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Senju Naruto by Baal of Yarns

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Chapter 9 - Homecoming:

“Are we there yet?”

“No”

“Are we there yet?”

“…no.”

“How about now?”

“NO.”

“Are we-“

“Yes, we’re just looking for a parking place.”

“Huh?”

Jiraiya sighed, “Never mind, look kid, when we’re there, you’ll know. It’s got huge gates and a wall around it. Do you see huge gates or a wall?”

Naruto kicked a rock out of his way and glared at the surrounding forest, sidling a little farther away from the edge of the trail. The vine at his waist tightened momentarily in comfort. “All I see are these huge, dumb trees!”

The trees felt very unloved and wept sad wilted, leaves down on his head. Ivy rustled smugly and petted at his stomach where she was curled.

Naruto scowled some more. This bloodline thing was ridiculous and it tickled when she did that!

“Hey, it’s not my fault we have to take the slow way. If it weren’t for your little ‘problem’, we could have run through the trees. That’s the fastest way to get around in Fire Country, hands down.”

“I’d change it if I could!” he snarled, showing off his slightly larger than normal canines. “Do you think I LIKE getting petted by all these plants?!” He patted the tendrils wrapped around his stomach to placate them. If they took offense, it wouldn’t be comfortable.

“We’ll look up some of your great-granddad’s scrolls if Sensei can’t help us out, or if we can’t find Tenzou when we get to the village. We should be able to curb it a little, if nothing else. But, HEY, if we can’t, I’ll just take you for training in Wind Country. Very little foliage there. You’ll love it. Of course, if you DO happen to get too close to a cactus, it’d hurt way more than a peony bush, but you can’t win them all.”

Naruto grumbled and made no further complaints, his thoughts drifting back to his Kaa-san and how pissed off she was going to be when she discovered Jiraiya had snuck him off without telling her. He was 11, nearly the same age as most new genin, and she HAD said he could go get approval to be Jiji’s apprentice once he was able to use her strength well enough for battle situations, and his dodging was up to snuff. He’d focused on almost nothing but improving his speed and ability to sense danger for nearly two years to try and reach her standards, and he’d even let her apply the Genesis Rebirth seal thanks to that cave debacle.

She hadn’t planned to let him go for another year, and she’d wanted to come with them, but the “wild” plants (Not you, Ivy!) really were getting out of hand, and he doubted his kaa-san’s ability to deal with their home village just yet. Jiji had shown up while she was on an extended losing streak at the local casino. She hadn’t even come home in two days. Shizune had been called off to the Hidden Stone Village to try and heal their Kage’s brother from some weird petrifying disease that seemed to be affecting their ninja population, so he hadn’t really felt too bad leaving a note to let his mom know he was going off with his godfather.

He did feel a bit guilty knowing she’d probably blow all their money on the slots and end up living in a cardboard box by the time ‘Zune got back with whatever it pays to cure a plague that turns people into rock. He also knew she was going to worry herself sick about him, but he kind of thought she needed to face the weird fear she had of their birth village, so maybe she’d follow them, and everyone would win.

Except Ero-Jiji. Kaa-san would probably kill him a lot, but like the old pervert had just said, ‘you can’t win them all.’

Naruto had no illusions about his own wisdom, well, okay he had quite a few illusions about his own wisdom, but he was pretty sure he knew the best way to deal with irrational fear, and that was to face it and deal with the consequences. (This applied to everything but bees. When you saw a bee, it was just best to run like hell.) His mom had a lot of issues with Konoha, but she’d never be able to move on until she went back there and put her demons to rest. He’d come to realize that if he left it completely up to her, she’d keep them running away from it forever, and he’d never see where he was born, the village his father had loved enough to sacrifice himself, and where all of his adult role models had been raised into the people he loved and respected.

…Also, he would never become a ninja of Konoha, and he was pretty sure you had to be one of those to become Hokage eventually. He sort of thought he’d like to do that – it would be cool to follow in his ancestor’s footsteps.

So when you thought about it, it really was for his mother’s own good. He was pretty sure she’d follow them as soon as she realized they were gone, and maybe she’d be able to take those last few steps and get over her past.

It was pretty likely that dodging lessons would be put to practical use when she managed to catch up with them, but that was nothing new, and it would be worth it not to see that haunted look in her eyes quite so often and to stop feeling guilty whenever he talked about his dreams with her. He absolutely sucked at watching his mouth, and every time he got frustrated, or excited, or made a breakthrough in his training, he inevitably motivated himself by spouting off about what a great ninja he’d be some day and how much it would be awesome to be Jiji’s apprentice and an official genin of Konoha. It always lifted his mood, but it never failed to lower hers. He frowned – he hated it when he was accidentally a jerk to Shizune or Kaa-san.

He was jerked out of that rare moment of introspection by the rising buzzing of his chakra sense. There were a lot of people up ahead. He grinned over at his godfather who matched him with a wide smile of his own.

“NOW, we’re here, Brat. Welcome to Konoha. You’ll be able to see the gates around all the trees when we get past this bend in the road.”

“Alright!” he cheered, jumping up and punching at the air. He was officially going to be a ninja!

He promptly tripped over a root that had risen up to greet him, and had to spit out dirt after landing face-first on the path. Ivy snaked out from under his shirt to smack the root like a mother stopping a kid’s hand from reaching into a cookie jar. He hoped the Sandaime or this Tenzou person could help him here. He really needed to get a handle on these #ing trees!

Kotetsu yawned and kicked his feet up on the counter at the gate guard’s station. He hated this duty. Nothing exciting ever happened. It was hot, and dull, and he’d almost rather be doing D-ranks. Beside him, Izumo imitated his posture and threw an arm over his eyes to block out the sunlight. This sucked.

They cracked open their eyes and glanced at each other when they felt two chakra signatures slowly approaching from beyond the gate and righted themselves in their chairs without getting their hopes up. It was probably just another genin team returning from some uneventful mission that was at least twice as exciting as what they had to keep doing for the next three hours and 45-no, 44 minutes.

The bandaged chuunin was pleasantly surprised to see the figure of an older man with extremely long spiky hair and eccentric hermit’s clothes walking down the lane with a blond kid. “Hey, Izumo! It’s Jiraiya-sama and he’s got a chibi with him!”

“Really?” his cohort leaned over the counter a bit to get a better view as he was at a bad angle. “I wonder what he’s doing back, and who’s the gaki?”

“I dunno, judging from his height, he’s way too young to be a ninja in peacetime, but he’s kind of dressed like one.”

The kid wore black cargo pants with orange stripes down the sides and a multitude of pockets. His shirt was a tight, high-necked sleeveless black affair with orange panels on the shoulders to match the pants over the top of a standard net shirt with only one sleeve. The right side was sleeveless, like the over shirt and even at that distance he could make out a dark blotch of a tattoo or something on the kid’s bicep and what looked like a healthy green vine curling down the limb. His forearms were covered in black fingerless gloves reaching nearly back to his elbows and crisscrossed with thin orange colored buckled straps-probably meant to inflict damage during blocking rather than to be decorative. That or they were some of those fancy new seal inscribed leather straps that could act like training weights. The blond boy had a similar set of straps on his calves over standard leg bandages. Black ninja sandals and the usual weapons pouches and kunai holder strapped to the thigh completed the rather brighter than normal, but otherwise unremarkable, ninja attire.

“I’ve never seen clan markings quite like that. Do you think Jiraiya-sama found him on the road?”

“Who knows? I’m sure we’ll find out in a minute.”

Kotetsu shoved his forehead protector up a bit higher and ruffled his own spiky hair before nimbly leaping over the counter to go and greet their guests.

“Yo, Jiraiya-sama! Welcome back to Konoha! Who’s this you’ve got with you?”

“Hey, it’s bandage on the nose-chuunin, and his partner, bandana chuunin! Naruto, these are two of Konoha’s newly promoted ninja. I was here a couple of months ago for the tournament. It was a pretty decent show. New chuunin guys, meet Senju Naruto.”

Naruto grinned while the gate guards sweat-dropped a bit at their part of the introductions, “Nice to meet you!” He could tell the moment his name sunk in rather than what they’d been called, because both of their jaws nearly hit the ground.

“Sen-Senju? Like the Shodaime?” Kotetsu was speechless so he was glad Izumo seemed to have kept his voice.

“Yup! This is Tsunade’s kid.” The big man fondly patted the boy on the head while the blond scowled in annoyance. “He’s also my godson! We’re here to get him approved as a gennin so he can officially be my apprentice.”

“Wow, I didn’t know Tsunade-sama had a kid! Holy crap, that’s huge news! Hey, Gaki, did you inherit your mom’s monstrous strength?”

Naruto was looking a little annoyed at being talked down to, “Do you want to find out?”

“Er, heh, heh. Better get going!” Jiraiya put his arm around the kid and began steering him towards the Hokage Tower so he couldn’t cause a scene before they even got in the gates. It wouldn’t do to have the 11-year-old not-even-a-ninja-yet, take out two chuunin when they were trying not to make a big deal about their return, and Jiraiya had no doubt he could do it. Naruto let himself be lead away without much fuss.

“So much for gate duty being boring! Who do you think his dad is?”

“Not Jiraiya-sama, that’s for sure! I have no idea who it could be.”

“I’d never even heard rumors of Tsunade-sama having a kid. Do you think he’s adopted?”

“No way, he definitely looked like he had her temper, and he’s blond too. That hair color is pretty rare around here…”

“I dunno. It seems a lot brighter than hers.”

“I couldn’t say – I haven’t seen her since I was a little kid, but one thing’s for sure – things are going to be more interesting from now on!”

“You think so?”

“Come on, Jiraiya-sama mentoring Tsunade-sama’s son? That’s comedy gold.”

“If you say so. I have a feeling it’s going to mean a lot of extra work for us in the future.”

“Hey, that reminds me, did you remember to check their paperwork before we let them in?”

“Oops…”

“I thought I was supposed to keep my head down and not broadcast who I am while we’re here!” Naruto growled at his godfather.

“Heh, I know I said that, but I just couldn’t help myself from messing with those chuunin. Anyway, we shouldn’t be here for longer than a day or two. If I timed it right, the Academy graduation test should be tomorrow, and then we’ll just have to get your paperwork filled out, your picture taken, and your files sealed so no one but the Hokage can read the classified bits. It shouldn’t be hard to convince sensei to give his stamp on me taking you on, so we might even get out of here before your mother shows up and starts breaking people while looking for you!”

Naruto gulped a bit nervously and reminded himself that he had gotten really good at dodging whatever his Kaa-san could literally throw at him, so he’d probably survive. Probably. Ivy would help protect him! Unless she sided with his mother…she did that sometimes too…

He quickly pushed that out of his mind again in favor of looking around at the village. He’d been in other Hidden Villages a time or two, but they’d never stayed long, and his Kaa-san had always tried to keep people from noticing him while they were there. She’d have avoided them all together, but ninja were often in need of elite medic-nin and they were usually willing to pay really well.

Over all, his first impression of Konoha was that it was much bigger than any other ninja village he’d been through, and the Land of Fire had an acceptable amount of orange in their building materials. There were a lot more civilians bustling about than he’d seen in the other villages, and everyone seemed less stressed-out. The non-ninja smiled and nodded respectfully when they met shinobi in the street and definitely weren’t afraid of them. As they walked by a fruit stand, he saw the vendor give the jounin buying apples there, a complimentary bag of oranges.

The village was obviously prospering. There were stalls, carts, and stores all over the place catering to both ninja, and non-ninja specific needs. There was a Ninja-Mart right next to a fancy clothing boutique. There were weapon’s smiths, pet stores, and most importantly, ramen stands! It wasn’t the largest city he’d ever visited by far, but it seemed to have everything a ninja could ever need. It was really neat. Naruto decided he really liked it here.

The ninja themselves seemed like a different breed than what he was used to outside of his family. They weren’t all grim-faced loners. They’d passed several groups of chuunin or jounin playfully teasing or scuffling with each other instead of attempting to kill off the competition with Death Glares. It was pretty refreshing. He felt a stirring of warmth in his chest that a place like this could exist. Even if they hated him when they found out about his prisoner some day, he vowed to always remember this feeling and committed his first impression of Konoha onto his heart. His father had died to preserve this way of life and Naruto could definitely see why.

That’s when he caught sight of the Hokage monument.

He stopped dead in the streets and gaped up at his relative’s faces. He immediately recognized his great grandfather and great granduncle from his mother’s descriptions of them, and his father too, though he thought the likeness was pretty far off. Jiraiya had several pictures of his former student and had no compunctions about sharing them with his godson. His mother had said once, that he looked more like the Nidaime’s side of the Senju clan, and he could see where she’d get that idea. “Wow….cool…”

Jiraiya had immediately noticed Naruto’s sudden stop and paused as well. Having been born there and lived in its shadow most of his life, it wasn’t often that he really stood and took in the sight of the village’s leaders carved several stories high into the side of the mountain. He grinned. ‘I suppose it IS pretty damned impressive looking.’

“Come on Kid, pick up your jaw, and stop staring like a tourist. We’ve got to get you introduced to Sensei, and processed for the graduation test tomorrow.

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Naruto blushed a bit and started walking after his godfather again. “Hey! My face is going to be up there someday, you know! I’m going to be the best ninja, ever, so they’ll definitely want to give me the title!”

“Yeah, yeah – I’ve heard it before, Brat. Save it for someone else.”

Jiraiya lead the way to the tower as fast as he could without actually drawing attention to the two of them by hurrying. He couldn’t wait to see what the old man thought about Naruto. He wasn’t worried about the kid’s ability to pass any of the ridiculous Academy exams. With his mother’s overprotective streak having turned her into a scary drill sergeant during his training for the past several years, he’d probably be able to pass the chuunin exams already if not for the hindrance plants always caused him. With the kid’s strength, speed, and accuracy with his senbon, the Sannin would put his money on his godson vs. almost any chuunin in the village, in an arena fight.

He was definitely crafty and sharp enough to pass the psychological portion. They’d spent years pounding strategy into his skull with shogi and mahjong, and there was no one faster at thinking on his feet and looking for the opening in a situation. Shizune has pointed out early in his training that, that particular trait might one day be more useful than any of his more concrete skills, and the two Sannin had to agree. They’d cultivated it in him ever since.

The second part of the test would give him trouble…He’d have a hell of a time in the Forest of Death – the trees would love him to pieces, and he’d probably not even make it ten feet in. Nevertheless, the kid was turning into a damn impressive ninja if he did say so himself, and he was extremely proud of him.

They entered the building through the main entrance, though Jiraiya generally preferred the windows. Naruto stuck close and did a surprisingly good job at blending in and not calling attention to himself. Competing for his mother’s attention with gambling and her patients when she wasn’t training him, made the kid unusually prone to loud outbursts and a love of making a spectacle of himself. Well, maybe he was just being an eleven-year-old boy with a bombastic personality. Either way, his restraint was pleasantly surprising.

The Toad Sage grinned and nodded to the people he knew as they wove their way through the bustle of the tower, but didn’t stop to chat. In this way, it didn’t take them long to make it up to the Hokage’s office. “Here we are, Brat. Sensei’s right through here.”

“Cool! I can’t wait to meet him.” Naruto grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets, a habit he had when he was trying to restrain himself from jumping around like an idiot. He’d always had more energy than he knew what to do with – a side effect of the Kyuubi’s chakra being absorbed into his system at a much faster rate than his father had intended. Tsunade’d had a hell of a time trying to keep him relatively still and standing in one place until they’d developed the pocket thing. If his hands were mildly restrained it reminded him to keep himself in check, at least a little.

Jiraiya strolled over to the chuunin at the reception desk, and they were immediately waved in. Evidentially word of their coming had already reached the Hokage – probably from that crystal ball he had, or the guards had managed to get word here before they arrived. The old man was no fun. He never let you surprise him.

Sandaime had indeed followed their progress through the village with his spying crystal. He couldn’t get over how much the boy looked like Yondaime. There was hardly anything of his mother in his features, but then, Tsunade and Minato did have similar bone structure, so he supposed the roundness in his jaw might be a little more from his mother. Either way, the resemblance was almost uncanny. He’d had a bad moment when Hatake Kakashi had passed by the travelers and turned around to stare at them for a moment. He’d even lowered his book briefly, but he’d quickly gone back to reading and weaving his way through the crowd, so he’d probably not made the connection. Hopefully he’d just been surprised to see Jiraiya back in the village again and hadn’t focused on who the boy was trailing him around.

His student pushed the large doors to his office open and held back the left panel for young Naruto so Sarutobi could get his first really good look at the boy. He looked even more like Minato in person. The markings on his cheeks, both whiskers and leaves, saved him from being a true copy, but his hair was blond and shaggy, and his grin was definitely the same, beaming at the world through the same tanned face and shining from identical blue eyes. He carried himself with Tsunade’s cocky self-assurance, but he’d be willing to bet he’d inherited his work ethic from his father. If half the things Jiraiya told him about Naruto’s training regimen and natural stamina were true, the kid could go forever if you let him.

He levered himself up from his desk and walked around its impressive bulk to great his guests, “Jiraiya! Always good to see you again, and this must be Senju Naruto. Welcome back to Konoha, your godfather never stops talking about you whenever he is here, so I admit, I feel a bit like I know you already.”

Naruto dipped his head a little in embarrassment at that comment, but his foxy grin was definitely pleased. “Ero-Sennin was probably just bragging and taking credit for all my hard work while he was peeping instead of training me!” He quipped.

Sandaime chuckled as Jiraiya took a playful swat at the boy. He definitely had his mother’s sense of humor.

“See if I ever say good things about you again, you ungrateful little bastard!” The Sannin grabbed a squawking Naruto in a headlock with one arm. Interestingly the plant behind Jiraiya seemed to be reaching out towards the Toad Sage in an attempt to help the boy, and a strange looking vine had snaked out from around Naruto’s waist to join the fray, forcing the Sannin to keep his other arm occupied in fending it off.

The Hokage cleared his throat a bit to break it up before they forgot about the purpose of the meeting in the fun they were having. “I’ve gotten all your paperwork put together, Naruto-kun, and you are set to take the exams tomorrow with this year’s batch of graduating students. As you know, it is a year earlier than the other children your age, but I’m sure you’ll do fine. Do you have any questions about it?”

Naruto neatly extracted himself from Jiraiya’s grip and straightened his shirt that had rucked up a bit in the scuffle. He had to physically wrestle Ivy back into place – she never let a chance to antagonize Ero-jiji go easily. “Actually, I want to know about the jutsu portion. Aunt Shizune said I’d have to perform a bunshin, and I was wondering if it were any type of clone or if I had to do the Academy-ranked one.”

Sandaime cocked an eyebrow and tapped his unlit pipe thoughtfully against his thigh. “There is nothing in the rules stating you have to perform the most basic version of the jutsu, though for obvious reasons, most choose to do so. That being said, I’d recommend it, since it is not wise to give away your skills and secrets if you can avoid it.”

“Heh,” Jiraiya snickered, “it’s not that he’s a show-off - well not in this case. Just the opposite really. He’s totally crap at bunshin. He can do it, but it’s hard for him to use that small amount of chakra, even with all the control training he’s had. I had to teach him Kage Bunshin when he was eight, and he had to work backwards through other clone types from there before he finally was able to manage it.”

Sarutobi felt his eyebrows attempt to launch themselves off his face and into his hat. He glanced at Naruto to see the boy scowling at the floor but not arguing the pronouncement. How interesting. “In that case, feel free to try one of the other clone types. I doubt your instructor will specify, as your classmates have only been taught the basic form. I’d advise you to use the most rudimentary clone you are comfortable with, and they will probably assume you just weren’t aware of your peer’s curriculum.”

Naruto nodded; his aunt was always berating him for showing off. Usually he couldn’t help it, he just felt a burning need to prove to the world that he wasn’t just his mother’s kid; he’d someday be as strong as her in his own right. At least no one expected him to struggle through Yondaime’s shadow too. It was the one good thing he could think of about keeping his dad a secret.

“Thanks, Old Man! I’ll definitely do that.”

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, “He’s the Hokage, Gaki! Show some respect!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Sarutobi smiled. It was good to have his student back in the village, if only for a little while, and Naruto was already livening things up. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Actually, the brat’s got a bit of a problem with his bloodline limit, but we can’t for the life of us figure out what his deal is. Usually once they manifest they’re almost instinctive to the user, but Naruto’s is far more trouble than it’s worth.” Jiraiya sat down in one of the free chairs and propped his geta-clad feet up on the desk.

“Oh really?”

Naruto nodded, “It’s awful. Kaa-san says Great-grandpa could make trees do anything he wanted, but all I can do is dodge when they try to pet me. Ivy won’t even listen to me, and I spend more time with her than anyone else I know – I can’t get rid of her - she hardly ever leaves my waist!”

Sarutobi covered his mouth to hide in a chuckle at the mental image that gave him. If the kid was as similar to his mother in temperament as he appeared, he definitely wouldn’t appreciate it. “How strange. Neither of the other Mokuton users had similar problems that I am aware of. However, the Shodai’s gifts were also useful in controlling Bijuu. I know from Jiraiya’s reports that they are constantly being used that way in you. It is possible that you can’t split their attention to consciously make them do other things while they are keeping the Nine Tails in line.”

“We’ve thought of that, but if that were the case, why would the plants react to him at all? They are obviously still able to do something besides keep tabs on Kyuubi. There’s no logical reason for him to be completely unable to access them consciously, or at least turn the damn things off.”

“Hey!” Naruto clenched his fist, “Don’t think I haven’t tried! Because of Ivy, I try ALL THE TIME.”

“Hmm…I have a theory.” The Sandaime, once known as the Professor for his vast knowledge of, well, everything, said slowly. He reached into a drawer in his desk, pulled out a bit of paper, and handed it to the boy. “Run a bit of chakra through that, if you would.”

He blinked a moment in confusion, but did as he was told. The paper split neatly in half. Jiraiya fell out of his chair.

“Well, there you go. Use of Mokuton-jutsu requires the user to have both water and earth elemental affinities in equal amounts, and Naruto… is a wind type.”

“But-How? That shouldn’t be possible!” Jiraiya gaped, snatching the bits of paper out of his soon to be apprentice’s hands and studying them carefully; maybe the paper was broken? “Aren’t equal amounts of water and earth affinities kind of the whole POINT of the Mokuton kekkei genkai?”

“Yes, well, technically it IS impossible. I suspect, before his kekkei genkai was forced to manifest to control the Kyuubi’s chakra, he WAS a water and earth type. However, what little elemental chakra abilities he has developed at this stage in his life are being used to direct that bit of his system into Yondaime’s seal, effectively sublimating them from conscious use. Wind is likely his secondary affinity, or even tertiary if you think of it like that, but it’s the only one he currently has access to, and until he learns to manipulate it and convert his chakra efficiently into other elemental states, he will probably have no luck with Mokuton.”

“Well, damn.”

“Umm, can someone explain that to me, using smaller words? I don’t even know what ‘elemental affinity’ is!”

Jiraiya sighed. He loved the brat to death, and he WAS only 11, but book smarts just weren’t his forte. He had an undeniably brilliant mind, but he learned much better by doing, than telling. It was a wonder his mother and aunt had been able to pound as much of an education into his head as they had. He considered it the truest sign of their dedication to the kid.

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