a/n- Hello people! Some shit has been happening in my life lately.

Good news first- My vacation just started! Hooray!

The bad news- I happened to be running for joy because my vacations have begun and then- BAM! The next thing I know, I am on the ground, people asking me if I'm okay, and oddly enough, some red fluid pouring from my chin and tiny leaks from some other parts.

And that's how I ended up with 3 stitches on my chin, a swollen lip, two really bruised up palms and a hell of an injection. Great way to start off the vacation right?. Whoever thought that a simple fall from ground level would cause so much pain!

Oh, and in case you are worried if I'm gonna reduce my update speed/chapter length, you are right in worrying. Those two will be reduced, but hopefully, not too much.

Well... at least I can take cool selfies of myself and... Tell strangers that I got those scars while fighting off an evil bandit to protect a pussy cat! Yeah, I can do that!

Ah, enough of my personal life. Let the chapter Begin!

Konoha's Orange Maelstrom

Chapter 5

In Konohagakure no Sato, inside a certain apartment, Uzumaki Naruto was starting to wake up from la-la-land. He had gone to sleep really late the night before because all he could do lying in the bed was think about how awesome it would be for the great Kurama to train him! However, coming back to the present, the poor academy student was totally out of the loop.

"Ugh... Morning already?"

This is the dialogue he says almost everyday he has to go to the academy.

'Wait... Academy...'

That was when the situation struck Naruto.

"Oh shit! I'm going to be late for class! Iruka-sensei is going to be really pissed off!"

With that Naruto brushed his teeth, took a bath, ate his breakfast (which was cup ramen of course), got dressed, and he was out of his apartment, all in five minutes.

'Damn it! I hope I get there on time! If I don't, I am so dead!'

Naruto thought, as he ran along the streets of Konoha, using every once of his speed. All he could think of was what Iruka was going to do with him... Naruto pushed those thoughts aside quickly. He needed to concentrate on reaching his class as fast as he could... With that in mind, Naruto continued to run at the top of his speed.

A few minutes later, he was finally at the academy gates to find it... closed? Naruto quickly began framing all sorts of conspiracies in his mind, ranging from an alien invasion to Sasuke's fanclub staging a coup in the academy so that they can... Naruto shuddered at where his thoughts were going. He then began trying to frame more reasonable theories, but couldn't come up with one. Naruto was pretty sure that there wasn't any public holiday that day... He was about to give up when he noticed a notice on the wall-

The academy is closed for a week for renovation.

Naruto facepalmed. Apparently, In his frustration on losing to Sasuke, Naruto didn't pay attention to class, and when Iruka had announced this in class, Naruto was busy thinking of ways to beat Sasuke.

'I dragged my ass all the way here at full speed for nothing! Damn it! Well... ah! On the plus side, I can train with Kurama!'

And so, Naruto set off to train. He was walking along the streets when he noticed something he didn't pay much attention to on his way to the academy- The Hokage monument. That was when his gaze fell on the Yondaime Hokage's face...

'I am finding it really hard to believe that the Yondaime is my father... I wonder if I should tell everyone that I'm the Yondaime's son... Nah, no one will believe me... Besides, Hokage-jiji kept it a secret for this long for a reason. Oh no! I forgot to ask him why he didn't tell me that Kurama is sealed inside me! I'll ask him next time... If I don't forget.'

And so, Naruto walked off for his training, all the while not noticing a figure following him.

When Naruto finally reached his training ground, he was really excited... and a bit nervous... Who wouldn't be when you are getting help from a bijuu for your training. Naruto sat on the grassy ground, closing his eyes and concentrating. Pretty soon, he was standing in front of Kurama.

"What's the matter gaki?"

"Weren't you going to help me with my chakra control?"

"Oh, that... Go climb a tree."

"Huh? How will climbing a tree help my chakra control?" Naruto asked in a really confused tone.

"Uh, what I meant was, go climb a tree without using your hands. Just channel enough chakra to your legs so that you stick to the tree, but not too much so that the bark of the tree comes off. It is similar to that leaf concentration exercise if yours, but this time, instead of your forehead, do it with your feet. The soles of your feet are the toughest areas to channel your chakra. Got all of that? Now leave." Kurama said in a very bored tone.

"All right! Thanks Kurama! I'll get this down in no time dattebayo!" Naruto said while fading away.

Naruto opened his eyes back in the real world, got up, and ran towards the nearest tree. He tried doing everything exactly as Kurama told him. He channelled chakra to his feet and tried to run up the tree... Only to land on his back.

'OK, this is going to take a while.' Naruto thought as he proceeded to try again and again.

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Meanwhile, in the Hokage office, Hiruzen was thinking really hard about what to do with Naruto. The chances that the Kyuubi, or, as Naruto called it, Kurama would try to manipulate him was very high. Even though Naruto said that he wouldn't release the seal, Hiruzen still felt very uneasy. That's why he had sent an ANBU to see to it that Naruto doesn't do anything stupid. This particular ANBU, named Tenzo, was most probably the only person who could keep the Kyuubi under control, because he was infused with the Shodaime, Senju Hashirama's cells. Hashirama once had all 9 bijuu under his control because of his unique Mokuton Kekkei Genkai, which was replicated in Tenzo only because of Orochimaru's evil experimentation. Hiruzen still couldn't shake off the guilt for letting Orochimaru get away on the day he had him cornered.

Hiruzen quickly let go of those thoughts. It's no use thinking about that day now. He had to decide what to do with Naruto... actually, he had already decided, but he was thinking about the consequences of doing this- Would Naruto hate him for not having faith in him? If this news leaked out, what would the civilian populace do? It was a well known fact that most of the civilians hated Naruto, unable to tell the difference between the boy and the demon, and the whisker marks certainly didn't help the situation. If only the civilians could understand the situation as well as the shinobi population did... very few of them actually hated Naruto, because they had faith in their beloved Yondaime's seal.

Hiruzen focused himself back to the task at hand. He needs to do what needs to be done...

"Tora!" Hiruzen gave a shout.

One second later, an ANBU wearing a tiger mask Shunshined in front of the Hokage.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" the ANBU said in his usual, dutiful, serious tone.

Hiruzen took out a scroll that he had written earlier placed it on his desk, and said- "Take this scroll and give it to Jiraiya as soon as possible."

"Hokage-sama, where can I find Jiraiya-sama?"

"I think he should be somewhere in Hi no Kuni. You should find him pretty soon if you search near the hot springs and night clubs and just about every place where you can find women. It would also help if you Henged into a really pretty lady."

Without saying a word, Tora Henged into a really pretty lady, wearing really little for covering herself up.

"Would this be enough Hok-" The ANBU was cut off by a Hokage rocketing backwards with the propulsion of blood coming out of his nose.

"I'll take that as a yes." Tora said as he released the Henge to go back to his ANBU attire.

About a minute later, the Hokage was back on his chair, wiping the residual blood from his nose with a napkin. He then asked the ANBU a question-

"Be honest Tora, how do you know about this particular lady from one of Jiraiya's books?"

"Oh, that, umm.. Kakashi-san had lent me that book for, um... dating advice."

"I didn't expect an ANBU to be a pervert. Besides, I don't remember anything worthy of being 'dating advice' in Jiraiya's books."

"Permission to speak freely Hokage-sama?"

"Granted."

"I didn't expect the Hokage to be a pervert reading smut."

Hiruzen's face reddened a bit on hearing this.

"Ahem! I believe if is time for you to go find Jiraiya. Dismissed!"

"Hai Hokage-sama!" Tora said as he vanished from the office in a Shunshin.

'I hope Jiraiya arrives before anything happens to Naruto. He has the right to know about what happened to his godson after all.' Hiruzen thought as he began doing his work for the day.

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Back with Naruto, he was having a really hard time with his chakra control. He had been training for hours and the kind of progress he made in climbing the tree was pitiful. At first, he was always putting in too much chakra, resulting in a skinned tree. It took him about an hour to realise that he had to reduce the amount of chakra he channelled to his feet. And so, he set of once again to try and climb the tree... only to fall straight off the tree onto his poor back. And so, he had tried and tried again, only to alternate between waxing the tree and failed wall running attempts. By the time it was noon, he made some noticeable progress- One foot. That may seem pitiful, but this was not an exercise for academy students to do, so this was something to be (a bit) proud of. Naruto was sweating a lot now. Konoha doesn't really have hot climate, especially when you compare it to Suna (That place is a freaking frying pan!). However, it wasn't winter, and training for hours, especially at noon could make anyone sweaty. And so, Naruto took off his shirt to let the heat off. His body was not actually the 'hero type'. He didn't look too healthy. After all, who would be if all you eat is ramen, 3 meals every single day? Naruto then decided that he needed to take a break. He also needed to know what he was doing wrong. One foot progress in a whole morning? Surely he was doing something wrong right? He sat down on the grassy ground once again, to meet his friend...

A few seconds later, he was standing in front of Kurama. This meditation thing was getting easier and easier every time! Kurama looked like he was enjoying a nap. Naruto wondered how the fox seemed to be asleep almost all the time. Kurama, however, by no means was cute in his 'sleep'. He always seemed to have this look on his face all the time saying 'life is so annoying'.

Naruto then gave a shout to Kurama- "Oi! Kurama! Wake up! Did you even see how my training went?"

Kurama got really annoyed at this wake up call. He shouted back- "Look at who's shouting at me! That 10-year old that was scared shitless when he first saw me less than 24 hours ago!"

Naruto got really ticked off at this. He countered- "That's because I thought you were the bad guy who almost destroyed my village!"

"Oh! And why did you change your mind then, gaki? I killed the only family you had! Why are you not scared of me then, huh?"

Naruto replied, this time in a lowered voice... "Because... I never really met them... all I know about my father is from the books they made us read back in the academy... and I don't know anything about my mother... aside from what you told me Kurama... What I'm saying is that it's a good thing I don't know much about my parents... it makes not thinking about the things I missed out on that much easier... But you Kurama, even though you killed my parents, I can't really blame you... and you are the closest I ever came to a friend... You went through a lot of difficulties like I did... You are the only person who knows what I went through..." By the time Naruto finished, streams of tears were trickling out of his eyes, and he was desperately trying not to cry.

Kurama was not a very emotional kind of guy, but even he had to admit that there was truth in what Naruto said. He decided that it was best if he changed the topic.

"Naruto..." Kurama said in an unusually low and sympathetic voice for the Bijuu. "...I am sorry for what happened... But from this day onwards, you will have your friend Kurama with you, until the day you die."

"R-Really?" Naruto asked while wiping his tears.

"You have my word, kit." Kurama replied with something that was almost never seen on his face- a genuine smile.

"That doesn't mean you are going to kill me right?"

"Though I would have liked to do that 24 hours ago, after I got to know you, you are the only human I've seen in a long time worthy of my respect. So yeah, I won't kill you"

"Thanks Kurama!" Naruto said as he ran into Kurama's cage and gave him a hug... on his hands.

Had Naruto done this an hour ago, Kurama would have thought of this as a death wish. But now... the boy needed some love... (a/n- No! Not that kind of love you perverts!)

"So... Naruto... How was your training?"

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Sorry for the delay! It's just that my body is real sore now and because of that injection on my left arm (which hurts worse than the actual fall itself) I can't really hold up my phone to type. And, there was this weird pus coming from my right palm the day I removed the bandage from there. So... Sorry again for the delay! Also, It's my birthday today! So, if you are going to leave a review, why don't you take a shot at guessing my age?

Oh, and I just discovered that background music makes a hell of a difference in my writing style. I was listening to one of the original soundtracks 'Sadness and Sorrow' for that last scene. I never thought I would write a scene like that before I started writing that scene, even though it does appear a bit pathetic...

Stay tuned for the next chapter which will (hopefully) come soon!

Oh, and Hi no Kuni means fire country.