Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Negima.

Chapter 3:
Well-guarded Secrets

Story Start (Location – in front of the Namikaze residence)

Fate stared at the mansion before him. It was not large in a sense that a whole clan would fit and not small that it would house only a small civilian family of three or four.

From Fate's deductions, it would probably house about 15 people, give or take.

Minato gave a sheepish chuckle. "I know that it is not reflecting my Hokage status but I always preferred to live in a normal house."

Kushina, Mikoto, and Hitomi looked at Fate, awaiting his reply.

Fate closed his eyes as he walked towards the gate. "Your living arrangements are of no concern to me. I can't control where you live. Besides, even a Kage needs to live as an ordinary person some time."

Minato gave a smile. "Yes, that's right."

Kushina got off of Minato and gave her own smile towards Fate. "Shall we enter, Naruto?"

Fate raised a brow at her. "I thought that Jiraiya told you that I go by Fate Averruncus."

Kushina's smile turned to a sad one. "You may have a different look. You may have a different name. You may have a different personality. But, to me, you will always be my 'Naruto'."

Fate stared at her before conceding. As they entered the house, Fate's mind wandered towards his mother's attitude towards him.

True, he may rebuke Jiraiya, Kakashi, and others. But, that is only because they were complete and total idiots for leaving him alone in Konoha without so much as a week of training to prepare him for the real world. However, he is not heartless enough to deny a mother or a father their child.

Fate does not hate his father. Angry, he may be at his father for trusting humanity and its lack of logical reasoning at the face of the inhuman. But Fate does not hate needlessly. Since Minato is someone who has not yet seen the foolishness and illogical capability of humans when making decision about something they do not understand, he was blinded by their outward appearances and fake smiles. As the Hokage, he has to protect the village from the Kyuubi. And as a recent father, he would have to protect his wife and child.

Allowing his wife, who's possibly already dying, to sacrifice herself to kill Kyuubi and allow Minato and Naruto to live would be pointless. The Kyuubi would nevertheless reform a few years later. And there would be no guarantee that there would be a child strong enough to handle Kyuubi's chakra. Thus, Kushina's sacrifice would be for nothing.

On the other hand, performing the Shiki Fujin and sealing half of the Kyuubi's chakra inside himself and using the Hakke no Fuin Shiki on Naruto would prevent any plans of the Kyuubi to reform any time soon. And, on the off-chance that Kushina managed to survive the whole incident, Naruto would have a mother to protect him and train him, even if the village does not follow Minato's wish.

By comparison, the latter would have been more preferred than the former.

As Fate and the others settled down on the living room, Kushina walked over to Fate and asked, "What would you like for lunch, Naruto?" She smiled at him.

Fate replied, "I have no preference in meals. I will indulge in anything you prepare. However, if possible, I would like to request black tea on the three square meals and a cup of coffee on occasion."

That statement caused silence to form between Fate and the others.

Kushina blinked. "You…drink coffee and tea?"

Fate nodded. "Yes. I drink seven cups of coffee a day and prefer my black tea as lemon tea with ice."

Another awkward silence ensued.

Minato chuckled sheepishly. "You are pretty specific on your daily dose of drinks."

Fate asked, "Is my request not applicable? If so, then please say so. I can respect that."

Kushina's eyes went wide as she said, "Oh, no! I can do that. There's no need to be so pessimistic. I can have it ready by lunch."

Minato nodded. "Yes, there's nothing wrong with coffee and tea. Mikoto-san, Hitomi-san and I will help her. In the meantime, why don't you look around? It would be good to familiarize yourself with the house."

Fate raised a brow. "Perhaps I can help you. I can be quite handy in a few situations."

Mikoto waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It's the least we could do. Besides, we want to let you know the place."

Fate stared at her. She fiddled with her dress under his stare. Finally, Fate conceded. "I see. Well, I suppose I will take a look around the house then." With that, Fate immediately left the living room.

Mikoto let out a breath she'd been holding. "Those were cold eyes. I don't think I can keep on staring at him for too long."

Minato sighed, as he set the table. "When you've faced such pain and suffering as he does, you will see why it is necessary."

Kushina, preparing the food, sighed as well.

With Fate – a few minutes later

Leaving the 3rd bathroom he entered, Fate Averruncus continued his tour. Right now, he is currently on the second floor.

This is quite a spacious house. It somehow has that peaceful aura.

As Fate passed through a wide hallway, his interest was piqued from a door that he passed a few seconds ago.

Turning around and stopping at said place, he inspected the door to the room.

It had only one decoration and that is a simple nameplate adorned with red spirals on the upper right and lower left hand corners. In cute little writing that Fate assumed is his mother's, Fate read 'Naruto's Room.'

Curiosity getting his best, he slowly reached out and grabbed the handle. Twisting the knob, he pushed the door open and entered the room.

The moment Fate entered, that same feeling that he felt back at the council chambers came back stronger than before.

The room itself wasn't that grandeur nor was it very large. But, since Minato said that he wanted to live normally, it is to be expected.

It was filled mostly with baby furniture. On the leftmost corner was a light blue baby crib which cushion is filled with red spirals. Right above it was a bunch of hanging baby rattles and toys.

Other than the crib, a bunch of stuffed toys of varying shapes and sizes littered the room. Also, there was a changing station on the other corner.

Despite being not in use for a long time, it was still clean and tidy.

Then, a voice started, "This was supposed to be your room." Fate turned his head slightly back and saw a smiling Kushina. However, her smile was more of a solemn one. "Minato and I planned this room when I was pregnant with you." A tear fell from her eye. "There were so many things that I wanted to do as a mother. I wanted to sing you a lullaby, to tuck you in at night with my own two hands, to hold you in my arms, to protect you as any mother should. But," she gave a frown, "that man happened. He infiltrated Konoha and released the Kyuubi. If it wasn't for him-"

"Life," Fate interrupted, "is full of questions that only returns complex answers that cannot be understood until we grow old. True, I sometimes spent most of my childhood time thinking what would have happened if the man controlling Kyuubi hadn't entered the scene 16 years ago. Will I be given a normal childhood like you and Otou-san wanted? I hardly think so. Both of you would have to tell the whole of Konoha who I was and would probably treat me like they mostly did Uchiha Sasuke. Moreover, you would probably be bombarded with multitudes of possible marriage contracts with females either my age or a few years my senior or junior. I will have none of that. As compared to that, my life in Konoha after Kyuubi's attack is livable, however depressing. I admit that the glares and whispers hurt me inside. However, overtime, I grew used to it and it only formed to be nothing more than a nuisance. Don't blame destiny and circumstance. Everything happens for a reason. I have grown to accept everything that has happened to me. Besides, had this not happened, who knows? We may not have had this conversation in this room."

Kushina nodded. "I see." Then, she smiled as she said, "Lunch is ready, Naruto. Come on, let's go."

Fate nodded but waited inside the room as Kushina already went downstairs.

Fate walked over to the crib and put his hand on the brace. To think that this should have been his supposed bed for the first years of his infancy.

Then, he turned around and closed the door behind him.

Later – at the dining table

Fate was seated beside Mikoto and was directly across Hitomi, who's seated between Minato and Kushina.

Minato stood up and cleared his throat. "Today, we welcome Fate into our family. Shall we have a toast to Fate?" Raising his cup, Minato beckoned the others to do the same while somehow amusing him with the weirdness of the sentence.

After the toast, Kushina stood up and pumped the air, saying, "Enough serious crap! ITADAKIMASU," she exclaimed after that.

Minato, Mikoto, and Hitomi chuckled as they dug in.

After the lunch

Kushina and Mikoto helped each other clean the dishes while Hitomi cleaned the table. Meanwhile, Minato called Fate away from the three women and to the rooftop.

As Fate and Minato rested on the railings, Fate asked, "Is there something you need from me, Otou-san?"

Minato sighed. "It's not easy for me to tell you this but…" he took a deep breath. "You have, so to speak, sisters."

Fate raised a brow and asked, "So to speak?"

"Yes. They are clones, born from your DNA and chakra signature. Danzo extracted them from you when you were only a year and a half years old. With that, he started the cloning process. You were only three years old at the time. He produced numerous fetuses and put them inside artificial wombs filled with nutrients and organic catalysts. In addition, he also added Kyuubi's chakra into their system that he acquired from its attack 16 years ago. Doing nothing to the wombs, Danzo and his scientists observed the growth of the clone. For the first two years, the clones produced were incomplete. They were physically deformed. Otherwise, their muscles are not fully developed and were weak. Or the others who were none of the above have unstable chakra. Danzo learned from this and altered the nutrients and catalyst solutions and observed the results for two years. The result was quite interesting. The alteration greatly influenced the physical attributes and maturation rates of the clones. So, some of the clones changed genders, some retained male, and the rest…" Minato grimaced, "they…were a mix."

Fate blinked. "A mix, you say? So they became both male and female?"

Minato said, "Yes…somewhat. They were either males with female attributes or females with male attributes."

Fate shrugged, as though he wasn't disturbed in the least. "You said maturation rates. So does that mean that those clones became official ninjas before me?"

Minato nodded. "Danzo stopped their accelerated growth at the age of 10 before they were brought out of their artificial wombs. He wanted every batch numbered twenty. Since the clones are like newborn babies, they don't have any memories and thus wouldn't amount to much in the shinobi world. As such, Danzo had one of his Yamanaka's Root transfer one of his men's memories into them. After that, Danzo had the group trained in Root's regime. For the first two years, nothing was out of place. However, near the half of the third year, the clones began turning insane. Apparently, the clones cannot handle the memories (or lack of, anyway) and broke down. Danzo looked down at the insane clones and had them disposed of. He had another batch prepared. That was when you were 9½ years old. This time, he put in the memories of a Root trainee their age. Again, they lasted 2½ years before they went insane. Like the previous batch, the clones couldn't handle the memories. So, Danzo had a third batch prepared. This time, you were 12 years old. And that was when he secretly had a Yamanaka make a copy of your memories and transferred them to the clones he prepared. Danzo expected the higher chance of insanity by the end of their training. As expected, ¾ only succumbed while the remaining ¼ resisted. Three were male and two were female. As a final test of their 'sanity', the five faced off against every person that Danzo knew you grew close with. At the time, we were recovering from our resurrection and it was kept secret from everyone else, save for Jiraiya-sensei and Tsunade."

Minato took a deep breath. "However, the five didn't meet with Danzo's expectations. They couldn't even look upon them with the desire to kill. Danzo was furious. They didn't budge from their decision, despite Danzo's constant orders. So, Danzo had them killed. They resisted, naturally, and tried to escape. They got to the exit and was about to leave when the three boys locked themselves within the Root base as soon as the two girls got out. Despite the girls' protests, the three boys sacrificed themselves to delay Danzo. And, to make sure that their sacrifice was not in vain, the two girls immediately rushed to the Hokage Tower to alert everyone of Danzo. And, of course, you would know the rest."

Fate nodded. "So Root is completely destroyed?"

"I made sure of it, Fate. And Danzo is arrested for treason and currently waiting for his execution after your fight."

"I see. I want to see him."

Minato raised a brow. "What do you want him for?"

"I'm the one who has been offended by him the most. I wish to return the favor."

Minato nodded. "He is now in Eien Nemuri Prison (Eternal Slumber). That is the prison for the most treasonous of criminals, S-Rankers mostly, and they are on the death-row. It was used most of the time during the Shodai's and Nidaime's rule. Now, it is rarely filled. I will have two ANBU escort you."

Fate conceded after a few seconds of silence.

Eien Nemuri Prison

Deep within the bowels of the prison, a lone, old man sat, chained and weakened.

While his body is quite normal, his arms are split within the right and the left. The left is normal for a man of his age and stature. The right, however, does not fit anything under human standards.

On the shoulder is a face of a seemingly sleeping person. And down the arm are ten closed eyes, seals over the lids. And his right eye is also closed and with a seal. Only his left eye remains unsealed.

Along his chest is a very complex seal that traced around his back.

Footsteps echoed on the hall and the old man looked up from his silent rest. "And who are you?"

It turned out to be a child! He seems about 12 or 13! He has white hair, pale blue eyes, and an emotionless gaze. His right hand is inside its pocket while the other was out of it. The boy was silent as he gazed upon him. Suddenly, a large pressure suddenly surfaced around the room. And it seemed to be coming from the boy across him. As he stared at his eyes, he saw a vision of a red-orange with nine tails. Then, he connected the dots. "It can't be! You vanished three years ago! You can't be Uzumaki Naruto!"

The proclaimed Naruto frowned. "You're right. I'm no longer Uzumaki Naruto. I am not Fate Averruncus, a much stronger embodiment of my old self."

"How can you be here? The last report I received of you was when you vanished."

"I thought you've heard of my reputation as the most unpredictable ninja. If I can avoid being detected by the Sandaime Hokage when I retrieved the Scroll of Seals until too late, I can clearly avoid your pathetic attempts of Root to observe me."

Danzo gave a frown. "And I assume that you've heard of your clones."

Fate replied, "That is to be expected of you, Danzo. If you gave up your right eye and right arm for power, it wouldn't surprise me to have the delusion that you could give up the right of other's for the sake of domination."

"That is not a delusion. That is the truth. A shinobi's life is sacrifice. For the sake of Konoha, such sacrifices should be made."

Fate scoffed. "You don't know sacrifice, Danzo. You sacrificed parts of your body. That's true. You sacrificed your time and effort for your Root. However, you don't know the sacrifice of Uchiha Itachi, the sacrifice of Namikaze Minato, the sacrifice of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the sacrifice of the jinchuuriki."

Danzo seemed outraged. "How dare you say that trash in front of me? You think I do not sacrifice?"

"Yes," Fate interrupted, "I do. You say that self-sacrifice is a ninja's duty. Where is that in you? I'm not talking about physical sacrifice, like your arm or eye. I speak of immaterial sacrifice, such as Namikaze Minato's and Sarutobi Hiruzen's souls and lives, Uchiha Itachi's honor, your Root's emotions, and the jinchuuriki's humanity. You are nothing but a hypocrite who hides in a warrior's skin."

Danzo was about to speak some more when Fate prodded his throat and whispered, "Uzumaki Fuinjutsu: Shijimanokoe (Uzumaki Sealing Technique: Voice of Silence)." At that point, no matter how many times or how wide Danzo opens his mouth, no sound would come out. On his throat was the kanji for 'Voice' (声, Koe).

"It would be useless to talk to you." He held out his left hand and a glow emanated from it. When it subsided, in his left hand was a large key with a globe as the bow. "Instead, as you have taken something of value from me, I will be taking something of value from you." The globe glowed and produced a beam of light that connected to Danzo's forehead. Another beam connected to Fate's forehead. As it subsided, Fate said, "I now know everything that you know. Including…"

Dispelling the Code of the Lifemaker, he put his left hand to prod Danzo's sealed right eye with an index and middle finger. Visible through his blue shirt, the red glow of his seal produced a red line that snaked its way around his left arm and onto Danzo's eye. Then, the red line went back and connected with Fate's own right eye.

As the red light dimmed, Fate lowered his hands and turned to leave. Then, opening the door, he turned his head slightly around, showing his right eye to Danzo. "Uchiha Shisui was another person who knows sacrifice. It would be a foolish way to honor his sacrifice by leaving it with a fool like you. You can't even use his eye properly." His right eye suddenly reddened to the color of blood and a four-pointed shuriken grew from his pupil and stopped when the four points met the ends of the iris. "Let me show you the proper way of using a Mangekyo Sharingan." Fate's (or Shisui's, rather) Mangekyo Sharingan pulsed with power and Fate whispered, "Tsukuyomi."

Danzo's eye widened to extraordinary proportions before his eyes glazed and he went limp.

Outside

Fate closed the door to the prison and said to the guards, "My business has concluded. You can lock this prison up, completely, until his execution." The guards nodded and did as commanded.

He turned to the two ANBU escorts.

The first was a woman with sandy brown hair that is pinned up with six hair needles, although it didn't completely hold her hair as it stopped in the middle of her back and two, long, elbow-length strands went down both sides of her face. Her mask is that of a cat with three whisker marks on each cheek and a long red line going down the forehead, stopping just above the bridge of the nose, and three crescent lines decreasing in size from the bottom of the line.

The second was a man with sable black hair that is tied at the right at the back like a pineapple and with two strands framing his face (like Sephiroth's hair). His left arm is left bare (even the arm guard) while his right, save for the arm guard, has a red tattoo. On his right thigh are six kunai that he fastened to bandages on the same place.

Fate said, "Let's go."

Both ANBU nodded and left with Fate in a flurry of leaves.

Mahora

Five girls stood in front of Negi's students, Albireo Imma, Takamichi, and the Dean.

The first girl has brown eyes and matching hair that is tied into two ponytails at each side of her head.

The second girl has closed eyes, long purple hair that reached her ankles, and two long horns on her head.

The third girl is the seemingly childish of the lot. She has black hair, green eyes with slit pupils, and black cat ears.

The fourth girl is quite dark-skinned, has sandy brown hair that is tied to a single ponytail that reaches her back, wears some sort of horned accessory, and has a blood red tattoo on her forehead.

The last girl has shoulder-length blonde hair, which she ties with a bow, dark green eyes, and a pair of elfish ears instead of human ones.

They are Fate's Ministra Magi and are codenamed, respectively, Homura, Shirabe, Koyomi, Tamaki, and Shiori.

Homura said, "So let me get this straight. Fate-sama is the container of the Kyuubi (the other four girls shivered slightly), went back to his land of origin to deal with this Akatsuki, and left a message, which said that he is not to be followed." The Mahora girls nodded. "However, you sent the child teacher, the dog, the princess, the swordsman and the ninja after him." They nodded again. "Are you all insane?" Homura all but shouted. "If Fate-sama says that no one should follow, you should do what he says!"

Takamichi chuckled nervously. "Yes, but it is of utmost importance. We can handle Mundus Magicus on our own," he gestured towards the Dean and Albireo after himself, "with the help of a few others in Mundus Magics, of course. However, these ninjas take precedence over anything. We still do not know how powerful these Akatsuki are. From what I suspect, the ninjas that are at my level are the officials, the highly-experienced ninjas. And if that is so, then their leader would be at Eishun's or Albireo's or, my old master, Gateu's level. With that, then Akatsuki must be above that level. Even if the jinchuuriki in question is powerless as compared to them, I doubt that their respective villages would just give them up. And if Fate is confident enough to face them alone, then this Akatsuki must be somewhere between our and Fate's level. However, even Fate can't be in multiple places at once. He can't protect all eight jinchuuriki if they are scattered across their continent. That would be one of the reasons why we sent Negi-kun and the others."

Shirabe spoke up, "And do you think Fate-sama would agree to your hypothesis? He did this to protect all of you and you just disregarded his wish. I doubt that he would be merciful."

Nodoka started, "Um…wouldn't you do that same?"

She turned to Nodoka, "Only if Fate-sama tells us to. Otherwise, we would only intervene if Fate-sama is in very dire need of rescue, which is rare."

Asakura grinned. "Well, enough dilly dally here! Negi-kun just arrived to where Fate is."

At that, Fate's Ministra Magi, along with the others, turned their heads towards the screen and saw a very large gate.

One thought crossed through everyone's minds. That's one big gate.

Konoha Gates

Asuna was speechless at the sight of the large gates of Konoha. "Whoa, that's big!"

Kaede and Setsuna nodded in affirmation.

Negi, in his 18-year-old form (thanks to Chamo's pills), beckoned the girls and Kotarou (who was in his older form as well) to follow him and they were about to step into Konoha grounds when they were stopped by the two guards, Izumo and Kotetsu.

Izumo said, "Halt! What is your business here?"

Negi gave a charming smile and said, "Greetings. I am Urashima Keitaro. These are my siblings." Gesturing to Kotarou, he said, "This is my non-identical twin, Kentaro." And to the three girls, he said, "The one with bells is the youngest, Naru; the one with the blade is Motoko; and the tallest one is Mitsune. We're travelers, wandering around, learning much about the different landscapes."

Izumo raised a brow. "And where are your parents?"

Negi mocked a flinch. "They…they died a few years ago. Bandits ambushed us and our parents held them off as we escaped."

Both guards looked away in shame. Then, Kotetsu changed the subject. "And why does Motoko-san have a blade?"

'Motoko' cleared her throat and said, "I promised on our parents' grave that I will no longer let anyone close to me get hurt, so I trained myself."

Both guards nodded and said, "Do you have papers?"

Negi shrugged and hand out sheets of paper that Negi used magic on so that the biography shown on the papers reflects what Negi said.

Izumo and Kotetsu checked it and said, "Everything's in order. Enjoy your stay in Konoha and don't cause trouble now."

Negi smiled and they walked inside.

Along the streets

Asuna grinned at Negi. "That was some nice acting, Negi! You had them eating out of the palm of your hand!"

Negi laughed sheepishly. "That's nothing."

Setsuna said, "Now, our current plan is to find a place to stay."

Negi shook his head. "No. We should find Fate first. The sooner we explain to him our decision, the more chances of us surviving."

Namikaze Home

Fate, Minato, and Kushina are seated at the coffee table that is placed on the roof, Fate drinking coffee while reading a random book at the library and Minato and Kushina embracing each other softly, the latter napping on the former's shoulder. The afternoon sky flew slowly above them and the wind was blowing gently on their faces.

Suddenly, Fate put down his cup and stood up. Minato blinked. "Is something wrong?'

Fate was frowning. "It's nothing, Otou-san. I will be excusing myself for now. I will return later. For now, enjoy the outside and bask in your and your wife's love." He walked to the railings and looked at the ground, two streets away.

Just as I thought, he's here. And it seems he brought Inugami-kun, the princess, the Shinmeiryuu practitioner, and the kunoichi of the Koga clan.

Visible through an alley, Fate's friend and the aforementioned students are admiring Konoha.

Fate jumped onto the railing and jumped again into the air before he vanished.

With Negi's group

Negi and the others felt a little hungry and entered a stall called 'Ramen Ichiraku.'

Once inside and seated, Ayame went forward and smiled. "Hello, how may I help you?"

Negi looked at the nearby menu and was pleased to see that they accept their currency. Turning to Ayame, he said, "I'll have one miso ramen."

Kotarou grinned and said, "I'll have two dan-dan men!"

Asuna smiled. "I'll take one tomato ramen."

Setsuna gave a curt bow. "I would like tonkotsu gyokai."

Kaede put a finger to her chin and hummed. "I suppose shoyu ramen will be fine."

Ayame gave a smile and turned to make their order.

Kotarou turned to Negi. "So how do you propose we find Fate? This place is so large and so populous that my nose is finding it hard to find him."

Negi sighed. "Then we'll just have to ask around then."

Asuna put a thumbs-up. "Then it'll be easy! All we have to do is ask around for a 12-year-old kid with white hair and in blue clothes!"

Setsuna voiced out, "If Fate is indeed what he said then I doubt that anyone could just see him."

Kaede grinned. "Don't worry, Negi-bozu. We'll fight Fate in no time."

However, all five of them (plus the audience in Mahora as they watched) froze when they heard a familiar voice, that familiar, cold voice. "It seems I overestimated your ability to understand my message. You also allowed three of your students to accompany you." Turning towards the source slowly, they were met with the cold gaze of Fate Averruncus and they, Negi's group and every watcher in Mahora, knew that Fate was not, in the least, happy with this development.

Fate finally said, "I believe we should have a little discussion about this."

Whatever you think of this chapter is fine with me. I've been thinking about this for a long time, from Naruto's female clones to the ending. I wanted to remove Danzo from play because he won't play much part here. As for the clones, I added them because one of them would play a part in Sasuke's redemption, in addition to the resurrection of Mikoto.

Yes, Sasuke will be in Konoha and is good in this fic.

Got a problem? Oh, well.

Oh, an additional note:

Dandanmen is a spicy, sesame-flavored broth, with either ground or pork. It is extremely hot and spicy.

Tonkotsu gyokai is tonkotsu mixed with fish stock.