Chapter 22
“you sure this is a good idea?”, Tsunade asks, standing at the edge of the barrier that surrounded Naruto’s place.
“well, he deserves hearing it from the who made the mistake”, Minato says, a little nervous, “also, whatever he chooses to do to me can’t be worse than what Kushina threatened to do”.
“oof, she’s really not happy with this is she?”, Tsunade asks in a pained tone.
“not at all and she’s even madder at me”, Minato say with a sigh, “well, more than I am at myself and Menma and Nemuri also aren’t dealing well with this and…”.
“are you going to wallow in misery at my doorstep the whole day or are you going to drag your royal ass inside?”, Naruto asks, a projection standing in front of them.
“I can see he left his manners behind in the grave”, Minato says, with a pained chuckle to punctuate his poor attempt of a joke.
“together with my spare fucks”, Naruto completes, “now get in, I’m in the middle of something”.
“you heard the man”, Tsunade says, “huh, I’m impressed Jiraiya isn’t here… now that I think about it, I haven’t seen that pervert is a while, did he left the village?”.
“he went back to Mount Myoboku, the Great Toad Sage summoned him two weeks ago and he’s been there ever since”, Minato explains.
“I just hope when he comes back he won’t bring back any other brain dead prophecy”, Tsunade grunts, “that whole child of prophecy bullshit was bad enough as it is”.
Inside the barrier, they seem that, things there where somewhat different then they were before.
To start, the rocky clearing was no more, replaced by a paradisiacal greenery with fruit trees all around.
“huh, I like what he did to the place, it feels pretty homey”, Tsunade says, looking at plump apples and plums all around.
“oh thank you, I quite enjoy fresh fruits”, Naruto says as they approach the house.
“so… it’s been a while”, Minato tries to strike a conversation when he sees Naruto, “so… how have you been?”.
“can we skip pleasantries and go straight to the point?”, Naruto asks, his tone turning into a impassive one.
“show some respect brat!!”, Tsunade scolds him.
“you two are inside my barrier instead of two smoldering corpses, that’s enough respect from my part”, Naruto points out, blowing some smoke from his pipe, “so, did you came all the here just to see little old me or I’ve got fucked sideways again?”.
“can we…”, Minato says, feeling the stern gaze of his son cutting deep into his soul, “can we talk a little?”.
“do we have anything to talk Lord Fourth?”, Naruto asks, his words even tough devoid of any venom or edge were cutting deep and Making Minato flinch, “because last I checked, I’m just another civilian born genin with no ties to the upper administrative echelon of the village”.
“you are my son!!”, Minato exclaims.
The outburst startles Tsunade as she sees herself caught in the… whatever that was, because from her point of view, Naruto was done and over with it and rightfully so. Minato on the other hand, even though his hopes where kept low, he still had hope.
“am I now?”, Naruto asks, again, no edge or venom, like he is telling something that is a matter of fact not up to debate, “because last I checked, by majority vote of the council, approved by the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure No Sato; Minato ‘The Yellow Flash of Konoha’ Namikaze and endorsed by the Fire Daimyo. I, Naruto, am no longer associated in any way, shape or form to either the Uzumaki or the Namikaze clan”.
Tsunade eyes go wide, she remembers those words verbatim, the words said and written in the scroll that officially decreed both disownment and excommunication of Naruto, cutting all legal connections between him and his clan.
She remembers that day and how she almost killed everybody inside the council room, how those words cut her deep and how she regret not having actually killed the council right there and there.
“I’m… I’m sorry I was…”, Minato tries to articulate.
“under a genjutsu, I know, but that doesn’t change a damn thing”, Naruto says, still his words bland and with no animosity whatsoever, “I paid the price of getting the short end of an already bad deal, there’s no changing it”.
“then let us make up to you”, Minato pleads, “we were wrong, we screwed up and we deserve every bit of antagonism you throw at us, but please, please, at least… let us try making up to you”.
“and what?”, Naruto asks, still no feeling in his voice, “I think you don’t understand, my old hopes and dreams died with me, not on the day I was executed. No, even when I was in that hell, I held firm in my faith that my family would see the truth and come to save me, they died, the day Ibiki Morino came to my cell and delivered me the official document stating I no longer had a family a week before my execution”.
“and we regret it, we regret it so, so much…”, Minato says, his eyes filling up with tears, “we regret everything we did to you, everything we didn’t did for you…”.
“I do not doubt that, but at the same time, there’s nothing much left of me to care”, Naruto says; now his voice showed a soft resolve, “I still have people I care for and I care deeply for them even though they can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but that’s it”.
“then give us a chance to earn a place in your heart again”, Minato begs, “or at least let us try”.
There’s another beat of silence.
“what did you came here for?”, Naruto asks, narrowing his eye.
“the Uzumaki are demanding restitution for a year’s worth of missed installments”, Minato says, his tone clearly showing that, although he didn’t gave up, he at least had the tact to actually back down and do what he came here to do, “they are demanding we either pay them back with interest or hand you to them as per agreement due to your status as jinchuuriki, or else there’s gonna be war”.
“how in Lilith’s bloody tits did you lost so much money?”, Naruto asks, mentally doing the math.
“it was stolen”, Minato says, now feeling the (deserved) scrutiny of Naruto.
“by who?”, Naruto asks.
“the civilian council”, Minato answers, no need to hide that.
“you kidding right?”, Naruto asks, receiving a headshake as an answer from Minato.
There’s another beat of silence between the two.
“you know what, fuck it, send them to me when they come to collect, I’m gonna work something out”, Naruto says, with a fed up tone, “is that all?”.
“wait, I can…”, Minato starts saying but is cut off.
“you won’t do nothing because there’s nothing you can do, how do I know that? Because if you could do something you would have done so”, Naruto points out, “and now it falls to me to fix this shit. I just got my freedom back I’m not going to lose it again”.
“tha-that’s good”, Tsunade says nervously, “you said you were busy? We already took too much of your time, thanks for having us; see you soon for a drink”.
“if you bring some snacks we can play some cards later”, Naruto says with a soft smile as the woman drags Minato.
“oh you bet I will!!”, Tsunade says.
“knowing your luck, I already won”, Naruto chuckles as they leave his domain. He turns around to go back inside, “now back to work”.
A week later, Minato was back, this time, with Koharu and Ashina, and some few other Uzumaki.
“Minato, my boy I must say, that kid of your surely have talent with barriers”, Ashina says, as Kushina lies smoldering after hushing the barrier and being electrocuted in the process.
“he’s an insolent brat that what he is”, Koharu says, with a frown.
“let’s not fight”, Minato says as a drop of sweat runs down his brown, “he must already know we are here”.
“of course I know, the smoking idiot over there triggered the alarm”, Naruto’s projection points to Kushina lying in the ground, “like, I’ve put warning signs all around the place for fucks sake”.
“oh, impressive”, Ashina and a still smoking Kushina stare at the projection, “young man, I can already see that your talent will be greatly nourished in Uzu”.
“flattery won’t work with me, although it is an honor to receive such compliment from the Uzukage”, Naruto says, puffing a cloud of smoke.
“oh ho ho!, so you know who am I”, Ashina says, running his hand over his beard.
“of course I know who you are, I may not give a shit about politics, but I don’t live under a rock”, Naruto completes, “but, it is concerning that the Uzukage himself dragged his ass all the from his palace to here to deal with this mess himself”.
“brat show some…”, Koharu tried to rant, but once again, Naruto’s finger raises to his lip and the elder’s voice goes silent.
“you really need to teach me how to do that”, Kushina says after she, miraculously, get back to her feet, “sochi!!”.
“and you can stop right there”, Naruto says with a voice of a parent scolding an idiot child, “this is a projection you’ll get electrocuted again or burnt and the next one is going to kill you”.
“sochi”, Kushina says with a sad tone as Minato goes to console her.
“now back to the issue at hand, I believe you came all the way here to settle a debt”, Naruto says, turning to Ashina.
“oh yes, Lord Fourth assured me you could handle this small problem, after all it also concerns you”, Ashina says, with a polite smile.
“yeah, now get in, Gagan will guide you”, Naruto says as the projection turns off and the giant skeleton approaches them.
When the group arrives, they are surprised to see Tsunade and Shizune there.
“Lady Tsunade, I wasn’t expecting seeing you here”, Ashina says.
“yes, this freeloader had moved in three days ago”, Naruto says with a groan.
“what?”, Minato asks, confused, “why?”.
“I’m broke”, Tsunade answers as she eats a bag of chips, “but lady luck finally smiled upon me”.
“translation, she won a copy of my house key and moved in with her assistant”, Naruto groans again, “she’s been here for 72 hours and had already emptied my pantry twice”.
“oh, come on, I’m not that bad”, Tsunade says with a smile, “besides, I agreed to train that pink haired girl on your team”.
“you didn’t agreed to do shit, you tried to rip her off and lost, now she’s your apprentice”, Naruto replies, “the fact she have a knack for medical ninjutsu and somehow still idolizes you despite knowing how much of an alcoholic slob you are is nothing short of a miracle”.
“I’m still Sannin boy, when you get to my level and lived through half of what I have lived, you are allowed to be as lazy as you want”, Tsunade says, “Besides, I pull my weight around the house”.
“for the last time, parading around the house in nothing but your underwear does not counts as pulling your weight”, Naruto says with an angry tone.
“I know a lot of people who would whole heartedly disagree with you”, Minato thinks, a tough even Kushina shares.
“bah! I don’t hear you complaining about Shizune”, Tsunade points out.
“because Shizune is actually an amazing roommate”, Naruto points out, making Shizune blush, “and she sure as hell doesn’t tries to steal my bedroom!”.
“you are always welcomed to join me”, Tsunade says, with a teasing tone, “if you don’t want me to sleep on your bed, then you shouldn’t have such nice bed”.
“I have a nice bed, because I like having nice things”, Naruto points out while face palming, “and don’t you have any shame?”.
“kid, I may not be in the field doing some high classified bullshit, but I’m still a shinobi and on the shinobi world, shame and an empty sack is worth the sack”, Tsunade points out, “also you are too young to have a master suit just for yourself”.
“and you are too old to mooch of a genin like some common civilian whore”, Naruto quips back.
“hey, I won that key fair and square”, Tsunade says, “also, you don’t seem to mind when Mito raids your pantry”.
“first, she’s my age, second, she doesn’t eat the things with my name on it and third, you are a grown ass adult!!”, Naruto points.
“legally speaking so are you”, Tsunade says, still munching on chips, “by the way, you still have guests to attend to”.
Naruto closes his eye and takes a deep drag from his pipe, an act Kushina whole-heartedly disagree, but from experience, she knew better then to try to approach Naruto with careless abandon.
After Naruto calms down, he looks to Ashina.
“fucking dropping the formalities, can I get out of this shit f I pay the debt?”, Naruto asks.
Ashina once again rubs his beard as he thinks about it.
“I can’t see why not”, the Uzukage says, pulling a scroll out of his sleeve, “here is how much you own me”.
Naruto opens the scroll and reads it, his eye traveling through all the flowered lingo of the document.
“not that I don’t trust you”, Naruto says with a sight, “who am I kidding here, I don’t trust any of you, I would like to have it in writing that this will be a one-time thing and that my name will be removed from the list of ‘compensation’ for missed payments”.
Ashina stares at him with narrowed eyes.
“I gree”, Ashina says,m snapping his fingers as one of the man he brought with him, fetches a blank scroll, some ink and brush.
Once the document was written, revised, signed and sealed in blood and stamped with both official seals from the Hokage and the Uzukage Naruto proceeds to once again look at the now much he owned the Uzu leader.
“Sochi, what are you doing?”, Kushina saks, as Naruto goes quiet.
“math”, Naruto answers, “ok, so do you accept gold as payment?”.
“of course!”, Ashina says, in amusement.
He doubted Naruto was serious, repots had told him that despite living comfortably, the boy wasn’t rich and even if he was, there’s no way he could have enough money to pay the absurd debt inquired by Konoha, let alone pay it in gold.
But why not amuse the boy.
“good”, Naruto spans his fingers and a screen appears in front of him.
The screen was for lack of a better term, an ATM simulator where Naruto proceeds to select the type of currency, in this case gold, how much he was withdrawing, in this case weight being the measuring unity and soon after he presses the confirm button an swirling portal opens on the ground next to him and big pile of golden bars emerge.
Oh, the rewards of having infinite money at your back and call thanks to the Infinite Currency skill.
“feel free to check the authenticity of the bars of you wish”, Naruto says, looking at the gobsmaked expression of his guests.
“what the…”, Tsunade points to the pile of gold.
“I’ll tell you all the same thing I’ve told Menma in the forest”, Naruto says, while puffing some smoke, “I didn’t came back from the dead empty handed and I wasn’t going to left my fortune behind”.