A Crown of Black Blades

by J.B. Macleod

Massive AU. On one fateful night, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally acts. Hidden away in the mountains of Tetsu no Kuni, Naruto dreams of becoming a Shinobi. Meanwhile, a new menace, the Seifuku-sha, threatens the Elemental Nations. Hunted by dark forces and facing insurmountable odds, Naruto must forge his own path in a world full of terror, power, and betrayal.

13. Chapter 13: The Bitterest Dreg

Chapter 13: The Bitterest Dreg

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"Character is like a tree and reputation [is] its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing."

― Abraham Lincoln

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/Highway 14 from Hoseki City to Konoha

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/The Land of Fire

Naruto

Naruto watched out the window, mute and numb, as his birthplace stretched before him.

"Our final stop, Konohagakure. Commonly known by civilians as the Hidden Leaf Village, Konoha is now about thirty minutes away. There is a great view of the place on our next bend…"

A sea of white spires and titanic trees filled the horizon line. He'd been watching it out of the windows of the… vehicle….for the last few hours, mind dizzy.

The frankly unreal height of the white spires was awe-inspiring and perfectly visible from miles and miles away. The sight had become something to fixate on as if salvation lay there waiting for him. Anything was better than what he was doing now; drifting about in a liferaft on a windless sea.

Behind the vista crouched an unnaturally flat-topped mountain whose bulk stretched across the skyline behind everything, framing the skyscrapers and city like a solar eclipse, or a monster about to pounce.

On the mountain was carved what looked like faces; though they were hard to make out.

He squinted.

Naruto told himself he didn't care, but kept looking despite himself and was surprised he could recognize most of them. Only in his head would he admit it was… kinda cool.

What would that be like, to have your face carved into eternity and immortalized on that mountain?

Raido was eager to explain the Shodai Hokage's abilities as that factored into the look of the city. Naruto could barely believe it was the same fucked-up faced meany that was speaking; Raido seemed almost… excited.

According to him, and Naruto knew most of this already, the co-founders of the Hidden Village were Hashirama of the Senju Clan and Madara of the Uchiha Clan. Together, they had formed a coalition of like-minded families to found the first permanent shinobi village. That was just the first step though and their efforts led to a chain reaction through the continent. The end of the Warring Clan era was not far off after that; a period of history characterized by brutal infighting, honorless squabbling about land and techniques amongst the various clans ended, peace-or something like it-spread across the continent.

The Accords changed everything, leading to the creation of the very concept of a 'Hidden Village.' The first of the Hidden Villages, Konohagakure, had led to similar settlements under the auspices of the Hidden Village moniker. Madara and Hashirama conceived the system shinobi and Daimyo still used even a hundred or more years later, though there had been some disagreements about who listened to who in that arrangement.

Hashirama's Mokuton bloodline limit, a genetic ability unique and rare even in the Senju clan, formed the skyscrapers, as they were called. Apparently the full-powered Mokuton, or Wood Release, was so powerful when wielded by Hashirama it could make permanent free-standing buildings up to fifty stories tall. Even more than that, Hashirama's bloodline limit was the only one that could create real life, not just imitate it.

These mongrel works of glass and Mokuton-made wood were his most complex achievement; soaring towers of especially-strong white birch wood, reinforced by chakra to harden into what people now called, 'petrified wood'. Madara was said to have on par with a man who could simply create a city with his will. Naruto had scoffed and found that very hard to believe, indeed.

Naruto still remained skeptical.

Idly, he wondered if what Kurama had said back in the tunnels, impossible as it may have seemed at the time, had been the truth.

Could the Seifuku-sha really be Madara Uchiha of all people?

But that man, the Seifuku-sha, had yellow eyes…

The idea was so crazy, Naruto laughed to himself. That a man could be that powerful and still remain human, alive for so long… he figured that was why the other thousands of different clans around the world had bowed down and acceded to the idea of a formal Village system, including the Uchiha leader. Madara fought on par with that guy? The one with the Wood Release?

Impossible that these titans of chakra existed.

Probably a lie, Naruto thought scoffing. A traitorous voice in his soul spoke of Kaguya and Naruto knew that there was very much a possibility that Madara and Hashirama both had the power the legends say they had. Regardless, he continued to stare at the sights, the evidence of the power of the First Hokage staring him in the face.

Naruto felt small in the face of such a monument.

Two weeks in a powered wagon or a 'bus' as he came to know the usual term, was more than enough for Naruto to firm up his opinion that feet were the only means of transportation humans were supposed to use, regardless of the technological advancements made in the last twenty years.

The inside was nicer than anything Naruto had ever expected from a house, let alone a moving object-though nausea stopped him from enjoying himself, though it didn't stop him from luxuriating in the thick blankets and tiny pillows provided them.

Or the healthy number of snacks at the back of the bus.

Clearly they'd never expected how much he ate given how little there was left after he visited the table. Skinnier than a sapling, Naruto packed away more than anyone could ever expect. He always mentally shrugged and chalked it up to not knowing where his next meal was coming from on the street and in prison.

Though that was soon to change, he suspected.

There were other kids there with him, the couple of idiots who were insulting each other from earlier and a talkative kid named Tai who was close to his age, and several others who didn't speak and had the pinched and hungry look of street urchins.

A look he now knew well.

Naruto suspected Tai was from a wealthier family as it was written on his face and clothes and the way he approached new people; that was to say, with no wariness to him. The other kids, little all, were skittish like alley cats. Tuning Tai and the chatter out, Naruto did his best to ignore them all and instead wondered how the hell and why the hell he agreed to this exchange in the first place.

What other options did he have?

Naruto had dreamed of coming here anyway; why turn it down?

His head was spinning, his body vibrating, and it felt like he couldn't find his bearings. Naruto was used to forging ahead; survival depending on firmness of action, or panicked reaction in his case, but this situation was different. What was coming couldn't compare to what he'd endured in the Gutter. Those kids were street orphans and third sons and daughters, ill-fed and malnourished, hoping beyond hope to train so hard they became a fighter strong enough to earn a name; they understood the slim chance they had and did it anyway.

That was Naruto.

The kids he'd faced weren't even remotely shinobi caliber and now he'd have to excel against the best that Konoha had to offer. First sons and daughters of clans whose martial prowess stretched back generations and who had been taught from a young age.

Among the Gutter crew, Naruto had dominated like a fox in the hen yard. He had an unfair advantage having lived, trained, breathed in the art of the sword from samurai. There, he'd been bottom of the barrel anyway, having not been able to master their signature style, iaijutsu. Yet that failure still gave him more than most would pick up unless they'd trained in the Daimyo's army or something similar. The Gutter required nothing other than sheer determination, hard work, and a vicious streak a mile wide. But Naruto had skill too.

Naruto had all of that in spades.

These other candidates?

They'd be the cream of the crop, heirs to families of professional killers, assassins, and soldiers. Strong, practiced-they'd have the same advantages he'd had, and most of them probably listened when their tutors spoke. Naruto would be, at best, on an even playing field-especially with his Lightning Mark.

He was a longfish in a sea of killer whales now.

Yet, despite his precarious position, Naruto did know why he agreed to the Hokages proposal.

Kaguya had been utterly silent ever since the Hokage had arrived. Hissing something, the raw hatred in the voice left little to the imagination regarding its feelings. There was a definite connection between the devilish voice in his head, the one that urged him to lay waste to everything in sight, and the Hokage.

The fact that it was… wary, for the want of a better word, was a plus in her favor. Though what could make a formerly bloodthirsty goddess hesitate for even a second was a worrisome topic in and of itself.

What was even more interesting was that she had sent that Lord Guardian away in order to have a private conversation with him. When she claimed he, 'wasn't that important,' Naruto had trouble believing her. All of this, leaving him alone for four hours in a hotel room by himself?

That was a demonstration of a lack of care; as if to say, 'you aren't important enough to watch.' Outright, telling him he wasn't that important? If he wasn't vital to something in her plans, why go through all the trouble?

Why else would she rescue him from a death sentence at the last hour?

Send away a Lord Guardian to have a private conversation aimed at convincing him to join her. To ensure she was without interference?

Of course, she didn't need to know that, while he had reservations, his immediate intention was to join the Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy as a student at all costs. But Chiyo had taught him that being too eager was as good as giving away his intentions, a valuable lesson.

Then even Tanaka had told him something similar.

The guards had already informed him before she came, that they'd come to get him in less than an hour for his execution. Those same guards hadn't shown back up.

Instead, hours passed and then…

She showed up.

The midnight-haired Hokage claimed the Warden had known, convinced by her status as Hokage, that she could do whatever she wanted. But if that was the case, why hadn't she come earlier and saved Kazan? The timing meant that either this 'saving' was last minute or it was set up ahead of time. If set up, why not take Kazan too, save him, when he hadn't actually done anything? Naruto suspected that it was the latter. That she had saved him last minute and without prior authorization.

A true rescue.

That meant he was special to her specifically in some way that he didn't understand… but it also meant they'd let an innocent die for no reason just to get to him. Kazan had been pure, without malice, and had shown that right up until the end. Even when he'd betrayed Naruto, it wasn't out of spite, but that he didn't want Naruto to hurt anyone else; a true pacifist till the end.

Kazan held a regard for human life that Naruto himself did not share in the slightest, not anymore. As much as Naruto wished he could emulate Kazan, his life had shown him thus far that people took advantage of weakness; that you had to be ruthless and strong to survive.

Kazan had died pure.

Naruto, he suspected, would not when his time came.

A worry shook loose in him, the idle thought that perhaps the Hokage wouldn't be so generous when she also found out her 'special' charge was crippled in a way not easily overcome?

The blonde shook his now-clean mane of hair, the bangs tied with small bandages to give him a better field of view than he'd had previously. The world looked so clear for the first time. Amazing what a simple haircut could do. Clear-eyed, mentally, and physically, Naruto felt he could face the new dawn with his usual spirit. This was a second-chance from the skies, given to him by Kazan's sacrifice. A sacrifice that had shown him what he needed: single-minded devotion to his goal.

No more friends. No more distractions.

Focus.

Become a shinobi.

Become strong.

Then… Orochimaru, The Seifuku-sha. He would be coming for them.

Well, he'd worry about that later.

Naruto thought back to the scene in the discharge area. The Hokage, her speed dwarfing his on his best day, had taken him completely by surprise. This was the power of a true shinobi.

Naruto found he wanted it.

Badly.

Even moreso, he found he wanted to know everything she knew about his parents. It remained to be seen whether she actually did know anything about them or if she just took an easy guess at the greatest desire of any now-orphaned 'street-scum'. It wasn't a hard leap for an idiot, let alone the greatest shinobi in Fire Country, and arguably the most powerful. Naruto knew next to nothing about her, but he knew for certain she wasn't stupid.

"We're here."

Raido had gone down the aisle, amongst the bumping and the rocking, and came to a stop in front of Naruto who was in the last row. He nodded to Naruto.

"Grab your stuff, we'll be taking you all to separate places when the time comes. Got it?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, then nodded back. Raido moved on. He didn't actually own anything other than the clothes he'd been wearing, complete with sandals that were practically disintegrating as he walked. More holes amongst the lot of his clothes than all the lies of the noble court.

Not to mention everything was too small or too big.

All available skin, up to his wrists, ankles, and neck were covered in dirty grey bandages. Naruto was sure most people would be surprised to find that a nation named after 'Fire' was, in fact, sometimes freezing, at least in the northern reaches. He'd once seen a person dead from exposure. Not a pleasant way to go; tiny ice-crystals sprouting from your body like a fungus.

Naruto had suffered hypothermia, twice actually, and been frozen solid once in Iron, but much like his body miraculously being fine after the probable death-by-vicious-beating he'd gotten earlier, he'd been fine the next morning. After spending three days in the snowy woods near Musashi following a cold snap, frost had covered him like armor.

Waking up had been… not remotely pleasant.

Master Ouran had freaked.

Tai was the only person in a rush to get off. He was a whirlwind attempting to find all his personal belongings that, for some reason, were not where they were supposed to be. Naruto picked up a stray book that had fallen from his area of seats; Sealings and Sigils by Tybus Eronius. Naruto frowned. He recognized the deep-black squiggles on the front. Tai took it out of his hands with a grateful noise, stuffing it into his duffel along with other odds and ends.

"Thanks. Forgot I'd glanced through that. Bit boring, really."

Naruto made a vague noise of agreement, even though it was anything but boring. Fuinjutsu was a tool that fit every situation. Only the stupidest of people discarded something so versatile. Tai probably gravitated towards the flashiest techniques.

What an idiot.

Naruto worked his goals back in his head; first, crush his competition-he assumed there must be a pecking order, a 'ladder' in place, that helped with figuring out who was 'strongest'.

Second, become a shinobi… after that, well…

Naruto realized he didn't have much of a plan. 'Become a shinobi' was a truly terrible and vague direction. All of this was so new. He was used to running, hiding, and fighting like mad when his back was inevitably against a wall. His life in Iron seemed a thousand years ago.

He had no friends here, nor did he intend to make any.

Kazan would say he was being 'silly.' His betrayal still loomed large, like a splinter in his mind, lodged deep and moving deeper. Naruto needed to pluck it out and cutting friends out of his life seemed like the best idea to make strides in that direction.

So Naruto steeled himself, gathering his rolled-up joke of an overcoat around him tight, and stepped off the bus into the unknown, a whole new world. A world that measured success in survival; with skill, power, intelligence, chakra, and knowledge being the main currency, traded and hoarded by all. Brute force probably wouldn't win him any friends here.

The Hokage was at the top, the pinnacle of all those things. What couldn't he do, if he took that throne? What wrongs could be put right?

How many friends saved, problems solved, lives changed?

Perhaps an entire world, transformed?

Naruto didn't smile, but he felt like he might've, had it been another time and place.

The idea was certainly worth thinking about.

After Those People were dead.

---

Raido finished doing a headcount as the kids lined up and it gave Naruto an opportunity to look around. When Naruto had first admired the skyline view, an hour ago, he had thought the buildings impressive. Up close, it was incredibly difficult to feel anything other than unimportant against the backdrop of their titanic presence.

Moving through the equally imposing gates, which had stood open to receive a large amount of traffic flow, the bus was simply one amongst many others; foot traffic, smaller auto cars, and bicycles among others. Naruto knew he was gaping like a country bumpkin. He'd lived in Iron for most of his life, barring some unfortunate side trips to less than pleasant places, and so he was used to seeing huge crowds, but it was just… different here. San, Musashi, and Sekiro City always had hundreds of thousands of tons of bedrock above your head… but this was just an open, bright blue sky.

Perhaps it was the completely overwhelming sensation of so many chakra-users in one place, but the city felt like a comforting weight. Civilians maintained a solid presence, but shinobi were absolutely everywhere and it made it impossible to pick anything specific out. Everything bled together into one huge blob.

The bus continued trundling past storefronts and, the miracle of miracles, clean alleyways that Naruto quickly squinted to see down, most culminating in what looked like apartment complexes or commercial venues and housing. Well-lit, not sketchy-looking at all!

No homeless people, none!

Maybe the Hokage wasn't so bad after all?

Pushing slowly down the never-ending thoroughfare, they seemed to be heading towards a building that looked like nothing he'd ever seen before in his life. Naruto's mind immediately jumped to a delicate, valuable Winter Solstice orb ornament, complete with its swirling arms that traveled in interlaced sweeping arches around the entire complex. The fascinating architecture encircled inner structures that Naruto couldn't make out through the numerous holes. Even amongst the skyscrapers made of that special wood dotting the landscape around him, this place stood out, a beautiful jewel at the heart of the city.

Maybe not an ornament? But a beehive with diamond-shaped holes in it?

Naruto couldn't decide.

Raido spoke, Naruto just tuning in.

"...Lord Hashirama, our Shodai Hokage, built this at the behest of his brother, Tobirama, to house the very first Shinobi Military Academy. The whole thing was intended to emphasize how important the next generation was to both Hokages and to our belief in the philosophy of the Will of Fire. We are stronger together than apart."

Stronger together huh?

As far as I can see, friends exist to get killed and leave you alone.

What a crock of shit.

Oblivious to Naruto's unwelcome thoughts, Raido pointed to it, rapidly approaching despite the press of pedestrians and other folks against the sides of the bus.

"Since it forms the core of the city-and despite our name as a Hidden Village, we no longer remotely classify as something as small as a village-the former Hokages built their administration and most of the other important buildings around the Academy structure. That is where you will all receive your room assignments and further instructions."

Raido sighed, watching people leisurely ignore the huge bus trying to get through the press. Was he frustrated with their slow pace? But he continued after rolling his eyes at the driver who just shrugged at him and half-heartedly pressed on the horn which let out a wimpy blart!

"Anyway. Where was I? Ah, the Academy. Almost thirty-thousand square feet of everything you all will need; a communal cafeteria, various training grounds that are available for student use in off-hours, dozens of classrooms and lecture halls, and apartments that house Academy students of varying levels and years. You all will be assigned to an apartment with other students. You will stay together as a group as you progress through your four years. All of you will be from the same Advisory class as well. Those assignments will be handed out when we stop, among other things."

All of the kids pressed their faces against the glass.

Naruto pointedly resisted the urge.

Raido pointed again to another squat building next to the Academy that looked more sleek and modern than most.

Almost new.

"Moving on, that right there is Konoha General Hospital. Fun fact,"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"It is the largest hospital in all of the Elemental Nations. That title used to be held by Kumo Memorial, in the Village Hidden by Clouds, but Tsunade Senju recently headed up this specific construction and we took the lead in dominance soon after. Tsunade is also the Head of the Iryounin Feeder Program in the Academy and we're lucky to have her as she is considered the greatest Iryounin in shinobi history.'

Raido smiled, but his face changed just as quickly.

A dark look crossed his face.

It sounded like he had personal experience with this Tsunade.

"She is a very sensitive...individual. Make sure you are on her good side, yeah?"

The bus stopped and Naruto jerked forward a bit.

Raido made yet another mention of not forgetting their stuff and Naruto again ignored him as he hadn't suddenly gained any new belongings in the fifteen minutes they'd been traveling. Tai had his bags actually packed now and they all proceeded off the bus together into piercing sunshine and warm air. It wasn't exactly cold per se in the capital, but Naruto had been locked away in a drafty underground prison for the better part of a month.

Makes you appreciate your surroundings a bit more.

If there was something Naruto could say about Konoha, it was incredibly beautiful. Stunning actually. The trees, three times as large as any Naruto had ever seen, were taller by half than the walls themselves. Baffling. Couldn't people just climb the trees and hop over?

So what the hell was the point of the wall?

Naruto looked around the large palazzo. There weren't as many people here as there had been in the entrance squares. He guessed it was probably because this was primarily a Hidden Village and shinobi affairs trumped commerce. But there were students out and about; though as he looked closer, they were all older students, stuffed into a dark red uniform, almost black, with silver leaves on the cuffs and collars, buttoned at the top with two large buttons and the middle with three.

The whole outfit ensemble looked impossible to wear in a fight.

Though Naruto had to admit the uniform was nicer than anything he'd ever owned, not since Iron at least. Not to mention the kids looked cleaner than most nobles he'd met, though admittedly that number wasn't high. You couldn't really get close to the paying customers in the Gutter, nor were you really in a position to care given that the person across from you was trying their level best to kill you. Hopefully, he could avoid being in that position here for as long as he could manage.

Raido beckoned them with one arm, leading them across the circle, up onto the curb and through a huge archway carved in the shape of a raging fire with a glittering mosaic of different shades of red glass. Impressive, expensive, and flashy was all Naruto could think when looking at it.

He liked it.

"We are proceeding into what we call, 'Intake.' Most of the students call it Orientation because this is where you get a first glimpse of what the next four years of Academy instruction will look like. Helps orient you. But this is also where I will be leaving you in the hands of your capable escorts."

Raido smiled at them as he stopped in a long hallway. Naruto could see various doors on either side. Offices, he suspected. There was glass separating most of the places and Naruto could see there were other kids, most with parents accompanying them, speaking with people face-to-face across some tables piled with paperwork.

Very few times in his life had he ever really thought hard about what it would be like to have parents who weren't dead. Watching those kids smile up at their parents and the confidence with which the mothers and fathers spoke like they were looking out for their children, cut him worse than Seiryu's blades had.

Tearing his mind away from those thoughts was hard. Raido made it a little easier as he started to speak about who they'd be meeting. Some lady named Yoshino Nara?

Would they be asking him complicated questions about his past?

Or just stuff like name and date of birth, that sort of thing?

Naruto really didn't know a lot of things that he figured most people would consider obvious.

His palms inexplicably began to sweat.

Naruto really hated sitting. This would be worse than the prison. At least there he could pace.

The blonde raised his hand, drawing Raido's attention. The other kids were starting to sweat, though Tai looked indifferent, still avidly staring around-most probably at the open doorway at the end of the hallway where the cafeteria was clearly visible, a slight haze of noise reaching them. And delicious smells.

Naruto's stomach rumbled, but he ignored the red in his face and bullied on.

"Uh, do we have to answer a bunch of questions or something?"

Raido smiled. It was thoroughly mocking. Dick.

"Didn't you know being a shinobi is mostly paperwork Naruto? That's how we really kill our enemies. We drown them in triplicate."

Raido bid them goodbye and left through the door they came in, rubbing his hands in glee and smacking his lips on the way out.

That was definitely for the face comment, Naruto thought. I really hope I don't get stuck with him for anything else.

---

The process for Intake, easier than it seemed, took the better part of an hour and a half and by then, Naruto's stomach had stopped grumbling and aching with hunger, but moved through that terrible stage into the hollow sensation that he knew so well; that of a body catabolizing itself. Naruto wasn't the most patient person, but the snacks earlier weren't enough to stave off his now thoroughly-irritated mood.

The problem was there was nobody to take his anger out on.

The lady who he'd spoken to for that incredible length of time it took to fill out some forms was super nice and she explained that since his forms were completed and already sealed by the Hokage, he just had to wait outside the office for his escort. Naruto couldn't help but think that was odd. The other kids, Naruto overheard, were listing off what their 'affinity,' whatever that was, any 'bloodline limits' known about, whatever that was, and a bunch of other stuff he had no idea about. Yoshino Nara, when she found out what Advisory he was in told him to look out for her lazy son Shikamaru. Friends? Them?

The last thing Naruto needed was a lazy shinobi as a friend.

That subject was quickly forgotten in favor of the interminable wait for his escort. Naruto forgot to ask the name of his escort. Another hour passed and annoyance didn't begin to cover what he was feeling.

Where was his escort?

His stomach sank, and it wasn't the lack of food this time, as Raido Namiashi appeared before him with a huge smile and a gust of leaves and wind. That scar that took over his face pinched with his truly horrible grin. Naruto much preferred the dour asshole from earlier.

Tch. You must be joking? This clown again?

"Hey, Naruto right?"

Thoroughly unimpressed, the blonde stared daggers at the man he now found out was a freakin' Jonin.

"You know who I am Raido. You're better than this."

The attendant uniform was gone and the standard blue jumpsuit and green flak jacket had taken its place. The hitai-ite of Konoha, the symbol of Leaf, was dead-center of his forehead. To his credit, Naruto thought it made him look less annoying.

"For the record, no, I'm not, and lucky you, I was assigned to be your escort for the day."

"Great. Just great."

Raido grinned. Naruto shuddered.

"You ready?"

"I've been ready for an hour. And how are you a Jonin?"

Raido smirked, holding a hand out before him, indicating the path out of the entrance of the Academy structure.

"After you, princess."

I hate you Raido.

---

Raido and Naruto spent the next two freakin' hours shopping.

The whole experience was surreal.

The Jonin seemed to understand intuitively what Naruto needed, barely glancing at the supply list provided by the Nara lady, amongst his other important documents; identification papers, required physical exams and blood tests, chakra exam, etc. There were way too many in Naruto's opinion. Through a gauntlet of security checkpoints, the cafeteria, academic offices, classrooms, and finally into the central structure of the Academy Dormitories, the would-be Academy student hauled fourteen heavy bags filled with their 'loot.'

All the while, Raido laughed at him, sharing the joke with the other chunin who passed them and the odd Jonin, distinguishable based on their odd clothing choices and heavier flak-jacket.

Naruto muttered imprecations at Raido's back.

They had exited no less than fourteen separate shops in the course of their journey, with various items of different sizes on the menu. Sandals, apparently the footwear of choice for the aspiring ninja, had a dizzying amount of varieties, but you couldn't JUST get sandals. Nope. You needed firmer footwear for fieldwork and then a separate pair for ceremonial purposes-what those were Naruto had no idea. Then both of them, with Naruto being dragged through the store at one point, got four pairs of pants in a dark color, four separate pairs of shirts, also of a dark color, and undergarments, one for each day of the week. The hoodie was nice though.

Who needed this many clothes?

Naruto had one pair for most of his life and more than that seemed excessive-even luxurious.

He could get used to this, but he'd never tell Raido that.

They rounded the barren stairwell and exited the industrial-looking door to a nice plush hallway. The carpets were red and silver as most of the things in Konohagakure seemed to be, leaves, and leaf-shaped artwork everywhere. Lights were spaced equidistantly along the walls in between the many doors. They all had numbers. Raido seemed to be attempting to skim through the documents he'd been given by the Nara lady to find Naruto's room number.

Naruto took the opportunity to drop the bags and they fell with a thump. He slid to the ground, back against the wall. The blonde listened to the Jonin mutter for a bit.

"So, this is Nakamura Hall."

Raido gestured around, squinting.

"I remember this place pretty well."

Naruto had a hard time believing that given the amount of squinting and muttering he was doing.

"This is the First Year Boys dormitory. The girls' hall, Sanada, is through the opposite stairwell we just came through and heh, I know Sanada way better than I do Nakamura, so…"

Naruto had known that this was Nakamura Hall because both entrances, Sanada Hall as well, were labeled clearly and Naruto wasn't an idiot; he could read.

Samurai were big believers in education, specifically literacy.

Apparently Raido skipped that part of his education.

This guy was a Jonin? Really?

"Mr. Raido, the number is apartment 34N. And it's right over there."

Naruto pointed to a nondescript door at a corner junction. The other side had what looked like laundry facilities. Handy. The blonde missed the quick look Raido had given him.

Raido smiled again, this time straight into Naruto's face.

How obnoxious. Who smiled this much?

Especially with such an ugly mug?

"So it is, Naruto, so it is. Well spotted!"

Sigh.

Naruto gathered all the bags and fumbled with the different handles as they kept slipping. Eventually, he got them all together and stood up, following Raido to the front door. The Jonin knocked.

They heard muffled shouting from inside.

A minute passed, then another.

The door clicked, opened slightly, and a head poked out. The head belonged to a strange boy with a huge mane of dark hair framing a face that looked slightly feral. Twin purple diamonds framed his nose on either cheekbone. Naruto had to admit he approved of the look. Like Naruto himself, this boy's canines were slightly longer than the average persons.

Raido seemed to recognize the markings.

"You must be an Inuzuka, huh?"

The head of a medium-sized dog poked out between the boy's legs. Reddish and stocky, with wide shoulders and paws that were too big for its body, with triangular ears, the dog was pretty cute. Not remotely like some of the huge, horse-sized beasts Naruto saw on the way in.

This was an Inuzuka ninja dog?

Naruto could almost feel the chakra coursing through it. That was definite confirmation. Most animals didn't have a chakra network and those that did were extremely special. Most of those creatures he'd met were bears, seals, and the occasional snow eagle. None of those were exactly friendly; it was nice to meet an animal that didn't hate him on sight.

"No shit, what gave it away?"

Raido had a blank look on his face, clearly not expecting the disrespect.

The dog growled at Naruto and snapped at his fingers when he crouched down.

"You must be a pretty shitty human being if Akamaru doesn't like you."

The Inuzuka boy wrinkled his nose. The dog barked again.

"He says you smell like blood."

Raido frowned.

Naruto stood up. The dog didn't know shit about him. Nonplussed, Naruto decided to just get annoyed at himself for being annoyed that the dog didn't like him instead. It was a fucking dog. Then he got annoyed again. He was here less than six hours and he already cared what people thought? And it was a dog's opinion?

Could dogs even have opinions?

No, definitely not. Internally, he shrugged. It was a good reminder that he wasn't here to make friends anyway. Done with standing in the hallway like an idiot, Naruto stepped past Raido who looked like he was about to say something and he shoved the door open. Dog-boy yelped and Akamaru quick-stepped backward as he stumbled.

Assholes.

Raido shrugged and followed him in.

The apartment was nice, but bare except for the essentials. Light flooded into the room and Naruto had a momentary lapse where he breathed in the airiness and lack of claustrophobia. Wide-open, the living room had a tiny kitchen off to the side which happened to be larger than every cell he'd been imprisoned in combined.

Not that that was saying much.

A large square table dominated the communal space, along with an L-shaped couch. Most everything else was bare wall. The view from the windows in the kitchen was a breathtaking panoramic of the main palazzo market space they'd driven through. Naruto dropped the endless amounts of stuff on the ground and rushed over.

Maybe this whole experience wouldn't be so bad…?

Of the three bedroom doors, two were open and more heads were poking out. Naruto dearly hoped his other roommates weren't giant dicks like this Inuzuka and his stupid dog.

Raido tapped him on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging look.

"I'm heading out Naruto, okay? I think you should be fine from here on out. Just consult the papers Ms. Nara gave you. All of the information, not including class information, should be in there. You also have a medical check-up in a half-hour at Konoha General, it's also in the packet."

He opened the door and gave a wave to Naruto with another horrible smile. Naruto was surprised though that he turned to the Inuzuka. Raido was coldly short. Judging by the content, Naruto wasn't supposed to hear what was said.

"Food for thought Inuzuka, don't ever disrespect a Jonin again."

Kiba looked distinctly shocked. Naruto understood Raido didn't give off the vibe. Well, now he did. Raido was scary. There was a weird pressure in the room.

The scarred Jonin continued, icy.

"These are your future teammates in here," Raido gestured to the other rooms, "...and it pays to treat them right. Naruto too. He's a good kid. Give him a chance. Those teammates might someday save your life."

He left with a last look and nod to Naruto, the door closing behind him.

The dog-boy just looked annoyed now.

"Prick. What the hell does he know?"

Naruto ignored both Kiba and the curious heads of the other occupants, which just seemed to annoy the Inuzuka more.

"Which one's my room?"

Kiba sighed. "Figures I get stuck with all the creeps."

He walked towards the left-most bedroom, waving one hand lazily over his shoulder Akamaru followed close behind.

"Follow me, you're stuck with me and Bug-boy."

Bug-boy?

---

Apartment 34N only had two bedrooms; thankfully, both of those were rather large as Naruto walked into a room that was almost half the size of their living room. Three beds were pushed up against the other three walls and already it looked like a bomb exploded over one side of the room Naruto guessed was Kiba's. A rather…voluptuous kunoichi in a less-than-fully-clothed state of dress stared prominently into Naruto's eyes from across the room.

Heat traveled up his neck and into his face.

W-what th-the hell Kiba?

"I see you found my pride and joy. Had to hide her from my mom and sister. That was not easy, but so worth it. Look at those jugs."

Naruto sought anything to distract him from how wildly uncomfortable that poster made him feel. Desperate, he scanned the rest of the room while Kiba threw some things from the floor onto his already-messy bed.

Another boy, one who looked more like a skinny paintbrush with a high-collared grey jacket on it, stood frozen watching a glass tank on a dresser next to what Naruto presumed was the boy's bed.

That must be Bug-boy.

Part of him wanted to introduce himself since that seemed the nice thing to do, but another part-a colder part-viciously tore up that idea. He was not here to make friends.

He was not.

So Naruto walked past without acknowledging the other boy's existence and dropped his bag on the bare bed.

"Hey, Shino, why you gotta be so creepy? Introduce yourself to our newest roommate. I think his name is Naguto, right?"

Kiba had been speaking, staring at his poster.

Turning he came face-to-face with Shino and yelped.

"Fuck!"

Kiba held a hand to his chest and Akamaru was barking, almost cross-eyed with fright.

"What the hell Shino? Do I have to tie a bell around your neck? Kami."

"Like the feathery Beatmoth that swoops on silent wings, I find striding about as quietly as possible wherever I can to be an efficient training exercise for future stealth excursions. That is what we are here for, is it not? To become an excellent shinobi?"

Shino's voice was pitched at a low register, but unwavering.

And he did have a point. What was a Beatmoth?

Kiba clearly didn't care, turning and shaking his head, walking back into the living room leaving the two of them alone. There was no avoiding it now.

Naruto cleared his throat.

"Shino right? I'm Naruto-"

"-Uzumaki, right? How do I know that? Well, our apartment roster has all of our names on it. Both family and given."

The boy held a paper up that appeared almost from nowhere.

"I have it here."

A vice grip seized his heart.

This wasn't a big deal, this wasn't a big deal.

But it was.

How could the Hokage have just released his name like that?

Wasn't the whole point to be a freaking secret?

Was she trying to get him killed?

Shino had a stilted, almost flat way of speaking. Not monotone, just uninflected. Naruto had zoned out with a sickly look on his face while the boy was speaking and tuned back in just time. What had he been saying?

"...Aburame insects."

"...huh?"

Shino glanced at a clock in the shape of a six-winged bug on his desk. Half-past six-thirty.

"Excuse me, but I believe we have our appointments at the hospital in about twenty minutes."

That would mean Naruto would finally get some time to himself!

"...It may be advantageous to travel together to our destination. Would you...like to accompany me?"

Shit.

This didn't mean they were friends, right?

"Sure. I'm not sure where I'm going anyway. I'm new to town."

Naruto grabbed his long coat and slung it over his shoulder, looking longingly at his bed.

He'd planned to look at Chiyo's letter.

Looks like that had to wait.

Several other heads popped into the room; one, a thin boy around Naruto's age with dark brown hair tied back in a rather fulsome-looking ponytail, the other a rather… fulsome-looking boy with a crinkled bag of what looked like chips in one hand.

The two were practically stacked on top of each other peering around the corner in Naruto-and Shino and Kibas-bedroom.
"Yo. You two heading for your checkups?"

Naruto hesitated, looking at Shino, who was looking at Naruto. Shino pushed his glasses up with one finger.

Nervous habit perhaps? Naruto took the lead.

"Yeah, we were just heading out. You guys in the room next door?"

Ponytail nodded.

The boy who looked like a moon on legs nodded too, through a mouthful of chips.

"Names Shikamaru Nara. This guy here with the chips is Choji."

Another voice, almost inaudible, spoke up through the doorway. "Ma-may I a-accompany you?"

Naruto almost snarled as he beheld the same white eyes as Kaguya Otsutsuki.

W-what the hell?

"Who the hell are you?"

All three boys looked at him strangely, but Naruto couldn't see it, focused as he was on figuring out who this person was immediately. The faint purple sheen of the boy's long hair was very different from the bone-white of his psycho soul-squatter, which was a relief.

Reassessing, the overall picture he got was one of frailty, not god-like strength.

No, Naruto relaxed. Not related to Kaguya beyond the eyes...what were those anyway?

Clearly no relation beyond the eye thing.

The boy bowed low, way too low, and apologized three separate times. Even Shino was staring. Kiba was laughing.

"I'm so sorry! My name is Hayato H-Hyuuga, it's a p-pleasure to m-meet you."

Shikamaru looked taken aback.

"Jeez, give the man a break. I mean, I know some people don't like Hyuuga, but sheesh. Harsh."

Shino's voice cut through the obvious awkwardness as Shikamaru and Choji were staring at each then back at Naruto, slightly annoyed, and Hayato was poking his fingers together seeming like he'd rather become a part of the floor than continue his conversation with Naruto.

Why do I even feel bad anyway? This is what I wanted, wasn't it?

"Uh. Sorry, nice to meet you Hayato. I mistook you for…"

Naruto cleared his throat, trailing off. "Nevermind."

Despite his apology, the six roommates stared at each other in silence for a minute.

"The proper name for a group of Soldier Ants is called an 'army.'"

A strange noise was coming from Shino and it took a second to realize it was laughter.

"Hilarious is it not? I believe that we would do better as an army, than as individual units, don't you all?"

Shino took the lead, leaving the room.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Choruses of confused agreement surrounded him and he did his best to ignore them and pass through the doorway and out into their dormitory.

Chiyo's letter would have to wait.

They were going to be late if they didn't hurry.

---

/Hokage Mansion

/Konohagakure

/Fire Country

Satsuki Uchiha

Satsuki Uchiha stared at herself in the mirror, at her plain black hair, as she sat brushing it.

Not raven, not midnight, or dusk, or shadow-colored like it was special or something; just an ordinary black. Her pale skin highlighted her dark eyes, also just a dull black, framed a tired, drawn face with dark bags. High cheekbones accented a youthful face that seemed to eschew any adornment. Like an ANBU uniform, Satsuki Uchiha's face was made utilitarian and would stay unadorned by make-up or any of that shit.

Her brother, Itachi Uchiha, was the one who seemed to have gotten the lion's share of the looks in the family with Satsuki just seeming to exist. She couldn't decide if that was a relief or yet another prodigy-shaped annoyance.

Satsuki Uchiha didn't care for anything beyond surpassing her elder brother in the Academy and thankfully looks didn't enter into that. About the only thing that she thought might be considered a concession to vanity was her appreciation for her flawlessly clear skin.

The youngest Uchiha refused the very idea that makeup existed for the idea of enhancing beauty, but that clear skin made applying manual camouflage paint, a better term for the makeup she preferred, much easier as there were no bumps or pockmarks from obsessive picking to ruin the canvas or the camouflage. The Uchiha was self-aware enough to know she was the type to obsess and pick and clear skin made that an unnecessary worry.

So, despite the fact that she was a girl, Satsuki would never call herself a kunoichi. Kunoichi was an ancient, specific term for a female shinobi-like there was anything different?-as it was insulting to all the hard work she'd put into mastering the Shinobi fields of technique. Aspiring Kunoichi did care about all those things she'd mentioned; the long hair, the eye nonsense, the art of folding those stupid flowers, the use of forensic body language examination to identify the level of attraction between people. Minus the last point, something she was terrible at, Satsuki didn't see much use.

The whole racket was bullshit.

Satsuki wanted to be a shinobi. Period. Full stop.

The boys got to do the bare minimum and the girls were heaped with more useless crap and were expected to do well-and even excel-despite that?

Satsuki was done with that nonsense.

She had skipped every single day of kunoichi classes in the regular feeder school all kids who lived in the city attended and a jutsu-clone of her mom had come to take her back to school every single time the youngest Uchiha escaped.

But Satsuki didn't care.

The youngest Uchiha didn't stay in those classes longer than it took her to find an opportunity to escape again. Powerful shinobi didn't care about silly things like how long their hair was or who thought they were cute or whether they were on a diet; that was insignificant and unimportant next to the acquisition of power, jutsu, and better techniques, and of surpassing her stupid brother.

The worst part about it is that Itachi seemed not to care about power, or techniques, or skill at all and yet was flawlessly perfect when it came to fighting.

Infuriating.

Being the Hokage's daughter, it was extremely difficult to ignore the fact that her mother was a famous beauty and seemed to wield her looks and admittedly, her brain, just as effectively as her Sharingan or jutsu or regular weapons. But Satsuki just could not wrap her head around the idea that she couldn't solve all of her problems with brute force or a chakra technique. Or a fist for that matter.

Why negotiate when you can just threaten people with annihilation?

"Ready to go, little sister?"

She hadn't even heard him enter.

Itachi Uchiha, the eldest of the Hokage's children, was blind as a bat but you'd never know it as he was always sneaking up on her.

He called it training.

She called it infuriating asshole behavior.

Their mom was never surprised by her son though. Satsuki figured that was because she was on a whole other level than her eldest son...or more likely she was so matter-of-fact she took it as a matter of course that he was suddenly there. Satsuki could never figure her mother out; she was Hokage, yes, fearless, powerful, and a skilled stateswoman. Satsuki had once seen her mother talk her way through a diplomatic incident with Stone that would've crumbled most and ended in war without batting an eye or losing her composure, despite how infuriating Onoki could be.

Mikoto Uchiha was also a coward of the worst kind.

The kind that refused to strike back at the people who spoke ill of the Uchiha in her own city.

As Hokage, she'd lectured Satsuki a hundred thousand times that to be offended required you to value what other people believe about you and participate by giving your permission to be offended. Satsuki was of the opinion that that was stupid. The illusion of strength or weakness was just as good or bad as the reality, in her humble opinion. For a clan famous for their illusionary genjutsu powers, this seemed to be a difficult concept for her mother to grasp.

But mother insisted she ignore the haters.

And the Hokage knew best.

Uchiha were the best of the best, weren't they? This is what it always came back to-the idea that superiority was paramount. If she couldn't even recognize when someone, her brother namely, was in the room with her, how would she ever survive outside the walls during missions? Her mom always calmly scolded her that she shouldn't make comparisons, especially to Itachi.

But she couldn't help it.

If she couldn't do the basic task of surpassing Itachi, then she couldn't drag her clan back to Konoha. Her twin brother… her bastard father…none of them would come home or be made to pay if she couldn't do the simple things.

If Itachi couldn't do it, then she needed to be the one.

That meant becoming stronger than her mother.

Stronger than Itachi.

"You know I hate it when you do that."

"Be more aware and I wouldn't be able to."

She stuck her tongue out at him, fully aware he wouldn't be able to see it and she knew he was right.

Itachi leaned against the doorway and smiled, the movement crinkling the black cloth he had wrapped around his head, shielding the empty sockets where his eyes would have been.

Somehow, he saw her rude gesture anyway.

"Now, now little sister. Being childish is unbecoming a first-year Academy student. What would mom say?"

She huffed and grabbed her plain, black canvas duffel and slung it over her shoulder.

"The Hokage is too busy kissing up to the Clan Heads and the Jonin Council to worry about what I'm doing."

Itachi frowned.

Satsuki's room was spartan; just the bare necessities for it to qualify as a bedroom still present. Everything else was cleaned out and only the most vital things were inside the bag now slung over her shoulder.

Today was Orientation and Move-in Day at the Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy and it was the only thing in her entire life she'd been looking forward to-that is, the day that she would annihilate Itachi's records and grab the honor she'd been craving her whole life. The youngest surviving Uchiha would knock-down, destroy, and outright trample anything that got her in her way. She'd show all of them. The cherry on top of that sundae was that it would be done in front of the entire village!

So of course her mother wasn't there.

That didn't matter. Satsuki didn't need anyone. She wasn't there to make friends, she was there to win, dominate, and earn her distinction in the Academy Field Exams. Everyone in Konoha knew that was where the true monster shinobi got their start. Earn that and you were guaranteed to go on to become a legendary ninja, regardless of what family you were from.

Nobody would ever call her a traitor again. Not to her face, at least.

The Field Exam was a rather new invention by Hidden Village standards, being a practice that was instituted by that ass Tobirama Senju to ensure would-be Genin were ready to graduate to their Squad Apprenticeships. Real missions. Real danger. Real-life. And at least four years down the road if all went well.

Itachi poked her in the forehead as he usually did when she was deep in her thoughts.

"Go easy on mom please, Satsuki? For your poor, blind older brother?"

Satsuki couldn't help but snort.

Itachi continued, still smiling.

"...she should be here shortly. This is a big day for her too. Her only daughter is taking her first real step to becoming a shinobi after all… and it is her Academy. So… doubly proud."

Satsuki rolled her eyes.

The Hokage Mansion loomed behind them as they exited and turned left onto the main thoroughfare. Satsuki could already smell the vendors from the open-air markets; mouth-watering meats, pungent aromas of the various spice merchants, and the industrial tang of oil from the traffic moving through the city. There were not a lot of private citizens who owned vehicles, but the commercial industry for goods and services made the recently-widened roads fairly congested.

Rumors flew about new revolutions from Hidden Sky in chakra-based technology, even things as outrageous and ridiculous as vehicles that could fly. Not that Satsuki paid much attention to rumors given how often they seemed to be about the Uchiha and her mother in general.

She could care less…

Except that there usually were hints of the future in the rumor mill. New technology meant that good shinobi had to stay aware of future enemy capabilities. That meant keeping an ear open. Keeping her ears open meant that she was most likely the first to hear that there was a new class in the Academy about military technology for field use. Satsuki heard her mother speaking to the Headmaster about it a week or two ago. Itachi had caught her seconds before hearing anything really juicy.

Bastard.

Itachi and Satsuki's walk had taken them most of the length of the straight and narrow. Itachi's form gracefully sliding past any passerbyers that happened to step into his path. Satsuki was always baffled at how he managed to navigate without eyes.

Satsuki was graceful, sure, but Itachi was on another level.

Bastard.

They passed dour-faced Hyuuga's with their pearly-white eyes seemingly looking through anyone who wasn't a Hyuuga, Inuzuka's with their massive nin-dogs by their sides, Nara clan members who were often (correctly) stereotyped as lazy and slow of movement-they were often seen taking naps in strange places-and the Akimichi, famous for their admittedly decent barbecue. There were almost a hundred clans in Konohagakure, from gargantuan to just big to very small, and all of them were far beneath Satsuki's notice.

The two came to a stop at a crosswalk, waiting for a light to turn.

She finally brought up the elephant in the room.

"The Reinstatement Committee is meeting today, right?"

Satsuki sneaked a glance at her brother. He was calm, hands pressed together in his dark kimono. The youngest Uchiha noticed it was his most formal, with curling red leaves accenting the black silk.

Itachi was silent.

Satsuki continued, pressing.

Sometimes, Satsuki felt Itachi was too passive for his own good.

"You've been fully capable for years. Mom is the only one who can beat you aside from that freak Maito Gai. Remember? You wiped the floor with those wannabe ANBU assholes that kidnapped the Heirs, and me, might I add!"

Her elder brother pursed his lips, seemingly displeased. Satsuki tried not to get annoyed at his bullshit humility. There was a lot of force behind the finger she jabbed in his direction.

"Who mounted a rescue with Shizune, huh? You! Who caught Kumo's dirty underhanded spy that tried to kidnap their heir? You! People actually like you. What could they possibly be holding against you?"

Itachi spoke without looking at her.

"You know what they're holding against me, dear sister."

Konohagakure's future greatest shinobi went quiet, trying not to think of the night half her heart was ripped out.

Itachi continued, quiet, gently.

"I do not blame the Reinstatement Committee and the Jonin Council for being wary. What I did that night… they were comrades, despite the circumstances."

Satsuki cut him off.

"You did it for the Leaf. Even I know that… despite… despite what happened. I know Dad… and Sasuke... "

Satsuki swallowed hard.

She couldn't even say it. This is what made it all so hard. She knew why people held her and Itachi at arm's length, why they whispered that they couldn't be trusted. Satsuki knew that was why her mother did her very best to stay above reproach, even down to disciplining her children harder than any other, and appearing only as the coldest of caretakers.

Understanding something didn't make it easier for the heart to bear.

The Uchiha Clan and their Elders had not just abandoned their oaths, they betrayed the Will of Fire, broke the Village covenant, the Accord that started it all and defected to Amegakure of all places.

Not just one Uchiha, no, all of them.

Her brother, her father, even the elders…

All except her and Itachi and mom. Itachi had even killed some of his own clan That Night. His cousin Shisui… her brother still woke some nights screaming that name. He refused to talk about it when she asked.

She'd stopped asking a long time ago.

What more did a Leaf shinobi need to do to prove their loyalty?

He'd even… Satsuki opened her mouth, following him across the crosswalk.

Itachi cut off her angry retort.

"What I did, I did for peace. Any sacrifice for that is worth that price."

His fingers went unconsciously to his bandage covering his eyes.

"Enough about that. Today is about you."

His mouth turned up in a rare smile and Satsuki tried not to let it embarrass her with how much that meant. There was one thing she could always count on and that was Itachi knowing just what to say to distract her from herself. Their feet had taken them unconsciously to the front of the Academy building, a monument to the Nidaime Hokage that never served to make her grumpy as yet another reminder of the historically terrible treatment of the Uchiha.

Today Satsuki decided to ignore it.

She'd show his big rocky head too.

Footsteps behind them had Satsuki turning, noticing Kurenai walking towards them. Satsuki had always been slightly envious of the absolutely stunning shinobi who also happened to be one of only two Jonin hand-selected to be part of her mother's bodyguard.

Kurenai Yuuhi represented the heights of skill and excellence that a shinobi who happened to be female could reach. Heights earned through hard work and superior skills. Her genjutsu was said to have fooled even the Uchiha during the Betrayal. Given the difficulty of fooling any ocular bloodline limit, let alone one as famed as the Sharingan, that was saying something.

Itachi greeted her while Satsuki stood daydreaming.

"Not that Satsuki and I aren't glad to see you, but what brings you this way, Kurenai? We were just about to enter Drop-off."

Satsuki tuned back in, already anticipating what Kurenai was going to say. Judging by the look on the red-eyed woman's face, she knew how it would go over.

"Business I'm afraid Itachi. Your mother sends her regrets, but she has something to attend to at the moment. She'll be there for the Opening remarks tomorrow with all the classes."

Kurenai smiled at Satsuki, and that was nice, but it was swallowed by the hole in her heart that should've been filled by her mother's words. Satsuki had lost count now how many this made.

"I know this sucks, and it's not diminishing her absence at all, but she is incredibly proud of you Satsuki. She tells Hayate and me all the time."

Left unsaid was the fact that it wouldn't kill her to say that to Satsuki.

Instead, Satsuki bowed to Kurenai.

"...thanks Kurenai."

Itachi was quiet as the woman took her leave, both of them waving as she leaped back up onto the skyway, a series of high-level causeways for shinobi to traverse the city quickly and without interruption.

Other families, complete families, streamed around them towards the entrance of the Academy.

Absentmindedly she stared at the gate. An arm snaked around her shoulders and pulled her close. Satsuki leaned her head against her brother's side. She didn't have to say it.

He knew.

Disappointment welled up inside her and she ruthlessly crushed it, just like she'd done all the other times. A hand, hard and callused from years of handling a weapon, impacted the top of her head, and despair crept up as she knew what was coming. Satsuki felt her hair shaken back and forth, disarrayed, and askew after her half-hearted attempts to brush it and get it to lie flat.

Satsuki hissed at her now laughing brother.

What would her new roommates think?

She was some peasant with hay in her hair?

"Goddamnit Itachi!"

He dodged all attempts at catching him without even looking at her and that just pissed her off even more. Itachi knew he was the only person to ever get a rise out of her so easily and used it as a weapon to dispel awkwardness.

Satsuki knew she'd forever be grateful to have him. She forgot herself enough to realize she was smiling despite her anger.

Catching up to him, she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, finally ready. They passed through the lobby of the Academy, making a left towards her dormitory; Sanada Hall, and her five other future friends. Hopefully.

Both of them ignored the looks they got from the older folks.

Quietly, she murmured. "Thanks, Itachi."

Itachi held the door to Sanada Hall open for her and smiled.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The next phase of her life was about to start and she knew, whatever happened, she had at least one person in her corner.

That much would always be true.

---

/Konoha General Hospital

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/The Land of Fire

Shizune

Shizune Kato both relished and dreaded this day every year.

Dreaded it when it came and relished it when it was gone.

She watched, sipping her fourth cup of coffee, as another group of First Years came and went in groups.

Her waiting room looked like a zoo.

"Can you send both groups to exam room 7?"

"Sure thing Shizune...though, we have a new batch coming in, probably around now for the six o'clock. Where should I send them?"

"Uh, to me? Yeah. Send them to Room 8. I'll make my way up there once Tsunade is done with the paperwork. Who knows when that will be. Thanks, Yuki."

Shizune left her office manager to handle details as she started walking to her next destination, pulling on a new pair of exam gloves as she did so. Brushing back a stray batch of black hairs that somehow made it loose from her tightly wrapped bun, Shizune Kato, resident oversight coordinator on the Academy Entrance Physicals made a sharp right and sprung up the stairs, dodging patients and other medical personnel on the way to Exam Room 8.

Her and the other office staff, her office manager, and the doctors and orderlies underneath her were forced to pull serious over-time to put together a massive amount of files, Exam appointments, and coordinate with the head of Konohagakure Investigative Service, Yamanaka Inoichi, regarding their psychological evaluations. In a day.

In a day.

All of it came directly through her office and straight up to Tsunade as Head of the Hospital… which also meant Shizune was overseeing most of that too. Now she was receiving a last batch request for a few extra people and it was close to being too much. Though she'd never say that in front of Tsunade.

Her friends kept making fun of her for 'dating' her unbelievably expensive office chair, but the truth was she was far, far too busy for something as mundane as a social life and spent most of her time, when not on the Floor or in surgery, in that chair.

Besides, Tsunade needed her, that was for sure.

Especially today.

They'd processed almost five hundred returning entrants and new. The worst part was she knew there would be a good deal of dropouts, leading to a huge waste of work on her and her team's part.

Shizune stopped, feeling a huge yawn coming on and just managed to stifle it before she cracked her jaw in half. One of the resident students managed to grin before Shizune scowled at him, sending him running.

Get your shit together Shizune.

You've got another four hours before you can head home.

That mantra running through her head, she opened the door and stepped into the lobby of yet another nurse's station. A nurse was sitting at the desk, behind her the door to the rooms she'd be in for the next four hours. Tsunade had once called it, 'Shizune's Cave,' until Shizune had hidden all of the booze in her home and managed to get all the local liquor stores to miraculously have sold out of Tsunade's favorite saki for a full week.

There were no more comments after that.

"Hey Shizune," the nurse started, "you got your work cut out for you with this group."

She'd been brushing crumbs off her scrubs from when she'd stuffed a muffin in her mouth quickly and forgot to actually fully chew.

"What do you mean?"

"That blonde one? Got a mouth on him."

Shizune quirked an eyebrow and turned, spotting the one she was talking about. The boy was thin and relatively short for his age, a vaguely hungry look about him. A faint memory-a whisper in the back of her head-tickled her thoughts but before she could really think about it, it was gone.

A mouth on him, huh?

Couldn't be worse than Tsunade.

She took the clipboard with the group's data on it and flipped through, idly scanning. Shizune was a big believer in efficiency, given her workload taking care of Tsunade, which became significantly easier by taking the most advantageous shortcuts available.

One of those was tackling all the most difficult problems first; usually, with Tsunade, that meant getting her sober and moving. After that, all the little problems seemed to melt away. A lot of trouble up front always netted her an easier time afterward.

Shizune Life Rule #1 firmly in action.

Halting on one name, that niggling sensation in the back of her head came roaring forward and That Day, so long ago, came speeding back to her. The day that Tsunade was hunted down by her sensei, beaten into submission, and Shizune's life, and Tsunade's for that matter, had taken a turn for the better.

Then she'd fallen in love with a little baby boy with whisker marks and the brightest eyes she'd ever seen.

"...Naruto Uzumaki."

Yes, that had been his name.

She'd been devastated when Tsunade and Hiruzen had told her that he was being moved. That she wouldn't be taking care of him anymore. Shizune admittedly had become quite possessive, but he was just such a happy baby it made all the terrible things around her seem less bad.

Knowing how she felt and the violence with which she had guarded her charge, the Third, Mikoto, and Tsunade had all sat her down and told her it was for Naruto's safety that he was being moved. Dying his vibrant blonde hair, of which he had a ton even young, swaddling him in warm blankets, Shizune set about scolding the samurai who'd arrived in the night to take him.

Yojambre?

Yojimbra?

Something like that anyway, he'd seemed faintly amused to be yelled at by a teenager.

A short time had passed since she first saw him, but she loved that baby.

Then he was gone, leaving a hole she hadn't known she'd had.

Now, here he was again.

Home.

Grown.

Slowly, she walked over to him, slouched in the frankly uncomfortable metal chairs built into the waiting room walls and tapped him on the shoulder. Those same bright violet eyes stared back at her with a complete and total look of non-recognition. No, she couldn't hug the stuffing out of him quite yet. He must not have recognized her. And why would he? It had been the better part of a decade.

"S'my turn?"

"Are you… Naruto Uzumaki?"

Looking faintly panicky, the boy stood up and she realized he barely came up to her shoulder. Were they not feeding him in Iron Country?

What the hell!

"About fucking time. I'd like to get this over with, if you don't mind. It's been a long day and I don't need more yappy nurses telling me I need to eat more."

Yes, she could see why the nurse had mentioned him.

"What… is something wrong?"

Shizune smoothed the irritation away from her face.

"Nothing's wrong. Why don't you come with me?"

She thanked the nurse in passing and took the second clipboard with his information on it, trading one for the other, and gestured for Naruto to proceed through the door ahead of her with a nod.

The two of them walked into the examination room.

"My name is Shizune and this process is quick and painless if you cooperate. Pretty routine really. I just need you to answer some questions for me and then I'll do my exam, if everything's up to snuff we'll get you cleared and on your way. Sound good?"

Naruto nodded, fidgeting, idly scanning the room.

"Yeah, sure."

"Go ahead and hop up on there."

She pointed at a paper-sheet covered bed set into the wall.

A thousand thoughts not related to the exam shot through her head. Why now? Why was he back now of all times? Was it safe for him? Why did Tsunade not tell her? Did she even know? Should she even tell him that she knew him when he was a baby?

Would that be safe?

Not letting her thoughts show, she ran through the battery of questions in record time, him answering to the best of his abilities. She winced when she got to the family history part as she knew he was an orphan. But he seemed not to mind, seemingly distracted, answering as quickly as possible.

Shizune stopped mid-sentence, thought about everything that had happened since that night and realized she still cared about him and had always wondered about him. Naruto seemed to realize she'd stopped and seemed confused.

"Naruto, at the risk of being unprofessional, I want to tell you something."

Fear drifted across the blonde's face like a cloud.

"Um. You aren't like… one of those women who likes really young men are you?"

Shizune's jaw dropped. "What? Why would that be-"

The blonde was frantically waving his hands.

"I mean, it's okay if you are, I'm just really not… well, I'm a kid, you know? And I don't even…"

"Shut up."

"What?"

"I said shut up idiot! I wanted to tell you that I was glad to see you're back!"

Naruto looked utterly bewildered, face scrunched.

What an idiot this kid is-what the hell was he even talking about? What 'women'? No, I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.

Shizune spun around in her chair, facing him fully, trying not to be irritated that he spoiled what could've been a nice moment. She sighed.

"Idiot. No, the truth is, I was the one who took care of you as a baby. The Third Hokage brought you to Lady Tsunade and I. She was busy so, yeah, I took care of you for like almost a month."

Wistful, she smiled.

Those had definitely been simpler times; before the Uchiha Betrayal, before Danzo, before that nasty business with the Clan Heirs…

Naruto was quiet, staring at her with a closed-off look. She couldn't tell at all what he was thinking.

"I missed you. I'd always wondered what happened after that samurai came and took you away. They told me it was for your safety, but I was still angry. Taking care of you was the highlight of my days: feeding you, changing you, making you laugh. You were such a cutie."

Shizune giggled at the dead-pan expression on Naruto's face.

He opened his mouth once, twice, then closed it again.

"I don't know… I always thought about you, about traveling to see you maybe, but I was always so busy taking care of Tsunade...then the Hospital got built and then I was running that. Then the Uchiha incident, and then the Kumo problem, then Danzo. There were so many things, but those are just excuses."

Shizune sighed.

"I'm really sorry. Will you forgive me? I should've visited."

"I...there's nothing to forgive. You really… wanted to visit me?"

"Of course! I know… well, I don't know but I like to imagine that had you grown up here that I would've been there for you, if you wanted it."

Shizune smiled at him and realized that he looked familiar, but she couldn't place where from. Turning back around in her chair, she continued marking boxes on her clipboard.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I'm here and that I'm not that much of a stranger. I do care. I'm not sure if you have anyone else in the city or not, but I'm just a phone call or a visit away. I have an apartment near the hospital."

Scrawling her address, she tore off the piece of paper and handed it to him.

"Can't hurt to have more people in your corner, can it?"

The boy was quiet and she took that for assent.

Shizune slapped her knees and stood up, gesturing for him to take his shirt off.

"Alright, final part. Take your shirt off really quick. I need to make sure your body is in tip-top shape as the Academy can get rigorous. Any underlying health conditions we need to know about?"

Distracted, Naruto absentmindedly put both hands on his shirt and pulled it up and off his body, exposing his heavily-scarred body.

Despite the weak grin, he seemed about to throw up.

"...does a...completely destroyed chakra system count?"

Shizune's face went white.

---

/Konoha General Hospital

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/The Land of Fire

Naruto

Numbly, Naruto watched Shizune as she spoke.

He heard none of it.

The woman was smiling at him.

Everything about her was petite, despite her being taller than him by a few inches; a short haircut in a dark-featured face that did seem oddly like someone he vaguely might have remembered. Mifune had told him almost nothing about his time before arriving in Iron country, so whatever he knew must have been from then, right?

Being warm, well-fed, happy; those were it.

All that was thanks to her?

From the little he could remember of being flung off San mountain, a gaping hole in his chest, and subsequently plunging into the sub-zero Zainon River, that accurately summed up his feelings after his conversation with Shizune. How was he supposed to feel when someone perfectly turned his life upside down with one conversation?

Evidently, there had been at least one person in Konoha that thought about him. One link connecting him back to the place he would've grown up had his parents still been alive. One person that obviously cared, a great deal it seemed as if she… as if she…

As if he wasn't just another patient.

Judging by the whiteness of her face, she was clearly worried for him.

But maybe she was like this with everyone?

Naruto's mind struggled on an imaginary battlefield; armies drawn up on both sides, representatives of his experience. On one hand, everyone he'd loved died, left him, abandoned him. His head completely understood that dying was out of someone's control, so to speak, but his heart simply felt the pain, his heart wasted after so many deaths, the trauma of seeing their bodies carved up like a Winter Solstice ham would never leave him.

Never.

Iron was a graveyard dedicated to Naruto, a classroom that taught one subject: the soul-destroying agony of personal loss. So here was one person who was still alive, happy to forge a new connection, and may have some answers to the questions he'd been asking his whole life. Was this a test? If so, what would be a passing grade then?

Keeping this woman at arms length?

...or taking her up on the very real, or seemingly real, offer of friendship?

What would be a failure?

En Oysashiro had seemed genuine at first, hadn't he? The man had gone out of his way to save Naruto, to tend him and bring him back from the very brink of death. Despite how cute his daughter had been, the whole act had been a smokescreen to conceal a true monster. A selfish, money-hungry asshole out for only himself. That had led him into one of the worst experiences of his life which in turn led to meeting Kazan, something he was having real trouble regretting, despite the pain of Kaz's still-recent betrayal. And Kaz had saved him from Seiryu, hadn't he? Why save Naruto only to betray him like that?

Didn't all this prove that letting people in was not only a waste of time but actively detrimental to what he really wanted?

What did Naruto want?

"...any underlying health conditions we need to know about?"

Before his head could catch up with his mouth, his secret was out.

"...does a...completely destroyed chakra system count?"

Everything caught up to him and Naruto watched Shizune's face drain of blood, turning even paler than she had been before, which was a shade that rivaled Naruto's own ghostly complexion. She was staring at the crisscrossing map of scars; most of which had come from the Gutter and served as a testament to his survival. The scars covered him, blade-fine. His arms had the majority, but his back and chest had a decent map of his adventures.

He was a patchwork web of wounds that, despite healing, simply scarred up quicker.

In a whirlwind of diagnostic jutsu, the now-familiar green glow and warmth of medical chakra confirmed her fears. That set off a process that sent nurses scurrying. Naruto could even see his… roommates looking thoroughly annoyed and confused as the waiting room turned into bedlam through the wide-open door through which Shizune had run.

Mikoto's investment will be ruined and I'll be kicked out, won't I?

Naruto couldn't even find it in him to be worried.

It was better this way, that they found out he was damaged goods now, from him. This was his reality and despite getting over parts of the issue, Naruto was no closer to fixing his body or achieving any real, deliberate control over his own chakra. Activating his Lightning Mark was the absolute extent of his abilities.

Any real shinobi would probably be able to do the same.

He wasn't special, not by a long shot.

Almost half an hour passed as Naruto watched the hands on the clock turn, absently counting. The door Shizune had closed slammed open, startling him. Such was the strength of presence on the woman who came striding through the door that Naruto didn't even notice that the Hokage came right in after her, followed by Shizune, who closed the door and activated a silencing seal cleverly concealed next to the light switch.

The woman seized his head between her hands without a word and the same warmth, the same medical diagnostic jutsu, swept through him in less than a second. This close, Naruto could smell her; a faint hint of some sort of pine scent and clean soap.

Idly, Naruto realized they almost had the same shade of hair color. Though hers was a slightly lighter blonde where his was almost golden. Hazel eyes with faint specks of green and blue saw right through him, staring out of a face that screamed strength. The fingers splayed against either side of his head felt like they could crush him like a grape.

Everything about her seemed to echo that. The blonde lady winced and swore as she, no doubt, stared at the ruined wasteland of his chakra pathways and coils. There would be no hiding. But she was getting kind of handsy with his face.

Tsunade threw up her hands, turning to speak-not to Naruto, but to Shizune and the Hokage.

"Good lord, you weren't kidding Shizune. I mean, the brat has scarring on ninety-eight percent of his tenketsu and channels, the blockages alone must be incredibly painful to move chakra through… let alone the amount of excess leakage into his muscle tissue. To attempt to move that chakra in something resembling a technique would be… well it would be…"

Naruto finished it for her. "Agony. It would be agony. And yes, it is. I'm sorry, who the hell are you?"

No damn boundaries in this place!

Naruto attempted to slap the woman's hands away and scowled as she moved not a single inch, despite the force he'd put into it. At least Shizune had asked first. The woman quirked a blonde eyebrow at him, the strange almost tattooed purple diamond in the middle of her forehead wrinkling as she looked at him, amused.

"You didn't tell me, Lady Hokage, how much of a rude brat he is. Neither did you Shizune."

Shizune winced.

Naruto's scowl deepened and he dropped off the table to stand at his full height, squaring up.

"And Shizune didn't tell me I'd have to put up with a touchy-feely pervert who happened to be old as hell doing my exam either! Where'd they get you from, huh?"

The Hokage and Shizune both winced simultaneously.

Naruto ignored the ugly look that crossed the woman's face and folded his arms, turning away and waiting.

"That… that is Tsunade Senju. My sensei and…"

Incredulous, he ignored the dangerous flash in the eyes of Tsunade and stared at Shizune.

"This is the sensei you were talking about?"

Mikoto's quiet voice cut the chatter like a knife.

"I'm sure we are all busy so if we could get to our purposes for being here?"

The Hokage turned to Shizune.

"You told me something was drastically wrong with Naruto, Shizune. I'm here and nothing seems to be amiss."

She turned back to Tsunade.

"Is your most-capable apprentice correct?"

Tsunade seemed to rethink what she was going to say, her face smoothing. Finally, after a minute she turned and pulled the fake skeleton, complete with a faux chakra-system, over to them and cleared her throat.

"See this here?"

She rotated a finger indicating all the spidery vein-like chakra paths that spread to three-hundred and sixty different spots all over the body, concentrating in eight different spots, or Gates.

With a long-suffering sigh, the Hokage nodded.

Tsunade looked at Naruto.

Naruto looked challengingly back.

"I have never, in all my years of studying both medicine and iryou-jutsu, never seen a more traumatic injury that wasn't immediately fatal. This boy should not be alive."

Something the Hokage said seemed to occur to Tsunade.

Her eyes shot open wide, whipping from the Hokage back to Naruto. "Wait, this is that Naruto? Mina-"

A slap echoed throughout the room as a hand impacted the table.

"That's enough, Tsunade. I have not spoken to Naruto about any of this yet, but yes, this is that Naruto. Now tell me, is he fit to join the Academy?"

Looking frustrated and unused to not getting her way, Tsunade gritted her teeth. Naruto looked between all three of the people in the room, eyes narrowed. There was a swirling tension that Naruto didn't give two shits about.

"What the hell do you mean, 'that Naruto?'"

Shizune stared at Tsunade, who stared at the Hokage, who stared back at Naruto. It felt like his blood was boiling in his veins. This was more people holding out.

More people holding out on me, secrets that could get me killed!

But as soon as he opened his mouth to explode, the Hokage held up a hand.

"I very much recognize that you deserve answers Naruto but have some faith in me. Only a little, please. Now is not the time. I promise, soon, but not now. This is much more pressing."

Tsunade stepped away from Naruto and leaned into the Hokage. She lowered her voice, but Naruto heard everything.

"I need to study him more, run more tests. I don't even know how he's walking around let alone how he'll ever use chakra at all. The Academy… no, he should be in a rehabilitation center for the next decade. This is a medical impossibility, just him functioning. No child like this could even complete the Academy, let alone access the functionality of their chakra."

The Head of the Hospital turned, facing Naruto.

"Can you hold your chakra for me?"

Naruto hesitated. Should I show them the Mark?

Tsunade looked impatient.

"Kid, we don't have all day. Yes or no. Can you reach your chakra? Draw it up?"

"That's none of your fucking business, grandma."

"What the hell did you just call me you crippled twerp!?"

You know what?

Fuck her! What the hell does she know anyway?

Naruto snarled at Tsunade and, completely ignoring the warning signals blaring in his hell, squared up with someone he had no business fighting. But let it be said he never ever backed down!

Shizune laid a hand on his shoulder and Naruto felt the warmth of her hands seep into his cold skin. Startled, he looked up into her face and she had tears that shimmered in her eyes.

Why, why was she crying?

Tsunade's snort brought him crashing back down, the whiplash from his emotions confusing him. The voice that picked him up so long ago in that endless dark, that single-handedly saved him from a useless death, that told him to move after a bijuu had been forcibly ripped from him, that saw him cave in the face of that boy working for the Seifuku-sha; that voice told him that he needed to keep moving now.

That anger suffused him and he felt his face redden.

Naruto didn't bother to keep his voice down.

"Fucking thank you for reminding me of the fact I'm worthless because of something I had no control over. For not having a use without chakra."

Mikoto didn't seem moved. Seemingly lost in thought.

Both iryounin turned to him.

Naruto started putting his shirt back on.

Shizune was quiet, wiping her eyes.

"Naruto, where...where did all those scars come from? What happened to you?"

"Better yet, where is the Nine-tailed Fox?"

Shizune turned an evil-eye on Tsunade, but as much as Naruto might have appreciated that another day, this clearly illustrated where he ranked on the importance scale to these shinobi.

Didn't that figure?

Tsunade and the Hokage were less concerned with him and more concerned with their investment. Shizune slowly became horrified. White-faced. Scared. Of him, no doubt. He hesitated, the effort of keeping his words in his head too much. He let his shirt fall into place, settling the plain white tee with an unnecessary amount of force.

"Ask your Hokage."

Then he left, slamming the door behind him.

The beautiful revenge he was to gain by becoming a shinobi seemingly shattered to pieces behind him.

---

A/N: I'm posting this a bit early, I know. I'll hopefully be mostly finished with Chapter 15 shortly. If I'm finished with that, I'll post Chapter 14 on Friday as I'll be away for a week or so.

A huge shout out to those of you who have communicated with me via PM and reviewed the fic so extensively. It's pretty hard to explain just how valuable that feedback is for the future of the piece of fiction. This is a first draft and I plan to go back once Book 1 is finished and polish it up for Book 2. I very much want to see this through and having more eyes on this means less of a chance of hitting plot holes in the future.

Any questions, comments, criticisms, please-feel free to either review or direct message me!

Thanks,

J.B. Macleod