Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

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Chapter Five

Education

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Hinata looked around at the other students curiously as she entered the classroom for her preliminary orientation at the Academy. Although she recognised the other clan-children, the rest were a mystery to her.

Near one side of the room, Yamanaka Ino sat beside a pink-haired girl, both whispering to each other. In the darkest corner sat Aburame Shino, communing with his bugs while Nara Shikamaru half-sat, half-lay at his desk, obviously nearly asleep. Akamichi Choji sat next to him, snacking on a bag of crisps. Inuzuka Kiba shifted in his seat while Uchiha Sasuke sat by the window, staring out blankly and Hinata felt a brief surge of kinship with him.

After all, both of them had been saved by the actions of the mysterious ANBU known only as Hiro.

While her rescue had been rather low-key with Hiro intercepting the man who had tried to kidnap her, crippling him, snapping the ropes that had bound her and carrying her home before departing, his actions against the man who had tried to wipe out the Uchiha clan were the stuff of legends.

Hiro had managed to fight Uchiha Itachi and the unknown masked Uchiha believed to be Madara to a standstill, their weapons bouncing off his armour while the odd beam of light that had issued from the small recess of his helmet-blade had cut off the masked-man's right arm, forcing him to flee into an odd vortex. Itachi himself suffered serious injuries, but was expected to heal.

The planned Uchiha Coup had been abandoned after Hiro bowed deeply to the Hokage (freshly arrived on the scene) before flying off. Realising that the Hokage commanded a warrior like no other, Fugaku had promptly vanished with the Hokage, re-appearing the bext day to announce the transfer of a large number of Uchiha from the police force (to be replaced by Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Aburame shinobi) to the regular forces. In addition, Fugaku became one of the Hokage's new advisors with Hinata's father Hiashi becoming the other, replacing the Hokage's old team-mates (much to their annoyance).

Walking up to Sasuke, Hinata bowed.

"May I sit here?"

Sasuke nodded, staring at her questioningly.

"I am Hyuuga Hinata." She said quietly and his eyes lit up in recognition.

"Hiro saved you as well, didn't he?"

"He did." Hinata confirmed, thinking back to the tall armoured figure who had carried her back to the Hyuuga compound. "He did."

Sasuke nodded. "One day, I will become as strong as him."

Hinata was about to answer when blond hair caught her eye. Looking out of the window, she winced as she saw a young boy being punched out of the sparring ring by a boy two years older.

"Ano… who is that boy?"

"Hmmm?" Sasuke turned to follow her gaze. "I think he's called Nato or something. Half the clan really dislike him, but no-one will tell me why."

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Naruto picked himself off the ground and rubbed at the bruise forming on his cheek even as his opponent was declared the victor by the teacher. Although he had the urge to simply armour up and use his enhanced strength to pound the bully flat, he suppressed it easily with the knowledge that by revealing his armour, he would ensure that it would be taken away from him.

After all, many of the people around him did their best to make sure that he never got to keep anything good.

With a sigh, Naruto walked away and sat down at the base of a tree. Picking up a nearby leaf, he held it to his forehead and closed his eyes in concentration, pushing out the smallest amount of chakra that he could in order to hold it in place. The sounds of another pair of students fighting tried to impinge on his concentration, but Naruto remained still as he concentrated on holding the leaf with…

"UZUMAKI!"

Naruto jolted in shock and the leaf went flying, leaving a gash on the teacher's shoulder. The man responded with a backhanded strike that sent Naruto flying.

"That's assault on a teacher, you brat!" He snarled. "I'll see you expelled for this!"

"Yeah, like hitting you with a leaf is worse than when Donmaru stuck a kunai in your leg." Naruto muttered as he pulled himself to his feet, only to receive a punch to his gut that folded him over.

"Get out!" The teacher shouted, grabbing Naruto by his jacket and flinging him over the fence. "And never come back!"

Naruto groaned as he slowly pulled himself to his feet and checked that he hadn't broken any bones. Giving the smirking teacher a glare, Naruto limped away.

He would check the files that were in his secret base and if what he suspected was true, he would have his revenge.

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Hiruzen stared at the dawn-lit smouldering ruins that had once been a house, then at the injured teacher being carried away on a stretcher.

"Hiro?"

"Hiro." Nara Shikaku confirmed. "He left a scroll showing that the teacher was a former agent of Orochimaru and was assigned to lower the standards of the graduating students. Ibiki is overseeing the investigation into the other teachers as well."

"So… any idea what caused our mysterious ghost-ninja-samurai-demon-whatever to do this?" Hiruzen asked wryly and Shikaku sighed.

"Naruto was expelled from the Academy yesterday. I've already reversed the expulsion, but due to procedure, he isn't going to be allowed to take the end-of-year test, meaning he'll be held back a year."

"He is two years younger than the others." Hiruzen agreed. "Although… we may need to check to see what Naruto has been taught. If he wasn't the only traitor in our ranks, then who knows what our students think is needed to survive in the real world."

"I'll start preparations to assign some of my, the Akamichi and the Yamanaka clans to the Academy." Shikaku sighed. "This has the potential to be very troublesome."

Hiruzen nodded thoughtfully. "Any luck working out just who Hiro is or where he is hiding?"

"Assuming that it isn't who everyone else thinks it is, then no." Shikaku sighed. "I've cross-referenced every sighting with records of which of our shinobi were in Konoha or out and Hiro is either none of them, or at least five of them. Add the fact that his armour… assuming that Hiro is a him, his armour doesn't match any design I've ever heard of before and he uses Jutsu that I've never encountered before, especially that flight one of his… I hate to admit it, but I'm stumped. I think it really is that old man from Uzushiogakure, but I have no clue as to where he could be."

"And if a Nara admits to being stumped, the problem is impossible to solve." Yamanaka Inoichi said as he stepped up. "Hiro's identity?"

"There's a pool started up." Shikaku said with a sigh. "I had a thousand yen on it being Kakashi, but he's currently dealing with something in the Land of Snow, so it can't be him."

"I put my money on it being Naruto." Inoichi laughed, then he smirked at the disbelieving looks that he was being given. "What? He fits the profile. Loyal, always in the village, ignored by the majority of the population…"

"And nowhere near old or tall enough to be Hiro." Shikaku interrupted.

"Well, it was my daughter's idea, sort of." Inoichi shrugged. "She said that if there was anyone that there was no way that it could be, it would be Naruto, so I asked her what she would do if it turned out that Naruto was Hiro. She said that if that was the case, she'd marry him for being cooler than Sasuke, but that she was safe as it couldn't be him."

"So you put your money on him just to freak her out when she finds out you did it." Shikaku nodded, fully cogniscent of his long-term friend and team-mate's sense of humour.

"Who does Shikamaru think it is?" Inoichi asked and Shikaku shrugged.

"He doesn't know either. He says that a problem like that is troublesome because it's almost unsolvable. Inoichi, how does your daughter know of Naruto? They're in different classes?"

Inoichi looked slightly pained. "I… had to tell her a small lie, that the Uzumaki were naturally immune to our techniques and that trying to do any but a select few of our mind-jutsu on one could very easily cause a mental back-blast that shreds the users mind. Since she's starting to learn the basic techniques and still has an impulse-control problem… I needed to give her a reason that she wouldn't question… and she's still annoyed with him for the prank he pulled with the dye-gun disguised as a flower bouquet…"

Inoichi trailed off with an embarrassed shrug and Hiruzen nodded slowly. "An excellent cover, Inoichi. I approve. Feel free to use it with the rest of your clan if you feel it necessary."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage." Inoichi said, looking relieved.

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Naruto entered the classroom and looked round at the students that he would be spending the next two years with (assuming that the damned teachers didn't delay him again). Most of them seemed to be ignoring him, but there were some exceptions.

A Hyuuga (his eyes unmistakable) was looking at him in curiosity while a girl with her hair pulled up into panda-ears was sizing him up. The third one looking at him was a dark-haired, large-eyed boy woth a long ponytail while another dark-haired boy and a grey/brown-haired boy were giving him occasional measuring glances.

Glancing round, Naruto made his way over to one of the spare seats by the wall. Sitting down, he pulled out his notebook and sighed.

Going through all of the lessons again would be boring.

This year was going to be hell.

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"Neji-kun."

Hiashi-sama." Neji replied with a deep bow.

"Walk with me."

Hiashi turned and stode off, leaving Neji to hurry to take his position to the left and half a pace behind the clan-head.

"I hear that you are sharing lessons with Uzumaki Naruto."

"I am, Hiashi-sama." Neji confirmed, confused as to the line of conversation.

"Do you remember Hiro-sama?"

Neji blinked in surprise. "The one who disabled the Kumo-teme and… please pardon my language, Hiashi-sama!"

Hiashi's lip twitched in a small smirk. "The Kumo-teme… the Kumo-teme… the Kumo-teme… an excellent description, Neji-kun. Please continue."

Nije swallowed at the narrowness of the escape. "Hai, Hiashi-sama. Hiro-sama was the one who confronted and disabled the ambassador from Kumo…"

"The Kumo-teme." Hiashi interjected.

"…rescuing Hinata-sama from him."

"And saving my life." Hiashi added, earning a shocked look. "Inoichi used one of his clan's skills to discover the orders that the… Kumo-teme… was operating under. His orders were to kidnap Hinata-chan, Hanabi-chan if he could not capture Hinata or if he could capture neither, to create a diplomatic incident that would allow Kumo to claim a sample of the byakugan, allowing them to breed a clan of byakugan users."

"It sounds like the clan owes a debt to Hiro-sama." Neji cautiously offered, earning an approving nod.

"Indeed."

"If I may ask, Hiashi-sama, how does this connect to Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Do you know Hiro's full name?"

Neji pondered the question as they drew closer to the main hall. Why would the armoured warrior be linked to the blond with the powerful chakra?

Wait.

"Uzumaki Hiro?"

"Indeed." Hiashi confirmed. "Hiro is known to have taught Naruto many things and Naruto may be next in line to use Hiro's armour. Speculate."

"Hiro defeated the Kumo ambassador…"

"The Kumo-teme." Hiashi corrected with a slight smirk and Neji winced as he realized that Hiashi wouldn't let it drop.

"…and held off Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Itachi, taking Madara's arm in the process." Neji forged on. "It is possible that it was his actions that led to your advancement to the position of advisor to the Hokage."

"Correct." Hiashi said with a proud smirk. "Continue."

"With Naruto in line to take control of a weapon as powerful as the armour, building a good relationship between him and the clan would be politically advantageous."

"Especially since our byakugan cannot see through the armour itself." Hiashi added, causing Neji to stare at him in shock. "Yes, nephew, our juuken would be completely ineffective against him, something that frustrates the Elders quite considerably."

"…is that why our clan has recently started to train in archery as well?" Neji asked and Hiashi nodded.

"It is. And with our eyes, seeing the target is never a problem, only learning how to aim properly."

Neji nodded and then almost stumbled as Hiashi turned, heading not for the hall like he had assumed but to the newly-installed archery butts.

"I think it is time that you learned to draw a bow." Hiashi said. "I warn you, it is trickier than it looks."

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Danzo looked around at the ruins that spread out from either side of the river.

"Uzushiogakure." He said almost reverently as on the shore behind him, his Root ninja began dismantling the ship that they had used to get there. "Once home to the greatest fuuinjutsu specialists in the Elemental Nations."

Stepping forwards, he paused by a large, cracked stone which boasted the spiral of the Uzumaki across most of its surface.

"Uzushiogakure was once the greatest ally that Konoha ever had," He mused, "And I shall make it so once more. I shall rebuild it, oversee the training of the ninja here and when Konoha needs allies once again, Uzushiogakure shall stand by their side as an example of what a Hidden Village should be. Strong, merciless, relentless. We shall tear apart our enemies and create a new world."

Turning round, he looked at the ninja who were awaiting his orders. Although only a tithe of the secret force he had once commanded, they were the best of his people and he would use them to achieve his aims.

"Spread out and check the area." He ordered. "Keep a close eye out for anything that looks like it could be a secret entrance to a bunker or similar."

In blurs of motion, the masked shinobi all vanished and Danzo raised his gaze to the horizon.

"I shall prove my path is right, old friend." He whispered, his hand clasped tightly on his cane. "The position of Hokage may not be mine to reach for any more, but as the Uzukage, I will continue to raise Konoha to where it should be."

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Authors Afternote – No, I didn't kill off Danzo. Too many fanfics do that and while he is an arrogant, misguided fanatic, he is still loyal to Konoha itself.