"Make your move, Zabuza." Kakashi goaded.
The time was mid-day, though one might be hard pressed to tell the actual time. The whole area was covered in a thick fog, making it near impossible to see a mere two feet forward. A duo of jounin were locked in fierce combat, while their apprentices were found on the sidelines covered in a dome of ice.
"Like I'd hardly fall for that. I'm content to wait for yours while my apprentice takes the lives of your puny genin. Question is, are you willing to let that happen?" Zabuza countered. He put Kakashi in a tough spot and he knew it. All he had to do now was-
"Gee, Kaka-sensei, I'd hope you're not…" a new voice was heard, startling both parties.
Suddenly, there was a deafening silence. All movement had stopped to take notice of the new presence filling their senses. Standing between Kakashi and Zabuza was a single man, reaching a height of six feet, of not more, he wore a mask with red markings and black horns, not dissimilar to a dragon, and a pitch black cloak hid the rest of his body from view.
His eyes seemed to glow bright red, and were slitted.
A hand appeared from his cloak, empty. The movement put both jounins further into defensive stances. With one swift motion, he brought the hand down, and crossed it over his abdomen, bowing. The action came with a gust of chakra powered wind that cleared the area of all mist, revealing the sun and a clear day.
"Hello! As far as introductions go, I already know both of your names, however, since you obviously don't know mine, you can call me Kurama, the strongest demon to have ever existed." the now named Kurama lifted from his bow with a spin and a flick of the cloak. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Now back to being completely concealed, he began walking towards the end of the bridge, where the lesser shinobi had no doubt fallen unconscious from his spiritual pressure.
The dome of ice was little more than water on the ground, its creator out cold a few feet from two other knocked out bodies. One in orange, another in light blue. Some yards away, a girl with pink hair and an old man in a straw hat lay similarly comatose.
"Ah, how pathetic we used to be." he murmured quietly.
"Okay, so you told us your name, now what exactly are you doing here?" asked Kakashi.
Kurama brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "Nostalgia? … No, that isn't really like me… Just for fun maybe? Ach, I don't even know why I do half the things I do anymore." he said, bringing his hand down and shrugging.
A groaning was heard to his left. He turned to see the boy in orange start to awaken.
"How did I know he'd be the one to wake up first?" Kurama started walking towards the young shinobi. "Are we ready?" he seemingly asked to no one in particular.
Kakashi started to worry. This man's pressure was making it impossible to move, and yet he swore he was about to see his student's lives be taken before his eyes. He needed to do something, anything!
He took the kunai he was holding an stabbed it directly into his leg, forcing himself to move, but it didn't work. Nothing worked! Not even pain released him for the fear.
Kurama knelt down in front of the orange boy and placed a hand on his stomach.
Kakashi finally had enough reason to move.
Almost in slow motion, Kakashi rushed towards the man who was about to end his student's lives. With kunai in hand and Sharingan blazing, he directed the small knife directly into the side of the man's head…
Only to be stopped by said man placing the tip of his finger in the end of the blade.
"Please," he said lowly "I need complete concentration." And with that, Kakashi was again unable to move, forced to watch from mere feet away as this man slaughtered all he held dear.
.
.
.
Only, he never did. He simply knelt there, hand on the boy's stomach, and appeared to be lost in thought. After a minute of agonizing silence, Kurama spoke again.
"Transfer complete. That should give my little guy a boost." He punctuated his sentence my giving the mostly unconscious boy a pat on the head.
Kakashi spoke, no louder than a whisper. "What did you do?" he had begun to regain motor skills. "What have you done to Naruto?!" Still little more than a whisper, it was obvious he meant to yell.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand at the moment, but I switched his nine tails with mine."
That gave Kakashi an extremely bewildered look.
"You did what?"
"Like I said, I don't expect you to understand. I need to speak to the current hokage. What is his name?" Kurama asked.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi." Kakashi said. He could hear Kurama choke ever so slightly.
"Understood. Continue your mission as you would without me here, but I will be returning with you to speak with Lord Hokage." And with that, the cloaked man turned to leave, soaking up his presence as he went, allowing those affected to return to normal. Before disappearing, however, he turned to look at Zabuza.
"Haku cares more for you and your goals than he does his own life. Remember that. Also, Gato plans to betray you on this day. Use that information as you will." Turning once more, the cloak became empty and flew skywards on an invisible gust of wind(1).
The pressure now dissipating, all those who were unconscious were beginning to stir. Naruto was the first one fully aware. Shaking Sasuke awake and preparing for another bout with the soon to be conscious Haku, a call from Zabuza made him stop.
"No need to fight anymore, kid." He stuck his sword into the bridge. "We're done here. If the man named Kurama speaks the truth, you and I might be on the same side for now Kakashi."
Kakashi, still reeling from the encounter, returned, "I might be obligated to agree." He settled into a more relaxed stance. "People as strong as him rarely lie about things like that. Lies are for the greedy and weak."
"Oh? What is it we have here? Has my hired ninja broken his contract?"
All those awake, which was everyone but Tazuna, turned to look at the new voice. It came from a man, short in stature with beady eyes hidden behind circle sunglasses, along with a veritable army of common thugs behind him.
"What happened to never failing a mission? I know ninja have no honor, but that's just rude." He gestures to his left and right, at the mass of men behind him. "I was hoping you'd just all kill each other, but it seems some outside interference has hindered that. A shame." He points in the ninjas' general direction. "I'll have to have my men do instead."
Zabuza made a side-eyed glance at Kakashi. "Still inclined to agree?"
Kakashi returns the glance, and offers an, "Even more so. Turn it into a race?"
"First to a hundred kills buys the other a new set of gear." Zabuza grabs his sword and rips if from the floor. "And I don't come cheap."
Kakashi smirks under his mask, and assumes Zabuza does the same. "Neither do I." Pulling two new kunai from his pouch and taking a ready stance, Kakashi begins, "One."
Zabuza continues, "Two."
And at the exact same time, both say, "Three!"
Instantly, both disappear from sight, and the bodies start dropping. Zabuza's sword cleaves through droves of people, while Kakashi's dual kunai slit tens of throats in seconds. Before long, both men are covered in blood, and the only man left standing is Gato himself.
"I'm at 99." says Zabuza.
"Same here." Kakashi replies. Both turn to look at Gato, who, at this point was reduced to a babbling mess.
They look back at each other, both shrugging. "I had wanted to feed him to the dogs, but I guess I'll have to exempt him from that." says the copy nin, starting a slow walk towards the broken man.
"I wanted to make him bleed as slowly as possible, and kill him that way, but I agree with you. Exemption it is." Zabuza was calmly walking beside Kakashi at this point.
The problem then, was that he was dead by the time they got to him, killed by a needle in the neck.
"DAMMIT!" They both yelled.
Haku bowed from his position a few yards away.
The yell woke Tazuna up, and he fainted from seeing all the death.
Drip
Drip
Drip
"Geez, this place really was a dump when I was little, huh? I really need to relearn how to alter the mindscape from the Yamanakas."
Standing in a hallway filled with water barely halfway up his shoe, he began walking. He knew exactly where he was going and who he was going to see.
A large burnt orange fox, locked again behind the Fourth Hokage's seal.
"Hoho? What is it we have here? It seems my jailor has-" the fox stopped talking as soon as it started when it cracked one of it's massive eyes to actually see who was there.
He recognised the face, but he was not happy.
"FOURTH HOKAGE!" the nine tails roared in it's cage, seeing the face of the man who had imprisoned him after all these years. "COME HERE SO I CAN OBLITERATE YOU LIKE THE INSECT YOU ARE!"
"Glad to see you too, Kurama."
That made the nine tails falter. He had never told anyone his name. Let alone the man who cursed him to this fate. "Unfortunately, I'm not who you think I am. My name is Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, and I am the son of the man you called insect not moments ago." He pointed at his whisker marks for emphasis.
The nine tails snorted in derision. "That's not possible, unless I slept for 20 years when I thought I took a 12 hour nap." He began to lay back down and cross his paws in front of him. "Though I can't say that hasn't happened before. I have lived a very long time."
"Yeah, yeah. You were created when Hagoromo split the ten tails and formed you and all eight of your brothers and sisters. I've already heard the story. From you, in fact." Naruto had his arms crossed impatiently now. "Now, here's the deal. I switched my counterpart of you for you inside the Naruto in this timeline." Kurama raised a brow. "I'm an Uzumaki Sealmaster, y'know. I can quite literally do anything with seals. So, you can either work with me and be powerful again, or you can sit here until you decide you wanna help me. Those are your options."
"And what makes you think you can order me around, worthless human?" Kurama began to glare at Naruto.
Naruto didn't flinch, nor skip a beat. "What makes you think I'm fully human?" He closed his slitted eyes and re-opened them.
He didn't have a pupil, iris, or sclera. His eyes seemed to be made of a red and black liquid, constantly swirling and mixing(like his skin from 4-6 tail kcm). "Over the years of being the other you's partner, I turned into a demon myself. One rivaling, if not surpassing, you in power." He closed his eyes again, opening his slitted ones. He smiled. "Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki. The most powerful demon to have ever existed." He bowed for dramatic affect. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
A full hand of claws was thrust through the bars of nine tails' cell. Naruto was just out of their reach.
Bellowing out a snarl, the nine tails started, "YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF TO BE STRONGER THAN ME?! WHAT A JOKE! I COULD CRUSH LIKE CATTLE BETWEEN MY TEETH WITH FOUR PAWS AND NINE TAILS TIED TO MY BACK!" The claws began to recede when Kurama noticed he could no longer see Naruto. Then it hit him.
Literally.
A rasengan, larger than even one of his own tailed beast bombs collided directly with this underbelly. He was sent flying further into the cell, landing in a heap. Now fully on the ground, he was pinned there by heavenly gates, one on each limb and tail, one on his neck and one on his stomach. They had all slammed down with such force that the non-existent wind was knocked from him.
The room seemed to shrink, and a new gate appeared, one that chakra could freely pass through. Once that gate was shut, the heavenly gates began to crumble.
"Now I want you to sit there and think about what you've done, and ring me up when you're ready to talk about our agreement." Naruto said, his back turned and beginning to walk out of Kurama's new cell.
All the response he got was an agitated grumble, but he supposed it was progress.
"So, let me get this straight." Tazuna started. "Some demon by the name of Kurama showed up, knocked all of us out, and just literally told you the future? And said future was that you guys ended up teaming up?"
Kakashi shrugged a bit. "That was all the parts you needed to know, yes."
They were all - Zabuza and Haku included - walking through the forest back to Tazuna's house.
Zabuza added, "That's the basic version. Technically he told us Haku and I would be betrayed."
"And you believed him? Just like that?" Tazuna all but yelled. "Not that I'm complaining, you see." he added for good measure.
Kakashi took on a serious look. "People with that much power have no reason to lie about small things like that. And have you ever heard that demons never tell lies?" He eye-smiled. "Besides, it all worked ou-" Kakashi stopped talking on favor of putting an arm out, halting the movement of the entire group.
"You feel it too, don't you Kakashi." It wasn't a question. The same presence from the bridge, the demon, though it wasn't exerting a pressure. It was just noticeable.
"We're close to the house, you don't think…" Sakura trailed off, not wanting to say it. Everyone knew what she meant, however.
"Zabuza and I will look. The rest of you wait until we give the okay." He began to move, Zabuza moving to follow, before he stopped, adding, "If you don't see us in 10 minutes, assume the worst, and run as fast and as far as possible."
"We're not going to do that, Kaka-sensei! How tough-" Naruto started, but was silenced by a look from Zabuza.
"This guy knocked you out with a thought. You really think you stand any chance of even scratching him? You've gotta be kidding me." he said.
Kakashi added, "That and I highly doubt either of us could scratch him. He stopped a full power stab from one of my kunai with just his finger." Kakashi sighed and turned back in the direction of the house. "If you choose once in your life to listen to anyone, Naruto, choose this time. If not for your sake, then for mine. Please." And with that, Kakashi and Zabuza began to move.
Naruto looked stunned by the declaration. "Okay. I will." he responded lowly.
As Kakashi and Zabuza made their way to Tazuna's cabin, they had to wonder something.
If this thing had enough presence to knock out their apprentices, then why would he not have it active all the time? Could it be that he was baiting them?
"There." Zabuza spoke up as he pointed. They could see the cabin now, and right outside we the man himself.
He saw them, too.
"I was wondering what was taking you guys so long. I mean, it was only 200 thugs, right?" Kurama asked.
Neither Kakashi nor Zabuza said anything, but both were on guard.
"This is the thanks I get for helping a couple fellows out? What is the world coming to nowadays? You guys are even helping each other now, see?" He pointed in their direction.
"You have our gratitude for the heads up about Gato, but you are still an unknown." Kakashi stated calmly.
Kurama shook his head slightly and sighed. "If you insist. I can come back to Konoha as a prisoner if you so choose, but I will need to speak to Lord Hokage."
"I would rather not take any prisoners unless it's necessary." Kakashi made Zabuza relax, before releasing his own posture. "If you try anything funny, you will be restrained." 'He's talking to us as equals, so returning the sentiment should earn his respect, and possibly mercy.'
"I can promise that I have no reason to harm you or your genin, apprentices, or bridge builders." Kurama sat down on the porch. "You can go get them from their hiding spot. I will not move from this spot until you get back."
Kakashi turned to Zabuza. "You go, I'll stay here and watch him."
Zabua nodded once, and disappeared from view.
Dinner at Tazuna's house that night was… awkward to say the least.
Not only were they feeding the man and boy who had attempted to kill them not hours before, but it was the other guest that made it arguably worse.
The fact that he didn't eat a bite just added to it.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were all side-eyeing the man in the mask, looking for any reason to high-tail it as fast as possible. But he didn't… do anything. In their opinion, that made it worse. Watching him stare blankly as everyone else ate was kind of chilling. Like watching an old doll you are sure has moved on its own before.
Trying to break the tension, Tsunami asked, "How's the food, everyone? I wanted to make something special for our new guests." She forced a smile.
Naruto, as if forgetting the whole atmosphere, yells, "Oh, yeah! This pork cutlet is amazing, Tsunami!"
The action gives her and others a reason to giggle, further relieving the tension. "Well, everyone thinks the food is so good, why not have some, Kurama?"
Just addressing him brought it right back.
"I thank you for your hospitality, but I've already eaten. And I apologize. You've placed this wonderful meal in front of me and I'm unable to savor it." He says politely. A lie, not that she needed to know that. Demons don't need to eat.
"Oh, think nothing of it. At least it's being enjoyed by someone, right?" She gestures to the rest of the table.
"Indeed." Kurama replies.
… and again it is quiet.
"So, that's it then. Mission complete?" Naruto asked.
The bridge was now finished. They had run into no resistance from the day Gato attacked until now. Team Seven had just completed their first real mission.
"Now that that's over, I think it's time we head over and see what the situation's like in the Mist. Who knows?" Zabuza pat Haku's head. "Maybe they started caring for the bloodline users again."
"And I think it's time we finally head home, right, by cute genin?" Kakashi teased. He threw a look at Kurama. "And you said you'll be coming with us to see the hokage?"
Kurama responded. "Indeed. I've said at least three times now. You should have a better memory that this, Kakashi of the Sharingan."
Kakashi looked slightly angry, then turned nonchalant. "Well, I only have an eidetic memory when the Sharingan is active, you know."
"At this point, I'm well aware." Kurama said almost exasperatedly.
"Kakashi's team seven reporting mission successful, awaiting debrief." Kakashi intoned at the hokage.
"Well done, team Kakashi. I would like to congratulate you for completing your first A-rank mission, even though you set out to complete a C-rank. Jonin Commander Nara should have your debrief ready and waiting, though, I suspect that isn't why you came to me first." Hiruzen replied.
"That is correct, Lord Hokage." Kakashi said.
Without so much as a sound, Kurama entered the room. The hokage eyed his mask wearily. He recognised it.
"Before I anything happens, I recommend we be secluded when I explain my circumstances." Kurama started.
"Very well. Kakashi, you and your team go to Shikaku for your debrief. I'll be fine in here." the hokage requested.
A chorus of 'yessir's were heard before those unneeded exited the room. The third looked back in the direction of Kurama and waited. A moment passed before the man spoke again.
"When I said alone, Lord Hokage, I did truly mean it. Your current ANBU guard should not be privy to this information either."
There was a spark of shock in the hokage's eyes, though it died quickly. Narrowing them, Hiruzen spoke. "They are my personal guard for a reason. If they were unable to keep secrets, they would have been executed already."
Kurama sighed. "Very well then. However, if I find that any of them have told anyone of what they heard from this room, I will remove them myself."
The Hokage stiffened, "I assure you that will not be necessary, but please, continue."
Kurama knelt on the ground, bowing his head to the kage, and reciting "ANBU Commander Designation: Dragon, returning from active duty, Lord Hokage."
Said kage furiously stood up in his chair. The recognition was not for nothing.
"That designation hasn't been used since the second war! No one should even know of its existence! I made sure of it! How dare you call yourself that?! Who are you?!"
Kurama chuckled slightly as he stood back up. "Yes, I remember. The last Hokage to speak of Dragon was Lord Second, was it not? I remember it fondly. The original Dragon was a good friend of yours, was he not?" Hiruzen looked flabbergasted. "An orphan boy by the name of 'Ryutsuka'?" His shocked eyes grew larger. "And you're wondering how I know anything about the man whose very existence you snuffed out after his death." Kurama chuckled again, louder, but with zero happiness behind it. "Well, you tend to learn a lot when it's impossible to die by any means." He reached a hand to his mask. "It's been a long time," removing it, he said quietly, "Old man."
For the first time since he could remember, Hiruzen Sarutobi was almost speechless.
"M… Minato?" he asked quietly.
Kurama chuckled once more, more full of life. "Would you believe me if I said you were the second person in a week to mistake me for Lord Fourth?" Another light chuckle escaped from him. "And the other is not who'd you expect, either." Moving his mask filled hand to the desk in front of him, he placed it down. "No, I am, in fact, not the fourth hokage." He placed a finger on his cheek. "These should give you a clue to who I actually am, though."
The current Hokage's eyes finally moved form Kurama's eyes down to his cheeks. 'Those marks, but who…' A small, growing recognition shown on his face.
"Figured it out, have you?" He spun around, bowing as soon as he completed the 360 turn. "My name is Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, the most powerful demon to have ever existed." He rose from the bow, flaring his cloak as his did, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Hiruzen was actually speechless now.
And it stayed like that for a good minute before Kurama, now Naruto spoke again.
"And now you see why I needed to trust you to keep this information private." Naruto smiled. "It really is good to see you again, Old man. I may be out of touch with my emotions somewhat, and to a greater extent my humanity, but do believe that seeing you alive brings me great joy."
"Wait, earlier, you introduced yourself as a demon, but Naruto Uzumaki is no demon." A still confused third hokage became slightly angry.
"That is true. Naruto Uzumaki is no demon. He has a chakra construct with a consciousness within him that is commonly referred to as a demon. I, on the other hand, " He closed his eyes, "have become an immortal chakra construct of my own, and I have taken to calling myself a demon as well." He opened them to reveal the liquid black and red. "Moreso to strike fear into those who cross me than anything else." He closed his eyes and they returned to normal. "I am a demon, but in name only."
"...are you saying you are a tailed beast as well, then?" Hiruzen asked after a moment of thinking.
"No. I am not a tailed beast because I was not formed from the chakra of the ten-tails." He paused, "In short, the ten-tails is a being that both created chakra, and wanted to destroy the planet. All nine tailed beasts were formed when the Sage of Six paths removed it's chakra from its body and split it into nine parts. The only way I would become a tailed beast is if I was originally part of the ten-tails' chakra. Which, as you know my heritage, is certainly impossible."
"... then… How can I assume all of this is true? What you've told me about yourself, that is." Hiruzen queried.
"Do you want to test if I'm immortal, or that I am truly Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki? One can be done much simpler and easier than the other."
"I will not test if you are immortal, only to find out it's a lie and then have no leads as to how you have the rest of your information." the third said after a moment's thought, donning his 'Hokage' tone once again.
"So a DNA test should suffice, correct? It may not be an exact match, but, if you compare it to your Naruto, I think you'll find it to be a very close match. It will say sibling at the very least." Naruto explained.
The third looked confused. "I'm afraid our DNA testing capabilities might be a little out of reach for this. A blood test is the closest thing we have to it at this stage of development."
"Ah. Well, I'm afraid that a blood test is impossible on my part." He palmed a kunai and ANBU guard surrounded him. "Calm yourselves. I have no intention of harming Lord Hokage." He took the kunai and slashed his wrist. The same red and black 'liquid' that was in his eyes before has inside of the cut, before it closed back up in a matter of seconds. "As a construct made entirely out of chakra, I have no blood. My suggestion would have been a saliva sample, but, as you said, that's impossible as well." Putting away the kunai, he continued, allowing the ANBU to return to their posts. "There must be something else that I can do to prove myself." He put a hand to his chin in thought.
"Oh! I know!" the hand that was on his chin snapped, a metaphorical light bulb appearing over his head. "Genin graduation this year. Naruto Uzumaki stole the scroll of seals for a fake test that night and learned the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu from it. Using that jutsu, he apprehended the traitor Mizuki, who had been posing as an instructor until then. The only witnesses were Naruto and Mizuki themselves, along with Iruka Umino, another instructor. He was the one who initially found the young Uzumaki. In the aftermath, Iruka gave Naruto his headband, declaring that he had passed the final exam."
That made the hokage stop.
As far as he knew, only a handful of people knew why Naruto had taken the scroll that night. Even less knew of Mizuki's status as a traitor. But, only three people knew that the headband Naruto so proudly wore was originally Iruka's; Naruto, Iruka, and the hokage.
"I think I have the information I need now." Hiruzen said lightly. He shook his head slightly. "I was hard pressed to believe it at first, but I know now. Just one question. How is it you became… well, what you are now?"
Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment. "There was no big metamorphosis, if that's what you're asking. It just sort of happened." He expression saddened. "I only first realized what I had become a few years after the death of… well, you don't need to know her name, but she was my first wife. I really shouldn't say first, either. She was my only love, and that's how it'll stay until the end of time." He perked up again and changed the subject. "But, no need to prattle on about the sad stuff, right? Anyway, before I knew it, I had become a construct like the nine-tails."
Hiruzen spoke up, bringing Naruto back from his tangent . "I'm sorry for your loss. Do you know how this happened, though?"
"In fact, I do. First, let's start at my birth. Minato sealed half of the nine-tails in me and the other into him, taking it with him into the belly of the Reaper. For reasons I can't get into, my half was stolen from me later in life, the yang half. The yin half, still within Minato, was given to me to replace it. Even later, after all those events, I began slowly regaining the yang half of the chakra, as that was the one my body naturally melded with." Naruto paused to see of Hiruzen was keeping up.
"Please continue." he said lightly, lighting his pipe.
"Well," Naruto began again, "turns out the Reaper Death Seal can only hold one half of the nine-tails chakra. Because of this, the yin half of it was slowly being shoved from the seal into my body, fusing with it and creating, well, what I am now." He punctuated his final statement with a frown. "It seems that even the greatest sealmaster of his time wasn't as perfect as everyone thought he was."
The third narrowed his eyes. "Do you hate your father for what he's done to you, even if indirectly?"
Naruto shook his head. "Of course not. I could never hate anyone. Not entirely, anyway. It's not in my nature. Hell, my best friend tried to kill me more times than I could count, but I still call him my best friend." He stared out the window behind Hiruzen. "Besides, without what the fourth did, I'd have no chance to see you again, Old man." Naruto smiled.
Hiruzen slightly smiled back. "Yes, I suppose that's true."
A moment passed in comfortable silence.
"I do wonder how you came across designation: dragon." the third finally spoke.
"Ah. Let's just say it was needed again in the future and leave it at that." Naruto answered.
Hiruzen stared blankly at a stack of papers on his desk. "I suppose that's fair. As a future hokage, no doubt, I'm sure you have secrets of your own that do not need my attention."
"Hit the nail on the head, Old man!" both Naruto and Hiruzen laughed at that one. "I mean, it was obvious, what with all the spouting I did about it when I was little."
Hiruzen 'hmm'd in agreement. "Now that all of that is out of the way, we need to create a story for you being a part of the village. Assuming you do still want to be a shinobi of this village…" Naruto nodded. "What did I expect?" he laughed. "Showing up out of the blue will not look good for either you or me. Do you have a cover already, or do you need your old man to make one for you?" Hiruzen asked with a smile.
"Here's the deal." Naruto said after a moment's thought. "Long term deep cover mission, one that required you to expunge all existing data of me for tracking reasons, and I have just returned from it." He smiled, "That one has always worked so far," then paused, "Don't ask what that means."
Hiruzen looked up from his paperwork slightly. "I wasn't going to." His eyes returned to his desk. "Go on and find an apartment you like and I'll put you on a monthly salary to start you off before missions."
"No need for a salary," Naruto immediately answered. "I have more than enough with me to sustain myself until I start taking missions again." He opened his cloak and channeled chakra though it to reveal dozens of storage seals, no doubt used to keep weapons, money, and basic supplies in. To exaggerate this, he unsealed a single scroll from within, and unrolled it to reveal specialized ryo seals. Many of them. "Immortality doesn't just mean infinite wisdom, Old man."
"I… see." 'He might have more on him than we have in the entire Sarutobi account!' "Well it seems you're set, then. You should be fully reinstated and able to do missions by the end of next month." Hiruzen nodded to Naruto and decided to get back to his paperwork.
Naruto was about to leave when he turned back the the hokage. "Also, would it be at all possible for me to possess the Namikaze estate? I am technically the heir, after all."
Hiruzen sighed at the question. "The council will throw a hissy fit at some random person showing up out of nowhere to claim it when they think that it should have became public property years ago." he looked down, halting his work. "But… it can be arranged."
"I know all the passcodes, and the chakra seals are tuned to a Namikaze, so all I really need is the deed.(2)" Naruto winked at the hokage.
"Only on two conditions. Our Naruto will live there with you, and you will teach him how to better utilize his 'other half', as it were, in your free time. If you do that, I'll have the deed in your possession by the end of the week."
"And to think I was already planning on doing that." Naruto agreed. "Thanks a bunch, Old man!"
And with that, he was gone.
(1) - Call it an advanced Body Flicker, where it's an illusion that his cloak flies away, himself disappearing. The cloak is still on when he arrives at his destination.
(2) - Pfft. Who needs keys when you can put some seals on a piece of paper and have it withstand a nuclear blast? Nobody, that's who!
Hope you enjoyed what you read. I'm still relatively new to writing this way, and hope to get better as time passes.
Love ya, ZnK.
Also, leave a review!