The Truth of the Matter
By: Tya Katrine Bell
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other character of that show; I do not own the ideas that are in this story. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and most of the ideas in this story are either his influence or the influence of my teacher for the class which this is written. The only thing I can claim about this story is that I own the plot.
In Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, lives a young man named Uzumaki Naruto. He is a most unusual young man, not because of his blue eyes and blond hair, unusual in a village mainly comprised of dark haired dark eyed people, nor is it because of his attitude which always seems so bright and happy, no neither of these things are what make Naruto so unusual. It isn't even that he is an orphan, for because of Kyuubi's attack almost exactly 17 years ago, there are a great many of those, no what makes Naruto so unusual is the fact that he is the container of the Kyuubi that attacked all those years ago, a Jinchuuriki, the power of human sacrifice.
On the day Naruto was born the Yondaime Hokage, the Fourth to hold the title of Fire Shadow, he who leads the ninja forces of the village, sacrificed his own life to seal the great Nine-Tailed Fox into the newly born Naruto. It is for this reason that Naruto grew up alone, hated and mistreated by most of the villagers he was ignored for the most part; he did anything to get attention, even going so far as to paint the Hokage Monument with various colors before becoming an official ninja.
On this day we find Naruto and his teammate Sakura, so named for her pink hair, and their team leader / sensei Kakashi, on their way to see the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. Tsunade is the granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage, who founded Konohagakure no Sato.
"Come on Sakura-chan, I'm not asking for a date, really, I just want us to go out and eat as friends, I know you don't like me that way. Look we can even invite Hinata-chan along so you don't think that I'm asking you out."
"I'll think about it Naruto, lets see what kind of mission Tsunade-shishou has for us and then we'll discuss it." Sakura hedged, knowing that Naruto was sincere but not wanting to give anyone the wrong impression.
"Why don't you and Lee double date with Hinata and Naruto Sakura?" Kakashi suggested from behind his ever present orange book Icha Icha Paradise.
"Kaka-sensei, you promised that you wouldn't tell anyone that Lee and I are dating." Sakura yelled, aiming a punch at her errant and constantly tardy sensei, which unfortunately for Kakashi connected and sent him through the opposite wall and several walls after that.
"Jeez, Sakura-chan, it's bad enough that we had to wait three hours for him to show up today how long you think it's gonna take him to show up now." Naruto whined showing that although he had grown up quite a bit in that last few years that he was still a little childish.
"We'll just go on and go see Tsunade-shishou and let him make his way there at his own pace, I didn't hit him that hard and besides if we don't hurry we'll make her even more angry." the pink haired girl replied nonchalantly as she and her teammate continued on without the silver haired Jounin.
When Sakura and Naruto arrived at the Hokage offices it was to find Shizune attempting to wake up her old teacher without receiving a punch that could cause significant damage to any mortal known to man. Naruto seeing the sleeping Hokage decided to use the tried and true method of yelling loudly in her ear.
"Wake up baa-chan; we're here to receive the mission that you told us about." Naruto was of course immediately slammed through the closed doors by the now awake and completely furious blond Hokage.
"Kusogaki how many times I gotta tell you to stop calling me that, do I look like a granny to you?" The busty blond Hokage yelled as the younger blond walked back into the room, seeming none the worse for wear after his trip through a solid oak door.
"Well no, you don't right now, but you and Ero-sennin are teammates which means that you have to be pretty close to the same age and I know that he's at least 50 so you're old enough to be a granny and I'm gonna continue to call you that no matter what you say." Naruto explained, displaying some of his hidden brains with that statement, "Besides I know for a fact that your current appearance is just a genjutsu so you've got no room to complain about what I call you baa-chan." Naruto managed to avoid Tsunade's fist this time around and stuck out his tongue at the glowering kunoichi.
"Stop aggravating her Naruto," Sakura demanded giving the snickering blond a light blow to the back of the head when he continued his childishness.
"Gomen Sakura-chan but it's not like I'm lying or anything, she is old enough to be a grandmother."
"Okay, enough of that, now where is Kakashi, I swear if he doesn't show up in the next few seconds he going to be cleaning pig barns for a month. Where is that lazy jounin when I need him?"
"Sakura-chan sent him through a few walls on our way over here, because he said something he shouldn't have, he'll probably pop in here any minute now." Naruto had just finished speaking when there was a sudden puff of smoke that cleared to reveal the lazy silver haired jounin that he had been speaking of.
"Yo, sorry I'm late, but I had several unfortunate meetings that I had to get through."
"Yes well, be that as it may if you continue to act in this manner I'm going to forbid Jiraiya from writing those atrocious novels ever again, do I make myself clear?" Kakashi's masked jaw dropped at the threat and he immediately started apologizing profusely.
"Now, as I was explaining before, I have a mission that I need you three on. We have received a request from a nearby village for escorts for a famous, much sought after scroll that was recently discovered there. It was offered to our village first, since this scroll contains several of our most guarded village secrets, supposedly it was written by the Yondaime on the night of his death. Now I'm not going to force you all to take this mission, but I thought that it would be best to offer this mission to you first. And of course you won't be going alone, the rest of your peers will be going along as well and I also want Gai's team to accompany you, now I'm not trying to imply that any of you are weak," Tsunade explained before Naruto could interrupt with the complaint that she could see forming on his face, "I merely think it best if this scroll has as much protection on it as possible, simply because of the nature of this scroll there are sure to be quite a few unsavory groups after it. So I think it needs all the protection we can give it, and the reason I'm sending you and not some higher ranked ninja is because it may contain some unknown information on Kyuubi, that is why I want you to go Naruto, I'm sure that you would be one of the best ones to protect these secrets and or course I'll have Jiraiya come along as well, as he is the one who taught the Yondaime. Now, do any of you have any questions?" when no one spoke or responded she nodded and dismissed them, "You'll leave first thing in the morning, I'll have everyone meet at the main gate and Kakashi, if you're late so help me one way or another I'll make sure that you never get another of those perverted books so long as you live, do I make myself clear?" Kakashi nodded meekly and disappeared in another poof of smoke.
Naruto arrived at the main gates at dawn to find nearly everyone there, and most of them were pointing some kind of weapon at Kakashi.
"Who are you and what have you done to Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, she was a tall dark haired young woman with unusual red eyes and she was the team leader of team 8 which included one of the few girls to have a crush on Naruto; Hyuuga Hinata. Her two teammates were; Inuzuka Kiba, a feral looking dark haired boy who had slit pupils and red fang marks on his cheeks and he was always to be found in the company of his partner/pet Akamaru, a gigantic white half wolf that Kiba often rode and Aburame Shino whose most redeeming feature was that you could see almost no part of his body aside from his hands and a small area around his eyes.
"What is going on here?"
"We all arrived to find Kakashi here waiting for us," explained a dark haired young man with a lazy look as he leaned against a wall beside the still closed gates, the young man beside him was heavy set and had bright red hair that marked him as a member of the Akamichi clan. They were Akamichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru and they were two thirds of the original team 10 that had once been lead by Sarutobi Asuma, the son of the Sandaime Hokage, but Asuma had been killed by a member of Akatsuki the year before.
"Oh, Kurenai-sensei, that really is Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-baa-chan threatened him with never getting to read Icha Icha again if he showed up late today." Naruto explained before one of the older ninja could do something regrettable.
"Yeah, what he said, so if you could all remove the various pointy objects from around my person I would greatly appreciate it."
"So glad to see that you can actually show up on time for things on occasion, Kakashi." Someone behind the group exclaimed in a familiar voice. Naruto and everyone else turned to see Tsunade and Sakura arriving; "now we just need that useless pervert to get here and you can all get going."
"Say baa-chan, how far away is this village that we're going to?" Naruto asked, suddenly remembering a certain upcoming celebration that he would like to avoid at all costs.
"Two days to get there and another two to get back, and however long it takes you to find the informant that has the scroll. You shouldn't be gone more than a week at the most." Tsunade replied, and she was the only one to notice the slight flinch that this information caused the younger blond.
"That's good; I didn't want to miss the festival." Ino exclaimed, causing Naruto to flinch again, and this time Tsunade wasn't the only one to notice the sudden motion, Shikamaru and Hinata both noticed as well, then before anyone could say another word Jiraiya appeared behind the worried Hokage and noticed the serious face on his apprentice.
"Is everyone ready to go? Come on gaki we got a lot of ground to cover in the next few days," the toad hermit cried, clapping the young man on the back and dispelling the tension that had built up in the last few moments.
"Sure thing Ero-sennin I'm ready when you are, in fact I'll race you to that clearing that we stopped at." and before anyone could say anything Naruto was off like a shot and out of sight a moment later.
"Yosh, I shall not allow Naruto-kun to beat me in this challenge." cried the junior Green Beast of Konoha Rock Lee as he took off as fast as he could chasing the blond.
"Come everyone; let's follow Lee and Naruto's example, onward youthful comrades." Cried an older version of Lee, which was in fact Lee's sensei Maito Gai, as he too took off at high speeds.
"We better get going," Kakashi said resignedly, "who know what kind of trouble they'll get into before we can catch up." He and most of the rest of the group followed at a decent pace, not attempting to catch up with everyone else but not wanting to fall hopelessly behind either.
"Don't worry hime, I'll talk to the gaki, he'll be alright." Jiraiya whispered as he watched everyone else from beside his old teammate.
"I certainly hope so Jiraiya, I honestly don't know how he stands all the things that have happened to him and from some of the things I read in sensei's reports Naruto gets treated the worst on his birthday." Tsunade replied giving the perverted hermit a weary look.
"Well then, I suggest that we take him out for his birthday this year, that way no one can hurt him, I know he would appreciate that and then we can give him his first birthday party. Maybe we should even invite his friends."
"That is an excellent idea you old pervert. I'll get to work on that and I'll see you all when you get back, now you better get going, don't want the gaki to beat you?"
"Ha, that'll be the day. The only way he could beat me is if he used Minato's jutsu and I don't know enough about it to teach it to him. I'll see you soon hime." and with that the white haired Sannin was engulfed in a huge puff of smoke to reappear on the back of a large red toad which immediately took off after the long departed group. Tsunade just shook her head and headed back to her office, if she didn't finish the paperwork she wouldn't be able to plan the party for the young man she saw as a little brother.
'I don't know how he's stayed such a sweet and loving boy with the way everyone has treated him all this time, his attitude just doesn't match what he's gone through all his life. Hopefully nothing ever changes that or this whole village will likely fall to a monster of their own making.' Tsunade thought to herself as she made her way back to the Hokage tower and her office.
After several hours of running, the group decided to make camp in the clearing that Naruto had mentioned before, they were surprised to find a clone of Naruto already there waiting for them with firewood gathered and ready to light. Neji immediately rounded on the blond trickster that had followed them all this way to see him give a vulpine grin before disappearing in a cloud of smoke revealing himself to be another Kage Bushin. Everyone turned to the blond that was standing beside the firewood for an explanation but they just received another grin before he too disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Alright, so where did the dobe go?" Kiba yelled totally mystified by the sudden disappearance of his fellow loudmouth.
"Don't call me dead last dog breath, obviously if I can fool you and Akamaru I'm not so much of a dead last anymore huh." Naruto shouted, emerging out of the surrounding woods carrying another load of wood.
"Does that mean that you beat Jiraiya-sama here as well?" Tenten asked skeptically.
"Of course not," everyone turned to the Jiraiya that they had been traveling with all this time to see him grinning like his apprentice and like his apprentice he disappeared in a cloud of smoke revealing another Kage Bushin.
"So what about Gai and Lee?" Sakura asked turning to the green clad duo and they also disappeared in clouds of smoke. Sakura grimaced and turned back to Naruto, then stomped to right in front of him and clocked him in the head, "alright baka, where is everyone?"
"Sakura-chan, please don't let Naruto's youthful fun ruin your spirit of youth. We all arrived here several minutes ago." Lee called as he ran toward the pink haired girl from out of his hiding place, "I'm sorry if we upset you my beautiful flower. I didn't realize that Naruto-kun had replaced Gai-sensei and I with his Bushins."
"It's not your fault Lee; I just wish that that baka would stop with the pranks and the tricks." Naruto flinched when Sakura called him a baka.
"I'm sorry Sakura; I wasn't trying to trick you or the others I just wanted to see if any of you would notice that the people traveling with you weren't what they seemed. I wasn't trying to play a prank." Naruto explained sadly before he turned and walked back into the woods.
"I don't remember the last time he called me Sakura and not Sakura-chan." The pink haired girl mused to her friends.
"It's probably nothing, don't worry about it." Ino replied airily, but her two teammates looked at her quizzically before moving a little away from the others to talk privately.
"Did you see what I saw Chouji?" Shikamaru asked looking at his best friend as they moved away from the others.
"Yeah, he looked really sad when Sakura called him a baka, and he seemed a little upset when Tsunade-sama mentioned that we would be back in time for the festival too, I wonder what's going on with him; he hasn't seemed the same the past few days." The heavy set redhead commented as he dug out a bag of BBQ chips from his pack.
"Yeah, but why would he be upset about making it back to the village before the festival," Shikamaru fell into his thinking pose as Chouji began setting up their tent for the night and preparing to get some sleep, after a few moments Shikamaru fell out of the thinking pose and resumed what he had been doing before. "Chouji, do you ever remember seeing Naruto at the festival, I was just thinking back and I don't recall ever seeing him there, and I don't really remember seeing him for days afterward either, remember every year he would be in class the day before and then the day after he always missed."
"You're right Shikamaru, I never thought about it before but that happens every year. I don't ever remember seeing Naruto the day after the Kyuubi Festival." Chouji commented holding a chip halfway to his mouth. "Maybe we should ask him about it."
"That is an excellent idea, but it would be too troublesome to do it tonight. We'll ask him tomorrow when we stop for lunch; that is if he doesn't run ahead again."
"Even if he does, I'm sure we'll get the chance to ask him sometime during this mission and if we don't we'll just ask when we get back home." Chouji decided as he finished his bag of chips and looked toward where Kakashi had finally got the fire going and Kiba and Akamaru were returning with a large deer for supper.
"You can't let what they said get to you gaki. You know the truth and I know the truth, and someday soon they'll know the truth too." Jiraiya explained as he came up behind his apprentice.
"I can't let them find out the truth Jiraiya-sensei," the white haired man flinched when Naruto called him by his real name instead of the oft used nickname, "if they find out the whole truth, they'll hate me, and if the villagers find out how smart I really am they'll kill me. Every year is a little worse, they always find me on my birthday and try their best to kill me; I don't want to be in the village for the festival this year."
"Naruto, you should know that Tsunade and I aren't going to allow anyone to harm you, when we get back from this mission I'll treat you to ramen and give you your birthday present." Jiraiya replied seriously.
"Yes Ero-sennin, I know that you and baa-chan will do your best but I really don't think there is much you can do, the villagers will find me and they will beat me to within an inch of my life just like every other year. I'm just a little surprised that no one ever noticed that I missed school after the festival because I was always in the hospital." When the two heard a gasp they immediately turned toward the woods behind them and discovered Hinata standing there with tears in her eyes, before either of them could say anything, the shy Hyuuga heiress bolted forward and wrapped her arms around the boy she had had a crush on most of her life, burying her head in between Naruto's neck and shoulder she began sobbing as she tried to speak coherently.
"I'm so sorry N…Naruto-kun, I never real… realized that the reason you missed school on that day was because you were in the hospital, if I had… had realized that you were in the hospital I pro…promise that I would have visited you."
"Hinata-chan, it's okay, I didn't want anyone to know, but I'm happy that you would have been there for me if you had known."
"B…but Naruto-kun, w…why would they do such a t…thing?" Hinata continued, not paying any attention to the sudden tenseness of the two shinobi.
"I… I can't tell you that Hinata-chan, I'm sorry. It's an S-class village secret. I can't tell you." Naruto hedged, trying to come up with an excuse as quickly as possible.
"Jiraiya-sama, dinner is ready." Kakashi voice drifted to them from the clearing.
"I wonder if he knew that you would find me or if he just doesn't care if I eat."
"I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, he probably knows that I wouldn't allow you to wander alone, come on gaki, let's go get some supper and get some sleep, the sooner we get there the sooner we can find out what that baka of a student of mine left." Jiraiya called as he turned back to the camp.
"Hai Ero-sennin, come on Hinata-chan, let's get back to camp, I promise as soon as we get back to the village I'll take you out to dinner, okay." Naruto coaxed, hoping she would forget about what she had heard.
"Arigato, Naruto-kun, I would l…like that very much. W…when is your birthday, Jiraiya-sama mentioned your birthday present before and I'd like to get you a present as well. And why is it that we've never celebrated your birthday in school, we always celebrated everyone else's but I don't ever remember celebrating yours." Hinata commented, trying her best not to stutter in front of her crush and managing to limit it a great deal.
"That's because we didn't have class on my birthday, it's on October 10th so no one was there to celebrate it." Naruto explained as he walked alongside the quiet girl back to camp.
"Y…You mean that you get severely beaten on your birthday every year!" Hinata shouted almost in Naruto's ear.
"Wow Hinata-chan I didn't know that you could be that loud." the blonde commented cheerfully, totally ignoring the girls question.
"But, N…Naruto-kun w…why w…would they do su…such an awful thing to you every year, and why didn't Hokage-sama stop it?" Hinata asked not noticing the obvious discomfort of the blonde beside her.
"He couldn't, Hinata-chan. Every time he tried they would just catch me on another day and do it anyway. Please don't tell the others, I don't want them finding out about this, I don't want them feeling sorry for me."
"Is t…that what you think of me N…Naruto-k…kun? You think I feel sorry for you, I don't feel sorry for you, I'm just v…very angry that this has been happening to you all this time and none of us ever knew about it." Hinata explained, not noticing that her voice grew stronger and that she stopped stuttering as she continued.
"I… I don't want to talk about this anymore Hinata, I have some secrets that I don't want you or the others to know about and this is one of them. Please respect that and drop this conversation." Naruto replied as the two of them emerged into the clearing where everyone was sitting.
"H…hai Naruto-kun, I'll d…do as you ask." Hinata whispered as she dropped her head and headed toward her team.
Naruto turned away from all the curious stares and headed for his tent, not feeling very hungry anymore and wanting to avoid all questions from his well meaning friends. 'They wouldn't ever understand, if I tell them the truth they'll just do what everyone else does, they'll hate me and try to kill me, and I can't lose them or my life just isn't worth living anymore.'
'Come now kittling, that's no way to think just because the rest of your pathetic village is incredibly idiotic doesn't mean your friends are, maybe they'll understand, did you ever think of that, no you just automatically assume that they'll hate you and try to kill you, just like all the others have, we both know what happens when you assume don't we kit. Besides you should at least give them a chance to know the real you, they don't have to know anything about me but you could at least show them that you've never been the dobe that you've always pretended to be.'
'Oh yeah sure, Kyuubi. Then their parents will find out, and from there the whole village will know and I'll be killed in my sleep in no time, I don't want to have to hurt anyone and I don't want to be hurt, besides, they'll never believe that I'm anything but the dobe that they've always known me as and trying to change that opinion will just confuse and hurt everyone in the long run.'
'As you wish kit, I can't force you to do anything, but don't think that I'll just sit back this year and allow those insufferable bakas to hurt you so badly, they almost killed you last time and you've been gone nearly three years with that Ero-sensei of yours, so they probably will try even harder this year because they think your getting to powerful.'
"You aren't exactly helping matters baka!!!" Naruto yelled out as he reached his tent at the edge of the clearing farthest away from the road.
"Naruto, what did you do to Hinata? She's sitting over there crying, what did you say to her?" Kiba yelled loudly, walking toward the blonde with his giant dog Akamaru following on his heels.
"Why do you automatically assume that everything is my fault Kiba? Maybe her crying has absolutely nothing to do with me, did you ever think of that? I'm tired of everyone assuming that everything is my fault, I didn't do anything to deserve this and I won't take the blame for everyone else anymore, I didn't do anything to Hinata, I may have been a little harsh and I apologize for that but I didn't hurt her and I never would, if you think that poorly of me then why don't you all just go home and leave me alone." Naruto finished before turning and bolting into the woods once again.
"Naruto, come back here." Kakashi yelled as he started to rise from his place but Jiraiya raised a hand and stopped him before he could take off.
"Leave him be for now Kakashi, he's just a little upset about some things. He'll be fine, I'm sure if something happens we'll hear something before it gets to bad." Jiraiya explained before going back to his food.
The next morning after a breakfast of trail rations and water everyone packed up and looked around, that was when they noticed that Naruto was no where to be found and his tent was still sitting where it had been the night before.
"Kakashi, you and the others get going; I'll find the gaki and catch up with you as soon as possible." Jiraiya ordered as he set his pack on the ground and started toward where Naruto had disappeared the night before.
"No need, Jiraiya-sensei. I'm fine, I just overslept a little after all the training I did to calm down last night." Naruto said as he calmly walked out of the woods and went to pack up his tent, everyone just gaped at him as he worked quietly and when he was finished he turned to find Jiraiya's face within inches of his. "Ga, what the hell do you think you're doing stupid Ero-sennin, you almost gave me a heart attack."
"What's going on here gaki; you never call me Jiraiya-sensei, no matter how much I insist that you do." Jiraiya explained, watching for any unusual reactions that would prove that the boy before him was not who he appeared to be.
"I know what you're thinking you perv and the answer is no, I'm not an imposter and I'm not having any trouble with anything, I've just decided to act a little more maturely, and I'm sorry if that bothers you but I'm tired of being treated the way I am all the time, so I'm going to do as you suggested and start acting a little different." Naruto explained as he hefted his pack onto his back and adjusted the straps.
"Alright, baka Naruto, what are you up to. Just because you're acting a little different doesn't mean that you're suddenly smarter and nothing you say will convince me otherwise." Sakura exclaimed brandishing a fist menacingly at her teammate.
"Gomen Sakura, I'm not acting. I'm dropping the act and I would appreciate if you would stop calling me a baka all the time, I am not stupid, no matter what you and the others may think and I'm tired of pretending to be something I'm not. Now if no one else has any objections I think we should get going before it gets too late." He calmly explained as he brushed past everyone and headed for the road that they had traveled down yesterday. Before he could reach it however all the senseis jumped him and tied him up and dragged him into the middle of the clearing.
"Who are you and what have you done with Naruto?" Kakashi asked menacingly.
Naruto sighed and looked Kakashi in the eye. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, my birthday is October the 10th and you are my team sensei, my teammates are Haruno Sakura, who happens to be standing over there looking at me as if she wants to kill me and Uchiha Sasuke who while trying to escape to Orochimaru slammed a Chidori into and through my lung, before transforming with the second stage of his curse seal and attempting to do so again. He was taught the Chidori by you Kakashi-sensei in the month break that we had during the Chunin exam, while you tried to foist me off on that closet perv Ebisu, who is the sensei for Konohamaru and his team. While training with the closet perv, I met my current sensei and the only one that I'll ever acknowledge as master Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin. He allowed me to sign the contract to summon the toads, which I used to summon Gammabunta; who helped me defeat Gaara in the Suna and Oto invasion during that first Chunin exam, after that invasion in which the Sandaime died, Jiraiya and I went in search of Tsunade to become the Godaime Hokage. After that, and a few missions, Sasuke decided to defect to Orochimaru, that was when he shoved a Chidori through my lung and nearly killed me. After returning from that failed mission and healing up I went on several missions with my fellow genin, until Jiraiya returned for me and took me on a training mission for two and a half years, do I need to continue or is that enough to convince you that I am who I claim I am?"
"No, I want you to tell me what happened two months into our trip that caused me to be laid up in the hospital for almost a month?" Jiraiya challenged.
"You got caught peeping in the kage's private onsen and when he caught you looking at his wife and her twin sister he really kicked your ass. Do you want me to go any farther with that?" Naruto asked looking into Jiraiya's eyes.
"Alright, that's enough, he's really Naruto." Jiraiya explained, sweating.
"What happened?" Kiba asked, totally ignoring Jiraiya's frantic look.
"At the risk of receiving the same thing that Ero-sennin did, I refuse to go any further with that story." Naruto answered.
"So what happened to you last night?" Jiraiya asked, trying to figure out what had happened to his student to make him change so much.
"Simple, I decided to take your advice and show them the real me."
"What the hell are you talking about, you decided to show us the real you, you're a baka and a dobe and you always have been." Kiba yelled out.
"That is what I wanted you all to think, I was acting like an idiot all this time so no one would know how smart I really was." Naruto explained turning to face the Inuzuka to show how serious he was.
"So why did you act like and idiot all this time then?" Sakura asked.
"Self preservation. Now, we really need to get going. If we don't find the guy who has the scroll soon we may lose him forever and that would be bad." Naruto commented, as he hiked his pack to the proper place on his back and walked past all his shocked teammates toward the road.
"Well, we better get going like he said." Jiraiya said suddenly, following his student.
"What did he mean Jiraiya-sama, why would he need to hide his intelligence, and what did you see in that onsen?" Kakashi asked as he ran alongside the older man.
"I thought you were a genius, are you saying that you never noticed? How could you not realize that he was so smart, he learned the Kage Bushin in a few hours, he figured out how to beat a Hyuuga genius all on his own, and he mastered the Rasengan in less than a month. He's even smarter than Minato when he puts his mind to it. Admittedly he's not book smart and he probably never will be, although he does enjoy a good book every now and then, but he doesn't want to be book smart, he's better at applying things to learn in practice then reading and making sense of it. And as for what I saw, I took an oath to never speak of it, and if I do then something even worse will happen to me, so I've kinda blocked it completely out and can no longer recall what happened." Jiraiya explained before bounding ahead of everyone.
The group of Konoha ninja made it to the town where the contact was supposed to be staying before nightfall and quickly found lodging for the night, the first thing that Naruto did before going to the room that he was sharing with Jiraiya was to go to the onsen that was attached to the inn. He came back a little while later still wearing the same clothes and received some weird looks, why would he go to the onsen and return not having changed out of his dirty clothes, and carrying all his stuff.
"I used a jutsu that I was taught to make sure that my baka sensei doesn't try to peep on any of you, so if you want to soak in the hot springs I suggest you do so now." Naruto replied to the strange looks he was getting, he looked around at all his friends before glaring at Jiraiya, who had thrown a kunai at him when his attention was elsewhere, which Naruto caught without even looking, then turned and walked down the hall.
"I knew letting that gaki learn that jutsu was a bad idea, but no, I went ahead and let it go." Jiraiya grumbled to himself, "alright, everyone get a good night's sleep and meet me in the foyer at 10 a.m."
"What exactly are we doing here?" Kiba asked before anyone could move, blushing when he received incredulous looks from most of the others.
"We're here to retrieve a scroll that was believed lost, 17 years ago when my student the Yondaime died defeating Kyuubi, all of his most secret scrolls disappeared, the ones that he stored his jutsu on and his journals. A few weeks ago, I received some information from my spy network; someone is in possession of one of Yondaime's scrolls and is seeking to sell it to the highest bidder. We are here to retrieve that scroll and discover if this person knows anything about any of the other scrolls that were lost." Jiraiya explained, "Now, are there any other questions?"
No one said anything, and after a moment Jiraiya nodded, "In that case, all of you get some rest and we'll meet up in the foyer at 10. See you all then." and with that Jiraiya turned and headed for the room that he was sharing with Naruto. 'Now, to see what is bothering that gaki so much.'
The next morning everyone was standing in the foyer of the inn waiting for Naruto and Jiraiya. When they finally showed up, everyone was shocked to see that Naruto looked different, his hair was longer, his eyes were slightly narrower and there were hints of red in his blonde hair.
"N…nani, your hair is different, and you look different Naruto-kun, what happened?" Hinata asked, drawing up all her courage to speak to her crush.
"Just a slight genjutsu, Hinata-chan. I was worried that you all would take my appearance changes badly, but seeing as how you guys took my attitude so well I figured it was okay to let a few more of my secrets out into the open. Is there anything else we need to know before we start our search?"
"Nothing, but we don't really have to do any searching, I know where our target is and all we really have to do is go there and retrieve the scroll, we also need to try and capture the person that has the scroll in case he has information on any of the other secrets that Yondaime had. Now, let's move out." and with those words spoken all the Konoha ninja disappeared from the street in front of the inn and reappeared leaping from building to building via rooftops. When Jiraiya stopped, the others landed around him and waited for his orders. "Okay, this is the building where he's hiding; all we have to do is get in there and capture him."
"Is there anything we need to know about the target?" Naruto asked, showing his maturity once again.
"Nothing, just be wary, he may fight for it and we can't allow him to get away." Jiraiya answered, and jumped down to the ground to start the mission.
It didn't take long to find the man that they were searching for, but when Naruto was the one that found him, it opened up a whole new set of problems.
"Why the hell did they send the creature that killed Yondaime to retrieve the scroll?" The stranger yelled when Naruto approached, when Naruto looked behind him he found all his friends standing there with their jaws hanging open at the man's words.
"What are you talking about?" Ino asked, wondering what this man knew that she didn't, it was inconceivable that someone would be privy to knowledge about one of her old classmates that she didn't know.
"Is your whole generation really that stupid? That is the Kyuubi in human form!" The man yelled before Jiraiya could get to him and knock him unconscious with a knife chop to the neck.
The younger generation looked at the unconscious man, dumbfounded. It was Lee that came out of his astonishment first and he immediately turned to face his sensei and idol.
"Gai-sensei, what was that man talking about? Everyone knows that Yondaime-sama killed the Kyuubi when it attacked Konoha. How could that man think that the youthful Naruto-kun could have anything to do with the un-youthful evil of the Kyuubi?"
The teachers just stood still a moment, not really sure what to say to their students. They would have perhaps managed to bluff their way out of it if not for Naruto's reaction. When his friends had turned away to look at the older generation he lowered his head, hiding his eyes and hoping that his greatest secret would remain a secret. Unfortunately it was not to be. Before Gai or any of the other adults could respond a scuffle was heard from the supposedly unconscious man pushed himself to his feet and pulling out a hidden kunai he ran to the unmoving blond and stabbed it into his stomach. Giving a sickening smile at his accomplishment he looked to the others, foolishly hoping for praise for his deed perhaps. His hopes were in vain, no sooner had the others moved to help their friend did a red miasma seep out of the bleeding young man and envelope his wound, once again before anyone could react Naruto pulled out the kunai and flung it away before running out of the doorway on the other side of the room, where everyone else was still standing and disappearing.
"What was that man talking about Jiraiya-sama, why did he call Naruto the Kyuubi and why did Naruto run?" Neji asked after looking at the others for a moment and rightly guessing that none of them had the courage to say anything.
Sakura looked at Kakashi questionly before turning her gaze to the white haired self-proclaimed super pervert and waiting to hear what he had to say.
"All of you here know the story that is taught in Konoha, yes? How my first student Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, fought and defeated the Kyuubi when it attacked our village 17 years ago. He gave his life to stop the great kitsune and that is the end of the story, or at least the version that is taught to the younger generations. The real truth is an S-class secret that if revealed will get the guilty person sent to jail for life or possibly even executed. The only ones privy to the truth are those that were old enough to remember the events of that day and a very few of the current generation and of those people, only one knows the real truth. Naruto was born on the day that Kyuubi was defeated and as great as my first student was no mortal is strong enough to kill a bijuu, no what really happened is that Minato sealed the Kyuubi into the newborn Naruto and that is the truth."
Almost the whole group looked at the white haired sennin with dropped jaws, the only exception being Sakura and Shikamaru.
"Troublesome."
Everyone who managed to make it through this first chapter of my first published Naruto story please see the new message that i have put up on my Author's Page. All you have to do to go there is go to the top of the page and click on my avatar and name. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Tya Katrine Bell.