"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
'"Talking within mindscape"'

"Tenant Speech"
'Tenant Thought (rare?)'
*"Tenant Outside Speech (probably never, just setting precedent)"*

Review Responses:

TigrezzTail: A Baku is a dream-eating spirit. In the Narutoverse, Danzo holds the summoning contract for the Baku; it's assumed he uses them to settle his conscience, because he's unable to master and set aside his emotions – he sees both his emotions and his constant 'sacrifice' as necessary to protecting Konoha. In the case of FFtF, the Baku exist with a foot in the spiritual realm, much like cats. As well,their ability to devour the dreams of others makes them excellent as spies...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This chapter takes place CONCURRENTLY with the previous one. Chapters 12 and 13 both begin during Kyuubi Day; Chapter 14 will pick up where Chapter 13 ended. Chapter 12 is an offshoot showing a few select events from the next month of Naruto's life, from Itachi's perspective. It will all make sense as Itachi and Naruto interact further in the future, and as Itachi's tale unfolds again as something more than meets the eye. (And no, he's not an autobot. Do not pass go, do not roll out).

Also, I seriously dislike many aspects of the 'big reveal' that Canon Naruto pulled off a while back. I prefer to stick true to Canon 'events' (that is, certain historical aspects will feel familiar and checking the Wiki should give you enough information to deduce what's going on) whenever possible, however, this whole Shinju mythology shit simply has no place in respectable storytelling, and no reason for existing in this fiction. The tablets left to the Sage's sons contain nothing short-sighted like that.

As Chakra and fic-history contain far more interesting and powerful secrets than some giant retard flower, you can assume that the threats facing the world are multiplied in kind. Of course, Naruto's busy being a child – 'the world' ends at the gates and forests surrounding his beloved home.

"Our enemies wait in every shadow, and ten good men
die just to root one out. Maybe there is merit to this
plan of your brothers', ninja, but I am well aware that
a deal with the devil has only one outcome."

- Fire Daimyo Yamato I, to Hashirama Senju

A month had passed since Naruto had begun his lessons at the Academy. For the blonde, it was a day that saw no alarm blaring, no cheer in the pre-dawn glow of an autumn sun. The date was October 10th, a day that gave Naruto good reason for sleeping in – it was his birthday.

While all over Konoha, shops and people prepared for the massive celebrations that would rock the village through, Naruto suffered fitful nightmares. Where others bought last-minute gifts, assembled costumes, and baked goodies to hand out, Naruto sweated and groaned in his sleep.

It was the same dream, each of his birthdays. It always began with a vague awareness – yelling, frantic and desperate. This year, he could make out the words.

'It's hit the outer postings and broken through the barrier – two blasts incoming, squad seven divert course to sector E5! Divert cou-!' The voice of the unknown man cut out then, as the deep, soothing black he'd been in was replaced with white. It had been a flash only, but the intensity had burned his eyes and the afterglow was blinding. After a moment that seemed to hang, intangible, a dull static replaced the silence. And then, the sounds around him disappeared.

He felt safe, for a while – cold, but surrounded by a reassuring presence, something as wide and tall as the Hokage monument. Some part of him – barely awake, but cognisant enough to realize what would happen next – silently screamed in dread.

And then rage – pure rage was all Naruto could feel; it poured into him, unending, burning with its purity, malignant and dreadful. Darkness surrounded him, as the rage faded - only to be replaced with the cold slime of despair. Two red eyes opened, burning crimson against the black of night; terror gripped the blonde, as it always did now – the eyes were his own.

Naruto awoke screaming. Chakra poured off of the blonde in a boiling vapour as he pushed himself into a corner, muscles taut and breathing erratic. His eyes frantically scanned the room, as he flinched at each shadow, each object unrecognized by his panic-stricken mind.

After a few moments of confusion and terror he calmed, remembering what Hokage-jiji had told him for times like this. 'Our dreams sometimes show us our worst fears, Naruto. Nothing we can face in the world might seem as terrible as the nightmares we create for ourselves. But remember that they're only that, boy – dreams. Nightmares. Figments and phantoms, they cannot hurt you if you do not let them.'

'Don't let them, don't let them... they can't hurt me. I won't let them.' Naruto calmed himself with breathing exercises, reigning in the Charka that had overloaded his seals. 'I'll have to get bull to fix them,' As he craned his neck to see the burned-out fuinjutsu on his back, he missed the glow of his torso - already fading under his nightshirt. 'I hope I didn't wake anyone else up.'

Luckily for him, most of the other children that stayed in the dorms had gone home to their families the day before. The 10th of October was a special occasion for more than just the blonde – it was a profound celebration of life, a holiday that had originated, through various means, the year after his birth. To most, it was a date that allowed tragedy and grief to be pushed away by good spirits and material cheer. To others, it was a means of boosting morale, to keep appearances up for the traders and merchants that passed through.

Seven years ago, on the day of Naruto's birth, a being known as the Kyuubi – a monstrous demon, with power beyond what most men are capable of comprehending in a reasonable fashion – attacked Konoha out of the East. This much was known far and wide, by the youngest child and the farthest hermit.

With so much of the hidden village damaged beyond salvage or repair, huge strain had been placed upon those forced to take in the displaced survivors. At one point earlier in his life, Naruto had figured that people hated him for being a reminder of such bad times – he wasn't blind to the fact that he shared many features with his hero, the Fourth Hokage, who had sacrificed himself in order to kill the demon, and save the village.

But none of the orphans were hated like he was – not even the other blondes, most of whom had been adopted right away by the Yamanaka. The other children, after a few years, had become so cruel towards him at the behest of the orphanage staff that the Hokage was required to post guard over him day and night. While not the brightest, Naruto didn't take long to rule out his initial assumption – no one he'd ever seen got bullied and beat up like he did.

As he aged, Naruto came to associate everything to do with the 10th - from the destruction of Konoha's Eastern quarter, to the yearly celebrations, to the hisses of 'demon child' and 'bastard' – as somehow being because of something he'd done, some terrible sin he'd committed. It hadn't been a conscious decision, but rather something reinforced with each passing day, each leer and taunt.

He knew, intellectually, that he hadn't done anything wrong to deserve it - but so many people couldn't possibly be wrong about him. So he took their glares, their hatred, and told himself he deserved it - compartmentalized and away from his thoughts, he never noticed the negative emotions disappear, the depression and anger evapourating harmlessly, instead of piling up against his mental defenses.

He'd never thought to re-evaluate this view as he grew older, and so, on this particular 10th of October – with his ever improving physical and mental capabilities – his morning thoughts were not on the past, not on his nightmares (now all but forgotten), but on how he could get in on the celebrations without getting caught.

'I'm not small enough to fit into any of the grates anymore, and there's nowhere up high I can get without being spotted by the police...' He took his morning exercises at a leisurely pace as he thought, enjoying the energy that literally glowed as it pulsed through is body. 'I've only got a little bit of paint leftover, so that's out, but maybe I can catch some ducks...'

As he rushed through the pattering steps of Rainfall on the Leaves – a footwork exercise that scaled from a tempo largo into forms even Chunin could benefit from, he remembered something that almost floored him. "DUH!" In overdrive, and without finishing his routine, the blonde dressed himself and dashed from the room he called home, hurrying towards the Academy main. 'I can't believe I haven't visited the library here yet!'

Bull had impressed upon him the importance of reading – both with the books he'd lent early on in the Naruto's training, and with many examples over the past month - but it seemed that Naruto had forgotten to actually devote any time to pursue such an activity.

With the energy he had this morning, he felt as if he could read a dozen books at once, while cooking Ramen and finishing up all his exercises. This enthusiasm was partially curbed by the "ONE BOOK OR SCROLL!" policy on a large sign outside the library, but Naruto figured it was the thought that counted.

"Hey librarian-jiji, where's the books on Academy jutsu? I really gotta learn a henge!" It wasn't hard to find the librarian, under the area labelled "LIBRARIAN ON DUTY." However, Naruto had forgotten to keep his voice down, earning a dirty glare that promised pain and worse punishments. All that resulted, however, was a sharp "SHHSH!" from the man.

"Sorry! Sorry! Where's the books on Academy jutsu? I really gotta learn a-!"

The old man interrupted him, "I heard you the first time, brat! Follow me, then." Luckily for the librarian, he'd chosen to respond after looking around quickly. The Anbu guarding Naruto had allowed himself to be spotted, while slowly dragging his finger across his neck in a menacing fashion.

Naruto, oblivious to the interaction between the aged Chunin and his Anbu protector, simply fell into step, wincing at librarian's the half-audible grumbles. "Academy jutsu are here. They're alphabetical so try to at least pick through them before asking me for more help. You're lucky to even be here at all – back in my day, we had to claw jutsu from the instructors with hard work and effort."

Naruto pondered that for a moment, as the librarian stepped away in a huff. 'Maybe... I can get Iruka to teach me jutsu if I show how much I deserve it?' It was definitely something that interested him, despite Bull's insistence that it was the hard work, and not the jutsu, that made a ninja strong.

Groaning just quiet enough to not attract the Librarian's wrath, Naruto closed yet another book. 'None of these have anything to do with the henge!' After having searched through the books and finding nothing under 'h' that would help, he began searching through them Naruto style.

This consisted of picking one at random, opening it to a random page, and then looking for anything to do with the henge. So far he'd gone through a dozen shelves on the subject with no luck – and he was quickly running out. It was near the end of his rampage – for he had scattered the books around him haphazardly – that the Anbu guarding him had swapped out for Bull.

Over the past month, Bull had asked for – and been granted - many privileges regarding the blonde jinchuriki of Konoha. His restrictions on training and interacting with the boy were being removed one by one, granted he remained anonymous and limited his training to a strict and monitored range of subjects. From what the Anbu could tell, it was part of some vast and unnecessary conspiracy to keep Naruto from turning rogue and running off. Regardless, he wasn't one to question orders.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" The question was innocent enough – however, his sudden appearance had the blonde jump to the roof, quite literally. Bouncing off the ceiling with a thud, the blonde windmilled his arms and attempted to land with some semblance of grace – though of course, Bull caught him well before he hit the ground.

"By my hairless balls, Bull-sensei, you've gotta stop sneakin' up on me!" His language earned him a good-natured smack, and Naruto explained his dilemma. For a while, Bull radiated a chilling aura, as he contemplated the situation. "You know you shouldn't have to hide, Naruto. I'll help you find what you need, and if you can learn it before the end of the year, I'll teach you something of my own."

Bull knew there was no better way to motivate Naruto than to promise a reward, or imply he couldn't do something. Some things, the Anbu suspected, would always be a weakness for the boy. 'Ramen, new moves, and challenges. He's lucky no one's told him he can't breathe water instead of air, yet.' Then again, the blonde would probably find a way to do it.

"You're on, scary-sensei!" Naruto renewed his search of the remaining shelves, while Bull sifted through the piles of discarded books the blonde had left all around. After a moment, he grabbed a large and particularly musty tome – it had been some time since a student had tried to learn the Henge on his own, before he needed it. Bull recognized it from familiarity. "You're going to have to clean the rest of these up first, Naruto – but I found the book you're looking for."

They called the librarian over, to explain how the trolleys and returns worked. Then, Naruto checked the book out from the front desk, holding it reverently against his breast. The jinchuriki and his guardian left for an open training field, then – the blonde hadn't but to look up, a questing expression on his face, before the two took to the rooftops; it was his birthday, and he was flying.

"Genjutsu for Civilians" was an aged book – it held many revisions, in painstakingly neat handwriting by various readers and editors over the years. The author was, as to be expected, an Uchiha – one of little note besides her authoring of the book.

"So the Henge is a genjutsu?" Naruto had just finished the verbose introduction – this was by no means a childrens' book, despite the simplicity of its instructions. The blonde had a vague understanding of what the term 'genjutsu' entailed, gleaned from his lessons at the academy, and from the mean tricks his other tutors played on him in spars.

"That's right, Naruto. Keep reading. You can skip to the part about the Henge if you want – remember, the deal doesn't end today. You can learn all about genjutsu if you want to, as long as you can get the henge down before the end of the year." Naruto didn't know what to focus on, then. 'I can learn the henge really quick and get to use it – today maybe, if it's easy! And then Itachi has to teach me something good!'

That option was definitely attractive for the blonde, but there was a nagging sense that the right thing to do – the thing that Bull was nudging him towards – would be to learn and understand genjutsu first. That way, he'd be able to do not just the Henge, but the Bunshin and whatever other jutsu the Academy wanted him to learn in order to become a real ninja.

"I'm gonna learn the Henge today, dattebayo! But I'm also gonna keep the book and read it 'till I can do some of the other ones too, Bull-sensei! Besides, if I'm gonna be the Hokage, I've gotta know all this stuff anyways, right?" Bull couldn't help but laugh at the blonde's enthusiasm, or feel proud of how quickly the boy picked out the important things. 'If only he'd had a teacher earlier...'

The Anbu pushed his thoughts on the matter aside. He'd done as much as he'd been allowed to this morning, and his shift still had many hours remaining. Eventually, Mizuki or Iruka would show up to help him improve on the previous set of exercises they'd laid out. The two were excellent instructors, but neither could bridge the gap that existed between Naruto and the rest of Konoha – it required kindness and understanding, a willingness to extend your trust and reach out to the boy - Mizuki held only contempt and discipline, and Iruka, pity and a resigned acceptance of the situation.

The two sat in relative silence for a time, until the sun reached its zenith, barely a hand's width above the surrounding trees. Its light filtered through the bare branches, shadows playing lightly upon the clearing. Naruto was located in the center of the training ground, his legs crossed and his face a visage of concentration. His hands contorted into seals over and over - 'Dog Boar Ram, Dog Boar Ram, Dog Boar Ram... Why boar then ram? It's so hard to swap that way...'

He wasn't channeling Chakra yet - getting a seal wrong with loaded Chakra could have any number of effects. Getting an entire sequence of seals wrong would more than likely result in something unpleasant. Instead, he was focusing on what effect he wanted.

'In order to perform the Henge, you must be calm, focused, and patient. It will not come to you on the first try, or the second. You may take weeks to learn it, for the Henge is a genjutsu so unlike any other that I hesitated to include it in this tome - that I do is more a failure of our current system of classification, than an indication of the Henge's nature.

Henge is more an art than any other jutsu, any other ninja skill you will encounter. It's a blurring of identity, an outlet for those parts of the mind that mimic the actions and mannerisms of others. The Henge combines empathy and understanding with attention to detail into three simple steps - The Shell, The Likeness, and the Seeming.'

The sealing order made sense in that context, though it would be years before Naruto's knowledge on the subject caught up to his intuition. 'Three steps, three seals - if you tried to make it seem before you had the likeness, the jutsu wouldn't know what to do! Okay, so...'

The book suggested beginning with something simple, like adding a mole to the end of your nose, or changing the colour of your skin. 'I know exactly what I'm gonna do!' Of course, Naruto would think of only one thing in his first real foray into the art of Jutsu - "HENGE NO JUTSU!" His shout materialized the thought, aiding and reinforcing his concentration - Chakra flowed from tenketsu and shimmered around him, an ethereal haze that settled around his head.

As if a child had pressed a triangular sponge of paint against an invisible canvas, a splotch of red and white appeared above his head, following his movements. His hands passed through it, though he could see its gauzy shadow cast on the ground. "Hey Bull! Bull-sensei how'd I do? Am I awesome, or what?" It wasn't bad for a first try. Many practitioners barely managed a shimmering, let alone something substantial enough to block light.

Unfortunately, Bull had to refrain from responding - he wasn't allowed to compromise his position until Iruka or Mizuki showed up, yet another imbecilic restriction. 'I wish they'd just tell me what they hope to accomplish with this charade.' He took a minute to note what suggestions he could make for later, and returned to his impassive monitoring.

A short couple of hours later, Iruka and Mizuki both happened upon the blonde, covered in a patchwork of various failed Henge, pieces of Naruto's experimentation with the jutsu. "Iruka-sensei! Mizuki-teme! Mou, come help me with this, I forgot to tell Bull about it earlier." He lifted his shirt and indicated his back, where - underneath a pair of henged wings, the dull, burned-out Suppression seals could be identified.

"I dunno how to fix it myself but it broke this morning..." Mizuki's smirk was less than friendly, 'Of course the gaki breaks something today, even sealed up tighter than a kunoichi's-' Iruka's glance allowed him to notice the Anbu, who had materialized out of nowhere, before he finished his thought. He was sure that Bull could read his mind by now - there was no other explanation for the amount of unease he felt around the Anbu.

"Chunin-san, if you could fix the seal on Naruto's back while Iruka sets up the grounds?" He gestured towards the blonde, who's smile lit up as he turned to face the Anbu. "I need to help him with some of his personal studies."

"Sure thing, Anbu-san." There was no trace of backtalk to his confirmation; the Anbu and Naruto began chatting amiably about the subtleties of the Henge, a jutsu they hadn't scheduled the jinchuriki to learn for nearly a month. While they talked, Mizuki laid out the proper removal and replacement seals for the blonde's back, trying not to flinch from the occasional flash of killing intent directed his way.

After a few minutes, Naruto managed a Henge recognizable as the Hokage's hat, reasonably tilted for its size, and with neck-flap waving as he ran a victory lap. The lines between red and white were fuzzy, as was the wording - but the fabric was unmistakable. Iruka smiled as he went about his business, 'If you squint just right, he looks like a little orange Fourth.' The thought saddened him, however, especially considering the date.

Jinchuriki and Anbu worked together for a short time longer, and then Bull left as suddenly as he'd appeared. "Well, Naruto, looks like it's time to stop goofing around with the hired help, and start doing some real work." Mizuki clapped his hands together to emphasize the point, though the intimidating effect was lost as the blonde cocked his head. "I thought you were the hired help, asshole!"

Iruka was forced to intervene before the spat got physical. "Just seal him up and we'll get back to work, Mizuki. We'll put him through the ringer the right way." At that, Naruto gulped. 'Iruka can be scary when he's serious! At least he didn't use his big-head jutsu...' The blonde lied down on his stomach, trying not to giggle as various seals were stripped or replaced on his back. He could feel his energy leaving him, becoming tucked away behind the barriers that layered themselves between him and his Chakra.

'It's not as if it's cut off... it just feels farther away - like I could get it if I stood on my Chakra Tippy Toes. I guess that's what happened this morning?' He probed the seals with his Chakra as Mizuki finished, and they glowed on his back in response. 'It tickles!' He felt the seals distinctly then, as he refined the amount of Chakra used. There were chinks in the barriers, gaps he could slip through slightly before becoming blocked by another. 'Almost like a maze...'

The blonde was snapped from his exploration by a pair of impatient Chunin. "Naruto. Obstacles. Now." And without hesitation, the boy began his afternoon's work of dodging, dipping, diving, ducking, and dodging through the setup Iruka had prepared. As the scarred Chunin manipulated various settings from the training ground controls, Mizuki cracked his whip whenever he thought he could force Naruto to screw up, or just to mess with the boy whenever possible.

Eventually he completed the course without flaw, and Iruka was forced to set up another. It was getting dark, but their training was scheduled well into the evening. While the scarred Chunin went about raising barriers and setting up stepping patterns, Mizuki drilled Naruto tirelessly on his handsigns, on Chakra flow, and - now that he could - the Henge.

"Again, Naruto - there's no reason you can't start with eyes. They're the most important part of the Henge - And I don't care what your precious book has to say about the subject, if you can't get the eyes right, you'll never infiltrate jack shit.' He was technically correct - the most common mistake was one of the eyes while performing a henge. It took months of practice, and required a certain level of devotion to detail, in order to replicate someone's eyes successfully.

For now, all Mizuki wanted out of the boy was a change in colour. "Don't change anything but the iris - is that so hard?" Apparently, it was - at least for Naruto. "None of the other kids has any trouble with it. I'll bet it's because of your freakishly large Chakra - that's it, isn't it?"

'Sometimes, it's great to have an excuse to berate the brat.' His superior mood didn't take long to crush, however, as Naruto's expression turned from 'Acceptably Downtrodden' to 'Contemplative', and finally to an unmistakable 'Devious'.

A cloud of smoke obscured Mizuki's sight momentarily - "What about now, sensei-teme?" The blonde's jumpsuit had become a granulated, boxy block of bright orange, with his skin nearly matching, and his hair a jagged helmet of sun-spun gold. But his eyes were green as the ocean - the only change to them that the Chunin could note.

Naruto's smirk was hidden by the Henge's lack of facial features, but Mizuki could see it clearly in the blonde's eyes, and would have smacked the boy for such a cheeky display of disrespect if he'd known he'd keep his career afterward. 'I can't believe we can kick their little asses in spars, but the moment we go to hand out some discipline, we get sacced. What a drag.' A weak Hokage making weak rules for weak ninjas. 'I might not be the strongest ninja around, but Konoha would be better off if I were in charge, that's for sure!'

"Tch, whatever brat, I'm done for the night. Go finish up with Iruka." He had a hot date for the celebrations tonight, and there was no way he was letting the demon-child's training ruin his chances. "Iruka, I'll finish up the paperwork for this by tomorrow - don't find me if anything comes up, I'm busy." With a nod from his fellow Chunin, Mizuki sauntered back towards the village proper.

As if on cue, the lights around the training grounds started to light up - an automatic response to the encroaching darkness of the Autumn evening. Naruto got a good look at the final course set out for him - one that reinforced previous reflexes, and set out the beginnings of the muscle memory he'd need fpr branch hopping in Konoha's dense forests.

Naruto recognized the poles - all perpendicular to the ground, and set a couple meters above it - from the training he often spied of the older Academy students. His poles were spaced closer together, so he could catch himself if he fell, and were also considerably wider than the ones he'd spied at the Academy - but there was no mistaking it.

It was one of his favourite aspects of the profession, possibly the most motivational prospect, after becoming the Hokage, of course. "I'm gonna learn to fly!" The blonde pumped his fists and ran around, jumping in glee. Iruka let him have his moment, before corralling him over to the course's start. The two walked through together a number of times, with Chunin forcing Student to recognize and categorize various traps, downfalls, and alternatives to the routes they took.

For the remaining time they had together, Naruto practiced the balance and footing he'd need to perfect the long series of jumps the course required. Whenever he fell through the gaps, Iruka would catch him, and the two would laugh together - the scarred Chunin was much less nervous around the jinchuriki when Mizuki wasn't around, spreading killing intent like a damp blanket.

"How about some Ramen, Iruka-sensei?" The blonde was panting on the ground, a questing smile on his face despite the burning in his legs. They hadn't yet adapted to the horizontal dashes he'd forced them to replace 'jumping' with. From experience, Iruka knew that Naruto would be fine in a couple of hours, given something to eat and a bit of rest.

'Maybe I haven't been giving him as much of a chance as he deserves...' Iruka smiled back, relaxing slightly. "Fine, but you're paying for yourself this time, fool me once shame on you - fool me twice, and I'll be broke." They cleaned up the various hurdles, prefab constructs, and Chakra molds that the obstacle course had been comprised of, and then reset the various targets and traps into their hidden slots on the training grounds.

Stretching, and shooting the blonde a toothy grin of his own, Iruka then shot off into the night. "Last one there buys the first round!" A dumbfounded Naruto stared after him for a moment, before his brain shifted into high gear and told his aching legs to follow after. "That's not fair Iruka-teme! Besides, that's my line!"

The shadow that followed left their Anbu guard in a bush, a vacant expression on his maskless face.