Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, never had, never will. Kishimoto beat me to it.

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"speach"

'thoughts'

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In The Heart Of The Leaf.

It is said that one's fate is decided even before he is born. From the moment one takes his first breath to the time he takes his last he is nothing but a pawn in the hands of those controlling his destiny. His is one of those millions of fates that are spread across the universe like a complex system of interconnected strings. Amongst this chaos a string stands out shining brightly like a sun itself, lighting up the others it is entwined with. The fate of a boy, burdened by destiny.

But let it not be said that Naruto Uzumaki was a puppet of fate. Instead he looked it in the eye saying 'Fuck you'. Though, either it be fate or the determination to never give up, Naruto Uzumaki would go on to become a Legend.

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Sarutobi Hiruzen, third hokage of konohagakure no sato, was having a busy day. He was neck deep in paperwork and it looked like there might be more of it after this. He knew that it was important but he could not bring himself to concentrate today. He glanced at the clock and sighed leaning back in his chair. A few hours left in his meeting with the daimyo. His hand absentmindedly fumbled with his pipe as he read the new genin entries.

'dammit'

He picked up the pipe, another sigh escaping his lips. He had no doubt he wouldn't be able to go through half of the paperwork on his desk today. He was too distracted for it. His hand reached for the crushed tobacco leaves, accidentally tipping the jar they were in off the desk.

'Yes, too distracted'

Well why cry over spilled milk..er tobacco

The hokage reached down picking a hanfull of leaves from the scattered pile, stuffing them in his pipe. An E ranked fire jutsu had the leaves smouldering. He chewed on the end of the pipe before inhaling.

'This should calm me down'

He stood up from his chair, back creaking from sitting for long hours.With swift steps he reached the window, gaze wandering over the horizon. Four faces carved into stone for generations to remember. The hokage mountain gave an intimidating presence, if not for its scale than definetly for the people it presented.

Legends in there own rights. Hokage of konoha.

He shifted his view over to the academy grounds. Children running here and there, unaware of the creulties of the world that awaited them. They would soon be soldiers under his command. Some of them might even perish following his orders.

'I'm getting too old for this '

Burdened by this thought, the hokage moved away from the window, seating himself back in his chair. His eyes once again moved towards the clock, as if forcing it to move faster. He sighed for what looked like an umpteenth time before turning to glare at the pile of papers on his desk.

"Better get this over with".

How he wished he could burn it all.

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"Haruyoshi dono, welcome to Konoha, I hope you had no trouble travelling here."

"Skip the formalities Hiruzen, tell me how are you old friend. It's been three years since we last met."

The Hokage gave the diamyo a calculating look. Asuka Haruyoshi had always been a pleasant man. But he did not fool himself into thinking that he would travel all this way from the capital just to have a light chat and the suddenness of the meeting proved the point.

The diamyo smiled seeing the look he was given.

"Always the serious one eh Hiruzen", the diamyo said good naturedly.

The hokage did not ease his demenour. Being a leader of a military village he knew that this meeting would only result in more headache for him. His village was already recovering from the previous war and an attack from a bijuu, he was not ready to deal with another conflict.

The diamyo sighed, leaning back in his chair. For a moment no one said a thing, only the chirping of the birds and the clicking of the fountain piece in the garden, outside the diamyo's temporary residence, disturbed the lingering silence.

"It's Kumo."

The Hokage remained silent as if asking for the diamyo to elaborate. Kumo and Konoha did not have freindly relations. They had fought for opposite sides in the war. If Kumo was planning something now Konoha would be in dire circumstances. It was not well hidden that Kumo had been amassing power these past few years. The treaty between villages, for demilitarizing in times of peace, had just been a coverup. With two well trained jinchūriki and the largest number of forces between all the hidden villages, Konoha would be hard pressed to defend itself.

But Haruyoshi did not say a word. He reached inside his robes and pulled out an ornate scroll, placing it between them on the table.

The leader of the leaf village reached out smoothly taking the scroll from where it was placed bringing it to his eye level . He unfurled it in one swift motion, studying it carefully. His eyes darted over the writing, then again as if to see if it was real. A perplexed expression crossed his elderly face as his eyes rose to meet those of the daimyo.

"Is the seal authentic.", he asked.

"Indeed, it is. Masaharu dono sent a messenger from his royal court. It was verified that it is his personal seal.", Haruyoshi replied

"A request by the Raikage to send a delegation to Konoha, to sign a non aggression treaty, approved by their daimyo, with no prior notice. After they declined peace talks with us. Well..."

The daimyo chuckled,

"The way you put it Hiruzen, it sure does sound suspicious."

"It sure does."

There were a few seconds of silence both men regarding each other thoughtfully.

"What do you think Hiruzen"

The kage sighed, the wrinkles on his face deepening.

"This is totally unexpected, Kumo does not gain anything from this treaty. It may be... no, it is an attempt at infiltration under the guise of peace talks, I'm certain of it. But as it stands we cannot decline the request, as it may seem that Konoha is opposed to the idea of peace"

He took a deep breath before continuing

"Send the message that Konoha will entertain the delegation. The signing will take place in a week's time and will be in a public setting. Accommodations will be provided for a single night. Further stay will be taken as a threat to the security of the village. Above mentioned details are non negotiable"

The Hokage stood up from his seated position, robes fluttering from the sudden movement.

"Now if you would excuse me I have to strenghten the village security for an infiltration attempt in a week's time.It would do us no good to look weak in front of the enemy"

Recieving a small nod, he turned around and marched towards the exit of the residence.

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A week later:

Hiruzen cursed.

Things had not gone as planned and now the village was at risk of war. How could this have happened? he did not know. He had taken every precaution so that the signing of the treaty could go without a hitch, but no, the Kumo ambassador had to kidnap the Hyuga heir.

Now he had a vengeful clan to deal with. Add in to that, Kumo had the gal to blame them for breaking the treaty by killing their ambassador. He massaged his growing headache.

"Hokage sama, Kumo is demanding that we hand them Hyuga Hiashi's dead body"

The kage just stared at the chunin, making him fidget nervously.

"Hokage sama..."

"Alert the Hyuga clan, tell them to set up a clan council. I will be there shortly "

The chunin was out of the office the next instant.

"Anbu", the hokage barked

The air in the office shimmered revealing a black clad Anbu in a dog mask standing there. His dhoulders were stiff and back ramrod straight. It would have done him no good to agravate the Hokage even more with his usual frivolous attitude.

"Report"

"We have secured the perimeter around their residence. All remaining members of the delegation are dead except one, they had cynide pills in case their plan failed. It seems Raikage had taken measures for plausible deniability. They made it seem like we were at fault.", the anbu reported.

"Yes, it looks like they had it well thought out. They had a backup plan in case of failiure, blaming us and demanding Hyuga Hiashi's dead body as reconciliation. Of course, either way they gain the Byakugan.They knew Konoha is too weak for another war, and played it to their advantage."

The room was silent as both men realized the weight behind those words.

"Continue"

"Of course Hokage sama, the anbu have identified the bodies. Harui ichiro, Tamui jizo, yama Kurokumo and E. E was missing from the site hence we believe he is alive and at large inside the village walls.

The hokage's gaze sharpened at this.

"How he escaped Hawk's notice, we do not know. We have tightened the security at every available exit and our best trackers are currently sniffing him out.

He paused to take a breath.

"The civilian sectors were the first to be secured. We have reason to believe he is taking refuge in the forests in the eastern section of the village."

The kage wrung his fingers together. leaning back in his chair.

"Yes, make sure you find him. Leave no leaf unturned. He must be quickly dealt with before he can do any harm. Those forests are rather close to the orphanage, so get an anbu stationed there, you have to appreh..."

He abruptly cut himself off as he came to a startling realization. His eyes widened in panic.

This was their plan from the begening. This was no mere coincidence. Those did not exist in the ninja world. The whole fiasco with The Hyuga clan had just being a distraction. A side mission, a bonus. This was what they were after. This was the real mission.

He could see the way the anbu stiffened, he had come to the same conclusion.

'The orphanage '

'Naruto!'

Before the Hokage's pipe hit the ground both men had disappeared.

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He sat on the tree branch, legs dangling. He had escaped from the orphanage, and now sat alone in the clearing. He would often come here when he wanted to be alone.

He rolled his head back so he could stare at the stars. He wondered if the kind, old man would come today. He would sometimes come to the clearing to tell him stories of ninja. They always had him facinated.

Naruto grinned, he knew he wanted to become a ninja. He wondered if the old man was also a ninja. He would ask. Maybe he would teach him all the cool ninja stuff. Naruto laughed, exited at the prospect of bieng able to breath fire and punch through walls.

"yea I'm goin to be the bestest ninja in the whole world, believe it!", He proclaimed loudly.

Just then he heard the rustling of the leaves behind him and a hand clamped over his mouth.

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His heart drummed rapidly in his chest as he made his way through the foilage. He was deep in enemy territory. He knew it would do him no good to get caught now. The Raikage was counting on him to complete this mission. They had already failed to get the Byakugan and he did not know what the Raikage would do if he went back empty handed.

When they had recieved intel that Konoha was housing the Kyuubi jinchūriki and that it was an untrained child, the Kumo council had been estatic. The Raikage had set forward a team for the mission. They were instructed that under no circumstance should they let it be known that they were acting on orders.

He could feel the suicide pill wedged between his gums and his cheek.

'You fail. You die.'

He shook his head as if to get rid of the echo. It would do him no good to lose his cool now. He took a deep breath to calm his rising nerves.

Their contact had provided them sufficient information along with a picture of the target, when they had arrived in Konoha. He had to rendezvous with him at the bank of Naka river, where he would be provided a safe exit from this place.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a loud voice. Taking cover into a tree, if it turned out to be a threat, he peared from between the leaves.

From here he could see a clearing only a few feet ahead. Bright orange caught the edge of his vision. There. The same Kid he was looking for. The clearing had sufficient visibility under the moonlight so he could clearly see the the boy.

"--estest ninja in the whole world, believe it!"

'so the kid wants to be a ninja'

'Well', he supposed, 'Maybe a Kumo ninja'.

He quietly circled the clearing so that he was right behind the boy.

'Good, he hasn't noticed me yet'

He slowly moved forward. Only the slightest rustling of leaves giving indication of his movement. Before the boy had a chance to react, his hand shot forward tightly clamping over the boys mouth.

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The moment Naruto felt the hand cover his mouth, he started to struggle. His mind instinctively registering the threat. His tiny hands clawing at the larger one. A distant part of his mind wondered if he was bieng kidnapped. He was starting to panic. In a desperate attempt to free himself he bit down hard on the hand. It jerked away from him making him lose his balance. He positioned himself midair so that he landed on his feet and dashed off deeper into the forest, his speed betraying his tiny frame.

E cursed, massaging his hand. His contact had told him that the boy had no ninja training. The way the boy augmented his speed with chakra proved otherwise. He wondered if it was a subconcious action. The boy had also showed great maneuverability. The child could not be much older than four but he could still see the beginnings of a ninja.

But still he was a Jonin and no mere child could outrun him. With a burst of speed he was standing in front of the boy. The boy did not stop, instead jumping high and punching. His eyes widened as he could faintly feel the chakra surrounding boy's fist.

His left hand grabbed the boys wrist, right already buried in the boys stomach. He had to be carefull not to kill the boy. The boy was unconscious before he hit the ground. For a moment E just stared at the boy. The boy had unlocked his chakra at such a young age and was able to use it. He did not know that if the boy himself knew what he was doing, using chakra to enhance the body. Kumo would have great use of him.

He slung the boy over his shoulder, making a beeline towards the river. Now all that was left to do was escape the village unnoticed. He was sure that he had covered his trail well, by the time they would get wind of him he would be halfway across the border.

He could see the rendezvous point as he broke through the treeline. Maybe a kilometer away. He could reach it in half a minute. He readjusted the boy on his shoulder. He had ran full speed through the forest, non-stop for an hour. Even for a ninja that was pushing it. He smirked, sure that the Raikage would reward him for completing the mission. The effort was worth it in the end.

"Those fools. Leaving their Jinchūriki ungaurded like that. Serves them right."

"The only fool here is you."

He jumped, startled. Eyes wide with panic. His hand immediately going for his holster. He swiveled around to face his assailant, hand now armed with a kunai, firmly in a reverse grip, positioned defensively in front of his body.

A single sharingan eye stared back at him.

His world collapsed.

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Aaaaaaaaaaand cut! Shows over. Dont forget to leave your reviews. Until next time Kingkakarott signing out :P