Author's Notes 1:

I put up a pole on a profile of what kind of story I should work on once this one is complete


Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto and Karin stood around Tayuya and Anko who were on their stomachs, gagged and so tightly strapped to a pair of beds in one of the Shinobi Hospital's operation rooms that they could barely move, "Naruto, Jiraiya. Are you two ready?"

"Ready to go!" Naruto said, completely focused, delicate sealing brush in hand. Jiraiya just grunted with his own brush in hand, his gaze sharp and focused.

"Karin?" Tsunade asked.

"Ready," The girl replied, medical chakra already flowing through her hands. Shizune wasn't present due to her not processing enough Chakra for this procedure. Instead she was getting started on the paperwork needed to bring the medical side of Konoha up to Tsunade's standards.

"Then let's begin," Tsunade said as Naruto and Jiraiya began to carefully make a seal around Tayuya's Curse Seal that would force three key matrixes to reverse their process and cause the entire Curse Seal to destabilize and destroy itself with minimal damage to Tayuya. The moment they finished the seals began glowing white before turning blood red and Tayuya stiffened and would have screamed in pain if not for the gag.

Tsunade and Karin began channeling the Mystical Palm Jutsu focused solely on easing Tayuya's pain and muscles. They had to be careful not to add too much Chakra into her system or the Curse Destruction Seal wouldn't work. As the two medics focus on their work Naruto and Jiraiya keep a careful watch on the two seals. A small smile flickered over Naruto's face as he saw the Curse Seal slowly breaking down and disintegrating. After half an hour the Curse Seal finally vanished completely with Tayuya going limp sweat covering her entire body.

Tsunade and Karin instantly kicked their Jutsu into full gear. Once they'd completed their work the two medics began panting, "Five minute break before removing Anko's. Karin take a Soldier Pill. We'll need the boost. However I am very impressed with your level of control. I will definitely have Shizune begin teaching you after this."

"Thank you Tsunade-Sama," Karin panted before popping a Soldier Pill into her mouth, "I will do my best not to fail you."

"I've got to admit brat," Jiraiya grunted as he glanced at Naruto, "This was good work. You really did pick up your parents' talent in Fuinjutsu."

"I'd rather think I got the Uzumaki talent," Naruto replied, "I lost a lot of respect for my father once I realized who he was," Jiraiya grunted again, obviously unhappy to hear that but he couldn't really argue. Minato's last wish was directly responsible for how the village treated Naruto.

Once Tsunade and Karin had recovered they repeated the process on Anko however instead of turning blood red this time the seal became a mix of acidic yellow/green and a slightly ominous pale white, "The Curse Seal's resisting," Jiraiya noted as he and Naruto began adding Amplification Seals to the Curse Destruction Seal, "Most likely because of how long it's been active."

"No… it's more than that," Naruto muttered examining the Curse Seal by channeling Chakra to his eyes once the Amplification Seals were in place, "It's almost like… how do I put this…"

Jiraiya mimicked Naruto's actions as he also examined the Cursed Seal, "Point out… yes I see it. Now that's a new seal… let's… wait… that's impossible! That insane bastard!"

"What?" Tayuya groaned after Karin removed her gag, "What did the Snake Bastard do?"

"If I'm deciphering this correctly," Jiraiya said, running a hand through his white hair, "Orochimaru's found a way to split small shards of his soul and placed them in the Cursed Seals. Combined with that, Immortality Jutsu he's most likely completed and each one of these Cursed Seals could be used to revive him if he dies. I think this seal is reacting to the destruction of Tayuya's seal."

"So we'll need to kill the Sound Four," Tsunade signed, "Along with that Kaguya."

"Along with anyone else who has other minor and prototype seals," Tayuya grunted, "It wouldn't surprise me if the Bastard has several backup's we don't know about."

"Agreed," Jiraiya said, his eyes never leaving Anko's Seal, "But we'll deal with that when the time comes. For now let's deal with the seals we know about."

Anko wasn't paying the conversation any attention. Her eyes were wide and blood shot as she continued to scream in pain though the gag. Her entire body felt like it was on fire even as her blood turned to acid. By the time the process was complete she was absolutely drenched with sweat and on the verge of passing out.

"Let's get these two, to proper beds," Tsunade ordered, "Naruto, Karin. Neither of you are to do anything strenuous for at least the rest of the day. I don't know how much Chakra making the seals took but I'm not about to risk anything."

"Yes Ma'am," Naruto said as one of his clones held up Karin who was about to pass out from Chakra Exhaustion.

As he helped Tayuya up she gained an exhausted grin, reached into a belt pouch and passed a note to Tsunade. The Sannin raised an eyebrow before putting it into her pocket for later. Once Anko and Tayuya were put in a hospital room to rest while Naruto's clone continued to help Karin walk. As the four were leaving the hospital Tsunade pulled out Tayuya's note and read it before freezing. Her eyes shot up to focus on Jiraiya's back as she dropped the note while Killing Intent poured out of her, all of it focused on Jiraiya. The Toad Sage froze, glanced over his shoulder before booking it. Tsunade hot on his heels as she bellowed, "JIRAIYA! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU'LL WISH I KILLED YOU WHEN WE WERE CHUNIN!"

"What… the hell?" Karin muttered as she saw the two Sannin run off, "What was in that note?"

Naruto picked up the note and read it. He let out a mix of a chuckle and groan, "Tayuya pulled one hell of a revenge prank on Jiraiya. She let Tsunade know who was the inspiration for his first popular book."

"... Despite living with her, and knowing where she works. I sometimes forget how sadistic our big sis can be," Karin muttered as she shook her head.


Later that day Naruto met with Hinata at the same bakery that Team 6 went to before meeting Yūgao-Sensei. After making his order and bringing his quiche, biscuits and fruit rolls to the table he smiled at his teammate, "Hey Hinata. How's it going?"

"Very well," Hinata smiled, "I believe I've almost mastered using all my wires at the same time."

"Nice," Naruto replied, "I've almost completed upgrading my new wakizashi with seals. I just need to find something to give it that extra punch."

"I'm sure you'll find it," Hinata replied, "You just need the right inspiration."

"True enough!" Naruto chuckled as he put down a secrecy seal, "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well… I've been thinking about this for a while," Hinata started suddenly slightly nervous but knowing she needed to get this off her chest, "I… know you didn't notice but back during the academy I had a large crush on you."

"You… you did?" Naruto asked as he lowered the roll he was about to eat, "I… well I guess it's obvious that I don't really have the best grasp on most relationships," He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, "Tayuya was the one to start calling me and Karin her siblings and I just rolled with it," Hinata nodded. By now she'd realized a lot of things she'd missed during the academy. Like how his constant smiling and excited persona was just that. A persona, a mask used to hide his pain and sadness, "Thanks to Tayuya, Karin, Yūgao-Sensei and… you and Shino I'm slowly coming to understand them better."

Hinata nodded with a small smile, "I'm glad to hear it, and… yeah I did have one. Lately though those feelings have faded a little. I still care for you but…"

"Something's changed?" Naruto asked getting a nod from Hinata.

"I need a little more time to figure everything out but I'm not sure if I'll have the same feelings for you once I did," Hinata sighed.

The two sat in silence for a bit before Naruto closed his eyes and slowly nodded, "Well… I may not fully understand these kinds of feelings yet, but even I can tell how much courage it took to talk about this. I do know one thing though," Hinata looked at him curiously, "You and Shino are two of if not my best friends. And I hope that doesn't change any time soon."

Hinata's smile lit the room, "It won't. And I know Shino would say the same thing."


Team Six walked out of Konoha's South Gate headed towards their next mission. A high C-Rank borderline B-Rank. The mission was on the surface the simple task of delivering a scroll to the Fire Capital . A mission that the team had won in a round of Rock Paper Scissors from Team Guy, "Think we'll hear Tora while we're there?" Naruto joked as the four took to the trees, "It's been too quiet in Konoha so she's gotta have been captured and sent back."

Hinata giggled, "Planning on smuggling her back and releasing her somewhere?"

"Nah," Naruto replied with a wave of his hand, "Already let her loose in a grocers shop last time she was in town. Can't repeat my pranks too often or they won't have the same impact."

"True enough," Shino stated as he adjusted his glasses.

"Wonder if anything will happen on this C-Rank like the last two," Naruto shook his head.

"To be fair, only one of those was actually a C-Rank. The one to Wave was an A-Rank," Hinata snorted, "At least this one is a borderline B-Rank so we might avoid the C-Rank Curse."

"With an Uzumaki present?" Yūgao-Sensei chuckled, "Unlikely. Honestly you three have had it easy compared to my time as a Genin. Every C-Rank turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. One of them even turned into an S-Rank."

"Are you able to tell us what happened? Naruto asked, his curiosity piqued.

"I can," Yūgao-Sensei smiled, "Kushina-Sensei, my Teammates Tsukifurō and Taiyōhana were sent to the Land of Iron to deliver a missive to the Shogun. On the way we were attacked by a small army of Ronin and Nuke-Nin. The Leaders were both S-Rank Threats. Muramasa of the Demonic Blade for the Ronin and leading the shinobi was Gakemaru The Tsuchigumo from Iwa. Between them Muramasa was by far the more dangerous of the two. It's rumored his blade could absorb the life force of his victims granting him strength and longer life. A few of the more outlandish rumors said that Muramasa wasn't the Ronin himself but the sword who was possessing him."

"I assume Gakemaru had somet spider related skills?" Shino inquired.

"Indeed. He's one of the few known summoners of the Spider Clan," Yūgao-Sensei nodded, "He got his title from being able to summon and work with perfect teamwork with the Tsuchigumo itself. However the two worked best with ambush tactics but because of the Ronin rushing in first his normal strategies were off the table. Kushina-Sense took both of the leaders on while my teammates and I took on their soldiers. It was easier than it sounds since Kushina-Sensei trained us into the ground until we could at least survive the onslaught."

Naruto let out a bark of laughter, "Mom defeated a Vampiric Sword, you beat a Vampire… anyone else seeing the irony in that?"

"The similarities are striking," Hinata giggled.

"What kind of techniques did your teammates use?" Shino asked as the four were forced to land, the rest of the trip to the capital having to be done by the main road.

"Tsukifurō used Water and Genjutsu while Taiyōhana used Fire, Earth and Taijutsu," Yūgao-Sensei smiled as he remembered her teammates, "Taiyōhana was a driven girl like you are Hinata. Hana even wanted to make a Taijutsu style that mixed Fire and Earth that could one day rival the Jyuken. Sadly she was killed shortly after becoming Chunin by a Nuke-Nin Sniper from Taki," Hinata smiled sadly. For a moment she wondered if she could name any future children after Yūgao-Sensei's teammates. The purple haired Jonin had practically become a mother to the Hyuga Heiress so it would be a subtle but meaningful way to thank her.

"And Tsukifurō? Did they have any big plans?" Shino asked.

"He wanted to find a way to become as good with Water Jutsu as Tobirama-Sama and find a way to combine his skills with Water Jutsu with his Genjutsu," Yūgao-Sensei sighed, "Sadly he was killed by Orochimaru a few months before he went traitor. We thought Tsuki was captured on a mission by Kumo or Iwa but… we later found his corpse in one of Orochimaru's hidden labs."

"He'll pay for his crimes," Naruto stated darkly as he cracked his knuckles, "Might not be this year but one day he'll pay."

"I agree," Yūgao nodded, her fists clenched by her sides, "I'm looking forward to knowing everyone Orochimaru has killed are finally put to rest."


As Hinata returned home she was surprised that nothing had happened. They'd delivered the scroll to some incredibly plain nobleman that she couldn't even remember the name of, "Your father wishes to speak to you Hinata-Sama. He should be in his office," One of the Hyuga Compound Guards said with a slight bow.

"Thank you. I will go to him immediately," Hinata replied. After making a quick stop at her room to drop off her supplies and get a scroll, Hinata made her way through the compound several Main, Branch and even a couple Elders members stopped and bowed to her though it was obvious the Elders were reluctant. When she reached his office she spoke, "Father, I am here as requested."

"Enter," Once Hinata seated before him, Hiashi nodded, "Hinata please place down one of your friend's security seals," Hinata blinked but did so. Naruto had given her and Shino a fair amount of storage, explosive and security seals. Once it was active Hiashi sighed and slumped down slightly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Hinata blinked in surprise, her father was slumped over? "I assume you're wondering why I'm slumped over…" Oh shit! He can read minds now! "I have gone without sleep for the past two days," Oh… that would do it, "Hinata… I need to know. What is your honest opinion on the Elders?"

Hinata took a deep breath, "To be as blunt as possible… I think they're all fucking assholes who deserve to rot in the Blood Prison," Hiashi blinked in surprise. Who had corrupted his pure and sweet daughter? Wait… she met Tayuya Uzumaki. That would do it.

"I agree that they should be arrested but why the Blood Prison?" Hiashi asked.

Hinata smiled and pulled out the scroll, "Because that is the punishment of three major confirmed cases Slavery within the Land of Fire," Handing the scroll over to her father and giving a locking seal a slight push of Chakra, Hinata's grin gained a slightly sadistic edge to it, "The Cage Bird Seal breaks not only the Slavery Laws of the Land of Fire but also of Konoha itself AND the Treaty with Uzugakure, and as you know the Treaty with Uzugakure is built into Konoha's Charter. From our records the Cage Bird Seal was 'rediscovered' after we joined Konoha. I suspect that it was in fact invented at that point, and all records of before that point being slightly off as if they'd been altered at some point all but confirm that."

Hiashi read the scroll, his eyes slowly widening. The scroll contained all of Hinata's research into the mentioned laws as well as how the aspects of the Cage Bird Seal that she knew broke those laws. A small spread over Hiashi's lips, "Hinata. Thanks to you we now have a way to break the hold the Elders and this Seal has on our family. I will make my move during the Second round of the Chunin Exams. May I hold onto this scroll?"

"Please do," Hinata nodded, "We just need to key you into it but Naruto made that easy to do," Once Hiashi was keyed into the seal he put it in one of the two safes in the room. Specifically the one only the Clan Head could access.

"Get some rest my daughter. The exams start soon and you want to be well rested for them if your Sensei nominates you."


Omake

Smoke filled the sky as corpses littered the area. Her mother still dressed in the Hokage's robes. Her teammates Ino and Choji tossed to the side like broken toys, their eyes wide and gaze empty. Standing over them with an ominous lime green fox-like aura was Naruto who turned to her his sapphire eyes blazing. He slowly moved close as she stumbled backwards before tripping and falling on her ass. When he reached her he leaned down and in a surprisingly peppy and upbeat voice whispered, "Everything you know is wrong…"

Sakura bolted upright eyes wide from the nightmare as she slowly got a hold of her rapidly beating heart. Taking a slow breath, Sakura got out of bed and walked to the door. Opening it she flinched back seeing a tall skinny man with incredibly curly brown hair, wearing a white shirt with a yellow mouse with red cheeks, black pants and sandals. He had a very large friendly smile and in his hands was an instrument she'd only seen once at the Land of Fire's Port town. An Accordian.

Taking a breath the man began to play his instrument as he said "Everybody Polkamon!"

Orochimaru bolted upright in bed, part of him wondering about the strange dream. The rest of him agreed with one simple statement, "No more grapefruit before bed…"


Author's Notes 2:

Tsukifurō: Moon Flow

Taiyōhana: Sun Flower

And with this chapter I am officially taking NaruHina off the table. I do agree that Naruto and Hinata are adorable together however it's not what I decided to do for this story.

Also why make an Omake that makes no sense? One… I thought it was funny. And two… it's not canon so why not?

I'm considering adding in a couple extra chapters to show more of Team 6's Training. Would that interest everyone?