The elemental countries were in turmoil. The rumor that travelled across them was both terrible and wonderful, depending on the point of view.
Itachi Uchiha, heir and prodigy of the Uchiha clan, feared for its doujutsu, the Sharingan, in one night had eliminated his whole clan. The only survivor, besides Itachi himself, was his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha.
The yondaime hokage, Konoha's yellow flash, was forced to go back to his village from the capital where he had met the fire daimyo.It seemed that, in less than eight hours, he had completed the three days' journey from the capital to Konoha.
It was a reminder to some of the other countries that, even if they lost one of their most powerful clans, the leaf ninjas still shouldn't be underestimated.
However the fact was that that Konoha was weakened. That, coupled with an insistent Jiraiya that reminded her of her promice, forced a reluctant Tsunade to pack her things to head back to her birth village.
Naruto, now a six year old boy, seemed to be really excited.
Personally Tsunade didn't know what to do with him: it was good to see a change from his lazy and laid back attitude, but, on the other hand, last time he had been like this was when Jiraiya had the bright idea to give him a sweet with a high content of sugar.
All to make him promise not to tell her he had brought him to the onsen.
The females' part of the onsen.
That day had been hell, he even managed to take Jiraiya's pants, leaving him in his boxers in the middle of the streets without him noticing until a woman slapped him screaming.
None of them had been able to figure out how he did that, but they agreed that giving him sugar was taboo.
Apart from the sugar rule, Naruto had grown into a fine ninja-in-training too.
It took a lot of patience and time for him to learn chakra control, and he still had the tendency to use loads of it, enough to compensate his lack of control with raw power, but Tsunade wouldn't have that.
She did everything in her power and in the end she managed to teach him to control his chakra.
As for theoretical knowledge, he proved to be like the sponge he still carried around.
The two women knew it was ridiculous, but neither of them could bring themselves to take it away from him.
However Naruto wasn't the only one who had made progress.
Tsunade herself made a huge improvement getting rid of her fear of blood.
It had happened two years previously, when a group of missing-nin attacked them.
After Shizune defeated one of them, his so called comrades cut off his head, saying he was a weakling.
Tsunade had frozen at the bloody display, but then one of the missing-nin just had to look at Naruto and say "Don't worry little boy, I'm sure we won't have to kill you too, someone would certainly buy you."
Strangely even then he wasn't really scared, just worried by his mother's trembling. He didn't know that it was no longer because of the blood, but out of rage.
He then looked at her and said his first word, "Mom?"
Hearing it melted her heart. It was also that moment her hemophobia disappeared completely and she demonstrated exactly why people didn't mess with one of the densetsu no sannin. Smart people at least.
The group of two women, a pig and a child were nearing Konoha's main gate. "Naruto," Tsunade suddenly spoke up, "Put on your goggles."
He did as he was told, hiding his eyes from view.
The slug sannin didn't want people to think he had a doujutsu or to find out of his bloodline limit.
Although Konoha didn't despite them like Kiri (quite the contrary, actually), she would not take the chance of the other clans using him for their own benefit, like a tool in their damned political games.
Her train of thoughts was interrupted when they reached the gate.
Two chuunin were checking people's passes and documents, but she noted that Naruto was staring at a tree nearby.
And surely enough, she too spotted the anbu hidden there.
It would have been foolish not to raise the security, given the weakened state of the village after the loss of the entire police force (the police was formed by the Uchiha).
She wasn't really surprised that her little boy had seen him, his stealth was probably as good as an anbu's if not better, and both she and Shizune had noticed that he was always aware of his surroundings.
On top of that his senses were sharper than normal. How much sharper exactly, though, they weren't entirely sure.
Tsunade ruffled Naruto's hair, something he still enjoyed every time she did, and spoke just loud enough to be heard by both the chuunin and the anbu, "Naru-chan, I've told you it's rude to stare. Leave that poor anbu in the tree alone."
Shizune slapped her forehead groaning. Why? Why did Naruto's prankster personality rub off her sensei?
The leaf nin however didn't have time to react when a new voice came from just behind the gate, "Tsunade, you've been here for less than a minute and you're already trying to cause problems? I would have expected that from Naruto, not you."
Shizune sighed in relief and would have hugged the toad sannin if she didn't know what that pervert would try.
She really didn't want to be in trouble with the anbu.
"Jiraiya-sama," the chuunin greeted him. The anbu nodded his head but didn't move from his spot on the tree.
Tsunade was a little less formal, "Shut up, moron. Are you here to accompany us to the hokage tower?"
"Of course, sensei is there as well and I wouldn't miss his face when he sees you or our little thief even for my precious research."
"I'm honored..." The sarcasm in Tsunade's replay was missed by the white haired ninja.
"You should. Coming here I've seen some very lovely ladies head for the hotspri-"
He was sent flying towards the hokage tower, courtesy of Tsunade's punch.
They proceeded to follow him walking through the village,
Tsunade had to seize Naruto by the scruff of the neck to prevent him from running all around the place.
She hoped it would be a quick thing, they come, say hi to the old man and Minato, sign the papers to officially adopt Naruto, and then they could go to her grandfather's cottage.
No matter what, she still not liked being here. The cottage, even if inside the village, was at least surrounded by the forest, partially isolating it.
Meanwhile the famous yondaime hokage was in his office whining to Sarutobi, the old third hokage.
"I'm too young to sit behind a desk doing paperwork..."
"I'm sorry kid, but I was too old to do that," Sarutobi teased earning a slight glare from his successor which merely caused him to chuckle.
The blond hokage sighed in resignation, "At least we're getting over the Uchihas' loss.
Although I must admit I'm worried about young Sasuke's mental health.
And even Kakashi was depressed.. You know, I think this reminds him of when Obito died.
Hopefully Rin will be able to help him."
"Mh-hm," Sarutobi nodded while lighting his pipe, earning a scowl from Minato.
However he didn't have the time to reprimand the older leader when he sensed someone approaching his office at high speed.
A couple of seconds later his sensei came through the window, destroying it in the process.
Sarutobi watched this with wide eyes, "Now, why didn't that happened when I was doing paperwork?"
The blond hokage ignored him "Sensei, what happened? Are you all right?"
"Uh-hu. Damned woman, there was no need to be so violent!"
Minato looked at him perplexed, while the old sandaime let a nostalgic smile appear on his face, "You know Jiraiya-kun, it's been ages since something like this happened. Last time it was Tsunade-chan's punch that sent you flying through a wall."
"Of course," said a new voice from the threshold, "That idiot asked me if I wanted to have 'dinner' with him at his place, adding that I could stay and spend the night."
The hokage, old and new, turned towards the door to see a young-looking blond woman there, followed by a dark haired girl who was holding a little pig.
Sarutobi stared at her in disbelief, "Tsu-Tsunade-chan? Is that you? My god, you haven't aged at all! But what are you doing here? I thought you said you would have never come back?"
"I changed my mind. Well, kind of. I'm going to stay in my grandfather's old cottage, that way I won't necessarily have to see this village all that much."
While this was going on, Minato was looking the other girl, he was sure he had seen her before.
When she noticed this she smiled at him, "Min- I mean hokage-sama, it'sgood to see you again."
"Shizune? Wow, I haven't seen you since we were just kids, trying to find ways to get Jiraiya beaten by Tsunade. Well, it was more like me doing that, and you trying to convince me it was a bad idea..."
Their conversation was cut short by an angered blond medic, "DAMMIT YOU ALL, WHY CAN'T YOU KEEP THOSE FUCKING SMUT ORANGE BOOKS HIDDEN? AND NARUTO, PUT DOWN THAT PIPE!"
It was only than that Minato and Sarutobi noticed a child around six years old seated on the hokage's desk, with the hokage's hat, Sarutobi's pipe and an orange book whose ownership would definitely be denied by everyone.
He had short spiky orange hair and three whisker-like marks on each cheek. His eyes were hidden by dark goggles and he was wearing black ninja sandals, orange pants, and an orange sleeveless jacket with a black t-shirt underneath and white wristbands.
Aside from the fact that both the hokage were distracted, it was still unbelievable that neither of them had sensed him until now, Sarutobi in particular couldn't grasp the fact that he had his pipe, he had been sure that it must have been in his mouth when he took it.
His next two words however were an even bigger shock, "Hai, kaa-san."
Sarutobi's face while Tsunade took a seat and her son went to stay on her lap made Jiraiya's day.
When he got a hold on himself he smiled brightly at them, "This was certainly unexpected, I'm really happy for you Tsunade-chan. I take it you're back to raise your son in the village?"
"First things first, sensei. I'm here to sign the proper documents to officially adopt him, then yes, he'll grow up as a Konoha ninja."
"What? More paperwork?" the yondaime asked sadly.
"Shut up and find those documents brat, didn't that idiot of Jiraiya teach you anything?"
"If you're talking about that 'do what a woman says without questions' thing, then I'm sorry, never learned that well," he answered with a grin.
"Are you kyoufu's student?" Naruto asked curiously, interrupting the two.
"Kyoufu? Who..? Ah, Naruto, now I remember. You named him after sensei's book, right Tsunade-san?"
"Yes, now would you please find those papers?"
"Sure thing, here they are," the blond hokage gave her the required documents and while she signed them he decided to remind her of another thing, "You do know that, since you're adopting him into one of the major clan of the village, the council will want to meet you two sooner or later, don't you?"
"Sigh- Yes I know, I actually hoped you could help me with that. I really don't want them trying to manipulate him."
"Sure, if you want I'll keep my mouth shut. But in the end it won't change anything. They'll see you in a month, when he enters the academy. Oh well, for now you can go and settle down. I'm happy you're back in the village Tsunade-san, Shizune-chan. And it was nice to know you Naruto-kun."
Tsunade give him a glance over, "You know, it seems you're getting on all right with sensei's old job."
"Yeah, he's the best successor I could have picked." Sarutobi said, "He manages to keep everything under control, even after the Uchiha's massacre."
The young hokage groaned, "That was my most stressful week. Ever."
"Really?" Tsunade said with an evil smile, a clear sign of Naruto's prankster side rubbing off her, "Then as a medic can I suggest you, like I did to Shizune, to mmmph-!"
She was interrupted by her red faced student who covered her mouth and dragged her outside, "Hehe... It's been great to see you again Minat- I mean hokage-sama, Sarutobisama. Bye bye."
The men watched the strange display with confused expressions.
After a minute Minato scratched the back of his neck, "I think I missed something..."