Chapter four
Night had fallen over Konoha.
Naruto made his way towards The Hokage's tower, utilising his stealth he moved through various alleyways to stay out of sight from the various ninja's that went to and from his destination, either they had gotten a mission to go on or they returned from one and was going to give their report.
Seeing his destination Naruto decided to move around towards the back of the building. Over the last seven years Naruto had gone to meet the Hokage several times either to get help with his sealing techniques or just to have a chat with the old man, so he had gotten quite a good feel for the place and the schedule of the people working here. Right now he knew there was only the secretary there who were always there, the secretary working on an rotational shift with two other people. The three people who served as secretaries each worked eight hours a day, so there were always someone there to receive whoever visited the tower seeking help or needing to book a meeting with the Hokage, after all ninja's work day in and out. There is always ninja's moving out and in, from and back from various missions regardless of the time of day.
With that in mind Naruto knew the Hokage had already went home for the day and wouldn't be back unless some emergency happened. Which meant getting past the anbu stationed around and inside the building as well as the secretary. If the secretary was the civilian he thought, then it would be like stealing candy from a baby, however it could also be the kunoichi that started taking less dangerous jobs ever since she gave birth. Which would make it significantly harder, before she had taken a step back from the field work she had been a jounin ranked ninja, still was though it's been a while since she's been active.
The reason he was unsure of who would serve as the secretary now was because the Hokage changed their shift irregularly as a defensive system against would be attackers. Beside even if he get past the secretary he had to evade the anbu. The anbu was a special undercover unit that mostly went on A and S ranked missions and they consisted of the elite jounin ninja's of the village meaning if Naruto came across one, he'd be fucked and not in a good way.
Thinking over his options Naruto considered using the transformation technique to turn into the Hokage, but decided against it since the anbu would most likely see right through it. Another option would be to create a distraction but ultimately that might attract more attention than he's comfortable with.
At last he decided to try the old fashioned way, stealth, after all people have a tendency to overlook the simplest things like not looking up when entering a room. Having the decided his course of action he made to move towards the window that was connected to the Hokages office where the scroll of seals was, as he was moving he kept his sensory ability on high alert. Sensing the secretary 'it was the kunoichi' he remarked to himself, he continued moving. He could faintly sense the ninja's moving around in the building, which wasn't unusual, however he couldn't sense the anbu in the building 'shit even though I didn't think I would be able to sense them it's still discomforting knowing they're around'. Of course he knew the anbu were there, it was common knowledge that there were anbu stationed inside and around the Hokage tower. Despite his discomfort with the new information he still couldn't stop himself from admiring the anbu 'they're like ghosts' he thought, which was his ultimate goal as a ninja, being undetectable and striking fear into the heart's of others without even having to show himself.
Standing under the window at ground level he noticed that there was no way for him to get up without using chakra and using chakra might alert the hidden anbu so he decided to take the longer way. Moving away from his position he moved towards the building too the left of the main building since the two were connected. Seeing a thick cable strung along the outside leading vertically upwards he decided that it was his way in. Using the cable as a foot hold he slowly made his way up towards the roof, reaching the roof he jumped on to the main building which contained the Hokage's office and made his way towards the large window that overlooked the village. Arriving above the window he leaned forward supporting himself with his forearms, feeling the blood rush to his head he peeked into the window scanning the interior, not seeing anyone he decided to use his skills as a sensor to see if he could sense anyone inside the office 'the closer I am the better' during his training he had noticed that he could sense chakra closer to him better, so in theory if there were any anbu inside he should get a faint feeling of chakra inside the room. After concentrating for about 30 seconds and not feeling anything he decided to risk it.
After having dropped to the window sill below he gave the window a light push and as he expected it gave way the Hokage had a bad habit of leaving the window slightly open during the night to make sure the office wasn't hot as a oven during the days. Having made a small opening Naruto squeezed in, landing on the floor Naruto scanned the room once more and stood still in case there was an anbu in the room. Not having been killed yet and not having felt any presence Naruto gave a sigh of relief 'the gamble paid of' he thought standing up straight he moved noiselessly across the floor towards the small corridor in the corner of the room. Moving down the corridor while keeping his sensory ability on full alert he arrived at the closed door, scanning the door and not noticing any sort of trap he tried to open it, alas it was locked. Though that was no problem for him taking out a kunai he started to pick the lock. Not having the proper tools made it into quite a challenge 'I'm going to have to invest in a lockpicking kit' he thought to himself. Some odd minute later the door gave way sheathing his kunai back on his thigh he moved into the room.
Inside the room were countless books and scrolls looking around he searched for anything that would indicate were the scroll he was looking for was. After about 30 seconds of looking around he found what he was looking for. The scroll of seals was thick, thicker than he had expected but he picked it up nonetheless. Just it having the name "scroll of seals" was enough for Naruto to get excited, anything related to sealing did, so while carefully strapping the scroll to his back he started to walk out of the room. Closing the door after him and resetting the lock, which took him about about as much time as it did unlocking it. He moved towards the window to make his escape, as he was walking across the floor he heard the door to the office begin to open. Thinking quickly he jumped towards the ceiling, grabbing on to one of the beams that ran along it. Suppressing his chakra also meant not using it to hold on to the ceiling beam, which meant he had to rely on his muscles, luckily the were some space between the beam and the actual ceiling so he could get a proper grip. Hearing the door open fully he focused on breathing as quietly as possible, not daring to look down he stayed where he was closing his eyes to focus on the person with his ears.
Hearing the person walk inside and then stop moving he waited with baited breath until he heard the person move towards the door again. Hearing the door close Naruto gave a sigh of relief and dropped to the floor. Landing caused a bit more sound than he was comfortable after staying on the spot he landed on for a few seconds and having nothing happen he started stalking towards the window again.
Once outside he didn't bother with going back the way he came, gripping the window sill with one hand and hanging of it he pushed the walls with his legs and let go of the sill. Seeing the ground approach rapidly he prepared his knees and landed into a roll then he made his way towards the forest northeast of the tower as stealthily as possible as to not attract attention from anyone.
Arriving at the forest some odd ten minutes later he looked around for Mizuki, seeing the man lean against a tree he walked towards him.
"Mizuki-sensei I got the scroll" Naruto started then continued "does that mean I pass?" he asked. Mizuki seeing the boy with the scroll on his back was internally surprised 'he managed to steal the scroll without bringing the entire village on to him?' Mizuki thought but he said "well done Naruto, now give it to me".
Naruto looked at him wearily and asked "why do you want the scoll?" "it doesn't matter brat" Mizuki replied deciding to drop his mask.
"Once I'll kill you demon I'll give the scroll to Orochimaru-sama and he'll give me unlimited power muhahaha" Mizuki said devolving into a mad laughter at the end.
"So it's like the old man suspected" Naruto muttered out "what?" Mizuki said ending his mad induced laughter.
"It's of no matter to you Mizuki" Naruto replied then continued "I'll just have to bring you to the Hokage'.
"You defeat me?, preposterous!" Mizuki exclaimed then continued "I'm a chunin ninja you're nothing more than a graduate failure".
"Believe what you want" Naruto stated then flinged a kunai at the man, Mizuki dodged the kunai making it sink into the tree he had previously leaned against. Looking back at Naruto with a mocking grin he said "is that the best you can do?".
Naruto just looked at him blankly for a second then the tree behind Mizuki exploded sending him flying, seems like Mizuki didn't notice the explosive seal tag attached to the kunai in his arrogance. Taking advantage of the situation he pulled out a few smoke pellets and let them drop to the ground, creating a thick smoke screen within seconds.
Using the smoke Naruto moved stealthily into the shrubbery around him he heard Mizuki call out "where are you demon brat!?" 'there it is again, why is he calling me a demon?' Naruto pondered while keeping an eye on Mizuki using his sensory ability.
Mizuki not being able to see anything because of the smoke decided to try and agitate Naruto to make him come out of hiding "you know why nobody likes you right?" which peaked Naruto's interest but he decided to keep quiet.
Mizuki not hearing anything from Naruto decided to continue "it's because you're a demon Naruto" he started "you know of the Kyuubi right?".
'Of course I know of the demonic beast that attacked thirteen years ago' thought Naruto, but he remained quiet.
"Well that beast was sealed into you by the fourth Hokage" Mizuki started again "you know what that means right?" he asked and before giving Naruto any time to respond he stated "it means you are the demon beast that attacked thirteen years ago!"
Naruto started to understand what had happened 'so the fourth sealed the demonic beast inside of me?' it made sense he was born on the same day that the Kyuubi had attacked and from what he could deduce the container probably needed to be young, and the younger the better. Otherwise the fourth would probably have sealed it inside himself if the stories about him and his kindness were to be believed, that's why the general public was weary of him they didn't understand anything about sealing and how it worked. Not that he could blame them most ninja didn't know anything about the sealing art, but he did 'so the demonic beast is sealed inside of me' he thought his mind racing with different thoughts the prominent being 'the sealing killing the fourth doesn't sound unreasonable, but what happened to my parents? Did they believe the rumors?' and the second most prominent being 'do Anko know?.
Deciding that he didn't have time for such thoughts and that it was better to ask the Hokage and Anko later he decided to focus on the task at hand, which was to capture Mizuki and if there was no other way, kill him.
Moving to get behind Mizuki he noticed the man in question start to throw kunai and shuriken at random in different directions in a desperate attempt to force Naruto out of hiding.
Naruto keeping himself hidden and moving ever closer to Mizuki making sure to dodge any projectile heading his way quietly, he took out a sealing tag from his pouch which was attached underneath his tanto he readied the tag by going through a few hand seals. Noticing that the smoke screen was about to fade he moved in to make the capture. Coming up behind him Naruto slapped the tag onto Mizuki's back and having already gone through the seals it activated immediately.
Before Mizuki could even turn towards him, he had already been paralysed falling towards the ground, Naruto did nothing to catch him letting him hit the ground.
With the smoke screen finally fading Naruto went to pick up the paralysed Mizuki only to notice a bunch of anbu ninjas drop into the scene. A female anbu ninja with long purple hair walked towards him, he recognised her or rather her hair, she had given her pointers when it came to using his tanto 'Uzuki Yugao' Naruto thought, another one of Anko's friends.
As she arrived in front of him she spoke "we'll take it from here Naruto-kun" "of course Yu-" Naruto started but stopped himself giving a slight cough to hopefully cover up his blunder then he continued "Neko-chan" he said calling her that based of off the mask she wore.
He felt Yugao give him a piercing stare through the mask so he decided to get moving "well I better get going and report to the Hokage" he said as he moved away from her and towards the Hokage tower.
"You do that Naruto-kun" she added as he began to walk away.
Arriving at the Hokage's tower, still with the scroll of seals on his back, he walked through the main entrance walking past the secretary. The kunoichi that served as the secretary that night had probably gotten word of his arrival as she made no attempt to stop him or inquire about his business there.
Coming to a stop in front of the door that leads to the Hokage's office Naruto gave a knock, hearing Hiruzen's voice say "enter" Naruto opened the door and walked in.
Standing at attention in front of the Hokage with both his hands clasped behind his back Naruto waited for the Hokage to speak hearing the man say "report" Naruto started his report.
Naruto told the Hokage about how Mizuki had approached him after he had failed the exam and told him about the supposed "secret" exam and how he infiltrated the tower and stole the scroll to how he incapacitated Mizuki. As Naruto finished his report he laid the scroll on the desk in front of the Hokage while he said "that is all Hokage-sama".
Hiruzen hearing Naruto give his report beamed with pride Naruto had fulfilled his part to the letter although hearing that Mizuki had already told him about the Kyuubi saddened his mood a bit. As Naruto finished his report and laying the scroll on the table he said "I'm sorry you found out about the Kyuubi this way, I had hoped to tell you after you're graduation" Naruto hearing those words from the Hokage gave him a smile and said "it's okay old man I knew you were going to tell me".
"You don't have any questions?" Hiruzen asked a little surprised "no I mostly figured out what happened" Naruto replied. Before Hiruzen could say anything Naruto continued "I only wish to know what happened to my parents".
Before Hiruzen decided to tell Naruto about his parent he started with "first I want to congratulate you on a mission well done" then he continued "as we discussed the reward for the mission are three techniques which are the Shadow clone technique, Shadow kunai technique and Shadow shuriken technique" he finished.
Thinking back to when Hiruzen had first given him the mission, which was a day before the graduation exam. He remembered how he had been called to the Hokage's office and how Hiruzen had explained how they had caught wind of Orochimaru's plans to get the scroll of seals. Only that they didn't know who his inside man was. Hiruzen had given it a lot of thought and figured that it may be Mizuki. They had caught him acting suspiciously over the last several months. As such Hiruzen had given Naruto an A-ranked mission of apprehending Mizuki after making him show his true colours, and as a reward Naruto would get three techniques from the Hokage.
Hearing Naruto's wish Hiruzen thought 'I don't see any harm in telling him about his mother, her marriage to Minato was kept a secret and if he looked through the registry of the village he would probably find her name and make a connection anyway'.
Having reached a course of action Hiruzen spoke up "well Naruto-kun your mother was an extraordinary woman" he started and seeing Naruto get excited he continued "her name was Uzumaki Kushina, she belonged to the Uzumaki clan" he finished.
Naruto was in a daze he finally the name of his mother "Uzumaki Kushina" he muttered faintly remembering the book Hiruzen had given him and asked "did she wri-" before he could finish his sentence Hiruzen interrupted "yes Naruto-kun she wrote the book I first gave you".
Naruto gave a smile hearing that, he was older now so he figured Hiruzen most likely had a reason for keeping this hidden from him, then he remembered what the old man had said "wait clan?!" Naruto exclaimed confused.
Hearing Naruto's exclamation Hiruzen gave a short chuckle "yes clan" he started "she belonged to the Uzumaki clan Naruto-kun, as do you" he finished. "Uzumaki clan" Naruto muttered "I belong to a clan?" he asked then continued before Hiruzen could say anything "why haven't they come to get me?" he asked.
Hearing Naruto's question Hiruzen gave a sad sigh "because Naruto-kun" he started "you're the only Uzumaki left that we know of" he finished. Hearing The old man's words Naruto grew somber "what do you mean old man?" he asked "the Uzumaki clan was wiped out by the joint effort of the land of lightning, land of water and the land of earth out of fear" Hiruzen finished.
"Fear?" Naruto asked "yes fear Naruto-kun, the Uzumaki's were masters in the sealing arts" Hiruzen replied "that mastery made the other villages fear them so they teamed up and attacked the Uzumakis" Hiruzen said then continued "The Uzumaki tried to send word to Konoha but by the time we got their message, it was already to late" Hiruzen finished as he looked at Naruto sadly.
Naruto was stunned into silence, he was the only Uzumaki left? While sad over the decimation of his clan he decided that what was done was done. It was too late to do anything about it now so he would simply honor his clan by becoming even better in the sealing arts and he would do his best to restore the clan 'hopefully with Anko' he idly thought before shaking his head dispelling those thoughts.
"Do you have anything from my mother?" he asked the Hokage "a picture or something? Anything will do" he finished. Hiruzen having heard the boy opened his desk drawer, pulled out a photo and handed it to Naruto.
Naruto looked at the photo, it was of a beautiful woman with long red hair and violet eyes she gave a confident expression to the camera. "That was your mother's ninja ID photo" Hiruzen said.
Naruto let a tear fall down his cheek and asking "this was my mother?" "yes Naruto-kun the woman in the photo is your mother, Uzumaki Kushina".
The rest of the night Naruto kept asking Hiruzen questions about his mother while Hiruzen did his best to answer everything.