Chapter 4.
Damn it's already been what, three or four months since the last update? I can't do much other than apologies right now, and I won't promise frequent updates anymore, because I'm probably not able to keep that promise. My sincerest apologies. I've been bust with a lot of shit, Corona hitting hard everywhere, and my time has really gone to other stuff, but yeah, a new chapter.
Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.
THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM
Warning: The main character's age has been adjusted.
Outskirts of Kusagakure no Sato.
"K-Kaa-chan?" Naruto stuttered, his eyes fixated on the red-haired woman walking out with a basket filled with what he would guess was laundry.
Holding up his hand to shield his vision from the sunlight, his eyes kept following her until he finally noticed it. Her hair was darker than Kushina's bright red, her eyes were red and this woman's hair had a little more 'spike' to it.
Naruto breathing got slower and slower as he stared at this individual. He smiled bitterly, as a lone tear fell from his eye. It wasn't her. This had to be the reason that Hiruzen had wanted him to do this. It was because the clan that was being mistreated was the Uzumaki clan.
Kneeling on the branch his smile turned into a frown. His mind had tricked him, and given him false hope. He had almost believed that Kushina wasn't dead, and standing right in front of him.
He had been ready to run to her, embrace her in a hug and tell her how sorry he was. But he had been robbed of all of that. The person in front of him wasn't his mom, no, but it was still a member of his clan. So despite everything, they were still family down the line.
Family. The word made Naruto narrow his eyes as he glared at the back of one of the ANBU watching her. How dare they treat his family with such disrespect? Letting them live in this house that was ready to collapse, invading their privacy, and everything else he had yet to see.
While fighting the urge to commit a full-on slaughter of the ANBU watching her, he noticed something that made his worry and confusion come back in full. On her arm… were several teeth marks. It covered her entire arm, all the way from the end of her short-sleeved shirt, and down to the start of her wrist. Some of the markings were even overlapping.
Grabbing his camera again, he took a picture of it and was about to place it back in his shuriken pouch, when he looked at the clothes she was wearing, well, if you could call what she was wearing clothes. The things she wore, Naruto would call white and red rags.
Taking another picture of that, Naruto heard the door creak again, Raising a brow, he looked at the door and realized he had momentarily forgotten one important thing. It was a mom and a daughter that he was supposed to watch.
So as the door opened, Naruto watched with great curiosity as a small child, no older than Sasuke, stepping outside of the house. He smiled a bit, because of the huge smile she wore as she ran up to her mom.
He chuckled a bit at the sight. Her mother was trying to do laundry in the basket that she had pulled up from the well, but the child was running around and distracting her. So, she was an energy bomb, a typical Uzumaki.
Taking a picture of the duo, Naruto finally stuffed the camera back into his pouch and decided just to watch for a while. He needed to keep his distance, for now, no matter how much he wanted to go down and greet them, but with the ANBU watching, he couldn't take the chance.
He sighed a bit, he also wanted to just go down there and take them with him to the leaf. But he didn't have enough evidence yet. What he had gathered was just evidence of being poor, not the evidence on the abusive treatment, he needed. The only thing suspicious was the ANBU watching. What made them so special, aside from being Uzumaki, that required an entire squad of ANBU there? He would have to find out.
But they couldn't be there forever, there had to be an opening when they were being replaced by another squad. Maybe by then, he could go down there and greet them? He grunted at that, it might not be the best idea to do. He could also just place some supplies on their doorstep, knock the door, and then Shunshin away? With how starved they looked, it couldn't hurt.
So he made his decision, and sat back against the trunk of the tree but kept his eyes glued onto the duo while keeping his guard up. It wouldn't be so good if the ANBU managed to spot him and get to him. Would it?
As midnight came around, Naruto opened his eyes with clear irritation. Pained screams from wounded soldiers had kept him awake the entire night. He had finally fallen asleep around a few hours ago, and now in the middle of the night, he was once again awake because some weak plastic soldier was too much of a wimp.
"If that sissy asshole doesn't shut the hell up soon, I'm going to blow up the hospital," Naruto muttered to himself with a twitching eyebrow.
Yawning a bit, as he felt nature calling, Naruto swung himself off the branch he had been napping on and landed on the ground without a sound. 'Alright, I'll just leave for two minutes, and have a clone watch them in my place and then… What's that?' Naruto thought to himself as he saw three Jounin coming from the village, and toward the Uzumaki's 'house'.
"What could they be doing here in the middle of the night?" Naruto whispered to himself and got ready to capture any potential evidence he needed.
The Jounin at the front upon reaching the house proceeded to kick the door open. The remaining two proceeded to enter the house, and not even five minutes later, the same red-haired woman from earlier was pushed out of her own house.
"What the hell are they doing to her?" Naruto growled with narrowed eyes. He wanted to commit a massacre right now, but that wouldn't help anyone.
"Kaa-chan!"
The cry of a child brought him back to reality, and he shook his head and proceeded to get the remaining evidence he needed. He watched as the small girl he had been observing with her mother earlier ran out of the house with tears in her eyes.
The girl didn't manage to get within ten feet of her mom before she was ruthlessly slapped to the ground. "Get back into your house you little shit. This whore has work to do." One of them snorted.
As her mother saw this, she forced herself out of the grip the two other Jounin had, had on her, and rushed to her crying kid on the ground, but before she had any time to comfort her, she was grabbed and pulled by the hair, and thrown back to the two Jounin again that too grabbed her by the hair, and held her in place.
"You know the deal. Unless you want to see your daughter as the primary womb for your clan, you're going to cooperate with no objection. That was the deal from Ryujin-sama." The one that had slapped her daughter said.
Naruto grabbed the hilt of his sword angrily, but grit his teeth and let go with heavy motions.
Taking a few deep breaths, before stating to himself, 'Alright, mission first, then I beat the shit out of them. I do need to know how much to make them suffer, after all... It wouldn't do to go too easy on them.' Naruto growled to himself while feeling the intensity of his rapidly building bloodlust.
When the situation had proceeded to one of the three Jounin locking the young girl inside the house, and all three of them walking away with the mother, Naruto decided it was almost time. Only one thing to figure out now. What were they doing with her?
Before doing anything else, he quickly made a clone, giving it the very important task of dispatching the Anbu and looking after the little girl, as he narrowed his eyes towards the Jounin who were making their way towards the village proper. One way or another, his mission was ending today.
Quickly, he began to follow the small group as they made their way into the village, and towards the annoyingly loud hospital, noting how the mother looked more and more resigned to her fate the closer they got before they finally arrived.
Upon arrival, the Jounin that was dragging her then proceeded to physically throw her into one of the rooms, wherefrom what he could see, dozens of injured shinobi began to line up. Making sure to completely remove his presence, he moved close enough to view what was happening, and he found himself thanking Itachi. If it wasn't for him, he wouldn't have had enough patience to continue…
Anger bubbled within, as his… family member was used as a chew toy for the various shinobi that had lined themselves outside. And from what he could sense, every bite from the injured consumed a notable amount of chakra from her. Slowly, if only to keep his anger at bay, he raised the camera, making sure to take enough pictures of the cannibals, but that brought a new question to mind. There were a significant number of injured, but Kusa wasn't at war. What was going on?
Once he had enough evidence, he quietly made his way into the hospital, specifically looking for the hospital records. There had to be something going on, for Kusa to have more injured shinobi than even Konoha did on a busy day. And given how they had her treat the ninja, it was likely a common occurrence. If his fears were right, then this should be the nail in the coffin to deal with Kusa and ultimately protect his newfound family.
Surprisingly enough, despite the dozens of shinobi that were present at the hospital, security was scarce, scarily so. Almost like this was a common occurrence, and that nothing substantial was going on… Hell, the few med-nins that he found were lazing about, almost like they lacked any patients to treat…
Finally, after traversing through the hospital for a few minutes, he had found the room which held the medical records. There was only a single staff member around, and they were making their way towards the break room… This didn't make sense. If there were so many patients to treat, shouldn't they be making records of the various problems that the patients have and why they came in?
Steeling his resolve, just in case his fears were indeed true, he opened the cabinet that held the records for today, and he was left dumbfounded. 53 files were recorded, all within an hour of his target's arrival. And 53 cases of training-related injuries… Not a single injury was from a mission, or anything critical. No. If anything, most of these injuries were obtained, with the knowledge that they would be injured in the first place. From purposefully poisoning themselves beyond how much they can normally handle, to training in semi-lethal sparring matches. This… just didn't make sense.
Gritting his teeth with a snarl escaping his lips, as he roughly opened his cloak, pushing the documents inside as he quickly crossed his fingers, making a clone that quickly disguised itself to go look after the Uzumaki mother while he made his way out of the hospital undetected.
Making his way to the office of the leader in Kusagakure, Naruto's appearance got a large number of curious stares due to his almost obvious lineage, and the Konoha forehead protector that was hanging from his belt.
Standing at the front of the quite small building, compared to the Hokage tower, that the leader apparently worked in, Naruto walked up to two guards that immediately stopped him. "I am here on behalf of Konohagakure, and got a message for your leader that cannot wait."
"You're here with no words from your Hokage, you are trespassing on Kusa ground pal." The first guard sneered, making Naruto's expression turn into a large scowl.
"Either you tell him that I'm here, or I'll simply walk in there myself. You should be willing to let an ambassador from the greatest nation enter, consequences could come if you don't." Naruto threatened, sending a glare at the guard.
"Little brat, tsk, fine." The man grunted, obviously not okay with this kind of treatment.
"That's what I thought." Naruto clicked his tongue as he walked past the two guards, noticing they followed him all the way up to the door, the leader supposedly was behind.
Opening the door without as much as knocking, Naruto waltzed right into the office, staring at the middle-aged man that lifted his head from some paperwork laying across his wooden desk.
The man narrowed his eyes at Naruto, "And who are you supposed to be, how did you get past security?"
Pulling all the files and evidence he had gathered, Naruto slammed them on the man's desk, as the two guards behind him moved dangerously close. "You are housing two members of the Uzumaki clan in this village, and I on behalf of Konoha was sent here to investigate rumors about their mistreatment," Naruto responded, getting straight to the point.
"This is an absurd claim. Guards arrest this man immediately, he is trespassing on this village's soil, and making dangerous political assumptions! Konoha will have to pay dearly for such treatment of our village." The man said in a low dangerous voice, and the two guards moved in to grab ahold of the blond.
Channeling a bit of his chakra, causing the tension in the air to get thick and heavy, Naruto glared out of the corner of his eyes at the guards, that seemingly stopped in place as he displayed a dangerous warning, "Mistreatment, inhuman living situation, medical experimentation, forceful abduction from home by your shinobi, this woman is in a life-threatening danger in this village. Along with her daughter." Naruto finished, turning his head to face the man again.
The man showed off his gritted teeth as he looked over the obvious evidence, laying across his desk, while looking dangerously at the two guards, behind this intruder, that was stuck in their place.
"So I, Uzumaki Naruto, with the authority of Konoha, take these two into my custody and under my protection. If you have any further disclaim of this evidence being true, and any more words you feel that needs to be said, feel free to take it with Hiruzen-sama." Naruto said simply, eyeing the man as he grabbed the edges of his desk, seemingly cracking the wood under his fingers.
"Konoha has no right waltzing into this village making such assumptions, this is trespassing and could be seen as an act of terror or worse, war." Was the response Naruto got out of this.
"So, you'll deny the obvious and decide to play the political game with Konoha I see. Can you really afford to make such 'dangerous' acts toward the greatest of the five nations, the ally of Sunagakure no Sato, that's also one of the great nations?" Naruto asked calmly, his eyes still cold as ice.
"Ryujin-sama, let's call backup and put this freak behind bars." One of the guards that had gotten out of shock said, latching onto the blond's arm, as he stared dangerously at the blond.
"Let go of the ambassador, and go send word for the two Uzumaki…" Ryujin responded in a low tone, his hair hanging in front of his eyes, covering them as he stared downward at the desk.
The guards blinked in shock, "But, R-Ryujin-sama, he's an intruder-"
"You got an order!" The man said in a low but sharp tone, making the two guards flinch before moving out of the room while glaring at the blond Shinobi.
"What's your source of information?" The man asked as he and Naruto were alone in the room.
Naruto frowned, crossing his arms over his chest, "Unimportant."
"That's a big lie, you cannot waltz into here and make a mere assumption without any credible source of information," Ryujin responded coldly.
"I have no more words to say in this case, my mouth is sealed by Konoha, any further conversation will be done between you and Hiruzen-sama," Naruto responded simply.
Ryujin chuckled, lifting his head to stare into Naruto's eyes. "Heh, so just as I suspected, you are just one of Konoha's lapdogs, barking without biting on their command."
"You should be careful speaking about Konoha like that in my company, your situation will be worse in any political matter now. We house the Yamanaka clan, a clan able to dig these memories out in any matter that may come, do you think it will suit you well for this to be taken into consideration during the process?" Naruto responded easily.
"You got a lot of nerve…." Ryujin sneered, his teeth grit tightly together as his fist clenched with anger, turning his knuckles white.
But before anything else could be said, the door behind them opened with low creaking noises. Turning his head around, Naruto's heart clenched painfully in his chest as he watched the tired and exhausted Uzumaki mother with black marks under her eyes walked in slowly, holding her daughter's hand as the small girl hid behind her mother's leg.
"R-Ryujin-sama, you called for us?" The mother stuttered in barely a whisper, fiddling uncomfortably on her feet.
Sighing with an annoyed expression, the leader of Kusa snarled out, "Yes, Akari… You got a visitor."
Deciding that is his cue to speak Naruto turned around with a small smile, "Hey there Akari-san, I'm an ambassador from Konohagakure no Sato, a former ally of your fallen country. I'm here to take you into Konoha's custody."
"B-But, why? Have we done a crime against you?" She asked confused, squeezing her daughter's hand as the young girl looked at this blond man's appearance with curiosity.
Chuckling Naruto crouched down, completely ignoring the leader of Kusa and his two guards that had also returned, as he looked at the girl hiding behind her mother's leg. "No, no, nothing of the sorts. We got knowledge of you being mistreated here, and with you being Uzumaki we cannot allow that. Former allies or not, you've always been a people close to us, so I'm here to take you somewhere safer."
"Shinobi-san, we are citizens of Kusa…"
"Yes, I'm well aware of that fact, but with the mistreatment, Ryujin-san has no choice to but to allow me to you to Konoha, unless he wants to be utterly demolished in a political matter that won't be good on any parts," Naruto explained, making the mother look at him with surprise and disbelief.
"Kaa-chan? Who is this man?" Her daughter suddenly asked, seemingly not haven listened in on the conversation.
"This is…"
Naruto facepalmed and shook his head as he walked over and extended his hand, "How rude of me, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, Shinobi and ambassador of Konoha."
As Akari was just about to shake this young man's hand, her movement froze as she heard his name. Staring at this blond boy in disbelief, she opened her mouth, "U-Uzumaki?"
"Yes, I am, I know the hair color might be confusing and all but my father was blond, but my mother was indeed of the Uzumaki clan," Naruto explained kindly, his gaze shifting back to the woman's daughter.
"And who do we have here?" He asked softly, crouching down to extend his hand toward the girl.
Looking up at her mother, she asked permission to introduce herself to this man without saying a word, but her gaze was more than enough for Akari to understand.
"Go ahead, sweetie." Akari encouraged with a smile, her head still filled with utter surprise at realizing they weren't the last of her people.
Nodding slowly, the child extending her much smaller hand to the blond as they shook, "Hello mister, I'm Uzumaki Karin…"
"Karin, eh? That's a pretty name." Naruto responded, smiling kind and politely,
Blushing a bit out of embarrassment, Karin took her hand back and clutched to her mother's leg.
"This has gone on long enough! You were here to take these people with you, so if that was all, get out of my sight!" Ryujin roared out, slamming his fist onto the table startling Akari and scaring Karin.
"You should mind your tone, there is a child in the room…" Naruto snarled back, his eyes glowing with danger.
"I told you to get out."
"With pleasure. So, if the two of you want to come with me to Konoha, all you got to do is say the words." Naruto said, shifting his gaze turning back to the Uzumaki duo.
Looking at her daughter Akari noticed that the child was still looking at this blond boy with great interest before she eventually nodded. "Please take care of us Naruto-san."
"Very well then, we shall be on our way then. Got anything that you want to take with you back to Konoha?" Naruto asked.
Nodding her head, Akari scooped her daughter up into her arms, "Everything we have here is not of the best quality exactly, but it's all we got and we have no money to buy anything new..."
"I live in a very big house, my father was the Yondaime Hokage after all, so we got space if you want to come to live with me, I wouldn't mind having my family close after so long of being alone," Naruto responded politely
Widening her eyes with sorrow and hurt, Akari gazed at the young blond, "Alone? Where are your parents? I know the Yondaime Hokage died, but what about your mother?"
"Died along with dear old Tou-san I'm afraid, but it's okay." Naruto sighed, running a hand through his golden locks.
Nodding her head, unable to find anything to say Akashi smiled softly, "If it isn't too much trouble, we'd like to stay there until we can afford our own place. I'll help you as much as I can around the house and pay you as soon as I can."
"Excellent! You can stay for as long as you want, I got tons of space and I'm usually not home too much anyhow, so you'll have plenty of privacy, but no need for payment, your family, and this is exactly what family is for." Naruto smiled, walking over toward the door, motioning for the two to follow him, as the united family members left the office, the Uzumaki mother tearing slightly up.
You might notice that the writing quality gets a bit worse in the last 1000 thousand words, but I wrote a bit of this a while back, so I'm sad to announce that my writing abilities are a bit rusty, but I'm doing my best to train back up. And hopefully, there won't be a few months to the next chapter is out… Again, I'm sorry.