Prey chapter 57

Chapter 57: The large radiance and seven seas

A couple of days had passed by and Naruto was rubbing his arm. It started to swollen a little, so Sakura placed the rest of the remaining 3 shots in his other arm.
"Sorry, I should have changed the place more often," Sakura said uncomfortable, "I didn't think about it. Been too busy lately." "It's alright, don't worry," Naruto muttered, pulling his sleeves down again.
"How has your temperature been?" she asked while standing up and putting the empty shots in a little bag. "Stable, bit too high yet, Hinata-chan said, but I feel okay," he stood up and walked with her to the door, "at least I don't feel like throwing up or sleeping all the time anymore." Sakura laughed a little, making Naruto grin a little.
Naruto stopped close to the door, but kept his distant. Going outside or close to an open door was something Hinata forbade him and, still staying over at the Hyuga compound, it would be wise to listen to that since everyone could watch him.
"Thanks, Sakura." "Get well you, good bye Naruto," she replied and left.

Naruto then walked over to the living room, where he found Tenten in the arms of Neji. "Heya," the blonde greeted. The two looked up. "Why are you walking around in pyjama's?" Tenten asked confused, "And… here…" Naruto let out a grin, "You've been on a mission haven't you?" "Uhuh," Tenten replied.
"To make it short, I got ill and Hinata doesn't let me go home until I'm completely better." "Hiashi told me when I got back. I don't think you mind staying here though."
A slight blush crept across Naruto's face as he looked away and said, "Like you are one to talk." This made Tenten giggle and Neji blush a little.

"Naruto-san?" Naruto looked to the door opening where he found Homare. "Uhm… I'll be going back to bed in a while," he quickly said, knowing that Hinata told her to watch over him when she was gone. Both Tenten and Neji started to snort and received a glare of the blonde.
"That's not what I am here for. Hiashi-sama wishes to see you, he's in his office." "Oh, okay."
Naruto followed Homare to Hiashi's office where she let him in and left. "You called for me, Hiashi-sama?" The man looked up. "Ah, yes. I thought you might like this. I just found it while looking for some papers." Hiashi gave Naruto a box, which he opened with curiosity. "Pictures… of my parents?" "My twin brother loved making pictures. If you want you can have them."
"E-eh? R-really?" "Of course," Hiashi said as he stood up, "You never saw your parents after all. It's the least I can do." "Th-thanks," Naruto muttered as he looked inside the box. "I'm off to a meeting now. You can stay here or go to Hinata's room if you want, don't go outside." "Yes," Naruto said, only half hearing what the Hyuga clan leader just said.

Hiashi left the room and Naruto sat down on the floor, taking picture after picture out of the box. Some were funny, some were not. The more pictures he got out, the older his parents got. At one point Naruto stared at a picture of his father wearing a chu-nin vest. He then stood up and walked to Hinata's room with the picture in his hand.

Inside his girlfriend's room he walked over to the mirror and stared at himself before looking at the picture again. "I don't get it; even I see the similarities… why can't the villagers?"

"Because they don't want to, I guess."

Naruto let out a sigh.

'But it's so damn obvious. I really look a lot like… dad…'

The blonde walked back to the office of Hiashi.

"I thought you got used to it by now?"

'I did, I just don't understand. I really wonder if it will be a big surprise that I'm the son of the fourth by most of the adults.'

Naruto sat down again and looked at the rest of the pictures. He even found several with Mitsuki and her parents, back when Mitsuki was around one year old. And he burst into laughter when he found one in which his cousin was battling his father over a cookie. Mitsuki had the thing already in her mouth while her uncle tried to get it out of her mouth.
The young teacher turned the picture around and found some scribbles at the back.

"Mitsuki clearly was still hungry. She got Minato's cookie who wasn't too pleased with this and tried to get it back. In the end he gave up, saying he didn't like baby drool on his cookie. Too bad for him it was the last cookie there was."

Laughing Naruto placed the picture away. "I should show this one to Mitsuki," he grinned and looked at the last remaining pictures in the box. To his surprise there were other things in the box as well. It seemed like letters. Hesitating he looked at them for several seconds but then got one out and read it.
To his surprise they seemed to be letters directed to his mother.

'Why does Hiashi have these…?'

He got all the letters out and the last one was directed to Hiashi. Naruto unfolded the paper and started reading.

Dear Hiashi,

We can't believe what happened. We got a letter from Sarutobi-san in which was described that Kyubi attacked the village and Minato saved everyone by sealing the demon fox away and died due to this. However we were even more shocked to read our daughter died during this awful day.
We're glad you and your family survived and our son in law managed to prevent worse, but for us this is a great loss.
We hope you, your wife, and child when it is born, will come to visit us once in a while. And maybe you can explain us better what happened that day, for in Sarutobi's letter there is not much described.
He ended with telling us he will bring Kushina-chan's body to the former Whirlpool Country so she could be buried here. We appreciate this and hope you will come as well, for she was good friend of yours and your best friend's wife.
We hope you are doing fine and to hear from you soon.

Yours truly,
Uzumaki Daiki &
Uzumaki Nanami

"This is…" Naruto started in shock and then noticed he had started crying. He rubbed the tears away and stared at the letter, reading it again and again. Then he started searching for an envelope with the address on it. He found one.
It had the stamp of a hawk post office on it. With some difficulty he managed to read the name of the town and walked over to the giant map on the wall.
"Let's see, Whirlpool country used to be… here… but where is Kamon?" It took him a while before finding the town. But as soon as he did he gathered all the pictures and letters, put them in the box which he then placed on the desk before rushing to Hinata's room to get his clothes.

"BAKA! Don't think about going outside in your state of being!"

'Shut up!'

"It's more than a day travel by foot!"

'Don't worry about it. I'll be fine!' Naruto growled back to Kyubi as he got himself in his trousers.
He then quickly got his shirt and green vest on, grabbed his sandals that were standing near the door that would lead outside and just before leaving the room he grabbed his head band.
After that he slid the door open and softly closed it behind him. 'I'm sorry Hinata-chan, but I have to.'
After jumping over the wall he tied his headband around his head and head home where he gathered some stuff. Then he left.

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Minoru was grumpily looking at Kojirou and Amaya who was trying to tell the boy to take a break, but the red haired wouldn't listen. Eventually he couldn't watch it anymore so jumped up and walked over to the two.
"Amaya-chan, let him. If he drops down from training so much, it's his own fault!" he said angrier than he meant it.
Amaya looked shocked at him, but Minoru seemed to have caught Kojirou's attention. The red haired looked at his two team-mates for a moment, "Fine, I'll stop." He then dropped in the grass.
A few minutes later Mitsuki returned with their lunches. "There we go, anyone hungry?" "Uhm… why did you bring this much?" Amaya wondered. "Mitsuki eats a lot but doesn't gain weight," Rakuna replied making the wolf girl sweat drop.
"You and sensei really are family," Kojirou grinned. "Talking about Naruto… you three haven't seen him yesterday, have you?"
The three looked confused at Mitsuki who had a thoughtful face. "He's missing… Hiashi saw him as last at 2 PM yesterday. Hinata is worried sick, but Hiashi says not to worry. I feel like he knows more about where Naruto could be but doesn't say it."
"B-but… sensei isn't fully recovered yet is he?" Minoru asked shocked, forgetting his anger. "No, he isn't even allowed to go outside… when he does… his fever will get back. On the other hand, it's Naruto we're talking about. I'm sure he will be fine…"

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Naruto leaned against a tree. "Urgh… maybe I shouldn't have done this."

"You should have listened to me! On top of that your mate will be really mad when you return," Kyubi teased at the end.

Naruto blushed a little as he untied his headband and placed it around his neck, like his girlfriend always has. After that rubbed some sweat from his forehead and continued for a few hours.
But then he had to stop again. Exhausted he sat down, sitting against a rock. 'It should be around here somewhere… maybe I went too far. Those people in that town said I had to be on this mountain but…'

He didn't think more for he fell asleep.

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"See you kids tomorrow," Mitsuki said and parted from the three students of Naruto. Amaya turned her attention back to Kojirou. "Will you be alright? All alone at home? You can stay over at my place if you want?" "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not alone, I have guards around me at home. And dad will be back tomorrow," he clearly didn't sound excited about the last part.
Amaya nodded and said her goodbye before she left. Minoru muttered a goodbye to Kojirou and turned around to walk away however he was stopped by the red haired.
"What?" the blue haired snarled. "Stop being like this." "Like what?" Kojirou sighed and let his team-mate go. "Acting all jealous."
Now Minoru looked confused, "Why should I be jealous?" "Everytime Amaya gives me some attention you get all cold and try to get her away from me. We're a team Minoru. And on top of that I don't see her more than a friend, so if you like her she's all yours."
"E-eh? Wh-what are you t-talking a-about?" Minoru blushed which made Kojirou laugh. "Admit it boy, you like her. If you don't believe me I show you some things of icha icha…" "Okay okay… maybe I do… so what? It's not like she likes me, besides… it might bring down our team-work…" "Well… now that you know I won't steal her from you… I think it won't be much of a problem," Kojirou grinned.
"Uhuh… anyway what do you think sensei is doing?" "No idea… it's probably important otherwise he wouldn't have left…"

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Naruto sat up, after finding out he was lying on some rather comfortable place. Something dropped down and when looking at it, he saw it was a wet cloth that had been lying on his head. Slowly he realized he was in a bed.
When a door was opened he looked up. A woman with a bucket with water came inside. "Oh, I see you're up. How do you feel?" "Dizzy… actually," Naruto replied as the woman got the cloth and got it refreshed in the water. After that she placed it on Naruto's forehead again and pushed him down.
"You've got quite a fever there, young man." "I'm sorry," the blonde mumbled. 'This is my punishment isn't it.'

"Hell yes it is!"

"I'm not really used to being in ill so I thought… when my fever went down it would be alright," Naruto told as the woman checked his temperature. "It doesn't disappear that easily. But what did you do to your arm, it's really swollen and it seems irritated." "Got to many shots…" The woman's eyes widened. "You're using…using…" "Not THOSE kind of shots. I meant vaccines. You know… those things you get to prevent illnesses. I got a lot because my immune system failed to work… more or less."
The blonde could hear a sigh, but he had to keep his eyes close for the moment. The room was spinning before his eyes. "No wonder that you have a fever. After vaccines it's possible to get a bit ill. I don't know how many you got, but apparently a lot since your arm is in this state and you have a fever. You should stay in bed for a couple of days."
Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the woman. Her grey hair was long and gentle eyes were looking back at him. "Really? I didn't know that… Sakura didn't tell either." Then someone else came in.
This time it was a man, around the ages of the woman. He used a stick to improve his balance. "Ah, the young lad woke up." Naruto smiled at him. "You're from Konoha, aren't you?" The blonde nodded and now realised he wasn't wearing his head band around his neck anymore. He sat up and quickly found it on the night table. Relieved he let out a sigh. "What's your business here young man? We haven't seen anyone of Konoha in years." "I'm looking for some people, but I really wonder if I would even find them. I don't even know what they look like or where they live or if they are even alive. Oh I didn't introduce myself yet, did I?" The two shook their head, "You also had no ID-card with you." "Hehe, I think I forgot in my hurry. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Jo-nin and teacher… is something wrong?"

The woman was looking shocked at the blonde and the man could only stare at him. After a while the woman uttered, "No… that cannot be. You're alive? But we thought…" Slowly the blonde's fevered mind started to understand why they were so shocked and in turn he couldn't do a thing himself either.
Suddenly he was being hugged. "But how?" the man muttered still not believing it could be true. Naruto pushed the woman that was hugging him away a little. "Uzumaki… Nanami and Daiki… r-right?" He got a nod as return. "Hehe, even when it seems I'm unlucky I'm lucky." "How… I don't understand." Nanami asked.
"To make a long story short…th… dad sealed Kyubi inside me. I survived that, but he died." "Oh my god…" Nanami whispered shocked and also it leaked some fear. "No worries, kyu-chan won't appear unless I let him out."

"WHAT ARE YOU CALLING ME?!!" Kyubi asked angrily.

Naruto started laughing, "But it sound funny." When he saw the two confused faces he calmed down. "A few years back we almost fused but I managed to get it under control together with Hiashi-sama and Tsunade-ba-chan. I re-sealed the seal and now we will never fuse however I still hear his voice inside my head."

"AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU WERE TO LISTEN TO ME!"

"But… don't you feel afraid, walking around with the creature that destroyed most of Konoha and killed your parents." Naruto shook his head and looked down at the sheets. "No… he didn't kill my parents. Maybe somehow he's responsible for my father's death but yet I doubt it. The fact is; his memories about that completely vanished. It's nothing but blackness. On top of that mom was in a safe place, far away from the danger. What happened there… only Rakuna knows, but she doesn't remember."
Naruto was pushed back in the pillow. "So you know Rakuna?" "She's Mitsuki's pet now. I met those two a few years back, but I only found out that she is my cousin not so long ago."

Daiki walked over to the bed and Naruto gave him a clueless look. "You're just like your father, as irresponsible as well." Naruto let out a snort. "No I think I'm worse," he laughed. "AND YOU'RE PROUD OF THAT?!" "DAIKI!" "Sorry," the man muttered. "I used to cause a lot of trouble and outrun chu-nin and jo-nin when I was a kid. Pulling pranks like decorating the hokage mountain with paint or let them all fall with marbles. That kinda stopped when I became a ge-nin under Kakashi-sensei. But I still like to fool someone every now and then. So yeah… I'm worse." Nanami started to laugh. "Sounds really like a child of those two."
Naruto stared at his grandmother, who had a happy yet somehow sad expression on her face. "How so?" he asked. "Your mother loved to pull pranks on us whenever she could. She was a real hand full, and that for a princess," Daiki muttered at the end.
"After a while we got so fed up with it we got really angry at her. She ran away and didn't return for days. So we asked for help in Konoha. To find her. That's how… she met your father."

(flashback)

"Don't go in too far, Minato. You might get lost." "Yes, sensei!" the young blonde shouted back. Carefully he made his way through. "Kushina-san?! Are you in here?"
"You're sure she is in here, Daiki-sama?" "She must be. She loves to go to this place but normally doesn't go in that far."
"Sensei I-GAH!"
Minato slipped and rolled down a cliff he hadn't seen. When he finally stopped he slowly got up. "Ow ow ow, that hurts." He went over to his flashlight, that had fallen out of his hand during the fall, so he could check his wounds. It didn't seem that bad.
"Minato! Are you alright?" he heard his teacher shout. He looked up and saw some people peering over the edge of the cliff. "I'm fine. I'll go look for her here! Maybe she fell as well!"

The blonde walked through the tunnels while calling out the name of the girl he was looking for. When he heard someone crying he ran into the persons direction. It was a girl and she looked up when seeing the light directing towards her.
"Uzumaki Kushina-san?"
She jumped up and pointed at him. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!" "I'm Namikaze Minato and I heard you crying…" "I wasn't crying!" Minato walked towards but the pain his legs from the fall made him drop on the floor. "Urgh… stupid cliff… but at least I found you. Are you alright, Kushina-san." "Stop calling me that." "But… you're the princess of the Whirlpool country so I…" "STUPID! Just because of that everybody is nice to me! I hate that!"
"Wasn't the reason you ran away from home because your parents got angry at you!" Minato shouted back, "Don't be so stupid!" "B-b-but…" "No buts! It's true. Your parents told us. That's why I'm here. To find you back, damn girl! I got hurt because of you so let's go back so I can see why my left leg is hurting this much!"

There was a silence for a while. "I'm sorry," Kushina whispered, "I was… I was only trying to get some of the staff members shout at me… but instead it were my parents and that surprised me."
"Are you by any chance… bored?" Shocked the girl looked at him, a grin appeared on his face. "You were, weren't you?" She nodded as he stood up. "Let's get out of this place." "Can you walk?" she asked worried. "I'll be fine. And I'm sorry for shouting at you for no reason." Kushina helped the boy up. "We can get your wound cleaned at the lake inside this place." "How do you know there is a lake here?" Minato asked as he had some trouble walking, but with Kushina holding him up it was less painful. "I know this cave by heart. I love going here, it has so many different animals inside." Minato looked a bit shocked. "Are there bears too?" "Of course, but don't worry, they won't attack us. Look there's the lake." Kushina looked ahead now and so did Minato who's eyes widened. Now he understood why she liked going here, the place was beautiful. There were even bushes, grass and trees growing inside this place, because light could reach them through the ceiling.
Kushina let Minato sit down near the lake and got some cloth out of her pocket which she made wet. After that she washed away the blood of Minato's wounds. "It's not that bad. It's not bleeding anymore either," she said. "Yeah, but I think I sprained my ankle. The more I walk the more it hurts. Could we wait for a while before going back?" Kushina snorted and nodded a yes. They spend the time talking and looking around.
"Why don't you come over to Konoha, once in a while?" Minato suggested when he heard she never left the Uzumaki grounds. Even this cave was on that. She gave him an confused look. "I mean…" the blonde started, "You're bored and never left home. So why don't you ask your parent to take you to some places and promise you won't prank about or something like that." Kushina giggled. "You're actually rather nice, Minato… and cute too…" Minato stared at her as he started to blush.
"Uhm… well… thanks… I think." This caused the girl to laugh. "A-ano… shall we get back? My ankle is okay for now." "On one condition." "Hm?" "That we meet again," she said looking at him. "S-sure…" Kushina smiled and kissed the boy on his cheek, "Thanks." Confused the boy looked at her, while his blush increased.

(end flashback)

Naruto smiled as he looked at the sheets. "I never really heard a lot of stories about them before." "Your father caused us a lot of trouble. Actually Kushina-chan had to merry…" "Hyuga Hiashi… I know. He told me that story." Diaki raised an eyebrow, "oh? How come?" "W-well…he… he's the father of my girlfriend." Nanami looked surprised about that yet happy, Diaki just didn't seem to believe that.
"Hiashi never wrote us back," the old man pointed out. "I know… I think I know the reason. Well partly. His best friend died after all and he didn't know how to deal with that or with me. It turned out that he acted towards me like all the other villagers. Hating me. What he saw in me was my father and he couldn't deal with the loss of his best friend, so I guess… since my mother was also a good friend… it was hard for him."
Diaki nodded understanding. "So Hyuga and Uzumaki still join." This made Naruto blush a little, "I-I guess." "If Hiashi-chan hated you then how did you end with hid daughter?" Nanami wanted to know.
Instead of answering Naruto started to laugh. "Haha, Hiashi-chan. That's funny to hear. Any-haha-way. We got together secretly for a while but when he found out I had to break up because he was hurting her, her sister and my cousin who was staying there for the moment. When I got to talk to him he at first wanted to kill me but when I kept on saying things dad apparently would have said, he opened up and accepted the past and let me go out with Hinata cough chan."
Nanami pushed the blonde down. "You go to sleep. Tomorrow we will go to Konoha, but your fever has to go down for that," she said with a stern yet worried tone.

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The next morning, Naruto's fever was mostly gone down. His grandparents gathered some of their stuff and after that they went on their way back. Since he now didn't have to search they would reach Konoha by the evening.
On their way Naruto told more about his life as a shinobi and most of all Hinata. Everytime he mentioned her Nanami got to smile and even Diaki seemed to like the idea; which probably was because she was a Hyuga.

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"I'm just worried," Hinata mumbled, "He isn't fully recovered." "Don't worry, it's Naruto we're talking about. He'll come home soon," Mitsuki said to cheer up her friend a little. "Yeah before you know it he will walk right through that g…" Kiba never finished his sentence for the blonde he had been talking about indeed entered Konoha at that moment. "Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted and ran to her boyfriend.
"Hinata-chan?" Naruto said surprised to find her here. Then he received a hard slap. "Where the hell have you been?! You know you're not to go anywhere! You're still not recovered!"
Naruto rubbed his cheek a little as he was in shock that she had actually slapped him. But he knew she had all the right to it, after all he didn't leave a message when he left. As quilt took over he avoided her eye contact.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry. I just…" "Just what?!" Hinata shouted angrily. "I… your father let me look at some old stuff from my parents in his office and I came across some letters from my grandparents…" the blonde said softly still avoiding her glares.
"Huh…?" Hinata suddenly sounded less angry, but confused, making Naruto look up a bit. "So then I decided to look for them and…" He turned to look over his shoulders. There were two old people standing behind him.
"So you are Hinata-chan, the girl he kept on talking about," the woman asked, making Hinata flush. "Uhm…" "Hinata-chan I'm sorry about suddenly disappearing, but could we go to your home, I'm tired." The girl looked at the boy still somewhat angry. "That's your own fault, mister," she said, clearly still upset, and turned her face away as she crossed her arms.

A giggle made Hinata look behind her. "Sorry Hinata, it's just funny to see you all angry at Naruto. Also a rare sight," Mitsuki laughed. "Oh my god… Mitsuki? You're Mitsuki, right? You have to be," the old woman said. Surprised Mitsuki looked at her. "It is her, you can just see it. So your folks moved back to Konoha?" the old man said.
"Uhm… no… my parents passed away quite some time ago." "Oh, I'm sorry about that," the man said. "But how do you know me?" "You were only one year old, it's no surprise you don't remember. Here let me show you a picture." The woman got a small picture book out of her purse and gave it to Mitsuki.
Mitsuki stared at the picture. It had her and her parents on it, her uncle, the fourth hokage, was trying to keep her away from the food as the old couple, here much younger, laughed at the sight.
"Even as a baby you loved to eat," Kiba snickered, looking over his girlfriend her shoulder. Mitsuki blushed a little and looked at Naruto's grandparents. "This must be from that one visit we paid to Konoha, before Naruto was born." "It is, indeed… Naruto is everything alright?" the old woman asked the blonde who was leaning against a lamp pole. Hinata shot him a worried look that took away her anger. "Let's go to my place," she suggested and grabbed the blonde's hand who gave her a light smile.

When in the living room of the head of the Hyuga family, the leader himself was staring at the blonde. "So… how did you get that perfect hand shaped red spot on your cheek?" he asked. Naruto didn't answer as he was leaning on Hinata's shoulder, who got a blush the moment her father asked the question.
Hanabi stared at Naruto's cheek too, but then stood up, grabbed her sister's right hand and placed it on the blonde's cheek. "Oh my god?! You actually hit him, nee-san?" Hanabi said in both shock and amusement.
Ashamed Hinata gave a small nod, making Hanabi laugh. Hiashi on the other hand seemed surprised and sighed. "I should have told you." Confused they all looked at him while Homare served tea. "I knew what he was up to the moment I found the letters, I'm sorry for not telling but I knew you would chase after him and I he had to do this alone." "Hiashi, you haven't changed a bit in all those years," the old man said with a smile. Hiashi got a small smile on his face but the thing that was caught by everyone, except for maybe Naruto who had his eyes still closed, was… "Oh, father, you're blushing!" Hanabi exclaimed. This made Mitsuki laugh and fall backwards.

Hinata giggled and then looked her boyfriend. "Naruto-kun, if you're that tired you should go to bed." "Hm, I'm fine here." He moved a little and now placed his head on her lap.
"In some way that reminds me of his parents," the old woman smiled. Hiashi turned to look at her. "How so?" "It was when Mitsuki's mother left Konoha. Minato was depressed about that and he and Kushina were sitting exactly like that."
"I thought mom and uncle couldn't get along that much." "Oh sure they bickered a lot, but that's what brothers and sisters normally do, right." Mitsuki nodded.