Naoko and Noriko reached the entrance to the town five minutes before Yūgao's team after changing their clothes and sealing their entire house into a leather parchment that Naoko had laid below the foundations when it was being built. When Yūgao's team got there they saw that Noriko was wearing black, tight-fit, pants that had seals inscribed on them and a short-sleeved, red, tunic with a brown leather belt that had two knives attached to the back of it. She also had a short sword attached to her hip. She had knee-high, brown, lace-up leather boots. Naoko was wearing tight-fit green pants that had different seals on them to those her daughter had, but identical to those on Naruto's and green, knee-high, leather boots that had a series of green plates that extended from the top of the boot to protect her knees. She had on two belts; one of them had a short-sword and a quiver on either hip. The second had attached to the back of it another short-sword; this one though was far more ornate than the one on her hip. Next to it was a parrying dagger of a similar design(1). She had on a mesh, midriff baring, shirt on and a green leather crop top. She was also wearing the cloak that she had been wearing when she was shopping the previous day. She was wearing green archer's braces on both of her arms. She had her bow, an ornate, green, re-curve, attached to a hook on the back of her cloak(2). As soon as they had greeted each other they headed off.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, Naruto was royally annoyed at the fact that she could no longer do even the tree walking exercise anymore, leaving her with a lot of bruises in places she didn't know she had, literally in this case, and a training field full of destroyed trees. She let out an unintelligible scream. Calmed down somewhat she let out a breath and said, "Fine. Just one step at a time," and placed a foot on the tree. She channelled her chakra to the foot that was on the tree and waited until it had 'taken' and took a step forward, attaching her other foot to the tree. Then she took another slow step, making sure that her foot was firmly attached to the tree before taking another. She repeated the process multiple times until she got to the first branch. She sighed in relief, but fell back to the ground, this time with enough time to spin and land on her feet. She went back to practising.

XXXXX

While Naruto was training there was a council meeting being held in order to determine her fate. Danzō stepped forth, ignoring the demands of the Hyūga Elders to be told where Tsunade was. He said, "All of you gathered here today are the Heads of all of your clans, and responsible for the safety of both your clans and the village," silencing the Hyūga elders. "I have come into possession of some knowledge which threatens all of your lives, and the safety of the village that you, and your forebears, swore to protect."

There were murmurs throughout the council room, which were cut through by Hyūga Hiashi demanding, "What information would that be?"

"I am sorry, but since I..."

"Yes, what information have you come across, Danzō?" Tsunade demanded, the door to the council room flying into the far wall as she entered.

Danzō grimaced, thinking, 'How did she find out?!'

"Well, I'm waiting," Tsunade said, bringing the full force of her Killing Intent down upon Danzō, who flinched, having forgotten that Tsunade had been taught by The Professor.

"I'm talking about Uzumaki Mito's Blades."

The Clan Elders all started to talk to the Clan Head, coming up with all sorts of mad schemes in order to get those blades under lock and key. Tsunade demanded "What about my Grandmother's Blades?"

"What have you done with them?"

"That's no concern of yours Danzō."

"Of course it is! It is our job to step in and protect this village from you."

Hiashi, well versed on the history of Uzushiogakure, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Dyrnwyn, asked, "Lord Hokage, we Hyūga are well aware of the Dyrnwyn and their powers, and their side effects. I believe that you are more than aware of them, as are a lot of those gathered here. So could you please inform us as to what you have done to ensure that no shinobi of Konoha gets hurt by them?"

"They are where they belong. I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you more than this. Of course, I'm not so foolish as to try and ban you from finding out on your own, it is just that after Uzumaki Kushina's death all of her Dyrnwyn somehow managed to disappear. So I beseech you, leave them alone."

"Very well," Hiashi said, satisfied that Tsunade wasn't going to give them to someone who couldn't handle them. "I am satisfied that they will not cause harm to any citizens of Konoha." The clans most closely allied with the Hyūga announced their agreement, as did those who knew that the Hyūga served as the unofficial Librarians of the history of the Shinobi World.

After the council had decided to leave it in her hands, Tsunade rounded on the Advisors and said, "Are you three satisfied?"

Koharu said, "No. But it would seem that we have no choice but to let you do as you will.

Homura said, "For the record, I think that those abominations should be melted down."

"So noted," Tsunade spat.

"Well I'm not," Danzō said, "You should give them to me."

"What would you do with them? Study them until you can replicate them? Giving them to you would place the village in even more danger."

"What? No! I have an U..." Tsunade demanded for him to continue, but Danzō was done. He sighed and said, "Do what you will," as he thought, 'They'll be mine in the end.'

Tsunade turned back to the Shinobi Council and said, "I apologise for your being forced to come here today. This council session is over," a tone of finality in her voice, that all knew was directed to her 'Advisors'.

"Before you do, there is something else I would like for you to tell us, Tsunade."

"What is it this time?" Tsunade demanded, well and truly sick of Danzō's pushing.

"I've been informed that Team 7 has returned."

"They have. Now if that's all..."

"Where is the Jinchūriki?"

"Naruto returned from the last mission. Now, you are dismissed," Tsunade said, not willing to play Danzō's pathetic game any longer.

XXXXX

Three days later Yūgao and her team arrived in Konoha as Team Kurenai was leaving. Kiba, seeing a red headed beauty to match the one that had, in no uncertain terms, told him to keep away, walked up to her and said, "Heya hot-stuff, how about you and me…"

Kiba stopped talking as he felt something touching his crown jewels. He looked down and saw that the redhead had placed a short-sword up against them. He looked back up as the redhead said, "Say another word dogbreath and you can say goodbye to any children you might have had."

Kiba, by now, was sweating up a storm and nodded, not saying a word as ordered. Kurenai sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head in frustration. She said, "Kiba. I thought that you would have learned since the last time."

The redhead asked, "Wait. This has happened before?"

"Yes. To another redhead I'm afraid."

"Then maybe I should do it anyway," the redhead said, meaning every word of it.

Another, older, redhead put her hand on her daughter's arm and forced it down, away from Kiba's crotch as she said, "Noriko, as much as it may be warranted," glaring at Kiba, "I don't think that the first thing that you should do upon coming here is to neuter a member of one of the more prominent clans."

Kiba blurted, "Yeah, she's right, listen to your mothe…" Kiba shut up when the girl's mother glared at him with an intensity even greater than Noriko's.

Kurenai looked at Noriko as she said, "Please, I won't ask you to forgive him, but we really do need to get going."

Noriko sighed before saying, "Fine," and returning her short-sword to its scabbard, letting Team Kurenai get underway.

As Kiba walked past his sister, Hana grabbed his arm and threateningly said, "Don't think that you are out of the woods yet, brother." Kiba spent the rest of their mission dreading the return to Konoha.

A few minutes later Team Yūgao, along with Naoko and Noriko had reached the Hokage tower, although they were confused as to why they kept on hearing massive crashing sounds on their way. Putting their curiosity on hold for a while they walked up the stairs to the Hokage's office, although Naoko and Noriko had to supress their urge to just run up the wall instead. When they got to the office they were let in right away as Tsunade had given orders for Team Yūgao to be let in without the usual ten to fifteen minute waiting period that she liked to have between meetings. When they were all in Tsunade started to speak before Naoko demanded, "What the hell Tsunade?" Tsunade sighed. "I should have been told about…"

"I didn't know. I didn't even know that he existed until he managed to convince me to take the position of Hokage. Even if I did, I doubt that I would have been able to find you myself. After all, in the time since you went into hiding I was usually either gambling or drunk, sometimes both. Then, when I became Hokage, well…"

"You could have at least sent that charlatan Jiraiya to look for me."

"He's was out of contact for three years, training your nephew in fact."

"Oh? Then he must be very proficient in fūinjutsu then."

"Actually, from what Jiraiya tells me he doesn't know a thing. Well, he can make some explosive tags and use a generic sealing technique, but that's it."

Naoko looked horrified. "But surely someone…" Tsunade shook her head. Naoko was furious. She exclaimed, "How could they!?"

Neji said, "Naruto's scores were the lowest in the academy's history. He shouldn't be able to…"

"Of course they were," Naoko spat.

"What do you mean?"

"Uzumaki have too much chakra to use low level ninjutsu like those taught in your academy. That's why we focus on fūinjutsu and non-chakra fighting methods in the earlier years."

"Then how do you…"

"Chakra control exercises for the Uzumaki are different than those that your clan uses."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"It's not that hard a concept," Naoko said, "The Hyūga clan largely consists of those with smaller amounts of chakra reserves. Since that is the case they use their Byakugan in order to increase the finite control over their chakra to a point that they can enter into drawn out battles. It is also where their precious Jūken comes from. Conversely, Uzumaki have incredibly large supplies of chakra. As such we can enter longer battles easier. However to learn to control our chakra we first need to learn how to use larger amounts before using smaller amounts. I bet a lot of the academy teachers wrote Naruto off when they saw his chakra control issues, thereby affecting his performance in the knowledge-based areas of your curriculum too."

Tsunade said, "At any rate, all of that is in the past. You have probably guessed why I asked you to come here Naoko, but…"

"Actually, I was told that either I come here with these shinobi, or they would kill me."

Tsunade frowned and said, "I never gave any order to that effect. Who told you that?" Naoko looked at Yūgao. "What's going on Yūgao?"

"What do you mean? It was in the file that you gave to me."

"No it…" Tsunade said before she thought, 'Danzō. What are you up to now?' she sighed and said, "You know what, forget about it."

Naoko thought, 'I wonder what is going on. There must be someone trying to interfere with the Hokage's job. Well, it has nothing to do with me…for now anyway.' She said, "Alright."

"Okay, Yūgao, Hana, Neji, Lee, well done. You can leave now." The four shinobi thanked Tsunade before leaving to pick up their pay. When they were gone Tsunade said, "I'll get straight to the point."

"Good," Naoko said, as she and Noriko were both getting tired of waiting to find out about their last surviving relative.

"There are a few things that happened about a week ago that caused me to send a team to find you." Tsunade paused to let either redhead speak before continuing. When neither did Tsunade said, "But first I should probably tell you a bit about what was leading up to it." Tsunade saw Noriko's eyebrows starting to lower in annoyance. "Naruto's original genin team consisted of himself, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

Naoko's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger as she spat, "Uchiha! What were they thinking, putting an Uzumaki and an Uchiha on the same team? That's just an explosion waiting to happen."

"Yes, well Sarutobi-sensei was too optimistic on a good day. At any rate, Sasuke was considered an all-round genius from a very young age."

Noriko scoffed, "Probably had everything handed to him on a silver platter."

"There may have been an element of that, yes. Naruto on the other hand, as Neji told you, had some of the worst scores the academy had seen, so they were put on a team together. But, as you said they developed a rivalry of sorts. Originally it was only Naruto that saw it that way, but when he became strong in a really short amount of time Sasuke started to feel inferior."

"How so?" Naoko asked.

"Jiraiya gave Naruto access to the Toad Contract and taught him the Rasengan."

"Like I said. We're better with more taxing jutsu at the beginning."

"Yes. Well, it all came to a head three years ago when Sasuke left the village to join up with another traitor from this village, Orochimaru, who had given Sasuke a curse mark."

Noriko asked, "What's a curse mark?"

Naoko said, "It's an abomination, a corruption of fūinjutsu on a massive scale. Curse marks try to seal part of the user's soul into another person with the goal of controlling that person. That is why the research was banned in Uzushiogakure. Trust an Uchiha to come up with the idea of using it."

"Yes, well, try telling that to some of the members of the council. Anyway, the team's jōnin-sensei, Kakashi Hatake sealed the curse seal with the Fūja Hōin(3)."

Naoko scoffed, "As if that would be enough. If it was sealed with that, then it should have at least been reinforced with a Gogyō Fūin(4), roughshod a method it would have been. Although killing the Uchiha would have been better, power hungry bunch of…"

"Well, unfortunately…" 'For some.' "…the Uchiha were one of the founding members of Konoha, so just killing one out of hand is a bit too…excessive for some people. Besides, if that had happened we would have killed the citizens' golden child and there might have been a civil war. At any rate, around six months after that the Uchiha deserted the village and we had only genin left, Naruto amongst them. I sent a team after them with orders to retrieve Sasuke whatever the cost. Unfortunately, my apprentice met up with them before they left and made Naruto promise to return him to the village, no matter what."

"Oh bloody hell," Naoko said, knowing that all Uzumaki make sure to follow through on their word, no matter how long it took. "So, what's happened since?"

"There was a mission to retrieve two weeks ago. I sent Yūgao and her team as soon as they got back."

"So what happened on the mission?"

"Naruto transformed into the Kyūbi to…"

"He's a Jinchūriki?"

"Yes."

"Well, it makes sense…"

Noriko asked, "My cousin's a what?"

"They sealed one of the Nine Tailed Beasts into him," Naoko said, a tear rolling down her cheek. She then angrily said, "Those idiots."

"Excuse me?" Tsunade asked.

"One of the essential things for a jinchūriki is neither solitude nor loyalty for a village."

"What?"

"The Sandaime shouldn't have hidden Naruto's existence, and he most certainly shouldn't have let the villager's treat him as he must have been if what the Hyūga was saying is true." Naoko sighed and said, "Well, it's too late for regrets now anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's not relevant at the moment. What happened last week?"

"Well…" Tsunade sighed, "alright, Naruto went into a four-tailed state in order to fight against Orochimaru when Team Kakashi tried to tail Orochimaru's right hand man to see if that would lead them to Sasuke. Orochimaru and his lieutenant, Kabuto, escaped from them. Team Kakashi trailed them back to their lair where they ran across Sasuke. Naruto was exhausted from his transformation and got run through by Sasuke's lightning enhanced sword, which increased the vibratory rate of his chakra."

"Okay, your point being?"

"Each individual's chakra vibrates at a different frequency, and different frequencies have different effects. Higher frequencies allow for greater control of ones chakra"

"Okay…so then that's a good thing, right?"

"Normally, yes."

"But not this time?"

"Indeed. It was likely coincidence, but Naruto's chakra frequency was increased to a certain level…"

Noriko groaned, "Get to the point already."

"Chakra vibratory rates are a complex and…" Noriko and Naoko glared at Tsunade. Tsunade sighed and said, "Fine. Chakra vibratory rates are closely linked with the body that they are generated from. If the rate is increased or decreased, the person usually dies."

Naoko frowned as she said, "Usually?"

"Yes. I don't know if it is because of him being an Uzumaki, or a jinchūriki, but Naruto's body underwent a transformation to handle the new chakra vibratory rate."

"A transformation?"

"Yes. You ran into Kiba just after you entered the village, right?"

"Is that the Inuzuka?"

"That would be him."

"Then yes."

"Kurenai told you that he had another encounter with a redhead, correct?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

Tsunade just smiled, not answering the question. "Well, he didn't know it, but the redhead that he 'interacted' with, was Naruto."

"Excuse me?" Naoko asked, confused at what Tsunade was telling her.

"Naruto's body adapted to the new CVR by transforming into a form that could handle it. In this case that of a female. Additionally, it threw her chakra control out of whack, so she's currently destroying half of Konoha's trees in order to get it back to where it should be."

"If this is all you dragged me her for, then I'd rather you had left me alone," Naoko said, fuming at the information that she had been given thus far.

"If that was the case then I wouldn't have bothered. While on the mission my apprentice didn't know what was going on so called on their jōnin to stay while the transformation took place. You see, during the transformation Naruto's body, essentially, shut itself down so it wouldn't feel the pain of the restructuring and when she woke up, as you could imagine, she needed new clothes, so Team Kakashi searched Orochimaru's lair and my apprentice found some clothes that would fit her. As it turns out it was an Uzushiogakure uniform." Naoko looked shocked that a uniform from her village had been found, let alone that an Uzumaki was using it. "Of course, I don't know if it is the genuine article or a copy. Either way, right now Naruto has a full set of Uzushiogakure's uniform, including my grandmother's Dyrnwyn and bow. I'm told that Naruto is already experienced in the use of the bow, but…"

"Like I thought, you need me to teach him...uhh…her…how to use the Dyrnwyn."

"Indeed. Although I would appreciate it if you could get her chakra control to an acceptable level before she causes us to have to rename the village."

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) art/Ru-fiel-and-Koryr-96787528

(2) art/Elf-Ranger-43369917

(3) Fūja Hōin: This technique is used to suppress technique-induced marks on a person. Marks of weaker power can be completely suppressed by this technique alone, but for marks of higher power, like Sasuke Uchiha's Cursed Seal of Heaven, it will cause the seal's power to become dependent on the recipient's own willpower to some extent, especially if the sealer is not experienced enough to strengthen the seal with his own power

(4) Gogyō Fūin: Five Element Seal is a technique which produces a powerful seal that is used to block or disturb the flow of chakra in a target.