Hello everyone, I've brought you the next chapter.

I've received a couple of complaints about Anko being 12 years older than Naruto, so I'm thinking of changing her age to 8-10 years older than him. And she's not going to be a pedophile, the fact that she's so much older will be a problem for her (and not only her) at first,

then other circumstance will solve this.(no, Naruto won't age in a night)

CHAPTER 7 – GROWING UP

Life in the hidden leaf village was peaceful, shaken every now and then by pranks whose instigator had never been caught, but relatively quiet.

Of course the fact that those pranks started when Tsunade and her son came back was just a coincidence.

The yondaime sighed looking out of the window in his office.

He remembered being a prankster himself when he was younger,

but painting the hokage tower like it was on fire in one night without being seen by the anbu spoke highly of the mysterious prankster's skills. Someone even suggested leaving the tower like that as it was actually kind of cool.

The hokage didn't really care, he was just happy that no one had witnessed Naruto's more vicious side when he had made the mistake of listening to Jirayia-sensei. He blushed slightly at the memory.

FLASHBACK

Minato was in Tsunade's house. He had come to give her some documents about the last council meeting, but that had been forgotten as soon as the chair under him had disappeared, making him fall on his butt.

He caught a glimpse of a hysterical laughing child before the blond medic calmly asked him if he had given Naruto something.

"Uh, yes. Jirayia-sensei said me to give him a sweet from him and-"

"And you did it? Damnit, I thought you were smart! SHIZUNE! We have a child on high sugar!"

Minato looked at her while she was giving him her back and a random thought crossed his mind 'When the hell did that little kid make a braid in her hair?'

The dark haired girl joined them carrying Ton-Ton with her before the pig could fall victim to the now excited kid. She seemed worried and looked right and left "How did it happen? You made him promise not to eat it."

"This blond excuse for a hokage trusted the little pervert and gave him a sweet from him. I'm so gonna make a toad supper tonight."

Minato scratched his head, "Oh come on, how serious could it be?"

Shizune glanced at him, "Well, if I had to take a guess from what he did to Jirayia... Then you should keep a hand on your pants, otherwise you'll loose them."

"Aww, Shizu-nee-chan! You shouldn't say those kinds of things, there's a little kid here! You're a naughty pervert!" Naruto chimed in.

Minato blushed furiously and looked out of the window.

Shizune seemed to have a mental breakdown, she turned a shade of red that seemed radioactive, and was opening and closing her mouth unable to speak.

Tsunade... Well, she was laughing so much she had trouble breathing.

"However you probably should have listened to her," Naruto added adjusting a dark blue scarf around his neck.

'Wait a second…Minato thought, 'That…isn't a scarf. It looks like my...' With a horrified expression he looked down to see his pants were missing.

Meanwhile Shizune regained her ability to speak, "YOU LITTLE SMARTASS! COME HERE!"

He was still a bit out of it when he heard Tsunade snicker, "Minato-kun, are those frogs on your boxers?"

"They were a present," He tried to justify himself. This was quickly become the most embarrassing experience in his life.

FLASHBACK ENDS

The yondaime shook his head. That day he and Shizune had chased him until three hours later he decided that drastic measures were in order and used the Hiriashin to take a hold of him.

The fact that Tsunade smirked at him every time they met since then didn't make it any better.

He seriously considered making a specific law to forbid anyone to give

Naruto anything with sugar in it until he was old enough to control himself.

Shizune was working at the hospital.

The other medics looked at her as an authority on medicine but being Tsunade's apprentice had that kind of effect on people.

Her sensei herself refused the offer to work there saying she'd rather stay home with Naruto, but added that if they had cases which really needed her intervention then she'd come.

It was left unsaid that should Naruto have even a paper-cut she'd come destroying everything in her way.

Between her new colleagues she made friend with Rin, one of Minato's old students.

And speaking of the blond hokage, she remembered the talk she had with her otuoto about Him

FLASHBACK

Shizune had just finished her shift at the hospital and was preparing to leave when the door of the changing room burst open.

Turning to look who it was, she saw Rin who was leading a familiar kid with dark goggles.

"Here you are, Shizune! See, we found her!"

Shizune smiled "Naru-chan, what are doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Sensei dismissed class early 'cuz when we came back from practice his desk and the benches were glued to the ceiling. At first he thought it was genjutsu."

Shizune sweat dropped "You wouldn't happen to know how it happened, would you?"

"What? Of course no, nee-chan, I was doing practice with the rest of the class!" Naruto said it with so much innocence, surprise and conviction that Shizune wondered if he should forget being a ninja and try to become an actor. He definitely had talent.

"Well, what should I do with you now? I had told Minato that I would have lunch with him."

"Are you dating him, Nee-chan?" the question made him sound wary.

"No, we're just friends. And even I were it wouldn't be your business." She said the last sentence teasingly pinching his nose.

"You're my nee-chan, and it's my duty to make sure you don't end up with a jerk that isn't good enough for you."

Shizune promptly ignored Rin's comment about how sweet he was.

"So you think that Minato-kun, the fourth hokage, the legendary yellow flash, one of the most caring, brave, kind and handsome man in the whole fire country…You think that he isn't good enough?"

"Maybe. For now he has to make you happy, because if you hurt her I'll choke you with your legs Blondie."

"Hehe, got it."

Shizune turned towards the door and to her horror Minato was standing there, 'Oh my god he heard that. What do I do, what do I do?'

FLASHBACK ENDS

After that she and Minato had gone to have lunch together, while Naruto said he would stay with Rin.

However, the fact that they talked, enjoyed themselves during lunch, and

even that Minato asked her out didn't stop her from trying to make her little brother in a pincushion later.

Tsunade was happy. She was happy to be back in her native village, something she didn't think was possible since Dan's death.

She even left the cottage every now and then to wander around in town.

She looked at her son with a smile. It was unreal how fast and deeply they grew fond of each other.

The fact that they didn't share the same blood seemed to make their bond even stronger rather than weakening it.

The only one that gave it any importance was Danzou, who decided that Naruto wasn't important because he didn't have the shodaime's blood.

This made Tsunade happier, if she thought about what Orochimaru had done in his attempts to recreate her grandfather's mokuton abilities…

She dismissed those thoughts and looked at the three children under a nearby tree.

Two were playing shogi while the third was eating a bag of chips.

Chouji and Shikamaru had become Naruto's best friends, mostly because both the Inuzuka's dogs and the Aburame's bugs were wary of him. Probably they felt the power of his bloodline somehow.

As for the Uchiha, Naruto seemed to have an inexplicable dislike for him.

It had nothing to do with his arrogance or even the fact that he was the best student.

Actually it was plainly obvious that Naruto held back because he didn't want the other boy to go after him.

Then there were the girls. Putting aside the fact that crazy fan girls weren't exactly friendly, he seemed more interested in older girls, like Hana and that one who worked at the ramen stand, Ayame.

Girls...Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle when she remembered their meeting with the civilian council, telling them about how their daughters had to defeat her for her son's hand in marriage had been one of the funniest things ever.

FLASHBACK

"Tsunade-sama, it's a pleasure to see you again. We wanted to welcome you and your son back, we heard that Hyuuga-sama has already made a proposal for his daughter."

The female sannin couldn't bring herself to care about what she used to call 'the useless and stupid part of the council'.

Then again, when she was young she called the clan heads

and the elders 'the stupid part of the council.'

She hated politics, and she had never had the patience or the diplomacy to deal with 'the old fools.'

On the other hand Naruto seemed to like this new game and, if the meeting with the clan heads was anything to go by, he was really good at it too. So she decided to just let him play.

"Hello, I'm Naruto. You're the civilian council, right?"

An old merchant answered him "Yes, you're right boy. Some years ago the yondaime hokage split up the council in two part to make things easier. But you'll understand that better when you're older…"

"So, now you take care of the internal economy of the village, taxes, and trades; while the elders and the clan heads take care of the military forces and at the same time defend your trades with other countries and provide money to invest from outside sources with their missions."

Tsunade toyed with the idea of making him clan head now and letting him go to the council meetings in her place in her mind.

"You're a very smart kid, Naruto," another man said, "Do you plan to be a ninja? Yes? And you said you're six? What a coincidence, my daughter is your age and will start the academy next month, I'm sure you can be friends. I hope Hyuuga-sama won't be senselessly jealous."

"Why should she? It's not like we're engaged or anything."

This surprised the civilians "What? We thought Hiashi-sama told you about his intentions?"

Naruto grinned at them "Ah, that. Yeah, he did but he can't force me, and if he tries my mom will take care of everything!"

When they looked at her Tsunade couldn't suppress an evil smile, "Right, you don't have to worry about anything Naru-chan, mom will make sure that whoever comes won't get to you if she isn't good enough."

"May we ask what you're talking about Tsunade-sama?"

"Of course. You see, as the other clan heads already know, anyone who wants to arrange a marriage with my son is free to do so, the only requirement is that his future wife has to beat me in an all-out sparring match."

The blond medic thought she had seen an old lady faint before she turned to go home with little Naruto.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"What are you thinking?" Shikaku asked.

They took turns housing the kids in the afternoon, they were at his house today.

"Just remembering the faces of the council members when they realized they will have to pass over my body to get to Naruto. Quite literally," She answered with a smile.

"Right, Inoichi was wondering why he wouldn't want to marry many girls last night. I said him that if I were him I'd do the same, life is hard enough with just one woman."

As soon as he finished speaking a wooden spoon impacted with his head. "Did you say something, honey?" Yoshino, Shikaku's wife, asked glaring at her husband.

"Nothing, dear," He waited for her to go back in the house before whispering "troublesome woman."

Shogi had quickly become one of Naruto favourite games.

He and Shikamaru could be seen playing almost everyday, even during class. They just communicated what they were moving and where, the board and pieces in their mind.

Today however they were out of school and under a tree, where they could use them. Naruto moved a piece and went back to reading his book.

It seemed that even Shikamaru could be riled up if you gave him a good reason, like beating him at shogi while reading at the same time.

The book in question wasn't one of those orange ones his godfather wrote. The first and last time Jirayia gave him that as a birthday present his kaa-san sent him to sleep at Shikamaru's while she had a word with "that fucking stupid pervert with a shit-brain".

He thought he heard some girlish screams for mercy that night.

It was one about myths and demons. Since Iruka-sensei mentioned the nine bijuu during class and gave an outline of what jinchuuriki were, Naruto had made it his personal task to find out all the info he could about it.

Closing his book, the orange clad boy looked at the board.

After a couple of minutes he met Shikamaru's eyes "A draw?"

The pineapple haired boy nodded. "At least I haven't lost. So, what about tomorrow?"

"What about it?" Naruto asked tilting his head.

"You didn't forget it, did you? Tomorrow there's the graduation exam.

Do you plan to hold back for it too?"

"Of course," Naruto replied with a frown "I'll leave the title of rookie to Sasuke, his head is big enough for just one thought at a time, and if I were to do better than him he will never leave me in peace no matter what. Single minded obsessive prick."

Chouji snickered at his comment and then went to look at the clouds with the other two, the only difference was that he had a bag of chips with him.

He was happy that Shikamaru and Naruto were his friends.

Both of them were very smart and didn't judge him because of his appearance.

And while Shikamaru was a family friend, Naruto appreciated good food.

He had never really understood why when he invited him to come with him at that new cake shop an anbu stopped them though, it did seem to have something to do with sugar.

Regardless Naruto had his moments, like when he entered the classroom crashing through on the window the second day of school.

He said the door was boring.

Then went to seat down and slept the rest of the morning.

His explanation was that the lesson was boring too.

The day after that a twelve year old Naruto went to school wondering how many of his classmates would be able to graduate to become genin.

When he arrived he took a seat near Chouji , leaned his head on the table and promptly fell asleep.

The fact that he always wore his dark goggles had been a blessing the past six years, with them on the teachers weren't able to tell if he had his eyes open or closed, letting him sleep unnoticed.

He was jerked awake just before the start of the exam.

The first part was a written test to which he answered correctly except for a question that he left blank without even reading it.

The second part was a little more interesting: kunai and shuriken throwing accuracy. He hit bull's eyes with all his kunai except the last, which ended up going through a window interrupting another class's lesson. Unintentionally, of course.

Finally the last part was one of the three basic ninjutsu (kawarimi, henge, and bunshin) chosen randomly by Iruka-sensei.

Naruto had to do three bunshin.

He managed to do

them thanks to his mother teachings about chakra control. Seriously, he was sure that breathing used more chakra than that jutsu, and overloading it would have meant failing the exam.

Anyway he had passed and was now facing the hardest part of the whole ordeal.

'Do I take the hitai-ate with the black cloth or the one with the red cloth? Mmmmmh…'

He had been standing there for ten minutes now, and Mizuki seemed to want nothing more than to strangle him while Iruka had a vein pulsing on his forehead. Suddenly the boy had an idea on how to choose.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, do you fear more seeing blood or being in the darkness?"

The chuunin blinked at the random question, "I think being in the darkness, it can be dangerous if we can't see our enemy."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks!" He took the black headband and went out where his mother and nee-chan were waiting him, leaving behind two very confused teachers.

After celebrating Naruto went out for a walk.

He liked walking in the forest at night it made him feel free and at peace.

It took a lot of promises that he would be careful before Tsunade allowed him to wander alone, but in the end he was still inside the village so he convinced her.

Besides he was a ninja now.

Naruto closed his eyes and listened to the nightly sounds of the forest: the crickets, an owl, the wind between the branches, a panting ninja coming his way… Wait, that's not normal.

The young genin hastily put up his goggles that were hanging on his neck and went to see who was there and why.

Hiding behind a tree he observed the clearing in front of him.

Mizuki was there, panting and holding a big scroll that didn't looked like it was his, in fact it looked like the forbidden scroll.

How the chuunin managed to steal it Naruto didn't know nor did he care.

Sneaking behind him, he moved with the usual speed and precision he used to steal things, and took the forbidden scroll without him noticing. Naruto however wanted to know why Mizuki betrayed the village.

"Are you going somewhere, sensei?"

Mizuki spun around and released a sigh of relief when he saw who it was. For a second he feared the anbu had already caught him. "Naruto, you shouldn't be out here this late. I was just doing my patrol around the village."

The boy raised an eyebrow, did he really think he was so stupid? "With the forbidden scroll on your back? Ok, let me rephrase that. Where had you planned to go after betraying the village and why did you do it?"

Mizuki then saw that the orange clad boy had taken the scroll from him.

He cursed, he didn't have time for this, and now he'll have to kill him making an enemy out of one of the sannin. However… his master, Orochimaru, was the strongest sannin, and the last time the great Tsunade had lost someone dear to her she simply went away to get drunk and

gamble away her money, so maybe it wasn't that bad.

"I'm sorry brat, you shouldn't have come here tonight. I wonder if your mother will go to drown herself in alcohol again or she'll just decide to put an end to her lif-"

He was stopped by a hand that grabbed his face. Suddenly he felt himself being smashed through a tree and onto the ground.

The hand still hadn't released its hold and looking

up Mizuki saw that it was Naruto's. The young genin then leaned closer, "Shhh... Trust me, you really don't want to say that." The tone with which he said that sent chills down Mizuki's spine.

And his fear only increased when Naruto took off his dark goggles and stared him in the eyes, their faces only an inch from each other.

Glowing red eyes with slits for pupils looked

right through him, locking his very soul in an ice-cold grip.

Then he spoke again, his voice a barely audible whisper. "If you EVER mock or insult my mother, I swear I'll make you beg me to kill you before I even start. Is that clear?"

Mizuki tried to nod, but he couldn't move.

He couldn't breath. He couldn't think. Even his heart had trouble beating. All he was able to do was looking into those red slitted eyes and feel terror.

Then Naruto picked him up for his shirt and punched him.

Both of them could hear clearly the snap of several ribs before the chuunin coughed up blood and fell unconscious to the ground.

Naruto closed his eyes and took deep breathes. 'Stay calm, calm down, it wouldn't be good to kill him now, he didn't say anything after all.

Now go and clean up this mess.'

Opening his eyes again he crouched down on beside the traitor and concentrated. Slowly a red energy covered his right hand.

Naruto then touched Mizuki's forehead and murmured "delete".

Once he did that, the red eyed boy took the scroll, opened it and started to read. The first jutsu, the kage bunshin, was an interesting technique that basically required only a large amount of chackra to work.

Naruto smirked, 'Loads of chacka, mh? Lucky me.'

Putting the information on that jutsu aside, he gave a look at what else was in there, when he came across something that caught his eye.

'Well, well, well, what do we have here? Shiki Fuujin, a sealing technique that summons the Shinigami himself.

It seems it's true that no one is invincible, with this it's possible to seal away and eventually kill anything,' Naruto thought to himself.

Then a smile appeared on his face. 'But if it's true that nothing is invincible, then even this jutsu has a weakness.

The first is obvious, it can be used just once because it claims

the user's life. However there is another, here it says that the sealer must pull out his enemy's soul, so it can be assumed that, if he's severely injured or weakened and the opponent has a strong will, the soul extraction can be fought and even beaten, making the sealing effectively useless.'

Naruto continued to study the sealing jutsu until he heard someone approaching.

He pulled up his goggles and closed the scroll before standing up to greet whoever was coming.

It turned out that they were a couple of anbus who were looking for Mizuki. Naruto simply handed them the forbidden scroll and pointed at the still unconscious traitor.

"He badmouthed my mother, so I punched him like she taught me."

The two anbus couldn't help but cringe thinking just how strong his mother punched. If this brat had acquired even half of that strength…

"Oh crap, my mom! She's gonna kill me I'm late, very very very laaaate. See you around!" Naruto left the anbus with Mizuki and the scroll while he ran home.

"… then he ran home." The anbu finished his report.

Minato nodded and dismissed him.

The security in the village really needed to be improved if a single chuunin could cause all these problems. What puzzled him the most however,

was that he couldn't see Mizuki in the crystal ball, something that Sarutobi said had never happened before.

Just when the anbu opened the door, another kunoichi came in yelling rather loudly.

"HOKAGE-SAMA! Nice evening don't you think? I've come to thank you for sending me that little toy to play with!"

"Hi Anko, how did it go with Mizuki? Has he said anything?"

The purple head sat on his desk and crossed her legs, letting her coat show her not-so-much-covered body underneath.

Minato idly wondered how hard Naruto would punch him if he saw him now.

"Yeah, the little shit stain told me who he worked for," Anko said seriously, every trace of playfulness gone, "Seems the snake bastard was behind this. Do you remember that mission when one of Mizuki teammates' mysteriously died?"

The blond hokage nodded, they had a suspicion that it was Mizuki who killed him but couldn't prove it.

"Well that's when that traitorous bastard contacted him.

As for what happened tonight, he can't remember what happened, just that he met Tsunade-sama's boy and he punched him. He wet himself when I asked if he insulted the boy's mother, though."

The yondaime hummed to himself "Probably his memory is confused from the hit on his head, but he wet himself because he subconsciously knows that whatever he said caused his situation."

Before anything could be added there was a knock on the door.

It was the jounin sensei that would meet their new teams tomorrow, and among them Minato could see his old student Kakashi, the Sandaime's son Asuma, and…

"Look who's here, her Majesty the genjutsu princess." Anko greeted leaking sarcasm.

"Mitarashi-san, last I heard you were in the torture and interrogation department. Do you mind explain what are you doing on the hokage's desk?" asked Kurenai Yuuhi with equal bite.

It was a widely known fact that the two couldn't stand each other.

Kurenai thought that Anko behaved like a whore, and her choice of clothes just confirmed it…And Anko couldn't stand that the 'pretty princess' looked down on her with that air like she was better than her.

The fourth however wouldn't have them arguing in his office. "I'm sorry, but there had been a little incident earlier. If you all could wait a second, we'll begin as soon as Anko finishes her report."

Anko smiled triumphantly at that.

Once they were alone again Minato spoke up, "Anko listen, I know that this is your way to cope with what happened with Orochimaru and how

the villagers treat you, but you're just making it harder.

I know I can't understand what it's like, but you need to open up to people, not scaring them away, and Kurenai doesn't really hold a grudge against you, she just…"

"She treats me like a whore because she's a hypocrite bitch who looks only at the appearances. If that's all, hokage-sama, I have some work to do. By your leave."

Minato sighed, he really wanted to do more for her but he didn't know how, 'Well, I'll think of something later, now it's team assignment time."

That was it. Now I'll give the answers to some questions my beta asked, I put them here just in case you were wondering the same things.

Wow does Naruto have darker side or what?

It looks like his laid back attitude is a way to not get upset and do something that he would regret later, i.e. kill Mizuki.

And some questions would be: Where did he learn the "delete" thing? Does Tsunade know about it or has Naruto hidden it even from her?

You can say that Naruto has a darker side.

His laid back attitude is in his nature, but insulting his family means insulting everything he has and cares about, not a smart thing.

The 'delete' thing is something he learned on his own, later he'll say it's something he 'remembered'.

Ironic, isn't it? Lastly, Tsunade has trained him and raised him, so it's safe to assume she knows. She never spoke about it though, with neither Jirayia, Shizune, or even Naruto himself. Mother love…

If there are other questions just ask, I'll be happy to answer.

Keep in mind that I am purposely giving only small hints about what's up with Naruto, his mystery will be revealed only later.