From ninja to shinigami

by jacke44

Returning to Wave after being snubbed by his sensei for his teammate, Naruto explores a secret structure he found on the way to the bridge confrontation, opening the door to a new world of possibilities for his future, gaining something once lost, and many allies in the wake of revelations a forgotten past, enemies close than you think, and the teaching owed to him from the beginng

23. Meetings

From Ninja to Shinigami

Chapter 23: Meetings

By jacke44

==== Uzumaki Compound, Front Gate ====

Seeing as it would be a few minutes before they would be allowed into the compound, Hiruzen and Jiraiya attempted to converse with the remaining guard. The girl refused to speak to them, keeping the serious look on her face. Seeing that their attempts were getting them nowhere. The two proceeded to summon a few young toads and monkeys which began to dance in front of her. Jiraiya unsealed a drum and tambourine and he and his sensei played them for the animals.

The animals dancing soon began affecting her. Her face becomes bright red and tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes as she struggles to hold in her laughter. Hiruzen and Jiraiya smiled quietly to themselves. The antics on display were similar to what people would do to the guards at the gates of the Hyuuga compound to get a reaction from people who had the emotions of a brick wall. In the history of the attempts, only two had managed to do so. Naruto and Kushina Uzumaki.

Kushina had somehow managed to get her hands on a copy of the shadow clone technique and had immediately put it to good use with her pranks. On one bright day, she made a shadow clone and had it transform into a bear of a man. She then transformed into a pregnant woman and walked up to the gate and yelled about one of them being the one to get her pregnant. This, naturally, drew a crowd and the area began to fill with whispers. The guard that she had pointed at went red in the face as the clone walked towards him, clenching and unclenching his hands and a murderous look in his eyes as he wondered aloud about whether it was possible to beat someone to death with their own skull. Those words made the guard panic and turn to run into the compound, only to forget about the gate and run right into it.

Naruto, however, took a subtle approach. He also made use of the transformation technique and transformed into a beautiful blonde bombshell with big blue eyes and pigtails. She wore a short mini skirt and tube top while being rather well-endowed in the chest and walked slowly past the gate. The bombshell 'accidentally' dropped her wallet. She slowly bent over to pick it up, incidentally giving both guards a good look at her rear end. When she noticed that the male had activated his Byakugan, the bombshell screamed out "Pervert!"

The entire street stopped to glare at the man who quickly begins to deny it. Even his partner, who happened to be female, was giving him that look that promised untold pain. She then began to cry and ran away, leaving the man to receive a beat down the likes of which were still whispered of in a dark corner. Even the guard's partner got a few shots in. Who could blame her when she had to deal with the asshole daily? Ironically, they both had then gone to brag about it to their friends at Ichiraku Ramen.

Hiruzen was brought back to the present by the two other voices joining the laughing. Turning brought his gaze to the guard that had gone to announce their arrival. his's gaze then went to the toads and monkeys only to find them in a game of leapfrog.

The woman that joined the two girls was 5' 6" tall with long chestnut colored hair. She had an average b-cup and wore a white robe edged with golden trim and appeared to be in her twenties if both men had to guess. Hiruzen and Jiraiya figured that the gold trim indicated a higher rank as was common amongst the servants of noble clans.

When her chuckles passed, the woman turned to look at Hiruzen and Jiraiya, "Greetings Lord Hokage and Master Jiraiya. I am Amie. I am one of the head servants here. We are honored by your presence. Welcome." She followed those words with a small bow.

Hiruzen returned the bow, "We are honored to be here. Thank you for welcoming us."

"And how may the Uzumaki clan be of service to you today Lord Hokage?" Amie asked.

"We have come to discuss several topics with the clan head." Hiruzen replied.

Amie nodded, "Very well. If you would please follow me, I will escort you to see Lord Uzumaki." She then turned to look at the two girls, "I think the both of you have done enough playing guard for today."

The two girls turned away from the animals and crossed their arms with petulant looks on their faces, "We are not playing! Big Brother said that we could be guards if we wanted to!"

The three adults smiled, and Amie cocked her head, "If I remember correctly, he also said that you had to remember to do your homework too. Have you finished your homework?" Both girls go red in the face from embarrassment before turning walking off, muttering about why they needed to study stupid history.

===Hallway===

Amie leads the two men through the halls of the compound to Lord Uzumaki's office. After turning a few corridors, she suddenly stops and pulls out a pair of scissors. Bending down, she cuts a piece of string and a bucket filled with water fell from above. Standing up again, she placed the scissors back into her pocket and looked over to an area of the wall. She shook her head with a knowing smile, "I expect to see this mess cleaned up before I come back."

Both men were surprised to see a canvas tarp fall to the ground and reveal a boy with an annoyed look on his face, "I'll get you one day Amie. You'll see."

Amie nods with a slightly condescending yet with a challenging look, "And yet, not a single one of your booby traps have worked." She frowns when the boy begins to laugh, "What is so funny?"

The boy's chuckled died down enough for him to say, "You said booby!"

Quiet laughter from her side shows Hiruzen and Jiraiya both struggling not to laugh. She rolled her eyes with an annoyed look, "Really! Men of your age should be above such silliness." She gestured for them to follow her as she continued down the hallway.

After a few seconds, Hiruzen inquires, "So Amie-san. Is that normal here?"

Amie let off a small laugh as she nodded, "Yes. Lord Uzumaki insisted that the children continue his family tradition of playing pranks on each other. He said that it is a great way for the children to be trained in keeping their eyes open and always being aware of their surroundings. After all, one is never certain of where an attack will come from. It also keeps the servants on their toes."

Hiruzen and Jiraiya both nodded their heads. Such a training method looked very useful.

'I am not surprised that the Uzumaki clan would come up with this. Their training, though unorthodox, has always been effective.' Hiruzen thought to himself.

'The brat acts nothing like the boy they wrote about in the letters that they sent to me.' Jiraiya thought.

"But he also made some ground rules," Amie said, snapping the two men from their thoughts, "One is that the children are to not mess with any undergarments. He made this especially clear to the boys that there would be a severe punishment for such. Another is that should any servant holding a child under the age of three, they are to be warned away as to not harm the child." She stopped in front of a door where much shouting could be heard.

===Naruto office===

Naruto walked back into his office from the secondary room attached to it. He sits down at the desk in the room and sends a glare at the three people sitting before it, "For the record, I was able to fix his seal." Temari, Kankuro and their sensei Baki began to sweat underneath Naruto's cold gaze. Naruto then surged up from his seat and slammed his hands onto the desk and yelled, "NOW WHICH ONE OF YOU INCOMPETENT MORONS WOULD LIKE TO EXPLAIN HOW IN THE HELL YOUR VILLAGE COULD CALL THAT PIECE OF SHIT A SEAL! WHOEVER DID IT BETTER HOPE THAT I NEVER FIND THEM BECAUSE IF I DO I WILL BE INTRODUCING MY BOOT TO THEIR ASS. I WILL LEAVE A FOOTPRINT SO DEEP THAT NOT EVEN TSUNADE SENJU COULD REMOVE IT!"

"I could walk out there and go into my nursery and select one of the toddlers and give them a crayon and they could probably do a better job at making a seal. Had I not fixed the one currently on your brother, it would have come undone within five years!" Naruto sat down heavily, still glaring at them as they paled. They could very well imagine what would happen if Shukaku had escaped while in the middle of the desert. That was basically giving him a home field advantage!

Naruto began to rub his nose and eyes to try and lessen his migraine and let out a breath. He looks back up at them, "I'm sorry for yelling. It is just that my family specializes in fuinjutsu and the moment I saw that seal, I felt that someone was trying to take a pile of crap and smear it across my family's name."

Baki steeled his nerves and stepped forward. He bowed and said, "I assure you, Lord Uzumaki, that as soon as we return to the Hidden Sand Village, I shall personally see to the revamp of our sealing division and immediate removal of all that are found to be incompetent.

Naruto opened the drawer on hid desk and took out a scroll that was larger than most and placed it on his desk before looking back up at the sand ninja, "To make sure that you have people that are properly trained, I will give you this scroll. Normally, my family would never give something like this out, but I feel that it is necessary. Inside, you will find twenty books on fuinjutsu ranging from beginner to journeyman. I only have one condition. Never allow another piece of shit seal like the one that I just saw leave your village again." The three nodded their heads. "You can take your brother back now. Just make sure he gets some sleep. Thankfully, I was able to fix that." A knock on the door caught his attention.

"Who is it?" Naruto called out.

"It is Amie Lord Uzumaki. I apologize for disturbing you, but you have guests who wish to speak with you."

"Thank you Amie. Please wait with them and I will be free in a minute." Naruto called back.

"Yes Lord Uzumaki."

Naruto's attention refocused upon the three sand ninja, "It seems that I must cut this meeting short, but if I remember correctly we have a council meeting tomorrow. I have a few more things to discuss with you." Seeing the panicked looks on their faces, Naruto raised his hand and said, "Don't worry. It's nothing bad."

As Kankuro went into the next room and picked Gaara up, Baki picked up the scroll, "I am glad that you are not one of those who would hold a grudge against us for being manipulated."

Naruto chuckled, "I think that if you were to go back and look at my clan's history, you would see that we were not ones to hold grudges like our cousins the Uchiha and Senju. It takes a lot to earn the wrath of my entire clan and to this day, the Land of Mines remains the only one with such an incident. But that is a story for another time."

Naruto called out to the door, "Amie! Please step in. I need to speak to you for a moment in private."

Kankuro and Baki started towards the door before they both noticed that Temari had yet to move. Baki called to her, "Temari. We are leaving now."

"Is there something I can help you with Temari-chan?" Naruto asked

Temari's face went red and she slowly reached into a pouch and pulled out a book, "C-can I please g-g-get you to s-s-sign my copy?"

Naruto just laughed and shook his head as he took the book from her and quickly signed it. Taking her book back, Temari gave him a curtsy and stuttered out a thanks. Upon realizing what she just did, her face went red and she quickly left the room. Amie closed the door behind the embarrassed girl, a small laugh leaving her.

===Hallway====

A wicked grin makes its' way onto Kankuro's face, "I can't believe you actually curtsied."

Temari slowly turned to look at her brother with a calm look that made Kankuro shiver in fear, "Let me make this perfectly clear little Brother. That never happened. If I ever hear of anything getting out about what never happened, I will release certain pictures of you from when you were younger playing with mother's makeup." Kankuro slowly backs away from his sister. Temari turned back to the hallway and looks at the three men standing to the side with a sweet smile on her face, "That goes for you as well." Hiruzen and Jiraiya both see a ghost image of Tsunade who has the same look that usually followed up with pain and both had been unfortunate enough to have it directed at them on more than one occasion.

She then looks at Baki, "What did he mean about there only being one group ever to earning the wrath of his clan? I've never heard of the Land of Mines."

Baki frowned, "I am not familiar with it either. His family's not mentioned much within the land of wind."

Hiruzen cleared his throat, "I believe I can explain that. It happened long before the First Shinobi War. The Uzumaki clan has always been rather peaceful. They often refused to go into battle. They always kept cool heads even if they could be quick tempered. They never went into battle over small matters. They were the staunchest of allies and your worst enemy rolled into one. At one point the ruler of the Land of Mines had a son who staged a coup in order to take the lands from his father. He then sent every man, woman, and child that could not fight as one of his soldiers into the mines to dig up minerals and increase the country's wealth."

"As I said earlier, normally they would not get involved, they were set off because it was discovered that he had placed slave seals upon them, which were usually reserved for prisoners. What made it worse was that it was a seal that they had invented and that it was being used on children. Naruto's biological grandfather sent in a battalion of twenty-five soldiers from Whirlpool who proceeded to wipe out the son and his followers in a single twenty-four hour period. Unfortunately, the son was able to collapse the mines and kill alost everyone inside. The land was then annexed by the surrounding countries. This is probably why you have never heard of it."

Kankuro let out a whistle, "If Twenty-five of them could do that, I would hate to see what would have happened if they had mobilized their entire army. What happened to them if they were so strong?"

Hiruzen looked down, "They were wiped out during the Second Shinobi War by three of the main villages. Naruto's mother was already here in the Leaf Village at the time and was the only known survivor of the attack. If there were any other survivors, they have gone into hiding."

As the mood of the room fell, Baki spoke up, "Well, if you will excuse us, we need to get back to our room. We will see you tomorrow at the council meeting Lord Hokage." And the sand ninja turned and left.

Jiraiya turned and looked at his sensei, "How does the brat know about that? It isn't common knowledge."

Hiruzen nodded, "This is why I have decided to send you on this mission. I want you to investigate the land of waves. That is where we will find our answers." Anything else that might have been said was cut off by the opening door.

===office===

Naruto sat behind his desk with his fingers intertwined in front of his face, "Lord Hokage. What can I do for you today?"

Hiruzen put on a winning smile, "Well Lord Uzumaki, I came here today to see if you would be willing to give me any information on your strange new abilities that you have gained. Though before that, I would like to introduce my former student-"

"Introductions are not needed Hiruzen. I know exactly who he is. Jiraiya was my father's teacher as well as the man that my parents asked to become my godfather."

Jiraiya had his typical grin on his face and laughed as he said, "Well I have to say brat. You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself with all those beautiful women I saw as I was walking in. Not surprising with who your mother and father were. I heard form sensei that you were able to smack Orochimaru around quite a bit. Oh how I wish I could have seen that!"

Naruto's voice was cold as he replied, "Master Jiraiya, and I use that title loosely, you would do well to remember your place and give me the respect that is due to a head of two clans as well as being a Daimyo. Seeing that one should consider that they are standing on thin ice as it is as well as all of the crimes that I can charge you with against both of my clans and my country."

Jiraiya's face went flat and lost the silly grin, "Don't get full of yourself Brat. And what crimes are you talking about?"

The grin on Naruto's face was one that had Hiruzen shivering as he remembered of all the times that Naruto wore it as he pulled something particularly clever. Naruto reached down and opened a drawer. He pulled out a large binder that was eight inches thick at least and looked back up at Jiraiya, "Do you know what this is?" Naruto asked as he placed the binder in the middle of the table.

Jiraiya shook his head and crossed his arms, "Enlighten me."

Naruto smirked, "I figured that I would be seeing you soon and went to have a talk with Sara Saito, the head of the hospital and one of the precious few people who I know I can trust completely and requested a complete copy of my medical history. Inside this binder is a report for every single attack that I have ever suffered from."

Naruto once again entwined his fingers in front of his face and continued, "Tell me something Jiraiya, did you bother to read that paperwork my mother gave you when they asked you to be my godfather? I'm going to say no you didn't because if you had you would've read the small print that said that your signature made you a member of my family. Which means that you are obligated to follow all of the laws of the Uzumaki Clan along with the laws of the Land of Whirlpool and you have committed a great many crimes against both."

A vindictive look passed over Naruto's face, "I am hereby charging you with each and every single one of these attacks in the form of Child Abandonment and Child Endangerment as well as Child Neglect and accepted line extension on both my clan's and the royal line of the Land of Whirlpool as by way of proxy for failure to uphold your responsibility as my godfather."

Those words made both men go pale and Jiraiya shook his head before saying, "Well, the Land of Whirlpool was wiped out so it is not like you can bring me before the court. Even if you are the Daimyo, you would have to get me into the land of Whirlpool to use your power to bring me up on charges."

Naruto nods his head, "You are correct. My family's home country was wiped out and you are correct that I would have to get you into said country to use my power, but what fail to remember is that the Uzumaki clan are masters of pranking. They love to put in clauses in contracts that are made in order to benefit us." Naruto reached down and pulled another piece of paper from his desk.

Hiruzen felt his stomach drop in sinking horror. Though they were often the butt of many jokes, they were masters of politics to the point that every deal made benefited them in some way, shape or form. And any broken contracts were punished severely.

Naruto slid the paper towards his two visitors, "When this village was founded a clause was added by this clan into the contract that we signed. Since the family was being split into two with one side being royal it was decided that this compound would be considered the Land of Whirlpool's if you take look closely, you will see the seals for both my grandfather as well as the fire Daimyo. This means that as soon as you two gentlemen walked through that gate, you were standing on Whirlpool territory. This is sovereign ground and all laws in the Land of Fire are immediately tossed out." Naruto then snapped his fingers.

Seals suddenly sprang to life underneath both men and two black cloaked figures appeared out of nowhere. The taller of the two wore a golden cat mask while the shorter wore a bumblebee mask. Jiraiya and Hiruzen both began to struggle, "Naruto! Release us immediately!"

There was a sudden knock at the door and Amie's voice spoke up, "Lord Uzumaki. The two foreign dignitaries you asked for have arrived."

Naruto let out a small laugh and looked over at Jiraiya, "I'm not the only one that you have to answer to."

Hiruzen and Jiraiya both heard the door open but could not look to see who it was. Jiraiya began to panic though when a new female voice spoke up.

"Hello Jiraiya-boy." And then there was a smack.

Naruto smiled as he got to his feet, "Thank for coming Elder Fukasaku, Elder Shima. I'm glad you were able to accept my invitation."

Two toads suddenly jumped onto the table in front of the two men. The male is green with a long goatee and large eyebrows and held a walking stick. The female is purple and wearing an apron while holding a rolling pin. Both were glaring at Jiraiya with hatred on their faces.

The female turned away from Jiraiya and smiled a bright happy smile at Naruto, Naruto-tadpole, what have I told you about calling me ma?" She playfully swung her rolling pin at the boy.

Naruto put up his hands as he dodged the rolling pin, but the smile never drops, "Sorry! Sorry!"

A cough caught the attention of both and they turn to Fukasaku, "Ma, stop teasing Naruto-boy. We have business to take care of. Now Naruto-boy, please release them. They will not be going anywhere while Ma and I are here." A moment later, the seals disappeared, "Now, which one of you would like to explain to us about all the lying you have been doing to us about Naruto-boy's life?"

Despite the seals being released, both men knew that they could not escape. Therefore, they began to explain themselves as best as they could to the two toad sages and Naruto's mind flashed back to when he first met the Toad Elders.

Flashback : Land of waves

Naruto was sitting in training ground two after deciding to take a break from training. He was currently surrounded by all of his new little sisters as well as Rangiku and Momo. One of the little devils had let it slip that he was a master hair braider and he had gotten overwhelmed by the a massive puppy dog eyes jutsu. As he sat there, he planned his revenge on Ino for forcing him to learn how to do this.

His revenge plans against Ino were put on hold when he heard the portable door opening and turned to see his parents walking in. Both looked like they had been put through the wringer and there was either a frog or toad on both of his father's shoulders.

Putting down the hair brush and standing up, he walked over to his parents, "What happened to you two and why are there frogs on your shoulders dad?"

The one that appeared to be female jumped at him while swinging the rolling pin that it held, "FROG! I'll show you who is a frog!" The children all laughed as they watched their big brother have to dodge the female's attacks, though he did receive a few whacks on the head.

Naruto began to run around the training ground as the toad continued to chase him, shouting about being called a frog. One of the little girls walked up to Kushina and pulled on her left hand. When she had Kushina's attention she asked, "Grandma? Why is big brother being chased by an angry frog?"

Kushina had gone wide-eyed at being called grandma, "That isn't a frog. It is a toad."

The little girl looked at the remaining one still on Minato's shoulders in confusion, "What's the difference?"

The female toad finally stopped chasing Nauto and jumped back onto Minato's shoulder, "There are many differences. We will tell you later, young tadpole."

Naruto walked back to the group covered in bumps and bruises. He looks at his father, "Who are they? Why are they here? And what happened to you two?" He made sure to stay well out of the female toad's reach.

Minato smiled sheepishly, "Sorry Naruto. I forgot to tell you that I was going to see the summoning clan that I signed with before. Allow me to introduce you to the Elders Fukasaku and Shima of the Toad summoning clan. And as for why we look like this? Your mother and I had to spar with them to prove that we were who we said we were."

Fukasaku looks at Naruto, "So this is your tadpole. I can sense that he is going to be quite strong when he grows up. Just call me Pa. Everyone does."

Shima spoke up fro the girl's shoulder, "And you can call me Ma."

Fukasaku's face went hard, "Naruto-boy, Minato-boy was able to tell us about how they were brought back and about your life in the Leaf Village, but we want to hear about it from you. After that we can make a decision about what to do about Jiraiya-boy for abandoning his family. That is the highest crime amongst the toad clan." Naruto looked at them for a moment and then began to tell his story. Both Ma and Pa were livid by the end of it and were more than willing to help him when the time came.

End of Flashback

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by Fukasaku's angry shouting, "Jiraiya! You have been a friend of the toads for many years and though there have been times where we thought you could do better, Neither Ma or I ever thought you could sink so low. As of this moment, your contract is suspended. Once your trial with the Naruto-boy is finished, you will be standing before the Council of Toads to answer for your crimes against us." Fukasaku made a few handsigns and a seal appeared on Jiraiya's hand, "This will suppress your chakra and not even you will be able to break it.

Naruto looks at Jiraiya, "Your trial will be in a couple of days. This should give Hiruzen enough time to try and put together a defense for you." He then looked to the two cloaked figures behind him, "Take him away and put him under twenty-four-hour watch." The two figures walked over to the man and each put a hand on his shoulder to lead him out of the room, the man's head hanging.

They stopped when Naruto called out to Jiraiya, "And I would suggest that you not try any of your womanizing techniques on the female guards. The one on your left can and will make you look worse than if you had been attacked by Tsunade and the Four Ice Queens at the same time."

The one in the cat mask leans close to Jiraiya's ear, "Give me a reason." They all heard his shoulder make a crunching sound.

Naruto looks at Hiruzen, "I promise that he will get a fair trial."

Hiruzen nodded, "He is a good man despite his faults. Is this really necessary Naruto? What happened to the little boy that always forgave the people?"

Naruto leaned back in his chair, "He is still in here. But now he puts his family's protection above all else." Naruto stood up from his chair and walked over to the window, gesturing for Hiruzen to follow him. Hiruzen smiled as they both looked over the children playing in the courtyard.

He is broken out of his thoughts when Naruto spoke up, "I may not have been there when my people were wiped out, but this time I will not stand by and let this fall apart again. Even If I have to burn the world to the ground, I will do everything in my power to protect my people. And if I should be separated from them? Well…I read a poem somewhere that had a part that said 'Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return.' And make no mistake, I will return."