Vengeful Sage

Chapter 4: A Home?

Disclaimer: Do I own Naruto….I wish.

A tall man with spiky silver hair stood before a mundane looking house, in a mundane looking street in a mundane looking neighborhood, beside him a young boy with spiky blond hair. The man stepped forward, removing a key from his hip pocket, beckoning the boy closer.

"And here it is, your parents' house. Go on, Naruto, open it." As he handed the boy the key.

The blond, taking the key, approached the gate, which was the only conspicuous feature of the house. Most houses in the area had no such high walls or gates, and even the ones that did, they didn't hold a swirling pattern on the front. As he went closer, he could feel chakra emanating from the door, a familiar chakra, calling out to him. Warmth like never before. As he took hold of the doorknob, ready to insert the key in its hole, he felt something. A prick. A tiny subtle prick on his palm. Removing his hand in shock, he saw that the 'wound' had already closed, and nothing seemed amiss.

Right then, a series of audible clicks took place, and the front gate swung open of its own accord, leaving a pair of bewildered on-lookers.

"Well, that was unexpected." Said Naruto with a blank look.

"No actually, it's not really all that surprising. After all sensei never needed a key to enter his home. Nor did your mother for that matter. There must be some sort of security system that immediately recognized you as the owner of the house. But I can't really say. Both your parents were masters of Fuuinjutsu at a level I couldn't even hope to achieve." His expression hidden behind his face mask.

"When I first touched the doorknob, there was a prick to my finger, very slight, but noticeable. Any idea what that could mean?"

"Of course, a blood seal. How simple, but how affective."

"What's a blood seal?"

"It's a sort of Fuuinjutsu that is activated when it comes in contact with blood. The seal reacts in a specific way if it recognizes the blood as belonging to a specific individual, type or lineage, in this case by unlocking the door."

"Wow….so it recognized me as the rightful owner of this place just by my blood?"

"Yeah. Though sensei just used to flare his chakra and it would open."

Unable to continue standing outside the house as if this was completely normal, the blond made to enter the building. Kakashi placed a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Naruto, maybe you should explore some other time. There's something we must do right now. Oh, and one more thing. No one must see you enter or leave this neighborhood, not the villagers, not the shinobi, especially not the ANBU and under no circumstances, the Hokage. If someone finds out, my life will be forfeit, and I don't know what will happen to you. If things come down to the worst, your memories might even be locked away."

"No problem, Kakashi Nii-san. I'll make sure no one sees me around." Glancing around, Naruto saw no one so he asked.

"What is it that you said we had to do right now anyway?"

"Disappear from here without a trace, and show up at Ichiraku's in twenty minutes for dinner. You didn't eat out of excitement when we went there last time. If anyone asks you where you were, tell them you were training. I'll meet you there."

Twenty Minutes Later:

At Ichiraku's Ramen Stand, we find a noisy young blond enthusiastically slurping away at God's gift to mankind; that is miso ramen.

"Old man, I'll have three more bowls of Miso. This stuff is the best." And even though 'this stuff' really did feel like the best, Naruto doubted it had that much to do with its inherent nature and taste. After all, most if not everyone else disagreed with him. He assumed that the thing which got him addicted to ramen was the fact that it was all he had, or could have had. Old man Ichiraku was the only store keeper or food stand owner that did not kick him out, overcharge him or look at him with blatant disdain, and actually treated him like a decent human being. It was from this sentiment that his love and appreciation for the food developed. And even though, despite his massive appetite and metabolism, he was quite nicely fed by the time he had had his fifth or sixth bowl, yet he would persist, until he had consumed at least a dozen. This wasn't due to uncontrolled gluttony or anything of the like, no. It was his way of showing appreciation for feeding him, even though it lost them half their customers, the only way he knew how.

"The people who've boycotted us due to us treating you like a normal customer….well don't worry about them much. They are the real demons, and we don't serve demons anyway."

He had said. So had Ayame, his daughter, who was barely a couple years older than Naruto herself. And Naruto agreed. For the villagers to be so blind and hateful as to not even eat at a place the 'demon brat' ate at was just sad. They really were demons, and if he could have gotten away with it, he would have done to them whatever they had done to him and to the precious few that stood up for him. But alas, that was not to be.

But Naruto still felt like he had to compensate them somehow for what they were sacrificing, so he decided to eat as much as he could, and make sure the two sold as much as they could.

Just then, another man walked into the ramen stand. He looked around to see Hatake Kakashi with his trademark eye-smile sitting on the stool next to him.

"Yo."

"Hello again, Kakashi Nii-san. So…why'd you call me here."

"Shhh. Not so loud. The Hokage has a special technique by which he can observe us from above. And even though he can't hear us, you never know if someone's eavesdropping on us. As a shinobi, you must learn to always stay alert. That's why I called you here. I told the Hokage we'd be meeting at 9:30 to discuss the questions you had about your mother. He's probably watching us right now, with the use of his viewing orb. We must keep up the act of talking for around half an hour, and then we can go our separate ways. Just remember, there is always an ANBU squad watching you. If you want to go anywhere near your father's house, make sure to lose them." He whispered.

"So what do we do for half an hour?"

"Anything. Just keep talking."

"Fine then, you learned from the Yondaime right? Could you train me?"

"He was your father you know. You don't have to refer to him as the Yondaime Hokage. And I don't know, I'm currently in ANBU, I'd have to leave if I were to train you."

"He may have been the one that brought me to this world, but all my life, he has only been the Yondaime Hokage to me. Besides…."

"…"

"…."

"Go on."

"What kind of father would seal a demon inside his own son, and then leave him to rot at the mercy of the villagers. Aren't fathers supposed to love and protect their children, especially when they are infants? Why did he have to seal the Kyuubi inside me?..."

"Naruto, your parents loved you. In fact, they named you after a character from a book, a hero who brought peace to the world. Sensei didn't seal the Kyuubi inside of you to spite you, rather he entrusted its power to you so that you could learn to harness its chakra and bring the world to peace."

"Couldn't someone else bring peace to the world?"

"Sensei couldn't possibly ask another family for something he himself was not willing to give. It had to be you. Besides, the Jinchuuriki, or Biju host, has always been a close relative of the kage, in order to ensure loyalty to the village. "

'Loyal, don't make me laugh.' The blond clenched his teeth.

"So I was the sacrificial lamb huh. To protect the pathetic citizens of this village, and to make peace with the probably just as pathetic citizens of villages across the elemental nations, I've been condemned to a life of suffering. They will soon know, how sorely mistaken they were. I'll show them who I really am. And then they'll regret everything they did."

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Kakashi didn't know what to make of the conversation he had had with the blond. On one hand, his concerns were pretty genuine, especially when coming from a ten-going on eleven-year old. And that last sentence, it could have been taken in a completely positive light. After all, that's what the Sandaime had tasked him with. To somehow ensure that Naruto's goal was to change the views of the villagers, and show them that he was really just a normal human. But then why did he have that ominous and foreboding feeling, as if things were about to go downhill and out-of-control real fast….

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Several Days Later

The academy would be starting the next day, and it was the tenth time that day that Naruto was tempted to go back to that neighborhood where his parents' house lay. That innate feeling, the craving to get to know your parents, who they were, what they were like, to feel that you were loved, by someone, sometime. To catch a glimpse of his mother, what she looked like….. His father…..

His feelings regarding his father were conflicted, truth be told. His father was the one who had sealed the Kyuubi inside him, damning him to a life of hell. He had been sacrificed. For the sake of the village. For the sake of these fools who barely understood the implications of being a Jinchuuriki. Who barely understood what he was holding back. Who barely thought of what would happen if he died. Who barely considered the fire they were playing with. A foolish lot indeed. And his life was destroyed for their sake. He would rather they have burned in hell.

Yet, he felt a craving to go back there. To find some epsilon of evidence that this was a misunderstanding. That his father had cared. That his mother had cared. Yet, he held himself back.

For a week, Naruto had been trying to keep track of the ANBU guards that Kakashi had mentioned were assigned to him. For the better part of the week, he could barely find any trace of them. Until one of them slipped.

A boar mask. A boar mask was all that gave it away. Ever since that day when he became aware of the ANBU trailing him, he decided to go on a pranking spree. There was barely a shop (other than Ichiraku's of course) that hadn't been subjected to the blonde's mischief, nor any clan for that matter. But this time, wherever he went he would look around and watch, trying to discern who followed him.

The ANBU were good. There was no doubt about that. For days, he could catch neither sight nor sign of them. Until one day Naruto spotted a man standing on the roof of a building opposite the store he had just entered. The man in question was garbed in full ANBU gear and wore a boar mask. Now this in and of itself was not so uncommon. Even though ANBU usually operated from the shadows, occasional sightings here and there in the village were not so far outside the norm, in fact, he suspected that most of these sightings were on purpose; the ANBU allowed the villagers to spot them on occasion to help them feel secure and know that they were being protected at all times. Also the fact that the ANBU agent was facing his direction and presumably staring at the door to the grocery store he was in wasn't so much of an immediate giveaway. Rather, it was the realization that he couldn't find the ANBU because he was looking in the wrong places. He was looking for someone to be shadowing him, following him around the streets and mixing among the common folk. But the fact of the matter was that they never frequented the roads at all. They would leap from roof to roof, and probably pass through forested areas, high up in the canopy, and so anyone who was not an experienced ninja (and even someone who was) would have a hard time finding them.

It was with this in mind that Naruto began his search anew. Focusing on areas that were not frequented, he saw a pattern. The ANBU he spotted, on the few occasions he did, keeping up the façade of ignorance of course, would always be wearing a boar mask. After seeing the boar mask about five times in four days, he was led to conclude that that was probably the only operative stuck with following him. He couldn't have been too highly skilled if he had managed to spot him. After all, keeping tabs on an eleven year old kid, Jinchuuriki or not couldn't possibly be too high on the Hokage's priority list. By the time a week had passed since his talk with Kakashi, and one day before the start of his third year at the ninja academy, Naruto had formulated a plan.

Early that morning, he prepared to leave right after breakfast. Creating an Earth Clone, he gave it instructions to go have breakfast at Ichiraku Ramen and then go on to buy groceries from the supermarket, and somehow arrive at the Uchiha compound at two o' clock. Having done that, Naruto climbed to the roof of his apartment building, lying low, and making sure he remained unseen. On his signal, his clone walked out the front door, making sure he was as conspicuous as possible, seemingly on his way to Ichiraku as per his routine.

Watching from afar, Naruto waited, and before long he was rewarded with the sight of a figure slinking out of a nearby tree, hiding behind alleys, and taking to the rooftops as it followed roughly, the Earth clone as it made its way through the village. Almost jumping for joy, he punched the air in success. Waiting several more minutes for good measure, the blond finally decided to set out for his destination. Having geared up beforehand, Naruto climbed out of his window, silently leaving from the back of the building.

It was a mere ten minutes later that Naruto under henge to look like an old man with a balding head stood outside the door to the house he had been yearning to visit for a week now. Looking around, making sure no one had followed him, he walked forward, placing his hand upon the doorknob. At once, he heard several metallic clicks, and the door swung open. Swiftly entering, the door closed behind him.

He was finally there. This was the home his parents had prepared for him. For them. He looked around. Even though it looked quite mundane from the outside, from the inside, it was anything but. As he walked into the entrance hall, which was flanked on either side by a doorway, leading to the drawing and living rooms respectively, he couldn't help but marvel at the sight before him. Now even though this wasn't a scene from out of some Daimyo's palace or the like, with the walls hidden behind portraits and suits of armor and jewels lining practically everything, it did give a sense of belonging to a relatively well-off family, that had no qualms about decorating their home with whatever suited their fancy.

Walking into the drawing room, he found it to be quite informative. At the center of the main wall was a portrait, a relatively large one at that, showing three people. A woman he immediately recognized as his mother, with her flowing red hair and purple eyes, there was no question who she was. Standing beside her was a man, about a head taller than her, his hand resting on Kushina's rounding belly. He too, Naruto recognized, from the Hokage monument, from his history books, but most of all, from having seen those features staring back at him from his bathroom mirror every morning. Minato Namikaze. The Yondaime Hokage. His father. What he felt about him….well he didn't want to go over that right now.

Next to his father, stood a man he didn't recognize, much taller than both his parents. A man with long white hair and an unorthodox Hitai-ate with the Kanji for oil inscribed on it. Nope, didn't ring a bell.

He moved on. On the wall beside the portrait was a window, opening into the garden at the side, though the years had certainly been unkind to what once might have been a fruit orchard. The tremendous amount of weeds and their length told him that much. The center of the room was occupied by a dining table big enough for ten, and on the final wall was a door that opened up to the kitchen.

The kitchen was pretty mundane. Just the way kitchens are supposed to be. Cabinets upon cabinets, and a stove and oven with a window opening into what was once the garden, and connected to the living room. Passing through these rooms quickly, Naruto arrived at the room he really wanted to see. There were three doors, two of them across the hall from each other, with one dead ahead. One labeled Minato's study, and the other, Naruto's Room, with the master-bedroom in between. The master-bedroom it was then.

Excitedly walking in, he found the sheets undone and dust settled everywhere. As if his parents had left in a hurry. He looked around. Above the king-sized bed, was another portrait, this time of only his parents, smiling before the camera. They looked like the happiest couple you could find.

On each of the two sidetables, there were items that revealed further insight into the personalities of his parents. He spent several more minutes going through them, ranging from a photo of what he presumed was his father's genin team to his mother's make-up supplies. He would have stayed there all day had he not suddenly remembered his appointment with the idiot Uchiha's elder brother he had this afternoon. Hurrying out of there into 'Naruto's room', he saw something that brought tears to his eyes. The walls all around held tons of decorations, with inscriptions of "Welcome Home, Naruto-kun" all around. Next to the wall opposite the door lay a crib filled with blankets and stuffed toys in every shape and size. 'My parents truly did want me…' He sat there for what felt like an hour, his eyes tearing up until he finally got up and proceeded into the third room.

As Naruto entered 'Minato's Study', he came upon a scene of disarray that by far outclassed any other room in the house. A study table loaded with scrolls on things so complicated he couldn't make head or tail of any of them. Sifting through the pile of papers he could make neither head nor tail of, he realized there was nothing that caught his fancy here, so he began to check the drawers. Opening the topmost drawer in the study table, the blond found something that caught his eye, his name. Naruto. It was written on an envelope placed neatly on top of everything else, though the envelope itself showed signs of yellowing over time. The excited blond immediately snatched it out of its surroundings, and began to examine it. It was addressed to him that was for certain. 'To Naruto Namikaze'. Ripping it open, he took out the paper inside, which to his surprise, looked just as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. It began:

Dear Naruto,

It is with great regret that I must inform you that I will not be able to live my life with you and watch you grow up like I had always hoped. Alas, my duty as Hokage to defend the village and everyone that resides in it supersedes my wish. Given the circumstances with the Kyuubi just a mile out from Konoha, and how suddenly it came about, I hope you will find it in you to forgive me. I don't know how to defend myself, but something has to be done, and I am the only one with the knowledge and power to be able to stop it. I only ask that you not consider it a burden I am placing on you, rather, think of it as an opportunity for you to utilize one of the most potent and vast chakra reserves the world has seen. Just know that whatever happens, I love and always have. It is my wish that the people of the village will regard you as a hero and really come to respect for the service you do them every day, by holding back the Kyuubi from escaping. I'm leaving this letter with your mother, sealed so that it will not erode, and will only open to your touch, and no one else.

Your Father,

Namikaze Minato

P.S. If your mom is being overprotective and not letting you study some of the more interesting jutsu, here's a spare key to the library behind the shelf. Enjoy!

Reading through the letter one, then once more, then a third time, any misgivings he had about his father just disappeared. But it seems his father had miscalculated, for his mother had died during the Kyuubi attack leaving the blond jinchuriki to fend for himself in this cruel world. Nevertheless, he now had a house, a place where he felt he could belong, even though he couldn't live here. He now had a home.

And there.

One thing that should be clear is that this will not feature a gay Sasuke, as some people might be inclined to think.

However, what will happen to Sasuke, Itachi, and the other Uchiha is still being decided. Though I have a general idea, the individuals and their future is still subject to change.

This is not a happy, Konoha-friendly Naruto fic though. Same can be said for Sasuke.

Tell me what you guys think. Also, if you guys manage communities, and you like this fic, I'd really appreciate if you could add this story to your community.

Also, I've made my own community. Do take a look. I'd like some favs on it. Well anyway.

It's called, The Only Worthy Name That Hasn't Already Been Taken

Well, I'm out.