Hi sorry it's been a long time. My pc has just crashed and in a coma at the moment and my netbook is in a simular situation too. that's where the chapters are saved the netbook with access through my pc. I've just rewritten chapters 22 -28. craven34, thanks for the kick up the butt.

Please enjoy it, lol.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews.

Naruto = flash back

'Naruto' is thoughts/thinking

"Naruto" signing/sign language

"Naruto" speaking.

"Naruto" Demon

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto just some DVDs and games.

Chapter 20 facing your fears.

Hinata looked at the vase on her windowsill, and smiled shyly, in the vase stood a sunflower which was given to her by Naruto. She remembered how Naruto had taken her to a beautiful garden filled with flowers of different kinds.

He let go of her hand as she gazed in open awe at the assortment of beauty in the garden. Naruto had started walking around the garden examining different flowers and occasionally glancing back at Hinata. He finally selected one and holding it behind his back walked over to her. She looked up when Naruto stood in front of her.

His hands hidden behind his back, his head down so his bangs hid his eyes. Hinata blushing was shocked when he held out a sunflower.

"I know it's silly but here's a sunflower for you. Some of the other flowers aren't ready yet though." He smiled shyly as he gave his best friend a flower. "I want to give you a few more when they're ready" he smiled waiting for her to react. He didn't expect the bone crushing hug he received. Pulling back he looked at Hinata's still blushing face, and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

She smiled at the flower wondering what the next one would be. She turned ready to begin the family training as her sister walked past her room, head held high a knowing smirk on her face.

(Line)

Naruto was stood next to the hokage a frown on his face as he watched the jounin going through paces. He glanced at the hokage out the corner of his eye, the hokage was still angry and puffing away on his pipe too quickly to be normal. Naruto had started pouting and huffed with his arms crossed.

"Don't give me that young man, you are being punished!" The Hokage snapped irritated at the young man before him.

"Looks more to me like you're taking your anger out on the jounin." Naruto muttered " I just have to follow you around all day."

"I AM NOT TAKING MY ANGER OUT ON THEM!" the Hokage shouted pointing at the jounin. "AND YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING ME AROUND. YOU ARE NOT TO LEAVE MY SIGHT, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE." He placed his pipe back into his mouth and started puffing on it furiously.

"This is so boring, I'm not even allowed a book." Naruto grumbled crossing his legs and sitting on the floor.

The Hokage eyed Naruto as Turtle walked over from the tree line. He narrowed his eyes at turtle who feeling the sudden chill directed at him slowed his pace down. He stopped on the other side of Naruto, still annoyed that he had been on the receiving end of Naruto's wrath. He idly kicked Naruto with the side of his foot.

"WHAT do you want Cat?" the Hokage grunted.

Naruto and Turtle stared at the Hokage in shock. He'd never gotten the two mixed up before. Even Ibiki, the Anbu scattered throughout the formation, Asuma and Kakashi with their sensitive hearing had frozen at the name spoken.

"Why have you stopped I never ordered you to stop!" the Hokage shouted at the immobile members of the formation.

"He's not Cat." Naruto spoke his eyes a steel greyish blue. He jumped to his feet. "Cat's gone. If he was here he wouldn't have caught me either. Stop comparing Hikaru to Cat; they'll never be the same person. No matter what we want!" Naruto yelled at the Hokage his eyes filling with water.

"I don't compare him to Cat. It was a slip of the tongue." He reasoned "And do not shout at me you're the one in trouble here not Me." the Hokage's voice rose

"You're a perverted old man and a fool!"

"And you're an insolent, naive young child!"

They stared at each other breathing hard; Turtle and the jonin looked on waiting for the first to back down. Kakashi was intrigued by the way Naruto defended the turtle masked ANBU and Cat, he was about to ask Asuma when the Hokage nostrils flaring turned his sharp gaze to the stilled group. Who sensing the danger quickly picked up where they left off and ran through their stances.

Naruto smirked, his arms crossed, he had won that round. He turned to Hikaru who stood in next to him, he sighed.

"Hikaru?" he called "I'm sorry you got hurt, I'm not very good with traps and I asked someone else to make it for me. You were only meant to get a shock, not a zap." he rubbed his hand through his hair. "I fixed it this morning by the way. You can get into your room now." Naruto sounded so much like a child now. That Hikaru had to turn him level in the eyes. "It's okay Naruto I understand why I got pranked, so does the Hokage. He's just angry you left the paper work."

"Nothing's worse than paper work" Naruto replied happy that Hikaru had forgiven him. "If I land a hit on one of them can we end this horrible charade?" Naruto asked the Hokage who was glaring at everyone. "In fact I'll make a bet with you, I bet I can beat you old man" Naruto goaded

"If you can't?" the Hokage relented sensing an opportunity.

"I'll help you with your paperwork." Naruto shrugged

"And if you can?" the Hokage pushed.

"I'll tell you if I win" he sounded sure of himself.

"Sir..." Turtle started to butt in, as the Hokage thought over his answer

"Deal" the Hokage shook Naruto's hand knowing that there was no way he would be able to win against him.

Turtle shook his head, you never bet against Naruto. He had an uncanny ability to win. He sighed and moved to stand at the front of the group who were now watching the genin who dared to fight the Hokage.

They stood a good distance away from each other staring into the opponent's eyes. Naruto smirked suddenly making the Hokage wonder what he could be up to. Naruto placed his hands in the ram hand sign and released a lot of smoke obscuring the view from the jonin watching. Then he transformed into a beautiful naked woman with smoke hovering around her most intimate areas. He stood leaning forwards at the waist and blew a kiss to the wide eyed hokage, who shot backwards hitting the ground unconscious. He released the technique as the smoke cleared to where the jonin could see Naruto stood over an unconscious hokage. Their mouths dropped.

Naruto walked away and sat next to Turtle as the Hokage slowly came back to life. He stirred, ran his hand across his face and sat up. He turned to find Naruto sat in front of his jonin who were pretty much agape.

"NEVER USE THAT TECHNIQUE AGAIN!" the Hokage shouted after standing.

"Don't plan to. It's rather derogatory I think. But I did win." Naruto replied as though nothing had happened.

"But if I had been playing fair I doubt I would have but wars aren't fair, life isn't fair. So I win." Naruto spoke with certainty.

"Fine" the Hokage chewed on the end of his pipe, 'He used a perverted technique against an old pervert like me, and he really knows my weaknesses.' The Hokage sighed. "What did you want?"

"To meet the demon inside me."

(Line)

The Hokage dropped the pipe from his mouth in shock, the jonin who were still stood there where all in shock. Turtle turned to Ibiki as he expected him to be the one to make the next move.

"Why?" the Hokage spluttered.

"Sometimes we need to face our demons. I want to see the demon that haunts my dreams turning them into nightmares, to meet the creature that I fear face to face, I need to decide for myself what to think of it."

"Naruto I can't, I..."

"I used his chakra once and I don't want to rely on it's chakra. Besides you have the best ninja who have skills in delving into one's mind. I need to meet him, please." Naruto reasoned, looking to Inoichi Yamanaka and Ibiki.

The Hokage looked to Ibiki and Inoichi, looking for help with his eyes. Shikaku was the one who stepped forwards from the ranks; he knelt so that he was level with Naruto and searched his eyes with his own.

"You're a lot wiser than you let on." He spoke "but what if the seal breaks?"

"Do you really have such little faith in the man who placed it on me?" Naruto asked shaking his head, causing those to know the fourth to hang their heads in shame. He pulled his scarf and shirt off and dropping them along with his loosened head band to the floor his hair fell forwards showing that it had grown quite a bit longer with two bangs longer than the others appearing to sit next to his face, everyone was astounded at how much he looked like the fourth just then. Blowing the errant hairs away he made the seal appear. "It hasn't changed, not one thing is different about it. I've seen it every day my entire life I'd know if anything was different about it?" he did everything with a calmness that most ninja didn't attain till they were jounin.

Shikaku looked from the young man before him to the Hokage and back to his old friend, he sighed troublesome before standing and pushing Inoichi forwards. The Hokage watched the interaction carefully he had always wondered when Naruto would ask about the demon but he never expected him to want to meet it. He stepped forward looking at Naruto as Inoichi approached him.

"Get Tenzo." The Hokage ordered Turtle who nodded his head before disappearing in a swirl of smoke. "Everyone can leave if they want" the Hokage ordered his earlier anger at the jounin's easily evaporated after this new development. "Why couldn't you ask for something different?"

The jounin looked between themselves before leaving, with just Asuma, Kakashi, Kurenai, Ibiki, a green clad monstrosity and the parents of those in Naruto's class remaining.

"Because he scares me, and I don't like being scared." Naruto stated. "You never tell me what I want anyway." Naruto chuckled easily dropping into a seated position with his legs crossed.

"Sometimes it's okay to be scared" Asuma coaxed sat on his haunches in front of Naruto.

"Not of something you've never met." Naruto replied his eyes closed as Inoichi started instructing him.

Turtle returned with the ANBU Tenzo behind him. Tenzo was a tall Anbu with short brown hair with a cat like mask with green and red markings covering it. He looked around slightly nervously as the Hokage summoned him over. He walked over slowly as he saw a blonde haired boy sat on the floor a seal displayed on his stomach. The boys eyes opened revealing pools of pure cerulean and looked straight at him, he faltered as the boy's lips twitched and his eyes closed again. It wasn't till he was seated in front of the boy hand outstretched in case he had to act quickly that the boy finally spoke to him.

"I knew you existed, somewhere" the boy's lips quirked as Tenzo blinked his almond shaped black eyes behind his mask. He tilted his head in question before returning it to its original position.

"Naruto let him concentrate." Turtle chastised worriedly.

Inoichi finally moved away from Naruto after explaining how to enter his own mind, he stepped back his hands ready to take over if anything was to go wrong.

Naruto sighed and breathed deeply he had been on the edge of his mind many times before but he'd never actually made it in. He took another breath and fell deep into his mind.

Naruto found himself in a hallway with water covering the floor and pipes covering the ceiling, it reminded him of a boiler room, it had many doors lining the corridor. He felt a sense of foreboding as he neared one of the doors, a loud roar suddenly eluded from the doorway. Stepping through it he found himself in a large room, at the far end of the room was a huge set of bars that resembled a cage and on the middle of the gate was what he could make to be a white square. As he moved closer he found that it was actually a piece of paper that read 'seal'. The gates were vast and inside were nothing but pitch black but he could feel the foreboding feeling emanating from behind them. Looking closer he could make out a faint outline of what appeared to be two eyes and a smile.

"It must be huge" Naruto analysed the darkness beyond the gates.

"Child step closer." A voice boomed around the room. Naruto edged closer to the gate, on edge. A giant paw came slamming down its claws not able to reach further enough from the gate. Naruto took a tentative step back as his eyes widened.

"I want to eat you but this damn seal." the claws receded back into the darkness.

"You're the nine tailed fox." Naruto craned his neck to see the beast.

"What do you want?"

"To meet you, to decide for myself how I should feel about you."

"How you should feel about me? I'm the one trapped inside the body of an incompetent child."

"I have a name you know," Naruto swallowed as he saw the outline of what could only be a gigantic swishing tail. "How do you think I feel having you trapped in my body!" Naruto shouted.

"What does it matter what I call you? Or for that matter what do I care how you feel!" boomed back towards Naruto.

"It's polite to address one by their name; I doubt your name is nine tailed demon fox." Naruto laughed. A claw swung down at him.

"DO NOT LAUGH AT ME YOU INSERNIGIFCANT LITTLE BEAST!"

"You forget that this is my subconscious, my mind, my will, and in it I can do anything I want."

(Line)

On the outside the shinobi watched as Naruto's breathing evened out, they looked on worriedly.

(Line)

"Why did you show me those images?" Naruto asked gulping away his fear. "The ones of what you did the night I was born?"

"You are scared of me; I can see it in your eyes"

"Yes I am scared of you but that's because I know nothing about you. I don't know what it was like to stand by as other fought you or watching as you destroyed my village and loved ones; the people I cared for. I don't know what it is to stare into your eyes knowing I will never come back! I just wanted to meet the creature that did those things, to understand why the village hates me because of you. You were always just a beast in my eyes, one that could manipulate my dreams and bring feelings of terror that I see in them out of me!"

Naruto shook himself. "Why are you so full of malice and resentment and pride?" Naruto turned his head to the side feeling the emotions rolling off the fox. "I want to see all of you!" Naruto shouted.

"Hehehe, you've got guts child..."

"NARUTO! MY NAME IS NARUTO!"

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME! PEST I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOUR NAME IS!" the darkness evaporated around the fox allowing Naruto to finally see the entire monster. It was giant kitsune with red orange fur and red eyes which glared at Naruto. It was lying down in the cage with it's nine tails fanning out behind it twitching into the air slowly. Naruto stepped back as he managed to see all of him.

"Still scared I see."

"No just taking you all in, I imagine you'd be a lot bigger roaming free. But I'll never set you free not as long as there's a chance you'll destroy my village." Naruto said.

"Why care for a village that hates your very existence, that fear you? They want you dead. They would like nothing more than to be the ones to watch your light go out." The fox wormed its way into Naruto's mind causing him to remember the horrible memories he had.

(Line)

Naruto's chakra spiked and a wave of blue enveloped him, followed by a wave of red. The two colours fought for control, the two chakra's battled before the blue consumed the red and his charka flared before settling back down.

"That's the same feeling from the land of wave" Kakashi commented

"He has surprisingly good control over it though." Turtle mentioned as he watched Naruto snuff out the red chakra, he smirked "I understand, he doesn't what to have to rely on the fox's chakra to win a battle he wants to prove himself as Naruto the ninja not Naruto the demon." This caused all eyes to stare at him.

"But is he really that complex?" Tsume asked looking at the boy, who she remembered wanted his hair cut.

"He's more than you could ever imagine" Asuma smiled.

"But he's just a child" Kurenai began. "He's shy. I remember when he was smaller he'd never be anywhere without that ANBU and he never spoke."

"Yes that was Naruto, but sitting before me now I see a young man with a curious streak and wit beyond measure, He'd make a fine Hokage one day." The third said looking down at Naruto softly.

(Line)

"Stop please Fox. Stop." Naruto dispelled the images that were bombarding him. "You are a very petty fox. I have family and friends who love and care for me and I gain more every day. I understand why everyone fears and hates you now Fox. But I won't let you control me or my dreams." Naruto started walking away from the cage.

"Where are you going? I haven't finished with you yet?"

"No but I've finished with you, I hope we don't have to meet again Fox." Naruto continued walking away.

"NARUTOOO!" the fox bellowed thrashing around as Naruto left his mind.

He returned to find himself surrounded by people and a slight chill running across his body, blinking owlishly he grabbed his shirt and scarf pulling them on standing up he bent down grabbing his headband he placed it onto his head.

"Well?"

"Well what? He's still scary but I understand why he is so scary. I understand now the burden I have been placed with. I never want to have to use his power, I want to know it's always me in control not him." Naruto shrugged.

"You were arguing?" Inoichi spoke.

"Yes about my using name, stupid fox" Naruto grumbled. "I assumed the fox had a name rather than being called fox all the time but he's too prideful and all high and mighty to use mine or tell me it." Naruto huffed. He looked round for the anbu called Tenzo, realising that he was gone pouted he'd really wanted to get to know that ANBU now that he knew he really did exist.

"Can't have you talking to Tenzo, Naruto. He's not meant to exist, even to you." Turtle explained.

Naruto nodded and sighed walking with the Hokage back in the direction of the Hokage tower. Turtle having a brief discussion with Ibiki followed after them, leaving the jounins to discuss what they had just witnessed. Their opinions of the boy had all changed as they delved into their thoughts, pulling out what they knew about him. No one had ever expected that he would want to see the monster that caused so much bias towards him. Or the way he handled the situation, there was more to Naruto than they knew and that was a good sign to them.

(Line)

The Hokage was gazing out the window his hands clasped behind his back, his pipe smouldering on his desk next to the sleeping cat. He turned his head as Turtle entered the room. He waited still staring out the window before he addressed what was on his mind.

"I've been thinking Hikaru, and I believe that Naruto will make an exceptional Hokage, what do you think? You know him best."

"I think that he is what this villages needs as a leader but, he wouldn't take the job. He loves to learn and travel, enjoy new experiences. You can't tie him down with the title especially being so young. He won't take it if you offer it to him." Hikaru moved his mask to the side of his face.

"I agree he's what this villages needs as a leader."

"It's not what he wants though."

"No but the village will be safe in his hands. And it will prosper, because that is what he does best. He allows the village to change and grow. He'll let it flourish and allow Konohamaru time to mature and develop himself as a ninja and a person, before passing the mantle onto him. But will the ninja follow him?"

"The ANBU would follow him to hell and back." Hikaru straightened "I think in time the ninja will see what it is that we all see in him. And once the ninja accept him the village will follow."

"Good I've been going over this in my head for a while; I want to name him as my successor."

Nami's eyes opened as the cat listened to the conversation; it blinked as the Hokage strolled over to the desk and signed a sheet of paper with Hikaru watching. The cat closed its eyes as the signature finalised the document.

Thanks for reading.
One question i can post my other chapters un-beta'd, if you want, if you do let me know, but beware the grammar and puncuation and spelling might be bad.
Please review if you like.