Project: Hokage

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, leaned back in his chair as he took a long drag from his pipe. He had finished his work for the day and was taking a moment to relax. He spun around on his chair so that he could look out the large window behind his desk. He allowed his gaze to wander over the city he had given his entire life to. Looking at it now it was difficult to believe that it had been nearly destroyed almost ten years ago. Slowly his eyes were drawn to the face of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Truly one of the greatest shinobi of all time, though he had yet to reach his full potential.

Slowly Hiruzen exhaled letting the smoke pour out of his lungs and dispel into the air. Though Minato died on that day ten years ago he left his only son as his living legacy. His only hope was that his son would be seen as a hero, and would one day grow into a fierce warrior that would protect Konoha. Unfortunately it did not happen exactly as Minato had hoped. The Third still remembered that night as if it were only yesterday.

Flashback - Night of the Kyuubi attack

Sarutobi Hiruzen stood on the balcony of the Hokage tower facing the gathered crowd before him. "It is with a heavy heart that I return to my post as Hokage. Today we have lost many good shinobi, but their sacrifice must not be forgotten. For it was on this very day that the greatest among us the, Fourth Hokage, sacrificed himself to stop the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Up until this point the village had been celebrating the victory over the Kyuubi. However, the Hokage's words seemed to remind them of the destruction brought on by the greatest of the tailed demons. "As I look over the village all I see is death and destruction in every direction. This great tree has been burned to ashes. But, despite this hopeless scene there is hope. In the ashes a small flame burns ever stronger a hero in our midst."

With this said the Hokage turned to the ANBU member on his left and took from him a small bundle. With every word the Hokage spoke the crowd seemed to gain some life, slowly hope began to fill the eyes of the villagers. Carefully he pulled back the cloth around the small child to reveal a blond head of hair. The crowd seemed to hold their breath upon sight of the child. "I give you your hero, Uzumaki Naruto, jailer of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and the bright and shining future of this village!" Though the Hokage had been expecting an uproar of cheers, he was met with the silence of the night. Although disturbed by the non-existent reaction from the crowd Hiruzen, having said his peace, turned around and entered his office followed by Homura and Koharu.

As he entered his office the Third handed the young Naruto over to a nurse who would take Naruto back to the Hospital as he discussed a few things with the council. After handing over the young infant Sarutobi quickly made his way over to his desk and pulled out his pipe.

"What will you do with the boy?" Hiruzen turned to face his old teammates. "Even as an infant already his potential to become a powerful warrior has been secured." Homura stared straight into the eyes of his old teammate as he spoke.

Koharu took this moment to add in her own thoughts, "The only real question here is will he be made into a tool or a leader." Sarutobi looked at her with mild shock as his mind registered what she just said. "Please allow me to explain." Koharu waited for Hiruzen to respond, with a wave of his hand he signaled for Koharu to continue her explanation. "As Homura previously stated the boy will be a ninja for this village that choice was made as soon as the Kyuubi was sealed within him. So we are left with two options either make him into an emotionless tool who follows every order or we train him to become a new leader for this village. Obviously the safest route is to turn him into a weapon." At the end of her little speech Sarutobi had a dissapointed scowl on his face.

"While I agree that making the child into a weapon is the safest route, that is not what the village needs. The village is in desperate need of a new leader, especially after Orochimaru's recent defection. As of this moment the only one who can be Hokage is you and though you are one of the greatest ninjas I have ever known you are well past your prime. If you die the only ones that can replace you are your own students and though they are capable ninja I do not think they would be appropriate choices for Hokage." The Hokage leaned back into his chair and took a drag on his pipe as he thought over the two opinions of his teammates.

"While I can certainly understand your opinions I believe that there is a third option." Both Homura and Koharu shared a glance before looking back at their old teammate. "He will be raised by this village as the hero that the Fourth hoped, then when the time comes he will be allowed to choose whether or not to defend this village." Homura looked ready to interject when an ANBU operative entered the office with the young Naruto in his arms. The ANBU quickly kneeled in front of the Hokage, "What is so important that you would disrupt this meeting Hawk."

"As per your instructions Hokage-sama I trailed the nurse, Hideaki Akiko, as she returned Naruto to the hospital. On her trip I noticed her slip into an alley, I took position on the rooftop above the alley when I noticed her place the child on the ground as she tried to lift something else. Upon closer inspection it was a large rock that she was attempting to use to kill the child." At this revelation the Hokage began to pale. "I know that Akiko lost her brother to the Kyubbi, and when I restrained her she was begging me to let her avenge her little brother. It is my belief that the majority of Konoha likely blames the boy for the actions of the Kyuubi. As such I believe it would be best to leave the child in your care until we can set up an appropriate guard detail for the child."

After finishing his report Hawk stood up and handed Naruto over to Sarutobi. "Thank you Hawk that will be all for now, please return to your post." With a quick salute Hawk shunshined out of the office.

Once Hawk had left Koharu leveled a glare at Hiruzen, "So your plan is to leave a child to fend for himself in a village that wants to kill him."

"Your point has been made, but I will still require some time to think things through."

Hiruzen took another drag from his pipe. That one night had sealed Naruto's fate. Once he realized the amount of hate that the village felt towards the boy Hiruzen had no choice but to concede to Homura and Koharu. It had taken nearly a month for the Hokage to finally hammer out all of the finer details of his plan. Naruto would be trained from birth to be a powerful ninja and hopefully a powerful leader who would bring peace to Konoha. As it was though Hiruzen still wondered about his decision on that fateful night.

Flashback - 1 month after the Kyuubi attack

Hiruzen sat behind his desk as he waited for his old teammates. There was a knock on his door, "Hokage-sama, Homura-sama and Koharu-sama have arrived."

"Send them in." He heard some shuffling on the other side of the door just before it opened to admit both Homura and Koharu. "I assume you know the reason that I called you here for."

"I believe you have finally decided on a course of action concerning young Naruto, have you not." Homura took a seat across from the Hokage as he answered the question.

"I have made a plan, however it will require the two of you to raise and teach him." Homura and Koharu took a moment to look at each other and with an almost imperceptible nod signaled the Hokage to continue with his idea. After signaling that they would hear him out the Hokage pulled out a small blue scroll sealed with the Hokage's personal seal. "There are a few reasons that I chose the two of you. The first reason is that your houses are near the edge of the village and due to your position in this village you are granted privacy that few others have, this should make it easier to keep the boy out of public view. Second, As the best diplomats in this village I know that you can offer unparalleled advice and training in dealing with others in a diplomatic fashion. And most importantly I trust you two and I know that you will always do what you think is best for this village, in this case I believe that Naruto is a very important part of this villages future."

Koharu allowed everything Hiruzen said sink in before asking, "While your reason for choosing us is certainly logical we were only low-level jounin in our prime wouldn't it be better for you to train the boy." Homura nodded his head in agreement with Koharu before adjusting his glasses.

"Well that is what this little scroll right here is for." As he spoke the Hokage picked up the small blue scroll he had placed on his desk earlier. "Sealed inside of this scroll are four others. The first is my personal scroll, inside of it is all of my knowledge pertaining to the ninja arts. I hoped to leave it as a family scroll when I passed on, but I can see that it would be invaluable in this situation. The second scroll is from my student Jiraiya including his knowledge on fuuinjutsu along with some of his more advanced stealth techniques. The third contains everything that Tsunade left on medical jutsu when she left the village a few years ago. And inside the last scroll is everything that Minato left to Naruto."

Homura took this opportunity to ask a few questions, "While that is very impressive I must wonder how you expect him to master all of that in a reasonable amount of time for our goals? Then assuming that he could master all of this without any real experience it will be almost meaningless. So how exactly do you plan to allow him to gain any experience if you are keeping him a secret?"

"While I can understand keeping the child out of public view for his safety, the last scroll that Minato left for the child leads me to believe that you are trying to hide something else from us." Koharu leveled a heavy glare at her old teammate as she showed her disapproval for being kept out of the loop of something that could prove to be very important.

Hiruzen let a small grin show on his face as he listened to his old teammates. "Well I understand that it is far to much for a person to be expected to learn under normal circumstances I moved two techniques to the forefront of my personal scroll to help facilitate an extremely fast growth. The first is kage bunshin as I'm sure you know why that one would help, the second is kinniku no seichou. (1)" At the mention of that technique Homura looked like he was about to object, but Hiruzen cut him off. "I am well aware of the dangers of this technique, however one of the main functions of the seal is to transplant the incredible healing factor that the kyuubi had into the host. Now we still don't know how well the seal will do this, so Naruto will have to be monitored closely when he attempts it the first time. Assuming that his chakra allows him to make a large number of clones day after day I expect him to have mastered everything in this scroll in 14 to 16 years."

Hiruzen leaned back into his chair and took a drag from his pipe as he let his old teammates absorb all of the information. The two councilors whispered a few things back and forth to each other as they discussed what Hiruzen had told them, finally Koharu spoke up. "Your answer is acceptable for now, however they are still the two previous questions that you have yet to answer."

"Very well. As for gaining experience Naruto shall be listed as an ANBU liaison, codename Cobra, to be sent on missions at the discretion of the Hokage or his personal advisers. So when you believe he is ready to begin missions he will be sent as Cobra allowing us to keep his identity a secret. As for the last question, Minato left a scroll for Naruto because Naruto is the son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato. Now that you know everything will you accept this mission."

After hearing the lineage of Naruto both Homura and Koharu were slightly surprised, however they had already begun to expect something similar when they first saw the child. So turning to each other they both nodded before facing the Hokage again. This time Homura spoke up, "We accept this mission and will complete it to the best of our capabilities."

Hiruzen exhaled a large amount of smoke as he smiled at his two old friends. "Very well the S-rank mission Project: Hokage will begin after the next assassination attempt on Naruto. The perpetrator will be executed and the assassination will be declared as successful. All files will also be labeled as confidential and will be kept in the Hokages personal records."

Hiruzen stared down at the file on his desk, since the mission was so secretive he was unable to get any real progress reports on Naruto's growth. All he had on Naruto's progress were the mission reports for ANBU Cobra which unlike normal mission reports gave no descriptionof how Cbra handeled the mission only whether it was a success or not. Other then those all he had to go on was a note from an "anonymous" source with only one sentence. The boy's growth is far beyond your expectations. Although, that note was left for him nearly four years ago, so all he could do was hope everything was going smoothly. With a sigh he closed the file and placed it back in his filing cabinet. Deciding it was time to head home for the night he opened his doors expecting to see two chuunin guards, however the hallway was empty. Instantly the aged Hokage knew something was wrong, however his body never portrayed his worry as he closed the doors and returned to his desk. As soon as he sat down in his chair both of the ANBU hidden within his office fell forward onto the floor with senbon sticking out of their necks. At this the Hokage jumped up and noticed one of the tiles on the ceiling sliding back into place. For a split second the Hokage focused all of his attention on that one spot, and that was his mistake. In that one second he felt a kunai held to his throat and knew that he had been tricked. For the first time in a long time the Hokage was worried for his own life. However, he noticed the intruder slide a note onto his desk. The note was short and simple only three words, but their implications could change everything.

He is ready.

1. Kinniku no seichou (muscle growth): C-rank Kinjutsu originally developed by the Second Hokage. Utilizing chakra, the technique rips apart and reforms all of the muscles in the body thousands of times in just a few minutes. As a result the jutsu replicates years of tough physical conditioning in just a few minutes. Although the jutsu worked perfectly it was labeled a kinjutsu because of the unforseen side effects. Since the muscles grew almost instantly the users skeletal system does not have time to grow accustomed to the pressure created by these new muscles. As a result any type of muscle strain creates hairline fractures throught the users skeletal structure. So when the Second attempted this jutsu he ended up being hospitalized for nearly six months, so that the medics could continually mend his bones until they eventually got used to the new pressure.