Summer had come, and with it summer break. More students had left the academy, either dropped out or pulled out by their parents, and classes had been merged again. The new classes didn't seem to be spreading the 'clan kids' out as much as they had been, Naruto ending up back with Hinata but also having Kiba Inuzuka as the only other 'clan kid'. Well, either that or Naruto was now being included in the 'clan kids' category to get three total in the class?
He and his parents didn't know enough to decide either way, but not having Sasuke in the class was going to be nice.
Even better, Hinata's father had been requested at the daimyo's palace alongside a couple of the other clan heads for some kind of sensitive investigation that couldn't be left to 'less trustworthy' shinobi and was going to be away for a couple of weeks, giving her more free time to spend with him. Though not without Ko watching over her, which was annoying, and he wasn't allowed to visit to see her little sister Hanabi.
The current plan was for Hinata to come by tomorrow, so Naruto had left a 'paperwork jutsu' clone in his apartment and slipped into the Uzumaki compound. Thinking of the clone that way was part of a bigger prank on Old Man Hokage, or so his father claimed, and he had no problem with that. Especially as there was a scroll labeled that in the training hall that covered the jutsu.
A few more clones were sent to do their normal surface-sticking exercises before Naruto started bouncing slightly. "I'm ready!"
"Okay," his father said from inside of the Tome. "What we're going to teach you today is the basics of making chakra strings. They're most famous for being used by Suna with puppets, but they're a lot more useful than that."
"Properly used," his mother continued. "You can use chakra strings to do a number of things that a ninja wire can be used for, including triggering some kinds of traps. But where they really excel is helping when throwing weapons, or to just move objects around without needing to touch them."
"The ultimate test of whether or not you've mastered them is to stand in the middle of a dirty room and clean it without moving at all, except to clear out beneath your feet of course. But we don't expect you to get to that level anytime soon, for now it's just another chakra control exercise you can use to train up your control."
"There's an easy way and a hard way to learn to make chakra strings," his mother explained after he'd nodded. "I had to use the hard way that involves a lot of concentration."
"We'll try the easy way first," his father continued, the Tome pulsing to indicate that they'd likely added a written version of the lesson to it for him to read. But they didn't prompt him to read it yet. "Made easier because you have plenty of chakra to throw at the problem. Your goal is to reach out with your chakra from a single finger, keeping it connected, to touch the ground with it. Push enough chakra in and you'll likely get something more like a giant rope, which is wasteful, but once you get a feel for it we can dial back the amount you use."
Naruto nodded and focused, gathering chakra into his finger. He pointed down, because that was where the ground was, and pushed the chakra out. A moment later a chain shot out, the blade on the end piercing his foot and making him yell in pain. That disrupted the chain and released his foot from being pinned to the ground, allowing him to jump backwards to cradle his foot. Which obviously had a nasty cut, but the bleeding was already slowing. The Tome's healing effect kicking in a moment later helped too.
He was going to need new sandals though...
"And that's why I needed to use the hard way," his mother sighed. "The chains normally only run in the girls of the family."
"I think that the, er," his father started, obviously pausing to consider his words. "Part of the repaired 'net' on his core activated. Which may mean that others can be granted access to the chains too."
Naruto blinked a couple of times. "Wait, does that mean that Hinata could use them?"
"Maybe," his mother allowed. "We have a theory but would need to test it, and it would take most of a day to attempt."
"Though if it works then she could probably learn Knight Armor too," his father added. "But it probably won't help her much with her reserves."
"Well, she might be able to improve them more than she would have been able to otherwise, but that's about it."
"Either way, you should read the more detailed instructions on chakra strings. We'll work on a plan for training you with the chains as well."
Naruto nodded and opened the Tome up, flipping past all of the other jutsu and exercises to the new one. He never quite knew which page things were going to be on when added as the rest of what was already there moved out of the way for the new pages.
Itachi blinked a couple of times as he realized that Jiraiya had apparently found Tsunade...and somehow convinced her to perform the eye-swap between him and Shisui. "I was under the impression that you were doing your best to remain indefinitely retired."
"He," Tsunade said, jerking her thumb at Jiraiya. "Has apparently been subtly funding my trip the entire time."
"Nothing of the sort," Jiraiya retorted. "I just bought out as much of your debt that I could find. Cost less than I expected, too, since a few of those that lent you money were more than happy to trade for signed copies of my books."
The man ignored the glare that the legendary medic gave him. "Well, you aren't going to be watching me do the actual transfer."
"Of course not. I have seals to check on the walls of the hot springs."
"...right, they did look a little rough around the edges when we arrived."
"Seals?" Shisui asked, obviously confused. Itachi was equally confused, actually, but Shisui had just beaten him to voicing the question.
"Uzushio-sourced anti-dojutsu seals. He maintains them on the walls of every hot spring he's allowed regular access to, which is most of them in the Elemental Nations. I don't think he likes the potential competition, but every kunoichi on the continent over the age of twelve is probably aware. There's an informal agreement to not kill him if he's caught peeping."
Jiraiya scowled. "Using techniques that those in the hot springs have no hope of detecting at all is abhorrent. It isn't fair if you don't give them the chance to detect you, regardless of which side you aim to peek at!" Tsunade and Shizune both blinked and turned to stare at the man, and he scoffed. "You do realize that I don't charge for installing and maintaining those, right? Well, not on the walls of hot springs. The Hyuga clan and several daimyos have me swing through every five to eight years."
"Surely you're paid by virtue of being able to better maintain your little spy network."
"Nah, I see that and the advertising for installing and maintaining them elsewhere as a bonus. I'll go start working on that, let me know when they're ready for the seal to keep anyone from stealing their eyes."
Jiraiya wandered off towards the hot springs, and Tsunade turned to look at them instead. She actually focused on Itachi and raised an eyebrow. "He came to me because you two aren't closely related enough for this to be 'trivial', or so he claimed, but he didn't elaborate on how you managed to awaken your mangekyo. Just that it was 'unusual' and 'inspired' somehow."
"He saw me and his little brother die," Shisui answered.
Tsunade blinked a couple of times. "You and his little brother?"
"Yep."
"You're standing here, very much alive."
"I might have used one of my once-a-decade-per-eye powers on him."
"It was very traumatic," Itachi deadpanned. "You might want to check if his arm was healed properly after I broke it, since he didn't warn me ahead of time."
"You wouldn't have reacted properly if I'd warned you and you're the one who convinced me to use it from both eyes so that I couldn't be ordered to use it on either side of the potential coup."
"True. You never did explain what your second use was, though."
"That was the second use. The first one was the night before while I was drunk. I, er..."
Itachi sighed. "What did you do?"
"I don't fully remember, but I think it's why Izumi stopped attending the clan meetings?"
"You'll both get a full checkup while you're here," Tsunade said while Itachi was trying to process that. "The pervert is definitely paying me enough for that."
"Good morning," Naruto greeted Hinata and Ko as he waved them into his apartment.
"Hello," Hinata said. Shyly, with the finger-tapping, which to Naruto meant that they'd not spent enough time around each other lately.
"I was asked to apologize on behalf of the Hyuga clan for your not being able to visit the compound," Ko said, bowing. "Hiashi is somewhat paranoid about Hanabi's safety right now and the elders are...touchy about you in general. You can probably expect an invitation at some point after he's returned and can personally supervise."
Naruto nodded, as that was basically what Hinata had said the reason likely was. "I don't mind, though it would be neat to see inside."
The man then sighed. "With that formality out of the way, I'd like to be clear that I was tasked with checking how secure your apartment is during the past few weeks. I apologize, but in the process I spotted a couple of things, and one of them Hinata spotted as well and asked me about."
Hinata nodded, but just blushed instead of explaining, so Naruto focused on Ko. "What kinds of things?"
"The big one is that at different times we either spotted you and a clone or two of your clones at the same time with our byakugan. Your chakra and chakra network are both distinctive, especially when visible twice at the same time, and your disguise technique is impressive but does not hide that from our eyes." The man obviously noticed that Naruto's eyes had widened, as he held a hand up. "I have not told anyone else, even other Hyuga, and will not reveal it or any other of your secrets I learn without your permission. Hinata only asked me because she wasn't sure how it was possible. I would not have brought it up at all normally, but I want to ensure that you're aware that most do not have enough chakra to use the jutsu."
"The scroll I found reads your chakra and won't open unless you have enough."
Ko blinked a couple of times. "You...learned it from a scroll? Not from the Hokage? Who in the village knows that you can perform that jutsu?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "You two? Maybe other Hyuga that noticed, if your eyes can spot that the clones are me..."
"Is the scroll at least in your family's compound?" Naruto nodded, and Ko sighed. "That explains why nobody noticed it." He then frowned slightly. "Sorry, that's the other thing I noticed, though I had to double-check to confirm that the shrine you're probably using a clone to clean up is owned by the Uzumaki. One of the branch family girls tried to look after the shrine a few years ago, but couldn't open most of the doors, so imagine my surprise when I saw what I suspect was your clone doing so. It was actually the next day, while checking for observers before approaching to find out if she was an Uzumaki, that I noticed what I believe was the real you slipping through while your clone was out front. Given the positioning of the shrine and the known entrances to the Uzumaki compound, boarded up and blocked as they are, it didn't take much to determine that there's likely a hidden entrance."
"Apparently the anti-dojutsu seals on the shrine are failing," Naruto heard his mother grumble from the Tome.
"Why are the other ways in blocked?" Naruto asked.
Ko flinched. "I...have suspicions, and those that did so may not even remember doing so, but it is not my place to voice them. That said, it may be dangerous if you're the only one who can get into the compound. Should you be injured there then nobody will be able to reach you, doubly so if they do not know that you're there at all."
"He has a point," Naruto's father commented. "Hiruzen and Kakashi should still be able to enter, but if they don't know that you can get in then they might not think to look there for you."
"What do I do?" Naruto asked.
"We think you can trust Ko with the 'lesser' secrets we discussed," his mother answered. "And making it so that both of them can enter the compound themselves is easy enough. You can even show Ko the scroll with the instructions if he wants to know how you know."
Mentally nodding, Naruto looked up at Ko. "Then I can let you in to find me if I get hurt."
Ko shook his head. "While I'm flattered that you trust me, you should take more time to think about things. Further, going down to the shrine will draw attention."
Naruto grinned and moved towards the corner of the living room. "Getting down without being seen is easy."
"I find myself feeling better about trusting him already," his father commented while Naruto tapped the opening sequence for the hidden exit, getting surprised gasps from the two Hyuga.
Ten minutes later they'd made it into the compound, though Naruto had been confused when Hinata had asked how he'd dropped through the floor. Apparently only those allowed to enter the compound on their own could see the hole and it acted like a solid bit of floor to anyone else. They'd had to go back and look again after he'd added her and Ko to the seals, and both had flinched upon seeing the spike trap at the bottom of the pit.
Ko had recommended having Naruto use clones to let them in whenever possible, before ensuring that he and Hinata both understood how to navigate the path in case they did need to use it.
"So this is where you've been training out of sight," Ko finally said as Naruto was showing them around.
"Mostly," Naruto agreed. He wasn't revealing the extent of his shapeshifting, or his fox features, though did wonder if looking like an animal made it harder to tell that it was him. Then he remembered the disguise variant he'd written down. "Oh! I want to see if Hinata can do something."
He darted off to the training hall, Hinata and Ko trailing behind him, and went over to the shelf of scrolls there. There weren't many unique ones. The copies of the paperwork clone jutsu scroll had fancy end caps, there were a dozen copies of the three academy jutsu that were barely rolled up at all, a few copies of each of the 'three basic' chakra control exercises were at least tied off properly, basic wooden end caps for the twenty copies of the instructions for keying people into the compound. And then there were the three copies Naruto had made of his 'solid and can feel things' disguise jutsu sitting off to the side.
"Did you just take a scroll off of an empty shelf?" Ko asked.
Naruto blinked. "What?"
"The shelves only let actual Uzumaki interact with what's on them," his mother explained.
Ko just shook his head. "Sorry. You obviously won't know how everything works. What do you have there?"
"I made a jutsu by mistake," Naruto said, blushing. "I can't make the disguise jutsu work right, and I did the hand signs wrong and got something better."
"And you want to see if this works for anyone other than you?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you mind if I try it first? You may not even realize that it only works because of your sizable chakra reserves."
Naruto blinked. "What?"
"I may not have enough chakra," Hinata clarified, blushing again when Naruto focused on her. She stuttered a little before continuing. "Ko will be able to see if it's safe for me."
"Oh. Okay."
Naruto held the scroll out for Ko, who took it and opened it up. He then read it, frowning a couple of times. "Your choice of terminology is...well, probably to be expected at your age. Hmm. Those look normal...no, wait, that's mirrored ram, boar, mirrored dog? How in the world did you get the entire sequence backwards? And your description of the chakra flow is...hmmm. Ah, I can see how you came to that conclusion..."
The man examined the scroll for a few more minutes, muttering more things, before shrugging and placing it on the ground next to him. It took him four attempts to manage the technique, two of which went wrong because he'd done the normal versions of the hand seals instead of the mirrored ones, and when he succeeded he appeared to turn into a generic-looking man with brown hair and brown eyes.
Hinata activated her byakugan and frowned. "That..."
"It's solid," Ko said, lightly pulling on the shirt. "Much more chakra-intensive than the normal jutsu, but well within a genin's range. And I can even feel the cloth on the skin of the shell."
"I had some that I couldn't feel through," Naruto offered. "But this one felt the most useful."
"Definitely. Hinata, would you strike me with the Gentle Fist? I want to see if this dispels as easily as the normal disguise jutsu."
Hinata looked nervous, but after a moment performed some hand signs to activate her byakugan. Nodding to herself, she gathered chakra into her right hand and tapped the man. He flinched as the chakra was released from her fingers, but the disguise wasn't affected. "Er, did I do it right?"
"That was fine, you even closed off one of my chakra points. This is definitely an improvement over the normal disguise technique, though not one that I'd recommend be used in the academy." He crouched down and picked up the instructions. "But I think we should sit down and rewrite this a little before having Hinata try it."
It didn't take long to do so, and Naruto admitted that Ko's choice of words sounded better. The man had also had Naruto write down that it could be used for partial transformations, after changing just his eyes. Hinata then read the first draft of the new instructions while Naruto made better copies. It took her longer to get it right, and she made herself look a lot like Yoko. But with blond hair instead of red.
Ko reached out and lightly tugged on the longer blond hair Hinata now appeared to have, causing the girl to flinch in pain. He then activated his byakugan, frowning. "Hmmm. Not quite what Naruto uses? Or perhaps it just works differently on clones, since they're already chakra constructs." He shook his head. "I suppose that doesn't matter, and maybe I'm heading down a path of prying into other secrets. Naruto, I think you do have a decision to make regarding this jutsu."
Naruto blinked, though heard his parents groan as though they'd forgotten something. "What?"
"You can either claim this as a clan technique that you have allowed myself and Hinata to learn, or you can officially register it for others in the village to be able to use. In the latter case, you can do so for the general jutsu pool or offer Anbu first dibs. The Anbu will pay more, but will also keep it more secret. For particularly useful jutsu they even offer training in another jutsu in exchange on top of the money paid. Or if you want it to benefit normal shinobi more you can go with the smaller payout of the general pool."
"Oh."
"Getting on the good side of the Anbu commander is always a good idea," his father finally commented. "And they should be able to teach you how to disguise your chakra to make it harder to be spotted. I, er, never actually bothered to learn that one."
"Nor did I," his mother admitted.
"Could the Anbu help me make my chakra look different?" Naruto asked, since his parents sounded unsure of things.
"Most likely," Ko agreed. "Put all but one copy away, and then we'll head back up to your apartment. Better to be seen leaving from there. And in a couple of days I might have an offer to officially pay you for a copy for the Hyuga as well."
"Er," Hinata said, eeping a little when they focused on her. She dispelled her own disguise, then looked at Ko. "You still have brown eyes."
The man blinked. "Oh, right. I'm almost guaranteed to have an offer from the Hyuga. I just have to talk to a couple of the more reasonable elders about funds."
Naruto was certain that Hinata had been just as disappointed with the 'public facing' Anbu office. There was a single desk, a restroom, and a filing cabinet full of blank forms. Ko had helped with filling out the single form required, which had then been taken by the Anbu at the desk 'for review'. After Ko had demonstrated changing just his eyes in particular.
"Normally they say that it could be three to four weeks," Ko said once the Anbu had vanished. "That they asked us to wait makes me think they're a bit more excited."
Before any response could be made to that, an Anbu with a white cloak and a dog-like mask appeared in the room. "My apologies for the wait. I understand that Uzumaki 'accidentally' created a solid disguise jutsu?"
"Yep," Ko said. "Still a shell, so you can't shrink down with it, but remarkably useful anyway. He's having a lot of trouble getting the chakra requirements for the illusionary one down."
"Overloading it?"
"That would be my assumption. I didn't ask him to demonstrate."
The Anbu nodded, then turned to Naruto. "Would you mind if I try the technique? If it works for me then I can arrange for several individuals in Konoha to help you learn to disguise your chakra signature."
Naruto just nodded and held out the scroll, the Anbu taking it and obviously carefully reading it. There was an impression of him frowning, as though it didn't seem right, but eventually he nodded and placed it down on the desk. It only took him two attempts before he appeared to be a she. Still dressed in the Anbu gear, but 'she' poked her chest for a moment before nodding. But when 'she' spoke her voice was different too. "Definitely solid...and the scroll said nothing about it affecting my voice."
"I don't think anyone had tried a change that would trigger that until just now," Ko admitted.
"And even if Uzumaki had, there probably wouldn't be any noticeable difference. Right." The disguise was dispelled and a sack pulled out of a pocket. "Definitely worth every ryo. I'll need to check on schedules for your lessons, expect someone to check in with you in the next two weeks."
Naruto nodded as he took the sack. He peeked inside of it, eyes going wide at the amount of money inside.
"Perhaps our next stop should be the bank," Ko mused.
The next day Ko had returned and escorted Naruto to the Hyuga compound, where a group of three elders had observed the use of the solid disguise technique before officially purchasing a copy of the scroll. They then allowed Naruto to meet Hanabi, who was nervous around him at first but then fell asleep in his lap. He hadn't known what to do at that point, but was rescued by Natsu who took the girl to have a nap in her room. He then left, Ko thanking him before going back to help teach the active ninja of the clan the solid disguise jutsu.
Naruto had swung by the bank to deposit the newly acquired money, though he kept out enough to buy new sandals. He then went home to ensure that his account ledger there was updated properly, only to find a box outside of his door. It contained higher-quality sandals than he had before, a book on disguising your chakra, two shrine maiden outfits, an orange dress, and a couple pairs of civilian-style shoes. One that looked like it was meant to go with the shrine maiden outfit and the other that looked like it was meant for the dress.
"Does this mean that someone in the Anbu noticed that I know the paperwork jutsu?" Naruto asked his parents.
"I'd have to say yes," his father replied. "Though the only one they're likely to tell is Hiruzen, and they might not even tell him."
Shrugging, Naruto pulled the Tome out and ensured that it had a copy of the book before deciding to see how the dress looked on Yoko. He'd end up leaving it on while he tried to read the book, needing a lot of help from his parents because it used a lot of words he didn't know. At least until something exploded outside, and his mother had to remind him that he looked like Yoko before he ran out of the apartment to try to see what was going on.
Obito bit back a scream for the fourth time as he appeared out of the kamui dimension, crashing down onto his side due to his right leg having been torn off. He'd crashed a clan meeting earlier, finding them talking about the impending coup. His intent had been to convince the clan to help him find the nine-tails before they killed off anyone who might be in the know. Instead they'd turned around and blamed him-as-Madara for all of the clan's problems and tried to kill him! Even that would've been a mere annoyance, except that Fugaku had surprised them all by having a mangekyo that had been able to counter the intangibility of kamui.
At least that mangekyo wasn't a problem anymore. Obito was confident that he was the only one that made it out of the meeting hall alive, and nobody was going to be collecting eyes from the ashes left behind after the accidental combination of fourteen fire jutsu. He'd taken a quick look before leaving Konoha entirely and lamented the loss of potential helpers, but if they were going to attack 'Madara' on sight then perhaps it was for the best.
Even better, nobody had to know he'd been there at all. He'd left no witnesses alive either, so it was likely that the entire thing would be blamed on an internal dispute that had erupted into all-out fighting.
Now if only he didn't have to worry about learning to use a Zetsu-stuff leg, once he had one attached...
Naruto didn't mind that it had taken the Anbu longer to arrange for him to start training in disguising his chakra, because most of the Uchiha dying in an attack of some kind was definitely more important. Well, Kurama only thought it was important because nobody had 'finished the job', but Naruto wasn't sure why. His parents were of the opinion that the Uchiha weren't as bad as Kurama thought they were, but also admitted that he had good reason to dislike them.
Old Man Hokage had let slip that they had a picture from a camera the attacker hadn't known about but the new clan head Itachi had, but clammed up before saying who had been responsible. And then successfully distracted Naruto with an extra three bowls of ramen and even paid off his tab with Ichiraku's in thanks for sharing his created jutsu with the Anbu.
But once the academy had started up again, also late, Anbu had started meeting with him three times a week to train with him. That the Anbu met Naruto in the Uzumaki compound without being keyed in was apparently a sign of how good they were, though they were setting off the silent alarm seals every time as well. Naruto didn't bother to tell them the latter, his mother insisting that it was better that the man not realize that he was failing to fool all the seals. Those lessons were going slowly, but the man was also helping Naruto learn chakra strings because more control was a good thing.
Naruto had also spent some time wandering as Yoko wearing the clothing he'd been given, and even bought some more for 'her' so as to not be relying on fakes created with jutsu otherwise. In many ways he preferred the way the villagers treated Yoko, as it was at least more consistent than the way they treated Naruto. Hinata easily found him either way, when she was looking, and the first time she'd found him wandering as Yoko had decided to put on a solid disguise to see how differently she was treated.
Hinata had liked the anonymity enough to join him wandering disguised repeatedly. So as to not create too many random faces wandering around he stuck to Yoko, and she stuck to the blond almost-Yoko that she'd dubbed Hikari. This led to a larger wardrobe for Yoko, which ended up needing to be kept in the Uzumaki compound because he didn't have enough room in his small apartment for two wardrobes. Hinata ended up claiming a closet for her Hikari clothing as well, but seemed to have far more fun convincing Naruto to dress up.
Ko found it hilarious, but also pointed out that several chunin that were infiltration specialists had second apartments for their clothing. Followed by getting both of them books on how infiltration specialists operated, even if he suspected that Hinata had the wrong personality for it. Naruto found the sections on body language interesting and his parents agreed that if he was able to get enough control of his chakra then he'd make an excellent infiltration expert.
Followed by adding more to his 'play pranks' training. Specifically, they had him get caught intentionally every so often while looking like someone else as a double-prank to see how well he could imitate the other person. So far it hadn't worked well, but he thought he was getting better.
