Naruto uchiha

chapter 9

"Okasan…" Naruto greeted her with a little smile.

Glancing back towards the blond, Tsunade was taken aback to see the warmth and understanding his eyes held. She would have said something about his right eye, having never seen a doujutsu like that, but she held that thought away. She moved closer and stood right in front of him. She noticed he was about four feet and eleven inches, being only a few inches shorter than her.

Without saying anything further, she hugged him tightly as a few tears dropped from her eyes. Jiraiya and Shizune smiled, seeing her this way. They both knew how tough the past had been for her in Konoha and for her to come back to the village was a big step. But if one were to notice the Toad Sannin carefully, he had a thoughtful look on his face. The moment he had seen Naruto's right eye, he knew what it was. Having taught a child earlier at the end of Second Shinobi War, Jiraiya knew quite a bit about the rinnegan.

"I'm so sorry. I should have come sooner…" whispered Tsunade softly in his ear. Wrapping his arms around his godmother, Naruto hugged her back. A few seconds later, she let go of Naruto and cupped his cheeks gently. She noticed how eerily similar Naruto looked to his grandfather, Madara. She had met the man only on a couple of occasions when she was just a child. Despite that similarity, she observed how much he resembled his parents.

"You look so much like your parents, Naruto." Tsunade said with a smile, as she stood up. Having heard that on many occasions, Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a slight chuckle.

"We should get going inside. Tou-chan must be waiting Jiraiya oji-chan, Okasan…" Naruto looked at the brunette woman awkwardly, not knowing who she was. Shizune saw the confusion on his face and realized she hadn't introduced herself yet.

"I'm Shizune Kato. I have been travelling with Tsunade-sama since I was young." Shizune introduced herself gently. She had always been interested in meeting with young Naruto. She had known his mother Kushina from her academy and genin days in Konoha.

"It is nice to meet you, Shizune-chan." Naruto replied with a small smile.

"Alright, let's get inside and talk, shall we? We need to meet Minato anyway." Jiraiya stated. Naruto, Tsunade and Shizune picked up the seriousness in his voice and nodded their heads. Without another thought, all four of them walked into the house.

The Library Room, Namikaze Compound

Minato sat on his desk going through the paperwork for the reconstruction of some of the buildings that were damaged during last night's attack. Even though precautions were taken against them in the given amount of time, not all the locations were covered in time, mainly the ones hit due to the explosive tags. As he flipped through the pages, he clicked his tongue in irritation as he found several complaints from the former civilian council members about their sudden discharge. Taking those out of the pile of papers, Minato kept them in a separate folder which normally contained documents which were irrelevant to the functioning of the village.

Going back to the previous papers, Minato sighed, looking at large pile that was still left. Yesterday's attack, which was led by Danzo, had taken a larger toll on the village than he had thought. The Uchiha Clan had provided quality shinobi since the founding of the village to serve as village protection as well as to fight on the front lines during times of attack. With majority of them gone now, the number of shinobi in the regular shinobi forces had reduced drastically. He was aware that in the last decade or so, due to the temporary peace, several of the villages' shinobi system had become lax. Due to that, most of the students graduating from the academy were not well versed with the shinobi lifestyle. Many took solace in the temporary peace that has reigned over the five great nations, and most shinobi did not train themselves further to advance their skills.