Disclaimer: Ok so if you don't know it yet...once again I don't own Naruto. If I did. . . well let's just say I'd be living much larger than I am.

Hubby: Rose just write the story.

Disclaimer: Well, you know this is true. We'd be living much larger than we are now. Maids and someone to answer the door and the phone and someone to cook for me...

Hubby: Quit dreaming and write, Rose. You made them wait long enough. (me too)

Disclaimer: Oh alright you grump. On with the story. . . Chapter Ten: Hyuuga Entrance

Morning came and found the little cabin to be quiet. Naruto had woken hours earlier and gone outside to greet the day. He'd fed the deer that walked along the trail beside the cabin and left some radish tops for the rabbits. For the birds, he sprinkled some seeds and bread crumbs Jiraiya had helped him get the day before and corn was left for the squirrels.

Jiraiya took him for a hair cut. He'd sat nervously but quietly as the woman had wielded the sharp scissors over his head. He'd noted Jiraiya was carefully watching the woman also and that caused him to relax a little bit as the golden locks dropped to the floor below him. His hair was still long enough to be bound back in a braid that reached the center of his back but it was clipped short around his face. His blue eyes shone clearly now as did his headband that he'd never lost or removed during his years away.

Then they had gone shopping, walking slowly through the market place. Jiraiya had stayed close by and his presence kept people from getting too close. They'd gone into a few stores but hadn't stayed long. Jiraiya had chosen some new clothes for him and new weapons but Naruto showed little interest. He held what Jiraiya handed to him and tried on the clothes he picked. But that was as far as his involvement in the shopping expedition went. Some of the store owners tried to dote on him because of Jiraiya's presence but Jiraiya just brushed them aside. Others tried to refuse him service because of who he was but Jiraiya brushed them aside also. He went in where he wanted and pulled Naruto along behind like a little child's pull-toy.

They had avoided the training grounds where the others of his class might be practicing and when they had passed by Ichiraku's Naruto had made no move to go inside. His total lack of reaction had surprised Jiraiya but the man said nothing as Naruto passed by the stand. When he was finally in a spot to see the faces carved on the side of the cliff, Naruto stopped and stared for a long time. He didn't cry but his expression had become so intensely sad it made Jiraiya want to mourn for him. Even knowing about the battle, he knew the pain Naruto felt was worse than anything he had ever experienced.

While they had been walking around the village people had gathered in teahouses and bars to gossip about his strange behavior. The prevalent question on everyone's mind was why was he back now? No one knew but everyone was curious about it. Around the village his old friends heard the rumors and tried to find him. Some saw him but a quick glance from Jiraiya had them backing away before Naruto saw them. Jiraiya acted like he might snap at any moment and they didn't know what to think when they later met up with other friends and teammates. By nightfall word had spread that he was back but he was not the same Naruto he had been. Gone was the loud boisterous behavior that had driven everyone so nuts and yet had made every day a joy to be alive. Now he was a quiet solemn boy who only looked like the old Naruto.

Meeting up at the Bar-b-que place favored by the Ino Shika Cho team the former rookie Nine plus three discussed what to do. Ino showed her maturity by declaring that they do nothing at all. She said that if Jiraiya was shadowing naruto so closely that maybe it was in everyone's best interest to just wait until they were told it was ok to visit him again. Shikamaru backed her up saying that if Naruto needed some space and time than as his friends it was their duty to give it to him no matter how troublesome it was. Lee couldn't accept just standing back and doing nothing and neither could Kiba so they compromised. They would go and see Tsunade. If she said Naruto should see them then they would try to find him and force a meet but if she said to back off and wait then that's what they would do. They all admitted they really hoped she'd say it was in his best interest to meet up with them again but Ino knew that wasn't what they would hear. She had been learning alot from her parents over the last six years and knew Naruto needed space and time to recover his mind in peace.

Tsunade had sat in her office trying to get through massive amounts of paperwork detailing missions gone right and missions gone wrong. She tried to file upcoming missions according to rank needed for probable completion but it was hard to accomplish anything with all the interruptions of nins and civilians stopping by wanting to know the truth of his return.

Koharu and Homura both wanted to know why, if he'd finally returned, he wasn't in prison and she told them for the same reason the Uchiha wasn't imprisoned upon his return. He was ill. They insisted that his case was not the same as the Uchiha child's. The Uchiha had been run off by him and they had known where he was all the time. If that boy hadn't been so jealous they'd have the Uchiha back long before he had finally returned. Koharu pointed out, as proof of her claim, the fact that when the Uchiha had finally returned it was with the news that the Demon wasn't coming back. Therefore she concluded it is logical to see that we are in danger so long as that beast is left free to roam as he pleases. She tried to claim that they owed it to the Uchiha child to gaurantee his safety by locking up the Demon Brat. She insisted that if they didn't the Uchiha Child might run again and that would not be in the best interest of Konoha. Tsunade countered with the fact that Koharu misread the relationship between naruto and Sasuke if she thought for one minute that either boy was afraid of the other. She stated that if Sasuke did run this time she would not be sending anyone after him to bring him home again. She had wasted enough of her time and resources chasing after the spoilt boy of a man.

This declaration made Koharu angry and she ranted about past misbehavior assiociated with Naruto until Tsunade was seriously ready to strangle her just to shut her up. Tsunade had been informed that he was to be delivered to the prison no later than sunrise as they knew the Demon could not possibly be ill, especially since he'd been seen just that morning in the market district terrorizing the shop owners. She snorted but gave no answer to their threats. She was the Hokage and when it came to the ninja's in the town she answered to no one. Though she had no proof yet she was sure they had something to do with Kakashi's secondary orders to make sure Naruto did not return to the village six years earlier. But without proof she could do nothing. One thing was sure though. She wouldn't be allowing them any say over him now or ever again. She sneered as they turned and left her office only to see Hyuuga Hiashi waiting in her ante-room with his daughters, Hinata and Hanabi. She sighed but beckoned them inside. Hiashi inclined his head and rose from the seat he'd patiently been waiting on.

He came into the office followed by his daughters, who carefully took seats next to each other on the couch along the back wall. Once he saw they were seated as ladies of their station should be he addressed the Hokage. "So from the exit of those two, I take it the rumors of the boy's return are true." It wasn't a question but Tsunade nodded anyway. "What is your plan to keep him safe this time? You know there are many who were hoping he was gone for good and they won't be happy to find he's back."

"I know but he isn't the same, Hiashi. Something broke in him during that battle all those years ago and we weren't told the truth of it either. I have to come up with an appropriate punishment for those who left him to die alone. I have to come up with a suitable way to express my displeasure with a sensei who thought it ok to let him battle two S-class nins alone. To let him fight the ghost of his own father as well as the ghosts of every person he'd ever loved and respected. I can not worry about stupid townspeople afraid of the big bad boogie man under their beds right now."

"What do you mean, left him to die? What did that fool of a sensei do to him?"

"Just what I said. Apparently he had orders from outside my office. Orders to make sure Naruto did not return. After the battle was over Naruto was somewhere between six and seven tails. He was struggling to regain control I believe but that man just left him there. He walked off and left him to regain control alone, Hiashi. As far as they knew he was dead when he didn't show up at the camp they'd made. Neither of them bothered to make sure. I also need to find out where those secondary orders came from."

"And that scum is still a ninja because?"

"Because the council would have a fit if I stripped him of his title over an event six years old or longer. An event I can't prove. Naruto spent an entire year right outside our gates being refused entry every single day. If it wasn't for Kakashi seeing him approaching one day he might still be camping right outside never knowing how much I, and others, wanted him back. Because of that, I can't strip Kakashi of his nin status though I am sorely tempted."

"Demote him," came a soft but firm voice from the couch. "He deserves that and more."

Hinata was sitting still with a fire burning deep in her eyes. She had always seen more in Naruto than most did and she alone knew how poorly he was treated by everyone in town. At first, when she was younger, she had thought her life was hard. Then she had met Naruto. Right away she had seen through his mask and she began to follow him around wondering what his life was like that he wore such a total and complete mask all the time. She had seen the villagers beating on him and abusing him for little or no reason. She'd told her father what she'd seen and heard. He'd turned away admonishing her to stay away from the boy but she couldn't and she didn't. He gave her inspiration to keep trying no matter how many times she failed. She would watch him knock himself out trying only to get up and do it again over and over again.

Over time her father came to realize what she saw in the boy and began to listen as she told of what she'd seen. Sometimes he would even ask her what she'd observed. He saw a different side of his kind and gentle daughter and came to realize that when he focused her spars on an enemy of Naruto's she could totally clean the opponents clock. She had no mercy with those who were unfriendly to Naruto. Now she could hardly contain herself. Hiashi recognized the anger in his gentle daughter and knew it would be a mistake to let her around any of the group who had left the boy to die alone.

For him, just seeing the boy made his eyes hurt. It was like looking into too bright a flame after being in total darkness. A walking, talking orange ball of sunshine on the street corner. But Hiashi had seen that Naruto's words gave her strength and helped her resolve and that made her a better heir to the clan so he took to using Naruto's language to help her.

Hiashi said, "I, and my daughters, should have gone looking for him as soon as they came home without him. Hinata was suspicious of their story from the start but I wouldn't listen. Maybe if I had we'd have found him sooner. How is the boy? I had heard he was like a wild animal, silent in his approach and manner."

Again Tsunade nodded. "He is but he's getting better. He doesn't say more than is needed but he had the most unusual visitor I have ever encountered in my life. Well I didn't encounter her. Jiraiya did but he swears she called Naruto the Child of the Elements and commanded him to live. And I know for a fact Jiraiya wasn't drunk because I questioned Naruto after he woke up. He slept for a week after Kami came to visit and when he woke up is when he began to speak again. I asked him about it and at first he just called his visitor Mother but when I asked who she was he pointed out the figurine in the garden wall niche. He told me he is here because she wanted him to be here. But he doesn't care about anyone any more. I don't think he remembers how to. He cares about nature and everything in it. Jiraiya said they had to buy bird and squirrel food as well as food for the rabbits and deer who wander near the cabin. Naruto insists on feeding them all." A small smile softened her eyes as she remembered seeing him set out the various types of food. She remembered Jiraiya cussing as he hit his thumb driving nails into a squirrel feeder Naruto insisted was needed and getting varnish on his nose as he varnished a birdbath for the yard.

"So how can we help you to protect him until we find out why Kami sent him back to us? She has to have had a reason. While I find it hard sometimes to believe in her it's equally hard not to and even I know she does nothing without a reason. You say she commanded him to live and called him a Child of the Elements. What did you mean?"

"I mean according to Jiraiya she named him six times; once for each of the elements. She also called him her Child and her Gift. And as for why she sent him back to us, I believe she knew I would help him to live again. Something he really wasn't doing before. Jiraiya had him out for some sparring practice yesterday and I believe he is going to do so again today but as soon as I can get him to accept one of you without firing up his chakra I'd like to find out what your eyes can see that my scans, and Yamato, couldn't."

"Is the demon seal still there?"

"I don't know. Yamato looked, or tried to look, the other night but neither of us have been privileged with a look at his stomach when he's had his chakra in use. That's what I'd really like to know since, according to what I found out, the only way he could have escaped that battle was to die first."

Both girls gasped as tears sprang to Hinata's eyes. Even Hiashi drew in a startled breath. "If he died then why isn't Kyuubi in charge or dead along with him?" he asked when he regained his composure.

"I'm not sure. I think it's probably because the Fox realized what was happening and did something to make it seem the boy was dead while he really wasn't."

Hiashi nodded and said, "Send me a personal message when you think it'll be alright for one of us to meet with him. I'll bring Hinata since she has always been his friend and is, besides yourself, the one person in this place he would be most likely to trust."

"I will and thank you, Hiashi. Your support means a lot to me and to him even though he doesn't know it right now. Also can you look into who was behind the secondary orders Kakashi had to abandon Naruto on that mission? Somehow I have the feeling you'll find out alot more about it than I will."

Hiashi inclined his head. "It's the least I can do after the many times that boy has been willing to lay down his life for someone in this village. I've never met anyone as generous of soul as he is. That kind of generosity must be supported and renewed whenever possible lest it wear off and disappear." He motioned to his daughters. They stood and bowed low to Tsunade before falling into place behind their father.

The trio marched out to be replaced by others of the Rookie Nine with their Senseis. And so the rest of the day went as group after group came to hear whether or not the news was true. Some had heard whispers that Kyuubi was in control and the Hokage was fighting for Naruto to regain command of himself while others had heard he was only there to collect a bounty on a missing nin he'd killed for them. Wild stories about why he'd come back flew even faster than the news of his return had.

Author Notes: Ok This chapter was a long time in coming. You can blame Two-Tails for that. he just had to go and get his own computer and load on this huge game that had like Mega sized downloadable patches that took like three days to do and kept me locked out of the internet the whole time. And then there is the bonus of the length of the chapter. It takes time to work all these little plot strings into the matrix in a believable way. Plot Bunnies are really nasty little creatures. Anyhow, don't forget reviews help keep the story moving along so send them in with your comments of how to improve my writing or errors I've made. And no Koharu may not like Naruto but she wouldn't hire Kakashi to abandon him or kill him. Someone else did that and I'm not telling you just yet. As always enjoy. Mother Rose