"Naruto?" Tsunade asked carefully
"Yeah, it's me, Godmother." he said with a grin
Without another word Tsunade enveloped Naruto in a bone-crushing bear hug "I thought you were dead!" She cried, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Naruto cocked an eyebrow "Dead? But I told the old man that Anko, Mito, and I were alive."
Tsunade pushed him back with her hand on his shoulders and locked her eyes with his. "What?" she hissed.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head "Well, three years ago I sent a shadow clone to tell him. But he didn't seem happy when I told him I wasn't coming back for another 10 years, well 7 years now."
Tsunade just stared at him for a long moment before she let out a scream "That bastard! He lied to my face!" she said punching the booth's table causing it to explode and send splinters flying everywhere.
Naruto ignored the destroyed table and looked at his Godmother. "So, he lied to you, and fucked me over by claiming that I was dead?" he asked with an evil-forming grin on his face that made Hiruzen's look like a regular smile.
Tsunade saw the look on his face and immediately recognized it as the look Kushina got when someone was going to suffer at her hands. "What are you scheming?"
Naruto's evil grin turned sinister (picture the grin Jim Carrey's Grinch had) "Oh, just a little payback to our dear old Hokage." He said in a sing-song voice that made even Tsunade shiver.
"What are you going to do?" Shizune asked with caution
"Nothing major, Just want to embarrass him in from of his entire village." Naruto said, his evil grin never leaving his face.
"With the look you have, I was expecting it to be more… evil." Tsunade said.
Naruto made a mock hurt face. "Tsunade! I'm mischievous, not evil."
Tsunade laughed. "You're so much like your Mom." she said, her laugh trailing off into a sad smile.
"Thanks, I try to honor their memories to the best of my abilities." He said with a cheeky grin.
"Anyway…" Tsunade said, sitting down at the now tableless booth and pointing to the seat across from her and Shizune. "Sit down, I'm sure you didn't find me just to get re-acquainted."
Naruto sat down "Actually, that was the main reason I came over. I'd missed you and had hoped to see you sooner but I couldn't find you and I wasn't about to leave Mito and Anko just to search the entire country."
Tsunade looked sheepish "Yeah, sorry about that. When I found out your parents were dead and that you and Mito were missing I went searching for you two. That is until three years ago when that bastard lied to me. After I learned that you were dead I was mortified, I thought I'd lost the only family I had left." she said, tears threatening to fall down her face.
Naruto reached across and placed a hand on hers "It's okay Tsunade, we're alive and you'll get to see Mito soon enough." he said with a smile.
"Huh?" was Tsunade's ingenious reply while she stared at Naruto,
"I came here to ask you to move in with us, mainly so we can spend more time together. But there is one other reason that both Anko and I want." he said looking hesitant.
"What's the reason?" Tsunade asked confused,
"Well…" Naruto hesitated again.
Tsunade grew a tick mark. "Just spit it out already!" she barked.
Naruto's back straightened instantly "Y-Yes, Anko and I want to be your apprentices." he said quickly
Silence
Tsunade finally gained control of herself "You two want to be my apprentices?" she asked to clarify.
Naruto nodded "Yes, Anko's into poisons and I think she could make use of medical techniques in her fighting style, while I just want to be able to heal those I care about and help others who need it." He stated determined
To say Tsunade was stunned would be an understatement, she thought Shizune would be her only apprentice, even though there have been others who wanted to learn, she didn't think they were worth it, because they were doing it for glory. Yet, here her Godson was, telling her that he and his friend wanted to learn to improve themselves and help others.
Naruto seemed to take the silence as a no "Well, I thought I'd at least ask." he said a little sad
His voice broke Tsunade from her thoughts "Oh, no! I was just thinking about all the other fools who weren't worthy to be my apprentices." she said frantically.
Naruto cocked an eyebrow "Do you think we're worthy?" he asked genuinely intrigued.
Tsunade chuckled "Well, you said you wanted to learn to help others right?" He nodded "Well, that alone makes you worthy enough." she said chuckling at his shocked face.
"R-Really? No try-outs? Just like that?" He asked still not going to believe how easy this was.
Tsunade nodded "It also helps that you're my Godson." she smirked.
'That makes more sense' Naruto that to himself. "Thank you, Tsunade."
"Bah, don't thank me yet. I haven't trained you in anything." she said waving her hand.
"But you said you would, and that alone earns my thanks." he then realized something. "What about Anko?" he questioned.
"Well, I'd like to meet the girl first before I decide." she said crossing her arms.
"That's fair." he said getting up to leave. "Shall we go home?" he asked, his hand outstretched towards the exit."
Tsunade nodded and the trio left the bar.
xxx Woods Above The Compound xxx
Tsunade was confused about where they were going, she thought they'd head to a motel or something. But Naruto entered the woods after they left the bar, and now they'd been walking in a single direction for 3 hours.
"Naruto, where are we going?" Shizune asked no longer able to hold the question in.
"We're almost there!" He said before stopping after a few more steps. "Here we are."
Tsunade and Shizune looked around, they were in a clearing with a short cliff on their left. There was no sign that animals lived here much less, people.
"Where's your house?" Tsunade asked still looking around expecting to see a house.
"Oh, you can't see it." he cryptically said before walking over to the nearby cliff, placing his palm on its surface and putting chakra into it. The secret entrance to their home opened.
Tsunade's jaw dropped "...H-How?" she finally asked after a moment of silence
Shizune could only nod in agreement with her teacher.
Naruto chuckled "My Dad was awesome." was his only response before he began walking down the stairs. "Oh, you might want to hurry!" he called up "The door will close in about 2 minutes."
This broke the two women out of their trance and they rushed to follow him.
Naruto stepped into the living room "I'm ho-" he began to say before a red blur barreled into him, he found himself sprawled out on the ground for the second time today. "Mito! What did I say about watching where you're running" he chastised her.
"Aw, but I missed you." she pouted
Naruto placed a hand on her head "I missed you too, you little firecracker. Now, let me up we have some people moving in." By that time Tsunade and Shizune had entered the room, with Anko entering from another direction.
"Ah, you're home!" Anko said
"Yes." Naruto said after standing up with Mito still clinging to his leg. He looked at Anko with a look that said help me she chuckled and helped pry Mito off her elder brother's leg. He pointed to Tsunade and Shizune "This is our Godmother, Tsunade." Mito had stars in her eyes as she charged at the taller woman and tackled her in a hug, unlike Naruto, Tsunade didn't fall down.
"So, you're my Goddaughter!" Tsunade said with a massive smile on her face as she scooped the girl up into a full hug.
"This is Shizune." Naruto said, continuing the introductions. "You two have already met Mito." He pointed to Anko "This is Anko."
Anko smiled as she waved "Pleasure to meet you both." the two women smiled and waved back, Tsunade still holding Mito in a hug.
"Hey Mito, why don't you show Tsunade and Shizune around and get to know them better, I need to talk to Anko about some things." Naruto said getting a happy nod from Mito, who proceeded to grab both women's hands and drag them away at high speed. "She is deceptively strong for her age." Naruto mused.
"That she is." Anko said, before turning to Naruto "What do need to talk about?"
"It seems that miserable Hokage has royally fucked us over." he stated.
Anko looked confused "What do you mean, did he do something?"
"Yeah, that asshole told the whole village, no, the world that we were dead." He said.
Anko's eyes widened hearing that, but then she took a thinking pose. "That actually might not be such a bad thing." she continued when she saw that she had Naruto's undivided attention "With us being dead, we have the element of surprise and it's also helped us stay under the radar these past few years."
Naruto thought about what she said and it made sense, but that didn't mean the Hokage was gonna get off easy. "I'm still gonna make him pay, we had a lot of friends in that village who all think we're dead due that that asshole." Naruto said bitterly.
Anko nodded "Yeah, what do we do?" she asked looking at him.
Naruto crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling "I can't say for sure yet, I want to embarrass him in public and the best way to do that is at the chunin exams. So let's stick to our original timetable and hope Konoha hosts the exams when we're ready to return, if not, we'll wait." he said looking from the ceiling to Anko.
Anko nodded "That should work." Anko seemed to remember something "Did Tsunade agree to let us be her apprentices?"
"She said I could be, but she wanted to meet you first before deciding."
"So, I should ask her when I get the chance?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I'm sure she'll let you though." he smiled at her.
xxx Five Years Later xxx
Naruto (16), Anko (21), and Mito (10) had been progressing well in their respective training, Naruto training to learn Tsunade's full abilities, Anko training to make her fighting style more deadly by using chakra scalpels, and Mito making huge strides in her chakra control, her Mother's Taijutsu (Body Technique) and then her Mother's Kenjutsu (Sword Technique), while also training to use the 9-tails power on the side, she's managed to get control of 5 out of the 9 tails.
The five had grown close over this time, with Tsunade and Shizune becoming pseudo sisters to Naruto and Anko, while Tsunade became a Grandmother figure for Mito, with Shizune being her kind Aunt. But Anko and Naruto's relationship saw the most change, the two began dating 3 years prior and recently been considering adding to their growing family.
Naruto and Anko lay in their shared bed, Anko covering the right half of his body "So, about the question I asked yesterday." she said, moving her head to look up at Naruto.
"The one about having a kid?" he asked, getting a nod "Well, I'm not against it, but what about your training?" he asked receiving a slap to his shoulder.
"All you think about is training." she pouted.
"Not true!" He defended himself "I think about food as well." getting another slap to his shoulder, causing him to chuckle "I was kidding, if you want a kid we'll have a kid." he said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Getting an eyebrow raise from Anko.
"Just like that? No need to think it over?" She persisted, making sure he was fully into the idea.
He laughed "Yes, I love you, why wouldn't I want to expand our family." he said squeezing her to his chest.
Anko grinned ear to ear "Well, let's get started." she said pulling the cover over the two.
