Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Not so sure I'd want to, either. Seems like a lot of work.

AN: This chapter has Kakashi in it. Here, he's a bit more helpful/concerned than he appears to be in canon, and he will continue to be this way. Got a problem with that? Read my profile.

Also, this will be a Naruto/Hinata/Temari pairing. I had wanted to include Tenten, but that just ain't happening in this fic. Another time, perhaps.

Rivers of Hades

Chapter 2

It had been two weeks since the Hokage had given Naruto his mother's inheritance. Naruto had put the time to good use. He had read through the clan information several times, making trips to visit Sarutobi when he needed something explained. Between the scroll and the Sandaime, he had figured out how his mother wound up in Konoha.

Five years before Naruto's birth, the Uzumaki clan, before the demise of Uzu no Kuni, decided that there was a very good chance that the clan would be destroyed. As a result, they decided to put a failsafe plan into action. Favors were called in, and it was arranged for one member of the Uzumaki clan to travel to and reside in each of the five great ninja villages. That way, regardless of what happened to the majority of the clan, someone, in theory, would be able to preserve and restore the clan. Sarutobi filled in the gaps as to what had happened to the other four.

The clansman sent to Kirigakure was unfortunately caught up in a riot resulting from the bloodline massacre. Since the Uzumaki had no kekkai genkai, he wasn't a target. He was a bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Uzumaki sent to Kumogakure had run afoul of the Raikage's supporters. Even back then, the Raikage had lusted after the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan, believing it would bring them power. The clan member had, true to the Uzumaki beliefs, made several arguments over how the Byakugan and the Jyuuken alone would not ensure a rise in power. Later, she was found dead, having been tortured and mutilated horribly. By this point, the rest of the clan had fallen, so there were no worries over breaking the contract ensuring her safety.

The third person, who, according to Sarutobi, was Naruto's cousin, had been sent to Iwagakure. He never arrived. The escort party was ambushed about halfway though the journey by an unknown group, and the recovery team that was dispatched could not find his body. Sarutobi told Naruto that if there were any other surviving Uzumaki, it would be this cousin. Finally, the woman sent to Sunagakure died shortly after her arrival there. The caravan taking her to Suna was attacked by bandits. She helped fight them off, but a bandit struck a lethal blow. She died two days later in the Suna hospital.

Naruto was now preparing to try and learn some of his clan techniques. He was annoyed to find out that more than half of the jutsu listed as Uzumaki-only could only be performed near a large body of water, like a sea or ocean, or lacking that, a deep, fast-moving river. One such jutsu was the Naruto no jutsu, which simply couldn't be performed in land-locked Konoha. That one he had really wanted to learn, if only because it had his name on it. He had also gotten Sarutobi's help preparing him for the day he would be ready to learn the six River techniques. The scroll with the information on them had included a set of seals that needed to be applied somewhere on the body in order to use the techniques. The seals themselves were nothing more than the sets of kanji for the attributes of each of the six Rivers (hatred, sorrow, etc.), and when properly applied, looked like tattoos. When asked where he wanted them, Naruto had them placed between his shoulders.

Right now, he was getting set to try one of the chakra control exercises specially developed by the Uzumaki clan. While the academy teachers had shown the students one involving a leaf, he wasn't doing so well with it, and the teachers would berate him for his lack of progress, when they weren't ignoring him outright. Then he had read in the scroll that, by default, an Uzumaki had poor chakra control using the standard control exercises, until they had at least attempted the Uzumaki ones. Hoping that this would remedy his troubles, he had spoken to the old man, and now Inu-san was accompanying him to an empty training ground.

According to the scroll, the exercise required a naturally formed whirlpool. Since Konoha was land-locked, Naruto had to improvise, and the scroll had provided a way to perform the exercise inland. All that was required was a pool of water at least five feet deep and ten feet wide. The training ground Naruto was heading for had a small waterfall with a basin that met the requirements. Once there, he would have to use a technique to create a whirlpool in the basin, and use chakra to hold himself on top of the whirlpool, and not get sucked under. In order to master the exercise, he would need to be able to successfully walk against the current inside a whirlpool spinning at full power. Now to any observer, this would have looked and sounded ridiculous. An academy student, attempting a harder variation of the water-walking exercise?

Naruto, however, was aware of the trick to helping him learn it safely. The jutsu that would create the whirlpool relied on the amount of chakra applied to affect the size and speed of the whirlpool. Since he lacked the ability to properly control the chakra used or to use the jutsu and hold himself up at the same time, Inu-san would be in control of the technique. Should Naruto fall in, Inu-san could quickly cancel the jutsu and pull him out. Since this was a nameless technique, designed specifically for training, Naruto had no reservations about showing Inu-san how to perform it.

Once they arrived, Naruto set down a backpack containing some towels and a change of clothes. For this exercise, he was wearing black swimming trunks and a white undershirt, since he didn't want to walk home in a soaking wet orange jumpsuit if he could help it.

"Ready, Naruto-kun?" came the slightly distorted voice from behind the porcelain dog mask.

After Naruto nodded, the ANBU began channeling chakra into the water, causing it to spin. In less than a minute, a whirlpool matching the description of the beginner's level of the exercise had formed. Naruto took a moment to focus and began channeling chakra to his feet like he was told. As one would expect, he didn't stay on top at all, but for this, it didn't matter. For beginners, all that mattered was not touching the bottom and using chakra to hold yourself in place as long as possible. Then, as control improved, you would push yourself up further out of the water until you could stand on the water.

The water was cold, but not too bad. Inu-san's chakra had the extra effect of warming the water slightly. It had been warmed enough to where Naruto wouldn't be risking hypothermia. Had there not been the waterfall continuously adding cold water, and the stream taking away the warmed water, it could have been better.

After an hour, Naruto was told to come out, so Inu-san could give his chakra coils a much-needed rest.

The ANBU muttered, "Geez, creating and sustaining the whirlpool must double as a chakra-building technique. It's harder than it looks."

"That may be true, but the control part of it sure works. Check it out!" Naruto had decided to see if there was any noticeable improvement with the leaf exercise, and there was. Before, the leaf had hovered about a foot above where it was supposed to, and Naruto's efforts in the past hour had shaved two or three inches off of the height.

"Interesting. Normally, you would be a jounin before you could hold the leaf that far off your body."

"Really? So I'm almost jounin level? That's awesome!" Naruto started jumping up and down at that.

"Whoa, hold on there. The only things remotely close to jounin level about you are your stamina and chakra reserves. The combination of jounin level chakra reserves and sub-Academy student level control is just asking for trouble."

"So...do you think maybe that's why I have so much trouble with the bunshin? My henge and kawarimi are pretty bad too, but I can at least make them work halfway decently."

"It is possible. Normally, by the time a ninja makes jounin, or even chuunin, they've already learned an advanced bunshin jutsu, and either stop using the academy one altogether, or only use it rarely. To be honest, the only shinobi I can think of that regularly use the basic bunshin are the academy teachers."

"Advanced bunshin? Can you teach me one? Please?" Naruto begged, even attempting puppy dog eyes, but it only succeeded in making the ANBU laugh.

"Nice try, but that doesn't work on me. Only women can pull that off really well. As for the jutsu, I don't think so. If you already a genin, I'd consider it, but not an Academy student."

"Crud. Then, would you at least tell me about them?"

"Hmm. Okay, I'll tell you about the two most common bunshin techniques besides the academy one. Then, we go back to training. Deal?"

"You got it!" Naruto was glad he had gotten that much of the ANBU. Normally, no one besides the old man would answer his questions.

"Alright. After the academy-level bunshin, the most common technique is the Mizu Bunshin, which forms solid clones from nearby water sources. If there isn't a water source nearby, you need to pull water from the air around you, which is very difficult. Only the Nidaime was good enough to do it on a regular basis, earning him a reputation as a very powerful ninja. After that, there's theTsuchi bunshin. Again, it forms solid clones, this time out of the ground around you, so it can be used in more places. Now then, back into the water."

"Ok, ok. Thanks for the info though. Should I try holding myself in place longer, or start trying to push myself out of the water?"

"Well, whatever you do, don't go one way or another. In order to master this, you need to be able to do both at the same time. You can't do that if you don't try to combine the two at some point before then. Right now, I'd focus more on staying in place more, and try to raise yourself up a little bit."

"Oh. Ok." With that, Naruto resumed the exercise, trying to work on two different things at once. By the time the two decided to call it a day, Naruto could hold himself about two inches out of the water and hold fall in for about ten minutes. Not the best, but not too shabby for one day's effort. He also had the leaf exercise down to the point where it would have earned a pass for any student (except him).

"So, 4:00 on Monday, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, that should work. I'll be done with the academy for the day by then. I think I'll just spend the rest of today working on a clan taijutsu style I saw. The scroll says that a master of this style can beat both the Sharingan and the Byakugan."

That got the ANBU's attention. "Many ninja claim to have developed a that a style like that, but they've all failed. So how does yours work?"

"Well, both doujutsu allow the user to see chakra. So, to counter them, you channel so much chakra that it either blinds them if you're fighting a Hyuuga, or makes it so they can't see what you're doing, if it's a Uchiha. They would know only the most general of movements, like which direction you would come in at, or if you're going to punch or kick, but wouldn't be able to see if it is a closed fist, an open fist, or a hand weapon attacking. Also, doing this prevents them from copying jutsu. They can't copy the seals if they can't see the seals, right?"

The ANBU was at a loss. 'It makes sense in theory, but how does he know so much?' "I suppose, but how do you know so much about their kekkai genkai? That sort of information is highly classified."

"Before she died, my mom took notes on all the kekkai genkai in the village, and came up with a bunch of possible strategies on how to beat them. It's up to me to see if any of them work, though."

'This should be interesting.' The ANBU muttered to himself, "I should have known. The Uzumaki dislike of kekkai genkai was legendary in the shinobi world. Of course she would have wanted to prove her point here, where kekkai genkai are worshiped."

"Um, Inu-san?" The ANBU turned to look at Naruto. "My clan didn't dislike kekkai genkai, at least not not as much as what you might think. They disliked it when clans became dependent on them to fight. Second, you knew my mother?"

"I knew of her, but I never really got the chance to meet her. What I do know is that she had a reputation as being a true kunoichi, not some pathetic fan-girl type. Now, I thought you were orphaned at birth. How could you know about the Uzumaki clan?"

"I was. Mom died after I was born, and my dad died fighting the Kyuubi. The Yondaime had ordered the old man not to tell me about Mom until I was ready. He told me about two or three weeks ago."

'Sensei, what could have prompted you to do that?' "What about your father and his family?"

"Not much. Oji-san said that most of that would have to wait until I either turn sixteen or make Chuunin. What I do know is that they had pretty much the same attitude as the Uzumaki on things like kekkai genkai."

'Huh. Why does this sound so familiar?' "Anything else?"

"Yeah. The rest of my inheritance is in a scroll in oji-san's office, sealed with a emblem dealing with wind and waves."

Naruto heard the sound of someone choking, and looked at the ANBU, only to see him lying on his back, coughing.

'By the Kami! There's no way he could be sensei's son! I mean, aside from the hair, the...eyes, and ...oh shit. Damn it, how could I miss this? Without the whiskers, he looks just like sensei! Hatake, you idiot! Take you own advice and look underneath the underneath!'

"Are you okay, Inu-san?"

"Ahh, yeah. A fly flew into my mask and down my throat."

'How could a fly get though that mask?' "Alright, I'll see you on Monday, then. Bye."

Naruto walked out of the training area, leaving the ANBU to sit up, one thought running through his head.

'I need to talk to Sandaime-sama about this.'

-- -

Next time: Back to the academy.