Author's Note: A little later than I had anticipated posting this, but I got swept up in planning for the three day weekend. Plot things are starting to come together a little more. Poor Naruto is in way over his head. At least he has a friend or two now. I don't think there are any warnings in particular for this chapter, just the general child neglect that's to be expected with anything from Naruto's POV and discussions of violence/death.
Sakura-chan wants to practice sparring with him. Naruto wants to jump and yell and shout and dance and tell the whole entire world! Sakura-chan wants to practice with him! He has trouble focusing on his sparring he's so excited. It doesn't matter though anyway. This is just the practice test and no matter how many times he falls down, it never hurts for that long anyway.
He was planning on waiting after school to talk to Sakura more and see if she maybe wants to get ramen, but Ino-chan chases him off. She and Sakura already have plans for the afternoon that 'don't involve you, Naruto.' Which fine. Whatever. Naruto has plans too, he just thought it might be fun to do something together since they were friends now.
So instead, Naruto goes to visit Shisui-nii. He tries to scale the tower like he did last time, but there's a guard and he yells at Naruto for climbing. Or something, Naruto isn't sure. He learned a long time ago that it's a lot more important to listen to the tone of the guards' voice than their words. Since he can't just climb the walls though, he has to wait to go in until there is a large enough group of people that he can slip in with them. For some reason, the guards don't like letting him visit Shisui-nii just because. They think he needs appointments or an official reason. Shisui-nii tried to talk to them about it, but they just nodded and then still stopped Naruto whenever Shisui-nii wasn't there to talk to them.
It turns out that Shisui-nii is in meetings all day though, so it doesn't even matter. The nice ninja at the desk even looks a little sad at that. She says he should be free tomorrow though, if Naruto wants to schedule a meeting. She even offers to help Naruto come up with an official sounding meeting name, if he wants. Of all the people that work for Shisui-nii, she's one of the best. But tomorrow is too late. Naruto wants something to do now. Everyone Naruto knows is busy today, except for him.
And it's an entire Fifteen Hours before he has something to do. That's when he and Sakura, and Ino, are going to practice sparring together. He wonders if it'll be like in class or if they can play games too. He's seen other kids play ninja and tag at the same time. It always looked like a lot of fun.
By the time Naruto gets back to his place it's only been ten more minutes. He tries to read ahead in the textbook, but he's always found books hard to focus on. There's just so much sitting and puzzling through words and no actual doing. So it isn't long before he starts imagining what it'll be like to have a real friend his own age. Someone in his class to do stuff with. He knows that they probably won't be able to do anything in school together, Ino is already Sakura's best friend, so they'll still be partners for all of the partner stuff, but even just knowing someone else in his class actually notices him and likes him. It's amazing. He feels bubbly and happy and he can't think of a word that is strong enough to say just how… how great this is.
Naruto looks over at the small alarm clock sitting on top of one of the many weird cabinets that came with his apartment. It's been almost fifteen minutes since he last checked. He can totally do this. It's like practicing for a ninja mission! Except instead of waiting for his target, he's waiting for Sakura. And Ino. He just needs to focus on stuff to do now though, besides thinking how much he wishes it was already tomorrow. He throws himself on his bed and thinks. If today was a normal day, which it is, he would be at one of the practice fields looking awesome and throwing practice kunai or trying to learn legit ninjutsu from one of the other ninja there. Or he'd be running from ANBU after pulling an awesome prank. So since today is a normal day, and he's not thinking about how much more fun pranks will be with a real life friend to help out, he should probably head over to the practice fields.
It's after school lets out but before dinner, so there are tons of people everywhere. Naruto does his best not to look at the other kids playing with each other and running around and having fun. Pretty soon that'll be him too! But he doesn't want to be distracted right now. Instead, he practices his stealth run, jumping between the long shadows of the late afternoon sun. He imagines he's in an enemy village, hiding from their ANBU and stealing Top Secret Forbidden Jutsu.
It's not long before he makes it to his favorite training field. It's at the very edge of the village, so no one is usually around to bother him. The field is partially overgrown by trees and bushes and stuff and the grass comes up to his waist, perfect for sneaking around in. It's also great for finding old, lost weapons. He once found an old kunai with an explosive tag still attached to the handle! The tag was pretty much destroyed by the weather and rain and stuff, but it was still really cool. It's still in his bedroom.
Today though, he can't seem to focus on his awesome ninja moves or even just reviewing the lame academy punches and kicks. He keeps checking how far the sun's set. Why can't it just be tomorrow already? He calls it a day when he realizes that he's been just staring into space trying to figure out if Sakura-chan would be more impressed if he showed up early and was waiting for her at the school, or if he showed up a few minutes late, so she didn't think he was desperate or anything.
As he walks back to his place, he can't help thinking again about how much more fun school and being a ninja will be with real friends and teammates to help him out. The three of them can be their own ninja squad. And then, whenever Sakura-chan has trouble understanding how to do a punch or kick or something, Naruto can help her figure out how to do it. And the two of them can watch genin and chunin practicing and figure out how to do their moves together. And when they get caught, Naruto can lure the ninja away from Sakura-chan because he's got a lot of practice hiding from angry ninja and then they can meet up together afterwards to practice what they saw. And Ino-chan can help out too, probably. Naruto's never really paid that much attention to her, but he's pretty sure he'd have noticed if she was bad at being a ninja. He's almost always partnered with people from the bottom of the class, the kids the teachers think'll drop out before the end of the year. And he's never been partnered with Ino-chan before. So yeah, it's a good bet that she's pretty good.
Back at his apartment, Naruto doesn't actually have anything better to do, so he decides to clean up. But it only takes about half an hour to grab everything off the ground and shove it in random drawers and cupboards and only an extra five more to take all the trash outside. So he sits, and sits and tries to think of anything to do at all, but he's just so excited and bored at the same time. It's not fair. Eventually he realizes that the faster he goes to sleep, the faster he can wake up and it'll be tomorrow. Genius. So he changes for bed, does his best to block out the early evening light and lays down and waits.
And waits.
And waits.
Staying in bed with nothing to do is probably the most boring thing he's ever done in his entire life. Which is saying a lot because, besides the cool ninja moves, school is definitely super boring. But Naruto is gonna be the strongest ninja ever, and Hokage, so he pushes on and stays in bed. He watches the sun slowly start to set as his room is painted an awesome shade of orange red and then it's dark and he still has nothing to do.
When Naruto next opens his eyes they feel gummy with sleep, and it's still dark out, but that's okay because it's finally tomorrow. It has to be, because he fell asleep last night and now it's the next day. He checks his alarm clock and it agrees. 2:15 in the morning. Tomorrow morning. Now he only has about, he thinks for a second, four hours and forty five minutes to kill before he and Sakura-chan get to be sparring partners!
Sakura-chan is really cool. He's thought it ever since he first saw her at the beginning of the year. And she wants to spend time with him! He's sure part of it has to do with what happened a few months ago—and he really really wishes he was allowed to talk about that with pretty much anyone, because that was so cool—but it doesn't really matter. What's important is that Sakura-chan wants to spend time with him. She wants to spend time with him!
Suddenly Naruto feels cold. What if it turns out that she doesn't actually like spending time with him? What if, after they practice sparring in a few hours she thinks he's not good enough? Naruto feels sick. She wouldn't think that. Sakura-chan is too nice to think that. But in case she does, maybe he can impress her. He learned a cool spin kick. But no, Sakura-chan is too cool to be impressed by a stupid kick.
That's when Naruto has a brilliant idea to prove what a great ninja he is. He'll come in an ANBU uniform. He even still has his toad mask from when he snuck into the tower all those months ago. But no, Sakura-chan is too smart to be fooled by that. He'll need a real ANBU uniform. And that'll be even better! He grins. Everyone knows that ANBU are the best ninja in the whole village. So if he can grab one of their uniforms that'll prove he's even better. Naruto laughs at the thought. The only problem is he doesn't actually know that many ANBU. Sure, he's been chased by a lot of them over the years, but he's never actually gotten close enough to learn anything about them, like where they live. Well, except Crow.
Naruto frowns at that thought. Crow is cool and he doesn't want to get him in trouble. And he's not even that much older than Naruto, which is really awesome too. It means that Naruto could probably get into ANBU once he graduates! And then he could go on cool Top Secret missions and- and save princesses and stuff too. Buuuut, if he does manage to steal Crow's uniform, it'll kinda be Crow's own fault. After all, Naruto's just an academy student, so Crow would kinda have had it coming. Ya know? Also, Crow's the shortest ANBU Naruto knows, so his uniform is really the only one that might fit. And Naruto knows Crow is Shisui-nii's cousin, which means he's an Uchiha. Which means he lives in the fancy Uchiha compound over at the edge of the village.
So it's time to make a 'Plan of Approach.' That means figuring out the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why for the mission. The Who part is easy. That's him. The What is also pretty easy: he's taking Crow's ANBU uniform. Where is a little more difficult. He knows Crow is an Uchiha, so he lives in the Uchiha compound. But he doesn't know which house is Crow's. And then he realizes that part doesn't matter. Everyone has to do laundry! Even ANBU. So all he needs to do is look on the clotheslines outside of the houses for an ANBU uniform in the right size! That'll be the house Crow lives in. Then he just needs to sneak in and steal the mask. Which won't be a problem because it's stupid late at night and way past even an ANBU's bedtime. Plan made, Naruto jumps out of bed and changes into his ninja clothes, careful to grab his lucky goggles on the way out.
Sneaking around the village at night is a lot different than doing it during the day. For one thing, it's a lot darker. And that should make it easier, but it kinda doesn't too? Because there are no groups of people to hide in and everyone who's wandering around looks suspicious. There are also more obvious police patrols. Which kinda makes sense, but isn't cool. Still, he's really good at not being noticed when he doesn't want to be. He's been practicing that skill pretty much his whole life. So besides one close call—which turned out to be a cat, and not even a ninja one — he makes it to the Uchiha compound with no problems.
Getting inside their fancy, super-secret compound is even easier. The Uchiha didn't even bother cutting down the tree branches near their wall, so Naruto doesn't even need to go near their gate to get in. He just climbs a nearby tree and pops over. Easy peasy. Inside is even quieter than the village. There's no one wandering the streets, no patrols, nothing. It's just totally silent and dark. He even glances back at the gate and there's no guards or anything. They're just trusting that no thieves will let themselves in. Or maybe they think that 'cause they're all ninja, no one would dare try to sneak in. Well, joke's on them. He's a ninja too! Almost.
Since he only has until someone decides it's time to start training or go on a morning walk or whatever it is Uchiha overachievers do when they wake up, he figures he might as well just pick a direction and go. So he does.
The Uchiha houses all look pretty much the same. They're different sizes and stuff but all of them are just so stuffy and traditional looking. Naruto feels bored just looking at them, he can't imagine actually having to live here. It's almost enough to make him sorry for that bastard Sasuke. If he were in charge of a clan, he'd make sure his family had a cool place to live. With colors so they didn't die of boredom.
Another downside of the whole everyone living in perfect traditional little homes though is that every single one looks the same. Street after street of the same basic house repeated over and over. There are shops and stuff mixed in too, but Naruto is only a little ashamed to admit that he doesn't have a clue where he is right now. At least in relation to the tree he needs to climb to get out. But that's a problem for future Naruto.
His more immediate problem is the distinct lack of clothes lines. There are a few, but not as many as he'd imagined there'd be. And a lot of the houses, especially the bigger ones, have the clothes drying behind the walls of their courtyards. So he improvises. Careful to avoid windows, Naruto scrambles to the roof of the closest building.
He's almost made it to make it to the top, when he hears footsteps on the other side of the building and walking toward him. Leaping the rest of the way up on pure adrenaline, Naruto manages just barely to press himself against the roof before whoever it is rounds the corner.
The footsteps stop directly below him and Naruto holds his breath. His whole body tense and alive. This is what it means to be a ninja. Sneaking into enemy territory for the glory of Konoha. The footsteps resume. Slowly, almost as if the person is searching for something. After they've moved further away, Naruto peaks over the edge of the roof and bites his lips to keep from saying anything.
The person walking around isn't an Uchiha. It's a woman. Kinda average height with dark brown hair. She looks like a combination of pretty much every mom aged woman Naruto's ever seen. Just all mixed together. Nothing about her stands out at all, and for some reason, Naruto knows there's something… off about her.
So he does the only thing he really can do, and follows her. To protect Konoha. And Shisui-nii.
For not being an Uchiha, the stranger knows her way around their compound really well, because even with all the loops and circles she takes, they keep moving slowly toward the far end of the compound, near the outer wall of the village. And she's gotta be paranoid because she keeps on looking around and behind her. A few times, Naruto thinks for sure she knows he's there, but she never looks quite in his direction. It's super creepy.
Also, the Uchiha have a really nice place, Naruto realizes. They have their own lake and their own river. Which… how is that even possible? The lady stops at a shrine on top of a small hill. It's super traditional, like every other thing in the entire creepy compound. And it's far enough away from any other buildings that he's going to have to wait for her to go in before he can risk following. There's no cover anywhere nearby.
After she enters, he waits for almost five whole minutes but she doesn't come out again, so he does his best to sneak over. Luckily there's almost no moon tonight and there's no one else around.
The whole time he's crossing the shrine courtyard, he's sure he's going to be caught. He can hear his blood rushing in his ears and he's so tense he doesn't even dare to breathe, in case it gives him away. When his foot catches on a loose flagstone, he's sure it's all over.
But nothing happens.
He makes it all the way to the front of the shrine and no one sees him. No one stops him. He made it.
It's the work of seconds to scale the lower wall. The shrine's set up so there's two shorter sections and a super tall one in the middle. There are also tons of windows without glass or anything in them. Just thick, wood slats. Naruto angles himself so he can see through the slats, but the people inside can't see him. He slips to the far side of the roof so the sliver of moon that's out tonight doesn't illuminate him.
It looks like there are two people inside, but neither of them are the woman he saw enter. Instead there's a fierce looking woman—who looks just like Sasuke's mom—and a creepy looking man in a swirled mask and black robe. There's no sign of the suspicious looking woman who Naruto knows entered the shrine. And there's really only one thing that can mean, he realizes. The reason that woman looked so weird and like 100 random boring women combined into one was because she was. It was Sasuke's mom with a henge, so no one would know she was here tonight.
This is big, Naruto realizes. This is potentially really big. No one goes to that much effort to hide meeting with creepy mask wearing weirdos if they're not doing something really really bad. Even he knows that.
He tries to shift closer so he can hear what they're talking about, but he's also afraid of getting caught. Something about the man screams danger in a way Naruto has never felt before. It's almost as if the very chakra in his stomach hates this stranger, as impossible and stupid as that sounds. And that scares Naruto more than anything. He's learned to trust his gut, but this time he needs to know what's going on.
They're too far away for him to make out more than a few words here and there. Except when Sasuske's mom gets upset and starts talking in a hushed yell, her anger making every syllable sound harsh and clear. "That's not good enough, Madara," she hisses. "We can't afford to wait that long. The village is weak now, we need to strike now. Before Shisui can strengthen their position. If we wait that long he'll consolidate his—"
"Quieter, child," the masked man, Madara, says and Sasuke's mom does.
Naruto feels a cold terror running through his blood. He is in way over his head. This is much, much worse than he'd ever imagined. He isn't sure who Madara is, although he knows he's heard the name before, but that doesn't matter. Sasuke's mom is planning treason. She wants to take over the village. And worse than that, she's working with an enemy of the village to do it.
Naruto is just about to try to leave when their voices get louder again.
The masked man has asked a question and Sasuke's mom just sort of laughs a cold and bitter laugh. "If he sides with the village, I don't care what happens to him. He'll be no son of mine. We'll probably execute him at the same time we execute Shisui and anyone loyal to them who survives the purge." Naruto freezes. He's not quite sure who they're talking about, but it sounds like Sasuke's mom wants to kill him if he doesn't help out with their attack on the village. More importantly though, they're planning on killing Shisui-nii.
The masked man laughs at that. His voice is scratchy and deep and Evil. He's apparently forgotten that they're trying to be quiet now too, because he doesn't bother with the whispering anymore. "Killing him would be such a waste though, child. Imagine what he could become in the right hands. He's young enough yet to shape."
Naruto has heard enough, he slips down off the roof and runs all the way home.
Sasuke's mom is a traitor. The thought won't leave his head. Sasuke's mom is a traitor and wants to kill Shisui-nii and maybe even Sasuke. And Sasuke is a bastard but- He shakes his head. It doesn't make any sense. He wonders if maybe the masked man, Madara, is making her. But… Uchiha are supposed to be immune to genjutsu. That's one of the main things their stupid eyes can do.
Naruto grabs his school textbook and flips through it, looking for the name Madara. He knows he's heard it before. He looks in the part about famous ninja from other villages first, but there's no one with that name. It isn't until he remembers that the back of the book has a whole section with things in the book listed in alphabetical order, along with the pages they appear on, that he's able to find him. Madara was an Uchiha and the best friend of the first Hokage. Until he got jealous that he wasn't the first Hokage and turned evil and tried to take over the village. The thing is, Madara died a long time ago. Back when the first Hokage was still around. But there are no other Madaras. He's pretty sure people would have noticed. And there's no way Sasuke's mom would be listening to just some random stranger. Which means somehow the evil Madara managed to survive. And even worse, he wants to take over the village all over again and there isn't even the first Hokage to kill him again.
By the time he's finished reading everything he can find on Madara, the sun's up. He's so worried about the whole evil Uchiha coming back from the dead thing that he almost forgets he's supposed to meet up with Sakura-chan this morning. So he grabs his school stuff, a few practice kunai and a cup of instant ramen and runs out the door. There's no time to actually prepare it, so he tries his best to just enjoy it dry.
Sakura-chan and Ino-chan have already started by the time he gets there, but they both welcome him when he arrives.
Sakura-chan even smiles at him, but he's too distracted to really do much. Sparring is probably fun, but he can't focus on it. His thoughts keep circling back to Sasuke's mom and the zombie Madara and plans to kill Sasuke and Shisui-nii in the middle of the village. And, he doesn't have very many people of his own, he doesn't want to let anyone take any of the ones he has.
Because Sakura-chan is very kind and an awesome person, she actually stops sparring early to ask Naruto what's bothering him and even though he really doesn't want to get her tangled up in this whole mess, he needs someone else to know. So he tells her, and Ino-chan, the whole thing. Starting from sneaking into the Uchiha compound all the way to discovering that the mastermind behind it was some guy the first Hokage was supposed to have killed like a hundred years ago.
"But how did he become a zombie? And is he even a threat as a zombie? Do zombies even have chakra?" Sakura-chan, like the amazing person she is, accepts the story right away. She's pretty focused on how Madara became a zombie, but that's fair. Naruto's kinda curious about that one too. And since he doesn't have any answers for her, he just kinda shrugs.
Ino-chan is actually the one who surprises him. "We should talk to my dad about this. He'll know what to do." Naruto had figured she'd just laugh at him or call him dead last. But apparently zombie traitors are a big enough threat to village security that she's willing to be nice to him.
He almost doesn't want to say anything so he doesn't spoil this planning session thing they're doing. It's just so nice having people to talk to and plan things with. But the fact of the matter is, no one will believe them. And if no one else is willing to bring it up, he's gonna have to. "We can't go to your dad though, he won't believe us. No one will. We don't have proof."
"Of course we do," Ino-chan actually sounds upset, "you were there! You overheard everything. Just tell him what you heard. He'll believe you."
"No, he won't. I'm just a kid. We all are, as far as they care. We need to get actual proof. Like a recording or something." Naruto's not sure how he feels about doing that, the masked man was creepy enough the first time, but he has to do this to protect Shisui-nii.
Sakura-chan nods her head, but Ino-chan isn't convinced. "We need to tell someone. Proof or not. This is too big for us to handle alone."
Sakura-chan bites her lip and then says, slowly, "What if we make a compromise? Because Ino's right. This is too big for us to handle. What if we look for more proof, but if we don't find any by the end of the week, we go to Ino's dad? He trusts Ino, so he'll probably trust you too."
Naruto's already shaking his head before she's done though. She doesn't get it. Neither of them do. Adults don't trust kids, especially not him. If anyone would believe him it'd be… "Shisui-nii. If we tell anyone without proof, it should be Shisui-nii. He's hokage and this is about him and his family."
Sakura looks like she wants to argue, so Naruto adds, "If there's anyone in the whole village who will trust just my word over Sasuke's mom, it's Shisui-nii He'll know what to do and he'll do it, even without proof. But I don't want to make him hurt his family without being totally sure first. So that's why we need to get the proof. Alright?"
After a minute they both nod and Naruto breathes out a sigh of relief. He knows they're just a bunch of academy students, but with the three of them on this together, there's no way they can fail.