Naruto sat in the chair before the Hokage. Iruka sat on his left and Kakashi on his right. They all carried a very grim look that made him feel uneasy. If they were worried about something about to happen that didn't look good, then what in hell was he supposed to be able to do about it? In his anxiousness, he spied a clear globe sitting on the Hokage's desk and wondered what sort of crazy shinobi jutsu the Hokage could use with it. It looked like a crystal ball from a story; a magical vessel used to see far into the future.

Chapter 2

Kakashi was the first to speak up, ending the silence in the room which was filled with dread. "Is it possible for us to keep him here in the village?"

"How could we possibly protect him outside of it? He should be watched by ANBU around the clock!" Iruka exclaimed, surprising even himself at the outburst.

He bowed his head quickly and said, "I'm sorry, it's not my place to make demands, Hokage-sama."

"It's quite understandable; truthfully, I am pleased to see you take up such a stance for one of your students." He turned then to Naruto and smiled, despite the situation. "You have a very dedicated instructor, Uzumaki, one deserving of much respect, in my humble opinion."

Iruka smiled hesitantly and but Naruto gave an easy nod. He was starting to understand why his teacher was so strict on him all of the time.

"When does Jiraiya arrive?" asked Kakashi who in the brief exchange had pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise novel and started reading it albeit absentmindedly.

The Hokage shook his head and took a puff of his pipe. "My contact only left a few minutes after I was given the scroll."

Kakashi looked up for a second from his book, but then turned back to it and started giggling almost sheepishly. Naruto scowled at the perverted look on the jounin's face and the Hokage smiled through a sigh.

Sarutobi noticed that Iruka looked like he had something to say, so the Hokage asked him to go ahead, "Speak, please Iruka-san. If there is anything on your mind about the situation, I'm all ears for clues to a solution."

Iruka, holding a heavy frown as he looked directly at the Hokage, seemed to search for something. Maybe his words to speak, maybe an answer, or just some approval, and when the Hokage nodded once Iruka sighed and began by saying, "Since you mentioned Jiraiya, perhaps he and Kakashi can escort Naruto under an alias and either genjutsu or maybe an alteration to his actual appearance?"

"I doubt that Jiraiya would agree to this. He said very clearly that it was simply a message, meaning he did not want to have anything to do with it. He knew that sending Naruto off with him would be my first reaction."

Iruka looked dumbfounded. "But, sir… lord… forgive me for saying this, but you're the Hokage."

Sarutobi gave the slightest of stern looks and Iruka flinched. "I am. Some things, however, are not entirely up to me."

Naruto, all the while, was staring down at the ground, shaking. He could feel his teeth chattering as he tried to imagine how three villages could suddenly be made aware of his existence and he was now mistaken as the heir to one of the most, if not the most, feared and respected Hokages in their history.

The craziest part? Well, it was probably that the confusion that was spread through the other villages could be understandable after a picture of him was sent to each of their Kages with a message explaining his supposed lineage.

"Naruto, do you understand everything that has been said today?" The Hokage asked, causing the young man to look up with his deep blue eyes.

"I don't… I have a lot of enemies now. They may even want to come to the village to kill me, so I might have to run. I can't expect protection from the village at all times and it may be hard to try and convince them that, although I'm blond and I'm at the right age to be his lost son, I actually am not."

"That's right. That is the most important part, that you do not try and use their confusion to trick them. If they caught wind of you claiming to be his son, I have no doubt that your enemies would double simply because the ones who weren't certain would suddenly become very much so."

Kakashi spoke sagely as he read his book, speaking almost as if he were reading directly from it the words and advice that he was giving. "When Kumo, Iwa and Suna see a chance to attack Konoha politically, they take it without hesitation. Not only does this unbelievable idea of Naruto being the Yondaime's son have no foundation to base itself on other than superstitious old shinobi who remember the bad times and the old wars, but were also the fearful who were read scary stories of the Yondaime Hokage and never forgot those old tales, even as full-fledged shinobi, of the yellow flash sneaking into their respective shinobi camps and leaving with the heads of their leaders without anyone even knowing he was there."

Naruto was struck in a stupor. Was the Yondaime really that powerful? Sure, he knew plenty of shinobi who were sneaky, but only a few never got caught. In his opinion, he was pretty good at detecting people sneaking around him and from time to time he even caught some ANBU by surprise.

"Naruto, you might be wondering if the Yondaime and the legends surrounding him share any resemblance. And the fact of the matter is: they do. They most certainly do. He once relayed a bit of advice to me. A small token, I suppose, before he went and died six years ago."

Naruto was already sitting up straight in his chair as he listened diligently to Kakashi, who smirked beneath his navy blue mask.

"The better shinobi, he said, makes one less mistake than the other shinobi. But the best shinobi prepares himself for the mistakes that he will, indeed, make."

The Hokage smiled approvingly, while Iruka stood straighter at his superior's words, clearly impressed.

The Hokage turned to look at Kakashi. "Thank you very much for your clever choice of words, Kakashi-kun. But as far as who will be watching over Naruto here, I don't know what else to do, other than to give him to Danzo."

Iruka grimaced and Kakashi looked dead in the eye of the Hokage, as if trying to make sure he was in the right state of mind when he said that. "Hokage, what makes you think Danzo would even take Naruto?"

Naruto looked up, "Who's Danzo?"

The three of them looked at him quietly and Iruka spoke up, "He is a council member and elite shinobi with very few beyond the Hokage as his equal."

Sarutobi chewed on the spout of his pipe as he turned in his chair, sinking into it.

"Perhaps we should check with Shikaku. He may be able to prepare a strategy for our current predicament." Kakashi offered, still not looking up from his book.

"That sounds like a sound plan, Kakashi." He sat up and nodded. "Until then, I will contact Danzo and see if I can convince him to take Naruto on as his ward. I suspect it won't be very difficult." said the Hokage. He looked to Naruto and addressed him as such, "Naruto-kun. I suspect you will have to go through quite a bit of training. What you do from here on out is very important for the village, and not only your own survival, but ours as well depends on your decisions from here on out. I will try and watch over you as much as I can, and I will give you a gift that may aid you someday in the future."

The Hokage then turned to address the other two, "Gentlemen, if you would."

They looked at one another, then bowed and excused themselves from the office immediately after saying their goodbyes to Naruto.

"Naruto. I can't ask this of you, but by the time you have received and used the gift that I am going to bestow upon you, you will come to understand what is necessary not only for your own wellbeing, but also for that of the village as well."

Naruto fidgeted, trying to figure out what the word 'bestow' meant, but figured it had to do something with gift, which means he was going to get something… probably, "What are you going to give me?"

The Hokage nodded and stood up from his chair and walked over to a wall on the left side of the room. He quickly revealed there to be a false wall and expertly removed each of the ten traps that were set to guard the mysterious object.

"I moved it recently due to a failed break-in by one of our very own chunin. I suspect he was interested in its contents for the wrong reasons, and I cannot allow this scroll to fall into the wrong hands."

Naruto felt his pride swell; he was hoping that meant the Hokage had a lot of confidence in him. After reaching his hand into a hole within the false wall and reaching upwards, he seemed to yank down on something and then moved his arm away, revealing there to be a revolving wall within the false one.

When he turned around, he waved Naruto over who quickly stood up from his chair and walked over to him.

When the Hokage took a step back, Naruto saw a very large scroll that was easily over half his size. It looked old, but hardly delicate, and had dark green trim with a light beige center.

"Hokage-sama… what is that?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded at the ridiculously large scroll that looked almost painful to carry.

"That, Naruto, is the Hokage scroll of sealing*. It is a very important scroll that contains nearly every known jutsu known in Konoha and information regarding each of them. Some of the jutsu within are forbidden by the Shodai Hokage for the sake of lower ranked shinobi because of the chakra control and well requirements that can be overwhelming to those who are not prepared."

Naruto's eyes widened, "The Shodai was the one who forbid them? What could I possibly do with any of them? I don't know anything about performing jutsus, much less any that require any kind of chakra control! I can barely do a bunshin…"

The Hokage gave him a stern look, which made the boy waver his stance on the issue. "Naruto, the time is now for you to begin your journey as a shinobi. I have decided to have you study this scroll under Kakashi's tutelage. I wanted to see his reaction first hand at offering you to Danzo, and I was content with what I saw. I simply wanted to make sure I could trust him."

Naruto blinked, furrowing his brow. "It didn't look like he did anything, actually. He just giggled like a girl while he was reading that orange book."

The Hokage chuckled. "You shall also train in the art of reading a person's behavior, body language and written and spoken words."

He gave a disgusted look that made the Hokage laugh again. "It's a necessary evil, I assure you Naruto."

"Oh, Oji-san! Can Iruka help me learn these techniques as well?" Naruto asked, smiling hopefully as he looked at the old man's wise eyes.

"You will continue to go to the academy. I believe that Kakashi is already aware of what his responsibilities will entail for the next couple of years, but I believe with time you will become the shinobi worthy enough to have peered into this sometimes finicky scroll."

Naruto blinked. "Finicky?"

"You'll see," he assured him. He pulled a few seals from his desk and stood up to walk over to him. "Go ahead, pick it up."

Naruto reached over with a bit of excitement in his hands as he fingered the scroll away from the wall and tilted it toward him so it would lean on his shoulder. He used his legs to lift it up and grinned up at the Hokage, who offered a warm smile. "Hold it in your arms." Naruto then did as he was told and brought the large scroll out in front of him to cradle it.

Immediately, the Hokage stamped the seals vertically and horizontally in a conspicuous pattern.

"This is a very large scroll. The seals I just applied to it have made it impossible for you to learn certain jutsu by making them 'unavailable' in the scroll until you have mastered some others. You can start with Iruka after academy hours tomorrow. I will relay the message to him and Kakashi so that your training goes by smoothly."

"Thank you, oji-san." Naruto said with a bright, sunny grin. He was about to hoist the scroll over his shoulder again when he noticed there was a belt he could wear to strap it onto his back. Doing so, he easily carried the scroll and stood up straight before bowing in front of the Hokage.

Before he could leave, the Hokage said, "One last thing Naruto… at some point, I'd like you to go see Yamanaka Inoichi for a mental check up and examination. Perhaps by the end of next month." Obviously it wasn't all that important, since he could probably wait a whole month and a half to go. Naruto put it at the bottom of his short list of to-do's.

"Who's that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes until the Hokage could hardly see them.

"Ah, he's a blond man with a pony-tail and his family owns a nice flower shop near the southern wall. He also has a very charming young daughter named Ino who is about a year younger than you are."

"Ah! Ino?" He asked enthusiastically, remembering the girl's name and quickly shooting the mental examination up near the top of his list. "So her last name is Yamanaka?" His grin widened substantially, "Arigatou, oji-san!" He said and then ran out the door quickly to the surprise of the village leader. With a grin, Sarutobi picked up his pipe and puffed slowly; smoke rings began filling the still air in the large room.

"The scroll and the anger from Iwa likely are the least of my worries." He thought aloud and blew out a puff of smoke that swirled into a spiral like those worn by many of his very own shinobi.

Author: Just so you know, I've decided to write shorter chapters so that I could update quickly. I have most of this story already written down, which is why I took so long to update, but I'm constantly checking it and rewriting a few things.

I have removed the first chapter showing what made me think up this story, but I have to warn those of you who have read it that if you can't be patient, then it might be a while before the important points in the plot come around and you may be disappointed thinking I'm going to go straight to the Uchiha and the sharingan-born Hyuga. There are also significant changes in this actual, multi-chaptered story whereas the one-shot will no longer act as a valid summary.