Chapteeeeeeeeeeer!
Should have updated the Fairy Tail/Bleach one before this, honestly, but all my motivation to write has gone to RWBY fanfiction, and this just became a thing. It also should have ended a while before it did, but, uh, when it comes to me, whenever I say 'I'll have this many words in the chapter' it usually becomes 'But I haven't even done this, yet' and gets extended beyond what I planned for it to.
Good for the people who get more chapter to read, bad for my brain and sanity(Or what tiny bit is left of it.).
But it's out, now, and, quick reminder, I put in the authors notes in the first chapter that I changed a tiny bit of things in the first chapter, as, I went back to read it, and found some inconsistencies with this chapter, so I had to fix it to suit my needs. Now, you might think 'Why not just change this chapter then?', and that's because I decided that I don't like making OCs, people don't generally like reading about OCs, so I just figured 'Hey, why not take some characters that already exist in other places, and move them here?', but some information I gave before contradicts that, so I mixed it around a tad(Not enough to make you have to go back to read the chapter, but enough so that I don't get future comments saying 'I'm a nerd, and I have to tell you that you are wrong at this point because of this point'.).
That doesn't mean OCs from my other fics are coming here- it means I've taken characters from other manga/anime and have either already placed, or am going to place, them in the story. Whose it gonna be? Read this chapter to find out who a few of them are.
I have also gotten several complaints, such as 'Naruto's a badass, then he's not five seconds later' and a bunch of negative guest reviews(For real, if you're gonna bitch at least do it with your account, people.), to which I have to say 'Hey, show me your stories so that I can tell you all the things that are shit about THAT! Oh wait, that's right.'.
But for the first issue, Naruto, despite what he may seem otherwise, is 17. He is powerful as shit, and mature as all get out, but he is a 17 year old orphan, who grew up training to be a ninja, with next to no kind of interaction with people his age, or even just PEOPLE, for the longest time in his life. He doesn't know how to talk to the other students, he doesn't know how to act with the other students, and he definitely doesn't know what to do around a pretty girl.
Some of you might argue 'Well he didn't have a problem with Sakura', and to counter, I say he was a loud and brash twelve year old who expected everything to go his way, and when it didn't, he complained until the sun set red. He is now a seventeen year old, with even more hormones, has been through a war, is actually now a decent human being, who knows how not to act with a lady, but not quite how TO do so as well. He is also chalk full of humility and self-consciousness that makes him second guess everything that doesn't have to do with punching things, and makes interacting, you know, a massive pain in the ass.
Trust me, I know, I was once a seventeen year old as well, who thought the world and then-some was out to get him.
Other than that, though, I don't have much else to say, so on to the questions that have been getting asked of me form previous chapters.
To aldislt- Uuuuuuh, I don't entirely know either, but a lot of people are saying its because he wasn't in six paths sage mode when he lost the arm, sooooo, that I guess. And Naruto was also referring to Kaguya as a Grimm, not Sasuke.
To dandyrr0403- Fuck if I know.
To King Popoto- I don't like Ozpin. I said it. But for real, he's creepy as fuck. First thing he says to a fifteen year old girl when he meets her, 'You have silver eyes'. Like, why? Plus, from a regular perspective, who keeps a half-dead person underneath a school? Ones with not-so-good things to hide, that's who. Then there's the whole 'I can apparently send my soul to different bodies when I die' thing, which Naruto obviously doesn't know, but that's some Orochimaru level shit. Oh yeah, and Naruto stated a reason for his wariness the first time he saw him near the end of the first chapter, so there is that too.
That's all I have for now, so read on, and pray to your Senpai every night before you go to bed, folks.
"I really should have kept the gaki here and made him the Hokage." Tsunade mused as she glowered at the fat stack in front of her(Of paperwork, you pervs.). "Now I have to wait for Kakashi to get his own ass in gear before I can be rid of this abomination for the rest of my life." She sighed at the unfairness of it all and slowly grabbed the piece of paper on top of the veritable tower. "Let's see, request for Naruto to train some civilian merchant's kid? Gonna have to say no to that. Request for Naruto to complete some S-Rank mission to open a pickle jar in Kumo? What, do they think I don't read through this stuff before I accept it? Bleh. Request for Naruto to… No, wait, this is just a request for Naruto. From the Hyuuga clan. Kami, kill me now-"
She would have went on to file out the rest of the, no doubt, Naruto related forms(With the help of some sake, obviously.), had it not been for a very disheveled and nervous looking Shizune barging through the door and closing it behind her, seeming all too panicked for the Hokage's liking. "Shizune, what's going on? Surely we aren't under attack?!"
Though she said that, she knew if the village really was under fire, she'd know of it thanks to the numerous seals Naruto had shown the barrier team before he had left the continent that had yielded drastically improved results during the practice drills, and the infinitely nifty little addition he had made to the hat she was currently wearing that would make it so that if a foreign character were to enter the village without a Konoha hitai-ate, and had a rather 'disconcerting' amount of chakra, the hat would heat up so that she would be notified of the presence immediately after it entered her walls.
Still. Better safe than sorry.
"Ah, no, not quite, but, a very large contingent of Shinobi have been reported by our ANBU and the barrier team to be walking their way to our gates from the north entrance." The current Hokage gave her assistant a skeptical look. Shinobi, walking, to a Shinobi village?
"Okay, sure, why not. Lots of Shinobi meandering their way to our village. But why are they, how many, and who are they?" If anything, the young woman became even MORE fidgety. "Um, yes, well, the team is counting around fifteen people. We currently do not know why exactly they are here, but we do know that all of them seem to have outrageous amounts of chakra, with twelve of them having around your levels of chakra, and the other three having more than even Jiraiya-Sama."
That… Was not good.
Twelve of them having as much Chakra as her wasn't as bad as it really sounded, because while she was a kage, she just wasn't in the class of them when it came to chakra capacity.
Maybe if she had gone a different route in life, being a Ninjutsu specialist(Or just being born male, as her research had proven that while females had the superior control over their chakra, the males had a larger abundance of it), she would have had as much, but the life of a medic nin just didn't give a drain on the reserves as it needed to for her chakra to grow out as much as it would have if she were spouting out jutsu left and right like the gaki did. That didn't mean, however, that her reserves were meager in value, as she was a sannin, and a damn good Kunoichi(Being hailed for years on end as the strongest in the world, even.), so her store of the life energy was definitely above that of your average Shinobi, and most certainly above your average ANBU, so it still had some cause for alarm.
Having not one, or two, but three possible enemy ninja with chakra capacities surpassing her deceased teammate, who was, on top of being a ninjutsu specialist, a sage?
She was now cursing her decision to send Kakashi on that mission to Wave.
"Send Sakura and 3 of our strongest Jonin to the northern gate now." She would have prefered to have the entire village sent there along with them, but if they really weren't hostile, then they'd be sending a very bad message to wherever they came from, but as she put on her Hokage robes and vanished behind the door to get to the gates before her other ninja, the question of where exactly that was went unanswered and forgotten to the busty blonde.
By the time Sakura arrived, her Shishou was already tensely standing before the normally opened gate, along with two of her former classmates at the academy, Shikamaru and Shino, along with Rock Lee, who, for once, was eerily quiet and not spouting out tidbits about 'Youth'.
The war had changed them all, just like war had for every person to have ever taken part in one, ending in loss and sadness, though, for some, it was greater than the others. Lee had lost Neji, though Sakura liked to think he was a friend to all of them, and thus a great loss for them all, and his sensei, who, while still alive thankfully due to Naruto, would never be on active duty again thanks to his usage of 'The Night Guy' which shattered his leg beyond even his or her own capabilities. Shikamaru had lost his father in the Bijūdama gone wrong before Ino could completely subvert the monster that was the husk of the Juubi into firing it elsewhere, and Shino… Well, Sakura didn't know much about the Aburame to begin with, but he was still acting the same as ever, so she'd say that he was fine as he could get after being a part of a war.
Now they were constantly alert, ready to fight, and never without at least one Kunai, even in the most unlikeliest places, like the shower. Shikamaru didn't slouch nearly as much anymore, and constantly stayed in places where light was prevalent so that he would have a better chance of using his clans jutsu, Lee had been entirely too quiet for any of his friends liking, and had become much more aggressive than he ever was before, and they feared this was here to stay, but Gai had assured everyone that it would pass in time and he would be the same Lee people knew and were disgusted by.
And Shino… Covered himself more?
Seriously, Sakura just didn't know anything when it came to the Aburame.
And because of this same mindset, none of the rookies had changed their garb when they were on duty from when they were on the battlefield, and the only real difference between them anymore was that they each wore the Konoha hitai-ate once more, Sakura had let her hair grow out to reach just below her shoulder blades, Shikamaru had started to grow a goatee not dissimilar to his father's, and Shino had taken up wearing a visor instead of goggles.
"Shishou, why did you call us here?" The woman didn't answer verbally, but instead pointed a finger toward the path leading out of the village, and the four ninja looked to where she was gesturing, but couldn't see anything concrete, until they could barely make out several blurs marching up to them and the village. They couldn't make out much more than a sea of red until the, no doubt, Shinobi continued making their way along the trail, and the Konoha ninja could finally make out some more details about the group.
Twelve of them were marching behind the three most people, in three rows of four, with each of them wearing blue slacks, with a scarlet red vest with short sleeves covering their torsos, and long sleeved chainmail shirts under that. Each of the Konoha group almost had a heart attack, though, as they took in the orange spiral which was the exact same as the one patched on their own vests sitting directly in front of where their hearts are.
They were also starting to get a sinking feeling in their guts when they took in the same vibrant red hair being on the heads of all of the people in various hair styles. Though nowhere near as bad the feeling in their hearts when they realized they were Uzumaki from seeing the hitai-ate on their heads claiming they were from the supposedly destroyed village of Uzushiogakure.
It took everything in both Sakura and Tsunade to not punch what were either the greatest impersonators in the elemental nations, or actual Uzumaki that HAD to have heard of the name 'Uzumaki Naruto' before, and were now here to rebuke Konoha for misusing their name for a now very much not Uzumaki Naruto.
Either way, this could get very messy.
Tsunade studied the three leading redheads as the fifteen Shinobi finally reached an appropriate distance and stopped their marching to talk to the Konoha group that came to greet them.
The two that stood in front of the soldiers, but behind the foremost person, was a male and female that seemed like they were barely older than Naruto and obviously looked related(Then again, they all did.), with similar facial structures, the same strange almond shaped teal eyes, and small noses and lips. Even the hitai-ate were worn to make the similarities even more apparent, as the one on Tsunade's left(Female.) wore the headband slanted to the left, and the one on the right(Male.) wore it slanted to the right.
They each wore black pants with shuriken pouches on both legs and coats that looked like they were made from very expensive materials with the Uzumaki clan symbol stitched in the middle of their chests, so they were obviously higher up in the food chain then the others, or just related to someone like that, but the one leading them caused even more unrest in them, and the only real way to tell them apart was the builds, with one being feminine, the other more masculine, and the hair styles with the male keeping his in dreadlocks, and the female having hers in a braid that went down her entire back.
The three males only had what Naruto had once told them of her to go off of, but Tsunade had seen her in real life and Sakura had seen many a picture that Naruto had acquired once he found out his parentage, so the two immediately made a connection that was disconcerting.
'Oh Kami, she looks like Kushina's twin sister!'
She had red hair like the rest, but it was set in the same style as the deceased Kunoichi, wearing a scarlet red kimono that covered her entirely as she stood, so they couldn't see anything else to make anymore connections, but the pale face staring straight at Tsunade calmly was undoubtedly Kushina's.
"You… Who do you think you are, taking on the appearance of a deceased Konoha Kunoichi?!" The anger that offset the Hokage was too much, and her mouth moved before she could stop herself to voice her anger.
The male behind her began to look murderous, but before he could act like Tsunade had, the leading woman held up a hand to stop him without even looking back. "I assume you mean Kushina Uzumaki?" That seemed to do it for the males, and they too bristled and started to look outraged as they realized just why these people looked familiar, and Tsunade, not trusting her mouth anymore, nodded stiffly.
The woman sighed sadly before shaking her head. "My poor musume…" Tsunade let out a gasp as the others eyes widened. "She was too young to die… I knew sending her over was a bad idea, but not THIS bad." At that, everyone's eyes narrowed as any sympathy and sadness they felt for the woman ended. "But that is beside the point. Uzumaki Naruto, my apparent grandson- where is he?"
Now they were confused.
"You mean you haven't heard?" Sakura finally spoke up as she shared confused looks with her friends and teacher. "Oh, we've heard alright." Now it was the younger Uzumaki females turn to talk as she and what was probably her twin brother walked forward to stand beside the elder redhead. "For some reason, you idiots-" That got a growl from the two short tempered medics. "-Didn't do a blood test to see if one of your greatest Hokage's was really the father of one of your greatest Shinobi, and had to figure out after the war that raged in your lands that Naruto wasn't related to who you think he was."
Shikamaru was silent for a while, frowning as he took in all the information they gave away. "You know he isn't an Uzumaki, yet you call him as such, and you're here for some reason. Plus there's this whole part where you are apparently not apart of the elemental nations anymore, and least of all that there are apparently even MORE Uzumaki, if you all are really who you say you are, which leaves me to wonder about things. Are there more of you, and if you're not in the elemental nations anymore, then where? And most of all- why are you really here?"
The girl stiffened, seemingly nervous that she let too much go as the boy shot her a quick scowl, but the leading Uzumaki just smiled serenely at the Konoha group. "Ah, the Nara intellect at work, I see. You are correct- we, as in the rest of the Uzumaki and all of Uzushiogakure, are not living in the continent anymore. After our previous land was destroyed and left in ruin because of three of your hidden villages, we decided to go as far as we could to avoid even further destruction. So we let the nations believe we were destroyed and made off with most of us still around, and imagine our surprise, when we found a large seal expanding across the entirety of the continent, blocking our way out!"
"So you managed to get out of the seal, and most likely made your way to the small continent of Menagerie, where most of the humans have deemed 'not habitable' and made your new village there." Shikamaru stroked his chin in thought. "Makes sense. There is many places from what I've seen of the place on the map for Uzushio to settle and keep their whirlpool defenses from the oceans. Plus the population is mainly made up of those 'Faunus' people that would be easily fooled by a simple henge, so getting a rather sizable plot of land and finding jobs wouldn't be too hard. And the lands are currently in a peace time, so it would be a good place to start rebuilding, repopulating, and collecting both standing and wealth among the continents."
Every Shinobi and Kunoichi behind the three main ninja had their jaws drop at the sound deduction, while the two young siblings had visible shock ridden on their own features, and even their leader had lost her serene look and gained a more suspicious frown. "You seem well versed in outside affairs, even given the seals in effect."
The male Nara stayed quiet, other than a muffled grunt of 'troublesome', and it was Tsunade's who scoffed and spoke this time. "You believe us ignorant of outside events? You are more ignorant than us if you truly think that." Now they were all angered at the insult, except the leader once more. "Regardless of our knowledge, you haven't answered the all important why are you near MY VILLAGE?!"
While the rest of her ninja withheld a wince at the tone and volume of the voluptuous woman's question, the leader merely blew a stray lock of hair from her eyes. "Easy. We are here for Naruto. Uzushio has been giving a silent ear to all her people and children, and it has been decided that we were to go seek out any that we could find and bring them back to our home to be with their family once more."
If they were mad before, the Konoha nin were now absolutely PISSED.
"You mean that you were sent here to get the powerful, influential, and valuable Uzumaki that just happens to be Naruto-Kun!" It was, surprisingly, Lee who had retaliated at that. Though they each knew that the Uzumaki were only here to grab Naruto, who was not only one of the last two remaining Jinchuriki in existence, but also the war hero of the bloodiest and worst Shinobi War in history, and most likely the strongest Shinobi, possibly even just the strongest HUMAN, in the world.
"Watch your mouth, wretch! You're speaking to the Yondaime Uzukage! Show respect!" The foremost male snarled out, and looked like he was about to move to attack the Green Beast, but was stopped once again by the newly dubbed Uzukage raising a hand. "I will not lie. Naruto's heroics and the tales of him are what made us do this, but when I say we are in this land for the entirety of our people that were sadly displaced from us, and their children if they had any, I meant it. We have already gone across the elemental nations, and even saved Konoha for last, to gather as many members of our clan that we could. We even have one here as a witness if you do not believe us."
The woman motioned with her hand for the ninja behind her to disperse to the sides, and they did so, revealing one frowning redhead that fixed her glasses as she stepped forward to greet the others.
"Karin?" While the rest didn't seem to know her, the pinkette had treated her and even talked with her on several occasions, so she knew who it was and wasn't very shocked to know she, too, was an Uzumaki. "You're going with them? I thought you wanted to go off with Sasuke and the rest of the team to patrol the nation and keep peace?" Karin shot a scowl over to the calm Uzukage and huffed. "That's what I thought too, then this woman and her army strolled up to one of our campsites and demanded that I go with her."
"I just wanted you to come and meet the rest of your family, dear."
Now the scowl was transformed into a full blown glare. "I should have just let Sasuke-Kun electrocute you all." "Now, now." The Uzukage waved her hand dismissively at the young glasses wearing Kunoichi. "Your attitude will simmer down once you're back with your brothers and sisters in the homeland, where we can finally teach you the proper way of the Uzumaki."
Karin shot a disbelieving stare at the woman who she was now thinking had dementia. "I was with the closest thing I could even call a family before you came around and hornswoggled me, woman!" The fellow teen Uzumaki female scowled at the outsider for her outburst and stepped toward her. "Oi! That's your Uzukage your talking to, here! Show some deference and decorum befitting a young lady, please!" "What's that, you skank?!" Karin growled and looked as if she was about to deck the ignorant lass while holding up a fist. "Give me a second, and I'll show you 'Decorum befitting a young lady'!"
Before the scene could escalate further, the leader of Uzushio coughed daintily into her closed fist to get everyone's attention. "I think it would be best for everyone if I hurried this along and simply moved forward, here. Please send out Uzumaki Naruto so that we can get back to our village." Everyone that wasn't an Uzumaki, except Karin, narrowed their eyes at the woman.
"I'd watch what you say and how you say it around here. Naruto is a hero to everyone in the elemental nations, and he has more fans than I care to count. If any of them were to here you just now, let's just say that getting back would be the least of your problems." If the words were meant to scare or intimidate her, they did not work as she continued to stand there, nonplussed.
"Even if that were a threat worth taking into consideration, there is nothing you can legally do about it." Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" The red haired Uzukage reached down into her not unenviable bust and pulled out a stack of papers that look like they had seen better days. "These are from decades ago, back when the founder of your village appeared in our islands looking for a suitable host to keep the Kyuubi in, as, at the time, sealing was not at it's peak as it is today, and ninja weren't as abundant nor as powerful as in the present, so the only safe way to trap the beast without needlessly killing it was to seal it inside our people, who are still to this day known for their vast chakra capacities and life longevity."
The blonde sannin eyed the documents being held out towards her warily before grabbing them from the woman and looking them over with a critical eye. "As you will read, it states in the terms of the marriage contract between one Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki that Mito would become the jailer of the beast, move to Konoha, marry your Hokage, and even makes it so that we would send over a new Uzumaki once it became apparent that she would not be able to hold it back properly anymore, either due to age, sickness, or what have you, which was one Kushina Uzumaki."
The other Konoha nin took this in with an almost religious fervor as their Hokage barely paid attention, too focused on studying the papers in her hands. "However, in exchange, upon the young Uzumaki's death, once the beast was sealed into another Uzumaki for the third time, Konoha would willingly give him/her over to Uzushio, so that they could be properly raised as an Uzumaki should." The little tidbit where Uzushio would also apparently become the new owner of Jinchuriki of the strongest Bijuu went unsaid. "And it says that, should we be unable to provide an Uzumaki for the third sealing, which we sadly could not accommodate so soon after our lands were ravished in that appalling attack so long ago, and the Bijuu was sealed into a non-Uzumaki, we were to receive monetary compensation equal to the value of said Jinchuriki."
The others were getting more and more pissed the more they heard, and more than one person looked more than ready to punch the smug looks on the two siblings faces as the tale was spun, but the calm looking woman was not saved from their wishes of pounding Uzumaki faces, either. "So, as you can see, we are rightfully entitled to taking young Naruto-Kun with us to meet with the rest of his family and fellow Uzumaki."
Tsunade just hummed quietly to herself as she flipped the last page of the documents over to see what was on the back before talking. "One small problem with that. You seem to be forgetting the part where Naruto was tested, and the results showed that he had exactly zero percent Uzumaki blood flowing through his system, so you have absolutely no say in where he goes." Tsunade lifted her head to the visitors and shrugged unapologetically. "Give us a week to get your compensation, and send us the location of your village so that we can send it to you at your earliest convenience."
The leader just gave the Hokage a dry look that easily conveyed the unsaid 'you really think I'm going to give you the location of our settlement' while the two younger and by far more brash Uzumaki scoffed at the blonde and crossed their arms. "You mean you don't know?" The Konoha Shinobi glanced at each other questioningly before directing their gaze to the teenage female. "Ugh, for the village that claims they were our close allies, you sure know nothing about us."
"Guren!" Her brother rebuked her. "That's a clan secret, be quiet before you let anymore-" "It's fine, Hadoma." The Uzukage eased the young man down from his rant with yet another raised hand. "They'll need to know anyway if we are to get custody of young Naruto-Kun anyway." She turned from the teen and faced the Konoha contingent, who were looking a little anxious to know what the Uzumaki had up their sleeves to try and get Naruto. "You see, Uzumaki are known for many things. Increased longevity, large chakra stores, and our fabled fuinjutsu skills to name the foremost of those features. But, do you know the one thing that they all have in common?"
From the wary way they were looking at the kage, they did not.
"You see, most, if not all, people believe our clan has become as renown as we are because of our heritage- our blood." The red haired woman shook her head. "While it determines, most of the time, if we get those things, it is not what gives us all those things." Shikamaru looked as if he had just solved a puzzle, but was then told that additional content was available and he had to put that into it as well. "The Uzumaki, possibly above all else, is known for the special properties of their chakra- your chakra is the source of all those things then?!"
"Ah! The Nara intellect at its finest." The red beauty smiled delightfully while putting her hands together in joy as they figured it out. "Okay, that's fine and good. But what does that have to do with Naruto, exactly?"
Her good mood seemed to dissipate immediately as soon as the question hit the air.
"Like you said, our chakra is special, and as I've said, our skills in fuinjutsu is unmatched. Now, as a large clan, enough to make our own village, even, there have been a few occurrences where an outsider was taken into the village. Most left. Some of them, however, were but children- orphaned ones, on top of that, and we couldn't just let them go out into the world at such tender ages, so, we adopted those few and let them live amongst us like any other clansmen. And as an Uzumaki village, it was next to impossible to NOT come into contact with seals at some point, and a rather, odd, event, took place the first time one of those parents who took on the orphaned children put a seal on the child. You see, seals, combined with our bloodline-esque chakra, make for a very confusing mixture- or, at least, when it comes to an adopted child and their caretaker, at any rate."
She left in a little pause here, either wanting to get a breath of air before continuing with her rant, or probably just half-expecting the Nara to interject again with a theory on why she was telling them all this, but, he was just about as clueless as the others this time so she went on.
"It would seem that we can, ah, not transfer, so to say, but, more like, transmogrify, a young child's chakra, which is either too underdeveloped, or just not there enough in the first place, to mimic an Uzumaki's OWN chakra, thus making them, for all intents and purposes, an Uzumaki, if not by blood, then everything else that makes an Uzumaki a Uzumaki, such as a longer life span, more chakra, and they have been shown to have a rather increased aptitude for the art of fuinjutsu- making more headway than we've researched from other Shinobi who have also learned the art, and having it come easier to them then the rest."
"And so you believe that Naruto has been 'adopted', so to speak, by Kushina, who has seen him for, possibly, an hour of his life as a baby, before she regretfully passed away?" Shino raised an eyebrow at the delusional Uzumaki. "Yes, I am going to, as the kids say it, call 'bull shit'."
"It's true!" The young female teen spoke up once more. "We've had people keeping an eye on him for a while now, and they've said that, without a doubt, he has the Uzumaki special chakra running through him, making him an Uzumaki!" That was the wrong thing to say, as the usually straight faced Uzukage winced as one of the few things she didn't want getting out flew from the girls mouth.
Each of the Konoha nin didn't like that, either, and as Lee suddenly summoned a pair of nunchaku and drew them taut, Shikamaru's shadow suddenly warbled behind him before moving erratically in its masters anger, Shino's hive started buzzing which drowned out nearly every other sound in front of the village, and Tsunade's eyes narrowed before she clenched a fist, Sakura, with eyes full of fire, slowly stomped her way before she was face-to-face with the leader of Uzushio, looking all too ready to knock her lights out.
"How long have you been keeping an eye on him, then, if you don't mind me asking?" The tone of her voice, and the way she said it while sending out waves of killing intent that would have made even Sasuke think twice before acting, spoke for itself that she really didn't give a damn if they minded or not.
The kage pursed her lips in thought while staring straight into the abyss(Otherwise known as Sakura's eyes.) before giving her answer. "Since tales of a genin by the name of Uzumaki Naruto defeating the, before then, 'unstoppable' Jinchuriki of the Ichibi had started to spread through Sunagakure and Otogakure."
With a widening of her eyes, and a vast dilation of her pupils, it seemed as if the recently dubbed kage was to become a smear on the ground, had it not been for the hand of the current Hokage settling on her shoulder and holding her back.
"Leave."
The Uzumaki behind the now stone-faced leader bristled in anger. "Not until you give us Naruto, you damned Konoha ninja!" Tsunade shot a glare at the stupid boy before turning back and going to enter her village. "You have two minutes before I send my ANBU out here to 'escort' you out of the vicinity of my village." The Uzukage raised a delicate eyebrow. "So you are going to go back against the contract your forefather created with our clan?"
Tsunade stopped briefly to shoot a disinterested look at the woman.
"You had your chance to get him back when he needed you. Now that he doesn't, you've lost all rights to him." "You can't deny us! We have every right to go to war with you, then!" The Hokage just continued her way back to her village as the rest of her Shinobi followed after her, letting them all miss the amused smile on her face. "By all means, if you really want to go to war with us, then be my guest. We'll be sure to notify the rest of the nations about everything you did for Naruto while we're at it, and I'm just sure they'll make the decision to help take down the 'bad guys'."
The two sibling Uzumaki were left gritting their teeth as Karin couldn't quite stifle the chuckles escaping her at that as the Shinobi entered back in their village. "Sakura." The pinkette, lost in her thoughts, snapped out of them and shot a surprised look to her mentor as she stepped into place beside her. "Yes, Shishou?" "How fares that little 'Project' you were working on?" The younger girl frowned. "Not terribly good, as of this moment. I'd say it's about, at best, 43% done?" The Hokage hummed to herself. "Well, better than nothing. Stabilize it, and pack it up." Sakura shot her a shocked look. "You mean-" "Something tells me he is going to need it a lot sooner than we thought he did."
As they were holding their conversation, fourteen of the sixteen Uzumaki seemed as if they were about to rush into the village and find the blonde teen themselves, but their leader stopped them before they could even act. "We're leaving." Everyone, even Karin, who had expected there to be more of a fight, looked at her in disbelief as she turned and walked away from the village. "J-Just like that? What about Naruto-" "Relax, Guren, Hadoma. He'll come home eventually, just not as soon as we had hoped. Besides-"
She shot a quick glance behind her at the towering walls of the village.
"They knew a bit too much about the outside world for people who shouldn't have had any contact with it, and there aren't many people not Uzumaki who could actively pierce the barrier in the first place."
"Status report, bunshin ten?"
Naruto liked to think he had mastered Kurama's chakra by now, and everything that came with it(Super speed, massive healing factor, negative detector-), but his wasn't the only chakra he had, now was it(If I had my way, then yes.)? He had Shukaku's, Matabi's, Isobu's, Son Goku's, Kokuo's, Saiken's, Chomei's, and Gyuki's to think about, as well.
Though he couldn't outright use their chakra(At least not without using every other Bijuu's chakra as well, as they kind of just… Mingled, when he went full Asura.), they had each given him something that they only gifted to their containers.
And to train with those gifts, he needed… Well, just a place to train, which, in a school full of aspiring Hunters and Huntresses, you'd think wouldn't be too hard.
Oh how wrong both he was.
It wasn't that there was a lack of training grounds, or equipment, or anything like that, but Naruto went around the entirety of the campus, and literally every spot was being tracked by electronics, which, other than just being weird as hell(Seriously, who in their right mind made sure every inch of a school was being watched every second of the day?(Aside from ninjas.) Well, yeah, aside from them, but this was Hunters and Huntresses he was talking about here!), made Naruto's feeling that the headmaster was hiding something grow, and there was no way he was letting that guy see even a smidgen of his abilities if he could help it.
So that essentially got rid of the school grounds as a place to train, which, if Naruto was being honest, was fine, as he much prefered doing his training outside in the wilderness over those simulations they apparently have in the actual school training rooms, but there in laid another problem he had to contend with: other students.
Apparently, Ruby was supposed to be some kind of speed god, or something, as once he had shown he could outpace her, everyone lost their minds and started making assumptions that his 'Semblance' was something that made him even speedier than her, and because of it, his new friends were now constantly watching him, trying to figure out the 'mystery' that was Arc Naruto- er, Naruto Arc.
He needed to get used to that change of finicular…
Luckily for him, none of them were particularly stealthy enough to actually hide and follow him without him immediately knowing(Though, Blake was rather good at it, but Naruto hadn't run and hid from ANBU back when he wasn't even a Genin to have a teenage school girl get the one up on him.), so it was easy enough to get a clone and throw them off the original's trail.
Hope they like watching his clone eat a mountain of ramen in Vale, because that's about the most entertaining thing it would be doing today.
Once he had gotten that issue settled, he could once again work on that problem where there was nowhere for miles that he could reliably train. But, thanks to some scouting(Thanks to some bunshin henged into various types of Grimm.), he had found this nifty little clearing that would suit his needs near perfectly.
It was vast, expanding just about as much as the clearing where Ozpin had put the 'relics'(Cheh. How a chess piece could be considered a relic is beyond me.(Yeah, they should have just used you!) Oi! Watch it, you little shit, before I send you on a one way trip to my colon!), with a river flowing through the middle of it, and many trees surrounding it that would hide it from prying eyes- if they made it this far into the forest, anyway, as this was supposed to be blocked off from the younger years because of the 'fiercer' Grimm.
It would have been a dream spot on any other occasion, except for the fact that, even this far out, in such a remote location, it was still under surveillance.
So Naruto, in a fit of childish exasperation, had just slapped some seals on the cameras that would frequently send out electronic bursts, disabling them for however long he decided to keep them on, and called it a day.
He had taken other precautions, of course, because he wasn't arrogant enough(More like because I had to reason with you that you aren't omniscient.) to think he had taken care of everything that could incriminate him if he was caught.
So he had set up a large scale genjutsu(Yeah, he could use those now!) that would shroud the entire clearing, hiding his bunshin, and if someone were to see the clearing now, they would instead bear witness to some student Naruto had saw the other day, who was an upper year, and they would now see him… Picking his nose.
He never said he was great at the genjutsu thing, okay?
But aside from that, he had put up an alarm seal further out into the trees that would alert him of any presence from the their body heat when they entered a certain range of the security, and when it did go off, the small mark he had made in his left palm(He wasn't very amused that he had to get a bunshin's help to place it there.) would send a jolt up his arm, alerting him and any of his clones to either wrap things up or get the hell out of dodge.
He had placed it over a week ago at this point, and it hadn't gone off once, so Naruto liked to think he was in the clear, and would be for a while to come.
But back to the task at hand-
"Hai, boss. Currently, group ichi are having probably the best progress with their work, mostly in thanks to Gaara and the scroll he gave us to help with our Jiton, and they are now able to control sand like he can, just… Not as efficiently, at least, for now, and their efforts into controlling other metals hasn't been going too well; they can still polarize things in small quantities, but they can't control iron sand like the Sandaime Kazekage once was. We're starting to think it's because of that 'diamagnetic' stuff that was also in Gaara's notes."
Naruto nodded along as the bunshin went down the list.
"Group ni have probably been having the most trouble next to group san, and can manage the let loose the blue flames, but they don't really have any differences to the regular flames, let alone something like Sasuke's Mōkaton, and group san have only been able to recreate that coral fist thing used on us once. Every other attempt to summon coral and the like have been fruitless. Group yon are making decent progress, also thanks to help, this time from the Mizukage and Kurotsuchi, and we have a few of the jutsu down, but, sadly, our biggest roadblock here has been the lack of things to learn, as there isn't really many jutsu created for it, and we'd have to go to Son Goku if we really want more ideas at this point."
"Yeah, I suppose I should send some clones to him. Hell, I should really check up on all of them, it's been a few weeks since I last talked to any of them. Anyway, continue."
"Right. Group go haven't gotten the Futton to reach a maximised boiling point to make it useful in battle, but they have perfected that little trick where they make steam come from the body to aid with movement and attacks with the body. Group roku can't get the acid part down, but they do make a mean adhesive nowadays, and have been getting slow, but steady progress with noxious gases. Group nana… Really have no idea what they are doing, but, somehow, have gotten their skin to harden to the point where nine times out of ten, kunai, shuriken, and other assorted thrown weaponry just bounce off their skin- that should be really helpful in case we actually have to prove that we have Aura. And group hachi have gotten ink to ooze into their hands, which greatly helps for fuinjutsu, but not much else has come of that."
Naruto took that all in before nodding in satisfaction. "I'm sure we'll improve more and more over the next week and at least have a plan of what we should be learning and not just hoping for the best. Okay, dispel to let the others know they can dispel too." The bunshin saluted. "Aye-aye, boss!" As soon as he disappeared, it occurred to Naruto that he hadn't said exactly how they should dispel, and bunshin were known to be rather right dicks when it came to being dismissed.
"Ah, shit, DON'T DO IT ALL AT-" Too late, as a second later, Naruto was hit with the worst migraine he had since coming to this academy. "Gah, it feels like Sakura-Chan went to town on my brain from the inside!" Knowing that he would be dealing with that for the next couple minutes, Naruto scowled before lifting his hand forward and clenching it. "Would have liked to do this when I could concentrate completely, but I'm just too much of a dick." Slowly, the ground around him softened as the minerals inside of it coagulated together, and meticulously pulled itself from the ground in the form of sand.
Unlike Gaara's, whose sand looked more akin to something from a dessert(Not like he lived in one or anything.), Naruto's color of sand was lighter, and something you'd expect to find on, say, a beach.
"Okay, headache or no headache, this is awesome."
Because, as a kid who grew up around other kids from major clans with major kekkei genkai, it felt amazing to finally have one as well, and especially with one as amazing as controlling sand with basically your mind.
Well, mind and chakra, but controlling a few dozen gallons of sand for a short period of time didn't even register for Naruto. It was like using an Oodama Rasengan, honestly.
Maybe if he was controlling hundreds of gallons of sand for hours it would start to register, like a Bijūdama Rasenshuriken.
Then again, he could spam the hell out of those, so maybe he could spam a few thousand gallons for a few days.
Not that he ever thinks he's gonna need to. It's just in case he absolutely has to.
Like showing off to Gaara.
"I can't wait to be able to subconsciously do this." He murmured to himself as the sand drifted around him lazily, as if it were a planet orbiting the sun. Motioning with his hand, he had the sand form into a large spike, which he sent flying at a rather unimpressive(To someone like Naruto-) speed towards a tree, where it split through with a loud 'CRACK', leaving the sand imbedded straight into the tree as the sharp end poked out the back of the large wooden construct.
"Okay, that was kind of neat- no Rasengan, obviously, but that's mostly just my bias talking. It certainly can have more uses if applied right, though. I wonder what would happen if I gave it more wind chakra when I use it as a weapon; would it completely break up the balance between the earth chakra and not let me use Jiton effectively, or could I just apply the wind to the outside, making a kind of second layer that would aid the sand in its actions? Hmmm…"
He didn't get much time to ponder that, sadly, as he felt a sudden surge go up his arm, causing him to curse and quickly make the sand he was controlling lose form and fall to the ground.
"Man, I just had to jinx it, didn't I?" Dispelling the illusion over the clearing, he quickly jumped to the back of his self-proclaimed training grounds, hiding out in a tree that gave him a good view of the rest of the clearing, just in case it was one of the professors coming to look at one of the cameras he had trashed, so that he could erase any evidence of him being the cause if the need absolutely arose and hightail it out of there fast.
Luckily for him, though, that wouldn't be necessary, for instead of a teacher coming through the rustling bushes near the entrance of the clearing, two young women entered instead, dressed up in the Beacon uniform for girls.
"This is the way Yatsuhashi and his team said they saw him going, right?" The auburn haired one asked the violet haired girl, who either spoke too quietly for Naruto to hear from this distance, or just gave physical acknowledgement with a nod.
Normally, Naruto would have taken this chance to dash, seeing as how they could have only been talking about him(Though it was rather disconcerting to him that he let himself be seen making his way here, by students, no less.) and obviously were looking for him, but they had peaked Naruto's interest so he stayed for a bit longer to see if he could find out the why. They didn't do much else, sadly, as they frantically searched the clearing for any signs of his presence, which there was next to none of.
But suddenly, the violet haired one's eyes trailed to the side before she tugged the sleeve of the other girl. She then, once again, said something too soft for Naruto to make out, as the other girl looked where she was now pointing as well, and Naruto had to resist the great urge to facepalm as he realized they were looking directly at the see through hole he had gauged out of the tree with his little experiment.
"Ah, well. Suppose I needed to let them see me sometime soon, anyway." With that whispered to himself, he waited until they walked up to the tree and were examining it before making his way behind the duo. "Neat hole, ain't it?" No sooner had the first syllable of the sentence been uttered had the two girls spun around and brought out their weapons to deal with anything should it be hostile.
As the two girls took in his appearance, Naruto raised an eyebrow at their choice of weaponry.
The violet haired teen had a large kunai, which wasn't surprising to see for a Shinobi like Naruto, but what was surprising, was the fact it didn't look to be made of metal, but instead was a light blue, and seemed to be made of some kind of crystal(Or maybe crystal dust. Naruto still had a hard time differentiating the two.). The auburn teen also had another ninja weapon, which was a handful of senbon, that looked like they were coated in something nasty that Naruto did not want to get too near to if he was being honest(Kurama healing factor or no.).
He wasn't expecting those options, as every person on this continent he had seen so far had gone with big and flashy pointy things that transformed into bigger and flashier gun things, but seeing some classics like these was definitely fine by Naruto.
The two's eyes widened as they looked at the Shinobi in what he could only assume was surprise.
"How'd you sneak up on us?" The more outspoken of the two asked as they lowered their weapons slightly, but still kept them out in case they decided he was too hostile. Naruto, for his credit, smirked and placed his remaining hand on his hip. "Very easily, if you must know. You were pretty enthralled in checking out that tree. Should I expect wedding bells soon?"
The two ignored his little joke to try and ease the tension, and instead lowered their gaze to where his tracksuit sleeve was rolled up, revealing his stump of an arm and causing him to frown.
"I think that's him, Chelsea." "I think you're right, Mizore."
As the two were enthusiastically(A little too much for Naruto's liking.) studying him and his arm, Naruto made some studying of his own.
It was rather obvious they were related, with the way they were so at ease with each other and similar stances that belied an upbringing that usually was held for people raised together, though there were plenty of physical evidence as well. They both had long hair that nearly matched the others styles, with the only real difference being hair color, some bangs, and a pair of headphones on the head of the auburn girl with a butterfly logo on the sides. Both also had eye colors a few shades lighter than the hair on their heads, with an eye shape more standard for a person from Atlas instead of Vale(Though Naruto only really had Weiss as a example for that.).
Each were around the same size(A few inches taller than Naruto, for those wondering- seriously, what did they feed to the people on this side of the world?!), petite, thin eyebrows, pale skin, and- for some reason- had sticks poking out of their mouths, which Naruto assumed was not from some cigarette, so he'd wager they were some kind of treat like pocky.
"So." Naruto ended the silence to move things along. "Any particular reason you're here, then?" The two girls quit staring at the blonde and looked at each other for a bit. "We'll tell you-" The one Naruto thought was Chelsea started, before Naruto had to duck a swing of the crustal kunai from the girl Naruto believed to be Mizore. "If you leave a big enough impression, at least."
That sounded like a challenge, and if there was one thing Naruto never backed down from, it was challenges.
"Let the games begin, then, I guess." Not giving either of them the time to react, he lifted his only arm and threw it to the side, making the sand that had fallen to the ground from before spring up and coil around the senbon wielding girl, trapping her in a cocoon of the grains with only her head sticking out of the top. "Hey!" She struggled against her prison and yelped as the sand tightened around her.
"That's one down." Thankfully he had been gathering more sand from the ground as soon as he popped in behind them so that he could raise a wall to block a couple of kunai the same shade as the first one that was thrown by a now simmering teen girl. He would have tried to speak to the girl, but he heard whistling from his right side, so he shifted the wall to the right to block more kunai.
This continued on for a minute or two before he couldn't hear anything anymore. After he thought the worst of the onslaught was over, he lowered the sand that had wrapped around him at this point for protection, and looked at the girl that was now less than a few feet away from him. "I suppose you wouldn't want to give up then, huh?" His answer was a tendril of sand snatching an airborne kunai an inch away from his face. "You're lucky I'm fast to react, otherwise I'd be needing some facial reconstructive surgery."
"You still might need to after this!" His eyes widened as he pivoted on his heels and barely made out a speeding blur before he shot away from his position, narrowly avoiding getting skewered. "Wow, getting a lot of deja-vu. Wait, wasn't the other girl the one with the senbon?" He turned to where he had last left her, and was perplexed to find the sand in the same position, but sans a captive. "Well ain't that a kicker?" He dodged another barrage of needles, then landed in front of the river and lowered his raised arm down.
The two girls grouped backup with each other near the beginning of the clearing and gave each other a glance, then proceeded to throw another set of weapons at the male who they thought was defenseless or charging up an attack. Sadly for them, before it could reach the blonde, a veritable wall of sand easily over ten feet high and spanning the circumference of the field rose up that blocked their weapons and their view of Naruto.
"Okay, now that's broken." Chelsea only had the time to say that before the sand launched itself toward them, forgoing keeping its shape for covering more ground quicker. "Mizore, hop on!" To any seeing it, they would be astounded as the very human female jumped into the air, and suddenly morphed her form into that of a Nevermore large enough to carry human cargo on its back. The stoic, still human, girl didn't hesitate to jump onto the Nevermore's back and grab on as it flew far away from the sand on the ground and into the air.
They weren't a second too soon, as the mountain of sand collided with their previous position and slammed into many of the trees, shaking them to their foundations and threatening to knock them over. "That's some control he has over the sand." Mizore inputted dryly while looking down below, and the Nevermore made a noise in agreement. "We haven't been able to land a hit, and though he hasn't gotten one on us, it was probably more from a lack of trying. Plus, you'd still be trapped if he knew that you could transform when he first got you, and I don't like either of our odds against him alone. We'll need to attack together if we want to get past this sand of his."
"I completely agree. Though, you'll probably still have trouble with it. I've heard that I can be quite wily when I want to be."
The girl riding the beast paused, and if it weren't for the threat of falling to the ground from such a height, the bird would have as well. Slowly, both their heads turned to look to their immediate left, and saw the same boy they were talking about ganging up on not ten seconds ago standing on a floating mound of… Sand?
"... How?" "Sabaku Fuyū." "Sa-what?" Naruto's answer was to take the sand below and begin to to bring it up to them. "Sand. Right." With a wave of his hand, the sand started to collect under him, adding to the small cloud of it that was holding him up, and increasing his arsenal of it to attack the duo. Then he shot his fist out, sending a good amount to try and grapple the team, but the bird managed to lower its flight trajectory and dodge the tendrils of dastardly grain. As another onslaught headed their way, the violet haired teen sighed and stood on the Nevermore's back. Naruto watched on, curious, as the girl raised her own arms above her head, then the curiousness switched to shock as the tendrils that were fast approaching were suddenly stopped in their tracks, encased in ice.
"Is this the work of ice dust?!" His shock increased as the girl changed perches from the back of her Grimm partner to one of the tentacles of sand that were now trapped in ice, and started skating her way up the thing, freezing the patches that were still sand as she made her way along. "An ice Semblance. Sure, why not?" He shook his head and snapped his fingers, causing the remaining sand appendages to swerve targets and converge on the girls location.
It did little, though, as she just went on her merry way like nothing was wrong; freezing the sand that got too close for comfort. Scowling, Naruto willed most of his remaining sand to leave its place under him and go after the teen who was getting much too close for Naruto's liking, but, again, it did little to help as the girl just kept icing the sand as it entered her personal bubble.
Naruto was about to just say 'fuck it' and have the sand overpower the ice keeping it prisoner to break out and finally catch the impossible-to-catch girl, but a loud sound behind him broke his concentration. "Wha-" He did a one-eighty and had his eyes widen as he saw a large black bird cork-screwing through the air towards his position. "I forgot about the bird!" Now in full panic mode, he lifted what sand he could spare to, if not halt, then slow the teen-turned-Grimm's arrival with his body, and would have grabbed more sand to help his escape, but found, as he looked behind him, that Mizore was now less than five feet from reaching him and making him into a Naru-cle.
Giving a quick glance back in front of him, he found the bird literally tearing its way through his sand, and would slam into him as soon as the ice-skating girl would get to him as well, "This is gonna suck."
He didn't get any more time to reflect as the Grimm tore through his flimsy shield and collided beak-first into his stomach while the ice maiden glided her way into grabbing his shoulder, already prepared to freeze him whole before he could respond.
It was a shame that as soon as both of the Huntresses-in-Training made contact with the blonde, his surprised and shocked features dissolved in sand as it was revealed the Naruto on the sand was just a bunshin.
Because even with sand, bunshins would always be a favorite of the blondes.
As soon as it was revealed that it wasn't the real Naruto, the Grimm transformated back into Chelsea and both the girls summed up the situation with one phrase.
"Shit."
Naruto, from the safety of the treescape, nearly tripled the amount of chakra he was sending through the sand, and if the sand could be described as sentient before, it was now outright alive as massive amounts of it broke through the ice keeping it in place and swarmed the spot the two were at. Before they could do anything to prevent it, the violet haired one was quickly bound by ropes made from sand, tying her legs together and binding her arms to her sides(While also surrounding her hands and trapping them, just in case she tried to touch her binds and freeze those too.), while the auburn teen didn't have such luck as, considering how she got out last time, the blonde took precautions and just put her in a sphere of sand with exits to escape form, no matter her size, but still allowing her space to move around inside of.
He drifted the two down to the safety of the ground before he left the foliage to question the remaining girl he could see. "Have I left that impression yet?" The only other person(That he could see, anyway.) in the vicinity looked him over once more, gaze lingering a little longer on his missing arm, before looking at his face and giving off a small smile. "Yes." Satisfied, Naruto let the sand fall to the ground lifelessly, freeing her and her sister, who was mock-scowling as her features were revealed back to the world while her prison broke apart.
"We had him- we had him! Then he went and made some kind of clone and switched places with it before we could even notice, and we fell for his trap so easily!" She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "If you weren't so cute and my little brother, you'd be getting a fist to the face!" "Yeah, I get that- wait, 'little brother'?" Naruto stared confusedly at the two before realization flashed across his eyes. "Wait, you're one of my older sisters?!"
The girl let her scowl go to give him a cheerful grin while she reached over and tugged the other girl into a one-armed hug. "We, actually. We're your older twin sisters! I'm Chelsea, second year at Beacon, and this is my twin, Mizore, who is also a second year, and also my partner. Nice to meet you, little bro!" Mizore nodded along. "Yes. I am pleased to meet my long-lost brother finally. Welcome to our family." Naruto's jaw was hitting the floor, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it back up. "Now- where'd you get the whisker tattoos, and what ass do I have to kick as retribution for that missing arm of yours?"