Chapter 3 - A Secret Revealed.
[Konohagakure]
Naruto was quite surprised to fing his apartment completely untouched. He thought for sure that some of the crazy villagers would have come here to ransack the room and then burn it down, yet here it was, nothing out of place except for a little dust. He went through the fridge and found that everything had expired years ago from both on the labels and the smell of, for lack of a better comparison, death. While he could have gone to buy groceries, he decided on a different solution for the time being. He left his apartment and headed to the one restaurant he had missed since he left Konoha: Ichiraku Ramen. He walked into the stand and sat down at his usual spot. Memories of all the times he had come here to enjoy a good bowl of ramen flooded his mind as he anticipated tasting the finest ramen in all of the shinobi world.
"Hello and welcome to Ichira- Naruto, you're back! Dad, come here and see this," Ayame said as she went outside and hugged Naruto; her father came out from the kitchen at the mention of Naruto's name.
"Well I'll be, it's good to see you again Naruto. I'll be honest, I thought I wasn't going to see you again," Teuchi said, as Ayame pulled away from Naruto and went back inside.
"You know I can't be parted from your ramen forever," Naruto said flashing his trademark smile at them as he ordered pork ramen.
When Naruto got out the chopsticks and slurped up the first bit of ramen, he let out a sigh of happiness. It was still as good as it was when he had left Konoha; it tasted a lot better when one remembers he's been deprived of this ramen for so long. In Hueco Mundo, Naruto had to eat whatever he could find, not an easy thing considering the lack of anything alive there. As for something to drink, tea was provided by Aizen….. most of the time. After a large amount of ramen consumption Naruto decided to head back to the apartment and rest up for tomorrow. As he lay in bed, Naruto thought of the best way to unveil his new abilities tomorrow at the Academy. The thoughts of all the shocked faces brought a smile to his face.
"Tomorrow everyone will learn that I'm the top guy now," Naruto thought to himself before he fell now asleep.
The next day...
Naruto woke up and put back on his outfit before he walked out the door. As he made his way to the Academy he noticed that he was still getting ugly looks from some of the villagers; the looks didn't improve when he got to the Academy. Some of the parents saw Naruto only as a monster that the Yondaime merely weakened for the people of the village to finish off; the only Naruto thought that he had regarding this was how sweet it would feel when the stares would change, eventually. Not everyone stared at him with hatred in their eyes as there were some friendly faces in the mix; those faces were the families of Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba, whom Naruto had spent a lot of time with before he left for Las Noches. A few minutes before the tests began Naruto made his way into the classroom and took his seat; he looked to his left and saw Sasuke, who was still seething after what happened yesterday.
"I'm goning to embarrass you in front of the entire academy, you loser," Sasuke thought to himself as he ignored the usual screeching from his fan girls.
Sakura, one these fangirls, decided to get on Sasuke's good side… by pushing Naruto around.
"You might as well quit, baka. Sasuke is the best and you can compete with him; for all we know, your training didn't help you at all, so why don't you just leave before you end up embarrassing yourself," Sakura said as she hit Naruto in the back of the head. Bad idea. Naruto's face was planted to his desk as a result; even though Naruto did hit the desk pretty hard it didn't break since Sakura didn't have that kind of strength yet. Naruto looked up from his desk, straightened his back, took a deep breath, and stood up.
A few moments later...
Iruka was very excited to see how his students fared in the tests. He had trained them well and silently wished the best of luck to them. He was even more excited, though, to see how powerful Naruto had become; Iruka had tried to look out for Naruto when he was still here and treated him like a brother. Iruka opened the door and stood in front of the class.
"Good morning class; I just wanted to say I'm proud of all of you for making it this far and I think tha- OH KAMI! Sakura what happened to your face?!" Iruka yelled as he looked over at a bruised Sakura.
After Sakura had smacked Naruto, Naruto simply smirked and punched her in her face, causing her to hit the floor. Hard. Using one and a half percent of his strength. After Sakura didn't move for a while Naruto picked her up and sat her in her desk before he proceeded to gently shake her until she regained consciousness. When Sakura came to, however, the pain of Naruto's attack attack hit her so fast that she would have screamed in pain if Naruto hadn't covered her mouth with his hand. After he whispered something in her ear he removed his hand; Sakura decided to stay quiet until Iruka came in. Sakura now looked at Naruto, who looked back at her allowing Iruka to make the connection; he decided not to say anything about it, however, as he figured Sakura probably said or did something that was stupid enough to force Naruto to respond like this.
"Naruto punched her in the face and she fell on the floor," A random student from the class said to the Chunin.
"Is That so? We'll about this after talk after the exams, Naruto," Iruka said as Naruto gave a nod in understanding.
Naruto and his fellow classmates took a series of different tests to test their skills, ranging from Jutsus to use of weapons; though the jutsu that the students usually demonstrated was the Clone Jutsu, Naruto was allowed to demonstrate an alternative technique due to the unique cirumstances surrounding his training. The final test would the combat skills portion; the students would spar with each other to show their fighting skills. In the first match Choji fought Kiba, if you can call sitting on Kiba for the entire match fighting. The next match was between Sakura and Shikamaru but the match was called a draw after a while due to Sakura's face being sore as well Shikamaru's laziness. In the next match Hinata defeated Ino with her clan's Gentle Fist attacks; after the match ended Hinata looked over at Naruto to see if he watched her. Naruto looked back at her and gave her a smile and nod, causing Hinata to blush on the outside and to jump up and down in he rmind. After a few other other fights Sasuke and Naruto's little spar, if you wanted to call it that, was next. Almost all of the girls were, not surprisingly, cheering for Sasuke, with Hinata the only exception. Naruto walked out into the little grass area where the spar would take place; before the match began Naruto unsheathed his zanpakuto and stuck it in the ground which, to those who knew him in Las Noches, meant that he would fight the opponent in question but still saw him/her as a waste of his time.
"I'm gonna crush you loser, and prove that you are what we all know you as… a dead last," Sasuke said as got screams of approval from the fan girls and a raised eye brow from Naruto.
"Is that so? Well then, why don't I make your victory a little bit easier, ow great Uchiha," Naruto mockingly said to which Sasuke responded by looking at him with a frown.
"And how do plan to you do that?" Sasuke asked as Naruto held up one arm and put it behind his back.
(Rocker1600 Note: Moderate editing from the original begins)
"I will give you an advantage. One hand… no, one finger is all I will use for this spar. Sound good to you?" Naruto said smirking, while the Uchiha just frowned. Naruto closed his free hand into a fist, save for his index finger.
"Do what you want you'll still lose no matter what," Sasuke said as readied himself for a fight.
"Ready? Begin!" Iruka said.
Sasuke made the first move when he chargrf at Naruto; Sasuke threw a right hook but was dodged by Naruto who sidestepped the punch. Sasuke then tried a body kick, which Naruto easily evaded. Sasuke kept using attack after attack, but nothing connected. Then, Sasuke nailed Naruto in the chin with an uppercut. Everyone held their breath, thinking the Uchiha had finally won the fight. Chuckling broke the silence, which then turned in to all out laughter. It was coming from Naruto, which enraged Sasuke.
"Are you serious? That's it? I gotta say, I knew you were weak, but this is pathetic," Naruto said as he looked at the Uchiha.
"Why you-" Sasuke said before Naruto placed his finger on Sasuke's chest. Before Sasuke could react, Naruto used his finger to push Sasuke back. Naruto had applied enough force to send Sasuke flying back to the academy building; when Sasuke landed on the wall of the building, the amount of force Naruto had used caused Sasuke to go right through the wall, leaving a noticeable hole. The fan girls immediately crowded an unconscious Uchiha while Naruto picked up his sword, sheathed it and walked away with a wide smile. As he was about to go back inside to receive his headband, Iruka stopped him.
"Naruto, I'm sure Sakura did something or said something stupid, but please have better control over your attacks from now on; that goes for this little display as well," Iruka said as he got a nod from Naruto.
"Don't worry, that was just so she knew not to hit me again; as for Sasuke, I actually held back….. a lot," Naruto said with a grin as he walked back to the Academy.
Despite the angry looks from some of the villagers, Naruto was more than satisfied with becoming a full-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Naruto was on his way home when he saw Hinata walking home with her father Hiashi.
"Hey Hinata, congratulations on becoming a shinobi," Naruto said; he chuckled in the back of the mind as he saw Hinata blush.
"Um… th-thank you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said while her father, Hiashi, just smiled at the two.
"Congratulations to you two. I hope that you and my daughter will do great things for Konoha," said Hiashi, as Naruto nodded at him.
"We will. I've gotta go now, so I'll see you around, Hinata," said Naruto, walking away as Hinata waved goodbye. Hiashi simply looked at the young Naruto.
"I don't know what you did for her, but I thank you for it; though she still has a long way to go, you helped her gain some confidence in herself," Hiashi thought to himself before he and Hinata continued to walk home.
(Rocker1600 Note: Moderate editing form the original ends)
Naruto made his way back to his apartment and found a note pinned to the door when he arrived.
Naruto, I want to congratulate you on becoming a shinobi. I have something I wanted to talk to you about; think of it as a reward for becoming a shinobi. Meet me at the Hokage Tower after reading this note.
Signed,
The Third Hokage
Naruto then used a flash step to get to the Hokage Tower. Sarutobi was waiting for him at the top of the tower, smoking his usual pipe; he nearly dropped his pipe in shock when Naruto appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
"You got here fast. How'd you do that?" Sarutobi asked, surprised by how fast the boy could move.
"It's a technique called a flash step; it's one of the things I learned at Las Noches. Anyways, what did you want to talk to me about?" Naruto asked as he folded his arms.
"Naruto, have you ever wondered about who your parents might be?" asked Sarutobi, getting a raised eyebrow from Naruto.
"Sometimes. I always thought that my parents died during the Kyubi's attack; after I earned the Kyubi's trust I tried asking him about my parents to see if he knew but he's been very reluctant to tell me," Naruto said while taking note of the fact that Sarutobi's eyes widen in shock.
"How did you find out about the Kyubi?" Sarutobi asked as he had made it clear that it was forbidden to mention the Kyubi's presence within Naruto to the boy.
"Aizen, the man who helped train me, told me," Naruto calmly to which Hiruzen did a facepalm; he had forgotten that he had not mentioned this rule to the two men who had taken Naruto with them seven years ago.
"I see… well your parents did die during the Kyuubi attack, but your father is the one who sealed the Kyubi in you, to protect the village," Sarutobi said as he saw that Naruto was looking at him as if he had two heads.
"That's impossible. That would mean that my dad is-," Naruto said before Sarutobi finished the sentence for him.
"The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze," Sarutobi said; Naruto's face was suddenly with feelings of shock, then happiness, and then anger, which Sarutobi had expected…to an extent.
"My own father…sealed the Kyubi inside me," Naruto said as he clenched his fists.
"I thought you might react that way, but you have to understand that he had faith that you would one day be able to control it, which you have. And I can promise you that your father truly did care about and would not have done it if he didn't have a good reason to," Sarutobi said he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder; this revelation helped calm Naruto calm down.
"That makes since, and I guess being the son of the Yondaime makes up for it," Naruto said; Sarutobi smiled at seeing how much Naruto had matured since he left.
"I have something I want to show you. Follow me," Sarutobi said before leading Naruto out of the Hokage Tower.
He led him to the Namikaze Estate, which was located about a half a mile outside of Konoha; the place was, needless to say, enormous, as it was twice as big as the Hyuga estate. Naruto saw that the place was surrounded by a barrier, with a blood seal on the front door keeping it intact.
"Go ahead, release the seal," Sarutob saidi to which Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto placed his hand on the seal, which quickly deactivated the barrier; Naruto was a little bit shocked that it worked.
"So is this place mine now?" Naruto asked to which as Sarutobi nodded.
"Yes, but let's not move in yet. Ir's best for us to make sure that everyone knows you're the son of the Fourth before getting comfortable in your birthright," Sarutobi explained; Naruto nodded in agreement.
"That sounds fair to me. Thanks for showing me this, old man," Naruto said as he hugged the old kage.
"I knew you were strong enough to know the truth now," Sarutobi said as he broke off the hug and walked back to the tower.
I hope you're watching me dad, because your son is about to become the greatest shinobi of all time," Naruto as he looked one last time at the estate before reactivating the barrier.
Next Time – Teams and Problems