Naruto sat outside the Hokage's office anxiously fidgeting, seemingly unable to be still for more than a second. He was waiting for the Sandaime's current appointment to finish, so he could talk to him further about his heritage and the Kyuubi. All that had been said the previous night was merely confirming what Naruto had already found out from his Father. The Sandaime was especially adamant that the blonde knew he absolutely was in no way, the Kyuubi itself.
However, the Hokage had left him both confused and worried about what was going to happen in this meeting. The old man had spent the entire time the previous night, going from looking downright angry to incredibly sad, as Naruto recounted the events of that night, and the reasons behind his thoughts at the time. Although the blonde didn't quite understand why the Sandaime was reacting to his explanation in the way he was, this wasn't what troubled him the most. It was what the Hokage had said as the meeting finished. It was after he had been dismissed and wished a good night, and was on his way out of office, just closing the heavy double doors behind him as he left when he heard the Sandaime mumble in an unusually serious tone.
"There are going to be some long overdue changes in this village. I wont stand for the blatant defilement of a hero's dying wishes any longer."
Initially, Naruto began to conjure up thoughts of the Sandaime ordering the execution of 'The Demon'. But as quickly as the thought had slithered into his mind, it was crushed by his own faith in the old man. Regardless, it was a fairly ominous statement and it had Naruto wondering at the possibilities.
Fortunately, he was not left to wonder for very long, as his thoughts were interrupted by the tell-tale creaking of the the Hokage's office doors. Naruto looked up in curiosity, to catch a glampse of the person that the Hokage had been having such a long meeting with, and was immediately drawn to the woman's striking purple hair. He could tell she was a shinobi, both by the Hitai-ate strapped round her left bicep, and the pure white grip of a katana emerging from behind her right shoulder.
She noticed him looking, and smiled at him as she walked, causing Naruto to double take.. It was relatively unheard of for a citizen of Konoha that he never met before to smile at him as they passed. In fact, he was pretty sure only Iruka-sensei and the Hokage had done that before.
So surprised was he, that by the time he had gathered his thoughts enough to smile back, the woman had already passed by. However before he could dwell on it, he heard a familiar voice beckon him into the office. He got up, and put on his best grin to hide his slight anxiety.
Yuugao couldn't prevent the frown from appearing on her face, after seeing Naruto outside of the Hokage's office. He was so taken surprised just because she smiled at him? It wasn't right.
She couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of guilt at the fact that she hadn't done anymore for him, especially even after she had worked out who his parents were. She could only hope that Kushina-sensei would forgive her.
"But Oji-san, I thought you said it was a secret?"
"It was made a secret for your own protection. Your Father had made many enemies as the Yellow Flash, and most would still be eager to take a shot at him through his only child. However, you are now a Genin, and about to move on to the next stage of your shinobi training where you will be under the supervision of an experienced Jonin. This should deter most potential threats." The Sandaime explained, his eyes monitoring Naruto's reaction carefully.
Naruto frowned. It would mean that finally, he had some chance of at least partially gaining the acceptance he had craved for as long as he could remember. A large part of him was screaming for him to say yes to the Hokage that moment, and bask in any new-found acceptance. However an even larger part had another concern about revealing his heritage.
"I dunno. I wanna say yes, so I can get the village to recognise me as the super awesome ninja I am,-" The Sandaime had to bit back a slight chuckle, but could not prevent a warm grin from making it's way across his face. "But, I wouldn't feel like I earned it."
Sarutobi had to stop his mouth from hanging at that. He hadn't expected that at all from Naruto. Ironically, considering who his Father was, and his experiences with the child so far, he should have known better.
"Naruto, you have more than earned a little acknowledgement from Konoha. The way you have been treated since you were born is unacceptable, yet you have weathered anything thrown at you with a smile and a promise to change their opinions. Not once have you shown anger or aggression towards any citizen no matter how much you were provoked. Case in point, I know exactly why you wear that jumpsuit Naruto. And you know it's not because of the colour."
The blonde opened his mouth to argue that orange was a kick-ass colour, which he truly believed; but a stern look from the Hokage told him that the old man already knew the other reason Naruto wore the poor excuse for a shinobi outfit. Whilst no-one had been outright violent against him, that didn't stop people from trying. The stupid ones were dealt with by ANBU; however, a more subtle form of causing the blonde harm was concocted. Rather than outright attack him, they sabotaged his chances as shinobi. Academy teachers damaged his learning, and poor quality gear was sold to Naruto intentionally. He wasn't aware of the majority of this, as it was well under the radar so to speak.
One man, however was not quite so sly. He refused to serve Naruto the clothes he wanted to buy outright, and instead presented him with the jumpsuit. Telling him "Maybe a foreign shinobi will use you for kunai practice! Wearing that thing there'll be nowhere to run and no way to hide!" Naruto had typically retorted with all his normal brashness and bravado, and had stubbornly refused to wear anything else. He would 'be so good, I won't need to run or hide!'
Despite his words, what the man said had hurt. It still did, yet he refused to give up on proving the man wrong. He stole a glance up at the Sandaime only to go back to staring at the floor in a split second. The old man was still looking at him with that knowing look, just daring him to argue. He didn't know how the Hokage knew about that, let alone seen through his bravado; but he did, and he had, and Naruto could find no way of arguing with the Sandaime before the elderly Kage resumed speaking.
"Besides, I know you're intelligent enough to realise that the entire village will not miraculously grant you their unconditional adoration. More likely, it would mostly level the playing field so to speak. Rather than outright dislike you, you would have the opportunity to earn the villages respect."
Naruto frowned as he leant back in his chair. He couldn't argue with the Sandaime on any of his points; yet he didn't feel particularly comfortable thinking about what the old man was suggesting. It felt far too much like cheating. Naruto nearly sighed again before realising just how much he would sound like Sasuke if he did. Eventually, he came to a decision. He looked straight into the Hokage's eyes, and nodded cautiously before speaking.
"Okay Oji-san, if you think that's what I should do then I trust you. We'll tell the village about my Father on one condition..."
Sarutobi couldn't prevent the surprise from showing on his face, as Naruto yet again came out with the unexpected. He subconsciously edged to the edge of his seat as he awaited Naruto's terms.
"...You have to promise to hand over that hat! And...treat me to all the ramen I can eat at Ichiraku's!"
The Hokage instinctively palmed his wallet, and clutched it protectively, before an idea formed in his mind.
"But Naruto, if I were to make you Hokage now; you would be too busy doing boring paperwork to train with the new sensei I found for you..."
The blonde's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets at the Sandaime's words. If he was getting a sensei, the that would mean Jutsu! Real, kick-ass Jutsu like shooting fireballs or making lightning shoot from his fingers! But then he had another thought, as he remembered his time at the ramen stand earlier that day. His taijutsu was shocking, as was his overall ninjutsu. However, he had already realised that despite his wishes to learn more techniques, he needed more basic knowledge about chakra and more practise with seals before he could really start to learn jutsu, and even then it would be slow.
A sensei would be able to help him with taijutsu forms and katas, and before meeting with the Hokage he had already spoken to Iruka about having one to one lessons to improve his knowledge. Once he had gotten on par with the other children, then, was when he could begin to learn the awesome jutsu that he wanted.
Sarutobi watched the young shinobi before him go through the motions in his mind, seemingly having forgotten that the Hokage was even there. Naruto had obviously done some heavy thinking about his skills since the previous night's run-in with Mizuki. The Hokage was already aware of his new arrangement with Iruka, which both surprised and pleased him in equal measure. And as he watched Naruto force back his obvious excitement at the opportunity to learn new jutsu (a craving Sarutobi recognised well after having trained both Jiraiya and Orochimaru), and truly think about the training he actually needed, he couldn't help but feel proud that the growth that the boy was showing.
"Ah, I thought you might be interested in that piece of news. You're new sensei is to train you up for the next month in preparation for your placement into a genin cell." The Hokage watched as Naruto's levels of excitement began to rise once more. "You will meet, and begin working with your new sensei in three days time, as she needs adequate time to prepare a schedule for you."
"She?" Naruto asked, obviously slightly put out that they could not get started right away.
"Yes Naruto, a she. Her name is Uzuki Yuugao and she is an ex-ANBU operative, which means she is incredibly skilled and not to be taken lightly, understand?"
The blonde nodded, slightly awed by what the Hokage had just told him.
"Now then, we will discuss the details of revealing you parentage later on. You are to meet Yuugao at Training Ground 56 in three days. In the mean time, I believe you have an appointment with a certain academy teacher to be getting to..."
Sarutobi chuckled out loud as Naruto hurriedly excused himself and rushed out of his office, nearly flattening the secretary on the way out.
"Hokage-sama, it's word from one of Jiraiya-sama's toads."
The brunette stepped aside as a small toad hopped from behind her into the room, and left, shutting the doors behind her. Sarutobi turned his gaze to the amphibian, indicating for it to speak.
"Jiraiya says he is returning home to meet with you personally. It's about Uzumaki Naruto."
Sarutobi's eyes widened as the he heard the toads next words.
"Uzumaki Naruto...and Iwagakure."
-----
Two Days Later...
Naruto sniggered as he laid on his back atop the Hokage monument, or more specifically, atop the head of one Namikaze Minato. It wasn't that he wanted to skip his appointment with Iruka today, it's just that he was absolutely certain that if he spent another minute listening to the scarred Chunin speak about the history of the hidden villages, he would hang himself on the spot. Two days, and three appointments was all it had taken to drive Naruto to this point. Iruka had started him right at the beginning of the academy curriculum, and had him work through it steadily. They were currently about half way through the first year, and already Naruto had cracked.
He had created a shadow clone to attend the lesson (not before violently dispelling two, who initially outright refused to do as they were told), whilst he had a day off to train and relax. He casually rose to his feet, and stretched slowly before trying to decide what to do next. Maybe he would head to the training ground he was supposed to meet his new sensei, so he didn't get lost trying to fi-
The blonde hissed at the pain that flared in his head, as his brain flooded with memories that didn't belong to him. Why did Iruka-sensei have to hit him on the head for? All he had done was pretend to fall asleep as he was talking about how the Nidaime Mizukage fought against the Sandaime, and lost because the Sandaime used his monkey summon...
Naruto's eyes widened as he realised exactly where that memory had come from.
***
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