Chapter 4: Distant Storms
Naoko shifted from foot to foot as she watched Akiko look over all the children to make sure they were at least presentable. He needed to get out. Naruto was not going to allow himself be adopted. Not now. Not ever. He-She had parents. She knew them and she didn't need some random citizen family adopting hi-her. Who knew if they would allow himher to enter the shinobi academy. Naoko didn't need to find out, but how was she going to get out of here? Naruto scowled slightly as he-SHE tried to properly address him... herself in his â€" her head. Naruto shook his head lightly. He needed to focus. No, SHE needed to focus. Dammit, why did Inari-sama have to make him a girl?
After a moment to center himself blues eyes flickered over the playroom before settling on the arts and crafts area. There.
"Now everyone be on your best behavior. The adults are coming in a few minutes so go and play nicely, and be nice to them when they come over to you," Ordered Hayashi-san. Naruto watched as the orphanage head left soon after. They wanted them to act like the perfect little children. He will do the opposite. A small smirk flickered across his face as he walked over to the crafts corner. Pulling out paper, crayons, and paints Naoko began carefully creating a very orange frog.
Soon enough the-would-be parents seemed to swarm into the room, and the majority immediately searched out the younger orphans. Naruto glanced at the couple that settled down beside him. Jerks. The older kids would also like to be adopted. Well, no mercy for them then.
AUAU
The Sandaime stared blankly at his ANBU. This could not be happening. Tsunade... The elder sighed before looking back at the team he had sent to collect his wayward student. Their bandaged forms told the story for them but a report was required. "Report and then go to the hospital."
"Hai. Hokage-sama, we headed out as ordered at 0700 on October 11th to find, retrieve, and explain the situation to Senju Tsunade. On November 7th we came in contact with the target. Said contact lasted ten minutes in which we revealed ourselves to the target and was attack on sight. Saru was able to inform Senju Tsunade of your desire for her immediate return but none were able to explain to her the reason before being attacked and knocked out."
The third sighed. Sometimes he wished that his students weren't so stubborn. It was neither the time nor place for this. Tsunade was the only person that could really protect and care for Naoko without the council and his advisors trying to take control of the poor girl.
The Hokage looked down at the reports coming in from the north eastern border. In the end this had been the only chance he had to get Tsunade here any time soon. There was growing animosity with Kaminari no Kuni. The Raikage had taken an open interest in Konoha's Hyuuga clan. ANBU were needed in case of another war breaking out. He could not explain away an elite ANBU team being used to try and bring back a reluctant Tsunade when the council knew as well as him how impossible it would be.
"Dismissed."
"Hai, Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi Hiruzen leaned back in his plush chair and sighed as he messaged his head, a headache coming on. Right now Naoko was safely hidden amongst the civilians, and he had a possible war to figure a way out of. He could not focus on one girl, no matter how important a future figurehead she could and would become for Konoha.
A soft knock announced his secretary and, he glanced at the time, his punctual advisors. The Hokage straightened his robes for a second before calling, "Enter." The old man watched as Danzo and his two genin teammates entered. His secretary appeared with refreshments a moment later.
The third regarded Shimura as Utatane prepared the tea. His old friend was headstrong, but, in a way, the man had Konohagakure's best interests in mind, though convoluted as they might be. In the last couple of years, since Orochimaru had defected or maybe even earlier when the Kyuubi attacked, the man had become almost obsessive in his need to protect the physical structure of Konoha. Sarutobi feared that his old friend had forgotten that Konoha was not buildings and monuments but the people that lived there.
Quietly, Homura interrupted the Hokage's thoughts as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Hokage-sama I must request, once more, that you inform us of the whereabouts of Namikaze Minato's and Senju Tobirama's daughter. Her protection is paramount for a prosperous Konoha in the future. She would give many the needed drives to better themselves and become greater than ever before." Hiruzen sighed softly as he turned his eyes to his closest comrade in arms. How many battles have they been through together? Two whole wars they stood at each other's sides but now the Hokage could feel a distance growing, one that had begun when he denied any attempt for weaponizing Uzumaki Naruto.
Had he truly lost his friends and advisors down differing paths? The three before him seemed to be like minded enough; perhaps he was the one that had gotten lost. Mentally shaking off his uncomfortable thoughts, the Hokage replied. "I have informed you that she is safe and hidden. She will not be formally introduced until she is capable of defending herself from our enemies and the enemies of her parentage. We are not here to discuss her."
"Be that as it may, Hokage-sama, she needs to be trained by the best. She needs to be raised as the heir to two powerful clans properly. You cannot hide her and leave her to become some weak citizen! She needs to be raised as a proper, young woman. Are you going to even keep her from the female classes? What about the academy?" Cried out Utatane as she finished dishing out the tea. "Will you truly treat our sensei's daughter so terribly?"
Hiruzen's jaw clenched at the end. Was this wrong? Should he let her be openly cared for? Would Sensei... "Do not talk to me like that Utatane! Sensei would want her hidden and safe with the lack of family present to care for her. She will learn what she needs to; do not worry yourself over such. Everything will be fine. No one knows where she is but me. None of the enemies will be able to find her but she will not be ostracized or mistreated as her brother had been. Now-"
Danzo interrupted smoothly. "Is she safe from inner threats? You are aware that Uzumaki Naruto was killed inside these walls. The Uchiha, as the police force, should have been able to protect the boy and yet he was not safe in the end, Hokage-sama. If only you had given him to me, had listened to reason then..."
"Danzo enough of that nonsense-"
"The Uchiha were not there when we needed them with the Kyuubi! Tobirama had the right idea of not trusting them. He segregated them from the rest through the creation of the Police force. You know this! Is she safe?"
The Hokage's face tightened and the air became cold. "I will not have such accusations made about one of the most prestigious of our clans, especially a founding one. Even though you were not able to have a single Uchiha enter ROOT back during the second Great War does not mean they were not nor are not loyal to this village. End this nonsense; you know that it is simply a rumor that they were not there fighting alongside us against the Kyuubi. Your teammate fought at your side during it all."
The room fell silent for a few minutes as the words seemed to vibrate over them. It was an old argument but in the advisors' mind an important one. The Senju Clan had been prominent in the four shinobis' training. The clan's ideals and ideas had rubbed off them all but, as Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen struggled to keep an impartial opinion in regards to the Uchiha clan. This was one topic his advisors have never won. He could not have them color his eyes after years of internal struggle to rid himself of his own prejudice against the clan.
"I called you here because there is evidence of Kaminari no Kuni's Damiyo desiring to expand his territory and that the Raikage wishing to have the Byakugan. There have been increased reports in the northeastern border of confrontations with Kumogakure no sato shinobi. As we are aware, Tsune no Kuni, being right below lightening country, has allied itself with them and are not a threat to Kumo. The only land that separates us from invasion is the war torn land of Whirlpool. As that country is no more, no Damiyo and no shinobi village, there is little but unfertile landscape to cross into Hi no Kuni."
"Whirlpool would be best used as a war zone once again; there would be little collateral damage. Cloud will not enter our country," Said Danzo firmly before taking a sip of tea.
The third nodded in agreement before continuing, "We will have ANBU watch the border. They are our first force against any attacks from Kumo. The regular shinobi will take on more of the upper ranked missions if need be."
"Will we begin preparations for war?" asked Koharu delicately as she refilled all the tea cups around the room. "Raise the surplus of supplies? Boost our Chūnin ranks?"
"I believe that we are fine now in regards to subordinates. We should not raise ranks on shinobi we all know are not prepared to become Chūnin or JŠnin. In six months if there is clear signs of war coming the ANBU will recruit. As of right now, these are simply rumors. A few added confrontations at the border speaks little of what may be. This should not be a large war, if a war at all. We do not want nor, I fear, will be able to survive a full out war against Kumo. Diplomacy is the best route. But our surplus supplies will be raised. The abandoned supply caches need to be reused. Chūnin will be sent to make sure their structures are sound and supplies will be stockpiled."
"That would be advantageous for us. The rumors were proven true in the Third Great War with them having the eight tails in their ranks," Agreed Homura grimly.
"And we do not know what happened to the two tails after Whirlpool fell. That Jinchuuriki should have come to us, its allies," Added Danzo.
Hiruzen sighed, "We cannot be certain of anything in regards to him. He most likely died defending his home."
"Lightening were the ones that destroyed Whirlpool," Murmured Koharu. "It would have been foolish to kill a Jinchuuriki when you could claim the demon for your own village."
Danzo said in agreement, "We should assume that Kumo possesses the two tails also, though it wouldn't be old enough to fight full out yet. In six months if war appears likely we need to move to full war preparations, increasing the ANBU is only part of what we must do, especially with the possibility of confrontations against Jinchuurikis."
"Indeed. We will have to increase the numbers at the academy and speed up the curriculum." Stated Homura as he pushed his glasses up.
The Sandaime frowned, "We have just now decreased the academy to a post war timetable."
"But if there is war, Hokage-sama?" said Utatane.
Sarutobi hummed before responding. "If there is war, we have a quality force to fight against it." The kage leaned back in thought for a moment. "The curriculum will be increased to a half war time timetable. We will not have five-year-olds going to the front lines again. The parents will have the right to decide when to enter their children into the academy; we need not have three and four year-olds amongst the five and six year-olds. And the parents will have a say in any possible early graduation."
"But for the orphanages, we will take any children of three and older into the academy that is recommended by the caretakers and who have potential. They will be placed on a full war time schedule. This is possible war, after all," Countered Danzo.
Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded in agreement. "In six months." This was possible war. He could only protect the children that had protectors aiding him in his endeavor. He had six months to stop any war from occurring.
"In six months," Agreed his advisors as they moved to the door.
"Should we not call a council meeting to discuss this matter?" asked Danzo as the secretary moved in to collect the tea and plates. The third sighed before nodding. Here he had hoped to get a few moments to relax and take care of his headache.
"The meeting will be held in an hour, inform the clan heads Tori-san," Ordered the Hokage as he pulled a stack of papers towards him. His secretary muttered a confirmation, her eyes flicking to the advisors, before leaving him.
AUAU
Black eyes followed the faintly cute motions of the three year old boy in the back garden. The child hadn't noticed him through the window yet. If he had, the little boy would not be calmly helping his mother water the flowers. He would have been demanding training. A fist tightened. He was too young to train. Near identical black eyes looked up and met his own.
"NII-SAN!" Came a cute cry. An image of the same boy filtered over Itachi's eyes. The boy was older and his eyes were filled with hate and a touch of insanity. Itachi turned sharply away from his little brother. His face went blank as he quickly moved towards the entrance of his family's home, images flickering in and out of blood splattered walls.
"Itachi, back from your mission already?" Asked Uchiha Mikoto as she followed after her older son.
"Hai," Muttered Itachi almost hesitantly as he felt a smaller body collide against the back of his legs.
"Train me Nii-san!"
"Now Sasuke-kun, your brother just got back from his first mission as a Chunin. Let him relax," Abolished Uchiha Mikoto, their mother. "Would you like some tea dear?"
Itachi glanced at his mother; his mind continued playing tricks with superimposing the image of her dead eyes and blue-white skin over the living figure before him.
"Dinner will be ready in a few hours; you will be staying for it. Now come along, you look dreadful. Tea will help you relax." Itachi gritted his teeth but silently followed his mother into their dining area. Sitting, the ten year-old tried everything he could think of to ignore the flicker of memories of things yet to occur but they were too strong a focus for him now.
He killed them in here. Black eyes glazed over as the memory took hold. Sasuke found him standing over their dead bodies in here. Otou-san had moved forward in surprise but determination. He moved to protect Kaa-san. The shock and accusation in their black eyes as life fled them.
"-ii-san will you train me tomorro'?"
The future mass murderer jerked his head towards his little brother. Black eyes met black. "Iie."
"Now Itachi you don't have any missions tomorrow and every since you've become a Chūnin you haven't had any time with us. I think it would be nice to have you stay and show Sasuke a few pointers about throwing kunai or something." Said Mikoto, reminding Itachi where he was.
"Kaa-san I have things I have to do tomorrow." He couldn't be near them. He couldn't look at them without remembering how he had killed them or how he forced Sasuke into insanity. Itachi couldn't be near them still, not when he knew he would have to kill them all over again. This time Sasuke too, now that he knew of the threat his little brother would become. A threat unsaveable by even the kindest of hearts if Naruto being thrown into the past indicated anything.
"Itachi couldn't you postpone whatever it is? We really haven't seen you in forever it seems," Frowned Mikoto. Itachi closed his eyes from the pleading looks from his family. It hurt far too much to look at them. Fate was such a cruel creature.
"I-"
"Mikoto you know Itachi has responsibilities now." Uchiha Fugaku interrupted as he entered the cozy dining room. "How was your first mission as a Chūnin, son?"
"Fine, sir." Itachi rose, "I need to meet with my team for the debriefing. Excuse me."
"Itachi-kun!" The head family turned nearly as one at the interruption. Uchiha Shisui smiled sheepishly back at them. "Forgive me Mikoto-san, Ah… umm… Fugaku-sama I hadn't realized… I had thought you'd be at the council meeting. I-uh-I'll make sure to knock next time, forgive me." The young man backed out of the room. "I'll talk to you later Itachi-kun." With a quick bow the young man bolted.
The head of the Uchiha clan frowned after one of his more skilled subordinates and kin. "A council meeting, why hadn't I been informed?" After a pause Fugaku sighed before waving his older son out, "You would think that such a skilled shinobi would be capable of common manners."
Mikoto simply smiled in agreement before shouting out after her son's back, "I'll expect you for dinner, dear!"
Uchiha Itachi forcefully stopped himself from flinching. Hopefully he'll be able to "forget" when dinner was.
AUAU
Uzumaki Naruto grinned as he slipped through the basement window. It had taken a good hour for him to find a way to reach it with how short he was but he was free now. The little white haired girl glanced around quickly before bolting across the street into a nearby and vaguely familiar alleyway. It was one of numerous alleyways he had once traversed in his past life. It had been one of his favorite escape routes after any of his pranks down in the major shopping district were unleashed. A smiled fluttered across his face. It brought back some amazing memories.
Reaching the end of the alleyway, the little three year old paused to look around. She didn't see anyone that looked even remotely like one of her secret semi-reoccurring guards. It was bound to happen sooner or later, they weren't officially her guards and couldn't be seen hanging around one place very often especially with most of them being part of the ANBU. But it still was sort of surprising and even disappointing not spying them looking for her. Where was the thrill of escape when there was really no one to challenge her?
"Naoko-chan?"
Naruto jumped and twirled around, the once very cute dress Akiko had forced onto him tried to flare out prettily around the three year old but the dried paint that had gotten on it weighed most of the material down. Standing before her, a little farther into the alleyway was Uchiha Itachi.
"Itachi-kun." Naruto greeted with a wide sheepish grin. "I haven't seen you in what, two weeks?"
"hn." Itachi glanced over her. She was covered in paint and was positioned in a haphazard taijutsu stance. The ten year old and three year old stood staring at each other in silence for a few moments, neither sure what to do now. Naoko hadn't been searching for him and Itachi had simply been looking to escape a more than difficult situation with family that he had and would kill.
"The paint?" Itachi asked finally for lack of anything better to say.
"It was the annual Adopt-A-Kid Friday." Naruto stated as an explanation.
"hn."
Blue eyes shifted from the dark haired boy. "You said you would help me train."
"I did."
Naoko sighed in frustration. "Well you're here now and I'm not doing anything so…"
"hn."
The blue eyed child frowned at the unresponsive boy. "Fine." The little girl turned to leave before pausing and turning back to the boy that was an ally but an enemy and neither all at once. "I've been trying to mediate." She paused to see if Itachi would say anything. He didn't. "Well I can stay still for a good twenty minutes now and I can feel the weird energy thing around us but I don't know what I have to do. What's the next step?"
Itachi frowned at her, "You should be finding energy within you not outside of you."
Naoko blinked up at him. "Oh. I haven't tried looking in me I thought mediation was a way to get rid of any self-centered thoughts and still your body."
The black haired boy sighed. Sometimes you just have to wonder about this kid. "Come on we're going to the training grounds from last time."
Naoko nodded and quickly followed. There Itachi had her meditate with him guiding her with his calming voice. With his help she quickly found her chakra and while still mediating Itachi guided her in how to slowly draw small amounts of it from her core and draw it slowly through her coils to her right hand. "That is what you need to do now. Pull small increments of chakra to different parts of your body. Slowly you will be able to expand the amount of chakra you are drawing. After a certain point you don't have to do this technique any longer, though it does help considerably in expanding the amount of techniques you would be able to learn sooner. Will you know when you have enough chakra being pulled to create a henge safely, Naoko-chan?"
The little girl blinked in surprise at the sudden question, losing the tiny amount of chakra she had cupped in her palm. After a moment of thought Naruto realized that yes he could estimate the amount he would need and he needed so much more than what he could pull. "Yes."
"Good."
After a moment Naoko asked, "How was I able to create the kage bunshin and rasengan when I shouldn't have been able to pull all that chakra out?"
Itachi shrugged, "You shouldn't have but it's not like you realized that and sometime people can do things that are just mind bogging when they don't know they should not be able to do it. You did stuff like that all the time. Now I want to see what you can do without chakra."
AUAU
The thunk, thunk, thunk of weapons hitting wooded posts filled the training grounds. It had surprisingly become habit for the little white haired girl to find a way to this training field. No one ever came by here, it was Uchiha grounds and more specifically it was Uchiha Itachi's training field. No one wanted to bother the ten year old, especially if his father found out about it. The Uchiha heir's budding shinobi career was a very important thing to the clan head. So the place was avoided by everyone whenever possible.
It made for an amazing hiding place because of that. Of course with the growing animosity between Hi no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni she never saw her unofficial ANBU guards around. She had heard that many of the ANBU were out by the borders watching for cloud shinobi. Apparently that was why all the Chūnin were being run to the ground with missions.
Itachi was rarely around because of that but after he had helped her properly find her chakra he had her go through all the skills she knew that didn't involve the manipulation of chakra. Itachi had determined that she actually could keep most of her skills in regards to kunai and shuriken throwing. That led to the realization that she was going to have to focus hard on keeping the skills she had from the past life, they both were, because it was fading right along with their memories.
That was why she was focusing so much on throwing the kunai and shuriken Itachi had given her. Naoko would be damned if she had to relearn how to throw these things. She was going to force her mind and muscles into remembering this motion if it was the last thing she did. That didn't mean the child ignored the second part of her chakra training, though. She was constantly, though carefully, pulling chakra through her coils to different parts of her body. It was a strange feeling, the slow trickle of chakra and the odd stretching feel of her coils as the chakra was forcedly but slowly pulled through the tiny tubs. She was making progress. Naoko could safely pull a little more than half the amount of chakra she needed to create a Kage Bunshin the size of her as a sixteen year old Naruto. It was progress, and apparently extremely good progress.
Naoko smiled as she let free the last of her kunai. She could throw them well; all of them hit the target in a reasonable area spread but she still seemed to almost forget her hand placement or when to release the projectile. It was a work in progress. The little girl rose from her stance and taking a deep breath she carefully sank into herself until she reached her core. There the little girl pulled some chakra out and carefully directed it into her arm coils. She followed its path as the chakra flowed almost uninhibited up to her hands. The areas of her coils that were not large enough to allow the easy passage of the chakra was carefully stretched as she slowly pushed and pulled the chakra through the tight spot that had nearly forced it to a stop. Once she had all the chakra through those areas she again let go of it and watched as the chakra freely zoomed up the rest of the way to her hands. As the chakra reached the end the little girl released her breath and positioned her hand into a cross. "Kage Bunshin."
The sound of displaced air spoke of her success and Naoko opened her eyes with a wide smile before turning to look. There standing to her right was a perfect replication of herself. The little girl jumped up and swung her fist into the air in celebration. She could create a three year old sized kage bunshin.
Turning to her left Naoko's smile fell and annoyance flickered across her face. A half dead, malformed kage bunshin stood slumped over before her. She still needed to stretch her coils, than. With a huff the child dispelled that one and turned to her properly formed clone. "Let's fight!"
With that yell the two children exploded at each other, and attacked with fists and legs. Within moments it became a full out brawl. One of the white haired girls tackled the other. She happily smacked the downed girl over and over before she was kicked off and tackled herself. In turn the second white haired child punched her in the stomach multiple times. It continued like that until the more vicious of the two grabbed the others longish hair and pulled.
"Naoko!" The child that was pulling the hair gave a slight yeeping sound as she was dispelled into smoke from a flying projectile. The one that was left looked up at her savior and cringed. Sharingan eyes blazed back at her. "What have I told you about trying to keep your knowledge about Naruto's lack of taijutsu skills?"
The little girl pouted at the Uchiha as she replied with a frustrated, "Don't."
"What were you doing?"
"Taijutsu."
"Naoko-chan." Itachi sighed in frustration. "That was not taijutsu. That was some foolish drunkards brawling with no understanding of the discipline involved in taijutsu. Is that what you want to be seen as?"
"No but-"
"There isn't any but about it!" The boy turned away, rubbing his brow with a sigh. "It has been a long week, Naoko-chan. Do not make it worse by claiming that Naruto actually knew what he was doing."
The girl frowned up at him, "He did beat a large number of people."
Itachi regarded Naoko for a moment before formulating a response. "You do realize that it was because of his stamina, the Kyuubi healing all the broken bones and cuts he got right after getting them, and his high chakra capacity that allowed him to slowly win each of those fights? He simply kept going until the enemy was too worn out to win."
Naoko sighed at that. "I guess." The little girl pulled her hair out of her face as she went to her kunai and shuriken. Pulling out one of the kunai, Naoko stared down at the commonly blunt blade. "It has been weeks since I've seen you Itachi. You don't look so good."
"Two months of non-stop missions does that to people." Naoko regarded the older boy. For some strange reason Naoko was almost certain that Itachi didn't talk all that much to other people. She had become his confidant, sort of. Not really. He didn't tell her anything about himself that she didn't already know since after the whole massacre conversation. But he did talk. Naruto couldn't see how Sasuke could have ever had conversations like this. All her remarks or questions would have been answered with an hn.
"You know the one thing that brawl reminded me of?" Naoko asked as she looked back down at the kunai. A memory of a little pink haired girl in the forest of death fighting Oto-nin… Pink hair falling to the ground flickered over her minds eyes. "Girls who don't have amazing skill and who have to fight close up shouldn't grow their hair out."
Itachi watched silently as the little white haired child hacked her hair off at the ears. Silvery, white strands floated towards the ground. The red of the Sharingan flared into Itachi's eyes as he watch the strands flicker and shift. "Naoko!" Itachi breathed as the hair changed into little blue and white butterflies that each had a single spot of orange on their back wings, like eyes.
The little girl turned around and followed Itachi's eyes to the butterflies as they fluttered around in the air almost lazily. She was able to see the last of her strands change, though for the couple hundred thousand strands of hair she cut only twenty or so butterflies materialized. Naoko stared down at them before hesitantly reaching out. One of the butterflies landed happily onto her hand.
The butterfly fluttered its wings for a moment before folding them. The bug then walked slowly up her hand and into it. Blue eyes stared in shock as the butterfly seemed to sink into her hand until it looked like a realistic tattoo moving up her hand, to her wrist. Once it came to her arm the butterfly faded away, leaving no indication that it had ever been there.