A/N:
Hello there! Maybe General Kenobi owns the Naruto Franchise at the moment, but I for sure don't.
The final Chapter of the First Act is still in the making. The mixture of writer's block and real life obligations isn't really helping.
Still undecided who and how many girls I pair with Naruto. Open to recommendations and wishes in your reviews and pm's. Still no official beta sooooo be careful and if you see some major mistakes, I really would appreciate someone pointing it out to me by a short private message.
With all that said above, I can't gurantee in which pace we are moving forward with this story.
I'm really gratefull to my Reviewers and the good conversations via PM, so keep it up everyone!
Now please Enjoy the next Chapter :D
Uzumaki Compound - Two Years Later
Naruto has accomplished many things in the last two years. With the help of his Kage Bunshin, the Henge no Jutsu and Hatsumi and Mitos Teachings, helped him surpass many Genin and some Chunin in practical and theoretical knowledge. He tried to uphold some social interactions but after some encounters for Naruto it was a closed and shut case.
He would meet up with Shikamaru sometimes, watching clouds or playing some Shogi, he lost nearly every time, but sometimes fought him to a draw but Naruto couldn't surpass the Nara yet.
Naruto completed his training of the Katas in his Taijutsu with Hatsumi nearly one year ago. The only thing missing was the on the fly seal application with chakra and simple touch and he would earn his last Kyu in the Rising Wave Style. Besides his Taijutsu Studies his Fuinjutsu theory was improving equally. Mito ranked him last month between 4th and 3rd Kyu.
The Uzumaki used the same ranking systems as some of the classical Taijutsu Arts. You would start with the 9th Kyu and work your way up till you would reach the 1st Kyu. After that you would have to be judged by a group of masters on your masterpiece.
For Fuinjutsu, Mito explained to him, he would have to present a breakthrough to earn the Title of Fuinjutsu Master. The criteria was very harsh in comparison to the rest of the elemental nations. Most Uzumaki would study Fuinjutsu till 5th to 3rd Kyu and be done with it.
For the elemental nations a 5th Kyu would often be equaled with the title of seal master.
Mito joked about that fact for some time that Naruto could call himself a seal master before even attempting his genin exams if he wanted. The Art of Seals was an obscure one. Those who studied it often took their secrets with them to the grave if they didn't have apprentices. The Uzumaki were, to her knowledge, the only ones with a kind of structured study guide to the art. Beginners ranking from 9th to 7th Kyu would first perfect calligraphy skills and study chakra theory. 'If you want to manipulate the energy you have to understand it first," was a sentence Naruto heard often enough as he asked for some cool Seals to try out. Beginners would learn the skill to create basic Storage Scrolls for nonliving things, while also learning how tocarry their supplies in them. If they showed enough prowess which included speed in constructing, they would get a reference guide with the instructions to create the basic barrier seal, sensor seals and bomb seals to memorize.
It was a grueling process, nothing fancy or flashy but the foundation was something which let practitioners of the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu excel at the moment they began to study more complex seals. Here the Uzumaki would leave many behind because over the centuries the Uzumaki always fought with seals. Because of that they had a big library of working seals, functions, cross reactions and so forth. An Adept would study these after reaching the 6th Kyu. At the same time he would learn to encrypt his seals. Not that he would learn to draw the most of them, what matters was to learn the Language of Seals. In theory,Naruto was able to draw about 100 different seals at different drawing speeds. From Advanced Storage Seals to Resistance and Gravity Seals to improve training results or hinder enemies to the first sealing Jutsu for living entities.
What got Naruto's current rank was his first original seal. After raiding the Library of Konoha with Clones using a henge to collect some Jutsu for all Chakra Natures and purposes, something the Uzumaki Scroll didn't provided because it holded the Seal Collection, and chronics of the clan, Naruto was forced to go on many raids. These raids were the main reason Nartuo developed his first own seal. After many tedious clone powered manual copies of some scrolls, Naruto developed a way to read and copy the whole Scroll with a Tag. All he had to do was channel Chakra in the scroll he wanted to copy and provide an empty scroll of the same size.
The first problem he had to overcome was his still fluctuating chakra control. His system was in the progress to stop his random exponential growth spurts and start developing to the normal linear growth so he started with the control exercises but after burning fifty copies of Library Scrolls he developed a filter and limiting function for his seals. Something he hadn't noticed at first because it seemed logical, but after Mito pointed it out to him he was excited that he had another proof of his heritage.
Hatsumi, as an artificial Uzumaki, could not follow both the true Uzumaki in most cases. She studied the Art, copied brush strokes and Concepts in her mind with the help of her eyes but the ingenious ideas she had wouldn't translate into a new seal as easily as Naruto got it.
Both of the Uzumaki wouldn't tease her about it after she reminded them of the Uzumakis biggest weakness, Genjustu.
Flashback start
Naruto Uzumaki sitting across the table from Hatsumi both with empty sealing scrolls, ink and brush checked his seal one last time before putting his utilities aside to tease his classmate with a small jibe against her seal related problem solving skills.
"Come on Hatsumi Chan, you should be able to come up with your idea to solve this need to believe in yourself sometimes. I know I'm better in the Uzumaki Arts ya know. But you can do it too, believe it!"
"Naruto Chan, how often do I have to repeat myself that I don't really can make heads or tails of some of those seals. Why should I connect the Kanjs of Fire with a counter clockwise twist to the Kanji of Air? In my understanding, providing air would only enhance it. Like the Katon and Futon Jutsu we tried.
You remember that one right?"
A slightly irritated Hatsumi was in her traditional Uzumaki Kimono. It was till her knees and in hues of blue. The Kimono was of a durable silk you normally only would find in the capital. Kushina ordered some of them after it was clear she would marry Minato and would need them for official capacities but also to wear her clan symbol with pride from time to time. Hatsumi was grateful that she ordered one for her too even with the Uzumaki Insignia and special seals in convenient places. In her Obi were seals for her ninja gear, weapons and emergency supplies. But also some chakra suppression seals to fool the sensors. Thank the log that all of the more than average sensors were mostly on missions. Her deception would fail quickly if it were different.
That reminded Naruto of the first tries with elemental Jutsu. He got a big grin on his face.
"Yeah, that was really awesome. E Rank Katon Jutsu to light up a campfire to a bordering C Rank Flamethrower. You know Hatsumi Chan?"
He jumped on the table and grinned in her face
"Not everyone is super cool like me with Seals like Mito Sensei. Dattebayo"
You could see the veins in Hatsumi's face for a second before she smiled with closed eyes. Laying down the brush and leaning back in her chair.
"Naruto Chan can I tell you a secret?"
Hatsumi said, her eyes closed and grinning. The little blonde was clueless, he thought he made a mistake.
"Sure Hatsumi Chan." he replied with his usual teasing attitude after beating the much more experienced Kunoichi in something Uzumaki related.
The next thing he saw was a spinning red eye with two black overlapping triangles and a smiling Hatsumi.
Flashback End
After experiencing having to eat only Vegetables, looking at Hatsumi slurping Ramen for nearly 72 hours, and endure regular spankings because of his rude behavior to his aunt , Naruto learned quickly that having a Chakrapool to create armies of clones was not a good thing to have against somebody who is able to cast high ranking Genjutsu. After an impromptu lecture from Hatsumi how Genjutsu was the technique to insert tiny amounts of your chakra in the system of your target to influence their perception it was clear to Naruto that with his big amounts he wouldn't recognize these tiny amounts. Also flushing them out could be a problem if he couldn't localize the entryway and part of his body where the Jutsu resided in.
Mito watched the encounter and ordered Naruto to apologize and beg his aunt to teach him the principles of Genjutsu and how to counter them.
Hatsumi, who was still a bit resentful, let him grovel on his knees for some minutes.
After lecturing him how to behave in a proper way to women in the future and threaten him with more Genjutsu torture she agreed to teach him.
In his little book of Ideas, Naruto made an effort to try thinking up with a way to counter Genjutsu. In theory, he would have to stop Outside chakra interference on his system.
After his first failures, he got the hint that some things which sound easy are exactly the opposite. If he would stop outside chakra he couldn't sense, he wasn't able to get the memories of his clone which was the other Justsu he heavily began to study.
Because of that, the Counter Genjutsu Seal joined the Communication Scroll and Camouflage Seal he tried to develop. The latter he already had a prototype of. It was a rough draft but it masked his signature, scent and noise he produced, also bending the light around him making him invisible. The drawbacks was he couldn't hear outside noises, if he moved the air around him rippled like in mirage in the desert and it's chakra cost was so high a standard Jonin of the leaf couldn't hold it longer than ten seconds if he wanted to not risk chakra exhaustion. Naruto loved the challenge so he tried to improve them or create them in the first place to earn his advanced Kyu ranking before finishing the academy.
Besides his Fuinjutsu projects and the fighting in the academy, where he still used a botched Academy Style to beat Sasuke to a standstill, ignoring the voices of the Sasuke fangirls, or some of the teachers he had begun two other projects.
One was an underground connection from an abandoned warehouse in the red light district where his apartment was not far away from to establish a secure route without raising suspicion. Naruto was very careful not to lead the anbu or the persons sometimes following to the compound with the new underground tunnel he could easily deceive them. Besides, he could feel over the years, with him often going out under henge and the anbu and civilian seemingly less motivated to deduce if he really only went to Ichirakus and the academy that he was followed often on this route and left alone for the most time.
The little mining Jutsu he found in the Library was an E Rank Doton Jutsu which dug a bit more than his weight of soil and moved behind him. After some tries Naruto used his clones to dig, seal the earth and release the clayey earth in a controlled manner. The slowly developed tunnel needed nearly two years to finish. Hatsumi and Naruto used it after that on a regular basis after protecting the structure with seals and Genjutsu from unauthorized access and collapsing.
The other slightly bigger project was the liberation of the red light district in which Naruto originally had to reside. That project started one year ago with a certain event.
Flashback start
Naruto was on his way back from the academy to his apartment in the red light district. On this ways he used his gravity seals on his pearl chains. He had five of them. One for wrists and ankles and the last at his waist. The multiplied gravity could train him passively on his way back. To not raise questions he didn't want to provide the answers for he could move with a bit more than civilian speed and still train. The set was a birthday present from Mito Sensei for what she needed nearly the whole year to finish.
Reason for the long time frame where the two major restrictions of the mentor scroll. The summoned mentor could not move far away from the scroll and could really use the chakra for Jutsu.
So after reaching his apartment, a slightly sweaty Naruto changed his face to somebody he often saw two streets away. The person whose look he borrowed today was a man in his mid twenties who worked as a postman. Each week the blonde would use a different henge for his supply routes to buy enough food and never use a face twice. At the moment Naruto was at the market paying for his weekly ration of fruits and other greens and turned a corner to use a shortcut as four people blocked his way forward and two his way back.
"Shinratoshi. Old Pal. Thought you could ignore us heh?."
At this moment Naruto really noticed the people who spoke to him. The four in the front all had wakizashis at their belts. The one who spoke to him had a cleaver-like sword. The clothing was a rough and damaged mix of yukata. All of them had a bandana with the symbol of a lotus on it. Naruto looked over his shoulder inspecting the other two, noticing wakizashis each with the same bandana and yukata outfit.
The young Shinobi concluded that his Henge had some connection to this gang so he would collect some information.
"Hey I was talking to you! You stupid little piece of shit!"
Raising his voice,the one with the cleaver got closer. Trying his best to look big and menacing, Naruto had a hard time trying not to laugh. He sensed for their chakra reserves, which were seemingly nonexistent. Silently, he used his chakra to deactivate the gravity seals, taking two steps back, waiting for the right moment.
"You see that guys, I think I silenced him! After I got his bitch of a wife to suck my cock because they couldn't pay their little fine for protection, now he thinks we are even!"
The boss of the little group gesticulated to Naruto in his Henge and laughed, only for the other thugs to join in.
"Was she good boss?"
"Hey, Is there a part left of her?"
"She was a looker, I tell you!"
Naruto could feel the bile rising. The anger and hatred for the thugs increased with each jibe against the poor sod his face he borrowed. He knew he couldn't flee, that would only lead to more retribution against that Shinratoshi Guy. He put his bags down. He hated those moments he knew he would have to kill them without letting one survive. Nobody could learn about this encounter without him controlling the information about what happened.
He put his bag down and in a voice a little bit lower than the normal voice of Shinratoshi he answered the thug leader.
"You know that this is a ninja village with rules right? Rules you broke by collecting protection money, rape and other things you did not tell me yet."
He stayed in the Henge but he seallessly created five clones, which used a Shunshin to place themselves behind the Thugs leaving the boss for Naruto to staredown. In the blink of an eye, the situation changed drastically. A fact the gang leader noticed also.
"Who are you?" Reaching for his cleaver blade, the boss took a step 's clones knocked the five thugs with a quick chop to the neck before the leader could finish his sentence.
Naruto didn't answer directly. He used the moment to unseal a Tanto he salvaged from a training ground and used a quick Shunshin to dodge behind the guard of the gang leader to disarm him. Literally disarming cutting through the arm reaching for the weapon.
"If you want to live you will talk. Are there more of you? Rapeing Women, blackmailing and infect this village with your stupid idea you could be someone?"
His Voice was cold, and with the blood on his blade and clothing he looked threatening. The thug wanted to scream out in pain as he could feel the cold steel on his neck digging into his skin.
"I asked you a question, Lotus-San." Naruto delivered a quick kick to the back of his right knee, his weight was on. Leading to the man to collapse falling on his face. His one arm, which was attempting to hold back the blood, wasn't fast enough to break his fall,leaving him grunting in pain again only to feel the steel on his neck again quickly gulping.
"Yes. There are others" He squeezed out between closed teeth panting in pain. Naruto's reaction was a quick one. He
Naruto nodded to his clones. He would clean out this thrash, his emotions cooking a bit high because of a certain fox. His Clones ended the lives of the other five in a similar fashion and cleaned up.
The next day the Anbu would find all six pinned to a thrashed empty brothel. One of them with a stump and a message around his neck which told all what happened here.
"I sowed pain as I raped and threatened till the eagle judged me for my crimes an reaped my soul - Repent and stop you ways in crime before the eagle comes for you - He will judge and he will act"
Flashback end
Till today Naruto's clones collected information of illegal activities in his district to go hunt for unsavory elements. After he consulted with Mito and his aunt Hatsumi he decided to do something because the Anbu seemed to be overloaded or just didn't have time for keeping their own village clean.
Naruto collected evidence from each syndicate, observed them get the information back to Mito who decided if they had to be eradicated. First he was disgusted with what he had done. After he freed the first forced prostitutes from a brothel he steeled himself very quickly.
The Anbu would randomly find thugs pinned to their secret brothels or hideouts alike with photos of the crimes pinned to the body.
The red light district was in the progress to change. With each syndicate the suppressing feeling lessened and it opened a bit more. Naruto also collected the Ryo of his targets to share them with the victims after subtraction of a small service fee. Project Red Light Liberation was a big success in Naruto's Eyes. Other Elements of the village were scared, the others were happy, some of both were at the moment discussing how to deal with the situation.
Village Council Chambers, Hokage Tower
"Welcome to the quarterly Council Meeting of Konohagakure no Sato"
The Voice of Hiruzen Sarutobi greeted the present ninja and civilian council members.
After the Kyuubi Attack Konoha changed the council Layout to a 50:50 distribution of seats by adding more civilian council members to appease them.
Right now the shinobi side consists of the major active clans like the Hyuga, Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka, Aburame, Sarutobi and Inuzuka. The seats of the Uchiha, Uzumaki, Senju and Namikaze were empty because the people who were eligible were either currently not in the village or not allowed to sit in the chairs failing to meet the rank requirement of Chunin. Opposing those eleven votes are the eleven votes of the civilian part with the vote of the Hokage as a tiebreaker.
With a look to the village leaders and his advisors Koharu looked at a scroll and began to read it aloud.
"Today's points of interest are the following. The rising vigilante activity in the red light district. Review of the Uzumaki civilian joining us two years ago and the overview of the academy results."
Hiruzen nodded in thanks and motioned to the Jonin commander Shikaku Nara to speak.
"Shikaku San, will you update us on the current findings please?"
Usually that would be the part of the Anbu commander, but he and some of his squads where on missions outside the village. So after murmuring a quiet troublesome Shikaku stood and took his time to get to the middle of the circular room of the council chambers.
"Well after consulting with the Anbu commander all activities seem to be justifiable under the Konoha bylaws for self defense or active defense of village values. The Anbu commander and I agree to keep an eye on the situation but don't invest more than needed resources for further action like active observation or investigation of who this eagle fellow could be."
His words seemed to aggravate some of the civilian side till one of them interrupted Shikaku shouting.
"You say we allow some person behind a stupid moniker to haphazardly kill civilians?"
The shinobi and Hokage all seem to raise an eyebrow at that statement. One of the elders hid behind his cribbled exterior look and his cane mentally slapped his forehead. The Nara clan head focused on the civilian but was interrupted by the Hokage.
"You reside in a shinobi village. We may lie and kill, seduce and torture to reach our mission goals but in our village we always wanted to have a safe environment to recover from the ordeals of our work." He leveled a bit of his killing intent at the civilian councilor and told Shikaku to proceed. The Nara nodded and looked at the report he summoned from a storage scroll.
"The crime rate the Anbu reported for the Red Light district had fallen from 47% to 19%. But from murder and forced prostitution who are at an all time low to petty theft or theft is as good as we will get with our security forces still stretched." He finished in a bored voice waiting for questions. Another of the civilian side raised to his feet and waited to be acknowledged by the Hokage who inclined his head shortly in recognition.
"Excuse me Shikaku San but what is the cause of death of the suspects? Can we assume it is a shinobi killing those thugs?" Shikaku looked to his leader after the civilian side nodded in agreement. The Hokage gave a short sigh and approved to give out the information with a quick hand gesture. So Shikaku followed the question up with the answers.
"In most cases everybody could be the cause of death. But If you analyze the wound more carefully, all signs would lead to a shinobi. The not deadly cuts are on highly concentrated nerve clusters. Those wounds could be found on a minor number of victims, one or two per group at most. The others are often punctured on points known to us shinobi as CKP, or in layman terms clean kill points for quick and clean kills."
That was news to Hiruzen as well so he intervened with a raised hand.
"Would you say that the eagle interrogates with torture methods and then kills all guilty person with a quick kill?"
Shikaku just nodded.
"Yes it seems to be the case, Hokage Sama. After the first killing referencing the eagle all of those after are only of people he had solid evidence of killable offenses. It looks like a mixture of scare and care if you ask me. The eagle only kills if he has to, the others are mostly left alone but often scared enough to stop engaging in illegal dealings."
Shikaku returned to his seat after the Hokage dismissed him. Some councilors were deep in thought, some looked relieved. The shinobi looked neutral as usual but many of them were grateful that somebody seems to be willing to do the dirty work nobody wanted to pay for and as such no ninja would do of his own violation.
The Hokage seemed to be in his thoughts for some moments, he looked at the council.
"Because of the nature of the problem I order the Anbu to keep an eye on the matter, but don't interfere. I want regular updates on it. Next Topic."
Some whispered conversation on the civilian side was heard but not to be understood as Koharu stood up again and without looking at her scroll announcing the next topic.
"That would be the review of the Uzumaki refugee. Hiruzen."
The Hokage nodded and looked at Inoichi.
"Inoichi if you would? that falls under your Department."
The Yamanaka head stood and occupied the place his friend of the Nara clan left moments before. He stood addressing the room and with a calming voice spoke.
"Besides the Uzushio - Konoha treaty which forbids Konoha to mindwalk somebody with peaceful intentions and evidence of Uzumaki heritage every report I got was that Uzumaki Hatsumi San is an established member of Konoha. Providing some seals for the Konoha Armory and using her skills as a very good street food cook nothing looks to be out of order."
Before somebody could say something, Inoichi left in the direction of his seat. Danzo Shimura on the outside looked bored but on the inside he was seething. His Agents tried to find out who this Hatsumi person would be, but they never really returned. The bodies were self incriminating and his force officially disbanded. He was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place but the old warhawk just had a feeling that something was not right.
He gave a signal to Hotaru which he acknowledged.
"Hiruzen, I don't know but the Uzumaki should provide more to our forces in regards to active service. Come on This Hatsumi would be better suited in the barrier, research or sealing corps."
Hiruzen sighed looking at his old teammate.
"There are two problems with your suggestion, Hotaru. First a signed Order of the last Head of the Uzumaki Clan that she wouldn't have to return to active duty. An Order only to be rescinded by a reigning and sitting Uzumaki clan head. And second the treaty with Uzushio still in existence, which declares that Konoha was not to press an Uzumaki for secrets or duty."
This declaration of the Hokage led to some interruptions from Civilians and Shinobi alike.
"The Uzumaki are dead, She would be Clan head?"
"We could revoke the treaty"
Were the last sentences the Third Hokage heard before filling the room with a significant amount of KI, knocking out some of the civilians and getting all others to sweat a bit.
"Are you all out of your mind? revoke the treaty which finances are holding us up at the moment? Do you forget from which clan Konoha borrowed millions of Ryo to rebuild because we could with the Uzushio treaty and the wills of two village heroes? Something the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni is well aware of. At the moment we would be able to pay back the sum to revoke the treaty but at the same time couldn't afford a simple D Rank. The whole village budget would collapse with such a huge payment at once."
Hiruzen glared at the civilian who looked like in the process of crapping his pants in the next seconds. Hiruzen took a deep calming breath.
"The only to rescind the standing Order for Hatsumi San would be the Heir of the Clan and next in Line to receive Headship after reaching Chunin. Someone this Council elected to not tell him about his heritage because he is not suited to know it before proving his maturity."
Sandaime stood up and made his way from his seat to the middle of the room in his ceremonial Hokage robes, reducing the KI a bit but still getting some of it out. One of the Civilians just began shouting at this moment.
"The Demon is no….."
Further words were stopped by a Kunai sticking out of his throat spraying a bit of Blood on Bystanders. The Anbu with a Dog Mask to his Leader.
"I apologize for the Mess Hokage Sama."
In the next moment he disappeared with the offender leaving behind a smiling Hiruzen Sarutobi and a silent crowd. Some of the Ninjas were holding back their own smirks.
"I will say this once again, as seemingly each meeting which borders on the topic Uzumaki Naruto. His burden is not to be spoken about. The offenders are to be executed without remorse by any Anbu or active Ninja of Jonin Rank"
He leveled his KI mostly at the civilians for a second, upping the pressure just a bit to get his point across.
"We will now look over the Academy results."
He opened his own Scroll out of his sleeve he summoned before.
"Rankings for the Class of Umino San. Taijutsu, shared first place male, Uzumaki and Uchiha…"
The meeting would go on for a bit till all departed. Hiruzen Sarutobi tormented by the thoughts of the hard life Naruto had. He could provide him with a stipend and sometimes food but for most of the time he had to trust his Anbu to look after and defend the blonde son of his Successor.