Chapter 2
The following morning, Naruto lazed about in bed for hours before he left it.
They had a week before they would be back at the academy to get their team assignments and Naruto intended to make the most of it.
The night before, after the entire episode with Mizuki—who the Hokage had refused to talk about—and Iruka-sensei getting injured, the Hokage had kept him at his office for almost an hour as he repeatedly explained to him that he wasn't the Kyuubi, he was just its container.
It wasn't that he didn't understand what the Hokage meant, he'd read about fuuinjutsu enough to know that the scroll and the sealed object were two different things. He'd just never bothered to deepen his understanding of the subject, something he now realized was an oversight if one could use it to trap demons.
He had a lot of things he still needed to learn, it seemed.
Naruto finally left the bed just after noon, changing into the clothes he normally wore when he used the henge to visit the library. The clothes were admittedly stolen as his only other pair was the orange jumpsuit and that would be a dead give away so he hadn't had the opportunity to buy any. But they were generic enough that no-one could claim them without reasonable doubt and Naruto only ever wore them when he used the disguise for business he couldn't get done looking like himself. He didn't doubt that if he hadn't learned the henge, he would have been even more malnourished than he already was.
As it was, years of poor quality food that were almost always past its date had already taken its toll and he was one of the shortest in his class.
The clothes he changed into were a pair of standard black shinobi pants and a black short-sleeved shirt with a grey jacket over it. They were big enough that when he added a few centimeters to his height (just enough so that he was about average, if a little below it) the clothes fit perfectly. His hair color switched to black with just a thought and he added some more length to it before he brushed his hands through it and twisted it up into a high ponytail. He was already pale enough from staying inside and practicing more at night than he did during the day and without the whisker-like marks on his cheeks, his face was nearly unrecognizable.
His eyes shifted to a pale icy-blue color that reminded him of frost, as an forgettable color would just add suspicion he didn't need. After all, the people that manned the library were chuunins.
But he had been using this disguise for over two years, so he was fairly confident in it.
Still, it never hurt to be cautious.
The forehead protector that Iruka-sensei had given him looked used, as it was his old one and Naruto only hesitated for a few seconds before he fastened it around his waist. He had been starting to think that the librarian was beginning to suspect him as he played at being a shinobi but never wore an hitai-ate. This would hopefully fix that issue.
After eating a healthy breakfast and making sure that everything was locked, he left his apartment through the window and took to the rooftops.
He took a detour through the shopping district before he dropped to the ground to make sure he wouldn't be traced back to his apartment on the off chance that he was caught. Really though, the fact that he hadn't been said something about the village security.
Well, it wasn't any of his business.
The library in Konoha was big, with two floors and shelves after shelves. There were tables strategically placed to study at and comfortable couches. According to Iruka-sensei, it had been built by the Nidaime Hokage. It was also one of Naruto's favorite places to go as knowledge was power.
He passed by the front desk and nodded to the chuunin on duty, getting a smile and a nod in response.
"I'll write you down on the registry, Tachibana-san."
He smiled politely at the chuunin, "Thank you."
He swept passed the rest of the shelves on his way to the section on fuuinjutsu that he could access. Strangely, this one wasn't as tightly regulated as the rest of the library, probably because Konoha's only seal master at the moment was Jiraiya of the Sannin—who was rarely, if ever, actually in Konoha—and they wanted to encourage more to study the subject by making it easier to access. Not to mention that it was also an notoriously difficult subject that was almost impossible to ever actually master.
Naruto was only looking for the basics though.
The books were all old yellowing things with the covers worn off and torn pages. The scrolls were hardly any better, being both older and more well used. It looked like nothing new had been added in ages.
He go the persistent feeling that just touching one of them would make them utterly fall apart.
Naruto spent a few minutes just trying to read whatever titles he could make out before he gave up and just grabbed whatever he could get his hands on and made his way to one of those study tables, one located in a corner out of sight for anyone not deliberately looking for it.
He spread out his load on the table and settled in for the long haul.
— —
Several hours later and Naruto was ready to tear his hair out in frustration.
The texts disagreed.
Some said that the numerous symbols and figures one used in fuuinjutsu were symbolic, others said that there were very specific rules and breaking them resulted in either explosions or nothing, no in between. Some claimed them to be like a language and others that they didn't matter at all and it was all a matter of belief. Naruto didn't know which texts he wanted to burn the most. All of them were equally useless.
Naruto scowled down at the various papers scattered on the table in front of him and fought with the urge to tear them all to pieces.
Staying in the library and getting irritated over it wasn't a good idea, so Naruto packed up and put the more useless ones back where he found them on the shelves. The rest he gathered in his arms and started to make his way through the library to the front desk where he could register them and bring them home with him. Not being worried about getting caught would lead him to being able to think clearer and than he might actually start getting somewhere. He was starting to understand why they put so much emphasis on seal masters if this was why it was so difficult. He would have to go through everything with a fine comb and try to differ the actual facts from conjectures and theories.
It was going to be a pain.
When he got to the front desk, there was another chuunin there than before (he'd been here longer than he thought) but he didn't allow himself to hesitate. That would only bring unnecessary attention. Instead, he put his load down on the desk and fished out his library card from his pocket.
The chuunin looked at the massive pile of books and scrolls, so high Naruto could barely see over it, and asked, "Name?"
"Tachibana Mikio." he'd been through the process enough time that he fired off the name without thinking. He didn't bother stating his thought up rank, as it was better to let them draw conclusions themselves. It saved him from having to lie about it and if he was caught, he could say the truth. That he had never claimed such a thing. That they had made it up on their own.
The chuunin nodded and grabbed the card when it was offered. Apparently, they were bored enough that they felt the need to make conversation with Naruto and he did his best not to tell lies, as that would just be more things he would need to remember. Bending the truth was easier.
"These are all about the sealing arts." the chuunin quirked an eyebrow in question and Naruto nodded in response.
They continued, "Is it something someone your age should be learning?"
Naruto couldn't quite stop himself from grimacing. He had never been able to figure out his exact age. There was just something that rang false in his head when he said he was twelve. In the end all he said was, "Age can be deceiving."
The chuunin nodded, smiled politely and gave the card back. "You're finished. They need to be back within three months. If you want, you can extend the loan then."
"Thank you." Naruto nodded one last time to the chuunin, made an effort to smile somewhat pleasantly and collected his load again.
(Sometimes he just couldn't quite suppress his desire to kill.)
(It was a work in progress.)
— —
The next few days passed by quickly. He spent his time making two or three clones a day to study fuuinjutsu while he worked on building up his stamina and strength. He only had a week until team assignments and he thought if whoever was watching him—because in a shinobi village, it was best to assume someone always was—got used to him being outside in rarely used places, they wouldn't find anything odd when he eventually went to retrieve the Forbidden Scroll where it was hidden.
The scroll was hidden deep in the forest where the fiasco with Mizuki had taken place and Naruto had waited for days before he felt safe enough to venture in there again. Sure, it wasn't the real scroll, that had been given back to the Hokage, but it was about five different copies that his shadow clones had worked on together. If he put them together, they should be just as good as the real thing.
To be safe, he sent a shadow clone in the direction of an unused training ground and waited for almost an hour before he left his apartment as the sun started to set.
He made sure to take a few detours and make it seem like he was walking around aimlessly. Eventually, Naruto made it to the forest and started searching for the tree-trunk in which the scrolls were hidden. It took him some time to find it and by the time he finally had the scrolls in his hands, it was night and dark. It didn't help that the trees were close enough that barely any moonlight made it to the ground. Naruto didn't waste any time, he pulled out the small piece of paper he had hidden in his pocket and laid it on the ground. Next, he brought his scrolls over to it and held it over the storage seal in the middle of the paper and channeled his chakra into it like he'd practiced. It lit up briefly and then the scrolls were gone, leaving only the paper behind.
Naruto smiled proudly to himself.
He grabbed the paper and hid it again and then climbed up among the trees to hurry back home. He ran across the rooftop for a while before he dropped back to the ground and walked the last bit of distance to the apartment. As he walked, he got the memories of his clone as it dispelled and grinned when he discovered that it had been followed. Most likely, this meant that no-one had paid any attention to his little trip to the forest.
He entered the apartment through the door this time and once again wondered at the fact that he had no neighbors. He was the only one living on his floor, though there were a few people downstairs, but he rarely, if ever, saw them. Well, now he knew that it was likely because of the Kyuubi, which while it was an acceptable excuse, didn't actually make him feel any more forgiving than before.
That wasn't to say that Naruto was going to go after revenge deliberately. He knew what that would result in, misery and despair.
But death and torture wasn't the only way to get back at those who'd wronged him.
For now, he'd take things as they came and see where it led him. If he got a good opportunity, he might take it or he might not. It all depended on how things played out.
(If he occasionally burned with rage at the insolence people treated him with, that was no-ones business but his own.)
The apartment was just as he left it, three clones spread out all over it working on sealing.
Naruto closed and locked the door behind him and ventured over to the dining table in the small kitchen. He was too tired to deal with it at the moment, so after a minute of contemplating, he summoned another clone. This one was just like all the rest, a perfect copy of him that when dispelled would transfer its memories to him so he'd know anything it knew, learn anything it learned and experience anything it experienced.
The one who invented the Kage no Jutsu was a genius.
— —
A week had passed since graduation and they were going to be assigned their teams.
Naruto thought long and hard on what he would wear, but eventually decided that he could ditch the jumpsuit once he had made some money from missions and just wear it until then. He didn't want to risk anyone—however slim the chance was—recognizing the clothes he wore when he was as Tachibana. He'd hacked his hair off just below his shoulders a few days back with a kunai, leaving it slightly uneven, but it still looked well enough to pass. After making sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, and had brought a few cups of instant ramen in case he became hungry with him in a sealing scroll, he locked his apartment up and left through the window.
The academy was loud when he arrived. It was full of needlessly proud kids that bragged about the fact that they had all passed, as if becoming a murderer was something to be pleased about, and parents that were too nosy for their stations. Naruto found his way to his classroom and settled down beside the ever-quiet Aburame kid.
Soon after, Iruka-sensei entered the room and held a speech. After that, it was time for the revealing of the teams. Naruto kept a mental list of all the names and teams to write down later, as there was no telling when such information could be important. It was better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Eventually, his name came up as a member of team seven, together with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.
After that, it was just waiting.
It took hours for the jounin sensei to arrive and when he did, all of them were out of patience. Naruto had spent the time studying up on fuuinjutsu, but his team-members hadn't had such foresight and were thus bored out of the minds. When their sensei opened the door, the first thing they saw was the silver hair that stuck up in all directions, the mask that covered the majority of his face and the headband that robbed him of an eye. Naruto sealed away the scroll he had been attempting to make sense of and stood up.
Their sensei stared out at all of them and said, in a bored and monotone voice, "Well, you're no fun at all."
Naruto didn't react.
He had long since learned that taunting and other such things were useless, and there was never a point disagreeing with them. That just riled people up further and before you knew it, it escalated to the point of all out war.
Their sensei continued with, "Follow me to the roof."
As they were the last ones in the classroom, hell Naruto was willing to bet they were the last one in the entire academy, there was no logical reason to move location other than that their new sensei was messing with them, but he didn't bother to argue. He needed to figure out exactly how useful their sensei was going to be, so he would go along with this for now.
That didn't mean it didn't rub him the wrong way and he lost whatever shred of respect he had managed to retain of their sensei. If he wasn't going to seriously train them, Naruto would either have to find a way to make him, or find someone else to train him. He wasn't going to waste time waiting for their sensei to grow up.
At the roof, their sensei was waiting, looking needlessly cool. It served no purpose other than bragging and Naruto didn't care for it. He sat himself down beside the Uchiha, because he had no idea what he'd done to make Haruno dislike him, but she was way to free with her punches and if she kept it up, he was going to kill her one of these days. Haruno sat down on the other side of Uchiha, her crush dictating her actions to a pathetically predictable degree.
Their sensei smiled with his one visible eye and said, "Well, why don't we introduce ourselves? Get to know each other? Likes, dislikes, the works."
Haruno put up her hand as if they were still in class. She had a lot of habits she needed to get rid of if she wanted to be a true shinobi. "Can you go first, sensei? So we know how to do it?"
Their sensei hummed in thought and shrugged. "Why not? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like a lot of things, dislikes even more and my dream is none of your business. Now you, pinky."
"Oh." Haruno looked down to the floor in embarrassment. "I like... I mean my dream is... I dislike Naruto!"
Considering where her eyes kept going, it was pretty clear what she liked and what her dream was. Hatake gave her a weird look and gestured for Uchiha to go ahead. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't having anything I like. I dislike a lot of things. My dream, no my ambition, is to kill a certain man and restore my clan."
Well, wasn't that depressing?
Naruto continued when their sensei's eye traveled to him. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like reading, Go and training my chakra control. I dislike hypocrites and liars and my dream is to not destroy the world."
Naruto had done a lot of thinking. He had analyzed his powers, the villagers reaction to him and after the revelation of what he was, what he contained, he had come to the conclusion that destroying the world would not only be easy, but that he almost wanted to. He had nothing that actually tied him to the this world, nothing he wished to protect or even have for himself. To him, this world didn't matter.
It wasn't spite talking, because when he was spiteful, it was an entirely different picture. No, it was just indifference.
He truly didn't care.
This world was like a game to him.
But he knew that he had tried the whole taking over the world thing before and he liked to think he didn't repeat mistakes. Maybe he didn't know exactly when or how he had tried it, but he knew that he had. And he knew it hadn't lead to anything good for him. The world may have been better for it (common enemies did that) but it hadn't been for him.
(Maybe it was selfish of him, but for once in his life, he wanted something that was solely his. He wanted happiness that no-one could take from him.)
(He wanted a love that would never die.)
Hatake cleared his throat and said, "Well, now that we've introduced ourselves, it's time for out first survival training!"
Haruno put her hand up in the air again, making Naruto have the vivid picture of cutting it off before he managed to push it away. "But, sensei, we've already done a lot of survival training at the academy."
At this, Hatake chuckled at them with mock in his one visible eye. "It won't be your typical training. You'll have to survive against me."
"So, what kind of practice will it be?" Haruno asked, sounding unsure of herself.
"If I told you, you'd chicken out." Hatake claimed with a laugh and continued, "Of the twenty-seven members of your graduation class, only nine will be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will have to go back for additional training. This test has a sixty-six percent failure rate!"
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. He had researched enough to know that Konoha has a strict three per team policy, especially when it comes to genin, which meant that whether they passed or not, they would do so as a team. Most likely, it was enough for one of them to fail, and they'd all have to go back. The most probable scenario was a team test that focused on if they could work together or not, which they would also probably fail.
Haruno hated him for some reason, she'd never work together with him, not unless Uchiha told her too. And Uchiha was completely self-absorbed and thought that he had to take on everything alone. Naruto didn't know what it was about, but he thought it was less about looking down on others and more just not trusting them. Which would be just as much of a problem. In order for them to pass, they'd have to manage some sort of team effort and display potential that would make it worth it even if they didn't manage enough.
Then again, it was entirely possible that it was unnecessary.
Uchiha Sasuke was the last of two Uchiha, and the only one in Konoha. He had the potential—pretty much guaranteed, considering he was the son of the former Clan Head and the younger brother of an absolute genius—to awaken the legendary Sharingan and the training from his family that meant he was already considered a valuable asset, whether he had graduated yet or not. Not to mention the weight alone the Uchiha name carried, the reputation it had. Konoha must have taken a huge hit when they lost that weight and be despaired to restore it. So, Uchiha Sasuke would likely pass the test regardless, the question was whether Naruto and Haruno would pass with him. Naruto wouldn't put it past the Hokage to make an exception and allow him to be a one-man team.
Naruto may hold no respect for Hatake as a teacher, but he knew who he was. Copy-nin Kakashi, the man with a thousand jutsu. He was a formidable enemy and ninja. Doubtlessly, the Council wanted him to teach Uchiha regardless of his own wishes, which might be partly to blame for his bad attitude. It did, however, not even begin to excuse it.
Being a shinobi was—without a shadow of a doubt—a dangerous occupation. The lessons they learned from their jounin-sensei would be vital. If Hatake didn't teach them seriously because he was being obnoxious on purpose, it could very well lead to their deaths. Unless he manned up, he would be more of a danger to them than their actual enemies. And Naruto had no patience to spare for people who were difficult just to be difficult.
And then, of course, there was his own case to consider.
Naruto contained the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful of the tailed beasts. Theoretically speaking, he could probably access that power. Otherwise, people wouldn't be so stubborn with their fear of him, if they didn't already know he could use it if he ever set his mind to it. Oh, they would probably still hate him, but their fear wouldn't be nearly so heady.
And this was a ninja village, the good of the village was above all. Ergo, it wasn't a stretch to imagine that it was on purpose that he would be able to use this inhuman power. In fact, he was willing to bet that that was what the Hokage counted on.
In short, Naruto had a weapon of mass destruction, and only he had the launch codes.
And only he could aim it.
It was a sweet piece of irony.
Konoha hated him, and Naruto knew it. The villagers would rather spit on his corpse than let him buy food, the shinobi never ever spared him so much as a glance, despite the fact that they must know how a seal worked, and even he knew it was odd how much attention the Hokage personally paid him. So Naruto was meant to be a weapon and he was meant to use it for Konoha if they ever went to war again—which, let's be real, they were going to—and yet nearly no-one had ever paid him so much as a kind word.
Why, in the name of whatever god they believed in, did they think he would ever fight for them?
But Naruto wasn't about to let anyone figure out his thoughts just yet, it would be much more entertaining as a surprise, and so he stopped thinking about that and returned to the present just in time to hear whatever Hatake said next.
"The test will take place first thing in the morning. Meet me at training ground three at seven in the morning. And don't eat any breakfast!"
After saying the last sentence, Hatake made a simple hand-seal and disappeared in a crowd of leaves.
Naruto narrowed his eyes and immediately decided that Hatake wasn't to be trusted and that thus, he wouldn't heed his warning. Naruto had had his trust broken too many times for it to ever be given for free. The only person in this world that he trusted was Iruka, and even that was a fragile, easily broken thing.
— —
The next morning, he woke up early in order to eat a full breakfast and pack a bag full of things to distract him in case Hatake was late again. He packed a few lunch-boxes as well, because if he knew Haruno at all, she was going to do as Hatake had said and not eat anything. And considering the diet she was already on, that meant she was half-starving herself, it just wasn't healthy. And Uchiha... well, it probably wouldn't hurt to make an effort at least. It might count towards the team test.
Hopefully.
He arrived on time, because there was a chance that Hatake would be on time as well, and settled down on the hard ground. He was the first one there and Naruto cracked open a book on sealing to make use of the time. Barely ten minutes later, both Haruno and Uchiha arrived as well and sat back to wait.
Hours passed.
By the time Hatake actually arrived, it was eleven in the morning and they had been waiting for hours, during which Haruno had fallen asleep and Uchiha had started meditating. Naruto's opinion of their jounin-sensei didn't rise.
Hatake appeared in a swirl of leaves that woke up Haruno, who then proceeded to point and shout, "You're late!"
"Ah, well you see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around. And then I met a little old lady that I had to help across the street and she wouldn't let me leave until I followed her all the way to her home for cookies." Hatake lied without remorse.
Naruto put away the book in his bag together with the notebook he had been scribbling ideas and theories in. Hatake stared them all down and held up a pair of strings that were connected with two bells for them to see. Hatake explained, "The test is to get these bells form me. If you get them before the time limit, you pass. If you don't, then it's back to the academy for you!"
Haruno put her hand up in the air again. Someone really needed to fix that habit of hers. "But, sensei, there are only two bells?"
Even without being able to see his face, it was easy to tell that Hatake was smiling at them. "Yes. The one who doesn't get a bell loses and goes back to the academy. The time limit is twelve o'clock. Come at me with the intent to kill."
With that, Hatake put a clock on one of the tree-stumps in the middle of the training grounds.
"When the bell rings, the time is up!" Hatake exclaimed.
Naruto didn't wait another second to disappear into the trees. He needed to find his teammates and see if he could convince them to work together. And now, in hindsight, he realized he could have used the time waiting to convince them instead of just ignoring them. Evidently, he was losing his touch. But he couldn't fix that now and so instead he went on a search. He found Haruno first, which wasn't a surprise, she might be good at the theory, but she sucked at the practical component. Naruto barely spared her a glance before he moved on.
For whatever reason, Haruno hated him. She wasn't going to work with him unless Uchiha was, so even trying to convince her otherwise would just be a waste of precious time. They only had an hour, after all.
Jumping from tree to tree, he attempted the follow the trace of Uchiha's chakra that he could feel. Naruto wouldn't call himself a sensor exactly, because that wasn't what he could do. But he could sense emotions and after spending years in the same class as the Uchiha, he knew very well what he felt like. Uchiha was full of rage and hatred and pain, together with a loneliness so deep, Naruto didn't think it would ever disappear.
And Naruto knew very well where those emotions came from.
Uchiha itachi was very well known in Konoha, after all, and almost as hated as Naruto. Of course, at one point, he had also been seen as Konoha's hope and genius and Naruto had even thought he might end up being the next Hokage some day. He certainly had what it took.
But then he had slaughtered the entirety of his own clan, elderly, children and even his parents included. The only one that seemed to have escaped his madness was Sasuke, his younger brother. And even that was an unsure thing, because Sasuke had certainly not been the same after that. Naruto could very well remember the way he had looked at the world the first few months after his clans death. Like he couldn't see it.
Like he was the only one in the world.
That kind of trauma was obviously going to change a person and to be honest, Naruto thought he had been dealing with it fairly well, all alone as he was. Someone else might no agree, but Sasuke hadn't destroyed himself yet, so Naruto considered him to be a fairly valuable asset.
He undeniably had promise.
Naruto found Uchiha Sasuke hidden under a bush, that at least was better protected then the one Haruno had been crouching under. Jumping down from the tree, branch to branch, until he reached the ground, Naruto settled on the balls of his feet just a shrill scream lit up the forest. It seemed like Haruno had been found. Naruto thought it'd be faster, but apparently Hatake was taking his time to play with them.
Naruto smirked down at the Uchiha. "Found you."
Uchiha scowled up at him and hissed, "Get down, idiot! You're going to lead him straight to us."
Naruto just sat down on the ground in front of Uchiha, as if he had not a worry in the world. "Oh please, he's a jounin. He already knows exactly where we are. He's just toying with us now."
"Maybe he's toying with you." Uchiha retaliated.
Naruto smirked again. "You know what this test is truly about, right?" he questioned and continued when Uchiha just scowled harder at him. "Teamwork. Konoha genin teams are always in units of three. Never more or less. Which means that no matter the result, unless we show we can work as a functional team, we're all going back to the academy."
"And you figured this out how?" Uchiha snapped and stared at him condescendingly. Naruto didn't take it personally.
Naruto just hummed, a carefree sound that didn't fit the occasion. Unsettling people was both useful and fun. "Think about it logically and you'll see it makes sense. Your parents must have told you this at some point, right?"
Uchiha just glared at him in response, but after a few more tense seconds, he crawled out of his hiding place and joined Naruto in sitting on the ground. "So," Uchiha started. "do you actually have a plan or are you just talk?"
Naruto smirked at him with glee and a hint of madness in his eyes. "Oh, I have a plan alright."
He could sense the crushing sense of guilt and self-hatred that made up Hatake approaching them. Naruto was well aware of where he had felt that sensation before. Hatake was either a very dedicated stalker, or he was one of the guards the Hokage had placed on him. Naruto was no fool, as a walking weapon, there was no way he had ever been unsupervised in his life, whether for his own safety or anyone else's.
But of course, considering that they had never so much as shown themselves or helped him out of a tough spot, Naruto had no kind feelings to spare them.
Naruto had no intention of fighting Hatake head on, at this point, that would be suicide. Oh, he was powerful yes, but he didn't have enough skill yet to balance the scales. Moreover, he was of the opinion that ambushing someone was the smart way to go. He didn't care if someone would just call it cowardliness or fear or even dishonorable. Naruto knew well that in the long run, fighting smart would win the war. Pure power wasn't all that mattered, no matter how much people lied to tell themselves it was. And if they truly believed it, they hadn't ever met a genius.
(He might not want to destroy the world anymore, not truly, but that didn't mean that he cared for even a second. Let it burn.)
(The world would be better for it.)
(Humans were such greedy animals and war was just its nature. Such a thing as peace didn't—couldn't—exist, especially not in a world like this.)
(But if he ever got the chance... well he'd lost his chance to do right by his world before. Maybe ruling the world would at least be amusing. And in that case, he knew exactly where to begin. Konoha was the most powerful shinobi village for a reason, after all.)
(Naruto hated being bored.)
Turning back to give Uchiha the details of the plan he had already been working on the night before, he ignored the look of disbelief on the Uchiha's face. He might have acted like an idiot before, but now he was no longer bound by those limitations. He was already an active shinobi and as long as he yelled about how much he loved Konoha a few more times and shoved the public how honest and idiotic he was, he'd be seen as both harmless and loyal.
All the better, really.
He'd hate to betray expectations.
Giving the Uchiha at his side a smile, Naruto let his mind wander briefly. That idea of ruling Konoha just sounded more interesting by the day. Was there anything Konoha would hate more than to have to follow the orders of the jinchuuriki it despised?
If he played it right, he could make it seem like an innocent dream of a young boy that just wanted to be loved. If he played it up enough, he might even manage to get some genuine support too. Enough to make it seem like a legal and justifiable thing.
(The best revenge, after all, was being so firmly above your victims that they lived their whole lives in fear of being utterly crushed. It was having so much power, that they literally couldn't raise a fist towards you.)
Maybe he should start laying the foundations to be the next Hokage. As the son of the Yondaime, he already had a working base to manipulate.
Something nice to look forwards too.