Chapter 7.
"I never would have guessed Naruto-kun had such a hard life," Haku remarked in surprise and sadness when Shizune finished telling him the nine-tails Jinchurikki's story. Said blonde was currently doing chakra control exercises with a certain slug Sanin in the surrounding forest.
"I'll tell Haku my story myself," Tsunade had said before leaving the hotel room with Naruto.
"How in the world is he still sane?! After being alone and hated for eight and a half years?! Then finding out he has a demonic fox inside of him?! I definitely don't get his carefree attitude!" Haku remarked.
"Me and lady Tsunade don't get it either Haku-kun. I guess Naruto just has a strong will," Shizune responded.
"Mr. Sarutobi should be ashamed of himself! Keeping such a big secret from Uzumaki-san, and not even telling him who his parents were?! Or letting you two do it. He should know that isn't helping him at all Miss Shizune!"
"Myself and milady agree with you 100% Haku, but he won't even listen to us. He's even driven Naruto away with his lack of transparency. The last time they saw each other, my little brother actually cussed him out!"
Haku continued, saying that he didn't know what was worse; having his own father turn on him and his mother when he discovering their secret, killing her and trying to kill him, or never knowing the love of parents at all. He expressed a desire to feel the void on Naruto's life.
"I think I'll call him my brother from now on."
"Great! And remember to call me nee-chan or O-née-chan from now on too! Okay?"
After the orphan boy nodded, the raven-haired kunoichi instructed him to lie on his back on the bed.
"I'm going to do a diagnostic justu on you," she explained.
"I want to make sure you didn't catch anything out there on the streets or in the forests. This green chakra will bounce off your bones, organs, and cells and the vibrations will tell me if something isn't right," she explained before putting both of her hands on his chest. Haku sighed and said, "This feels so serene." His female benefactor smiled and moved her palms over every inch of his body, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Certain areas were ticklish and made him supress giggles. Shizune smiled wickedly, knowing she'd exploit his weakness someday.
"Turn over now honey."
The very feminine-looking -and -sounding boy obeyed and Tsunade's assistant repeated the process. Then, after he got up she asked, "How would you like to be a medic Haku?"
"I'd love it big sister! I want to help people, not hurt them, and I want to be able to disable my opponents without killing them," he replied. 'Of Course he does,' Shizune thought. 'After happened to his mother and what he had to do to his father, of course he'd be averse to killing.'
"Well then, lets hit the books!"
Shizune Kato took Haku out of their hotel to the nearest library, where she brought layman's guides to medicine and healing. Five were scrolls and five were books. Once back at their room, she lectured him for an hour before they went down to the lobby for a lunch break. They met their counterparts in the dining area.
"We have another medical student Lady Tsunade," Shizune informed her mistress excitedly.
"I wish to be a healer rather than an assassin. I especially want to learn how to non-lethally subdue my enemies," Haku told the Senju Sanin, paraphrasing what he told the Kato woman.
"A Med-Nin like you knows all about that, I'm sure."
Kneeling down to his level, Tsunade said, "Yes I do. But I warn you kid, I won't go easy on you. I'll tear you down to build you up."
Haku shrugged and said simply, "No pain no gain."
In response the slug sage ruffled his hair and said, "That's my boy."
Then she frowned and said it was time to know about her past. Tsuande led the boy to the same clearing she'd been training Naruto in. She smiled as she talked about her grandfather, then her face became grief stricken as she mentioned her younger brother Nawaki and his reckless ambitious personality. The slug sage started to silently weep as she mentioned Dan Kato and her desperate but futile effort to save him, leading her to develop a phobia of blood. She also told him how she'd given each of them the necklace, which was given to her by the 1st, and came to hate it after losing them both.
"I can see why you thought it was cursed, and the position of Hokage too," the water-manipulating orphan remarked.
"Thanks to Naruto-kun, I'm reconsidering my decision. He was willing to out his life on the line to help us beat Orochimaru. Did Shizune tell you about that?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes and your hemophobia but not why you were afraid," Haku replied.
"I still miss my brother and would-be husband, and want so badly to hold them in my arms, but maybe you and he could fill the void in my life. Perhaps I can do the same for you and him."
"We should all try our best milady."
Haku then comfortingly grabbed her hands, and Tsunade rested her forehead against his.
/
Haku's training started with excercise. Tsunade made him run a mile, do push ups, sit ups, pull ups, stretches, lift stones, and pull logs with ropes. Haku wasn't used to such vigorous activity, and made sure to stop when he was exhausted so he didn't die of a heart attack. After seeing how Naruto rarely got tired, his surrogate brother remarked, "How do you have so much energy."
"Uzumakis like him have a lot of stamina and vitailty. It's in their blood Mago," Tsunade answered for her first grandson. The first Hokage's granddaughter appreciated Haku's manners. As much as she like putting a certain rude, blonde brat in his place, she was happy that she didn't have a second student to teach etiquette to. It was difficult for Naruto to be polite and elegant constantly after going his whole life without saying a polite word, and his two female guardians had to regularly remind him to demonstrate class, civility, and courtesy. Shizune asked her new foster brother how to make senbon needles from ice, which he easily did, and then sparred with him using her own. She also pitted her poison fog against his ice fog. While not going all out against the boys, Shizune and Tsunade did start using lethal weapons and attacks against Haku and Naruto. In a real fight, enemies, especially shinobi, wouldn't pull their punches. During one training session, Tsunade aimed a knife hand strike at the younger blonde's throat and then tried to crush his skull with her heel. Naruto avoided both attacks, which Tsunade then repeated with Chakra to enhance her speed. Again Naruto fended them off, focusing all the chakra in his body to his muscles.
"Get angry Naruto. I mean really angry. I want to see the effect of the Nine-Tails's demonic chakra on you," Tsunade said abruptly one day. Uzumaki obeyed without question, but with plenty of trepidation. He thought about all the terrible looks and comments the Konoha villagers gave him, clenching his teeth and gritting his teeth. Not long after his canine teeth became fangs, his fingernails long and sharp like claws, his eyes blood red, his whisker marks thicker, and his body surrounded by an orange aura. The others present looked at him with a mixture of fear and pity. 'Poor Kid' Tsunade thought. Then she told him to keep going. He did, and a red, bubbly aura with fox ears and a tail covered his form.
"More grandson, More!"
By now, Naruto was crouched in a pouncing position. A second tail appeared, than a third, then a fourth, and then Naruto's skin and hair peeled away, replaced with a monstrous, glowing red, black-faced, white eyed, miniature Kyuubi that roared loudly. After a few seconds, the mindless beast attacked his three companions, no longer seeing them as allies, but they used substitution justu to escape. As Naruto destroyed the three logs, Shizune and Haku launched senbon at him as a distraction, while Tsunade stuck a paper slip with a supression seal on it to his forehead. Naruto froze, roared in an agonized tone, then changed back into his original form after sixty seconds. His four-tails transformation made the process take longer. All three gasped when they saw that Naruto's body was covered in third degree birds, meaning his skin was completely burned away. His eyes were also rolled back, and he promptly fainted.
"Naruto!" Haku, Shizune, and Tsunade all shouted simultaneously. The latter two rushed towards their fallen charge, Tsunade healing him while Shizune performed diagnostics.
"Kyuubi's chakra is already healing him Lady Tsunade, even though it caused the damage in the first place," Shizune explained to her mentor.
"From what I can gather with this chakra has the same effect as your Sozo Sazei no jutsu. If Naruto-kun continues to go through this process of rapid damage and rapid healing, his overall lifespan will decrease."
"You didn't deserve any of this Naruto, I'm so sorry," Tsunade whispered gently. She noted that healing him was taking longer than usual as well. The super strong blonde couldn't figure out which made her feel more guilty, asking Naruto to get angry and transform, or letting him suffer in the hate-filled Leaf village.
"I think we should have him refrain from using the Fox's chakra again," Haku suggested while squeezing his brother's hand gently.
"No argument from me," Shizune quickly agreed.
"Nor me," Tsunade added.
When the blonde Jinchurikki woke up several hours later, he remembered nothing of the recent events that took place. Haku explained to him what happened and begged him never to use the Nine-Tails power again.
"It's not just that you won't live as long, it's that you were so badly injured. I felt horrible having to see it. So did Sobo and O-née-chan."
"Don't worry Haku, I didn't want to use it to begin with. I've been through so much Hell thanks to that damned fox!" Naruto replied.
Seven days after that occurence, Tsunade heard on the TV news that Kirigakure had been attacked by the Kaguya Clan. They were outnumbered and wiped out before they even came close to destroying the village or killing off its population. Still, Tsunade decided that she and Shizune should offer medical aid to the people who were injured. They and their boys purposefully avoided the Blood Mist village, as it was called, due to the violent policies of the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura. Until now that is. Tsunade had told Naruto when they first set out about Kiri's leader purging bloodline users and worse, forcing genin to slaughter their fellow students as an apart of graduation from their academy, utterly shocking him.
"How could they make kids kill other kids that they trained, ate, and were friends with?!" he'd asked.
"Many suspect Yagura is being controlled, Ototou," Shizune responded.
Neither women had to tell Haku anything; his late mother had already informed him of the blody tradition, before he found out about their Yuki clan kekkei genkai.
They were fortunately only 24 hours away, and all took military ration pills to stay awake and full for the all-night and all-day journey. At sunrise, when they reached the outskirts of Kiri, they noticed a silver-haired boy with brown pants and a purple shirt watching them from a tree, not trying to be subtle at all.
"Can we help you with something kid?" the Blonde slug ninja asked.
"My name is Kimimaro ," he replied emotionlessly.
"My clan heard about you being the Land of Water," Kimimaro continued.
"and wanted to attack you. But they wanted to test their strength first against the Hidden Mist. As you can see they failed."
"You don't seem too broken up about losing your entire family," Shizune remarked.
"They weren't my family, I was just a tool to them. Locked up unless I was needed. And it was always to kill. Now that my bloodthirsty clan is dead, I have no purpose in life. Perhaps I could be of use to you, Tsunade of the Sanin?"
Tsunade shunshined onto the tree branch where Kimimaro was, cupped his face with her hands, and said, "I don't use people, but I do rely on them. How'd you like to be my third grandson?"
"You wish is my command." he responded cooly.
'That'll have to do for now. It'll take a while for me to make him an independent thinker and actor,' Tsunade thought to herself.
"Great! Now we can't bring you into Village Hidden in the Mist. You'll stick out as a Kaguya member and be killed on sight. Shizune, take him back to the Leaf!" the Senju woman commanded.
"Yes milady."
Shizune made the come here motion with her hands, and the orphaned child leapt down and landed next to her.
"These are my adoptive little brothers Naruto Uzumaki and Haku. I'll tell you about them on the way back. Do you have a bloodline like Haku does?"
Kimimaro nodded at her question, the made two sharp bone swords protrude from each of his top wrists, causing all present to gasp.
"Before you ask, no this doesn't hurt," Kimimaro said. Then he asked what Haku's abilites were. The boy who could pass for a girl out water out of thin air, then hardened it into an ice shaped Katana.
"Very impressive," Kimimaro commented.
"Thank you, Kaguya-san," Haku replied.
From the distance, masking his chakra, a female Root ANBU said to herself, "Danzo must hear about this," before shunshining away.