Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 7: Who I Am
X-23 was at the library again, hoping to find a name. Today, there was a woman by the children's section reading a book aloud to a group. X-23 stopped her search for names and joined the listeners, wondering if one of the characters in the book being read would have a name she would like.
Naruto was practicing his wind clone. It had taken a lot of effort, but he had advanced the clone to the point where it was both resilient, strong, opaque, and had a deadly wind blast when violently dispelled. They could dispel with only a gentle breeze when doing so voluntarily.
The seal sequence was: dog to gather wind chakra, boar to make the wind solid, dog to increase the amount of wind, ram to increase the power of the wind, monkey to give the gathered chakra shape, boar to stabilize it, and finally the clone seal to form the partially molded chakra into wind elemental shadow clones. It was six hand seals and it took Naruto a great deal of concentration to get it right, but it worked as well as he could ever hope for it to work.
He knew the jutsu inside and out and couldn't think of any way to improve upon it that wouldn't come with an unacceptable cost. It would be slow enough in battle already. He knew that seals could be eliminated with practice, but Naruto wondered how. Perhaps if he learned how to make wind chakra without using the dog seal he could cut out three hand seals at once. A three seal jutsu wasn't bad, it was no worse than the replacement and since his chakra was naturally aligned with wind, it should be the easiest element for him to learn.
Naruto formed a dog seal and focused chakra, feeling how the chakra compared to when he formed the ram seal. This chakra became sharp and flowed freely like a slashing blade thrown through the air and twisting like a ribbon in the wind. Pressure and sharpness were what he felt. He needed to replicate that feeling. Naruto drew up his chakra and tried to form it like the dog seal had, but couldn't tell if he has succeeding. He needed some measure of progress. He got a piece of paper and tore off a square, concentrating on the cutting aspect of the wind chakra. His chakra flowed into the paper and nothing happened.
Naruto formed the dog seal while focusing chakra into the paper. This time the paper was cut nearly in half. Not for the first time Naruto marveled at the way that knowledge of how the hand signs worked made making and modifying jutsu easier. It made him wish he had paid more attention to the boring lectures in the academy. Things like this really hadn't seemed so important then, but now he could see the practical benefits. He wondered if he could use wind to make his rasengan stronger. That was a project for another time, when he was actually good with using wind. He found the sheet of paper with the details of his rasengan and wrote down a reminder to try to make it using wind chakra.
Everyone had started moving. The story wasn't over but the woman had stopped reading.
"I'll be back next week at ten to continue," the reader said, "if you want to come by and listen."
X-23 had found she enjoyed listening to a book being read aloud. It was peaceful and relaxing. She had almost fallen asleep despite the number of unfamiliar people nearby.
"Can you tell me what book you were reading?" X-23 asks.
"It's Little House on the Prairie by Laura Wilder," the woman responded, "I chose the book because my name is Laura as well."
X-23 nodded. "I will come again if I have no conflicting engagements."
X-23 and Naruto arrived at the Xavier institute and headed towards the Danger Room with Wolverine.
"I have decided on my name," X-23 announced suddenly.
"Nani!?" Naruto, surprised, spun to face her. "What name?"
"Don't leave us in suspense," her father added gruffly.
"I have decided on Laura Logan," she said.
"Got some alliteration working for you there," Wolverine said with a grin.
"Is nice name, but Laura Uzumaki is better!" Naruto said, causing her to blush, "Then you is being like my sister!"
"I don't want to be your sister," Laura said a little harshly, causing Wolverine to laugh and Naruto to get depressed. "But, I don't mind the name..." This confused Naruto even more.
"Come on, we're burning daylight and there is training to be done." Logan shoved the two teens forward towards the danger room.
"Let's start at level fifteen today," Laura suggests.
Naruto put down his slip of paper as Dr. Strange entered the room. The paper had a small cut in the edge.
"I just received a call from Mr. Stark. He has a package for you to pick up this afternoon, and he thinks you're going to like it."
Naruto arrived at Stark Tower and found that they really had taken his suggestions to heart. Not only were there now two walls creating an airlock type entrance but there were separate ones for entry and exit. The guard recognized him immediately and Naruto grinned sheepishly at him and stepped through the first door. Sirens went off.
"If you are carrying any metal objects, please remove them for inspection."
"Is having only clothes," Naruto whined.
"Please step out of the booth."
Naruto backed out into the entrance hall and watched as a robot entered the little room from the other side before the door opened for him again. When Naruto entered the chamber again, the robot held out a rod that squealed whenever it came close to Naruto. The doors sealed and the guard picked up the phone. After a few minutes of talking the second door opened and Naruto was gestured through.
"Mister Stark explained about your bones setting off the sensors. You will be receiving special authentication so you won't need to go through the usual process from now on," the guard said. "Take elevator one, it will take you to Mister Stark."
Naruto went to the bay of elevators. One opened for him automatically and he entered. It rose rapidly, stopping at the top floor where Tony was waiting for him.
"I think you'll be happy with what I came up with," Tony said, leading Naruto to the same lab he had been tested in. On a small pedestal was a strange looking dagger. It had a black ring at the end of the handle like a kunai. The blade was diamond shaped, almost the same as the melee kunai he helped design, but the middle of the blade was hollow and it was sharpened both inside and out. Most of the blade was a dull black color. Only the sharp edges were a vibrant bluish silver, a tint that Naruto recognized well from being on the end of Laura's claws during sparring.
"This blade is mostly composed of an alloy of osmium, iron, and nickle. This special allow is extremely dense and strong without becoming especially brittle and best of all uses only elements that work well with your chakra. The blade edges are made of a vibranium filament coated with lead, then a layer of adamantium. Because of the adamantium, you can block edge on without worrying about damaging the blade and cut through pretty much any material with enough force. Now, the real test. Naruto pick up that blade and try to stab through that sheet of armored steel."
Naruto took the dagger, he could not really refer to such a modified weapon as a kunai anymore, and stabbed it into the indicated slab of metal with all his purely physical strength. It embedded itself about a quarter of an inch into the metal.
"As expected. Now, this time, channel a little chakra into the weapon when you do it," Tony suggested.
Naruto focused a small amount of chakra into the blade and felt it begin to hum. It was kind of tingly in his hand. He thrust his hand forward and the dagger only stopped because his fist had slammed against the plating. The dagger had gone in up to the hilt and he had not noticed the resistance.
"SUGOI!" Naruto cheered. He stabbed and sliced at the metal plating. No, there was resistance, he just hadn't noticed it at first. It was like cutting through a thick gel.
"Are you done?" Tony asked once Naruto had reduced his target to scrap metal.
Naruto flushed and nodded.
"Now for the important information. Don't use your red chakra in the blade or you will destroy the vibranium. It is designed in a way that it is possible to replace, but only by destroying everything except the adamantium, and that would cost you more than you're likely to make in a year of work. Without the vibranium, all you have is a very strong knife. It's the reaction between the vibranium and your chakra that causes ultra-high-frequency vibrations that disperses matter in front of it, or if the matter is dense enough, grinds it away like your rasengan but focuses at a single point. The real trick when building this weapon was isolating your hand from the vibrations enough that you could hold on to it," Tony preened. He then went back to the pedestal and picked up a metal box shapes like a pentagon with one tip elongated that had a leather fastener on one side. "And so you don't accidentally stab yourself or anyone else, I'm throwing in a free magnetic holster. The blade will never touch the sides so you don't have to worry about breaking it, and it adds a little push to speed up your quick draw. I recommend practicing that somewhere safe though."
Getting an idea, Naruto formed a dog seal and focused wind chakra into the blade. He needed to try three times before he noticed when he stopped passing through air and started passing through steel. He really wanted to master wind chakra now.
Now that he had a weapon, Naruto found that he wasn't at such a big disadvantage sparring against Laura. Her foot claws were still a factor he had trouble with, but things were a lot more even now when they went all out.
His wind clones were proving to be especially troublesome for her. Since she had no ranged attacks, she had to take the full brunt of their explosions every time and they often caused chain reactions. Unfortunately for Naruto, he sometimes got caught up in those chain reactions as well.
His fortified clones were extremely adept at using his ninja skills to get in a suicidal attack. Sometimes it was just a punch, other times it was a rasengan to the face.
"Your abilities are impressive, but your hand to hand still sucks," Laura commented after a particularly brutal exchange that left them both bloodied and healing, "But, you are getting faster."
"Is getting used to having metal bones. Was much faster before," Naruto replied.
The two by mutual unspoken consent stopped for a breather. They had been battling for almost three hours. Had they not been in the astral field, there probably would not have been much of the Sanctum left standing. Had anyone not known them, they would have thought the two wanted to kill each other.
The door opened and Dr. Strange called out, "Naruto, I've finished analyzing the seal. If you could come to my study, I'll explain what I've found."
"Hai!" Naruto got to his feet, then helped Laura up, twitching his head sideways in a way that meant that he'd like it if she came along but she didn't have to if she didn't want to. He knew she sometimes got jealous that he has some somewhat mystical aspects just as he sometimes got jealous of her claws. But then, she would probably get jealous if left out as well. Since she was his best friend and already knew about his demon, he really didn't have anything he needed to hide from her. Her life literally started the moment he rescued her, so there was nothing he didn't know about her. He'd never had anyone like that before, either they were keeping secrets from him or he was keeping secrets from them. He grinned happily as she followed him.
The study was full of papers. Some were in piles. Some were hung on the walls. Some were spread out on the floor so the interconnecting designs would have room to be displayed. One large piece was on Dr. Strange's desk and depicted his seal in its compressed form. The three sat down in front of the paper.
"I could tell two things immediately when I first examined the seal. First, whoever made the seal was a genius of sealing. I have only seen one or two mystical arrays of comparable skill created by mortals. Second, he has never sealed a demon before or the knowledge to do it properly was not available on your world."
Naruto shrugged. "I is not knowing."
"We'll start out with this spiral in the center. Do you know what this is?" Dr. Strange asked.
"Is like put in seal I is showing first day," Naruto said.
"Yes, it creates an extra-dimensional pocket that is linked to your chakra system. It is a very large space because it needs to hold something very powerful and it constantly drains a small amount of your energy to keep it from degrading. This was very smart because otherwise the demon would eventually begin to corrode the seal because of the nature of its chakra and it would eventually escape. It also has one other function. It connects the demon directly to your chakra system. When you die and your chakra disperses, the demon will follow and there is a chance that it would actually be dragged all the way into the afterlife. I wouldn't bet on it though."
"Kyuubi is always saying he is only giving chakra because if I die he die," Naruto confirmed.
"And this is probably the only reason the demon hasn't tried to break the seal by killing you, which it is more than capable of doing thanks to a small mistake on the part of the person who made the seal. Now the next important part is the eight pillars. These are the restraints that keep the demon inside. These are largely based on your own willpower and use the power of the elements wood, metal, air, and fire. Now here is where the mistake lies. This eight pillar seal is made of two four pillar seals. They could have sealed the chakra away completely, but they wanted you to be able to use it. You can see here that there is a small break on either side of the seal. This allows unfiltered demonic chakra through and into your system."
"Is really bad?"
"Unfiltered chakra is still controlled by the demon. That means that you always had small amounts of chakra inside your body that the demon could use to directly influence you. When you drew on more, you gave the demon more influence. Frankly, it's a testament to your incredible willpower that the demon did not take over your mind when you were still an infant, but there were side effects. Visibly, you always have your whisker marks. If the demonic chakra was filtered, those would disappear. You also think more like the demon, more like a wild animal. You find intellectual pursuits boring and prefer to work your body and fight. You were probably never thought of as very smart, but Laura praises your spur of the moment battle tactics. It would probably take an example of how something could be used to make something explode before you bothered to learn it."
Naruto blushed as he thought about his recent interest in hand seals and wind chakra.
"If filter is added, I change?" Naruto asked.
"No, not right away at least. Your personality is shaped by experience as well and you have had your whole life living as you are. You wouldn't suddenly like books, but you might not find it such a chore to read when you think the information will be useful to you. You won't suddenly become a strategic genius, but you might start leaping into battle with a plan in mind once in a while, rather than thinking of one after you've engaged the enemy. Of course these are only guesses. For all I know, the demon barely had any influence at all over your personality, but I know it wasn't a lot because I know you aren't a bad person."
Naruto looked down in embarrassment and blushed.
"Now, this hole is not a fixed size, it can be loosened or tightened, but it requires a key which we don't have. I have no plans to mess with it, so I don't see any reason why that matters other than the fact that there were arrangements made to allow for more or less of the demon chakra to regularly leech into your system."
Dr. Strange paused for a moment, rubbing his fingers through his beard.
"Now, naturally, that is all the super simplified version of how the seal works. But, there is one more thing left that I am not sure how to explain to you." He pointed to two almost identical blobs of ink. "These are the one thing that make me question what my next course of action should be. First, I'll explain how I intend to fix your seal. I am going to add a double gate filter to your seal that will essentially remove all direct influence either of you can have on the other. You will still be able to communicate, but the barrier between you will be wider so you might have to shout. What this seal will do is create two barriers that only allow chakra to pass with a filter in the middle that will convert the chakra to a neutral state, removing all will, control, and manipulation from it. In essence, it will become the chakra of the next person to touch it without having to wait for the body to forcibly filter it. If the demon allowed you to use all of its chakra, you could use it all without any worries of it influencing you."
Naruto grinned excitedly and asked, "When can you do this?"
"That depends on what you want to do about these two spots," Dr. Strange said, "We could do it today, but these two spots seem to hold the chakra memories, and maybe even parts of the souls of other people. I think they were placed here as fail safes in case the demon tried to escape or you tried to release it. I do not know who these people are, but they are most certainly from your world. If I added the filter, you would never meet them, because they would be purified even if they did activate."
Naruto felt his heart thump loudly in his chest. He wondered who could have had a part of themselves sealed inside of him. Perhaps the Sandaime, or Yondaime. Perhaps Ero-sennin. Maybe, he could barely handle the thought that just maybe it just might be his parents.
"Can you do anything?" Naruto asked.
"I might be able to remove them into objects. You could then talk to them while meditating as you now talk to the demon. If I do this, however, your seal will become unstable and you won't be able to use chakra for several weeks. It will then take time for the seal to stabilize. Once the seal stabilizes you may use chakra, but if you use the demon chakra before he filter is put on, the demon may escape since many of the protections will be damaged."
"I want to meet them," Naruto said resolutely. Even if it was none of the people he had envisioned, they would surely be people who could teach him and his eventual children ninja skills if he was unable to remember all that stuff he'd never paid attention to in the academy.
"I thought you would. I already prepared the ritual," Dr. Strange said with a knowing smile, "I would have done the same in your place. After this, however, you will not be working on anything that uses chakra until I give you permission. You may study seals, and work on you hand to hand, but no jutsu."
"Hai!" Naruto agreed.
"And, unless you want me to banish him to a hell dimension of eternal torment, you'll make sure he follows the rules," Dr. Strange addressed Laura who nodded seriously, knowing this wasn't an idle threat.
Dr. Strange led them to a ritual room that had a seal drawn out in blood. There were two branching seals off of it, one containing a red crystal bead, the other containing a blue crystal bead.
"Take off your shirt and lay down so your head is in that circle, your hands are over those weaves, and you seal is completely contained within the empty section in the center," he instructed.
Naruto tossed his top to Laura and lay as instructed. Dr. Strange took out a brush and a pot of blood and began to draw on Naruto's body, connecting two dots on his seal up his torso and along his arms. Naruto could feel his body stiffen as the magical circuit was complete and the magic began to flow as the Sorcerer Supreme began to chant. Then there was a lot of pain. Then there was something that made that pain feel like ultimate pleasure in comparison. Naruto could not even open his jaw to cry out in agony as he passed out.
Laura placed herself behind Naruto and pulled him up into a seated position. He had been unconscious for three days now with a terrible fever. She took a glass of cold water and pressed it against his lips, letting a small amount trickle into his mouth as she stroked his throat and made him swallow so he wouldn't choke. It was important for him to stay hydrated. She had spent the past few days wiping the sweat from his body and replacing his fluids. It worried her that with his healing he was still unconscious. The one thing that she was thankful for was that their landlord knew a spell to keep bowels and bladders empty so she had not needed to worry about cleaning up any other messes for him. She lay him back down and dipped the wash cloth in the bucket of water.
"Your father called," Dr. Strange interrupted as she was wiping down his chest, "He wants to know if you want to test some new training scenarios for him."
"No," Laura responded flatly, returning her attention to Naruto.
"You know, he's going to be okay," Dr. Strange assured her, "The seal is already beginning to stabilize."
Laura grunted in halfhearted acknowledgment.
"How about I leave this with you to give to him," Dr. Strange suggested. At first glance it looked like a black cord. On closer inspection it seemed to be a necklace made of some sort of black hair woven together. Two inches apart from the middle of the necklace were the two beads from the ritual.
Laura accepted the object that Naruto had gone through this suffering to acquire. She hoped it was worth it.
Naruto stirred. He was feeling hot and heavy and like crap in general. His chakra control was completely shot, it was if his chakra was trying to burst right out of his chakra coils. Jolts of pain periodically ripped through his body. Even having a chidori shoved through his lung had not felt as bad as this. Naruto forced his eyelids open a crack and hissed at the brightness. His eyes had been all crusted with gunk and it scratched his eyes when he blinked. He rubbed the offending stuff away, biting back a groan at the pain in his arms.
Now awake, Naruto took in his surroundings. He was in his room. The clock read that it was four in the morning. The weight on his stomach that he had at first not noticed through the pain was Laura. She was sleeping, her brow was furrowed worriedly. Naruto reached out and tentatively stroked her hair. The reaction was instantaneous. He was flat on the bed with the stroking hand twisted almost to the breaking point and claws at his throat before her eyes were even open.
"Good morning?" Naruto greeted, "I sleep long?"
"A little over three days," Laura replied, allowing her claws to retract. "How are you feeling?"
"Is good except for hurting everywhere," Naruto replied with a weak laugh. Even that pained him. He hoped this wouldn't last long.
"Dr. Strange left this for you," Laura took the necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Naruto.
Naruto felt a sudden drain on his chakra reserves as seal arrays flared on the beads. He quickly realized that if the spirits were originally only meant to be temporary, they needed to get energy from somewhere. He also noticed the drain seemed to have smoothed out his chakra flow a bit and the pain had reduced. He couldn't wait to find out who was inside. If it was the old man, it would be great to see him again. If it was Jiraiya, maybe he could help fix his summoning problem. If it was his parents... What if they had abandoned him because of Kyuubi. He looked at the gems in trepidation. What if whoever was inside would be angry at him for having the seal tampered with. Naruto clutched the beads in his fist, no longer sure he wanted to meet them.
"Are you going to talk to them?" Laura asked.
"What if they don't like me, if they think I am the demon, if they are angry at me for messing with the seal?" Naruto looked at Laura with pleading eyes.
"Show me how to go with you. If they do that, I will cut them," she said.
Naruto gave her a small grin, then took her left hand in his with the blue crystal between before he lost his nerve. "Close your eyes and empty your mind of all thoughts except of entering the seal with me," Naruto said, "And hope it works." Naruto concentrated, using the meditation exercises the perverted hermit had taught him.
Naruto and Laura were standing in a blue expanse. Across from them stood Naruto's hero, the man who had sealed the demon within Naruto, the fourth hokage.
The fourth gave Naruto a grin and a wave before saying, "Yo, Naruto. Long time no see."
Naruto gave a ghoulish expression, pointed and yelled, "How did you know my name!?"
The man gave him a deadpan expression. "What kind of crappy father would I be if I didn't even know my own son's name?"
"You can't be my father! I'm an orphan!"
"Well, summoning the death god is not something people live through, and when your parents die, you become orphans. What part of me being your father is so hard to understand? We have the same eyes, the same hair, the same shape face, though you definitely take after your mother's personality."
"So, you're really my dad?" Naruto asked, slowly approaching the man.
"Yep! Minato Namikaze, Fourth Fire Shadow, Hero of the Third Ninja War, Creator of the Spiraling Sphere, Master of the Flying Thunder God, Summoner of the Toads!" He posed, then noted Naruto's deadpan expression. "What? Jiraiya insisted I learn something from him and I refused to learn how to be a pervert."
Naruto nodded sagely, then punched the man in the face. "That's for sealing a demon in me you bastard!" Before he could recover, Naruto tackle-hugged the man and cried into his chest. "Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"
"If anyone had known you were my son, you probably would have been dead within a week. I may have been popular with the general population of Konoha, but those in power hated my guts. It would have only been a matter of time before an Iwa nin mysteriously got a hold of you. It's also the reason we gave you your mother's name. The Uzumaki clan was all but wiped out with the destruction of Whirlpool during the second war. There was no reason to hunt a straggler from the Uzumaki clan."
After a few minutes, Naruto calmed down. He separated himself from his father, wiped his face and regained his decorum.
"Now that we've finished with that, I've got a question. Does the Nine Tails usually appear as a teenage girl?"
Naruto smirked, then giggled, then collapsed into all out debilitating laughter. "If he had tried that, he might have actually succeeded in taking over my body." Naruto beckoned Laura over. "Laura, this is my father, apparently, the fourth fire shadow, and the man who sealed the demon in my gut. Dad, this is my best friend and fellow lab rat Laura, a real, human girl."
"Then where is the Nine Tails?" Minato asked.
"Right where you left him," Naruto said, "You're the one that moved."
"Naruto, you shouldn't have done that. If the Nine Tails tries to escape, I need to be there to restore the seal."
"It only be an issue after the seal stabilizes. We removed the two spirits in the seal because a new chakra filter is being put on that would have neutralized any chakra including yours that was passing through the seal. With this new filter, the Nine Tails could pump every ounce of his power into me and not influence me at all. It works both ways though."
"I can't believe that Jiraiya came up with a solution like this. He was always good, but not that good."
"He didn't," Naruto said, "We're no longer in the Elemental Nations. Orochimaru used a technique that was supposed to erase me from existence, but I was able to break through the dimensional barrier. We are in a new world now. I was weak after that and captured by people who like to experiment like Orochimaru. Now I have unbreakable metal bones. She does too, but she has built in claws. We both heal really fast though and we were the only ones to survive the experiment. We escaped and eventually met Dr. Strange. He is this universe's expert on gods, demons, and beings from other dimensions."
"Be careful Naruto. You never know what someone with that kind of power might want."
"I know. I have to listen to him about the Kyuubi. If I become a danger to this universe, he has to banish me to a hell dimension where the Kyuubi can't do any harm and I'm definitely not going to like that. But, it's not like he's a bad guy. I've talked to some of the heroes in this world. This guy is definitely legitimate, and if we run into trouble we have a backup location we can stay."
"Good. Always be prepared. An unprepared ninja is a dead ninja," Minato quoted sagely.
"That was in one of those academy textbooks I never read, wasn't it," Naruto deadpanned.
Minato sighed in exasperation. "Why don't you tell me what your life back in Konoha was like," he suggested.
"I had a double level ANBU guard until I was three... Well that's what was said in my file when I broke in to the old man's office." Naruto gave a nervous laugh, "One to make sure I was safe, and one to make sure the other was doing his job. During this time I was poisoned at least once a week. I was rescued from the trash twice. I was admitted to the hospital for starvation, severe beatings, and the ability to fall down more flights of stairs than any building contained. Then Weasel got assigned to my ANBU guard detail and most of the incidents stopped and a lot of ANBU suddenly drafted suicide missions.
"When I was five, he was reassigned for some urgent task that wasn't listed in my file. Without him there, the orphanage went back to their old ways. One day, I went outside and when I tried to come back, I was beaten until I left. I slept in the woods drank from streams and ate from garbage cans at night since it wasn't safe to go out during the day.
"It took two weeks before Inu had a shift on my guard detail and informed the old man that I wasn't at the orphanage. There was a fire at the orphanage two days later. Miraculously none of the children were harmed, but none of the adults survived having 'heroically given their lives to save the children'.
"Inu had a guard shift at least twice a week after that when he didn't have other missions. Now that I think about it, Inu was Kakashi-sensei. He was a good bodyguard, but a crappy teacher. Taught me for over a year and all I learned was tree climbing. Strangely the Uchiha learned half a dozen new jutsu including Kakashi's own jutsu and that is not a pleasant thing to get shoved through your lung."
Minato sat, his face like stone as he listened to Naruto's story, but Naruto could feel his father's muscles twitching in anger.
"So, I was given an allowance and an apartment by the old man. It was in the worst part of town, but I think it was the only place he could get to accept. I think he had blackmail material on the owner or something. Anyway, it didn't matter that I had an allowance since I wasn't allowed into any of the stores, and the ones I was allowed into I was charged a lot more for things that were rotten or poisoned. I ended up eating out of the trash more often than not until I discovered a coupon for a free meal at Ichiraku Ramen. Since I couldn't read because the orphanage claimed that demons didn't deserve to read, I didn't know what anything on the menu was, but they were nice to me, so I just picked something at random. It was terrible, but I ate I because I couldn't afford to waste food. When I was finished, they actually asked me to come again, even though many people had left because I had been there. They even offered to teach me to read so next time I could pick something I actually liked. I always spent all my allowance there and was soon able to read the whole menu.
"When I was six, the old man let me enroll in the academy. The teacher hated me. He would call me names and throw things at me and wouldn't answer any of my questions. I never knew if I answered anything right because I always got zeros on my tests. I failed and got the same teacher next year. He liked to talk about how I was such a dead last that I could not even pass the first year of the academy. The name stuck, and soon everyone was calling me the dead last. I failed again but I was really pissed off at the guy so I retaliated and began pranking. The next years class was important. It had the heirs of the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame, Yamanaka, Nara, Akamichi, and Inuzuka clans. They switched the teachers. This year it was Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-teme. Iruka-sensei's parents were killed by the Nine Tails, so he tried to ignore me. Mizuki pretended to be nice, but he sabotaged my hand to hand training by telling me he was teaching me advanced forms. This time I managed to pass, barely, but everything was so boring, which was partly your fault according to Dr. Strange.
"I tried to take the early graduation test twice with my original classes, but I could never perform the clone jutsu no matter how much I practiced. On the day before my class graduated, I painted the Hokage Monument while wearing bright orange in broad daylight and didn't get caught until I was finished. Iruka-sensei finally realized that I wasn't a demon and just needed some attention and offered to take me to Ichiraku's for ramen when I finished cleaning the monument. I ate well that night. Once again, I failed to make even a single clone on the test and failed. I was really depressed when Mizuki told me about a secret makeup test where I had to steal a certain forbidden scroll and learn a jutsu from it. It turned out it was a trick and Mizuki was a traitor working for Orochimaru. I learned the shadow clone jutsu, beat up Mizuki, saved Iruka, and became a ninja."
"Why wasn't Jiraiya there? He was your godfather. He was supposed to protect you. If he didn't want the responsibility he could have..."
"I convinced Jiraiya to train me for the chunin exams after Kakashi abandoned me with the closet pervert. Then he took me on as his apprentice. He's not too bad once you get him to stop being a pervert for a few minutes. If he was being really bad, I could use my sexy jutsu to convince him to do pretty much anything."
"Sexy jutsu?" Laura asked.
"I'm not sure I should," Naruto said, looking to his father for help. This was sure to end badly for him.
"I wish to see it."
Naruto sighed, then performed the hand seals. With a poof of smoke, a female version of himself was posed there with only a few wisps of smoke protecting her modesty. Laura reached out and poked Naruto's breast, causing him to squeal.
"Bouncy," Laura muttered.
"Naruto, the transformation technique isn't supposed to be solid," Minato pointed out, holding his nose and doing his best not to perv out on his own son.
"I was messing with the transformation technique and accidentally created this. It is amazing how many uses this technique has." Naruto was trying to keep a straight face as Laura hefted his breasts and tested them for weight. "Laura," Naruto said sweetly, "Would you like it if I played with your breasts?"
"Not in front of your father," Laura said, "You require more modesty."
Naruto turned red and released the technique as his father laughed.
After a moment Minato shook his head. "I almost wish I hadn't saved that village."
"It was not so bad," Naruto said, "More and more people came to know me for me every day. Things became a lot better after I was a ninja. I gained more and more precious people."
Naruto told his father about the bell test, D-rank missions, the mission to wave, the chunin exams, finding Tsunade, Sasuke's defection, his three year training trip with Jiraiya, and rescuing Gaara from Akatsuki and finally the mission that led to his being thrust into a new dimension.
"You've really done a lot for someone so young. I'm proud of you," Minato said, ruffling Naruto's hair, "Now why don't you show me some of those awesome skills.
"I guess I should start with my best," Naruto said as he formed the familiar clone seal, "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!" Over a thousand clones spread out in all directions.
Minato's jaw dropped in amazement. "You must learn insanely fast if you can train with this many clones."
"Huh?" Naruto looked at his father quizzically.
"You mean that you've never noticed?" Minato asked, exasperated, "And none of your teachers ever told you?"
"Noticed what?" Naruto asked.
"The shadow clone technique was originally created as a safe way to perform infiltration missions. Anything the clone experiences, it is like you experienced it as well. If a clone reads a book, it's the same as if you read the book. If the clone learns a technique, it's the same as if you learn the technique. If a clone practices chakra control, it is the same as if you practice chakra control. Anything that can be trained purely with what you know your shadow clones can train for you. But, if you want to get stronger, faster, or have a larger chakra capacity, you need to train your own body. You also need to be careful when training like this. If you lose too many clones at once, you will receive mental backlash. It could give you a headache, knock you out, or in extreme cases kill you. This jutsu wasn't in the forbidden scroll just because of its high chakra requirement. You'll also want to have a clone dispel every once in a while, especially when they make a break through, to make sure you aren't relearning the same thing over and over again and so that you can pass on the benefits of what has already been learned and keep the clones moving forward. Of course, you can't practice this until you get your seal fixed because using so much chakra would put too much strain on your seal."
Naruto sighed and dispelled a clone, paying close attention and realizing that his father was right about the memories as he remembered seeing himself talking with his father. He dispelled the rest in a wave.
"I also created my own versions of the shadow clone," Naruto said, "This one is the hardened shadow clone. Try to dispel it." Naruto formed the clone. When Minato punched it, it didn't dispel and punched him back.
"Ow," Minato deadpanned, "Wasn't expecting that."
"You need to hit hard enough to kill or at least break bones. They are easier to destroy with sharp things. Any decent cut will take them out, but they dispel slower so they can almost always get a suicide hit in if the strike isn't instantly lethal."
"That is actually very impressive," Minato said. His hand slashed out with a faint blue glow, creating a gash across the clone's chest and obliterating the clone.
"My next one, I call the target clone. I let my chakra spread out into the air, then I can form a clone anywhere my chakra is. I can combine it with my other clones but it takes a lot more chakra." He performed the technique and caused a clone to appear behind his father with its arm around the man's neck in a choke hold. A sharp elbow dispelled the clone.
"Sneaky. You could sneak up on anyone who couldn't sense chakra."
"And my third original technique is my wind element shadow clone." Naruto went through the six seals and found the technique came much easier than the last time he had tried it. As Minato prepared to destroy it, Naruto stopped him. "Can you do the shadow clone technique? If not, then it would be better to stand back. This one is dangerous when destroyed."
"Okay," Minato formed a shadow clone and the wind clone led it away far enough that it should be safe.
The clash lasted for a fraction of a second before Minato's clone was victorious. Naruto's clone burst in an expanding dome of wind more powerful than anticipated. Minato, Naruto, and Laura covered their faces to protect them from the wild cutting winds.
"I see why I didn't want to be close to that," Minato said, looking at the bloody state of his arms.
"Was stronger than usual," Naruto pointed out, his own wounds already healing. He felt a sudden drain of chakra and a blue mist coalesced around Minato, restoring him to his previous condition.
"That was odd. I was expecting to disappear, not to get healed. My time should pretty much be up."
"Nope. Your new container takes chakra from whoever holds you to keep you going, and I have a lot of chakra." Naruto grinned. "You're stuck with me until you convince me or my descendants that you want to go... It only took me a few seconds to completely charge you, and you have shadow level chakra reserves... At least you should, you were a shadow after all."
"In terms of chakra, I was actually the weakest of the kages. I was known for being incredibly fast and for my sealing skills. Most other shadows are ninjutsu specialists. In fact, most of the jounin had more chakra than me, but what I had I used so well that no one could stop me with raw power."
"But, you were supposed to be the strongest of the shadows," Naruto sighed.
"If you were looking for the strongest, you should have looked at the lightning shadows. They were always the strongest," he replied cheekily.
"So... If this one is you, who was the other soul?" Naruto asked nervously.
"You'll just have to find out, won't you. I am sure they'll be excited to see you again after so long."
Naruto and Laura regained consciousness on his bed, still holding hands. Naruto had a contented smile on his face, glad that he had finally met his father.
"You weren't supposed to be using any chakra," Laura pointed out.
"Is genjutsu. All in head. No real chakra except chakra taken by this," Naruto explained, releasing her hand and holding up the necklace.
"That is why you spoke in English?"
"No real speaking. Is thinking of speaking and you is thinking of hearing and is understanding. Is seeming real, but I is hearing you is speaking my words. Is why I can talk to demon when demon is fox. I can no talk fox language. Is also fast," Naruto said as he nodded towards the clock. Less than five minutes had passed since they had woken up and only a fraction of a second of that had been passed within his father's jewel.
"You said your father was a strong warrior. Tell me about him," Laura requested.
"Second Hokage was brother of First Hokage. Third Hokage was student of Second Hokage. Third Hokage trained three legendary shinobi: Jiraiya, Tsunade the Fifth Hokage and granddaughter of First Hokage, and Orochimaru. Jiraiya was the sensei for my father's genin team. He took him for his student and my father learned sealing and summoning. Then my father created rasengan. Third shinobi war began. He became jounin and had own genin team. One mission, he alone killed one third of Iwa nin using hiraishin jutsu. Konoha began to win war and he became hero. War ended and he was made hokage. All is good until Kyuubi attack. No one can harm Kyuubi. Much of Konoha is destroyed. Many dead. Then he arrive and gives life to defeat Kyuubi."
"Ready to see who is in the other?"
Naruto nods nervously, then smiles when Laura holds out her hand. They clasp the red bead between them. Laura Squeezes Naruto's hand encouragingly as he focuses.
Naruto barely has time to register that he is in a pink room when he is swept up by a red haired woman and wrapped into a hug.
"My little Naru-chan is all grown up," the woman sniffed, "I wish I could have been there to see it."
"I guess that means that you're my mom? Dad didn't really tell me anything about you when I talked to him."
"That's right. My name is Kushina Uzumaki. I wish we had more time together, I could tell you all about the Uzumaki clan." She glanced at the other occupant of the room who was watching.
"Oh, I guess I should introduce you. First, she is not Kyuubi. This is Laura, and she's a human, nothing demonic about her at all."
"Oh! So that's what's going on is it?" Kushina giggled. She looked Laura over carefully, causing the girl to blush lightly under the scrutiny. Without warning, Kushina lashed out with a punch. Laura leapt back, unsheathing her claws. Kushina grabbed the girl by the wrist and began inspecting the claws. "Are these some sort of blood line?"
"My father has three claws on each hand. I have two on each hand and one on each foot. The claws are actually made of bone, but all my bones have been coated with metal as have my fathers and Naruto's due to experiments performed on us. We both have an advanced healing factor. It is likely that offspring will have similar enhancements."
"It will probably work well with the Uzumaki longevity. I approve. Naruto, make sure you take care of her." Kushina gave her son a smile and a thumbs up. "I'll even teach you the secret family ramen recipe," She added to Laura.
"Is it as good as Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked.
"Ichiraku was only second best because they were trying to match the secret Uzumaki family recipe," Kushina boasted proudly, "It was a decent substitute when I was too lazy to cook. So how far along are you two in your relationship? Can I expect grandchildren soon?"
Laura blushed and looked away.
"MOM! We've only known each other for a few months!" Naruto complained.
"Yes, and I am sure you'll get over your embarrassment in time. Now, shoo for a bit, I need to talk to your girlfriend for a while."
"But, we haven't done anything like that. I'm not a pervert!" Naruto cringed, awaiting the blow his well honed Sakura influenced reflexes assured him was coming. When no blow was forthcoming, he opened his eyes to see Kushina and Laura off in the distance conversing quietly.
Naruto watched as his mother's conversation seemed to bring attention to Laura's hips and bust much too often. With the chances of him returning to the elemental nations essentially zero, and he wasn't even sure he would want to anymore, he couldn't help but compare Laura to Sakura. Laura was twitchy when startled, but always stopped herself from hitting him unless they were sparring. She actually seemed concerned about his well being, having stayed by his side while he was out. Very few had taken the trouble to so much as drop him off at the hospital so that others could take care of him, and certainly never an attractive girl. Naruto blushed. He realized that even now his physical body was holding hands with her. He remembered seeing her body and holding her after he had freed her from the tank. Suddenly a lot of the things she had said to him were beginning to seem a lot less innocent. The most recent 'Not in front of your father' comment sprang to mind, his face rapidly flushing as he looked at her... Her face was oddly close to his. Naruto quickly turned away to find his mother standing next to him and grinning.
"Laura has told me everything that has happened. Since this isn't a one time deal, you should visit me every day. Your father and I can train you, we were pretty strong ninja after all."
Naruto nodded.
"I can teach you some blade skills. I wasn't known as the Red Death for nothing. I also am pretty handy at water techniques. Of course, I have to teach you the Uzumaki sealing style. You wouldn't be a real Uzumaki without it. It the reason the Whirlpool Village was destroyed after all. Your dad can cover all the boring theory stuff. And, if you have the right chakra for it, I can teach you how to use chakra chains. I was even able to hold down the fox with them."
Naruto grinned happily. "I'll definitely visit you both every day."
"I will come as well, and perhaps have my father speak with you both one day," Laura added.
"Just remember everything we talked about," Kushina said.
Laura nodded.
Naruto's head was throbbing a bit when he returned. He supposed the hyper-time awareness of mental interactions put a strain on the mind, much like his father warned him that the kage bunshin would. He noticed that he was still holding Laura's hand. After the last visit, this was too much for him. He blushed and pulled his hand away, taking the necklace and fastening it around his neck in the process.
They sat there for a few awkward moments before Laura suggested that they head to the Xavier Institute and work on his hand to hand skills.