Chapter 4
Iruka Umino a Chunin of Konohagakure and teacher at it's genin academy had been caught again for the third time that period alone staring out the large window lining a whole wall of the classroom. Suddenly his aid Mizuki walked in.
"Hey, Iruka you okay?"
"Oh Mizuki your here? Yeah i'm fine just thinking about those rumors going around"
"Ooh ooh what rumors Iruka-sensei?" one student asked
"Yeah tell us Iruka-sensei, we can keep secrets" another added
"Yeah like how we have not told you about Kotgetsu's chea-"
"Shut up Rose-chan" Kotogetsu blurted out, his secret almost exposed
"No students I will not and expect Mizuki to not either"
"Why are you bringing me into this Iruka?"
"I'm gonna take the rest of the period off, if that's ok with you?"
"Hey I understand making plans for tonight"
"What do you mean Mizuki?"
"What are yo-? OHH not in front of the gaki's i got it"
Iruka just shook his head walking out of the class not understanding what Mizuki was talking about. Iruka eventually made it out to the training ground deciding to sit on a comfortable swing in the shade of a tree. Huuu what could have started these rumors about the nine tails being alive? Inside of some orphan no less? Hmmmm what to do? Do I take this to the Hokage? I'm sure he already knows they have been circulating for 2 days now apparently.
"Huh huh huh"
Iruka was broken from his thoughts by the sound of someone out of breath, seeing some blond haired kid wearing ablack t-shirt and orange shorts hands and knees on the ground barely supporting his obviously exhausted body dirt, blood, and scrapes all over him.
"Hey kid what happened to you?" Iruka asked, walking over startling the young kid, and just as he got over to him, Iruka noticed the face of fear he had all over his face. Crouching down to get a better look at him the moment he bent his legs to get towards the kids' level the boy bolted down the street. Worried about the kids' well-being because of the obvious signs of abuse, Iruka decided to chase after him.
Wait if he has been abused he probably doesn't trust adults especially those that chase him, guess i'll just watch. With that Iruka jumped up to the buildings and just followed the boy his ninja training allowing him to easily keep up even if this 4 year-old showed exceptional speed for someone his age. It took 5 minutes for this kid to stop running, panting even harder collapsed under a tree. Jeez, nearly ¾ of a mile in that time, with proper training he could be the next Might Duy. After a few moments he got up and started to walk away. Oh? "Where are you going now?"
Iruka followed the boy sneakily make his way through the village, avoiding the sight of the civilians, even the kids. So it's not just adults, what's this kids story? Staying on the roofs Iruka watched as the boy made his way from shadow to shadow no civilian could have matched his movements. 15 minutes later he was at the base of the Hokage's office. What's he doing here? He's no shinobi I know of and certainly he saw my flak jacket so even if he was he would know i was an ally?
With that Iruka made his way inside using a high level henge to appear as a heat wave making him virtually invisible. He watched as this young kid crawled jumped and slid to avoid passerby shinobi until he eventually made his way to the hokage's office, he watched as he pressed his ear to the door slowing his breath and concentrating listening for anyone inside, deciding it was safe enough he watched as the kid opened the door walking in Iruka quickly caught the door trying to make it inside but he had obviously missed the timing as when the door did not close when the kid expected it to he spun around and quickly noticed the wave motion from the heat wave henge and jumped back.
"Iruka drop the henge"
"Yes, lord third"
With that Iruka dropped the henge and bowed to his hokage before returning to an upright standing position. Noticing who the ninja was the boy tensed a bit and walked slowly behind the hokage desk, all the while Iruka watching him
"Lord third, who is that?"
"Well I assume you have heard the rumors by now"
"And I assume you mean the nine-tails revival rumors?"
"Yes"
"So that is the orphan in question"
"Correct, now why did you follow him here?"
"Well I saw he was banged up so I wanted to make sure he wasn't living in an abusive household"
"And that is why i like you, and your assumption wasn't entirely off"
"How so?"
"Well as the rumors would suggest he is indeed an orphan and I'm fairly sure you are aware of the chronic lack of funds and corruption in that place having spent some time there yourself"
"The orphanage may not be the most well paid place or have entirely trustworthy staff but they're usually good enough to raise a child"
"But would they raise a jinchuriki?"
"Yeah your right, probably not. So it's true and the child is a jinchuriki?"
"As much as you may not or want to believe so he is in fact NOT a jinchuriki, he was just made out to be one by some well placed lies"
"Why would you do that to someone lore third? Especially someone like an orphan?"
"I do not but I know who did and have a fairly good guess as to why they did."
"Would you be kind enough to enlighten me, Lord third?" Iruka said sitting in one of the hokages' 2 chairs.
"Of course i trust you to keep this information secret?"
"Yes lord third"
"With that out of the way i have a question for you, are you aware of a man by the name of Danzo Shimura?"
"Vaguely"
"Are you aware of his faction"
"I've heard stories of a separate Anbu faction, would that be it?"
"Yes, that faction would be Root it is privately run and operated by hand picked Anbu members, and Danzo and while they claim to support the village they have taken many actions that actively undermine the village, and thus are more likely working to bring Danzo to power as he most likely sees himself as what is best for the village."
"So what you're saying is that they are the ones spreading rumors about the nine tail revival?"
"Yes, many merchants and civilians 'happen to overhear' many things. So having a few shinobi in and out of uniform mention such things and rumors are bound to start springing up."
"In 2 days they turned basically every civilian and shinobi against one CHILD, imagine if they decided to do it against someone of power like … you"
"I'm aware of that, but I believe Danzo to be smart enough that by starting rumors from the shadows he won't be able to claim the Hokage seat easily and it will be passed to someone else like Jiraiya"
"Is there anything I can do to help lord third?"
"Actually there is Iruka, i'm going to be speaking with Danzo in a bit about these rumors and I would like the boy, Naruto to be safely away from my office fearing his presence may be complicating to discussions"
"I understand sir, is there anywhere in particular you would like me to take him?"
"Yes, there is an apartment i've set up for him to move into once he starts academy training, he'll pay it off with mission money but until then i'll pay it, he knows where it is i just need you to make sure he gets there safely"
"Yes, lord third"
Iruka watched from the top of the buildings as Naruto made his way through the back alleys just like he did on the way to the Hokage office, avoiding every eye that could possibly spot him when suddenly something hit Iruka! LUNCH! Lunch at the academy would be ending soon and he had to show up to teach his class!
Hmm, lord third said to make sure Naruto could get home safely but we seem 80%~ of the way there so i think he can do it?
With that, Iruka started hustling it in the complete opposite direction, leaving Naruto to his own desires. Naruto, having kept track of where Iruka was on the roofs above him with his senses, immediately noticed he was leaving but didn't give it a second thought as he was now used to people turning their backs on him.
After a couple more minutes of walking Naruto suddenly stopped, to any civilian it would be random, but to shinobi the sound of approaching people was obvious. But that's not what scared Naruto, what scared him was that they seemed to be approaching from the rooftops and seen as how no civilian could possibly do that it meant only one thing, SSHINOBI. Naruto ducked behind some nearby trash cans and watched through some most likely drunk guys piss as a shinobi wearing a jounin vest and cigarette jumped right over his alley not even noticing but what Naruto noticed was a small book like item falling from a small back pocket of the man's pants. After a moment Naruto left the safety of his hiding spot deciding the guy did not notice he dropped it and stashed in his own pants until he got to the apartment.
As Naruto walked in something as obvious. The apartment had not been maintained, cobwebs were visible in every corner, the wall was exposed the broken of paint chips nowhere to be seen, bedding was piled in some corner and even from where Naruto was standing in the doorway he could see brown and 'white' stains on the sheets, after taking inventory of the pantry fridge and cabinets he luckily found super sized garbage bags which he property used two to get rid of the sheets, using a broom and tray he found in the pantry he cleaned up most of the cobwebs he could reach, after this he deemed the smell gone enough to open the window and started dusting high to low. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER Naruto had finally finished dusting and promptly plopped down on the unsheeted bed and flipped to a random page in the book, what he saw surprised him there were images like mugshots of various shinobi looking people in them with statistics at the bottom like a ranking, village of origin, wanted status, reward, and so on. Naruto found these various interesting and as soon as he noticed the 'title' section time seemed to speed up, he flew from the front of the back towards the end.
Hmm some of these arent that creative…
Like 'the drunk' bo-rai cho, seriously 'the drunk'?
Or how about 'Rasa of the sand' like c'mon there's nothing cool in here!
His opinion would change however as Naruto neared the end of the A-rank section, as was now the method Naruto used of getting through the most entertaining sections first like photo first (he wanted to see if anybody did anything interesting or had cool features like scars of dojutsu), then name as some had cool names like Darui or Hayate Gekko, then came his favorite part THE TITLES some had cool names like "of the sharingan" (only because he new the dojutsu) or "sanin" (another term he was familiar with), many only got good scores in 1 area but some also got middeling scores in a second. This next one however seemed to hit every note, as Naruto scanned the page…
Zabuza Momochi, hmmm his first name means beheading which is cool, i'll give it 7/10
Now onto his photo, hm nothing special, bandages around his neck are ok… WAIT ARE THOSE HIS TEETH!? OH MY KAMI I THINK THOSE SHARP THINGS ARE HIS TEETH! They look like he filled them into jaws and there sticking out even over his upper lip, easy 7/10
Now this guy would need some new level of shit title to ruin his image, now let's see… … … … … FIERCE GOD, DEMON OF THE HIDDEN MIST, HOLIEST OF SHITS 10/10
With that Naruto put the book down deciding he wanted dinner and while many places he found would not serve him last night he had come across a nice ramen place which would serve him, and though he planned on reading more he ended up running so fast from a mob he was to tired and went straight to bed.
Author note: i would like to apologize for the long wait but between a family trip and my own laziness i've been neglecting this while i definitely wont return to daily additions ill try to be more consistent, tell me what you think of the longer chapter but i need to stay on track to have academy done by chapter 7
