Naruko: A Story Redone
By: dbrame91
I am going to have two unimportant OC's in this chapter. They are only being mentioned in this chapter for now. For name translations check notes at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 4: Kushina
A few weeks after the teamwork tests, the residents of the Uzumaki compound were walking along the streets of Konoha together. "Kaa-san why are we heading to the Hokage Tower?" Naruko was grumpily trudging behind her mother, hunched over with her arms swinging with each step she took, as they walked through the village. Both of the teens were dressed in more formal attire. Naruko was in a kimono of earthy colors and had the Uzumaki clan spiral on the back of the obi. Sasuke was wearing the traditional Uchiha colors with his clan's fan symbol on the back. Kushina was not dressed as formally as the younger members of her household, instead wearing a very modest, light maroon, dress with the Uzumaki spiral over her heart. "And why do we have to be dressed up so much? I feel like I'm about to become Hinata's new stepmom in this, and that would be really awkward for us."
"I've already told you Naru dear. We are going to a council meeting concerning the next heads of the clans. That is why you and Sasuke are both coming along." Kushina explained for what must have been the tenth time that morning, trying to hide her irritation. This meeting was meant to give the next generation of clan heads a taste of what the council normally did. A meeting like this was only called when new members of the civilian council had taken over vacant seats, and allowed for the new members to meet all the people they may have to work with in the near future.
"Well then why couldn't I wear civies? It's not like I would bring any of my ninja gear with me." Naruko said, continuing the fuss she had been making all morning. "But wearing my training clothes would have been even better. For someone who is always late, Kakashi-sensei hates it when we keep him waiting."
"You say you wouldn't have brought any of your ninja gear if you got to wear civilian clothes, but you still tried to do so just this morning. As for Kakashi, he knows about this meeting already and was instructed, by the Hokage, to cancel training and missions for the day." Kushina looked at her daughter with a 'try to worm your way out of this now' look as they got to the doors of the tower.
"I only wanted to bring my sealing scroll," as Naruko tried to defend her earlier behavior the scroll in question slipped out of her sleeve. "Um, that isn't what it looks like. It's just for a change of clothes." Carefully the blonde bent her knees to pick up her dropped scroll and tucked it down the front of her kimono, between her breasts. "Plus, it's too late now for us to go all the way back home and put it away."
Her right eye twitching as she slowly ground out between clenched lips, the red haired head of the Uzumaki clan spoke with a false calm. "Just get in there before I decide to burn all your cup ramen when we get home." Opening the door with more force than necessary she jabbed her arm in a pointing manner into the building. "Have I made myself clear Naruko?"
Taking the threat to heart the blonde hurried inside and to the front desk, her black haired teammate following after her with a smirk on his face. "I told you it would fall out of your sleeves blondie." A short lived, whispered, argument broke out between the two and ended when Naruko randomly help up Sasuke's pouch of ninja tools. "What the? How did you get my pouch?"
"Never piss off a girl who can hide from angry ANBU, because you will not see her coming for you." Handing it back to him she leaned in a bit more. "Next time, don't hide it up your pant leg, that was the first place I thought of." Quietly tucking a pilfered kunai into a carefully designed pocket on the inside of her left sleeve, Naruko greeted the receptionist and informed her that the Uzumaki and Uchiha representatives where present.
Once the three ninja arrived at the meeting room they all stepped inside, seeing everyone already present and just about to sit down. The meeting room hadn't been changed at all since Kushina's last attendance. Not even extra chairs were brought in for the future heirs, as they were to stand behind their current clan head. The Uchiha seat was left empty, but Sasuke still stood behind it. Hiashi was present with his younger daughter Hanabi. Tsume had brought her eldest child Hana with her. Shikamaru and Shikaku were in the Nara clan spot, both already yawning and losing focus. Inoichi and his daughter were to the Nara family's right, while Choji and his father were to the left of the perpetually bored clan. Both of the Aburame clan's reps sat quietly waiting for the meeting to begin.
Looking around the room, there wasn't a face that Naruko did not recognize, except for the three elders and one younger man, but she was more worried about if Kushina had her get overly dressed for this. Both representatives from the Hyuuga clan, Sasuke, Ino, and herself where the only members of the ninja portion of the council dressed up as they were. The Nara and Akimichi clan members where still dressed up, but in more of a casual/formal, similar to Kushina. The Inuzuka members could never really be expected to dress formally to any degree, but they were still dressed presentably. For the two Aburame men, their large coats where needed to help keep their Kikaichu contained as the garments offered extra room for the bugs.
The Hokage politely called the meeting to order. "Now, first I would like to welcome the children of the clan heads. You are here for two reasons today. The council feels it is important that every one of you know what we do before you take your place as the representatives for your clans." Taking his hat off and putting it on the table Sarutobi took a breath before going on. "The other reason you are here is so new members to the civilian council can meet all of you." With this Kushina looked around the table for the new men or women to the council. She stopped when she noticed an older man, he was somewhere around his late fifties or early sixties. Looking around the table again the red haired Uzumaki woman found another new face. This one belonged to a man, younger than the first, somewhere between mid twenties and mid thirties.
"First we have a respected member of the village's merchant guild, Suzuki Akihiro." The older man stood at this introduction and bowed as much as his round stomach allowed. He did seem to live up to his name, or at least parts of it. Looking at the man was like looking at a large round bell, and with his no doubt expensive robes he appeared to be someone of glorious standing. His hair was mostly gone leaving only the sides and back with thinning grey hair.
"Thank you Lord Hokage. It is a pleasure for me to be here on the council." Again the fat man bowed as much as he could before taking his seat once again. He exhaled in an exhausted manner as he looked at the present members of the ninja council. Pulling out a handkerchief from one of his robe sleeves he patted his forehead gently.
"Our second newcomer is Nakagawa Takao, who comes to us from the Capital city of our country by request of the Daimyo himself. He was sent here by the Daimyo to act as a record keeper." Hiruzen allowed Homura to introduce this man. He had grown used to all of his former teammates trying to gain any extra ground they can with the Daimyo over the years. "The Fire Daimyo has grown concerned that important information may be purposefully omitted from our reports to him." With the end of this introduction Naruko snorted softly, already able to tell that the elder was trying to suck up, before Kushina lightly smacked her arm.
"As Akihiro-sama has said, it is a pleasure for me to be granted allowance into the council." With his own bow, which was much more proper and unobstructed, the younger man greeted the present council and returned to his seat. Unknown to any of those in the meeting room, other than Danzo, this polite young man was actually one of the war hawk's many ROOT ANBU who had used fake documents to earn his seat. He was under orders from his heavily bandaged leader to seduce either one of the Uzumaki clan women.
"I believe that now would be a perfect time to introduce our future clan heads to everyone here." The aged Hokage looked to both of his sides, which had half of the ninja clans on each side. "Let us start with the Uzumaki clan." Moving his right arm, in a waving motion to the redhead and her daughter, he nodded. "The Uzumaki clan is currently only made of two members, Uzumaki Kushina and her daughter Namikaze Naruko." At each of their names the two women bowed politely.
'So that blond girl is the one that the elders want me to try and marry? Shouldn't be too hard, I bet she is just a ninja for the money." Suzuki Akihiro, while a true member of the village's merchant guild, had only been allowed onto the council by the elders as a way to manipulate last meeting's topic of expanding the Uzumaki population through marriage.
Sarutobi Hiruzen continued to go down the line of clans, stopping at the empty Senju seat to silently grieve the vacancy and ending at the Uchiha seat on his furthest right. "Lastly is the Uchiha clan. There is only one member left of this clan in Konoha, and one traitor out in the world." Sasuke politely bowed, as every other clan heir had done, and allowed himself to return to his memories of the night Itachi became a nuke-nin.
'Hmm, another promising heir to bring into my family. I am sure my daughter could win his heart.' Thinking of his equally rotund daughter, Suzuki Akihiro was sure that the elders would reward his family for reviving the Uchiha clan just as much as they promised to do regarding the Uzumaki. 'I'll worry about the little blond tease first though.' Suzuki looked over at the blond and patted his sweaty forehead with his handkerchief again, his staring eyes not going unnoticed by any ninja in the room.
The meeting continued as a normal one would, starting with old issues that had gone unresolved during the previous gathering. Thankfully to the bored Namikaze teen there was nothing that needed to be brought back up, saving her at least an hour of her day. 'I hope sensei doesn't forget what he said about teaching me a new clone jutsu. My mizu bunshin are great but only pack about 1/10th of my strength.' Next came new matters; genin teams wanting to be reassigned new training grounds due to lack of certain resources, vendors wanting to expand their stalls or store buildings, Academy instructors wanting to change the course curriculum, and so on. Every little thing except civil disagreements like who owned a certain patch of land or things of a similar legal nature found their way into the meeting.
'What should we do for dinner? Naruko will beg for ramen, no doubt, and Sasuke will probably just go off somewhere to sulk for a bit since his family was brought up.' Kushina was sitting with her back straight and her hands in her lap. She was also keeping an eye on the older of the new council members, counting just how many times his eyes went towards her daughter. After all of the new business was finished with the council was allowed to bring their own matters to the table for discussion.
Hyuuga Hiashi requested for an expansion to his clan's compound. It turned out that a member of one of the branch families had wanted to put together his own residence for him and his new bride. The older of the two Nara's requested permission to bring in about ten deer from Lightning Country, five males and five females. One of the civilian members brought up that her business's plumbing was starting to have issues and wanted to have it checked on. All of the requests were fair and easily acceptable requests, until Akihiro put in his request of marriage to Naruko. Everyone looked around hesitantly at first, the elders knowing what was going on. After scanning the room most of the clan members looked to the blond in question. Her response time was completely shot, her eyes blinked independently of each other and in a voice (much like a currently unknown Mokuton using ANBU's) she spoke up. "No thanks. I'm not a fan of the idea of rolling my significant other home."
Quickly angered by the blond's dismissal and comment Akihiro retorted. "So the daughter of a whore thinks she is too good to..."
THUNK! The sound was of a kunai hitting wood, forcing the man to stop mid sentence gulping loudly in fear.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth Naruko had thrown the kunai she had taken from Sasuke's ninja tools. The knife was now buried in the wood of the table, which was the only thing that had kept the merchant from losing his manhood. No one had even seen her arm move, except for the Hokage and Uchiha. "You say anything like that about my Kaa-san again and I will..." Naruko was suddenly bent forward, her head connecting with the table, as Kushina hit her on the back of the head.
Regaining some of his unearned bravado the new council member spoke up again, this time the insult only focusing on the now injured girl. "Stupid blond bit..." Again something was thrown at him, but this time the man was stopped when he was actually hit. Naruko was still rubbing her forehead staring at the merchant who was now caught between his own chair and the one that the red headed Uzumaki woman had occupied just before. Patting her hands together Kushina looked over at the man and only huffed before leaving the council room. Taking that as her cue to leave Naruko bowed to the Hokage, and gathered clan heads and heirs, before leaving as well.
Hiruzen shook his head and ran a hand over his balding head. "Suzuki-san, you are no longer welcome among the village council." With a wave of his hand the Hokage dismissed the merchant. "Everyone else is free to leave. Our meeting is over for today."
True to her earlier assumption Kushina was left to return home, her daughter in tow and shy one Uchiha, with Naruko whining about ramen. By this point the day was mostly gone thanks to the council meeting, the time being about 4 in the evening judging by the positions of the shadows. "Can we get home first, before trying to demand your next meal?" As the two Uzumaki's approached their, oversized for three people, home they noticed that one of the side doors from the garden into the main house was opened.
Carefully opening the front door, both kunoichi scanned the entry way taking note of the presence of a pair of wooden geta sandals. Instantly relieved of tension at the sandals belonging to the white haired toad sannin the two continue further in, until they heard a loud thump followed by a grunt in the main room. Proceeding to the room Naruko opens the door from the right side while Kushina takes the left.
In the room they find Jiraiya knocked back on his ass and a strange young man with very orange hair and a slip of seal paper on his forehead also on the ground. Jiraiya was in his usual outfit, while the younger man seemed to be in some kind of prison uniform. Kushina enters further into the room first, and goes to the stranger's side to analyze the seal on his head, finding it to just suppress the large teen's chakra and motor skills just enough to keep him from being a threat. Naruko goes to her godfather and begins to laugh at him before getting hit once in the back of the head.
After sending Naruko away to get both visitors some tea Kushina begins to drill her late husband's teacher for information, starting with the orange haired statue. "I thought your source said there was an Uzumaki in the base you were going to." Kushina knew that Jiraiya had been away to hunt down one of Orochimaru's bases near Kirigakure as part of a united forces mission between local ninjas and himself.
"That was what he said, but when we got their it was just another lab. There had only been two of the Snake's experiments left alive when we got there, some girl with brown hair and this bruiser here." Jiraiya had told Kushina about his upcoming raid on the base because he knew she would want to take in the Uzumaki if there really was one. "When I tried to get in touch with my informant it was too late. It looks like Orochimaru kills his followers in a base if he thinks one is a spy, but my reports say that the young Uzumaki girl isn't one of his test subjects."
Just then Naruko returns, not asking for a game of catch up, having heard most of what was happening. "So who is this guy then?" She asked her only question bluntly. Staring at the new face in her household she blushed a bit when she made eye contact.
"His name is Juugo." Jiraiya answered the blond before saying any more. "He was in my former teammate's base because of some kekkei genkai that changes his physical form, sadly it also messes with his personality. The Snake wanted to make a curse seal of some kind that could do something similar." Taking a sip of his tea Jiraiya let that sink in before continuing. "The seal on his forehead right now keeps him from losing his cool."
"Oh wow, that sounds rough." Naruko stuck her hand out calmly, waiting for him to take it. "My name is Naruko, it is nice to meet you Juugo."
"So what happened to the brown haired girl?" Kushina was hoping that maybe she had been the Uzumaki girl in the base but had that hope crushed by the Toad Summoner's answer.
"She was a girl from outside the Elemental nations. She was taken in by the Kiri medic who was working with me. That was a strong ninja, one of their Seven Swordsmen." At the mention of Kiri's group of kenjutsu masters both Naruko and Kushina stopped, hoping to hear it was the wielder of the Kubikiribocho. "Yeah, he had their Nuibari. He was an outsider too at first, picked up by the previous wielder Kuriarare Kushimaru. They all seem to have a habit of picking up orphans it seems."
With her arm still out waiting for the new comer to shake her hand, Naruko sighed. "I think it is part of their methods. The swords are passed down from one generation to the next, but the sword styles can only be taught by the current wielder." She shrugged as she looked over at the seemingly comatose male. "...Is big and quite here going to be okay?" Naruko had almost no skill with fuinjutsu herself but she did understand how they worked enough to see that the one on her fellow teen was probably a bit too strong.
"It should be." Taking a look at the young man he started to rethink his seal's structure. "Looks like it is more effective than I wanted though." Taking out a set of brushes and ink while going over the current one.
"The seal is taking too much chakra at once. The issue is probably in the fourth array." Kushina wasn't even looking at the two men as she broke it down. She wasn't just an Uzumaki in looks alone, like everyone else from her clan before their almost extinction, she was extremely gifted with seals. She had also been one of the main reasons that Minato had even bothered to learn the complex skill.
Looking at his work in the accused area he nodded, seeing where he had gone wrong now. He began to work, quickly finishing the new seal and putting it on Juugo before removing the first one. The change was immediate, he was much more alert and willing to engage in conversation. His entire focus had been pulled to the Namikaze girl who was barraging him with endless questions about who he was and everything he had gone through.
Shortly after the change in Juugo had occurred the front door to the compound opened again and Sasuke walked into the main room. Greeting the Sannin plainly and with only slight more interest he greeted the orange haired young man. After a brief introduction from the somber Uchiha and a quick dinner all of those present retired to the rear of the house where Naruko and Sasuke had a quick spar, with Juugo watching.
"I know he isn't the Uzumaki I promised to find you, but would you take him in?" Watching them, the sage exhaled slowly. "I will stay until we can find a more permanent seal to fix his condition." Jiraiya waited for a response from the red haired woman.
With a rough exhale Kushina nodded her head. "He can stay, but you better keep looking for the Uzumaki that is supposedly with that filthy snake."
"Get off me blondie!" Looking over at the two genin Kushina found her daughter sitting on the back of a miffed black haired teen. Naruko was laughing with a stupid grin on her face as she patted her teammate's head. Due to a lack of familiarity with such interactions, Juugo walked over behind the two and picked up the girl by the back of her shirt with one hand. The reaction was instant, Naruko turned around as best she could and kicked at him weakly like a child.
"Come on, let me go Juugo. I was just messing with the teme!" Naruko stopped her pointless struggling and looked him in the eyes. "If you don't let me go I am going to have to drop you on your back." Naruko was suddenly dropped back on her feet before thanking the large teen. Driven by pure instinct she stood up on her toes and kissed his cheek lightly. "Thank you."
After a few more hours of relaxing Kushina called the end of the night and showed Juugo to one of the many spare rooms in the compound. Jiraiya had a room in the house as well, where he retired to after trying to give Naruko a failing lesson on fuinjutsu. Naruko chose to get some sleep after taking a relaxing bath. Sasuke excused himself and let Kushina know he was going to spend the night with Sakura. Kushina went to her room a little after Sasuke's departure and prayed to Kami before going to bed herself.
Chapter End
Name Translations: All First names come from a website called 20,000 names. Any Family name is coming from just a google search for the most common last names in Japan.
Suzuki Akihiro: Starting with what is his family name, Suzuki means bell tree. Suzu is the bell portion which are round bells like on a cat's collar. Akihiro roughly means "large glory". I wanted his name to relate to his appearance, that is why he is a very round/large man who tries to look high and mighty by dressing impressively to show his wealth.
Nakagawa Takao: Nakagawa can roughly mean central river. Takao roughly translates to respectful man/hero.
A/N: I have gotten a lot of people asking me to do this as a yuri pairing, and that may be the end result. If it is the pairing will be with Hinata, partly because it is canon and partly because Hinata has always been my favorite female character. For a male pairing I am still thinking Kakashi but also Juugo. Part of why I like the idea of pairing Naruko with Juugo is that it isn't something I see on here often, if at all, and it also gives me a chance to bring in two of my OC's who are mentioned in this chapter but not named. Those are the two foreigners that are now in Kirigakure. They will not be coming around until the Chunin Exams though.
I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter. I do like it but I feel like it is too filler like. Despite that though I also feel like it is good to have it here. It lets me explain this world's current condition, like who is trying to do what and everything.
