you and your baby a check-up when we're done." The brunette bowed but remained silent as she left, her reverence for Naruto knew no bounds, in her mind meeting him was the single greatest event that ever happened to her. It led her here to her husband and sister-wife, and the prospect of motherhood, if Naruto had not been taken when he arrived here, she would have tried to be with him.

Once they were alone, the Elder grinned his pleasure at seeing him, and his words matched his expression, "welcome back, shinobi-san," he beamed. He pushed Naruto an envelope, which he opened, inside were his credentials as a ninja: including his shinobi-license with picture, and the glyph mark that proclaimed him a medical ninja, allowing him to work in any hospital, hospice, medical ward, and so on, on the continent. He just grinned and vanished them to the safe place all ninja keep their licenses and credentials.

Then bowed solemnly to the man who was his father in everyway but blood, the bow conveyed his respect for Hayato, his gratitude, but most of all concealed his tears. Some ninja, I'm on the verge of bawling, because I finally attained my true freedom from my past. There was a clank on the desk and he raised his head to find Hayato laying the Raijin no ken, on the desk in front of Naruto. He looked astonished, "isn't that for Miu-chan?"

Hayato shook his head, "she didn't want it, and said it should go to the heir of Tobirama Senju that recovered it."

"What," Naruto asked in puzzlement?

Hayato sighed, "sit-down, Naruto-kun, its time you learned the whole truth about your family, specifically, your father's family," Naruto thought his quota for surprise had been reached today, he was proven wrong by the next thing Namikaze Hayato told him, "you are, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze."