It had been a few days since they had left the royal palace in the land of ogres, and they had finally reached Konoha. Naruko and Shion marveled at the sight of the gates, they were so big! They had also loved the beautiful forests that reminded them of their home.
They walked up to the gates and they heard a voice yell.
"Halt! State your name and business." It said.
"Tsunade Senju, and it's none of your damn business what I do!" Tsunade yelled. "This is my daughter Naruko Senju and her friend, Shion. We're moving to the Leaf Village if you must know! Come on, I don't need this from these bastards." She grumbled as she stormed away, towing Naruko and Shion along with her.
"My name is Shizune! Tsunade-sama! Wait!" She yelled as she ran off towards her master, holding Tonton in her arms.
"Women, am I right?" Jiraiya said, walking off towards the Hokage Tower where he knew his wife was headed.
Tsunade had slowed down about half way there so as to allow the children to take it all in.
Naruko had been slightly impressed by how many ninja were jumping around the village. She also saw how big the village was compared to her old one. She was starting to get annoyed though.
She had kept hearing whispers of rumors about her already like, 'Is that Tsunade? And that young girl! By the look of it she's Tsunade's kid!' and such. They did realize she could hear them right?
She just sighed and decided to confirm the story.
"Kaa-san? Where are we going? And what about Tou-chan and Nee-chan? We kind of left them behind." Naruko said.
"Don't worry Naruko-chan. Your tou-chan and Nee-chan are smart, they'll find know where we are going. And we are going to the Hokage tower. All we need to do is get the keys to the house and meet with sensei, and you'll be okay to walk around. Remember, you two are taking the academy test tomorrow, it might not be such a bad idea to go over the basics again." Tsunade said.
"Auntie, are we going to be put on some lame team?" Shion asked. Tsunade had told them that they would most likely be on par with most Jounin, but they would need to start at genin and make their way through the ranks. So the genin here would be a lot weaker than them, after all, they were trained by two Sannin and a priestess.
Tsunade just laughed. "Well, I'm sure they might seem lame to you Shion-chan. Don't worry though, I'll make sure you two get on a good team."
"Thank you Kaa-san/Auntie!" Shion and Naruko said at the same time.
By this time, they had arrived at the Hokage Tower. Instead of stopping to check in with the secretary, Tsunade just kept walking with the two children following her. Jiraiya and Shizune shortly behind.
Tsunade just opened up the doors to the office despite the secretary's protests. She walked in and started talking.
"Sensei, order your ANBU out of here, this is a private meeting." She said.
The Hokage did so and looked at the two girls that stood behind his student. One he recognized as the future priestess of the land of ogres, and the other, Tsunade's daughter.
"Well Tsunade-chan, she's the spitting image of you and Minato-kun." He said.
"Thanks sensei, but that's not what this is about. I don't want to have to expose my daughter and niece to nasty politics yet, so could you give them the keys to the Senju clan property and a note explaining to their teacher about why they're there tomorrow." She said.
"Alright Tsunade, but you have to stay and talk to me about their progress and skills." He said as he reached down into a drawer.
He pulled out a set of keys and placed them on his desk, then, he wrote a quick note to Iruka. He decided he would surprise the man with the identity of his two new students the day they came in. So they got to see the look on his face.
He stood up and gave the key and note to Naruko who then smiled and thanked him.
"Well, me and Shion-chan are going to go sight seeing! Bye Kaa-san!" She said, giving her a hug. "Bye Tou-chan!" She said, hugging Jiraiya. "Bye Nee-chan!" She said, hugging Shizune. "Bye Tonton!" She said, waving at the pig.
"Bye Auntie, Uncle, Nee-chan, Tonton!" Shion said, leaving with Naruko.
"Tou-chan?" Sarutobi questioned.
"Oh, did I forget to tell you? Jiraiya and I got married about 5 years back." Tsunade said. Sarutobi's pipe fell out of his mouth, which was now agape.
"Yeah, I couldn't be happier." Jiraiya said, kissing Tsunade on the cheek. "Well, I guess I could, if Naruko-chan could actually turn off that damn alarm clock in the morning!" He said, making Tsunade and Shizune laugh.
Naruko sneezed as she and Shion walked out of the Tower.
"Damn, I'm gonna be sneezing all day if they keep talking about me." Naruko said.
Shion laughed. 'Well, where should we head first?" She asked.
"How about somewhere to eat?" Naruko said. "I'm famished after that whole trip."
"Sounds good to me! What should we eat?" Shion asked.
"I don't know. Ramen actually sounds pretty good to me." Naruko said.
"Oh yeah! I am definitely craving some ramen now." Shion said.
They stopped and asked a woman if she knew any good ramen places. She recommended a place called Ichiraku's Ramen. They thanked her and moved on to find the ramen place.
It was just an average day for Teuchi when he heard heels clicking on the ground outside of his shop. Not too many people wore heels, so he was wondering who it could be when he looked up. His eyes widened as the flap was lifted and he saw a young girl who looked exactly like Lady Tsunade.
"Tsunade-sama?" He asked.
The girl laughed. "Sorry, I'm afraid not. Tsunade is my kaa-san, I'm Naruko. Naruko Senju. See?" She said as she turned around, showing the back of her coat to have the kanji for 'Senju' instead of 'Gamble'. "I heard you guys have some pretty good ramen."
"Yes, we have the best ramen in the Leaf Village! I haven't seen you around here before, did you just get back from a long trip?" Teuchi asked.
Naruko laughed. "I suppose you could say that, I left a week after I was born, and came back today so I guess you could say it was a trip."
"Well, since it's your first day back, your first bowls of ramen are free okay?" He said, smiling.
"Thank you, Teuchi-san." Naruko and Shion said.
"No problem, now, what type would you like?" He asked.
"I'll take Miso please!" Naruko said.
"I'll have shrimp please." Shion said.
Teuchi set to making the ramen and was able to hear the two girls talking and remembering fond memories from their youth. He had figured out that these girls were obviously very close and had known each other for a long time.
He served them their ramen. Naruko and Shion split their chopsticks and said. "Itakimadiketsu!" Then, the two started eating, still talking but enjoying their meals. That's when Teuchi's favorite customer came in with a certain academy teacher.
"Hey, Naruto. How you doing?" Teuchi said.
"I'm great! Never a day when Naruto Uzumaki is down!" He exclaimed.
Naruko stiffened in her seat. Had she just heard right? If that boy was really Naruto Uzumaki, then that was the boy she owed a huge debt to. He was the one who took the fall for her and was used as the Kyuubi jinchurriki, her mom had gotten permission from the Hokage to tell her and Shion about it once they turned 10 years old.
"Ne, Naruko, is that?" Shion whispered.
Naruko nodded her head at her best friend. She suddenly felt uncomfortable, after all, what is she supposed to say? 'Thanks for housing a demon for me, I owe you one?' No!
She sighed as she watched him sit down with another man who looked to be in his mid-twenties. She looked at Naruto, he had three whisker marks on each cheek. Yep, definitely him.
"Ne, Iruka-sensei... so I really have that thing in me?" He asked.
"Yeah, you do." He whispered back to him.
"Why would the Yondaime choose me though?" He asked.
"I'm not sure Naruto, maybe he wasn't the man we all thought him to be." Iruka said. Naruko bit her lip. "Maybe he wasn't as noble as we thought, after all, using an orphan who didn't even have any parents to help take care of him from the harm the villagers tried to cause. I don't see why-" Iruka was stopped by Naruko standing up and slamming her fist on the table, it literally caused the stand to shake.
"Don't you dare talk about Tou-chan that way! It wasn't his fault! It was another person! And that person felt bad about it after and even worse after she found out about his parents! Your blaming Tou-chan for something he didn't even do!" Naruko yelled.
"Naruko-chan! That's enough." Shion said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Don't break this whole stand or that guy's bones just because he said something you didn't like. Calm down, remember what Uncle said? Keep calm, and carry on." Shion said.
Naruko let out a deep breath. "Thanks Shion-chan." She said.
"Two things, why did you call the Yondaime Tou-chan when he had no children, and how would you know anything about who he picked and why he picked them." Iruka said.
Naruko just rolled her eyes. "Figures, this village is full of lies. By the way, I called the Yondaime Tou-chan because he is my Tou-chan. After all, I've seen pictures of him and I have resemblance to him, though I more take after my mother." Naruko said.
"Mother? Who's your mother?" He asked.
"Why Lady Tsunade of the Sannin of course!" Naruko said.
Jiraiya lifted up the flap of the stand. "Ne, gaki, kaa-san felt your chakra spike and sent me to check on you, you okay?" He asked his daughter.
"I'm fine Tou-chan. Just frustrated for a second, Shion-chan calmed me down." She said.
"Ne, I'm sick of that stuffy old office of sensei's why don't we take a trip for sightseeing and go on top of your birth dad's head? How about it, Musume?" Jiraiya said. (Musume means daughter)
"Sure Tou-chan! Come on Shion-chan! Let's go!" Naruko exclaimed, as she and Shion made the sounds of clicking of heels down the street.
"I'm sorry Tou-chan... I just couldn't let him insult you like that." Naruko whispered to her father's head. "I feel so bad, for that boy... who knows what he had to go through as a kid. I mean sure, I didn't exactly have the most friends, but I had important ones, like Shion. And I had Kaa-san and Nee-chan. Then later I got Jiraiya as my tou-chan. By the way, I hope you don't mind that I call him tou-chan."
Naruko stood up and stretched, she had been there for awhile. It was probably around 11 o'clock, her kaa-san and tou-chan would be worried if she didn't get home soon. Her mom had shown up and dragged off Jiraiya a few hours earlier, and Shion went to see more around the village. She had wanted Naruko to come with her, but she declined and she wanted to stay up on her dad's head and think.
"Bye Tou-chan." She said then she turned and headed to the Senju compound.
She got there after a couple of minutes. She slid open the door to find her mom sitting at the table that was in the main room.
"Naruko-chan, where have you been?" She asked.
"I was... I was just talking to tou-chan." Naruko said. "Not Jiraiya, but, ya know, my birth tou-chan."
Tsunade got up and hugged Naruko. "I'm so sorry you never got to meet him. He would be so proud." Naruko started feeling hot tears fall on her shoulder. "He loved you, from the moment we both first found out I was pregnant with you, he loved you. I wish you could have met him, he was such a good man."
"I wish I could have met him too." Naruko said. "And Uncle Nawaki and Dan. And grandpa and grandma. Oh! Great grandma Mito and great grandpa Hashirama too! Oh yeah, and Grand Uncle Tobirama and his wife! It would have been so cool to have met all of my family!"
"Oh yes, we were quite the family. I bet your great grandpa would be so proud of you mastering his Mokuton ability. I wonder if you have Uncle Tobirama's high water ability. We have never really tested it to see if you could, hm, maybe we should check on that." Tsunade said.
"Hey kaa-san, what team am I gonna be on?" Naruko asked.
Tsunade laughed. "Now now, you'll just have to wait and find out like everyone else." Then she thought back to earlier that day.
Flashback
"Listen up Sensei! Your putting my daughter, my niece, and Naruto Uzumaki on the same team!" Tsunade said.
"Why should I do that?" Sarutobi asked.
"Because! Naruko and Shion are very close, and I guarantee you that if they aren't on the same team, they'll ask to leave the village and become freelancers, or join a different village, since they want to work together. And you should pair them with Naruto because with Naruko's Mokuton, she would be able to control the kyuubi if it ever got out or broke the seal." Tsunade said.
"Well Tsunade, that is a good case, but we still need to follow tradition. The dead-last, Naruto in this case, needs to be put on the same team as the rookie of the year, Sasuke, and the kunoichi with the highest grades, Sakura." He explained.
"Well, they are two extra! Why not just put them all on the same team? Make the first ever group of five. No use to just keep Naruko and Shion doing nothing when they are more than ready to be ninja." Tsunade said.
"Alright, I agree. We can make our first ever strike force, made of a six cell genin team." Sarutobi said. "Now that that's settled, tell me, how the hell did you and Jiraiya get together?"
Flashback End.
Tsunade smiled as she kissed her daughter good night. She walked to her room and slid into bed next to her husband. She drifted off into a deep sleep, thinking about her daughter and niece would start their ninja career the next day.