Chapter 4 - Speaking to a Kage

"You really should've hidden better, I'm afraid," Kakashi said jovially, as he popped up right behind her. Sakura jumped back in shock, grasping for one of her kunai, but it was too late. For a moment she looked confusedly around herself – then she slumped to the ground. Kakashi sighed and stretched his neck.

"So easily felled by a simple genjutsu, how unfortunate," Kakashi said softly, shaking his head. Honestly, he had to say, none of his students had really impressed him, this year. Sasuke, as expected, had shown aptitude for Taijutsu and high-powered fire jutsu. He was perhaps a little better than your average Uchiha was at his age, but there weren't many to compare him to, anymore. Naruto – well, he knew how to hide, that was true enough. Stealing from the Hokage did indicate at least some proficiency as far as that went, he supposed.

Still, even with Naruto's Shadow Clone trick which allowed Sakura to escape, the three had gone their separate ways once more, and each of their individual attacks had been cut short without much of a hassle. Waiting for them to arrive for another go was, as it turned out, rather boring, and he quickly found himself engrossed in his book once more. It looked like this would be another fail year – well, nobody would be surprised, at least.

Sakura stirred, and Kakashi looked up. Was she actually fighting the genjutsu? It was about time; she'd been under for a few minutes, and it wasn't terribly complex. Unfortunately, aside from the brief twitches, nothing happened. How disappointing.

Kakashi ducked suddenly, a foot crossing through where his head had just been. Sasuke landed heavily but he turned on a dime, ready for another try. If his kick had connected it could've done some serious damage, Kakashi realized. There was a reason that he was the rookie of the year.

"Well, it's about time you got back," the Jōnin said airily, smiling. Sasuke got into a Taijutsu stance, his arm straightened out before him, and he sneered. Kakashi obliged him by taking his own stance; Sasuke was good enough that he actually had to pay a little attention. "Ready for another round, then?"

"Last time was a fluke."

Kakashi smirked. Oh, this was precious. "Well, we'll see about that-" Kakashi stepped aside in the blink of an eye. Naruto blundered past, almost toppling over his feet, though he managed to stop himself before he hit the ground. Twisting around he moved to Sakura's side, frowning.

Well, that made the complete set. Kakashi smiled, slipping his book back in his bag. "I see that I have to pay attention. Attacking together, then? Remember that there are only two bells."

Sasuke and Naruto nodded; Sakura worked herself to her feet, smiling devilishly. "You'd better watch out, Kakashi-sensei; you're going down!"

The Uchiha stepped back from his two teammates, forming a hand sign, and Kakashi blanched the instant he recognized it. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

That – wasn't possible. Naruto could know it - the Hokage has said something about that the Shadow Clone technique - but only because of his incredible chakra reserves could he pull it off. Kakashi gaped in astonishment as the Uchiha did the same. "...Sasuke, not even you have the chakra capacity for something like that! You could die!" He blinked as Naruto formed the same hand sign – and with a series of pops, he was now facing seven students. Six of them had identical manic grins. "Wait..."

"Now!"

Kakashi only had enough time to duck and spin halfway before he was forced to block a vicious punch aimed directly at his face with the back of his hand. The hit came courtesy of Sakura; of the seven people he'd been facing, only she had been anything more than a clone, as she took a sharp hit in retaliation. It had been a distraction – and a successful one.

Sasuke jumped out from behind Sakura and delivered a devastating dropkick that only barely missed his head, and Kakashi was forced to duck another, when Naruto tried to attack from behind. Eight more clones attempted to join the close combat, and the Jōnin finally had enough: The fight was getting awfully messy. He flipped backwards over and away from the throng, landing barely three feet from where he started. "Now we're talking! Let's see if you can keep that up!"

Naruto formed a hand seal. "Fūinjutsu: Activate!"

The ground vanished, that's the only way Kakashi could describe it – from one moment to the next the soil turned from rock solid to a soggy mud-like texture, and he sunk down to his waist before he even managed to get a grip. Two flying kicks were headed directly towards him, and he couldn't pull off an Earth move in such a short time: Not one that wouldn't maim his students, at least. As a last ditch effort he switched himself out via Kawarimi, appearing a few feet above his students' heads on a thick branch. A small log had taken his place, and took the beating.

Well, that had certainly been creative. Sasuke and Sakura dusted themselves off as several of Naruto's clones vanished, as the real one muttered something unintelligible. Kakashi had to give it to hem - tricking him into a melee just to get him to a specific trapped spot on the battlefield, that was a pretty good plan for academy students. Using seals of all things to make a trap, now that was just ridiculous for that level. He didn't know many shinobi who even learned fūinjutsu beyond explosive and storage applications – and certainly nothing quite this sophisticated before they were even Genin. Minato-sensei, great as he'd become, hadn't really started specializing until well into Chūnin or Jōnin rank.

"Mission complete!" Naruto exclaimed as he looked up, smiling widely. Kakashi's glanced down at his belt in surprise, and found the two little bells that had been safely kept there were missing. Judging from the frayed edges on what remained of the cord, they had been ripped right off. When had they managed that? Thinking about who and when, he heard his alarm going off in the distance. It was noon.

The test was over – and he'd lost the bells. They'd done it.

"Well, I must admit, this is a surprise," Kakashi muttered soberly as he dropped down from his branch and landed besides Sasuke. "You know that nobody's ever managed to take the bells before? Touch them, sure – but you're the first to actually steal them away. You should feel proud."

"That was such an awesome plan, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed, giggling. "It worked perfectly!"

"Hn." Sasuke shrugged, glancing at Naruto, who was beaming like the sun; he wasn't faking it either, given that beating Kakashi, even at a rather silly game like this, was quite the accomplishment.

"So... where are the bells?" The Jōnin in question wondered. "You did keep them, right…?"

"Ah, I forgot!" Naruto exclaimed, kicking the ground a few times. About ten seconds passed before there was a response, as a hand burst from the earth, quickly followed by a second one. Sakura stepped back with a disturbed frown as a half-dead Shadow Clone dragged itself out onto dry land from a pit of liquefied earth, breathing harshly. The seal paper on the front of his jacket sizzled and sputtered out, and the clone sighed in relief. In one hand he held a long stalk of reed, the other had the bells. The real Naruto rubbed the back of his head and tried to look bashful. "Sorry about that, clone…"

The clone scowled, waving his makeshift breathing tube around. "Next time, do this yourself, Boss! Do you have any idea how hard using this thing is with weak lungs? I feel like I've been running for hours on end! You're lucky I even had the presence of mind to snatch the bells!"

"Don't whine," The real Naruto murmured, grabbing the bells and winking. "I don't want to deal with all that sand up my nose, you know. Yech! That's why I have you clones!"

The fake Naruto sighed. "I'm you, you idiot! You'll remember that anyway."

Naruto ignored the annoyed replica, presenting the spoils of victory to the others. "Well, here they are, then. Hope you don't mind that technically it was a Shadow Clone that got them, Kakashi-sensei..." He sent a foul look to his other self, who stuck out his tongue.

"No, no, that's alright."

Honestly, Naruto felt like dancing; it had taken ages to trick Kakashi, the first time around, and it didn't help that Kakashi got progressively better over those years, too. It had been a vicious cycle, but now he'd broken it! Of course, that probably meant that training would be twice as hard...

"So... you have the bells, now." Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Which of you three's going back to the Academy, then?" He turned to look at each in turn, ultimately gazing straight at Sakura. "Well, let's hear your take."

She hesitated, glancing between Sasuke and Naruto. For a moment her gaze lingered on the latter, and she looked decidedly troubled. Finally she looked down. "I suppose it would have to be me, then... I did the least out of all of us."

"That's not true, Sakura-chan!" Naruto declared heatedly, turning to her. "You put the seals on the ground, when you acted like you fainted – you were the key to the whole plan! If anyone shouldn't go on it should be me – all I did was make a lot of clones, and I don't think any of them hit anything!"

Sasuke sighed, shaking his head. "You make the seal, too. It worked."

Naruto gaped for a moment – had the Uchiha just said something positive about him? It seemed Kakashi was similarly surprised, glancing between his three students. Then, he relaxed smiling widely. "Well… you pass."

"What!" Sakura exclaimed, while Sasuke just sniffed, though a thin smile made it onto his face too.

"The test was never about getting the bells," Naruto observed, recalling with amusement the first time they'd had this conversation. For one, he'd been a lot hungrier at this time. "Real missions aren't usually solo – they're group missions, for a full team, which never has just two members. Getting two bells was a way of splitting us up, nothing more."

"You are correct." Kakashi said. "In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."He tapped Naruto on the head and smirked. "You actually remembered the question that your sensei put forward, right? Think before you act, and you'll go far."

Naruto nodded solemnly, then grinned. "Who wants to get some ramen to celebrate?"

Sasuke sighed; Sakura just rolled her eyes. Still they didn't say no. Naruto smirked – maybe he should've tried being awesome the first time around. Yes – he'd actually managed to take what had originally been a reluctant teaming up which involved being tied to a stump and denied food, and turned it into a genuine group victory. Take that, destiny!

Kakashi put his hands in his pockets, nodding proudly. "You will make an excellent team. It'll take time, but I think we'll get you to the top."

"…Sensei?"

Kakashi blinked, glancing at Sakura in confusion. "Yes? What is it?"

"I was just thinking about something you said. How did you know the question that Iruka-sensei put to us?" She frowned. "That was way before you arrived, wasn't it?"

Kakashi laughed nervously. "Um… the road of life happened to pass by your classroom?"

"SENSEI!"

"Hey, old man," Naruto said as he waved lazily, passing by Konohamaru with barely a glance. The little boy pouted at being ignored but didn't comment, just staring as the new arrival stopped in front of his grandfather's desk with narrowed eyes.

"I'm glad to see you, Naruto - just a moment," the Hokage said, glancing at the other people in the room in turn. "Ebisu, you can take care of things for a little while, right?"

"O- Of course, Hokage-sama!" The baffled Jōnin said, bowing slightly as he took Konohamaru along. A gesture of the Third later, the two ANBU that were waiting at the door vanished as well. Naruto sighed and shook his head, sinking into the comfortable chair he'd almost forgotten – Tsunade had thrown it out.

The Hokage just looked at him for a while, and Naruto couldn't help but fidget a little – that serious look wasn't one he saw too often on the Third, and it'd been many years since they'd really been in the same room, even if the old man didn't know as much.

"I assume you have some idea of why I requested your presence. I was visited by your Jōnin-sensei, this morning." The old man walked over to the window, staring outside dispassionately. "He had some interesting things to tell me. Can you guess what those were?"

Well, this wasn't much of a surprise. "We spoke, before the test. I'm sure it was about that."

"True." The Hokage turned and smiled slightly. "He told me you had discovered a secret of the village. You know about your father, about Minato."

Naruto shrugged. "Kakashi-sensei already warned me that I shouldn't tell people – but it's hard! I'm sure you can understand, right?" He pointed behind him. "I mean, look at Konohamaru. He's always shouting that he's family of yours."

"I see your point," the Third said, picking up a photograph from the side-table that held his crystal ball. A very familiar photograph – Tsunade had given him that same one, many years ago – a photo of the Fourth. "The original reason that I made your parentage a secret, even from yourself, related to your parents' fame. There are many who would like to make a posthumous attack on the Fourth, and who better to attack than his son, then? Keeping your identity a secret has greatly reduced the danger you were in, over the years. I chose to keep you in the dark, as well, after a long debate with myself on the topic. I admit that I feared you would ruin the secrecy in a moment of carelessness." He looked at the silent, attentive Naruto with a frown. "You understand, right?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

The Third seemed briefly surprised. "You seem oddly respectful, today. You're calling me by my title, now?"

"Well, I'm a shinobi, since today," Naruto said evasively. "I need to show respect, right? Otherwise I'll just get in trouble with Kakashi-sensei."

The Hokage didn't respond to that, putting the photo back where it came from, and turning to the new Genin. "There's more that I wanted to mention, of course. Kakashi reported that you showed some remarkable skills in your exam. Kage Bunshin, some Taijutsu well above academy-level, and a seal that he hadn't seen before, and suspected was of your own design. These are not skills you just come by from scratch. I think I know how you learned a few of them, though…" He smiled knowingly. "Will you confess, or should I tell you?"

Crap. Naruto froze, thinking back to everything he'd done over the last days – where had he slipped up? The Hokage definitely couldn't know about Mizuki or Gatō – he wouldn't be smiling, then. He couldn't know about the letters, either, since he'd sent those days ago, and they shouldn't make terribly much sense to any interceptors anyway. That left his visits to the tower. He'd been spotted, for the first time in ages. Damn, he really was worse than he was used to, then.

"Eh…" Naruto started nervously, eyes wide. He supposed there was no changing it, now; if he'd get in trouble for his forays, he'd have to figure out alternative ways to achieve his goals. "I suppose… Um, I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"That depends on what you did," the Hokage said neutrally. There was no smile left now, and a shiver ran down his back as Naruto looked away. Damn, he'd been sneaking in and out of places for years, stealing when required, and it was the old man was the first to actually make him regret it, even a little.

"Alright, then – I admit, I took scrolls from the tower." The thunderous expression on the Hokage's face did nothing to settle his worries, and Naruto wondered for a moment if he'd misjudged him, after all. The Hokage stepped forward, and for a brief second it seemed as if the old man was going to hit him – then his hand came down and ruffled through the blond's hair.

The Hokage's lips twitched, and he shook his head mirthfully, as the oppressive atmosphere vanished. "Oh, Naruto. What are we going to do with you."

"You're not… mad?"

"Let me tell you a story, Naruto." The Third sat back in his chair, and took up his pipe. "Long ago, there was a Genin of Konoha, who had quite a bit of interesting in the Sealing Arts. He'd been on his team for only a year or two, but he always butted heads with one of his teammates, so he decided he would impress them. Of course, in his infinite wisdom, he believed that his simple seals were not enough – the really interesting ones had to be complex, he reasoned. So… he decided that he would get a scroll with a high-ranked seal."

Naruto blinked. He didn't know this one, which was quite a surprise.

"Sneaking into the tower was the easy part. He managed to get in, but the window closed behind him due to the wind, and he couldn't open it again without making noise. Thus, he was forced to find another way out. Ever the opportunist, he took the most promising scrolls he could and walked right out of the front gate."

"What…? How could that happen?" Naruto exclaimed, enthralled. "Where were the guards?"

"The Hokage and his guards kept a close eye on the boy, of course. They'd been following him ever since the window slammed closed. Instead of arresting the thief, they were interested what he would do with the scrolls; whether he was going to sell them to some other nation or pass them on to someone else, perhaps. Instead, they discovered, the Genin was learning from them. A few days later the scrolls were returned to the tower; the boy never even realized that he'd been discovered, and put back the scrolls when he was done with them."

"So…" Naruto said, slowly. "You're not mad, because I'm like that Genin? Because I put the forbidden scroll back after I'd finished?"

"Well, I must admit that if you'd just run in there and took it from under my nose, I'd have acted rather differently." The Hokage said, and Naruto smirked; he knew exactly what would've happened, after all. "Fortunately, you returned the scroll before anyone noticed it was missing. I spotted you when you returned it, though, and decided to keep silent. The whole thing made me rather nostalgic."

"So… what gave me away?" Naruto leaned forward, frowning. "I was suppressing my chakra, and I was wearing the proper clothing; I'm pretty sure I didn't make any noise, since the ANBU didn't show up…"

"I admit, your infiltration was rather professional," the Hokage said. "Very good for an academy student – I'm sure there are some Jōnin that would have trouble matching your performance. Still, you shouldn't underestimate a Kage. We are considered the strongest of a village, after all."

"Yes, but where did I screw up? Something must've tipped you off."

The Hokage smiled slightly. "Well, if I told you, you wouldn't have the chance to find the flaw yourself. Perhaps your sensei would be willing to help you out. I must say, I'd never really pegged you for the stealthy type, given the kind of clothes you're inclined to wear."

"Orange is the perfect colour for stealth," Naruto said boisterously. He recalled what Sakura had said in another life, the first time she'd fallen for his stealthy approach. "If you can stalk someone in a bright orange jumpsuit, you can do it in anything." Realizing how that sounded, he smiled nervously. "Just on missions, of course."

"A strange sense in fashion and apparently a stalker – you have more in common with the Genin in my story than you probably realize." The Hokage smiled, stepping back to his chair and sighing in relief.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in contemplation. "Who was it? Who is that Genin you spoke about?"

"His name's Jiraiya. You might have heard of him."

"Pervy Sage?" Naruto blurted. Well, that explained why he'd never heard that story, then. The white-haired lecher probably didn't even know – or he was ashamed he'd been caught like that. At the Hokage's sharp look after his exclamation, Naruto raised his hands in surrender. "That's just what I heard a few Chūnin call him, I swear! He's the white-haired guy who is away so often and sometimes goes to the women's bathhouses, right?"

"…Probably." The third rubbed his temples wearily. "Naruto… I understand that you want to learn some obscure skills, and I even have an inkling as to why, but you will need a teacher for something like that. Taking scrolls on fūinjutsu from the tower won't be enough. Experimenting on seals that you don't really know anything about can be very dangerous."

"I am careful!" Naruto exclaimed, affronted.

"I have no doubt you are, but you are only a Genin. In two weeks time, at my request, Jiraiya will be returning to Konoha. He can serve as your teacher in fūinjutsu, if that is truly a field you have chosen to pursue. I'll have to find a way to persuade him, but I'm sure it's doable."

Naruto practically cheered, though he knew he shouldn't let on that he knew the Sannin too much. In this time, they'd never actually met, after all. It'd be interesting to have him as a teacher again, Naruto thought. Though, he'd have to put up with his antics again. Another question occurred to him, then. "Um, old man, how can he be my teacher, when Kakashi-sensei already is?"

"Jiraiya will probably only instruct you in the evenings, or other periods where you are free from your duties," the Third said. "You're still a Genin, after all – you'll have to do that training on top of your usual missions and exercises."

"Aw, man…" Naruto pouted, standing up. "Well, I suppose I'll go prepare for tomorrow, then. We're going to do D-Class missions. I can barely wait." He sighed. "I bet it'll be something lame, like painting a fence or catching a cat." He waved lazily as he headed for the door. "I guess I'll hear about it when Perv- I mean, Jiraiya arrives in town. Later, gramps."

"Naruto," the Hokage said softly, and the Genin looked back. "If you plan on taking any more scrolls – don't get arrested. The punishment for theft is more aggravating than painting fences, I assure you."

Naruto laughed. "They'll never catch me!"

"Welcome home, Boss!"

Naruto sighed, sinking down on his bed. "How far did you get?"

"About halfway. We've got time, don't we?" He put down the scroll he'd been reading, putting aside his transcribed copy. That one was actually intelligible. "I figure it'll take us about three days to go through them all, even with three clones on the job."

"Hmm, speed it up a little, will you? I just came back from the old man, and he's a hell of a lot more attentive than I figured." Naruto rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Caught on my very first attempt at nicking something from the tower? Pathetic."

"Really should've expected it, you know – we had like twenty-five more years of experience on the old body, and didn't have to contend with having to fend it offanymore." The clone sat back at his small desk and frowned. "You know, talking to myself like this is becoming a bad habit."

"Whatever." Thinking back to his old skills – actual, badass skills – he felt a pang of loss. Going back in time, however useful and potentially world-changing it was, had some bad sides. As it turned out, having two identical people in the world at the same time just wasn't possible for long periods. He had to deal with his Genin body once again, with all the annoyances that came with it. Not the least of those was the Kyūbi – he'd lived with either control of its chakra or its total absence for so many years, it was strange even thinking of himself as a jinchūriki again.

That was another thing that he'd changed, in this time, even if he didn't originally intend it. By taking out Mizuki before the scroll incident occurred, he'd prevented himself from being told about his status. Although the Hokage knew that he was aware of his parentage, he hadn't said a word about being a jinchūriki, about being the Kyūbi's container. There was a good chance that particular genie remained in the bottle, for now.

Getting up, Naruto wandered over to his plants and quickly gave a few of them a little more water, as their leaves looked a little droopy. Two of the little cacti seemed to be doing great, even so very far from Suna; he'd have to keep an eye on them. It was unfortunate that his original self didn't keep any particularly useful plants – he'd had to gather new samples from all across Konoha, and it would take weeks before the first proper poisons could be derived from what little he had so far. Getting a mission to Kumo or Kiri was really what he needed – there were countless rare plants there that he'd love to try his hand at, and sending a few dozen clones to harvest was no problem for him.

The coming weeks were in flux. It really depended on how much he'd changed things, what he'd end up doing. It was possible that Kabuto would finally be an open target, and he would definitely take advantage of that. He was already working on dealing with Orochimaru, though it was unlikely that he'd be able to finish him off by himself. Still, there were plenty of badass shinobi around to point in his direction, and this time nobody would have to die. There was even a slim chance he could get in contact with a certain ninja well before they ever became a problem in the first place.

As for Akatsuki, well, that was a more difficult problem, given how much of a mess taking care of them had been the first time. Aside from the obvious issue of avoiding their interest until he was strong again – right now, they'd take the Kyūbi in an instant – he also needed to make sure that their avenues of attack on some of the other jinchūriki were cut off early. He couldn't manage that on his own either, especially since half of them were rather anti-social, so he actually did need allies. Tobi hadn't even stepped to the forefront yet, at this time, and Pein was not yet ready to assault Konoha as he'd done before, so it wasn't an immediate concern.

He had time. Not a lot, but at the very least some, and he'd abuse it. Getting back in shape and building up his skill in sealing would have to be his priorities, right now. If he wanted to mean anything to the other jinchūriki, especially Gaara, he'd have to get a hell of a lot better in a short time. Beating Tobi without inciting another bloody war would probably require him to surpass his father's skill – and his mother's knowledge. Rather a hefty challenge, even on the best of days.

"Yo, Boss, you've got mail."

Naruto looked up, blinking, as his clone gestured at the window. Naruto didn't know what he was looking at, at first. There was a letter there, brown and somewhat rumpled, true. Sprinkled around it was a thick layer of dirt, even covering the paper itself, partially. Who'd sent him an envelope of dirt? His heart raced as he imagined for a moment it came from Gaara.

Gingerly removing the letter without spreading the dust across his bedroom, Naruto was suddenly struck by the way it glittered – it wasn't like usual dirt, instead it was…

"He wrote back," Naruto said, eyes wide. "He actually wrote back. Holy crap!" He held up a handful of the dirt, letting it spill through his fingers. "This - it's gold dust. Did he deliver it himself? Can he actually control this from such a huge distance? He can't know who I am, I never said - so did he somehow transport the response to the same place I sent it from? Amazing!"

He quickly scanned the letter, brushing the last of the gold dust onto his windowsill – maybe he could get a pretty penny for it, after all. The missive wasn't long, and rather unfriendly, but it was a lot more than he had honestly expected. It was also rather terrifying, given what he'd read about the man who wrote it. The man didn't know who he was - just the pseudonym, and that he was from Konoha, but that was quite enough.

The Fourth Kazekage wanted to meet him.

Author's Note: I expect some figured I'd keep the Hokage or Naruto in the dark regarding what they knew here - considering it a broken cliché, perhaps. Naruto has rather larger secrets than nicking a scroll, honestly. ;)

Next chapter we'll get real!Naruto's excursion to Suna, while his dutiful clones take the hefty task of D-class missions, and eating ramen. Of course, nobody expected that Genin would come face to face with a bandit who knows a thing or two about the ninja arts - especially without Kakashi, who is suddenly nowhere to be found!