Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Disguised Curses	By : Raholea Category: Naruto AU/AR > General Views: 2438 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 50
- 51
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AN: Hey guys. Been a while, and I'm sorry. But hurrah! The move went well and I'm back to writing in my spare time. Finished this chapter and about another 1200 or so of the next one. Dialog - intense chapter, here. Next one so far has plenty of it too. But it's plot- progression and potential 'plot hole' coverage. Bear with me as things progress. (They will! Soon, I swear!)
Angel: thank you for your review and I'm glad you enjoyed the story! I'm very happy you stuck through all 50 chapters and enjoy the ones to come. no worries, I have plans for Neji! he'll be happy in the long run.
As always, R&R.

Chapter 51

“Kakashi- sensei?” The masked man grunted from his place against the tree, face hidden by mask and book. A moment passed before the silence threatened to grow thick and Kakashi peeked over the edge of the paperback, for all intent frowning with his visible eye. Naruto merely stared back. “I want to talk. About Minato Namikaze.”
“No.” Kakashi returned to his book but his tension was the truth, and Naruto could smell the aggression edging into Kakashi’s natural musk.
“He was your sensei. You’re one of the only people who can tell me who he was behind the legends of him being the Fourth Hokage. And I damn well deserve to know what I can about my own father.”
Another span of heartbeats in suspended silence, and then Kakashi snapped his book shut and tucked it into a pocket. “How long have you known?” He turned down the street, and Naruto followed the relaxed pace. Practice and his heightened senses betrayed Kakashi’s unease, the sharp tang of nerves.
“Tsunade confirmed the blood test for me this morning. She told me about him a week ago.” Roughly a week, he thought. The days had been busy since then, and hyper- tension as the guards assigned to the Hyuga complex lingered. Tsunade had implied that would end soon, but she’d promised nothing. Naruto wasn’t going to get his hopes up about getting his own place back until he knew both his mates were safe. “She said I could take on his last name, if I wanted. Claim the family relationship.”
Kakashi didn’t comment immediately, leading him in silence to a small apartment complex and up to a set of rooms with a solitary open window. Kakashi tapped a concealed seal low on the sill and then moved on to unlock and open his door. The apartment was nothing like anything Naruto could have imagined- a minimal amount of simple furniture in the kitchen and living space, a single, narrow cot-like bed visible through an open bedroom door, and everything organized meticulously. On the other hand, it was perfectly evident of a ninja’s home- scrolls in neat lines on a shelf, kunai in various places around the room, oil and sharpening stone set aside on a corner of the counter. The only thing that seemed to scream Kakashi was the shelf full of Icha Icha books.
It also, to Naruto’s nose, smelled a bit like Kakashi’s pack. The dogs may have been summons, but Kakashi must have had them here before. And often enough that their scents had embedded into the whole apartment. Naruto settled into a chair as Kakashi walked back to his room, closing the door and gathering a handful of kunai on his way back to the counter. “What’s wrong, Kakashi- sensei?”
Kakashi stood silent for long minutes, laying out kunai and moving the sharpening stone closer to his spot. “Sandaime gave you Kushina’s last name to keep you safe. You were named Uzumaki to hide the identity of your father - to let the village overlook you easier and let the other nations be willingly blind. Your father made a reputation for himself. Namikaze may be a name revered here, but it’s a name feared and hated by certain ninja nations. Rock hated him with a passion.” Kakashi finally sat down across from Naruto. “I am a ninja, and I followed orders. The child of the Yellow Flash, now a jinchuuriki vessel, had to be kept safe. For his sake, and the safety of the village.”
Naruto nodded. Kakashi smelled like truth, at least believed everything he was saying, and Naruto could understand that reasoning. He just wanted to know more. Something beyond history books and the whispered legends of the man who defended Konoha from the Kyuubi. He watched as Kakashi dripped oil onto the stone. The smooth, slick-grind sounds of sharpening metal was familiar, comforting. Probably for both of them. “What was he like? Like, out of the office.”
“Naruto…” Kakashi stared at the kunai in his hands, ran his thumb along an edge and went back to honing it even finer, sharper. Naruto wondered if the man was biting his lip under the mask. Finally, when Kakashi had deemed the kunai finished and moved toward the next, the words started to flow. “Minato- senpai was energetic, loyal. He had talent, and immense chakra control. You are a lot like him in some ways, but you have Kushina’s mischief. She was fiery, nearly untamed; loved fiercely and fought viciously. Your father fought because of duty, loyalty, riding the adrenalin and using each moment to his advantage. Kushina, she fought with passion and determination. Watching the two of them battle together always made me proud. I studied under a man who studied under one legend and then became a legend of his own.”
“… Did he love her?”
“Yes. Loved each other enough to risk his position as Hokage by marrying Kyuubi’s vessel, a secret that could have destroyed them if it ever got out. So in love they wanted to make a family even with promises of war on the horizon.”
“They…” The words choked in Naruto’s throat. He wanted to ask, wanted to sate the longing in his own heart. Kyuubi had refused to even let Naruto talk about the subject, fleeing to the back of the mental cage anytime Naruto tried to bring it up. He bit his tongue hard between his molars, letting himself taste the first trickle of blood before forcing the words out, whispered but heard. “Did they want me?”
Kakashi looked up at that, shock in his one visible eye, opened wide. “Yes.” He set his third sharpened kunai onto the counter. “You doubt that?”
Naruto swallowed past the lump in his throat and Kakashi’s surprised answer. Then he dropped the illusion, revealing the changes wrought to him, changes that would never had happened without Kyuubi being bound within him. His lengthened canines, the lowered ears, the soft fur creeping up his spine, visible without the shirt or the illusion of one. “I’ve lived with him all my life. How could I be sure of anything?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. Guesses, but no certain answer. Kyuubi appeared the night you were born, Naruto, and if he tried to escape Kushina’s control at that point there wouldn’t have been much she could have done to shut him down. It fell on Minato’s shoulders to do what he could to protect the village and his family. They may have died that night- but it wasn’t because they didn’t want you.” Kakashi reached across and grasped Naruto’s shoulder, coaxing those crimson eyes to meet his solitary black orb. “What would you risk to see Hinata happy?”
“Anything.” Naruto growled out, because it was true. He would risk a lot to keep his family happy and safe.
“Then keep her safe. You are Namikaze and Uzumaki. Just because you only carry one last name doesn’t mean you aren’t the other. You don’t need his last name to prove you can become as much a legend as your old man.”
“I’m not a legend. I’m a pest.” Naruto bit out. Growing up had shown him that, more than once. And he’d lived up to that perception quite often.
“Sometimes.” Kakashi picked up another kunai and swept it over the stone. “You had your own legend as a bratty kid, escaping chuunin teachers like a fish. But remember: underneath the underneath. You can be a legend, and not as simply the boy who painted the Hokage mountain.”
Naruto cocked his head, considering, his ears perking slightly and giving him away. “The fur’s underneath the illusion. But what’s under that?” he murmured. Then he grinned. “Thanks Kakashi.”
“Naruto?” Even under the mask it was clear Kakashi had raised his eyebrow in question.
“The unexpected.” Naruto said, like the words answered everything. “It’s time for change- and something new.”
Kakashi’s scent shifted at that point, sharper, wary. “Be careful. This village has plenty of people set in their ways. You’ll find trouble.”
Naruto’s grin was sharp, full of his fangs. “I’m Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. I live for trouble.” The grin stayed, but his voice softened a bit. “I’ll be careful. I have two people to protect now.”
“Two that mean your world. But don’t forget the other lives you protect in doing your job.”
“Konoha is my home, even if it’s had problems. I won’t sacrifice the whole village unless they betray me.” The red of his eyes shimmered in Naruto’s very serious face. “The instant someone betrays me, betrays my family, I’m gone. I will protect those who are mine, Kakashi- sensei. I will protect the village, for it is mine to help defend. But I will gladly feed any who hurt me and mine to Kyuubi’s wrath.”
Kakashi’s scent went.. cold, cold and sharp and crackly, eyes stern as he looked at Naruto across the table. It was like smelling the lightning of his chakra affinity. “With that reasoning, I should have just dropped Team Seven and quit being its teacher when Sasuke went rogue.” He ignored the low rumble of a growl, not bothering to look away from Naruto. “If you leave just because there are people trying to make your life difficult, then you’re just another missing-nin. Patterns will repeat themselves, but it will be you and your family being hunted, never able to hide, always on guard. There will always be people in the village looking to make your life difficult, maybe even miserable, because of who you are. It is up to you to prove them wrong.” He picked up another kunai, pulled the blade across his whetstone. “You don’t want to lose control, real control or even just the illusion of it. There are too many people here that will condemn you for it, at this point. Keep control, keep your loyalties.”
Naruto didn’t speak at first, choking back the initial surge of blind anger that had appeared when Kakashi mentioned abandoning the team, and Sasuke’s betrayal. Naruto would never handle another betrayal well. “I do not intend to go missing-nin, Kakashi.” He finally confessed. “I could not do that to my family. But if the council means to rule my life, to control every detail, I will take Gaara’s offer. If Konoha closes its gates on me, if they condemn me, I have a place in Sand to retreat to. Not as a missing-nin, but as a welcomed guest and friend of the Kazekage. I promised Tsunade- sama I would try here, though. My place is Konoha, for as long as this village will have me.”
Kakashi finished sharpening the blade in his hands, ever aware of Naruto watching him and not revealing anything. Only when that blade was as sharp as the rest did he stop, return to a bookshelf and pull out a scroll. In moments he had a list written down, which he tore off the scroll and handed to Naruto. “These will be at the public library. Read them, talk to the clans that will listen to you. Be ready for anything.”
“Yeah. I can do that.” He took the paper from Kakashi’s hand and tucked it away. The illusion piled back on, until Naruto looked the same as when he walked into the apartment. “Thank you, sensei.”
Kakashi merely waved, hand creeping back toward his book, and Naruto left shaking his head. He knew Kakashi was addicted to those books.

A form slipped out of the back after the front door closed, taking up as a wary shadow at Kakashi’s shoulder. “Do you think he will succeed?”
“Naruto can win nearly anything he puts his mind to. And this time, he has more to fight for.”
Brown eyes peered at the door before retreating, silent wishes going out for success for the blond fox- boy. He deserved to win for once.

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