Chapter Three
Paranoia
"I accept." Hinata said simply as she allowed Naruto to clasp the necklace around her neck. She gave off a fierce smile as the temperature in the room dropped to absolute zero. Hiashi's eyes looked like they would pop out of their sockets, as she accepted Naruto's hand helping her up, a heavy blush forming on her face.
"You...accept?!" Hiashi let out strangled. "You accept!? How...could a child of mine be so disrespectful!" He stood suddenly turning Hinata towards him shaking her shoulders as she squealed in terror. "Do you know what you've done to the name of the Hyuuga? Do you? You are the Heir to the most powerful clan in Kohona, and you want to marry a piece of trash! An Uzumaki!" Naruto quickly stepped in between them and shot a glare that would of killed Hiashi if he had his way.
"Don't touch her." Naruto said simply. I can understand why a person would abuse me, but their own daughter? He thought as Hiashi coiled like a snake about to strike. Shit, he's a Jyuken master, he could kill me faster then you could say Sasuke and Orochimaru are gay lovers, Naruto snickered inside his head remembering the time Jiraiya got drunk and revealed Orochimaru's quirk to Naruto. "You have no right to abuse your own daughter!"
"Right? Since when have I needed right? It's the weak's duty to be subjugated by the strong." Hiashi barked as he stared down Naruto as if studying some foreign animal. "It seems, that even without being subjected to your clan's doctrine, you are the very soul of an Uzumaki. Very well. You may marry my daughter under...conditions."
Tsunade only watched as Naruto nodded ever so slightly, Hinata behind him looking fearful. Tsunade looked thoughtful. Naruto had reacted oddly. That protective streak inside him had multiplied ten-fold. Perhaps, he thinks he's responsible for...Jiraiya's death. That would explain it, she thought.
"First, you must provide suitable housing for my daughter. Not an apartment, but a full scale clan house." Hiashi said testily. "Second, I expect any child..." Naruto and Hinata both blushed heavily at this, Tsunade just smirked, "to be trained by the Hyuuga for four years, or until it is shown that they have no grasp over the Byakugan."
"Agreed, to both of the statements." Naruto said as Hiashi raised a hand to cut him off.
"Also, any child with the Byakugan, will be branded with the Seal of the Branch Family, in order to protect our Kekkei Genki from anyone." Hiashi said simply as Naruto shook his head.
"I wouldn't let you touch anyone with that Seal. Do you think I'm a total idiot? I know exactly what you'd do with the Seal attached to children. You'd just try to control Hinata, just like you do now." Naruto stated simply.
"And, what if someone got a hold of it?" Hiashi stated simply, "The disaster would tremendous."
"I don't care."
"Then you would agree to the immediate disbanding of the Uzumaki Clan if the Byakugan ever was stolen?" Hiashi said a cold smile playing on his lips.
"If that's what it takes to keep you from controlling Hinata from the grave? Yes." Naruto said leaving no mystery about about who'd put Hiashi into that grave.
"Agreed." Hiashi said simply. "You must also prove that you are capable of providing income sufficient to take care of an entire clan, not just yourself."
"Agreed." Naruto said just as coldly. "You will hand over control to the Hyuuga Clan to Hinata come your retirement or death."
"Agreed, provided no member of my direct family challenges her to a fight for control of the clan and wins" he said with a smirk. "So, is the contract agreeable?"
"Only if Hinata agrees." Naruto said concerned. The man acts like he has me cornered, Naruto thought as he looked at Hinata for some clue what to do.
Hinata had been listening half-heartedly when she snapped back to reality. "Uh-h..." she stuttered as she quickly thought about it. "Y-yes, Naruto-san."
Hiashi smiled a full cat smile as he nodded. "Then the contract is agreed upon. I expect all terms regarding personal status to be fulfilled within three months." He stood. Tsunade stood with him.
"I'll bring the written contract to both parties." Tsunade said as Hiashi, beckoned to Hinata sternly. "I think Hinata would do better in my care for awhile, Hiashi. To protect her from any undue wrath that may come from this agreement."
"Perhaps, it would be better for...both parties if she lived in a different location until the contract is fulfilled." Hiashi agreed. "I trust you will provide for room and board, Hokage-sama?"
"Yes. Hyuuga-sama."
"Good." Hiashi turned to face Naruto and stared at him curiously. "My brother and I were...friends with your father and uncle. You remind me of them. Perhaps...my initial judgment of you was wrong, but time reveals all." He said simply as he swept out of the room. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he collapsed into a chair. Hinata just stood in the middle of the room like a deer caught in the Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Bind).
"Hinata." Tsunade said gently. She snapped to attention. "Shizune is waiting outside for you."
"Y-yes...t-thank you H-hokage-sama." Hinata said nervously as she left the room.
As she left the room Naruto just stared at Tsunade, his right eye twitching, a vein showing. "You...you...you...set me up didn't you! You pervert!"
Tsunade only smirked as he let out a short scream. Uzumaki Naruto, Legendary Sucker, she thought as he just kept ranting about perverts and what he'd do with them. He'll thank me in the end, Tsunade decided as she said to Naruto, "Oi, gaki! Shut up for a moment. This is important, regardless of wether or not I'm a pervert."
"You are you old hag!" Naruto said as Tsunade reached over the desk and flicked him sending him toppling over the chair.
"I'm doing this for your own good, so be thankful! If you succeed with those moronic conditions he put you through, you'll be a lot closer to becoming Hokage." Tsunade said distracting him from the real reason he was upset. "Imagine having the Hyuuga family behind you when you attempted to gain the Hokage position."
Naruto grinned that stupid grin whenever he was imaging becoming Hokage. "I bet the council would just roll over and die if Hiashi told them to make me Hokage." he said laughing, Tsunade shared a laugh with him.
"I bet they would, Naruto." Tsunade agreed, then sobered up. "You're going to have to learn a lot more then jutsus if you want to accomplish those conditions though."
"Is it true then?" Naruto remarked idly looking downcast. "Did the Kyuubi really kill all of my family? Every single one of them? Did the house I was supposed to grow up in really get sold off? What about my father...I had always figured I was just an orphan from the very beginning just picked because I was born on that night." Naruto said letting his mask crack ever so slightly, "I always hoped that somewhere...I had someone who was my family...but...I don't do I?"
Tsunade sighed as she looked at the morose boy. "Naruto...I'll lay it to you straight. You were the only child that the Uzumaki family had bore for a while and your mother died in childbirth." she sighed at this as a medical nin, it always bore heavily on her when people died and could be saved. "The Uzumaki Clan was known as the Beasts of Kohona."
"So...'um...I'm related to Gai?" Naruto asked sheepishly as she sighed.
"He took that name in honor of the Uzumaki Clan." she said.
"Okay, what about my house?"
"I'm not sure who has it. The Third couldn't stop the council from selling off most of your assets that should be rightfully yours." she said. Naruto just look downcast at this.
"What about the Wind Techniques?"
Tsunade thought for a minute. "I'm not quite sure about this...but your Uncle stored most of his scrolls in the East Kohona's library..." She stood up and pulled out a ledger from the shelves behind her. As she pursed through she nodded. "Alright. We might be able to do something about that. Yoshino stored his scrolls in a sealed chamber there."
"How do you open it?" Naruto asked with hunger in his eyes. Tsunade remembered that Jiraiya loved to get him to do things in promise of learning new jutsu.
"It doesn't say. It says only that it's sealed by the sign of Wind."
"I'll figure it out later." Naruto said as he put his mask of happiness back on. "All that's left is to find a way to provide income for an entire clan...how hard can that be?"
"Plenty hard." Tsunade said sternly as Naruto frowned. "But, I'm sure that will work itself out too. Now. Get some rest Naruto. It's midnight."
"Gah! Where'd the time go!" Naruto shouted as he quickly exited. Tsunade only sighed as she looked at the pile of paperwork she had neglected.
(Break)
Shizune smiled gently as she lead Hinata to the hospital. "This will only take a minute, Hinata-chan." she said as they entered her office. As she entered she closed the door gently and asked "Please remove your jacket, Hinata."
"A-ano? My jacket? Why?" Hinata asked nervously.
"Please just take it off. Hokage's Orders." Shizune said as she gently pulled the jacket off and bit back a gasp. Hinata was covered in bruises both new and old. "Hinata, you didn't do this training did you?"
"No..." Hinata admitted as Shizune clapped her hands together as a green glow surrounded her hands and she started to heal Hinata's body. "My father got angry with me for not marrying an important man from the village and proceeded not to beat me but to spar with me until I passed out from exhaustion." She sniffled as she let a few tears fall.
"Which turned into the same thing." Shizune said as she worked on healing her completely.
"At least it worked out in the end" she said in a happy blush. Shizune smiled at that as she worked on a nasty chakra burn on her lower back.
"You really like him don't you?" Shizune asked slyly. "Enough to where marrying him isn't a problem at all I bet." Hinata blushed a deeper red and began stuttering as Shizune laughed and said "Your only problem is that you haven't gotten him to notice you as a girl yet! I bet when you do that, he'll be all over you, as much as Nartuo-kun gets all over people." Hinata blushed crimson as a small jet of blood shot out of her nose. Shizune cackled at that and handed the girl a tissue.
(Break)
Inuzuka Kiba was annoyed.
In fact he was so annoyed he wanted to hit the current cause of it, which happened to be a certain blond haired prankster for making him this annoyed. It had started when he arrived at the training field, where they normally met up only to find Naruto sitting underneath his tree, drawing in a sketchbook. Kiba had to fight the wolf within him to resist kicking Naruto as hard as he could. Then, he found Hinata hiding behind a different tree, playing with a necklace that smelled like Uzumaki Naruto. Then, when he had found a different tree to sit under while waiting for his sensei showed up, Akamaru had managed to steal his pemmican and was munching on it happily. "Meh, at least I haven't gotten my ass kicked today...yet." he muttered as Naruto kept doodling. "Hey, Uzumaki! Did you learn anything interesting while you were away? Or, were you just slacking?"
"I wouldn't show you any of my new tricks, Inuzuka. You'd just copy them." Naruto commented airily waving his pencil.
"Hah! As if they were worth copying!" Kiba said annoyed.
"Pride comes before the fall, Kiba." Naruto said as he continued to draw. "You didn't think I was worth your time in the Chunnin Exams, two years ago. What happened? I kicked your ass!" Kiba remembered that painful memory. Naruto had more brains then he'd like to admit at times, and a lot more luck then he did.
"Bah, only because you let out some gas at the right moment." Kiba retorted as he added, "Yea, you surprised me. I think you surprised everyone but Hinata." Naruto looked thoughtful at this. His brow was scrunched up and he rested his head in the palm of his hand and he looked just like a..."Hey, Old Man Uzumaki!" Kiba yelled as he laughed.
"Old Man Uzumaki?" Naruto asked as he thought about himself in sixty years. He snickered. He laughed. He started rolling on the ground laughing his head off. Kiba looked at him strangely. Then he snickered as the mental image of Naruto in fifty years shouting his head off, and began laughing.
Hinata looked wide-eyed at both of the young men laughing their heads off and gave a slight giggle. "No matter how old you get, Naruto, you still can make almost anyone laugh." And, that's why I love you, she added in her head.
It was to this scene Kurenai arrived to. "Somehow, I don't think I want to figure out what they are laughing about." she said to herself as she looked at the two young men who were still laughing. She formed the half-tiger seal and concentrated as a large pop went off. Both laughing shinobi snapped to attention in different ways. Kiba just straightened and looked instantly dangerous. Naruto quickly drew two kunai and tossed them at the source of the noise and snapped to a crouching position. It wasn't much of an attack, but it bespoke of great paranoia.
"Whoa, watch it! That's our sensei your chucking Kunai at, Naruto!" Kiba growled as Kurenai just examined the kunai and sighed.
"How long have you had these kunai, Naruto?" she asked thoughtfully. She didn't know much about weapons, but she knew an used one when she saw it.
"...er...five...no...six years?" Naruto admitted sheepishly. Kurenai sighed.
"and, the shuriken you were going to toss at me?"
"I think I got them when...I was eight...so..." Naruto said as Hinata shot him a concerned look. Old ninja tools frequently broke during the heat of battle.
"You'll need new ones, these would just break in a direct confrontation." Kurenai said gently. Naruto was acting very un-Naruto like right now. The Naruto from her analysis did not act nervous, and his paranoia could be downright dangerous. This could be side-effect of Jiraiya's death. Normally, most of us would be crying or mourning in some way but he's just trudging along, Kurenai thought as she added to herself, Naruto's going to be on my team for quite a while. It might be my only chance of correcting his fundamental problems. "Why haven't you bought new ones?" she asked gently as he sighed.
Damn. Caught, Naruto thought as he prepared to smile and just shrug his way out of it. "A Hokage doesn't have time to get new weapons!"
"You mean no one will sell you anything, correct?" Kurenai said bluntly. Naruto just looked off into the distance.
"Well, I did a lot of things when I was younger. Pranks, and the like! You know how it is. You egg, a building you find yourself banned from almost every shop for the rest of your life." Naruto said simply. You mean being hated for something you have no control over, Kurenai added mentally.
"Alright, Hinata and Kiba. I want you guys to take today off." Kurenai said as Kiba grinned "Whatever you're thinking of doing right now, Kiba...don't. Naruto, come with me."
Naruto just nodded as they walked off together strangely silent. After they were far enough out of Kiba's hearing range. "Why didn't you complain to Sarutobi-sama when the shopkeepers turned you away?" Kurenai asked, avoiding the Kyuubi for now.
"I didn't know at the time." He said simply also avoiding the Kyuubi. "Where are we going exactly?"
"First, we're going to get you some new equipment. Then, I'm going to see what you can actually do." Kurenai said as they headed into town. As they entered the town, the stares of the villagers were annoying her. Has he really had to put up with all this killer intent as weak as it is for over fourteen years, she thought as she lead Naruto into the Administration District and into a small shop called "The Sixteen Blades". As the shopkeeper bustled up he looked at Naruto strangely and smiled. Kurenai smiled back. She wasn't expecting that type of a reaction. Of course, if what I heard about the man is true...he's a bit stranger then Gai and Kakashi in karaoke bar.
"You're Uzumaki Naruto, right?" the shopkeeper asked. Naruto looked wary as he nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" the shopkeeper said gleefully. "You got some real skills, you know that? Taking Neji down was no picnic I bet."
Naruto looked almost abashed from even a little bit of praise. "I...um...er...I'm...glad you think so!" he finished as he scratched the back of his head in relief.
"The name's Kuiza Norowichi. Friends call me Noro." he said loudly "I'm what you call an inventor!"
"In...ventor?" Naruto asked the strange word coming out of his mouth slowly. "What's that?"
"Well, I create things! Right now, I'm only making weapons though." Noro said. "But, that's not important right now. What're you looking for?"
"He's going to need at least fifteen good quality kunais. Fifty shuriken, and a small set of exploding tags." Kurenai said as Noro pulled out the various weapons from around his shop. Kurenai decided that if these weapons weren't as hair-brained as the man himself, that she'd buy from him as well.
(Break)
"Now, these Kunai are special, Naruto." Noro explained as he pulled out a blackened kunai. "I've been trying a new type of metal in my base iron, and this is the result!"
"It just looks burned though." Naruto said as he picked one up. "What makes this so different from the other kunai."
"It's a lightweight alloy." Noro said as Naruto just looked confused "A mixture. This mixture of metals makes this kunai lighter then most kunai and it keeps it's edge better then most weapons. The only problem is that it gets really brittle whenever I try to use the metal in a weapon bigger then a kunai! It's driving me bonkers!"
Naruto hefted one of the kunai as he threw it at the dartboard set up on the other side of the shop. It flew with sickening ease as it sped towards the target and stuck there. "Wow! That's awesome!" he shouted his normal exuberance back for once.
"It's not that fast. What have you been using for kunai, kid? Rocks?" the shopkeeper said as he looked at some of the weapons Naruto had traded in to reduce the cost. "That's odd."
Kurenai approached the man as he examined the weapon more. "What exactly is odd about that weapon?"
"It's made out of lead."
Kurenai narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Lead? What does that mean?"
"It means that this weapon was designed to be defective. That's what it means." the weapons inventor said as he looked at the other weapons. "It's amazing the weapons have lasted so long considering the stress and materials in the weapon." the shopkeeper remarked idly. "He must put a lot of care into them." Kurenai didn't say anything as she paid for the weapons and ushered Naruto out after he had promised to come back and test exploding tags with the man.
"He was nice." Naruto said a happy grin on his face. "He even slipped in those "carbon" kunai for free."
In his own way, Naruto was even worse off then Hinata, Kurenai decided as they walked out of the shop. He had inner strength, but his confidence was just bluffing. The moment he got put into a situation where he was complemented he almost froze. Her respect for the young man was rising, but something had to change and Kurenai didn't care what she had to do to change it. She owed him that much for saving Hinata, and for Hinata she'd change the world.
(End Chapter Three)
This update isn't as quick as I like but I enjoyed writing this chapter. Before anyone screams how Naruto is OC...don't. There's plenty of reasons why he is the way he is.
Also, I'm looking for interested writers in helping me write some side-stories in this AU universe. If you're interested drop me a line at grizzlyunderthere yahoo . Com.
Until next time.
Matt.