Reading Time: 96 Minutes
Title: Whispers of Scales and Waves
Author: Strailo
Fandom: Naruto
Genre: Drama, Family, First Time, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Slash
Relationship(s): Kabuto/Naruto, Sasuke/Sakura, Kakashi/Iruka/Orochimaru, Sasuke/Naruto
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Underage, Violence-Graphic. Explicit sex, canon typical violence, manipulation, abuse of power, lying, cheating/infidelity, minor character bashing, redemption, brainwashing, discussions – multiple wives for clan revival, snakes as caretakers, political maneuvering, vying for control over a person, discussion – surrogacy
Author Note: This story was supposed to happen last year (but then loss happened) but the Mods here were very lovely in letting me back out fairly late in the game (before art claims luckily for all). So now it is here for all of you. And I am sorry for the fact that I may have disappeared on people. Life happened with a 2 by 4. Thank you for reading!
Beta: CutsyCat
Word Count: 143.274
Summary: It started with a summons from some called a traitor sent to care for a young child who was hated by the village at large. It grew into a village revived and a village brought to it’s knees because of the hubris of men in power. And a relationship that helped to shape lives.
Artist: Mizu Sage
Chapter 1
Orochimaru stepped into the small storage room and gazed around, taking it in. He had created it to hold various special items and locked it down the day that he had moved into the village that had become Otogakure.
His fingers stroked over the many boxes that had been covered in seals, protecting the items within. When he had started to lose himself so long ago, he had worked to gather things that he didn’t want to fall into others’ hands. And when Kushina and Minato came to him one night? He had gathered their things, the three of them knowing that should things happen to the two of them, his old sensei would try to get his hands on their family items.
They had sealed the promise that he would protect the things with blood. After that, they had given him sealed items every few days and showed him how to get to the other things that they had hidden. Then the insanity that had been poked, prodded and dragged out of him had won out, forcing him out of the village with everything that he had already hidden. He had still taken more things whenever he could and tucked them into the room.
Even after Minato and Kushina had died defending Konoha from the freed Kyuubi, he had worked to pull things out of the village as he watched over the young Uzumaki Naruto from afar.
He had watched the way Naruto was treated by the village. He had seen how they hated him. Ignored him. As he had gotten older, how their hatred had turned into scorn. He hated that he couldn’t do anything as they tested their boundaries and how far they could go until they could finally make it damn near impossible for the young child to move through the village freely.
He had mourned the fact that Naruto had hidden himself behind a mask of an idiot prankster, but Orochimaru had seen past that mask. He had watched how Naruto had very specific targets to his pranks and they had been those who had been particularly cruel to him.
Orochimaru had watched as the grocery stores and restaurants that had denied him service or charged him exorbitant prices had ended up with bugs or rats, forcing them to close until the issue was taken cared of. Or even had their plumbing getting so bad that they had to close to fix it.
Whatever it was, it usually caused them to close and spend a lot of money that they weren’t pulling in.
But the places that had treated Naruto fairly, they had never been touched by his pranks. They never saw a lick of bad luck that they didn’t cause themselves.
So here was Orochimaru, in the room that he had built years ago, his mind finally clear enough for long enough to let him to do this, his youngest summons about to be sent to Naruto. He would be caring for him, helping him with things.
“Nissa,” Orochimaru called. A long, young snake that echoed the worlds King Snake came over to him and settled on a box, waiting, head lifted and tongue flicking out.
“Yes, Master?” he asked, his words carrying just the smallest of hisses. He preened under the stroke down his head and back, letting out a happy hiss.
“I need you to do something very special for me, little one,” he said softly. “I need you to go to Konoha and seek out the young blond male named Naruto. You will know him by the hinted taste of fox around him. He holds the Kyuubi and is treated quite poorly by the village. I do not wish him to walk down a dark path, Nissa. Not like me. He needs support. A friend. Someone who will be there to guide him as long as he needs them to guide him down the right path. I wish for you to be that support for him. If you are willing.”
Nissa blinked a few times up at Orochimaru before he nodded. “Will I need to leave him to report to you during this time?” he asked.
“No, no. I will send Nia every month to get a report from you for the time being. Be careful while you are there though, little one. I fear that they will try to harm you if they see you. They are still bitter after what I did while insane and under Danzo’s influence,” Orochimaru warned.
“I will, Master,” Nissa said before slipped down to the floor and going to the transport seal that would summon him to an old lab of Orochimaru’s. It was one of the few that no one knew about and it was the safest place to go for the little snake.
He knew about the history of his Master, and why he had run from the village that had made it so easy for his Master to be broken by the damnable Uchiha.
He knew very well.
He knew about how the Original Madara had found his master one day after his temporary team had left him, wounded and hiding in a deep cave. He knew how the man had twisted his mind with very careful long term hypnotism and had continued to twist his mind for years. He knew that the New Madara didn’t have the power of the Old Madara and thus the mental twisting was starting to break.
But still, his master wasn’t free just yet. He wondered if the young man would help free his master though.
He hoped so.
2
For Naruto, it all started really started when he found what he had thought to be his new pet snake.
He had been walking through the woods and startled the snake, making him go still at the first warning hiss before Naruto had squatted down to look at him. Staring at the snake, who had stared back, Naruto tilted his head and held his hand out to the small creature.
He knew that it wasn’t like the other snakes that he had ever run into before during his time in the forest, but relaxed and trusting after the initial hiss. The snake showed his willingness to trust by not running away when Naruto held out his hand. The gold snake with green and silver bands moved closer to him, tongue flicking to taste his scent before he curled around Naruto’s hand. He allowed Naruto to gently pick him up with a sort of awed look on his face.
To Naruto he had never thought for even a moment that the snake could be a girl. He was always a he and it felt right to him.
Ever since he had brought the snake home, Naruto had found that random books would pop up around his apartment. Some were about how to pick up after oneself and keep things organized, always created for young children. Something that the orphanage had never taught him before they had kicked him out.
Some of the books were about how to do his laundry since he still didn’t have the best skills when it came to that. Other books just about reading and writing.
As the winter had started, he found a book on how to fix small appliances, including the small heater box that he had saved from the trash but discovered that it wasn’t working. It had been a single wire, as he learned, and was an easy fix since he had the book to show him how to do it.
But it was starting to make him curious since every time he found the books, right before his little companion had disappeared for anywhere from an hour to four before coming back. He didn’t look as if he had gone hunting for dinner, and Naruto really did doubt that he could eat four days in a row.
With that thought in mind, Naruto snuck into the somewhat public library and looked for books on snakes. He was flipping through one book, frowning as he looked at the snakes that looked a lot like his.
But the coloring was all wrong.
He had spotted the warning that there were summoned snakes that looked like their chakra-less counterparts and returned the book to the shelf before sneaking into the section on summons. He found a scroll about summoned snakes, written by Orochimaru and his family. He read over the scroll and the fact that there was one line of summoned snakes that looked a bit like the King Snake, but with different colorings.
He considered that his companion wasn’t in any shade of brown or black with some variation of black, white, red, yellow, gray or lavender rings, he could guess pretty well that his snake was indeed a summons.
He wondered why the small snake had never told him that he was a summons but decided that he should talk with him. There was probably a good reason the snake hadn’t let him know and he just had to hope that he wouldn’t disappear when he talked to him about it. He rather liked having his company and the books had become a part of his day that he found he needed.
He didn’t want to lose his little snakey friend. He was hoping that if he was a summons and he stuck around, that maybe he would be able to tell Naruto his name. After all, his life was kind of lonely seeing as other classmates rarely talked to him, just mocking them.
Naruto could hope.
Putting all of the scrolls away after he had finished reading them, he made sure that they were in the same spots that he had gotten them from and headed back to his apartment. The librarians were notorious for going in after he left an area to check on things.
He took a new route to avoid the patrol that kept watch over him, not wanting to deal with them. He looked up at the sun and figured that Weasel and Dog were probably doing his detail that day, but he still didn’t want to see them. He had things to do.
He was thinking some heavy thoughts and having them around meant that they would want to ask him about the things. Or he ask them things that they would not answer for him.
Again.
Shaking his head, Naruto unlocked his door and stepped in. He closed the door, locked it, pulled off his shoes, and headed into the apartment to find his little snake companion.
3
Finding his little friend lounging in front of the heater, Naruto smiled as he sat down next to him, stroking a hand down his back. The little snake stretched before he curled back up and blinked up at him sleepily.
“I went to the library today and did some reading to find out what kind of snake you were. That way I could bring you the right food for you while you’re here for the winter. Found out that you look like a king snake but you’re not a king snake.”
Naruto blinked when the snake looked as if he was smiling up at him. “You are a very smart boy,” the snake hissed, lifting his head up as the blond stared at him with wide eyes. “Despite what all of your teachers may think or say, you are a smart child. Just a bit wild and headstrong because of the amount of natural chakra that your mother’s family holds. Or at least that was what I had been told when I was sent your way,” he continued. “I don’t really know anything else than that so please don’t ask.”
Naruto pouted but could understand his companion not knowing things that he was curious about.
“I can understand that I suppose,” he sighed, petting the small snake with a smile. “So, why did you come with me that first time?” he asked.
“Because I had been asked to watch over you. At first, I was just going to stay hidden but then I saw just how lonely you were. I thought that being a pet to you was a better way to keep an eye on you,” he said as he slithered onto Naruto’s lap. He got a giggle as he wiggled around until he was comfortable. “That Hokage of yours set it up so that you ended up isolated from those who should have been able to adopt you from what I saw.”
Naruto frowned. His ten year old mind ran wild with the thoughts that his friend had introduced. “Is that why I was always passed up by other families during adoption days at the orphanage?” he asked softly, the snake hissing softly.
“Somewhat, yes. The other reason is something I can’t tell you just yet. Just know that all of those names they call you are wrong. So very wrong. My mother’s summoner asked her to find one of us who would be willing and able to watch over you so that you can learn things properly. Instead of the way those so-called teachers are teaching you,” he said. “My name is Nissa and I am to be your companion from here on out. I know enough to find the things that you will need and to teach you how to read your kanji better, faster.”
“Really?” Naurto asked, smiling at that thought. Nissa hissed in pleasure as Naruto carefully scratched down his back, tail curling.
“Yes,” Nissa said after a moment. “I will help you to find all of the things that will help you to learn best. The thing is, I don’t think that you should show them just how much you have learned. At least from what I can tell.”
“Why not?” Naruto asked. He was curious about Nissa’s reasons for saying that. Nissa just smiled in his snakey manner, saddened by what the ten year old child had gone through in his life already.
“Because they would try to stop you from learning more. And that would be such a shame if I have to show them that while I look like the innocent King Snake, I am quite deadly due to my age as a Summons,” Nissa stated. He nodded his head once before he settled in Naruto’s lap once more. “You will need to be underestimated, to answer your question. Most especially by that Hokage of yours but also by the teachers and the rest of the village. But do not worry, we can work on fixing things for you and then decide when it will be best to show them the truth.”
Naruto smiled as he lifted Nissa up to his face, kissing his snout. “Thank you, Nissa, for your help. I think I always needed someone willing to spend time with me and just help me,” he admitted. “It is lonely being all alone but still surrounded by people.”
“That it is,” Nissa agreed as he curled his body around Naruto’s hand. “For now, I went out and got some manga. They’re a good way to figure out how to read kanji in an interesting way,” he said as he pointed out the pile of manga that sat on Naruto’s desk. Naruto’s eyes widened and he grabbed the first volume of a series. He had always wanted to read the manga series but he had never been able to have enough time to read through the first part.
“How did you get them?” he asked as he looked at his friend, allowing him to slither onto the bed.
Nissa preened at the glee in Naruto’s voice. “I asked my mother if her summoner would allow me to gather books from his personal library. He has an entire room full of books that I can get into without interacting with him on his bad days. Those books include huge amounts of manga and books that work like a work book to help you with things,” he said. He then looked sad at the thought of his Master. “My master is not healthy. At least mentally. Something happened when I was still a fresh hatchling and he started to change. He has his good days, more so nowadays but they are still few and far between. On those days, he gets my messages from my mother about how you are doing and makes sure the room has things you need.”
Naruto hummed. He opened the manga and started to read through the story of a young girl traveling the lands to find her fiance who had disappeared one day. Nissa helped him with any kanji that he didn’t understand and found that he liked learning new words and how they came together.
He found that the manga was actually in the most basic of their written language but was used to help reinforce what he did know and fill in his gaps. They got through two of the fairly long chapters in the manga before it was time to make dinner for the both of them.
Nissa settled over Naruto’s shoulders as he used the simple meals cookbook to make up some miso soup, herbed rice and grilled fish. Nissa promised Naruto that he could hunt for his own food just fine.
As Naruto settled down at the table, eating his meal slowly, he decided to ask something that had been in his head. “Do you think that I can write to your mother’s summoner?” he asked. Nissa lifted his head from where he had been sipping some of the miso that had been left out for him, tongue flicking.
“I think that he would like that, but do be warned that when he does write, it will take a long time between them from him,” Nissa warned. Naruto beamed and nodded his head.
“You warned me that he wasn’t feeling that good so I don’t mind waiting,” he chirped before he went back to his dinner. Nissa hissed out a soft laugh as he turned back to his own miso soup.
4
For two weeks after they had their first actual chat, Nissa had worked with Naruto in learning how to meditate nearly every day. The fourth day of meditation was when Naruto learned just why he was hated the way he was.
He had settled in to meditate, finding himself deep in his own mind that looked a lot like a sewer. There were pipes and wires that ran along the walls with water on the floor. As he walked through water on the floor, wetting his feet and ankles, it sloshed about. It smelled as if it had been sitting there for a very long time without being disturbed.
He walked through the sewer slowly, looking around with wide eyes as he tried to figure out just where in his own mind he was. Nissa had told him that he would be able to access his mental scape after he had taken some time to practice with his meditation but he had a feeling that this was just a small portion of his mental scape. And something that he wasn’t supposed to find out about.
Not ever if the Hokage had his way from what he and Nissa could figure out about the old man’s thought process. .
After what felt like a long time of just walking, Naruto came up to a cage. He tilted his head back and stared as he processed the feeling of exhausted anger coming from inside the cage.
“Finally come to see the trapped beast, brat? To shove in my snout that I am trapped?” came a snarled greeting from beyond the bars, red eyes glowing in the darkness.
“It kind of sounds like that’s what you were expecting. Or to mock you,” Naruto said, trying to put the few manners that Nissa had taught him so far to good use. Nissa had been working with him on a lot of things in the last few weeks. “I’m not going to do that. I don’t think you want to be here any more then I would want you to be here. But I am trying to figure out how the hell you ended up in my mind.”
The Kyuubi stepped forward into the light. He was huge, red fur smooth and thick, a band of black spreading over the fur of his deep red eyes. His claws were as huge as the rest of him even as he crouched down to stare at the young kit before him, taking him in.
He snorted, taking in his scent.
“You are definitely not what I was expecting. I watch you, you know. This seal that keeps me here allows me to see out of your eyes sometimes. Allowing me to learn about you. I have seen you work. You have always pranked with the forethought of a fox. You are smart and wily, but you have stopped others from seeing how smart you are. Why?” he asked, deciding to get some questions answered first.
Naruto blinked up at the giant fox and took in the seal that ran down the middle of the cage. “Because I learned that if I’m too smart for their liking, they’ll just hurt me worse then they already do,” he told him. “Nissa has agreed with me that I should continue to hide just how smart I am until it’s a good time for me to stop being an idiot.” He tilted his head. “Do you think that I can shift things around in here if I work hard enough on it? Make it a better place?” he asked.
Kyuubi blinked once at that reply before he settled into a more comfortable position. “I suppose you could. The Fourth was the one who sealed me in here and this place is a reflection of your own mind. You will need to fix a lot of the way your mind works. There will be a lot of work in organizing and learning how to change how your thought process works without breaking your own mind,” he warned. His tails twitched behind him. “You have the smarts for it. Your parents left you with them. But not a single person has ever taught you how to work on your own mind outside of that snake of yours.”
“They all hate me. Fear me in some ways. I’m going to guess that they don’t know how a seal works and think I’m you in human form?” Naruto asked as he sat down in the water. He leant back on his hands to stare up at the giant fox.
“Partially. There are some things that I can hear that you can not because they are at a low enough level that you do register them. Words whispered and shared between the humans that surround you. They do think that the Fourth was not strong enough to kill me and just turned me human. But that is because they are civilians and do not know how chakra works,” Kyuubi told him. “I can only guess just where those rumors started. It’s fairly pathetic.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt it,” Naruto said. He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling as he thought. He watched as sealing marks danced along it, glowing softly in the dark of his mind space. “Why do you think jiji never told me about you?” he asked.
“He probably has some misguided idea of protecting you,” Kyuubi snorted. “Or trying to control you. Which is very idiotic since you will never live a normal life, even before the information that you are my holder got out.”
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the ceiling and the way the Kyuubi had said it. “You think that someone let it loose that you were sealed in me, don’t you?” he asked.
“I know that they did. While you were a baby, I was able to watch from the seal far more often then I am now. That old man talked about how the rumors about you were already starting up. He should have put that punishment to good use, he had done it before after all. They should have been executed for speaking of an S-Rank secret. But instead, he was weak and he never followed through. And now look at where you are,” Kyuubi snorted. He shook his head. “You are hated for something that you had no part in. There are lies and misinformation about what happened that night taken for the truth. For a village that is supposed to be a military village, you would think that they would be smarter. Less prone to judgements.”
Naruto snorted. “You would think that yes. But with the way things are looking now that I think about it…” He trailed off, shaking his head again before letting it go for the moment. “Hey, I have a question for you. And it’s totally fine if you don’t want to do this or not. But…”
“But?” Kyuubi prompted, curious about what the young kit wanted.
“Do you think you’d be willing to help me learn how to organize my mind? I think that I’m going to need some guidance on it. I’m thinkin’ that if I can fix things, I can make it so that the seal will allow you to have an area to wander while keeping me safe. I doubt that I’ll be able to free you since the Forth would have created a fail safe to stop you from getting free, but I do want to make your life somewhat better then what you’re dealing with now,” Naruto said. He shifted to look at Kyuubi.
The fox gazed at him for a long moment before he nodded his head, ear twitching at some sound that he could only hear. He didn’t show his surprise at the request, or the fact that Naruto had just offered him space to roam.Mito and Kushina both had stopped him from doing things, driving him insane from the boredom and inability to move as his body and chakra begged. He made a decision.
“I shall help you, yes. Meditate whenever you have an hour’s time at night and I shall walk you through what I know on how to rebuild your mind and your mind scape. It will only take a few months if you work on it diligently. For now, it seems as if your little snake companion is calling for you,” Kyuubi stated.
Naruto smiled up at him, the smile blinding, before he fell back through the water and into the wakeful world.
He blinked open his eyes, adjusting to the soft light, and felt the weight of Nissa around his shoulders. “I talked with the Kyuubi.”
“Did you?” Nissa asked, surprised but pleased. He lifted his head up far enough to see Naruto’s face, tongue flicking a kiss to his nose. “How did it go?”
“Not too bad actually,” Naruto admitted. He pushed himself up and off of the floor pillow, stretching his entire body and working the kinks out. “He’s going to end up helping me restructure my mind since no one has ever told me how to do it like I was supposed to learn when I unlocked my chakra. Something else that teachers screwed me on. So now that I’m behind a lot on that along with everything else. I’m hoping that it means that I can give him a better place in my mind that isn’t a sewer and a giant cage,” he said.
Nissa hummed, giving him a squeeze around his shoulders before once more relaxing. “I do hope that you are able to do this. I do not know how human minds work so I would not be able to help you,” he admitted as he worked his way down Naruto’s body to the floor. He started to slither to the kitchen. “I am sure that I can find some information on Biju and their history though. Find out just what and who they are.”
“Could you?” Naruto asked as he followed his friend into the kitchen to make a light late dinner before he started to prepare for bed.
“I shall see what books are at my Master’s home through mother. I’m supposed to meet with her soon,” Nissa promised, watching as Naruto pulled out some tofu miso soup and sliced pork from his dinner the night before. One thing that he had put his tail down on was the amount of ramen that Naruto ate.
Even if Naruto was eating a cup noodle, he had to add some kind of meat to it. Or eggs if he could get it.
Naruto heated up his food before he sat at his table, offering Nissa his own small bowl of soup. They ate, talked and cleaned up before they did their nightly routines for bed.
In bed, they curled up together with the small fixed heater set up at the end of the bed, blowing warm air over them. Keeping them warm as a winter storm picked up outside.
5
It had been a long five years since Naruto had found Nissa during a walk in the woods. During those five years though, things had changed a lot for the young man, including how the academy worked for the students.
One of the smarter nins on the nin side of the council had finally gotten tired of half-taught genin being pumped out and losing many to the corps. They tended not to do any better than low-level chunin. He had pushed for the age of graduation during peace time to be lengthened so that they had more time to learn and hone the basic skills that the jounins had to spend so much time fixing. This way the jounin could focus on introducing new skills to their genin and working on the actual skills needed to be chunin.
Thus, it meant that anyone joining the academy was enrolled from age six to fourteen or fifteen, depending on their birthdays. Their classes for the first couple of years had been changed to basic every day classes that were based around the skills a nin needed, such as reading, math, and sciences. They also worked on their chakra control, stamina and how to keep themselves healthy. In the later years, they learned how to keep their weapons properly, how to use them and what type of weapons there were along with the basic jutsus that all genin should know.
In the last year of their schooling, they were allowed to take one or two classes on their choice of specializations. Things like healing, traps, seals, and infiltration. Naruto knew that Sakura, while weak stamina wise had pinpoint chakra control. She had decided to take the healing classes and passed them with good marks.
That is when she wasn’t dieting herself sick again.
Sasuke though had chafed under the new rules for a time. But had to admit that he had better control since the senseis had more time to teach them the things they needed.
Most of their classmates liked the new style.
Naruto though, he had hidden exactly what he did know and his proper level of skills. He passed the classes just enough to get into the next grade and not to be considered dead last in all of their subjects. He usually tied about even with Shikamaru. The guy was a genius but he was a lazy teen, just like most Naras. He would sometimes tie with Kiba for the last spot in a subject, but that did help him to keep his cover.
Nissa had been proven right when he had said that he would need to stay hidden from those that would love nothing more then to drag him down if he wasn’t careful. But now, on the first day of his last year in the academy, he was about to talk with Iruka.
He had been surprised when he joined Iruka’s class with how the man ran his lessons. All of his other teachers had ignored him for the most part as long as he hadn’t drawn attention to himself. But not Iruka.
The man paid attention so Naruto had to learn how to be better at hiding. A solid henge, the trick taught to him by the Kyuubi before they got Iruka as their teacher, made it so that his looks didn’t draw attention and he looked like the village thought he should.
But he also changed his looks with the henge to go buy the fabric that he wanted, using them to create his own personal clothes. Things like the battle kimonos that he always admired on some of the kunoichi and seduction experts, and the pants that hid the armor mesh that he wore. He had dropped the orange jump suit after a ‘training accident’.
He had even found someone willing to teach him how to smith his weapons a year after he started the academy. The blacksmith had taught him how to spot a good kunai or sword when he was younger and then taught him how to work the metal as he got older. His wife was able to weave specialized armor and taught him the basics on how to do it.
Most nins used her armor mesh since it was made of a special metal that her family techniques could wield more often then not.
During the time of him working and learning under them, he had worked in the back, going through the turned in weaponry to find out if any could be used in the academy classes after a little fixing.
The couple liked him well enough and he had picked up a lot under their careful teaching. He still went back every weekend to continue to learn how to weave and to go through the collected weapons, saving both of them time that they could use to do more commissions while he was being paid money.
He was also able to buy his own weaponry at whole sale instead of the jacked up prices that most of the stores had.
Shaking his head, Naruto pushed the door open and found Iruka sitting at his desk, eating his lunch while he went over the start of class information packets that he had them fill out.
They would also be doing a few more paper and physical tests for their current baseline, but at the moment Naruto wasn’t worried about it. He was worried about how the talk was going to go despite how Iruka had treated him so far.
The man was neutral to him but he was thoughtful too. He found he preferred that neutrality compared to what he dealt with otherwise.
Iruka looked up and put his chopsticks down and to the side as he swallowed his mouthful. “Naruto-kun? Is there something you need?” he asked. Naruto sighed as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
Iruka didn’t jump at the sight of Nissa hanging out on his shoulders, knowing full well while he was a summons, he wasn’t one of Anko’s or Orochimaru’s. The little snake had simply connected with Naruto and had refused to leave him no matter what.
“Nissa said that I should probably talk to you. That you’d actually listen to me unlike my past teachers,” Naruto told him. He walked up to Iruka’s desk, tucking his hands up the sleeves of his battle kimono.
“Oh?” Iruka asked him, tiling his head at the small snake, who just gave him a bored look in return. “About what?” he asked.
“About how I may learn best. While I have worked hard on my control, I just have too much chakra and it’s too dense for some of the lower ranked jutsus that we learn.” He shifted on his feet. “I’m never going to be able to do a proper bushin clone without making thousands if not millions of them. Every time I make a clone, I’m overloading the clone because I can’t use a little amount of chakra right now. Which is why when I do make one or two, they end up looking dead or disappear the moment that I make them.” He shrugged. “And you know the henge that I use against perverts? It’s actually solid. Or at least more solid then a normal henge due to the denseness of my chakra.”
Iruka went still, mind putting pieces together quickly before he moved his food to the side. “Tell me, Naruto-kun, your last name. Do you know where you got it from?” he asked.
Nissa tilted his head. “From what I know, his mother,” he stated. “And that she had married his father. They died the night that he was born. My mother knows more but she doesn’t tell me anything and I’m not going to dig around just yet.”
Iruka blew out a slow breath, rubbing at his face. “I am going to kill that old bastard,” he muttered, the sound muffled.
He reached down to his drawer and opened it, pulling the bottom of the drawer out. He found a sealed box within the false bottom and ran his finger along the edge of it, leaving behind a streak of blood as the edge cut into his skin.
“Okay. So I think that I know what is going on. Unfortunately, right this moment, it’s not my place to tell you. Yet. I need you to fill out a bunch of paperwork before I can tell you. But that will be your choice, not mine. This is the paperwork that you will need to fill out if you wish,” he said, opening the book and pulling out a thick pile of paper. “Go ahead and read over it tonight. Ask me any questions that you have about it tomorrow. Now, I need you to funnel chakra into this seal please.”
Naruto eyed the pile of papers and piece of paper with a seal on it before he looked at Iruka then Nissa. Nissa nodded his head, making Naruto sigh and take the papers, shoving them into his bag that was slung over one shoulder. He took the seal and looked at it with a frown. “A testing seal?” he asked. “I’ve actually never seen one like this in the books I’ve read.”
“It’s a Uzumaki seal actually. And will be something that I give you the information on with or without that paperwork being done. If you don’t do it, it’ll have to wait until after you have graduated according to the Hokage.” Iruka snorted. Naruto nodded his head. “By then, you’ll be considered an adult in the eyes of the laws.”
“Yeah, okay,” Naruto said. He fed his chakra carefully into the seal, continuing until he felt the seal push back, telling him it had enough for the moment. They watched as the various marks and swirls that had created the seal shift and change before settling into a new seal. Iruka squinted at it before he groaned.
“Alright. So I will be teaching you some various types of bushin in the next few weeks. You will need to stay after class for about an hour every day so that I can work with you,” Iruka stated. Naruto nodded his head. “What this seal tells me is that you are right, Nissa. Naruto is a Uzumaki and that means that he will never be able to use such a low level jutsu without overpowering it with small amounts of clones. At least not until he’s done a lot of specialized chakra control. Seeing as he just had you from what I know, and whatever books you gave him or he was able to get from the library, I’m going to guess that he’s a lot smarter then what others think.
“Moving on, the seal also says that you have a good hand at healing through seals. I’m going to guess that comes from your mother. If she is who I think she is, she also had a good hand with healing seals that she used on the field of battle to save a lot of lives,” Iruka told him.
Naruto beamed at that thought as he played with his fingers. “Will you point me to some good starter books on seals? I’ve done some research but not a lot since it’s kinda complicated,” he said. Iruka chuckled as Naruto looked at him through his lashes, but smiled and nodded.
“I will. In fact, I will drop off some starter books that I own that I think will work best for you,” Iruka promised, getting a smile from Naruto. “For now though, how about you sit down, eat your lunch and relax before we start our next class. We’re doing even more testing and I figure that you will want to decompress beforehand,” he said, shifting slightly. He pulled his food close again. Naruto nodded and moved to sit next to a window, Nissa slipping off his shoulders to bask in the sun from the window.
Iruka watched him for a few minutes before he nodded his head and turned to the papers, making a note that he would be tutoring Naruto in various forms of bushin to find one that would work best for him. With that noted down, he marked even more of Kiba’s page, making a note to find him a tutor to teach him math better and to work on his trap work while he was at it.
6
Iruka was staring his friends down, having met them in a cafe where they would be left alone. His eyes narrowed at the senbon wielding man who smirked, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Don’t you give me that look, you absolute ass,” Iruka hissed at him.
“What look?” Genma asked, teasing. Raidou rolled his eyes next to his friend. He knew what everyone thought, that they were together. And with the way they interacted and kept their relationships hidden it wasn’t a surprise really.
He reached over and tugged on dark blond hair, getting a groan from the man. “Don’t piss off the cute chunin again. He’ll make you hallucinate with his damn poisons again and I am not letting you stay in my house when Anko kicks you out to wait it out,” Raidou drawled.
“Aw, Rai, you’re no fun,” Genma pouted. “Alright, alright. ‘Ruka-chan, what’s up with the meeting?” he asked as he rested his elbow on the table, leaning forward. Iruka sighed and pulled apart the soft bun that he had ordered as a snack.
“I’ve been speaking with Naruto-kun,” Iruka admitted. Genma and Raidou exchanged looks. “He filled out the paperwork to make me his Estate Guardian seeing as I’m the only Umino in the village. And the Haruno’s are as useful as a wet noodle against a rabid dog with the way they’ve been acting. I wouldn’t trust them with Naruto’s estate any further then I can trust their daughter not to stalk Uchiha for more then a night. I’m still wading through the absolute mess that the estate is in, but I don’t have as much time to help him with some tutoring that he can’t get through the school without someone messing him up. He still has some issues with his reading but Nissa, his snake companion, has helped him a lot. Still, they need someone willing to work one on one with him.”
“What else does he need beyond reading?” Raidou asked.
“Taijutsu. Chakra control but that’s mostly doing the needed exercises. History. Diplomacy. He was in another class for two years before he came to me, but they would try to not teach him things. We’re lucky that they decided to extend how long we teach our students during peace time,” Iruka stated. He shifted and shoved a piece of bun into his mouth. He chewed as the friends exchanged looks, an entire conversation going on between them.
“You need someone to teach him things from your classes too?” Raidou asked.
“More then likely, yes,” Iruka said, shrugging. “He knows the subjects, don’t get me wrong. And he knows why we need to learn them but he’s an Uzumaki. He likes knowing the reasons why we need to learn certain things,” he told them. “And most of the time, we just don’t have the time to get into the nitty gritty of why we learn about a small conflict instead of a big huge one. There’s just not enough fucking time with everything we have to teach, even with our extended timeline.”
Genma grunted. “Yeah. I feel ya on that. Raidou and I can probably help him to learn some things. Explain why things are taught and how they’re all connected to everything in our modern day,” he said. “You want Anko to help with this?” he asked.
“Unfortunately no. She’d most likely freak out over seeing Nissa just randomly hanging out and harass Naruto while trying to figure out if a certain Snake Sanin is trying to fill his head with lies. Never mind that I still think there’s a lot more going on with him then what everyone thinks,” he continued. He shook his head. “Moving on, what do you think of maybe Gai helping with his kata and fighting work?” he asked.
“I would say he’s the best choice. He’s looking to take a team and has students from the year above Naruto that he wants to tutor, but beyond his time with his team, he’ll be pretty free outside of his missions. If you explain just what you want him to teach Naruto, he’d be happy to teach him when he has time,” Genma said. “I could talk with him if you want?”
“Or we can talk to him right now. It looks like he stopped by for a snack,” Raidou said, nodding his head to the man as he walked up to the counter to order something. He waved Gai down once he had a to-go cup of hot tea and some meat stuffed buns. Gai beamed at them as he walked over.
“My friends! What a lovely surprise to see you here,” Gai said, smiling at them as he took a seat at the table. “You three look as if you are having quite the serious conversation. What is going on?” he asked.
“You know Uzumaki Naruto right? The blond kid that runs around, taking the ANBU on a tour of the village often with his pranks, yeah?” Genma asked.
Gai nodded. “Indeed, I do. He has quite the wealth of stamina and he probably needs something to help his focus. Why?” he asked before he bit into the meat bun that he had ordered.
Iruka huffed and smiled. “He’s been, to be blunt, fucked over hard by his past teachers. They stunted his academic growth and the growth of his nin skills. I’m looking for those who are willing to help him catch up on his skills. While he has self-studied, there is only so much that one can learn with no one but their companion animal. I would do it but I recently took over as his Estate Manager and I need to figure that out along with the rest of my work. Between what I do for the Hokage and the Archives, there’s my teaching job and job at the mission desk. I can’t really help him beyond giving him scrolls from the Uzumaki’s and Uzu.”
“Who is teaching him what?” Gai asked after he chewed and swallowed, washing it down with some tea.
“I’m going to work on how everything he learns in school ends up connected with the world around us. Why we learn the history that we do. Things like that. Teach him about how a small thing can echo through the future of the world,” Raidou told him.
“I’ll be workin’ with him on his weaponry and chakra control. Finish polishing up his reading and writing. No one taught him shit but his snake has helped, but there’s a limit to that. Meditation work if he hasn’t started. Shit that should have been taught to him when he was six,” Genma mused.
“Then perhaps I can take over teaching him taijutsu. I was lucky enough to learn the base of the Uzumaki styles from Kushina-san herself since she saw that it would help me create my Lotus style,” Gai admitted. He blushed before frowning and putting his bun down onto his plate. “I think we would have to work out the best schedule for the young Uzumaki.”
“I will say this: as long as he can pass his tests, I won’t have him do certain homework assignments,” Iruka said as he relaxed in his chair. “I just want him to be on a more even footing with the rest of his class. You will be paid for your time since it’s a mentor thing.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it, ‘Ruka. You’re gonna have to make sure that the supplies for this is fulfilled along with what he’s gonna need. And that we have access to some of the scrolls for his teaching. We’re good then,” Genma said, waving Iruka off. “It’ll be good for the both of us to start learning how to deal with kids his age. I was thinking of applying to teach some advance weaponry and tonics classes for the last year students.”
“I was thinking of doing advanced diplomacy and a more in-depth history class for those in their last year also,” Raidou told them. “Just to dig deeper into the parts of history that shaped our modern day. Elective classes if they want to learn more.”
“If you two come by the academy early tomorrow, you can get the needed paperwork that you would need to fill out along with the information on what you would need to show for approval of the classes,” Iruka said. The two men nodded in agreement. “Other than that, I’ll talk with Naruto tonight and set up a first meeting for all of you. I’ll send one of my rat summons to you guys with the information,” he told them.
“That’s all good with us,” Genma drawled, saluting him with a smirk before they really settled in to talk about who was going to do what when. They all knew that they would have to make sure that the Hokage didn’t know about it, even though he would have no say about it, but they didn’t care.
One of their future leaves was being hurt by his idiocy and the idiocy of the village. That just wouldn’t do. And because of that, old treaties came into play to protect one of their own.
7
Iruka frowned as he watched Naruto scowl at his latest test, his eyes narrowing. He watched as Naruto went through it and checked it against his books and notes, apparently displeased with something. He knew that Mizuki had graded the last test since he had to cover Kotetsu at the mission desk, who had ended up dealing with a bout of flu for a week so hadn’t been able to grade their tests.
But ever since the day that Naruto had come to talk with him, he had worked with him and his mentors to help Naruto catch up. Naruto had shown a talent for water based clones and kage bushin. It made him feel rather proud of the young man who had worked hard to perfect them. He had even worked out the added benefit of having a clone work on his reading and writing skills while he was in class. Then the clones would pop during breaks when he could meditate and work on settling the new information that the clone had learned.
But right now, it was as if something was off with Naruto’s test with the way he was staring at it. He decided to pull him aside during lunch.
“Naruto-kun, can you stay behind please?” Iruka asked. Naruto looked up and nodded as Mizuki turned to Iruka with a raised eyebrow. “I just need to talk with him about some things, Mizuki-san. That’s all,” he said. He smiled at the other man.
Mizuki grunted, something dark flitting through his eyes when he looked to the blond teen. “He did do rather badly on his test this time,” he warned. “I’m starting to think he was cheating on his past tests with how badly he did.”
“I’ll talk with him about that, don’t worry,” Iruka said.
He smiled as their students left the room, Naruto staying behind as he continued to stare at his test with a scowl. Once Mizuki had left the room, Iruka waved Naruto over to him as he pulled out a fresh test and a paper that had a copy seal on it. It was used in the Archives to make copies just in case something happened to the original file, such as water damage or someone messing with it, but he was going to use it to figure read what the paper had original said.
“Come on, let me see it,” he hissed softly. “I trust that Mizuki did mess around with your test?” he asked.
Naruto nodded, showing him the thinness of the paper in some places. The paper was created in such a way that if it was tampered with after the students put chakra into the pages that if it was erased, it would thin out. Mission paperwork was made with the same seals. It also kept a chakra imprint of what had been written down.
Iruka used that to his advantage and copied the test, leaving behind any marks that came from Mizuki’s chakra off of the paper. He looked over it and nodded. “I’ll grade this now and fix your grade accordingly.”
“And if Mizuki-sensei complains?” Naruto asked.
“I will tell him that someone had quite obviously erased several of your chakra sealed answers from your paper. Which means that I had to regrade it after discovering that. And then I’ll just ask him, very politely, how he had missed the fact that the paper was thin in places,” Iruka drawled. His eyes glowed with his quiet anger. Naruto shivered but nodded his head in agreement with his sensei and estate manager.
“Alright. You all good?” Naruto asked. Iruka smiled at him and nodded. “Then I’m going to go and eat with Shikamaru, Choji and Ino. Me and Cho’ have been trading recipes and ideas for food lately and he has a new one that I wanted,” Naruto said as Nissa appeared from where ever she had been hiding. Naruto picked her up and let her drape over his shoulders. Iruka chuckled and gave her a little stroke.
“Go enjoy lunch,” Iruka told him, waving him off. As soon as Naruto was gone with his lunch in hand, Iruka graded the paper with quick and efficient moves, writing the proper grade out on the top. He then pulled out his grade book, adjusted the grade for that test and placed the two tests into Naruto’s file.
He knew that his fellow teacher would come for him for this but he didn’t care.
He was about to pull off some political maneuvering that Hiruzen would not be able to stop. What most had forgotten about Uzushio was that it hadn’t just been home to the Uzumaki clan, despite the sheer size of the clan. It also homed several smaller clans that had filled in various specialties.
The Kagerou clan, for example, was one of the best collection of healers on the island. The Koguka family had specialized in illusions and as spy masters. They had been the clan that had run the Interrogation sector of the island.
But the Umino clan? His clan?
They were the teachers.
They were the ones who knew how to teach a Uzumaki no matter what their base element had been or was. They had been the ones who had run the schools and taken on specializing genin teams while the rest of the village had worked on teaching the rest of the created teams.
And he had been taught by his parents how to train a Uzumaki from a very young age.
He just wouldn’t be able to do it face to face with Naruto due to the restrictions placed by the Hokage though. At least for the moment.
But they had said nothing about making sure that Naruto had mentors and access to scrolls and books for his family skills. He knew that no one would be able to get into the warehouse either expect for himself, Tsunade, or Naruto, and he was going to use that to his advantage.
And if Hiruzen tried to stop this from happening?
Well Iruka was quite willing to remind him how the village turned away the fleeing Uzumaki after they had not responded to the call of aid when it had been attacked. It hadn’t been any decision but the Hokage’s that could have turned away refugees after all.
And how it had been him that had decided to not to listen to the call on Danzo’s word alone.
That he had no right whatsoever to deny Naruto his heritage and that if he tried, he would have more then one person up in arms and out for his blood.
Enough so that he would end up on the wrong side of a coup and would be replaced quite easily since he had been meddling in clan business.
Hiruzen knew all of this and thus he wouldn’t do a thing about Iruka giving Naruto the information that he wanted. Or even setting up a space for Naruto’s private studying to keep the scrolls and books safe.
No Umino worth their skills, knowlege and gut instincts had ever trusted Danzo from the very moment that they heard his name.
Iruka’s parents and aunt had told him stories about how Danzo had been the only one of his genin team to come back with his sensei after their first C-Rank and how the sensei had retired soon after, haunted but not remembering what had happened during it. There was still a thought by those that who hadn’t grown up with the man that he had might have allowed his teammates to die during the mission to save his own skin.
Considering the things that Iruka had found in the Archives? He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the truth.
Iruka took a deep breath and pulled out a pad of paper to start writing out the next two months plan for Naruto. He knew that he liked to study a certain way and his mentors were busy with things so he was doing his own studying instead of working with them for the moment. He also had started to work with others to hone his skills.
It made Iruka pleased on how much he was learning, including his seal work. Especially with the help from Naruto’s penpal having kicked up a notch in the last few months. He knew that the young male knew who was behind the letters but he didn’t say anything about it.
With the plan for the next couple of months written out, Iruka tucked it away into his sealed drawer and finished his lunch. Once his class had arrived, he smiled at them. “Alright, class, time for some history! Who here can tell me about the last war and how it has affected us to this day?” he asked, starting to teach the new bit of history.
Once they were done for the day, he let them go after they had cleaned the classroom and Mizuki had left, promising to hang out with him the next day. Iruka just smiled and waved him off before he went to his own house.
At home, he found his key that allowed him into the Uzumaki warehouse that had been set up by Mito-sama when she had moved to the village. It was set so that any clan from Uzu’s original clan list could gain a key to the warehouse if they went to the door.
He would have to grab one of the keys hidden in the warehouse and deliver it to Naruto along withthe next set of scrolls.
After gathering the small boxes with the keys, he found the scrolls that he wanted to give to Naruto, wrote out a letter explaining what they were and what the key was for.
He explained how the next year was going to be busy for both of them since it was Naruto’s last year and Iruka would be putting them through hell.
He went over how the keys worked, how the scrolls would need to be worked through, and how he needed to work on them at a slower pace then he normally did. Mostly because there was just so much information to be gone through and processed. And that they did need to be gone through in the proper order otherwise he wouldn’t be able to understand everything.
With his letter written and sealed, he tucked the envelope into a pocket. It didn’t take long for Iruka to find the perfect key for Naruto, smiling at the fact that it had been engraved with an N already. Kushina’s key hung on the hidden key rack, a K engraved on it, one with an M next to that. He knew that it wasn’t Mito-sama’s though since she had been able to get into the warehouse in a different way.
It had been Minato’s key. As her husband, it had been something that had been allowed since he had been liked by the Uzumaki blood line, allowing the key to be made. He hid the keys again and left, locking the door with his own key, an I on the top of it.
Putting his key into it’s pocket, he headed out to Naruto’s home, knowing that he would be at the job that he did for some extra cash. Since he didn’t have homework and he self studied most things, he liked to work when he had free time.
Breaking into Naruto’s apartment was quite easy for him since they both thought like a prankster and trap user. He knew that if Naruto had to put up worse traps, he would warn Iruka but since he hadn’t, Iruka dropped the things off in his private study before resetting the traps behind and locking it.
Iruka wondered just how long it would take Naruto to become a chunin and start the change that their world so desperately needed. A change in how powerful people treated others. A change in how those who worked in the shadows were held accountable. Change in all things.
It wouldn’t take him long to gain jounin either, especially if he had the right support behind him. With that support, he would shatter records and inspire nations.
Iruka couldn’t wait to see it happen.
8
Closing the door behind him, Naruto stared at the scrolls that were waiting for him along with a box next to it on his kitchen table. Nissa lifted his head from Naruto’s neck and flicked his tongue out to taste the air of the apartment. “It is safe. It is from the one who watches over you,” he hissed.
– “Yeah? Great,” Naruto said, walking to the table and checking over everything. He finally opened the letter from his person, amused that he had written a letter this time. “They’re the official set of Uzumaki Training scrolls,” he breathed.
He felt as if his surprise was like a gut punch to his stomach at that as he continued to read more of the letter.
“Since he has taken over as my teacher and I’m now officially caught up, he can start to work on my Uzumaki based knowledge. He has also made sure that I have full access to the warehouse and library that Mito-sama created when she first came here. She made it so that only those of our blood or those from our home village could enter with the keys that are locked onto our blood and chakra.”
“From what my mother has told me about her, Mito-sama was quite brilliant and thought of the future quite often,” Nissa said. He slid up to Naruto’s shoulder to read. “It is said that she was connected to the spirit world quite a bit more then others. You should tell your penpal about this,” he suggested.
Naruto nodded his head. He moved to the smaller desk that he had in his bedroom and sat down to write out a quick letter to tell his penpal that he had been given access to the Uzumaki storage and warehouse for the library.
He was looking forward to learning all that he could in the future but he knew that there was going to be a lot of work on his end to do. Between his school work and his job, he would need to make sure that he had things scheduled out so that he didn’t over do things. He couldn’t let down his sensei and Estate Guardian, nor his mentors by dropping the ball on everything. They had all put a lot of work into helping him learn how to balance his life and responsibilities after all.
Once he had finished his letter to his penpal, he sealed it with the special wax and seal, handing it over to Nissa. He swallowed it with practiced ease before disappearing into a small hole that was hidden. The hole had been created to allow him to head to the Summoning Lands and from there to get to where his mother’s summoner was without having to expend chakra to do so.
It also allowed Nissa to go visit his family and hunt whenever Naruto wasn’t leaving the house since Nissa still hated to let Naruto leave his sight too often.
With that all done, Naruto cleaned things up and gathered the scrolls, heading into his small study. He had turned the second room of his apartment into the study so that he could put protection seals all over the walls.
He stepped into the giant walk in closet that he liked since it had no windows that someone could get into and the doors were strong enough to stop people from getting into it easily. At least not without a lot of noise.
He really liked the fact that he had been able to change apartments a year ago. And he had been allowed to update things in his new apartment so that he had a hidden study area in the closet. It allowed him privacy and to hide what he was studying from anyone who looked in his windows.
He sat down at the small table that was set up in the far back past a panel that looked like a wall and turned on his light. He opened the scroll that was marked with a ‘1’ and started to read through the introduction.
The scroll was about the various meditation and chakra techniques that the Uzumaki used to control their dense chakra, stating that if he hadn’t learned the basic ones, he should be doing that first.
They went over the basic meditation that he had learned a bit more in-depth compared to before, and what he would learn using the new scroll.
As the scroll told him, Uzumaki’s in general could be anything that they wanted to be but it took them time to fine tune their chakra control and figure themselves out.
He read about how the Uzumaki clan had been pigeonholed by outside nations into being front line heavy hitters. Between their seal knowledge, their powerful attacks, and their chakra stores, they were good front liners.
But they were also healers. Tacticians. Leaders. Medicinal workers. Metal workers. All sorts of things as long as they had learned how to control their natural born chakra.
Once he was finished with the introduction, he did the warm up exercises with this chakra before starting to practice the meditation. It wasn’t that far from what Nissa had gotten him to do that first time. He allowed his mind to just flow and dropped into his mind scape, smiling at how it had changed so much.
Before it had been a sewer, wet and smelling. But now it was a large forest and field, allowing Kurama to run about as he pleased, his seal now a collar around his neck and his size that of a normal fox.
“Huh, it changed around again,” he mused, shaking his head at the pond that he could see koi splashing about in.
He could still remember that first time that he had met the Kyuubi and how they had come to an agreement on things. Kurama had taught him how to change the way he organized his mind.
He had also learned more about him and about how the first time he had been sealed had been because of Uchiha Madara using him to fight against Hashirama and Tobirama. Mito had sealed him away for his safety. He had learned how he had been transferred to Kushina next and then ripped from her and sent on a rampage by another Uchiha.
Naruto had understood just why he had been so pissed off but was glad that he had talked with him instead of just telling him to fuck off.
Naruto was hoping to see his slowly becoming friend, finding that the foxes energy was near the pond that had been created. He knew that the pond actually now hid the deepest of his memories and information from anyone who came around but it was pretty.
He found Kurama lounging on his back, basking in a spot of sunlight, his collar dancing with colors, making him smile at the happy fox.
“So, my little holder is here,” Kurama drawled, stretching out his back legs but making no move to do anything else.
“I see that you’re enjoying the cage-free roaming. What happened exactly? I never did figure that out,” Naruto asked as he watched Kurama flip over onto his stomach, tails curling around him. He gave him a lupine smile.
“With the way that your mind changed, the seal had to change with it,” Kurama stated. “Since you have been training not just your body but your mind under the guidance of your tutors and that teacher, you were able to figure out how to balance your mind and body.” Naruto nodded and sat down, Kurama moving closer to continue talking with him. “I’ve said it before but a good nin is one that is balanced between mind and body. They need to be able to think on the fly but also to plan things while still being able to be flexible in their plans. The micro expressions that a person expresses even when they have been training not to show themselves can be less then a sixteenth of a second. So having a mind sharp enough to pick up on those things is good.”
“No on really ever explained that like that,” Naruto admitted. “Yeah, we’re told why certain lessons are taught now but just not the bigger picture usually since it takes more time to detail that shit out,” he told Kurama.
Kurama huffed, shaking his head. “That is because, even if you are becoming a genin later then before and training in the academy longer, a lot of the smaller details are left to the jounin sensei. Or your internship sensei depending on how that goes.”
“That’s good to know.” He paused. “We’re going to be getting our team assignments for our practice runs with a jounin sensei soon. If we all graduate, I’m going to most likely be stuck with that team,” Naruto sighed. “I know that we’re over the age of what most villages think of as good genin ages, but I think we’ve honed our skills better. That the teams, outside of a few, will be better balanced.”
“You have and they will. Taking the time to really go in depth with your training before hitting the field means that you will have more genin teams with a higher rate of chunin promotions and flesh out the ranks better. You will find that more genin teams will end up passing the team tests that you will be put through instead of heading to the genin corps that will be harder to get out of,” Kurama warned him. He settled down into a comfortable position, ears twitching. “But the things that your penpal and your snake companion have all come together to help you mentally and physically will help in the long run. Learning proper nutrition, how to forage and hunt for your food, how to dress and cook it, reading, writing and understanding the nuance of language all help you. That includes chakra control, how to use your chakra. All of that has worked to bring you to a point where you can pass without issue.”
“And with the new scrolls?” Naruto asked. He tilted his head at the smug smirk that Kurama had.
“It’s just the first step in learning what line you come from and what kind of Uzumaki specialty you will have with practice in the long run, little one. I have no doubt that you will take the world like a quiet storm, and wash away the rot that coats it. This, I have no doubt for Inari themself has spoke these words with Pride and Knowledge.”
9
“So, you’re telling me that this will help you to fix all of the absolute fuckery that my so called estate manager before you had made of my estate?” Naruto asked. Iruka nodded as he shuffled and organized the various bits of paperwork. Nissa had gone to lay out in front of the small fireplace, enjoying the fire’s warmth in the cold of the winter months.
“Yes, it will. The fact that this person had somehow decided that you would never know about nor access your Estate pisses me off. I’m just glad that Ibiki was more then happy to take him on as possible traitor to the village. You fuck around with one estate, there is a very high chance that you’re fucking around with others,” Iruka said.
Naruto snorted, still getting used to the man who was usually so straight laced in the classroom cursing like a sailor out of it.
“Discovering that the T and I department has a forensic accounting department within the ANBU was something that I never thought that I would end up learning,” Naruto stated. “Luckily for us, they do good and fast work,” he said as he read over the file provided by the forensic accountant. “Along with giving good advice.”
“They do,” Iruka said, nodding his head. He wrote out some more information in his letter to the Daiymo, having been told to just skip speaking with the Hokage completely since the man had to get reports from the Estates that were being held for the young orphans of major clans. The Uchiha’s, the Uzumaki’s, the Namikaze’s, and the Kurama’s all had young heirs that had no control over their Estates just yet but were coming of age soon.
Thus why Naruto was signing paperwork to make Iruka his Official Estate Manager for both estates under his name after they had found out how the last manager had messed around with them. With the paperwork to back him up and everything.
He hadn’t really been looking forward to trying to untangle the absolute mess that he had seen it in.
But then Ibiki had set his people on it, the forensic accountant team working hard and getting it done fast. Seeing as they were trained to steal money from someone, they also had to know how to fix what they had messed up, which meant that they were good with numbers.
And they knew how to work with money to make them even more money.
“Are we done for now?” Naruto asked as they sealed everything into a scroll and sealed it with a wax seal. Naruto knew that only the Daiymo could open it, no one else, just him.
Which was good since they didn’t want someone else getting into the letter.
“Yeah. Let’s head to the field,” Iruka said, picking up the scroll once the wax had fully set. He nodded his head and they left the house, heading to their chosen field. It was mostly used by chunin when they were training, the jounin ignoring it since the chunins were vicious bastards when they were training in the minds of the jounins.
Naruto had learned in the last few days that they were so vicious since Chunins were the first line of in-village defense. Iruka had told him that just because chunins tended to take missions that were closer to home, it didn’t mean that they were any less talented or powerful.
They just needed to be able to get home faster.
Most of the career chunnins did have the skills to become a jounin if they so desired. They knew what they wanted to do with their lives and they preferred to do it at home, protecting their village from outside dangers.
Landing in the field, they walked to the edge of the field and knelt down. Iruka bit his thumb and called up a fairly large rat. He was a lovely molted dark gray color and wore a vest with various pockets on it. His tail was also spotted and had a bit of a curl at the end.
The best part was that he was fast, the fastest of Iruka’s summons.
Naruto smiled and stroked down Kira’s back in greeting, having met him when Iruka had showed off summons one day in class. “Hey, Kira. Good to see ya. You up for a long haul delivery?” he asked.
Kira squeaked a little as he stood on his hind legs. “Yes. Iruka-san? Where do you need me to go?” he asked, accepting the bag of mixed nuts and seeds from Naruto. He tucked them into one of his vest pockets.
“I need you to go to the capital and deliver this scroll to the Daimyo. No one else but the Daimyo,” Iruka instructed as he held out the scroll. Kira took it, turning it around in his paws a few times before four or five copies dropped down, fakes all of them, but put into various pockets. The real one got tucked into his special pocket with a seal that would protect it just in case someone tried him.
“I can do that,” Kira promised, nodding his head before he disappeared into the brush, quickly merging with his surroundings. The two smiled and started to walk to the main village, wanting to grab some late lunch at the ramen stand, and maybe just relax after that much paperwork.
“Am I going to have to deal with that much paperwork for the rest of my life?” Naruto asked as they walked into the newly expanded Ichiraku Ramen stand, taking a seat at a table.
“I hate to say it, but yes. Being the head of a clan requires a lot of paperwork to be done, even if it’s just you or just a few clan members. Sasuke will end up having to deal with just as much paperwork once he takes over the Uchiha clan properly. He’s going to have an absolute mess of paperwork to wade through with all of the death certificates that he has t o still sign. Not to mention that he needs to consolidate every part of the clan finances since every family died out, find all of the bastard children in his family and see if they wish to rejoin the family as proper clan members. He needs to work on getting over himself.”
“What do you mean by bastard children?” Ino asked as she walked up to them, staring with wide eyes. She had come in for food, and had heard what Iruka had said. Naruto waved a hand as Ayame walked up to them, taking their orders. They decided to share a large plate of food to go along with their bowls of ramen. Naruto decided on pork ramen with seafood broth. Iruka chose miso ramen and Ino went with seafood ramen with extra fish cakes along with shrimp.
Orders taken, Iruka spoke. “I mean just that, Ino. His clansmen weren’t known to keep their dicks in their pants any more then their women were virgins when they married. Only a few went to their marriage beds untouched,” Iruka said, shaking his head. “They would just ditch whatever child they had after living for a time with a small portion of their clan outside of the village. As far as we know, there were something like four children that were being raised and about six adults at the time of the massacre,” he told her. He shrugged. “As for Sasuke? Do you really think that he’s going to stay with one partner? It’s likely that he’ll use the clan revival law and have several concubines to have children. Either his or some of the stored seed from the various lines. Depends on what he wants.”
“I really hate those old clan rebuilding laws,” Naruto snorted as their food was put before them by a smiling Ayame.
“Same here. Even if he does have a main wife, he’ll have to have his concubines under his name, like I said. The Uchiha had a depository of seed that he has access to to restart lines,” Iruka mused. Ino hummed, settling in to eat and think, eating her portion of the food.
One thing that her father had chewed her out on was when he had found out that she rarely ate enough food for a working kunocihi in some misbegotten idea of keeping her figure.
“Hey, Naruto? You free after lunch?” she asked. Naruto nodded as he slurped up his noodles. “Great. You wanna spar with me? I need someone new to spar with beyond daddy and the two lovebirds. My cousins don’t want to spar with me either.”
Naruto snorted and smiled. “Sure. I’m free from my mentors if you don’t mind us sparing somewhere that isn’t the main training grounds.”
“That’ll be fine. We can do it in my clan training grounds so that we’re not distrubed. Maybe I can help you with your aim on those kunai. Or maybe introduce you to someone to who knows how to make the damn things and won’t charge you a price that will make even a clan person cry,” she decided.
Naruto smiled and drained his broth. “Sounds good to me,” he chirped as he pulled out his money and set down his portion. Iruka added his own and Ino did the same. She stood and took Naruto with her to her clan estate and the private training grounds t.
10
Naruto and Ino found themselves spending the next week together whenever he wasn’t with his mentors and she wasn’t with her father or childhood friends practicing their skills. They alternated between using the available training grounds for the academy students and the Yamanaka clan training grounds. They usually worked on whatever skill his mentors had him working on that day.
They also did homework together, meeting up every other day to hang out and do their various papers together. She moaned over the fact that he didn’t have to do the academy homework, just the reading and math homework. She quickly decided after seeing what he did work on instead that she didn’t want to do what he had to do instead of the academy assigned papers.
That first Sunday that found them hanging out, they found out that Shikamaru had caught the flue from one of his clansmen. Choji had gone to the Nara compound to help Yoshino to take care of the puking Shikamaru. Choji had learned some of the best kind of foods to make for a touch stomach and often cooked for his betrothed or for Ino whenever the two got sick.
Naruto had finally asked about that whole situation and what set them up as a couple. Ino explained that when they had been old enough to understand what marriage was, their fathers had sat down with the two of them and presented the idea of them entering a betrothal contract. They weren’t engaged just yet, but they were growing into a natural kind of love for each other. Shikamaru enjoyed the warm familiarity that came with Choji and did love him romantically, just like Choji loved him.
Naruto found it rather adorable and asked if Choji and Shikamaru wanted to hang with he and Ino sometime. Ino told him that she would ask them when Shikamaru wasn’t puking himself silly, but he could probably help with some things.
As Ino had promised Naruto, she had introduced him to a blacksmith that had given him a fair price and allowed him to turn in his old weapons for credit. Or even found weapons when Naruto went exploring through the woods. Seeing as Naruto’s boss had been working on retiring from his blacksmithing, it worked for him.
The man had also given him all new sets of weaponry for practice runs. The blacksmith had also worked out times that Naruto could come in and work for him. Naruto would continue to learn how to tell the good stuff that just needed to be sharpened and the bad stuff that needed to be melted down and purified for new sets of weapons.
All around, Naruto was quite happy with how things were going and had taken to often going to various training grounds when he couldn’t sleep to collect weapons to turn in and go through. Ino was rather amused that he always found so many left-behind weaponry that he could turn in. Sometimes he even had enough to get some extra money instead of just store credit, which along with the work that he did meant that he had a good budget to work with. Naruto just told her that with the woods and the fact that jounin and chunin got paid as much as they did for their jobs, they were less concerned about hunting down kunai.
At the moment though, they were working on their kunai skills.
To be precise: they were working on their aim while they moved, a new skill that they had been working on in their classes. It wasn’t that hard of a skill in their minds but kind of annoying since Mizuki liked to move the targets, which wasn’t a part of the exercise, but had happened with Naruto way too often.
Naruto was about ready to strangle the chunin if he did more of that kind of bullshit in trying to sabotage his training. He did plan on talking with Iruka later that night about Mizuki and his need to be a dick though. “I really hate the fucker. I swear he’s beyond slimy,” Naruto sighed as he bounced to the side as he threw his kunai, landing a bullseye.
“I don’t get why he’s still a teacher actually,” Ino huffed. She shook her head, hair swinging. “You said that Iruka-sensei is pretty sure that he was the one who had erased your answers right?” she asked.
“Yep. But there’s just not enough proof to, you know, actually get rid of his ass,” Naruto pouted as he walked up to the targets and pulled their kunai free handing over Ino’s so that the two of them could check them over. They sat down on the stumps with their weapons.
He shoved his hair back out of his face, having started to allow his hair to grow out, something that he had learned from Iruka and Gai had been a part of some of the Uzumaki techniques.
At least if he was able to learn how to control his hair like his mother had. But first he had to continue working on his chakra control exercises until he got them right. He was learning from books and scrolls that Iruka had given to him and with his practice in reading and writing, he was finding that his comprehension was improving by leaps and bounds.
“Here, Naruto, let me do something with your hair,” Ino offered.
She waved him over, holding a small brush and a hair tie. Naruto hummed, sitting between her legs and allowing her access to his hair. He felt her pull strands of his hair into a braid that started at the top-back of his head and worked its way down from there, ending in a rather short free braid that she tied off with the hair tie.
“There you go. This is pretty easy to do and I can do it before class each day if you want me to. And there’s also hair bands that would work until it’s long enough to do just a single braid by yourself.”
“Why don’t you ever braid your hair back then? You do know that it’s your loose hair that’s the reason that Ami grabs it during your spars with her right?” Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
Ino hummed and frowned, thinking before she pulled her ponytail out and brushed it out with the comb. With swift, knowing movements, she had her hair in a braid and then wrapped the braid into a bun.
“You know what? You’re right. Daddy has always told me that I need to be able to keep my hair from my enemies before I can wear it long and loose, but I never really thought about it before. But I’m really tired of Ami grabbing and yanking every time we spar,” Ino snorted as they turned back to their weapons, sorting through them.
They pulled out their personal sharpening stones and worked on the ones that just needed a quick run over them, putting the fine ones to the side before creating a pile for scrap into bags that they carried for just such a reason.
“You think that the last of our school year will be different?” Naruto asked, shaking his head with a frown.
“I really hope so,” Ino said. “Otherwise I’m going to throw such a hissy fit about Mizuki that Kiri will hear it in real time. That guy gives me the creeps with slime.”
“You think he’s…well you know,” Naruto said, shuddering at the thought of a teacher being a child predator.
Ino shuddered and gagged with him. “If he is, it would explain why Kin left the class and committed suicide last year,” she said softly.
Naruto and Ino shared a look, remembering the shy young boy. He had been pretty in a way that even Sasuke would never achieve. He had been a weird balance between girlish and boyish in looks. He had several admirers amongst their classmates, but hadn’t really shown any interest himself.
Then they had all noticed when he had started to become jumpy, paranoid. Touch avoidant. He was often out of class with migraines. It was said by his older cousin that they had found out that he had memory gaps that hurt him any time that he had tried to remember what was behind them. And that it had been whatever he had forgotten that drove him to suicide in the end.
There were rumors that he had been abused.
It wasn’t known for sure, but they know that any who hurt any children in such a way, be they academy student, younger, enemy children or genin, the person who did it would be hunted down. It didn’t matter who they were. The last time someone had been hunted down for something like that had been when Naruto had been six and he had heard that the jounin had tried to groom his kunoichi student into letting him use her as he wanted.
He had told her that was how it was for a working kunochi.
She had talked with a friend though after the first few times and that friend had told her father, who had gathered a hunting party. The jounin had been strung up between two poles and left there. Someone fed and watered him enough at night to keep him alive for nearly a month before he had died. They hadn’t bothered to move his body until the warm weather had moved in and started to make it stink as a warning.
Naruto just hoped that their suspicions about Mizuki weren’t right and returned to his weapons. Ino joined him, both of them pushing their thoughts and suspicions away. Not like the Hokage would do any thing on the word of two academy students anyway.
11
Watching as Hiruzen left the training field that he had found Naruto training in with Ino, his friend having learned something new to teach him, he frowned as he absently pulled his longer hair length out of his face.is face.
It was just a few weeks after Iruka had found out that Mizuki had tried to erase Naruto’s answers and had not allowed the other man to grade his papers from then on. It was also a few weeks after he had gained new scrolls, practicing and expanding his techniques as a Uzumaki.
Kurama and Iruka had gone more in depth over why it was likely that he would be able to control his hair with his chakra. Using it as a weapon or as a way to restrain, protect or hold, as needed. But since his part of his clan had used their hair like that, their genes made it so that it would grow quickly.
Ino came up next to him, playing with a kunai as she frowned after the Hokage. She tilted her head to the side, thinking hard as she played with her braid. She was glad that Naruto had suggested that if she wanted long hair she turn it into a weapon while sparring with Shikamaru. Most women with long hair all had special wire that they could use to choke someone if needed in it after all.
Naruto knew for a fact that she had started to keep senbon in portions of her braid. He had found one sticking out one day and pushed it back with a teasing look.
“That was super weird. And when Shika promised his dad he’d be helping with the herd,” Ino hummed. Naruto nodded in agreement as he pulled a face. “What was that all about?”
“It might be because someone is telling him to fuck off when it comes to my clan training. That by the villages own code, and by the treaty that was signed by all of the clans that lived and live here, he has no right to dictate how a clan member is trained,” Naruto said. Ino gave him a curious look before smirking. “Can’t really tell you shit yet so don’t go digging please,” he requested as he called up an Earth Clone to go grab their weapons that they had been using to practice their dodging skills with. “I can’t let that information get out yet. I’m not even a genin, but look who I’m going to be teamed up with for the rest of the year for our test teams. And possibly for our Genin teams.”
Ino groaned, knowing just who he was talking about. Sasuke and Sakura were top of the class in a lot of ways by skill and technical know how. She knew that there were others in their class that were better at things but they didn’t show it for their own reasons.
Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji were three of her classmates that could be top of the class but they hid their skills. She knew why Shikamaru and Choji kept their skills hidden seeing all they had to do was pass, knowing that they would land on the same team. They were going to be the fourth generation of the ShikaChoIno combination and they didn’t mind it now.
But as for why Naruto hid, she could only guess. Her father told her that he carried a heavy burden but he couldn’t say what it was, and it was up to Naruto to tell her. Naruto sure as hell didn’t trust easy despite how easy he could smile. With the way the civilian portion of their village treated him, she wasn’t really surprised at him hiding. Not in the least.
“Don’t worry about it. Just know that me and daddy have your back, yeah? I know that he really does want to talk to you but he can’t actually do that until you get your headband,” she admitted as she took her weapons. “Something about the way the laws are around your secrets.”
They had started to mark their weapons when practicing, hers having purple paint or tape on them. Shikamaru used black while Choji used green and Naruto used dusky orange.
“If you need any information from him though, just give me a letter and I’ll get it to him and then get his response to you in turn,” she continued softly.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. I might do that,” Naruto said, smiling at her. “I need to write a letter though if you don’t mind cutting our training short today.”
“Yeah, not a worry. We’ll get together tomorrow after school and we can continue to practice the moving targets with senbon with Genma-san,” she said.
“Perfect. Thanks, Ino-chan,” Naruto said, smiling before hopping off and heading back home once he had stopped by the school to grab Nissa where he had been chilling out with Iruka. Once at home, he closed the door behind him and headed for his closet, where he had updated his privacy seals into something stronger since he was feeling extra paranoid.
Today’s visit by the Hokage, who had tried to dig into if he was writing to anyone outside of the village had just confirmed that he was under watch.
He was going to have to move everything to the warehouse a whole lot sooner then he had planned on. Naruto really didn’t understand why the man thought that he could control it since Naruto was indeed a Uzumaki and the future head of his clan as the Prince of Uzu. Some of the scrolls he had would have never opened for him if both those facts hadn’t been true.
Not that he could tell the man about what he did know, paranoid about what Hiruzen was doing. Being warned to watch his actions and to read into things beyond the surface level had made sure of his wariness.
Hiruzen’s actions and words not lining up had just pushed him to hide more of what he did know and keep the fact that he had access to the warehouse away from the man. He had already started to wear the key at all times after learning that they couldn’t be switched out from Iruka.
As soon as he had unlocked the warehouse that contained the library and training areas that Mito-sama had created for her clan in the village, it had locked to his chakra signature. But he had also been able to safely train his chakra control and his finer motions while hiding in there. He had made leaps and bounds, finding it easier to form his chakra in smaller amounts compared to the waves that he had used before.
He found that he had wasted a lot of power before and it seemed as if Hiruzen didn’t like the fact that he was controlling his chakra. Or figuring himself out.
It kind of hurt knowing that though.
Closing the door behind him, Naruto swept his eyes over the dark room with narrowed eyes before he moved to his desk and grabbed the needed eraser that he had picked up to erase seal marks. He found the new ones that he hadn’t created, looking them over and then stretching the eraser over them to rub the marks off.
Naruto had to admit that whoever put them up was good, but his eyesight had gotten better with the increase in control over his chakra that he now had. He could see better in semi or full dark and could pick out the subtle differences in the paint color of the wall and the seal, just enough to find them. Nissa helped him find some of the lower ones by smelling out the chakra.
He’d have to talk to Iruka about sending a letter to the Hokage to remind him that he didn’t have the right to bug his house. Or to try to interfere with clan training if he tried that shit again.
Once he was sure all of the marks were gone, he checked to make sure that his privacy seals were good. He took a moment to fix them before he activated them to write his letter in peace. He grumbled about people underestimating him and not staying out of his business as he wrote to his pen-pal.
He suspected that it was Orochimaru since what he knew just added up.
The way that his pen-pal knew so much about the village. The way he was a fount of knowledge and wisdom, as if he had done some of the things that he was advising Naruto not to do at some point in his life.
And of course, the fact that Nissa had been sent to him.
It wasn’t really hard to figure out once a person started to really look around. There were those who were willing to talk about Orochimaru and how the village has ostracized his clan for being so close to the snakes that they had bonded with. How his genius and curiosity had scared those who didn’t know him and how Hiruzen hadn’t liked how smart he had been, learning everything so fast.
Naruto sighed and put pen to paper, spilling out all of his thoughts in the code that he had created with the other person. He told him about how everything was going and how he thought that Hiruzen was trying to stunt his growth.
And how he didn’t know why.
He talked about how it terrified him that someone that he had looked up to for so long would turn on him that way.
Once he had spilled all of his concerns onto the paper, he rolled up the scroll, wrapped it in bright orange, which was a signal to the man on the other side that it was the most important letter out of all of the letters that he had written in the last few weeks and handed it to Nissa with a wane smile. “Hurry, Nissa. I think that I’m going to need his thoughts soon and I can only hope that he has a good day soon.”
Nissa hissed his agreement after swallowing the scroll and left, moving fast to get to the other person.
12
Orochimaru let a sigh slip out as he opened the door to the room that he had created to hold things for Naruto so long ago. He knew when he had sent Nissa to Naruto, that he had needed a friend who wouldn’t leave him suddenly just because an adult told them not to play with him. During that time, he had organized the room some more and stocked it with more whenever he had been free from the Control, along with doing a few other things.
He was finding that he had more and more time free from the Control, free from Danzo and the damn eyes in his arms. Along with the bastard who had laid the original hypnosis on him.
Orochimaru groaned and ran a hand through his hair as he moved to where Nissa tended to leave the messages that Naruto wrote, frowning when he saw one wrapped in orange. He sat down at the desk and opened it, finding that Naruto had used his personal code to write to him. He pulled out a notebook and quickly decoded it with ease of long use. Once he was done, he read through the letter and sighed, feeling exhaustion settle over him.
He always knew that Hiruzen had feared him while at turns treating him as if he favored him over his teammates. Which hadn’t been true, as he had figured out through the years. Jiraiya had been the favorite of Hiruzens while Tsunade had been the princess of the group and village. It didn’t hurt him, not now, but he hated how the man had used his kindness like a weapon against his own students.
And it looked as if he was turning that kindness against Naruto now, confusing the young man. While he had learned quite a bit during the last few years ssince Nissa had come into his life, he was still so willing to believe the best of people.
He pulled some fresh paper to himself and started to write out his response to Naruto.
He told him about his time under Hiruzen as a genin on the then Team Seven that would end up becoming the Sanin. How he had said that he had believed Orochimaru when he had told him about Danzo approaching him at a young age but not doing anything about it.
How he had done nothing about Danzo pushing at him time and time again. Each time just offering him more platitudes and lies with every breath.
He told Naruto about how he had stopped going to Hiruzen about his issues since every time he did Hiruzen did nothing in turn. He had stopped trusting their sensei by the time that they had become chunin and then jounin, heading to the front lines of the war.
He went over how they had been labeled Sanin by Hanzo and how soon after Tsunade had lost her brother. Then her fiancée to attacks that should have been preventable had Hiruzen listened to those telling him that he had to do certain things.
He stopped trusting him when he allowed Tsunade, the best medic in the village, to run away during a war and Jiraiya to stay with children from another village instead of bringing them back like he should have during war. Making them nins of their village until they could take care of Hanzo.
By the time that Hiruzen had let an assassin to get to him and Orochimaru had to kill him to survive, he hadn’t trusted the man in the least bit. And the only thing that Hiruzen had done to stop the rumors of Orochimaru turning on the village was tell the council that it had been an assassination attempt. He didn’t explain it to the civilians, just the council and allowed them to inform people.
Luckily for him, they had but it hadn’t been a good time for Orochimaru.
Due to Hiruzen’s inactions when it came to the snake sanin, there were few who would believe him when he told the truth about things. So when he told others what had happened, they didn’t trust him. And Hiruzen never once lifted a finger to help him, even when he had given that impassioned speech of how he wasn’t himself at the end.
He told Naruto all that he could, including how he had figured out he was under the influence of someone within and outside of the village by the time he had been driven out. He was slowly working on how to weed that influence out from his mind, a mutual friend helping him do just that.
Not that he would tell Naruto just who it was seeing as Itachi was still working for the Akatsuki. That was a whole ‘nother basket of bat shit insane that had to be worked out.
He finished with what he knew about the Uzumaki clan and how to do a run around on Hiruzen to fully claim his place as clan head and put a temporary regent in place when he became a Chunin. Preferably his Umino Estate manager since his clan came from Uzushio.
He did list out all of the clans that he knew had connections to Uzu that were in Konoha, making sure to note who knew about those connections and those who didn’t.
He ended the letter with a promise of sending him some scrolls that he had found and collected during his time infiltrating various villages. Scrolls that had been stolen from Uzushio that had been easy to steal back for whatever reason or had been found on bodies.
He also promised to send the things that Naruto’s parents had given him to keep safe over the years, just in case.
He promised that he had made sure that those from Uzu that he had found had been properly treated with respect. Cremated and sent to the ruined village via a snake. He had made sure that any of their blood had been ruined or destroyed just to make sure. He said that he couldn’t get to Uzu though to deal with their ashes properly, not being a part of the village and unable to get past the shield.
As soon as he had finished, Orochimaru blew out a slow breath and tucked the letter into an envelope, Nissa staring at him from the door that lead from the summoning lands. “Take it to him post haste. I will work on answering his other letters if I am able to, but I need to dig through the crates to find the scrolls and weaponry that I told him about and seal them before my time today ends.”
Nissa nodded his head, took the letter and swallowed it before disappearing through the door once more.
Orochimaru stood from the desk once he had cleaned up the papers, putting them back before burning the pages he had written the decoded letter on and tucked the original away with the many other letters that had been sent to him.
He started to go through the room and looked for the crates that he had marked with scrolls and a U for Uzumaki scrolls. He had learned that no one but those of Uzumaki bloodlines could open them, especially the ones that required chakra or blood. The seals were strong and well placed, making him smile as he remembered listening to Kushina about some of the consequences that some of the seals used to do to idiots who forced the fact.
Finding the right crates, he mused about just how he was going to send them to Naruto. Finding his largest sealing scrolls that his snakes could handle, he laid one out onto a clear space and looked over the marks. His mind turned to his silver haired team mate, a frown pulling at his lips, remembering the few good times that he had had with the man.
At one time they had really thought that they would have moved into something new. Something good for them. But then something had happened just before the war had pushed Jiraiya away from him. It had broken what was growing between them and what they had built before then.
In the end, it had helped to leave him broken and alone.
Orochimaru took a deep breath and shifted the first crate onto the first seal of the scroll. He knelt down and added some chakra into the seal, watching it disappear in a puff. He did the same thing with the next four crates, each of them full of scrolls, weapons and books that he had found from the scattered clans of Uzu.
Done with the first set, he started to move through the rest of the room and found some new weapons that he thought Naruto would enjoy trying out, putting them into a smaller sealing scroll.
He breathed deeply before calling up one of his larger snakes, smiling at the sleek black anaconda. “Milian, I have need of you to take these scrolls to Naruto for me please. It is important that you give it to him personally and not just leave it behind. I’m sure that he may need to move them elsewhere. You might find him in the Uzumaki warehouse, the training zone if I could guess.”
Milian nodded, swallowed the first scroll down before holding the second in her jaws, and disappearing in a puff of smoke. He was most likely heading to the summoning lands to find the doorway that would lead to Naruto and travel that way, hunting him down from there.
Orochimaru took a moment to think before he left the room, locking it solidly behind him. He could feel his mind fade back under the control, knowing that Itachi would be there next month to continue their untangling of the threads in his head. He just hoped that they could finish fixing it before the next Chunin exams happened in Konoha.
Danzo wanted him to attack during them to hopefully weaken the village.
13
Smiling down at the hitai-atein his hands, ignoring that Mizuki’s smile was strained as he left the room, Naruto headed for the classroom that his classmates were hanging out in during testing. He flopped down next to Ino.
“Looks like you’re going to be stuck with Forehead and Sasuke-kun from now on,” she teased him. Naruto pouted at her for reminding him of that particular fact.
The entire year while they had been on their task teams, he had been stuck with Sakura and Sasuke, sometimes switching out with Hinata for some specialized work on team traps. Naruto had found the entire exercise like pulling teeth.
He had finally gotten sick and tired of Sasuke’s attitude that had fed into Sakura’s during one of the exercises that Asuma had been watching over around mid-year and had full on decked him. He had then chewed Sasuke out for his shitty attitude, telling him his ego was over inflated. He had then turned to tell Sakura that she was on the job, and to stop trying to suck Sasuke’s dick. To be a damn kunoichi for once.
He had then told Sasuke to get over himself and work on the team thing. The other two had learned swiftly that Naruto would not and could not put up with them trying to sabotage their grades by failing the teamwork part of their exercises from that day on.
Shikamaru, Choji and Ino had cackled that night during dinner when Naruto had told them about it.
“I really am not looking forward to the next six months,” Naruto admitted, playing with his hitai-atebefore he tied it around his waist. He had finally allowed Ino to kidnap him one day and take him to a Yamanaka run nin wear store, forcing him to try out various styles of clothing. The Elder Yamanaka who ran it knew a Uzumaki just by looking at them and had pulled out some of the older styles he remembered from that time. He had found ones that would look good on Naruto and replicated them for him.
From that day on, Naruto wore nature based oranges and browns instead of the bright orange jumpsuit. His battle kimono was a gradient from the top down, the sea representation at the bottom making him smile at the subtle blue tint to the brown colorings. The tights hid his mesh under armor really well while the obi that he wore hid a few extra sealing scrolls that held his trap supplies safely.
He adjusted his hitai-ateto sit just above his obi and rest over his hip just enough to be seen as he walked. “I’m just glad that they finally understand the fact that we have to work as a team from now on,” he admitted. He sat back and stretched his arms over his head, Ino snorting next to him.
“You gonna be free to come over tonight for a celebration?” she asked. Naruto shook his head, ponytail swinging behind him.
“Nah. Iruka-sensei wants to celebrate with me. Especially since today is officially the day I take head of my clan over and name him my regent for certain things. Apparently someone tried really hard to remove the Uzumaki and Namikaze names from the official clan listings and he wants to relax after he finishes murdering their reputation,” Naruto mused. Kiba snickered behind them as Akumaru barked, tail thumping.
“Yeah, like anyone will get away with removing a clan name without the proper procedures being done. Mum was pissed when Iruka-sensei called for the meeting. The Uzumaki are part of the village history just as much as the Senju and Uchiha are. The Namikaze were small true but they were around,” he drawled, Shino nodding his head. The two males had gotten to know Naruto over the last few years. Since they had worked with him on teams during the class assignments or when doing team trapping skills.
“The very fact that the Uzumaki and Senju share a common ancestry clan and often married into both clans means that they can’t deny me my rights,” Naruto said. “Not if they don’t want a shit lot of the good stuff to disappear when I leave because of them.”
“What kind of shit?” Shikamaru asked, looking curious as he shifted to lay his head in Naruto’s lap. Choji just chuckled at him.
“Treaties. Land. Jutsu and seal rights. A slew of things,” Naruto told him, pulling his hair free and running his fingers through the soft hair. “I think that there’s also some rights to grow certain plants and such that they wouldn’t be able to grow any more if I took the rights with me,” he mused. “The list is huge and the money that my clan has right now because of those payments would be more then enough to restart Uzushio and rebuild it. Support it while the clans are gathered and resettled. Something like eight years worth of time if we’re smart.”
Shikamaru whistled, smiling when Choji stroked his feet. “That is a lot. Ah, I think the tests are done,” he drawled, sitting up when he saw Iruka walk in. The man dismissed them and reminded them to come back after the long weekend for team assignments.
Naruto smiled and bounced down to his teacher and friend, who smiled in return.
“Are you ready to head to my house?” Iruka asked.
Naruto nodded his head.
“So very ready for it. I left my bag there already right?” he asked.
Iruka chuckled and promised that he had. They left the classroom once the rest of his class had left, the genin tasked with the deep clean nodding to them on the way out. They talked about what they wanted to make at the apartment, stopping by the market to pick up some things for their meals. Naruto told Iruka that Kurama, the now named Kyuubi, had requested that he make some of it with pineapple, the weird bacon circles and green peppers on at least two of the slices of round dough topped with cheese and sauce.
Iruka and Naruto really thought about it and decided that they would try it out, buying enough supplies to make four different half pizzas.
Ever since Naruto had started to really talk with Kurama, they had found that the seal had relaxed a bit more so that they could share senses sometimes. He respected Naruto enough to pull back at times when Naruto wanted or needed privacy but he had also given him the full sex talk since Iruka had ended up being busy fixing what others had fucked up.
In return, Naruto agreed to sometimes eat and drink what the fox wanted.
They also picked up some chips that Iruka was craving, some yellow bell peppers that Naruto wanted, cream cheese, a slab of bacon and ice cream for after. Naruto admitted to the craving for cream cheese bell peppers as a snack as their dough for the pizza rose.
Once they got back to Iruka’s home, Naruto went to work on the bell peppers, slicing them into fourth’s and cleaning out the seeds before cutting up part of the bacon. Iruka sliced the rest of the slab into slices for the next day and mixed up the cream cheese before smothering the bell peppers in it. As that baked in the oven, they got the dough mixed up and rising, pulling the bell peppers out before Naruto headed into the shower.
He came out wearing a pair of soft, comfy sleep pants and a giant shirt that he had stolen from Iruka one night, allowing Iruka to take his own shower. By the time that he was done, the bell pepper slices were ready to be eaten without burning them. It was as they were relaxing with some hot chocolate, the pizzas cooking in the oven and filling the apartment with the scent of it, that a knock came on the door.
Iruka opened the door and found an ANBU standing there. “Iruka-sensei,” the ANBU greeted, nodding his head to the other man. “I fear to tell you this, but it was discovered that Uzumaki Naruto has stolen the forbidden scroll.”
“And, pray tell, when would I have had time to do that?” Naruto asked as he wandered out into the hall, sipping his cocoa. His hair was still down, falling to his ass and damp from his shower. He looked tired, and his chakra was actually lower then usual from the hard tests that he had just done to graduate. “Considering that I have been here, making dinner with Iruka-san, taking a shower and still feeling the drain from the tests? Yeah I doubt that I even have the right amount of chakra to create a clone that could get through all of the traps and seals in the Hokage tower. So, nope, not me, ANBU-san.”
Wolf stared at Naruto as he sipped his cocoa for a few seconds before looking to Iruka and then looking at Naruto again. “I suppose I should just take you and Iruka-san with me to report to the Hokage and Ibiki-san then,” he said.
Naruto raised an eyebrow before he shrugged and went to check on the pizza. He found that it was cooked and pulled it out, slicing it with a slicer quickly before moving a couple of slices to plates for him and Iruka. He handed one plate to Iruka and then pulled on his shoes.
“Let’s just get this done with so I can come back and actually eat,” Naruto drawled as they stepped out of the house. Iruka sealed it behind them and they took off to the Hokage’s office, using the roofs and wires.
They missed the fact that as they passed Sasuke’s apartment when he looked out of his window, he saw Naruto running along the roof as he ate a slice of pizza. His golden hair was loose and flying behind him as he moved. Sasuke choked on his own spit as he felt a rush of desire to feel the golden hair in his hand as he had the other writhe under him.
He glared down at his dick as the three disappeared over the roof top line.
“Really not a good time to decide that is a good thought to have,” he hissed at his dick before limping for his bathroom.
14
Coming to stand before Hiruzen’s desk with Ibiki to the side of it, Iruka threw his paper plate away while Naruto finished off his slice of pizza. “I do hope that you remember that due to the fact that Naruto is the heir and soon to be head of the Uzumaki clan, he is therefore un-tochable by Ibiki-san without express permission and evidence. And even then, there is no torture of new genin, much less one of a clan as per the treaties signed between Konoha, Uzu and all the clans that joined,” he stated, eyeing the bald man, who frowned.
“I hadn’t known that he had claimed his position,” Ibiki rumbled, Iruka raising an eyebrow at Hiruzen. The Hokage’s face was blank of emotion. “Why have we not been told of this fact?”
“Most likely due to his status as the holder of the Kyuubi,” Iruka stated, arms crossed. “Can just imagine what would happen if the civilians thought that the fox had taken over the Heir to the Uzumaki clan? Never mind the fact that I know that everyone in this damn village has learned the basic of sealing and how larger scale seals work. So I can’t really help but wonder just how this thought of the Kyuubi being able to take over a child came about.”
“That is very odd,” Ibiki grunted. He pulled out a piece of paper. “In that case, can I ask you a few questions and do two seal based tests?”
“What are the questions?” Naruto asked him. He took the paper that was handed to him. Iruka read over his shoulder and nodded, the blond nodding in return and giving the paperback. “I will give permission for you to ask those questions and only those questions to be asked. No others. And the seal based tests are?”
“One will read chakra and the other will read blood. We have a blood sample but your blood and chakra information is sealed at the moment by the order of the Hospital Head. Not even the Hokage can get at it. Now that I know about your status, I know just why they are sealed,” Ibiki stated. He pulled out those pages.
Naruto looked over each seal before he nodded in agreement. “As long as they are burned as soon as they have been confirmed, I will allow it,” he stated after a moment of thinking.
Hiruzen watched as they talked, not saying a word. He was still trying to think about how to get everything under control but he was finding that it was becoming impossible with the way Naruto had pulled away from him over the last few years.
“Very well. Where were you three hours ago?” Ibiki asked, pen and paper at hand.
“I was at Iruka-san’s house. I believe that I was kneading the dough for pizza and then had a shower after that. About a half hour before that though we were slicing bell peppers for stuffed pepper slices.” Naruto shifted on his feet, wiped his hands on a paper towel he pulled out of his pocket and tossed his trash, having finished his snack.
“And what have you been doing since then?”
“I took a very needed shower. Let me tell you, long hair will take you ten times the length of time to brush out without the proper hair oils. I then ate some pepper slices while Iruka took his own shower. Dealt with my hair at the same time. We put the pizza’s together and made some hot chocolate. Then Wolf-san came around to tell him that I somehow stole a forbidden scroll while I was…in a shower. Like I told him, I’m feeling the end of school tests from earlier so I doubt that I could create a solid enough clone much less get out of the house without Iruka knowing about it,” he said.
Iruka nodded in agreement.
“So, at no time did you leave Iruka-san’s house, nor did you send out a clone?” he asked.
“Nope. Again, I doubt I have the chakra to do it. As it is, the only clone that would only bleed all over the floor if you have a sample would be a blood clone. And I’m still learning that one since Gai-san has been busy and so has Genma-san,” Naruto said. “It sounds like the guy was tagged enough that any clone I made would have popped.” Ibiki nodded as he finished writing the answers down. He pulled out two seal papers with the seals glowing over.
“First one, I need ya ta shove chakra into it. Doesn’t matter how much. Second one needs four drops of blood,” Ibiki instructed.
Naruto nodded and did the chakra one first, pushing his chakra into the seal and watching half of it light up with natural blue chakra. Once he was sure that it was good, he handed the paper back to Ibiki and pulled out a kunai from one of his hidden weapon pouches, pricking his finger. He dropped the required blood onto the second page.
Once he was done, he sucked at his finger and handed over the paper with a smirk as the nick healed. He knew that the red glow that came from both was telling them all that he hadn’t done whatever it was that Hiruzen had tried to pin on him.
“It looks as if my thoughts that thief used his looks to steal the scroll and get him in trouble are correct. I would suggest that you look into Mizuki really. He has been quite the thorn in my side when it came to Naruto’s grades and the way we tested for the last three years,” Iruka told them. He crossed his arms and stared down Hiruzen. “Do remember, you must deal with the fact that your sensei and his brother both signed a very long term treaty with Uzushio that will last as long as this village holds any of Her clans within It’s walls.”
“And if these treaties aren’t kept up?” Ibiki asked, always curious about the history of their village. He hadn’t ever been able to find out a striaght answer about the treaties between the two villages that were held in the hidden libraries of the Hokage, along with the ones with the clans.
“That any and all clans that have connections with Uzushio will get a letter, telling them that Konoha has turned on their allies and that their treaties are null and void. After that, the clans will have the choice to stay as a completely Konoha clan or to leave so that they can return to their original home. Either way, any and all money that is connected to Uzushio, along with their treaties and deals are then taken with them. Konoha will lose them all and have to renegotiate while also losing access to certain seals, jutsu’s and medical practices, including the right to grow certain plants. Everything would simply disappear from the village.”
“And Hiruzen here wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it because each Daimyo since the start has all agreed to these terms even after Uzu fell because Konoha didn’t respond properly to the call to arms,” Naruto said, crossing his arms. “Surprising what you can find out when you go looking and can change your looks the way that I can nowadays.” He smiled. “Is that all?”
Hiruzen blew out a slow breath. “Yes, that is all. Dismissed,” he said. He watched as Naruto bowed shallowly before he left with Iruka, the two talking about how best to reheat the pizza and maybe make some more when they got back to the house. He lacecd his fingers together, Ibiki snorting softly at him.
“For a supposedly brilliant man, you have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon and it affects how you see and use people. You have forgotten that a dictatorship is only as strong as the people who support you,” Ibiki stated before he disappeared. Wolf cocked his head from his spot, staring at the Hokage.
“You can say it,” Hiruzen sighed.
“You forgot that if you try to manipulate or use a Uzumaki, they will find things out eventually and will draw away fro the person. On top of that, you tried very hard to deny him the right to his family history and heritage. I am not that surprised that Iruka did what he did and went around you to file the proper paperwork to teach young Naruto what he needed to know,” he stated. He bowed and disappeared himself.
Hiruzen groaned as he was reminded of the short time that he had known Mito-sama. She had been very matter of fact with the way that a Uzumaki’s luck would always lead them to the truth of a person and subject, no matter how long it took them. She had warned him that if he ever tried to deny or manipulate one from the Island that he would find it coming back to bite him in the ass.
And by the looks of it, it had started to. Somehow Naruto had found more information then he had thought was out there. He had people who were willing to tell him things and he knew that whatever he did or said would be told with a grain of salt and wariness.
He sat back and looked to his crystal ball, tapping it to find out where Mizuki was, finding him in Naruto’s facade, still smirking as he pulled off a tag that had helped to anchor his genjutsu.
He groaned as the ANBU found Mizuki and started to take him down. They successfully took the Forbidden scroll back, the tag, and dragged him off for a long…talk.
15
Naruto stood next to Ibiki, staring through a one-way window that showed Mizuki as he stared at the wall in front of him, scowling. He had been strapped down into the chair, healed up after his interrogation over the last two days. During that time, Naruto had been working on finishing some renovations to the building that he now lived in, created for incoming genin and new chunins who were just starting their mission history.
Getting all of the renovations had been split into two parts so Naruto didn’t have to find somewhere else to live while they were happening. One half of the apartment had been set up to be a normal living space. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, laundry room and storage for the apartment. The other half he had locked down and covered in Uzumaki seals so he could work there when he didn’t want to go to the Uzumaki warehouse.
As for the rest of the apartment building, they were mostly studio apartments with a simple kitchen and bathroom, open concept and had been almost filled. The upper floors with the one, two and three bedroom apartments had been filled by the younger chunins who needed a new apartment to continue building up their own savings. It would bring in some extra money flow for the Uzumaki clan in his eyes.
He even knew that Sasuke was looking to move out of his current place into the new building since each apartment had inbuilt seals that would seal the apartment from anyone not him. The ANBU that had visited him had been huffy but they did understand that the security was for those who lived there.
Only Naruto himself would be able to access the apartment without permission seeing as he owned the building.
Dragging his thoughts away from the apartment building, Naruto tilted his head as he stared at Mizuki as Ibiki shifted next to him. “Why do you want me to talk with him?” Naruto asked, his blue eyes flicking to the large man. “I have shit to unpack before tomorrow after all and not a lot of time.”
Ibiki grunted. “I know that but I can’t seem to get some of the things I need to know outta him. We know that you have a way of gettin’ under other’s skin and digging at them in such a way that you can get’em ta talk,” he said. Naruto sighed before he nodded.
“You’re really lucky that I’m wearing what I am. It’ll help to throw him off,” Naruto huffed, adjusting the giant t-shirt that he was wearing so that one shoulder fell down. He had a pair of shorts under it along with his sandals, having been doing some light cleaning in his new apartment as he unpacked rooms. Ibiki grunted as he let Naruto into the room.
Mizuki’s eyes automatically turned to them, his eyes going wide at the sight of Naruto.
Naruto sat down in the chair across from him, crossign his legs, looking bored as he wrapped his braid up into a bun. “I was told that you took my looks for this bullshit. You forgot to add a few things,” he said as he stroked a hand down the string of tattooed seals around the exposed part of his thigh.
He had gotten them done so that he could access them during missions. They were specialized and were connected to a closet that was heavily covered in protection seals so that he could transport things back and forth.
“Really, trying to look like me? Without all of the details does kind of go against everything that we know of infiltration.”
Mizuki blinked as he stared at the dark seals that were weaved together on tanned skin. “The fuck is that for?” he asked, staring at Naruto, who just continued to smile.
“Ohhh, a bit of this. A bit of that. That’s all you need to really know,” Naruto said, shifting. “So, you wanna tell me why you decided that I was the best person to impersonate? I’m going to guess that it has something to do with the fact that I have a fuzzy ball of chakra sealed into me, yeah? Thinking of trying to get the Heir of the Uzumkai Clan in trouble? Not that it would have worked really, mostly due to the treaties between Uzushigo and Konoha. There’s no one that can state that they were purely from Uzu in this village and to try me without the Daimyo throwing an absolute bitch fit and sanctioning the village into the ground, you need them.”
Mizuki sneered at him. “You? Heir to the Uzumaki clan? Very unlikely,” he snorted. Naruto’s eyes going half lidded as he smirked.
“Yes, me. You see, my father’s genetics kind of made it so that I do look a lot like him color wise. But I am still very much my mother’s son in attitude and looks from what Iruka-san has told me. Now that I’m a genin, I can take my headship and continue to unravel the absolute mess that is the Uzumaki clan estate. It’s quite annoying really,” Naruto hummed, uncrossing before he re-crossed his legs. “So. Tell me. Why my visage?” he asked.
“As you said, you’re the demon…” Naruto tsked and shook his head.
“No. I said that I hold the Kyuubi. Not that I am the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi is a creation of pure chakra created by the Sage himself and his brother. Which is what I have proven by the way with some of the scrolls that I have access to in the Uzuamki warehouse. I’m actually placing all of the information that I can into new scrolls so that I can add that bit of history out there. Anyways, not the Kyuubi. You can’t turn him into something that he is not.” Naruto smiled. “Which is human.”
“What do you mean by all that?” Mizuki asked.
“Well, technically, he’s not a fox either. It’s just the best form for him due to his talents and what he could do when he was actually doing what he was charged with doing,” Naruto hummed. “Which is not to be controlled by an asshole Uchiha who decided that he had the right to take control of one of humanities protections,” he hummed, shaking his head. “You see, the Sage created the Biju to protect us. Not to be used as weapons against each other. They were here to stop someone, something, from coming back.”
Mizuki stared at Naruto, getting stared at in return, every inch of the blond open and showing that he was speaking the truth. “What?” he whimpered, sounding horrified. Naruto reached out and patted his tied down hand.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s going to rock our world at large since I’m going to be writing that book and making it available. I found a publisher who is willing to help me do this to after they saw the amount of research I’ve compiled,” Naruto said. He shifted before standing. “I don’t think that you’re going to tell me anything that I can’t guess. But, who sent you after the Forbidden Scroll?” he asked.
Mizuki stared before he blew out a breath. “Orochimaru. He said that there is a jutsu within that he needs. He wants to cleanse his mind of some things,” he said, voice soft as he still processed what he had learned.
Naruto hummed and nodded, leaving the room, turning to Ibiki as soon as the door closed. “There you have it. He wanted a jutsu that you need to have to go along with certain seals. If I’m thinking right, both of them come from the Uzumaki, not that many know it. They all think that the Forbidden Scroll was written strictly by Tobirama-sama, but Mito-sama did a lot of her own work beside him,” he said. “This means that he wants to clear something from his mind. Probably an outside influence if Mito-sama’s journals on that particular jutsu and seal set were right. The clans of Uzu all helped to create it to help remove things like long-term genjutsu brainwashing, brainwashing the usual ways, genjutsu hypnosis, that sort of thing. During the war before last, the village would test everyone who was coming into the village or to the various camps. Any who ended up popping up for things would go through the whole thing. It’s not hard to do, just chakra intensive and can take a long time to do.”
Ibiki frowned as he crossed his arms, staring into the room at Mizuki, who was looking thoughtful. “Why do you think that he needs that?”
“My mostly educated guess? It’s likely that someone’s been fucking around in his head for a good long time,” Naruto said, waving a ahnd over his shoulder. “At least that’s what I think. Might want to look at a particular war hawk. That arm of his has a lot of chakra around it for being useless. For now though, I gotta go unpack my place some more. Snake-san, can you show me out so I can get home please? I need to water my plants.”
“Of course, Uzumkai-san,” Snake agreed, bowing to Ibiki before he showed Naruto out of the ANBU headquarters. They all knew that the young blond knew the layout better then the Hokage and most of the ANBU who worked there, but he was still being respectful.
They left Ibiki standing there, thinking about what he was going to tell the Hokage about what he had found out so far. And his own thoughts on the matter.
Someone needs to get rid of Hiruzen and Danzo, stat. I like that you at least put a plausible explanation into Naruto’s past for why he is so different and smart comparted to canon. Not many smart!Naruto writers do.