Naruto: Great Clan Days

by Kenchi618

Senju Hashirama's dream to unify all of the warring clans of his country under one village remained just that; a dream. Generations later, the ninja world still consists of pure clan affiliation. Enacting peace through understanding has fallen to the side. A catalyst is needed for any kind of change to occur, and it is all found in a little boy... for better or for worse. AU.

3. Go With the Flow

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I'd settle for getting my car fixed though if anyone wants to hook me up with that.

Chapter 3: Go With the Flow

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It had been a tense few days for the Uzumaki Clan following the apparent abduction of new jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto. The ships sent out to try and give chase didn't catch up in the short voyage that it would have taken to reach Hi no Kuni from Uzu no Kuni, and there had been no information on a little blond kid and a white-haired older ninja coming through any of the nearby port towns that they would have had to use on that coast.

That probably meant that they'd hopped off in a cove somewhere or jumped ship without the captain stopping at all, letting them water-walk or take a rowboat close enough to shore where they could just leave without docking anywhere.

So there was no sign of Naruto anywhere. He could literally be anywhere in all of the Elemental Nations. For all they knew they were off-track entirely and the ship that had absconded with him could have given them the slip by heading out west to Mizu no Kuni instead.

The sun rose and set, and the days rolled past until it was time for the set meeting with the Senju Clan to maintain their fostered clan friendship with the Uzumaki. Nagato had been dreading it, and from the window of his mansion that could see all of the village.

Since sunrise that morning after seeing to the preparations meant to greet his guests, Nagato had been standing at the window of his office staring down at the port reserved for the Uzumaki Clan side of the river until a ship made it there to dock.

With a sigh he left his office and began the long trip down to greet the Senju before his secretary and guard could even inform him that they had arrived, 'I just want to keep the Uzumaki Clan as peaceful as possible.' He thought to himself as he walked the halls, "If you're going to follow me like this you might as well walk with me by my side down to meet with the clan head."

"Thank you for the invitation Nagato-sama." A smooth female voice said from the shadows of the mansion before right next to Nagato a woman appeared in a whirlwind of paper, "It's an honor to walk by your side."

Nagato just rolled his eyes and smiled as he began to walk again with this new woman falling in step alongside him, "You know I'm the only one around here that can tell when you're being sarcastic Konan."

The Konan woman had neck-length blue hair with a large light blue paper flower in it on the right side, a small piercing under her lip, and a stony expression. Her clothing consisted of black leggings, white high-heeled sandals, and a navy blue robe tight around her body and neck that exposed her arms, the sides of her ample breasts, and started its downward slit at her stomach to show her pierced navel.

A small smile broke through her serious façade upon being called out by the Uzumaki Clan leader, "And what makes you think I'm being sarcastic Nagato. That hurts. You know I have nothing but respect for you."

"I know. You're a good person and a fine friend to have for all these years."

"Well I feel that one of your childhood friends has to show some sort of loyalty."

It was clear to Nagato which particular friend Konan was referring to, as he really didn't have that many left that were still alive, and there was really only one in particular that she'd always had a particular distaste for, "Kushina is being kept under watch in the mansion for suspicious activity already."

"I've already seen her." Konan said dryly, "In the garden just out back. I was watching her and she somehow knew I was there and waved at me." Not exactly the way a distraught mother was expected to act, but then again Kushina was a cheeky woman and Konan knew that she wasn't exactly a fan of her either, "I don't trust her Nagato."

"Well what would you have me do?" The red-haired man asked as the sun greeted them upon their exit from the mansion down the gigantic staircase that would take them into the clan side of the village, "She didn't lie to me. I went straight to her and put her on the spot with her life on the line. She spoke no lies."

The pierced beauty just let silence fall between the two of them. She knew that Nagato would never just kill Kushina. Konan was actually surprised that he was willing to use the threat of Soul Removal on her to try and interrogate her. Personally she would have preferred that he turned the heat up via interrogation with the King of Hell, but he wouldn't torture her. Not Kushina.

She was just happy as she was though, even with Kushina putting up her big fake smiles while walking around the mansion that she was technically prisoner in. She was happy that even though she wasn't a member of any clan, let alone the Uzumaki Clan, they treated her almost as if she was one due to her longstanding friendship with Nagato and her abilities as a kunoichi.

It was a cold world out there, especially when one was a shinobi with no clan at their back. Life as a close confidant of the Uzumaki Clan's most powerful ninja and leader was infinitely better than her life as a child, teenager, and young woman had been.

And she and Nagato were moving to greet one of the main contributors to the tumultuous nature of the world today in the Senju Clan.

Accompanied by a select group of Uzumaki Clan ninjas, they came to a stop as Nagato moved within range to greet them.

Most of these clan members wore traditional armor as well similar to what many Uzumaki Clan members wore only theirs seemed to be less elaborately plated than the host clan's choice of bodily protection.

Their leader didn't wear any armor at all though.

Senju Tsunade, widely considered to be the most powerful kunoichi in history and one of the most supremely powerful individuals living today. She had long blonde hair tied in two tails down her back and wore red lipstick while sporting a small green diamond mark on her forehead. Despite being at least twelve years Nagato's senior she looked to be in her twenties or so. No one ever called her on it though, unless they had a death wish.

The powerful woman dressed in markedly more casual attire than those she had chosen to take with her, choosing to wear an open deep green jacket. Underneath that she wore a sleeveless grey kimono blouse with a dull blue-grey obi holding it closed quite low enough to show off a good deal of her sizeable bust. Her pants were the same color as her obi, and she wore heeled sandals to complete her appearance.

"Senju-dono."

"Uzumaki-dono."

Nagato smiled amicably and extended his hand that Tsunade took and shook, "I hope you had a safe trip getting here." He could feel the bones in his hand creak just from such a simple gesture. She probably wasn't even trying to do it, 'This is probably her holding back as much as she can.'

"There wasn't any trouble. It's just as beautiful here as the last time I came by the way." Tsunade commented, looking around the serene setting that she found herself in, "It's been a few years."

It actually was extremely pleasant to come out to Uzu no Kuni. Compared to literally everywhere else in the world it was an extremely peaceful place. It was big enough for the Uzumaki Clan to live on and operate with good business as the only ninja clan, and small enough that you couldn't really fight a war there. Not like Mizu no Kuni, another sea-based nation that consisted of too many islands to count. That place was a breeding ground for constant conflict.

"Well it's wonderful to have you back." Nagato said as he and Konan fell into step with Tsunade and her entourage, joining their procession to the mansion, "I'll show you myself the prepared rooms where you and your escorts are to stay."

A stiff nod came from Tsunade and a preoccupied look came to the face of the young-looking lady, "I hate to bring it up so quickly without even getting settled in first, but some disturbing information has been drifting around for most of the last week. I think it would be best if we got to the bottom of the rumors as soon as possible to either dispel them or confirm them."

The mood between Konan and Nagato sobered quickly from the bright front the latter had put up upon greeting Tsunade. Things quickly got serious again.

"I understand." Nagato said, "Come with me."

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Naruto – Hi no Kuni Countryside)

Naruto was a little frustrated with the way that things were going. The rate of their progression being chief amongst the things frustrating him.

Five days since he had decided to follow Kakashi's lead in the search for Namikaze Minato, and pulse-pounding times of ninja awesomeness were not being had by all the way that he'd expected.

Now to be fair, Naruto didn't rightly know what to expect from the mainland of the Elemental Nations, but from the stories the picture that came to mind of what to expect from the country of Hi no Kuni was big forests, pretty blue rivers, and a desolate battlefield every few miles or so where if you were lucky (or unlucky) you could stumble into the midst of a huge conflict or two.

He did not expect to be sitting on top of a big long cart being dragged by a team of oxen down a sunny highway.

The reason for this particular predicament was due to the fact that they had absolutely no money. That was going to be a problem if they didn't know where they were going and how long it would take to get to wherever in the world it was.

Kakashi, being an intrepid young man with sources and a fellow nomad ninja in a similar vein as Minato had connections for garnering contracts and wound up dragging Naruto to see to one.

Their clients for the time being were a father and a young daughter that owned and operated a travelling business, a roving ramen stand that travelled all over the Elemental Nations and had taken their trade to Hi no Kuni for the time being and needed bodyguards to traverse the dangerous lands.

Naruto was an instant fan of theirs and was all for it at first. They paid them in regular installments for the duration of the contract, were willing to go anywhere that they could get business if there was a place in particular that their bodyguards wanted to go, and most important to Naruto they fed them for the free.

Yes please.

But it was just that they weren't ninjas. They were regular people; a middle-aged man and his fifteen year-old daughter. Not a bad thing or something reprehensible, but they didn't move very fast compared to shinobi.

"Maa, Naruto you shouldn't be so hasty to get into trouble." Kakashi called from where he was simply walking alongside the cart, reading calmly from a small book, "We have no idea where Minato-sama is and where to begin looking. Running all over the countryside for nothing isn't going to do anything for us but get you killed."

"Nothing's gonna kill me until I get mom back!" Naruto stated resolutely, sitting and pouting on the roof of the cart, "You work with my old man right?"

"Yes, I'm a confidant and a follower. I could even say that your father had a major hand in forming the kind of ninja I am today."

"So why don't you know where he is?"

"Because with that logic every time he needs to go somewhere new he would have to find me and tell me first. Do you have any idea how difficult it would be for him to actually find me when he needed to?"

Well it would probably be significantly easier for a few reasons that have yet to be explained, but it would still be rather tough even for him.

Not nearly as tough as it would be for Naruto and Kakashi to locate Minato himself though, that had to be emphasized.

Such was the life of a nomad ninja.

The nomad ninja, they had no home. Their home was where their spirit roamed… or so went the lyrics to that tune. How was it supposed to go again? Oh he'd remember it sometime later and make sure Naruto memorized it for kicks.

"Gah! That doesn't make any sense!" Naruto cried out, rubbing his spiky hair in exasperation, "You're friends with him and you say you work for him, but you can't find him and he can't find you!"

"I didn't say that I work for him, I said I'm a follower." Kakashi corrected with an amicable smile up at his current young charge, "I said that I believe in what your father's cause in the world happens to be. He's someone that I think has the ability to change the Elemental Nations for the better, and I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Naruto just squinted down at Kakashi, his face twisted in an expression of confusion. He didn't get it, "Right. Whatever you say." He tried to keep his skepticism from bleeding through into his voice, and he failed miserably.

Seriously, his father couldn't have been that big of a deal… could he? Maybe it was because Naruto had never seen the man in person, so he couldn't imagine what kind of guy he was. He didn't know.

"Stay sharp Naruto." Kakashi told him when he figured that Naruto was zoning out from the expression on his face, "Just because we don't know if anyone is after us doesn't mean that no one is out to get us."

Naruto just looked around at their surroundings. For once they weren't in a forest. They were on a high road constructed in a grassland area with more than its share of rolling, green, lovely hills, "Like who? We're literally the only ones out here. Two other guys and a billy goat walked this road coming the other way and that's been it all day."

And they had bought food from the ramen stand that stopped to feed them, thus slowing them down further.

"Bandits, local gangs, travelling street killers, other ninja clans." Kakashi listed off on one hand as he continued to just read, "Naming only a few of course. You don't have to look very hard to find a threat. We aren't on Uzu no Kuni anymore."

Naruto just silently mimicked Kakashi's subtle chiding about how they weren't on his home island any longer. He knew that, even if Kakashi hadn't been trying to fill his head with all kinds of general knowledge of exactly what Hi no Kuni was all about.

It was one of the more dangerous places to hang about for a clan ninja to live, which was really saying something. There were two clans, larger than any other that found themselves constantly at each other's throats dominating most of the landscape between each other; the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan. For every other clan in the country that wasn't Senju or Uchiha they were basically either with one or against them both in this.

Completely sovereign clans that didn't choose to favor one over the other found themselves as proxy enemies of both simultaneously, so it wasn't a good place to refuse to side with one or the other. Neither the Senju or Uchiha clan had many fans outside of those that had chosen to join up with them, but it was nowhere near an equal partnership for the ones that did as they were basically the buffers for their larger comrades and forced to defer.

That wasn't important right now however. It would be the moment they came across a Senju or an Uchiha, but until that point in time they would be fine. For the time being their goal was to protect that ramen cart and pick up Minato's trail.

Good little ninja that he wanted to be though, Naruto kept a sharp eye from his elevated position peeled on looking for anything that he would perceive as threatening until a hatch next to him on the roof opened up and a teenage girl of fifteen wearing a white robe with the sleeves folded back to behind her elbows climbed up with a sigh. She had brown eyes and long brown hair covered partially with a solid white bandanna.

She was the daughter of the man that owned the travelling cart. Just a regular civilian girl, and one of Naruto and Kakashi's two clients.

Grinning at seeing Naruto sitting so close to the hatch, she reached out and pinched his cheek much to his chagrin, "How's it look up here Naruto-chan?" Ugh, she just had to be five years older than him didn't she? He was a deadly, deadly shinobi for goodness sake, not a pet or a cute little kid, "Getting the view from inside at the bar window isn't really that fun even if dad seems to be okay with it."

"It's not fun up here either." Naruto said as she climbed the rest of the way up and sat down next to him, "Hey, it's dangerous up here." He heard Kakashi snort from where he was walking alongside the cart due to the young ninja's change in attitude from mere moments earlier, but Naruto ignored it.

Taking a moment to scan the surroundings of the cart, the girl frowned at Naruto's apparent warning, "There's nothing out there."

"Uh… Just because we don't know if anyone is after us doesn't mean that no one is out to get us?" Naruto said, trying to remember and quote Kakashi verbatim from just before, once again hearing a snicker from the facemask-clad ninja, "Shut up Kakashi!" It wasn't his fault. He was distracted by the smell of the magnificent food that the cart served.

The frown remained on the girl's face, "Aw, that's a shame. And here I made you something to eat and everything." With that she placed a steaming hot bowl of miso ramen right in front of Naruto, who was torn between trying to keep an eye out and stare down at the godly sustenance that taunted him with its close proximity.

"C-Can't eat." Naruto said, stopping his own hand from involuntarily moving toward the bowl once the girl presented a pair of chopsticks and put them into the bowl ready for use, "Gotta keep lookout." His stomach protested loudly at his apparent commitment to excellence.

"It's okay Naruto." Kakashi consented from the ground with a helpful smile, "There's nothing on this road anyway."

"Hate you!" The hungry young ninja shouted down to Kakashi, "Hate you so much right now!" Perhaps Naruto needed to amend his list of dislikes to include guys with masks, because he wasn't the biggest fan of them right now. But upon being given the go ahead, Naruto immediately dove into the food presented for him before it could get any cooler in the spring air, "Thank you Ayame!"

He felt the need to slip the thanks in to the girl as he started chowing down since he probably wasn't going to stop to take a breath until he was good and done. Man, it was good stuff!

Ayame smiled at the gratitude, but it wasn't really a happy one as she sat and watched Naruto eat rapidly. He was so adorable, a little pint-sized ninja. But even so… "I don't think you like me very much do you Naruto-chan?"

That got Naruto to pause in his eating, a mouthful of noodles hanging limply, "Hmm?" He finished the rest of what he had to eat at that moment and stopped chewing before answering, "What are you talking about? What makes you think I don't like you?"

"Well yeah, you introduced yourself and you smiled and all of that, but the only person you really seem to ever say anything to is Hatake-san. That's okay." The pretty ramen waitress said with a shrug, "I just thought you were a cute kid, and you seem nice. Kind of loud-." Amongst other negative traits, "-But you seem like you need a friend."

Naruto's face asked the question even if his mouth didn't. Was it really that obvious? And he didn't mean to come off as if he didn't like her. She was a kind girl, but Naruto didn't feel like he was in a situation where he could stop and smell the roses.

Kakashi had told him something a few days ago that stuck out in his mind. He wasn't going home anytime soon, so it would probably be for the best if he found a way to make some friends or something out in the world. It was dangerous to do so yes, but Kakashi was well aware of Naruto's black sheep status in the Uzumaki Clan.

If he didn't have someone out there to befriend, what was he going to do with himself? Hang out with Kakashi all day? No, Kakashi wasn't the child-friendly type. He liked them when they weren't miniature killing machines, but he wasn't really the best person to be around them for long periods of time by himself. It was a secondary reason that he took the Ichiraku Ramen contract to begin with, because Naruto needed some sense of structure if only for a little while.

And Ayame apparently fell in love with the little bastard at first sight. He was the most adorable thing she'd seen since her father had packed up from their original home and taken their business on the road permanently and it was quite obvious that she wanted to hug him or put him in her lap, or something. But with everything happening that he had yet to get used to, Naruto was about as cuddly as a pit viper right now and roughly as dangerous as one to boot.

"I'd... like a friend." Naruto admitted in a bit of an embarrassed grumble, "It's alright with me I guess." Was it? Yeah, she was a good person and he knew as much.

Ayame let out a pleased squeal and gave Naruto a quick hug with a big smile on her face, "Can I put you in my lap?"

"No." Naruto said, confused at what was going on now. Why would she ask him something like that? How strange.

"Could you call me Ayame-neechan?" She asked with big doe eyes. Unlike with Karin, this hadn't been done to death with Ayame, meaning that it still had some sway over him.

Even weirder still, "What? Why?"

"Can I feed you?"

"Wha-? No! Hell no!"

"But you're so cute and little!"

"I'm not little, I'm 10!" Naruto knew he was short even for his age. He didn't need it being brought up when he had to live it every day. He'd grow eventually damn it!

"Right, you're little!"

"…"

"…"

"If you can give me two of those things I asked for I'll get you seconds in just a bit."

"…Okay, you can put me in your lap… Ayame-neechan."

Viper meet snake charmer.

XxX

(Uzu no Kuni – Uzumaki Clan Village – Clan Leader's Mansion)

It was extremely disconcerting information to hear firsthand, and it was a rumor that Tsunade would have much rather debunked than had proven correct, but as she sat in front of the desk in a private meeting with Nagato it was exactly what she was hearing from him.

"You mean to tell me that you really do have a full-blown brand-new jinchuuriki out there, and you don't know where he is-." Tsunade said, fingers tapping on the desk she was sitting in front of impatiently, "-Because someone took him from your village?"

"That's correct." Nagato said, "A few days after Uzumaki Naruto's jinchuuriki status became known to us he was abducted." His fingers netted together in front of his face as his Rinnegan eyes stared directly at the unnaturally young face of the Senju leader, "We believe he was created and abducted by the same person or organization, as there was no way that word left this island of him being the container of a biju."

"Were you ever going to tell us that you had a jinchuuriki in your midst?"

"The situation was to be remedied before your arrival. He had been taken the day before preparations for the extraction process were completed." The explanation from Nagato was as guarded as could be. Just because they were supposed to be friendly with the Senju Clan didn't mean that he was going to cough up some of their most sacred secrets and knowledge of their more sensitive techniques.

There was a reason that they were the ones called to deal with every single one of the very few jinchuuriki incidents that had occurred in the world after all, because they had the consensus best methods of dealing with them.

An irked Tsunade put on a bit of a strained smile and it showed all over her face, "Alright, which biju does he have then?"

"That's indefinite at this time." Nagato's eyes drifted downward when he heard the force of Tsunade's fingers drumming on the desk crack the hard wood. Just tapping her fingers idly had punched holes in the desk, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't damage my furniture Senju-dono."

His concerns over the condition of his furniture was ignored by Tsunade abruptly standing up, "So you not only have a kidnapped jinchuuriki out and about with Kami knows who, but you don't even know which one he has in him?"

Sure it wasn't definite, but with the info available and a knowledge of tailed beast patterns of appearance one could break it down. The Ichibi never left the desert, the Nibi would never turn up anywhere near large bodies of water, the Yonbi and Gobi liked more mountainous areas, but that still left five more that it could possibly be.

Once again, while he couldn't lie very well at all, Nagato was not going to let on to their most intimate secrets. While he hadn't been able to find a way to deal with how fine the seal-work on Naruto was, he had discovered other things from his research. The whisker-marks would have only been the possible markings of two creatures, one of whom had been eliminated by the region that they lived in.

Naruto had the Kyuubi in him. Of all creatures it had to be the one with the most tails didn't it? He hadn't told anyone outside of the need-to-know spectrum which tailed beast Naruto had within him, because it really didn't matter if you didn't know, but it was something kind of scary to think about.

If he told Tsunade that the Kyuubi was the one inside of Naruto, she and the Senju Clan would collectively overreact. Well overreact wasn't quite the best word because it was certainly a big deal, but it would be damn close to appropriate. That clan didn't have the best longstanding history with that particular biju.

No one had a good history with any of them that they'd come across in recorded history, but for the Kyuubi in particular with the Senju Clan. Being used as a weapon in battle against the strongest ninja in their clan's history by their most hated enemy would do that.

"We can handle this ourselves." Nagato insisted with a bit of a diplomatic edge. Yes, she was older and more experience, but if Tsunade believed that he would back down on this she had another thing coming, "If this had happened to any other clan and word had gotten out about it to you or to us we'd be the ones going out to handle it regardless, so what makes this time any different?"

"Because this time you're the one it's happening to." Tsunade pointed out with a narrowing of her eyes, "That kind of puts some scrutiny on you doesn't it? Who better than to try and take control of the biju than the only clan in the world that everyone knows for a fact can handle them?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Not at all. Take him away in a staged kidnapping, keeping him out of the eyes of the rest of the world and training him for your own devices." Tsunade presented as a possible scenario, "Not a bad plan to begin making a play for the top."

It did sound like something that could be done with their resources, but that still didn't stop Nagato from bristling at the accusation because it was entirely untrue, "I don't think I like what you're insinuating. And how pray tell did you even come across the information that led to this conversation anyway? The child that the biju was sealed inside of was attacked by one man… wearing equipment to conceal their identity and any discernable features."

"Well apparently they wanted the word to spread."

"But you don't know who it is or where the rumor originated from?"

Tsunade slowly sat back down and inspected her colorful nails as she spoke, "It's been passed around so many clans in Hi no Kuni so quickly it's alarming. There's no idea where it started from. But it turned out to be true much to my chagrin, and I'm certain that you know what this means Uzumaki-dono."

Of course he did. He wasn't a political novice, but even so, after the conversation he'd been having Nagato was feeling a tad vindictive today, "No. Go ahead and enlighten me."

'Cheeky upstart.' Tsunade said with a narrowing of her eyes, "Fine."

And so she laid it out. Everything. With the fact that the origin of the rumor wasn't from the Uzumaki Clan, it would seem like they were breaking the precarious balance that the world already sat on. That would make them no friends on that front. And as they were so closely linked with the Senju Clan it would seem like they were using their position as an actual close partner to the most powerful clan in the world to do as they pleased to consolidate the power of both.

Having even one jinchuuriki between them would make them horrendously imposing to do battle with, but the threat would hang in the air that the Uzumaki Clan could always make more if they could locate the extremely elusive biju necessary to do so.

They needed to find Naruto somehow before the hackles of the other clans in the rest of the world were raised. If one clan got a wild hair up its ass and decided to raise the stakes by trying to make their own jinchuuriki, starting an arms race of sorts.

And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that being set on an island and having the Senju Clan as a close ally would do nothing any longer once the Uzumaki Clan found themselves in the crosshairs of the others.

Hearing it all started fully putting the weight of what was going on firmly on Nagato's shoulders, "We'll handle it. We'll handle it before everything starts coming to a head. You may be able to subdue the power of a biju…" Nagato pointed at the green crystal necklace worn by Tsunade, "…So you should head up the search through Hi no Kuni. We'll handle the search at sea until one of us pinpoints him."

"And you're sure about that?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow, "How exactly do you plan on locating him at sea? He could be anywhere. You said it yourself."

Nagato just shook his head, "We've got powerful sensors, you should know this. We'll be fine on our end. There are only so many places one can travel to from sea even if it's a vast place."

"What about extraction? Isn't it unsafe to kill a new jinchuuriki?"

"No. At least not any longer. And definitely not by the time that one of us will find Naruto." Nagato pulled out a picture of Naruto that was taken after he had taken his first missions on the island as a ninja, "If you find him you can end his life, and the same thing will happen to the biju."

It would reform eventually however, but it would solve the problem. Nagato didn't expect it after saying such a thing, but Tsunade clearly had a problem with killing a child. Surprising considering the nature of the relationship between Senju and Uchiha had children Naruto's age on the battlefield taking on adults as full-fledged shinobi.

Her face looked hesitant as she looked at the picture of the blond boy, as if looking at an image of a ghost of the past. Nagato tried not to let it show that he saw it, but he didn't think she was paying attention to anything other than the image.

Tsunade cleared her throat to regain composure before speaking, "And you say that killing him is the only option?"

"The only option other than extraction." Nagato said, "But the process has an almost unanimous chance of killing him and a 92% chance of effectively ending his career as a ninja on the off-chance that he somehow survives."

"I see."

Outside, Kushina leaned against the closed doors. The meeting wasn't necessarily secret. It was just possible that it was to get heated and no one on either side should have been nearby in case tempers flared.

It wasn't forbidden for anyone to be near, and she had listened in for most of the meeting. Taking a deep breath, Kushina shut her eyes and placed a hand over her heart, 'I gave you as much of a headstart as I could Naruto. I believe in you and I believe in Kakashi.' She opened her eyes as she felt another presence nearby, "Konan."

"Kushina." Konan's footsteps brought her nearly face-to-face with the Uzumaki redhead, "You always know when I'm getting close." She heard a jangle of a chain, but figured it was in her head as she hadn't seen anything, "It's rather annoying."

"Mmm, I'm good at what I do like that." Kushina said wryly, "I was never the best at ninjutsu, but I'm very tricky." The blue-haired woman's amber eyes narrowed at Kushina who stood off of the door to face her, ill intent leveling between the two, "You know, I never figured what your problem was with me after all these years."

"My problem?" Konan said, moving close enough to stand chest-to-chest with Kushina, "Where should I start? Everything that I would have dreamed of as a child you have right in front of you, but what are you willing to do to preserve it. This village, your peace, the trust in you that Nagato-sama has. You don't believe in the bottom line and what's in front of you. What about the greater good Kushina?"

"Whose greater good? The clan's?" Kushina replied, baring her teeth at the insinuation from Konan, "And how much should I give up until someone like you thinks that it's enough? I lost my parents on the battlefield as a little girl, I gave up my husband for the clan's traditions, I gave up my career for the clan's peace of mind, and now my only son is missing and slated to be killed. So I'm so sorry Konan." She finished with the thickest sarcasm that she could muster.

It was not lost on the close friend of the clan leader, "Sorry you say?"

"I'm sorry that I love the family that I had-, no, the family that I have, because Minato and Naruto are still out there somewhere. I'm sorry I can't help but love them more than a clan that will turn their backs on me for having a child with the man I adore."

She didn't back down a step, even though Konan knew for a fact that Kushina hadn't taken a mission outside of routine deliveries and things on the island she'd taken with Naruto since he'd been born. She hadn't fought a real battle in years. Those men, Naruto and Minato, they were her daily peace.

"If not for this clan you'd have never had enough peace to find that man of your dreams. If not for Nagato-sama protecting you on that Senju mission decades ago-." Kushina just laughed before Konan could finish that statement and moved right past the paper-manipulating kunoichi, much to her confusion and anger. She was playing off the events of the mission that Nagato first established his name in the world on? She was laughing like she knew something that no one else did, "What are you laughing at?"

"It's a family secret." Kushina replied cryptically as she brushed past Konan and walked down the hallway of the mansion, "…But if you really have that much of a problem with me you can either sit on it the way you are now, or we can go out to this isolated little ravine that my baby discovered to play in and we can settle up like women. Nobody has to know."

Before Konan's hand could reach the doorknob, it stopped in midair, shaking in excitement momentarily at the thought before she quelled the desire to go and do so, "You're never supposed to leave the mansion, and if I took it too far and killed you Nagato-sama would never forgive me."

"Well whenever you feel like you want to I'm right here." Kushina threw her hands up behind her neck as she left, somewhat reminiscent of how her son would stand or walk when he was playing something off, "I'm not going anywhere for a while."

It was a good way to end a conversation to piss people off she'd come to learn. From how she could feel Konan trying to burn a hole through her back with her eyes it had clearly worked.

"I'm going to go find Naruto myself for Nagato."

This time it was Kushina who visibly reacted, stopping mid-stride for a few seconds before continuing on along her way without turning around. She didn't have to. Konan knew that she'd gotten to her.

XxX

(Some Time Later – With Naruto – Hi no Kuni Countryside)

A yawn found its way out of Naruto's mouth as he diligently sat on the roof of the ramen cart and kept an eye on all of the scenic surroundings that they'd stopped at in order to sell food for a short time.

In the mid-afternoon they'd managed to reach a very busy crossroad area with several paths leading in all sorts of directions, with people visible travelling at the time they'd reached it. The owner of the ramen cart saw that then was just as good a time as any to set up and make some money.

Naruto wondered why they didn't just go the rest of the way into a village that was only a few miles away down one of the roads, but Kakashi just rubbed his head and said that they'd probably wind up doing that in a little while. The travelling crowd was the target demographic of Ichiraku Ramen, so seeing to folks outside of the village was a priority of sorts at the moment.

Kakashi had gone ahead into town to scout things out a bit just in case there was something worth being wary about, leaving Naruto for the time being to watch over the cart and the people lining up for a meal, 'This place really does good business.' He thought to himself with a big smile. That was good that so many people in the world knew how spectacular ramen was.

It was also a gorgeous spot. Aside from the roads that joined and separated at that very point, there was a view of a sprawling grassy hill that sat by a pristine, blue body of running water that most people chose to go over to and sit down by while they took a rest and ate.

"You bored up here Naruto-chan?" Ayame asked, poking her head out of the hatch during a lull in customers.

"Nah, I'm fine." Naruto assured her with a grin. After dropping his guard a bit around the civilian teenager, Naruto was just as nice as she knew he'd be, "I can sit up here and watch out for stuff. The last few times you and Teuchi-san stopped I got to train a bit, so I've got to do my job right?"

Ayame opened her mouth to say more but was cut off by a shout from back inside, "Ayame, you can play with Naruto after we pack up! Come back down and help with the cooking!" After hearing her father requesting her assistance, Ayame just spared Naruto a wave and went back inside.

Customers just kept coming though, and Naruto had to wonder how much money they were making as time dragged on. Naruto felt the need to count the number of people, and he could only shake his head in amazement when the number served had pushed past one hundred.

As he watched over everything going on around him, Naruto noticed that someone's eyes were on him and looked over at a girl his age standing out of line and looking up at him with curiosity shining in her steel-grey eyes.

She had brown hair put up in two buns with bangs falling over her forehead and wore a pink sleeveless blouse with yellow straps or whatever on the chest keeping it closed. She had dark green pants and blue sandals on her feet. Much like Naruto, she had a kunai pouch on her right thigh, "Are you a ninja?" She asked as she looked up at Naruto.

Naruto just squinted down at her and scratched the side of his face, "Uh, does it matter?" He then had to roll off of the back of the cart when some shuriken were hurled at his head, "Hey!" He shouted as he stomped around the cart and got into the girl's face, "What the hell was that?"

It would have probably been a bit intimidating if he was at least her height, but sadly he came up about four or five inches short. Damn it. Why couldn't he grow already?

"You are a ninja." The girl said, sounding quite smug at proving that point by forcing Naruto to dodge or eat a chest full of metal, "I don't know why you're so mad. I made sure that I would have missed even if you didn't move."

The sight of how pleased she seemed to be at proving her point left Naruto at an immediate loss for words, "…Who are you supposed to be?"

"Tenten." The tomboyish girl said, grabbing Naruto's hand and shaking it as a greeting, "So what clan are you from?"

"What makes you think I'm in a clan?"

"The big spiral thing on your shirt. That's a clan insignia isn't it?" She noted the blank look on Naruto's face and laughed slightly at his expression, "You're kind of a dummy aren't you?"

It definitely wasn't a Senju or Uchiha marking, which every living person in Hi no Kuni would know on sight, but the girl knew a clan insignia when she saw one. Still, as proud as Naruto was of being an Uzumaki Clan ninja, he was told repeatedly by Kakashi to do his best to make sure that he didn't go around spouting his clan of origin when he was alone.

"So…" Naruto said, trying to change the subject without getting into his surname, "Are you a ninja? What clan are you from?"

"I don't have a clan." Tenten said with a sad bit of a smile that got Naruto to frown, "I just live around here, and one day two years ago or something, a man stopped around here for a while. He was a ninja too, and he didn't have a clan either so he taught me some basic stuff." She reached out and brushed at Naruto's hair, "He looked a lot like you actually. That's why I came over here."

"What was his name?" Naruto asked, a bit in awe of the fact that she might have seen who he thought she'd seen, "Was it Minato-something?"

"Namikaze Minato-sama!" Tenten said brightly, "You do know him!"

She knew his dad. Holy shit. That was literally the best news he'd heard in over two weeks. He'd have given her a huge hug if that wouldn't have been totally weird. Also she referred to him in the exact same way that Kakashi did.

And she was his age.

…

Oh, if it turned out that Tenten was his daughter or something he now had a new reason to keep searching for Minato; to cut his goddamn pecker off for leaving his mom all alone in Uzu no Kuni without word for ten years and spreading his seed across the world.

It was totally insensitive, but Naruto needed to ask for peace of mind. Placing his hands on Tenten's shoulders he tried not to mince words, "Do you know who your parents are?"

Tenten raised an eyebrow in confusion as to why that mattered, but she nodded, "Yeah. They died a few years before that. A casualty of one of the bigger Senju/Uchiha battles. I'm not a ninja from my parents or anything."

Oh thank Kami. But that was really sad though. And just before it could begin to show on Naruto's face and he could comment on it, Tenten just shook her head and calmly removed Naruto's hands from keeping a hold on her.

She was far from the only sob story of a similar ilk that one could find wandering around in this world. It was the kind of world where living past thirty was a major accomplishment. Naruto had been told by Kushina and later by Kakashi just how messed up the Elemental Nations were, but this was the first time he was actually seeing it.

Looking around, Naruto could actually make out that it was true once he started paying attention. He couldn't see a single customer out there that he'd guess as being any older than twenty-five at the oldest. The oldest person he'd even seen so far was the man inside of the ramen cart wearing the white robe similar to Ayame's with the white hat serving food; Teuchi. That was the oldest person he'd seen thus far, and he was only forty-one!

It was true so far, that living to thirty thing. That was horrible! In the Uzumaki Clan village he didn't think there were many old people then, but there were way more than he was seeing now! Was it going to be like this everywhere?

"I can show you the battlefield if you want to." Tenten said a bit sadly, "It's… not far. A few miles away. The land still hasn't really recovered yet. It's no Valley of the End or anything, but it's still a pretty ugly scar on the earth."

"That's okay." Naruto said, giving her the biggest grin he could muster given the somewhat morbid circumstances, "I've gotta stay with the cart. I'm the bodyguard you know! I can't really leave it."

And that put things back into perspective for Tenten. The original reason that she'd run out to the cart to begin with that day upon hearing from the nearby village that there was a travelling ramen cart that had set up shop and was selling to travelers passing through, "There are bandits around here."

She'd originally come to warn the owners of the cart, and if need be finally put some of the training she'd been doing to use to fight the bandits that had been killing and stealing from people on this highway for the last year or so.

It was terrifying to think of, to go and fight people that had already killed a bunch of others, but the world was already a terrible enough place for most of the people living in it without the weak needing to be subjected to that kind of life around here. There wasn't any need for people making existence any more miserable for the populace than it already was.

"I can beat up bandits." Naruto said with a shrug. He'd had some missions in Uzu no Kuni where he and his mother had run across some bad guys, and even though she did the lion's share of the fighting by far, as in roughly 94% of the ruffians that were come across were handled by Kushina, in the eight situations where they'd been in real battles Naruto had fought as well.

They didn't have chakra, but they were grown men and he'd been eight years old when he fought his first one.

"These people use chakra." Tenten said, knowing the difference between some highwaymen and people that were actually dangerous to those that knew how to defend themselves as a ninja, "They're actually strong."

"How do you know?" Naruto asked only for him to receive his answer from a third party.

"Because she already tried to fight us before."

Chattering amongst the people came before they started to clear out away from the ramen cart at the sight of three individuals coming up. What Naruto didn't get was why people were running away from three people that didn't look that much older than him, maybe two or three years.

One walked with something of a hunch. A boy with a lavender poncho with extremely long sleeves, a straw raincoat on his back, snake-patterned pants, and a head covered in bandages like a mummy with the exception of his left eye. Naruto could understand that one at least. That was a freaky-looking guy.

The second boy of the group looked a lot like a run-of-the-mill thug with sunken black eyes, spiky black hair, a beige shirt with a red kanji for death on the front of it, tight black wristbands, snake-patterned pants, and a snake-patterned scarf.

The last was a girl that was kind of pretty, with long black hair that almost reached her feet tied with a small bow at the end. She wore pale green zip-up vest and snake-patterned pants and a scarf.

Weird kids, but there was something threatening about their presence Naruto had to admit, "Do you guys want ramen?" Hey, for all he knew they could have been customers. Tenten's hard palming of her forehead let him know that he was way off-base, "…Guess not."

"Oh Kami, he really is some kind of idiot." She muttered to herself under her breath.

"This is the bodyguard?" The dark-haired boy that looked like a thug asked, pointing a thumb at Naruto with a laugh, "He's a total runt. I don't know whether to burp him or get Kin to breast feed him." He got a hard punch from the girl for that remark but he only laughed harder.

The mummy boy who seemed to be the leader stepped forward, leaning strangely ahead with his arms hanging downward, sleeves dragging on the ground, "Let's be civil about this today since it is still light outside and all. If your little ramen cart forks over all of its money and valuables we won't kill you. And that'll be your only warning."

"Yeah?" Naruto asked, knees bending and fists clenching to get ready for a fight. Three-on-one? That was going to suck, "I'll give you one warning too. Go away and I won't kick your asses to the coastline."

The three would-be assailants all shared looks of amusement between each other before the girl of the bunch leaned forward in a patronizing motion and looked over at Tenten, "Aww, you didn't tell him what we did to you last year when we first showed up and you tried to play hero did you?"

"It was three-on-one." Tenten said, bristling at the apparent reminder of something that she wasn't particularly proud of, "I could take any of you in a one-on-one fight!" Unfortunately things didn't always shake out that way, and it seemingly wouldn't again today.

"But it's not, and it won't be." The girl, Kin was her name, said with a pitiful shake of her head, "That little sense of justice or whatever you call it isn't as strong as your sense of self-preservation, otherwise you would have accepted the offer we gave you after we almost killed you the first time. You could have joined you know."

"Oi!" Naruto shouted, feeling quite forgotten and offended that he had been, "Yo! Ramen cart! Me! You threatening! Gonna kick your asses! Remember?"

The mummy boy just chuckled deeply and gestured his head for the spiky-haired boy, "Well Zaku you heard him. Show this baby how real being a shinobi can be, even for kids like him."

Zaku walked forward, cracking his knuckles as he seemed to tower over Naruto, "Well it's not really gonna be a lesson he can take with him anywhere, except to the afterlife. Come on runt. Show me what you've got."

Naruto was going to step forward to fight when Tenten grabbed his arm to keep him back, "I wouldn't. These guys are dangerous people. They will kill you if you lose."

The blond looked at her and then back at the ramen cart, taking note of the concerned faces of Teuchi and Ayame, Naruto turned back to Zaku and got Tenten to let go of him, "I guess I'll have to win then."

"Make it quick would you?" Kin called out to Zaku from the sidelines as her partner squared off with the diminutive Uzumaki Clan member, "I don't want to be out here all night."

And that next bit of underestimation was the last straw as far as Naruto's temper went, as he outright attacked Zaku with a straight-ahead dash and a punch that Zaku crossed his arms over his body to defend. He blocked but slid back a few feet on the dirt road, "Ooh, the runt isn't that slow."

As he blocked, Naruto squinted at the sight of something embedded in the palms of Zaku's hands, 'Are those tubes, or pipes, or what are those?' While he was thinking he was almost caught off-guard when Zaku retaliated and came at him in return, delivering a knee to Naruto's belly that lifted him off of the ground due to the height of the attacker and the recipient, "Guh!"

"He isn't that fast either, or that tough apparently." Kin pointed out with a laugh at Naruto's expense as she saw him go limp over Zaku's knee, "Would you stop playing with him already?"

"Alright." Zaku grabbed Naruto by his collar and lifted him off of the ground before placing his other hand in front of his face, "I guess blowing his head off would be enough to get the message across. Let me play you a lullaby junior."

All of his posturing to a seemingly unconscious Naruto came back to bite him, literally, as Naruto did. The little ninja seemingly came back to life and bit down on three of Zaku's fingers, eliciting a scream of pain and agony from him as he swore he felt his fingers break instantly from how hard he'd been bitten.

Kin and her mummy-like partner couldn't believe what they were seeing as Zaku ran around the road screaming about getting Naruto off of him. It didn't seem like Naruto was going to let go until he snapped one of those digits off to take home with him.

Eventually Naruto did let go, and crouched to the ground before jumping at him enemy and uncorking a haymaker of a punch that knocked the older ninja down over in front of his teammates, "Grr…" He growled and sneered as he got back up to his feet, wiping away the blood at his lip, "You're dead."

Tenten gasped as she saw Zaku make hand-seals to gain access to some sort of technique, "Be careful! Those are the signs for his jutsu!"

"Too late little girl!" Zaku bellowed, storming in Naruto's direction as the latter pulled out a handful of shuriken to hurl his way in order to deter his direct attack, "Zankuuha (Decapitating Airwaves)!" From the tubes in his hands, he fired out a powerful blast of air faster than Naruto could dodge from his position. His shuriken were blown away, and so was he.

Covering up did little for Naruto as he was knocked away far and hard enough to fall off of the road down the side of a hill.

"Oh no…" Tenten tried to run over to look down and determine Naruto's fate only to be stopped by a trio of senbon being thrown at her before she could reach the hillside, "Enough already!"

"No." The bandaged boy said as the three of them walked together to bear down on Tenten as one, "We warned him, and we warned you too." Tenten quickly drew as many weapons as she could hold and threw them at her enemies only for them to be blown out of the way by Zaku's ninjutsu.

This was how they had handled her so easily during their first encounter. None of her projectiles could reach her targets since Zaku could just blow them all away. Fine. She'd worked on what she'd do in that situation after being defeated the last time.

Tenten pulled out a scroll and suddenly unsealed a short staff with a metal weight attached to the end, "It won't be that easy this time."

Kin smirked and threw more senbon Tenten's way only for her to deflect them with a skillful spin of her staff prior to her directly rushing Kin who hadn't been expecting a follow-up after such a smooth defense. She really wasn't going to let them dictate the fight this time.

The bandaged one stepped in the way and blocked Tenten's staff strike with his right arm, revealing that he kept a metal gauntlet with multiple large pores on it, "Well you got better." He said as his arm stung from the power behind her swing, "But you forgot about something, or maybe you never knew about it to begin with."

"That's so cruel Dosu." Kin remarked from behind the human mummy, "You know you didn't have to use that on her for us to win this."

Tenten didn't know what he was talking about until she realized that the ringing clang of her hitting the gauntlet was lasting longer than it should have, and it was making her feel dizzy and ill, "What is this supposed to… I don't…"

"Sound waves amplified and sent straight into your ears honey." The dark kunoichi continued as she moved to the back of the team formation, "It's dangerous right? A little more subtle than what all those other clans throw around out there isn't it?"

"Kyoumeisen (Resonating Echo Drill)." Dosu explained, "Yes, I didn't have to use this the first time for us to beat you down. But I think your tenacity deserved a gift. To show you what you could have had if you'd have accepted our offer to join the Snake Clan after we showed you our strength already. You could have been given the same level of power."

"I don't need to rely on other people. I can be strong without handouts." Tenten said, dropping to the ground, breathing heavily to try and settle her stomach to keep from vomiting as she was seeing double, "And if attacking people that can't fight back is what you call power you can have it."

Zaku flexed out his hands and laughed at her mindset, "Tch. Well I guess you're happy being a weakling. And we all know what happens to weaklings." He extended his hands forward as Dosu backed away to leave her to her fate, "They get blown away."

A sharp whistle directed his attention away from the downed girl and all of the bandit ninjas turned to see Naruto standing up again, looking rather pissed off.

"Well look who woke up." Zaku said, cracking his neck as he held one hand down still aiming at Tenten, "Come on again runt. I only need one hand to take you on. I'll do you a favor and kill both of you at the same time so you don't feel too lonely in the afterlife."

"Better idea." Naruto said before spinning around in a circle. In a puff of smoke, he hurled a massive pair of shuriken at Zaku who merely grinned and leaned out of the way, allowing both of them to miss. They even veered past Dosu without making contact with him or Kin as well, "Crap."

His laughter was loud and mocking in return, "Oh man you suck! Oh, oh… this is-. Ah man! You are the worst ninja I've ever seen!"

His taunting was cut short when both he and Dosu heard a dull thump on the ground and turned around to see Kin facedown and unconscious with only two puffs of smoke dissipating around her body to mark that anything had happened to her.

"What the hell?" Zaku's eyes almost bulged out of his skull. Nothing had happened! Those shuriken hadn't made contact with anything! They weren't anywhere around, and they hadn't hit the ground either, "What did you-?" Looking down at where he had Tenten he no longer saw her there, "What the hell?"

"What, what, what." Naruto droned, somehow with Tenten back next to him again, holding her head that was still smarting from Dosu's attack, "You were standing still. I know how to aim a shuriken."

"How'd you take out Kin without either of us seeing?" Dosu asked, narrowing his eye at Naruto who just stuck his middle finger up at him as an answer, "I don't like you."

"I don't care. You guys are creepy anyway." Naruto replied. He wasn't going to give away a bread and butter combination like a pair of Kage Bunshin combined with a hell of a Henge if his opponents didn't figure it out already. He put some real effort behind his emphatic rude gesture before looking over at Tenten who was slowly recovering, "Are you alright?"

Tenten shook her head as things finally started clearing up for her. She definitely didn't recall getting hit with Dosu's jutsu the last time around, but Naruto had managed to take out Kin before she could use her jutsu.

That was entirely unexpected, "Wait." The bun-haired girl said reaching out and touching Naruto to make sure that it was the real deal, "Zaku hit you with his air wave thing. How did you get up? He sent you flying!" She then noticed that he was absolutely soaked, "You landed in the river didn't you?"

"I blocked the hit and the water broke my fall." Naruto said in confirmation, but even so it still hurt like hell, not that he was willing to sell any injury at the moment, "Can we finish this already?" Naruto was staring right at Dosu, "Take your pick. Which one do you want? Blowhard jackass or mummy-man."

"Ah…" Tenten thought before shrugging and making her selection without saying anything, instead she just rushed directly at Zaku.

If the odds were even and she was going to pick one or the other she'd choose the one that looked the most normal. She'd also pick the one that Naruto already proved he could lay out. Maybe she could do it too.

He wasn't that tough all alone. Naruto had shown that much. She'd been training so hard so that she'd never lose so easily to someone again, and numbers did matter in battle. It was fortunate that Naruto managed to even it up. Where before she couldn't get the thought of being outnumbered out of her head, her chest swelled with confidence now that things were all square.

"Tch." Zaku shoved his hands into the dirt before releasing the air from his palms again, "Zankuuha (Decapitating Air Waves)!" He blew a trail into the ground that was meant to explode upwards underneath Tenten, but she was quicker than anticipated, "She wasn't that fast last time!" But last time had been a year ago.

He was forced to avoid swings of Tenten's odd staff, taking care to dodge the metal weights on the end of it. All Tenten could do during their first run-in was throw weapons and move like a ninja. How did she learn boujutsu?

"You can't keep dodging supersonic blasts!" Zaku bellowed, taking aim again and again, firing with each hand and missing. The actual use of the jutsu might have been supersonic, but his ability to aim it sure wasn't, "Hold still and die!"

Tenten spun her short staff in one hand as she seemed to be timing Zaku's blasts, 'One shot per hand, alternating, gives me two seconds to counter between attacks. The range of the jutsu is fifteen feet.' Breaking it down in her head she waited for a good step of hers between blasts before stopping on a dime and swinging her staff right at Zaku, only for the metal weight on the end to fly off attached to a chain.

He couldn't muster his jutsu fast enough to blow it away and took a large metal lump right in the face. It cracked his teeth, caused him skull fractures, and put him down in a bloody mess that didn't get back up.

Hitting a button on her short staff, Tenten retracted the chained weight with a smile on her face, "How'd you like my Kusari Fuubou (Chain Wind Staff)? Customized it myself." No response, "Don't worry, I'll wait for an answer."

Vindication felt so sweet. Was he dead? She couldn't tell, but it didn't matter. He was going to kill her if she hadn't beaten him and they started the fight to begin with.

She wondered how Naruto's fight was going.

XxX

(Moments Ago)

Naruto had expected an answer from Tenten, not for her to pick her mark and take off and fight him without even saying anything. Meh, he'd have probably done the same thing given the circumstances.

So that left him with Dosu. Fun.

Well there was only one thing left to do; kick his ass.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto created ten clones that all drew kunai and immediately attacked Dosu. There was no way he would be able to outmaneuver them all. His posture was terrible, even in the middle of battle. That meant that his ability to move would be slow, right?

Not really.

Dosu was faster than him and showed it by ducking and dodging through the straight-ahead attack of the clones, avoiding slashes and stabs until he allowed one to come close enough to bounce off of his gauntlet, "My Melody Arm is just too powerful for someone to fight against in close without being a taijutsu master."

Naruto's clones fell to the effects of the sound waves of the gauntlet, stumbling around dizzily and some even vomiting on the ground before dispelling as Dosu walked right through them. Well wasn't that annoying.

"That was an A-rank jutsu." Naruto deadpanned, trying to think of something useful to win with.

"Well when it's being used by an E-rank ninja it might as well not be." Dosu replied, "You fight like a child."

Looking around as if he could have possibly been speaking to anyone else, Naruto eventually figured that he had been referring to him and proceeded to state the obvious, "I'm 10. What do you want me to fight like? I think I'm pretty good actually."

"Statistically someone has to."

"That's a real jerk thing to say. Why would you do that?"

"Because I'm trying to kill you." Dosu said before banging on his gauntlet again and rushing at Naruto who was trying to make every effort to stay away from him, "That's useless you know. If you can hear the vibrations it's already too late." Thus proven when Naruto stumbled over his own feet due to Dosu's sound jutsu disorienting him, "When it comes to sound, I don't have to touch you to hurt you."

"I… know…" Naruto grit out as he stood back up ignoring the pounding in his head with every echo of the gauntlet. Reaching into his backpack he pulled out a foldable fuuma shuriken and held it up as the clamor started fading out of his head, 'Okay, so he can't make the sound last. He can control it, but he can't maintain it any longer than he can make the noise to start with.'

Which was why his gauntlet was designed to be somewhat hollow, so that the reverberation could last long enough for him to control it into Naruto's ears.

Dosu simply stood in place. Naruto's shuriken was a pretty nasty-looking weapon, but it would never touch him. Still though, if he let it fly past him and took his eyes off of either it or Naruto he would pay for it the way that they did earlier with Kin going down in defeat without them ever finding out how.

Naruto got his sense of balance back under control enough to aim and let his shuriken fly, "Dodge this!"

Instead of trying to move, Dosu just lifted his gauntlet and deflected it with a resounding clang that immediately hurt Naruto in return due to the sound that he'd pre-prepared to launch with his chakra, "I-." Any smart remark he was about to make died in his throat immediately thereafter as he felt a blow to his chest, smooth, sharp, and forceful enough to knock him back a few steps, "But I-? How?"

Sticking out of his chest was a second four-bladed fuuma shuriken. That didn't make any sense. How did he land that? A genjutsu? No way.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu (Shadow Shuriken Jutsu)." Naruto said as he ran over to retrieve his first deflected shuriken, "A second shuriken flying under the first one in its shadow. Nice right? Kakashi taught me that one."

"W-Who?" Dosu asked before his single visible eye rolled back in his head and he fell back to his death.

Naruto frowned but walked over to Dosu to yank his shuriken out of the downed young ninja's chest with a gross crunch and squish. Tenten walked up as he went over into the grass off of the road and wiped the blood off of the weapon, "You killed him."

"Yeah…" Naruto said, folding his weapons back up and resealing them away, "One sec." He said before throwing up right then and there. It had been the first time he'd actually killed someone.

While some of the impact was taken out of it because Dosu's face had mostly been covered, the blood spilling out on the ground, the feeling of the rib bone he broke pulling the shuriken out, and the weight of his body hitting the ground for the final time couldn't be prepared for. Killing a human in battle wasn't like killing an animal while hunting.

Tenten was grossed out, but rubbed Naruto's back regardless to give him some sort of relief. The ramen stand was still easily in sight, as were the people inside of it who had seen the whole battle. It wasn't the most impressive ninja fight of all time, but the fact that kids had engaged in that sort of violence would have to have left an impact on them.

"Where the hell is Kakashi?" Naruto asked, letting his stomach settle from the bout of sudden nausea.

XxX

(Nearby Hidden in the Trees)

A young man with long silver hair, a frayed blue vest, and dark colored pants gnashed his teeth angrily at the sight of his three charges being defeated by some puny blond kid and the girl with the weapons that he'd sicced them on when they first came to the area around a year ago.

"That girl didn't have that much inherent talent when they beat her then. And where the hell did that boy come from?"

He wasn't that good though, so he himself could go out there and pick him off. He could pick the both of them off and salvage something of their loss.

"Recruiting weak pawns like that…" The man said to himself in disgust at the loss of the younger ninja trio, "…How can I ever get Orochimaru to grant me with the power I want if I can't even bring him kids with true skill."

The first time they faced the slightest bit of adversity in battle and they folded. Absolutely horrible. And he'd wasted a year training those three that he'd recruited. What was it all for? To let them get beaten by two snot-nosed preteens?

Reaching for a large shuriken that he kept on his back he endeavored to take a shot at the two of them right then and there while they were walking back down the road to get to the ramen cart. It would be so easy. There was no wind, and it was a clear shot from where he was hidden in the trees. Just a single throw with the correct trajectory.

"Well Naruto didn't need my help did he? And he made a little friend too." Turning around, the silver-haired man found a kunai placed right to his throat with another silver-haired man in a facemask hanging upside-down from an overhanging branch. How did he get that close, and why did it look like he was smiling under that mask? "Looks like I made one as well. What's your name?"

"M-Mizuki." He was caught dead-to-rights. This man for all intents and purposes had his life in his hands, "I know you. You, you're 'Copy Ninja' Kakashi. There's no mistaking your appearance!"

"I really don't like being famous, but I guess it can't be helped." Kakashi mumbled to himself before addressing Mizuki, "Now, guess what's about to happen?"

"Y-You're going to kill me?"

"Oh no." Thank goodness. The soft-hearted fool was going to let him go. Oh he'd take this straight to Orochimaru and the rest of the Snake Clan and they would blacklist Kakashi and put him on their hit list forever. He'd never survive, "I'm going to interrogate you and then I might kill you depending on what I find."

"What? No!"

"Oh it's happening. Now if you're good it won't hurt a bit."

Kakashi lifted the plated headband over his left eye and Mizuki let out a shriek of terror at being caught in Kakashi's Sharingan genjutsu.

XxX

(Back With the Ichiraku Ramen Cart)

Naruto, Tenten, Teuchi, and Ayame all paused in what they were doing when they heard a cry of mortality echo out in the open air from no discernable location. Still though, it sent chills down the spines of the civilians, "Uh." Teuchi said, sweating slightly after all of the action they'd come across that evening, "Anyone gonna check on that?"

Instead of trotting off to do so, Naruto just chuckled nervously and shook his head, "My job's to protect the cart you know? I can't really leave you guys by yourselves until Kakashi comes back. Just in case."

"It's okay to be scared Naruto-chan, as long as you keep your big sister safe." Ayame said, snatching Naruto up off of the ground in a big hug while he kicked and flailed to get free without hurting her.

"I'm not scared of anything!"

Tenten just stared oddly at the byplay before making an observation, "She's your sister? She doesn't look anything like you."

"I'm his sister in spirit." Ayame said with a sly smile before putting Naruto down and going over to Tenten and lowering herself enough to be at eye-level with her, "And I'll be yours too. Thank you for helping Naruto-chan protect us." She even spared Tenten a full bow, "You didn't have to do that for us."

It was awkward for the young kunoichi to be praised in such a way by such a pretty older girl, "T-Thanks, but that was just as much for me as it was just to help. I was thinking for a long time that I couldn't be a decent ninja because I don't come from a clan, and Minato-sama only taught me basic stuff firsthand."

"So that staff thing that you used?" Naruto asked, remembering her Chain Wind Staff, "Dad didn't teach you that or give that to you?"

Tenten shook her head and blushed even more that Naruto seemed to be amazed by her ninja tool, "I made it myself. I like weapons." She said quietly as if it were something embarrassing, "But Naruto, you're saying that Minato-sama is your dad! That's so cool, you're so lucky!"

"Yep!" Naruto said with a big, wide grin, "…And I never met him either. That's so awesome." Well that was certainly a mood-killer, "I'm glad you like him, but I've never seen the guy one time in my whole life."

That was no good. The entire reason Minato trained Tenten to begin with when she kept bugging him about it was because he said she reminded him of the fact that he had a son. She always imagined the son of a man like that to be an incredible shinobi.

But Naruto didn't seem that much more advanced than she did. Sure, he knew a pretty elite jutsu to make solid clones of himself and had some other cool tricks, but it was clear that he was still just a kid. He didn't seem a bit like his father aside from the way that he looked. Even so, he managed to save her when the chips were down, and she was grateful for that.

Tenten set a hand on Naruto's shoulder and smiled, "Well I remember him telling me that he was going to work his way west, towards the desert. Why would he want to go to the desert?" She asked, rolling her eyes when she merely got a shrug from Naruto, "Is there anything you do know?"

Naruto had to think about it for a second before coming up with his answer, "Kicking ass."

"Okay seriously, you didn't fight that good." Said the weapon-loving little girl with her hands sternly on her hips, "You let Zaku and Dosu get some good shots in on you, and if the whole team hadn't been totally underestimating us the whole time that would have been way harder."

At that moment, Kakashi appeared on the site in a Shunshin that scared everyone, including Naruto who even tried to stab him before he came out of the whirlwind. It was blocked by Kakashi grabbing his wrist of course, but he still tried, "Don't do that. But it's good to see that you made a friend with such a good head on her shoulders. It's a refreshing change of pace to see a child with some humility."

"You weren't even there." Naruto said, throwing his arms up victoriously, "I was so awesome when I tricked those guys the first time, I think I got a case of awesome-poisoning."

"Was that before or after you had to bite that one boy to get free? I couldn't tell."

"Gurk." So he had been watching. That begged the question of why the hell didn't he help?

"Exactly." Kakashi said with an eye-smile, "And to answer the question that you didn't ask, I wanted to see if you could handle yourself in a fight. You need a lot of work, but seeing as how I didn't have to step in I'd say that you're passable… for now anyway." Like he said before, Naruto would be a work in progress. There was nothing wrong with that. He was still extremely young.

Besides, any ten year-old with the ability to learn an A-rank ninjutsu over the course of a day was something that just couldn't be left alone, even if he was hard-up for improvement in many other places. And he'd already learned a simple shurikenjutsu that Kakashi had taught him as a method of sleight of hand to keep him busy with training.

You nurtured a potential powerhouse like that, especially when he was a jinchuuriki. Kakashi didn't know the first thing about handling a jinchuuriki and didn't know anyone that did, but he figured he'd have time to learn.

It couldn't be that hard to teach a kid how to not get himself murdered in the real world could it?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tenten walking away and cleared his throat to get her to stop and come back around, "And where are you going young lady?" Tenten went wide-eyed and pointed lamely in the direction of the village nearby, "Oh, I was about to ask you if you wanted to come along with us, but if that was what you really wanted to do-."

"Wait, you want me to come with you?" Tenten asked out of disbelief, "W-Why?"

"You helped my idiot charge out of a real pinch, and you don't look like you really want to go back to that place." Kakashi explained. "So how about it? Do you want to come with me and Naruto here to find Minato-sama?"

Well, he half-explained his reason for wanting to take her with him. He wasn't going to bring up the fact that there was no way he was going to leave that girl by herself when this was apparently a developmental territory for the forces of one of the most terrifying ninja forces in the modern world, and that they'd just beaten up three top prospects and their handler.

At least that was what he'd gleaned from interrogating Mizuki. Orochimaru, one of the biggest legends of the current era, hired him to scout for unattached children with the potential for great strength. He would have tried to get more, but there was apparently a mental defense inside of him that turned his head to liquid jelly before he could delve for deeper secrets.

Poor bastard. Thankfully he was in the woods. The kids didn't need to see that.

Aside from that, mercifully needing to whisk her the hell out of there in case things went from dangerous to downright unsurvivable wasn't the only reason to take her.

Tenten had given them a lead in a possibly right direction to locate Minato. West, into the desert nation of Kaze no Kuni. That was to be their destination to begin searching for Minato after they made it the rest of the way through Hi no Kuni. Even if they didn't find him there it was better than what they had before, and it sounded like the kind of place that Minato would go to campaign for his cause amongst the Sand Nomads.

And then there was the fact that she'd make a pretty nifty sparring partner for Naruto. Someone around his level to work with and train with, and another person around to help him make sure that Naruto didn't get himself killed.

That girl's use of that staff. Weapon-use like that wasn't very common. Very few ninjas learned how to use much more than kunai or shuriken. He had to test her out some, but he was quite certain that the odd short staff she'd utilized was just the tip of her bukijutsu potential.

Ayame and Teuchi were both all for it. Ayame because that meant she got another new adorable ninja kid to dote over, and Teuchi because having another ninja around (even a little one) meant that less scary stuff would occur within dangerous proximity of his daughter and his livelihood in the ramen cart.

…At least in theory. Further down the line in hindsight it wouldn't turn out to work that way in reality, but for now the man could dream about being insulated with the protection of three ninjas instead of just two as he spread ramen-based goodness across the badlands of the Elemental Nations.

"Of course it's just an offer." Kakashi said, allowing Tenten an out if she really didn't want to go with them, "You don't have to-."

"I'm so in!" There was no need because Tenten accepted enthusiastically, "Let's go right now!" She wanted to leave that place behind and be a true ninja for real, 'I'm gonna prove that being a woman and not being a clan ninja doesn't mean that I'm not just as good as a male ninja or a clan shinobi.'

It would have to wait until tomorrow morning though, because there wasn't really any travelling light left available to them. Still, it was as good a start as any.

---

Major Clan Information

Senju Clan
Leader: Senju Tsunade

Population: 5/5
Military Strength: 5/5
Economy: 3.5/5
Notable Traits: Boasts direct descent from the Rikudou Sennin. Strong-willed, with great physical energy. Prodigious in all skills of the ninja arts instead of specializing in one facet of any particular field. Potential for vastly powerful Mokuton kekkei genkai amongst certain members.
Area of Operation: All of Hi no Kuni and most immediate surrounding nations.

---

Okay, so I did all three of these together to give the story some backbone as I usually do when I start something new. Just a little something to give the story some padding to sink your teeth into a bit.

The clans are going to have a bigger role going forward, I just had to establish who the core travelling characters were going to be and the first leg of how this story is going to go. So I hope it intrigued you, and I hope I can get my idea to play out as beautifully over time as it seems to be in my head right now.

Later, Kenchi out.