Jiraiya cursed and chased after the fleeing Orochimaru.
Tsunami was unsure about whether to follow after him or not.
Her indecision must have shown, because Tsunade said, "Let Jiraiya-kun wear himself out chasing Orochimaru. The snake is too crafty for Jiraiya to actually catch and too dangerous for just about anyone else to try—even without the use of his arms."
Tsunami nodded.
"How about we go back to my hotel and we'll introduce ourselves properly," the Hokage-elect said.
Sensing Tsunade's desire to be able to talk in private, Tsunami and Karin followed the older kunoichis to a nice hotel. When they got there, Shizune prepared tea for them. Once the tea was served, Tsunami said, "Now, in between telling me all the reasons I needed to return to Konoha and be the new Hokage, Jiraiya-kun did swear to me that he had been presented proof that you were Kushina-chan's daughter, but he declined to share it with me without your permission. I know that Kushina-chan was expecting a son and I know they named him Naruto. Interestingly, Jiraiya-kun called you, 'Naruto-chan' when you left the bar earlier today."
Naruto thought about denying it, but this was her cousin and, supposedly, the new Hokage. She formed a Shadow Clone and then transformed herself into her birth form. His male and female forms stood next to each other.
"Hello, Tsunade-sama," they said in near unison. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."
His clone continued without him, "But I go by Uzumaki Tsunami when I look like this."
"May I?" Tsunade asked, her hand glowing green with medical chakra.
Naruto nodded agreement along with his clone.
Tsunade examined them both. After she had done so, she said to the clone, "You're a Shadow Clone."
Naruto looked at his clone and gave the signal for a swap. He did a Replacement followed by a transformation as quickly as he could. From watching herself do this, she knew that doing it this way was not completely seamless, but unless someone was watching carefully, it was easy to miss the transition.
"Examine us again," she told her cousin.
Tsunade did so. "You're the Shadow Clone now!" she exclaimed, indicating the now-male clone.
"I'm really good at Replacement and switching my form," Naruto said. "I had to be in order to handle doing taijutsu while both my personas were in the Academy."
"You've been doing this since the Academy?" Tsunade asked.
Naruto explained about her discovering her transformation ability, her capture and reveal to the Sandaime, the wager, and its results.
"Who knows about this?" Tsunade asked.
"Just the three of you, Kurenai-sensei, Ero-sennin, and my two teammates," Naruto admitted.
She then went on to explain about Itachi, Akatsuki, and Jiraiya's suggestion that "Naruto" be dead. She formed another Shadow Clone and then transformed into a new male shape, one that she had decided on with the help of her mother. The new form had red hair and looked like pictures of his mother's father when he was young.
"Hello," he said. "I'm Uzumaki Menma."
"Heelllooo," drawled Karin silkily. "It's a real pleasure to meet you, Menma-kun." She winked at him.
The newly christened Menma rolled his eyes. Karin's flirting was expected.
XXXXXXX
After Jiraiya returned from his futile chasing of his ex-teammate, the five of them left for Konoha. Once they were out of town, Naruto formed a shadow clone around the custom seal that made the clone able to maintain itself and share memories with Naruto during their sleep. The clone took their new Menma shape while Naruto continued as Tsunami.
As they traveled, Tsunade questioned Tsunami and Jiraiya about the state of Konoha. She was especially interested in the Chuunin Exams, both the expected and unexpected happenings during them.
"Who do you think performed well enough to be promoted?" Tsunade asked.
"I like to think I did so," Tsunami replied. "Shino-san was a tough opponent and I had to use quite a bit of stratagem to take him down."
"She managed to do so while preserving his kikaichuu," Jiraiya added.
"Really? How?" Tsunade replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Specialized storage seals," Tsunami replied.
"Impressive," commented the Hokage-elect.
"Sasuke-kun and Lee-san also won their matches," Tsunami added. "Sasuke-kun's opponent was one-dimensional and was lucky to be in the finals in the first place. I can't comment much beyond that. Lee-san's victory was impressive, but I have doubts about his adaptability and ability to act in leadership or solo roles."
"Sasuke-san only had the one match in the finals?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes," the younger kunoichi replied. "The invasion started during the last match of the first round."
"What comments do you have about the match losers from Konoha?" Tsunade asked.
"Shino-san was good and showed talent," she responded. "Hyuuga Neji-san showed talent, but also an attitude completely unworthy of a shinobi of Konoha. Shikamaru-kun had a first-round bye and didn't get to fight."
"What's this about the Hyuuga?" Tsunade asked.
"He tried to murder his incapacitated cousin during the preliminary round!" Tsunami snarled. "And then called it favoritism when the sensei stopped him!"
Tsunade looked at Jiraiya, who sighed.
"An outgrowth of Hyuuga clan politics and the fallout of Kumo's attempted kidnapping of the Hyuuga heiress," he responded. "I'll explain more once we're settled in Konoha."
It took them three days to make it to Konoha. They could have gone much faster, but Tsunade and Jiraiya wanted the time to talk. Karin happily proclaimed that it gave her time to "stake her claim" on the new Uzumaki. Naruto took Karin's antics in stride. He had to admit that his distant cousin's interest in him gratifying, even if he also found it a bit annoying. However, since she respected his boundaries and it was playful in nature, Menma found himself finding it less annoying the longer it went on.
The gate guards admitted Menma with the others as a potential citizen of Konoha on the authority of Jiraiya and gave him instructions on where to go in order to make the status permanent. The guards also relayed instructions for Jiraiya and Tsunade to head straight to Hokage Tower. Jiraiya also invited Shizune to accompany them since she was a jounin that had been out of the village for a long time.
"You might as well go with them, Tsunami-san," one of the guards said. "There was an incident that you need to be informed of as well."
Tsunami was reminded of the reason she needed to make Menma in the first place. She hesitated, knowing she wasn't supposed to know of it. After a moment, she said, "Karin-chan, take Menma-kun back to the apartment to wait for me."
The guard sighed and said, "You might as all go. The incident happened at your apartment."
"Is Naruto-kun alright?" Tsunami asked with her best concerned look.
The gate guard stayed silent and both of them refused to look her in the eyes.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Tsunami muttered. "Let's hurry, Ero-sennin."
The trip through the village was surreal. Tsunami studied the villagers they passed. Most of them looked at her smugly pleased. A few looked guilty or sad. Tsunami had expected this type of reaction, but it still made her sad and not a little bit angry.
The chuunin standing guard outside the Hokage Tower refused to look at her when they entered the tower.
The Sandaime's councilors were waiting in the office for them. After the initial greeting, Jiraiya told them that Tsunade had accepted the position of Hokage. The councilors were pleased and spoke with the Hokage-elect for when she would officially take over. Tsunami waited with trepidation that wasn't faked for them to tell her about the incident. Even though she knew it was just a clone that had "died," it did mean the end of a part of her life.
"Before we go farther," the female councilor said, "we have some sad news for genin Uzumaki-san."
"Is Naruto-kun alright?" she asked.
The elderly kunoichi looked at her with genuine sadness and shook her head. "Sadly, no. Two missing nin attacked him in your apartment five days ago. As best we can tell, your brother activated a very powerful explosive tag either to prevent being taken or in an attempt to kill his attackers. He did not survive. Neither did your apartment or the building it stood in. No body was found. Indeed, very little from the apartment survived."
Tsunami stared at the councilor blankly. Having it spelled out to her made it more real that that part of her life was over unless she gave up the whole thing.
"Who were the missing nin?" she asked finally to fill the painful silence.
Both councilors grimaced. "Uchiha Itachi, one of ours, and Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of Kiri," the male councilor said. He hesitated and then said, "Unfortunately, both of them survived, if a little worse for wear. One of our jounin, Hitake Kakashi-san, tried to stop their escape, but he fell victim to a powerful genjutsu and is still incapacitated." He turned to Tsunade. "Will you be able to examine him, Tsunade-sama?"
Tsunade nodded. "I'll be able to help him."
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Tsunami, Karin, and the Menma long-term clone were shuffled off to temporary housing. Most of the shinobi they passed on the way there wore looks of commiseration, but by far most of the normal citizens smiled at her loss in pleasure. She knew they hated her other self, but to be glad he was dead? She was glad when they reached their destination and she could avoid it all.
XXXXXXX
The day following her return to Konoha was a series of awkward visits from people who wanted to offer condolences to Tsunami. She was tempted to hide as Menma and let her clone cover it, but she forced herself to accept their condolences in person.
The most awkward of the visits were when the newly recovered Kakashi and later Sasuke visited. Neither man nor boy was really capable of dealing with their grief and just stood there awkwardly before mumbling or grunting some well wishes and disappearing. As bad as that was, the worst visit was from the Ichirakus. Teuchi stood stoically while Ayame sobbed in her arms. She was very tempted to tell them the real story, but as they were not shinobi, the Ichirakus could be a liability if told. While nobody would be interrogating them over Tsunami's secrets now, if she did realize her dream to be Hokage, letting them know her secrets would be dangerous to them and her.
Tsunade's inauguration the following day was a relief in that the air of celebration surrounding it dispelled some of Naruto's grief and guilt for letting the few people who cared about him languish in ignorance.
After the inauguration of the new Hokage, Tsunami received a much-needed visit from her teammates and sensei.
"We would have been here yesterday," Sakura explained, "but we were waiting for Nata-chan to be released."
"Tsunade-sama was able to finish my healing," Hinata said, "but I was rather low on the list of those for her to see since I was almost recovered by more conventional methods."
"I'm glad to see you back," Kurenai said. "When we heard about what happened at your apartment, we feared the worst."
"No, I managed to find a way to make a Shadow Clone persist with help from my mother's notes," Tsunami responded. "My clone blew himself up rather than let the missing nin know he was a fake. Ero-sennin wanted me to go with him to find Tsunami-sama, so Karin-chan and I were out of the village when it happened."
"Ero-sennin?" Kurenai asked.
"Most people know him as Jiraiya, but since my good-for-nothing godfather all but abandoned me, I don't have a lot of respect for him."
"He's your godfather? But that means…" Kurenai said before trialing off. Tsunami guessed she had figured out who her father was.
"What does it mean?" Sakura asked.
"Sorry, Kura-chan," Tsunami said. "I would need the Hokage's permission to talk about what I think Sensei figured out and I don't think she'll give it before I'm an experienced jounin."
Sakura pouted, but let it go.
"Sensei," Tsunami said. "This is Uzumaki Karin-chan, my distant cousin. The other girls and I found her in the Forrest of Death and the Old Man said I could keep her."
Karin hip-checked her and said, "The pleasure is definitely all mine. My prospects are much better here than they were being used up by Kusa."
Tsunami smiled and gestured to her clone. "And this is Uzumaki Menma, another 'cousin.' He's actually my relief valve for when the estrogen gets too much and I need some boy time to recover." She smiled to let them know she was joking—mostly.
Karin opened her mouth, but Tsunami grabbed her in a headlock and covered her mouth. "We don't need to know whatever lewdness was about to come out of your mouth, Karin-chan."
They all laughed, Karin included—although Hinata's was a little bit forced.
Tsunami sighed mentally. She hoped Hinata and Karin wouldn't fight over her male form the way Sakura, Ino, and the rest had over Sasuke.
XXXXXXX
Two days after the inauguration, was the funeral of Uzumaki Naruto. It was closed casket, of course, since no body had been found. The attendance was much lower than the Sandaime Hokage's, but larger than Naruto had expected. In addition to Naruto and her clone, Hinata, Sakura, Kurenai, Karin, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shino, Sasuke, Kiba, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Iruka, Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, the Ichirakus, and a handful of ANBU were present. The funeral was kept as a low-key grave-side service in order to keep hecklers and protestors away.
Much like the previous funeral, she had attended, Naruto had a hard time focusing on what was said. She found it very odd to be attending her own funeral. She had thought about attending as Menma, but she felt more comfortable as Tsunami still; her new alternate form had not yet settled into being her.
After the funeral, she once more had her heart broken as Konohamaru, bawled as she hugged him. Udon and Moegi clutched him, crying softly themselves.
After the three Academy students had shuffled off, Sasuke approached her and said, "I will kill him. I will avenge your brother!" He turned and left before Tsunami could make a response. Her other old schoolmates and Iruka offered their condolences and the funeral ended. The guilt for putting her friends that weren't in the know through this ate at her and she felt regret at letting Jiraiya talk her into it. She honestly hadn't thought anyone would care. One by one the others left—some saying something—others leaving silently.
Eventually, she was left alone in the graveyard staring at her headstone. Her escape from being Uzumaki Naruto was complete—for both good and bad!
Author's Note: This marks the end of the main part of Escape, however, I will be writing a Coda and an Epilogue to tie up some of the loose ends. Stay tuned.
I've realized that Ayame and Teuchi probably aren't named Ichiraku. According to Narutopedia, Ramen Ichiraku translates to "Ramen is the Best Pleasure." However, I'd already given them that name and it doesn't matter a huge deal.