A/N: Time to transition to a new Arc. As we prepare to do battle for the vaunted Chunin promotion, so begins the plotting, scheming, grasping, and skullduggery. So begins the Chunin Exam Arc. Queue the training montage! (…after the chapter intermission)
Many will view this chapter as unnecessary fluff but it's a chance for our tired hero to pause for a moment and take perspective on his life. He's going to need that moment to make plans that I can disrupt later, after all.
As a side note, Ino is a winter baby and technically a half-year older than the majority of her Academy class, at least in this story she is. I liked that it put her closer to Naruto in case they ever got serious (less of that age nonsense to deal with).
On with the show.
~Siva'a-tasi
~III~
Chapter 17: A Moment to Breathe
~ Previously on No More
The friendly squeeze on her hand let her know that she wasn't alone, and her eyes snapped up to see Naruto looking back at her with concern. She knew without a doubt who he was now, and she saw his concern even as she returned the hand squeeze before stepping away to stand on her own.
He cared for her. He cared enough for her to carry her on his muscled back for five hours through the Konoha forest and bring her safely home. It made her warm inside and a bit ashamed at her momentary weakness.
Shinobi killed. Despite her growing despair and the faces of those two bastards flashing repeatedly behind her eyes, it was a necessary evil. Asking for help did not mean that she was weak. Asking for help did not mean that she was weak.
She kept repeating that mantra all the way through the upcoming debriefing and up until she reached her father running straight into his arms.
It would be a long night for Ino Yamanaka as she recounted her tale to a startled and sobbing mother as her father made tea for them all several times over. Her mask lay untouched in the middle of the table.
~III~
~ The Morning After ~
It was fairly quiet in Naruto's apartment as he sat idly at the kitchen table. In one hand he held the blank ANBU mask they'd let him keep after returning last night, the unmolded face plate devoid of life and spark. The hooded balaclava spilled out over his fingers as his thumb lazily traced the vertical numbers beneath the right eye slot. Vaguely his keen ears picked up the soft clinking sounds of the clone pair assigned to cleaning and detailing the rest of his "acquired" ANBU gear, the industrious pair diligently scrubbing out the blood, grime, and grit picked up from three days and four nights of wear and tear.
Those lessons with Fū-chan were worth their weight in gold as he remembered her favorite phrase after each session.
"Take care of your gear, and your gear will take care of you."
A fresh cup of tea landed gently on the table in front of his elbow and the not-normally brooding Genin looked up briefly to thank his red-haired clone when she plopped down next to him with one for herself and one more for the buxom blond sitting directly across from him.
Naruko was thumbing the rim of her cup and humming a happy tune he recognized from her favorite anime, something to do with a pretty princess trying to recruit legendary knights to save her kingdom or some such. It never caught on with him as it turned out to be just another excuse for nerdy artists to draw women with huge breasts, but she clearly enjoyed it.
"Morning workout and breaky are done, Boss." She threw him a toothy grin that made her eyes close knowing he disliked the moniker. "What's next on today's schedule?" She threw off his pouty frown and the pensive blond shook his head minutely as he struggled for an answer.
He knew she wouldn't be around much longer mere weeks at best but there was so much left to plan and do. He was going to need a focused effort to learn Fuuinjutsu, not the hodge-podge stuff he found picking through his mother's journal; Naruto recognized the volatile danger there and he was glad to see that his clones purchased a complete ten-volume set from one of the bookstores during their previous buying sprees. He also needed to buckle down and finish his fighting style, the Tetsuken. If he wasn't going to master one of the few Konoha styles available to him then he would need to perfect his own and he had a few additions in mind. Plus, he would need to do all of this while building up his elemental affinities as well as a suitable jutsu library. If he couldn't reliably use iryojutsu or genjutsu, then he would need to overcompensate in everything else.
He had a lot on his plate already in addition the stuff Opal and Titus wanted to talk to him about.
"Dunno honestly. I have thirty clones down at the training area working chakra control and another five in the back room sorting through the last book shopping spree just before our back-to-back mission so that frees up the morning." He whistled softly causing the clones working on his ANBU gear to look up before he chucked the mask to one of them.
Naruko sipped sparingly from the calming tea before looking up into her twin's thousand-yard stare. "What do you think will happen with the Uchiha now?" An apathetic shrug started out as his answer but then his mind drifted to their late afternoon return to Konoha and the train wreck that was the personality of the Last Uchiha.
Flashback no Jutsu – Post Mission Summary Edition!
For Naruto, the trip back to Konoha became an exercise in chakra and body management. In order to avoid jarring the nearly comatose kunoichi, he had to shorten his jumps and flatten out his trajectory turning them more into hops and skips than anything else. This effectively doubled his output, which wasn't a problem for the psychotic ultimate-cross-training-marathon workout nut. By steadily streaming chakra to his legs, back and shoulders, he didn't start to feel the burn until the walls of Konoha could be seen in the distance.
Originally, he had been worried about Ino even with her being securely strapped to his back. Naruto was fortunate that she passed out minutes into the journey but attributed her ease to the cooing sounds she made every time his chakra passed through her coils or across her skin. It had to be the sheathing he was using to power his travel home. He had insane amounts of chakra flowing through his coils at the moment and some of it was bound to find its way into her body.
She slept the entire five-hour trip home not waking up until he gently set her feet firmly on solid ground just outside the secret entrance to the ANBU underground passages.
Giving her hand a final friendly squeeze, the shaky-legged Genin filed in behind his team as they made their way back to the original briefing room. He could only hope his performance was good enough to get his name on the wait list. He wasn't so arrogant to believe Konoha owed him anything, but he worked his butt off for this one and he wanted a fair shot to be assessed by his merits and flaws, not his curse.
It was all he really wanted anywhere in Konoha; a fair shot.
The debriefing chamber, it was really too big to be called a room, was just as dismal as he remembered. The colorful cavalcade of people sitting behind the table didn't make things brighter or him worry any less even when the non-hostile Hokage immediately grabbed their attention.
"Well done, Team Hebi. It would appear that your quick thinking has opened the door for Konoha in Nami and an entire nation is in your debt. It is unfortunate that the precursor mission did not also end in success, however, if it had we would not be in the situation we find ourselves in." The aged man nodded to the team leader in question and Hebi whirled around to face her squad.
"Let's start with you," the suddenly energetic kunoichi spat out locking in on Zero-One-Three. "Self-assessment time." She could see the boy's chest expand as he swelled up to spit out his report and she flickered to deliver a half-strength kick to his gut, which promptly evacuated any oxygen in his lungs.
"Same rules apply, Genin. Know your place until the mission is done." She could see the hate in his eyes as the red orbs swirled in his anger. The best part? She absolutely did not care.
Standing upright, the hissing shinobi started flashing through hand signs, limited though the academy/Genin silent language was.
[Assigned RECON of village. Estimated enemy strength. Encountered hostile samurai. Defeated same. End mission.]
"Are there any counter testimonials?" Anko didn't have to turn around to see the immense satisfaction on the face of the wrinkled windbag calling herself Hokage-sama's advisor. So, she did the only appropriate thing she could as the woman opened her mouth to congratulate the smug brat.
She ripped apart his performance beginning with reminding the whole chamber about the mission protocols. Hebi had used clones to follow each Genin, each one equipped with a small video recorder to back up her claims. She cited each and every time he broke protocol or "bent the rules a little" starting with his verbal sparring with the ronin in question to his flagrant shattering of the "thou shalt not be discovered by the enemy" rule. By the time she was done, the once mighty hopeful was shaking in rage. Naruto honestly thought he might commit suicide by lashing out at her but even he wasn't that stupid, was he?
Zero-One-Three apparently did not get the memo. His body dashed from the light circle, a kunai flashing in his hand. Hebi flexed and the boy's body somersaulted before landing face-down on the floor, one arm pinned mercilessly behind his back. Another twitch and the mask was ripped from his head to reveal the pain-laced face of Sasuke Uchiha.
The Hokage's face was predatory. "Please show the Uchiha the way out."
And just like that, he was dismissed from the ANBU and gone amidst a stream of his own profanity.
Flashback no Jutsu – Post Mission Summary Edition, Kai!
It was catastrophically tragic to watch as the ebony-masked shadow ANBU hefted the writhing Boy from the floor and bodily hauled him from the chamber. Furthermore, proceedings came to a screeching halt until his escorts returned. Hebi explained that it was according to Black OPS house rules that all active members in town and not on-mission observed this event and voted yea or nay. Either they accepted you or they didn't.
Best of all, neither the advisory members nor the Hokage got a say in the matter. Dragon was the only allowable dissenting vote. It was the one shinobi ceremony relying solely on the ANBU members to support or reject you and it was why loyalty among their own was ridiculously high.
It was a rare day when Dragon overruled the majority, only occurring once anyone could remember; they accepted Itachi and look how that turned out. Was it any surprise that it hadn't happened since?
His younger brother left much to be desired.
~ Across Town in the Uchiha District ~
Sasuke Uchiha dropped to the ground near exhaustion, his lungs heaving like a blacksmith's bellows. Everything was unreasonably warm, but he couldn't stop just yet. He hadn't mastered his next Katon jutsu so he couldn't necessarily call it a productive day.
After being rejected by the morally obtuse ANBU, he needed to push ahead without their mediocre skill set.
Wiping the sweat from his face and eyes, the weary Uchiha pushed to his feet and slogged over to the training post standing guard over his towel and water bottle before flopping down with his back resting against it. The cool liquid helped to ease the burning in his esophagus and the gentle breeze dried his skin as he took pleasure in the destruction he'd wrought across the Uchiha training compound. It was the only happiness he took from this place these days.
The compound was a ghost town devoid of life, a district large enough to be a village on its own, and it all belonged to him. He smirked at the irony especially since he didn't even live here anymore. The Uchiha still owned controlling interests in some of the merchant factions so he never had to worry about finances. In fact, it would be years before he could run down the clan bank accounts enough to even worry about relying on those business ties. No, his comfortable lifestyle was assured until he was ready to venture out and revenge his ancestors on that bastard-.
He shook his head violently to clear the image of his older brother. He needed to stay focused and learn this next jutsu and then master its intended masking of projectile weapons. He would need to increase his timing and he couldn't do that snarling at ghosts.
At least he didn't need to worry about people spying on him here. If you weren't an Uchiha, you couldn't get past the wards on the gates to include passing over the walls. Those seals from the Arashi Sealing Consortium had cost a pretty penny for the clan but it was Ryu well spent. Too bad they didn't own a share of that place.
The dry snort escaping his lips almost lightened his mood. Jealousy of another clan, a defunct lesser clan no less, did not become an Uchiha.
'Ugh! I sound so snobbish. Need to watch that.' It was a conflicting thought. His father had made comments like that his whole life and now he found himself repeating similar thoughts when he wasn't careful. It sounded so pretentious back then. Is that what others thought of him now?
He shrugged that thought off as well. It didn't matter what others thought. He was the clan head now and it was up to him to uphold the Uchiha standard. He gnashed his teeth and the conflicting thoughts in his head and rose to his feet once more. What if he was going about this the wrong way? What if he was overlooking something important? It wasn't like he could turn to his teammates for help; he couldn't risk letting them get close and distracting him from his purpose and Kakashi was too busy trying to talk him out of going after Itachi that it made anything he shared suspect. It was all so confusing!
No, Sasuke couldn't afford to allow doubt to creep in now. He'd come this far and couldn't turn back. His clan paid for his comfortable apartment and way of life. His clan afforded him this isolated training location so he could guard its secrets and grow strong enough to avenge it. His clan afforded him his status as an elite and he would rebuild it once he'd met his purpose, which meant his feet began carrying him back out to the rocky depression designed to help learn fire jutsu without burning the compound to the ground.
He owed it more than he had to give at the moment and that meant that he couldn't rest. The eyes of the dead demanded nothing less of him.
~ Back in Naruto's Tiny Apartment ~
It wasn't that Naruto had a turbulent history with the massacre survivor. In the academy, he treated Naruto much like he treated everyone else – utter disdain and aloofness unless there was competition involved. No, if it was a matter of proving or gaining strength, the Uchiha tended to prioritize you as either a rival or a training dummy. There was no in-between.
Naruto was the sparring ring king, but he was far from undisputed. It wasn't that he lost fights. It was in fact a point of contention that he just never won against the Uchiha; all of their matches ended in draws infuriating the Uchiha that could never defeat him.
The reason Naruto couldn't win was simple really. He refused to deactivate his resistance seals in a training environment and that meant no overwhelming advantage in terms of speed and strength, which Naruto didn't mind. It usually turned their bouts into physical marvels as they each attempted to out-do the other with ridiculous feints or aerial acrobats designed to glean some minute advantage. While they left each bout scuffed and dusty, very few times anyone did emerge bloodied or purpled with bruises. If nothing else, it produced magnificent displays for the class to watch and sickening amounts of cooing from the Sasuke Fanclub. It also created large amounts of mutual respect between the two combatants.
It was meant to be the perfect combat clinic for the last Uzumaki, and he used it as such to improve his timing and execution using only the academy katas; "Never trust an Uchiha rat" was the saying and he intended to keep his Tetsuken from thieving eyes as long as he could. The Uchiha pushed his limits and that was all well and good for Naruto.
Despite not being a physically domineering specimen (The Uchiha did not appear to train in muscle development), Naruto would acknowledge that his classroom nemesis was skilled in his family's Interceptor Fist, even if he was now a bit "off his rocker" judging by the vitriolic exit from the ANBU catacombs. Not wanting to dwell on the psychological issues of his former classmate (he had his fair share of issues to contend with without dwelling on someone else's), Naruto shifted mental gears.
"We missed our session with Inoichi so that means one of you gets an extra week of freedom." Sad smiles passed between the three before he sighed and continued on.
"That's okay," Naruko chirped back. "There is something I'd like to work on with you while I still have time."
He was curious now. "Oh?"
The chipper girl sported a Cheshire grin and nodded, her pigtails flopping about haphazardly. "Footwork!"
He thought about it then shrugged his well-rounded shoulders.
"It's something I definitely need work on. First thing's first though. I think I'd like to pay a visit to some old friends and just catch my breath. Tonight, is going to be a quiet one locked up in here with all the seals set so it might not be a bad idea to send a few clones to stock up. Any requests?" A deep wave of depression passed between the "girls" as they realized just what today was.
It was October the tenth and the village was preparing for the Yondaime Remembrance Festival. As a mixed blessing, Naruto would spend his fifteenth birthday as a shut-in ignoring an entire village that hated his guts.
"Caramel corn or funnel cake if you can find it," this from the perky one with pigtails. He always thought she had a super sweet tooth.
"We're almost out of hot cocoa and I would like some more. The weather is starting to turn." Ku-chan had set out his favorite scarf on his nightstand during his morning training session as a reminder.
Two clones popped into existence, immediately henged into Tai-kun and a slightly older version that could pass as a brother, then slipped from the apartment after getting cash from their originator.
Disappearing into the bedroom, Naruto emerged a few minutes later in khaki cargo pants, a comfy dark blue tee shirt sporting a red Uzu swirl, and his familiar black and orange jacket, his body plopping down by the front door so that he could don his blue sandals.
"Don't forget to come back before sunset. I'd hate for Ku-chan here to go momma bear on Konoha trying to find you." Naruto waved over his shoulder as he stood and tamped his feet. With one last smile, he stuffed Gama-chan into his left thigh pocket, grabbed his holster for his right leg (because you never know) then stepped out into the bright Konoha morning.
Hands jammed firmly into his pockets, Naruto wandered in the general direction of the academy. With only two real destinations decided, he wasn't in a huge rush to be anywhere just yet.
Looking up into the clear blue sky above Konoha, he almost allowed himself to relax. How could you not with such a beautiful backdrop? Soft fluffy clouds in that clear blue canvass and the fresh air of the wooded Konoha backdrop made you breathe in peace and tranquility. It made you feel good just to be alive, that is until you noticed that sixty-five percent of the village you lived in, the civilian majority, hated your guts and glared at you everywhere you went.
Naruto's smile faded into a sullen mask of neutrality not twenty paces from his apartment building. He'd almost forgotten with so much time spent among others that knew nothing about his life how it was back in Konoha. He'd gotten spoiled in Istoria and hadn't been back long enough to be reminded of the hatred before being sent off to Nami, so he'd relaxed his guard a little. It looked like Konohans weren't going to let him forget any time soon.
He supposed the particular day today didn't help his case much either. Subconsciously his lazy pace took on slightly longer strides.
Before long he came upon the Hokage complex and detoured in to pay a visit to his absentee sponsor. Walking up to the desk of the eternally perturbed secretary, Naruto nearly gave the poor Yamanaka woman a heart attack when he asked if the Hokage had a few minutes in his schedule for a short-notice visit. There was understandable confusion as she pressed the panic button under her desktop and summoned ANBU responders to verify his identity.
If there were two things the real Naruto did not do it was to one, ask nicely to visit the "old man" nor did he two, ever call him by title. Since he had standing permission to "swing by" unless something important was going on, people in the office familiar with him never interfered so this clearly had to be an impostor. He stood passively through it all until his identity was verified by no less than five ANBU familiar with the boy and all his (known) quirks.
Surprisingly enough he was beginning to understand, and appreciate, why the Toad Sannin always used a window instead of the door.
After being admitted, Naruto walked casually up to the far side of the desk and waited patiently. It was the quiet that caused the Sandaime to glance up from the parchment in his hand with a pensive look on his wrinkled face. The boy had certainly left his rowdiest years behind in the academy but this level of quiet was, dare he say, uncomfortable to observe.
"Yes, Naruto-kun?" He would use that familiar address until his last breath even if the distance between them had grown too far to bridge. Deep inside the old man still loved the scrappy orphan, the pain of their separation wearing on his old heart.
"I don't need anything, Hokage-jiji." Hiruzen's eyes widened noticeably. "I just came to see how you were. Maybe visit like I used to, if you're not too busy?" It sounded like a question, a very uncertain question, but the Hokage's face lit up as a smile spread across his mouth.
"Certainly, Naruto-kun. Sit, my boy. Sit." And just like that the tension ebbed away.
Naruto spent a little over a half an hour catching up with his surrogate grandfather, his eyes never once flickering to the hidden ANBU clinging to the odd surface, a wall here or a ceiling there. While the informal reunion was a bit awkward at first, his goal was to re-establish his bond with a man that had done so much for him through his early years.
Nami had taught him that. Seeing the broken spirit of his teammate showed him the price of going it alone, something he could no longer afford to do as his inner circle grew smaller and smaller each passing week.
He would not end up like Itachi.
Naruto rose shortly after excusing himself and, after a short pause, walked around the desk and hugged the Hokage much to the twitching surprise of the Sandaime's standing guard. Without another word, the emotionally-scarred teenager quietly showed himself out and moved on to his next random appointment leaving in his wake the much lighter soul of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Thoughts swirled as he re-evaluated his past. Both parents had been lost at birth. His childhood friend from the orphanage was gone. He had no relationship with his godfather to speak of and the one woman he thought he could love forever wanted nothing romantically to do with him. Sure he could keep plugging away at her heart but that smacked vaguely of becoming a stalker and a fanboy he was most certainly not. Running away to Istoria was sounding better all the time.
His thoughts wandered once more to the village he called home, a place where he used lies, trickery, and deceit on a daily basis just to make ends meet. Was he supposed to devote the rest of his life to protecting these idiots? How long was he supposed to swallow back their hatred and smile in their stupid faces? He loved the old man but if this village had its way, Naruto would be stuck swallowing humble pie until his dying day. As his thoughts rambled, his feet kept tapping the hallways and staircases of Hokage Tower.
By the time he wandered next door into the academy's teaching hall, Iruka and the students had taken an early break from classroom work for physical training. Not wanting to get sucked into Konohamaru's antics, he steered his way back to the east meandering into a familiar flower shop, Ino's voice ringing out as the door chimes rang his arrival.
"Welcome to Yamanaka- Naruto!" Her smile seemed a tired but genuine as she worked a bouquet on the far side of the customer counter. Seated on his side was a familiar pineapple haired boy about his age who had thrown up a friendly wave over his shoulder rather than turn around, presumably because of how troublesome the extra effort would have been.
Ino smirked at the lazy Genin before her eyes flickered back up to her other teammate. "Enjoying your time off, Naruto?" He wasn't sure how to take it given what the two of them had been through, so he shrugged noncommittally and plopped down onto another stool as he watched her hands fly through the arrangement.
"I'm fine, Ino-chan. I came by to see how you were." His eyes locked onto her face despite her efforts to hide everything behind her bangs. He'd already seen the dark circles under her eyes but the artificial lighting in the store was making it hard to gauge if she was any paler than normal.
Shikamaru, who had been uncharacteristically paying her a social call, had already tried to go down this road with her and chose that moment to rise from his perch citing "previous engagements" before sloughing off with a wave. "Tonight, at six, Ino."
Showing just a bit of her old self, Ino spit out a quick, "I won't forget!" before her eyes fell back to her constantly moving fingers. Naruto watched them carefully clean out the detritus and trim individual stems as she built upon a complicated funeral wreath, something Naruto found symbolically ironic given their last few days.
"You're not sleeping, are you?" The girl's fingers froze for half a heartbeat before resuming their steady rhythm.
Pluck. Toss. Trim. Press. Clamp. Repeat.
"Have you talked to anyone?" She nodded even with her lower lip pinched from her immaculate teeth.
Pluck. Toss. Trim. Press. Clamp. Repeat.
He tried to change tactics. "I figured you were taking it easy. I mean, we've been given a whole week off." His smile was forced but she didn't take the bait, not fully anyway. Her grin never freed her lower lip. His fingers found a small clipping to pick up and play with, Ino's ice blue eyes lifting for a second to watch him fiddle absently with it.
She appreciated what he was trying to do but her father would help with the really hard stuff. Right now, she just wanted to enjoy his company.
"Keeping busy helps. It keeps me from…" Her words died off, but he got the point. Motion kept her from being stagnant. Sitting still gave her mind time to wander. Sitting still long enough gave her mind time to wander back to a pair of bloody faces she didn't want to remember.
He stopped playing the nosy nursemaid and asked her to teach him what she was doing realizing it wasn't a bouquet she was pulling together. The shocked kunoichi blinked then gradually started talking about the types of wreaths and how they were made. The two talked for over an hour before Inoichi stumbled through the employee entrance with a bunch of flowers for other arrangements.
"Naruto-san!" With a flower stem clamped in his teeth, the blond boy could do little more than smile cheekily and wave back. "I'm beginning to think you're avoiding our sessions through dangerous work."
Naruto nervously shook his head and plucked the white carnation from his mouth. He knew what that line of thinking would earn him, and he wasn't ready for another pair of ANBU babysitters. He still needed to get familiar with Opal and Titus before calling up Gamaken this weekend. It would be his best chance to do so and he wanted no observers.
"Good. Then I'll see both of you next week, correct? No need to involve Hokage-sama in any of this is there?" Naruto's continued shaking of his head was all the confirmation the Yamanaka Clan head needed. With a friendly chuckle, he saw himself out the same way he came in with only a gentle squeeze to the shoulder of his beloved daughter as he passed by.
~III~
It took Ino another hour to finish the wreath with Naruto's help not being much actual help in the end. His company was good for comic relief if anything else and that made her relax quite a bit. The two of them were currently strolling slowly through the Market District, Ino trying desperately not to talk to her teammate about how she was not holding up all that well.
She just couldn't sleep without his warm chakra wrapped around her and she was having a hell of a time not blurting that fact out. How did you come out to your platonic teammate and tell him that you needed his chakra in order to function normally?
Her father had broken down a medical diagnosis for her condition. Chakra Addiction he'd called it saying that it was more common among Yamanaka sensors when they'd found their symbiotic chakra partner. She'd come back to the fact that she might be a sensor, like Naruto, later. She wanted to get her head wrapped around what a "symbiotic chakra partner" was and how it had anything to do with Naruto.
While it didn't always result in marriage, let alone marital bliss, it could become problematic for active sensors once they'd been exposed to something like that then were abruptly cut off. She was far too young to even consider marriage anyway having only just turned fourteen a little over two weeks ago. No, she needed to make sure that she didn't get hooked on Naruto's mojo any time soon. His chakra just felt so damn wonderful coursing through her tenketsu. Just reminiscing about the mission to Wave let her see how possible it was for this addiction to take hold and that scared her.
Chakra withdrawal apparently was never pretty to observe let alone endure. It also tended to raise its ugly head most often during puberty as Yamanaka sensors tended to come into their own abilities about the same time. If she could survive her training with Daddy, she could learn to hold the addiction at bay. She just had to survive first.
Ino, unwilling in a moment of weakness to simply bid her former social nemesis good night when he rose to leave the shop, was now strolling leisurely through the busy Konoha district trying with all her might not to publicly glomp the poor boy who knew nothing of her current predicament. To her, that was a troublesome sign.
This was almost as bad as getting wasted in Istoria and waking up mostly naked on top of him. Almost.
"Plans?"
Naruto jerked at the odd question. "Huh?"
Ino huffed. "I asked do you have plans? As in plans for the celebration tonight?" Naruto's face instantly darkened.
"No, no I don't Ino-chan. I mostly stay to myself the day of the festival. Less trouble that way." Ino's plan to cling to his arm all night instantly went up in smoke. Unless…
"Come with us then." There was a silent plea in her voice that the jinchuuriki caught and dismissed with a shake of his head.
"Naw, I'm gonna pass. Too many people for me but you're welcome to come by and share stories if you want." Her smile returned around the corners of her perky lips. "I'll even throw on a fresh pot to warm you up." He realized how cold October nights could be in Konoha.
"In fact, you have an open invitation, Ino-chan." She blinked in surprise. "You know, if you ever need someone to talk to or just a place to crash for a bit." He seemed nervous, his hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck in his usual timid gesture.
Her warm smile was enough mushy stuff for the day and the already nervous Uzumaki waved his way off to return home, the sun high in the afternoon sky. He'd had enough people time and needed to get back before it got too late.
'This could work,´ thought a certain Yamanaka to herself as she rushed home to prepare for the night's fun. 'After all, we have all the time in the world!'
~ III ~
Jiraiya of the Sannin had a powerful urge to sneeze at that exact moment but shrugged it off.
"What are you saying, Jiraiya?"
"I'm saying that innocent villages don't ramp up emergency food stores from six months to almost a year and a half because spoilage and vermin make maintaining those stores over longer periods nearly impossible. I'm saying innocent villages don't randomly increase weapons procurement and production during times of peace. I'm saying innocent village don't start disbursing troops to war time fortifications and practicing extended deployment rotations unless they were planning to use them."
Hiruzen frowned knowing that the signs were there and that both Suna and Oto were making the same overtures. Both nations were moving towards conflict but with whom?
"Find me a clear direction, Jiraiya. In the meantime, I will call in someone I trust to discuss what you've brought us."
~ III ~
It was only midday and Naruto was lamenting the thought of going home so early. The "festivities" were going to be going on long into the night and that meant a slow afternoon trying to dodge his clone's schemes for the evening. Trying to ignore the growing wave of angry glares, Naruto's eyes caught sight of an unusual shop sign hanging above a fancy three story building, one of the few made from large blocks of stone. He paused, his eyes glued to the icon knowing he'd seen the clan crest from somewhere.
The sign block was white and appeared to be made of porcelain. There were no words, just a series of blocks and rectangles forming a multi-layered series of rings with odd edges. It reminded him of a disjointed spiral or kunai target.
He walked inside having nothing better to do but fully expecting to be escorted rapidly from the premises in short order.
His first shock was that no door chime rang yet the two women and older man wearing flowing white and grey robes bearing the sign's symbol across the front all looked up at his entrance. The graying hair of the elderly store owner gave little away concerning his heritage but the light brown hair of his daughters was not unappealing. The store was also filled with people, many of which sucked on their teeth or grunted in annoyance. Oddly enough, none of them turned to leave.
Everyone already inside grew unbelievably still, a few turning to look at the older male staring at him in the most peculiar fashion.
'Well, I know what is coming next. This shouldn't take long.'
True to form, the older man turned to the younger-looking girl stacking fresh scrolls upon one of the many shelves and scroll cubbies throughout the store and nodded in his direction. The young lady, perhaps his age, rose from her spot with her hands tucked into the sleeves of her robe and approached him calmly, which set him all the more on edge. Did she have a weapon hidden in there? Was she running through a series of hand seals for a dangerous jutsu? His feet slid marginally apart as his body tensed.
When she stopped two paces in front of him, the young lady's light grey eyes smiled warmly and she bowed full at the waist. "Greetings Naruto-sama. Please follow me quickly to the rear office and my father, Abe Naozumi, will explain as soon as we can empty the store of its customers."
He was floored. It took a few minutes for his brain to process the information before he could nod dumbly that he'd acknowledged her. She giggled softly, not an unpleasant sound, and he fell into step behind her as she scooted through the rows of scrolls, blank parchments, study guides, self-help books, and pre-made seals. He wanted to spend hours perusing the ship's wares but, for now, he could do nothing but follow dumbly behind the small-framed girl leading him to who-knows-where.
The elder Naozumi and his older daughter bowed as he passed by, a gesture he returned despite the other shocked faces trying to burn holes in his back. Through the middle of the store and a heavy wooden door behind the register she guided him. Unlike the pristine tiled stone floor in the store front, the short hallway was immaculately groomed polished wood of deep hues. Expensive carpets lined the center and alabaster sconces flickered softly in between soothing paintings of the Konohan countryside.
Pushing open the double doors at the end of the hallway, the still silent girl showed him into an office almost as large as the main store, a pair of comfortable looking couches facing off around a low coffee table were both set before an impressive desk bigger than the one he regularly saw in Hokage-jiji's office. This was the office of old money. Whoever owned this store was beyond wealthy and it showed as he glanced about admiring the tasteful yet minimalistic decorations that surrounded him.
His escort giggled again and drew his attention back to her oval-shaped face. "It's okay. We are used to that reaction from important customers when they come to negotiate resource contracts." She motioned to one of the couches and asked him to sit. Once he was comfortable (kami, these were comfortable couches), she stepped to the side of the room and prepared a small tea service for him and two others. With his tea in hand, she went to stand behind the other couch taking a seat on one of several high stools just behind the other couch.
In silence the two waited, the friendly seeming teenager watching him with something akin to interest and awe. It was a new experience for the unloved orphan and it was starting to make that certain spot in the middle of his back itch. Just as it was about to become unbearable, the doors opened again and in walked the elder Naozumi, an older woman with silver-streaked light brown hair and dark brown eyes, and the second young lady from the store front.
The two (presumably) parents stood across the low coffee table from him and the girls joined them, one to each side. Not knowing what to do, Naruto stood and prepared to bow but, the moment he rose, all four of them bowed near horizontally at the waist.
Naruto blinked mutely then returned the gesture following their next set of actions and resuming his seat as the daughters took station behind them. What followed was very eye-opening for the jinchuuriki pariah of Konoha.
Abe, his wife Kohaku, and his daughters Kirika and Kiyoko, ran the Arashi Seals Consortium on behalf of the previous owners until their son came of age to decide what to do with the shop. If it was the heir's wish, they would continue to run the shop on his behalf and were decently skilled in the art to maintain the seals in their current inventory. Lacking the skills needed to develop more challenging arrays, they were more than skilled enough to maintain the Consortium's demanding standards of excellence even lending their services to the ANBU Barrier squad when contracted by the Hokage. It was understood that his daughters would take over when it was their time to retire, which they hoped was many years from then.
Pleased as he was to discover all this, Naruto was clearly confused as to why the Naozumi family was sharing this information with him and he expressed his deepest concern about possibly costing them business once people discovered that the de-, that he was in their store. None of this made sense to him.
Abe's nonchalant waving off of that concern perplexed him. Furthermore, Kohaku's pained look of sympathy shocked him more than anything else. They clearly knew who he was and it didn't bother them but Naruto didn't want to get his hopes up.
"Poor boy, did no one tell you who your parents were?" The blinking stare confirmed the older woman's fears and her kimono'd hands shot up to cover her mouth as water began to pool in the corners of her dark brown eyes. Clearly the girls got their looks from her and their eye color from their father.
He sadly shook his head "no" just to be clear about the village's ongoing subterfuge. Kohaku's oval-shaped face turned to her husband, her tightly-bunned hair do framing her delicate features and she implored silently to Abe-san in some silent marital communication ceremony.
Abe sighed and rose motioning for Naruto to follow him over to the area off to the right side of the posh desk.
"This store was established by the matriarch of a powerful clan, her fuuinjutsu skills unparalleled in Konoha not even by the vaunted Toad Sage, Jiraiya-sama. In time, she passed down the helm to her husband when she married and it has become our tradition to immortalize the store's owners in portraits along this wall. It is our hope that pictures will one day line the wall of this office and the hallway beyond." Naruto had been focused on the gentle lines in the man's kind face but he looked up once the older man's arm swung out to the corner wall four or five paces from the desk.
On the wall directly behind the desk but close to the corner sat a beautiful woman with flowing red hair. She was resting on a bed of cushions in a deep blue kimono, one hand cradling her chin while the other hovered over a blank parchment with a feather quill in hand. She was stunning, the dimly lit room allowing a single beam of sunlight to come down and highlight her flawless features. At the bottom of the large painting, a small plaque of gold showed the characters for Kushina Uzumaki, Royal Heiress of Uzushiogakure no Sato, President of the Arashi Seal Consortium.
Naruto's knees buckled and Abe reached over to help steady him.
"Her husband was the next President of the company." He motioned to the next painting which began the first in a long series of spaces reserved on the wall. On it was the painting of a striking man with hair the same golden blond color as Naruto's, his striking blue eyes peering down at papers and quills in his hand and scattered across the very desk resting behind the shocked boy. He was looking at the face of Minato Namikaze, the man that would go on to become the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha.
It wasn't the first time he'd seen pictures of them that stunned him so. It was that this was their shop, which made sense when you connected the dots leading to their sealing mastery. No, it was the realization that slowly pummeled him as Abe looked on with hope dawning in his eyes.
This was the Namikaze-Uzumaki store. This was his store.
Abe ended up rushing him back over the couch as the boy began to hyperventilate. Fresh water, more tea, and calming back rubs from both daughters helped to bring him back to a semi-conscious state as the Naozumis began to educate the young master on just what all ownership of the A.S.C. entailed.
Yes, they knew exactly who he was and yes, they knew (all of them) about the Kyuubi. They were all too savvy in fuuinjutsu not to know that he wasn't the demon reborn. No, they weren't concerned about losing business. There were competitors but their seals were inferior and overpriced; the A.S.C. used security seals developed by Kushina-dono to protect their products and that meant customers always returned sooner or later.
Their main point was that Naruto needed to understand that this was his store by right of inheritance and he was free to come and go as he saw fit. Abe's family lived on the second floor but the penthouse on the third belonged to his parents when they weren't at the Clan compound.
Naruto had to blink there. Yes, there was a Namikaze-Uzumaki compound and the Naozumi family maintained access so that it could be cleaned periodically by staff, and this meant he had a family home, if he wanted it. The Naozumi's maintained the taxes and property upkeep, what little wasn't done by seals.
There was more deep breathing with his head placed firmly between his knees before a gently smiling Kohaku giggled out, "We should show him his mother's gift in the safe." Naruto's head shot up, eyes wide.
Abe rose and padded over to the other side of the room across from the portrait of his father. Behind a large painting of an island he was unfamiliar with was a large metal safe. Abe placed his palm in the center of the large door and pulsed his chakra into the face causing it to open with the sound of heavy rods retracting.
"You will have full access to the safe but there is a smaller one inside that only you can open as it requires using a blood seal. You are familiar with this concept?"
Naruto nodded vaguely that he was. When he rose to join the old man, he saw a safe container large enough to stand in with shelves containing books, ledgers, documents, chests of money, coins, and small boxes of gems. "This is our daily operating capital," Abe stated pointing to a smaller lock box about the size of a five-liter tub. "The rest of this, are some of the more valuable items not kept in your family bank vault or the two areas of the house we cannot enter without blood seals."
Naruto made a mental note to explore the clan house at a later time. For now, the two approached a wall mounted safe about chest high and Naruto bit his thumb to smear it across the Uzumaki swirl etched into the door. The spiral filled, the symbol pulsed with a red flash of light, then the door swung open silently.
Inside were fifteen large tomes, each spine engraved with a spiral and number. Taking down the first one, he opened it to find a personal note from his mother explaining the texts. He thought they might have been family documents, however, it turned out to be something far more valuable.
His mother had begun transcribing copies of the Uzumaki sealing texts, the original works of his clan that had been distilled down into simpler concepts used to create Konoha's, and later the entire elemental world's, fuuinjutsu system. It was a treasure trove of information, well, up until text number seven because she'd apparently run out of time before finishing the other eight.
He was heartbroken but this was still more than he'd ever hoped for and it was written in his mother's impeccable script. He'd need to work on his calligraphy a lot by the looks of this.
In the end he decided to leave the books in the safe he'd found them. With the seals covering the inside of the small vault, it was unlikely that someone could break in without bleeding him dry first. Abe commented that his mother was working on the scripts up until his birth so that meant that the originals were somewhere and he just needed to find out where they were.
It wasn't completely hopeless.
By the time he left the Naozumi family, the sun had begun its descent into late afternoon but it was the best afternoon he'd had in a long time. He'd have to return to them often and take them up on that dinner invitation. October tenth was just a bad time to be out and about.
~ III ~
It's not that Naruto was blind or insensitive to the hateful stares. He saw them in his peripheral vision. He could feel their anger like rancid oil sliding over his shoulders. Their words used to sting his ears, ears that could hear voices at a hundred meters if he focused hard enough to block out other sounds. It wasn't that he was not aware; he just no longer cared about their hatred.
People were moving in familiar groups as the sun plummeted across the sky. Families were taking their children towards the festival grounds dressed in traditional yukata. Groups of young adults clustered around bars and party locations, their eyes raking over the strolling demon brat. He knew what those looks meant.
Once the drinking had been underway for a few hours, the true festival celebration would begin with Konoha's all-time favorite: The Kyuubi Fox Hunt.
Not this year. Never again for their entertainment. No more.
Without undo haste, Naruto crossed the Market District into the Red Light without diverting per his original intentions. He'd seen enough friends today and the rest were still in Wave cleaning up Team Seven's mess.
Waving to the ladies of The Cherry Blossom, Naruto pushed chakra into his legs and covered the distance from the street level to his entry hallway in a single leap. Tonight, he was beyond their reach.
Tomorrow he would assess his progress and begin true growth. He had a long way before he could stand up against his family's enemies. He'd need that strength in order to break away from his crummy existence.
Just before he stepped inside his apartment, something horrid passed over him making his body shudder. It wasn't anything he'd felt in Konoha before, so he had nothing to compare it against. It wasn't equal to the malevolent hatred the Kyuubi could generate but it was vile, and dark, and bitter.
When he turned in the direction of its source, it vanished like the wind.
~III~
The dichromatic figure glared out from behind the large attachment encompassing his head. To any passerby that could see him on the far rooftop, he looked like he had a Venus Flytrap stuck to his shoulders, one half of his face dark as a moonless sky and the other half pale as fresh snow. The black robe spackled with red clouds announced his allegiance.
His anger nearly caused him to get found out and that would never do. No, the wretched Kyuubi would be the last taken and soon his beloved mother would walk the land again as she took her rightful place as a kami to lead the sheep.
Until then he could tolerate the Akatsuki and their childish games.
'Enjoy your remaining days,' he whispered to his darker half as his body sunk fully into the neighboring rooftop.
~III~
A/N: The A.S.C. is from my first story "Nature of the Beast." I have redone the Naozumi family in line with a surprise in store later on in this fic and the reason the family is both aware of his status and his heritage will be made known later on. For now, his love of seals needs a recharge and I think the Naozumi family can provide that.
~ III ~