CHAPTER 3 Meeting The Hokage

"WAIT! Naruto! The Hokage could be busy!" The Anbu member exclaimed. Naruto ignored the man and opened the door to the Hokage's office...

"Hey old man! It's been a while." Naruto said happily with a huge grin on his face as he entered the Hokage's office without a care in the world. He saw a flash of orange in the old mans hands and something disappeared from sight. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, what was that jiji (grandfather)." Naruto said suspiciously. Hiruzen just chuckled nervously and blushed a bit in embarrassment.

"Nothing for you to worry about yet my boy!" The hokage said in a nervous tone. "Now come inside and let me have a good look at you. Inu-san,(dog) you are dismissed" He said. The Anbu member known as Inu did a low bow and shunshined away in a swirl of leaves. Naruto pouted a bit at seeing that. He still hadn't learned any cool jutsu yet and he was getting a bit restless, even with the Kyuubi helping him immensely with his patience. Hokage had just now took the time to see the boy clearly for the first time in two years and he was quite shocked. Naruto stood at 3'9", which slightly taller than most kids his age. He wore a simple black tight fitted shirt with navy blue Anbu style pants and black sandals. His hair had gotten a bit longer and and it seemed like his whisker marks were darker, but it could have been a trick of the light. What stood out most was his brilliant blue eyes that he always had, but what surprised the Hokage the most was that Naruto had a calm and calculative look in his eyes. While Hokage was analyzing Naruto there was an awkward silence that filled the room. Naruto rubbed the back of his neck nervously...

"Umm you're staring at me jiji. I haven't changed that much have I?" Naruto asked in confused tone. He looked down at himself and back at the Hokage. Sarutobi quickly gained his composure and smiled warmly at the young boy.

"It's not your clothing Naruto. When did you get to be so calm? You were always... well..." The Hokage trailed off, not wanting to offend the blonde.

"Loud? Obnoxious? Yea I know old man." Naruto said with an exasperated sigh. "I want to tell you what happened jiji but could you send out the hidden Anbu and put up a silencing barrier. I don't want anyone to know the truth just yet." Naruto said pointing to the corner where a couple of Anbu were hidden. Sarutobi's eyes widened at hearing that Naruto knew that there were Anbu in the room but quickly sent them out of the room and went through a couple hand seals at a speed Naruto couldn't follow and slammed his hand on the desk. A soft blue light seemed to engulf the room and then faded into nothing.

"Naruto... How could you sense the Anbu in the room? Has someone been training you?" The Hokage asked in a concerned tone. Whoever was training Naruto might not have his best interest in mind or the village's, so he wanted to make sure. Naruto grinned at the Hokage.

"If I told you old man, you might have a heart attack and die right here on the spot." Naruto declared with a mischievous grin. Now the Hokage was beginning to sweat. Who could possibly have trained him that would get that kind of reaction from him...

"Naruto this is extremely important. I want to be sure that the person training you won't harm you or betray the village." The Hokage said, making his voice sound as authoritative as he could without scaring the boy. Naruto just chuckled nervously and found the floor to be much more interesting than before.

"Well... You see jiji. If I tell you, you have to promise not to freak out and let me tell you my side of the story."

Naruto said. He didn't want the old man to over react before he finished. The Hokage raised an eyebrow but nodded anyway.

"Ok well... I'm being trained by the Kyuubi..." Naruto started but before he could continue, he was interrupted by the Hokage standing up and shouting.

"YOU KNOW ABOUT THE KYUUBI!?" The old man asked wide-eyed. Naruto just sighed. This was gonna be harder than he thought...

"Yea old man. I've known for about 2 years now. And before you say anything, he isn't telling me to do anything bad to the village or myself. He has just been training me to protect myself and the people precious to me. The very few that are precious to me..." Naruto said. Whispering the last part as more of an afterthought. But the Hokage heard him clearly and frowned when he heard it. He sighed and sat down in his chair pulling out his smoking pipe and lite it, knowing that this was gonna be a long conversation that will result in a massive headache.

"Naruto... The Kyuubi could be manipulating you. You have no way of knowing if he is just using you to try and get out of the seal!" The Hokage said, trying to reason with the young boy. But what he saw next made his eyes widen slightly. Naruto looked... Angry?

"Hokage-sama." Naruto said in a firm voice. Making sure he used his grandfathers official title so that he would know he was serious. The Hokage inwardly flinched at hearing his tone. "Kurama is like the father I never had. He would never do anything to harm me or anyone that I care about. He has done more for me than anyone has ever done before." Naruto said smiling a bit at one particular memory that he had with his inner demon.

FLASHBACK 4 MONTHS AGO

Naruto was doing his daily training regimen in the Forest of Death when his instincts told him to move. He suddenly dodged to the right and rolled onto his feet where three kunai dug into the spot that he was just standing. When Naruto looked for his attacker, he saw a random newly promoted jounin with an insane grin on his face. Inwardly cursing, He wasn't ready to face a jounin level ninja; not without Kyuubi's help anyway...

"What do you want?" Naruto asked but already knew the answer to. The jounin just smirked and started to twirl a kunai in his hand.

"I've been looking for you for a while now. I was just promoted jounin and I swore to myself that when I did, I would hunt you down and kill you for what you did to my sister!" The now enraged jounin said. His sister was one of the victims to the Kyuubi attack and he would be damned if he let the demon walk around unpunished. Naruto inwardly groaned. 'you see the crap I have to put up with. Why don't they realize I'm not you.' Speaking to Kurama through the mental link. Kyuubi snorted. 'Hey! I said I was sorry alright? But never mind that. Your gonna have to go all out and even then...' Kyuubi said. Naruto mentally nodded, 'I know Kurama. I'm sorry, I'm just tired of this. Lets see how far I've come in my training.' Naruto thought as he grinned. He concentrated his chakra throughout his entire body, chains started to appear wrapped around his entire body before they seemed to break and fade back into his skin.

"I'm not going down without a fight you know." Naruto said as he got into his own taijutsu stance. He was beginning to create his own form of taijutsu that relied heavily on speed and feints, but wasn't even close to done and hadnt even named it yet. The jounin saw his stance and started to laugh maniacally.

"HAHAHA. You think you could defeat a jounin? You might be a demon, but you are in a 7 year old body!" The jounin exclaimed. Naruto just shook his head calmly.

"You might lose your life if you keep being so arrogant." Naruto said. The jounin rolled his head back and started to roar with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA. You should b..." That was all he got to say as Naruto disappeared from where he was standing and sent a bone crushing punch to the jounin's chest. He didn't stop his attack and swept at the ninja's feet causing him to lose balance while Naruto took advantage of his imbalance and sent the man flying with a roundhouse kick to the torso. The man had 2 cracked ribs from the attack and got up shakily while glaring at the young boy.

"I see you still retain some strength in that form demon. But you still cant compare to ME!" Yelled the insane jounin as he charged at Naruto who barely had enough time to put up a block but wasn't quick enough for the follow up punch to his nose that sent the blonde back into a tree, leaving a small indent. Naruto groaned and got back on his feet. 'This isn't going to be easy for me.' he thought as he charged the man as they engaged in a heated taijutsu battle. To anyone chunnin rank or lower, the two were both blurs and all that could be heard were grunts of pain and bones creaking underneath the powerful blows. They both jumped back a couple minutes later. Naruto was panting pretty heavily as he sported many bruises on his arms and legs and a swollen cheek, But it was quickly healing due to Kyuubi's chakra. The jounin was doing a bit better than Naruto and was panting slightly with a couple of bruises and cuts on his body.

"You're better than I expected demon." Panted out the deranged jounin. "But lets see how you handle this!" Yelled the ninja, as he started going through a string of hand seals and yelled out "Karyuudan" (Fire Dragon Projectile). A stream of fire shot out from the mans mouth and formed a huge dragon with glowing red eyes that charged at Naruto.

"Shit!" Naruto exclaimed as he did a seal less substitution jutsu with a nearby log and shot 4 kunai at the man from his blind spot. The jounin sensed the kunai coming and did 3 hand seals as he spun around, holding on to the last seal. "Doryuu Heki!"(Earth style wall) Proclaimed the man, as a 10 foot tall wall of earth shot up from the ground and blocked the kunai. The man did another seal and yelled "Domu!" (Earth Spear) Suddenly spears started to form on the wall and shot towards Naruto. He tried to dodge them all but the last one caught him in the shoulder, making that arm almost useless.

'Damn what do I do now?!' Naruto mentally screamed. Throughout the whole fight Kyuubi was getting more and more angry. 'How DARE this human hurt my kit!' Kyuubi mentally yelled. "Naruto give me control of your body! I will not let him harm you anymore than he has already!" Kyuubi declared. Angry that the boy he had come to raise as his own was always being threatened because of him. Naruto at first was shocked Kyuubi was so mad, but soon that shock turned into a small smile. 'Of course Kurama. Have fun.' Naruto said before everything for him went pitch black and it seemed as if he was looking at the world through eyes that were not his own.

Throughout all this, the man had been panting on one knee trying to regain his composure after wasting so much chakra. He was a newly promoted jounin, but his chakra reserves were still below average. He was about to start getting back on his feet when he felt the most malicious killing intent he had ever felt since the Kyuubi attack, but it was ALL directed at him. He was struggling to breath and trying desperately to move, but he couldn't. He looked up and what he saw made him turn white as paper and start to tremble in fear. What made him so scared was not that Naruto was no longer on his knees with a piece of earth spear inside of his arm. He wasn't even scared of the red aura that he was giving off. He was TERRIFIED of the boys eyes though... They looked just like the demons eyes with a black slit running down the middle and the brilliant blue was replaced with blood red. Kyuubi smirked when he smelt the fear coming from the man. He was going to enjoy this. Kurama pulled out the spike lodged into Naruto's shoulder and flexed his fist as he slowly walked over to the man that was desperately trying to crawl backwards in fear.

"You think you could harm my kit and get away with it!?" Kyuubi asked. As he kept walking towards the man until he was arms length away. The man just looked up at him and started to stutter and plead for his life.

"P-p-please... I-I-I'll do an..." That was all he was able to say before Kyuubi started to tear the man apart... Literally. Kurama grabbed the mans arms and put his foot on his chest and pulled. With a sickening snap and tearing sound his arms were ripped from his body and all that was left of his arms were torn ligaments and the top half of his shoulder. The man was now screaming at the top of his lungs, trying in vein to stop the endless flow of blood from gushing out. Kurama started to beat the man senseless with both of his own arms until the man died from blood loss. Kyuubi seemed upset that he didn't have enough time to punish him properly but soon came to his senses when he felt a squad of Anbu coming his way. Kyuubi/Naruto looked down at the dead man and raised his hand towards him. "Kitsune Bi" (Fox Fire) Kyuubi whispered, and out of his hands shot an intense blue flame that turned the body to ash in a matter of seconds. He made a hand seal and concentrated his chakra to his shadow and started to melt into it. 30 seconds later the group of Anbu came into the clearing where they saw… absolutely nothing. All that was left was a scorch mark that seemed to be freshly made and scattered ashes in the wind. The Anbu were very confused at the scene that they came across because there was no sign of anyone being here, but they had felt a ton of chakra being used in this area not even a minute ago. The group of Anbu all shunshined away in a swirl of leaves to report to the Hokage.

Kyuubi/Naruto appeared in the corner of his apartment and walked out of the shadow he was in. Kyuubi closed his eyes and let Naruto regain control of his body. "I-I didn't know you cared so much Kurama. I could feel your rage from inside my mind." Naruto said out loud with a small smile on his face. He was not at all bothered by what he watched Kyuubi do. He actually somewhat enjoyed watching it happen. "Well I've been basically raising you for almost two years now... I wouldn't want to see you hurt. I treat you as if you were my own, kit." Kyuubi said in a fatherly tone. Naruto just stood there shocked. He didn't know Kyuubi thought of him that way, and to be honest with himself, he loved the feeling of having someone care for him. "Thanks Kurama Tou-san." Naruto whispered with a tear falling down his whiskered cheek.

FLASHBACK END

Naruto smiled fondly at the memory. The Hokage just sat there with wide-eyes trying to figure out if he was joking or not. Eventually he found that Naruto was dead serious about Kyuubi being a father figure to him and sighed heavily.

"Well why would he attack the village if he wasn't evil my boy?" The Hokage said trying to make Naruto see reason. Just when Naruto was about to make some excuse, he heard a voice in his head. "Let me explain this part Naruto. You don't know the whole truth." Kyuubi said wanting to have a conversation with the old man. Naruto just nodded and looked at the Hokage.

"Hey old man, don't have a heart attack, but Kyuubi wants to speak to you." And without giving his grandfather enough time to respond he receded inside his mind and let Kyuubi take over. Hiruzen was about to yell at Naruto and tell him to stop, But it was to late. Naruto opened his eyes and Kyuubi's blood red slit eyes stared at the Hokage. Now the old man was starting to sweat. He wasn't sure if he could hold off the Kyuubi in time for back-up to arrive.

"Calm down Sarutobi. I do not wish to harm you or the village. I just wanted to speak to you about a few things." Kyuubi said In a regal tone that did not seem to fit the young boy. The Hokage relaxed a bit at hearing that but still kept up his guard. "I'm listening..." The old man said. Trying to keep the slight fear from his voice. Kyuubi sighed and began to tell the Hokage everything that happened about the night he attacked on October 10th and why he did what he did... When Saratobi heard that Madara Uchiha was still alive and was the one that controlled Kyuubi with his sharingan, he sighed heavily. He was getting to old for this shit.

"... And that's everything that happened that night. So as you can see, it was not my fault for attacking the village. Even though I wouldn't mind killing off the ignorant people who harm Naruto." Kyuubi said bitterly. The Hokage flinched when he heard that. He knew that there have been a few beatings but as far as he knew, they had stopped.

"I've tried my best to keep Naruto safe. I even had an Anbu squad follow him while he was at the orphanage." The Hokage said defensively.

Kyuubi sighed. "I know Sarutobi... That's why I haven't taken him from the village. He cares to much about you. And a few others." The Hokage looked a bit relieved. At least Naruto was going to stay in the village and had at least some people he cared about. "But don't get me wrong, I will want to take him out of the village for a few years to complete his training. I was planning on taking him in another 6 months." Kyuubi stated leaving very little room for argument. Sarutobi kept silent as he thought about the benefits of having Naruto trained by the most powerful demon in existence, but he still wanted him to have bonds and grow close to people his age.

"I will allow this... But only if you have him back 6 months before he is suppose to graduate from the academy. I want him to have friends and at least try to be a normal boy." The Hokage said. Hoping that the Kyuubi wouldn't have a problem with it. Kurama just grinned. He was planning on doing so anyway. He didn't want his kit to be isolated from everyone his age.

"That can be arranged ho..." Kyuubi started to say but was interrupted by the door to the Hokage's office being thrown open and a dark blue haired girl with a lavender bandana on her forehead came running up to the Hokage crying hysterically into the old man's robe. Kyuubi quickly gave control back to Naruto who had been listening the entire time, but when he saw who was currently crying her eyes out in front of him his heart dropped. He couldn't believe it was her... after all this time... The first person his age that wanted to be his friend.

"H-h-hinata?" Naruto stuttered out.