Summoning Up A Healer - Ch 1 (Adv) - Uncrushed (Patreon)

This fic was commissioned; find commission status here.
I'm dropping this chapter publicly as a teaser and going forward will be publishing on AO3 trailing advance chapters on Patreon.

If you're new to this AU, you probably want to start with part 1: Summoning Up A Connection.
If you skipped the smutty one-shot ‘Summoning Up A Night Together’ (also on AO3), tl;dr: Anko showed up at Naruto’s apartment the night after the Konoha Crush and they fricked before she told him they can’t be together and to try dating someone his age.
Those events occur between the Sasuke and Naruto POVs in this chapter.

Point of order, the Third Round (and thus the invasion) occur on 1 August.

Tenten

The woods were quiet, and she couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing.

Naruto had taken his team after Gaara, and there had been a series of earthshaking crashes before silence fell again. The fighting’s stopped, Tenten surmised. So we must have driven the invasion back, right? Meaning Naruto should be fine… Right?

She and Aburame Shino were bracketing Sakin Kankuro, middle child of the late Kazekage, who had surrendered when the two got the drop on him. As the boy himself pointed out, his only job was to delay them from chasing after his siblings; he hadn’t wanted any part in the invasion of Konoha that his father had plotted.

Despite herself, Tenten believed him. He hadn’t made any struggle since being captured, only requesting that they collect his disabled puppet. Tenten had done so, quickly modifying one of her storage seals for the purpose — which was easier than she’d expected, as it was originally designed to hold weapons. Or maybe it’s not so surprising. After all, a Puppet Corpsman’s puppet is their weapon.

Shino had watched carefully, a screen of kikaichuu preventing any last-second attempts to control the thing, but Kankurou hadn’t even tried. He’d allowed his hands to be bound, and hadn’t even complained about the small complement of kikaichuu on his back, constantly draining his chakra.

Consequently, they were walking back toward the village, keeping an eye out for ambushes.

Shino, who had taken point, paused causing the other two to stop. “Friendlies incoming,” he murmured, glancing off into the trees. Sure enough, a moment later Tenten spotted movement in the canopy.

Fear gripped her when Haruno and Uchiha reappeared with Naruto on the latter’s back, unmoving. Seeing him like that, her grip tightened on her sword, before she forced it to relax.

Kankurou himself slumped in visible relief as Temari emerged carrying Gaara in a similar fashion. “Is he–?”

“He’s fine,” Temari said in a clipped tone, and Team 7 fell in around them, permitting the Sand Siblings to walk together.

“And Naruto?” Tenten peered at him closely as Uchiha landed.

Up close, she could tell he was breathing, but he looked terrible. There were dark shadows under Naruto’s eyes, ­and his cheekbones stood out too much, making the birthmarks on his face look deeper somehow. For someone usually as lively as Naruto, seeing him still and drawn like this felt viscerally wrong.

“Idiot just overstrained himself,” Uchiha muttered dismissively. Despite his words, he shifted Naruto on his back with deliberate gentleness.

Used to a similar dynamic between Lee and Neji, Tenten gave a nod.

Rather than vault the walls like they’d done on the way out, the group slowly circled to the nearest gate, finding it shattered by some tremendous force. A platoon of Chuunin, clearly on high alert, had weapons leveled even before their group stepped out of the trees.

Shino glanced back at Tenten, and belatedly she remembered that she’d volunteered as their ad hoc squad’s 2IC. Taking a deep breath, she called out, “Konoha nin returning with captives. A ni; san ho.” Mission accomplished, with complications worth reporting; three captives. “Requesting a split escort to Temporary Detention and Hospital.”

The Chuunin captain, someone she recognized as a frequent gate guard, with a short goatee and a bandage across his nose, waved for his team to stand down. “It’ll be a few minutes. We can’t leave the gate unguarded.” His eyes flicked across the group. “No need for a full debrief; give me the quick version. Where have you been, exactly?”

“Higurashi Tenten, genin under Maito-sensei, 012573. Jounins Mitarashi and Shiranui ordered us to pursue and capture the Kazekage’s children,” Tenten summarized, jerking her head to indicate the Sand Siblings. The rest of her kouhais also gave their names and IDs, with the obvious exception of– “Naruto-kun exhausted himself and probably needs a chakra infusion, but I think everyone else is all right.”

“Not surprised he’s wiped. That kid’s Kage Bunshin is unreal, I must’ve seen a hundred of him tonight,” the Captain shook his head.

“Damn fox should have the decency to die,” grunted another, with the blonde hair and pale eyes of a Yamanaka.

Fox? Tenten wondered, blinking in confusion.

“My teammate needs the hospital,” Uchiha growled, his sharingan suddenly blazing in the dark. “Call someone to escort us or get out of the way.”

The Yamanaka scowled, raising his hands in a seal, and despite some obvious hesitation the other Chuunin drew weapons to back up their comrade.

The growing argument was interrupted by a new arrival, an ANBU in a catlike mask who barked, “Enough!”

The captain, who alone hadn’t reached for the sword on his back, sighed even as he saluted. “Thank you, Ocelot.”

“Hagane, your orders stand.” The ANBU said, before turning his mask’s empty eyeholes on the Yamanaka. “You will be reporting to your clan head and the Jounin Honchou when your shift ends to explain why you decided to mention an S-class secret in front of genin… and foreigners.”

The rest of the Chuunin edged away from the suddenly pasty-looking Yamanaka. “…Yes, sir,” he managed.

After another moment to let his point sink in, Ocelot turned to regard the genin, who straightened up as best they could. “At ease,” he said, his disguised, distorted voice much gentler. “I will take responsibility for the prisoners; Jiraiya-sama wants to speak with them. Higurashi-kun, I am authorizing you to escort your comrades to the hospital. Nara-sama left orders that all genin who saw combat today are to receive a checkup and rest tonight. Unless countermanded by an iryou-nin, you will all report to the mission office at dawn.”

“Understood!”

Sasuke

They made it to the hospital without further incident, though he had to turn off his sharingan to avoid searing the sight of the village into his memory. The village was… not in great shape. Whatever had knocked down the gate had clearly rampaged through the nearby area, as huge swathes of trees and even buildings were heavily damaged, forcing the five of them to pick their way through several detours.

There weren’t many civilians around… at least, not live ones. A few genin squads were canvassing the area, one of them referring to a map and directing the others where to dig through the rubble… which soon enough gave way to a man staring sightlessly at the sky. That was when he let the chakra running to his eyes fade.

He had enough memories of motionless bodies in streets that had been lively just hours before.

Sasuke paused at the hospital’s crowded entrance, waiting for Sakura to pull the door open. On the way, they’d confirmed that none of them were particularly injured aside from bruises and exhaustion, so the priority was getting Naruto examined… which despite insistence from him, Aburame, and Higurashi, didn’t actually happen.

Instead the rest of them were briefly checked over before being shoved into a hospital room that appeared to have been converted into a barracks, mostly occupied by the rest of their cohort from teams Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai. Sasuke laid Naruto on one of the empty beds to have his vitals checked, but the medic was already gone.

“What the hell was that about?” Higurashi demanded, glaring at the closed door even as she sat down on the foot of Naruto’s bed.

“Classified,” said Sasuke, Nara, and Aburame. The three of them exchanged raised brows, each wondering what exactly the others knew, but obviously they couldn’t speak of it any further here. Seeing Higurashi’s frustrated look, Sasuke added, “We’ll report it, but Naruto is the only one who can legally talk about it. If we did…”

“The mere existence of this secret is not to be spoken of lightly,” Aburame intoned. “Why? Because unlike the Yamanaka clansman we encountered at the West Gate, I have no desire to meet with the subdirector of Jouhoubu Kaisekihan.”

“Eh? Who has to meet with Daddy?” Ino’s attention was caught.

“We didn’t catch his name,” Sakura admitted, before filling Ino in on the interaction. Notably, she didn’t mention the Yamanaka’s exact words, and Sasuke saw her gaze lingering on Naruto as she explained the ANBU Ocelot’s arrival.

As far as I know she hadn’t put it together before… but it looks like Miss Book Smart Kunoichi of the Year does have a brain in there, Sasuke mused. Ino still looked lost, though to her credit she could at least tell she was missing something. She started nagging Nara for a better explanation that wasn’t forthcoming, but that was hardly Sasuke’s problem.

Scanning the rest of the room, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Higurashi, and Rock still looked lost. Fortunately, the first three were clan brats and the latter two had enough experience that they all understood ‘classified’ to mean don’t dig any further. As Aburame had said, nobody wanted to be dragged in front of the Intelligence Division… or the Torture and Interrogation Force.

Sakura had sat down on a futon with Yamanaka, the two of them leaning on Nara’s bed to continue their conversation, much to his apparent annoyance. A skinnier than usual Akimichi sat on his other side, between Nara’s hospital bed and Inuzuka’s, absently eating from a jumbo-sized can of salted cashews. Both Inuzuka and his sleeping dog were rather heavily bandaged, but the boy didn’t seem panicked as he absently pet the dog. Rock was still on bedrest after his fight with Gaara, but even without the sharingan Sasuke’s eyes could pick out some fresh spots of blood on both his fists and the walls. Evidently someone got in here during the invasion that he had to deal with.

Hyuuga Neji was lying on his side, facing the wall and pretending to be asleep — it was obvious, at least to Sasuke, that he was faking it, but he could at least relate to not wanting to engage in chatter. Especially while recovering from both being poisoned and from losing to Naruto. Most interesting was the younger Hyuuga; Hinata looked solemn, but not surprised at the current conversation.

Sasuke tilted his head, and when she glanced his way, the look in her eye told him she also knew. Curious. Sasuke took the empty seat beside her. “The byakugan noticed, I take it?” he murmured.

Hinata looked surprised he was speaking to her, but nodded. “Red within gold,” she replied softly. “It took a while before I realized what it meant, but…”

“Hey, what’re you and Hinata whispering about?” Inuzuka called, glaring at him from across the small room and drawing everyone’s attention. “We’re outta school and suddenly you’re not too good to talk to us, Uchiha?”

Hinata flushed, and Sasuke gave him the flattest look he could muster. “I don’t recall needing your permission to talk to anyone. And neither does she,” he added before Inuzuka could retort. “Hyuuga is her own person, she can talk to whomever she wants.”

Hyuuga poked her forefingers together, still blushing, and Inuzuka stammered, “I didn’t mean-!” but whatever his excuse would have been went unspoken because Naruto let out a groan at that point.

“Ugh, quit bein’ so noisy, Kiba,” Naruto grumbled, cracking one blue eye.

“What was that!?” Inuzuka barked, immediately distracted to Sasuke’s complete lack of surprise.

“Urusai, dog-breath,” Naruto repeated. He struggled to sit up, and Higurashi leaned forward to help him. “Eh, thanks, Tenten-chan.” Rubbing his eyes, Naruto scanned the room, letting out a sigh of relief after a quick headcount. “Everyone’s all right… What happened to Gaara after I passed out?”

“Ocelot-san collected the three of them; I think he said Jiraiya-sama wanted to interrogate them,” Higurashi replied. “They aren’t thrilled, but I think the older brother and sister recognized that if they cooperate, they probably won’t be executed like they could expect to happen if this was, say, Kiri.”

Naruto visibly relaxed. “Ocelot-san and Ero-sennin are good people. Has anyone seen our senseis?”

“Gai-sensei visited earlier,” Rock supplied instantly. “At first I was worried I would have to engage the lotus as several enemy nin sneaked inside, but after that Gai-sensei was challenged by his eternal rival to safeguard the hospital until the danger had passed!”

“So Kaka-sensei is okay too,” Naruto nodded to himself.

“I saw Kurenai-sensei when she dropped off Hinata,” Inuzuka added. “And Asuma-ji looked in on us earlier.”

“And Anko-sensei?”

“She was fine when Orochimaru retreated,” said Nara. “Kept him off Hokage-sama the whole time. He did something that took her down, but she got right back up when he ran off.”

For some reason Nara’s eyes flicked to Sasuke.

“Jiraiya-sama took command after that,” Nara continued. “Hokage-sama is… he’s still alive, but he isn’t in great shape after his fight. And now the world knows it.”

He trailed off, but everyone knew what he meant.

“Huh?” said Naruto. “Knows what?”

Correction, apparently not everyone.

“He’s old, Idiot,” Sasuke supplied when no one else spoke up.

“So what?” Naruto said mulishly. “Jiijii’s the strongest!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t change the fact that Sarutobi-sama should be retired, not fighting for his life. His reputation has been keeping the peace since…” The Massacre. He swallowed. “Since we were young,” he finished weakly.

“Since the Kyuubi’s attack,” Naruto filled in, slumping. Whether he was simply guessing wrong or actively trying to change the subject, Sasuke had no idea.

“The point is, his name and reputation had power,” Nara picked up the thread. “Iwa talks up the Yellow Flash, but every nin on the continent knows Sarutobi Hiruzen is Shinobi no Kami, and that kept them wary.”

“There must soon be a Godaime Hokage,” Aburame put in. “Why? Because now Orochimaru has proven the Sandaime is mortal.”

“Who can it be, though?” Yamanaka said what they were all thinking. “Daddy’s said part of the reason the Third has served so long is because there hasn’t been a good choice for a successor since the Fourth.”

Sakura frowned in thought. “There are a few options — Jiraiya-sama, Nara-sama, maybe even Kakashi-sensei — but none of them are perfect for the job… which has probably been Sandaime-sama’s problem all these years.”

“Dad definitely doesn’t want it,” Nara offered. “The only other one I can think of is Sarutobi-sama’s other student, Senju Tsunade. But she doesn’t live in the village, and hasn’t for years.”

“Eh, where is she, then?” Naruto wondered.

Nara shrugged. “Dad just said she’s been a hourou-nin for years, wandering around Fire country with her apprentice. In light of the invasion, she’ll probably be recalled. We’re going to need everyone we can find.”

“That makes sense!” Higurashi’s eyes were sparkling. “Tsunade-sama is the best iryou-nin in the world; she could help Sandaime-sama, and probably Lee-kun as well!” She caught Naruto’s eye and flushed a little. “I looked up to Tsunade-sama a lot when I was growing up. I actually became a kunoichi because I wanted to be an iyrou-nin like her, but I just don’t have the necessary knack for chakra control.”

“So maybe there’ll be a mission to go find her?” said Naruto, rubbing his chin. He glanced at Inuzuka, who shrugged.

“Normally I’d say a tracking mission should go to us, but the docs said I’m gonna be laid up for a week,” Inuzuka complained. “Plus, I dunno if Kurenai-sensei is gonna be too busy; Sis mentioned everyone Chuunin and up is getting new standing orders tomorrow.”

“That’s probably true for us, too,” Sakura put in. “Ocelot-san told us all to report to the mission office at dawn.”

“From something Dad said, I think Konoha is going to be changing up how we run missions for a bit,” said Nara, forming a circle with his fingers.

“Like how?” asked Naruto.

“Smaller groups, for one thing,” Nara replied. “The majority of the Genin Corps will probably end up on cleanup and reconstruction duty, while squads like us are likely to be broken up one or two to a captain and sent on back to back missions. Extra patrols to keep our borders secure, extra escorts to raise funds for repairs, maybe extra guard duty in the capital to persuade the Daimyou and other nobles to invest…” He trailed off, then finished, “Most likely those groups will be mixed up regularly, too, to make sure everyone still gets some breaks, but Konoha’s emphasis on teamwork is going to be put to the test. How long that lasts probably depends on how long it takes to decide on a Godaime.”

Naruto nodded, then grimaced as he levered himself out of bed.

“Are you all right?” Higurashi asked him solicitously.

“Fine, just achy,” Naruto grunted. “Like all over; feels a bit like a katon under my skin.”

“That’s how our textbook described chakra exhaustion,” Sakura said worriedly. “A deep ache everywhere touched by the chakra network, when you barely have enough chakra to keep your body alive. Maybe you should lay back down?”

Higurashi reached for Naruto’s shoulder, but he slipped away and landed unsteadily on his feet. “It’s fine.” He gave a patently fake smile. “I’ll be good by tomorrow, and I’d rather recover at home. And make sure my apartment didn’t get damaged, I guess. Glad everyone’s all right, I’ll see you guys in the morning for our new assignments.”

Before he could shuffle out the door, Sasuke spoke up over everyone else’s protests. “Oi. Loser.”

Naruto stiffened, but he glanced back.

Sasuke smirked. “Bet you I finish my new mission before you do.”

“Yeah, right!” Some of the artificiality left Naruto’s expression, leaving his smile smaller, but more honest. His gaze drifted to Higurashi as the door closed behind him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Why… did Naruto-kun run off so fast…?” Hinata murmured, even as the half the group complained about his sudden exit while the other half carried on the previous conversation.

She was probably just talking to herself, but Sasuke found himself answering. “It’s not hard to see he wants to be alone. Probably because of whatever his relationship is with the Sandaime. I know they’re closer than most people would expect.”

“That’s true…” Hinata nodded slowly. Then she gave him a small smile. “It was very kind of you to distract him from his worries, Sasuke-san.”

Sasuke scoffed. “Konoha can’t afford him getting himself killed by being distracted during his mission, that’s all.”

Hinata nodded again, still smiling faintly.

Naruto

Come morning, Naruto’s apartment was feeling particularly empty. He filled the teapot with leaves and water before his morning ablutions, hoping it would be ready when he was finished and that the caff-stuff Anko-sensei said was in it would help him wake up after a night that, admittedly, contained a bit less sleep than was probably wise.

Not that he regretted it.

Like every morning, the tea was barely flavored, and he still wasn’t sure what the appeal was supposed to be, but he drank it along with a quick bowl of tamago kake gohan before resetting his traps and taking off across the rooftops from his balcony.

He was tempted to swing by the hospital and try to check on Jiijii. Predictably, he hadn’t been allowed to see the old man last night, though Naruto had made the effort anyway. He even hung around for a few minutes before leaving the hospital, hoping one of the doctors or ANBU would mention his presence to Jiijii and be ordered to let him in, but that hadn’t happened. Jiijii was probably just sleeping, he comforted himself.

Unfortunately, his standing orders passed on from Ocelot — which was a mask he recognized from the ANBU who’d kept an eye on him in the years between the orphanage and the Academy — were to report to the mission office at dawn, and the Eastern sky was already brightening.

He had to take a detour from his usual route, on account of a winding line of buildings that had been reduced to rubble cutting a swathe across the village from the West Gate almost to the Hyuuga compound. Something about the pattern caught his eye, and he grimaced, briefly coming to a halt.

Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. “Kuchiyose no jutsu.”

“Good morning, Naruto-sssan,” Aoshou greeted him, winding affectionately around his arm.

“Hey Aoshou. Are you all right after yesterday?”

“It wasss a difficult battle, but thanksss to you Father wasss able to rally the clan,” Aoshou reported. “Manda and hisss ilk have been barred from Ryuuchidou by Hakuja-okugata, and thossse who joined hisss rampage are being punissshed.”

The snake flicked his tail toward the path of destruction that they were skirting.

“I didn’t get a chance to thank your dad, but please let him know I appreciate his help,” said Naruto. “And remind me to summon Gamakichi after this meeting, but I need to hurry or I’ll be late.”

“Asss you command, Naruto-sssan.” Aoshou slipped down his collar, wrapping around his arm as usual.

Naruto sped up, and soon hopped off the roof in front of the mission office.

“Hey, Naruto-kun!”

He looked around, and Tenten made the final hop to land lightly beside him, slugging him lightly on the shoulder.

“You made us worry, running off like that last night,” she chided.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, looking at the ground.

“Don’t make a habit of it.” Tenten grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

Most of their cohort was there already — at least, the ones who were well enough to work; Kiba and Lee, naturally, were still recovering in the hospital.

Most everyone else was standing around. Where during the Chuunin Exams they had mostly stuck to their own teams, now their cohort was more intermingled, and notably separated from the other genin in the room. It was actually remarkably like the First Test, where the older genin hadn’t wanted to mix with the rookies… but this time it felt more like the ten of them were holding themselves apart, chatting quietly among themselves.

Neji was sitting in the corner, clutching a crumpled letter and staring blankly at the floor. Hinata kept shooting him glances, but seemed unwilling to bother him.

Naruto himself got a few second glances when he entered, but the general mood of the room toward him was definitely… lighter than it had been the week before.

“There you are, Naruto.” Seated behind the mission desk, Iruka gave him a brotherly smile. “Oversleep again?”

“Nah, just had to take a different route, Iruka-sensei.” Naruto yawned, then grinned sheepishly. “Okay, and I didn’t get as much sleep as I probably should’ve.”

“At least you didn’t blow it off,” said Ero-sennin, appearing behind Iruka-sensei with a shunshin. “Attention, genin.” He didn’t raise his voice at all, but everyone stopped talking and turned to face him. “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jiraiya, student of the Sandaime. I hardly need to tell you that this is a critical time for Konoha. Before you receive your assignments, I have a few announcements.”

There was something uncanny about how… professional Ero-sennin was acting. “What, you gonna be signing copies of your dirty books?” Naruto called, wanting to break the tension.

Jiraiya’s eyes narrowed, before a big grin spread across his face. “That might be a good way to raise some funds. I’ll have to run that by my publisher. Incidentally, we’re already in talks for a film adaptation of Icha Icha Violence, so keep an ear out for news!”

A bright red Iruka-sensei cleared his throat, and Jiraiya’s giggles subsided.

“But back to business. Just to clear up any doubts, Sarutobi-sensei is very much alive after yesterday’s events.” He paused as nearly everyone let out cheers and sighs of relief. “We don’t know how long he might take to recover, but he’s stable. And more importantly, he was able to pass down his recommendations for promotions, which was reviewed with his advisers and approved by the Jounin Honchou.”

Silence fell once more as Jiraiya drew a pair of scrolls from his pocket. He handed the first one to Iruka before and unrolling the second and reading from it.

“By order of the Sandaime Hokage, for their dedication to Konoha in time of crisis, the following genin are accorded the rank of chuunin and the responsibilities therewith.”

A dozen or so names followed, and the new chuunin stepped forward to receive their flak vests which Iruka was unsealing one at a time from the scroll. The Academy sensei congratulated each of them personally, and those nin straightened with pride.

“Next,” said Jiraiya, and his solemn tone was back. “We honor the following genin who gave their lives in the conflict; they will be honored posthumously, and those without surviving clans or families will have their funerals seen to by the Hokage’s office. Those wishing to attend, please coordinate with your squad leaders and the Mission Board. Even as we remember the fallen, we press forward to honor their sacrifice.”

Jiraiya bowed his head, and the room fell silent as everyone joined him.

After a minute or so, the Toad Sage cleared his throat again, casting his gaze over the group of rookies. “And finally, there are two last promotions to announce at this time. These two are based not only on their actions during the attack, but also during the Chuunin Exams both before and during the Tournament. First, from brilliant analysis and strategic preservation and deployment of resources during the Exams to engaging and contributing to the defeat of multiple jounin-level opponents during the invasion, we award the rank of Chuunin to Nara Shikamaru.”

Shika’s groan was drowned out by the rest of their cohort’s cheers, and polite applause from the rest of the genin present. Ino shoved him forward, and he stumbled before slouching up to Iruka to receive a vest. Shika’s wary gaze softened at whatever their former teacher told him. He gave a small smile and a sharp nod before zipping the vest up. Though his gait was still lazy, Naruto could spot the flicker of reluctant pride in his friend’s eye as he rejoined their group.

Chouji clapped Shikamaru on the back while Ino latched onto his arm. On Shikamaru’s other side, Sakura-chan leaned forward to offer the lazy genius her congratulations. Ino then replied before Shikamaru could, and she and Sakura began bickering gently even as they both bumped shoulders with him. From the smirk on Chouji’s face, he was deliberately stopping Shikamaru from escaping in his direction, leaving the newly-minted chuunin boxed in by the two girls.

“And lastly,” said Jiraiya, drawing everyone’s attention once more. “For showing tactical cunning, unswerving loyalty to the village, and deep compassion to its people… for overcoming decades of hatred between warring clans and returning the loyalty of the Snake clan to Konoha… for pushing himself to his very limits and beyond to protect our home from a rampage that could very well have been even worse than the Kyuubi’s attack… we proudly award the rank of Chuunin to Uzumaki Naruto.”

The room went deathly silent. For a moment, Naruto couldn’t help wincing, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone to shout that it was all a mistake… before Tenten-chan let out a whoop and threw her arms around him in a hug. “Congratulations, Gutsy-kun!”

The rest of their cohort soon joined in, as did Iruka-sensei, and finally some scattered applause from the rest of the genin. Under Hinata’s gaze, even Neji gave him one or two grudging claps.

Feeling a bit lost, Naruto made his way forward. He numbly accepted the vest from Iruka-sensei, staring at the red spiral on the back. “I can’t think of anyone more worthy to wear the spiral of Uzushiogakure. Congratulations, little brother,” said Iruka-sensei… or maybe it should be Iruka-aniki.

As he shrugged off his orange jacket, Jiraiya clapped him on the shoulder, leaning in to murmur, “You earned it, kiddo. Your parents would be proud of you… I know I am.”

Fumbling the vest on, Naruto turned to look at the crowd. Most people didn’t seem to know how to feel… but to be fair, neither did Naruto himself. Sasuke’s jaw was tight, but he gave Naruto a nod of acknowledgment. Hinata, beside him, wore a reserved smile. Shikamaru’s lips quirked in a commiserating smirk while Shino, inscrutable as ever, inclined his head.

Behind them, their senseis had filed in unnoticed and were also applauding lightly… And then his eyes widened at seeing Anko-sensei, all the way at the back of the group, giving him a v-for-victory. When she saw him notice her, she winked and then vanished in a puff of chakra smoke, revealing she’d been a Kage Bunshin. She was here. The real Anko-sensei was probably off on her mission, as she’d told him to expect, but he didn’t care. Just as he didn’t care that at least half the applause he was getting was perfunctory and reluctant. None of it mattered at this moment.

Because he might not be Hokage yet, but just as Naruto had always wanted, people were acknowledging him.

A/N: If you’re enjoying this story, feel free to check out my discord server at https://discord.gg/H6V854Fvbg

Hinting at some headcanon subtleties regarding how storage seals work. Might come up later in this story since they’re so central for Tenten.

Tenten’s code to the gate guards is あ二、三ほ, the hiragana ‘a’ (the first kana in ‘alphabetical’ order), number 2, number 3, hiragana ‘ho’ (as in the first syllable of horyo, 捕虜, ‘prisoners of war’). The meaning of the code is in the text.

Also man does prose not have a good way to balance a conversation between ten different people. Fortunately we’ll be down to more of a bottle show going forward.

Glossary

Iryō-nin (医療忍, lit ‘Medical ninja’)

Konohagakure Jōhōbu (木ノ葉隠れ情報部, lit. ‘Konoha Intelligence Division’), consisting of (at least) the Gomon/Jinmon Butai (拷問・尋問 部隊, ‘Torture and Interrogation Force’) led by Morino Ibiki and theKaisekihan (解析班, lit. ‘Analysis team’) led by Yamanaka Inoichi.

Urusai (うるさい) – literally ‘noisy’, colloquially something more like ‘shut up’.

Hōrō-nin (放浪忍, lit. ‘wandering shinobi’) – technically not a term used in the series, I’m using it to draw a distinction around people like Tsunade who fucked off for years without actually being declared a Nuke-nin (抜け忍, lit. ‘runaway shinobi’ or ‘Missing-nin’).

Tamago kake gohan (卵かけご飯; lit. ‘egg on rice’) is a pretty common Japanese comfort/budget breakfast, sometimes abbreviated ‘TKG’.

Hakuja-okugata (白蛇奥方, lit. ‘white snake lady’) is Aoshou’s respectful address for the Hakuja Sennin (白蛇仙人, ‘White Snake Sage’) – Note: I suspect I am probably using ‘okugata’ wrong here.

Aniki (兄貴 or あにき, lit. ‘older brother’), also used for a ‘big bro’ as in an older/more senior member of a gang