I do not own Naruto or any affiliated characters in any way, shape, or form. Hope you enjoy!
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Second Arc: Early Days
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The people in the street were moving at a nice fluid pace, eager to get out of the baking sun. Konohagakure was known for having hot summer days and warm evenings, and today looked to be no different. The village was looking far better than it had since the attack of the Kyuubi, the final touches of reconstruction having been finished just recently. It had taken nearly seven years for the outlook of the village to return, though the mental scars still remained. Many still resented the Hokages, both past and present, for housing the demon within the village. However, following the revelation that many villages kept such weapons, and that theirs was the strongest, many took a decided change in personality. When Jiraiya's books began to feature cursed hero's who fought for the cause of justice, the village started to think of Naruto as a living hero.
Kushina smiled, thinking of the change in Jiraiya's literary career. Jiraiya had begun to produce short novellas by request of the Hokage, putting on hold his more popular Icha Icha series. 'Then again, there are some decidedly racy parts in those books as well, so it's no surprise those new novels sold more than his perverted books. There's even some plot now! Sort of…' Kushina blushed, chuckling to herself as she hefted her groceries closer to her chest.
'Still, I'm glad Jiraiya's been helping the way the village views Naruto. If he hadn't, I probably would still be keeping him inside of the compound walls.' Kushina ducked inside of the archway that blocked off the Namikaze estates. Her movements were automatic as she walked down the gravel pathway. The crunch of the loose rocks was loud, feet grinding them into the earth. Yet, Kushina's mind was far away from the ground she traversed.
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Naruto was bundled tight in her arms. Only a month had passed since the attack on Konoha, and Naruto had just been fully released from observation in the hospital. It had taken a lot of convincing on Minato's part, but there were just so many things that Kushina didn't know about taking care of a child. To make matters worse, he was always busy with the Hokage's duty. The trip to the hospital had seen a few wary nods of acknowledgement and recognition, but many were afraid to meet the look of the Yondaime's wife. However, the return trip was far different.
The people who before had given wary nods now gave only brief glances, nothing but fear in the looks. There were hardly any who would look Kushina in the eye, and the few who dared gave nothing but contemptuous glances at the bundle she held before raising hate filled eyes to her face. Her own glare silenced them quickly, but the exchange left her feeling terribly drained. By the time she had arrived back home with Naruto, she realized that she felt more tired now than she had immediately after the fox attack. She cried then, holding Naruto close, and rocking him slightly. Naruto stirred, opening his eyes before crying along with his mother.
It was later that night that Minato had sent a letter to Jiraiya, asking for his help in building a good image for Naruto. Kushina began to assemble every book she could find in the clan library on homeschooling. That night, Minato and Kushina had stayed up late, watching over their son, and finding comfort in each other's arms. It was several years before Kushina journeyed outside with Naruto once more.
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The door squeaked on its hinges as Kushina stepped into the foyer. Kicking off her shoes, she turned to see her son sitting at the dining table, a book sprawled out in front of him. His head was splayed over the book, his blonde hair going in every direction. A light bit of drool could be seen coming out of the corner of his mouth. Kakashi looked up as she walked in, his own form lying against a futon in the gathering room. Chuckling lightly to herself, Kushina set the paper bags down on the counter before bringing the ramen packages out of the bag.
"I see that the Jonin detail my husband assigned is highly attentive." The barb sailed in from the kitchen, even as the sound of running water blotted out most everything else.
"Huh? I'm sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi removed himself from his book, only to dodge quickly to the side as a carrot went sailing past him. The raw vegetable bounced wildly off the futon he relaxed on, whapping him in the side of the head. "You know, I'm very glad that they took you off active missions for a while. If they hadn't, that would have hit me right in the face." Pushing himself off the futon, Kakashi tucked his book away and moved to rouse Naruto.
"Next time I'll throw the pot full of boiling water. I'm sure that'll hit at least some part of you then." Kushina smirked as she watched the younger shinobi rouse her son. Naruto blinked his eyes open, looked first at Kakashi then back at the page he was on before letting out a low grumble.
"Gosh darn it, every time I try to cover a lot of material in a day I get bogged down. There's just way too much stuff to cover!" Naruto turned to his mom with a pleading look in his eyes.
"Mom, can I please take a break today. You've really been giving me a lot of reading to do lately, you know?" The puppy dog look was almost the same as the one Minato tried to use on her when he wanted to get his way. It was for that very reason that it had no effect.
"Sorry kid, you have to get through that stuff eventually. Besides, wouldn't you rather learn it at your own pace then have to deal with academy instructors?" Kushina smiled, turning to the stove to bring the water to a boil. She remembered her reaction to the instructors in the academy and the fights she got into as a kid. Her son was going to stay out of that much trouble at least. "Besides, I've got your favorite food on the boil at the moment…"
Wide cerulean eyes turned to stare at her, taking in the ramen and all the other vegetables and meat laid out. The drool returned to his lips as he watched her prepare the meal. "Alright! If there's going to be your special ramen, I guess I can finish the last few pages in this chapter. Besides, I got to be smart as I can be to take over dad's job someday, dattebayo." Naruto was grinning ear to ear now, his head turned back towards his book. Kakashi and Kushsina both smiled at the scene.
The scarecrow man walked into the kitchen, pulling his own instant miso ramen out of the shopping bag. "You know, I think you and Naruto are a bad influence on Minato and me. I used to eat healthy foods every day, but lately I can't get enough of this instant stuff." Kakashi shook his head as he pulled back the top, placing the contents in the microwave.
"If this keeps up, I don't know how long it will be until Naruto outruns me on the training course." Naruto sneezed lightly, turning to glare at Kakashi for mentioning his name before returning to his book.
"Hm, well if that's the case Minato may just have to start giving you gennin teams to train. Nothing like training a few young gennin to keep you young, you know?" A smile came over her face, before turning to a happy questioning look. "I heard you completed your training with Jiraiya recently, how'd it go?" The water had come to a full boil and Kushina took out some noodles from a glass jar, adding them to the pot. She threw in some of her broth flavoring and the smell of cooking ramen was soon heard throughout the entire house.
"Well, I wasn't able to complete the sage training with the Dog Summons. The Sharingan I obtained from Obito ended up being a bit of a double-edged sword. It messes with my DNA set-up, so I can't actually complete the training." Chagrin was etched onto Kakashi's face as he pulled his ramen out of the beeping microwave. "Still, I did manage to learn some new tricks with Obito's gift." Kakashi smiled at this, pulling out a pair of chopsticks from the drawer.
"Oh, can you hand me a longer wooden spoon? I grabbed the short one by accident." Kushina smelled the contents of the pot, and started adding various other items, vegetables and cuts of cooked meat. Kakashi passed her a wooden spoon, and she began to stir and taste the contents at random. "You seem to be much more comfortable with talking about your teammates. Did anything special happen to give you such closure?" Kakashi just shrugged, and mumbled something about Jiraiya talking sense into him. Kushina smirked at this, and nodded. She did remember that the sage could be serious once in a while.
The smell from the kitchen was permeating throughout the whole house at this point, and Naruto was finding it increasingly hard to focus on his readings. Fidgeting in his seat, he tried very hard to finish his current chapter. There were only three pages left, but each page was a trial with the smell of delicious ramen. 'Gah! Mom, why do you have to be such a good cook!' Naruto's eyes drew together in concentration, and he placed his hand on the page, forcing himself to advance. Each word was a struggle, but before long he finished the last page.
"Hah! Alright, that chapter's done, now give me some ramen!" Naruto bounded into the kitchen, grabbing his own bowl and chopsticks before turning to his mom.
She rapped him slightly on the knuckles, but chuckled and got a ladle out of the drawer next to her. "You really will have to work on your manners too if you plan on becoming Hokage." She looked over her son to smile at Kakashi. "I guess he takes more after me than his father though, so I'm not that surprised." Naruto scowled and pulled his bowl back slightly.
"It's not like dad is ever home. He's always busy with work and protecting the village. It's like he doesn't even care about us, mom." Naruto's scowl was set rather hard, his emotions banishing even the hope of special ramen.
"I know your dad isn't around that much, but he does care very deeply about you both. That's why he works so hard to protect the village." Kakashi reached down and ruffled Naruto's hair, and the boy turned and shot him a petulant glare. "How about this, after lunch, your mom and I will take you to the park, okay?" Naruto's eyes shot wide at this, and he started to shout about going out today and begged his mom to let him eat and get going.
Kushina smiled wanly to herself as she watched her son scarf down the ramen. 'I'm glad you're back Kakashi. I don't know if Minato and I could manage without you.'
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Naruto ran ahead of his guardians for the afternoon, his smile and laughter warming the two adults' hearts. "Come on you two, how am I ever gonna learn how to run fast if you walk so slow?" Both of them shook their heads as Naruto ran up to them and started pulling on Kakashi's hand. "C'mon, you're supposed to be some super awesome ninja aren't you? You gotta be able to move faster than that!" Kakashi shook his head but began to keep pace with Naruto.
Kushina smiled as the two rounded the corner for the park. It had only been in the last year or so that she'd started to allow Naruto to go out into public. For the most part he interacted with kids his age when the clan heads brought their sons and daughters over for meetings with Minato at his home. The interactions were sparse, never really allowing Naruto to grow close to any of them. 'Still, he doesn't seem to mind as long as Minato and I still have time to spend with him.' Her musings found her quickly rounding the corner, looking out at the playground and park that Minato had set aside during the reconstruction of the village.
A woman with waist length black hair approached her side. "It's been a while Kushina. How are Naruto and Minato doing these days?" The woman's voice was friendly, her demeanor reflecting that of a fellow mother. She had pale white skin, black eyes, and stood about the same height as the red-head.
"They both are doing fairly well, Mikoto-san. Fugaku-san mentioned that Sasuke's seventh birthday is approaching. Am I to understand that was a veiled invitation?" Kushina smiled knowingly at her long time friend. It had taken the meeting of Sasuke and Naruto when they were both infants to convince Fugaku that the blonde child was not a demon incarnate. Sasuke's first action upon meeting Naruto was to hold out his favorite toy, causing Naruto to take it and offer one of his own. The innocent gesture had gone a long way to healing the rift created on the night of the attack.
"Yeah, you can definitely take that as a veiled invitation. Though, I think our sons are going to manage an official one in a minute." Mikoto pointed out towards the playground, where she could see Sasuke hold out a greeting card. Naruto opened it quickly, and a smile quickly lit his face. Though neither of the kunoichi could hear the words being said, it was pretty obvious what was happening.
"Those two are definitely going to end up being friends for life, I think." Kushina smiled, and then pulled a letter out of her pocket. "This is for Itachi-san, I think it is his promotion to ANBU, as well as an invitation to train with Minato personally." Mikoto's eyes went wide as she bowed and humbly accepted the scroll. "Now, why don't you tell me what we can give to one of the future leaders of the Uchiha clan for his seventh birthday…"
Meanwhile, Naruto was finally calming down from being accepted to Sasuke's party.
"Oh man, this is going to be so awesome! Who all is going to be there? You invited the others, right?" Naruto was looking around the playground, wondering who all his friend had invited.
"Yeah, I'm going to get all the other kids our age eventually. So far though, I've only invited Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino." Sasuke watched his friend settle a bit at this statement, his face settling into his known thinking pose.
"Why'd you have to go and invite Ino, she's such a pain, and an obnoxious blonde!" Naruto had his arms crossed over his chest, with his eyes squinted shut tight in concentration.
"You can be a pain and an obnoxious blonde too, you know?" Sasuke smirked as the frown on his friends face deepened. "I still don't see why you two can't get along. It's not just because she likes my black hair better, huh?" Sasuke's smirk grew as he watched his friends frown deepened.
"You just came into your good looks before me. My dad had more girls chasing him than your dad when he was older!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke, causing the raven's eyebrows to rise in response.
"That was mostly because my dad had already settled down with my mom by then." Sasuke's counter hit right home on Naruto, and he chuckled as he watched the younger boy gasp before mumbling under his breath. Sasuke was not entirely sure, but he could have sword he heard something about obnoxious blondes and pretty bos. Shaking his head, the older boy turned and pointed at a hill overlooking a nearby stream.
"Look, Ino's over there with Sakura. We should go say hi so I can give Sakura her invitation too." Sasuke was hoping the interaction would help the two accept that they would be at his party together. 'Honestly, Ino and Naruto are easily the loudest people I know, they're perfect together.'
"Huh, who's Sakura?" Naruto turned and looked toward the hillside. He saw Ino, and a little girl their age with bright pink hair. 'Wow, her hair is really pretty. Bet she likes Sasuke's better too…' Naruto couldn't bring himself to grimace at this thought though, the girl was just so pretty.
"You haven't met Sakura before? She spends all her time hanging out with Ino these days…"
"You know my mom doesn't let me out of the house often. She's got me cooped up with those darn books all day long. I can't wait until next year spring when we can both enter the academy, it'll be great to slack off for a few years." Sasuke shook his head at his friend. After Shikamaru and Choji, Naruto was the laziest person he knew.
"Come on, I have to give this card to her now. I don't know why my mom is making me hand these out, but I'm gonna make sure all my friends get one." Sasuke dashed off towards the two girls, leaving a startled Naruto to catch up.
Sakura looked up at her friend Ino, her tears long dried from her face. Bullies had been teasing Sakura again, her forehead being the main topic of insult. Ino had chased them off when her dad dropped her off at the park, and had since been consoling her friend. She even gave her a pretty ribbon to tie her hair up with to help distract attention from her forehead. Ino's attention though seemed to be focused on something over her shoulder.
Sasuke ran up to her, a grin forming on his face. "Hey Ino! Look out! Naruto's it and he's gonna try and tag you!" Naruto was racing behind him, and Sasuke grinned as he heard his friend gasp behind him. In an instant, Naruto was racing forward much faster and Sasuke smirked as he dashed quickly to the left. Ino blinked once before leaping to her feet and running to the right.
Sakura blinked at the girl's sudden departure, but quickly noticed the charging blonde boy. Sasuke had already peeled off to the left and Ino had sprinted right, leaving Sakura right in Naruto's path. 'Well, this is one way to get the pink haired girl to notice me.' With a laughing cry, Naruto jumped forward and tagged Sakura just as she started to stand up. The push was a little harder than he expected though, and the girl wobbled slightly before starting to tumble down the hill. She reached out and tagged him lightly, before starting to run down the hill.
"Hey, no fair! I tagged you first!" Naruto gasped, and started sprinting to catch up with her. Sakura laughed while sprinting down the hill, only seeming to gain speed as she moved. Naruto raced as fast as he could, and caught up to her just as she tripped near the river bank. Naruto blinked in surprise at this, then noticed her come up and start struggling. From the look on her face, she definitely did not know how to swim. The river was quickly starting to pull her downstream, and in the far distance Naruto saw the curling waves of rapids and white caps. Not even pausing to think, Naruto jumped as hard as he could and splashed into the water next to her. He managed to pull close to her, but she struggled and started to drag him under. He kept trying to pull her closer, to get her to calm down, but her weight was too much for the young boy. He turned to shout at her, but the water rushed into his mouth, gagging him. He lost his focus, and in a flash he felt the water rush over his head. Naruto clawed for the surface, but the two were thrashing more than swimming, and soon both of their lungs began to burn. Naruto's vision began to go fuzzy just as his feet touched the bottom of the river.
Naruto felt Sakura's weight leave his grasp and he looked to see her kick off for the surface. Following her lead, the two emerged in about the same spot in the river. Straight ahead he saw the looming rapids, the water rushing over the rocks. Looking to his left, he noticed a spluttering and struggling Sakura. "Hold on, I got you!" he said as he started to swim towards her. The current was much faster than it looked from outside the river, and before long the two were swept far downstream. There was a rushing sound, and the ripples in the stream began to splash and surround the two children. Before they were swept too far in, Sakura grabbed onto a large rock in the river and reached her hand out, grabbing onto it just in time to watch as Naruto slipping past her. He reached out and grabbed her hand. She struggled to hold on, gritting her teeth as he began pulling himself onto the rock with her. Sakura panted, and looked to be close to tears, but Naruto just reached out and placed his hand over hers. "Okay, I guess you got me. My name is Naruto by the way!" The water dripped from from his hair down onto his face, which was covered by the biggest grin the girl had ever seen. "Don't worry, my mom will notice I'm missing soon and come and get us. We just have to hold on until then, dattebayo!" He laughed slightly, and his smile was so infectious that she found herself chuckling lightly despite the situation.
Sakura wasn't sure if the boy across from her was kidding or not, but she just shook her head and smiled a little. "My name is Sakura, and I guess everything that Ino told me about you was true." Naruto scrunched up his face in puzzlement at this, and Sakura giggled at the look. The boy's hair, wet and plastered to his face, made the squinting face he made all the funnier. 'Like an angry wet cat…he is kind of cute, even if he is a total clutz apparently'.
"What has Ino been telling you, huh? You really shouldn't listen to everything she says about me, she exaggerates everything. Especially when she gets the chance to make fun of me!" Sakura giggled more at Naruto's outburst, but before she could respond there was a shout from the shore.
A rope landed between the two of them and Sakura quickly snagged the lifeline. Kushina and Mikoto stood on the shoreline, with Ino and Sasuke standing nearby. "Have Naruto grab onto the rope and we'll pull you both to shore!" Mikoto's voice carried out over the stream, and Sasuke and Ino both looked on nervously. Naruto reached out and grasped the bit of the rope Sakura offered him, and the two were quickly hauled out of the water.
"Naruto, what were you thinking jumping into the river after Sakura?" Kushina reprimanded her son, checking him over for cuts at the same time. Mikoto was casting a critical eye over Sakura, her hands glowing a funny green color.
"I'm fine mom. Besides, it was my fault Sakura even fell into the river, so I had to save her!"
Sakura pulled away from Mikoto at this and came up next to Naruto.
"Namikaze-sama, it wasn't all Naruto's fault. I wasn't paying attention when I was running down the hill and I just tripped near the river, but it really wasn't his fault, he didn't mean it." The girl was almost beside herself, tears welling up in her pretty seafoam eyes. She noticed her son staring at the girl, obviously surprised she'd defend him to his mother. Many were afraid to talk back to either Minato or Kushina merely because of their standing in the village.
Kushina sighed, looking between the two begging faces. Casting a quick glance at Mikoto, who nodded in response, Kushina did her level best to fix the two with a stern glare. Inwardly though, she smirked at the sight. 'Better watch out Naruto, or you may end up having yourself a little girlfriend.' "Alright, I guess I can understand what the two of you are saying. Still, we're all lucky no one got hurt this time." Looking up from the two, she adopted a friendly face. "Sasuke, I think you have something you should give Ms. Haruno here before we get her sent home to towel off…?" Sasuke's face lit up before he reached in his pocket and pulled out a card.
"Here Sakura, this is for you. I hope you can make it. It should be a lot of fun." The boy leaned close to whisper in her ear. "Plus, I can promise to make sure Naruto doesn't get you all wet again." The girl giggled at this, and gladly accepted the invitation. Mikoto smiled at the scene and decided to do her own bit of meddling.
"Kushina, I'll make sure Sakura and Ino get home safe before I head back home with Sasuke." Mikoto smiled knowingly at her friend from across the way. Nothing like girls to stir up a little rivalry between boys.
Kushina nodded at this and turned to grab Naruto's hand. "Come on, we're going to head home and tell your dad about your exciting adventure."
"Do we have to go mom? I was just starting to have fun with everyone…" Kushina chuckled a bit, but nodded her head and motioned for them to leave. "Alright, well, I'll see you tomorrow. It was nice to meet you Sakura, and you can tell me all about what Ino said next time, okay?" Naruto smirked as Ino face faulted at this. 'Haha, knew I could get something on her one of these days.'
Sakura ran up to him though and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "She just said a bunch of stuff about you being a really obnoxious blonde who was kind of cute." Naruto's jaw dropped at this and his eyes went wide.
"Is that really what she said?" Naruto's mind was a whirl as he thought about this. 'I thought she liked Sasuke's hair better, but I get called cute? Wow! I can't wait to rub it in Sasuke's face...' Naruto grinned like a fox and chuckled lightly to himself.
"Yeah, pretty much. Well, I'll see you tomorrow Naruto-kun." Sakura turned and skipped back to the others. Ino gave him a worried glance, and Sasuke just raised his eyebrows in question. Naruto shook himself before waving and then walking over to where his mom was waiting. As Naruto walked away, only a single thought ran through his mind. 'Her hair and eyes are really pretty, and she's really nice. Her forehead was kind of big though…'
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AHAHAHAHAHA! You thought I was going to give you all the way NaruSaku fluff? HAH! Think again. I don't do main character pairings, they bother the *&%^ out of me. Sorry about the epic length of this chapter, but it was necessary to get a couple things done in this chapter. This arc is titled Younger Days and will be one or two more chapters. It will set up the Emissary arc that will come next, and once that concludes we should be ready for the next timeskip. Probably looking at about five chapters for the second arc, so that one will take some time. As always, shoot me a review after you read the chapter. If any of you want, I'll hear possible pairings for Sasuke in village. It will have to be a fairly serious pairing though, so you better give me some decent reasons for making it work. The only girls available are those in Konoha, and I won't accept any suggestion for Sasuke and Hinata (I have other plans involving the Hyuuga heiress but those need some time to flesh out...). Anyways, let me know and I'll work out the relationship after these two arcs conclude.