A/N: Before anything else, the word count on the previous chapter was 9001... Don't worry, I won't say it. Anyway, hello peoples! I'm back (finally) with another chapter, as you can plainly see. Before I can get to anything about content, this story's rating will be changed to M. I was gonna try and keep it restricted to T, but I physically can't, especially with how graphic this may end up getting. Okay, that's out of the way. So, I'll be getting up to, if not into the academy in this chapter, possibly even out of it; I don't know 'cause I don't really plan these chapters. I just feel like I've spent to long with him as a child, so, even if the chapter is really long compared to my others, I will be getting through that part. Unfortunately, I'll be laying off the crime aspect of the story for a bit, though some development of that will be going on in the background and will be brought up later. You guys'll see that later, and I'll drop some hints in this chapter too. Regardless, if people complain about the chapter length, I'll split the chapter and re-upload it. Oh, and the title will make sense or change within, say, the next chapter. Now, on with the story!

Oh, and Banjo the Fox, MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND! Human trafficking is a part of the crime world that you wanted him to take over, just saying. The hell are you going to blacklist this fic for? That doesn't fall into MA, just maybe M, which I switched my rating to, and I don't see anything in the rules prohibiting that in your stories anyway. Besides, he wasn't going to actually sell little girls or anything. His coming skill set will be... well, God-like, and his mind has been trained to an ANBU level for a long time, so he... fuck this, just read the fucking chapter, you dumb ass. Unless you are the kind of person to assume, in which case, I must respectfully ask you to not review, as many things won't go as they may seem; I don't need bitching coming in as feedback.

Also, if his age is a point where any of you guys/gals disagree on the reality of(I'm talking to you, Alviniju), I'll either explain that in an author's note later, or in the story. Probably next chapter, if not the one after that.

Kage Bunshin - Jutsu (I don't think I'll be having NINJAS call out their moves that much though. It will probably be made fun of a lot later on in this story.).

I will destroy you and everything you hold dear. - Extreme anger or demonic speech/thought.

Do angels go back to heaven when they die? - Thought/Flashback stuff.

OH MY FUCKING GOD - Emphasized speech or shouting.

Anything in apostrophes, 'blah blah', occurs within the mind, be it mental communication (which is present) or just plain thoughts.

And any combination from here on out is up to you guys to decipher.

Recap:

"Now, this is going to be something of a temporary merger. You'll see everything from my perspective, feeling what I was feeling, thinking what I was thinking, etc. Same for me, though both will only take the blink of an eye. You'll do through my life, and understand me... hatred and all. Do you still want to proceed?" With a nod from him and a determined look, she told him one last thing. "I've only ever kept one thing from you, and I don't do things for no reason. Please don't overreact."

With that said, Naruto, who had been doing the process while she was talking, reached out his hand. She did the same, and when their palms connected, both of their vision faded away.

And Now-

After they returned from their vision (A/N: Nope! Not showing what they saw.), Naruto just stood there for a while, and Kogo followed suit, neither willing to meet the other's eyes for different reasons. Barely any time had passed since they put their hands together, but it felt like an eternity for Naruto. An unpleasant one at that.

Finally looking up at Kogo, he could only ask, "How?" In response, she just gave a somber smile. "You learn to live with the hate. Even when its source is constantly surrounding you, attempting to harness your power, and even capturing you. So... do you blame me for...?"

Naruto looked down for a moment before answering. "You were in control of yourself when you stabbed them..." At this, Kogo braced herself for what she was sure was coming. "...but I would've done the same thing. I can't hold fighting so hard for your freedom against you, but..." As he trailed off, Kogo froze in shock at the fact that he was able to forgive her so easily. 'Well, he never actually had any attachment to them.'

Sighing, Naruto let his unfinished thought die. "I don't hate you. I don't have enough people close to me to be choosy based on the past. I didn't have parents, and my life won't end because of that." Unknown to both of them, despite his peaceful attitude at that moment, the exposure to the concentrated hatred embodied in her chakra had a lasting effect, and it wouldn't make itself known for a while. Blissfully ignorant, Naruto just gave her a hug, surprising her greatly as he'd never been the one to initiate a hug, and allowed himself to fade out of his mind.

Back in the Real World

Regardless of its lasting effects, Naruto managed to bury the hatchet there. Unfortunately, as he came out of his mind, he found himself surrounded by ANBU. Only one word came to mind at that moment, and he let it be heard. "...Fuck..."

For a while, none of them moved, not like Naruto could with at least 3 tanto at his throat, a kunai over his heart, and a kunai poised to puncture each lung. When he was about to try the kawarimi with a clone, one of the ANBU just grabbed him and shunshin-ed to the Hokage's office.

Appearing there, Naruto could only think, 'The one time, the ONE FUCKING TIME, that I stop focusing on my surroundings, I get arrested. FUCK!' Reluctantly walking along with the ANBU, he made his way to the Hokage. 'Do I run, Kogo-chan?' 'No point. This whole village will be looking for you, even the Hyuuga, despite their relations to you. The villagers want you caught, and killed by the way, while every ninja will follow the Hokage's orders. Just talk your way out of this one.' Sighing, he resigned himself to using all of the manipulation skills drilled into him by Haitatsu to get through this encounter with a positive result.

Approaching the Hokage's office, he made a plan to appeal to the Hokage's soft heart along with his fondness of him. After they entered, the ANBU were dismissed by Hiruzen. After a few tense seconds, Naruto broke into a grin. "Hey, jiji! It's been a while, hasn't it?" Hiruzen smiled, though, as genuine as it was, it looked a bit strained. "Hello, Naruto-kun. It has been a while, hasn't it? You've grown so much since I last saw you."

His grin, if possible, grew. "Yeah, I have, haven't I? So, why was half the zoo on me just now? I was in the middle of training?" He ended with a pout, setting Hiruzen's doubt at ease, at least partially. Hiruzen was thinking of a way to ask Naruto, who he thought was still ignorant of the Kyuubi, what was happening with the youki he was radiating. "Naruto?" Naruto just raised an eyebrow. "How, exactly, were you training?"

Naruto thought for a second on how to answer the question, then decided that going for the shock method would be the best here. Wiping the thoughtful look off his face, he put on a grin again, this time even closing his eyes to hide them. "Oh, I was training with the giant mass of chakra sealed in my gut." The Hokage's face, in that moment, was as white as a sheet of paper. All the ANBU shifted slightly, ready to jump to the Hokage's aid.

Naruto, on the other hand, just kept his grin in place, but slowly opened his eyes. Though he was still a six year old, his eyes gave off the look of a cat looking at a mouse stuck in a mouse trap. Deciding whether or not to eat it in that moment or play with it for a while.

Hiruzen, seeing Naruto look at him with those eyes, managed to pale even further. Given how he was being looked at, Hiruzen was unsure of how to proceed, as he didn't know what Naruto knew. Addressing Naruto slowly, he began, "Naruto-kun, please understand. I-" Naruto stopped him with a raised hand. He curled up all but two fingers and said, "Two things, Jiji." Lowering his hand, he continued, "I understand that you probably just wanted me to have a normal childhood, but you should've known that was impossible from the moment you knew of the villagers' irrational hate. I won't hold it against you too much; you got me a nice place to stay, though I question why you thought a 3 year old, as quickly developing as I am, was fit to live on their own, you cared for me when no one else bothered to, you... were the first one there for me. Seriously though, how did you think a 3 year old could live alone?"

Hiruzen could only chuckle nervously. "Well, I did have an ANBU or two monitor you until you showed you were actually able to do well enough on your own, and you learned rather fast, especially with that nice elderly couple in your building to help you. You learned how to cook... kinda, how to wash to a decent level, and how to survive on your own in general. You even had that nice old lady let you work for her, allowing you to learn responsibility and self-sufficiency. You got to the point where you didn't even need the monthly stipend to live off of by your fifth birthday."

Naruto nodded at the assessment, though he didn't agree. "Had I been any other 3 year old, I wouldn't have even understood the concept of responsibility, let alone learn to survive in the redlight district. You are so lucky that some of the prostitutes are rather nice." He could feel one of the two female ANBU in the room grow rather irritated at the mention of the prostitutes. "Oh, don't get your panties in a bunch, ANBU-san. Unless it's forced, prostitution is a completely viable way to make a living for anyone willing. People sometimes have needs that aren't satisfied by a significant other, and other people choose to be paid to satisfy said need. Some people choose it out of desperation, but... Meh. Get over it. It's not like as though just women pleasing men either. Guys please guys. Girls please girls. Guys please girls, and yes, some women do get a male prostitute because their frustrated. The world will go on; don't worry" After getting her "righteous feminine fury" quelled by Naruto's logic, the ANBU just sank into herself, ignoring the amused look she was getting from the Hokage.

Hiruzen just shook his head at the event that transpired in front of him. Getting Naruto's attention, hey moved on. "Well, Naruto-kun, now that I've answered one of your two questions, I think it's time for you to answer one of mine." Naruto just nodded. "What did you mean "training with the giant mass of chakra sealed in your gut"?" Naruto just glanced at the "hidden" ANBU, surprising Hiruzen even further at the fact he knew their exact locations. Hiruzen still got the message behind the glance and dismissed the ANBU in the room... well, his ANBU in the room.

The dismissed ANBU followed protocol and vacated the immediate premises, but stayed within earshot of a shout. Naruto, on the other hand, resisted the urge to glance at a vent. Narrowing his eyes, he asked Hiruzen, "Did you dismiss all of them?" Hiruzen gave an uneasy nod, not liking the feeling Naruto was putting out.

At the Hokage's nod, Naruto sent a chakra arm to the vent, unseen so as to not alarm the intruder further, and solidified it around their body. Yanking them back, though it required effort due to the chakra channeled to their feet, he pulled them through the vent, breaking its entrance in the process. Hiruzen jumped out of his seat with speed no one had seen him use in 5-6 years (A/N: Since the Kyuubi attack.), and quickly knocked the ANBU out of commission to avoid their possible retaliation, be it suicide or an attack.

With no remorse, he ripped the mask off of the unknown ANBU's face, only to find what he suspected and dreaded at the same time. 'This isn't one of my ANBU... Danzo, you're pushing your luck really far.' To make sure, he made the unknown ANBU's head loll back to make his mouth open. He saw the seal that all root shinobi had on their tongue, confirming what he was hoping against hope wasn't the case. Sighing, he recalled his ANBU, telling them to bring him to the T&I division as soon as possible, preferably before he woke up. Turning back to Naruto, he said, "Thank you, Naruto-kun." as he was heading back to his seat.

Sitting back down, he continued. "But, what just happened brings me to my next point. I noticed when you called out to the ANBU member before, and again when you found the hidden one; How did you know where they were? Also, how did you get that one down? In the latter, you showed powers that no one else in Konoha has, Naruto."

Noticing how the Hokage dropped the -kun from his name when addressing him, he sighed. "I told you I trained with..." stopping for a moment, he asked Kogo, 'Do you mind if I tell Hokage-jiji your name?' 'Go ahead. I don't really care who knows my name, as long as they don't get too familiar without actually knowing me.' Nodding mentally, he continued his sentence. "With Kogo-chan, aka the Kyuubi. I also got help from a retired kunoichi, Haitatsu-baa-chan, in my training. She actually put me through ANBU training, along with Kogo, who's really the source of those powers, who helped me learn to do what you were talking about. HOW I do it... is a trade secret."

The Hokage was silent for a few moments before looking up at Naruto with real concern in his eyes. Since he was younger, Naruto was a naturally good judge of character and intention, knowing when to stay away from adults with ill intentions. Due to this, Hiruzen just asked, as confirmation, "Do YOU think you can trust it?" Clearing his throat at the growl Kogo let out in his mind, he responded, at first with a bit of an edge to his voice. "First off, she, not it." He paused to give a slight glare, causing Hiruzen to apologize. "And secondly, yes, I trust her as much as I trust you, or Haitatsu-baa-chan, or anybody else, if not more."

Hiruzen just sighed, rubbing his temples to ward off the headache he was getting. "Well, if you're sure you can trust HER, then go ahead. So, is there anything else you'd like to discuss? I'm using this as my break from paperwork, so take your time." Naruto just nodded. "Before I ask what I want to, I gotta ask you something else now. Do you know the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Getting a nod from Hiruzen, Naruto continued in a voice similar to an adult explaining something to a slow child. "Then why don't you use them for things like paperwork?" Hiruzen opened his mouth to respond before realizing he had no response.

Closing his gaping mouth, and trying to hide his embarrassment, he made three shadow clones and leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh. Deciding to light his pipe to commemorate the "achievement", he did just that, taking a few puffs, before turning back to Naruto. "So," he began in an obviously happier tone. "What was it that you wanted, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto just smiled sadly for a moment before giving a response. "You know that in the redlight district, the Konoha Police Force has little to no power, right?" Getting a nod of acknowledgement, he continued. "Well, I'm sure you're aware that the yakuza are pretty much the government there, right?" He got another nod. "Well, I've managed to get a few... connections to the current leader. Using them, I could get him arrested with relative ease, and it would benefit both of us." Hiruzen leaned forward, now in his full "Hokage mode", and asked. "How would it benefit you?"

Sighing at the explanation he was about to jump into, he began. "Haitatsu-baa-chan had borrowed from them to keep her business afloat. A while ago, they came to her, looking for what they were owed. In order to make sure she didn't... disappear, for one reason or another, I ended up being a free service for them, in order to let them get the money they spent on her back by saving on other costs. I've only done small things, a delivery here or there, free help at an overworked whore house they run, etc., but, recently, I was assigned an upcoming job that I don't think I wanna go through with, if I don't have to. It was a... human trafficking job. I know I should've come to you earlier, but I thought it would've been fine. This is crossing a bit of a line, though." Hiruzen could only sigh, trying to think of what to do.

While the Hokage gave the matter some thought, Kogo chimed in. 'What the hell are you doing? The drug runs were good stealth training, you know!' 'I know, and I have no intention of stopping. I just wanna get paid for this shit. NOW. So, I'll just get rid of the one who is at the top currently, without getting blamed for it, and scare them into obeying me. They'll figure out that I'm a better leader in time. Besides, Shido-san was a greedy fucker a lot of the time; it's not like anyone will really miss him.' Kogo gave a nod, not that he could see it, and quieted down, curious as to the course things would take.

Hiruzen, meanwhile, thought of a plan that would take the least bloodshed, as is his nature, playing right into Naruto's hands. "Is there any way you could call him out for a... meeting? The ANBU should be able to take him into custody easily if you bring him to an open area. If we get rid of him, the rest should crumble." Nodding his head at the general assessment, Naruto added something. "I'll try and get as many of the higher ups as I can. If you just take him out, one of them will probably just assume power." Hiruzen nodded at him, proud at how Naruto had grown.

Continuing on, he asked the Hokage one more thing. "I have one more thing to say. A request, Jiji. Can I go on a trip for two years? I've already planned out a travel schedule, and I'd leave next year. You saw that I'm old enough to take care of myself here, so I'd say I could do just fine on my own out there. It's just for training anyway, Jiji. I want to become a ninja, but I doubt the people in the academy will treat me too fairly. Actually, I doubt they'd even want me to learn here. I may be strong for my age now, and I'd say I'm stronger than just about any genin, but I don't enjoy having people both stronger than me AND HATEFUL towards me so close. So I just wanna get stronger than them BEFORE they snap... again."

The Hokage had to think about it. He had made sure the knowledge of their village's jinchuriki had stayed secret, not even spoken among those who know about it, so he was probably safe from abduction in the regard. But there was the matter of getting him travel papers and such, which would give him extra work. 'Actually, I can just use a clone for that. Gotta love clones.' Then there was the matter of maintaining his residence. 'Though I could easily pay for that with my salary as Hokage. It's the least I could do.' Finally, there was the matter of making sure he'd be safe from bandits and nuke-nin. 'I'll just test his strength. If he's able to at least a chunin's level, he'll be fine.' Making up his mind, he told Naruto, "You can go, on one condition: you have to prove to me you are strong enough."

Nodding his head excitedly, the act only half faked, Naruto accepted. "So, when do I get to try?" Chuckling at his enthusiasm, Hiruzen just said "Grab on" with an outstretched hand. Taking the Hokage's hand, he was shunshin-ed to the Hokage's personal training ground. "This, Naruto-kun, is the personal training ground of the Hokage. All four of us have trained here, though Hashirama-sama, the Shodai, preferred the forest itself. Here, you get a chance to train anything in complete secrecy, since there are barrier tags preventing anyone who isn't or wasn't a Hokage, or isn't with one, from entering or seeing anyone inside. Now," at this, he threw off his robe, revealing his armor underneath it, "come at me, Naruto-kun! I may be old, but I am far from outdated! Oh, and come at me with the intent to kill, or I won't get a scratch on me."

Naruto just smiled, and channeled as much youki and nature energy as he could through his body without initiating the transformations, balancing it with the chakra he was coursing through his body at that moment. Blurring behind the Hokage, appearing in midair, he went for an ax kick to the old man's shoulder. Hiruzen saw it coming, but let it hit. Just from the speed that Naruto was able to go, he could tell the hit wouldn't do TOO much damage, and he was right, not even wincing from the blow. "Not bad, Naruto," he began, grabbing Naruto's leg. "But, you'll have to do more than move quickly!" With this, he threw him at a tree.

Feeling a bit of déjà vu from his fight with Anko, he decided to spice it up a bit. Landing on his feet in front of the tree, he made 22 clones in the deeper part of the forest behind him and had them use the moguragakure no jutsu to sneak towards Hiruzen, though he had 6 use the trees. Making three shadow clones, and allowing them to create smoke, he used the shunshin to get out of there while one of the clones took his place, his movements obscured by the smoke.

The clones, already knowing his plan, went off in a dead sprint towards the aged Kage. All three were dispersed quickly with a few well-placed punches, though Hiruzen did show some surprise when he saw they were all clones. In that moment, 6 clones jumped out of the ground, all poised to hit Hiruzen with chakra weapons they made. Two of them had a fuma shuriken in their hands, spinning it like a buzz saw with chakra, two had a bunch of projectiles, shuriken in one hand and kunai in the other, ready to throw, and the last two had throwing knives, which Naruto found bad ass so he practiced in his free time. Letting them all fly, the clones were shocked when the old Kage managed to dodge ALL of them, not one of them even scratching him. They were even more shocked when the weapons of the clone across from them collided with their bodies in various positions, dispersing them into chakra which Naruto reabsorbed a good portion of, thankfully for him.

As Hiruzen was settling back into a stance, 10 more clones popped out of the ground, in pairs, all about to throw out a jutsu. Though none of them said it, one of the clones in each pair mentally shouted either, 'Futon: Daitoppa! (Wind style: Great Breakthrough!)' or 'Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!(Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!)' . Letting the jutsu fly, each pairs' jutsu combined, the already boulder sized fireball being amplified by the compressed gale force winds created by their counterpart, to form a raging inferno that went flying towards Hiruzen. The clones then dispersed, having poured all the chakra they were made with into the jutsu.

Eyes wide, Hiruzen's first instinct was to jump, which he did with gusto. After he was airborne, he performed a flawless kawarimi no jutsu (substitution technique) with a tsuchi bunshin (earth clone) he had on the ground, hidden from Naruto, or at least he thought it was. The kawarimi's execution was perfect enough Naruto's perpetually active radar technique couldn't tell the difference immediately and it wasn't detected until it was too late to stop. Unfortunately for him, Naruto actually planned for it, and, after noticing the switch, set his plan into action.

The remaining 6 clones in the trees, still believing that Hiruzen was airborne, did their jobs and jumped out, doing the same combo as the clones on the ground before dispersing. With nowhere to go, the tsuchi bunshin was hit by the infernos racing towards him, causing him to disperse into mud which was also burnt rather badly.

In the trees, Hiruzen smiled at the power Naruto possessed. 'While it's still ages away from what any Kage can accomplish with those two jutsu, this skill is coming from a 5 year old!' he thought to himself before feeling a buildup of a rather large amount of chakra behind him. He dove out of the way as fast as he could, and, when he reviewed what happened, he was glad he did.

Naruto hadn't been idle while his clones were busy with the old Kage. He'd been building up as much chakra as he could possibly control at once, a large amount, even to a seasoned jonin. Once he reached his maximum without alerting the old man of his actions, he added a considerable amount of youki along with nature energy, making the store as powerful as he could get it in the time period he had.

After the Hokage had let his guard slip slightly after the successful kawarimi, he blurred behind him with some concentrated youki from Kogo, as he couldn't use anymore of his own at that point, before mentally shouting 'FUTON: RENKUDAN! (Wind style: Drilling Air Bullet!)' and letting the compressed air fly from his outstretched hands with as much speed and power as possible.

With his continuously increasing ability to control all the power available to him, the technique was nothing to scoff at. It tore through the ground below it, blew by and THROUGH the surrounding trees, destroying anything in its path for more than 30 yards after he released it. Unfortunately, it only nicked Hiruzen, but that was enough to send him flying into a tree. Naruto, sadly, was unable to capitalize on it due to being drained from the magnitude of the technique. 'Okay, so I don't have quite as much of any of those chakra at the ready as I thought I did.' He could hear Kogo laughing at him in his head as her youki was drained into him, refilling his stores of energy, as he had to have a certain amount of chakra to draw in any notable amount of natural energy. 'It's a bijuu technique, my sweet little dumbass. You're still only five anyway.' He was too drained at that moment to give more than a roll of his eyes in response.

Meanwhile, the Hokage got up and walked towards the downed Naruto, who, seeing him approach, was back on his feet in an instant, panting heavily. Holding up his hands to signify that he wasn't fighting anymore, Hiruzen said, "Don't worry. You've impressed me plenty. There aren't many who can say they've been able to push me to the point you have. Only a jonin really has a chance of doing as well as you just did. You're plenty strong enough to go in this trip of yours, though I don't see why you want to if you are this strong already." Naruto just grinned and replied through his still somewhat labored breathing. "Haitatsu-baa-chan told me that there's always someone better, so I'm just trying to be the one who's better."

Nodding at his aspirations, Hiruzen smiled. "Well, I'll help with that. Why don't you tell me what you can do already so I can give you some pointers?" Giddy at the chance to get pointers and input from the Kami no Shinobi, this excitement all real, he answered. "I can do at least two jutsu from each of the base elements, though I'm not the best at suiton jutsu yet, since my I have a natural affinity for EVERYTHING BUT that." He took a moment to grumble to himself at that, while Hiruzen allowed some of the shock to dissipate.

After the small pause, Naruto continued. "I just set a few clones to work on that every once in a while. I've completed the elemental training for all the elements, though I am still trying to do the large scale water one; clones have been correcting that slowly though. I've already managed to split a leaf and waterfall with wind chakra, burn a leaf to a crisp and maintain a fire underwater with chakra for a full two minutes, turn a leaf to dust and mold the earth under me into any shape in an instant, and I'm good enough with lightning to power my kitchen for 20 minutes... at most before my control slips. I am faster than most of your ANBU, or at least more agile, though that may just be because I'm smaller." He paused to shrug here before continuing.

"I am not that physically strong yet, but I was studying master level fuinjutsu and found the resistance seals, so I'll be using them to correct that AND up my speed and endurance. Unfortunately, I don't think I can go past level 10 without stunting my growth, so I'll hold off on going that far until I'm, say, 9, maybe 10. I can use my chakra to create things, like those fuma shuriken my clones were using, and... Oh yeah! I can use a good portion of Kogo's chakra, along with mine. I can also use either my or her chakra to affect my surroundings without actually solidifying it into something like those shuriken, like I did with that ANBU. As such, you could say I'm something of a sensory shinobi, as I can push the chakra out in all directions and do that, letting me know what's around me."

Hiruzen just gaped at the boy in disbelief. 'How! He's five, for Kami's sake! Fucking five! He may look as though he's about eight, and even that would be ridiculous, but he's been on this earth for only five years and has achieved strength greater than most seasoned chunin! Hell, most JONIN can't do what he's talking about! I don't even think he's telling me everything... He's going to be a monster when he grows up.' Shaking himself out of his stunned stupor, Hiruzen just chuckled. "You're a very special child, Naruto-kun. Well, I'd say your measure for correcting your strength deficiency is sound, although you should let me apply the seal since I'm familiar with it already. Your jutsu repertoire seems sound, since you seem to be mastering the jutsu to the point of no hand seals instead of learning a bunch of them like most young ninja. I have a few techniques to give you, and they should help you greatly. I also recommend you at least learn one style of fighting, even if you are more of a mix and match fighter, throwing in moves where you feel they're appropriate, though I'd say you should go about learning... maybe three. It would do you good. And even if you don't do too well with genjutsu, as I can tell, still learn some... Hmm. I think I have the perfect one for you actually."

Naruto, who'd recovered fully by this point, was thankful and expressed it with a hug. "Thanks, Jiji!" He actually began to feel a little guilty about using him to gain control over the yakuza, though he quickly squashed that feeling, reminding himself of something the world taught him. 'Always look out for number one. Everyone else should be a secondary concern at best...' Getting over the guilt with ease, he continued addressing Hiruzen."Okay, Jiji, when should I come back for the seals? I don't have much for the week; even though I still have to deliver mail in the morning, I can have a clone do that, so anytime is good."

Nodding at him, he said, "I can do it later today if you wish. It doesn't take long to set up, it can just mess up your muscles if it's done wrong." Naruto nodded, only asking, "Does this place have a large source of water? I'm gonna get some practice in while you prepare." The Hokage just pointed to the left of him, saying "About 50 yards outside of this clearing." Naruto nodded and was about to leave for it before he seemingly remembered something.

Making a gesture for Hiruzen to come over to him, he waited until he was just in front of him. At that moment, he let out a punch with as much of the energy he could build up in his fist, hitting the old Kage square in the solar plexus. As the old man dropped to one knee, Naruto dusted his hands off, saying, "That was a gift from my deceased childhood... but we're even now." Hiruzen just got up slowly, shaking off the blow with ease. "I believe I did deserve that, and more, though I don't believe I deserve your forgiveness for the mistakes I've made. Thank you, Naruto-kun." The aged Kage, after giving his heartfelt thanks, shunshin-ed out to get the materials to do the seal.

Naruto just waited for a second before sitting down and letting his reserves refill, after sending a few clones to work on the mass water manipulation that is. "Fucking shadow clones. Halving my chakra." After his moment of grumbling, he began to meditate, seeking to deepen both his connection to and understanding of nature, not only to get better at using it to replenish his chakra but because he felt as though he was gaining a lot from it. Letting his senses drift among the world around him, an hour or so passed without him really noticing it.

As Hiruzen reentered the clearing, he found Naruto sitting in a meditative trance, though the boy seemingly felt him enter as his eyes had slowly opened and were looking directly at him. Smiling at the boy, the Hokage gestured for him to come closer. Shrugging, Naruto did just that, coming to a stop in front of the old man. With Naruto in front of him, he began to give him instructions. "Take of your shirt and turn around. I'm going to apply it on your back so that you can have easy access to any battle seals you may want on your chest."

Shaking his head, Naruto asked for it to be on his chest. Relenting after a bit of convincing, Hiruzen proceeded to paint the seal on his chest, Naruto shivering as he felt the cold touch of the brush on his back. After a few agonizing minutes of the feathery touch that he just wanted to rub really badly, it was over. Hiruzen gave him one warning, in the form of a quick "Brace yourself", before he channeled a good chunk of chakra through the especially chakra conductive ink on him. Naruto grit his teeth as he felt his muscles contract and expand rapidly, the seal affecting them. He knew this was part of the process, so he was prepared to bear it, though that didn't make it too much easier.

By the end of it, Naruto let out a sigh, though even that was a bit tough with the resistance seal. Letting himself have a moment to adjust a bit to the seal, he got to his feet, albeit a bit slowly. Deciding to get a bit of training in, he asked the Hokage if he'd spar with him for a while. Getting a yes from the old man, they sparred until the sun went down, though it was more of a light warm up for Hiruzen.

By the time they were done, Naruto was on the ground, panting but smiling, glad that he was able to get his body so accustomed to the current level of the seal. Looking over to his surrogate grandfather, he thought about what to say after all he'd seen today. Only one word came to his mind though, and he let it be heard. "Whoa..."

Propping himself up, he said something to the old Kage that made the calm atmosphere tense a bit. "I'll arrange a meeting tomorrow and tell you about it. You should have some ANBU ready, since I might be able to get it the meeting for tomorrow. I'll have clone contact you when I do get it set, so be ready." Getting a nod from the old Kage, he smiled before falling back, out cold. Hiruzen could only chuckle at the sight. "He's still just a child... Though I doubt that'll be the case when he comes back."

Sighing to himself, Hiruzen just picked him up and brought him to his apartment, taking him to his surprisingly clean room and putting him in his bed.

Next Morning

Waking up, Naruto found that it was easier for him to move than when he was training with the Hokage yesterday. 'So I'm adapting faster than I thought I would... Good, this'll make training physically much easier.' Looking to his right, he saw a few scrolls and a note on his dresser. Getting up and walking over to it, he read that they were some fighting styles and jutsu the Hokage thought would fit in well with him. Looking at the labels for some of them, he could only smile. "Kokuangyo no Jutsu (Bringer of Darkness Technique)? Bitchin'. Hmm? Futon: Shinkūgyoku (Vacuum Sphere)? Oh, this is gonna be a fun few months... I hope."

Looking down at his ruined shirt from the day before, he decided it was time to get a new one. As he was about to go get his money and just buy one, he had a thought, though he voiced it aloud. "Why the hell should I BUY clothes when I can MAKE any clothes I want out of my chakra now?" After his mind blowing discovery, he concentrated on the clothes he wanted.

Deciding to start small, he made a copy of his general shirt, pure black with the Uzumaki Clan crest (Aka the generic "Konoha" swirl) on it. Smiling at the shirt in his hands, he decided to try for pants. Thinking of his general pants, he concentrated on the type of green cargo shorts he was wearing before. He created a pair, though when he inspected it, there were a few missing buttons on a few pockets. "Shit. I can just make another, but what am I gonna do with this one?" Kogo chose then to chime in, telling him, "It's still made of your chakra, you know. If you don't like it, then change it. You could even destroy it and remake it out of the chakra. This way, you don't have to wash it either." Naruto grinned like he just won the lottery, though he probably did in terms of the amount of money he'd save over his lifetime in money for water.

After changing the pants with his mind, he switched the clothes he was wearing with those, after taking a shower of course, set around 20 clones to train in the Kokuangyo no Jutsu for a while, and sent a clone to the Hokage, and went to try for the meeting. Stepping to his doorway, he just transformed into Haiso through his youki, deciding to use his upped control of it. Going to his roof, he sighed, with one thought. 'I swear to fucking god, if this doesn't work... Well, I can't really blame anyone but me for this one.'

A few hours later

Haiso (A/N: He'll just be referred to a his transformation's name when transformed from now on.) stepped out of the yakuza head building with ALL of the higher ups in tow. He got really lucky, as today they were having a general meeting where they all showed up, allowing him to get all of them when he said they'd all want to see it. In his words, "You won't believe me until you see the proof for yourself, so we'll all save our breath." Unfortunately for him, or fortunately depending on your point of view, they were mostly previous ninja, both from Konoha and minor villages, so they brought body guards(*cough* meat-shields) since they didn't quite trust him. 'Oh well. Just means a few more will bite the dust here. Poor saps.'

Discreetly making and dispelling a kage bunshin behind the closed door to alert the clone with the Hokage of the meeting and location, he led them behind the Hokage Mountain. As soon as he arrived, the leaders began demanding what he brought them out here for. Smiling he made one more clone, telling the Hokage that they were all gathered. Keeping up the act, he began to explain about a huge shipment for a large rival he'd managed to intercept info about and the fact they'd be passing pretty close to Konoha, though it was all bullshit. The Hokage then appeared and had all of them arrested, not one of them standing a chance against the surprise assault from ANBU.

The Hokage even tried to have Naruto arrested, but he was able to avoid the ANBU long enough to explain. After getting them to calm down, he went back into being Naruto in front of all of them, though the yakuza members were knocked out already.

Looking to the Hokage, Naruto began to talk, this time lying through his teeth. "Thanks, Jiji! They were all former shinobi, so I doubt I could've done that myself, hehehe." The Hokage just smiled at him with a nod before addressing the ANBU present. "Take them to the T&I division, now. Don't forget to search for cyanide packs in their mouths; they were former shinobi. Also, make sure to give Ibiki that piece of information. He will know how to proceed on those with shinobi training."

Turning back to Naruto, he asked, "How are the seals going so far?" Naruto just deadpanned, "I was avoiding your ANBU a minute ago. You tell me." Hiruzen just chuckled at that. "Well, Naruto-kun," he began, "how would you like to train with me again today? I have time, since you enlightened me on the secret of defeating... paperwork." The last word was said with such malice that Naruto, for a moment, actually thought it had done something to get a grudge out of the Hokage.

Shaking his head, he just said, "I'll train alone for a while. I'll take the rest of the weak to push myself to the limits before I split my time again, and I intend to use ALL of it. But a shinobi has to have a few secrets, you know." With that said, he shunshin-ed out of there, greatly surprising the Hokage.

Two Months Later- August

Naruto's eyes shot open at the feeling of a kunai flying at his head. Glancing at it, he stopped it in its tracks before looking at the owner of said weapon. Smirking at Anko, he hopped out of bed and said, "Good morning to you too, Hebi-chan." Sending a clone to start breakfast, he looked over at Anko and asked, "Do you have any missions today? Rent's almost due, you know." Pouting at him, she asked, "You're really going to make me pay for this, Naruto-kun?"

Chuckling at her, he waved his hand in dismissal. "Nah. I was just messing with you for the month. I get enough money from other sources to keep this place in shape as it is. No need to milk you dry." Yes, Naruto owned his apartment building now. How? Well, as a yakuza head, if only in secret, money is no problem. Combined with the fact he could make perfectly healthy bodies and organs with his chakra manipulation technique and knowledge... well, he's set for a long time. Thankfully, that ability, combined with his dislike for certain things, allowed him to get rid of most human trafficking in Konoha. Also, having long since proven he could handle himself, the Hokage granted him some seriously early emancipation, allowing him the ability to have bank accounts, own land, leave the village on his own, enroll himself in the academy, etc. This also let him allow Anko to move into his building earlier in the month after her house was (finally) successfully torched by villagers, for free at that.

Regardless, Anko, being Anko, took everything as sexually as possible, and responded as such. Pulling aside her trench coat, she began to tease him. "Well, you won't get anything if you try to milk me, but you can certainly try. No hands though, Naru-chan." Rolling his eyes, though a very small smile was present on his face, he muttered, "Pedophile." Clearly hearing what was said by him, she smirked and, using a burst of speed, appeared behind him. Licking his ear, she said, "You haven't responded to me in a while, you know. I'd say my mission today is to correct that; I'll have to stop going so easy on you." Even though he spoke to her daily, he wasn't confused at all by what she meant when she said "responded".

Wanting to save himself the trouble through the day, he let himself blush at the contact. In his mind, he could hear Kogo laughing at him. She, between laughs, managed to say, 'And the score so far today is Naruto-0, Anko-1.' Rolling his eyes at her commentary in his head, he used a shunshin to appear in front of his dresser. Staring at himself in the mirror, he pulled his hair down, seeing as it was starting to spike up. Getting a brush out and using it to do as brushes do, he told Anko, "I'm taking a break today. Walk in the park, visit Hinata-chan, etc. Do as you please, but I want my suite to be in good condition when I come back, so no sex, no parties, and no sex parties, even if only a few people come... Actually, only a few people would come anyway. Regardless, I don't like the smell that lingers in here when you do any of that shit. Not sure why the fuck you like doing that on my floor. I gave you a full god forsaken floor of your own." He grumbled the last part to himself, though Anko easily heard it.

Anko just laughed at his displeasure. "You have a better floor. If you want me to keep it confined, improve my floor." He rolled his eyes at her reasons and made a mental note to get some improvement done to the building by the end of next month. After giving her some more restrictions, he made his way to the park in a simple orange hoodie-vest and black cargo shorts. Walking around, he saw Hinata taking a walk with her family. As Hinata noticed him, they both waved at each other, though Hinata was content to spend time with her tou-san, kaa-chan, and imouto (A/N: Father, mother, and younger sister, for those who don't know.), and Naruto was happy to let it stay that way.

As usual, when he walked through the park, the parents started whispering and pulling their children out of the way. Off in the distance, he saw some of the clan children playing, but decided to leave them be. Rolling his eyes at the parent's continued behavior, he made his way to the tree he usually sat in and pulled a book out of a sealing tag on the inside of his hoodie. Reading for a while, he let himself get immersed in the book he was reading, though most would consider an advanced book on the differences in female and male physiology quite boring. After an hour or two, he'd finished the book, as it was less than 300 pages, and was reviewing the information in his head.

As he was doing that, he felt some jutsu get thrown around outside of the training grounds or clan compounds. It was actually in the forest behind the Hokage monument. 'Why is shit always happening back there?' Sighing, he decided to check it out, discreetly leaving his tree to follow the signatures he'd detected. Being careful, as all the signatures were rather strong, he found a branch to spy on the area. Looking down he saw an Uchiha facing off with a bunch of ANBU in what seemed to be a death match.

Waiting a while to see if he should jump in, and on whose side, he listened to the fight to see if any info would be dropped. Unfortunately, the ANBU were actually defeated by the Uchiha, who'd used his Susanoo to finish it, leaving him vulnerable afterwards, and leaving Naruto no clues as to what was going on. Just as he was about to label the trip as a waste of time and leave, an old, bandaged man he recognized as Danzo Shimura appeared behind the Uchiha, causing said Uchiha to turn around. His hand shot out and went for one of the Uchiha's eye, making Naruto widen his own eyes. 'He's after this guy's Sharingan. I don't know what he wants with it, but Jiji told me about this guy and whatever he wants with it won't be good.' Thankfully, the Uchiha managed to dodge the grab and jumped back, pulling out the tanto he'd sheathed previously.

Naruto knew whose side to choose now, so he made a move. Going into what he was starting to call "yakuza mode", he used youki and transformed into Haiso before making a tiger sign with his hands and mentally saying, 'Kokuangyo no Jutsu,', directing it at Danzo. The man looked around frantically, unsure of what happened to his sight, before calming down and focusing on his hearing and smell, as his sensei, the Nidaime, taught him.

As he was doing that, Haiso shunshin-ed over to the unknown Uchiha and asked, "Are you okay?" This drew the attention of both the panting Uchiha and blinded Danzo, though neither was in much shape to do anything. "He's trapped in my Kokuangyo no Jutsu at the moment, so we should leave before I run out of chakra." Nodding uneasily, the Uchiha made his way out of the clearing, Haiso on his heels.

Clearing his throat, Haiso began. "We should get to the Hokage ASAP, unless you're injured. We can head to the hospital if you are." Shaking his head, the Uchiha responded. "I don't need to go to the hospital, though I need to rest; the wounds themselves are minor. I used up most of my chakra, so I'm barely conscious right now." Even as he said this, he was slowing down rapidly. Haiso nodded, before dropping down to the forest floor, only a few yards inside the tree line. The Uchiha leaned against a tree, letting himself slide to the floor, still panting heavily.

Moving over to him, he sat down beside him after setting a few clones into the trees as birds in order to be look outs. The Uchiha smirked at him and said, "Thanks. The name's Shisui, by the way. Shisui Uchiha." Nodding, Haiso responded. "I figured you were an Uchiha. You have the eyes, the clan crest, the proud look. You're already nicer than most I know of, though. No offense." At this, Shisui chuckled. "None taken. So-" he was cut off by the arrival of Itachi Uchiha. "Yo, Itachi. Glad you made it, but the party's over." As he said this, he succumbed to chakra exhaustion.

Itachi looked over to Haiso, a raised eyebrow the only hint of emotion on his face and indication of what he wanted. Sighing, and starting to feel the strain of keeping the Kokuangyo no Jutsu active against the escape attempts of someone who knows the jutsu, he gave a quick response. "Danzo wanted his eyes. I stopped him, but he's still trying to break out of my Kokuangyo no Jutsu as we speak. Shisui was also facing some ANBU before I jumped in, though I don't think they were on orders from the Hokage or an ANBU Captain."

Itachi nodded in thanks before giving a "follow me" gesture as he picked up Shisui's body. "We're heading to the Hokage." With that, they both shunshin-ed there.

Appearing in the Hokage's office, they found him lounging in his chair, reading a copy of IchaIcha. Clearing his throat, Haiso got the Hokage's attention. Hiruzen looked up, sighed, then put the book into his drawer, trying to maintain a professional air after being caught reading porn on the job. Looking at the transformed Naruto and Itachi with an unconscious Shisui over his shoulder, he hardened his gaze and demanded, "What happened?" Haiso gave him the same response he gave Itachi, now panting from the constant drain of the A-Rank technique. This time he added, "I'm almost at my limit for maintaining the technique, Hokage-sama. He is still there, but I can only guarantee that for a minute or two more at most." Hiruzen nodded and sent some ANBU to retrieve Danzo.

As they reappeared with him, Haiso was instructed to release the technique, which he did gratefully. Danzo had chakra suppression seals applied to him, preventing him from escaping in any fashion, so Hiruzen dismissed the ANBU and looked at the recovered Danzo in anger. "What, exactly, did you think you were doing!?" Danzo met the Hokage's glare with a stare of equal intensity. "I was doing what had to be done! What you were too spineless to do."

Feeling the type of conversation become somewhat classified, Naruto made a clone outside the window, had it turn into a fly with his Nise Gaiken, and fly inside to spy on the Hokage's conversation. Good thing he did too, because as soon as the fly got in and perched itself in a corner, the Hokage told him, "Sorry, but what we are about to discuss is classified information. Could you please tell the secretary that I need my advisers here for a meeting ASAP on your way out?" Nodding, he walked out of the room and did as he was asked. After giving the message, he shunshin-ed to his building.

Appearing inside as his normal self again, he smiled deviously to himself, thinking, 'No more secrets, Jiji.' Taking in his surroundings, he found Anko talking with her friend Kurenai in his living area. Shrugging, he made his way over to his fridge, grabbed a soda, and said "Hello, ladies. Don't mind me." before walking to his balcony to admire the scenery. Looking around, he found many of the previously run-down buildings redone and being redone, courtesy of himself of course, and people generally looking happier. Yeah, there were still prostitutes who hung out on corners, but he wasn't bothered with that. People still looked at him differently, but that's to be expected when he lives in the same building as a known yakuza boss and seems buddy-buddy with him.

Sighing, he looked up at the sky and found the sun was setting. At that moment, he got the memories from his clone and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "A coup detat? Really? Not sure how they thought that was gonna work out. Surprised Danzo was let off so easily, though. No jail time for treason, nothing. Just giving his word to stop the bull. Ha. His word doesn't mean shit, Jiji." Hopping onto the rail, he swung his legs in the air.

He just stretched his chakra as far as it could go, and found that he was able to cover most of Konoha when focusing on it. After a few minutes of this, he realized he hadn't heard from Kogo since he woke up. Thinking that Kogo was awfully quiet today, he entered his mindscape.

Mindscape

Walking into Kogo's house, he was wondering why she was so quiet today. Sensing the concentration of youki in one of her rooms upstairs, he quietly made his way up there. Looking around, he found nothing, though when he listened closely, he heard a low growl, though it sounded a bit odd to him. Tracing it to one of the doors, he found it was open a crack. Looking in, feeling as though she was in there, he found her... doing things. She was stark naked, as per usual, but she had her face buried in a pillow, presumably so he wouldn't hear her, her ass in the air, and something he didn't bother to identify blurring between her legs.

Catching a glimpse of this, Naruto, face totally blank, backed up from the door quietly but quickly and let himself fade out of the mindscape.

Back in the Real World (A/N: Emotional roller coaster inbound)

With a blank look on his face, Naruto thought, 'So THAT is what she's been doing... Holding that over her head for while!' At the last part of his thought, his face broke into a grin. With his chakra still outstretched, he felt Haitatsu's energy, one he was rather familiar with, get very weak, very quickly. Panicking at the sudden shift, he shunshin-ed over there to see what was happening.

At his arrival in her training ground/basement, he found Haitatsu on one knee, panting and bloody, holding her hand over a particularly bloody spot at her stomach. Two blank-masked ANBU were facing her, both rather tired. Growing enraged, he used the chakra he had in the air to grab then crush both shinobi, making blood fly all over the place. In their tired out state, they stood no chance of getting out, though, once they've been caught, no one has actually escaped.

Paying no mind to his bloodied surroundings, he rushed over to Haitatsu. Looking at her, he saw that she'd been stabbed in the stomach, presumably by one of the tanto the ANBU carried. Haitatsu managed to smile at him and say, "Thank you, Naruto..." between pants before passing out. Panicking, Naruto did the only thing he could think to. He grabbed onto her and shunshin-ed to the Shinobi Hospital.

Arriving, he shouted, "I NEED A DOCTOR OVER HERE! SHE'S BLEEDING OUT!" As he shouted this, he was putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding as best he could. From his knowledge of anatomy, and the amount of blood she was losing, she had taken a blow to the abdominal aorta, possibly, if not likely, nicking her stomach tissue and releasing its acid into her system.

Everything from there was a blur for Naruto. Medical shinobi questioned him after she'd been taken into the ICU. They were keeping her alive as best they could and were probably going to operate on her. As distraught as he was, he, as the only one with any knowledge of what had happened, was questioned thoroughly. The Hokage himself, who'd decided to check on Naruto a while after he left with his crystal ball, had appeared to see why he was in such a state. He'd stayed with Naruto the whole time to console him as best he could. Both of them ended up staying there the whole night without realizing it.

By the next morning, Haitatsu's operation was done, but there wasn't much they could do. She was too old to survive the trauma her body had been going through. She was apparently stabbed straight through by the ANBU member. It hit exactly what Naruto predicted and then some. The stab had actually gone through her stomach, giving the harmful acid two point to exit her stomach from, which it did, somewhat damaging other internal organs as well. She'd been cut in more than one major artery, though that was the first one Naruto noticed, and had lost far too much blood. She just wasn't strong enough to live through it.

After getting the news from a doctor, he was given time alone with her as the only known person close to her. After a few moment of silence, Haitatsu made the first move as the stone faced Naruto wasn't going to move anytime soon. Reaching up to Naruto, she put her hand on his head and smiled at him as best she could. Laughing weakly, she said, "Thank you so much, Naru-chan. I... I have to say, you were the best employee, the best pupil, and the best grandson I could ask for." Naruto couldn't keep up the facade nor hold back his tears any longer, and they flowed down his cheeks freely at her words.

Holding back sobs, he wrapped his arms around her. "I-I... Please don't go Haitatsu-baa-chan." In that moment, Naruto felt every bit his age. He wasn't an adult, he was a five year old. He wanted, no, needed his baa-chan to stay with him. He didn't know what to do without her. Haitatsu smiled sadly at him. "I don't have a choice, Naruto-kun. I wish I was able to be your baa-chan for longer, but I'm happy with what I got. You can have all of my things; I have no other family. I just want you to do one more thing for me, Naru-chan." Sniffling, he nodded shakily, getting off her chest. "Give Konoha one more chance. I can see that you didn't want to stay, and you were only doing so for a very small amount of people, me included. I'm going, and the Hokage's old probably gonna follow soon, but stay, please. I know it's selfish for me to ask this of you, but I love this village. It's my home. Promise me you'll protect it." Looking down, Naruto just stayed silent for a time before looking up at Haitatsu again. "O-okay, baa-chan. I'll... try my best"

Haitatsu smiled at him, and laid back. "Thank you, Naru-chan." After that, the heart monitor that was going next to her flat-lined, and he felt his heart stop too. His tears stopped flowing, leaving the tracks they took on his face visible. His face didn't betray any emotion anymore, though his thoughts were another story. 'Never again. I'll never let this happen to me again, one way or another.' Making his way out the door, he looked over to the doctor and shook his head. They entered the room and took her time of death, etc.

Naruto just walked over to the Hokage and said, "I'm going home, Jiji. Don't worry if you don't see me for a while. I... I just need some time to think." With that, he shunshin-ed to room and sat on his bed. Staring at the ground, he felt detached from himself. He felt the anger that was coursing through him, but it was like it wasn't him, as if he was experiencing it second hand. Shaking his head of the odd feeling, he decided to do something he hadn't done in a long time. He slept. Not go into his mindscape while his body rested as he usually did, or meditate and immerse himself in nature, he just allowed himself to fall into a true sleep. He would regret this action.

Naruto's Dream

He was back at Haitatsu's bedside, but she was telling him something else. "They came after me because of you. You were happy, so I'm dying. This is YOUR fault." He couldn't use his voice, he could only sit there and take it. "Why did I have to meet you? I would've been fine if I hadn't." Each word felt like a kunai passing through his heart. "You're worthless. After all the training I gave you, you couldn't do a thing to save me. I hate you." At the last words, he was finally allowed to breakdown in his dream, tears streaming from his eyes despite his best efforts. The world became black around Haitatsu. "You should've been the one to die, not me. It's only fair that I torment you now." With that, "Haitatsu" took a standard issue ANBU tanto, similar to the ones the ANBU who attacked her carried, and stabbed him through the heart.

Or at least tried to. Kogo pulled him into her half of the mindscape in that moment, and pulled him into a hug on her couch. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. This is all my fault. I wasn't paying attention to what you were going through, and I wasn't there when you needed my help. Don't let your mind tell you it was your fault, because you know that's not true. Haitatsu loved you like you were her own flesh and blood. She saw you get rid of the ANBU who attacked her. She was so proud of you, Naruto-kun. More than you will ever know." With each word she spoke, each of the insults the dream/nightmare Haitatsu spoke was stripped away. Thankfully, she looked into his most recent memories so she was able to help him at this moment.

Kogo just held Naruto for a while before whispering into his ear, "It's okay to cry, Naruto-kun. It shows you're human." At that, Naruto finally snapped. But he didn't break into uncontrollable sobbing. There was no hidden sadness that burst forth from him, letting him release all of his pent up emotions. No, he got mad, really, really mad. He began to radiate all of the energy inside of him. Every bit of his youki showed all of his anger, all of his chakra became sadness, every bit of nature that he had even a little control over showed the sheer magnitude of his grief at that moment. Even Kogo's youki managed to get pulled through the seal, despite her best efforts to keep it away from him.

He let go of Kogo, backed away slowly, and said, "It's because of some human's hatred that all of this began. It's because of some humans' hate that Haitatsu-baa-chan is dead. The ONLY reason for someone to attack her is her relation to me..." All of it began to swirl around him. The natural energy became an aura of sorts, glowing a poisonous green hue. "I don't want to be human! I WON'T be included in their selfishness!" At this point, both Kogo's and his own youki began to form around him, tails forming behind him. "I REFUSE to be counted as human!"(A/N: This is actually the first time I had a character get angry enough to warrant bold text. Just pointing it out. ^.^)

Kogo looked at Naruto, shocked at his outburst. Then, nodding her head, she said, "That's fine too. I'm sure you intend to keep your promise either way, so you don't have to like most people. Just make sure you don't let that hate get in the way of you living your life, or your ability to form a relationship with someone who isn't like everyone else. As long as you can do that, let that hate run through you and hone it into a force you can fuel yourself with." Being an embodiment of hatred, Kogo had no problems letting her container share the hate, as long as it wasn't a handicap for either of them.

Naruto, at her words of acceptance, began to calm down a bit. Killing all of humanity in revenge was no longer the first thing on his mind. 'What about Hinata-chan, Anko-chan, and Hokage-jiji? I still have them, and those Uchiha didn't seem so bad... though more people like those ANBU will come around...' Looking up at Kogo, he said, "Thanks. I-... I wasn't myself there." Unknown to him, Kogo was using her youki that was still in his system to calm him as best she could, now that he wasn't angry enough to commit species wide genocide. His anger, and all the other feelings that came with it, were just beginning to wash away, and his normal attitude to her came back. Unfortunately for Kogo.

"Oh, and, next time, tell me when you want to "relieve" yourself. I'll give you some privacy." After getting in his teasing, and seeing her become flustered, he faded out of the mindscape. And it was a good thing too. Kogo's tail flew through the space where his head was the moment he left, moving fast enough that the air it pushed out of the way was visible in waves.

Real World

Opening his eyes, he found himself surrounded by ANBU and the Hokage, along with Anko. One term came to mind in that moment, which he let be heard. "Fucking hell." Sighing, he addressed them. "I'm fine, just lost control for a bit there. Strong emotion triggers... you know. I'm better now, though; just had to get that out of my system." The Hokage looked at him uneasily, but, nonetheless, nodded his head and dismissed the ANBU. Looking at Naruto, he said, "Remember that you have some people to talk to if you need it." Naruto just nodded, but still waved him off. "I'm fine. Not perfect, but fine." The Hokage just nodded and left, unsure as to how fine Naruto really was.

Anko just stared at him for a while. 'I've known him for around two months, long enough to know him well, and, right now, I can tell he's fine but... different.' If only she knew. Looking at Naruto, she was about to say that she was sorry about Haitatsu when he held up his hand to stop her. "You know I don't like that pity shit, so don't start. Please." Relenting, she just shrugged before leaving for the mission room, looking to make some money.

Naruto sighed when everyone left. "Finally. I really don't like ANBU right now." Hopping out of his bed, not tired from lack of sleep due to the general excess of energies on his body, he just went to the roof to train a bit. Once up there, he sat for a second and thought of his mental checklist. 'At least four jutsu from each base element mastered without seals, check. Learn at least one more genjutsu, check: Kokuangyo. Clone technique that doesn't naturally halve my chakra but matches the Kage Bunshin, not yet. Up my resistance seals to at least level five, not yet. Learn complimenting fighting styles, not yet. Pick at least three weapons to become proficient at, not yet. Become proficient at said weapons, not yet. Learn and master some Iryo Jutsu (Medical Techniques), not yet.'

Sighing, he thought, 'I still have so much to do. At least clones let me work and still have time to do this shit.' Getting up, he dusted his pants off, took off his shirt, made a clone to up the seal on his chest, then sent a clone as Haiso to be in the office for the yakuza. 'I don't like the name Haiso for him anymore. It seems a bit too tame for the nature of the energy that makes him up and for what that visage does to my mind. Maybe... Mujihi (A/N: Japanese for merciless). Yeah, much better.' After settling that, he got to training.

5 Days Later (All the time skips this chapter, eh?)

After applying the chakra regulation seal on his left shoulder and getting the memories from the clones who applied the preservation and security seals to his building, Naruto decided to give a final test run to his current project. "Seiei Bunshin (Elite/Efficient Clone)!" As he said that, a clone popped up next to him, did a single, low-powered Daitoppa before disappearing from using up all its chakra. "Perfect. Not too much or too little chakra; just enough for that jutsu at that strength. Chakra regulation seals are a success." Sighing, he then thought, 'Now, I just have to do this, in battle, without the seals... shit.'

Looking at the setting sun, he decided to go visit Hinata, and maybe do one more drug run. He sent one Seiei Bunshin as Mujihi with what he figured was enough chakra to get through three runs, even though he was only doing one. While traveling, he noticed a few chakra signatures dropping on the far side of Konoha. Being the ever curious one, he decided to investigate.

Before he could get too far, Kogo decided to tell him something. 'If you're gonna go, then transform into Mujihi or something. They won't be able to link you to any of these deaths that way.' Nodding his head, and still heading there, he hopped to a roof, transformed, then sped off.

When he arrived, he saw many bodies lying around. He could only whistle at what he was seeing. "Damn! Whoever did this is a real fucker. Kids, elderly, ninja, everybody. Dropping like fucking flies over here." Walking through, he focused on the larger chakra signatures that seemed to be the ones killing off the Uchiha and shunshin-ed to their location.

Appearing on a roof overlooking the scene, he found the two Uchiha he knew slaughtering the others, though, at this point, it didn't seem they were facing trained Uchiha anymore. "Every threat is already gone. Don't know why they bother still; their orders were to... ah. These dumbasses." Shaking his head, he watched for a few more moments and waited until they were seemingly separating to make a Seiei Bunshin with a large amount of chakra, more than half of his, to go after Shisui while he went after Itachi.

(With the Clone) Dropping down in front of Shisui, C-Mujihi (which is what the clone will be called) waved at him. Deciding to play dumb, he greeted him. "Sup Shisui! Any particular reason you're slaughtering your clan with Itachi?" Tensing at his arrival, Shisui responded. "I am testing my power and removing a threat to the balance of the shinobi world in one fell swoop. That's all you need to know, so get out of my way."

He gave Shisui a look that said "Oh really now?" before saying, "You expect me to believe that? Maybe if you were only fighting and killing the trained Uchiha, or even those that can possibly have a Sharingan, but they are all dead. You're just killing the rest of the children, the elderly, and those unfit to be shinobi. Why are you really doing this, Shisui? I can tell you're not a bad person." Despite already knowing the answer, he wanted to hear what Shisui would say.

Sighing at his speedy deduction, Shisui gave something of an explanation. "The clan was planning a-" C-Mujihi cut him off here, choosing to stop playing dumb. "Yes, yes. Your clan was planning a Coup, so you two were tasked with eliminating the threat. But what threat do children, old people, and civilian Uchiha who can't unlock the Sharingan, and thus weren't allowed to become shinobi, pose? You've finished your mission, Shisui. It's unfortunate that you have to leave, but at least you're spying on a criminal organization. Regardless, I will not sit idly by while you kill children who can't even unlock the Sharingan. Leave, or fight. Those are your choices right now." Seeing Shisui about to question how he knew this, he just said, "My ability to gather knowledge is second to none. And the chakra of those with an unlockable dojutsu have a discernable difference. Kage Bunshin are the best scouts and I am the best at what I do. Now, answer me. Will you pursue the innocent, or will you leave now?"

Sighing, Shisui acquiesced. "I'll go. My goal of killing all those, including children, with the potential to unlock the Sharingan was just finished anyway. Just promise me that that information will remain confidential." Rolling his eyes, C-Mujihi just said, "Of course. I wouldn't want to lose what leverage I have on Danzo. Now get out of here. The chakra sensory barrier I felt up won't hold for much longer." Shocked at the skill of a "shinobi" in the village he hadn't even heard of, Shisui just regrouped with Itachi. Just as he left, Naruto felt a chakra signature get close to the original and Itachi, and this one was able to unlock a dojutsu. Before he dispersed, he only thought, 'Another Uchiha who'll bite the dust, I guess.'

(With Real Naruto/Mujihi after this happened.) Still following on the rooftops, Mujihi found Itachi heading through streets to a seemingly specific destination, a girl running below him. He got the memories that Shisui would be coming soon, but knew he would take a while to find them, with his schedule disrupted and lack of mass sensory techniques. Regardless, with his curiosity peaked, he let Itachi go further, following stealthily. Said girl ran a different route somewhere along the line, though Itachi didn't seem to mind. Itachi seemingly reached his own destination, as he opened the door to find his wounded father laying on the ground with his back to the wall. 'Hmm? So he already fought Fugaku, eh?'

Observing closely, heard Fugaku say that he still loved his son despite what he was doing. Despite the fact he put the village over the clan. Itachi just seemed to freeze, and, though Mujihi couldn't see his face, a tear seemed to fall from his eyes as he plunged his tanto into his father's chest. 'So much death this week. At least not ALL of them were someone I gave a shit about.' With his new mindset, death of anyone he didn't care about was inconsequential to him, though he still wasn't one for senseless slaughter, even with the youki dominant in his body while Mujihi.

Back to the slaughter. Itachi was wiping his face from the few tears that managed to get by his cold visage. As he did that, his sister came bursting in from the front door, panting quite heavily. 'Hmm. I don't think I know this one...' Still observing, he heard the exchange go on inside the house. Itachi told her that he was testing his abilities by killing off the clan. Naruto just rolled his eyes at that.

He could only face palm when the girl bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Sighing as she began to run away from Itachi, he jumped down and entered the house as Itachi went to cut her off where he knew she'd appear. Walking in, he saw that Fugaku was indeed alive, though that was only going to last for another half a minute at most. 'I can't heal a human heart quite yet. He's a goner.' (A/N: He can make a heart, but he can't repair one (yet) and doesn't have enough time to transplant a new one.) Looking down into his fading eyes, he saw that Fugaku was trying to say something. Rolling his eyes, he decided to listen to the man's final words. 'I'm not that much of an asshole.'

Putting his ear really close, he heard Fugaku manage to get out the words "Save" and "Daughter" before the life left his eyes. Muttering to himself, Naruto said, "I give these fuckers too much slack. This little girl is lucky I don't like innocent death... kinda, else I'd let Itachi have her. Her father's an asshole anyway; I SO want to judge her for it, but I won't." After his mini-rant to himself was over, he sighed and focused on Itachi's signature and its surroundings before shunshin-ing to his location.

He appeared on a roof top across from Itachi, who was on a light post looking down on the girl, his sister. He felt the buildup of chakra in Itachi and wasn't gonna let him use it. Thrusting his hand forward, he mentally said 'Futon: Daitoppa.' With the element of surprise, he knocked the Uchiha off his perch, sending him into the side of a building. At that exact moment, he got the memories from his clone, letting him know Shisui was on his way. Cursing to himself, he proceeded to jump down to the girl, grab her, and shunshin back to what he assumed was her house, as he'd heard her call Itachi "nii-san".

As he was leaving, he felt Shisui appear where Itachi was, grab him, and leave in an instant. Appearing in the house, he could only think, 'Such use if the shunshin... Damn, I just got a serious rival for speed.' Looking around, he ignored the crying of the girl near him. Scanning the area thoroughly with his mind's eye, he was shocked to find a faint signature of life in the immediate vicinity. Grabbing the girl's shoulder and making her cry out in surprise, he shunshin-ed to its source.

When he appeared, the girl's tears began to cascade down her face as her crying devolved into sobbing. Looking down, he saw a woman hanging on for dear life, though she seemingly smiled when she saw the girl okay. 'So they're close? Maybe I should save this one... Yeah.' Kneeling down, he had a serious sense of deja vu. She was holding herself in the same way as Haitatsu when he found her. 'No! Not again... I-I've learned about the human body enough to fix this. I hope.'

Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. 'I promised myself that I'd learn how to stop these types of deaths on behalf of baa-chan. I can do this.' Focusing on the dying woman on the floor in front of him, he said the first words he'd spoken in a while. "Oi, girl! Get off her. I can save her, but not if you're in the way."

The woman seemed to finally notice his presence again, as they were lost in their own world for a while, her whispering comforting words to the girl. Unfortunately, the girl had passed out on the woman's chest, tears still falling from her closed eyes. Rolling his eyes, he made a clone to pick her up and hold her. Getting to work, he used the most recent jutsu he learned, unfortunately needing hand seals for this one. 'Chakra no Mesu (Chakra Scalpels).' Using it, he was able to use youki without aligning it with her chakra to do a makeshift cauterization on the exit point of whatever blade stabbed through her so there wouldn't be two places for her to bleed out from. Keeping it active, he used a concentrated pulse of chakra as a sonar of sorts inside her body to see what was amiss. He found she had a lot of stomach acid outside of her stomach among other things. He cancelled it and took a risk.

Focusing on sending pulses of youki, which he had to focus hard on to align to her chakra signature, and natural energy through her body, he used the finer side of water manipulation combined with his growing control over natural energy to pull the offending liquid back into her stomach. Once he managed to do this, keeping his concentration, he moved one hand over her stomach walls. After making a one handed tiger seal, he tried what he was developing with clones during the week. He used the concept of the chakra no mesu, which can move inside of and affect a body without making an incision, and the shosen jutsu(mystical palm technique), which actively multiplies the bodies healing factor, to try and heal her insides, speeding up the regeneration of the cells and using his youki's properties to make it timely. 'Youki, used correctly, is a multiplier. Keep a steady flow, and she'll be fine. At the end, don't just cut the flow. Wean her body off it...'

At this point, Mujihi was sweating. The properties of the energies he was combining were extremely complex, and he was really feeling the mental strain of keeping it all going. Feeling as though he wouldn't last too much longer, he pumped a wave of youki into her body, letting it distribute the energy as it saw fit. Slowing down and eventually stopping the flow of youki, he pulled his hand back and checked her pulse. Even though he wasn't TOO experienced with this yet, he figured that her pulse was at a good point, and, since she had no more life threatening injuries, he figure she'd be fine.

Panting at the mental strain he just went through, he made two more clones to carry their bodies to the hospital when the ANBU finally arrived. "Took you fuckers long enough! That barrier fell a while back," he remarked. "Both of them, Itachi and Shisui, are already gone." Feeling their confusion at the remark, he elaborated before continuing. "They did this. Anyway, I managed to save a good amount of the little ones and the old ones, but she MAY need professional help. Any others with injuries are dead." The ANBU, being familiar with him already, just nodded and spread out to find a trail to follow. Three of them, however, stayed, and two took the two females from Naruto, presumably for professional medical treatment. Both had passed out at this point, so there was no real problem. The two ANBU left and the one who stayed back, a dog masked ANBU, asked him a question. Well, more like gave him a command with the way it was spoken. "Could you come with me to the Hokage?" Sighing, he allowed himself to be taken.

Appearing in front of the Hokage, he just looked at him with deadpan eyes. "Before you ask me any questions, Hokage-sama, you may want to get rid of the ANBU. Classified info about this and all." Hiruzen, being fine with this, sent them all out. Before Hiruzen could say anything else, Naruto, still as Mujihi, said, "I know all about Itachi and Shisui's mission. I just saved some of those who were innocent...ish. You know, preserved the children and elderly, blah, blah, blah; didn't feel like watching a slaughter. Oh, and those who couldn't unlock their Sharingan, so they weren't allowed to be shinobi within the Uchiha. All the ones who were part of the Coup are dead. With that said, jiji, can I leave? I'm rather tired after all of that, and I have a pretty bad headache to boot." Gaping at the boy like a fish out of water, Hiruzen just nodded.

Giving a quick thank you, Mujihi just shunshin-ed home, went back to being Naruto, cleaned his clothes, and fell into his bed. The last thought on his mind before he fell into a dreamless sleep was, 'Fuck the shower for tonight.'

Next Day

He went through the general routine in the morning. Anko, groom, Anko, breakfast, Anko, go do something. (A/N: Assume he has a clone doing the mail at this point, though he does have some yakuza working there now.) Deciding to visit the two people he left in the care of the ANBU last night, he set off to the hospital as Mujihi. Reaching the hospital, he popped in and asked for them at the reception. While at first she said that the Hokage had restricted access to them, due to the "investigation" of what happened, a few concentrated pulses of youki later and she was singing like a bird.

Walking there, he asked Kogo, 'You awake yet?' Getting a snore in response, he just rolled his eyes and stepped into the doorway. Both of them were awake and healthy. The girl apparently recognized him, because she immediately started thanking him for saving her mother. Waving her off, he said, "It was your father's final wish for me to save you. She seemed important to you, so I did my best." Addressing both of them, he spoke once more. "I don't think I got the chance to introduce myself. My name is..." at this, he had a dramatic pause and bowed to them, though it was really to think of a last name on the spot. "Mujihi Handan."(A/N: Handan just means Judgement)

Both females rolled their eyes but introduced themselves regardless. Well, the adult introduced both of them. Smiling softly at him, she addressed him. "I'm Mikoto Uchiha, and this," she said, referring to her slightly anti-social, as of late, daughter, "is my daughter Surashi. (A/N: This name is derived from the world for wonderful in Japanese, Subarashi, if you wondered. I just wanted to continue the S theme with Sasuke, even as a girl.) That's a rather dark name for such a nice person." Surashi gave him a small wave, with an equally small smile, though she found it rather hard to smile at that moment.

Chuckling, he looked at Mikoto. "The name fits when the time comes. For your sake, I hope you never have to see it, Mikoto-san." Mikoto didn't quite believe him, as he looked to be only about eight, but didn't show it. "Well, feel free to come by anytime. It... may feel a bit empty at home for a long time, so you're welcome to come by. It's the least we can do." Mujihi just nodded, not being able to argue that as his home felt rather full with just two people.

Hearing the door open and turning around, he saw a doctor enter the room. The doctor nodded at him before he addressed the mother and daughter. "I'm glad to say you both are clear to go. Whoever healed you, Mikoto-sama, knew what they were doing. The only lasting damage might be the scar where the weapon exited you, due to a makeshift wound closing." At this, Mujihi smirked to himself and thought, 'Who's better than a whole team of you fucks? That's right. Me!'

Giving them a wave, smirk still on his face, he bid them farewell and shunshin-ed home, leaving the doctor to be stunned when they told him the boy who just left was the one who healed Mikoto. Appearing back in his home, he wondered what he was gonna do today. "May as well just train." Doing that for the rest of the day, he made himself comfortable in a new level of resistance, meeting his goal for increasing his seals.

A Few Months Later- December 27th

Hopping out of the meditative trance he replaced sleep with entirely due to overflowing amounts of chakra, he dodged Anko's customary morning greeting/attack/groping and got to his mirror. At this point, he could force his chakra into a brush without even needing to make it visible, allowing him to groom himself seemingly with magic. His hair still tried to spike up every so often, so he paid special attention to it now.

Over the course of the months, he'd taken to wearing more black, so he was staring in his mirror at the moment, wondering if he should just dye his hair. 'Well, it looks fine as it is. No need to do something that might make it worse.' Pondering this, he made a clone to go make breakfast, then another to start making some cinnamon buns for Hinata, as today was her birthday. 'Well, I want SOME sort of change to my look. Maybe just change Mujihi's hair... maybe some red streaks.' Going into his Mujihi form, he thought about it for a while, putting some chakra into it to try and change it a bit. Only getting minimal results, he moved on, making a note to revisit the concept of changing his general features with pure chakra. Kogo didn't really have much of an opinion there, despite enjoying red a lot more than an average person, and just gave a mental shrug.

Deciding he'd be a bit lazy today, he took the chance to deactivate his resistance seals in order to get used to his new strength and speed. 'I haven't done this since my birthday, so getting used to this is gonna be a bitch.' Sighing to himself, he touched his chest with a chakra arm and sent a pulse through it, letting the seals deactivate fully for the first time in a long time.

Through the day, Naruto was just getting used to his new strength and speed, managing to shatter five cups and plates along with denting a pan or two, Anko laughing at him the whole time, though he just remade them all with chakra, making sure they were stronger than before. When he finally got the hang of it, he took over from his clone on getting a perfect batch of cinnamon buns. As night finally came, he was relieved. "Finally! That took fucking long enough." Anko just chuckled in the background. "Aw! That means no more free pastries?" Naruto just rolled his eyes, sealing them away in a scroll to keep them warm. "I'm not the one who has to burn off all the calories now. Hope you don't get fat." With that, he shunshin-ed out of there, making the kunai Anko had thrown at his head miss.

Chuckling as he appeared directly on the Hyuuga compound's roof, he sensed around for the Hyuuga who were no doubt getting ready. Despite his now colder demeanor, he couldn't help but smile at the warmer atmosphere that was in the air. Even though today was the day that Kumogakure was signing a treaty with Konoha, and as such, the rest of the village was celebrating, he found this celebration far more important.

Finding Hinata's signature on his "radar"(A/N: This technique will get an official name, just give me some time... fuck, getting an original name for this is hard), he shunshin-ed behind her, slung an arm over her shoulder, and said a lighthearted, by his standards, "Happy Birthday!" to her. It wasn't too well received, considering she was so shocked that she almost passed out, her heart beating in her ears. Her parents looked on in amusement, wondering if he'd ever stop doing that.

Resisting the urge to laugh again, though unable to stop the smirk that made its way to his face, he helped Hinata back to her feet, as she'd fallen back when he let go of her to fall on the floor himself, though he was laughing his ass off. "Gomen, Hinata-chan. Couldn't help it." Hinata, after she recovered fully, just pouted at him and looked away, eyes closed. Scratching his head, he tried to think of what to do. He looked to her parents, though they just avoided his eyes, leaving him to his own devices. In a stroke of genius, he had a plan. Quickly unsealing the buns while she wasn't looking, he picked up one and resealed the rest. Standing behind her, he held a bun under her nose, and started talking. "Oh no! You hate me now, don't you? I should just leave so I don't cause any more trouble. It's a damn shame too; I made all these buns for you and now I'll have to eat them all alone." All through his little speech, he moved the bun enticingly around her nose before slowly drawing it back.

Stepping back, he began to turn around, putting the bun to his mouth. Before he could get even a fourth of the way around, Hinata had already taken the bun from his hands, using speeds that made him blink in surprise. 'What the actual fuck? How do I lose track of a five, well, six year old?' Looking up from his light, hypocritical shock, he saw Hinata eating the bun, a happy look on her face. Smiling slightly, he said, "I assume this means you forgive me now." She nodded her head eagerly before going back to the bun.

Shaking his head, he turned to her parents along with Neji and Hizashi, who'd joined while he said hi to Hinata. Walking over to them, he said, "Hey." In return he got at least a small smile from all of the adults, and even a wave from Kosen. Neji just nodded at him, though one could tell he was at least a little pleased to see Naruto if they knew him well enough. "So," Naruto began again, "how's this party been going so far? For some reason, I didn't see your clan to be one for parties, you know."

Taking the jab at their rigidity in stride, Hiashi chuckled before responding. "We weren't. It still feels a little odd to be doing this, but we can, and Hinata wanted one, so we did. All of the branch members used to throw their own little parties anyway, so this is just a larger scale for them. The elders are really uncomfortable out of their formal area of expertise, but I'd say it's a good experience for them." Hizashi and Kosen nodded in assent, while Neji just shrugged.

Hinata chose that moment to pop up behind Naruto and say, "Hi, Naruto-kun." When he turned around she hugged him before pulling back and using the infamous puppy dog eyes no jutsu on Naruto. Keeping it up, she asked, "Can I have another?" Naruto's eyes twitched, and he gave a resounding no, making her increase the intensity of the look. "You'll fill up before the actual cake, Hinata-chan." This did nothing to abate the look he was receiving; if anything, its intensity increased dramatically.

Behind him, both Hizashi and Hiashi shared a look, before laughing quietly to themselves. Still trying to keep their laughter down, Hizashi managed to whisper, "250 ryo (about $20 USD) says he makes it another 20 seconds." Hiashi, getting more of himself under control, responded. "Ha! 500 says he won't make it to ten." They resumed laughing, unable to keep it down this time, since, at that moment, Naruto's will broke and he gave her another bun.

Kosen sighed and, agreeing with Naruto's previous statement, told Hinata, "You're going to spoil your appetite like that, Hina-chan." Then she looked to Naruto and hardened her eyes. "And you, young man, should show a little more restraint. Wait until later to give her anymore. Am I understood?" Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment while Hinata poked her index finger tips together, neither able to hold the Hyuuga matriarch's reprimanding gaze as they nodded.

Coughing into his hand to retain a bit of dignity, Naruto asked, "Why are you having this in the garden?" Smiling at him, her previous annoyance gone, Kosen responded. "It's nice to do things like this in the open. It's always so cooped up inside the compound. Everything is indoors, even a lot of the training grounds. You could say we're loosening up a bit." Naruto nodded at that, considering that every change in the Hyuuga as of late was extremely out of character for the general Hyuuga as Konoha knew them.

The rest of the night progressed like that, Naruto either playing with Hinata, making small talk with anyone around, or sparring with anyone willing, though the amount willing quickly dwindled, no adult enjoying getting schooled by a six year old. As the night wore on, Naruto was allowed to stay over, since it became rather late. Gladly accepting, he made his way to his room, as the one he had first taken had pretty much become his own. This time he didn't play a prank on Ko, though he did put him on edge with a joke about one, so he just went into a trance for the night, or "sleep mode" as he liked to call at times. Tonight, he didn't feel like training with Kogo, so he just drifted for the night.

The night wore on as it would generally, Naruto's mind just wandering through nature, enjoying its embrace. Unfortunately, he felt something wrong going on. He'd memorized Hinata's signature, and he'd understand it moving if she was just, say, going to the bathroom, but, at that moment, it was with another, completely foreign signature and was moving at jonin level speeds OUT of the compound and towards the edge of Konoha. Snapping out of his trance, thankful that he didn't choose to train with Kogo today so he wasn't distracted enough to miss it, he quickly shunshin-ed to the man's signature, appearing right in front of him and making him almost fall.

The man, apparently one of the ninja from Kumo who were here on a diplomatic mission, came to an abrupt stop on a branch. Worried about who it was who managed to catch him so quickly, scanned the newcomer. Unknown to him, Naruto was subtly surrounding his limbs in more of his chakra than what normally saturated the air around him, waiting until the right moment to solidify it. The man smirked, and thought, 'It's just a kid. I'll get rid of him in a second then gtfo. I can't let anyone else see me.' It never crossed his mind to consider how the boy in front of him managed to find him.

Naruto, seeing the man smirk, waited until the man lunged at him, one hand holding a bag with Hinata in it and another holding a kunai, before stopping him with his chakra in midair. He made sure to put out a large enough spike that the Hyuuga and some ANBU would come to investigate a possible threat. Smiling in a predatory fashion that looked out of place on his childlike face, he increased the pressure on every bone at the joints before asking. "What are you doing with Hinata-chan?" While saying this, he used chakra to remove the bag with Hinata in it, got her out, and held her in his arms.

Since the man was still silent when he was done, Naruto pushed the bones in his right thumb, right ring finger, left pinky finger, and left arm the wrong way at all of the applicable joints. The man went to scream, but found no sound coming out. When he finished trying, he found he could hear his own panting again. "I can stop the vibration of the particles in the air which allows you the transmission of sound. I didn't do that earlier, so you have no excuse for not answering. I'm not heartless 'right now', so I'll ask again. What were you doing with Hinata-chan?"

His silence spoke volumes, so Naruto just broke another few, this time breaking all of the rest on both hands, and not just at the joints this time, and one of his legs at the knee. He allowed the man's screams to echo a bit, enjoying them, though he didn't let them leave the area around them. He tightened the chakra around the man's neck, walked up to him, and spoke quietly. "I have no problems killing you. Did you feel the ease with which I broke everything else? I can easily do the same to your neck. And guess what? I still have INSIDE you to start on." He punctuated that by using some chakra to make a slow incision on his face, going from his cheek area all the way down INTO his uniform. The man then started to feel a pressure INSIDE his neck, making panic set in for him.

The man looked as though he was about to shit himself, though Naruto wouldn't have stopped if he did. The man got extremely lucky, though, for at that moment, the ANBU on patrol in the area appeared in the surrounding trees along with Hiashi, Hizashi, and a few other Hyuuga, including Ko. Glancing around, he said, "I found him trying to take her away. Not sure where, not sure why, but she had her in that bag." He gestured to the bag at his feet. Hiashi, the moment he saw Hinata in his arms, abandoned his Hyuuga composure and rushed over to him while he was saying this. After seeing she was fine, only sleeping/knocked out, he turned to the man in unbridled rage.

As he was about to kill him on the spot, Naruto stopped him. "Don't, Hiashi. If you want to actual be able to pin this on Kumo, you need him there to provide evidence other than our word." While he was saying this, Hinata woke up. Looking around, she tried to stay quiet and not bring the attention of the shinobi to her, a futile endeavor when Hyuuga that had their byakugan active were a few feet away. Hiashi turned to her and, when Naruto put back on her own two feet, hugged her like there was no tomorrow.

Naruto let the scene play out, deciding to turn to the ANBU. "He's no threat right now. One of his legs are out of commission. Same for his hands. No mobility, no jutsu. No internal damage either, so there is no need to treat him to make sure he survives." After reporting to the ANBU and receiving a nod from them, he turned back to Hiashi and Hinata, as the ANBU and other Hyuuga left, and asked, "Is she alright?" His mood had shifted back into his normal one without the presence of the ANBU, other Hyuuga, Kumo shinobi, and tense atmosphere. Hiashi nodded, before responding. "Let's go back now. Thank you, Naruto." Naruto just smirked before shunshin-ing to his room for the night. Going back into his trance, he did what he was doing before as if nothing happened, but in his mind, he made a note. 'Strike one.'

In the morning, Naruto asked for some water, since he was dealing with Kogo's comments of "How hot he was last night." Sighing, he muttered to himself, "Pedophile demon foxes in my head..." The weirdness of what he just said passed through his mind, but he let the thought go as easily as it came.

Coming back to attention, he greeted Hinata. After she responded he began to tell her, and her parents, uncle, and cousin, something important, though he'd already told Surashi and Mikoto. "I'm leaving early in January, when the academy begins. I'll be gone for two years, so I figured I should tell you. Anyway, I'm going on a training trip so that I will be as strong as possible BEFORE I begin the academy." Everyone nodded, though Hinata did so reluctantly.

Looking up at him, their height difference emphasized by the fact that she was sitting, she asked, "Will you at least visit?" Naruto shook his head in a negative response, apologizing, before Neji asked his own question. "How old are you, Naruto? The last year to enter the academy is when you're eight, which is when most enter. You seem to be eight now, though, so this may be ill advised if you wish to be a shinobi of Konoha." Naruto smirked at him, expecting a good show before he left Konoha. "I only turned six this October, Neji." Hiashi, Hizashi, and Naruto all laughed at his face, each of them attempting to be at least slightly reserved, and each of them failing miserably. Both Hinata and Kosen tried to be a little more polite about it, Hinata covering her mouth to conceal her giggling and Kosen trying, and failing, to keep a straight face. Even little Hanabi, who was in her mother's hands, gave a little laugh.

Regaining his composure at the sound of the laughter, Neji coughed into his hand, trying to salvage some of his pride. "Of course, Naruto-san. Never mind what I was saying; I was unaware." Naruto nodded at him, regaining control of his laughter again. Looking over at Hinata, he made a request. "You better get stronger by the time I get back, Hinata-chan. While I don't mind playing the knight in shining armor, I don't wanna HAVE TO save you all the time; you gotta learn to do that yourself." After saying that, Naruto thought to himself, 'If you're gonna be my friend, then the world will be out to get you. I'll have to leave you alone if you're not strong enough, 'cause I can't be everywhere at once...'

With the memory of what happened the night before in her mind, she nodded with even more resolve to grow stronger. Smiling at all of them one last time, he used his normal method of transport, aka the shunshin, to appear in the Hokage's office to get all the travelling papers and residence retaining sorted out.

A week or so later...

Walking down the street with a bag slung over his shoulder and black hoodie pulled over his hair, Naruto made his way to the gates of Konoha, ignoring the hopeful looks of the adults who noticed where he was headed and what he was carrying. During the week of preparations, he'd set everything up as best he could. He'd perfected the creation of a Seiei Bunshin that was all but alive on its own, even able to produce its own chakra/youki, so that the yakuza would still have a boss and no one who didn't already know about him being Mujihi would suspect he and Mujihi of being the same person. He'd put preservation seals on just about everything he wanted to keep when he came back, so pretty much his whole building. He'd gotten a crap top of sealing supplies so he could make scrolls that he wanted on the go, and he pre-made a bunch of scrolls as well so he could store much of his stuff to travel, and have extra storage space for anything he managed to get in the next two years. He'd made a point to learn how to keep track of his surroundings while in his mind, no matter the distraction. He was ready to go. He even had his first destination picked out. Kaze no Kuni, home of the Kugutsu no Jutsu (Puppet Technique), possessing the largest concentration of futon users in the whole of the elemental nations.

Reaching the gates, he saw that Hinata, Hanabi, Kosen, Hiashi, Hizashi, Neji, and even Ko were waiting for him along with the Hokage. Smiling slightly as he walked up to them, he asked, "What are you guys doing here?" The Hokage chuckled before answering for all of them. "We're here to see you off, Naruto-kun. We won't see each other for a while, so we each have something for you to remember us by." Naruto just shook his head. "Nothing could make me forget about you guys, but I appreciate it anyway."

Shrugging Hiruzen decided to go first. "Close your eyes and hold out your hand, Naruto-kun." Doing as commanded, Naruto felt a slight burning sensation on the back of his hand. Looking at his hand, Naruto found the Sarutobi clan symbol (A/N: Google it, for it is my favorite Konoha clan symbol) on it, seemingly tattooed on. Hiruzen confirmed this when he said, "That tattoo shows three things. 1: I, and my clan, recognize your strength. 2: I love you as I do my own family. And 3: You are an honorary Sarutobi clan member. Despite all that you've been through because of MY choices, you're still able to show me forgiveness, and I can never hope to make that up to you." Stepping back, Hiruzen was surprised by the speed with which Naruto caught him in a hug, along with the strength that Naruto gave it. "Thanks, jiji."

After the small, heartwarming scene was over, Naruto, a small smile on his face, turned to the Hyuuga present. Hiashi stepped forward. "I must say, on behalf of the entire Hyuuga clan, that we recognize you as one of our own. You've done more for us than most anyone, and you didn't ask for a thing, and for that, we, as a clan, feel indebted to you." At this, Naruto just waved him off. Hiashi shook his head. "We Hyuuga have our pride to maintain, and we don't feel it is right to not give you something. As such, we have decided to formally induct you into the Hyuuga clan, if you so wish, something we haven't done in around 100 years, as well as give you certain techniques to learn from as a show of faith. Do you accept?" Naruto accepted with a bow and his own show of gratitude.

After giving Naruto a special pendant in the shape of the Hyuuga clan symbol (A/N: Think a pendant with the yin-yang symbol hanging from it) that he couldn't lose due to certain seals it was imbued with as a sign of his affiliation with the Hyuuga and a few scrolls, Hiashi continued. "I believe Hinata-chan has her own gift to give you." Nudging his daughter, who suddenly seemed somewhat nervous, forward, he stepped back. All eyes turned to her, and she began to sink in on herself, still unused to this much attention outside of an event such as her birthday. Naruto, seeing this, decided to help her out. Pulling together a small concentration of nature chakra, he let its soothing effects work their magic on her.

Seeing her relax, he gave a small smile as encouragement. His methods bearing fruit, Hinata began. "K-kaa-chan and I g-got this for you, Naruto-kun." She pulled out a box and opened it to reveal another pendant, a locket actually, in it. Kosen laughed a bit when Hinata referred to her though. "I only picked the pictures out of the ones we took at her birthday, actually. Hinata picked the pendant's color, chose its design. She even paid for it with her allowance and everything." Hinata blushed a bit and looked down as Naruto turned to her, surprised.

Before Naruto could, unintentionally, embarrass her daughter further, Kosen saved her by explaining. "She gets a good bit of money for her allowance, but never had much spare time to go and spend it until recently. She accumulated a lot of it, so don't worry about it. Besides, we are currently the richest clan in Konoha. A single pendant won't be much of a problem. Now, why don't you open the pendant? I didn't let Hinata see the picture either, so it should be a surprise to both of you."

Nodding his head, he opened it and began to laugh as Hinata turned a shade of red darker than before. Inside the locket, on the left, was a picture of Hinata with blue icing on her nose and bit of her face after cutting and eating her some of her birthday cake. In it she was licking her finger while giving a mock glare at Naruto who was laughing at her in the picture just as he was now. On the right was a picture of Naruto with a finger in his mouth, a noticeable lack of icing on Hinata's nose, and a lightly blushing and somewhat pouty Hinata. Hiashi, Hizashi, and Hiruzen all began to chuckle when they saw the pictures as well. Even Neji cracked a smile.

Regaining control of himself, Naruto looked to everyone who bothered to see him off. As they also came back from their small bought of laughter, he bowed to them. "Arigato. You have done more for me than... well, just about everybody else." Getting up from the bow, he smirked at his audience. "I'll be sure to repay you some other time." The adults present just rolled their eyes.

Chuckling lightly, Naruto gave Hinata a goodbye hug and proceeded to blur down the road away from Konoha. As he was running, Konoha quickly disappearing behind him, he could only think, 'Free at last!' Kogo could only agree. 'True. I hope those goodbyes were enough to last you three years, 'cause you'll be busting your ass for a while.' Still running at full speed, without youki or natural energy, he responded with a smirk. 'I wasn't already?'

2 Years Later

Three figures could be seen coming down the dirt road to Konoha. One was a dark skinned, rather tall, seemingly 13 year old boy with very dark black braids, wearing black boots with a stripe running down the center, a pair of black hakama pants (A/N: Divided/umanori), and a sleeveless haori, which covered all but the front of the hakama, connecting from his neck, due to it having a high collar, to about the waist by a zipper, though it went farther as it spread out, preventing one from seeing anything under it. His hands were covered up past the middle of his forearms by gloves that let his middle and ring fingers out, and his face had what one could mistake for a white headband until you saw that it covered his eyes. From under this, there were green tear-like markings coming down. Around his haori covered neck, there were a few green magtama markings with a black dot in the center, and at his side, he had a sword with a green handle wrapping and black diamonds, which was held in a black scabbard and had a ring on the side of the guard. (A/N: Think of a shorter Kaname Tousen from bleach, but with a few alterations.)

Next to him was a noticeably shorter and younger looking boy, with light skin, borderline pale. This one was in black shoes and pants and had a black suit vest with a black shirt under it, though this shirt had this extremely thin white stripes running down it. A silver pendant hanging from a similarly colored chain ran above that, easily managing to stand out in front of its background. On his hands, there were finger-less gloves with grey accents running up to its fingers and making a circle around the holes for said fingers. His hair broke the trend of black, as, despite being black, it had streaks of bloody red it. The hair fell loosely in front of his eyes which were an equally startling, deep red, though one could easily see said eyes through the hair as they seemed to glow. In his mouth he held a pocky stick. As he walked, he was humming a tune.(A/N: Mujihi/young Walter C. Dornez, but with the edits I added.)

The final of the three, walking in the middle of them, looked like the twin of the one previously described, except he had dyed his hair completely black, among other things. Or maybe the other dyed his hair with red streaks... Regardless, he had the same traits with a different color pallet. His hair was black, though it seemed to have a blue tint, his eyes were a deep blue, his vest was blue, and his shirt was white. His pendant was a locket on a black chain instead of a silver one, and his glove was mostly white with the stripes being black. His dress pants were a dark-ish grey, almost black, and, as the only thing that was the exact same as his twin's, his shoes were black. Even their skin differed a bit in color, his being a lightly tanned tone compared to the red/black haired boys rather pale complexion.(A/N: Again, Mujihi/ Young Walter, but with edits.)

As they continued on their path, the one in the middle looked to his twin, annoyance plain on his face. "Could you fucking stop that!?" His only response was a flipping of the bird. He growled at the black haired boy and, in an almost invisible flash of a very thin blue-tinted line, his hand was on the road they were walking on. The tall, darker skinned one sighed. "Be calm, you two. Fighting like this solves nothing in your quarrel." They both glared at each other before laughing, though it sounded rather odd when neither of their voices fit their visible age, both of them sounding a few years older. Not necessarily deeper, just... older. The hand on the road dispersed into a black energy with a red aura around it and said energy flowed to the hand/stump and formed the hand, glove and all.

The one in the middle said, "Seriously, though. It's starting to irritate me." The redhead just shrugged. He was about to give a response to that when the darker one with the braids just said, "Let it be. He will stop when we are able to see the monument, okay." He got nods from the two.

A minute or so later, the monument was visible to them all, though they were still rather far from the village gates, so the redhead flicked the cigarette before he and the one with braided hair dispersed into what seemed to be some sort of chakra/energy, the braided one into a green-tinted white energy with a green outline while the redhead dispersed into the same type his hand had earlier, black with a red outline. Both seemed to flow into the one in the middle, who grew a few inches and gained the sword on his side, which he quickly dispersed into the same green energy by the one still present. Both the pendant and the locket were visible around his neck, though a green magtama strung around his neck also became visible, and his hair grew longer and became blonde with black/red tips, falling in front of his eyes and partially obscuring them from view. His blue eyes seemed to glow rather brightly for a moment before calming down. Along his cheeks, a few, thin whisker like markings ran from front to back. His clothing also changed with him. His shirt became a light grey while his vest turned jet black, along with his pans and gloves.

He kept walking down the path, but at a point he just... disappeared. No flash of any sort, no blur, no... Anything, really. He was just gone, a ripple around the space he once occupied being the only indication of his presence, and that faded within less than a second of its appearance.

The blonde boy appeared in the Hokage's office, behind said Hokage. The aged military dictator was sitting in his chair, his pipe lit and a copy of IchaIcha in his hands. The ANBU in the room were barely able to notice his presence, and they were paying close attention while he was out in the open. The Hokage didn't, and as such, he just started reading the copy of IchaIcha over Hiruzen's shoulder. They got to a point where Hiruzen giggled perversely while he whistled in appreciation. The ANBU, who thought their leader had noticed the boys presence, nearly died laughing at the look on Hiruzen's face as he had a mini-heart-attack.

Once Hiruzen regained his ability to... live, he turned to him and asked, "Who are you?" He didn't bother putting his guard up as this person could've killed him already, had that been the goal. He only got a hurt look in return. "You don't recognize me, Jiji?" Hiruzen's eyes showed him putting together the pieces, but not before he heard, "Maybe you'll recognize me like this better." Focusing on the boy in front of him, he saw the hair on the boys head shorten considerably and the black and red seemed to recede into the scalp, and his hair color deepened considerably to his original gold. The three familiar, horizontal marks on each cheek seemed to thicken, cementing the identity of the boy in front of the aged Kage.

Rushing from his seat, he engulfed Naruto in a hug, though he was surprised when he felt an EQUALLY strong return (A/N: No, he's not a kage level shinobi yet.). Pulling back, the old man looked Naruto up and down. "You've grown so much, Naruto-kun." Naruto grinned in response. "And you've gained a few more grey hairs, jiji." After both of the laughed lightly at his attempt at a joke, Hiruzen dismissed all the ANBU in the room before sitting in his chair behind his desk.

Naruto walked around the desk and made a chakra construct chair for him to sit in, surprising Hiruzen greatly. Seeing his surprise, Naruto chuckled. "I've got a lot to tell you about, Jiji. But first, I have a question." Getting a nod for him to continue, he did so. "Was there a rule that didn't let people tell me of Kogo-chan or even talking about her...? Oh, the Kyuubi. Other places aren't too reserved when it comes to the info of who the resident "demon" is." He had to remind him of who Kogo was as he'd only mentioned her in passing once, and that was more than two years ago. Hiruzen thought about the course of action, then decided to tell the truth. Nodding, he responded. "Yes, there was, Naruto-kun. I wanted you to grow up without having to worry about stuff like that, but that fell through rather quickly." Nodding in agreement at his last statement, he requested, though it was more like commanded, "Remove it, please. I'm not ashamed of Kogo-chan." Here Kogo couldn't help but go 'Aw. Wasn't that sweet.' Naruto then continued, "...and it'd save a lot of unneeded secrecy and explaining if it was just common knowledge." Kogo just deadpanned, 'No longer sweet.' Naruto heard two other voices laugh in the background, causing him to smirk slightly, though he wiped it before Hiruzen could notice.

Hiruzen nodded in agreement, noting to bring it up in the next council meeting and, if possible, just announce it in the next public address in an event or something. The two then got to talking about his travels and such, almost forgetting to sign Naruto up for the academy. After spending an hour or two just talking about the past two years, Naruto bid farewell, going to visit Hinata, then Anko. Disappearing in the same manner he appeared in, he left a shell shocked Hokage as to the method of transport. 'I guess he just has the genius gene in him. Can't tell if he gets it from Minato or Kushina, though... Probably both, with that chakra of his and the technique.'

Naruto, having gone back to his black/red/blonde haired form, appeared on the ceiling of one of the Hyuuga indoor training areas where Hinata was sparring with her father, making everything on him stay perfectly still with his chakra. Hinata was wearing some black clothes to train, black t-shirt, black pants, black sandals, even black mesh shirt underneath, while Hiashi was just wearing his normal clothes. The session would seem brutal to anyone who hasn't had any battle experience, as her father wasn't pulling any punches, hitting her in the smallest opening with brutal jyuuken strikes which had both power and chakra behind them. One particularly vicious blow hit her back onto the ground, where she lay for a while. Off to the side, Kosen and the two year old Hanabi sat, Kosen with a visible wince on her face.

As she tried to get up, Naruto fell down between Hiashi and Hinata. "Don't you think that was a bit much, Hiashi?" His grin stretched across his face as he saw Hiashi tense, prepare to attack him, then freeze in recognition of his eyes as he put the pieces together on his own. "What, no "hello" after two years? Maybe you don't recognize me." As he said this, Kosen and Hiashi both had wide eyes. His hair shortened a bit, as did he, and the black and red colors retracted into his scalp, his hair becoming more golden colored. He shrunk an inch or two this time, letting himself seem a bit more like he did when he left.

Letting them absorb the shock of his very sudden reappearance after two years, he turned to Hinata who gasped when she was able to confirm for herself that it was really him. Hinata, ignoring her aching body, threw herself at him in a hug. Due to his, still, superior height and overall size, he was able to catch her without falling over. "Yes, yes. I missed you too, Hinata-chan." Hinata just squeezed a bit harder when he said that.

Extracting himself from her grip, which he found was a bit of a struggle on its own, he asked, "Why does it always seem that whenever I come over, SOMETHING happens? Seriously, Hiashi, I understand that you're preparing her for the shinobi world, but she is only just about to enter the academy. You should work her up to that level; she has time to be strong enough to match a clan head who's trying a bit."

Hiashi just shook his head. "She's a target, as the clan heiress. You were there to stop the attempt from Kumo, but she needs to be able to save herself. Someone stronger than her may come along, so she needs to learn to survive against someone stronger, at least for a while." Naruto sighed at that; he had a fair point. "Well, you still don't need to beat the shi- tar out of her, Hiashi." Naruto caught himself, remembering Kosen's rules about language. Hiashi shrugged. "It gets better results out of her when I'm harder on her."

Naruto shook his head and went back to his mix hair color form, which he'd become rather comfortable in. "How about I try? It'll be good for her to fight someone who doesn't use your jyuuken." Hiashi agreed and moved over to sit next to his wife. The moment he sat down, she gave him utter hell for being so hard on their daughter.

Naruto, while Kosen chewed her husband out, healed the bruises that Hinata had scattered along her body, asking, "Are you okay, Hina-chan?" Since he didn't want to invade her privacy more than he does with his passive ability, he just covered her in his chakra and let it do his job as he activated his variant of the shosen no jutsu and, not needing much due to the severity only going as far as bruises and temporary chakra pathway blockage, he just made a show of concentrating.

While this was going on, he made a Mujihi clone outside of the building to take the place of the one who was currently Mujihi. It took a second, but the memories came flooding to him, and he resisted the urge to scowl. Shaking his head, he proceeded to take a fighting stance in front of Hinata. It looked similar to the jyuuken's starting position, one hand outstretch while the other remains close to the waist, but his outstretched left hand was in a fist and bent at a 90 degree angle, facing right while his right hand's fingers were more relaxed.

As Hinata rushed him, he went about batting aside each strike with the one outstretched hand, not even needing to move from his starting position. After a few moments of this, Naruto took an opportunity during her attack to send a palm into her chest at a lightning fast speed, sending her stumbling back. Naruto could feel the conflicting emotions in her, and as such sought to help her get her priorities straight. "C'mon, Hina-chan. I can't help you get better if you don't try your hardest to hit me. I'd rather iron out your mistakes here than have you notice them when someone actually attacks you. Your gentle nature is great and all, but you're doing more harm than good by holding back so much."

After getting an encouraging nod from her mother and seeing her father staring intensely at her, she settled back into her stance. 'I-I can't keep letting my tou-san down like this...' Pushing herself farther than she had in her training with her father, she launched herself at Naruto. She went for a palm strike to Naruto's right shoulder, seeking to cripple what seemed to be his main defending hand. Naruto just straightened his body, letting it fly harmlessly by, although he was impressed by what Hinata could do when she really tried. 'I bet she might be able to beat a genin at this point.'

After taking a moment to let her go further past him, but not letting her catch herself, he grabbed her wrist with his left hand and slid under it, placing his other hand behind her shoulder. As he pushed her shoulder while keeping her hand in place, he tripped her by pushing her feet in the opposite direction and sent her to the ground. Pulling her wrist back while holding her body to the floor via her shoulder, he held her down. He then twisted her arm behind her back, leaned down, and whispered in her ear, "Much better, Hinata-chan... But you gotta try harder."

As he stepped back to let her get up, a voice in his head said, 'What happened to staying away from her? You almost got too close for her parents' comfort.' At the laughter of the three voices in his head, he glanced over at Hiashi who was now giving him a stare with an equal mixture of approval and "I swear to god, if you ever get that close to my daughter again..." Next to him, Kosen's face spoke for itself, telling him "Wait a few years, Naruto."

He just rolled his eyes and gave everyone the equivalent of "There's nothing to worry about. Nothing's gonna happen.", though the parents got there response in the form of a deadpan look. Hinata finally got up at this point and, seeing that he wasn't even looking at her, lunged at him with fierceness that seemed out of place to everyone there. Still, Naruto guided the palm to his left, letting her fly behind him. As she got behind him, he spun with a kick to her back that sent her into the ground. Hard. Shaking his head, he began to instruct Hinata. "Don't assume your opponent doesn't know about you, only hope. This should be a given for you, as your whole clan has a dojutsu with about 360 degree vision, telescope vision, and x-ray vision. Now, come at me again, and this time, don't put too much into any one strike, even of you think it'll hit."

She had gotten back up during this mini-speech and, after nodding, rushed him once more. This time, Naruto put his hands behind his back and smirked at her as she came at him. He danced around her strikes, smiling like it was all a game, which it kind of was for him. This just served to agitate her more, her strikes coming faster and stronger, pulling more chakra from her. Following her instructions from her mother, she kept making her chakra get sharper and sharper as she tried to hit him in their little dance that, after a near miss, his sleeve was cut cleanly.

Naruto smiled at her, though he tried to make it look at least a bit condescending, and said, "Much better, Hinata-chan. Show me more; I'm sure you're not this weak." Hinata's eyes burned with a renewed fire at being called weak. Unfortunately, her limbs were beginning to seriously burn from the constant strain and her breathing was becoming labored, but she still pushed herself to go faster, turn sharper, predict his moves better, to HIT HIM. 'I can do it. I have to land at least one blow.' She was unaware that what she was trying to do was something ANBU were unable to, so her only chance was if her let her hit him.

Blissfully unaware, she tried harder and harder, eventually reaching low-chunin speeds, surprising her father and mother greatly. Even Neji, who'd walked in during the match, was surprised that Hinata could manage this. Sadly, she was at her limit, and everyone watching could see it. Her arms and legs shook every once in a while from fatigue, her face was sweaty, her breathing was extremely labored, her strikes were getting sloppy. Still she pushed on, trying harder and harder to invent new ways to combine the limited amount of jyuuken forms she'd been taught. A few other members of the clan passed by in the 5 minutes that passed as she tried her heart out. By the time she was REALLY starting to slow down, they'd amassed a small audience, all of them cheering for Hinata; none of them had ever seen her try as hard as she was now.

By this point, Naruto's smile had become genuine, hearing the encouragement Hinata was receiving from her family and seeing the effort she put in. In his head, a male voice said, 'Things have changed here so much.' He gave a mental nod, 'That they have. Hinata here is a prime example.'

Hinata was running on fumes at this point, and her byakugan, which she'd had active the whole time, turned off on its own. Deciding he'd seen enough, as she was too tired to even keep her dojutsu on anymore. Naruto caught one of her hands when she went strike his face instead of dodging like he usually would. As she brought her other hand to strike his face, he caught it as well. Their audience grew completely silent at that point. Letting the small but genuine smile he had on his face grow larger, involuntarily mind you, he nodded to her and said, "You did great, Hina-chan.(A/N: First time he actually calls her this.)" With that as the signal for the end of their bought, the 10-15 people watching cheered for Hinata. She looked shocked to hear people cheering for here, having focused in on nothing but Naruto during their fight, making her miss them, even with her byakugan on. She then blushed, not thinking about who was watching for such a long time.

Chuckling lightly at both her shock and embarrassment, he said, "How about we bow to our audience, Hina-chan." She gave a small smile, rather embarrassed at having so many people watch her spar, and tried to bow with Naruto. Unfortunately for her, her legs finally gave out at that point, causing her to fall back as she bowed. Naruto caught her in a bridal style before lowering her to the ground, preventing her from falling as Hiashi rushed over to check on his daughter, Kosen and the other Hyuuga right behind her. He just told them, "I got it." as he activated his shosen no jutsu with a bit of youki, speeding up her bodies removal of lactic acid so it would only take a few seconds to let her weakness in her legs to go away.

Kosen gave Hanabi to her husband and went to get Hinata some water, as her breathing was still rather labored despite her attempts to say she was fine. All around her, though, she got words of praise from the members of her clan, both branch and main-house members, though the members of the main house were more reserved. Even Neji, the most reserved branch member alive at that point, ranking up there with some of the elders despite being 9, had to compliment her on her skills, though he had an odd way of doing so. "Perhaps your fate is not what I predicted." He quickly corrected himself after a brief look from Naruto. "I mean, uh... Good job, Hinata-sama." Hinata smiled at him as she responded. "Thank you, Neji-nii-san."

As he felt she could support herself on her own two legs now, Naruto got up and offered her a hand. She took it, and he pulled her up, saving her the effort as her arms were still feeling a little heavy. The Hyuuga around him started to ask what he was expecting but was hoping against. One outright asked him, "Excuse me, but who are you?" Rolling his eyes, he showed himself as he was before he left, though he just receded his hair before returning it to how it was. "I know I've changed, but why does NO ONE recognize me..." The slight pouting that he did seemed out of place on his face, but no one did more than snicker at the sight.

Sighing, he decided to stay and talk with Hinata and her family as the small crowd dispersed. A full two hours were spent just talking, and he didn't even go into detail on much of anything. Looking out of a window to see the sun, he noticed that it was getting late in the afternoon. Saying his goodbyes, with the excuse that he had to check on his house before nightfall so he had a chance to get anything essential before sleeping, he disappeared in the same fashion that he appeared in, leaving a confused Kosen and Hiashi and an equally amazed Hinata. (A/N: She IS still an eight year old, accelerated maturing for shinobi and clan head life aside.)

Appearing on a roof in the middle of town, he looked down to see Ichiraku Ramen on the street, jumping down, he found Anko in there, to his utter surprise. Smirking, he asked, "Finally realized that Ichiraku Ramen is better than your silly dango." Expecting the violent response he got, he shifted his head out of the way as a kunai flew by. Grabbing the kunai with chakra after it went by his head, he brought it to his hand and sat down. "Nice to see you again as well, Hebi-chan. How's it going, Ichiraku-jiji, Ayame-nee-chan?" He barely got to put the kunai out of his hand before Anko jumped him.

Anko gave a little squeal and hugged the life out of him while Ayame and Teuchi looked rather confused. Their confusion ended, though it was quickly replaced by surprise, when they heard her say, "I've been so bored without you, Naru-chan!" Once the shock wore off, Teuchi smiled while Ayame jumped the counter to hug him as well. Sadly for Naruto, the moment he extracted himself from the deathtrap known as Anko's breasts, enabling him to breath once more, Ayame's replaced them, though hers were a lot less... intentional.

Teuchi laughed at his dilemma. Anko just teased him, enjoying the feeling of being able to do so again. "Just got back, and you're already going after a girl. Calm down, Naruto." In his head, all three voices present were laughing at him right now, agreeing with Anko completely. Ayame just blushed lightly while letting him go. "Sorry, Naruto-kun." He was unable to answer as he was enjoying the feeling of being able to breathe again. 'Oh, I never knew how much I loved air.'

When he caught his breath, which only took a few seconds, he reoriented himself in his seat and began the process of catching up with everyone there, sharing some stories about his travels and learning of what had been happening while he was gone. One major thing he learned about was the small group of people who didn't think of him as the Kyuubi anymore, something that surprised him deeply, and he resolved to look deeper into it.

Going home with Anko, he hit her over the head as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop. "I told you already, NO PARTIES! Even though Mujihi wasn't a shadow clone, as you discovered after a successful hit, he still transferred his experiences to me, so I know about EVERYTHING." Anko just stuck her tongue out at him and sped up, running away from him. Naruto just shook his head. In his head, Kogo said, 'At least this is a good chance to go do what you need to before the academy starts.' He nodded and, after creating a clone to pose as him for the night, located the faint signature of Kurama, Kogo's other half.

When he found it, he focused in on it before disappearing in the same fashion he'd been doing all day. Appearing in the middle of a room with four rows of two coffins, though only three rows, and thus six coffins, were filled. It was extremely dark inside as Naruto made his way to what seemed to be the last row, though Naruto needed no actual light to navigate anywhere. Stopping in front of the coffins laid out side by side, he sent a message to his extra guests. 'Are you two sure you want to do this? Once you come back, you'll have to deal with... LIFE again.' All he got were two resolute 'Hai's. Nodding his head, he created a clone of himself which went into his dark-skinned form. Though he was sure the clone knew exactly what to do, he gave some final instructions. "Remember, Nagare: if you encounter Shinigami-sama for any reason, even if you aren't technically entering his realm this time, remind him that it's you. He won't harm you, though he may try to make your life rather difficult."

Nagare nodded before touching the center woman's chest. As he did this, he focused on the shard of Kushina's soul (A/N: Gasp!) within the seal on his body. Pushing it into her body, he made sure the process was slow enough that he had time to draw the rest of her soul from the pure world using the connection. Using as much natural energy as possible to guarantee the process, he pulled on the link, trying to drag the soul out instead of letting it drag her in, as it was trying to do. This was rather difficult, as Kushina had an enormous amount of chakra when she was alive and her soul was rather strong. Thankfully, she wasn't working against him, so he was able to do this after a little while.

Naruto, meanwhile, delved into Minato's (A/N: SUPER GASP!) copy of the Shiki Fujin, seeking to use its connection to the afterlife to make the process easier.

Minato's Mindscape

Appearing in a nice, rather cozy room, he found Minato on a bed, looking as though he was just sleeping, though Naruto knew he hadn't moved in years by outside time, and Kami knows how long by mindscape time. Walking up to him, he pushed the piece of Minato inside of him into the Minato sleeping on the bed, or at least he was going to. He was stopped by a booming voice that made the room he was standing in shake slightly. "Well, well. After 8 years, someone finally enters this god forsaken place. Would it be too much to ask you to let me out?" Sighing, he responded, "Yes, it would be too much to ask, Kurama." As he said this, he pushed the shard into Minato and let the seal's connection to death awaken him before walking over to the door in the room Minato was in.

Opening it, there was in infinite blackness that surrounded him. "How do you know my name, ningen?" Smirking as he walked into the blackness, he made his way to a door that he knew only he could really see due to Kogo's presence, though Minato would also know where it was, as this was his mind, and responded. "I hold Kogo. We've actually become rather close." Opening the door, he saw nothing but more darkness inside, but he knew Kurama was in there. Walking in, he was suddenly greeted with a pair of glowing red eyes in the darkness. Before anything else could be said by Naruto, a claw looking as sharp as, if not sharper than Kogo's flew at him. He didn't flinch.

Light slowly filtered into the room, showing Kurama chained to a wall with a shackle going to each of his limbs and even one to his neck. Every one of his tails had a ball and chain attached to them, yet he still managed to swing them lazily behind him. His claw was outstretched and millimeters from Naruto's face. "Oh? You're either crazy or brave... maybe both." Naruto smirked and, casually tapping each of the fingers on his right hand to the tip of the claw in front of him after stepping back, said, "Kogo did the same thing when I first met her. I kind of expected worse from the half the embodied uncontrolled hatred."

As he finished saying this, he brought the hand to his abdomen, dispersing his shirt and vest into chakra momentarily, and slammed his hand onto his seal, twisting his hand in the direction of its spiral. From the deep black hole that formed on it, red chakra seeped from inside, letting Kogo out. While he couldn't quiet manage this in the real world yet, he was working on it. When she finally appeared, as the process took a few seconds, she looked up at Kurama. "It's rude to try and intimidate someone who's just trying to have a nice conversation with you, Kurama." You could feel the roll of his eyes as his deep red fur began to glow... black. His frame shrunk, becoming distinctly humanoid.

After this was over, a man with black hair, tan skin, rather wild whisker marks, and no shirt. His hair was shaggy, but resembled Minato's greatly. His ruby red eyes still held the same intensity, but they were much more concentrated, giving him an ominous look. On his arms were detached sleeves, though there wasn't a shirt from which they were detached from, and grayish silver bands around each of his biceps. On the sleeves were red buckles that ran all the way down to his palm. His black pants were rather baggy, leaving just about everything to the imagination, and the sandals he wore had the same buckles as his sleeve running up them as they disappeared under the pants. Running down the sides of said pants were some ornate bloody red markings, looking like some sort of fox crest running down it. From his back, one could see nine ethereal, smoky tails flowing, lazily swinging back and forth, though the ball and chains were still attached to them. (A/N: For once, I made a character up from scratch! Unfortunately, looking back, he seems kind of like Menma. T-T Not changing him though.)

Once Naruto had a second or two to take in his appearance, he turned to Kogo and said, "Well, would you look at that. Apparently, you're the weird one out of the two of you. He wears clothes, at least more than you do." Kogo just dismissed his findings. "I don't like clothes, so I don't wear them. Unless I'm actually outside, with a body, I won't bother putting on clothes." Kurama just chuckled at their banter, though the sound was rather scary with the demonic voice he possessed, outclassing Kogo's voice in terms of raw intimidation. "Who would've thought you'd go and get yourself a mate so quickly? A human, no less."

He wasn't expecting Kogo to tense up and Naruto to look at him with a not too pleased expression. Naruto, letting it slide due to Kurama's ignorance, sighed before explaining. "I don't really, ah, IDENTIFY with humanity anymore. And, considering I have my own pool of youki, I'm not really limited to being called human. Hell, my chakra has become human youki at this point. Regardless, I'll have to ask you to not call me that. It brings up… bad memories."

Kurama cocked his head at the request, but shrugged, not really caring, at least not outwardly. He was limited to his thoughts, as he didn't want to offend his only chance to get out at the moment. 'These humans are always so proud of being human… but this one is different. He knows of how shitty people are in this world, though he doesn't seem to be FILLED with as much hate as one would think or as much as I'd like. I'll have to keep an eye on this one.'

Kogo looked at him amused, aware of how interested he was in Naruto, but reframed from mentioning it. Instead, she just asked, "Do you want to join me in Naruto's seal? Shinigami kinda split us for good, but his body's able to take far more youki than Minato's, so we can get up to our previous power in no time." Kurama didn't even have to think about it. "Damn right I do! I fucking HATE Minato, but, lucky me, I'm STUCK INSIDE HIM! I wouldn't have cared if you killed me and took my power, but I'm glad you're not."(A/N: Kurama is already aware of the seal's effect of draining his chakra slowly into his host, as that was keeping Minato's body alive for 8 years, and he wants to get stronger using its effect.)

Kogo chuckled at his enthusiasm to get out, even if it was into a new seal. "Well, just wait until Minato is back. We'll get him to let you come with us." As she was saying this, the revived Minato, or at least a mental projection of him, walked into the seal room. He looked around, confused as to where the ten story demon fox he sealed in himself was and who the two people with his son were.

Kogo's anger at the forced split, rekindled when she actually SAW her other half, allowed her to react first, speeding over to him and punching him in the stomach. "THAT is for splitting me in half, you fucker!" He then remembered that the one who just pushed his stomach through his intestines was Kogo, as he was finally getting around to assimilating the recent memories of the piece of him that was just returned. With that realization, he looked at the man in shackles, after he managed to recover from the punch from a bijuu with their power concentrated into a human form, and asked, "Kyuubi…s?" Their nod made him look to Naruto for an explanation.

Rolling his eyes, he began, "I can let her out in any mindscape I manage to enter, either allowing her to communicate with someone or just reek general havoc in their minds. And, as you know of her "human form", then you would imagine the half you sealed in yourself also has one." Minato nodded, understanding what he was told. Before he got to ask the question of "What now?", he was cut off by Naruto asking him to transfer Kurama to him.

He responded as any parent would to their child ASKING to have the rest of giant demon who killed his parents and almost destroyed his home into him would. "Are you crazy!?" Before he could begin ranting, Naruto cut him off. "Make no mistake, Minato. You are not my parent. You don't control me, you cannot make my decisions for me, and I won't let you keep a person captive inside you when they are unhappy with it and you have the power to release them. Either you transfer him to me, or I rip him out of you, right here, right now. Choose, Minato, and choose wisely."

Minato knew that, in his weakened state, he wouldn't be able to take on Kogo and Naruto at the same time, and if he booted them out of his mind, Naruto would just undo the seal on his physical body as soon as he could, letting Kurama free and either letting him roam or seal him inside himself anyway. Nodding, albeit rather reluctantly, he made his way toward Kurama, who smiled maliciously as he approached. "Oh, the sweet irony. After splitting us up and being forced to seal one of us in you and the other in your son, you now, forced by your own son, release me and ALLOW me to enter your son. I'm gonna enjoy this. Hahahahahaa!" After Minato sent him a dirty look, he proceeded to unlock the shackles that bound him, and his tails, to Minato's body.

Kurama stretched at the nice, previously unattainable feeling of freedom. Then, walking over to Naruto, he flipped Minato the bird. Naruto rolled his eyes, but looked at his "father" and began to inform him of his plans. "You'd die if we just took Kurama and left, so we'll leave you an, ah, artificial Kyuubi for your body to run off of. And yes, I mean ALL of us, Kurama." Kurama grumbled, showing that he wasn't too happy about not letting Minato's body go into shock and die, but didn't put up any arguments. Each of them pushed a large amount of youki into the seals that Minato released, creating an artificial Kyuubi, though it had a good bit more power than the original, full Kyuubi.

With that done, the two bijuu looked a bit tired as Minato resealed the new Kyuubi in himself, Kurama more so than Kogo, and closed their eyes and concentrated. Minato, who hadn't really been able to see Kogo do a real refill before, was surprised to see them become good as new in moments, taking as little as 30 seconds for Kurama to be rejuvenated, and about 34 for Kogo. After they finished, they proceeded to dissolve into red youki which then went into the seal on Naruto's stomach. The seal went in reverse, once more becoming the artistic spiral Minato drew on the night of Naruto's birth. Once it was done, Naruto, right as he was fading out of Minato's mind, told Minato, "You're welcome to train with me to bring your body back into shape, as it's been out of use for years. You should probably wait for your wife to wake up before you decide though." As he finished saying this, his whole body fully faded, leaving Minato with the fake Kyuubi behind him. As Minato faded out of the mindscape as well, he missed the newly created Kyuubi's eye staring at him ominously, its red eye glowing on its black sclera. Had he seen it, the grin that followed would've sent shivers down his spine for years to come.

Real World

Opening his eyes, Naruto lit a torch on the wall with a glance using some fire natured chakra, as he knew the other two would need to see. The soft light it cast in the room was perfect for eyes that hadn't been used in a while and had to get used to light all over again. As both Kushina and Minato both came to, Naruto went about drawing a bit of Kogo's youki out of his seal to channel into Kushina, as she's already used to it, even if she never actually used it. The youki made her body recover faster than it would have normally, speeding up the process of her first movement in years. Minato wasn't as bad off, as the Kyuubi in him was able to keep his body working, though he also lost a lot of muscle strength and control.

When they finally managed to open their eyes and sit up in their coffins, Naruto said, "Welcome back to the world of the living." Both of them, knowing their bodies pretty well, managed to get themselves reacquainted with everything rather quickly, noticing the weakness of their muscles. Kushina was the first to voice it, letting Minato focus more on testing his other motor functions. "The hell is wrong with my body?" Naruto explained the problem to her. "Your bodies haven't moved in eight years, so all the strength and fine-tuned control you built up will have to be redone, though it will be easier this time around. I'd give you a month before you're back to your old selves, a week or so if you train with me. By the way, would you like to train with me?" Both parents obviously said yes, wanting to spend time with the son they so much of the life of. Neither of them were aware that he just wanted to see how they moved at full capacity if he ever had to fight them, not putting it past them to kill their own "son" eventually. At this point, they found that they could get up and walk, though it wasn't too smooth.

Naruto asked them if they wanted to go to Hiruzen now or later, and, as per Minato's sense of honor, they ended up choosing now. Shrugging, Naruto grabbed a hold of both of them before disappearing from where they were in the same fashion the appeared in, leaving a ripple in the air where they once stood.

Appearing in the Hokage's office, and Hiruzen was, thankfully, alone, they proceeded to scare the shit out of him. He'd dismissed his ANBU guard earlier in the day and chose to go without them for the day, which he was now thanking every god in existence for at that moment, because if word that Minato was back spread throughout the village, there would be an uproar among the people, some demanding how while others demanding their loved ones be brought back too. He needed a cover story before anything happened.

Hiruzen, after he regained his breath and put away his porn/art, asked, "What in the actual fuck, Naruto!?" It was directed at Naruto since he thought this might've been a prank, despite having a sinking feeling otherwise. Naruto just rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I don't need to introduce you to these two. If I do, then you're older than I thought, jiji." Kushina laughed at that point. "You call him jiji, too? Ha!" Hiruzen, hearing the voice he hadn't heard for over eight years, started to tear up.

Getting up and slowly walking over to the two, he slowly reached out to touch them, fearing that they were just ghosts or something. When he actually managed to touch them, he brought both of them in for a hug. The two hugged back as best they could, reaffirming for Hiruzen that they were real. Naruto was off to the side, waiting for the three to finish their reunion, when he heard Kurama say, 'So... what do you do for fun up here?' Naruto, smirking slightly, responded. 'Well, I train while Kogo molests me, I train with Kogo AS she molests me, or Kogo tries to satisfy her urges WITHOUT molesting me while I train, aka she takes a day of masturbation. That's about it, though she could do just about anything up there. I stopped questioning her choices a long time ago.'

He could feel Kogo's glare at him through their mental link, but her anger and embarrassment were overshadowed by Kurama's amusement. When he calmed down, which took a few seconds, he said, still a bit giggly, 'When you didn't deny that he was your mate, I assu-' He only got that far as Naruto felt the impact of what he assumed was Kogo slamming a tail into his face at full force. Kogo's voice calm out much calmer than expected when she said, 'He's not my mate. You could already feel that he's not THAT strong yet, Kurama.' Smirking slightly, he decided to add fuel to the fire. 'Gimme 5 years, six at most, and then we'll see what you have to say.' Tuning out the oncoming argument, Naruto turned back to the S-class ninja who he felt had just finished.

Walking up to them, which drew all their attention to him, he asked, "What now? Your bodies need about a week of intense training to get back up to snuff, but the academy starts tomorrow, and the Hokage is expected to give an opening speech." Minato thought for a moment before asking Hiruzen. "Do you just want to keep being Hokage for the time being and just give the speech yourself?" Hiruzen shook his head. "I've had this job for too long. It was your turn until the whole Kyuubi thing happened, so feel free to take your position back. Besides, we could easily delay the academy opening for a week, though we'll have to up the intensity for the classes ever so slightly to make up for it. I'll do it under pretense of an emergency, then announce your return at the end of the week."

Minato nodded and looked at his son. After a second, he asked, "Would you like to come live with us, Naruto? I know we were-" Naruto cut him off there. "No. I hold you no grudge, but, in my eyes, I don't have or need parents. It may not have been your fault, but you weren't my parents when I needed you, so you won't get the chance now that I don't. So, when you make the announcement of your return, keep the fact that I'm your "son" to yourselves. We can become friends, but I don't trust easily so you'll have to earn that much. As the one who brought you back -don't ask jiji- I feel responsible for your well-being and nothing more. You have a week to get on my good side. Regardless, I have a nice building to myself, and I don't want people to flood it to try and be near the dear son of the Yondaime. Publicity in Konoha isn't my thing. I'll pick you up tomorrow to bring you to my private training area, so get a good night's rest; your muscles will hate you for a while, but you'll thank me for it."

After he finished, he disappeared from the office, leaving Minato and Kushina heartbroken but understanding. As he appeared in his room, he un-muted the voices in his head, only to hear both of them laughing at the look on Minato's face. Shaking his head as he dispersed the clone meditating in his bed, he absorbed its chakra and took its place. 'You two are cruel.' His only response was 'We're demons' before they went back to enjoying the look on Minato's face. He figured they took a picture.

Next Week

As the academy was opening, parents, government officials, such as members of both the civilian and shinobi council, shinobi hopefuls, and even normal civilians looked on at the third Hokage who was standing on a platform. "Citizens of Konoha, it is my honor to see off the training of our village's newest generation of protectors." He had to stop to let the applause die down. "But this time, it isn't my job to do so. With a heavy heart, and tired, old bones, I would like to step down from my position once more and welcome BACK... Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage." Absolutely stunned silence overtook everyone, even Danzo, as Hiruzen stepped back and a yellow flash appeared in front of the podium. In his full Hokage uniform, cloak and all, Minato stood before the procession, Kushina right behind him in her ANBU uniform. Kakashi also stood there, also in his ANBU uniform. Both of them had their respective masks, Kushina with Kitsune and Kakashi with Inu.

Everyone knew the two people behind those masks, Kakashi being well-known and Kushina thought to be DEAD. As such, Kushina removed her mask to show everyone she was who they suspected. The silence that overtook the crowd was broken by a single person asking, "N-Namikaze-sama?" With the smile none of them ever forgot, except the young ones, and a nod, the crowd proceeded to explode into cheers. "Yondaime-sama is back!" and the like were heard all over Konoha. Two of the larger cheers were "He'll rid us of the demon once and for all!" and "He'll show you all you were wrong about the boy!"

As the cheers died down when they saw Minato ask for silence with the raise of a hand, he began again, picking up where Hiruzen left off. "I'm sure you're wondering how my wife and I returned." At that, many people seemed confused, that is until Minato gestured to Kushina and got a few "oh"s and a few cat calls. He then continued. "Well, we were never truly gone, just unable to return on our own. The key to bringing us back was sealed within Naruto Uzumaki, the container we had chosen, the whole time. He, during his two years away, figured out what to do in order to revive us, and, despite how little he probably thinks of us all, chose to bring us back to you. He is responsible for our return, so do not think of us as invincible nor immortal as we nearly disappeared from this world on that day." Everyone was back to shocked silence.

All stares turned to Naruto who was isolated from everyone under a tree. During the week, word had spread of his return and people were either apologizing to him or persecuting him whenever he was recognized. As such, he traveled as Mujihi a lot, leaving a clone to push Kushina and Minato's bodies back up to their peak. Regardless, the people were unsure of how to respond to the impassive boy. He opened his eyes and proceeded to wave them off. "Don't bother thanking me. I was actually becoming quite comfortable being the resident demon; no need to start changing that now." People murmured as they turned back to Minato about his choice, either believing this proved he was a demon or it proved they fucked up.

Minato looked at his "son" worriedly, not expecting that response from him. Whenever he'd tried to learn about his son's life so far, his questions were avoided, so his words now only made him think it was worse than he thought. Kushina shared a look with him before they both looked back to the crowd and allowed Minato to finish starting off the year at the Academy.

After the official start of the Academy, Naruto had eyes follow him where ever he went. When they introduced themselves in front of the class, Naruto went second to last, before Ino Yamanaka, and everyone, even the rude children who spoke incessantly during introductions, shut up. During the time inside the class room, he felt people's eyes dart towards him then away. Even when they went outside at the end of the first day to view the final year students do some exhibition matches, people's eyes always lingered on him until he met their gaze, in which case they'd quickly look at something else. This went for everyone but Minato, Kushina, Hiruzen, Mikoto, Hinata, Hiashi, and Kosen, them being the only ones who knew him well enough to keep his currently intense gaze. Oddly, he couldn't find Surashi.

His gaze was only as intense as it was because of the constant stares and glances. His eyes glowed a deep blue from the moment he'd begun getting the stares, becoming darker until the matches, where his eyes were almost glowing black. He went out of his way to glance at every single person who looked at him, making them look away if they couldn't keep his gaze. By the time the day was over, there was a palpable aura of annoyance around Naruto. Thankfully, this finally caused people to get the message, but the annoyance didn't go away. When the day finally ended, he just disappeared from his seat in the back corner of the class room, not even bothering to hide the fact that he could do that.

Slightly bloody scene upcoming... Okay, it's rather bloody.

Appearing in his training ground below his building, he made a proverbial army of clones to come at him with intent to kill. What looked like strings manifested themselves around him, though they were just ninja wire he created out of his chakra. He sent them at the clones, who dodged as best they could. He homed in on the group closest to him and entangled them with the strings. Keeping an eye on all the others, he proceeded to rip this group limb from limb. First went the arms, leaving pieces of bone and ripped muscles visible. Then the legs, where he ripped them from their sockets and left them lying on the floor. The muscles that were torn in the middle just hung there, blood flowing freely from the wounds. He then proceeded to dispel each of the other groups and focus all the negative feelings he'd built up in the week he spent with his parent combined with his shitty day today on the group in front of him.

Pulling the upper body from their lower body, he watched with an odd sense of satisfaction as organs spilled out. All the while, their screams seemed to melt his stress away. The visible spine left at the bottom of their separated upper bodies was suddenly yanked away as he brought the strings surrounding their heads up and let what was left of their bodies drop. They were most definitely dead at this point, but he still proceeded to shred their heads to ribbons. His eyes, unknown to everyone there, were pure black at that moment, a red dot in the center reminiscent of a pupil.

It wasn't much, but for those who don't like blood, well, it's safe to read again.

All throughout this, Kogo and Kurama looked on. Kurama whistled in appreciation of the gore in front of him. 'Damn, boy. I think I'm starting to like you. You're already better than Minato, in my opinion, though that isn't saying much. Hahaha' He was followed up by Kogo who reprimanded him. 'This is your fault anyway. He still isn't used to this much youki flowing into him, and yours is especially hate filled. At least apologize.' Kurama snorted, but before he could respond, Naruto cut in, feeling and looking as though he was back to normal. 'No, no; there's no need for him to apologize, though I doubt he would anyway. I actually rather enjoyed that. Rather calming. I'll gain control eventually, but, until then, this is a good stress reliever. Besides, I doubt I'll go to school too often anymore. A clone is good enough for that shit; there isn't a damn thing they could teach me there, not when I know Konoha law better than some of the council members and its history better than most jonin.'

As he was talking, he had been making his way to his floor, the top floor of his building, where he saw Anko waiting for him on his own couch. "So," she began, "how was the first day of school." Naruto snorted and responded with one word. "Shitty." Anko cackled before asking for details. Feeling nice, he made some ice tea as he answered her. "People will not stop staring no matter how many fucking times you catch them. It's annoying as all hell. I almost killed someone today, though I doubt I would've stopped at one. These people don't know how to be fucking polite, do they?" The completely calm way in which he said this was unnerving, but Anko missed the feeling.

Looking down at the tea bags in his hand, he chose to put them away and make the tea using loose leaves, which he then proceeded to get. "Although, I found that tearing through a group of clones can be rather therapeutic. Seriously though, you'd think they'd pay more attention to their future, but apparently I'm just SO fucking interesting." Anko laughed at his displeasure; she knew he didn't like being in the spotlight, but that's what made it all the better. "That's what you get when you revive a legend while housing a demon." Kogo butt in at that. 'She has a point, Naru-chan.' He could feel Kurama's nod of agreement.

Rolling his eyes, though Anko thought it was just from what she said, he proceeded to finish making a pint of tea. Offering some to Anko, he laid on a chair near the couch and put his feet up. "Why can't a guy just bring back the Yondaime and not become known for it?" Seeing the look on her face, he cut her off before she could talk. "Don't answer that." Taking a sip of his tea, he continued. "You have no clue what I'd give to be able to go back and just tell him "DON'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ME". That is gonna follow me for a while..."

Anko just shrugged. "Your fault. Anyway, how did you manage to get yourself in the bingo book?" Naruto cursed, his hopes of no one seeing that dashed in an instant. "What? You thought I WOULDN'T see the youngest A-Rank shinobi since Itachi? Ha! Now, gimme the details! Your entry paints a pretty interesting story." Naruto just sighed. "What does it say? I don't like to give more than I have to, so tell me what you know." Anko just threw him a copy with a marker sticking out of the side at his page. He opened it and read, his mouth slowly opening wider at just how much info was collected on him.

Name: Naruto Uzumaki

Known Aliases:

-Fujimi no Gisei (Unkillable Sacrifice) – despite being outclassed and outnumbered by Mizukage and part of an army of chunin+ shinobi, he was unable to be killed. Was fighting to let allies escape alive.

-Akuma no Shugo (Guardian of Demons) – covered the retreat of bloodline faction in Kirigakure's civil war, including the Kirigakure no Kijin (Demon of the Mist) and the Oni Kyodai (Demon Brothers), earning him this title from shinobi under the Mizukage, Yagura.

Age: Unknown; appears to be anywhere from 8-14, though this has seemingly fluctuated

Affiliation: Unknown; sighted in all countries fighting shinobi from different villages; suspected Ronin/Mercenary

Skills:

-Ninjutsu: S-rank

-Taijutsu: mid A-rank

-Nintaijutsu: high A-rank; unknown limits

-Genjutsu: Unknown; such little use gives cause to suspect weak point

-Kenjutsu: mid A-rank

-Fuinjutsu: Seal Master (possibly youngest recorded)

-Notes: Able to use all five elements proficiently on a large scale and has shown use of kekkei tota and kekkei genkai limited elements such at Koton (steel release) and Chiton (blood release). Uses the Kugutsu no Jutsu with great proficiency, rivaling that of puppet masters, but is able to make these chakra strings tangible and use them as their own weapon. Shown to be able to slice through a human body with them and create more than 10, as is the normal maximum for a puppeteer. Is able to perform at least two jikukan (space-time) ninjutsu. Moves extremely fast, as shown when he ran from the Mizukage after they fought and he lost, and hits rather hard. Showed an advanced healing factor of unknown origin, allowing him to shrug off many injuries. Suspected jinchuriki, possibly of the Rokubi, as it is the only unaccounted for bijuu at this moment in time. Unknown genjutsu capabilities. Seen using multiple weapons, such as tonfa, a zanbato, a katana, a dual-bladed kusarigama, a large scythe, two small scythes, and ninja wire in place of previously noted chakra strings(able to create these as well, presumably with Koton). Multiple reports of him using fuinjutsu of some sort, even causing jikukan jutsu-like effects with it.

Bounty:

-Kirigakure: Dead or Alive: 37,000,000 ryo- wanted for openly opposing Kirigakure government and perpetuating a war.(A/N: This is just about $3 million USD, a little more than Asuma in the bingo book.)

-Amegakure: Alive: 40,000,000 ryo- wanted for possessing highly classified information.(A/N: The akatsuki want the Kyuubi pretty badly, so they'll match the price.)

Threat Level/Rank: High A-class; do not underestimate. Only weakness may be genjutsu and possible lack of experience. Known to take on experienced jonin and kill them. Fought the Mizukage in death match while fighting part of an army and lived. Do not approach with any shinobi below chunin in rank, though jonin+ is recommended for best survival chance; do not fight alone unless nearing the minimum kage level with a lot of experience. Otherwise, face in a group larger than 20 chunin+ level ninja who are prepared for him SPECIFICALLY. Able to destroy very large groups alone.

As he looked up from the book, he tossed it to Anko as he laid back in his chair, shock clear on his face. Shaking his head, he brought his tea in for another sip before placing it on the table in front of his chair. Kogo laughed at him in his head, loving his reaction. 'Well, I'd say that you're decently well-known now. Hope your beloved tou-chan, or, Kami forbid, your kaa-chan don't find out. For your sake.' Kurama also found amusement in this. 'Just fixed one little problem and another pops up. I wonder how good your luck will be when all this karma finally evens out.' Naruto could only pray it evened itself out soon.

Looking over to Anko, he asked, grumbling slightly, "What do you want to know? It said A LOT about what I can do already." Anko thought for a moment before asking, "Did you get laid a single time during your travels?" "I refrain from answering." "Aw. Was she at least good?" Naruto gave her a look that just shouted "Shut up. Right now." Anko sighed. "Fine, be that way. How about this? Why does Kiri want you so bad?"

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. 'THIS I can answer.' Thinking of how to start, he took another sip of his tea. "Well," he began, "I was going through Mizu no Kuni after a recent job at a manor. The master of the house was a rapist and an overall scumbag, so I ended him and took my pay, and a bit extra. This caught the attention of Kiri, who had him as an associate. They offered for me to work for the Mizukage, as there was a civil war going on and they found that I was strong enough. I didn't know how they knew I was strong, but I had already passed through Ame at that point, so they probably saw the entry that I was unaware of. Regardless, I decided to consider the proposal and met with the Mizukage to discuss terms of service. He was willing to pay a large sum and I was willing to END the war for him, but that was only until I asked why the war was being waged. Apparently, those possessing kekkei genkai are demonized, hunted, and executed there, and a pro kekkei genkai faction eventually was formed, fighting against the Mizukage's influence. A war broke out, and that was where I had found myself.

"Well, after I declined and told him my reasons, he said, "If you aren't for us, you are against us." He then tried to have me arrested, but the shinobi who attempted it were, ah, dealt with. Quickly and brutally. Anyway, I left after that, as I was prepared for him to turn on me. I used a space-time jutsu, similar to the Hiraishin, which allows me to appear just about anywhere. I can't quite use it in battle without wasting a fuck ton of chakra, and doubt I'll ever be able to use it efficiently, but that's a different matter. Appearing on the edge of Kiri, I proceeded to leave, but I was stopped by the rebel faction, or at least a few of them, after I got a mile or so out. They'd heard of how easily I got away from the Mizukage after killing what were apparently Kiri ANBU." At this point, Anko was gaping at him, but he paid her no mind and continued his story.

"I agreed to listen to their offer, as I didn't really mind helping, but I don't do stuff like that for free. This was the last place I visited before I came back, so I also informed them that they had my services for a maximum of 3 months before I would be unavailable for at least 4 years. They took it rather well and offered me some training in any two things I wanted, so I asked to be trained in the use of a zanbato, as Kiri is known for theirs, and to just observe some of the bloodline users, maybe ask a few questions. We came to an agreement that I could do so for a couple bloodlines and I would train with Zabuza Momochi for the zanbato training. In return, I'd be a loyal soldier for the next 3 months." He paused to take another sip of his tea here, talking for so long making his throat feel a little dry.

"Over my time there, plans were made and launched, and a few encounters with the Mizukage happened. In the final days before I had to leave, I was part of a major attack that, if done right, could've ended the war. All of our hardest hitters were there, including the rebellion leader, Mei Terumi. We were all to hold off any forces that came to aid the Mizukage while she and Zabuza fought the Mizukage, a few others set to help them if things got sticky. None of it went down that way, as we were ratted out by a spy, so when we did go for it, we were ambushed by the majority of the Mizukage's forces, as almost all of us were currently fighting. I made the choice to cover their retreat, making an army of my special clones. I was even forced to release most of my seals to survive the encounter, as I was facing the Mizukage and his army with only a few jonin and chunin to back me up, though Zabuza and his two followers were among them.

"Unfortunately they all died, except Zabuza and two of his followers, but those that fell blew themselves up after throwing themselves into the thick of the army, taking out a large portion with each of them that fell. Eventually, it was just me and Zabuza's group against the remainder of the forces and the Mizukage. They'd originally been holding the Mizukage as best he could while I took out as many of the "small fry" as I could, as I proved to have the more widespread lethal techniques despite his Muon Satsujin (Soundless Murder/ Silent Killing) being very effective.

"After they failed to actually take Yagura, the Mizukage, out, and were losing badly at that point, I covered for them as they fled as well. In the end, it was me against the remainder of the army and the mostly fresh Mizukage, who, by the way, is the jinchuriki of the Sanbi no Kyodaigame (Three-Tailed Giant Turtle). The fight, if you could call it that, was bullshit. He has full control of his bijuu, making everything I did have just about no effect. I went to my limits and beyond just to keep up with him… AND his army. Hell, just to stay alive. They even forced me to use Kogo, the Kyuubi's, chakra, and I was still hanging on for dear life. Obviously, I couldn't win, so I eventually had to retreat, but I could only do that after I thinned out his forces enough to not worry about pursuit.

"When I finally managed to get away from Yagura, which I consider an accomplishment in and of itself, I ran in my enhanced form. My speed was higher that Yagura's, letting me get pretty far before I was actually forced to stop so I could deal with my wounds. I met with Zabuza and, after giving a few explanations, just made my way here directly. I don't know if he went back afterwards or left the country after openly fighting the Mizukage, but I'd have left immediately if I were him.

"After a week or so, as I rested in a town or two and found a last minute thing to train on before really hauling ass here, I managed to reach this place. Over the final few days, I managed to get the pieces I needed to revive both Minato and Kushina from my seal. You have no clue how annoying it was to attempt without alerting half of Hi no Kuni of what I was doing. Regardless, that's pretty much why Kiri wants me right now: I kinda perpetuated a war, openly supported the opposition to the official but corrupt government, and fought the Mizukage 200-v.-1, letting a major supporter of the opposing faction escape along with the majority of their forces beforehand."

Anko just gaped at him for a full minute straight. During this time, Kurama asked, 'Why did you tell her so much? Kogo here has caught me up on your life, and, from what I can tell, that's a pretty big part of the last two years.' Naruto just said, 'We can trust her. She doesn't like Konoha as much as I hated ANBU, so she won't rat me out. I'm actually surprised she hasn't left the village.' Taking a sip from his tea again, though this emptied the cup, he made a small spray of water appear in front of Anko's face, dousing said face in water.

Anko sputtered for a moment, wiping her face in her trench coat. Not liking the stain, she just took it off and threw it towards the door after flipping Naruto off. Pulling her hand across her face one last time, she finally responded to what he said. "Damn, gaki! You've fought a Kage..." She resumed staring at him before asking in an overly excited manner, "Why does Ame want you then!? Oh, this'll be god; your bounty with them is even bigger!" Naruto had to burst her bubble there, though. "Nope. Story time is over for today. Maybe another time, but for now, I don't feel like telling anymore stories." Anko's puppy dog eyes did nothing to him, as he'd trained to have a resistance to that specific kinjutsu.

After she gave up, he looked at the time and saw that it was rather late. Sighing, he made a Mujihi clone to, again, replace his current one governing the yakuza and resumed his torturous nightly training with not one, but TWO giant demon foxes in his head.

2 Weeks Later

Naruto had completely stopped going to school himself, and just let a clone do it. After reviewing what they were currently being taught in the academy, he resolved to visit his "father" to address the matter. Appearing in his office, he found Minato being reprimanded by Kushina for something. As they failed to notice him, and no ANBU were in the room for the personal moment, he listened in.

"Why did you leave that good-for-nothing pervert as the godfather? I figured you'd have picked Hiashi, but Jiraya!? JIRAYA!?" Her hair flowed wildly behind her as she loomed in front of Minato. Minato squirmed in his seat, her gaze seeming to unsettle even him. "W-well, I hadn't thought that he would abandon him like he did. I'm sure he had his own reasons, Shinku-hime (Scarlet Princess). As a spymaster and one of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja), I'm sure he had other responsibilities."

Kushina, despite agreeing, vented her anger on him. "Oh? So you thought making BOTH of his godparents one of the Sannin was a good idea?" Minato shrunk into his chair, but still managed to respond, "But you were the one to suggest Tsunade..." This only seemed to infuriate Kushina further, and when it looked like Minato was about to lose his legs, Naruto couldn't hold it anymore and burst out laughing. "Oh my god! The "great" Kiroi Senko is fucking whipped! Hahaha! And here I thought you wore the pants, Minato. Ha!" In his head, Kogo and Kurama were laughing too, though, since they didn't have to conceal it, they were laughing from the start.

Kushina and Minato both blushed, Minato far more than Kushina. Kushina then lunged out and grabbed Naruto in a death-grip. "I'm so sorry, Naru-chan! This is all our fault." Naruto disappeared from her grip, shocking both of them as they had never actually seen him use his space-time jutsu before. He had already appeared a foot or so to the right of her, wiping his eye of a tear that had formed from laughing too hard.

Getting himself under control, he addressed them. "Sorry about that; I just found it hilarious. I won't tell anybody though." Minato looked so grateful that you'd have though death spared him. "Anyway, I don't think I need to reiterate this, but I shall. I am NOT your son. It's no one but that masked man's fault that this all happened, but I have grown up already. I taught myself how to cook, how to wash, how to clean, etc. I've become a strong shinobi, at least in my opinion, and I was already guided through my first kill, shinobi guidelines, and all the other crap. I already have a steady source of income, two actually, though I won't be disclosing those. All you need to know is that one involves inter-country trade and distribution, with me pretty high up on the corporate ladder, and the other operates outside of Konoha for the most part." Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair, his voice becoming more monotone. "I grew up with little love in my life, so getting parental love would feel a bit odd right now, and I have a few companions to save me from complete and utter loneliness. You missed your chance. I'm sorry." In his head, he added, 'Minato already fucked up as a parent, and he wasn't even my parent! Sealing a demon in your own son... asshole.'

Seeing Kushina, tear up and Minato look borderline suicidal, he gave them a bit of leeway. "Look, I'll give you a chance, but I already told you that I don't think I need to be parented anymore. I won't move in with you, as I am quite happy with my own residence, but I'll stay over every once in a while, if it makes you feel any better. I'll let you cook some meals for me, I'll let you train a bit with me, whatever you want. You can do some of that bonding stuff, but don't get your hopes up. I predict you'll only become close friends at best." Despite what he said in the last part, their faces lit up like a Christmas tree.

Sighing at their exuberance, he proceeded to bring up his original reason for coming. "Anyway, I came here to ask you about the academy, Minato. I reviewed the curriculum -don't ask how I got a hold of that- and I am rather disappointed. I hope you don't approve of how it's being taught right now, because it's rather pathetic. The genin produced by this program could be beaten by academy students in some other villages. No focus on physical conditioning until the third year? Even then it has to contend with the bullshit you're passing off as important to know. We don't need to know that Hashirama Senju was the first person to tame all the bijuu, all we should know that the Mokuton could suppress a bijuu's power. And, on the topic of bijuu, there is nothing on the topic of jinchuriki. They are some of the hardest hitters in any military force of a village; how do you expect them to know what they're up against?

"And don't get me started on the other random bullshit that's thrown in there. Tobirama Senju enjoyed dango. Big fucking whoop, so does Anko." When he mentioned Anko, Kushina made a note to ask her about her son. "Mito Uzumaki was a large purveyor of natural cures as opposed to artificial ones. Great, so was my baa-chan." Both their ears perked up at the mention of his baa-chan, but they made a note to ask him about it later. "What I'm trying to say here is that you're not preparing them for the real world. You should be drilling battle tactics and shinobi rules into their minds. Maybe if it had to do with something important to Konoha, like Tsunade's contribution to the medical field, then you could include it, but, more often than not, the information they're trying to teach us won't help us survive. At the very most, what they're teaching COULD be used in some sort of political sense, but even that isn't likely." After he was done, he just gave Minato a hard look. "If you keep it like this, you'll be sending naive children to their deaths in a cruel world."

Minato sighed before answering. "I read through this already, Naruto-kun, and I agree with you completely. Unfortunately, the civilian council has more control over that than I do, as the students are civilian children before they graduate, technically. I could try to talk them into a more intensive program, but I doubt they'd listen to... me. Never mind, I could probably do it." Naruto scoffed at him before saying, "Don't get cocky. But you are right; they fucking worship you. Regardless of that, though, this is a military dictatorship. You aren't obligated to listen to them, though that fact has been lost for a while, it seems. Remind them of that, and they should sober up pretty quickly." Naruto then turned to leave when he heard a voice that didn't seem to have any discernible source. "Well, haven't you grown up splendidly, gaki?"

Turning to the corner of the room, where he felt the chakra signature, he asked, "Who are you and how do you know me?" A ripple came across the corner, but a puff of smoke appeared before Naruto could see the person behind it, though he got what he looked like from his perpetually active technique. "THANK YOU FOR ASKING!" Odd kabuki music began playing, though Naruto couldn't sense a radio ANYWHERE in the vicinity. "I am the monk of the frog spirits that hails from Myobokuzan, also known as the Gama Sennin (A/N: Different from Sannin)! The strongest of men tremble in fear from my very presence! Women fall to their knees in awe of my glory! You have the honor of me being your godfather! I am the gallant, JIRAYA!" All the while, he had been doing some freaky dance on top of a toad, and it ended in a pose that made Naruto want to slice off the man's legs.

Naruto's face couldn't have hit his palm harder. "I will forever regret asking that question..." In his head he added, 'He does have cool hair, though.' He then perked up and asked, "Wait, you're the writer of the IchaIcha series, yeah?" At his proud nod, Naruto sighed. "At least you're not a complete failure. Those are pretty good, although, I'd say you should add a bit more plot. No need to take out anything, just get more done in a single issue." Jiraya, Minato, and Kushina all looked at him with shock written all over their faces. Even the toad Jiraya was standing on gave him an odd look before dispersing.

Feeling all of their stares, he only asked, "What?" At their continued shock, he continued to talk. "The plot is nice, it has rather vivid imagery, and the characters have a sense of realism that just about anyone could relate to. It's a good book, and the presence of a few smutty scenes... okay, a lot of smutty scenes, doesn't change that. I'd recommend it to anyone with a healthy mind that is developed enough to handle a story with, ah, a VIVID description of a Casa Nova's life." Jiraya broke out of his shock first, appearing behind Naruto with speed that rivaled Mianto's Hiraishin. "Hahaha! I like you already gaki!" he said as he slung his hand around Naruto's shoulder. "So, you're Naruto, eh? Well, I already knew that, but, whatever. Tell me, tits or ass?"

Naruto looked up at him with a deadpan look before disappearing from his grip. "You are a failure of a godparent. You haven't quite earned the right to get so close with me... Oh, and, while I prefer ass over tits, I think a good ratio that fits the person they're on is best" When he actually answered the question, Kurama could no longer hold his laughter. 'Gahahaha! Being around Kogo does tend to give people a healthy like for the body! Oh, I love this gaki!' Naruto rolled his eyes, but didn't deny what was asserted, making Kurama laugh all the harder.

Kushina, on the other hand, couldn't believe her ears. 'NOOO! My sweet little boy was corrupted by Jiraya without even meeting him!' Minato was just shocked they got along this well. That is, until Naruto buried his fist in Jiraya's stomach, the man being nowhere near prepared for it. Minato could only think, 'There it is.' as he saw Jiraya fall to the ground.

Getting up easily, as Naruto's strength was rather stunted with his newest level of resistance seals on, Jiraya asked Minato, "Do you know about your son's travels? This kid has been EVERYWHERE!" Naruto's eyes hardened at that. "How much do you know?" He was hoping beyond all hope that the spymaster hadn't put much into keeping tabs on him. His hopes were dashed when he saw Jiraya's smirk. "Well, Hiruzen asked me to keep tabs on you, just to make sure you were safe. You quickly showed that you could take care of yourself, but I was interested in learning about my godson. And damn, did I learn a lot about you... Mujihi Handan. Or do you prefer Nagare Shizen? Kyodo Kazan? Well, at least as look right now, you just go by Naruto, yeah?" He taunted Naruto with the names of his alternate identities, though Minato and Kushina looked rather confused.

Naruto had two choices right now: kill him, which he really wished he could accomplish, or talk his way out, which he doubted he could accomplish but was his only real option. Keeping his cool, though his parents had noticed his jaw clench during Jiraya's little speech, he asked, "How much do you know ABOUT me? Alternate identities I've taken up aren't much of anything." Jiraya smiled wider, loving this. "Well, gaki, I've seen you do certain jobs, and how some of them have ended for your employer. I've also gotten reports of you, ah, MANAGING your COMPANY." He was dropping hints to Naruto that he knew about the yakuza and his other form of employment but wasn't saying anything to his parents, something he was VERY grateful for. "We'll have to talk about that later, as you have access to info that is rather hard for me to get, sometimes. I'm sure we could come to an agreement." Knowing that he had no real choice in the matter, he nodded stiffly. Jiraya continued at this. "I'm also aware of your ASSOCIATES from Suna and a few of your close calls with the other hidden villages, especially that one with Kumo. I couldn't really get much on your fight with Yagura in Kiri, as that place has been locked tight ever since, but I hear that it was amazing." Now, Naruto was starting to get angry. 'How much does this stalker know!?'

At the infuriated look that was starting to come over Naruto's face, Jiraya made a placating gesture with his hands. "Don't worry about it, gaki. I've been in this business from before you were alive; makes sense that I can gather info on you better. But you don't need to worry about a leak; I won't say a word to anyone else. In return, I'd like your cooperation with my spy network, because your reach goes across multiple countries now; you even have some info on Ame, and I couldn't get ANYTHING from that place. It'll be mutually beneficial." Naruto nodded somewhat stiffly, still on edge from someone knowing so much about him. 'At least he doesn't know everything. Good thing he doesn't have much from Kiri, else he would've known about me pulling out all the stops against Yagura, and he'd know just how strong I am. He seems to know about the little underground empire I've built, though, so I have to be careful with him...'

His thoughts were interrupted by a confused and curious pair of parents. "What the hell have you been doing, Naruto-kun?" Kushina, despite how forcefully she asked, had an extremely worried expression on her face. Sighing, Naruto just said, "Don't worry about it. I have things to manage outside of Konoha, just like Jiraya. I don't really need the academy, so I don't mind being the dead-last from absences or anything, though I really can just have a clone attend for me..." Seeing that Kushina was about to push the issue, he pulled out his trump card. Swallowing his pride, he said, "Don't worry about it, Kaa-chan." Her overjoyed face at finally being called that was enough for Naruto to know she was satisfied at the moment.

Minato was still curious, though. "Why did you fight Yagura? As strong as you are, you couldn't have thought you could take on a Kage." Naruto just sighed, feeling a headache coming on. He was saved by Jiraya, though. "Minato, don't push him. He'll tell you when he feels comfortable enough. If you want a little on what happened, read his page in the bingo book." Both parents were shocked to hear he was in the bongo book, end even more shocked when they read that he was labeled an A-rank, almost S-Rank, threat with so much money on him already. Conflicting feelings of pride and sadness welled up in both of them, making them both lose themselves in thought.

Naruto took this opportunity to leave, saying good bye to both Minato and Kushina before turning to Jiraya and saying, "We will talk later." Minato and Kushina, snapping out of their small trance, they cursed themselves for missing a chance to find out more about their son.

Little more than a year later...

Naruto decided that he'd go to school himself today, as he had something he had to do. Something he should've done a while ago. Enduring the day, he caught the local heart throb, Sasuke Uchiha, being surrounded by fan-girls at the end of the day. Appearing in a tree above him, he asked, "Want some help?" Getting a furious nod of the head as a response, he reached down, grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, and moved them to the Uchiha compound. As the disappeared, the yaoi fan-girls were about to jump them, shipping the hell out the couple, while his own group of stalkers were about to tear Sasuke apart for being "unworthy" of his help.

Appearing in the Kitchen with Mikoto making a small meal, he bowed to her, giving a small greeting before getting down to business. "I am aware of your plan, Mikoto and Surashi. And I'm sorry about not being completely honest with you." The two looked shocked and worried beyond what Naruto expected, so he raised his hands in a placating motion. "I was aware of Surashi for a long time." After saying this, he let his features change to those of Mujihi, eliminating their worry and tripling their shock.

Mujihi smirked, before continuing to talk, this time directing his words directly at "Sasuke". "I would obviously know about you, Surashi-chan." Both of them were shell shocked, but Mikoto recovered first, suspicion written all over her face. "You can't be Mujihi. You were out of the village for two years!" Naruto realized it wouldn't be easy, so he got down to explaining. "I made a clone to be Mujihi here for two years. It's a special type of clone which is all but alive. It can eat, sleep, produce and use up chakra, though its chakra returns much slower than my own. I based it off the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, so its memories are transferred to me after it dispels. The biggest difference is that I can choose the amount of chakra it takes, so I can determine if it's supposed to use one jutsu then disperse or pose as me for an extended period of time, as I had it do."

He paused to grab a seat, giving both of them a chance to as well. "The plan you made, while sound, won't work for long. The shinobi council may be sworn to secrecy about her, and all Uchiha related info may have been classified, but there are somethings YOU can't stop. Any byakugan user could inadvertently disclose your secret, making the whole thing useless. As such, I made an anti-dojutsu seal which will at least stop the byakugan from seeing through your clothes. Unfortunately, I can't stop its inherent ability to see chakra, so they can still see your tenketsu, but this will let you hide your gender properly.

"Also, if you were to fight, say, Hinata in a spar, her jyuuken could accidentally destroy your genjutsu. For that, I have this seal tag imbued with a rather powerful genjutsu I was taught called the Nise Gaiken. It will actually change your appearance to that of "Sasuke", though I'll have to renew it every week or so." At this point, he went back to being Naruto and "Sasuke" cancelled the genjutsu, revealing Surashi once more. Naruto looked at her in relative shock. "Damn! You grew real quick."

He was completely justified in his surprise. Her deep blue/black hair, which was previously short, now reached her mid back, similar to her mother's, but hers was somewhat spiky, flaring off to the sides as it went down her back. Her face had, unsurprisingly, lost most, if not all of her baby fat, as he knew she'd been training her ass off to face Itachi. Overall, he could only think, 'Cute... But she still has some growing up to do.' Shaking his head, he asked Mikoto, "Why don't you just go to Minato and ask him to protect your daughter? He's a just man, and I doubt Kushina would let him let her become breeding stock. And why aren't you in danger anyway? I don't see you trying to pose as Fugaku."

Mikoto sighed. "For me, well, I've already had a child, two in fact, so I'm safe from being forced to remarry and have children, but Surashi isn't. The council had been kept in the dark on the events that occurred on that night; as far as they know, Surashi died as well and Sasuke just happened to survive and still be able to activate the Sharingan. If they knew their precious "Sasuke" was a girl, she'd be forced to birth a Sharingan army from the moment her doctor reported her first period. Even some of the shinobi council are somewhat inclined to do that to her, so we can't really leave up to a chance vote."

Naruto nodded then asked. "Why didn't you go to Minato? JUST Minato. I feel like everyone forgets that this is technically a military dictatorship, so Minato's word is law. We can contest it and make him change his mind, but the moment you don't do what he says, you could be executed. So, knowing that, why don't you just go to Minato? It saves the trouble of me having to do the seal and everything. I only had them if you had some sort of legitimate reason you couldn't go to him." Both Surashi and Mikoto felt rather dumb, but nodded regardless, agreeing to go to Minato for help.

"Well," Naruto began, stretching his arms and getting up, "I'm off. Maybe we can train together sometime, Surashi-chan." Mikoto looked at him questioningly and asked, "Can't you stay for a bit? I just made some brownies for Surashi, but you're welcome to share." His will power crumbled at the mention of her brownies, and he quickly sat down again, trying to seem like he was doing it to please her instead of getting brownies. Surashi rolled her eyes at his eagerness.

End of the academy- End of the year

As people were called up, one by one, to take their final tests in taijutsu against one of the instructor, Naruto tried his hardest not to fall asleep standing up. 'THIS IS SO FUCKING BORING!' Kurama laughed in his head, Kogo's laughter mixing with his own. 'Can't say we didn't tell you it'd be boring as fuck! Ha, dumbass!' Kogo's agreement only served to deepen his self-hatred in that moment. He didn't remember the last time he actually slept instead of meditating, but this WAS the first time he'd been in school for around two years, so the boring factor was multiplied to the point where he, who didn't even have to sleep, was being put to sleep. 'I'd forgotten how boring this shit is. I should've just let a clone do it.' Things progressed as expected, aka rather slowly.

Finally it was his turn, and the rules were explained to him by Iruka Umino, probably his favorite teacher for the sheer fact that, from the memories he'd gotten, he managed to make the lessons interesting and actually cared about whether his students survived as shinobi, whereas other instructors couldn't give a rats ass about students who considered it a game. "Okay Naruto, you have to last 40 seconds against me to get a passing grade, a minute for a perfect score, and you can go up to a minute and a half for a maximum of 120%. Your officially down if I knock you out of the ring, put you in a position where you'd get injured, or if I disable you. Now... Hajime!"

Iruka, though he'd been going extremely easy on all but four of his students, and even then he didn't try TOO hard, rocketed off towards Naruto, knowing that Naruto would kick his ass if he didn't try. Naruto, being almost asleep from the wait, yawned as he began dodging Iruka's punches, not even entering a stance for fighting. After shaking off his sleepiness thirty seconds into the match, already passing, he proceeded to bury his fist in Iruka's stomach, not even giving the man a chance to respond with the surprise from his first attack in the entire match. Naruto was tall enough to reach the upper part of his chest with his head, so this was no problem for him. Iruka was sent flying, as he didn't expect it, and landed outside the ring. "Does this mean I win, Iruka-san?" Despite liking him as a teacher, her didn't call anyone sensei unless they actually managed to teach him something.

Iruka sighed. "I guess you get the 120%. There isn't really a precedent for the student actually winning the match, so I'll just give you the maximum." After another 45 seconds, in which Ino Yamanaka went, being the only person who goes after him, they moved on. "Now class, it's time for the shuriken and kunai accuracy test." Getting in front of the gathered students once more, he lead them to an area in their training field that had test dummies with targets on vital areas set up. After explaining the rules, he let the student begin to attempt it. One by one, students went up and sent the point projectiles into the poor dummies, though there were multiple students that were pretty bad at it, meaning they missed most if not all they threw. There were perfect scores and higher, though. Hinata hit all vital spots dead center, throwing all of them at once to gain extra points. So did Ino and two no name students. Surashi went up and also did it flawlessly, throwing them all at once and gaining extra points for it.

Naruto went second to last, but when he went up, Iruka asked him, "Do you actually HAVE shuriken or kunai, Naruto?" All through the school year, despite proving multiple times that he was the best, Naruto lagged behind in grades, only barely passing, and not even that at times. He didn't ever practice accuracy with the class, and rarely bothered putting any effort into anything but sparring. To everyone's great surprise, Naruto MADE shuriken and kunai in both hands and threw them, each of them getting stuck rather deeply into vital spots on the dummies.

Having thrown them all at once, he got bonus points, but Naruto didn't even wait to see if they all hit, having attached chakra strings to them regardless. He felt the other instructor, Mizuki, attach some strings to his shuriken but he easily broke the connection and corrected the slight damage done to his projectiles' path before they hit. Glancing over at said instructor, he smirked slightly, happy that there was SOME form of entertainment for him.

This time, Mizuki announced the test. "The next test, on jutsu, will be here as well. You will have to dodge at least 3 barrages of blunted shuriken out of the five we will throw with the kawarimi, create a passable bunshin of any sort, and transform into someone we will specify to you. You may perform any additional jutsu for extra points, and points will be awarded based on the jutsu's strength. Alternate bunshin do count for extra, but you may do another jutsu as well." Everyone went once more, no one really managing to fail the first or last part (A/N: So I won't include them.). Shino using a Mushi Bunshin (Bug Clone) instead of the usual bunshin and one of his clan's hijutsu, the Mushidama (Bug Sphere), to cover a dummy in the chakra draining insects. He got a 130 on this section of the test.

Hinata went not long after, doing a standard bunshin, so she wouldn't get any extra points there, but she used one of her clan's jutsu that no one expected her to know, the Hakke Kusho (Eight Trigrams Air Palm), for extra points. The dummy she hit was obliterated, having not really been made to withstand jutsu like that. Naruto gave her an approving look, which made her beam, as she'd been trying, and somewhat failing, to really impress him since their spar on his first day back. She got a 130, the power of her jutsu making up for the lack of an alternate bunshin. Notably, Kiba also did some clan jutsu, using Akamaru as a clone in his Jujin Bunshin no Jutsu (Man-Beast Clone) and performing a single Tsuga (Fang), as he was unable to coordinate his with Akamaru's yet. Shredding a dummy to pieces, he looked rather proud of his 140 in the ninjutsu section, giving Naruto and Surashi a look that said "Beat that!" in his usual cocky fashion. Though Surashi just rolled her eyes, Naruto's face showed his response. "Gladly."

Eventually, all of the rookie nine went, sans Naruto and Surashi. Choji had used the normal bunshin and his clan's Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Expansion Technique), destroying two dummies and netting him 130, Shikamaru made a standard clone and used the Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique) on Iruka, gaining 120 points, and even Ino, who Naruto and Surashi allowed to go before them, made a standard clone and used her clan's Shintenshin (Mind Body Switch) to control Mizuki's body for a while, earning her 120 points.

Surashi was up next, and she proceeded to do as multiple students before her, transforming into Tsunade Senju as her person and dodging ALL the shuriken barrages, a first among the entire class, as even Hinata had gotten clipped by one in the final wave and didn't get the points. She then proceeded to do a normal clone, as Naruto refused to show her the Kage Bunshin, despite her reserves from practicing Katon ninjutsu, and her mother followed his example. After completing all the required parts, Iruka asked, "Do you know any other jutsu?" Smirking she looked over at Naruto with a clear message on her face. "Watch this." Going through 4 hand-signs that ended in tora (tiger), she said, loud enough to gain everyone's attention, "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Dragon Flame Technique)!" Flames spewed from her mouth, flying at and incinerating a group of dummies and scorching the ground around it, and even melting it in some areas. Everyone in the clearing was shocked silent, before the clearing erupted into cheers from her peers. She looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, waiting for a response.

After Naruto retrieved his eyebrows from his hairline, though no one could really see where they went, as his hair covered them, he put two thumbs up, nodded at her. Surashi beamed then stuck her tongue out at Hinata, who "Hmph"-ed and looked away. She got a 180 as her grade.

Naruto then came up for his turn, smirking with glee no one knew he had. 'I've been waiting SO LONG to show off a bit!' He did the barrages perfectly as well, being the second to do so. He transformed into Minato, showing everyone the uncanny resemblance their faces had, and did a clone jutsu, creating at least 50 clones, though no one recognized the jutsu he used. Iruka was the one to ask the question. "What clone technique was that?" Naruto smirked before explaining. "It's one of my own creation called the Seiei Bunshin. I based it off a kinjutsu, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, so it has the same effect of transmitting memories and being solid chakra constructs, though these are a bit more literal chakra constructs, but this one doesn't naturally halve your chakra, even when you're just making one, like the Kage Bunshin. There is a minimum chakra requirement for each, but past that, you may create as many as your heart desires, if you know how to form the chakra." After explaining and leaving people's jaws on the ground, he gave them a moment to digest it all.

After getting his jaw unstuck from the ground, Iruka asked, "Do you... ah screw it. Just show us." Naruto responded, "Oh, gladly." before looking around. "We'll need to get a few more dummies. At least 10." Mizuki lead the group of students to another group of dummies that were set up in case they were needed. Stepping up to them, though he stayed around 10 feet from them, he said, "You should all back up. Like, at least 10-12 feet." After they did so, he held his right hand out to his side and channeled youki into the air. The black energy became visible before forming into a long, pure black scythe. Naruto smile maliciously before using both hands and spinning it around him a few times, before switching from letting it go around his waist horizontally to going back and forth diagonally, the blade forming a figure eight shape.

Using one of swings to his right side, he caught it in his right hand and spun it behind him. In his head he heard Kurama chuckle. 'Finally showing off a bit, eh? Good, this shit was getting REALLY boring.' Naruto smirked before channeling a decently large amount of youki, his, Kurama's, and Kogo's, through his body. It formed a see through sphere around him, a fox's head visible in it. The ground began to shake as it got more and more intense, flame like youki starting to fly off Naruto's body before it all concentrated into the blade of the scythe, the circular motion making it seem as though it was in a ring around a disc he was spinning. He caught it, and for a second there was no sound. He then began to speak. "Enton (Blaze Style)..." As he trailed of, he swung the scythe, a blood read path that followed his slightly tiled swing reaching all the way to the dummies. No one made a sound, but everyone watched as black and red markings made their way up and down the dummies from where the energy had touched. The dummies slowly split, a line appearing where they were touched, and the top halves slid off the bottom. Just as they hit the ground, the markings consumed the entirety of the top of the dummies. With a thought, Naruto activated them, as they were at maximum power, at least for the energy he put into the technique. "Gekihen Shemuri (Cataclysmic Reaping)." As he said those words, the clearing erupted into activity.

Pillars of black/red flames reached into the sky, removing any trace of the training dummies. Birds flew from trees and animals fled their homes for a large radius around the blasts. A heat wave was felt by the viewers, along with an explosion of pure force, causing them to stumble backward and even fall as they covered their eyes due to the dust that was kicked up. ANBU appeared to see what the hell was going on, as the pillars continued for a while, Naruto just bathing in the technique's beauty, before he finally allowed them to disperse. 'I haven't had an excuse to do this in a LONG while...' By the time they were allowed to dissipate, many shinobi had arrived, including Minato, Hiruzen, Kushina, all of the main jonin sensei, team 9, consisting of Tenten, Neji, and Lee, Hiashi, Mikoto, and all of the other clan heads with children in the academy. Gaining everyone's attention, Naruto turned around and asked, "What score do I get for that?"

A/N: And, I'll end it there. I was so unsure as to when to end this, as I think you guys deserve a long chapter after my extended absence, but I missed a lot of good ending opportunities. If you guys think I should shorten this chapter and put it in pieces, go ahead and say so. I'll be fine with re-uploading it. Besides, I wrote this in different sittings, so the mood fluctuates a bit, unfortunately. Separating it into different chapters wouldn't be the most difficult thing I've done, as annoying as it'd be. I have another story I've been working on, too, but I'm not too sure about it. I might post an update to this one soon, maybe not. Finals are coming up, so I'm surprised I found time to write this out; doubt I'll be able to write another too soon. May end up at 15,000 words, in huge contrast to this one, but I don't wanna abandon this fic just yet. I have way too many ideas to just let it die. Moving on, HAREM TIME!(Side note: I am thoroughly surprised no one corrected me on Matatabi's name, which I misspelled for the past 6 chapters. You guys are rather nice, ya know!)

(Bold=Confirmed, Italics=Probable, Normal=Possible)

Kogo(Fem Kyuubi)

Fem Haku

Fu

Hinata

Fem Sasuke

Fem Gaara

Fem Hidan

Yugito(She got enough votes by last time.)

Anko: 3

Temari: 2

Tenten: 2

Shion: 3

Shizuka: 1

Matatabi(Nibi): 4

Fem Kakashi: 1

So, Matatabi is in the lead right now with 4 votes! If you think the harem is big enough, just say so in the reviews. If you want your girl in there, say so. But seriously, thanks for the input peoples! I'd rather not just thrust my pairings into it since I like around fifty of them... jk, just 5. Also, even if they aren't on the list for the harem, I'll probably make a few other characters girls, just to balance out the gender thing. Thank you for reading, as usual, PM me if you have anything to say but don't wanna review. BYE GUYS( or GALS)!