The trip back to Konoha was far easier than team seven had anticipated, well at least after knocking out their prisoner and having Naruto carry him (the wonders of having nearly limitless strength and stamina), so in the end it only took a couple of days to reach the gates of Konoha instead of the couple of weeks it took to get there at a civilian pace.
Walking up to the front gate, Kakashi didn't even bother to look up from his book before making his statement, "team seven returning from a successful C-rank mission to Nami No Kuni with an applicant for shinobi code thirty seven point two."
Immediately the two Chūnin stiffened slightly at the statement given by the silver haired Jōnin before they proceeded to do something they rarely ever had to do, activate a seal that called the ANBU to the front gate.
It took mere seconds for the group of masked assassins to arrive at the scene and after a short exchange detailing the reason for being called, the team took the still unconscious prisoner and vanished in several swirls of leaves.
Seeing that happen made the young blond feel sick at the thought that he was the one to subject the Hyōton user to the future that would be inflicted upon him, however he shook his head clear of those thoughts, he was a ninja, it was his duty to put his morals to the side and do whatever was necessary to ensure the survival of Konoha.
The trip through the village was unusual for the now vampiric blond as he noted that no one was staring at him the way they usually did, making him allow the surface thoughts of the general populace to reach him.
He suddenly discovered that opening himself to everyone nearby was a rather… unpleasant as he was assaulted by countless different thoughts jumbling together into an incoherent mess, though he managed to pick up little segments of the noise and it became quite obvious to him that the only reason people weren't glaring at him was because they didn't recognise him with his hood up and his mouth masked.
That thought made him frown. The mere fact that their minds simply registered him as an eyesore in orange was something he didn't like one bit. He wanted to be looked upon with awe and respect, not annoyance and disapproval.
"Naruto? Are you alright?"came a familiar voice from beside him, making him look to see Sakura looking at him with concern. That immediately managed to make him feel significantly better as his lips began to raise into a grateful smile, not that she could see it but it was there none the less.
"Yeah, I just made a bit of a mistake is all," he said with gratitude clear in his tone as the pink haired Konoichi continued to look at him with concern written on her face.
"Let me guess, you tried to listen to too many thoughts at once," the one eyed Jōnin stated with an eye smile, earning a nervous chuckle off the young vampire.
"Yeah, it hurt my head and I didn't really learn anything new from it either," the blond admitted while looking away from his sensei, he didn't know if the silver haired Jōnin would approve of listening into the thoughts of civilians or not.
"Hm…" everyone turned to look at the raven haired Uchiha as he made a contemplative noise before saying something that made the rest of team seven sweatdrop, "I wonder what everyone would think if they heard the rabbit talk?"
"FUCK YOU MONKEY! I'M NOT A RABBIT!" Naruto almost cringed at the yell that permeated his mind before informing the fox of one simple fact.
"Could you keep it down in there, I'm not linked to them at the moment," almost immediately he heard grumbling from within the recesses of his mind, "the moron says 'fuck you monkey'."
"Monkey?" the dark eyed genin said with a hint of confusion in his tone.
"Monkey see, monkey do, so he'll always be a number two," Naruto was instantly grateful that he had decided to connect the group again and wouldn't have to act as a middle man for the argument between the raven haired avenger and the chakra construct of mass destruction.
"Oh really, and if that's the case why were you always being controlled by my clan huh?" immediately the group could feel the anger coming off the beast upon being reminded of that fact.
"Obviously he's even lower than a number two," now Naruto was certain he was going to end up with a headache since there was no way the furball would take being insulted like that quietly.
"Shut… up… I will not be talked down on by mere humans!," the bijū growled out upon being reminded of one of his most well known weaknesses.
"Yeah, sure, anyway, I think it'll be a good idea to put this conversation on hold while we talk with Hokage-sama," the cycloptic Jōnin said, "and Naruto… could you please enter the room first?"
"Huh? Why Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto's question caused everyone to feel the nervousness coming from the most experienced of the group.
"Because I may have… sent Hokage-sama a status report that included the fact you are clinically dead," almost instantly the three genin looked at the man as if he was insane, earning a shrug off the copy-nin, "well, to be fair he'll have had time to sit down and think about it instead of simply killing me where I stand for letting you die."
"You're an idiot, ero-sensei," the whiskered blond stated bluntly within his mind, earning agreements from the other genin in the process.
"So will you go first or not?" the masked Jōnin asked him with a hint of pleading in his tone.
"Fine, I'll go first ero-baka," the hooded youth finally acknowledged and without a hint of hesitation he did what he normally did when it came down to the Hokage's office, storm in like he owned the place… that is until he was frozen by an intense feeling of death being directed at him.
He knew what he was feeling was killing intent, his memories from Zabuza told him that much, however this was on a completely different level and his eyes immediately told him why.
He wasn't facing the Hokage, he was facing the Hokage, his rival, his two teammates AND every ANBU located in the room… now he understood exactly why his sensei didn't want to go in first.
"Uh… hi?" was all he managed to squeak out while under the incredible pressure coming off the occupants of the room.
"Who are you?" the aged leader of the village asked sternly, earning a small raised finger off the currently masked blond.
"A-about to… pass out," he finally managed to say before feeling the killing intent lift substantially, though what was left was still easily on par with what Zabuza could produce (then again, with four kage level ninja and five ANBU operatives, that wasn't particularly surprising).
"I'll ask you one more time, who are you?!" the man known by many as the sandaime Hokage demanded seriously, making the young boy gulp in nervousness at the tone he was being addressed in.
"U-Uzumaki Naruto," instantly he felt the killing intent increase dramatically as the four oldest in the room glared at him with an intensity that he was unsure he could eve match.
"Do not lie to me, Hatake Kakashi has already reported his death and will face disciplinary action upon his return, beyond that you have gotten several aspects of Naruto wrong," Sarutobi Hiruzen stated with a tone so cold it could freeze a star.
Hearing the old man's statement made Naruto's mind jump back into gear, he was being accused of being a liar, beyond that the old man was saying that he had gotten several aspects of himself wrong? Who the hell did he think he was?
"Screw you ya senile old bastard!" instantly the room froze, everyone could do nothing more than stare in shock at the boys words towards the village leader, "how the hell am I supposed to get 'aspects of myself' wrong?! Sure I might not have yelled at you right from the beginning, sure I may not be wearing orange, sure I may not have my team directly beside me!"
The crowd in the office could do nothing more than stare in disbelief at the boy that was now standing up to them, yelling at them as if they were the stupid ones.
"Why don't you try yelling happily when you have four legends and five ANBU all using as much killing intent as possible! Did it ever occur to you that my clothes were destroyed on the mission and I'm just borrowing some of baka-sensei's old clothes?! And did it ever occur to you that baka-sensei decided to hide so he wouldn't be put in this situation?!" Naruto asked the group angrily, earning several sighs upon him finally finishing his little tirade.
"I guess there is a possibility of you being Naruto if you're that rude, however if Kakashi doesn't appear in the next ten seconds," the aged leader was about to say more before he noted Kakashi peeking from behind the door frame, "KAKASHI! Get in here this instant!"
Naruto almost had to do a double take at the sheer speed with which his silver haired Jōnin was at his side and stiff as a log, while he also noted that Sakura and Sasuke were trembling at the entrance, probably scared of facing the combined wrath of all the high level ninja in the office… not that he blamed them.
"Hokage-sama," the masked Jōnin stated as calmly as possible, though there was definitely an undercurrent of fear to his tone.
"Would you like to explain exactly why you deemed it necessary to lie to me in your report?" the old man was definitely not in a happy mood and Kakashi quickly came to the conclusion that if he wasn't careful, it was highly likely he wouldn't leave the room in one piece.
"I did not Hokage-sama, Naruto is clinically dead… it's just that somehow he doesn't seem to realise what that usually entails," and as soon as the Jōnin had finished that statement, the air had once again become saturated with enough killing intent to kill a whale, "I'm serious Hokage-sama, just get a Hyūga or iryō-nin to look over him and you'll understand what I mean."
"Karasu!" the Sandaime commanded, earning an appearance from a bird masked ANBU that immediately placed his hands in a single seal and muttered a word that piqued Naruto's interest 'Byakugan'.
"W-what? H-h-how is that possible?" the ANBU asked after several seconds, earning sharp glares off the four elders at the fact they appeared to be being left out of the loop, "Uzumaki's lungs are not functioning, neither is his digestive tract and to top it off… his heart isn't beating."
The shock that appeared on the faces of the four eldest was definitely one that Kakashi had never seen on them before, even when the Kyūbi had rampaged through Konoha, they had always kept their composure however now, they were suddenly finding out that the usual notions of life and death didn't seem to apply to the blond genin and it was enough to snap them out of their usual states, even if it only lasted for a second at the most.
"See, clinically dead," Kakashi stated bluntly, earning several more glares off the other occupants in the room.
"Do you believe it could possibly be due to 'it'?" an older man wearing a simple kimono with his right arm in a sling and his right eye covered by bandages, asked the silver haired Jōnin.
"Sasuke and Sakura have already discovered the truth concerning the Kyūbi so there is no need to talk around it Danzō-sama," the Jōnin informed the older man calmly before finding himself on the receiving end of more killing intent courtesy of the Hokage.
"Hatake… give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't execute you for breaking that law?" the aged leader asked with a very dangerous glint in his tone.
"Because I was the one that revealed it to them," Naruto decided to speak up for his sensei, after all, he may have been a no good pervert that sent him to the wolves, but he was still his sensei and he'd stick up for the man in situations like this.
Immediately the Killing intent vanished as the nine ninja that weren't members of team seven looked at him in shock.
"Naruto… why did you tell them about the Kyūbi?" Sarutobi asked with a hint of concern in his voice, wondering exactly why the boy had felt the need to tell his teammates about something like that.
"I didn't," came the blonds reply earning several twitches from the other occupants in the room, "alright, it's up."
"What's up?" an old man by the name of Mitokado Homura asked cautiously, apparently he wasn't too happy with the idea of something being done without anyone being forewarned.
"A mental link, apparently Naruto's decided it's easier to simply show you how Sasuke and Sakura know about the Kyūbi instead of trying to explain," they heard Kakashi say though it was obvious that he wasn't actually talking, at least as far as they were concerned, having had experience with the Yamanaka clan.
"Oh that's just great… so we're going to have to put up with the retarded rabbits rants again," the nine ninja that had been in the room since the beginning blinked in confusion before flinching at the next sound they heard.
"FUCK YOU MONKEY! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU IN THE SLOWEST AND MOST PAINFUL MANNER POSSIBLE WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE!" the four oldest in the room blinked in surprise at the voice they had heard, honestly it was pretty obvious to them exactly what it was.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say bunny," the flippant way the last loyal Uchiha talked to the great beast told them everything they needed to know, this was a regular occurrence as far as team seven was now concerned.
"Hey! Don't bring bunny into this Sasuke!" instantly the group looked at the white rabbit that they had decided to completely disregard that was currently sitting on the blonds shoulder.
"Oh, sorry but if I remember correctly Haku said it's name was Shiro," the dark haired avenger stated calmly, earning an angry growl off the blond vampire.
"His. Name. Is. BUNNY!" the group found themselves all sweatdropping at the blonds declaration, however what truly caught the attention of them was the state of the white rabbit.
"Tell me Uzumaki, that rabbit, is it alive?" the man named Danzō asked seriously, something about the rabbit just didn't seem right to him.
"Uh, no, Bunny's my first ghoul!" the whiskered genin exclaimed proudly, earning several blank looks from those that weren't in the know.
"You're first… ghoul?" the only woman amongst the four oldest ninja asked with a hint of curiosity in her eyes as she looked into the completely misted eyes of the rabbit corpse.
"Uh… think of it as a zombie rabbit that is completely obedient to Naruto," Kakashi decided to say hoping that the current events would throw the Hokage and elders off enough to forget about punishing him for risking the villages jinchūriki and the last loyal Uchiha.
"Is this some type of joke Hatake?" the older of the one eyed ninja asked sternly, earning a shake of the man's head.
"No, I most certainly am not joking… I wish I was but I'm not," the silver haired Jōnin muttered the last part under his breath as he remembered the difficulty he had trying to create a way of storing all the corpses Naruto had brought back with them.
"And why do you wish you were?" Sarutobi asked with a hint of suspicion in his tone.
"Because I was the one who had to figure out a way of storing all the corpses Naruto decided to bring back with him," the masked shinobi stated bluntly, earning a few small blinks from the quartet of older ninja.
"Are you saying he has more of these 'ghouls' than just that rabbit?" the old woman asked with a raised eyebrow, earning a nod of confirmation from Kakashi.
"Yes… the one time I counted them, there were approximately one hundred and twenty human corpses under Naruto's command," the sharingan warrior stated with a hint of hesitation in his tone, "including the corpse of Momochi Zabuza."
That got a reaction from the four older ninja and the five ANBU hidden in the room, the mere thought that they now had possession of the corpse of a ninja like Zabuza was really rather advantageous, they could easily dissect it to discover any unknown medicines used by the Kiri ninja and to top it off, if Naruto had the man's sword then they could potentially use it as a bargaining chip if they ever had to deal with Kirigakure.
"This is certainly an unusual situation, so why don't you explain exactly what Naruto is to have such capabilities," the aged leader commanded with a hint of curiosity in his tone.
"A vampire, a bloodsucking, parasitical, abomination of absolute evil!" the Kyūbi's voice rung out through their heads, earning raised eyebrows from the eldest ninja.
"Outside of the 'absolute evil' part… he's telling the truth," the blond haired genin admitted, earning more curios looks off all the ninja that weren't members of team seven that currently resided in the room.
"Really? Given the sort of things you did to those mercenaries I'm inclined to say that you're already becoming corrupted by the dark side of your nature," the giant fox once again decided to open its mouth, making Sarutobi's eyes narrow.
"Sorry, could you excuse me for a minute?" Naruto asked politely before closing his eyes.
"AARRGGHH! STOP IT! HELP ME! I'M SORRY! PLEASE STOP! I PROMISE I'LL BE A GOOD BOY!" the screams that filled the onlookers minds instantly made everyone including team seven look at the vampiric blond with wide eyes before the screaming stopped and Naruto opened his eyes.
"There all done," the blue eyed genin stated chirpily, earning looks of caution off everyone in the room.
"Naruto… what did you just do?" the masked Jōnin asked with clear hesitance in his voice, earning a soft look off his most powerful student.
"I found out I have the power to… manipulate the minds of those with weaker wills than me, the Kyūbi has a weaker will than me so I just did something that hit him where it hurts," the young vampire stated with a hint of sadness in his tone that surprised the onlookers.
"Hit him where it hurts?" the younger of the one eyed ninja's gave a nervous gulp upon hearing that as one of his hands move closer to his groin in case the boy chose to do the same to him.
"Huh? WHAT! NO NOT THERE! HELL THE KYŪBI DOESN'T EVEN HAVE ANYTHING THERE!" the young Uzumaki shouted in outrage, earning several uncertain looks from the others in the room.
"NARUTO-BAKA! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EVEN KNOW SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Sakura shouted in anger as she proceeded to punch him in indignation.
"Ow… Sorry Sakura-chan but it's completely… wait, no, it isn't really innocent is it?" the blue eyed genin muttered, earning a few more twitches off the other ninja in the room, "but I only found out because of reading it's mind and learning about its birth!"
Sakura suddenly froze in her position of being ready to punch him again when she registered what he was saying.
"Wait… you know how the Kyūbi was born?" the Hokage asked with wide eyes, earning a nod off the young boy.
"Naruto… shut… up… right… NOW!" immediately everyone in the room found themselves staring at the boy that apparently knew something the Kyūbi didn't want them to know.
"Sorry, but that's the sore spot he has and I'm not going to tell you anymore than that," the whiskered vampire stated with an air of finality.
"Do you really wish to risk disciplinary action for withholding information Uzumaki?" Danzō asked with an air of authority that completely unfazed the blond.
"And what do you plan to do to me? Hold me in a cell for a few years? Try and torture me? Revoke my ninja license?" the spiky haired youth asked with a hint of mockery in his tone, "in case you didn't know, your cells can't hold me, you wouldn't be capable of holding me in place long enough to torture and would you really risk revoking my license when I could easily run off to another village?"
Throughout Naruto's questioning, the bandaged man's eyes narrowed more at each declaration, however it didn't get any further than that.
"Naruto, Danzō, that is enough!" the stern call from the aged leader caused the young boy to freeze, sure he was confident he could overpower everyone there, hell he was capable of stopping Zabuza's blade with no effort at all back when he first got up as a vampire, so it was obvious that his raw strength far surpassed human limitations… on top of that his fukyuuton was an unknown amongst everyone that wasn't a member of team seven so he was certain that would give him an even bigger advantage.
And it wasn't as if he was completely unskilled either, while he may not have been an expert, he had started to learn water transformation through the memories that Zabuza gave him as well as the taijutsu Zabuza employed whenever he was relieved of his sword. Sure he had been primarily a kenjutsu and ninjutsu specialist but that didn't change the fact he was an elite Jōnin and well versed in most methods of shinobi warfare.
"Hiruzen, you know as well as I do that every piece of information has its value," the one eyed veteran stated with a serious expression that was met by one that was just as serious.
"Indeed I do, however Naruto believes that this information is not important enough to discuss with us when it's compared to the personal nature that it obviously holds for the Kyūbi," the Sandaime stated, earning narrowed eyes from his old rival and his teammates.
"With all due respect Hiruzen, a beast like that doesn't deserve such a thing as privacy," Koharu stated calmly before they were bombarded by another volley of words from the very beast they were talking about.
"And you think you're any better? You humans haven't changed have you? You're all still just a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites! You act like I'm a monster for crushing a little bit of your village while you hail the Yondaime for slaughtering thousands of Iwa and Kumo ninja!" the giant fox shouted angrily, causing Naruto to be on the receiving end of several cold glares.
"There is a difference between what the Yondaime did and what you did fox," Homura spat out with obvious distaste for the giant chakra construct.
"You're right… he had a choice while I didn't," once again the room froze and eyes narrowed even further prompting Naruto to explain the situation.
"Kyūbi was being controlled by a sharingan user the night I was born," instantly everyone froze, "hell, from the memories I looked at he was literally ripped out of his last host for the sole purpose of attacking Konoha and forcing the Yondaime to sacrifice himself."
Silence reigned for several seconds as everyone tried to process the information they had just received.
"Are you saying, that the Kyūbi's attack twelve years ago… was nothing more than a plot to kill the Yondaime?" the Sandaime asked with a hint of apprehension in his voice, earning a shrug off the blond.
"I'm not sure but it would at least appear that that was one of the aims," Naruto admitted before letting out a small sigh, "I just don't know enough to say if there were any other reasons outside of killing the Yondaime and damaging Konoha."
"So it really was an Uchiha that caused it…" immediately everyone froze as the Hokage thought something that shouldn't have become known by anyone outside of his advisors.
"What… did you just say?" a certain growl made itself known throughout the room that instantly tenfolded the tension that had already permeated the air.
"Oh, oh, oh, does anyone have popcorn? This is going to be a complete disaster, I can already tell," instantly everyone glared at the blond again as the bijū started to speak at the worst possible time.
"Shut up, or do you want me to call you by your name in front of everyone?" the young vampire asked without a hint of amusement in his tone.
"Grrr… fine."
"Hokage-sama… please, explain, what, you, meant," Sasuke ground out through clenched teeth now that the previous distraction had been dealt with.
"(sigh), fine, we had reason to believe that the Uchiha clan was behind the Kyūbi's attack twelve years ago," the aged leader admitted as calmly as he could while attempting to keep his thoughts clear.
"Because of him being summoned in the middle of the village right?" the whiskered member of the group asked seriously, earning a quartet of nods from the four oldest ninja in the village.
"Unfortunately Naruto is correct, if the Kyūbi had simply rampaged towards the village then it could've simply been that it broke free of the seal but it was summoned into the middle of the village, meaning someone must have been using it," Hiruzen explained to the youngest Uchiha, "and unfortunately, only the Mokuton and Sharingan are known to be capable of controlling it and given the status of the Mokuton…"
"The only option was a sharingan," Sasuke admitted darkly, earning grimaces from the others in the room, "is there anything else you haven't been telling me about my clan?"
"There are some things," the aged leader admitted, knowing that lying could be a potentially disastrous option, "however I am not prepared to tell you the specifics of anything else."
"That is enough, this was supposed to be a simple mission debriefing not a secret swapping party," Homura stated with a serious expression on his haggard face.
"May I be excused Hokage-sama?" instantly everyone in the room realised one thing, whatever respect the last, loyal Uchiha once had for the aged leader had taken a serious blow during that meeting.
"Very well… I suppose you probably need some time alone to think," Hiruzen acknowledged, receiving no response from the dark haired genin before he turned and proceeded to leave the office.
"Huh? Wait? Where's the blood? Don't tell me that's all that's going to happen? I wanted a bloodbath!" and yet again, Naruto was on the receiving end of several glares courtesy of his tenant being an idiot.
"I'm cutting the link now," the spiky haired youth decided before removing everyones ability to listen to the overgrown fox, "and jiji… I'm sorry, I never thought that something like that would happen…"
"That doesn't change the fact that it did," Koharu stated with narrowed eyes, making the blond shrink under the glare that was, for once, actually directed at him as opposed to the fox inside him.
"That is enough Koharu," instantly the old woman looked at the strongest ninja in the village with a firm gaze that did nothing to intimidate the man, "Naruto is still a rookie genin that is yet to learn that every village has secrets that it keeps from even its own ninja, however I will be sure to teach him about that aspect of the shinobi lifestyle when this meeting is over."
"Very well, however I will speak with you about this later Hokage-sama," the aged woman stated with a certain level of respect in her tone, surprising given the more familiar manner that she had spoken to him before.
"And I shall listen to your council then, however for now we've spent enough time dealing with these revelations and I want to hear the official report for the mission to protect the bridge builder Tazuna," the Hokage stated seriously, "then I can decide on an appropriate punishment for Kakashi allowing one of my ninja to die in the field."
Needless to say, Kakashi suddenly found himself wanting to weep at the fact his attempt to distract the aged leader had failed.
"Well… you see…"
XXX XXX XXX
Naruto had to admit, he really felt sorry for his sensei. To think that the Hokage had decided to punish him by confiscating his Icha Icha collection and barring him from the only bookstore in town was a pretty low blow, then again the man was one of the villages best so demotion really didn't do much to him and any other form of punishment was either physical torture (which wasn't good for maintaining the populaces morale) or something that he could easily cop out of by using Kage Bunshin and there really wasn't much that could be done to punish the man.
However none of that was really important right now. For right now Naruto found himself alone in the Hokages office while facing the aged leader.
The ANBU and the old man's advisors had all been ordered to leave however, despite everything that Naruto knew about the Sandaime, he didn't know how the man would react to such a serious breach of security.
"Naruto," the blonde's eyes simply started to look down in shame, out of everyone in the village, the one person that had always been there for him was now talking to him over a matter that he hadn't even thought about until it was too late, "do you understand what you've done?"
"Yes…" the nervous shifting the boy made under the older man's gaze made it very clear that the boy realised he had at the very least done something wrong, however the aged leader wanted to know what the boy thought he had done wrong and ensure that they were on the same page.
"And what did you do wrong?" once again the young boy squirmed under the scrutinising gaze of the strongest ninja in the village.
"I was careless and allowed village secrets into the hands of someone that shouldn't know," the whiskered boy admitted with his head held low.
"Yes, you did," the aged leader agreed, earning a flinch off the genin before him, "that is why, from now onwards you are forbidden from reading the minds of anyone from Konoha."
"Does that include my team?" immediately the robed figure narrowed his eyes at the blonds question before deciding to ask a question instead of simply answer.
"Why are you asking that?" the whiskered child shrunk further under the man's scrutiny.
"I-it's just that… we've probably become closer because of it," the blue eyed genin said nervously.
"And allowed two village secrets to slip in the process," came a cold statement in response, "do you understand what I'm saying Naruto, your ability to read minds is an incredibly dangerous tool that could create serious problems for the village, that is why I am forbidding you from using it."
"But I can only read surface thoughts like that," the blue eyed vampire stated, hoping that the old man wouldn't forbid him from using it completely.
"And look at the damage it has already caused!" Naruto couldn't stop himself from shrinking back upon hearing the aged leader snap at him over his defence, "the knowledge of the Kyūbi has already been shown to be easily passed out when you connect to others and the worst part of all, is that now Sasuke will undoubtedly start questioning his place in this village!"
Naruto quickly found himself feeling more and more upset at the current situation, yes he made mistakes but that didn't mean he couldn't learn from them, that he couldn't practice at making his mind reading powers more powerful, make it possible for him to do things like put in a delay or a censor to stop others from learning things they shouldn't know.
The old man didn't need to completely forbid the action though and that combined with a bit of information he had collected from the bijū inside him made his anger swell and his eyes to take on a blood red hue.
"AND WHAT ABOUT ME?!" immediately the old leader lost his steam as the young blond before him shouted at question he didn't understand, "all my life, all my life I've doubted my place in this village! Every morning in front of the mirror I kept asking myself 'why do they hate me? What have I ever done to them to make them hate me so much?'! Every morning I was left wondering if my parents had abandoned me! Wondering if anyone ever loved me!"
"And then this happens… and I find out you've been lying to my face all my life! You always denied knowing why the people hated me! You always lied whenever I asked if you knew who my parents were!" and now Sarutobi found himself growing cold, he had already suspected that Naruto knew about his parents after discovering the boy had invaded the Kyūbi's mind, however he certainly didn't expect the boy to explode like this.
"So tell me, is the reason you're forbidding me from reading minds because it's dangerous for the village… or is it just because it's dangerous for you?" Naruto found himself finishing in a cold tone as he stared at the aged leader in front of him, his mind already open to the older man's thoughts and immediately identifying the problem.
"So you're just a coward trying to hide from your mistakes huh?" the red eyed genin asked before letting out a sigh of displeasure, "you know I used to respect you but now…"
"Naruto, I understand what you are saying however there is something you need to realise," Sarutobi stated seriously, "while I may be covering up my mistakes, it is because those mistakes could put the village in danger if they got out."
"That doesn't change the fact that you're being a coward about it," Naruto told the older of the two who simply closed his eyes and took a calming breath.
"And what makes you think that?" Hiruzen asked, deciding that it was best to see exactly why the young boy believed what he did and address the issues directly.
"Because instead of letting me train and learn how to make my ability more selective, you're just ordering me to stop," the vampiric child stated with a cold tone.
"Because you are not authorized to know most of these secrets," the strongest ninja in the village stated seriously, making the blonds eyes narrow even further.
"So you want it that way then… fine, from now on, I won't read anyone's mind," the spiky haired youth finally relented, earning a slight softening of the older man's expression, "and you will leave me alone unless it's to assign a mission to my team."
That statement caught the old man off guard, he had never expected the young boy to attempt to sever his ties with him, the boy had essentially been like a surrogate grandson to him over the past decade or so, to find out that the boy wanted nothing to do with him anymore was surprising to say the least.
"Naruto," the white robed leader stated with a sigh before he found himself cut off again.
"That's Genin Uzumaki to you, Hokage-sama," the masked child stated seriously, "if you aren't prepared to trust me then I'm not prepared to treat you as anything more than a superior officer."
"I see, then I suppose I should give you an actual punishment for allowing village secrets to be passed on," the aged leader stated with an air of finality, hoping that such an action would cause the boy to reconsider.
"And what do you plan on doing? Execute me? I don't know if it'll work given that I'm already dead," the spiky haired youth stated with an unseen grin.
"Maybe not, but I can do something like I did with Kakashi to you," the Sandaime stated calmly, "how would you like to be incapable of eating ramen ever again?"
"Fine," the shock that appeared on the old man's face made the blond smirk, obviously the man had never considered the possibility that he wouldn't argue, "after all, I don't need to eat anymore, I'd just advise that you supply me with a regular supply of blood or you might find yourself down a few villagers."
"Is that a threat?" the coldness in the Kage's voice would've made Naruto flinch if he had been warm blooded, however since he wasn't he didn't.
"No, just a statement, after all, just because I don't need to eat doesn't mean I don't need to feed," the casual manner in which the blond made his claim actually made the old man's blood run cold, "now if that's all, I think I'll be leaving now, Hokage-sama."
"Na- genin Uzumaki, if you ever prove yourself to be a danger to this village, I will deal with you, do you understand?" the Hokage stated with the utmost seriousness in his voice.
"If I'm ever a threat to this village, it'll be because you made me one," the still red eyed genin stated as he reached halfway towards the door before he finally left the room and the aged leader behind.
"Dammit… why does he have to be so hard headed?" and with that the strongest ninja in the village put his palms on his face as he tried to suppress the headache he had developed during his latest, incredibly stressful meeting.