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.
.
Chapter Seven
Base
.
Hiruzen was stood on the roof of the Hokage mansion, staring out at the dusk with his pipe cupped in one hand, when a movement in the sky caught his attention. As he watched, the flicker of reflected light swelled into a familiar shape, one with a blade on each arm and a blade-like fin on its helmet, a figure which ignored the half-dozen ANBU hidden around him and simply landed far enough away as to be out of immediate striking distance, but close enough that they could talk.
"Hiro, I presume." Hiruzen said politely even as he carefully gathered his chakra in case he needed to dodge and the armoured figure gave a deep nod that verged on being a bow.
"Lord Hokage. A pleasant night, is it not?"
.
As he finished his first sentence, Naruto flinched under his mask. Saying it out loud allowed him to realize that it was nowhere near as cool as he had thought it was. He was committed now, though, and he had no choice but to see it through.
Dammit.
.
Hiruzen almost smirked at the self-confidence that the armoured figure showed. No claims of coming in peace or promises of not meaning harm, just a simple comment about the weather with all the subtleties inherent in it that would only be discernible to a Jonin or above. An offer of truce, a statement of lack of hostile intent, notification that if the speaker was attacked then they would strike back without mercy, all wrapped up in six simple words.
Truly, Uzumaki Hiro was as skilled as his Bingo Book entry claimed him to be.
"I find it to be so." He replied, half-turning to look across Konoha while still keeping Hiro in his field of vision. Hiro followed suit, resting his open hands on the railings, thus further proving that he had no intention of instigating combat. "I like to remember…"
Hiruzen trailed off, knowing that the ninja (whoever he was) would catch his meaning.
.
Naruto blinked in confusion. Why hadn't the old man finished his sentence? He liked to remember? Remember what?
"…but I doubt that you came simply to enjoy the view with an old man like myself."
"It is different from when it was just me on the Fourth watching over the village." Naruto replied, his mind flashing back to all the times that he had looked across Konoha from the stone head of his father (even though almost everyone was unaware of their relationship).
.
"It is different from when it was just me and the Fourth watching over the village." The armoured figure stated in his oddly-buzzing, slightly distorted voice and Hiruzen almost dropped his pipe.
Hiro had indeed served Namikaze Minato!
That explained the Konoha symbol located on the odd disc embedded in his helmet!
No wonder he couldn't find anything on who Hiro had become once he had entered Konoha, he had probably been placed into hiding by Minato's order, told to remain hidden unless certain requirements were met…
He had appeared after Naruto had been reassigned from the orphanage.
He had been watching over Naruto!
"You are aware of the burden that Naruto carries." Hiruzen probed cautiously.
.
"…that Naruto carries."
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, then he tried to change the subject. Maybe a comment about the sunset? That was probably random enough.
"The sun…" Naruto trailed off, uncertain of what he was going to say.
.
"The son."
Hiruzen mentally nodded at the proof that Hiro knew about Naruto.
"I understand and I will ensure that he is gifted his inheritance." He said. "However, there will be a problem with storing it somewhere safe…"
Hiro turned to face him.
"Like a secret base?"
"You know of one?"
.
"…problem with storing it somewhere safe…"
Naruto mentally cursed. What was the old man doing? The statements and questions were totally unanticipated and now this? Why didn't the old man stick to the script that he had planned, allowing him… to… wait.
Did he just say somewhere safe?
Naruto turned to look at the old man that had tried to protect him.
"Like a secret base?"
"You know of one?"
Naruto grinned. He could use this. Now… how to phrase it… ah yes!
"In seven days, a base will be made underneath the house of his father in its new place. He will know. He will show you. If you approve, he will use it."
"And how will his move be explained?"
Naruto focused and felt his heat-gem on his head-blade briefly flash.
"I understand." Hiruzen said slowly. "Seven days?"
"He will know by then." Naruto repeated, then he activated his ability to fly and rose into the air, lifting almost to the odd chakra dome that encased Konoha before turning invisible.
He had a lot of work still to do, transferring all of his things into the cottage and then starting the fire that would explain his move.
.
Hiruzen watched at the armoured figure flew away, flying through the invisible chakra shield without triggering the alarms, yet another piece of proof that Hiro had truly been a trusted shinobi,one either recruited by or trained by Minato.
Even after Hiro vanished, Hiruzen stared at the stars, lost in memory. Until a small cough interrupted him.
"Yes, Inu?"
"Hokage-Dono, Hiru mentioned Minato's old house…"
Hiruzen nodded. Kakashi was almost certainly familiar with the building in question since his teacher had lived there.
"What about it?"
"It's been moved." Kakashi stated and Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in surprise. "It is now located near the path that leads up the mountain, pressed against the cliff face."
"Interesting." Hiruzen mused. "Very interesting. I look forwards to Naruto showing it to me. I wonder how Hiro managed to do it?"
.
.
"Naturo-kun?"
"Jiji!" Naruto yelled as he almost exploded out of the front door of the relocated cottage and caught Hiuruzen with a flying hug. "Hey, whatdoyouthinkofmynewhouse? Isn'titgreathiromadeitforme…"
"Slow down, Naruto." Hiruzen laughed as he lowered the boy back to the ground. "Breathe in… breathe out.. breathe in… breathe out… alright. Try again,but this time, try to use proper words."
Naruto grinned. "Hiro said you were cool with me having this house and the base behind it is great! Come on, let me show you!"
Naruto dragged Hiruzen into the house and paused as Hiruzen looked round curiously. The front of the house was a single room, the right wall being the cliff face to which the house was anchored. The room reached up to the rafters and the ridge of the roof was met by a wall that bisected the building.
A set of stairs anchored to the cliff led up to the second level and the balcony that gave access to the upstairs rooms while a kitchen/dining room was visible through a downstairs archway while a bathroom could be seen through the open door by the stairs, just beside a large open fireplace set in the middle of the wall which held a wood-burning stove on one side.
"It's really cool, I use a katon jutsu to heat the stove and the heat goes up and warms the water so that I can bathe." Naruto explained, having seen where Hiruzen was looking. "I can use it to cook on as well, the fireplace opens up into the kitchen too."
Hiruzen looked at the kitchen and nodded in approval. "This is quite a house you have here."
"Yeah, but look at this!"
Hiruzen's eyebrows rose as Naruto pushed against the cliff-wall in the corner of the room and it swung open.
"Fascinating." He said. "I would have expected the entrance to be under the stairs."
"Naaaah." Naruto scoffed. "That's obvious. You want to hide a secret entrance, you gotta put it where no-one will look. You gotta avoid the bathroom, 'cause that's where everyone hides stuff, according to Inu's stories. Hey, you wanna see the base?"
"I would like that very much, Naruto." Hiruzen smiled and Naruto darted through the door, waving for him to follow.
Stepping through, Hiruzen's trained eye took in the almost-impossible smoothness of the walls, walls that demonstrated the use of Doton jutsu in their making. The steps downwards were perfectly spaced and near the edges of the ceiling were small gaps positioned just right for kunai traps to be installed.
Hiruzen blinked in surprise as they passed a training room, one where a dozen other Narutos were practicing a Kata in silent unison. A second room held another half-dozen Naruto clones throwing Kunai at various targets and Hiruzen coughed.
"I see that you've learned Kage Bunshin."
"Yep." Naruto grinned, almost bouncing with happiness. "Lets me do lots and lots and lots of training at once."
"I use it for my paperwork, winnow it down to the things that I need to look at." Hiruzen said in agreement. "It really is a useful skill."
"I know." Naruto grinned. "It helps me keep this place tidy, it's really big. Here's the library."
Hiruzen looked through the indicated archway and his eyebrows almost vanished into his hat. The room beyond was larger than the official Konoha Shinobi Library in its entirety and was almost filled with partially-filled book-cases, scroll-racks and filing cabinets. Suspended planks acted as walkways with the occasional Naruto-clones standing both atop them and hanging from them in an impressive display of chakra control. The middle of the room, however, comprised of several circles of reading desks and blackboards at which a dozen more clones were arguing over several complex formulas.
"How many clones do you have, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen asked with a disbelieving chuckle and Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Because of my… tenant, I have loads of chakra, so… I think it's a couple of hundred. Not sure, it's kinda hard to keep track if I do more than fifty or so."
"And Hiro gave all of this to you?"
"Weeeellll…" Naruto said with an embarrassed shrug. "About half of it. I… kinda copied the shinobi libraries using henged clones. I tried to go in as myself, but they just kept throwing me out, so I used that as a distraction to get my clones in and… well, they didn't actually stop copying and I ended up with all this."
Hiruzen blinked. Part of him wanted to scold Naruto for copying things without his permission while another part was furious at the librarians for trying to deny Naruto access to the information that he would need to become a powerful shinobi.
The latter part finally won out and Hiruzen patted his honorary-grandson on his head.
"You have done a good job, but please come to see me before doing anything like that again."
"Sure thing, Jiji." Naruto said with a relieved smile. "So, watcha think of my base?"
"I think it is a very good one." Hiruzen admitted. "Hiro must think very highly of you to have entrusted this place to you."
"Hiro's awesome." Naruto grinned and Hiruzen nodded in agreement.
"Indeed he is, Naruto. Indeed he is."
.
.
"Naruto?"
Naruto looked round and found himself looking at his grey/brown-haired classmate. For a moment, his memory failed him, then he remembered.
"Yagura, right?"
"I am." The student replied, his pale blue eyes flashing with irritation. "And no, I'm not the Mizukage."
"I wasn't even going to say it." Naruto protested and Yagura sighed.
"Sorry, reflex."
"No worries." Naruto replied. "So, what did you want?"
Yagura glanced round, but no-one else was paying any attention to them as they congregated in their own lunch-time cliques.
In fact, most of them were aggressively ignoring Naruto, shunning him at the behest of their parents.
"I seek a sparring partner to help me improve." Yagura admitted. "Most of the others are not interested in improving while the rest have their own clans to aid. I spar once a week with Idate and twice with Lee when he is not elsewhere training with Maito Gai, but if I am to attain my dream of becoming a taijutsu expert, I need more than that."
"Do you have a place to spar?" Naruto asked and Yagura shook his head.
"No… why?"
"I have a clearing near my house that I occasionally train in." Naruto mused. "But… why me?"
"Because I have watched you." Yagura admitted. "Idate and Lee both use a single style and I am adjusting to them. You, however, are unpredictable and I need to train against someone whom I cannot predict."
Naruto grinned.
"That's me." He smirked. "The number one most surprising ninja in Konoha."
.
.
.
.
.
Author's afternote – Yeah, the Naruto/Hiruzen conversation was lifted from the one-shot. It was just too good to not use.
The house itself can be found on my DeviantArt page in the Guyver Naruto section.