Kitsune of the leaf:rise of the yokai-nin

Chapter 16 necessary conversations 3

hey everyone new chapter! im not sayin much this time because im also posting an authors note along side it.

Naruto woke up surprisingly early for a Saturday. It was the last day he needed to do the paper route. Still groggy he made his way down stairs. Him and The other teams have been workin well delivering the mail. This was his last day on the job, Naruto had become closer to Hinata's teammates. Shino and Kiba were nice and fun to be around once you got past their individual quirks. He had to thank his father for assigning this mission to him and teams 8 and 11. Without his father agreeing to that, he would have never had a chance for him to get that fight. Afterwards Sasuke and Satsuki cheered up quite a bit, they even started training together Naruto had his first lesson with Tanjiro the other day. "Naruto, sweetie? Can you come here?" Kushina's voice called out, interrupting his thoughts.

"Your mother and I wanted to talk to you about some things." His father started "We've been avoiding these topics for a while. Between the work we had to do after Danzo's ... removal and your new genin career we haven't gotten the time to really have these conversations, and to be honest we don't even know where to start." Naruto nodded. This was true, even he put off these conversations when his parents tried to talk about them, leaving the conversation at the first opening, avoiding the pain that came with them. "But something came up so we can't putt this off anymore, Lets start off with an apology, I know your probably sick of hearing us say we are sorry but we are."

Naruto Accepted the apology with grace ...like he did the last ten times. This week. "Naruto, we've tried to talk about this before, but we were never able to sit down and have a real conversation about this," Kushina started "how would you feel about getting back the clan heir titles from your siblings? Don't worry about them they agreed to this whole-heartedly."

Naruto paused closing his eyes for a second a part of him really wanted this, but something worried him. "When you gave my siblings those titles it was to protect them from the hate Danzo attempted to push on to them right? Won't taking the titles back or even sharing them end up causing the villagers to start to view them negatively again?"

Minato chuckled "Even after everything you still care about our family, Im glad. To be blunt we don't know, the villagers might not care, they may treat them better or possibly even worse - don't interrupt Naruto." Minato said seeing Naruto beginning to interject. "They know the consequences and are willing to face them. When the curse mark affected us, we never thought clearly. It affected us on an unconscious level changing our own thoughts and behaviors to match Danzo's worldview. The curse mark preyed on our weaknesses, feeding thoughts into our own brains, while also trying to alter what we considered normal. while we were able to fight it off somewhat, its constant barrage on our minds did take its toll. Our views and thoughts mixed with his, perverting our own thoughts and actions. We would have NEVER given your siblings what was - and still is - your birthright, not to mention our many other failings, we would have found a different solution. We would have given them other titles such as defenders of the village or something similar, and we still can do that."

Kushina continued "When we made that decision we weren't fully ourselves, we didn't think about clan tradition, or the laws we were thinking more 'pragmatically' as danzo would put it." pragmatically being in air quotes. "We always loved you, NEVER doubt that dattebane! What we thought was the hatred of the villagers would turn Menma and Mito away from the leaf, like many other Jinchuriki did from their own villages. The true part of us didn't want to see our children hated and driven from home, the curse mark didn't want to see our 'weapons' leave." Kushina looked sick at what the curse mark made her think of her own children, Minato did as well.

Naruto thought for a second "Thats...Thats a lot to take in." There were a few good minutes of silence while Naruto processed what was said. "Part of me really wants my titles back, but at this point...what good would that do for anyone? Mito and Menma could loose the trust of the villagers, you two would have to spend time and energy dealing with the trust loss, I would look somewhat petty in front of the other clans for taking back a title I willingly gave up, no matter the context behind me doing it. I think it would cause more problems then it fixes."

Both parents nodded, they agreed with Naruto and came to the same conclusion as before this conversation but were willing to deal with the consequences if it Naruto truly wanted his titles back. "We're proud of you, Naruto, we will accept your decision, but we want to still give you a title, to follow Uzumaki law and tradition ... and I guess Namikaze too, even though will be the same." Minato laughed.

"Oh..hmmm" Naruto hummed he Didn't know what to think, now that his parents were in his life he didn't really care about the clan titles heir or otherwise. To Naruto they were representative of his place in the family. He was more focused on spending time with his parents and siblings and training with the biniru clan. "I don't know... maybe a Nightblade?"

Nightblades were the predecessors to the anbu. They were considered the elite of stealth, assassination and ninjutsu. While Nightblades were not created by or exclusive to the uzumaki clan, theirs were feared for their sealing abilities. As the more modern forces were created, the name fell out of use. The uzumaki clan decided to repurpose the name as a title for the leader of their most elite anbu guard.

Kushina frowned "Naruto don't just pick something because it has a cool name." While her son had good stealth and ninjutsu skills she did not want him to take up the dark path of an anbu necessary to become a nightblade. "you said your goal is to become a sage right? A nightblade lifestyle will interfere with that goal, the bloodshed and darkness that lifestyle leads makes sage training much harder. While the Uzumaki clan doesn't have a sage title maybe something like Uzumaki grand monk might fit your goals. We can easily get you training in the fire temple, and on Mount Myoboku if you sign the contract."

hmmm. Naruto nodded. He knew of sage mode and figured that would be come up eventually. How would he break him becoming a yokai to his parents "I'll think about it... do I need do decide right now?"

Minato looked sheepish "wellllll... nooooo... but, sooner would be better than later..." Naruto cocked his head at this.

Kushina inhaled deeply there was no beating around this bush, "Naruto, we found more Uzumaki."

a cliffhanger that leads right into the next arc in this saga :) see you all next time :)