AN: Wow. Just... Wow. You guys are awesome! :D The response to this story has been amazing! :D I honestly don't know what to say right now, so just let get on with the story shall we? :P
Chapter 3 – Confessions and promises
The moment Hiruzen felt the dark chakra burst from Naruto's body, he jumped back, closer to the windows of the room, automatically positioning himself in an easier position to escape. Even though he was nearing the ripe old age of seventy (an unusually high age for a shinobi indeed), his reflexes were still as sharp as ever.
He saw that Guy-kun had created some distance himself as well, falling into a taijutsu stance that Hiruzen only vaguely recognized, though he had no doubt that in the hands of a specialist like Guy-kun, it would be dangerous nonetheless.
Next to him, Salamander had fallen into a guarded stance as well, his tanto held out in front of his chest, a single hand resting on a hand seal, ready to unleash a myriad of jutsu at a moment's notice.
The actions of these three elite ninja might have seemed like overreacting, however, you would be hard-pressed to find a single Konoha ninja over six years old that wouldn't act the same way. After all, the moment they had felt the chakra, the three ninja had recognized it immediately.
One does not so easily forget the chakra of a demon of the Kyuubi's calibre after all.
Hidden beneath the wide sleeves of his ceremonial robes, Hiruzen had formed the hand seals needed for the summoning of his friend and battle-partner Enma, the Monkey King. He refrained from activating the technique though, not willing to call out the powerful summon if it turned out it was unnecessary.
'By Kami above, I hope it is unnecessary.'
The oppressive chakra began to cover Naruto's body in a bubbling red shroud, while increasing its vile presence in the rest of the room. Hiruzen heard Guy-kun's breathing hitch for a second, though outwardly the taijutsu specialist managed to keep an impressively unruffled appearance. Salamander though didn't even so much as twitch as the dark chakra pressed down on them.
As expected of his ANBU-Commander of course.
"Hokage-sama?", Guy-kun asked, voice not yet nervous, but steadily getting there as more and more chakra began to envelop Naruto, its corrupting nature visible in the way it ate away at the linens covering the boy.
"Hokage-sama?", Guy-kun asked again, more urgently this time.
"No! We wait!", Hiruzen replied in a harsh tone, eyes fixated on Naruto's right arm, which was steadily becoming more and more visible, as the Kyuubi's chakra began to eat away at the bandages covering it.
"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, what is it that we're waiting for?", Salamander asked, his nervousness only betrayed by the tenseness of his voice.
Slowly, Hiruzen let out a smirk.
"Look at Naruto-kun's arm, Salamander, Guy-kun."
Both ninja wearily approached the small child on the hospital bed, who was still leaking massive amounts of demonic chakra, even though the amount slowly started to die off. When they finally reached the foot end of Naruto's bed, Hiruzen's hearing managed to pick up Salamander's quiet "oh."
Guy-kun's reaction didn't require any superb hearing though.
"Yosh! How can this be! Hokage-sama, truly your Fountain of Youth is fanned by the most impressive of Youthful Flames! How did you know that this would happen?!", the eccentric Jounin bellowed enthusiastically, before turning towards Hiruzen with a thumbs-up and a grin which literally sparkled.
Hiruzen blinked at the light glinting of his taijutsu expert's teeth.
"That is some impressive Genjutsu. That, or he is the most vigorous teeth-brusher in the history of Man."
Shaking of the random thought, Hiruzen focused on Guy-kun and Salamander, who had turned to look at his leader at well. The aged Hokage walked towards Naruto's bed until he was standing in-between the other two ninja. By now, the Kyuubi's chakra had almost completely disappeared, reduced to a thin film surrounding Naruto's skin. Now that he was standing closer to the blonde boy, Hiruzen could see that the three whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks had thickened considerably, while his fingers had developed claws. When the Hokage squinted, he could even see two fangs peeking out from under the child's upper lip.
He looked at Naruto's arm with a smile on his face.
"I am called the Professor for a reason, you know.", Hiruzen said smugly, eyes not leaving his surrogate grandson's arm.
Surrounded by vile and demonic chakra, wrapped in smoking bandages that had been almost been eaten away, Naruto's arm was visible to the world.
And it had been healed.
Naruto came back to the world in stages. First came sound. The small child could hear several voices somewhere above and to the side of him. He couldn't really make out what was being said, but the voices all spoke in serious tones.
Then came touch. Naruto could feel a course fabric on his torso, while something soft was lying underneath his head.
'A pillow?'
He could feel that the fabric surrounding him had been damaged in large areas, as if it had been burned, making it feel uncomfortable against his skin. He could also feel several thin strips of fabric pressed closely to his body, though most felt even more damaged than the other fabrics.
'Bandages?'
Next, almost simultaneously, taste and smell came back to him. His mouth felt as if someone had attempted to shove the desert of Suna down his throat, and his nose picked up an acrid smell, like something vile had been burned away.
Then finally his vision returned to him, blurry at first. Above him, he could vaguely make out what appeared to be a light bulb. Naruto turned his head to his side, trying to take in the space he was in. It appeared to be a room of some kind, though he didn't recognize it.
Then again, at this point it the world simply consisted of black and grey blobs. For all he knew, he was just lying in his own bed.
'Probably not. This pillow is way too nice for that.'
Naruto let out a groan, something he regretted immediately when it felt like crushed glass tried to work its way back up his throat. Suddenly a large, grey blob was at his side, pressing something cool in his hands.
"Drink, Naruto. You're pretty dried up right now.", a kind, elderly voice said gently.
'Jiji?', Naruto thought tiredly, but he couldn't act on his thought, as clear water was brought to his lips.
Drinking greedily, relishing the soothing feeling the liquid had on his sore throat, the blond child emptied the glass within seconds. Naruto let out another pitiful groan; his throat had stopped aching, but he was still incredibly thirsty.
A chuckling was his answer, as the grey blob took away Naruto's empty glass, only to almost immediately replace it with a full one, which the boy accepted without hesitation.
"Careful Naruto. If you drink too fast, you'll just throw it up."
Naruto grimaced, but complied. His throat still hurt a little and he had no intention of making it worse.
"Do you remember what happened Naruto?"
Naruto paused his drinking, peering at the grey blob, his vision by now cleared enough to indentify it as being indeed the Hokage.
"I remember... The tree... And light... And a lot of pain.", Naruto croaked out, his memory slowly reassembling itself.
Old Man Hokage hummed in thought, stroking the small beard on his chin.
"Indeed. That is two days ago now, Naruto. Do you remember what happened afterwards? Do you remember how you came to be here?", the Third continued, fixing Naruto with a heavy stare.
Naruto looked around the room, trying to find out where exactly here was. He didn't recognize the room itself, but he recognized it as belonging to Konoha's General Hospital. Looking back at his Jiji, Naruto shook his head.
The Old Man hummed again, before speaking up in his gravelly voice.
"When you called on your chakra and punched that tree, Naruto, you destroyed a large part of the forest."
Naruto's eyes lit up, an enormous grin stretching across his face.
"Wow! Really?!"
The Third lifted an imperious eyebrow as he levelled a flat stare at the child.
"Oh. Uhh... I mean... Oh no! That's horrible!", Naruto tried, giving his Old Man his most innocent look.
The Hokage simply snorted in amusement, before turning a little in order to face Naruto better. The child could tell that the mood had turned serious, and wiped his faux expression off his face, giving his Jiji his undivided attention. The Old Man looked very grave and serious as he looked Naruto straight in his eyes.
"By calling on so much of your chakra, and using it in such an unguarded manner, you really damaged your body Naruto. You were seriously hurt. There was a very real possibility that you could never become a ninja because of it.", the Hokage said in a pained voice, worry clear on his face.
Naruto winced. He still remembered the way he had looked in his reflection when he had been inside the seal. He had freaked out when he had seen the damage; he could easily imagine that his precious people had been even worse off.
"I'm sorry Jiji. I won't do it again.", Naruto said remorsefully.
And he meant it. He had felt so incredibly strong when he had called upon his chakra, and the Old Man had just confirmed that his technique had been incredibly powerful. If he could train it, he would become Hokage in no time, dattebayo!
But even then, if such a technique would hurt his precious people, then he wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. He cared more about them than the hat; it was just his ninja way.
Despite not being a ninja yet, but that was neither here nor there.
He was surprised when he heard the Old Man chuckling. He had expected a stern talking to, maybe a punishment of some sort, who knows, maybe even a tear-filled request to never do something stupid like that again.
There had definitely not been any humorous chuckling involved in the young child's imagination.
"Naruto-kun, it warms my heart to see you deny the lure of power so easily, in favour of your precious people. No matter what the villagers may tell you, you Naruto carry with you the Will of Fire.", the Old Man said, glowing pride almost visible in his voice, as he leaned forward to ruffle Naruto's golden hair.
Naruto looked down at his knees, trying to hide the tears that had sprung up in his eyes. For a shunned child like him, such proud words were more precious than all the money in the world.
However, as he looked down, he saw his arm.
Or more importantly, his healed arm.
Lifting it in front of his face, Naruto couldn't contain a small "whoa!" of amazement.
Again the Third Hokage chuckled and opened his mouth to say something. He was cut off however, when Naruto chuckled as well.
"Guess the damned fox came through, after all.", Naruto said in amazement.
His attention was so intensely focused on his newly healed arm, he failed to see the Third Hokage tense up, a harsh look flashing across his face. For that matter, Naruto had yet to notice the presence of Konoha' Beautiful Green Beast in the room, who, like his Hokage, had immediately tensed up.
It would be several years until Naruto would be skilled enough to even notice a hidden ANBU-Commander, let alone an ANBU-Commander ready to leap into battle at any second, or the minutest hints of danger.
Completely oblivious to the commotion and well-concealed terror he had just caused, Naruto frowned.
"Maybe the fox was telling the truth about not lying after all.", the young child murmured to himself, unaware of the intense looks this gathered from the present ninja.
" "The Fox", Naruto?", the Old Man spoke up sternly.
Naruto perked up. He had been both scared and tired when he had woken up in the seal and met the Kyuubi, and because of that he hadn't completely understood everything the giant fox had told him. However, his Jiji was super smart; he would probably know what the demon was up to.
He was the Hokage after all, he knew everything about everything!
Turning to one of his most precious people, Naruto started babbling.
"Yeah, Jiji! After I punched that tree and everything went black, I woke up! But I didn't wake up here, I woke up in some giant room! And on one end of the room there were these really big golden bars, but I didn't know what they were for, until the fox started talking from behind the bars! Of course I didn't know it was the fox then, I just saw his eyes and his teeth, did you know that the Fox had really big eyes and teeth, Jiji! Like, really, really, really big! But I wasn't scared at all! He started talking, but I didn't like what he said so I went up to him and I said to him-"
"NARUTO."
The excitable blonde snapped his mouth shut with a audible click, a blush covering his face as he abashedly rubbed the nape of his neck.
"Sorry Jiji, I guess I got carried away there, huh?"
He saw his Old Man peering at him intensely, looking unusually stern, making Naruto feel uncomfortable. This continued for several moments, until Naruto's back became drenched in sweat. Then the Hokage smiled a gentle smile, and the aura of tension that had filled the room disappeared almost completely.
"No matter Naruto, no matter, I am just pleased that you remain your boisterous self.", the Hokage said warmly.
Naruto nodded, despite not really understanding what his Old Man meant by that. However, had he been in possession of more powerful observational skills, then he would have noticed both Might Guy and the ANBU-Commander Salamander relax noticeably, something in their Hokage's wording putting them at ease.
"Try to begin at the start Naruto, from the moment you woke up in the large room, until the moment you woke up here. And a little slower this time, perhaps?", the Third suggested gently, a smile still on his face.
Naruto nodded and started talking. The Hokage didn't interrupt him once, though Naruto could tell the aged ninja was taken by surprise several times during his tale.
It took the better part of an hour before Naruto was finished with his story, during which the Hokage kept silently handing him glasses of water. Now he was sitting upright in bed, sipping his seventh glass of water, his eyes going back and forth from the Hokage to a weirdly dressed man with truly humongous eyebrows.
He had noticed the man's presence while he had been talking about his experience in the seal, which had caused him to almost vault out of the bed and through the nearest window.
Seriously.
Ninja were ridiculously silent when they wished to be.
He was brought out of his musing when the Old Man cleared his throat. Naruto turned to the Hokage, preparing himself for any questions the aged ninja would probably have for him. After a few seconds spent in thoughtful silence, the Third started asking his questions.
"So, you are positive that the Kyuubi said that an Uchiha was responsible for the attack six years ago?", the Old Man asked.
Naruto furrowed his brow.
"If you mean if I'm sure or not, then yeah. He did say that. He was rather angry about it too. He kept cursing the Uchiha and their eyes. Kinda weird; I mean yeah, most of them are jerks, but I don't get why he kept on cursing their eyes and not the rest of them.", Naruto nodded firmly, not seeing the Hokage's lip twitch in amusement.
"A discussion for another day, perhaps. Naruto, do you think that the Kyuubi was telling the truth, when he told you that he didn't lie?", the Old Man continued, grey eyes boring in Naruto's blue ones.
Naruto thought long and hard about this, absentmindedly stroking his newly healed arm. Finally he gave a tentative nod.
"I think so. Whatever he says probably won't be the entire truth, but at least it won't be a lie.", Naruto said, managing to keep any hesitation out of his voice.
The Old Man simply hummed again and descended into deep thought. It was obvious his Jiji was thinking very hard about something, so Naruto started to examine the room, while waiting for the Hokage to finish thinking. His eyes eventually landed on the green clad ninja with the weird eyebrows.
Seeing that Naruto's eyes were focused on him, the weird ninja grinned, before giving Naruto a thumb-up, the light glinting of the man's teeth.
Naruto hurriedly looked straight ahead, hoping his Jiji would be finished with thinking soon.
As if the Old Man had heard his thoughts (who knew, maybe he did. They were ninja after all, there was probably a jutsu for that or something) the aged ninja shook himself before clearing his throat.
"In that case Naruto, please inform the Kyuubi that I will try to look into the matter. However, that being said, promise me that you will not try and meet with the demon, Naruto. While he may have decided not to lie to you, the Kyuubi is both old and wise, and it will probably try to trick you at every chance it gets.", the Third Hokage said seriously, fixing Naruto with a stare.
Naruto quickly nodded. The seal had been very boring and the fox had been very scary (at first at least) and Naruto had no intention of going back anytime soon.
"Now, we must decide what to do with you Naruto."
'Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good.', the small child thought to himself, his troublemaker senses going haywire.
"We cannot send you back to the Academy right now, Naruto. The Kyuubi's chakra has done an incredible job of healing the damage to your body, but it has still been put under incredible stress, both by your technique and the healing. On top of that, you suffer from mild chakra burns, which will make it impossible for you to work with your chakra for about a week.", the Hokage said sadly.
Naruto felt crushed. He needed the Academy in order to train and become stronger, so that he could become Hokage. Especially now that he had promised his Jiji that he wouldn't try his new technique anymore.
"Instead, you will apprentice under Jounin Might Guy here. Guy-kun is a famous taijutsu specialist and he will oversee your recovery. You will train under him in order to strengthen your body and gain a better control over your chakra. Then maybe next time, you don't blow yourself up as well when you use your technique.", the Old Man chuckled.
Naruto gaped at his Jiji.
"Did you just... Really?!", the blond yelled excitedly.
"Really.", the Hokage chuckled.
"Your technique is truly impressive Naruto. Keep this up, and train safely under a teacher, and I expect to give this hat to you in no time at all.", the Old Man said with a smile on his face.
Naruto catapulted himself from the bed, slamming into the Hokage's chest, giving a crushing hug and burying his face in the aged ninja's chest, hiding his tears from the world. The Old Man's booming laughter filled the small hospital room, making Guy smile as well as he looked at the scene.
"You better prepare to give up the hat real soon Old Man, I'm gonna be Hokage before you know it, dattebayo!"
The Professor laughed again, ruffling his surrogate grandson's hair.
"I will hold you that Naruto. Now you better hurry along. Guy-kun is waiting for you, go with him, get to know each other. He will tell you what you're going to do for the rest of this year. Once he deems you ready, you can go back to the Academy.", the aged Hokage said warmly, gently untangling the young child from his robes.
"Sure thing Jiji! Come on, let's go Bushy-Brows Sensei!", Naruto yelled excitedly, jumping from his Jiji's lap and sprinting towards the door of his hospital room, leaving a bemused Might Guy in his wake.
Naruto paused however when he put his hand on the doorknob. He hadn't really considered it yet, due to being overwhelmed at the time, but now he recalled that the Kyuubi had said that he had been sealed inside of him. A demon was inside his body, maybe not in the literal sense, but the connection was still there. Biting his lip in uncertainty, the blonde turned back towards the Hokage, fear filling his eyes.
"Jiji... The villagers... Were they right? When they called me 'demon'?"
The elderly Hokage gave a deep sigh, before coming to his feet and walking towards Naruto. Bending down to one knee, so he could look the small boy in the eye, the Professor gave Naruto his most reassuring smile.
"Naruto, you are no demon. You have seen the Kyuubi, it is your prisoner, but it is not you. You are simply the jail that keeps us safe every single day. You're not a demon, Naruto; you are a hero.", the Hokage said firmly.
Naruto felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulder, or like a shroud of darkness that he hadn't realized had been there had been removed. He felt lighter and happier than he could remember ever being in his entire short life.
"Thanks Jiji.", Naruto whispered, furiously wiping at his eyes.
"Anytime, Naruto. Anytime.", the Hokage said, his smile wrinkling the skin around his eyes and mouth.
"Now, off you go.", the Old Man said, opening the door and gently pushing Naruto through it.
Naruto nodded, before giving a grin that could rival the sun in intensity.
Maybe even rival that of Might Guy's.
Maybe.
"Let's go Bushy-Brows Sensei!", Naruto yelled, before dashing down the hallway, laughter and angry reprimands following in his wake.
The Hokage turned to his taijutsu specialist, amusement dancing in his eyes.
"I believe you are being called Guy-kun."
Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast blinked a few times in bewilderment, before giving a loud laugh and dashing after the blonde blur.
"YOSH! I SEE THAT YOUR FLAMES ARE ALREADY IMPRESSIVELY FANNED MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT! TOGETHER, WE SHALL FAN THOSE FLAMES SO THAT YOUR FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH MAY BE EVERLASTING! YOSH!"
Hiruzen was still chuckling as he slowly walked towards his own residence, not far from the Konoha Hospital. As he was walking, a shadow disconnected itself from the ceiling and dropped down behind him. It straightened up, revealing itself to be the ANBU-Commander Salamander.
The Commander drew level with Hiruzen and they continued walking in silence towards the Hokage's home. While outwardly the Commander appeared unreadable, Hiruzen could tell that the ninja desperately wanted to ask some questions.
He wasn't disappointed.
"Hokage-sama, what do you wish to do with the information Uzumaki has provided us?"
Hiruzen didn't answer for a moment, his eyes clouded in thought.
"What makes you think I will do anything at all with the information, Salamander? It was given by the Kyuubi no Kitsune after all, not the most truthful intelligence source, I think you'll agree.", Hiruzen rumbled in his gravelly voice.
Another silence fell as the ANBU-Commander thought about this.
"Uzumaki was of the opinion that the Kyuubi was being truthful when it swore it would speak no lies."
Hiruzen smiled, as he fished his pipe from somewhere underneath his robes, lighting it with a simple Katon (=Fire) jutsu.
"And you trust young Naruto's judgement in this?"
"Perhaps. Maybe it would be wise to ask a Yamanaka to accompany Uzumaki in a trip to the demon, so we may get a less... impressionable interpetation of the Kyuubi's words."
Hiruzen shook his head, puffing away on his pipe.
"I'm afraid that that is simply too dangerous Salamander. Naruto didn't meet the Kyuubi in his own mindscape, but instead sent his mental projection to the dimension the seal has created. A Yamanaka could technically "Hitch a ride" when Naruto's projection travels from his mind to the seal, but there's no guarantee of the Yamanaka being able to leave again. Powerful in the mind-arts they may be, dimension travellers they are not.", Hiruzen intoned gravely, already having thought of this long and hard.
"I see.", Salamander said curtly, before falling silent.
"In that case we have no other option but to trust Uzumaki's instinct. Regardless wether the demon was being truthful or not, the information provided is too grave to not look into, Hokage-sama, no matter the source.", the Commander continued.
Hiruzen sighed, blowing out a large cloud of smoke.
"I agree Salamander. As this information is now only shared between you, me and Guy-kun, I ask that you investigate this matter personally. Delegate all your other duties which not require immediate attention to those you see fit to handle them, then focus all of your efforts on unravelling the truth behin the demon's words. You will receive any manpower and security clearance you think you may need Salamander.", Hiruzen said softly, but firmly, hoping that he wasn't making a monumental decision.
"Hai Hokage-sama!", Salamander said crisply, snapping off a salute, even as they were still walking.
Hiruzen nodded in acknowledgement, before continuing on. He was surprised to find that Salamander remained at his side. Evidentely, the ANBU-Commander had something to get off his chest.
"Hokage-sama, about Guy-san-", Salamander began.
"If you are concerned about the fact that Guy-kun is privy to this information as well, then do not worry; he has my full confidence.", Hiruzen said reassuringly.
"It is not that Hokage-sama, I know Guy-san is loyal to Konoha and smart enough to keep the intel to himself. Rather...", the ANBU-Commander trailed off.
Hiruzen widened his eyes in surprise. It was not often an ANBU, let alone their Commander, couldn't find the words to say something.
"Speak, Salamander. I feel that troubled times are ahead of us, and I'd like for there to be no secrets between the two of us.", Hiruzen said invitingly, encouraging his Commander to speak his mind.
"Hokage-sama, forgive me, but is it... wise, to pair those two together?"
Hiruzen stopped walking and turned to his ANBU-Commander, his face set in a disapproving frown.
"We have already discussed this Salamander. At length I might add. Guy-kun is a world-renowned expert on the Celestial Gates, and as such is the ideal person to train Naruto, so that he may avoid being so injured in the future. Or perhaps you just happen to have such an expert hiding amongst my ANBU-forces? If so, let him come forth! I'll gladly evaluate his worth against that of Guy-kun.", Hiruzen said sternly, his voice brooking no argument.
Salamander immediately bowed his head, realizing he was testing his Hokage's patience.
"I understand Hokage-sama. Forgive me."
Hiruzen let his expression soften, even as began walking again. He could hear Salamander's footsteps, after a slight hesitation, fall in line with his again.
"Despite his appearance and personality, Might Guy is one of our most accomplished Jounin, Salamander. His Will of Fire burns as one of the brightest amongst the Konoha ninja, and his loyalty is absolute. Have no fear; I expect great things from Naruto under that man's guidance.", Hiruzen said, his tone assured and fond.
As they continued walking, the aged Sarutobi glanced towards the mountain wall lining one edge of the village. Or more importantly, he looked at the faces hewn out of the rock, staring imperiously out over their village. His gaze lingered on the final head, to the right of his own.
"Great things indeed."
AN: I gotta go to work right about... now, I suppose, so no AN this time. I hope to see you in the next chapter, where Guy will start to prepare Naruto for ninja-life! :D
Fun Fact: Sanji from One Piece was supposed to be named Naruto, due to his curly eyebrows. However, Naruto had been released around the same time as One Piece, so the author of One Piece changed his characters name to Sanji.