Konoha at Last

It was the morning of our last day in Tanzaku Quarters, and I should have been excited, but this morning has dragged my enthusiasm down.

First thing I see when I wake up in the room that Haku and I share is a horse face looking right at me. George had, somehow, gotten out of the stables, tracked me down, and gotten into our locked room, all without anyone noticing. As I looked at this ninja of a beast dumbfounded, he licked my hair causing it to stand up in a funny direction.

One shower later, and paying the inn owner a rather hefty sum for the horse tracks in the hall, I find out that Karin, Hikari, and Honoka had all stayed up last night goofing off with one of the local games. A weird version of connect four, but with marble-sized balls and 3D, so I had to literally carry three women to the cart and get everything ready.

Jugo and Amaru decided they would sneak a taste of alcohol and Jugo's psychopathic personality made a return, but thankfully he didn't go into his [Demonic Sage Mode], so I was able to put him down with the Gentle Fist. This was made harder by the fact that Amaru had become clingy with me, but switched her target when Haku showed up.

Guren, on the other hand, smelled extremely heavily of Perfum, making her unbearable to stand near. Apparently, she was experimenting with makeup this morning and didn't know how much to put on.

Finally, after setting up the wagon, we find that one of the wheels broke, so I made a new one out of bone using [Bone Manipulation]. 'This day started just splendidly!' I think to myself before heading to the eastern gate of Tanzaku.

There we find Tsunade and Shizune waiting, along with a new face called Tonton. Apparently, we didn't see her before because she was sick and was at the ninja pet veterinarian. Yes. Apparently, that's a thing. Of course, Tsunade had spent all of the money I gave her on gambling and alcohol and Shizune had spent all of her money on Tsunade's debt, so I had to fit the bill for the pig as well.

'That's some expensive bacon' I thought to myself, significantly less wealthy. Strangely, Tonton seemed to hear my thoughts, as she would always shiver in Shizune's arms when she looked at me.

...

It would only take about a week to travel to Konoha, which was slightly longer than expected, but it was probably due to George having to pull a wagon with 8 people in it and a pig, though Tonton often rode on George's head while we were on the road. Shizune was always depressed when seeing this, muttering to herself about losing to a horse, but Tsunade found it funny.

During our trip, I had asked Tsunade to teach me her unique version of the Transformation Technique. She had apparently used another jutsu called the [Shadow Mirror Body Changing Method] as a base to create a semi-permanent transformation, which would only stop its transformation if the user runs out of chakra.

I immediately learned both her jutsu and the [Shadow Mirror Body Changing Method] since I could use it on Fuu to have her change appearance and fake her death in Takigakure. If I combined this with her natural voice change due to puberty, it would be impossible to know who she really was.

This is also a bonus for getting Tsunade, though I will admit that I hadn't thought of it when I first made my wishes. If not for this, I may never have found a use for my [Body Fake] ability, since I didn't have to fake Karin and Hikari's deaths either.

Amaru learned most first aid knowledge and some basic medical ninjutsu from Shizune in only a few days, while Karin was not far behind her. It is amazing how fast people can learn when they have the aptitude for it. It even impressed Tsunadde enough o officially take them on as her disciples.

The final thing I discovered on our journey was that Tsunade no longer had homophobia. I'm pretty sure this is due to her making peace with Dan and Nawaki's deaths since she seems rather laid back now, though maybe that's her regular personality. After all, all I've seen of her was her personality before she joined Naruto, which is what I experienced at first, and her personality when she was acting in her official role as Hokage during the original series.

I discovered Tsunade's cured state when Guren accidentally cut herself while trying to mimic Jugo's ax-like arm from his [Demonic Sage Mode] using crystal release. Tsunade, Shizune, and Honoka's reaction to his full transformation during training was something I didn't expect. Tsunade and Shizune wanted to study the transformation and its possible uses, while Honoka wanted to try to seal it away since she had never tried to seal nature energy before. Karin and Amaru were slightly frightened, though they got over it in about a minute.

'I can surely pick 'em!' I think to myself, proud of the character that Amaru and Karin displayed. Guren on the other hand wasn't at all frightened. When I asked her why, she said that he was simply a demon on the outside, while she was a demon on the inside.

It took the entire afternoon to convince her that she wasn't a demon again. I guess a single conversation isn't enough to entirely convince someone that everything they believed about themselves for the last seven years of their life, was a lie.

I also taught Tsunade, Shizune, Honoka, and Hikari the [Yin Strengthening Method] and [Yang Strengthening Method]. Tsunade mastered the yang method in a day, due to her masterful chakra control, and the fact that her normal way of fighting basically used the method by default.

She was also covered in a black muck that stunk to high heaven when she mastered it. It leads me to believe that Rob created it after some sort of cultivation novel because I swear I heard something from Tsunade about 'refining her primordial veins' or something.

Shizune and Honoka were trying to use the [Yin Strengthening Method] to create a [Strength of a Hundred Seals] technique like Tsunade, since the yin method is more efficient for creating it than Tsunade's original method, though they weren't able to master it before we arrived.

...

Konoha's walls were a magnificent sight to behold as we approached them. All of us kids had known of Konoha's Red Walls since Tsunade had mentioned them the day before we arrived, but seeing massive 40-meter tall walls that were red as blood, was a sight to behold and took our breaths away, though Honoka, Shizune, and Tsunade weren't nearly as impressed.

Guarding the gates were two Jonin. I was expecting them to be Kotetsu and Izumo, though I guess that they are probably still teenagers, due to there still being 5 years until the start of the canon.

"Hey there travelers. How's it..." The join said as he approached the wagon. He froze, mid-sentence, as he spotted Tsunade and immediately tightened up. Before, he was rather laid back, but now he was standing at attention along with the other guard.

"Lady Tsunade! Welcome back! I am sure that Lord Hokage would like to see you. May I ask who are these people accompanying you today!?" He said. He was much more formal and polite now than before, but it was understandable. It is not every day that a normal Jonin like him meets Konoha's 'Princess'.

"Hahaha! Loosen up youngen! I am moving back to Konoha for the time being. These red-heads are Uzumaki that we ran into. The other youngsters are kids under my protection. I want to meet with the Hokage as soon as I can, but first, we will stop by the Senju compound and unpack our stuff." Tsunade said. It was clear that, even if she didn't care for the village before, she was slightly nostalgic seeing that the village didn't seem to change too much in the years she had gone.

"Of course Lady Tsunade! We will send a messenger when you are finished." He said as he waved us in.

From here, Shizune took the reigns as we navigated ourselves around the back streets of Konoha. Traveling on cobblestone roads looks a lot more comfortable in videogames than it is. It felt like the cart was constantly vibrating, but thankfully, it only took about twenty minutes to arrive.

The Senju Compound was a large and mostly wooden place. It reminded me of a lot of Dojos or large Shinto shrines from anime/ manga due to its design. Strangely, several dozen people were living there, and I could see that they were mostly older women as well as a single younger couple and their child. I recognized immediately that it was Moegi. It would make sense since she is the only person other than Hashirama and the Otsutsuki to naturally have Wood Release.

As we made our way throughout the compound, more and more people gathered around until roughly thirty people, twenty-five of whom were old women, had formed a crowd around our carriage. They began to welcome Tsunade and Shizune back with open arms, while the old women peppered us with kisses and hugs. I finally understood what Hashirama wanted when creating Konoha since they hadn't even asked our names and they were already treating us like grandchildren.

After an hour or so of celebrations, to which I could see that Tsunade was genuinely happy, we finally stored our belongings inside a separate guest house behind the Main Family building. Until Tsunade officially adopted us, we were to stay there.

George was taken care of by a chunin who was Moegi's uncle. He had summoning contracts with horses, so he knew exactly how to treat George to make him happy. It was a little irritating seeing my George get all friendly to someone else and I was making an irritated expression before Tsunade broke me out of my mood by laughing at me for getting jealous of a horse. She has been laughing at me a lot lately and it is rather irritating considering how she was praying to me a week ago.

...

It was around noon when the order to appear before the Hokage was brought by. The messenger was none other than Kakashi. Though he was wearing his Anbu gear, his one Sharingan and white hair made it obvious. I was surprised that he had it active, but then I thought that it wasn't for Tsunade, but the rest of us. He was probably waiting for us to make a move, so he kept it activated just in case.

I had initially believed that just myself, Tsunade, and Shizune would be enough, but Tsunade said she wanted the Hokage to meet all of us, so we all made our way there. Our entourage was drawing quite the crowd as we made our way down the main street. Tsunade's reputation preceded her, so it was expected, though Karin told me that the number of 'hidden' eyes had increased. Karin's [Mind's Eye of the Kagura] was far more advanced than my normal sensory abilities, so she could probably notice the Anbu and ROOT agents watching from the shadows.

I muttered under my breath to all of our comrades that we were being watched and that we had to keep an eye out for anything, though I am sure even Danzo wouldn't try something in the middle of the road to random people. Still, he most definitely would monitor us for the moment, and would probably try to kidnap or kill us when he found out our secrets.

We finally arrived at the Hokages office after another few minutes of walking. On the way, I saw no small number of Uzumaki. Both civilians and ninja, of varying ranks. I even saw Anko with an Uzumaki girl eating Dango while watching the spectacle that was six children and four adults walk to the Hokage office.

We appeared in the waiting room of the office while the Secretary checked us in. According to Karin, the number of invisible eyes had suddenly grown far fewer. Probably since even Danzo's ROOT wouldn't want to provoke the Hokage's forces by sneaking into the Hokage's office. On the surface, at least, they had to pretend to be working together with them, and there is no justifiable reason to do so if they are caught.

As we made our way to the second floor, I felt a strange presence ahead. It almost felt like one of my [Flying Thunder God] kunai was in the room with the Hokage, and I began to internally panic thinking my adventures in the Land of Water, or more likely, Summoning Island, had been discovered, but what I saw when I entered the room, shook me to my core even more.

Minato was sitting at the table ahead, while Mito Uzumaki, Jiraiya the toad Sage, Hiruzen the Third Hokage, and Kushina Uzumaki, who had stains on her shirt and ramen bowls behind her back, were all sitting across from us.