Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Misashi Kishimoto.
"Normal Speech"
'thoughts'
Naruto is just about to begin the academy with the class of Sasuke, Hinata etc.
Hiashi Hyuuga was having one of the worst day of his life. His brother, Hizashi, has sacrificed himself to save him for his rash (but deserved) actions against the Kumo delegate, against Hiashi's wish. Now he has lost both, his dear wife & his brother.
"I'm going for walk, do not seek me out unless there is an emergency." Hiashi says to the guard as he leaves the clan compound to clear his mind. He's needs to contemplate, to think about the larger picture, the 'why' of his life.
"Get away from my stall, you urchin!" a shopkeeper yelled. His shout has drawn the attention of all nearby bystanders.
Hiashi witnesses the scene with an impassive gaze. The ever-lively Naruto just shrugged off the disdain of everyone & simply went away, grumbling how those candies sucked anyway. But Hiashi could feel the fluctuations of Naruto's chakra, however unrefined it was, he could feel that Naruto was distressed…& maybe scared too. Hiashi eyed the sweets Naruto was drooling over.
Naruto was frustrated & sad, he couldn't figure out just how & why his situation is so different than normal. He didn't wanted to cry not in front of these hateful eyes but sometimes he had no control over these tears.
"Might as well go somewhere nice & quite to relax!" he exclaimed, but he knew he was going to silently cry once he reached his destination.
Naruto found himself lying on top the Hokage Mountain, gazing on the starry-sky.
"Uzumaki Naruto" a voice called out. Naruto, startled, saw a man in white robes standing a few feet away.
"I swear I didn't do anything bad, I was just lying here for a few minutes." Naruto tries to defend himself from any unknown problem the man has with him.
"I know, I didn't accuse you of anything. I am Hiashi Hyuuga." Hiashi replies as he makes himself comfortable beside Naruto, sitting cross-legged elegantly. Hiashi admired the calm & scenic beauty of place. He didn't knew why he came here, after Naruto.
Nobody speaks anything for a few minutes, but Naruto couldn't take it anymore, here was a person that didn't shun him & even accepted his presence.
"Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto said, with a big smile on his face, his misery forgotten.
"I know, I used your name earlier." Came a cool reply.
"Soo…What are you doing here?"
"This is a public property, Naruto. I don't need to explain anyone why I've come here."
Naruto made a face, clearly not satisfied with the answer. Hiashi decided to humor the boy.
"I need to clear my mind, I've had a rough day."
"Oh! You've come to the right place then. This is my go-to spot for relaxing too. No one to shout at me here. You can tell me about your rough day, I've had plenty so maybe I can help you out."
This jerked Hiashi out of his star gazing. 'This kid is far too young to talk like this, like suffering is normal in his life.'
'Maybe I can share my thoughts, this kid was unlikely to judge him.' Without mulling over the decision too much, Hiashi's mind was made up.
"A very important & dear family member of mine died today"
There was a pause for a few moments before Naruto replied, "I'm sorry but I don't know how to help with that…I didn't had a family"
"But if there is anything I can do to help you, you can tell me. I will try my best" Naruto added.
Hiashi had a wry smile on his face, "It's alright, Naruto. So tell me why did you came up here?"
Naruto was looking aimlessly over the village, he wasn't sure if he could or should tell this person about his problems, the small talk was nice & he didn't wanted to spoil anything.
"It's ok Naruto, you can tell me about it, I know about most of the things anyway."
"Then tell me why I'm treated differently & why my life sucks." Naruto replied with a downcast gaze, if this person knew then well otherwise he will know it sooner or later.
"…"
"Naruto, the reason people dislike you is beyond your control."
Hiashi could feel the sadness rolling off Naruto. "You can cry, if you want too. It's better to than to hold it in". Tears started streaming down Naruto's face, silently.
"Naruto, the fault is neither yours nor these people, they have the right to hate, but the target of their hate, you, is misplaced." This seemed to confuse Naruto & he calmed down a bit to understand Hiashi's point.
'It's better to stay truthful & explain the situation rationally, otherwise Naruto may draw the wrong conclusions once he finds out the truth in unfavourable circumstances.' Hiashi thought.
"I'm going to advise you to not discuss our talk with anyone else, otherwise we not be able to meet again." Naruto nods hesitantly to Hiashi. Hiashi is not going to break any law, he's going to remain truthful but within legal boundaries.
"You'll just have to trust me won't ask me for further reasons when I say 'I can't tell you'."
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, & it was not meant that we should voyage far."
To say that Naruto understood a little bit of that statement was an overstatement "…oh."
"It's alright Naruto you are young & I don't expect anything from you right now." Hiashi said with a small smile.
"Alright Naruto, tell me what are confused & I'll direct you to the best of my ability."
"Soooo, I've been having a lot of problems at the academy…I try to follow everything that is taught to me correctly but I never get the results & always end up losing."
"Try to learn from the other kids, if you can, there is a possibility that some academy instructors are deliberately sabotaging you in their misguided attempt to take revenge for something you did not do. But it's alright, you can try to learn from other kids by watching them getting taught & you also try to learn in a spar, here you try to draw out the fight as long as you can if you are trying to learn. Finally, you can always watch your classmates spar & pickup something useful from there."
"Yes, makes a lot of sense. Thanks Hiashi-san." Naruto was really looking forward to his next academy day. 'I going to think over everything I saw the last time we had our Taijutsu session.'
"& can you tell me how can I buy stuff from the market without any yelling & at fair price?"
"You can ask a friend to shop for you…" Hiashi paused at Naruto's dejected look.
"Or you can ask any acquaintance of yours & pay them some compensation, this compensation should be less than all the losses you would've incurred if you had gone shopping yourself. Although this still costs you more than normal."
Currently, the only person Naruto could think of, for this plan were Tuechi & Ayame 'hmm…I need to think of something to make it work.'
"& how can I make friends, you know, with my circumstances & all that…" Naruto mumbled out unsurely.
"Well, for starters, don't give anyone any reason to dislike you. If you're unsure if you can keep that from happening regarding a particular person then try not to engage. Whoever you interact with, try to look for the cause behind their argument, don't take it personally."
"I've heard about your desire to become Hokage, is that correct?" Hiashi asked with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto bashfully, "Yes! I'm going to become the greatest Hokage ever & then these people will have no other choice but to acknowledge me."
"Well then, let me tell you Naruto, that the one who is acknowledged by everyone becomes the Hokage, not the other way around. They need to acknowledge you for who you are before you become the Hokage."
"These are all very simple but very important points that I've told you."
"Thank you Hiashi-san." Naruto said with all the sincerity he could muster. This talk had enlightened him to many aspects which he had not considered before.
"When can I meet you the next time? Hiashi-san. I want to keep updating you with my progress." Naruto asked eagerly, he finally had a person he could talk to about everything.
"I'm afraid that's not possible for a long while, I'm a busy man with many duties & It's not often I venture out without any purpose, like I did today."
Naruto was distraught 'He is the same as the old man Hokage.'
"But don't worry, I will keep myself updated on you progress & I will come to meet if I have some time to spare." This gave Naruto some hope & he was determined to make progress so that whenever they will meet next, Naruto will have some great news to share.
"And you shouldn't have free time either, because while the points I made may make the road ahead seem simple but it will be really difficult & challenging & for you to Hokage you will need to put in a lot of effort. Don't be lax in you effort Naruto, always strive for the best. Anything less will make your life less interesting."
Hiashi gently pulls out a wrapped packet & hands it to Naruto, "& take this Naruto, it was nice talking to you, the view here was soothing. Good night." Haishi starts to stroll back to the Hyuuga Compound at a leisurely pace.
"Wait, one last question, I really suck at ninjutsu whereas my classmates all have learned their special clan techniques, what should I do?" Naruto asked before Hiashi could disappear down exit.
"Chakra is a fascinating thing, Naruto. Experiment with it & you may discover your own special technique." Hiashi answered with a light laugh & disappeared down the exit.
'Huh! He didn't gave me any cool techniques…' Naruto thought, a little annoyed.
'But Chakra is a common ingredient for all ninjutsu techniques, I will take Hiashi-sans advice & experiment with it to make my own cool jutsus.'
With ninjutsu out of the way, Naruto focused his attention back to the wrapped package & opened it.
"Wow, no way! This is the same candy I was looking at earlier this evening. I only wanted one but this is the whole packet of them." Naruto was elated, but putting Hiashi's advice into practice, Naruto thought why Hiashi would gift this to him.
'Maybe I said something that made him happy or there is some ulterior motive, which seems highly unlikely.' But putting that thought aside for now, Naruto took a candy out & started indulging.
'I can't wait for tomorrow, I've got lots of things to do!'