The Hidden Mask

Chapter 2: Tobi

"Akatsuki!" Naruto hissed out, immediately on guard, but the orange masked man only held up a single finger to his mask. 

"Shhhh. I'm not here to capture you, I'm here to recruit you." This made Naruto falter for a second, his eyes narrowed. 

"And why would I want to help you gather the tailed beast, knowing that I have a tailed beast inside of me?" 

"It's funny, every word you just said was wrong." The masked man said with an amused undertone to it. "I actually need you to help to get rid of the Akatsuki." 

"And how do I know this isn't a trap? That this isn't some ploy to capture me?" 

"I'm the leader of the organization, if I wanted to capture you, I would've done it when your precious Sasuke almost killed you." Naruto averted his eyes from the man. He was right, he could've just taken him while he was weak, not when he was recovering. 

"How would I be of use? I lost my right arm. I can't even use hand signs anymore." He said in a depressing tone. 

"I can replace your arm, and your eyes. Both of them would give you a great power boost. I would train you and make you strong. Konoha has failed you boy, no one loves or cares about your well being except for three people, and even then, they would put the village over you any day." 

"That's not true!" Naruto yelled at the masked man, trying to fight off the inevitable truth. 

"Then why did that Sakura girl only care about the Uchiha boy when you came back? Not you? Even when you were all bloodied? Why did that poor excuse of a teacher Kakashi neglect you? Or why did one of the Sannin throw you off a cliff? So you could activate the Kyuubi's chakra? Don't make me laugh, what would've happened if you didn't do anything? You would've died." 

"This place doesn't care about you. While you were fighting Neji, the crowds were hoping he would hit your heart with the Gentle Fist, hoping that you would stop breathing, treating you like trash! How come the Third Hokage only gave you a crappy apartment that was in the Red Light District? Especially when you're supposed to be treated like royalty!" 

"What? Why?" Naruto asked in a confused voice, his hurt tone lacing his words as tears welled up in his eyes. 

"You mean you don't know?" The masked man said, peering at the boy with his one eye. "They didn't tell you? How predictable of them. Naruto, you are the son of Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage!" He declared, making Naruto's eyes widen. 

"N-no, that's, it can't be, jiji would've, no." 

"You know it's true, you're the spitting image of him. Yellow spiky hair, bright blue eyes, how could people not tell? Why would they keep it from you?" He asked, his eyebrow raised under his mask. 

"Why? Why did they not tell me? Shouldn't I've known? Everyone said my parents were unknown!" Naruto screamed, tears falling freely down his face. 

"Because they think that you didn't deserve to know. Like I said, they treat you like trash, but I won't treat you like trash. I'll teach you, train you, make you my equal, so you'll be able to level a whole village by yourself. Then, together, we can take down the disease that's Akatsuki and fix this fucked up world." 

"I, I, want to join you, but, on one condition." Naruto spoke softly and slowly. 

"And that is?" 

"You give me two days, two days to see if anyone really cares about me. If they do, I stay, if they don't, I go with you." The masked man nodded. 

"Those are acceptable terms. In two days time, I'll be waiting at the top of the Hokage Mountain, if you're not there by the end of the day, then that means you chose to stay." He said before he was sucked up in a vortex, leaving Naruto to himself.