Chapter Text
“This turn of events is unprecedented as we were unaware that such a correspondence was taking place,” some old guy with a stern face and a beard said.
Naruto stared at the ‘elders’ and he was using that word loosely because not a single member of the group could have been older than Jiraiya had been. The youngest member of the group definitely wasn’t much older than Kakashi, but at least he had an excuse in the form of splints going up the entirety of one of his legs, with some crutches leaned against the wall behind him. The others looked fit enough to fight still in Naruto’s mind.
“That is because such correspondence hadn’t been made in an official capacity. My wife had simply been conversing with her family and, well, you know how they are about her,” Hashirama explained, with an air of poise and calm that Naruto didn’t see in the man while he was at home.
“Hmm, yes, her brothers visited often during the early days of your marriage,” an older woman said in a way that sounded like admonishment but Naruto could hear the warmth beneath it; a fondness for their behavior.
Another woman sighed loudly. “Well, he’s already here, there’s no reason to send him away, we could use the help anyway,” she said, closing her fan with a loud clack.
The men of the group, aside from the young one and and two older men, flinched at the action.
“Indeed,” an older man without a beard began, “to send away a man in his prime would do both us and the Uzumaki a disservice. We shouldn’t scorn the gracious help of our allies,” he finished.
And that seemed to be that. While it looked like others had some grievances on the matter, they accepted the story Tobirama had made up of Naruto’s origin and were allowing him entry.
Naruto wondered briefly if he could be considered in his ‘prime’. He was still young as far as he was concerned, although from what he remembered of the drunken conversation he had with Hashirama the night before, the man who would become the first Hokage had turned twenty-one on his birthday and that was apparently entering the older side of having children.
The past was weird.
Wiggling his toes, Naruto tried to get some feeling back into his feet. Sitting in seiza was the worst. Glancing at Tobirama next to him he wondered how the man could sit like this for hours. Even Hashirama who sat a couple paces in front of them was wiggling his toes like Naruto.
Glancing back at Tobirama, to see if he was actually paying attention to this, he got a quick glare from the man signaling him to pay attention.
Oops he got caught.
He had stopped listening to the conversation, and tuning in now would only confuse him, so he spaced out while keeping his eyes forward.
This place was so stifling. It needed some excitement.
“My son can show Uzumaki Naruto-san around,” said the man with the splinted up leg. “Yamako, enter.”
Hearing his name got Naruto’s attention back.
Not even a moment later the door slid open where a kid with the same deep brown hair as his father, older than Konohamaru but younger than Naruto himself, kneeled, clearly ready for anything, but especially this moment.
“Naruto-san, this is my son, Yamako. Son, this is Uzumaki Naruto-san, you are to show him around and help him in any way he asks,” the man intoned carefully.
Naruto felt the heat of being in the spotlight suddenly as all eyes moved to watch him. Remembering the crash course of manners Tobirama had given him just before this meeting, he turned towards Yamako and moved to bow to him before lifting his head.
This child before him was way too tense; his shoulders hunched up and eyebrows furrowed.
“I will be in your care… kid,” Naruto grinned brightly at the boy, and almost broke it to laugh when he heard the sharp intake of breath from Tobirama behind him. Something told him he was going to get a lecture from the man later.
Might as well go all in then.
Yamako blinked owlishly as he was suddenly awestruck by the bit of informality. Snapping out of it after his father coughed, he scrambled to bow back.
“Likewise, Naruto-san, if you’ll just follow me I will graciously show you around,” Yamako said.
Standing up from the uncomfortable sitting position, Naruto stretched and then put his hands on his hips. “No san, okay, Yamako?”
“Naruto-san!” Tobirama suddenly called out. Probably to remind him about manners in a long winded formal way fit for the company they found themselves in.
Naruto wouldn’t allow him to do that though, as his patience for all of—whatever this could be called was completely done.
“That goes double for you, Tobirama,” Naruto exclaimed, turning to face Tobirama for a few seconds, before spinning on his heel to walk out of the stuffy room and drag Yamako away from the area.
Naruto would never forget the bewildered look on Tobirama’s face as his mouth went slack for a second, and his eyes widened as a blush of anger began to spread across his cheeks.
He closed the door softly as he heard Hashirama begin to explode in laughter, there were even a couple soft chuckles from the ‘elders’ that devolved into polite coughs.
“I can’t believe you just did that!” Yamako pulled his arm out of Naruto’s grip when they were sufficiently away from the room. “Not even Mito-sama’s brothers did that unless they were drunk!”
The kid moved to grip his hair in fists as he agonized over what Naruto just did.
The Uzumaki clamped a hand on the kid's shoulder.
“Relax, it’s going to be okay,” Naruto began.
“Relax? Okay!? What if they rescind their decision to let you stay here? What would be the point of showing you around?” The kid cried out in a panic.
“Hashirama and Tobirama won’t allow that to happen.”
Yamako’s mouth hung open and he stared at Naruto like he was insane. For all he knew Naruto could be.
“How can you say that? Especially after that display? I have seen some people talk like that to Hashirama-sama but never Tobirama-sama,” Yamako remarked bluntly.
Naruto smirked. The kid beside him was much more relaxed, albeit panicked, in comparison to when he was before the ‘elders’, and boy was he so very easy to mess with.
Slinging his arm around the kid, he grinned wide. “Alright, enough worrying about all of that! Show me around!”
While Yamako looked ready to throw in his hitai-ate —if he had such a thing—he sighed dramatically and began to lead Naruto out of the building, not bothering to take Naruto’s arm off of his shoulders.
Once outside he turned around and out of Naruto’s grip to gesture to the building they were just in.
“This is the Clan Affairs Building, and as the name implies, all clan affairs are taken care of here, making it one of the most important buildings in the entire compound, you’ll probably be in here a lot,” Yamako explained in a resigned, matter of fact way.
“Hmm, so essentially if I wanted to paint any building a new interesting color, this is the place,” Naruto smirked devilishly, leaning back with his arms behind his head.
“What?! NO!” Yamako screeched, drawing the attention of nearby people. He winced. “I mean, no, don’t do that Naruto-san, please, please don’t do that,” the boy pleaded.
Naruto pouted. “Now, I might have to as apparently you ‘helping me in any way possible’ doesn’t apply to asking you to leave the san off of my name, but I bet if I asked for some paint you could do that~” the Uzumaki teased mercilessly.
Yamako ground his teeth together and clenched his hands into fists.
“N-N-Naruto…”
“Yes~?” The Uzumaki sing-songed.
“Please don’t paint the building,” Yamako gave off the impression of a tea kettle with the steam that seemed to be pouring from his red ears.
Naruto smiled softly.
“Sure, Yamako! Now where to next? This building is making me depressed,” Naruto grinned brightly at the kid, and ruffled his hair.
Yamako moved a hand to where Naruto’s hand had been and a small embarrassed smile broke through his anxiety.
While Naruto had been able to see a little of the compound walking to the clan affairs building it was mostly residences that dotted the way to the heart of the compound.
In the heart, where the clan affairs building was, there was a river that ran through the center of the compound and was surrounded by a number of other buildings.
There was a dojo where shinobi could learn what was the Senju style of taijutsu, and Senju style kenjutsu.
A blacksmith crafting kunai, shuriken, and various lengths of swords could be found next to it, and an armorer next to them.
A section of medical tents set up opposite of them.
On opposing sides of the river separate schools focusing on earth style and water style respectfully had their own fenced in yards where shinobi could be seen practicing.
It was there that Naruto learned they had multiple training grounds sprinkled all over the compound.
Naruto remembered the training ground that Tobirama had taken him to the day before and wondered if it was a private training ground akin to his private bath.
Was he so closed off from the rest of his clan that he even trained alone? The fact that Yamako had been surprised that Naruto used the man’s name without honorifics was already a sign that yes, he was in fact closed off even from his own clan.
Why?
The older version of the future didn’t seem closed off when they were fighting side by side. In fact he had no qualms over laying into Naruto about certain jutsus being his invention or even complimenting his abilities.
What changed between now and then? Did founding Konoha really calm him down that much or was it something else? Whatever it was, Naruto guessed he would have a front row seat to seeing that change first hand.
Soon after Yamako showed Naruto the more domestic buildings; a bath house, a sake brewer, an izakaya, food stalls, and even a seamstress. All of them had dedicated buildings and areas.
While Naruto wasn’t surprised he couldn’t hide his wonderment of all that he was seeing.
Yamako interpreted the expression as surprise. “We’re one of the biggest clans in the Land of Fire, so unlike some other clan compounds we have the shinobi power to have civilian-esque amenities,” he boasted with no hidden delight, clearly proud of his clan.
“Is everyone trained as shinobi?” Naruto asked, because the way Yamako worded that sounded like everyone in the compound could fight.
“That’s right, as an Uzumaki that may come as a surprise to you, but yes everyone is trained to fight in case of wartime, which is much more often than not,” the kid answered with a hint of melancholy. “Kunoichi who become mothers however get forced to retire early,” he continued quieter.
It was there that Yamako got a weird look in his eyes as he gazed far away.
“Hmm, that’s dumb. Some of the strongest fighters I have ever met were kunoichi. I can still feel their punches,” Naruto intoned as he remembered Sakura and Tsunade.
That’s right. Wasn’t Tsunade the granddaughter of Hashirama? Kinda weird to think about now.
“Really?” Yamako asked with an awestruck expression.
“You betcha! They would infuse their fists with chakra causing devastating destruction with a single punch! Whole mountains, just boom! Gone!”
Yamako broke into laughter. “No way, Naruto, you have to be exaggerating,” he said, with the biggest smile Naruto had gotten out of the kid so far.
“I’m not! One of them even almost broke my jaw from the force of her punch,” Naruto complained, remembering one of Sakura’s harder punches. Looking back he probably deserved it, although he didn’t remember what it was he did.
Maybe he should have paid better attention.
Making their way to the main gate it was then that Naruto realized the entire compound was completely surrounded by a large wooden barricade. Calling it a fence felt silly, but calling it a wall also seemed wrong.
Two towers on either side of the wooden gate stood just tall enough to see over the top.
“Aira!” Yamako yelled out, at one of the towers.
Pale pinkish brown hair in messy twin buns peaked out and then in a flourish a girl approximately a year younger than Naruto appeared before the duo.
“Hey, Yamako, need to head out?” Aira asked, giving Naruto a quick once over before moving to focus on Yamako.
“Nope! Just here to introduce you two,” Yamako began, bringing up a hand to gesture to Naruto. “Aira, this is Naruto of the Uzumaki clan, he’s here to help out Mito-sama, and the clan,” moving his hand to gesture to Aira, “Naruto, this is Aira, she’s my bestest friend,” Yamako said with a wide smile.
The kunoichi moved her hands to her hips and gave Naruto a full look over, before circling around him.
“Nice to meetcha’,” Naruto said, keeping an eye on her as she moved.
Standing before Naruto again she had a rather obvious unimpressed look.
“You would think the Uzumaki would send someone a little less dense looking, right Mako?” Aira said, snickering behind a hand.
“Aira! That’s not a nice thing to say,” Yamako admonished.
While the words didn’t actually affect Naruto, he couldn’t help feeling like the teen before him needed a swift kick in the ass for the comment.
“I’ll show you dense,” Naruto said, getting into a taijutsu position.
Aira moved in kind. “Now we’re talking! Bring it on Uzumaki!”
They stood face to face in position, a full beat went by, before a leaf from a nearby tree fell between them.
Aira moved first as she dropped down to kick at Naruto’s legs.
Reacting, Naruto leapt over and backwards, kicking the ground with his foot as it touched the ground to launch himself forward, his fist connecting with the kunoichi, who managed to block with her arms at the last second.
She flew backward, skidding a good distance away, as Naruto, annoyed, tried to push back the sleeves of the kimono he wore.
This wasn’t a fair fight! The stupid kimono was too long and the sleeves kept getting in the way! He had nothing to tie it back with to make his movements easier.
In the corner of his eye Naruto noticed a man with a long face and short cropped hair drop down to stand beside Yamako, as the poor kid panicked at their sparring.
“What’s wrong, Uzumaki? Am I too fast for you?” Aira taunted, as she dodged two punches in a row before following up with an uppercut that almost clipped Naruto’s chin.
“I have fought faster,” Naruto gritted out, as his sleeve once again got in the way. “It’s just this damn! Stupid! Kimono is getting in the way!”
Aira jumped away and held her stomach as she doubled over in laughter. “Yeah, I can see that you’re having some trouble,” she said, as she wiped a tear from her eye.
Walking over to Naruto she held out a hand to him.
“Naruto, I’m Aira,” she said, a smile pulled at her lips, softening her face.
Ah, finally someone who didn’t abide by all of the stuffy protocol.
Naruto took the hand, and shook it. “Aira, I’m Naruto.” He grinned back wide.
The nearby man cleared his throat. “Aira-kun,” he began, pointing at the watchtower with his thumb. “It’s time to go back to work.”
“Oh shit! Yes, sir.” Aira bowed low to him before she shunshined back up.
The man turned to both Yamako and Naruto, and bowed before he followed after her.
Beside him, Naruto could feel the nerves coming like waves from Yamako.
Grabbing him by the neck he roughly ruffled Yamako’s hair.
“That’s a good friend you have there, Yamako,” Naruto exclaimed with a wide grin, as he swallowed down a pang of jealousy. What he wouldn’t give to have his friends back.
“Thank you, Naruto,” Yamako murmured with a blush.
Pulling Yamako along, Naruto began walking back towards where he remembered food to be. “Now let’s go grab some lunch, all that exercise has me hungry.”
“Eh, but don’t you need to return to Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama?”
“Erk. A-ah I’m sure they don’t need me for lunch, besides you’re not done showing me around right?”
The last thing he wanted was to get lectured right now. Especially since he’s sure he would get an even longer one if Tobirama knew he had picked a fight with some kunoichi, granted she did start it, but he could already hear the man; ‘that does not mean you should allow yourself to be taunted to such a degree and blah blah blah’. He could already hear the man’s deep voice going on and on like he had yesterday about roles and systems, and to be honest Naruto had tuned him out after a while that he hadn’t heard what else the man had been saying.
“Uh, Naruto,” Yamako said, pulling at Naruto’s sleeve.
“Hm?”
“We passed it,” he said, with a nervous smile from where Naruto still hadn’t let go of his head.
“Oh.”
𖦹
Tobirama took a deep breath to cool his face and kept an impassive mask up as his brother laughed at the audacity of Naruto.
Even a couple of the elders were laughing.
That fact had him quirking a brow in frustration. Father would be turning in his grave if he knew such a thing was possible.
Once the laughter dissipated into polite coughs, did Hashirama take on his role as head again.
“Please accept my apologies regarding Naruto’s behavior on his behalf,” Hashirama said, bowing slightly.
Tobirama approved as it didn’t leave any openings. The bow wasn’t low, and he didn’t explain away Naruto’s behavior with excuses, but he still respected their time enough to apologize in the first place.
Luckily for them it was Miki who responded before the others.
“Ha! It was cheeky behavior but not too uncommon of the Uzumaki, especially of those not raised among court politics,” she said, hiding her smirk behind her fan.
Miki was one of their allies, and in full support of Hashirama’s village plan. Even if she came across boorish at times, it was her sharp tongue and wit that had saved Hashirama in the early days of him taking the position as head of the clan.
Her husband, Take, was more of a centralist as he didn’t believe Hashirama would achieve it in his lifetime, or even his son’s lifetime.
Emi, was far on the side not believing it was ever possible, she conceded that they could achieve something akin to the Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi alliance, and was thus very supportive of their alliance with the Uzumaki, but something like the idea of a village made her scoff.
Most days the chamber was filled with arguing between Miki and Emi.
However it seemed when it came to Naruto there was a shocking agreement between the two.
“The young man has been on the road for days, I’m sure, Hashirama-kun, we can forgive his behavior this time,” Emi said, clearly trying to sound admonishing, but it didn’t quite cover up the fond tone she had in the beginning.
“Yes, long days on the road can make one forget themselves, however,” Ketsuno, the oldest of elders began as he stroked his beard, “he seemed rather familiar with Tobirama-kun,” he said, with a piercing look at Tobirama.
Tobirama held still as his muscles coiled tightly, and he continued to keep his face straight.
Dammit Naruto!
“Ahaha, I know right? Such unlikely friends, but when they found something in common, surprisingly they hit it off,” Hashirama smiled and lied brilliantly.
“Something in common, eh? And what would that be?” Ketsuno asked, directing the question at Tobirama, not allowing Hashirama to cover for him this time.
Luckily he didn’t have to lie here, and it was an easy question to answer even though his insides swirled with apprehension.
“Naruto also enjoys inventing jutsus, sir,” Tobirama said, feeling like a child who had been caught stealing a kunai to practice with after being explicitly told he wasn’t ready.
The old man coughed out a laugh and smiled victoriously. “I see.”
The action didn’t sit well with Tobirama. What the hell did the old man ‘see’? There was nothing to see about that.
Swallowing down his irritation Tobirama paid close attention as the subject changed to other important administrative matters.
And finally after what felt like hours the elder council ended.
The only ones remaining were Tobirama, Hashirama, and Dangai, a thirty-two year old shinobi who had been forced to retire a few years back after a run in with some shinobi in the land of wind that had shattered the bones in one of his legs. It never did heal right.
“Well, that didn't go as bad as it could have,” Dangai said, after blowing out a breath. “However, a little warning would have been nice, I’m never going to hear the end of it from my old man about the Uzumaki you have unleashed upon our compound,” he complained.
“I’m sorry Dan, we would have, really, but it was kind of sprung on us too,” Hashirama said, flopping onto the ground.
Tobirama moved to rest an elbow on one of his knees, as one of his hands moved to massage one of his ankles. Despite what people said and thought he didn’t enjoy sitting in seiza either, he was just better at hiding the discomfort.
Silence permeated the room for a few moments.
“I have never seen an Uzumaki with such vibrant blond hair before, it’s always been varying shades of red. Are we sure the Uzumaki haven’t sent us a member of a different clan?” Dangai questioned.
Tobirama moved to massage his other ankle. “Naruto is an Uzumaki, I verified that myself,” he responded.
It was impossible to fake that unique feeling of Uzumaki chakra. Unfortunately Dangai never achieved the outstanding prowess of a sensor that his mother Miki had, so he could only question what he can see.
Dangai moved to get up, and when Hashirama moved to help him, he held up a hand out to stop him. Using the wall as a brace he managed to stand up all on his own.
The older man leaned against the wall and stared at Tobirama for a good three whole minutes.
“Tobirama-kun, is this Uzumaki Naruto your lover?” Dangai asked bluntly.
“No,” Tobirama answered, moving to meet his eyes.
Why did everyone assume there was something going on between Naruto and him? Naruto wasn’t even interested in men if his reaction to Rima the day before was any indication.
Dangai raised a skeptical brow.
“Naruto is not my lover,” Tobirama reiterated clearly.
He watched as Dangai moved to meet Hashirama’s gaze. The two shared a silent conversation that Tobirama wasn’t privy to.
“I see,” Dangai said afterwards.
Tobirama grit his teeth behind a facade as yet another person said ‘I see’ without Tobirama understanding what they were referring to.
What was there to ‘see’? The whole thing was starting to grate on his nerves.
At this rate he would rather be locked in the house with Naruto, being antsy and annoying, than deal with everyone being cryptic and strange.
The retired shinobi pulled out a scroll and tossed it at Hashirama who caught it without even looking.
“Hashirama-sama, Tobirama-sama, mission details are within that scroll, you know where to find me should you need me,” he said, using his crutches as a necessary aid, so that he could bow to them before leaving the room.
Dangai was another of their allies within the clan, who truly believed in Hashirama’s dream. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had been forced into retirement he would surely have been promoted to commander. It was a shame such a great shinobi could no longer battle.
Hashirama spared no time opening up the scroll to look over the details.
His brother sighed deeply.
“What is it, Anija?” Tobirama had an idea on the kind of mission it was if his brother was sighing so deeply over the details.
“It’s a mission for you,” he said, handing over the scroll.
Plucking the scroll out of his hands Tobirama’s eyes flitted across the words quickly.
The mission was of the assassination variety.
It didn’t come as a surprise to the younger Senju as Dangai had referred to Tobirama as well when handing it over.
The old shinobi was the one in charge of receiving clan requests, and within a small circle it was well known that all assassinations went through Tobirama, as he was the one to handle them. There were a rare few who also handled them but it was Tobirama’s specialty aside from his known hobby of inventing jutsus and seals.
“It shall be done, Anija,” Tobirama said.
“I wish it didn’t have to be…” Hashirama mumbled.
“You know as well as I do, that if we don’t accept these kinds of missions then the ene-” suddenly Naruto only referring to the their future adversary as ‘the enemy’ came to mind, and a split second decision was made, “then the Uchiha will get the missions and we will lose out on the revenue, these are the times that they are before we can achieve our dream and begin filtering out such barbaric actions,” Tobirama declared.
His brother turned towards him with a renewed look of awe, and before it could happen, Tobirama moved away and avoided the hug he knew he was about to receive.
The older Senju brother rubbed at his chin that hit the floor as he sat up.
“Tobira, be safe, and may the river guide you home,” Hashirama said, a proud smile adorning his face.
“And may the trees fortify you, Hashira,” Tobirama replied, indulging his siblings' sentimentality.
Such words weren’t common between them but some time between now and when their father died, Hashirama started a tradition of comparing Tobirama to a river or referring to them in the same sentence.
The first time he did it Tobirama point blank called him and the notion ridiculous. He kept up with it though and eventually Tobirama replied in kind; when he learned he would be an uncle.
Such nostalgia and emotion had to be put away in a box however, as Tobirama moved to open his closet at home, and instead of his usual blue armor, he began putting on a lighter, more stealthy gray armor.
Despite the many times he cleaned it, there were a few spots stained by blood.
Slotting his sword on his back, he moved to grab, instead of his usual happuri, a white mask with red markings that matched the ones he had tattooed on his face.
Placing it underneath his armor he grabbed all of his other components. Extra scrolls, sealing papers, self-inking brushes, kunai, shuriken, and wire.
Spreading out his awareness he made sure not to run into anyone on the way out of the house, and instead of going for the secret exit out of the compound he felt for the pinpoint location of a hiraishin seal just outside of the compound seals.
In the process he caught the seal that he had almost forgotten that he placed on Naruto. The Uzumaki was at one of the food stalls with Yamako.
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I entrust his wellbeing to you
Tobirama inhaled and it caught. He wondered for a moment if Naruto was enjoying himself.
Swallowing it down, he ignored the thought, placed the mask on his face and used hiraishin to leave the compound completely undetected.
Now wasn’t the time to think of such things, there was a mission to complete.