Chapter 2

Hidden in the Leaves

If they weren't so close to returning to the village, Sakura would've been tempted to complain about how her legs felt like jelly. Just because she had excellent chakra control didn't mean she could keep up with boys who had much bigger reserves when they traveled by tree branch. But they were close enough to get out of the trees and walk along the dirt road that led to the massive village gates and she could last long enough to get to the Tower, get paid, and go home.

Almost home, she chanted to herself. Almost home, almost home, almost home…

Her parents would be so proud of her. And glad that she'd come back in one piece. Hopefully they wouldn't get too mad when they heard about her upgraded C-rank. Or…maybe she'd leave out a few things.

A dip in the road made her stumble, but she managed not to fall. Glancing around in embarrassment, she found Kakashi-sensei in the lead with his nose predictably buried in his book, Sasuke-kun was right behind him, and Naruto was trailing behind her. When the blond boy failed to chat her up or even ask if she was alright, she frowned.

Ever since the final fight on the bridge, Naruto had been weird (well, weirder). He'd been unusually quiet, distracted, and subdued. When he did act cheerful and gregarious it was just that: an act. His stupid grins were strained and his laughs held a false edge to them. And whenever he hung around Kakashi-sensei he seemed tense like a hunted rabbit.

At first she thought it was because of that boy, Haku. Apparently Naruto had encountered the Kiri boy in-between their clashes with Zabuza and he'd had a few conversations with the rogue's apprentice. But that didn't explain why her teammate was so nervous when their laid-back sensei was nearby.

What's wrong with him?

As annoying and irritating as Naruto was, he was still a part of their team. Sakura hated to admit it, but he was useful even though he was as dense as a brick. He was strong, a good physical back-up for Sasuke. If he was only halfway serious about his boasts of becoming the strongest hunter in the village, he had the potential to be a real asset to their team, or any future team he became a part of.

So she worried about him.

A little bit.

Sakura almost turned back to her trailing teammate to ask him what was wrong—

"Here we are."

At Kakashi-sensei's words, she focused her attention forward and saw the village gates coming into view through the dense trees. The towering double doors were decorated with the white swirled leaf—the symbol of Konohagakure no Sato that they wore on their hitai-ate. They were set into a massive wall that surrounded all but the training fields of Konoha and contained seal wards that kept the vast majority of demons out. Next to the capital of Fire Country and the Fire Temple, it was the safest and most demon-proof place in the whole land.

The pink-haired girl smiled and mustered her strength to pick up the pace. Home was within sight and within reach. And when she got there, Ino-pig would be so jealous.

Sasuke-kun was so brave and amazing! The Haruno girl sighed dreamily as she recalled how he'd kept his cool when he'd tangled with the mercenary Oni Brothers and how he'd somehow overcome Zabuza's dense mist and Haku's deadly ice mirrors to come out alive. Ino-pig will be so pissed that she missed it!

Naruto's odd behavior was completely forgotten.

Sasuke hid his nerves by burying his fists into his pockets as he entered the Uchiha District. As he walked under the arch bearing the red and white uchiwa fan and through the walls that sealed his clan's territory off from the rest of the village he felt the invisible weight on his shoulders increase. Distant relations of his waved and greeted his return, but he barely noticed them. He was both dreading and anticipating what would happen when he reached his house.

His mother would probably be there. But would his father be home? Or his brother?

And how would his family take his report of his first mission outside the village walls?

The fact that he had awakened his Sharingan counted in his favor. And the unexpected upgrade of his mission from C-rank to A-rank would also help. But the fact that he had almost died and needed saving…that counted against him.

The Uchiha were the elite of the village. The only help they should ever need was from another Uchiha. To be saved by the village idiot was inexcusable.

Naruto… Sasuke grimaced. How did he beat Haku? How did he do it?

He had no idea; he'd been unconscious and locked into a state of false death when it had happened. Their sensei hadn't seen it as he was locked into his own battle with Zabuza. And Sakura hadn't seen anything due to the dense mist and the dome formed by Haku's ice mirrors. When Sasuke had asked Naruto directly about what had happened, the blond had given him a vague answer that had involved kage bunshins.

Sasuke strongly suspected that that was a lie. Naruto couldn't make many of those at a time and the chakra constructs were fragile and would be easily and swiftly destroyed by the Kiri boy's needles. So the question remained: How had Naruto defeated Haku?

"Sasuke, you're home!"

He looked up and found that he was on his own front doorstep and his mother, Uchiha Mikoto, was coming out the door to embrace him.

"Tadaima," Sasuke sighed as his mother went about her motherly duties of embarrassing him.

"You were gone so long I was started to worry," she fussed and checked him over. She frowned slightly at the numerous tiny tears she noticed in his clothing. "What happened?"

"The client lied about his situation," he replied.

"Oh dear," his mother murmured in concern. "Come inside," she said, taking his backpack from him, "and tell us all about it."

In the kitchen he found his father and older brother sipping at cups of tea. They must've just finished a training session as he could see hints of perspiration on their skin. Sasuke felt himself start to sweat for a different reason as his mother poured him his own cup of tea and his father gestured for him to speak.

Sasuke faithfully told them all about his mission, just as his team had reported it to the Hokage barely a half an hour earlier. He told them about Tazuna's lie, the Oni Brothers attack, Zabuza's first strike, tree-climbing training, and then the battle on the bridge. His narrative was only interrupted once when he reached the part where he had awakened the power of his eyes, and his mother gushed over them when he showed his new Sharingan off. Throughout his report, his father's face was completely impassive, giving no clue to what he thought. When Sasuke finished, he sat back in his chair and waited for his father's judgment.

"Thank goodness everything turned out alright," his mother said, wringing her hands a bit. She was probably still upset over the knowledge that her baby had been turned into a pincushion. "Your sensei really should've aborted this mission. You tell him I said that," she added sternly.

"I will," Sasuke promised, distracted by his father's continuing silence.

His father, Uchiha Fugaku, stayed quiet for another few minutes, which felt like hours to Sasuke, before finally speaking.

"So, you required a teammate to defend you?"

"If he hadn't interfered I believe I would have been able to defeat the Kiri-nin," Sasuke answered. "My teammate's presence divided my attention, and his lack of skill and unpredictable behavior greatly reduced my effectiveness."

It would have worked out so much better if Naruto had just stayed in Tazuna's house after sleeping in that morning. Or if he'd just stayed with Sakura to defend Tazuna things would've gone better. But no, the idiot just had to throw himself through the last crack in Haku's mirror dome and constantly get himself in the way…

"And your teammate claims that he used the kage bunshin no jutsu to defeat the Kiri-nin?"

"That is what he claimed," Sasuke nodded.

"You don't believe that."

"It seems unlikely to me that he used that technique as he claimed," Sasuke explained. "He could not describe the strategy he used against the Kiri-nin with any detail to anyone, not even the Hokage, and he could not demonstrate what he did either. Being unconscious at the time I can't say what he did or did not do. Due to the mist technique and the ice mirror, no one else could see what he did either."

His father thought this over for a minute and then turned to Itachi.

"Research this boy. I want a full background check done on him and his lineage through his great-grandparents."

"Yes, father," Itachi nodded.

And then his father finished his tea and got up from the table.

"I'm going back to the office," he announced and left the kitchen. "I may be late for dinner."

The office was the headquarters of the Military Police, a security force led by and mainly comprised of Uchiha clan members. They looked into whatever crime happened in the village from petty crimes like shoplifting and vandalism to the rarer more serious crimes like murder. The Military Police was an important organization, and one that had been around since shortly after the formation of Konohagakure no Sato.

Sasuke's father was the Chief of the Military Police as well as the head of the whole Uchiha clan.

"You did a good job, Sasuke," his older brother said as he finished off his hot drink and left to work on his new little assignment. "Keep working at it."

"I still think your sensei should've aborted the mission," his mother said. "But you did very well, especially against such dangerous foes. I was a chuunin before I faced down my first rogue demon-hunter."

"I'm going to go take a shower," Sasuke said and abandoned his unfinished tea.

"Okay, dinner will be in a few hours!" his mother called after him.

He barely heard her as he climbed the stairs to the second floor.

His brother had praised him. His mother had praised him. But his father hadn't.

That spoke volumes.

I need to train twice as hard, he thought as he prepared for his shower. I can never be rescued like that again.

Naruto felt like he was going to puke. He'd made it out of the Land of Waves without any other freaky conversations with Kakashi-sensei. He'd managed to lie to the Hokage about the way he'd won a fight for the second time. He'd made it out of the Hokage's office and back to Iruka's apartment. And he'd started to think that his luck had held, that Kakashi-sensei had forgotten about the full moon chat, or that it hadn't even happened at all and he'd just hallucinated the whole thing.

But then, just after Iruka had brought him back from Ichiraku's and their celebratory dinner that commemorated his first successful real mission (D-ranks didn't count), Kakashi-sensei had showed up. His silver-haired teacher had been cheerful and casual like he usually was and told them that the Hokage wished to speak with Naruto. And so here they were, Kakashi-sensei leading Iruka and himself towards the Hokage Tower complex, and Naruto was going to puke up all the wondrous Ichiraku noodles that he'd consumed.

"Are you sure you can't tell us what this is about?" Iruka asked for the fifth time.

"You'll see when we get there," Kakashi-sensei said casually, his nose planted in his little orange book.

Naruto didn't want to see when he got there. He wanted to flee, because he knew it would be bad. But where could he flee to? Should he run to Ookami-jiji (or turn on him in the hopes that it would save his skin)? How could he flee with Iruka, a chuunin, and Kakashi-sensei, a jounin, nearby? What could he do?

"He didn't cause any trouble while he was out of the village, did he?" Iruka asked worriedly.

"No, no," the jounin chuckled. "He did well, all things considered."

Fear made Naruto's hands slimy and his limbs twitchy. Ever since he'd earned his hitai-ate from Iruka it had become harder and harder to hide his wretched secret. It wore on his nerves and made it so much harder for him to act normally. It felt like a string of silver-edged kunai were dangling over his head now, ready to fall on him at any second.

"If he didn't cause any trouble, why is he being called back so soon after returning from a mission?"

"You'll see when we get there," Kakashi-sensei repeated patiently.

Even though his jounin mentor was acting like this was no big deal, Naruto knew that it was. He could feel it crawling under his skin and worming into his bones. He was in trouble one way or the other, and Kakashi-sensei was just being all normal to try and keep him calm…which only made it worse.

"Relax, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei advised as they entered the Tower and started up the stairs to the Hokage's office. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

Liar! Naruto wanted to yell, just like all the times he and Sakura-chan would yell it whenever he gave his ridiculous excuses for being late. Liar, liar, liar!

And then there were in the Hokage's office. It was a fairly large room with a half circle of windows arrayed behind a massive wooden desk. The desk was cluttered with stacks of paperwork and a few odd scrolls here and there. And behind the desk sat Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.

When Naruto had first met him after he'd been tested for chakra potential, he hadn't recognized him as someone who was important. He was a kind, smiling old man who was friendly, like a grandfather. All the other adults he'd met that were in positions of authorities were mean, sour-faced, unpleasant people like social workers, teachers, principals, and so on. And since he hadn't imagined the nice old man was anyone important like this Hokage guy was supposed to be, that first day he'd asked him when the Hokage was going to show up. Hokage-sama had been amused…and then insulted when Naruto had refused to believe him that he was the Hokage.

"Good evening, Naruto," the old man greeted with a friendly twinkle in his eye. "And welcome, Iruka." He took his pipe from his mouth and gestured towards some chairs placed in front of his desk. "Please, sit down and relax."

"What is this all about, if you don't mind my asking?" Iruka politely inquired as he took one of the chairs.

Naruto slunk into the chair next to Iruka and stared at his clasped hands, too freaked out to look anywhere else, and Kakashi-sensei took the final chair on the other side on him.

"I just have a few questions to ask Naruto," the Hokage answered and shuffled through a few things on his desk. "It should all be quite painless. Now, Naruto, do you recognize this person?"

The old man pulled a photograph out of a file and turned it so he could see—

It was all Naruto could do to not leap out of his chair and snatch the picture from the Hokage's fingers. Being barely five when he'd been cast out, Naruto's memory of his mother's face was starting to fade. To see a picture of her again—smiling a flashing a peace sign…

He wanted it.

Badly.

"…No," he lied and tore his stare away from the image with great effort. "She's pretty though. Who is she?"

The Hokage looked at him with disappointed eyes, as if he knew that Naruto was lying…and maybe he did.

"This is Uzumaki Kushina, she is a demon-hunter of Uzugakure no Sato—a small hunter village on the shores of Uzu no Kuni, the Land of Whirlpools. She lived among us for several years as a liaison, a ninja-on-loan almost, and a sign of the alliance between our two villages. When she finally elected to return home, a little over twelve years ago, she was pregnant."

"Why are you asking him about this woman?" Iruka wondered. "Do you…think she's his mother? He really doesn't look anything like her."

"We are certain," the old man said, making Naruto flinch and sweat harder. "That white swirl symbol Naruto has on his jacket closely resembles her clan symbol." The Hokage pulled out a different picture from the file—an image of a white spiral on a field of black—as proof of it. "And while he has little resemblance to Uzumaki Kushina, he bears an uncanny resemblance to her boyfriend."

The photograph that the old man showed him was of a man that Naruto had truly never seen before. He was handsome and friendly-looking with sparkling blue eyes and dandelion-yellow hair. Perhaps when Naruto grew up he'd look sort of like this—

This was his mother's boyfriend.

This was the root of all of his suffering.

This was his father.

A lump of ice formed in the pit of his stomach and he wanted to set the photograph on fire.

"That's…" Iruka paused and Naruto watched as he squinted at the picture. "Isn't that…?" And then shocked horror danced over the chuunin's scarred face. "Isn't he the werewolf?"

Naruto was startled that Iruka knew that. But when he peeked at the picture again he spied the hitai-ate the man was wearing and realized that he had been a demon-hunter ninja of Konoha. When he became a werewolf, everybody would've heard about it. And if it got out that this was his father, then everyone would know…

He paled and felt light-headed, sick. Looking back at Iruka, he saw worry, suspicion. Dread pressed down on him as panic tried to force him up out of his chair.

What sort of evil bad luck had landed him in this place? This place where both of his parents were known, where he could never keep his secret forever. Why couldn't he have ended up in some other demon-hunting village, like Kumo (Kumo was nice, wasn't it?)? Any other village wouldn't have known either of them, wouldn't have cared.

A heavy hand grasped Naruto's shoulder and he spun wildly to see Kakashi-sensei's masked face gazing down at him, unreadable.

"Naruto. Relax. If I thought you were a danger, or if Hokage-sama thought you were a danger, you would have been taken care of already."

As scary as that statement was, it also said that they were giving him a chance.

"Really?" he squeaked.

"Yes, really," the Hokage confirmed, and Naruto slumped bonelessly back into his seat. "Nothing we have seen since you have lived here, and nothing in the records that we have on you, says that you are dangerous. I see great potential in you and it would be terrible to throw it away. And I admit there is a chance to learn from you; there is very little information on children of werewolves." The old man took a long draw on his pipe. "Although, in order to make this work you will need to be open and honest with us about any problems you may have, like silver allergies and the full moon."

Naruto felt drained. It was exhausting to be so scared. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a week.

"Do we have to talk about all of that now?" he whined.

"No, we don't," the Hokage chuckled. "But it must be addressed soon, you understand?"

"Okay," Naruto muttered sullenly. He eyed the two photographs on the Hokage's desk. "Can…can I have that picture?"

"Of course," the old man said kindly…

…And offered him the wrong picture.

"Not that one," Naruto growled, recoiling from the photo of the man in disgust. "The other one. I want my mom's picture."

"Alright." The old man handed him the right picture, but didn't put the wrong one down. "Are you sure you don't want this one, too?"

"Why would I want that?" Naruto asked, genuinely baffled.

It made no sense to him. He'd never meet the man; he'd turned into a wolf monster and was off howling at the moon and killing things, if he was even still alive. The guy couldn't have been all the great because he'd gotten chewed up by a werewolf. A real demon-hunter would never have fallen prey to something chaotic and stupid like a werewolf. His mom had probably gotten involved with him because he was good-looking and amusing to her…somehow.

"If you're sure—"

"I'm sure," Naruto told him. "Can I go now? I'm tired."

There was some sadness in the old man's eyes, but he nodded and dismissed him with a wave of his smoking pipe.

Naruto hopped off his chair and scampered out of the office before the adults could think of anything to talk about that would delay his escape. He didn't care if he was being followed or if he was walking alone. He just focused on the picture of his mother.

When he'd been cast out, he hadn't been permitted to take anything with him that would tie him to his ex-family, and that included pictures of his mother. It was awesome beyond words to have a picture of her again, so that he would never have to fear forgetting her face again. Tomorrow he'd look into buying a picture frame for it.

"Are you sure you don't want your father's picture?"

The boy flinched and glanced over his shoulder to find both Kakashi-sensei and Iruka following him.

"I'm sure," Naruto repeated in annoyance. "You're not going to ask me that too, are you Iruka?"

"No," the chuunin replied quietly.

"Good," Naruto huffed.

"I sense some resentment here," Kakashi-sensei commented mildly.

"He's the reason I got disowned," Naruto snapped bitterly as his fingertips lightly traced his mother's long red hair. "Why shouldn't I resent him?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was an old man, and he felt every one of his many years and then some. To manage and control the sprawling and varied forces of his village was exhausting and consuming. There was a lot to do and never enough time to do it.

With so many things going at once, he had to delegate many tasks that he'd much rather take care of personally. And this situation with Naruto was regrettably one of these tasks. But at least he had a trustworthy and experienced individual he could put in charge of it.

At a quiet signal, one of his ANBU appeared in his office and prepared to receive his orders.

"Spread the word through ANBU that all agents should be on the look-out for Jiraiya. Regardless of what he is doing, he is to report back to me for a special assignment."

The masked hunter bowed and with a quiet "Hai, Hokage-sama!" vanished again.

The Hokage sighed and puffed on his pipe, thought about all the civilians under his protection, and hoped that his faith in Naruto was not misplaced.