Yeah, Yeah, I still don't own Naruto. He belongs to Kishimoto.

Chapter 13: Aftermath and Visitors

Just Outside Konoha

"So this is Konoha?" Haku asked as the gates of Konoha came into view.

They were walking in the center of their group. In front of them were Sasuke and Sakura and Kakashi who was walking behind them, reading his book like always.

"Yeah, this is Konoha," Naruto said slowly from where he was walking next to her. "I think you will really like it here. Unlike Kiri, Konoha loves bloodlines."

Haku looked very relieved when she heard Naruto's words. "I had heard that, but it is very good to hear it from someone who lives there."

Naruto leaned closer to Haku, "Just one warning, don't let anyone but Hokage-Jiji know that you have a bloodline. Right now Kakashi-sensei and I are the only ones who have any clue about it, it would be a good idea if it stayed that way. If the council finds out, they will try to force you into the CRA (the Clan Restoration Act). Trust me, you do not want that."

"Thank you for the warning Naruto-kun."

"You're welcome Haku-chan," Naruto said, putting an emphasis on the 'chan' and getting a little laugh from Haku in return.

As their conversation reached a lull, Kakashi caught up to them. "Hurry up you two; let's catch up to the others so we can enter all at once."

Naruto looked up at Kakashi as he passed before looking back to Haku. "Let's go Haku-chan."

They quickly caught up to the rest of team 7, just in time to reach the main gate. When they passed through the gate, they went to the guard box and stopped in front of Izumo and Kotetsu, the eternal gate guards.

Kakashi walked up to the two and gave a little cough to get their attention. "Team 7 is returning from a mission with one other who is seeking citizenship."

Kotetsu and Izumo looked up at them briefly, their eyes growing large when they saw Haku. "Good to see you back Team 7, you may enter."

Kakashi nodded and motioned for Team 7 and Haku to follow him. "Thanks. Let's go team; we need to go check in with the Hokage."

As they walked down the main street, the Hokage tower was a direct trip from the main gate, Haku noticed the occasional cold glare directed in their direction. No, they were directed in Naruto's direction.

She didn't get long to ponder on the glares before they reached the tower. When they did, they just walked right in and walked up the stairs until they reached the top floor. Kakashi talked to the receptionist at her desk for a moment before they were waved into the office.

The office was the same as always, with book shelves lining almost all of the walls, the four portraits of the previous and present Hokage, and the kind old man sitting behind a desk with large piles of paperwork.

The entire trip from the gate Haku had become more and more on edge. Naruto noticed this and put his right hand on her left shoulder and squeezed it before refocusing on the path in front of them.

"Hey Jiji, we're back!" Naruto said, almost shouted, as he walked through the door.

"Hello Naruto. Who is this beautiful young lady? And how was your first C-rank mission?" the old Hokage asked.

"This is Yuki Haku, she was at one point from Mizu no Kuni, but we ended up running into her on our mission. But the mission was great; though I'm pretty sure it was a B or A-rank mission by the end."

The Hokage shot Kakashi a very piercing glance. "Kakashi, would you care to explain."

Kakashi looked slightly uncomfortable. "Yes, Hokage-sama. First of all, this was definitely an A-rank mission. A couple hours out of Konoha we were attacked by two chuunin-level Nuke-nin who we knocked out and Naruto interrogated with a truth seal. While he was doing that, we found out from Tazuna that the person who was trying to kill him was Gato."

"The shipping Tycoon?" the professor interjected.

"Yes sir, apparently he had taken over all shipping into and out of Wave Country through a combination of buying everything out and his thugs forcing the owners to sell their property. The bridge our client, Tazuna, was building would break his monopoly on trade and allow their economy to recover. Gato didn't much like that so he hired a few Nuke-nin to kill him. They were the Oni Kyoudai, Momoichi Zabuza, and his adopted daughter Haku."

The Hokage shoots a brief glance at Haku and saw the sadness flicker over her face before turning his attention back to Kakashi. "Continue."

"As you know we encountered the Oni Kyoudai about ten kilometers into our trip. After that, our trip was uninterrupted until we had just arrived in Wave Country. A short while after we arrived, Naruto informed me that there were two chakra signatures ahead of us. I ordered him to take care of the second, Haku, while I took care of Zabuza. Only Zabuza confronted us so he created a Kage Bunshin and Kawarimi'd with it to get out of the area unnoticed. I got trapped in a water prison and Sasuke along with Naruto's performed a combination wind/fire technique that sent Zabuza flying and freed me. During that time Naruto was led on a chase through the woods until he and Haku were several kilometers away. Haku used some type of technique to cover that distance almost instantly when she heard the explosion from the technique that Sasuke and the clone performed. She was disguised as a Kiri hunter-nin and threw two senbon into Zabuza's neck and put him in a state of false death before taking his body away. I collapsed from a case of chakra exhaustion and would have been unable to do much for about a week if not for the soldier pill that Sakura had. After that we traveled to Tazuna's house and I taught my team some jutsu for the week until we expected our second encounter with Zabuza." Kakashi turned to Naruto, "Naruto could you explain your meeting with Haku."

"Sure Kakashi-sensei. First of all, I sent a bunch of clones out to map Wave Country for my map project," Naruto started but paused when he saw the Hokage's curiosity. "I'll show you later Jiji. So I actually found their hide out pretty quickly after we arrived along with Gato's base. But a couple days into our stay at Tazuna's house I blew up at Inari, Tazuna's grandson, who had pretty much given up all hope. Anyway, I went into the forest to blow off some steam by training and ended up falling asleep. I was woken up by Haku here and we talked for a little while. I recognized her by her chakra signature and she recognized me from when she had seen me at the end of our fight with Zabuza. We tried to get info out of each other a couple times before she realized I recognized her as the hunter-nin. During this time I had sent clones to spy on Gato under Henge and I heard him planning to betray and kill Zabuza. I asked Kakashi-sensei about it and I ended up sending a couple clones to try and warn Zabuza and Haku that Gato planned to betray them, it didn't work."

Kakashi continued the story. "So we fought once more, this time on the bridge. Naruto defeated Haku and placed a paralysis seal on her while I fought Zabuza. During our fight, Zabuza got away from me and tried to kill Tazuna. Sasuke managed to block the attack and in doing so he awakened his sharingan. So we pretty much defeated him when Gato showed up with about a large number of thugs, probably about 200. Gato decided to give Haku to his thugs to have fun with when he found out Haku is a girl. Naruto had left her on the ground paralyzed and gone to check on everyone else when Gato appeared leaving her helpless. In the end, Zabuza, Naruto, and I took care of most of the thugs while Zabuza killed Gato and Sasuke and Sakura killed a few of the thugs who tried to sneak up behind us. Zabuza was dying and he asked me to take care of Haku, his last words were telling Haku that he saw her as a daughter and to survive."

Before anyone else had the chance to speak, Naruto spoke up again. "While Gato was at the bridge, I had the clones that were spying on him raid his safes. There was about 45 million Ryo and a bunch of documents that I collected. I gave the Ryo and all of the documents that had to do with Nami back to Tazuna. I thought they could use them the most considering how much they suffered under Gato. I still have a bunch of documents that involve ownership of Gato's businesses among other things and I will give them to you as soon as I sort through them."

"I see," the Hokage said, "definitely an A-rank mission, and you will receive the pay to match. Sasuke and Sakura, you can go. I need to talk to Naruto and Haku for a few minutes before I let them go."

Sasuke and Sakura just bowed their heads in acceptance before leaving.

"Naruto, tell me about the documents you took" Hiruzen commanded.

"I don't know much about them. My clones didn't pay much attention to what they took and just sealed them up before throwing them into my 'training area'," Naruto said with emphasis on training area while he tapped the dimension scroll. "I really wasn't in much of a state to go through them very thoroughly before. I had just had my first kill and a lot more after that in way of the thugs, so I wasn't in the best frame of mind."

"Ok, just sort through those documents and get them to me quickly," Hiruzen said with a sigh before turning to Haku. "Haku-san, I've got a few questions for you."

After about twenty minutes of the Hokage asking Haku very piercing and revealing questions, he seemed very happy with the answers he had received. "I'm very happy to allow someone like you to live in Konoha. Can you please tell me about your abilities?"

"Hold on a second Jiji," Naruto said, drawing everyone else's attention to him. "Can you activate the privacy barrier before Haku-chan answers?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow when he heard Naruto use the -chan suffix but quickly activated the privacy barrier like Naruto asked with a nod.

When the walls glowed blue, Haku continued. "I have the ability to create ice with my chakra, the Hyoton bloodline of the Yuki clan."

"I'm glad that Naruto asked me to activate the barrier, some factions of this village would try to force you into the CRA or make you a baby factory. As much as I dislike the idea, every village has those who would do things of that sort with little to no hesitation. How strong are you, Haku-san?"

"I don't know exactly how strong I am," Haku replied. "But I am probably somewhere between high chuunin and Jounin."

The Hokage looked at Kakashi and saw him nod in agreement. "As Kakashi agrees, I will give you a chuunin ranking if you would like to be a shinobi. What is it you would like to do Haku-san?"

Haku looked unsure for a moment, as if she was weighing her options. "Would it be possible to train to be a medic? Even though I am a good fighter, I have never liked the necessity of killing and have even taught myself how to treat wounds. Most of what I can do is through herbs and the like. However, I would like to be able to use Iryo Ninjutsu to treat wounds as well. I have nearly perfect chakra control so I should be able to do so, but I have never had someone to teach me or even been able to find scrolls to explain the process."

"Very good, that is something I can easily help you with," the old Hokage said, happy at the prospect of gaining a medic of Haku's potential, especially one who has such potential on the battlefield as well. "Here you go," he said as he took a Konoha hitai-ate from one of his drawers and handed it to Haku.

"Thank you very much Hokage-sama" Haku said, almost in tears.

"You're very welcome young lady. Now, the last question we need to answer is where you will be staying."

After seeing the unsure look on the Hokage's face, Naruto decided to chip in. "You can probably put her in the same complex as me. Both apartments next to me and the one across from me are empty. They emptied out shortly after I started living there and no one ever came to live in them."

"Thank you Naruto. That will help a lot. Could you take Haku-san and get her one of those apartments? Tell Kenji-san I will arrange for payment for the first month of her stay there," Naruto nods and starts to turn to Haku when the Hokage speaks up again. "One more thing, come back tomorrow and I will set up a time for you to meet with Shibi-san like we discussed earlier."

"Thanks Jiji," Naruto said before turning to Haku like he had started to before. "Come on Haku-chan, I'll take you to your new apartment."

When he was finished saying that, he and Haku walked to the door which he held open before turning back to his sensei. "Kakashi-sensei, come to my apartment sometime tomorrow morning, I've got something to tell you. Jiji, I've also got something important to tell you when I come see you tomorrow. Let's go Haku-chan; Sakura and Sasuke are probably waiting for us outside."

"Ok Naruto-kun," Haku said in return, much happier then she was when they entered the office.

"Naruto," Kakashi said, "Can you tell the other two that you have two days off then we will meet at training ground 7 to train for the rest of the week before we will go on missions again.

"Sure, Kakashi-sensei."

As soon as the two had left the office, Hiruzen reactivated the privacy barrier. "How strong is she really?" he asked as he turned to look at Kakashi.

Kakashi looked thoughtful. "I would judge that she is about Jounin level. She has both the strength and the experience to fight equal with other Jounin and she will continue to get stronger as she gets older. The scary thing is that Naruto defeated her in combat. He is probably on par with her in fighting strength if not a bit stronger but without her experience. If they were to fight again, it is hard to say who would win. You should really take a look at Naruto's map too, it is a project on par with his sword, it is very impressive."

The Hokage was a bit confused at that. "Map? Sword? What are those? Can Naruto even use a sword?"

Kakashi's jaw almost dropped before he got himself back under control. "It would probably be best if you just ask him to show you tomorrow when you see him again. That kid is very good at keeping secrets if he wants to."

"That he is," the Hokage said, determined to take Kakashi's advice and ask Naruto. "So how is your team?"

"Far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. They are all probably ready to become chuunin and in a few years Jounin. You remember how I said that Naruto and Sasuke used a fire/wind combination?" Kakashi waited until the Hokage nodded confirmation. "Well Sasuke used a simple Gokakyu no jutsu but Naruto used a technique that he created. It looked something like the Rasengan, at least in shape. He generated an insane amount of wind chakra that he confined into a spherical shell and compressed it. Then he threw the sphere into Sasuke's fireball where the fire ate through the shell and the wind chakra burst out so quickly that the fireball exploded very strongly. It was very impressive."

"That doesn't much surprise me, I learned long ago to never underestimate him and got a reminder of that not too long ago."

"That isn't even the most impressive. I know he has pretty much mastered three elements," Kakashi said and the old Hokage sputtered in amazement. "I know, I wouldn't have thought it possible but he told me that he had already mastered wind and water and was close to mastering earth the day after the genin test. I am almost certain he wasn't lying or exaggerating. I suspect that he can create elemental orbs with each of the elements he has mastered, though I don't know what each one would do."

"I see," the old man said, "Do you plan on entering them in the chuunin exams?"

"I believe so. They did amazingly well on this mission. I will probably take them on some more C-rank missions before that and while I would have preferred for their first kill to wait a bit longer, it has passed. And even though Naruto took it the hardest, as he killed the most people, they seem to be fine and ready to take missions again. They have had over two weeks to work through it after all. Actually, I think that is the reason that Naruto hasn't gone over the documents he acquired from Gato yet."

"I'm glad to hear that they are doing well, the first kill is always the worst. Thank you for telling me," the Hokage said thoughtfully. "Unless you have anything else to tell me, you can go."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Kakashi said and left the office.

With Naruto, Haku, Sasuke, and Sakura

As soon as Naruto and Haku left the Hokage's office they found Sasuke and Sakura sitting in the chairs in the reception room, waiting for them.

"Do you two want to come with us to get Haku's apartment? It is going to be in the same complex as mine," Naruto asked his two friends.

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other and nodded before Sakura spoke. "Sure, we don't have anything else to do."

"Then do you want to help me show Haku around after the apartment is taken care of?"

"Why not?" Sasuke answered.

"Good, but before I forget, we have the next two days off then we meet at training ground 7 for training at the normal time.

Throughout their walk the four of them made light conversation and pointed out places of interest to Haku with her asking the occasional question. They only took about 15 minutes to get to Naruto's apartment complex, but they had a good time in each other's company.

Upon reaching the complex, they went to the manager's room with Naruto quickly knocking on the door.

Footsteps sounded from within along with a voice. "Just a second, I'll be right there." A few seconds later the door opened and the manager stuck his head out. "Hello Naruto-san."

"Hi Kenji. I actually came here today with some business for you," Naruto said as he gestured to Haku. "Haku here is just moving to Konoha and Jiji wanted to rent an apartment for her. I knew that there were a few apartments surrounding mine that were free. Could she rent one of those from you?"

Kenji took a brief glance at Haku and nodded. "That is no problem; I can give her room 303. That is obviously the room right next to yours. How are you going to pay?"

"Jiji said that he would arrange to pay for the apartment for the first month of her stay here and he is arranging for her to work at the hospital as a medic-nin in training," Naruto quickly answered.

"That is fine," Kenji said and walked back into his room, returning with a key which he handed to Haku. "Would you show her where it is Naruto-san?"

"No problem," he said before turning toward the stairs. "Let's go everyone."

Haku quickly followed Naruto and she was followed by the other two. They all quickly went up to the third floor with Naruto stopping and gesturing to a door with a large '303' plate on the front.

"Here you go Haku-chan."

Haku went in, taking off her sandals at the front door. As she saw her new accommodations her eyes went wide, never expecting to be provided with such a nice place. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura just stayed in the living room as Haku explored. They already knew what it would look like as it was just the mirror image of Naruto's without any of the customization.

Haku came running back into the room and threw her arms around Naruto's neck. Naruto's face became bright red at Haku's hug, much to his teammates' amusement.

"Thank you so much Naruto-kun!" Haku said excitedly. "I've never had such a nice place to stay, for that matter I've never had anywhere where I could stay permanently."

"I'm glad you like it Haku-chan," Naruto said, his face still bright red. "Now that you have seen the place would you like a tour of Konoha?"

Haku looked up and finally seemed to realize what she was doing as she stopped hugging Naruto and jumped back.

"Sorry about that Naruto-kun," Haku said, a bit bashful now, "but I would love a tour."

For the next four or five hours the three members of team 7 showed Haku around Konoha, just enjoying themselves until Sasuke and Sakura needed to go home.

"So what do you want to do now, Haku-chan?" Naruto asked when they were alone.

"We could always go get dinner but is there anything else you want to show me first?"

"Hmm" Naruto said as he thought about what else he could show her. "Yes actually, there is one more place. Follow me."

Naruto lead Haku into the woods near the base of the Hokage monument. After a few minutes of walking they came out on top of the Yondaime's head and right out until they were standing at the highest point of the final head.

"This is my favorite place to come whenever I just need to think and we came up here at the perfect time" he said as he pointed at the sun setting over the village.

"…" Haku seemed to be lost in the beautiful view and the colors of the sky.

"I can see why you like this place" she said when she finally came back to her senses.

"So what do you want to have for dinner?" Naruto asked.

"Do you have a favorite place to eat?"

"Of course, my favorite place serves the food of the gods! I would eat it every day if I could get away with it, but I would probably be short if I did."

Haku chuckled, "So what is this place called?"

"Ichiraku Ramen."

"I've heard of ramen but I never tried it before, I guess there is a first for everything," the black-haired girl said.

"Ok, let's go!" Naruto practically cheered before grabbing Haku's hand and running back through the woods and straight to Ichiraku Ramen.

"You must really like this place," she said as soon as she caught her breath.

"Like I said, ramen is the best," the whiskered blond said as they walked under the flaps, Haku's hand still firmly in his own. A fact that Ayame didn't miss as they walked up to the counter.

"Hi Naruto, how are you doing? We haven't seen you for a while. And who is your pretty friend… the one whose hand you are holding?" Ayame asked.

Both young shinobi's faces were stained red as they sprang apart. "I just got back from my first C-rank mission. Though it did end up turning into an A-rank mission," Naruto said barely able to contain his laughter at Ayame's open-mouthed expression. "This is Haku, she came back with us from the mission and was granted citizenship and allowed to train to be a medic-nin. My team and I were giving her a tour until they had to come home and I brought her to my favorite place to have dinner."

"So how do you like it here Haku-san?"

"I think I will really like it here. The people seem nice, at least the ones I have met, and it is a beautiful village."

"I'm glad you like it. What would you like to eat?"

With no hesitation Naruto spoke up. "The same as always."

"Tou-san, I need three miso, two chicken, one beef, and one vegetable," Ayame yelled into the kitchen.

"Naruto is back then?" a voice replied from the back room.

Haku chuckled when she heard the interaction, still looking through the menu. "Can I have a shrimp ramen please?" she asked politely.

"Sure," Ayame said before turning around and walking to the back. She picked up a bowl and said "One shrimp ramen too Tou-san."

As she walked back to the counter to set the bowl in front of Naruto, Teuchi stuck his head out of the kitchen and whistled. "Brought a pretty friend with you, did you Naruto. It's about time. Here's her shrimp ramen Ayame and Naruto's second bowl."

Ayame grabbed the bowls and put it them down in front of Haku only to see her looking at Naruto in astonishment. "How did you finish that already? And how can anyone eat that fact and still appear to be elegant about it?"

Naruto started laughing. "I get that all the time. Don't worry about it, just worry about your own before the noodles start to get soggy."

Haku followed his advice and took a bite of her ramen. "This is really good!" she said when finished her bite.

"I told you," Naruto said with another laugh.

Haku joined him in laughter briefly. "Yes you did."

They continued eating their meal with a very friendly atmosphere and when they finished, they went back to their apartment complex.

Stopping outside Haku's room Naruto finally remembered something he had meant to do. "Haku, before I say good night, I've got a gift for you," Naruto said as he took out his storage scroll and unsealed the ice flower.

"When you gave this to me I placed a couple seals on it so it won't melt or easily break," Naruto finished as he tucked the flower behind Haku's ear. "This is my gift to you; I thought you would like it."

Haku's eyes started tearing up before she flung herself at him again. "Thank you, I've never gotten anything so nice before."

"I'm glad you like it," the golden haired boy said with a very gentle smile on his face. I bet she has never or hardly ever gotten a present before. "Good night, Haku-chan."

"Good night, Naruto-kun," Haku replied with traces of tears still in her eyes.

After saying goodnight outside Haku's apartment, Naruto went back to his apartment and secured it and set up the dimension scroll. He had decided that it was finally time to find out what happened to his blood clone on its trip to the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides).

After opening up and going into the dimension scroll he started walking up the long staircase that lead to his training ground.

As he walked up the stairs, he became lost in thought. I really need to set up some way to bypass this trip… Why don't I set up a Hiraishin seal at the top and bottom of the stairs so I can just go directly from top to bottom, that way I won't have to walk as far. Maybe I should set up a hidden room for storage at the bottom of the stairs too, that way I can put anything I need down there and access it quickly. I could store anything from scrolls to kunai and shuriken to medical supplies. I guess I can have my Chishio Fuuin Bunshin make it…

He was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize when he arrived at the top of the stairs. He actually kept walking until he ran into one of his clones and knocked it over, forcing it to dispel.

A few seconds later the Chishio Fuuin Bunshin appeared, having received the dispelled Kage Bunshin's memories unexpectedly.

"Perfect, I was just about to come looking for you," Naruto said.

"What's up boss? I was expecting you to come see me as soon as I got back from Uzu no Kuni," Chishio Naruto said.

"Yeah, I was in bad shape after the fight on Tazuna's bridge. I was forced to kill a large number of people and I wanted to give myself time to recover and get someplace safe, home in this case, before I retrieved the memories and whatever you found."

"I'm glad it wasn't me," Chishio Naruto said before a slightly confused expression came over its face. "Though it kind of was me…"

"Anyway, it is time I recharge you and retrieve your memories. Just one question, do you get my memories when I recharge you?"

"No boss, only you get my memories."

"I guess that would have been too easy," Naruto said before he placed his hand on the Chishio Fuuin Bunshin's forehead and started recharging it with chakra as he got the memories.

As soon as the boss ordered him to get moving, C. Naruto transformed into an owl-eagle and started flying in the direction of Uzu no Kuni. He flew due west through the night and arrived at the coast of Hi no Kuni by the morning.

After arriving at the coast he found a large tree and finding a comfortable branch, fell asleep. He woke back up at about noon and transformed into an albatross before taking off and continuing in a western direction but flying extremely high so he would be able to see any islands. Around four in the afternoon, at least by his estimation, C. Naruto saw what he was looking for, an island completely surrounded by whirlpools. They were very large whirlpools, considering how high he could see them from.

Diving down toward the island, he could easily see where there had once been a city. Interestingly enough, the city itself was shaped like a giant spiral. Since there were only traces of one settlement, he didn't even have to figure out which ruined village to go to. That said, he landed in the center of the ruined village and transformed back into his natural form.

When he looked upon the village with is human eyes he was actually surprised at how big it must have been, nearly 2/3rds as big as Konoha. He realized he would never be able to search Uzushio by himself and used a third of his chakra to make perform Kage Bunshin no jutsu. He only used that much because while he did regenerate some chakra over time if he slept or ate, it wasn't even at 1/10th of the speed that the original did. Even only using a third of his chakra, he created around 500 Kage Bunshin.

"Everyone split up and search everything, dispel if you find something interesting," C. Naruto commanded.

"Yes Boss," all of the Kage Bunshin said at once.

It was actually very interesting how Kage Bunshin created by a Chishio Fuuin Bunshin worked. Instead of sending all of the memories back to the original, they sent all of their memories back to C. Naruto and he in turn gave or possibly sent (if he was dispelled) his memories back to the original.

C. Naruto decided to follow his own orders and went exploring. Unlike his clones, he was searching for some shelter as he would probably be there for several days. He found a still intact, if run-down home on the very edge of the village and decided that was where he would be staying. He created a Hiraishin marker on the inner wall of the building just in case and went back out to hunt for some food.

It ended up taking until almost noon the next day for the Kage Bunshin to find anything important and it was a very important discovery, the command building of Uzu, the equivalent of the Hokage tower. Despite it being the counterpart of the Hokage tower, it wasn't a tower. It was more of a mansion if the ruins were anything to go by.

It was a three or four story building at one point in time. It was still mostly intact, including the symbol for Uzushiogakure on the front, which was what allowed him to figure out what the building was. The symbol for Uzu was actually very similar to his family crest but instead of a single line in a spiral, it was three lines in separate colors that formed the spiral. The outermost line was dark blue followed by a sea blue line and a white line.

The building itself was actually oddly almost a cube shape. It was four rooms on each side and despite there only being three floors left, or two in some places, it appeared that there were four at one point.

When C. Naruto received these memories, he immediately went to the Uzu mansion, for lack of something better to call it, and created another ten Kage Bunshin to explore it. He didn't know how stable the building was and couldn't afford to be destroyed or his mission would fail.

It turned out that he didn't really need to worry about it because the rooms that his clones could reach on the first and second floor were completely stable. Unfortunately they couldn't find much. There were some records that they found in a well hidden storage seal in what had to be the leader's office. This was actually very well hidden and he probably never would have found it where it not for the skeleton of what was probably the last leader of Uzu that was reaching for it and his mother's tutoring in Fuuinjutsu. He took the records and the seal of Uzushiogakure and sealed them in one of the seals that the original had provided.

It took another day before his clones found the Uzumaki compound which was in nearly perfect condition. He quickly found out why when his clones couldn't enter at all. In fact when they tried, they were immediately dispelled. The protective barriers around the Uzumaki compound were that strong. The compound reminded him strongly of the Hyuuga compound back in Konoha in its elegance but wasn't quite so old fashioned as the Hyuuga compound, at least that was what it looked like from the outside. C. Naruto actually decided to wait to try to get into the compound until his Kage Bunshin finished exploring the island, just in case he was dispelled as easily as his clones were.

After another two days, the rest of his clones dispelled when they finished exploring and he decided it was time to chance the barriers of the Uzumaki compound. Like the Uzu mansion, it turned out he didn't have to worry. He smeared a bit of blood from the vial that he had been provided on his hand and placed it on the front gate where he could see a strange blood seal. As soon as he touched the gate, he felt like his body was being explored and if the blood in his body didn't match the blood on his hand something very bad would happen. Apparently because he was made of blood instead of just chakra, the seal accepted him as an Uzumaki and allowed him in though it slammed closed as soon as he crossed the threshold.

The barrier turned out to cover a much larger area than just the compound, several times as much area in fact. There were a series of training grounds with different environments even including a small lake, there was a play area that was obviously for children, and there was even a small graveyard.

As it had appeared from the outside, the building was in perfect condition even if it was completely deserted. Though he found that it hadn't been at the end. He walked through the building and searched the rooms that looked like people actually lived in them until he found a nursery. There was a single adult skeleton, a female from the clothes, and 7 skeletons that were clearly babies. They must have been trapped within the compound when the destruction of Uzu occurred and probably starved to death considering that the building was otherwise untouched.

After that, he quickly found the library. It was fully stocked with both shinobi-related scrolls and books and normal books and scrolls. As he looked around he quickly found a lot of water jutsu scrolls and a couple earth scrolls as well as a small number of the other elements which he quickly sealed in another one of the scrolls. Then he found the section of Fuuinjutsu, which was by far the largest section in the library and sealed them up in another seal on the same scroll which he put in one of his scroll holders before creating three Kage Bunshin with whom he left the several more storage scrolls with and ordered them to pack up the library.

The next thing he looked for was the Clan Head's office and like he expected, that was where he found the real treasures. Upon entering the room he at first thought there was nothing unusual and was almost disappointed when he noticed a large copy of the clan crest, the Uzumaki spiral. It was actually kind of strange and seemed out of place until he went up to it and got a closer look. Upon closer inspection he realized that it was another blood seal but a very well hidden one. He took out the vial of blood and smeared it on his hand before placing it on the seal. The second he started channeling chakra to it, it started sucking an incredible amount of him. It ended up draining almost 2/3rds of the chakra that he had left by the time the seal opened and he was very glad that he had been resting quite a bit over the last few days.

Before descending into the stairs that the seal revealed, C. Naruto placed another Hiraishin marker in the office. You never knew when you might want to come back after all. With that set, he started descending down the stairs.

This set of stairs turned out to lead to a very deep but obviously man-made cavern. The stairs were almost as long as the ones in his dimension scroll. It turned out that cavern wasn't the right way to describe it. It was more of an underground extension of the compound. Unfortunately, it was almost empty and if not for his Kitsune-me, he would have been completely blind as whatever was once used to light the place had long disappeared. The underground area looked like it had been used lot in the past but at some point in time it had fallen out of use. He only found one thing as he was exploring the underground area.

At the very end of the underground area was what appeared to be a shrine of some sort. It was not all that different from the rest of the complex but it seemed to be far more opulent with everything in the room seeming to draw attention to the shrine. On top of the shrine was one of the largest and oldest looking scrolls he had ever seen, it was so big that he didn't really want to try to carry it anywhere.

As he approached it, he noticed that there was another blood seal just beneath where the scroll was resting. He decided to play it safe and spread some of the blood from the vial on the seal. It was probably a very good thing he did because what appeared to be a cage of light materialized around the scroll before splintering. He really didn't want to think what it would have done to him if he hadn't deactivated whatever it was before he grabbed the scroll.

Taking the scroll off of the shrine, he briefly opened it up and realized that it was a summoning scroll. He closed it back up before he really got a good look at it, deciding to wait until he was somewhere that had better light before trying to figure out what type of creature it summoned.

With the underground complex explored, he went back up to the clan head's office and took one last look around. Going to the desk, he took the seal of the clan head and cleaned off the shelves and storing everything in another scroll. Then he went back to the library and found that his Kage Bunshin had finished their job leaving a pile of scrolls on the reading table and a room full of empty shelves. Using the summoning seal on his left hand, which somehow still worked even though it was never applied to him personally but his original, he summoned the dimension scroll.

He quickly transferred the storage scrolls into the landing at the bottom of the dimension scroll; very grateful that despite the fact that there was a small lake at the top of the stairs the landing at the bottom was completely dry. When all of the storage scrolls were in the dimension scroll he closed the entrance of the scroll and hung it on his back.

After that, he decided there was one thing left to do before going into the dimension scroll himself. He went back to the nursery and collected the skeletons, taking them to the burial grounds he had spotted when exploring the area within the barrier. He used his newfound mastery with his earth chakra to create a small hole in the ground, just large enough to hold the woman and her charges. He gently laid them in the grave with the six babies surrounding the woman who had given up her life to watch over them. Why else would she have died in the nursery after all, she could have chosen any place in the compound to be her final resting place. After laying them to rest, he once again used his earth chakra to fill in the hole and then hardened the dirt into a stone slab and inscribed it.

To the brave woman who stayed with her

charges until the end and the six children

who never had the opportunity to live.

Then he used his fledgling ability to manipulate wood chakra to grow flowers all around the new grave. When he was finished making the grave, he stepped back to look at his handiwork and realized that when he had grown the flowers they were all roses, blue roses.

After laying the dead to rest, C. Naruto went back into the library where his clones were waiting and reopened the dimension scroll, letting his clones close the doorway and roll the scroll back up.

As he was shut in the dimension scroll, C. Naruto went back up to the training grounds and took an apple from one of the apple trees that he and the Kage Bunshin he had created to work on Mokuton manipulation. They had come a long way even if it wasn't quite enough to start working on Mokuton Ninjutsu yet. He took it easy for several days as his chakra reserves refilled but got bored when the boss didn't open up the dimension scroll after five more days even though he knew he was in Nami now. He decided to get back to training just to alleviate his boredom.

The first thing he did was summon the Hiraishin kunai he kept in the dimension scroll before making 50 Kage Bunshin, all of whom had Hiraishin kunai in their hands like C. Naruto.

"Ok you lot, get to work on the Hiraishin no jutsu, being able to only use the jutsu three times before being exhausted is completely unacceptable," C. Naruto commanded before putting the kunai away and creating another 100 Kage Bunshin. "Half of you on Mokuton, the other half on Hyoton. I want to be able to grow trees from nothing and create kunai, shuriken, and senbon from ice in less than a second. Get to work."

So that is how the next two and a half weeks went, with C. Naruto creating Kage Bunshin to train while he usually slept or ate to replenish his chakra. It continued until one of the Mokuton clones suddenly dispelled and C. Naruto went to find out why.

"Wow, I'm going to have to go back there sometime. I bet I could duplicate the Uzumaki compound like I did the training ground for the dimension scroll," Naruto said to himself after he had received the memories from his Chishio Fuuin Bunshin. "Is the summoning scroll you found still in the same place?"

"Yes boss, I left it down at the bottom of the stairs."

"Good. I'm going to grab that and take care of it tomorrow but right now I have to go sort through the documents I appropriated from Gato. Could you create some type of store room down at the bottom of the stairs? It would be a serious pain in the ass to have to come all the way up here to grab anything. Just make sure it is well hidden," Naruto said, the distaste in his words when he mentioned Gato dissipating when he mentioned the store room, as he turned around and started walking to the stairs, but then he paused at the top. "Also, can you put some light seals along the stairway with a chakra feed at the top of the stairs and right next to the entrance? While I don't really need the light, if I bring anyone else in they will."

"No problem boss," C. Naruto said as Naruto walked toward the stairs and back to the bottom, stopping only to create a Hiraishin marker a few feet away from the stairs and another a few feet in front of the entrance to the scroll.

'That works exceptionally well. Since my Chishio Fuuin Bunshin has already absorbed all of the experience of the Kage Bunshin that he made, it is like I am only absorbing the memories of a single Kage Bunshin instead of hundreds. While I do get a worse headache, it only happens once and it is probably much safer for me then making hundreds of Kage Bunshin like he does.' Naruto thought. 'But this is a serious mind-fuck trying to figure out how to distinguish him from me. We are pretty much the same person, but not quite.'

"Damn, I guess I won't be able to take care of that summoning scroll tomorrow after all," Naruto groaned to himself. "I have to see Jiji and Kakashi will be coming over at some point tomorrow, hopefully he will be here early."

With that in mind, Naruto unsealed everything he took from Gato's base and created four Kage Bunshin to help him sort it out.

"Ok guys, make one pile of business papers, one of deeds or proof of ownership, one pile of other stuff, and one of stuff I should check out," he said before he sat down and started following his own orders.

They continued until one of his clones spoke up. "Boss come look at this!" it said, the urgency in it's voice quickly catching Naruto's attention.

Naruto got up and went up to the clone in question. "What is it?"

"I've got a bunch of scrolls here that Gato probably took from the nuke-nin that he killed before Zabuza. I'm pretty sure that he never opened them because all of the storage scrolls are still full."

"Good job, I'll search through those," Naruto said as he took the scrolls. "If you four find any more give them to me."

Naruto took the scrolls to the table in the dining/living room and started opening them. The first few were just simple contract scrolls and he tossed them in the trash. The next few weren't so useless; the fourth scroll had a trapped storage scroll so that anyone without the correct hand seal sequence would cause the scroll to self-destruct. It took him about an hour to defuse the trap, but it turned out to be worth it. When he unsealed the storage scroll, another scroll popped out, this one a summoning scroll. Opening it up he found that it was the contract for birds.

'Wow talk about a lot of luck!' Naruto thought, 'if I had found this before the scroll in the Uzumaki compound I would have signed it without a second thought. But since I did find that scroll I would rather sign that scroll since it has been in my family for a long time if the scroll is any indication and while it might be possible to sign more than two scrolls, I don't want to lose the chance. I bet Sasuke would match the birds well though, he is kind of a loner like quite a few birds of prey and at the same time this contract would probably suit him quite well.'

The next few that he opened were Ninjutsu scrolls. They described Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear), a technique that allowed the user to harden their skin until it was as hard as diamond while still maintaining mobility. Then there was Doton: Doryu Joheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart) which could make a large wall or rampart whose size and shape were dependent upon the user. Doton: Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu (Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique) a low-level technique which allows the user to tunnel through the ground with very little resistance. There was a scroll on Shunshin no jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) with notes on elemental variants. The final scroll was for the Mizu Bunshin no jutsu (Water Clone Technique).

'Gato's last few nuke-nin must have been from Iwa or just earth users in general' Naruto thought. 'But this technique is perfect for Chouji. It will make him seriously scary, just imagining him in his meat tank form with diamond hard exterior makes me shiver. It would probably be good for Shino too, I doubt it would take too much chakra and would grant him a great defense while his bugs do their job. I bet they would do well with the underground projection fish too. Hmm… I wonder if Chouji could use it in his meat tank too, that would be even scarier… the underground diamond tank. I'm probably the only one who can use the earth-style rampart. I'll make copies of the shunshin technique and the Mizu Bunshin technique for everyone but I bet Hinata and Sakura will be best with that one.'

The final scroll was another storage scroll but this one didn't have a summoning scroll in it. That just would have been too easy. But this one did have some treasure, nearly ten million Ryo!

"Ok," Naruto started, not even bothering to keep his thoughts to himself. "I'm definitely glad Jiji set up that bank account for me."

The clones all looked up when they heard Naruto speak.

"I would be happier about the fact that fat midget couldn't open scrolls boss. You never would have found that if he could."

"True," he said before turning back to his clones. "How are you doing on those?"

"We're done boss."

"Good. Is there anything else that I need to look at?" Naruto paused until he saw his Kage Bunshin shake their heads, "Seal the piles up separately and label them then you can dispel."

As his clones were following his orders, he resealed the money, took out a few blank scrolls and copied the jutsu for each of his friends and made a copy for himself as well. He would have to give the originals to the old man when he saw him tomorrow. As he was writing, the Kage Bunshin dispelled letting him know they were finished. He quickly finished up his writing and wrote his friends names on the respective scrolls before resealing the originals in another scroll to give to the Hokage.

When he had everything finished, he got ready for bed and went to sleep.

The first thing in the morning, he went to the bank where he had an account. Jiji had set up the account for him there because both the owner and manager were people who don't hate him. That is why he always talked to the manager when he came to make his deposits or withdrawals. Actually he had to see the manager because he was the only one who could access his account.

Walking into the bank he went up to the manager's office and knocked on the door. "Come in," he heard from the other side of the door.

Naruto opened the door. "Hello Akihiro-san, I've come to make a deposit, a very big deposit."

"Ah Naruto-kun, it is good to see you again," the man wearing a business suit with flat black hair combed to the side and brown eyes behind thick glasses said. "You haven't been here for quite a while."

"Yeah, I graduated and became a shinobi which means I am technically an adult so I no longer get an orphan's allowance. For the past few weeks I was on my first C-rank mission and for a couple weeks before that I was on D-rank missions. Maybe I should call them chores; I only made enough money to survive on those."

"Well I'm glad to see you again, it means you made more money and are not just scraping by. That is especially true if you have a very big deposit like you said."

"Yeah, this came into my possession during my last mission," Naruto said as he unsealed the scroll holding all of the money. "I didn't even know what was in it until last night."

"I can definitely see why you said you have a very large deposit," Akihiro said when he finally got over his surprise. "I guess we have to count this now."

"I guess so," Naruto agreed.

Over the next half an hour the two counted the money. They actually counted it several times until they came up with the same amount.

"So you have 10,236,129 Ryo that you are putting in your account. Is that correct?" Akihiro asked.

Naruto nodded. "That is correct, and it puts me in a good mood because it means I am closer to being able to buy a compound or something like that if I want. I guess we'll have to see what happens."

"It is very impressive that you managed to get this much Ryo as a rookie genin, especially after just one C-rank mission."

"It wasn't actually a C-rank; it got upgraded to an A-rank. We ended up killing or causing the death of this scumbag named Gato. Our team ended up defeating two Jounin, two chuunin, and a bunch of thugs while protecting our client," Naruto explained.

"Gato… Do you mean the shipping magnate?" Akihiro asked.

"That is exactly what Jiji said when Kakashi-sensei reported to him yesterday. Yes that Gato. He had taken over the shipping industry of Wave Country and was essentially trying to enslave the entire country. Our client was building a bridge that would break his control…" Naruto continued, telling Akihiro the story of his first mission out of the village. He actually told almost the entire story to the man as he was someone that he trusted.

"Wow that is quite an adventure for your first real mission."

"Yes it was," Naruto said. "Could I get a receipt for my deposit? Normally I wouldn't ask, but for a deposit that size…"

"Sure," Akihiro said as he started filling out a form with the specifics of his deposit with his signature at the bottom.

When he took the form, he immediately put it in his pocket and left. After he exited the bank he took that form out and sealed it into the recently vacated storage scroll. It was very valuable and he wanted to keep it safe.

He decided that the next thing he would do was give his friends the scrolls he copied for them. But he wasn't quite sure where to find them so decided to start at the training grounds where their teams met. Since he was closer to training ground 10 he decided to stop and try to find Shikamaru and Chouji first.

It turned out he was in luck as he found them right away. They were at a small building that was right next to their training ground. Shikamaru was playing their Jounin-sensei a game of Shogi while Chouji was watching and Ino was training.

"Hey Shika, Chouji how are you two doing," Naruto called out, catching Team 10's attention.

"Hey Naruto," Chouji called back.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Ino almost screeched causing Naruto to wince.

Shikamaru waited until he got closer. "What's up you troublesome bastard?"

"I've got a gift for you and Chouji," Naruto replied to Shikamaru.

"Really," the Jounin said, "what might that be?"

"Sorry, I never caught your name. What was it?" Naruto asked the Jounin.

"Ahh… I'm Sarutobi Asuma," he replied.

"I should have known. You look a lot like Jiji. Anyway, I got some jutsu scrolls on my last mission. I made some copies for them," he said as he took out the two scrolls with Shikamaru and Chouji's names and threw them their namesakes.

"What have you got there?" Asuma asked.

"Well our last mission started out as a C-rank but was upgraded to an A-rank…" Naruto told the story for the second time of the day. By the time he finished Asuma's cigarette was sitting on the ground, forgotten, and the other genin's mouths were hanging open.

"You really went through all of that?" Ino said, her curiosity allowing her to retrieve her mouth first.

"Yeah, a couple of the scrolls that I found had some jutsu that Gato probably took from the nuke-nin he betrayed. There were a couple jutsu that were perfect for Chouji and some general ones.

Asuma took the scroll that Naruto had given Chouji and looked at the jutsu that they contained. He looked at Naruto with wide eyes when he finished reading them. "These would complement his family style perfectly."

"I know, can you imagine how dangerous he could be if he manages to combine those jutsu with his family's? Especially considering that he has mastered his earth affinity." Naruto said with a slightly sadistic tone.

Chouji grabbed the scroll and read the jutsu and his eyes mimicked his sensei's before taking on a gleeful sparkle. "Thanks Naruto, I'm going to start working on them immediately."

As Chouji walked away to start working on the jutsu, Ino's curiosity finally got the best of her. "What were the jutsu you gave Chouji?"

"There were two that were perfect for him. The first is Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear) which allows the user to make their skin as hard as diamond. Can you image the kind of damage Chouji could do in his Nikudan Sensha (Human Bullet Tank) form with diamond-hard skin? The second jutsu Doton: Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu (Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique) would let him travel underground. I'm not sure if it would work but if he could use that while in his Nikudan Sensha form it might be able to remove one of the technique's weaknesses, crashing into walls or other things that can slow him down. The other two jutsu and the only ones I gave Shikamaru are the Mizu Bunshin and Shunshin no jutsu. While it is true that neither of them has an affinity for water, the Mizu Bunshin is a relatively low cost solid clone technique and shunshin could be very convenient especially for Shikamaru. If he learns that he will be able to get wherever he needs to go quicker so he can watch the clouds longer before he has to do anything," Naruto said, playing to Shikamaru's laziness to make sure he would actually learn it.

"As troublesome as it is, that will be convenient and those jutsu will definitely make Chouji a force to be reckoned with," Shikamaru said lazily.

Ino sidled up to Naruto. "Do you have anything for me?" she said in a flirtatious voice.

"Nope," Naruto said simply. "I've never trained with you, I have no clue what your element is, and I have no clue how you fight. Though if I had to guess, you have an affinity for either fire or lightning. That isn't the case with these two. Since I don't know these things, I won't give you any jutsu."

A storm cloud seemed to form over Ino's head but it was stopped before it had a chance to strike by Asuma speaking up. "He's right Ino, it would be a bad idea for him to give you any jutsu," he told her before turning to Naruto. "Just one question. When did you train with the guys?"

"We've trained together since we were about eight. We finished chakra control exercises and mastered our elements while we had plenty of time during the academy."

If Asuma hadn't already lost his cigarette, his face said that he would have by now. "Mastered your elements?" he almost shouted. "What are they?"

"Well, I won't answer for Shikamaru and Chouji but I have Wind, Water, and Earth affinities," Naruto said before holding out his hand and forming a small rock with earth chakra then slicing it in half with wind chakra. He was about to wash it away with water but there was none anywhere nearby so he did it the more difficult way, condensing a bunch of water out of the air and washing away the rock.

"…"

Naruto started walking away, leaving a speechless Asuma and Ino in his wake. "I'll see you later Asuma-sensei. I still need to see Hinata and Shino."

"Tell them I said not to do anything too troublesome," Shikamaru said.

Naruto just waved in acknowledgement as he walked toward Training Ground 8. It took about ten minutes to actually get there, but his luck still held and Team 8 was there.

Unlike Team 10, Team 8 was training with a three way spar while their sensei watched. Naruto decided not to interrupt, instead going over to sit next to their sensei. She was a woman with long slightly curly black hair and very distinctive red eyes. She was wearing a dress that appeared to be made of extra wide and tough bandages with a red right sleeve.

"Hello," Naruto said when he saw that she didn't seem to mind him there, "while I would like to call you by name, as with Asuma-sensei I didn't catch your name when teams were assigned."

She started at Asuma's name, becoming more attentive but still answered. "I'm Yuuhi Kurenai and you are Uzumaki Naruto. What are you here for?"

"I came to give Hinata and Shino a gift. It will probably help Shino a lot, Hinata too but not quite as much. I've got a question for you; do you like Asuma-sensei?"

Kurenai went red and stuttered for a second before she got herself back under control. "What do you mean?"

"It is a bit late for that, you completely gave yourself away," Naruto said, "but I'll keep it to myself."

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Your reaction when I said his name gave me the first clue, but you confirmed it when I asked."

"Thank you for being honest. What is the gift for them?"

"A couple jutsu I came across on my last mission," Naruto said and held his hands up before she could ask. "Ask Asuma-sensei when you see him, I've already told the story twice today and I don't feel like doing it again."

"Ok, I'll do that," Kurenai said as the spar was ending.

Hinata and Shino walked over toward them as Kiba picked himself up off of the ground and followed.

Naruto got back to his feet and threw the scrolls to Hinata and Shino. "Here are some gifts for the two of you, a couple jutsu. I'll see you two later. I still have to see Kakashi-sensei and Hokage-Jiji."

Naruto walked away with a simple wave over his shoulder, heading back to his apartment before anyone could say anything to him.

When he arrived back at his apartment, he found Kakashi waiting just outside his door. "Wow, you are actually early. I wasn't really expecting that."

"Where did you go Naruto?" Kakashi asked as he watched Naruto open his door, something he wasn't able to. Usually he just would have picked the door but for some reason he was unable to do so.

"I went to the bank, then to see Team 10 and Team 8. I found some jutsu scrolls that had jutsu which perfectly fit my friends' attack styles. It included Doton: Domu and Doton: Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu, can you imagine what an Akimichi and an Aburame would be able to do with those techniques? Especially since they have both mastered or nearly mastered their earth element."

"That would be scary," Kakashi said seriously as they walked into Naruto's living room.

"That's what I thought, and that is why I gave them copies of the scrolls I found. I've got copies for Sasuke and Sakura too. Actually I have a really good present for Sasuke."

While he said that he secured everything like the night before, closing the blinds and creating a security barrier. "Ok, now that that is set up, I believe I promised to let you in on one of my secrets.

"Yes you did," Kakashi said as he watched Naruto unstring the scroll from his back and hang it up on the wall. "I had been meaning to ask, but what is that?"

"That is the secret I had planned to show you," Naruto said as he channeled chakra into the scroll, opening the gate of the dimension scroll. "This is my private training ground. Come on, I'll show you."

"That scroll is your private training gr-" Kakashi started bemusedly to say but stopped when Naruto walked right into the scroll. Kakashi decided to just follow him instead of doubting until he knew just what he was dealing with.

Naruto looked around as soon as he walked into the dimension scroll, spotting what he was looking for just as his sensei entered behind him. "I honestly didn't think that they would have been so quick in setting this up, I only asked for it last night," he told Kakashi offhandedly as he walked to the seal at waist-level just to the left of the doorway. "Now, let's see if it works." He channeled chakra into the seal and the entire hallway lit up. Then he made a clone and dispelled it to warn his Chishio Fuuin Bunshin that he was coming up and that he wasn't alone.

"What is this? And how did the passage light up?" Kakashi asked.

"The light is created by a series of light seals that my clones created last night with them being powered through the seal I just touched. This place is what I call a dimension scroll…" Naruto said, giving his sensei the same or nearly the same explanation that he gave the Hokage as they walked up the stairs.

Kakashi kept quiet until they reached the top of the stairs and walked out onto his training ground. "B-But how is this possible, how many clones do you have training in here?" he stuttered out, astonished at what he was seeing.

"I thought I told you. I'm showing you this place to show that I trust you with one of my biggest secrets. And about your other question, I honestly have no idea how many Kage Bunshin I have in here."

"Yeah, boss has no way to know. I was the one who created them after all," C. Naruto said.

"What do you mean you created them? How could a Kage Bunshin create other Kage Bunshin?" Kakashi asked, once again doubtful.

"I'm not a Kage Bunshin. I'm a Chishio Fuuin Bunshin. Boss came up with the idea after learning how to make a Chishio Bunshin. He realized it was unfeasible since it required two gallons of blood at a time so he created a blood duplication seal for use as the base of the jutsu."

"I created him and he usually stays up here training. It works really well because I don't have to process the memories of all of the Kage Bunshin he creates. He does that and I only have to process his memories when I recharge his chakra. Come on, let's go back down. I brought you in here as a show of my trust in you, but I still have to go see Jiji and give him the documents I took from Gato," Naruto said as he walked back toward the stairs.

Kakashi followed him until he paused and turned back to his clones. "Kakashi-sensei, go on ahead of me, I need to recharge my clone."

"Fine, I'll meet you back in your apartment," Kakashi said.

As soon as Naruto sensed Kakashi going down the stairs he went back to his clone. "Good job on the light seals, they worked perfectly."

"Thanks boss."

"No problem. Here are some jutsu that I managed to acquire, have a few Kage Bunshin practice shunshin but you need to dispel most of them after I leave. There is a good possibility that Aburame Shibi will be coming in here to make sure the place is healthy."

"Ok boss, I'll see you later."

"Later," Naruto said before he followed Kakashi down the stairs.

When he got back to his apartment, Naruto found Kakashi sitting in one of his chairs. He quickly deactivated it, rolled it back up, and slung it over his back. "So how did you like my dimension scroll Kakashi-sensei?"

"That was very impressive Naruto," Kakashi said, while thinking to himself 'I don't even think his parents could have done that'.

"Does the Hokage know about it?" he continued.

"Of course, while I use it as my own personal training ground, I realize it has quite a bit of potential so I showed him just before graduation. A lot of that potential would be lost if too many people found out about it, so please keep it a secret. My meeting with Jiji today isn't just giving him those documents but also him having Aburame Shibi check the health of the area so I can take anything I might need into the area."

"I understand. Let's go, you need to go see Hokage-sama and I have some reading to do. I'll see you the day after tomorrow," Kakashi said as he walked back toward the front door.

Naruto ran back to where he put the scroll with the 3.75 million Ryo, then ran into the hall just as Kakashi was about to open the door. "Kakashi-sensei split this between you, Sakura, and Sasuke. I already took my share."

"What is it?" he said as he stopped.

"A bonus I confiscated from Gato."

"I see. Until the day after tomorrow," Kakashi said with a shake of his head, but Naruto could tell he had a small smile behind his mask.

Naruto quickly headed to the Hokage tower with the storage scrolls holding the sorted documents so he could give them to the Hokage. He went straight up the wall on the outside of the tower, he had wanted to do it for so long but hadn't allowed himself to because he wanted to hide his skills, and right in through the old man's window. He saw that the Hokage was concentrating on his paperwork so he snuck up to him as quietly as possible while suppressing his chakra to the limit.

"Good Morning Jiji," Naruto shouted from right next to him.

The Hokage jumped, throwing a little orange book in the air only to quickly catch it before it landed in Naruto's hands. "And here I thought Kakashi-sensei was a pervert, I didn't think you would be one too," he moaned.

"Naruto!" the old man said as he realized just who it was that startled him. "How did you get in here?"

Naruto just pointed at the open window. "I've wanted to do that for a long time, but I never thought I would be able to sneak up on you. Honestly, I'm even more surprised the four ANBU let me. Wait a second; are any of your ANBU guards women today?"

Naruto heard a very light giggle. "I guess so, I bet they just plain let me sneak up on you as punishment for reading that porn."

This time the laughter wasn't so quiet.

"Busybody ANBU," Hiruzen muttered quietly.

"Really?" Naruto said as he walked back in front of the desk. "I brought the papers. The separate categories are sealed in these scrolls. There are business papers, deeds or proof of ownership, miscellaneous other stuff, and jutsu."

"Jutsu, how did a man like Gato get his hands on jutsu?"

"Gato said that he had hired and killed nuke-nin before, so he probably got the jutsu from them. The jutsu aren't really dangerous or uncommon, except possibly Doton: Domu, which I have never really heard about it before."

The old Hokage looked through the jutsu scrolls before answering. "That is probably a good guess. I assume you mad a copy of these?"

"Yes I did," Naruto said unabashedly.

"That is fine. None of these jutsu are dangerous to the user. I'm actually very glad you did give the originals to me. Many of my shinobi would just plain keep them for themselves," the professor said before picking up the other storage scrolls. "Also, thanks for sorting these for me."

Naruto gave his foxy grin. "No problem Jiji. What about Shibi-san?"

"Oh yes. Cat."

An ANBU with a cat mask with three lines and long purple hair appeared next to Naruto, kneeling to the Hokage. "Yes Hokage-sama?"

"Would you please go to the Aburame compound and ask Shibi-san if he has some free time. If he does ask him to come see me, if not tell him it can wait for another day."

"Yes sir," the masked ANBU said.

"Now my boy, Kakashi mentioned something about a Sword and a Map. What was he talking about?"

"I completely forgot to tell you about that," Naruto said. "But before I explain that, there is something I need to try but we need some privacy first."

"ANBU, please leave us," the Hokage said. When they were gone he activated the privacy barrier causing the walls to glow blue for a moment.

That done, Naruto created a disabling seal that covered the entire room. "I figured out what the small points of chakra on Danzo's arm are."

Naruto stopped there and started visibly sniffing the air. He actually smelled something smoldering from three points. He went to the first point and found a book. Opening it up he found a seal tag with blackened ink. He continued and found two more before going back to stand in front of the old Hokage.

"It seems Danzo was listening in to any conversations you had that involved him," Naruto said as he deactivated his seal.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"As soon as you activated the privacy barrier I created an original seal of mine. I call it a disabling seal, what it does is cause the ink of any seals that are activated while this seal is active to smolder. The only thing I said was about Danzo and we got these," he explained as handed over the seal tags. "Fortunately these appear to be trigger activated recording seals so you can probably use them to set a trap for whoever placed them."

The old man looked thoughtful before getting an evil glint in his eyes. "Thank you, this could work very well. What were you saying about Danzo's arm?"

"I figured out what the small points of chakra are. Actually I know what both types are or know how to find out. The small points are sharingan. When Sasuke activated his sharingan, the chakra signature of his eyes became almost identical. To the small points on Danzo's arm and his right eye is similar but felt darker. The arm itself felt like that male ANBU with the cat mask. I noticed that before but didn't realize that that people with the same kekkai genkai had such similar chakra signatures."

The Hokage's expression went from grave to graver and pissed off at the same time. His anger actually scared Naruto, though Naruto fought to not let it show on his face. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to suppress his expression anymore, a knock sounded on the office door breaking Hiruzen out of his anger.

Deactivating the privacy barrier, the Hokage called out, "Come in."

Aburame Shibi walked through the door. "You needed me for something Hokage-sama?"

The old man reactivated the privacy barrier before answering. "Shibi-san, young Naruto consulted your son about something but your son suggested he ask you due to your greater experience and knowledge."

Shibi turned to Naruto. "And what might this matter be, Uzumaki-san?"

"Will you swear to keep this matter a secret?"

Shibi looked to the Hokage and upon his nod gave an affirmative. "Of course Uzumaki-san, I will keep this matter a secret as long as it doesn't affect the security of the village."

"That will do," Naruto said as he took the dimension scroll off of his back and hung it up on the wall of the office. Then he went to the windows and lowered the blinds so no one would be able to see what was happening.

"First you must know that I am nearly a seal master," Naruto started noting Shibi's raised eyebrow. "I created a modified storage scroll that contains a two kilometer cube of space that I used to create a training ground."

As he was saying that he went back to the scroll and opened the door to his pocket dimension. He went in and as soon as he saw the Hokage and Shibi follow he channeled chakra into the light seal array and the stairway lit up.

"This is much better, when did you add that Naruto?" the old Hokage asked.

"I had my clones create it last night. There is a seal at the top and bottom of the stairs which when you channel enough chakra into them, you get this. To get back to my explanation, this modified storage scroll, which I call a dimension scroll, is a pocket dimension. I used a large scale duplication seal to duplicate the space I needed. What I asked Shino to do was check the health of the ecosystem in here. He and his allies checked it and told me it appeared healthy but he suggested that I ask you due to your greater experience."

"I see. I have no problems checking this matter seeing how you have Sarutobi-sama's support for your project," Shibi replied.

"Thank you Shibi-san," Naruto stated. "Here we are."

They emerged into the sunlight of the day showing through in the dimension scroll and Shibi stopped once again, astonishment actually showing on his face.

"Is there anything you will need to perform your evaluation Shibi-san?" Sarutobi asked.

"Just an hour of time."

"You will have your time. Naruto would you please show me your map and sword?"

"Sure Jiji, we can go over here to give Shibi-san some room," Naruto said as he pointed toward the small lake.

When they finally stopped Naruto unsealed his map and handed it to Hiruzen. "To use this, put a little chakra in your finger and circle part of the map. Right now it is restricted to the Lands of Fire, Rivers, Hot Water, and Nami."

Hiruzen did as Naruto said and circled Konoha and a small area outside it. The area he circled immediately popped up showing the terrain as a hologram.

"Now, do the same thing again but in the Genjutsu."

Hiruzen followed the instruction again, zooming in on Konoha. It zoomed in enough that he could even make out the Hokage tower.

Before the old Hokage had a chance to say anything, Naruto gave one more instruction. "Finally, touch the scroll outside the map with just a little bit of chakra.

Once again the old man did as Naruto suggested and the map became just a scroll one more time. After a couple minutes of staring in wonder, the Hokage finally managed to find his voice. "What is this? How did you manage it?"

"Well, this is a projection of my mindscape. When I accessed it, I changed it from a sewer to being a reflection of everywhere I have ever been. I quickly found out that it was an exact copy of the real world. When I realized that I decided to make a map that reflected that with a projection seal. It took me several years to figure out how to modify it so that it would do what I envisioned. At the same time, I started sending out clones to explore the area and expand the mapped area. In the end I had to combine the projection seal with a Genjutsu seal and a physical map and you get this."

"This could prove advantageous if you manage to complete it. Actually it would be very useful now. Could you make another copy for me?"

"I guess so, but it might take a while," Naruto said tentatively.

After another minute of Hiruzen staring at the map he finally handed it back to Naruto and watched as he resealed it into his hand. "So what about your sword?"

"That is something I have been working on for a long time. I learned how to wield a sword but I could never afford to buy one so I made one. Considering I am very good at Fuuinjutsu, I decided to make myself a sword with that," when he finished his explanation he unsealed one of the Hiraishin kunai. Before the old man had a chance to say anything, he channeled chakra to activate his sword.

"Whaa…" the Hokage said, once more struck speechless.

"I am the only one who can use it, I made sure of that. It will only accept my chakra. The blade's base is highly compressed chakra with a coating of wind chakra which allows it to cut almost anything. I can also channel other types of elemental chakra for whatever uses I might need. There are two special things I can do with it. First, I can extend it," Naruto quickly channeled a lot more chakra and watched as the blade tripled in length then disappeared when he stopped adding chakra.

"The second thing is my favorite," Naruto said as he threw the kunai into a nearby tree. Then he channeled chakra into the summoning seal in his right hand and the kunai reappeared in his hand.

"I created a paired summoning seal so that I would never have to worry about the seal's secrets being stolen. I thought it was better safe then sorry considering this sword can cut through a normal sword. I actually tested it."

"I need a drink," the old Hokage said as he rubbed his forehead. "Do you have anything else you want to tell me?"

"Nope, that's it. That's all I've got at the moment."

"Good, let's go check on Shibi and then we can go wait for him in my office."

They walked back toward the stairs and found Shibi still standing just a few feet from the stairs.

"Shibi, we will be waiting for you in my office. Come back down when you are finished in here."

"I will," Shibi said.

About forty minutes after Naruto and the Hokage sat down in the office; Shibi exited the dimension scroll and stood in front of the Hokage's desk. Naruto stood up and quickly put the dimension scroll away before sitting back down.

Naruto sat back down and waited for Shibi's evaluation.

"Your pocket dimension is in very good health. There are enough animals to maintain the ecosystem at the moments but there are several insect species that are missing that will help maintain an area of that size."

"How can I obtain these species of insects Shibi-san? I know that doing do is beyond my species," Naruto said politely.

"I can arrange for my son to bring you the necessary insects but you will have to allow him access to implant them."

"That is fine, I can allow him access anytime I have free time and am in the village. I know that will be for the next week and my team is usually free after five in the afternoon. The only requirement is that it is done in a private area."

"Accepted, I will have Shino bring the insects to you when we are prepared."

"Thank you Shibi-san," Naruto said with a little bow. "Jiji, do you need anything else before I go?"

"No, you can go Naruto. Thank you for your time and your sincerity. I will see you again when your team returns for another assignment in a week."

"Ok, see you Jiji," Naruto threw over his shoulder as he walked to the door and left.

As soon as he left the Hokage tower, Naruto quickly walked to the Uchiha compound. He had decided that he would use the summoning contract he had found in the Uzumaki compound the next day. Since he had the rest of the day to pass he resolved to give Sasuke the bird summoning scroll that was in Gato's possession for a time.

Naruto walked through the Uchiha compound until he reached Sasuke's house and knocked on the front door. After a few seconds of waiting, the door slid open to reveal Uchiha Mikoto with Natsumi in a hug in her arms.

"Hello Mikoto-san, Natsumi-chan how are you two doing?" Naruto asked.

Mikoto hadn't changed much. She still wore the same black long-sleeved shirt under a beige dress but her hair was a little bit longer and she seemed less worn down then she had when Naruto had first met her despite having a five year old daughter. She just seemed happier with her life. Natsumi was a little bundle of energy. She honestly looked like a miniature version of her mother with long black hair and black eyes but she was wearing a blue dress.

"Hi Naruto-nii," Natsumi said, "I'm doing real good."

"Hello Naruto. We are doing well," Mikoto said, smiling at her daughter's words. "How are you?"

"I'm doing very well; I actually came with a bit of a gift for Sasuke. I managed to find some jutsu scrolls on our last mission; I assume Sasuke told you about it?"

"Yes, he did when he told us how he activated his sharingan."

"Good, I've already explained it twice today and I don't feel like doing it again. But I or my clones, I should say, raided Gato's base and he had probably betrayed several nuke-nin that he hired in the past. So I found their jutsu scrolls, he might not need them now that he can access the Uchiha library but I still wanted to give a copy to him. One of them is just the shunshin, but it has notes about how to perform elemental shunshin instead of the standard leaf shunshin. Is Sasuke around?"

"Yes, he's training out back, you know where to go. It is good to see you are doing well after such a mission, but go see him."

"Thanks Mikoto-san," Naruto said as he went around the house to a training ground where Sasuke usually trained. Sasuke was punching a training post when Naruto saw him, so Naruto sat down and just waited for him to finish.

Sasuke finally noticed him when he paused to rest. "Hey Naruto, what are you doing here? I thought we weren't meeting until the day after tomorrow."

"We aren't meeting until then but I've got a gift for you, two gifts if truth be told," Naruto said as he tossed Sasuke the first scroll. "There are two jutsu there: Mizu Bunshin and Shunshin with notes on making an elemental version that I thought you would like. Did you manage to access the Uchiha library?"

"Yes I did, but thanks for these. You're right; I do like the idea of an elemental shunshin. I could make a seriously flash entrance with that. You said two things though, what is the second?"

Naruto took out the scroll he had sealed the bird contract into and threw it to Sasuke. "That is my gift; it found it sealed in a heavily trapped scroll that I took from Gato's base. It actually took me about an hour to dismantle the trap so I could unseal it."

Sasuke quickly unsealed the summoning scroll and looked at it with no understanding in his eyes. "What is this Naruto?"

"That is a summoning scroll; it is a contract with birds. Summoning scrolls are incredibly valuable. I have a different one that I am going to sign but I thought this one would suit you. Just sign it in blood and make a handprint of whatever hand you want to use to summon with."

Sasuke looked at the scroll with a very thoughtful expression for several minutes before he did indeed sign the scroll. "So how do I use this?"

"You offer some blood and at least the first time channel as much chakra as you can in a single burst. You start by making the hand signs Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. Then you slam the hand you made a hand print with on the ground and call out 'Kuchiyose no jutsu' to summon a bird."

"How do you know so much about summoning if you have never done it before?" Sasuke asked.

"The same place I learned about the chakra exercises I taught everyone, a book. Go ahead and try it."

Sasuke bit his right hand again and quickly made the hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground. A puff of smoke appeared and a bird the size of a small eagle appeared. This bird was definitely NOT an eagle. In fact the similarity was the curved beak of a bird of prey. It had bright orange feathers with highlights of red that looked almost like flames. It was a small phoenix.

"A new summoner is it? What is your name?" the phoenix asked.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke said with no hint of arrogance.

"An Uchiha huh… how did you come upon our summoning scroll?"

"That was me actually," Naruto started, "I found it when I raided this scumbag's base. I suspect he had ordered your last summoner's death. I already have a contract that was apparently passed down through my family and I thought Sasuke would benefit the most from the bird contract; it seems to suit his personality. Though I could always be wrong about that, I don't think I am."

"And who are you?"

"You first, it is awkward to think of you as 'the phoenix'."

The phoenix looked a little sheepish, though how they could tell that neither boy knew. "Sorry, I'm Suzuka."

"Thank you for the honor Suzuka-san," Naruto said, "I am Uzumaki Naruto."

"I see," Suzuka said and gave him a searching glance before turning to Sasuke. "You have good taste in friends."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, seemingly lost in memory for a second. "Yes I do," he said gently.

Suzuka looked thoughtfully at Sasuke. "I think I like you. You can summon me at any time you desire but you will have to summon the boss of the phoenixes who is also the boss of the bird contract and get his approval to summon any member of our tribe. I think you don't have to worry much, father will probably like you."

"Thank you," Sasuke said honestly.

"You are welcome. I will see you next time you summon me," Suzuka said before dispelling.

"Good job Sasuke! From what I've heard, it is normal for a first summoning to be like a chick or other baby animal," Naruto said happily. "Now you just have to practice, the trick is to channel as much chakra as you want at the exact second you slam down your hand. The better you time it and the more chakra you can channel in that single instant the bigger and stronger of a creature you summon. But you are lucky; I didn't realize this contract allowed you to summon phoenixes. They are one of the legendary summoning creatures along with a couple others that I can't think of off the top of my head," Naruto finished as he tilted his head in thought

"Really? Thank you for this," Sasuke said honestly.

"You're welcome," Naruto said as he was leaving but stopped and turned back. "Sasuke, are you going to see Sakura today?"

Sasuke blushed. "Yeah, we're going to have dinner tonight."

"Really," Naruto replied, stretching out his words with a laugh before sobering up and handing him another scroll. "Then can you give this to her? It is just the same jutsu I gave you but Mizu Bunshin would probably work really well for her."

"Sure. See you later," Sasuke said as Naruto left.

"Now what to do?" Naruto said to himself as he slowly walked back toward his apartment.

He was just about to enter the apartment complex when he heard his name called out. He spun around and saw Haku headed in his direction.

"Hi Haku-chan, how are you doing? Did you start working at the hospital?"

"Hello Naruto-kun, I'm doing well and yes I did," Haku said happily as they walked into the building.

"How was your shift in the hospital? Did you learn anything?" Naruto asked as his mood mirrored Haku's.

"It was fun! Mostly I was just being tested on my knowledge about medicine and how I would work in certain situations. I think I will start learning some more tomorrow, maybe even start learning medical Ninjutsu!"

"I'm glad you seem to be having fun," Naruto said as he thought back to his day and how many times he had to explain things throughout it before he remembered the scroll of money he had given Kakashi. "I've got something for you too by the way."

"Really, what is it? I think I would be fine with just this," Haku replied as she played with the ice rose that was tucked behind her ear.

"Money. I kept some of the money I recovered from Gato and was going to split it among my team but when I went through the scrolls I recovered I found a bunch more. So I decided to give my portion to you to help you get started anew."

"That is not necessary. I will be fine."

"I don't doubt you would be fine, but you can use it to get what you need and pay for your apartment until you get further in your training."

Haku still looked like she was going to refuse but Naruto never gave her a chance as he ran to his room and grabbed the storage scroll with the rest of the money and stuck his head out long enough to throw the scroll to Haku and say "Good Night" before going into his room again.

Early the next morning, Naruto grabbed the scroll containing the Uzumaki summoning scroll and headed out to the same clearing beyond Training Ground 44 where he had first summoned Gamabunta.

When he arrived, he used his sensory ability to scan to his maximum distance. Finding no one in his range, he took out the summoning scroll and finally read it. What he saw stunned him. He was holding a summoning scroll that was thought lost. It was the summoning scroll for dragons.

"I'll be damned," Naruto thought out loud, "but if my clan had the ability to summon dragons why didn't they use it when Uzu was attacked?"

Naruto decided not to worry about that for now and just finished unrolling the scroll. He bit his left thumb and used it to sign the scroll and make the handprint on the bottom. He quickly bit his thumb again made the same hand seals he had instructed Sasuke to make the day before and channeled a bit more chakra then he used to summon Gamabunta as he slammed his left hand on the ground and called out "Kuchiyose no jutsu".

What happened left Naruto awestruck and almost speechless. As the smoke cleared Naruto saw a golden western type dragon that was as nearly as tall as Gamabunta and almost twice as tall. It had slit golden eyes that seemed very wise yet containing the potential for extreme violence. It was almost uniformly gold but had coiling crimson lines that highlighted its body.

The golden dragon looked around as if taking in scenery that it hadn't seen in a long time before looking down and spotting Naruto. "Who are you child?" he asked in a very deep bass voice.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What may I call you?" Naruto answered politely.

The dragon let out a long low laugh that sounded more like a rumble. "A Uzumaki huh? I thought your clan was wiped out," he said musingly. "I am Ryuujin (Dragon God) the leader of the dragon tribe. I think I like you, someone as young as you are and who is also polite. Since you are an Uzumaki, how did you survive your clan's destruction?"

"Uzushiogakure no Sato was destroyed a long time ago. My mother was sent here to Konoha before that happened. She died when the Kyuubi was ripped from within her on the day I was born," Naruto started, deciding that he had to tell the complete truth to the being in front of him. "My father then sacrificed his life to reseal the Kyuubi within me."

"Interesting, an Uzumaki and the container of one of the bijuu. How did you get your hands on our summoning scroll?" Ryuujin asked.

"On a recent mission my team was sent to Wave Country and along the way I sent a special clone to Uzu. My clone found it when he explored the Uzumaki compound."

"I see," Ryuujin said contemplatively. "Do you seek to be a summoner of the dragon clan? Be careful when you answer this question, if you make a misstep it may cost you your life."

"How so Ryuujin-sama?" Naruto asked.

"You must pass my test and it is something that might kill you even if you are Kyuubi's container. You must pass the test once it is started or it will kill you."

"Then my answer is this: Yes, I seek to become a summoner of the dragon clan," Naruto answered with no hesitation.

"Very well. Hold out the hand you didn't use to sign the contract."

Naruto held up his right arm. Ryuujin inspected the arm before speaking. "There are several seals on your arm. Can you reapply them when you are done with this test?"

"Of course," Naruto said before taking his map out of the storage seal on his hand and placing it on the ground.

"Good, just remember that you must overcome your darkness," Ryuujin said and before Naruto had a chance to understand what he meant, he move more quickly than Naruto could follow and bit his arm off at the elbow.

It didn't stop there. Despite the fact that his arm was gone, he wasn't bleeding, but that wasn't the worst part. From the point that his arm ended, a burning travelled up his arm and continued spreading out like, like… venom. The burning soon consumed his entire body leaving him rolling on the ground and convulsing.

'Kit. Kit! What's wrong? What's happening to y-'

Pseudo-Mindscape

He was hovering in darkness for an unknown amount of time before he began to make out his surroundings. Then he could suddenly make out everything in perfect clarity. He was back in his room at the orphanage.

Well, this is probably one of my least favorite places, but what did he mean by my darkness? Naruto asked himself as he looked around.

Just when he finished thinking that, he really wished he hadn't as the walls of the room were suddenly covered with the faces of the people who always looked at him with hatred filled eyes. Naruto quickly fled through the door and ran out of the orphanage as quickly as he could. But that turned out to be a mistake as well because every surface was covered with blood.

"Isn't this great," said a voice that sounded slightly crazy, "this is what it should really look like.

"Who's there?" Naruto shouted almost jumping at the voice.

"I'm hurt. We've been together for such a long time and you don't even recognize me…"

"What do you mean? I've never met you before in my life."

"Oh really?" the voice said as Naruto caught movement out of the corner of his eyes. He quickly spun around and found something that freaked him out more than everything else he had seen so far. It was him but not him.

It was a perfect copy of him except it's eyes were red instead of blue, blood red, and it had pitch black hair and pale white skin.

"Who are you and why do you look so much like me?" Naruto demanded.

"Because I am you, you fool. At least I'm what you should be and thanks to that stupid dragon, you are no longer necessary. I will kill you and then every one of those fools in Konoha. I will show them that I can be exactly what they fear, exactly what they should fear," the dark Naruto said with a maniacal laugh.

"That will never happen, if I let that happen everything I have worked for will be for nothing. There will be nothing left for me to earn the respect of."

"Of course there will be. Everything will respect me! Me and my power!"

"There is a difference between respect and fear. I have never wanted power to be feared it. I want to grow powerful so I can protect all who are important to me," Naruto said and the dark Naruto's figure wavered for an instant, so quickly that any lapse in attention and Naruto would have missed it. "That is something you will never be able to do!"

Dark Naruto wavered again, long enough for Naruto so see the slitted golden eyes. "That doesn't matter, fear is plenty. With their fear, my power will be unopposed, I will control everything."

"Give me a break," Naruto said mockingly, "Even if you were the most powerful being, the type of power you are talking about would eventually spell your destruction. Even if it wasn't immediate you would be defeated," Dark Naruto wavered again, this time a crack appearing in his appearance. "What is the point of this Ryuujin-sama? I will never seek power for those reasons. It goes against everything I am. So what is the point?"

With every statement the dark Naruto wavered and cracked more and more until it completely shredded itself and left someone completely different. This person had the same slit golden eyes but his hair was almost the same color as Naruto's, like spun gold, but hung down just past his shoulders. He wore a completely white kimono that showed that his arms had a golden pattern that appeared to be made of small scales in the shape of a dragon on each arm facing each other.

"Congratulations on passing the test of the dragon tribe. You are now our summoner," the human-shaped Ryuujin said.

"What was the point of that and why did you make it seem like you bit off my arm?" Naruto asked, his manners temporarily forgotten in the stress of the events.

"Oh, I did bite off your arm. If it had been in any other situation besides this test, you probably would have bled out. For that matter, if you had failed this test you would have bled out. The point of this was to test your reason for seeking our contract and the only way you could have done that is to defeat me like you did. The only way you could do so is to deny that type of power with everything you are. It could have been through words like you did or through fighting to deny it, but you had to deny it with every fiber of your being or you would have failed."

"I'm glad I passed, but what about my arm!" Naruto asked, nearly panicking. "There is no way I will be able to live up to my potential as a shinobi with only one arm!"

"Worry not young Uzumaki. I am using my power to regrow it as we speak. That was part of the test so there is no way I would allow someone who passed to suffer that injury."

Naruto breathed out a sigh of relief. "But what was the point of this test?"

Ryuujin sighed too, but his seemed to be sad. "Let me tell you a story of my tribe's past. Long ago, just after the time of the Rikudo Sennin, before our contract came back into the hands of your family, we had another summoner. His name was Yoichi. He seduced us into believing that he didn't want power for the sake of power and fear. He abused our power until he was killed by the first Uzumaki that signed the dragon summoning contract. He was actually the one who suggested a test of the sort that would cost the signer's life it they failed. With his advice we created a test that could only be passed when the person being tested denied power for the wrong reasons with all of their being. The Dragon tribe is one of the most powerful contracts, one of the legendary contracts actually, we will not allow our power to be abused again."

"Thank you for telling me your reasons for such a perilous test," Naruto said, polite once again.

"You are welcome. Now it is time to go, your arm has finished regenerating," Ryuujin said as he waved his arm and caused everything to disappear once again.

Real World

Like the first time it happened, Naruto hovered in darkness until his surroundings suddenly reappeared. He came back to his senses lying on the ground with Ryuujin filling his vision. After laying there for a minute or two he remembered that his arm had been bitten off and held what should have been a stump up before his face.

That was the time that he started to hear Kurama's voice again. 'Kit are you ok?'

'Kurama? What's wrong?'

'You just seemed to disappear for a few minutes. What were you doing?' Kurama said in his head.

'I signed the summoning contract for the dragons and Ryuujin was testing me' Naruto told him.

'You know Ryuujin and you passed HIS test!'

'Yeah look' Naruto said, allowing Kurama to look through his eyes as he looked up at Ryuujin through his fingers. 'You see him, now I need to get back to my conversation. I'll talk to you when I'm done.'

'Fine kit,' Kurama said as he broke the connection again.

Naruto brought his attention back to the hand he held in front of his face. He couldn't see anything different about it. He could tell that both of the seals on his hand were gone but other than that it seemed normal. Then he turned it over and finally noticed the difference. His arm had the same golden scale pattern that he had seen on the arm of Ryuujin's human form.

"I see you noticed the difference. That scale pattern acts like the tattoo that you have on your other arm and by smearing blood on it and channeling chakra you can summon members from my tribe. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't mention that you have a contract with the toads, but that is for another time," Ryuujin said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it would matter," Naruto replied with a small bow.

"In this case it doesn't, the dragons and toads have no quarrel with each other. If your contract had been with the snakes or another tribe we dislike that wouldn't have been the case though. Enough of my world's politics. The pattern on your arm has another benefit besides acting as a summoning seal. Channel some chakra to the pattern and think of something along the lines of an armored glove or gauntlet."

Naruto did as instructed, imagining a gauntlet that went to his elbow, and nothing happened for nearly a minute. Suddenly he felt an itching feeling on his arm and saw small golden scales had grown to fill the pattern and beyond. He stopped channeling chakra and the pattern returned to normal. Deciding to see how far it could go he closed his eyes and repeated the process, this time not stopping when he felt his arm itching. When the itching stopped spreading he kept the flow of chakra constant but opened his eyes. His entire arm up to the elbow was covered with the small golden scales. It didn't really feel all that much different and he could move it like normal but it was definitely scaled.

"Impressive, you got the hang of it much quicker than I expected. I will tell you three things about this. First, there is nothing that I know of that can cut through those scales. Demonic chakra imbued weapons might be able to but I doubt it. This is actually because I, a golden dragon, was the one who gave you the test. My test is the easiest to fail but has other benefits. If you had received the test from one of the lesser members of my tribe you would have had scales of their color and the corresponding elemental weakness, that is the second thing. The third is a suggestion. There are other things you can do other then make a gauntlet like you did, experiment and find what they are. But be careful, the other things take a very high amount of chakra to perform though you might eventually find a way around that."

Naruto was in awe. "Thank you for the gift," he said before recollecting his wits. "You said the color of the member of the dragon tribe I summon determines the elemental weakness. Would you explain that please? I wouldn't want a member to your tribe to be hurt because of my ignorance."

"I'm glad you caught that, and I am even happier that you care. Blue dragons are water, red dragons are fire, green dragons are wind, yellow dragons are lightning, brown dragons are earth. Their elemental weaknesses are just like a shinobi's but there are some mixed colors like blue-white are ice and reddish-brown are magma. Do you get the idea?"

"Yes thank you for telling me and allowing me to be your summoner. Is there anything else I should know? I'm exhausted, it might only be morni…" Naruto started to say before he looked up and noticed that the sun was setting. "Never mind. Is there anything else, I'm going to bed."

Ryuujin gave a very deep yet hearty laugh. "No young Uzumaki, there is nothing else I can tell you at the moment, you have had a long day even if it doesn't seem like it," he said just before he dispelled in a giant puff of smoke.

Naruto quickly headed home, only pausing at Ichiraku Ramen to reward himself for passing Ryuujin's test on his way to his bed.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait (at least compared to my last few) but I was on vacation and had more time to write…

The Visitors part of this chapter refers to Haku as well as Ryuujin and Suzuka if anyone hadn't guessed.

Anyway. another very long chapter. I know there was some more repeating and that should be all the repeating I do. If I have to say the same stuff again I'll write something like 'and he explained how he made the dimension scroll as they walked up the stairs' or something like that.

This chapter is a lot of setting up for the later chapters and the next chapter is as well. After that we will be into the genin exams.

Next Chapter: Yugakure, City in the Land of Hot Water

Since you have gotten this far, you have probably read the story so REVIEW. Tell me what you think and if you can think of anything that could make it better.