Hiruzen's eyes were wide from shock as Inoichi gave him a report on his mission to bring Naruto back to normal. The old Hokage wasn't sure what he was expecting out of Naruto kekkei genkai, but this was the farthest thing from his mind. "Naruto has all of Minato and Kushina's memories plus the memories of seven generations of Minato's ancestors who carried this bloodline along with their partners' memories? In addition, Naruto has also apparently acquired the memories of the Kyuubi as well. Furthermore, you witnessed Naruto able to call up various memories at will and you're fairly certain that the boy will be able to get better at that with practice?"
Fear for the village's security started to well up in Hiruzen. As Hokage, Minato had access to almost every vital secret about Konoha and many of those secrets still played a major role in the defense of the village. Kushina also had access to many things when she was alive and had through knowledge of the village's barrier seals and early warning systems. While much older, Mimi Namikaze's and her husband Keigo Namikaze's memories would also provide a wealth of still useful information on Konoha ninjas. Finally, there was Mimi's unknown father who Hiruzen was willing to bet had to be a ninja of some importance for the Nidaime to take an interest in her career. Quite frankly, Naruto's bloodline was an information security nightmare.
In addition to everything that Naruto's ancestors knew, there was also the future concern over the knowledge and secrets Naruto would gain on his own as a shinobi. While the Land of Fire was very relaxed when it came to people choosing their careers, Naruto's future had been locked in on the day he was born. A known jinchuuriki didn't have any other options to earn a livelihood besides being a ninja or maybe joining the regular army. Very few civilians would be willing to consider hiring a jinchuuriki as an accountant or as a cook. Even if Naruto could somehow get a civilian job, he would almost certainly be killed by an enemy nation looking to add the Kyuubi to their arsenal. The only way for Naruto to avoid that fate was to have the training and weapons he would only be allowed access to as a registered ninja. Not really fair to the boy, but then no one intelligent ever said life was fair.
Inoichi nodded his head to confirm the Hokage's statement. "That is correct sir. Naruto doesn't seem to be able to access these memories consciously yet while awake. In my talk with the boy after he woke up he felt like he knew those memories existed, but he couldn't really recall the vast majority of them. He was able to remember a few of the memories he summoned while I was with him in his mind, but those were just ordinary home activities of his parents. I will say this though, the exposure to the various memories and the changes in Naruto's brain seem to have matured his personality a lot. Experience aside, Naruto talked more like a newly graduated genin then a seven year old kid."
"Thanks to his bloodline, Naruto is now aware of his parents' identity and his status as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Before leaving I made sure to impress upon Naruto the need to keep these facts and any other bits of information he might learn from his kekkei genkai a secret. However, I don't think that such reinforcement was necessary. Naruto knows that his parents' death and the attack on Konoha were caused by a secret being leaked somehow. He is painfully aware of the necessity to keep certain things quiet."
Hiruzen jotted down a few notes on a blank piece of paper and gave Inoichi a polite nod of the head. "Congratulations on successfully passing a potentially very dangerous mission Jonin Yamanaka. You also have my personal thanks for not having to go to such measures on your mission as was considered potentially necessary for the safety of the village. I will have your pay form filled out in a moment."
"However, given the information you've brought to me I will be assigning you to a somewhat regular mission involving Naruto. The boy will need to learn how to use his kekkei genkai and without someone who possesses this kekkei genkai to help him your clan seems the best suited to help his training. For security purposes, I want only you to help in this training. This mission will also have two separate additional objectives. The first objective will be to find out who this kekkei genkai originated with by determining everyone whose memories Naruto bares. The second objective is to gather information on the night of the Kyuubi attack. These additional objectives are to be completed as soon as possible, but not at the detriment of Naruto's ability to control his kekkei genkai. This mission will start next week unless Naruto needs more help controlling his abilities sooner."
Inoichi nodded his head and said, "Understood Lord Hokage." He then accepted the pay form that Hiruzen quickly filled out for him and left the Sandaime alone in his office.
As soon as the Sandaime was along, he pulled out his pipe and had a few comforting puffs before he mulled over Naruto's situation. How was he to minimize the threat that his kekkei genkai represented to the village and the Land of Fire while also using it to maximum effect? Briefly, Hiruzen thought about his former rival to be Hokage and what that traitor might have done. Danzo would no doubt have killed Naruto to prevent the possible security leak never stopping to consider how useful the kekkei genkai was or the disastrous effects Naruto's death would have. That fool had always been too short term in his thinking in addition to being power hungry. Danzo had been very useful though when it came to planning out a mission or handling black ops. Not that those abilities had saved Danzo when he tried to undermine both Hiruzen and the Fire Daimyo by setting up his own independent group of ninjas. Danzo, and every Ne operative unwilling to swear allegiance to their proper lords, had been executed decades ago.
One thing was certain to Hiruzen as he smoked his pipe and considered how to best utilize Naruto's kekkei genkai. Several new laws would have to be made specifically for Naruto and anyone else wielding this currently unnamed kekkei genkai. The first rule Hiruzen could think of off the top of his head was that Naruto and his decendents would have to be forbidden to marry anyone who was not a citizen of Konoha or the Land of Fire. Come to think of it, Naruto and his descendants should also be barred from visiting any bordello other than the one inside Konoha. Harsh, but it would only take one time for an enemy kunoichi bedding Naruto or his descendants while using a conception jutsu and then Konoha's enemies would have the intelligence windfall of the century.
While such a law would be the first of its kind, it wasn't entirely without any form of precedent. Most ninja clans with kekkei genkai strongly discouraged their members from 'sowing their wild oats' as the saying went. A few clans, the Hyuga and the Uchiha for example in Konoha, traditionally kept a private prostitute on retainer who was supposed to be the only person that their clan members went to for such services. Hiruzen and his predecessors didn't do anything about that tradition because it didn't harm anyone and it frankly was none of their business. There were also laws on the books concerning certain clans due to various abilities they had. The Uchiha were yet again an example in that they were not allowed to activate their Sharingan in the presence of the Daimyo, but then most ninjas from clans couldn't demonstrate their signature abilities in front of the Daimyo outside of certain circumstances.
Making any law against a specific clan tended to be dicey at the best of times as almost every other clan would typically throw their weight in opposing such a law. Hell, Hiruzen and the Daimyo's other vassals did the same thing whenever the Fire Daimyo made a law that encroached on any of their privileges or rights. Still, Hiruzen was pretty sure that the various clans would grudgingly allow such a law given security concerns and the fact that it wasn't that limiting from a practical stand point. International marriages were very rare in general and practically unheard of among ninjas. Also, most ninjas spent their free time in the village and were usually only out of Konoha while on a mission.
Hiruzen refreshed his pipe's tobacco as he considered the potential headache more thoroughly. In any rate it wasn't like he needed to make a law on Naruto's sexual partners now. The boy was only 7 for the Rikudou Sennin's sake. All he had to do was work on the law a little bit at a time for a few weeks or months and then once it was fully polish put it into effect at the opportune time. He'd already done it over a dozen times before with other tricky laws during his first term as Hokage.
A month later, Konoha was woken up on morning by the sounds of combat coming from the Uchiha district. Many of the ninjas who lived in nearby neighborhoods heard the sounds and jumped into action. They started sending out calls of alarm which alerted even more ninjas to come to the district. When the Konoha shinobi entered the Uchiha district, they were shocked at what they saw.
Assembled in the district was the largest gathering of ANBU in one place most ninjas had ever seen. What made this gathering of Konoha's elite operatives even more shocking was the fact that many of the ANBU had blood on their swords and had rounded up most of the Uchiha children and gathered them into one of the playgrounds with almost a dozen ANBU guards. A few ANBU were seen dragging children and younger genin from their homes and leading them to the gathering playground. Several ANBU were spotted coming out of houses with the severed heads of one or more Uchihas. These heads were placed at an obviously predetermined spot well away from the children where the Hokage was standing in battle armor with a list checking something off as he looked at the heads. When Hiruzen saw many of the heads, especially those belonging to teenagers and young adults, he seemed to slump for a split second and write the person's name onto the list.
One of the ANBU noted the growing crowd of shocked ninjas and leaned over to mention it to the Hokage. Hiruzen nodded his head and then handed the clipboard with the list to the ANBU and then calmly walked over to the assembled crowd. The aged leader pulled out all of his experience as he pulled out his pipe to project an air of complete calmness and relaxation as he took a smoke. "Good morning everyone. However, I must say that many of your personal reaction times need a little bit of work. We might not be able to use the warning system if this incident had been in invasion instead of a simple traitor removal operation. Now I'll grant you that this is a time of peace, the internal warning system was not activated, and the ANBU were focused on being as silent as possible to give the traitors no warning. However, an enemy with an inside agent could cause problems using similar methods."
Hiashi Hyuga was one of the clan leaders that had worked their way up to the front of the ninjas and was the closest one to the Hokage. The Hyuga clan head was not friends with the Uchihas either as a clan or with any particular members of the clan. He even had a mild dislike for Fugaku because the two of them had been rivals in the Academy and the duo always managed to annoy each other for one reason or another outside of professional interactions.
However, Hiashi was not about to sit around and watch a prominent clan get thrown through the meat grinder without a solid explanation and a valid reason for the Uchihas to get this treatment. If Hiashi wasn't satisfied he planned to get all of the Hyugas to refuse to accept any missions not specifically requested by the Daimyo. He would also pull all of the clan's investments out of the village. No doubt the other clan leaders would proceed with similar actions if the Hokage couldn't justify his actions and accusations. Hiashi forcefully demanded, "What treason have the Uchihas done?"
No punches were pulled when Hiruzen dropped the mother of all explosive notes. "Recent evidence has come to light and been verified that proves that the Uchiha were behind the Kyuubi attack on Konoha seven years ago." Gasps of shock and horror came from the assembled shinobis. Hiruzen calmly continued as he had gotten over his shock days ago. "An Uchiha who had previously been listed as KIA killed several shinobi and captured the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi we had at the time whose seal had been weakened and was undergoing some repairs by the Yondaime. This Uchiha, whose name will be stricken from the memorial stone later today, brought the jinchuuriki to a specially prepared area on the Uchiha clan grounds that was used to remove the Kyuubi from the jinchuuriki. This operation happened with the approval of several of the Uchiha elders with the former clan leader's wife informing everyone about the jinchuuriki going in for special seal maintenance needed to the seal used to seal the Kyuubi into her. Furthermore, the elders of the Uchiha advised everyone in their clan to hide from the attack to conserve the clan's strength."
"Their plans for the immediate aftermath of the attack are currently unknown as Yondaime was able to take care of the Kyuubi before too much damage was done. However, further investigations into the Uchihas have revealed that the entire Uchiha leadership has been planning a coup and has been building up support among the Uchiha ninjas for a civil war. For their treasonous acts, the Uchiha clan head, Uchiha elders, and known Uchiha supporters of the coup have been sentenced to death. Any Uchiha of Chunin rank or above who does not stand down the ANBU during this purge and resists is being executed as a probable traitor."
Shock and the beginning of understanding showed on the assembled shinobi. They were mostly used to dealing with Hiruzen's jovial and caring regular personality. It had been years since Hiruzen had needed to slip on the 'God of Shinobi' personality mask in front of a large group of Konoha ninjas. Hiruzen then continued to explain the Uchiha's punishment for their act of betrayal to insure that no clan ever thought of starting a civil war. "For their crimes against Konoha and the Land of Fire the Uchiha Clan will be punished as follows. All lands, monies, and weapons personally held by the traitors is confiscated. 90 percent of all money held in the joint clan account will be confiscated. The Uchiha Clan is stripped of its command of Konoha's military police force. All jutsus known by the traitors, minus those nominally held only by loyal Konoha Clans, will be extracted by a specialist and made part of the general ninja force's jutsu library."
All of the clan heads in hearing range had to fight down a shiver when they heard the Sandaime's punishment of the Uchiha Clan. None of them could argue against the harsh punishment since the Uchiha's had tried to massacre them all with the Kyuubi attack and then were preparing to try and take over the village. They would want to see hard reports of this evidence, but they trusted Hiruzen to be telling the truth for now. However, none of the clan leaders liked the idea of a powerful clan being shattered in so through a manner. If it happened once it could happen again and that was the warning Hiruzen was sending. Keep your clans loyal because traitors will be crushed into dust.
Almost another month later Hiruzen had another headache just as he was finishing up the last major bits of paperwork from the Uchiha Purge. The source of Hiruzen's headache was the seven year old Naruto sitting in front of him trying to look as innocent as possible. Hiruzen looked down at Inoichi's report at his and Naruto's latest training session on the boy's kekkei genkai. The old Hokage then said, "So Naruto, I understand that you've made a breakthrough in accessing memories farther down your line than your grandparents."
Naruto nodded his head and said, "Yes sir grandfather Hokage. I'm finally able to access those older memories since I figured out a trick to not call up memories of ancestors closer to me as I try to access the older generations." That had been a major issue for Naruto over the past two months even when he spent as much of his free time training as he possible could with his kekkei genkai. He was an orphan, why wouldn't he try to enjoy memories of his parents or vicariously see what it felt like to grow up in a loving house?
However, whenever Naruto tried to access memories from his grandparents he always got lots of Minato's memories pulled up as well. When he tried to get his great-grandparents Naruto ended up nearly drowning those memories with Mimi and Minato's memories that he had dragged up as well. Inoichi had helped Naruto to realize that he had been using the equivalent of a net to capture memory bubbles from his mindscape's memory hurricane and bring them up so that he could view them. Naturally, the net also caught everything else in its path which is why Naruto got so many of the in between generations memories as well. Thanks to Inoichi, Naruto was able to create the mental equivalent of a fishing hook to snag the memory or memories he wanted to experience.
Naruto then continued talking. "Inoichi mentioned that you wanted to know more about my family line and whose memories I have in my head. I wrote up the family tree that he should have given you. Everyone from my great-grandmother on back to the first person to carry the Aima Sophia were merchants or craftsmen so I don't think you'll be too worried about their memories for security purposes. My great-grandfather on the other hand is another story."
That was an understatement in the Sandaime's book as he glanced over to the family tree Naruto had made to see the name Tobirama Senju as Mimi Namikaze's father. On the one hand, Tobirama being Mimi's father finally answered the question Hiruzen had of why the Nidaime had been so interested in her career. Part of Hiruzen wondered if Tobirama had always known about being Mimi's father or if he had only discovered that fact later. In all honestly, the question was pointless at this date and time. Why Tobirama chose to keep his relationship with Mimi secret, if he ever truly knew for certain, was his business. It wouldn't be the first time a shinobi had an illegitimate child with a civilian that they kept a discreet distance towards to protect said child from their enemies. Sometimes these children followed Mimi's path and became ninjas hoping to become closer to their unknown parent. The rest of the time the children chose to pursue their own careers using their civilian anonymity to have a greater freedom of career choice than their legitimate shinobi clan siblings.
On the other hand, Tobirama and his memories being part of Naruto's inherited memories was still very relevant to the security of Konoha. The Shodaime might have founded Konoha, but it was the Nidaime that oversaw the details that went into designing the actual village and its defenses. Tobirama was also the founder of ANBU and his fingerprints were still all over ANBU after all of these decades. Furthermore, the Nidaime's general knowledge as Hokage combined with the Yondaime's general knowledge provided two very powerful data points for enemy intelligence. They would allow a semi-competent analysis team to figure out how Konoha developed during the Sandaime's reign and chart a likely prediction of how Konoha would grow and adapt.
Hiruzen shook his head and reminded himself that this latest revelation didn't really change anything from a security perspective. Naruto and his descendants' pillowing partners was already a matter of national security. Used correctly it could even be a boon to Konoha since the fact that the Senju bloodline was still in existence and capable of being perpetuated would be a strong prestige and moral lifting piece of news. Not that this would release to the general public just yet; there was no need to draw the attention of every assassin and big name hunter in the Elemental Nations after a seven year old.
However, there was one thing that Naruto had said that really piqued Hiruzen's interest. "Naruto, you said the other carriers of the Aima Sophia. Is Aima Sophia the name of your kekkei genkai? If so, where does the name come from as it doesn't sound like anything from any dialect known in the Elemental Nations."
Naruto nodded his head and replied, "Yep, Aima Sophia is my kekkei genkai's name since that's what the original bearer called it when he received it. How he got it isn't too clear since those are the earliest memories I inherited. So far, I've called up memories of a shinobi researcher being saved and a bunch of seals used to test out the shinobi's greatest idea. I think the shinobi in question was an Uzumaki, but I'm having a lot of trouble calling up those memories at the moment. Hell, those memories I'm thinking of might not even be showing me the source of my kekkei genkai. Basil Katsopolis went through a lot of crazy adventures even before he arrived in the elemental nations. My bloodline could have been derived from one of those incidents. As I said, I'm having trouble accessing Basil's memories with clarity at the moment. Anyway, to get back to your question Aima Sophia means 'blood wisdom' in Basil's native tongue. I sincerely doubt that you would have ever heard of his language since Basil was a merchant originally from a great empire on the opposite side of the Celestial Continent well beyond the boundaries of the Celestial Empire."
That would indeed explain why Hiruzen had never heard of the language that Naruto's kekkei genkai's name came from. Across the Western Sea from the Elemental Nations was a massive continent. That continent was generally called the Celestial Continent due to most of the known lands on the continent being ruled by a massive kingdom known as the Celestial Empire. Very little was known about the Celestial Empire given its insular nature and the fact that most of the countries in the Elemental Nations didn't really care about the lands across the Western Sea. A few nations had some trading links to the continent which mostly came through the pirate kingdoms of the Comet Peninsula which lay to the northeast of the Celestial Empire. There was also a trade route via Moon Country which was located in the southern most reaches of the Western Sea. However, those trade routes did not pass through the Land of Fire so Hiruzen's knowledge of Celestial Continent was very limited since it was not a priority for him to know.
Hiruzen then rose from his chair and said, "Thank you for giving me this update on your training Naruto. I'm trusting you to maintain an appropriate level of discreetness about any facts you might learn while mastering your Aima Sophia. Even though you won't be starting the Ninja Academy for a couple more weeks, I have to hold you to same level of responsibility as a licensed shinobi with regards to the secrets your ancestors learned. It's unfair, but then it's also unfair to your future classmates that you're going into the Ninja Academy with all of that knowledge and experience resting in your inherited memories."
The Hokage gave Naruto a brief hug and then let Naruto out of the office. He then went to the desk and wrote up a mission for the intelligence department to locate Basil Katsopolis's family tree and determine who his other living descendants were if any besides Naruto existed. Given how guarded most clans were with their family registers, the need to follow every blood relation as Naruto was descended from Basil through three generations of daughters, and the need to keep quiet so as not to alert every other nation of the Aima Sophia this would be a long and very difficult mission. Hiruzen just hoped that no other current or past Konoha secrets were potentially compromised by the Aima Sophia. The Uzumaki line already was a permanent curse of headaches to all future Hokages thanks to the Aima Sophia and that curse would just get more severe as the generations went by.
Naruto left the Hokage Tower and slowly walked through the streets of Konoha. The refusal to recognize his existence and the occasional harsh glares that Naruto was used to seeing whenever he left the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex had vanished completely. Occasionally, Naruto saw a grudging nod of approval from some of the passing shinobi and some of the older civilians. The rest of the people, if they saw him at all, simply gave Naruto the same treatment that any stranger would be given. Konoha as a whole had accepted him and that put a smile on Naruto's face.
Had Naruto experienced this before he awoken the Aima Sophia he probably would have been skipping down the street from joy. The Aima Sophia and the wisdom it brought made this a bittersweet joy for Naruto. Naruto knew that part, a probably small part but still a part, of the reason he had been accepted by the general population was the fact that he had a kekkei genkai. Thanks to his now blue within blue eyes everyone could see that Naruto had a kekkei genkai. In the shinobi world, kekkei genkai were a big advertising advantage to draw in clients besides the daimyo along with renowned shinobi and famous clans.
But, the majority of Naruto's acceptance by Konoha was a result of the downfall of the Uchiha. The exact details were a secret for time being, but it had become leaked that the initial information about Obito the Betrayer had come from Naruto thanks to his Aima Sophia. Almost everyone in the village was in the dark about what exactly his kekkei genkai did. It was known inside the village that Naruto's bloodline abilities involved the preservation and recall of memories somehow.
Hiruzen had also helped Naruto by allowing it to become known that Naruto's parents had been two very powerful and very close ninjas to the Yondaime. Furthermore, the Hokage had also allowed it to become known that Naruto's parents had volunteered him for his status as a jinchuuriki and that they had died from wounds suffered to insure that the sealing was a success. Those who knew the truth about Kushina and Minato enjoyed Hiruzen's subtle play on the truth. Everything was true, but said in such a way to hide the truth. The true story that became commonly accepted by the village was one that Hiruzen had hopped for when he seized the opportunity to help Naruto out during the Uchiha Purge fallout.
To the average civilian, Naruto Uzumaki was obviously the son of two unknown ANBUs who had been Minato's guards and troubleshooters. The boy's parents had died in the line of duty during the Kyuubi attack. It also became commonly known that Naruto's parents had told their just born child the truth of the attack knowing that their kekkei genkai would insure that Naruto would one day be able to pass along the truth to everyone else. The best part of this story was that no one who knew the truth had needed to steer the crowd to this final story. It had been concocted whole cloth the civilians themselves based on what had and hadn't been told to them.
The sound of a vegetable flying through the air pull Naruto out of his thoughts as he round a corner. Naruto watched in surprise and a bit of shock as one merchant threw some of his rotten produce at the foot of a black haired kid roughly Naruto's age. The merchant growled out, "Get out of here you traitor's spawn. We don't need your kind to try a third time to wreck the village. This is a marketplace for loyal customers only!"
Naruto watched in silent surprised as the kid's eyes seem to get misty from unshed tears and then he turned and started running away. The Uchiha crest was clearly displayed on the back of the kid's shirt and it seemed to be a magnet for all the eyes of the surrounding citizens pulling their loathing to the surface. All of the simmering hate and anger that the general population had directed at Naruto had transferred to the Uchiha clan with massive amounts of penalties and interest. The Kyuubi's attack hadn't been a random act of mindless violence as many had thought. It had been an act of betrayal in a series of betrayals by a group that had been loved and respected by the civilian population. That made the Uchihas' crimes all the worse and unforgivable to most of Konoha.
A sick feeling overcame Naruto when he saw everyone's reactions to the young Uchiha as he could easily imagine himself in the boy's position. What made the situation even worse for Naruto was that a small part of him felt vindictive pleasure at the Uchihas' plight and that fact made him ill. Naruto didn't want to paint the remaining Uchihas with the same brush as the traitors that had been killed. They were innocent of any wrong doing! It was wrong when the villagers treated him badly because of the Kyuubi and it was wrong now with how they were treating the Uchihas. Doing that would just make him a damn hypocrite.
Despite how much Naruto wanted to not feel that pleasure, it wouldn't go away even as he balled his fists so tightly his fingernails started to draw blood. All kekkei genkais have a downside to them even if they were usually kept hidden for good reasons. The Aima Sophia's downside was also its strength of remembering. Naruto remembered his mother's close friendship with Mikoto Uchiha. Mikoto had even named Kushina as Itachi's godmother! Yet, it had been Mikoto who had sold Kushina out to be killed by Obito the night Naruto was born. Speaking of The Betrayer, Minato had been the one to be there for Obito throughout his career as a shinobi of Konoha. Minato had believed in Obito and his possibilities for the future even when the boy's own parents wrote off his potential as a ninja. All that trust and support had been repaid by Obito killing Minato's wife, threatening to kill his only child, and trying to destroy Minato's home.
Thanks to Aima Sophia, Naruto felt each betrayal as fresh and as personally as his parents had. Feeling two close betrayals from different members of the same clan and knowing that those betrayals resulted in him being alone as an orphan really soured Naruto's opinion of the Uchihas. Then there was great-grandfather Tobirama's memories of the Uchihas that Naruto was starting to deal with that only dropped his opinion of the clan lower.
Naruto closed his eyes and took several steady breaths. As Inoichi had taught him, Naruto repeated to himself over and over again in his mind that his ancestors' memories were his to use and that they did not control him. He was not his ancestors and he had his own life to live. They were not to live a second time through him. It took Naruto several minutes, but he was able to use the pain and the mantra to crush the pleasure born from his inherited memories.