Chapter Six – Archive Panic

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"Sakura! Overe here!"

Sakura walked up and smiled at her friend and rival.

"Ino. Shikamaru. Choji. Sorry I'm late."

"We've only just arrived ourselves." Ino said, glaring at Shikamaru . "Lazy-ass here wanted to spend all day either in bed or cloud-watching."

"Troublesome blond." Shikamaru groused. Ino elbowed him.

"Okay. Let's go!"

As they entered the records hall, Sakura pulled out a sheet of paper and unfolded it.

"I wrote down everything I knew or could remember about Naruto, as well as my deductions."

Shikamaru took the sheet and scanned it quickly. "Uzumaki Naruto, born Sep 10th, day of Kyuubi attack. Both parents killed in said attack, blond hair and blue eyes, whisker birth-marks. Kekkei Genkai grants enhanced strength and toughness, able to throw Kunai through multiple walls, able to defeat any academy student in combat, able to beat Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun? Taught by Maito Gai and Hatake Kakashi, knows four clone types. Knows approximately fifty jutsu, total may include clones. Good start, Sakura. You forgot hated by majority of village for unknown reason, but good start."

Sakura nodded as Ino halted, looking round.

"Here we are. Records from the Kyuubi attack. Okay, first we check for any Uzumaki's."

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"Uzumaki Kushina." Ino read from the file. "Female Jonin, formerly of Whirlpool. Well, since she's the only Uzumaki we've been able to find, I guess that she's probably Naruto's mom. Shika?"

"There is a family resemblance in the facial structure." Shikamaru said after examining the picture in the file and the photo of Naruto that they had brought with them. "Overall, I would say, very likely."

Ino nodded. "She looks a bit like him, and she has his surname. So where do his eyes and hair come from?"

"His dad?" Choji asked and Ino nodded.

"I agree. We need to find all the blond Shinobi who died that day, then sort out the ones with blue eyes! Shika, keep reading, try to get confirmation that she's Naruto's mom. Sakura, Choji, let's search! Blond hair and blue eyes."

Sakura nodded and started to work her way through the files. The first dozen or so were all Aburame with black hair, then other colours started to appear. Brown, red, silver. The first blond appeared, but he had green eyes, so Sakura returned the file to the shelf, mentally noting its location as she continued to work her way through the many files. After half an hour of searching, only two files had been placed on the table.

"Who'd have thought!" Choji exclaimed. "Blond hair is really, really rare in Konoha. I only found four male blonds, and only one had blue eyes."

"Seven and none respectively." Sakura said, wiping her forehead before the sweat could drip into her eyes.

"Four and one." Ino said. "Choji, who did you find?"

Choji opened the file, looked at the name and swallowed. "Yamanaka Kenshin. Chunin."

Ino pulled the file across and stared at the picture for several minutes, then shook her head. "Hair's the wrong shade of blond, too light, and he looks nothing like Naruto."

"Then this will be troublesome." Shikamaru said, looking up from the other folder. "This one has hair and eyes exactly the same as Naruto, and similar facial features. In fact, Naruto could almost be this guy reborn."

Ino leaned over, her eyes going straight to the picture. "Kami, you're right about his looks, Naruto is going to gow up hot! Dammit, I may have to challenge Hinata for him. Same grin, his eyes are the same, who is… no way. There is no way… I can't believe it… we must have missed another blond in the archives…"

Sakura leaned over and glanced at the picture. Sure enough, the man in it looked exactly like a de-whiskered, aged-up Naruto. Then she saw the name and her jaw dropped.

"Naruto's dad is the Yondaime Hokage?!"

Choji leaned over to look. "Wow, must be. I mean, just look at him."

"They both died in a cave outside Konoha." Shikamaru said slowly as he scanned the data. "He died from severe abdominal wounds and… and performing a classified jutsu. She died from severe abdominal wounds and… childbirth complications. Too many coincidences. Must be them. Troublesome."

Ino and Sakura stared at each other, unable to speak. No-one noticed the pale-eyed dark-haired girl who had been shadowing them hurry out of the archives, her eyes wide in shock.

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"Why do you keep staring at me?" Naruto half-yelled, causing Iruka to look up from marking the papers in front of him. "You lot keep staring at me as if I've grown another head or something!"

Iruka glanced at the rest of the class. Sakura, whose gaze was normally fixated on Sasuke, was indeed staring at Naruto, her eyes filled with an odd mixture of disbelief and shock. Ino was also staring intently at Naruto, while Choji's gaze was interested, but placid. Shikamaru was actually awake and was glancing at Naruto with a calculating air.

Hinata was also glancing at Naruto, but Iruka mentally marked that as normal, because she had been doing that since the first day he had joined the class. Iruka sighed and prepared the Jutsu that always worked in situations like this.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION!"

Releasing the Big Head Jutsu, Iruka smirked as everyone's attention snapped back to the front of the classroom. "Now, the lesson for today is…"

"The defeat of the Kyuubi!" Ino half-shouted as she rose from her seat. "Sir, how did the Fourth actually defeat the Kyuubi? What role did Uzumaki Kushina from Whirlpool play? Was Kushina really Naruto's mother? Why was she on the front lines despite having just given birth? Did she have the same Bloodlimit that Naruto has? Did the Yondaime have a bloodlimit? What happened…"

"INO, SHUT UP A MOMENT!"

Ino paled and sat down as Iruka used the Big Head Jutsu again, but her litany of questions had caught the attention of everyone in the classroom.

"Ino, many of those answers are classified. I am not allowed to answer them at this time. What I can tell you is what you already know, that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha and the Fourth used a very powerful Jutsu to defeat it, at the cost of his life."

"Defeat, not kill." Shikamara said, his body tense. "The Yondaime was a master of Fuuinjitsu, better even than Jiraiya of the Sannin. He probably used a seal to defeat the Kyuubi, but what happened to it? All that chakra must have gone somewhere…"

"What sort of seal could hold something like the Kyuubi?" Sakura asked, following Shikamara's logic. "What container would be strong enough?"

Iruka and Mizuki were both sweating.

"The reaction of our teachers indicates that your speculations are more accurate than they are currently comfortable with." Shino said from the back of the classroom. "I admit to curiosity about the fate of the Kyuubi. My clan experimented with seals to complement our fighting style, but all those who tried were unable to master Fuuinjitsu to the required degree. We did,however, learn quite a bit about sealing in the process. The Kyuubi was an incredibly strong entity, whatever it was sealed into would have needed to be a living being with a chakra system to imprison the Kyuubi, otherwise the youkai of the Kyuubi would have caused extreme strain on the container, causing it to break and releasing the Kyuubi to continue its actions from where it was interrupted."

Sakura turned white and stared at Naruto, as did Ino.

"What?"

"This is beyond troublesome." Shikamaru groused. "If you take a Kunai and seal it into a scroll, does that turn the scroll into the Kunai? Shino has Kikkai inside him, does that mean he is a Kikkai? Anyone who thinks so is being stupid, and that is just so troublesome."

'This is bad, kit.' Kyuubi's voice sounded inside Naruto's mind. 'Looks like both your secrets are out.'

'Both?' Naruto thought, still looking at Sakura and Ino. 'What do you mean both?'

A sigh sounded in the back of his mind. 'The way those two are staring at you, and what that kid just said, they know that I'm sealed inside you. And the questions about Bloodlimits earlier, they either know or suspect your parentage.'

"Wait a minute!" Naruto gasped, not realising he was speaking aloud. "Are you saying my mom was Kushina and my dad..?"

"Troublesome, but it seems that way." Shikamaru said, lowering his head onto his folded arms. "Take away the whiskers and you could be the Yondaime reborn. I don't know why no-one ever saw it, heck, I don't know why I never saw it, it's such a drag."

The entire class was staring at Naruto.

"Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, stay behind. Everyone else, lessons are over for the day. Go."

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Hiashi raised an eyebrow in query as he looked into the Hyuuga Archive and saw his eldest daughter searching the files, muttering under her breath as she did so. Moving silently to just behind her, he listened to her mutters.

"Marriage contract… marriage contract… I know I saw it here somewhere when I was helping Ko-san sorting out the filing system… marriage contr… Aha! Let's see… As requested by Uzumaki Kushina, wife of… wife? Ino and Shikamaru were right… and witnessed by Hiashi Hyuuga and Namikaze Minato, it is agreed… unmarked by the Cage Bird Seal… into the Namikaze clan… Oh, Kami! I was right! Ino, Sakura and Shikamaru were right!"

"About what?"

Hinata leapt into the air with a high-pitched Eeeeep! before spinning round, eyes wide. "T… t… tou-san… wha… what are… are you…"

"I could ask the same question, daughter." Hiashi said with a frown. "Should you not still be at the Academy?"

"They l… let us out early, t… tousan." Hinata said, looking down. "B… but we l… learned something in cl… class that I had t… to check."

"And what did you learn?" Hiashi asked coldly. Hinata took a deep breath and steeled herself.

"That Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage." She said softly, but clearly. Hiashi froze.

"That… can't be right. The council confirmed that Minato's entire family died during the Kyuubi attack and that the one who was tasked with a certain burden was given her name to honour her sacrifice."

"Then why did the Yondaime choose Naruto to be the vessel of the Kyuubi?" Hinata asked, deepening Hiashi's shock even more. "Who could he trust to hold that burden, other than his own son?"

Hiashi's eyes widened further. It had been the council who had announced the deaths of the entire Namikaze clan, but they had done so before Hiruzen had returned to the position of Hokage. And as for Naruto, Danzo had kept insisting that the boy be given to him, but what if it was for more than being turned into Konoha's weapon? If he was Minato's son, he stood to inherit a fortune, as well as the Jutsu stored in the sealed Namikaze mansion. The thought of what Danzo could do with the Hraishin and the Rasengan, not to mention the scrolls on Fuuinjitsu that Minato was reputed to have written, was terrifying.

Lost in his thoughts, Hiashi failed to see Hinata sneak away, the contract secure in her hands.

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Sarutobi looked at the trio of students in front of him, then rubbed his forehead.

"Let me get this straight. Because of your curiosity and inability to keep quiet, one of the S-ranked secrets of the village has been released and is undoubtably being spread, while you came so close to releasing a second one, that coincidentally has the potential to totally ruin the life of the person it is about, that even I cannot fathom how no-one else picked up on it. Have I missed anything?"

"This is such a drag." Shikamaru sighed. "I'm assuming the first secret was Naruto's parents. I must point out that keeping it a secret even from Naruto is just wrong. He deserved to know. The only real reason I can come up with for not telling him is that by not telling him, he would not look for an inheritance and thus it could be taken away from him without causing a big investigation."

"It was to protect Naruto!" Hiruzen snapped. "His father made many enemies, enemies who would stop at nothing to see the Namikaze line driven to extinction!"

"Naruto has insane levels of speed and strength, lives with and studies under the two strongest Jonin in Konoha and is more advanced than a chunin." Shikamaru stated. "If he cannot defend himself, then over half of the ninja of Konoha need to reconsider their employment. How much does he stand to inherit?"

Hiruzen pulled out a folder and flipped it open. Shikamaru looked at the first page and his eyebrows almost hit his hairline.

"Wow! He could destroy the economy of the village by deciding to move it to the capital."

"How much is it?" Sakura asked. "The Haruno clan are responsible for almost four percent of Konoha's financial reserves."

Shika showed her the number and Sakura's eyes widened in shock. "How?"

"The Uzumaki fortune." Hiruzen sighed. "When Whirlpool fell, most of its wealth was smuggled out by the few survivors and Naruto's mother inherited it. And it wasn't my choice to try and deny it to him!"

"But you're the Hokage." Ino protested. "You can do what you want."

"But he is just one man." Shikamaru said. "An old man who retired from the job once and who only took it back after his successor died. He doesn't want this job, but there is no-one else he can trust to do it. I would guess that keeping Naruto ignorant of his legacy was the price of support from the civilian council in exchange for not tormenting him directly as he holds the Kyuubi."

Hiruzen nodded and Shikamaru sighed.

"Troublesome. If you haven't been building up support for yourself, things are about to become a real drag. Naruto is technically a ninja at the moment, but if he leaves the academy, he'll become a civilian, giving him the right to leave at any time. As the last of his clan, he has the right to demand all his clans belongings so he can re-establish his clan elsewhere… including any symbols…"

Shikamaru trailed off and Hiruzen nodded slowly.

"Including the spiral that is part of the Leaf and the one on the Jonin jackets." He said soberly. "Should Naruto decide to leave, Konoha will become the laughing tock of the Shinobi world, and the damned civilian council refuse to understand! They see the fox, not the boy. And nothing I can say makes them think otherwise."

Ino and Sakura exchanged a glance, then Sakura raised her hand.

"Umm, we're sorry about the whole parent-thing, we didn't know it was meant to be a secret. Although it wasn't actually all that well-hidden, you should have removed his mother's files if you had wanted it to be a secret…"

"I thought it had been removed." Hiruzen grumped.

"…and as for the Kyuubi thing, apart from us, I think only Shino really figured it out, and he has bugs in him, so he won't be freaked by it and everyone else will be talking about him being the Yondaime's son, so I think that that secret is still secure…"

Hiruzen sighed and nodded. "You're probably right. As you were unaware that it was meant to be a secret, you won't be punished this time, but next time you decide to investigate something, for Kami's sake check in first with ANBU, myself or one of the clan heads before going public with it."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." "Hai!" "Understood. How troublesome."

"Dismissed."

The three students fled before Sarutobi could change his mind. He sat back, massaging his head for a moment, then spoke again.

"Are you sure he'll forgive me for this?"

The air in the corner of the room seemed to shimmer, then Gai and Kakashi appeared.

"Naruto will not blame you." Gai said soberly. "I am certain he will understand that the knowledge of his parentage was kept from him for his own safety."

"I agree with Gai on this." Kakashi said. "Yes, I know. Rare. But he's right. Naruto will understand, but you need to speak to him about it. And not here. He'll need to be somewhere familiar and reassuring."

Gai and Kakashi exchanged a glance, then Gai nodded.

"Hokage-sama, will you be available to visit for tea?"

"I shall." Hiruzen said slowly. "And afterwards, given how many secrets have spilled, I think I shall take Naruto to his father's mansion. Kakashi, will you come as well?"

"It'll be good to see it again." Kakashi said with a smile. "I'll show him where the Jutsu vault is. Maybe he can learn the Hiraishin."