Ink Heart

by Foy the Snooze Button

People always thought that to be strong a person had to have bulging muscles or super speed, or almighty battle field levelling jutsu; some of the more naive people taught that to be strong one had to have someone or somewhere to love, someone they had to strive to protect. But all of that changed when Naruto entered the picture. Scientist!Naruto

5. Chapter 5

Yo!

I cannot be any more grateful for all your wicked awesome reviews.

Thank you 'LordofTerror' for your thought on why Tsunade was immediately suspicious of Naruto, you'll see why in this chapter. I wouldn't have even thought of this if you didn't bring it up.

To 'neydomus': most of your questions will be answered in this chapter.

Note: I will be changing timelines in this chapter, serious changes. So keep an open mind. Hiruzen Sarutobi was already the Hokage when he became a sensei to Tsunade, Jiriaya and Orochimara; he used the smart way and had clones do his paper work while he trained his students. Of course he would go back to the office from time to time. Plus, if you're against a girl crushing on another girl then you should probably skip the flashback coming up in the story. Tsunade never dated Dan which is why she didn't hesitate before she returned back to Konoha; she doesn't think she's cursed.

I think that's about it, I think…

Enjoy

CHAPTER 5

The snake and spider summoners leisurely walked towards Kumo when they got within a stone throw of the village and the woman was giving the boy advice on how to infiltrate a village considered impossible to infiltrate, "there are usually three ways to go about it," Naruto nodded to show he was listening while he made sure that no one was around to ambush them, "the first is when you actually sneak through the village, this is usually for those confident in their abilities and can back up their confidence with action, especially if you are well versed with standard procedure in the hidden village whether you are part of the ninja system or not,"

"Ok, does it count if I use this way to sneak into and through Konoha?

"It all counts, even if your sneaking into an underground cavern guarded by demons," Naruto pursed his lips and nodded, "this usually doesn't make use of any jutsu since you need to minimize chakra use so sensors wouldn't find out,"

"And sensory seals," Naruto added,

The woman beamed and ruffled his hair, "exactly. There are many ways to go about this but I personally like underground or subterranean travel, this helps because I can hold my breathe for a really long time. The second way of sneaking into a hidden village or country is when there is a huge distraction. This distraction can either be created by another, or external, force or by you,"

"External?" Naruto asked with furrowed eyebrows,

"This is a person or a group of people that you have never met or even know are present in the first place, it's sort of like a coincidental happening in your favour. Like if a person wanted to break into the Konoha hospital and he arrived just as the invasion was happening. You noticed how priority was set on keeping attackers contained and defending the walls, this distracts everyone from people sneaking that don't include fighters, not sure you understand,"

The boy still had his eyebrows furrowed but he nodded, "that would be smart, and extremely lucky, if that happened to us now,"

"It would but it's not what we want to do now, maybe another day. The other type of this distraction is when you cause the distraction, like if you send an explosive clone to forcefully break into the village and detonate hundreds of feet away from your entry point. Standard procedure for every village is to contain the threat and to make sure the civilians are unharmed. This is a very ungraceful way to enter a village,"

"What if I make a clone to sneak in but make a break for it to the other side of the village, not necessarily a bomb?"

"Good, you're learning. The last way is very similar to the first and the second way; you sneak in but using chakra to shroud yourself, when you are detected you make a break for it to your destination, scattering distractions like traps and bombs around you,"

They stopped walking and hid behind a tree as they observed the gate of the extremely wealthy hidden village. There were small caravans owned by traders as well as people that walked through the gate, they were all carefully scanned and checked by gatekeepers for genjutsu and identification. Orochimaru nudged the boy and pointed at a plaque that was nailed to the front of the gatekeepers box, "what does that say?" it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, she was merely testing his knowledge in fuinjutsu,

Naruto's black goggles shuttered like a camera and they spun slowly, showing that they were zooming in on the object he had been told to look at, "it's a detection seal stacked over a sensory seal,"

"The range?" she motioned for him to keep going,

"About a twenty feet distance radius from the gatekeepers' box, the limit for when a sensory seal is combined by a detection seal,"

The woman smirked at him, "correct, before we continue can you tell me why the seal can only go so far?"

"It is because the sensory seals only boosts the sensors abilities to sense while the detection seal is set to only detect humans and animals with chakra, this strains it to being pinpoint accurate, which means it can't stretch to far," a sensory seal would be useless unless there was a sensor to use it and a detection seal had a short range but at the same time it was very accurate; it was merely a combination of similar seals to boost their effectiveness. This also meant that there had to be a constant sensor in the gatekeeper's box, "which way are we going to use to sneak in?"

The woman shrugged and looked at him, "you choose,"

"The first, I've only used that in ninja encampments, never to a place on this scale,"

"Alright but…that would be a problem seeing as they have a detection-sensory seal combo,"

"So…"

"We are definitely going to use that way," she grinned widely, exposing her needle-like canines and pristine teeth and he too slowly grinned widely at the look in her eyes.

She pulled him a little deeper into the forest and sat him down on a large rock. She asked for her backpack from him and he gave her, she rummaged through it and whipped out a make-up set. He snorted in amusement when he saw this and took off his goggles so she would begin changing his face.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A woman with light pink hair, white painted face, pouty red lips and colourful eye shadow raised her chin and looked down at the chunin gatekeepers with hard blue eyes. She was in a white kimono with beautiful multi-coloured flowers dotted all over it and a white obi around her waist, she leaned out of the window and gracefully perched her elbow on the window, "yes?"

"Identification please," the woman said in a bored voice,

"You mean you don't know who I am?!" she screamed, "you don't know who I am?!"

"I'm sorry ma'am-"

"I have never been so insulted in my life!" she began fanning herself with a cloth hand fan that had been in her left hand,

"Kaa-san?" a squeaky voice said from inside the regal carriage, "what's happening, kaa-san?"

"Oh my sweet little child, these uncouth ninja don't know who I am," she turned her head to the ninjas, now two chunin, who were beginning to hate their posts and spat, "now look what you've done; you've woken up my handsome little boy, you all should be ashamed of yourselves," the boy adjusted his black glasses so they didn't slip down his nose,

"Please calm down, kaa-san," the person sat up and the chunin could see it was a pale boy with rosy red cheeks and thin lips, his blonde hair was gelled down and he was clad in a red and black formal kimono his size, there was a deep red obi around his waist but they couldn't see that from where they were standing. He gently rubbed the hand he held he had in his grasp and the woman placed a hand over her heart dramatically, "they were only trying to confirm it was you," he sharply looked at the flustered chunin and said, "weren't you?" she nodded frantically,

Here a man in jet black hair dropped from the front of the carriage, he was in a sharp penguin suit. He was very different from the people in the carriage; he was tanned and had black eyes. Though he had a long nose (like a beak) which he looked down from with his beady black eyes, "I am quite surprised you do not know Nami-sama and her son Maki-sama,"

The poor chunin hesitantly shook her head, "I-I-I'm sorry…"

The man snorted, "Well I wouldn't expect one like you to know them; they are artists," the light skinned girls 'oh'd' in understanding,

"I'm sorry but I'll still need their ID,"

"It can't be helped," the woman called Nami said with a small sighed, "give them our IDs,"

"And do hurry, kaa-san is tired and would really like her beauty sleep," the woman suppresses a snort and pinched the boy,

"At once," the butler said and reached into his front pocket, he presented three IDs and the girl bowed twice before she ran into the gatekeepers box, she returned three minutes later and smiled at them,

"You guys check out, do you mind telling me why you are in Kumogakure?"

"They are on their vacation, the artisan lifestyle is very hectic and they need a break," the butler said nasally,

"Of course, of course, have a nice stay," she waved for them to continue and they did as soon as the butler got back behind the horses. As they were out of ear shot the girls sighed in relief and wiped the perspiration that was building on their foreheads, "I need to get out more," said a girl and her partner nodded, they went back to her post, waiting for another person to come.

Back with Nami and Maki, the pink haired woman peaked out of the window and when she saw they were far enough she burst into laughter, Maki joined her. They held their bellies and tears ran down their eyes,

"I can't believe they fell for it," Nami said as she ripped off her pink wig, revealing jet black hair, she stuck her tongue out in disgust at the hair colour, "with our acting skills we should will Jinji awards," (in this story they're equivalent to Grammy awards)

After the Sannin had laid down white foundation over their faces they had hijacked a carriage carrying the real Nami and Maki, stole their IDs and rode through to Kumo. Naruto summoned a clone and the woman disguised him as well. Since they both had massive amounts of chakra they were forced to super supress it to civilian capacity but the act of holding the compact size was like holding in pee; as if on cue they both released their hold over their chakra and they sighed in relief, slumping back into the comfortable chairs.

The carriage screeched to a stop abruptly as they were passing through a small farm at the side of the mountain Kumogakure was situated on, Naruto poked his head out of the window but the Sannin playfully pulled him back in and poked her own head out, the boy suppressed the amused smirk before she waved her hand at him, "coasts clear,"

"Whatever," the boy muttered and jumped out through the window, he grumbled and tore off his long formal kimono sleeves, "I hate wearing this…it's like wearing a pillow,"

"Get used to it kid, if your records say you're a great adaptive fighter then don't mess up that image," adaptive fighters were those that were able to use any terrain, handicap, situation, and opponent to their advantage. Naruto was recognised as an adaptive fighter after his second trail jounin test where he had to retrieve Eritajijo back from Suna but it was cemented after a mission he went on with Yugao to Hidden Darkness; he had been tasked to rescue a shinobi who had been injured in his post there but it was an ambush where the darkness shinobi dropped around them, bringing with them their 'darkness in a can'. This delved them into pure chakra induced darkness where even his goggles wouldn't be able to penetrate. What Naruto had done was to make full use of his six extra eyes to sweep around him every ten seconds, having to move around and fight in pitch darkness. At the end they had managed to get the injured ninja back to Konoha but relations with hidden Darkness was still strained.

The two highly ranked ninja leisurely walked to the barn and Naruto pushed the door open, he peaked in and entered when he noticed that not even animals were inside. The 'butler' merely stayed back to watch the horses while the two ventured into the barn fully.

Orochimara had informed the young Uzumaki that their travel around the elemental nations was purely educational for Naruto but at the same time it wouldn't be only her that would be speaking or performing actions. The sick woman looked at the boy and he focused his senses through the dot 'eyes' on his forehead; the world turned black and white, the ground rippled and six phantom black legs crawled out from his shadow, which only he could see, and 'felt' over everything, allowing him to look through until he finally felt something. He cancelled his concentration to those eyes and nodded towards a large empty crate at the far back, the short look he gave his godmother, even though his pitch black goggles, told her everything she needed to know; she didn't pull out a kunai from her sleeve. His added 'eyes' allowed him to see the world in extra detail, which was amazing since the ordinary human eye could already do that. The thing that made Naruto's spider eyes special was that since he could see in better detail he was able to see things most wouldn't see at speeds most wouldn't be able to fathom. His mission quota shot up after his three month long trip and his long range accuracy shot up even more (I'll write later on how his 'eyes' and 'nose' are pretty cool)

She stayed where she was and the boy walked up to the crate, he then heard, "Tori-chan no!" then a childish war cry, the blonde spider summoner smirked a little in amusement and reached forward to catch the little girls head in his hand, the girl kept on stubbornly trying to reach for him but she didn't have the strength to push against his hand, "let go! Fight me!"

Naruto cocked his head to the side to look behind the crate and saw a dark skinned, blonde haired girl in a wheelchair that had both of her hands covering her mouth, and her eyes clenched shut. He rolled his own eyes when the little girl he was holding back tried kicking him but again this was a futile attempt, "relax kid," quicker than she could anticipate he spun her around and her moving legs had her run back into the wheelchair girl, "good, now where are your parents?"

"P-please sir-"

"It's a simple question; I didn't add a threat, did I?"

"They're in the market," the blonde girl muttered with her eyes still closed, "do anything you want to me but please don't hurt Tori-chan,"

Naruto actually leaned back in shock and blinked twice, he looked at the snake lady and she shrugged, motioning for him to keep talking, "I'm not going to hurt you, matter of fact we're just passing through,"

He made sure to show both of his hands, they're bags were in the carriage, the little girl, who looked identical to the older girl, glared suspiciously at him but she stayed in front of her sister in a stance akin to one about to pounce on a target.

"What are you doing here?"

"We came to give the owners of this house our horses, no use feeding them to our pets huh," Orochimara said as she peeked around the corner of the crate at the girls, she noticed that her words only increased the mistrust visibly being shown by the little girl. They always had the option of killing the girls but not everyone they met had to be killed, or so Orochimara lectured had her godson, and that it would be a waste of horses if they just gave them to be slaughtered by their summons when they had their own sources of food in their summoning realm.

Naruto slowly stepped away from them with his hands still up to show he didn't have any weapon there, "we'll just leave them in here," when he was about twelve paces away from them he turned around and took the reins of the three horses from the clone butler, "there they are…" he tied the horses to a post and waved with a wide smile to the girls as they peeked out from behind the crates,

"Wait!" the girl in the wheelchair shouted and the blonde stopped mid-walk back to the barn door, "you haven't told us your name," or even what the heck they'll have to tell their parents when they asked about the horses,

"Call me Naruto,"

"My name is Teri and this is my baby sister Tori, thank you for the horses," she nodded and he gave her two thumbs up,

"No thanks needed, Teri-san, Tori-san, I'll be going now," he sent a lax two fingered salute as he went out the large doors. He could already hear the sisters trying to come up with a reason why they suddenly have three horses,

Outside Orochimara raised an eyebrow as she looked at her godson, "well that was amusing, come and help me with this please," the boy knelt down beside her and used his hands to keep a large scroll open while she rolled her shoulders and pushed the carriage onto the edge, "Seal," she muttered and with a large poof the wooden carriage was gone, "you never know when you'll need a carriage, I always say," she said as she sealed the scroll into her palm,

Naruto rolled his eyes, not for the first time that day either, "you don't say that,"

The woman bopped his nose and threw her right arm over his shoulder as they started walking down the dusty road that led directly to Kumo's 'backdoor', which was seldom ever used since it only led to Uzushio.

The woman raised a finger to begin another lecture but a loud yell had both of them look back, the woman still had her arm over his shoulder as she muttered, "uh oh,"

"There they are! Those are the guys that stole our stuff!" a pink haired woman wrapped in a white blanket screamed as she pointed at the duo, a boy with gelled blonde hair that was clad in only boxers and a black haired man in briefs fumed angrily at them, "I thought for sure they would stay put…" the Sannin said as she scratched her chin, they had left the real Nami, Maki and butler in hidden Mountain. They heard dozens of feet land around them and they spied both Mountain and Lightning shinobi surround them, when they noticed that it was the snake and spider summoner that they were around they began whipping out their weapons or getting into strong taijutsu stances. The duo though remained in the same position as they carefully looked around; Orochimara unwound her arm from around the boys shoulder and stood up straight, her wicked smirk in place, "it seems we wouldn't be using the first way, huh kid?"

Naruto hunched over as two three foot long senbon slid out of his launchers and clicked in place, they grazed the ground as he got his legs into a light stance, "it seems not," he set his right arm to hook over his head and his left to point forward, it was still the four legged shadow spider stance but it was still a position he could alternate and reduce some 'legs' after he had gauged the severity of the situation, no need to put too much effort of he was fighting weak ninja,

"Alright then, let's see what these guys can do," she stood behind Naruto, facing the ninja behind him, and steadily got into a light snake fist stance. "taijutsu and weapons alone," she muttered and he nodded; she didn't need to know how well Naruto was with his taijutsu, she had gone against him in the forest of death as well as Kabuto reported all of his missions back to her, she merely wanted to see how well they would work together as a team, this was also what Naruto thought as a matching smirk set on his face.

The very air that passed through the ninja was taunt and some even began perspiring but they didn't flee or stand down. Then, like a light switch had been flipped, they dived onto the duo…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The silence that fell in the office was solemn after they had just finished the tape of Naruto mutating the formerly thought to be dead Mizuki Touji. The Hokage, Tsunade Senju, sighed and propped her elbows on her desk as she looked at the other occupants of the room one by one. Kakashi, Yugao, Jiriaya, Shikaku, Kureanai and Asuma; the genjutsu mistress tried to keep her composure as her image of the same boy that had helped Anko through her random spouts of depression changed drastically and Asuma too wondered why he didn't detect this side of Naruto as he invited him to a game of Shogi with Shikamaru. Shukaku, Yugao and Kakashi just regretted why they didn't approach him when he was younger; Naruto Uzumaki was the top ten special jounin in Konoha, probably even stronger than some full jounin, the potential that the boy had in him was astounding.

"I think we know the next step from here," Tsunade said first, breaking the tense silence, "he's a rogue ninja and he has to be placed in the Konoha bingo books," it was inevitable; he was already B rank ninja in the Iwa bingo books, closely rising to A rank, as well as an A rank ninja in hidden Darkness, it was only a matter of time other villages heard of his defection and altered his standing in their bingo books.

The former ANBU in the room chose to remain professional about it, despite how personal the matter was, "yes," Kakashi nodded, since they were some of the few ninjas that had been close to Naruto, or so they thought, then they should be the ones to gauge his standing in the bingo books,

"Well, considering the fact that he has a single jutsu that is able to hold us down and a toad summon, then I say he's an A rank," Jiriaya said,

"He has his spiders and Mizuki, I agree, he has to be A rank," Yugao said quietly,

"His taijutsu is impeccable and his ninjutsu skills are one the best I've seen. A rank," Kakashi supplied as he sat down on the window sill, a place where Naruto used to sit down during jounin meetings,

"Naruto is able to plan ahead, much further than most jounin, which explains why he has such a high A class mission quota. He should be A rank," Asuma added,

"His stealth skills are his shining points to me, he was able to steal the forbidden scroll from under our noses once and then his tracking and capturing skills shouldn't be left out, I say he should be an A rank missing ninja," Shukaku finalised, "one to be approached with caution,"

The jounin nodded in agreement and the Hokage finalised the decision and placed it in the new edition of the Konoha bingo book:

KONOHA BINGO BOOK Entry No 42

Rank: A

Name: Uzumaki Naruto,

Moniker(s): Shadow spider (AN: another moniker is coming after this chapter)

Age: 13

Affiliation: Konohagakure (formerly), Kitsugami Drug Corporation (CEO), Spider clan, Aoki-chan (rogue samurai), Orochimara of the Sannin, missing ninja

Bloodline: sensor type, Kyuubi jinchuriki, Uzumaki regeneration ability (they might not be bloodlines but whatever, they need to be noted)

Summons: Spider clan (maybe snake clan as well)

Description: blonde hair, wears black goggles (sometimes), vulpine red eyes, usually in dark clothes, wears two silver senbon launchers on his wrists and has serrated teeth (like his summons).

Specialization(s): taijutsu, ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, shurikenjutsu, summoning ninjutsu, first aid, espionage, infiltration, spying, tracking, capturing, researching and investigating. It is believed that he is able to use his Kyuubi chakra to a high degree but it is still yet to be seen. His goggles prevent genjutsu from working on him but it is also known that he isn't good at genjutsu.

Information: not much is known about Uzumaki Naruto since he is very private about his life but he was not closed off from associating with other ninja in the village. He is the owner and founder of the Kitsugami Drug Corporation, a drug company whose activities and movements are still a great secret. He is credited for creating his own summons and his own fighting style (the four legged shadow spider fighting style), a feat that is rarely ever heard of in any country. It is speculated that he travels around with Aoki-chan, an A rank rogue samurai, who is close friend and (probably) Orochimara of the Sannin, who is his godmother. Not much information is known about him. He might not be as smart as a Nara but he is a very close second; it is advisable that if he is ever encountered, only A rank ninja and above should attempt to face him.

DO NOT ENGAGE UNLESS YOU ARE A RANK AND ABOVE!

The jounin filed out so it only left the two last loyal Sannin. Jiriaya sighed and sat down on the chair in front of the Hokage's desk, "should I start looking for him?"

Tsunade was silent for five minutes before she slowly shook her head, "no…leave him be,"

The toad sage raised an eyebrow, "mind I ask why?"

"He has shown that he doesn't hold grudges against us and he doesn't have anything we want, besides his spider summons; it's best if we don't associate with him or else he'll start asking just how his parents bank accounts were drained dry," the man paled and chuckled nervously,

"Plus he knows konoha's defence like the back of his hand; we don't want him coming after the civilian council,"

"Or us," Tsunade added,

"You're afraid of him?"

The woman snorted, "of course not, but do you remember he is very good with poisons. He beat Kakashi and Gai on his first fight with them," he held down Kakashi, Yugao, Jiriaya and a freaking toad with a web bomb, she added in her mind, "but I do want you to find out where he is or even his travelling plans,"

"Understood," Jiriaya nodded before a perverted grin stretched on his face, "I miss you already, hime," he winked but dove out of the window as a heeled ninja sandal was thrown at him, the slug Sannin grumbled as she retrieved her heel,

"Damn pervert," she sat down heavily on her chair and put her shoe on again. She leaned back on her chair and looked out of her office window, a memory of when she was a young hit her and she understood why the moment Hiruzen Sarutobi had sent a copy of Naruto's ninja history as he summoned her back to Konoha she immediately didn't trust Naruto.

Flashback

(I'm writing this from my point of view, not Tsunade's)

A nineteen year old Tsunade Senju grinned widely and sent a small finger wiggling wave to a few flustered boys as she waltzed past the academy, the jounin vest on her torso glinted slightly as she puffed out her chest in pride; she was in a very good mood. She spied one of her team mates, Orochimara, walking towards the academy; she seemed to be too preoccupied with her thoughts to see Tsunade seeing as the Senju had waved but the snake summoner still couldn't see her. The blonde girl pursed her lips in irritation and was about to yell until she saw the pale teen raise her hand and wave frantically as academy students began pouring out of the door after the break bell had sounded, curious enough a blonde ball of yellow and white energy barrelled into her belly and, rather than hissing in a feral rage and killing the menace, she laughed quietly and hugged the boy back,

"Mara-nee-chan, you came!" the ten year old boy had bright blue eyes and slightly tanned skin, he wore blue shorts and a white shirt that had the snake clan symbol on the shoulders with blue sandals on his feet,

The young snake summoner grinned and released the boy from her grasp, ruffling his hair familiarly, "of course I'll come, you forgot your lunch box, again," she reached behind her back and whipped out a bento box of food for the boy and his eyes sparkled in wonder at how impossible it was for a tin of food to magically appear from behind her, "its ramen and veggies, just so you know," they were now standing in a remote part of the academy training ground where the students wouldn't be able to see them, a spot Orochimara was very familiar with,

"Awesome! Thank you nee-chan," he said and took the tin from her, she closed her yellow reptilian eyes as she smiled widely,

"Don't worry about it," she said as she led them to a bench and sat down, the watching Senju was about to yell for the boy to drop the food, fearing that it was poisoned, but it was too late; Minato had already taken four mouthfuls and no negative effects. The pale jounin leaned back coolly with her hands behind her head, crossed her leg and looked at him, "so how was class?"

The boy shrugged as he hastily tried to swallow the hot food in his mouth before he replied, "eh, it was ok, I guess,"

She raised an eyebrow, "is there something wrong?" he shrugged again but he had slowed down his eating, she placed a hand on his shoulder, "Minato-kun…?" she drew out his name and he sighed,

"Someone called me a sissy, it's nothing, really," he insisted as her eyes steeled over,

"Who is this person?" she asked slowly but rolled her eyes at his worried look, "I'm not going to do anything bad to them, don't worry,"

"It's Uzumaki Kushina," he said as he stopped eating, opting to rather poke his noodles with his chop sticks,

"Well what did you do for her to call you that?"

"I didn't do anything! Promise," she suppressed the smirk and he blushed a deep red, "ok, ok, I said…I liked her hair,"

"You're just too cute, Minato-kun," she hiss-laughed, "just try and avoid her, you'll be fine,"

"If you say so…"

Once upon a time Tsunade had a massive crush on Orochimara, she might still have one, but certain things about the snakes summoner made her suspicious. First was that she practically popped out of nowhere during their academy resumption, she didn't have any parents and she was as cold as ice to everyone, even their sensei and Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. As her team mate she had seen Orochimara in action and it was never a pretty sight, the sheer bloodlust that sparkled in her eyes on every dangerous mission was spine chilling.

Now, hiding behind a tree with her chakra supressed, she watched as the icy exterior of the snake summoner was chipped off right before her very eyes. This 'Minato' was probably the only person she had seen Orochimara be free around, or even remotely kind to. Quite frankly she thought Orochimara always had an iron rod shoved far up her ass. She squinted her eyes in suspicion at the two as they chatted on and on one matters only they could understand, speaking in a code only they could decipher, and suspicion on who Minato was started to fester in her mind. She had only seen Minato once and that was when team Sarutobi were leaving the gate, she had spied him hiding behind a building and looking on as they left. Shocking enough this didn't make her suspicious since it wasn't the first time a boy had watched them leave, she even thought that it was her that Minato was staring at but apparently it wasn't true.

The bell sounded and she watched as the bubbly boy gave the teen a parting hug before he ran back to class. The Senju furrowed her eyebrows in thought and melted into the darkness behind her, taking a route back to the village so she could begin a thorough investigation on who Minato and Orochimara were, but first she had to enlist the help of a master detective,

"You want me to do what?" Jiriaya said as he dug his pinkie into his ear, "something funny must have crawled into my ear, for a minute there I thought you said we should stalk Orochimara-chan, but that's crazy, right?"

Tsunade placed her fists on her hips and glared at the white haired jounin, "we're not stalking her…we're just going to…ask around about her, nothing bad there,"

"Yeah, nothing bad but this is Orochimara-chan we're talking about! She'll kill us!" he threw his arm in the air, "I will have no part in this," what if during their 'questioning' they walk in on the snake summoner naked in the bathroom? Even though that would be a great sight… 'Snap out of it!" he slapped himself and sat down on a tree stump, "I rather like living, Hime-chan, don't you?"

The Senju princess huffed in frustration and rolled her eyes, "she won't kill us-"

"Remember what she did to Gigi-san when he touched her shoulder? Huh, do you remember?!" she had broken both of his arms, he was still in the hospital recovering from both the physical and psychological scars, next time he wouldn't try and flirt with her again, "what of Bumi-san, remember him?" Orochimara had 'accidentally' shoved him off a cliff for winking at her, "or Yutoroji-san," this idiot purposely groped the snake girl during a spar and before they could all say 'ah shit' his head had been buried under the ground and his body was upright, like he had been stabbed into the ground, and the girl still didn't stop the beatings until Hiruzen had stepped in and restrained her, "or Kumito-chan," this was a Suna konuichi that had called Orochimara a freak after she had manifested twin snakes as her arms to fight, 'freak' was a watered down version of what she really called her; she was still looking for all of her teeth, now she wore her scarf around her mouth, "or Rintachi-chan-"

"Alright I get it," Tsunade said sourly, Jiriaya crossed his arms smugly, his point had been made, "but don't you think she's even a little bit suspicious? She just randomly appeared after Sarutobi-sensei became Hokage, she is literally part snake and, despite being two whole years late, she still became konuichi of the year,"

"Well…yeah…" the spy master said as he scratched his chin in thought, "come to think of it that is sort of strange,"

"See?"

The white haired teen furrowed his eyebrows and actually really thought of exactly what his crush wanted him to do; he wanted them to investigate on who Orochimara was, probably due to a suspicion that had reared its ugly head out, seeing as Tsunade used all of her genin and part of her chunin days chasing after the snake summoner. Even though he didn't look or act like Jiriaya was certain that he was familiar with the Konoha migration log and citizen registry, and Orochimara was only mentioned abruptly in the registry. Even after the second shinobi had blown over little was still ever known about her. Then an idle thought struck him, "why all this so suddenly? You've never acted like this about her before,"

She pushed him off the stump he was sitting on and he groaned as his face met the ground, "I saw her going to the academy-"

"Probably to go scout out for fresh meat," the boy muttered as he got up and dusted his clothes down,

"Shut up, idiot, as I was saying, I saw her going to the academy to give a kid lunch she forgot at 'home'"

There was a short silence before Jiriaya couldn't hold himself anymore, his belly laughs spread far and wide over the training ground, as his laughs tapered out he took a deep breathe and sent an amused smile at the blonde girl, who looked like just a small tap away from giving a ground shattering blow to him, "I think you should go to the hospital, Hime-chan, I knew I shouldn't have cooked that crab I picked off the ground on our last mission…"

"What?"

The teen frantically waved for her to calm down, "my point is it's probably not our Orochimara you saw,"

"I'm a hundred percent sure it was her," the last Senju insisted, "his name is Minato and they act like they're siblings but he looks nothing like her. I mean, she seemed so happy around him and not in a perverted, paedophilic way," she added as a bright glint entered the toad sage's eyes, "like they were really siblings,"

"Do you think sensei knows about this?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so,"

"Well…let's go and find out who Orochimara is then," he said and reached his right hand for a handshake and the Senju reached forward to shake it but an idle gust of wind blew behind him, not strong enough to even blow a leaf but apparently strong enough for him to over reach and grab her bountiful bosoms, "whoopsie, the weather huh hime-chan,"

"Pervert!"

Thud! Boom!

When the situation had more or less been settled the duo separated after Jiriaya had assigned functions to them; he would do the digging on Orochimara while frantically avoiding her, while Tsunade was to watch Minato and note everything on him.

What she had discovered about the young blonde speedster troubled her greatly; she sat down on a branch with her legs crossed as she watched the boy spar against a classmate, a ten year old in his third year of school was not meant to know how to fight so well. Minato spun under a punch and his arms shot out, grabbed the back of the attackers neck and in a flurry of limbs he brought the opponents face down to meet the mat with his forearm placed firmly on his neck and his pointer and middle fingers of his right hand pointing to the back of his head. He had ended a spar in two minutes flat with flow and ease it almost seemed like he was humouring his opponent by even fighting him. The boy stood back and politely bowed to his opponent before he returned to his friends, who were patting him on his back, he smiled widely at them.

He was nothing like Orochimara but at the same time they were very similar; the boy thrived in the basic sciences aspect of the academy, and he especially gravitated towards spiders irrespective of their danger level. With every passing hour of watching the boy interact she grew even more suspicious, with every happy smile and jovial greeting she grew to suspect that there had to be more to the eye on Minato Namikaze. No one could be that close to the Snake Sage without having even the slightest bit of darkness lurking in him.

Sadly for Tsunade, depending on how you look at it, she couldn't follow the boy back to his home since he lived with Orochimara.

Though the next day, just as the snake sage had dropped off the boy in school she took permission from his class sensei to speak with him. She struggled to hold up a smile for the nervous boy as she motioned for him to sit down on some chairs outside an empty class, "good morning, Senju-sama,"

"There's no need to call me that, Tsunade is just fine," she said with a gentle smile, she reached over to pat his head but frowned at the way he recoiled from her touch even though she had seen him get pats on his back from his friends the day before,

"Tsunade-san," he said with his head tilted down, he kept his eyes on his lap, "did I do something wrong?"

"Nope, I was just curious about something about you. What's your relationship with Orochimara the snake sage?"

Here he perked up and bounced in his seat in excitement, "Mara-nee-chan is my nee-chan,"

"Is that so?"

He nodded, "Hai, she is very kind and nice and smart and…" here he blushed heavily, "very beautiful," the Senju tried to suppress her own blush but forced herself to focus on her goal,

"How long have you known her?"

"A while," he answered ominously,

"Ok…I take it you're not blood relations then,"

The boy snorted, "I wish," again it was a very short answer, she sat there, just watching him play with his fingers nervously, "can I go back to class now? I don't want to miss anything," she nodded but before he left she said,

"Don't tell her I was her, ok?" he nodded but needless to say Minato told Orochimara.

The snake sage buffed her fingernails on her flak jacket and examined them as Tsunade stepped into her apartment; the pale jounin was sitting on her couch in a lax position, "glad to see your back, how are you?"

"Mara-chan, umm…I wasn't expecting you,"

"I just decided to drop by, y'know, to see my team mate and find out how she's doing. I can't do that?" she asked as she reclined into the comfortable chair with her legs crossed,

"But…I don't remember giving you my keys…" nor did she see any signs of forceful entry anywhere,

"Oh don't worry about that, Tsu-chan. Why don't you have a seat, you look tired," she motioned to the chair beside the couch she was sitting on. Matter of fact, Tsunade was tired; she had just returned from the patrol tower at the west part of konoha's border, the leading medic ninja hesitantly took a seat and watched as a snake clone walked out of the kitchen with two cups of steaming green tea, setting it down on the table. The snake sage noticed her hesitation and a small smirk crossed her face as she leaned forward and dipped her pinkie finger into the cup directly in front of Tsunade, licking it off slowly, Tsunade swallowed thickly,

"Umm…I…umm…why are you here again, if you don't mind me asking," she said as she took the tea and gently blew into it, she was struggling to get her mind back on track,

"Someone very dear to me told me you were asking him about his relationship with me," the pale jounin said as she sipped her tea gently,

"It's just that-"

"I'll have to ask you to stay away from him, he is none of your concern," she interrupted sharply and screwed her lips to the side a little,

"We've been a team for seven years, we've gone on so many missions together, we've camped in so many kami forsaken places together and you never once mentioned you had a brother," Tsunade said sharply, "I thought you trusted us, Mara-chan,"

"Oh Tsu-chan, I do trust you guys, I just prefer keeping my private and professional life as separate as possible,"

"We're your team," the blonde muttered, "We're your friends,"

Orochimara smiled in mild amusement and nudged the other teens foot with her own, "then why do you have Jiriaya researching on me? If we're friends like you say you should be up front and ask me any question you want answered, right?" she stood up sharply before the medic could give any clear response and Tsunade followed suit immediately, "just stay out of my business and you'll both be fine,"

She walked out of the apartment and the closing door sounded like a canon to the Senju. The brief meeting between her and the snake girl only proved to be even more suspicious of her crush; why was she being so secretive and protective about Minato?

It was when Minato was a genin and was being trained by Jiriaya did she get her answer. Orochimara became more withdrawn, if that's even possible, and colder than ever towards her team mates but she never neglected the blonde boy. Minato too was incredibly secretive about his relationship with Orochimara, even though they were seen less and less together.

The day it had been discovered that Orochimara was behind the kidnappings and the murders going on in Konoha did Tsunade realize something about Minato; that he balanced her out and she balanced him out as well. He was the cushion that she could cry into any day and she was his support from the very first day they had met. As she knelt down beside his broken body, ignoring the rain as it pelted down on them, so that she could stabilize him enough for transport back to Konoha after he had almost been torn to pieces by the now rogue snake sage, she instantly regretted trying to interfere in his and her team mates lives all those years ago. Years passed and he was more withdrawn, more secretive, even to his girlfriend, Uzumaki Kushina, who just so happened to be her niece. Though only those close to him knew of his fervent search for his long lost sister. He was still all smiles and laughs among his friends but when he was alone she would observe a shadow that passed through his eyes and the disdain he held, for who? She didn't know.

Kushina weathered the storm and the love he had for her could never be compared to any other person but he was just never the same again after Orochimara had defected. Tsunade watched on, ever suspicious of when he would finally snap and perform evil like his sister.

He died protecting Konoha, and now apparently his son, before anything else could happen.

Flashback end

Naruto had the same look and feel as Minato, through and through, but the darkness in him was only darker and more sinister. Her dead sensei had said that Orochimara had reached over to him and gave him his goggles, helping him with his eye problems greatly, as well as pushed him towards learning about the world.

The thing was…the Sandaime, the toad sage, the copy ninja and the cat ANBU were a hundred percent sure that Orochimara DID NOT push Naruto towards performing all of the evil experiments and trading in drugs; it was a path he had chosen on his own. Orochimara had not, as far as they knew, sent over training scrolls or jutsu scrolls to him to learn from, he had done it all on his own. Orochimara had not given pointers to Naruto on how best to break into the most secure building in the entire village, he had done it himself. In his very countenance and composure she saw Minato, who was just as quiet and smooth when he was all business. Naruto and Minato were almost mirror images of themselves, only Naruto could be considered a version of Minato who had survived the Kyuubi attack and found his long lost sister…

A version of Minato who had gone much deeper into his inner darkness, and who just so happened to house the strongest tailed beast on the planet, who had connections far deeper than anything she could guess and who probably would make an exceptional civilian medic with his extensive knowledge of the human body seeing as his chakra capacity was too high for him to control enough to perform medical ninjutsu.

It was best if they did not poke him, if he had been able to steal the forbidden scroll when he had just graduated the academy (and was not part spider) then what was to say he was not able to sneak past konoha's defences (when he was part spider)?

The Senju grunted and turned to her desk, she then began to write a well written letter to all of konoha's allies that Uzumaki Naruto, konoha's jinchuriki and the son of the Yondaime Hokage, had defected and that he should be placed in their bingo books accordingly. It was standard procedure for those allied to Konoha, what they did with this information was up to them.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto, with his legs rooted into the ground and his arms like pincers, stabbed his arm senbon through a mountain ninja, spun around on his left leg and threw the ninja into two of his comrades. He leaned backwards from two sword strokes from two Kumo ninja and jammed his long senbon into the ground; the ninja raised their eyebrows at his unorthodox move, a human bridge (or the crab), so they weren't fast enough to raise their katana as Naruto's whole body blurred with speed, leaving just a senbon in the ground, as he spun like a tornado. Multiple wires shot from the deadly wind and pulled them in; inside the deadly wind vortex was deadly purple smoke, which couldn't be seen from outside, which promptly paralyzed his opponents, allowing him to lop off their body parts and use them as projectiles for the smarter ninja who dodged the wires.

Orochimara sent a grin and a thumb up at his almost unstoppable move while her other arm was around a Kumo konuichi's neck. She lifted the girl up and she was peppered with numerous katana strokes, when the girl seemed out of it she dropped her and used her palms to catch a katana, she swung her left leg and it nailed on the side of the man's head. She ran head first into a small group of Kumo and Mountain ninja.

Naruto spun to a stop and got both of his feet back on the ground, and looked at the few ninja that remained, then at the three people he and his godmother had stolen from, "this would go a lot faster if Aoki-chan was here," he said over his shoulder and he shook his arms and purple chemicals dripped down to the tips. He spun on his feet, jumped over a punch and with both of his legs on the attackers head he forcefully brought his head down to meet the unforgiving ground.

"This is a family trip, kid," Orochimara said as she idly poked a konuichi's neck and watched as her last opponent dropped down on the ground, dead. She placed her hands on her hips and watched Naruto's fight against his opponents, which would have ended faster if he was at least allowed to perform one single jutsu, "oh alright, just one jutsu,"

The boy sent her a thumb up and allowed his long senbon to return into his launchers, which were hidden masterfully in his sleeves. He rolled his shoulders and slithered to the side away from an axe kick, bent backwards from an overhead kick and slipped under another ninjas sword slice. He flipped back one to get an accurate number of his attackers. He counted four; two hand-to-hand specialists, one genjutsu user (who was almost useless against him) and one kenjutsu user. He ran with his head lowered to them and they ran at him, he flipped through seven hand seals, dog, rat, dog, dragon, ram, monkey, bird, "Earth release: Slick sand sink hole," he skidded on his knees under a chop from one of the taijutsu users while at the same time his right hand grazed the ground. Immediately the ground bubbled and sucked in the ninja till it only remained their heads. He raised his right hand and a single three and a half inch senbon slid out, clicking in place; he hovered over them ominously and his goggles glinted in the light as he looked down at them.

Their screams reverberated all around as he finished them off.

Orochimara clapped her hands as Naruto idly kicked a decapitated head, "nicely done, now…what do you propose we do to these three?" she looked at the three civilians that they had stolen from and they began sweating profusely. Naruto turned his head to them, and then from the corner of his vision he saw a two pairs of eyes peek out of the barn they had dropped the horses in. He clenched his sharp teeth and painfully rolled his neck, it cracked loudly,

"I think we've done enough killing for the half hour," the girls had seen him kill enough,

The woman pouted, "Awww that's too bad. Scram," she barked and the three didn't need to be told twice, "now let's go before someone else comes," she walked up to the boy and threw her arm over his shoulder as they walked off towards the 'backdoor' of the hidden village. The boy stuck his hands in his pockets as he supported the sick woman but he couldn't help but inhale deeply,

"You stink of blood," he commented,

She rolled her eyes, "tell me something I don't know, do you know how hard blood is to get out of these clothes?" she huffed childishly, "its torture,"

"You obviously aren't using the right fabric softener," he said as they walked down the lonely road. If they had taken the crossroad behind the barn it would have led straight into main Kumogakure, they had agreed that this was close enough to the centre.

"Oh yeah, well what softener do you use, wise guy?"

"How the heck should I know? My summons do my laundry," he shrugged and laughed when she poked his cheek with her black painted pointer finger nail,

"Mind if I give them my laundry…?"

"I don't mind," she could easily give them her dirty clothes by just giving her snakes who would in turn give his spiders, the only difference between the two summoning realms was the terrain seeing as there spiders and snakes could be found in each realm. Naruto was at least glad that the snakes weren't holding grudges against his spiders for reducing their numbers a little during the Konoha invasion, "speaking of summons, has the white snake elder informed you of Sagi's development?"

The woman hummed in thought and nodded, "he says that she already had high control of her sage chakra before she met him and that he was merely refining it. Do you want to start learning the sage arts?"

"It would be nice if I could use the nature chakra in me for other stuff than keeping my Kyuubi chakra under check," it wasn't painful having that much chakra in him; his, Kyuubi's and nature chakra, and it wasn't painful having them increase from time to time but since he had experimented in almost every aspect of the human and animal world he had always wanted to know what would happen if he combined them all together or individually. He wasn't afraid of turning into a rock from an overload of nature chakra since he was part spider but his movements would slow down exponentially if he took in too much.

"Be patient, young grasshopper; let's focus on your fuinjutsu, ninjutsu and summon control first. When you're a level six and a half and you have more fluidity in your hand seals we can move to sage training," it might have sounded absurd but the woman was a perfectionist, in her eyes Naruto could go even faster with his hand seals, which were in fact considerably faster than most she had seen, and he could be even more efficient in his hand-to-hand combat. Then she wanted to increase his telepathic control over his spiders so that when they moved they would truly be an extension of his body,

"Whatever you say, Mara-chan," he sighed tiredly with his shoulders sagged,

"Exactly," she chirped and poked his cheek again, "now let's talk about chakra,"

He groaned and said, "But I already know about chakra,"

"I know you do, but did you know that you can perform a 'Fire release: Great fireball' with just a drop of your chakra? Or that you can compact your chakra together so tightly that you can manifest it physically in any form you want, especially with the amount of chakra you have. Or even that you can relax all the kinks in your body by circling chakra through your body?"

"No…"

"Of course you didn't, my adorable little godson," she pinched his cheek and began the lecture as they steadily progressed to Uzishio.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Naruto is a what?" Sakura Haruna asked, more like yelled, her long-time friend, Ino Yamanaka,

"A rogue ninja," the blonde girl said to her friend. They were seated in a café on the stools by the counter, the blonde heiress smiled sadly at her friend, "I'm sorry you had to hear that, Forehead," she placed her hand on the pink haired girls shoulder and anticipated the tears that slowly began to pour out of her gem green eyes,

"But-but why?! What did he do?!" she clasped her hands over her heart as more tears fell from her eyes, "this must be a mistake-" Ino had arrived at her house that morning and had opted to take her out for a cup of tea in a business, it was hours after the breakfast rush so the café was relatively empty besides a few customers speckled around and two waitresses that moved around, cleaning the smaller tables,

"Sakura…my dad said he was doing bad things and selling bad things to bad people," she rubbed her shoulder,

"Bad things like what?" the girl blubbered,

"He experimented on people, he sold drugs and he associated with criminals," Ino's heart broke at the state her best friend was in; she had just learnt that her crush, one she had gotten after experiencing Naruto's good manners and pleasant attitude, was one of the leading drug producers in the world,

"He…he must've had a good reason for doing it," the girl looked at Ino frantically, "I mean, you know Naruto; the quiet, nice, clean, polite, smiling, handsome Naruto. The one we knew in the academy, the one that helped us out when we needed it. The real Naruto. He couldn't…he couldn't…he…" she covered her eyes with her hands,

Ino smiled at the girl sympathetically, "my dad also said that he was one of the best ninjas in Konoha and that he never complained if he was given a task, no matter how hard it was,"

Sakura wasn't the only person that had a crush on Naruto, nor was she the only person attracted to him. There were a few girls in their former class that liked him, a few above and few below, and even a few that were already genin. It was why the news of Naruto's defection was a solemn affair all over Konoha, even if he was first known as the Kyuubi kid; no one expected him to be so deep in his darkness. Ino herself felt something for the rogue Uzumaki, she wasn't sure what it was but she felt something.

Then suddenly Sakura looked at her with green fire burning in her eyes, "I have questions,"

"Shoot," the Yamanaka said as she leaned back in surprise,

"Not for you, for Naruto-kun," she hopped off her chair and Ino looked at her like she had lost her mind, "I have questions for Naruto and I am going to have them answered,"

"Umm…forehead, I'm not sure you paid attention to what I said; Naruto went rogue and no one knows where the heck he is. Don't tell me your going rogue too…"

Sakura rolled her eyes and dragged the thin girl out of the café, "of course not but I'm not giving up on Naruto-kun, he must have had a good reason for doing those things,"

"So where are we going…?" they were now walking hurriedly through the upper class residential buildings and Ino was still trying to get her feet under her, it was much too early for all this hurrying,

"To Tsunade-sensei," she answered shortly,

"To do what?"

"If we want to track, capture and bring back Naruto we need the right tools right?"

"Wait… I never said I wanted to-"

"Yes you did, now, we need more training,"

"I never agreed to this," Ino began to frantically try and pry off the girls iron grip on her wrist, extra training with the Hokage was akin to suicide by chakra control exercises, "why don't you meet your sensei? I'm sure he'd like to give extra lessons,"

"I can meet Kakashi-sensei on my teams next team training, Tsunade-sensei is always busy and we're free now so…" she nudged into the Hokage towers front door and stomped up the stairs, Ino still tried to remove Sakura's hand,

"Please!"

"Sensei!" the Haruno yelled as she got in front of the Hokage's office, she ignored Shizune, who had hastily sat up from the desk after a quick nap,

"Sakura please!" the blonde girl shouted but it was too late; they were already in the office and Tsunade was glaring at them,

"What?" her head was throbbing from all the sake she had chugged down last night,

"We want more training,"

"Today's your free day-"

"We don't mind,"

"Speak for yourself!"

"Mind I ask why?" Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow, she was gently rubbing her forehead, "and yes, speak for yourself,"

"We-" she looked at Ino briefly before she corrected herself, "I want to bring Naruto-kun back, no matter what it takes,"

'Why this? Why today? Why me?' she sighed in thought, "if I agree to give you more training…are you ready to face him if you do manage to find him?"

"Hai, sensei,"

"Even if he wants to kill you,"

"Even if he wants to kill me,"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There was another deeper, more personal reason Aoki-chan wasn't allowed to accompany Naruto and Orochimara on their training trip, even though the ronin had pledged her life to protect Naruto.

It was because Orochimara may die from her sickness during the training journey and she wanted her burial to be a family affair. She didn't tell Naruto about her burial but she suspected he already knew. She had already handed all of Otoagakure to Kabuto, who was there with the female samurai, and all of her research, most of her money and physical possessions were passed onto Naruto, even though she had yet to hand the scroll where it was sealed in to him. This didn't mean that she had left Kabuto, Kimimaro and the sound four with just a village full of people; they had gotten a substantial amount of money to maintain Oto and keep it running long enough for them to begin making their own money, through whatever means, she didn't care.

Naruto had examined her personally when he had reached Oto, by her request, and he had confirmed what she had tested herself; that the cancer had accelerated from the stress and hectic atmosphere of killing her former sensei. You see, even though her cancer of the heart was rare, if not never seen before, it grew and expanded based on the increase of adrenaline in the body or rapid increase in the heart rate. The cancer reduced the structural integrity of the walls of the heart, thinned out the blood that passed through it and weakened the muscles that this blood touched; which technically meant that it was cancer of the blood but it remained that it originated from her heart and primarily stayed in the heart, only passing along toxins into the blood it touched. This didn't mean that Orochimara had to refrain from fighting or overthinking, rather the Sannin had mastered the wonderful art of keeping her head in a fight, as seen in their fight with the Kumo and Mountain ninja.

The fact still remained that she only had a year, maybe a year and a half, left before the cancer would fully take over her heart. The result of this would be that her heart would look and act like a pillow case with three compartments (she's part snake), it wouldn't have the strength to keep pumping blood through her body and she would become so immensely weak because of this she would die in approximately half an hour later.

Orochimara turned her head to the side and smiled gently at her godson, he wasn't the little boy that had started the academy that was barely up to her shoulder, now he was a strong, smart and skilled ninja that was a little bit taller than her. He looked at her from the corner of his eyes and smiled back a little, his left arm reached around her own shoulder.

"I've got an idea on how we're going to pass that wall," he said to her as the duo stopped on a hill far away from the wall that covered the ocean leading to Uzishio, they were more like a dot on the horizon as they observed the dozens of ninja patrolling in front of the wall, "but it has to do with a few ninjutsu,"

The woman squinted her eyes as she too watched the rotation of guards, "why not with taijutsu?"

"We both know I'm not ready to face that many ninja, Mara-chan,"

"Ok, what do you have in mind?"

Ten minutes later

A war cry sounded and hundreds of Naruto's and Orochimara's ran down from the hills. It was like watching a tidal wave of blonde and black rushing towards them,

"Prepare yourselves!" seemingly the captain of the wall guards yelled and he drew his tanto, "protect the wall!" he could clearly see that each blonde boy had two one inch senbon in each hand and each black haired woman had standard issue kunai in each hand,

Then the tidal wave clashed against the Kumo ninja, who were fewer in number than the clones but more powerful and jutsu flew from one side to the other. As the chaos ensued Naruto, with a laughing Orochimara, ran underground through the mini war. As they slid under the wall they ran full tilt through the beach and towards the ocean, all that remained was if the whirlpool recognised Naruto as an Uzumaki and Orochimara as his godmother.

Naruto, running at low jounin, walked on the water with blazing speed while he firmly grasped the snake Sannin's left hand in his right. It was instinctive but Naruto knew that he needed to show proof he was part Uzumaki; he bit his hand, between his index and thumb, and clenched his fist strongly as he threw his bloodied fist forward in an arc just as a white and black killer whale jumped out of the water with its mouth wide open. On contact with the boys blood it disappeared in a poof of smoke and he, with his close relative, were summarily sucked into the water violently…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Midnight,

Konohagakure no Sato,

"Monkey and Mantis reporting for the midnight shift, Ibiki-sama," two masked ANBU females said formally as they saluted sharply to the head if the I&T department, Ibiki Morino. The bandanna wearing man looked at the two unfamiliar teens with suspicion before he looked at the guard rotation list on his desk, the suspicion lightened when he saw their names,

"Your late," he grunted as he stood up, he walked past through the door and closed it after them,

"We're sorry sir," Monkey muttered,

"Whatever, don't let it happen again," they walked down a corridor where dozens of cells were located, the prisoners were buzzing with murmuring after him until the man barked, "shut it, dirt bags!" silence fell like a bag of rocks thrown from heaven by a kami, "good. Now you two, the guard rotation roster say that you two are to watch over cell level five," the place where drug lords and drug peddlers were contained. They walked up three flights of stairs and stopped before another long corridor of prison cells that led down deep into the darkness, "they're mostly pansy civilians that walked on the wrong edge of the law so they shouldn't be too much trouble, but just in case anything comes up Hokage-sama herself has authorized deadly force to be used to subdue them, make sure you don't kill them though," he stopped in front of cells No 58 and peered into the cell; there were four men who were idly laying on their separate bunk beds, they seemed asleep except a glasses wearing man that was reading a manga, then Ibiki looked into the cell directly opposite and saw two females playing chess and one of them knitting a scarf, she looked to be in her early twenties, "lights out in ten, you pieces of horse shit,"

"Sure," a girl said idly as she moved her knight to knock down her other opponent's king, "I win, again,"

"This is no fun when you keep winning, tomorrow let's do something I want," the loser sulked as she flopped onto her back, the winner shrugged and nodded,

"Did you girls hear me? I said lights out on ten," the special jounin grunted and clenched his fists,

"And I said 'sure', don't get your knickers in a bunch," the winner said as she rolled onto her back and launched up, landing in a perfectly acrobatic stand, she climbed to the top bunk and relaxed. The other girls too went to their beds,

"Good," then he faced the two ANBU in charge of watching the level, "watch these seven especially; they work for that drug lord, Kitsugami Gumo, and their heads are as thick as walnuts but they'll crack soon," he peered into the females cell and a twisted, demented smirk crossed his hard face, "I just know it,"

"Yes sir," the female ninja said sharply,

"I'm off to run a midnight errand, I'll check in in an hour or so," he said and flippantly waved over his shoulder as he went down the long flight of stairs and out of the building.

For the first five minutes the duo marched up and down the corridor but Monkey spied the man actually leave the building she walked back to cell No 58 and pulled off her mask to reveal a girl in her late teens with blue hair and a black over hanging bang, the girls brown eyes stared into the dark cell as she pulled out a flashlight from her pocket and clicked it on, "guys? You awake?"

She heard the men snort awake and grumble, "momma…?" a buff man who laid on the lower bunk muttered,

"Shut up, idiot," the man that had been reading the manga growled as he stomped his foot, shaking the bunk, "what do you want?"

"Kitsugami-sama sent us to break you out," she whispered and bent down to the lock, frowning sharply when she saw that it was a level eight seal, "Yo sis, help me out with this," Mantis knelt down by the seal and removed her own mask to show a blue haired girl that had her own bang being held up neatly by a black clip,

"Go keep watch, we don't know if those girls we knocked out are awake yet," she whispered back and the girl nodded while Jay, the girl with the clip, whipped out a brush and began drawing on the seal. Naruto had allowed them limited connection with his informant in the I&T so that they would know where his workers were being held and when they could strike. They were able to knock out the chunin ANBU that were assigned to the prison section of the I&T and take their identities.

"I thought Kitsugami-sama was going to murder us in here," the girl that was knitting whispered but bit her bottom lip in excitement, "I knew he was a good guy, didn't I tell you," it pays to be loyal, was part of what the workers in the KDC were told after their application to Naruto's corporation was accepted,

"Of course he wouldn't kill you, what made you think he would?" Jay muttered as she added a final swiped to the locking seal, the door clicked open and she rushed to open the females' prison cell,

"Well I never lost faith in Kitsugami-sama," the buff momma's boy grunted as he stepped out of his cell with the other three men, "so how are we going to break out of this building?"

"Just leave that to us," Ray, the twin without a hair clip, assured. They were the only ones in the criminal underworld Hit woman squad that had been sent, this meant that they didn't have reinforcements but they had serious ninja training, "how long can you hold your breathes?" she asked as the cell door for the female's prison swung open, Jay slipped her painting brush into her sleeve and fixed on the stolen ANBU mask, as with her sister,

"Our average is three minutes," the man that read manga said quicker than the female chess whiz; as funny as it sounded it was part of the requirements to work in the KDC, to be able to hold their breathes, among other variety of things. These were mainly requirements for civilian workers who had little to no fighting experience, like these men and women Ray and Jay were breaking out,

"We can work with that," Jay said while she bustled to the window far down the opposite side of the corridor, she began working on the seals there as well; a locking seal as well but one of a lower level since the Hokage didn't expect there to be ninja in her force that would help break out the prisoners, or even a level eight fuinjutsu user who could break a level eight locking seal, which just so happened to be the seals on each cell.

As she sent a thumb up to her sister Ray handed gas masks to each civilian KDC worker to wear and rolled a long sealing scroll on the ground, there were seven seal spirals on the paper, "chose a seal and step on it, hurry,"

Not even wanting to ask what they wanted to do the men and women stepped on the seals and were swallowed up in a vortex of white air. The specialized hit woman rolled up the scroll and hefted it onto her shoulder, ignoring the now added weight as she ran quickly to the window. Her unrecognised fuinjutsu master twin sister grit her teeth and swung her leg at the bars that lined the window, it caved in and exploded outwards, allowing her sealing scroll carrying twin to leap out, she followed her as well.

The alarms blared after them as they disappeared into the deadly forest that surrounded the above ground prison part of the T&I.

Most people assumed that Jiriaya the toad sage was the highest one could get in fuinjutsu, no one wanted to search in the darkness that was the criminal underworld for who was almost as good as him, which was why Jay the fuinjutsu mistress was among the greatly kept secrets in the hit woman squad and she wanted to keep it that way. The twins had accepted to work part time under Naruto while still juggling their duties in the hit woman squad, this meant that they were among the few A ranks in his pay roll that he had given the responsibility of investigating any discrepancy in his business, served as his personal enforcers and maintained general order in each branch. In light of their current situation they were the ones appointed by Naruto to find out who had ratted out one of their warehouse supply locations.

Both girls touched down on the ground onto the roof of an average looking house and flipped into the chimney, they opened their legs and placed their palms on the wall to slow down their descent until they rolled out of the empty fire place into an equally empty room. The wall paper was a soft blue but it was devoid of furniture or appliances, like it was still up for sale. Ray threw open the special storage seal and muttered, 'unseal'; the civilians were pushed out and skidded on the floor in a tangle of limbs,

"Sorry about that, I'm still working out the bugs," Jay said in a quiet but bubbly voice so that the house's neighbours wouldn't hear them, "we just have some questions before we can drop you off in the Wave branch warehouse. From there you will work until Kitsugami-sama sends word that another warehouse in the country has been set up," she motioned for them to relax while she sat down cross legged on the ground, Ray stood by the window to keep watch, allowing her gentle natured sister to take charge of the allied civilian interrogation, "first, do you suspect any former worker in your branch for revealing warehouse your location?"

The workers looked at each other; it wasn't rare to hear that a worker would randomly stop working in a branch but would later hear from their foreman that they had been shifted to another country or warehouse to work, and return after a few weeks. They didn't think that these people were murdered or used for experiments since they had never done anything wrong, plus their families never raised any problems. The people that were temporarily transferred were usually because of a specific specialization and a vacancy due to a worker calling in sick. Though despite all this they did find one situation suspicious,

"Well…" the girl that had been knitting started off and looked at her hesitantly,

"I swear on my name and on Kitsugami-sama's honour that nothing would happen to any of you and neither of your names would be written down anywhere," Jay said with her hands telling her to calm down, her soft brown eyes still reflected on the limited lights shining in from the street lights,

"Usagi Minamoto," the girl continued, "he kept asking our foreman questions,"

"It's true, when he didn't get answers from me the ninja stationed to our warehouse tracked his movements on his breaks," the foreman, the man that had been reading manga continued. The KDC workers worked in rotations, where they were allowed to travel underground back to their home towns/villages; this allowed them to stay with their families and friends but they had signed wavers that allowed the highly ranked ninja stationed to their warehouses to regularly keep track of their movements. The Usagi that the girl had mentioned just thought he was smarter than the ninja, which was his first mistake. His second mistake was trying to get information out of Kitsugami's friends in the lower rungs of the Konoha criminal underworld.

The warehouses did not create their supply of drugs; they merely restocked their storage and supplied them to buyers. If they were to ever change the make-up of a drug it was by a qualified worker who changed that drug into its finished form. Since the main warehouse had been compromised, Naruto had moved his operations to hidden Sound temporarily until his return. In Sound, Kabuto and a few blood clones worked to keep up production, so that the store of drugs in the different warehouses would not reach zero or even less than a few hundred packets per drug. Each worker that had the knowledge to change these drugs (note: not create them) were given special tattoos on their inner upper arm. So, when Usagi went about, claiming that he was one of these special people under the KDC and that he had been personally sent by Kitsugami himself to collect every document he had with his many friends alarm bells rung in their minds. They didn't supply these documents, insisting on seeing the special seal the chief foreman, the man in charge of sharing the supply of drugs from the main warehouse to every single warehouse all over the continent, had on his palm before these delicate documents could be shared.

One of Naruto's friends, Torune Abumi, a crime lord, whom he had bailed from Uchiha prison containment once upon a time had contacted Kitsugami (I'll be calling Naruto this since his workers still don't know his identity YET) to tell him that a person that didn't give his name but told him that he worked in the KDC had asked to see a document on him about when Kitsugami had helped locate his younger sister when she had been kidnapped. Aoki-chan was the person that had spoken to him after he had gotten his message and he replied readily whatever she needed to hear seeing as he recognised her as his bodyguard.

It was too late to do anything of significance; the warehouse had been raided and the ninja stationed there had been killed on duty. The ninja that protected the warehouses were missing ninja so Kitsugami wasn't obligated to send consolation funds to his family, even though the man didn't have any. Though Naruto did invest a few hundred ryu into adding two more A rank missing ninja to each warehouse and increased the security seals around them.

Jay scratched her chin and nodded in thought, "my sister and I were posted at the fire country capital branch warehouse so we don't really know him…but I'm sure we can have Kitsugami-sama send us any information on him," it shouldn't come as a surprise that each worker was registered to his corporation, "would any of you be able to identify him if you see him?" they nodded,

"He's got this small circular scar on his cheek," the buff man contributed,

"Thank you for your help guys, we really appreciate it," the girl smiled and placed her hand on her knees, as if on cue Ray walked to the fire place and removed the logs, then she slid her hands past a small opening in the floorboards and pulled back. She removed five floor boards to reveal a stairwell winding downwards, she pushed the back of the fireplace and it lifted up to give more room for their heads, Jay pointed at the opening over her shoulder, "that leads to a junction in the ground that separates into five directions, there will be signs set up to direct you so when you see the sign for 'Wave country' you follow it. I'm sure you're already familiar with using the KDC underground tunnel,"

"Yeah, thank you, konuichi-san," the foreman said with a bow as he stood up,

"Don't thank me, thank Kitsugami-sama; he was the one that wanted to break you out for not cracking," Ray said as she dusted her hands. She motioned for them to leave while gently making sure they didn't hit their foreheads, "tell the foreman of Wave to a send a switch message when you get there," a switch message was an alternate form of the body switch seal where the person that wanted to send the letter would alert the location by dropping blood into the seal, the seals would glow and the other location had ten minutes to open access or else the seal wouldn't allow the letter to be sent. It only worked with small inanimate objects.

"Hai," the last worker said before he descended down into the well-lit underground tunnel. Ray and Jay watched them disappear before the less playful twin replaced the fireplace floorboard and the dry logs.

The twins took their time to sit down in the middle of the empty home with their legs crossed facing each other; it was the twin without the hairclip that spoke first, "at least now we have a name to go with,"

"Should we wait for Kitsugami-sama to send us info on him or should we go ahead?"

"He said we should kill him and kill him soon, so I think we should go ahead," Ray replied, "besides, we've already gotten his name…that's all we need," the sinister smirk on her face reflected off her twins face.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto groaned quietly as he opened his eyes, his head throbbed softly and his throat was parched. He wiggled his wrists, then his toes, legs, arms and neck. He noticed, as he sat up, that he was in a cave with a single beam of sunlight shining down on him from an opening on the roof; he looked around and rushed without hesitation when he saw his godmother lying on her face seven feet away from him. The woman groaned as he turned her onto her back and he sighed in relief when his preliminary search of her vitals through his 'spider eyes' showed that she was merely winded. He shook his head silently when he saw the look she sent him,

'Are you hurt?'

'I'm fine'

It wasn't telepathic communication; it was the quick but strong connection they had developed the moment they had stayed up all night chatting all the way back in Konoha. He helped her up and laughed to himself when she pushed him away, puffing out her chest proudly. He placed his goggles on his forehead when he noticed that they couldn't cut through the darkness and spread his extended 'spider senses' (or better put 'spider awareness'). Three spiny spider legs extended out from the small shadow cast below him as the world blinked into black and white, these legs stretched around, poking and prodding the wall like a blind man but they weren't able to pass through the cave walls for some weird reason; the boy screwed his lips to the side in irritation and focused more chakra into the eyes. His vulpine red and black pupils pulsed and dilated to show his concentration as four more shadow legs shot out from his shadow and spread around him, he smirked slightly when he found the cave opening and from what he could tell it led through a tunnel that was about thirty feet long before it exited outside, again his spider awareness was disrupted and shut off.

The woman looked at him with a curiously raised eyebrow, "what's wrong?"

"This cave is seriously messing up my senses," he replied and slapped his palms together into the ram hand seal to fully concentrate his chakra to all of his spider senses, his nose dots included, but his godmother placed her hands on his shoulder and shook her head,

"You're not yet ready for that, you may get a sensory overload. That's deadly you know,"

"Your right, there's an exit right ahead,"

"Let's go," Naruto nodded and walked ahead while he kept his natural senses (the ones he had before he became part spider) vigilant. Just before they could be bathed in sunlight, the fox part of Naruto deeply inhaled and he could only describe the smell in one word,

"Nature,"

They walked out to behold a magnificent waterfall cascading down below the cave mouth, flowing down stream and spreading around till it disappeared from sight. Trees littered before the waterfall and the various animals that were sustained by the water and the trees, as well as a few animals that were sustained by the meat from the herbivores. These animals, ranging from measly field mice to black panthers roamed around. There was a grassy field that stretched out behind the forest around the waterfall where lush green grass grew till they were waist height. But what caught most of their attention was the view beyond the grass field; there were many crumbling buildings organized in neat rows as well as a tall tower, much taller than the houses, that sat in the very middle of these houses with a large red spiral painted on the front, although it cracked and broke apart from age and neglect. Even though the war that had destroyed the great city had long since ended and the invaders had been pushed out by the defences after the very last Uzumaki was killed Uzushiogakure no Sato looked well maintained, more or less. The duo could guess that the view of the city was just a small portion of the island country; they could also guess that the whirlpools still raged and the Uzumaki aquatic summons went back to guarding the island.

Naruto closed his eyes and took in a deep breathe, anticipating all the secrets he was going to discover and all he was going to learn on his training with his godmother, he looked at his godmother when she clasped her hand on his shoulder, "I hope you know that you're going to start making a butt load of shadow clones starting tomorrow," she wanted him to learn everything she could offer and so much more so that they could leave and travel the elemental nations together for the very last time, time was at the essence,

"I'm up for anything you can throw at me, old lady,"

The woman laughed evilly at his jab on her age, "oh we are going to have so much fun," a grin stretched across her face and Naruto actually swallowed thickly at the sight. She threw her arm over his shoulder as they began their steady walk down the stairs at the side of the cave on the waterfall.

The training Orochimara wanted to put Naruto under would have broken any man, maybe even killed them, but, within herself, she knew that Naruto could take it.

The next day was going to be the beginning of hell for the Uzumaki.

A chill went down Naruto's spine as Orochimara opened her mouth and cackled.

Authors note

And done. I had fun writing this chapter, I really did. There may be two large time skips in the next chapter, if I ever start writing it, so that I can continue from where chapter one stopped; the fight between Akatsuki and Naruto (and Aoki-chan).

Yes, I acknowledge that I have messed up the timeline a tiny bit but it doesn't change anything really, I just pushed if forward a little. At the time of Tsunade's time skip they weren't the Sannin just yet, but they were still highly respected ninja. Tsunade's reason for being suspicious of Naruto from the onset is simply because he looked and acted too much like Minato, and yes, I also changed the Yondaime's attitude and behaviour too. He still loved Kushina and she still loved him, he was just…different…than in canon. I might have not gotten all the characters behaviours well though…

So…Sakura crushes on Naruto. She isn't my favourite character but I'm not going to use that to beat her into the ground, just like I don't like Kabuto at all but he got all of Otoagakure, you'll see more of him in the next chapter, I think. Back to Sakura, we'll just have to see what will happen if or when she confesses…or if she's going to be the first to confess…

No matter how much this story seems like a harem, IT IS NOT. A harem pairing would kill this story. Imagine this for a minute…this Naruto…becoming a womanizer… It just doesn't sound possible to me. Plus, I don't like the concept of dividing your love.

To clarify, Naruto has three types of chakra in him; nature chakra, Kyuubi chakra and his chakra. The nature chakra helps regulate the Kyuubi chakra, increasing his own chakra control because of this. Though this doesn't mean that he's unstoppable. You guys should see the results of training under the rogue snake Sannin in the next chapter.

So? What do you think? Any complaint, criticism, opinion or idea can please be sent to me through a PM or in the review, I don't mind either one,

Don't forget to drop a review though; those help me get my creative juices flowing more.

See you on the flip side,

Foy.