Chapter 5 - Childhood

"Kamiko-dono," greeted Arai-te, bowing to her. She nodded and smiled to him. "Arai-kun, you are days early, thats not like you." She stated, but somehow she couldnt take her eyes off the young human boy for long, which serverd to make him nervous, and unconciously he kind of hid behind Arai-tes legs because of that. The male warrior explained to her how they have been attacked by the serpent, forcing him to pick up the pace afterwards. He made clear that the human youngling made good progress in adapting to the environment.

Seeing how the boy seemed to be afraid, she got down on her knees and smiled at him. "Hey little one, dont be afraid, I am going to be your foster mother from now on after all."

The small blond human seemed to have been stunned out of his mind, he was just standing there, looking straight ahead with cerulean eyes. At that moment, when the last of the sun dove behind the horizon, with a gust of wind racing over the landscape, for just a few seconds, the only sounds to be heard where the wind and the flickering torches. Naruto snapped out of it the next second when a huge hand ruffled his hair. "I´ll be taking my leave now, be good youngling." Again Arai-te bowed to Kamiko. "I´ll be around when it´s my time to train the boy. So long Kamiko-dono." and with that he turned around and started walking. "Goodbye!" shouted Naruto, with a wave.

After saying their goodbyes, Kamiko had stepped up next to Naruto, extending a hand for him to take. "Don´t be shy youngling, I won´t bite", she said in what the young Uzumaki guessed, was her sweet voice. A sweet smile forming on the boys face, he took her up on her offer, and she began to lead him farther along the paved walkway, and into the premisses.

The Village was located on soft grassy hills just beyond the dense forrest and touched by a curve of the mighty stream that sprang forth deep in the mountains far behind the horizon. Wide land, with occasional single trees and some large rock formations scattered about as far as the eye could see. The village itself was only 5 of those larger stone buildings, and 2 smaller houses. Well everything was quite big compared to Naruto of course.

The female Dragonkin´s hands were much more slender than Arai-tes, but they still felt strong, the touch of the scaled fingers was surprisingly soft to Naruto. Kamiko led the boy in the direction of one of the smaller buildings. "You aren´t hurt anywere, are you?" The blond shook his head, all the while looking around with big eyes. The buildings, the walkways and everything in general seemed to be very well crafted to him. A loud growl erupted from the boys stomach and it made a chuckle escape from Kamiko´s throat. "So you want to get some dinner before i show you to your bedroom?" Another grumbling was the answer to that.

The house was definetly built for the people of the Dragonfolk, a wooden frame door surrounded by cool stone wall led into the building, surprisingly, inside there seemed to be furniture for adult Dragonkin and some much smaller, Naruto would later learn that Dragonkin would come into the world as rather small beeings and grew to spectacular size and bulk over the course of time. And this village was supposed to be for bringing up their offspring.

Young Naruto was lead into a kitchen and dining area, where he seated himself to a very well crafted wooden table, alltough it showed many signs of time having passed since it had been crafted. Kamiko vanished down a flight off wooden stairs into the cold storage room in the cellar, coming back with a variety of cooking ingredients. Naruto looked around the room, with its nicely crafted wooden walls and floors, covered with some woolen area rugs, that felt very nice against ones feet. Some of the walls were covered with childrens painintgs, some of them done by obviously very talented kids.

He watched Kamiko as she knealt in front of the iron stove, loading it with some wood, and igniting it by breathing a small flame from her lungs, without any handsigns or incantation. After she sat up some water to boil, the female would then kneel to the opposite side of the table. In the well lit room he could recognise her scales colors for the first time, dark, matte blue and broad white blueish stripes. While waiting for the water to boil, she explained to him that there were currently around 35 children in the village, with her and two other adult Dragonkin as their guardians and teachers. As for why exactly the children lived seperatly from the adult population she wouldn´t want to tell him as of yet.

"You are going to meet them all tomorrow, I´ll explain alot more after you got some good sleep.", stated Kamiko as she got up when the water finally boiled and she went about putting ingredients and some spices into it. After a while a hearty smell started to fill the room. While stirring the pot with the stew contained, Kamiko hummed a little calming tune.

Naruto felt it was very nice, it was warm and save, and alltough he just arrived he didn´t feel like a stranger. And there was this woman, standing by the stove who had earlier proclaimed she was going to be his mom for a while. Her cooking smelt enticing, alltough it was obviously not Ramen. While the stew was bubbling about, Kamiko set a a pitcher off cristal clear water and some glasses on the table, pouring a serving for each of them. And after a while a bowl of delicious smelling, spicy reddish meat stew was sat in front of Naruto, thanking Kamkiko he dug in, and he loved it instantly, it could have been his second favourite dish from now on...

After the meal that was mostly silent, except for some small talk, Naruto fell tired quickly and so after a wash in the shared bathroom, he was shown to his room. It was equipped with a cosy looking bed, a desk with a stool, some cupboards and a wardrobe. A single window gave view to the moonlight. After unsealing his stuff, Kamiko left him to himself, changing into his pyjamas he slipped in the large, wooden-framed bed, with a nice matress and soft sheets that smelt of flowers, he slipped into a dream within minutes.

Konohagakure no Sato - Afternoon, the same day

Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamara and Akimichi Chouji were the best of friends since they could remember, but today was unlike any other day to could remember from their young lives. Just some hours before, the Hokage himself had given the order for every citizen of Konoha, Shinobi and civilian alike, to gather at the plaza in front of the Hokage-tower, and of course, everyone except the Shinobi out on missions, followed suit.

The three young academy Genin had gathered at a playground they usually met at. There was silence between them before Shikimaru, sitting on a bench, head in the clouds, spoke up first. "Now that i think about it, it was pretty obvious, i mean when you look at pictures of the Yondaime Hokage, you can easily imagine him looking just like Naruto when he was our age."

"To think that he would seal the Kyuubi away inside his own infant child, it must have felt horrible to him." stated Ino, situated on the swing set. "Did you see the faces on some of the adults?" asked Chouji, "most of them seemed to know the part with the demon fox, but many of them seemed to feel guilty in the end." Both of them looked at him, "Sure, most of them treated Naruto like he wasn´t even there, and now they hear that he is the only child of the Yondaime Hokage, and last heir to two of Konohas most prominent clans." answered Shikamaru, with a bored expression.

"So what do guys think of that whole situation with the summons clan, sending Naruto off to another dimension entirely seems pretty extreme." Ino asked their friends, swinging back and forth ever so lightly. Again it was Shikimaru speaking up, all the while looking at the clouds, "It´s the Yondaime Hokage´s wishes, i´m sure he knew what he was doing when he came up with it, personally i think it´s pretty genius, none of the Yondaime´s enemies will be able to touch Naruto where he is, let alone find him."
"We may even get some new allies from this." stated Chouji, thinking about that scaled dinosaur guy the Hokage introduced to the village hours earlier.

"I´m curious what he´s like, hes supposed to visit classes with us starting tomorrow." assessed Ino, seemingly excited.

The Hokage´s Office - At the same time

"Hokage-sama, please send me to the Otherrealm to assist with the boys training." Hatake Kakashi had never asked for anything for as long as Sarutobi Hiruzen could remember, and he had to admit it was an interesting thought as well. But sending one of his strongest Jounin away from the village for such an extended period of time was not a small matter. It could be important for young Narutos wellbeeing to have some human contact while living amongst the Dragonfolk, and sending Kakashi there could open up a diplomatic canal to the strange scaled peoples leaders.

Smoking his pipe the Hokage contemplated his choices, pro and contra. His gaze wandered to Takeo, the boy warrior the Dragonkin had sent as an exchange student, a part of Minato´s agreement with their leader. "Do you think your people would allow for one of my Shinobi to be sent to Naruto?"

Takeo seemed to be thinking about it. "Well as this is not part of the original contract, you should discuss this with Kodai-sama himself. However, i have to warn you, doing so could be dangerous for your kind. See the powerful presence of Kodai-sama alone is easily enough to destroy a weak persons body and mind. That is why he resides in an extra pocket dimension, only accessible through a portal in our capital. I could take you there for sure, but i can´t say what would happen once you walk through the portal, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen looked at him with a raised eyebrow, puffing his pipe he thought about what he just learned. After a moment he got up from his seat and put his trademark Hokage hat on his head. "Do we need an appointment or can we go right away?" Kakashi wanted to intervene, "Hokage-sama are you sure you should?" Kakashi didn´t want to say it but he was referring to his elders old age.

"I am not the god of shinobi for nothing, Kakashi-san" was his answer as he got with Takeo, who then laid a hand on the elder mans shoulder and in a puff of smoke, they dissapeared.

In the next heartbeat the elder Kage found himself at blades edge, the tips of two huge Naginata staffs were right at his neck, wielded by two equally impressive Dragonkin warriors, clad in monks robes. Both their skulls were decorated with impressive long and thick horns, one even had carvings on them. They both withdrew their weapons however, the moment Takeo explained the situation to them, both of them bowed to the Hokage, not uttering a single word.

With the literal edge taken off the situation, Hiruzen took his time to let his eyes wander over his surroundings, they were situated on a large plateau high up in the mountains, a chilly wind beeing evidence to that. The rock to their feat was decorated in intricate carvings, and some pristine blue painted patterns. Right in front of them was the large stone portal Takeo must have spoken of, it was just three large stone slabs, one stacked upon two others, just rough stone without any carvings or anything of that sort.

Looking over the edge of the plateau for a moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen took in a stunning sight, the outlook over the landscape was breathtaking, and the mountain they were upon must have been miles above sea level. Flush green forests, streams and rivers could be seen up until the horizon.

After some moments the elder Kage turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Takeo-san, thank you for taking me here, how will i get to Kodai-sama from here?" Takeo gestured to the stone slab portal, "Just step through Hokage-sama, but brace yourself." Nodding to the young scaled warrior the Hokage stepped forth and the two guardian warrios stepped aside. Taking a deep breath the Hokage stepped into the portal. It was a fascinating experience really, it was like stepping through a mirror only two find something completely different on the other side.

The first thing he surely noticed was that immense pressure of a very powerful, but benevolent chakra filling the area, he sure understood that someone who wasn´t strong enough whould immediatly be destroyed by the pressure alone. Bracing his body and mind, he looked around. He found himself on top a mighty cliff, barren rockland all around and as far as the eye could see, rocky hills with not much else. And no sign of the source to that powerful chakra he could feel, tingling on his skin like electricity.

As he stepped forward to look over the cliffs edge, the ground started shaking and an ear deafening rumbling rolling over the whole landscape. He had to take a few steps back in order to not risk falling over the edge and brace himself for whatever was about to happen. When he looked up to see what was going on, he found himself staring into one massive eye, he himself would have fit into it several times over. A huge black slitted pupil focused at him surrounded by a deep red and black iris in dark yellow sclera. The gigantic eye was surrounded by a mass of massive, black armored scales.

The Hokage stood in shock, neither beeing able to take in the whole size of what was before him nor beeing able to even comprehend it. Instantly the pressure of the chakra rose to an almost unbearable level, forcing the Sandaime Hokage to his knees, all the while staring in shock and awe. He couldn´t move or speak, hell he could hardly breath at that moment.

A blinding light forced his eyes shut, stinging all the way to the back of his head, but in the next heartbeat it was gone and so was the unbearale pressure, slowly opening his eyes, he noticed a figure had appeared before him, alltough he was unable to take in its features for a moment due to blurry vision. A mighty voice spoke up, and Hiruzen was almost blown onto his back by it, having to hold on to his hat momentarily and skidding back a few feet on his knee. The sound of rocks breaking from the cliff and crashing to the ground followed.

He could now clearly see the figure before him, clad in a simple dark white robe with black hem, a slender but wiry, rather small for their kind, male Dragonkin with shiny black armored scales and flowing long white hair between two slender shiny white horns stood before him, holding a hand before its mouth and clearing his throat. It spoke up again, but this time without the devastating effect. "I´m sorry Hokage-sama it´s allways so hard to reign in my voice." The figure even bowed to him, even though he was clearly above Hiruzen in power and status.

The elder Kage got two his feet and bowed to, what had to be mighty Kodai of the Dragonfolk. "Kodai-sama, i stand before you to discuss the arrangement you have with my deceased successor."

With great grace the Kodai walked up to him, even with him beeing smaller and more slender then most of his people, well at least from what the Hokage had seen so far, only a fool would not recognise the power that brimmed with the leader figure of the Dragonfolk. With a simple gesture the Kodai created seats from the rock for the both of them, not simple stone slabs, but fine crafted seats. They both took place, on what felt like a living room on top of the world to the Sandaime Hokage.

They would be having a very long discussion, in good will and a friendly manner.

Village of younglings, Otherrealm - two weeks later

It has been the first sunny day after three days of heavy rain, so Naruto and everyone else had spend almost the whole day outside, now, as evening was breaking over the land, with the sun slowly nearing the horizon, the sky having a nice orange color with some fluffy white clouds, Naruto was sitting on top of a large rock in the fields surrounding the village, he had lots of free time here, which had totally suprised him at first, but made sense later when Kamiko-bachan had explained to him what this whole experience would be about. He just sat there, looking at the lush green gras moving along with the wind, contemplating what had happened so far.

On the morning of the first day after his arrival, Kamiko had come into his room to wake him, very gentle just by running her scaly fingers through his her. He had been so startled when he woke up to that it caused him an immediate cute little blush. The whole house was filled with delicious smells from breakfast that had already been prepared. Later he learned that all duties were to be shared by all of the residents, and he would learn how to properly cook and clean from Kamiko and the older kids.

It was at breakfast when he first met some of the other children, it were the youngest of the village that lived with the adult guardians in the smaller houses. The Uzumaki boy had to admit the small Dragonkin looked all super adorable, with large round eyes that were kinda unproportional but super cute, they all had squeaky little voices and were generally very energetic and fun to be around. There were only two toddlers in the village at the moment and one of the other adults was caring about them for the time beeing, Naruto had only seen them from afar, but of course, they were even cuter.

The day would always start with a good breakfast and the clean up after that. They would then all gather outside, no matter the weather and do some sort of meditational movement excercises. It looked like martial arts but it was very slow, Naruto didn´t like it at first, it seemed so boring, but he had to admit that, in order to do it right, there was lot more to it.

After the morning excercise on the first day, Kamiko had shown him around and introduced him to the other guardians and some of the older kids. Two children in particular, one female and one male, who were selected to act as his surrogate brother and sister for his time there. The younger female Dragonkin was excited to meet him and bombarded him with questions about him and the human world. The older male was a lot more introvert, he seemed focused and strong. Even though beeing a lot more timid then the girl he would later have lots of questions himself, but also in return also answer Narutos.

And there was lots of questions...

When lunch was over and the following cleanup was done, Kamiko had taken Naruto outside the village for a walk, in order to explain to him what this was all about and what they were trying to teach him here. He was sure he would never forget that. "You see Naruto, after the wars of the past have left us with a very small population, we soon realised that we needed the smarts and the power of every single one of us in order to survive and prosper, and that we have to harness our potential to the fullest. But even in those times of need, one of our beloved Kodai´s greatest concern was still the people´s happiness, what good with it do to just survive in a world of grieve? So in his wisdom he and the elders divised a system for the upbringing of the upcoming generations. It´s divided into steps, and here you are at the first and most important one Naruto."

She then explained to him that in order to ensure, that every single one of their offspring could live a life in contempt and fullfill their own potential, it was important to be at first and foremost at peace with ones self, and it really made sense to him. And in order to learn to understand and confront ones feelings, which is most important to be clean with ones self. The first step on their younglings journey would be to learn, grasp and understand love and affection. And that was what this village of younglings was all about. Children beeing children, and experiencing the unconditional love of their guardians and peers.

Of course their were all kinds of other things beeing taught to the children, basic knowledge, reading and writing, lots of academical stuff actually but in a rather laid back manner. Surprisingly most of the children were very eager to learn, and had good focus at such a young age already. Then there was meditation and basic chakra excercises, basic taijutsu classes, but also arts and craftsmenship classes. They would cook, eat, clean, sing, dance, learn and play together.

Thinking about all that, with a deep breath and a contempt smile on his face, watching the sundown with his cerulean blue eyes, Naruto could honestly say that he had never felt better and happier in his live.

Today was supposed to be a special day, Kamiko had told him one of the elders was supposed to come to visit him, in order to give him a medical checkup and check on the seal that held the Kyuubi within him. He had noticed that he had problems focusing and controlling his chakra, and Kamiko pointed out that it could have been because of the seal.

But as then sun vanished, nobody had shown up so far, when suddenly a strong wind swept over the land, and the sound of large wings flapping gave away to an impressive sight, as a full blown Dragon landed just in front of him on the soft gras. He hadn´t noticed it until it came into view and set his hind legs and large frontal claws to the ground. Observing closer, Naruto could make out that alltough very large, at least 65 feet in lenght and 26 feet in height, the dragon seemed skinny, it´s rips clearly visible, and there was long white hair coming from the small earlobes and out of the huge nostrils. Large bright blue eyes with a greyish tint to them looked at Naruto. With ground shaking steps the huge beast came closer.

"My human boy, you are tiny!" exclaimed the Dragon with a loud, deep and rough voice, he let out a cough just after that. He draw so close his large hairy nostrils were soon in Naruto´s face and the boy could hear the Dragons stout drawing of breath. Falling to it´s side and laying down it spoke further. "Well at least you seem to be in good health, i can smell a growth spurt coming in for you boy." Standing up on the rock where he was seated the blond knucklehead spoke up. "Excuse me sir, i must have missed your name." came in a timid little voice from the boy, who was clearly in awe.

"Oh excuse my manners boy, i am elder Daichi, would you mind showing me that seal of yours, im not getting younger and a want to get back to town before midnight. I´m very busy you see." And with a nod Naruto liftet his shirt and focused some chakra in oder to make the seal show. The elder Dragon shifted and extended a claw to touch be boys belly. With closed eyes the huge beast started to hum in thought as if contemplating something.

"Let us both take a closer look at that." stated the elder Dragon after some moments, and with that Narutos mind went blank for a moment.

And in the next second, he found him self standing in ankle high water, in what seemed to be some kind of sewer, it was dark except for some cracks in the walls, were bright light fell onto the watery floor. Looking around he found the elder Dragon was right next to him, looking worried.

"Boy the mind of an innocent child should never look anything like this..." he stated, as he took Naruto and set him atop his mighty head. Starting to wander off in to the darkness of the boys mindscape, right afterwards.