That same day, in a different environment, the beginning of the platinum-haired ninja's test was observed by a crystal ball, in fact well before it actually began. Its user, an old man in red and white robes, was contemplative and attentive to the events to come. But his concerns were interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Come in." Hiruzen raised his head to see his visitor. "What is it, Iruka?"
"I would like to speak with you..." the younger man began half-heartedly.
"Is it about your problematic former student?" the old man hits the nail on the head. "Are you worried about him?"
"Yes. I don't think that was the best way for him to find out about his situation..."
"I know." Sarutobi agrees, looking out the window. "But in that situation, it was the right thing to do, if we lied it would be worse when he found out the truth."
"What will happen to him?" Iruka asks curiously, although he was not close to the boy, no one was.
"He's going to have to get strong." the other ninja shook his head nodding, they both knew this probably wouldn't be a choice.
"Why did you put them together?" the brunette asked looking at the crystal ball that was still in effect from the Jutsu, which showed Kakashi's testing the team.
"Why the question?" the older man wanted to know.
"I don't know... It doesn't seem like it's going to work out, they... You know?" the tied-up hair man said, interspersing his thoughtful gaze between the ball and the Sandaime.
"Yes, it will be a complicated team to interact with." he agrees and looks again at what was happening inside the crystal, where the conflict between the platinum-haired and the blond boy was shown.
"Then why...?" the Chūnin asks again.
"Exactly because of this." the elder states making the young man turn to him startled. "Kakashi was never the same after losing the members of his team, one by one. It only got worse. Sasuke is quieter and more proud, but he is usually kind and cares about those close to him. Sakura has a good heart despite her strong will and is slightly self-centered, she may be the one to keep them together. Naruto is extremely rebellious and solitary, that's why it's difficult for him to approach others, that although he doesn't show it, he harbors great resentment and sorrow inside. I hope they help each other, I believe they are the only ones who can save each other. If they succeed, I believe they will be an unbeatable combination." confesses Hiruzen, although not delving so deeply into his true thoughts.
"..." the bushy-haired man nods, without saying much, perhaps because he was surprised by the leader's answer. But before he could even ask them to talk more about it, the office door opened after a light knock, and a ninja entered, whom Umino recognized as one of those who worked in the tower.
"Hokage-sama, everyone is already waiting in the room for the meeting you have called." the shinobi announces after a reverence.
"Thank you for telling me, Isao. I'll go there right now." Hiruzen says to the man who waved and left. "It was nice talking to you, Iruka."
"It was an honor, Sandaime-sama." the younger man bowed and walked away, probably back to the academy.
"It's about time, huh?" he says to himself, looking one last time at the globe, watching the boy they were going to talk about faint at the feet of the copying ninja and be carried to the trunks, before undoing the Jutsu and leaving the room and heading towards the council meeting room.
"You are late, Hiruzen." his two advisors speak in chorus as he enters the room and goes to his seat at the table.
"I know. I'm sorry, Hiruzen. I had to take care of one last matter before I came." the Sarutobi explained as he put his Hokage hat on the table. "Shall we begin the meeting?" all agreed.
"We need to decide how we will deal with and what we will do with Uzumaki Naruto from now on." Shimura Danzo spoke up, drawing attention to himself.
"Exactly." Homura, the male counselor, readily agrees.
"And it's about time! The time he had certain freedom is over." Koharu, the female counselor speaks up next. "The proof is that the fox has already begun to manifest itself, as reported in the graduation exam."
"The seal is deteriorating much earlier than anticipated." the other counselor adds, fearfully. "The seal used by Minato should only gradually weaken by itself in at least 3 to 4 years. Only then would Kyuubi be able to manifest on its own, without any training or will of the jinchuuriki."
"And the fact that he knows his condition now could be like a double-edged blade, due to his unpredictable and unstable personality." the counselor ponders, looking at the papers in front of her, specifically the one reporting the boy's ordeal.
"His personality has always been a big problem. You can never really know exactly what he is thinking." the Mitokado agrees, doing the same, but also looking at the record.
"You have created a bomb that could explode at any moment, Sarutobi." Koharu declares, with undeniable certainty, being supported by her companion. "With the way you insisted that he grow up."
"What did you want? Would you rather he had no feelings at all? Like the NE (ROOT) anbus?" questions Hiruzen.
"It would be better than this case." the counselors argue, clearly taking turns to speak. "He's a jinchuuriki, he should know how to behave like one."
"By Kami, he's just a child..."
"He was never a child, and never will be. You know that." the counselors glare at the Hokage.
"You remember, don't you? How quickly the boy can change or hide what his eyes show," recalls Danzo.
"No human is born with this ability. They can only achieve it when taught." Homura Mitokado states, implying how non-human they considered the 'child'.
"..." Hiruzen was silent.
"Not only is the population unhappy with the situation, from the beginning." said the only woman present. "Letting the boy loose out there has brought a lot of problems."
"We left it as it was until now. And as agreed from now on, with the awakening of the Fox, things will be resolved with the sole focus on the good of the village and the nation."
"We need to resolve this soon. I don't have all afternoon." Homura complains, already out of patience for procrastination. "We have to decide the tutor responsible for proper training for the jinchuuriki."
"I thought of Jiraya. Because he is a Sannin and has the sage mode of the frogs of Mount Myōboku he would be able to handle this case well."
"Except that he could have been handling it for years since he should have been in charge of the boy after Yondaime's death. But even then he didn't return to the village or take responsibility. What would change now?" the woman points out without any mercy.
"We talked while we were waiting for you. Danzo was willing to be in charge of him, just as he was years ago." announces the advisor, making clear in his tone his opinion on the subject.
"It would be ideal if someone with firmer, more focused hands would be in charge of it." Koharu points out, looking at the Hokage.
"I don't think so..." Hiruzen didn't like the idea. He knew how rigid the other was, and he didn't want it, he never wanted it for the boy, and that's why he always postponed this conversation.
"Why don't we do it your way and let the boy choose?" suggests Shimura in an even-handed manner, trapping Sarutobi against his own pride and decisions.
"So it will be then." all agreed and sent someone to call the young boy.
Back to the present...
Hurried footsteps echoed through the trees. But they soon stopped. After all, why the hurry if there was nothing to do for the rest of the day and no one at home waiting? The little boy sighed and made himself keep walking, calmer this time. Thinking about which way he should go, after all, yesterday he saw how much the village liked that he had become a genin.
"Uzumaki Naruto." he heard someone calling him, which was a good sign, after all the threats didn't speak to him, so he looked up. It was an Anbu, much taller than him and wearing a bird mask. "Hokage-sama sent for you to come to his office." he continued, as he received attention.
"Ah..." his spine chilled as he remembered his current situation. He hadn't expected the Hokage to speak of such training so quickly. He swallowed nervously. "Okay. I'll come by later."
"You should go there immediately." the older man replied.
"I can't. I'm busy right now." he just didn't want to have to listen to whatever the guy in the hat was going to say now. Then he started to look around, looking for anything that might give him an idea. That's when he saw a pink head and a ravenette coming toward him. Well, that would do. "I had already arranged to go to eat with my team. I was just waiting for them. Hehehehe... I have to go!" he lied and practically ran towards the pair, dragging them with him. "Just cooperate," he asked when one of them was about to ask what was happening.
"You've done something wrong, haven't you?" Sasuke asked, deducing what must have happened after they stopped with the city buildings in sight.
"Probably." Naruto answers, which made his colleagues start to wonder what their lives would be like having a rebel member on the team. But they decided not to get involved, after all, they hadn't heard that the Hokage had called him, otherwise, they would have sent him there immediately.
"Naruto... I wanted to apologize for before..." speaks the Haruno, clumsy.
"Why? It wasn't a lie after all." Naruto looks at her without understanding, causing them to be confused.
"But it wasn't nice of me! I'm sorry!" the girl insisted.
"Okay." now the blonde seemed to think she was strange. What had she done wrong to be apologizing anyway? He didn't understand. 'Where are we eating?" he asked, surprising the pair, as he had refused to eat with them previously.
"There's a dango store nearby." suggested the Uchiha, remembering that his brother always said that eating dangos was the best way to bond.
"Sweets?" Sakura whispered to herself, couldn't believe what she had heard. 'You mean Sasuke-kun likes sweets? I never would have imagined... Shanaroo!' she thought. "Maybe!" she agrees although she's not really a fan of it.
"I've never tasted it..." Naruto spoke after his colleague stared at him wanting an answer to the proposal.
"What? How?" Sasuke stared at the other as if another head had sprouted in him.
So they went on laughing, discovering that the boy didn't even know what dangos were and saying that they had to introduce him to the 'good things in life'. This was one of the first good times the blond had with someone his own age. Although he didn't say much in fact, keeping his guard up, was uncomfortable and mostly not knowing what to do. Thanks to his attention being on the conversation he wasn't paying so much attention to the people around him and how they were looking at him.
"Hey!" he heard a female voice shouting. "Don't you dare ignore me, forehead!" someone jumps on top of Haruno.
"Ah! A pig." the pink one says looking at the blonde, strangely calm.
"Your...!" the blonde practically growls at the other, and the sparks were almost visible.
"Yo!" says Shikamaru approaching together with Choji. His eyes scanned the group, crossing them with Naruto's, he soon noticed that something was strange, but before he could analyze this anomaly disappeared.
"Were you with your Sensei?" Choji asks, stopping beside his friend with a packet of potato chips in hand.
"Yes, the same for you right?" Sasuke says, receiving a positive nod.
"You're quieter than I remember." the Akimichi comments, looking at the Uzumaki.
"I'm too hungry to do anything else." tells Naruto scratching his head.
"I understand! I also get that way when I'm hungry. I'm hungry too. We were on our way to the steakhouse now, why don't you come with us, guys?" invited. Soon all the boys were leaving the girls behind, who were still looking at each other in irritation.
"Don't leave us behind!" both shouted when they realized this and ran after them, causing laughter in the group. When they arrived they chose a table and waited to be served while listening to the thousands of compliments from the Akimichi boy about the "wonderful and divine" barbecue and the meat that was served there.
"Welcome! What would you like..." the attendant stopped talking as soon as she noticed the blond boy's presence. "Excuse me." she quickly left, leaving everyone confused. Soon a commotion began in the restaurant.
"What is he doing here?" said a sudden voice, making them look in her direction. It was the owner of the place.
"What?" -questions Ino, not understanding.
"He's not welcome here." the woman spoke firmly.
"Gomen (sorry)... I completely forgot... Hehehehe..." Naruto speaks up, only then making them notice that the woman was talking about him, scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish smile on his face. "I owe you a lot of money, don't I?" the boy stood up went towards the lady and took a large amount from his wallet, and handed it to her, it was more money than was necessary to buy lunch for the whole group.
"That's right. Now go away!" the woman quickly agreed.
"Hai, hai..." the boy turned and started walking towards the exit, after waving goodbye to his classmates.
"Ah! Gomenasai!" they heard a shout from one of the attendants and the sound of things falling. The group of Genin who was still standing in shock stretched out in their booth to see what had happened. Apparently, there had been an accident and some glasses had fallen on the Uzumaki. However, the woman's voice contained disgust. But the boy just acted as if it had really been an accident and said "It's okay" with his usual famous smile before leaving, knocking over the sign at the entrance and giving the woman the tongue before running away.
"This boy..." the woman had a lot of disgust in her tone before turning to the group. "Were you on the same team as him? You should go ask the Hokage to change. And you should stay away from him, all of you. He's bad luck." she said before walking away to talk to the first attendant asking her to put some aromatic herbs to clean the environment.
Naruto's hair was soaked and he smelled of green tea. He was surprised at himself for thinking he would be at peace that day. He was walking aimlessly among the people when he was called by a voice he knew.
"Naruto!" the shout came from inside the ramen store, from Mr. Teuchi Ichiraku, the owner of the establishment, who called him insistently to come in. !I heard that you've graduated! Congratulations!"
"Congratulations, Naruto-kun! You better not have gone to eat anywhere else but here, huh?" said Ayame appearing from behind the counter, greeting the younger boy and joking with the 'number one customer' as his father called him.
"Arigato..." he smiled lightly while drying himself with a towel handed to him by Ayame. "But..."
"No but! It's on the house!" he insisted, already with his daughter. "After all, this is the third time you've taken the graduation exam and you finally got it. It's something to celebrate!"
"Yo! Didn't you say you were going to eat with us?" says Sasuke entering the store along with Sakura and the other team.
"Yeah, you left us behind and you're going to start without us? This is a low blow, Naruto." the Haruno complements.
"Don't forget about us!" says Ino, sitting down as well. The gentleman smiled at the scene and looked at the blonde as if to ask if they were his friends.
"They are my team and colleagues from the academy who graduated too," he answered softly.
"IT'S ALL ON THE HOUSE!" he declared, starting to cook, surprising everyone. In fact, he was happy for the blond boy who for the first time was not going to eat completely alone. Naruto blushed and lowered his head, hiding his face after the man blinked at him, understanding the unspoken words.
Everyone savored the ramens with gusto, almost all of them wondering why they had never stopped to eat there. To their amazement, at some point, it almost became a competition of who could eat more, the blond or Choji, as everyone stopped at one or two bowls and the duo was already on their ninth. It was a pleasant atmosphere when they were startled by an Anbu who suddenly appeared.
"You'd better come right now, Uzumaki Naruto." the same Anbu from earlier spoke in the boy's direction.
"Okay." he stood up and turned to the father and daughter. "Thank you." but he could barely say goodbye to the others before he was dragged away by the masked ninja.