Kakashi wears a headband without the Leaf symbol. He arrives at the village gate at 7:50 in the morning and is expecting to see an angry Kurenai. Instead there was no one waiting for him.

"Odd," Kakashi thinks.

His strong sense of smell picks up her faint scent and finds it getting stronger as he moves further from the village. He arrives at a small town and enters an inn, where he is greeted by an old woman at the reception desk.

"Good morning sir!"

"Good morning. Was there a lady with long black hair, red eyes—"

"Oh yes! She checked in more than ahalf hour ago. She said a one eyed, grey haired idiot would be showing up later."

"Idiot?" Kakashi ponders.

"She's in room 12."

Kakashi opens door #12 and quickly scans the room for Kurenai. Sensing no one within the vicinity, he decides to head to the bathroom for a quick bath.

"She must be wandering in the town," Kakashi assumes.

After opening the door to the bathroom, Kakashi witnesses Kurenai getting out of the bathtub.

"KAKASHI!" She quickly grabs the towel and covers herself.

Kakashi continues to stare and isn't moving at all.

"KAKASHI!" Kurenai bellows.

"Hmm?" Kakashi continues gazing at the towel clad kunoichi.

Finally, Kurenai pushes him out of the bathroom and slams the door shut.

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At a restaurant, Naruto enjoys his second bowl of ramen and attempts to fill his belly with more.

"Any questions you have, I will answer." Ryo waits for Naruto to wolf down his 2nd bowl and requests for a 3rd one.

"First of all, who are you?" Naruto asks with a mouthful of noodles.

"Ok…you know my name, I'm currently living in this village—Seishuku—"

"Seishuku?"

"It's a secluded village and I won't be surprised if you're unfamiliar with it. Not a lot of people know about this place—it's not even on the map."

"Why did I find it?" Naruto questions.

"Because I wanted you to find it." Naruto swallows some more noodles and looked even more confused. "You see Naruto, you and I are connected. We are connected through Denkou Kiiro."

"Denkou Kiiro? Never heard of him."

"Really. Maybe you know him better as Konoha's Yondaime."

Naruto chokes on his food and begins pounding his chest.

"As you can see from the strong resemblance, I am Yondaime's brother. We both were born in the hidden village of Nimbus in Lightning country. Our parents moved us into this village when mother and father wanted to give up the shinobi life. When niisan turned 10, he wanted to be a ninja. Father was a very kind man and did exactly what we asked for. So, he took Kiiro to Konoha to fulfill his dream and to become the best ninja. Niisan was 11 years older than me and returned here when I was born. As we grew, he would teach me some jutsus and I aspired to become like him. But at the same time I wanted to be a shinobi my own way, so I trained in Lightning country."

"How am I connected in all of this?" Naruto inquires.

"Niisan was married but the marriage was a secret. As a Hokage, he became very protective about his personal life and tried his absolute best to keep it out of the public. 10 months after the war ended with the Rock village, news of Kyuubi's arrival came. Everyone was familiar with demon's story and Niisan knew his fate. He had me take his pregnant wife to a place just outside of Konoha for protection. His wife at the time was very ill and the stress she was experiencing was making her health worse. She made niisan promise to protect the baby at all cost. I was there when she gave birth and she died shortly after the child came out. She survived long enough to name the baby." Ryo smiles at Naruto. "She named him Naruto."

Naruto swallows hard the information he has just received. His heart was pounding really hard and fast. He feels his stomach doing flips and his breath becoming faster and shorter. Closing his eyes, Naruto tries to get his emotions in order. He feels angry. He feels sad. And maybe a little relieved? He's not so sure.

With a heavy heart, Naruto asks, "What was her name?"

"Uzumaki Akaiini."

Naruto has a sad and pensieve look.

"Naruto, I think I've given you too much in one day. You can stay in my home and ask me more questions in the morning."

Naruto welcomes this idea. He can't think clearly right now. What he needs is to just lie down, close his eyes, and hope that everything just will be what—okay? He's not really sure what he wants to happen. What does he want to happen now? What should happen now? Naruto just wants to sleep. Yeah, sleep should do him good and hopefully these feelings will fix themselves in the morning.

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The unmasked Kakashi flutters his eye open and sits up on the bed. He looks out the window and it's still dark outside. Moving towards his bag pack, he takes out a fresh set of clothes and dons his famous mask that covers his handsome face. A smile forms on his lips as he thinks back to yesterday.

A towel clad Kurenai pushes Kakashi out of the washroom and slams the door. He knows he should move away form the door but his feet were stuck to the floor. A few minutes later, the door opens and a fully clothed Kurenai is surprised to find the jounin still standing on the same spot. She opens her mouth to say something but changes her mind and walks past him, while giving him the evil eye.

"So…" Kakashi starts.

"You were late." Kurenai was trying to divert the conversation away from what just happened.

"Sorry about—"

"I expected that you'd be at least about an hour late," Kurenai interjects.

"Oh, is that why you left the bathroom door unlocked?" Kakashi receives a glare from Kurenai, which really doesn't affect him.

Kakashi enters the bathroom but not before irritating Kurenai any further, "If you want payback, I'll leave the door unlocked too." Kakashi closes the door but not before seeing the kunoichi red with anger and her fist balled up—ready for a dangerous blow.

The sun was just beginning to rise when Kakashi decides to buy some breakfast. He finds a food shop that just opened and is greeted by a young man. He goes back to his room at the inn and finds Kurenai awake and ready. He shows her the bag of food and they settle down at the coffee table, eating breakfast. Kakashi finishes quickly and pulls out his favourite novel.

"I don't know why you read that stuff," Kurenai utters.

Without looking up from his book Kakahi replies, "Because reading is good for the mind."

Kurenai scoffs at his statement and mutters "idiot." From the corner of his eye, Kakashi steals a glance from Kurenai.

"Stop it," Kurenai's clearly annoyed from his glances.

"Stop what?"

"Looking at me and reading that book. It feels like you're picturing me in that book of yours."

"Is that so bad?" Kakashi teases.

"Yes!" Kurenai becoming more annoyed. "Aaaah! Why are you so…so damn—" Kurenai makes a gesture that shows she wants to squeeze Kakashi's neck until his head pops.

Acting perfectly cool, Kakashi continues to read.

"Anyways, we should get going. We have a long travel ahead of us." He closes his book and makes his way to the door.

Kurenai finishes her breakfast and imagines kicking Kakashi's head as she follows him out.

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Naruto wakes up (although it feels like he didn't sleep at all) as the sun rises.

"Morning!" Ryo pops in and checks Naruto's injuries. "Doesn't seem too serious.You're healing nicely." He wraps new bandages on Naruto's wounds and leads him to the kitchen.

Naruto's tired eyes land on the meals prepared for him but can't muster the appetite to appreciate it. After running several questions in his head, he finally decides on one.

"You're my uncle right?" Naruto receives a nod. "Why didn't you come for me?"

Thinking and taking a deep breath Ryo answers, "Before niisan left to face Kyuubi, he made me promise to make you a great ninja. Konoha was the best place to learn and that when you've learned all you can from there, I would teach you a jutsu when you're mature and ready. This was Sandaime and Kiiro's arrangements and I agreed to it. Plus, the only time I ever set foot in Konoha was when the Kyuubi attacked. After niisan died, I couldn't make myself go back there. It's too hard for me."

"What makes you think I'm ready to learn from you?"

"Why would a 15 year old boy leave Konoha on his own?"

"Because I'm a threat."

"Exactly. Thinking of others and fighting to protect those who are important to you is a trait of a strong ninja. Niisan loved your village. He protected Konoha with everything he had and is now eternally remembered as one of the most powerful ninja to have ever existed. A shinobi's strength doesn't come from the number of jutsus he knows. Power isn't necessarily about defeating an enemy to show who's the strongest. Niisan knew many jutsus, but he measured his strength by how well he protected the people." Ryo feels saddened as he remembers his brother. "Anyways, you should eat up.You'll heal faster, then I can teach you a jutsu."

Ryo looks at Naruto, who's now eating everything he gets a hand on.

"Alright! I'm gonna learn new jutsus!" Naruto throws his hands up. "AAAH! That hurts, " he screams.

Ryo covers his ears from the screaming,. "Geez, you're loud. Must've gotten it from your mother." He says the last part inaudibly. "We're not doing anyting until you're fully healed. We're also gonna train hard with exercising your own chakra to make you less reliant on Kyuubi. I'm guessing that by now the seal is weakening."

"Can't you fix it?"

"No. I don't know how. I'm not good with seals. But I'm excellent when it comes to using chakra efficiently. That way your chakra lasts longer and you can do more powerful jutsus as often as you want."

"Yay! I'm gonna be stronger and be closer to becoming Hok..." Naruto trails off. He's no longer sure of his dream. It was just a habit of his--thinking about being a Hokage.

Ryo can see the enthusiasm in Naruto dwindling, but decides not to think too much about it.

"Naruto, I have somewhere to be but I'll be back tonight. You can roam around the village if you want. Take some of those biscuits behind you when you go outside and give them to Shiroi and Howaito or else they'll attack you. Okay, I'm off."

"Wait!" But Ryo's gone in a flash.

Naruto changes into his gear and leaves the house. Outside a pair of snow colored foxes viciously growl at him. Naruto takes out some biscuits in his pocket and offers it to the beasts. Their attitudes immediately change as they eat the treats and become more playful towards the blonde boy.

"You guys aren't scary at all!" He bends down to pat them. "You guys wanna come with me to the village?"

The older and bigger fox yawns and lies down on her belly. The younger and smaller fox is more jovial and jumps for joy as he follows Naruto into the village.

"You're alright." Naruto looks at the white fox beside him. "You're waaaay cuter than Akamaru."

Naruto once again is reminded of his broken dream with the thought of anything related to his village.