The lie I live Chapter 4

Im really conflicted about this chapter ive always wanted to see the old man in this way but have never found one. Bit of an info dump this chapter but it is fairly important.

26 Days until the Exam

The pounding was incessant. Never stopping and only seeming to grow in intensity. Its continuation would force him to do something he really didn't want to do, but none the less he had to. So with great effort Naruto rolled over and greeted the morning light that had started to pour through the window. He was in his dilapidated apartment on his hard mattress in the village that hated him. Once again he was covered in a thick sheen of sweat; his sleep fraught with people and places he didn't know. "What time is it?" He said looking over to his old alarm clock. It read five fifteen, AM.

The sound of the pounding started to become more and more clear as his mind began to empty of the disturbing shades shown to him by the fox in last night's dreams. Even as the memories faded he could still hear the clash of metal the screams of the dying and feel the sadness of a man forced to act.

"Naruto are you even in there?" Yelled his tutor's voice from outside.

"Just a minute!" He responded.

"Meet me on top of the roofs of the market district in ten minutes." Ebisu's said his voice drifting through the thin and damaged walls.

"Urg." he grumbled. It was far too early for training. He knew that he needed every second of practice he could get if he was to beat Neji in the finals. But his thoughts from yesterday weighed heavily on him. The knowledge that Lee could never be a shinobi again was devastating. Even if he only knew bushy brows for a week or so it was still a shock to the system. Even though he was ordered to find someone to help him with his throwing yesterday he had instead stewed in the situation about Lee.

It wasn't so much as he felt bad about a good friend being injured, but about the boys dreams being crushed. Injury and death were the most common ways for a shinobi to leave service and were a fairly common occurrence. But he made the jump of logic to what if his own dreams were made unreachable. If he was never able to become Hokage, if he lost his reason for to go on, would he have the strength to live in a world that despised him?

The whole day of ruminating on that question granted him an answer. "I don't know."

"You're late." His teacher said to him as he landed upon the grocer's roof. "I said ten minutes not fifteen."

"Sorry." He replied with no real energy behind it.

"Never mind that. Today we kill two birds with one stone. For the rest of the day you will be running along the roof tops of the village." He said pushing up his dark tinted glasses higher up on his nose.

"Okaaay?" Naruto responded not really seeing how that would help.

"To make it interesting you are going to be running as close to the edge of the buildings as possible while being chased by your clones."

"Urg." That sounded annoying and really tiring. His clones could be merciless sometimes. "Why? What will that do?" He asked.

Ebisu was almost taken aback at that, it was an almost insightful question. "I've noticed that you are for a lack of a better word clumsy. You have poor control of your body's movements. You flail around a lot. Your balance is shoddy and you need to learn to dodge instead of taking every hit. For a normal person I would address each of these individually but given the amount of time we have and your… aptitude for learning I felt it was best to do it all at once. This will also help build up stamina and speed. A sort of sink or swim scenario."

Naruto stood there looking at him with a contemplative face as if he was actually trying to puzzle out his teachers plan. "Well what are you waiting for? Go."

Without further thought Naruto created three clones without uttering a word and then took off running.

His tutors eye brows nearly shot off his forehead at his student's apparent display of ability of with the shadow clone. For the first time since they met Naruto created a clone without screaming out the techniques name. Maybe the boy was improv…

Ebisu's thoughts stopped as Naruto now traversing a sloped roof slipped on a tile still damp from the morning's condensation and crashed into an alley and what sounded like series of garbage cans.

Racing over to the alley to make sure the boy was alright the Jonin saw that Naruto was extracting himself from a large pile of steel garbage cans and their contents. "Did it ever occur to you to use your chakra control exercises to stick to sloping or slippery surfaces?"

"…Damn it!" He yelled as his clones laughed at their creator's predicament.

"Back to work." Ordered Ebisu.

"You wished to see me sir?" Kakashi said as he entered the Hokage's office.

The old man looked up from a stack of paperwork he was reviewing. A pair of small reading glasses affixed to his face. "Yes please take a seat." As the Jonin took a seat the old man leaned back in his chair. "This meeting is to inform you of the charges of neglect that are being levied against you." He said bluntly.

Kakashi was taken aback. Neglect? In what way? Couldn't be his tardiness right? "In what regards?"

"Your genin team." He said holding up a hand to forestall Kakashi's protests. "By assigning Ebisu to Naruto as a tutor you set various things in motion. Ebisu is nothing if not dedicated to his job as an instructor. He took notice of Naruto's deficiencies and aimed to correct them. Ebisu has described Naruto as below the level of Genin in overall ability."

"What do you mean?" Sure the kid was dumber than some rocks he's met but Naruto was the foundation of the team.

"Ebisu has rated Naruto's skills as either failing or nonexistent in the following categories. Tracking, all forms of Projectiles, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Geography, Political Theory, Team tactics, Individual Tactics, Chakra Control, Chakra Theory, and overall problem solving. The charges of neglect stem from the fact that all these problems existed prior to the formation of team seven, and none have been addressed since the formation of the team."

Naruto was dumber than a block of wood, he could barely follow orders on a good day but he was an essential part of the team. Without him they never would have stopped Gato and team seven would have died in the Forest of Death. "There must be some mistake."

"I personally selected Ebisu as an instructor for my grandson, you yourself entrusted the man with one of you Genin. He does not make mistakes of this kind. As insurance I had a separate team formed to go over his finding and perform their own investigation. They concur with him almost completely. I created another team to audit the academy. Needless to say their findings were not comforting."

"In addition to Naruto's deficits there was also the matter of Sakura. The team that I had created to confirm Ebisu's findings also interviewed and tested Miss Hurano. While having a decent foundation in book work her overall physical abilities and list of skills is practically nonexistent."

"An oversight board will review the evidence gathered and then render judgment. In interest of keeping a strong outward appearance this will not take place until after the end of the Chunin exams. The most likely ruling is that you will be stripped of your role as sensei of team seven. You will most likely be given the chance to keep Sasuke on as an apprentice. Naruto and Sakura will be split up and either absorbed into other teams or will float between teams depending on the missions available. A fine or number of hours of community service may also be levied against you. Do you have any questions?"

"Will this be made public knowledge?"

"That will depend on both the ruling of the board and the actions we decide to take in response to the situation at the academy."

"Will I be forced to lead any more Genin teams?"

"I should think not, but again that will not be my decision. Is there anything else you would like to add?"

"May I finish preparing Sasuke for the exams?"

"You are still the Jonin sensei of team seven it is your duty to do so. However there is something I need to discuss with him before you go so if you could please send him to me. You are dismissed."

"Yes sir." As Kakashi rose from his seat he bowed to his superior before turning to leave.

"Just out of curiosity" The Hokage started. "given who Naruto is to you, hell given how much team seven resembles your own genin team why did you allow this to happen?" He asked out of genuine concern.

"… I … don't know." The one eyes man said as he left the room contemplating what he could have done differently.

"I need you to understand that depending how you answer my next question the truth will bring you great suffering." The Hokage said as he looked over the young form of the last loyal Uchiha.

"Sir?" The boy asked confused. First Kakashi had been recalled for no apparent reason. Then he had been summoned to the Hokage's office. Normally Genin never saw their venerable leader let alone speak to him in person. But thinking back team seven had been different. A couple times when they were doing D-Ranked missions the Hokage himself had been the one to assign them. Sasuke after learning a little more about his team mates figured it was either due to the weird relation Naruto had with the man or with Kakashi. So as to the reason why he was here he did not know.

"Some things have been set in motion and I felt that with what's happening you deserved to know the truth. So I ask you this, do you wish to know the real reason why Itachi destroyed your clan?" He saw how the boy flashed through a myriad of emotions. Confusion, anger, hurt, curiosity, and finally hate.

"He did it to test his power." The boy said automatically, his mind flashing back to those three days he spent in that hellish illusion.

"Do you wish to know the real reason?"

"…Yes."

"The short answer is that he was ordered to."

"What do you mean?"

"You have to understand, I am not the man I used to be. After retaking the mantle of the Hokage I delegated much of my power to other people. I am a weak Kage, essentially a figurehead. I am a reluctant leader, when the Forth died the village needed a stabilizing influence in order to rebuild and there was no one with both the power and the respect that could take the job. My reinstatement to Kage was made without a single objection. After five years I felt it was time to step down again. I began the search for my replacement."

"My first choice was my student Jiraiya of the Sannin. But he felt he could better protect Konoha's interests out in the field, ultimately he was right. Then I looked to your sensei Kakashi. He had the recognition and after a few more years of work I felt he would have the power. But ultimately I found him to be unfit for the role. The Third War and the loss of his teacher, the Forth Hokage, left him a broken man. I then searched the remainder of my forces for a worthy replacement. ANBU held a few potentials but each of them for one reason or another was unsuited to take the mantle. I searched the main forces, the medical forces, the hunter forces, even the clans. Ultimately there was only one person who I felt could hold the position. But he was very adamant about not wanting the job."

"All the while my position within the political structure of the village was weakening. After the Kyuubi attack your clan faced a lot of scrutiny. There were rumors of S\shinobi seeing an image of the Sharingan reflected within the Kyuubi's eyes, and with the legend of your ancestor Madara controlling the beast the rumors wouldn't fade. Ultimately relations between the Uchiha and the village soured. As the rumors continued to persist the clan was forced to move to the outskirts of the village. Your father and many of those under him felt that the Uchiha were being ostracized and were being further pushed away from governing the village."

"There was talk of them leaving the village to join another or start their own. I was undergoing negotiations with your father for months but to no avail. Then one day your brother approached me. He told me that your clan was planning a coup. He himself had been assigned to assassinate me and my family. The amount of evidence he obtained was irrefutable. A coup of such would have completely destabilized the village and would have given both Iwa and Kumo the opportunity they need to attack us. So in hopes of saving the village I continued to negotiate giving up more and more concessions. It was only a few days before the coup was to take place that I struck upon an idea. The Uchiha wanted more say in the governing of the village and resented the fact that there had never been an Uchiha as Hokage. So I would give them just that. I planned to nominate Itachi as my successor. He was an ANBU Captain, he was the eldest son of the Clan's head, and his loyalty to the village superseded all else. In the time while I was preparing this certain elements within my administration took it upon themselves to act. They ordered Itachi to kill the ringleaders the clan. He would then be installed as the Clan Head. The younger generations would be allowed to live and the threat to the village would have ended."

"But something happened, I'm not sure what it was but there is evidence to suggest that there was at least one more person there. All but you were killed. An ANBU passing by observed your brother destroying each set of Sharingan. But later examination of the scene showed that many had been surgically removed."

"Your brother was a powerful shinobi but it would be impossible for him to kill that many fully trained shinobi by himself. Even the clan members that were out of the village at the time were killed, their eyes removed. It is these facts that leads me to believe that another force was at work and your brother was not responsible for the complete annihilation of your clan."

Sasuke sat their stunned. Was everything he held true all a lie? "You're lying." He managed to get out.

The Hokage stood up from his chair and walked over to a bare section of wall. Laying his hand on it a complex seal spread forth from his touch. A small section of wall faded from view leaving a small shelf built into the wall. On it was a row of neatly organized folders and scrolls.

"It has been indicated by the Yamanaka that counseled you after the incident and the teachers in the academy your sole reason for living is to kill Itachi. I will not lie to you as you are now you will fail, Jariaya is probably the only one loyal to the village that could fight him on equal footing and even then it would not be a sure thing."

"You and your bloodline are powerful resources, most Kages would keep you in the village place you under house arrest and force you to rebuild your clan. But as I have said I am a weak Kage and I will not decide how you should live your life. So I will ask you this. Can you continue to serve me and this village as a loyal shinobi? You are a genin and as such hold no strategic information that could be used against the village so you may resign your commission as a Shonobi of the Hidden Leaf Village, sell your property, leave the village, and try to make your way in the world. If you do decide to take this course of action I would suggest seeking service in the Court of the Fire Lord, he has a small group of Shinobi loyal to him that would probably be willing to train you."

Sasuke looked dazed and confused.

"Your brother is an amazing man, don't ever forget that. If there is anyone to blame for the course of your life then it would be me. If you still wish to kill Itachi as some form of revenge then there is nothing but warn you. Just be aware that six years ago your brother was on the cusp of becoming an S-Ranked ninja. He has spent years running from hunter nin of every village looking for either his bounty or his bloodline. As you are now you are not enough. But with help I have no doubt you can become a very powerful shinobi. Konoha has had a history of producing S-Ranked Ninja. From Jiraiya, Tsunade, Orochimaru, Sakumo Hatake, Minato Namikaze, even myself. If you do decide to stay with us and you make it to Chunin resources will become available to you that will help you grow stronger."

"If you decide to take revenge against me I will warn you while I may not be the man I once was I am still the strongest soldier in the village. And if you to try and find those responsible for giving Itachi the order I wish you good luck. The man responsible is the single most terrifying ninja I have ever met." The old man reached into his desk and pulled out his pipe. With a flick of his finger it was lit and he was puffing away.

"I realize that this is all a lot to take in and that this was probably not the best time to tell you this but I felt it needed to be done. This village along with the entire system of shinobi villages was founded upon the backs of the Uchiha and the Senju. With only one Senju and two Uchiha remaining in this world it would be shame for that legacy to end."

Sasuke sat there in a mute shock as he looked over the file his superior had given him. It was true. All the information coincided with what he remembered. Late gatherings of all the most influential and powerful Uchiha, his brother becoming more distant as the date drew near, the constant stockpiling of weapons, the increased security. He didn't know what was real anymore.

Was his place here with these people that sentenced his family to death? Was it with his brother who killed his parents? Was it out on his own? With a different village? Ever since that horrible night he had known what he must do with his life. But now? His life was no longer that clear.

Sarutobi looked at the door to his office with unseeing eyes as he contemplated what had just happened. Was it wise to tell the boy the truth? Definitely not. It would have been better for the village to just let Itachi's disease kill him in a few years thus allowing Sasuke to move on without ever knowing the truth. Was it smart to allow the boy the choice to leave? No but doing so allowed the old man to feel like he had regained a piece of his soul that he had discarded long ago.

Had he just pushed a powerful force out of the village? Had he created an enemy? Or had he just broken an already damaged boy? It was too soon to tell but for the first time since the night the Uchiha were reduced to two Sarutobi felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders.

A/N

So Sarutobi owns up to his mistakes, not something ive ever seen before. Sure ive seen him feel guilt or apologize but ever full on own it. This wasn't in the original outline and the idea came out of nowhere. Still conflicted about the whole thing.