Hidden Genes

Summary: There is a type of jutsu only one shinobi could use,the Shodaime became famous for it being impossible for anyone who doesn't have his DNA, and even then it was rare. Sharingan is an Uchiha doujutsu,so no one can have it unless an eye is given, so why does the Kyuubi vessel have both?Why does he move like the Yondaime?

Inari never did get much of a chance to study the blond ninja. Whatever Naruto did, not even his teammates could discern but Sasuke seemed to have realized what had happened and was keeping a firm eye on the blond. And that very same day, all four of his grandfather's ninja escorts followed him to the bridge to protect him, so Inari couldn't go with them unless he wanted to seem suspicious. That lessened his time around the older kids but only succeeded in making him more curious about what the blond could have possibly done to their crops to give such a beautiful harvest.

Speaking of the Land of the Wave's agriculture, it was only getting better and better by the day. Even though there had been a harvest not so long ago, new buds were already forming everywhere, the plants getting ready for another round against the odds of nature. Naruto was very proud of his achievements, seeing as these were his seeds. It were the seeds from his plants back home and they were more than adapted to giving out products despite it not being their season. It had been risky to go out at night and get these seeds planted, as there was a night shift guard, but Naruto wasn't one of the best ninja in sneaking around for nothing. After many years of evading all those people who wanted to kill or seriously harm him at the very least, he was an expert. It proved as useful ninja training and Naruto was now certain he could probably sneak into a giant animal's mouth without it ever noticing. He once nearly had to, too, when some of the ANBU chased him into the area known as the Forest of Death. That place left him with nightmares for three months after that.

Speaking of nightmares and the such, Sasuke's been having a few as of late. Naruto had to wake his friend up more than once in the past few days because he was trashing around in his sleep, mumbling things under his breath with increasing volume. Knowing Sasuke as he did, Naruto knew he'd hate it if everyone else heard so he always woke up the slightly older boy before his mumblings could escalate to shouting. He knew Kakashi probably heard them but he was grateful to the scarecrow for not saying anything or revealing to them that he was indeed awake and had heard everything. Naruto was sure Sasuke also knew of this, but the older genin said nothing so Naruto never brought it up, either. However, after such nights, Naruto let Sasuke fuss over him more than he'd usually do, since he knew Sasuke was just looking for an escape from his nightmares or was trying to reassure himself that at least Naruto didn't share his clan's fate. Seeing Kakashi's Sharingan must have brought on the memories of the massacre.

That actually made Naruto pause most days when he was watching over Tazuna from the top of one of the bridge's columns. If he was honest, the Uchiha massacre made no sense to him what so ever. He knew it wasn't really any of his business, so he never mentioned it to Sasuke, but Itachi didn't seem like that type of person to him in the least. Naruto knew he had actually only once or twice talked with the older of the Uchiha brothers, but he knew enough from those brief conversations that Itachi couldn't just ... snap like that. The massacre really made no sense. Itachi was the most stable person Naruto knew, also the most peaceful, too, despite being in the ANBU. It wasn't for some seemingly easy to understand or point out reason that he had killed his clan. It didn't seem like something a person as complicated as Itachi would do.

But Naruto never dared to point this out to anyone, even the Hokage, over the years. Sasuke would probably hate him, no matter at which age he even suggested this theory to the slightly older boy. And Kakashi would probably be pretty hurt if Naruto were to suddenly bring up his once friend and teammate ...

Speaking of the silver haired jonin, he's been trying to catch Naruto to discuss his father and the jonin's sensei, but ever since the news of Haku's reappearance so close to Tazuna's house had surfaced, things had gotten far busier than they had any right to be. Kakashi had given them each a jutsu to learn until they perfected it and he was hoping they'd master it enough for it to be useful for when Zabuza and Haku finally do attack again. It was good for them to get more training and learn new skills, but there was such a thing as enough and overkill that Kakashi had apparently forgotten all about. Still, they learned quite a few useful jutsus.

Naruto kind of wished it were at least things he didn't already know how to do. Seriously, he knew Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (something he learned shortly after learning Kage Bunshin no Jutsu), summoning weapons and Suiton: Suiryƫdan no Jutsu, they were things he knew how to do since he was a kid. He just pretended to stumble a bit in the learning process so the others wouldn't get suspicious, but this now gave him a great excuse to use more jutsus when they fight someone the next time. Sasuke made Kakashi teach him Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu but Sakura kept to the easier things to learn, such as chain reaction traps. Naruto didn't know what was wrong with that girl. They were fighting for their lives here! She must be seriously dense if she didn't figure out she could die here. Zabuza and Haku won't be hesitating to kill her if she doesn't give it her all. Hadn't she realized that after Zabuza almost killed them?

"Oi, dobe!" He was broken out of his musings when he heard Sasuke calling him with the annoying nickname/insult so he looked down from his perch on the pillars of the bridge. "We're leaving. Get down from there, you idiot."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend but complied none the less, landing right in front of the older boy with ease born from his many escapades over the rooftops of Konoha and his runs through the woods. "Jeez, teme, you don't have to yell." The blond pouted just to get a reaction out of the older boy but the Uchiha only snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Let's just go. I'm actually rather tired." And Naruto could see that indeed he was. There were dark bags under the paler boy's eyes, showing just how much the disturbance of his sleep was affecting him. He didn't look very Uchiha-like, as his father used to call it. Sasuke wondered if being an Uchiha meant one had to be perfect or appear to be perfect? Neither seemed all that plausible.

"Why don't you take some pills or something before sleep?" The Jinchuuriki already knew the answer. No shinobi wanted to be put under sedatives, as they greatly dulled the senses and messed with chakra control spectacularly. Pain or sleeping drugs were reserved for hospitals within a shinobi's home village or for extreme situations where they would not be able to bear the pain or when they are too strung up to fall asleep despite the lack of those levels of danger that would be fatal to fall asleep in. "Or milk. Milk is good."

"Milk can't help me sleep." The older boy replied wearily as they made their way to Kakashi, Sakura and Tazuna. "Believe me, I know." Naruto winced at the implications of what that meant and paused to think about it. He tilted his head to the side as something occurred to him.

"What about sweet smelling salts?" The blond asked of the Uchiha, who gave him a confused glance. "Well, like there are salts that wake people from unconsciousness, there are salts that help people fall asleep, too, without dulling the senses. You won't even be in too deep a sleep to not sense an approaching chakra signature nor will your mind be muddled so you can't discern if they're an enemy or an ally. I know as I use them every once in a while, too."

"At your house?" Sasuke asked, perplexed, as he knew that Naruto's home within that big tree was more than well hidden. "No offense, but it's not as if you get much visitors."

The whisker scarred boy shot him a rather wild looking grin. "True, but I do get ... guests of a different kind." The raven just arched a questioning eyebrow, asking his companion to elaborate. "Let's just say that, most of the times when there was an intruder on Konoha territory, they didn't make it past the woods."

Black eyes shot comically wide at that. "Are you saying you-"

"Set the traps throughout the woods when enemy ninja moved through the forest at night in hopefully secret attacks or infiltrations to Konoha? Yes, I am saying that, teme." The Kyuubi vessel grinned mischievously at his friend. "Don't go spreading it around, okay?"

"You, Naruto, are an utter idiot." The Uchiha hissed angrily in his ear. "You could have killed yourself if you were caught!"

Naruto sent him a dry look. "I stayed within my home and activated the traps with you-know-what by sensing them from afar and just letting trees and tree roots do the job for me."

"They could have sensed you out-"

"What are you two talking about?" Sakura asked brightly when they were close enough to the group. Naruto sent Sasuke a brief warning glare that told him to shut it, which the older boy returned with one of his own that promised this conversation wasn't over. All the while, Kakashi observed this silent interaction with acute interest.

"Nothing," Naruto hastily, giving her a blinding smile. "Ne, Sakura-chan, come on a date with me, ne?" The pink haired girl stuck up her nose and glared at her younger teammate.

"No."

Naruto pretended to grumble and to glower at Sasuke so convincingly that anyone who didn't know that the two boys liked to cuddle up in the night would have thought that they really hated each other. However, as they walked off towards Tazuna's home, Naruto seemed to brighten up more and more and started chatting away. By the time they reached the huts itself, though, the blond seemed to withdraw into himself. In truth, he was talking with Kurama about further practice of the Flying Thunder God technique and how much that would benefit them in battle as opposed to just learning attacking jutsus and even defensive jutsus. He came back into the real world when Tsunami asked him to help with dinner and he happily cleaned up before chopping up the fresh vegetables. Just seeing these vegetables made him feel all warm inside. This was the first time he had been able to help someone other than himself with his Mokuton. It made him really happy.

"Naruto-kun, you seem a bit distracted." Tsunami asked concernedly, frowning at where the blond continued chopping the vegetables still a bit distracted despite her calling his attention. "Maybe you should go lay down and rest."

Naruto shook his head and smiled at the worrying woman. It felt nice to have someone worry for him, other than Hokage-jii-chan, Iruka-sensei, Kurama and now Sasuke-teme. "I'm fine, dattebayo. Just got stuck thinking about home."

"Do you miss your village?" She asked gently and Naruto frowned.

"I'm actually not really sure. I guess I do but I don't, not really." When Tsunami sent him a confused glance, Naruto elaborated. "I love that place and I would give my life to protect my village and the civilians that live there, but there are times when I really just want to avoid them all. Especially on days like tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Well, there are some strange circumstances I can't tell you about - it's probably for the best that way, anyway. I don't want you to think differently of me because of the rumors and prejudices going on around. Anyway, those circumstances make people ... very unpleasant towards me. And on days like tomorrow, it only gets worse."

"What's tomorrow?" Inari asked as he came into the small kitchen, sitting down at the small table and looking up at the twelve year old.

Naruto didn't look at either of them as he answered with a shrug. "My birthday." He didn't need to look at them to see their eyes widen in horror that he would get such treatment on such a special day. But it wasn't all that special for Naruto. He had never celebrated. There was no reason to, especially since it was also ... "And my parents' death anniversary." Inari flinched while Tsunami fought back a pitying look. The boy was so young ...

"When did they ... die?" The little brunet asked before his mother could shush him but Naruto waved off her apologetic smile.

"The day I was born." Both of the civilians gasped but Naruto ignored them as he finished with the vegetables and put them in the soup before returning to the chopping board and starting on the beef meat the village had been able to trade some of their vegetables for. "You don't need to look so sad. I never met them but I do know they were great people."

"They were." Kakashi said, startling Tsunami and Inari but not Naruto. He had sensed the silver haired man enter the kitchen long before he approached the doorway. "The best, even. I am sorry if I never told you about them, Naruto. I thought you didn't know."

"I'm not supposed to." The blond admitted with a bitter smile over his shoulder. "But when has that ever stopped me?" He went back to cutting the meat and sighed a little. "I wish I had met them but it will always remain only a wish. But I am glad that they're not around to see how I'm being treated. It would break their hearts." He finished with the dinner and took off the apron Tsunami had given him. He smiled at the three people in the kitchen and left the room and the house altogether before any of them could react or stop him. They just stared at the doorway until Sasuke appeared in it, a determined scowl on his face.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, already having a good hunch what the Uchiha was going to say long before he even opened his mouth. Which was the reason he wasn't at all surprised by Sasuke's declaration.

"We're going to make tomorrow the best day of the dobe's life as of yet."