I do not own Naruto.
Enjoy! :D
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It was dark and damp in the tunnels that worked their way underneath the ground in an endless maze meant to get anyone lost who had entered. It was here that the shadows of Konohagakure worked to uphold the peace of not only the village, but the land that hosted the village and its inhabitants. Here was where the silent protectors would train their skills, eat, sleep, and on occasion, socialize with others.
The silent protectors, the ANBU, treated each other as family, a dysfunctional family, but one none the less. Like every family, there were many different personalities that did not always mesh well with another, much like vinegar not mixing with water. It came as a part of the job though, inside the walls of the maze one learned who would be difficult to get along with on missions on the outside, so that even if you did not get along with one member, all had the same equal chance at getting home alive. Team missions were exactly that, working as a team to get the mission accomplished, and getting everyone home together.
It was in the hallowed halls of the maze where the men and women who risked their lives had the ability to take of the masks that made them invisible within their missions, the masks that gave them the anonymity that they needed to complete the truly dirty work that their missions required. Masks in these halls were stowed in pouches worn on belts, always within reach in case they were called out unexpectedly for missions.
It was through these halls that a young ANBU operative with mismatched eyes slowly trudged towards his assigned quarters, intent on getting some rest. Something that had been deprived of him for the last forty-eight hours. His mask had been discarded, most likely in the pouch attached to the waistband of his pants, giving all the full ability to view his face, or the portion that wasn't being covered by a black face mask. His mismatched eyes made it difficult to choose one eye to look at if you were to talk to the boy, but his demeanor was so cold, that it made most people try to shy away from him. Most.
"Hey, Inu~" A voice rang out in a singsong tone from somewhere high up in the tunnel like maze.
The boy instinctively reached his hand into his waistband pouch and quickly snaked out a knife, looking towards the source of the voice.
"I don't know who you think you're going to hit with that. Your hair is so long it's falling in your face." There was a small laugh. "Can you even see?"
Inu, scowled, or atleast one could presume he was with the way his eyes were narrowing. With a quick flick of his wrist, he sent the kunai flying through the air, growling as he heard it thunk against the ceiling.
"See kid?" Inu looked around with squinted eyes trying to pinpoint the voice as it had moved, and had yet to stop in just one location. "I'm right. You're going to need a haircut."
"I'm not in the mood for this, Panther." Inu spat, recognizing the voice of his taunter.
"I'm just doing this for your benefit." Panther's voice had moved again, causing the silver locks of the boy to flop as he turned quickly to face the new direction the man's voice had come from.
"My benefit?" there was an edge the warned of danger lacing the silver haired nin's voice. "I think it would be in your benefit to stop this before you get more than you bargained for."
"I'm just trying to help you is all, boy." The man's voice disappeared as if it had been taken on the wind, and Inu took a deep breath to help relieve the annoyance flitting through his blood as he continued down the hallway.
He allowed the absence of sound to lull himself into a semi-relaxed state, his shoulders slowly dropping as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
A few minutes further down the hall, he couldn't help but stop as he saw a shadow race by him on his left-hand side. It was too quick for him to pinpoint what it was, but he had seen that it was low to the ground-an animal of some sort. Could have been just about anything. Many of the shinobi in these halls used summons of some sort, so it could have been anyone.
He shook his head hard; the lack of sleep was making him dwell on trivial things for far too long. He squeezed his eyes tightly, silently cursing Panther for showing up when he did, or he would have undoubtedly have been back to his quarters now.
Opening his eyes back up he cocked his head in silent curiosity as two eyes shown back in the dim light at him.
"You mind moving out of my way?" Inu mumbled stepping towards what he had deduced as a small animal that was blocking his way further.
The animal stayed put and what looked like a mischievous grin appeared across its jowl. The white of its teeth glistening in the limited light, revealing a set of pearly whites that the young operative could distinguish quite plainly as canine teeth.
The silver haired ANBU froze in place as he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise and cool metal find its way across the front of his throat.
"It would be a shame if someone else gave you a haircut, you know." The sing song voice of Panther was back, and the dog was padding towards the young boy. "They might take a little too much off the top." Panther's voice was floating through the air, almost riding the wind, his breath tickling his captive's ears.
Inu had stood ramrod straight as he felt the knife bite into the skin, anger bubbling up underneath the surface as the canine finished his small track and sat down right in front of him, a menacing grin curling around its snout.
"We have far too few Hatake's in the world as it is, Kakashi, for us to go losing another one due to something as guileless as a haircut."
"You forget, that I am the only Hatake left." Kakashi was seething. His anger threatening to bubble out of control, and he only had minimal desire to keep it in check at this moment.
"Oh." The word floated through the air as if it were a balloon that Panther had casually let go into the sky without a care in the world. "My bad." Panther's kunai dropped from Kakashi's neck as the man himself turned away as if he had no care in the world. "Still, I would recommend figuring something out about your hair. Come, Unmei."
There was a small bark from the animal sitting at Kakashi's feet and the dog stood up, bounding after Panther.
The duo had disappeared as quickly as Panther had appeared, leaving the young Hatake to stand alone in the hallway, his fists slowly clenching and unclenching as he tried to clear the anger from his mind. Anger made one sloppy, and a sloppy ANBU was a dead ANBU.
He had never seen the face of the Panther masked ANBU. In fact, no one had. He was the only member within the corps that was one hundred percent, truly unknown to all within the corps. According to the rumors, even the Hokage did not even know his true identity while he was not currently on missions.
The man's hair was as red as blood, and his eyes as green as perfect emeralds sparkling from behind the terror evoking mask of a panther. The porcelain white mask had three red streaks dragging from the menacing grin on the snout of the animal to resemble whiskers, and the eyes were slanted similar to those of Kakashi's own mask. Unmei, the young canine was always following around the unknown ninja, his fur black as night and his face expressing far too much delight at what his master was doing. Kakashi did not necessarily know what kind of dog Unmei was, as he did all that he could to stay away from the man and his canine, but he knew the dog would be big if his dinner plate sized paws that the dog had yet to grow into had anything to show for.
All in all, this was the extent of what, not only Kakashi, but the rest of the corps knew about Panther. The man had a tendency to keep to himself though, not fraternizing with anyone else unless it was absolutely necessary, and then he was the picture of professionalism. For some reason though, he liked to pick on Kakashi, and he always got a reaction from him, much to Kakashi's dismay.
Turning the handle of his living quarters, he pushed the door open and unceremoniously threw himself on his bed, leaving the door to slowly click back in place behind him.
Not even bothering with the sandals still on his feet he rolled over, bent on ridding his mind of everything that had occurred in the last forty-eight hours, (the last twenty minutes specifically), when he heard the tell-tale crunching sound of plastic.
Sitting up on the bed Kakashi reached his hand out and flicked the light on out of annoyance to find the source of the noise. Turning back and looking at the top of the bed sheets there was a folded piece of paper and a small plastic package containing what looked like red and white candies.
Reaching out and picking up the note, the young Hatake opened it up and looked at the loopy scrawl across the page and scowled as he read it. 'Seriously kid, you can't just sleep with the shoes on. You'll get trenchfoot. -Panther'
Kakashi crumpled the note in his hand and reached out to pick up the plastic packet. He brought them to his nose and took a small sniff only to violently yank the package away and throw it and the note across his small room, both items softly thudding against the wall only to fall in to a trashcan just below.
Peppermint. He hated peppermint almost as much as he hated Panther.
Kakashi kicked the sandals off of his feet, and turning the light to the small room he fell back on the bed willing himself to fall asleep, his last thoughts before succumbing to a well-deserved rest being: 'I hate peppermint.'
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Hiruzen Sarutobi was not one to spin tales to his benefit. That being said, though, he was the God of Shinobi, the Professor, and he was not one to give out information needlessly where it could potentially endanger one, or more of his villagers.
It was for that reason that the wizened shinobi was sitting quietly behind his desk with his fingers laced under his chin while one Kakashi Hatake stared him down waiting for the answers to his questions.
He had thought that he had finally gathered all the answers after months of searching, months of digging. Yet here he was, and things were still being overturned, and the reason behind that was one small silverette hidden under the disguise of a red headed, violet eyed child, or if he were to be more exact: the one who had raised said child.
His thoughts drifted to the scroll that was tucked away in his desk, in a drawer with a false bottom that contained a single storage seal, keyed in such a way that only a hokage of Konohagakure would be able to open it.
That scroll had contained what he thought at one point, would be all the information that he needed to know about the child that had shown up in his village right under his nose, without his knowledge. Within the scroll was a birth certificate, a very good falsification, that had listed a 'Minoru Hayashi' and 'Miho Hayashi' as the parents of Kumo Hayashi. That being said, the reason for this scroll being under lock and key was not the falsified identification papers for the child, it was for the rather recognizable scrawl that was printed down the length of the scroll, and signed at the bottom of the birth certificates.
Minoru was skilled in fuinjutsu, so his handwriting was impeccable, it had to be or his work could quite literally blow up in his face. That skill was so ingrained in the man's head, that it bled over into his daily writing, the script being so gorgeous one would think that it was printed by a calligraphist. Even more so unique about the script was that there was a minute trace of chakra infused into each letter, the same amount in each letter in each word along the whole length of paper.
Hiruzen prided himself in being able to recognize each of his shinobi by chakra alone. When he had first sensed the chakra within the ink that dotted the page, he had thought it impossible. Couple that with some far-fetched story about how Minoru had somehow single-handedly escaped Orochimaru eight years ago, and didn't end up interred six feet under (despite the body that Hiruzen vividly remembers putting into the coffin himself), and spent the last eight years living in Kirigakure where he raised a child that Orochimaru was apparently very intent on recovering.
It sounded implausible. Minoru was an amazing shinobi during his time within the forces, but it didn't make sense that he would be able to elude the snake sannin for so long if he truly was after the false red-head.
On the other hand, funijutsu specialists could manage just about anything. They could make the dead walk, and they could level entire cities with just a stroke of a brush, that's why the Uzumaki clan was targeted. One only needed the faintest amount of chakra to become lethal, making even the civilians a force to be reckoned with.
His thoughts drifting back to the scroll safely sealed away in the drawer of his desk, on the scroll hand delivered to him by the incognito child, and the one mark of proof that he needed that this was not just an elaborate scheme put through by another village in order to gain control of their jinchuriki. On the bottom right hand corner was a small seal. No bigger than the size of a thumbprint, was a swirling pattern that if one didn't know any better would think it was just a smudge of ink, where ink may have dropped from the tool that was being used to inscribe the letter.
In fact, had he not been Hokage while Minoru and Kushina where children, he may never have even noticed that it truly was a seal. It was nothing fancy, just a small communication seal that the two used often back in forth while one or the other were out on missions.
Being the last of their clan, they were always worried about the well-being of the other, so they had created a small seal that would tell the other that they were still alive if missions went wrong, or ran longer than originally intended. He had never learned how the two managed to transport them without getting intercepted, but Minoru was extremely adept at transportation seals, so one could only imagine what he had created to let their small communication continue back in forth.
Sarutobi himself had only seen this once or twice before, the strange seals showing up on mission reports, Minoru's seal showing up on a report of Kushina's and Kushina's showing up on one of Minoru's.
The encoding of the seal itself was so minute, and so tiny that it was nearly impossible to replicate. Years ago, he had even asked Jiraiya to try and copy the seal and he was even unable to recreate it stating that 'No-one shy of a natural born Uzumaki would be able to recreate that blasted seal. Ingenious really.'
He had done his research. He had checked every possible avenue about the child and Minoru, and he had thought that he had finally sorted everything out.
Who knew that one porcelain mask could throw a wrench in all that?
Kumo on that very first day had explained that her father had a nin-ken named Daisuke. It had come as a surprise as Minoru had not had nin-ken at all during his time in the force, but he had written it off as a need for extra protection for the child. He never thought that he could be connected with the ANBU operative that had been personally recommended to him by Jiraiya himself.
Panther had been skilled in assassination, able to hide in every shadow to a point where no Inuzuka could find him. He completed his missions perfectly, putting it first and foremost above anything else, earning him the ire of one Kakashi Hatake. Panther, would cut down a team-mate if it meant completing the mission and protecting the whole of Konoha, and while he never actually did, he made it quite clear that he had no problem downing team-mates if it would better protect the village.
It was a perfect cover though. Minoru was all about team-mates. So much so that he would put a mission in jeopardy to make sure that everyone came back home alive. Minoru had created a cover that was so cohesive, that no-one would ever be able to put two and two together and discover him as the Jonin that had perished in the fire several years before.
It was ingenious, straight down to the last mission that he had gone on. Not an official mission mind you.
Sarutobi remembered it as if it were yesterday. The red-headed man had come in to his office, his short hair shooting off in every direction possible, mask covering his visage as always. He had asked for a leave of absence, stating that he had received a lead from an informant from when he had worked as a spy for Jiraiya. He stated that he was informed some missing ninja were after a weapon that could bring forth the destruction of Konoha if it were to be obtained by the wrong people.
The elder Kage had granted the man his request. He had after-all been nothing but loyal over the last few years that he had been a part of the corps, and had done nothing to deserve the Hokage's suspicion.
That had happened the day before a silent alarm went off, alerting the military head of the village that some-one was within an apartment that had been sealed eight years ago. An apartment that was never meant to be touched again as no-one could break the seals on the apartment without destroying the building itself. Seals that were put in place by Minoru Uzumaki himself.
That was three months ago. In those three months, he had not heard head nor tails of Panther. He had assumed that the mean went deep undercover to find the weapon that could supposedly bring Konoha's destruction. It was all coming together as a well-formed plan. A plan that was so well thought out that it would make a Nara proud.
A plan so well thought out that it was giving him a headache just thinking of a way to explain this to Kakashi without giving out so much information that it would harm the young man in front of him. Kakashi had after all been quite fond of Minoru Uzumaki, and Sarutobi feared that this would be too much for the man to take in at once.
Gathering the facts, Sarutobi could deduce that Minoru had disappeared from the village on the night of the fire to raise a child. One that he could assume, was birthed by one Momoko Uchiha, the baby was presumed dead during the fire after all, as of the time that Momoko was kidnapped the baby had yet to be born. He had stayed away from the village raising said child in order to keep it safe from those wanting to abuse her power, a power that he had only assumed, taking in to consideration the seal on her stomach, was one that came from a rather large chakra being.
Within the succeeding years he had trained and adopted a personality where he could assimilate into the Konoha Black Ops with no-one learning of his secrets while still somehow keeping Satsuki safe, and keeping an eye on his nephew Naruto as each ANBU operative had to take turns on as they called it 'Naruto Watch'. Panther was oddly attached to that position, insisting on taking it whenever he wasn't out on assassination missions.
All in all, it all lead to the same solution: Minoru was Panther, and Panther was Minoru's way of making sure he knew that his nephew was being taken care of while simultaneously making sure that his immediate charge was not in any danger.
Sighing deeply, Hiruzen reached into a drawer and pulled out his pipe. Slowly putting tobacco into the bell of the pipe, he lit it with a small katon jutsu before taking a deep breath, blowing the smoke out in large billowing rings.
"Kakashi," the man breathed out, closing his eyes and looking every one of his many years. "That red-head, as you so eloquently put it, is Kumo Hayashi. A charge of Panther."
"Panther's charge. He had a child?" Kakashi asked incredulously, a lone eyebrow arching in disbelief.
"He raised a child, yes."
"I don't believe it." There was a small chuckle that escaped the Hatake's lips. "That someone as vile as him ended up with a child."
"Now, Kakashi-"
"And he turned the kid into a jinchuriki. How did he manage that?" The 'under your nose' went unsaid as Kakashi stared straight back at his Kage.
"We were aware that something was sealed within the girl but we were not aware of what it was." The Fire Shadow sighed. "This was the first time her chakra reacted that violently." If only they knew what Orochimaru had been up to when both Momoko and Naruto where kidnapped all those years ago, then they might have some sort of further insight to the girl.
"The chakra felt as if it were that of the Nine-tails, Hokage-sama. How do you explain that?"
"There are eight other chakra beasts out in the world. No hidden village would actively boast if they had lost their jinchuriki and the beast sealed within someone else. It would promote a weakness that no-one would want to have seen from outside of the village. It could very easily be one of the other eight beasts."
"And you're alright with secretly harbouring a jinchuriki that could belong to another village, sir?"
"Panther was a trusted operative. I fully trust that whatever that child holds is not directly related to something that he himself personally did."
"Sir, he would do anything if it benefited the village. I doubt turning a child into a jinchuriki is something that would be beyond that man." Kakashi's scorn for the operative known as Panther was becoming very apparent.
"Kakashi, mind your tongue." The Hokage scolded, his eyes narrowing. "I trust Panther and the decisions that he made for this village. I do know that the man would never willingly harm a child in ANY manner."
The silver haired shinobi's shoulders slumped in slight defeat as he stared lazily back at his superior. "The child shouldn't be trusted until it's discovered what beast she contains."
"And that decision isn't yours to have. I have already made my decision on the girl, and she is to be trusted. She has done no wrong to this village, and has even helped to weed out a traitor. For that alone we are in her debt. You of all people, Kakashi, should know better than to judge a child for the actions of a parent."
At that remark Kakashi leveled a glare that would have made a lesser man quake in fear.
"I believe, that does sufficiently answer your question about who Kumo is, and what she had to do with Panther." There was a small pause as Sarutobi stared straight out at Kakashi. "Now, is there anything further that you would like to ask?"
Kakashi stood for a moment, almost wanting to challenge the Hokage, as he had further questions he wanted answered, but he knew better than to push his luck. Taking a small breath, he reached his hand up to his head and scratched at his hair before answering. "Maaa, that will do I suppose. Thank you Hokage-sama."
"That's what I thought. You're dismissed."
Kakashi gave a small bow, a frown present across his one visible eye as he shunshined out of the room, a small whirlwind of leaves marking the place he once stood.
Hiruzen Sarutobi gave an audible sigh as he pulled several manila envelopes from within his desk.
"That went spectacularly." The Hokage grumbled as he pulled a stack of envelopes from within his desk and opened them, spreading the contents across the top of his desk.
He had been hoping to put Satsuki on the same team as Naruto. They had already proved that they work well together, but it was painfully obvious that if she was put on a team with Kakashi as the leader, that her growth would be severally handicapped with the obvious dislike that the man held for her caretaker.
Kakashi was the perfect choice afterall. With the Sharingan, he would be able to assist in keeping the girl under control should anything happen in regards to the beast within her, and as a shinobi he was an impeccable tracker and he had specialized in assassination as well, something that Kumo was proving that she would be fantastic at, if her skills at detecting his hidden ANBU was anything to go by.
Well, at least he still had a few days to rearrange the teams.
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The sun had already long set by the time Daisuke had returned with Satsuki draped across his broad shoulders, the girl having passed out from some sort of exhaustion.
Naruto, upon seeing the duo re-enter the house jumped to help the canine with the small girl, and grabbed her small frame off of Daisuke and carried the girl to her bedroom at the end of the hall. Laying his pseudo little sister on the bed, he pulled the lime green covers up to her shoulders before walking back down the hallway just in time to see Daisuke readying himself to sit down on Minoru's chest.
"Hey, Daisuke!" Naruto hissed running to where the man had still laid in the yard. He was too heavy for Naruto to move himself, but he had succeeded in rolling the man over to his back while the canine was out on his search. "I don't think you should do that!"
Daisuke let out something that sound uncharacteristically like a snort, before turning in a small circle and setting his rear-end down just above the man's knees.
"Seriously, Daisuke! He's sick!"
"The man's fine." A low baritone voice sounded as Daisuke lowered himself down to be lying across the man's chest, his snout inches away from his owner's face.
"Did you just-?" Naruto's question died on his lips as Daisuke started to lick Minoru's face, and the blonde boy opted to giggle as his father figure started to cough, grasping at the weight sitting on top of him.
"Get off. Of me. You fat lard," Minoru wheezed, as he turned on his side, dumping the Great Dane unceremoniously on to the ground. "Did you find her?"
"What kind of pup do you take me for?" The deep baritone voice rang again. "Kid's in her room. Passed out from exhaustion, but fine."
"Good." Minoru slowly sat up, rubbing messaging his chest, just above his heart. "That was nasty stuff. Hate to be the shinobi to get on her bad side." He let out a slightly pained chuckle as he slowly got to his feet.
"Your dog-" Naruto slowly breathed out lifting a shaking hand up and pointing to Daisuke. "He just talked!"
"Oh no, Naruto," whispered, his eyes going wide. "You're still here-"
"Well yea, I'm still here! You were knocked out by that flower," Naruto scoffed "And Daisuke," Naruto shot a questioning look at the dog, "Was out looking for Satsuki. So, no one to get me home." The blond crossed his arms across his chest, his voice rising "What happened anyways. What was that?"
"Please," Minoru was whispering, his pointer finger placed in front of his lips. "Keep your voice down, I don't want her to be woken."
"Is it like a bloodline? Can you do that? Why did you pass out? Why-?" Naruto's voice kept rising in volume until Minoru placed his hand across the boy's mouth.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Minoru hissed, causing Naruto to instantly freeze, his eyes wide. "I know you have questions, but they can't be answered here. Our priority, first and foremost, is getting you back within proximity of Konoha. The shadow clone dispersed far too long ago for my liking."
"The what?" Confusion mixed with concern crossed Naruto's eyes as he cocked his head to the side and looked at his father-figure.
"I'll explain in a minute, but we have to get on our way, before anyone notices." Minoru removed his hand, and nodded his head towards the door.
"What about Satsuki?" Naruto asked, looking down the hallways where the small girl was sleeping.
"She'll be fine, Daisuke will stay behind." His tone went back to nonchalance as he reached his hand into a jar and pulled out two sticks of peppermint. "Here, want some candy?"
"One moment you're freaking out, and the next you're offering me candy." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the silver haired man, before reaching a hand out and taking the pro-offered sweet. "I don't think I will ever understand you." He popped the candy stick in his mouth before making a funny face. "Peppermints?"
"Everything I do-"
"You do for a reason. Yeah, I know." Naruto grumbled as Minoru shoved a hat on his head.
"Look here," Minoru said as he grabbed something off of a shelf by the door.
Crystal blue eyes met charcoal black eyes as Minoru opened a small jar and wiped his fingers across the mixture held within.
"You're going to have to follow my lead more so tonight than normal." He said as he smeared a cold cream across Naruto's cheeks, covering the whisker marks etched on each side. "Because of the time of day and how long ago the clone dispersed, I have to take you to a different jump point, so I have to take you in to town in order to do so." Minoru paused for a moment to make sure that Naruto understood the situation. "I'm going to need you to leave your jacket here, the orange will stick out a little too much in this village, and I don't want someone to realize who you are. Can you do that for me?"
There was a long pause as Naruto debated on the answer that he was going to give. The man had never steered him wrong up to this point, and had always had his best interest at heart. He had even made sure that he was getting good grades in the academy to the point were he was no longer failing. He had been able to trust the man with everything else, so Naruto supposed, that he could trust him on this matter too.
Nodding his head, Naruto slipped his arms out of the sleeves of his trademark orange jacket, and handed it over to the adult.
Minoru smiled at the young boy and slowly stood to put the jacket on a hook by the door. "I'll either drop it by your house within the next couple of days while I'm on my way to work, or you can pick it up next Tuesday. Whichever comes first. Agreed?" There was a small nod from Naruto, and Minoru reached to grab another garment from the hooks. "Until then, you can take this with you." He passed the piece of clothing to Naruto as he grabbed his own haori to put on.
He laughed as the boy made a small huffing noise as he put on the almost completely all black jacket.
"It could do with a bit more colour, but I guess it will do." Naruto stuck his tongue out as he pulled the jacket on and zipped it up half way.
"I think you look like a proper shinobi," Minoru beamed. "Do you have everything? Shoes? Backpack? Homework?" After received a nod to each question, Minoru nodded his head, and tied a bandana over his hair. Sticking the peppermint stick in his mouth (and an extra one in his pocket that Naruto was sure Minoru was trying to be sneaky about), he opened the door and stuck his hand out for Naruto to grab.
"I'm not a child, I can walk by myself." The boy huffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"I know you're not." Minoru laughed, "Daisuke, I'll be back!" He shouted behind him before grabbing Naruto around the waist, and hoisting him up on to his back. "It's more for ease of travel is all. You are a little heavier than Satsuki is though…" Minoru teased as he quickly traveled down the street ducking in and out of the shadows as they were available.
"Hey Mino-"
"Not quite Naru," Minoru was quick to cut Naruto off, "We're almost at the jump point, there are too many prying ears here." Naruto couldn't see Minoru's face from his point on the man's back, but there was a cheeriness in his voice that confused Naruto. It was almost as if the man was smiling, almost as if he was trying to make others think that they were just a father-son duo on their way home for the evening.
Naruto sighed, and loosely clasped his hands in front of Minoru's neck, lying his head down on the man's shoulder, watching as the buildings quickly passed by.
The buildings were tall, almost reaching the sky, but they were quick to thin out, making way to shrubbery and trees that would jut out from random cracks in the pavement, before everything opened up to a small park at the edge of town.
"Hold on Naru!"
Naruto laid his chin flat on top of Minoru's shoulder and clasped his hands tightly together as the drew closer to a tree towards the back of the park. He could feel the man's arms moving, and could hear him chant the names of different seals, matching the tempo that his arms were moving. They may be in a different location, but the seals that he was chanting were the same as always.
Naruto tensed his muscles as Minoru kept running closer and closer to the tree, showing no signs of stopping.
"Mino-chan! You're going to crash!" Naruto shouted squeezing his eyes shut tightly bracing for impact.
"I'm sorry, we're going to wait?"
Naruto slowly cracked open an eye to see that the tree was no longer in front of him. Well, not the tree that they were going to crash in to specifically, but rather there were thousands of trees around them, almost like they were in a forest.
The blonde scrambled to climb down from the older man's shoulders looking around at everything as if it was his first time ever seeing a forest.
"But how did you do that? There was no door!" Naruto stopped and stared up at Minoru, his eyes comically large.
"Do you remember me ever telling you that there had to be a door?" Minoru raised an eyebrow a small smirk on his face, revealing his pearly white teeth.
"But-" Minoru reached his hand down and plucked the black beanie off of Naruto's blonde locks and sufficiently cut the child off rubbing the piece of clothing across the boys' face allowing the small whiskers to reappear. Putting the now dirty black beanie in a hidden pocket, the silver colour drained out of Minoru's hair leaving a bright blood red in its place, and the charcoal black eyes faded to an emerald green.
"I know you have questions. This is the time to ask them." Minoru started walking forward gesturing for the small boy to follow after him.
"Where are we?"
"About two miles out from Konoha. We should have plenty of time."
There was a small pause as Naruto tried to gather his thoughts. He had so many questions, but where to start?
The two walked in a comfortable silence until Naruto finally decided on where to start with his interrogation.
"What was that Satsuki did?"
"Honestly, no idea. It was the first time it happened. I can only assume it was a 'fail-safe' to keep her safe."
Naruto was silent for a moment. Despite the appearance he kept at school, he was no idiot. In fact, he remembered most things that he had ever read, that including the definition for the word fail-safe. The definition he had read was: 'In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause no or minimal harm to other equipment, the environment or to people.'
"What do you mean fail-safe? Is it a bloodline?"
"Not in the sense that you know a bloodline," Minoru said as they finished picking their way through the brush to a well beaten path that lead back to the village. "This wouldn't have been something that she was born with."
"What do you mean? You can't just implant a bloodline in to someone, so what is it?"
"Naruto, do you remember our conversation about seals with Satsuki when you came over to the house the first time?"
"Well yeah, but what does that have to do with any of this?" Naruto was confused by the seemingly strange switch of topics.
"Do you remember what kind of items can we seal within a seal?
"Just about anything, right?"
"Correct. Now, within what objects can we seal items into?"
"Paper, steal, wood, dirt. Just about any sturdy surface." Naruto was growing confused within the topic, but knew better than to question Minoru while he was in his so called 'teacher mode'.
"Now," There was a long pause, one that caused the air to become heavy, almost as if this was something that Minoru didn't want to talk about. "Can you seal items within people?"
"I'm sure it's possible, but why would you ever want to do that? What goal would that achieve?" Naruto had his hands behind his head and as he walked forward, he was leaned backwards to look at the stars peeking through the trees.
"What do you remember about the Tailed Beasts?"
"They're beings made of pure chakra that were created by the Rikkudo Sennin."
"How do you kill Chakra?"
Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, his arms dropping to his sides as he turned to stare at Minoru.
"How do you kill pure chakra?" He repeated, not looking Naruto in the eyes.
"You-" There was a long pause as Naruto's thoughts ran rampant, before everything came colliding to a massive stop. "Don't."
"Correct." There was a sad tone to Minoru's voice.
"But, the Yondaime, killed the Kyuubi. Didn't he?" Minoru watched as emotions flashed across Naruto's face. "But you can't kill Chakra…" Naruto gathered light blue coloured chakra in his right hand, taking his left to try and poke the gathered chakra. Realizing that his hand was just passing through the gathered energy he slowly let it disperse in to the air. "If you can't kill the beasts, then what did he do to it?!"
"Fuinjutsu is a marvelous skill. It can create mountains and level cities. It was a marvelous skill that led to the defeat of the Uzumaki clan. They could literally create anything out of nothing. They could do the impossible. Including seals that could hold not only objects, but beings made out of complete chakra."
"Including the nine tailed beasts." Naruto breathed out his eyes wide. "And that's what the Yondaime, did? He sealed the Kyuubi into something?"
"Not just something, Naruto-kun, someone." Minoru kneeled down in front of the blonde, and put his hand on his shoulder.
Naruto slowly looked up into the green eyes of his Mino-chan, while his thoughts ran through everything he had ever learned in the academy, every interaction he had ever had with a villager.
"He didn't seal it, within me, did he?"
There was a small pause as Minoru reached his hand up and cupped the side of Naruto's face.
"He did. He wanted you to be a hero. He knew you would be strong enough for this burden." Minoru pulled Naruto in and give him a big hug. "And you are a hero, a strong one at that. Don't forget that."
"Why don't the villagers see that then?" Minoru could feel Naruto's body shaking, giving away that the boy was trying to stifle tears.
"Because they don't know what we know about fuinjutsu." Minoru pulled Naruto away from him so that they could look each other in the eye. "You are not what you hold within you. Remember that. When you put ramen in a bowl, does the bowl become the ramen?"
"No…."
"Correct. If you put anpan in a box, does the box become the anpan?"
"No…."
"Correct. And if you put peppermint sticks in a jar, does the jar become peppermint sticks?"
"Are you hungry or something Mino-chan?" Naruto laughed through his sniffles.
"I'm just trying to get the point across, Naru-kun," Minoru laughed. "You are not what you hold within you. You're just the bowl holding back the ramen. The Fourth used a seal that was created by the Uzumaki. A seal that he modified himself, so that no matter what happened, the beast would only be released if you died. Something that will not happen for a very long time."
"Then, if he sealed the nine-tails within me, what does any of this have to do with Satsuki?"
"Before Satsuki was born, she was kidnapped." Minoru stood up, and once again started walking towards the village. "She was kidnapped by an evil man, who wanted power all for himself. And in order to do that, he kidnapped two very important people."
"Who did he kidnap?"
"He kidnapped Satsuki's mother, and you." There was a small pause before Minoru continued. "He wanted to harness the power of the tailed beasts and use that power for his own malicious gain. But he didn't want the power of just one tailed beast. He wanted to create one that had never been seen before. One with powers unknown to mankind, that could help him with his goals of bringing the Hidden Leaf to its knees, and then to its own grave."
There was a heaviness in the air that made even the talkative Naruto stay quiet as the trudged along the path to the village.
"He had been at this for years, from what I have been able to learn. He had been waiting for the perfect container to seal his creation within. He had taken energy from multiple demons and had somehow managed to fuse the chakra together to create a new tailed beast. One that would eventually hold the similar personalities to the original beasts that the chakra was taken from. He found that perfect container within Satsuki, kidnapping her before her birth, as to make sure that the moment she first took a breath of air, he would be able to seal the creature inside of her, making her a living sacrifice, a Jinchuriki, just like you."
The silence continued to hang in the air as Naruto held on to every word that Minoru was saying.
"That man did succeed in creating something that had never been seen before, so I don't know what to expect when it comes to Satsuki. I can only imagine that the swirl of flowers that she disappeared in was due to the tailed beasts within her, acting because they thought that Satsuki would be killed, and because as much as they hate humans, they hate dying worse."
"Is the chakra from the nine-tails part of the reason that she's like me?" Naruto asked in a hushed voice.
"It is," Minoru responded after a small pause. "But it is also because of you that she stays safe."
Naruto looked up to Minoru with questioning eyes.
"There is a seal that lies in a circular pattern around your navel." Minoru paused as he waited for a nod of understanding. "That seal is what holds the Nine-tails in place. Now when the evil man kidnapped you to take the chakra of the Nine-tails, he first only took a small portion. A portion that would grow within Satsuki as she grew, but small none-the-less. Second, he mimicked the seal that holds the nine-tails within you as a modified one that holds the beast within Satsuki, a seal that as I said earlier was created by the Uzumaki-seal masters. If it wasn't for that seal, that that man copied when he kidnapped you, I am almost certain that Satsuki wouldn't be alive today. She would have died within hours of having that creature sealed within her."
"So, I saved her?"
"You did. And as her pseudo-big brother, I'm sure you will continue to do just that." Minoru smiled down at Naruto.
"But the seal. You said it was modified. Does that mean it's not as strong as the one that I have?" Naruto asked, worry evident on his face.
"Don't worry, I added an extra layer on to her seal. It functions almost as if a natural born Uzumaki was the one to place the original seal on her now."
Naruto left out an audible sigh as relief rushed over him, and the two walked in silence for a few minutes longer until another question popped in to his head.
"Minoru. You mentioned Satsuki's mom, but you never mentioned her dad."
"What are you talking about, I am her dad." There was a chuckle that left Minoru's lips, and had Naruto not grown up hearing the fake laughs of the villagers, he would have scratched at the back of his head and let out his own sheepish laugh of embarrassment.
"You're raising her. So, in that sense, yes, you are her dad." Naruto answered nonchalantly; his hands stuffed in his pockets. "You wear a henge while you're at home so that you look like her, and whenever you come to pick me up within the village, this is how you look: bright red hair and green eyes, which matches Satsuki's favourite henge. I may not be as good as a sensor as what Satsuki is/will be, but I know for a fact that you're not wearing a henge right now."
Minoru let out a small sigh, one that made it seem as if ten years of life were added on to him. "You're too smart for your own good. You know that kid?"
"You taught me almost everything I know," Naruto shrugged. "That's how I know you're also a ninja, despite what you say in front of Satsuki. She doesn't see ninja on a daily basis like I do, but I know you're a ninja. The way you carry yourself. The way you're constantly keeping an eye on our surroundings, it all screams ninja. Not to mention, there is one red-headed ANBU who is constantly making sure that I am staying out of trouble." There was a small pause as Naruto eyed the older redhead. "Do you know who her birth father is?"
There was a long pause before anything was said.
"I have always liked the bingo book for a bit of light reading."
Naruto stopped dead in his tracks at the once again topic change. "The what?"
"Halt-state your name and purpose!"
"Ah! ANBU-san!" There was a cheery tone laced in Minoru's voice and it caught Naruto off guard as he turned to look at the dog-masked ANBU that had seemingly appeared out of no-where. "How are you doing this fine evening?"
"State your name and purpose." Minoru's question went unanswered but it didn't seem to bother the red head.
"Well, I am Minoru Hayashi, and this is young Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto felt a large hand being laid on his shoulder as he looked on at the ANBU with silver gravity defying hair. "I was on a walk this evening when I found young Naruto lost in the forest. I thought I would help him find his way back to the gates."
The ANBU walked straight up to Minoru, his back straight and his arm ready to go towards a weapons pouch. "Present your identification papers."
"Of course, ANBU-San." Minoru dug through his pockets, and Naruto felt his stomach clenching. What would the ANBU do when Minoru's paper showed that he actually lived in Kirigakure?
Naruto watched closely as Minoru pulled out a small booklet out from within his Hakama pants and presented the booklet to the young ANBU.
The ANBU flicked the book open, and Naruto couldn't help but look on in awe as he saw the Konohagakure symbol etched on the front of the booklet, with a spiral he had learned as belonging to the Uzumaki clan placed on the bottom right hand corner of the front of the booklet, in faded black ink.
"Says here you have a daughter. Where is she?" The ANBU's voice was quiet as he asked, folding the book back and handing it to Minoru.
"Back at home, sleeping. It's way past her bed time after all!" Once again, the smile was plastered across Minoru's face as he started to babble on about Satsuki, without naming her at all within the conversation. "I will have to get back to her soon though, so I would like to finish making sure that young Naruto gets home alright."
"Oh no, Hayashi-san," Naruto spoke up, a formal, apologetic tone in his voice. "I could not possible be any more of a burden to you. You have been so nice after all to bring me this far. If ANBU-san is here, that must mean that we are close enough to the village." Naruto bore a sheepish look on his face as he rubbed at the back of his head. "It is my fault after all, I should have known better than sneaking past the guards to go explore the forest without an adult."
"Mmmmm, sounds like your lesson has been learned, huh?" Minoru hummed as he reached his hand into a hidden pocket and pulled out several peppermint sticks. "Peppermint stick, ANBU-san?"
Naruto watching the interaction unfold, had he not known better would have said he heard the ANBU make a noise of disgust under his mask before gruffly denying said candy.
"Make sure the boy gets straight home. He's caused a great deal of worry with the Hokage for going missing for so long." The ANBU turned on the spot and disappeared in a swirl of leaves leaving the duo alone on the forest trail.
"See, I'm not the only one who doesn't care for your weird candy!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at Minoru as the elder of the two led them further down the path.
Minoru just hummed as the two walked up to the large imposing gates of the village of Konohagakure and Naruto let out a small whistle, taking in the view of the gates from the outside for the first time.
"It's pretty impressive isn't it?" Minoru let out a small chuckle as he led them over to the guard post to show his identification papers.
After a few moments with the two guards Izumo and Kotetsu, the two continued on their way, Minoru plucking Naruto up from the ground and putting him on his back.
"Now, I know you have more questions. And there are not further answers that I can give right now." Minoru whispered. "Just remember that I do what I do because it is necessary. Because your safety is necessary, and because the safety of Satsuki is necessary. Do you understand that?" Minoru paused until he heard a small 'yessir' from Naruto. "You and Satsuki will run into many troubles throughout your lives because of what you hold within yourselves, and I do what I do so that you will experience as few of those things as possible until you are strong enough to face them on your own. I will protect you both with my life. That is how much I love and respect you both. You both are my families in different meanings of the word, but that does not mean that I love either of you any less than if you were my own flesh and blood, and for that I need you to trust me. Can you do that Naruto?"
There was a moment of silence as Minoru carried Naruto up the stairs to his small apartment, and set the boy down on the ground in front of the door.
Naruto looked up at his mentor and azure eyes met emerald eyes as a determined grin spread across Naruto's face. "Believe it! I'm going to get strong to protect the both of you, Mino-chan!"
"I have no doubt that you will Naru-kun. Now I hope this goes without saying, that this will be our secret for now, no?"
A pained look spread across his face. Naruto didn't care for lying to his precious people, and Satsuki was definitely one of his most precious people. Letting out a small sigh, he nodded his head, "If it is necessary."
"I promise, I wouldn't ask you to do it if it wasn't." Minoru reached out and ruffled the young boys' hair. "How about next week we stumble across a clone jutsu that you can actually use to pass the exam?"
"Yeah!" A grin erupted across Naruto's face, and he didn't notice a book being surreptitiously slipped into his backpack as Minoru laughed and slowly pushed the boy into the house, closing and locking the door between them as he headed back the way he came to exit the village without raising to much further suspicion.
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Naruto looked down on Kumo who had fallen asleep on his lap, the blood red hair from her henge piled under her head in a sort of makeshift pillow.
He had a feeling, ever since that Satsuki had shown up in the village under her henge as Kumo, that something bad would happen, he had just hoped that the feeling that he had deep down in the pit of his stomach was wrong, and that his pseudo tou-san would show back up to take the both of them under his wing again.
Reaching his hand into a pocket of his jacket, he pulled out a small book and cracked it open. He hadn't realized the day it happened, but that day, so many months ago when they had to take the long way home Minoru had slipped a Bingo Book into his backpack.
It was a well-worn book, one that had been owned by someone else before it had come to his possession, but it did hold a ton of information, as well as faces that Naruto could see as very familiar. Familiar not because he had seen the people listed in the books, but familiar as in he had seen people his own age that closely resembled those listed within.
He could easily pick out Shikamaru's father listed within the book. It was an old photo, the man had yet to receive the scars that currently mar his face. He recognized the face of Chouji Akimichi's father: Chouza, the swirl markings on the man's cheeks matching those of his sons. The Yondaime himself was listed in the book, his given name of Minato Namikaze 'The Yellow Flash' being listed with a rather high bounty listed under his name. He had a bright red stamp of 'Deceased' across his face. There was a blonde within the book that Naruto vaguely recognized as the owner of the flower shop across town. His name giving away that he was related somehow to Ino, the noisy blonde who liked to yell at him.
There were two people within the books that shared the same last name as him, and it always made him smile. Looking at the smiling face of the first, he couldn't help but feel a sort of joy. It was a woman with long blood red hair and violet, almost matching exactly the description that had helped transform Satsuki to Kumo, her name was Uzumaki Kushina 'The Red-Hot Habanero'. She just like the Yellow Flash, had a hefty bounty on her head, but had those big red letters stamped over her face listing her as deceased.
The second was a young man by the name of Uzumaki Minoru with bright red hair just as Kushina had. His hair, Naruto was sure, would have been just as long as Kumo's is both in and out of her henge as he could plainly see in the photo was being held back in a low ponytail of sorts. The man had bright emerald green eyes and a wide smile across his face showing off a toothy grin. He did not have as hefty of a bounty on his head as Kushina did, but he too had those big red letters marking him as deceased stamped across the photo.
On all three of the 'deceased' photos there was a date lasted as the date of death, listing them all between eight and twelve years ago. Looking at the first two, he could agree that they must have died around the time he had been born, but the last one, he could say with great accuracy, had the wrong date of death listed.
The red-head man was listed as having died eight, almost nine years ago, but Naruto could say without hesitation, that he had just seen the man not even four months ago. He went by a different surname, but Uzumaki Minoru had taught both him and Satsuki, almost everything they knew. He had kept many secrets from the both of them, secrets that he probably had every intention of no-one ever finding out, one of them being Satsuki's true father, and Naruto was sure that he managed to take most of them to the grave.
That being said, there was one secret that Naruto was fairly certain that he had uncovered with the 'light' reading he had successfully completed while looking through the bingo book that was gifted to him.
Naruto was certain that if he had managed to figure out this secret, that the Hokage would have learned it too, but as they had been yet to be approached by the man, he must have decided to keep that information to himself as well.
Kumo made a small noise in her sleep, causing Naruto to look down at his sleeping sister just in time to see the red colouring slowly drip from her hair, leaving her hair the pale silver colour it naturally was. He carefully wrestled the girl's hood from under her head and pulled it up over her head, making sure to hide the silver locks within the hood so that no-one else would see should they enter the empty waiting room.
He had studied the bingo book almost nightly at one point. Taking in every little detail of every ninja listed within the book, trying to see if he could find people he knew, or people that he knew of. He had done this so often though, that similarities soon became very easy to pick out. Like how a child may share the same face shape as a mother, or how they may share the same hair and eye colouring as a father.
In fact, he had noticed that rather quickly about how he shared those similarities with the Yondaime Hokage, and Uzumaki Kushina. He had asked Minoru about it once before, and the man just said something along the lines of 'Maa, what a strange coincidence.'
Naruto had also noticed the similarities that Satsuki had shared with one particular person listed within the book. They had the same oval face, same hair colour, and same eye shape, all in all she truly looked like a female version of the man listed in the book.
Naruto closed the book and slipped it back into his pocket, as a door swung open to reveal Tsume Inuzuka.
He wasn't sure what the future would hold from here one out, but he knew that he and Satsuki would have to come up with some sort of more permanent solution to her current disguise. It did fine while she was in the academy, but now that she was a genin, they would have to make sure that no-one found out who she truly was, and a henge that could be undone by someone able to detect genjutsu or with the right bloodline would not be useful to them
He had made a vow to protect both Minoru and Satsuki. He wasn't able to protect Minoru, but he would protect Kumo with his life because he knew. Naruto knew that she would be in danger once the world found out, so it was up to him to keep her safe, just like Minoru was, until she could protect herself. It would be his job because he knew.
Because he knew the truth.
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"So, it sounds like Orochimaru had paid the girl a visit." A voice graveled out. "And she now has a little dislike of snakes."
"You are correct sir."
"And her chakra had an interesting reaction with the Uzumaki boys'?"
"Yessir, the boy managed to get the girl's chakra under control just by grabbing her hand.
"How interesting." A mischievous scowl worked its way across the man's face. "Keep looking for information. I want to find out everything about her. Dismissed."
A figure dressed completely in black save for a blank porcelain mask nodded as it disappeared into thin air, not leaving any indication that it had just been in the small dark office.
"You can try, but you can't keep everything from me Hiruzen."