"Why would you ask a question like that Naruto?"
"Well, when those men attacked me, they said that I had done all of these horrible things and that I was defenseless in my human form, and they called me a demon. Am I a demon? They said that Yondaime-sama sealed me in a human form. Am I a demon in a human form? I want to know why people hate me, and why those people would hurt me like that."
Full blown tears were streaming down Naruto's tears as his façade fell away to reveal how broken he really was. Sarutobi reached out and wrapped his arms around Naruto, pulling him into a tight hug, 'It breaks my heart to know that people would do this, and I think that the only thing that can help Naruto right now is the truth.'
"Alright Naruto, I guess you deserve to know the truth." Sarutobi sighed before he continued, "On October 10th, the day you were born, when the Kyuubi attacked the village, it killed hundreds of our ninja, and nearly as many as that in defenseless civilians. So, my successor, the Yondaime Hokage had to find a way to defeat the demon. After thinking on it, he decided that the Kyuubi needed to be sealed into a human host body."
Naruto's mind began to spin, 'The Yondaime sealed into a human, me.'
"But because putting a tailed beast into a human being forces the humans chakra coils to adapt to the foreign chakra, it had to be sealed into a baby whose chakra coils were developing, so that they could adapt to the foreign chakra. Now since you were the only child who was young enough to adapt to the Kyuubi, the Yondaime chose you to seal the Kyuubi into. And Naruto, this does not mean that you are the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi was sealed INTO you. It is trapped inside your body, but you are still Naruto Uzumaki, and don't let anyone tell you that you are a demon."
Naruto was silent as his mind raced a million miles an hour, so deciding that he should continue telling Naruto the whole story, Sarutobi kept talking.
"The sealing took the Yondaime's life. But when I ran to where you were laid out, the Anbu with me left quickly after confirming the danger was gone, and they spread the word that the Kyuubi was sealed into you. Word soon spread all the way throughout the village about you."
"The general populace freaked out, and maybe if they had all been able to think clearly about it, they would have come to the conclusion you were no danger, but dealing with the grief of losing so many lives and close ones, they simply redirected their hate from the Kyuubi to you. Now I know that this is a lot for you to take in, but I have to say that I am sorry that this life was given to you before you were born."
"Why did no one ever tell me? Why did I not deserve to know?"
"Naruto, it is not that you didn't deserve to know, it's that I wanted, and still want, you to have a normal childhood. I made a law stating that it was illegal, and punishable by death to inform anyone your age about the Kyuubi, it is a very harsh law, unlike anything I have ever done, because I wanted you to live a normal life. Now a lot of adults simply told their kids not to be around you, because they were and are afraid of what is inside of you."
Naruto had tears openly streaming down his face as he hugged Sarutobi tighter, "Thank you Ji-Ji, I'm so glad you tried to help me when you could. But I have one question, who is the masked man who saved me?"
"Oh, that is ANBU captain Tenzo. He is one of my most high ranking ANBU members."
"Do you think he could teach me to be a ninja? I want to be a ninja, so that I can prove that I am not a demon, and that I am Naruto Uzumaki, citizen of Konoha, and not "the Kyuubi no Kitsune in human form". Then no one would hate me, and then I could live a normal life."
"Well I don't know if I could have Tenzo teach you, he is a very valuable member of ANBU, it would be a big decision for him, because he does a lot of good as an Anbu member, but I will ask him to at least help you a little bit. I will send him to your apartment tomorrow, and he will help teach you some basics , and if he sees fit, maybe something else. But it will only be until you can enroll in the academy next year, after some things happen, specialized training of children is something I no longer allow, every child has to go through the academy before receiving a higher level of training."
"Thank you Ji-Ji, I will learn whatever Tenzo-sensei wants me to learn, and then I will be top of the class in the academy! And that's a promise!" Naruto's mood had improved a lot, it was a lot to take in, and yet Naruto wanted to prove the villagers wrong, rather than hate them back.
Sarutobi smiled at Naruto as he stood up, "That's the spirit Naruto; it's always good to be an enthusiastic learner. And when you get to the academy, remember this, everything that they teach you at the academy will help you become a better ninja."
"Okay Ji-Ji, I will remember that."
Both Naruto and Sarutobi turn as someone began knocking on the door. "Excuse me Hokage-sama; I have brought Naruto his clothes and some food."
"Ah, thank you Asami-chan, now I can go find Naruto an apartment to stay at."
Asami hands Naruto his clothes, then leaves the room, to head back to the Hokage Tower to do paperwork.
Naruto quickly changes into the slightly large clothes, black cargo jeans, a dark red t-shirt with a black swirl on the back and black ninja sandals.
"Alright Naruto lets go find you an apartment to stay at. The orphanage taught you how to cook right?"
"Umm, no, they didn't. They said that I didn't need to know how, because they always gave me instant ramen." Naruto was eating the take-out that Asami had brought, a simple stir fry that tasted like the best thing in the world to Naruto.
"They only fed you instant ramen? They told me they fed you perfectly balanced meals with the rest of the kids, it's no wonder you are so short, the malnutrition has stunted your growth. I guess that I will have to get you a cook book so you can teach yourself, but I won't be able to get anyone to teach you, it would not be fair to waste their time like that. But let's go now Naruto, when we get to my office, I will pull out the apartment records, and look for vacancies to get you a place to stay."
With that, they left the hospital, and walked to the Hokage Tower. They walked up to Sarutobi's office, and he sat down and pulled a record book out of a filing cabinet. After leafing through the book, he found a suitable apartment. "Your apartment will be apartment number 28, in the Ken Apartment building, only half a block from the Hokage tower. I will walk with you there now, and I will tell the apartment building owner that you will be staying there, free of charge, because you're an orphan. I will also have your first months' worth of groceries delivered, and some more clothing. Would the same shirts and pants be fine?"
Naruto nodded, saying "Yeah that would be fine, and for some reason I really like the swirl on the back of the shirt, it looks really cool." Sarutobi was able to appreciate the irony in that, 'If only he knew he was wearing his clan's symbol, I just hope that he doesn't dig into the symbol's origins, I was going to get him red shirts without the symbol, but I guess he would want to know why I didn't get the same ones, and he might get curious about it.'
With that, they walked out of the Hokage tower, walked around to the back of the building, walked down a street, and walked into the reception area of the apartment building, and with a quick chat between the Hokage and the receptionist, she handed over a key to Sarutobi, and they headed up the stairs, and walked up to the second floor, and Sarutobi unlocked the second door on the left. Sarutobi opened the door, and gestured Naruto inside.
Naruto looked around, and the room they first entered was the living room, and there was two couches to the left, and they would both sit 3 people comfortably, and there was a large bookshelf as well in the corner of the room. The door was right behind one of the couches, and straight away from the door, was a hallway with a door at the end, and another door on the right. The couch was to the left of the door, and to the right, was a bar, with bar seats to eat at. Past the bar, was the kitchen. In the kitchen, were brand new appliances, and there was an island in the middle of the kitchen.
Naruto walked in, and walked down the hallway, and opened the door on the right, and saw that it is the bathroom, with a brand new shower, toilet, and sink.
Next, he opened the door at the end of the hall, leading to the bedroom. It had a queen sized bed, with a dresser on one side, and an end table on the other side. There was also a small closet that Naruto mentally reminded himself to check later. There was also another door on the left, and when Naruto opened it, he saw a washer and dryer. There was also a cupboard over the washer and dryer. It also appeared, that the washer and dryer was an all-in-one machine, so it washes, and dries your clothes in one go, so that there is no need to rotate the laundry. The whole apartment was all brand new, and Naruto got to live there free.
Naruto walked back to the living room, and saw Sarutobi sitting on the couch, smiling. "Thank you Ji-Ji, I can't believe I get to live here for free! Everything is brand new, and this is just great!" He threw himself on Sarutobi, crying happily.
Sarutobi smiled, and hugged Naruto back as Naruto cried happily.
Finally, Naruto stood up, and so did Sarutobi. "Well Naruto, I have to go now, and Tenzo will be here tomorrow. I will also send Rin-chan here with your first months' worth of groceries, and your stipend. You should spend the rest of the day looking through your apartment more closely, and getting acquainted with everything. I would like you to look through the bookshelf too. This whole apartment is for ninjas, so the book shelf should be full of scrolls containing ninja history, and you might even find something interesting in there as well. But if you find any jutsu of any sort, show it to me or Tenzo before you do anything with it. We wouldn't want you attempting something that is way beyond your capability."
Naruto nodded, "I understand, thank you Ji-Ji, so much, for everything."
Sarutobi smiled at Naruto as he began to close the door, "I will see in a bit Naruto-kun."
With that, he left, and Naruto stood there looking around for a couple of minutes, before deciding to look to see what was in the kitchen.
He walked into the kitchen, and looked through the drawers and cabinets. The whole kitchen had all that he would need to cook with, except food. There was even a sushi bar, so Naruto made a mental note to ask how to make sushi.
Next, Naruto decided to look at the book shelf full of scrolls. Looking through the bookshelf, Naruto found all kinds of cool sounding things to read, 'Leaf Village Academy History, History of the Village Hidden in Leaves, Learning to Channel Chakra, and what is this?'
Naruto found a small book, that looked more than a little worn, and Naruto read the title out loud, "Konoha Bingo Book? What is that?" Opening up the book, Naruto couldn't believe what was in it, a list of the strongest ninja in the world! With as much info that the village had on them, this was not an ordinary book, and Naruto knew that it shouldn't have been just laying around.
This was the first sign that things were not what they seemed in this amazing apartment, and in the future, when he looks back on it, sometimes Naruto wished he had just walked out of the apartment when he had the chance to.
Still curious about the rest of the apartment, Naruto set the book back down, leaving himself a mental not to check it more later. Since he had already checked the kitchen, Naruto decided to check the bedroom next, so he walked down the hallway into the room that was now his.
As he had already noticed, there was a queen sized bed, the separate room with a washer and dryer, and the closet he had yet to check out. Naruto moves over to the closet, and opens up the doors.
It was only a small closet, with a bar coming across the back wall to hang things up, and the only other thing in the room was a cabinet up against the wall to the right, but as Naruto looked closer at it, he could see that it had been moved to cover up a gap in the wall, and he could see part of the gap as the cabinet didn't entirely cover it up, it must have been moved in a hurry.
His curiosity too much to bear, Naruto pushed on the cabinet, and using all of his strength he managed to push it away from the gap, revealing the whole thing. It was about two and a half feet wide, and only four feet high, and Naruto couldn't see anything as whatever space there was behind it was completely dark.
Foregoing whatever consequences there were, Naruto stepped into the darkness.
AN: So what do you all think? This is the first major change in plot from the original version, as there were a lot of problems with what I had previously done with this chapter. What will Naruto find in the darkness hidden in the closet? What purpose could there be for this hidden room? Please stay tuned for the third chapter!