Naruto Ch 11

Chapter 11

 

 

Finished with his morning exercises Haku quickly showered and went in search of Naruto, stopping to watch the Koi swimming past for a moment, he heard scribbling coming from Naruto’s office, sticking his head inside he saw Naruto was working on those files they brought back, “Good morning, I would have thought that after three days you would have finished up with the bloodline evaluations of the candidates.”

Naruto looked up hearing Haku’s voice, “Is it that late already,” glancing at the clock he smiled as he stretched. “Actually I’m working on Sasuke’s profile; it’s not matching the records from the clan archives.” Pointing to the stack, “I finished these yesterday, and six of the ten are compatible with our bloodline, the other four have…” frowning as he searched for the word. “the other four have traces of having a bloodline in their family that will not be compatible with ours.”

Intrigued Haku sat down across from Naruto, “That was something I was wondering, how can you tell who would make a good fit into the clan. From what I’ve heard most clans with bloodlines crave trying to add others to make them more powerful, but what you’ve mentioned to me makes me believe it is not a good idea to just try to add every bloodline to a clan.” Sitting back he nodded as something clicked, “with the full Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai by now you should have merged all the blood limits out there into yours, so I’m missing something.”

Setting aside the DNA report Naruto smiled, “I’m not an expert…not yet, but that is a more insightful question than most people would have. And the answer lies in the three types of Kekkei Genkai there are.” Digging through his drawer he pulled the chart he had been using for the past couple of days out of it, after spreading it out so Haku could see it he started to explain, “You have three major types of blood limits, there are the body type, the energy type and finally the area effective type. Your Hyouton is an example of an area affect type, while our unique healing is an example of a body type.”

“And our large chakra reserves are an example of an energy type,” haku nodded understanding.

“They were,” Naruto frowned as he looked down the scroll, “Somehow by merging the Kyuubi’s chakra into my own and having he seal use the demon’s chakra enlarge both my reserves and pathways, while my healing ability had to keep repairing what the demon damaged merged the energy portion of our Kekkei Genkai into a new form of body type, it coupled it to our healing ability…” saying that Naruto suddenly glanced at the DNA report as it suddenly made sense.

Seeing Naruto’s sudden distraction towards the report Haku tilted his head, “What are you thinking?”

“Some time after my family modified the Hyuuga Byakugan into the Sharingan…” Naruto pulled the report over and his finger ran over the section he was looking for, looking at it and remembering his discovery on how his blood limit was changed he looked up in horror, “Sometime in the past the Uchiha met up with a demon and somehow had it, or it did it on its own, it modified the Uchiha. That’s why things weren’t adding up, and why the DNA sample I scanned from Sasuke did not match the records, in fact the records of what my family did in the original modification would not allow separate levels of the Kekkei Genkai to exist, it’s an all or nothing type thing when you deal with blood limits.”

“Being affected by a demon might also be the cause of the mental instability in the clan,” Haku whispered as he realized what Naruto was saying.

Nodding his head silently Naruto quickly circled the section that the change had to be located at and slid it aside, shaking his body as if shedding water, “Back to my explanation. The Uzumaki gift of merging blood limits works on the principle of taking the two limits and discarding the one which is weaker. So if our body limit has to deal with healing and chakra it is not a good idea to bring in a limit that deals with hardening bones or something like that, after all healing and chakra are more important, but when the dice is rolled the stronger limit as conception is the one that wins out. Which is why the Uzumaki have always been so careful about whom we have children with…Oh, an individual can only have one of each type of Kekkei Genkai. Granted…” Naruto sat back and closed his eyes as he remembered, “after three generations or so you can bring in allied gifts to strengthen. If you wanted to strengthen the Hyouton bring in a limit strong in wind or water.”

“So the four candidates you discarded have blood Limits that could interfere with ours potentially,” Haku worked through his understanding. Looking at him he wondered, “But did not Ayako say she was going to bring all ten candidates over to the office later, it hardly seems fait to give them hope only to crush it.”

Stretching Naruto stood up as he popped his neck, “True, and I’m going to have a long talk with her later about it. But for those four I will give them the option of bringing their blood limits back. So while they won’t be joining the Uzumaki clan I will give them the option…” walking around the desk and puling Haku up he smiled, “I’ll give all of them the option to have their blood limit brought back and to go their separate ways. Those four will just not have that extra option the others will.” Shrugging he pulled haku out of the room towards their bedroom, “for all we know none of them will be compatible after we meet them and get to know them.”

“The the next group should be from those that have no blood limit gifts, that way we might end up with enough choices in the long run,” Haku yelped as Naruto pulled him into the bedroom.

 

Showered and in clean clothes Naruto glanced through the morning reports, signing and stamping documents that had been approved several days ago. Finishing quickly he looked at the second stack, the mission assignments for today and moved his head down so it was practically lying on the desk to examine the height of the stack. Looking at it again he sent a look at Jiga who was trying to hold in his laughter. “Alright I admit I expected the mission requests to jump slightly,” tapping the top of the pile he glared at Jiga through narrow eyes, “But even I am not stupid enough not to remember going through such a large stack yesterday approving the missions.”

Snorting Jiga turned his head sideways so Naruto-sama would not see his silent chuckling, pulling out a cloth and blowing his nose he hoped he hid it well enough behind the excuse of needing to do so, turning back he froze as he saw the tapping that preceded the legendary temper, “Forgive me Uzumaki-sama, but these are the missions you had me work up from the records you seized from Gato.” Seeing the sudden change of focus he sighed, maybe he would not have to duck sharp pointy objects before he had his first cup of coffee.

Quickly separating the pile from memory, Naruto pulled his cheat sheet out of his desk and gazed at the wall as he quickly assigned the missions. Finished with those he knew about he started to go through the stack of missions his village would be paying for, that is unless some of the people they eliminated had a bounty. Glancing at the wall where Jiga was marking the team as out on assignment with a due back date next to the assignment he called out, “While your over there would you put a star next to those who have told you they will be taking the Dragon exam.” Folding his hands on top of the rest of the missions he watched as Jiga marked those Jounin who were going to try for advancement with red stars.

Waving off Jiga’s mention of being right back, Naruto studied the team wall knowing that Jig had taken the scrolls down to the mission office and was updating the wall down there. Glancing to the far right where the hunter teams were located he wondered how they far they had gotten on finding what had happened to team Kodochi. If nothing else he could split the hunter-nin teams up into two man teams, or leave it to them actually by giving them two missions and leaving it to them how to handle them. Going through the stack once again, this time separating out the missions that should be Chuunin level, he chose the twelve that would rank A-Class and set them aside. The twelve he chose had to do with slavers and he wanted those taken out as soon as possible, thumbing a button on his desk his voice traveled to the speaker in eth mission room, “I want Hunter team fox, groundhog, rat and owl in my office ASAP for A-Class missions.” Releasing the button he quickly went through the twelve missions once more and grouped them by geographical location.

 

Naruto did not have long to wait, in fact team Tatori and Choi arrived before his hunter-nin’s did so he debriefed them first, “Did you have any troubles with your mission? The other two teams made it back three days ago, so I wondered if you ran into trouble when you did not come back two days ago…” he stopped when he saw all six of them start to pile his work table full of scrolls, much more than he thought they had taken with them, in fact he saw several pieces of paper that looked salvaged from something.

Akura smiled brightly, “Sorry for the delay Uzumaki-sama, there was much more to location than even Gato wrote down, it must have been used in the past as a treasure Vault by several people, each adding more treasure to it, we ended up finding seven chambers full of gold, gems and the most interesting things. To tell the truth I’m not sure we got everything out, we collapsed the tunnels leading into the old mine and created a summoning seal so you can send teams back to fully explore the caves and caverns. There was one whole room with nothing but weapons in it, we had to leave it as we did not have enough scrolls.”

Very surprised Naruto stared at the huge pile of scrolls as Sako handed over a rather fat scroll with a slight bow, “Uzumaki-sama we numbered all the scrolls and made an inventory list of what we sealed inside them.”

Tapping the scroll against his hand Naruto stared at the pile for several long moments thinking things over, it seemed like they found more than Gato’s hidden stash, so everything else was a bonus and fair game. Coming to a decision he pulled the voucher folder out and quickly signed and stamped the vouchers, including the bonuses. “Like I said all the weapons are yours to use or sell, so it looks like you’ll be going back, you can pick up replacements of your personal storage scrolls from the armoire and get with Jiga if you are planning to test for Dragon duty.”

Staring at the pile of scrolls once more and noticing the four hunter-nin teams were waiting he smiled brightly, “Well done, and I think between the four teams, all of you I sent on those retrieval missions…well if you are willing to split anything you find there with the hospital fifty/ fifty, you can spend your free weekends visiting those caverns if you wish.” Naruto knew he did the right thing as the grins that crossed their faces was priceless, after all he had gotten more than he bargained for and he was not the greedy sort, plus the look of shock and delight on his people’s faces was priceless.

“HAI, Uzumaki-sama,” six voices sounded out in excitement as they grasped their pay vouchers before bowing and leaving.

Watching in amusement as the six left Naruto waited until the sixteen members of his hunter-nin force’s entered his office, “Close the door please.” Once the door was closed he made four piles of two scrolls each on the edge of his desk, “Because of the Dragon trials next week we are going to be short several teams.” Looking down at his desk and the scrolls which was going to end several lives by his command he wondered if he was ready for this, no one ever told him what Hokage really entailed, or even what being Daimyo was.

Shaking off the feeling of being overwhelmed Naruto looked up, determination in his eyes, “I never thought I would be ordering civilian deaths, I always thought any civilians that would be killed by those under my command would be because they fought back. But these scum are running slave pits, whore houses and are trafficking in children, children that are torn from their parents cooling bodies. DESTROY THEM…” Naruto hit his fist against the desk. After controlling his temper and calming his breathing he looked out the window, consider this an extermination mission, if you can add the rescue of those enslaved without compromising your mission do so. If we can’t seize the files of those places burn them to the ground.”

The team leader of groundhog picked up the piles of scrolls and handed them to his comrades, opening the scroll he narrowed his eyes in anger as he saw his target was one of those who was trafficking in infants, and the original parents’ would never be coming for their rescued children. Looking up he noticed the tear trailing down his Uzumaki-sama’s face. Freezing he looked down at the mission scroll and scrunched it in anger. These people were going to pay, bowing very low he nodded, “Uzumaki-sama we will take care of this for you, you can count on us.” Hand hidden he gave the signal and the four groups disappeared in a whirlpool like swirl of smoky mist.

An hour later Jiga knocked on the door, not hearing an answer he slid the door open enough to peak in and saw his lord staring at the Shinobi list with silent tears falling, feeling a hitch in his chest he slid into the room closing he door quietly behind him.

“Does it ever get easy,” Naruto asked in a small voice.

Not sure what they were talking about Jiga moved over to the wall and saw what missions Naruto had sent his hunter teams on, looking down sadly, “Never, and the day I serve someone that treats his people as easily replaced puppets is the day I leave.”

Red eyed Naruto looked up, after a few moments or minutes he nodded before walking over to the bathroom and washing his face. Walking out he looked up at the clock, let’s get this talk with Wave over with before Ayako shows up trying to embarrass us, then after lunch I can meet with them and let them know my decision. Glancing at the assignment wall once more Naruto prayed for the swift return of his people.

 

“Kyoto, your report seems strangely positive,” Naruto looked up over the paper with not quite a frown on his face as he questioned it. “I understand from a merchants perspective trade is a good thing, but it looks like you are creating a new town on the outside mountain, and I guess my question is why?”

Slightly nervous Kyoto looked at Ayako and Katsuro, the other two members of the council, “Because in a sense I am.” Holding up a hand to interrupt Naruto-sama, “what I am proposing has two hidden benefits. The first is that while increasing trade with other countries and Wave in particular, by setting up what amounts to a trade village outside the Caldera we don’t have to let all those traders past the mountain range thus increasing our security. The other one is simpler, and I am sure Katsuro would agree with me.” Taking a deep breath he let it out slowly, “we’ve isolated our self here for the most part; we need a place outside our safe zone where we can mingle with those from other villages and countries so we don’t have problems with inbreeding down the road.”

Flipping through the pages to check growth figures Naruto kept an eye on Ayako as she was doing her own skimming of her copy of the document. Standing up and looking out the window Naruto thought about it, Kyoto had a point about it being safer to keep spies and assassins out if they were never allowed in, in the first place. Glancing at Katsuro who looked edgy for some reason, sighing he tossed the papers to his desk before looking out the window again. “While I can actually agree to the points you bring up, and to agreeing to ally with Wave like they want,” jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards his desk, “I realize you have only been on council duty for three months now, BUT I DO NOT LIKE SURPRISES…”

Wincing in the sudden silence Katsuro looked at the shaking man, “You have to understand the way Uzumaki-sama works Kyoto-san. When you included all the extra parts and predictions including growth figures in your report you might…might have been under the mistaken mindset that you were saving time. But this report mixes them all together. If you wanted to save time you should have had a clear separation between the two and mentioned that you found that an expansion would need to take place in the outside village and included the particulars in your report for consideration.”

Hearing the snap of fingers as a seal set finished Ayako watched the report on Naruto-sama’s desk burn into ashes, “There is also a reason why all the tabletops and desk tops in this office are made of stone.” Slipping her copy of the report under her chair so she could retrieve it later she let out the breath she was holding when Naruto-sama returned to his chair without rage in his eyes. She had heard about that temper of his from her predecessor.

Rubbing the back of his neck until he heard it pop Naruto sighed before his steely gaze met the frightened Merchant representative to the council, “Look Kyoto, no more surprises, I don’t work that way. You think this alliance will be good for us, fine say that and give me the projections. You think we need to make the outside village bigger and more important to do all our trading out there, fine say that and tell me you think by doing this things will need to change and bring it up separately so I can think about it, research my options.”

Walking into the office Haku noticed the rising killer intent in the tense atmosphere, “Naruto-kun…”

“I’m sorry Uzumaki-sama it won’t happen again,” Kyoto practically hit his head on the desk several times as he tried to bow.

Staring intently at him Naruto finally relented and nodded, “I accept, and as your punishment you will have to single handedly draw up the plans for what your report told me we would need. The expansions, the building layouts, trade routes and hotels, pretty much everything and you will have to have it to me four days from now.”

Chuckling darkly Katsuro looked at his fellow councilor, “Uzumaki-sama does not yell or scream, or even throw things at us. He does however punish us with paperwork, and the research he would have done on the subject.”

Nodding his head rapidly Kyoto promised not to do anything so foolish again, ‘four days’, how the hell would he be able to get all that done in four days.

“Before we break up for lunch,” Naruto looked at his advisors, settling on Jiga, “Jiga think about what it would take to keep the outside village safe if it is expanded.” Seeing the nod he settled on the clan representative, “Katsuro, in the next few days if you could get me an updated clan list, including Kekkei Genkai, I would like to sit down with all the clan leaders before the Dragon trials, say for an hour long meeting.”

“Of course Uzumaki-sama,” Katsuro bowed slightly trying to figure out what was going on from the requested information he was asked to bring. Hearing the sounds of several carts being wheeled towards them in the outer hall he stood up, “I think that your lunch has arrived, which means the candidates will arrive shortly. With your permission I’ll leave now so I can get started.” Smiling at Kyoto’s wince as he to left, he let the laugh out he was holding as soon as they passed the door and he saw Kyoto break into a run.

Watching the chef’s place the place setting on the long table while others brought in more chairs Naruto glanced at Haku to see the same expression on his face, when did this simple meet and great over lunch turn into something formal? Scratching the back of his head he looked over at Ayako who was frowning at seeing what was being laid out. Before he even had a chance to say anything she held up her hands, “Whoa, Uzumaki-sama, I had nothing to do with this.”

Back peddling several steps from the two she vehemently denied having any part of this, “All I did was contact my favorite restaurant and ask them to fix lunch for you and your…” looking back at the table she whispered as it hit her, “candidates.”

Naruto felt like slapping himself as he saw the girls walking in they were in formal Kimono’s and decked up in makeup, glancing at Haku he took some pleasure in seeing the horrified look on his face. Glancing back at Ayako with narrowed eyes Naruto ended up sighing as she looked as horrified as the rest of them did, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down he felt a headache starting. “Please make your selves comfortable,” he plastered a smile on his face as he walked over to the table so he was standing next to Haku. “I know even Kunoichi’s like to have and wear something pretty, but this was supposed to be informal so if you wish to relax your formal wear go ahead.”

Haku nodded in agreement before he got a sly look in his eye, “Out of curiosity how many of you are armed?” he broke out in a grin as he saw six hands raise in the air.

Picking up on Haku’s tactic Naruto also grinned as he gestured for them to take a chair, “How many of you here feel ridiculous right now?” he laughed as all ten of them raised their hands. Nodding he pointed to the door on the side wall, “bathroom is over there if you want to wash up. We truly meant this to be relaxed and informal.”

Kako tilted her head slowly, afraid the elaborate hairdo would fall apart, her mother had gotten her up at four this morning to start preparing her for this lunch, “You don’t mind if we change out of this,” she pointed at her kimono in distaste before her eyes bugged out as she realized she was not being proper, “Excuse me for the familiarity Uzumaki-sama, I meant no disrespect.”

Groaning slightly Naruto sat down heavily in his chair face hitting hands as he tried to figure out what he had done in a past life to b e punished like this. Not finding anything he slit his fingers and glared at Ayako.

“Uzumaki-sama,” pale and shaky Ayako started, “I take complete responsibility for this going so wrong.” Frowning as she looked at the girls she shook her head, “I have no idea how this got out of hand.”

Haku hid his giggle, “How many of you were …well forced seems so…” he had all the girls attention by now so he shrugged, “how many of you had your mothers nagging you to dress up like this?” laughing as all ten hands shot up he nodded.

Naruto bounced back in his chair before putting the smile back on his face, “Tell you what, if anyone of you want to change or wash or even let your hair down we’ll wait for you. The whole point of this lunch was to meet you and talk about possibilities and if this is truly what you wanted to do.”

Seeing over half the girls stand up Ayako tried to salvage the lunch, “Girls if you want to follow me I can show you where you can change and wash up, there is a bigger bathroom around the corner.”

With all but two of the girls gone, Naruto sighed as he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the two who remained, the one sat smiling as if this was her normal lounging attire and the other quickly let her elaborate hairstyle down and fixed it up into a simple braid. Twenty minutes later all ten of the girls were back at the table looking more relaxed.

“Help yourself to the food, we’ll talk while we eat,” Naruto waved his hand over the loaded dishes and started to fill up his plate to overflowing.

The girls stopped and stared as both young men filled their plates to overflowing.

Seeing the looks Haku’s mouth curved upwards into a shy grin, “One thing you’ll notice right away is that Uzumaki’s have an incredible appetite and metabolism. The harder we train the more food we need to eat to replace all the energy we expended.”

Nodding slowly the girls started to fill their plates.

Naruto scowled as he noticed several that looked like they might be on diets, but maybe they did not like the food being offered, “If this isn’t what you like to eat we can get you something else.”

Shaking her head Toshiko looked up with a wan smile, “Everything is more than nice Uzumaki-sama.” Seeing his concerned look she sat up, “like all of our Kunoichi’s that graduate we are warned of the danger of dieting and how it will make us weaker. I’m…I’m, just nervous and I need to nibble to start off until my stomach settles down.” When Uzumaki-sama grinned and nodded at her she felt flushed and quickly looked back at her plate. Tasting the food she thought it really was very good, trying to relax she took notice of the conversation that the two Uzumaki’s were trying to keep going.

After lunch had been cleared away Naruto pulled the file folders out and placed them on top of his desk, “Now before we go much further, to see if we are compatible to living together we need to know if this is something you truly want.” Holding up his hand before anyone had a chance to talk, “The lifestyle you will live will be different as you more than likely have been told. There will be the minimum of eight Kunoichi eventually chosen and they will be the mothers of our children and they will be part of the Uzumaki clan. We are not talking marriage as the clan law does not allow that and we are talking that each of you will have on the minimum of four children, so I want you to think long and hard about this as most of those that are brought into the clan will end up pregnant before a year is out.”

“There will be no loss of prestige if you do not wish to go through with this,” Haku smiled, “Plus you must have heard about the Uzumaki family traits, so there is that to think about.”

“Each of you was selected by Ayako on the basis of testing positive for the hint of a bloodline limit, even if it is not manifesting,” Naruto starting placing each girl’s folder in front of her. “Now we’ll give you half an hour to think things through, if at the end of that half hour you think this is not right for you, you can back out and I’ll make sure your Kekkei Genkai is strengthened to the point it awakens.”

“That said,” Haku stood up, his smile brightening the room, “Four of you have bloodlines that will not be compatible with our own.”

Seeing the disappointment in several faces and the looks between each of the girls wondering if they were the one Naruto smiled, “So beside awakening your blood limit, in a few months I’m taking on an apprentice from Konoha that is the last of his clan, I want those four of you to think on the possibility of bringing his clan to Whirlpool. I’m not saying to trick him into having children, what I am saying is if you wanting this type of an arrangement, he is a possibility…or we can help you to find the perfect husband if your dreams lie in that direction, after all with a strong blood limit you will be in demand.” Deciding he dug himself in a deep enough hole Naruto moved away from the table. “The files on the table are what you submitted to Ayako, included in them are the DNA work ups we did along with the blood limit you posses. Those four that we mentioned that are not compatible will find a note inside letting you know.” With one last look down the table Naruto grabbed Haku’s hand so it would be obvious and they walked out of the room.

Ayako watched the girls closely as they watched Uzumaki-sama walk out the door to the bridge, “All right ladies, I will be here to answer any questions you have and to help you understand where things go from here. What Uzumaki-sama did not know, is that I went through all the submissions first and I know none of you are the jealous type.”