I don't own Naruto.
The journey back to Konoha was a strained one, Naruto quietly thinking, Sakura giving him his space, and Haku following suit despite not knowing what was happening.
As they reached Konoha, Team Ro wished them well and dispersed to make their report to the Hokage ahead of Team 7. Kakashi took his students the long way, walking through the streets of Konoha, and Sakura was no longer blind to the looks of anger and disgust levelled at Naruto.
When the team found themselves in front of the Hokage's office, the door was already open.
"Come in, Kakashi," the Hokage called.
The team entered and assembled themselves around the Hokage's desk. Every member of the team had a solemn expression, as did the Hokage.
"An A-ranked missing-nin, Naruto? I'm impressed. And giving my former student a tongue-lashing too, sometimes I feel like doing the very same thing."
He managed to tease a wry smile out of the boy, but Naruto quickly squashed it and moved back to his contemplative expression. Kakashi covered elements of the mission that Team Ro hadn't been privy to, and all three genin gave their individual reports.
"Hokage-sama, may I speak to you in private?" Naruto asked.
The old man nodded, dismissing the other three ninja.
"So what's on your mind, Naruto?"
"When I met the toads, the toad sage let slip something about my father. He said that Jiraiya had trained him."
Hiruzen paled, fearing what would come next.
"And then, when I bumped into Tsunade, she called me Minato by mistake, before admitting that he was my father."
"I see," the Third mused. "So, what now?"
"What the hell? What the hell were you thinking? Putting me in an orphanage with people who hated me, and knew I held the Kyūbi, under the auspices of my protection? Your law didn't stop people from hating me, it just stopped people my age from knowing why they should hate me, and they just filled in the gaps themselves. The fact that people didn't know who my father was only protected me from external threats, not internal. And anyway, the fact that I'm a jinchūriki was so widespread I was at threat of assassination or kidnap from other nations anyway. Please, just give me a reason to believe that what you did was right!"
Sarutobi sighed, his age showing as his face drooped.
"Naruto, I have many reasons why I did the things I did, and they all seemed like the best decisions at the time. But there is no escaping the fact that I failed you, and hid things from you. Minato wanted you to find this all out when you reached chūnin rank, and I decided to honour his wishes. Obviously, he foresaw a different future for you. He wanted you to be seen as a hero, not the monster people came to see you as. When the Kyūbi was sealed, well, I wasn't in my right mind. My wife was killed in the attack, I was comfortably in retirement, and then Minato died and I had the mantle of Hokage thrust back upon me. I knew that Minato was too optimistic - the villagers wouldn't see you as a hero. He loved this village so much, I think he was somewhat blinded to its faults. He vested far more power in the council than I ever did, and it's taken me the past thirteen years to dismantle it to a manageable level. I passed that law in a token effort to protect you, and then fought my hardest to adopt you, or have you adopted by one of the clans. But the council blocked all moves to have you adopted. Why allow such a concentration of power in one clan? You were put in the orphanage as a temporary measure while I fought for your custody, but the fight lasted so long that you fell in-between the cracks. I got constant reports saying that you were doing well and, damn me, I believed them. When I stumbled across you at five years of age, going through the bins for food, I hated myself. The stipend for your apartment doesn't come from the village; I couldn't get the council to approve that. I've been paying for it myself, because it is the least I can do. And when I saw you start playing pranks, I finally saw you enjoying yourself, and maybe I let it carry on longer than I should have. I let you stay behind in the Academy because I didn't want you to have to face the harsh realities of ninja life too soon. Considering that you already knew the realities of life, I thought that I was being merciful. Now, I just think I was being foolish. I… all I can say is that I'm sorry, Naruto."
Naruto's face softened as he fought to keep control of his emotions.
"I think I understand Jiji, and thank you for everything you've done. I guess I can't really blame anyone, except maybe my dad for being too much of an optimist. Did he leave anything for me?"
"The Namikaze weren't a clan, so only his personal accounts and effects. The bounties he recovered from the war made him a wealthy man, and I've made sure to keep the interest building in his accounts. Your mother, Kushina, was the sole heir of the Uzumaki clan, and most of her assets are tied up in the village - Minato convinced her to invest them for the good of the village. Still, those rights fall to you as well. The Uzumaki clan were the ruling body of the Land of Whirlpools as well, so I suppose she was a princess as well as an heir. Still, Whirlpool is sadly gone now, and here we stand."
"So I'm royalty? That's pretty cool. What about this?" Naruto asked, gesturing to the Raijin at his hip.
"Well normally it would go to the village armoury, but seeing as you recovered it, I suppose you can keep it."
"Thanks," Naruto grinned. "But I meant the Senju clan in general. The Uzumaki are related to the Senju through Uzumaki Mito, and it's not like Tsunade deserves anything from the village."
Sarutobi hummed.
"All of the Senju clan's liquid funds have probably been spent by Tsunade over the years. Her gambling skills are atrocious. But we aren't doing anything with the clan grounds or properties. Tsunade isn't going to have children any time soon, so we need to do something with them. Why not? I'll formally recognise you as the Senju heir, entitling you to their properties."
"Thanks, Jiji," Naruto grinned. "This isn't going to mean I have to do anything weird like have multiple wives, does it?"
Sarutobi cocked his head back and looked at the genin with narrowed eyes.
"That's… nice wishful thinking, Naruto, but not a requirement. As an heir to several clans, you are allowed to take multiple wives, but it's in no way mandatory. Clans with sole surviving members receive significant tax allowances and preferential service allowances if they take multiple wives, but that's just an encouragement. No need to be concerned. Now, I believe you need a D-rank for your team today, and I have just the thing…"
Naruto groaned as he was sent to muck out the Inuzuka kennels once again, leaving the Hokage alone, chuckling in his office.
"Upstart little brat. I'll give him three years. Then this paperwork is his damn problem!"
Naruto leant back and made a wide slash with the Raijin, channelling chakra into the blade as he did so.
"Your movements aren't refined enough, but you used just the right amount of chakra," Kakashi idly commented, as he sidestepped a speeding arc of electricity. "Your control is the closest I've seen to perfect. I'll call in a favour with a friend and get you some training in kenjutsu. I've taught you just about all I know, but I only practiced kenjutsu when I was younger. How's Sakura doing?"
"I don't know. How are you doing, Sakura?"
The pink-haired genin was running across the river that ran through their training ground, steadily getting faster.
"Better, Naruto," she shouted, without missing a beat.
Kakashi nodded and disappeared.
After her conversation with Cat, Sakura had started asking around older kunoichi to see if they could help with her weak build. Anko had snorted at the problem, citing Kakashi's utter uselessness with women for the reason that the problem hadn't been sorted earlier. She recommended a course of supplements and steroids to bolster her development.
"But they aren't too strong, otherwise they could interfere with your puberty, not just advance it," Anko said. "These will just make you speed through it a little faster."
Sakura was slowly gaining muscle tone and chakra reserves, and becoming a more able member of the team again. Her excellent control and skill in genjutsu, combined with her added chakra, had resulted in her ability to layer minor genjutsu over each other to a level that baffled Naruto. He was still able to immediately interrupt his chakra supply to escape them all, but only if he noticed if he was in a genjutsu. Making believable starter genjutsu that stopped the target from ever being aware that they were in an illusion had become one of Sakura's specialties, and Kakashi regularly farmed her out to Kurenai for additional training.
It had been two months since their mission to Tazuna Gai, and the shockwaves had finally settled. Haku had managed to integrate herself into the team. Naruto's warm acceptance combined with Kakashi's easygoing nature had worn Sakura down, who had come to see the difficult circumstances of Haku's upbringing and empathise.
Haku was still specialised in long-range support and had mostly focused on increasing the speed at which she could summon ice from the atmosphere and developing her speed. Speaking of that-
"From the right!" Sakura shouted, as a dark-haired blur leapt from the trees and attempted to sucker punch Naruto. Without pause, Naruto twisted and threw the arm to his side, flipping through seals with one hand as he turned.
"Water Release: Bludgeoning Balls!" he shouted, before shooting out football-sized orbs of water that shot towards the assailant. Haku slowed down enough to be visible to the non-Sharingan eye and batted the balls to the floor with a chakra-covered hand. She drew a series of ice senbon from the air and flung them at Naruto's limbs.
"Wind Release: Concussive Force!" he shouted, as a brief blast of air blew the needles into dust.
"Just what I needed!" Haku shouted with glee, as she shot through handseals. "Ice Release: Demonic Mirror Restriction!"
Mirrors coalesced into being around Naruto before shrinking down and binding his limbs. Just like the ice from her normal demonic mirrors, these bonds were hard to break, and immediately reformed if broken. Naruto struggled, pumping fire-natured chakra out of his tenketsu, but Haku's mirrors held strong. If he were to triple-fold it or try something more dangerous he might have been able to escape, but jutsu that dangerous were a poor move for a training exercise.
"Alright, you win Haku. Will you let me out now?"
The Yuki clan survivor nodded, making a seal and letting the ice disperse into dust.
"You made it too easy for me, Naruto-sama," she said. "Your wind and water chakra was perfectly balanced. It was a simple thing to combine the two to make as much ice as I needed.
Sakura made her entrance from the river and made her presence known.
"She's right, Naruto. Skilled shinobi will be able to use residual natured chakra to make their techniques easier. You're unlikely to come across anything like what Haku's capable of though," she said. "Most jōnin don't have the control over their elements that Haku does, and sub-elemental techniques are nearly impossible for anyone without a bloodline. The exceptions seem to be you and the Three Pillars."
The Three Pillars of the Old World were the oldest and most dangerous shinobi currently alive. They'd carved their way into the books of history, and the Five Nations still hung in a tenuous balance provided by the three. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the God of Shinobi and Hokage of Konoha, Hanzo the Salamander, Leader of Ame, and Onoki of Both Scales, Tsukikage of Iwa.
All three were S-ranked, possibly higher, as nobody had had the nerve to directly attack any of the three in more than twenty years. Even Orochimaru, when Sarutobi had driven him from Konoha, had chosen to flee rather than fight. Konoha and Iwa were old rivals, made even worse with Namikaze Minato's slaughter of Iwa's Eighth Division in the war, killing over a thousand Earth shinobi. Rain Country provided a buffer between the two nations and had been the scene of several skirmishes. Any recent attempts by smaller nations to warmonger had been put down by the reclusive leader of Rain, who was able to rout whole armies singlehandedly.
Other, smaller, nations had sprung up between the Rain, Earth and Fire countries to act as even further buffers, as tensions ran high between Hanzo and nearly every nation. Each buffer nation was usually under the protection of one of the big five, with outposts of trained ninja or their own hidden villages supported by the larger nations. Why?
Because war was chaos.
Even Hanzo, the bloodiest of the three, had been content to rest in his smaller country and avoid overt conflict. Any foreign ninja found in his borders were killed, that was his rule. And, like anybody trying not to rock the boat, most nations had respected this.
"I thought I'd find you here," came a drawling voice from the road into town.
"You're late!" Sakura shouted, making their sensei face-fault.
"Well I... Actually I just nipped off about five minutes ago, you just weren't paying attention. I was off... getting you these!" he brandished a sheaf of papers, smiling at the three of them.
"Uh, sensei, we don't know what they are, so we don't know why you're so happy about them. What are they?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, they're just entry forms for the chunin exams," Kakashi commented. "I mean, you don't have to if you're not interested."
"What? No way! Of course I'm interested! Isn't it great, Sakura-chan, Haku-chan?"
"I'm happy to follow you in this if it is your desire, Naruto-sama," Haku said.
Kakashi winced at the honorific, and Naruto looked a little uncomfortable. Saving her from Aoi's attacks, combined with some transference of her feelings for Zabuza, had cemented Haku's nearly-obsessive loyalty for Naruto. Kakashi didn't mind that much, because having a deadly and beautiful bodyguard for one of his genin just made the chances of losing another team member lower. But her hero worship would have to be brought to manageable levels, lest she do something drastic like kill a villager for insulting the boy.
"I'm not sure," Sakura mumbled. "I've come a long way, but haven't the other teams as well? And there will be genin who've been through this several times. Won't we be at a disadvantage?"
Kakashi smiled and ruffled Sakura's hair.
"The three of you have nothing to worry about. I've observed the other rookie genin teams and they're nowhere near your level. Despite that, they've been entered into the exams as well. As a team you've proven able to take down three jonin with inferior teamwork, and you won't be facing anything near that level of competition in the exams. It's a team exercise until the end, Sakura, and if you then feel unable to continue individually you can forfeit. There's no shame in that, but the previous two rounds will give you invaluable experience."
The three genin nodded and accepted an entry slip each.
"In two days at the academy building," Kakashi said. "Don't train until then. Take tomorrow and the rest of today off. Maybe do some team bonding."
With that, he disappeared.
"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked. "I have clones off reading books and doing some training, but sensei told us not to train. Anyway, it's nearly lunchtime. Ramen?"
"I'm not eating ramen again," Sakura growled. "We're going somewhere else."
"But you know what other places are like," Naruto said. "They might not let me in."
"I will deal with them if they do that," Haku grinned, looking like she was about to commit a homicide.
"There's no need for that," Sakura said, waving her arms in front of her. "Just follow me."
Sakura led them to a barbecue place and glanced in through the windows.
"It's good. Follow me."
The three walked through the front door and Sakura led them to the back of the store. As they turned a corner they saw Asuma and the rest of his team eating fried meat, or, at least, Choji eating fried meat and the others sneaking in mouthfuls edgeways.
"Excuse me. He," an attendant muttered with malice. "Is not welcome here."
"Asuma-sensei," Sakura shouted out. "Is it okay if we join you?"
Sarutobi Asuma lazily glanced at the trio, eyes flickering towards the attendant, before looking back to her.
"That's fine. Ino's been looking for somebody to complain about Shikamaru to. I trust that won't be a problem, Garu-san?" he said, staring at the attendant.
"Bu-" the man collected himself. "If you will take responsibility, Sarutobi-sama, then that is acceptable."
"I will. Now another order for these three please," he glanced at Chōji. "Eh, make that seven."
"So Naruto," Shikamaru drawled. "What was that all about?"
Naruto considered his options. The Nara was usually too smart to fool, but if he bored him enough…
"Ne, I probably pranked him some time back. I mean, there was this one time when I switched the flour at the market with sugar, maybe he still remembers that, hehe," Naruto lied.
"Pfft, troublesome," the shadow-user commented, before moving to start picking at his food again.
Asuma looked at the blond approvingly. It wasn't an easy feat to pull the wool over Shikamaru's eyes.
"So our sensei entered us into the chūnin exams. Did you know they're being held in Konoha? We're going to be chūnin before you know it, forehead," Ino taunted, finished with her meal.
"We're in the exams too, pig. And we have two A-rank missions to prove we belong there. Can you top that?"
"Now now now girls, let's not fight. We've had a few C-ranks and that's all we need to enter," Asuma interjected. "There's no point overachieving and putting ourselves in danger just to look good."
Naruto suppressed a snort. From what the Hokage had let slip whenever his son was brought up, overachieving had never been one of Asuma's concerns. Despite that, he was still an elite jōnin. Whether it was Sarutobi natural aptitude at work, or something else, Naruto didn't know, but the man was skilled.
"We just want to get some experience and do our village proud," Chōji said between mouthfuls. "Oh, the next course!"
Sakura, Haku and Naruto got plates laid in front of them, while the other four went in the middle, where Chōji monopolised them.
"So what sort of exercises has Kakashi been putting you through?" Asuma questioned. "After all, your team probably needs a lot of trust exercises and group manoeuvres to be effective."
Naruto and Sakura shared a look, while Haku looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"We're fine as a team, Asuma-sensei. Any trust issues we may have had have been dealt with," Sakura chirped.
"Why would you have trust issues? I know that Sasuke's gone, but Haku-chan seems pretty cool."
"She sure is! Funnily enough, that's just the word I'd use to- Hey!"
Naruto slapped at Chōji's chopsticks as they tried to sneak a piece of grilled pork from his plate. Chōji didn't want to give up and accelerated to bewildering speeds to try and catch Naruto out. Fortunately, Naruto's two-tomoe eye was more than enough to track the speed of Chōji's chopsticks. Naruto disarmed the boy and sent the utensils flying at his head.
"Leave off, Chōji, I'm hungry," Naruto snarked.
Chōji's eyes widened and he puffed his cheeks in surprise.
"Hooooohh Naruto-san, that was truly a splendid display. Very few are able to best an Akimichi in a chopstick duel. Your sensei must be training you very well indeed."
Sakura laughed behind her hand as Naruto grinned.
"I guess he is. We kicked his ass in gear and now he's taking this sensei thing real seriously."
"So I've heard," Asuma said. "He talks a lot about you three. You could swear it was pride you can hear in his voice."
"Well I'm not letting Naruto-baka and Forehead-chan best me. We're training right now. Shika, Chōji, up!" Ino shouted.
"But Ino, I'm not finished," Chōji whined.
"Oh just stuff it in your mouth and let's get out of here. It was very nice to meet you, Haku-san," Ino said.
"Likewise," Haku said. "It's good to know that I am… cool."
Asuma and his team made their way out of the restaurant, with Team 7 following closely behind.
"So, no training tomorrow, so do you want to do something else?" Naruto asked.
"What else is there in this village?" Haku asked. "It seems like the ninja mostly just eat or drink in their down time."
"Well there's that, or there's cliff jumping, ANBU baiting, swimming, exploring the forest or annoying Jiji. Oh, and there are my properties; I haven't explored them yet."
"You own land?" Sakura blurted out.
"Yeah, Jiji gave me the Uzumaki shares in the village, but they're all investments. But it turns out that the Uzumaki are related to the Senju, and you saw Tsunade - there's no chance of her coming back or having children. He decided it was better that a more distant relative got the properties rather than let them go to waste, like the Uchiha clan has."
It was true. With the only living Uchiha a traitor to the village, their clan compound lay completely unused. Sasuke had opted to live in an apartment outside his clan compound, not wanting the constant reminder of his family's murder, but had frequently ventured back to train or read from the extensive Uchiha library. The Hokage was yet to do anything with the land, but several clans were vying for the property. Most notably the Hyūga, whose clan compound was far smaller, and who believed that they deserved one of the largest compounds in the village.
"Just like the Uchiha place, the Senju compound is on the edges of the village. The Uchiha had their compound far out because they didn't entirely trust the Senju when the village was founded. The Senju compound was placed far out so as not to make the Uchiha feel too ostracised - if the Senju lived right in the centre, the Uchiha might feel marginalised. The compound is up past the Hokage Monument, in one of the forests."
"Oh, I've seen that place," Sakura started. "The walls are huge; I thought that was an outlying part of the village wall."
"No, apparently that's the clan wall. One side is built into the village wall. Since on the other side of that wall is all mountain and lake, people rarely try to attack from that direction. Other than the Kyūbi, of course."
The three genin looked a little sombre at the mention of the mightiest tailed beast. Both Haku and Sakura were aware of Naruto's burden; Sakura having been told directly and Haku working it out from the energy he'd released on the bridge in Wave.
"I see it!" Haku said. "It is most truly befitting a man of your status, Naruto-sama."
"Geez, Haku-chan, could you just call me Naruto? You're making me feel like a prince or something. Oh wait, I totally am a prince! My mother was a princess!"
"Stop making things up, Naruto," Sakura said.
"I'm not! My mother was the last descendent of the ruling clan of the land of Whirlpools. That makes her a princess, and me a prince."
"I always knew it," Haku said. "Now you simply need to ascend to the throne."
"Well let's not go that far," Naruto said. "We've got this to check out right now, anyway."
The clan compound was bordered by a wall as tall as the one surrounding the village, made out of intricate pieces of interlocking wood. The pieces were locked in so tightly that Naruto couldn't even get the blade of a kunai in-between the links. After walking the full perimeter of the wall, taking a good twenty minutes, Naruto stopped to consider.
"I'm such a dummy. Why didn't I realise?"
His Sharingan had been scanning the wall just as his normal eye had been, but it had missed something.
"The interlocking wood pieces - they aren't random; they form a seal!"
He checked further along to see if he was right.
"One gigantic seal! There's a repeating pattern, but the overarching design - I can only guess at what it's for."
"So why did it take you so long?" Sakura asked.
"Indeed. You are usually quite sharp, Naruto no Kimi."
Naruto sighed. It seemed that Haku was really going to treat him like a prince.
"The Sharingan couldn't pick it up. Which is odd, because it's usually great for memorising seal designs. It isn't as good with written seals as it is with handseals, but it can still categorise them and make them easier to pick apart. This one doesn't register to the Sharingan at all. It would make sense, as the Senju probably didn't trust the Uchiha as far as they could throw them. Still… how? It could be the Mokuton. Or maybe part of the seal itself…"
"Back up, baka. How do we get in?"
"Oh, that. Proof. It just needs proof I'm a Senju. Place has been locked down for years."
With that, Naruto slashed his hand open with a knife and flicked the blood at the wall. The wall lit up where the blood landed and white energy crawled its way through the seams in the wood, illuminating the seal pattern. With a surge of energy, the pieces of wood unfolded themselves and wove their way back to form a doorway wide enough to fit through two people abreast.
"Fantastic," Naruto breathed. "And that's just the doorway."
"I don't see why people couldn't just climb over it," Sakura deadpanned. "Why the need for all the fancy magic work?"
"The wood is alive with chakra, Sakura-san," Haku said. "I'm sure you'd notice if your eye were uncovered. It will likely prevent chakra sticking to the surface, or attack somebody trying to climb."
"Enough analysis," Naruto said. "It's time to explore! I'll take the far side, Haku-chan can take the middle, and Sakura-chan can explore the area around here."
"So you're effectively saying I'm the slowest, aren't you?" Sakura asked.
"Catch me if you want to prove me wrong!" Naruto mocked, as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"I've really got to learn that," Sakura moped, as Haku patted her awkwardly on the shoulder.
"Indeed you do," she said, before disappearing in a cloud of frozen mist.
Visibility is limited while in a shunshin, so Naruto only got a vague understanding of the parts of the compound that he passed. The body flicker was a technique to accelerate the body to ridiculous speeds in a simple direction, and had been amongst the many genius inventions of the Second Hokage. Most shinobi could only travel in a direct line, stopping for obstructions. Senju Tobirama, as well as Uchiha Shisui of the Body Flicker, had been able to travel great distances in single leaps, and use the technique many times in succession while in battle. Normally, shunshin wasn't an effective battle technique for anything other than retreat, because an enemy shinobi could see the beginnings of the technique and simply hold a sword or kunai in the direction of the attacking ninja, letting the other person impale themselves. The two masters of the body flicker had been able to navigate around such obstacles while still moving at those incredible speeds, relying on their unconscious mind to direct them. Taking the technique to such levels was an aspiration of many ninja, although few had ever achieved it. Until the Fourth Raikage and the Fourth Hokage had made their names as the two fastest ninja alive, the body flicker had been the fastest way to travel. Hands down.
So it only took Naruto ten seconds to reach the far wall of the Senju compound, something that should have taken about a fifty minute walk otherwise. Even using his Sharingan eye, the surroundings had been little more than a blur. It gave him an increased recognition of the skills of the Second Hokage, who was easily the most overlooked of Konoha's four past leaders.
The interlocking wood wall continued where it met the city wall, providing a second line of defence. But there was also a staircase built in that led to the top of the wall and a little observation deck to look out towards the mountains and lakes that bordered this side of Konoha.
This area seemed to be the most secured, and housed Tobirama's research areas. The paranoid man had wanted to build literally as far away as he could from the Uchiha, even taking that mindset with him into their clan fortress. The central building was a library rather than a laboratory, and showed that Tobirama's research had been more literary then scientific. There was a significant clan clinic on the grounds, no doubt where Tsunade had first proved herself a capable medic, but that was overshadowed by the Senju library.
It was built like a rotunda, with light stone columns circling and supporting the structure. Naruto noticed another security seal as he entered the library, but it eased away and let him pass when his hand met the door. On the inside, bookcases were stacked against the walls to form an octagonal shape, with the occasional walkway passing in front of the shelves. The spiral staircase in the middle continued far upwards to a reading room. As he traversed the library, Naruto wondered how some of the books could even be accessed. Not all areas had walkways to let you reach the books, some were surrounded by cages made of metal and wood, and others were simply suspended in the air with ropes, with no obvious way to access them.
Naruto made his way to the reading room at the top, where the accumulated knowledge of two kages and the strongest clan in the Elemental Nations awaited him.
"I have a lot of reading to do," he muttered.
AN: I'm doing NaNoWriMo this next month, so ordinarily that'd mean I'd be pressed for time. But, after this, there are five more chapters until the timeskip. And I've already written them. So I'll release them throughout November and work on my own stuff. I might not be as active in responding to reviews, but I'll keep posting.