"How many genin teams? All together?" Kiriko asks Naruto quietly. "So I know if I have to make more scrolls of camping supplies for their first trips out of the village?" She says at his look. "Not the older ones, your year and under? The older genin already have the basics and just buy their supplies on trips out of the village."

"Our three, that's including Gai even though the others graduated the year before us. Two from the year after us, out of seventeen that graduated from the academy. Four from last year out of eleven. That's still actively training. And fourteen this year, barring those that failed the graduation exercise for one reason or another." He waves a hand at the street where windows are slowly being replaced. The bank was the first one that had their windows replaced as being necessary for security.

"Are there enough teachers for them?"

"Barely," Iruka from the academy says as he walks into the building. "We're talking with some retired ninjas still active to at least get them started on working together in teams here in the village until we can bring in some jonin to take over the c-ranked missions. It's not ideal but. . ."

"You're not going to be able to work with your team leader all the time." Kiriko's father says. "This gets them used to the idea they'll be working with other people." 

"And eventually you won't be working with a team at all. You're going to *have* to go out on your own." Iruka says. 

"Okay, do genin *have* to become chunin? I mean Kosuke was a genin his entire career *because* he felt he didn't deserve a promotion."

"No, some people choose to stay where they are and just serve the village in whatever way they can. Medical nin case in point, they and the remaining academy teachers know their limits. We are good and what we do, have steady jobs, and don't need the promotion. There's also some who don't work well on their own. . ."

"Kiba, he's already said he knows he's not ready to become a chunin." Naruto says. His former teacher looks at him. "We get together and hang out after training some days. With Ino and I having steady jobs we can get together more often."

"Yes, the Inuzuka have a pack mentality because of their kekkei genkai. They work best in groups."

Kiriko starts making a list of what she's going to need for new scrolls. Her father looks over her shoulder, nodding and making a few suggestions.

"Okay, I have what is probably a dumb question. Not a word Naruto." Kiba says a few days later as he walks in with his team to get last minute supplies for their mission out of the village in the morning. "Why do you have such a small shop here, why not move to a bigger location?"

"Location, we are near the gate so those leaving on missions can grab supplies and go. One way in or out, we're nearby when they need to resupply after a mission."

Kiba looks out and nods in understanding. "The other stores can be anywhere in the village. And what I sell is already in scrolls, we don't need that big of an area. Even with the meal scrolls."

Kiba chuckles but nods.

Kiriko looks around the building and adds an item to the list. "Yes, I was going to say we're running low on supplies for scrolls."

"It's been a couple years since I brought the paper and ink. I'll have to rent a cart to pick them up and then put them in scrolls." He nods.

Kiriko slumps into her seat at the counter three weeks later, tossing Madi and her father scrolls. "I already dropped off the paper and ink at the warehouse. I got tapped to buy for the village too."

"Thank you dear. Go soak at the hot springs, you look sore." Her father says.

"I'm afraid I'd fall asleep and drown as tired as I am." She snorts. "And I know if I sleep now, I'll be up all night and be just as tired tomorrow."

Madi and her father nod in understanding. The clan women cluck at her when she returns to the farm but agree with her reasoning. Sometimes you just have to push through it and keep going, even civilians. Especially when the crops are coming in.

"What's the village going to do with the arena?" Madi asks at dinner.

"They're working on getting the debris carted away, then they'll be cleaning up the area so it can be rebuilt. They're working on plans right now, they've been wanting to make it bigger for a few years now."

The others look at Kiriko, who nods. "Yes, I'll have the job of bringing back the supplies needed to build it when they decide on a plan. It will save on shipping everything to the village. I understand the man who hired team seven for that mission that got Sasuke in trouble in Sakura hurt is going to be building it?"

"That's what I've heard as well. No doubt Naruto will be hired as well since he can make so many clones to do much of the grunt work."The others nod.

In the Tower, Naruto is nodding as he goes over plans for the rebuilding of the arena with the Hokage and other senior jonin. "Yes, your team will be escorting her to get the supplies. You've been proven to work well with her in the past."

"Can she get that amount of supplies in a scroll?"

"Oh yes, she has some super duper uper schmuper scrolls as she's called them in the past that hold enough supplies to build the hospital and academy, including all the furnishings." The Hokage chuckles. "She uses them when the clan buys more land and start putting up buildings. It might take four or five scrolls but she can do it."

"Okay," Kiriko asks the next morning. "It's been a few years, are we going through the scrolls again?"

"We probably *should*." One of the elders looks the direction of the archive. In it are copies of scrolls from all the other clans that *should* have been burned for being too wore out but were thrown in the garbage instead. Naruto might think he's the only one who has copies of material the other clans don't want getting out but he's not. Not by a long shot. If any of them wanted to, some of the clan members could break into the other clan libraries and steal all their precious secrets, replacing them with blank scrolls. But they know Hiruzen would know it was them and give them his 'I am so disappointed' look. 

All the clan jutsus that don't involve their Kekkei Gankai have been copied and taught to most of the clan. Hiruzen knows what they're doing, as long as they don't flaunt it he doesn't care. If anybody figures out what they're doing, too damn bad. They shouldn't know away clan information like that.

Kiriko silently goes through the alleys later that night, finding all sorts of scrolls in the trash that are dropped into bags to be looked at and copied in the case of anything new by the clan elders. She's not the only one with full bags she dumps in front of the elders. And the Hokage. Who just moans.

"Let me know who I need to talk to about clan security?" He asks dryly. 

The list of what they'd gathered on the scrolls and the originals are tossed on his desk a few weeks later. He summons the heads of the clans to his office and Kiriko can almost imagine she sees the windows rattling. Her father chuckles.

"Are we showing Naruto the archive?"

"This weekend after training."

Naruto moan as he's led into a building, seeing racks of scrolls labeled by clans everywhere. "Like you, our clan goes through the garbage and collects the worn out scrolls the others *should* be burning." Kiriko's father says. "But we go a step further in that after we copy them we let the Hokage know who's not taking things seriously so they can get yelled at by him."

"Do you have scrolls from all the clans here?"

"Yes, and if anything is updated we have the original and new version." Kiriko says. "We also have scrolls from the other villages but not here. Nobody expects our clan to take, copy, and replace scrolls whenever we have missions outside of the village."

"Uchiha?" He asks, finding racks of scrolls.

"Gathered after the massacre. And again after Sasuke was dealt with. Not that the little fool added anything to them." Kiriko's father says in disgust.

"Senju? U. . .Uzumaki?" He whimpers. 

"Yes, the Uzumaki used to be the premier clan of a village that was destroyed by other villages. Everybody was killed, or scattered to the wind and never able to recover. It used to be mentioned in the academy but like a lot of stuff was removed. You won't find anything in it in the village library for similar reasons but if you go to the Tower library, you can find the record on Uzushiogakure. Your mother came from there before it was destroyed."

"This. . .this is the symbol on our jackets?" He asks quietly.

"Yes, that was the symbol of the village, it's worn on the flak jackets to signify that Konoha was once close friends with the village." 

"Namikaze? The fourth Hokage?"

"Yes, Hiruzen gave us copies of his clan scrolls to save. So many people were lost in the war. We were able to save the information but have no way of using it. Hopefully someday in the future it can be used again."

How many secrets does the Izuno clan hide Naruto thinks a couple days later when he returns to his apartment. He's off for a couple of days and almost without thinking about it he finds himself heading to the Tower and the archive, finding the scrolls Kiriko's father had mentioned and sitting down to read quietly. The others stare at him. One hurries over to try to stop him and is waved off by the ANBU.

"Why isn't this mentioned at the Academy Jiji?" He asks, looking up to find the Hokage sitting across from him watching.

"Because the fools on the council wanted this knowledge gone. They didn't like the idea of other villages being just as powerful as Konoha." He says quietly. "I take it you have seen the Izuno library?"

"Yes." He says, looking around, seeing they're alone except for the ever present ANBU and the sigils silencing the room to anybody except them active. "How *stupid* are clans to just throw all that information away where anybody can get it?"

"Stupid, greedy, stubborn. . .any of another dozen ways to say foolish because they think they're so powerful nothing will ever happen to them. The Hyuga clan lost a lot of power then the fool elders tried attacking Neji after they threw him from the clan. I've ordered the teachers to start teaching it again at the academy and the older graduates are going to get strong hints to come to the Tower and look up history on lost villages and *why* they were lost. Because things happen."

"Jiji, the other villages. . .they're failing, aren't they?"

"Yes Naruto, I'm afraid they are. They rely so much on their ninja forces to pay for everything. Where Konoha has a thriving civilian population and businesses that bring in money. Now that a few of the bad apples have been dealt with." He says sourly. "They can't afford to put on chunin exams of their own and with ours having to be delayed until the arena is rebuilt they're faltering. But unlike them, we're still going strong. We have a flourishing economy, our academy is recovering after a couple bad years, and we don't rely on jobs from the Daimyo to keep everything going."

"Jiji, are we going to have another war?"

"No Naruto, we will *not*." the Hokage says firmly. "We are a strong village and even working together two or three of them they cannot defeat us. The other villages, they're dying. They can't afford to keep their academies running so they have no new genin to replace older ninja who are dying. In another five or ten years. . .they will be lost unless they totally turn their villages around. And I don't see that happening."

"Jiji, you're old." Naruto says bluntly.

"Ouch brat, that hurts. It's the truth, but it still hurts." he says dryly. "Do you mean what happens if I retire again or die? Asuma has been working with the Daimyo and will be taking over from me some day. And Konohamaru will be taking over from him unless something happens and somebody else takes over." Probably be one of the Izunos he thinks. Maybe even Kiriko. That would make the other clans howl though. "Now, changing the subject. What are your plans for your land?"

"Farming, I've been talking with the clan elders about what will grow in the location, sell well here in the village, or can be shipped off for sale elsewhere."

"They'd know what to do, part of why the other clans look down on them is they actively bring in money besides being ninjas. They're successful and the other clans are miserable.

"Just like the civilians."

Hiruzen nods.

Over the next couple of weeks the other genin in Naruto's year and his teammates are in the Tower library, looking over the information on the villages can be lost and talk about it with their senseis. 

"This is what I wanted, well-rounded genin who actually think things through instead of weapons to point at people." Hiruzen says in disgust at a meeting of the ninja and civilian councils. Much to his dismay and disgust, Kiriko's father *is* on the council and blatantly ignoring his friends laughing and pointing at him before the meeting.

"But it doesn't seem right." One of the more moronic civilians whine.

"Oh shut up," Kiriko's father finally says in disgust. "It's not your damn decision, it's the Hokage's. Get *over* it you little fool. It's a part of the heritage of the village and I for one am glad to see it returning to the academy."

"Kiriko, I hate to ask you this. I really, really, *really* hate to ask you this." The Hokage moans a couple weeks later.

"Need more paintballs?" She smirks.

"Yes. And quit laughing."

"Excuse me, are you related to the young woman who was here a couple years ago and brought out the store?" One of the men behind the desk asks when she walks into the store she'd brought from before. She's looking around in dismay and rolling her eyes while looking at a piece of paper in front of her.

"Yeeeeesssssss," Kiriko says in pretend disgust. "Sister. She's an idiot but the family humors her so I had to come get more toys for her. Because she's bored. Gods forbid the little fool actually work like the rest of the family." She hands over copies of the pictures of the village and the man behind the counter desperately tries not to laugh. "Scrubbing, lots and lots and lots of scrubbing. Then they went and did it *again*." She wails. The man does laugh this time. "Please tell me you don't do special orders? The little fool wants paint colors to match her clothes."

"No Ma'am, they only come in standard colors."

"Thank you gods." She sighs as they start lifting the cases and carrying them to the cart outside and moved to scrolls when she's out of sight. Taking the train as far as she can she drops the scroll on the Hokage's desk along with the remaining money. He shoves it back at her. "Consider it a bonus for your work. Have any trouble?"

"The man behind the counter asked if I was related to the girl who'd been there before. I said sister, she was an idiot but the family humored her so I was sent off to buy her more toys. I asked if they could be special ordered, the damn fool wanted paint colors to match her clothes." Hiruzen desperately holds back the cackle that wants to escape him. "I showed him doctored copies of the photos without any identifying marks then wailed as soon as everything was scrubbed clean they did it again."

Kiriko slides into the water at the farm, everybody laughing at her antics. "So I made just as much an impression as I did when we were there before but everybody will think we're two different people. One a wannabe noble and the other just trying to make a living and having to deal with the idiot." The others nod.

"Best type of story to spin and something that might trip up a genin."

The next day she walks into the shop, looking around in satisfaction before taking a seat. She can hear the others working in the other building through the cracked doors and Ayame comes in with a bag of scrolls for the racks. She fills one rack, grins, and heads off making three more trips to fill more racks.

"I could come and get the scrolls, you know." She says, sighing.

"Dad is making a special dish. The smell. . .it's good money and it tastes good but the smell cooking is enough to knock my socks off. I had to get away for a few minutes." Ayame sighs.

"Yeah, the clan has a couple dishes like that. Thankfully they don't make them all the time and there's enough warning I can be elsewhere for a few days."

"Everybody has dishes that taste wonderful but smell awful being made." One of the clanswomen says from the door, snickering. "You're too young to remember, hell I was only a child myself but some damn fool wanted to shut down restaurants because the smell of cooking made *her* nauseous. The little fool went wailing to the Hokage. . .it was the fourth then, and got nothing but tossed out of the Tower and told to grow up."

"Idiot."

Teuchi chuckles when his daughter returns from her errands. "It's nearly done."

"I know."

Gai walks into the store with Lee. "Mission?" Kiriko asks when he gathers supplies.

"Special training. We have booked a training ground and will be gone a week."

Kiriko nods.

A week later Naruto comes into the store. "Enjoy yourself?"

"No, but I learned a lot." He yawns. "Need me for anything? Otherwise I'm going to sleep a week. Then roll over and sleep another week."

Kiriko chuckles and waves him off.

Naruto looks at the plans for houses, finally selecting one. Kiriko nods. "Now have you found a place on your land where you want to put it?"

"Yes, there's a clearing that will do well. Surrounded by trees, a supply of water to tap for electricity and water. We'll have to put in a system to heat it."

The engineers in the family nod. "We have them in the kitchen and bathing room to heat the water there."

Kiriko grabs the finger pointing and her and breaks it, the other woman screaming. "I don't care who the hell you are, you ever threaten me again bitch and I'll do more than break your finger." Acting on her words she beats the fool within an inch of her life without breaking a sweat. Passing teams drag her off and she's taken to an interrogation room.

"Who the hell is that fool?" Kiriko asks a few days later when she's summoned to the Tower.

"One of the remaining Hyuga Main House elders. She was incensed that you were stealing from the clan by selling meal scrolls. You take food from her mouth."

"That bitch looks like she never missed a meal a day in her life." Kiriko snorts. "And we don't sell Hyuga clan meals, the clan is so full of themselves for the most part they'd never lower themselves to work for a living."

"Indeed, they know that. . .now. I told that stupid bitch and Hiashi just what goes on in the meal preparations, what clans actually do the cooking, and that you buy all the ingrediants and pay them for their work. The little fool is horrified at not being given control of your business in an attempt to make the Hyugas important again and he about killed her for embarrassing them again. She was screaming that Neji works there so of *course* they have to be stealing from us as she was dragged off. She is now the laughing stock of the village, the high and mighty Hyuga beaten by a civilian. Not clan members, a civilian." Hiruzen smirks. "She is now working punishment detail to pay a judgment in your favor. And Hiashi has laid down the law, you are to be left alone unless they are buying scrolls from you or you are friends with them. In that case Neji and Hinata. The Branch House is hiding the fact they're gleefully enjoying the downfall of the Main House and Hiashi is trying not to drink himself to death because that would leave this mess on Hinata and Hinabi."

Kiriko shakes her head as she watches the once proud Hyuga jeered at as she walks down the street.

Hiashi walks into the shop that he has never entered before. Going to the wall of racks he sees as the Hokage has said, there is no racks for Hyuga meals. And since the racks are built into the wall and the names and meals stamped into the wood it's not a case of they just removed them quickly. Shaking his head he examines the other wall, nodding at everything a ninja would need on a mission. "I apologize for the stupidity of my clan member, she was looking to steal your businesses in an attempt to gain power. She is now working in the sewers, permanently." Kiriko desperately wants to cackle, it takes all her willpower to keep a straight face.

Hinata freezes in the doorway when she sees her father. "Are you happy with Naruto?" he asks, seeing him shadowing her protectively.

"Y. . .yes father."

"Good, that's all I wanted for my children in the end. For them to be happy. I knew your father boy, he would be very proud of you." He tells Naruto. "Treat her like the princess she is?"

"Of course sir."

"I will not have your eyes bound, if any of your children inherit the Byakugan, have them trained by the branch house. They're the ones who are actively using it." Neji freezes in the doorway of the other building. Almost faster than can be seen, Hiashi clasps his nephew on the shoulder. "I am pleased to see you recovering your health nephew. Be happy, be well."

"What the hell just happened?" Neji asks quietly after Hiashi has left.

"The Hyuga lost a lot of power when the clan elders tried attacking the building to bind your eyes even after being told no. They lost more respectability when that fool woman tried claiming I was stealing from the clan by selling meals even though I've never sold their meals. Hiashi is now having to deal with the fact he's a human being and not a god among men." Kirito's father drawls from the back room. "Even in your former clan, the main house has lost a lot of power. The branch house was always the ones who did the actual work, the main house just reaping the benefits of that."

"JiJi, Hinata's father said he knew mine." Naruto asks quietly, making sure all sigils hiding their conversation are on and the ANBU have been removed from the room. "Who was he?"

"I. . .I knew this time would come." Hiruzen says. He wraps an arm around Naruto's shoulders and they face the Hokage monument. "What do you see out there?"

"The Hokage faces. The first. The second. Yours. and. . .the fourth?" He looks up at the other man, stunned. "The fourth was my father?"

"Yes, we had to protect your identity. Your father still has a lot of enemies in the other villages. In a few more years, once the other villages have been lost it will be announced formally. Your birth name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, your father was Namikaze Minato, and your mother was Uzumaki Kushina, she was known as the red hot habenaro in the bingo books."

"I've heard of her. Tenten is a fan because she was a competent kunoichi who worked for everything she had. Wait. . .Kiriko's father knew my mother?"

"Yes, and your father."