The way back from Jetan outpost had been a silent trek for Naruto. Oh, the blond did answer any request from Kurenai but apart from that, he was too occupied with his own thoughts to tease Kiba, play mind games with Shino or discuss with Hinata.

He had been going in circles regarding his problem and it was with relief that he saw the gates of Konoha grow larger and larger as they approached them. He had to talk with his surrogate grandfather, with his sensei, with Asuma-Oji.

"Kurenai-san, welcome back." One of the two chuunin guarding the entrance greeted Team Eight sensei. Naruto narrowed his eyes for a second before his brain supplied him with the name of the ninja: Kotetsu.

"Hello, you two. Still on guard duty?"

"Hey, it's a peaceful job," protested Kotetsu's companion, another chuunin named Izumo, in a lazy drawl.

Naruto allowed a small smile grin to paint itself on his face. He wasn't sure what the two's game was but Ibiki had been a smart teacher and "seeing underneath the underneath" now had an actual meaning for the blond. Those two were much more than gatekeepers.

"So we have Inuzuka-san, Aburame-san and Hyuuga-san. All good," Kotetsu smiled to the members of Team Kurenai and chakra-stamped their papers before he turned to Naruto.

The Uzumaki opened his ID, now used to the procedure and waited for the chuunin to admit him in Konoha proper.

"We heard by the grapevine that you did a good job with Team Gai," Izumo commented.

Kotetsu made a show of looking at Naruto's ID before he stamped it and returned it with a smile. "Yeah, well done on that, Uzumaki-san."

It took Naruto everything he had - including a vision of Ibiki threatening to fry his ass - to not gap at the two shinobi. Swallowing thickly, he bowed slightly and mumbled a "thanks" before he hastily retreated to where Team Kurenai was waiting for him.

All the way to the Hokage Tower, his previous concerns erased by the novel experience, Naruto wondered what this was that he was feeling. This comfortable warmth in his stomach wasn't exactly new yet it wasn't the same as when his Jiji or Ibiki-sensei or even Asuma-Oji complimented him.

Mission report was a quick affair and Naruto soon found himself back in the streets. Still wondering about the weird greeting at the gate, he noticed the three "blurs" only at the last second.

It was enough for him to make two clones appear by his side with a flip of his right hand and a flex of his chakra. He caught a dark-haired boy in person while his replicas captured a young girl with carotte hair done in two pigtails and a brown-haired boy with glasses. All three seemed to be around eight and were all wearing curious combat-glasses as makeshift headbands.

"Boss!" Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Hello you three," answered the trio of Narutos with a light smile. "Is today free?" The original asked.

"Pff, Boss, it's Saturday, of course, we don't have school."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. The thing with long term mission was that they tended to make one lose sight of the day and date, especially as there was no "weekend" while on duty.

"Right, right. What have you been up to while I was gone?"

Konohamaru whined. "Boss it was so boring! The Academy is really useless!"

Naruto snickered. "It teaches you patience above all else. It's a valuable skill, Kono-chan, one that makes learning all the others much easier."

The young Sarutobi pouted. "It's boring." He retorted and apparently, that was that.

"Mhm is there really nothing that-"

"Boss," the young black-haired boy whined again. "It's so much better to work with you!"

"That's right," Moegi abounded. Udon nodded frantically.

"Alright, alright, I'm a little tired today and I need to meet my sensei anyway but if I'm free tomorrow I'll come to teach you."

"Yay!" Konohamaru beamed victoriously, one of his teeth missing in his large smile. "Thanks, Boss!"

"Now, now, remember, there's no guarantee I'll make it. Ibiki-sensei makes me work hard."

That dimmed the children's enthusiasm for a second before it returned full force. "But if you can be there, you'll be there right?"

Naruto smiled. "That's a promise."

Konohamaru extended his pinky, a serious look on his face, and Naruto extended his own and laced the finger around the child's. The Sarutobi gave his "Boss" a nod. "Hm, then it's all good."

"Alright, I'm all out of whack but I could go for something to eat right now. Ichiraku ramen, my threat if you're hungry." Naruto offered.

"Yay!"

"You seem even more enthusiast for ramen than training with me."

The three Academy students threw him somewhat guilty smiles and Naruto exhaled through his nose. "Brats."

"Hehe."

The Uzumaki smiled mischievously. " Oh, it's like this, huh?" He drawled before throwing Konohamaru on his shoulders, his two clones doing the same with Moegi and Udon. "Godspeed!" He suddenly exclaimed, he and his clones disappearing in a body flicker while the children screamed in mixed fright and glee.

After a round of Naruto's patented "Uzumaki rollercoaster", the four arrived in front of a modest stand. Konohamaru and Udon were soothingly rubbing Moegi's back, who looked a bit green.

"Boss, you went way too hard." Konohamaru admonished.

"Unappreciative brat." The blond grumbled as he entered the stand, flipping one of the piece of cloth hanging from the front to reveal a ramen bar.

"Hello Teuchi-Oji, Ayame-Nee!" The blond greeted before he could even see if whoever he was addressing was there.

"Hello, Naruto-kun!" Two voices answered in concert, one belonging to an older man and one to a young woman. "Long time no see," The woman added warmly.

Naruto smiled. "A miso ramen to begin and I'll go from there!"

"One miso ramen comin' right up!" Teuchi, a man in his fifties and dressed as a cook immediately answered.

The brunette woman threw a glance of her night-black eyes to the three students outside. "What will it be for the little ones?"

Naruto shrugged. "Meh, Moegi needs to get back on her feet properly first. Oh, could you give me a lemonade, Ayame?"

"Already on the counter, Naruto-kun."

And indeed, there was a bottle of his favourite lemonade on the counter, opened and ready to be consumed, smoking from the frost deposited on its surface by the powerful fridge of the restaurant. Naruto didn't know what kind of ninja art it was but Ayame was quick, silent and nearly undetectable like that when she served people as a waitress. The blond smiled again.

The rest of the day was spent without much more incident. Naruto met Ibiki who told him he had his Sunday off to do whatever he liked with it. Then he was nearly at his flat when an ANBU delivered an invitation to have dinner with his grandfather. The blond wasn't surprised by the invite, he had been less than subtle about his inner turmoils and he had no doubt the Hokage had picked up on it.

It was the reason why Naruto, dressed in matching blue pants and a long-sleeved shirt - with a red-orange spiral on the shirt - was knocking on the door of the Hokage mansion.

"Evening Jiji," greeted Naruto as it was opened by his surrogate grandfather.

A Hokage had to officially reside there. It was a symbolic way, as far as Naruto understood it, to make whoever was wearing the hat appear distinct from any clan or family. It didn't stop his Jiji to spend plenty of time in the Sarutobi compound or Konohamaru from sleeping in the mansion.

"Hello, Naruto-kun. Come in, dinner will soon be ready."

The blond smiled and removed his sandals to slip on inside shoes. They were slightly too large for his feet and Naruto suspected they belonged to Asuma.

"Asuma not here tonight?"

"He is away on a mission. He is due to come back tomorrow."

The dinner was a quiet affair, Naruto and the Hokage bantering lightly during it all. It was only when the two returned to the comfortable living room and were sunk deep in the couches that Naruto broached the subject he wanted to speak about.

"Jiji?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

The Uzumaki hesitated. He didn't know how he wanted to formulate what he wanted to ask. He wasn't sure what he wanted to ask in the first place. The blond struggled for a minute with his thoughts while the Hokage patiently waited for his almost-grandson to find his bearing.

"What's the Will of Fire?" Naruto eventually asked.

"Whatever a ninja of Konoha believes, in his heart of heart, to be right."

That had been the response of Hiruzen to Naruto's question and "confusion" would be understating greatly what the blond was feeling right now.

He had had the entire night to mull over his grandfather's words but the fabled nocturnal advice hadn't come to him.

His Jiji had given him examples, of course, to help him understand. For Hashirama Senju, the Will of Fire was to extend the hand of friendship in the war-torn age of the Clan Era. For his brother, Tobirama Senju, it had been about making Konoha powerful as a way to protect it. For the Sandaime, his surrogate grandfather, it was about caring for the village like a large family. For the Yondaime, courage, when faced with adversity, had been the answer, for there was nothing below.

Then, his surrogate grandfather had said to him that he had each of these beliefs carved in his own heart. According to the aged Kage, Naruto was like the eldest Senju brother as he kept his hand open for the villagers to take, in spite of their fear and treatment of him. He was also like the younger Senju in that he took any threat to Konoha to heart and his handling of his first enemy during his mission with Team Gai was proof enough of that. He was like Hiruzen himself and called those dear to him sister, brother, uncle and grandpa and treated them as no less than family. Finally, he was apparently much like Minato Namikaze for in face of adversity, he had shown nothing but courage, even in what should have been his home.

This had greatly embarrassed Naruto. First, because he wasn't feeling deserving of such high praise and secondly because his feelings regarding the village were a mess. He wasn't sure he was still offering the "hand of friendship" because keeping it open and extended at all time was immensely tiring for his metaphorical arm. Rather, Team Gai, Asuma and Kurenai had offered friendship on their own accord and finally, finally, it had felt normal. Natural.

The reason he had struggled so hard to save Team Gai and himself, he wasn't sure. He hadn't wanted to die. If the team had treated him coldly, would he have fought as hard to keep them all alive? He didn't know the answer to that question.

As for his family, everyone was entitled to one so why not him? He was far from considering the village as his family. They were privileged, fearful people who didn't even realize the luxury of their life, taking so many things for granted it was disgusting.

And ultimately, he had bowed without a word to the necessities and rules of the military when he hadn't protested against Kurenai's order to continue their patrol rather than investigate the murdered Wave citizen and the situation in Wave. That wasn't courage.

Everything felt bitter. He used to will these considerations away and there were multiple reasons he did so, some he wasn't even sure about. His perceived lack of choice, the ambient hostility and his own naivety were as many factors dictating him to ignore all those questions as he understood, even unconsciously, that answering them wouldn't be tolerated. However, life was also simpler without them: he didn't spend so much energy at finding things unfair or tallying wrongs done to him rather, he actively tried to make them right.

Now, he couldn't help but think the village had to be punished for what it had done to him. He didn't want revenge because he honestly didn't know if his life called for revenge per se. He wasn't sure what revenge was about anyway. No, it would simply be justice. Yet he also knew the Hokage had been very clear that he couldn't extract it. Simply another unfairness.

Weirdly, or maybe not, it felt like taking the path of least effort, hoping for a supposed justice to set things straight. His idiot-self had been harder at work than he was, in a way. But his idiot-self hadn't realized how mentally exhausting everything was either until a clone had threatened to release a bijuu on the village.

All that, however, felt insignificant before his last point. Through it all, he still had thought Konoha to be better. Becoming a ninja was the cure to his loneliness and the ostracism he was the victim of because ninjas were heroes and no one could ignore a hero. So he had simply thought he was the exception to the rule, that one person the Will of Fire couldn't welcome in its warmth. He had thought if there was one thing to be proud of, it was that Konoha did the right thing and that he belonged to such a village. That courage wasn't second to concerns that honestly seemed petty to him when human life was at stake.

He had said all that to his Hokage and grandfather figure and it had felt like unloading a massive weight from his shoulders. Better come clean, Naruto reasoned, than allow it to fester and the old man had said to him that he could speak to him without fear. It wasn't like Naruto could do anything anyway if the Hokage suddenly decided he was a risk and was to be locked up.

So the blond had chosen to trust his grandfather.

And the Hokage had clasped his shoulder with one of his strong hands and, with a smile, simply told him that all those feelings were exactly the reason why he should become Hokage.

"A Hokage," his grandfather had said, "is the ninja who guides the village to greater heights, who ensure the Will of Fire burns bright and powerful. He is the ninja with enough acknowledgement to influence the village with their sense of what is right and what is wrong."

Naruto couldn't stop himself when he had then asked why his grandfather hadn't done anything concerning him. Why he had allowed his childhood to be so suffocating, so inhumane.

"Because I'm not the Hokage," the old man had answered with regrets heavy in his voice. "I may wear the hat and shoulder the day to day duties but my most sacred mission I squandered. I'm sorry, Naruto, very much so, that you suffered for it."

Naruto couldn't resent the old man. He had been weak, made mistakes but at least now he was teaching him and the blond knew full well that the "shinobi grapevine" had been encouraged by the Hokage. The old Sarutobi was actively trying to do better and that was what counted.

Doing better.

Wasn't that what the Will of Fire was all about?

It was with his mind swarmed with countless thoughts that Naruto arrived in the training ground where he would usually meet Konohamaru and his two friends. Sighing, the blond decided that he wouldn't solve everything in one go and certainly not today. As he entered the clearing, he saw the three Academy students chasing each other in a game of tag. Naruto observed them wistfully.

He had never been allowed a game of tag. The adults of Konoha had made sure of that.

"Hello you three," he eventually called after straightening his back and putting a lid on this particular train of thoughts.

That was a thing of the past and he only had power over the present.

"Boss! You made it!" The trio exclaimed joyfully. Naruto smiled at their enthusiasm.

"What are we learning today?" The Uzumaki asked.

The trio made a show of thinking. Naruto had agreed to help them become better only if they could come to him with an identified weakness. Of course, he had demonstrated how to evaluate oneself beforehand and urged the three to work on it.

"Chakra control," answered Udon eventually.

Naruto looked at the trio. "You all agree with that?"

Moegi nodded and Konohamaru grumbled something under his breath but nodded too. Naruto's smile crooked. He knew chakra control wasn't that exciting and had been his personal bane in the Academy until his grandfather and Ibiki-sensei had explained why it was important to work on it. Contrary to Iruka, who had only told him that it was necessary without telling him why, his new teachers had made explicit why control was a primordial aspect of using chakra.

Naruto still didn't find it an absolutely riveting activity but he could acknowledge its necessity. It then simply became a matter of making it interesting and amusing maybe. Putting a leaf on your forehead was dull. To be able to climb trees without your hands was much cooler but too much for three eight-year-old students.

So Naruto retrieved a small ball made of cloth and filled with rice, approximately the size of his fist. "I have a game for you, kiddies." He started and watched as Konohamaru's face brightened.

"The goal," continued Naruto, "is to pass the ball to each other only by using chakra. So, you need to stick the ball to your palm with chakra then spike it to launch it to one another. Understood?"

"Yay!"

It took fifteen minutes for the three kids to get used to manipulating the chakra the right way and ten more for them to be able to do so when moving. After half an hour, Naruto walked to the three wooden posts in the centre of the training ground and clapped in his hands.

"Alright, come here!"

The trio grouped around him with slightly winded but anticipatory looks on their face. "What are we doing now Boss?" Moegi asked eagerly.

She had been slightly better and faster than the boy at the exercise. Girls did have slightly lower chakra reserves and better control in exchange than boys.

"So, now we can play for real. See these three training posts behind me? Your goal is to hit at least one post by shooting the ball at it. If you can do that within an hour, you'll get something from me."

The trio beamed. "What, what, what is it?"

Naruto smirked. "Not telling, it's a surprise. So, there is one rule. You can only walk three steps before you have to pass the ball. Then, you're free to move as you want. Remember, three steps and that's it, you pass. Got it?" The trio nodded. "Now, go at the other end of the ground and wait for my top."

Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi scampered away, the young Sarutobi carrying the ball.

"How are we gonna do this," asked the girl. "Boss is strong."

"We need a plan," agreed Konohamaru.

"I have an idea," offered Udon.

Naruto smiled, his keen earing having picked up on their conversation. These three were already a team. He allowed a minute for them to hatch their strategy, plugging his ears to avoid listening in before he bellowed.

"Start!"

The game of… hitting-post-ball? Yeah, good enough. The game of hitting-post-ball was afoot.

In his office, the Sandaime watched through his crystal ball with increasing awe as his surrogate grandson devised a simple yet obvious game to practice endurance and chakra control.

"Call me Iruka Umino!" He ordered suddenly at his seemingly empty office. "Now!"

There was a shadow whooshing away and he nodded with satisfaction before he turned his gaze back to the game.

AN: Questions continue to be asked. On an unrelated matter, soon, chuunin exams and all that jazz, possibly. No, Naruto won't be part of every investigation going on to know what the hell is happening in Wave or in Rice. It's entirely possible Ibiki ropes him in at least one of them, however, maybe the one he deems less dangerous. He is head of T&I and Naruto is his apprentice after all.

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