Heya,

Time for a new chapter.

"…you heal even faster than your mother."

WHAT!?

Naruto shot up like a bolt, pain in the neck be damned! This guy knew his mother!?

However his reaction proved to be quite bad for himself as his chest started to pain as well, he started coughing violently and was forced to lie down again as the masked lady pinned him down by the shoulders.

"Y-you knew my mom?" Naruto asked, subdued after the initial reaction.

"Yes I did," Danzo internally smirked at the revelation, it seems that his concerns regarding Hiruzen placing the boy under Hatake's tutelage were exaggerated, the boy still had zero knowledge of his status or lineage.

It would have been appalling had it not turned the situation so completely in Danzo's favour…scratch that it was still appalling. Intelligence reports indicated that the Hidden Cloud Village had a Jinchuriki who could completely control the powers of the Eight Tailed Ox, and that the Jinchuriki of the Two-Tailed Cat was on a similar path. The Hidden Rock Village had Han of the Steam Armor, someone Danzo had personally fought and knew was a threat even though he lacked complete control over his beast, Roshi, while being on an even lower level than Han had proven his ability to utilize the Lava release from housing his Tailed beast and was a formidable fighter. The Mizukage was himself the host of the 3-Tailed Turtle and had another Jinchuriki as backup in the form of Utakata, Sunagakure had apparently failed to forge their weapon correctly, but the result had still been more desirable than what the Leaf Village currently possessed. This was not mentioning the reports of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki having manifested special abilities similar to those of the Aburame Clan in the Hidden Waterfall village, a minor power that had recently started to flex its muscle.

Throughout the elemental nations the Jinchuriki had been mobilised, they were ready and extremely dangerous.

Therefore, Danzo would ensure that Konohagakure would not lose out in the weapons race, the boy would learn to control the powers of the Fox and use it in battle; Kushina had proven that it was indeed possible without the Sharingan.

Even if the boy was not able to do so like his mother, the nearly endless well of chakra he was provided with by the Bijuu combined with his accelerated regeneration would allow him to push past the physical limits which constrained any normal shinobi. The simple speed training course alone could create a monster as fast as the Yondaime in a much shorter span of time.

Either way he would be the perfect weapon.

Danzo would ensure that the boy would obey, afterall it seemed as though he would willingly trade an organ just to know who his mother was.

Naruto for his part was hyperventilating, he had spent years running around the village asking anyone he could find about the identity of his parents. People mostly ignored him, and his caretakers at the orphanage just shouted at him to not annoy them; one particularly mean lady had told him that they had left him because he was a very bad boy.

Naruto had then vowed to be a good boy, he always listened to what his elders told him, stayed quiet, drank his milk and never complained. He did it for years as a kid, but still his parents never came back.

So in the end he asked the kind old man with the pointy hat who sometimes came to visit him when he was alone, maybe he knew about his mommy and daddy. The old guy would be able to tell them that he was a good boy now so they could take him home.

The fact that they were both dead had hit him like a ton of bricks, he had cried for days before he could bring himself to accept the fact that he would never meet his parents. Then one day some of the kids at the orphanage had started getting some stuff from a box which the caretaker had come back with. The caretaker told them that the stuff in the box used to belong to the parents of the kids before they died. Takahashi had gotten a really cool wooden sword and Kisaki had gotten a set of really pretty fans which belonged to her mother.

Naruto had run to the box as well, maybe his dad left him something really cool? Maybe his mom had made a scarf?

He grasped for something…Anything! Something to prove who he was, something which he could call his own. But the caretaker had just shooed him away saying that his parents had left him nothing.

Naruto had atleast hoped for a sewing needle, his shirt had been torn and no one would give him one to repair it.

'Maybe they were too poor'

That had been the first time Naruto had ever heard a possibility of what his parents might have been like, even though he was sure Takahashi had meant it as an insult, but Naruto had still conjured an image. Atleast it gave him a sense of belonging.

Naruto envisioned his parents living in a rusty shed, like he had seen once he had snuck out of the orphanage at night. A man had been living under a temporary shed in the forest. He didn't really seem to have much on him, dirty rags for clothes, one eye covered by an equally dirty bandana while he was boiling something blackish in an old metal can over a pile of wood.

It was easy for Naruto to think that his father could have been the same, his mother clad in something equally dirty sitting next to him with a baby version of himself in her arms just before the Kyuubi struck. The image was with him for months, and would have possibly stayed with him till date if the old man Hokage hadn't mentioned once during lunch that his parents were shinobi.

Naruto had never been happier in his life! But then the old man had just gone back saying that he didn't know who they were, but Naruto was just glad to now that his parents were ninja!

Hibachi had once mentioned that his mother had probably been a whore…whatever that meant. Maybe a whore was some kind on ninja?

But still he had no name, and now suddenly there was this old man in front of him who was casually saying that he healed faster than his mother!?

"How?" Naruto croaked, "I asked Hokage-jiji, he said even he didn't know…"

"I do not know what you have been or haven't been told," Danzo spoke, "But I know of your mother because I taught her how to be a shinobi. She used to be my student earlier."

This guy was his mother's teacher!? So was he like Kakashi-sensei to his mom? That meant she was a ninja, so why didn't the Hokage know-

"…and as for the Hokage, I believe that he does not trust you enough for you to be aware of this information." Danzo spoke.

Naruto's head whipped to the side, the excruciating pain in his neck temporarily forgotten as he glared at Danzo.

This guy was wrong! Completely and utterly wrong! Jiji was awesome-ttebayo! He came to visit Naruto at his apartment and even treated him to Ramen!

Most importantly Jiji never looked at him with those cold eyes!

Naruto was about to open his mouth and deliver a scathing rebuke to this old cripple when the man put his hand into his robe and put something on the table. Looking closely Naruto saw a photo of a lady, she had long red hair held up in a ponytail and was smiling at the camera, she had vibrant green eyes that seemed so full of life and was wearing a dark blue kimono with pretty cherry blossom petals on it.

'Beautiful,' was all Naruto could think before his attention was drawn back to the old guy.

"Her name," Danzo spoke, "Was Uzumaki Kushina, and she was the previous host of the Nine-Tailed fox before your birth."

Naruto's poor brain couldn't take it any longer and he passed out.

Danzo did his best to not let a smirk creep onto his features, he had spent a better part of the last 5 hours rehearsing what he would say to the Jinchuriki, and it seemed that his approach was working.

"All readings are normal, Danzo-sama," the medic spoke, "He should awaken in a few minutes."

Danzo remembered the time he had been called upon by Mito-sama herself to address the issue of Uzumaki Kushina's training. It had been a time after the second great shinobi war, Konoha itself had been low on strength and the nearly successful kidnapping of the maiden of the Uzumaki Clan by the shinobi of Hidden Cloud had pushed everyone on the edge.

She had not been a part of the ROOT, far from it. Mito-sama, to whom he had owed a debt of life had personally asked him to take up her training as his own student and Danzo had done as he was asked. For over 3 years Danzo had trained her to near-perfection, while she had not been very good at ninjutsu and was unable to use many of his prized wind techniques she had picked up Kenjutsu like a duck to water and had grown to become a very skilled kunoichi capable of holding out on her own against some of the most capable ninja on the continent. What she was unable to achieve in terms of ninjutsu and genjutsu had been covered by her unique capability to form chakra-chains and her hereditary skills in Fuinjutsu.

She had been his only student, the rest of his force only ever being trainees. Her strength had been formidable even before she started to call upon the beast sealed inside her; a power she was able to control to a far greater degree than her predecessor.

Despite her skills, in the end Danzo had been disappointed in her for being far too soft for his liking. During combat she would spare enemy ninja when killing would be more efficient, and had grown far too attached to the philosophy of peace as had been propounded by Hiruzen down his line of teaching. Danzo knew that the Yondaime Hokage – who happened to be her lover, had a greater role in convincing her about the philosophy, and had moved to create a distance between her and Danzo over the last few years before his death.

It was a distance Danzo had accepted, he was a Shinobi of Darkness afterall. He had been called upon to complete a mission to teach Kushina Uzumaki and had executed it flawlessly.

However inspite of the fact that he told this to Kushina, she had always referred to him as sensei whenever their paths would cross, and had more than a few times admonished both her lover and her lover's perverted teacher for not respecting him – sometimes physically as well. Even when he had been distant, she had always tried to keep in touch by writing him letters about her missions and often sending pictures such as the one he had pulled out in front of the boy.

Her marriage had been a surprise, and her pregnancy even moreso considering the perils it would bring upon the village if anything went wrong at the time of birth. There was a very good chance of the seal weakening to an extent that the Nine-Tails could break free. He had attempted to talk to Hiruzen into trying to beat some sense into the young couple, surely there were many other medical options available to couple if they desired to have a child. Danzo had even volunteered to provide a trained surrogate if required. As usual, his concerns had been brushed aside and he was told that everything was under control.

Out of options, Danzo had finally written to Kushina himself. Surprisingly she had responded and asked to meet with him.

He still remembered the meeting.

'…I understand that you are worried sensei, both for the village and for me…even if you don't admit the latter. But for Minato and me, this is something we have both wanted for a long time…our own family. I promise that we will lay down our life to protect the village if anything happens. But just this once…we want to be selfish.'

Danzo had been unable to speak anything to her thereafter. It was true that she and her husband – an idiot as the guy had been, had contributed more to the village that entire clans had in many generations. So as long as they could take all required precautions, he had stayed away.

How everything had gone so horribly wrong that night was still a question that plagued him to this day. To his knowledge a temporary hospital had been set up by Biwako Sarutobi herself for the birth, the Yondaime had been personally present to keep the seal intact and the place was guarded by 2 squadrons of ANBU.

Still despite everything the Kyuubi had managed to escape from the seal and had attacked the village. Both the Yondaime and Kushina had died that night, their corpses nearly hollow from having being impaled by the gigantic claw of the fox in an attempt to preserve the last of both their bloodlines.

Something in Danzo had snapped that night, he did not know whether it had been the sheer destruction wrought by the beast on the village he had sworn to protect, the magnitude of Shinobi lives that had been snuffed out in moments or the loss of probably the only student he had ever trained; but something dark had swirled inside his chest. The feeling had persisted, hours had turned to days, weeks and thereafter years as Danzo blamed the soft approach of Hiruzen for the tragedy that had befallen the village.

If only he had been stricter with the couple regarding alternate forms of conceiving then everything could have been avoided.

If the shinobi had been better trained, then it could have been avoided.

Konoha had needed to be stronger, it needed to be more efficient. The weaker shinobi in the forces needed to shape up or stripped of their rank, a Shinobi could not afford to be emotional in the decisions he took. Emotions clouded judgment, they forced capable men to bow to fleeting whims and fancies and ultimately ended up with death and the destruction of all those involved.

The rejection of his proposals once again was what gave birth to the current form of ROOT, as it was. Danzo had been involved in this division of the ANBU after the First Great Shinobi war, they bore no official positions and their records in the village had since long been either wiped out or manipulated to help them remain undercover. ROOT specialised in executing missions the village itself could not take openly; the basic operating procedure had been something that the Nidaime Hokage had himself written during his lifetime to create an invisible force that would protect the village from the shadows. Over the years ROOT had been active, performing political assassinations in and out of Fire Country, making deals with the underworld for information relating to security of the village, sabotaging enemy operations, planting sleeper cells, creating deep assets and when necessary, providing covert support to dissenting groups in enemy territory. The Operatives themselves were people who prima facie remained detached to the world of shinobi and would only don their shinobi garb when on a mission.

The structure had been altered under Danzo, but it changed drastically after the attack by the Nine-Tails. Soon enough Danzo had stopped recruiting from ANBU or the regular forces and had instead started recruiting children, who were conditioned to discard emotions and trained to the limits of their abilities. Much of the old guard had been compulsorily retired, and those still in their teenaged years were conditioned in a similar way as to the children. Some of the clans had been coerced to contribute to the forces as well, bolstering their numbers and overall strength.

Hiruzen had been rather vocal about what he had described as Danzo's 'descent into darkness,' but the nearly flawless mission completion record of the new ROOT had forced him to remain silent. Still he had, over the period of a last few years argued for scaling down of ROOT operations at a time when the villages were at a relative 'peace.'

This absurdist idea had led to Danzo simply following the textbook art of deception. While ROOT operations were scaled down on the front and Danzo activated the underground cell, whereby a major chunk of ROOT operations were now conducted directly under Danzo and completely outside of the purview or knowledge of the Hokage. Danzo had even utilised some of Orochimaru's connections for information in the past, but Mizuki's attempted defection meant that he had be more wary of the snake.

A snake who seemed to be more than willing to dishonour agreements, perhaps he could report the last known location of the snake to the Hidden Mist they had certainly wanted to extract their pound of flesh from the snake…that was if those idiots could find some free time after slaughtering their own clans for something as ridiculous as possessing a Bloodline.

Naruto groggily opened his eyes, he had just had the weirdest dream wherein an old guy wearing bandages had told him that a pretty-red haired lady was his mother.

Really weird.

As he tried to move a searing pain shot through his body, his brain suddenly went into overdrive as he observed his surroundings.

He was in a hospital. Check.

The old guy was here. Check.

The photo of the pretty read-haired lady was in front of him. Check.

Conclusion: This was definitely not a dream!

"It seems you have woken up," Danzo spoke, "I believe you would like to see this for yourself."

Danzo made a gesture as the medic moved and loosened some of the restrictions on Naruto's arms and raised the back of the bed to get him into a semi-sitting position.

Wordlessly Danzo picked up the photo-frame and handed it to the boy.

Naruto took the frame as carefully as he could, delicately cradling the frame in one arm Naruto ran his fingers over picture. He felt a warmth come over his body as he continued to look at the picture. So this woman was his mother…

Wait a sec!

"How do I know you're not lying?" Naruto asked, his grip over the frame hardened. Over the years Naruto had many people lying to him about many things. There was a time he was invited into a hotel with a promise of a warm meal, but he had been kicked out the moment food had been served before him before he could even take a bite.

The patrons laughing at his face as he looked on in confusion.

"Whether or not you choose to believe me is upon you," Danzo spoke, having anticipated the question, "However there are 2 factors I believe I should tell you which will aid your process of arriving at a conclusion."

Naruto just looked at the guy, and he continued.

"Firstly," Danzo spoke, "I have nothing to gain from lying to you about this and secondly," Danzo paused for a moment, "If the Hokage were to even catch a whiff of me revealing this information to you, he would have me executed."

Naruto just sat stunned, was this guy really saying the truth?

'But again,' Naruto thought, 'Mizuki-teme said that there was a law about me and the Fox, so maybe this was something similar?'

No longer as excited as he had been a few moments ago Naruto let his shoulders relax, while Mizuki had revealed this information about the fox and had just tried to kill him…this guy felt a bit different. There was something inside Naruto which told him that this guy was telling the truth and Naruto wanted to know more.

But that just begged the question as to why this guy would reveal this information to him if it could get him killed; did he want to kill him and leave the village like Mizuki-teme did?

'No,' Naruto thought, 'If he just wanted to take it out on me, he wouldn't have me patched up like this.'

Plus the guy didn't have the same cold eyes as the villagers, while they weren't warm like Iruka-sensei or the Hokage, but Naruto knew that this guy certainly didn't hate him.

Which could only mean that this guy wanted something from him, and was willing to trade information for whatever he wanted despite risking death.

"I take it that you wish to know what I gain from revealing something like this to you, despite the risk of death?"

Naruto nodded, this guy was good. Definitely a ninja.

"For one," Danzo spoke, "You are the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and occupy a key position in the village. That is in not just keeping the fox at bay but also as a deterrent from potential to other villages who might be willing to attack us."

"Jinchuriki?" Was all Naruto could ask.

"Literally," Danzo spoke, "It means the power of human sacrifice; figuratively it is a term used for persons who have been used to seal a Tailed Beast, the Nine-Tailed fox would be a most fitting example."

"So," Naruto could feel himself sweat, "There are others…like me?"

"Indeed," Danzo spoke, "Even your mother was one, however it would be more convenient to tell you everything in a more structured manner. I take it you are willing to be an obedient listener?"

"Yes," Naruto spoke, he wanted to know everything about himself and his family.

After what seemed like a whole day of talking the old guy was done, and Naruto was, for a lack of vocabulary, blown out of his mind.

In this world, there had resided Bijuu – the tailed beasts. They were beings composed almost completely of chakra and were known to wield massive power. No one really knew where they came from, and theories ranged from scientific experiments of an old civilization to them being created by the Sage of the Six Paths, the mythical progenitor of all Chakra. The Nine-Tailed Fox was said to be the strongest of them all, but had remained elusive for centuries.

Over the years, many people had tried to tame these beasts but had failed. This was until a clan in Wind Country had managed to weaken the One-Tailed Racoon and seal it inside one of their clansmen, creating the world's first known Jinchuriki. This had led to chaos in the world, and therefore 2 of the strongest clans at the time, the Uchiha and the Senju had entered into an alliance and set up this village as a deterrent to attacks from foreign powers. The arrangement had worked until one day the Head of the Uchiha clan had left the village in rage, and had come back later with the bane of Naruto's existence.

The Nine-Tailed Fox.

Apparently able to control the Fox with some new 'Sharingan' as the guy had described, the man known as Madara Uchiha had attacked the village and the Shodaime Hokage had fought him with his wife – Mito Senju, her maternal name being Mito Uzumaki.

The Uzumaki themselves were a clan closely related to the Senju and had their ancestral home on an island near Water Country. They were known for 3 things, their sensory abilities, their strong vitality and their skills in the Art of Fuinjutsu – the ability to create and utilise seals.

Mito Uzumaki had used her Fuinjutsu skills to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox inside her body once it had been temporarily suppressed by the Shodaime Hokage using his special ability – The Wood Release, a cool technique only he alone could use. Mito-sama had thereafter borne the burden till her death, which was then transferred onto his mother – Kushina Uzumaki.

His mother had been born in the traditional stronghold of the Uzumaki, in Whirlpool Country. She had been specifically sent to the Hidden Leaf to bear the burden because the Uzumaki Bloodline ran strong in her, and she had a special Chakra which was suited for the task. Apparently the chakra of the Fox was very…bad and it had been concluded that only someone with a very strong life force could take the burden, therefore his mother becoming the Jinchuriki had been a foregone conclusion. The old man told him that she did not desire to do it, but she had little choice in the matter.

It was then that the Hidden Eddy Village, the home of the Uzumaki was destroyed by an attack coordinated by the Hidden Cloud, the Hidden Rock and the Hidden Mist Village. They had learnt about the advantage of having an Uzumaki as a Jinchuriki and had demanded that those strong in the blood must be handed over to create strong weapons. The Uzumaki had naturally refused, and the villages had attacked. The Hidden Leaf, involved already in an ongoing war with the Hidden Sand village had been unable to provide any reinforcements in time and the village had been destroyed, a major portion of the island had simply been sunk.

What little remained of the Uzumaki had been scattered across the continent, most of the people that had been recued were civilians but they had moved away from the Hidden Villages, trying to put the world of Shinobi behind them.

Kushina Uzumaki herself had been kidnapped once by the Hidden Cloud after the incident in an attempt to create a perfect Jinchuriki but had been rescued by the village. She had then been trained by this old man for years before she became a Jonin and served as a frontline fighter.

The most surprising part of the discussion being that she had been able to 'use' the fox, something Naruto failed to understand.

"It is natural afterall," Danzo spoke, "A bijuu is far too powerful an entity to be completely sealed away. The seal on a Jinchuriki itself is heavily dependant on drawing chakra from the host to keep the beast at bay, so when your own chakra depletes beyond a certain level the beast tries to push its own chakra to replace it in order to loosen the seal. Mito-sama herself had never been a frontline fighter, firstly due to her status and secondly due to the sheer strain the seal put on her body. The strain caused her to age prematurely and would often leave her drained even if she never did anything remotely tiring."

"On the contrary," Danzo paused before continuing, "Your mother's seal was a true work of Art, in order to set-off the drain the seal put on her body a different approach was adopted which allowed some of the Fox's chakra to slowly seep into her system gradually to bolster her own reserves. As a side effect she was able to even draw on its power to some extent without loosening the seal too much, and combined with her skills it made her a very formidable frontline fighter. I daresay your seal should be similar."

Naruto gulped at the revelation, he would be able to use the Fox!?

"But then, what happened?" Naruto asked, his mom sounded like a really cool and strong lady.

So how did she die? How come the Kyuubi attack the village if it was sealed inside her? Did it get free somehow?

"Unfortunately," Danzo spoke, "The exact details of what happened at the time of your birth, but there are a few things we know."

Naruto stayed silent, smirking internally at having completely gained his trust, Danzo continued, "Pregnancy is especially straining on a Jinchuriki, therefore-"

"Proganancy?" Naruto asked.

"Pregnancy," Danzo spoke, not letting his irritation reflect in his voice, "I take it you do not know what it means?"

"No," Naruto spoke.

"It is when a woman is carrying her child inside her body," Danzo spoke, he was irritated at having to explain something this sublime to the boy, but continued as it was necessary for his manipulation, "Surely you have seen a few women around the village with bigger stomachs, they look like that because they are carrying their future children inside their body before they are strong enough to be born in this world."

'So they weren't just fat?' Naruto thought, internally he pictured his mom having a big tummy with him inside.

The image made him feel warm.

"…and as I was saying," Danzo continued, "It is a very strenuous period for a woman, and with your mother being a Jinchuriki herself it was even more difficult. The child inside the body is very demanding, and in case of shinobi a major part of the chakra inside the woman is directed to nourishing the child, as a result the seal holding the beast can weaken and it can make an attempt to escape."

Naruto felt like a stone dropped in his stomach, was it because of him that the Fox got free? Did his mother die because she was carrying him?

"Therefore Kushina Uzumaki's pregnancy was kept a classified secret," Danzo edged on, "Biwako Sarutobi, the late wife of the Sandaime Hokage herself was tasked with ensuring a safe birth and the foremost sealing experts of the village were deputed to ensure that the Bijuu would not escape and you would be born safely."

"Then why…" Naruto could feel his throat go dry, if everything was already arranged then what happened? How did his mom die?

"The details are still unclear," Danzo spoke, "The site of the temporary hospital was razed to the ground during the attack. However my suspicion is that someone had attacked Kushina and set the beast free, as there is no other conceivable manner in which something could have gone wrong otherwise. The seal on your mother was far too advanced to have been simply broken by the fox despite her weakened status; but nobody except the Hokage knows, multiple attempts to obtain that information from my side have been rebuffed." This wasn't a complete lie, even though Danzo didn't have official access to the files, it never meant he didn't know what was in them. But in order to turn the boy he would have to play like this.

For the first time since the conversation had started, Naruto felt angry towards the Hokage. Not only was he never told who his mother was…but to keep the knowledge of death a secret as well?

Did the Hokage trust him at all?

Were those ANBU always trailing him for his safety, or did they just keep an eye on him?

Naruto suddenly wasn't so sure anymore.

For his entire life, Naruto had been alone. No caretaker would talk to him in the orphanage except when absolutely necessary. He was not allowed to talk to the other children of the orphanage and wasn't even allowed in the general playing area. Sometimes this led to Naruto sneaking out from the place at night, but the reactions of the people on the street weren't really favourable either.

At all those times, it was Hokage-jiji who had come to visit Naruto. He had been the only one to greet the boy with a smile, to acknowledge him and not look at him with those cold eyes he was generally used to.

It was Hokage-jiji who got him the apartment he was living in, and entered him into the academy so that he could be a ninja.

It was the persona of the man itself that gave Naruto the dream to become the Hokage. If he could be like that then everyone would respect him!

Now, suddenly he felt himself doubt everything that had happened with him. He had come to an understanding that not being told about the fox had been for his own benefit, but the episode in his mind had somewhat warped that as well. What if he didn't know about the Fox? What if Mizuki-teme had never run-off his mouth and told him? Would he have lived then? How easy it could have been for the Fox to trick him when he didn't know what he was?

As a great topping to this really bitter bowl of Ramen, he had come to know that he had a family – one that the Hokage knew about but kept from him.

No, the Hokage didn't just hide the truth – that was something Naruto could have forgiven.

The Hokage had lied, even after the incident with Mizuki-teme when Naruto had asked him again, about everything that had happened in his life and about the Fox; but he had been told nothing. The same old routine had passed once again, there was no news about parents or who he was; the only thing he had learnt that the Yondaime had wished for Naruto to be seen as a hero by the village.

Why did he not tell him that he had a family? That his mother loved him enough to brave the Fox for him? That his mother had once borne the same burden that he did? That he was not the first to bear the burden like this?

Knowing all this…Naruto felt himself re-evaluating everything in his life.

Suddenly he felt very numb.

"What," Naruto croaked, "about my dad?"

"I know of his identity as well," Danzo spoke, much pleased as to how vulnerable the boy was now, there was no trace of his earlier boisterous and rebellious personality and an unsureness of everything he had assumed he knew, "But you must understand, I have already put myself in a very uncomfortable position by revealing what I have, if anyone were to know then-"

"I'll never tell on you-ttebayo!" Naruto spoke, suddenly as if broken out of a trance, "I swear that I'll never tell anyone what you told me, that's a promise!"

"Good," Danzo spoke, he had obtained the boy's loyalty to a great degree now, all that was let was to press a few more buttons, "But any further information you desire will only be revealed once you make another promise Naruto-san."

"What is it!?" Naruto asked eagerly, he had already known that this guy would want something from him in return.

But right now Naruto would give him his hand if he wanted.

"Firstly," Danzo spoke, "You are to swear by the fact that you shall protect the village with your life if so required, you will place the village above all else. Do you agree?"

"Absolutely!" Naruto spoke, just that? He was going to do it anyway!

"Secondly," Danzo spoke, "You will have to accept my terms of service, a deal if you must."

Naruto gave the guy a pointed look, he had known that the guy wouldn't reveal life-threatening information to him without asking for something in return. But could he want?

It didn't look like he wanted money, because he had to know that the blond didn't have any.

So what could he want? Naruto was having a headache thinking too much and therefore just went ahead as he always did.

"Tell me what kind of deal is it Jiji-ttebayo!? I swear I'll do anything to know more!"

Afterall, what could this old guy do that hadn't been done to him already?

So let me know what you guys think.

Until then, Bye!