Chapter 41

"This is way too sudden," Ino muttered as she dashed from tree branch to tree branch on their way to…wherever Naruto was taking them to.

It was only early that day when Naruto had given them a quick greeting with his usual sunny disposition and before they could even mutter a word–much less, engulf him in a multitude of hugs–he quickly tossed them a mission scroll written and signed by the Hokage. It was a non-ranked training mission, giving Naruto permission to abduct them all from their respective sensei's for a week and bring them to a previously specified but undisclosed location where he would whip them all up into shape.

Hinata had been surprised, but made quick plans to pack and inform her father, Sakura somehow seemed to have already known beforehand and already came packed with a storage scroll.

And Sarada…well even with her gloomy facial expressions, Ino had known her for long enough to tell that she was practically jumping for joy. With how Kakashi liked to 'delegate' his team's training and his…frankly lazy method of teaching, Ino knew that Sarada had practically been banging her head against a wall for the past three months.

The moment she'd read the word 'training' and 'Naruto Hagoromo' in the same sentence, she was already running back to inform her mother of her weeklong departure.

Now here they were, travelling north of the village and seemingly heading towards rice country.

"And who's this, exactly?" Ino asked, pointing at the raven haired newcomer.

She was pale faced, extremely pretty, and had less facial expressions in her repertoire than Sarada.

The newcomer met her gaze and tilted her head quizzically.

"My name is Haku Yuki, I am Naruto-sama's friend," She responded, introducing herself to the four.

Hinata nodded and smiled while the other three scowled.

'Yuki…it was the last name that Naruto had used for his Naru Yuki persona…'

It was a thought that went through all of their minds as they stared at the ice-user.

"Don't be cold to Haku," Naruto said, "I want you all to get along with her. She's someone who Kushina and I met during our last mission."

"That's right," Kushina added, "As of this morning, Haku has officially enrolled in our forces as an honorary chuunin, permanent promotion pending on future missions. Anyhow, she's going to be a part of Team Naruto."

All four of Naruto's students almost tripped on their next branches at that.

Little did lady Kushina know, her words only stoked the flames that were burning in their hearts.

Before any of them could respond however, Naruto intteruted them.

"We're here," he called out.

All six of the women in the group looked towards two of the most famous monuments in Konoha.

They've finally arrived in the Valley of the End.

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"I'd like to tell you all why I brought you here today, other than for training of course," Naruto instructed as they all sat down to gather their stamina back from the trip. It had taken them a few hours of full speed running but they'd trained enough with Naruto to know that this was only the beginning of their sessions.

"But first, seeing the tension between you four and my new friend, Haku, I propose we get to know each other through sparring," Naruto said. "Hopefully, with proper, productive spars, the tension will ease."

He eyed Ino and Sakura beneath his blindfold and they both blushed. Naruto most definitely did not forget their cat fight in the middle of the training ground over a year ago. They'd come so far by then but clearly it was still an embarrassing memory for the both of them.

Naruto looked over to Haku apologetically. "You don't mind participating, do you, Haku? No pressure or anything. You can say no if you don't want to."

Haku shook her head. "Not at all, Naruto-sama. It is of no trouble to me."

Naruto smiled and clapped his hands. "Who'd like to go first?"

Unsurprisingly, it was Sarada's hand who shot up first.

Naruto could barely even respond before Sarada dusted off the dirt on her clothes as she stood up and faced the unknown shinobi.

"I will go first," Sarada said, practically brimming with anticipation.

Haku nodded and she, too, stood up as the other girls vacated the area.

"No lethal moves, match goes till one of you surrenders or when I call it, understand?" Naruto said.

"Hm," Sarada responded in her usual manner.

"Hai, Naruto-sama," Haku said.

Naruto sighed but he eventually shrugged. "You may begin."

Sarada didn't know what she expected out of Haku, just that she was a foreign shinobi with enough skills to make chuunin on first glance. This would test her skills against an opponent she was unfamiliar with.

Sarada threw a volley of kunai and shuriken at her as a probe and surprisingly they were met with a volley of senbon in return.

'Senbon?,' Sarada thought, 'Is she a medic nin like Sakura?'

Sarada could only hope that Haku didn't have Sakura's monstrous strength. The pink haired kunoichi's punches hurt!

She dashed in and her speed must've surprised Haku from the way her eyes widened and the way she took a stance.

Whatever technique she would use, Sarada would be ready for. Her sharingan blazed, ready to comprehend the jutsu before it even began.

To her surprise however, her sharingan wasn't able to process it and within half a second, she found her vision obscured with mist.

She leapt backwards but her back collided against something hard and cold. From a glance, they were…ice mirrors?

It only took another half a second before Haku's appearance showed within it, and Sarada could only smile bitterly with the realisation of what was happening.

'Another Kekkei Genkai user…Sakura's going to be mad again.'

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As it turned out, Haku had landed herself right in the middle of the pack with 2 wins and 2 losses against his original students. She did the worst against Hinata, who's doujutsu countered her ice mirrors as the Hyuuga princess could see in every direction. Hinata had also been fast enough to tag Haku with juuken strikes every time she passed by, eventually disabling her enough to impede her speed and made him call the match.

Sakura had been able to simply power through Haku's mirrors and ploughed through them faster than Haku could reform them. Her punches shattered the mirrors into a million tiny crystals and forced Haku to escape before she, too, was broken by the girl's power. In the end, Sakura had managed to force Haku into hand to hand combat and aside from occasionally Hinata, none could match her in that regard. Her win was well deserved.

Sarada, being the first to fight Haku, with little information as she had about the ice user's abilities, had lost due to finding too many senbon embedded in her before she could figure out what to do. Naruto had called the match before the Uchiha heiress would get herself into any worse of a condition, although he was sure that in the long run, Sarada would've somehow willed herself away to victory eventually.

The heiress scoffed, predictably but she understood that Naruto's judgement was always final and disagreeing with him in the middle of a spar would just be…foolish to say the least.

Ino, on the other hand, found herself unable to hijack Haku's body through reflections in the mirrors and in a war of attrition, Haku had outlasted her with her senbon.

All in all, it was a productive session, and all girls now knew of each other's abilities and gained a healthy respect for one another…or so Naruto hoped.

It was when they were getting a water break and relaxing near the river that Naruto had walked up to them…with his blindfold in his hands…and his izanagi seal deactivated.

The first girl that caught sight of him was unsurprisingly Hinata and even with her knowledge beforehand of his eyes, she tensed up in surprise.

"N-naruto-kun…" she muttered and that caught the attention of Sarada. Who was sitting beside her.

"Hm?" Sarada said, as she turned towards her blond mentor.

"Oh, Naruto-kun, what's–" Sarada's words died in her throat as she finally registered his eyes.

Her mouth hung open like a gaping fish.

The other girls, catching on the strange interaction, also looked towards Naruto.

They, too, were left stunned.

Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I suppose that it's time for you guys to decide whether you want to know more about me or not…"

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Naruto sat on a rock as his students sat around him, eager to finally get their sensei to open up.

Amongst the girls, Haku shifted in her seat.

Naruto smiled at her. "It's alright Haku. I trust you to keep this a secret, despite knowing you for the least amount of time."

Haku relaxed as she gave a sigh of relief. "Naruto-sama, I will never go against your wishes."

Naruto rolled his eyes, which to the girl's vantage point, was a sight rarer than anything they'd ever seen. An unblindfolded Naruto was a handsome Naruto. An unblindfolded Naruto with the legendary eyes of the sage of six paths was handsome and…terrifying.

It was like he could crush them if he looked at them.

He probably could but he most definitely wouldn't.

Somehow their mysterious Sensei had become even more of an enigma than before after revealing something of himself to them that they did not know.

"I'll say this once again and I want you all to take it with the utmost seriousness," Naruto said in a tone that made his students sit up straighter, "As i've come to terms with my circumstances, I've also come to realise that hiding those very circumstances of my existence from you all, as my cherished friends, would be an injustice on many levels."

He smiled at them though it was the most fragile smile they'd ever seen on their sensei. Naruto Hagoromo had never once looked so vulnerable as he did now.

"I wish to tell you all about me and how I came to be here…but it is ultimately your choice on whether you want to hear it. Having this knowledge would place you in the same burden that I have. It is heavy but it is a load that I do not carry alone."

Naruto nodded towards Kushina who was on the treelines, observing them. She smiled back and gave him a nod of encouragement.

"Trust me when I say this," Naruto continued, "my story is very much unbelievable and perhaps after hearing it, you may have wished that you–"

"Naruto-kun, with all due respect," Ino interrupted him, "Nothing can convince us to be anywhere but here right now, so please just get on with it already."

Naruto made a peeved face but the nods from the other girls only affirmed Ino's words, much to his pout.

He sighed. "Ugh, ruin my thunder, will you?"

Ino only stuck her tongue out.

"Fine then. Around 18 years ago, I was born to Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze," Naruto said.

Whatever clever quip that Ino was about to say stopped in its tracks and crawled back into her oesophagus.

All of the girls looked at Kushina but she gave them all a sad smile.

"It…it wasn't this Kushina Uzumaki in particular…but another…" Naruto continued.

With that, his story began, and the girls could only hold their breaths as his tale was told. A tale of awe, of suffering, of love, of hate, of hope, of despair, or everything in between.

It was a tale that they could not believe with their own ears.

But it was the tale of Naruto Uzumaki.

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Sarada stared at the waterfall which split Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama as they stared at each other in silence. She still could not process Naruto's retelling of this…Sasuke's life. Would she have ended up like him should she have continued on her path without having met Naruto? Was she still on that very same path at this current moment?

The thoughts chilled her. Naruto had mentioned that Orochimaru's cursed seal had affected Sasuke's mindscape drastically but to what extent was his decisions made on Orochimaru's influence and what was made on his own judgement?

Sarada leaned back against a rock and to her surprise, she felt a hand on her shoulders.

It wasn't Naruto, as she'd suspected, but her teammate, Sakura. Like this…Sasuke, Sarada had treated Sakura with utmost scorn during the academy, when Sakura, too, had a crush on her as the pink-haired kunoichi thought that she was a boy.

Sakura smiled at her. "How are you taking it?"

Sarada shrugged. "It just seems so…unreal."

Her teammate nodded and motioned with her hand to ask if she could sit beside her. Sarada scooched to the left unconsciously and nodded.

For a few moments, they both just stared at the crashing of the waterfall as it collided with the stream below.

"Could you imagine a world where you have to start off your ninja career at 12 or 13?" Sakura asked, her voice holding a solemn edge at the thought of such a notion.

In this world, such practices were banned years ago, and human rights, as flimsy as their enforcement often were, still held strong in each village. It was an agreement where should one village have regularly violated to an extent that was inexcusable, the other villages would have full rights to justly declare war on them. The system wasn't perfect as politics would always find itself getting in the way, seeming to use such an agreement as a tool to coerce weaker nations, but it was still far better than the reality that Naruto had told them of.

Naruto's childhood, his status–or rather, former status–as jinchuuriki, his ninja career, how it started, how it ended so abruptly, he told them almost everything but the very fine details, as that would have taken far longer than it did the few hours of the retelling.

And now, Naruto Uzumaki, or Naruto Hagoromo as he went by, was no longer a mystery to them.

Yet, he still remained just as much of a puzzle as he ever was before. How could someone go through all that he did and still remain so…positive?

Perhaps he was hiding his pain from them. No, he undoubtedly was, seeing how his eyes gained that far away look when he spoke of his time in his world, as well as from his posture, which tried to remain steady yet occasionally shook with…whatever it was that he was feeling.

He was a man that carried the world on his shoulders.

…and he wished for them to help him carry the burden.

This was just…a question…an offer to them on whether they would help him.

As if the answer wasn't obvious.

Sakura and Sarada looked into each other's eyes, both having the same line of thoughts.

They nodded and got up to approach their Sensei once more.

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Naruto's hand was shaking as it held on to Kushina's own. The girls had left to gather their thoughts.

"Do you think they will…accept me?" Naruto asked her, "after knowing what they know now?"

Kushina squeezed his hand. "Of course they will. Have some faith in them."

"But I've lied to them, if not directly," Naruto continued, "I've obscured the truth of my true self all this time, knowing more of them than I have any right to, yet still remaining a stranger all the same."

"If I may, Naruto-kun," A voice interrupted Naruto's tirade and made him freeze up.

It was Hinata.

She gave him a smile that could melt his heart yet he felt so undeserving of it that it made him shiver.

"I know that from your point of view, it seemed a bit…unforthcoming to hold back all that knowledge from us but…the truth is that you were right to do so," Hinata said.

"But–"

"But nothing," Hinata interrupted him once more. Her smile never wavered and she stepped closer and closer to him. "I…I do believe you, you know. Your story. When you told me about your version of Hinata Hyuuga, it described me perfectly had I been in her circumstances."

Naruto looked down.

"Yet you fail to realise that I am not her," Hinata said, catching his attention once more. "Just as lady Kushina is not the mother who birthed you. I am older, wiser, and…bolder, now that you've come into my life."

Naruto swallowed. "And you…are okay with that? With…everything?"

Hinata smiled and nodded. "There's nothing for me to not be okay with, asides from one thing."

"...And that is?" Naruto asked her, almost fearing the answer.

"That you didn't get your happy ending," Hinata said plainly.

"...eh?" Was all the response Naruto could offer.

She smiled in a much more demure way than her usual polite self would.

Then she stepped into his space and kissed him.

For a moment, Naruto remained frozen to the spot.

But then he reciprocated, his tongue invading hers and she almost moaned into his mouth the moment he made contact with her own tongue.

He was also trying very hard to not remind himself that his mother was sitting right there, well within full viewing range of their intimate moment.

He didn't have to worry for long, however, as Hinata separated from him.

Her smile was more confident and dare he say it, contained a hint of mischievousness that the usual polite Hinata would find scandalous on her face.

"Maybe…this is your ending, your happy-ever-after," Hinata muttered under her breath. "If it isn't, I'll try my hardest to make it so."

"You mean we, right?" Another voice said from behind her, tone unimpressed.

"Eep!" Hinata yelped as she leapt on to him, landing on his lap and arms around his shoulder.

They both turned to see the flat look on Ino, Sakura, and Sarada's face. Haku was there, too, but her face remained as stoic as always, though she seemed to have gained a sense of…enlightenment.

"I do hope you're not getting ahead of us again," Sakura added.

Sarada only huffed and blew up at her bangs to get it clear from her eyes. Then she looked at Naruto, treading towards him like she was on a mission.

Before he could react, she grabbed his collar and pulled him in to her own searing kiss.

The other girls watched in stunned silences as this was the first time Sarada had openly displayed her affection for their blonde mentor…not that they didn't know of it.

When she separated from him, she smirked.

"I only have one thing to say to you," she said, "I am not him. I am Sarada Uchiha. I will be better..."

Then she turned away and ran off, destroying whatever calm and collected image she'd tried to create for the past couple seconds.

"Well that was something…" Naruto said a moment later.

The other girls glared at him.

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