I do not own Naruto.

Hiruzen stood at the window in his office enjoying a good smoke, it was one of those rare night when he had no paperwork or any work to disturb him.

He was wondering what his pesudo grandson was doing, hopefully he wasn't causing any mayhem, bah what could a six year old possibly do, he was going to enjoy this peacefully time with a good smoke and nothing was going to spoil this time for him.

Then it happened, a huge wave of deadly chakra that was all too familiar, "Anbu with me"Hiruzen ordered and six nins in white mask joined him and they raced towards the source of chakra. Upon reaching the area of the chakra blast, they were greeted with a disturbing sight.

Three Chunins, dead, one disemboweled, another's body was six feet away from his head, and the last one looked like he was attacked by a mad feline on steroids, his face was scratched to the point that he was unrecognizable and his skull was cracked open.

But two feet away was the body of a six year old child, his white t-shirt was ripped, like he was slashed multiple times, then Hiruzen saw the scars, white lines all over Naruto's body.

He didn't need to think too deep to understand what happened and what the repercussions would be.

After ordering five of the ANBU to clean up the scene, he took Naruto to the Shinobi hospital knowing that it was the only place Naruto could receive treatment without the civilians finding out what happened.

After several test were conducted, he ordered the lone ANBU with him to call the Shinobi council for a meeting, twenty minutes later he came back and told him that they were in the council room waiting for him.

Steeling himself Hiruzen ordered the ANBU to stand guard and to allow only the doctor in, no one else.

*

Hiruzen walked into the council room, which was a simple circular room with mahogany wood round table which had a large opening in the center.

On the ground at the center of the table was the word, Shinobi, on the ceiling was the word,Kohona, and at the head of the table, was a lager Red wood chair with the word ,Fire, engraved on top of it.

The round table had many chairs, for both the civilian and Shinobi council, but since it was just the Shinobi council that was called in only few of the sits were taken, also because he wanted to keep what was happening quite he only called Shinobis who held high position in the force, so most clan heads were not present.

"As I am sure you all know why you're here"Hiruzen started.

" At about 12:45 am, there was blast of chakra from the village, kyuubi's chakra to be exact, and when I and six ANBUs went to check on it we found three dead Chunins and Uzumaki Naruto, who is currently at the Shinobi hospital, Nagini would you please give us your report on Naruto" Hiruzen said.

Nagini was the head of the Shinobi hospital, and the second best medic in Kohona behind Tusnade.

" Hai Hokage-sama, Uzumaki Naruto was brought to the hospital at 12:51 am, with several scars, on further inspection we found out that he had suffered extreme blood losse and chakra exhaustion, we also found out that the scars on his body were caused by deep kunai cuts and even stabbing, with the slight flow of kyuubi's chakra in his system and the little we know about jinchurikis, we've come to the conclusion that Uzumaki Naruto was attacked and tortured by the Chunins, and in desperation he tapped into the kyuubi's chakra and lost control"

" Are you certain about this?" Uchiha Fugaku the head of the Uchiha clan and chief of Kohona's police force asked,

" as certain as I can be" she replied.

"But why would they do that?" Nara Shikaku, the head of the Nara clan and the Jounin commander asked.

"Well, on inspection of the dead Chunins, we found them covered in orange paint that had residue of Mucuna Pruriens which is a substance used in itching powder."

"Wait, from what you've said, those Chunins tortured a six year old because he pranked them?" Asked Yamanak Inochi another clan head and head of the investigation department in TI.

"From all the evidence on ground, that's what we reason."Nagini replied.

"If I may speak Hokage-sama?" Shimura Danzo a former teammate of Hiruzen and commander of Kohona's dark ops, the Root, asked, Hiruzen really didn't want his power hungry teammate to speak,

but for the sake of diplomacy he did. Seeing the go ahead Danzo continued

"I do believe that we need to take precautions to prevent a repeat of such event"

"what do you mean" Hiruzen asked, half sure what he meant,

" well if the jinchuriki was well trained in the way of the Shinobi he wouldn't have done such a childish thing and wouldn't need to kill any of those Shinobi".

" He is a child" Hiruzen retorted

" be that as it may, it doesn't change what he is and leaving him untrained is a foolish thing to do, he would be better if he was brought under the Root to train".

"Do you really expect me to sign Naruto, a child into Root?" Hiruzen asked with barely restrained anger.

"A child he might be but he is still a jinchuriki and we can't leave our trump card to go around unable to protect himself more less the village",

" even if what you say is true, putting him under Root is too dangerous"Hiruzen said,

"actually I do think council man Danzo's idea is right", everyone turned to the speaker, it was agent Nezumi the ANBU commander.

"Explain exactly why that is" Hiruzen said, his voice dangerously cold.

"Well, the truth is that Naruto has been put through difficult situations and moments by the villagers, his emotions and mental health have been strained, and a jinchuriki in such situation is a problem already, they would likely be swayed by their biju which is both dangerous for them and their village, and seeing as he has already tapped into kyuubi's chakra it's quite likely that the biju would try to corrupt his mind, if it isn't doing so already, and pushing him back to the village that does nothing but antagonize him, is extremely dangerous, he needs to train his body, mind and learn to control his emotions if he is to ever fully control his biju, in all he needs balance."

" And Root is where Naruto is supposed to find such balance" Hiruzen asked, his anger ever rising.

"Of course not, I never said anything like that, I just said Danzo's idea was right", Danzo who was feeling happy that his plan to get Naruto was being supported by the ANBU commander,

immediately felt his happiness turn to anger at his last word,

" and who would be better to train him than Root" Danzo asked,

"ANBU"Nezumi answered simply.

Seeing that Hiruzen was going to say something, he continued

" Hokage-sama please let me explain. The fact is that ANBU is the best place for Naruto right now, we can teach him to control instead of killing his emotions, train both his body and mind."

"We can try something else other than putting a child in a dark or black ops" Hiruzen said

" am not sure there is, you can't train him personally because of your work neither can Jiraya because of his, and you would be hard pressed to find a Shinobi with no hatred towards the child, plus I never said he would be put on our roster, he would just be trained by the best from ANBU, with me to supervise his training, all report from his health to what he has learnt would be sent to you and you can can see him anytime to confirm anything you wish. It's either that or you toss him back to the villagers, cross your fingers and hope the Yondaimes legacy doesn't die off"

For the next ten minutes, Hiruzen contemplated, went through every possible outcome, and finally he dropped his head and sighed.

" I want reports on everything that happens, you do nothing until I sign it understood" Hiruzen asked in a no nonsense voice,

"Hai Hokage-sama" answered Nezumi, his ANBU mask hiding his smile.

" Prepare a place for him to stay and I want a well thought out timetable, a list of his teachers and duration of each lesson, and while you're at it send a letter to Jiraya, we need him to check the seal for any damges, also send a sensor and sealer to Naruto's ward."

"Hai Hokage-sama"

" Does anyone have anything else to add?" When no one answered he concluded the meeting.

Danzo who was seething inside calmly walked out of the office.

Hiruzen sighed again when everyone left, wondering if he had made the right decision.

Looking at Minato's picture he sighed again, " only if you were here now" he said before standing up and heading for the hospital, so much for a peaceful night.

*

Thanks for reading, comment on any mistake you see or any suggestions you might have.

P.S: I have never had a beta reader before if you are interested please hit me up