A/N: I know I said that I wouldn't be able to get this chapter out until February, but I had some time on my hands and really didn't want to keep you waiting, so I forced myself to finish this. Keep in mind that I never plan what I'm going to right next. I only have an outline to begin with and the rest just flows, so sometimes I don't always know what I'm going to write and take a while coming up with an idea. Also not that I am too lazy to edit. But, as you'll see at in the end note, I have planned chapter eight out. I will begin that at the end of January. Once again, I can't say when I'll update, but rest assured that I will. I got my mojo back! Finals are going great for me and I wish good luck to everyone who has finals.
It could be said that in Konoha, like in any ninja village, that there was a tendency for one to look one way while inappropriate things are going on another way. It could also be said that the Hokage was not beyond employing such tactics, in fact, it was expected. But it was relatively rare for a man to suddenly become interested in things that they were once not interested in, especially when recognition of those things was likely to put said man in a lot of trouble. Knowing this, Sandaime had officially decided that he needed to evaluate his staff to see just what he might have been missing. It was not above him to 'overlook' the things his ninja did, if only it were for the greater good. But when it came to Naruto, one had to employ strategies to ensure that the impression of being what they were was held in the highest regard.
As Hokage, he had every right to check in on his shinobi and they had no right to question him. Of course, they could, but they knew that outwardly showing interest in his decisions was likely to put them in an undesirable position, thus, they looked the other way and did what they were told, and Sandaime, as Hokage, used the impression of being the most powerful ninja in the village to make sure that his shinobi asked no such questions and expressed no such interest about his inquiries or his decisions.
Those were good perks. And for a limited time, he would use them to their full advantage.
"You'll do your job as you always do it, but regardless of what you do, I want you to tell me what everybody else says and does."
As he told the man standing in front of him what he wanted him to do, Sarutobi could see the hesitation flicker in his eyes before it was quickly suppressed. Not that it mattered if the man was curious about his sudden desire to know things he had never wanted to know before. The man was only the seventh person he was telling this to. It wouldn't do to trust one person to tell him something they did not want to tell him. And, of course, he had outside observers and informants as well.
'Can't let them think I'm getting soft in my old age' the leader thought wryly to himself.
The ninja nodded slowly, as if he didn't really understand what was being asked of him, but Sarutobi knew what that was. He was going to lie. The older man watched him leave before calling another man inside the office. The other man was a co-worker of the man that had just exited and though it may seem a foolish move to have them see him one right after the other, he had planned it just that way so that he could gauge the integrity of his ninja. As Hokage, if he found their integrity lacking, he could easily find ways to fix the problem. And he just knew it would be lacking. But one could never be too sure.
The plan was to test which of the staff members he had attending to Naruto was the most loyal. In the end, all he was really doing was giving them rope with which to hang themselves. They couldn't be very loyal if he had to resort to this. A loyal man would have told him if anything that would be considered grounds for punishment was going on in regards to the young blonde. And he knew that something wrong was going on. Naruto did not seem to be getting better and if he could throw himself down a flight of stairs as recklessly as he did, then obviously his men were not doing their jobs. If one man had told him that his ninja purposefully took the boy to the stairs with the intention of dragging him down, then he would have believed it and fixed the problem. But no one told him. They didn't have to; after all, he knew. Which is why he decided to take inventory of the loyalty his men had for him.
"If you notice anything strange going on with Naruto or if you see that he isn't being treated as I requested he be treated, tell me immediately." The man bowed immediately, not giving any indication that he was curious or prepared to lie and calmly left the room.
"Douzen." The young shinobi was at his master's side with commendable haste.
"If you see any unacceptable behavior, I want you to take it in stride. Act as if you are not different from them, but do not hit, defile, or drug Naruto. Just….fit in."
The man left and Inoichi stepped up to the Hokage's desk. Sandaime nodded and the blonde man knew what he had to do.
Sarutobi looked into his dark crystal ball. Since Naruto's mind had come asunder, the ball had cracked and ceased to work again. He took it as a bad omen. A very bad omen.
First, it had been Naruto's break, then his fight with Homura and Koharu and his pending expulsion from the council and now it looked like things were only about to get worse. He didn't know what would become of the boy when he was no longer Hokage, but he knew that many of his ninja were loyal to him and would help to protect Naruto at all costs. And Kami forbid he couldn't find Jiraiya or Tsunade in time and Danzo got a hold of the leadership….
Sarutobi rubbed his fingers against his temples to the ease the oncoming headache. If Danzo was chosen, then all that he could hope for was that the bastard kept Naruto alive. Actually, he was sure he would, but that did not mean that he would not have something worse in store than killing the child. The council would never be able to see past their own stupidity that using Naruto as a weapon would put Konoha in far more jeopardy than simply leaving him in a protected facility of just letting him be normal like everybody else. Danzo was a power-hungry, destruction-thirsty man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
However, though he did care for Naruto and wanted only the best for him, it was not really the boy he was concerned about. It was Konoha. Not many people knew it, but Danzo had a sharingan. The sharingan was said to be able to control even the most maleficent beasts, and if this were true, Naruto would die and so would Konoha. The older man claimed to want to protect Konoha, but his true intentions were unclear, though Sarutobi was sure that it had nothing to do with protecting the village.
On top of that, he was not above being concerned for his own life. He and Danzo had never been on the same playing field and it was he who had usurped that scarred man for the title. No doubt he would hold a grudge against Sarutobi and must have been itching to get even with him. Also, with him out of the way, Danzo would be able to get to Naruto and if he did, then the rest would be history.
The only thing that would stop Danzo's plans for Naruto would be to kill the boy while he was still Sandaime Hokage, but he just couldn't fathom being able to do it. He would have to work as hard as possible to build up the stability team he had proposed to Inoichi and put even more effort into finding Jiraiya or Tsunade. Jiraiya, he knew, would help in a heartbeat once he heard that Naruto was involved. Naruto was the toad sage's godson and Hiruzen knew that if anybody would protect the boy with their very lives if he couldn't, it would be him.
Tsunade was also a good choice, but she knew very little of Naruto and had a tendency to be flippant and uncaring about things concerning the village ever since her brother and lover's demise. He knew that the blonde Sannin loved Konoha, but knew that the painful memories that coming back would bring her would likely make her turn the offer to become the Hokage down. Even if she returned, there would be friction between her and the council because she was the Shodaime's granddaughter and the rivalry between Danzo and Hirashima Senju left Danzo sore. He would not like having the woman as the Hokage and would do everything in his power to convince the rest of the council of that. However, with Koharu and Komura dead, she had a better chance of being able to withstand any opposition of the council, even after he was gone.
The thought of his former teammates and late council members made the headache he was trying to will away more intense. He wished that it didn't happen, but if he had to do it again to protect Naruto, then he would have. After all, it was a Hokage's duty to protect the lives and virtues of his people, and if he hadn't killed them he would have felt even guiltier for letting them kill Naruto.
Though it seemed that three months was plenty of time to get plenty of work done, finding Jiraiya or Tsunade would take at least that much time. It would be pure luck to find them before three months passed, but with the bad omen looming over him and Konoha, he wasn't counting on it.
Luckily, there was still the ANBU he had his eye on. The young man had shown outstanding progress, loyalty, power, and intelligence. He was the best ANBU captain in the village, besting Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha. He was not of a prestigious clan, which made Sandaime all the more interest in him, and he had no clan of his own to teach him the way of the ninja. He had been an orphan since the age of one and with hard work made his way to the top. In addition to that, the man was easily Sannin level of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade's caliber.
That was it, he decided with a nod to himself. If the two Sannin weren't found in two months, then he would go ahead and choose the young ANBU. He could account for taste and not sacrifice any key leadership elements with either three of his choices. The best part was, that nobody but him knew how much potential the ANBU had. And he had never expressed an inkling of a desire to make the man his successor, so it would be a complete surprise to the council and Danzo would not have time to assassinate the man as Sarutobi was sure he was capable of doing.
It would be even better if Jiraiya or Tsunade were found in time because then he could appoint one of them as Hokage and make them choose the ANBU as their successor should anything unfortunate happen. It was perfect. And while he was still living, he would train as many ninja as possible to protect the village and become potential leaders. It was unfortunate that Kakashi Hatake was no longer an option, because he would have been a perfect secondary candidate, but since he had contributed to Naruto's breakdown, knowing who the boy was, he could not be counted on to protect him.
With his plan in mind, Sandaime began his paperwork and waited on the ninja he had sent out to report back to him.
Kakashi glared at Ibiki from across the mission room. Yesterday, he had seen Sakura and when he went to say hello, the girl went into hysterics about what had taken place during her interrogation a week ago. He was angry at the scarred man for what he did, even though he knew that it was Ibiki's job. He hadn't seen Sasuke, but then again, he never did see the dark-haired boy outside of team meetings, and he wondered how he was faring. He wasn't going to find the Uchiha and ask, but he could request a mission for the three of them.
Which was why he was there.
The only thing that he was apprehensive about what that Iruka Umino was the only Chunin assigned to give missions to the Genin teams. He was not afraid of the man, but he was wary about approaching him after what had happened.
"Hello, Umino-san, I would like to request a D-ranked mission for Team Seven." Iruka looked up from his scrolls and almost growled upon seeing the copy-nin.
"Team Seven? I wasn't aware Team Seven was still a team with just three people. But I guess it's always been that way, huh?" The Chunin sneered, but handed over a scroll anyway. Kakashi sighed. He didn't want Iruka to hate him and wanted a chance to explain himself.
"Iruka, I'd like to speak with you about Naruto over ramen or something. I need you to understand that it was never my intention to hurt him. I was just as blind-sighted by---
Iruka cut him off. "Good, because I would love to hear your excuse. Tomorrow at seven I'll be free," he said and proceeded to ignore Kakashi and went back to looking over mission reports. The Jounin got the hint and left the room, feeling a cold glare from across the room.
Ibiki had been aware of Kakashi's dagger-throwing look from across the room and casually ignored it, feeling rather pleased that he garnered such a reaction. It pleased him even more to know that Kakashi didn't know when he was going to be seeing his Genin again. He was sure the little girl had blabbed a ton about the interrogation; hence the glaring, but the man didn't know when he would strike again.
And of course, he was sure that Kakashi had misjudged his intentions for the kids. He wasn't trying to break them, he was trying to give them humility that they did not posses and Kakashi had not given them. He wanted to make them aware of their selfishness. They were only children, and though Sasuke was more resistant to his methods, the girl could be shaped by him to be nicer and someday come to appreciate Naruto. Sasuke would be tough to bring around, but the boy was not above changing. Because he was an Uchiha, nobody had tried to help him cope with the loss of his family because they figured that he was strong enough to deal with it. As long as he was alive, he was a great ninja, but a lot of people did not see him as more of a human than a weapon. Thus, the Uchiha grew up dealing with his troubles in his own unhealthy way, which included pushing people away.
It wasn't too late. And for Kakashi to see that ignoring a problem would not make it go away was one of his main goals. Ibiki would do what he did best: manipulate people's emotions to get them to bend to his will and his will was making Naruto stable again. It was particularly that he cared for the blonde, but he was not blind to the threat the child's instability posed to Konoha. He was sure Sandaime knew this as well, and his loyalty to the village was necessary to keep it intact.
Getting Sasuke and Sakura to open their eyes wasn't the only thing Ibiki was working on in secret. He was also evaluating and spying on Naruto's doctors and caretakers. Many of them were corrupt and hurt the boy, while the others were threatened or coerced to go along with it. The Hokage would find this news invaluable. Ibiki knew that the old man had sent out some spies to look out for Naruto, but he also knew that Sandaime's best bet was to have him do it. He didn't know what he hadn't been asked, but he was sure that the Hokage knew what he was doing. Inoichi was another loyal shinobi, but with his time being taken up in the decoding and interrogations department, he didn't have time to drop in on the faculty overlooking Naruto's care.
If those ninja kept doing what they were doing, then Danzo wouldn't be necessary to bring Konoha down. In his state, Naruto might eventually come to the conclusion that he would have to kill to save himself, if he wanted to save himself. Or worse, the boy would want revenge on those who wronged him, which consisted of half of the village. He might not be able to help killing everyone in a blind rage.
He needed to be shown that there were people that he could rely on, people that could care for him and see him for him and not the demon inside of him. To do that, Ibiki needed to dedicate everything he had to making sure that such people were available. Sasuke and Sakura were brats, but they were young and did not hate Naruto. They had never bothered to find out what they had in common with the blonde, and never tried to make friends with him because everybody else disliked him. This was because of the adults, their parents. If they was shown that there was nothing to dislike about Naruto, then perhaps that would open their eyes and they would see him as an equal.
If that didn't work, then he didn't know what would. Taking Naruto out of the village was the overall best thing to do, but that definitely wouldn't fly with the council. Then a sudden thought occurred to him. Anko. She and Sasuke and Naruto had something very important in common. Perhaps it wasn't him that should be interrogating them. Perhaps it should be her. Also, Anko and Sakura both had a thing for cold, orphan prodigies (though Anko had outgrown her infatuation with the snake Sannin when he betrayed her and left her to die) and they were both female, so that was even better.
With that in mind, he went off in search of the woman, hoping that his plan might work.
It seemed like forever had gone by before the numbing drugs they gave him every day had finally worn off and he was taken for his daily psychiatric therapy. It felt good to walk and blink and move his limbs again, even though nothing else had gotten better. When he had woken up that morning, he found that he couldn't for the life of him remember what happened yesterday. He had wracked his brain but came up with nothing. He supposed it was for the best, but he wouldn't have anything to talk about to his psychiatrist. He had just began seeing the therapist two days ago, but already he liked her.
His psychiatrist was a pretty, blue-haired woman who was nice and always gave him snacks and food that the other doctors never gave him. All he was ever fed was soup, bread, water, and pills, and to say the least, it wasn't exactly his idea of a delicious meal. So when the woman had first pulled out a ramen cup from inside of her desk, Naruto was instantly suspicious. Why would she give him anything?
She insisted that he take it and that nothing was wrong with it, so he took it, sniffed it, and, detecting nothing harmful, allowed her to prepare it as he watched her. He had been almost desperate for someone to be nice to him and give him something unconditionally and he had missed his favorite meal so when he ate he savored every last noodle and every drop of broth until the end, when he was warm and somewhat full due to lack of a good nutrition and looking forward to seeing if she was nice about other things.
It turned out that the woman was the nicest person he had encountered in a long time. It was a shame they only met once a day. He had asked the first day they met if she could sneak him ramen for every meal of the day and she told him that she couldn't because she wasn't allowed to see him at any other time. He felt disheartened by this and made sure to look forward to the times they would meet. He also looked forward to his one-on-one meetings with the Hokage. The old man had explained many things to him, some things that he didn't understand, and others that made him upset, but he had started to warm up to the old man, even though he remembered very little about the man's involvement in his life.
He was desperate to trust someone, but this time around he was going to be extra choosy. He still didn't know how he came to having the silver-haired man, the dark-haired boy and the pink-haired girl as teammates like Sarutobi (as he had been requested by the old man to call him) had told him, but from what he understood, they had not intentionally upset his condition. He didn't like them anyway, and didn't know why they didn't like him. All the old man would tell him was that he was different and some people were afraid of things that were different.
He didn't mention Kyuubi and Naruto wondered if the old man thought he didn't remember that and didn't want to take any chances reminding him. Thanks to the various pills he was given throughout the day, gathering chakra was impossible even if he wanted to.
He asked the Hokage why the guards and doctors treated him the way they did and the old man looked surprised. Naruto was right. He didn't know what his own ninja were doing right under his nose. He knew why they hurt him, but he didn't know why they were allowed to do. Unless they weren't. So he worded his question carefully to see if he could trust Sarutobi and the old man's genuine surprise had made him feel somewhat better.
The bad treatment didn't stop, but he didn't expect it to. He was sure that the Hokage couldn't simply take his word for it and probably had the ninja and doctors being carefully watched, because all the Hokage said in response to his question was, "I will remedy that." Every day that they hit him, or made him go without a meal or locked him in a tiny room to suffer through horrible genjutsu, he knew that their malicious activities were going to come to an end soon. At least, he hoped.
He had spent days in living under a cloud of fear, confusion, and rage. He noted, though, that he had a difficult time remembering those days and when he did, he didn't want to think about them. Some days went by where all he did was experience horrible memories, but the meds they were giving him were working to suppress them. After a week, he hadn't experienced more than two lapses in a seven-day period and his thoughts were clearer.
Occasionally, memories of the three people he had found himself walking with would surface and he tried to hang onto those as much as possible, but they always slipped away, like a dream after waking up. He had asked Sarutobi who they were and the old man explained a lot, but Naruto still wished that he could remember what things were like before that day. Sandaime said that he didn't know because he wasn't around the team every day, but he would let him talk to someone who did know. When? Naruto had asked. Soon, the old man replied with a small smile, and the meeting was over.
In another two days he would be meeting with him again, as he would be every Friday for the next three months. He hoped that he would get to see those three people again, because he had a ton of things that he wanted to know, like why they were mean to him, that, the old man couldn't say, and how they felt about him now that he was different.
He also hadn't completely forgotten about Iruka, who Sarutobi had to tell him about again. The memories were hazy, but he couldn't pull up a bad one involving the man, so he made a request to see him again, too. He knew that he was getting his hopes up, but what else could he do? He just wanted to be normal. He didn't want to hurt anymore. He didn't want to be different, but he knew that he always would be. All he needed for people to accept him. One person was not enough, he needed enough people so that he could call it the family he never had.
Sure, he wasn't going to forget all of the people who wronged him and he vaguely remembered some days where all he wanted to do was kill them all and kill himself, but he didn't want that now. Not now, when there was a chance that he could live a normal life.
The doctors hadn't used any of the mind-altering jutsu they had used on him before, allowing him to progress at his own pace. He didn't feel that it was necessary anyway, though he would have liked to forget all that had been done to him. One day, he vowed, he would pay them back. But if he expressed that desire now, then he would get nowhere. He would have to be as stable as possible to carry out his plan, and to do that, he needed to trust himself and be trusted. He needed to get better. He needed to push away all of the pain and memories and focus on getting better so that he could exact his revenge.
He knew that they were afraid he would snap and destroy the village, but no, that was never his intention. Those people that had done the horrible things they had done to him were going to pay, if not with their lives, then he would find another way, but people like that didn't deserve to live. He would not forgive and he would not forget. He would get even. Maybe not this year, or even five years from now, but someday, when he was ready, they would pay.
But that was not important at the moment. He was going to see his therapist, and he couldn't wait to see what she had brought him today.
TBC…
Next up: Naruto's seesion with his therapist, and an update on Sakura and Sasuke and Kakashi's conversation with Iruka. I hope I've pleased you guys. Happy Holidays!