A/N: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

"Your grandmother used to love to garden."

Naruto tore her eyes away from the hotel balcony flowers, focused her attention on the blank-faced man standing behind her. The night sky seemed to illuminate the single scar slashed against the man's cheeks and not for the first time, she felt a tickle of weariness creeping upon her. It was stupid but it was still hard to believe that this man was her family.

That this man and his wife wanted her when everyone else in the village seemed to believe she was some kind of disease. Kumiko defended her when Iruka-sensei came in, no doubt he came to scold her again for hurting that stupid Ami. But Aunt Kumiko scolded him. For the first time in her life, she witnessed someone scolding an adult for being mean to her.

It felt wonderful and thrilling if you asked her.

"My grandmother?" she asked, clearing her throat and looking back at the flowers. They were pretty flowers but not as pretty as the orange lilies in her apartment. Those flowers were the prettiest flowers that she had ever seen, always brought a warmth inside of her and allowed her to recall that blurry image of the old woman that haunted her dream.

An old lady that made her heart flutter with a strange emotion but made it ache at the same time.

"Your Dad's Mom loved to garden," Kenji explained, making his way towards her. "The few times that your Mom would drag me to meet your w…Dad's mother, I would always see her water those flowers and treating them with so much love."

What happened to her? The question was lodged against her throat, did not seem ready to leave from her throat and Naruto forced herself to look away from the man. It was better for her not to ask because asking too much questions would make her greedy. She wasn't greedy, didn't want the man to think that she was greedy for having this much desire.

So she asked the next best thing.

"Was my grandma nice?"

The question hovered in the air and Naruto stared at the man with curious eyes. She waited for the longest time, heart pounding against her chest as Kenji took his sweet time to answer her question. Why was he taking so long to answer her? Was he going to lie to her? People always took their time when it came to lying but Kenji had seemed like a nice person.

Well he was terrifying with how deep that scar on his face was and the lack of smile just made that scar even more terrifying if you asked her.

"Your grandmother was a very nice woman," Kenji finally answered, sitting down beside her. She blinked and watched as the red-haired man stared up at the night sky. "From what your Mom told me, your grandmother never made her feel like a foreigner in this place. Even before your parents started dating, your grandmother would smile and ask her about our home."

Naruto blinked. "My Mom didn't feel at home here?"

This was a strange thing for her to hear but it reassured her. It brought a sense of connection between her and the woman that gave birth to her, allowed her to think that maybe she wasn't the only one with those thoughts. That…there was someone who had been in her shoes, because no one in this village seemed to understand her feelings.

No matter how much she tried to explain Sasuke and Hinata, they didn't really seem to understand her feelings about not belonging here. Well to a certain extent, Sasuke did understand because she was his only friend. The other boys didn't really talk to Sasuke and from what she heard from some of the boys, it was because they didn't feel like going to him.

In the eyes of her male classmate, Sasuke was an object to env while for her female classmates, Sasuke was just an object for them to admire. Not a single one of them wanted to get to know her friend, which was really…weird if she admitted.

"You can live in a place for a long time and still feel like a foreigner," her Uncle informed her. He leaned his body forward and flickered his eyes to the window behind them, where her relatives seemed focus on the television, before looking back at her. "No matter how much she tried to fit in, her classmates never allowed your Mom to forget that she was a foreigner. It is hard to belong when no one wants to accept you."

There was a tiredness in her Uncle's voice and for the first time since she saw him, she finally noticed the dark circles under his eyes. There was a paleness in his skin that just reminded her of a ghost and maybe she should just stop talking but…this was the first time she heard so many stories about her mother.

"Did her classmates ever accept her?" she asked softly. "And if they did accept her…then how did she do it?"

What am I doing wrong? She wanted to ask the question so badly but it was weak of her to admit that she craved to know the secret formula of her mother's acceptance. The whole pranking thing only stopped the cold looks and had people look at her but she wanted more. Those adoring eyes that Sasuke got, the compliments that Ino would get…and maybe some more friends.

"Accept her? No and after a while, your Mom came to one realization," Kenji answered after a long pause. "She didn't need their acceptance because she found people that accepted her for who she was, who didn't make her feel like an outsider in this place. One of them was Mikoto, the other person was your Dad while the other person was her teammate."

Naruto tilted her head. "Aunt Mikoto knew my parents?"

For the longest time, Kenji was quiet and there was almost a contemplating look on his face as if he was thinking carefully of how to answer her. What was there to think about? He just had to answer her. Did Aunt Mikoto know her parents? And if she did know them, then why didn't she tell her? Wait, she knew the answer.

It was probably for the same reason that she caught Aunt Mikoto sobbing on her birthday.

"Your Mom was best friends with Mikoto," Kenji replied, putting his hand on top of her head. "From the letters that your Mom sent me, they became friends on their second day of school when your Mom introduced herself to Mikoto. They had been inseparable since then and despite several things…nothing seemed to destroy their relationship, but it helped that your Mom was oblivious."

Her Uncle blinked and then cursed under his breath before directing his eyes away from her. Naruto could see the regret in his eyes as if he hadn't wanted to spill the last bit to her. I know why. If Aunt Mikoto was anything like Sasuke then she could connect the dots. Despite what people believed, she was smart.

She could figure things out because it was hard to survive when you don't notice things.

"My Mom didn't know that Aunt Mikoto loved my Dad, did she?" Kenji jerked his head and Naruto touched the red petals on the roses before fixing her eyes on her relative. Kenji's eyes widened and she offered him a wide smile. "I caught Aunt Mikoto crying on my birthday last year and she told me about her teammate and her best friend."

It had been months ago but it would forever burn in her memory because it was the first time she had ever seen the kind woman crying so much. Mikoto Uchiha never cried in public and in that sense, the woman reminded her of Hinata. Her best friend never cried either, always keeping a stiff upper lip until they were alone together.

"Your Mom didn't know and your Dad never really knew either," Kenji confirmed. "And I doubt that if he knew about it that he would have accepted her feelings because he always had feelings for your Mom, and nothing was going to change it."

Why did they love each other? And what made my parents fall in love with each other? There were so many questions that she wanted to ask but the question seemed intent on being stuck inside of her throat. Why was it so difficult for her to ask? There was nothing wrong with her questions. Nothing wrong with being curious but it was embarrassing that she wanted to know this much about her parent's love life.

She didn't care about love, had no need for romantic love but…

Her parents were a different story for them.

"How did he know?" she asked quietly, touching the flower pot. "How does anyone know if they are in love? Everyone says that you just know when you are in love…so how did my Dad know that my Mom was the one for him?"

The question hovered in the air and only the chatter of the pedestrian echoed throughout the streets. Naruto stared at her Uncle, waiting for him to give the answer that she desperately wanted. What did her Mom do to get her Dad to love her? How would she know if she loves someone in the future? Could anyone fall in love with her in the future? It didn't feel like it.

The boys were always annoyed with her in some way and form while most of the girls believed that stupid rumor about Sasuke having a crush on her.

"How did your Dad know? I have no fuc…fudge on how he knew," Kenji admitted with a loud laugh. Naruto blinked and the man cleared his throat before running his hand through his hair. "And it is complicated and I'm still figuring that stuff out, but I'll tell you what I know so far. Making sacrifices for them isn't difficult and you don't feel the need to hide your opinion…and you accept them for who they are."

Naruto nodded and pulled her bottom lip back. "Can you love someone without talking to them?"

He gazed at her for the longest time, hazel eyes scrutinizing her as if he had no idea on why she was so interested in the topic and she looked down at the flowers. It was stupid of her to ask because she wasn't interested in love. What she wanted was to climb to the very top and get everyone in the village to look at her like she was somebody important.

That she was someone special.

"Falling in love with someone that you don't know isn't love," her Uncle declared with a quiet tone. Naruto blinked and stared at the red-haired man, who stood up from his spot. "That is more of a crush than love if you asked me but why are you asking me this? Is there someone that…you have a crush?"

She wrinkled her nose and furiously shook her head. "Boys are icky."

Kenji relaxed his shoulders and looked at her for a good couple of minutes before placing his hand on the leaf. He kept quiet, patting the flower petals before he shot her a blank look. Did he want her to explain things further? Did he want her to explain things to him? She could explain things if he wanted because boys were just so weird.

Sasuke was probably the weirdest because he would always blush whenever she flashed him a smile.

"I went to your school earlier," Kenji finally said after a couple of minutes. He offered her a blank look and the blonde flinched as a realization settled inside of her stomach. He knew what happened and he was going to tell her that she wasn't a member of his family anymore. "And I know from Kumiko that you know Sasuke told us what happened."

Did he have to tattle on me? I had everything under control. Tomorrow, she was going to ruin Ami's desk and if she was really lucky then she was going to put some itchy powder in her clothes later on. No, it would be better for her to put itchy powder onto her hair. That way, she could see all the other girls say rude things to her.

She was going to find some way to ruin her.

"If you are going to scold me for what happened then she deserved it!" she grumbled, folding her arms against her chest. Nothing in the world was going to make her apologize to that girl. How could she apologize when she had done nothing wrong to Ami before the incident? She ignored the girl, placed some kind of distance between her and Sasuke, and this still happened.

Kenji sighed. "You have every right to be angry and upset, Naruto and I know you did it because you were hurt by her words."

Well, this was not something she expected her Uncle to say to her. No one ever reassured her that she had every right to be angry with Ami, that she had every right to be upset by that girl's words. You should never hit your classmate. That was something Iruka would always tell her those words, even though it was Ami that provoked her.

He didn't seem to realize that she would never hit unless Ami didn't insult her.

"No one ever thinks I deserve the right to be angry."

It was like they wanted her to bottle up her emotions and that was something she could do. It was so easy at times. All she had to do was smile, act like some kind of idiot and then everything was going to be fine. From the moment the Matron smacked her on the cheek, was the moment that she learnt the importance of smiling.

There was no need for her to cry in public, not in front of people that she did not know or trust.

"I know your parents," Kenji reminded her with a tired look. "And I know for a fact that they loved you and that neither of them wanted to abandon you, especially your Mom. I know she wouldn't want you to go through the same things that she went through."

Those words should have reassured her but all it did was make her feel small. It made her want to curl into a little ball and cry again because why did they have to leave her? Why did she have to fight the Kyuubi? It wasn't awesome. Well, it was because she heard from someone that childbirth was really, really painful but…still!

They should have picked her.

"If they loved me then why did they leave me alone?" she whispered, curling her hands into her fist. "Why did she have to pick fighting the Kyuubi over staying with me in the shelters?"

There was nothing but a thick, heavy blanket of silence between them as her Uncle offered her a heavy look. It was so wrong of her to be angry with her Mummy and Daddy but she was upset with them. What was so great about protecting this village? Wait, she shouldn't have these thoughts. If she was going to become Hokage then she had to love the village.

"Give me a few weeks and I'll tell you," Kenji declared, locking his eyes on her.

A few weeks? That was the first time someone was willing to explain to her about her parents' decision, the Hokage always glossed it over whenever she asked him. Too young was his excuse but her Uncle didn't seem to think she was too young to know the truth. He was going to tell her a reason when the Hokage refused to tell her anything about her parents.

But…

"Why a few weeks?" Naruto frowned and tilted her head to the side.

Why a few weeks and not now? Why make her wait a little bit longer to find out the truth? Nothing made sense if you asked her but she could wait. She had been waiting since the Third Hokage hinted to her that he knew her parents and a few more weeks should be easy for her to wait. After all of this time, she was the master when it came to waiting.

"It isn't something I can explain now," Kenji sighed and ruffled her hair. "There are certain things that I need to understand before I explain the whole story behind your parents actions."

She nodded and inspected Kenji's eyes. There was so much sincerity in his eyes as if he truly was going to tell her everything about her parents' actions, and a year ago she would believe him. She could accept his answer but what if he was lying to her? What if he never told her the truth? Adults rarely told her the truth.

"Do you promise me?"

The question hovered between them and the longer that Kenji took his time to answer her, the more her hope dwindled away. It dwindled like the people walking away from the street. She was about to apologize when the red-haired man brought up his pinky to her. She furrowed her eyebrows and crocked her head, only to blink when Kenji wrapped his pinky around her.

"I promise you," he declared. "As soon as I have enough information, I'll tell you what happened."

(And few weeks later, he did tell her the truth and that was when Naruto knew that not all adults were like the adults that she knew).

This is going to be a very long night.

Hiruzen took several deep breaths and stared at the various shinobis standing before him. All of them ranged from genins to jounins, with most of them being young enough to recall the Kyuubi attack but not old enough to recall the subtle relationship between Minato and Kushina. Well except for Uchiha Itachi, the boy had been Namikaze Minato's godson after all, and Kakashi, who had witnessed the whole relationship between them.

The older shinobi would probably recall the days when Minato tried his hardest to woo Kushina, being relentless like the whirlpool that his wife's last name meant. It had been amusing at the time because it had been the first time he had ever witness the boy acted so out of character when it came to getting her attention.

"Hokage-sama, is there any reason for you to call us here?" one of the shinobi asked, breaking the silence in the room. Everyone bobbed their heads and fixed their gaze on him. Their eyes demanded for answers and not for the first time in these two days, did he feel the constant ache on the sides of his head. "You have never called all of us here."

Those words hovered in the air and a sense of anticipation and weariness filled the room. Everyone in the hall exchanged glance, almost having a silent conversation between themselves, and Hiruzen took a deep breath. This was definitely not something he wanted to do but for the sake of their future, he had to inform them about some parts of Naruto's heritage.

The part of Naruto's father had to remain a secret, especially for the child's sake. It was not just because of Minato's enemies, not only because Naruto could grow arrogant but also because of her sanity. That girl could smile all she wanted and act like a fool, but he knew she was just as intelligent as her father.

He knew if he told her about her status then she would question things more about her treatment, and that girl would connect the dots.

"I have called this meeting to discuss about Uzumaki Naruto and the consequence of your behavior towards her if you continued on with this path," Hiruzen said, keeping his tone calm. There was a need to inform everything but there was no need to spill everything in one go. Oh no, he knew his shinobi and he knew it would be a matter of time before protests erupted.

It took five seconds before someone raised their hand up to question him, and to Hiruzen's surprise, it was Haruno Mebuki who raised her hand. The blond-haired woman stared at him with eyes filled with both confusion and coldness while everyone else flickered their eyes between them.

"What about her?" Mebuki asked, looking at him with eyes filled with irritation. "What consequence, Hokage-sama? What have we done wrong with that child? We never informed our children about what that child was because you made a clear example to the first person that tried to tell the girl about her status."

Ah yes, he allowed Danzo to do what he wished for the disobedient shinobi that almost spilled Naruto's status to her. The second shinobi and civilian had their head chopped off and promptly displayed to the whole village, so that they knew the consequence. It had been dark but kindness would never get through to the villagers.

"That is indeed true," he agreed with a frosty tone. Everyone in the hall blinked while his own councilmembers exchanged grim looks before narrowing their eyes at the shinobi around them. "However, there was another order that I made when it came out that Uzumaki Naruto was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Can anyone remind me what that request was?"

It had been a simple order, one that could have been so easy to obey and one that he overlooked because he understood their behavior. It was difficult to treat Naruto like a normal child when she represented the very thing that tore his wife away from him, but he tried and sometimes…it was easy to forget. It was easy to forget because Naruto had that light inside of her.

But it was during her birthday that he would remember or whenever he recalled his own wife.

"You made the order that Uzumaki Naruto should be treated like any other child of this village," Shikaku replied, offering a reprimanded look to Mebuki. His eyes shifted to Choza, who looked almost irritated at the reminder of his order. Not that it was not understandable because the man lost his sister and her unborn child during the Kyuubi attack.

Hiruzen exhaled and nodded. "Up till now, I accepted your neglectful behavior towards Naruto because I understood everyone's grief, however things are different now and whatever grievances you have, must be set aside now!"

At those words, everyone jumped up and looked at him like they had never seen him before and Hiruzen balled his hands into a fist. Not for the first time today, he allowed the killer intention to leak out of him. Everyone in the room shivered and gulped but if they thought for a moment that he was going to show them, his benevolent side then they were wrong.

It was because of his leniency, they stood to lose their jinchuuriki.

"Hokage-sama, what do you mean?" Kurenai asked, raising her hand. Her red eyes shifted to Hibiki and his wife before landing back on him while everyone else turned their attention on the black-haired woman. "What do you mean that things are different now? What has changed for you to make these kind of remarks?"

It seemed like everyone had the same thoughts because they bobbed their heads at him. Hiruzen thinned his lips, mulled over how to explain things, and glanced at Danzo. His rival tilted his head and lips curled into a smug smirk, and the Third Hokage held himself back from bristling at the man's behavior. Of course, he enjoyed the sight of him holding back his growing irritation.

"The Uzumaki Clan is alive," Hiruzen paused and glanced at Kakashi. The 21-year-old man stiffened and the pale, visible cheeks turned even more pale as if he knew the consequence of the Uzumaki clan being alive. "And the new Head of the Uzumaki Clan is livid over the treatment of his beloved cousin's daughter."

Whispers broke out and a couple of the shinobi clan exchanged weary glances. Shikaku grimaced and glanced at his wife while Inochi rubbed the sides of his head. Fugaku had a blank look but Mikoto stared at him with cold eyes, eyes that almost made him tremble but Hiruzen kept his composure. Chozu paled, no doubt with the realization of what it meant for the village, while the other shinobi looked at him with confusion.

Only those from clans understood the importance of protecting their own and knew what it meant for Naruto to have a strong connection to the head of the clan.

"Do you mean to tell us that she belongs to a clan?" Haruno Kizashi asked, clearing his throat. There was a sense of disbelief in his tone and his eyes widened like this was the most shocking news that they heard. More whispers broke out as everyone looked at him with eyes filled with denial. "You want to tell us that it was not coincidence that she was given that last name?"

Hyuga Hiashi snorted and looked at the man with unimpressed eyes. "Do you really believe that the Hokage would have given her that last name if she didn't possess Uzumaki blood inside of her?"

The question hung over them as everyone exchanged glances. One of the younger shinobi cleared his throat, steadied his trembling body when everyone turned to look at him. Hiruzen waited for the young man to pose his question, but only to blink when the man turned his head to look at the Head of the Hyuga Clan.

"Did you know Uzumaki Naruto come from a clan?" the shinobi demanded, only to flinch when Hiashi fixed his cold pale, lilac eyes on him.

The Hyuga Head nodded and flickered his eyes to Fugaku and his wife before looking at Kakashi. "Uzumaki Naruto might not possess her clan's signature red hair but she possessed her mother's appearance and anyone that recalls Uzumaki Kushina, can see that Uzumaki Naruto is her daughter."

Some of the older shinobi winced and even a few of the male shinobi pressed their hands against their crotch. Whimpers echoed in the air and Hiruzen did not miss the way that some of the female shinobi scowled at the reminder of the woman. He kept his expression completely blank while Hiashi looked at him with unimpressed eyes.

"Was Kushina even pregnant?" Mebuki asked, frowning. "The few times I saw her, she didn't possess any signs that she was pregnant and she would have babbled about it because she could never keep a secret. She was always reminding us of the fact that Minato only had eyes on her."

Several of the older female kunoichi scowled and nodded their heads in agreement while some of the men rolled their eyes at them. Hiruzen exhaled and just listened with a throbbing head as more whispers broke out. He could hear the older shinobi debated about whether or not, Kushina had been pregnant. The whispers grew louder as everyone tried to recall the months before the Kyuubi attack. Their eyes grew frantic as they tried to recall whether or not the woman had been pregnant or not.

Finally, Uchiha Mikoto cleared her throat.

"Kushina was pregnant," Mikoto declared. "And Uzumaki Naruto is her daughter."

There was a frosty tone in the woman's voice, a frostiness that caused everyone to shiver. Hiruzen rubbed the sides of his head, tried to ignore the ache in his temple as everyone else looked at the woman for an explanation. However, Mikoto kept her expression completely blank and looked at her fellow kunoichi with cold eyes.

"As all of you probably realized, Uzumaki Kushina and the Fourth Hokage were partners," he paused and watched as some of the kunoichi scowled at the reminder while the shinobi bobbed their head. They grimaced, probably realizing the connection between Naruto and the Fourth Hokage. "And I presume all of you realize that Naruto is also the daughter of the Fourth Hokage or did no one see Fourth Hokage with Kushina?"

Everyone bobbed their heads, not looking one bit pleased with the knowledge that Naruto was the only child of the Fourth Hokage, and a couple of the shinobi looked ready to voice their denial. However, the cold, furious eyes of Mikoto was enough to have those shinobi keep their mouth shut. God knew they had to keep their mouth shut if he wished to continue on.

"It is hard for us to believe this," another shinobi finally said. "Why are you telling us this now? And do you think that telling us that it was her father who sealed the Kyuubi inside of her? You think we can forget that she possessed the beast that took away our friends and families? First you lied to us and told us that the Fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi and then we found out that it was inside of her! Now you tell us that she is the Fourth Hokage's daughter, hoping that we stop being scared? The Fourth Hokage's daughter died on the 10th of October!"

The fury and distress in the man's voice rang in the air and Hiruzen shot a warning look when he felt a wave of killer intention coming from Uchiha Mikoto. The black-haired woman looked murderous, black eyes seemingly ready to throttle the man and it was the first time in years that he had seen that expression on the woman's face.

Last time he witnessed it was when he refused to allow her to see Naruto.

"You will care because we cannot afford for Uzumaki Kenji to take her away," Hiruzen declared, raising his voice at the shinobi. Everyone jolted and looked at him with disbelieving eyes. He hardened his expression while Koharu looked at the shinobi with disapproving eyes. "Uzumaki Naruto is the daughter of the Fourth Hokage, whether you want to accept it or not, and is someone that we cannot afford to lose."

With a loud snort, a younger shinobi yelled, "Let him take her away! That kid has been nothing but trouble to us! Let her be his—"

A senbon whizzed passed his ear, heading straight towards the war and Hiruzen looked over his shoulder to see Koharu lowering her sleeve. Her eyes remained blank but he could sense the growing irritation in the woman. Not that he could blame her, not when he knew that Koharu almost had a soft spot for Naruto because of her ambition.

"You will remember that you are talking to the Hokage and not to your fellow shinobi," Koharu said calmly as the senbon pierced the man's hand. The man winced and the old woman smoothed her expression. "That hellion that you are talking about, is a weapon that we cannot afford to lose because all of you are too selfish to put the village first."

The man rubbed his hand and yanked the senbon off of his hand. "What do you mean? Almost no one wants the girl around."

"Uzumaki Naruto is more important to us then your irrational feelings," Danzo observed. The man stared at the man with disbelief while Homura and Koharu bobbed their heads in agreement. The war hawk flickered his eyes at him and Hiruzen gestured for him to continue on. "If we allow the Uzumaki clan to take her then the other villages will mock us for losing our jinchuuriki. They will take advantage of it and another war could be upon us."

All of the people in the room exchanged weary glances before looking at him with raised eyebrows. He kept quiet, dragged his eyes to his oldest son and his wife before slowly nodding his head. There was no point of pretending that they wouldn't get attack if people found out that Uzumaki Naruto was taken away from them.

Knowing Iwa and Kumo, they would try and use this to their advantage.

"In what grounds can Uzumaki Kenji take Naruto?" Shikaku asked, locking his eyes on him. "Uzumaki Naruto is for all intents and purposes, a child of this village and your ward like every other orphan."

Whispers broke out as everyone looked at him with curious, accusing eyes. Hiruzen closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm down his throbbing head. This was it. This was the time for him to admit about the contract he signed, the cunning contract that the First Hokage's brother-in-law made to him.

It seemed like Takeshi had been ten moves ahead of them because he got what he wanted.

"In the grounds that Uzumaki Naruto was not treated with the respect that she deserved," he replied carefully. "In the grounds that someone in this room leaked out that Uzumaki Naruto was a jinchuuriki because the Second Uzushiokage only allowed us to have his favorite grandchild if I signed a contract to promise Kushina's descendants are treated with respect and that no one knows of their future status as a jinchuuriki. Because of this, Uzumaki Kenji is within his right to demand retribution."

There was a very long silence until one of the younger kunoichi raised her hand at him. Surprise and suspicion flickered over the woman's eyes before it faded away. She took a deep breath. "Hokage-sama, what do you mean future status?"

"Uzumaki Naruto is the third jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi," he admitted, "while her mother had been the second jinchuuriki right until her death. There was a reason that Uzumaki Naruto had been chosen to be the host by her father and that is because only an Uzumaki can carry the Kyuubi."

Ebisu raised his hand and eyed him. "If her mother was the second jinchuuriki then who would be the first jinchuuriki?"

The level of anger and hate in the man's voice almost made his skin crawl. It was easy to see why Takeshi had been so insistent that he signed the contract, had been so cunning to ensure that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki returned to the people that knew how to control it but he kept his composure. This was not the time for him to understand the man's actions.

That cunning man who had been more greedy for power than he pretended to be.

"The First Hokage's wife was the first jinchuuriki," he replied. "When she was dying from her illness, she informed me that only an Uzumaki could control the Kyuubi and told me that I had to go to Uzushiokagure to get the next jinchuuriki. The Second Uzushiokage was her brother, however he wasn't at all pleased that we wanted to take a member of his clan to become a jinchuuriki, and keep them here."

Homura nodded and muttered under his breath, "We warned him that Takeshi's loyalty only extended to Mito and the First Hokage but no, he just had to trust Takeshi's friendship would be enough to let us keep the future jinchuuriki."

This was not another argument that he wanted to have with his advisors, not another argument that he wanted to raise his voice at them. He was just too old for this. Too old for this hat but there were just no good candidates until Naruto was eighteen, no one that he could really see take over the huge shoes that Minato had left behind.

The man had made so many big plans, big radical plans but plans that could help the village expand.

"So he made a contract that would ensure the Kyuubi goes back to the Uzumaki clan," Shikaku stated with a tone mixed with disbelief and subtle wonder. Yoshino nudged her husband and the man cleared his throat. "He didn't give you his grandchild until you signed the contract, didn't he? He didn't allow you to have a verbal contract like the contracts made with the other hidden village."

The villagers exchanged glances and Hiruzen nodded. The Nara head was indeed right because Takeshi had always been the type to make official documents to ensure a contract had been made, to avoid situations where a shinobi could claim that they had no evidence. It had been a strange but rather understandable trait.

Verbal contracts were easy to break because they were flimsy but documented contracts? It was difficult because it could go straight to the Daimyo and considering how the Daimyo had been charmed by Minato…well the situation was even more complicated. The man might listen to Danzo and him but he had a rather special adoration for the Fourth Hokage.

Probably because Minato indulged with the Daimyo's strange wishes for those weird items on television.

"Takeshi adored his youngest grandchild," he confirmed. "And only handed Kushina over when I signed the contract in front of him and his older sister Akira. I did not see any harm of signing the contract because I didn't believe for one moment that a situation would arise, where the contract could be broken."

Kakashi tilted his head and eyed him. "And why haven't you inform us about the contract, Hokage-sama?"

"Other then the fact that Takeshi required that the status of the jinchuuriki was kept hidden?" Kakashi and the other shinobi nodded and Hiruzen paused as he thought long and hard on how to reply to the simple question. "It is because I believed that the Uzumaki clan died during the war, however things are quite different now that Kenji is here."

It made things worse to know that Kenji was here. Hiruzen looked at the floor and closed his eyes as thoughts of the past came into his mind. Just like the Uchiha and Senju clan, the Uzumaki clan was loyal to their own and would never give up their children willingly. With what happened during the war, he suspected that the clan had grown even more protective over their own.

It had to be the reason for their hidden whereabouts because how could they not know where they were this whole time?

"Hokage-sama, can't we reason with the Head of the Uzumaki Clan?" Inochi asked, pulling his lips into a frown.

Surprisingly, it was Fugaku who replied.

"Uzumaki Kenji will not listen to reason because he has been here long enough to witness Uzumaki Naruto's treatment," Fugaku commented with a dry tone. Everyone jerked their head at him and the man offered them a blank look. "There is no chance of reasoning with him even if all of you change your behavior towards his niece. If all of you just change your behavior then it will raise more questions, especially from Naruto."

Shikaku eyed him. "You think she would realize the sudden shift and question things?"

"I don't know what your son told you but Uzumaki Naruto is more perceptive than all of you believe," Fugaku replied, looking at his wife before looking back at them. "Yes, she caused trouble and she does not have good scores but the child isn't actually dumb and naïve. The right opportunity to fix this…behavior should have been made when the girl began to go to the playground to play or in the first year of the Academy."

It is too late to fix this.

Hiruzen closed his eyes, took a deep breath and wished not for the first time that he hadn't signed that stupid contract.

A/N: Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter and what you think about the alternate reality for this story. For anyone that is curious, the guardian series in AO3 is different from the one here because there are several things that needed to be change due to certain revelations in the manga and Naruto having a Quirk as well as certain changes in the story.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and the interaction between Kenji and Naruto in this chapter.