Naruto was pissed. No he was beyond pissed. He was furious. Shikamaru goes and gets promoted because he chickened out and forfeited his match. But Naruto not only beat Neji, the previous year's Rookie of the Year, he has kick Gaara's ass too. So here he is two week after the Suna/Oto failed invasion to go speak to the Hokage to rectify this mistake.
He ignored all the glares that the ungrateful villagers gave him. One was bold enough to come up to him and say the invasion was his fault. Needless to say that was what set him off. After verbally putting the man in his place; Naruto the proceeded to beat the man to a bloody pulp. Now this shocked many in the crowed for a couple of reasons. One Naruto actually lashed out against a villager, something he has never done before. And two it was a few things in his rant about saving the village form the Ichibi container. Seeing that no one was going to get into his way anymore he set off toward the Hokage Tower.
Nearing the Hokage suite Naruto was stopped by the secretary, "This is no place for a demon such as you. The Hokage is trying the recover from his fight with the snake sannin." Well obviously she did not get the memo that Naruto was pissed and was willing to lash out at people, so with that in mind Naruto slapped the secretary. "I suggest that you don't get in my way today you bitch. Right now I am really, really mad. So if you get in my way ever again I will kill you, that is a promise." Naruto whispered into her ear. Seeing the secretary shaking with wide eyes he decided it was time to see the Old Man. When Naruto kicked in the double oak doors he saw something that he wished he never would have to. The Sandaime Hokage had his left arm in a sling, bandage wrappings all over his body, but the face was what really scared Naruto. The Hokage's face looked like it had twice as many lines on it, as well as looking even deeper before the invasion. To Naruto his jiji look…old…he looked weak. That was something that Naruto had never seen in his jiji, and it made him want to crap his pants in fear.
"Ah, Naruto. What can I do for you today? But please make it quick I have a lot of work to do."
It took a few seconds for Naruto to gather is wits about him but when he did he got strait to the point "Jiji why was I not promoted to chunin? Shikamaru got promoted and all he did was give up. I know being tactical and all is important but if you don't have the gut to take a chance then how can you expect to gain anything? I beat Neji, last years Rookie of the Year, as well as Garaa the Suna container of the Ichibi."
Now this came as bit of a shock to Sarutobi for two reasons: 1) Naruto never demanded something so adamantly, and 2) some of the information that he said did not match up from what he heard. "Naruto you were the one who defeated Gaara? From the way Kakashi and Sakura were talking it sounded like Saskue beat Gaara?" Now Naruto can stand a lot of things a few being ignored, angry glares sent his way, being talked down to; however, one thing that he does not stand for his people taking credit for his accomplishments. "No, jiji. I was the one to beat Garaa. Sure Saskue stalled Garaa, but that's all he did. I had Garaa on the ropes when released Shukaku. After he did that I summoned Gamabunta to aid me, and I forced the Biju back into Garaa."
Now Sarutobi had something to think about. If Naruto was indeed able to summon Gamabunta and beat back the Shukaku then why was Naruto not promoted?
"Ok Naruto I have to make sure that you are indeed able to summon Gamabunta, so you and I will be going to training grounds 43 where will not be perturbed. Now if you are able to summon Gamabunta I will tell you about your parents." At the end of that Sarutobi looked up at Naruto to see him wide eyed with tears coming out. "So you knew about my parents and you lied to me every time I asked you? Why Hokage-sama?" At that the Sandaime flinched. Why he flinched is because Naruto always called him jiji or ero-kage, but never 'Hokage-sama'. Naruto calling him this was a sign that his trust has been broken. Thinking quickly Sarutobi tried to salvage his relationship with Naruto before it was too late. "I lied to you Naruto because I was asked to by your parents. You see they had many enemies, both inside the village and outside. They instructed me to reveal who they are to you if you made to the rank of chunin. Please understand Naruto that I did not enjoy lying to you. I am the Hokage I have to ensure the safety of the entire village and not just one person."
It took several minutes to process this new information. 'I mean come on I know all of that but still, it's the fact of the matter. Maybe if he tells me who my parents will help me forgive jiji' Deciding on that he told the old man to get it over with. So 10 minutes later the Hokage and Naruto were at training grounds 43. "Alright Naruto if you are able to summon Gamabunta not only will tell you about your parents Naruto, I will also give you a few other things to make up for lying to you all these years." 'Wow, jiji must be really sorry to just give me stuff. I remember asking him for stuff before and he couldn't, saying something about favoritism. He must really be sorry. Mmmm. First I'll see what he gives me and we'll go from there.' "Alright jiji prepare to be amazed…Summoning Jutsu: Gamabunta." As the smoke cleared Sarutobi and Naruto were on top of Gamabunta's head "Brat why the hell have you summon me if there is no fight." roared one Gamabunta. "Sorry Bunta but jiji said if I summoned you he would promote me to chunin. Plus some people don't believe that you and I fought the Shukaku."
"WHAT? I CHOPPED OFF THAT TANUKI'S ARM. I STILL HAVE BRUISES FROM HIS AIR BULLETS." ranted one pissed off toad boss. "I know boss. Oh, and get this, some of the people are actually giving the credit for his defeat to the Uchiha. And now his freaking ego is the size of the moon!" exclaimed Naruto. "Thank you Naruto I have seen enough. Also thank you for clearing up some confusion Gamabunta."
"No problem Hiruzen. Just make sure the gaki and I get our credit. Also I think it is time for Naruto to know." grumbled Gamabunta. "Yes, I know Bunta. Naruto made it quite clear to me. And to make up for lying to him for the past few years I am going to be giving him several 'gifts' to help him in his shinobi career." stated a contrite Hokage. "Alright then. Gaki next time you summon me and there is no fight then you better have some damn good sake. Also Gamakichi told me to tell you to summon him to play. Anyway I better get back to the misses." the following three storey tall puff of smoke signaled his leaving as the two fell to the ground.
"Okay Naruto lets get back to my office so we can start talking. The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can get back your trust." So following the Sandaime back to his office got into step next to his jiji.
Roughly twenty minutes later they arrived back at the tower, passing by his secretary Sarutobi said "Yuki cancel all appointment for the rest of the day. If a council is called tell them we will meet tomorrow afternoon and not a second before. After you have done that you can leave for the day." His secretary surprised at his command eventually got over her shock and complied with the order. When inside the room the Hokage waved his hand signaling his ANBU to leave. And sure enough four ANBU guards phased into view, bowed and left the room. Sarutobi, now sitting in his chair, lit pipe and took a few puffs to gather his thoughts on how to proceed. Little did he know that Naruto was having the same thoughts on to go forward. After a good five minutes of absolute silence Sarutobi finally spoke "Naruto I don't how to go forward with so while I speak I ask that you remain silent and any outbursts and questions can wait till I am done. Now your mothers name was Uzumaki Kushina. She was sent here from the hidden whirlpool village to replace our own resident Uzumaki Mito. The reason she was sent was because Mito-sama was the wife of the Shodiame as well as the Shodiame container for the Kyuubi. Your mother became the Nidiame container and you are the Sandiame container." Hiruzen gives a small chuckle here, "Now your father is a more sensitive subject. Your fathers name was Namikaze Minato. Better known as the Yellow Flash and the Yondaime. The one responsible for winning the Third Great Shinobi War for Konoha." At the end of the Hokage speech Naruto was openly crying "Why did my father seal the Kyuubi in me... didn't they love me…or did the abandon me like everyone says?" Naruto finally got all of that out between sobs. Seeing his surrogate grandson in emotional distress Sarutobi quickly got up and put his one useful arm around Naruto's shaking form. "Ssshhh Naruto it's alright. And to answer you questions; yes your parents loved you Naruto they couldn't wait for you to be born, they did not want to abandon you at all, however there were some complications with your birth that lead to your mothers death and as you know your father had to give his soul up to the Shinigami in order to seal the Kyuubi inside you. Now as to why he did that there are few reasons one of which is that he believed that he was not willing to sacrifice his child than how can he ask the same of another person, another reason is that he believed in you Naruto. He believed that you could tame the Biju and use as a boon and not a bane."
As Sarutobi finished his explanation he noticed Naruto had stopped crying and was staring off into space. Eventually he came around and found that he had be been placed on the couch in the room. Finally Naruto spoke "Ok jiji I can understand why you lied to me and I can forgive you for that, I'm disappointed but I can understand, you have to make tuff choices that you may not like. My kaa-san I can understand, but my tou-san…I don't know jiji it might take me a while to come to terms to that." Once again Naruto fell into silence where is eyes glazed over. Now Sarutobi was growing concerned because Naruto has never been silent unless he is asleep.
"Naruto", Naruto looked up quickly, "Now I said I was going to give you a few things and I am." Sarutobi reaches into his desk and pulls out a pure white piece of paper. "This is known as chakra paper. What you do is channel chakra into the paper and it will shoe your elemental affinity if it you have fire it will be set aflame, if you have water it will dampen, lighting will crumble, wind will be cut in half, and earth will fall to dust. Once we find out your affinity or affinities we can go from there." So Naruto took the paper and channeled chakra into it. The paper did something that Naruto did not expect it was cut into three parts; the first part was cut into extremely small pieces, the second piece literally turned into water, and the final piece crumbled into a tiny ball that was hard as a rock with sparks shooting off of it. "Ne, ne what does that mean jiji what does that mean?"
"Well Naruto that mean you have incredibly high affinities for wind, water, and lighting. That really isn't all that surprising considering what clan you're from."
"I have a clan? What aren't you telling me jiji?" growled out an irate blond.
"Well Naruto you are from the Uzumaki clan. And what I mean is that they used to have a bloodline known as the 'Storm Caller' as in they could create storms. And before you ask what I mean 'used to' I mean it was close to dying out and only appearing every few generations. In fact not even your mother had it. Now I am going to give you 200,000 ryo and what I want you to do is go to a shop called 'The Dragon's Claw' the owner should be more welcoming to you than other shops as he was a friend of your father. After that I want you to go to the library and copy the content of the scrolls for chakra manipulation and several jutsu for your water, lighting, and wing affinities." Naruto just accepted the money as he nodded his head dumbly. Before he could turn and leave the Hokage stopped Naruto again, "Naruto what do you know of the Kage Bushin?" Caught off guard could only answer that it makes solid clones. "I see then you didn't bother to read all of the description of the justu from the Forbidden Scroll, because if you did then you would realize that any experience that the clones learn is sent back to the creator. Now this great for scouting enemy potions, but the true value of this justu lies in training. You see it can drastically cut down the time to learn many mental faculties such as chakra control, muscle memory, justu completion, as well as nature manipulation. Now with your high chakra reserves the only person in the village who can utilize this training method to the fullest is you; however, I suggest that you do not dispel them all at once. Also you will have to do all of your physical training yourself as the Kage Bushin targets the mind and not the body."
Naruto's response was extremely thought out and carefully executed…"WHAT?" 'Why the hell did Kakeshi-sensei not tell me this? Oh wait, that's right he was too busy fawning over the Uchiha-teme.' Sarutobi just gave a slight chuckle at seeing his surrogate grandson's shocked and outraged face. As Naruto was turning to go out the aged Hokage stopped him once again "Oh, Naruto I highly recommend you change your attire. It may be fine for a gennin, but you are now a chunin. And besides that orange is just practically screaming 'Here I am, come and kill me'."
"But orange is like ramen. It is Kami's gift to the world to enlighten man to a high plane of existence."
"…"
"…"
"…Naruto change your attire or I will not promote you. On that note what color do you want your flak jacket to be?" Sarutobi said in a deadpan voice.
"Ahhh, fine if I can't have orange that I will take in black."
"Very well Naruto, you can go now to get the things you need. Now I have to get back to this infernal paperwork, THAT HAS SOMEHOW MULTIPLIED SINCE YOU GOT HERE!"
"Hey jiji, if I tell you the secret to defeating the dreaded paper work will you give me some fire justu and maybe a few others?"
"Naruto if you give me the answer I will also throw in the Yondaime's notes on sealing!"
"It is quite simple really jiji. After all you just gave me the answer too…Kage Bushin no Jutsu." At that Naruto left his jiji muttering 'baka, baka, baka' while he banged his head on his desk.
_30 minutes later_
Naruto was outside 'The Dragons Claw' trying to work up the courage to go in. After standing outside the door for a while Naruto finally decided to stop being a pansy. Upon entering the store Naruto was astounded by the sheer amount of various ninja tools. There were kunai, shuriken, tantos, ninja wire, camping tents, katana's, sealing scrolls, and other items associated with sealing, and clothes. Being brought out of his daze he heard a female's voice "What are you doing here?" Naruto turned to see a young girl in Chinese style combat dress with her brown hair tied into two buns. Looking into her brown eyes Naruto found her to be quite beautiful but also extremely irritated. "I was looking for a shop to sell me some supplies. Jiji said that this would be the best place to go to. Plus I need to change my outfit since I became a chunin and all."
"WHAT? You became a chunin? How?" Feeling slightly miffed at her response he tried to set her strait "Look I assume you were at the Exam Finals?" short nod here, "Then you know I beat Neji, me the dead last of the following year. I was also the one the beat Garaa. The Suna Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi in his released state with the help of Gamabunta, the toad boss summons." At that last one TenTen was a little floored. 'This little shrimp was able to beat a Biju and was able to summon the toad boss? That would mean he is the apprentice to Jiraya. No wonder he got promoted.' Cut off from further mussing TenTen's father, one Ashika Kaito, came over to see what the commotion was. What he saw was a carbon copy of his long time friend. So that could only mean that was his friend's son, Uzumaki Naruto. "TenTen how about you go back into the forge for a bit while I handle this customer personally." TenTen just nodded dumbly but waited on the other side of the back, after all her dad usually see to customers personally unless she was on a mission.
When Naruto heard 'handle this customer personally' he began to shake in fear. 'Is this guy just like the rest of the villagers? Did jiji lie to me again?' Kaito having seen Naruto begin to shake in fear cursed the pathetic villagers for their ignorance and blind hatred. "You can relax young Naruto. I'm not like the rest of the villagers who know nothing of sealing. After all I used to be teammates with the Yondaime, so I know a few things of sealing. And I must say Naruto that you are a true hero for keeping this shit stain of a village safe everyday." Naruto just looked down with his golden hair shadowing his face to hide the tears of joy that he found someone who didn't hate him. For TenTen however it was quite a different story, 'What's going on here? Dad never openly curses the villagers. Plus he called Naruto, the dead last, a hero who protects the village everyday. Just who is Uzumaki Naruto?'
"Thank you so much Kaito-san. You have no idea how hard it is to find someone who doesn't outright hate me." said the blond as he finally looked up with gratitude shining his eyes. "Don't mention it Naruto-kun. Though has to why you finally show up…I assume Hokage-sama told you of your family and told you to come here for supplies?" Naruto gives a short nod "Ok, before we start finding you some supplies tell me what you think of your father." As Kaito looked at Naruto he saw many emotions going through his eyes: hate, love, anger, and depression to name a few. "I can understand why my father did what he did, but I don't know how long, or if at all, it will take for me to forgive him. I mean he did make my life a veritable living hell and all."
"Fair enough, I just ask that you give him a chance. I was there for the procedure, and the pained expression he wore will forever be etched into my mind. He really did not want to do it but something convinced him that this was the best course of action. As to what he knew I have no idea. You will just have to figure that out yourself. Now then lets get to shopping, what all would you like?" TenTen, who was still behind the door, was staring strait ahead with eyes as big as saucers 'Dad was on Naruto's dad's team? And Hokage-sama knew as well and just told Naruto today? Naruto was also operated on by his father, and what kind of operation was it? So many questions. I'll have to keep listening to see if they let something slip.' Back in the main shop Naruto was finished buying clothes and going on to weapons. He wore black ANBU combat boots that had steel toed, black cargo pants with pockets of varying sizes, a thin long sleeved black shirt that showed some of the muscle underneath, and finally black finger-less gloves with the leaf symbol on the back. Going over to the weapons he asked Kaito a question "Hey Kaito-san how many kunai and shuriken are in a set?" Kaito was quick to respond from behind the counter. "There are 30 of each in both sets." Coming up to the counter Naruto had 3 sets of kunai and shuriken each, weight training seals(AN: they look like the bands that people wear) for his wrists and ankles that increase in weight as you channel chakra into them, and 40 training sealing scrolls along with 50 blank tags that are used for traps or exploding.
"That quite the haul you got there Naruto. I also see that you will be taking up sealing just like your old man. For that you may want to go to the Konoha Library to find books on sealing. Will that be all or is there something else?" Naruto thought a few minutes thinking if he should find another weapon besides the standard kunai and shuriken. Then he was struck by inspiration. Naruto remembered Ino complaining about how their sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, had these chakra conductive trench knives that he used on them when they got on his nerves. "Yeah actually there is. Do you have any chakra conductive trench knives around here?" asked a curious and really excited blond. "Yes actually I do. Hang on a sec I'll be right back…here you go I got two kinds for you. I got one set that only allows your fingers through, or I got a pair that will allow your hand through. Why don't you take them and try them out, see how they fell."
After a few minutes of jumping around with both of them he decided to go with the pair that let his whole hand through, his reasoning "It will let me do hand seals without having to put my weapon away."
"So your total will come out to be 100,000 ryo for everything." Both Naruto and TenTen knew that the total should have been much high than what it was. "I think you are mistaken Kaito-san. The total should be much higher than that."
"Naruto, you protect this village everyday with life and sanity at risk. The least I can do is offer you a discount on all good that you purchase from here…Mmmm, yeah, lets go with 40% permanent discount rate, sole long as you come to my shop for shinobi supplies." Naruto stood there nodding his head dumbly thinking about the fortunate turn of events that have happened. "Hai, thanks Kaito-san. I'll see you later."
After Naruto left the shop Kaito turned to the back door and called out "Ok TenTen you can come out now. I know you were listening." TenTen had the decency to look embarrassed. "Hey tou-san, what was that about with you and Naruto? You don't offer discounts to anyone. Not even are regular customers that have been coming here for years! Just what is up with Uzumaki Naruto?"
"TenTen, I would like to tell I really would, however; Naruto's secret is labeled S-rank and if anyone is were to talk about it to the younger generation without Hokage-sama's or Naruto's permission then that person and everyone they told would be executed on the spot." Kaito said to his bun haired daughter. 'EXECUTED? S-RANK? Seriously what the hell is up with Naruto?' thought one slightly terrified weapon mistress. "And TenTen, if I ever hear you belittling Naruto or insulting his name, or the name of his parents, I will disown you as my daughter." Kaito said while looking his daughter in the eye.
'Tou-san is willing to disown me over a rookie gennin…no now chunin? What is so special about Naruto?'
XXXXX 20 minutes later at the Konoha Library XXXXX
'Jeez, I didn't think that I would have to sneak into the library…for shinobi. Damn villagers and their blind hate. I'm starting to rethink being a ninja…I can't do any pranks anymore!' thought an extremely miffed blond jinchuuriki. 'Well I better do what jiji said to do. Thank Kami for Kage Bushin' So Naruto made twenty Kage Bushin and instructed ten of them to help with copying down the scrolls for jutsu as well as nature manipulation. The other ten he sent to find scrolls and books on various other shinobi aspects. Such things would be: stealth, tracking, cooking, several books on beginner and intermediate sealing techniques, chakra control exercises, some scrolls on jutsu theory, hand seals, taijutsu scrolls, and anything else the clones thought useful for a future Hokage.
After about an hour Naruto dispelled the clones one at a time with a minute interval. What he found was surprising. His clones found scrolls on basic education which he admitted to himself that had been stunted by ignorant Academy instructors, as well as two rather surprising scrolls. One scroll contained information on how to increase a person's number of tenketsu which, by reading from the scroll, was incredibly painful. The other scroll contained information on how to make an animal into a suitable ninja partner. Much like the Inuzuka and their dogs, only ten times better.
Naruto decided that he would get started on reviewing everything and start training tomorrow. When he looked up he noticed the sun was setting and he thought it would be best if he got home.
When he got home he ignored all the graffiti of 'Die Demon scum', 'Why can't you leave us alone?', 'We will kill you Kyuubi!' and other such things. When he opened his door he noticed a rather sizable stack of scrolls inside the main hallway with several small scrolls with different colors, a few medium scrolls, and four large scroll with note attached. Picking the note up he noticed the clean and crisp handwriting and noticed immediately that it was written by his jiji.
'Naruto, I know that right now you are strong, but you must grow stronger if you wish to become Hokage. With the Kage Bushin I know that you will. Now as you undoubtedly noticed there is a stack of scrolls in your hallway. The small scrolls contain various jutsu from the different elements (I put in jutsu from D-rank up to B-rank with a few A-rank). The medium scrolls contain taijutsu forms that you may wish to learn. Remember a ninja never stops learning, with that in mind I know that you have absolutely no taijutsu style whatsoever. So two of the medium scrolls contain the styles for the Kujo no Tora and the Shitsunen no Uzu. A true master of taijutsu can take any two-three styles and combine them into one truly devastating style. The Kujo no Tora relies on strength to brutally overpower your enemy, while the Shitsunen no Uzu relies on you spinning in a circle to build up speed to deliver a staggering blow. In the remaining three scrolls are jutsu that I know that you will enjoy: the Kage Kunai Bushin no Jutsu, the Kage Shuriken no Jutsu, and the Bushin Daibakuha. Now for the large scrolls; two of them contain all of the extensive notes your father had on seals. He had a lot of notes on all the seals that he ever thought of, so what the two scrolls are, are actually two large sealing scrolls. In each one I think there are over fifty sub-seals with all the real notes. The third large scroll contains a large sum of blank scrolls for notes on jutsu that you wish to think up (if your wondering how I know, it's because of the crystal ball that allows me to view what I wish to see in Konoha) as well as several ink containers and brushes. In the final large scroll is your chunin flak jacket. Wear it with pride Naruto. Also I am giving you a two month active leave so as to bring you up to the appropriate level. After the two months you will go with Jiraiya on a A-rank mission.'
Saurtobi Hiruzen
Sandaime Hokage
At the end of the letter Naruto was about to break down in tears at the kindness and the faith that the old man had in Naruto. Quickly growing tired because of the days events he went to his bed, put on his gama night cap and went to bed setting his alarm clock for 6:00 a.m.