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"…I swear I'll do anything to know more!"

Danzo forced down a smirk as he heard those words, 'Hiruzen is a fool, now he will know what I was talking about when I said that this boy could be the village's greatest strength.'

"I see," Danzo spoke, "However I will describe the deal to you before you consider your final decision. It relates closely to the events tied to your birth."

Naruto looked on, there was something more relating to his birth?

"Soon after your status was revealed," Danzo spoke, "I had propositioned to the Hokage that you should have been raised separately, and your status kept a guarded secret – similar to what was done with your mother and Mito-sama before. However…"

…

"…and therefore, what I propose is that you will report to me and serve as a guardian of the village. In return I offer the same training I provided to your mother, even more if you have the talent and tenacity to learn what she could not."

Naruto sat still as he contemplated the Danzo's words. As the old man said, had asked that Naruto should have been raised in secret – with ninja who would train him to harness and control his chakra and that of the fox. They would have made him super-strong and badass like his mom. Then Naruto would be able to go on super-cool missions and show everyone how awesome he was!

But Hokage-jiji said no, and wanted to honor the wishes of the Fourth Hokage and revealed his status to the villagers. Later when the villagers started to hate Naruto the Hokage made a law that anyone who spoke about it in the village would be killed; hoping that this would prevent the hate they felt from passing onto his generation. He had hoped that letting Naruto stay in the academy would let him make friends and become 'normal' like everyone.

'Great way to go jiji' Naruto thought, he generally didn't get sarcadim- or whatever it was called but could feel why people liked to use that.

'Normal, feh!'

All of his life, nothing had ever been normal.

No one in the orphanage treated him like another child, he was always locked away and punished for 'being a bad boy.'

People in the streets glared at him as he walked around, and when he looked back they looked away and acted as if he didn't exist.

Like he was always someone else's problem.

At the shops the people would either refuse him service, or just charge him so much that in the end he had to survive on cup-ramen.

In the academy kids made fun of him, and took away his stuff when he was not there. He was beaten around the corridors by Hibachi and his idiot gang for years before they 'graduated.' The instructors in his earlier years just plain off ignored him, no one would answer no help him no matter how politely he asked. Any attempt at lashing out was punished badly, and therefore he had finally turned to pranks. Atleast they actually talked to him like a normal boy when they were mad at him for something other than being the jail of the fox.

Naruto had endured. He had vowed to show them how awesome he was by being the Hokage.

All that when he could have grown up differently, without mean people and teachers who actually taught him. He could've known he had a family, a mom that loved him and was super strong. He could've already been an awesome ninja when he was stuck with Sasuke of all people!

It was at that moment that Naruto decided that he didn't like Hokage-jiji that much anymore. He couldn't shake the warm feeling when the old man treated him to ramen in the earlier years, but lying to him was the limit to which Naruto's forgiveness extended.

…

Danzo surveyed the boy, his lone Sharingan beneath his bandages let him clearly read the body language of the boy even beneath his bandages. He had the boy exactly where he wanted, but he had to ensure that there was a long-term loyalty imbedded inside his mind, and not just something fleeting born of temporary rage.

"You," Danzo spoke, "can take the remainder of next week to convey your response."

Naruto looked up to the guy, his eyes blazing. He wanted to join now!

"You Jounin instructor, Hatake Kakashi appears to have been chosen specifically for your team," Danzo spoke, "While I do not agree with the Hokage on many issues, you and your upbringing included, it would not be becoming of me to interfere unless you are still being kept in the dark. So I shall wait and give you the opportunity to see for yourself."

Naruto looked on at the guy, maybe Jiji wasn't that bad? Maybe Kakashi-sensei would teach him something awesome? Maybe he'd tell him who his dad was?

"Ok," Naruto spoke, his fingers tracing the frame, "I suppose I can't keep this Jiji?"

"I'm afraid not," Danzo spoke, he did not like to be addressed in such a manner but it was a testament to the fact that he had gained the boy's trust to a great extent, "Anyone who sees you with this will report it to the Hokage, and-"

"-I understand," Naruto spoke, uncharacteristically sober, "But later? Maybe when you can tell me?"

"I shall," Danzo spoke, retrieving the frame, "It is the least I can do for my only student's son."

"How," Naruto took one last look at the frame before speaking, "can I tell you? I don't remember how I even got here."

"No need to worry," Danzo spoke, "On the next Sunday morning, head to this address," Danzo handed him a slip, "and ask for the finest cheese bread. I shall contact you then."

Naruto nodded, this was a really weird way of doing this but maybe it was how the ANBU worked?

"Lastly," Danzo spoke, "though you have already promised, I need to remind you that you are to never speak of this meeting or what you have learnt to anyone else. The information I have provided to you is beyond classified. Including the fact that it was me who gave it to you will cause far too many problems for either of us to handle."

"I promise I'll never tell anyone-ttebayo!" Naruto spoke, "But what's with you giving the information? Aren't you like Jiji's friend or something? I think I've seen you near the tower."

"We used to be," Danzo spoke, "But we have not seen eye-to-eye for many years. He believes me as far too seeped in old teachings for not conforming to his philosophy, including the fact that I provided this information to you while he judged it fit not to be given would be perceived as an insult. One grievous enough to warrant death."

'An insult!? How the heck was telling me about my mom an insult to anybody!? Who the hell does Jiji think he is!?'

"I won't tell jiji," Naruto spoke with finality.

"Good," Danzo spoke, Naruto's vision began to get a bit cloudy, "Now sleep."

…

'Uhhh.'

Naruto woke up groggily on a training ground, the birds chirping around indicating that dawn had begun.

'Was that all a dream – AAAAHHH!'

Naruto felt a sharp stab of pain in his leg as memories of last night hit him. Memories of the old man…and his mother.

The bandages around his body just provided him with the proof – it wasn't a dream. He had a mother…and more importantly he had a name.

She was a pretty and an awesome ninja, and that old man had trained her!

He was gonna be just as awesome as his mom-ttebayo!

'Argh!'

"Alright," Naruto spoke, "No jumping for now."

Idly feeling around his pockets, Naruto found a wad of cash and a few ration bars. When did-

A written note fell from cash.

'For your sustenance, use wisely. There are a few doses of medicine in your jacket, to be taken after you eat something.

Destroy the note when done.'

Naruto didn't know what 'sustenance' meant, but Danzo jiji was awesome—ttebayo!

Naruto ate the ration bar, it wasn't tasty like ramen but he was really hungry. He then took a tablet from his jacket and downed it with some water from a nearby stream before tearing the note and chucking the paper in the water.

Now he had to go and meet Kakashi-sensei and his team, if Hokage-jiji had made Kakashi their teacher for a special reason then Naruto bet that he was gonna get some kickass training for today.

He'd show Sasuke then! And then Sakura-chan would see how awesome he was and agree to go on a date with him!

…

Deep underground Fuu Yamanaka bowed before his leader, he was currently awaiting orders on his assignment regarding Uzumaki Naruto.

"…shall I have Uzumaki tailed Danzo-sama?"

"No need," Danzo spoke, "from what I have seen he is most unlikely to reveal anything about the meeting. Have the on-ground assets keep an eye on him when he is not with his team, keep providing covert support to him for his necessities and make sure that he knows of the source."

"Understood Danzo-sama," Fuu disappeared in a swirl of leaves leaving Danzo to his thoughts.

His meeting with the boy had been most fruitful, and had he been a little more manipulative then the boy would've sworn his loyalty to him just on account of the rage against those who withheld his birthright.

But Danzo wanted his loyalty to be more concrete.

Hatake Kakashi, for his record was one of the best shinobi the village had as of now. The sole surviving member of the Yondaime Hokage's genin team was a genius, he had become a Chunin by the age most children started with the academy and had become a Jounin around the time he should have graduated. He had an illustrious record in the ANBU as an operative and had served as a captain for a few years before he had re-joined the pool of Jounin and served as a more public face of the village.

On record, he was probably the most suited man to lead Team 7. He was the sole surviving student of the Yondaime Hokage and therefore had a connection to Naruto Uzumaki, and being the only loyal Sharingan wielder in the village he was perfect to train Sasuke Uchiha; the Civilian born girl in the team was apparently intelligent enough to be at the top of her classes and would serve as a support fighter, perhaps a medic or a Genjutsu specialist.

Perfect on paper.

Danzo knew better than to believe it. Hatake had been slacking for years, letting his finely honed abilities degenerate to a level whereby he was just slightly better than an average Jounin. His behaviour as per mission reports indicated that he was suffering from clinical depression for an extended period of time, and had one of the worst cases of the survivor's syndrome from the amount of time he spent near the graves of his teammates. Not a very ideal choice to lead a team of freshly minted Genin.

By giving Naruto the 'choice' to choose between his and Hiruzen's path, the boy would believe he had a choice and ensure that Danzo had complete control thereafter.

It ofcourse helped that Danzo knew of all the variables in the equation quite well, and knew what choice the boy would make. Hatake had succumbed to his depression since a long time, his behaviour tilting him towards indolence.

Given the current circumstances, Danzo knew what was going to happen next week.

If Hatake had not checked up on Naruto Uzumaki on day one, he would not be doing it anytime soon. Given his indolence, he was more likely to focus on the talented genin in his team, where he could quickly observe results of what he taught and feel better about it. Naruto Uzumaki would not be in that bracket, and would most likely to be told to revise his basics with little assistance from the man until he was deemed to be at par with his teammates. Sasuke Uchiha meanwhile would no doubt receive some extra training, given the fact that he had to worry about Itachi Uchiha and was the closest thing Hatake had to his dead teammate who had given him his prized Sharingan.

The arrangement would continue, and Danzo would continue to covertly provide some for of support to the boy through the week.

In the end, Uzumaki Naruto would come to Danzo on his own will. Danzo didn't even really need to provide the support in reality, Hatake's attitude would do it for him.

Alone, Danzo allowed himself to smirk. It would probably take a few years before the boy was completely under his thumb, but it would happen.

Afterall, who was going to stop it?

…

(A farm outside the Village: Evening)

Naruto, as of the moment was seething in rage.

His day had been crappy since he got up in the training field. First off Kakashi-sensei had been 3 hours late for their meeting near the bridge, then the guy had made some really lame excuse and had somewhat calmed him down when he mentioned a mission. Naruto hoped that he could get to rescue a princess or bonk the heads of a few bandits…but pulling weeds in a farm was seriously LAME!

To make matters worse, his leg hurt despite taking the medicine the old man had given him. He had tried to explain himself to Kakashi-sensei but had been brushed off quickly and Sakura-chan had bonked him in the head for making excuses. In the end he ended up having to do most of the dirty work at the far end of the field as Sakura didn't want her new dress to be spoiled by the mud and Sasuke being the bastard he was had declared that he wasn't meant for such lowly jobs.

Naruto protested, but was bonked again by Sakura and wisely shut up.

She hit HARD!

Finally, Kakashi-sensei had taken them back to the training field in the evening to 'check on their abilities' and train. Naruto had hoped he'd impress the man and get some cool Jutsu!

Only to fall in disappointment when he was told that his method of fighting was unrefined, and that he needed to work on the basics. Kakashi-sensei had asked him read up on a few books from the academy and practice his Taijutsu before vanishing with Sasuke.

Naruto had just stomped and gone to Ichiraku, he needed Ramen NOW!

…

(Ichiraku Stand: Evening)

Naruto slurped down his 5th bowl of ramen and patted his stomach in satisfaction silently thanking Danzo-jiji for the extra money.

Smiling he paid for his food and almost missed the slip he was given with the bill.

Huh?

15, Isui market, tranpdoor behind dumpster. Get out before 7: 00 AM.

Destroy note when done.

Naruto grinned a bit, he shredded the note before dumping it. It was nice to know his mom's sensei was looking out for him but he had grown a bit attached to his old apartment. Now he had some of Jiji's money and from the mission today he could easily repay the landlord and get back to his life.

…only to discover that he couldn't. The landlord had snatched the money from him the moment he had seen it, but had refused to let Naruto anywhere near the apartment telling him that everything was booked.

"…atleast let me get my stuff!" Naruto whined, he still had a few things he could use.

"Everything you possessed has already been forfeited towards rent payment," the man spoke, "This is just enough to cover your penalty, now scram!"

The door was shut on his face, and Naruto was left alone on the street.

'I guess I could go there…' Naruto thought before he leapt away. The market area was nearly empty at night, so Naruto swiftly entered the by-lanes, moved the dumpster and found himself in a small room attached to a shop.

It wasn't really bad, there was a futon nearby so he could sleep, and there were a few ration bars and a big canister of water. Naruto took one more dose of his medicine before he opened the futon and collapsed from exhaustion. He never really noticed the masked figure staring at him as it vanished into the darkness underground.

…

"Report," Danzo spoke.

"Uzumaki Naruto is currently availing the facilities at our asset in Isui market, Danzo-sama," Fuu spoke.

Danzo nodded in affirmative, everything was proceeding as he had predicted.

…

Naruto had hoped that the next week would've been better than his first day of being a Genin, but it really wasn't.

The three members of the team would meet on the bridge everyday, and Kakashi-sensei could be anywhere between fifteen minutes to five hours late. They would then be taken on a crappy mission whereby Kakashi-sensei would read his book, Sasuke would glare at something and Sakura-chan would either be asking Sasuke out on a date or bonking him on the head for 'disrespecting Sasuke-kun.' Naruto's own attempt to ask her out resulted in even more painful bonks on the head.

After that Kakashi-sensei would taken them to a field and 'train' them. Which was mostly passing around a ball or making the 'Manji' formation around a training dummy. Then Kakashi-sensei would take them around to train them individually, Naruto's attempts to impress him were met with a disappointed look and shake of the head before he was told to work more on the basics before Kakashi would vanish, sometimes with Sasuke.

What was the special reason for him being the sensei to this team? Did Hokage-jiji really have some reason for it like Danzo-jiji said?

Well, Danzo-jiji didn't lie to him, so there had to be something.

"…so Sasuke-kun, would you like to have some dinner together, I mean it's Saturday night and…"

Sasuke stopped for a moment at her words, truthfully this was annoying him and he was almost near his limit. He needed the power to avenge all those of his clan that fell to Itachi's blade, he wasn't going to waste his time going on dates with girls that didn't even deserve to be shinobi in the first place.

He was about to turn around and tell her off a bit more forcefully but the idiot intervened.

"…Sakura-chan I wouldn't mind…"

Thankful for the distraction, Sasuke slunk away.

"Not now Naruto!" Sakura beat him off before turning, Sasuke-kun had never stopped before when she had asked him out before. Maybe this time he would…

…and he was gone.

"NA-RU-TO!" She slammed her fist into the idiot's skull again, if he had just not intervened then Sasuke-kun would've said yes. She would have finally been able to have dinner with her crush, but the idiot's incessant presence had again forced the shy Uchiha to retreat.

This was going to end now!

"Naruto," Sakura dropped him, he looked up to her as she spoke, "Understand one thing, I am never going to date you or go out with you. I don't even like being around you, but we can't change teams so I have no choice to tolerate your presence if I want to be with Sasuke-kun…"

Naruto just looked at her, this wasn't her usual anger. This was cold…cold like the villagers.

Did she know?

"…so understand this, you are a nuisance and the next time you try to ask me out," Sakura paused contemplating what she was about to say, but went ahead with it nonetheless if it could just get the blond to stop, "then I will complain to Kakashi-sensei and have you taken up for harassment. So if you want to keep that," she gestured to his headband, "and not get suspended then I recommend you never ask me out again."

Sakura finally took a long breath, "Is that understood?"

Naruto just nodded, satisfied Sakura went on ahead. If she was fast enough maybe she could catch Sasuke-kun in the street.

Naruto got up and dusted his only pair of clothes. It had almost been scary how Sakura-chan had looked at him, but then again this was the damn Bastard's fault!

Ugh!

Naruto finally sighed in frustration, nothing really seemed to be working out for him…so maybe he could take up Danzo-jiji's offer? Kakashi-sensei hadn't really told him anything about his family or taught him any cool jutsu.

Making up his choice Naruto walked to the market again.

…

(Next Morning: Himara Bakery)

Naruto walked into the normal looking bakery that was tucked away in a corner near the Hokage Tower. It being Sunday morning meant that there weren't really a lot of people around.

"May I help you sir?" A guy asked from behind the counter.

"Uh," Naruto was a bit conflicted, but images of his life flashed through his head, honestly he had been hoping that Hokage-jiji would call him into his office one day and tell him about his parents. He had hoped that Kakashi-sensei would teach him something cool…or atleast teach him to read the difficult words those books had, maybe he could tell Naruto who his dad was?

But nothing of that sort had happened. The few times he had seen Hokage-jiji in the last week nothing had happened, and the one time he had hinted about wanting to talk about the fox with Kakashi-sensei he had been hushed and then told to never talk about it with anyone. The look on Kakashi-sensei's face had been really scary, and Naruto just somehow knew that saying that he met the fox to that man would get him in big trouble.

"Sir," the guy called again, bringing Naruto back into the shop.

"Yeah," Naruto spoke, of all the people he had met, Danzo-jiji had been the only one to actually tell him about who he was, so he would go with him, "I want the village's finest cheese bread."

Afterall, what was the worse that could happen?

Please review if you like it, or even if you don't.

Until Next time!

Stay Safe.