Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I own none of it.

Summary: A more rational Danzo takes on team 7. The world changes accordingly

Chapter 4 - The Winds of Change

Time Skip - 3 Weeks

Deep within the bowls of Konoha, in a nondescript concrete room. Shame, anger, confusion and grief, a maelstrom of emotions raged within the mind of one Uzumaki Naruto, and if the state of the hidden training ground they currently occupied with his sensei was any indication, there had been one without recently as well.

Tears poured down his face as he buffeted the ground over and over with his fists, voice hoarse from the ordeal his body had just been through he screams anyways. His whole body is clearly battle worn, blood is flowing freely from his hands as his claws dig into them again and again, not yet dissipated from his disastrous attempt at harnessing the power of the beast within. Just another failure to add to his long list.

"You think a tantrum will help you tame the mightiest being to walk the earth in living memory? Naruto you will achieve nothing if you can not control yourself." Flanked by two of his personal shinobi, as calm as he tried to be, even the unflakable Shimura Danzo seemed to have seen better days. His shinobi aides all but collapsed and panting, shattered bits of wood lying scattered around the inside of the sealed chamber lined on every side by massive fuinjutsu matrices.

"WHAT ELSE CAN I DO! I CAN'T DO THIS! I CAN'T DO THIS!" A broken sob breaks from the child's body. After a moment he continues quietly.

"I can't do any of this. I can't "Clear my thoughts" or "Harness my emotions" or any of that crap. I just fail. Again and again. And people get hurt because of me. People die because of me. My team would be better off without me." Head in the dirt, sobbing and broken, the light gone from his eyes, Naruto is beyond recognition.

At this moment, Danzo waves away his root shinobi. Once they're gone and the room resealed, he slowly approaches Naruto. Crouching down to be closer to the boy, he reaches out to turn Naruto's face towards his gaze.

"The Kyuubi amplifies everything about you, it's power courses through you and makes everything more. Your strength, but also your weaknesses." A short pause, waiting for the boy to digest what he's said.

"You are confused, filed with doubt, fear, shame. You don't believe you can do this and so you never will. To harness one's true power, even without the influence of a tailed beast, you must know yourself. It is said "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." You Naruto, do not know yourself. How do you plan to do battle with a tailed beast?" A shocking amount of care and concern was laced through the words of the war hardened veteran, the type likely only seen from him by one or two left living.

Finally lifting his gaze to meet his sensei's fully, the broken and battered shell of Uzumaki Naruto tries to make sense of what he's being told.

"I… I'm not sure I understand Sensei."

Deciding to take a seat, Danzo settles into seiza.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Tell me everything you know about yourself."

Seemingly even more confused, Naruto starts slowly.

"Um, I'm Uzumaki Naruto?" At his confused start Danzo nods for him to continue.

"I um… I'm 12 years old. I never knew my parents, Jiji says they died in the Kyuubi attack but won't say anything else. I'm a Shinobi of team 7-" Danzo cuts him off here.

"Why are you a Shinobi?"

"Well um… I attended the academy when I was 5… Jiji entered me."

"Why?"

"Umm… Because… Because I wanted people to treat me like they treated him."

"And how is that?"

"Umm… Jiji is trusted, and loved, and respected." Naruto blushes a bit at that admission.

"And why is it that you wanted those things?" At this Naruto starts to get a little frustrated.

"Um, duh? Because I didn't have them. Because every day I had to see kids playing and be chased away if I tried to join. Because I had to watch them go home with their parents, because… Because I was alone." The bubble of frustration and anger seems to deflate within him, and he's left just… empty again.

"And how did that make you feel?"

"Sad… and… Angry?" Now he's confused again.

"Understandably so. And how do you feel now?" Oh, maybe that's a flicker of understanding.

"Sad. And angry…"

"Tell me Naruto. Tell me something you do, not for others. Tell me something you do that makes you feel good, for you." He looks confused again, poor kid.

"I… I like going for ramen?"

"Why?"

"Um, because it's really good! I don't really know how to cook, and the Ichiraku family are really nice to me!"

"So you don't really go for the ramen do you? You go there because of the way people treat you there. And you eat ramen elsewhere to remind you of somewhere you feel at home. Tell me something else that you like." Maybe a sliver of understanding begins to glimmer behind Naruto's eyes.

"I like to play pranks on people…" You can see he's starting to think about it.

"The people that you feel ignore you and don't treat you with respect I assume. Or the village as a whole. You feel unwelcome so you've found a way to be included. You feel like if you didn't make yourself known no one would even know you. And I'm sure a part of you feels good, making the lives of so many people that have failed you more difficult. Keep going."

"Um… I guess that's true… I also like my plants. I take really good care of them, and it makes me feel better sometimes?"

"You found something that needs you. Sure as not without your presence a house plant will die. In a world you feel like you don't belong, where no one cares, where no one even notices you. You found something that it's need for you is intrinsic to its very survival, and you found joy when they flourished under your care. The routine of caring for another that depends on you sustaining you when you couldn't see reason to sustain yourself.

Here Naruto I believe we've found the core of your character."

"I… I'm not sure I understand sensei…"

"Naruto, you were never properly loved. Never properly cared for. You know nothing but hardship. Being a ninja suits you because you stagnate when not challenged. You perform your best under pressure because you don't care enough about yourself to better yourself, no even to care for yourself when the stakes aren't high. You don't train the way you do to "Become Hokage" as you boldly claim. You train the way you do because you fear what will happen if you don't. At first because you were afraid of never being loved, then because you were afraid of the future I showed you, and now because you are afraid of yourself. In fear you will never better yourself." Another short pause as Naruto begins to shake silently.

"You were progressing. I had hoped to avoid this kind of talk. But ever since Wave you have regressed. Your team formation timings are off. You don't contribute to mission planning. Your reflexes are dull, your training stagnant. While I understand the mission didn't go the way anyone hoped we did prevail, and valuable experience was gained. What is it you can't move past?" The lightest hint of frustration lines Danzo's voice, clearly unused to not being able to navigate the human psyche.

He's answered by a period of silence.

"There's… There's this thing I can't really explain. Like when I prank people I only pranked people I got a certain feeling around. It's like… Some people are wolves, and some people are rabbits, and all sorts of in between. And even if I can't really explain it I get this nagging feeling about them. About almost everyone. Like I know who's really… Who's really good. Like deep down you know? Because those people don't make me feel… They don't make my whole body tingle like it's ready to run, they don't make me feel like I need to be ready to watch them or be ready to fight. It's… It's not the same as your recon training. It's always been there, and the one time I really forced it down was with Mizuki and well… We all know how that turned out. I knew somehow, I knew that there was something… Dark about him. Not the way there's something dark about you… You're dark like… Like a hawk killing another bird close to its nest. Mizuki was dark like… Like if the bird the hawk killed, it it's mate came back to smash all the hawk eggs… Or… I don't know" Naruto was rambling at this point, but Danzo's visible eye widened ever so slightly.

"He can sense malicious intent? Is it like Mito-sama I wonder? Or another byproduct of being so entwined with the fox even since his conception I wonder?" The gears were turning in Danzo's head, but that was more thought for later, for now he needed to get back on track.

"The point, Naruto. The Wave incident." Seemingly brought back from his rambling of vague feelings he'd never expressed before, Naruto focuses back in.

"Oh, right. Well um… Haku. The fake hunter ninja.. When I met them in the woods they didn't…. They didn't feel like any of those things. They were… I guess I felt like they were like me… They just wanted to protect their person. They didn't want to hurt anyone, and even the way they fought was almost designed to inflict minimal pain with maximum debilitation, and super low lethality… And…. And I lost control. And I killed them." Naruto starts to tear up again.

"They didn't want to hurt anyone, they just wanted to do what was best for their person and I Killed Them. I got so caught up in the battle that I wasn't thinking and I just acted and they're DEAD because of me. I wanted to be like them, I wanted to live my life like they did, to protect my precious people, and as many people as I can along the way and I KILLED THEM and they felt JUST LIKE ME and even though I was out of controlI I remember the whole thing, I remember the shock in their eyes, I remember the horror at seeing what I could become, and I remember the moment they died and they felt just like me. A failure, who couldn't do what they had dedicated their whole life to, that didn't fit with people and had failed the person that gave them meaning and I had just failed Sasuke and-" Naruto was hyperventilating and hysteric at this point, making less and less sense as he spiraled.

"Naruto." Danzo tries softly to interrupt but the boy is hysterical at this point, and doesn't hear his attempt.

"Naruto!" Danzo's venerable chakra flexes, the presence of a man that had above all endured three shinobi world wars, and had lost nearly everything he held dear other than the village asserts itself in the dark room. Not an aggressive flex like the chakra of a younger man, but the firm grip of a force that can weather any storm. Naruto falls silent, tears still streaming down his face before he answers the true question his sensei has been asking him.

"I feel like I killed myself on that bridge… I feel like I killed the me that I wanted to be. Haku was everything I like in people… Soft, and kind, and she knew who I was before I knew who he was and he didn't try and attack me he played dumb so we wouldn't have to hurt eachother and so did I and… I want to be that me. The me that uses my strength to help people, not to hurt them or punish them… And I don't think the me that killed Haku belongs on Team 7…" And there it was, stipped bare and to its core. Naruto seemed to be all cried out now and brought himself into seiza to match his sensei.

"I think, Naruto, that once again it is your own fear driving you. Haku is already dead. There is nothing you can do to bring them back within any morality that they would agree to. But if you continue to be afraid of what your could be, your team could very well die because of your restraint. You must have the courage to act, and the wisdom to know when and how to act. You understand yourself better now then you ever have, and with understanding becomes power. Be aware of your thoughts, be aware of what drives them, correct them when they take turns you don't like. You and only you are in control of your actions. When you feel rage bubble to the surface, breath, ask yourself why you are angry, do not simply react to your feelings, understand where they come from and act to resolve them, not satiate them. You are angry at yourself for losing control? Good, do not be afraid of that anger, use it as motivation to never let it happen again. When you feel the Kyuubi's chakra rise to the surface, do not flinch even for a moment, grasp it firmly and with your true intent. Only then can you hope to tame the beast."

"But sensei… When I killed Haku my intent was to kill him. I thought he killed Sasuke and it hurt so bad that I…" Naruto trailed off at that.

"That you what, Naruto?"

"That I never wanted to feel that way again." Naruto said quietly.

"Yes. And you still had a teammate alive on that bridge, and a sensei. Your anger wasn't that Haku had killed Sasuke as part of the mission, it was that they could do it again to Sakura, or myself. And that fear led you to be angry that he could do that to you, and your anger led to the Kyuubi, who took that same grief filled rage and fed it back with it's own, overwhelming you. You must be mindful, all shinobi can fall into this trap but you especially should strive to avoid it. A renowned shinobi of the leaf is known for his belief in looking "underneath the underneath", and this belief would serve you well. Always consider not just how to resolve a situation, but also why you would resolve it that way, and if that solution truly resolves it. And when you do settle on a course of action you must do so without doubt, trust in yourself and your resolve will see it done. My greatest failing in life was to doubt myself when people needed me, and a man I respected more than any other died as a result. I would see you not make the same mistake I did." Danzo's presence in the room softened, revealing just slightly some of the pain he's survived.

"I… I think I understand sensei. It… It won't be easy will it?" Just there, a spark, mayeb. I glimmer of Naruto's fire back in his eyes. Less wild and untamed, but more focused than ever.

"No Naruto, I don't believe it ever has been. But I would never have taken you as a student if I didn't believe you capable of it. Rise now, your team has missed you these past weeks." Standing back to his full height, his chakra coiling back within him team 7's stoic sensei's face returned to its normal form, his gaze betraying nothing of the ordeal they had just undergone. Naruto stood too, the anxiety that had plagued him as long as he could remember abating ever so slightly, and the fear he had carried since that fateful mission finally beginning to rest.

When Naruto returned home to the apartment Team 7 shared, he was exhausted both physically and emotionally, but he still had one thing left he had to do before he went to sleep. Taking a deep steadying breath, he let himself in the door and stood by the entrance to their admittedly small apartment. Being used to him basically slipping in and straight to bed after a quick shower, Sasuke and Sakura looked up in confusion when he was just standing there.

"Um… He guys… Um… I um…." A little bit tearing up again, he tries to continue as his teams eyes widen at the unexpected display of emotion. He'd be so closed off they had decided to give him his space and let him come to them, but they weren't totally expecting it to be today. Sakura's already on her feet taking one of Naruto's hands. By the time he registers it, and takes another deep breath to try and keep going, Sasuke's standing there next to her. With his team with him, and his breathing steadied back out, Naruto begins again.

"I know… I know I haven't really been myself lately… Since… You know. And I don't know that I'll ever be who I used to be…. Or that I even want to be. But, what I do know now is that I want to be with you guys. And I can't do that if I'm not really here… Ya know? I don't know if that makes sense but… Well… A lot of this is just so new to me and I'm still learning how to do this whole… Having people thing. But I'm gonna start trying, and I'm gonna try to just… be me. Not to impress the village or earn anyone's respect but… Just… To be Team 7. I mean, if you guys will still have me…" The emotion in Naruto's voice permeated every word he spoke, and his team was struck by his sincerity. For just a moment they were perfectly still while they processed Naruto all but laying himself bare before them. Naruto's anxiety was at a brief all time high as he all but held his breath waiting for a reaction from his tea-No. From his family.

He didn't wait long as Sakura all but tackled him into a hug, a few tears in her eyes herself. She didn't even get a chance to speak before Sasuke laid a hand on both of their shoulders.

"Idiot, of course we'll have you. We've been waiting for you to come back from Wave for weeks, we've missed you." And now they're all hugging.

Somehow they got Naruto into a bed, and as he fell peacefully asleep, haunted by nightmares no more for the first time in weeks… The apartment felt like home again, Naruto's chakra finally uncoiling and mingling with that of his team, and of course his plants once again.

Team 7 was whole again, and even if Naruto hadn't managed to tame the Kyuubi, certainly some demons were vanquished that day.

Author's Note:

Trying to take some feedback and improve my writing a bit here. Complex feelings abound. There will be two more chapters before the beginning of the Chunnin Exam, one focused on Sasuke and one on Sakura. I haven't decided which to do first yet but I'm leaning towards Sakura. As always feedback is welcome and encouraged! Thanks for reading folks.

Ps. I've edited and restructured the whole story before this for readability.