Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Question: Can a man be smart even though he is stupid? Answer: That is the only time a man can be smart.

It was early, ridiculously so, as the sun was just peeking through the horizon, and the atmosphere was still chilly and filled with morning dew. Despite this, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen was in his office quite earlier than most. This was because he had a meeting scheduled earlier than normal, but he would not deny that upon hearing that Yamanaka Inoichi had requested a meeting, he was expecting a more serious topic than that of Naruto.

Still, he would give Inoichi the benefit of the doubt, considering the extenuating circumstances, it was not entirely the first time a Clan Head had approached him about the blond.

"What do you know about Uzumaki Naruto?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen would have found this question odd, and then laughed at anyone who actually had the impetus to ask him such a question. Except, when it came from one of his most trusted shinobi, and the appointed leader of his T&I Department, then it became another issue entirely.

He responded what he knew about the boy, his parents, his background, and of course, the secret that was sealed into him.

"What do you know about Uzumaki Naruto personally?"

With that question came some guilt, as he had not invested much time into the boy's life and affairs, but what he did know, was that the boy had a fondness for Ramen, a penchant for pranks, was often loud and boisterous and wished to become the Hokage of Konoha.

"What else?"

What else? Well…

That is…

The Sandaime Hokage of Konoha found his lips furrowing into a sad thin line. That was, as a matter of fact, all he did know about the boy.

"Hokage-sama, what if I told you that those qualities you mentioned are what everybody knows about him, and nothing else?"

Hiruzen's nose rumpled. "What?"

"Yesterday, Hokage-sama, I met with his Chunin Academy Instructors, and before that, I met with a select few of his classmates, and likewise still before that, I met the owners of the Teuchi Ramen Stand. All of them, every last one, when I asked them to tell me what they knew about Uzumaki Naruto, they recounted these exact same three things."

Yamanaka Inoichi raised three fingers.

"He loves Ramen."

One finger down.

"He likes pranking."

Another finger down.

"He wants to become the Hokage."

The Sandaime Hokage placed his hands on his desk as he gave Inoichi a stern but contemplating look. Had this been anyone else other than Yamanaka Inoichi, he would have stopped listening and waved off their concerns on accounts of blatant paranoia and some hidden bias against Naruto. However, Yamanaka Inoichi had known Namikaze Minato, and the two blondes had been friends and comrades, to the point in which they had sometimes worked on the same team. Even more, Inoichi had also known Uzumaki Kushina, and the man was definitely not someone who would ever have any form of bias against her son, somewhat considering the fact that just as Uchiha Mikoto had supposedly possessed some childish infatuation with Minato during their Academy days, so had Inoichi possessed the same with Kushina.

Not that the Hokage listened to or cared about such things, as it was merely the freedom of youth.

"I do not see where the problem lies Inoichi."

"The problem Hokage-sama, is that we are human beings not one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. It is impossible for one person to only have three, and just three features about him that makes him memorable, to only have three aspects to his personality and character."

Inoichi shook his head. "To put this into perspective Hokage-sama, what does Uzumaki Naruto do when he is neither pranking people, nor eating ramen, nor declaring his desire to steal your hat? Where does he go? How does he spend his time outside of classes when neither pranking nor eating? What does he do after a long and exhausting day?"

The answers to those three questions were all equally unknown, and it dawned on the Sandaime just how little he truly knew about the young boy named Naruto, who looked up to him with stars in his eyes as though he was Kami's best gift, yet, Sandaime knew that he had failed Naruto more than he had helped him.

He let out a tired sigh. His age was rapidly catching up to him, and he knew and believed that he had tried to do his best for not only the village, but also for the son of his successor. Everyone Minato knew that was capable of taking care of Naruto was not available. Hatake Kakashi was a mess, psychologically speaking after the loss of his teammates, he retreated into ANBU and took only the toughest of missions of the S-Rank caliber, and it was clear that he possessed some sort of death wish. He clearly could not leave the upbringing of a child to him. Jiraiya was far too busy maintaining Konoha's spy networks, or at least, so he claimed, as his job did include him travelling from place to place drinking in bars and taverns and peeping on women in hot springs. Of course even if he was not basically a wanderer, the Sandaime could not in good conscious leave Jiraiya all alone to raise a child.

Tsunade would have been perfect, but she was now an alcoholic and gambling addict lost to her own grief, and he would not want her raising an impressionable young child either.

Uchiha Mikoto had once offered, but the Clan politics were against such a thing, as the Uchiha Clan had just been accused of the one's masterminding the Kyubi's attack in the first place, it would be tremendously bad if one of their own had then decided to adopt the boy.

The Hyuga were out of the question, and part of his village they might be, but Hiruzen had never appreciated or favored a clan that could and would so callously brand their own family members as slaves in the name of preserving and protecting a bloodline. Such a place was not where he wanted Naruto to grow up, believing that such practices were the norm.

The Aburame once again offered, but it was likewise impossible as at the time, the Kyubi's chakra and presence made their Kikaichu bugs scared and wary, and of course, there was the issue of Naruto eventually growing up to feel like an outsider, as he vastly contrasted the majority of the Aburame.

The ideal clans would have either been the Nara, the Yamanaka, the Akimichi or the Inuzuka. However, there was once again the question of allowing a single clan that much 'power.' It was not viewed as a Clan attempting to train and foster the son of their hero, rather, as a Clan potentially raising and shifting the loyalty of a Jinchuriki away from the village and into their own hands.

And so, Naruto had grown up unloved and uncared.

"Hokage-sama?"

The aged man was drawn from his musing, and he shook his head, letting out a long sigh.

"I believe we should let sleeping dogs lie Inoichi."

"W-what?"

"If you are worried about Naruto-kun's loyalty, I can personally assure you that Naruto is loyal to Konoha without measure. I can see it in his eyes, in his movements. He would be the last person in the world to betray Konoha."

"But Hokage-sama –"

"This is my final decision Inoichi. For kami's sakes, let the boy be. Once he graduates from the Academy, then you can conduct whatever tests you wish during his psych evaluations."

Yamanaka Inoichi let out a deep sigh, and Hiruzen watched as the man gave a salute.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Now is there anything else you wanted to speak to me about?"

"Nothing of any real value, Hokage-sama. Except to perhaps look into the Academy Instructors to find if indeed there are Chunin intentionally sabotaging student scripts."

Hiruzen slowly rubbed his beard. He knew that there was always that possibility, for Chunin instructors to be visibly biased against Naruto, but he had hoped that it would be of a miniscule level of simply asking him more questions in class rather than giving him unfair grades. He could not go out and start rooting every Chunin that was biased against a single student, otherwise that would make it appear as though he was the one being biased against them.

"Alright. I'll have an ANBU team look into it. Anything else?"

"No, Hokage-sama."

"Dismissed."

The leader of the only naturally blond-haired clan in the entirety of Konoha nodded, and utilized the Shunshin technique to leave Hiruzen's office, making the aged Hokage sigh once more as he leaned into his desk. It had only been a month since he had seen Naruto last and given him that scroll, and he had not seen or heard from the boy at all on any other occasion. He knew he was busy, and he knew that he also had to think of the lives of the other villagers and of his shinobi, but Naruto was simply that breath of fresh air that was perhaps often needed.

Of course, there was also the small, disconcerting part of him that realized that what Inoichi said was somewhat true, as he knew very little about what Naruto did or where he went to in his free time.

He was about to call the ANBU, but he stopped halfway before he did so, and let a small contemplative smile come on his lips instead. Rather than summon Naruto into his office, it was best to make it into a surprise.

He swung on his coat and hat, placed his pipe into his mouth, and then prepared himself to move forward and once more allow The Professor to grace the streets of Konoha.

Perhaps had he not been so pre-occupied, he would have noticed the tiny curved insect that had been perched at his window all the while. He would have seen as the bug's eyes zoomed in and out on his form, before eventually taking off into the sky, flying low through the air and free from the threat of birds before eventually landing on the hand of a certain individual.

"What does it say?"

"Yamanaka Inoichi believes the Kyubi Jinchuriki could constitute a flight risk due to how little is truly known about him."

"Danzo-sama must hear about this."

The two figures gave each other a nod, before vanishing once more, unseen and unheard, as phantoms in dawn.

~~~~~~~~ Within Interest ~~~~~~~

Tenten had always wanted a cute little kouhai.

There was the appeal to picking up a junior that she could buy sweets, pet, pamper and have him/her help her sharpen her weapons with a big loving smile. Perhaps it came with the fact that she had been the 'nee-chan' of the orphanage she had grown up in, not in the motherly, caregiver sense, but in the tomboyish, 'you mess with me, you enjoy the taste of sand' manner. Her somewhat crass manner and a slight tendency for violence had probably what had inspired her obsession with blades and weapons of all sorts, and it of course helped that she thought playing with dolls was the most ridiculous thing in the freaking world.

She still remembered the first doll she had been given, considering the fact that she had given it an extensive surgical process by retrofitting the hands with sewing needles and the legs with scissors. Of course, the other girls had not appreciated the beauty of Princess Scissorhands, abbreviated to, Si-hime, the scissor-handed, needle-legged princess doll. Then, she had not understood why the Orphanage's matron had been so appalled, Si-hime was far more useful that way to help in cutting and sewing together what little clothes they had possessed as of then.

Regardless, the weapons enthusiast wanted someone who was also equally passionate and shared a love of the sharp and pointy. Of course, this was somewhat of an idealistic wish that she would sigh and ponder, than something that she ever saw coming into fruition. Right up until the moment that she had found Uzumaki Naruto and taken him under her wing.

Except, well, Uzumaki Naruto was not the cute little kouhai she wanted, but quite possibly the one she needed.

"COME BACK HERE YOU!"

Assuming she did not kill him first.

"I'M SORRY!"

"HELLO SORRY, I'M TENTEN – GET READY TO EAT POINTY METAL!"

As it had turned out, she really wanted to find out if she had been a little bit too enthusiastic in seeing his display, and then she wondered if it was mere, simple, dumb luck that had saved her career as a kunoichi from coming to a terrible end. So of course, she had needed to confirm that hypothesis by re-creating the scenario and seeing if indeed, Uzumaki Naruto could curve and redirect shuriken with a headbutt.

Of course, this time around she had tossed rubber shuriken at him, because attempting to use the real ones could most possibly end in disaster.

The results had been outstanding. Seven out of ten times, Uzumaki Naruto had successfully pulled of a ricocheting magic tricks with the shuriken that were thrown at him, and seven out of ten was a very promising result.

So then, it came her own turn to practice and see how to pull of the same tricks, and she had asked him to stand and toss the rubber shuriken and kunai at her.

She had closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and then steeled her gaze as he said he was going to launch, only to open her eyes and see a rubber chicken flying through the air.

She was not kidding.

A. Rubber. Chicken.

With its beak out in front, and it's wings spread to the sides like an eagle.

She had been so stunned at the sight of the flying avian toy, she could not react when it had smacked beak first into her eye and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Chicken – 1, Tenten – 0.

Of course, Naruto's cacophonous laughter had merely added insult to the injury, which led to her current situation of her chasing the blond around the field while her unloading the full wrath of her weaponry.

Was it overkill?

Maybe. But you try explaining to Maito Gai, Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji that the reason you now had a large black eye was because an academy student clocked you in the face with a rubber chicken.

She grinned as she caught a hold of the fleeing blonde's legs with her kusarigama, the chain tying neatly across his left ankle, as she jerked the chain back and proceeded to quite literally reel him in as though she was a fisherwoman on a croaky old boat in the middle of a vast lake.

"Well, look what we've got! The catch of the day, the famous orange flopper."

She grinned as she watched him futilely scrape his nails against the grass in an attempt to escape. Eventually he just stopped bothering and let himself be dragged, until he came to stop directly beside her foot, and she gave him her 'kindest' grin.

"Uh… you know, I kind of feel really bad for fishes right now."

She rose an eyebrow. "Just for fishes?"

"Ah, no no no! I mean, yes, I mean – well, you know what I mean, but I kinda also don't know what I mean –"

"If you were any more eloquent I'd need a dictionary."

He gave a sheepish grin. "Uh… that black eye goes really well with your hair-ttebayo?"

"I'm not taking fashion complements from someone who thinks wearing a blinding orange jumpsuit in the forest is a good idea for a shinobi."

She sighed as she shook her head, paying little heed to his chant about how orange was the best.

The sun had barely peaked over the horizon, due to both of them arriving bright and early for the training. Dressed in her training clothes that was more or less a refitted martial arts gi, rather than her normal attire, she really shuddered when Naruto showed up, fully clad in his orange glory.

That jumpsuit had got to go, staring at it was making her already aching eye ache even more. Speaking of which, how in the world did a rubber chicken have enough force to give her a black eye? For Kami's sakes, the only thing that was capable of doing that was one of Rock Lee's punches or kicks, but of course, Lee was a 'gentleman' at heart, and his attacks never aimed for her face.

"Wait, why in the world do you even have a rubber chicken in the first place?"

Naruto had stopped listing off the vague uses and benefits of the color orange to stop and gave her a stare.

"Oh yeah! That! I wanna become a Trap Master dattebayo!"

She blinked. "What?"

Was this providence? Was the fate-douche on to something when he kept insisting that there was a divine will in place for each and every being?

She shook her head, heavens forbid Neji was right.

"You want to become a trap master meaning you want to become a shinobi that uses traps to fight?"

He gave an enthusiastic series of nods.

"I don't see that working out well for you at all."

"Huh? What d'ya mean?"

She pinched his cheek, dragging it, only to blink as she realized that the whisker marks felt like grooves in his skin, and as he gave an incoherent grumble.

"What I'm saying chicken-man is that you look more like someone fit for flashy ninjutsu or taijutsu."

She grinned. "Though mostly ninjutsu, because you need to grow about a dozen couple of more inches to make sure your opponents don't lose sight of you in a taijutsu brawl, chibi."

"Oi! I'm not short!"

"And the Hokage is a young bachelor with women vying for his attention."

Naruto frowned, he opened his mouth for a second as if to say something, but then changed his mind and closed it as he grinned. "I don't think jiji would find that funny."

She shrugged. "His inability to see the comedic value doesn't mean it's true."

Naruto gave another wide grin. "Well it was true… once upon a time. It's not like Hokage-jiji was born old."

Tenten sighed. "You're missing the point. Being an Ensnarement Specialist is something that takes time, dedication and planning. If you want to plant a trap for your enemy, you are working on the assumption that you know where your enemy is, how he will react, and a plethora of different uncertain variables that will contribute to the success of your traps. And that is almost never the case in a battle."

"Ensnarement Specialist? Awesome! I didn't know there was already a title for it dattebayo!"

Her left eye twitched slightly. "There isn't… I just made that up on the spot, and I think you're still missing the point –"

"Huh? No, no I get it!"

She gave him a flat look. "Really now?"

He placed a finger on his chin. "Say, I'm on a super-secret mission to guard the greatest bowl of Ramen in the world, but then, shinobi from the hidden village of noodle broth, are trying to steal it. If all I've got is my traps and stuff with me, I need to know which road they'll use to try and get the ramen, how many of them they are, and whether my traps can stop them all and keep the ramen safe all at the same time! Cause if I don't know all of it, my traps could fail to even catch them and they'll get away with the ramen-ttebayo!"

She blinked. "That's… one way of explaining it. But yes, you need foreknowledge if you intend to succeed as a shinobi using traps. If you work on a team that has a Hyuga, a sensor or a tracker of any sort, you'd have that aspect mostly covered, but even then, there exists the possibilities of the traps failing, or of them missing your targets all together."

Successful trapping of opponents was something she knew about because she had dabbled a bit on it earlier, utilizing things such as bear traps and paper bomb mines. Even with Neji's Byakugan telling her where the opponents were coming from in order for them to plant down her traps, it had still not done much good. Their opponent had attempted to flank them, missing her traps completely and going all the way around to attack them from behind. Any attempt she had made to lure them towards the traps had only succeeded, until they realized they were traps there, and then proceeded to avoid it like the plague, making most of her work pointless.

Sensors and ninjutsu experts were also the bane of all trap setting, because your opponents either sense the traps miles away or simply barrel through it with ninjutsu.

"So, what do you think I should do?"

She turned her gaze back to the boy, his two brilliant blue orbs looking bright and eager as he playfully tossed a rubber chicken in his hands.

"Me?"

"Well yeah, you're the expert." He rubbed the back of his head, "Should I still try and be an… uh, Ensnarement Specialist? Or… well, should I… you know?"

Tenten scratched her head as she glanced around the area. It was strange for someone to come for her for advice on specializations, as Lee had never done it, Neji would never do it, and Gai did not need to do it. Still, she stared around her team's training ground as she contemplated a way to make Naruto's goals of utilizing traps become more effective.

Training ground nine was nothing special. There was a small pond, numerous trees, and a kicking post that had been abused to hell and back by the furious feet of Lee. The training grounds were somewhat large, as expected from Konoha, and it was filled with the luscious green trees and a thick forest covering.

She turned her attention to the several bull's-eyes and stationary targets that she had also abused to hell and back by puncturing them with as many shuriken and kunai as she could. All of them hit the center though, now having extraordinary aim, although it had not always been the case, and once upon a time she couldn't even toss a rolled up paper ball into a basket three feet in front of her.

"Uh… hello? Tenten, you still in there?"

Her attention rapidly turned back to the blond, gazing at her up with eager eyes. She wanted to tell him that he was still an academy student, and he should not be bothering so much about any of this now, considering his Jonin sensei could just come up one day and kick all of his hard work to the curb. She likewise wanted to tell him that utilizing traps was not in his best interests, considering how he seemed to be a walking ball of chakra, and he would excel at becoming a ninjutsu tank.

She wanted to shake her head and contemplate what in the world she was doing, spending her Saturday morning off tutoring someone. This was one of the only two days when she was usually free from Gai, his eccentric mini-me and the fate-douche. What had spurred her to come out so early, and start training to learn how to deflect shuriken with a headbutt? It sounded like something Lee and Gai would do when they were fired up and did not think about the larger picture.

"Um… Tenten… You … uh, you never really wanted to be a weapon specialist did you?"

Naruto's voice had drew her from her thoughts, and she turned back to the blond, who's eyes were the same blue, but rather than sparkle, they seemed to have a curious depth to them, like someone had dipped their hands into water and caused continuous wavy ripples.

Then her mind interpreted the words and identified their semantic meaning together as sound around her started to slowly go mute.

"Well..."

She had never wanted to become a weapons specialist, even though she did like the sharp pointy objects. No, her true dream was to become like her role model, like Senju Tsunade, one of the Densetsu no Sannin, and the world's greatest and foremost medical practitioner. She had wanted to become a medic, a healer, someone who would aid her companions on the battlefield when they were wounded, someone who would ease and comfort bruises and pain. There were a thousand people who could kill and there were a dozen kunoichi who only knew how to seduce, but there were very few individuals who could heal and restore, because that was a truly difficult task.

One that had been too difficult for her, so it had seemed. Dreams were fragile, and reality came crashing upon the realization that she did not have the chakra control to become a medic. There was no hopes of her ever saving life in a profession that demanded all she did was to take it. So in the end, her dream tarnished, realization that her lifelong idol was a person she could never work to become, she had thrown herself into Weapons instead. She did love and care for weapons, she really did, but there was always the nagging reminder at the back of her mind that the only reason she was a weapons specialist in the first place was because she had failed her original dream.

Her goal of becoming a weapons master was just a cheap substitute.

Still, no one should have known this, or at least, remembered it. Not her sensei, not her teammates, and not even her adoptive father.

She gave him a steady gaze. "Why do you ask?"

"Huh? Whadd'ya mean?"

"No one has asked me that before. Ever."

She would remember easily if there had been anyone that had brought it up, but there was none. Questions she had gotten instead was about how she got so good at weapons and why she seemed to love them so much, but not one person had looked upon her and asked, 'you didn't really want to do this, did you'. It was like looking at a pro-fisherman, smiling with a giant shark in his hands, and then telling him that he never wished to be a fisherman and then somehow being correct. What could possibly even draw that conclusion?

"Well I noticed that –" he looked as though he was going to continue, before shaking his head "Uh… never mind. It – it's not important."

Her lips pursed. Not important? No, there was not a chance in hell that she was going to take that.

"Oh no you don't. If you've got something to say, you'd better say it."

He seemed doubly reluctant and it made her more annoyed. What was he hiding? Was he secretly some kind of stalker that had been following or was obsessed with her? It seemed unlikely for that to even be the case because she was certain she was a good enough kunoichi to have noticed someone wearing bright orange with bright blond hair stalking her.

"So what, you just looked at me and it came to you just like that? That's not possible. What tipped it off?"

"Well…" he rubbed his chin, his eyes still giving that strange depth "It's kinda in the way you throw."

She rose an eyebrow. "In the way I throw?"

What kind of vague ridiculous statement was that? How did the way she threw her kunai and weapons indicate anything of the sort? That was like saying that you could tell a husband was cheating because he always hoarded family funds, or a woman was a murderer because she cut meat at ungodly speeds.

She grabbed him softly by the collar and gave him the 'nicest' smile she could muster. "Naru-chan, would you kindly mind explaining what that means?"

"Gah! That's t-the only way I can explain it dattebayo!"

A pair of scissors was rapidly in her hands, summoned easily from her scroll in a puff of smoke, and her smile was becoming strained further and further as the seconds ticked by, and Naruto's face still looked reluctant.

"Try harder, or the orange jumpsuit gets it."

"Wait! H-hey now, t-there's no reason for the jumpsuit –"

She gave him 'the' look. The one she had first given Neji when he thought he could get away with talking down to her the same way he talked down to Lee, the one she got whenever someone insulted or called her one-dimensional for her choice in relying only on weapons, and the one that had usually sent tall bullies twice her size reeling back before her fists and even began to shatter their noses.

There was no mirth in her eyes at this point.

"I don't mind getting a black eye because of hijinks, but what I do mind, is when someone who literally met me yesterday can give me the googly-eyes, and then suddenly come to conclusions about things that not even my own teammates and Jonin-sensei realized. So either you start talking, or I start snipping."

His reluctance seemed to remain strong as his face squirmed in a myriad of expressions, right until the snipping of the scissors took off a large portion of the orange jumpsuit.

"Alright! Alright! You throw like Sasuke-teme!"

She blinked, the scissors coming to a stop in her hands. The name was infamous at this point, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who did not know Uchiha Sasuke, sole survivor of the Uchiha Massacre.

"Explain. Now."

He groaned.

"When you throw, you don't really give off that super awesome vibe of you saying 'I can do this' even though you really can, you give off that vibe saying 'I have to do this'."

"And what's the difference?"

Uzumaki Naruto gave her a shrug, his shoulders raising and dropping in rapid succession, and his depth-filled blue eyes hit her brown straight on.

"I can become the Hokage, but I don't have to become the Hokage."

Not a word was uttered as she gazed into his eyes, and then eventually detached her grip from his collar, as she snapped the scissors close with a flick of her wrist.

"I think we're done here."

"Oi! Oi! Oi! What's that supposed to mean? What d'ya mean we're done?"

She dusted off her training attire as she gave the annoyingly perceptive blond a final look. She wasn't even sure if the blond understood the insinuations of his own statement, or perhaps he did, and maybe he was pretending not to.

"Hey! Tenten! Tenten! Where are you going-ttebayo?"

The clearing was left with only a blond boy within it, slowly scratching his head.

"Was it what I said? But she's the one who wanted me to say it! So why'd she get angry-ttebayo?!"

He proceeded to irritably scratch his head.

"Gah! First Sakura-chan, then Ino, and now Tenten… I don't get girls at all…"