Disclaimer: I haven't done one these in a while, but none of this is mine as you all have the intelligence to figure out just by getting here.

Tsunade was surprised to find herself standing in a void. She knew that she had gone to bed a few minutes ago so this couldn't be real. Was she having a weird dream or had Madara somehow infiltrated Konoha and placed her under a genjutsu? She instantly tried to cancel the supposed genjutsu, but nothing happened. Either she was in a strange dream or she was under one very powerful illusion. The Hokage quickly looked around trying to find something that made sense in this void. She soon spotted four shadowy figures and decided to walk closer to them. It's not like she had a better alternative. After walking for what seemed like hours, or minutes as time made no sense in this realm the figures became clear and Tsunade found herself looking the other Kages.

Gaara was the first to speak. "This isn't an ordinary dream." He said it with such certainty that none of the assembled Kages would disagree with him. Gaara then continued, "I take it that all of you tested this place to see if it was an illusion and couldn't break out as well? Do any of you know of any jutsu that allows someone to communicate with others in dreams?"

Before any of the other Kages could respond, a sixth figured appeared. This figure was cloaked in shadows, but the gathered shinobi could see that it was a woman. That put them slightly at ease as none of them figured that Madara would try to trick them by pretending to be a woman. A person of his power and ego wouldn't pretend if he had somehow trapped their minds in this void. Although cloaked in shadows, the unknown woman had a regal demeanor and projected an aura of power. "Be at ease Kages," the woman said with authority. "I mean you no harm summoning your spirits here. In fact, I have come to help you with your upcoming war."

Ei quickly spoke up, "Just how the hell do you hope to help us? Furthermore, why should we trust what you say? We don't know who you are and this is not a normal meeting."

A massive wave of killing intent flooded the void directed at Ei. The powerful Raikage was reduced to a quivering mass of terror in seconds. "Were it not for certain circumstances, I would destroy your mind and leave your body to waste away. Mere mortals like you have no right to speak to their betters that and I have killed many for questioning me in that manner. Believe this foolish mortal, I would gladly kill you and all of Kumo for the insults you and people have given to me if the kami of this realm would permit it. Luckily for you, the kami you worship would cause me too many hassles if I whipped Kumo out of existence and I have a use for you." The shadowy figure than gave Ei one last glare that gave him a vision of a thousand gruesome deaths.

Trying to keep things for escalating out of control, Mei spoke up. "Milady, would you be so gracious to tell us your name? Any help you can offer us would be truly appreciated." Mei didn't like speaking in a courtly manner. In fact, no ninja leader had ever liked dealing with the courtly customs of the nobility. However, they all knew how to use it when necessary and Mei was especially skilled when it came to placating nobles. Every fiber of the Mizukage's body was screaming that this figure was a strong willed and powerful noble that needed to be treated with the utmost care and respect.

With a commanding tone the shadowy woman spoke. "None of you are worthy of knowing who I truly am. However, some of you do know a shadow of me. Under this aspect I will permit you to address me." There was a blinding flash of light that forced all the kages to close their eyes. After a few seconds, the light faded and everyone felt lighter as if a massive weight they hadn't realized they had been carrying was removed. A softer and friendlier voice spoke up, "There, you guys can open your eyes now."

Tsuande opened her eyes and her jaw immediately fell as far as it physically could go. She blinked her eyes trying to see if they were deceiving her. Despite what Tsunade thought would happen, the woman before her did not change. Nervously and in shock the Hokage said, "Kushina?"

Kushina Uzumaki nodded her head and cheerfully replied, "It's me Busty-Chan." Tsunade scowled when she heard Kushina 'unique' nickname for her and the other kages tried to keep their giggles from escaping. Kushina looked a bit sheepish and scratched the back of her head. "I'm sorry for how you all were strong armed into coming here like this. When I'm the dreamer I have a lot less patience for mortals; especially when they might cause problems for things a deeply care about. Kumo's previous dumbass stunts just shortened my dreamer's fuse even more than normal."

Oonoki glanced at Ei and said, "Don't worry. He shortens everyone's fuse so I can't blame you for that. However, I do wish to know how you're speaking to us? After all, you are dead." He didn't want to bring up that bit about the dreamer because it made no sense to the old kage.

Minato's feared wife glanced at all of the kages and then began to explain things. "You all must understand a few things. First, there are many realms to existence. Think of it like the Elemental Nations are one country among many with it being almost impossible to enter another country. Each realm is under the control and guidance of a group of deities. The realm you all live in is under the control of the Kami and they typically influence things by periodically incarnating themselves as mortals. Sometimes their avatars are well known and have massive influence on the land. For instance, Hirashirama Senju was an avatar of the goddess Benzaiten. At other times they have almost no influence on the course of events living simple lives like Susanoo is currently doing as a certain Ramen chief."

"The reason I am telling you all this is because I am something close to an avatar. However, the goddess that I am a part of is not a kami. She is part of another group of deities known as the Olympians who rule another world. I won't go into the specifics, but one day she got so furious over something that she accidentally sent part of her essence into this realm where it was incarnated as me, Kushina Uzumaki."

Gaara spoke up, "Are you some sort of divine Kage Bunshin then?" That was what came to his mind given what she had told him. Besides, Gaara figured it would rather ironic given how much Naruto used that jutsu. Something about the women brought his blond knuckleheaded friend to Gaara's mind. If those two weren't related to each other in some way he was a monkey's uncle.

Kushina smiled at her son's friend. "Both yes and no Gaara. I am both connected and separate from my dreamer. She is all that I am, but I am not all that she is. When she dreams she becomes me and when she awakens I return to her. I am not a mere role that she takes on, but I am not a separate personality or person either. All you need to know is that that both her and I are committed to seeing her son Naruto protected."

Tsunade frowned when she heard Kushina say that. "What do you mean by her son, Kushina? Are you speaking about the two of you being one and the same or something different?" Part of Tsunade was still having trouble accepting that the little brat she occasionally babysat was connected to a goddess.

With a wince, Kushina spoke in a pained tone. "You never realized something given that Mito already had your father and aunts before she sealed the Kyuubi into herself, Tsunade. All female Jinchurriki are sterile due to the nature of the biju's charka. Male Jinchurriki don't have this problem due to the more dominating aspect of yang in male chakra and the fact that male genitals are less connected to the charka network than female genitals. My dreamer stirred at my distress that I couldn't have any children and decided to help. She willed one of her eggs and a greater fraction of her essence into me so that Naruto could be born. Gods and Goddesses don't have DNA so Naruto's maternal DNA was copied directly from my own. My dreamer is in essence Naruto's 'primary' mother while I am his 'secondary' mother."

"The reason why I am telling you all this is because my dreamer wishes to transport Naruto from your realm to hers. Under normal circumstances she would prefer for Naruto to stay in your realm. It is his home and life for halfbloods is not any easier than the life of a ninja. However, Madara's interest in Naruto and the importance of keeping Naruto out of Madara's hands have changed her mind. You all want to send Naruto to a distant island to avoid detection. She can send him to her realm where Madara cannot reach him. To do this, my dreamer has created a Jutsu that will allow the five of you with her help to send Naruto to her realm. While she could do this without your help, it would be extremely noticeable and my dreamer would like Naruto's transportation to be low key."

"Now you five do need to know a few things before you agree to use this jutsu. First, time does not flow evenly between realms or even at the same rate over time. Temporal stress will destroy everything trying to move between realms that is not divine or has a firm grounding in both realms. As such, Naruto is the only one who will be able to be safely transported between realms even with this jutsu. My dreamer can and will be the grounding in that realm for the first transportation as he is of her essence. However, that will only work once. Naruto will not be able to immediately return to your realm because he will have to establish a firm grounding in that realm by his own presence which would take about 16 years in that realm. For all of you that will be about 1 to 3 years given the current temporal ratios between the two realms. My question is will you accept this offer?"

Naruto stood in front of Tsuande and said, "Okay Granny. What is my mission this time?" Part of Naruto wanted to be serious as war had started. However, he figured that his usual attitude would help Tsunade relax even if it annoyed her. It would let her know that something was going on as usual around Konoha.

Fighting back the urge to groan, Tsuande rolled her eyes and began to debrief Naruto. "I'll be blunt Naruto; you are too valuable for any frontline duty in the upcoming war. Intelligence suggests that Madara will send several Biju and the bulk of his forces to any location that you are active in during the war. He will use such overwhelming firepower that any comrades near you will be cut down and you will be eventually worn down for capture. If you're captured, then Madara can resurrect the Jubi and possibly conquer the world. That is a risk that we simply cannot take. As long as Madara doesn't know where you are he will be forced to spread out his forces allowing us to take them down piecemeal."

"To insure that Madara cannot get his hands on you Naruto, I and the other Kages have agreed that you are to be sent to a distant land that can only be accessed by special jutsu. Your mission is to remain in that land and train until either the war is over or we find some way to insure that Madara cannot resurrect the Jubi. This isn't an easy decision Naruto. I know how much you want to help your friends and you have become a very powerful ninja. Unfortunately, this war isn't about territory or the usual resources previous wars have been fought over. This war is about the Biju which makes you even more important than the capitals of all the nations in the alliance. As hard as it is for you Naruto, the best way you can help your friends and keep them safe is to leave."

Naruto felt dead inside when he heard Tsuande say that to him. Part of him could intellectually understand where Tsuande was coming from. Despite claims to the contrary, Naruto did know a good deal about strategy and protecting vital assets. Jiraiya had often played various strategy games with him to drive this home. He understood that he was a vital military asset because he was a Jinchurriki and that he was Madara's main objective. If Gaara or anyone else had been in this position he would be all for keeping them safe and far away from the battlefield.

However, intelligence and rationality never mean anything as far as the heart is concerned. Naruto had gone through hell in back between his battles and training to make sure he could protect his friends. After all the blood, sweat, and tears he had spent in the past Tsunade's words made him feel like a failure. To Naruto's heart, Tsunade's was effectively saying that he wasn't good enough to fight in this war and he needed to be protected like a little kid. Now Naruto knew that was not what Tsunade was saying or even meant, but that's what he felt like. With a resigned sigh, Naruto forced himself to look Tsuande in the eyes. "When do I have to leave?"

Tsunade calmly said, "You'll be leaving tomorrow in secret Naruto. I am already having Kakashi and Yamato create a set of training scrolls with different jutsus and sealing techniques to help you train. You are not to speak to anyone about your upcoming departure. I know you want to say your good-byes Naruto, but your friends will be safer if they know nothing about this. I also want you to know upfront that the land you are traveling to does not have the same rate of time as all the other lands. While it will only seem like months to us, years could easily pass for you. Believe me Naruto, this isn't an easy decision for me and I only agreed to this option because I think that this will help you and everyone else out in the end."

The Hokage then stood up, walked around her desk and gave Naruto a hug. She held him gently for a few moments and then let go. Tsunade then gave Naruto a small smile. "There is one good thing to all of this Naruto. In this land that you are going to there is a powerful lady who has a close connection to your mother. She cannot give you much direct aide due some laws governing her station. However, she has promised to give as much aide as she can give you. Part of this is creating the jutsu that will allow you to travel to her lands. Hopefully, she'll be able to tell you more about your mother since she and Kushina were far closer to each other than I ever realized."

That news picked up Naruto's spirits. He had only recently found out that the Yondaime was his father, but he knew almost nothing about his mother. Naruto knew that his father had a wife unlike many of his peers since Jiraiya had once shown him a picture of the old perv with his parents. Like most ninjas, Minato had been a rather private person and the textbooks in school had almost nothing on his private life. However, Naruto didn't even know his mother's name until just now. Naruto knew practically every bit of public information about his dad and quite a lot of personal information on him as well. But, Naruto knew nothing about his mother! The chance to finally learn about her was extremely tempting and softened the blow of being sent away.

Pain! Every synapse in Naruto's body was screaming in agony forcing him awake. Naruto's eyes frantically scanned around trying to make sense of his location. It was hard for him to focus as everything seemed blurry bigger than it should be. Naruto quickly realized that he was restrained somehow, but it didn't feel like he had been tied up.

How had he gotten into this situation? The last thing Naruto could remember was collecting his things, receiving a few scrolls from the various kages, and standing the seal that was supposed to send him… Naruto's eyes widened as he remember that he was supposed to be transported to another land. But, why did he feel so much pain and where was he? Naruto blinked his eyes several times as his vision started to get sharper. He saw several chairs in front of him and that he was sitting on a raised seat on a bench with a strap of some sort keeping him in the seat. Naruto's backpack was on the bench next to him, but it seemed a lot bigger than it should be. The last thing he noticed was a letter next to his backpack.

Naruto grabbed the letter and noticed that something wasn't right with his arms. However, he was still in too much pain to think about what could be the problem. Hoping for some answers, Naruto opened the letter and focused passed the pain to read it:

Dear Naruto,

You are no doubt confused about what is going on so this letter is to explain things to you. The first thing you must know is that you were sent to another world and not another country by the transportation jutsu. By being here you are safe from Madara as only someone with links to both worlds can be transported by that jutsu. You are the only one are the only one to have such duel links because of your connection to me.

The link I speak of is the fact that I am your mother, my son. The woman known as Kushina Uzumaki back in Konoha was a fragment of my essence. It was because I willed it that my fragment or 'dream' if you will was able to have you. First I want you know that I am proud at how you have grown over these years. Most heroes have broken under lesser challenges. The second fact I want you to be aware of is that I will only be able to help you indirectly. This is an ancient family law that I whole heartedly support. Too many of my relatives would abandon their duties or spoil their offspring in ways that create terrors such as Thetis did with Calibos if this law was not in place. I love you dearly and wish that I could raise you like a regular mother; however, laws only have power and people's respect for them if they are applied equally to all that they affect. If you wish to be angry at me for this, I cannot fault you. Too many of my relatives' children are enraged at our 'indifferent' attitude as necessitated by this law. All I expect is that you understand the reasons for these actions even if you hate them.

Next I wish to explain your current circumstances. First of all, your body has been de-aged to that of a 9 year old. This is the age you would be at if you had been born in this world and so the jutsu shifted your form accordingly. However, you should find that your abilities are closer to what you had before traveling with Jiraiya due to my blood and the Kyuubi's influence. You should start to see some unusual abilities due to my blood no longer being suppressed like it was in your world. What abilities these are I cannot say. You are my first halfblood child as it is not in my nature to have them. The reason why you are called a halfblood and my true name must remain secret at the moment. The more you know, the greater risk you have of being attacked. For now, you may refer to me as Kushina as it is a name of mine.

I have created a cover story for your arrival in this world. To the mortal authorities, you will seem to be the orphan survivor of a car crash. Your 'parents' for this cover are Minato and Kushina Uzumaki who died in the car crash. Don't worry about the mortal bodies as I altered two recently killed criminals to be body doubles. The crash will be used as cover to explain why you don't know many common things about this world as you suffered some memory loss. Sorry for having to put you in a foster home, but it is the safest place for you at the moment and will be far better than the orphanage in Konoha.

When you get older son, it will be necessary for you to relocate to a place called camp Halfblood. This is because the enemies I spoke of will start to detect you as you get older. I did not immediately send you to Camp Halfblood because I do not want my enemies to know about you for the time being. My family is well known at getting back at members we have quarrels with by attacking their children. I myself have quite the reputation for doing this which means you will have target on your back once I claim you. Luckily, the same law that limits my ability to help you also limits the ability of my enemies to hurt you. Also, my family's influence in the area you currently are in is weak as opposed to how it is in the rest of the country. Don't worry about them using loopholes against you as I know all of them. I will be using the time before you head to Camp Halfblood to gain leverage over those who might wish to harm you.

Love your Mother,

P.S. If you ever encounter Artemis and her group be extra careful. They don't like men and Artemis will be especially hostile to you for reasons I cannot disclose yet. She will help to protect you far more than she would other boys, unless she has more ice in her veins than I've ever been accused of having.

Naruto closed the letter and hid it in his backpack. It had answered some questions, but gave him so many more. What was his mother's real name? Who was this Artemis and why would she be potentially dangerous or helpful to him? How many enemies did his mother have and just how strong were they? Where was this Camp Halfblood and when would he go to it? All these questions and many more swarmed through Naruto's head.

At least one thing was certain for Naruto. His mother loved him and was proud of him. She might be limited in what she could do for him, but she was doing what she could. Naruto heard sirens coming and decided to close his eyes. He figured it would be better for his cover if he pretended to be out cold. As Naruto closed his eyes he promised, "Mom, I will be strong enough one day that you won't ever have to fear one of your enemies attacking me."

It took the authorities several weeks to sort everything out for Naruto. He soon found out that he was now living in the United States. Specifically, he was in the panhandle part of the state of Alaska. The foster home Naruto was living in was run by a woman named Ms. Valerie Frizzle who was a teacher at the elementary school Naruto where Naruto was registered. Currently, Naruto was the only person in Frizzle's care as he was living in a small town. The ADHD and the Dyslexia was a pain, but between his foster mother's tutoring and Kage Bunshin Naruto was able to mostly overcome his problems.

Naruto was currently roof hooping through town on his way to the junkyard. Ms. Frizzle allowed him to play outside as long as he was home by 5 pm and his homework was done. If his homework wasn't done, Naruto would be grounded for a week after playing outside. A small smirk appeared on Naruto's face as he quickly leaped across a street. Thanks to his clones, he never had to worry about doing his homework which wasn't that hard in the first place.

Quickly enough, Naruto reached the junkyard which was otherwise deserted. He knew when the garbage men would arrive to dump the garbage off and when they left. The relatively remote junkyard was the perfect place for Naruto to train to keep up his skills. Naruto immediately made a dozen kage bunshins and had them do various taijutsu forms. Being turned into a munchkin had shot his taijutsu skill straight to hell. Sure Naruto's chakra control had slipped some from being a little kid again, but that had been partially offset by the lowering of his chakra pool. The only thing that hadn't been messed up for Naruto was his physical strength. Actually, he was a little stronger now in his regular state than he had been as a teen in Sage Mode.

However, even that blessing was a curse for Naruto. His unusually strong strength wasn't off the charts like Tsunade's or Sakura's and was more at Gui and Lee's level. But Naruto couldn't turn off his strength and so he had to constantly train to avoid breaking something. Since his physical strength was so out of proportion to Naruto's other abilities, it made training even more difficult for him. Naruto was also curious as to why his speed hadn't increased at a similar rate. It didn't make any sense to him. On the other hand, it was cool to see from the clones' perspectives a 9 year old bench pressing a used refrigerator loaded with scrap metal.

Naruto did twenty bench presses with his improvised set of weights and then put the refrigerator back in its garbage pile. Nearly freakish strength or not, he was physically only a nine year old boy. For the next couple of minutes, Naruto did some different stretches to rework some muscles he hadn't used in a while. After that, he sat down to work his control of the Rasengan. Kushina hadn't been kidding when she said that his abilities would be similar to how they were before his training trip. Thanks to his now crappy chakra control it was impossible for Naruto to use a regular Rasengan without a Kage Bunshin helping him out.

"Shit!" Naruto yelled as he once again lost control of the Rasengan and he quickly shoved his bruised hand into the air to avoid creating shrapnel as he lost complete control of the attack. The energies making up the Rasengan lashed out everywhere slicing up Naruto's hands. His hands quickly started to heal until there were only some bruises. Once his hand was healed as far as the Kyuubi would heal it, Naruto sighed and leaned back against the ground. "Okay," Naruto said to himself as he tried to relax for a moment. "My retraining is going about as I can expect it to go. By the time I'm ten or eleven, I should be back to how I was before my sage training. Able to take out most Jonin at eleven years old, heh, I would have been so jealous back when I first turned eleven. Well, I've got forty minutes before I have to head back." Naruto then got up and continued to practice his control again.

Unknown to Naruto, two Olympians had appeared on a dirt covered garbage pile and were discreetly looking at him. One of the Olympians, the one in the guise of Kushina, looked down at Naruto's training with matronly pride. The other Olympian was Artemis in a teenaged form and her eyes were glaring at Naruto with burning hate, rage, and fear. Artemis whipped around to look at her fellow Olympian and her rage boiled hotter. Like a viper the huntress hissed out, "How could this have happened? How could YOU of all people have a halfblood?"

Kushina turned to face Artemis and her face hardened. "I already explained my avatar state to you. If you really want to blame someone for me going through that you only need to look at your father. You should be grateful to me. I could have put more effort into the jutsu that brought Naruto to this realm at his proper age relative to that realm. You would have had only two years then instead of the nine you have now. I could easily have hidden Naruto from you until it was too late."

Artemis eyes widen in fear and horror at the thought. "Please tell me that you aren't serious about that." The maiden goddess was shacking in fear at thought of that happening.

"The thought had crossed my mind every day since my pregnancy as Kushina began. I haven't been amused in the slightest these past 2,700 years of Aphrodite's attempts to bring your little wager into play. Even now, I am temped to arraigned for Naruto to have someone else as his bride so that you have to pay the forfeit Artemis."

Luckily no one noticed the goddesses so Artemis's humiliation didn't grow even worse as she fell to her hands and knees before the other goddess. "Please, don't do that. Have mercy please." Tears were freely flowing from Artemis's eyes as she brought her head down to the other goddess's feet. "I only made that bet to protect my hunters. You remember how bad Aphrodite and Eros were to them in those days. Dozens of them were raped by brigands 'in love' with them from the lust those two caused. It was the only option I had left to bring those two to heel."

Kushina nodded her head and her gaze softened at groveling goddess. She wiped away the tears on Artemis face and gently said, "I will not do that since you did what you did out of compassion for your followers. I swear by Styx that I will not arrange for Naruto to marry someone to force you into breaking your pact with Aphrodite. However, I will not give Naruto to you. The fate of your hunters rests in whether or not you can snag his heart. Don't forget Artemis, you have nine years to become Mrs. Uzumaki or your hunters are Aphrodite's."

Author's notes: Sorry for not publishing in a while. My muse has been going crazy on different ways to carry this story out after losing the muse for Heirs of Earth. That and real life have slowed me down. This story and An Unexpected Factor will be my current stories for as long as my muse will let me. Kudos to whoever can figure out who Naruto's mother really is. I will be revealing it in the next couple of chapters when Naruto gets to camp.