Disclaimer: This is a fan-made work. The material that this story derives from (Naruto) belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Key
"Normal Dialogue"
'Thoughts and inner monologues.'
"Italics will also be used in dialogue to emphasize words."
XXX
The sound of water dripping from the cracks in the cement ceiling down to the floor of the same material reverberated throughout the room. The only other sound was the light breathing of a six year old child lying on a worn down mattress.
On the floor beside him laid a set of kunai, an orange scarf, and a few books. The books ranged from a dictionary to a children's story book, each memorized near word for word. They were all that he had in his cement prison.
Said prison was the basement of an orphanage in the prosperous village of Konoha. The walls were void of color, save grey and were littered with holes and scratches from being hit by kunai. The dripping ceiling was a result of being underneath the decaying plumbing of the orphanage.
It was like most days for Naruto Uzumaki, with the exception of one fact. The steel door, that was normally locked watertight, was creaked open.
This wasn't the first time that the door had opened, usually for a tray of food to slide in or for someone to come in and teach him something or for someone in the staff to come get him and put him to work, but it was the longest that it had stayed open. For about fifteen minutes, Naruto just stared at his ticket to freedom.
He could count the number of times he had been outside the orphanage with his fingers, heavily supervised each trip. He had desperately wanted to venture outside again. To eat something that tasted good, instead of the food that he could describe as a thick nutritional paste. To bask in the warmth of interacting with another living thing instead of the unresponsive staff and children. To sate his natural curiosity.
Naruto wrapped his kunai and books in the orange scarf, before slinging the package over his shoulder and tentatively walking through the door and scaling the stairs. He expected to be intercepted by someone, but was pleasantly surprised to see the front door open.
As he stepped onto the dirt road in front of the orphanage, he deeply inhaled the fresh air and smiled. The warmth of the summer sun. The bright, captivating colors that surrounded him. The slight breeze. The sensations filled him with ecstasy.
His memories could not compare to the real experience.
He pondered about where he should go for a moment, before remembering something. The two places that he had wanted to go most of all, but was never allowed to. A park and library.
Only having a few books for entertainment had instilled into him a rather ravenous craving and appreciation for literature, which made going to the library a must. Said books also painted a glamorous picture of parks. Places full of merrymaking and breeding grounds of friendship.
While spending hours exploring new books was tempting, Naruto could not wait to check out the park. He clearly remembered the path to the park from his last outing. It wouldn't take much more than twenty minutes of walking to reach his destination.
On his way there, Naruto couldn't help but notice the looks of shock, that transitioned to fear or hate in some cases, that were sent his way. Without a supervisor to keep his attention, the other people traveling down the road became very obvious. Of course, with Naruto's limited experience with people, he couldn't name the emotions that were betrayed by the villagers, but he instinctively knew that they were negative reactions. Holding his head a tad lower and continuing at a quicker pace, he tried to ignore those around him.
Once he reached the park however, he almost radiated energy and curiosity as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He had never seen so many children in one place! There had to be a couple dozen, at least!
He eagerly ran towards the first group of children, intent on joining their game. They were playing with wooden swords and kunai, throwing and slashing at each other.
Once he reached the group of children, a few of them turned to look at him expectantly.
Naruto realized that, in his eagerness to begin playing with the other children, he had yet to think of something to say. He hadn't introduced himself in a very long time, but he had read a scene in one of his books where the protagonist introduced himself.
"Umm, hi. I'm Naruto... Could I join your game?"
It came out a lot less self-assured sounding then he had meant for it to be. He was put at ease by a couple of the children smiling and agreeing to let him join.
He was given a wooden weapon to use and jumped into the game with gusto. This ranged from dueling with another child to hunting down a player that was designated as a missing-nin. It was by far the most fun Naruto ever had. He couldn't think of something that would come close to the joy caused by this experience. He wished that it would never end.
There were two things that Naruto found peculiar, though. One being the glaringly obvious skill gap between himself and the other children. He was able to easily win every part of the game. Why was everyone else so bad? Hadn't they been taught how to use a weapon? Why were they so slow? He would do a bit of calisthenics if he was bored with reading or practicing throwing kunai, but surely that wouldn't put him this much ahead of his peers. He could read their movements from a mile away. It was embarrassing!
The second thing that Naruto found peculiar, though to a lesser extent, was the amount of children playing with him quickly decreasing after ten or so minutes. He actually didn't notice until the six other children playing with him became two. It didn't take long for the final two to get ushered away by their parents. Now that he was paying attention to something other than playing, he could see that most of the children were being talked to by their guardians. Some were just outright taken away from the park.
Naruto didn't think too much of it, until he tried to join another group of children. After being politely turned down, he tried to join another group. This group was less polite.
"Go away, kid. My mum told me to stay away from you."
'Why would his mom tell him such a thing?' Naruto pondered as he walked towards another group, hoping to be inducted. He was rejected again. And again. And again. He sighed as he looked over at the one child that had not rejected him.
He couldn't understand why he was being declined. Was he too good at the games? Did he smell or was it because he was dirty? Was he ugly? That might explain why most of the adults looked at him the way they did. He hadn't seen his reflection in a long time.
'I'll try one more time. If this guy doesn't want anything to do with me, I'll go to that library place.' With that in mind, Naruto approached the one child that he had yet to proposition.
The closer he got, the more he felt that he shouldn't interact with the boy before him. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that it would end badly. Very badly. But he pushed the feeling aside, finding the fun of human companionship worth the chance.
When he was at a conversational distance with the other child, said child smiled at him and piped, "Hiya! Name's Kazou."
Naruto would have responded right away, with enthusiasm, if he hadn't noticed something strange. The boy's smile. Even with his limited social experience he could tell that it wasn't natural. It was unnerving.
Shaking this notion off aswell, he somewhat timidly replied, "Hey. My name's Naruto."
"Well, nice to meet ya Naruto. You wanna play a game?"
A small smile appeared on Naruto's face as he nodding eagerly.
"Great! I know just the place to play it! Follow me." The boy exclaimed before taking off down a street, out of the park. Naruto gave only a slight pause before following. He noticed that the boy was a lot faster than the other children, to the point that he could barely keep up.
They took a peculiar route, taking alleys and backstreets. After a while the well maintained buildings of the civilian-residential district turned into the decrepit, grotty buildings of the slums. Naruto didn't notice though, focusing more on not losing his potential friend. By the time that the other boy stopped, Naruto was covered with a thin layer of sweat and was breathing heavily.
Kazou turned to Naruto with the same, unnerving smile on his face, looking as good as new. Holding open the door to a large building, perhaps a hotel or apartment complex in it's prime, Kazou insisted, "You first."
Naruto stood still, taking a moment to analyze the situation. How was this a good place to play a game? What game were they going to play? He was suddenly having second thoughts.
"A-actually, I forgot I have to go do something. Sorry." He offered as he turned around to bolt away. He didn't get a step away before he was yanked off of his feet by the back of his shirt and was thrown backwards through the still open doorway. Before he could get back onto his feet, the door close and a malicious darkness engulfed him. An overwhelming dread filled him. He screamed as loud as he could, but was silenced as he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and lost consciousness.
XXX
Arata set his gaze upon the supplies that had cost him his entire life savings. Over two decades of saving spent in less than a week.
The first of the items were chakra neutralizing seals made by the legendary Jiraiya, himself. They had cost a small fortune themselves, but they weren't the most expensive items on the list. That would be a vial of poison. Not just any poison, if the price wasn't enough of a indicator, but poison made from the sap of the Tree of Halted Life.
It got it's name from it's sap, which would destroy the glands in the body where spiritual and physical energies mixed to make new chakra. This would result in the production of chakra being stopped, as well as the ability to use chakra being greatly hindered. It didn't mean that the person would die, just that their chakra was now a nonrenewable resource. They would die once they ran out of chakra, but the amount of chakra that is used just to live is so insignificant that it would take amazingly small reserves to run out of chakra before you died of old age, unless you used jutsu. You could still live a long and happy civilian life.
Arata looked over at the unconscious, supine figure of Uzumaki Naruto. The soon to be target of his supplies. The boy was bound by steel shackles connected to the floor of the dark floor.
He felt a bit of guilt creep up on him as he stared at the peacefully sleeping child. He didn't fear Naruto, nor did he hate the boy like the extremists. He did, however, fear what was inside the boy. Memories of the horrifying beast entered his mind. How it had swallowed three and a half of his friends and crushed his loving family in an instant. It's snarl plagued his dreams every night.
If he felt anything for Naruto, it was pity. Because of the events surrounding his birth, the child was damned to a life of hardships and loneliness and Arata was taking away the boy's only chance of surviving. The life of a shinobi. The thought made the guilt multiply, but he steeled himself. It wasn't like this would be the worst thing that he had done in his shinobi career.
If this worked, it would take away any chance of the beast taking over Naruto's body or escaping. It might even ensure that the beast would die with Naruto.
With that in mind, he picked up the seals and walked over to Naruto's limp body. He placed the dozen seals on several indiscriminate places on the boy, only excluding the torso. By the time he was done placing the final seal, Naruto started to awake.
"Who... Who are you?" Naruto drowsily murmured, not recognizing the man hunched over him. He received no answer. "What are you doing?" Naruto asked, more alert and beginning to panic at the unfamiliar surroundings. Again, he received no answer.
He tried to get up in order to leave, but was held tight by his bindings. Now panic completely seized him. He thrashed against the chains until his wrists and ankles grew raw.
The man had gone over to a table in the room not long after Naruto started struggling, but was returning with two objects, one of which filled Naruto with a dread much greater than that he had felt before. A kunai and a vial of amber liquid.
Naruto stopped tearing away from his bindings and frantically tried to think of a way out. He couldn't find any way before the man reached him.
Arata easily ripped off Naruto's old shirt. Then he took another container of liquid out of his back pouch. The liquid would cause paralysis and act as a painkiller.
"Drink this." He ordered, bringing the liquid up to Naruto's mouth.
A part of him knew exactly what Naruto would do after hearing that. Naruto clamped his mouth shut. Time was an issue, a squad of ANBU could bust into the room at any second. So Arata punched Naruto in the stomach, having the desired effect of Naruto opening his mouth enough for the liquid to be force fed to him.
It took only seconds for the effects to kick in. Now with Naruto drugged and paralyzed, Arata could begin.
He made over a dozen incisions, each a couple inches long, on the boy's chest. Tears rolled down Naruto's unmoving face as he felt a bad stinging on his chest. Arata noticed this and silently apologized, but continued cutting all the same. After finishing the cuts on the chest, he moved onto the stomach. Three long cuts across the stomach and he was done. With the cutting at least.
Now all he had to do was insert the sap and heal the wounds. It took less than half a minute to drizzle the sap into all of the wounds. It would seep into the wounds, carrying out it's purpose as it spread through the body, being most potent at it's entry point. Arata noticed that Naruto's breathing became even more irregular and more tears fell in a steady stream.
There was a lot more noticeable change for Naruto. Going from a bad stinging to a feeling that could only be described as lava being poured onto your torso was a little jarring. He wanted to scream until his throat went hoarse and run away as fast as he could.
If he could think of anything other than pain, he would of tried to figure out why the man was doing this to him or why he hadn't passed out, like he had been told would happen if you were faced with such incredible pain.
Arata had been told that it would take a good half-hour for the sap to do it's job, so, after closing Naruto's wounds, he sat there and stroked the boy's golden hair. Not that Naruto noticed.
It was fifteen minutes before unconsciousness mercifully took him, but it felt like fifteen years.
XXX
He woke up laying in water in front of a giant jail cell in a large, dimly lit room.
"Foolish boy." a raspy voice sounded out from inside the jail cell.
"Who's there?" Naruto asked, sitting up.
"Me? I'm the only thing that will never betray you. I'm your best friend. I've been with you since the day you were born. Even longer than that if you count the time I was effecting you in the womb. I'm one of the oldest beings in existence. Eventually, I will be the oldest. Hey, are you still listening?"
Naruto replied with a nod.
"Good. I put a bit of time into that introduction and you humans seem to loose interest uncannily fast."
Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or fear for his life. "Where are we and what are you?"
Naruto's second question was answered as the figure came into the light to reveal the head of a giant fox with a menacing and mirthful smile. "We're inside a seal, inside you."
There was a moment where Naruto just stood there, staring dumbstruck at the giant talking fox. Then he registered what it had said. "What do you mean? Like a storage seal?" he said, remembering the minor lessons on fuuinjutsu he had received.
A chuckle resonated from the fox. "You could say that. Actually, that's a great way of putting it. You're my storage seal."
"Why? How did I get here?" He was now more curious than anything.
"Oh, I was running amuck in your village, killed a lot of people, so they sealed me in you. Remember that, it'll explain a lot. As for how you got here, your mind broke. Like a cheap toy. So to save what's left of your mind, you were sent here. In fact, you're not who or what you think you are right now. Right now, you're what is left of the sanity of Naruto Uzumaki. The real Naruto is just a bundle of whimpering flesh. Don't worry though. Thanks to me, you'll be back to good health by the time you leave here."
Naruto stood there for a moment to take in all of the information. "Do you know why that man did what he did?"
"Ah, that goes back to what I said mere moments ago. He probably did it out of fear for me. You might want to blame me and I won't stop you, but remember that the fault lies in your village as much as it lies in me. Now, with that in mind, recognize that I can give you tips that will let you not only survive, but thrive."
"What tips?" Naruto queried.
"There are three tips that will lead you to success. One, don't trust anyone."
"Then how can I trust you?"
"Great question. That goes back to what I said in the beginning. I will never betray you, because if something bad happens to you, there's a large chance that something bad will happen to me. Second, become a killer that'll be spoken of for millenniums. Join the academy. Study and train until you pass out. Always keep in mind a way to kill those around you and if you can't find a way, then find a way to escape if things go awry. Analyze everything. Your surroundings, what someone says, how they say it. Everything."
"That's more than three."
"Third, never show your true feelings, unless it puts you in a advantageous position. Treat those three tips as the word of god and you will survive. Alright, I've said all that I've wanted. Remember what I've said. Hopefully it will be a long time before you and I meet again."
"Wait! How does a fox know all of this stuff?" Silence was his reply.
Naruto tried to make sense of the semi-flippant fox as his vision faded once more.
XXX
Arata waited after he took the seals off of Naruto. He had placed the kunai on the floor in front of himself, as he continued to run his thumb over the boy's right sideburn. He'd already taken the bindings off and put a white shirt on the boy.
He thought of what to do. Of course he would have to leave the village, but maybe he could take Naruto with him. It might be better than leaving him here. If Naruto could get over, or forget, this event, than Arata could happily watch after him.
Arata frowned as he thought of the boy's position in the village. It was incredibly easy to abduct Naruto and, if he wasn't mistaken, there hadn't been a search attempt yet. The security over the boy had become very lax after years without incident. All he had to do was bribe an employee at the orphanage, simple as that. There were D-rank missions that were harder.
Arata was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Naruto's eyes opening. He didn't notice Naruto's small hand grasping the kunai. He barely registered the kunai piercing his temple before he died.
Blood spewed out of Arata's wound with a light hiss as his corpse fell over to the side.
Naruto crawled over to the deceased man and searched his pockets. He found a wallet with a storage seal in it. Inside the seal was around thirty thousand ryo. Naruto took a moment to stand over the corpse and stew in his hatred for the man that once possessed it. He kicked the carcase as hard as he could, before beginning to look for his belongings. He would not know of the good intentions that Arata had for him, only the pain that Arata had brought upon him.
After a few moments of searching, he found his possessions in a dark corner of the room. He walked over to the man's corpse again to acquire a weapon pouch that the man had worn on his right thigh. After placing his own kunai into the pouch, he gathered his books and wrapped them in the orange scarf once more. With all of his belongings retrieved, he walked out of the decrepit building into the slums.
Naruto thought of what to do next as he aimlessly walked down the street. First, he'd have to find somewhere to live, since he sure as hell wasn't going back to the orphanage. He could probably find an affordable residence around his current location.
So, with his goal in mind, he walked over to what looked like an occupied apartment building and entered it. In the building he found a somewhat unmaintained room with a scruffy young man sitting at a grubby desk. He spared Naruto a quick glance, before returning to reading an orange book with two adults prancing on the cover.
Naruto walked over to the man and stated, "I would like to buy an apartment, please." The man gave a long sigh, before replying, "Go away, kid."
Naruto's brow furrowed. "No. I want to buy an apartment."
"And how exactly are you planning on paying for an apartment?" The man asked in a condescending tone. He didn't have to deal with a snot-nosed brat, even if said snot-nosed brat had an advanced syntax for his age.
"How much would it cost?"
"Twenty thousand ta buy, thousand a week ta rent."
Naruto extracted twenty thousand ryo posthaste and showed it to the man. The young man's face betrayed intense surprise, before he pushed one button of many on a black box on his desk.
"Takahashi-sama, I need you to come down here."
A few minutes of awkward silence later, an attractive dark haired, pale skinned woman, dressed in a loosely tied silk robe, exited a door that led to a stairway. "What in the hell do you want Takashi?" She demanded, before noticing Naruto.
A bright smile appeared on her face as she crouched down in front of Naruto, careful to not expose anything indecent. "What is your name, little guy?"
Naruto returned the smile and gladly introduced himself. Nice to finally meet a nice adult, instead of the cold teachers that visited him or the weird people walking the streets.
"Well, my name is Aika. How can I help you Naruto?"
"I want to buy an apartment."
Her cheery expression turned into one of curiousity. "Really? Don't you have a home already? Where are your parents, anyway?"
"No, I was just... released from the orphanage. I have twenty thousand ryo. Please, just let me buy an apartment, I won't cause you any trouble. I know how to take care of myself." Naruto pleaded while offering her his money
Aika considered his offer. It wasn't a common event for a orphan to be wandering the slums looking for a home, but it wasn't unheard of. Said orphan carrying enough to buy an apartment, however, was. At least, she hadn't heard of this happening before. The kid actually sort of looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Aika always did have a soft spot for kids, though. She would let him buy an apartment, where she could keep an eye on him. If she became aware of people searching for the boy, she would turn him in and give him a refund. Of course, she'd let him keep the apartment if she hadn't heard of a search attempt within a month. The shinobi of the village that were put on missing persons cases were good enough trackers that it was a rare event for the case to not be solved in a timely manner.
"Alright, Naruto. C'mon, I'll show you to your apartment. It's real close to mine, so you can call on me whenever you need." She stated as she took fifteen thousand out of the twenty thousand that he was offering her. Leave the kid with some money to live on.
Aika held the door to the stairway open for Naruto. As he passed her, she noticed something peculiar. There was a red liquid on the lower-back and rear of his clothing, like he had somewhat lounged in it.
"Hey, what is this red stuff on your bottom, dear?"
Naruto's heart skipped a beat. "It's paint," he replied quickly, "I was doing some work at the orphanage before I was released."
Aika shrugged it off. She had been in an orphanage once and remembered the work the staff would give you the closer you got to being released. This child was quite a bit younger than she was when she was released, being at age twelve when she was, but it wasn't impossible for an orphan to be released at such a young age. It just meant that said orphan had a good head on his/her shoulders. Actually, all this thinking about leaving orphanages and such made her remember an important slip of plastic.
"Could I see your I.D. card, Naruto?"
"What? What's that?"
"It's a card that you get when you are released from an orphanage or your parents custody, stating that you're an adult."
"Really? They didn't tell me anything about an I.D."
'So, I've got myself a run away.' Aika mused with a small smile as she watched Naruto ascend the stairs. Still, it wouldn't do any harm to keep him here until some shinobi eventually came to her doorstep looking for him. And if they never came, she could keep the kid. It got a bit lonely up there. All the other, stupid tenants wanted apartments closer to ground level so that their fat asses wouldn't have to walk all the way to the top. Of course that was the spite talking, a good deal of her tenants were practically emaciated, either by lack of food or as a side effect of a drug, usually both.
It took a few minutes to reach the top level, where her and her new tenant's apartments resided.
Aika handed Naruto his key and showed him to his new home. It was a cheap apartment furnished with cheap furniture. A couch, t.v., bookshelf, and kitchen area made up the first room. A doorless opening led to the bedroom, which led to the bathroom. Everything looked to be in decent condition, save for an excessive amount of dust.
It was quite the step up for Naruto.
Aika didn't seem to want to leave, though. It took a good bit of insisting that he didn't want to stay at her place until the utilities were turned on, that he didn't feel like having dinner with her, and that he didn't want any company at the moment for her to leave. It was nice of her to offer, but Naruto just wanted to be left to his thoughts at the moment. He had a lot to think about.
Though Aika went back to her own home, she did worry about the boy being alone in the apartment without any food, water, or electricity. She eased her worrying a tad by telling herself that he'd come get her if he needed anything.
Now, all alone, Naruto flopped onto his new bed. It was softer than his old bed, which was just a tad better than sleeping on the floor.
He gave out a long, weary sigh. He needed to discern between what was real or not.
The man and what he did were real. All he had to do to prove that was lift up his shirt to reveal multiple scares that marred the front of his torso. Also, the pain had been too real for that experience to be fake.
Later in his life, Naruto would wonder why the injuries had left scars, unlike the many other wounds that he would receive. He would never find out that it was because his regenerative ability had been mostly concentrated on saving his chakra circulatory system, with much success. It had only taken the time to close the wounds.
Naruto was convinced that his conversation with the giant fox was quite fake. Just his mind defending itself in order to keep him safe. The advice that he had been given, though, could be quite real. It was advice that came from within him and it sounded very reasonable. How could he not follow it?
It didn't take long for sleep to take him, but it wasn't a restful slumber. Devilish foxes and wicked men tainted his dreams.
XXX
An old man sat behind an even older desk in a dark room, looking down at the kneeling ANBU in front of him. "Is that all?" he asked.
"Yes sir."
Sarutobi scribbled a set of orders onto a piece of paper, before applying his official stamp to it and giving it to the ANBU. With a nod of the old man's head, the ANBU was gone. What Sarutobi had heard gave mixed feelings. He was angered, but was able to keep it hidden under a stoic mask due to years of practice. He was also hopeful.
Sarutobi had a group of twenty ANBU scour the village from the moment he found out that Naruto was missing. He had found out a few hours after the boy's disappearance, but he was lucky to have found out the day it had happened. Sarutobi was ashamed of himself for this incident. After years of the boy being unthreatened, his advisors advised that he should use the ANBU guarding the boy more efficiently, which he had agreed to without much resistance. He never would've imagined that this would happen, not in a million years. But he should have.
He hadn't personally seen Naruto in over five years. He always went out of his way to make sure that the boy received a proper education, none the less. He'd made sure that the boy was reared well, with multiple teachers ranging from a common schoolteacher to a very loyal and skilled jounin. Though he wasn't completely proud of it, he'd laced the boy's education with overtones suggesting a military career, like training Naruto in the fundamentals of most shinobi skills. Naruto was progressing very well in his studies, almost to the point to where he was considering releasing the child into the general population as a licensed adult.
He didn't want Naruto to be released like this, though.
It didn't take long for the ANBU to find out who in the staff had been bribed to release Naruto and, after piecing together what had happened to the boy due to her actions, the woman had been swiftly executed. He had half a mind to execute the other staff members that knew of the bribe, but had kept quiet. But that would result in most of the staff being executed and that would do more harm than good.
After trailing Naruto's tracks to the slums, they found a body of Arata Sanoshi, a veteran chunin. He had been dead for three and a half hours, his corpse lying in a pool of his own blood with traces of Naruto's blood mixed in. From a discarded kunai, they had learned that Naruto was the killer. From the child-sized bindings, traces of Naruto's blood, and the boy's ruined shirt they figured that it was in self-defense.
Not long after that, the group found Naruto lying in a cheap apartment, tossing in his sleep. The medic of the group checked his vitals to find that other than his torso looking like it was used as a cutting board, he was completely fine.
With all this taken into consideration, Sarutobi gave the ANBU orders that five members of the group should monitor Naruto at all times. The five could alternate between themselves for breaks and necessary events like sleeping and eating. They were to step in if Naruto got himself into any situation that would irreparably damage his psyche or kill him. Other than that they were to just watch and report it to Sarutobi. That meant that a non-fatal beating would require no action, but if it became life threatening, they would stop it.
Most with a neutral demeanor towards Naruto would find this horrible and Sarutobi would too if he didn't know of one fact. Naruto needed this. Life wasn't going to be kind to him to any degree. In fact, between being a jinchuuriki, son of the Yondaime, and godson of Jiraiya Naruto would be one of the most threatened people in the world. He needed to be raised to solve his own problems and solve them well and Sarutobi would guide him through this procedure from the shadows.
XXX
Aika was checking her mail when she saw something very unexpectable. Her little tenant's mailbox had a red tag hooked on the handle instead of the usual white tage, showing that Naruto had incoming mail. That couldn't be possible, right?
She immediately opened the mailbox, not caring about the boy's privacy at the moment, and retrieved a brand new I.D. Card, stating that Naruto Uzumaki was a citizen of Konoha and was to be recognized as an adult.