Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.

"The longer you live, the greater your share of shame." — Yoshida Kenkō, 1332 CE

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 3: Day at Hokage Tower

Iruka led Naruto by hand to the Hokage's office. He was tense, and acting out of character, and Naruto had picked up on it. Despite this, he didn't say anything. He wasn't sure who he was trying to comfort, but had the feeling he was benefiting a lot more from the contact than Naruto was. The boy was so concerned he ignored the strange looks people were giving them as they passed in the hall.

When Naruto began drawing closer and casting around nervously with his eyes, Iruka drew him to an unpopulated junction in the tower, took a deep breath, and smiled. This wasn't something to be upset over, in fact, Iruka should be happy. Earlier this morning his favorite knucklehead mastered a high level technique and took the first steps to achieving his dream. There had been some confusion the last few days, and he discovered Naruto held a great deal of self-loathing, but that's what they were here to address.

"Come on Naruto," he gave their joined hands a jovial shake, "let's go visit Hokage-sama."

Upon arrival, the Hokage greeted them both warmly and seriously. He stood to the side as the Hokage had Naruto share what he knew about seals and retell the story of the Fourth's battle against the Kyūbi. He held himself back as he saw the confusion written across Naruto's face, and as the Third began explaining and giving several different examples of storage scrolls and sealing with a kunai and then a live, potted plant. He stopped himself from unprofessionally biting his knuckles when the Sandaime began to retell the events of October 10th and Naruto's face began to fill with dread in anticipation of the story's end.

When the tale ended, he joined the old leader in embracing Naruto and whispering soft words of comfort. Iruka couldn't recall much of what he said beyond 'You aren't a monster-fox, you're my precious student' but his feelings must have gotten through because eventually the tears dried up and Naruto gave Iruka his trademark smile. When they had all collected themselves the Sandaime returned to his chair and Iruka stood back with his hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Why… why didn't you ever tell me before?" Naruto's rasping voice came through the silence.

"I was waiting until you became a genin."

"Why?"

"There are several reasons," the Third folded his hands on top of the desk, "To understand you needed the basic knowledge of shinobi skills and the maturity to cope with the information. You needed the ability to keep silent about your burden even under enemy torture. That is not something I would ask of any child." Naruto thought on it for a while, as did Iruka. As seemingly noisy as the villagers might be about the jinchūriki domestically, anyone who was vaguely 'foreign' would be excluded from most gossip circles and working off an information base of assumptions and guesswork. If they got ahold of Naruto in some perverted repeat of the Hyuga incident and the blonde could confirm his status as a jinchūriki, then assassins and kidnappers would come after the blonde almost daily in an attempt to weaken the Leaf or strengthen their own village before Naruto could grow into a threat.

With that reasoning, Iruka could see the Hokage's point very clearly. It was a common practice. Why else would only a small section of the archives be open to genin and an even smaller section for civilians? It wasn't that the information contained wasn't relevant to them, just that at their level the knowledge would do them more potential harm than good.

After fuming for a few minutes, Naruto cooled down and seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"Are you keeping anything else from me?" His voice was guarded, but Iruka thought he could detect an undercurrent of hurt as well.

"Yes." Curt, to the point, and entirely unapologetic.

"What could be more dangerous than having the Kyūbi in my gut!?"

"As written in your parent's will, information of your heritage will be withheld and guarded as a secret of the state until you either achieve the rank of chūnin or reach the legal age of twenty and can manage your inheritance independently," the Sandaime said as he watched Naruto closely, his face inscrutable.

"My inheritance? Where is it now? Who's managing it now?"

"Your inheritance is under the direct management of the Hokage. I am currently using it to subsidize your rent so you can afford to live independently off the Orphaned Minors Stipend," the Sandiame never broke eye contact with the blonde, but Iruka saw the muscles on the back of his hand give a slight twitch. This couldn't be easy for him either, the chūnin realized. If Naruto decided to hate him it would be like losing a grandchild.

"Okay… I get you taking care of all the money stuff 'cause I'm still working on that, but doesn't that mean you know who my parents are? Why can't you tell me that, huh!?" Iruka sighed. He felt completely useless in the current situation, and if lines were drawn he wasn't sure he could pick a side. He sympathized painfully with both.

"It is not all that uncommon for jōnin to request the information to be withheld in their wills. The reasoning is protection through anonymity. It keeps enemies from extracting revenge on their children until they are capable of fending for themselves. Typically the will is revised once their students enter the academy, because their ability to retain memories long-term develops around that age, and withholding the information becomes a moot point." Naruto was silent for a while as he reviewed the information.

"So that means my parents were jōnin?" he ventured.

"Indeed. I can't tell you much else without betraying the will they entrusted me with," Iruka noted that he worded it so Naruto would understand emotionally where the Sandaime was coming from, "It is rare for both parents to pass away before their child enters the academy. Most Kunoichi retire to raise their children," he supplied as gently as he could.

"I guess… I should be proud, huh?" Naruto's voice came across slightly strangled and subdued to the tan chūnin. He thought, at that moment, he understood exactly what Naruto was feeling. Moving on his instinct, Iruka gave Naruto's shoulder a squeeze like he had the night before, and shared a smile.

They were dismissed, and Iruka took Naruto out for a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen. The conversation, in typical Naruto fashion jumped from the glories of ramen, to his unknown parents, to the virtues of one Haruno Sakura, and finally to how the villagers receive him. The knucklehead scratched his head agitatedly when Iruka pushed him to open up on his feelings about being discriminated against as a jinchūriki.

"Its like, I went from one thing wrong with me — that I didn't get any say in! — makin' people hating me, to having something else wrong with me that I can't control but people hate me for anyway! I mean, its nice, and I'm glad people don't hate me 'cause of—'cause of why I thought they hated me," Naruto looked out at the crowd passing just on the other side of the curtain, "but… I guess I don't really know how I feel, y'know?"

"Even though I haven't experienced a lot of the things you have," Iruka pinched a clump of noodles with his chopsticks, "I think I understand what you're trying to say. There's no rush to sort out your feelings, and its okay to feel frustrated or even a little angry. Just remember that the Sandaime and myself are here for you, and so will be your jōnin sensei once we've got those sorted out."

"Pft!" Naruto snorted, "you've got a lot of faith in some guy you don't even know, Iruka-sensei!"

"Well, it'll be someone the Hokage trusts implicitly to watch out for you, whoever they are," Iruka huffed, "just know its okay to open up to them, alright?"

Apparently it wasn't because Naruto kept laughing at him until he'd paid for the meal and they made their way back to the Hokage tower.

Iruka was reviewing the register for his incoming class while Naruto sat across from him filling out his registration forms. The Sandaime would be compiling and reviewing his lists of potential jōnin instructors and genin files in his office around this time, and later that afternoon Iruka and the other teachers for this year's graduating class would meet individually to answer and clarify any questions about the new genin. Iruka, fortunately, had the top class and would get to meet with the Hokage first, giving his students first pick of jōnin.

He glanced at the clock. Naruto was taking an unusually long amount of time to complete his forms. Iruka hadn't seen his pen move in a good five minutes and it wasn't even a test! From the way his brow was scrunched up and he was biting his lip you'd think it was. With a sigh he stood up and made his way over to see what the hold up was.

At first glance it seemed everything was filled out. When he looked closely, however, Naruto's pen was hovering over the smallest box on the page. There were only two symbols, 男 and 女, which symbolized male and female, and small print in the top left corner saying to circle one. Once again Iruka found himself confused by his favorite knucklehead. This had to be the simplest box on the entire form. Even small children who couldn't spell out their full name recognized 'male' and 'female' from the signs on bathroom doors.

"What's the hold up, Naruto?"

"…I don't know."

"Is something wrong?" Iruka asked gently. Naruto scowled and hastily drew a circle on the form before thrusting it in Iruka's face. He hopped out of his chair and dashed from the room calling out that he was going to get his number for his ID photo. Iruka thought he also caught something about getting ready, but wasn't paying all that much attention. He was looking at the crumpled paper in his hands.

Naruto, in his typical sloppy fashion had circled the 'male' sign in such a way that the left side of the circle went straight down the middle of the character and the right side went all the way through the center until it practically touched on 'female.' Iruka gave a heavy sigh. The two ends weren't even connecting, with the right end sticking out of the top of the box into the one above it marked 'Given Name.'

Sarutobi stared at the photo while Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head. He could hear the blond boy saying something about practicing the pose and makeup, but his internal debate was taking the majority of his attention. On the one hand, the photo wasn't the least bit accurate and would confuse anyone checking it, but on the other hand the photo wasn't the least bit accurate and would confuse anyone checking it.

As Konoha's jinchūriki, his shinobi ID card would be the last thing anyone affiliated with the village would bother checking, and even if they did, the photo was so characteristically Naruto that they would know it was his. If any spies got their hands on his files it would make it much more difficult to track the boy down. On the other hand, there were standards to uphold and official records to maintain, and he should really stop letting the boy get away with so much….

"Why did you want to dress up so much for this photo?" He really needed something to tip the balance and motive seemed like as good a decision maker as any. If it was just another prank, as he suspected, he'd have the boy retake it. He was caught off guard, then, when Naruto's smile dropped and he scuffed his sandal on the ground.

"I just… well… Iruka-sensei said I couldn't use a Henge, so I just… I don't know, decided to use paint instead?" Well, it gave Sarutobi a little bit more to work with as far as understanding Naruto went. He was going to ask more gently than originally intended for Naruto to take the photo again without the makeup when his grandson burst into the room.

A small fiasco later and his office was cleared of loud, violent people. He looked at the paperwork on his desk, looked at his door still skewed open from Naruto's gusty exit, looked back at his paperwork, told Sparrow to shut the door, pulled out his scrying crystal, and sat back to enjoy watching his grandson's misadventures with Konoha's number one prankster. Every once in a while he glanced over and signed a form or two.

Thank you everyone for reading! Please let me know what you think of the story so far, and if there are any topics you would like for me to address. I already have several things in mind, as well as who will be involved and when, but my outline for this story is plenty flexible and if there is an issue you would like to see covered, just let me know in a review or private message and I'll see what I can do!

Published: March 21, 2014

Updated: September 17, 2016

Words: 2,367