Konoha Learns the Truth
The wedding party the Daimyo threw for Naruto and Hinata was very awkward for many of the guests. The Daimyo knew it would be and he was sending a message to the Council and people of Konoha. He was letting them know that they had messed up and doing it in a fashion that would echo across the land. The genin who knew the couple had no idea how to react to the situation.
Sakura was on the edge of tears once she had awakened from her faint. Her prince turned out to be a toad and the toad was in reality the prince, a son of true royalty.
Ino was looking at everything with starry-eyed lust. She knew she would be getting social capital out of this trip for months back in Konoha. Who cares that Naruto and Hinata just had an arranged marriage? That was incidental information. What she would capitalize on was that SHE was at a party in the Daimyo's palace!
Shikamaru wondered how he had missed that little bit of information on Naruto. His resemblance to the Fourth was so obvious now. He shook his head and muttered that the coming weeks and months would be troublesome.
Choji wondered if the food was as good as it looked. He was short about 3000 calories today.
Shino was quiet.
Kiba was jealous but he knew about Hinata's feeling for Naruto so he grudgingly accepted it. Akamaru barked out his approval for Kiba's actions.
Lee was impressed with Naruto's youth and kept glancing at TenTen.
TenTen ignored Lee and kept glancing at Neji.
Neji thought Hinata was the happiest she had ever been in her life and kept checking his hair.
Sasuke was looking for an excuse to get out of there and break something in his anger and frustration.
Naruto and Hinata sat in a kind of shell-shocked silence and just reacted to everyone that congratulated them. The jonin all understood how arranged marriages and normal marriages worked but this one was not quite one or the other. Kurenai knew there was some serious love involved on the part of Hinata. She was worried that Naruto would have trouble with things. The boy was still suffering from years of being socially isolated.
Jiraiya finally cornered Tsunade again by bringing over a new bottle of sake. He needed some answers and only Tsunade could provide them. Several empty bottles littered the table in front of her already.
"I thought the whole idea of taking the kids with you was to get them away from trouble. You do realize that you just painted a huge target on both of them?" he said.
"Firsht… first of all, I had not intended for the wedding to happen this soon. I was planning on a nice long betrothal that would last until they were 17 or so. The Daimyo decided to pull this one off on me as a condition of my getting out of the Hokage job. He wanted to make a very unshut … unsubtle gesture to those idiots back there that he is very upset with them. I (cough) I did not put him up to the whole pay off my debts thing. He did it to bankrupt the place and bring them back to heel. You do realize that Minato and Kushina's money; Naruto's inheritance; made up a full quarter of Konoha's cash reserves? Thatsh (cough) That's all his now. The boy is loaded. My debts eat up all the rest. As of tomorrow morning, Konoha is broke." Tsunade slurped down another large dish of sake and reached for the bottle again.
Jiraiya was shocked. He knew things would be bad in Konoha but even he did not know that the financial side would be that bad. "It is a good thing we already had the wall fixed," he muttered. "I don't think we have enough cash flow to pay the workers doing inside the village repairs."
"You won't. I added it up already. All the little pet projects of the Council are going bye-bye," Tsunade gave slightly drunken giggle.
"Why, oh why did I let you talk me into this?" Jiraiya said with a shake of his head.
Tsunade giggled drunkenly once more and poked Jiraiya in the chest as she spoke, "Because you made a bet to see my goodies and you LOST." Tsunade laughed as she almost fell backwards. "You don't get it. I might be the Legendary Sucker but when my girls are on the line, I am as lucky as Naruto."
The party broke up late in the afternoon. The Konoha ninja and civilians left to begin their return trip to the village while Jiraiya stayed behind to talk with the Daimyo. Tsunade did sober up quickly and took Hiashi to the side to let him know he would not be a grandfather any time soon. The Hyuuga leader nodded and left. That was something he knew he was not ready for. Visions of hyperactive blonde Hyuuga were scary.
A servant led them to a nearby hotel. Tsunade and Shizune were given one room and the newlyweds given another. The Slug Princess waited about a half hour before she walked over to the other room. She found both Naruto and Hinata sitting on the bed fully clothed in their wedding outfits and blushing.
"Okay," she began, "this is going to be really interesting from here on out. First of all, you're married now. I had not intended it to be this soon but it happened. We'll deal with it as we go. Both of you are still my apprentices so that part will be easy. I say, you do. Got that?"
Naruto and Hinata both nodded.
"Good, next thing is the sleeping arrangements. The two of you being married actually has made things easier for us wherever we go. We are only going to need two rooms instead of three. When it is time for bed, the pair of you gets into pajamas or loosens your clothing some and sleep. I don't even want to have to deal with the pair of you having sex yet." Tsunade pointed at Hinata, "You are not ready to be a mother yet and you," pointing at Naruto, "are definitely really not ready to be a father yet."
Tsunade was so tempted to laugh, as the pair in front of her could not have had blood anywhere else in their bodies outside of their faces.
"Right now, concentrate on becoming the best of friends. Talk to each other about anything that comes to mind. The rest will follow in time, hopefully after lots of time. But for now, get some rest. We have a long trip ahead of us starting tomorrow and you both have a lot of training ahead of you."
Finishing her talk, Tsunade wandered over to the room she was sharing with Shizune and lay down. She wanted to have another drink but she knew tomorrow would be difficult enough without a bigger hangover.
Hinata and Naruto just continued to sit there after Tsunade left. Finally, Naruto said something, "Scary huh?"
Hinata made a small sound, "Yes."
"It's not what I expected when I thought about getting married," he said quietly.
"What did you think it would be like, Naruto-kun?"
"Um, honestly, I don't know. I … I never actually thought about it. I kind of hoped I would someday. Find someone who wanted me around all the time I mean. Someone that wouldn't hit me like Sakura-chan does."
"I want you around Naruto-kun. I have for a long time," Hinata said barely above a whisper.
After a long pause Naruto asked, "What does a husband do Hinata? I don't have any parents so I was wondering what a husband or a dad does at home. I used to see dads come to the Academy for their kids, sometimes play with them in the park, but that's it."
Hinata looked down and poked her fingers together. "Well, my father would take care of clan business. He would settle disputes between clan members. Sometimes at dinner he would ask my mother what her day was like. Then he would ask Hanabi and me what we learned at the Academy. He would listen and sometimes nod at us. Sometimes he would give us advice on how to handle something we were having trouble with."
"Having someone just listen to you sounds really nice, Hinata." Naruto looked down. "I never had that." Before he could say anything else, he was hit with a huge yawn. "I guess we should get ready to sleep. You can have the bathroom first. Sometimes my team would need to stop on a mission to use them and there would be just one. Sakura hit me once saying always let the girls use it first."
Hinata tried to stifle her own yawn after his and failed, "Thank you, Naruto-kun."
Shortly after a few trips in and out of the bathroom and a lot of blushing, Naruto and Hinata were both lying on the bed in shorts and t-shirts. It took a few more hours but eventually they fell asleep.
Tsunade rolled out of bed after several minutes of Shizune prodding her. She had worse hangovers in the past so she was able to function well enough. Shizune chuckled as Tsunade went through her morning routine on automatic. The older apprentice decided to wake Hinata and Naruto to give Tsunade a bit longer to get ready. She peeked into the room and was quickly back to see Tsunade. "Tsunade-sama, you need to see this. It's so cute."
Tsunade followed because she knew she would not be able to shut up Shizune any other way. She looked in the see Hinata cutely snuggled up close to Naruto. Shizune had her camera out and took a picture before the kids woke up. Tsunade then called out loudly, "Time to get up!"
Hinata cracked an eye open and almost teleported across the bed. If Tsunade had not expected such a thing she would have fallen over laughing. Both teens dressed quickly.
"First order of business today. We no longer will wear the Leaf symbol of Konoha. You can keep your headbands sealed in a scroll with no bandana attached. That is considered one common way to carry one when not affiliated with that village. I realize it is important to both of you, but with Naruto banished and the three of us given permission to leave, it can be a crime to be caught wearing one. It would also give other villages a reason to attack us without cause."
Naruto sighed and untied his headband from where he had put it only a few minutes before. "Iruka-sensei gave me his. I want to keep it to remember him." Naruto pried the bandana from the plate and set it aside to save. Tsunade smiled as Hinata untied hers from her neck and did the same.
"Now for the fun part of the morning. We have two cartloads of swag to sort and seal into something easier to carry. Jiraiya left me a dozen heavy-duty weapons grade storage scrolls so we should be able to fit everything."
"But wasn't all of that supplies and such? It was all marked medical supplies," Naruto asked.
Tsunade grinned while Shizune looked nervous. "Nope, it was the contents of the Hokage jutsu library stuffed into empty medical supply boxes."
Naruto looked stunned, "You mean like the Forbidden Scroll?"
Tsunade nodded. "That was one of them, Most are not that big so we were able to stuff in a few hundred of all kinds. All of the jutsu are C level or higher. We also took a few Hyuuga clan taijutsu technique scrolls with Hiashi's permission. Those are blood sealed so only Hinata can open them."
Naruto was nearly drooling at hearing hundreds of jutsu scrolls C level or higher. "Can I start reading them, baa-chan?"
Tsunade flicked Naruto on the forehead and he slammed back into the wall. "No gaki, you have a long way to go before you can get to read these scrolls. You have to earn that right through training. Carry all the boxes up here and we can get sorting. Once we get everything sorted, we head on out to Wind embassy then on to the Sand village. We would not want to be called liars. I did say we were heading that way."
Naruto put his hands together in his favorite jutsu and a dozen shadow clones appeared. He looked at Tsunade, "How do we sort them?"
With a dozen shadow clones doing the heavy lifting, Tsunade and Shizune managed to get the jutsu scrolls sealed away into storage scrolls in less than two hours. Tsunade and Shizune each put most of the scrolls in their packs while Hinata and Naruto each received one to carry. Naruto got the wind jutsu and Hinata got the water jutsu. Tsunade planned it like that since they had so few wind jutsu and Naruto would be sure to try to peek if he could. Tsunade kept the forbidden jutsu, the summoning contracts and a few loose scrolls on sealing. Shizune got the fire, lightning and earth jutsu.
Once everything was packed and ready to go, Tsunade led them off toward the Wind Country embassy to meet up with the Sand Siblings to make the trip to Suna. However outside the hotel, they were surprised to find one of the ANBU from their journey to the capitol.
"Cat, what are you still doing here?" Tsunade asked. "You were supposed to return to Konoha with Jiraiya last night."
"I asked Jiraiya-sama to be released from ANBU to serve as an extra teacher and guard for your apprentices," Cat said. "He said if you agree then I am released otherwise to return. I beg you to allow me to remain with you. I have a reason for asking it."
"Take off you mask, Cat. Let me see your face when you tell me your reason."
Cat removed her mask to show the face of a woman in her early twenties. The first things Tsunade noticed were the dark circles under her eyes. "My name is Uzuki Yuugao. My lover Hayate was killed shortly before the Invasion by Sound. Since then, I have had trouble sleeping when in Konoha. I sleep well outside of Konoha but my assignment as one of your guards kept me there."
"Is your sleep troubled because of his loss or some other reason?" Tsunade asked.
Yuugao hung her head, "It is mainly from a … lack of him. Just that being in Konoha reminds me that he is not there anymore."
Tsunade recognized the same pain she had run from for a long time. She had spent decades running fro her own pain. But she had no purpose during her wanderings. With Yuugao, she could at least give the woman a purpose to her life outside of pure duty to Konoha. In time the woman would recover and find a new goal but another reason to get up in the morning was important. "Naruto, Hinata, you have an additional instructor in the ninja arts. You will address her as Yuugao-sensei."
Looking back to Yuugao Tsunade said, "We do not wear anything with the symbol of Konoha on anything. We might be born there and have family there, but we do not represent it any longer."
Yuugao nodded in understanding. "I will go purchase a change of clothing and meet you at the Wind embassy." She then turned and headed for the merchant district.
Jiraiya was back in Konoha ahead of everyone else who had attended the wedding due to his toad summons. He went to the bank with the needed transfers ready to go. The bank manager fell over himself to help once he saw the seal of the Daimyo and that Jiraiya was acting on his behalf. The transfer of the funds due to Naruto went easily enough. They had been sent to an account in another bank so the name never flashed up to the banker. The problems began when the transfers for Tsunade's debts were nearing completion.
"Jiraiya-sama, there is no more money left in the primary account," the bank manager told him.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean there is no money left? According to the Hokage's books there should be enough to do all of those transfers."
The bank manager began to look nervous, "Some of the main account's funds had been moved into other accounts for the discretionary use of the Council. I was told that the Hokage's office was aware of this. I have valid transfer orders on file signed by the Council before Tsunade-sama took office."
"If the Hokage's office did not make them, they are not valid. You will correct these 'accounting mistakes' immediately and make the transfers as the Daimyo ordered. You do not want to have to explain to him WHY you could not follow his instructions."
The bank manager consulted with a teller and returned looking very nervous. "Jiraiya-sama, our records show that not all the funds transferred remain in the discretionary accounts."
Jiraiya rubbed his temples, "How much of the money is missing?"
"All of it, Jiraiya-sama," the manger said trying not to cringe.
"Do you have records of who withdrew the money?" Jiraiya said in a cold voice.
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," the manager meekly replied.
"Fine, then here is what you will do. You will freeze the accounts of everyone who had received these 'discretionary transfers' from the main village account. Then you will go into any personal accounts held by the ones who received the money and recover it from there. Those accounts will remain frozen until an auditor from the Daimyo arrives to conduct an investigation. You will furnish the names of all those people involved to the ANBU operative that will return here in one hour. Do not forget, your butt is on the line here. Don't cover anyone else's," Jiraiya hissed.
Jiraiya walked out of the bank and frowned as he walked back to the Hokage Tower. He wondered how the Council was going to react when they found out a few things; that they banished the son of their hero and that they drove the Hokage to up and leave. He would not even have to tell anyone. He would let the rumor mill take care of all of that for him. He would just maintain the fiction that Tsunade was on a diplomatic mission to Sand for a couple of weeks before pulling out the last few letters the Daimyo signed.
He took the time to pull out one of his notebooks and put down a few ideas for a concept book, love and romance as the brave hero tries to foil the plots of power mongers. A title would follow eventually but for now, life was good fiction all on its own.
The first groups of ninja returned from the capitol at mid morning. They were the active teams; Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Guy as well as the parents of those genin. They had left the capital the night before and stopped at a small outpost maintained by the village at the halfway point. The Hyuuga elders along with Hiashi and a still not completely recovered Neji traveled slower with the Ichiraku and would not arrive until near sunset.
Kakashi told Sakura and Sasuke to meet him at the normal training location at once. Asuma allowed his team to have the day off since Choji was not allowed on active duty just yet. Kurenai did the same for Team 8 because her team was currently short-handed. Guy and Lee dragged Tenten off to the training ground with shouts of youth.
The other genin scattered while the jonin parents and remaining teachers moved as a group to a bar to discuss things.
"I never dreamed that Naruto was Minato-sama's son. But knowing about it now, it is so obvious if you looked at him. I knew the Yondaime was seeing Kushina-chan but she never said anything about being a noble or related to the Daimyo," Kurenai said over a dish of sake. She had been friends with the red headed woman. During her days as a genin she had been assigned to assist the pregnant woman often on D-rank missions of shopping and cleaning house. Kushina had told Kurenai to 'stop with the sama already' and just to call her 'chan' instead like any other friend.
Inoichi sighed, "I should have seen it. I mean Naruto was not a Yamanaka and how many other blondes were there in Konoha at the time?"
The bartender perked up hearing the names mentioned. "What was that?"
Asuma looked at the bartender, "Might as well tell you since it will be known widely soon enough. Yesterday, the Daimyo decided to finish the betrothal contract Hyuuga Hinata was put into and marry her to her betrothed. Tsunade-sama was the broker for it. Well, it turns out that the son of a Kage Hinata was going to be married to is none other than Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Fourth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki, last member of the royal house of the Land of Whirlpool."
The bartender was stunned and it took the sound of the glass he dropped to shake him from it.
"The demon brat …," he stopped talking at hearing the sound of a half dozen kunai being pulled out, "Um, the blonde kid that got banished was the SON of the Fourth?"
"Ironic, isn't it?" Shikaku muttered out. "It is very troublesome as well."
"Why troublesome?" Choza asked.
"By being banished, he is essentially a free agent now. He could go join any village or even start one of his own and Konoha could have nothing to say about that. Imagine what would happen if Iwa recruits him? The Son of the Fourth Hokage would be a huge business opportunity for whomever he ends up joining," Shikaku explained.
"Wait, why would Iwa want the son of the man who destroyed half their military to join them?" the bartender protested.
"Two reasons. First, it makes Konoha look stupid for throwing out the son of their greatest hero like trash. Second, because of his mother. It will also give him a lot of protection from foreign shinobi due to his heritage. Uzumaki is related to more than half the royal houses in the Elemental countries. The Fire Daimyo is closest to him in relation, first cousins once removed. The rest are further out but still, a relative who is also the son of a Kage is someone to be noticed. Konoha did not and has lost that opportunity. He would have to come back willingly and I highly doubt he would now. Very troublesome," Shikaku finished and just drank after his long monologue.
Across town at the headquarters of the Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club, Ino was spilling her tale.
"I was THERE I tell you. Hinata got married to Uzumaki Naruto yesterday. The loser is the son of the Fourth! The Daimyo announced it to everyone! His mom was the Daimyo's first cousin!" she chastised her fellow members
No one can spread rumors faster than teenage girls. By lunchtime, more than half the civilians in Konoha knew about the marriage and Naruto's status as son of the Fourth Hokage. The civilian members of Konoha's Council were very worried right now. When the wife of one of them came home after having her purchases denied, their worry turned to panic.
Danzo sat back in his hideaway. He knew from the beginning that voting to banish the Container was a mistake. He knew that the boy was not a danger but he could not convince the fools without exposing himself and Root. The Container close at hand was a prize to whoever had control of him. He would have to find another way to gain power for Konoha. He could let the Daimyo clear out a few of the decayed branches for him. He was safe.
Kakashi glared at Sasuke and Sakura. The kunoichi he could forgive. She was just being an idiot. She still had potential. Sasuke on the other hand was trash in his eyes. He had used several killing attacks on a teammate who was only fighting to subdue him. No matter what his excuse, that was not forgivable. The boy had been officially cleared so the jonin could not drop the boy from his squad, yet.
"Today, we are going to work on stamina. I talked to Guy on the way back and he agreed to lend me some of Lee's weights. He passed one set to Sakura and showed her how to put them on. He then gave a much larger and heavier set to Sasuke.
"How is this supposed to get me stronger?" Sasuke complained. He crossed his arms as he thought, 'I need to train my eyes to unlock the last level of my bloodline. I refused to do it Itachi's way so I need to find another way. This doesn't help.'
Kakashi smiled at Sasuke, "This training will make you a lot stronger. Nice big strong muscles and lots of stamina once you complete it. It is something that requires a lot of strength and ability, but no bloodline to accomplish." Kakashi dropped the smile and looked hard at Sasuke, "The only way to complete this training is through hard work and effort, something you're sorely lacking experience in lately."
"Now, to begin, both of you are going to do laps around this training area."
"How many times Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Until I say you're done," Kakashi said with an evil smile.
Next Chapter: Raiders of the Lost Sandcastle
The setup is done. Action begins next chapter.
Edited and Reposted January 2011