Chapter 10: concerns and possibilities

Needless to say following the events that proceeded the Hokage was all but forced to call an emergency meeting of his private council.

"Thank you all for coming on such sort notice." the Sandaime began, his appearance once strong and firm now seeming to reflect all his years.

"As you are aware several years back a certain law was enacted regarding the unique circumstances surrounding one Uzumaki Naruto. Circumstances which were deemed should be kept silent under pain of death...I am afraid that such actions were seemingly in vain."

"What are you trying to say Hiruzen?" began the Hokage's old teammate Homura only for him to be interrupted by his superior.

"I am saying that not only did the law fail to do what I hoped to do, namely grant Naruto a chance at a normal life but that it's secondary purpose, to keep him ignorant of said status is utterly moot."

"No! You don't mean..." gasped out Hiruzen's other former teammate Koharu her face ashen at what this entailed.

"Yes. It would appear that following a certain incident where Naruto was chased into the forest of death, which I must point out SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE and I will have words with whomever was in-charge of keeping that place isolated from the rest of the village, the boy not only nearly died but was confronted with the Kyuubi. He also seemingly awakened what may in fact be a bloodline ability."

"A bloodline ability?" said a certain voice that made the heckles on most people rise at the ominous interest it showed. If there was anyone living in the village that held the status as most feared after the Hokage it was his other old teammate Danzo Shimura. The one eyed man with his seemingly helpless elderly appearance was in fact a warhawk by nature and with his own elite private army of Root anbu was quite possibly the only person who could and did at times act contrary to the Hokage's wishes without more than minimal consequence. The only reason he had not simply managed to force his way into power outright was the simple fact that he was despite of all his flaws a pragmatist and patriot at heart and held too much respect for the position held by his old friend to simply try a violent and more than likely unsuccessful coup.

"Yes Danzo it would appear...that Naruto has his clan's chakra chain ability. At this rate it's not going to take a genius to figure out who his parents were however I'd still prefer it be kept quiet for fear of reprisals by the other villages. As for the rule regarding his status as the bearer of the nine-tails...I no longer see the point in maintaining it. The other villages have known since the day of the attack by the beast what with the giant disruption that happened to our internal defenses allowing enemy agents to sneak in. By Naruto's own admission the attempt to grant him a normal life has failed utterly and what's worse the discovery of his secret in this matter has all but destroyed the boy's trust in this village. So before you start suggesting we shove him into the Root program I would point out that at this point Naruto is severely lacking in the necessary patriotism of even the most basic shinobi much less one of your people and is likely only a step removed from going rogue all together. Unless something is done to rekindle the boy's faith in this village someway somehow we are likely to lose him altogether. Which is why at this point while I am not proposing we tell him about his immediate family, we do tell him about his extended family."

"You mean the Uzumaki clan I presume?" chimed in Koharu.

"Yes, while risky if we emphasize their close connections with the village it might help to alleviate the boy's distrust. I know we agreed to keep it quite until someone like Jiraiya could teach him some more about sealing so he could fully appreciate what he was being given but at this rate unless we do something we may lose the boy forever."

"Are you sure that's a wise course of action Hiruzen." chimed in Homura. "What if the boy starts tampering with the seal holding back the fox in some half brained attempt to remove the beast?"

"I highly doubt that's going to happen. Naruto for all his flaws is not suicidal and I fully intend to warn him of the risks. No I'm afraid at this point this may be the only option we have."

At this Hiruzen glanced about the room Homura and Koharu shot each other worried looks while Danzo surprisingly enough seemed to nod in acceptance.

'Probably he's hoping this will allow him to get access to the Uzumaki sealing knowledge.'

Eventually though the others nodded in acceptance.

"Very good, now then there are two other matters to discuss. One is that I simply believe there is no point in maintaining the law regarding Naruto's status given it's all but moot."

"Agreed." the others chorused in unison.

"And finally as ashamed as I am to admit this there is also the matter of issues with the curriculum at the academy. Recently it was brought to my attention by Mikoto Uchiha that there has been some severe deficiencies in what is being taught."

"Haven't I been saying that for years?!" Said Danzo for once allowing anger to slip past his normally nearly emotionless mask.

"I am well aware you have been advocating a tougher curriculum but turning it into a pseudo-root program is not what we needed!" Thundered back Hiruzen. "No we will be making some severe changes and eliminating any teacher who fails to meet up to the new standards. I am also recalling some of the older surviving retirees from the second shinobi war back to service in order to train up our teaching staff. Tell Kosuke Maruboshi to organize the retirees and have them begin teaching the new teachers. Eternal genin or not if these reports are anything to go by then he's certainly more skilled then half these imbeciles we have running the place. Clearly employing those civilian teachers to teach our staff was a mistake. Oh and tell Anko she's getting transferred to a teaching position until this mess gets sorted out. If she refuses tell her I'm personally banning her from eating from the local Dango shops.

'See kid what did I tell you patience is a virtue.' a certain familiar smug 'voice' commented to the whiskered blond from where he had been hovering in front of an orb that was apparently showing the preceding scene for the boy's viewing pleasure.

'Yah yah okay you had a point, no need to act all high and mighty about it.'

'Yes there is" the book retorted and at that Naruto could only roll his eyes at the book's antics.

'So now what happens?'

'Now you wait. While I go about doing something about trying to figure out a ways to find out what was with the light show we saw back in your clan's ruins.'

'Wait wasn't that just cause of the healing do-hickey mistaking you for something dangerous?'

'I AM dangerous Naruto. The words your thinking of is 'malicious to your health' and no, now that I think about it I don't think that was the only reason the device was acting in that manner. Those symbols it displayed on the wall of the compound seemed aimed at something else and I intend to find out what. In the mean time why don't you go get your stuff together for the inevitable move to your new home.'

'Well all right then. Man you don't know how glad I am to get out of this little dump.'

'You know I'm surprised you never tried to do anything to make it more homey.'

'How could I with people overcharging me for everything. Hell my stipend was barely enough to keep me fed.'

'What about that money that Mikoto woman was leaving you what did you do with all that?'

At this Naruto simply froze from where he was about to pick out some clothes from his dresser drawers '… what the hell are you talking about Xy?'

'You know, those little envelopes of money she would leave on your kitchen table...'

But the words died in Xy's mouth as he saw the look that crossed Naruto's face

'You never knew?'

'I...always thought that was just the stipend was I supposed to get to live on. You mean someone else was giving it to me this whole time? Wait...how do you know about it?'

'I saw her drop it off right after we first met. I meant to bring it up but with all the craziness that has happened these last couple of days I sort of forgot of it.'

'Xy did you ever stop and think that your old age was making you senile or something…?' Naruto deadpanned at the floating book, only to get a nasty headache in response courtesy of a spell muttered by the imprisoned entity.

'Anyway once your done getting over that I suggest you get back to packing up. Still this is quite concerning, if that money was what you thought you were supposed to be getting to live off of, what happened to the actual money you were supposed to live off of? Ugh it's just another example of how messed up this village is. Yet another reason why I wished the Elder gods had agreed to that idea of yours to move us out of here. Oh well, you get back to packing. I got some spells to get to casting.

And so they both did just that. Naruto heading to his room while Xy headed to the kitchen to start working his magic.

Mentally he tried to call back up the image of what he had seen in that decrepit old building. The flashing symbols he had seen before his ward had nearly been vaporized by the seemingly malfunctioning healing apparatus.

Slowly ever so slowly the images began to arise to his conscious mind until at last he had a clear vision of what he was searching for.

'Let's see here. Scanning, DNA analysis and a low level locator spell...wait…what do we have here…'

It was a small symbol one which would have meant only so much gibberish to one who was uninitiated in the art of seals. Even to one who was initiated its meaning was vague without context.

When taken together with the other symbols though it's meaning was something else entirely.

It was a set of directional indicators with a sub rune representing distance and another symbol added on. Roughly speaking its meaning translated to only one possible meaning…

Targets out of range.

By itself vague...with the other symbols its meaning was unmistakeable….

There were other with Uzumaki blood out there. At least five if Xy was reading the symbols correctly. 3 were too far out of range to give an accurate read on their location. One was judging by Xy's past knowledge of the land within the confines of the nation…

And one was in the village.

At this an unexpected surge of anger seemed to pass through the book. For a moment he paused to think about what could have triggered it before squashing the feeling violently.

'Well now, time to get to the bottom of this mess.'

Slowly meticulously he muttered the long forgotten words of power. Merging together the spells that had been used by the device with his remote viewing spell. Slowly an orb began to form and in at a series of images.

One was of a rather impressive busty blond woman at first glance however a quick surge of power on Xy's part instead revealed it to be that of a woman who was at least middle age hiding behind some sort of genjutsu. The next two were more indistinct. One was the vague outline of a girl with glasses. The other of a girl with a white headband and dark eyes on an...island?

The clearest of all was of a hospital room of some sort which judging by the headbands he was seeing must have been the one in the village

'...huh well that explains why he seemingly never interfered in the boy's life. The man was half dead himself.'

And as for the last one…

The last was vague...almost unseeable in the gloom of the room he was in.

Until he turned to look at his companion...a woman in cloak with red clouds on it…

Xy abruptly cut the spell off in shock as his eyes gazed upon the man's visage…

'No...it….it couldn't be. How could...how could anyone have those eyes besides HIM!'

For in that instance Xy had seen something he had thought he would see only once in a lifetime a set of eyes with the power to control the flow of life and death, to wield all the elements and to shape the very stuff of the world itself.

The rinnegan.

The fact that someone...anyone could have those eyes again was concerning given the circumstances…

But…

They also offered a whole host of possibilities, but such things were far off in the future. Time to focus on more important and immediate possibilities. Like say ones dealing with a certain individual in a certain hospital room.

Now...all he had to do was wait till nightfall…

A/N: Read and review if you like it.