Chapter 5: Discoveries Namikaze

Summary: The Chuunin Exams are taking place in Kumo and Konoha shinobis gets some unpleasant home truths in their faces.

AN: Disclaimer in chapter 1.

Review Responses:

- All of you looking forward to seeing Konoha get a smack in the face, this is for you!

- Itachis female/true name Hibara means Fire Rose. Fire (Hi) Rose (Bara)

- STARR notes Naruto is becoming the Rokudaime Raikage, while Hiroshi is the Yondaime Raikage. You might want to go back to chapter 3 (Choosing Loyalties) and read it more slowly. The Godaime Raikage died sealing Nibi into Yugito like the Yondaime Hokage. When that occured Hiroshi took up his old job like the Sandaime Hokage (Sarutobi). The numbering of the Raikages might be off compared to Canonverse but I've already stressed Kumo is OOC, this is an Alternate Reality...

- SunStar Kitsune, you'll definitely meet their children in the next few chapters.

- naruhinafoeverXD, Tsunade will catch up with Naruto but remember things never stay the same... Change is the only Constant in Life.

AN: Happy New Year everyone!

AN: Remember, this story is focusing on Naruto and his relationships, not the Chuunin Exams themselves.

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...ooO Discoveries - Namikaze Ooo...

Uchiha Sasuke frowned as he made his way through the cobbled streets of Kumo. The main avenues were broad and wide, but the side streets were ancient and winding. Kumo was much older than Konoha and it showed. He didn't understand why he was one of the three additional jounins sent for the Kumo Chuunin Exams. Kakashi was here and he also had the Sharingan. Sasuke felt it was a waste of his time especially since the Kumo shinobis were very circumspect about practicing in the public training grounds with all the foreigners and competition around.

He sighed. All three Konoha teams had passed the First Exam, a basic recon and intel gathering exercise. Each team was given a different target, a Kumo chuunin, to trail in a training room designed to mimic several blocks of a small town. They had to observe the target and retrieve specific papers the target either carried on them or secreted in a hidey hole that had to be located.

The Second Exam was being held right now. Distantly Sasuke wondered how many would pass. In his first Chuunin Exams the proctor, Mitarashi Anko, literally cut the candidate pool in half by her choice of test. Each team had either a heaven scroll, or an earth scroll. In order to pass they had to secure the scroll they didn't have from the competition and reach the tower with all members. That meant only half the teams that entered could pass. Sasuke wondered if Kumo would have something similar.

A flash of gold distracted him. Sharingan eyes followed a blonde head covered with spikey untamed tresses. A tall broad shouldered Kumo nin wearing gray camo pants, black combat boots not shinobi sandals, a navy blue turtleneck, a green flak vest, hitae tied around the right bicep.

A girl barely in her teens wearing the Kumo hitae tied around her arm was chasing him.

"Namikaze-sama! Namikaze-sama!"

The blonde Kumo nin stopped and settled into a crouch to look the genin in the eye.

"What is it Katara? Shouldn't you be with your team and jounin senseis?"

Katara shook her head. "Nyoko-sensei and Isshin-sensei gave us the day off. They have things to do for the Chuunin Exam. But I have a message for you!" She held up a folded piece of paper.

Namikaze took the paper and quickly scanned the contents. Quickly he produced a lead pencil from one of the flak vest pockets and scribbled a message on the same paper before handing it back to Katara.

"Katara, I need you to deliver this to the Academy, to-."

"I know, I know! I always do this for you!"

Namikaze grinned and ruffled the girls hair. "That's just your luck having me as a neighbor. You get to be my unpaid courier!"

"But I get to meet all sorts of cool people!" Katara grinned up at the shinobi. "I'll drop this at the Academy before target practice!" And then she darted off.

In an unexpected display of chakra control and strength she launched herself off the stones and towards a building. Her feet impacted with the brick for a brief second before she began running parallel to the ground, along the wall.

The blonde shinobi watched her run before mimicking her actions, only much faster. Before Sasuke could react he had vanished somewhere in the maze of tall buildings.

Namikaze. The name sounded familiar but for some reason the shinobi reminded Sasuke of Naruto. The way his hair shone gold but was forever a spikey mess. The way he treated the genin, trusting her to do what she said even without a jounin-sensei around.

These thoughts were foremost in his mind as he wandered back to the hostel where the party from Konoha had rooms.

"Konichiwa Sasuke-kun! Come on and join us! We are ordering lunch in our Neji-sans room since it has a private sitting room."

Sasuke winced at the cheerful voice of his once genin teammate but reluctantly followed Sakura to the suite Neji shared with Shino. Sasuke had a double room he shared with Kakashi. Sakura was sharing with Kurenai.

Sasuke blinked and looked more carefully. Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, was here along with her assistant Shizune, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Inochi and Nara Shikaku.

"Godaime-sama, you are here early."

Tsunade eyed the last remaining Uchiha. Given there was no trace of Itachi only this one could restore the Uchiha clan, but he showed little inclination to do so. Determined to thwart her opponents she had shot down all attempts at pressuring him into marriage, or at least agreeing to have council selected surrogates bear Sharingan wielding children.

"Yes. I received a report that concerned me. I felt it was best if I came early to prevent any unfortunate misunderstandings."

Sasuke eyed the Godaime. She looked like a cat toying with its prey. "What sort of information?"

She smiled benignly. "Information about an old friend."

Deciding it was best to leave it be Sasuke settled down to serve himself from the group meal ordered by Sakura. Distractedly he listened to the conversation. The Second Exam was to locate and retrieve a chakra tagged scroll within three days, all members had to be healthy and mobile when they left the Badlands and reached the examiners outpost. The catch being there were only twenty scrolls hidden in Kumos Badlands and fifty teams participating. Even so there was no guarantee all twenty scrolls would be found so it was possible that fewer teams than twenty teams could advance to the next Exam.

Sakuras team had failed in the first day. One of her genins had fallen down a gorge and gotten cut up pretty badly needing medical assistance. Currently the injured genin was in Kumos Hospital getting treated, the other two genins were resting. Everyone was hoping both of the remaining two teams would pass.

"Sasuke-kun, you look pretty distracted."

Sasuke jerked and came to the present. He forced himself to relax. "I was thinking."

"About what?" Neji inquired coolly.

Sasuke frowned. "I met a Kumo shinobi in the streets. He looked like Naruto but he wasn't. A Kumo genin called him Namikaze."

The older shinobis, Shikamaru and Sakura stiffened. The Godaimes eyes sharpened. "Are you certain Sasuke? He was called Namikaze?"

Sasuke blinked and frowned. "Positive. She called him Namikaze-sama."

Tsunade began chuckling before laughing softly. "He did it. He actually did it."

Sakura stared at her old teacher. "What do you mean Godaime-sama? Who is this Namikaze? I thought the Yondaime Hokage was an orphan with no relatives."

"Godaime-sama…" Inochi spoke warily. "This is a confidential matter. They have no need to know about-."

"Shut up Inochi." Tsunade smirked, eyes aglow with predatory intent. "Oh no, you are very wrong Haruno. Namikaze Minato had relatives. He had a son he used as a sacrifice to save Konoha from the Kyuubi no Yoko, a child that he used as a jinchuuriki. A son that was scorned and betrayed by Konoha and those he trusted."

Sakura recoiled. Everyone paled.

"Minato-sensei never married. He never had any children." Kakashi spoke slowly.

"You are incorrect. He married Uzumaki Kushina, a shinobi from Uzi no Kuni who joined Konohas ranks as an ANBU. They kept their relationship quiet because Minato had many enemies. When the Kyuubi attacked Konoha he used his only child and heir as a vessel to seal away the Kyuubi. His dying wish was for Konoha to see his son Naruto as a hero."

"But they didn't." Shikamaru could see it all. "They saw him as a monster. As Kyuubi. And they treated him like Suna treated Gaa'ra before the Oto-Suna Invasion. Before he met Naruto and became Kazekage"

Tsunade smiled, a slightly warmer expression. "Correct Shikamaru. I don't know what Sarutobi-sensei was smoking but he fucked up big time. He failed to protect Naruto or honor Minatos last wishes. He allowed the son of our greatest hero to grow up hated and abandoned in an orphanage where he was subject to several assassination attempts by Konoha shinobis and civilians." The younger jounins paled their imaginations readily filling the gaps, what was unsaid. "I don't know how Naruto survived, how he grew up into such a decent young man, but he did. I guess the little kindness he got from Iruka, the ramen stand owners, a few ANBU, Sarutobi… it helped keep him sane." She stared at three faces in particular. "But after being betrayed by the one he called brother, ignored by his own jounin-sensei, used and discarded by his first crush… All these things add up you know.

"After the fifth time the Council denied his application to write the Jounin Exams he decided to cut his losses. He told me he wanted to leave Konoha so I let him, I Banished him so Konohas Council cannot mark him as a nukenin. I wasn't going to force him to stay in a village that hated him." She explained bluntly. "If things continued he would have snapped and gone Gaa'ra on all of us or mimicked Itachi and no one would be able to stop him.

"He is a jinchuuriki you know, trained by the Sannin who taught the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto took down two S-class nukenins from Akatsuki all by himself because the ANBU teams I sent to help him took their own sweet time getting there." She glared at Kakashi who was very pale, his hands clenched and unclenched in an effort to still the tremors.

Shino exhaled sharply. "It explains so much."

Tsunade smiled. "Yes it does. Please, feel free to talk to your parents, your so-called elders about their actions. Only two clans in Konoha supported my requests about Naruto, the Aburames and the Inuzukas. They are the only two that have my full confidence."

Shino bowed his head. "My clan knows what it is like, to be disliked and feared for what we contain, to be seen as freaks."

Shikamaru glared at his father. "I don't see any logic in your actions and choices. In fact I think it is completely illogical and fucked up. If all of Konoha is like this frankly I think I want to be Banished as well!"

Neji inhaled deeply. "As much as I dislike Narutos choice of new village I cannot help but agree with Shikamaru." He stared blankly ahead. "I told him he could never understand the pain and burden of being Cursed by a Seal, by Destiny or Fate or some power he had no control over. How childish of me. What I've borne is but a fraction of what he's endured."

Kurenai glanced at her clenched fist. She had not paid much attention to the jinchuuriki, considered him an irritant of no consequence. How wrong she was! Tears spilled as she realized just what Konoha had done. "We've driven away the Yondaimes son!"

"Yes you have." Tsunade agreed smugly. "And now he has joined Kumo. If we are very lucky none of us will ever face him on the battlefield because that boy doesn't know how to give up." She glanced at Sasuke who paled and looked away.

Sakura shook her head. "We can't just leave it! He doesn't belong here! He belongs in Konoha!" Her clenched fists shook. "We should-."

She cried out as the Godaime backhanded her once apprentice into the outer brick walls of the room, though not hard enough to make a hole through the wall.

Sakura choked as Tsunades strong hands gripped her throat and slammed the pink-haired kunoichi against the wall.

"Listen to me you Bitch! Naruto is off-limits! I said this to the Council and I say this to you and every Konoha shinobi in Kumo. If I find anyone authorizing missions to involving Naruto I will Execute the one responsible. I do not care if it is a mission to assassinate him or to change his mind about Konoha. Any shinobi involved will not receive any medical treatment from Konoha medics, will be subject to one month in ANBU Torture and Interrogation, have his or her chakra vessels sealed for two months, and subject to six months of D-class unpaid missions. Repeat offenders will be killed out right or have their vessels sealed permanently and right now you are tempting me to do just that! I have already enforced this law several times with the full support of the Daimyo so don't push me!"

The Hokage released the kunoichi allowing the younger female to collapse to the floor on her butt like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. Then she turned to glare at the wide-eyed audience. "Stay away from Naruto. Do not approach him. Do not communicate with him. If he chooses to approach you it is a different story. All of you have already done enough to him! Now leave him be!"

The angry Godaime stalked to the exit and literally tore the door off its hinges in her haste to get out.

Shikamaru shook his head slowly. "Shino, could you ask the clerk to send for a carpenter. The damages can be added to the bill."

Then Sasuke spoke. "We only have the Godaimes word that Namikaze is Naruto."

Shikamaru heaved an exasperated sigh. "If you wish to lie to yourself feel free. I for one am almost certain he is Naruto and that he has joined the ranks as a Kumo shinobi." He shook his head. "The tactics used by the Kumo nins… It kind of explains things."

"What do you mean?" Neji was interested.

"You've heard of Kumos growing reputation, right? How their profile has been growing, and they've been receiving big merchant contracts?" Everyone nodded. "Naruto has friends every where, he's traveled all across the Elemental Countries with Jiraiya."

Sasuke stilled. "Tazuna named the bridge in Wave Country after him. The Great Naruto Bridge. And Princess Yuki in Snow Country…"

"Those are the two big ones. Naruto probably has lots more contacts in different countries and towns like Jiraiya. If they trust and like him they trust and like Kumo."

"But what about Kumos increased battle prowess? The new jutsus? Aka Arashi and Hanashin?" Neji wanted to know.

"It could be a multi-pronged plan launched by the Yondaime Raikage. Naruto leads the trade and economic growth while Aka Arashi and Hanashin direct and lead field operations and other unknowns revamp training and R&D." Shikamaru explained. "But we cannot do anything about Naruto. Frankly, I'm not interested in having my chakra vessels sealed so I suggest we concentrate on Aka Arashi and Hanashin."

Everyone reluctantly nodded, though several individuals had their own private plans.

...ooOoo...

TBC…

AN: I know I'm making the relationship between Sakura and Tsunade harsh but remember this Tsunade has lost the joy and 'light' in her life. She only has duty, little reason to feel compassion or understanding.