Chapter 8
It had been an automated response that had caused her to activate the shield and she would have cursed her survival instincts. Granted, the kunai melted away but due to the sudden rush of chakra to her small untrained body, Kurama's charka was corrosive.
Her skin burnt her flesh till you could see the pinkish red muscles beneath. She fell onto her side, restraining herself from crying out from the feel of her flesh being burnt and repaired. Kurama had finally awoke and whilst she was should feel happy he was trying to protect her, he had simply caused her further pain.
Kurama's chakra had not had this effect on her since before the fourth war which had been nearly 4 years before she had been sent to the past.
Every nerve in her body was sent alight as a sudden gust of wind from the open door blew over her open muscles, causing another bout of pain across her body.
Without her bidding tears leaked out of her eyes onto the floor, vaguely she could hear Jiraiya asking her questions as he simultaneously yelled at her brother and another person who was in her home who she couldn't figure out who.
Deciding she needed to distract herself in order for her to not feel the pain, she tried to figure out who might have been there. Since it was late in the afternoon it would either be Kushina or Kakashi, he seemed to enjoy stalking her brother when team Minato wasn't around.
However seeing as Kushina had been dispatched for a mission for nearly a week and wasn't due for another day or so, so it had to be Kakashi.
The distraction had not taken long for her to deduce causing her to refocus on the matter at hand. Apparently Jiraiya was using what little knowledge he knew on inryo ninjutsu yet it wasn't necessary, within a few moments she was feeling a lot better.
Slowly she unscrewed her eyes as she sucked in large gulps of breath. After breathing in and out several times she got up, one arm behind her to support herself, the other clutching her head as she scanned the room and her audience with screwed up eyes.
Minato, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shisui and apparently Obito were all in the room staring wide eyed at the girl on the ground. She hadn't been able to sense the boy till now yet she blamed that fact on her pain and not because he was able to outsmart her. This was not the Obito Uchiha who had started a great war because of a dead girl he had loved.
She chose not to say anything as Kurama had yet to heal her vocal cords. She made a mental note to thank him and curse at him at the same time. The thought reminded her of what Sakura had once said, that Naruto had a tendency to act like a loveable tsundere at times with the guys she met. When she had asked the pink haired female which males she had acted like that with she had not specified.
Minato and Jiraiya were saying something but her ears hadn't been healed yet either so she had to look at their lips, making a gesture that she couldn't hear and to slow their talking. Minato was talking way too fast for her to read.
Once he had understood her he repeated what he said, "What happened Naruto? What was that orange light that surrounded you?"
"That was… the extra chakra I have inside me. It works as a defence mechanism at times but since I can't use my own chakra, it burns my skin. But it doesn't pose a threat if I use it when I've trained-"
"And how do you know that?! You can't possibly know that Naruto! If the chakra is that- that corrosive you shouldn't use it! Ever! Sensei! I shouldn't have listened!" minato didn't get a chance to state what he shouldn't have listened to Jiraiya on as a blur of orangish red hit Minato over the head.
All eyes followed where the tail came from which made them look to Naruto who had just noticed she had 7 tails out. She mentally praised Kurama for that, the seven tails, Choumei belonged to Takigakure where she had told everyone she had been for over a year. It made sense if Minato fathers had been there, he travelled a lot after-all.
Kurama receded the tail and she spoke, "You have no right to judge them. None of them chose to caged. How would you like it if you were a being a chakra, capable of levelling mountains and forced to be locked away into a person that can barely fit in with its people? I don't think you'd like it very much. So stop with your judgements. If a person acts kind to someone hated for so long… Kushina would have so much better luck with hers if she didn't treat him like an animal."
This was what she always hated, when someone judged the nine bijuu when they had done no wrong. They killed the humans that tried to kill them. They were no different to humans. The only difference was shinobi killed for a price, they did not. When you look at it in that retrospective, humans were worse.
The bijuu had loved the sage of six paths, a human, and had expected to be loved by others like him. At first that was the case, but then they became feared for their strength and power which was then sought out to be controlled and harvested for man kinds own selfish desires.
Her mother had caged and chained Kurama up, where as her father spilt him into two different parts, half in herself and half in himself and thereby with the Shinigami. He had no right.
"Naruto… they are capable of levelling mountains, driving men to insanity-"
She had finally managed to get up and glare at him fully, once again irritated by her short stature, "And how is that any different to us? Lady Tsunade can crush a mountain with her bare hands and the ANBU black ops are more than capable of driving a person to insanity! The only difference is we choose not to understand them and instead choose to fear them. We have robbed them of their freedom and rights when we fight for our own…" she faded off when she saw she wasn't getting anywhere with him.
All he knew about bijuu were what he had been told by others who didn't understand. The shodaime should never have interfered with the bijuu, if he hadn't they wouldn't be in this mess.
She looked around and saw a very confused Kakashi, Obito and Shisui. Jiraiya had an impassive look ghosting his face as he took in their conversation. Naruto had never discussed the nine bijuu this passionately before with him around and she could almost hear the clogs turning in his mind as he processed and pieced together all the wrongs that had been committed.
Sighing she raked a hand through her hair and spoke to Jiraiya, "I came here with Shisui over here. He sits in front of me in class. We've got three projects to do together. We're supposed to be paired with the person next to us but we sit in three's, so the person on the right gets paired with the person on the left of the previous row where it works.
"Tomorrow I'll be working with Shisui on the first two projects, finishing it off at home and Sunday I'll be hiding at his house, trying to not be sensed by Kagami-san. We'd have done it here, but since everyone in my family is a sensor that isn't fair."
Jiraiya picked her up on his shoulder as he ruffled Shisui's hair, gesturing for him to take a seat on the sofa next to where the other two boys were standing.
Minato said something to the two boys when she hadn't been paying attention and had left them in the care of Jiraiya.
Apparently Jiraiya had promised to look after the two of them as Rin spent time with her clan. Naruto would be joining them after they decided what to do with Shisui since Kagami had also been dispatched on a mission and wouldn't be back till the next morning.
After some tea and change of clothes they decided to allow Shisui to train with them, causing Naruto's eye to unconsciously twitch and thereby glare at Jiraiya for agreeing. Not that she blamed him, it made sense that he would look after Shisui since the boy's father had agreed to look after her should a situation like that arise.
Not long after that the five of them made their way to do some training, Naruto getting a better insight on where exactly Kakashi was currently in his training. She saw where Obito was almost every night as he trained with her and whoever was teaching her at the time, and on the odd occasion she decides to train on her own as well.
Watching everyone train and work hard together bought a smile on her face. During the war and after it she had been unable to imagine Obito and Kakashi sensei being anything like her and Sasuke, but they truly were.
Yet it seemed as if they were getting along a lot better since she had arrived as Obito had started to train even more than he had before as well as having taken to helping her study on things she really didn't need help with. She feigned ignorance for him though as he seemed to want to study the materials properly and she was making the task easier.
She wondered what this change would bring. Would Kakashi and Obito get along as they had towards the end of the fourth Great War, or would their friendship turn into pure hate and destruction once again?
Even if Naruto intended to fix things, there was no guarantee that she would be able to do anything and there was only so much she could ask Jiraiya to do on her behalf.
So far, he had gone to Ame and found his students, all three healthy and alive. He had given the message she had requested he give to them and she prayed that Nagato and Yahiko had heeded the advice.
If Yahiko never dies, then Nagato never goes crazy, meaning he would never resort to using Madara's ideals of peace, thereby leading to no war. However that was debatable, if Obito saw Kakashi kill Rin there was still the possibility that he would start the fourth war.
Her best bet was removing Madara from the scene entirely yet that would not end the cycle. She would have to get rid of black Zetsu in order or peace to finally reign eternal.
As she watched Shisui training however her vision changed into the Shisui Uchiha she had seen on the odd three occasion however on none of them did he see her.
He had been training and once he had been with Itachi. The boy was incredible and Naruto would wager that if he had been alive and if Danzo wasn't the war hawk she knew him to be then a lot of pain would never had ensued.
Her plan for Danzo was a simple and slightly flawed one, she planned on poisoning him and leaving a fake suicide note. Homura abd Koharu were old idiots in Naruto's mind but they truly thought on Konoha's welfare outside of war and in it, yet all Danzo had been able to see was war.
The most fatal flaw in her plan would be how to get past all of his ROOT operatives and why he would kill himself. She would prefer doing it soon as to prevent him from causing trouble in Ame yet she would have to further strategize, an area she often left the Shikamaru to do. She doubted Shukaku would be willing to help kill the man even if he was a war hawk that deserved death for his crimes.
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Hiruzen looked down at the reports in front of him then back to the ANBU operative kneeling before him.
Naruto Namikaze seemed to have very sharp sensory abilities which were causing him large bouts of grief. How was he supposed to tell if she bode a threat to his people if she knew she was being watched?
No one acted like a criminal whilst under the scrutinise eyes of the law. However, despite being watched by the ANBU she didn't mind pulling the occasional prank which miffed the guards as they had barely seen her commit the felony they were almost certain she had committed.
Alas, there was never any viable evidence that she was the source behind such deeds and that was why she had not been summoned to the kage office.
The sandaime sighed as he gestured to the ANBU to leave him, and not a moment later they left via leaf shunshin. Not a very discreet method to leave in his own opinion, but it hardly seemed to matter to the latest generation.
As well as reading over the reports on Minato's sister he was also reading over the reports on the latest academy graduates: Might Gai, Genma, Ebisu, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, Ibiki Morino, Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuuhi and Anko Mitarashi.
They had all so far shown good comradery, on missions at the very least, and had improved their ninja skills quite well in the last year. Obito Uchiha seemed to have shown the most results in skill where Kakashi seemed to haggle the Uchiha far less as well. Orochimaru's student, Anko, seemed to be excelling in comparison to the rest of her peers.
Hiruzen once again sighed at Orochimaru's use of the bell test, using it to berid of the other two members of his team was cold and meticulous of him, yet he had the right since they were not ready.
He decided to skim through rather than thoroughly read them as he would receive a final report within a week's time on how they progressed, where they improved and what needs improving on. This would correlate perfectly to the chunin exams which was another of his concerns.
The alliance between the five nations was teetering and Hiruzen was at a loss on what should be done. In his life, he had participated in 2 wars, one which he had led. To have a third in his name would be the final kunai. How could he claim to be a good leader when he keeps sending his people to die in the frontlines?
The second war had barely ended five years ago, and even then, his people were not fully recovered. He doubted any of the other nations would be in a better shape than Konoha…
As Jiraiya and his old team had suggested, he would send word to the other kage on reinforcing their alliances. Suna and Kiri were most likely to form a stronger bond as they didn't have Onoki nor the hatred of the current raikage. Suna and Kiri had the most to gain from Konoha as well.
Better trade, supplies and outside alliances had been made by Konoha as the founder of the hidden villages. Techniques outside of clan techniquies could be taught in exchange between them also.
Jiraiya had also mentioned doing a teacher exchange programme where they would swap jonin and chunin instructors to teach in the other nation. This would allow the children to be taught in the ways of another nation, giving better insight to infiltration missions and such.
He wrote the letters with vague details and requested they write back as soon as they could. He wrote the letter to Iwa and Kumo yet he doubted he would receive a reply from them.
The shodaime had managed over twenty years of peace during his reign as hokage, Hiruzen would strive to make his reign of peace last a long time. Even if the time was not the same length as his teachers.
Just as he thought he could leave, an ANBU operative came in, slightly short winded by the journey here he assumed. Yet when he saw the operatives mask to be a person in charge of watching Minato's sister, his back straightened further as he awaited the inevitable bad news that would ensue.
"Earlier today; Naruto Namikaze and Shisui Uchiha went to the home of Lord Jiraiya straight afterschool when a kunai accidently made its way over to the two children once they had taken off their shoes. When the kunai was a meter away from Namikaze she released a large amount of orange chakra which burnt her very skin.
"She fell to the ground in pain and the elders rushed to help as they youngsters were frozen. Lord Jiraiya used simple inryo ninjutsu to heal her and by a minutes time she had completely healed. There were no signs that she had been burnt.
"Minato and Lord Jiraiya got into an argument of them having not said something to you when seven tails came from behind Naruto, one hitting Minato over the head. Once the tail had receded the two got into a heated argument about bijuu and their comparisons to humans, Naruto stating they were misunderstood and Minato stating that they had done nothing to deserve a human's trust.
"Once Minato left, another operative came to take my place and I left to report this to you at once, Sandaime."
Hiruzen had not interrupted the operative and he sat confounded by what he had been told. The implication that Jiraiya had bought a jinchuriki in the body of Minato's little sister into the village without telling his leader was somewhat understandable. Jiraiya had had to watch the way Kushina grew up during her time in Konoha and she had had it bad enough being an outsider.
If anyone would have found out she was a jinchuriki she would have had it far worse. It did not however means he and Minato would go unpunished. Minato, even if the girl was his sister, had no right to keep this sort of information from him and he sent a messenger to fetch the elder Namikaze. He would have requested for Jiraiya to also be bought if he didn't know the man was looking after several children today.
Not long after he had sent the messenger did Minato come through the door, clearly having come here not by the word of the messenger.
Hiruzen gestured for Minato to sit down as he prepared himself for another long night.