Sarutobi Hiruzen was waiting patiently for Iruka to arrive with Naruto. He was fully aware of the events that transpired after Iruka had found the blond, but up until then it was a complete mystery, especially the fact that Naruto appeared to have the bloodline orb embedded in his chest.
He was aware of the object for one simple fact, his sensei had let him use it and for some reason it had failed to react to him.
However, the simple fact that Naruto had called that strange attire a cocoon was disturbing, from his knowledge of what the orb did, it had never once created a cocoon for a person, it had simply granted them a bloodline of some sort. He might have been known as the professor but whatever had happened to Naruto was outside of his knowledge base and quite possibly a complete mystery to everyone.
There was a knock on the door to his office, just as he had expected from Iruka.
"Come in," he called out, with the door quickly opening to reveal Iruka with the forbidden scroll strapped to his back, standing next to the smothered form of Naruto.
"Hokage-sama," Iruka said respectfully as he gave a curt bow to the village leader.
"Heheh… Hiya ero-ojisan," Naruto called out, earning a bop on the head by the Chūnin and cementing the fact that it was Naruto to the old man.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but please let me explain why Naruto stole the scroll," the Chūnin requested from the aged leader.
"That is quite alright Iruka, I am fully aware that Naruto was tricked into it by Mizuki."
"What? Really?" Iruka asked dumbfounded at the Hokages ability to know things like that.
"You were watching through your peeking orb weren't you," Naruto asked blankly, earning a confused look off the Chūnin instructor.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the Sandaime stated as a small blush began to enflame his wrinkled cheeks.
"I mean that orb you use to spy on the women's hot springs," the young blond stated, his expression unreadable through the cocoon.
"Wait! What?" Iruka practically shouted at what the blond had just accused the Hokage of doing.
"Iruka, this is an order from your superior, forget you ever heard that, or else you will be performing D-ranks everyday for the rest of your life," Sarutobi said with nothing but seriousness filling his voice.
Suddenly there was a cracking sound that attracted everyone's attention, before they realised it was Naruto's casing. Just seconds after the cracking sound had started, the head of the cocoon fell to pieces, revealing Naruto's face to the world. But other than that the only other part of the cocoon that shattered was the hands, while the legs simply split and began to flow out behind him.
The other occupants could only look at the blond in disbelief as they took in his new face, a much leaner one that lacked the distinctive whisker marks he had possessed since he was born, while his eyes were no longer the vibrant blue they once were, but instead a cold steel colour, on a black sclera. However, what shocked Iruka the most was his hair, it was now the exact same as the Yondaime hokages, which combined with his slimmed down face and the lack of whiskers, made him the spitting image of the greatest ninja ever to grace Konoha's ranks.
"Uh… Hōgyoku, why isn't the rest of the cocoon disappearing?"
"I thought that since you are a warrior, you would appreciate the protective casing, considering the fact that it is completely weightless, as flexible as silk and tougher than steel," came the reply from the feminine orb.
"Really? That's so cool, thanks!" Naruto thought gratefully.
"Huh, Naruto? Are you talking to anything?" the Hokage asked as he watched the blonds changing facial expressions.
"Oh sorry, I was talking with the Hōgyoku."
"The Hōgyoku? Is that the Kyūbi's real name?" the aged leader asked, unfamiliar with the name Naruto just gave him.
"Huh? Nah, Kyūbi's asleep, I mean this," Naruto told him while gesturing to the black orb embedded in his chest.
"Huh? The bloodline orb?"
"She prefers to be called Hōgyoku," Naruto told him calmly.
"Um excuse me Hokage-sama, what do you mean the 'bloodline orb'?" Iruka asked in confusion.
"What you are about to hear Iruka is an S-class secret, that object that appears to have merged with Naruto is the creator of all bloodlines," the aged leader told him, earning a shocked look off of the instructor, "however, it has never merged with anyone before, I have no idea what will happen to Naruto."
"Hōgyoku doesn't create bloodlines, merely unlocks them," Naruto corrected.
"Wait, what do you mean unlocks them?"
"Hōgyoku has the ability to read a person's heart, she then breaks down the barriers placed on a person's power in order to fulfil their desires… she's merged with me because in order to fulfil my desires, she has to break all of my barriers, though that will take a long time, so she has merged with me, with her first point of action being to reconstruct my chakra coils to be large enough to keep all my chakra," he explained.
Processing the information they had just learned, both Iruka and the Hokage came to one particular barrier they had almost forgotten about.
"THE SEAL!" they both shouted in terror.
"Don't worry, that is a barrier but it isn't a barrier on my power, but a barrier to keep my power separate from Kyūbi's," Naruto told them casually, "besides Kyūbi said it'll give me a chance to get it to NOT hate me."
"WHAT!"
"What? It said it hated humans by default but since the barriers on my strength are going to be broken I'm not going to be staying human, so it's going to get to know me before deciding if it hates me or not," Naruto told them calmly causing both adults to look at each other before looking back at the blond.
"And you actually trust it?"
"Not really, but if it is actually going to give me a chance then I guess I should do the same," he admitted.
"Sigh… so the bloodline orb," "Hōgyoku," "fine then, Hōgyoku is essentially reconstructing your body and breaking any barriers on your strength… exactly what will you be capable of when it's finished with you?" the Hokage asked hoping to learn at least some of Naruto's potential.
"Let's see… other than being capable of using every bloodline in existence, I'm not entirely sure, but Hōgyoku told me that I have the potential to become a god," the blond said with a happy smile.
"…"
"…"
"A god."
"Yep."
"I think that is a little too much Naruto."
"What? You got a problem with that?"
"Not really, but I don't think I would entirely trust this Hōgyoku as it likes to be called," Sarutobi finally said straight out.
"You might not but I do, because unlike you she let me know about Kyūbi," the dark eyed blond said, his eyes beginning to radiate the oppressive power that the small orb possessed, before as suddenly as it had come, it left.
Sarutobi couldn't help but sweat a little, the sheer power behind that glare was like nothing he had ever seen before and hoped he would never see again. Many people had called him fearless because of his ability to face any danger head on and never back down, however they were wrong, he wasn't fearless, the number of times he had been terrified walking onto the battlefield was greater than he could count, but he was courageous, he would never back down, he would never let his fear conquer him and now was no exception.
"Naruto, please understand that I had my reasons for not telling you."
"Like what?"
"(sigh) I had hoped that by keeping it a secret you could grow up like a normal child and make friends, but it would appear as though that isn't the case," the old man told him, unhappy with the lack of success his plan had managed to achieve.
"(sigh), I guess I can understand where you're coming from, but how can I trust you? You've kept one big part of my life a secret, so what's to say you aren't keeping more from me? I, I just can't trust you anymore old man, I'll see you whenever I feel like it," Naruto said with just a hint of anger in his voice, before he turned and left the aged leaders office.
After being shocked by the blonds complete lack of respect, Iruka turned to face the one man that had complete jurisdiction over all of Konoha. He was expecting to see the kind but alert leader he was so used to seeing, however when he looked, all he saw was a tired old man, cradling his face in the palms of his hands.
"I've made a big mistake keeping things from him, haven't I Iruka?"
Thinking back on the encounter, the Sandaime Hokage couldn't help but realise one thing, the chances of someone NOT noticing the similarities between Naruto and the Yondaime was practically non-existent. With that in mind, he decided to do something he should have done a long time ago.
"Iruka, please bring Naruto-kun back… I have to speak with him alone."
"Hai Hokage-sama," and with that, the Chūnin instructor left via the standard Konoha shunshin.
XXX
Naruto was angry, he didn't know why he was so angry, sure he knew why he was angry but what confused him was the sheer amount of anger coursing through his veins when he thought about what the old man had kept from him.
Sure he could understand keeping the truth from the rest of his age group, but it was quite possibly THE most important piece of information he could have possibly been given and it was kept a secret from him.
"I am sorry Naruto-san, but it is my fault you are feeling so angry at the moment," the small black orb told him.
"Huh? Why is it your fault?"
"You see I have completed the process of reassembling your body and rebuilding your chakra coils and have proceeded to start breaking your barriers, starting with your mental barriers, the destruction of the first barrier has increased your concentration span, allowing you to think over what happened earlier more than you would have otherwise."
"Uh, did you just say reassembling my body?"
"I'm sorry, I must have forgotten to tell you earlier but I have been reconstructing your body to be capable of handling the changes I will be making, and tonight I will be making you less… vertically challenged," the powerful orb told him.
"…"
"WHAT THE HELL DO YA MEAN VERTICALLY CHALLENGED?!" Naruto shouted out indignantly, fortunate that there was no one on the street to witness his outburst.
"Saying you're vertically challenged is a nice way of saying you're a shortarse, now shut up, I'm trying to sleep here," the deep voice of Kyūbi sounded in his head, before the blond couldn't help but sweatdrop at what it said.
"There you are Naruto," the familiar voice of Iruka called out from behind him, "Hokage-sama wants to talk to you alone."
"What the hell does he want to talk to me about?!" the black eyed blond snapped back at the instructor.
"I don't know, he just said that he needed to speak with you alone."
"This had better be good, I'm still pissed at him for keeping Kyūbi from me," Naruto muttered through gritted teeth before allowing the Chūnin to take him to the Hokages office via shunshin.
XXX
The Sandaime was thinking over how to explain what he was going to tell the blond when a large gust with several leaves flying in it appeared within his office.
"Hokage-sama," Iruka said respectfully as the duo appeared.
"What do you want?" Naruto asked with a noticeable amount of hostility in his voice.
"(sigh) Iruka, could you please leave Naruto alone with me," it might have sounded like a question but everyone in the room knew it was an order, so being the good little ninja he was, Iruka left his student alone with the strongest ninja in Konoha.
A tense silence filled the room before it was broken by the blond, "if you want to talk to me then start already, otherwise I'm leaving."
"It's about your parents," Sarutobi said quickly.
Rage. That was the one emotion flowing through Naruto at that moment, just pure unbridled rage. Not only had the man in front of him kept the Kyūbi a secret from him, but also his very heritage.
Seeing the sheer anger on the blonds face, the Hokage knew he had to do something to salvage whatever relationship he had with the blond immediately.
"Please just listen Naruto, both your parents were famous ninja who made a large number of enemies, and unfortunately you would have told everyone if you had known that your father was the Yondaime."
Naruto froze. His father was the Yondaime of all people. His idol. The one that sealed the Kyūbi inside him.
"Why did he seal the Kyūbi inside me?"
That was the one question he had hoped the blond wouldn't ask, since all he had were suspicions and no real reason… and unfortunately none of the suspicions were going to make the blond happy.
"(sigh) I don't know why, all I have are suspicions."
"And what are your suspicions?"
Taking a deep breath, Sarutobi said the one thing that he knew could destroy the blonds image of the greatest ninja Konoha had ever produced, "to maintain the balance of the bijū."
"You mean, there was another way to stop the Kyūbi and he chose to make my life a living hell," Naruto ground out through gritted teeth, "just what sort of bastard was he?"
"Naruto, please calm down, I understand that you feel angry but please don't hate your father, as I said I don't actually know why he chose to seal the Kyūbi inside you, nobody does, all we know is that that is what he did and nothing can change that fact."
Trying to clear his head, Naruto proceeded to ask a question that he had almost forgotten about.
"What about my mother?"
"She was a powerful Konoichi with a… unique style of ninjutsu," the old leader said with a sad smile, "she was also the former host of the Kyūbi."
Naruto was shocked, his mother was the previous host of the Kyūbi, but that meant.
"Why did she release it?"
"She didn't. You see Naruto-kun, the seal is always at its weakest during childbirth… the only plausible explanation is that the seal was weakened enough for the beast to escape, that is also one of the reasons why your mother is no longer among the living," the aged Kage explained.
"I see…"
"…"
"Is that everything you wanted to tell me?"
"Not quite," the aged leader said, before pulling out a standard Konoha hitae-ate, "I don't think it's fair to fail an Uzumaki because they can't perform a standard bunshin… they simply have too much chakra for it."
Slowly taking the headband, Naruto said something the aged leader never thought he would hear from the blond, "thank you, Hokage-sama."
"I guess I should take that as a case of you still don't trust me."
"Yeah, you betrayed my trust once, I'm not just going to forgive you just like that… but you've taken the first step towards it," Naruto informed the Hokage, "if that's all, I'm tired."
"Yes Naruto-kun… well except that you are to come here tomorrow to get your photo taken for your ninja licence, that is all," and with that said, Naruto left for his apartment.
XXX
Later that night, we find Naruto walking towards the Kyūbi's cage within his mind, with a single agenda in mind.
"Hey! Fox!" he shouted once he was within the room that contained the massive cage.
"Let me guess, you're angry about your mother's death being linked to me," the massive beast said casually.
"Damn right I am!"
"Let me tell you a little something, when a bijū is extracted from its host, the damage caused is too great for most ningen to survive, it was simply amazing that she didn't die straight away," the giant fox informed him.
"Extracted?"
"Yes, far more than what your hokage believes, happened that night, with one of those things being the fact that I didn't escape the seal during childbirth, but was extracted afterwards for the sole purpose of levelling Konoha."
"WHAT! Who the hell would do such a thing?"
"The answer to your question is simple, I don't like you enough to tell you that or the real reason behind me being sealed within you… but to put it bluntly, maintaining the balance of the bijū wasn't the main reason behind me being sealed again, merely a side effect. Now if you don't mind, I want to finish off my beauty sleep."
"Beauty sleep?"
"Yes."
"That would mean that you're either a girl or gay," the blond deadpanned.
"The first."
"You don't really sound like one."
"You try sounding like one when you're vocal cords are as large as mine."
"But I thought kitsune were shapeshifters?"
"They are."
"Then don't you have a human form?"
"Yes, but I don't like you enough to let you see it."
"I'll shut up now."
"Good."