A/N: Yeah I guess losing my data brought about SOME good in that I am now able to start on a few projects I've been wanting to do, for some time now. Bad thing is I'm sure I'll be in over my head soon enough, then again this should be my last idea...hopefully.
Four years after the Kyuubi attack, Sarutobi is forced to find new blood, OUTSIDE the village. He ends up finding who would be the sound five. They befriend Naruto and...well that's all I'm telling you. This is actually inspired by a story I read some time ago, so long ago in fact I do not remember the name nor do I remember the author(I forgot it because of inactivity on the authors part). I have been spending the last hour in front of the computer specifically the search function on the site to try and find this story, but no such luck. So if anyone remembers it from reading this please tell me so I can credit them with their work, hell if you, sir/ma'am want this removed I would gladly remove it.
Disclaimer: I own noting of the characters, YET this was inspired by another fic.
"Honorable members of the council, as many of you know, since the attack of the Kyuubi, four years ago Konoha has lost thousands of valuable shinobi; and while still as strong as ever, I fear this may be seen as a sign of weakness to our enemies. What I propose is that we recruit promising children from all around the elemental nations and bring them here, to receive training to ensure the future safety of our great village" Danzo announced, the rest of the council broke out into whispers.
The simple matter was Danzo needed younger recruits to join ROOT. It was harder to re-educate older subjects, the younger they were the better; having the added benefit of absolute loyalty. But there was the ever present road block known as Hiruzen Sarutobi, since their teenage years Hiruzen had always been posing as some sort of barrier for the things Danzo worked so hard for. Convincing him to this would be hard, but he had to try.
"I concur."
"Hokage-sama I obj- wait you agree?" this was interesting, while not exactly kidnapping, Dazno was proposing not only entering both allied and enemy countries, as well as any of their hidden villages, and convincing its citizens to move to Konoha. He had not actually expected this to happen, he even had a back up plan.
"Yes Danzo, I understand and I agree with you." Danzo had to do everything in his power to not smirk, it seemed the Sandaime Hokage, was loosening up a bit.
"Well moving on I do belie-" Danzo was so excited he zoned out, his plan was almost complete. All that was left was to make sure, it was HIS people to go out and do the searching. Bring enough brats to make the mission a success, but keep the best for himself. Yes, he was know one step closer to becoming Hokage.
"That gullible idiot." Sarutobi chuckled as he packed his pipe. He had just finished with the meeting and was now in the luxury of his office. "Too bad for him his mindless drones will NOT be the ones out on this mission." Forming one seal 12 AnBu appeared, his personal guard, each had a mask that corresponded with a different animal of the Zodiac, and were handpicked by him. No one knew who they were, nor that the Hokage even had 3 private squads at his disposal. In fact today was the first time since the attack of the Kyuubi that the 'twelve' were ever in the same room together. In a way they were the Hokage's answer to 'Root', except these 12 were the best of the best, and could take on the entirety of Danzo's entire army, that is why Sarutobi did not worry to much about Danzo's 'hidden' agenda.
"This mission is of the utmost importance, there is no one else I can trust with this task. The twelve of you are to scour the elemental lands and find as many promising children you can find and bring them back. Four teams are to be made, you have one year, offer them the chance to become shinobi, if they refuse move on, but for those that do accept, start their training. For the duration of this mission you are to use your designated code names. Boar?"
"Yes Hokage-sama?"
"You will assign the teams as well as decide how this mission is accomplished, but I want this done. I want all of you out of Hi no Kuni by sunrise." but before they could shun'shin out he added "And people...smiles for the children." With one group salute they left in a pop of smoke, Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe. The next few years promised to be very interesting.
Uzumaki Naruto, prankster king of Konoha, walked down the main street of the village whistling a happy tune. Whether that was how he truly felt at the moment was not important, or appropriate at this point in time, what was though was that he had just finished a 'job'. Yes. Somehow a four and a half year old was able to not only find one of the 'hidden' entrances of AnBu headquarters but was able to sneak in, make his way into the women's lockers take any and all undergarments, sneak over to the other side of the compound to the Men's lockers and plant the evidence within the lockers of the men. Leaving enough evidence so that the victims were able to track down their stolen intimates and bring down the hellish fury of a woman scorned.
With this added to his repertoire of ever growing pranks, Naruto would ensure his name would go down in history. He figured it could be as a legend,-but with the way he was treated he had his doubts- or in infamy frankly at the moment he just wanted something. He was on his way to the Hokage's office, it would keep the AnBu from chasing him around the village for a few hours. Walking right up to the building never missing his stride as he passed some of the strongest shinobi the village had to offer. He walked right up to the door and knocked.
Sarutobi was ecstatic! First of all Danzo had come in with suggestions for who to send on the mission, Sarutobi could feed off the crippled man's restrained anger. More importantly the mission already bared some results, only a day after he sent out his men and women to search for promising children, he had already received word that 'Ram' and his team already found a young boy knowledgeable in bojutsu(1).He was about to open a new bottle of sake to celebrate a new age of prosperity for the village when he heard a soft knock at his door. "Enter Naruto-kun"
A few golden spikes slowly inched their way around the door, followed by bright cerulean orbs. When the old man gestured him to enter, the boys huge smile lit up the room. Seeing that the child had done something mischievous actually made the old man even happier, he loved hearing tales of the young blond outwitting his AnBu, he should have been angry that his elite was being outwitted but hell it kept them on their toes.
"So Naruto-kun what bring you here today?"
"Nothing much Jiji." the young child answered as he sat down at the small table filled with puzzles and coloring books. Occupying himself with one of the simpler puzzles Naruto relaxed a bit knowing his Jiji would play along for a bit, until it was time to confess. He'd tell Sarutobi what he did, but not right now. So as the Hokage went back to work, Naruto sat quietly at the small desk and watched as people came and went to deliver messages, reports, and mission requests. When no one was around it was rather quiet in the small office the only sounds coming form the Hokage's pen scratching, or 'clack' from the child's wooden puzzle. So it startled the child when at around noon there was a loud poof of smoke in the office revealing a small bear cub.
"Woah! Kuma-chan Naruto pointed out." this was the first time he had ever seen a bear up close, even if it was just a cub. So it came as quite a surprise to him when the bear spoke in a loud booming voice, something he would imagine a giant would have, not some cuddly little bear.
"Sandaime-sama 'Arashi' has discovered one. I am to deliver this scroll to you with the information on the next child."
"Ah thank you Kuma-kun give your mother my regards." Having competed its mission the bear popped out of this plane of existence.
"What was that about jiji?"
Starring at the boy, he decided this mission could very well effect him so the Hokage decided to let the boy in on the secret, maybe that would get the boy to admit to whatever he did today. But he had to tread lightly, admitting the council was looking for orphans to train them, while he and others like him were being ignored, would hurt the child "Naruto this is about a very important mission, about the safety of the village. How serious are you about becoming a ninja?"
Without a moments hesitation he yelled, "Super serious! I want to become Hokage, and protect the people of the village because they will have to pay attention and respect me! And I'll be like 'I am your Hokage!' and they'll be like 'Hooray for Hokage Naruto!!-" once the boy started rambling the Hokage gently covered the boy's mouth with his hand.
"Now Naruto what did I tell you about your enthusiasm while inside?" he got a muffled 'inside voice' that sounded more like he said 'Istanbul'
"So you want to become a ninja right?" an eager head nod was all he got as a response. "Well Naruto if that is the case, I think you would be in your best interest if you were to receive training in the most rudimentary aspects of the profession. And with such enthusiasm I think I should inform you of an ongoing mission for the security of the village."
Being the four year-old he was he was imagining a great epic struggle between Jiji and a huge dragon, fighting just outside the gates of the village. "The most recent mission that my men have set off on is a recruitment mission for promising young ninja from around the elemental nations. Children, like yourself, who have lost their parents and are at risk from being exploited for their skills. The council has decide that instead of being used like a tool by some organization or older ninja, we could help raise them in a nurturing caring environment. That was what this scroll was for, one of my agents has found a child that has shown interest in becoming a ninja of Konohagakure."
Naruto had his head down and was looking at the floor, his voice was quite almost a whisper "Jiji why can't the council take care of the other orphans here in Konoha first. Like Suki-chan I heard her say she wanted to be a kunoichi, and Takato-kun said once that he wanted to be a tracker-nin. I know they don't like me but the other kids should be taken care of first." The aging kage's heart died a little hearing a four year-old accept such a terrible fate.
"We will take care of them, including YOU. But there are bad people in this world that would take advantage of kids, and their dreams, they will train them and use them as tools to be thrown away once they have lost usefulness for their masters. We feel we want to give them a chance to grow in an environment like Konoha and not in some slum. Naruto I KNOW that you will become Hokage, and I think you would be the best person to lead these children into a new age. Many of the children from clans have already started their training that is why I would like you to start as well so you do not have to play catch up in the academy."
This was a lot to take in for the young boy, but he trusted his Jiji with whatever he said, most of what was said went over his head, but he knew Jiji knew best. So he accepted it, he surmised he would understand when he was older so there was no real reason to question it now "Okay, so can I see who they found?" the blond asked.
"Well I don't see the harm in showing you who you will be working with in the future so why not." using his sharpened pinky nail to cut his thumb he applied some blood to the seal. With a poof it was open. Inside was a folder with Konoha's crest on it. When the aged man opened it Naruto felt his face get warm, he didn't know why but he wanted to meet her. Inside was a photo of a red headed girl, with big brown eyes that seemed to be calling him. "She's pretty..." Naruto whispered.
The aging man was surprised, Naruto never really showed any interest in girls before. Having had two boys he knew that if not teased by others some boys would develop crushes on girls. His first, Asuma, had had a crush on a young Yamanaka girl. But when Satoshi was the same age he tried to emulate his older brother and decided girls were 'yucky'. "What's her name Jiji?"
Quickly scanning the report to find her name he answered. "Erhh...Tayuya she has no family name. She's around your age...holy-cow" the old man changed the last word when he remembered there were little ears in the room.
"What is is Jiji?" "It's her genjutsu she has the ability of chunnin! Though her other skills are severely lacking. She's quite the prospect." This mission was turning out better than he had hoped for, the two children already picked up would be great additions to keep the Will of Fire burning brightly in the dark uncertain future.
"What's a prospect?" "Oh well...she will become a fine kunoichi when she's older." "Oh."
"So Naruto-kun you like her?"
The blushing boy knew what Jiji meant, but didn't really know how to answer the question "She seems nice, and Ive never heard the name Tayuya, kinda like my name, no one has my name either...they're special I guess."
The aging man gave a hearty chuckle as he saw the young child squirm under the question. "Special indeed Naruto-kun."
Naruto had started his 'training' but it was rather unconventional, to say the least. He was instructed by the Hokage, but because he could not show favor to anyone in the village he could not go out into the training fields with the boy and spend hours fixing stances and the like. BUT if the child stayed in his office,(like he did most days anyway) while 'playing' ninja, the man could 'inform' Naruto how real ninja did things. Really it was obvious what the man was doing, but who was going to call him on it? He was the Hokage! He just did it this way because he enjoyed seeing Danzo seething that he could not train the boy for his ROOT program.
It was Friday, and Naruto was working on chakra control. When a pop was heard the young boy looked up and saw a lion in the office. The updates were sent weekly now, after Sarutobi received 4 updates in one day all during important meetings, he decided that he would only receive one a week and at a designated time. The tiger spoke in a sultry clearly feminine voice, "Hokage-sama here is this weeks reports, 'Yukari'-sama asked me to tell you that these five are clearly exceptional."
"Thank you Tora-chan, you may go now." the tiger disappeared. As expected the young boy was jumping the man in order to receive information on the new kids, and possible new friends.
"Let us see here...we have twins boys hailing from Tsuki no Kuni(2) Sakon and Ukon. Jirobo from Kuma no Kuni(3) Kidomaru from Kaminari no Kuni(4), and Kimimaro from Mizu no Kuni(5). These five boys show as much potential as Tayuya-chan. Although they seem to have their own Kekkei Genkai."
"Woah! That is so cool! Looks like I have to train harder to be able to lead these guys huh Jiji?" Nodding at the boy, Naruto went off to try and finish his exercises to move on to the next one.
(1)While I will focus on the sound five, but there are several children that are found. Their involvement in the the main story will be limited, to things similar to this 'cameo' although they are not based on other characters. OH! and bojutsu=staff/pole technique.
(2)Land of Moon
(3)Land of Bears
(4)Land of Lightning
(5)Land of Water
A/N: REALLY awkward end there but, I wanted it to end before the planned timeskip where Naruto actually meets everyone. So remember if you know think this reminds you of another story, please tell me so I can see if it is the one that inspired me and give them credit. Also if you are interested in my C2 'Naruto's a daddy' check out my profile page for some info on the stories that I do add. And if you would like to help me with it. See you guys later. Thank you.