"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Chapter 3

It was the next morning when Naruto finally woke up after the 'drama' with the Hokage and the anbu. The memories of what happened last night still fresh in the memory of the young boy. Naruto got up from the bed with a little sob still showing on his face. He walked to the bathroom inside the hospital room to wash his face and to take a shower. He hoped that after he washed his face and took a shower, his mind would be clearer but reality has a different hope, the reality was against his hope. With nothing to do, Naruto decided to take a walk around the village.

~XxXxX~

The Hokage was anxious. Naruto had never reacted so coldly to him before. He regretted not telling Naruto the truth about his parentage and the truth about who he is and what he is. Naruto deserved to know.

"But that was the past," the Hokage thought to himself before he murmured, "I need to find him, I need to explain everything."

Before the Hokage could go and look for Naruto, the window behind him uttered a creak.

"I heard that my godson had been found," said a familiar voice.

"Jiraya," started the Hokage, "nice of you to come back to the village and yes, Naruto has been found."

"Tell me more about it," said Jiraya as he walked towards a wall to lean on.

"We found him directly beneath the Hokage's tower. There was a laboratory beneath this very tower."

"Under your own nose huh?"

"We only managed to sense him because he used the Kyuubi's chakra," said the Hokage with a stern voice, "when we found him, he was unconscious next to a corpse of a man, who we presumed to be the one who experimented on him. The corpse was missing its head and blood and tiny bone fractures painted the wall. We concluded that Naruto was the one who killed the man since his fist was also covered with blood."

To say the least, Jiraya was shocked. His godson was experimented upon and had brutally killed someone. Granted, the person he killed deserved it. To experiment on an orphaned child was something devils would do.

"What happened next?"

"We brought him to the Konoha Hospital with several anbus assigned to guard him. When he woke up he trashed around, probably because of the memories of what had happened still lingered in his mind though what happened when I came was something that I did not expect. When I came to see him, he retaliated at me," informed the Hokage with a sigh.

"So he finally lashed at you huh?" said Jiraya as he giggled a bit, "figured as much, I remembered when I objected your decision to hide his heritage from himself. However, I do agree on not telling everyone else about his heritage."

"I know, and I regret not telling him about his parents."

An awkward silence invaded the room but it was broken as the Hokage remembered what he was about to do.

"Jiraya, I was about to look for Naruto before you came, do you want to come with me and meet him?"

"Fine, so we going to go now?" asked Jiraya.

The Hokage replied with a nod and with that, they left the Hokage's office to look for Naruto.

~XxXxX~

Naruto was walking around the village. He was deep in thought. He does not know what to do with his grandfather figure. The memory of recent events still fresh in his mind despite everything he did to forget the bitter memories. He wandered around the village with the villagers glaring at him with disdain and disgusts. However, Naruto was so deep in thought that he ignored the glares but that comes at a cost. He did not notice that he had reached the area where he was most frequently beaten. Furthermore, he accidentally activated the enhanced senses that he got because of the experiments. In an instant, his already enhanced hearing from the Kyuubi doubled in effectiveness and range. Whispers that normal human could not hear are now audible for Naruto. He heard whispers of hatred directed towards him.

"I thought he was gone for sure. If the anbus were not doing their job protecting the damned fox, I would have beaten him to a bloody pulp," whispered one of the villagers to another.

Naruto winced when he heard the whisper but he decided to just continue walking and act as if he did not hear anything. He managed to leave the area that was possibly the worst area for him to stick around.

A couple minutes later, he walked past an alleyway but with his heightened sense of hearing he ran back to the alleyway. He heard some people, who sounded like teenage boys, that were making fun of someone. Normally he would not care if they were making fun of him, he was used to it. But this time he was not the subject.

When he arrived at the opening of the alleyway, he heard a scream,

"Ahhh! Stop don't hit me!" screamed a girl at two boys.

Bam! Bam! (Italicise) The sound of hard punches was heard after the scream. Without wasting any more time, Naruto sprint at full speed as he tried to save the girl. He has mixed feelings towards the villagers of Konoha but one thing for sure is that Naruto does not want to see kids suffer. Naruto closed his eyes as he ran towards the girl. With his eyes closed, he was focusing all of his attention though Naruto does not know this. He opened his eyes and showed the world that his eyes changed; it glowed yellow with black slits. This eyes worked together with his enhanced brain to give him privileges that make battle hardened shinobi to be jealous. It allowed Naruto to perceive everything 2 times slower than a normal human could. Realization his Naruto when he noticed that he can see things in slow-motion.

"This felt like that time at the laboratory!" thought Naruto.

He kept on running until he was right beside the boy that was punching the girl. The boy was about 160 centimeters in height and was about twice as heavy as Naruto. But that does not matter anymore. The boy saw Naruto running at him.

The boy smirked as he thought to himself, "that squirt thought he could move me by running at me? I'm almost twice his size," confident that Naruto would not be able to move him, the boy just stood still and continued harassing the girl.

Instead of ramming the boy, Naruto stopped when he was close enough to throw a punch. Naruto threw a straight punch to the boy's rib cage. He punched with all he had. What happened next surprised everyone in the vicinity. The boy flew across the alleyway due to the punch. The other boy went pale as he saw his friend flew across the alleyway and ran after him immediately. With the two boys effectively gone, Naruto deactivated his abilities and went to the girl to see if she is okay.

"Are you okay?"

"Wh-who are you?" asked the girl.

"My name is Naruto, are you okay?"

"Maybe but my body still hurts."

"You should-"

Naruto was cut off when he heard the sound of someone running. Naruto looked to the side only to see the other boy coming at him.

"You! Come here!" screamed the boy.

"go home," said Naruto to the girl next to him. The girl went home immediately, leaving Naruto with the boy that was running at him.

Now aware of his abilities, he activated them again. With the world effectively two times slower for Naruto, he saw the boy cocking his arm as he prepared to punch him. The boy extended his arm but before he could fully extend it, Naruto was no longer in front of him. Naruto already ducked beneath his arm and was about to punch the boy's liver. When the boy finally realized that Naruto was no longer in front of him, it was too late. Naruto had already extended his punch. The punch to the liver was devastating to the boy even though Naruto used considerably less force than before. In an instant, the boy was incapacitated.

"This power is amazing," muttered Naruto.

Before Naruto could do anything else, he heard footsteps, multiple footsteps. Naruto knew that if he stayed here much longer, he could be in trouble. With that knowledge, Naruto made the run for it. When the villagers arrived at the alleyway, Naruto had already run away far.

~XxXxX~

It was the afternoon and Naruto had been running around the village without any clear destination. Naruto felt that he forgot to do something and after a while, he finally figured what he forgot to do.

"I have not eaten breakfast today but I don't feel hungry, weird," thought Naruto, "must be because of that experiment."

After a couple more minutes of walking, Naruto began to feel hungry. Though the reason to why he was hungry was arguable. Some might say that it was because he hasn't had breakfast but the majority might say it was because of the strong scent that Naruto picked up. The scent was a godsend for Naruto. Once again, Naruto activated his heightened senses. His eyes glowed yellow yet again.

"Maybe with this power I could smell better," he thought to himself.

His thought was answered when he noticed that he could dissect the scent and even trace it to its origin. The scent was filled with passion. That passion was so strong that it brought warmth to Naruto's nose. Curiosity took over Naruto's mind. It was only a matter of time until Naruto found where the scent was coming from.

After a couple minutes of walking while using his newfound power, he found the source of the scent. It was from a ramen stand.

"Ramen Ichiraku," said Naruto as he read the sign above the ramen stand.

As Naruto got closer to the stand, the scent grew more potent, which also riled his senses more. Naruto wanted to take a look at what's inside the stand. When he got close enough, he peeked under the flap while he hid his body. Naruto hoped that whoever owned and operated the stand does not see him out of fear that they will not allow Naruto into the stand. Much to Naruto's surprise, however, the stand owner said a sentence that he thought he would not hear in his life.

"Come inside boy!" greeted the stand owner.

"You-you would let me in?" asked Naruto hesitantly.

"Of course, why would I not?"

"People usually kick me out of their store even if I did nothing wrong," replied Naruto sadly.

"Well you're not getting kicked out aren't you?"

"No..."

"Come in then, welcome to Ramen Ichiraku," said the owner while he gestured Naruto to come and take a sit.

"Th-thank you," replied Naruto. He is still unsure of what to do as he has never been in a situation like this. He shyly sat on a stool that the owner gestured him to.

"Now, what would you like to order?" asked the owner.

"I don't know... I don't have money, I'm an orphan and I was kidnapped earlier this year by a disgusting man and he did experiments on me. The Hokage and his anbu only managed to find me two days ago and I just got out from the hospital," said Naruto sorrowfully.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that kid, could not imagine what that must have felt like. Well, the food's free kid, hope that could cheer you up!"

"Really? thank you, Mr.."

"Just call me Teuchi."

"Thank you so much Mr. Teuchi!" said Naruto as a smile graced his face once again.

Unbeknownst to Teuchi, he just got his most loyal customer.

~XxXxX~

After he ate at Ramen Ichiraku, Naruto decided to walk again. He does not have anything to do and since it has been a year, the orphanage would probably have forgotten about him. Not like he cared though, the orphanage had been hell for Naruto; no one treated him as a human there.

Naruto ended his walk on top of the Hokage Monument. He sat down on top of the Fourth Hokage's stone head while he mesmerized the days where he sat there multiple times to escape from the villagers' wrath.

"I will get my revenge on the villagers, they have treated me like dirt for 8 years, this village does not deserve me," said Naruto to himself, "but is that what my dad wants me to do? I'm just going to ignore them, treat them as if they don't exist."

Naruto stood up, but before he could leave, the Hokage and Jiraya arrived behind Naruto. Even though Naruto does not have his super senses activated, Naruto sensed the arrival of the two because of his Kyuubi enhanced senses. The arrival of the two caused Naruto to frown.

"Naruto," said the Hokage.

"What?" replied Naruto coldly.

"I-I wanted to talk to you," stuttered the Hokage.

"Talk then, if you're not gonna talk, I'm just gonna leave."

"But you don't have a place to stay."

"So? it's not like I have ever had one anyway," said Naruto with the same cold voice as before.

"Look Naruto, I'm sorry for the past 8 years-" before the Hokage could continue he was cut off by Naruto.

"8 years of hell."

"I know you're mad at me for not telling you everything but it was for a good reason-"

"A good reason huh?"

"Your father has lots of enemies, if words about the Fourth's legacy were to spread, other hidden villages would have sent a countless amount of ninja to assassinate you," reasoned the Hokage.

"You know what you should have done?" started Naruto, "You could have told me about my parents and the burden I carry. Do you know how painful it is to not know who your parents are only to be revealed to you that your father is the hero of the village?! If I had known who my parents were, I would at least have something to hold on when the villagers mock me!" shouted Naruto as he started to cry a little.

"I know, and I regret that I did not tell you," said the Hokage.

"This village does not deserve to be saved by my dad," said Naruto as he tried to hold his tears.

"Your father would not want you to say that."

"How am I supposed to know!? I never knew who my father was until recently, you never even told me stories about my dad! The only thing I know is that my dad doesn't love me because he sealed the Kyuubi in me," screamed Naruto. With how Naruto screamed at the Hokage, it was clear that Naruto was angry beyond imagination. Jiraya flinched a little after what Naruto has said

"Your father loved you, your father loved you so much. When your mother was having you, your dad could not stop talking about you. Every day he would talk about you, about how you would make him proud," said the Hokage.

"Then why did he seal it in me?" asked Naruto sobbingly.

"He had to save the village, your dad was the Hokage, you have to understand that he has duties. The village was under attack by a masked man who released the Kyuubi from your mother after your birth. The man used the Kyuubi to attack the village. Your father and mother sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi and save the village."

"Why me?" said Naruto again as he was unsatisfied with the answer.

"Your father had no choice, he is a good man Naruto, he would never ask someone else to willingly give their child for the sealing. If you were him, you would understand," answered the Hokage. He hoped that his answer would satisfy Naruto.

"I guess... But," Naruto paused for a moment, "but why keep this secret from me? I understand the reason for not telling the villagers but why keep it secret from me? Do you not trust me?"

"I planned to tell you everything when you reached genin but due to unfortunate events, you were forced to know this information sooner."

"Why didn't you tell me everything sooner?" asked Naruto. He understood why the Hokage kept his parentage a secret but he still does not know why he kept it a secret to him; a child deserves to know about their parents.

"Because by then you would be able to defend yourself if for some reason the secret was leaked," started the Hokage, "Do you understand now Naruto?"

"I guess..." uttered Naruto. He was still unsure how to feel about this.

"Naruto, I know it is hard for you but please try to understand that your father wants what is best for you."

"I-I will..." said Naruto, though he was still unsure how to feel about this matter.

"I'm proud of you for trying to understand Naruto and I'm sure your father would be proud too. However, telling you the reason behind all this isn't what I came here for," paused the Hokage for a moment, "the reason I came to meet you is to inform you that I enrolled you to the academy and Jiraya here will be training you for the next couple of years."

"Really?" smile graced Naruto's face once more.

"Yes Naruto but since it's already late, you guys will start tomorrow. Now come Naruto, tomorrow we will have a long day tomorrow."

"Okay," said Naruto.

With that, the Hokage and Naruto walked together while Jiraya stayed behind for a bit.

"Wonder how he will take the reveal tomorrow," snickered Jiraya.

After a while, he too left for the night.