Konoha fox

Chapter 5

The elemental countries were in turmoil. The rumor that travelled across them was both terrible and wonderful, depending on the point of view.

Itachi Uchiha, heir and prodigy of the Uchiha clan, feared for its doujutsu, the Sharingan, in one night had eliminated his whole clan. The only survivor, besides Itachi himself, was his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha.

The yondaime hokage, Konoha's yellow flash, was forced to go back to his village from the capital where he had met the fire daimyo.It seemed that, in less than eight hours, he had completed the three days' journey from the capital to Konoha.

It was a reminder to some of the other countries that, even if they lost one of their most powerful clans, the leaf ninjas still shouldn't be underestimated.

However the fact was that that Konoha was weakened. That, coupled with an insistent Jiraiya that reminded her of her promice, forced a reluctant Tsunade to pack her things to head back to her birth village.

Naruto, now a six year old boy, seemed to be really excited.

Personally Tsunade didn't know what to do with him: it was good to see a change from his lazy and laid back attitude, but, on the other hand, last time he had been like this was when Jiraiya had the bright idea to give him a sweet with a high content of sugar.

All to make him promise not to tell her he had brought him to the onsen.

The females' part of the onsen.

That day had been hell, he even managed to take Jiraiya's pants, leaving him in his boxers in the middle of the streets without him noticing until a woman slapped him screaming.

None of them had been able to figure out how he did that, but they agreed that giving him sugar was taboo.

Apart from the sugar rule, Naruto had grown into a fine ninja-in-training too.

It took a lot of patience and time for him to learn chakra control, and he still had the tendency to use loads of it, enough to compensate his lack of control with raw power, but Tsunade wouldn't have that.

She did everything in her power and in the end she managed to teach him to control his chakra.

As for theoretical knowledge, he proved to be like the sponge he still carried around.

The two women knew it was ridiculous, but neither of them could bring themselves to take it away from him.

However Naruto wasn't the only one who had made progress.

Tsunade herself made a huge improvement getting rid of her fear of blood.

It had happened two years previously, when a group of missing-nin attacked them.

After Shizune defeated one of them, his so called comrades cut off his head, saying he was a weakling.

Tsunade had frozen at the bloody display, but then one of the missing-nin just had to look at Naruto and say "Don't worry little boy, I'm sure we won't have to kill you too, someone would certainly buy you."

Strangely even then he wasn't really scared, just worried by his mother's trembling. He didn't know that it was no longer because of the blood, but out of rage.

He then looked at her and said his first word, "Mom?"

Hearing it melted her heart. It was also that moment her hemophobia disappeared completely and she demonstrated exactly why people didn't mess with one of the densetsu no sannin. Smart people at least.

The group of two women, a pig and a child were nearing Konoha's main gate. "Naruto," Tsunade suddenly spoke up, "Put on your goggles."

He did as he was told, hiding his eyes from view.