Naruto ch 13

Chapter 13

 

 

Breathing returning to normal Haku looked down at Naruto as his hand encountered a wetness he was not expecting, sliding his finger through it he held it up and moved the slippery substance through his fingers.

“What are you doing?” Naruto lifted himself up on his elbow to see what had grabbed Haku’s interest, “What is that?” trying to think when he could have gotten that on him.

Smiling Haku grinned, “It’s not mine, so that means…”

“Really,” Naruto sat up suddenly capturing Haku’s hand to look at the liquid closely before whispering, “it’s mine…” looking at Haku in a daze he looked down, “it’s mine. I’ve entered puberty.” Grinning Naruto basked in the knowledge he was one step closer to resurrecting his clan.

Haku got worried as Naruto went from happy and gleeful to serious so quickly, “is something wrong?”

Shaking his head Naruto stood up quickly as he looked down at his body, it was time. “It is time to activate the last seal.” Staring out the window to the center garden and the light slowly starting to bring forth the colors in the plants, “I knew this day was coming.” Taking a deep breath he smiled, “today, toady I’ll finally be free and the Kyuubi will die.”

Picking up a silk robe Naruto threw it on smiling in anticipation, his burden would finally be lifted. Looking at Haku who had also grabbed his robe he smiled when he was told he was going with him.

nodding  he rushed out of the room and quickly made his way to the clan medical wing, going past all the treatment room he stopped in front of a blank wall and pressed the patterns on the wall in a certain order. Rewarded when he remembered the correct sequence the wall slid down exposing an elaborate Fuuinjutso set drawn on every surface, walls, floor and ceiling were covered, the only place not covered was two foot imprints in the center of the room.

“Whatever you see or hear, you cannot enter the room until the seal is burned out,” Naruto stared at Haku until he nodded.

“I promise,” Haku whispered as his mouth suddenly went dry, “this is not going to be dangerous is it?”

“As long as no one interrupts the ritual I will be fine, it when something would happen to come in the room that things could go wrong,” Naruto went to the short side wall built into the door frame and started to unscrew a panel. “You must make sure no one enters the room until the ritual is over. Make sure the girls do not under any circumstances enter, I would hate for a line to be shorted out after the Kyuubi is removed from my body.”

Taking a step back Haku whispered in horror, “The Kyuubi is going to be released?”

Nodding slowly as he pulled the parchment out with the last seal set on it Naruto turned to the opposite wall and molded chakra to his stomach, once the seal glowed blue he lined up the openings in eh parchment in the mirror before sticking it to his skin. Somewhere along the way he had lost his robe so he stood in front of the mirror naked, making it easier to line up the seal. “the first seal my father placed on me trapped the Kyuubi making me its jailer, it also siphoned off some of its chakra to enlarge my pathways and reserves.”

Smiling he leaned forward and hugged Haku, “I explained both seals to you before. This last seal will remove the Kyuubi from my body, and once it is outside of my body, no longer being kept barely alive by my chakra field it will die.” Grinning in triumph Naruto moved carefully into the room, “For the past four years it has been separated from its chakra, and without chakra of its own it can’t survive.”

Pointing to a circle on the floor Naruto looked at Haku, “It will appear in this circle, and during the next few minutes while the ritual set stabilizes my body to the fact the demon is no longer part of me it will be sleeping in this spot. Once that is finished the runes on the floor will go from blue to green and then red before they turn yellow hot, after the lines and runes disappear it is safe to come in.”

Trying to reassure Haku with his eyes Naruto smiled, “I think you are going to have to fill in for me in the office this morning as I’m not going to be in any shape to handle things.”

“Is it…” Haku swallowed, “is this going to be painful?”

Losing a little of his confident look Naruto finally shrugged, “The second seal didn’t hurt, just felt like a rush from eating way to much sugar way to fast. This one,” he shrugged, “Well I don’t know. But even if it does cause me pain, if it ends up with that demon dead it’s worth it.” Stepping into the footprints Naruto made sure his feet were touching the activations seals. Smiling he placed his hands on the activation section of the parchment on his chest as he molded chakra into his feet.

Haku shifted from foot to foot nervously as the room started to glow; the lines connecting the imprint that Naruto was standing in suddenly shifted and reached out for the connecting lines. The glow rushed out from the center connecting lines all around the walls and ceiling, it was like watching an accelerant being lit after a trail had been drizzled out. Suddenly the seals came to life in a sudden burst of brilliant blue as the lines connecting them turned green.

The whole time the room was glowing and coming to life Naruto stood still with a grin on his face, but as soon as the room turned deep green he saw Naruto mold chakra into his hands touching the seal. Haku started to sigh in relief as the room suddenly flashed over to the white hot yellow of a fire and then to his horror Naruto threw his head back and screamed.

Catching himself from rushing into the room he watched as Naruto shimmered, almost as if he was two people trying to occupy the same spot. Just as sudden as the room flashed fire hot yellow it tinted red and he took a step back as a red beast appeared in the circle, it looked like the demonic fox had been removed and like Naruto said it was barely clinging to life. Watching careful as he took several steps to the edge of the room the seals flashed back to the white hot yellow, and then it was if the earth suddenly ended.

Lightening started to form from the seals, brilliant ball lightening struck out from the seal around the walls and ceiling, all directed towards the dying Kitsune. Strike after strike of energy hit the demon filling the room and hallway with the smell of burning flesh. Finally spots flashing in his eyes he had to turn his head away as several other seals activated sending large stream of fire towards the demon. With what seemed like hours but was only thirty minutes the hall shook as a resounding boom sounded. Picking himself up off the floor from the other side of the doorway Haku looked into the room and noticed the seals had gone pitch black and there was no trace of the demon anywhere, catching himself on the doorframe as he rushed to enter the room he stood still and waited until the runes and seal sets turned grey and like ash from a fire pit that wind hit just right started to blow away.

Five minutes later Haku looked around carefully, one eye on the slumped form of more than just his lord and leader of his clan. Not seeing any more lines he jumped into the room and carefully laid Naruto on his back, checking for damage, tears falling down his face as he noticed the slow rise and fall of Naruto's chest. Carefully picking Naruto up he walked carefully back to their bedroom and stepped down in the warm Furo, he would scrub it clean later, but now he needed to get Naruto clean so he could tuck him in. carefully and lovingly he washed Naruto thoroughly before picking him up once more. One the way past the closet he grabbed a towel with his teeth, once he laid Naruto down on top of the futon he quickly dried him off before slipping him beneath the sheet so he could change the blanket out to a dry one.

Looking back Haku noticed that Naruto looked like he was sleeping peacefully, smiling he slid the door shut quietly, moving to the other side of the house he let the tears of frustration out. He told himself it would be only briefly as he had things to do for Naruto and he was not going to let him down.

 

Face washed and fully dressed Haku entered the citadel office from the bridge and made his way over to the desk, sitting down behind it he looked up as Jiga walked in the door with a large stack of papers.

Raising an eyebrow Jiga glanced at the closed bridge door, “Uzumaki-sama is Naruto-sama sick this morning,” he asked with worry creeping into his voice.”

Frowning Haku tried to think of the best way to say what had happened and still keep Naruto's secrets, “The Kyuubi died this morning and Naruto-kun is asleep exhausted. Nothing several hours of rest won’t cure; that and several large meals.”

“Thank the celestial lords of all for that,” Jiga set the papers down on his end of the table so he could put the four piles on the desk, “I had heard some rumors about a group trying to find the location of the demons to use them for some reason, but with the nine tailed demon dead for good they will not go after Uzumaki-sama or succeed in their plans if they need all nine.”

Finished placing the four piles he grinned at Haku, “So should I explain the surprises this morning will bring?”

Haku snapped his head up, glaring in Jiga’s direction, “Should I find out how long it would take you to pick up each grain of sand with chopsticks after I dump a large bucket on the office floor. Using a whip to hit your ass with every time you use chakra to help or drop a grain of sand.”

Wincing Jiga backed away hands in front of him, “Whoa there, I was just joking.”

“And I think Naruto-kun has explained that we do not like surprises,” Haku turned away so Jiga would not see him silently laughing.

Nodding rapidly so as not to make Haku-sama mad Jiga went to this side of the table so he could get started, “I’ll just be over here in case you need me for anything.”

Shuffling the first stack Haku read the proposals which he separated out, and then he read the finished mission reports that only needed a signature and stamp before being filed away. The first hurdle stopped him in his tracks, “how the hell am I suppose to stamp the seal on these things.” Not realizing he had said that out loud he jumped slightly in his chair when a small lacquered inlayed box was set in front of him.

“Naruto-sama had this made for you a few weeks ago, I think you’ll find you can do your duties now,” Jiga smiled, secretly gleeful as he watched the young Uzumaki open the box.

Opening the lid Haku stared at the silk lined box, inside was a small gold handled stamp, turning it over he looked at the seal and saw the Uzumaki crest on it with a slight difference it had the Kanji for his name in the place where Naruto's should have gone. Wiping his eyes before the tears could fall Haku looked back at the glass door leading to the bridge with a smile on his face, picking up the stamp he set the box to the side carefully so he could return the stamp when he was done, going back to the stack he quickly started to sign and stamp the papers while Jiga just grinned at him with a knowing smile.

Pulling out the team cheat sheet Haku looked at the wall to see who was available for missions today, glancing back at the stack and the wall he frowned, “we seriously are beginning to have manpower problem. And with the new alliance we signed it is going to get worse,” looking back at the stack he still did not have enough teams. Tapping his fingers on the desktop he quickly looked through the stack of the teams returning today, maybe just maybe they could find enough. “Tell me if I have this right, we have the Dragon exam, then the Chuunin exam followed by the academy graduation and then the Jounin exam,” glancing over at Jiga he waited, “is that right?”

“Yes…”Jiga railed off as he watched Haku glance through the fourth stack, mission requests for tomorrow and tomorrow’s schedule of people he had to meet with.

Shaking his head Haku looked at the stack and the wall again, “This is not going to work. Right now we don’t have the people needed to so these missions; after the testing is done we will have the people needed, but not now.” Glancing back through the mission requests again he was surprised that a good two thirds of them were coming from outside of Whirlpool, but should he make the decision that was needed here. Thinking on it Naruto-kun did tell him he would have to handle what came up today for him, sighing he looked at the test dates again, they needed more people, and with the exams coming up a good third of their people were off preparing. Staring at Jiga while he thought things through, he got an evil glint to his eyes, “Move the Chuunin exams up two weeks, we will hold them two days after the Dragon test.”

Jiga stared wide eyed at Haku; this was something he expected to come out of Naruto-sama’s mouth, “You want us to do what?”

“I want you to move up the Chuunin exam to the end of the week,” Haku finished assigning missions quickly, even to the point of assigning several easy C-Rank ones to returning teams. Satisfied that this days mission were assigned he looked up into the dumbstruck face of Jiga, “We really have no choice, we need the manpower, which means that all of those training and off the mission roster because of these exams need to take them so we can get them back in the field.”

“But…But, they aren’t ready for them yet,” Jiga protested, inwardly wondering if the response would be like Naruto-sama’s.

“Well as far as I’m concerned the test to be Chuunin started as soon as they were nominated, so if they can’t handle the surprise and stress of having the test start early then they should stay a Genin,” Haku  stated calmly as he wrote the order to move the Chuunin exam to four days from now.

“You’re not going to make many friends amongst the up and coming,” Jiga grinned, “But you’re absolutely right. Thanks to Naruto-sama most of our graduating Genin are near Chuunin level in chakra and skill, only needing to work on experience building and situational usage of their skills.”

“I agree, from what Naruto-kun has told me by the other hidden village’s standards our Genin graduate with almost a year and a half experience they would have received after they graduated, and we graduate almost all of our academy students,” Haku started on the third stack getting familiar with who was supposed to be coming back and what missions they had been on, there also was one request of a meeting from one of the clans this morning. “Do you know why the Tannaka clan wants to meet this morning?”

“Truthfully,” Jiga moved over to look at the paperwork upside down, “I have no clue, I don’t even remember putting this in here, and Naruto-sama must have done it.”

“And I can’t even ask him until his chakra reserves start to build up enough for him to wake up and devour the kitchen,” Haku sighed while Jiga looked up in shock.

“Devour the kitchen?” Jiga shook his head trying to make sense of what he had just heard, “Most people that are suffering from chakra depletion sleep until their reserves have refilled, are you saying it is different for Naruto-sama?”

Nodding as he started to go through the fourth pile Haku looked up, “For all Uzumaki’s, if depleted we will sleep until our reserves start filling and then we wake with a hunger that is unbelievable, and soon after we eat our bodies turn that food directly into chakra filling up our reserves within an hour or so.” Holding up one of the papers Hake scowled at Jiga, “I thought you knew what would happen if surprises were slipped in.”

Stepping back quickly, so he had a clear line to the door Jiga frowned, “What surprises? There should be nothing in there that could even remotely be considered a surprise.”

“And this request from one of the trading caravan’s for a meeting as soon as possible, a trader from the area around Iwa,” Haku held out the paper, once Jiga had taken the he looked up, “I find it very interesting that a trader coming from an area where one of our teams was ambushed wants to meet with Naruto-kun…don’t you?”

Eyes skimming over the paper Jiga nodded, “As do I, I shall take care of this right away, and report back after lunch.” Picking up the basket of assigned missions he bowed slightly and made his way out the door.

Seeing he had plenty of time before he had to be back at the office for his first meeting Haku left the office intent on taking a walk through the city. Nodding and waving at being greeted he found it was very enlightening the way he was treated, most of his life the villages he had visited with Zabuza they were treated with suspicion, here though he was treated like royalty. Even before he gained the Uzumaki traits he was treated with respect not the derision he thought he would be for daring to taint Naruto, in fact he never felt like he was an outsider, everyone made him feel welcome.

Walking down the street eyes wandering side to side at the shops, his feet unconsciously taking towards the academy, finding himself outside the academy grounds he decided to peak in on several of the classes to see firsthand why Whirlpool’s academy students were the best. Opening the gate to the yard he made a note to have someone oil it, the squeak was noticeable.

Taneri hearing the gate open glanced around the side of the building in shock, Uzumaki-sama was here, not bothering to wonder why he had shown up today she clapped her hands together to get her students attention, “Listen up everyone I want all of you on your best behavior, it seems we are about to have a guest and I would like us to show him how good we are.”

“HAI SENSEI...”

Hand on the door to the academy Haku head the large shout and changed his mind, curious he started to walk along the outside of the building, past the row of windows ignoring the stir he was causing as those inside caught sight of him and pointed him out excitedly to their sensei’s. Catching sight of the training field as he neared the corner Haku slowed down to make sure no stray weapon would come his way as he went around the corner, his peak around the corner showing the coast was clear he walked slowly up to the class as the instructor was giving last minute instructions on what looked like a sparing test.

“Right, Moshi, Sabu the two of you are first, light contact only and blunted weapons allowed,” Taneri motioned for the two to step into the circle hand ready to slash down, “Start.”

Haku watched with a critical eye as the spar progressed, noticing both the good and bad. Seeing that the Kunai was not the dull luster associated with a training weapon he quickly formed an ice Kunai and threw it while moving, “FREEZE…” chakra infused ice met tempered steel with the sound of metal hitting a bell.

Both students froze half extended, but bodies still in motion as they fell into each other, a lethal strike if not for the fact Haku had deflected the Kunai away from its target.

I have got to start practicing the family speed Jutsu was the thought that flashed through Haku’s mind as he appeared pulling the two apart, giving each a thorough once over with his eyes to make sure there was no damage. “I do believe your Sensei told you training weapons only,” grabbing he boys wrist he pulled the Kunai around so they could see it, “This is not a training weapon.”

Sabu looked at the Kunai in shock; the razor sharp edge seemed to glitter in the light mocking him, falling to his knees he pulled the pouch of his leg to look at it, digging through the insides he ended up dumping it out on the ground trying to find any blunted Kunai inside, instead he found nothing other than brand new filed Kunai. Looking up in shock he shook his head, “I…I…I never put these in here.”

Believing him Haku let his eyes travel through the class before opening up his senses to see if someone has hanging around that should not be, not finding anything he spotted something the academy student did not, a note had fallen from the pouch. Picking it up he snorted before looking back at the boy, “It seems your mother thought your Kunai were getting a little on the dull side and replaced them for you.” Handing the note back he smirked, “I’ll refrain from reading the rest of it out loud.”

Looking over the class Haku had their undivided attention, “So can anyone tell me the first rule of Shinobi Sabu broke?”

Not getting any response Haku looked at the instructor who looked confused, “No one?” turning around and seeing confusion, “No one knows…” shaking his head he pointed to one of the students, “describe your weapons and where they are located.”

“Umm,” he looked around before gulping, “I have three shuriken and two Kunai,” pulling his pouch off his leg he held it out, “they’re in here.”

Taking the pouch Haku looked in and smiled, just like he thought, “The greatest rule a Shinobi must know is to always know what is available to them as weapons besides their minds and Ninjutsu.” Reaching into the pouch he pulled out four Kunai to the shock of the class.”I have two hundred and twenty Senbon needles on me, one Kunai and several other weapons that I will not tell you about. That does not even take into consideration I can create most weapons I need.”

Smiling Haku formed a Kunai of ice from the air and placed some of his chakra into it, tempering it to a point stronger than steel and let it fly without looking. To the shock of the class it hit the target dead center and he snapped his fingers as he used his Hyouton, “Boom…” the class jumped as the Kunai exploded into sharp ice fragments, taking most of the target with it. “Naruto-kun always knows where is weapons are and how many he has at all times, he also knows the best way to make things go boom, even if he says so himself.”

Tilting his head skyward Haku smiled as he felt the chakra signatures of several Jounin that had come to investigate the explosion, ignoring the faces pressed to the windows in awe he smiled back at the boy he singled out as he handed his pouch back to him. “Shinobi can be considered weapons, but we are the only weapons I know of that keeps weapons of our own to use in a fight. So knowing at all times what you have available to use to defend yourself, your teammates and complete your mission, is the first rule to always remember.” Nodding when they seemed to take his words to hearts and started going through their weapons pouches Haku turned to leave.

Taneri noticing their guest leaving snapped out of her thoughts, no one ever thought about reinforcing the idea of knowing what you have available to you at all times, quickly motioning the class to stand she bowed, “Thank you Uzumaki-sama.”

The class bowed excitedly and yelled out in enthusiasm, “Thank you for teaching us Uzumaki-sama.”

Waving over his shoulder Haku chuckled as he walked around the building; it was time to get back to the office for the meeting, mind wondering what the Tannaka clan wanted. Before he was out of range he heard the instructor telling the students to empty out their pockets and pouches so they could inventory what they had, it wasn’t good enough to think they knew what was on them they had to be sure.

 

Walking up the steps into the citadel Haku took note how efficiently everything was, the first floor held the offices of the three advisors to the Uzumaki, where people could come in and out easily. The second floor held the offices of academy affairs; this is where D-Rank missions were assigned to last year academy students along with the Sensei’s offices. Walking up the steps and passing the third floor he looked down the hall and noticed the constant stream of teams coming in for assignment, pausing on the stair he noticed the expansion of several storage rooms for the mission specific supplies he had suggested. They were almost finished so a couple of D-Rank mission would need to be written up to go collect the orders and stock the rooms.

Finally walking to the fifth floor he stopped as he looked back down, the fourth floor was not accessible to the stairways, ‘I wonder what is down there and how you get to that floor’. Glancing at the clock on the wall he stopped reflected and hurried towards the office, he had a meeting to get to. Spotting two people sitting in the waiting area, one looked like a young boy he waved for them to follow him, “Tannaka-san, if you would…”

Sitting behind the desk Haku smiled and pointed to the chairs, “What can I do for you this morning Tannaka-san?”

Bowing his head slightly Ryoto looked around, “Not to be impertinent Uzumaki-sama, but is Naruto-sama alright?”

Staring at him a moment Haku smiled, after all this village did know about the Kyuubi and the plan to kill it and they welcomed Naruto even knowing that, “Naruto-kun will probably sleep until dinner I would think, he had a tuff morning as he killed the Kyuubi right after we woke up.” Seeing the surprised look turn to pleasure he added, “It was amazing, a sight that was both frightening and uplifting with the power that went into the destruction.”

“That is wonderful, “Ryoto grinned, “Do you mind if I spread the word, I’m sure the valley will want to celebrate, most of the townsfolk have been preparing a celebration for this day.”

Laughing Haku nodded as he relaxed into his chair, “Please do, maybe that way Naruto-kun won’t eat everything in our kitchen in one sitting, we can join the festivities and he can eat his way from one side of the city to the other.”

Chuckling Ryoto coughed, then he looked at Haku wide eyed “Yes…Wait he will really eat that much?”

Nodding slowly Haku studied the young boy with Ryoto without looking like he was, “Part of our healing ability is that we can turn food into chakra when our reserves are really low at an incredible rate, so we tend to empty kitchens when that happens.”

“I might have a solution for that in the future, one of our trail bars…” trailing off Ryoto shook himself, “I will get back to you on that after talking to my wife, she is the one who created the concept.” Placing a comforting hand on the young boys shoulder he smiled down at him, “Aki here is the reason why I asked to meet this morning. We returned from our mission late last night and we found Aki here during our mission, the interesting thing is when we tested him for Kekkei Genkai, not that we really needed to as his blood limit was obvious, we found something surprising.”

Feeling the boy tense up Ryoto glanced at him and noticed the tears welling up, “Aki is an orphan, his parents were killed a few months ago so they could…Well I think you know what our mission was. When we rescued the kids Aki here was fighting, and he was doing his best to take down all of his captors without help.” chuckling at the memory he squeezed Aki’s shoulder briefly, “then the most amazing thing happened, Aki here awoke his blood limit. Aki do me a favor, Show Uzumaki-sama your eyes.”

Aki looked back at the man who rescued him who was smiling at him before turning to face the younger man behind the desk who seemed to be in charge. Nodding he concentrated and pushed the chakra to his eyes.

Haku stared in shock as he looked at the boy’s eyes turn from black to red, “Sharingan…”

 

 

Naruto ch 12

Chapter 12

 

 

Coming back into the office half an hour later Naruto’s eyebrows practically flew off his head when he saw the only one in the room was Ayako, glancing around as Haku stopped next to him stunned his face wrinkle dup in confusion, Haku finally broke the silence, “Where did everyone go, did we lose all of the candidates.”

Looking up Ayako giggled, “I sent them home to clean up and come back in regular workout clothes, I figured for the next part you might like to see their skills and then maybe all of you can sit down and have a picnic, a meal the way I intended.” Grumbling under her breath, “even after I castrate that pretentious chef, I’ll do the meal myself so I know it gets done right.”

Blinking slowly Naruto tilted his head to the point he was looking at Ayako sideways, at her sudden what he stood back up and shrugged, “Nothing, I though I heard someone muttering threats like I do when I’ve been surprised is all.” Ignoring her fish impression He went over to his desk, “how many of them decided to stay to find out more?”

“Four,” Ayako pointed to the folders on his desk, “Only the four oldest ones, the younger ones while thinking that the whole thing is glamorous, well when they found out they would end up pregnant within a year, they were shocked out of their daydreams.” Finished cleaning up she bowed, “Uzumaki-sama I’ll leave your to your meeting with the Wave delegation. I told the girls to return around four,” she waved as she walked out the door.

Haku went around and picked up the folders, peaking inside to see who had stayed before he piled them on the corner of Naruto’s desk. Hearing boisterous chatting coming from the hall Haku leaned over and whispered, ‘Do you think Tazuna-san had a little too much Sake with lunch.”

Naruto growled out as he looked up, “He better not be drunk and come to this meeting asking for my decision…”

“Relax young one,” Tazuna smiled as he walked into the office, “I am no longer under the stress I was back when the bridge was being built and my family and country were on the verge of being enslaved or killed. I’m much too busy and happy to lose myself in the embrace of the warm oblivion.”

Looking at Tazuna, really looking at him Naruto nodded at finding what he was looking for, “Come in, please sit we have much to discuss.”

Yoshio was still amazed, “to think the most powerful person in this country is going on thirteen, amazing,” he whispered, then blushed as he noticed Haku-sama heard him.

Naruto had heard that of course but he was watching all of them and the man was not saying it to be mean, more like his tone was amazed and filled with awe. Which truth be told he still found funny when directed his way, even after almost four years, pulling his paperwork out of the left hand slot he placed it on the desk. “Good afternoon, I hope you have found your visit as eye opening as my people did?”

“Indeed we did Uzumaki-sama,” Tazuna smiled, “And I personally wish to thank you for the honor of allowing us inside the Caldera Valley, from what we have been told we are the first and most likely last delegation to be allowed inside now that you are building what your people call the outside village.”

“Yes, we have a long memory of traitors and war, a war to wipe very last one of us out,” Naruto almost whispered the answer as he looked at all four of them one at a time, “the merchants guild tells me this alliance will be a good for business, so much so that we would have to expend the outside village in size to a modest size trading center. The village council also tells me they would like to see this alliance happen, they feel it would be good for the people.” Seeing the so, so expression on their faces he shrugged, “The clan council likes the idea o f the alliance for the simple fact it will give them more to do, and if Zabuza follows through on his threat a base of operation.”

“That out of the way,” Naruto sat back in his chair as he glanced up at Haku with a smile, “from what I understand of these things, your proposal includes paying us a yearly fee of five percent of the amount of what your country does in business to have our Shinobi protect you.” Leaning forward now so he could let them see how serious he was, “I happen to know firsthand from going through several of the towns how much everyone is struggling to just eat, even with the influx of Gato’s businesses and cash you still have a ways to go before you’re truly back on your feet. So what I propose is a test run, I agree to the alliance which can be cancelled by either of us in the first year, many things can happen in a year. Beginning one year from now we will accept payment from you to patrol your country, until then we will satisfy ourselves with accepting students to our Shinobi academy as payment, after all the best way to keep you country safe is with your own Shinobi when they get trained up.”

Yuri chuckled, “Too true, and in a year Water might be part of Whirlpool and then we can join too.”

Naruto’s eyes crossed for a moment as he turned quickly to the female civilian, “Do you know something we don’t?”

Yuri was suddenly very serious, “The so called Daimyo of water right now will never bow down to the demands of the Mizukage, and he is so afraid of those that have Kekkei Genkai he will be willing to destroy his country before letting anyone with a blood limit live. I met him once and I do think he would be ruthless enough to have his army kill off every living soul to make sure no one with a blood limit would ever hurt him again.”

Haku reached down and pulled an empty scroll from the bin and started to write a detailed note to Zabuza warning him of what they had just been told.

“I see,” Naruto frowned before shaking his head, seeing what Haku was writing he would let Zabuza handle it anyway he wanted and hopefully he could stay out of it. Pulling the folder out of his drawer Naruto signed and stamped the top copy before sliding it over so he could sign and stamp his copy for their files. “I thank you for that warning, even if it gives me a headache later, he thought as he smiled. “This is your copy of the alliance treaty, modified like I just mentioned just now. Our Chuunin exam is in two weeks so in a month’s time you can expect the first of Whirlpool’s Shinobi forces to arrive, of course we will start accepting missions as of tomorrow and the liaison team I send back with you can send the requests on to me for approval as soon as they arrive.” Standing up Naruto looked at the four of them, the meeting over.

“More than fair young one, Naruto-sama I thank you on behalf of my country,” Tazuna bowed, as he stood back up he smiled, “Inari has done nothing but talk about you since you left, I have no doubt he will be one of the first to sign up for your academy.”

“Yes, thank you Uzumaki-sama for agreeing to the alliance,” Yoshio bowed as he readied himself to leave, after all they had taken up more than enough of his time.

Haku finished and rolled the scroll up, “Naruto-kun if you don’t mind I shall escort our guests to the mission office where the team is waiting to escort them back to Wave.” Holding up the scroll he nodded at Naruto’s questioning look.

“Ask Jiga to assign team Tarla to see that scroll gets to Zabuza promptly,” Naruto went to the wall and made the notation by the team name on their mission and gave it a week’s duration.

Gazing at the wall as he tried to figure out how to best rework the teams when the Dragon trials were over with, feeling a presence behind him he turned his head to see one of the hunter team he sent to find out what happened with team Kodochi. “Did you find out what happened to Kodochi’s team?”

“Hai Uzumaki-sama,” the Hunter-nin got up from his knee so he could face Naruto-sama, “Ryto used the reverse summon scrolls we carried to rush Team Kodochi to the hospital. We found a team of Iwa ninjas near the battle ground we found Kodochi’s team, the Iwa Shinobi looked like a border patrol, but they were clearly well inside Waterfall countries borders when they attacked our team.” Moving next to his leader he pointed to the spot on the map where his team found Kodochi and his injured Genin team, “Dai sealed up the bodies of the Iwa Shinobi and have taken them to the morgue to await the discovery team, but until Kodochi wakes we will not know what truly happened.”

Staring at the wall Naruto finally nodded, “Have your team take a few days off, drop your written report off as soon as you can. I think…I think,” he started to grin evilly, “I might have one of the Dragons drop by Takigakure no Sato to drop off the bodies and let the leader of the village hidden by Waterfalls know what happened inside his borders, maybe he might have some information he is willing to spare.” Turning back from the wall Naruto went back to his desk, “Good job Kaori, go get some rest so you can get some training in before the test.”

“How…” Kaori whispered before shaking his head, of course Uzumaki-sama would know he wished to try for Dragon, he mentioned it to Jiga who must have passed it along, bowing his head slightly, “Hai, Uzumaki-sama.”

Staring at the space where the slight mist whirling like one of their countries famous whirlpools Naruto tried to think what in the world Iwa was up to.

 

Watching the four Kunoichi run through their weapons skills Naruto leaned over to Haku, “Think we should let them run the maze?”

Haku was watching those four carefully, he and Naruto had talked and three of them were to carry his children first. So far they were very skillful in weapons, but there was more to protecting their children than being good with weapons. “I think it would be interesting,” he nodded agreement at the suggestion.

Once everyone had collected their weapons from the targets Naruto waved them over, “One last thing before we sit down and talk things out, and we answer all your questions. This next exercise will let us get a feeling to your current level, even though all of you are ranked Chuunin you might be skilled higher but your reserves drag you back down. This last test will take you to the edge, it’s our training maze. To get through it you are going to have to use everything in your arsenal.” Seeing nothing but eagerness Naruto smiled, “So follow us and we can get started.”

Leading the way Naruto walked towards the back of the training grounds, towards the rock outcropping, once there he moved to the smallest boulder on top of the pile. Hand glowing with chakra he placed it on it activating the release mechanism.

Seeing a set of stair being uncovered Toshiko hopped up to see better, “That is so cool, a secret underground training area.”

“You’ve not seen anything yet,” Haku grinned as he motioned for the four girls to go first, so he could bring up the rear.

Stopping gat he balcony above the maze Naruto looked back as he hit the switches turning all the lights on, grinning as the sounds of surprise, “Welcome to the Uzumaki training maze, the place we test ourselves to the very edge.” Pointing out the safety features he grinned, “Each of those red door leads to safety, so anytime you need to bail out of the maze go for one of those doors, and of course we can stop the training maze from up here at any time.” Cracking his neck Naruto’s grin was infectious, “I’ll go first so you can see how the maze handles.”

Jumping over the balcony Naruto bounced off several different outcroppings until he was on the maze floor.  Seeing the light turn green he was across the starting line on the floor in a blink, Kunai flying from his hand without him even stopping. He was around the corner before the three Kunai hit the red targets sliding across the track, in the second stretch those observing him blinked in surprise as he made several rapid hand seals bringing to life a giant wind born whirlpool, picking up a board Naruto jumped on top of it as the board hit the outer edge of the whirlpool and was drawn into the swirl, only to jump off the board landing on the floor on the opposite side of the dying whirlpool. Once the whirlpool disappeared the Genjutsu on the floor revealed the spike filled pit.”

“Crap…” Moriko muttered as she looked at the other girls then back to the maze.

“The spikes are also an illusion, but falling into the pit means failure, and it is wide enough you can’t easily jump over it,” Haku watched as Naruto approached the water hazard.

A resounding boom brought the girls attention back to the maze as a fireball rose up from the back section.

“Almost all of the animal dangers in here are Genjutsu that cannot be dispelled because they are seal based,” Haku calmed the girls down before grinning, “But the section Naruto-kun is entering now is all mechanical.”

They watched in horror and an eerie fascination as Naruto-sama jumped, dodged and blew things up to make it through this section of the maze. Their mouths fell open as he threw Shuriken and kunai to catch chains to stop deadfalls from activating.

Ten minutes later Naruto looked up from the finish line grinning, sweat dripping down his face as he called out, “Time?”

Looking at the clock Haku yelled down the Naruto who was climbing the steps back up, “Three seconds faster than last time.”

“Damn,” Naruto grumbled as he grabbed a towel from the ledge as he stepped back onto the balcony. “I got bogged down at the third turn.” Grinning at the group he tilted his head as he changed the course. The sounds of gears grinding was loud in the silence of the cavern as walls dropped and a new path opened up, “I set the maze to Chuunin level instead of Dragon. So it should be a lot more fair on you and still let us see your skills, the only thing we are going to keep track of are your times. Because if you take up the offer to be part of the Uzumaki clan you will be down there more often trying to improve your times. Any questions before we start?”

Kako shook her head as she jumped to the top of the rail, “I’m first.”

Jumping and dodging Kako laughed out loud, she was having fun, and running through another set of hand seals she let loose with one of her trademark fire Jutsu’s incinerating the oncoming horde of giant ants. Rounding the corner she saw movement and threw a shuriken without thinking and froze as she noticed it hit the image of a child. Falling to her knees she could not believe her eyes as she felt another presence drop down next to her.

“When I first went through the maze several years ago,” Naruto started as he sighed, “My mother had left instructions and even a video of her running through the maze to show me what it was all about. And just like I did for all of you, she never once mentioned that part of the maze had targets that were not targets. I felt like crap as I sat on the floor bawling my eyes out, even Haku never made it through the maze without injuring one of the victim targets. It’s what we do from here that shows how truly string we are and can be,” holding out his hand he helped Kako to her feet, “The test is over, and you passed.”

Kako looked up at Naruto-sama with tears causing her to be partially blind, “How…how can you say I passed…I…I…”

Pulling her tight against him Naruto looked up at the wall that blocked the rest of them from seeing what had happened, “You passed because you proved you are human, not only are you a good Kunoichi but you are human and feel guilt for killing one you should not have. My mother told me that all the mothers to the Uzumaki clan formed a special squad, and not to accept anyone if they failed this part of the test. Because only a Kunoichi could understand what this truly means to them and by going through it they would drive themselves to make sure it would not happen again…And those Kunoichi would go through hell and back to protect our children.”

Pushing chakra into his legs Naruto jumped to the top of the wall and ran to the balcony in blur, setting Kako down he looked at the rest of the girls who were worried, “She’ll be fine, it was nothing physical.” Seeing the slow nods that did not quite agree with him he smiled, “Who’s next?”

Half an hour later Naruto was leading a group of emotionally spent young Kunoichi’s back to the surface and into the house, smiling gat the quiet group he led them to the middle of the meditation garden and sat down,   Haku returned with a tray with water on it and a wet towel for Kimi to clean her face from where she had been sick.

“We…I put all of you through hell, emotional and physical,” Naruto sat and watched them as Haku took care of giving then soothing drinks and helped Kimi clean up, “And a small part of me is sorry for that. The larger part is thankful that all accept Kimi are at low Jounin level, though Kimi is not far behind, and if you still wish to be part of the Uzumaki clan after what you have gone through we will help you get stronger, all four of you would easily be able to go through the Jounin exam without a problem when we finish your training. So now that we have put you through things you never expected it is only fair that if you are still interesting in being the mothers of our children and being bonded into the Uzumaki clan you have a chance to ask some questions to help make up your mind.” Smiling as he accepted the glass of cool water from Haku he reached up and pulled him down on his lap.

Chuckling Haku slipped of Naruto’s lap to sit next to him, taking a small sip of his drink he watched the girls, the future mothers of their children if they agreed at the end of this meeting.

Kako choosing to be first again looked at Naruto, “Everything I’ve been put through just shows me you are serious about keeping your children safe. I think I can speak for everyone still here that we have a very good idea of what it means to be an Uzumaki male, and Ayako made it very clear that any Uzumaki mother is a Shinobi first and foremost. Though I’m not sure what that means, but what do you mean by bonding to the clan? Is that different than a bonding one does to a husband?”

Nodding his head Naruto finished his water and set his glass on the tray; closing his eyes he remembered his mother’s history lesson from a year ago, “The Golden Dragon, a special Division of the Dragons. They who where the golden dragon mask protect the Uzumaki clan, they protect our children and the children of our village.”

“In the time before the war the Golden Dragon division was the most feared division of any of Whirlpool’s Shinobi forces. Each and every one of them power wise was on the same level as the five Hokage’s, “Naruto opened his eyes as he looked at Kako, “all of the Golden Dragon’s are drafted from the Mother’s of the Uzumaki clan.”

Kako was wide eyed in awe, now she knew what Ayako meant, but why didn’t she just come out and say it, unless she never knew .that had to be it, no one knew where the Golden Dragon’s were recruited from but the Uzumaki.

Nodding as he saw they understood Naruto smiled, “Yes. Now to answer what it means to be bonded to the Uzumaki clan, this is not like a marriage bond; this is a physical bond that affects you on the DNA level. If you agree to bond to the clan you will be given the gift of a partial form of the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai.”

“How…” shaking her head Nyoko thought about it, “I have heard rumors that the Uzumaki clan was masters of the Kekkei Genkai, the bloodline abilities, but I never would have dreamed it meant you could give someone a blood limit.”

“And that is a secret that is so deeply entrenched in our clan it means death to the person who even thinks it out loud,” Haku placed his own half full glass back on the tray, “the consequences to our children if it gets out is to horrible to even contemplate.”

Naruto nodded as he watched the four, “And I would not even have mentioned it now if I did not trust that all four of you are about to ask to be bonded to the clan.”

Kimi nodded, she was not going to back down now, even if her father was the one to originally push her in this direction, “How soon would we be expected to get pregnant and with who?”

“Normally the mothers of the clan are a much larger number and they can choose amongst the numerous males to have their four children with, but there are only two of us right now,” Naruto stared at them for a moment, “Let’s face facts, all of those eight that will be chosen will be compatible to our bloodline, they will be chosen to help strengthen the clan. Nyoko, Moriko and Kako were chosen to carry Haku’s children first, Kimi you are the youngest and I am still several months away before I would father a child so you will carry my child first. We still need to chose another four Kunoichi to fill the rolls of mother of the clans children but that will fall to all of you to make the first cuts once you are actually pregnant, only then can you take up the duties of being a mother of the clan.”

“As for when,” Naruto gulped quietly, “When, after all of you pass your Jounin exam. It will be safe to get you with child then as I don’t want any of you in a combat situation while pregnant if it can be avoided.” Holding up his hand, “Which does not mean you won’t be training your asses off every day; it just means you will be relegated to in country missions until six months after the baby is born. By that time you should be able to take up the mantle of Golden Dragon until it is time to get pregnant again and give the position to one of the other mothers while you train and teach the children.”

Haku blushed as Kako examined him, eyes undressing him with a grin before winking, “I understand what it means to be an Uzumaki male so I will not embarrass you.”

“That is the other reason why all of you made the final cut to have us test your skills,” Naruto looked up as the sky started to darken, “You can accept that while you must be faithful to the Uzumaki men, those same men are Bi and keep a lover. In the future those lovers who make good genetic matches to the clan will be bonded into the clan and will also have children with the mother’s of the clan, when we get to that point we will continually skim off the best of the best Kunoichi from Whirlpool into our clan.”

“So…” Haku stumbled over his words, “So do you have any other questions that you need to make your decision?”

Nyoko looked at the other Kunoichi and mouthed ‘are you going to’ to each of them and turned back when she got a yes from them all, “When do we move in and when do we start training?”

Chuckling Naruto stood up, brushing the sand off his pants, “Let me show you the wing you will be living in.” as they followed him up to the porch and past the Dojo, “You can start moving your belongings in tomorrow afternoon, once you have bonded to the clan and you get part of the Uzumaki blood limit, you can start training three days later. We’ll have to teach you the new chakra control and building exercises you’ll need before you start training because of the changes.”

“And you’ll definitely need them,” Haku winced at the loss of his hard earned control right after he had been bonded to the clan.

“These rooms are for the mother’s of the clan,” Naruto pointed to the row of room surrounding a mostly bare central garden, the only thing installed was a continuation of the Koi pond. “As you can see the garden is still not finished and since this is your wing I’ll leave the design to you, our room is back in the main part of the house, and once you have moved in we’ll show you where everything is.”

“There are plenty of rooms for you to chose yours from,” Haku waved around the courtyard.

Opening up the closest door Kako looked inside the room, it was bigger than her bedroom back home.

“Closet is over her,” Naruto opened the door to show them the large closet before opening the second sliding door. “A place to store all your uniforms and weapons.” Seeing the smiles on their faces he giggled before getting serious and walking past the bed to the only other door in the room, “the nursery.”

All the girls were sobered by that little room, it was brought home to them that soon they would be mothers, and if they were truthful with each other it made them nervous and excited at the same time.

Half an hour later as they walked back up the path from escorting the young Kunoichi to the gate of the estate Naruto raised his head enough to see into Haku’s eyes, “Shall we do a quick wash up and head to bed?”

Grinning in anticipation Haku took the initiative and dragged Naruto towards the Furo.

 

 

 

 

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.”

 

 

 

 

Naruto ch 10

 

                                                                            Chapter 10

 

 

Smiling at Haku as he went through the new chakra exercises slowly, Naruto gazed at the sweat covered form for a few minutes with a smile on his face; Haku had jumped into the training with a glee that had him wondering if more than abilities had been merged to his DNA that night. Clearing his throat Naruto jumped off the porch of the dojo into the clearing that was the Uzumaki training grounds, “You are really getting the hang of those exercises, I think you ready to start learning our healing aspect.”

Letting the circling stones drop to the ground Haku nodded with a smile as he grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat of his face and head, towel around his shoulders he gladly dropped to the ground in front of where Naruto was sitting. “That is a lot harder than it sounded like when you explained it to me; keeping all three pebbles circling at a steady rate takes a lot out of a person.”

“Yeah…” Naruto leaned back as he remembered when he first learned that exercise, chuckling he looked in Haku’s eyes, “I remember yelling at the tapes of my parents when they explained that it was so easy and mother demonstrated it for me. I’ve come to believe they did it on purpose so I would work harder.” Shrugging he pulled out a Kunai of the next demonstration, “now I know you know how to mold chakra to your hands, and you’ve been practicing with one of the exercises I showed you to move chakra around your body. The healing factor we have can be influenced by us when we send a large amount of Chakra to the injured area. Which means if I cut my hand and then send my chakra to it my healing factor will use the chakra and take off at an amazing rate.”

“I really hate this part, it hurts like a bitch,” Naruto whispered before using the sharp edge of the Kunai to slice his hand down to the bone, ignoring the shocked exclamation from Haku he molded chakra into his hand as he held it out for the young man to observe how quickly it healed. “The only problem with practicing like this is it hurts, so when you first start keep your cuts small and shallow until you get the hang of it. It sometimes takes a minute before you can work through the pain to mold chakra to the injury. Eventually you will be able to do this almost instinctively, the more you practice the more instinctive it becomes, during sparing sessions if you get into the habit of pushing your chakra towards the pain you feel, even if it only a slight one you can avoid cutting yourself all over your body.” Dipping his hand into the bucket of water he brought it back out and held it out for inspection, it was completely healed without a scar. The only other drawback tour healing ability is that you will not build up callus’s, that’s why fingerless gloves are one of the Uzumaki trademarks, parts of our uniform.”

Flipping the Kunai around so Haku could take it Naruto smiled at him, “You try now, and remember shallow cuts at first until you get the hang of it.”

Nodding Haku hesitated a moment before taking the Kunai and running it along the pad of his thumb, only hard enough to break the skin and draw blood. Channeling chakra into his hand he was amazed to see it heal over, looking up with a very pleased expression on his face, “It worked.”

Laughing Naruto leaned back on his hands, “You better believe it did.” Standing up he brushed the twigs and grass off his pants, “Only practice this half an hour at a time, and unless you are with someone please don’t cut too deeply, I don’t want anything happening to you.”

Nodding absentmindedly Haku cut his thumb again, this time a little longer than the last time and watched it as it started to heal slowly, even without molding his chakra into his hand the bleeding had already stopped and the wound started to look hours old instead of just seconds. Channeling chakra into his hand he watched as the wound glowed blue for a second before there was no trace, looking at the Kunai and the blood on the ground he grinned, this was a blood limit he could get very used to.

Naruto chuckled as he turned around and went back into the house and out towards the front door, walking across the bridge to the Citadel he stopped mid span and looked down trying to find any clues on why the bridge was this far down, it just did not make any sense to him. Continuing on he made the short trip to his office, mind on this morning’s schedule. Luckily for him he thought he could get it over with in about an hour so he could get some serious training time in. “Good morning Jiga, has anything unexpected crossed my desk that is going to piss me off.”

Laughing Jiga remembered back three years to the one Saturday morning when that did happen; they had slipped in a surprising interview without telling him about it in advance. That was also the day they found out Naruto-sama had a temper, one to rival any angry red haired Kunoichi during that time of the month, needless to say no one wanted to see that temper ever again. “N…No nothing unexpected that you have to deal with today,” he stuttered out quickly. “There is a representative from Wave that came into the outside town to see if talks could be arranged to see if you would agree to an alliance, they want to avoid a possible situation that Gato took advantage of in the future. They would have gone to Konoha or the Kiri since both are closer, but as you were the one to free their country they decided to try us first.”

Naruto looked up from the four stacks of papers on his desk that he was rapidly signing off on as he glanced through them to make sure they were unchanged from when he last looked through them, “Really…” moving to the last stack he dug through it until he came across the paperwork with the report of the Wave representative, scanning through it he nodded as he moved it to the to do today list, “I’ll meet with them at three. We have to be here at four to meet with Ayako to discuss the first round of candidates so we can do the greeting and getting the niceties out of the way before scheduling the lengthy talk I’m sure will be needed.”

“Hai, Uzumaki-sama…I’ll send a note to the outside village and have the representatives brought in to the valley,” Jiga smiled, knowing very well that Naruto-sama disliked making abrupt decisions; he preferred to think about things first and explore them. It had come about from learning the job, but once he had learned what he needed to know he kept it, saying it was a very good habit to have.

Finished with the first stack Naruto poked at the small second stack ,spreading them out over the top of his desk he looked through them, these were mission assignments for today, well at least those C-Rank and higher. Pulling out his list with teams and their skills and abilities on it he glanced over to the wall to see who was not already out on a mission before quickly going through the missions once more and assigning them to the appropriate teams before rolling them up and stacking them in the tray that Jiga would take to the outer office to hand out assignments.

Looking at the third stack Naruto glanced through the notes of his meeting today and the teams that were supposed to return from doing the C-Class and above missions, he noticed something right away, Kodochi’s team was three days late. Picking up the report and sitting back in the chair he went through the original mission request and briefing before looking out the window in thought, “Kodochi’s team is late, and for what he was assigned he should have been early.” Turning away from the window with a frown on his face Naruto looked at Jiga who was staring at him with all his attention, “Get me a hunter team in here now.” Getting up from his desk he took the mission paperwork over to the wall that had the map of the elemental nations and countries drawn on it in its entire colorful splendor.

The hunter team rushed to his office, assembling behind him, watching him as he looked between the paper in his hand and tracing the most logical route on the wall, “Kodochi’s team is overdue,” turning around he looked at the masked foursome, “I want them found, and if need be you are authorized to show my displeasure at the ones who are keeping them from their duties.” Tapping the map showing the border of Iwa and Whirlpool, the most logical path for the team to return home by, Naruto pointed to the black pouch on the table, “take my personal kit, the reactive tags in there are on the unique side since they can be chained together with chakra sensing wire to activate them.” Handing over the mission briefing as he walked back to Jiga’s desk he signed and stamped the mission before nodding, “Any questions?”

The lead Hunter looked at his team before shaking his head no and bowing slightly, “No Uzumaki-sama.”

“Good, leave as soon as you are prepared,” going back over to his desk Naruto rearranged the briefings on his meetings into the order they would happen before glancing over at the fourth pile, he had an hour to read through tomorrows meetings and mission requests before his first meeting.

Jiga looked over after a few minutes of quiet to see his lord with his elbows on his desk, head in his hands as he stared at the front wall, from where he was sitting he could not tell if he was looking at the map or the active duty listing, “Is there a problem Uzumaki-sama?”

Startled out of his thoughts Naruto twisted his head slightly without moving too much, “I’ve been thinking, the first of our Genin under the new training program will be graduating soon.”

“In nine weeks actually,” Jiga stared at Naruto trying to figure out where he was going, “And I along with most of the other Jounin instructors are very impressed, most of the students will be almost at Chuunin level when they graduate. That above all else surprised and silenced some of the academy instructors who did not like the changes being made.”

“The problem is while they might be close to Chuunin level they won’t have the experience to back them up,” sitting up and staring at the map Naruto racked his mind trying to find the answer, thinking back to his last mission for Konoha, “we need to come up with a way to give them that experience in a controlled manner without dumping them head first into C-Class missions or sending them back to D-Class missions they have been doing to build on the concept of teamwork.”

“Your last mission, the C-Class that should have been an A-Class if the bridge builder had been honest, or if the Konoha council was not so greedy and allowed them to make payments,” Jiga made the connection as he nodded then stared at the map like his lord, as if it would give them the answer. And seeing the section marked the wilds he smiled, it just might. “What if we gave them several months of special C-Class mission, missions to the wilds where they would have to match wits with dangerous wildlife, thus gaining experience before having to match wits with humans?”

Moving closer to the map and staring at the section highlighted in yellow an idea began to form in the back of Naruto’s mind, “Build an outpost here,” his finger marked a spot on the wall where two small rivers joined into a much larger one. “Staff it with several medic-nin’s and support Jounin, those needing some downtime before they are ready to go back on active missions,” turning around and coming face to face with Jiga who had come up behind him to see the location Naruto chose. “The question is what type of mission could we send them on that does not smack of outright survival training, after all they have to have a goal.”

Nodding Jiga thought back to his history class, “Actually there are a lot of useful things found out in the wilds, heck the apothecaries and several other guilds would jump on having a Shinobi escort into the wilds while they harvest what they need, the few that go into the wilds make a fortune from what they bring back. If we offer the guild cut rates, say down to a D-Rank for the mission for say five percent of the profit we will have more than enough mission requests to carry on for years.”

Nodding with a frown Naruto went back to his desk, “And if we randomly assign different species of animal threats as disable instead of kill we won’t depopulate the wilds of the very danger we want them to face.” Pulling a new scroll out of the bin where his top drawer would normally be he quickly sketched out the idea before rolling up it, “the builder’s guild will be happy for some new construction, though they might be slightly afraid of where it is going to be built. Once they get back to us with detailed plans and crew numbers I’ll know how many teams need to be assigned to protect them as the center is built.”

Taking the scroll Jiga noticed the time, “I’ll get this sent out first thing,” gathering up the mission scrolls he started to leave to go to the next floor down, the mission office. “I’ll also let the academy Chuunin know what we plan so they can start to work it into their lesson plans subtly.”

Nodding Naruto looked at the last pile of paperwork on his desk before glancing up at the clock, pushing the intercom button he said, “Send Morimoto-san in please,” the sooner he got done the sooner he could get some training in.

 

Walking back into the citadel with Haku at his side Naruto laughed at the comment he had made, it felt so good to be himself all the time, and the people here helped to keep him from hiding behind made up personalities. Spotting Jiga walking into his office with six of the Jounin he sent out after one of the hidden treasure troves he raised an eyebrow in surprise, “I did not expect any of the teams I sent out back for another week,” going around to the back of his desk he sat down pointing to the empty chair at the long table where Jiga normally sat to Haku. “So did something happen to cause you to abort?”

“No Uzumaki-sama,” Shin the leader of team Sato bowed slightly as he and his team moved forward and placed the scrolls on Naruto’s desk. “we took a page out of your book and tried something different, we took two reverse summon scrolls with us so once we were finished we could transport ourselves back to the outside village and make our way home.”

Seeing the interest in Naruto-sama’s eyes Tadashi explained, “We have been practicing with some of the seal sets you have released to the village. And we found a way to make the reverse summoning Jutsu your father came up with workable in scroll form, and for safety’s sake we split the seal onto two different scrolls like a lot of the villages do for their Chuunin exams.”

Mind flashing with possibilities Naruto looked thoughtful, “How much time did it save you, and how hard was it to get it to work?”

Shin motioned for Moriko to hand over the scrolls, placing them on Naruto-sama’s desk he unrolled them cross wise before lining them up, “They’re big enough that all three team members can fit inside the seal circle. If you notice we changed this set here so you do not have to pre-charge the seal with chakra to activate it, the chakra is added during use, which any of the team could channel through their foot to activate it.”

“And I would say it knocked six days of our return journey,” Tadashi looked thoughtful as he rubbed his chin.

Staring at the scroll Naruto glanced sideways at it before rolling them up and weighing them in his hand, “Where did you get these?” looking over at Jiga he asked, “how many seal masters do we have in the village?”

“I made those scrolls Uzumaki-sama,” Shin got slightly nervous as Naruto stared at him suddenly.

“We changed things last year after you released some of your fathers sealing techniques, “We now require all of our Elite Jounin to be able to create three different types of seal sets besides the rest. They must be able to create reactive tags, sealing scrolls and now the transport set to be called truly elite.”

Tapping the scrolls against the palm of his hand Naruto smiled causing those in the room to relax when he chuckled in mirth. Unrolling the one scroll again he grinned evilly, “I see you included a self destruct once it’s used. Good…Good job. I can see the testing for my Dragons is going to be very interesting.”

Tadashi felt like jumping with joy when he heard Naruto tell Jiga, “I’m going to release part of my father’s sealing library to the dragon library. Anyone who is wanting to try out for the Dragons can sign up with you to gain access to the library, I am going to require that any Dragon show me at least one new application of a sealing technique, even a brand new one if they have it in their arsenal. I’ll have the scrolls moved over sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

Glancing back at the two teams he pondered the pile of sealing scrolls as he pulled out the file with the pay vouchers inside, “Did you find anything interesting in the cave?”

“A few good quality Katana’s and a large number of cheaply made weapons we can sell for scrap, the red scroll has all eh files we could find in it, other than that there was nothing to really comment about in the mission,” Shin shrugged.

Placing the vouchers he had signed and stamped at the edge of his desk Naruto grinned, “Good then you have several weeks to train if you are planning to try the Dragon test, the next three days off for sure.” Pointing to the six stacks of two vouchers, “your pay as promised, including the bonus for a job well done.” As the teams took their pay vouchers Naruto chuckled at the surprised looks when they saw the amount of the S-Class pay voucher, as they were leaving he stopped them, “I really like the idea of the transport scrolls you came up with, but before word gets out and they become common place we need to add in a security feature somewhere so they don’t fall into the wrong hands, if you come up with an idea let me know.”

“Hai, Uzumaki-sama,” Tadashi grinned as he looked at Shin, “meet you at the Onsen after going to the bank, I might have an idea or two.”

Once the teams had gone Haku looked over at Naruto, “Naruto-kun I have heard you speak of the Dragons before, what are they?”

“Most villages have Anbu to guard their Kage, the best of the best, and handle certain types of missions, mostly S-Rank.” Naruto pulled the file out with what information the representatives from wave provided, flipping it open he smiled at Haku, “Our Elite Jounin are mostly Anbu level and the best of the best in our village are the Dragon’s, the guardians of the Uzumaki.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Haku looked around as he thought about it, “it almost sounds like I’m missing something.”

“I think it is because in Whirlpool the Kage and the Daimyo rest in the same person for now, but almost always in the same clan,” Jiga volunteered.

“Like how the Fire lord has the twelve guardians that watch over him and his family?” Haku wondered, and then smiled when he got a nod back telling him he was right.

“Exactly,” Naruto nodded with a smile, “the last time the Dragons were staffed was for my grandfather, before the war devastated the land and my parent’s rebuilt Whirlpool.” Naruto clasped his hands on top of the open folder and looked at Jiga, “Please bring in the delegation from wave.”

Nodding Jiga went over to the door and slipped through a moment later Naruto slid the folder over to Haku to look through, after all it was his hope that someday Haku took over the job of Kage. Hearing the door open and Jiga escort the delegation in he wiped all emotion from his face except polite curiosity, “Please be seated.” Seeing a familiar face he glanced at the group before greeting him, “Tazuna-san, I’m surprised to see you here, I would have thought after seeing a Shinobi work you would have stayed away, far away from Shinobi.”

Snorting Tazuna leaned forward as he smiled, “You don’t fool me young one, I know about the heart you hide.” Sitting back he noticed the thin smile cross Naruto’s face, “besides when we found out you were the lord of Whirlpool we knew we had to at least try, you being the strongest Shinobi I’ve ever seen. Even Zabuza told me you were…how did he put it, ‘the scariest person I have ever met, to go up against him means certain death’, and for what Wave needs you are the person for the job.”

Nodding slowly Naruto looked over at the map on the wall as he thought about what his people had discovered about the wave delegations mission, he wondered how it would be possible, there were too many country’s in-between them, unless. Nodding he brought his attention back to the group, “may I ask why you need the scariest person several people know?”

Tazuna grinned, he liked the outspoken young man in front of him, “As you are aware Wave does not have a Shinobi village, but the whole Gato invasion has proved that we need to be allied at least, if not having our own Ninja outpost.”

Naruto hid his smirk, his intelligence teams were dead on with their assessment, standing up he moved over to the map and glanced at the countries displayed there, “Marsh and Water countries are between Whirlpool and Wave. With your bridge to Fire country why would you chose us?”

“The Mizukage has been replaced by one of the seven swordsman of the mist, I believe you know him, Momochi Zabuza,” Tazuna grinned, “And his self proclaimed adopted son was in a sense married into your clan, so you have very strong ties…”

“And if the rumors are true, the new Mizukage has threatened the Daimyo of Water, that if the killing keeps going on he will step in and hand over his village to Whirlpool,” Yuri snorted in amusement, “The rumor has it that the Daimyo locked himself fin the family’s hidden safe cellar on hearing that. It might have to do with Zabuza-san mentioning that to go against the Uzumaki clan means death and there was no way he was going against your order to stop the blood line eradication.”

Naruto blinked, looking at haku to see if he heard what he had, he put his finger in his ear and wiggled it to try to clean it out, “What…did you…he did what?”

Haku giggled as he nodded his head, “That sounds like something Zabuza-san would say.”

Thunk…the sound of Naruto hitting his head against his desk in the quiet office was very noticeable.

Hearing Haku giggle Naruto stopped hitting his head and looked up to the heavens as if asking why him, he’d deal with this much later, like maybe the year after hell froze over. “Okay, someone will send word to you tomorrow around breakfast time so you can meet with my advisors, between all of you, you can hammer out if it is possible and what it would take if I decide to do as you ask. In the meantime I’ll think about it and we’ll meet up again in three days time to go over everything and see where we stand.” Standing as the delegation got ready to leave he smiled evilly, “And if any of you can find a way to douse Zabuza-san’s underwear with itching powder that will be points in your favor.”

Tazuna could have sworn he heard mumbling coming from behind him as he left, something about pranking the hell out of Zabuza for using him as the Water’s version of the boogey man.

Seeing her lord’s expression, and the giggling coming from Haku-sama Ayako laughed as she pushed the cart with all he folders on it into the room.

Hearing a laugh that reminded him of a demented mental patient Naruto froze, before slowly peaking over his shoulder, when his head was mostly turned so he could see who was laughing, the he spotted the cart she was pushing filled to overflowing with files, “Ayako…” he said very slowly, “What are those?”

Putting her hand on her chest as if surprised Ayako pointed a finger at the cart, “These little things…” seeing Naruto-sama was not in the mood she pouted before pushing the cart to the long table, “These files, Uzumaki-sama are the candidates between the age of fourteen and eighteen.”

Jiga quickly rushed out of the room after seeing the stunned and disbelieving look on his Naruto-sama’s face; after all he did not want to be around when that infamous temper surfaced.

Naruto stood up straight as he ignored the evil cackling coming from his aide as he ran down the hall, eyes narrowing he would prank the traitor later. Moving slowly as if he was on the way to the gallows he pulled the chair next to Haku out and sat down. A sinking feeling hit him as he noticed the files being placed in five piles in front of them, “Are you sure all these are volunteers?”

Opening one of the folders Haku turned red from his blush, the photo was more than explicit, it was downright pornographic, and turning the page he took one look at the photo there and snapped the file shut with a snap.

Naruto hearing the snap glanced at the blush, eyes traveling down the full body blush until he got to the hands clenching above the file, curious he firmly tugged the file out from under Haku’s hand so he could find out what embarrassed him. Opening the file he glanced at the first page, then the second before he quickly flipped to the center where the medical profile was located, “H…Ho…How many…” taking a deep breath he looked at Ayako, “how many of these volunteers are as perverted as this one?” The image burned into his mind had his inner self denying that you could do that with the handle of a Kunai.

Chuckling Ayako sat down after building the piles, peaking at the hidden photo even she had to raise an eye in surprise, “Well most of them wanted you to have an idea of what they could offer, but it seems that one went a little overboard.” Peaking again she nodded, it was doable but iffy, “Yep, slightly overboard.”

Naruto looked at Haku in dawning horror, both of them shuddering as they stared at the piles of files as if they were bombs about to go off if they opened the folders. Clearing his throat he looked to his right, towards haku, “I think it might be wise to look at the photo section last, once we’ve gone through all these files.

Nodding in horrified agreement Haku picked up another file and carefully flipped past the photo section, secretly glad when Naruto mumbled something about making a pile for perverts as he dropped the folder as far away from him as possible.

Ayako grinned, this was going to be so much fun. Laughing as haku made a small ‘eepping’ noise she turned away before she got yelled at as Haku handed to Naruto with a trembling hand, “This one is another pervert.”

Naruto looked at the clock, they had been at the two hours with Ayako narrowing down the search to an even ten candidates, picking up the ten folders to take with him for study he gazed at the fifth pile they created, who knew that Kunoichi were as big of perverts as the Shinobi, and that so many of them wanted into his family. Shuddering with one last look at the pile he held onto the files and grabbed Haku and hastily retreated to the bridge, seriously considering barricading the gate to his home until he could make sure all those from that pile were safely on long term missions, somewhere far, far away. Ignoring the evil cackling behind them they rushed into the house closing the door behind them, both thinking the same thing, women were evil.