Title: New Future of the Legends
Author: Nakora-chan
Email: nakora(dot)chan(at)gmail(dot)com
Series: Naruto
Rating: T (may end up M later on)
Pairings: None (If I have time later on, I will create an alternate version with pairings)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Three years have past since Naruto has left Konoha. It is about time that he returns, but when he does, he reveals things about himself and Konoha that has never been known to the public. Despite what he has become, he strives to break free from all bonds.
Warnings: AU, OC, OOC, blood, abuse, mutilation (last three will occur later on)

Important Note: Everyone's been asking how often I will be updating this fanfiction, and to officially let everyone know, I will be updating this fanfiction every other week, so in two weeks if anything doesn't happen, you will have your next chapter. I will be doing this until the end of August maybe.

Chapter 4: Slavery Unwarranted By the Justice

Tenten casually watched the people around her converse and interact before sighing in boredom. There was no one there that she knew well enough for her to actually go up to talk to; well there were several people that occasionally came to her father for weapons. Even if she were to go to them to talk, what would she talk to them about? What would she say? Oh, you know my father, right? He's the one that supplies your family with weapons? Do you want to talk to me?

She shuddered. That was the worst thought that she had all day, and couldn't help but sigh again. She was absolutely bored! There was nothing to do. Everyone was milling about, gossiping, and for whatever reason in the gods' names, negotiating. But then, she couldn't fault them. This was the largest gathering of clan heirs in recent memory, so all of them took advantage of it to garner new ties.

If Tsunade hadn't called the meeting, she couldn't believe that clan heirs would have gathered willingly. Only some clans interacted; others ignored and kept away from each other. She sighed. Some of the clans were natural enemies or rather rivals with each other, and were bound to avoid contact as much as possible, and she didn't begrudge them.

"Tenten-san."

She looked around, searching for whomever was calling out to her. Spotting her friend, she smiled and waved him over. As soon as he reached her, she greeted him warmly. "Ohayo."

Neji gave a small nod. "Ohayo." He looked around, carefully taking into account everyone and everything. His posture was stiff and his hands were uncharacteristically twitching. Even though his face was blank of emotions, the motions of his eyeballs were erratic, and they darted all over, searching for potential threats.

She frowned, confused why her teammate would act this way, and she wanted to call it nerves, but this was Neji. He would never let nerves get the best of him.

"Ohayo."

Both glanced over to the approaching group. In addition to Lee, the rookies of the Rookie Nine that were still in Konoha approached them and grumbled out morning greetings. Out of the newly arrived group, Sakura and Shikamaru were tense and glanced around more anxiously than Neji but still comparable to the white-eyed jounin, noted Tenten. The others lazed about and started interacting without a care.

Out of the Rookie Nine, two of Team 7 were missing, leaving Sakura the only one in Konoha. All of Team 8's chuunin members were there, meaning all of Team 8, Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino, and Nara Shikamaru, were there, though she suspected that Shikamaru had already tried to get out of the meeting by sleeping in and had been foiled by Ino's incessant berating. Team 10 was out of Konoha on a mission, so Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata weren't able to make the meeting but would be filled in as soon as they returned.

She slowly came to a realization and looked at Neji. Neji was a member of the Hyuuga Branch Family, so why was he here with the rest of the clan heirs? Hinata was the Hyuuga heir, so it was obvious that the absent girl was a likelier candidate.

As if reading her mind, Neji told her under his breath, "I'm the heir of the Hyuuga Branch Family."

Ah… Now that explained everything, but it also raised questions that she thought she would never ask. Were there clans in Konoha that had branch families like the Hyuuga clan? She thought it inconceivable that others would subject family members or even others to servitude and absolute obedience, but the Hyuuga clan had disproved her notion. And now, she placed some doubt on some of her more unshakeable beliefs about her home village.

"Whatever you're thinking about, don't think about it. You'll only get more stressed," Neji told her, bringing her out of her thought process. Both understood that wherever her train of thought led, she would only get more stressed and depressed.

She nodded in agreement before smiling widely and maniacally, and Neji blatantly turned away, clearly trying to show everyone that he didn't know the crazy person next to him.

Turning her direction away from her teammate, she went back to people-watching.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sakura edge towards Neji and Shikamaru walk up to Neji without a care about who saw him. They neared the jounin and leaned in whispering in low voices, keeping their conversation from being heard by eavesdropping ears and busybodies. Unfortunately for them, she was close enough to overhear part of the exchange.

"…not here."

Shikamaru gave Sakura an annoyed look before giving the usual Shikamaru sigh. "This is too troublesome."

The medic-nin gave her peer an annoyed look in return.

Neji then drove their attention back to the subject, "Of course, he's not going to be here. Who else would get Tsunade-sama to call a meeting for all the available clan heirs?"

Sakura then pointed out, "Lee's not a part of a clan."

"Then he was called here for another reason than the one for which we were called," Neji assumed, basing his assumption on the fact that just about every single person there was a clan heir.

From out of the opposite corner of her eye, she saw Lee bounding over and took it upon herself to warn the conversing trio. Strolling up to them casually, she leaned forward and murmured, "You should take more care to see if there was anyone that can overhear your conversation, and by the way, Lee's coming," while pointing towards Lee's direction.

Snapping out of their surprise, they turned to where she was pointing. Lee had apparently finished talking to Chouji, who lived close to the taijutsu specialist, and headed their way to 'spread the flames of youth' with his teammates.

As soon as the chuunin reached them, Tenten redirected his attention by pointing out in a random direction, "Look, Lee! There's Gai-sensei!"

Immediately, Lee turned and ran the other away, shouting, "Gai-sensei!"

The three that she helped sighed mentally in relief at not being caught up by the over-exuberant shinobi.

She turned back to the three, and they stiffened. She grinned sadistically, "You will tell me what you were talking about after Tsunade-sama dismisses us."

They gave her small nods, but it was enough. The three had been keeping secrets and admitted to it, leaving her able to question any of those secrets. They separated, standing away from each other to avoid any suspicion, and Neji stepped closer to her, giving everyone the impression that he was standing by her just for the mere reason of being teammates.

Her eyes darting between the three, she noted that they still held themselves stiff and ready for an attack, which was weird in their current setting. They were surrounded by various clan heirs, proficient in their family arts, whatever they may be, and all having abilities of seasoned shinobi, though more than half of them were not. With the amount of skill surrounding them, the three should not have any sort of paranoia or anxiety about attacks.

The doors that lead down to the rest of the Hokage Tower creaked, and all conversation stopped. All motions stopped, and everyone's head turned towards the noise.

Two figures stepped out of the doorway, and it wasn't to the slightly taller figure that all looked to (though they were supposed to). Everyone's attention shifted to the figure standing by the Hokage, and apparently from their blank and confused expression, no one knew who she was.

Realizing that though she or anyone else may not know, Tenten spun around to meet Neji's carefully blank eyes, Shikamaru's mildly blank and slightly annoyed eyes, and Sakura's guarded eyes. Out of the three, Sakura's eyes were more open, and staring into those green orbs, Tenten could readily read more.

Both newcomers greeted the entire group with two polite "Ohayo", and from the looks on the duo's faces, everyone moved around so that they could see the faces of the speakers and so they could hear exactly what they were going to say.

The moment that she shifted her eyes from the mysterious person to Tsunade then back to the other, her entire body stiffened, reacting to something that she hadn't sensed or predicted.

Her mind, right away hurriedly analyzed the unexpected awareness, and she compared it to an electrical shock. And as quickly as she compared it to an electrical shock, her mind went into another overdrive and compared it to her slamming into a concrete wall. The two completely different sensations forced her body to give an involuntary shudder, but as quickly as those feelings came, all of it left.

As the feeling abandoned her, she let out a shaky breath and breathed in, trying to regain control of her body.

Breathing in and out, tremors coursing through her body, she sluggishly tried to watch how everyone else was reacting, and thankfully, they were in the same state that she was. Everyone's faces were pale and small shivers came and went every few seconds, reminding them of what just happened. Then of course, no one knew exactly what happened.

After watching the others for a while, she looked to the three that she caught talking, and her eyes widened in surprise.

They were no different than anyone else. Their faces pale, shakings raking their bodies, though their faces were schooled into blankness, their eyes betrayed all their thoughts. And seeing their trembling forms and their confused eyes, she decided not to confront them, fearing that her questions would only do more to confuse than answer, and feeling the guilt for accusing them for knowing more than she was privy to.

Tsunade's voice brought her and everyone else's attention back to the duo standing in front of everyone. "I gather that as most of you were negotiating already, you have all realized that most of the people brought here are clan heirs. The ones that aren't clan heirs were called here by Tsurugi Tenkou," gesturing to the girl to next to her.

The Hokage's eyes shifting over to the girl, all eyes moved to the girl, who stepped forward. Tsurugi bowed graceful, her black yukata not at all constraining her movements, and everyone bowed back politely.

"To make one thing clear before we begin, I'm not a girl. I'm a boy."

Everyone stared.

Then blinked.

Then stared.

Then blinked again.

Then they all thought, "HOLY SHIT! SHE'S A GUY!"

Tsurugi giggled afterward, seeing everyone's reaction to her—great, his real gender. Seeing that the girl—shit, the boy laughing at them, Tenten couldn't help but curse all males that were gender-confused.

Beside the girl--&, the boy, Tsunade turned to glare at her companion and scolded the younger. "Stop it, Tenkou. They think you're gender-confused."

The extremely feminine boy pouted at her and whined, "I'm not gender-confused!"

Everyone snorted.

Tsunade bluntly looked at the boy and said, "Then you're making them gender-confused, so whenever they meet a new person on the streets, they'll call a girl a boy and a boy a girl."

Everyone sweatdropped. They, like hell, didn't want to do that.

With the same pout, Tsurugi acquiesced. "Fine, fine. I won't taunt them anymore."

Slowly, the pout and the carefree demeanor faded away to be replaced by a grim and humorless shinobi, and the change of facial expression was gradual enough so that all of them could see the change, and it uttered terrified them. Usually, when shinobi's emotions changed as drastically as Tsurugi's had, then nothing they say will ever be good news.

"I'll start off with a history lesson, and everyone, better pay good attention because this history lesson involves all of your families," declared Tsurugi authoritatively.

All around her, Tenten could see people nod solemnly. Tsunade had never called a meeting for clan heirs, and thinking back to her history lessons in the Academy, she couldn't think of a time ever. So whatever this Tsurugi had to say after asking Tsunade to call a meeting of all available clan heirs had to be good and enlightening.

"Konoha was founded here about seventy years. Initially, it was just a ninja unit made up of the Shodai Hokage, the Nidaime Hokage, their family, and others clans that had alliances with their clan, such as the Hyuuga," looking pointedly at Neji, "the Nara," looking at Shikamaru, "and other various shinobi clans. It was only after the First Great Shinobi War that this village diversified and spread out, changing from just a ninja unit to something more like a village."

Some idiot from behind her lost in the crowd of people yelled out, "We already know this stuff!"

Immediately, Tsurugi's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he calmly asked, "Then how many siblings did the Shodai Hokage have?"

The same idiot laughed and said, "Are you an idiot? Everyone knows that the Shodai Hokage only had one brother."

Both Tsunade and Tsurugi smirked, and those that saw their identical mocking smirks shuddered at the possibilities those smirks could mean. Slightly surprisingly, it was Tsunade that drawled coolly. "Baka… My ojii-san had two brothers and one sister."

Jaws dropped in surprise, and they all gaped at the two smirking figures.

Tenten stared at the two; then somehow, the entire history of Konoha she had learned from the Academy seemed false and contrived compared to the truth that she learned from the granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage. All Academy graduates learned in their classes about the Shodai Hokage and his brother, the Nidaime Hokage, and the Nidaime was his only sibling. Tsunade was the last remaining grandchild or rather descendent of the Shodai Hokage, and she had never made any move to correct the Academy curriculum, neither had the Sandaime who was appointed by the Nidaime, so everyone automatically assumed it was correct.

"How is that possible? All sources don't mention anything about any other family members," someone asked.

"Because the rest of the clan was wiped from the memory of Konoha," Tsurugi easily replied.

"Then how do you relate to all of this, Tsurugi?" asked Shikamaru.

The weapon-wielding kunoichi looked towards the genius, and saw his face pulled into a calm and determined expression. Seeing his face, she mentally sighed and inwardly grumbled about geniuses and how they caught onto things faster than the rest of the ordinary people. She looked back at the shinobi beside Tsunade and imperceptibly stepped back in surprise. Tsurugi's face was withdrawn, and his cerulean eyes weren't directed at them but looked past them into a memory than none of them had.

With that far-away look in his eyes, Tsurugi responded evenly yet almost reluctantly, "I am the great-grandson of the older brother of both the Shodai Hokage and the Nidaime Hokage, thus I am Tsunade's second cousin once removed."

All the people gathered stared at the newcomer and took in the new information with vigor, thinking of possible ways to utilizing it to their advantage.

Abruptly, Tsurugi shook himself out of his memories, and his eyes unexpectedly hardened, the previous memories leaving no traces of ever having been there.

"Our clan had been here before the founding of Konoha, and we have never had any need for a shinobi establishment. The daimyo of Fire Country had never needed one with all the various clans in Fire Country aiding him, but with the advent of so many shinobi villages in neighboring countries, we could not ignore the lack of one in Fire Country.

So my great-grandfather, the clan head, sent Tsunade's grandfather, the Shodai Hokage, and the Nidaime Hokage out to garner alliances and support of various clans to build a shinobi village in Fire Country, and it was on their travels that the Hyuuga, the Nara, the Aburame, and other ninja clans came together to found Konoha. As I previously said, this group was initially a ninja unit, not a real shinobi village, until the end of the First Great Shinobi War.

When they all returned here after traveling together, the clans were all introduced to the rest of our clan but weren't all that amenable with a clan that had sent only two members to garner support. It took months of cooperation and the knowledge that only the Shodai Hokage would be seen by the village for all the clans to finally honor the alliances, but it took the First Great Shinobi War to garner the loyalty of the infant village to our clan.

Despite the scorn given to our clan for sending out only two of our members to negotiate alliances, we were the only clan that sent out all our members to protect our fledging village, and so our clan suffered the most casualties during the First War, and we showed the other clans what loyalty to our village meant and that we would sacrifice our own lives and our own clan for the sake of the friendship between the clans and for the sake of the survival of Konoha.

So the friendship between the clans of Konoha grew until all clans deferred to my great-grandfather for advice in the Konoha construction even though the Nidaime was supposed to be in charge of construction of general infrastructure. It was on the advice of my great-grandfather that all the estates of shinobi clans were placed where they are today to avoid conflict between clans, while the Nidaime took charge of shinobi and civilian areas. The Shodai worked on the shinobi formation, and he also created the great forest in and surrounding Konoha using his Mokuton abilities, providing Konoha with a near impenetrable protection.

A few years before Tsunade was born, a clan from Lightning Country that our clan has rivaled with for decades, even before the formation of Konoha, entered Konoha unnoticed since our shinobi ranks weren't strong and consisted of men and women that had only recently become shinobi for the sake of the village. So this clan, the Metsubo clan, bypassed gate security and stole their way to our clan estates. At the time, my great-grandfather was with his two younger brothers organizing shinobi formations around the village, so when the Metsubo clan struck our clan estates, they decimated nearly our entire clan, slaughtering about ninety members in one night alone.

The remaining members of our clan then spread out into Konoha, leaving only the Head Family to live at our clan estates. Our clan members married into various members of other clans, and though we aren't known for any kekkai genkai, our clan members have a large chakra capacity and extremely exact chakra control. One thing our clan is known for is the perfection of chakra control techniques taught throughout the village today, but anyway, our clan spread out into Konoha and have continuously served and protected the village though the members were known to be a part of our clan.

Because of the massacre, the Head Family of our clan decided to forgo the usage of any surname and would be known to other people by just our first names, all to obscure the name of our clan and to avoid another massacre. As time went on, people realized that the Head Family did this and started targeting members of the Head Family, especially during the Second Great Shinobi War, in which several members of the Head Family died. So, the Head Family kept on the usage of forgoing our surname but creating an alias for the eyes of the world to view, once again to protect us.

At the end of the Second Great Shinobi War, all of our members, including ones that weren't a part of the Head Family, created aliases if their names hadn't changed since the first ordinance, and our clan was virtually forgotten. Technically, our clan was forgotten by the time that Tsunade was born, but that's irrelevant.

Then just all the shinobi villages got a bit of peace, those dumb-as-hell idiots from Iwagakure no Sato had to invade our current ally, Kusagakure no Sato and start yet another great shinobi war. Our clan, tired of the fighting, decided to send most if not all of our members out onto the battlefield; actually, the Head Family discouraged this action, but since our clan was full of hardened, war-mongering, blood-lusting shinobi, most of the clan just ignored the Head Family's advice.

And just like it always had, our clan's actions came back and bit us in the butt; the rest of the clan was killed in action during this war, and the Head Family was all that was left of our clan. Then a few months before the end of the war, Iwa sent out a squad of assassins to utterly annihilate the clan that produced so many shinobi known and capable of highly destructive techniques, and so they found us and killed off all Head Family members, save for Tsunade, who had left Konoha a long time ago, and my father, who was on the battlefield.

My father returned to an empty house in his home village, and he abandoned it, seeing that there was no point in living in an empty house. So our clan estates were left abandoned and unkempt since the end of the Third Great Shinobi War. My father married, and then naught a year or two later, the Kyuubi attacked and he died just as I was born."

As Tsurugi finished up his narration, no one said anything, and Tenten looked around, shocked and saddened as she was by the account of his clan. The males of the crowd were stony-faced and kept their faces hard to read, while females bit their lips trying to keep from reaching out to comfort the orphan. She too felt the urge to comfort the boy that looked too girly to be a boy and could pass for a girl if he tried.

Slowly as the silence faded away into comprehension and as everyone regained their standing, a random clan heir yelled out mildly, "That still doesn't explain why we're here."

Tsurugi looked at the faces above them, the faces of the Hokage Mountain, and his face was contemplative for a few seconds before he responded. "I was getting to that part."

He looked back at them and pointed to the mountain that he had been looking at just a few moments ago. "Our clan estates are in Evacuation Valley, and they have always been there."

Several members of the audience frowned, uncertain as to why he had told them.

"After the first massacre during the reign of the Shodai Hokage, the clan heads of all clans in Konoha came together and discussed their inability to aid our clan in our time of need. Because of the overwhelming sense of loyalty and friendship that bonded all of the clans, the clans couldn't help but feel useless and weak when news of our clan's massacre reached them, so they came together and made a contract."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Shikamaru stiffen. The chuunin, obviously, knew something about a contract just from the way that he had stiffened when Tsurugi had first mentioned it. He opened his mouth, then closed it, reassessing his thoughts and his mind probably flying through hundreds of scenarios, but finally asked, "What kind of contract?"

Tsurugi gave them all an eerie smile.

Tenten shuddered. That smile ran shivers down her back and raised fears that she didn't know she had. As a kunoichi, she knew all her fears, but there were some things about people that utterly terrified her though she couldn't say they were fears. Apparently, eerie smiles that were the main characteristics of insane mass murderers were one of those things.

With that same eerie smile adorning his face, the feminine boy answered, "A contract of servitude and absolute loyalty."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. Contracts of that caliber took chakra of enormous proportions to create and the effects of those kinds of contracts were often felt generations later, she remembered from her reading in a scroll about sealing, though she didn't know exactly what all that meant save for the first portion of using a butt-load of chakra. Mulling over what he said, she remembered that those contracts invoked blood… didn't they? And her eyes widened even more in realization.

Cerulean eyes flicked over the disbelieving and shocked faces of his peers. Licking his lips, he slowly opened his mouth to explain more. "Your ancestors thought that by swearing their servitude and absolute loyalty, they could atone for their weaknesses and sins, and so they wrote the contract. Each clan head then proceeded to give a drop of his or her to pledge those that had the same blood as he or she did to the contract, and after the ceremony was finished, the went to my great-grandfather and bound him as they extracted a drop of blood for each clan that had given their pledge. Thus they bound all their descendents to all the descendents of my great-grandfather's line in servitude and absolute loyalty."

"So you're saying we're your slaves?"

Tsurugi's shoulders drooped, and just reading his face for a moment, she could transparently see the anguish and remorse on his face. She suddenly felt the guilt that weighed heavily upon the shinobi's shoulders and mind, and regretted that she had for a moment accused him of what Neji had shouted out, though she could certainly understand why Neji had shouted. The feelings that came out as waves from the shinobi were just so heartbreaking that she knew down to her core that he didn't want any of it.

Finally, Tsurugi replied, "So long as the contract exists, any descendent of the clans that swore loyalty and servitude will have to obey any of my orders." He paused and took a great shuddering breath before continuing. "One of the terms of the contract was that all heirs of clans that signed the contract have to serve a one-year term of servitude to the heir of the Head Family, starting on the heir's sixteenth birthday."

Instantly, protests rang out throughout the area, and the anger fed upon other's anger and grew. Seeing the acrimony among her peers, Tenten turned to the bringer of bad news and felt the despondency of the situation, and she realized that he could order them to not be angry and none of them would be angry at all, though it made absolutely no sense how their free will was taken away.

She realized that none of this could have happened; Tsurugi could have just ordered them to stay with him for a year, and they would have no idea why but they would still do it because of an urge that defied all physics and morals. But he chose to tell them all this; he chose to tell them that they have no free will when faced with a descendent of Tsurugi's great-grandfather. He didn't have to take any of the crap that the other heirs were dishing out, but he was taking it because apparently, Tsurugi felt that though they had no free will, they had the right to know what was going on.

Although she had a mind to yell at them, she didn't have enough nerve to do so, and the guilt and horrid feeling that she got from realizing that she couldn't do it made her feel the disgrace of dishonoring her title as a kunoichi. But thankfully, Tsunade did it for her.

"WHY DON'T YOU IDIOTS JUST SHUT UP?"

Everyone stared at the Hokage in shock and fear but directly shut up.

Tsunade's face was set into a scowl, and the look of rage she had on her face had many of them shaking in their shoes. She glared at them, and loudly told them, "Since you all don't have the brain to listen to Tenkou, I'll explain it to your bumbling set of morons."

"Tenkou's sixteenth birthday will be in three months, but since he has a six month mission in two weeks, he will be gone most of the time that you idiots have to serve your term, so you all get a reprieve, a three month reprieve from a yearlong term, though I don't think you all deserve one for disrespecting Tenkou's choice of explaining all this to you. He could have just left you all to rot; he could have ordered you to serve him for a year and you wouldn't have the sense to disobey him."

Sakura, sensing the uproar die down, asked, "What mission does Tsurugi-san have that requires a three month leave?"

Tsunade turned an expressionless face to her apprentice and easily replied, "One that only elite jounin are privy to."

Tenten frowned; now that didn't help. She, too, was curious as to what mission would take Tsurugi away from such an important event such as their… she shuddered… their servitude. She had never seen Tsurugi in her life, but apparently he was a shinobi of Konoha that had been away for years and was only now returning to invoke a contract that she thought had never existed before. He returns but suddenly has to leave again for a mission in two weeks. A three month mission was rare and rarely given out to any shinobi or team without several months notice; but then she could understand as that Tsurugi had just returned… She was getting off track, wasn't she?

Neji certainly wasn't privy to the information; after all, Neji was only a rookie jounin and didn't have enough rank or influence to pull up the information on Tsurugi's mission. So, she couldn't ask Neji. She could ask Gai-sensei, but… she shuddered again. That was a horrible thought; she didn't want to even contemplate asking Gai-sensei for the information.

"Why were we overcome with the feel of the contract activating?"

Everyone turned to look at Shikamaru, who stared pointedly at Tsurugi and Tsunade.

Tsurugi smiled a weak smile. "Because a blood descendent of all the clans that signed the contract and the only two members of my clan are here. Our presence invokes the activation of the contract."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and he asked, "Where is the member of the Uchiha clan, then?"

All breath was held as the Uchiha clan was mentioned.

The bishounen pointed to a tree not too far away from where they all were standing, "Hatake-san over there holds a Sharingan eye, containing the DNA of one Uchiha Obito, and I—" he stopped, chocking on his own words, "my… my mother was a member of the Uchiha clan."

Eyes widened as they took in the meaning of those words.

"I won't get the Sharingan if that's what you all are thinking," easily said Tsurugi.

Each person, then, could feel the tense that hung thick in the air and were relieved of that tension as one brave yet stupid soul asked, "How can we get out of the contract?"

Tsurugi shook his head. "All of you are within a two year range of my age, so you all must participate, so says the contract. Any of the other heirs are relieved of this duty and the chance will not be open to them."

Reservedly, Neji asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by chance?"

She saw the slightly amused look on Tsurugi's face and felt relieved that the somber mood that ruled over the boy had dissipated with the tension. He told Neji, or rather all of them, "You don't think you're going to be just serving, do you? My clan is known for all the chakra techniques we've developed, so when you're serving the term, you'll be learning advanced and very refined chakra control techniques that others aren't privy to."

The promise of chakra control techniques immediately endeared all the shinobi clan heirs to the feminine boy, and slowly, the others, seeing that the shinobi heirs were no longer fighting the contract, relented.

Once the hubbub died, Tsunade garnered their attention once more. "Are there any questions?" No one said anything. "Very well. You will be notified when Tenkou returns from his mission. You will have those months to yourselves, but make sure to keep yourselves available once he returns or else…" she trailed off, leaving the threat looming over the group. "You're dismissed!"

To be continued…

Author's Notes:

This is the shortest of all my chapters so far, and excluding Chapter Two, took longer than all the others. Usually, I set up a week for me to write out the entire chapter, but apparently, I spent two days figuring out the Naruto timeline and exactly what happened at what time. It took me two full days because I kept on making drafts and drafts before coming up with the final timeline that would fit the plot. I figured out that the Yondaime was about 23 or 24 when he died sealing the Kyuubi; he was about 22 when he became the Hokage. The only clues that I had were: he became a Genin at 10, Jiraiya was his instructor 24 years before the start of the series, the Kyuubi sealing was a year or two after the end of the Third Great Shinobi War. So using that information, I deducted that the Yondaime was 22 by the time he died, but given that no information when exactly in the year, I had to take into account months, so I added a year or two to that age… so voila, Yondaime was 23 to 24 when he died. Okay… I got off track. For those that don't want to spend a long time hearing me rant about all the calculations I took about everything, since it took an extremely long time to figure out everything, I'm going to be getting a picture of the timeline I made and I'll post it on my LJ so visit my profile and I'll have it up in a day or two.

This chapter was entirely all from Tenten's POV. I never thought I'd make a chapter just from one person's POV, but that bridge has been crossed and once again, I've hit the bridge that is made of the wood of 'must have an Interlude'. So Interlude it is! I haven't even remotely finished Chapter 4's intended length, but if I start of the next POV, it'll go longer than 15 pages, so this chapter will stay how it is unless I get a beta. This chapter was all explanation and helps the plot move along a little, but once I start the Interlude, plot will be moving along much faster since I'm actually going into the Gaara rescue arc (I'm sorry if I'm spoiling this to anyone).

I'm not sure, but I plan to have the next chapter or rather the Interlude out by next Tuesday or so. I really need to finish up the rest of this chapter's plot before I can get into Chapter 5. Since I'm putting in some canon plot, I'm pushing back the Naruto's 3-year travel arc to later on. I might as well explain now rather than later. There are going to be three arcs; Gaara rescue arc is only a mini-arc in the Naruto as Tsurugi Tenkou arc. There will be a mini arc about Naruto's three years away from Konoha, but that's not one of the three arcs. Then, there will be the Hebi and Akatsuki arc, and the final arc where everything is resolved. I'm actually not going to talk about the last arc since it's so far away and I only have so much time.

There are a lot of things I don't have to explain in this chapter, so I'm going to finish up my author's note. Oh yes… in the previous version, I had a character named Shinkana Ayuma; well, in this version, she's not going to be called that. She'll have a different name, but she'll be the same person.

This chapter hasn't been beta'd so I'll need someone to beta this chapter as well as the rest of the story.

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