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Chapter Text

Naruto trudged through the forest with Kakashi, who was carrying an unconscious Sasuke Uchiha, on their way to the Leaf following the brutal impromptu mission of retrieving Sasuke who tried to go AWOL.

“Finally, the gates of the village! I can’t wait to see the look on granny Tsunade’s face when she sees that I brought back the village’s pride and joy!” a surprisingly enthusiastic Naruto yelled in his upbeat voice.

Kakashi quickly eyed him as he spoke with his uncovered eye and although the older ninja always wore a mask, a glint of happiness was apparent on his face as his trademark eye smile would have been obvious to anybody, had they been looking.

“The fox’s healing factor that he gives Naruto is indeed impressive” Kakashi mused to himself, as he remembered how Naruto had looked to be on the verge of death when he arrived having taken multiple Chidori’s nearly to vital spots, in his clash.

Kakashi grimaced at the thought of his trademark technique that he entrusted to Sasuke as his only student with the ability to properly utilize it due to his dojutsu kekkai genkai, the Sharingan, having been used in that way. He felt an even deeper pang of guilt remembering that the same technique that he had used to take Rin’s life had now been used on his precious sensei’s only son by his teammate, the same sensei who had given his life to the village and had first told him not to use such a dangerous technique if he could not control it.

He would have to seriously look into how to punish the Uchiha once he recovered.

Shaking himself free of the trauma-riddled thoughts caused by his less-than-enviable past, Kakashi thought that it should not have been too surprising the states they were in. Kakashi remembered that as he was racing towards the Valley of the End, he felt an incredible surge of power.

He felt Sasuke’s bloodlust, which didn’t shake the seasoned ninja as much after his countless missions and fights with enemies that were after his life, if only a little surprised at feeling an oddly cursed power reminiscent of the infamous terrorist who Kakashi both hated and feared, Orochimaru, coming from Sasuke, which he had deduced before arriving and was confirmed by Naruto as they made their way back to the village, having been Sasuke using a more advanced stage of the curse mark, causing him to question the effectiveness of the curse mark seal’s that was placed on him.

However, the only thing that truly made him shudder, was when he felt that same chakra presence that he knew all too well from just over a decade prior coming from Naruto. It only got stronger as he approached until it slowly decreased, and that’s when he came upon an unconscious and badly beaten Sasuke Uchiha and a half-dead-looking Naruto holding up his teammate’s Leaf headband and scratching it horizontally, before turning around to see Kakashi, where he gave a large smile that looked like it took all the remaining strength left in him to do, before having the Nine-tail’s chakra fully fade visibly from him where he fell unconscious next to Sasuke.

Realizing their condition probably was not the best for moving around too much, and not wanting to bother Paku, his dog summon, having to help move two unconscious kids all the way back to Konohagakure (The Village Hidden in the Leaves), and after reassuring himself that neither’s wounds were fatal and after some basic first aid that he had picked up from his time during the Third Great Shinobi World War, even if Sasuke looked more in critical condition than Naruto, he decided to move the boys to dry land and set up camp for the night. Sending word to the village via Paku, and making note of where the other members of the Sasuke Retrieval squad were and that they would also be safe, he kept guard for any sound ninja that may have appeared, as he did not feel safe also sleeping and being exposed with being so close to an enemy village like Otogakure (The Village Hidden in the Sound), as it put him on edge thanks to his training, time in the Anbu, and general experience with high ranking missions.

He was surprised when only halfway through the night Naruto awoke and greeted him as he was watching for possible enemy movement.

“Hiya Kakashi-sensei! Where are we?” the knucklehead ninja said with a large grin on his face as he asked, looking around.

“Don’t move around so much Naruto!” Kakashi scolded.

“Those Chidori wounds might open up again!” Kakashi said immediately after but with a less aggressive touch than before as he turned around, only to be shocked to see a Naruto almost fully healed and moving around.

“I feel good as new Kakashi-sensei! You know what I always say, a good night's rest and I am back and good as new” Naruto loudly proclaimed, with a panicking Kakashi trying to quiet him down.

Naruto groaned in pain a bit after his sudden movements, and Kakashi realized that his body may have healed the most major injuries, but he probably was not completely back in top shape yet, which nobody could blame him for after his latest battle against his rival. Naruto took over guard duty much to his dismay, as Kakashi fell asleep from his own exhaustion before they started their long trek back to the village upon sunrise.

“Perhaps because of the amount of nine-tails chakra he must have used during his battle with Sasuke, the Nine-Tail’s healing factor was accelerated and able to act more aggressively to heal his host” Kakashi theorized to himself as they neared the gates.

“I can’t say for sure though, I never heard of Kushina ever healing this quick” before pausing and thinking. “Looking back though, I am not too sure she ever used the Nine-tail’s chakra. I know she cared about me somewhat, but she never did tell me much, probably because she favored Obito more and probably thought I was a stuck-up brat” he chuckled to himself quietly at his thought, ignoring the sadness that thinking of his old Uchiha teammate always bought, as he was just happy to be nearing home.

He was again shaken out of his thoughts as he approached and explained the situation to the gate guard’s dynamic duo of Kotetsu and Izumo. After filling them in on the initial report, they let the beaten and broken Team 7 enter the village, where Kakashi told Naruto to go to a hospital and take Sasuke, and for them to get checked out while he reported to the Hokage’s office to fill in Lady Tsunade on the events he could, and to see if he could hear Shikamaru’s report of the overall mission to get the full story. Using the Body Flicker Technique, Kakashi seemingly teleported away leaving a smiling Naruto slowly turning around to make his way to the hospital.

-

“I can’t wait to finally be done with this mission and see Sakura-chan, maybe even get some Ichiraku ramen!” Naruto thought to himself, as he walked toward the Konoha Hospital.

As he made his way through the bustling village, villagers turned their heads, some even looking disgusted as Naruto passed. This didn’t phase Naruto much anymore, as he was used to the villagers hating on him and he for the most part ignored it and kept himself in high spirits. The orange-clad ninja still did wonder why they looked so angry with him specifically today though. It wasn’t until he felt somebody throw a tomato at him and it knocked him square in the back of his head, that he turned around in surprise and annoyance.

“How dare you do that to poor Sasuke!” he heard, as she raised another tomato from her bag.

“Just rot in hell already you useless demon” she yelled before throwing the next tomato.

Alert now, Naruto easily dodged it, before responding “Hey lady! I don’t know who you think you are, but he did way worse to me.” before using one of his hands to show off the healing wound on his chest.

“I’m gonna be Hokage one day and protect the village, and then you will respect me, believe it!” Naruto proudly proclaimed like always.

The woman persisted though “Like we’d ever let a demon like you run this village into the ground, you deserved that scar Sasuke-kun gave you for killing the Fourth Hokage and my now ex-husband all those years ago, we shouldn’t let the stupid fox walk around freely hurting innocent and good shinobi like Sasuke-kun!“.

Naruto stood there bewildered not sure what to do, only turning around with an angry huff. It wasn’t every day that a villager bought up the fox that he had recently learned was unfortunately sealed into him for whatever reason.

This reaction of Naruto however seemingly brushing off his tormentor without much fighting only prompted other villagers to throw their support behind the unnamed widow, as other villagers who had been watching were emboldened and began yelling vile insults at Naruto and making their way towards him. Naruto was utterly stunned and suddenly felt somebody behind him snatch Sasuke away from him in his confusion, before seeing the growing angry mob was trying to corner him, and with his overall fatigue finally catching up with him after the day prior’s events and his early morning start, the villagers succeeded in cutting him off from the direction of the hospital.

Watching a group of strangers and some previous Sasuke fangirls he faintly could recall from the Academy quickly rushing Sasuke in the direction of the hospital, Naruto tried to object but was trapped and unable to do anything to defend himself.

“Is that how you treat a fellow teammate, huh? Who are we? The Rock Village?” he heard somebody yell, gathering screams of support, the villagers seemingly not realizing the hypocrisy of their words as they had shunned the White Fang of the Leaf, Sakumo Hatake, for prioritizing a friend over the mission and led him to take his own life, which on paper Naruto had done the opposite in bringing back his friend Sasuke at any cost to complete the mission.

“Yeah, what did Sasuke ever do to you? Of course, you don’t have any sense of honor as a demon the Nine Tails probably had something to do with Itachi killing his clan by driving him mad if anything Sasuke has a right to kill you!”, again gathering another mass of applause.

He suddenly felt villagers begin to throw anything they could get their hands on at him. The spiky-haired ninja tried to resist but he slowly felt his wounds start hurting slightly as he tried to move to escape the mob. This wasn’t the first time Naruto had been publicly abused verbally, but hardly anybody would lay a hand on him without Naruto giving them reason for fear of punishment, yet the verbal abuse was enough to rattle Naruto throughout his childhood, so they hardly felt a need.

“You worthless cretin! Why’d we ever let you wear our village’s proud headband?! That is for shinobi, not you who killed so many!” he heard a female voice scream.

He turned to retort, “I didn’t hurt anybody back then, I was barely born the day that the dang Fox attacked!”.

“That ought to set things right” Naruto smugly thought, only to realize that this remark seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect though, as he saw some villagers begin to march towards him.

Not sure what to do, he did the only thing he could think to do when he was in danger. “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” (Shadow Clone Technique) Naruto yelled as there were suddenly five of him.

Some of the villagers approaching backed away in surprise. Taking advantage of that hesitation, the five identical clones quickly looked at each other, they knew exactly what to do, as two clones cleared a way through the crowd by running into villagers who quickly began retreating in fear of what the demon boy would do, while the other three seized the newly created exit and split up to confuse the few adamant and fearless villagers with a thirst for vengeance who attempted to pursue.

Naruto felt a clone disperse itself as usual when he got its chakra back and he suddenly felt he had heard “Damn you! Face judgment for killing the Fourth!” in what felt like moments ago from a gruff-sounding man right behind him.

Speeding up with a cheeky grin, he looked back in hopes of taunting the man but was puzzled when he didn’t see anybody close to him.

“That’s weird, I could have sworn he sounded closer to me just a second ago,” Naruto thought before turning back towards his intended route and thinking harder about it before realizing that he had heard it but when he had he had been running and facing the direction of the gates from which he had just come with Sasuke.

He scrunched his brow not sure why he seemed to have a concurrent memory going on at the same time as he ran in the opposite direction, but in a place where he, the real him at least, did not go.

Chalking it up to a weird sense of déjà vu, he shoved the idea back into his mind focusing on trying not to let the fatigue seep back into his aching muscles, and although it didn’t register as he ran across rooftops like he always had when pulling pranks a few months before, he unwillingly felt a small ache in his heart thinking back on some remarks, mostly what the initial widow had said.

“Like we’d ever let a demon like you run this village into the ground…”.

For the first time since becoming a ninja, Naruto felt shaken. The amount of support she had amassed after yelling that statement hurt the poor boy as he questioned the possibility of how he could achieve his increasingly far-off dream.

Shaking himself free of these thoughts on putting on his smile, he quickly made his way to the Konoha hospital using his motivation and remaining adrenaline to shake off his fatigue, knowing little of what was to come to pass that would alter his destiny forever.

Chapter Text

Following his run-in and escape from the angry mob, he made his way to the hospital, scurrying past the few villagers passing by shooting him dirty looks, but most others paying him no heed. Taking notice of it more than he had before, but still forgetting about it, he entered and immediately decided to check on Sasuke first, figuring that he himself would either be denied treatment if he did not have any current major mortal wounds or would be lied to and given a clean bill of health to get him out of the hospital staff’s hair as quickly as possible.

This line of thinking however shocked Naruto, as he realized for the first time how truly unfair it was despite him having been injured on a mission to capture his rouge teammate who was probably currently being tended to by the best this hospital had to offer.

“Sasuke Uchiha’s room, please?” the young ninja asked trying to be reverent and quiet in a move that surprised even himself.

He chalked it up to not wanting to be scolded again by Master Jiraiya or Kakashi-sensei. The receptionist looked up and gave an obvious scowl before she quickly changed her face to one of indifference.

“Second floor, third door to your right.”

Nodding, Naruto smiled shoving away his quickly growing pessimism, but as he turned and thanked her and began walking away, he heard her quietly mumble to the nurse next to her, ‘Let’s hope the demon boy does his business and leaves. I wouldn’t let him in here if it wasn’t for the fact that he has a right to see his “teammate” as a shinobi’.

“Whatever” Naruto grumbled to himself. “Why am I letting this bother me again, ya know?” he inquired to himself. “It’s the same treatment I have always had.”

Following the receptionist’s instructions, he walked up the stairs in a somber and quiet state that was unusual for the normally boisterous boy. It can be argued that if he hadn’t been quiet in this instance, the trajectory of his life would have been quite different if he had come running and yelling as usual. He was pulled out of his thoughts by talking as he realized it was Jiraiya’s voice. Perking up at the toad sage’s voice coming from Sasuke’s room, he almost shouted a greeting that would most certainly have gotten him the ire of the hospital staff, patients, and his two teachers, but he stopped dead in his tracks before he could utter a single word.

“Why was Kakashi here, I thought he had business at the Hokage’s office?” Naruto thought as he quickly decided to hide next to the door and listen in secret after seeing the younger white-haired ninja standing with Jiraiya.

They both had their backs to the door as they looked at Sasuke. He listened to the voice of his master again as he spoke.

“I don’t know Kakashi, maybe we should reconsider Naruto’s path as a ninja,” Jiraiya said.

Naruto froze feeling he had misheard but his breath became shaky regardless.

Jiraiya continued “I know he is the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails and important to our village’s security and the overall balance of power between the five great villages, but with the Akatsuki after him, it may be safer for the village if he wasn’t a shinobi and was sequestered”.

Naruto could only listen as he felt his heartbeat pound seemingly harder than it ever had.

“Lord Jiraiya, with all due respect, he beat Sasuke!” the copy ninja fired back. “He was willing to bring back his best friend at all costs on the order of the village! I feel he can be made into a strong deterrent with the proper training.”

At this, Naruto paused and in a unlike Naruto fashion, tried to think, if only to rationalize this conversation.

He had never really heard grown-ups talk about this, or if he had, it bored him to death, so he never listened. He tried hard to think back to his academy days and could recall Iruka-sensei mentioning something about the First Hokage and the tailed beasts. He had never paid it much mind at the time, even being a little confused about how these tailed beasts were even important to village security when he didn’t ever see or hear about them or how they could be used to be helpful to protect the villages. The Nine-Tails had outright rampaged on the day he was born. He had only recently made the connection that he happened to have the Nine-Tails inside him.

Yet again though despite pieces of this larger puzzle falling into place, Naruto just ignored it, as these were confusing geopolitical affairs and he had no mind for history or politics, despite his vehemence that he would become Hokage one day.

That was when he realized something as Gaara came to his mind. Remembering the events of the Sand and Sound’s attempted invasion and how he had met the red-headed jinchuriki, he faced off against the hate-filled ninja, and he had managed to beat him before he could get inside Konoha. He thought back on the terrifying creature that seemed to be inside of Gaara that was giving him power and driving his host mad.

Then he had a horrifying realization, like a puzzle piece clicking into place.

“I have the fox inside of me...” Naruto thought in horror as the next thought made his mouth run dry. “Am I just a tool to these people?”.
Almost wanting to curl into a ball and die at the implication, he realized how much it made sense. He had seen the look in Gaara’s eyes, one that as much as he tried to deny it, had resonated in him, as if there was an unspoken bond between the two for living the same life, just in another village.

He felt like he finally understood why Gaara acted like he did, and realized the irony of telling Gaara to change for his village when he was beginning to feel tiny bubbles of disdain and hatred for Konoha, the same feelings he had repressed for so long, but as he thought again of his childhood and the widow and angry mob earlier that day, even more disdain festered inside him, with the idea of just being viewed and tolerated as a tool for the village further enraging him.

He still wasn’t sure what exactly he was to the village though or why he felt so bonded to Gaara. Listening back in to see if he could gather anything, a small glimmer of hope at the thought that Kakashi was sticking up for him and not keeping secrets made him think that maybe he could continue down his chosen route as a Konoha shinobi.

However, the following exchange he heard was something that would change his life forever and crush any hope in the boy that this village was worth saving or leading.

“I see your point Kakashi, but after what you described, he had to use so much of the Nine-Tail’s chakra, and we don’t even know if he was in control! What if he lost it and used that much or more here in the village when he got angry” Jiraiya said in a shockingly cold and serious tone that was uncharacteristic of the usually pervy and relaxed sannin.

“He half killed Sasuke, and based on what you told me, he wasn’t even trying. You’ve got to admit that the boy takes nothing after his father and relies on the fox’s power to win tougher fights. Aside from his look, he is more like his mother but if she was inept. You know that well Kakashi, Minato was your sensei after all and you’ve watched Naruto as your student barely scrape by! I feel bad for not being there for the boy now like his parents wanted, but I thought if he was anything like his father, he would survive without me while I continued my research and spy network.”

Naruto felt something shatter within it despite thinking nothing else could shock him in that moment. He had heard that name before, Minato. Again, the classes on the four Hokages that Iruka had boringly taught for a week flashed through his mind, but he wasn’t sure why and he was too shaken up to connect the increasingly clearer dots, as he focused on one fact: Kakashi and Jiraiya, two of the people he trusted the most knew who his parents were and were even close to them from the sound of it? They had asked Jiraiya to look after him as a child. If pervy sage knew, then granny Tsunade also probably knew.

Naruto felt cold. He let the comments that the angry mob said once again sink in as he began to hold back tears. He peered in as quietly as he could as he saw Kakashi look down before replying.

“Yes. I know that he pales in comparison to Minato-sensei. It’s hard to look at him without feeling the guilt of my inability to protect his father. He is utterly useless despite slight improvements.” Kakashi paused sighing before continuing “I have not even told him about my Shadow Clone theory for training because I fear he will abuse it and never learn to value growth. I’m surprised he was able to learn the Rasengan so quickly without it, granted he didn’t perfect it, but still, maybe I will tell him about it when he is older and needs to rapidly improve his skills for something”.

Feeling his eyes begin to get wet, before feeling like they were drowning, the hot tears began to flow down his face, Naruto had heard enough. He ran out of the hospital as quickly and quietly as he could with nobody even bothering to check on him.

“After all, why would they care?” Naruto thought to himself.

“I was either the demon who took away their loved ones and the Fourth Hokage or a profitable tool to Konoha that they are willing to string along. I am nothing to this village and they will never let me achieve my dream, and rather I die and take the fox with me.”

Unbeknownst to Naruto, however, an oblivious to having been heard Kakashi and Jiraya still stood in Sasuke’s room as he was deep in sleep, nearly comatose, and continued their conversation.

Jiraiya’s face softened up as he turned to face a visibly saddened Kakashi and said “You know, ever since the run-in with Itachi and his partner, I have been focused on the Akatsuki and gathering information on them. Maybe I am jumping too far ahead of myself out of worry for Konoha. We need our jinchuriki and it would look bad if the Fourth’s son was stripped of being a ninja or suddenly resigned. I was thinking of taking him on a two- or three-year training trip because with me he would be safe, it would be harder for the Akatsuki to track him down, and I could help him hone his skills. In the meantime, you could put all your attention on this emo one here and make sure he doesn’t try something again”, Jiraiya said as he pointed at the unconscious raven-haired boy.

Kakashi paused with a thoughtful look on his face before he agreed as he also turned to look back at Sasuke.

Figuring the handful that Sasuke would be now, he turned back and simply said “Alright Master Jiraiya, well I should get going to see Lady Tsunade to give my report. Thanks for stopping me on my way and letting me know your plans, I will refrain from telling Naruto until you feel the time is right.”

Without giving Jiraiya a chance to say anything more, Kakashi then body flickered away, leaving a worried-looking Jiraiya alone with Sasuke.

Naruto meanwhile had run home and as he threw aside his old empty cups of ramen and dirty dishes, he finally felt worn out and laid down. After he finally calmed down, he laid completely on his back and stared at the ceiling and felt a sereneness despite the revelations and growing contempt in his heart.

“Am I as a person meaningless to this village?” he pondered.

“Why was I the host for this stupid fox? Why did everybody keep quiet about my parents? Who exactly was my father to be connected to two of the top ninjas in the village’s history?” Naruto pointlessly thought to himself.

“I am not nearly smart enough for this” he finally admitted to himself before turning his head.

The conversation he overheard playing through his head, he realized that Jiraiya had said something about a “balance of power between the five great villages”. He thought about Gaara more as he wondered if he was truly alright being the scourge of the village that he was made out to be while other orphans like Sasuke had the ground, they walked on praised.

Finally, after mulling it over, he stopped to think “If I am from the Konahagakure, and Gaara from Sunagakure (The Village Hidden in the Sand)” his eyes widened as he finally got the implication and connected a small detail about the tailed beasts in his mind.

“Are there more like us in other villages? How many? The beast Gaara had within him seemed to have only a single tail as he had seen during their exchange. Was he related to the Nine-Tails?” Naruto contemplated to himself.

“That must be right, Gaara had to have the One-Tails inside him. Jiraiya had said the villages need us. But why? What did he call me? A ‘jinchuriki’?”.

As all these impossible questions danced around his mind, Naruto again shifted in his bed, this time turning towards a corner of his room where sticking out beneath a pile of his clothes, he spotted an old mask.

Looking at this mask, Naruto’s face immediately darkened as he suddenly recalled where and why he had gotten it. It had been one of the worst moments of his childhood. A mask salesman spotted a much younger Naruto looking at his masks on display. In a rage despite Naruto doing nothing wrong, he shoved Naruto back out onto the street and demanded to know why he was there. Naruto only replied annoyed that he was looking at the display of masks, where the salesman proceeded to take off a kitsune mask from the display wall and threw it at the boy telling him to scram, which Naruto did after yelling at the audience that had grown to quit looking and talking about him in such a negative light.

He eyed the mask in the corner of his room and thought of the irony looking back, as he wasn’t sure if the mask salesmen had known which mask, he had been eyeing, but he had thrown a Kitsune mask at him.

“A Kitsune mask, huh?” Naruto thought laying back down after he had unknowingly sat up while examining the mask.

“That is super poetic because of the…” and at that moment he jolted up yet again as he had an uncharacteristic stroke of genius, and in the unpredictable fashion he was known for, he realized that it just might help him even if it seemed crazy.

Naruto quickly took a meditative position. Until that moment he had only thought of the Fox as a burden, but perhaps he is truly his greatest ally, or at least a wealth of information.

“At least the Fox never has outright insulted me just for existing ya know” he thought to himself bitterly, as he began comparing who the real demons were between the Fox who was trapped inside a host against his will, and the widow who had insulted him earlier without hearing him out, even if her hatred for the Nine-Tails was understandable.

With all these questions plaguing him, he had decided to go straight to the source of his problems and would meet formally with the Nine-Tails, and in a cruel twist of fate, Naruto just knew the Fox probably had more answers than he did, both about the world and possibly even his past, and may be more forthcoming about it than his own senior ninja the blonde thought with a frown.

After a few minutes of intense focus, Naruto just felt that he was in a new area, and he opened his eyes in a sewer-like area. Understandably paranoid, he slowly rose and walked around a bit until he came upon a large cage that he felt he had seen before, and behind the bars he saw two large and red foxlike eyes staring down at him from the darkness with a piercing look. There was a pause as Naruto’s eyes widened realizing that he had succeeded in his goal that he had expected to fail.

Suddenly a voice finally came from behind the bars, and menacingly he heard what it said.

“Hey brat, how nice of you to finally join me.”

Chapter Text

Naruto stared into the eyes of the fox spirit; eyes wide as he realized he was staring straight into the slitted eyes of the very same creature who had not only taken the Fourth Hokage out with him but had lived for longer than he could comprehend. The Kitsune was equally patient as he stared into Naruto’s blue eyes.

Using his ability to sense negative emotions, he could feel hatred deep within the boy and negativity behind his blue eyes. The fox observed Naruto and saw how his demeanor had shifted, ever so slightly, but still. Gone was the bubbly boy who angrily demanded chakra from him in tough situations and likened it to “rent”.

In his place, while he still had characteristics that the Nine Tails knew him for that annoyed him, was a very slightly more composed Naruto. The Nine-Tails was no fool, he had been privy to Naruto’s life up to that point, and while he spent most of it sleeping, he had watched the last two days of his host with great interest. He had been quite content with the recent battle’s outcome, but not surprised that his host with his power was able to overcome the demented power that those curse marks gave Orochimaru’s would-be servants, but was also thrilled that it was used to triumph over the Uchiha brat, due to his deep hatred for their cursed Sharingan.

He also had heard the revelations in real-time as Naruto had, which surprised him how careless those two supposedly renowned shinobis were to have not only been eavesdropped on but had let the boy get away. Perhaps it was because they had their guards down a bit more than usual due to being well within their home village.

The Kyuubi (Nine-Tails) may have not cared much for the affairs of the ninja world that chose to keep him jailed due to hatred and their inability to understand him, but he was much smarter than he let on when he was rampaging around Konohagakure a decade prior, regardless of whether he had been controlled or not at first into it, a detail that made the fox feel sheepish but also irate.

Naruto clenched his fist as he stared at the fox spirit in awe. Never had he felt such immense power, not even from the two Hokage he had met in his lifetime, at least the two he could recall having no memory of the Fourth.

Deciding to forego being aggressive like he had considered, Naruto gathered up the courage he could, uttering a simple greeting.

“Hello, Mr. Fox”.

The Kyuubi looked down again and eyed his host with much curiosity. For all his wisdom he hid behind a veil of anger, hatred, and power, even he could not fathom Naruto’s reason for intentionally entering his mindscape. Naruto was not in battle or a tough spot, at least physically speaking. He decided he would play along rather than ignore the boy. It wasn’t that he cared, more that he had an unexpected visit, and who knew the next time a chance to scout out Naruto’s weak spots that he could exploit to further his escape would arise. It wasn’t like he had anything else going on either.

“What is it brat, why do you talk to me with such a courtly attitude? Don’t you normally come in here ready to demand my chakra as strength as yours when you realize how weak you are?” the fox diabolically said, attempting to goad Naruto.

Naruto cringed at the thought that he had been rude in his previous encounters, regarding the Fox with much hostility, and decided to double down on changing his approach. He looked up and stared back immediately into the Fox’s eyes, seemingly suppressing an annoyed grunt, but remaining calm.

“No. I’m sorry about all that ya know”. Naruto stoically yet sincerely said.

The Nine-Tails looked visibly confused, as he focused on the boy. He felt no sign that Naruto was lying.

Naruto continued “I’m here because I don’t know who else to turn to.” Naruto said as he looked down in shame.

“I know you’ve watched these last two days. I feel so weird about this place. Nobody trusts me or thinks of me as anything more than a tool or a nuisance. As much as I would have defended this village just a couple of days ago, something about protecting these people makes me feel worse about myself nobody has ever trusted me it feels like” the normally hothead boy explained honestly.

Naruto then did something that had shocked the fox more than anything, something he had never seen in his long life, a gesture not done since the Sage of Six Paths himself had created them: He bowed and apologized stating “You are just another victim like me. Please accept my apology. I want to make things right.”

For the first time in a long time, the Fox did not speak. That on its own was not unusual, he normally ignored conversations he wasn’t interested in. Unknown to Naruto, the Fox sat dumbfounded at his host’s actions. Just two days ago, Naruto had taken his power, not a small amount either, to beat Sasuke in duty to Konoha, and now he could sense no negative or ill-intent in Naruto directed at anybody except the village.

Naruto seemed to notice the hesitation and perked back up.

“Alright, I understand if this takes time. I am gonna change though ya know! Also, I would like to have an open dialogue with you about things. I have grown to dislike this village. They have constantly treated me like I am the plague while Sasuke is praised. It isn’t fair” Naruto said stifling a tear.

“Would you be willing to hear me out?” Naruto again asked the fox.

Recovering from his confusion and being the opportunist that kitsunes are often portrayed as the Kyuubi hatched a plan.

“Naruto is in a vulnerable state. This is the perfect time to influence him. With any luck, I can get him to, if not break the seal, make things more interesting, and use him as MY vessel to take revenge and destroy this cursed system that enslaves me.”

With not much time to think, the Nine-Tails just said, “Continue brat, I am willing to listen, if only because you are the first human since my father to make a sincere gesture towards me”.

Immediately regretting and unsure why he said, “my father”, he just tried to go with it keeping a serious tone and not visibly getting embarrassed.

Naruto didn’t miss a beat or seem to care. ‘Alright! Thank you so much Kyuubi! I am going to call you “Kyu” since I think it is better than just saying “fox” or “nine-tails”.

Before the newly named Kyu could object, Naruto began recounting the events of the past two days and bringing up other events of his childhood. Of course, the fox had witnessed the last two days and most of the brat’s childhood. There was not much to do in this cage other than sleep anyway. He bit his tongue though, not wanting to tell Naruto that. He realized via his negative emotion sensing that Naruto just needed to talk.

It was a small favor he felt he could do his host if it meant it could help him further his escape plans and gain his trust…though the words “my father” that he thoughtlessly spoke at Naruto rang in his head, likening him to the old sage that had created him and his fellow Tailed Beasts. As much as Kurama did not want to admit it, he was in a small part listening to Naruto because he felt that he was listening to his father and the boy had been respectful enough that he was alright with being there for his host in this time of need if he was truly willing to respect him for the first time since the Sage of Six Paths.

“…and that’s when I decided to talk to you. That brings us to now!” Naruto finished in a melancholic tone.

“Alright Kyu, what do you think?” Naruto questioned, genuinely seeming worried that he would be turned away.

Kyu had been half-listening and decided that he would humor Naruto.

“It was one gesture, don’t go comparing him Hagoromo now Kurama” Kyu thought to himself, referring to himself by his real name that no human had known since his father, the old sage.

“All humans hate me, even the brat’s mother did...but he was honest though, I could tell. If he continues down this path, maybe he would be a fun and unique host who I could grow to respect, though prospects aren’t great if history is anything to go off.” Kurama growled in his mind.

Looking back at Naruto who was sitting and looking down now into the low-to-ground water of his mindscape, seemingly torn and confused as if there was a certain darkness enveloping him that bothered him.

“Regardless, I am going to assume he is trying to use me here, even if it’s the most direct and dumb way possible” The fox resolutely thought.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, I won’t get my hopes up until I see more evidence of his change, since I did not expect this out of nowhere. I will keep some information to myself to not give away my hand, but nudge Naruto in the right direction. It will help to influence him towards me while I have the chance since he is emotionally and mentally vulnerable and gain his trust, and the more he relies on me the better, physically, and emotionally.” Kurama thought evilly.

“Alright kid, I am willing to work with you” Kurama finally said in the least threatening voice he could muster that was also serious.

Naruto looked up and when he made eye contact with Kurama, he made a big smile that reminded Kyu of how he had been before.

Before Naruto could say anything though, Kurama quickly added “I won’t give you everything I know, since humans have only ever used me for nefarious deeds and despised me as a tool. A feeling you seem to share, so I hope you understand I will not be that to you.”

Naruto only solemnly nodded, realizing how fair Kyu was being.

“So, there are two things I want you to know. First, you want to know what the village thinks of you in the larger picture and what you are. You can probably find the answers with some basic research. I would check out the library and investigate history and politics, particularly regarding both myself, the other-tailed beasts, and jinchurikis.” Kyu said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Naruto grimaced at the idea of hitting the books but only said he understood.

Kyu then said “And before you ask, yes, the sand beast, one-tailed tanuki you saw was the One-Tails. Gaara is your counterpart from the sand and a fellow jinchuriki.” Kurama said this almost beaming with pride that without needing his power, Naruto managed to beat the One-Tails and his jinchuriki, even if he was annoyed, he didn’t use his power like he had in his fight with Sasuke and used the Toads that he was taught to summon, it wouldn’t stop him from bragging about it to the tanuki next time they saw each other, that his genin host managed to beat a nearly fully transformed Gaara.

Naruto seemingly oblivious to why Kyu was snickering only said “Thank you for confirming Kyu, but studying all those topics? I’ll do it but there has got to be an easier way?” a grouchy Naruto said.

Kyu got ahold of himself and grinned saying “That’s where my second point comes in. Do you recall that instance with the Shadow Clone you told me about when fleeing from the angry mob?” Kyu asked.

Naruto cocked his head but felt bewildered at how that was at all relevant. Seeing the confusion written all over Naruto’s face, Kurama approached it from a different angle.

“I’m surprised neither of your two teachers ever mentioned this considering your aptitude for the technique, they should have at least at a hunch about it. Even I noticed and I have no reason to care” he said nonchalantly to the confusion of the young shinobi.

“What are you talking about Kyu? You’re making no sense, ya know.” Naruto said annoyed yet also intrigued.

Kyu continued “Shadow clones are a forbidden jutsu because the chakra drain being split evenly is too much for most ninjas without massive chakra reserves, even Kakashi could maybe do a few at a time if he is lucky. However, you can make large amounts thanks to your very large amount and have enough to spare for many clones when evenly distributed. Each clone when it disappears transfers back the experience it gains and memories…” Kyu trailed off as he looked at Naruto and could feel the smoke rising off his head as he tried to comprehend what Kyu was saying.

“Alright, Naruto let’s put it more simply. Let’s say it would take nine days to learn a new jutsu by yourself if you trained daily. If you summon a shadow clone and it does the same training for it with you, because the experiences of that clone go back to you, you could master the jutsu in four and a half days. Two clones plus yourself, and you could in three days. Does that make sense?” Kurama questioned.

Naruto felt the lightbulb in his head and understood it perfectly and got excited.

“Seriously? That’s so useful, I could make dozens of clones if I wanted!” the boy exclaimed excitedly.

Kyu smiled, partly because his plan to gain Naruto’s favor seemed like it had merit, but also partly because he was happy to see Naruto excited, even if he wasn’t sure why.

“Yep, kid. It's a nifty technique. Could have saved you a lot of time when training if you knew. That’s not all it does though, you also gain the memories of your clones…” Kyu once again stopped while studying Naruto wondering if his vessel would be smart enough to figure out where he was going with this.

To the fox’s delight, Naruto connected the dots in his mind. “So THAT’S what happened with that villager!” suddenly working out what had happened.

“My clone must have dispersed itself after he heard the man yell what he did, which caused me to feel that he was right behind me!”.

Naruto then surprised Kurama as he continued.

“So that’s why you wanted me to go to the library. I could probably knock out a lot of studying with the help of my clones!” Naruto practically yelled, proud of himself, before his face soured as he realized how useful this truly was.

He guessed if he had been told this soon after passing the bell test, he could have easily become the strongest of the Konoha 12, learned the Rasengan, practiced chakra control, won the chunin exams, and even bought back Sasuke without it being a close fight.

“Why did Kakashi keep this from me, it’s like he doesn’t want me to advance quickly?” Naruto angrily thought to himself, not registering that he did not use the “-sensei” suffix for the perverted copy ninja.

Kurama inwardly grinned evilly, as he sensed Naruto’s feelings of betrayal and the fact that the boy had the potential to be smarter than he realized, as he had just demonstrated in Kurama’s eyes. Yes, Kurama could work with that. It was just a start, but if he properly took care of channeling and growing Naruto’s hatred by exploiting these negative emotions and directing them at the village as if he were taking care of a plant…. well, he would have to make out how Naruto develops emotionally in the upcoming days.

“It’s a good thing I was able to figure out the shadow clone trick after hearing about Naruto’s experience just now!” The Kyuubi thought to himself.

“You don’t get sealed inside two Hokage’s wives without picking up a few bits of information from them I guess” Kurama chuckled to himself at the thought that he was grateful for being jailed for so long since he was now able to use this information he learned as leverage with his current host to move his dangerous plans for Konoha along, and with Minato’s only son to boot! Something that, if the First and Fourth Hokage were alive to see, would probably leave them mortified.

“Alright kid,” Kurama said, pulling Naruto away from his thoughts.

“I have one more surprise for you, you’ll know what it is after you leave. Don’t worry, it’s nothing major or game-changing, I just don’t feel like explaining anymore right now. You’ll see soon enough why it’s self-explanatory” Kyu said as he laid down in his familiar spot within the cage and closed his eyes.

“I have told you what I am willing to for now. The rest is up to you. Get some rest, starting tomorrow, you’re going to learn more than you ever could have wanted…It’ll be like you’re a totally different person indeed.” Kurama added the last part quickly and with a devilish grin in his mind.

Naruto would undergo a transformation so profound, that he would become nearly unrecognizable if the fox got his way in molding Naruto in his image over the ensuing period of time. Naruto, while unsure of what the Fox meant in that last part about the “surprise” but feeling exhausted after this whole day and tired of surprises, simply chose to heed his words that it was nothing super important, and thanked Kyu, before unceremoniously exiting his mindscape, leaving a very please Kurama looking forward to how this situation would advance.

Naruto opened his eyes, still sitting in his meditative position, to the familiar disheveled apartment that he had called home. He frowned as he realized that he was the only thing stopping Kurama from running amok in the village, and he was still put in this dump of an apartment. Still grateful though for having someplace to call home for moments like these when he was extremely tired, he stretched out and yawned.

“What a day.” Naruto thought to himself, before laying down. He elected that he would follow Kyu’s advice, because he was the only one willing to give him answers, or at least give him hints that will lead him that way. The blonde jinchuriki knew that he would never get the answers he wanted so desperately if he approached the older Leaf ninja directly, including his sensei and master.

With a sigh and pondering how it came to this, but surprisingly not feeling disgusted by it, he closed his eyes and let the tiredness consume him as he drifted into a deep and desired sleep wondering what the next day would bring as he slowly began to see the world in a different light.

Chapter Text

“Spoiled milk again” Naruto irritably thought as he pulled out his milk from the fridge.

Naruto had slept extremely well, feeling completely back in top shape now. He knew he had a long day ahead of him, and he had hoped to start the day with a good morning breakfast of cup ramen and milk like he had so many times in the past.

Still considering just biting the bullet and drinking the milk he was startled to hear a voice.

“Hey kid, don’t drink it this time, I don’t want to deal with you having to use the bathroom over and over. It’ll distract you from today’s plans” an unknown yet deep voice said in his mind.

Dropping the milk carton back in its place in the fridge as quickly as possible, Naruto immediately jumped back from the fridge on alert, instinctually making the shadow clone jutsu hand sign in case of an ambush, before noticing that it came from inside of him, not from any external threat.

“Don’t get so jumpy kid! It’s me Kyu!” Kyu said with a tint of annoyance in his voice.

Naruto in a slightly astonished voice just said “What?” out loud, maybe a little louder than he should have, but he was not used to this or expecting it.

“This was the last surprise kid. I can communicate with you all I want now.” Kyu explained.

Kyu then revealed to Naruto why had spoken so suddenly. “Back when you just became a ninja, you drank rotten milk that gave you the runs. It was quite hilarious for me to watch, and normally I would not care if it happened again, but we got business to attend to”.

Naruto finally making sense of the situation just had a vexed facial expression as he remembered the day well. He had run to the bathroom at least half a dozen times and recalled not being able to figure out why at the time.

Sheepishly though, Naruto thanked Kyu for the word of warning and threw out the milk.

“Honestly kid, your apartment is a total mess, and your diet lacks real substance. I am not a fan of your lifestyle or eating ramen so much, but we’re in a rush so eat whatever and go if you’re hungry. I am not going to police you and what you do to yourself, but I would encourage you not to eat super badly anymore since if you die, I die too, even if it’s from a preventable way such as malnourishment.” Kyu interjected as Naruto grabbed the ramen cup, sounding a bit humiliated at both the thought of that being how he goes, even if only for a little bit and the fact that he even had to explain.

“I don’t have anything else right now Kyu” Naruto said truthfully while looking through his small kitchen area in his apartment. “I was going to stop at Ichiraku Ramen though, so maybe I will wait on ramen for now.” the boy said out loud.

“Kid, you don’t need to talk so loud” Kyu sounding already tired of dealing with his host. “Even though I can’t hear your thoughts, talk quietly when discussing with me, so people don’t think to talk about this or think you’re crazy” Kyu reasoned to Naruto, as he feared Jiraiya finding out and piecing together that Naruto was in regular contact with him, which could hinder his influence and plans.

Naruto only nodded, as he decided to forego breakfast. The walk to the library was uneventful, and as he walked the streets, the few villagers who noticed him left him alone. Naruto knew where the library was and had seen it many times but had never considered going, as he preferred to train until he exhausted himself every day than ever open a book. After all, in his young mind, he could not figure out how it would ever help him in the field.

He knew the library was just primarily civilian-run and for everyday villagers and shinobi to enrich themselves on certain topics or find novels to read for enjoyment, even if that didn’t make sense to him, and he rarely knew of or saw any shinobi who bothered to go, but that made sense since most of the ninja he knew were his friends who were from the big shinobi clans and most were even clan heirs. They would likely have access to a smaller or more specific family archive or library if they ever wanted to read that was more tailored to what they would want or need to know, even if it was not as expansive and general as the actual public library.

To Naruto, he always thought the library was solely for people who were intelligent in academia, strategy, or both, people like Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Kakashi, who could be interested in learning the more traditional academic subjects outside of shinobi-centric topics.

He always held the notion that the closest thing to ninja-related information they may have had would be either very basic jutsu or the more boring historical and technical side of how things like “chakra” or “hand signs” worked, which he had felt was pointless to learn since he didn’t care how or why a technique came to be, just if it was flashy, strong, and if he could use it and use it well enough to save himself in a fight and to achieve his dream of being Hokage.

His “dream” yeah, to protect the people who have terrorized him. Naruto felt a bit dispirited at the thought, but it just reaffirmed any doubts in his mind that he needed to focus and take advantage of the only place that could help him take steps towards learning about what he wanted to know, even if it meant stuffing his nose into a book knowing full well he would have a hard time focusing.

He would learn more about what he was to the village and how the world worked, about others like him, and why the hidden villages kept us “scourges” of the land around despite letting villagers despise our existence and make our lives hell. He would have to investigate into these topics if he was to ever figure out what he wanted to do with his ever-growing conflicted ideas of where he wanted to take his life in this increasingly vile village he was beginning to perceive Konoha as, and also, if he somehow could, learn his origins and lineage that most definitely was being kept from him by the adults he thought he could trust.

Pushing away his increasingly cynical thoughts, as Naruto approached, he saw the blue doors next to a sign that read “Tree Leaf Library” immediately to the right of the door on the wall. He still pouted that he had to go but admired the building regardless. He had never truly stopped to look at it, though it was not much different from most other buildings in the village. An old-looking building with wooden planks on the outside running from the ground up to where the windows were, with the windows having the same color scheme as the door.

There was nothing special about this building, but at the mere thought that so many of his burning questions could be answered, he couldn’t help but get excited.

“Kid, stop jumping up and down! You don’t want to stick out, your horrible choice of clothing is already a handicap.” Kyu said condescendingly, as he reprimanded Naruto while taking the chance to make a jab at him.

Sighing, Naruto contained his excitement at Kyu’s insistence and walked inside, still brimming with elation. Shoving his hands in his pockets, for fear that they might betray how he actually feels to potential people who would know or notice him, he sauntered up to the librarian trying his best to look cool. The librarian looked up from her book to see Naruto and immediately looked down, affixing her focus back on her book again as she began reading once more.

“Genin are only allowed up to the second floor” the brunette, middle-aged woman wearing a white dress stoically told him as she turned back her novel.

Naruto glanced at the book and did a double take as he examined the book with suspicion. “I think I have seen that somewhere before?” he thought to himself looking at the little he could see of the orange cover before the librarian, wondering why Naruto had not left her alone, looked up and caught his gaze, and immediately became flush with embarrassment that Naruto seemed to know what the book was, and immediately closed it and shoved it under her desk.

Surprised, Naruto thanked her and rushed off, brushing off the weird interaction and thinking “I’m going to need to get into higher levels soon, but I should have access to at least study history here on the first two floors.”

He paused as he realized that the only librarian on duty at the library’s main desk was a civilian. He was going to just stealthily sneak it, and he would if he needed to, but he got started hatching a clever plan in his mind.

With an audacious smile, he made his way to the restroom and made sure nobody was in there. He quickly and quietly made three clones. If he was caught by any of the adults, he would most assuredly be suspected of something, especially with how uncharacteristic it is that he would use the library, to begin with, and while he knew he could enter the higher floors, it would only take one librarian snitching on him to raise eyebrows at what was going through his mind.

He decided he would take advantage of the seemingly lax security though and capitalize on his time. The library was essentially empty anyway. The clones stifled a snicker and transformed into a random young villager he had seen on his way there, another clone transformed into Iruka, and a third turned into Kakashi.

The three clones exited through a high-up window in the bathroom, planning to stagger the time they entered by minutes as they entered the library through the front doors. The real Naruto exited the bathroom and made his way back towards the entrance. He positioned himself in the librarian’s blind spot and kept silent so he could listen, it helped that she had taken back out the orange book, and was so engrossed in it. The Naruto transformed into a villager walked in first and went directly into the ground floor passing the librarian without so much as a word exchanged between them.

Five minutes later, the clone posing as Iruka walked in, and with a smile, the librarian welcomed the academy instructor and gave him directions to the third floor, which was the highest he could go as a registered Chunin. Naruto was a bit bummed that Iruka could not go higher, he had hoped that his status as an academy instructor might give him the ability to go to at least the Jonin floor.

Finally, fifteen minutes after the Iruka clone made his way past the librarian, the clone impersonating Kakashi walked in, and upon noticing him, the brunette girl manning the receptionist desk excitedly called him over with a friendly wave and radiant smile, pulling up her book from being flat on the desk and holding it out right in front of her open so who she assumed was the real Kakashi could see it, both the front and back covers.

“I just wanna say sorry, I know I slapped you when I first saw you reading this in front of a group of kids, but thanks for the recommendation Kakashi, Make-Out Paradise has been very…moving to say the least” she explained, blushing slightly as she looked down looking like she felt ashamed of enjoying the story, but kept her somewhat flustered smile.

The clone felt a hint of recognition and immediately recoiled when he discerned the book that she showed him. It was the same orange book that Kakashi always read, the same one that was written by…Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine as he knew exactly who wrote the book and some of the adult themes and content that must be in it, as he remembered master Jiraiya telling him about the Icha Icha (Make Out) franchise and how he had caught Jiraiya using his nearly trademarked, yet unsavory method of peeping into girl’s hot springs to research for the book series, which made Naruto connect that the book likely was not meant for people his age.

The librarian now puzzled continued after the Naruto clone transformed into Kakashi looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and perplexment, and then fear. “My favorite part was…” but as soon as the Naruto clone recognized where she was going with that, cut her off quickly, looking very bothered about almost hearing details of this perverted book, much to the further confusion of the librarian.

“I’m glad you liked it, but I am here on some business today. Nothing to worry about, just can’t spare much time,” he said as calmly as he could, while quickly walking away. Swiftly thinking and wanting to cover all his bases to not possibly evoke unwanted suspicion, the Naruto-Kakashi clone added “And if you see me again, don’t talk to me or mention this interaction, since this is highly confidential, and I should not have even told you that much. Just greet me like you normally would.”

The librarian looking very mortified now, probably thinking it was something she said, briskly agreed without question on how odd it was for Kakashi to react or say anything like that, before quietly turning away and opening the orange book again and said “Oh okay! Well, the fourth floor for Jonins is unlocked, please help yourself!”

Naruto watched as his clone made his way up the stairs and was chuckling as he eavesdropped.

“Smooth kid” Naruto heard Kyu say, unsure if he was being sarcastic.

Kyu was impressed, however, but he kept it to himself.

“The clone plan was genius since it gives him info from more floors at once. He could have handled that surprise interaction better, but he is still just a kid, and the librarian looked genuinely unsettled, I doubt she would talk about this. He even thought on the fly to give the brunette librarian a valid reason not to question if Kakshi passed her again, despite him being flustered, and even though it was not the best excuse, it worked. Naruto also probably knows Iruka is more than likely busy at work today teaching so he won’t be in either. Very clever brat considering your track record” Kyu pondered to himself, feeling a bit more confident in his plan to raise Naruto’s intelligence so he would begin questioning the village and his loyalty more, and stop blindly trusting what his older ninja told him.

“Alright Naruto” Kyu started, saying it out loud for Naruto to hear, keeping his praise for the boy to himself. “I think it’s good you started small and didn’t make a ton of clones. It would increase the chance of getting caught. But maybe let’s make one more clone at least to help carry many books and help research, that isn’t too suspicious.” He reasoned as he scanned the library with Naruto, seeing practically nobody else around who would care if they saw Naruto reading.

Naruto gave a light smile and agreed before summoning one more clone. He and the clone went up to the second floor and looked around the library for a bit judging his options. Wanting to focus on more ninja world affairs and shinobi technique basics than the other academic subjects like math and science for the time, and after consulting with Kyu, he finally went to the nearly fully stocked shelves of books in the nonfiction section and started picking out a large handful of titles from the historical and political sections.

After about twenty minutes of deliberating on titles, Naruto decided to get “A Basic History of the Leaf”, “Hidden Villages History Unveiled”, “Nations in Flux: A Practical Look at Political Dynamics”, “The Jinchuriki Files: Beyond the Legends”, “A Collection of Theories of What The Rampaging Nine Beasts Are”, “Clan Histories in Numbers: Trends and Analysis”, “Hidden Arts: Why Some Jutsu Are Kept Guarded”, “Beginner Ninja Techniques”, “Seals Decoded: A User-Friendly Guide”, “Chakra Mechanics: Understanding Our Energy”, “Understanding the Balance of Power Amongst Villages and Why it Failed”, and even a novel of mostly excerpts and quotes said to have been reproduced from a tome that originated from the time of the Sage of Six Paths.

Naruto and his clone carried these books to a vacant alcove, and entering it, placed them down on the wooden table where both he and the books would be hidden from view from people entering the second floor, and hopefully, was in a spot that was far enough away from where most others who came to the second floor would congregate to read or browse, as he seemed to noticed recently over the past couple days how much more at ease he felt when not around other people from Konoha.

Naruto sat down as he wearily looked over these books, admiring yet already feeling tired at how much information he could get at only the Genin level and would be looking over. He could only imagine the books and how much more detailed, accurate, and intricate they got as they progressed up the floors and felt a tinge of excitement at what his clones would read, though he would not know what they decided on until they finished their research for the day and he either forcibly dispersed them or let them disperse themselves.

Naruto again sighed though as he saw how little information he could find regarding the tailed beasts and jinchurikis, and he wasn’t even sure of how credible any of these sources were. There were more books on the subject, but he tried to find the most scholarly-looking one that had information on the author that would lend credence to how accurate their words were, to minimize the risk of mysticism clouding facts since he did not want to read to begin with, let alone waste his time on fiction.

After a quick skim, Naruto also wasn’t too thrilled to see how little concrete information there truly was on jinchurikis and the tailed beasts, as the author of the book “The Jinchuriki Files: Beyond the Legends”, was a bit of a dated book that, according to its author notes, was written by a Konoha native who wasn’t completely credible in this research of the subject, or of anything at all really, as he was a wealthy man who likened himself a scholar despite his lack of credentials, and he had just traveled the world and looked into what he could on the subject for fun.

However, being from Konoha, shinobi or not, the other hidden villages weren't too keen about an outsider snooping around what they deemed matters relating to national security and made sure nothing in written form that he left with was too damning or revealing about the tailed beasts they had or there jinchurikis who housed them if any did at all. Even Konoha, which had arguably the most information written in the final book, at least compared to the other nations, did a strict screening of the book before they let it be released within the village, knowing it could be published in, or make its way to other villages, and like the other villages, were also wary of any information getting out, even incorrect or extremely basic and easy to find information that people would know just from basic observation, which led to the book being questionable at best and mostly detailing information about previous jinchurikis and sightings of tailed beasts.

Kyu, noticing Naruto’s annoyance and growing despair at his dimming prospects, simply told him, “Kid, I can see you’re taking this seriously. I’ll help you out by clearing up some major misconceptions about myself and maybe the other tailed beasts that I know of, that you come across in the books as you research. Maybe I will even give some more insight not stated at all in the book due to human’s seemingly selfish desire for secrecy and censorship”.

Naruto, ignoring the jab at humanity, was thankful and quick to accept the offer and utilize the fact that Kyu was being generous enough to volunteer information for whatever reason. It would help speed up the process, not having to fact-check the work with other shoddily credible and dated books, and it also made Naruto inwardly happy that perhaps the Fox was beginning to trust him more, a fact that unknown to him, was true even if Kyu did not admit it, even to himself.

Using Kyu’s offer as motivation, Naruto shook off the pessimistic thoughts about the little and possibly incorrect information on jinchuriki and tailed beasts he had access to, and just wishing to learn as fast as possible and keep his mind occupied away from his growing disillusionment with Konoha, he opted to make two more clones and divided the books amongst himself and them, based roughly on length and subject.

He was not going to waste time if it meant learning about what he was and possibly his origins. With that, Naruto was resolute and firm on his stance to build up his intellectual foundation at the behest of the fox that it would help him find a new path to walk, and he began his first study session, opening the book on Konoha History, with his clones opening their respective assigned books as well, and began his research.

Chapter Text

Gaara’s POV
Gaara stared out across the vastness of the cliffs near the entrance of his village. The redhead kept his usual stoic stance, folding his arms with his trusty gourd of sand on his back. He closed his eyes as he thought about how quickly everything had happened, the tumultuous events of how manic he had been during the attempt of his village to destroy the Leaf.

Of course, he had understood why now, even if he didn’t care at the time. The Daimyo of the Land of Wind had made severe cuts to the budget for the village and had been outsourcing missions to Konoha instead, putting the village in a precarious spot financially. It was partially out of desperation they had attacked, but mostly due to the deceit of the notoriously heinous missing ninja, Orochimaru.

News spread like wildfire following the attempted destruction of the Leaf and subsequent death of the Third Hokage, that the snake sannin had murdered and impersonated the Fourth Kazekage, the sand sibling’s father named Rasa, to use Sunagakure to pursue his own nefarious goal of destroying his former village.

Despite the growing animosity of the sand shinobi for being duped by Orochimaru who also assassinated their leader, Gaara couldn’t help but feel a bit thankful. If it had never happened, he would never have come to have met Naruto. The redheaded jinchuriki opened his eyes with a touch of a smile gracing his lips, even if any passersby would have argued he wasn’t smiling.

“It’s time Gaara!” Kankuro yelled, running to him. Gaara turned to face the puppet user, back to his usual demeanor. Despite how outwardly he did not seem any different aside from being less hostile, his brother was able to quickly see the change in his youngest sibling.

Kankuro smiled as he was still happy to be able to relax around his brother now, and grateful for the change that had occurred in him. It seemed Gaara’s quality of life had improved, as he slept more now and seemed more relaxed about the possibility of the one-tails within him taking control while he slept, a fact that had also been noted by Temari after returning home from the Chunin Exams.

“Time already, huh?” Gaara replied in his usual stoic voice.

“Yep! You know the seniors don’t like to be kept waiting too.” Kankuro bluntly responded in a jovial manner befitting his mood if his grin was anything to go by.

Walking calmly over to him, the duo then made their way through the village and into the Kazekage’s Office.

Now that the Fourth Kazekage’s, assassination had been revealed to the world and it was known that he was yet another victim of the Kazekage’s curse where he had been assassinated just like his three predecessors, the Seniors on the Suna Council had decided the Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro needed to train much more and as quickly as possible, if one of them was to ever take up the mantle of Fifth Kazekage, as tradition dictated it to fall to somebody of the Kazekage’s lineage, and they were the only three descendants of the Rasa’s bloodline.

Walking into the office, and surrounded by the statues of the four, Temari turned and smiled and waved at her brothers, before quickly returning her gaze towards the councilmembers in attendance in reverence.

Gaara sighed as he approached the table alongside Kankuro, but quickly shoving the annoyance aside, he felt rejuvenated as his drive returned to him, as he had resolutely decided that it would be him who would take up the office of Kazekage.

With that decision in mind, and the determination to make it a reality, he approached the Seniors.

-

-Roughly two months later following the success of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc-

Naruto’s POV
“I’m so tired Kyuuuuu” an exhausted Naruto complained to his inner companion.

“Listen, kid, we came up with a schedule and you better stick to it, especially if you take up that toad sage on his offer” the beast scolded the blonde shinobi, but not nearly as coldly as he once would have.

Muttering some light obscenities under his breath, he continued reading the book in front of him. He couldn’t concentrate though as he began to think back on how jam-packed these past two months had been since he first came to the library.

On the first day, after forcing himself to read, he had learned that his two clones who posed as Iruka and Kakashi separately had indeed had more access to more accurate and detailed information than he did.

The clone posing as Iruka, managed to find and study three different books that he thought would help improve his own ability as a ninja, as he was unable to find many more credible books on the historical and geopolitical components.

The first of the books was an all-encompassing guide to espionage and assassination, particularly against enemy ninjas. It had a guide on how to mask chakra, detailed intricate images of anatomy and their physiological function in the human body and chakra network to show off vulnerabilities, a rundown of common weapons and poison types, how to gather information and make contingency plans while countering enemy intelligence, and assess any potential ramifications of confronting the person of interest, both socially or politically or how to physically combat preventative measures they may employ, like bodyguards.

The clone made in Iruka’s likeness then picked up a basic survival guide that was relatively short, as it just helped give a basic rundown of how to survive in the wilderness, as well as tips for hunting and tracking, things that Naruto took to heart but wasn’t to concern with. However, there was a basic rundown of the Body Flicker Technique included, probably since it was a very useful way to get around quickly if need be, which could help when hunting if things go awry.

The final book was an older looking one called “A Chunin’s Guide to Bodyguard Detail”, which was a more watered-down version of the first book in terms of information and techniques but did help shed light on the types of people they could go up against and the differences among them how they would be. For example, against typical bandits, combat would likely be more hand-to-hand or with common weapons like swords and they would likely not have as much endurance as an enemy ninja would.

However, against an enemy ninja, being able to last longer and fight in a variety of ways that you must adapt to throughout while also being able to sense chakra would be key. There was even information on conducting background checks or investigations as well on people, particularly clients to make sure you were not getting in over your head.

The fake Iruka chuckled lightly to himself, musing how useful that last part would have been before Team 7 had been thrust into fighting Zabuza and Haku in the Land of Waves. Thought he was thankful that his team had been able to help the nation and allow Tazuna to finish building the bridge to make the region more prosperous for the people.

As useful as the information was to have in general and would likely help him in future missions, Naruto still was a bit annoyed that he could not find more information on what he initially wanted. However, expectedly as he was in the Jonin section, the information that the clone posing as Kakashi had gotten made what the Iruka clone found seem useless, at least in terms of there being more information geared toward what Kyu wanted Naruto to find.

While techniques that would help in the ninja world and with missions and situations, he would encounter in the future were useful, the Kakashi clone managed to pick up two books on the first day, deciding to hold off on a third book about kinjutsu. The first was a book on suppressing ninja forces, which the clone cosplaying as Kakashi saw quickly upon entering, and decided it was worth reading if he ever wanted to get stronger to deal with large groups.

The second book however was found in the far back and was a scholarly historical book over most of the past Jinchuriki of multiple villages. This was exactly what Naruto needed, and he realized the information available to him as a Jonin was insanely more accurate and harder to come by. It made sense though, as jonins did have to deal with village-level or state-level matters, with some even dealing with state-level confidential matters like handling and moving highly classified documents, so why shouldn’t they have access to all the history and information they could reasonably want to know?

Naruto wouldn’t question how Konoha had gotten the information, he was just thankful for the lax security, as he imagined not many people at all took advantage of the library, so it caused the village to be a little less tight with security since to the higher-ups, the chances of somebody without the proper rank or clearance finding such high-level information were slim if hardly anybody used the library…which just made the blonde jinchuriki grin to himself largely that he had managed to find a way to cheat the system by exploiting an underutilized resource.

Joking, Naruto thoughtlessly remarked a bit too loud to Kyu, that the librarian probably should have been more vigilante in scrutinizing the people who entered the library, instead of reading perverted books at the front desk and trusting the people who showed up at face value.

Within the first day, Naruto had learned a wealth of information. Not only had he brushed up on general tips that would improve his ability as a ninja, but he also now knew a little more about jinchurikis. It seems that most are ostracized by the villages and very few have ever had complete mastery over a tailed beast as he read the tale, albeit a short one, of Bunpuku, and how he was alone and jailed all his life as the host to the One-Tails since the villagers thought he was the living manifestation of the monster, not too dissimilar to Gaara who was the current host to the tanuki.

Naruto spent some time reading about all the tailed beasts from the little material he had access to and realized just how large the world was, as he now knew more of the five major villages. He learned it was Konohagakure who had started the Hidden Village system, with the other four coming into creation after in the order of Kumogakure (Village Hidden in the Clouds), Iwagakure (Village Hidden in the Rock), Kirigakure (Village Hidden in the Mist), and Sunagakure (Village Hidden in the Sand).

Before the hidden villages were created, it was a ton of warring states and clans fighting with each other, and it was the largest of those two in the Land of Fire, the Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan, who set aside their fierce generation rivalry to come together to form the first Hidden Village of Konoha, with the person who would become the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, being the driving force in brokering the peace. They would also come to accept multiple other clans into the fold, as some of them sought to join the newfound peace, like the Sarutobi clan as a notable example.

Naruto also thought it was interesting that it was Hashirama Senju who had originally captured most of the tailed beasts and sold them to other villages to create a balance of power, right before the First Shinobi World War broke out. When questioning Kyu about that, all the fox said was that he only won against him because of his pesky wood style and kept his calm demeanor while being in his signature sleep pose, even though in actuality, Kurama was too embarrassed to admit to his host that he had been controlled by Madara during the fight and that Hashirama decided to seal him in into another Uzumaki due to his excessive power and ability for destruction being a potential hazard to the village if left to roam free.

Naruto had worked with surprising diligence and had quickly learned to tamper his erratic behavior, even if at times the mask would slip, and he would do something boisterous and akin to what people expected of him. Naruto would return to the library daily and continued allowing two of his clones to continue what they had been doing, that being duping the librarian so they could return and continue reading the books they had found on the higher floors. In time, he had developed a routine where he would start to create multiple clones in the morning and send them to train at Training Ground 3, where he had done the bell test with Team 7, as Naruto had realized that it was the best way to allocate his time and take advantage of practicing the new techniques he had learned alongside trying to master what he already knew.

Meanwhile, the real Naruto slowly started to summon a few more clones a day than he had on the first day in the library since he got more confident in how regularly empty the library could be. He split his attention there as well, using half of the summoned clones he would make at the library to learn history and politics like Kyu had suggested and the other half of his clones summoned there to spend time studying and reading about new ninja techniques and guides for his clones at the training ground to practice the next day, as he aimed to have more variety in his move pool since Kyu had remarked himself that Naruto’s limited arsenal was holding him back.

Throughout the two months, Naruto learned about the various clan’s histories and about the techniques of Kekkei Genkai they publicly had shown they knew, both inside and outside of Konoha, he was able to slowly learn to master his chakra control despite his large reserves, and discovered chakra had different natures.

Upon learning about chakra nature, in typical Naruto fashion, he wasted no time in sending a clone on an errand to get some Chakra Induction Paper as he had read it was how shinobi could find out their chakra’s natural affinity toward one of the five basic chakra natures. After exposing his chakra, the paper split in two, showcasing to Naruto that his chakra had a natural affinity for Wind Release, and then he immediately sent the same clone who got the paper to pick out a book on basic-level Wind techniques and begin to study it so the next day, his clones could train it.

The largest development however was that Jiraiya had approached the young boy early one morning with his offer for a two-and-a-half-year training trip about a week after Naruto had started going to the library. He said if he wanted, they would leave in three months so he could finish his important intel gathering about the Akatsuki for Konoha. The toad sage then confirmed to Naruto that he had already gotten the go-ahead from Tsunade.

While the older Naruto would have jumped at this opportunity, Naruto had been talking to Kyu considerably between his eavesdropping at the hospital on Kakashi and Jiraiya’s conversation with this offer and he told the older man that he would have to think about it, much to the confusion of the sannin.

The real reason was he felt he was learning much more with the library, his clones, and Kyu’s light guidance than he would traveling with somebody who would no doubt spend most of his time peeping into women’s hot springs, but he couldn’t say that to the toad sage. Kyu would later scold him for being so painfully obvious that something was up, but if Jiraiya knew something was weird, he didn’t say anything, other than that he would check back again in a couple of months, which Naruto only gave vague agreements of being interested.

It wasn’t all easy for Naruto, however, as he had run into some close calls with a few of his fellow Konoha 12 members (minus Sasuke who was still comatose) catching onto Naruto’s odd absence. Sakura had spent most of her time by Sasuke’s bedside and had screeched at Naruto for hurting Sasuke in the street one day, prompting a small-scale riot to form against the fox’s container. After Naruto escaped that mess, he decided it would be the last time for a while that he tried to speak with Sakura.

Another time, Shikamaru had seen Naruto entering the library one day as well while he was checking out some books on Shogi strategies, to which Naruto awkwardly explained he was here on order of Kakashi because Naruto needed to become more knowledgeable, which the lazy Shikamaru seemed unsure about but just took the answer and left, seemingly not caring enough to question further.

Other than those close encounters, Naruto had his nose buried in a book. He learned more about the other hidden villages, and the very basics of sealing, and was starting to understand why jinchuriki were kept in a village despite the villager’s hatred. Now that he had a grasp on the balance of power, he had put together that the hidden villages used tailed beasts to keep each other in check. So being without or losing a jinchuriki or tailed beast was seen as a sign of weakness, while on the flip side having one who had mastered control over the tailed beast and was loyal was a sign of strength and a great deterrent for conflict, especially between villages with shaky relations such as Iwa and Konoha.

While doing all this research, Naruto hadn’t said anything about it to Kyu outside of the occasional question, but even though he was disgusted with the treatment of the people who were arguably shouldering the most burden in the village by being a jinchuriki, he secretly hoped that he and Kyu could get along enough in the future, and he could become a perfect jinchuriki.

Of course, Naruto had no intention of putting himself above Kyu by force, but he still wanted to be able to master the Fox’s chakra, if only to further strengthen himself, but he was resolute it would be a partnership if it was to ever come to be.

As for Kyu, he observed Naruto’s actions with great interest. He slowly began to feel he could trust the boy more, and his evil intentions slowly retreated as he enjoyed Naruto’s friendship, despite how childish he could be, which the kitsune could forgive since Naruto was only a preteen. He still had every intention of keeping his guard up and possibly influencing Naruto enough to escape, but he had begun to feel an unexpected feeling at the thought: guilt.

Kurama knew very well that a jinchuriki dies when the tailed beast is extracted, and even a well-trained and highly skilled Uzumaki like Kushina barely survived the fox being pulled out of her. As much as he did not want to admit it to himself, he did not want Naruto to perish as the youth seemed to take genuine steps towards befriending him without ulterior motives. It wasn’t a huge deal since there were no opportunities for escape, but it still sometimes bothered the nine-tails.

Sighing though after looking out a window, Naruto closed the book and had the clones begin to put the books back up, as he slowly stood up and stretched. Soon he would have to decide on Jiraiya’s offer. His feelings of loyalty to Konohagakure had largely begun to wane over time and he felt like he was just taking advantage of his ninja status to further his own goals of uncovering the truth and getting stronger.

He had even managed to convince Tsunade to give him a brief unofficial respite from duty, citing Sasuke’s comatose state and Sakura’s current disdain for Naruto as reason, since as a genin, he couldn’t do many missions alone and his teammates were incapacitated in some way or unwilling to work with him, which in turn caused Tsunade to grant the request, figuring the boy was probably traumatized after such a close fight with his best friend Sasuke.

He knew he couldn’t hide his newfound growth or knowledge forever since either Jiraiya would notice if he went on the training trip with him, or Team 7 would undoubtedly notice if he didn’t go with the Toad Sage since he would need to start taking missions again if he decided not to go, and that’s not even considering the eyebrows it would raise for Naruto to reject the Sannin’s invitation to train since he was never the type to turn that down. Too tired to think on it though, he opted to just kick the can down the road, metaphorically of course. He had a bit more time.

Unbeknownst to Naruto however while he had studied that day and was getting ready to get home, across the village from him, a certain raven-haired boy groggily began to open his red eyes.

Chapter Text

Naruto’s POV
It was yet another day as usual for Naruto, as he sat down in the library and read today’s book. Glancing up, he saw his clones all diligently reading. Yawning, Naruto closed his book and decided he needed to stretch his legs. He got up from his seat, getting no reactions from his clones who were too engrossed in reading.

Naruto made his way to the restroom. While there was nothing particularly troubling about today, he couldn’t help but feel slightly out of it. He had grown use to his daily excursions to the library, even growing to look forward to the monotony of it. However, he felt he was growing rusty, he had been training through his clones of course, but Naruto felt like there was something more he could be doing other than having his nose buried in a book all day.

Kurama, noticing his host’s perplexed emotions, spoke up about it.

“Hey kid! Why are you feeling so weird?” he casually asked the boy by asking loud and without warning, much to the jinchuriki’s chagrin.

Startled at the randomness of the beast and slightly annoyed at having his train of thought interrupted, Naruto simply replied. “Just starting to feel like I am in a rut ya know”, electing to just drop the fox’s small prank as he heard slight snickering coming from the nine-tails.

Kyu calmed himself down from his mini laughing fit, and pondered it, before asking why.

Naruto just shrugged, and ended the conversation, as he walked back to his table. He paused when a specific book caught his eye on a shelf. “Forbidden Resources that the Hokage Does NOT Want you to Know About. Naruto raised an eyebrow and let curiosity get the best of him, as he pulled the book off the shelf.

He rolled his eyes as he saw the tabloid-nature of the book. It was obviously written by a conspiracy theorist or lunatic. About to the put the book back, Kurama chimed in.

“Oye, Naruto! You were almost done with that book at the table anyways. Why not just take a chance at this new book, it caught your attention anyways” the fox said, also seeming intrigued at the book.

Naruto considered the fox’s words and decided why not. Maybe it was his growing boredom at the monotony that had become his life that still felt out of place for the young ninja. Perhaps, he just wanted to take a break and laugh. Either way, Naruto tucked the book under his arm and made his way back to the table, where his clones still sat, having barely budged an itch from how they looked when he left, save for flipping pages.

Sighing, Naruto took a seat and opened the book. He felt the sunlight hitting his skin through the nearby window, and he couldn’t help himself but look outside and wondered about his sudden change.

“It feels like forever ago that I was some knucklehead running around the Leaf screaming I’d be Hokage while stirring up trouble, but now I am sitting in a library studying my techniques like Kakashi or Iruka-sensei would want.” Naruto thought, as he situated himself comfortably to read the new book.

Kurama observed his host curiously. Naruto had begun to become much more reserved as time went on. His patience had grown, he had arguably begun to become more analytical. While he still had that spark that he was known for within him, Kurama couldn’t help but let a small smirk touch his face as he realized that Naruto had slowly shifted towards a much more mature ninja, feeling proud of him, almost like a father would for his son or a friend would of another close friend.

Sometime later after starting, Naruto glanced out the window as he saw it began to get dimmer outside and was nearing night. He felt more tired than usual, so he decided he would only read a bit more. He flipped the page, only to see a familiar object. “Scroll of Seals.” Naruto cringed at his past behavior, as reading the name made him recall Mizuki and how he had been so easily tricked due to his desperation to become a ninja to serve the village that made him a pariah.

Naruto kept reading the section on the scroll. “This mystical scroll is said to be hidden in the Hokage’s Residence, and it is truly guarded. Nobody has EVER managed to get to it, one can only imagine the techniques that are hidden within it.”

Naruto nearly snorted at that. “So guarded, an academy student could get to it ya know” he joked to himself.

Despite his remark, he felt a lightbulb go off in his head. He had stolen the scroll before. At the time, he ignored the other jutsu because they were to advanced and because he needed a easy one to learn, so he could graduate like Mizuki told him, but what if now with his knowledge and slight experience, he stole it again?

Naruto eyes had a hint of gleam in them, his fatigue suddenly washing away as he felt excitement at the idea rise inside him.

“Maybe this is what I need to get out of my rut, some more excitement in taking this forbidden scroll again, and to learn more strong and powerful jutsu!” Naruto excitedly told Kyu.

Kyu just watched in silent amusement, happy that Naruto was willing to knowingly break a rule for his own growth. It really showcased how much he had grown.

Naruto stood up briskly from his table, his clones looking up from there books finally. He quickly put up the books with the help of his clones, before they vanished. Once he finished putting up the books, he left the library, passing the librarian as he left, who was to distracted and blushing heavily as she read her Icha Icha (Make-Out) book that pervy sage wrote, for what feels like the millionth time.

Naruto used the Body Flicker Technique he had seen so many higher-ranking shinobi use before him, and travelled as quick as he could to the nearest weapon’s shop. As Naruto arrived without incident, he couldn’t help but feel proud that he had managed to learn the jutsu and use it effortlessly thanks to the amount of training and practice he had done through his clones.

Naruto looked around, and quickly transformed into a shinobi he had seen earlier in the day, just an average looking leaf ninja. Walking inside, Naruto saw the owner turned around and stocking shelves.

“I’ll be right with you!” the thin owner said as he heard the door open.

Kurama asked Naruto why he bothered to transform, but Naruto ignored him, much to the fox’s ire. To Naruto it was obvious, and he was sure Kyu would figure it out. He did not want to risk the owner not letting him buy anything due to him being Naruto, the troublemaker and host to the Nine-Tails, since it was late and he wasn’t sure he could find another weapon’s shop in time to carry out a plan that was quickly forming in his mind, due to the time.

Also in the back of his mind, Naruto knew it would looked really suspicious if it got out that the Scroll of Seals was stolen, and Naruto had bought a similar looking scroll at a weapon’s store the same night, especially because he had past behavior that would not be in his favor, as it was already known he had stolen it, and as an academy student no less, let alone a slightly experienced genin.

The man finally stood up and turned around with a friendly smile. “How may I help you sir? All shinobi of the Leaf are welcome here!”

Inwardly, Naruto rolled his eyes at the statement, knowing this older man would kick him out in a heartbeat based off previous interactions with other shop keepers, but he shoved that to the back of his mind. He had business to attend to.

“Ah yes” Naruto began “I just need some scrolls, preferably some large ones.

The man nodded and looked to think about it for a minute before his face lit up. “Yes! We just got some. Let me fetch them for you.”

The older think man took off towards the back room, and while Naruto was not particularly big on using weapons, he couldn’t help but admire the building and tools around him.

The outside of the building was nothing special, just a generic building that blends in with the rest of Konoha’s architecture. On the inside however, Naruto saw the various katanas and blades for sale, all mounted for display on the walls, two neatly organized boxes near the front desk, one with small shuriken and the other with kunai. There were even smaller boxes, with flammables and explosives behind the main counter, things like Explosive Tags.

Naruto had learned about a lot of weapons thanks to his research, and he could admire them all and there uses in the world, with some even being useful utility outside of combat, There was even a few Fuma shuriken hanging on the wall nearby that reminded Naruto briefly about his first “C-Rank” mission, where he and Sasuke managed worked together to fool Zabuza with, eliciting a small smile at the thought of his one real friend who understood what it was like to be alone in the village.

Naruto was bought out of his mental cataloging of the weapons, as the old man appeared at the door with a large box of scrolls of various sizes.

“I found the scrolls, we just got a new shipment from Io as I suspected. I ran out not to long ago, normally I keep them up front, separated by size, but I have not had time to properly separate and stock them thanks to the Sound and Sand’s recent invasion. Despite the fact that it happened a while ago now, some ninjas still have been short-supplied thanks to weapon shortages that all us weapon store owners have been facing, and personally I am up to my neck in requests trying to keep up with the demand of shinobi who are trying to restock on there supplies that was used or damaged on missions and in the invasion…”

Naruto let the man ramble; he already knew there were shortages, and that the owner was likely just trying to save face with not having the scrolls up front. Eventually, the merchant must have seen a tired look on Naruto’s transformed face, and realized he was boring him, because he bought the conversation back to the scrolls.

“Please pick whatever you like sir! Let me know when you are ready to check out!” the old man said with kindness in his voice, as he made his way back to continue stocking the shelves.

Naruto in his transformed state, looked through the large box. He was after a specific scroll. He felt around the box, and finally two large and rounded scrolls that the box could barely hold. He smiled. “Bingo” the jinchuriki thought with a smirk.

He picked it up, but realized for his plan, how suspicious it looked to just buy this one large scroll if things ever got out about the scroll being replaced. So, he decided to pick up some more stuff. He refilled his kunai and shuriken pouches and two cheap scrolls, one small and one medium. The entire Sasuke Recovery Team had been paid well due to the mission’s A-rank nature, and Naruto had saved up quite a bit of his money, only buying bare essentials to survive.

He got some explosive tags, and then right before he was ready to check out, he spotted a katana hanging on the wall. It was nothing special, just looked to be a standard blade with non-modified metal attached to the hilt, but he felt drawn to it. It was just a normal looking katana, that seemed on the cheaper side of the inventory. He approached and examined the blade. He picked it up alongside its scabbard. He silently swung it to get a feel for it and decided why not, it felt good enough.

It was a little pricier than he would have liked, but for a well-made sword, could he really complain? He had learned a few basics on kenjutsu when studying weapons, and although he had not studied it in-depth, he liked how it felt.

“Always better to have it and not need it” Naruto finally convinced himself, he would save it for if he ever decided to get serious in learning the ways of the sword, even if he preferred normal hand-to-hand combat with jutsu and fists.

Getting the owner’s attention, the man’s eyes widened as the large amount of stuff Naruto was holding, and even the shop owner could not hide his giddiness as he rung Naruto up at the front desk. Naruto felt like crying as he pulled out his frog wallet and paid for all the items, it was pricey, but it had to be done.

Thanking the man and leaving, Naruto hid in a nearby alleyway to change back into his normal form, and organized all the weapons, accordingly, putting the blade on his back for the time and holding the large scroll that was nearly half his height. Looking up into the sky, Naruto saw it was now near dusk, and decided now was the best time to strike as it would get darker as more time passed.

Rushing out to near the Hokage's residence, he waited in silence, doing his best to mask his large chakra reserves and hiding in blind spots as shinobi walked around.

“Granny Tsunade is probably plastered right now, so I should be able to easily get in and out” the knuckleheaded ninja laughed to himself with Kurama, who had been a silent observer through all this, biting his tongue to see what Naruto had in store.

He saw a familiar pink haired kunoichi come into view from the residence’s entrance, alongside an exhausted Shizune carrying Tonton, Tsunade's ninja pig, as usual. He watched as Sakura waved to Shizune looking frustrated before running off in the opposite direction.

“I wonder what’s going on there?” Naruto thought to himself.

Finally, though, as the moon rose into the sky, Naruto decided it was go time. He had quickly retraced his steps as he did the night, he became a ninja. He made his way through the Hokage’s Residence and to where various scrolls were, some of which was stuff that was forbidden but was hidden alongside the non-forbidden and empty scrolls, so he would have difficulty finding any of note, even if he wanted to.

Finally coming up on where the large scroll was however, Naruto was a bit shocked to find that despite Mizuki’s plot and him unknowingly helping him, that the scroll he was interested in, the Scroll of Seals, was in the same spot. It was ludicrous to him.

“Ah well, lucky for me!” Naruto thought to himself, as he was dreading trying to figure out what the Third Hokage did with the scroll after it was stolen initially.

Before you knew it, Naruto once again found himself next to the Scroll of Seals. He couldn’t help but stifle laughter that came over him at the absurdity of the situation. How he had once stolen this because he wanted nothing more than to become a Konoha shinobi, but now he was here yet again with no real security or risk to him.

He quickly put his plan in motion, as he took the old scroll out from its spot. and replaced it with the brand new one that was rolled-up. They were roughly the same size and coloration after all. The substitution wouldn’t hold up at all under scrutiny, especially if they opened it to find no text, but he was willing to risk that Tsunade and Shizune were not actively using or keeping watch on the scroll or letting anybody use it, as evidenced by the amount of dust that was on it.

Tucking the large scroll under his arm, he quickly got up and scurried to leave. He had his chakra masked the entire time. Pleased with himself, as nobody was none the wiser, he was strolling along until he nearly tripped on what felt like small object on the ground that immediately let out a unexpected and surprising sound.

“OINK”.

Naruto recoiled at the sound as he was not expecting it. He knew immediately what it was, as he looked down to see Tonton staring at him with confusion.

“The pig must have sensed me” Naruto thought very annoyed as he reoriented himself in the hallway. For as good at stealth as he was and with how much he even improved that skill with his research and training, the only organism that ever caught him without him giving himself up turned out was a pig who had sensed a disturbance and smelt his familiar scent.

Not even the Hokage herself knew and he was inside her residence, in one of the few places that should have been the most guarded publicly known building in Konoha, especially due to its proximity to the Academy and Hokage Rock.

Naruto begrudgingly thought that it could very well be a pig that does him in. He heard the Fox cackling loudly at the turn of events in his mind. The pig had not made a ruckus, so Naruto decided just to ignore Tonton, and pray that he wouldn’t somehow give him away. He couldn’t hurt Granny Tsunade's ninja pig after all.

Rushing out of the house, he used the cover of the darkness to get home. A bit nervous and feeling the excitement, he did not even bother to use the Body Flicker Technique. Anybody out at this time, probably wouldn’t even bat an eye at a shinobi carrying a scroll if he didn’t strike them as odd, but luckily for him, the streets were empty, and he was able to get home without trouble.

Kyu watched with amusement at his host’s spur-of-the-moment handiwork. He thought it was hilarious that the kid would get away with this.

“Nice going kid” he joked, causing Naruto to break into laughter, now in the sanctum of his own apartment that was starting to look hospitable and clean.

“Let’s hope Tonton doesn’t snitch on me” Naruto quickly said, causing more snickering between the two.

The pair laughed and joked while Naruto had two clones begin looking over the scroll and all it’s contents now that he presumably had all the time in the world to study and learn it.

Kurama was pleased with Naruto’s actions, he would improve his ability and potentially learn some very solid forbidden techniques, and he would find the answers to all his questions, even if he had to do it by himself and move without Konoha’s permission to do so. This is precisely what the nine-tails wanted, but in the moment, even Kurama just felt like relaxing and enjoying the night after the long day.

Eventually, as the night hours ticked on, Naruto felt himself grow drowsy and decided to sleep since he had to go back to the library tomorrow. He was in a good mood though, he just had to make a mental note to have a few clones work on the large scroll here at his apartment.

Laying down, he dispelled his clones and let the sleep envelop him.

Sasuke’s POV
“¬Are you sure these events happened as you describe them? Are you willing to use this testimony publicly, and are you are sure about it?” an elderly woman’s monotone voice questioned to a still weakly, recovering Sasuke, who sat there looking at his bandaged arms.

A group of four sat in this unnamed, unmarked building. Holding a meeting that was off the record unless they all agreed to bring it into light.

After a momentary silence, Sasuke merely looked up, fully matured Sharingan activated, with nothing but fiery hatred in his eyes. His lust for power ever more apparent, uncaring about any foolish notions of ‘teamwork’, ‘comrades’, or “the will of fire” that the village preached about so much.

He would push back any positive feelings he felt for his friends, no matter how much it pained him. Be it from the curse mark’s influence or Sasuke’s hatred for his older brother Itachi, he didn’t care anymore. Nothing mattered except watching his older sibling burn for what he did, and Sasuke would get the power to make that happen. One way or another.

Sasuke peered up at the three elderly people sitting across from him, fully matured Sharigan still activated, holding his Leaf headband with the horizontal scratch on it in his hand. He wasn’t entirely sure if this was the right move to make or what would come of it, but something inside him told him that it was logically his only way to grow his power considering the situation after his failed defection from the Leaf.

So, his response was concise and to the point.

“Yes.”

Chapter Text

-Roughly 7-8 Years Before Naruto Becomes a Ninja-
Han’s POV

“I…I feel so tired” an exhausted thought crossed the tall man’s mind.

Han had just woken up but was not feeling the best as he felt as if his chakra was being drained out of him against his will. He tried his best to look around, but his vision was so obstructed by thick red that he felt his eyes being pushed as forward in his skull as they could go.

From the small bit he could see, he saw silhouettes. Not that he recognized many from his very narrow point of view.

He tried his best to move his arms to form a hand sign, but it was in vain as he had no control over his body. He was levitating above the ground, growing more weak by the moment. It felt as if his very own life force was being drawn out of him.

The tall man dressed in red thought back on the events of his life. His childhood growing up in Iwagakure, his time as a shinobi fighting for the Stone in the Third Great Shinobi World War. He even could faintly recall facing off against Konoha shinobi and winning, until the renowned Yellow Flash of the Leaf intervened and saved the Leaf squad he was fighting.

“There’s no way that Iwagakure would abandon me to these criminals,” the man thought, filled with optimism at the thought. Though, just as quickly as the chakra was exiting his body, he felt immediately pessimistic as he recalled the cruel treatment and ostracization. It felt as if nobody held him in high regard despite his struggles for Iwa’s sake.

It was a miracle the man could think or was awake with the burden of having such a large amount of chakra being taken from him. Despite that, even he knew that he hadn’t been the most popular shinobi in his village. But did he deserve this fate?

His mind was growing foggier, but he could still recall what had happened. He had been minding his own business in the village when he was suddenly attacked from behind. He spun and was surprised to see a woman with purple hair, wearing a black coat. His glimpse was not long, however, as just as quickly as he saw her, her body seemed to break apart into paper.

Letting instinct take over, he quickly fell into a battle stance. He immediately tried to use fire-release before needing to dodge the strange woman’s barrage. He then decided he would use his speed and his signature boil-release to combat this mysterious woman.

Although she was a stranger, he had felt he had seen her before throughout his time in the village, but he couldn’t place it.

Knowing this wasn’t the time to get stuck in his mind though, he let out some steam to mask his presence.

Right before he was able to start attacking, he felt himself suddenly lose balance.

“What? Why?” the man thought in a panic. He quickly scanned the area, as he felt himself suddenly being flung across the street. He hit the nearby stone building hard, and before he could get his bearings, he watched the woman materialize in front of him before she moved quickly to knock him out while disoriented.

“Those cloaks…you’re the Akatsuki! Whom Lord Third hires sometimes…why are you attacking me?” the tall man thought to himself, before falling unconscious, with the last thing he saw being what looked to be a cloaked man coming out from behind the building he had been thrust into and approaching the purple-haired woman.

The next thing he knew, he woke up feeling like his life was being forcibly removed from him.

“Surely…this is not how it ends…” The shinobi thought, feeling himself growing drowsy again.

It was at that moment, that he realized he heard speaking. Straining to listen he could have sworn he could make out what two silhouettes were discussing.

It was a jovial voice speaking.

“Capturing this one was so easy. It seems like Iwagakure could care less about him. It’s a shame. He is quite powerful. We only won because he wasn’t expecting a surprise attack by two strangers.”

“Indeed” a more stoic voice spoke. “We had to be careful. It just so happens to help that Iwagakure seemed to be happy to be rid of him considering their lack of a response. It is this response that shows that the current global order is in shambles, for a war veteran to be discriminated against by his village despite his years of service and the burden of being a jinchuriki, even if the war was fought on a minor nation’s soil with no regard for their people”.

That last bit seemed to be marked with just slightly more venom, even if it was barely noticeable.

This was the last thing that Han would hear as he felt the last of the Five-Tail’s chakra being extracted, and he passed away, despair in his heart, loathing humanity for their contempt and cruel treatment of him, having left him for dead and neglected until the end.

Naruto’s POV
-Present Day-

A disgruntled blonde boy sat by himself in the woods, with his backpack filled with some essentials and whatever else he thought to hastily pack.

“Good thing I had some storage scrolls, I was able to pack just about everything I needed from that forsaken and cursed village.”

Fighting back anger, he stood up and continued his way. He wasn’t sure exactly where to go. Everything had felt like a blur lately.

-A couple of days ago-

“Hey kid” Kyu spoke to his host. “Don’t look now, but I sense some people nearby, and they seem very hateful. It feels like it’s directed towards you too”.

Naruto was sitting in the library, his nose buried in a book as per usual. It had been a few days since he had stolen the Scroll of Seal, so he was still slightly on edge.

Now on guard even more though following Kyu’s warning, Naruto feigned ignorance of being watched, but still focused on the looming threat. He could sense the chakra, just barely. These were skilled ninjas if they were able to mask their chakra so well.

Naruto quickly decided to wrap up for the day. He had his clones put up his books, and disbanded all of them, the ones in the library, and at the training ground, but kept the ones in his apartment on alert just in case.

No sooner than he did that, a masked shinobi appeared in front of him.

Observing him, Naruto noted that he was a boy who seemed to be a year or two older than him. He had pale skin and carried a tanto on his back.

“Naruto Uzumaki” the pale boy spoke up, in a calm, nearly reserved voice. “The Council wishes to speak with you. This has been approved by the Hokage.”

Hesitantly, Naruto agreed and followed him. Inwardly, he was panicking. Had they discovered what he had done with the Scroll of Seals?

Kyu spoke up. “Kid, I don’t know what’s happening, but you need to calm down. These guys were made to detect nervousness. He doesn’t look like a typical anbu either, the way he carries himself. This is very fishy.”

Listening, Naruto merely nodded to himself, slightly in agreement with the fox spirit. He couldn’t speak out loud to Kyu with the nameless Anbu next to him.

Focusing on calming himself, Naruto did some breathing to relax himself.

Soon, Naruto approached the Hokage’s Office. He was led inside and asked to take a seat. Inside the room, sat three older people Naruto didn’t recognize, a very upset-looking Tsunade, and Shizune with Tonton.

“Granny Tsunade!” Naruto couldn’t help but say in slight relief at seeing a friendly face.

“Silence” a voice boomed across the room. Naruto recoiled, as his eyes darted toward the owner of that voice. It was the elderly-looking man, who had one eye covered with a bandage, and his right arm covered.

Naruto felt unwell. He had no idea what was happening, and as a result, he let some anger slip through.

“Who are you to speak to me like that you old fossil, the walking mummy look doesn’t suit you, ya know?” Naruto directed the response to the man, trying to provoke him in annoyance.

The old trio didn’t react at all though, and he paused for the rebuttal he expected, but nobody chastised him for the remark. They looked bored.

Finally, the old woman spoke. “Allow us to introduce ourselves Uzumaki-san. My name is Koharu. The man to my left with glasses is Homura. To my right is Danzo.”

She did not wait for a reply before she continued.

“Naruto Uzumaki. We have bought you in today because you are on trial for the crime of assaulting a fellow loyal Leaf Shinobi.”

Confusion quickly spread across Naruto’s face. He had expected that he was on trial for stealing the Scroll of Seals. But this? What did she mean?

Naruto quickly recovered and retorted.

“What do you mean? I did no such thing you know!” he protested, fighting for his innocence.

“You assaulted Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf of your own volition. That is a crime in of itself.”

Naruto finally clicked the pieces together in his mind, feeling rage boiling up within him.

“Are you off your meds you old crone?” Naruto said venomously, letting hate cling to each word. “He was ABADONING the village. I had permission granted from Lady Hokage, under the watchful eye of Chunin Shikamaru Nara.”

Naruto was most surprised to see that out of everything he had said, this was what got a reaction out of the old three. They quickly masked their surprise thought just as quickly it had appeared, but it was obvious none of the three expected such a formal and logical argument from the normally hotheaded ninja.

The older woman regained her composure and acted unphased. She merely continued what she was saying.

“That is not the version of events we have been told. I’d like to call Sasuke Uchiha to testify to the true version of events.”

Naruto felt his eyes bulge out of his head at that revelation. Sasuke told them that he had tried to fight him despite knowing Sasuke was loyal? But that was a total lie.

“Calm down kid” he heard the fox finally snap.

Naruto had forgotten about Kyu. He realized that he was beginning to feel the heavy red chakra pulse through him. He was growing angry. That would not look good. He quickly calmed his breathing.

As he did, Naruto turned to see the door open. Sasuke came inside. His arms were bandaged, and he was being wheeled in. It seems that even though his legs seemed fine, he still was sat in a wheelchair. Naruto glanced up at who was pushing the wheelchair, and he saw a familiar mess of pink hair, and then saw Kakashi following closely behind them.

“This can’t be good.” Naruto mused, unsure what was about to happen.

Sakura’s POV
The doors opened upon them hearing the elders call in Sasuke. Sakura smiled as she began to wheel in Sasuke-kun.

She tried to look stoic, but couldn’t help but eye her blonde teammate looking confused and partially frightened in the back of his eyes.

Rolling her eyes, but also feeling slightly satisfied, she just thought “It is about time that stupid Naruto gets what’s coming to him for always coming between Sasuke and I, and especially for injuring him this badly!”

She turned her head to observe Kakashi-sensei. He seemed calm, but his face betrayed him. He seemed conflicted, even if she wasn’t too sure why.

Sakura looked around. Even though it was the same office that she visited often as a kunoichi when she needed to see the Hokage, the feel of the room was different. It was the setting of a private trial now as she had been led to believe. The three elders from the Konoha Council, Lady Tsunade, Shizune as the Hokage’s advisor, Naruto, and the remaining members of Team 7 were to be the only attendees, as it was meant to happen behind closed doors due to matters of “national security”.

Sakura just assumed that was because of Sasuke’s lineage as he was the last surviving and loyal member of a highly important clan as important as the Uchiha clan. She had no idea that if anything, that was only a small part of it, because she did not know that Naruto was the container of the Nine-Tails. She didn’t even know really what a “jinchuriki” was after all.

Watching her mentor, she saw that Tsunade was covering her face which carried both an annoyed and guilty expression simultaneously. She likened it to Kakashi’s expression.

This affair had been a plan that had been a few days in the making. She was called to the Hokage’s office and was surprised to find the three elders and Kakashi waiting for her. They explained that Sasuke had woken up and that he had told a troubling account of what had gone down during his encounter with Naruto during the Sasuke Retrieval Mission, and that Naruto was being placed under investigation for the good of the village.

Upon hearing this, it infuriated Sakura. There was no way that her dumb teammate of all people would willingly attempt to kill an innocent Sasuke, so she was on standby to be called. She was only allowed to see Sasuke on the day of the trial despite her attempts to get permission otherwise and was instructed not to bother the Uchiha under the pretense that he was recovering and couldn’t handle too much interaction.

Now she stood in the room, glaring daggers at a confused Naruto with an evil smirk on her face.

Sakura was so engrossed, that she failed to realize Tsunade was eyeing her and she scowled. She did not need to hear anything from Sakura about what was going through her mind to know what it was. Tsunade wouldn’t forget that.

Oblivious to the social blunder she had just made in the blond Hokage’s eyes, she just kept staring at Naruto.

“You’re about to get what’s coming to you.” She thought icily.

The mummy-looking man, Danzo, then spoke once the remaining members of Team 7 looked to be settled in.

“Sasuke Uchiha, I apologize for making you relive this, but for justice in our village to take place, it is a necessary evil. Please recount your experience briefly and to the point.”

Sasuke slowly nodded. Then looked up stoically.

“It all happened at the Valley of the End.” He started. “I was making my way towards Otogakure against my will. I felt like a prisoner trapped in my own mind, the curse mark making me do horrible things. I watched from inside a box I was being held captive in as my friends from the Leaf had to face off against shinobi who were stronger than them.”

Naruto’s eyes grew hard, and his face changed to one of anger.

“You lying-“ Naruto started.

“Silence.” Homura said authoritatively. He turned to Sasuke. “Please continue.”

Sasuke put on a smile and continued. “Thank you, honorable elder Homura. Once I finally broke free of the container, I felt like a puppet of Orochimaru being led to do things I did not want to. Eventually, I got to the Valley of the End, where Naruto, my best friend, caught up to me. I was thrilled since I knew he was strong enough to stop me because he was my rival.”

Sasuke paused to catch his breath, feigning a look of sorrow on his face before he continued.

“I felt solace as I realized I would be saved. However, my enthusiasm quickly fell, as Naruto began to say horrible things. That he was happy I turned traitor, and he could kill me without anyone batting an eye, and say his hand was forced. How he would be able to win Sakura’s heart now and he would not be looked down upon anymore as my inferior or lesser.”

I felt my heart break. I looked over at Sasuke with nothing but sadness in my heart for him. I quickly hugged him. Nobody said anything, even though it caused Sasuke to hesitate. He quickly recovered and continued.

“Hearing these horrible things, gave me the power to overcome the curse mark’s influence. I told Naruto, ‘I’m free now! your plan to snap me out of Orochimaru’s plan worked! Let's go home now.’ Hoping beyond hope that Naruto just said what he did to get me to snap out of the trance I had been in. However, Naruto seemed upset and quickly began channeling some type of…demonic chakra and evilly smirking at me.”

I felt Sasuke shudder as he said it, causing me to hold him tighter. I felt a hand gently grab my shoulder and looked back to see Kakashi-sensei hinting at me to pull back from Sasuke. Reluctantly I did, as Sasuke continued. Naruto looked ready to blow a gasket.

“I had no choice but to defend myself. I fought with all might, even having my Sharingan fully mature out of desperation to give you all an idea of how terrifyingly strong a danger I was in.”

Sasuke again paused and activated his Sharingan just to show he was telling the truth before deactivating and continuing his explanation.

“I was forced to tap into the curse mark’s evil power and influence to survive. We clashed Rasengan vs Chidori with all our might, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital room. I heard Kakashi-sensei had caught up to us and helped Naruto bring me back while I was unconscious from the fierce battle. Therefore, my only guess is that he arrived before Naruto could finish the job. I am so eternally grateful to my sensei and happy I am myself again.”

Sasuke looked over at Naruto for the first time as, unknown to Sakura, he churned out these lies as easily as he breathed, almost as if he had seemingly practiced these lines repeatedly and rehearsed them.

Watching as Sasuke turned to face the blonde boy, I inadvertently followed his gaze. causing me to also look at Naruto.

I had expected to find anger or sadness, really just any strong negative emotion as a result of this idiot’s poorly thought-out plan failing and backfiring on him as he was exposed. Naruto's face however was one of indifference. It felt so strange to see Naruto so emotionless for once, almost as if I was looking at a different person entirely.

“I considered keeping this all to myself, but I just couldn’t. Naruto Uzumaki was my best friend, but he attacked me, a Leaf Shinobi who had openly told him that he was finally free of the influence of something like the curse mark and was ready to return home. I am worried about what he will do to our other comrades or the village if I let him get away with this heinous crime. I credit Kakashi-sensei and his seal he placed on the mark to help allow me to overpower it. That is all there is to tell really.”

There was a brief pause after Sasuke finished recounting the events, he claimed were true.

Finally, Homura spoke. “I think that quite succinctly sums it up. Kakashi Hatake, can you deny these truths in any way?”

All eyes turned to the copy ninja. He seemed hardly able to hide how twisted he felt inside. Finally, the white-haired ninja spoke.

“No. I cannot in good faith completely disregard these claims, nor can I defend Naruto since I only witnessed him standing above Sasuke. However, I can attest that Sasuke had a high level of bloodlust towards Naruto himse-“

“Enough!” Danzo said, cutting Kakashi off. “We’ve heard everything we need to.”

Finally, Tsunade stood up, muttering something about this farce and charade of justice, before looking up with hatred in her eyes, and staring at Sasuke.

“Listen here you brat” she snarled at Sasuke “You better swear you’re not lying, I will have Ibiki torture the truth out of you if I need to and have you put to death for condemning an innocent.”

All members of Team 7 seemed surprised and taken aback by the Hokage’s sudden outburst.

Sasuke kept his composure though. “I am not lying Lady Fifth. Not about this.”

Looking frustrated, she wiped away a tear. She finally stood up straight and turned to Naruto. She had been forced to deliberate with the elders on the punishment for Naruto in this “trial” that was essentially decided before Naruto was summoned before it even started.

Tsunade then spoke, in a very dry tone.

“Naruto Uzumaki. I, Tsunade Senju, by the power vested in me by the Land of Fire and Village Hidden in the Leaves as the Godaime (Fifth) Hokage, sentence you to….”

She paused she turned to look at the elders. She scowled. She turned back toward the blonde ninja who seemed tired of this entire performance he had just watched.

“I sentence you to live in exile from the Village Hidden in the Leaves!” the blonde said choking back tears.

Naruto’s POV
Naruto watched as the words left Tsunade’s lips, this immediately elicited a strong reaction from the elders. He felt he most likely knew why; he had studied for things like this afterall.

“They either want me dead or want Kyu extracted from me. Making a jinchuriki leave would make their village look intolerant and weak. No, they probably want a chance to make another jinchuriki who is loyal to them and have me killed in the process.” Naruto thought coldly, analyzing the situation.

He eyed Kakashi with hatred. The copy ninja caught his gaze and sheepishly looked away. He seemed guilty. He was most angered by his “best friend”. Why had Sasuke done this? Naruto was at a loss.

He looked over at Sasuke, who looked as surprised as the elders at the punishment. Sasuke looked back and shot him a knowing smile.

“This was done on purpose! A set-up” Kyu exclaimed. “Kid, get ready to fight just in case!”

Naruto simply ignored the fox though. He knew it wouldn’t come to that. Not with Tsunade still on his side.

Homura spoke “Tsunade! You know why we can’t accept that. Exile is not the punishment we decided on!”

She fired back. “That’s Lady Hokage to you elder. As Hokage, I withhold the right to final judgment on my shinobi. I am forced to act by the law put in place, even if it is against my personal beliefs, but I refuse to sentence a loyal shinobi to his death on the word of one genin, whose story is questionable at best.”

This shut him up. The elders realizing they could not say more with Sasuke and Sakura in the room, and knowing they would not be listened to anyways likely, stood up to leave. Sakura following behind with a smug-looking Sasuke and a tired-looking Kakashi following suit.

Tsunade turned to Naruto, tears in her eyes.

“Naruto. You have 24 hours to gather your things and take care of any remaining business you have in the village. Anbu will be sent to escort you if you are not gone within that timeframe. You are relieved of your duty effective immediately” she sputtered out.

Tsunade did a quick Body Flicker and appeared directly in front of the boy. “And I’m sorry…” she added in barely above a whisper, as she quickly snatched his forehead protector off his head. She looked down at her grandfather’s necklace she had given him, and just smiled before she left the office with Shizune in tow.

Naruto stood there, dazed. Emotionless. His heart twisted into knots. He knew he should feel something at that moment, but not able to say or act on it, and not knowing what else to do, he slowly rose to his feet and began the arduous walk to his apartment one last time.

As he felt hot tears of his own forming in his eyes as he walked the surprisingly quiet streets of the village, he began to lightly sob. He was already very detached at this point from the village, but having everything he worked hard for and any chance at achieving his rapidly vanishing dreams stripped from him officially…he couldn’t help but feel like the world was truly against him.

So he lightly wept. And with those tears, the last vestiges of any loyalty or love for Konoha left his body and mind as well.

Sasuke’s POV
Sasuke felt jubilation. He had done it; he had successfully framed his friend. Why? Why had he done it even though deep within his heart he knew it was wrong and he had condemned an innocent person and taken away their chance at achieving their dreams, somebody whom he truly did call his closest friend?

Sasuke looked into the mirror in his hospital room, after finally having nurses force out a stubborn Sakura. He stared directly into his black onyx-colored eyes, before activating his Sharingan. His three tomoe stared back at him. He closed his eyes and opened them again.

No longer was he staring at the standard three tomoe design. He was now looking into an eye with a unique design. His pupil and iris now took the shape of a six-pronged shuriken with rounded points, and black on the outside and inside of the red-shuriken design.

Smirking, he knew he was one step closer to revenge on Itachi. Naruto was just a sacrifice that had to be made in pursuit of that goal. He had to get rid of his friendship and closest bond anyway after all to obtain the next level of power he was blessed with the ability to unlock as an Uchiha: The Mangekyo Sharingan.

“Are you ready?” an unknown voice called from behind him. “You did very well today.”

Turning, he stared into the one free eye of an older man with a bandaged face. He began to undo his bandages and stand up straight, his body looking good as new.

“Yes, Danzo-sama. I am ready to begin my training and to serve you well in root. And thank you for the praise, I thought I did quite well myself.”

-Present day-
Naruto walked through the woods, aimlessly.

“Hey kid” Kyu suddenly said.

“Yes, Kyu?” Naruto said annoyed, just agitated at the world.

“I am sorry for what happened to you,” the fox said genuinely sounding remorseful. “I trust you though. So let me tell you something.”

“What is it Kyu” Naruto asked, slightly curious.

“Us Tailed Beasts have names, and my real name is Kurama” Kurama replied.

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. “So, your name is Kurama then?” he asked just to make sure he had understood and heard correctly.

“Yes.”

The fox expected hate or disdain for deceiving the boy, but instead, he just heard Naruto reply joyfully.

“Well, nice to officially meet you, Kurama! Sorry about just calling you Kyu and never getting your actual name, I thought you didn’t have one.” He said sheepishly but quickly added, “It’s just you and me against the world now though!”

Kurama felt oddly happy at that proclamation and how well Naruto took it, even forgiving Naruto of now thinking he had a name as he did go out of his way to give Kurama a name of some sort. Of course, he did not let it show.

“Alright, Naruto. Where to? The world is our playground right now.” Kurama asked.

“We’ll see.” Was all Naruto said as he walked with his backpack further away from his past and the village of Konohagakure.

Chapter Text

“DIE DEMON SCUM” a shrill voice rang out from behind a mask, as he flew forward with a kunai. Naruto turned around, and grunted, easily side stepping the man, before jumping backwards away from the root shinobi, with what seemed to be a lightning-fast reaction.

Looking up and spotting a tree in in direct vision, Naruto smirked. He landed, watching as the root shinobi stood dumbfounded.

“He probably underestimated me like the rest.” Naruto thought to himself. “A fatal mistake.”

Naruto quickly began weaving hand signs as the root anbu member tried to turn around and stumble to his feet.

“Tiger…Ox…Dog…Rabbit…” the blonde muttered to himself, as he landed.

“Snake!” he thought to himself as his hands made the hand sign.

“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!” the blonde exclaimed, as he began to blow wind from his mouth, trying to put in just enough power to not overdo the strength of the wind.

The root anbu who had gotten up tried to dodge, but the ex-leaf shinobi had acted to quick.

He felt himself get picked up and blown away by the ensuing whirlwind like winds, as if he had been punched directly in the stomach.

The anbu flew back into the sturdy tree, and Naruto heard a sickening crunch as the old, thick tree was able to withstand the winds, causing the anbu to seem to break his back upon impact.

“Whoops” Naruto thought to himself as he stopped the jutsu. “Still need to work on dialing that back.”

Naruto approached the shinobi calmly. How many was this now? Seventeen? It felt like the Leaf was still somehow insulting him as they threw these weak anbu at him. Just an endless meat grinder.

As Naruto got closer, he quickly fell into stance as he saw the root anbu had somehow survived, but as they groaned weakly, seemingly unable to move his body, Naruto relaxed.

The anbu turned his head, Naruto seeing the venom in his eyes. He didn’t need to say anything. It was a look Naruto knew all to well. One of vehement hatred.

“Curse you demon boy! You killed my wife and unborn child!” the man cried, looking as if he was fighting pain as he spoke, fueled by a sense of anger.

Naruto however, ignored it. He narrowed his blues eyes as he stepped up within spitting distance of the man. Naruto only looked down, pulling out a kunai. He always hated this part.

“I am not the Kyubi. And he has a name. It is Kurama.” Naruto coldly said, masking his true feelings.

As he was about to plunge the kunai into the man’s throat however, Naruto realized that the man’s eyes had grown cold. The life had faded from them. He was dead.

Standing up, Naruto searched the body. Never could turn down a chance to learn new information.

“It’s only been two months kid.” A familiar voice form inside spoke. “I doubt there is anything of note that has occurred.”

“That may be true ya know Kurama.” Naruto half mindedly replied. “But you never know.”

The blonde continued searching the body, pocketing money and tools he could while searching for scrolls of information he could find.

-

Kurama left his host to his own devices. Naruto wouldn’t admit it, but he was still grappling with his entire life turning upside down so quickly.

The way he was banished made no sense to Kurama. Why would Tsunade of all people banish Naruto without even consulting other clan heads or top level jonins? Something seemed off to Kurama.

He didn’t think the Godaime Hokage a liar, her emotions were sincere as he would have sensed any negative emotion or intent in her, especially when she was so close to Naruto, but something bothered him, nonetheless despite not sensing anything.

Not that it mattered. He was free of the cursed village. In a sense at least. He was still a prisoner technically within a jinchuriki, but for the first time, he really didn’t mind it as much, at least compared to his time sealed inside Kushina and Mito.

Naruto reminded Kurama a lot of his old man as well, a fact that Kurama had begrudgingly come to accept. At least before he seemed to change so much. Not that he could blame his host. He had watched for years as Naruto was mistreated and fought for that village, risking life and limb, even going so far as to fight the dang Tanuki and his insane host and somehow winning.

Not a month later, those cowards then turned around and booted him out in the shadiest and most absurd way possible. He couldn’t help but empathize with Naruto. A preteen left to fend for himself in this world after doing nothing wrong.

“Maybe there is a way to help the brat out, or at least brighten his spirits and keep him alive” Kurama thought to himself, in the back of his mind still thinking of self-preservation.

He would have to ponder it, as Kurama closed his eyes for a while and nodded off.

???’s POV

“They did what?” a stocky man asked exasperated.

“They banished the Nine-Tails. He is no longer a Leaf Shinobi.”

“Those fools” the stocky man replied. “What village exiles their weapon of mass destruction?”

“I don’t know. Apparently, it happened two months ago and there was a tight lock on information about it leaking out. A banishment straight from the Hokage herself. There are rumors though that the council wanted him killed but that the Godaime put her foot down, but I am not sure on how much merit is behind those rumors.”

“We need to inform the leader about this right away. This could be either very beneficial or very detrimental.” a third, more calm voice spoke.

“Unfortunately, this will probably make our plan harder it seems.” The stocky man said in annoyance, as he and one other walked away in an unknown direction, leaving the informant alone.

Naruto’s POV

“Dang Kurama” Naruto complained out loud. “Why is this scroll so difficult?”

Naruto sat in the shade of a tree. He had walked quite a bit from Konoha, but was aimless and as a result, still was within the heavily forested region of the Land of Fire.

“Well kid” Kurama started “It might be because these are highly advanced techniques created by the Second Hokage himself.”

Naruto grimaced. That was not what he wanted to hear. He sat back frustrated, leaning his head against the tree with his eyes closed as if asleep. Opening them slightly he saw his clones sparring with each other.

No reason to stop learning now, right? He had all the time in the world unfortunately.

Naruto sat back up and stared intently at the scroll, taking it in. He couldn’t believe that he had managed to learn the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu so easily. It seemed to be the only one he was able to. Not that he wasn’t confident he could learn with time, it just felt like to much work for a person who felt beaten down.

With a sigh, Naruto rolled up the scroll to put it away. Now wasn’t the time for studying. He needed to figure out what to do.

“Oye Kurama.” Naruto started. “What should I do?”

“Beats me kid. Why not go see that sand brat? He is another jinchuriki after all.”

Naruto thought about the suggestion but shook his head after a few seconds. “No, I really shouldn’t. Going to a Leaf ally feels dangerous with how many Anbu have been sent after me. They might suspect I’d do something obvious and head to Sunagakure, and ambush me once I am in the desert and exhausted from a long trip or have my guard lowered.”

Kurama listened with surprised interest. He smiled. Naruto had just argued a good point against him. It was a valid concern. He was improving much to the fox’s silent delight.

“Yeah, you’re probably right kid. Then let’s go somewhere where they would never expect. Those damn root ninja are being a pain, making us have to throw them off our trail before we can do anything.” Kurama muttered.

Naruto agreed with Kurama’s sentiment with a grunt. While in the village, Naruto had begun suspecting there was a special, and more secret unit of Anbu that wasn’t widely known after he began studying. His suspicions were confirmed when that odd pale ninja showed up to collect Naruto and not a normal Anbu.

The differences were small, but there. Naruto tried to seek out information even before that fateful day his life changed, but was unable to find anything, even with his clones on the upper levels of the Konoha library.

Whoever led them was skilled at concealing themselves and information, though Naruto suspected it to be an elder or one of the Sandaime’s (The Third’s) trusted friends or advisors as to be allowed such a privilege, it would without a doubt require some approval from the Hokage due to what Naruto guessed was its seemingly large scale and less than savory nature of being a sort of hidden group that works in the shadows.

Realizing two shuriken were coming right toward him pulled Naruto out of his thoughts.

Naruto quickly stood up, his hand going towards his blade, an instinctual move that surprised even Naruto himself. He had hardly thought of the sword but had absentmindedly carried it around with him. Maybe this was a sign to train more into kenjutsu.

No time to think of that now though.

Naruto quickly, and with little effort, evaded shuriken that were thrown at him.

“A testing maneuver?” he postulated, staying on guard and scanning where he thought they came from.

A figure stepped out of the bush nearby, and a tall, lean man stepped out.

“Naruto Uzumaki, I presume?”

Naruto growled at him, holding up a kunai he had grabbed out of habit, ready to respond to an attack. “Who’s asking?”

A tall looking man with red armor stepped out of the trees.

Naruto’s eyes quickly darted up to his forehead protector. A ninja from the Village Hidden in the Stones. But what was he doing out here? But what was wrong with his eyes? Why were his eyes so black save for his light brown pupils?

“Naruto” Kurama whispered. “This guy. Something’s off.”

The man with his red guard remained calm, as he calmly approached Naruto. His face was mostly covered save for his eyes. He wore a red casa on his head, with a white cloth covering his head and sides of his face. He had a imposing figure, due to his very tall height.

“Naruto Uzumaki. I come bearing you no harm. My name is Han. Do not be alarmed. We are very alike, or at least were.” The now named man said.

“Oh yeah?” Naruto replied cautiously, the name pulling on something in his memory. He could almost of swore he had read that somewhere, but where?

“What would I have in common with a man your age from Iwagakure, ya know?” Naruto said, more meekly than he would have wished. He meticulously dismissed his clones that had been sparring. He didn’t want to be to hostile towards this unknown threat.

Naruto tried to speak with confidence, but he couldn’t help but feel that he would be completely outmatched by Han. It was no clear to Naruto that those shuriken he threw were not intended to harm him, more just test and alert him. It made Naruto more uneasy, as the root anbu he had been slaying felt like they paled in comparison to this guy.

“You are the current jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, correct? I was the jinchuriki for the Five-Tails from Iwagakure. That was seven years ago though now.”

Naruto’s eyes widened. This man was another jinchuriki? Or former jinchuriki from what he was saying?

“Naruto” Kurama interjected in Naruto’s mind. “This Han brat isn’t lying. Though he wants something. Ask what happened to Kokuo, that’s the name of the Gobi (Five-Tails), how is he a former jinchuriki?”

Naruto complied with the request, being both curious and confused to.

“How are you talking to me right now? If you really are a former jinchuriki, then explain that. Hosts die when there tailed beast is extracted. What happened to Kokuo?” Naruto prodded, exercising caution to sound as fearsome yet diplomatic as he could.

He could tell with or without Kokuo sealed inside him, Han had many years and much experience on Naruto. He could defeat Naruto if he really wanted to.

Han cocked his head, giving Naruto a look as if he had gone mad, and asked him such an incomprehensible question. “Kokuo?”

Naruto, realizing his mistake, quickly explained, taking the chance to lower his kunai a bit to try and show friendliness. A fight is not what Naruto needed nor could he win.

“The tailed beasts all have names ya know. The fox for instance, his name is Kurama. He told me it himself, ya know.” Naruto explained, not able to help but grin, much to Kurama’s annoyance.

“The Gobi’s real name is Kokuo.”

Han, seeming surprised despite how hard he was to read, simply nodded.

“Thank you for sharing. I did not know that.” The tall man said before he continued. “About seven years ago, the Akatsuki captured me, a purpled haired woman who could turn her body into paper. They extracted the Gobi..er Kokuo…from my body.”

“And you lived?” Naruto responded sharply.

“No. I didn’t. I died. Next thing I knew, I was in a cave facing Orochimaru, one of the three sannin. He explained to me that he had reanimated me for the purposes of finding and capturing you through any means necessary. I found myself unable to disobey, but he gave me freedom in how it was to be done.” the man explained casually.

Naruto dropped his guard with a sigh. He should have known. Orochimaru had a strange fascination with the dead. Han obviously wasn’t an enemy, at least now.

“What does Orochimaru want from me?” Naruto asked, annoyance in his voice. “It’s partially because of that Snake bastard that I’m in this position. I got banished from the Leaf, something about ‘harming a loyal shinobi despite how he tried to defect to Orochimaru ya know?”

“Yes, I’m aware. Orochimaru learns quickly, his informants are surprisingly quick. He told me a lot about you Naruto. He also instructed me to tell you that should you decline, I will be forced to subdue you with force and take you back.”

Naruto felt his heart drop. What could he do? He may be stronger than he ever had been, but he knew he wasn’t going to win against Han.

“Alright” Naruto said after a long pause of much deliberation. “Let’s go.”

Upon hearing that Kurama started.

“Brat, are you crazy? Who knows what Orochimaru wants with you as revenge for taking away his precious Uchiha? With my chakra we might-“

“No.” Naruto said, voice firm but in a whisper. “Kurama, I don’t want to go either, but what choice do we have? We would be fighting somebody who has fought in actual wars. I may have studied and trained, but I lack the experience that Han has.”

“But what if Orochimaru kills you?” Kurama asked, slgithly angered at the turn of events.

“It’s fight and end up at Orochimaru’s hideout or oblige Han and end up at Orochimaru’s hideout. At least in one of those, I’ll be able to at least know what is going on and gain some points with the snake sannin for not resisting.” Naruto reasoned to Kurama, though also to himself.

He continued. “Things are different now anyways. I am not longer a Konoha shinobi, why not go? He might even offer some protection from the Akatsuki who are after you Kurama. If this was Itachi and Kisame, I’d be dead already.” Naruto bitterly realized.

Naruto hated the implication that he might have actually lucked out with it being a reanimated Han under Orochimaru’s orders and not the Akastuski who found and cornered him, as they were clearly after jinchurikis for sure, with Han being enough evidence of that.

At the very least, the irony was not lost on Naruto that he would be going to see Orochimaru while Sasuke went unpunished for his attempted defection and remained in Konoha as a shinobi. There was no way those “wise” elders would ever punish Sasuke, his bloodline was to important to them to risk losing.

Kurama was about to argue back when he realized that Naruto was right on all fronts. Kurama grumbled to himself, and just layed down knowing that there really was no guarneteed way to

Upon hearing no retort, Naruto gathered his things and walked up to the reanimated tall man.

“A wise choice Naruto Uzumaki, though I do apologize for this. I wish I were not at the whim of one of my former captors who removed this ‘Kokuo’ from me.” The man said, stoically but with a bit of relief reverberating from his own voice.

Naruto nodded, making a mental note to ask what Han meant by one of his captors later, and then joined the man as he turned around.

They both took off through the trees, wood of the branches crunching beneath them.

-A few hours later-

“I have to admit Naruto, your stamina is impressive.” Han said as they approached a unsuspecting looking cave. The trip had been largely uneventful aside from them passing the occasional wild animal.

Naruto approached the cave with caution, feeling the leaves break underneath him. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was as Han had led him in a confusing pattern.

“Should have studied more geography of the Land of Fire in specifics” Naruto grumbled to himself as walked inside. A figure of a human caught his eye, his eyes quickly darting that direction. A man with white hair and glasses.

“Ah Naruto, how nice of you to finally join us. Lord Orochimaru wishes to see you soon” the young man replied.

“Kabuto” Naruto growled. Could this day get any worse? “How is that Rasengan wound treating you?”

“Watch out kid, don’t antagonize these guys.” Kurama warned “We don’t know what they want and they did mess with your seal last time. Be extra careful”.

“It’s fine actually” Kabuto replied as if he was talking about the weather in a cheerful way. “Nothing some light bed rest for a day and my medical ninjutsu couldn’t handle.”

He turned his head toward one of the cave walls. It was in the direction of an entryway into the cave of the wall. Naruto in turn looked over, feeling the humidity on his skin. He observed the scratches on the wall.

“Fancy place you got here” Naruto said sarcastically. “It’s obvious you expected guests.” Naruto chided at the white-haired medical ninja.

Kabuto shrugged. “This isn’t a permanent base, just a waystation on the way out that we have made. It’s too close to Konoha. We don’t want to deal with a large number of those pesky Leaf shinobi that the village would undoubtedly send at us.”

Kabuto smirked as he put his finger up to and adjusted his glasses. “Not that we wouldn’t win, but why deal with ants all the time when they’re so far beneath you.”

“That’s rich coming from you considering you hide behind Orochimaru.”

Kabuto ignored the rebuke.

“You may think whatever you wish. Regardless, I am not your enemy now. You are no longer affiliated with the Leaf either, so you should not feel like we are a inherent threat to you regardless of our history. Orochimaru wishes only to speak with you.”

Kabuto paused before smiling and continuing.

“You might want to stick around and hear what he has to say. It is, how should I say, a tantalizing offer or exchange he has for you.”

Naruto stared intently at Kabuto, trying to figure out his real intention if there was one.

“Alright” the blonde finally said, sounding resolute. “Where is he?”

“Not here right now. Let’s just say that he is still acclimating to certain…conditions.”

Kabuto said the last part hesitantly, as if unsure of what to say.

Naruto ignored it and frowned. “Then why am I here?” the blonde said irritated.

“You may rest here tonight. Orochimaru will be here later. He doesn’t know if you are truly ready to let go of your loyalty to that village that shunned you.”

Naruto’s face soured at the thought. He still couldn’t believe what had happened. Now here he was talking to Orochimaru’s right hand man of all people.

Naruto looked down as the thoughts of his banishment swirled in his mind, the complete unfairness and lack of justice causing slight anger within him.

“I don’t have a choice, ya know.” Naruto muttered out.

Kabuto smiled. “You do have a choice Naruto. You can leave whenever you want. I can assure you on Orochimaru’s behalf that you are to be not harmed assuming you wish to stay or go.”

Naruto grunted halfheartedly. “Fine. It’s not like I really have anywhere else to go right now”

“Excellent. Go down this hallway and pick one of the empty rooms and make yourself at home.”

Kabuto turned his attention to the tall man that had stood behind Naruto out of the way, and Naruto also turned to face the former Iwa ninja. He was silent despite his size and he surprisingly didn’t have a strong presence, or at least he was able to be silent and out of the way when he needed or wanted to be.

“Perhaps a habit from his days as Kokuo’s jinchuriki” Naruto thought absently, as he remembered his own experiences as Kurama’s container.

“As for you Han, I want you to stay with Naruto tonight as a guard against any nosy ninja that might stop by.”

“Alright.”

Seeming satisfied with himself, Kabuto turned and began down further into the cave, leaving the jinchuriki and former jinchuriki to their own devices.”

“Hey kid” a voice boomed within Naruto, shaking him out of the stupor he had unknowingly entered.

“What is it, Kurama?” Naruto asked out loud.

“For what it’s worth, that brat with the glasses wasn’t lying. He may be cocky and conceited, but he is loyal to that creep sannin. Orochimaru really does seem to have you here for a reason, and not a bad one where he would look to harm you. I didn’t sense any malicious intent.”

“This is all so confusing ya know.” Naruto said, letting out some frustration he had bottled up as he heard Kurama finsih.

“Naruto.” Han spoke from behind him. “Perhaps you should try and relax a bit in your room. I’ll give you some privacy since we have been together all day.” the heavily armored man offered.

Naruto turned and met the man’s eyes, his eyebrowless, brown eyes staring at him. Naruto grinned lightly.

“Thanks Han. You don’t seem like a bad guy. I wanna talk to you soon also if that wouldn’t be a big deal” Naruto replied calmly, as he finally felt he could breathe easier.

“Of course.”

Naruto nodded and stalked off towards the doorway in the wall, leaving Han by the cave entrance, who turned and began his watch. Naruto came up what really was just a glorified hole in the wall. A crude entrance. It was obvious this place was barely maintained.

He entered the dark hallway, the coolness of the cave on Naruto’s skin contrasting the warm air outside. Naruto stepped gingerly down the hallway, not sure of what was to come but determined to be on top of it no matter what it was.

Kurama couldn’t help but smile at his host’s determination.

Chapter Text

Naruto’s POV
Naruto’s sword hissed in the air, as it swung by a man’s head who just barely dodged out of the way.

Naruto quickly landed and turned around to attack the disoriented man. The man recovered enough, to evade the attack, and also turn around.

“To slow” Naruto thought smirking inwardly, as he bought the tip of the sword to the man’s neck, startling the man who wore those unbearable curse marks that looked as if they were flowing across parts of his body, similar to how it looked on Sasuke during their last confrontation.

“I-I concede.” The man said in a trembling voice.

Naruto lowered the sword, sliding it back into it’s sheath.

“H-how did you do that?” the man demanded, adrenaline obviously pumping through him, as he spoke.

“Shadow clone.” Naruto simply stated. “You should have paid more attention to what possible things I did quickly while in your blindspot, as well as my sword strikes.”

The man grumbled, adopting an angry face, before getting up and stumbling away.

“Very well done Naruto!” a preppy voice said from the side of the room. Naruto stiffened and rolled his eyes before turning to look, recognizing the voice.

He looked toward the door carved into the wall of the cave where he saw the thin, white-haired medical ninja walk through, though to call that odd hole in the wall a door was very generous. The white-haired man approached.

Naruto put his hand back on his blade’s hilt, prepared for any quick motion. He had only been using the blade seriously for a week, but it was quickly growing on him. He was surprised how well it suited him, though he did still prefer hand-to-hand combat.

“Ease up Naruto” Kabuto said with a smile. “I come bearing good news.”

“Nothing is good news here.” Naruto said venomously.

Orochimaru had not shown up as Kabuto had said to expect much to Naruto’s nonsurprise. Kabuto claimed that the snake sannin was going through some difficult matter right now, which was why, but Naruto didn’t really care.

Seizing upon this opportunity though, the blonde did however take the chance to make himself at home, as he knew he couldn’t avoid Orochimaru forever if he fled and it wasn’t like Kurama and him had anywhere else to really go.

Unexpectedly, Kabuto had orders to allow Naruto free reign and allow him a training regimen and the resources of the cave that were around.

They had stayed behind in the cave that the reanimated Han had led Naruto to. Despite what Kabuto claimed, it seemed the Leaf was content to leave this hideout alone, not that Naruto even knew if the village actually did know about this place that was allegedly close by, relatively speaking at least.

The cave was also much larger and deeper than initially let on by Kabuto as well. It seemed this hideout was not just any old waystation. The cave was rather sparsely populated, but it looked like it could hold much more than it actually did, both in terms of people and items.

Naruto and Kurama had talked about it, and suspected that due to the proximity of the major shinobi center and presence in the area, especially since it was Orochimaru’s old village of Konoha, that the cave entrance was purposefully left dull, as to cause any passersby to assume it was an empty, run-of-the-mill cave, when it actually housed a much larger and well-kept area that belonged to Orochimaru within its bowels.

Kabuto had refused to comment when asked, much to the jinchuriki’s slight frustration.

Naruto had picked a large open area and turned it into a makeshift training ground and had requested shinobi to spar against, which Kabuto provided in the form of curse-mark test subjects who had survived despite the extremely low odds.

Naruto was able to force most into using their curse mark, but he found that most of them were trivially easy. They seemed to stop challenging him after a certain point.

“I guess fighting Sasuke did me some good afterall” Naruto thought bitterly, as he turned to face the medical ninja.

“No need to have such disdain on your face for little old me Naruto” Kabuto said, in a sickly. sweet manner. “Are your accommodations treating you well?”

Annoyedly, Naruto grunted in the affirmative. Considering his situation and current residence being a literal cave, the accommodations were quite nice.

Kabuto merely nodded in return, before looking past Naruto over his shoulder.

“And is that one bothering you?” Kabuto asked accusingly, as he pointed.

Naruto turned and followed his finger to see a tall man step out of the shadow of where he’d been standing.

Eyes slightly widening, Naruto felt flush. He had almost forgotten about the poor former jinchuriki who was on bodyguard and partial jailor detail of him on Orochimaru, and by extension Kabuto’s, command.

“Kami, for how tall and imposing that man is, he sure does know how to mask his presence well.” Naruto thought, chiding himself for forgetting about the former Iwa ninja.

Naruto quickly recovered.

“Han is fine, can’t complain at all ya know.” Naruto spoke softly, still feeling a bit flustered as he saw Kabuto flash a knowing smile at him.

“I’ll kill you, just you wait Kabuto” Naruto thought thunderously, hating the feeling of being mocked. Never again would he suffer through that and the other things the villagers put him through.

Kabuto again just glanced and shrugged at the red armored man as he slunk back off into his spot off to the side of the room, in the shadows where he had emerged.

Turning, Kabuto made his way out, but paused.

“Naruto?” the white-haired ninja asked.

“What?”

“Lord Orochimaru will be in soon. He will expect a meeting with you. It’s the least you can do considering how forthcoming he has been in giving you free reign here.”

Naruto didn’t respond. Only preparing to fight another curse mark user as he saw another one quietly approach cautiously.

As Naruto ran toward the curse mark user, he heard footsteps behind him as Kabuto left.

“Kid, are you sure about this?” Kurama inquired.

“Yeah, what choice do I have?” Naruto calmly replied as he tried in vain to make a Rasengan on his own and failed. Sighing to himself, Naruto quickly did a quick retreat as the curse mark user threw a flimsy punch, allowing him time to retreat slightly. It was obvious this boy was more of a guinea pig then an actual shinobi or combatant.

Kurama didn’t say anything. Naruto didn’t prod further, as he knew Kurama understood his silence. Afterall, regardless of if they both felt sketched out, what choice did he really have?

He summoned a clone and began to make the swirling blue ball of chakra in his hand, while the opposing boy seemed a bit disoriented at the fast retreat.

“I really should have practiced this more and tried to learn to make it without needing a clone to help in hindsight” Naruto said under his breath as he dispelled the clone and now having a fully formed Rasengan in his hand.

Naruto ran towards the boy, and watched as his eyes widened, and he stood still, seeming like an almost human-colored statue glued to the cold cave floor. His tattered clothes and curse mark on the back of his neck fully exposed.

Naruto stopped, but quickly reprimanded himself, as he knew the trick, as he had seen it a few times earlier. Even though this boy seemed to have almost no actual combat experience, his instincts and body would know what to do in the face of life and death when it had a power source begging to be called upon.

And as if right on cue, the boy suddenly lurched over, as if in extreme pain, and the curse mark quickly expanded and spread across half of his body. Naruto stiffened, as he knew this scared child would quickly become slightly more threatening and was proven right when he watched him straighten himself out and begin to quickly weave hand signs with a devilish smile on his face.

“Focus” Naruto told himself, body tensing even more at the sight of the black markings on his enemy’s body. He knew he would still easily win this fight but looking at the markings made Naruto uncomfortable regardless of who they were on.

However, the main thing Naruto felt was anger as it coursed through him as the adrenaline pumped through his veins. More frustration at everything. Darting his eyes toward his silent observer Han, it reminded him how cruel it was how jinchurikis like him were treated.

Naruto began to recount more and more grievances he had to himself. The secrecy of the village, the betrayal by those he thought he could trust, Konoha for kicking him out for just doing his mission, and even Kabuto and Orochimaru for their hospitality despite having been enemies not too long ago and treating him better than most in the Leaf ever had before.

Feeling anger bubble to the surface, he fought down the urge for Kurama’s chakra that was swelling up within him. He needed to calm down.

Looking at the boy across from him, he decided he would use this fight to blow off some steam. He would just prolong the fight a bit to tire himself out if anything.

With that, Naruto ran forward, grabbing for his blade with his free hand and Rasengan in the other.

Han’s POV

“He’s fast for his age” Han thought to himself as he watched Naruto pounce on his opponent. The boy had been trying to make hand signs but was interrupted by Naruto’s sudden burst of speed.

The boy barely dodged out of the way, using the enhanced abilities of the curse mark. This boy must have been a prodigy, with how he managed to dodge the attacks, curse mark or not.

It was impressive that he managed to dodge at all considering his obvious lack of experience in real combat, though Han noted that Naruto had an opening but seemed to not go for it despite seeing it.

Regardless, the boy’s potential was obvious to the seasoned shinobi. It was no wonder he was able to survive the curse mark being placed on him. Han could only imagine where Orochimaru had found him. He might have been a real promising shinobi had he had the proper resources and background, like being raised in a normal hidden village.

Naruto used his speed to take the upper-hand, and he took a swipe with the sword, and gave the boy a nasty cut on his arm despite his best efforts.

The boy was out of his depths, but he was doing great so far. He even showed that he did know some basic ninjutsu as he tried again, futilely, to weave signs.

“I wonder if Lord Tsuchikag-“ Han cut off his thought. His stoic demeanor not changing externally but feeling his mood slightly sour. That man had betrayed him and left him out to die for all he knew. Han grew bitter as memories of his final moments alive churned in his mind.

“Kokuo…” Han thought, suddenly solemn, trying to banish the thoughts of his former village from his mind “That’s what Naruto said your name was. I wonder if I had not been so brainwashed by Iwagakure and served a village that scorned me, if you and I could have been friends…”

Han’s thoughts were interrupted as the boy suddenly let out a sharp gasp. Scanning the area, Han realized what had happened as he saw an obvious burn mark on the boy, who had dropped to the ground, with one knee propping himself up, and one arm clutching his stomach.

“A valiant effort, nobody can say he didn’t do his best.”

Naruto reached out a hand to the boy.

“Sorry about the mark brat, but you really got me feeling pressured ya know!” Naruto said excitedly.

Han couldn’t help but smile to himself at Naruto’s words. The praise was fake. He hadn’t pushed Naruto to his limits at all, seemingly just unnerving the blonde jinchuriki a bit by using the curse mark, though Han did again take note of how long the battle took when Naruto could have easily won this fight very quickly.

Naruto had confided to Han about his secret studying and training. It was clear Naruto had much potential, he just needed more time in the field using his knowledge and techniques properly.

It was apparent to Han that the time he spent diligently studying and training leading up to his exile helped him improve on its own considerably, as he was able to go toe to toe with root anbu according to what Naruto told him, though Naruto also claimed that he felt they were sending the weaker, more passionate, and anti-Nine-Tails and Naruto root Anbu after him and not the super skilled ones who could actually pose a threat..

Han thought back to his own time spent studying, as little as it was, especially compared to Naruto. Studying a book helps a ton but does not make you strong on its own, outside of marginal improvement. Only a lot of training and experience earned in the real-world, be it through life and death fights or just doing challenging missions, will help you improve.

However, understanding and truly grasping jutsus you want to use at a technical level and having a solid foundation of knowledge on the various fields Naruto said he read about would no doubt cause him to exponentially explode in power if he trains properly and gets the right practice…

Han shuddered at the thought of how powerful Naruto could be if he mastered everything he claimed to have studied, especially with the Nine-Tails inside of him…

The boy hesitatingly took Naruto’s hand, his face showing obvious signs of suspicion, as if analyzing Naruto for something.

Once he stood up, before Naruto could say anything more, the boy ripped his hand away and ran past him. Obviously upset. For all his potential, he was still a child.

As the boy ran out, Kabuto returned to the room, catching Naruto’s eye.

“Lord Orochimaru is here to see you now Naruto” the man said, a smile being masked in the slight darkness of the cave’s room.

Kurama’s POV

“Be on guard Naruto” the fox thought to himself as Naruto stalked after Kabuto, with Han behind.

He wasn’t sure what the snake sannin wanted with his host, but he would sure be ready for anything.

As if Naruto could read his mind, he suddenly turned to Kabuto and asked.

“Do you know why I’m here Kabuto?”

Kurama caught the man with glasses shift a bit at the question and hesitate slightly. He had not been expecting this.

“I am merely the messenger” the man said as he seemed to recover slightly.

“Why would Kabuto not know? He is Orochimaru’s right hand man? Is it really possible that Kabuto has no idea what Orochimaru is plotting with Naruto?” Kurama mused to himself.

Naruto remained silent. The trio of men walked, and all Kurama could do was wait. Sometimes, he really hated being sealed inside a jinchuriki.

Kurama looked around Naruto’s surroundings. He noted that like the initial hallway that Naruto had been sleeping in, these rooms actually had doors and not just empty holes in the wall being used as passages.

Kabuto suddenly stopped and turned, motioning to a door to the right of the group.

“Lord Orochimaru is in there” the white-haired man said.

Naruto nodded and turned to enter. He paused.

“Han is coming with me” Naruto suddenly said.

“Of course” Kabuto replied instantly, growing impatience evident in his voice.

Naruto looked to Kokuo’s former jinchuriki, who nodded with his stoic demeanor.

Pushing open the door, Kurama prepared to use his chakra as much as he could if it came down to it.

Naruto’s POV

As the door creaked open, Naruto felt an evil presence. A familiar one. A cold chill ran down his spine, as he suddenly felt very similar to how he had during that fateful encounter in the Forest of Death during the Chunin exams.

He felt sharp eyes on him as soon as he entered. He looked up to meet the gaze of the sitting man.

Unexpectedly, Naruto did not see the man as he remembered. The person who sat in front of him had tousled, neck-length greenish-white hair.

“Ah…Naruto-kun” a slithery voice said. Naruto shuddered a bit, before taking a small step forward.

“I don’t bite Naruto…” the man said before pausing with a small toothy grin threatening to touch his lips. “Well maybe I do a little.”

Naruto shook his head at the poor attempt at a joke. The sannin seemed pleased with himself for that one.

“You don’t look like who I remember, but I can’t forget this feeling…Orochimaru.” The jinchuriki muttered toward the sitting man.

“I get that a lot” the man said somewhat gleefully, as if taking pride in it.

“What do you want?” Naruto said, attempting to mask his trepidation with a face of resolve. He doubted it worked at all.

“Sasuke” the sannin said, frowning and eyes narrowing at Naruto as he said it. “But I suppose it’ll have to wait, since you dragged him back to the Leaf.”

It was Naruto’s turn to narrow his eyes.

“Snippy are you. Are you going to kill me for it?” Naruto asked bluntly, trying to hide his trembling the best he could.

“Why of course not Naruto! I would never kill such a promising specimen such as yourself. We can even be allies now that your ties to the Leaf have been severed. While it is a shame about Sasuke, it’s not like I really need him immediately anymore, even if I would have preferred for him to have made it here.” Orochimaru said with a light sigh.

He continued. “But let bygones be bygones if you would Naruto, for new opportunities have arisen for us with the sudden turn of events that took place for you in the Leaf.” Orochimaru said with his seemingly trademark look of satisfaction and excitement painted on his face.

Naruto felt a wave of relief flood him. He was of course still on high alert since he wasn’t sure he could trust the snake sannin, but he still felt so much better as he heard the words from Orochimaru himself. He had been ready to make a desperate last stand, as fruitless as it would have been.

This man really did contrast the toad sannin in a lot of ways.

Orochimaru stood up, with obvious discomfort in his step. He smiled.

“What would I ever get from aligning with you?” Naruto asked, taking an involuntary step back.

“Revenge on Konoha perhaps? But no, you don’t fully hate them. Not yet at least.”

Naruto stood in place. A long awkward silence filled the room, save for the light drip of the occasional water droplet falling from a lone stalactite to the floor off to the side of the room.

Naruto finally broke the silence.

“I don’t really care about revenge right now. It’s not like I would be strong enough to enact it on the village anyways, even if I wanted.”

“Ah but that’s where you’re wrong Naruto!” Orochimaru said. “Inside you is the power of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. You could easily wreak havoc on the village with the mindless beast.”

Naruto felt Kurama’s anger slightly flare at the insult. He ignored it.

“I am not going to release the Kyubi in the village and kill myself in the process. I am tired of letting the fact that I am a jinchuriki rule my life. I am my own person too ya know.” Naruto snapped at the disturbing looking man.

“Who said I was talking about unleashing him? What if you could take on his form?”

Naruto stiffened. He knew where Orochimaru was going with this. Mastery of Kurama’s chakra. He had thought about it plenty of times sure, but he didn’t want to use Kurama as just a battery or chakra power source. Not anymore at least.

He’d be no better than the hidden villages.

“Not interested. Again, I don’t want to use this monster’s chakra after it’s the reason I was so hated” Naruto spoke, feigning an ignorance and dislike for Kurama while trying to act nonchalant about the offer. He didn’t want Orochimaru to know about his budding friendship with the tailed beast. He would have to apologize to the fox later.

“I hope Kurama knows I am just bluffing” Naruto worriedly thought to himself. He didn’t hear Kurama speak, so he just assumed the fox understood why he said what he did.

Despite his best efforts though, a part of Naruto was mentally hung up about the subject. He really did want to master Kurama’s chakra, and if Orochimaru was indeed going to offer, it was tempting.

Though Naruto mentally rid himself of the thoughts of prematurely trying to master the fox’s chakra quickly.

“I want it to be between us, and not on anybody else’s terms. I will do it through our bond and not through whatever method Orochimaru seemed to have concocted.” Naruto thought with much resolve. “I will not be a weapon like the village wanted and I certainly won’t turn Kurama into one either.”

Now if only he could figure out how to approach Kurama about the subject without sounding like he was just using him or pretending to gain his favor to get access to his chakra and power.

Orochimaru, who had been intently observing Naruto, finally looked away.

“Pity. Understandable though after the life you have lived. Maybe if the villagers knew more of your origins you would have been more respected-”

This line immediately snapped Naruto out of his thoughts, and the blonde quickly cut off Orochimaru as he was speaking.

“Origins…you mean! You know who my parents are!” Naruto exclaimed, not even trying to mask his shock.

“Why of course Naruto! I was a candidate to become the Fourth Hokage after all. I of all people would have known things that the average Leaf shinobi didn’t. Especially because I could never forget him…” Orochimaru trailed off at the end, speaking more to himself, as a look of bitterness seemed to be crossing his face for a second.

He quickly returned his gaze and face toward the preteen with a smile.

“You don’t seek revenge or hate them completely, but as I said, not yet. It is not revenge that motivates you like your former teammate, but information. Very interesting, I never would have taken you for someone who would be interested in that” Orochimaru thought aloud.

Naruto felt his face begin to burn.

“Kami, now I am acting like Hinata always does.” Naruto thought to himself as he put his hands to his face, feeling the warmth.

“Orochimaru read me like a book.” Naruto groaned inwardly at the thought and for acting so immaturely in this important meeting.

Orochimaru interrupted Naruto’s mental pity party.

“If you knew everything I did, you’d hate those villagers. Enough to even forego this tragic hero persona you’re putting on for me of not seeking revenge or not acting a bit evil” Orochimaru spat.

Naruto didn’t respond.

Orochimaru sat back down.

“I have a mission I need done that I am not in anyway capable of doing right now as you can see Naruto.” Orochimaru then began.

Naruto inquisitively snapped his head back to look at the sannin and his unfamiliar look again, having not expected this.

“Before you ask, it’s not anything crazy. Just think of it like a mission from a superior in the Leaf. We are both exiled shinobi now, so you could say I am your superior in a way” Orochimaru joked aloud.

“You went rouge. I was kicked out. Big difference.” Naruto growled.

“Fair point. But still. There is nothing wrong with our alliance. We both know you’ll be hunted by the Leaf, regardless of what you do. In exchange for your help, I am willing to offer some…information.”

“Like my parents??” Naruto asked excitedly.

“Of course! Not just that. I had spies do some digging. Are you not interested in Sasuke’s current doings? Or maybe perhaps why Tsunade banished you the way she did, without even the slightest fair trial or having a Yamanaka peer into your mind to see if Sasuke was telling the truth? It was well within her power as the Hokage, and yet she didn’t do it despite her supposed love and care for you.”

Naruto listened, growing uneasy. Orochimaru was making a scary good offer.

“You should do it kid.” Kurama suddenly piped up. “I don’t think he is lying. He really seems to know something about everything he has said. I am not crazy about working with this man in any capacity, but at this point, what else do you have to lose? He may be your only shot of getting answers that even I don’t know, like about the Hokage brat doing what she did.”

Naruto listened. Even Kurama was on board.

“These two are going to be the death of me” Naruto thought to himself, taking a deep breath. He looked Orochimaru dead in his snake like eyes.

“Deal. Whatever it is, name it and it shall be done. But you better make good on your promise Orochimaru, to tell me what you deem I should know.”

Naruto was not going to demand to know everything. Even he knew the snake sannin would simply ignore the demand anyway. He figured if he let Orochimaru decide what he should tell Naruto, that it would make the sannin more open to telling him more things.

He hoped.

Orochimaru merely smiled. “Wonderful.”

With a lot of straining, he raised his hand to point. It was clear to Naruto that Orochimaru had been in a great deal of pain for a while.

He pointed to Han, who stood behind Naruto by a fair distance.

“You. You are to accompany him. Not as a jailor though. Naruto is free to do what he likes. I know his curiosity and desire to learn about these important things will keep him from betraying me.” Orochimaru said with an evil grin.

Naruto merely grimaced, knowing the snake sannin was right. But again, what did he have to lose now by doing it, especially with the tantalizing offer of knowledge he so sought after?

“You are merely to accompany Naruto as a teammate and even bodyguard if you deem it necessary or want to. You’re free to make your own decisions and use your own discretion though. The only restriction is that you must not stray from him to far.” Orochimaru continued.

Han grunted.

Orochimaru turned his attention back to Naruto.

“This mission will not be a walk in the park. You will need more power, hence why I bought up helping you master the Kyubi’s chakra. I had some experiments in mind that I thought could work, but boringly you seem so adamantly against it, so plan B will have to suffice.”

Orochimaru again looked back behind Naruto, and Naruto turned to see a Kabuto on one knee, showing reverence to his Lord Orochimaru, and watched as the sannin nodded at the medical ninja.

Kabuto opened the door and let in two people: a man in chains that looked beat up and the boy Naruto had fought earlier.

“What are you doi-“ Naruto tried to ask but was shushed by Orochimaru.

The boy noticed the blonde and eyed him suspiciously.

“He still isn’t very receptive of me it seems” Naruto thought idly, curious what was about to happen.

“Do it” Kabuto commanded the boy in his tattered clothing.

The boy nodded, before pulling out a small tanto.

“You see Naruto, this tanto is special. I specifically told him not to use it when he sparred with you earlier. This one can conduct chakra we believe, at least that’s what we believe based off everything we have seen.” Kabuto explained.

“So?”

Kabuto grinned and adjusted his glasses. “Watch.”

The boy began using his curse mark. He channeled the curse markings and his chakra. Naruto watched in slight awe as the curse markings began to only cover the arm holding the kunai, and the familiar blue hue of chakra hummed to life around and in the tanto he held.

The boy walked up to the heavily chained man. Naruto stared at the man. He just seemed so tired of life.

Suddenly, the air in the room felt bleak, as the boy closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, the boy’s eyes were no longer his normal brown eyes. Instead, in their place, his sclera was no longer white, but black. His irises were yellow, and the pupils had become black.

These were not the eyes of any Kekkei Genkai or dojutsu Naruto had read about or even heard about.

Naruto felt cold, as he stared into the eyes. A quick glance around the room showed him that the normally stoic Han was also wide-eyed as he watched, while Kabuto and Orochimaru seemed satisfied and excited to be watching this. The rest of the room fell away as Naruto focused in on those eyes.

These were not human eyes.

Chapter Text

The sound of bodies hitting the ground with a thump reverberated around Naruto, as he sheathed his sword. Gripping his Kitsune mask to his face, he turned to look at one of the poor shinobis he had sent to the grassy floor. He wasn’t dead, far from it. The ninja turned around and looked at the figure he didn’t know, with an all too familiar look to Naruto, that being of seething hatred in his eyes.

The man picked up his arms and tried to get himself up, and Naruto smiled deviously as he watched the man’s face turn from anger and hatred to confusion, and then eventually horror.

“I-I can’t move my legs!” the man muttered out, in obvious shock at his startling realization.

Merely turning his back and striding away, Naruto didn’t pay any more attention to him. He had a mission after all. Though, Naruto did cringe slightly to himself as he felt the curse mark that had spread through his arm begin to recede into its original Earth mark design on the right side of the back of his neck.

Recalling his three-month training though, Naruto relaxed himself the best he could in order to try and quell and ignore the still new sensation of the oddly straight and rectangular black markings on his body pulling back to their source, and continued to make his way through the woods as he heard the now very familiar footsteps of a certain red-clad ex-jinchuriki not too far off.

“Naruto” the tall man called out solemnly to the masked blonde.

“Yeah?” Naruto replied.

“Are you sure we should have let them live? The shinobi I mean. Isn’t it dangerous to leave possible witnesses for Konoha to realize who you are and what your powers could be?”

“Don’t worry. To the ninja of the Leaf, I’m just the talentless loser who housed the nine-tailed fox that wreaked havoc on the village. Assuming those ninjas knew what I did, none of them would believe that it was me.” Naruto simply responded, a hint of disdain rising in his voice.

Han didn’t speak. Naruto continued.

“Besides, we aren’t in any danger. We are heading further away from the village. If we keep going east, we’ll eventually hit the sea. Then we’ll be only a few boat rides away from the Hidden Mist in the Land of Water. Konoha shinobi presence should be dramatically lessened the further we get from the heart of the Land of Fire.” Naruto spoke matter-of-factly.

“Okay, but what business do we have with the Mist?” Han inquired politely. “I hardly have ever seen this side of the world; the Hidden Stone is pretty much entirely opposite to the Land of Water on the world map.”

It was Naruto’s turn to not speak.

Pushing back the questions that played on his mind, Han simply resumed focusing on traveling in silence.

“Kid, why don’t you tell him what Orochimaru asked of you?” Naruto suddenly felt a voice reply in his mind.

“Because Kurama” Naruto started in a hushed whisper, making sure that the tall man wasn’t privy to the conversation. “I don’t want to risk anything. I trust him, but only Han, not the people who are currently commanding him. Who knows what orders Han has been given by Orochimaru and Kabuto?”

“Kid that’s contradictory!” Kurama snapped. “You said you trusted him and even divulged sensitive information about your life. Why the sudden secretiveness about something that he’ll find out anyways?”

Naruto listened carefully, before responding.

“Just trust me, I have a plan for that Kurama. I need him far away from Orochimaru and Kabuto though for it to work best, or at least just to feel safe before I mention it.”

Hearing the fox audibly groan caused Naruto to smile in mild amusement to himself at the tailed beast’s annoyance.

“You’ve become so much more jaded since we left the Leaf.” Kurama grumbled.

“Well, you’ve become way more open, so we’ll call it even ya know” Naruto said louder than he thought with a chuckle.

“Talking to Kurama again?” the tall man spoke suddenly.

Naruto faltered a bit, nearly losing his footing at the sudden interjection.

“O-Oh yeah.” Naruto sheepishly responded, slightly embarrassed to have forgotten about the former five-tails jinchuriki, even just briefly.

A brief lull fell between the two shinobi as they continued on their way, making sure to take precautions to not run into any enemy ninja.

“Do you think that Kokuo and I could have had that?” Han suddenly asked, in a slightly sadder yet dreamlike tone.

Naruto glanced at the ninja who was looking slightly into the sky. He had apparently been talking to himself more than anybody in particular.

Naruto smiled at the older man.

“I bet you could have, believe it!” Naruto suddenly said in a chipper voice, hoping he had not just lied to Han.

“Thank you, Naruto,” Han spoke in response, seeming sincere yet maintaining the trademark stoicism that Naruto had come to expect.

“Kami help me, this man is so hard to read.” Naruto thought to himself in a half-joking manner, as silence settled in again and the two continued on their journey.

-
Sakura’s POV
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AM BEING MOVED FROM SQUAD 7?” a pink haired banshee screeched at the poor masked Anbu.

“Sakura Haruno, it is by order of Lady Hokage herself that you are to be reassigned. According to your shinobi assessment, it has come to light that you would be better suited under a genjutsu master than Kakashi Hatake. Therefore, you are now on Team 8, under the instruction of Kurenai Yuhi” the masked man said with no emotion in his tone.

“BUT WHAT ABOUT SASUKE? I WILL BE A MEDICAL NINJA IN TRAINING ONCE LADY TSUNADE TAKES ME IN AND ABLE TO LOOK AFTER HIM” Sakura shrieked backed.

This time, the Anbu member visibly recoiled and sighed. Raising an arm to readjust his mask, he continued his message.

“Your concern is noted Ms. Haruno, but don’t worry, Sasuke will be reassigned appropriately as well. With the traitorous Uzumaki brat gone, Team 7 is down to three, and again, under the new assessment system that our Hokage has put in place, your talents and potential would be better suited to a new sensei. As for Lady Tsunade, she has other matters she must attend to with our government system still being relatively new and is not looking to take on new students. She seems especially against helping you.”

Sakura stared at the man with a painful expression for a long moment, before he used the Body Flicker technique without warning upon seeing that Sakura wasn’t raising another objection.

Sighing and knowing she wouldn’t be able to sit still, Sakura began walking around the village, villagers smiling at her in a friendly way, and others giving nods of respect upon noticing her Leaf headband.

Sakura was on autopilot as she smiled back at the villagers that she had always found to be more than amicable, but she was mostly in her own head, thinking about everything.

She had known after being turned down by Tsunade that it would be a long shot to get her to train her in the future with how the Hokage’s increasingly negative behavior affected her ability to govern, yet alone train an apprentice, but Sakura had been hopeful despite the village seemingly changing.

Ever since the decision to get rid of Naruto, while it was still mostly a secret that only Konoha knew, it had caused a few reactions. Notably, for some reason Tsunade sank further into despair following Naruto’s exile, and began drinking in even more excess, much to Shizune’s concern.

Sakura grimaced as she recalled what she had been told by Shizune, that the only reason Tsunade seemed to still be alive was she was able to tend to her own liver with her skill in medical ninjutsu.

Sakura would never forget the look of sadness and what Shizune said next. “It’s almost like she doesn’t want to live anymore but can’t keep herself from saving her own life, as if she couldn’t or didn’t want to die.”

It was due to Tsunade’s worsening conditions that nobody seemed to be able to figure out a solid reason for, that a new emergency council had been set-up, with heads of the most notable clans around Konoha becoming members, both shinobi and civilian alike.

In what was becoming the new norm for the Hokage, in her drunken and uncaring stupor, Tsunade signed off on it, effectively turning Konoha into an oligarchy.

The three elders sat at the top of the power structure with only Tsunade above them and holding the power of veto that she could use if she so desired against any new motions or bills.

The council wasn’t anything to formal either, as despite votes and discussions taking place and being considered by the new councilman, the power was still relatively top-heavy so to speak, and most of the time, the final say went in favor of the Hokage and elders who were closer to the top, but decisions could still be argued by the rest of the group.

It had been a huge shock to most people when Tsunade, in an increasingly rare instance of soberness, informed the village that she had put a new council in place. She had tried to sell it as giving more power and influence to the people of the Leaf, but most were quick to discredit that as a true reason, mostly because there had been no voting, the new positions of power simply went to the most powerful people in the village.

Not that it mattered of course. Despite the excessive alcoholism and turn for the worse that Tsunade was taking, her overall approval by the Leaf was at an all-time high, particularly from majority of the civilians. Exiling Naruto had caused a surge of support to build for her, as the demon of the Leaf that plagued the streets for years was finally gone and it was all thanks to her.

Sakura smiled to herself.

“At least Lady Tsunade had half a brain to get rid of stupid Naruto. Because of that, the village loves her, and she can do practically whatever she wants with the support of the masses.”

Pulling herself out of her own thoughts, Sakura realized she had walked all the way to the Academy, where saw watched kids sparring. She smiled weakly to herself noticing the familiar face of Iruka-sensei overseeing them.

Rejuvenated at the sight of these shinobi hopefuls, she felt resolute in her desire to become a worthy kunoichi of Sasuke’s hand and the mighty Uchiha clan surname.

Afterall, was there anything more important?

“What the heck, one last shot!” Sakura thought confidently yet naively to herself as she threw open the doors to the building that housed the Hokage’s office, already hearing Shizune scolding her master’s drinking habit.

-
Naruto’s POV
“HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT KID!” the now familiar voice of the Nine-Tail Fox roared, as Naruto flew through the air, Rasengan at the ready in his palm on his outstretched hand.

The deep voiced Han stood in place, bracing for the attack. He quickly got into a defensive position and prepared to counter the blonde’s attack.

“RASENGAN” Naruto exclaimed as the swirling ball of chakra collided with the man’s armor.

Han recoiled with a grunt, allowing his red chest plate to absorb the blow, as he suddenly threw a punch at his now vulnerable to attack opponent.

Naruto saw the fist as it swung at him last minute and was momentarily stunned at the speed of the attack but being unable to physically counter it in the moment, he felt it collide full force into his shoulder and the sheer power behind the blow sent Naruto flying away once again, this time in the opposite direction from where he had come from.

Landing with a thud near a tree, Naruto groaned as he slowly stood up, clutching his shoulder with his good hand, and smiled at Han.

“It was worth a try ya know” the jinchuriki said as he excitedly walked back to the tall man.

Naruto heard Kurama sigh but ignored it. Naruto knew it wasn’t anything bad, it likely meant that Kurama had been hoping Naruto would have prevailed or countered better somehow. The fact that he wasn’t being chastised meant the fox was likely getting ready to nap as he often seemed to do.

Not that Naruto blamed him, he didn’t know what he would either to pass the time if he was sealed inside somebody like the tailed beasts often were.

Han simply nodded in response, before relaxing his stance visibly. It was obvious to Naruto that the seasoned war veteran was hardly even winded, much to Naruto’s slight disappointment.

“Sorry for the impromptu training session. I was feeling antsy now that we have not seen a real enemy in a while.” Naruto spoke casually as he approached, making shadow clones to begin gathering wood from the surrounding forest to prepare a fire as the sun was beginning to set.

The trio of Naruto, Han, and Kurama had traveled a great distance through the day as there had been no hiccups or enemies to slow them down after their brief initial morning encounter. It seemed Naruto had been correct in his assessment that Leaf shinobi would be sparser this far away from the village.

A couple hours later, the duo sat with the moon beginning to get overhead. Using some fishing techniques at a local pond, Naruto had managed to capture quite the haul. More than enough for him and Han. He knew Han didn’t need to eat, but felt he deserved it. He didn’t want to treat a fellow jinchuriki with any disrespect, tailed beast or not.

The two ate in silence as the small fire burned. This was another tactic Han had told Naruto. He only built a small fire to minimize the smoke let off into the open night sky.

As Han put it, “There is no need to transmit your exact location to any potential threat or enemy.”

Wisely, Naruto listened with great intent on absorbing the wisdom he could gather and took great caution to retain the information from the reanimated ninja who had a couple decades of experience on him.

As the two sat, Han looked down at Naruto’s bag that was sitting beside the boy. The Kitsune mask that he had been given by Orochimaru and Kabuto, alongside two Sound Village ninja headbands hung off the edge of the bag.

Neither Han or Naruto seemed particularly keen on wearing them this close to Konoha and because of there now known relation to the criminal Orochimaru.

Even though they were technically on a mission by Orochimaru, the leader of the ‘Village’ Hidden in the Sounds, and could be called Sound ninja technically as they had Orochimaru’s permission and he had basically made them de facto shinobi of his village, they had decided shortly after leaving to only present the headbands if they absolutely had to, such as proving their relation to a village, even if they knew that the Sound wasn’t an exactly popular, or even true shinobi village in the normal sense of the word.

However, Han focused in on the Kitsune mask that Naruto had been given to help mask his identity. He suddenly found himself curious.

“Why have you not used Kurama’s chakra?” Han asked suddenly, slightly scaring Naruto who had been off in his own head while eating.

After a brief hesitation and pause at the out of nowhere question, Naruto checked and was thankful to see that he seemed to be correct in his earlier thoughts and Kurama was indeed snoozing away. A small, momentary relief washed through the blonde’s body.

“W-where did that come from?” Naruto asked in response to Han in a hushed tone, after taking a moment to recover, the crackling of the small fire being the only sound that permeated the now suddenly awkward atmosphere between the two shinobi.

“You and Kurama are closer than I think I have ever seen a host and his tailed beast be. I have come to wonder why you seem to never use his chakra, either in battle or training.”

Naruto looked at the ground sheepishly.

“Well ya know.” Naruto started “I feel like it’s an awkward point to bring up. It’s still relatively new that me and Kurama got onto speaking terms like we are. It only really started after the mission to retrieve Sasuke…” Naruto trailed off at the mention.

Han studied the boy, noticing his demeanor shift to a much darker place than it previously was.

Naruto continued without noticing Han’s eyes on him.

“Let’s just say, I was viewed as nothing more than a weapon, and then a liability. It was dumb of me to think the same villagers who despised me would allow me to become the Hokage. I don’t want Kurama to think I am only befriending him because I want access to his power and use him as a weapon.” Naruto spoke in a soft yet serious manner.

Finally returning his gaze to the red clad man, by looking up and meeting his eyes, Naruto felt extremely awkward as he noticed Han seemed to be scanning him.

“What are you looking at?” Naruto said, breaking the tense silence and looking away again. “It isn’t like I have no interest in mastering his power. Nobody would say no to that…but I don’t want to force him to give it to me in any way or expect it from him, I guess. Kurama will willingly share his chakra when he wants to. Until then, if it ever happens in the first place, I plan to be able to stand on my own power.”

“I see” the former Stone shinobi said. “Seeing you and Kurama is just a marvel to me and I think you would be the best jinchuriki on the planet if you got access to the nine-tail’s chakra. You guys seem like y’all are already on the same page most of the time and being that in-sync would probably give you tremendous power as you effortlessly would be able to command it with Kurama’s help and blessing.”

Naruto knew he must have given an odd look to Han, because the man continued after he looked at Naruto’s face.

“Back in the Third Shinobi World War, I was still alive and fighting for Iwagakure. I was fiercely loyal to the Tsuchikage. The five-tails and I didn’t see eye to eye. I fought alongside Roshi as we transformed into our respective tailed beasts once actually and used Tailed Beast Bombs against Konoha forces. However, it was more forced onto Kokuo…we weren’t friends.”

Naruto listened to Han, surprised at this sudden confession. He had no idea that Han had that much control over Kokuo. Being able to transform and use powerful attacks like the Tailed Beast Ball despite not being fully in-sync with Kokuo was something he didn’t expect to be possible, even if it did make a sort of sense that after being with Kokuo for so long, they had probably come to some type of agreement about Han using Kokuo’s chakra to power-up, and they were use to each other.

Still though, despite his studying, Naruto had never actually considered what could affect his ability as a jinchuriki to draw out his tailed beast’s power, so hearing from somebody experienced like Han, made Naruto feel like he had hit the jackpot with how much he could theoretically learn about being a jinchuriki from Han.

Suddenly, a light bulb clicked in Naruto’s mind.

“Roshi?” Naruto asked inquisitively, cocking his head to the side.

“Jinchuriki to the Four-Tails who also belonged to the Hidden Stone…I don’t know his tailed beast’s real name. Not sure if Roshi did either, we didn’t really talk about it.” Han said as he finished his meal and stood up to begin the quick clean up to get ready to sleep.

Naruto’s head was filled with questions, but he quietly also stood up and began trying to help clean up their small camp area of the excess fish, wood, and leaves, but his exhaustion from the day’s trip and training caused him to decide that he would need to ask more questions to Han tomorrow and not right now.

After a quick few minutes, the duo made their way towards the small shelter that Naruto’s clones had made earlier while others and the real Naruto had been fishing. There were no caves for them to sleep in now that they were traveling away from Orochimaru’s hideout, unfortunately.

“You can sleep Naruto. I’ll take the first watch.” Han told the boy, as he sat down in front of the small makeshift shelter.

“Thanks Han!” Naruto said nodding at the man, mustering as much energy as he could to talk and make the gesture. He truly was grateful for Han’s company even if he never told the tall man that.

Entering the shelter, Naruto laid down on the uncomfortable grassy ground.

Thoughts raced through his increasingly fatigued mind, but slowly, he drifted off to sleep as he shushed the thoughts in his head the best he could.

Unknown to the sleeping Naruto, an awake and alert Kurama had been listening in on his earlier conversation with Han the entire time.

Chapter Text

???’s POV
A beaten and bloodied girl lifts herself with all her might, as she slowly makes her way out of her village. Tears and blood smear together.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, this was so unlucky” a voice from within called out.

“Don’t worry about it!” the tired voice of the girl said out loud, trying not to sound strained. “They just don’t understand us is all, and we need to change that.”

The tan skinned woman stood up straight with all her might, wiped away what remained of her previously teary eyes and put on a smile, desperately trying to hide her grunts of pain.

“We are gonna show them that tailed beast and shinobi can get along! But to do that, I am gonna need some friends, and I won’t find them here. I am tired of the secluded lifestyle anyways. Time to strike out on my own, whether Shibuki is fine with it or not!”

Following the proud proclamation, a set of bug-like wings sprouted from her lower back.

Following the slight wince, she began to flutter away from the village and her tormentors.

“Oh Fu, for your sake I hope you know what you are doing.” The deep, bug-like voice said.

Kakashi’s POV
Kakashi felt exhausted as he stalked behind the elder Homura. It had been another tiring day as felt were becoming far more common than he would have liked. As Homura entered the council meeting room, the copy ninja inwardly felt himself grow giddy.

“Finally, a break while I just listen to this meeting” Kakashi thought to himself as he took his usual spot.

As the various clan heads and elders shuffled in, Kakashi watched from behind his dog mask.

It had been a tiring few months ever since Lady Tsunade put the council in effect as a governing body. Following Naruto’s banishment, things had become very different. Shortly after Naruto had left and the emergency council was formed, Kakashi had been informed that he was being transferred from the normal shinobi ranks to the Hokage’s Anbu.

Kakashi didn’t think much of it, as he figured that maybe with his team so splintered he would be replaced, and not to mention in the wake of the Konoha crush, the still recovering village needed more capable ninja who could do difficult missions to keep the village up and running.

He figured Lady Tsunade knew what she was doing despite her increasingly debilitating state.

It wasn’t until Danzo had approached him with signed papers from the Hokage that said his new assignment was to act as a personal bodyguard to elder Homura, that Kakashi really questioned why he was moved. Surely, there was more worthwhile mission for a ninja of his caliber with his skillset.

Kakashi begrudgingly accepted his orders, chalking it up to the fact that the elders now held much more political power in Konoha, so they would become prime targets for assassins unhappy with the new status quo. So, he figured a temporary gig as a bodyguard for one of the honored elders would be a worthwhile endeavor to do for the sake of the Leaf.

However, as the months passed by, Kakashi began to realize he was not being swapped out and Homura was growing increasingly busier as she took on more responsibility that the Hokage held.

She was constantly working, leading to Kakashi feeling overworked as he was instructed by Tsunade that he would become her sole bodyguard, so he had to be on duty as much as she was working, which felt like all day most of the time, multiple days a week.

He had tried to protest, but the Godaime wasn’t hearing it. She firmly told Kakashi those were his orders, and he would faithfully complete them as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.

So Kakashi kept up with his orders dutifully, and that included acting as her guard at council meetings, which were some of the few times Kakashi knew he would be guaranteed a small break where he could relax a bit.

Danzo and Tsunade came in as the last two of the council to arrive, and Shizune began to call for order as Tsunade approached the speaker’s podium that sat at the middle of the room, with a smaller desk in front of it that sat three people, and two long desks that stretched longways in the room, equal distance away from the speaker’s podium on each side.

“Thank you for coming to our usual meeting everybody. Don’t worry, today is a shorter one. It’s more of a briefing.” Tsunade started, as everybody looked to her.

“Firstly, our new genin squads that consist of mostly heirs and heiresses have been finalized and they have all been reassigned accordingly.”

“Genin team reassignment?” Kakashi thought to himself with surprise. He hadn’t expected that.

“Yeah, about that Lady Hokage, I have an issue with it” a man with his hair tied up into a spiky ponytail and two scars on the right side of his face spoke up as he stood.

“Yes Shikaku?” Tsunade asked, turning to meet the eyes of the Nara clan head.

“It’s just, the Ino-Shika-Cho formation has been in the Leaf for generations working together and looking over these teams, I take issue with the fact that not only is Shikamaru separated from Ino and Choji, but Ino and Choji aren’t even under the leadership of a Sarutobi” Shikaku calmly explained.

“Yes, well you see, we decided that while Team 10 was probably the best of the genin teams as we had them, that these new teams are more fitting for each individual young shinobi’s needs and strengths. They will all learn well to the best of their ability with their new sensei and teammates.”

“But Lady Tsunade, surely you aren’t serious about this? This has been in the village for generations!” Inoichi, the blonde Yamanaka leader exclaimed in support of his past teammate.

“Yeah! I cannot support th-“ Choza began, before being cut off by a familiar voice that was becoming much more common to hear in these meetings.

“I believe the Hokage has made herself quite clear and by having acted on it already, has made up her mind. So, I expect silence from you three.” Danzo suddenly spoke in a harsh, commanding tone.

The voice of the mummy-like shinobi caused silence to fill the room, as the three clan heads took their seats reluctantly, with Shikaku begrudgingly doing so if his face was anything to go off of.

Kakashi could never quite place why Danzo was so supportive of Tsunade now when he use to fight Lord Third on everything he could without being insubordinate.

It had been increasingly commonplace lately to see Danzo stick up for the slug sannin, and he seemed almost emboldened by her silence on his support for some reason, at least enough to make more demands and give orders to ninja that he realistically shouldn’t have been able to, as he had no actual authority over them.

“Perhaps he is finally developing a sense of respect for the office” Kakashi joked to himself, knowing full well that Danzo starting to respect the Hokage was not the reason for this puzzling change.

Kakashi looked towards the guard for Danzo and was far more surprised to see for the first time a rather short figure wearing an anbu mask and a root uniform. All Kakashi could make out was somewhat familiar looking black hair that he couldn’t seem to place.

“Who is that? He looks like a kid?” Kakashi mused to himself without really paying it too much attention, as he was half-distracted and rather bored. He didn’t really care for the meeting. It didn’t concern him after all.

Kakashi felt at his pouch and traced the outline of his ever-present Icha Icha book. He pondered if he should be bold enough to read it.

Danzo continued. “The new teams for those who have not heard are as follows: Team 8 under Kurenai being Sakura, Choji, and Ino. Team 9 under Guy being Lee, Hinata, Shino, and Neji. Team 10 under Asuma being Shikamaru, Tenten, and Kiba. Team 7 under Kakashi Hatake has been disbanded due to the nine-tailed jinchuriki's banishment and Sasuke’s promotion to Chunin.”

“That’s strange, I don’t remember hearing about Sasuke being promoted” Kakashi realized as he grimaced. “Though I guess I have not really been in the loop for a while now. If I see him, I’ll have to congratulate him.”

Kakashi then finally pulled out his book, and with a small eye smile to himself that nobody else could see due to his mask, he began to read from where he had left off, beginning to only faintly listen to the ongoing meeting now.

“The second order of business is on possible activity by Orochimaru. We have intel that suggests the Hidden Sound Village is still around and there is a currently active hideout within the Land of Fire, possibly not too far away from the village. We are already looking into assembling a team if we feel it necessary to act on this information.” Tsunade stated in a formal, but bored tone to inform the council.

“Next we have…” Kakashi began to drown out the meeting as he usually did, further immersing himself in his book. He was just there to make sure Homura was safe. He didn’t want to risk looking like he wanted more responsibility.

-An hour and a half later-

“…the man slowly used a kunai to cut off the woman’s bra. In the moment, she didn’t care. She needed him more than a pristine shirt and bra. ‘I. need. you.’ she said in a desperate, sultry tone, as she began to move her hand towards the handsome white spiky-haired man’s pants. She first unbuttoned the few buttons, before she began-“

“Kakashi, are you listening?” a stern feminine voice suddenly spoke, scaring the Hatake clansman and pulling him out of his reading stupor.

“Y-yes Lady…” Kakashi looked around as he didn’t know who had spoken. He felt his cheeks begin burning, and for once he was thankful that he was wearing both his anbu mask and normal mask to hide the embarrassment on his face.

Homura sighed. “That book that Jiraiya wrote is so horribly inappropriate. I was just trying to tell you that the meeting is almost over. We are on our last break and only have one more topic to cover. Try and pay attention, what if somebody attacked the meeting or me?” the elder woman said in a condescending manner.

“Apologies Lady Homura. It won’t happen again” Kakashi uttered in a flustered tone.

“Alright everybody. The meeting is back in session” Tsunade spoke. “The last order of business is on the topic of the Nine-tails jinchuriki, Naruto.”

This caught Kakashi’s attention, as he jerked his head towards the Hokage. He had heard nothing about the boy since his banishment. Kakashi’s heart ached at the thought that he let Minato-sensei’s son be banished for really just doing his job.

“I hope you can forgive me for this Minato-sensei, I know Kushina probably won’t. Curse the Nine-tails for what it did.” Kakashi thought, anger slipping into his thoughts.

Tsunade continued. “It has come to my attention that Naruto seems to have vanished off our radar. We are not sure how, but it’s reported that every ninja who was sent after him to monitor him has never returned. We have also found a few Anbu shinobi corpses in the surrounding areas of the Land of Fire where we suspect he last was seen.”

Tsunade paused as she looked down to read the report, before looking back up and continuing. Kakashi could of swore he saw a small tear form on the side of one of her eyes.

“We cannot be sure if it is Naruto as there seems to be evidence of kenjutsu, but just in case, we are thinking of putting Naruto into the bingo book. A decision will be made depending on if we can pinpoint if Naruto has somehow managed to take down Anbu level threats. Naruto is unpredictable and has the Kyuubi inside him, so we believe this might be warranted. Thank you, and with that, this council meeting is adjourned.”

“That’s it?” Kakashi thought as he watched Tsunade and Danzo walk out of the meeting hall together with a Shizune carrying Tonton and the short, black-haired root member in tow.

“Why is Naruto gonna go in the bingo book, when we exiled him? What is going on with Lady Tsunade lately?” Kakashi wondered as Homura gathered her things.

“Kakashi, it’s time to go. We have another few errands. Once I leave, please go back to guarding me from afar like usual.” Homura spat at the man.

“Yes Lady Homura” Kakashi said, breaking himself out of his thoughts with a long sigh once she was out of earshot. It didn’t matter what he thought. Right now, he had a mission to do, and he would do it well.

With that, Kakashi put his Icha Icha book back into his pouch, albeit with much hesitation on his part as he was just getting to the good part and took off to hide in the shadows once again.

“Kami, this has been a long day.” Kakashi thought as he exited after the elder, already feeling the exhaustion that he had grown all to use to creep in at the thought of what the rest of the day would entail for him.

Naruto’s POV
Naruto and Han stood at the edge of the eastern part of the Land of Fire, looking out over the sea. They had managed to secure a small rental boat from an elderly couple and were preparing to set off. Naruto had taken the liberty to explain that they were shinobi from a small village next to Konoha on a diplomatic mission to Kiri.

As Han hauled some hastily gathered food for the day towards the boat, Naruto was slow to help, as in truth Naruto was preparing mentally for this small last stretch of there travels for the time being. He didn’t know what to expect and was honestly feeling a mixture of terror and enthusiastic anticipation.

He couldn’t explain why it felt like his blood was getting excited inside him, as if starting to be ecstatic.

Naruto quelled those thoughts and feelings though, as he took stock of their area, trying to take in as much of their surroundings as he could. It was nothing special, just a small boat rental place run by an old married couple on the coast of the Land of Fire.

If anything, the jinchuriki duo were more shocked to see such little activity considering across the sea lay the Land of Water and one the five major villages, Kirigakure. A village that had been a former enemy to the Leaf a mere couple decades or so ago, and one that had gone down an even darker road after the war.

Naruto shuddered inwardly as he remembered Team 7’s run-in with Zabuza, and how powerful he was as a product of the Bloody Mist era that the mysterious fourth Mizukage had ushered in.

Thus, Naruto was oddly surprised there was not even the faintest presence of the Leaf, not even an odd pair of patrols stationed out here, even if it was technically a peacetime between the two powers and a decent travel away from the Leaf.

Though of course, this was a good thing for Naruto and Han, so Naruto didn’t complain. As for the old couple, Han had surmised that they didn’t seem all too interested in the affairs of the ninja world when Naruto had tried explaining their ‘purpose’ for being there.

This was another good sign, one less possible enemy or info leak.

Despite the good fortune, Naruto couldn’t help but feel on edge though and couldn’t drop the feeling of the knot in his stomach. They had been traveling fast for two days and had not run into trouble. Something about that troubled the blonde jinchuriki.

He knew he stuck out with his dirty orange clothes and wild spiky blonde hair. He had not thought much of it while at Orochimaru’s hideout but now that he was out, he was starting to consider if that was what gave him away so easily before he was given the Kitsune mask by Orochimaru.

“I’ll have to look into different style options” Naruto realized as the thoughts rushed through his mind as he picked up a small parcel that he bought to prepare for the voyage.

“Naruto!”

Naruto was startled out of his machinations at the sudden name call, even dropping his package of cheap ramen he had managed to find at a small vendor along the way.

“NOOO” Naruto cried, as he fell to his knees and tried to gather his ramen cups.

Han rolled his eyes as he watched Naruto with tears roll down his face and the blonde gathered the cups of fallen noodles to put back into the now empty ramen box.

Han’s POV
“Naruto” Han started

“Yes?” Naruto replied, standing back up with the food recollected.

“You have not told me where we are going yet?”

Naruto frowned. It was obvious to Han that Naruto had hoped to avoid this until they got to their destination, wherever it was.

“Alright” Naruto said, sighing as he looked up at the red clan man in front of him.

Naruto put the box on the floor again and grabbed his backpack off his back. Opening it, he shuffled items around until he pulled out what seemed to be a relatively new and official looking scroll bearing the symbol of the Hidden Sound Village.

“This has the details of the little mission Orochimaru gave me as ‘proof of an official mission’ if I needed it. It talks about where we're going,” Naruto said, as he held out the scroll to Han.

Taking the scroll and opening it up, Han began to skim the details. He couldn’t help but notice Naruto continuing to look towards the floor, as if contemplative.

“Sasuke isn’t the only one from a slaughtered clan,” Naruto suddenly said aloud. “Orochimaru told me all about Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools. A hidden shinobi village within the whirling tides before it was destroyed.”

“Where have I heard that name before?” Han thought to himself. Naruto watched Han’s face intently. Han knew he probably gave away that he had at least heard of it but didn’t know what to say.

Naruto looked away and continued. His face grew noticeably darker as he narrowed his eyes, as if annoyed.

“It turns out the Uzumaki was a prominent clan, on the same level as the Uchiha even. They were massacred after the Second Shinobi World War and long after the reign of the first two Hokage. A large military coalition of the other villages formed against it to destroy it.”

Han was taken aback. The amount of venom with which Naruto spoke was uncharacteristic of the somewhat depressed blonde.

Han rolled up the scroll after skimming for major details. He couldn’t really focus on it as Naruto was obviously upset. Not that Han could blame him after hearing what Naruto had to say.

It didn’t take Han long to realize that Naruto was bothered by the fact that he was an orphan who grew up hated and scorned in the Leaf, when he possibly could have had an entire loving clan and village that would have accepted him.

Han studied Naruto intently: clenched fists, grit teeth, a dark look in his eyes.

“So what? Why is Orochimaru interested in Uzushio?” Han chose to ask.

Han didn’t want to push the blonde into being more upset. Something about this whole thing really bothered him, and as a former jinchuriki, he wanted to be understanding towards Naruto as he was still young at the end of the day.

“Because the Uzumaki was a clan known for their strength, fuinjutsu, and longevity apparently. It was why the other villages banded together to remove them from the map. The seal that the Third Hokage used to seal away his arms seems to have been created by my clan. So, the snake believes there is something that can help him reverse the effects and get his arms back,” Naruto said. It was obvious to Han that Naruto was trying to be nonchalant, as he helped push the boat into the water.

“I see,” was all Han thought to say as he helped Naruto with the boat. “But why are we going? You really have no reason to want to do this.”

Naruto’s POV
Naruto felt a bit bewildered to explain all of this. Just a few months ago, he thought he was a clanless orphan, so actually believing and relaying what he learned from the snake sannin to Han felt surreal.

Naruto was upset at the world. He had nobody. His best friend had turned against him. His village had too, without even hearing him out. Tsunade, Kakashi, Sakura, the rest of the Konoha 11—where were they?

The villagers hated him. He was scorned and ridiculed all his life, yet still became a shinobi to try and earn their respect. He had been beaten senseless and without family or friends.

Now he learns that things could have been different. He could have had a family, a large and powerful clan too. At least before he was simply some clanless, talentless ninja wannabe, but to learn about the Uzumaki clan? That the stars aligned to have the clan wiped off the planet by every other major village except possibly Konoha?

Naruto was just so tired of the world throwing curveballs at him. He had lost everything he had come to hold dear in a matter of days and was now doing favors for a sannin.

He just hoped that he was masking his annoyance and anger at the unfair situation of the world.

“I have two reasons, Han,” Naruto finally said. “I want to see the ruins of my clan’s village. That annoying bastard Sasuke used to complain about his clan’s massacre. Little does he know I never had the chance to know an entire village of my own clansmen.”

“What is the second reason?”

Naruto paused again, before unsheathing his tanto.

“This is the second reason.”

Han gave a puzzled look as he examined the blade. Naruto didn’t blame the man for being confused. This was not the same sword he had when he first met Han.

“Something about this new power that I learned from Orochimaru and Kabuto…” Naruto began but trailed off as he looked at his weapon, before snapping back to finish his statement. “This power… it’s connected to this mission. I feel like I’ll be able to explain why if I complete it. If that means helping another rogue Leaf ninja, then I’ll do it, ya know.”

Naruto put on a large grin despite his uneasy feelings about everything. His clan, his tanto and new power, being a rogue ninja—it was a lot to process, and Naruto felt like his old life was many lifetimes behind him despite it not even being a year.

Naruto’s eyes darted up to meet Han’s. He wondered what the tall jinchuriki would say, if anything at all.

Naruto’s face faltered as the dark thoughts and events festered in his mind, wondering if Han would act differently towards him. Though after an agonizing few minutes, Han finally nodded his head.

“I understand… thank you for telling me, Naruto. I appreciate it. I will be your ally in the trials ahead of us if that is any comfort,” the tall man said, obviously a bit uncomfortable at expressing his thoughts.

Naruto felt his eyes widen at the odd proclamation. He did not expect that at all. A genuine smile began to pull at his lips.

“Thank you, Han!” Naruto said as he jumped up excitedly with a genuine feeling of contentment at his life after the pain of the last few months, causing the boat to begin to shake.

“Still yourself, Naruto,” the armored man said. “If you capsize the boat, I won’t have the chance to teach you.”

“Teach me?” Naruto said, as he turned his head to look at Han after steadying himself on the now more stable boat.

“Yes. I want to help you with your goals since you have shown me more compassion than any other shinobi, and the only thing I can do for you is simple.” Han explained as he looked Naruto in the eyes, pausing to make sure the banished ninja was listening.

Naruto felt himself nodding, as he felt like he knew where this was going and felt his heart begin to pump more excitedly.

Finally, Han spoke.

“Your friendship with Kurama is a marvel, Naruto. So, I think it’s time to give you the chance to learn how to control yourself as you pull on more of his chakra. I will try my best to help you learn how to be a proper jinchuriki, at least one that can utilize the early stages of Kyuubi’s chakra.”

Chapter Text

Naruto’s POV
Naruto felt tired as he pulled off stones from the rubble. The remnants of the once-great ninja village of the Land of Whirlpools amazed him.

“So, this is where my ancestors came from, I guess” Naruto mused to himself as he picked up a piece of stone that bore an all too familiar symbol.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he recognized the whirlpool-like symbol. How could he forget it after all. He had seen many shinobi, often ones among his tormentors as well, with this symbol on the back of their flak jackets. A thought that made Naruto fume with rage as he pieced together that the symbol was likely taken from here.

However, Naruto also couldn’t help but recall his early days in the Academy while gazing upon the symbol. The countless days of him listening to Iruka-sensei drone on about this or that, with the symbol proudly showcased on his back as he wrote on the board. How Iruka fought against Mizuki to protect Naruto.

Naruto felt his disdain lessen as the nostalgia clouded his mind. Before the ultimate and unjust betrayal, he suffered through occurred.

“They aren’t all bad people. I’d be no better than them to think that.” Naruto thought half-heartedly, as he knew he still resented almost everybody in that village, save for a very select few who showed him humanity in his early years.

“How DARE they take my clan’s homeland’s crest and watch while Uzushio fell” Naruto again thought as he began to figure out what likely happened, causing the fire of hate in him to reignite. No matter what, Naruto still felt a unbridled rage for his home village no matter how few there were there who didn’t deserve it.

“-RUTO” Naruto suddenly heard, as he snapped his head in the direction, instinctively going for the hilt of his sword.

“Calm down Naruto, it’s me, Han” the red clad man spoke.

“O-oh hey Han. Sorry, I was thinking about some stuff.” Naruto said flustered, as he dropped the piece of stone with the whirlpool symbol.

“It’s fine. I just cleared out the area of rubble by where we landed and wanted to come check up on you. You looked antsy as we approached the shore” Han told Naruto

“Oh, I’m fine. This is just surreal for me. Thanks, though Han.” Naruto answered honestly, as he took another look around his immediate area.

It was true that Naruto probably did look antsy. As Han and Naruto approached the shore in the boat, Naruto felt as if he was about to explode. The familiar feeling that Naruto had felt prior to leaving the Land of Fire had been ever present throughout the trip but Naruto was able to ignore it, until returned in full force upon seeing the ruins of Uzushio from sea.

Naruto felt like his body was thrilled as they got closer. As if half of his blood screamed in pure ecstasy and joy. He could only guess that it was due to him approaching what could be said to be the ancestral site of his Uzumaki roots.

He just wished he could pinpoint why it felt like there was something swishing around in his body as he approached.

Han merely nodded, content with that response.

Kurama’s POV
Kurama wearily watched the rubble through his host’s eyes. The overwhelming feelings within the boy troubled Kurama. Naruto was flush with negative emotions, ranging from confusion, regret, pained curiosity, and rage. It was so abnormal, it kept Kurama from being able to soundly rest.

Not that Kurama really felt like sleeping. He had recalled Han’s proclamation at during the boat ride.

“I will try my best to help you learn how to be a proper jinchuriki, at least one that can utilize the early stages of Kyuubi’s chakra.”

Kurama huffed to himself at the thought.

“The brat thinks he is ready or even able to control my chakra….” Kurama thoughts trailed off as he realized someone was talking to him.

“KURAMA” Naruto huffed again, annoyed, standing in front of the cage in the sewer like mindscape that Kurama had become all to familiar with over the past decade. “Why are you so lost in thought? I have a question for you.”

“What do you want kid?” Kurama asked, annoyance evident in his voice. The idea of letting any human control his power seemed too much to even him, even if Naruto seemed different. The displeasure he felt at the prospect shone in his voice, unknown to Naruto.

“Also, when did you even get in here?”

Naruto seemingly ignored the annoyance the fox had. “I just wanted to ask you something face to face is all. Do you know anything about this land?”

“…and why would I know anything?” Kurama asked in response.

“Because you’re old! And apparently wise!” Naruto angrily shouted at his companion before lowering his head and whispering. “Because I don’t have anybody else to ask, ya know…” Naruto trailed off, turning his head away from the cage.

Kurama’s anger faltered as he watched the blonde look away, his face a mix of frustration and a hint of sadness.

“Oh kami” Kurama thought to himself. “He is still just a kid who doesn’t know everything, despite his strong feelings towards Konoha. Maybe I should just try to placate him if he isn’t asking for control over my charka…”

“You see Naruto…” Kurama started, shifting his position to where he could lay down and still face Naruto on his side. “I don’t know anything about this place. I have dwelled in the area of what is now the Leaf for almost my entire life until the first Hokage had me sealed away.”

Naruto’s body stiffened and drooped. It was slight, but there. Kurama felt bad for his host, and decided he would throw in a small tidbit of information.

“However,” Kurama continued “My last two captors were actually from Uzushiogakure.”

Naruto snapped his head back towards the large fox spirit.

“WAIT REALLY?” Naruto yelled in shock.

“Yes…and stop shouting. It’s hard enough to sleep right now.” Kurama half joked.”

“Unfortunately, neither of them really tried to ever get to know me. So, I don’t have much to share other than that they were both strong women of great lifeforce”.

Naruto nodded lightly.

“Good, he seems alright with that answer.” Kurama thought as he drifted off to sleep.

For the first time in a little bit, he felt Naruto’s negative emotions retract just a bit, enough that he could rest without feeling a constant influx of negative emotions from his host. Kurama closed his eyes, and drifted off for yet another nap.

Naruto’s POV
Naruto’s eyes snapped open, and with the surrounding and familiar rubble around him, he slowly got up and dusted himself off.

“Any luck with Kurama?” Han asked, curiosity leaking from his voice. It seemed to Naruto even Han was curious about this land he had not heard much about.

“No. He said that he was never here, and that he only knew of two women from this place. His two former hosts” Naruto said matter-of-factly.

“Two women, huh? They’d both have to have been Uzumaki then if they were from here.” Han said, stating the obvious casually, as he returned to his task of searching the immediate area for threats.

“Uzumaki women…” Naruto thought to himself, feeling dazed at the idea of there being other Uzumaki.

“Maybe I’m related to one of them. I should remember to ask about Kurama’s last host to somebody when I get the chance”.

Naruto began to help Han, and the two made there way inland. Naruto didn’t really know what he was looking for regarding Orochimaru’s request, but he thought he’d figure it out as he looked. He did hope to find what he wanted however, and with any luck, that would also help him find what Orochimaru was looking for.

Passing by the numerous buildings in various states of disarray, Naruto took in his surroundings, hardly paying attention to his surroundings, much to the chagrin of Han who doubled his efforts to stay cautious. The empty and abandoned streets was enough to put the war hardened veteran on edge.

Naruto didn’t pay any mind to the former jinchuriki however, as he looked at multiple buildings

“So, Naruto” Han started, as he turned back from peering over their shoulder. “What are you looking for, it’s obvious you have something in mind.”

Naruto remained silent, as he turned a corner. Then suddenly, Naruto felt his eyes widen with excitement as he saw it.

“THAT!” Naruto said, reaching out a hand to point at a decrepit looking building with a large smile.

Han followed the former leaf shinobi’s finger, to a building that seemed oddly untouched, despite the obvious wear and tear of age and having nobody to keep it up. It looked almost like it had been protected while the immediate surroundings were abandoned.

Naruto watched as Han’s usually stoic face and figure gawked at what he saw. A grand building that bore the symbol of the Whirlpool proudly standing on top. There were two smaller buildings attached.

Connected immediately to the left was a smaller building with the word “library” barely visible, and to the right seemed to be a sign that was illegible save for the part of a word saying “ES-D”.

“What is this place” Han asked breathlessly.

Naruto was amused at the sight of his new ally staring in amazement. Sure, it wasn’t anything on the level of the hidden villages, but this building was large and did not fit in with the rest of nearly destroyed remnants of the village.

That out of place-ness of a somewhat prestigious looking building was probably what made Han so impressed after living in caves and on the road since he had been reanimated.

“I am guessing this was Uzu’s leader office building” Naruto hypothesized. “I just was looking for a place that was similar to the Hokage’s office in Konoha”

Naruto let out a hearty laugh at the situation before he spoke again.

“I thought this place might have what I am looking for ya know!” Naruto jumped up, suddenly feeling reinvigorated despite the trek he had just taken to get here. For a moment, his feelings of hatred for his old village felt like they were a lifetime away.

Naruto approached the library cautiously. He knew what he was looking for was far too important to have just been left anywhere. No, he needed information on something so dangerous, that only the highest-level shinobi of the village were likely to have had anything to do with it.

As Naruto approached the building and pushed open the door, he was met with a sight of rocks thrown about the room. The room looked very compact, and like this was not a place for much leisurely reading. It felt more like a storage of scrolls not to be read or even mentioned.

He quickly scanned the small room, and pictured how organized it must have been when the village was still up and running. There was a lot of reading material compared to the size of the room.

A couple boxes with large pieces of rock that must been stacked on a bookshelf before the village’s destruction caught the blonde’s eye. The scrolls and books there were completely irrecoverable due to the rocks having crushed them to bits.

Naruto felt his face dropped as he realized the fragility of some of these documents.

“Let’s hope what I need wasn’t in there.” Naruto sheepishly thought to himself, as he reached for the box closest to him that wasn’t covered in rubble.

“I wonder why nobody came in here before when the other villages were destroying the place…” Naruto thought aloud, feeling nothing but jubilation. He began to let his guard down due to being excited to learn about his ancestor’s homeland.

In his impatience, he also ignored the sensation of what felt like large sharp needles beginning to bubble up from under his skin…

Han’s POV
Han followed Naruto as he went into the library. Han still could not believe this stone building he laid his eyes on. It was a work of art, even for a shinobi of the Hidden Stone village. The fact it had survived and only seemed a bit decrepit in comparison to everywhere else amazed him.

Based off Han’s impression of the building in relation to the others and its central location, this would likely have been a more private location for the upper echelons of the village. Only political leaders and high-ranking ninja would have had access to here at worst.

He shuddered as he thought of all the information that could have been sitting here untapped, despite the other village’s razing the entire place. For a clan like the Uzumaki and their rumored strength, who knew what could be sitting in here.

“Hey Han looks at this! It’s like a blood seal…” Naruto shouted gleefully at him. “I read about this kind of thing. It kind of reminds me of what the pervy sage taught me about summoning toads! I know the Uzumaki were a clan of fuinjutsu masters, so maybe they just locked these important scrolls so that only those with Uzumaki blood could open them and...”

“Blood seal” Han thought to himself without registering the implications as Naruto talked excitedly. Han was too focused looking through scrolls that he himself had grabbed but couldn’t look at due to the seals.

“Wait…” Han found himself wondering why these scrolls had been practically untouched by the other villages despite being located right here. “Oh no…”

Unfortunately, Han did not have to wait long to find the answer to his question.

“…the snake Orochimaru made me cancel my summoning contract with the toads so that the pervy sage couldn’t reverse summon me or find me while I was at Orochimaru’s current hideout, but the bastard didn’t let me make one with the snakes. So maybe this is a Uzumaki summoning contract! Only one way to find out…” Naruto spoke naively, obviously not thinking due to his heightened state of emotion.

“NARUTO WAIT-” Han began to exclaim as he turned around as fast as he could.

He had just pieced together the real reason why these scrolls were still here and not taken but was cut off as he watched Naruto quickly bit his finger to draw blood and place it onto the seal.

A moment later, a blood curdling scream loud enough to be heard where the duo had docked their boat, echoed out from Naruto.