Hidden Underneath the Underneath

Chapter One

A black-haired boy stood on a mountaintop, his battle kimono flowing in the wind. He was quite short, ten years of age with bright violet-blue eyes and pale cheeks. He looked down upon the active city of Konohagakure.

"Ne Kurama," said the boy aloud, "We're back."

The boy heard a grunt for a reply. With that, he jumped down and landed gracefully on the dirt ground. Ahead of him was the big gates leading to his home village.

The boy approached it, conscious of the guards. One had spiky black hair with a bandage across his nose while the other had his hair parted. A cloth was wrapped around his head.

When the boy saw them, he smiled and ran up to them.

"Kotetsu! Izumo! Long time no see!" he shouted excitedly.

The duo, who had previously been sleeping while on their post, woke themselves up when they lifted their heads up at the same time and banged it against each other.

"W-what?" questioned the one switch the nose bandage.

"Who are you?" asked the other guard.

Naruto smirked at them, finding their reactions amusing.

"It's me! Uzumaki Naruto! Remember? You guys used to look out for me when I was younger. I loved ramen," said Naruto, trying to coax their memory.

Kotetsu, who was the one with the nose bandage, nearly choked while Izumo's eyes were literally popping out of his sockets as they were trying to digest the information. Finally, one of them had the nerve to speak:

"Naruto, what happened to your hair while you were gone?"

Naruto smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his nape.

"Long story short, it's my natural colour."

Kotetsu and Izumo looked at each other and shrugged. It didn't really come as a surprise to them: the 'blonde' boy was always hiding secrets.

After sharing some of his stories with them and giving them his identification papers, Naruto was set to go to inform the Hokage about his arrival.

While strolling through Konoha after six years, he was starting to get quite nostalgic. His favourite swing set was still intact as well as what he dubbed as the best ramen shop in the world, Ichiraku Ramen.

Before visiting the Hokage, Naruto decided to catch up with Teuchi and Ayame who were the owners of Ichiraku, Naruto's favourite restaurant.

Teuchi dropped his pans when he saw Naruto while Ayame gushed at how much he had grown; from a cute, adorable toddler to a healthy lithe boy. It felt nice to have someone miss him. Naruto did long for affection once in a while.

It was lucky that Teuchi and Ayame weren't as inquisitive as Kotetsu and Izumo otherwise he would be answering their questions all day, especially about the hair.

When he finished his meal of chicken ramen with extra fish cake, he set off for the Hokage tower.

For once in Naruto's life, he could walk through his home village without being abused.

Black hair changed his looks he thought, amused.

Soon he had arrived at the Hokage tower. There at the door stood two people. Naruto stared quizzically at them, finally realising that they were the ANBU that were guarding the Hokage's tower.

"Identification papers please," asked an ANBU with red hair and a tiger mask.

Naruto smiled innocently at them and showed the pass he got from Kotetsu and Izumo. Reluctantly, the tiger ANBU moved aside, letting Naruto go into the tower.