Disclaimer everything besides the dead guy does not belong to me.
Choices
Sarutobi Hiruzen was having a bad day.
He glared at his enemy.
Scratch that he was having a horrible day.
The old kage was seated behind a desk in an oval office filled with paperwork. He could literally hear the wooden desk groaning under the load of crap. He considered burning half the bloody piece hell that he swore was grinning at him. Seriously how many of this forms are mere dupli-,tripli- and quadruplicates. "I must have rejected this water purification proposal for the eight time today'' thought the aged man with frustration. He was tempted, sorely tempted to just go to the nearest training ground to unleash a bottle of overkill on some poor defenseless dummies. Looking out the window he sighed and got to thinking on how to handle his Naruto problem.
"Well at least the civilians are smart enough to leave him alone." Sarutobi pondered. "Ironic that the civilians as a whole, clueless in the art of sealing are treating him better than some of the ninja factions."
At first the kage was worried that the civilians would try something drastic against the Kyuubi container. However surprisingly the only thing they did to the poor boy was to ignore him. That and help him so he get out of their way as soon as possible. Unfortunate, but far more welcome to the rather overt attacks that some rather idiotic shinobis take part in on an annual basis. The worst part was the fact that the law to protect Naruto's status stops him from being able to try him in court as said law prevents him form doing anything that may allow the younger generation from knowing Naruto's burden.
Sarutobi wondered if it had anything to do with the civilians near obsessive need to forget about the Kyuubi attack and the death of their loved ones. Ignorance must really be bliss the old man thought
The third mentally sighed "If only I could stop my own ninja from harassing the poor boy then his life would be far more bearable. Damn it I should have never told the council about the Kyuubi if the next thing they did was to spread the news as first as they possibly could."
He mentally recounted the 60 or so assaults at Naruto that occurred within the past 7 and a ½ years. Cringing at the thought that he could be wrong, that he should have revealed Naruto's heritage rather that hide him in a shroud secrecy. After all what good would it do to save him from the enemies on the outside of the village walls if he should die by the hands of those he would protect.
All of these attempts occurred during the weeks before and after the Kyuubi festival. With tension running high from the original attack 7 years back it is only natural that things get chaotic when ninjas are reminded of their lost. To top it all off the culprits for each and every attempt at Naruto's life were drunk, angry and with reduce inhibitions willing to use excessive force to hurt their jinchuriki.
The third mentally winced when he remembered Naruto's attempt of destroying most of the sake crates by literally setting fire to it a few months back. He did not blame him since although it is considered felony to destroy merchandise(A/n it is a ninja village) somehow Sarutobi was able to hush it all up just in case. Although in the end there was no evidence linking the fire to Naruto , judging by his rather happy attitude during the festival as there was no drunken shinobi to harass him despite having never announced the news yet. Sarutobi was quite sure that Naruto must have something to do with it.
"Well at least Naruto has some hope of becoming a ninja " thought Sarutobi as he pondered on the Naruto's skills, or subsequent lack of it. Naruto should have joined the academy 2 years early under the recommendation of the Hokage at the age of seven. That said he felt guilty that he never checked on Naruto.
(^'.'^)(^',')(','^)(v'.'v)
Flashback 6 months ago.
"The last thing on today's agenda is to decide whether Naruto should attend the academy early" announced Sarutobi before taking a seat, letting loose a big sigh and letting the other members of the council duke it out on the field of politics. All 12 of the members of the ninja council were currently sitting around him. If it only Naruto was a ninja then I won't have to sit through this shit Sarutobi mentally sighed. In Konoha there are three councils with the Hokage at the helm of two of them. The first council was the civilian council that was involved with anything that does not include ninjas' affairs. The second council was the ninja council that discuss anything that concerns a ninja outside their missions. The third council and the only one without Sarutobi at the helm is the hidden council. Their only duty is too keep all the members of the two council along with Sarutobi from doing anything illegal. Staffed with ninjas who are loyal to the daimyo and as their duty implies their members are not disclose to reveal their position to anyone along with holding the sword of Damocles over the heads of those they are suppose keep in line, threatening them with any secret information they may or may not have.
As they debated Sarutobi looked at each member of the shinobi council. First there was Hiashi, the normally stoic Hyuga. Dress in somber black robes, simple but elegant he has been rather upset after his wife death. Upset being an understatement a serious understatement. With his wife death he started becoming more protective of his two daughters. Ironic that he, a real prude for rules before the accident outright ignoring them in order to do whats best for his daughters. Money, training, his spare time anything they wanted he would give it to them on a sliver platter. On top of that the best Jyuken user in Konoha regularly sinks into depression during the various anniversary he celebrated with his wife. A more loving couple that some would say to be the best of Happily Ever After. He was pulled out of active duty out of worries that he would be suicidal with his wife death.
Then there was Shikaku. A Nara who possess an almost unrivaled intelligence, he looks at both sides of the coin before making his decision. With his two scars on the right side of his face, a testament of his career in the Third Ninja War. However most people who had the misfortune of facing him when he was serious would have come to the unneeded conclusion that he was the perfect ninja as he shows absolutely no emotion when push comes to shove. Otherwise he was too lazy too do anything. His son, while inheriting his lazy as a sloth attitude is poised to be an equal in terms of pure brainpower in a decade or so. Already there were Anbu reports on his desk of how Shikamaru mastered his clan techniques, or the ones taught to him at least within a matter of hours. Despite that Shikaku was almost apathetic and rarely showed emotions to just about everyone. Only his wife and to some degree his son along with his teammates are the only one to succeed in bringing out his heart.
Opposite Shikaku was Tsume Inuzuka. She was a ferocious kunoichi who wore her heart on her sleeves. While being a clan head for a rather small clan after having nearly been wipe out by the Kyuubi attack, the current skills of the remaining Inuzuka in service was damnably good. On top of that she was currently celebrating the fact that her two children were prodigies in the making. Hana her oldest child is a kunoichi whose skills in animals based medicine rivals that of the Slug Sannin. A Tsunade in the making, there are hopes that she would start to turn her attention to standard medical ninjutsu. Then there was Kiba, Hana's younger brother who absorbed the clan's technique like a sponge. Already he and his canine partner have mastered the art of canine speech and are working on how to improve their already vast array of hand signs, body language and scent signs.
On his left was Danzo. The old war hawk was obsessed with doing everything that he possibly could in order to make Konoha the best Hidden Village in the Elemental Countries. While the two of them regularly butted heads on how best to accomplish this, both of them are aware that they share the same intention. Despite his age The Third had a suspicion on how strong his old teammate really is. Recently his private Anbu division, ROOT had to be disbanded despite their impressive record. This was partially due to some of them going crazy from the rigorous training so insane even to veteran ninjas. But to ensure that something good came out of it The Third decided that a new Anbu division could be formed if Danzo found a way to correct the flaw in his ROOT squad.
On his left there was Uchiha Fugaku, Head of Konoha's Police force. Dressed in a suit he has a wide knowledge of virtually all the laws in Konoha considering he propose and bills the majority of them. Father of two children, the prodigy Itachi and Satsuki the next self-proclaimed female Hokage, he has a no nonsense attitude in almost all aspect of his life. The most disturbing was that unlike Shikaku, Fugaku was far more apathetic. He had a stand on everything and anything under the sun and is also very opinionated. Think of Molly Weasley in the yet unknown to them Harry Potter series.
These five are the most vocal on the council and will make their views known at the very least. More often than not the five of them would try everything up to bribing to get what they want. While their interests are not necessaryly mutually exclusive, at best there would only be two sides on every issue. This particular fact has led him to go on drinking binges against his doctor's order every now and again.
Shaking his mental head he starts to pay attention to the debate in front of him.
"I say that we should bar him from entering the academy at all" said Inoichi quietly. The third was jerked from his calm, happy place. While unexpected it was not surprising. Taking a deep breath Sarutobi started to respond before Tsume beat him to the point.
"And why the hell not. It is him that contains the Kyuubi. It is him that lives in a perpetual hell. Almost no one sell food to him. Fuck it they avoid him like the goddamn plague. Hell he was attack by our own shinobi, he is in more danger from our own self then w, they may have been drunk but still. What right do we have to bar him from entering the academy." snarled the Inuzuka alpha.
" Well loyalty is a very well known(cough understatement cough) characteristics of the Inuzuka clan. " thought the old Hokage.
Sighing, the Hokage thanked Kami and was glad that Danzo had no interest in Naruto. Looking at said nin, to his veritable knowledge of the old war hawk mannerisms he had absolutely no interest in the current topic. While to everyone else present the bandaged mummy acted just like normal, years of experience of dealing with Danzo told the Third that he was bored out of his mind. With the already small, minute tells the famed shinobi was unaware of virtually ceasing to exist, Sarutobi could safely say that Danzo was in his happy place. Chuckling at the thought the kage once again focus his attention to the debate at hand.
" That may be the case but the fact remains that Naruto is a flight risk. He may be civil now but there is absolutely nothing that ties him down to Konoha" Continued the mind reader.
Shikaku sighed " Troublesome. Naruto is a jinchuriki. He will still need to control his power anyway. Consider this. Which is more troublesome. A Naruto with no control and no outlet or a Naruto with some control and the rest of the world to vent his frustration on."
" Inoichi, I agree with the Tsume. We do owe Naruto our lives and we should at least try to pay him back" piped in the fa..., uhnm uhnm, big boned, much better, Akimichi. Chouza is one of the few minor clan head that is actually allowed to attend these meetings. This is largely attributed to his sheer mastery of his clan's muscle manipulating jutsu.
"...",Danzo is still in his happy place. Sarutobi internally swore that Danzo smiled, more like his lips twitched, away as he ignored the ramblings of the council.
" While a jinchuriki is definitely an asset it should be said that they are useless for Konoha. It is redundant for us to train a weapon that we won't use and that will likely back fire on us" Hiashi finally says.
Fugaku closed his eyes and placed his hands under his chins " Remember the power of Konoha is based on our ability to counter any other jinchuriki. With the Mokuton bloodline in Orochimaru's last victim and the sharingan hypnosis that would even affect a bijuu, we can take on any of the other major hidden villages without problem. Even containing Naruto isn't a problem if he goes out of control. The question that we have to ask is "Is it worth it to teach a shinobi that would more than likely betray the village if we gave him the means to do so?"" remarked the stoic clan head.
At this no one said a word. Even the outside drizzle which no one noticed sounded like a downpour. In the ninja world one of the worst thing you could do was to betray your village. After all what kind of person would willingly turn their backs on their family or friends. The problem they all realize was that Naruto had none. Even the most optimistic of the entire shinobi council can only say with the utmost confidence that the only thing that Naruto has are friends. That statement too would be stretching the definition of the word by a large margin. True he may have been polite when he talks to certain people, but in the end it is nothing more than pure politeness. Pure twisted messed up politeness.
Sighing, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately , Sarutobi said startling everyone else " Well then let's put it to a vote in half an hour on which of the three actions the academy can take in regards to Naruto Uzumaki as a student."
An hour later
Sarutobi was walking down the streets as he looked at the results of the votes. Of close to a dozen clans and a dozen more valued shinobi in different departments the decision stood at allowing Naruto to attend the academy. As he walked down the road to Naruto's house he smiled at the few villagers that were up and about at this time of night (a/n 10pm). He already dismiss his Anbu guards for the day and was rather glad that he did so.
" Sigh. I hope Naruto will like this present" thought Hiruzen as he considered on how he should go about telling the young boy about his early participation of becoming a "super cool" ninja as Konohamaru put it. The old man smiled contently as he remembered on how his grandson was always trying to beat him in order to become Hokage.
"This should be it" thought Sarutobi as he stopped in front of a small house. "Well the Anbu report was detailed" mused the old man. "Considering everything I must say it is a wonder what Naruto must have done in order to get the deed to this house."
The word "house" can be more accurately used to described almost everything other than this particular abode. It simply does not do it justice. First of this "house" is only three story high. Second it was almost 50 by 50 meters long. Constructed of stone rather than wood or plaster that was normally used in buildings nowadays it was rather grand and awe inspiring. The stone was seemingly smooth from the front gate but has a rough feel if you actually touch it. The doors and windows are made out of brass and high strength glass. There were multiple chimneys rather than a box shape the house seemed to be made in a rough triangular shape.
The gardens at the front of the house was filled with a variety of seasonal flowers haphazardly scattered in all round the house. From his position in front of the gates Sarutobi could even see the farm located at the back of the house. Having the Great Forest as a backdrop serves to further underline how imposing the structure is. However that effect was dimmed since only the lights on the first floor was actually turned on. No surprise since almost the entire compound was left empty in order to test new experimental explosives. There were also a lot of young trees in the compound ranging from fruit trees to the giant species that can be found in the forest of death or the great forest.
The house or more appropriately manor/ mansion was placed as closed as possible to the great forest and as far away from the village proper as a person possibly could while still being in the land of Konohagakure. The deed to the land was roughly 100 meters in a radius from the house proper. The entire land was ringed with a wrought iron fence and multiple gates in this fence.
" Why oh why did Revun had to give Naruto his house of all things." thought the Hokage rubbing his nose in frustration.
For a brief history lesson for my fic Revun is a talented prodigy in the art of making anything go boom. He is also an OC who is dead and will have little impact on the plot besides being an example of someone who may have help Naruto in my fic. An orphan with no known family members he never got married. At any rate while he was never made into the ninja program .While his research had very little implications in a proper ninja battle, the application in the demolition of any structure or even in ambushes is priceless. He did a lot of research in explosions. And I mean a lot. So much so that he was forced to buy a property next to a forest filled with giants animals in order to continue his research. Far far away from innocent civilians and nervous ninjas. The entire mansion was made in order to bear the damage that will come as a result of his research. The entire mansion was made using an extremely large fund dedicated to improving the research and development of explosive. However a few years into the Third Ninja War almost every scientist and researcher in this R&D program was placed in other sectors simply because they were useless in comparison to Revun. The flaw with this was that when the ninja council wanted to continue the R&D there was no one who had the know how to do it since 90% of the entire R&D process was done single handedly by one person. So "The Lab" as it was called and the surrounding lands was given to Revun. Before he die some 2 odd years ago he decided to pass it down to Naruto in his will for an unknown reason. Now enough of the boring history lesson lets continue to the story.
So taking a deep breath, Sarutobi schooled his face to his grandfatherly persona and he started to knock on the door.
(^'.'^)(^',')(','^)(v'.'v)
Naruto was having a rather normal day. Clad in a simple white cloth t-shirt and a pair of black baggy pants he was lying on the nice velvety floor of his study, he had to say it more it sounded so cool after having a nice dinner consisting of tempura and ice chilled apple juice. He is currently occupied in his own thoughts despite the pile of English based instruction books around him.(A/N For this fic I intend for the story to use English for the setting of the story since I can't understand Japanese to save my own life). There were the "How to" series, dictionaries by the pile literally and almost every known copy of English text books that could be found in Konoha. The stacks was literally as tall as Naruto all piled up by category. He even had a pile on top of the desk. But still our protagonist was currently drooling on top of the floor in front of a dictionary, basking in the afterglow of a full stomach .
"Buying the cooking oil and utensils from Teuchi was definitely worth it" thought a contented Naruto. "The mango trees should be ripening soon maybe I should harvest it so that I could..."
" Make a pudding with it. Like a great big feast " interjected Nyx, purring while she did so.
" Come on aren't you sick of sweets. I mean seriously how could you like sugar like this. The last time I did do it for you , I was sick for two days. "
" But seriously I help you tweak your ramen recipe " Nyx whined.
Naruto could almost see her pouting faced even without going into his mid scape " but this and that are totally different things and didn't I help make my mind scape better for you after that "
Before their squabble, pathetic as it is descended to nothing more than a shouting match they heard somebody knocking on the door. Now something like this a knocking sound on the door or someone ringing a bell automatically equates to "someone wants to enter" in the mind of a normal person. However in the mind of a socially deprived( no one visited him before )7 year old boy or a pubescent kitsune whose memory has gone bye bye their thoughts were something a kin to shock and like some people who were surprise their bodies, physical for the male and mental for the female jerked. This ended with Naruto's body toppling the stacks of books and causing a huge ruckus,
(^'.'^)(^',')(','^)(v'.'v)
The moment after he knocked , Sarutobi felt more than heard the booms that thundered through the night. Wasting no time on thoughts he quickly used an earth jutsu to shift through the rock wall. He then sprinted to the are of the sound with the beginnings of his fear that something bad had happened.
" Where is he? Did something happened. I should have gotten the Anbu to look out for him,..." these thoughts and many others besides went through the Third's head the moment as his brain restarted.
In about five second from start to finish he moved from the front door to Naruto's study room. He then stopped running and stared. He was still moving but he just didn't care. After a slow-mo moment, this was followed by a him crashing into the wall as the law of physics reasserted itself in the Naruto-verse.
What Sarutobi saw was in essence a room filled virtually to the brim with books save for a meter or so around the door the entire room was filled with a small hill of books. " What the #%&. how did all of this get in here ". Picture a large dining room filled literally to the brim with books. And I mean to the literal brim at one end with books. Out of this pile of paper was the struggling arms of one Naruto Uzumaki.
Feeling a bit put off by the false alarm of what he assumed to be the sound of a lot of falling books, Sarutobi decided to help Naruto out of the mess he was in. Firmly grasping an arm by the wrist and shoving the rest of the books away using the other arm it took the Third a minute to retrieve a bruised Uzumaki from his predicament.
" Well that was a problem you had there my boy" said the old man.
Naruto who was still being pulled up suddenly tensed when he realize that somebody was helping him, not knowing if the man was friend or foe. And who would blame him since this is the first time anyone has ever visited him. This did not go unnoticed by Sarutobi too and it reaffirmed what Fugaku said "Is it worth it to teach a shinobi that would more than likely betray the village if we gave him the means to do so?""
"Who are you?" asked a cautious Naruto paying heed to the whispered warnings of Nyx.
The old man furrowed his brows, seemingly thinking up his response while still maintaining his grip on Naruto's arm.
" I am.. was Revun's patron." said the Third as he let go Naruto's arm.
With a flourish he bowed and said " I am the Third Hokage of Konohagakure, Sarutobi Hiruzen"
" errrrr..." mumbled a startled Naruto who mentally questioned himself on what he should do to his ' guest '.
With a quirked eyebrow Hiruzen continued " Now how about you showed me your living room so I can rest this old bones of mine."
Pulling himself out of his trance Naruto led the Third into his living room. He quickly went and prepared some tea for his guest and while internally questioning the motive of the Third. Nyx too agreed with him that something was up.
After serving the tea Naruto sat on the opposite of Hiruzen.
" So why is the Hokage wanting to visit l'tte old me?" questioned a still suspicious Naruto.
As he had prepared it on his trip there the Third said.
" Do you know Naruto-san about the main profession of the village?"
Naruto only nodded
"Well as you know due to the Kyuubi attack a few years back we had a depleted roster of able shinobis . As such we have expanded the criteria of those eligible to join the ranks" Said the Third, his rehearsed lie flowing smoothly from his lips.
Realization dawned on Naruto as he said without a single speck of emotion on his face " You want me to be a ninja don't you."
" Yes or to be more precise we , as in the ninja council are willing to offer you and a few others a chance to join the academy when the new intake starts. In truth it is quite the honor since only sponsored civilians were allowed to join the shinobi ranks before this."
Naruto sat there as he mentally consider the offer.
" So what do you think, on one hand we can learn quite a few thinks about jutsu's. On the other hand there is no guarantee that there isn't a trap within the offer as well" said a suddenly serious Nyx. But than it was also a necessity considering the kind of drastic changes to their lives even if they were still academy students. Contary to popular opinion Naruto did think about joining Konoha's military force but he had come to the conclusion that it was not worth it. Deciding to buy time he decided to take the initiative in the conversation.
" Before I think about it why choose me?"
Another expected question and like rehearsed the answer came forth
"Most civilians aren't willing to put their children through the program and it is important ultimately for us to gain new shinobis. The majority of the current ninjas on active duty are orphans. No parents equals more freedom and ultimately more ". Sarutobi hoped that with this he could divert Naruto from...
" True but you still didn't answer my question." Sarutobi cursed the gods before he pulled himself to his full height in order to look Naruto in the eyes, not letting any sign of his emotion out and said " You caught Revun's eye he was and still is considered a genius and that in and of itself is a sign that you have a lot of potential." He hoped that He would not reveal to Naruto about his jinchuriki status.
" He is lying kit, he knows about us" said a panicked kitsune.
Not knowing what to do the boy decided to learn more about the man's offer.
" So what does it mean. Are you offering me a scholarship or a free pass to use the academy grounds or free jutsus? " the last couple of words was uttered with a little bit of hope
Shaking his head the Third continued. "No I am only saying that we will not reject any application from you and would even speed it up if need be"
In Naruto's head his chibi self just poofed into existence and was having a debate with Nyx. Their conversation went along the line of this.
" So what do you think"
"Don't take the offer in my opinion, the fart bag seems to take for granted the fact that you want to be a ninja."
" Well it isn't like I got anything better to do"
" True but being a ninja means you need to swear loyalty to the village. Can you honestly do that without sacrificing your happiness. Even if you have no qualms about joining remember you still can be an academy student for years longer that necessary. Plus he seems to be desperate to convince you to join. Even I find it suspicious that someone of his station would actually meet you in person in order to try to convince you to join."
" If that is the case best if I just say no" thought Naruto as he internally sighed.
Breaking out of his musing he told the Hokage " I don't wa..."
Surprised by what Naruto intended to say, a trick honed after years of reading people, Sarutobi interrupted Naruto before he could finish his sentence.
" That is alright my boy. But I am still going to enroll you to the academy. Even if you want to quit all I'm asking is for you to try it out for a few weeks." Inwardly Sarutobi mentally noted down that he had to get Inoichi to determine what course the academy instructors have to take in order to keep Naruto in the academy.
"Even if you say that I would not go at all. After all why do I even want to go. Even with the power I may get I would never achieve anything with it."
Hiruzen was surprised with Naruto's remarkably adult like answer. That response was the same one most potential ninjas used when they, the council asked them why won't they join the military force. Knowing that he would need draw another another plan just to get Naruto into the academy in the first place he decided to leave Naruto alone for now. He briefly considered of using Naruto's heritage as a carrot to dangle in front of the boy. However knowing that such knowledge should be kept for a better time.
" At any rate the offer is still open whether you decide to attend or not."
Looking up at the clock he resumed
" so I want to bid you good night as I need to go finish the rest of my work."
" Let me show you the front door then" responded Naruto
Once the Hokage left Naruto went straight to bed. Even with Nyx asleep Naruto remembered what the village meant to him (and not in a good way). And as he looked at the starry sky from his room he prepared himself to say goodbye for he knew deep in his heart that while he was here he will always be surrounded by those who seek to take advantage of him.
"You would be so disappointed in him Minato"
Sarutobi was in front of the Fourth's tomb. Despite being married there was officially no record of said union. In order from preventing anyone from finding out about Kushina her bones were cremated and scattered in the winds. With the help of Jiraya and Minato's back up plan , any information linking the two together was forever erased.
"To think that your son doesn't want to be a shinobi. i feel disappointed that I did not do anything to correct this habit sooner. Even if he will grow up to be a wholesome human being what good will Konoha's trump card be if he would not go to the same lengths as you or me to protect Konoha "
Looking for beta and Please review if you want my fics to improve
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Going to hint at naruto's type of jutsu in next chapter
