A Big Return

[Ruins of Uzushio]

"Naruto."

...

"Please, Naruto."

...

"We have to go."

...

"I didn't see anything else in the ruins that might help you."

...

"I'm sorry about what happened, but we can't stay here."

...

"There are traces left, traces of ninja. Some other people have been here, since I was here last."

...

"It won't be good to encounter them and start an international incident."

...

"The invasion, it was hard on everyone, and it's left the walls in shambles and the defenders scattered. We need you back home, to keep everyone safe."

...

"It's been days. We have to go back to Konoha."

...

"Konoha. Where..." The man stopped a moment. "Where Iruka is. And Teuchi and Ayame. And Sasuke and Sakura."

He moved slightly, removing the fox's arm's from it's face, where he had lain them. He'd heard all of this before, of course. But he'd been laying around trying to pretend the world wasn't as it was.

He started to get up, leaving the spot he had laid down on days ago.

"Thank you. We'll be home soon."

Home. He was going... home?

He was going to Konoha. Which feared him. Which his presence inside of would constantly be a threat to those who lived there. Was that really home for him?

But... he didn't have anywhere else to go, did he?

[Tanzaku Gai]

It was still morning, but the legendary medical ninja, Tsunade of the Sannin, had already gotten up and started in her course of drinking and gambling. And losing, usually. That's what normally happened. When she won, she typically found that something else bad followed soon thereafter.

Despite her poor fortune with regards to... well, her fortune, she continued at it, day after day. It helped take her mind off of other things, of which there were more than usual as of late.

Recently, she'd been visited by someone from Konoha, who had tried to convince her to return. Not very effectively, though.

Dice rolled, and she lost a little money.

From the official that had talked to her, she had heard of the invasion. Heard more of the invasion, anyway. Several travellers had gone through, talking about giant demons fighting each other in Konoha. A few others talked about a giant fox demon forfeiting in a chunin exam tournament, which sort of threw the slug summoner for a loop.

She downed more sake and wrote up her next wager.

The elderly man, however, had expanded on it. First of all, the Third Hokage, her sensei, had perished in a fight against her former teammate, Orochimaru.

Also fallen in combat, the man reported, were the Kazekage and Suna's jinchuriki, the former against the Hokage and the latter in combat elsewhere. Combined with most of their invading force being wiped out due to events in the invasion breaking their intended invasion plan, Suna's forces were diminished to the point that they were more like a populous minor village than a great one.

Dice rolled, and she lost a little money.

Besides that, Suna's former best ally, Konoha, had just been invaded by them, and through the events of that invasion, had to focus it's force on keeping itself safe and running missions. It had neither the strength nor likely the will to assist, should Iwa decide to reduce the Five Great Villages to just four. Heck, some in Konoha would likely wish to do so themselves.

She began to absentmindedly write up her next wager.

The Nine-Tails was now well-known as a weapon of Konoha. The other nations may be rightly afraid, but they wouldn't cower. A cornered beast fights fiercely. They'd counter, bring their own weapons to bear, whether jinchuriki or Kage, unwilling to let the Leaf rise above them. With no allied great village, and surrounded even further by Iwa's influence, then Konoha could be in a possibly threatened position by the ninja village of the Land of Earth.

Kumo had most recently been an enemy of Konoha and an ally of Iwa. They could join in to bolster their strength. Between the two, they had four jinchuriki, at two, four, five and eight tails, and a vastly larger army of ninja. Konoha may be challenged, even with the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.

Then Kiri. A civil war continued there, leaving it seemingly a nonfactor. But the war could end, or be brought to an end by outside influence. What would the victor do? Stay neutral, probably, as would be safe. But they may be pressured to join one side or the other by Kumo and Konoha, especially if one of them changed the course of the war. Weakened as it was, it could be taken over as a way to help surround either of those two. Whether they wanted to or not, they may be brought into it.

And so could start the Fourth Shinobi World War, from that invasion by Suna.

But, would that happen? Would something else spark it? Would the war happen at all?

And should she follow up on her curious idea?

"T-Tsunade-sama!" exclaimed her student, suddenly showing up next to her with a panicked expression. "H-how much are you betting!?"

The gambler looked back at what she had put down as the dice were rolled and recoiled in horror. In her thoughts and worries, she had mindlessly bet more than she and her apprentice could comfortably deal with.

By a factor of a thousand.

Tsunade was known as the "Legendary Sucker" for her addiction to gambling and her horrible, horrible luck when doing so.

She could only watch in terror as the dice were rolled to a stop.

...

She could almost feel her heart stopping with them.

Here, when she had carelessly bet far more than she should've, and when it looked like the world may be about to fall into another war, she. Had. Won. Whenever she won, it was an omen. And now, it was a major one.

The visiting Konoha elder had requested that she return to help with the wounded after the invasion, explaining the reasoning, and why she might stay due to the situation the village may soon find itself in. The bandaged man had also implied that whoever next became Hokage may not be as accepting of the wandering, carefree lifestyle she had settled into after she had left Konoha due to her brother and lover's deaths.

But while he had explained reasons why she should return, an idea came to her head, an idea she hadn't been able to put out of it. She could hide. She had maintained an illusion for years to appear younger than she was in truth. She could do one to look different, and she could leave the country to hide in earnest, rather than just aimlessly wandering around the Land of Fire, drinking and gambling.

"Shizune," she told her apprentice as calmly as she could, "I'm going to collect these winnings, and then we're going."

"G-going where?" the younger woman asked.

"Somewhere the war won't find us." With that, she collected her money from the dumbstruck co-gamblers at the table and they left, taking their pet pig, Tonton, with them.

The man clearly hadn't succeeded in convincing her to return in the end. But really, who's bright idea was it to send Danzo Shimura of all people to retrieve her?

[Outside Konoha]

It was night when jinchuriki and the Sannin finally arrived in Konoha. He let Jiraiya down at the ground, and looked toward the village. He could feel some fear from the town, from those awake enough to be aware of his own arrival, though that wasn't so many. He drew back the chakra presence naturally now. Tomorrow morning, the negative emotions would be much stronger.

It was small, really, looking at it now. He remembered, in the past, looking out his apartment window to see it, seeing the Hokage monument, looking up at the gigantic, stone heads in awe.

Now, they hardly looked like anything at all. The looked over a toy village of tiny people, people that would run from him in fear, that couldn't accept him, that he'd always have to be careful of accidentally killing with an errant movement.

He tore his gaze away from Konoha. He laid down on the ground, his face next to the building Tenzo-sensei had last made for him to live in. It still smelled like the man, but it was no longer a home. More like a memento. The last thing he had to remember the man by. Possibly one of the last things to remember his own humanity by.

[Land of Sound]

A red-haired kunoichi found her way back home, in time. She hadn't been certain how wise it was. Failure in Oto usually meant death.

But Orochimaru-sama had sent her out with her newly-improved sensing abilities, he had implied that she may not be as replaceable as many of the village's other resources. It was for that reason that, after several days consideration, she finally decided to return. Despite her failure and cowardice.

Karin had run. When that... thing had slain half the Sound Four in an instant and demanded the two Konoha genin, after driving them far off course, she hadn't stayed to fight. She couldn't be blamed, really, she thought. She wasn't a powerful fighter. Since the operation, even less so; sounds and senses in battle kept distracting her. After she had felt the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki arriving and transforming somewhere near where it was, she had even less regret.

But still, she and the Sound Four had failed to retrieve and deliver Sasuke Uchiha to Orochimaru-sama. While she had felt the chakra of the other two members snuffed out against it, she was alive and still quite killable. She hoped she would be okay, considering her importance in tracking the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki that the leader of Oto was still concerned about. But more than that, she still found it to be her home.

So possibly against her better judgement, she approached the entrance to one of the underground base she knew of. Inside, she had from a distance and now still currently sensed... something familiar, but she put it out of her mind, because it couldn't be...

"...Kimimaro?" Somehow, it was.

"Orochimaru-sama has been expecting you," the tall, pale, and inexplicably no-longer-dead young man told her. "You will not be slain." Well, that was a decent assurance.

His chakra was off, though. "H-how are you-"

"I was revived by Orochimaru-sama's Impure World Resurrection," he explained. "The rest of the Sound Four have also been revived. As you are all still important tools of Oto, you are being preserved, despite your recent failure."

But, if he had been revived, then-

"Orochimaru has taken another body for the time being, and has begun looking into alternatives in the long term," the undead man explained.

She was safe. More or less. Though, she had some concerns.

"Am... am I going to be turned into a zombie?"

"Only if you die."

She wasn't sure how reassured she felt about this.

[Under Konoha]

A bandaged man with one visible eye and arm looked over multiple reports once more, now including an additional short report that had been become available shortly after the arrival of Konoha's jinchuriki. For Danzo Shimura to intercept and copy it was simple, with the resources he commanded. Now, he again went over what he was aware of regarding a certain individual in Konoha's ninja force.

Specifically, the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, which would be very important to Konoha's strategic position very soon, and about which he had to know everything possible.

Shortly after the jinchuriki had first managed a full transformation, Danzo had been told by the Hokage, in no uncertain terms, that any attempt to directly or indirectly contact the jinchuriki while the God of Shinobi drew breath would result in his own last breath being drawn soon thereafter.

It had been an opportune time to plant a suggestion not to consider telling the jinchuriki about him directly, an action which could very soon pay off.

Since the invasion and his colleague's death, he had been at work going over the reports of the jinchuriki's condition, and working toward maneuvering himself into a position of power. The loss of Tsunade to Konoha would be painful, but Jiraiya would have to find her and have her quickly refuse and vanish without recourse, so that they could get back on track and pick a Hokage.

Konoha needed a Hokage, soon. No time to have spend searching around for one, or trying to convince one that was so held down by emotions. Even if, by some miracle, she did return, Danzo didn't trust her to do the job right. He needed to have this, and Konoha needed him to have it, to deal with what seemed to be looming ahead.

Lately, his organization had discovered some rather unsettling things. Kumo was continuing a long military buildup. Kiri, the side still loyal to the Fourth Mizukage, had been making serious gains against the rebellion recently, and was in contact with Kumo and Iwa (well, some location to the northwest, but almost certainly Iwa). Iwa itself was recalling shinobi from outposts and patrol positions, and temporarily raising mission fees, which would reduce in fewer of their forces being out on missions. And, of course, Orochimaru's Oto was still lurking around.

While Konoha was without a real leader, they couldn't go out on a limb and deal with these directly, whether to mount a preemptive strike against a preparing invader, which would basically make them the declarers of the next war, or to go defend Suna, which even Danzo would have difficulty convincing all of Konoha of the vital need to defend. There was still disagreement in Konoha as to whether the Kazekage was manipulated by Orochimaru, as Danzo believed and Orochimaru had seemingly implied, based on the reports of the fight, or he had willingly undergone the jutsu as a form of immortality.

Then there was convincing Suna to allow the people they just fought to enter their village under a guise of peace in their current state. Many would likely see the writing on the wall with regards to their strategic situation, but many others would think that Konoha itself was just looking to finish the job.

Some members of Root were in Suna now, of course, as spies and some possible defense. In fact, the next report from them should be arriving in a few days. However, Root was simply not a large enough organization itself, especially as much of it was stuck trying to deal with trouble in Konoha right now.

If there was more evidence, maybe some proof that these were specifically precursors to an attack, he could reasonably get Konoha moving to deal with them. But as it was, he didn't have the specifics. Even revealing what he knew and his reasoning, there was a decent chance it wouldn't pan out, given the limitations of his influence. Furthermore, doing so would reveal his organization, Root, and would seriously hamper his current plans to become Hokage, and thus Konoha's future.

Konoha's spymaster, Jiraiya, might've had better intelligence, but he'd apparently changed his profession to archeologist recently. There was use in trying to improve the seal, Danzo had to admit, but it seemed to be motivated more by feelings than practicality. Something that the reports he'd read seemed to give evidence of repeatedly.

These reports, largely written by a now-dead ANBU known as Tenzo, formerly Kinoe, and annotated by Hiruzen Sarutobi himself as the man organized his thoughts, detailed how the fallen Hokage had handled the boy.

Or, as Danzo judged it, how he had mishandled Konoha's weapon.

Early on, Tenzo had been focused on examining the seal and the boy's mental state, while doing some level of training to find a way to deal with the transformations. To Danzo, he and the Hokage had focused too much on the child's mental state, rather than working to break the child out of any emotions. Indeed, they had abandoned the attempts to use emotional control to avoid the transformation fairly early on.

Instead, while reports mentioned the seal itself being basically stable insofar as the non-seal master Tenzo could determine, the Hokage had noted the boy's slowly growing restlessness in Tenzo's reports, and marked the boy as a possible flight risk. Admittedly, if he tried to leave, there'd be very little they could do to stop him.

Knowing what the boy had desired, Hiruzen had planned to just integrate him into the ninja program alongside familiar ninja in something resembling the standard way. As if he were just another ninja. Some misguided method to make sure he was bound emotionally to the village, Danzo supposed.

Then, once the spy and seal master Jiraiya had arrived, the boy had damaged the seal in a fit of emotional distress.

After that, rather than keeping him on lockdown, Hiruzen had simply had a new seal applied. Testing for stability had been done discreetly by the ANBU over the course of standard training for a few weeks, apparently Hiruzen's idea to keep the boy from feeling too nervous about it after it's application.

The evaluations showed the new seals staying intact, the approximate limits on its combat stability were determined, and some concerns about the Nine-Tails influencing the jinchuriki's thoughts were eventually determined the musings of a wandering mind. So, after the first few days, Jiraiya had been allowed to leave Konoha to try and continue his research, while various people friendly to the jinchuriki visited over the course of a few weeks, strengthening the outer seal the Sannin had applied.

If he allowed himself more emotion, Danzo might've found it amusing that Jiraiya was going off to perform research in a manner that required no quotation marks around the term.

Then the Hokage went back to that idea of trying to integrate him, apparently unwilling to abandon it. His sentimentality was affecting him again. There were other ways to get a steady stream of human contact, and other ways to get him into combat with his power for practice, but the Hokage went with the one that would come across as "normal" to the boy. There was the restlessness and possible flight risk thing again after it had been discovered that the jinchuriki could just survive indefinitely in tailed beast form, true. The Hokage didn't have all the tools Danzo had.

The Hokage had taken some precaution, at least, giving missions that were intended to be outdoor escort missions (Danzo discounted the glorified chore/practical demonstration from the list of "missions"). From the annotations, it seemed he intended to get the jinchuriki used to the idea of transforming for combat, as well as get his team used to him joining in combat while transformed. It... mostly worked, on the first one. He may have relied too much on Kakashi's ability to make a relatively willing client "forget" details, but there was no particular leak, despite significant complications in the mission.

On the second, it hadn't worked as well, the jinchuriki having not gotten over his issues with the form, and a strange mission complication eventually lead to a PR disaster for the village. The jinchuriki's poor choices didn't help. Why would he go into a burning building? Further emotional issues. From there, an attempt to solve it with the exams, an invasion, and then other problems...

And now, because of all this sentimentality, the jinchuriki was stuck in the gigantic, completely stealth-less form. Even if he could be reverted via some other means, the last report from Jiraiya implied that the Eight Trigrams Seal was on its last legs, and it'd be nigh impossible to prevent further transformations, let alone apply a seal expanding method effectively.

At the very least, though, the jinchuriki wasn't showing any signs of the Nine-Tails' influence, according to the report. Last time the seal had been damaged, no change in disposition was reported. At least, none that wasn't considered human normal for the circumstances. Furthermore, the seal hadn't corroded in any other way before or after it had first been damaged by a self-reversion, as far as they could tell. It seemed that, despite everything, the jinchuriki would now be stable, if inconvenient.

There would be some caution to take, at this point. Danzo's favored method of training to break emotional shackles had too high a burn-out rate to risk their one jinchuriki on it. But Danzo had ways of dealing with the fox. Ways that should be more effective than sentimentality and trying to pretend that the boy was just a normal ninja had been.

Now, he just had to be Hokage, and he'd have a weapon to defend Konoha in the coming times, and bring about it's supremacy.

[Outside Konoha]

A jinchuriki opened his eyes to see the sun already high in the sky. He had heard something a moment ago, and he looked around for the sound, bearing the strangest feeling that someone had called him something stupid. Looking around, he saw who.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Good morning, Naruto," the silver-haired man said with his cheerful expression. "I've got something to show you. We're going on a short trip to the southern side of town."

He didn't really bother to question it. He didn't question much of anything, except for why he was there at all. At any rate, it wasn't a very long trip for the transformed boy. He walked around the toy village he slept next to, his sensei hitching a ride.

In the south, there was a gap in the walls, presumably from the summoned snakes in the invasion. Beyond, there looked to be nothing but a clearing, maybe part of an old training ground.

He smelled several other familiar scents nearby, too.

Kakashi-sensei jumped down and went through the gap, into the village. In a moment, he turned back to look at the jinchuriki. "Well?" asked Kakashi expectantly.

"...Well what?"

"Go in."

The fox's eyes widened.

After a moment of consideration, he walked through the gap, and partially over the wall, since it wasn't extraordinarily wide. He came to a stop inside the clearing.

Then, he caught onto those scents again. Looking toward it, he saw...

...Sakura and Sasuke, standing near each other, looking up at him and smiling, to whom Kakashi-sensei was wandering over. Iruka-sensei next to them, also with a smile. Ayame with a kind smile, and her father, Teuchi, with crutches, bearing a thankful grin. Shikamaru and Choji, along with Ino, over her previous fear. Hinata, distraught but hiding it, Shino, and Kiba, with his dog, Akamaru. Lee and his sensei, Guy, each with their trademark grins and thumbs-up. Tenten and Neji, somewhat behind and fairly nervous, but present nonetheless.

Also, they had some cloth... thing. It was much larger than them. A blanket? A really thick, heavy one, to be sure.

He then came to realize what he didn't feel. They weren't afraid of him. Noting that, he realized that he felt a lot less fear than he expected from Konoha as a whole, as well. Nervousness, caution, worry, but far less outright fear than he was used to. Was it due to his efforts in the invasion?

"What...what's happening here?"

Iruka spoke up. "We're here to see you, and welcome you home."

Sasuke followed up. "This land is owned by the Uchiha clan, but is essentially an unneeded training ground," he explained. "Due to some laws related to clan politics, the Uchiha clan is allowed to host guests here as long as desired."

Wait, so... "You mean..."

"This is your space now," Sakura said. "It's... it's not much. We can look into some kind of big enough shelter, later, but it's something."

It was a field, a cleared out area with nothing on it. Just a space for him to lie down come nightfall. But the difference here, inside the walls instead of outside, and that much closer to the people he was supposed to protect as a ninja, it meant something for him.

Sakura then cleared bent down toward the cloth thing. As did the others, apparently having waited for her cue. Working together, they lifted it up.

It took a moment for the jinchuriki to realize it was being given to him. He carefully reached down to take it, the sides of claws closing on the edges without curling around to the people underneath. It had a bit of weight; there was more than cloth here. As he picked it up and unfolded it, he uncovered... a gigantic forehead protector, bearing Konoha's symbol. Gigantic compared to standard size, anyway.

For him, though, it was just right.

As he put it on, taking a bit to figure exactly how to fit it around the fox's ears, eventually settling for putting the straps around them before tying them behind the head, he began to re-evaluate his life going forward.

He would likely never be back to 'normal' again. The opportunities of a human life were likely now out of reach. He'd left the world that he could interact with safely behind him, and would always have to take care that nobody else suffered like Shinnou, whose fate still haunted him, and would forever work to keep respect and quell fear.

But, he'd found friends. People that cared what happened to him, that recognized his isolation and wanted to bring him out of it. People that noticed and respected him, rather than ignoring him as most had done throughout his life. People that he could rely on, and that would in turn rely on him. People to remind him who he was.

He couldn't say he was happy with everything that his life now entailed, transformed possibly irreversibly into the form of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, or even just when the transformations had first started. But in the face of what he'd gained...

...Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be such a big problem.

A/N: So ends part one, after about three months and about 100,000 words.

Part two will not be posted for awhile, possibly a few months. A bunch of planning is needed for it still. Several things are already planned, and the last five to ten chapters of the story are going to be exciting and dramatic, but other stuff has to occur before then, and various things need to be tied together.

There's still that poll on the profile page about the genre. On one of the recent chapters, it finally tipped the balance to Adventure/Drama instead of Adventure/Humor, though this is kind of a story that could benefit from being marked Adventure/Drama/Humor.

Thank you to all reviewers, positive and negative, insofar as the negative reviewers are actually explaining why they are negative.

Await more trials and tribulations with gigantic foxes, other villages doing more things, Akatsuki actually being relevant to the plot in a direct manner, zombies, plot twists, stunning (and less-than-stunning) reveals, splitting of sentences with ellipses, and, above all, bigger problems.