Chapter 9: Foundations and Friendships
"What do you mean? What has…" Sarutobi started. But realization dawned upon the aging man as he remembered something. "Oh wait, you're telling me that the construction of the village has begun, right?"
"Correct. Two thirds of my people have arrived and begun the necessary construction of the foundations until all are gathered and can begin the real work." Yokai reported.
"Need any assistance in any way?"
"Thank you, but we're doing good so there's no need. I couldn't help but overhear your discussion while I was waiting outside, Sarutobi-dono. Or, to be honest, I overheard what it was about and decided to listen in."
Sarutobi's face immediately looked sourer. "Yes, them three are my main source of headaches. They either want to kill him or put heavy, unreasonable restrictions on Naruto or even worse make a mindless killing machine 'loyal' to Konoha out of him. None of which I will allow in my lifetime. Hopefully by the time I won't be Hokage anymore Naruto will be old enough to take care of himself and not still be underage of certain laws that would put him in such 'care'."
"That creepily collected individual, who was he?"
"Danzo. Also known as the 'old warhawk'. Me and him go way back, in a not so good way. He's sort of always been a rival of mine in pretty much anything related to shinobis. He runs an underground force of special ANBU called ROOT which are tasked, without consent of the Hokage, to deal with matters of security and most likely other things as well I don't think I would like to know. It's a group long since forbidden to exist but no one can prove that it exists, much less if he's the head of it. They are just too damn good at covering their tracks. No one, save ROOT themselves, can distinguish a normal ANBU from a ROOT one."
Yokai was not happy to hear about that. "Is Naruto in any danger?"
"At the moment he should be alright, but keeping a protective eye out for him never hurts."
"Right. Anyway, our preliminary estimates puts us at finishing our construction of our village at about 3 years from now. But one never knows how delayed stuff can get."
"Right, so where exactly are you constructing?"
"We decided to follow your recommendation and build here, just a few miles from the coastline."
Yokai pointed to a place south, southeast of Konoha, close to the coast. It wasn't near any village or other known settlement but still relatively comfortable distance to Konoha, about a half a day's travel by full shinobi speed or a day and a half for non-shinobi.
"Excellent. It will be a breathtaking day for everyone once this is announced upon its completion." Sarutobi commented. Yokai nodded with a grin.
Meanwhile…
Naruto's final lesson for the day had just come to a close. He exited the academy doors and was heading for home, pleased with such a wonderful start to the academy. He failed to notice the surprised and disgruntled look of the dean as he noticed him leaving. But the dean knew he could do little at this point. That didn't stop him from already scheming and planning ways to foil Naruto's efforts at learning.
Naruto also failed to notice a girl with lavender colored eyes following him for a bit before heading for her clan's estate. What he did notice was the presence of a shinobi on the rooftops somewhere behind him. This shinobi had followed him for a bit and seemed agitated. Presuming this is another spiteful shinobi who's about to 'welcome' him home, he decided to confront his stalker.
So, he suddenly made a swift jump and landed in front of the stalking ninja. But he found himself surprised by what he found.
There stood a purple haired kunoichi with a rather provocative outfit, most likely to induce distractive thoughts in enemy male shinobi in combat situations. Naruto, being Naruto, didn't catch up on this as he was more concerned with the face this woman showed. A face of sadness and also somewhat scared. Not sure how to read this situation, he decided to go with his original plan and confront her, then go from there.
"Can I help you, kunoichi-san? You've been following me ever since the academy." He stated firmly, showing no signs of his inner thoughts.
The woman was at first taken aback by Naruto's sudden appearance in front of her, which was because of her state of deep thought as otherwise her training would've allowed her to see the genin-in-training coming early on. As the initial shock subsided, she was at a loss for words, she was actually in a debate with herself at the moment Naruto appeared about how to approach him. Now the situation was forced upon her.
Within the blink of an eye, she decided to go with her usual mannerism, tough broad.
"Hey there, brat. So you sensed me tailing you. Not too shabby, since you're only a genin to be." Anko said without a trace of her earlier inner conflict. 'Yokai certainly trained him well.' She then thought.
"Yeah, well. My sensei made sure my detection skills would be up to speed, for a genin at least. Normally I would not have sensed you, but I'm guessing you have stuff on your mind or you would've better concealed yourself." Naruto said, matter of factly, but inside he was curious.
"Very astute… Naruto" She then said, solemnly.
Naruto didn't know how to take her showing emotions so openly. Could it mean she doesn't perceive him as a threat or what?
"Lady, how do you know my name? And what's with this sad face? Do I resemble a dead relative or something?"
"I know your name because it's…" Anko paused.
"What? What about my name?" Naruto was getting impatient. Still nothing. Finally Naruto said with irritation, "Look, lady. If you're gonna chase me and hurt me like the other shinobi and civilians then get it over with, but I will not go down without a fight." He then made a gesture towards his projectile weapon pouch to indicate he was ready to fight.
"No, you impatient brat, that's not why I know it and why I'm following you. It's quite the opposite…" She stopped herself as she realized what she was about to say in her own frustration.
"The opposite? What are you talking about?"
"Grrr, alright fine I'll just come out and say it! I've know about you all the way back to the first Kyuubi celebration mob chase, back when you were 4."
"Okaaay, what does that have to do with anything about you being here?"
"Because you and I are the same, Naruto. We're both despised for reasons beyond our control. We're kindred spirits."
Naruto was very much not expecting that. This woman had the nerve to come here and make that claim. His anger rose up and a very brief flash of red passed his eyes, but they were shadowed by his brows as he was facing the ground. Thus it went by unnoticed by both ninja's
"Kindred spirits, huh? And what could you possibly know about the things I've gone through? How can you come here and make that claim and more importantly why? And if it is true, how come you weren't around to help me out back then, huh? You have the gall to come and claim to understand me now after so much time has passed?"
Anko had a hard time taking all that. He had every right, every right to question her and be suspicious of her statement. It wasn't easy for the otherwise temperamental kunoichi to remain calm.
"I know because… because I was once the student of a traitor." Anko said, on the verge of either tears or anger. Naruto couldn't tell.
This caught Naruto's attention. "The student of a traitor? Who were you a student of?"
"None other than one of the legendary sannin of Konoha. The snake sannin Orochimaru."
"Legendary? Sannin? Woah, I'm sorry but I'm not following you, lady."
"The name's Anko, brat. Anko Mitarashi. And I might as well fill you in on who the three sannin are since you'll hear soon about them in the academy. It's a lengthy tale so we should go somewhere where we can talk more relaxed."
Naruto mulled over the things he just learned and was trying to decide whether to trust this kunoichi or leave her behind for the risk of this being an elaborate set up. As the seconds went he found that he couldn't simply ignore this. All this demanded answers.
"Alright, we'll go to my place. You'd better not be yanking my chain here, lady."
With that, Naruto and Anko took off for his apartment.
Naruto's apartment was kept in order by the landlord who hoped to rent it out to someone at some point. However, this apartment had the reputation of once housing the Kyuubi brat and thus no one ever came and accepted any contract.
This left Naruto with a pristine apartment as opposed to the once shabby and run down state it was once in, although Naruto suspected it was only a matter of time before civilians would change that once they found out he was back home.
The two entered and took a seat on a chair and on the bed respectively. Anko told Naruto all about the sannin and in particular Orochimaru and what he's done and how that affected her as his one time student.
"So you see, Naruto. We both are victims of circumstances, mildly put. And to answer your earlier question about where I was all the time, well… I was kept busy and couldn't be of help, even though I wanted to. My role is that of an interrogator as well as a special jonin, making me have little time left for anything else than eating and sleeping. Ironically, that was my plan to help keep my mind off things." Anko told further.
"When I found out about you, I tried to find time to help you or to prevent all the bad stuff from happening but it turned out to be an impossibility. I can only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for that failing. I can also only hope that you'd like to have me as one of your friends." She finished with a rare show of emotion and vulnerability.
Naruto, who had listened intently up till now, had to fall back into his bed in thought. Everything she had told him felt true and honestly regretful. The part of him that was afraid of being hurt again had been more or less silenced, but that wasn't what was keeping him in thought. He was happy to have someone who can relate to him and vice versa but at the same time he was so unsure of how to deal with it.
Not one to back away or letting fear control his actions, he decided to accept her story.
"Anko-san." He said, sitting up. Anko reaffixed her gaze upon him. "I believe you and I do forgive you for not being able to help me out back then." He said giving a kind smile.
Anko smiled a genuine smile back. Naruto finished with a huge but pleasant grin, "So no need to hope, because you and I are friends from this point forward."
Naruto then surprised Anko by giving her a hug. Not many men have touched her, much less hugged her, and lived to tell about it. But this was Naruto, a boy whom she felt a kindred spirit with, so he was an exception. 'Along with Yokai, hopefully.' She thought as she returned the hug with another of her rare, genuine smiles.