Cruel Summer
By: Kibou32
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.
Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.
Pairings: Undecided
Ratings: 18 and Above.
- / 1 / -
Umino Iruka knew of the Hokage's son from afar. He had heard that the boy looked weak and seemed to be really quiet. Other than that, he had never had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of such a pretty and well behaved boy. Thus he was shocked to enter Ichiraku's Ramen bar one afternoon for some ramen to see three prominent figures sitting side by side looking at the menu: the Toad Sannin on the left side far away from where he was about to sit, the Hokage in the center and young Kazuki next to an empty chair.
"Excuse me." – he said whilst feeling like the rumors didn't do the younger blond justice.
He sat two seats away from the younger blond and sighed inwardly. He had no idea why he was feeling like this, like the boy almost right next to him was so desirable that he wanted to do something… something pleasurable perhaps? He shuddered at the thought and hoped this was just a passing through type of thought for he really didn't want to keep. He wasn't a child molester.
"Naruto… tell the lovely lady what you want for lunch." – he heard the Hokage say.
"What would it be Naruto-kun?" – Ayame, Teuchi's daughter asked smiling at the boy.
"…"
"We have miso, pork, chicken, beef and shrimp ramen. Which will it be?" – she said still smiling when the boy still seemed to be unsure of what to ask for.
"My name is Kazuki. Do you have vegetable ramen?" – when he spoke in a soft but clear voice, Ayame and Iruka were blown away by it. Iruka, because he was sure he had never heard such a melodious voice coming out of a boy of only ten years old and Ayame because she could feel the slight reprimand of the usage of a pet name only the Hokage was allowed to use.
"Ah! Umino-san!" – the Hokage noticed him and exclaimed. He did this all the while wanting to placate the Ramen bar for his son's abrupt behavior.
"Hokage-sama." – he inclined his head in greeting.
"Eh? You must be jiji's recommendation for the teaching position at the Academy!" – said the Toad Sannin from further left and he felt himself blush. It was kind of amazing that the Sannin knew of him, it was such an honor!
"…" – he was left so speechless.
While this went on, Teuchi began to cook this 'vegetable' ramen for the young boy in front of him. He found it amusing that Ayame – who was never cowed at anyone or anything – had crumbled when the Hokage's heir had spoken so softly and so clearly to her.
"Ah, Naruto… this is Umino Iruka. He's a chunnin sensei at the academy." – the Hokage said introducing his boy to the man next to him.
"Hajime mashite Kazuki-kun." – he said whilst grinning at the boy.
"Domo. Ne, Iruka-san; to be a teacher at the academy do you have to be a ninja?" – he asked right away, his tone of voice all business.
"Ah… well yes. If you want to teach at the ninja academy, yes." – he said but he was aware of this being a snare… and he feared that by answering the question he had fallen directly into the hands of the Toad Sannin who looked extremely pleased for some reason he wasn't aware of. Yet.
"Ah, but Naruto…" – the Hokage was stopped by the expectant gaze in his son's bluest than blue eyes and found he couldn't say no.
"Hai hai." – he said agreeing while inwardly sighing vowing also to get back at his sensei for this.
Naruto cheered. Kazuki did not.
:-:
On his first day at the academy, he was noticed by four separate people: Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke and Mizuki-sensei.
Hyuuga Hinata was unusually shy for her clan's namesake and when Kazuki – a boy three years her junior quietly enunciated his name, Hinata was instantly enamoured with him. Shikamaru, already knowing who Kazuki was, was a bit astounded at the thought that his friend was in the academy now instead of before and in his class no less! Sasuke, however was appalled that a boy of that age – having no prior record in the academy – would be allowed to finish the academy in only six months. He wondered briefly if Kazuki was an Itachi in the making and wasn't put into the academy at the age Itachi did due to the Sandaime's previous law on geniuses and whatnot.
Mizuki-sensei, however; hated the boy at first glance. He was too cute, too quiet, too smart for Mizuki's sensibilities and he hated that. He thought that his hate wasn't obvious, but Iruka wasn't oblivious to it and made note of everything. Kazuki was no stranger to people looking at him weird – even though people did not know he was a jinchuuriki – people tended to be wary of him due to his looks, – especially civilians and the like – his sharp mind and his soft voice. He was a contradiction of sorts of what a shinobi baby should look like, not to mention the strongest shinobi in the village. For that matter, he wanted to do something to the older male; but was stopped by Naruto. Naruto told him he could wait. The right time would come.
:-:
A few weeks afterwards, Mizuki-sensei got into a fight with Hatake Kakashi at a local bar. He had been really drunk at the time and hadn't measured his words. He had started to insult Kazuki left and right and hadn't noticed the hostility in the room. Many of those there weren't so touched by his comments towards the young blond and were itching for a fight. Kakashi was a big fan of Kazuki himself and more so of the Hokage, so it was a serious offense for him to hear all about that. He ended up beating Mizuki into the ground and Mizuki ended up on a hospital bed unable to even receive basic medical care due to his filthy mouth and deplorable conduct when speaking about such an innocent boy as Uzumaki Namikaze Kazuki Naru.
:-:
The person who took up the physical portion of the rest of the course was Izumo, a chunnin who was usually given the job of gate keeper with his ever faithful companion Kotetsu who would come everyday for lunch.
One of the things he noticed whilst working at the academy was that the Uchiha prodigy was no tensai. Whereas, the Hokage's son seemed to be quiet and calm, he was not. When he smiled, those surrounding him were privy to a gift of the Gods – if you will – that incurred happiness even to those who weren't in an okay mood at the moment. He was loud for all his quietness and his blue eyes so warm and alive, it made him tingle all over his body when they met in a gaze, his eyes to the boy's.
But what was the most interesting fact of all the things he had observed was that he didn't want recognition. The boy wasn't lazy per se, but he was smart. He knew his looks, his behavior and his close connections to his father left him at a great disadvantage. So people would either underestimate him for his looks or overestimate him for his connections. And so he did nothing. Which was one of the reasons he didn't punch or kick hard. It wasn't until one day that Sasuke said something derogatory to the younger boy that both Izumo and Kotetsu noticed Kazuki change. It wasn't that he snapped in anger or lost control, but he was ruthless and precise in the way he cut through Sasuke's defenses and left him in the dust.
When the match was set, many fangirls weren't able to stop themselves from looking like fools when they fawned over the Uchiha brat at his loss. They called Kazuki's win a lucky draw, but the chunnin present there – including Iruka-sensei – knew that it wasn't a lucky draw. It was pure skill. Kazuki-kun had skill that surpassed even the rest of them.
In the end however, Sasuke just shook the dust out of his pants and hands and stood up. He walked slowly – for they were sure he was hurt worse than he tried not to show – and resolutely smiled at Kazuki whilst pushing out his hand in the universal shape of a handshake. He was greeted with a sincere smile that shook him to the core.
:-:
Once the year was over and the examinations were underway, Izumo and Kotetsu went back to their usual duties. Iruka was glad to see that 89 of his students had graduated. Time would tell if all of them made it into genin cells.
He was – however - a bit intimidated by one of the genin cell. Most genin teams were balanced in their specialties whereas Team 7 was filled with contradictive specialties. Haruno Sakura was the smartest girl in his whole class, but she lacked the physical skills to call herself a shinobi. Iruka passed her only to see if she would make it or crumble under pressure. Uchiha Sasuke was the top number one rookie of his class, but he was proud, mentally unstable due to the massacre of his clan, and Iruka feared that with the proper incentive he would turn into the village's worst nightmare. And at last there was Uzumaki Kazuki. There was no real data about the boy. He was smart, he was good in his tai-jutsu skills but he was shy and he wasn't forgoing into giving out details about himself. Iruka did not feared for his mental sanity, he rather thought that Kazuki was at least the saner of the three. But… he couldn't quite say why he feared that Kazuki was hiding something else.
:-:
Hatake Kakashi was ecstatic to receive Kazuki into team seven. He wasn't sure if the team would pass, but he was sure he could get his sensei to let Kazuki be his apprentice if he had to fail the team.
He noticed quite a couple of things when he was supposedly not there and the team was left to wait. Both Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura were too easily riled up, too easily annoyed and he thought that both needed a crash course into what was meant to be a shinobi before he could admit them into a team. He could see that Sasuke needed some behavior adjusting, Sakura some conduct and Kazuki… well.. he saw that perhaps the boy was too shy to be a shinobi.
He watched as Sakura made doe eyes at the Uchiha brat, Sasuke twirled a kunai in between his fingers – he was sure that it were a nervous reaction and was concerned and a bit curious as to what Kazuki could be doing with a blank scroll, a red vial, an ink pot, and a ink brush. He watched as Kazuki drew on the blank scroll. Then by looking at Sasuke he determined something big were about to happen.
"Uchiha." – he said softly.
"Ah?" – the boy drawled out a response.
"Help me out with a bit of your chakra." – he said whilst finishing up the writing on the scroll. To Kakashi it seemed a weird combination of symbols but couldn't quite make up the significance of it from where he was crouching.
"What for?" – Sasuke said stopping to twirl the kunai through his fingers although he didn't move from his seat.
"An experiment." – Kazuki simply responded.
Sasuke shrugged knowing there was nothing better to do. He went over to where the other boy sat and put his hands where indicated. He looked expectantly and received his instructions.
Kakashi blinked once and then was inside the room. He gawked at Kazuki for a minute before recovering his wits and saluted cheerfully to them.
"Yo!"
Sasuke gasped and Sakura gaped in disbelief. They both looked so stunned that Kakashi – though he was acknowledging inwardly that he felt quite the same – felt the insane urge to laugh out loud. He didn't.
He signaled them to the top of the stairs. Whilst they were climbing towards the academy's rooftop, Kazuki said.
"Don't be late again Kakashi."
Kakashi correctly interpreted that as a warning and wondered what else was the kid hiding from them.
:-:
Inside the Hokage's office, both Jiraiya and Tsunade watched in glee as Kazuki put Kakashi in his place. Whereas both the Sandaime and the Yondaime were curious as to how Kazuki was able to draw a complicated summoning seal with only a tiny vial of Kakashi's blood. Minato vowed then to get Kazuki apprenticeship in seals if the boy was this good.
He felt excited that the boy was this good! That was his boy alright.
:-:
Kakashi had initially wanted to test Team seven with the two-bell test. But in light of recent events he didn't dare. So he designed a different test that had nothing to do with being a shinobi – at least on the surface. He set up a civilian board game called Monopoly. He set himself up as the bank and awaited for each of the genin to pick a piece. He then chose his own piece – a dog – and explained the rules. He was sure Kazuki couldn't cheat on this game, but he was surprised to see the boy amass a small fortune on the first two tries. They took turns with the dice to see the way they would do the game and he found himself being second to Kazuki followed by Sasuke and the last one was Sakura. On his first try, Kazuki landed on a casualty spot. He took one red card and said:
"The bank should pay one hundred and fifty yen for insurance." – and Kakashi groaned.
By the end of the first two rounds, Kazuki had all of the high paying fees including Park Place and Caroline Av. Kakashi was almost out of funds as a player, whereas Sakura was in serious debt with Sasuke and Sasuke owed Kazuki a large sum of money for rent.
He called the end of the game at exactly noon sharp and told the results of the game and what he had gleaned out of their skills as players in the game. He started with Sakura who was the total loser of the game.
"You lack street smarts. In times where you should have looked out for your interests, you gave up land for Sasuke and instead it was Kazuki who took up the opportunity. Having already gleaned up the fact that Kazuki was the toughest competitor, you should have tag-teamed with Sasuke to bring him down. You didn't. Shinobi sometimes have to work together to bring a common foe down. Your sacrifices were for naught."
Sakura looked ready to bawl.
"Sasuke. You were too arrogant thinking that you could do things on your own. Like Sakura, you overestimated your worth as a player and ended up with a large monetary debt towards Kazuki. That arrogance will get you kill one day. Underestimating your opponent will get you killed."
Sasuke looked white-faced.
"Kazuki… you used the other two as bait towards me to make me think that what you wanted was to bring my piece down when in fact you wanted to take over the bank. I commend you for your effort in 'teamwork' even if the other two didn't acknowledge or know it."
Both Sakura and Sasuke looked on in shock towards the seemingly weak boy. They hadn't noticed the boy's efforts in getting their help to bring Kakashi down. All in all, now that things had been pointed at them, they could see their errors and that if this had been a different sort of test, they would have been worst off.
"I wasn't actually trying to bring you down with my comments. This was an assessment skills test. If you can learn from your mistakes, as a shinobi your skills will grow. If you can use what you've learnt today as something towards the good of the team; not only will your mind and body grow, but you could become an unbeatable team."
With that in mind, he set out to give out an extensive set of rules for them to follow for the next two weeks. He had decided to pass them. They were an interesting bunch of genin and he wanted to see how far they would reach with the right guidance.
:-:
As a penalty for loosing the game, Sakura was told to do three things for each of her teammates. One, she would start to increase her stamina and her strength by training with Sasuke every morning. Two, during these training sessions she would not make doe eyes at Sasuke, would not ask him out on a date and maintain pure professionalism between them. Three, she would make him lunch two times out of three in the whole week. What Sakura got from those instructions was that their sensei would not tolerate a fangirl in his team. She wouldn't treat Sasuke as a separate god but as a human being and that she should use the free time to glean on enough information on Sasuke so as to know him so well, she wouldn't be caught under an imitation of himself.
For Kazuki, she would do as he did for three days a week in the afternoons. Which she found was exactly the opposite of what she did with Sasuke. While Kazuki was a quiet and calm individual, he didn't dally in nonsense. Every Monday afternoon found him tending to people in a hospital wing. He didn't cure them per se, but he did try to make things better for those who were too ill. This taught her humility. On Wednesday afternoons Kazuki would receive classes with the great Medic Nin Tsunade of the Sannin. Sakura wasn't privy to these sessions herself but did get to see him before and after these sessions. She got to like the science so well that after a while, she found herself reading medical textbooks just for the sake of it. Every Friday afternoon, Kazuki studied ninjutsu with the Hokage's sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin. She wasn't privy to learn techniques from the older man either – she was sure she could never manage to do them since her chakra capacities was primitive at best, but she learnt other things that helped her a lot in gaining more chakra reserves.
After two weeks of this, Kakashi told them to meet him at the training grounds number six. There he proceeded to tell them that this was a test to see how much they had improved. Here he presented them with the two bell test.
He was surprised at their change. Sakura came up with an idea, Sasuke listened and then asked Kazuki for his opinion. Twenty minutes before the time were up, they executed the plan and got the bells with minimum loss to themselves. Kakashi deigned them good enough to receive D-level missions.
:-:
Minato gave them a benign smile. He had seen their growth and was happy with how they had grown as a team.
"Well! I'm so glad to see you here. I've just the right mission for you guys. Ah… Naruto, don't forget of our training session tonight." – and then he waved them away.
Both Sasuke and Sakura were nonplussed about this Naruto when Kakashi turned to their teammate and say…
"Do you want me to let you go early?"
"He's the one the Hokage was talking about?!" – Sakura exclaimed in a hushed voice.
"Ah. Hokage-sama affectionately calls Kazuki, Naruto."
"Ah… so… do we call you that too?" – Sasuke said with a teasing smirk.
One minute they were walking and the next Naruto was pushing Sasuke to the wall with a small kunai in his hand pressing it lightly but threateningly nonetheless to Sasuke's throat.
"My name is Kazuki."
"I get it!" – Sasuke exclaimed feeling nervous all of the sudden.
Sakura huffed and said: "Kazuki-kun, Sasuke didn't meant to tease you about it. Let him go."
They were silent for a second and then Kazuki slowly let Sasuke go.
"Only otou-sama is allowed to call me as such. No one else." – he stated once again and Kakashi sweat-dropped at the repeat of the issue in question.
The morale of the story was that Kazuki was not a person to mess with. Sasuke vowed to never get on his bad side again.
:-:
Three weeks later, Sasuke saw Nara Shikamaru playing shogi with Kazuki. He thought that the Nara – who he himself had never been able to beat in shogi – would win decidedly, but found it wrong when Kazuki finished Shikamaru off.
"Never take things at face value Sasuke." – said a voice behind him and he turned to see his brother looking on in the game.
"Aniki!" – he exclaimed surprised.
"Hn."