Inheritance

Fragmenting

Somehow, it seemed many of the older shinobi - Kakashi, Iruka, Yuugao and Jiraiya for example - managed to find a balance between the two states. But he knew from Jiraiya and Kakashi how much of a toll it had taken on them to do so, how much they had lost.

There had to be a middle ground where he could protect everyone and not lose that crucial part of himself. Life had taught him otherwise, but he'd never been one to give up on the impossible.

"Ero-sennin, what will it be like? The battle I mean." He frowned at the floor. "I've been in a few battles now but a war? An invasion?" He trailed off, unsure how to really ask a man who had lived through wars that had swallowed the entire continent what he wanted to know. His sensei looked him hard in the eyes before seemingly deflating in front of him and dropping to the floor and crossing his legs. Naruto joined him wordlessly.

"It's nothing I can really prepare you for with words, kid. Battles outside a village are equally terrible in their own way but shinobi fights inside a village have an entirely different feel." He paused, glancing back towards Konoha, it's roofs barely visible above the forest canopy. "Desperate and claustrophobic is the best way I can describe it. With a full invasion, there's no respite - every street corner and building has another battle, another thing that might kill you if you're not ready for it. Really, we're lucky to be the defending force - means we're the ones setting the traps. That said, you're going to see Leaf shinobi die, Naruto. We're well prepared for what Orochimaru is going to throw at us in my opinion, but there's no escaping that fact."

He knew it of course but hearing it out loud still made his insides curl up in fear - it was everything he dreaded and more. He worked himself to the bone to, as far as possible, prevent just that.

"You need to be ready - as ready as you could ever be - to see that and be able to continue with your mission. Every shinobi does of course, but for you, the stakes are higher. Your burden can be a great help once you learn to control it but before that... It will be looking for your control to slip, looking for an opening and someone that you know getting hurt could be just the thing that sets the Kyuubi loose. We're ready for Orochimaru and Suna, not a full-scale bijuu attack. We need you in control, so that you can stop Gaara from losing his."

Jiraiya paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, before a sly smirk crept onto his face and he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Of course, if you suck even half as much as you do right now Neji will knock the stuffing out of you well before you have to worry about Gaara. Maybe I should hedge my bets and teach him the seals in case we have to send him after Gaara?"

Naruto scowled and slapped the old man's hand away from him before throwing himself at the Sannin, a trio of clones exploding into life as he did so almost by instinct. Still, he appreciated the man's levity. A heavy pit had begun to settle in the very centre of his stomach. Responsibility.

Like Jiraiya said, Konoha couldn't handle a full-scale bijuu attack, and it was his responsibility to stop that. If he failed - how many would die before someone could stop Gaara? Would anyone even be able to with two armies led by Orochimaru to contend with as well?

He had wanted to be Hokage since before he could remember - to protect the village and get respect. Now it was time to prove that it wasn't all just words, that every oath and promise he'd made weren't just wasted oxygen.

He would protect the village, or he'd die trying.

* * *

"The son of the Yondaime..." Ino murmured to herself for the third time since Asuma had left the clearing. "But the village..." She trailed off again, still unsure how to process what their sensei had just told them. Even a decade after his death, the Yondaime had become an almost mythical figure in the village - for Naruto to be his son was an earthshaking revelation. Of course, it really shouldn't have been, Naruto was the spitting image of the man; and a newborn Naruto being handily available to seal the Kyuubi was far too much of a coincidence for nobody to have suspected it before it was announced.