Greatness ON HIATUS

by Foy the Snooze Button

Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze was not happy. For the last 4 years of his 7 year old life he has been unknowingly been neglected by his parents. He still loved them, but on the day of his birthday, after his fathers announcement, the love he had for his parents melted into something one should not feel: hate. Would there be forgiveness or would there be blood. Grey!Naruto Puppeteer!Naruto

8. Chapter 8

To: Guest, they'd all find out that the clone in Konoha was a fake soon.

DragonPony002 your opinion has been noted, dude. He could have lasted longer against Kakashi but he wanted to be silent, he didn't want to bring the whole of Konoha down on his head. Listen dude, tank is too big and loud, the spike of chakra after using his black hole puppet would attract attention. But I do not regret not bringing out Kumo; I really don't know how to visualize the thing fighting. READ! Who isn't driven by power, he wants to succeed and to do that he needs power. Like Iwa doesn't hate the leaf already, YEAH I'll stick with the human puppets thank you very much. And have you heard of masks? They're pretty cool. Finally, yeah he could beat Kaguya, of course not now, but in the future.

Last time on: Greatness

… Minato was musing to himself on why Naruto didn't tell him or Kushina that he wanted to graduate early. "Minato-kun? Did you hear what I said?" Hiruzen asked the quiet man, "I said that Naruto should be apprenticed to Ibiki Morino of the T&I."

"Why would you suggest something like, Sandaime-sama?" Kushina asked.

"He is not a team sort of person and he told me himself that he wanted to go into torture and interrogation."

The Yondaime was quiet before he said "but he's just 8. He's too young to be in the T&I. He should be around other children near his age, and if to say I allow him to be apprenticed how would he become a chunin?"

"If I may make a suggestion, Hokage-sama." Danzo said, entering into the conversation for the first time "he should be placed in a team with capture and interrogation functions similar but not the same as the Ino-Shika-Cho team. His fighting style is good and he is quiet enough to sneak up on or spy on someone."

"That's a good idea, Danzo-san." Minato nodded, "I even have the perfect sensei for the team."

"Who?" Kushina asked, standing beside him. The answer the Hokage gave them made them all nod I agreement, all that remained was organizing the graduating students into teams.

…

… He felt a shiver go up his spine it reminded him of his first time in Train Town before he killed the dragon, he was being watched. He turned to a tree sharply and glared at it for a full minute before he shrugged and resumed his walk with Nobu chattering away about something 'how ninjutsu was cooler than taijutsu.'

Back in the tree a ROOT ANBU operative kept vigil watch over the boy and sped away back to the base to report back to Danzo on where Naruto would be until it was late into the night.

Now…

CHAPTER 8

After the gathering we find Naruto walking with the Hyuuga clan head and his daughters back to the clan compound. Nobu had already gone home after experiencing the full brunt of an Aburame/Hyuuga 'party' which, to put it politely, was very slow, quiet and boring. Exactly how Naruto liked it. Our blonde was presently listening to Hanabi rant-quietly of course-about how boring it was, at the front Hiashi's lips twitched upwards but he kept himself in check. He had long since gotten used to the fact that Hanabi inherited neither of her parents behaviours, where she got her attitude from he couldn't even guess, or didn't want to.

Hinata was also quietly listening to her sister rant. She kept sneaking looks at the blonde walking slightly ahead of her. "A-ano Hanabi-chan, it wasn't that boring."

The younger sister looked at her aghast at what she had just said, "How can you even say that. I saw shino fall asleep, and he was standing." She made sure to keep her voice down so her father wouldn't hear, which he did, "you think it was boring right, Naruto?"

"I enjoyed it very much." He said and watched amused as the younger Hyuuga raised both her hands in the air in exasperation.

"You're just being polite. I swear I don't even know if you can say anything bad. I bet you don't even know any offensive words." Hanabi pointed out to her friend. Naruto smirked down at her and cocked his head to the side. He smiled widely when the girl gulped quietly.

"I prefer keeping my insults in my head, but I see your point. I read that insults can encourage camaraderie but I did not see the point in it. From now on I would not keep my words in my head." He looked at the clan head who was obviously listening in on the conversation before he looked at the red faced Hinata who grew even redder; he chuckled at this, "just be careful what you say around me, my comments would be far from nice."

"Whatever, so what sort of team do you think they'll put you in?"

"Any team is fine; I'll still become jounin in any way possible. What team do you think I'll get into Hiashi-sama?"

The man shrugged, "I don't know, you could be in an assault team because of your taijutsu, you could be in a capture and interrogation because of your speed, it all depends on what Yondaime-sama chooses."

The rest of the walk continued on in silence. They reached the Hyuuga clan compound and Naruto bowed to the clan head and waved at his daughters. He proceeded walking towards the workshop but made a turn into the village's park. He sat on a bench and waited silently for whoever was following him to come out, he waved to some of the chunin that passed by and looked at the suns position, it was about mid-afternoon. Half an hour later and he was still waiting, then an old man with the right side of his head wrapped up in bandages and the right side of his body covered by his clothes walked up to the bench with his cane in his left hand and sat down. He looked to be about the Sandaime's age but unlike the Sandaime, he looked like the previous great ninja war left him with souvenirs' over his body.

He found out he was being followed because every time he looked into the window of a nearby shop he would see a young boy sending him an obviously fake smile, he wore a blue shirt and black pants. It was obvious that he wanted Naruto to notice him. The man beside Naruto however was blank faced; they stared out at a near pond. If it were sunset then the view would have been beautiful, the pond was where some of the civilian children chose to play at; they splashed at themselves but made sure not to venture too deep into it.

The man cleared his throat but kept his gaze on the children, "you are very aware of your surroundings if you noticed one of my men following you, Naruto-san." He looked at the equally blank faced boy beside him before he looked back at the scene. "Even though he was not trying to hide his presence too much, it was still applaudable."

"Why did you have people tail me, Danzo-sama?" The boy said as he frowned unhappily. He recognized the man from the many times he went to the Hokage's tower to visit his Tou-sama. From the start he chose to be weary around the man because he would always look at him like a prized weapon he wanted all for himself. The blonde's right arm was on the arm rest and his left was on his lap "I don't like being stalked or followed by those I am not familiar with."

"I mean you no harm, child, I just wanted to offer something to you." The man droned. He reminded Naruto of Shibi but he knew Shibi had more emotions in his body than the man.

"You could have summoned me, sir."

"I could have but I didn't. I wanted to see if you were as good as your academy reports say." Danzo said, he laid his walking stick beside him and relaxed slightly into the chair.

Naruto's frown deepened and his right hand twitched. The posture the man took was too relaxed from the times he saw him, like he wanted him to also relax-which he wouldn't-or he didn't expect him to attack or he had people that guarded him but he didn't see anyone besides the children and their parents. A parent caught his eye, he was pale with black hair and generic clothes, he was looking over the playing children but kept subtly glancing at them, he took to watching the children but another of them caught his eyes, 'the boy that was following me,' He looked at the crippled man and allowed a glare to show, "why would you want to keep tabs on me, I'm nothing special."

"Contrary to that, child, you are very special." He brought out a file from…somewhere and flipped it open, "your taijutsu is excellent, your chakra doesn't allow you to perform illusions but you adapted and you are proficient in most of the affinities with a jutsu in all." He looked at the boy whose glare intensified, "there are also something's that you don't allow a select few to know. Like you are proficient in puppetry despite your corrosive chakra and you left a clone while you travelled the elemental nations."

The boy looked back at the scene before him and his right hand twitched again but he kept calm, "do you mind if I ask how you found out?"

"No I do not mind. Even though you have kept it mostly secret I had people follow you about so silently your 'excellent hearing' wouldn't hear them and you aren't the only one who has knowledge on seals, child. Yes, you are very special and your parents still don't know." He closed the folder and returned it to wherever he got it from. "Back to the topic at hand. I am here to present an offer only the foolish would deny." The boy stayed silent "I want you to join my ninja program."

"Ninja program?"

"Yes, I have been training ninjas in secret for over a decade for the good of Konoha. They are the root that keeps this great tree strong, we take the missions and decisions that other ninjas frown upon but we would do anything to keep Konoha safe. I offer you training in exchange for your loyalty to Konoha and me."

"So those two that are over there are your ninjas'" the man remained unfazed, he smirked slightly and nodded, "this ninja program that you're talking about is not well known, even by the Hokage." The man stared at the children playing silently before he nodded, "you do know that I could take what you told me to the Hokage to investigate on you, right?" the man's smirk widened slightly at the boys words, "even though the fact that your program take in hard missions is tempting I do not wish to join it, I am happy with my development speed and I still serve Konoha even if I do not join you." He unsealed a senbon but hid it in his sleeve, "I can keep your secret, Danzo-sama, if you stop following me."

"I did not give you an option, child." He stood up, and retrieved his cane, "you are too young to understand the full gravity of what I want to give you, but I will give you time to mature and think about it before I come back. If you still wouldn't join I would force you to join. I'll give you two years too mull it over." He nodded at him and hobbled away, Naruto watched him leave before he sighed in relief, he was most definitely not in the mood to fight, especially with his Sarutobi-oji-sama's rival. He slumped back and closed his eyes, not too long later another person sat down beside him. The person was silent until he was prodded in the ribs, he cracked open his eyes and the only thing that stopped the 8 year old from having a nose bleed was the fact that he had seen the female anatomy before, numerous times; he walked in as his mother was bathing…numerous times, long story.

"What's up, brat?" the woman said loudly, she gave him a feral grin when he gave her a once over with his open eye but frowned when he closed his eyes again. She wore a tan trench coat with nothing under it but full body mesh armour and a very short orange skirt.

"Who are you?" he said with his eyes still closed. His right hand tapped on the armrest slowly, he scratched his cheek and sighed again.

"It's rude not to look at a lady when she's talking to you," she said sickly sweetly.

He cracked an eye open and looked at her before he closed it, again "lady? All I see is a woman that has horrible eye sight and a screw loose in her head because no 'lady' would wear that in public. I don't know why you haven't been arrested for public indecency yet." She grits her teeth in anger and growled, "I'm just being honest."

"You're being an asshole, brat." She snarled quietly "and you're too young for that."

"And you are still here and I still don't know your name."

"My name is Anko Mitarashi and I am a special jounin working in the T&I." She slipped out a kunai and trailed it down Naruto's cheek, his right index finger twitched again, "who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze and could you stop doing that."

She ignored his request, "the Hokage's kid huh? I expected more."

"What do you expect from an 8 year old child you just met? Do you expect me to have eight packs or bulging biceps or what?" He winced quietly when the kunai pressed in deeper, "there must really be a screw loose if you expected more. Anko-san, I don't like wounds, please stop." She leaned on him and put her leg over his, "I apologise for being rude before, Anko-san but I'm really not in the mood to fight."

"Like a brat like you could do anything that could harm me." She said and took the kunai off his cheek but still kept it in her hand; she looked at the boy the Hokage had her befriend and huffed mentally. 'I have better things to do than befriend a brat.' The blonde man had called her to his office that morning and he instructed her to get closer to his child. His wife, who stood beside him, actually pleaded with her. "What are you doing here all by yourself anyway?"

He breathed a sigh of relief and answered, "Enjoying the calm, what are you doing here?"

"I just felt like going for a walk, I found it strange that an academy age student like yourself wearing a hitaite sitting all by himself when he should be with his friends doing something worthwhile." she took to running her fingers through his hair and noticed that his right hand twitched dangerously but ignored it, "what shampoo do you use kid; your hair is so soft!" he opened his eyes and stood up quickly. He eyed her suspiciously; she had purple hair in a pony tail that reminded him of the lazy Nara in his former class and brown eyes, his eyes zeroed in on the mark on her neck. After a few minutes of silence she asked, "What?"

"Who did that to your neck?" she flinched at his question and glared at him, he gestured for her to calm down, "I'm just asking, that looks like an advanced slave seal with different levels of complexity. Does it hurt?" she hesitated but still nodded, from what she read of his performance in the academy he was a genius and she would sleep with the devil himself to remove the accursed seal. He stroked his chin and nodded "I thought so, who put it on you, better question is why you haven't removed it?"

"My former sensei," she spat out, "put this seal on me, he said it was an experimental seal." Naruto blinked at that, he briefly contemplated that she was somehow bi-polar but thrust that out of the window; he scratched his cheek and hummed. He moved forward and made to touch it but paused, he looked at her and raised an eyebrow for permission, she shrugged and nodded, and he put his pointer finger on the seal and traced it. He then brought out his sketch pad and started riffling through it hurriedly and stopped at a page. He compared the seal on her neck to the one on the paper; he shook his head in exasperation.

"Your sensei was Orochimaru of the Sannin?" Anko clenched her fists but still nodded tightly, he looked down at the seal on the paper and turned a new page and wrote down something, "I saw a variation of the seal on your neck on some animals, they were tormented by the pain it caused. You seem to be the first human experiment he had because there are two more layers of kanji to the two I saw on those animals, what I don't understand is why Jiraiya hasn't removed it yet." She silently looked at him, a total opposite of her former behaviour, and shrugged resignedly, "it can't be removed huh? That's the thing about these sorts of seals, they can't be removed by another person besides the seal master that gave you but they can be altered," she looked at him hopefully but he shook his head, "I can't do it, not now anyways. The other seals I saw are very different from the one you have on, those ones I could just overload them with my chakra and they'd break because they were crude and unfinished. But I can't overload yours, Anko-san, it might kill you and I need to study it before I can alter it, I may not be a seal master like Jiraiya or my kaa-sama but I know for sure I can make one of my unique seals to alter it."

"One of your 'unique seals', what do you mean?"

He sat back down on the bench and removed a scroll from one of his many pants pockets, "I'm only telling you this because I like challenges and that seal on your neck is a challenge, with your permission I can alter it but with time. Now to what I mean by my unique seals. When Sarutobi-oji-sama gave me my first book on fuinjutsu I studied it thoroughly, he said I was a natural in it, but there were some seals I saw that I knew could somehow be…improved." She nodded. She relaxed into the chair, actually listening to what he was saying. He pointed at a seal, "this is a standard storage seal, correct." She nodded affirmatively again, he then pointed to another seal but this one was a bit bigger than the last and the kanji were the same but a few more strokes were added and removed, "this is one of my unique seals, I call it 'the infinite storage seal' or 'the black hole'. This storage seal cannot be overloaded, you can basically keep a person in here, alive and all, without it filling up." Her eyes widened at the implications if the boy ever chose to sell it. "I have more but I don't trust you enough to show you."

"…don't sweat it." She murmured. She quietly watched as he rolled up the scroll and put it back in his pocket, he took out his sketch pad and read over what he had in it. She cleared her throat "so, you can't get this disgusting thing off my neck but you can change it. What do you plan on changing it to?"

He kept reading as if he didn't hear her question, she was about to repeat it but stopped when he finally opened his mouth, "there is nature chakra in that seal, so I'll see if there's a way to place a seal on it and somewhere on the ground to transfer it there when it builds up, hopefully painlessly or better yet find a way to convert it to your chakra, I can add a glamour seal to make it disappear along with the bite holes if you want. There is a master/slave binding seal on it that I can remove, that would be ridiculously painful and I'll need a drop of Orochimaru's blood. If I get any other ideas I'll let you know." He unsealed a book from his left wrist and hunched over it. Anko knew that if she tried reading it she would instantly get dizzy so she stayed silent. The budding seal master then froze for a full minute before he formed a fire clone, gave him a small scroll and said "start immediately, you have enough chakra." The clone saluted and raced off.

'He is the strangest 8 year old I have ever seen.' She shook her head and looked at the sun and stood up and stretched. He looked up at her curiously "well, brat," she ignored the twitch on his eyebrow "you know where to find me. See you whenever." She waved and walked off, barely containing the glee in her that wanted her to skip off into the sunset.

Naruto cracked his neck and looked down at the seal-in-development in his hands. 'I guess this is challenge accepted.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next day he received a status report from his developing spy network through an annoying dark green parrot that had somehow made it into the workshop. He instructed the animal to wait until he was ready to respond, he fed the loud creature and left the room with shin yu. The letter was in his pocket and he held onto Shin yu's hand as they walked through konoha's market district. He had a week before he had to report back to the academy he had decided to spend the day with his sister and his best friend. They walked through the market district on the way to the Kage's mansion.

He planned on introducing shin to Mito and hopefully they would become friends. When he finally got there and the door was opened the plan exploded in his face in a glorious display of fire.

"Who are you?" Naruto's younger twin snarled as she grasped Naruto's other arm and pulled him towards her, "and why are you touching him?"

"My name is shin yu and I can touch whoever I want to touch, hag" the girl responded and pulled Naruto back while the boy just stood there watching them growl at each other.

"Who are you calling hag, kid, I'm his twin!"

The other girl snorted loudly, Naruto raised both eyebrows in disbelief. He wanted to point out how funny that sounded but he wanted to see how this drama would unfold even more, it might even give him an idea for a puppet, who knows? "I can see that he got all the looks, hag!" she gave Naruto a tug and glared icily at the twin girl that held onto his other arm tightly. "Let go of him."

"No you let go!" she took to hugging his whole arm and looking at Naruto pleadingly, "Naruto-nii-san tell this…girl to let go of you."

"Ugh…" it was one of those days that he was glad he wore his glasses, because the look she was giving him made him want to laugh, cry and stuff her into his coat pocket. He did not like feeling weak but this girl somehow kept making him feel weak. He tore his eyes away from her and looked at the other girl, who now snuggled into his other side, looking up at him with an equally pitiful gaze. "Ugh…"

"Naruto-san I don't want to be here, she's making me uncomfortable. Let's go play in the park."

"Ugh…"

"Play in the park? Ha! My nii-san is going to help me train, aren't you Naruto-nii-san."

"As if! He's my best friend and he'd choose me over you!"

Mito gasped; horrified and looked at the boy she was holding onto-who was sweating bullets-in disbelief before she looked back at the smaller girl. "That's a lie, I'm his imouto and I'm his best friend! Tell her Naruto!" the boy finally got a hold of his fear and pulled both girls into a head lock, shin was a bit more difficult but she was still taller than the average 5 year old and walked into the house. They struggled futilely, shin yu even took to kicking his shins but he dragged them to the parlour and dumped them on the chair. They glared at him but gave up when he just looked at them blankly; they huffed in unison and faced the opposite directions.

He took a seat in front of them and grinned, "Mito-chan, how are you." The girl blushed but still refused to answer him. Near the stair case stood Kushina, watching the children with a small smile on her face. It was obvious how Mito felt about her brother and she didn't know what to think about it, 'I'll cross that bridge when I get there.'

Back to the children, Naruto looked at the other girl who was sneaking looks at him but looked away with another huff when he grinned at her, "I thought you wanted a friend, Shin-chan?"

"Yeah I wanted a friend, but not her and I'm not talking to you."

The blonde genius quickly scanned his mind for any book he read about this sort of situations because for the life of him he did not anticipate this, alas he came up blank. So he did what his gut told him to do, nothing. His grin still in place he brought out his sketch pad and reclined on the chair. "That's alright but you two won't leave here until you talk to each other," shin turned and was about to verbally attack the other girl, who did likewise, but Naruto raised his hands "pleasantly."

"Whatever" they both said at the same time, they decided mentally that they would not leave Naruto alone with the other 'who knows what she'll do with him.' Naruto looked back at the seal drawn in the pad and unsealed a book, he nodded and began scribbling down and underlining words from the book. The girls watched him silently as he worked on what he was doing, they were sure that what he was doing involved either seals or puppets, the clue that gave him away was the book he was reading. Shin yu scratched her right shoulder as a memory hit her. That was where Naruto placed the seal that could contain her were wolf aspect, it allowed her to access its powers even though it was not on a full moon but still stay relatively human, though she was still stronger during full moons. It stored away the chemicals that made her transform into the seal that filtered it through seven different layers of seals, he told her that he was inspired by the seal that his sister, 'that hag' had on her to contain the Kyuubi and allow her access to its chakra. It turned out that he didn't need drugs when seals could easily replace it, the chemicals were produced every day until it was all released and she transformed, that meant that she had enough of it to last her for 2 days straight of fighting; since it worked as a sort of…high, the good thing was that it allowed her to keep her sanity and control. The seal was also good; she could not use her chakra, she only had the barest minimum to allow her to stay alive, the girl was sure that performing in the academy would be difficult. Naruto looked at her and smiled, she smiled back before she scowled and looked away, and he chuckled quietly at this.

Kushina walked into the kitchen and started preparing lunch, she still kept an open ear for any arguing…which happened 5 seconds later.

"Why are you smiling at him?! Don't smile at him!" the jinchuriki yelled. She jumped on the smaller girl and began shaking her shoulders. Shin pushed her off with both her feet and snarled.

"That is none of your business. I smiled at him because he's cool, hag!" she channelled some of her were wolf powers and elongated her fangs and claws, her shadow rippled and morphed into a hulking beast to show that she was channelling her inner were wolf. Mito in turn unconsciously tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto sat at the side-lines, debating whether or not he should intervene, he did so when they lunged at each other. He sealessly made a clone and had it wrap grab Mito and wrap her in standard chakra suppression seals while the real Naruto merged some of his strings into a chakra arm and used it to grab the cursed girl. They were both comically foaming at the mouth and growling at each other.

"I am not a hag! I'm his twin, idiot! My nii-san and I were born on the same day! Get that through your head!" Mito screamed as she kept pumping more and more of the chakra and burning through the suppressors, Naruto's eyes widened, he didn't know that was even possible. Before the suppressors could finish burning he slapped on his own unique suppression seals at the middle of her back and watched satisfied as wrought iron chain held onto the feral girl tightly, it was being powered by the Kyuubi's chakra. "Let me go, let me go!"

Naruto's clone held onto the girl tightly slightly burned from the vile chakra, the only one that he had seen that was more vile than his own besides the unstable nature chakra in the cursed seal. He looked at his 'boss' who had fewer problems. Shin yu struggled against the dense chakra arm that held onto her, she looked at the blonde who lifted his glasses and kept them in his hair, and growled. Her shadow, that looked like a full on were wolf, swiped at the hand but it clanged against it. It made to jump at him, but couldn't disconnect from her body. Naruto blinked curiously, 'that's new.' He heard a gasp and looked towards the sound and saw his mother looking at him wide eyed, he blinked again, 'I didn't hear her coming?' he bowed to her and looked back at the two girls, Mito had calmed down significantly but her eyes kept changing from her natural blue to Kyuubi red and back again, shin yu knelt on the ground with her head bowed. "I actually thought this was a good idea, introducing my best friend to my sister who is also my best friend, but I see that I made a mistake." He looked at his sister who couldn't meet his gaze and shin that was still bowed, "I am very disappointed in you two." He ignored their simultaneous gasps and continued, "I will leave you two here to clean up the mess you made, come and find me if you finish." They looked around and were surprised to find a hole in the ceiling, the chair they sat on torn was in half and the carpet scratched and burned up.

He nodded to his clone and he removed the seal on her back and let her go gently, the chains unravelled from around her and snaked back into the seal. The real Naruto let his chakra disperse from around the other girl. He picked up his sketch pad and book on sealing and made to go out but froze when he saw his wide eyed father standing at the door with ANBU ninja behind him, he sighed mentally, 'now I'll have to explain who shin yu is. Perfect.' He looked back at the two girls who still hadn't moved before he looked back towards his father and cocked his head to the side that he was still staring at him, he shrugged and walked past him and his ninja and made his way to the library.

"Naruto…" the boy paused, waiting for his father to finish what he wanted to say, "stay for dinner I have something to ask you."

"Hai Tou-sama." The man's son responded and he left for his destination.

In the Kage's mansion it was still ghostly silent, Minato numbly waved to his ANBU to go back to their duties and he looked at his wife. She stared back at him. "He can hold down a jinchuriki?"

"…obviously." She said. She walked up to him, still looking at the carnage that happened in the parlour and the two children that stood in the middle.

"He also knows fuinjutsu." He murmured and looked at the second girl who now stood up and was silently channelling her inner were wolfs strength to put the chairs back together, needless to say it wasn't working. "You can leave that for now. What's your name?"

"Shin yu," she said sullenly and scuffed her feet, "I'm sorry for the mess sir, I couldn't control myself."

He nodded and waved her apology off, "what was that anyway, I haven't seen anything like that before." She shuffled around uncomfortably and mumbled something inaudibly. He moved over to her and knelt down so he was eye level with her. "Sorry I can't hear you."

"I-I am-was a were wolf."

After what he saw her do he would believe anything she said she was, he looked at Kushina who shrugged and said. "How do you know Naruto?"

She had been practising for this sort of scenario, well something like this scenario, so she knew what to say to him, hopefully he would believe her. "Naruto-san found me in the village's forest of death; he said I was an experiment for Orochimaru of the Sannin." She stepped away and bowed, "I am sorry for the mess sir, I won't cause any more trouble." She looked at the silent jinchuriki, "I apologise for calling you a…hag" she grumbled, cracking her neck uncomfortably, "I would like to be your friend but only because Naruto-san wanted me to."

"…me too" Mito answered, visibly swallowing her pride and raising her hands for a hand shake, "friends?"

Shin yu too the offered hand tightly-a little too tightly-and shook it firmly. She held in a growl when Mito didn't flinch in pain but squeezed back even harder. "For Naruto-nii-san."

"You can also stay for dinner if you want Shin yu." The older red head interrupted their impromptu strength contest. They let go of their hands but sent each other final glares, "why don't you two go find Naruto and see what he's doing."

"Hai kaa-chan!" Mito squealed and grabbed Shin yu's hand and dragged her to the library, "be back for lunch!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

In the library, Naruto waved at the old librarian and walked to his usual reading seat, at the back. When he was settled he unsealed two books on sealing, his scroll with his unique seals and his sketch pad. He was rummaging through his pockets for a pen but found the spy report letter, he planned on reading it in the evening but shrugged, why not now.

He brought out a spare sheet of paper and cracked the code on the report, it read:

Nothing too important report, sensei. All others settled in countries. Some in ninja schools, some already ninja. Besides scarps. He was poisoned by an Iwa student. Nothing serious. Bird.

After he finished reading it he channelled his chakra into the paper and it melted into green goo onto the floor and solidified before it broke up into dust, it was always interesting to watch what he could do with his chakra. He did not expect any important report for at least the next five years but it would still do to read them. He opened the seal he had been breaking down since the day before, the day he met Anko. He had seen the seal plenty of times on both animals and some of the street kids he brought in and taught, theirs were less advance than hers and that was what he didn't understand. Anko's curse seal should be the first type administered onto a human so that means hers should be the most basic or easiest to crack but he was finding it harder by the minute, while some of his spies had crude if not half-heartedly made curse seals on their necks. It was like Orochimaru really wanted to give his student the curse seal as a gift but it failed or…there was something amiss with Anko's story.

He pushed the speculation from his mind and zeroed in on the cursed seal. The ones he saw only had two levels of complexity: nature chakra producing/conducting (that was too defective and made unstable chakra) and a fail-safe seal so the snake Sannin could kill the person before he could turn on him which he never used as far as he knew. The seal on Anko had four levels of complexity: a master/slave seal that binded her to the rogue Sannin, a nature chakra producing/conducting seal that was also defective, a punishment seal which was defective because if the containment seal around the curse seal was to be removed she would immediately be put in excruciating pain and finally a brain wash seal (he assumed it was) that didn't work at all. But no fail safe seal. Curious and suspicious.

He felt his sister and Shin yu sit on both his sides and look over his shoulder. He ignored them and kept drawing kanji over kanji and stacking them over themselves to see if they were compatible, so far he got two: his unique blank mind seal that would in theory prevent Orochimaru from 'feeling' Anko's presence and his chakra transfer seal that he used for his students, it took the nature chakra being produce and transferred it into the ground like a lightening conductor. He wanted to see if there was a way to stabilize the nature chakra so Anko could use it if possible. It was all a big puzzle really.

"Nii-san?" Mito asked tentatively, Naruto hummed in answer "what are you doing?" the answer was obvious from the paper scattered over the table but she just felt like talking.

"Helping a comrade with her sealing problem."

"Uhm, ok but do-do you have time to help me with something?"

"It depends on what it is and how expensive, Mito-chan."

"I need help with my training; can you be my sparring partner?" She immediately noticed her brothers wide smirk and blinked.

"I'll do something better." He sealed back his books and put his sketch pad back in his pocket and stood up, he motioned to the silent second girl "why don't you spar with Shin-chan?"

The jinchuriki glared darkly at the other girl who glared back, "your right, nii-san, c'mon Shin yu lets go and spar."

They walked to the training ground almost too quickly and Naruto had to dodge a thrown kunai by jumping onto a tree branch. He reclined on the branch and watched the spar, hoping no one would die today.

Shin yu swiped at the thrown weapon and ducked away from the following barrage of shuriken. She crouched on all fours and charged a bit of her inner were wolf into her body, not enough to change her shadow, but enough to elongate her fangs, claws and darken her eyes. Mito took her family's stance with a kunai in each hand, Naruto nodded approvingly, and she ran at the crouched girl. Shin had no particular fighting style so she fought on instinct. Despite having the power and strength, she didn't have the skill or technique to make her very effective. Mito feint swiped her neck but rolled away when Shin bent back and kicked at her with her clawed feet, she puffed out some air and ran at the girl again. This time Shin led the strike with a clawed hand and a kick to the stomach, Mito side stepped the kick narrowly and used the base of the kunai to jab at the outstretched leg, she the kicked Shins feet from beneath her and gave a left hook to her cheek. The blow sent the inexperienced girl half way across the field. Mito looked at where her brother sat, grinned and raised a thumb up, Naruto face palmed. With a burst of pure primal and uncontrolled speed, Shin barrelled into the red haired girl and started decking her anywhere her hands could reach. Mito luckily kicked her off and threw her kunai at the airborne girl. She swiped the kunai and landed on the ground lightly, she glared at the jinchuriki whose wounds have already closed up and chose to do a move she hadn't perfected or practised in weeks. She charged a bit more of her wolf powers and spun on the balls of her feet, arms outstretched in hopes of forming a tornado with claws. The dust around her picked up and swirled around her lightly but the move failed horribly when the older girl kicked her out before she could gain even more speed, Mito put her right knee on her chest and held a kunai to the downed girls neck.

"Give up," she said, and she caught the quick look Shin yu sent to her brother. The girl nodded and Mito stood up. Naruto nodded and smiled at them, "how did I do nii-san?"

He stayed on the branch, "you did well, you too Shin-chan. Try not to get distracted Mito-chan and Shin-chan don't over depend on your wolf powers, besides that you did well, try doing some strength training." The girls beamed at him, "start with 30 laps around the training ground, 30 push ups, 30 sit ups and 30 other exercises I think of."

"Nii-san!"

"Did I hear you say I should multiply it… by three?" Shin kicked the other girl to keep her shut and ran around the field, "and remember, no matter what I do, I can still see you!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Would you like some more ramen, Sochi-kun?" Kushina asked the boy from across her at the family's dining table. He shook his head and went back to eating his food. He liked ramen, very, very much but right now it didn't taste too well in his mouth but he powered through.

"So Naruto," Minato said, he observed the boy who looked back at him, "I saw how you held down your sister today, I'm very surprised and very impressed, how did you do it?"

"I used a seal Tou-sama." He answered plainly

"Can I see it?" Naruto nodded and removed a piece of paper he kept in his pants pocket. His unique seal scroll was in his hooded coat that he had on his lap, he passed the seal to his father. The man hummed and nodded, "this is excellent, how did you come up with it?"

"I swapped some kanji and added a word."

The man beamed at his son and looked at his wife who also smiled at him, his smile decreased when frowned and Naruto went back to picking at his food, "how do you know so much about fuinjutsu because I don't remember teaching you, Naruto and that chakra you used to hold down Shin yu was obviously not normal." He passed the drawn seal back to the other seal master near him.

"Sarutobi-oji-sama taught me, when he couldn't teach me again he recommended some books that he couldn't get to." He took some food into his mouth and continued "my chakra is not normal, it is denser than most. Maybe I inherited it from kaa-sama."
"Why didn't you ask us to teach you?" Kushina asked,

Naruto looked at her and shrugged "I did but you said there wasn't any time." He went back to picking his food.

"Don't worry son, that'll change. We can start with your training first thing tomorrow."

"I'm not worried Tou-sama, I'm fine training with Sarutobi-oji-sama and Shibi-sensei."

"We insist Sochi-kun."

The blonde genius was silent before he asked "what brought this up?"

His parents looked at each other; Minato furrowed his brows and asked "what do you mean?"

Naruto spoke with his hand clenched under the table, "I mean was it because I held down Mito-chan with a unique seal or was it because I graduated early with the highest grades?" his face was the picture of serenity with the slightest hint of pure childish curiosity, "you never had time for me before, why start now?"

The other spectators at the table, namely Jiraiya, Tsunade, Mito and Shin stopped eating and watched the drama unfold.

"I'm sure that's not true, Naruto." The slug Sannin piped in.

He looked at her and cocked his head to the side, "how would you know that?"

She clenched her teeth "I am also part of this family, brat."

Naruto blinked and nodded, he looked back at his parents and raised his eyebrows. He was honestly proud of himself, he had not attacked them yet nor did he feel like it, he just felt tired…and disappointed. Minato silently asked for the seal from Jiraiya and gave it back to Naruto, "so Tou-sama, what brought this up?"

The older male blonde scratched his chin nervously, "your very skilled for your age, Naruto, we would like to refine it." He watched the boy roll his eyes "if this is about your birthday or that Mito is the clan heir: your holding onto it for too long, just let it go."

The boy rubbed his eyes and breathed in deeply, "this isn't about my birthday or about being the clan heir, this is about the fact that for four years I had to wake up and make my own breakfast which meant that I had to learn how to cook when I was four, watch you train Mito and wave me away when I asked for advice on my own training, I had to ask people who knew me to help me train." He smirked faintly "do you know how badly I wanted to prove my worth to you, Tou-sama that I could also do something to make you look at me. Now that you see me, I just don't feel…satisfied, because you only saw me after I made a seal and seeing my grades." The boy growled the last part before he took a deep breath and chuckled hollowly "I'm as 'excellent' as I am from getting help from others and most importantly myself. I can't deny being glad you two see me again, after four years that is, I can't emphasize that enough." He smiled at them and stood up, "I'm not hungry anymore, good night." He wore his coat and looked at Shin who also stood up, he nodded to the door and she walked to it.

"Can't you ever forgive us, Sochi-kun?" His mother pleaded, tears cascading from her eyes and a hand clenching her heart. "I promise, I-I'll make it right, please just come back home." Minato bowed his head in disappointment, Naruto was right; he only noticed him because of his accomplishments as small as they were (to them) but he'd be damned if he wouldn't try and bring his son back home.

He shrugged tiredly and answered with his voice and face even "I don't know. If I ever will it wouldn't be soon, but right now I honestly can't trust you two." His words were like electrified daggers to the heart; he looked at Mito and smiled gently "good night, imouto." He bowed to the others and walked off into the night holding Shin yu's hand.

Authors note

I know Anko is a bit OOC here but whatever.

There you have it. Opinions and questions?

Review.

B.j.