Chapter 2: Piano
Naruto walked. He walked silently down the street, gazing down at the torn picture in his hand. It was of a woman; Uzumaki Kushina the old man had called her. She wasn't what he was expecting, that was for certain.
That wasn't to say she wasn't very beautiful. She had long hair, dropping down to about chest-level from what he could tell and it was held out of her face by a gold hair-clip. Her eyes were somewhere between grey and purple, her skin was a creamy white and she was wearing a tan apron over, what appeared to be, a blue dress. She was also pregnant. Naruto assumed it was with him but he secretly hoped that it wasn't; it would be nice to have an older sibling, or even a younger one.
'But that would mean that she would still be alive and she left me." Naruto thought, suddenly depressed. 'No, this must be me.' he concluded.
Naruto looked up, suddenly aware that he had walked to the other side of the village and now stood in front of the Ichiraku Ramen Stand. He was momentarily confused but let it go and was greeted immediately by the people he considered family.
"Naruto-kun, welcome!" came the voice of a young woman.
"Hey Ayame-chan, guess what?" greeted Naruto, as he seated himself.
"Oh, I wonder. Does it have to do with that headband on your forehead?" asked Ayame, with an amused expression plastered on her face.
"Hey gaki and Ayame, let Naruto have his moment," the owner of the stand, Teuchi, half greeted and half scolded, "you only graduate once."
"Yah Ayame-chan, I just can't have one moment of glory. I'm a shinobi now, I deserve at least some respect." pouted Naruto.
Ayame reached over the bar and handed Naruto his ramen, miso like usual, rubbed his head, and started a friendly conversation; from the outside, anyone would assume that the group was an actual family. It was the old man, and these two that were his family; he wasn't, and although he would never know, couldn't be adopted from the orphanage.
The truth is, although he has forgotten about it, Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage when he was four. Well, kicked out wouldn't exactly be the most appropriate word. When the Kyuubi was sealed into him twelve years ago and announced to the village, the people called for his death. The Sandaime Hokage made a law that nobody with any knowledge of this couldn't speak about this to anyone, including their own children. At first, there was a public outcry, but it was quickly silenced by the appearance of the ANBU, the village's elite shinobi.
Ever since then, the villagers had avoided all contact with Naruto, like a plague. He would walk down the street as it would go completely silent, the villagers opening a path for him and turning their backs. When he was at the orphanage, he was given a small room near the back of the building and was told to stay there. He would occasionally come out, when he was hungry, wander about until the workers saw him, and would be lured back into his room with food. He would be well-fed for a few days and well-dressed for the Hokage's occasional visits but then be ignored, once again.
Naruto learned to talk from the voice he could hear though the walls and through the voice he sometimes heard in his head. One day, he wasn't lured to his room quick enough and he wandered into the streets where he would stays for a few days; no one cared. He scavenged for food in trashcans and such when he realized he couldn't find his way back.
A random chuunin, that was part of the search party the Hokage sent when he found out, found him asleep in a back alleyway. Naruto was then moved into a small apartment and taken care of by random genin teams as D-rank missions until he was eight. He was then moved to his current premises.
Naruto left the cozy stand about an hour later. It was the middle of the afternoon by now and he had nothing to do and nothing to thin…. 'Oh right, my mother.' Naruto thought.
Naruto changed his direction and started to head towards the shinobi library. He had been there on a few occasions, mostly with his class on field trips, and now had a specific person and a clan name to research. As an academy student, he was allowed into the low-clearance part of the library; even some civilians were allowed there. He, of course, wasn't allowed to take anything out of it, only read some of it there. As a genin, he was now allowed to borrow scrolls containing some chakra techniques, such as control and E and D-rank jutsus, and more detailed shinobi history. That was exactly what he was looking for.
Naruto walked into a large building, built mostly from brick unlike the rest of the wooden village. He flashed his headband and the chuunin guards and walked through an arch that was covered in seals that detect the use of a Henge.
"Now, history….." Naruto muttered as he scanned the lined up racks before spotting the sections for Konoha history.
"Let's see. Founding, Buildings, Politics, Food," Naruto mumbled until he reached one scroll entitled "The Clan of Konoha."
Naruto rolled out the scroll on a nearby table. It was fairly small as far as scrolls went. 'Probably because clans don't want genin knowing of secret clan techniques.' Naruto thought. He took a glance at the Table of Contents, picking out vaguely familiar names like "Senju", "Uchiha", and "Akarui", but, after getting to the bottom of the list without any sign of "Uzumaki", he sighed. He looked out the window and saw the position of the sun. It still wasn't even four o'clock yet.
Naruto took another glance at the school and muttered to himself, "Oh, whatever. It's not like I have anything better to do." and opened the scroll again.
"The Senju," he read, "were, at one point, among the greatest clans in the world. As one of the founding clans of Konoha, as well as the producers of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama respectively, and Tsunade of the Sannin make the remaining, admittedly few, members' royalty within its walls."
Naruto continued to read, "One cannot give a history of a clan without talking about its leader, Hashirama, so let's start there. He and his wife, Uzumaki Mito, w…..What! Uzumaki?"
Naruto stared at the page in shock; he couldn't believe his luck! He searched the rest of the day, and into part of the night. Naruto would've searched longer too, if it hadn't been for the library closing.
"I can't believe there are no other records of the Uzumaki clan!" It took all of Naruto's self-control to keep himself from screaming. "Alright, I know the old man told me not to ask about my father but there's no way I'm going to let him tell me no to this." Naruto decided.
Naruto's pace more closely resembled a sprinting rabbit rather than a rushed, young boy as he sped towards the Hokage Tower. He knew he probably couldn't make it into a meeting with the old man on such short notice, as he hadn't been called, but, with so many people vying for his presence, it was typically a good idea to make an appointment as soon as possible.
Naruto slowed to a walk as he strode into the building and walked straight up to one of the desks. The Hokage's secretary, Satsume-san as she insisted on being called, was hastily shuffling papers; her hours were done.
Naruto cleared his throat before speaking in a confident and clear voice, "Satsume-san?"
She looked up through her hair and stared for a few seconds before she seemed to recognize me. "Ah, Uzumaki-san, Hokage-sama is expecting you. You may go in right away." spoke Satsume in a monotone voice before she went back to her papers.
He started to speak, "I would like to make an appoi….. What did you just say?" Naruto finished, clearly surprised.
"Hokage-sama has been expecting you, you may go in right away." she repeated, this time in a more annoyed tone.
Naruto still looked shocked but muttered his thanks before walking past her and walking up a few flights of stairs. He knocked on the door and, without waiting for a response, walked in.
The Hokage was facing away from him as he walked in, staring out the window at the lit village beneath him, with a lit pipe in his right hand.
"Hello Naruto-kun, I bet you're wondering how I knew you were…."
"Who is Uzumaki Mito?" Naruto interrupted, boldly stating his question.
If he had been able to see the Hokage's face at that moment, Naruto would've seen his eyes momentarily widen before he regained his composure. Hiruzen slowly turned around in his chair, his face as serious as Naruto had ever seen it; he looked more like a war-hardened shinobi rather than the kindly old man he had grown to love.
"How do you know that name?" Hiruzen's eyes like stones as they stared at the young genin before him.
"I read it in the library looking for information on my mother!" Naruto responded, his eyes counting Hiruzen's with determination; he wanted to know.
The Hokage sighed before mumbling to himself. He brought his hand up and tapped on the window, three times. Almost immediately, a mask designed like a cat appeared in the window. He made a few discrete hand motions before the mask disappeared. He turned back to Naruto.
"Before I say anything about Mito-chan," Hiruzen started, "let me tell you about a night, much like this one, twelve years ago."
AN: Thank you for coming back, I love you all! I have a few things I would like to ask/say though. If anyone knows a good English to Japanese website or resource (like to letter Japanese and not kanji), please contact me. Same with any questions you have about the chapter/story. Ummm, I think that's it.
Peace Out!