Chapter 1: Golden Hair, Wrinkled Skin
Naruto jerked awake to the sound of his alarm clock blaring on top of the bedside table, head still swimming with the fuzziness of a dream-filled sleep. With a disgruntled sigh, he threw a hand to its top and silenced it, not bothering to acknowledge the clattering of metal as it fell to the ground. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to simply lay back down and enjoy some more shut-eye, but today was an important day. Today Naruto was going to keep his word to Old Man Hokage and be one step closer to accomplishing his dream.
Jumping out of bed, Naruto quickly stripped off his pajamas and slid on a pair of worn brown pants, an undershirt, and a lightly stained white T-shirt with an orange Leaf spiral on its front and a red spiral on its back, similar to ones found on most ninja flak jackets around the village. Walking out of his room to a very "entry" hallway, he stepped into the door on his right and into his bathroom to relieve himself. After he finished his business, Naruto looked into his bathroom mirror and pushed a hand through his spiky blonde hair, and ghosted his fingers over the three whisker marks that marked each cheek, looking back to his hair he noticed that it had been a while since it'd been trimmed up, his bangs were almost hanging over his eyes and his sideburns started flying loosely off the side of his face, stopping at the end of his ears. Saving that thought for a later time, Naruto walked out of his bathroom and through a door that was once again to his right that led into his dining room and kitchen area. It was a humble abode and his dining and cooking area consisted of a table that rested in the middle of the room, a refrigerator in the far left corner, and a countertop on the entry door wall with a stove and wall-mounted kitchen cabinets above said stove.
Naruto reached up and opened the wall-mounted cabinets and the shelves were packed with only two things: Ramen cups and individually packaged ration bars. Naruto grabbed a ration bar and peeled off its wrapper and held the bar in his mouth as he walked back towards the door, throwing the wrapper into the trashcan on the floor at the edge of the counter and walking back into the little entryway and again stepped through the door to his right that leads to where his high top sandals were kept and the door to the outside world. Naruto held the ration bar in his mouth as he fumbled his sandals on and tucked the legs of his pants into them and walked out of his door, fought the old, rickety thing open, then closed again, and finally bit through the chalky ration bar, supposedly flavored like chocolate, as he headed towards the Academy.
Normally, Naruto would much rather stay and wait the extra few minutes to cook and enjoy some ramen, but decided that it was simply quicker to eat the ration bar and head straight for the Academy, even if they didn't taste the best. The point of ration bars was to give ninja a source of nutrients and calories that was equivalent to a full meal without stopping to eat during a mission, however, all of this was lost on Naruto as he only has them because they were similar in price as his precious ramen cups, even cheaper depending on the sales that day, and it was hard to eat ramen while training. Ten times out of ten it ends in a bad time.
Naruto walked the path from his apartment to the Academy while chewing on the ration bar as he looked up to the sky. It was a truly beautiful morning. There was not a cloud in sight, and the sun bathed the village in orange light, giving the whole village a warm glow that was intensified by the Hokage Mountain that peered over the land. The warm weather was a pleasant contrast to the cold glares directed toward Naruto as he walked, giving him a wide berth through the morning crowd. Naruto didn't acknowledge any of it though, not the glares, not the scoffs nor the occasional globs of spit that landed on the ground in front of him. It didn't pay to show his sadness, it didn't pay to show his loneliness, nor did it pay to show his anger. Naruto decided long ago that it only paid to show a smile as he admired the morning's weather, proving that it would take more to get to Naruto Uzumaki.
Soon enough Naruto made it to his classroom and entered the usual scene. The classroom was a four-level room that went three desks across per level, and each desk was usually used by three students. He saw the various friend groups that developed throughout their academy years mingling about the room away from their seats, he heard the laughter, he heard the excited voices, he heard passionate arguments about one thing or another, and yet none of it was directed towards him. There was a stark difference between how adults, excluding Grandpa Hokage and the nice Ichiraku family, and how kids his age treated him. While adults go out of their way to display their dislike of Naruto one way or another, kids his age seem to just ignore him as a whole with the occasional stray comment from time to time. So, as Naruto made his way up to his seat in the back corner of the classroom nobody paid him any mind, that is if you ignore one particular individual.
"I wish I could just ignore the bastard."
The only person in the room that looked at Naruto as Sasuke Uchiha, who was seated in the opposing corner from the door at the back of the classroom surrounded by a majority of the female population of the class, he wore a high collared blue T-shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol in its back and basic white shorts and sandals, his hair was an odd pattern of spikes jutting out of the back of his head and a group of spikes framing the sides of his face. His face was usually impassive or held a slight frown that, when mixed with the disinterested black eyes, gave off the antithesis of a welcoming expression.
Sasuke and Naruto had an odd back and forth with one another, and by odd, Naruto sees it as a tooth-clenching annoyance, that was birthed between the commonality of two lonely souls. Over the years, more than once has one of the two come across the other secluded from everyone else in the village, simply trying to find a place to belong and it brought a basic level of…understanding? Naruto sat in his seat, which sat in the opposing corner to Sasuke at the back of the room, with an audible scoff as he peaked back across the classroom at Sasuke, who now had his gaze fixed out of the window, and his fangirls loitering around him. The main issue Naruto had with the Uchiha, barring his aloof attitude, was that he chose to be locked in solitude. Right now was a perfect example, as Naruto was left in a quiet corner without anyone batting an eye at him, Sasuke sat with people almost literally falling over themselves to be in his presence, and yet he still refused to take advantage of any of it. Who would choose to live such a lonely life, and why?
As Naruto stewed in his thoughts his academy teachers, Iruka Umino and Mizuki Tohru, made their way into the classroom. Iruka was a tanned man with a scar crossing the bridge of his nose and spiky brown hair pulled into a ponytail atop his head, his forehead sporting the traditional Leaf shinobi headband. He wore the standard Leaf shinobi attire: a blue sweatsuit underneath a forest green flak jacket. Mizuki was fair-skinned with straight white hair that fell to his shoulders capped in a bandana-style forehead protector and was similarly dressed.
"SIT DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION," Iruka called throughout the class and everyone quickly followed, mostly for fear of what would happen to their ears if they didn't. "Good. Now, today you will all be tested on your ninjutsu for your final examinations to determine whether or not you're ready to become genin. When we call your name follow Mizuki and I to the next room where we will conduct the exam. First up is Shino Aburame." A tall fair-skinned boy with cropped, spiky black hair dressed in a long, high collared pale green coat, brown pants, and circular dark sunglasses got up from his seat and followed the two teachers out of the room.
Iruka's announcement put Naruto into a nervous train of thought. Despite being told about the ninjutsu in the opening years of attending the Academy, and adamantly working on getting them all down since then, it hasn't been an easy road. The Transformation and Substitution Jutsu were easy enough to learn once he got the hang of using his chakra, but it took years for Naruto to do the Clone Jutsu halfway right. Even now, it wasn't entirely perfect as the clones sometimes came out looking a little exhausted or sickly. If he did a little better on his other exams maybe he wouldn't be as nervous as he was, but unfortunately, he was only average at shuriken and kunai throwing and abysmal at written tests. Not by choice though, it wasn't his fault that he couldn't keep his mind right in classes or during tests. Iruka's lectures are so boring that his mind trails off to something else or finds looking outside worlds more interesting, and when testing it wasn't rare for him to get distracted in the middle of reading a question and wander elsewhere. It didn't help that he was prone to oversleeping and showing up late, look he wasn't the perfect student but it's not like he didn't care. He liked his sleep, as weird as his dreams can get, and he had too much energy to be locked in a classroom. Even now his leg was bouncing a hole into the hardwood floor. The only bright spot in his academic career was the taijutsu portion, and while many of his classmates belonged to clans that held their own taijutsu style, for example, the Hyuuga and Inuzuka, it was a pipe dream to think Naruto could beat them in a spar depending on his technical prowess in the martial arts, especially when all the training he had was watching his instructors miming a few stances and strikes. No, Naruto's secret was learning that he had the most stamina out of his peers and one hell of a chin, so early on the only way, he could win a spar was by wearing down his opponents in a dog fight. Now it was still a similar strategy, but as he trained Naruto developed speed and strength that wasn't there as a smaller child.
With all of the examinations taken, Naruto can scrape out a passing mark by performing all three ninjutsu passably. That being said, with all of his effort to push through the academy, Naruto, clearly, wasn't a standout student and it wasn't out of the question for him to come out of graduation at the very bottom of the class, but he was more worried about simply passing than he was position on the totem pole. It wasn't like he was far and away the worst in his class, in fact, this year there was more competition for dead last than there was for Rookie of the Year. Sasuke ran away with that title some time ago, but Naruto and another boy have been neck and neck for the dead last of the class for years now.
"Naruto Uzumaki," echoed from the hallway.
That last thought was for another time now, it seems. Naruto shot out of his seat, his nervous energy reaching its peak, but he hid any anxiety with a smile to help reassure himself that had this in the bag. As Naruto walked down the steps in the classroom his eyes caught Sasuke making his way back up to his seat, and it was no surprise to see the headband tied around his forehead or the small smirk on his normally stoic face. Naruto continued out of the room and into an identical classroom just one door down. The main differences were that the room was mirrored and a table in the front of the class covered in shinobi headbands that Mizuki was seated at. Iruka joined his fellow instructor at that table and Naruto stopped in front of the table awkwardly shifting his eyes from the gleaming forehead protectors and the teachers in front of him, hands twitching at his sides.
"As we've informed you all many times over the years, we are going to be testing you over your mastery in the three basic Jutsu taught at this academy consisting of the Transformation Jutsu, the Substitution Jutsu, and the Clone Jutsu," Iruka spoke all of this while staring at the clipboard in his hands, and Naruto wondered if that was written on the paper or if it sounded so proper because of how many times he had to say it already. "We will start with the Substitution Jutsu, so when you're ready you may begin."
Naruto noticed the stark difference in the two facial expressions of his teachers at this moment, while Iruka sat impassively with his face showing nothing but professional countenance Mizuki showed visible irritation that seemed to be directed solely at Naruto. It wasn't out of the ordinary, Mizuki showed the same disgust at Naruto's existence as all other adults, whereas Iruka just sat with impassivity, waiting for Naruto to begin the exam. Naruto felt to do something to wipe the look off of Mizuki's face, Iruka may not be "rooting" for Naruto at least he wasn't openly against him, and Naruto decided that instead of jumping over the table and decking Mizuki he would settle with absolutely nailing this exam and making Mizuki sneer a cramp onto his face. Maybe the decking would be more satisfying, but Naruto reckoned he would be better off without it, for now.
Naruto put those thoughts aside and started forming the hand signs to perform the Substitution Jutsu. Five hand signs later and in an instant, the desk that was right behind him took his spot in the classroom, and he took its place, only for Naruto to perform the Jutsu immediately and place them in their original positions once again. There was a scratching of the pencil on the clipboard and a twitch in Mizuki's annoyed visage, "Now the Transformation Jutsu," almost as soon as the words left Iruka's mouth Naruto was already transformed into the Third Hokage, a seamless impersonation with the traditional white with red Hokage robes, the wide hat with the Fire kanji and the neck wraps. Naruto's copying of the Third's looks was also spot on with tanned and spotted skin, grayed hair, and beard, brown eyes with crow's feet with a grisly expression. It was a practiced technique that Naruto found himself using regularly since he learned it, "Finally we have the Clone Jutsu," Iruka once again scribbled on his clipboard.
This was it. This was the deciding factor in whether or not Naruto passed. Naruto closed his eyes to focus, it took all of his concentration to wrangle in his chakra enough to do this technique properly. He didn't fully understand why, he just knew that when his classmates were demonstrating the Clone Jutsu in class there wasn't much action outside of the clone itself forming, while when Naruto tried using it his hair would start whipping around, grass would start blowing and when the "Clone" formed it looked like the dead would pity it. When Naruto was out training on his own, the only way to calm the excess wind blowing around him was to calm down his chakra, willing it to a crawl while he tried to do the technique. Even with that, the success rate wasn't 100%, but he had to get it now. He would get it now. However long it took for Naruto to finally calm his chakra, he didn't know but when it was there he took no time to fly through the hand signs as fast as he could, not wanting to waste this moment. "Clone Jutsu," was grunted out and the smallest of tugs ticked Naruto's chakra system, and he quickly opened his eyes and looked about himself.
"Holy Shit"
There it was. There it fucking was. Standing directly to Naruto's right was a perfect copy of himself staring directly in front of him. Almost like it knew he realized what happened, it disappeared out of existence without a trace. "Wait. Did it have to stay longer? Will they fail me because it went away too quickly? But I still did it right?" As those thoughts swirled around his head he noticed Mizuki straighten up with a little urgency, like he wanted to bite something out immediately. "Well done, Naruto. You have succeeded in all of the required techniques required for you to graduate, congratulations. Take a forehead protector and go back to your seat to hear my announcements." Iruka was the first to get out what he had to say as his eyes stayed on the clipboard, and by the time he finished Mizuki was slightly slouched with a deepened scowl, whatever he intended to say was swallowed.
Almost tripping over his own feet, Naruto walked to the table and grabbed a forehead protector, and paused for a second to stare at the reflective metal, looking deeply into the cerulean eyes that looked back at him. A feeling of triumph rose up in him and with a scratchy bid of thanks, he quickly walked out into the hall. Before walking into the classroom Naruto stopped and dipped his head a little, letting his hair fall off of his forehead. Smoothly, like all the times he dreamed of this moment, he tied the forehead protector to his head, pinning his slightly overgrown sideburns to the side of his head. When he lifted his head back up and his bangs fell slightly over the newly placed headband and he couldn't keep the beaming smile off his face. It took every ounce of self-control to not start yelling at the top of his lungs, but he kept himself calm and walked into the classroom and to his seat. Oddly enough, this entry into the classroom did garner notice from his peers, as whispers spread throughout the room upon his return, but what they were exactly he didn't know nor did he have the ability to care at the time.
"I did it, Old Man, I told you I would"
It was only a few months after the Hokage placed Naruto in his current apartment when Naruto asked what a Hokage was. "The title of Hokage by itself is nothing but a fancy word for the leader of a shinobi village, my boy. But in truth, it is much more than that." The Third Hokage was sitting at Naruto's table as he watched the boy stuff his mouth with noodles, eyes wandering about the old man's attire. "To be a ninja is to endure the hardships of life and protect those in life that they hold dear, and to be Hokage is to make the entire village of people a part of those you hold dear and protect them with everything you can." Naruto saw that the old man was done speaking and gulped down the noodles in his mouth.
A smile spread over Naruto's face as he looked into the Hokage's eyes. "Just you watch Grandpa, I'm gonna become an awesome ninja one day, I'm gonna endure whatever I have to, protect you and then take that hat from you so I can protect the whole village, too just like you." He finished his speech with a big laugh and the Hokage smiled down at him.
"I know you will be, Naruto, and I can't wait to see it."
That was all Naruto could think of as he sat in his chair in his nook of the room by himself. He didn't even notice the boy that was making his way over to his seat with a small white puppy in tow. The boy was short, a similar size to Naruto, with a large gray coat on with the fur-lined hood up over his head that held a newly minted forehead protector and brown pants wrapped with bandages at the ankles. He was tanned with red rounded triangles on his cheeks, not dissimilar to the shape of fangs, and sharpened canines.
"Well, this sucks doesn't it Akamaru?" The boy called a bit loudly at the small white dog who yipped in response. The two communicating with each other brought Naruto out of his memories and he looked at them confusedly as they stopped a few feet short of Naruto's table. Eyes of their classmates turned towards the two, three including Akamaru, at the back of the classroom watching the scene unfold.
"What sucks? You passed, didn't you?" Naruto asked, nodding his head at the forehead protector on Kiba Inuzuka's head. It wasn't too odd that Kiba was talking to him, he liked to chirp at Naruto but that was almost exclusively when they were sparring outside, however, Naruto just knew that this was going to be something similar.
"Yeah, I passed alright, but it doesn't mean much anymore, does it? If they pass you then they'll just pass anyone, won't they?" A shit-eating grin spread across Kiba's face as he spoke, putting his hands on his hips and leaning in a little bit. Naruto's eyes squinted in confusion at that. What the hell was this guy talking about? He's acting like he wasn't right next to Naruto at the bottom of the class. He'll probably only graduate higher by the skin of his teeth. "It doesn't matter, I guess. Whatever team you get put on, your jounin-sensei will get one look at your mug and send you back here for clean-up duty, right Akamaru?" Two yips this time, followed by a chorus of chuckles behind the two of them.
The ribbing and taunting aren't new to Naruto. It's been a constant in his life and he can take it easy, but almost always it is by adults. When kids his age do the same, he isn't filled with loneliness or sadness, but the anger remains the same and embarrassment follows closely. He isn't a kid being scolded and ostracized by adults, now he's a person being looked down on by his peers. Where he would usually put on a smile and refuse to bend to the unwanted attention, he stands up and scowls at the boy, "You wanna clean dirt off your chin again like the last time we fought, fleabag." It wasn't a wholly empty threat, as Naruto did win the last spar they had, but it definitely left out the fact that Naruto took his fair share of licks, too. Still one hell of a chin.
"STOP GOOFING AROUND AND LISTEN," the booming voice of Iruka once again interrupted the happenings of the class. Kiba left Naruto's desk with a scoff and Naruto huffed while he plopped back down into his seat. "Now, once again I extend my congratulations to all of you that passed. But, I must say that the easy part is now over and the trials of shinobi life will now begin. Prepare yourselves, my pupils, that is my last piece of advice to you all. Tomorrow at our usual meeting time I will announce the teams you all will be placed into and your respective jounin-senseis, you may now enjoy the rest of your day in preparation for your team assignments." With that, he walked out of the classroom.
Naruto, with zero hesitation, sprinted out of the classroom with a hearty laugh. Iruka's announcement wiped Naruto's mind off the annoyance from Kiba and spiked his excitement for graduating from the Academy. He stormed through the halls and into the streets towards his apartment with one goal in mind, Gama-chan. Pushing through groups, jumping over carts, and laughing all the while, Naruto made it to his apartment building in record time only being stopped by his door stuck on its hinges. Fiddling with the knob back and forth Naruto tried to pry it open, then was stopped by a sudden feeling of discomfort wash over him. Pausing to look behind him and scan the area, Naruto found a lot of nothing around him. "What the hell was that?" After giving his surroundings another look over, and finding nothing once again, Naruto turned back to his door and threw his shoulder into it, forcing it open.
Ignoring that brief discomfort, Naruto pushed through the second door to his entryway and turned right and into his room. A messy sight greeted him that he didn't really notice when he woke up, what with trash, clothes, and scrolls thrown across the floor, the cabinets that sat against the right-hand wall and pushed in the back left corner were both half opened and his bed, directly to his left a few feet from the far wall, was all rustled up. But, that was for another time as he went to his bedside table and opened it to grab his one and only Gama-chan, a toad shaped wallet he received from Grandpa Hokage as a birthday present, one of the only ones he's ever gotten next to the plant sitting on the opposite side of the bed currently catching the light from the window above it. After grabbing his wallet and checking to see how much he could spare for himself today, he walked through the door to the terrace on the far end of his room and jumped down to the ground, and headed towards his gift to himself, and from the gods, for graduation, the holy food of ramen.
He couldn't indulge himself as much as he wanted to, Naruto could seriously put away food, but with his graduation, technically Naruto was considered an adult as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village and didn't qualify to receive money from the village as an orphan. With his monthly stipend already paid out, what he currently had on him was Naruto's funds until he got paid for doing missions. That being said, he wasn't leaving the ramen stall without at least half a dozen bowls put down.
Ducking past the flaps and hopping onto a stool at the empty counter, it was a bit for breakfast hours and a bit early for lunch, "One large pork ramen and keep 'em coming Old Man Teuchi, I have some celebrating to do," Naruto called back to the kitchen of the ramen stall at an older, heavyset man with a simple robe, an apron and small hat, the typical attire of a humble chef. With a call of affirmation, Teuchi went about cooking Naruto's order as someone else came from the kitchen and leaned on the counter, looking at Naruto with a broad smile on her face. She was probably five or so years older than Naruto, tall, slender with lightly tanned skin, brown eyes, and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail with bangs framing the sides of her face. She was Teuchi's daughter, Ayame, and was the closest thing Naruto had to a friend his age. Despite the fact that she wasn't his age, and they really only saw each other when he grubbed on ramen. But she was awesome, so the details didn't really matter.
"What do we have here? Did our best customer find something on the side of the road?" Ayame teased as she reached over the counter and flicked Naruto's newly earned forehead protector. When Naruto poked his lip out at the comment she let out a laugh and turned to her father back in the kitchen, "Hey Dad, the first two are on us in honor of the Leaf Village's newest shinobi!" She turned back around to Naruto and gave him a wink and a thumbs up. He didn't even respond, all Naruto knew was that he felt like the luckiest kid in the world.
Hiruzen placed the paperwork directly in front of him on the stack on the right side of his wooden desk, the academy will be wanting that first thing in the morning, and he brought his wrinkled hands up to massage his tired eyes. With a deep sigh, the old Hokage opened his eyes and looked at his peers hanging on the wall around the circular room, taking his time to admire the portraits of his two predecessors on the left side of him, and his own younger one, for what could be the thousandth time. After letting his mind wander decades to the past, briefly, he brought his eyes to the last picture hanging on the wall angle to his right.
"It should be you dealing with all of this, Minato. I'm much too old for this mantle, but that has been true since I passed the hat to you in the first place, hasn't it?" Another tired sigh escaped from him as he kept his eyes on the hanging picture. Blue eyes, golden hair, and a visage almost one to one with the young ghost of the past he's watched over the last 13 years stared back at Hiruzen. It has been almost a decade and a half since Hiruzen Sarutobi retook the mantle of Hokage after the Nine-Tailed Fox laid waste to the village and stole its brightest star. When he retook the position it was out of necessity, for there was no time to mentor a new Hokage on the job, and the Leaf needed to be as strong as it could possibly be to the rest of the world. But the years have not been kind, father time is undefeated and Hiruzen was feeling the battle slipping from him more and more each day.
After a day with a mountain of paperwork, more of said paperwork to do, dealing with a would-be traitorous and thieving academy instructor and constructing genin cells knowing around two-thirds of which will be sent back to the Academy in the next few days and to top it all off the Kazekage expressed the need of an urgent meeting between the two in three months during the scheduled Chunin Exam Finals. It was an exhausting outing for Hiruzen, and even though the moonlight was pooling through the windows behind him the job was not yet done for the night. The knock at the door only exemplified this fact.
If the two quick, sharp, and controlled knocks didn't give away the identity of the individual responsible then the fact that they took the liberty to enter the Hokage's office of their own volition was indicative enough. Danzo Shimura proved Hiruzen's theory true as he hobbled through the door lamely, cane clicking on the hardwood floor as he made his way to the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk. It was easy to see that age didn't take exception to Hiruzen's old teammate either, if the cane wasn't enough proof of that then the bandages that wrapped around the man's forehead, as well as covering his right eye, along with the right arm that was hidden and slung inside a black robe the man wore, showing he was essentially half of a whole these days. The spiky brown hair that showed over the bandages on his head was dulled and graying, his tanned skin was wrinkled, the X-shaped scar that marred his chin since his youth was also fading and Danzo's body that showed outside the black robe that was open to the left half of the man's torso showed a thinned body covered by a loose white kimono. Every battle the man has seen was reflected in his body, more so than even the internally grieving Hokage.
"What can I do for you on this beautiful night, my old friend?" Hiruzen diplomatically asked as Danzo laboredly sat in the chair to Hiruzen's left. The man placed his cane across his lap, his one free hand grasping it sternly, as he made eye contact with Hiruzen, and even though his face was perfectly impassive, the frustration was palpable in the air. The aged Hokage sat straighter in his seat to prepare for the discussion that was about to take place.
"I have received word that our weapon has officially graduated from the academy, I am here to officially request his placement under my tutelage." It was crisp, precise, and straight to the point. Had the topic been a lighter one, Hiruzen would've laughed.
"He isn't 'our weapon', he is a boy with a name."
"Irrelevant."
"It isn't, and such things won't be tolerated in front of me."
"Fine, I have word that the Uzumaki boy has graduated and I request him to be put under my tutelage." The familiarity of the two old comrades allowed the annoyance in Danzo's voice to be heard throughout the statement, even if a passerby would've interpreted the tone of the conversation to be nothing more than a talk over tea. Hiruzen reached into the top drawer on the right side of his desk and pulled out his pipe and a pouch of tobacco, his response was said while the pipe was packed.
"I'm afraid that is not an option, my friend"
"And why would that be, you have bogarted my prior attempts to train the boy but you said he was too young, now he is an adult in the eyes of the law and I wish to personally oversee his development." There was a slight edge to the man's words, but that is no surprise. This dance has been danced many times by these two since Naruto could walk, Hiruzen safeguarding the child from any of Danzo every time.
"A jounin-sensei has been chosen for Naruto, Kakashi Hatake requested him to be placed in his genin cell and I just finished signing off on all the cells as is. What is done is done, Danzo." The pipe was packed and the Hokage punctuated his statement by lighting and taking a long pull.
"A genin cell? I am offering to take our Jinchuuriki as my apprentice and you intend to put it in a genin cell? Don't be foolish, Hiruzen."
"Naruto is not an it, the only way he would ever be considered an it is if I allowed you to brainwash him into a mindless tool. I have told you time and time again that he will not be a part of ROOT or anywhere near it, I wanted the boy to have a normal childhood not–"
"A 'normal childhood'? Don't delude yourself, the only thing you've allowed the boy to have are reasons to abandon his duties to the village. His only bonds here are you and a couple of ramen chefs. You may have qualms with the way I do things, but a tool has never betrayed its handler." Danzo was now leaning in his seat, clenching his cane with a white-knuckled grip and narrowing his eye at the Hokage. Hiruzen couldn't dispute his longtime friend either, he wasn't blind to Naruto's struggles or the implications of his actions, or lack thereof.
"No, but a tool has never done the impossible for what they care for," Hiruzen ignored the scoff, "A tool couldn't have saved a village by sacrificing everything they loved and more to seal a Tailed Beast. No, only a hero could do something like that. Only someone with a will beyond themselves could accomplish a feat like that. A will that tools cannot have. Naruto can be that hero, given the proper guidance, and I trust Kakashi to provide that guidance." When Hiruzen finished his speech he made sure to meet Danzo's glare, not backing down from his position. After a silent standoff, Danzo sighed and placed his cane on the ground, rising out of his seat.
"Very well, Hiruzen, but as it has been established, Uzumaki is an adult now. You can no longer forbid me from making contact with him."
"As the Hokage, it is my responsibility to monitor all of the interactions with our Jinchuuriki to ensure his health."
"So the boy becomes a Jinchuuriki when it benefits you, does it? I never knew your stance on such things to be so fickle and self-serving, my old friend." The smugness from Danzo reeked in the air, his upper body leaning heavier onto the cane.
"If it prevents Naruto from being some sad, mindless husk for you to use then I'll be as fickle and hypocritical as I have to be." The tone of the Hokage's response was deeper, more grave. It was clear that, as long as he lived, Naruto wasn't going anywhere near ROOT.
"Very well, I will just have to make do with that. I will not pursue the boy for ROOT, but I will not leave him for Hatake to ruin. It still stands that, as an adult, the boy can seek tutor in his own time so long it doesn't interfere with his jounin-sensei's instruction." It was a compromise. Danzo wanted a hand in Naruto's development, for he refused to let their "weapon" leave them wanting when they needed it. Hiruzen understood why he couldn't even say it was wrong or unreasonable, but Naruto deserved more than to be put through any more hell than he has to because of someone else's beliefs on his responsibilities.
"That will have to do, but watch yourself, Danzo. Should you give me a reason to, I will put a stop to any and all of your plans for Naruto and the Leaf Village. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." Danzo started back towards the door he entered through. "It has been some time since our last game of shogi, hasn't it? When possible we should play around, there are some happenings and whispers I wish to discuss over a game and some tea. Until then, my old friend." With that, old Danzo Shimura took his leave, the clacking of his cane on the ground slowly died as he walked farther down the hall. After Danzo took his leave, Hiruzen's eyes found the picture he had been looking at before Danzo's entry into the office, taking a deep drag off the pipe.
"It should be you, my boy. It should be you."
Let's see how this goes, eh?