Naruto: Clarity

The next four weeks were productive but not particularly eventful. In fact only three really noteworthy events occurred -so far as Naruto was concerned- with the rest of the month blurring into D-ranks around the village, ninja training and entertaining clients as Benihime.

The first two events of note took place on the same day of the first week: Ame-kaa-san's in-depth examination of the Kyuubi seal on his stomach and the creation of his shintai-bunshin of Benihime.

The seal examination came first: Ame-kaa-san stripped him down to his hakama and made him lie down in a clearing out in the middle of the Hatake estate surrounded by truly ginormous trees. Then, under the watchful eyes of Kakashi-sensei, Sandaime-jiji, a dozen ANBU and a really tall weird old guy with spiky white hair, red markings on his face and a hitai-ite with the 'oil' kanji on it, she placed her hands on the seal on his stomach and closed her eyes. Naruto just had to lie still, which he did while Ame-kaa-san sat equally still and radiated a strange energy that wasn't quite chakra yet seemed vaguely familiar. The weirdo with the oil headband seemed to notice the energy too, since he seemed shocked and engaged in a whispered conversation with the hokage about 'natural chakra' -wasn't all chakra natural?- and 'sennin'. Naruto was about to ask what hermits and sages had to do with anything when Ame interrupted them with an explosion of crude and highly creative expletives, most of which were explicitly directed at the Yondaime. The aura of outrage that radiated from her seated form made even the ANBU flinch a little, but Naruto suspected that might also have been in protest of his kaa-san's language. Any Konoha shinobi would object at hearing their beloved hero being referred to as a 'irresponsible, mule-headed, short-sighted, slipshod sadist with delusions of competence', among other things. Naruto, for his part, stayed very still.

"Calm down, Ame-koi," Kakashi-sensei said soothingly, hands held palm out as he inched towards the fuming pregnant woman, "and tell us what the problem is."

"That, that blond baka only sealed the Kyuubi's Yang energy within Naruto! The poor kid's completely unbalanced! I'm amazed he's managed to be this well-adjusted as it is!" Ame-kaa-san shouted. At the uncomprehending looks from her audience -and Naruto's puppydog-eyed "Huh?"- she took pity on them, taking a deep breath and explaining properly:

"Look, human beings have three kinds of energy powering their bodies. Yin energy -mental ki- and Yang energy -physical ki- which ninja blend together to create chakra. The third energy type is spiritual ki, which miko and houshi use to great effect against demonic beings and those who willingly commit evil, thereby tainting their souls. Kyuubi is a bijuu, which is not strictly speaking a demonic entity; if it had been the Yondaime could not have bound it with chakra, as pure demonic beings can only be defeated by the spiritually gifted. Rather, a bijuu is a sentient manifestation of natural and demonic energies. Kyuubi, being a Yoko or fox-demon, was once truly a fox so like all animals it only has physical and mental energies. Unlike summons, the bijuu have no souls. They are just very large, powerful and intelligent beasts. So when the Yondaime -ignorant idiot that he was- co-opted the Shinigami to perform Shiki Fuuin on the Kyuubi, he separated Yin -quiet rational natural energy- from Yang -turbulent instinctual demonic youki- and sealed the latter within Naruto here. So all poor Naru-kun has inside himself is a muddle of instincts and base emotions -namely fear, anger, hunger and lust- powered by a bottomless pit of highly corrosive youki which will literally take years off his life whenever he uses more than a tiny fraction of it, deliberately or otherwise. Plus, the over-abundance of Yang in his system has suppressed his intellect in favour of burning off the extra physical energy. I'm impressed the kid can sit still for more than two minutes at a time, let alone concentrate long enough to fill out a paper test.."

"So he's a slow learner because it helps him balance out his chakra system?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

"Yes. Sorry you got screwed over, Naru-kun; the Yondaime clearly knew eff-all about bijuu," Ame-kaa-san said apologetically.

Naruto drooped. His hero had made a massive oversight which had resulted in a very big and very dumb mistake which he, Naruto, was now paying for. That 'the blond moron' was also his biological father did not help matters.

"Other than that rather horrendous oversight, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the seal or chakra release system reintegrating the Yin wouldn't fix," Ame-kaa-san said, ruffling his hair. "It is a very strong seal, in and of itself. He could have sealed the entire Kyuubi behind it if he'd tried. A shame he didn't do his research."

"Well, unfortunately the Yin Kyuubi is completely out of our reach," Sandaime-jiji said tiredly. "Minato used Shiki Fuuin to seal it within the Shinigami's stomach along with his own soul."

"Not true, actually," Ame-kaa-san said absent-mindedly as she petted Naruto's hair.

"What do you mean, koi?" Kakashi asked as the attention of every single individual in the clearing homed in on the starry-eyed young woman.

"Minato-kun did try to sacrifice his soul to the Shinigami. Unfortunately for Shinigami-sama I had a prior claim on the baka's soul as I saved his life during the third shinobi war. He was all but dead when I found him back then so I used a kinjutsu to prevent his soul from passing into the afterlife, then pumped healing chakra into his body until it was sufficiently alive to house his soul again. However the kinjutsu I used meant that Shinigami-sama literally could not take Minato's soul from the mortal plain without my express permission and I wasn't about to let someone I'd gone to so much effort to save just get eaten like that. I ended up bargaining with the Shinigami to prevent outright conflict and wound up receiving both Minato and the Yin Kyuubi in exchange for swearing to deliver to the death god the souls of two ninja who were flouting divine law. I engineered the deaths of said ninja shortly before I came to Konohagakure so I am perfectly able to solve Naruto's internal imbalance, seeing as I currently have the Yin Kyuubi sealed within my mindscape."

There was a short, amazed silence. The white-haired weirdo's jaw had literally dropped and Kakashi-sensei looked like he was trying not to faint. The aura of blatant shock coming off the ANBU was however what entertained Naruto the most.

"How old were you, Amemai-san?" hokage-jiji asked.

"Five when I saved his life, six when I bargained with Shinigami-sama," Ame-kaa-san said serenely. "The death god has contacted me for various other lesser errands since, and has made me his emissary in numerous minor matters. This is why I have repeatedly refused to become a ninja under your command, hokage-sama: a miko serves her god and her god only."

Another loaded silence.

"Ame-kaa-san! This means you can fix me, doesn't it?" Naruto burst out hopefully.

"Most certainly, Naru-kun. The Hakke no Fuuin Shiki is certainly strong enough to withstand a reformed Kyuubi. It wouldn't even take me very long to do. The issue is that -as a jinchuuriki and ninja of Konohagakure no sato- you fall under the direct and personal governance of the hokage. Therefore I require his express permission to resurrect the Kyuubi no Yoko within your seal."

Naruto leaped to his feet and bounded over to the hokage. "You heard Ame-kaa-san, jiji! Please, please please?" he made puppy eyes up at his grandfather figure.

"Why do you call her 'kaa-san', Naruto?" the Sandaime asked.

"She had someone look after me since I was six," Naruto said promptly. "Hibana-nee taught me reading and calligraphy and table manners and polite conversation and how to meditate and history and geography and the other little things normal kids learn from their parents. Ame-kaa-san paid for all my stuff at Himitsu-okaa-san's okiya like clothes and meals. She even paid Takemaru-san to teach me real taijutsu when the academy sensei's couldn't be bothered. Iruka-sensei cared," he amended, "but he didn't usually teach taijutsu."

The hokage seemed to age before Naruto's eyes as the list went on and on, enumerating all the things the blond had needed to know that no-one else in Konoha had been willing to teach.

"Himitsu-okaa-san? Why does that sound familiar?" the white haired weirdo said musingly.

"She owns the Mitsusha," Ame-kaa-san said dryly. "Well, runs it at least; I own about three-fifths of the actual building."

"Is this why you like geisha, Naruto-kun?" Kakashi-sensei asked him.

"Hai! They know all sorts of cool stuff, plus they're really pretty! Takemaru-san wanted me to be a boy-geisha like him but I wanted to be a ninja more," Naruto said blithely, secretly amused when two of the ANBU and the weirdo all choked at the idea of a Naruto-geisha. Ha! Shows what they know. Uzumaki Naruto is a master of deception and disguise! My alter-ego is a very successful and popular geisha, so there. Even more amusingly, Naruto recognised the chakra signature of one of the ANBU as belonging to a man who had visited Benihime twice since she became a geisha.

"Why geisha, Amemai-san?" the Sandaime asked.

Ame-kaa-san shrugged. "They have the necessary knowledge to care for and teach young prospective ninja, hokage-sama, as well as being accustomed to teaching. Geisha also have no problem with dealing with those more powerful than themselves; we are fragile flowers, not swords and shields as ninja are."

"We?" the weirdo asked.

"Before I met Kakashi I was a geisha, Jiraya-san. Hence my, ah, questionable and overprotective acquaintances," Ame-kaa-san said wickedly. "I have a great many of them and I am sure some are eager to meet the man responsible for this," she patted her swollen belly.

Kakashi-sensei made a small, whimpering sound.

"No need for that, Kashi-koi. They won't kill you; they know how much you matter to me."

"So they'll just take it in turns to put me in the hospital," the journin grumbled, much to the weirdo's amusement. "This is because I didn't bring you back here right away, isn't it?"

Ame-kaa-san's smile was thin and razor-sharp. "What do you think?"

Kakashi-sensei slumped back against a tree. "I'm doomed."

"Jiji? Please?" Naruto persisted.

"What happened to Minato's soul?" the weirdo asked.

Ame-kaa-san shrugged. "He hung around for a bit; visited Naruto a lot early on and persuaded me to get someone to take proper care of him since he felt responsible for how the kid was treated, which I did. He couldn't safely move on until I fulfilled the bargain with the Shinigami."

"So he's really gone now," the weirdo said sadly.

"No, he isn't: blondie can't leave without my say-so. I haven't seen him in months though seeing as I've had more important things to worry about of late," Ame-kaa-san said, "so I have no idea what he's been up to. Probably haunting Iwa again; quite a few Rock-nins are just sensitive enough to spiritual ki to see ghosts and he enjoys their reactions."

There where quite a few snickers from the ANBU on guard at the idea of the former Yondaime hokage haunting Iwagakure. Even the Sandaime smiled.

"Well," the hokage said, "if Amemai-san believes that merging the Yin and Yang Kyuubi within the seal will not only be possible but beneficial to Uzumaki Naruto's well-being, I feel I should condone it."

"Yahoo! Thanks ojii-san!" Naruto whooped, hugging the hokage before dashing back to Ame-kaa-san and hugging her too, if a little more carefully.

"Arigatou nasai hokage-sama for allowing this. Lie down again, Naruto; this won't take long."

It didn't. The only thing that persuaded Naruto that his kaa-san had actually done something was the fact that the chakra knot in his belly wasn't hot and angry any more. It was just... there. Neutral. More normal for a fox, that detached indifference.

Ame-kaa-san insisted on keeping him overnight: just to make sure, she justified it as to the hokage. The reality was she used the time to help Naruto make the Benihime bunshin.

Naruto did not need to do much: he sat still while Ame-kaa-san painted him and the dead body with seals, then changed into Benihime so she could do even more seals. All he actually did do was the final step: pushing his chakra into the corpse while in Benihime-henge, concentrating on everything it meant to be Benihime.

The jutsu worked perfectly: that very evening Benihime went to the Mitsusha while Naruto slept under the watchful eye of Kakashi-sensei and Ame-kaa-san's starry darkness. The night was perfectly restful for the blond, although he woke early in the morning when the Benihime-bunshin went to sleep and all the memories of her first day of existence were transferred to his brain.

The shintai-bunshin worked a little like a self-sustaining shadow clone, in that a copy of all its memories were sent to the original every twenty four hours, half an hour after which the clone received a download back from the original. Since this happened while the clone was asleep it automatically reinforced the original's thought patterns, intentions and goals into the copy's brain, preventing it from developing the disconcerting independence that shadow clones exhibited after moderate periods of time. A shintai-bunshin was indistinguishable from the original because it acted, reacted and thought exactly like the original. It was not just a chakra construct with a rough impression of the caster's mind and soul to guide it; it was a perfect copy, complete in every way except its lack of soul.

That lack was what necessitated the regular mental contact between original and clone to ensure it behaved consistently. The only other difference between clone and original was that the Benihime-bunshin was completely sterile, preventing the possibility of 'accidents'.

Naruto had entrusted to Ame-kaa-san the bodies of the other girls he had killed; it turned out she had a special scroll box for storing prospective bodies in. Naruto was rather creeped out by it, but recognised the practicality.

Now that the bunshin was made Benihime lived at the okiya full-time just like the other geisha did. Nobody noticed that there was anything different about her and Naruto received her memories every evening. The new arrangement was absolutely perfect...

… which was fortunate since the third and final occurrence of note that month happened two weeks later and was Kakashi-sensei's investigation into Naruto's first kill, which he had actually done as Benihime. This meant that Benihime had to somehow indicate -without actually lying- how Naruto could have done the deed without Momo-chan noticing him and explain why Benihime had claimed the kill.

The original received the full memory of his clone's first encounter with his sensei a few hours after the fact, but the encounter went exactly as it would have had he been present in person:

Benihime had just finished dressing for the afternoon -her face and hair immaculate and her kimono pristine- when a minarai fetched her downstairs, saying that the okaa-san required her presence. The red headed geisha had, of course, gone to see what the problem was and entered Himitsu-san's receiving room to see Kakashi-sen -no, he is Hatake-san to Benihime, I am not Naruto- Hatake-san and Umino-san sitting in the guest seats.

Benihime bowed politely.

Benihime-musume, these ninja wish to speak with you regarding the rapist you killed," Himitsu-okaa-san said calmly. Benihime suspected the okaa-san had deliberately forgotten that Benihime was anything other than a highly promising geisha. "You may use this room until their business is concluded."

Himitsu-san rose regally to her feet and left as Benihime bowed low. Once she was gone the geisha settled herself on the cushion the okaa-san had vacated.

"Shinobi-san, I gave my report of the incident to the military police well over a year ago; why this sudden interest?" she asked politely.

"Because you lied," Kakashi said lazily. "You didn't kill the man: Uzumaki Naruto did. Don't worry; he isn't in any trouble for it. I just want to know why you lied."

Benihime gave him a look. It was witheringly scornful. "I am yet to meet a single person outside of this establishment who treats Naruto-chan like any other child. I did not believe he would receive the fair treatment the military police would accord any other victim so I assumed responsibility. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on him for my onee-san at the time."

"A victim, Benihime-san? Was Naruto harmed at all?" Iruka asked worriedly. Benihime had no idea why Kakashi had brought Naruto's former sensei along for this. Perhaps he is the only sympathetic witness Hatake could find on short notice.

"Are you Umino Iruka, chunnin-san?"

"Hai, geisha-san."

"Naruto speaks fondly of you and no, he was not attacked directly. However he did witness that man's extremely brutal attempt to force himself on Momo-chan, a maiko only two years older than Naruto himself. I was knocked into a wall in the attack and Naruto rushed past me, seized my tessen and slashed at the man's throat with it, severing the carotid artery through pure luck. Naruto was even shorter then than he is now, so most of the blood missed him and ended up on me," Benihime explained quietly. "I have witnessed many times how harshly Naruto is discriminated against and did not want him to suffer unjustly for protecting someone he cared for. So I sent him back to the okiya, to Hibana-onee-san who was his primary carer, while taking my tessen from him and claiming the kill as my own before the authorities. Since Naruto-chan was in my care at the time I felt responsible anyway. Momo-chan never saw him do the deed so she did not know to contest my tale."

"Did Naruto receive any counselling to help him cope after his kill?" Iruka asked.

"Indeed he did Umino-san. Hibana-onee-san has killed before in the defense of others, as have Himitsu-okaa-san and Takemaru-san. He was none the worse for his experience once he got over the shock, though he showed a reduced tolerance for perverts."

"You don't like perverts either, do you Benihime-san?" Kakashi noted quietly.

"No geisha likes perverts, Hatake-san," Benihime replied coolly. "We are artists and entertainers first and foremost, yet perverts eye us like the lower class oirans who stand on street corners and treat us little better. No woman appreciates being treated like so much meat."

"Gomen nasai if I have offended you, Benihime-san," Kakashi said, "but were you aware of Naruto's hatred of Icha Icha?"

"That man had a copy in his pocket," the geisha replied shortly. "It is pure filth. If one must indulge in such things they could at least acquire decent shunga."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow in something approaching surprise. "You are familiar with shunga?"

"I am a geisha, Hatake-san; I collect shunga." Benihime smiled sharply, "A fact Naruto-chan is well aware of, since he discovered my collection when he was ten."

That got both men to choke is surprise. Yep, I've still got it. Geisha or otherwise, the Uzumaki sense of fun cannot be suppressed! And I really do collect shunga as well, though I started when Naruto was nine, not ten.

"I gave him the Talk shortly after that," Benihime continued, ruthlessly seizing control of the conversation, "it doesn't seem to have done him any harm."

"So that's where his Orioke no jutsu came from," Iruka muttered, face very red.

He liked Naruko-chan that much, huh? Benihime smiled to herself. "What was that, Umino-san?"

"Er, Naruto invented a henge variant that turns him into a very pretty naked woman," Iruka said, face still scarlet. "He called it an anti-pervert technique."

"That sounds very... effective," Benihime mused, privately entertained. "Useful for bait as well as catching other ninja off-guard. Nobody expects the naked girl you caught bathing in the river to be anything but vulnerable."

"You-you approve?"

Benihime shrugged slightly. "It is a clever deception and a ninja's primary duty is to deceive. What of it?"

"Nothing, Benihime-san," Kakashi said smoothly as Iruka did a beautiful goldfish impression. "Thank-you for time." He herded the chunnin out of the door.

"You are very welcome. Hatake-san?"

The silver haired ninja turned in the doorway. "Hai, Benihime-san?"

"Naruto-chan is precious to me. Treat him with anything less than the care he deserves and I will find a way to hurt you." She flicked a senbon out of her sleeve and made it dance between her fingers before vanishing again. "I am no ninja but I have training."

"Noted, Benihime-san," the copy-nin said with a quiet nod, closing the door behind him.

It was a little over a month after graduation when team seven got its first C-class mission.

Notes

sennin = hermit or sage

musume = daughter

musuko = son

tessen = battle fan made with steel ribs. Generally used for blocking but stabbing and slashing is also possible

shunga = japanese erotic artwork, usually prints

A/N: Computer problems solved! Brothers are wonderful: They know how to fix things! Please, please review.