Naruto Hatake

It was simple and yet he could see why no one had tried it, it would make sense why no one would talk about it or remember it, and why only a handful had gained it. Most likely they gained that power by accident and with all his training and with the knowledge that this man had known he knew that it had to be the truth. There was no lie in his voice and Itachi had to ask him more, “Why are you telling me this?”

“I offer you a choice Itachi, you can join me and my group. You have no real future in your village and your skills and talents are wasted there. I offer you to be part of the future, I plan on ruling this world and I know of how to do this. There are powers hidden all over the world, great demons that had been sealed away. I plan on taking their power and using it as the ultimate power, nothing will stand in my way.”

“And as I’ve said you’ve interested me, so go back home and chose. If you want the power kill your friend. If you do you know your life there is over with and as proof of your commitment to me you must show me that there is nothing to hold to your old life. You must destroy your old life as proof that you seek the future.” The man turned and started to walk away but then he stopped, “Think on it Itachi because if you do not accept the next time we meet you will die.”

Then he was suddenly gone and Itachi was left with his dead comrades and left to think on his own future.

-Konoha-

Sasuke was having a good day, he had nearly killed himself trying to get that one jutsu that he saw his brother use and after days he finally got it down. In fact even his father seemed please at least that’s what he thought, but something was still wrong. For some reason he said not to follow in his brother’s path which confused him. Wasn’t his brother the strongest in the clan? It made no sense but he had seen how even though his father up to that point had ignored him all his life, he wasn’t any closer to his older brother.

In fact it looked like he was close to their father then his older brother which was strange. Things had been very odd around the compound too, it all started a few days ago when one of them seemed to have committed suicide something nearly unheard of in their clan. He had drowned himself apparently as a note with his hand writing was found in his room, but his father’s reaction was not what he expected. Instead of being angry with a member of the clan for showing such weakness or even consoling the family as was his obligation as clan head, he seemed to be deep in thought about something.

Well for Sasuke he didn’t understand any of this but he was too happy with his father finally acknowledging him to really care. For the first time in his life his father would train him personally and to finally get his father’s approval after all this time and effort, well it just felt really good to him.

Across the village there was another son undergoing training but this was under his father’s gaze. Naruto was finally doing chakra control exercises or at least trying to. He had this stupid leave on his hand and he had to make it float but too little chakra and it wouldn’t do anything, too much and it would burn. And by the huge pile of burnt leaves he had a real problem with not burning them.

Kakashi was sitting on the deck reading one of this perverted books, although he looked to be reading he was actually thinking. Naruto was having a lot of trouble with such a simple thing, anyone else would have gotten this long ago but they had nearly a quarter of the leaves off one small tree gone now. It sent him thinking on why this was so hard for his son. One answer was that Naruto had no skills with chakra but given who his biological father and mother was that made no sense. Two other reasons were that because Naruto had such a huge amount of chakra it was a lot harder for him to mould, kids his age didn’t have that much.

Hell, there were low grade chunins that didn’t have that much chakra. Another reason he figured was because of the fox’s chakra, Kakashi wasn’t sure exactly how it worked with Naruto’s chakra system but it wasn’t normal chakra it was far more powerful and potent. If some of it was mixing in with his that also could explain a few things. It could even be because of those two factors which meant that he would have to really work on Naruto’s chakra control.

He sighed as his son burnt another leave and started to yell at it and lose his temper. It was a long road for his son but there was a bright side to things. Naruto never gave up and he worked hard, maybe harder than anyone. He wouldn’t stop until he got something right even to the point he just dropped from exhaustion. Also the fact that with his little training, some of Gai with taijutsu and whatever Anko did that didn’t kill him, the thought of what Naruto could be when he grew up made him a little giddy.

His son had so much potential, now he just needed to know what to teach him. He could easily help him with the academy stuff but he wanted his son to have an edge. There were so many techniques to teach him but when he was ready there were two that he wasn’t sure which to teach him. His own technique the chidori or the technique of his father the rasengan, in a way he felt that because Naruto was his adopted son he should get his own and only original technique but he was sure that Minato would want his son to have the rasengan.

He had been taught the rasengan but he had only actually used it three times in actual combat, it was just too insane for him to make and use. Each time his hand felt like it nearly drained him, the amount of chakra you needed for it was a very large amount.

He remembered the first time he actually made a perfect one, that had landed him in the hospital for chakra exhaustion. It was pretty much something he saved if there was no other way, sure now he had a lot more chakra then most as he had one of the largest among the jonins but he still wasn’t anywhere near his old sensei had. Even now he could make one without using up all his chakra but he would be very weak after it and wouldn’t be able to make another.

That was why he stuck with his own technique, it wasn’t as powerful as the rasengan but it sure got the job done and he could use that a few times in one day as well.

There was only one other person who could teach Naruto the rasengan anyways but he hadn’t been around for years. It was too bad since Kakashi had a bunch of books he would love to get autographed he only had bought the limited edition of the first series with his autograph. Cost him a whole month of savings but it was worth it.

Naruto started to throw another burnt leaf down and Kakashi starting to try and think of other exercises that would help Naruto.

Later that night as the sun fell Fugaku was walking along the clan compound trying to puzzle out the small mystery before him. Shisui’s death bothered him, mainly because he knew that young man and he was anything but suicidal. But there was another thing bothering him, Shisui had been reporting on his son Itachi and what his son had been doing. His son seemed to be acting odd after his return from that mission where he had been the only survivor.

The fact that the boy had suddenly died made him think that Itachi might be linked to it. He honestly didn’t know what was going on with his son but lately Itachi had been in the family library before the boy’s death researching something. His oldest son hadn’t been seen after the Shisui had been found and already he had recalled the family members. If his oldest son had been responsible then he would need forces to take him down.

His son held so much promise and he wondered where he had gone wrong with him. He could have lead the clan to greatness but it looked like he would become their great shame. On the other hand Sasuke had surprised him with his ability with the jutsu that he had mastered. Maybe he shouldn’t have neglected his youngest son because he didn’t develop as fast as his older brother, but he had seen the promise in Sasuke’s abilities. He would help train his youngest son and he would lead the clan, and maybe it was for the best.

He had never been that close with his sons but at least with Sasuke he would understand him. Now was the only matter was Itachi to deal with. He walked through the dark home but suddenly something seemed odd. There was a stillness to the night, like death was in the air. He slowly turned his head to the window and looked out into the night.

He looked at the moon and noticed a slight red tint to it all, a blood moon. It was a bad omen to be sure and with the night like this his instincts were screaming at him. He noticed something else as well, there usually were roaming patrols on the grounds but he didn’t see any of them. Now he was certain something was wrong and quickly ran through the mansion wondering when he never came upon another soul or how quiet things were.

He opened up the door to Kai Uchiha who was in charge of the guards, he stopped in his tracks at the sight. There in the center room was Kai, his wife and their two children all dead. It looked like the mother tried to cover the children with her body but had failed anyway. No one had ever managed to get this deep inside of the Uchiha home and commit a murder such as this. The person that could only do something like this he knew would have to be extraordinarily trained and would have to know the compound very well.

Then the answer hit him and he ran to check on the rest of his own family. He came into the common room and was met by a sight that broke through his nearly emotionless mask. There was Itachi in his ANBU uniform with a bloody katana, on the floor was his wife. His heart seemed to be like stone at the sight of his wife’s unmoving body. As clan head he had to be totally in control and keep his emotions but this sight broke through all his control.

He might not have said it much or often but he loved his wife and seeing her dead at the hands of their own son was heart breaking. He took a few steps looking at her pale face and then looked at his son, but when he saw his son’s eyes he was surprised to see the sharingan was different. It took a moment to process but there was only one thing that it could be.

His son had found a way to activate the last level of the sharingan, something only a handful had been able to do but had been lost for several generations. But he didn’t care about that he stood to face his son setting his face in stone. “Why?”

“Anything in particular father?” Itachi asked in the same manner.

He didn’t say anything only glaring at the young man, “you could have become clan head, even maybe be Hokage one day. Why throw it all away and why turn on your clan and family.”

Itachi looked at him for a moment, “why would I settle for this village when there is a world out there to rule. And this village is only holding me back, I have found a new path for getting stronger, I thought that I was strong but there are others out there stronger than I am. I would never gain that kind of power like the power I have now. This village means nothing to me now, and I have to move forward and to do that...I have to cut all ties I have to this village.”

He clenched his fists at his son’s words as he glared at the boy and activated his own sharingan.

Elsewhere in the mansion Sasuke was running, he couldn’t find anyone and he knew something was wrong. He ran through the halls looking for his mother and father wondering why the compound seemed to be deserted. He ran to the common room that his family used and opened to the door just in time to see his father being impaled by a katana. He froze there in shock as he watched his father die in front of him. Then he noticed his mother on the floor and when the face of their killer came into view as his father’s body hit the floor it was like someone had shattered his world.

“B-brother?”

He stepped forward on shaking legs looking at their deaths and felt the sting in his eyes from tears. Then he looked to his older brother, “Why? Why did you do this! Why!?”

Itachi walked over to his little brother with no emotion on his face almost looking like he was studying him. “Because they were all weak and deserved it.”

Sasuke tried to punch him but his fist was easily caught by Itachi, “You’re weak too Sasuke, and let me show you a new power of mine... Tsukuyomi.”

In that small moment Sasuke lived through three days of hell as he watched his family die over and over again in his mind. When it was over he looked at his older brother, “You’re not worthy for me to kill, if you want to kill me you must hate me with all your being. To grow strong you must live to hate Sasuke.”

With that final statement Sasuke blacked out from the mental stress that he had gone through. Itachi watched him fall and figured that those words were the best to get his little brother on the right path. He wanted to give his little brother enough motivation to become truly strong like he had become. One day he would see if his little brother had what it took to fight him and he would see which way of the ninja was best. But now it was time to go, he had to finish off any survivors before someone became aware of the deaths.

As the dawn came to the village, Itachi was a long way away from the village that had once been his home at that moment. He had left the village and not once did he look back. He had made his choice and he knew he had made the right one. He now had the legendary power of his clan and the power it gave him was unbelievable, and he was now on his way to only get more. He returned to the area where he had defeated the strange ninja waiting for the other one to show up.

He didn’t have to wait long as the one he had met before had arrived, “I see that you have decided to join us. I must admit killing your clan was very impressive.”

“They were weak and they would have hunted me down, they would have made things very difficult. Besides this way none of them would try and get the power that I have,” although what he didn’t say was that he left his brother alive not for any sentimental reasons but because Sasuke was the only one he felt was worthy to live on, and to live in with hate burning him up inside. He would see if he could push his little brother to be as powerful as he was to see which way of the ninja was the stronger.

Being emotionally detached or using your emotions.

“Then you’ll need these then Itachi,” the figure threw a cloak down that Itachi put on and then he noticed that the man had an open hand towards him with a ring on it. “This belonged to the one you defeated it’s only fitting that you take his place.”

“You still haven’t told me much about this group of yours,” Itachi said putting on the rind.

“It’s called Akatsuki and you can call me, Pein.” The man said to him leading him towards his future.

Next up Chapter 13: First day of School

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 13: First day of School

Naruto was in his room looking up at his ceiling waiting for his alarm to go off he had barely gotten any sleep last night. He had been training for a year and today was the day, it was the day he started his first day at the academy. He couldn’t wait, he was so excited about things and the last year had gone on real fast it seemed.

He remembered the day Hinata’s baby sister had been born, and she was kind of cute for a baby. He trained with Hinata and even Neji when Neji had the time which was nice, although he was already in the academy now a year ahead of them and doing very well. Naruto also enjoyed his time with his new friends Ino, Choji and Shikamaru but over the year something happened with him and Sakura. He started to really like her lately, okay so he also thought she was really nice looking and way smarter than he was. In the year he had known her she had gained more confidence and trained with Ino, the two had started to form a strange friendship/rivalry between the two of them.

He remembered six months ago he had been walking down a street with Sakura walking her home. It was on his way anyway and they had finished playing together that day. Hinata had been busy with her baby sister and the others had various other things to do. It had been going well until a couple of kids got in their faces, just a couple of bullies a few boys and a couple of girls. Naruto although angry could take it, but then they started to tease Sakura about her forehead making her cry a bit. That’s when Naruto threw the first punch, he wished he could say that he fought and won but ended up with a beating.

At least he gave a few of them bloody noses.

So there he was just sitting up against a wall with Sakura trying to wipe some of the blood from a small cut looking really worried about him. “You didn’t have to do that you know I don’t like seeing my friends hurt Naruto.”

He shrugged, “yeah well no one makes fun of my friends, besides it made you sad and I don’t like seeing you sad.”

Sakura gave a small smile at that, it felt good to have someone care for her and Naruto was always so nice to her. Sure he usually got into trouble and was a bit loud at times but he made things fun and he always stood up for her and for the others too. She remembered just last week when someone called Choji fat and he stood up for him. Naruto was very protective of his friends and no matter what the odds were he always fought his hardest for them. He never gave up and it was one of the reasons she had asked for some training from her father and even a little with Ino.

She dabbed a bit at the small cut on his eyebrow but thankfully it had stopped bleeding, although she and Naruto never noticed just how fast he always healed they just figured it always healed fast. She put away the small cloth she had on her and looked at him, there were a few flakes of drying blood but not much and he was looking at her with those blue eyes of his. She had to admit she had never seen anyone with eyes like his, they were just this unique shade of blue and after a year she still hadn’t seen behind the mask. She wondered what he was hiding, was he ugly or did he have a scare or something?

“Thank you Naruto-kun...although I wish I didn’t have this ugly forehead, I get teased so much because of it that I just want to hide it.” Sakura looked down not wanting to see into his eyes. She remembered how Ino told her how it wasn’t ugly but she was still sensitive about it.

Naruto looked at her for a moment before speaking softly which was rare for him and only when he truly meant something, “I don’t think it’s ugly Sakura-chan, I like it. I think it’s uh...cute?” He honestly wasn’t sure what to say about it, but he had heard that word used before by older people when they were talking to others and people seemed to like it.

Sakura blushed a bit smiling, “thank you Naruto-kun, but come on let’s get you to my place so we can clean you up.”

“Okay!” Naruto jumped up full of energy and hyperactive again, “You think you’re mom made those cookies again? They’re great!” Naruto liked the parents of his friends since they always treated him well. Especially Ino, Choji and Shikamaru’s dads for some reason, Sakura’s mother and father seemed a little unsure about him at first but after some time they seemed to warm up to him.

It also meant that when his dad was away on a mission for some time he could sleepover at his friends place. Choji’s family always had a lot of food, Shikamaru’s family was okay, his dad was pretty lazy and his mother kind of scared him at times but they lived by this large forest with all these deer. He only been with Ino’s a few times but he liked it, and he liked learning about plants and stuff too. He had kind of started a small spot for flowers in his backyard.

Although his dad had been worried about him for some reason but he just told him that it was relaxing for him.

Naruto thought back over the year and had to admit it was a pretty great year. And now they would all be in the academy together and he couldn’t wait for it. He wondered if he would find any new friends or not in school? He looked over at his alarm clock and scowled at it, ‘Stupid alarm ring already so I can go!’

When it finally went off it only rang once before his hand shot out and stopped it. He jumped out of bed and went to get a shower and then change. He made it into the kitchen before his dad woke up and he sat at the table waiting for him. But after thirty seconds he jumped off the chair and pushed it to the counter as he tried to make his own breakfast. It wasn’t too hard since he knew how to cook some meals for himself or for his dad since his dad taught him some things like how to cook.

He said it was an important skill to learn to be independent and something about how it showing how much a woman means to you if you cook her a breakfast in bed. Personally Naruto didn’t get that last reference at all. By the time Kakashi had gotten out of bed he saw already a small mess of the kitchen thankfully Naruto was improving that first time he tried to make something on his own had been a disaster.

“I take it someone it eager for their first day?” He asked seeing Naruto excited and nearly bouncing off the walls.

“Of course dad! This is going to be great, I’m going to learn to be a ninja with my friends, make more friends and learn all kinds of cool stuff,” Naruto went on and on to his father’s amusement. It had been something that Naruto had been looking forward to for over a year now.

“So are you going there on your own, you know the way right?” Kakashi asked although he knew for certain that Naruto knew the way by heart but he liked seeing Naruto this excited.

Naruto put on that face when he was thinking, although for him it looked like he was struggling with the meaning of life when he did it, then he suddenly seemed to get an idea. “Actually dad I think I’ll go and see someone before I get there.”

“Well you better get going or you might be late,” Kakashi said pointed to the clock. Naruto’s eyes widened and quickly pulled on his mask and ran to the front door, leaving Kakashi to chuckle as he went to put on a morning cup of coffee for himself.

Over at the Hyuga compound the young Hinata was a bit worried, after all it was her first day and she felt a little worried that no one would like her. Thankfully she had all her friends going there so she would at least not be lonely although there was one other thing bothering her lately. Naruto seemed to be getting close to Sakura and it made her feel strange things. She felt sad because the attention he showed Sakura she found herself wanting him to show it to her. But he wasn’t cutting her out of his life, he always came to play with her and to have fun and even to train a bit. And she felt a bit closer to her cousin now too since joining him in training now and then, and she had to admit he was much stronger than she was.

She still nearly giggled at all the times Naruto kept getting her father and uncle confused sometimes she wondered if he did it on purpose because of the annoyed looks her father and uncle got at times. But she still felt weak, she was always nervous around people and she could never really harm anyone in her sparing matches. But then every time she doubted herself Naruto would always encourage her and she found the strength to push on. She wanted to be strong like he was, he never seemed to be afraid and always fought his hardest no matter what.

He had saved her from that kidnapping, the night was a bit hazy but she still had nightmares about that. But Naruto had saved her, and he had nearly died in the process, she could still remember seeing him covered in blood.

“Hinata are you okay?” Hinata was brought out of her thoughts as she was sitting on her bed in her room and looked up to see her mother there by her doorway. She smiled kindly at her as she walked in and stroked her hair gently.

“Nervous dear?” Hannah asked and Hinata nodded her head, “Are you sure you want to be a ninja then?”

Hinata had been thinking about it but she knew the answer to that, “Y-yes I do. I want to show that I am strong mother. That I...that I can show that I’m not weak and...” she looked down as she fidgeted with her fingers in her nervous habit.

Her mother wasn’t fooled though she had seen how Hinata was around Naruto and she had to smile. She knew that her daughter was starting to like the Hatake boy and who could blame her? Not every day that someone rescues you. Although she was a bit sad, if she grew up and fell in love with the boy he would need to seriously prove himself for Hinata to marry outside of the clan let alone be courted by someone outside of the clan.

Not many of their people did but there were a few, because in the past when some would run away to live with the person they fell in love with, or events that had led to bloodshed and other unpleasant things a set of rules were set up. The person that a Hyuga could see outside of the clan would have to come from a distinguish background, shown very high level of skills and strength. Plus the clan head and elders had to agree. A part of her hoped that her daughter found someone else to avoid heart ache but another part of her wanted her daughter to be happy.

Thankfully her father hadn’t given in the elders about an arranged married to their daughters, since he wanted at least some free will for them. Plus that was the reason they had been married, if he had been arranged then he would have had to marry most likely someone else and Hannah loved her husband.

“Well then let’s get you ready then Hinata or else we will be late,” she told her daughter helping her to get ready. They arrived at the main gates and she felt another headache hit her eyes with the bright sun. She tried not to show it but lately she had been getting migraines lately, in bright lights it could get very bad but she just put it off as stress. After all she had a new baby daughter that was a handful.

They came to the gates as she nodded her head to the guards who bowed theirs in respect. They weren’t ten feet from the gate when a loud and a very excited voice yelled out to them.

“Hinata-chan! Wait up!” Naruto came running up to them and stopped just short.

“Naruto shouldn’t you be on your way to school?” Hannah asked.

“I wanted to walk there with Hinata-chan on our first day,” Naruto smiled up at her.

“Well then Hinata, I don’t see why Naruto-kun here can’t walk you there,” she smiled seeing her daughter’s cheek get slightly red as she looked down and poking her finger tips together again. But she did catch the small smile on Hinata’s face.

“Yeah you heard your mom let’s go! I don’t want to be late,” Naruto quickly grabbed Hinata’s hand which of course made her blush even harder as he ran to the school with her. Hannah watched the children run off together. She turned back and started to walk back towards the gates when she suddenly felt very dizzy and stumbled.

“Hannah-sama are you okay?” one of the guards ran over to her but she got up and waved him off.

“I’m fine just tired,” she told them going back into the mansion maybe taking a nap would help her out.

-Later-

Naruto was looking at the school with excitement in his eyes, Hinata was standing next to him looking up at the building although she was nervous she was glad that Naruto had came to get her. She always felt better when he was around. Naruto looked at her with that hidden smile of his, “Come on let’s see if we can find our class and the others!”

They searched through the academy and found the room on the first floor, there was a signed on the wall that told them that the new year’s class would be inside and Naruto just walked right in and when he saw who the teacher was Naruto’s day got even better. “Iruka! You’re our teacher?”

Iruka smiled looking at the young boy and the shy girl in his shadow, “yes Naruto I am, I’ll be your teacher and I want you to call me Iruka-sensei now okay?”

“Sure thing Iruka-sensei!” Naruto said happily, he was glad that he was getting him as this group’s teacher. He knew that some classes would have a teacher throughout the time at the academy with maybe different support teachers. Sometimes students got a different teacher now and then if they were held back a year or something. Ninja schooling didn’t work like the ones the civilian kids did, since as they were preparing for the lives as ninjas they needed a special type of schooling.

Naruto walked up to an empty spot, he saw Ino and Sakura sitting together and waved to them as they waved back. He nodded to Choji who was eating a bag of chips, with Shikamaru already sleeping at his desk. He sat down with Hinata on his left and to his right he saw a boy with short dark hair looking a bit darkly at the front.

Naruto wasn’t sure who he was but he seemed familiar, then it hit him. “Hey you’re that boy I’ve seen sitting around alone. How come whenever I say hi you just ignore me?”

The boy just sat there quickly as if he hadn’t heard Naruto’s voice. This of course was starting to tick Naruto off a bit since being ignored wasn’t something he liked, “Well I’m Naruto and this is my best friend Hinata so what’s your name?”

Again silence, “hey you jerk when people are being nice to you, you should at least be polite and respond.”

Now the boy looked at Naruto sideways, “I don’t care.”

Now Naruto was really getting pissed off that the boy, “oh yeah? Then what makes you so special huh? Just my luck my first day and already we’re sitting next to the class jerk.”

“N-N-Naruto, maybe w-we should just leave him alone?” Hinata said in her usual soft voice.

“Yeah alright fine, but the least you could do is at least give your name,” Naruto said glaring at the boy.

He only looked at him for a bit and grunted before giving out his name, “Sasuke Uchiha.”

Hinata’s eyes widened at the name, she heard of the boy but had never really seem him before, she knew of the clan which no longer existed since a year ago and she looked at the boy. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for him, she wondered what she would go through if her entire clan had been wiped out and she was all alone. She felt bad for him but she wasn’t sure what to say to something like that, she wanted to say something but she saw that he just wanted to be left alone and would let him.

Others that they knew came in and they said hi to each other while Sakura and Ino battled for the chairs behind Sasuke although it wasn’t until Shikamaru pointed out that there were two empty spots anyways before the girls settled down, with Ino right behind Sasuke and Sakura right behind Naruto.

The classes started that day and Naruto was given text books and papers as well as other things for the school semester. Naruto had to admit school wasn’t as exciting as he hoped, he liked Iruka and all but some of the lessons were kind of boring. The history was okay at least he went into the pasts Hokages so he wanted to know about the men he wanted to surpass, he also learned a bit about what made a Hokage so that was usual for him.

Some of the stuff was boring because he already knew some of it, like the chakra stuff his dad already told him about that and the different kinds. Okay so he didn’t remember it all but he knew the basics and enough to allow him to mould his chakra at least. Then they went outside so Iruka could get a basic handle on any skills they might have. He stood in front of a target with a table or kunai and shurikens, they were blunted to the kids wouldn’t hurt themselves but the points would imbed into the board that had several rings. The point trying to hit the center ring of course, so the kids lined up and started to throw.

Naruto watched as everyone tried out, some of the kids weren’t too bad, some were actually kind of terrible obviously they never trained with the weapons before now, one kid actually missed the board once and hit a tree. He was glad to see that his friends were doing well, Hinata seemed to have the best accuracy out of the girls, and there was one other boy that seemed to be doing well also.

Some kid with red triangles on his face that when he did well had a huge grin showing off some wickedly sharp canines. Naruto thought he was named Kiba or something, then it was Sasuke’s turn and the boy nearly hit dead center with all the throws. Everyone was amazed at that and he heard a few squeals from the girls.

“Well done Sasuke, so far you seem to be at the top so far,” Iruka said with a smile and looked at his clip board as he marked the score and saw who was next. “Naruto Hatake you’re up next.”

“Alright time to show them what I can do,” Naruto said grinning under his mask picking up his kunai.

The other kids were watching as well as the kid with the mask went up. There were some whispers about who the kid was and why he was wearing a mask all the time.

“Does anyone know that kid?” a boy asked.

“I’m not sure, but I have to wonder if he’s any good,” one of the girls said.

Another girl watched tilting her head, “Well I don’t think he’ll do as well as Sasuke-kun, but makes me wonder about the mask.”

“It’s family tradition,” Sakura said to everyone who was now looking at her and the circle of friends. “His dad wears one all the time and the only one that’s actually seen his face if Hinata here but she never says what he looks like.”

Hinata blushed as everyone looked at her, “sorry but he made me promise not to tell.”

“Still he can’t be that good, he’s kind of a runt anyway,” Kiba smirked as he walked up to them.

“Yeah well that ‘runt’ took on a ninja and beat him over a year ago and nearly died as he saved Hinata here from being kidnapped,” Sakura snapped at him and now everyone was looking at them, even Sasuke heard that and cast a glance to them. He looked at Naruto who was starting his own throws as he studied the boy.

“Yeah right,” Kiba couldn’t believe that a kid like that not even trained could take out a ninja.

“Hey shut up,” Ino growled out, “We saw him in the hospital with the bloody bandages on his chest where a kunai had hit him. He’s lucky to be alive and for your information Hinata’s father here the head of the Hyuga clan even said so, so shut up about it and take a bath you smell like a dog.”

Ino didn’t like other people mocking her friends and even for a kid she had a sharp tongue on her, although she only thought that Hinata’s father had said something like that since she had overheard her father talking about it over dinner once.

“Wow look at that!” a kid yelled out and everyone looked to see that Naruto had done about as well as Sasuke. Naruto looked proudly at his score he wasn’t sure how well he did although by the looks of it Sasuke only just beat him by a few points. He was disappointed that he didn’t win but that just meant he had to train harder now.

Sasuke looked at the kid harder now he needed to be stronger and he couldn’t have any equal, he had to kill him to avenge his clan but this kid was nearly as good at him at least in this field. But he would keep his eye on him just in case. If the kid proved to be his equal or even stronger then he would beat him, he had to because his brother was stronger than anyone else in his village so he had to be stronger than anyone in this village too or he wouldn’t stand a chance.

As the day went on Naruto while in class looked to be bored or not always paying attention, while they were doing the physical training he started to compete with the Uchiha child. Whenever those two did everyone wanted to see who would come out on top, although Sasuke beat Naruto most of the time it sometimes was by a slim or small margin. Everyone else was trying to just keep up with them and by now everyone was talking about the two kids. Naruto was a bit disappointed when in the basic taijutsu class he wasn’t paired up with Sasuke, he wanted to see where he was in skills with the kid but instead he got paired up with the loud kid Kiba.

Kiba was stronger than him but Naruto still managed to keep making him hit the ground every time thanks to all that training Naruto got from his dad, and his ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ as well. He was pleased to see that Hinata seemed to excel out of the girls thanks to her gentle fist style training. By lunch Naruto and his friends were sitting together outside with the snack packages there were there for the students.

“Man school is a lot different than I would have thought,” Naruto said eating his food, and to the annoyance of everyone else whenever they averted they’re eyes somehow his food was always gone in a blink of an eye. “I thought it would be more fun and stuff.”

“Well I’m having a good time,” Sakura stated eating a sandwich. “I mean we’re learning lots of things and knowledge is important to have.”

“Who cares, I just wish that we could take classes outside,” Shikamaru said laying on the ground looking up at the sky while eating an apple.

“You’d just go to sleep again like in class,” Ino said rolling her eyes, Naruto laughed at that and Ino went to look at the other blonde, “I wouldn’t laugh Iruka-sensei caught you nodding off twice.”

“I didn’t get any sleep last night I was too excited!” He said in his own defence although that was true he just didn’t want to admit that Iruka could be a bit on the boring side at times and things like math and science wasn’t really his strong point. Plus he didn’t get how Iruka said it would help with his life as a ninja so maybe he would ask his dad at least later.

While they talked on Naruto noticed one kid who was off on the side, he wore a coat with dark glasses and had the bottom of his coat covering his face with messy brown hair on top. Naruto watched as the kid was eating by himself but he seemed to break off some small pieces of his food and place it on the ground. Naruto was wondering why when he saw small black bugs come out from his sleeve and go to the food. Naruto was wondering why the kid had bugs in his coat, although they seemed to be doing what he said too.

Naruto just shrugged it off as someone asked him a question. The rest of the day went by pretty well at least although Naruto learned one aspect of school that he would hate until the last day of his life in school. The most dreaded word that would go into his list of words that he hated and that word was homework.

Naruto sighed as he walked home with his new books and stuff all the while muttering to himself about how he spent all day learning stuff and doing work and now he had to take work home with him? Sometimes life just didn’t seem fair to Naruto, and then his mind began to wonder about how to liven things up at school. A few ideas started to form and he couldn’t wait until he started his plan to make school less boring and one target he would love to try it out on was Sasuke, that guy needed to get that stick removed and he was going to make that boy liven up even if it killed him.

Next up Chapter 14: Dog Boy and Bug Boy

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 14: Dog Boy and Bug Boy

For the next couple of weeks Naruto got used to his new life in school, he was learning some neat things although he was still bored at times. Sometimes Iruka would yell at him and Shikamaru because they fell asleep, plus the fact that he was getting a reputation. Well actually it was a couple, one was when after a week a string of mysterious pranks started to plague the school. Someone put dye in the teacher’s tea and coffee in their teacher’s lounge making all the teachers have black or green mouths and tongues for the day. Then there was the incident when had set up shaving cream bombs of some short, and then there was the day smoke bombs went off at random intervals throughout the day.

No one was sure who was the culprit and the teachers had decided to catch whoever it was in the act, that was how they caught Naruto after school planting clue on all the chairs of the teachers. Iruka had been disappointed in Naruto, and they had a talk with his father...who was two hours late for the meeting of course. Kakashi said he would punish Naruto although Iruka figured from the attitude that Kakashi actually thought it was kind of funny and would most likely just increase Naruto’s training at home.

They also made Naruto apologise to the entire school, although Neji who was a year ahead had to admit the fact that Naruto managed to get all of that done and not get caught until now was surprising, but he never would admit it. He didn’t even say that he knew Naruto since no one asked him which he was thankful for.

Naruto was also known for being the only one that could keep up with the Uchiha prodigy as well. The two of them competed all the time, races, sparing matches, and anything else they could do. Although they acted a bit hostile towards the other it was just their way, besides Naruto enjoyed having someone that made him push himself. He figured the harder he worked the faster he could make Hokage one day. But there was one fact that had escaped Naruto during that time and that was because he was the only one that rivalled Sasuke it made him more noticeable especially to certain members of the female class.

Although the Sasuke fan girls were numerous, Naruto had a smaller following as well. If he wasn’t lazy in class or pulled pranks he would have gotten more, but there were other things that made certain girls like him. First was the fact that he always wore a mask making him kind of mysterious in a way, no one knew what he looked like and that curiosity was alluring to some of them. Another was the fact that Naruto once you got to know him was a very nice guy, Sasuke would always just blow the girls off and at times when he was really annoyed might say something hurtful just so he could get some peace and quiet.

Naruto on the other hand always would talk to the girls that went up to him, that made him much more approachable. The thing was he had no idea that the girls liked him in that way, he just thought they were being friendly and was just trying to make new friends. This of course was misread by the girls that he was interested in them and of course would lead to some trouble here and there, mainly young girls getting into fights over who was better Naruto or Sasuke, and who liked the boy more.

It also kind of made Hinata a bit awkward, although she would have gladly been placed in the ‘Naruto fan girl’ side of things she was also Naruto’s best friend and she was always close to the boy. This led to some jealously with some other girls over how close Hinata was with him. Sakura was getting a little confused, she liked Sasuke but Naruto was so nice to her all the time as well so she had no idea which boy was better. Ino thankfully was only after Sasuke, and helped keep the three girls together in tougher times. She had no rivalry with Hinata and Sakura hadn’t made her intentions clear so to Ino that meant that none of them were a threat to her and ‘her’ Sasuke-kun.

But there were a couple of people that Naruto was curious about, mainly was the Shino kid that always wore a heavy coat all the time, he always seemed to be alone and Naruto remembered how that was like. The other was Kiba who was a loud mouth show off, which meant Naruto was starting to like the guy. Plus when Naruto had been caught as the ‘Academy Gremlin’ as the mysterious prankster had been called, he had laughed so hard and gave Naruto a large smile.

Kiba always seemed to enjoy his pranks the most and he was thinking of asking the boy if he would be his friend as well. But first he waited for recess to come around, it took forever for the bell to ring and usually Naruto would be rushing towards the door but this time he held back watching where Shino went. He followed the other boy and was confused when he walked to the bushes and knelt down, he seemed to be doing something but Naruto couldn’t guess what it was. He waited but patience was always one of the things that Naruto had trouble with.

Naruto walked up behind him looking over his shoulder but he couldn’t guess at what the boy was doing.

“Hey there what’cha doing, Shino right?” He only got silence but the boy did turn to him slightly with a raised eyebrow. Naruto waited then frowned, “oh come on I just wanted to know is that so much to ask?”

Shino looked at him for a moment before moving slightly to the left and pointed, Naruto saw a small insect that was crawling on the branches. He wasn’t sure why the boy was interested in it although he did admit it was kind of cool with the red and black markings. “Okay so what, you want to keep it or something?”

“For breeding,” the boy finally spoke and Naruto turned to face him surprised he managed to get him to talk. Normally Shino only talked when Iruka asked him a question in class and he had to answer.

Naruto of course took this as a victory in getting the strange boy to finally open up a little, “cool so you collect bugs and stuff for that?” He got a nod from the boy and Naruto went back to looking at the bug. “Nice although I noticed you liked bugs, you always been like that?”

Again Shino raised an eyebrow, “It’s the way of my clan, we raise and control bugs as part of our fighting style.”

That was the longest answer that Naruto had ever heard him give for awhile he figured the boy was just the quiet type but when you talked about bugs that was when he seemed to talk a bit more. So Naruto asked him all about his clan and Shino answered. For Shino he had never met anyone who was interested in his clan, most of the time he hardly went outside of the clan compound because a lot of people were uneasy around them.

But Naruto seemed to be genuinely interested and wasn’t freaked out by anything. When Naruto asked what exactly they did with bugs he showed the masked boy a few of them that he had on him by commanding them to crawl out of his coat. He explained how they would be used to track, attack an opponent by draining their chakra and other things. Naruto who had firsthand experience with chakra exhaustion on many times knew firsthand how bad that could be. His respect for bugs went up a notch and made a mental note not to piss off any of the bug users in the future.

Despite things Shino was having a nice time, no one had ever talked to him like this before. He knew that his social skills weren’t exactly that great but it seemed that Naruto listened well, which was odd given how many times the boy slept during class.

“Hey Shino you want to meet my other friends?” Naruto asked the boy and he could see some kind of hesitation or at least what Naruto assumed was, the boy was very good at keeping his expression blank a lot. The only thing Naruto could pick up was slight body movements and his eyebrows he couldn’t even see his eyes and the lower half of his face was covered by his jacket.

“Oh come on, they’ll like you if you just open up a bit,” Naruto wasn’t going to give up and he could see that Shino was thinking about it so he decided to give him an extra push that being grabbing his sleeve and dragging the taller boy with him. “Come on just give it a shot already.”

Naruto dragged the boy across the yard over to where his friends were, they were talking when they noticed Naruto dragging some poor boy with him, “hey guys you mind if Shino here joins us?”

“Whatever,” Shikamaru said with a shrug, and there were no other real objections.

“Cool, Shino that’s Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan. Guys this is Shino, he doesn’t say much at first but he’s a nice guy and get this he can talk to bugs and stuff and make them do things!” Naruto saw varying expressions.

Ino didn’t like bugs that much, and always did think that Shino was a bit on the creepy side that he never talked and with those black sunglasses you couldn’t tell where he was looking. Sakura tilted her head wondering how you could talk to bugs let alone making them do things, Shikamaru looked over with a raised eyebrow and Choji just kept on eating.

Hinata however because of her place in her clan knew all about the prominent clans of the village and she got up to him and gave a small bow. “H-hello Shino-kun, you’re part of the Aburame clan. My f-father has spoken highly of your clan and their abilities.”

Shino nodded his head, “you are the heiress of the Hyuga clan, my clan has respect for yours as my father said you are to be trusted.”

“Wow...that’s the most I’ve heard him talk in like, forever.” Ino muttered to Sakura who tried not to giggle.

“Would you like to join us then?” Hinata asked and Shino looked around and nodded his head as he sat down with them.

It felt good for Shino to feel being accepted inside the grouping, their clan over the years had been inspired by their insects and their collective. Belonging to a group and being a productive member of that group was one of the things their clan tried to do. First they viewed their clan as the first collective and then also that of Konoha but Shino had no other grouping that he felt like he was a part of outside of this clan so this small grouping was nice to him.

As he got to know the others he started to analyse the new grouping that he hoped to he accepted into. Shikamaru seemed lazy but he had seen the boy always answered the questions when he was asked and as far as he had observed he had never lost to a game of shogi he had played with anyone. That meant there here hidden depths to the boy that he was hiding. Choji although looked physically unfit, Shino had seen him hit the wooden targets harder than the other boys, although he seemed to have self image problems he was a very loyal person.

Ino was loud and brash but she too was loyal to her friends and protective of them, she also wasn’t afraid to be herself or speak her mind, her friend Sakura seemed nice and intelligent but seemed to second guess herself a lot, it was like with Hinata, she was kind to a fault really but she was a very warm person. And then there was Naruto who Shino was still trying to pin down, at one moment he was hyperactive, loud and acted very childish but at other times he was the complete opposite, was he bi polar or something or was there just more to him?

Plus one other thing, his insects felt something different about him. He asked but they couldn’t tell him why only that Naruto was more than what he seemed. Shino looked at Naruto as he was fooling around making Ino angry and was getting yelled at, ‘who are you Naruto Hatake and what is it about you that makes you so different?’

-After School-

Naruto’s next person on his list was Kiba, he found Kiba after school waiting around. He walked over to him and waved, “Hey there Kiba.”

He looked over and grinned, “Hey Naruto you come up with anything new for class?”

“I’m waiting for things to cool off a bit; I really don’t want to go through what my dad did for the weekend after that meeting with Iruka-sensei.”

Kiba raised an eyebrow, “why what did he do?”

“One day full training with Uncle Gai and the next with Auntie Anko...” Naruto was actually sore for a day after that and he could hardly move.

Kiba didn’t understand what was go bad about that although he didn’t know who those people were, so he just laughed a bit, “come on what’s so bad about that?”

“Are you kidding?! They’re training is insane! Gai likes to do laps around the entire village on his hands and that’s just his personal training you even want to know what he had me do? Then there’s Anko and she’s crazy!”

Kiba blinked for a moment, he wasn’t sure if Naruto was exaggerating but from the looks of the masked blond he wasn’t so sure. “So...what’s this Anko like then?”

Naruto made a face at him, “first time she babysat me she tied me up to a chair, she likes to use these snake styles ninjustu stuff and likes to scare the crap out of people. I think she said she was thinking of going into some training to get into the torture and information extraction section.”

That made Kiba’s eye twitched and for a moment his older sister didn’t look so bad in comparison, sure his older sister gave him some grief now and then but at least she wasn’t into torture (even though Kiba figured she could have a shot at it), so he only shook his head in sympathy for Naruto. He couldn’t blame the shorter boy for letting things cool off. It was too bad he really enjoyed the pranks Naruto did, they were the high boy of the day for him at times.

“Anyway tomorrow me, Shikamaru and Choji are going to the park, I’m hoping Shino will come too. You want to come with us Kiba?”

Kiba shrugged, he was still trying to make some friends and even though he didn’t like Naruto much at first he had to admit he was starting to like the guy. He was unpredictable and he guess he could do worse, “well that sounds okay but my sister wants me to do some work with the dogs later. So why me, we hardly say much to each other, well besides some insults and stuff.”

But Kiba said it with a grin since he and Naruto always seemed to try and push each other’s buttons especially during the sparing matches although Kiba was still sore that he only got in one win and had a suspicion that Naruto had let him win that time anyway.

Naruto just shrugged, “why not? I mean yeah you’re an ass sometimes but I like you.”

“I’m an ass? Listen here Shorty I’m not the one that starts most of the fights!”

“Oh yeah, and I’m not short! I just haven’t hit my growth spurt yet!”

Kiba smirked at him, “You’ll be lucky to reach five feet at the rate its going.”

Naruto scowled at him and was about to give a retort when a woman’s voice yelled out and Kiba suddenly stiffened and had a look on his face that Naruto was pretty sure that was the same look on his face whenever Anko gets into one of her ‘moods’ and he’s in mortal danger. He looked over to see a girl a few years older with the same markings on her face, same hair only in a long ponytail with an annoyed look on her face.

“What do you want, I thought mom was coming by?” Kiba asked.

The older girl put her hands on her hips and glared at him, “Mom’s not coming she got held up and don’t talk to me like that you little brat.” That was when she noticed Naruto and looked at the boy with an odd look. Mainly it was because she never seen a boy with a mask on like that before and she was wondering what was going on as she had seen the two arguing about something.

“Hey kid is my idiot little brother bugging you?” She asked.

“You’re Kiba’s sister?” Naruto asked.

“Yeah my name is Hana Inuzuka.”

Naruto looked at her for a second before saying something, “wait your name is Hana? Cool my best friend’s mom has the same name, is it a popular name or something or just for pretty girls?”

Hana wasn’t sure to be angry at being compared to someone’s mother or flattered that he said she was pretty. Naruto then gave a small bow with his head, “well it’s nice to meet you Hana-san, Kiba always said that his big sister was young and pretty but he never said how pretty.”

Now Hana was smiling while Kiba was wondering what the hell was going on, he never said anything of the sort hell he was sure he said the complete opposite a few times.

“Well nice to know that my little brother isn’t a total pain then, who are you anyway?”

“Names Naruto Hatake and I was wondering if Kiba could play with us at the park tomorrow that is if that’s okay.”

Hana thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, “well okay then it’s nothing big that I can’t handle. I’m glad that Kiba has at least a few friends with some manners. Kiba, I’ll see you in a bit I got to go and drop something off and I’ll be right back so make some plans with Naruto here.”

Kiba watched his big sister leave and when he was sure she was out of ear shot he quickly grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt, “what the hell was that man? I mean I never said that and were you trying to make a pass at my sister of all people!?”

Naruto wrenched his hand off, ‘get off me! First hell no, she’s way too old for me and she looks and acts too much like Anko and I’m not suicidal. Secondly I learned fast that in order not to piss of women like that you got to compliment them, be really nice and respectful and then throw in some compliments and make sure you say something about them or they themselves are pretty.”

“And that works?” Kiba asked.

“You got the time off didn’t you?” Naruto smirked under his mask, making Kiba laugh a bit and asked him where he learned that from. “My dad actually has some good advice, I use it on Anko when she’s got that killer look in her eyes, well that and promise her dango that oddly works better with her.”

Kiba just shook his head at it all, it seemed that Naruto and his whole family was weird but he did get him out of working with his big sister later and he might as well play with the guys. Besides he needed some guys to hang out with and he might like these guys given half a chance. Well that and they were the only interesting ones he could think of and there was no way in hell he would hang out with that Uchiha kid, Kiba thought of him as a stuck up jerk anyway.

-Hyuga Compound-

Hannah Hyuga had been dealing with the usual things that the wife of the clan head usually dealt with, such as dealing with problems with the main or branch members or even between the two. Plus there was dealing with other clans, merchants, council members, as well as social functions. But lately she had been trying to deal with them but she had been getting lots of headaches lately. At first she thought they were just from stress but something had happened when she had tried to use her bloodline, she had received blinding pain in her head and behind her eyes.

She deactivated them quickly but she was dizzy and a throbbing pain for the rest of the day. That was when she had gone to the hospital and for the entire day she had been wondering what was going on with her. Unfortunately what they told her had left her in a state of shock for the rest of the day. She had walked back home and just wanted to see her little girls, she had hugged her daughters close and had been avoiding everyone else all day because she was worried that she might just break down.

So there she was at the moment in her private quarters just sitting down with the shades because of the headache direct sunlight gave her eyes. She had been thinking all the time and she just didn’t know what she could do. She heard the door open and for the first time in a long time she had a harshness to her tone, “I said I wanted to be left alone.”

“What is wrong,” said the voice of her husband and Hannah nearly jumped as she turned around surprised to see him closing the door and walking over to her.

“M-my love I didn’t know it was you.”

He walked over to her and sat down across from her and took her hands, he looked her in the eyes and she could see the worry in them. He only ever allowed that mask he wore to fall off between them when they were alone. “I will ask again what is wrong?”

“It’s nothing...”

“My love I know you, you’ve been tired lately, you have had headaches a lot and you can’t sleep well at night. And I know that you went to the hospital this morning as well, and you are eating less than you normally do. So please don’t insult me, you know I love you more than anything so please tell me what’s wrong,” he pleaded with her.

Her eyes dropped and she shut her eyes she couldn’t look him in the face, how could she look him in the face with this news? It was tarring her apart inside and she finally let the tears fall, she still couldn’t believe this was happening she just wanted this to be a bad dream and let it be over with already to wake up and have it all just some nightmare.

She took a calming breath before she could speak what the doctors told her, “I...I have Bloodline poisoning.”

Hiashi felt like someone had just hit him in the gut with a sledgehammer, he knew of that every person with a bloodline trait that illness. Sometimes there was a genetic anomaly and the bloodline actually turned on the person like a cancer. It was very hard to treat and had to be treated quickly, because if it reached a certain level then it became terminal.

“How...how far along is it?” He was surprised at how soft and weak his own voice sounded, there was no commanding presence in it anymore, there was no strength in it, it sounded totally alien to his own ears.

She looked up into his eyes hoping for some strength for this, “they don’t know yet. I have to go back for more in-depth examination and then they’ll start the treatments and see how it goes. If things get too bad, they might have to...to take out my eyes in order to save my life.”

She started to tremble then, for a Hyuga there was no worse fate than to lose your eyes. You would become pitied by everyone in the clan and that kind of weakness was almost like a shame that you couldn’t run away from. Some who had lost their eyes in battle ended up taking their own life than live with the shame. And it was hard to get new eyes implanted for their clan, their eyes were keyed to them in ways that made it difficult, like they were bonded to the person. Even a Hyuga giving their eyes to another ran a risk of being rejected.

Then Hannah felt the arms of her husband engulf her and she pulled him close burying her face into her husband, “I’m so scared Hiashi-kun.”

“I know Hannah-chan I know, but we must have hope. You’re strong and I know you can beat this,” he said softly to her stroking her long hair. He wanted to believe that as well, she was the best part of his life and if she died he wasn’t sure what he would do without her. He didn’t want to think about that, as he held his wife as she softly sobbed against him. He prayed for the first time in a long time for his wife, they would wait and see what would happen, there was no need to worry everyone especially the children.

Next up Chapter 15: Life and Times of Naruto

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 15: Life and Times of Naruto

Kakashi Hatake was just leaving the Hokage tower and heading home, he was wondering how Naruto’s day went and he had to admit being a father sure changed him in some ways. Okay so maybe not much on the outside, but he cared deeply for the boy and would do anything to protect him and see him raised to be one of the best ninja this village had ever seen. He smiled at the thought of what would happen in the future if Naruto’s name became well known like his and his father’s.

He cast a glance at the face of the Fourth on the mountain and wondered if he was doing his old teacher proud with how he was raising Naruto. He hoped so, and his mind turned to what else he could teach Naruto. His chakra control was getting better but it still sucked, his taijutsu was getting better with the style that he was teaching him but Naruto seemed to have a gift for making up moves on the fly, they weren’t pretty but they were totally chaotic and unpredictable. With some polish he might turn out pretty good, he wasn’t sure about how well Naruto would be with ninjutsu and with his lack of chakra control he got the feeling that his son would be horrible at genjustu.

So maybe focusing on the first two and letting Naruto learn how to find and dispel them would be best, he’d see how well he would do when his class got into transformations next year. But he was glad to see his son making some new friends the Kiba kid was a lot like Naruto in ways and the two were always pushing the other but in a rival and friendly manner that made him remind him of his own relationship with Obito had been.

The other boy Shino was the quiet type but seemed okay, and then there was something else he was noticing and made him grin under his mask. Apparently Naruto was starting to get a small fan club of girls, it reminded Kakashi of his own youth although looking back on it he wouldn’t have ignored all those girls, honestly what the hell had he been thinking? He could have had any girl he wanted but he had been too stuck up and focused to just relax and have fun like Obito had tried to get him to do all the time.

Although when he went to pick up Naruto he had noticed a few girls giggling as they were watching his son, although his son seemed to be a bit too dense to notice. Although Naruto did seem to have a small crush on the pink haired friend of his and she seemed to have a bit of on herself although he also noticed how Hinata also was.

‘Two girls area already after you, Naruto you are so lucky and yet so screwed at the same time,’ he giggled a little perversely at what his boy would be later on in life. Although when puberty set in he would have to have a one on one talk with him, maybe let him read a few parts of his books for him to know how to treat a girl if he got that far, it sure would have helped with his first time. That had been awkward to say the least but at least now he knew a lot of good tricks.

“Yo, Kakashi.”

He turned to see Asuma one of the Hokage’s sons walking up to him.

“Hey what’s up?” Kakashi asked as he stopped in his place.

“We were wondering if you wanted to have a poker game tonight, I’m trying to round up a few more Jonins for it.” Asuma asked him while digging for one of his cigarettes.

Kakashi thought about it, usually the Jonins would get together for things like this from time to time. It was a nice way to get the know the new guys, catch up with others and share good stories. Sometimes they went to a certain bar to hang out or pay tribute to fallen friends as well. They hadn’t done that in about a month so and he felt the need to relax a bit.

“Sure whose turn is it?” Kakashi was mentally listing the current Jonins and trying to remember the order, he had missed the last two times so that would be...he saw Asuma’s smirk and he suddenly realized that Asuma had planned this out.

“Tonight at seven good for you?” Asuma asked still smirking.

He sighed and nodded his head, “Yeah why not.”

“Good cause I’ve been wanting to meet this kid of yours who my old man seems to like so much,” Asuma smirked at him. He had never actually met Naruto yet which was odd given how his dad liked him so much. Although it didn’t help that he and his father were still having troubles with each other, as a ninja and Hokage they worked well together but as father and son things just didn’t work out as smooth. At least his relationship with his brother wasn’t as bad although still tense at times.

Kakashi nodded his head as he pulled out his book as he walked on back to his place, it certain would be an interesting night that’s for sure. He hadn’t had anyone join him over at his new place since Naruto was born. He had always been too busy when Naruto was younger and then missions always got in the way as well. He wondered what Naruto would make of them although he hoped that Ebisu guy wasn’t coming, Kakashi respected his abilities as a ninja and a special Jonin that taught ninjas but the guy was way too ridged. He just reminded Kakashi too much of how he was younger.

He also hoped Gai wouldn’t show up, the last time they were together he got it into his head to challenge him to a drinking contest. He won it although he paid for it the next morning and he really didn’t like to tell Naruto that he was just sick and not hung over. He really didn’t like doing that to his own son and swore off drinking competitions until he was a bit older to understand.

Later that night Kakashi set up the table, got the snacks and a few drinks. He had finished helping Naruto with some homework and he seemed excited to see some new faces. He had taken off his combat jacket that everyone got at Chunin level and was just in a black t-shirt. He heard the door suddenly bang open and that would only mean one of two people.

“Worship me all for the goddess of games has arrived!” Anko called out as she marked right in throwing her coat onto a chair. Behind her was a slightly older woman in civilian clothing with long dark hair and strange yet captivating red eyes.

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here Anko? I’m still a Chunin after all,” the woman asked.

“Kurenai you’re my friend and you’ll make Jonin one day like me so think of this as meeting your future peers.” Anko walked into the living room seeing Kakashi there with a questioning look on his face. She just gave him one of her wide grins, “Hey there Kakashi, hope you don’t mind me bringing a friend along.”

Kakashi just shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t mind it’s my house so my rules.”

“Great, this is Kurenai Yuhi. So then where’s the brat?” Anko looked around only to be suddenly hit by a yellow, black and orange blur.

“Auntie Anko!”

“Hey there Naruto how is school going?” Anko smiled ruffling the boy’s hair.

Kurenai was smirking at the scene she had known Anko for years and she never seen her like this. She rarely showed that much affection and the two were actually cute together, she noticed Kakashi giving one of his closed eye smiles. A small giggle escaped her but she stopped as soon as Anko gave her the evil eye for it.

Naruto looked up at the lady and tilted his head, “Hey who is the pretty lady?”

Kurenai knelt down to the boy smiling, “My name is Kurenai Yuhi and you must be little Naruto that Anko told me about, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Thanks it’s nice to meet you too,” then Naruto looked at her eyes for a moment, “hey how come your eyes look kind of like the one eye my dad has? Are you part Uchiha or something?”

Kurenai stood up surprised by that and looked to see Anko and Kakashi giving her the same look.

“You know now that you mention it, the resemblance is there...” Kakashi said.

Anko nodded her head, “You ever trace back your family tree Kurenai?”

She gave them both dirty looks knowing they were just messing with her. A knock came at the door and it opened up and a very loud and very familiar voice yelled out to the them. “Hello! Kakashi my rival we’re here and with the power of youth I vow to defeat you in poker or I’ll do five thousand vertical push ups!”

Naruto of course went to meet his ‘Uncle Gai’ and hugged him, “Ah Naruto-kun, how are you? Had the power of youth see you through school?”

“You know it Uncle Gai, believe it!” he gave him a thumbs up and Kakashi shuddered at that.

“Gai! What have I told you about poising my son’s mind with that crap?” Kakashi yelled at the green glad ninja, apparently even off duty he still wore that bright green jumpsuit. He noticed the other two men with him were Asuma and one of the new Special Jonins; he had short brown hair, a bandana on his head and was chewing on what looked like a senbon needle. He tried to run through the list of names in his head and came up with Genma Shiranui. They greeted everyone and soon after got things rolling, they took their seats as they started to talk about the usual things, missions, gossip, and such.

Naruto came was seated next to his dad as he watched and was trying to figure out the game. That is after they calmed Gai down about ruining Naruto’s youthful sprit. And so the poker night started off, they traded a few stories and talked about what was going on, although they had to keep the more graphic parts toned down since Naruto was there, even though he was begging to hear all the ‘cool ninja stories’ as he called them.

When Naruto found out that Asuma was the Hokage’s son he asked him if beards and smoking ran in the family. That caused Asuma to laugh a bit and he guessed it did, although his older brother had to stop since his wife did just have a baby. Kurenai seemed a little intimidated by being in a group of people like this, especially since Gai, Asuma and Kakashi were full Jonins which was the highest rank to gain other than Hokage.

But after a drink and some coxing from Anko she managed to loosen up a bit and she had to admit the interactions between Kakashi, Gai, Naruto and Anko made for some very entertaining evening.

At one point in the game Asuma looked at Kakashi as he was looking at the cards he was given, “hey how come you got to wear that mask Kakashi? It’s not fair for the rest of us.”

“Consider it the ultimate poker face,” he smirked behind it.

“I still think he’s cheating by counting the cards,” Genma said checking his cards to make sure they weren’t marked as well. “Besides how do we know the kid isn’t cheating for you?”

“Just because you suck at this doesn’t mean you can blame Naruto,” Anko grinned and threw in a few chips.

“What are you his mother?” Genma asked her as she gave him a glare, earning him one from Naruto as well. Kakashi saw this and he didn’t like sore losers, and he let one of his hands drop out of sight of the board and hang on his side, luckily Naruto noticed this. Then he saw his dad starting to give him one handed signs. One of the things his dad taught him was sign language, with both one and two hands. Naruto grinned under his mask as he made an excuse to get a drink of water, he returned later and gave his dad a wink knowing he was ready.

The game continued until Kakashi ‘accidentally’ dropped one of his chips, “Naruto can you get that chip for me? I don’t trust taking my eyes off my cards in a room full of ninjas.”

Naruto nodded his head, “sure thing dad.” He went under the table and got the chip but also pulled out a tube of industrial strength glue. He went over to Genma and got ready, “Genma-san can you raise your foot it’s wedge under it...no the other one. Thank you.”

After gluing both feet to the floor Naruto gave back the chip to his dad and made an excuse to go to the bathroom. Genma was closer to the kitchen and asked him to get some new drinks since they were running low, after a little convincing he signed and went to get up, that’s when his feet stayed in place making him fall flat onto his back. He swore as he nearly swallowed his senbon needle and looked to see how his feet were now glowed to the floor.

He glared at Kakashi, “you bastard you and your boy did this when he was under the table!”

Kakashi gave an innocent look, “why whatever do you mean?”

At this Anko had lost it and was laughing so hard she resting her head on the table pounding on it, Kurenai was trying not to and hiding a hand over her mouth and Asuma didn’t care it was hilarious. After everything calmed down and Kakashi loaned Genma some spare shoes saying he would give him his originals when he managed to pry them off the floor later the game continued. Naruto also returned and he could see Genma giving him dirty looks, but there was no malice in them.

Naruto however was getting board, “I don’t get it, why is this game so much fun? It looks so easy all you got to do is match up the cards don’t you?”

“It takes a bit more than that,” Asuma said as he tried to go for a cigarette but got yet another warning from Kakashi, he didn’t allow smoking in his house if Naruto was there, besides his son was short enough as it was and didn’t need to be any shorter. That earned him a dirty look from Naruto as his height was a sore subject for him.

“Well it looks too easy for me,” Naruto crossed his arms.

“Oh really?” Anko said and looked to Kakashi, “Why don’t you let him join in and show the little chibi how hard the game is.”

“I’m not a chibi!”

Kakashi had enough chips as it was and put a third of his into a new pile as Naruto smiled and went to get a chair.

“Kakashi how can you let a child play poker!” Gai said standing up and pointing at him, “This is most unyouthful! It’s bad enough he learns this game but to let him play, what kind of father are you?”

“Huh? Sorry did you say something Gai?” Kakashi asked in a blank stare and Gai face faulted at that.

Naruto returned and they dealt him in, after all what were the odds of Naruto staying in longer than ten minutes? An hour later Naruto somehow had amassed most of the chips, Asuma just couldn’t believe the little kid was this good and what was worse the boy still didn’t understand all the rules as he asked now and then if his hand was good or not, and it usually was good. The others just couldn’t believe his luck and Kakashi was starting to plan that as soon as Naruto was old enough he’d hit a few casinos.

With that boy’s luck he could gain enough to make a nice sum of money for retirement that is if he lived that long, since it was rare for active ninjas to die of old age, well he’d make sure it would go to Naruto then if that happened.

Genma was banging his head on the table swearing to himself about chibi-Kakashis and ringers. Pretty much after that night Naruto wasn’t allowed to gamble with the Jonin unless it was when Kakashi brought in the new guys who didn’t know of Naruto’s talent. Over a year he would manage to squeeze a lot of cash out of his fellow ninjas before word went around of Naruto and his deadly poker skills.

-Hyuga Compound-

Hinata was training with her cousin Neji in one of the larger training areas, or more likely he was trying to teach her, she had been learning a bit with him. She couldn’t help but notice just how much better he was than her. She was breathing hard as she had been pushing herself as hard as she could, she had seen Naruto-kun train and he never gave up. She also wanted Naruto to notice her a bit more but she wasn’t sure why, she liked him but why was it that she got so nervous around him? Sure she got nervous with everyone but with him she felt more nervous.

He also made her happy and safe, ever since that night he saved her Naruto had been something very special to her. She also felt weak and she hated being scared, she wanted to be strong and fearless like Naruto seemed to be. She got back into her fighting stance as Neji got into his as he watched her throw the first few strikes. He dodged them and countered with his own hands, he couldn’t seal the chakra points but he didn’t want to do that anyway. He had noticed how his cousin had been training herself very hard lately.

They continued on until Hinata looked like she was struggling to still stand, he stepped away and dropped his hands.

“Neji-niisan?” Hinata asked.

Neji was still getting used to her calling him that although he still felt that he had to use a respectful tone with her, at least in the compound outside out of ear shot of others he could be a bit more relaxed around her.

“I think we should take a break Hinata-san, why don’t we have a drink?” He motioned over to the deck where they had some water. Hinata wanted to argue that is if it was in her but she just nodded and went over and sat down taking some of the cool water. Neji looked at her and was wondering what was going on with his cousin lately, “Hinata-san why are you pushing yourself so hard?”

Hinata jumped a bit in surprise and started to fiddle with her fingers as she looked down at the ground, “I...I need to be stronger, if I want to be a ninja then I can’t be weak.”

Neji nodded his head thinking he was seeing where this was going, he knew that she had lots of confidence problems after all she was the eldest daughter of the her uncle and would one day lead the clan. That was a lot of weight to put onto the shoulders of a little girl. He thought back to something his father had told him.

It had been a week after Hinata’s failed rescue as he had been training very hard, he had been upset that someone had tried to take not only one of the clan but his own cousin. It was only thanks to Naruto that she had been saved and he had ended up in the hospital because of it. He honestly was starting to like Naruto, he was odd, loud and came off as an idiot at times but he was totally loyal to Hinata and his friends. He never gave up or backed down and he had a determination in him that was harder than steel.

It was those qualities that made Neji see what Naruto was like and so he pushed himself to new heights.

“Neji my son come here.”

He turned to see his father and stopped what he was doing and looked up at his father, he was smiling down at his son and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Neji my son I think you have much potential maybe even the most potential that has ever been shown in many generations.”

“Thank you father,” the young boy beamed up at him. “I want to be the strongest there is.”

“And why do you want to do that?” his father asked.

“Most of the Main family looks down at us, I want to show them that the Branch members aren’t the weakest that we can be just as good.”

His father smiled at his son, “that is a nice reason my son but it’s not a good one. Son let me tell you how you can become truly strong...”

“Hinata-san I respect that you want to get stronger but you should get strong for the right reasons,” he told her and she looked at him with confusion. “My father said that people get strong for many reasons but the best reason is to get strong for others to protect them like the Branch family protects the Main family. If you want to be strong you should do so for the rights reasons so who do you want to gain strength to protect?”

Hinata was taken aback by that and thought about it, and soon a blush reached her cheeks. She played with her index fingers again as she thought about a boy she wanted to be strong to protect, and that was Naruto. He had nearly died because of her and she didn’t want him to do that again, she wanted to be able to protect him like she had.

Neji smirked seeing his younger cousin act like this and got an idea of who she was thinking of. “I’m sure he’s someone that is worth getting strong for.”

Hinata made a small ‘eep’ sound as she actually managed to blush even deeper. She tried to say something but it took her awhile to be able to speak. “W-who are you getting s-s-strong for?”

Neji gave her a small smile as he got up he walked off a few steps before stopping and looked over his shoulder at her, “my family, and I mean all of my family.”

Hinata got the full meaning of those words and knew that he meant her as well. She felt happy at that and gave him one of her warm heartfelt smiles. She felt she had enough for the day and wanted to see if she had any homework left. As she walked on her way to her room she saw her mother go into her little sister’s room. Lately she had been very worried for her mother she hadn’t been herself for a long time now.

Hinata moved to the doorway and watched her mother put her younger sister in her crib and sit down on a rocking chair, she looked at her mother and she seemed so tired. Hinata walked up to her mother nervously, “mother is something wrong with you?”

She looked down at her precious daughter and stroked her face lovingly, “I’m just sick dear.”

“S-s-sick?” Hinata asked worried.

She gave her a small smile, “it’s okay I’m getting medicine and seeing a doctor so try not to worry alright?”

Hinata nodded her head but she couldn’t help but feel something was very wrong with this, her mother was pale and she was tired a lot lately. She was eating less and she couldn’t tell if her mother had lost weight because of the robes that the clan favoured. Hannah reached down and picked up her child seeing how worried she was and held her close. Hinata just held her mother tightly as her mother hugged her.

Hannah had been seeing the doctors and healers and she had been taking the medicine but she was still suffering from headaches and she couldn’t even activate her eyes anymore because it hurt so much. She was starting to get very worried but she tried not to show it, she wanted to beat this, she wanted to see her daughters grow up and see what kind of women they would turn into. She even wanted to live long enough to have another child if possible but the fear that her time was growing shorter was always there.

She still had hope at least, that the next few treatments would send it into remission and give her more time but until then she just had to hope and she wanted to live her life with her family. Her precious children meant so much and she didn’t want to leave Hinata, and have Hanabi grow up without a mother, and to leave her husband alone. She was happy with her life and would fight with every fibber in her being to stay here. She felt Hinata’s body against hers and felt the sting of tears in her eyes, her daughter had such a good heart and she wanted to see it grow.

She knew that her daughter was something special she had a quality that she had seen in only one other little boy. She smiled at the thought of Naruto and how Hinata seemed to idolize him, and was on her way to a crush as well. She wanted to see what would happen with them and see if she could give her daughter advice on boys when the time was right, to do all the things that mothers and their daughters did. She wanted to do all of that and so much more.

‘I will not give up, I have to go on for my family.’ She thought strongly to herself hugging her precious daughter.

Next up Chapter 16: A Princess’ Pain

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 16: A Princess’ Pain

Hannah Hyuga was sitting in the garden taking a rest, she did that a lot these days it seemed. She had been going in for treatments but she wasn’t getting any better in fact she was just getting weaker and some days she couldn’t even get out of bed because of the pain she was in was too much for her at times. She tried to put on a brave front along with her husband but she knew that even Hinata knew something was wrong. The doctors had told her that her conditioned had worsened and that taking her eyes was no longer an option.

It had run too far too fast in her and was now attacking her brain. But today was one of her better days, they were looking for a new healer from outside the village who might be able to help her. She didn’t want to just give up and die she wanted to stay with her family. She watched the flowers blowing in the soft wind and she could see how beautiful the day was it was one of the things she loved about this village there was just this timeless beauty to it all.

“Hannah-sama.”

She turned to see one of the Branch members bowing slightly to her.

“It is time for the meeting now.”

“Yes I’ll be right there,” she stood up and walked there making sure that any sign of her weakness wasn’t showing. She was a proud Hyuga and wouldn’t look weak in front of others and besides she was the Matriarch of the clan and she couldn’t be seen as weak. But it wasn’t easy even though her husband had asked her to take a few days rest now and then but she didn’t like being in a bed all day, she couldn’t stand that.

She was just walking when she felt another stab of pain in her head but this time it was much worse, she felt sick to her stomach and her nerves were on fire. She only made a chocking sound before she fell to the ground. The Hyuga member was scared to death at this and ran to her calling her name, when he put her onto her back he noticed a trail of blood coming out of her nose and ears. She wasn’t waking up and he yelled out for help.

Across the village in the ninja academy Hinata was spacing off as Iruka was going through a lecture on concealment. She had been having trouble focusing lately and she didn’t know what to do, this thing with her mother was scaring her. Her mother kept saying that she would get better but she didn’t seem to be, in fact she only seemed to be getting worse. She was scared and didn’t know what to do. It didn’t go unnoticed as well among her friends, as they saw the change in her as well.

Normally she was just the shy girl but now she was practically withdrawn most of the time, it was really worrying for them to see her like this. Naruto had even tried to cheer her up with his usual attitude and threw in a few pranks but she never once reacted. Of course everyone else did and he got his usual detention after school but he was still worried about her, he had talked to his dad and he didn’t know much about what was going on either.

Naruto had talked with his close circle of friends and no one seemed to know other than she was worried about her mother. Ino’s mother heard that Hinata’s mother wasn’t feeling well lately and no one could remember the last time she had came to the school to pick her up. Usually it was her father or her uncle.

So they would watch and see if they could try and be helpful for her, Naruto however wanted to know firsthand what the problem was. After all Hannah Hyuga was one of the first adults that he had made friends with and he was worried too if she was sick. He waited for the last bell to ring as he packed away his school stuff and saw her slowly walking to the door.

“Naruto you think that Hinata will be okay?”

He turned to see Ino there with Sakura looking just as worried.

“I don’t know but I intend to find out for sure what’s going on Ino.” He told them and both girls nodded wishing him luck they knew how close the two were.

Naruto managed to catch up with Hinata as she was waiting for someone from her family and he walked up next to her, “Hinata-chan what’s wrong? You’ve not been yourself for awhile and it’s starting to worry everyone.”

She blushed a bit and she looked at the ground, “I’m sorry I-I-I didn’t mean to w-worry everyone. I’m just w-w-worried for my mother.”

She then felt a warm hand grab hers and she gasped looking at him in surprise as she stared into his blue emotional eyes and she felt the warmth and comfort coming from them. She gave a small smile as she felt his strength reaching out to her.

“Hinata-sama,” a familiar voice said to her.

They looked to see Neji there but there was something wrong. His face was grace and there was just something about him that said there was something really wrong going on.

“N-Neji-nichan?”

Neji looked crest fallen as he spoke the words to her, “Hinata there’s...Something happened to Hannah-sama...”

It was then that Naruto felt Hinata grip his hand tightly and he squeezed it back letting her know that she wasn’t alone.

-Hyuga compound-

Hinata ran into the compound hearing about her mother, thankfully Naruto was there with her as she wasn’t sure if she could have made it back on her own. The sky was getting dark and she wanted to know where her mother was. Finally she saw her uncle there and ran over to him.

“Uncle Hizashi!”

He knelt down to the young girl as she came running up with tears in her eyes, he noticed his son and Naruto with her both had on looks that wanted to know what was going on. He sighed as he placed a hand on her shoulder seeing her nearly break out into sobs.

“What’s wrong with mother?” She asked him.

“Hinata...As you know she’s been very sick lately and, it looks like it’s been getting worse. You’re mother didn’t want you to worry and she put on a brave face she wanted to fight this and hope that she could beat it, but...”

“She’s going to be okay though right? She’ll get better?” Naruto asked him and Hizashi couldn’t lie to them. They were all going to be ninja one day and they needed to face the reality that people died. He just wished it wasn’t such a harsh lesson on them especially his niece who was the kindest person he had known in his life. Looking at her face broke his heart inside and he sadly shook his head.

Hinata broke down into sobs as her uncle cradled her against him.

Inside one of the rooms of the mansion Hiashi was with his wife who was sleeping now as the healer had given her something to take away the pain she had been feeling. He looked down at his wife, she was so very pale and so very weak. They had both been hoping that they could have beaten this but the healer didn’t look like he could do anything.

“I’m sorry Hiashi-sama but it’s gone too far, I’m afraid that the disease has just spread too far, too fast. There is nothing more we can do other than make her comfortable.”

Hiashi didn’t want to admit that his wife was dying, there had to be something that could be done something that could save his wife. But he knew they had tried everything they could think of, they tried looking for specialist in this but the few they were able to find hadn’t been able to do anything. Bloodline poisoning was a rare disease and so little research had been done into it, plus it was devastation sometimes it wasn’t caught in time so there had been deaths that until after an autopsy revealed what had caused the death.

He walked over to her and stroked her long hair lovingly, “How much longer?”

“I’m sorry but it’s in the final stages, she may or may not last the night.”

Hiashi nodded his head closing his eyes and told him to leave. When the man was gone that’s when he lost all the strength in his legs and he fell down next to her, he never cried in public but for the first time in years he felt the sting of tears on his face. He held her hand and kissed it knowing that this was the last night he would have with the woman that was the love of his life, the bright spot of his soul, the only woman he had and would ever love. She was everything to him, and the mother of his precious daughters and he couldn’t bare to lose her.

It felt like someone was ripping his insides out, like he was falling and the end was not in sight. He didn’t know how long he knelt there until he felt a hand gripping his own and he looked up into his wife’s face.

“Please my love I don’t want to see you like this,” she told him.

“I can’t help it, the healers...” he couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“How long?” she asked him knowing full well what was happening to her. It was strange she had known she had been dying for months and yet here she was on death’s door and she was strangely calm about it all. Maybe it was because she could finally stop fighting, she could finally just stop and rest, she was so very tired of fighting this. She was tired of the near constant pain, the tiredness, and the worry of what would happen to her and her family.

Now she didn’t have to fight anymore and she knew her family would be in pain but it would endure. They were strong and she knew that they would live on, and it wasn’t like she had a bad life, she found love and had two beautiful daughters. She just wished she just had a little more time, she wanted to see Hanabi take her first steps, to see her girls’ first crush, first date, first heart break, first time she caught them doing something inappropriate with a boy like her own mother had with her.

She wanted to see them fall in love, she wanted to see them get married and to see grandchildren that she could spoil rotten. She wanted to be with her husband through all of this, to calm him down the first time the girls would bring a boy home. There was just so much but now there was just no more time for it.

“Please Hiashi-kun...I want to see my family. I want to see them one last time before the end.”

He nodded his head and kissed her lips and she kissed them back, it would be their last kiss and she felt so sad at that. She wanted to say so much to him and yet there were only a few words that could say what she felt for him.

“I love you so much, you made me happy and I’m glad that I had you in my life.”

“I love you just as much Hannah-chan, and I’ll love you forever,” he told her as he caressed her flawless face burning the feeling of it into his mind. He went to get the others and gather them, he found that Naruto was with his daughter and had thought of telling the boy to go back home but seeing how he was comforting his daughter maybe it was alright to let him stay. After all in a way he had become ‘family’ to the Hyugas, he had befriended both Hinata and Neji and he knew that despite his attitude and those pranks of his, he had a good heart.

He turned to see his brother there and he asked him to get Hanabi from the nanny that was looking after his youngest daughter. It was time to gather up the family for a final farewell.

Hinata came in seeing her mother propped up on her bed holding her baby sister, she looked so pale and weak and she was glad that she was holding Naruto’s hand. She needed him here for this as she walked over to her bed side seeing her entire family in the room.

Hannah looked over at her oldest daughter and smiled at the sight of her holding the boy’s hand. It was so cute and she was happy to see it, for one of the last things she wanted to see was that her daughter would be cared for.

“Hinata come closer.”

“Y-y-yes mother,” Hinata said trying not to break down again.

Hannah reached out and caressed her daughter’s face and smiled at her, “I’m so sorry that I won’t see the beautiful woman that you’ll grow into Hinata my dear. I’m sorry that I won’t see Hanabi either and I’m so sorry that I have to leave you all.”

“No! I don’t want you to go mother!” Hinata cried out clutching her mother’s arm.

“I don’t want to either dear but my time is nearly up and I wanted to spend my last moments with the people I love the most. I tried to stay strong and to keep myself alive, I never gave up but I guess I wasn’t strong enough. Hinata just know that I’ll always love you and your sister and that I’ll always be watching.”

Hinata just nodded her head crying her heart out, and Hannah looked over to Naruto seeing the red eyes the boy had from his own tears. She smiled at the boy with the mask on and she remembered that first day when a curious child with whisker marks on his face came up and asked who her daughter was who had been hiding behind her legs. They had been good friends for one another and Naruto had always been there for her daughter.

“Naruto-kun...” Hannah said to him.

“Y-yes Hannah-san?” Naruto said to her it was the few times he ever used the term ‘san’ with someone and meant it.

“Please look after Hinata for me, watch over her while I can’t be here physically. Be there for her and always be someone she can depend on.” She asked this child.

Naruto nodded, “I promise and I never break my promises...”

“I know that’s why I asked,” Hannah said with a small smile.

The night was a cold one, there was no moon in the sky as it was blocked by clouds and they were there to help make Hannah more comfortable. Hannah talked to her family and she didn’t look sad she didn’t want their last memory of her being sad. But then she was feeling so tired, she wanted to rest she just wanted to rest a bit before the end.

“I’m...so tired...” she said weakly.

“I know you are,” Hiashi said trying to not chock on a sob that he was holding back and held her hand. “Rest now my love.”

“I always loved you my husband, look after our family...I’m...I’m happy to have had...a family like this...I love you all so...very...” She closed her eyes and she looked like she was falling asleep. Hiashi with a shaking hand felt for his wife’s pulse, there it was but it was weakening. It was slowing down more and more and then finally it stopped.

He waited for a minute but the life was gone, he used his Byakugan and he saw the fading light of her chakra, he watched as it slowly dimmed to nothing. Then he deactivated his eyes and hung his head as his wife was dead. Hanabi suddenly broke out crying in her uncle’s arms almost as if she could sense that her mother was dead.

Hinata felt her eyes water up and when Neji tried to put a hand on her shoulder she turned and ran.

“Hinata!” Naruto called after her watching her go he turned to see Hinata’s father fall gently to his knees holding his dead wife’s hand. Hizashi looked at the two boys.

“Go and find her,” he said to them gently and they nodded and ran off. He walked over to his brother and knew the pain he was going through, when he lost his wife it had nearly devastated him as well. He would let his brother grieve for his wife and then he would help him deal with her loss, he had helped him when his own wife had died and now it seemed fate was switching the positions. He walked out of the room to help and put Hanabi down for bet and maybe see if he could make the child less upset.

Naruto ran through the night looking for Hinata, he tried the playground first but she wasn’t there and then he tried the ramen stand, the school, and anywhere else he could think of. He wanted to find her and he wanted to make sure she was safe. He was still trying to process that Hinata’s mother was dead, it just didn’t seem real to him. She had been one of the adults that always had been nice to him and she was everything that he figured a mother should be. Sometimes he was envious that Hinata had a mom like that but now she was gone.

He felt his tears sting his eyes feeling like someone had ripped something out of him, he hated this feeling but he had to search for Hinata. Then he remembered one of the areas they played together since they were younger it was an open area in a forested part of the village, his dad took him there to train sometimes for teaching him wilderness stuff, although to Naruto it had been more like camping with his dad. He had showed Hinata that once and he made a promise to her that they would camp out there one day.

He ran to that place and his lungs were burning and he stopped scanning the darkness. He thought that he had guessed wrong and was about to move on when sobbing noises got his attention. He followed them around a tree and there huddled there was Hinata crying. He hated seeing Hinata cry, he felt like crying himself and he did something he hadn’t done in a long time, he pulled down his mask for her to see his face.

He bent down next to her and gently touched her shoulder, “Hinata-chan...”

Hinata jumped at the touch and turned to see who it was, she slowly saw in the moonlight that it was a boy but then it took her a moment to know who it was. It was Naruto but without his mask, she hadn’t seen his face in over a year and she had missed it, she missed seeing his smiles and those whisker marks on his face. His blue eyes which usually were full of energy and happiness were filled with sadness. She tried to speak but her throat had a huge lump in it, and she just lunched herself into Naruto burying her face into his chest.

Naruto was shocked by her sudden movement but hearing her cry like this was tarring him up inside. He just held her close trying to comfort her but he felt his own tears falling as well. He cried for her pain, the pain of her family and for his own pain at having one of the precious people in his life taken away. They just held each other as they cried on each other trying to find comfort with each other.

“W-w-why!?” she sobbed into his chest, clutching at his clothing with her fist.

“I don’t know,” he said softly chocking back his tears holding her tightly to him.

“Why my mother?” she asked again.

“I wish I knew Hinata-chan, she was the best mother I knew.” He told her as she was shaking a lot from her crying. “I know this; I wish I had a mother like that. I never knew my mother but there were times that I wished I had Hannah-san as a mother. You were so lucky to have a mother like her.”

Hinata buried herself even more into Naruto, his warm body helped to keep the cold she was feeling away, and it wasn’t just the cold of the night but from the death of her own mother that was affecting her. She didn’t want to let go of Naruto, she felt safe in his arms, she felt like he could help keep the pain from swallowing her whole. She felt his hand stroking her hair and her back and she cried herself into exhaustion.

Naruto heard that she had stopped and looked down to see that she wasn’t awake anymore he pulled on his mask and hoisted her onto his back as he started to carry her all the way back to her home. It was long and hard since he wasn’t used to having all that weight on his back but he endured. He wanted to see her home and when he got to the gates the guards let him in immediately as they went to send word to stop looking for her. Naruto found Neji who had on a sad look in his eyes, they looked at one another not sure what they could say in a moment like this.

“Can you help me put her to bed?” Naruto asked him, he nodded his head as he led the way without a word. They got to her room and Neji pulled back the covers as Naruto placed her in there, they took off her shoes and covered her up. Either one knew what they could do for her, although Naruto didn’t want to go home he didn’t want to leave her alone. Thankfully his father came to find him and when he learned of everything they both stayed to look after her for the night.

Hinata’s father had not been seen, he had been too wrapped up in his own pain to function in public for the moment. His brother was standing guard over his room with a grim look on his face, the loss of Hannah would hit the clan hard but it hit family the hardest. She had always treated him and Neji well and he respected her, to lose your wife was the greatest pain a husband could endure just as he knew his twin was enduring this dark night.

The next day and for the rest of the week Hinata and Naruto didn’t come to school, their friends found out by the end of the day why when Iruka told the class about Hinata’s mother. Those that knew Hinata felt horrible for the girl. Someone was asked to bring the school work to Naruto and Hinata so they didn’t fall behind and Ino and Sakura were the first to do it. Everyone went to visit Hinata the next day and they found her with Naruto as he was helping her through it all. They had never seen Hinata look like that in their lives and the image would be burned into their memories.

They were there for her and even though she didn’t show it, she was thankful for the support of her friends. Naruto refused to leave her side for long periods of time, for the first few days he actually stayed with the Hyugas in a spare room as Hinata had trouble sleeping. He would always be there for her and she would use him to cry on.

After the funeral Hinata was in a deep depression, Neji knew what it was like to lose a mother at a young age himself was a very strong comfort for his cousin as he knew his father was helping Hinata’s father as well. That whole year was tough all around on Hinata and her friends kept by her side and Naruto most of all was always there for her. It took time but Hinata finally did smile again and laughed again, but the pain would always be there for her.

Naruto could see when she was starting to feel that pain and would do everything to cheer her up. But by the end of the first year in school Hinata had managed to cope with her mother’s death and was thankful for having so many people there for her.

Next up Chapter 17: As the years go by

Yep a time skip to just before the genin exam is up next, and sorry folks who wanted Hinata’s mother to live but I planned this out from the start. And if you cried well good, that means that my writing really hit its mark.

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 17: As the years go by

The last few years had it’s ups and downs, Naruto of course was doing well in school and although he was doing great at the physical skills of a ninja, Sasuke beat him out of the scholastic scores. Over the years they had formed a strong rivalry always trying to outdo the other in everything. He had to admit though one of this favourite moments had been when Sasuke had been a bit too annoying Naruto tried out a technique his father taught him. Mainly you pulled someone under the ground so just their head was left.

Naruto knew this one well since his own father pulled it on him during sparing matches from time to time, and he hated that move. But he had to admit pulling it on someone else was sure worth it, Sasuke had been livid as he tried to get out of the ground and just to add insult to injury he had also taken one of his father’s books. He still remembered that day with Sasuke glaring at him and Kiba on the ground holding his sides.

“Oh man this is great!” Kiba roared as his very own dog Akamaru that he had gained last year. His family had finally thought it was time for him to get his own dog and he loved that day when on his birthday no less he had been given his own puppy. The two were inseparable and the small white dog was barking as well.

Shikamaru had to admit it was pretty funny and so did Choji, thankfully it was just the guys at the moment as well.

“Hatake you better get me out of this or so help me I’ll kick your masked ass!” Sasuke said at him.

“Aw and here I was going to read you a story,” Naruto said sitting down and pulled out one of his father’s books.

“Hey what’s that?” Kiba asked.

Naruto grinned under his mask, “Just something of my dad’s, now let’s see oh here’s a good part.”

Naruto read on and he had to admit seeing Sasuke turn bright red from embarrassment was hilarious. Choji had actually stopped eating and looked frozen, Shikamaru was trying to stare up at the clouds with a blush on his face, Kiba however was on the verge of a nose bleed but wanted to hear more. Naruto was thankful for the mask as well.

“Naruto what are you doing!?”

They turned to see Ino and a few of the other girls walking towards him looking a bit pissed.

“Just reading a story to Sasuke and I think he likes it.” Naruto grinned.

“No I don’t you idiot and get me out of here already!” Sasuke said still all red from what Naruto had read to him. He had never thought those kinds of things before and he was seriously getting pissed off at still being stuck in the ground.

“Naruto get Sasuke-kun out of there right this minute!” Ino demanded at him.

“Fine but finish the story will for the guys will you?” Naruto handed her the book and she looked at it curious as to what it was. Sakura and Hinata were also there and looked over the blood’s shoulder and started to read over her shoulder. All three girls had to admit it looked like some kind of love story, something to do with some type of forbidden love of two members of opposing clans. It was very romantic how the two characters were admitting their live for the other, then they kissed, then kissed some more...and...didn’t stop.

The girl’s got very red in the face and Hinata actually feinted at that point thankfully Sakura caught the girl as she was as red as her dress. Ino suddenly dropped the book like it was poison.

“Hey careful that’s one of my dad’s books,” Naruto said hauling Sasuke free.

Ino marched right over to him and looked at him, Naruto saw the fury in her eyes and tried to say something in his defence but never got the chance to open his mouth as Ino slammed her fist into his face, “You perverted hentai!”

The girls didn’t talk to him for a week after that, although Hinata tried to talk but the images in her young mind kept making her feint when the subject came up, plus she couldn’t look Naruto in the eyes after that. Although even she had to admit Naruto had the beating from Ino coming to him for that, although she did forgive him first out of the girls, Sakura lasted another week giving him the silent treatment until he apologise for the hundredth time, as for Ino well he had to promise to help out with her chores at the flower shop for a week straight.

That wasn’t the last thing either, Naruto had discovered by his twelfth year in life girls, woman and just how good they looked. It didn’t help that when Kakashi tried to teach Naruto about the ‘birds and the bees’ he read his Icha Icha book to him. Although Naruto now knew more about sex than he ever wanted to know, although he personally didn’t understand a few things like if it was really possible for a three some to work in real life. When he was learning the hedge technique he had been trying to find a way to beat his father in their sparing and an idea formed.

It took weeks of practice but he finally got it down, the next time they spared he unleashed one of his ultimate secret justus...the Sexy Jutsu. Kakashi had been so shocked to see a young teen and very cute and beautiful naked girl with such an irresistible pout on her face he didn’t have time to recover when the hedge dropped and Naruto scored his first solid hit on his father.

Kakashi looked up from his spot not sure to be proud of his son’s inventive nature or he should wonder where he came up with that idea. He got up and dusted himself off and looked at his son who he knew was grinning under that mask of his. He looked at him for a moment before speaking, “I’m not even going to ask Naruto but I’d be careful about that around certain people.”

“It’s my anti-pervert move dad, it works great on them.” His son laughed.

“How do you know it works so well?”

“Easy I used it on the Old Man and several others and they were laid out with huge nose bleeds! It was great!”

“Just don’t use that in class I don’t need to come after school again this week,” Kakashi said as he got himself ready. “Okay so now you got two choices son, you either can do the three climbing exercise to improve your chakra control or sword fighting training.”

Naruto wasn’t sure what was worse, the tree climbing he learned six months ago and it took him forever to get that down and it was boring. Although he did admit it did work really well but although the sword training was a lot more fun he usually ended up with lots of bumps and bruises. He ended up with the sword training he could heal quickly after all so he didn’t mind. Kakashi grinned under his mask as he was hoping for that, now he could get him back for using that new technique on him.

After a few hours Naruto managed to end his training for the day and ended up walking around the village. He was still feeling some of the blows his dad had given him and was wondering if that was bordering on child abuse with the training at times. He was grumbling about his father not being able to take a joke and was wondering what he could do today.

He knew that Kiba and Shino would be busy working with their families today, Ino and Sakura were most likely training today as well and those two could be scary when they got into competitions. Hinata was getting some training with her father and little sister as well. Naruto thought about his best friend and was glad that she was back to her old self although he missed Hannah Hyuga when he visited the Hyuga home. Hinata’s father was a bit more stern after that but thankfully it seemed his brother was able to help curve that a little.

Then he thought of Neji and a smile broke out under his mask, he had graduated last year and was put on a team of all people his Uncle Gai, he laughed his ass off when Neji told him that. He actually felt a bit sorry for Neji he knew that Gai could get a little overboard with training but he was interested in meeting the team, there was this kid Lee that sounded nice and a girl Tenten as well. He hadn’t seen his Uncle Gai and Neji in a long time too with the missions they went on. He knew where they trained and he decided to take a little look to see what this team was like.

-Team Gai training grounds-

IN the field that Team Gai used their sensei was currently teaching Lee some more taijutsu moves while Tenten was sparing with Neji, and he had to admit he liked this team, sure they were a bit unorthodox but then again knowing Gai beforehand helped to adjust faster. That is he thought it would before him and Lee got this very close bond the led to some disturbing scenes. Although at the moment he had to concentrate since if he wasn’t Tenten would cut him up to pieces. With his bloodline activated he saw the incoming weapons and would step out of the way, or deflect them.

She was very good, she moved with speed and agility and with such deadly accuracy that he actually wondered if she had any Hyuga blood in her family. She always would smile and laugh as they spared even when he tried to remain focused and passive. In a way she reminded him of Naruto only less hyper and not as loud. She was easy to get to know and even though he never told anyone he actually found her attractive but never hinted at it.

He knew the risks of getting involved with a teammate and also what it would mean down the line, the seal on his forehead was an ever constant reminder of what awaited for his own children and he didn’t think a non-Hyuga would cope with that being done to their children. He was pulled out of his thoughts as he caught someone watching from a branch, he smirked to himself a little as he reached a pause in the sparring.

“Tenten can you send a kunai seventy-five degrees high, and fifteen to your right into that tree over there?” He asked her and he saw her confusion, “We have an uninvited guest.”

Now she understood and quickly threw her kunai into the leaves. A scream was heard as someone fell out of the tree and landed heavily onto the ground. The training stopped for the entire team as Tenten got a good look at the boy, he looked to be about a year or so younger than her, with blonde spiky hair and wore black pants with an orange stripe on the side, an orange t-shirt over a black vest with pockets and a black mask with six orange slash marks that looked like whiskers.

“Damn it Neji you told her to do that didn’t you!” Naruto accused the older boy pointing a finger at him.

“Oh I didn’t know you were there Naruto.” Neji said faking innocent.

“Bullshit! She could have killed me!”

“Hardly, Tenten can hit a target one hundred times out of a hundred, give her a target and she’ll never miss.” Neji said to Naruto who paused for a moment to take that in as he was impressed with it but then went into yelling at the boy a bit more. Tenten felt her cheeks slightly heat up at Neji’s compliment of her abilities it was nice to know he thought of her skills so highly.

It was then that he took a good look at the girl with Chinese puns and a pink styled shirt. “You know Neji you never said you had such a pretty girl on your team.”

Tenten actually felt a slight blush on her cheeks from the compliment, she never focused on her looks but it was still nice for a girl to hear that from a boy now and then. Neji however had a slight flash of emotion on his face that Naruto caught when Neji saw the girl blush from the compliment.

‘Oh so Neji may finally like a girl huh? Oh I so have to tell Hinata this, maybe we can have some fun and break him out of that Hyuga shell of his.’ Naruto grinned under his mask seeing Neji give him a slight glare.

“Ah Naruto-kun one of my most youthful friends!” Gai jumped into the scene and took one of his poses.

“Hey Uncle Gai how’s the training going?” Naruto asked.

“Wait, Uncle Gai?” Tenten asked, she had no idea that Gai had any other family other than his parents.

“Actually Naruto is the son of my friend and rival Kakashi Hatake, but I’ve known Naruto-kun since he was a young boy and he thinks of me as an uncle.” Gai told them.

“Wait Kakashi...Wasn’t that the guy you lost a came to rock, paper, scissors to?” Tenten asked.

Naruto smiled under his mask, “So what’s the score is my dad ahead now?”

“Kakashi may be ahead but I will soon pull ahead of him and show him that the power of youth prevails over all, right Naruto!” Gai said and then noticed that Naruto was examining his finger nails.

He looked up sharply, “Huh? Oh sorry were you saying something Uncle Gai?”

Gai face faulted at that and then jumped up, “There’s that hip and too cool attitude of your father! You should embrace the power of youth Naruto!”

Neji just shook his head he had seen this many times before, but still he had learned to enjoy the show when Naruto would act like Gai to get under his father’s skin and then act like his father to do the same for Gai. It was also how he managed to convince the two adults into several competitions of his own choosing. He never forgot the one when they had to go from one end of the village to another balancing an egg on their noses or the time he suggested wrestling a muddy pig.

“It’s always the same with them,” Neji sighed.

“Neji how do you know this guy anyway?” Tenten asked.

“He’s friends with my cousin Hinata for years and well, he’s sort of become a friend of the Hyuga clan,” he explained to the weapons girl. Tenten was wondering how the kid managed to do that, it was rare for any clan to admit friendships to someone outside of the clan and the Hyugas were no exception to that.

“Naruto I want to introduce to you one of my prize pupils, this is Rock Lee!” Gai said introducing a young boy that looked almost exactly like a younger version of Gai. The boy had been waiting for the right moment to jump in and to introduce himself.

“I am Rock Lee and I’m honoured to meet a family member of Gai-sensei even if you are not related by blood, I can see the fires of youth burning bright inside of you!” Lee proclaimed to him and giving him his own pose with blinding smile and a thumbs up.

Naruto looked at the boy for a moment before turning to Gai with a deadpan expression on his face, “Uncle Gai have you been performing illegal cloning experiments on yourself? Is he your secret love child or something or did you turn someone normal into a copy of you?”

Tenten starting into fits of giggles and Neji had a small smirk on his face with that one.

“Naruto although I wish Lee was my child sadly he is not but he is a true genius of hard work just like you are Naruto.” Gai told him.

At that Lee’s eyes lit up with fire, “Naruto is it true that you are a genius of hard work? There are many geniuses like Neji here who are gifted with talents for being a ninja but then there are those of hard work that Gai-sensei says work hard to surpass others.”

Naruto scratched the back of his head, “Well, that’s what Uncle Gai always tells me but I have to work hard if I want to be Hokage one day!”

“Ah! That is a worthy dream, you truly are inspired to reach for great heights! My dream is to be a great ninja even though I can’t use Ninjustu or Genjutsu, but I will not let that handicap me and I will show them all that I will be a great ninja!”

“Wait you can’t use either?” Naruto asked and learned of how Rock Lee’s chakra coils were abnormally underdeveloped to the point he couldn’t use them like a normal ninja. He listened and yet this boy trained his heart out in Taijutsu and knowing Gai he was training hard. “Well I guess then we have something in common then, I have abnormally large chakra reserves or so my dad says and he says that it also causes me to have the worse charka control he’s seen. It’s hard for me to do the simple things because of all the chakra in my body, I still can’t do a simple clone yet and it took me forever to learn the other things.”

“But I work hard to overcome that and I will reach my dream of being Hokage!”

Tenten sighed, “Great now we got another one...”

“I wouldn’t dismiss Naruto just yet he’s not your normal or average ninja,” Neji said to her and she looked at him surprised. “You see when he was a small boy he managed to save my cousin from a kidnapping attempt and gravely injure a ninja, he also took a kunai to the chest and lived.”

Tenten’s eyes widened at that and looked at the boy who was being challenged to a spar by Lee and who seemed excited for it as well. She was trying to figure out the puzzle that was Naruto Hatake and she and Neji watched as Lee got into his usual fighting pose and Naruto got into one fighting poses that his father taught him.

Gai of course was being the referee at this point and he called the match a go, Naruto leapt out first as Lee stood his ground. Naruto threw a punch only to have it intercepted, so he twisted with a kick and Lee jumped back. Naruto didn’t stop though he had to keep Lee moving and guessing as he tried to see what kind of fighter he was. Thanks to some training from Gai himself he knew a bit of the style that Lee was using but obviously Lee was knew a lot more about it then he was.

There was also something that caught his attention as they fought and that was that Lee was really, really fast. He was definitely faster than he was and when he felt a blow land there was some serious power to it. Naruto took a hit to his shoulder and went with a roll to take the shot and jumped back up facing Lee. It was times like this he wished he knew some offensive justus but all he had was the training things like tree climbing and the academy stuff with the exception of clones.

Tenten and Neji watched with interests as Naruto took the pounding by Lee but just kept on going, in fact Naruto managed to get Lee with an elbow strike to the ribs at one point when Lee left an opening for Naruto. Neji watched knowing that Naruto trained a lot and with different teachers, he could see the influence in his fighting style which was a mix of various moves from Kakashi, Gai’s own style and what he assumed was from that woman Anko who really gave Neji the creeps.

Tenten was impressed that a boy still in the academy was holding out so long against Lee, she had to admit the blond certainly was giving Lee a workout and she noticed that as the battle went on Naruto seemed to find more and more weaknesses in Lee’s style. It wasn’t much to give him an edge but it did allow Naruto to dodge and get out of the way of the more powerful moves now and again.

“Man how come you’re so fast Lee? I mean I train a lot but I’m not that fast,” Naruto said ducking a whirlwind kick to his head.

“Gai-sensei has me on a special training regiment that increases my speed and strength.” Lee said dodging a few aerial kicks by Naruto.

“Hey Uncle Gai how come you never tried that with me?” Naruto asked him while fighting.

Gai smiled and chuckled a bit, “I did but you’re father thought it was too much.”

“Oh how so-OW! What the hell!?” Naruto had went for a block with a kick from Lee by kicking the boy’s shin but instead of flesh and bone there seemed to be something else covered by the orange leg warmers. Naruto was hoping on one foot holding his shin cursing as Lee stopped in respect.

“I’m sorry Naruto I didn’t meant for you to hit my leg weights.”

“Leg weights? What kind of leg weights do you have on?” Naruto asked rubbing his shin. Lee looked to Gai and the man nodded his head and so Lee pulled up the leg warmers and Naruto’s jaw dropped. There was a huge set of weights hidden there, actual bricks of metal and Naruto was thankful he didn’t break his leg on it. Then another thought hit him as he saw the weights in order to move as fast as he was without those weights he would destroy him within seconds.

For the first time Naruto had met someone that was way above him, at least in speed and strength that he would need to surpass. He made a mental note to talk to his father about weights for himself although he didn’t think he could handle those at least not yet.

“Shall we stop for now Naruto-kun?” Lee asked him although he was enjoying the fight. Naruto fought with such passion and intensity. It was very different from how Neji fought, always so controlled and centered. If Neji was a mountain then Naruto was like the wind, and he had seen how Naruto refused to give up at all and only came back with more force and determination. He truly was a genius of hard work and he wanted to see how much more Naruto could put into his fight.

Naruto tested his leg and got back into his stance, “Are you kidding I’m only warming up, I’ll just have to remember not to hit that part of your leg again.”

With that both boys smiled and started their sparing match again under the watchful eye of the Gai, Tenten and Neji. Naruto tried every move he could think of but so far nothing he had seemed to be able to put the other boy down. At one point he managed to duck then roll under the older boy and with a kick to the ground launched himself behind Lee, but Lee was prepared and grabbed Naruto’s wrist and arm and flung him into the nearby trees.

When Naruto was thrown into a tree he thankfully had landed feet first and stuck there, he was glad all those months of practice and training with the tree climbing managed to stick him finally. He jumped off when Lee’s fist made contact with the spot he had been at shattering the wood. He flipped into the air and with a midair twist landed facing Lee.

‘How the hell am I going to beat this guy? He’s like a mini-Gai and it’s not like my dad has given me any justus that I can use on him. Hell I only know of a couple and they wouldn’t work on Lee, damn it dad why the hell couldn’t you have taught me a fire one like Sasuke has? The only thing I have left is...’

Naruto suddenly got a brilliant idea into his head and went into a familiar hand sign, Neji saw this and he groaned and covered his face with his hand. He had seen this before and he didn’t need to be reminded of it. “Oh no please not that stupid thing.”

“What, what’s he going to do?” Tenten asked him. She watched and then Naruto yelled out a name that she thought was ‘sexy jutsu’ but she swore she heard wrong. Then there was a puff of smoke and suddenly a very cute naked girl in smoke suddenly appeared.

Lee froze in his spot as his young and innocent mind saw his first naked girl, he literally couldn’t even think as his mind just stopped at the image. Gai yelled out in horror at the sight of it and Tenten looked mortified. Everything she had thought about the young boy was suddenly dashed at this blatant perverted act. She held onto her kunai very hard and was trying not to throw it at the boy.

Naruto dispelled it and quickly sent a jab into Lee’s chin making the boy fall onto the ground with a stupid look on his face. Well Naruto knew it was a cheap shot but he honestly didn’t know any other way to beat the older boy. He went over to make sure there were no hard feelings but the boy just didn’t respond to him, he prodded him with his foot and still Lee was there on the ground with that stupid look on his face.

“Uh oh...I think I broke him, hey man you okay?” He picked him up by the shoulders shaking him.

“Naruto!”

From that loud and deadly tone from Tenten he dropped Lee and slowly looked around to see a very pissed off girl, she was suddenly having a small twitch in her left eye. “What the hell kind of jutsu was that!? Do you know how perverted and also how offensive that is to female ninjas?”

“Uh...no not really,” Naruto said and quickly dodged a kunai being thrown at him thankfully Anko gave him plenty of practice with avoiding. “Wait-let me explain-will you stop throwing those-come on Tenten it was just a joke-hey that one nearly hit! How many weapons do you have on you anyway!?”

“Die you pervert!”

Neji signed as he looked at Gai was trying to snap Lee out of his catatonic state and at Tenten trying to kill Naruto. He looked to the ground as his shoulders slumped, “This was why I didn’t want to introduce Naruto to my team, he’s nothing but pure chaos.”

Next up Chapter 18: Preparations for the Test

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 18: Preparations for the Test

It was nearly the day of the final exams the day they would all be ninja and the kids were kind of excited over it all. But there was one person that was actually worrying and that was Naruto of all people, he and his friends had been training all this time to make sure they all passed as they were in a special training spot in the woods that Naruto had found a few years ago. There was a cabin where they could keep supplies and plenty of space to train. But Naruto however was having a large amount of difficulty with the one jutsu that would make him pass the test.

He had his physical skills down now and it took over a week for him to get the henge just right but now he was having a lot of trouble with making clones. Whenever he tried it they came out sickly and just lay there on the ground looking like death. He tried and tried and yet he couldn’t get it to work right. He was currently in the area with his friends and once again was trying to make a clone. There was the puff of smoke and he looked to his right hoping that this time he got it, but it was just another failed clone there.

“Damn it why the hell can’t I get this!?” Naruto shouted out in frustration.

“Naruto what the hell is wrong with you?” Ino asked hands on her hips, she had changed her style over the years. Her hair was longer now into a ponytail and wore purple. “Are you just messing around or what?”

“I’m not Ino it’s hard!”

“I did it after two days so why can’t you do it?” Ino asked getting irritated with her friend. “How can you be so good in so many things and yet suck so much at other things?”

“I don’t know if I did I would figure out a way around it already,” Naruto sighed and slumped his shoulder feeling a little depressed.

“I’m still surprised you can still try and make clones I’d be too tired to stand with how long you’ve been at it,” Ino sighed as she sat down on the ground.

Shikamaru who was as usual on the ground turned his head to face Naruto as something clicked in his head. In all the time that he had known Naruto he seemed to have nearly unlimited energy and he was wondering is his chakra mirrored that. “Naruto how much chakra as you using?”

Naruto scratched the back of his head thinking about it, “I don’t know I just use whatever I can.”

“Naruto,” chided Sakura at him, “You have to use a set amount for clones didn’t you pay attention to that in class?”

Sakura had also grown over the years, she chided Naruto at times and she kept him in line. The young crush she had on the boy was still there but she wasn’t sure if she liked Naruto as a friend or more these days. It didn’t help matters that Naruto seemed to have taken up a slightly perverted side that annoyed her to no end. Her hair was still short, she had thought of making it long like Ino since she heard Sasuke liked long haired girls but she had asked him if she looked better with long hair, he only grunted and walked off.

Naruto had commented that she looked cute with short hair so she went with Naruto since he was honest about these things. Okay so he could be really sweat when he wasn’t being an idiot or perverted. Sometimes she wondered why the top two boys in the class had to be so difficult, Sasuke was handsome and intelligent, strong and cool. But he was so cold to everyone and you couldn’t get close to him. Naruto was the opposite of that, he radiated warmth and made you smile. Too bad he sometimes was too hyper, his pranks were childish (even though she did find a few of them very funny) and the aforementioned moments of being an idiot and perverted.

It was like Naruto was the sun and Sasuke was the moon and sometimes she felt that both were just unattainable.

‘Why can’t both boys be more like the other?’ She thought to herself.

‘Yeah that would be great if they were one boy! They would be totally hot!’ Inner Sakura agreed.

Sakura mentally sighed and wondered if this inner persona was the result of some childhood trauma making her have a partial case of multiple personality syndrome.

“Hey Hinata why don’t you see how much chakra he’s using with your eyes?” Sakura asked the shy girl as the idea hit her, “I mean maybe you can tell how much he’s using and he can use that as a way to help him judge how much he’s using.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Shikamaru said sitting up slightly, “With a baseline Naruto might finally be able to tell how much chakra he’s using for once.”

“Cool! Come on Hinata let’s see if you can help me out!” Naruto said smiling at the young girl, if only he knew what his smiled even behind the mask did to her. She gulped feeling a little bit of pressure, she really wanted to help Naruto after all she owed him so much and she wanted him to see her as maybe more as a friend.

Over the years her affection for Naruto had grown over time, he had been there through her long hard period after her mother’s death spending a lot of time with her and helping her out. Sometimes he would even hug her when she was feeling low, although that caused her to blush very much and nearly pass out from all the happy feelings that made. He also helped her with Hanabi too, although Hanabi was five years her junior she was very strong for her age, and Hinata was a bit envious that she was that strong.

Her father had hardened a bit over the years, he never really smiled anymore but with her uncle around he wasn’t as bad as he might have been. She had been afraid that her mother’s death would have hit him so hard that he would have never recovered and in a way he never had, it was like most of the light in his life was gone and she felt sad for her father. He never showed it but she knew that he was hurting every day that she was gone.

She faced Naruto and made a hand seal and activated her eyes, she saw the world in black and white like a photonegative and for the people she could see their chakra network, the blue lines that ran over their bodies. She watched as Naruto gathered up his chakra and she saw it was too much.

“W-wait Naruto-kun that’s too much.” She told him and he stopped.

“Huh? That’s too much?” He asked her confused and she nodded her head. He sighed and tried it again, but again she told him he was using too much. This went on for five more times before Ino was getting very frustrated with this whole affair.

“Damn it just use as little chakra as you can!” Ino yelled out losing her patience.

“That is the least amount that I can use Ino! What do you think I’ve been trying?” He yelled back at her.

“Hinata how much was that?” Sakura asked the young girl wondering just how much chakra Naruto had.

Hinata began playing with her finger tips looking down, “About t-t-twice what Ino uses normally.”

Ino’s eye brows shot up from that as did Shino and Shikamaru’s. “He’s using twice as much as me normally!? How the hell can he use that much and that’s the small amount? Okay sure I don’t have the most amount but I still got an average amount and you’re telling us that he’s using double?”

Hinata nodded her head.

Shikamaru sighed, “Man what a drag no wonder you can’t get this Naruto. Until you learn how to limit the amount you use I doubt that you’ll ever get the chance to actually use it properly. You need a low amount to make a clone that’s one of the reasons they teach us this move. But if you use too much it won’t work so that means...”

“Yeah it means what?” Naruto asked him.

“You’re screwed,” and with that he laid back onto the ground.

Naruto looked at his friend and heard Kiba snicker at the comment, he shot Kiba a glare before glaring at the lazy boy. “That’s it? I’m screwed that’s all you can say?”

“Well what do you want? I can’t make it so you can use less chakra and I don’t know how you can do it without a lot of practice and training.” He responded.

“But the test is at the end of the week, that’s only four days I’ll never get it down by four days.” Given how long it took him to learn how to tree climb learning a whole new way of controlling his chakra in the given amount of time was nearly impossible. He was really worried that because of this he wouldn’t be able to graduate with the others and he really wanted to become a ninja along with all his friends.

Hinata saw the worry in him and wished that she had could have done more to help him, she was wondering what she could do to help him and then an idea entered her mind. They weren’t that experienced but there were others that were and perhaps that Naruto’s father would have some ideas.

“N-N-Naruto-kun, what about your father, w-w-would he have any ideas on how to do this?” She asked him.

Naruto looked shocked but it was just that he felt stupid with not asking his dad sooner. He beamed at her and quickly jumped over to her and gave her a huge hug. “Hinata-chan you’re the best!”

He didn’t hear the soft ‘eep’ sound that she made when he grabbed her or how she was blushing bright red, she felt light headed with him hugging her like this and it felt nice as well. She could feel his warm body pressed up against hers and the warmth of the emotions even, it felt so good and she wished she could move her arms to hug him back.

A part of her mind wanted to hug him back so much, and much more as well. She had dreams like this, first the hugging would come and then he would look into her eyes with those bright blue and wonderful eyes of his. He would tell her how beautiful and strong she was and that he loved her. She could tell him that she loved him too and he would gently pull down his mask and she would see that cute face with the whisker marks on it again.

He would smile that smile of his that melted her heart and made her legs shake, and their lips would gently touch.

But as soon as it happened it was gone, the hug ended and so did her little day dream with it and Naruto was running off to see his father. Hinata however was swaying back and forth feeling all warm from his embrace and a smile was on her face, from the hug and from her own thoughts she had just had.

“N-N-Naruto-kun...” She said softly before he fainted and landed onto the soft grass. Kiba and Shino went to her quickly as did Choji as they made sure that she was okay.

Ino sighed and shook her head, “Boy that girl has it bad for him. Should we tell him that his best friend as a huge crush on him because I honestly don’t know when he’ll figure it out.”

“It’s too troublesome,” Shikamaru sighed thinking on just what it would take to get Hinata to admit to her own feelings let along to Naruto gave him a headache just thinking about it.

Everyone knew about Hinata’s crush on Naruto with the exception of the blonde, as they helped her up Sakura had a worried look on her face. She did like Naruto but she didn’t want to hurt Hinata given that she was a close friend. She had nearly lost her friendship with Ino over Sasuke but thanks to Naruto smoothing things out between them they were still friends. She still wore the red ribbon Ino had given her years ago and yes they both chased after Sasuke from time to time but Sakura’s attention was split so it wasn’t with her whole heart that she went after Sasuke and Ino guessed that meant less competition for the dark boy’s affections.

Not that Ino or any other girl seemed to get any, Naruto made a joke about him being gay and both Ino and Sakura had hit him for it, plus the other girls of the Uchiha fan club gave him death glares for even suggesting that the boy they all crushed on was gay and they had no chance whatsoever with him.

At any rate until her mind/heart was made up she had no idea which boy to go after but she wouldn’t lose a friendship over it. She watched as Choji and Shino trying to wake the young girl up and if she chose to go after Naruto she would give the young girl a fight but she would be fair about it. She would give the other girl a chance to at least admit her feelings to the boy and see where it went. After all maybe Naruto would only like Hinata as a friend?

‘But what if he likes us only as a friend?’Inner Sakura said with a hint of worry. Sakura bit her lip but decided she could live with that, after all there was still Sasuke after all.

It took some times but they managed to get Hinata to wake up and she felt embarrassed over what had happened to her. She really wished she could stop doing that but it was just so hard for her

Hinata walked home by herself feeling slightly embarrassed that she had fainted like that in front of everyone but it was just whenever Naruto was that close when he did things like that it always made her hart pound so loud she could hear it and feel it, she just totally lost it and she wished she could just gather the strength to tell him how she felt and to be able to not faint. She sighed, out of all of her friends she felt that she hadn’t changed much. Although she had taken an interests in medicine shortly after her mother’s death but mainly just medical herbs and such things like that, she didn’t want to become a medical nin.

But a good idea on healing salves, potions and antidotes had become a new hobby for her, Sakura and Ino helped her with an herb garden on the Hyuga compound that she maintained to help her with that, even Naruto helped out from time to time much to her joy. She walked into her room taking off her jacket that she had been wearing for a few years now. What no one knew was just how well developed the girl had become over the years but she was too shy to show it hence why she always ware large clothing, well that and she felt it was just very comfortable as well.

She heard someone walk up to her door and looked to see her younger sister Hanabi, she looked very much like their mother hand although she could see a bit of their father in her. She looked like she had just finished a training routine. Hanabi was always training very hard, she knew it was in part from their father trying to ensure his daughters were strong in life, but also she suspected it was because Hanabi didn’t want to be put into the Branch family like their uncle had been.

There might have been some animosity in them but there wasn’t, they weren’t as close as she would have liked as Hanabi acted a lot like their father so she reserved herself a lot of the time.

“Hello Nee-Chan.”

“Hello Hanabi-chan how was practice with Uncle?”

“He was helping me with forms today, it was hard but he says that I’ve been improving a lot lately,” Hanabi then noticed some dirk on Hinata’s jacket and she tiled her head a bit, “were you training as well sister?”

Hinata looked confused and then Hanabi pointed out the dirk and she grew bright red seeing the dirt there from when she had fallen onto the ground. “Uh, I w-w-was with my friends and I s-s-sort of fell...”

Hanabi knew what that meant having seen it happen before, “You really should tell Naruto-nisan how you feel.”

Hanabi had known Naruto all her life and even though she had never seen what was behind that mask he was always there for her big sister and her. She could remember Naruto and Hinata looking after her and even training with her. He was also one of the few people that could make her laugh or smile with his antics. He was always there and over the years she thought of him as the big brother she didn’t have. It was also painfully obvious that her older sister had feelings for him and she secretly wished that they would get together.

Although she didn’t like boys, Naruto was another story. He was good to her family and her sister obviously looked up to him and was totally smitten by him. Plus if Hinata and Naruto got married then he really would be her older brother even if her brother in law.

Hinata looked down as she did that thing with her fingers again, “I...I want to tell him...b-b-but what if he doesn’t feel the same? I know he kind of likes S-S-Sakura and he’s got all those other girls after him and they’re stronger and prettier than I am.”

Hanabi hated it when her sister got like this it honestly just pissed her off, “Where is your Hyuga pride sister? You are a Hyuga of the Main family and the heiress of our clan, you are above those others girls and you should show it. If you want Naruto-nisan then take him as yours as if it were your right. If he doesn’t feel the same then he’s an idiot for turning down a Hyuga since we don’t give our hearts to those outside the clan freely.”

Hinata felt a bit ashamed and not for the first time she wished that Hanabi was the heiress and not her, Hanabi even though younger was more confident and stronger and would make for an excellent leader. But she couldn’t even get the courage to tell the boy she had liked for years that she liked him and wanted more than just friendship. Not for the first time she wished she was stronger and that she wished her mother was still alive to go to and get advice from. She couldn’t go to her father or uncle because it would be awkward for both parties.

I, I just wish I knew I had a chance...I don’t want to lose him,” Hinata said in a low and soft voice.

Hanabi heard it anyway and sighed, “If you don’t do something you’ll lose him anyway.”

-Hatake Home-

Kakashi was sitting at home reading one of his novels again, he loved the books. Yes they did have some dirty adult content but that was besides the point, well okay it was also a big selling point as well since he had learned some very interesting techniques from the book. Hard to believe that the writer of these books was the sensei to his sensei, but then again he remembered a few times when Minato tried to act a bit perverted around his then girlfriend (and later future wife). The poor blonde man never knew what hit him sometimes.

He sighed remembering them and he hoped that he was doing well by Naruto, he wanted to protect Naruto more than anything and not just because it was out of duty and loyalty for the man that had been like a second father to him. He honestly did love Naruto like a son, it was strange but Naruto helped him to ease away the loneliness of his life had become. With his two best friends and teammates killed, his father dead, and then his teacher his life had been so empty.

He book down his book remembering his birthdays, how the Hokage sometimes liked to have Naruto in his office to babysit while he had been on a mission. Naruto said he liked it because he could learn how to become a Hokage himself one day. He remembered the first time he met Hinata and he could see the bond that had formed over the years with those two. But Naruto had lots of friends now and an extended family as well.

He had to admit things were never dull in his life, although he did like the quiet moments such as now.

A sudden banging sound of the front door was heard all over the home and Naruto’s loud voice calling out to him. Kakashi sighed knowing that the only quiet he would get when Naruto was at school. He casually walked to find his son running through the house looking for him.

“Dad! I need you help with something important!”

“What is it son?” Kakashi asked him.

“I can’t do a clone because I can’t use as little chakra as the other kids but I need to make a clone or else I won’t graduate and I want to pass with all my friends, can’t you teach me something that will help me pass? Come on there’s got to be some trick you can help me use less chakra or something? How about some type of restraining chakra thing, or maybe some kind of jutsu that can get me around it!”

Kakashi blinked wondering how he could have said all that in a rush in just one lung full of air, he shook his head and started to think about it. He knew this issue would come up, Naruto’s chakra control was bad at the best of times but he had gain more control now after years of practice. But he still had trouble with the simpler stuff because of the limited amount of chakra you needed to put into it.

Basically it was like trying to force a ton of water through a small pipe. Kakashi knew that the test was coming up and he didn’t want to see Naruto fail. But in order to get his chakra control that good would take a lot longer than he needed to train Naruto for this. If only there was a way around doing a simple clone then...an idea hit him.

“Naruto you said that it’s a clone test right?” Kakashi asked him and the blonde nodded his head quickly looking up expectedly, “any type of clone at all?”

Naruto thought about that one, “All Iruka-sensei said was the tests would be physical skills outside, then a written one, a henge and finally a clone but he didn’t say what kind. Hey are there different kinds of clones?”

Kakashi nodded his head, “Yes there are and I could teach you one but you have to understand Naruto this clone isn’t the typical one. It can be dangerous and no one your age should even attempt it, but with your high concentration of chakra you might just be able to pull this off.”

Kakashi wasn’t kidding about this being dangerous but desperate times called for desperate measures. He had been hoping that Naruto would have gotten enough control to do a simple clone but it looked like he might have to teach him this one. He could use another type of clone than the one he had in mind but in all honestly he felt that Naruto could learn it, besides there was a bit of his pride telling him how great it would be for his son to learn such a high level jutsu in such a short time.

“It’s going to be a lot of hard work Naruto and if you can’t handle it I’ll call it off understood?” He said in all seriousness.

Naruto looked up at him not backing down from his challenge, “I can do it dad, I don’t care what it takes I will pass and be a ninja and I’ll make you proud of me.”

‘I already am proud of you Naruto,’ Kakashi thought to himself with a smile. “Alright then let’s get you started on training for the new clone technique, this Naruto is called the shadow clone justu.”

Next up chapter 19: The Final Test

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 19: The Final Test

It was early morning but Naruto had been up for an hour anyway, it was still quite but that would soon change. For the past few days he had been training with his dad and now he knew he could pass that test now for sure with his secret weapon that he had. It was also thanks to this secret weapon that would allow him to pull of the biggest prank of all time that this entire village would have seen in history. He didn’t even want to think how long it would have taken him without the new jutsu it would have taken him all night to do instead of fifteen minutes tops.

Naruto had gained several reputations over the years but one that he was most prideful of was that of a prankster like no other. He really had a taste for it and it didn’t help that his father had a trickster side to him as well. Like the time he slipped fire crackers into Gai’s vest, or the time his dad placed a stuffed life sized fake replica of himself during a meeting that he skipped out on. Apparently it took five minutes after the meeting for people to realize it wasn’t him since it was holding a copy of one of his famous books in front of the face.

But with his life of a ninja ahead of him Naruto knew that he would have to put away the pranks for awhile, maybe even for a long time since he would be too busy for it. But if that was the case then he wanted to go out with a bang with the biggest one in history. Everyone would remember this day and it would be something that would be talked about for generations.

He grinned to himself as he added the last bit of paint and was wondering how long before the first ninja showed up to get the one responsible for it, it turns out he didn’t have to wait long after the son rose when people got up and saw what he had done.

Anko was one such person, she had gotten up and went right for her morning coffee, she was not a morning person and liked to sleep in. She yawed as she waited for the coffee to get ready trying not to all asleep at her kitchen table, when she finally had her cup she walked past one of her windows but then froze. Her sleep fogged mind could have swore what she had just seen outside of her window couldn’t have been real. She took a quick step back, took a look and spit out her coffee out the window.

“What the hell!?” She yelled out seeing the Hokage monument all painted up, there were childish marks all over it in various paints. It took her only a moment to realize who had the balls to pull something like that off and she just started to laugh her ass off. She literally fell on her ass laughing and holding her stomach as she spilled her coffee but she didn’t care she was awake now.

“Oh god that kid is too much, I swear if the kid lives I’ll buy him a drink when he gets to be the right age,” she laughed to herself.

She wasn’t the only one to see it, Hinata was still asleep when Hanabi burst into her room.

“Hinata you have to see it!”

“See what?” Hinata muttered rubbing her eyes.

“Someone painted on the Hokage faces!” Hanabi told her and Hinata wasn’t sure she had heard her younger sister correctly.

She quickly put on a robe and ran out with her sister where her father, uncle, cousin and other members of the family were standing outside staring at the paint all over the most prized monument of the entire village, something that gave tribute to their greatest leaders, a sense of pride and it was all painted over by childish scribbles.

“Who on earth would do such a thing?” Hiashi asked out loud.

His twin brother smirked as an idea came to him, “Ask yourself this brother, what masked person do we know that has a reputation for pranks and would have the gull to do something like this?”

Hiashi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose he should have known this had Naruto’s flair all over it. He was surprised that boy would pull something like this off. He would assume the boy had at least some respect for adults and his elders but then again, he did keep calling the Hokage ‘Old Man’ all the time and he was sure he purposely ‘mistook’ him and his brother all the time on purpose.

Neji signed and hung his head he wasn’t sure if he should be impressed that Naruto pulled this off or turn him in if he saw him. Hanabi and Hinata didn’t know what to think, although it was pretty funny they both knew that Naruto would be in so much trouble when they caught up to him.

“I wonder if they caught him yet?” Hanabi voiced as Hinata looked worried and bit her lip.

Their uncle was curious and activated his bloodline and scanned the area, he had a small smile on his face, “Well that is certainly surprising...again. He’s being chased by at least a dozen jonins and chunins.”

Hiashi activated his eyes as well and saw them chasing Naruto and the boy seemed to be having fun giving them the run around then he noticed something else, they weren’t chasing just one Naruto. He looked closer and his head snapped back as he realized what he was seeing, it should have been impossible but there was one thing he had learned with Naruto and it was that nothing seemed impossible for the boy.

“I can’t believe he’s using that technique,” he said as his twin nodded his head seeing exactly the same thing, “that boy is full of surprises.”

“Yes...certainly makes things interesting doesn’t it brother?” he said smiling as Neji looked confused at his father wondering just what was going on here. He tried his own eyes but he didn’t see the big deal at least at first until he noticed it too. Hanabi and Hinata didn’t have the range just yet to see what was going on but they could tell that something that Naruto was doing had their attention.

Others were already waking up to the chaos that would be talked about for years to come, Ino had walked out of her home and stopped dead at the sight her jaw dropping, Sakura was mirroring this from her window and wondered what possessed Naruto to do some of this stuff sometimes, although she would never admit it, it was kind of funny. Shino just raised an eyebrow but beneath his coat he was smirking. Choji nearly choked on his food when he saw it and Shikamaru had been cloud watching, he had took one look said how troublesome it was and just went back to his clouds trying to drown out the noises.

Kiba was of course laughing his ass off at this, he couldn’t believe Naruto did that but he had to admit it was the ultimate prank. Sasuke had been on a morning jog until he saw all of this, he palmed his face wondering why Naruto had to be such an idiot at times. Although that was pretty impressive but totally useless, if Naruto put all that effort into his training he could have been a great ninja. Sasuke just shook his head and started off on his run.

After several hours Naruto had finally been caught, by all people his teacher and boy Iruka was pissed at him. Naruto had to clean the entire mountain up before school and it took awhile since he didn’t want to ruin the surprise thankfully he used a water based paint figuring this might happen. He tried this once before with real paint and had to wash that off and it took forever and that had just been a wall this was a mountain side.

So by the time Naruto got to school he was already tired and his hands ached but he was smiling under his mask, he could already see many of the people talking about him but he didn’t care he liked any attention and this was a day that no one would forget.

“There he is!”

Naruto jumped at the sound of a pissed off Ino and looked to see her storming towards him with her friends in tow.

“Oh hey there Ino-chan how are things?” He asked innocently.

“Don’t you Ino-chan me buster what the hell were you thinking doing that? You want to get in trouble on the last day of school?” Ino said punching him in the arm, he winced from the blow it was thanks to Ino and sometimes Sakura that he learned that just because someone was a girl didn’t mean they didn’t punch hard.

“Naruto honestly that was a bit overboard,” Sakura chided him she really didn’t want to see him kicked out before he made ninja all that hard work would be for nothing and she didn’t want to see him fail.

“Personally I think it was funny as hell,” Kiba laughed and then got a fist to the top of his skull by Ino and Sakura.

“Don’t encourage him!” both girls yelled out as he fell to the ground holding his skull, Akamaru whimpered at his heels not going to bark at the girls as he was smart enough to know that when they got like this it wasn’t smart to get in their way.

“Hey I just wanted to go out with a bang as a ninja I won’t be able to do anything like that anymore,” Naruto tried to explain, “Besides I cleaned it all up.”

“That’s not the point Naruto, you could have been seriously punished,” Sakura told him.

He rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah okay I’m sorry but still it was pretty cool!”

That earned him a smack to the head as he was now on the ground like Kiba as both Ino and Sakura walked into the school angry leaving the others behind. Shino didn’t say anything he just shook his head and sighed as he walked into the school, sometimes his friends should learn when to keep quiet.

Naruto eventually made his way inside rubbing his head, he saw Ino arguing with a few girls on who would sit next to Sasuke again, he should have seen that happen and the fact a few girls were giggling at him and waving him over to their seats as well. He sweat dropped at this, he gave a weak wave back and looked to see that there was a chair with Hinata and Sakura which he was thankful for. He was safe with them from the fan girls, he didn’t know how Sasuke could handle the mob that followed him around since Naruto only had half the number, apparently being the ‘bad boy’ as well as ‘totally mysterious’ was all some girls needed.

He sighed seeing Sasuke enter the front of the class and walk up to him, Naruto smiled at his rival got up closer, “Hey Sasuke did you see my greatest prank of all time?”

“Why must you waste your time with such idiotic things?” He sighed and shook his head, how a boy like him got to be the only one that could challenge him was beyond the avanger’s understanding.

“Ah you’re just jealous that I did something that you could never do,” Naruto waved it off throwing in his ‘too cool’ attitude of his father in there it didn’t work as well on Sasuke like it did on Gai but it usually got some kind of annoyed reaction out of the young Uchiha. What both boys didn’t notice however was that the argument with the girls got to the point when shoving started to happen and one unfortunate girl next to Ino had been pushed by another girl and fell backwards.

That wasn’t so terrible for her as he slammed into Naruto’s back but this also had a domino effect as Naruto pitched forward and face first into Sasuke as they landed on the ground. In that moment it was dead silence as the entire class watched as Naruto and Sasuke’s faces were pushed together. Jaws were dropped everywhere, some of the girls looked like they wanted to cry from not being the first one the boys kissed although a couple were getting nose bleeds as their inner yoai fan girl side went into overload.

Naruto jumped off the boy as both started to nearly retch.

“Oh god I knew it, I knew you were gay! I’ve been violated by the Uchiha!” Naruto yelled out trying to spike and still keep his mask on, had had never been so glad to wear a mask in his life as it helped to keep the feeling of that ‘violation’ as he refused to call it a kiss. He knew he would be having nightmares about this for a long time and from the way Kiba was laughing his ass off he would never hear the end of this.

“Me!? I’m the one who was violated you perverted masked idiot!” Sasuke shot back. “You’re the one that slammed into me and was on top!”

“Oh hell no I bet you planned that whole thing, why else have you turned down every girl in school!”

“Because I don’t like any of these girls you idiot, I want to rebuild my clan but you think I’ll just choose anyone? I’m an Uchiha and I have standards to hold up to unlike you and since when have you ever been on a date in your life?”

Naruto didn’t like the argument being thrown back into his face, “Oh yeah well I’d kiss any girl here if I wanted to if that would prove I’m not gay what about you?”

At this point the girls were all up asking to be the one to help prove to the boys that they weren’t gay to the other boy, sure they wouldn’t have the first ever kiss but they would want to have the first kiss they got from a girl. Although Sasuke’s words had hurt a bit and deflated several day dreams of winning over the Uchiha’s heart the chance to kiss the boy was just too good to pass up. Also many wanted to see what Naruto’s face looked like as well as that was one of the biggest mysteries in the school, even Shino’s face was seen from time to time with the exception of his eyes.

Thankfully that was when Iruka and Mizuki walked in, the two teachers quickly got their class back into order although Naruto and Sasuke kept giving each other death glares. Iruka sighed wishing it would be a quick day, after the years his group would finally graduate and he was looking forward to the break before the next school course started up. The tests were simple enough, written exam for their final marks to tests their theory knowledge then it was on to the practical stuff. He started off the tests and then it was just a waiting game, he wasn’t surprised when Sakura was the first one done of course.

Mizuki however even though he kept a smile on he secretly distasted this village, his old master Orochimaru had left him behind as he had taken Anko of all people all those years ago. He still was angry that he had chosen her over him and then she returns with no memory and that cursed seal and techniques. The woman didn’t even use the gift that Orochimaru had given her and she was a special Jonin while she was stuck in the Chunin ranks. He deserved more, to be promoted out of this school but his skills and abilities were always overlooked.

Here he was teaching a bunch of brats when the real ninjas got to go on missions and prove their strength to the world. Strength is what mattered in this world and knowledge of jutsus that was what he learned from his sensei and he took it to heart. But he was denied the skills that Jonin got when they reached that level and could read the Forbidden Scroll for more powerful techniques and moves.

He looked at the brats and internally he hated them, especially a certain few. There was the Uchiha boy who was given everything just because of what family he was born into, he was the last and his clan was crushed and gone and yet they still treated him like a prince. He never liked that clan, just because they were a founding member of the village they had been able to act to tough and push others around. Then there were the Hyuga clan who were just as arrogant and yet the little girl here was so weak it was pathetic. He knew though that she would eventually lead her clan just because of whose daughter she was and it made him angry. She was guaranteed to go far just because of that as well and because he was not from any clan he was overlooked.

It seemed that as long as you were part of a clan the more things went your way and the more you were given. He knew it was rare for anyone else outside of a clan to get to Jonin rank, there was Kurenai who was recently promoted from Chunin just because of her clan, then there was the Hokage’s chain smoking son as well. Then he looked at the Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi children and how their parents were heads of their own small clans. But there was another boy that stood out for him as well and that was Naruto Hatake.

The Hatake name had been put into disgrace and yet Kakashi had pulled it out of the mud, not a clan but he was well respected but only because of that damn eye he had that was the only reason he made it so far in the village. The man was a lazy, perverted idiot and yet he was considered one of the best only because of that stupid eye and there was his ‘son’ as well sitting there writing his test.

After the failed Hyuga Kidnapping incident many knew that Naruto held the Nine Tailed Fox inside of him, and even though Mizuki knew that the boy was not the demon he had been close enough to sense that power that night. He knew that the boy was given a great power inside of him and yet he did nothing with it, yet another person to get a gift and why did the Fourth pick him of all people?

Mizuki hated how the village never respected him or gave him what he had earned but being stuck at this school he couldn’t gain any missions and he had asked to be put elsewhere but that stupid old man of a Hokage had said he was more valuable here. Mizuki knew that the Hokage was just putting him aside just because he had no name to throw around. The children had finished their testing and it was time for the one on one, Iruka told the children to go outside and wait.

He couldn’t understand why his old friend was such a fool, the man actually wanted to stay in his place but then again Iruka wasn’t as good a ninja as he was, never had been in his opinion but he wasn’t from some ‘noble’ clan so that was why he had stayed friends with him, even if Mizuki did think the man was naive.

Outside the children waited for their tests, many were worried about this since this was the final tests the one that would prove them worthy to be ninjas something they all had worked years to do, for Hinata she was biting her lower lip in worry. She didn’t want to fail and disappoint her family, but she was so nervous and thought that she might screw things up. She was so absorbed that she didn’t notice someone walking up behind her until she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hey Hinata-chan you okay?” Naruto asked seeing how nervous she was.

“Oh! N-N-Naruto-kun, I-I’m just a little nervous I-I don’t want to fail.”

“Hey there’s no way you’d fail, you’re a great ninja and I know you can do this so don’t worry because I’m behind you I know for a fact that you’ll blow this test out of the water.” He smiled behind his mask at her and she felt her heart beat faster thanks to his words. Hearing those kinds of words out of his mouth to her made her feel so warm inside and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

She gave him a weak smile and nodded her head feeling more confident, her named was called after Ino came out of the room smiling brightly as she was carrying her own forehead protector. Naruto watched Hinata go with a smile and she looked back once and he nodded to her, she gave him a small smile back and walked into the room.

Naruto waited and waited and it was killing him inside, he was so eager to take this test and be a real ninja he would be one step closer to being Hokage with this and he would make his dad proud of him.

“Naruto Hatake.”

“Finally! About damn time!” Naruto jumped up and went into the room with the two teachers.

“Okay Naruto we want you to perform a transformation jutsu and then perform a clone,” Iruka said and suddenly noticed that look in Naruto’s eyes as his hands went to a hand seal that he dreaded, he slammed his hand onto the desk hard and fast. “Naruto, don’t even think of using that perverted jutsu you created.”

“Aw you’re no fun and you seemed to have enjoyed it last time I used it,” Naruto whined as Iruka blushed at the memory when Naruto pulled off that naked girl transformation of his he couldn’t have stopped the gusher of blood coming out of his nose if he had known it had been coming.

Naruto sighed and went into a simple transformation as there was a buff of smoke and he turned himself into his father Kakashi with his book already out reading it.

“Not bad looks just like him,” Mizuki said.

“Yes very good go ahead and turn back Naruto,” Iruka said but noticed that ‘Kakashi’ only was still reading the book. “Naruto turn back now!”

“Just a second I really like this point in the book,” the Kakashi fake said giggling like he usually did.

“Naruto,” Iruka said in warning and Naruto dispelled it. Iruka sighed and ran a hand through his hair he swore Naruto was going to make him grow old before his time. “Now perform the clone Naruto.”

“Uh...can it be any type of clone?”

“Any type?” Mizuki asked the boy.

“Yeah see I have a problem, I can’t perform a normal one cause my body has too much chakra but my dad taught me a really cool one that’s even better.”

Iruka thought it over there really was no rule on what type of clone it had to be, “Okay Naruto just make three clones and that will be fine.”

“Alright!” Naruto jumped up and went into the usual hand seals for a typical clone only the last seal was different as it ended in a cross sign. “Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

Both teachers were shocked when Naruto said that as there were several puffs of smoke and suddenly there were not three but twelve shadow clones. Both teachers were shocked that a boy had learned a Jonin level move and seemed to be perfectly fine with no effects. Mizuki had to really try and keep his composure at this here he was a Chunin being outdone by a boy that wasn’t even a ninja. He was taught a move that he had no right on learning and there was only one person that would teach him that.

Iruka was torn between how impressed he was with Naruto and furious that Kakashi would teach such a dangerous move to his own son. But Naruto seemed to be fine and so Iruka smiled at him and stood up, “Well I have to say Naruto you passed with flying colors.”

“YEAH!” All of the Naruto clones cheered and started to celebrate eventually he dispelled the clones and took his forehead protector with pride. He held it in his hands grinning from ear to ear with this, it wasn’t as heavy as he thought but it was his and he had earned it. He couldn’t wait to show it off and quickly tied it to his forehead and looked up at Iruka and smiled behind his mask.

Naruto walked out of the classroom and went into the yard to where his friends were, “Hey guys guess what?”

“Naruto you did it!” Sakura said happily seeing him with his forehead protector, she ran over to him along with the others. Ino and Sakura were the first to hug him making him blush behind his mask as Kiba slapped him on the back a little too hard for Naruto’s liking but he let it slide, Shino simply nodded his head towards him and Shikamaru gave a small smile as Choji was doing all the talking to him. He noticed Hinata smiling as she was looking down playing with her fingers with a slight blush on her face.

“Hey Hinata-chan isn’t this great?” He said walking over to her.

“Y-Y-Yes it is Naruto-kun I knew you’d do it,” she looked up shyly at him giving him a small smile.

He smiled back at her his eyes closed much like his dad did, “Thanks Hinata-chan that means a lot from you.”

She blushed deeply at that and her eyes sent to her feet as her cheeks got hot again from blushing even more so. The small group of friends were enjoying themselves waiting for their parents to show up so they could all show off their new status as Genin ninjas of their village. Only one person was watching from a window and that was Mizuki, he looked down at them but he didn’t feel proud of them. In fact he was slowly starting to hate them all he had been pushed to his limits with the Hatake boy learning that move.

This village obviously didn’t appreciate him at all and had overlooked him for far too long, maybe it was time to do what he had been thinking of for awhile now and join his sensei Orochimaru. He obviously had the right idea leaving this village behind but his old master would require something of value as prove of his skills and abilities. Slowly looking at the children a small plan was starting to unfold and perhaps he could not only gain something of value but ruin some revenge on the clans and those that always had everything given to them on a silver platter as well.

Next up Chapter 20: Mizuki’s Plan

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 20: Mizuki’s Plan

Naruto looked about as his friends all had their Hitai-ates on various places, he was happy that all his friends were ninjas now and he couldn’t wait to show it off to his dad, the two at the ramen stand, Anko, Gai and anyone else he could think of. He was so proud that he was a ninja and he was nearly ready to start jumping around all over the village on the rooftops shouting his lungs out that he was a Genin. Unfortunately knowing his dad he was going to be late again, but he was just happy that he passed. He saw his other friends being congratulated by other family and it made him smile under his mask.

“I see you passed too Naruto,” said a family voice behind him. He quickly turned to see Hinata with her father, uncle and Neji there.

“Yeah you got it Hizashi-san,” Naruto said smiling and scratching the back of his head although it was actually Hiashi that was speaking to him and once again he was fighting off the twitch that had been forming for years from Naruto constantly getting the two brothers mixed up. Of course Naruto knew which was which but he liked to annoy them because railing a Hyuga was so much fun because of how much effort you had to put into it.

He swore one of these days he would break through that Hyuga exterior.

“Naruto,” Hinata muttered knowing her father and uncle hated that game of his.

“Yes Hinata-chan?” he asked her innocently.

Hiashi just gave a low sigh and tried not to get a headache from stress at this point, “So did you do well Naruto?”

“You bet I used my super new jutsu that my dad taught me, I may even beat Sasuke-teme out of the genin of the year with it and it will serve the arrogant bastard right if I did.” Naruto said confidently.

“The Uchiha Clan was very powerful Naruto their clan helped to form this village and as the last he as much to prove,” Hiashi said to him and he couldn’t help to add in one more thing, “Besides from what I hear he was ahead of you in all the written tests was he not?”

Naruto face soured at that, he was never very good at the written stuff and Hiashi knew it. It was a small victory for the adult against the boy for once again mixing him up with his twin on purpose. His face had a small twitch again but this was in the corner of his lips this time as he fought back a small smirk as it would not be dignified. But still he was glad to get a shot in at the boy now and then just to repay him for all the years he tried to get on the nerves of him and his brother and other Hyugas as well.

“So Naruto I take it Kakashi is running late again,” Hizashi said to Naruto.

Naruto grumbled something about buying his father a watch with preset alarms but just shrugged it off he was used to his father being late all the time anyway. He knew that his father would be proud of him when he saw him later anyway.

“So how did you do Hinata-sama?” Neji asked his cousin.

She blushed a bit as everyone started to look at her and she looked at the ground nervously playing with her fingers, “I-I did well, Iruka-sensei said I made fourth highest in the class.”

Her father frowned a bit as he thought about that, “I see well I am glad that you passed daughter although I can see that the Uchiha boy and Naruto would most likely be in the top but who else did you lose to?”

Hinata winced as her father used to term ‘lose’ as she still couldn’t beat her own little sister in sparring matches. She looked disappointed when she said that Sakura managed to get the top marks out of the Kunoichi of the class and she could see that her father was disappointed that she had been beat out by a girl that was not even from any clan and whose family had no known or famous ninja in it. Hinata was left feeling like she had let her father down although he never said anything about it she could tell that he was.

She knew that her clan had very high standards and not making top of the class or even top Kunoichi was just another sign of her weakness and she wished she was better. She tried to train hard but she could never bring herself to harm her friends or family in spars and even though she wasn’t stupid she knew that Sakura was brilliant when it came to book smarts. She had beat out all the other girls which did say something to her but still being beaten by a non-clan member was something of a black mark against her.

There was nothing wrong with coming from no clan, but those that were in clans many felt that they had to be a bit above the rest and the Hyuga Clan took that to heart as they always tried to show just how powerful their clan was. Now with the Uchiha Clan practically gone they were the most powerful group in the village and her showing weakness at this time she knew wasn’t a good thing for her family. The elders of the clan still held enough power to place someone more worthy as heir and she would have to be put into the Branch family and have the Bird Cage Seal placed on her like her cousin was forced to have put on him.

Hinata hated that seal and wanted the practice stopped but she had no power in her clan and if she was removed into the Branch than any hope of freeing her clan from that would be ruined. She needed to prove herself to the elders so she one day could help stop it.

“Hey Hinata –chan you okay?” Naruto asked seeing her space out in thought.

She jerked to attention her cheeks blushing a bit. “Y-yes I’m fine Naruto-Kun.”

He looked a bit closer making her cheeks a bit more brighter at how close he was, Naruto was just looking to see what was wrong with her, “Are you sure you’re okay I mean you’ve been getting all red a lot and warm,” he pressed a hand to her head to feel if she had a temperature.

She froze at the contact and how her whole face was red, her eyes widened and before she could say anything she fainted only this time forward and hit Naruto in his head with a headbut, he gave a short outcry as he was hit and fell back and Hinata now dazed fell back as her father caught her. He grimaced at the public display from his daughter and looked to see his brother looking over the dazed Naruto.

“She really needs to get over that shyness of hers brother,” Hizashi stated seeing that Naruto was okay.

Hiashi nodded his head at that it was painfully obvious that his daughter fancied the boy and he guess it was something that was bound to happen. The two of them had been childhood friends for years and Hinata was very close to the boy but being a Hyuga made such a thing difficult as dating outside the clan was a very hard thing to earn. Normally the young couple would go to the head of the household or even to him for approval and it wasn’t easy. Anyone trying to get into the clan had to prove that they were worthy of the Hyuga that they were in a relationship with, but with Hinata the elders would have to take things over to prevent Hiashi from any favouritism in that matter.

He would admit that Naruto had much potential and the fact this father was a well known and powerful ninja, it also didn’t hurt that Kakashi had been the bane of the Uchiha clan for so long with his sharingan eye of his. It wasn’t spoken about but many had delighted in the mighty Uchiha bloodline taken and used by another that wasn’t of their blood and had also used it far more effectively than any of their members.

After a few minutes of waiting the two children slowly started to wake up, Hinata was so embarrassed by her actions she could look Naruto in the eye, although he just shrugged it off and made light of it.

“Hinata we should go, I have work to do at the estate,” her father told her.

“And I should get back to my team we have a training session in an hour,” Neji said as his father nodded as he had to go with his twin brother.

Hinata nodded and then looked to see Naruto sitting on the swing most likely just waiting to see if his father would show up or not. She didn’t like how lonely he looked as all the others had left with their families and she bit her lip nervously, “I’m sorry but may I stay with Naruto-kun until his father shows up?”

Hiashi had a small raise in his eyebrow but figured he could give his daughter that after all he knew that Naruto would see her home safely, he nodded his head to her and she happily ran off to join Naruto and he stood to watch them and deep down he was smiling at the two of them, he wished that his wife was alive to see this day and he knew that he wanted her daughter to be happy and to be with Naruto and he hoped that dream would come true. But she still needed to get stronger, he had lost his wife but he didn’t want to see his daughters die as well that would surely kill him inside. He took one last look before turning and walking away.

While the two children were together there was another person who had been watching with interests as Mizuki was grinning as he thought that he had the perfect opportunity. He had been watching and seeing two of the children alone was a perfect setup, it also didn’t hurt that it was the Hatake boy and the high and mighty Hyuga girl as well. He had overheard the conversation with the father and he knew Hinata well enough to judge her physical reaction, she was never very good at hiding how she felt.

Also those two were always together so this would be even easier to make them both take the fall, as if one went the other would go along to help the other out.

He walked over to the two children putting on his friendly smile that he had been forced to wear all the time since he was forced into being a teacher the two children looked at him and smiled back, and why wouldn’t they after all he was one of their teachers someone that had always been kind and helpful after all.

“So how are you two doing?” Mizuki asked them and they replied that they were doing good and then he put on a slightly sadder look, “You know Naruto, Hinata it’s a shame that you two didn’t get any higher marks. Naruto I’m sure you father would have been delighted to learn his son was genin of the year like he had been and Hinata, I’m sure your father would have been very proud that you made top Kunoichi as well.”

Both children looked a little discouraged at that and Naruto looked up at him, “You mean I didn’t beat Sasuke-teme?”

“Sorry Naruto if only you had scored just a little higher in the written test,” he saw the effect of that as Naruto’s little rivalry with the Uchiha boy had been a strong one since their very first day together. “Although there is a way for you two to earn some extra credit that could put you both over the top...but it’s not easy and I wouldn’t offer it unless you both felt you could do it.”

“What? What is it Mizuki-sensei I can do anything and so can Hinata-chan just watch us!” Naruto jumped up eager to prove himself better than Sasuke and he also knew how badly that Hinata wanted to make her father proud.

Mizuki looked thoughtful at the two of them for a moment, “Well I could set it up but it’s not easy and you can even lose marks off your grade after all, but if you both feel you can do this then I can set it up with the Hokage.”

“We’ll do it, just tell us what we have to do!” Naruto said before Hinata could voice her concerns over this.

“Well the test is an old one,” Mizuki explained to them, “You see if you and Sasuke had tied it would have been given to you both as a tie breaker but as a teacher I can have a little leeway in this. You have to sneak into the Hokage tower using the skill you have learned and steal an old scroll used for this exam. The scroll is pretty old since it’s been used for this exam for a very long time, as this helps prepare you for a possible mission as a ninja to steal secret documents.”

“But the scroll will be guarded and you have to find a way to defeat the guards and take the scroll to a drop off point, without being caught or followed. If you do you fail the exam and marks are taken off your final grade. Now I will ask you both are you sure you want to try for this special exam?”

“I-I-I don’t know about this Naruto-Kun, something doesn’t seem right,” Hinata said to him. She had never heard of this before but then again it was possible that she couldn’t have known of such a thing did exist but it seemed kind of strange to her. Why were only her and Naruto given this, shouldn’t Sakura and Sasuke also been given the chance since that would be more fair?

“Come on Hinata-chan we could make our parents proud of us if we do this, think of what you’re dad and family will think of you if you make the top Kunoichi in the class.”

Hinata bit her lip, she would love to make her father proud of her and his earlier reaction played in her mind and she wanted so much for him to say how proud he was of her. She wanted it so badly that she decided to go with whatever Naruto decided to pick, if he chose to do this then she would go with him and help him out after all the times he helped her it was time she did the same for him.

“I-I’ll do whatever you think is best Naruto-kun.”

“Alright I knew I could count on you Hinata-chan,” Naruto shouted in joy and looked at his teacher. “alright we’re in.”

“Good,” Mizuki smiled at them, “Then it will start in an hour, now let me tell you more about your exam and where you’ll be placing the scroll that you get...”

-Later-

The sun had set and Naruto and Hinata were just outside of the Hokage tower the two had snuck all the way there not sure what kind of guards that Mizuki would have placed in their way to stop them, so Naruto had asked Hinata to use her eyes to make sure they avoided everyone just to be sure. He was glad that she was here with him, with her he knew that they would pass this with no trouble at all. As they finally reached it Naruto asked her if she could see inside of the tower.

She nodded and scanned the place for the scroll that Mizuki had told them about, he was very detailed about it and she eventually found what she guessed had to be it. It was a very large scroll in a room all its own that was next to the Hokage’s office but she noticed that the office wasn’t empty.

“Naruto the Hokage is still in there,” She told him.

“Crap the Old Man must be in on it too, he must think it’s funny to let himself test us but he made a major mistake as I know his greatest weakness,” Naruto grinned and Hinata gave him a confused look.

“Hinata keep an eye on me if you spot anyone coming my way, give one of those signals we learned in glass like a bird call or something okay?” He asked her and she nodded once he was off. It wasn’t hard for Naruto to get into the Hokage’s office after all he had done it countless times to see him over the years. Even when the guards said that he was busy Naruto found a way in, there were more ways in and out than most people knew about and he had found all the little secret ways in. Naruto was making his way to the crawl space that was overhead the office, something he used a lot to surprise the Hokage from time to time when he wanted to ‘drop in’ on him.

It took some time but he finally made it into the small crawl way it was always dusty and lots of spider webs, he hated those things especially when they got in his face and hair. But he silently crawled in the darkness to his location, he memorized the route by now and stopped to the small hole he made as a peephole to see what the old man was doing. Naruto was confused when he saw that he was working on paper work instead of guarding but he just figured that the Hokage had put this paper work off again and was using the exam as an excuse to get caught up.

‘Well Old Man you should have paid more attention because I’m going to give you the change to act,’ he thought to himself readying the panel he was now at. With one move he threw the panel aside and jumped down he grinned seeing the surprised look on the Hokage’s face it was almost like he didn’t expect to see him.

Before the Hokage could say a word he did a familiar sand seal, “Sexy Jutsu!”

Naruto had long since known that the Hokage was a closet pervert after all he had the same books at his dad hidden in the lower left hand drawer of his desk. He was in the form of that sexy teen blond girl with the pigtails giving him the most adorable and sexy look that he could think of. That was all it took for him to defeat the Hokage. Naruto turned back and laughed a bit seeing the old man on his back twitching with the twin blood trails from his nose.

“Okay first take out the guard and now for the scroll, we’re so going to pass this exam.” Naruto said before going into the room where Hinata had seen the scroll.

It was fifteen minutes later that someone finally showed up to the Hokage’s office, and that was none other than Kakashi. He had been late showing up for Naruto’s big day which he knew that his son would never let him live down or forget but at any rate he was just going to bribe him with new lessons for being late. He had been so caught up at the memorial stone that he had lost track of time and rushed over to find that Naruto wasn’t at the school. He spent the last few hours looking all over the place, he tried home first, then the park, then he rushed over to the ramen stand but they hadn’t seen him either.

He even tried the top of the Hokage monument, Naruto didn’t think that he didn’t know that it was one of his son’s favourite spots when he wanted to be alone but Kakashi knew but let him be when he went there usually. But he wasn’t there either it was at this point that he was really starting to worry where his son might be. He tried thinking of any other place that he might go and decided that if he wasn’t with the Hokage he would try the Hyuga compound and see if he was with Hinata, then he would see if Gai or Anko knew where he might be as well.

When he got to the tower he noticed that there was a lot of activity going on, he was curious what was going on but his son came first. When he got into the office he was surprised to see the Hokage at his desk wiping what looked like blood from his desk. The Hokage looked up at him with a serious look on his face.

“Kakashi we have some trouble,” He said to the masked ninja.

Already he had a bad feeling about what this trouble might be, “Just tell me my son isn’t involved.”

“I’m sorry but Naruto came in here and surprised me with...well never mind what he surprised me with,” the Hokage blushed at the thought of that and made a mental note as to what the hell Kakashi was teaching his son to come up with something like that.

He shook the thoughts away to get to the manner at hand, “At any rate he managed to steal the Forbidden Scroll and I’m already organizing a search party for him.”

“He what!?” Kakashi’s single eye widened in shock, he wasn’t sure what surprised him more. That Naruto got past the Hokage that he stole that scroll or even knew that it existed. He was sure that he never once mentioned that scroll and it’s not like it’s taught in school and he knew that other ninjas that Naruto knew would never say something about that with a child in the room.

It didn’t make sense for Naruto to steal that scroll and something was nagging him about this, and if a ninja got to trust one thing it was his gut feelings.

“I’ll look for him after all I know him best and might be able to find out where he is.” Kakashi said to him.

“Very well but you honestly think the others won’t be able to find him?” The Hokage asked.

Kakashi eye smiled under his mask, “Have you forgotten who has been giving him lessons all his life and let’s not forget how long it took for him to be caught after painting the monument. I swear the jonin and chunins are still sore that they couldn’t catch a thirteen year old boy that wasn’t even out of the academy yet.”

Although he did neglect to mention that Naruto knew all the best jonin and a few special jonin and they liked him too much to really put some heart into the chase, but the point was still made. He even heard a couple had quite ANBU in order to focus more on their training since even they had trouble catching him.

The Hokage nodded his head as Kakashi made his leave, now outside he started to look around for any signs that Naruto might have left but it seemed that he trained Naruto too well in stealth and escape and evade procedures. He knew that time wasn’t on his side since that scroll held a lot of dangerous techniques and he didn’t want to think what could happen if Naruto tried to read one and then tried it. Because he knew that Naruto wouldn’t be able to resist learning at least one move so he pulled out a kunai and made a small cut on his hand.

He used the familiar hand seals and summoned his dogs, all of them that is.

“Hey Kakashi what’s the trouble?’ Pakkun asked his master looking up at the man.

“In short I need you all to track Naruto down for me,” he told his lead dog.

Pakkun winced knowing that Naruto was in trouble yet again, he swore the kid was always getting into something it seemed. “Do I want to know what he did this time?”

“No time just find him and get me to him as fast as you can, he could be in some serious trouble if we don’t get to him in time,” Kakashi said in a worried tone.

The dogs all nodded their heads and ran off to find Naruto’s scent, they dogs all liked Naruto as he had always treated them well and if he was in trouble they would try to find him as quickly as he could. Kakashi watched them run off sniffing for any trace of him from around the tower and he hoped they would find something soon. He looked to the village and he had to wonder just where his son was and what was he thinking and he really hoped he wasn’t doing something stupid like reading that scroll.

In the woods that surrounded the village Naruto and Hinata were at a small clearing with a small shed, Hinata was with him looking nervous as Naruto was on the grass trying to read the large scroll by moonlight, he had been curious as to what the scroll had in it and when he pulled it open he was surprised to see a list of jutsus and other techniques. Naruto thought it was some type of teaching scroll that maybe you get to learn something from it if you managed to take it or something like that.

Hinata wasn’t so sure, the moves that Naruto listed off she wasn’t familiar with most of them and a few she thought she noticed only high ranking ninjas did at least higher than a genin was supposed to know.

“Hey Hinata-chan check this out it’s got the shadow clone jutsu in here too,” Naruto pointed to the same technique his father taught him.

“Th-the what?’ Hinata took a closer look, it looked like a regular clone technique but with a different hand seal at the end of it.

“Yeah my dad taught me it so I could pass, he said I can’t make normal clones but shadow clones are easy. They’re all solid and stuff too so they can actually hit your enemy with them, there is supposed to be more but my dad said he would tell the whole thing after I passed,” Naruto explained to his friend.

Hinata took a closer look at the instructions as she read on out loud it was one of the few times she could speak without stuttering when she was reading something, “The shadow clone jutsu is a jonin level technique and should not be taught until then because the level of chakra needed to use it safely could seriously harm or kill a person with too little chakra...”

She looked at Naruto worried but he just brushed it off, “Aw what do they know I can do it just fine.”

She read on, “The clones when dispelled also send the original person all of their memories and experiences, this makes them perfect for spying as any information they have will be sent back to the original.”

“What!? I didn’t notice that when I used it!” Naruto looked closer at the fine print and tried to remember all the training he did with the clones. He had done it so many times that he just thought that the memories he had were just from all his tries but actually looking back and thinking hard about it he realised that the scroll was right.

“Aw I can’t believe I didn’t notice that before, I’m such an idiot,” he yelled out grabbing his head.

Hinata felt a little sorry for him but honestly never knew what to say in these moments, but then Naruto was back to reading the scroll again trying to find something he could use.

“N-Naruto-kun what are you l-looking for?”

“I’m looking for a new kickass jutsu that I can try out in this thing, hey maybe there is something for you to use as well I bet it would impress your dad if you could master something from this as well too.” Naruto said brightly and Hinata thought about it, would her father be proud of something like that? She honestly thought that he might if she could learn an advance move all on her own so against her better judgement she decided to look with Naruto as well.

Next up Chapter 21: Hard Truths

Naruto Hatake

Chapter 21: Hard Truths

Naruto had been pouring over the scroll and he just couldn’t decide on what to try and learn, there were so many cool things that he never even heard of. There were elemental attacks, defensive jutsus, genjutsus but since he sucked at those he just skipped them entirely. He was like a kid in a candy store and he just wanted to learn them all if he could. Hinata was looking with him but something was wrong to her, all these moves were way too advanced for them so why was the test to take this scroll if it held such dangerous looking techniques? Everyone had some type of warning to it and she was starting to worry that maybe they took the wrong one.

“Man Hinata-chan this is awesome which one should we try for?” he asked her.

“I-I don’t know I mean th-these look a little too dangerous...”

He just shrugged, “Hey the shadow clone is in here and I use that so how bad could it be? Oh cool something with lightning that should be great!”

“Um w-w-wasn’t your affinity wind?” Naruto looked at her a little confused as to what she meant, “You remember w-w-when Iruka-sensei tested us for affinities...the paper that changed w-when we touched it?”

Naruto thought hard but he honestly had been thinking about something else, he kind of remembered a paper being passed around but he was too busy making doodles in his notes of him beating up Sasuke to pay much attention. Hinata saw this and sweat dropped that he could forget his own elemental affinity, she herself learned that hers was water but Hyuga’s didn’t use much jutsus in battle and mainly used their gentle fist style a lot.

“N-Naruto-kun yours was wind remember?”

He just shrugged, “Sorry but if you say so then let me see...oh here’s a cool one, vortex fist.”

“No don’t!” Hinata said stopping him from making the hand seals, “L-look at the warning.”

Naruto looked and reading it over the jutsu was used to make a condensed wind in your fist, then with a punching motion you sent out a blast of powerful wind that would rip to shreds anything in its path the downside was that it could also rip apart the users hand and arm if they weren’t careful and in bold it said that only seasoned jonin should even attempt it. Naruto looked at his hand and even though he had two he wasn’t sure he wanted his arm ripped off.

“Man this sucks what can I do then?” He asked as he looked around some more and then his eye caught something, “Huh what’s this? Exploding Shadow Clones...”This looked like it would work for him and he read the name and it was credited to have been made by an Itachi Uchiha. Naruto thought back and he wasn’t sure if he remembered someone like that or not. It sounded very familiar to him for some reason but he just shrugged.

Sasuke was the only one left now but he wouldn’t ask him if he knew the guy, most likely it was just some clan member that he wouldn’t have known anyway. Naruto looked at it but it was kind of complicated so he asked Hinata for help. It would be later when Mizuki eventually showed up and put on his smile again as he came to the two children.

“Well I’m most impressed you two managed to do it, you’re parents will be very proud of you two.” Mizuki lied to them.

“Yeah I knew it, it wasn’t hard at all they barely even tried to stop us anyway,” Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head.

Hinata stepped forward looking a little worried, “Uh...M-mizuki-sensei I-I think we took the wrong scroll.”

“Oh and what is that?” He asked her.

She fiddled with her fingers as Naruto rolled it up, “I-It’s just that, what’s in it is way too advanced for g-genins. W-why would that be the scroll for the test when a-any genin that took it could do a lot of harm with it?”

Mizuki shouldn’t have been surprised that Hinata had figured out something was wrong but it didn’t matter he was going to kill the kids anyway so it hardly mattered to him. He smiled at her to reassure her and knelt down to her height.

“It’s okay Hinata I’m sure that everything is okay, Naruto why don’t you hand me that scroll now?”

“Oh okay sure thing,” Naruto picked up the large scroll.

“W-wait maybe we should be the ones to take it back after all we t-took it,” Hinata said to them both. She wasn’t sure but something about all of this was wrong it something inside was screaming it at her. She didn’t know why but she felt that the scroll had to be taken back and they had to be sure of it, from what she read it was too dangerous to be out in the open like this. It held a lot of the villages justus and some looked as though they were ones that the village only had as well.

Mizuki smirked at her, “I should have guessed you might have been a problem, Naruto is too stupid to think things through but I figured since you’re such a weak little girl you wouldn’t have said anything.”

Both kids looked as though they had been slapped in the face by his words as his face shifted from the kind teacher to that of a darker look. He quickly grabbed Hinata and turned her around and gripped her throat with his free hand.

“Hinata-chan!” Naruto called out.

“Move and she dies brat,” Mizuki told him harshly.

“What’s going on Mizuki-sensei?”

“You really aren’t all that bright are you?” He smirked at the boy, “That scroll is the Forbidden Scroll, I had you steal it before I left this stupid village behind so I could finally get what I deserved all these years. I hated teaching at that school while my talents were wasted but because I’m not from some elitist clan or a noble family or some other junk like that I was held back. Well no more, now I get what’s coming to me and you will give me that scroll.”

Naruto gritted his teeth seeing Hinata’s hands going to her throat for air, he couldn’t believe that Mizuki had betrayed and used them like this. He thought he had known him, he had always seemed so nice but he had used them to steal from the Old Man and because he had dragged in Hinata into this she was in trouble all because of his stupid pride. He closed his eyes and picked up the scroll wondering what to do and then he thought of something his father told him many times in their training.

‘Naruto remember this, a ninja that breaks the rules is trash but a ninja that turns their backs on their friends is worse than trash.’

‘I remember dad,’ Naruto thought to himself and looked at Hinata’s pained face as she struggled for air. It was all his fault and he wouldn’t let Hinata get hurt because of his stupidity, he angrily looked at Mizuki and tossed the scroll by his former teacher glaring at him as it landed a few feet from the adult.

“There now let her go,” Naruto said to him.

He just laughed in response, “Stupid brat you really think I’ll let you two live? You can tell them exactly who took the scroll and by the time they find your bodies and figure out that I’m no longer in the village I’ll be long gone by then. You should have known better but I guess it won’t be all bad after all there are people that would celebrate your death.”

Naruto had always known that some people hated him, he never knew why he just figured that maybe they just hated his family after all he had heard from his dad how his grandfather had killed himself after being a disgrace and all, but he was more worried about Hinata as she looked as though she had passed out by now.

“Do you want to know the real reason why so many hate you and why people have tried to kill you even like those two ninjas or those ‘accidents’ that happened to you from time to time?” Mizuki grinned seeing the boy’s look made this all too sweet for him. “You remember the lessons on the demon fox that came and killed so many of our villagers? The Kyuubi the Nine Tailed Fox, well it was said that the Fourth Hokage killed it but it turns out that was all a lie. You see he couldn’t kill it but instead sealed it into a boy a baby born on October 10th.”

Naruto’s eyes widened as he felt a sliver of fear and dread enter his heart at his words because that was the day he was born.

“You were that boy, you are the Nine Tailed Fox in a human form,” Mizuki laughed seeing the boy’s eyes and he had to admit it was nice to take the Demon Boy down a bit and he decided to twist the knife a bit more. “If you don’t believe me how do you think you survived that kunai to the chest when you saved this girl all those years ago? How do you think you even managed to defeat a ninja at that age? You used the power of the demon inside of you that’s how.”

“The village just should have killed you and be done with it but no that stupid fool the Third thought otherwise and then Kakashi of all people had to take you in as his own son.”

Naruto felt like he had just been kicked in the chest, he knew that he didn’t look like his father but he just figured that he got his looks from his mother but every time he had asked about that his dad just changed the subject or said that it was too painful to talk about and he would tell him when he was older. But he had always thought that his father was Kakashi Hatake and now to learn that his father had been lying to him his entire life he felt his world caving in.

First he found out about a demon inside of him, that he wasn’t really a Hatake and now Hinata would get killed because of him. It was that last thought that focused his mind seeing Hinata’s limp form, and the all his pain he focused on the sole task of not letting her down anymore. He wouldn’t let her die and he promised himself that he would protect his friends.

More determined than ever Naruto faced Mizuki, “Let her go now or I swear I’ll kill you.”

Mizuki just smirked as he threw Hinata’s body aside and reached behind him to pull out one of the large shurikens that was attached to his back. He’d deal with the boy first then he could deal with the girl since she wouldn’t be a problem. Naruto saw this and gritted his teeth as he got himself ready, he had to push everything he heard to the back of his mind and focus on beating him. Naruto formed a few hand seals and suddenly there were several dozen Narutos now in the forest.

“Ha! I like to see you beat us all!” Naruto shouted at him.

“That might have caught me off guard if I didn’t already know you could do that,” Mizuki said as they clones threw their weapons at him, they hit but he transformed into a log. With the substitution done he appeared again out of nowhere the threw his large shuriken weapon into the mass of clones. He took many of them down with one move and landed in the three tops pulling out the last one he had to his back.

“Pathetic you can’t beat someone with the same trick brat.”

“That’s why I learned something new,” Naruto said making more clones as they all charged Mizuki. He only threw the weapon at them cutting them all down to pieces.

He jumped down to the Naruto left and grabbed the boy by the throat and held a kunai to his neck, “You should have run boy and what did I say about the same old trick?”

Naruto only gave a small laugh, “I guess I forgot to say the new move huh? Exploding...Shadow Clone Jutsu...”

With that Naruto suddenly blew up sending the chunin back into a tree with small burns and in a lot of pain. He held a hand to his face feeling the pain of the explosive damage to it and to his body. He was trying to think what had happened when he heard a noise and saw Naruto walking out of the woods. Naruto calmly walked over to him thankful that his plan had worked. While Mizuki had been focused on the clones they covered him long enough to make a special exploding one and with a left over clone from the first wave he pulled his own substitution jutsu with that clone.

It had been something he had been working on for his dad for the next spar but it seemed that it worked. Now he just walked over to the man who was glaring angrily at him. Mizuki tried to speak but he couldn’t get any words out he thought that Naruto was saying something but he couldn’t hear with the ringing in his ears, that was when he passed out from the pain.

Naruto quickly ran to Hinata and checked her out, he held her in his arms and checked her breathing, she signed hearing her soft breath and he felt like crying at that moment. From nearly losing his best friend to the truth of his life he just didn’t know what to think or feel at the moment. He was totally lost and he didn’t even know what to do next. He just sat there holding her close to his chest.

It was a bit later when Kakashi had come to the scene one of his dogs had been taking him in the general direction and when he heard the explosion he came onto the scene with Naruto holding Hinata and Mizuki looking pretty bad on the floor. Kakashi walked over to Naruto and knelt down to him.

“Naruto what happened here?” He didn’t get a response and that was worrying, “Son please talk to me.”

“He told me,” Naruto said and looked up at him with tears in his eyes, “Why didn’t you ever tell me, why didn’t you ever tell me about the fox or...or that...that I’m not your real son?”

Kakashi knew that he needed to have a talk with Naruto it was obvious that his son had taken the news pretty hard and he had been meaning to tell him but he wanted to do so when the time was right but it looked like fate and a certain chunin had ruined that.

-Hatake home-

Kakashi watched as Naruto walked silently to the couch, they had dropped off Hinata home on his son’s insistence but he had been unusually quiet the entire time like he was now. When Hinata woke up she had told Kakashi what had really happened and he in turn had told the Hokage. Mizuki would be under guard at the hospital until he was well enough for Ibiki to get to work on him.

Kakashi was worried for Naruto as he looked so lost the entire time and now they were in his room sitting on his son’s bed. The quiet was like nails on a blackboard to Kakashi but he sat down next to him and waited for Naruto to make the first move. He had to wait for a bit until Naruto seemed to come around long enough to start asking questions.

“Is it true? Was what he said about me being a demon and you’re not my father true?” He asked choking back a sob.

“Well, yes and no.” Kakashi said gently and placed a hand on Naruto’s shoulder, “Listen to me you are not the demon, you’re a hero Naruto because you keep the demon from harming anyone else. You’re the jailer not the prisoner inside of you. So I don’t want you to ever think of yourself as a demon, because there are those that know the truth and see you as the one that keeps us all safe.”

Naruto felt a bit better hearing that, that he wasn’t a demon but the fact he had something that terrible locked up inside of him wasn’t something that he wanted to deal with. It was scary to think of that creature living inside of him all this time. Then he looked at Kakashi and pulled down his mask to look at the man who he had though had been his father.

“And...you’re not my dad?” He asked his eyes filled with hurt at that.

Kakashi in a rare moment pulled his own mask down as it was a way for them to know when they were being totally truthful with each other, something to show that there were no secrets in that moment. He sighed and looked at the boy who looked so much like Minato it was scary. “I’m not your biological father no, I took you in and raised you as my own because I owed it to him to do it. He asked me to protect you and I will do that until the day I died.”

Naruto looked down a moment hearing that.

“But, I soon saw you less as just a responsibility but more as family, Naruto you are the only family I have in this world and I wouldn’t trade you away for anything. In a time in my life where I had lost everyone important to me you gave me something to help fill in that void and to keep me from a lost and lonely existence. I love you like you were my own son and I never want you to forget that.”

Naruto was at a loss for words as he looked up at him, and before he knew it he lunched himself into a hug with the man. Kakashi smiled and gave him an one arm hug back rubbing his back, he knew that this all would be difficult to him. They stayed like that for a moment until Naruto pulled himself away wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

“Who, who were my parents if...” he let the end hang there he was going to say ‘if you’re not my dad’ but after everything that seemed cruel to say.

Kakashi knew what he had meant to say but was thankful he didn’t finish. He got up and Naruto watched him leave he came back later carrying a small box with him and sat back down. “Naruto I want you to know that you can’t tell anyone who they are at least not yet. You’re father made a lot of enemies and if they ever found out that he was your father they would come after you and you’re not ready yet to face that. Do you understand?”

Naruto nodded his head.

Kakashi opened the lid and pulled out several old pictures, one was of him when he was a kid with his team and Minato. He smiled seeing Rin and Obito’s faces in the picture they had been so young back then. He handed the picture to Naruto and picked up one of Minato Namikaze with a pregnant Kushina Uzumaki both of them were holding each other and smiling as he gave Naruto the photo.

Naruto looked at them and they seemed so happy and looking at the tall blonde man he couldn’t help but see the resemblance, it was so weird for him to see these two as his parents. But he couldn’t deny that he looked so much like the Fourth Hokage, although with his mask he guessed not many would suspect that.

He looked at the photo of Kakashi as a boy, “So he was your sensei?”

Kakashi nodded, “He was like a father figure to me after my own had died, the night he died he left several things one of them was a note to me to take care of you and I guess this is for you too when you were old enough.”

Naruto was handed a small letter envelope that looked very old, he gently opened it up and took out an old piece of paper.

Naruto, I know that this is a long time coming and you’ll have grown up so much by the time you read this. But I needed to give you some last words that I wanted you to have. I’m sorry this letter isn’t longer there is so much that I wanted to tell you and so much that I wish I could have done with you but the Kyuubi is too close and I have to go soon.

By the time you read this I guess I’ll have been dead for a long time, I wish I could have watched you grow up with my wife but it seems life doesn’t go as you wish it to. I hope you have had a good life with lots of love my son, because we both loved you so much even before you were born. Your mother would sing to you all the time when she was pregnant with you and always talked about all the things she wanted to teach you. I wish she could have but she died fighting to give birth to you, she wanted you to live even at the cost of her life and that’s why I chose you as well.

By now I guess you know what I had to do and I’m sorry I had to place this burden on you but there wasn’t another way. A newborn was needed since only that would survive and hold the demon and I couldn’t ask anyone else to do this if I wasn’t. I designed the seal to allow the demon’s chakra to merge with yours over time it’s my hope this will give you a lot of extra power. It is also my hope that you are seen as the hero of the village as was my wish.

I asked Kakashi Hatake to look after you, I trust him more than anything to take care of our son. Naruto know this, you are a hero and your parents loved you more than life itself so please remember this my son and I know you will do us proud.

Minato.

Naruto felt the sting of tears on his eyes again after reading it, he didn’t know what to say to that. He had learned so much about his life in one night that it was just too much to take all at once. He would need time to digest this all but the thought that his birth parents had loved him so much and that he wasn’t the demon but the one holding it back gave him a sense of strength. And his dream of becoming Hokage took on a new determination as well, his biological father had placed a lot of trust in him and he would do him proud. He would become Hokage as well just as he did and protect this village too.

“Can...can I keep these?” Naruto asked Kakashi.

“Only if you keep them save and out of sight for now,” He told him and Naruto nodded his head. Kakashi was about to leave when Naruto spoke up again.

“You know...they may have been my birth parents and he may be my father but I don’t know him.” Naruto said softly and then looked up at Kakashi, “He was never there for me when I was scared or hurt or lonely. He never made me laugh or took me out for ramen or trained me. He never told me stories when I was little or took me to the park to play.”

“Yeah he was my father...but you’re my dad. You always have been and you’ll always be my dad no matter what.”

Kakashi smiled as he ruffled Naruto’s hair and the young boy grinned up at him. “I’m glad because even in all the ways that matter you are my son.”

“Thanks dad,” Naruto said softly.

“Well it’s been a long night and you got a big day coming up remember?” Kakashi said and Naruto knew what he meant in a couple of days they would put him on a team. He couldn’t wait for it but he was also dead tired. He could see Hinata tomorrow and check in on her as well, he hoped that she was okay. He put the letter and photo back into the box and placed it on a shelf in his room as he got ready for bed.

Kakashi watched him by the door and gave a soft smile, he knew that Naruto was keeping things inside he always did that to prevent other from worrying. He just hoped that he would be okay this was a lot to put on his shoulders he was a strong boy but even the strongest blades can break eventually. He walked off hoping that Naruto would eventually be okay and hoping that Ibiki would have a lot of fun with Mizuki and wondering if the man would let him join in at one point after all the man had tried to kill his son and frame him for a theft as well.

Next up Chapter 22: Choosing the Teams

This story deserves tons of reviews! I love this story a lot. Even though i went off and took a peek at that site online you gave the link to. Lol.

Finish up getting all the chapters down!!

10/10!