Several hours after Hinata had collapsed Naruto was on his own as he sat on the monument celebrating the five Hokage that was carved into the plateau overlooking the village hidden beneath the leaves, to be exact he sat on the rock head of the Godaime, the alternate reality version of his mother, Senju Tsunade taking in the village. He used to do this all the time in his old world, this was the first time he had done something like this since he was ten years old, and certainly the first he did it in this world. He was homesick, a feeling that had not left him since he came to this world six months ago. "A Ryo for your thoughts..." Naruto was brought back to the present by the voice of one Senju Tsunade, with a fist at her side. "If you are worried about Hyuga Hinata don't be, she is going to be fine. She should be sleeping soundly under Shizune's watch."
"Oh hello, Lady Tsunade. I was not worried about her with you taking care of her." Naruto looked back to see the Hokage standing at the edge of a park overlooking the village with a serene smile that quickly turned into a frown when the words left his mouth.
"Enough with the Lady Tsunade crap brat, I know and you know that that is not natural for either of us..." She said hopping over a fence that separated the park and the monument landing on her head carving. She was quick to move to Naruto's side sitting next to him. "I hate that you chose to call me that kiddo, it gives me the creeps." She said, shivering. It did not but she wanted him to be more comfortable with her while he was here... Or if he was here to stay, he was her son in another world after all. "And thanks to your friend I am pretty sure soon enough someone is going to get wind of her calling me your mother."
Naruto chuckled thinking that it was weird that Tayuya was here too. "I'm sorry, she does not know when to close her mouth when she is comfortable with someone, at least you haven't seen her cuss people out yet..." Naruto trailed off, almost calling her Lady again. "Uhh... What do I call you?" Naruto looked at Tsunade with a hint of longing in his eyes.
"What did you call me in your world? You should call me something that you feel fits. Like I said, Naruto. I want you to have a home here... You may not have a way back in the end but that doesn't mean that you would be an outsider here... And if you need me to fill a certain role from now on then so be it, hearing your stories really reminded me of what our Naruto had not had the pleasure of experiencing, how even if I was not in the village how much you both suffered until someone took a chance on you, Iruka for our Naruto and Mitarashi for you." She looked apologetic as she spoke. The more time she spent with this Naruto the more she realized that the Tsunade he knew was a woman to admire at her age. She had never thought about kids before, but now that she had she was glad, honored, and proud of how this Naruto turned out offering a silent prayer to her alternate self.
Naruto blushed, he knew what he wanted to call her but something stopped him, he would not say that it was a betrayal by all means to the woman who raised him, after all, she was in a way right in front of him, but it felt like he would be forcing something on her that he doesn't know if she would like him doing so. Though he agonized over it for a brief second there was nothing else that he would rather call her. "I-If it's alright with you can I call you Kaa-chan?..."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow to that question, coming up with a comment that might not be appropriate for the occasion, given that she had already resolved herself to this outcome regardless. "It might take some time to get used to, but I would be honored for you to call me your mother, Naruto." She responded with a tone that implied that she wanted him to keep it professional around other Nin, if not a bit less familiar.
Naruto let out a small smile as he thought over the last six months, at how odd they were, and everything that had happened. If he and Tayuya were stuck here for the foreseeable future he wanted to make this a home for them, find a feeling of normalcy here. "Thank you…" He said looking over to the village, a reality distorted from his own burning the image to memory.
The slug Sannin observed his smile, feeling glad that she could bring him at least some peace despite all that was going on, but there was a question that still hung in the air. "I hate to bring this up now but… do you have a reason why you are here, sitting on my head?"
It took a second for Naruto to process her question, meaning he remembered what he was doing in the first place. "Oh… I am sorry Kaa-chan, do I have to go…" Naruto asked shyly.
Tsunade chuckled at the response. It appeared that the form of address wasn't going to take much time for her to get used to, and the fact that Naruto had somehow answered in a way that was not in some way that was guarded gave her a bit of hope that he wouldn't grow to resent her or the village in the future. "No, no, no. You are fine, but I do want to know why you are up here though, if you want to speak on it."
"Well, it was something that I always did as a kid." He said pointing over to the head of Minato on the face of the plateau. "It helped to clear my head… it felt like I could talk to him about whatever, and it would give me courage on the days that weren't so good, you know." he looked at his hands as they began to shake and his vision began to blur. "It always felt like I wasn't alone, that I at least had someone even if I could not see them, and if it wasn't for you… Anko-nee… Shizu-nee. I think that I would not have been able to keep it together… to stay here." He finished breaking down, unable to fully handle that he may be in this world for the rest of his life.
"Naruto."
(...)
It was strange, it was odd that everything that one student of the current Hokage in Shizune knew was turned on its head. In one day someone that she barely had any relation to in Uzumaki Naruto had changed her perception of the world, not only did her teacher have a son that she knew nothing about, but that same son was far more competent than she gave him credit for. Even now as she looked at the medical charts of one of his friends in Hyuga Hinata he had led that Yamanaka girl on the first aid to be done with Hinata, as if he knew what to do in this case. He had the makings of a medical Nin on the level of Tsunade one day. Then there was the whole son bit. "Uhhh... Lady Tsunade after this I need to talk to you about Naruto... If you can make some time."
"That's an interesting way to say that you are concerned, no need to worry." Tsunade paused her speech looking into the middle distance, she frowned before a tint of pink graced her face. 'As long as he keeps his word it should be fine.' She smiled deep in her thoughts. She looked at Shizune intently before grinning. "That girl was not wrong, Naruto, legally if he was not a shinobi I would've been his guardian. I guess you can call me his foster mother, thanks to my unreasonable sensei."
The mention of the last Hokage made her realize that that kind of situation could be possible, but she was with Tsunade all of the time and there was no way that her teacher could have a secret son without her knowing, and yet Naruto's behavior after returning made her believe otherwise. "Why didn't you tell me?" Shizune felt an odd sense of betrayal as she questioned her teacher. Naruto was a good kid, he was honest and hard-working, plus he did not deserve what this village did to him. He was hated for just existing, the poor thing.
Tsunade knew what the look of frustration on her student meant, probably telling her that what the Tayuya girl said was true might have been a bad idea. "If I knew Shizune... You would have been the first to know. That brat means a lot to me, he is the only reason that I decided to return here. That little idiot saved me, and if I had known that he was in trouble then I would have done everything possible to help him. Even now, when I was walking around the village and the people looked at him with disdain I felt ill thinking that Sensei and I were these people's Kage." She said, unable to get the image of the Naruto who called her his mother crying out of her mind. Despite not being their first hand she could not help but ball her fist in frustration. "We can not change the past so there's no use worrying about it."
Shizune knew what she meant, and she let out a breath. What should they do about this situation now? "What are you going to do about it now, Lady Tsunade?"
"Nothing, if there's anything to be done we are going to know. How would you feel if Naruto lived with us for a little while." Tsunade looked up at the room's lights with a gentle grin. "I have already made plans for him to leave that small apartment of his..." She frowned as she remembered reading the letter that her sensei left for her or Jiraiya if they succeeded him, what he had left behind for them, and what they should know about Naruto's treatment in the village.
Shizune seeing this knew that the Kage would have done this without her consent, and maybe even their relationship would have changed because of it. "I have no complaints, honestly..." Shizune smiled at her. "It was surprising at first, but if you have a son then maybe you will slow down on the drinking and gambling." She said, poking at the Kage's vices.
"I am pretty sure that I did that already..." Tsunade retorted while taking one final look at the peacefully sleeping Hinata's chart, the girl now had a calmer heart rate and an elevated body temperature. Apparent that the girl's chakra network was still in disrepair despite the two-year gap since her bout with Hyuga Neji, and the recent use of nature chakra beyond her limits causing her to unintentionally open the first seven gates up to the gate of wonder to cope with the unnatural amount of chakra, nearly opening the gate of death in her heart.
Shizune scoffed as the pair left Hinata to rest, leaving the room, she knew that Tsunade now just hid it better. "If you call doing it after you get off as cutting back then sure... But Naruto is still a child despite what the law says. I wouldn't want him to appreciate your bad habits now that he has returned." She scolded her teacher.
"I get you wanting to step into the big sister role for him but..." A sly grin entered her face. "You have pretty tough competition." Tsunade finished thinking of Mitarashi Anko, and the ramen girl Ayame.
"What."
(...)
"I said what are you looking at, blondie?"
"What are you talking about?" Ino looked pissed at a strange Nin in between Naruto's legs, sitting on the floor of a small dirty apartment as Naruto brushed her hair in nothing but a towel, feeling a hint of jealousy at the closeness they both seemed to share.
The pink-haired Nin seemed to bite her tongue on her true thoughts as the pair stared each other down. "What do you mean what am I talking about? You haven't taken your eyes off of me since we left the Kage's office. If you got a problem with me just fucking say it."
Ino was taken aback but it did not let her stop from speaking about her frustrations. Of course, she had a problem with the faux-Uzumaki who was acting all chummy with her Naruto. For one she remembered what happened almost three years ago, the death of the Sandaime, the near destruction of the Konoha nine, and most importantly that this person was at the center of it all. "Why do you think so?" the question came out with as much malice as she could manage.
The girl getting her hair done seemed to be amused by the question, it was almost comical. "If this is about pineapple hair then I apologize that happened that way, but if is about the old man Kage then your fucking welcome. For someone so close to Naru don't you dare defend that man, two genocides and what he did to Naru was fucking messed up, and he was at the center of it all... Let me let you in on a little secret the people you are so attached to as hero..." The girl was cut off by Naruto pulling her hair.
"Behave."
Naruto's voice was so cold and stern that it was an eerie difference from the Naruto Ino knew. It was almost scary. At one point this would have been an impossibility to think that the fun-loving pranking knucklehead was far different, but the Naruto she knew appeared to just matured far to the point of what was natural for anyone from the two years away. "What does she mean Naruto?" Ino asked, almost afraid of the answer.
The only boy in the room frowned, he knew that whatever she was told might twist the views she had had for Konoha, and he did not know how this world's Ino would react to the hidden truths behind this village. So Naruto thought of something that he could say that would not have her turning on the village entirely if she somehow did... Then he would have taken responsibility for that. With a short deep inhale he spoke. "You know how my family name is Uzumaki right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well..." He paused his brushing to make it as serious as he could. "And you know how Uchiha Sasuke retained his Clan's name despite him being the last member in Konoha? Since you know who my birth father and mother were, you know what I am playing at. Don't you think that it is odd that a random orphan from birth would have a family name?"
Ino put two and two together, her eyes darting between the pair, it was something that she had not thought about, it almost made her feel like a monster for not noticing. Putting her hands to her mouth she gasped at Naruto's revelation. "You don't mean?"
"Yep." The pink-haired girl spoke interjecting. "The last of the Uzumaki clan in Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto, and Senju Tsunade. And the old lady is probably over the hill for having children too so it's not like if Naru finds a girl he likes they are going to carry any of the genes so that and the Uchihas are going to die out pretty soon. So why not let the living members live out their lives in rotting peace." She said taking pleasure in the distraught face of Ino.
"Tayuya..."
"What Naru, she needs to know. It is not like these assholes are going to give her the same courtesy, this fucking village is a mess of overhyped Nin, hypocrites, and losers who think that their shit doesn't stink... And you know that if it wasn't for that Hyuga and her sister, and Senju Tsunade being the Hokage then you would have left this human landfill as a crater. Or do I have to remind you that you are the only Jinchūriki still being treated like you are garbage? The immoral ass bitches, at least Suna, made theirs Kage after trying to murder him every chance they had... And what about you? Huh? Fucking nothing. They even treat traitors with more leniency, the cowards." Tayuya spoke to the point that Ino knew that she was getting angry in his stead.
Naruto sat silent for a few moments to let Tayuya cool off, he knew that she knew about his past but it was something entirely different when she was like this for him. He was honestly surprised that she cared that much. The two of them can not be called friends, not in the least. After Suna's failed invasion with Oto, they were the closest thing to enemies, but after his betrothed left Konoha and he joined her he and Tayuya had a shaky alliance at best born out of Tayuya's respect for strength and his need to keep the body count to a minimum. So this was going to be an experience, to say the least. "It's fine Tayuya, she is a friend, you don't have to take it out on her... She knew nothing until recently... I am sure she wouldn't just go along with anything without good reason. We were all kids not too long ago." Naruto said with a fond smile as he started to braid Tayuya's hair.
Tayuya growled at Ino but did not say anything more, on the other hand, Ino was in mid-crisis. She could not refute anything that Tayuya was saying. She knew that none of the clan leaders including her father ever mistreated Naruto, but at the same time, she was told to stay away from him and her father had never lifted a finger to help either. Plus with what she knows now, in which she still had to ask what a Jinchūriki was, she did not know what to do with all of this information. At first, she figured if she focused on self-improvement that would be enough to stand by Naruto's side but looking at Tayuya and Hinata she knew that what she was doing was never going to be enough to erase what she couldn't do for him in the academy, she had no right to what she wanted from him. With the moments of silence ticking away in that room she could not stand it anymore, she got up from her chair to the confusion of the other two and left without a word.
Tayuya chuckled at Ino's apparent distressed appearance, clear that she was not done revealing Naruto's past yet. "If she is going to act that way with the surface-level shit I wonder how she was going to react to the birthday beatings at five years old... Or the attempted murder... Or the plain old torture."
Naruto sighed as he finished the two side braids, Tayuya laid her head on his inner thigh. "I told you all of that in confidence, you know..."
"Well, Satsuki is not here and Karin is still probably under the snake pervert so we are both going to need our ways to relieve stress in this hell hole." Tayuya said, tracing a pattern in Naruto's inner thigh with her finger. "What do you say, I know that I am not Satsuki but... We don't know how long we are going to be stuck here and going cold turkey can't be good for you..." She spoke, twisting her body to look Naruto in the eye.
"Are you really going to offer yourself like that? And here I thought you had standards."
"I do... Why do you think I would choose now to do it, Naru?"