AN: I own a variety of things but Naruto is not part of it. I'd tell you to support the original release but if you are here, you already did. I hope you enjoy.
After Tiger forced Naruto to connect the dots, the blond's training picked up in variety. The ANBU instructor started him on the finer points of awareness and observations. Both skills were incredibly important and Tiger stressed the point repeatedly. A ninja had to be aware of his environment, of his enemies, and of himself and that was only possible through astute observation.
Naruto's instructor had summarized it with a saying that sounded a bit pompous to the blond but that rang true nonetheless. Something about knowing "thyself, thy surroundings, and thy enemy and thou shall never be defeated", approximately.
What it meant in practicality was that Naruto's lunchtime was now dedicated to him analyzing pictures of people and places and deduce from it the answer to a question Tiger would ask him. He then had to describe how he would attack the person or make a list of all the potential weapons, escape routes, and covers of a designated place.
For the blond, it was like planning a prank and his -in fact sharp- mind quickly picked up what Tiger wanted him to learn. It could be summarized in two points: everyone had at least one weak point and everything was a weapon. The difficult part was identifying what was what.
His afternoons did not change much. After a session of rope jumping, he would fight the Akki only this time, Tiger was trying to turn him into a pincushion with sharpened kunais and shurikens. All in good fun, the ANBU repeatedly told him over the passing days.
To even out the activity, a secondary functionality of the dummy was revealed to Naruto. Artificial weak points in the wooden golem could be covered and uncovered at random, like a game of whack-a-mole, by the hydraulic system. If Naruto hit hard enough on an unprotected weakness, a special piece made to be very easy to replace would break, making the water pressure within the dummy take a dive and make its movements a bit more sluggish and predictable.
Those weak points were located on the dummy to mimic the fragile areas of a human. The joints, the liver, the sternum, the throat, and so on were critical zones the blond was encouraged to try to break. Under duress of a lot of pain. Naruto was visibly getting sturdier by the day but the weighted arms of the angry mannequin still hurt. And that was without taking into account the kunais flying at top speed toward him.
The wild flails of the golem were by design difficult to predict, the weak points difficult to hit cleanly, and Tiger shurikenjutsu was a constant threat, pushing Naruto to be ever on edge, forcing him into dangerous maneuvers, encouraging him to improvise.
The rest of his training and conditioning did not relent. The HSRB continued; the substances the blond was fed made any physical exercise a living hell, tired him to no end, turned the dummy sparring sessions into a waking nightmare. The goal was to make the blond resistant to all poisons known to Konoha and make him used to the feeling of being poisoned. Suna and Kiri-nin were feared for a very particular reason.
He continued to work under Dog's watch, trying and failing to stick to the thrice-damned wall of the bowl room. The ANBU had informed him of the state of his tenketsus and was more sympathetic now that she knew the blond had a physical problem and not a lack of talent. Naruto had accepted it all, simply suggesting to push chakra outside of his body during his meditating session to attempt to make them larger. After a quick discussion with a med-nin and Dragon, Naruto had been given the green light.
His two other clones pushed his kenjutsu training hard in order to make up for the lack of his chakra control. Naruto was not forgetting this was supposed to be a "trial run". He did not really know how he was evaluated but he could not take any chance. He did not want his instructors to think he was slacking off.
With two clones working on each task, even if he was failing at one, the feedback felt amazing. The memory merging process, while putting more strain on his brain, was also smoother due to the number of repeating memories he had access to. In addition, the experience was multiplicative rather than additive. Shadow clones were independent enough to go about a problem in slightly different ways, which meant that while one worked with method A, the other could work with method B. It did not subtract from the time required to learn something, it literally divided it.
One problem was that learning something wrong was several times worse but his instructors were keen on not letting that happen.
His self-study in Toad Poetry was going well. Mount Myoboku seemed to be close to paradise on earth if the texts were remotely close to the truth. Also, the toads were drunkards, if the number of haikus on alcohol was any sort of indication. The strangest poems were undoubtedly those written by a certain Gamamaru. That particular toad was high on drugs, Naruto was sure of that.
"Light will be shed, upon the shadowy path, the start of a new age." As if.
The funnier one were often penned by one of two toads: Fukasaku or Gamabunta.
"Dance on the sake jug, gobble a fly, precious oil flows," was definitely better and made Naruto wonder if a tag could make people drunk. This Gamabunta guy knew how to enjoy life.
The "gobble a fly" part even gave the boy an idea. Many would have called it stupid but the only stupid seals were the one a practitioner never made, 'ttebayo! Or so the author of Naruto's first ever fuinjutsu manual had said.
What Naruto had dreaded the most was his work at the Tower in the presence of the Hokage but even that was going well. The blond did not know exactly what he had feared but his surrogate grandfather had maintained a professional behavior, not pushing Naruto on personal matters, and otherwise proved to deserve his title of "Professor".
Evaluating a mission -bare the D-ranked ones, which, to Naruto's horror truly existed- was like piecing a puzzle. Who was paying for it? What were the objectives? What were the declared dangers? What were the undeclared dangers? Those questions were all pieces of information that Naruto had to answer and bring together to get a general picture of the request.
It was similar to Tiger's exercise and Naruto understood that what he was doing was basically getting the knowledge in place of the ninjas who would be dispatched. It was certainly less exciting than getting to do the mission himself but it was no less an important step. Once he saw it as a game of sort -a game with very high stakes, he supposed- he even found the activity enjoyable if slightly frustrating.
It was also interesting to discover how the multitude of requests came and went to Konoha. The Communication Tower was constantly receiving missions from offices spread over Fire Country in every major towns and villages of enough importance. The demands were carried over to the mission desk, processed, and if a request was accepted as a job, an answer was sent back via the Communication Tower.
When Naruto asked why the demands were not processed locally, the Hokage simply reminded him that only he had the power to officially send ninjas on a mission and that his shinobi were all stationed in Konoha anyway. It also explained why Konoha was hidden roughly in the center of Fire Country: all borders were at equidistance and outposts could be reached by reinforcement equally quickly.
The best part was the free lunch. Even if he was a clone, the Naruto replica did not hesitate to gorge himself with whatever was delivered to the chunin and the Hokage. It was part of his cover after all. Him eating nothing would have alerted the ninja working with him.
The first time he had eaten sushi, the clone had silently laughed, reminded of a prank from more than a year past. He had caught on a certain ritual of the Hokage: Thursday was sushi day. Naruto had spent weeks working on recreating the very specific box of sushi his grandfather liked and had one day replaced the original with one of his own creation.
With extra wasabi under the fish topping.
It had been the blond's most expensive prank ever but worth it. Even the Hokage had been unable to prove anything. Sushi day had since then been randomized.
No, working with the Hokage was not at all as uncomfortable as he had feared. Meeting his ex-classmates again had been, though.
It was early on Thursday afternoon and one Naruto-clone was sitting on the Hokage's left, prepping his desk for the second half of his day's work. The bell signaling the door of the office opening jiggled but Naruto did not look up, already used to the vaguely annoying chime.
"Hello, Hokage-sama," called a grave, male voice with mirth.
Naruto lifted his eyes with a smile on his face. He immediately took stock of Asuma Sarutobi standing in front of the mission desk.
"Hello, Naruto." The tall, black-bearded jonin greeted.
"Hey, Asuma." The blond answered with a wave and a grin before it faltered.
Behind the jonin stood three of his ex-classmates, two of which he had not wanted to see again. Or not that soon anyway.
Hinata Hyuga simply looked at him for a second before she glanced down at her feet. Sasuke Uchiha was sporting his mask of indifference and his sneer of contempt. Kiba Inuzuka just had an insufferable smile on his face.
"Ha, what'cha doing here loser?" The wild looking Inuzuka exclaimed uproariously, pointing a mocking finger at the blond.
Naruto gritted his teeth and watched as Kiba was immediately smacked on his head by Asuma.
"Naruto has a headband Kiba, he is working as a ninja but on a different mission."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he took in the sight of Naruto's hitai-ite. Hinata let out a sigh.
"What! How did he get it?! He failed!"
"That is none of your concern Kiba." Asuma admonished sternly. "All ninjas are approved by Hokage-sama. If Naruto has a headband, he deserves it, period."
"That's favoritism!" Protested the feral looking boy.
"Kiba!" Asuma shouted menacingly. "I do believe I'm a patient man but if you don't drop it right now, you'll get what's coming for you. Naruto is a genin, period. Now let's get our mission."
Cowed by the sudden threatening tone of his sensei, Kiba decided it wise to remain silent. As the team took their mission, Sasuke ignored the blond and Hinata shot him a look that could have been apologetic, Naruto was not sure.
That had been the tamest of all the encounters. When the Quatuor of team eight, composed of Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara, under the lead of a white-haired, masked jonin, had come for their first mission, it had been worse.
Choji had munched on his chips and Shikamaru had muttered a "troublesome" but Ino's outburst had been worse than Kiba's. Giving their jonin did not give a damn about what was happening, his nose deep into the page of a little orange book, the Hokage himself had needed to intervene on Naruto's behalf.
The old man had been two seconds away from the blond demonstrating his new brand of taijutsu on the vapid Yamanaka.
All encounter had left an acid taste in the back of Naruto's mouth. He wanted to scoff at the idea of being privileged in any ways, given the life he had to lead up until now but it would not stop nagging him. How deserved was his field promotion to genin? How deserved was his offer to join ANBU?
Tch, of course he owned everything he had. He had worked his ass off and even been sabotaged! If he could not be a genin, no one could, 'ttebayo!
Just like that, a good part of Naruto's second week of training came and went. The training was harsh, unforgiving, demanding. Mornings were still full of full-counts, kata drills, shuriken throwing. The afternoons were a punishment, as fighting Akki while dodging steel stars after an intense session of artistic rope jumping was the hardest thing the blond had ever done.
Naruto lived for every second of the thrill and took the challenge head-on. He knew that again and again, he was pushing his limits further and further. Never had he felt like he was progressing so much by the minute.
It was Friday and late when the boy finally got the better of Akki, his worst frenemy golem, by jabbing the dummy's exposed throat mechanism with a blade hand. Two pipes were held jointed together by an adjustable circle of steel. The circle itself was precariously kept fastened by a peg that Naruto's strike had removed.
The water pressure within the tubes had made the rest.
Hot, red, slightly viscous liquid tasting like iron had erupted and drenched Naruto, freezing the boy in horror. It took the blond several seconds and a hit to the guts that sent him sprawled on the ground to realize it was not real blood but some elaborate imitation.
"When you slit a real throat completely open, the pressure is more or less the same for a second," informed Tiger with his monotone. "That's why you go only slightly deeper than the vocal cords; it avoids making a mess." The ANBU manhandled the blond into a standing position. "Next time, don't freeze."
Its throat was torn; the dummy had sagged and deflated like some sort of old balloon, fake blood pouring in rivulets down its wooden body, the pump automatically detecting the pressure dive and stopping in mere instants.
"Much like a real heart," provided Tiger dispassionately.
That night, Naruto felt sick and woke up tired and vaguely angry when the morrow came. His anger grew for the entirety of his morning-long warm-up, going from warm to burning hot. His lunch was a complicated affair and after a furious session of rope jumping, the blond was brought in front of a repaired dummy. Naruto noticed the wood was a shade darker where the "blood" had stained it.
"You can repair a golem but with a man, it's final."
Naruto felt his anger go from vague to focused and nodded before he took the kunai Tiger was giving him. The blond shot a questioning look at his instructor.
"Taijutsu is a last resort as it'll often not be efficient enough. Bukijutsu further close combat efficiency. The use of a kunai or trench knife is relatively easy when one has solid taijutsu basics as the motions are the same, with only a few subtleties," explained Tiger. "It'll be many times easier for you to deactivate Akki with a weapon."
Naruto nodded again and gripped the kunai as he had been taught, one eternity ago, in the Academy. Tiger activated the pump and Akki sprung to life. Naruto growled and launched himself against the immortal dummy. This time, it took less than a minute before the blond could puncture the gel-like blood bag that was supposed to simulate a liver. Akki kept flailing for several minutes, Naruto attacking its joints and dislocating them one by one to render them useless until the pressure decreased under the critical level from the flowing "wound".
For his trouble, Naruto had lost a molar despite his protection, the left side of his chest was hurting from bruised ribs, and a kunai had embedded itself deep in the back of his thigh. It would heal but Naruto learned an important lesson that day. Losing a tooth hurt like a bitch. Also, he wasn't getting caught like he had been ever again.
"I will assume you now understand what I mean with awareness." It was as much a statement as it was a question.
Naruto nodded curtly, gingerly holding the side of his jaw, his entire mouth on fire from the loss of his tooth.
"Can you tell me where your awareness failed you?"
The blond lifted his mask slightly to spit blood before setting the disguise on his face straight again. When he spoke, his voice was muffled by his swollen, painful cheek.
"I thought that puncturing the…" Naruto hesitated a second. "The liver, would be enough to deactivate the Akki."
Tiger nodded but stayed silent and the blond could feel the ANBU stare at him. Apparently, Naruto had to say something more. The boy replayed his fight against the mannequin as best as he could.
He had been rather aggressive. It could easily be attributed to his lack of sleep but it was not all there was to it. The kunai had emboldened him. He had thought the Akki would "die" way faster than the golem actually had. He had not exercised the same amount of caution he usually did when fighting the dummy bare-handed. He had not been aware of the anger rolling within him, nor of the arrogance the weapon had insufflated into him.
"I was not thinking straight," Naruto eventually relented under the piercing eyes of Tiger. "I don't know why… I'm angry."
The ANBU nodded but said nothing.
"I guess the fact I had a kunai… I thought it'd be easier."
Tiger nodded again but this time, the operator spoke. "Wounds inflicted elsewhere than the head or the heart are rarely immediately lethal for a trained ninja. I've seen shinobis fight with one of their lungs pierced, their guts spilling out, their ribs shattered. They don't struggle long, a few seconds, a minute at most, but it's enough to catch you off guard if you allow it."
Naruto felt something get stuck in his throat and felt a little queasy at the gruesome description. Would he ever eviscerate someone? Would he ever cause a man to hold on his guts as they were spilling out of his abdomen? Would that ever happen to him? The boy turned green behind his mask and was happy he had yet to have his lunch.
"Know that a fight is not over until all hostiles are neutralized and that means them being tied up or dead," informed Tiger with his characteristic lack of inflection.
The blond gulped loudly, swallowing the nauseating lump that had formed in his throat and nodded. "Hai, sensei."
"Now, what lesson can you deduce from what happened regarding your emotions?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head, trying to forget the uncomfortable sensation in his stomach. "I… They make me sloppy."
"When you allow your emotions to control you, that is often the case. It is why a good shinobi masters his emotions."
The blond frowned behind his mask, his queasiness momentarily gone. It sounded a bit too much like a to the letter interpretation of the Code. One Naruto had mixed feelings about. He controlled his outburst though -he did not want to risk losing another tooth- and coughed to stifle his shout.
"But…" The blond kept himself from flailing his arms left and right by gripping his hands together. "But are we supposed to not feel at all?" The blond protested in as measured a tone as possible.
Tiger shook his head and motioned for Naruto to sit down on the ground. Once both were comfortably situated in a lotus position, the ANBU laced his fingers under his chin.
"You heard what I said but you did not understand what I meant."
Naruto tilted his head and sent an interrogating glance at his instructor, a look the man could somehow see or rather, feel, despite the mask.
"I did not say shinobi cannot feel, I said shinobi must control their emotions. What did you feel when you asked your question?"
Naruto scratched the back of his scalp, taken a bit by surprise by the question. "Err, I was… It was indignation?" The blond shrugged before he crossed his arms across his chest. "I don't like the first rule. If we don't feel, how can we protect? How do we serve the Will of Fire?"
Tiger sighed silently. "The first rule comes directly from the Warring Clan area. Shinobi did not have a village to protect back then. They were considered tools, only good to further the interests of their clan and do the binding of their Lord."
The boy huffed. "Well… Well, that's just as dumb. Maybe they didn't have a whole village but they still had their clan to protect. How can a person want to do something if they are not allowed their feelings?"
"Because feelings can interfere with the success of a mission. Imagine being tasked with something that goes against your conception of what's right. Will you refuse your mission? Will you fail it on purpose? Will you risk the village to uphold your beliefs?"
Naruto fell silent at the barrage of questions and looked down, lost in his thoughts. What, indeed, would he do in such a situation? Was that the reason shinobis did not allow themselves to feel? So they could carry on with the mission no matter what it was?
"The first rule is often misinterpreted," said Tiger, cutting through Naruto's reflection. "It goes 'a shinobi shall not allow emotions to dull his blade if they are not a whetstone'. It does not mean that we aren't allowed to feel. It means that, when we are on the battlefield, our feelings should always be on a tight leash. Mastered, as I said."
"So… Don't let my anger make me lose my temper?"
"Exactly. Anger makes one sloppy. Arrogance makes one open. Overconfidence makes one unaware. And so on. All these lead to death."
Naruto frowned. "What does the whetstone part refer to?"
"Controlled anger can be channeled into strength and speed. Arrogance and overconfidence can be curbed into a heightened state of awareness. They then become the whetstone that makes the shinobi's blade even sharper."
"So… Feeling is… Good then, right?" To be honest, the blond was a little confused by the double message of the rule. In fact, he had never heard the rule enounced like that. He had never heard anything about the "whetstone" part.
"Controlled, channeled feelings are potent. But it is extremely difficult to do, so many ninjas prefer to bury their emotions deep down and not to touch them. They don't allow them to take over but make no use of them."
"Hum… Can you… Can you do it?"
Tiger shook his head. "No. I rein them in, put them on a leash, and work through them and resolve them after the mission, which is absolutely necessary if you don't want them to fester. As I said, few ninjas have the self-control necessary to exploit their emotions. It is something we all should work forward though."
Naruto nodded and cupped his chin. "Is that why you hit me when I'm… Too loud?"
Tiger bobbed his head up and down sagely. "Partially, yes. Also because it's annoying. But mainly, it reduces your awareness."
"But… I mean, if I express my emotions, I'm aware of them, right? So don't I increase my awareness of myself?"
"That might be the case but if it comes at the cost of being distracted from your environment, you risk taking a kunai to the stomach before you can react. You might survive being gutted but I would not recommend trying it."
The boy sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his head when some of his teacher's words grabbed his attention. "How do you… Work through your emotions? If they are buried, why even do it?"
"It is known that simply ignoring your emotions is dangerous and leads to sudden, unexpected breakdowns. You have to identify what you feel and, if it's negative, try to accept it and work through it."
"Work through it?"
"It means to at least coming to term with it and at best it means that you get something out of it. A resolution, a deeper understanding of yourself."
Either sensing Naruto's confusion or taking his tilter head as a clue, Tiger kept explaining.
"Let's take your anger for example. Many people would tell you to express it and punch something to get rid of it. Don't. Anger is something we all feel to a degree, it's natural so do not bottle it up, don't ignore it. If you cannot work with it during your battle, you work through it afterward. Why were you angry in the first place?"
Naruto was a bit startled by the sudden question. "I…" The blond dug deep within his brain but he came up short. "I don't know really?"
"You had no immediate reason to be angry correct?"
The boy nodded a yes and Tiger continued. "It means your anger was caused by something that happened yesterday, or that you realized yesterday. Anger is a natural reaction to various forms of provocation but also a way of denial."
Naruto thought hard. Why had he been angry in the first place? For "killing" Akki? For freezing when the fake blood had covered him? For the lack of passion with which Tiger had described the real process of killing a man by a strike to the throat?
It had been a mix of all that and the realization that ninja life was messy and merciless. Someday, he would plunge a kunai into a man's kidney for the sole reason that he was either Naruto's mission or an obstacle. He would take lives solely because those they belonged to were deemed targets by Konoha. Regardless of their sins, regardless of their virtues, he would kill unknown men and women. For the Village.
It would be no different than killing a faceless dummy yet Naruto knew it would be.
"I…" The blond tried to speak but felt his voice waver and fail him. He swallowed and looked down, lost in thoughts, unsure if he could confide what was in his mind right now.
The motion of his instructor standing up focused Naruto back on the present. Before the blond could follow suit, Tiger stopped him with a raised hand.
"Rest for now. It was time for a break anyway. Akki won't be fixed before an hour so meditate for a moment to center yourself."
The morrow came and it was Sunday. Naruto was grateful for his day of rest and welcomed it eagerly. The week had been exhausting, even with his increasing stamina, and the blond decided that doing absolutely nothing but reading toad poetry after stuffing himself with ramen on top of the Hokage Monument was a perfect way to go about spending his weekly leave.
The weather was great, warm but not burning, dry but not stifling. The view from up the Yondaime's head was breathtaking and there was a slight breeze that made it the perfect spot to be lazy. The blond had brought a blanket to soften the spot he was laying on. His blue eyes were roaming over the parchment of toad poetry he had "borrowed" from the ANBU library; no one would miss it anyway. Naruto had been extremely careful to humidify the scroll ever so very slightly to better its condition. He would need to copy it soon, as it was at risk of falling to dust. With a satisfied sigh, the boy simply enjoyed the moment, a smile on his lips.
Shikamaru was proud of his laziness but he knew nothing of the art. Naruto had understood that, paradoxically, if one wanted to laze comfortably, it required some preliminary efforts. Hence the spot, the cushion, and the read.
Now, Naruto was not one for books in general but there were a few things he enjoyed reading about. Tales of Konoha's founding were always entertaining to read, as they were all about mighty heroes and big battles. They were his guilty pleasure, so to speak.
On a completely different register, chakra and ninjutsu theory was something that fascinated the blond and that he could read about without much trouble. What ninja worth their salt would not be a little curious about the intricacies of their arts? Chakra was the root of everything after all!
Not that the reads were always riveting; in fact, they rarely were. Naruto had perused a number of tomes he had gained access to, had found many of them pretty lacking, and had abandoned halfway more than two-thirds of all he had ever begun. All the books focused on the many practical uses of chakra but none dared to tackle more fundamental questions: what was chakra? Where did it come from? Had it existed since ever?
A certain number of things were simply accepted as axiomatic and never questioned. Some ninjutsu were specific to genetics, there existed only a limited number of mudras -the twelve zodiac animals, their reversed form, and a few others-, some manipulation were straight up impossible… Anyway, it denoted a terrible lack of imagination and daring, 'ttebayo! It was almost the opposite of fuinjutsu, which encouraged students and masters alike to experiment on their craziest ideas. With varying levels of caution, of course.
Finally, Naruto just enjoyed poetry. Reading it but writing just as well, not that he would ever admit to anyone he wrote poetry. Anyone who was not brain dead and who knew of and about the blond's hobby of fuinjutsu necessarily knew it, as the sealing arts were half about poetry but still. Writing poetry was such a not-ninja thing to do. Nobles in their radiant palaces were supposed to write poems, not no-name, orphaned shinobis.
But poetry was an integral part of his sealing hobby and, contrary to the complex geometry which he found curious and interesting but not to the point of enthrallment, he had taken a shine to the verses and the rhymes.
He had driven the Hokage crazy back when he was eight by speaking in rhyme for an entire month until his access to Ichiraku's Ramen had been put into consideration.
Naruto lifted his azure eyes from his scroll for a second, taking in the view of Konoha sprawled below him, and frowned, his eyes tightening and his guts clenching. For a while now, the view had been taunting him, keeping him from reading anything truly. Thousands of houses of all size, mainly made of wood, the vast majority painted white, with roof tiled blue-green or ochre, were visible in-between copse of trees. The forest surrounding Konoha did not stop at the city walls, it extended inside the city proper. Konoha was a labyrinth both because of its non-existent urban planning and the trees growing absolutely everywhere; the city bore its name well.
The blood took a whiff of the breeze, closing his eyes to focus on the scents the wind was carrying. Earth, wood, and flowers were the easily distinguishable fragrances. Mixed in were more subtle scents, some Naruto could name, some he could not. The blond always had a good nose, nowhere near an Inuzuka's but better than the majority of his classmates.
It smelled like home. Naruto scowled. It had been more than two weeks since he had come here. The last time had been to wash the aftermath of his last prank under the watchful eyes of Iruka. It was a breach of a long-lasting habit of his to come on the Fourth Hokage's head to remind himself of his dream when all that had been on his mind was getting the hat for himself. Ramen and fuinjutsu notwithstanding.
It had been a really pathetic dream in retrospect, nothing but the fantasies of a child who did not understand the life he had nor the one he wanted to lead for what they really were. Two weeks in ANBU and Naruto was barely beginning to understand what being a ninja was about, much less being Hokage. That was not even considering the reasons for his ambitions, something the blond had already concluded was wrong. For someone who prided himself of never daydreaming or at least with moderation, it had been the worst kind of daydream. Fuelled by incomprehension, ignorance, and a good dose of foolishness but still.
It felt so far away. Had he ever been so little? So immature? How much was he still? Those two weeks seemed like two months and he learned daily.
It was partly because of yesterday's lesson that he was here today. The last time he had been here, he did not know anything. Today, he knew almost too much.
Coming to sit on the Yondaime's sculpted head was not something that had begun with his old dream. His old dream had begun here. The first time he had been here, it was to find a refuge. When the harsh glares, the whispered insults, the twitchy nervousness, the crass bullying had become too much, Naruto Uzumaki had sought a refuge where crying would be okay. The Yondaime's head was his sanctuary, the place he rested in-between the battles that were his life.
People did not grasp what it truly meant to be ostracized by the near entirety of the village one was supposed to live in. As much as Naruto liked Iruka, the Ichiraku, and the Sarutobi, they were but a fraction of Konoha's population. The elevated position above the village was not only a place of reprieve for Naruto. Yesterday, it had elevated him, bringing him closer to his ambitions. Today, it allowed him to tower over all those fearful, ignorant, ungrateful, mediocre, hateful villagers.
It had been Tiger's warning about festering emotions that had made Naruto think. It had made the blond think about things he thought were solved. It was simple, he was not supposed to resent the villagers. They did not know, after all, they did not understand. He was not supposed to be envious. He was not supposed to begrudge their happiness. It was supposed to be counterproductive, unhealthy, unworthy of Naruto Uzumaki. So he had come here to prove to himself that he wasn't feeling any of that.
Yet here he was, angry.
There were no two ways about it. He was angry at the villagers and he was glad to have disappeared in the darkness, where he did not have to gaze upon a sight he both loved and despised equally strongly. In ANBU, he wasn't reminded daily of what he never had. It lay his anger to rest, put it on hold. Where he was now, he could not see the hypocrites and the traitors, those who worshipped the man's sacrifice in the name of the Will of Fire, while hating on the child's.
He had directed all of his anger at his grandfather to not be tempted to direct it at those who deserved it.
He could not talk to anyone about it. He did not know who to talk to. He did not know if it would do him any good anyway. Was a jinchuuriki allowed to hate his home? Would the Hokage understand? His grandfather had accepted his anger against him but would the leader of Konoha accept his anger against his village?
How was he supposed to work through all that?
Naruto sighed deeply. Self-awareness might make him a better ninja but it had its own baggage of problems. Namely, uncomfortable questions. Uncomfortable questions that he would not allow to get between him and his toad poetry. With a resolute frown, Naruto returned his eyes on the scroll.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. His week had not been a pleasant one. He had hoped working with his surrogate grandson would ease the tension between them but the boy had been closed off. Agreeable, polite, dedicated to his task, but a wall to anything else. The investigation of the sabotage at the Academy was going nowhere yet. Mizuki had been broken by T&I but had revealed nothing of importance. Sure, the silver-haired man had blurted worrying bits of information but nothing that could lead anyone forward. As for Iruka Umino, the teacher was making slow, if steady, progress but it was clear he was not in his element.
Finally, and it had been the most frustrating thing for the Hokage, he could not find something convincing to do about Naruto's situation. He had taken the grand resolution to give his surrogate grandson the recognition he deserved but he had no idea how to go about it.
He could not force anything on anyone. How would he even do it? By threatening his population? The goal was to establish trust and understanding, not to make people even more fearful. Organize crash course in fuinjutsu? The art was so complex, civilians and ninjas alike would probably end up even more confused.
He could mount a subtle propaganda operation but it would take years before anything would come off it. While it would have been a great idea twelve years ago, it was now too late. Showcasing the blond in a chunin exam, then? Naruto would need a proper, official genin team for it to work, to avoid being accused of favoritism. This particular ship had sailed and would not be possible for a while.
Get out of his office and knocking at each and every doors of Konoha to explain as best as he could, that Naruto was not dangerous? He was an old man busy with too much work, he had no time for such a stunt.
The only thing Hiruzen could imagine that would bring instant recognition for the blond was if he accomplished, unmasked, some grand exploit in front of the villagers. Something like saving their Hokage, battling back an invasion, or anything like that.
Given that Konoha had never been invaded, the Kyuubi attack notwithstanding, it was not likely anything like that would happen anytime soon. And Hiruzen knew that Naruto would not accept anything staged. He was not sure Naruto would accept anything at all, actually.
The Hokage groaned as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. Life was difficult sometimes.
Naruto began his third week in ANBU with Dragon welcoming him with his three instructors, the owl-masked woman from last week, and a sixth masked man. The newcomer had sandy blond hair and a hawk mask.
"Today Naruto, you'll go through your first simulation exercise," Tiger explained with his unchanging monotone.
If there was a constant in Naruto's life, it was his instructor's voice. The blond stayed silent. He knew that all necessary information would be explained in due time.
"Simulation exercises are basically simulated missions carried within the village or around. They test various things; among them your stealth, your ingenuity, and so on. You'll be designated a target who knows only that they are taking part in a training exercise-"
"So that they don't freak out," completed the blond.
"Correct. We will be observing you. You'll warm up properly in one of the training ground inside Konoha and then the exercise will begin. Let's go."
The blond followed Tiger outside of the ANBU underground compound to training ground three where he took three hours to thoroughly wake himself up with diverse exercises for warming up. When he nodded to his instructor to signify he was ready, the man wordlessly handed him a rolled up scroll.
Naruto took a deep breath and unfurled the paper. The game was on and it was time to shine. Leaving the training ground, the blond stepped back into Konoha.
Dragon and his two bird-masked subordinates watched as Naruto climbed very slowly up a wall to get to the roof level of Konoha. The boy had to spend a few minutes to study the mission parameters. His target was a no-name chunin, Bekko, who he was supposed to tag in the back without the chunin noticing.
Child play for the prankster king of Konoha. He had painted people's hair in pink without them noticing so the mission would be easy for him.
"Your sensory ability has him?" Dragon asked the hawk-masked man on his right.
"Yes, sir."
"Pay close attention to it."
"Hai."
It took Naruto a little while to track the chunin from the information on the mission scroll. Bekko was a career chunin without much accomplishments to his name. The man had his own little habits, from which he never deviated when he was on leave.
Ninja life was fucked up so it wasn't rare for shinobi to appreciate routine when they had the occasion to.
The blond looked at his mark from a roof he was roosted on. The middle-aged man was currently doing some grocery shopping at an open market. One perfect place to have a paper tag stuck in-between his shoulder blades. Contrary to what people believed, pulling a prank on a ninja was easier in a populated area. In a back alley, they would hear you coming but in a marketplace, only their sixth sense and a healthy dose of paranoia could help them
Naruto felt his stomach churn at the thought. He knew full well the paper was supposed to represent a knife. There was actually a paralysis seal on the tag that would activate and floor the boy's "victim" for a few seconds, simulating an attack.
There were no real orders to execute the mission and the blond could already see one way to go about it that would leave him entirely undetected. It was weirdly easy, now that the boy was thinking about it.
What were they really testing here? Why were Owl and Hawk with Dragon? Was he supposed to impress? If so, how was he to do that? By being completely sneaky? Entirely too creative? The blond scratched his chin. Maybe he was reading too deeply into things. It had been easier being an idiot. Using your brain tended to make everything more complicated. No matter, he had something to do.
"Alright, let's do this." The blond said eventually, creating four shadow clones.
Dragon watched with mirth as Naruto was internally debating how to go about his mission. Suddenly the blond stood, created four replicas, and slowly slid down the tube of a gutter while three of his clones scattered. One replica simply followed the blond. With a single hand sign, the blank masks of both the true Naruto and his replica disappeared behind a henge. Naruto was now a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy whose first qualificative would be plain. His clone was equally plain.
The real, disguised blond integrated himself in the flow of people and Dragon tensed. It was the moment of truth. Suddenly, the general felt Hawk tense and swear besides him just as, for a second, he himself lost sight of his recruit.
"What is it?" The commander asked, his mind already piecing together what he knew and what he had just observed. His abilities were not as developed as Hawk's but it had been unmistakable.
"He… He disappeared. I cannot feel him anymore without looking for him. If I did not know what to look for, he'd be invisible."
"Owl, your eyes."
"Hai."
There was a small burst of chakra before the female ANBU gasped. "That's why they are like this!" She exclaimed in a hushed shout.
"What is it, Owl?"
"His tenketsus!" The ANBU whispered, her voice oscillating between alarm and confusion. "They shrunk so much that he emits practically no chakra! And he is coiling and weaving the rest around him like some cloak!"
"I think we pierced the secret of the pranking king, soldiers." Dragon smiled before muttering to himself. "Chakra really works in mysterious ways."
As soon as Naruto took to the street he went into prank-mode. He willed himself to become invisible. He willed himself to shrink on himself. He willed himself to disappear.
He had always done that. At first, it was to escape the glares and the whispers. Then, he had realized that, given the disdain the citizens had for him, it was not that much of a stretch to become invisible. He had just to become silent, little, insignificant, uninteresting, and the villagers' prejudice would do the rest.
Or that's how he figured he was so stealthy anyway.
Naruto played once again the scenario of his "assassination" in his mind. His four clones were overlooking the marketplace, ready to warn him if the target was deviating from their habits. Naruto himself would mingle with the crowd and approach the mark, dissimulated by the flow of people.
He could not escape with a substitution jutsu. He knew it left a chakra trail that could be used to identify him. It was the reason he would strike near a stall. The moment the tag would be planted, he would simply hide underneath the cloth that covered it.
He had done it a number of times with success. The key was misdirection, distraction, diversion. No one looked under a stall when a giant paper bomb exploded near it.
It took four minutes to identify the target again from within the crowd, three more to go near him without arousing suspicion, and one final minute to meet up with his second clone at the right place.
It took a second for Naruto's replica to bump into the man, shoving him off balance for the briefest instant, a precious window of time the real blond used to slap the paralysis tag on the chunin, who collapsed with a gargled cry of surprise.
It took another second for the crowd to register what had just happened, a second Naruto took to disappear under the stall Bekko was buying from, while his clone and a few civilians screamed loudly about the downed man.
It took a minute until the villagers started pointing accusing fingers at the replica, who simply turned tail and ran, before dispelling in a back alley.
Naruto had since long gone out of hiding and had left the marketplace.
AN: Hey there. I hope you enjoyed. Some more answers, some more questions. One for you: what do you think the Hokage could actually do to better Naruto's condition in the village after the Kyuubi reveal? It is extremely unlikely for your answers to influence what I'll write but I'm curious about what you can come up with.
Send me reviews so I can eat my fill.