One Year later


Hidden Senju Compounds


In the early hours of the morning, the Senju residence could be found in one of two states, tranquility or chaos. Today happened to be the latter, as two blondes could be seen running around the front porch. Tsunade had been chasing the young boy for roughly half an hour, who seemed to give no hint of stopping anytime soon.

"Naruto, it is too early for this sh-!!" The irate mother exclaimed doing her best to avoid swearing at her son. "Come back here now before I start to cry." She smirked as the kid stopped in his tracks and waited for his mom to reach him

"I'm sorry Kaa-Chan, please don't cry, I didn't even think about how you felt, I'm so so sorry Kaa-Chan!" the boy said shuddering truly believing he emotionally wounded his mother.

"It's ok, honey, so long as you're sorry." She said as they embraced and entered the house finally restoring the peace. "I understand you want to use that overflowing energy you have, but pulling pranks on Shizune and me isn't the solution. Though I am proud you can use stealth, please don't use it on us, ok" She rationalized to the young boy who had begun a streak of pranks on the other residents of the household.

"So, to help you with this problem, I say we change our schedule a bit. How about when you wake up, you prepare a light snack like toast with jam for the two or three of us and we warm up with a light jog early in the morning, then we come back have a good shower and enjoy breakfast, and then begin your writing practices so you can use this energy to your benefit? We can even begin with basic workouts to help prep your body for growth. How does that sound?" Tsunade offered in hopes of restarting her physical training to make sure she doesn't get rusty and to start prepping Naruto for the conditioning required to use his father's taijutsu

"That sounds amazing, Kaa-Chan, then we all get to get up and enjoy time together, yay!" The ball of pure sunshine beamed

Later in the day, once everything had calmed, the two blondes could be seen finishing up the youths writing practice. While at this age, most would be expected to practice freely, and by experience, since Naruto was learning by two writing styles, pen and paper and brush and scroll. The two mediums required different skills to master, and to make sure he could survive in both the ninja world and the regular one, he needed to know both.

Once the hour was over, Naruto had the day to run, play, and do just about anything, so long as it wouldn't hurt him. Tsunade was really trusting of the boy, especially after the last time he had injured himself, the sight of her crying probably hurt more than the glass.

After some time, Tsunade sat at the table, planning a work out regimen for her family and to progressively lead to ninja training, if her son chooses to go that route. The sound of the door opening alerted her to reality. Believing it to be her son she happily pronounced "Back so soon sweetie" only to turn her head and want to throw up

"Well, well, my charms are finally working their ma-," the figure was interrupted by a chakra fueled fist, sending him right out the door he came from.

After pulling himself out of the rubble that used to be a stone fence, Jiraiya pulled himself together and tried to compose himself as he re-entered the house this time with his hands in the air to signify surrender. "Well, now that we got our greetings taken care of, care to hear what I have to say, Hime," The resilient toad sage said unfazed by his treatment

"Look, I'm sorry, What do you want, Jiraiya?" Tsunade said, embarrassed by her mistaking him for her precious ball of sunshine. "Well, I know you want Naruto to progress when he's ready, and I respect that, but I just want to make a suggestion or two you may not like. He's four now, so I don't expect you to begin training him brutally, or anything but I would recommend some conditioning so that when the time comes, he is not like a fish out of water." Jiraiya started with the more agreeable of the two.

"You'd be surprised I was already planning out our exercise routine for that exact purpose," Tsunade said quite cheerfully, getting one up on her teammate. "Ok, that brings me to my second proposition, and I'm going to ask that you don't interrupt me and hear what I have to say, when the time comes for him to begin his training I would like for him to sign the toad contract…" he waited to gauge her response. She shook a little but overall was pretty restrained.

He pressed forward. "While I can see why you would want him to sign the slug contract seeing as he is your son, I would like to counter by saying this will give him a connection to his father. And I'm not just saying this to emotionally guilt you into letting me train him. Still, by the looks of it, he might become a medic; that being said, without the added bonus of the Kyuubi chakra, he is just a person. I want to give him some allies with variety, battle toads, espionage toads, messenger toads. This way, while he is healing, he can be defended, he can be alerted when someone approaches, and even have a more secure messaging system than by bird" Jiraiya laid his reasoning out for the mother to hear.

Once again, the room was silent as you could see Tsunade enter deep thought, before forming her response to this claim. While it is true that slugs only come in two forms, healing, and communication, the latter relied on a second slug to be summoned and left behind while toads could use their system to transport to cover vast lands and were more capable of swift movements, "You raise some good points, Jiraiya, but I'm still not convinced. However, it really isn't my choice in the end. I will consider letting Naruto have the option to sign the contract over mine, but until I decide it will be better for him, the matter lies with him. I only ask that you stop trying to bribe him. You can continue to play with him, but for now, give it some time," she said sagely and walked out to go play with her Naruto.


At the Uzumaki household the next day.


Mito and Kara have just returned home from their early morning excursion. As they quietly sneak back upstairs, they hear a creak, thinking it was one of them that both shush each other, taking another step. Again, the creak happens, but louder this time, they know it wasn't either of them. Turning slowly towards the living room, they were met by their worst fear. A demon that can put the Ninetails to shame, a force of nature so fierce and terrifying that no one, not even uncle Jiraiya can stand up to. They were face to face with the infamous red devil of the leaf, Kushina Uzumaki, better known as, in this house, their mother.

After a terrifying scream, the room was brought to an uncomfortable silence as their mother did nothing but stare at them, smiling. A minute passed, and Kushina broke the silence with a simple question" So what have you girls been up to?" She questioned feigning ignorance. After another pause, Mito got her senses back in line and responded. "Oh, nothing, we were out training, just going for a little run, practicing our stealth, nothing much, dattebayo" she lied smoothly. "Uh… yeah, just a little bit of training before breakfast, so we can be more amped for our lessons, dattebasa," Kara joined in hoping to make their lies sound more authentic.

"Really? Well I guess I was wrong. I'll just have to call all the houses that called me saying they saw two red-headed girls fleeing from a house and tell them it wasn't you and the call about a house being painted bright red and orange with swirls everywhere!!" Kushina began slowly only to eventually pick up her anger as her hair formed 9, even bunches, and began to float.

After an hour of screaming, thank kami for sound silencing seals, Kushina managed to catch and lecture her kids, not for going out and pranking, she would be a hypocrite for doing that, but for getting caught. This confused the daughters as they assumed they were going to be reprimanded for their actions. After an hour of lecturing on how she can't protect them if they get caught and not lead a prank back to themselves, she gave them a hug.

After the hug, the girls realized they couldn't move. Looking down, they saw that their mom had tied them up. "What?" Was all they could say before Kushina sat them down and went into the kitchen to make food. After she was done, she brought them the food and fed them. They ate hesitantly, knowing how vindictive their mother could be. Once the meal was over, the sun had already risen, and there was a knock at the door.

An Aburame clan member walked in. The girls were even more confused than before, They threw a look to their mother who just smiled. The Aburame spoke up in an uninteresting manner "I am Shibi Aburame, your mom called me on the phone earlier saying you girls were more interested in your studies and wanted to go over the intricacies of chakra and chakra theory,." The man's explanation filled the girls in on the punishment their mother had in store.

After several hour-long explanations that would restart if one of them lost focus for too long and couldn't answer a question asked, the 'twins' had steam shooting from their ears, as their brain had been overworked by the details they could not yet comprehend. They were given permission to sleep by their mother, who thanked the Aburame for the lecture and said she'd give him a call if the girls ever needed a class on entomology (the study of insects).

Since the twins were out of commission for the day, the Uzumaki matriarch had a quiet afternoon. She cleaned, studied some seals, worked out, had a shower and sat down for some relaxation, but as soon as she found the sweet spot on the couch, there was a knock on the door. "COME IN!!" She hollered, not even thinking about moving from her resting place.

"Tough day?" Asked the Toad sage as he entered and saw Kushina snuggling into the chair. "Mind if we have a chat, it's important?" Knowing that there were fewer chances, he'd be punched through a wall put him at ease.

The seriousness/sincerity in his voice got her attention. Taking her attentiveness as a sign to continue, he did so "Well it's about legacy, I am the sole wielder of the toad summoning contract. Before, all this happened, it was just me and Minato. Since he was an orphan and I never had kids, he was like my son, and to pass down the contract to him was to pass down my legacy. I'd like to continue the legacy so that when I pass, the toads still have a proper sage. All things considered, when the girls have enough control, I'd like to have them join the contract to continue Minato's legacy." Jiraiya was almost brought to tears by his speech, he meant every word of what he said. The only reason he didn't give that speech to Tsunade was that it wouldn't be very useful.

While Jiraiya was tearing up, Kushina was bawling her eyes out. The idea her kids could have a tie to their father was a must; she would stop at nothing to ensure they could feel closer to their deceased father. "I understand, and I accept when it is time they will be signing that contract. And I know for a fact that Minato thought of you as a father too, I mean it's the whole reason we named our… why we named him Naruto because of you." At this declaration, even Jiraiya was crying unbeknownst to the sleeping girls in the room above.


The room above


The girls, too tired to do anything else, went straight to bed and remained that way until their brains could heal enough to function again. Both redheads would soon begin to learn more about themselves.

Kara began to shake awake, and she began to regain her vision. Feeling around, she discovered she was in a narrow pathway lined with pipes, both massive and small. She couldn't see the end of the hall she found herself in. Given she had just awoken here, she assumed Mito had placed her here while she slept. Vowing vengeance on her sister, she began her trek through the corridor in hopes of finding an exit to someone to show her one.

After 30 minutes, she decided this place had to be abandoned since it was devoid of all life except her. At the end of that 30 minutes, she finally approached a diverging path, one to a door, and the other was a hallway lined with more pipes and an open room with an air of mystery. Her curiosity piqued, so she decided to go to the open path. Along the way, she found a round room with many pipes diverging to many pathways and one central one feeding the rest.

Following the big one, she reached a door, or rather a gate as it stood taller than her house. Pushing the open, even a smidge proved difficult as the winds behind said door threw her back, and a bright light enveloped her. As soon as it was opened, the door shut itself.

Deciding not to deal with the door at the moment, she decided to backtrack to the other door. Behind this door the outcome was more mundane and simply found three doors each door was decorated differently, one had a swirling flame with the Yin half of the Yin-Yang, one had a 9 surrounded by 9 lines and the Yang half of the Yin-Yang, and the last one had the weirdest symbol she had ever seen it was like a sideways flame, with a line piercing it and on the other end of it was another spiral

(See the Senju Crest but imagine the left side is an Uzumaki swirl)

Taking a look at the two outer doors, she went to touch the symbols the swirl seemed to show her sister; while they were nearly identical, Mito most looked like her mother, with a rounder face and less vibrant hair. The odd-looking symbol, when touched, showed a taller blonde boy with spiky hair and blue eyes, but that was all she could see as the vision came in a flash and disappeared just as fast. Both doors lacked handles, but the last entry had a doorknob, too curious she pushed forward, and a deafening roar pushed her back.

Both Uzumaki girls woke up simultaneously and looked at each other," Mito/Kara!!! I just had the craziest dream, and you were in it, and some I think I saw dad!!" Both girls finished, creeping each other out as they must have had the same dream.

Both Jiraiya and Kushina busted into the girls' room, startling them to no end. "Girls, what's wrong? We heard a scream," Kushina said as she ran to comfort her kids. "What happened, sweeties?" "Well, we fell asleep and…" they explained what had happened to them reaching the part about seeing each other in their respective dreams. ", and then we went to touch the other door and saw a tall figure with Blonde Hair like the sun and deep blue eyes. We think we saw dad." Both girls finished explaining what they remembered about their dreams.

Jiraiya, being the most experienced with the seal Minato used, and Kushina, a previous jinchuriki, understood what had happened and knew it was time to tell them about their status and why they are part of the hero family. "From the sounds of it, you entered your mindscape, a place where your chakra is visualized and stored. Those pipes you saw were your chakra coils, and the door you couldn't open must have been your reserves since you're Uzumaki's it's no surprise it was hard to open." Now for the harder part to explain, Jiraiya looked to Kushina to Continue. "Sweeties, do you know why we are part of a hero family?" Kushina asked just to be sure.

"Yeah, because dad killed the Kyuubi." Mito said, "Well, honey, you're close. No one, not even your super-strong father, can kill a tailed beast." This shook the girls to their core, they couldn't understand what their mother meant by that. "You see, a Bijuu like the ninetails is a being made purely of chakra. And you can't kill chakra. You can only seal it. Your father gave his life to stop the Kyuubi, and to do so he sealed both halves of its chakra into you, making you into a jinchuriki. Your dad must have sealed some of his own chakra to see you once you entered your mindscape." This bombshell hit both girls relatively softly, they were surprised to know they held demon chakra, but since they have been treated so nicely, it didn't really affect them, they were just happy to have 'seen' their father.

"Now that you know of your status, we must begin your training properly. I was going to wait until you turned five, but now we will focus on your taijutsu and sealing practices when I think you've progressed enough. We will attempt to unlock your chakra and begin your ninja training properly. Then when the school year comes around, you will join the ninja academy."


The Hokage's office


Typically entering the office from the window would be considered an attack on the Hokage no matter who it is. That is unless you are his student, Jiraiya. He snuck in so many times the Anbu stopped trying to stop him as the Hokage would just dismiss them. But making his usual entrance, Jiraiya bid the Hokage a greeting and sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

"Sensei, you would not believe my luck these past two days. I got Tsunade to consider letting Naruto sign the toad contact, instead of the slugs, she said it would be his choice unless she felt that my option would be better. So as long as I keep Naruto interested, I basically got him to succeed me, and on the opposite front kushina promised that the girls would sign it too." Jiraiya proclaimed in victory to his teacher, who had been doing paperwork since he entered.

"Jiraiya, I'm proud really, it's just that this paperwork sucks all the joy out of me." Hiruzen had been telling the truth, he was really happy for the toad sage, but man did this paperwork suck his soul out, "I'm too old for this shit," his student boomed with laughter at his expense.

"Sensei, I think having all the kids under the same contract will push the families to connect to each other again. Having their kids train together and the meeting might be the thing that closes the gaps," Jiraiya proclaimed with joy as he saw his Sensei smile for a second only to turn the pages and look constipated. "Alright, I'll let you get back to work.".


A few months later, Senju residence.


Due to high rains, the Senju's haven't been able to keep up with their morning jogs. But finally, after a month of rain, they were all ready to go out and enjoy the early morning dew, without being pelted by rain. Usually, it wouldn't have bothered Tsunade, a Sanin, or Shizune, her apprentice, but having Naruto tag along meant that there was a higher chance of him getting sick or getting hurt since he doesn't know how to use chakra to stick to the floor better or use it to slick the rain right off of him.

Since it was such a lovely day in the fall, the leaves were falling like beautiful burnt orange, and the breeze was a nice touch as they worked up a sweat. As they neared the first half of their trek, a charming little town not too far away from where they would go and buy their groceries and other little necessities that they didn't need to go to a major village or town for. The town of Ueki sat in a valley between two mountains that were rumored to be training spots for the first and second Hokage before forming the hidden leaf.

As they made their approach, they noticed the smell of rotting wood, and as they arrived at the main entrance, they could visibly see why the scent had been so strong. Due to the heavy rains, the town had been subject to frequent flooding over the past month. This deeply saddened all members of the Senju clan as they proceeded through the town to see if anyone required help.

Several families could be seen packing up their belongings, or rather what's left of them, as they could no longer live in their homes. People gathered at what seemed to be the community center. Once there, Tsunade, Shizune, and Naruto asked around to see what had happened and if there was anything they could do immediately to help the people. After helping a few dozen people move, Tsunade felt the need to go to the local clinic to see if they could use help in that field.

As they approached the rundown clinic, they could tell that this place had been a victim of neglect long before the storms came to town. This clinic was the only source of medicine and healing for miles upon miles, yet the state it was in was appalling for the family of healers.

"This is bad, we need to do something for these people" Naruto spoke up, "Kaa-Chan we need to do something, we can help, right? Right, Nee-chan?" The ever-generous Naruto offered. Seeing as there was no one there headed back to the town center to look for the mayor or something akin to that.

When they got to the mayor's office, they noticed there was a rather long line, no doubt, people concerned about where they would be living, how they will make money, and what to do with the sick and injured. After explaining to the receptionist what they wanted to do, she expedited their wait to next in line.

Once the mayor was available, they were called in, much to everyone else's ire, for now, that is. The mayor of Ueki was a tall, fair-skinned woman of around 30, "Hello, I'm Tsuki, Tsuki Suzuki, and I'm in charge of what's left of this town. I heard you want to help us. Can I know who you are?" She introduced herself politely.

"Well, I am, Tsunade Senju, this is Shizune Kato-Senju, and my son Naruto Senju. We are medics and saw the disaster that took place here. I happen to come from a prominent clan from the land of fire and also want to contribute some resources for the relief efforts." She said as she unsealed a purse and began writing a banknote for a decent donation of Ryo for the mayor to use in reconstruction.

While in the meeting, they also made the decision that the first of the efforts should be the clinic so that the family would be able to better help the people who have been affected. Aswell can come in town from time to time to heal anyone, and with that, they continued their jog home, knowing that they would be busy with the efforts to contribute, very soon.

Authors note: So, I'm very nervous about this chapter as it is all original content. I hope to have matched the tone of the story well. If there are any criticisms or suggestions that will make this chapter align more with the rest of the sections, let me know, and I'll see if I can fix it. Bye for now.