Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 1 - Deception

Nobody, not even the old man Hokage knew about this hideout. While it was underground and therefore no natural light got inside, it was safe. A fact no other place in the whole village could claim to be for the boy. The least of all his official residence. Well, if anybody would look for him they would only find a shadow clone of his lying in the bed, pretending to be him. It was a really big stroke of luck that he had the habit of observing the true genin tests of the jonin senseis. Three years ago, when he had been nine, he had watched a strange jonin with spiky silver hair and a face mask like his, who only had one eye unveiled of his whole face, using the jutsu. First he had thought it was the normal clone the academy taught, but it was different as the clone could attack like the original. He had seen the handseal the jonin used and then begun training the jutsu.

Shadow clone jutsu had become his favourite jutsu. First, he could do much more with the support of shadow clones. Second, he had found out after two weeks after finally managing to do the jutsu, that whenever one of his clones dispelled, he and the other clones got the memories of the dispelled clone. It had helped him in his training immensely. The village was completely against him, that much he knew since he was a little boy. There were perhaps a handful of people that didn't hate him outright. He didn't know how often he had been in the hospital because of their hatred. But he had found ways to avoid it. He knew the only way to not be beaten up anymore was getting stronger than the ones who beat him. He didn't care if he hurt them anymore. Those who attacked him were going to pay.

But getting strong didn't happen overnight and he also needed to cover all his bases to not be executed on orders of the council, his biggest enemies in the village. He had found out the reason for their hatred five years ago. He had become smarter after stealing scrolls and books from old, unused storages in the academy. In his mind it wasn't wrong what he did, it was simply to survive in this screwed up village. While the Hokage was one of the few that didn't hate him and protected him, otherwise he was sure he would already be dead; he was too old and tired to do his job properly.

He, Naruto Uzumaki, or rather Namikaze, even if nobody knew he had figured that out, was the container of the Kyubi, the nine tailed fox that had attacked the village on the day he had been born. And for some reason the whole village had been informed about that fact and hated him for the connection with the fox. As if he had chosen to become the container of that demon. But no, they saw him as the fox. Stupid bastards. Even he with his self taught knowledge in sealing knew that he and the fox were two separate entities. One day when he had been cleaning the storage rooms in the Hokage Tower after a prank, his only real way to show his frustration with the village, he had found a box with the kanji for fourth on it. He had freed the box of dust when a badly placed nodachi fell from an upper shelf and nicked his arm. Some of the blood from the wound dropped on the seal that kept the box closed and the seal opened much to Naruto's surprise.

He quickly bandaged the wound on his arm with the already ruined sleeve of his jacket and then opened the box. He found a few personal things the Yondaime had left: a marriage certificate and his own birth certificate which stated that his parents were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Namikaze nee Uzumaki. He had been shocked to find that out, but knew he only would have this one chance to see if his father and mother had left him something. For some reason the Hokage had lied to him that he didn't know who his parents were. He was hurt that the old man had lied to him and decided to not tell him that he knew now. In the box were some documents for bank accounts, he saw that he should have inherited quite a fortune, the deed to a bit of land on the outskirts of Konoha, he would check the place out later he decided, and some pictures of his parents, those he took and hid them on his body. He guessed that if there was still a house left much would be kept there.

Checking out the place had been a really good idea. He found a small house, only the ground floor, first floor and a basement, but it was obvious that the one responsible for the interior had chosen it with love to detail. Finding the house had been difficult as it had been hidden with seals again, no wonder with his dad's reputation as a genius, but after four hours of searching he had found the seal that let him inside. He found a small shelf of jutsus, many notes on sealing with the Uzumaki spiral on them, a book about the Uzumaki clan of Whirlpool Country and one about the Namikaze Clan of Fire Country. By now he had read the two books and knew his clans' histories.