AN: Hello, it's me again! If someone is wondering about the regularity of updates, well... It mostly depends on how much I find that distracts me from writing, or if I get stuck. The only thing I can really promise is that I will try to update once a week, as long as people stay interested in what I write of course.

Review Response:

God-ShadowEx100: Your comment doesn't have anything to do with my story as far as I can tell. Naruto is eight at the moment, a kid with other words, he haven't even started fighting anyone. Also he won't be as keen on 'saving the world' with words, he will still dislike killing, preferring to solve things with different means, but he will still kill people if he figures there's no other way. And your comment about the girls also have no basis, however the hatred you feel towards Hinata and the fact you'd actually wish for her to be raped, even though there's people who kill themselves after being subjected to that, makes me believe you should probably find a psychiatrist so you won't do something you can't take back.

I do not own Naruto

Secrets and Dreams

Five blurs rapidly made their way towards the massive gates of Konoha as the evening started to drift in, when they were fairly close the group slowed down as not to spook the guards. Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, The Eternal Chūnin Duo, was standing guard as usual with Kotetsu looking bored and Izumo just relaxing at the easy job. Both jerked to attention when the group appeared 250 meters away, they relaxed when they noticed the unmistakable Hokage robes and hat as well as the masks of Konoha ANBU.

"Welcome back Hokage-sama." Izumo said when the group reached the gate and he reached for the papers to verify the group's identities. "You are here earlier than expected, I trust the meeting went well?"

"Thank you, Izumo-kun, and yes, the meeting went well. Did anything unusual happen in the village during my absence?" The aged Hokage asked with a small smile.

"No, things have been quiet." Kotetsu said with a sigh, not that he disliked when things were peaceful, but it was just so boring.

"Heh, well let's hope things stay that way." The Hokage said with a chuckle. "Well I must be going. Have a nice evening, Izumo-kun, Kotetsu-kun." He said as he started walking through the gates. He made his way towards the poorer parts of Konoha with a light frown on his face.

'The council really shouldn't have been allowed to place Naruto-kun here… This area is not fit for a child that young to live in alone. Damn you Tobirama! You should never have allowed them this much freedom.' He thought with a sigh. He kept walking and nodded his head in acknowledgement to the smiles and greetings he received from the villagers. He reached Naruto's apartment complex and made his way up the stairs, when he reached the top of the stairs he froze and almost stopped breathing. The door was still broken down and there was even more graffiti than when Naruto left. The Hokage entered the apartment and started to frantically look for clues that Naruto was all right.

'This can't be happening! How could things go this far? Naruto-kun… Please be okay…' He thought while looking around. He found no tracks that indicated had been there for a while and he was growing more and more frantic. 'Wait. I need to calm down, the crystal ball, I can use it to find where Naruto-kun is!' And with that thought he hurried towards the Hokage Tower. Unlike before he rushed over the roofs to avoid traffic and attention, when he reached the tower he entered his office and barely acknowledged his secretary when she told him it was good to see him. As he rushed to his desk and pulled out the crystal ball and focused on Naruto's chakra signature several thoughts ran through his head, making him more and more worried. There were so many possibilities of what could have happened, he could have been kidnapped, he could be dead, or starving in a ditch, forced to rummage through the garbage looking for food or maybe Tortured! Maybe even worse! Maybe he was… Cutting vegetables? The old man blinked, and then blinked again. He studied the crystal ball a bit longer before coming to the conclusion that yes, Naruto was indeed cutting vegetables together with what seemed to be one of his Elite Jōnin, that was not what he was expecting, but damn if it wasn't a much better option he thought with a smile.

Akira's house some time later

Naruto and Akira had sat down to eat while having some small talk. After a while there was a sound similar to that of bells signaling that there was someone at the gate. Akira stood up and walked over to the door before channeling chakra into a crystal ball in the wall next to the door and an identical crystal on top of the gate started to shine. When the image between the two crystals connected she had to blink several times, there, standing outside the gates was the elderly Hokage himself. She stood frozen for a second before swiping some blood on a seal to open the gate and opened the door and waited for the man to reach it.

"Hokage-sama" She said with a respectful nod once he was close enough.

"There's no need to be so formal Akira-kun." He said with a smile.

"Jiji, is that you? You're back?" Sounded Naruto's excited voice from the kitchen followed by rapid footsteps and soon a grinning Naruto was standing there. The Hokage smiled at the boy.

"Hello Naruto-kun, how are you doing today?" He asked. "No problem at the academy I hope.

"Hi Jiji! I'm fine, but the academy is boring. All we have now is a bunch reading and to learn to access our chakra along with chakra control." Naruto said with a grimace. "It's really boring, chakra is cool and all but we haven't gotten to learn a jutsu yet, so we can't even use it"

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, you will begin learning the three academy jutsus after the Christmas vacation, along with taijutsu. I think you will find that a bit more interesting." Hiruzen said with a chuckle. Akira had stood by and watched the interaction up until this point decided to cut in.

"We were about to eat just now, and there's enough for you if you'd like to join us?" She offered.

"Oh! Yeah, come on Jiji! We made Sukiyaki, and I helped so it's awesome, dattebayo!" Naruto said at that and ran back towards the kitchen. The two adults looked at him as he ran away with an amused expression.

"Well, I had intended to take him out for ramen so I haven't eaten yet, so if it's fine with you I'd be glad to join." Hiruzen said looking at Akira.

"You're very welcome to eat with us, like I said." She said with a smile before adding. "In fact it's an honor to have the God of Shinobi over for dinner." With that both chuckled went and sat down at the table. Dinner passed pretty quickly with Naruto describing what Akira had been teaching him and how boring the academy was right now with the Hokage listening with amused attention. However after they had eaten there was a question that needed to be answered.

"Naruto-kun, before I came here I visited your apartment." Hiruzen started and Naruto seemed to freeze for a second. "Could you tell me what happened?" He said with concern. Naruto was silent for a while before answering.

"I don't know. I got chased by some drunks on my birthday and had to run, the ANBUs that was watching didn't stop them so I had to try and loose them in one of the training fields. I managed to do that, but when I got back to my apartment it was destroyed. That's when I met Akira and she let me stay here until it could be fixed." He said, a bit sad now that the apartment would be fixed. Hiruzen had an angry and sad look on his face, he hadn't thought it would get this bad just because he wasn't around. But Naruto wasn't completely done yet, there was something he wanted an answer to as well.

"Hey Jiji… Why do they hate me so much? What did I ever do to them? It can't be my pranks, because they hated me before I even started with them… Do you know why they act like this?" Naruto said with a small and sad voice. The anger on Hiruzen's face disappeared and the sadness got more noticeable, as he opened his mouth to say he didn't know Akira suddenly interrupted him.

"Hey brat, I need to talk to Hokage-sama for a bit. Could you wait in your room for a short while?" She said while looking at Hiruzen. Naruto looked between them a few times before nodding and running off. When they heard the door close she opened her mouth.

"He deserves to know." She said without ever breaking eye contact with the old man. He just sighed and rubbed his temples before answering.

"I don't to burden him with the truth yet, he deserves a normal childhood. I don't want him to believe he is what he contains." He said, he had had this discussion before. Akira just gave a bitter laugh.

"It's too late for that old man. Your law forbids people from assaulting him or telling the kids about the truth, but it doesn't stop them from giving him names or telling their kids to stay away from him. Face it, your plan failed. He has no friends, and the teachers except Iruka ignore him at the academy. All his things were destroyed so he had to replace them. Apparently his jumpsuit cost as much as what all his new clothes, books, kunai and shuriken set cost together, meaning that they overprice everything he buys. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what made him love ramen so much, they are the only place that don't overcharge him in that area." She said while looking at the old man. There was shame in his eyes. She sighed before continuing. "Look, sooner or later he will figure it out, either by connecting the dots or someone will finally break your law where he can hear it. You know as well as me that it's just a matter of time. Who do you think he'd rather hear it from? Someone he cares for, or someone who will make it sound like he's the Kyūbi reborn."

Hiruzen could see the truth in that. He knew it was just a matter of time before something happened, but he still didn't want to tell him yet. But could he really afford to wait? If he did the damage could be severe, and how much time did he have before the truth got out, and what form would the truth come in? And another question that he couldn't ignore was there as well, would Naruto forgive him for keeping it a secret?

Akira could see the various emotions flickering across his face, she wasn't 100% sure this would be the best thing either, but she didn't think they could afford to keep the truth from the boy much longer anyway, since the results could be much worse.

"You can't delay it much further. This time it wasn't some angry words or a hate filled glares, they tried to attack him and trashed his apartment. You can't be certain you won't have to leave the village again for some reason, and that time it might not end as lucky as this time did." She said after a while. Hiruzen looked torn for a few minutes before closing his eyes with a sigh. He gave a weary nod to show that he agreed. Akira nodded and stood up and went to get Naruto. When she returned with Naruto he couldn't help but notice the rather tense atmosphere in the air which made him nervous. Hiruzen took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Naruto-kun. There is something you should know. I will start with a simple question, how much do you know about the Kyūbi?" Hiruzen said after a while.

"Huh? Umm… Not much. It attacked 8 years ago and the Yondaime Hokage killed it, but he also died because of it." Naruto said a bit confused with the question.

"I'm afraid that is not entirely correct. You see, the kyūbi is a being known as a bijū, and a bijū cannot be killed because they are just a mass of chakra with a conscience, even if you manage to destroy them they will just reform after a while." Hiruzen said.

"Huh? But if that's true then how is Konoha still here? Wouldn't kyūbi have destroyed it when he came back?" Naruto said but he was starting to have a bad feeling when he remembered some things he had heard. 'Monster, murderer, demon brat.' Hiruzen's heart clenched when he saw the growing fear in the boys eyes, but continued.

"The only way to stop a bijū is by sealing it, however, the kyūbi is the strongest bijū and cannot be sealed into a lifeless object, it must be sealed into a living person, one young enough to adapt to its malicious chakra, the younger the better." When Hiruzen said that it all fell into place for Naruto, the reason he was hated and why it always got worse on his birthdays as well as the seal on his stomach.

"My birthday is October 10… The same day that kyūbi attacked… I'm the kyūbi…" He said with a low and sad voice. Hiruzen opened his mouth to deny it, but Akira was quicker.

"Don't be an idiot brat. I would never have let you into my house if I believed there was even a chance that you were the kyūbi." She said with a glare. Naruto flinched and her face softened. "Hey, Naruto. Remember how I stored your things when I went shopping for you?" She asked with a kind voice. When Naruto nodded she kept going. "I stored them in a scroll. You remember how I unsealed the items and then sealed them again right? Did the scroll ever change?"

Naruto thought about it for a while, the scroll had been the same, right? Nothing really changed even though the items inside was bigger than the scroll itself. Akira saw Naruto was calming down and continued with the explanation.

"You are the scroll, the kyūbi is the item sealed inside you. In a way the kyūbi is a prisoner and you are the prison and its warden. Don't ever let anyone convince you otherwise." She said as she pulled him into a hug. Naruto was tense at first, the only hugs he had gotten was the ones he initiated with the old man. But he quickly relaxed and hugged back, he liked the feeling. Naruto just stood there, trying to figure out what he was feeling, and the adults seemed to be fine waiting until he took the initiative. After standing there for about 5 minutes he spoke.

"If I'm not the kyūbi, why does everybody hate me?" He said. Both Hiruzen and Akira sighed at that.

"Because there's a saying. A person is smart, but people are stupid. After the kyūbi's attack everyone was scared and in a state of panic, when they found out the kyūbi was sealed inside of you some people saw you as the beast reborn. And because of their fear others started to think the same, and this just kept repeating itself until the majority thought the same thing." Hiruzen said with a sad voice. "The Yondaime wanted you to be seen as a hero, but as you can see, that did not happen." Naruto looked even sadder at that. How was he ever going to be Hokage if everyone saw him as the kyūbi?

"So I'm never going to be accepted? They will always hate me?" He said with tears in his eyes. Akira tightened her arms around him a little bit before answering.

"You will. The same rule works in reverse as well. The more people that manage to think for themselves instead of listening to the majority the faster this will spread as well. And it's already started, you got Iruka, Teuchi and Ayame, the old man and me. Also didn't you say there are several ANBU that usually help you? I doubt they see you as the kyūbi either. It might take years, but keep this in mind. Whose opinion really matters? The random people on the street, or the ones you actually know that care for you?" She said as she removed his arms and took his hands before kneeling down to make eye contact and gave him a small smile. After a while Naruto returned the smile and got a little happier. He now knew why people didn't like him, and it was something really big and really hard to swallow, but he also knew that there are those that know the truth and didn't care. In a weird way, it was better than not knowing you had a giant monster fox that almost destroyed your home sealed in your gut. When Naruto looked a bit better Akira stood up still holding his hands.

"Are you okay now? Or is there something you want me to try and explain a bit more in depth?" She said while making calming movements with her thumbs on the back of his hands. Naruto thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion he didn't have any more questions, which was weird, he felt like he should have tons of question. But right now, all he wanted was to take his time to really come to terms with the fact he had a monster fox sealed inside him. So he just shook his head after a while.

"Okay. Do you want to sit down? Maybe watch some TV while you sort things out? Sometimes distractions are actually helpful, it keeps you from thinking too hard on things." She said with a small smile. Naruto also smiled before nodding, a distraction might actually be just what he needed.

The trio sat down in the living room and just talked about small things while watching the TV, no one really registering what was really happening on it. However as it got late, Hiruzen had to leave, the Hokage couldn't be away from his office all the time, no matter how much he would like to he joked. As he was standing up to leave he had one thing left to say.

"Naruto-kun, I will start working on having your apartment fixed. It should only take about a week before it's done." Hiruzen said. At these words Naruto started looking down, in a week he would be alone again. He wasn't even sure he would be able to meet Akira again either. Said person noticed the change in Naruto's mood and quickly realized the reason. She lightly bit her lower lip before thinking the situation through.

'I don't really think the kid being alone this soon after the bomb would be a good idea. There must be some other options.' She thought with a frown as she tried to think about what to do. 'Hokage-sama would be glad to have him, but if it was that simple he would have taken him in years ago. Probably something about the Hokage not being allowed to play favorites, and I know they keep putting stops in Kakashi's attempts to get custody of him… If only he was a ninja already, then the old man would be able to do so much more for him without the council's involvement.' Then a thought struck her and she blinked.

She owned the land her house was built on, she had saved the money from her S ranks to be able to buy it. She basically had clan status here except she wasn't allowed a seat on the ninja council. And if she had the Hokage's permission she could take him in as a student of sorts, making it a ninja matter and putting him under the Hokage's direct supervision, and since she wasn't in an actual clan she didn't have to worry about any political backlash either. And she kinda liked having him around, he made things interesting and less quiet around the house, and training him would actually give her something to do when she was bored. Having decided she should at least put the offer up for consideration she nodded.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but I might be able to offer another option." She said, grabbing the old man's attention. "I've kinda grown used to having him around, and if he's fine with it I could let him stay here, with your permission of course." Naruto's face shot up and he had a hopeful look in his eyes as he looked over at the old man. Hiruzen looked sad for a moment as he opened his mouth.

"As an orphan, Naruto falls under the civilian councils supervision, the-" He started before being interrupted.

"Actually, since I own the land here I pretty much got clan status even if I don't have a spot on the council. If you were to give me permission to train him that would make him a ninja prospect instead of a civilian academy student giving you control of what happens to him." Akira cut in. The old man blinked once, twice, before a grin started spreading on his face. He had completely forgotten about land owners having certain rights.

"Hmm, I had forgotten about that, the rights of a land owner are very rarely brought up after all. Well if that's the case there's only one thing left." He said as he turned his head to make eye contact with Naruto. "Naruto-kun, would you like to go back to your apartment, or stay with Akira-kun?" He asked with a smile, already knowing what the boy would answer, as his face threatened to split in half because of the huge smile he had.

"Do even you even have to ask, dattebayo?! Of course I want to stay with Akira!" He yelled happily, if there was one thing he had always hated it was coming home to find his apartment empty. Now he had a chance to never have to feel that emptiness again, even if Akira wasn't home it would still be different! "You will really let me stay?!"

"It's like I said, you've kinda grown on me" She said with a shrug, even though her lips curled into a smile. "And it might actually be interesting to teach you a few things now that I got time to properly tort- I mean train you." She had a slightly evil glint in her eyes at the last statement, she remembered how much her body hurt when she developed her own taijutsu style, oh yes, this would be fun indeed. Hiruzen had to fight down his own smirk at that, he remembered his own training under Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei as well, and it was always fun to watch the hopeful ninjas squirm when they realized it was more to being a ninja than 'cool jutsus'. Coughing to banish that thought to the back of his mind he went back to the business at hand.

"Well if both parties are in agreement, I see no reason to object. You have my permission to take care of Naruto-kun." He said with a smile as he thought about the council's reaction when they realized they had been one-upped by the young jōnin. His smile grew a bit bigger, he would have to bring a camera to preserve the moment. He said goodbye and started walking towards the Hokage Tower.

'That went much better than I expected. I'm happy for you, Naruto-kun.' He thought with a smile.

Back at the house Akira and Naruto was still watching TV and small talking. Naruto had taken to sitting right next to her while talking since he liked the body heat, it was pretty obvious that since he was always alone he cherished any kind of positive human contact and Akira didn't seem to mind the eight year old sitting so close anyway. This went on for a few hours before Naruto nodded off, having leaned up against Akira in his sleep. She kept watching for a time before she was starting to nod off as well. Deciding it was late she picked Naruto up and carried him to his room, thinking it was best to let him sleep. Once she put him down on the bed and pulled the comforter over him she straightened up and began to walk away, however she stopped and turned when she heard a soft whimper. Naruto's forehead was creased and his lips were pressed together into a thin line, it would seem he was having a nightmare.

'Not surprising considering what we told him I guess.' She thought while eying the sleeping boy for a while, he had been fine until she started leaving. 'Is it because he doesn't want to be alone right now? It's worth a shot at least.' With that thought she went back to the bed and lay down on top of the bed, not bothering getting underneath the comforter. As if drawn towards her body heath the boys small arm wrapped around her stomach and pulled he pulled himself closer to her, his features easing up almost instantly. She looked at him for a while before putting her arm under her head as a makeshift pillow and closed her eyes and started drifting off to sleep.

Naruto's dream

He had been comfortable, but then it felt like a presence left and the whole world changed. He was standing in a world of darkness except for a white area where he was standing, his shadow was stretched on the floor in front of him. He could see shadows morphing, taking human shapes. He knew who they were, they were the people who hated him. They stood there glaring at him with fear, distrust, disgust, and hatred, so much hatred. They were everywhere, as far as he could see. He could see his shadow shifting as whispers could be heard from all around him.

Monster!

"How can the Hokage let that thing stay?!" he heard as his shadow seemed to morph, taking a more animalistic appearance as he clenched his fists.

Demon!

"He should be banished, he can't be allowed to endanger us anymore!" his knuckles turned white as he clenched harder and his shadow turned into a fox with nine tails and started growing.

Murderer!

"It should be executed! It doesn't deserve to exist!" his shadow grew larger, and the mouth shifted into a huge sharp toothed grin as his hands started shaking and bleeding from his palms.

The Kyūbi no Kitsune!

He could hear a booming laughter, dripping with hatred and power as his shadow grew enormous and he felt cold.

Then the presence came back, and other figures started to appear, standing right behind him.

The old man, wearing his Hokage robes and hat with a grandfatherly smile, who had always let him stay in his office if he was bored, who had always supported his dream and never made fun of it.

Teuchi and Ayame, who had always fed him and made him feel welcome no matter if he could afford to pay them right away for his ramen.

Iruka-sensei, the only one in the academy who would always help him if he asked, even if his lessons are boring.

A man with gravity defying gray hair and a dog mask together with 3 other masked figures, who always helped him whenever he was in trouble.

A scarred man in a black trench coat who looked at him with something resembling respect when he met his eyes.

And then Akira, whom he'd only met by chance. She had taught him how to cook, about seals and how to tell when he was being ripped off. And now she had offered to teach him to be a ninja and allowed him to live with her.

As the figures behind him smiled at him, he felt a warmth spread in his stomach. The people around him faded until only the ones smiling was left, and his shadow morphed, until it was his own again.

He smiled and tried to get closer to the warming presence. The rest of his dreams a lot happier than before.

AN: This one was a lot harder to write, since I wanted to get the whole Kyūbi part over with and have Naruto start training seriously so I can catch up to canon. I probably forced it to go along, however seeing how well he handled the news in canon with MIZUKI telling him the truth, it should be possible for him to take things this well.

Next chapter will probably speed things up a bit so we can get to graduation. Until next time! Bye!