June 30 2013 A/N: Haven't gotten around to updating these as quickly as I'd have hoped. Home life and work should never be underestimated in their ability to interfere.

"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
'"Talking within mindscape"'

"Tenant Speech"
'Tenant Thought (rare?)'
*"Tenant Outside Speech (probably never, just setting precedent)"*

"Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt in the present.
In these trying times, we must remember to pay our respects,
to our elders and our brothers, to those who have gone before.
We must inspire our youth, fill them with love and knowledge,
and then give them the space to realize their own potentials."
- Aang, Sage of the Element Wars

Back at the Training Grounds

Bull returned to the clearing in a storm of leaves, Chakra usage be damned. He was just in time to watch Naruto impale his target with a blunted kunai, no small feat for a boy his age. "OOOYAAH! WHO'S AWESOME? I'M AWESOME!" Apparently, it hadn't been his first try. His voice deadpan, the ANBU advanced on the blonde. "Naruto, I thought I told you not to throw any ku-" the rest of his sentence was drowned out by Naruto's jubilation. "Bull-sensei! Did you see THAT? This special technique is awesome, what do you call it? I can't wait to use it on..."

Now it was Bull's turn to interrupt. "Use it on who, Naruto? On the villagers who bully you? On Mizuki when he makes you angry again? Throwing kunai has nothing to do with what I intended to teach you, and neither does attacking Konoha's citizens." He continued, and to the blonde it seemed as if the ANBU was growing larger and more menacing with every passing second. Naruto could think of no response. He didn't have the experience or knowledge to defend himself from Bull's accusations, and they stung him to his core. Naruto's brain shut off after a moment of tension.

He did what any young child would. he began to cry. "I just wanted to make you proud of me." Bull's aggression stopped at the words. He'd been about to lecture the child on what it meant to be a ninja - what it meant to be Hokage, and to have duties, to be responsible. The boy's enthusiasm, as well as his maturity in some aspects - his Chakra capacity, his emotional control, his forgiveness and caring - had caused the ANBU to forget that he was dealing with a small child. Carefully, he approached the crouching blonde.

"Naruto..." Bull reached a hand out to console the boy as he thought of what to say next. "Sometimes your actions will end up hurting those around you, either physically or emotionally. Sometimes you'll hurt yourself." He waited for Naruto to look at him, the blonde having moved closer and stifled his tears. "Just because your intentions are good, it doesn't mean things won't go wrong. You have to think carefully before you do anything, especially as a ninja."

Bull spent a few minutes talking with the boy, prodding now and again for him to open up. The blonde was a walking tangle of emotions and insights, from food to pranks to gardening. "Ichiraku-jiji's shop is awesome! I wish more people would go there and make him get really rich, but everyone goes away when I eat there." Bull couldn't help but sigh - not many people could stand to be around Naruto, though he couldn't blame them; The Attack was still fresh in many memories, wounds of lost lovers and family would keep all but the youngest children away from him.

"How about your home life, Naruto? What do you do when you're alone?" Dog usually took care of the night shift, meaning Bull was working on a lack of information - anything he learned here would be new for the Hokage as well; Dog's reporting skills were notorious for their... brevity. "Well, I make ramen, mostly! Aayame-oneesan buys ingredients for me because the shop owners won't let me in, and I don't always have enough money to eat at Ichiraku's." The blonde rubbed his head in embarrassment - he was just happy to have someone to talk to. "Oh! Sometimes I garden! Someone brought me a whole bunch of dirt and plants one night - I think it was the Yamanakas, their flower shop is super cool - but they didn't leave any notes or anything. When I woke up, there were plants growing all over! I tried to move them carefully, but I lost a bunch..."

Naruto pantomimed his actions as he spoke, eventually telling the Anbu about his forays into the various parks around the village. "There's one house in the fancy part of Konoha that's covered in prickly vines! I tried to ask the people who lived there if they'd help me garden, but some mean blonde girl said I wasn't allowed around their place and that she'd call the police if I stayed - but another lady winked at me and talked to me after. That's how I figured out who left me the plants!" Bull knew the girl he was talking about, as it happened - and had seen her shooing her friends away from Naruto on the playground more than once. He'd have to have a talk with the Yamanaka head about this... Off the record, of course.

Before too long had passed, Naruto was once again jumpy with energy. All had been forgiven between the two, and Bull just hoped that Naruto had taken his occasional interjections over the course of their conversation to heart. "Now, let's get back to learning that technique - afterward, we're going to try something completely different, so you've gotta learn fast." The blonde nodded his agreement, and stretched, pulling himself off the ground.

"Since you already figured out what happens when you release the Chakra from your arms in the opposite direction of your throw, we'll move on to the intended application of the technique; it just so happens to be the exact opposite." Bull demonstrated - using the technique at minimal efficiency, showing Naruto where the Chakra would be expelled by way of a large blue puff. The Kunai, predictably, went shooting forward at preposterous speed, penetrating the bulls-eye of the target and burying itself into the ground behind.

"This technique is the first step in learning the Kawarimi, and for reasons you'll learn later, should never be used in an actual battle." Naruto gaped at the ANBU, before begging to be taught. "Arm back, Naruto. Gather the Chakra, follow your arm. Visualize it entering the kunai, but don't throw it." He waited, while blue mist began to evaporate from the blonde's fingers. "Use your palm instead of your fingers, Naruto - imagine a rope of Chakra from your core, through your palm, to the tip of the kunai - hold it!" Naruto's arm was trembling, straining to hold up both itself and the unusual weight of a kunai for so long. "Now, find the center of your target. Focus on it, but don't lose your Chakra. You need to imagine the rope stretching all the way to the target, and have your Chakra carry it there."

At that, he motioned for Naruto to throw. The blonde went through a few practice throws, muttering to himself as Bull corrected form and gave tips. "It's just like making leaves stick to your skin, Naruto - just keep the kunai in the center of the rope. Use as much Chakra as it takes - push it out, force the Chakra to carry it." Eventually, the blonde managed more than a few variations. Loop-de-loops, curves, even tracks that returned the kunai to him. With his Chakra output, the skill had been fairly easy to learn. 'Teaching him to master it, to a point where it'll be useful on missions, is another person's job entirely.' None the less, Bull found the boy's progress acceptable. Shape manipulation was, arguably, one of the most basic skills a ninja could use - and one of the most powerful.

"Alright, Naruto, let's change tracks. Your running still needs some serious work - I know you've got some trouble keeping the form, so I brought something that will help you kill two birds with one stone, so to speak." He then had to explain the idiom to the blonde, assuring him that they wouldn't be killing any birds. "Tch. Anyways, I won't always be able to come help you at nights - to that end, you're going to have to start teaching yourself. And here," he motioned to the books he'd brought from the library, "Is how you'll do it."

"'Kata and Form for Beginners', and 'My First Audio Reading Guide'?" Bull nodded, having forced Naruto to read the titles of the books. "You're going to go through 'My First Audio Reading Guide' until you can read it all in one lap around Konoha." Naruto almost fainted - 'The damn book is almost as thick as my finger!' A feeling of dread descended upon him, and intensified as he opened it, 'and the writing is so small! Compared to some of the pages Mizuki forced me through, I practically need to have my nose in the book to read it!' A third fear descended upon the blonde. 'At my speed, it won't take long to get around Konoha, either...'Or so he thought.

The blonde's fears were interrupted as the page he'd opened the book to began to speak. "WUAHRGH!" Naruto tossed the book away, forcing Bull to retrieve it mid-air before it could be damaged. Smacking the back of Naruto's head, the Anbu's reprimand was scathing. "Books. Are. Precious. Especially this one. You will not lose it, you will not let it be stolen, and you will not damage it. Am I clear?" Naruto nodded fervently, before accepting the book back. He held it at arms' length, as if it might bite. "Open it, Naruto. It's going to read itself to you. Each page has buttons to stop, start, rewind, and go forward. I want you to follow along with the book, one word at a time, until you can read an entire page on your own. When you finish the book, tell whichever of us is watching you - just say it out loud, and the next time I can, I'll get you another one."

Once Naruto got a feel for the thickness of each page - packed with electrical instruments and audio hardware - he relaxed a bit. It wouldn't be that hard, after all. Each word lit up as it was spoken, and he could make the words play over and over until he got them. In fact, he was almost having fun - Bull had to cough in order to get his attention. "While you're learning to read with that book, the other one requires only patience. It's completely visual - you've got great eyes, Naruto, and a good sense of your body's position when you pay attention." Bull opened the book to the first page, where it showed an androgynous figure. "Channel some Chakra into the book, and wait."

As the blonde drained a portion of his remaining energy into the book, the figure on the page changed - becoming more and more like the blonde. "This book uses a special form of jutsu, and was designed by a very famous ninja especially for orphans and young children - like yourself - to help them learn when a mentor or tutor isn't available. When you're old enough to enter the Academy, you'll be granted clearance to enter their library, to learn from more books like this one." Naruto had never thought that books would be useful - he'd always seen manga or newspapers or dusty old tomes as something that old people did for fun, like his gardening.

As he watched the book, the figure - now closely resembling Naruto, except for hair and clothes - began to go through various routines and movements. Each page was different, unless it was a continuation from a previous page - indicated by remaining blank until the figure moved onto it. Bull pointed to the words at the top of each page, indicating what kind of exercise it was and what it could be used for. "This book is more expensive than the other one - don't let it leave your house until you've mastered every single form in the book. When you can read them, there's instructions for using it at the very beginning. Once you've read that, it should be really simple to figure out." He hoped.

Naruto nodded absently, staring in wonder at the figures dancing throughout the book, some posing in forms that hurt to look at. After a minute he looked up, tears in his eyes, and - after carefully setting the book aside - wrapped his arms firmly around Bull's legs in a crushing embrace.

Naruto ran home through a summer shower, trying to keep his form in the shuffle-hop of ninja movement. It was hard, when all he wanted to do was skip and jump with glee. The blonde didn't think he'd ever felt this happy - even Hokage-jiji's presents weren't this awesome! Quickly ducking inside his apartment and locking the door behind him, Naruto unpacked his new belongings, transferring them from one of his jumpsuit's large pockets to the secret compartment beneath his bed - it was little more than a loose floorboard, but it was his most secret spot, and he had yet to have anything stolen from it.

Quickly checking his garden, he got ready for bed - boil water, undress, stretch, *THUMP*... Naruto cautiously poked his head out of his window, but saw nothing. *THUMP* The blonde startled, he slammed the window shut and bolted it. 'Ghosts!' He knew it! Gathering his courage, Naruto took out a kunai. He shuffled toward the door, legs shaking. Unlocking its many bolts, he took the handle, turned...

Naruto charged out from his apartment, kunai at the ready, swiping back and forth. Holding it in front of him, he looked around for the source of the noise.

*Clack...*

He looked up, just in time to see a form falling directly above. The ANBU, mask blank except for a single line of blue down the center, landed directly on Naruto, impaling himself on the up-held kunai. 'What kind of Anbu doesn't wear armour?' 'Where's his animal mask?' 'Who is it?' None of these questions were going through the blonde's mind right now. Instead, Naruto simply blanked out, his mind unable to process quite what had happened.

Dog cussed profusely, as his prey shot downward off the apartment's roof - Naruto would be defenseless against such an opponent, Dog's laxity would be the death of yet another he had sworn to protect. He shot toward the edge of the apartment, hopped down, and began to gather lightning along his arm, hoping he wasn't too late. His mind hopped track when he saw Naruto laying, covered in blood, clutching a kunai. The ROOT agent that had slipped past Dog's defenses lay dead, partially on top of him. Dog quickly formulated a plan, grabbing the larger body and disappearing in a whirlwind of leaves.

In the distance, lights flashed and a siren sounded. Rough hands picked Naruto up and dragged him away.

Midnight came and went. Sarutobi sat grimacing in his office, blood streaming from his eyes and nose. One of the problems with shadow clones was their memory backlash. There was no way to slow the rate at which their information returned - which was instantly. For small durations - five minutes, ten minutes - it wasn't an issue. The user might have a headache, or be disoriented for a short time.

The Hokage's use of clones, of course, was among the most advanced in the ninja world. He used them daily - the current state of Konoha demanded it. He'd picked up tricks, techniques, and forbidden knowledge in an attempt to extend their use and diminish their mutinous downsides. The clone that had recently dispelled, having been active for over four hours through the use of these skills, was currently being mentally contained by a constant application of a Chakra-intensive forbidden jutsu - one that fed the information to Hiruzen at a more managable rate. It seemed that the mundane reports from the civilian council's activities had been quite... extensive.

When a horde of Civilian Council Members began pouring in to the Hokage's Judiciary office, hiss clone had spent the day reviewing reports and standing judge for dozens of trials. Finally, having returned to a mental state in which he could process the memories, Sarutobi knew why his clone had risked such a foray. Normally, he would have had any civilian issues wait until the morning. This was different; it was Root. Root and Naruto. Dog had apparently intercepted a Ne operative attempting to abduct the jinchuriki. The ROOT ninja had managed to dodge Dog's initial attack from the rooftops, but he then slipped on a roof tile - falling to the ground below, and impaling himself on Naruto's raised kunai.

'The boy will be fine,' the wizened Ninja knew. The young blonde still didn't understand quite what had happened, at least, not really. 'Death isn't something children his age conceptualized very well, and thank kami for it.' The God of Ninjas lit his pipe as he stood, making his way towards the Military Council Chambers, where new clones, and ANBU on duty, had ordered Naruto and the clan heads to be arranged.

The real fuss that night had began when Naruto's landlord, an ancient lady who'd been the only civilian Sarutobi had been able to find to shelter the boy, happened to look outside before she locked up. She first noticed the dead Ninja on the ground, and then a confused and frightened Naruto - orange jumpsuit stained red, a bloody kunai in hand. She regretted ever letting the old man talk her into this scam - the jinchuriki had killed! Had killed, and would kill again! It was the Kyuubi Attack all over in her mind, and she had to stop it. She did the only thing she knew how, and called the police. The civilian police. Dog was nowhere in sight.

The civilian council members had almost formed a mob on the way to the council chambers, demanding blood. For his part, Dog had quickly brought the NE operative's body to the T&I department for questioning, leaving Naruto to fend for himself - not understanding what the consequences of such a foolish action would be. He shouldn't have bothered, for the NE operative had already committed suicide. The ROOT ninja's tongue was sealed against betrayal in any case.

In the civilian council chambers, Dog's report came to the Hokage's clone just before the throng of irate civilian seat-holders barreled in. At their fore, a badly beaten and bloodied Naruto was tied up and kicked forward whenever he paused, dragged to his feet whenever he stumbled or faltered. Hours later, Sarutobi's clone popped as it had been talking them down, unable to stretch its Chakra any farther. At least it had gotten them to relinquish the Jinchuriki into his holding. Dog would be bringing the boy now. He hoped.

Sarutobi massaged his headache away as he walked, medical Chakra glowing green on his fingertips. There was no way for this debacle to be swept under the rug. Too many people would swear they'd 'seen' the jinchuriki stab the ROOT Ninja, and Sarutobi couldn't let Danzo know that he'd caught the traitorous veteran, before he had more information.

Seeing nothing for it, he slowly dispelled his remaining clones around the village - a fresh trickle of blood paying testament to the stress of such an act. He needed to recover every last scrap of Chakra, every iota of information in order to face the ninja council on this issue... The Hokage's twitching fingers signaled for his remaining Anbu guards, pacing him at a distance, to ensure that his previous summons for the Clan Heads went through smoothly.

Finally, satisfied that there were no witnesses, a drop of blood was spilled, and a small puff of Chakra saw an even smaller chimp off, to retrieve T&I's reports garnered from the NE operative's body. 'Danzo, you old hawk - you've gone too far this time. Friendship be damned, treason demands retribution.' Yet, when he reached the Ninja council chambers, there was no Danzo. There was also no Naruto. A loyal Uchiha officer quickly reported on the police force's lack of success in finding any evidence of ROOT's whereabouts. Sarutobi sat in his hard throne at the fore of the chambers, his hands steepled and his head hung heavy in thought as he waited.

A/N: R&R!