-Hashirama forest: Tsunade-
With an unconscious Mizuki on the floor, Tsunade double-checked that he was out cold before swinging to the startled Uzumaki, coddling him in a bone crushing way.
"Oh my gosh, brat!" She almost whisper-screamed, eyes alight with cheeky glee, "I saw those Kage Bunshin you were practising and I must tell you- the raw talent! Fuck it all, I'm stealing you and that baby scroll now!"
"Wh- wha-..."
"What do you say, Naruto? We high-tail it out of here now or no?"
"Uh. What? Scroll? Trouble? Mi-Mizuki?"
"Rat- passed out. Trouble- incoming but eh, we'll be fine. And scroll- hmmm... aha! Come on, come on," Tsunade pried the scroll out of Naruto's arms and ushered him closer, "I've always wanted to see what Jii-sama and Tobi-oji were hiding."
She stroked the fabric of the seal with exaggerated happiness. "Their constant whining of 'ahh! Tsuna-chan, it's too dangerous' and 'ahh! Tsuna-chan, you're too young' always pissed me off so much- argh!"
She rolled her eyes, greedily rolling open the scroll with her tongue pocking out.
Her eyes flicked to the boy's when he gave a little snort and Tsunade inwardly gave a soft smile when something finally sparked back into Naruto's frenzied, clouded eyes. (It wasn't much, but it was better than that horrified, shattered look that looked so out of place in his young, round and almost familiar face.)
Being a Med Nin didn't only mean patching up bodies, it also meant patching up spirits and his 'status' reveal would undoubtedly shadow him for quite a while.
And some things like this would take a long time to fully resolve.
With a traitor a few meters beside them and ANBU nearing every second, the only comfort Tsunade could currently provide him was helping Naruto find ground again.
The Uzumaki boy was strong enough to hold himself up until Tsunade would be able to wholeheartedly help him through it.
"It took me to long to read it-ttebayo." The blonde made a face as he peeked over her arm, "Wish we could just make a Bunshin of it, dattebayo. I don't think that even works though."
All her thoughts paused as Tsunade fell silent.
"Impossible..."
"Huh?"
"Uzumaki Naruto you are IMPOSSIBLE! I tell you!"
She fully extended the scroll with a wave of her arm.
The object was large and heavy but the contents weren't as much as one would expect at such an enormous scroll. The fabric was extremely thick- it had to be so that it could withstand the poignant, cloying chakra. Brown eyes flicked across the scroll which had now extended across the entire clearing, stretching over a dozen metres in length.
The Kage Bunshin was the first shown Jutsu but it took up the least amount of space- the instructions and analysis took up half a metre while numerous complex Ninjutsus and chakra enhancing techniques took up more than double the amount of space. Figured. While there were hundreds of Jutsus known in Konoha, the most dangerous ones were locked into the scroll (...well, it was really badly 'locked') so there'd only be a few.
Tsunade glanced up at Naruto when the boy let out a slight "woah" down at a certain Fuuinjutsu design which stretched an entire two metres in length.
The Hakke no Fuuin Shiki.
What irony.
Tsunade just gave the boy a slightly grim smile, "You wanna learn that? You die when you use it though." She tapped a red coated nail onto the provided diagram.
"I had thought about that before... dying while using an awesome Jutsu-ttebayo." Naruto scratched the back of his head (reminds her of Minato) like he was making an embarrassing confession. "Sacrificing my life to be a 'hero'..." A bitter thing tugged down the corner of his lips and Tsunade had to hold herself back from doing the same.
Sacrifice. Hah. What bullshit.
She clenched her jaw shut so that she wouldn't voice her opinion. Naruto beat her to it anyway.
"Sacrifice." He scoffed, "That's stupid now that I think about it. It's not like..."
When Naruto had decided to not finish his sentence, Tsunade finished it for him, "...Like the dead can do anything, right?"
"But I'm stupid too." The boy muttered quietly, voice growing softer and softer until Tsunade couldn't catch the rest of it- "...'cuz I have a feeling I'll...-..."
To distract both of them from the sombre atmosphere, she drew their attention back to Naruto's previous statement, pulling a spare empty scroll- which she always carried with her for emergencies- out from her haori.
"A Bunshin of this scroll, you say?"
Naruto squinted up at her, brows raised questioningly.
Checking her surroundings for company, she threaded her chakra over each perfectly written kanji- copying and analysing the contents of the Scroll of Seals in a single minute due to her impeccable control- then pasting, chakra-embedded ink slowly slinking into existence onto her own blank scroll. There was less chakra, and it was more faint, but those dozen Kinjutsus were copied nonetheless.
Wait a second...
...Sure, Tsunade was a Legendary Sannin who could do miraculous things but she still felt an enormous sweatdrop lingering about her head because it was-
-That. Easy. That easy?
She glanced around suspiciously. Surely it wasn't that simple...
Konoha's most dangerous scroll- stolen by an Academy student then duplicated in a mere minute. Just like that.
Were they fucking serious?
Sarutobi was a fool for not enhancing it with more seals. She swore that all these higher ups had their brain muddled- that was if they even had any.
Weak ass barriers, weak ass 'privacy seals'- her Baa-sama had taught her only the bare scrapes of Uzumaki's in depth Fuuinjutsu and even she knew that their explosive tags were drawn not as efficiently as possible.
When Tsunade looked down at the Scroll of Seals 2.0, she faced a befuddled Naruto with a beam. She tucked it into her haori.
"That... that was so cool dattebayo! What the hell, Baa-chan?"
"I know right- I'm amazing. We are so going to piss off everyone," Tsunade gave a scarily happy grin, "I can't wait to see the look on Sarutobi's face once I get you to learn all of thi-"
Oh yeah. That's right.
Tsunade recalled her previous preparations with Sarutobi and then looked down at Naruto who was squinting back up at her. She had made up her mind-
"Hey, listen here." Tsunade straightened her spine, complete seriousness in her eyes as she peered down at the twin blue eyes. Naruto instantly straightened in reply, suddenly looking nervous.
"I am not joking, I am not lying-"
Her gaze seared into the other's.
"-Uzumaki Naruto, I want you to become my disciple and inherit my Summoning Contract. One word of consent is all you need to say for you to be rid of this place for the next three years. For this time I'll allow you to request: anytime you wish and anywhere you want- we'll go. We'll leave."
Naruto's mouth was slightly agape, pure shock in his eyes.
Her decision was rushed and messy and will totally screw everyone- including herself- up.
Tsunade has no ounce of regret.
A slanted smirk spread across the Senju's face and the solemn atmosphere was broken when she tossed a mischievous wink at him, "Whaddya say? Senju Tsunade is hereby offering a once in a millennium chance."
"Y- you mean you weren't kidding? Really? You really mean it?" Weary suspicion lingered in his eyes and Tsunade inwardly cursed the rat again.
"The first thing you'll need to learn, Naruto," The Sannin crossed her arms, "Is that I don't repeat myself unnecessarily. If Senju Tsunade, the Legendary Sannin, did not mean it, she would not say it." She paused, waiting for his sole attention.
"I swear, Naruto," Her brown eyes suddenly sharpened like a hawk's, "I swear on my honour, my blood and my Summoning Contract that I am not lying."
A new emotion was introduced into the turbulent blue eyes. It was a softer, sadder, a more desperate kind of emotion. The want for 'love'.
"T- then..." Determined hardened with a fiery glint and the grin was reciprocated brilliantly, "Hell yeah, Tsunade-baachan! Let's leave on an adventure to explore the world! Let's leave-"
A flurry of thoughts visibly raced through Naruto's eyes before they turned resolved,
"-before the sun sets, dattebayo!"
-ANBU-
A scroll was thrown towards him before he could register the scenery.
"Tsk, you ANBU are crappy, no offense!" The renowned Sannin waved a dismissive hand and Boar remained emotionless as he verified the scroll. "You took so long to find an Academy student. Tsk."
"Tsunade-hime." He then bowed alongside a dozen other ANBU. "Could y-"
"This rat here," The Sannin gestured to the Chuunin who still laid unconscious. "Manipulated the Uzumaki brat into stealing the Scroll of Seals. Yes, yes," Tsunade-hime interrupted him before he even opened his mouth, "I confirmed that he's a traitor. Go report to Sarutobi and scurry along now, tree ninjas."
"Uh-" Owl hesitated, and Boar would usually be shocked at the fact that Owl hesitated but he was also a little taken aback by the sudden information. It didn't help how casual the Sannin was acting. "We request that you-"
"Report to Sarutobi about the events, yeah, yeah. I've been around for longer than you ANBU-chibis, don't needa boss me around."
Boar felt slightly embarrassed as he gingerly picked up the bile-sodden man, giving another curt nod to the Hime before Shunshin-ing to the entrance of the T&I with a few others accompanying him.
Even though he had done everything like any other ANBU would, he couldn't help but feel like a clumsy child in front of the Legend.
(It completely slipped Boar's mind that the Uzumaki child also should've been present for report. Why wasn't the vessel at the scene? What had the vessel done at the time?
It completely slipped Boar's mind.
How very un-ANBU like.
Unimpressed.)
-Ibiki-
Unimpressed.
The man had literally touched Mizuki's nails before confessions spilt out like a water spout. Tsunade-hime had strolled in fifteen minutes after submitting a paper report, looking boredly at the ex-Chuunin who was foaming from the mouth.
"Wow," She drawled. "How many nails was it, Ibiki? One?"
He rolled his eyes before scoffing, "You overestimate him; I merely touched his hand, Tsunade-hime."
"Damn." She replied back, voice still dull and sarcastic. "You gonna kill him now?"
"D- d- don't kill me!" Mizuki returned to life, "I- i- i- it's not my f-"
Ibiki knocked the man unconscious.
"That was a lot of 'i's." Tsunade-hime commented. "I'm unimpressed."
"Touché."
"Well," The Sannin dusted her knees, "I'm going to take a last stroll around, glad to see you still alive Ibiki!" She waved a hand as she flickered out of the building.
"Have a good evening, Tsunade-hime." Ibiki, distracted by her statement of his 'alive' condition, nearly missed the first part of her sentence.
He narrowed his eyes at where she used to be. What did she mean by taking 'a last stroll'?
Something was up.
Or rather, something was happening.
-Hiruzen-
He had not asked for a fricking paper report, god damn it. The information was scrawled in a careless way-
"-by the way, I think he's Orochimaru's spy. Might wanna toughen up your defences there."
"Also, he's weak as fuck. Your standards for Chuunin has plummeted."
"I think I've already complained, but all your ANBU are pretty awkward."
Then a sentence, predicting Hiruzen's dissatisfaction, wrote: "I know this report was basically useless and probably only served to irritate you, but as I said, I arrived just in time to beat the rat up. That took a total of three seconds and 2.5 of those seconds were spent on looking cool and intimidating. So no, I don't know shit. The end."
Hell. Why did he accept the hat again?
Well, when he'll need to visit Naruto sooner or later to double confirm things. But Hiruzen will wait until Naruto has calmed down from the incident- he'd no doubt be in shock at the betrayal.
Hiruzen could not deal with that boy right now. There would inevitably be questions- so many questions- about the Kyuubi. Hiruzen didn't feel up to receiving a reminder of his past failures again.
He would though, he would visit the boy tomorrow, or perhaps the day after.
Resolving the conflict of a traitor or spy was more important than that boy after all. Nevertheless, Naruto was important to Hiruzen, so he will visit the boy.
The Hokage felt slightly bad for the child, especially after such a brutal unveiling of his circumstance. Tsunade had assured him that it had been handled but Hiruzen had a duty as a grandf the Hokage Minato's predecessor Naruto's guardian.
...Naruto'll be fine. For now.
Naruto was a... strong boy. He could always deal with these kinds of things with a happy smile on his face-
That's right: Hiruzen didn't need to be concerned; Naruto was Minato's son after all.
He'll just visit him...
Eventually.
That's right, Hiruzen will visit him sometime later.
-Naruto-
He sat outside the Academy, clasping his hands onto the rope string. There was a spot were it had been worn down from when Naruto had repeatedly clutched onto it- the sole thing that had kept him sane when the Villagers had been staring at him- some were trying to hide it, but some were unrepentant.
He sat on the swing, a dull creak ringing in his ear drums. The night was so quiet that he felt like his existence was disturbing the wild life. He leaned his head forward to press it against the string, feeling the rough braided cord dig onto his bare forehead.
No hitai-ate.
Failure.
Dead last.
Failure.
Dead last.
Tsunade's apprentice.
But-
A shadow had approached the boy and Naruto had not looked up. He knew who it was because no one else would want to approach him.
But-
"Why me?"
His voice was quiet and honestly confused.
"Don't question me, brat." The strange, kind and really aggressive but really honest woman (who Naruto still couldn't figure out) squinted down at him. "There are many reasons why I decided to take you under my wing."
He opened his mouth, a million emotions racing through his face before his jaw clicked shut, replying back with a simple nod.
Their two sentence conversation had not been brought up from then on. Not for a long while at least.
-Izumo-
"I'm here!" A high pitched giggle erupted by the front gate.
Izumo squinted, nudging Kotetsu in the ribs and watching with no small amount of humour as the lazing Chuunin gave a screech, stumbling onto the floor. He gestured surreptitiously to the source of the voice and Kotetsu gave a questioning look. Izumo replied with a shrug.
"Mou, my adorable student was almost late!" Tsunade-hime jutted a hand against her hip, standing right next to the pair of Chuunin. Izumo was not ashamed to say he screamed.
"My apologies," An ordinary looking girl skipped towards the Sannin. Her mousy brown hair was in two braids and she wore a simple shirt with a mid-thigh skirt, mesh tights going down to her knee length shinobi sandals. A simple weapons pouch was strapped to her left leg- a left-handed shinobi then? Upon closer look, the girl also had eyes a startling similar shade to the Yondaime's. Blue and clear. He must not have gotten enough sleep.
She had the air of a well-kept, obedient daughter- that was until she opened her mouth again.
"Baa-chan-sama, when are we going?"
Izumo felt his heart jump to his throat in panic, Kotetsu shared a look with him as he violently beckoned for the girl to shut up. Calling a Sannin 'old' was suicide! He drew a line over his throat with a finger.
The girl gave the two a curious look and Izumo shook his head viciously again, repeating the action but with more dramatic acting. He lolled his head to the side, sticking out his tongue for emphasis-
The girl giggled.
Kotetsu slapped his forehead.
And oh, look at that. All of a sudden, Tsunade-hime's finger flicked to his forehead, and he fell into a fairly comfortable nap.
And this is what ends up making the two to forget all about reporting to the Hokage.
He'll be unimpressed.
Very much so.
Naruto wasn't present the day after the incident. Not in pranks, not in screams, not in anything.
Usually when he got hit, Naruto would retaliate harder.
(Some mocked, some worried, some didn't care. Either way, no one came to check up on that boy.)
-Nara-
"Old man." Shikamaru dumped his small bag full of empty books onto the chair, ignoring his mother as she reprimanded him for not hanging it up properly.
"What?" His father grumbled back, head in papers. "I mean, 'hey! How dare you speak to your father like that!' ...Yoshino, did I do it right?"
"Old man." Shikamaru repeated impatiently.
"What?"
When his son didn't reply, Shikaku worriedly looked up from his paperwork. He traded a concerned look with Yoshino when the boy simply gave him a hard stare before turning around, and walking towards his room.
"H-hey, Shikamaru! Drink the cup of water I poured you first!" Yoshino hollered and the boy surprisingly did so without complaining.
It was a tense atmosphere as Shikamaru 'casually' drank his cup of water, placing down the cup a tad harder than usual and strolled towards his room again.
The Nara couple was quiet when the boy's bedroom door clicked shut.
Shikaku gave a groan while Yoshino brushed a piece of hair out of her face, brows furrowed.
Eventually, a day turned to three, and three turned to a...
-Yamanaka-
Ino was in a bad mood again.
Inoichi frowned, her rebellious stage had gone on for so long. He turned to leave before whatever rejection the Last Uchiha had dished Ino would cause her to let it out on him. There was an awful lot of trouble after Mizuki was found out to be Orochimaru's spy- he really could not deal with a moody teen.
"Dad?" A small head pocked into his study and Inoichi stiffened in surprise.
"Ah, Ino. Look, now's really not the time but-"
"I made you pancakes."
Inoichi paused. Indeed, he did smell pancakes.
"Look, Dad." Ino had slid next to him, eyes darting to his work for a second before returning. "I'm sorry. I'm gonna be different now, you know?"
By the time Inoichi registered what his daughter had said, all that was remaining of her presence was a plate of Japanese fluffy pancakes, drizzled with too much syrup for his own good. (Just how he liked it.)
When midnight struck, he finally found the time to leave his stifling room.
Scrolls. Littering the area. In clusters though, as if they had tried to be neat.
There were charred ingredients in the trash and Inoichi groaned at how much food had been wasted-
"Look, Dad. I'm sorry."
-He really needed to buy a cook book to show his daughter how to be more efficient next time.
A fortnight had passed and some grew concerned at the boy's absence. (Less than a dozen but more people than Naruto thought liked him anyway.)
Many were insulting Naruto, calling him pathetic for hiding after being 'confronted about his treason'.
Others decided to 'respect' his decision and give him time to 'cope'.
-Iruka-
This was absurd. He had no idea why Hokage was just letting it rest.
He had stopped by Naruto's apartment three times. And every time, he couldn't muster up the motivation to approach the door.
Umino Iruka is going to be honest: he was a shitty teacher. And yes, yes, saying a curse word was just to highlight the significance of his grave error.
A. Teacher. Must. Not. Be. Bias.
There was a purpose for the Academy and there was a purpose for Senseis. And that purpose was not to take advantage of student's vulnerabilities, regardless of their personal prejudice towards them.
He was at Naruto's apartment door for the fourth time and he was determined to knock on the door. (Not only to check if he was ok, but also to apologise- for everything- and make amends.)
An inhale, an exhale and- knock, knock-
"Naruto, are you in there?"
No reply.
Iruka frowned, hesitantly touching the door knob.
Did he have the right? Of course he did, Iruka was Naruto's teacher. (Was that justified?)
Iruka's hand retreated from the door knob.
"Naruto?" He called again louder. Iruka pressed a ear against the door, focusing deeply on his senses. There was the ticking of the clock and the tell tale dripping of broken pipes- did that boy not pay his rent or something?- there was a faint scuffle between the walls and Iruka grimaced- probably a rat.
He shut off those noises and stretched his senses further- for a breath or a shuffle or any movement...
Nothing. Silence.
Feeling extremely unnerved, Iruka twisted the handle, "Naruto, I'm coming in now!"
Oh.
Iruka thought with a little dread.
Oh.
Iruka thought again as he scrambled towards the Hokage tower.
Naruto was gone.