Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Prince Naruto
Chapter 2: my home and my castle
Naruto had seen better days. Heck, the days, when he was homeless after the orphanage kicked him out, were better days! He was scared, lonely and cold. At least he had learned enough survival-skills in the Academy and therefore wasn't thirsty or hungry. He was also glad that he learned how to hide due to his many pranks. He had never seen so many hunternins in his life! He couldn't even give that scroll back or leave it there; it would just give the hunternins a trail! A small part of him didn't even want to give the scroll away, after all Konoha could get his due.
Naruto was making his way to the border of Firecountry - slowly, with great care and even greater stealth. Once there he henged into a normal-looking young man, who looked like he was a traveler and wouldn't draw attention from anyone. He wondered where he should go now - where could he even go? The Firenation had good trade roads to the north and west. So, there would likely be Konoha-Ninjas. Maybe the natives would even sell him to Konoha - naturally he couldn't go there. To the south was the ocean - that was a no-go too. That left the east. Iruka-Sensei taught him that there was a mountain as a bit of a natural barrier and even after the mountain was a land - the land of Diamonds he thought - with ninjas so strong, that only jonins were send there. Partly because Diamond and Fire weren't particular friendly with each other. Well, he should be somewhat safe there.
A few weeks later, Naruto was just reaching Daimonds' capital - Titan. He had never seen such a huge city - or that many women! He must have seen over a hundred persons already - and only 4 of them were men. And other boys were absolutely nowhere! He actually wondered if those people here had ever heard of boys - judging by the looks he was getting - probably not. He was looked at as if he were some sort of cute animal, that was believed went extinct! He had actually wanted to not draw attention because of the hunternins, but that was absolutely impossible here! Still he couldn't bring himself to worry - the people here were so nice. Girls wanted to play with him, women would give him sweets, shopkeepers invited him and gave him stuff for free and best of all - everyone wanted to talk with him. And listen to him! He was only in Titan for three hours, but already made a bunch of friends (all girls his age), got a meal and a place to stay - for free.
He had dropped his henge in the middle of the mountains, because he would need his energy after all. Besides, he was sure nobody in Titan would allow Konoha to take him, since he was quite a rarity here. Hehe - life was good! He could play all day with the girls of Titan. Which was what he was doing right now. Three girls had taken him to a forest near the palace. It was huge! Both - the forest and the palace.
They were playing hide and seek - in Konoha nobody would have played with him. Naruto was hiding and due to practice (because of pranks) really good at it, too. He was now behind a really large and thick tree, where someone cut a strange symbol in the trunk. He wanted to trace the lines of the symbol with his finger, but the moment he touched it, a light suddenly appeared. When the light died down, the whole tree was gone! And there were stairs instead - going deep down to a cave in the ground.
Naruto was sure this was a great hiding place! So he went down the stairs and on and on deeper into the cave. Naruto was surprised that there were so many different ways, sometimes even with a door build into the stonewalls. And that there was just no end in sight. Did this cave cover all the city? And why was nobody here? And were exactly, was here anyway? ... Damn, he got lost!
Well, he was sure to win this round of hide and seek; after all if he couldn't find himself, none of the girls would either. Still, he had to find a way to the surface - then he could at least ask someone where he was. One way in the maze seemed to go slightly higher, so Naruto followed it. It was strange, the cave seemed more and more like some sort of basement the further he got. Just that nothing was stored here and no house would need such a huge basement in the first place. But by now the cave looked like a floor of a high class restaurant - only without windows. But there was still nobody anywhere! Naruto had two hours ago stopped looking behind the doors - there where just more doors and ways. So he just walked in a straight line and listen for someone or something.
After forever and three days, he finally heard voices:
"...you know as...they will..."
"...better than...I thought you..."
Naruto followed the voices through a door - and found himself in the biggest and most beautiful room he had ever seen! The bed alone was bigger than Sasuke-temes ego - after he inherited the egos of his entire clan. There were huge paintings everywhere, in fact the "door", he came through just now, was completely covered by a painting of some impressive waterfall.
He found the two women, he had heard earlier. Both were really old - like 200 years. One was dressed like a librarian or secretary. The other was sitting at a desk over some papers and weared a kimono, that couldn't be described, because no words would ever due justice to such beauty. Not to mention, she was wearing more jewelry than he could lift! Naruto was rather nervous; he just got into some rich guy's bedroom and he didn't even wear slippers! Hopefully these guys had humor...
"Excuse me... I sort of got lost... Uhh, can you tell me, where the exit is?", Naruto asked carefully. He was ready to make a run for it. But, damn, it wasn't his fault for being here! There were no sighs, that he shouldn't go into the cave and once there, he had no way to know where he was going! That was a freaking maze!
The two women were speechless: Who was he? And what was he doing here? And what on earth was an unsupervised child doing in the palace? Even worse - in the royal bedroom?
Unknown to Naruto, he had just meet the queen of Diamond - and surprised her more than a declaration of war. Her secretary however recovered first - somewhat, "Who the hell are you?".
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Listen, I really didn't want to come here - where ever here is. I was just playing in the forest, when a tree disappeared and turn into a cave and I really just wanted to have a short look at it. Really! But then, the cave turned into a maze and I got lost and I was trying to find an exit like forever. And then I heared you and came here. I really didn't want to cause trouble!", Naruto quickly tried to explain himself.
By the time Naruto finished, queen Sari found her voice again, "Calm down. It's no problem, but I am curious how you ended up here. Do you think, you could find the entrace to the maze again? So I could make sure, nobody else gets lost there."
"Sure thing! It was in the forest, in front of the palace.", Naruto answered. So Naruto was escorted to said forest by the queen herself and her still stuned assistant.
Meanwhile the queens thougths were racing. Sure, she knew of the basement. But on every single entrace was a seal, that opened only for members of the royal family. Did a seal got faulty or even removed? But... that also couldn't be; the entrace would just be locked completely! And what was a little boy doing in Titan in the first place? There just weren't any boys born here, because of the bloodline. He also looked a whole lot like her daugther Kari. But that was even less possible - she dissappeared so long ago and would have girls anyway! Still. She couldn't help but hope... To finally have someone related to her - however distant - still young enough to keep the royal familyline alive.
And then she saw it: The seal that opened a way to the basement for her family alone. It was carved into the wood and still perfect. The tree would disappeare for her and noone else, not even her husband. At least so she thought, until this boy touched it and the tree vanished in that familar glow. The queen wasn't sure what her sentiments to all this was exactly, but her assistant seemed to share it - she fainted.
A short time later Naruto was again in the palace - this time he came through the front gates - and was trying to recover from his earlier shock: He had family! He still couldn't believe it! After all those years of not knowing. And what for a family! The fourth Hokage was his own father! And the queen herself was his great-grandmother from his mother's side. He had a chance to actually live with his family! Queen Sari used his blood with a seal that wrote his family-tree. The result was on a large scroll, that Naruto naturally clung to with all his might. They made extra another scroll with that seal, so he could keep his version. Queen Sari needed his family-tree for the council, because they would need a proof, that he was indeed related to her. He was going to live with his family! Already he noticed the first changes; a servant was sent, to get Naruto's things, and two women were guarding him - and talking with him to make sure, he wasn't bored. Best of all, they knew his grandmother - the daugther of the queen. So he was just listening to stories about her.
Meanwhile the council had as much trouble believing Naruto's heritage as he himself. "Are you absolutely sure?", asked Kora. Kora was usally rather quite and often said nothing during a whole meeting. Funny, she was the first to find her voice again after this shock. " I checked twice and I know both seals were perfect. Not to mention he was able to open a door to the basement.", queen Sari answered. "But a boy! It should be impossible because of our bloodline alone! And how could he know, when we had no clue, that a heir was still alive?", Kora still wasn't convinced. "Oh, he didn't know. He found an entrace to the basement and got lost. Hehe, he came out in my bedroom - and asked were the exit was.", the queen chuckled. "Well, that does sound like Kari!", Kora was finally convinced.
By this time the other members had recovered from their shock. "Does the prince still have our bloodline?", asked Namiko. "I think so. Otherwise the seal to the basement would have knocked him out - even with him being related to me.", the queen answered. She already knew Narutos existance would cause a ruckus. Not only in Diamonds, but in the whole world! (And she didn't even take Naruto's character into accout - god only knew what will happen, if he inherited any of Kari's troublemaking nature.) Other Nations wanted the Nature-bloodline forever and families with that bloodline wanted to get ties to the royal family. Since Naruto could get as many wifes as he wanted, half the world will probably come to Titan. That was just way to many people. She had to set basic rules before anyone got wind of Diamonds' prince! Which was actually the main reason she started this meeting. Sure, the council will give their own family advantages, but she prefered a future queen, that was native to Diamonds, anyway. Still, she wished this could have waited, at least until Naruto ha a chance to sort his thougths out. Well, she could use this meeting to buy him some time. Two month should be enough. Hm... the next school year starts in a bit more than three month anyway... Yeah, a wife of him should be well-educated, especially about this country. The girls should come a few days beforehand - maybe two or three weeks. And the numbers had to be controlled! Every group can send three girls max with a small group of escourts. Better make sure the escourts are limited too, before someone gets the bright idea to send 50 girls as escourts. Hm, for three girls ten escourts should be enough. That way three adults can look after one girl and one could help them with other things. Naruto can add or dismiss any girl at any time. And there should be a party to intruduce the girls, so Naruto sees the girls and for the girls to meet Naruto. Best throw this party around five days before school starts. Until then Naruto could get used to his family and to being a prince.
The boy, whose future was so thoroughly discussed, had in the meantime fallen asleep. His company/guards had already told him everything they remembered or heard about his grandmother and even a few anecdotes about his great-grandmother, that she would have never told anyone. So, with no more stories to hear and nothing to do, Naruto barely rememebered to send someone to those girls, that had played hide and seek with him. Just to make sure they weren't worried. Strange, how this very morning seemed like a lifetime ago...
