I do not own Naruto

Talk now – normal talk
What now – normal thoughts
Speak – biju, higher being talk
Listen – biju, higher being thoughts

Chapter 9 : A decision made

When Tenten began to stir she felt strange, my bed shouldn't feel this comfortable, when she opened her eyes she saw that she was in a room she hadn't been in before.

As she looked around the room she was in Tenten noticed it was far nicer then the room she lived in at the orphanage, the bed she was on was very big compared to her old one, it's comfortable alright, the sheets were clean and didn't have any sort of stains or were torn, the pillows were in the same condition. At the orphanage because of their large numbers the furniture and bed dresses often suffered from wear and tear, the caretakers washed the bed dresses but with the funds they had, which she overheard were insufficient, they ended up cutting some corners, the quality of the detergents used was the first thing to go.

Tenten looked at herself, she was still wearing the same cloths as she had gone to bed with the previous night, she looked around the room next and saw that two small wooden drawers were near the head of the bed, one on each side, a window was on left side of the room, with the shades drawn closed, a wooden desk with two chairs was a bit farther from the only window in the room, near it was a large filled bookshelf and on the right side of the room was a large wooden wardrobe with silver handles and the room's door farther away from it.

She noticed that the walls had pictures of different place, one was of a forest with a river running through it, and one with mountains whose peaks were covered in snow, another one looked like a garden filled with flowers. What happened? I was at Naruto's home when I fell asleep, did someone take us while during the night? This can't be a dream! A small knock on the door brought her attention to it. She didn't answer unsure of what to do, when the knocking resumed, she bit her lip and answered. "Yes?"

After she answered a man entered the room, he had pale skin, a round shaped face, earth brown eyes, and very short brown hair, he was wearing a red shirt with a drawing of a fire with dark fire flames on a side of it, loose grey pants, and was wearing dark blue slippers, the man smiled at her.

"Good morning Tenten, it's good that you are awake."

Tenten narrowed her eyes and tightened her fists, there were horror stories at the orphanage on how some children were wisped away during the night to be sold as slaves and that was the reason why the old caretakers had been removed because they had been caught in the act, but that a few of them remained and continued the practice. Briefly she noticed that her hands didn't hurt as before from the work she had done yesterday, in fact she felt better than ever before. "Who are you? Where's Naruto? Where am I?"

The man went leaned against the wall next to the window. "Well to answer your questions in order, my name is Yukimura, Naruto is with my better half and you are in our home."

Tenten kept her eyes on Yukimura. "Why are we here? Why did you take us from Naruto's home?"

Yukimura chuckled and smiled. "Good attitude little one"

Tenten growled slightly.

Yukimura made a small motion with his right hand. "Calmed down, we didn't take you from there, Naruto considers this place" Yukimura made a small circle using his finger in the air "his real home, and more importantly Naruto is the one who brought you to this place."

Tenten's eyes widened. "What?" That can't be.

"Confused?"

Tenten nodded.

"Well it's alright. We have plenty of time to talk, now to start things of my other half and I have been taking care of Naruto for quite some time now."

"What do you mean? Naruto didn't say anything about you, did you adopt him?" she grit her teeth as she narrowed her eyes "did you abandon him?"

The man's expression turned serious. "Tenten we would never abandon Naruto"

"That's what you say now!" She tightened her grip on the blanket. "But what about when things get worse for you, what then?"

"Not even then little one" Yukimura shook his head "come what may come we will stand by him."

Tenten still looked at the man uncertain.

Yukimura sighed. "We didn't need to help Naruto, my other half and I could have left the village far behind us without ever looking back if we desired, but we choose to stay and aid him."

Tenten shuffled her feet for a moment. "Why?" she asked uncertain.

"Why do such a thing?"

She nodded.

"A multitude of reasons, amongst them is my own past." Yukimura looked out the window for a moment. "You're an orphan, but not by choice, aren't you?"

Tenten's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"It is not difficult to figure out, the way you hold yourself, the way you talk and even look at people, if you look close enough you can see the signs there. Events often leave their mark on a person, in time one can read such marks as easy as any other language."

"So what?"

Yukimura turned his gaze from the window to Tenten. "My other self and I are alike with Naruto in some ways, and even to you in a way."

"How?"

"We all lost our parents at a young age and then ended up in a… less than pleasant place after that."

Tenten relaxed slightly. "You're an orphan?"

Yukimura nodded. "Yes, both myself and my other half lived in the same village a long time ago" he smiled for a moment before his face took on a dark look "we were young when the attack occurred" his fist shook slightly "the bandits showed no mercy, we the lucky survivors" he spat the words out "were taken in chains and made slaves for years after the attack until we finally managed to escape the place." Yukimura's gaze returned briefly to the outside of the room for a moment. "I can't say that it was my choice to become an orphan that night many years."

Tenten remained quite taking in what she had been told, she knew that both she and Naruto were orphans and the other children were as well, the reasons were different but in the end they all ended up there. "It still different, what happened to me and you"

"To a degree yes, but even though the path is different the destination is the same. Things that happened and our lives changed for ever, and no matter how much we cried and prayed they didn't go back to what they once were." Yukimura sighed noticing the small look Tenten gave him; of course the girl would cry hoping for her mother would return. "When we found Naruto and saw the similarities between our pasts we decided to remain and aid him as best we could, circumstances prevent us from doing much more than we desire. We've been helping him for some time now, teaching and training him and now we would offer you the same outstretched hand we did to him."

She shuffled her feet. "Why?"

Yukimura looked directly into her eyes. "Because you are important to Naruto and because we believe you have potential to achieve great things."

She was taken aback for a moment. I'm important to him? They think I have potential?

"I'm not asking that you decide now, you have time to think about the offer, there is something that I must ask of you though."

She narrowed her eyes. "I knew there was something."

Yukimura sighed. "You cannot speak to anyone about myself and my other half's relationship with Naruto."

That's odd. "Why?"

"Because we would be forced apart if you did, you wouldn't want to take away the only family he has would you?"

Tenten flinched.

"You are an observant girl you must have noticed that there was something different with Naruto, how people reacted when you asked them about him, a twitch here a scowl there."

Tenten nodded the caretakers had reacted rather ill when she asked about Naruto and some of the other orphans were happy that someone had left the orphanage, she wasn't sure why exactly and after a while they stopped talking about it.

"You found it odd that Naruto has an apartment that the Hokage gave him and that no one was watching over him didn't you?"

She nodded again; it was odd she hadn't heard that happening to someone else before, usually when an orphan reached a certain age they had to leave the orphanage and find a job and a place to stay. A guardian would normally help and look after them for a time to make sure they could manage to live on their own.

"Something is different about him; it is tied to the circumstances of our meeting with him. Tell me Tenten what do you know of the Kyuubi?"

She puzzled at him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You will find out soon enough, first I would ask that you answer my question, what do you know of the Kyuubi?"

She shrugged. "That it's a huge creature, a fox like Inari but that doesn't help with the crops, I heard some people say it was Inari's evil brother that tried to destroy his brother's work."

Interesting, I suppose the common people had to explain my old existence somehow. "And did you hear how it attacked Konoha?"

She nodded. "Yes, I heard people talk about that, some of the merchants at the market commented on how quickly Konoha managed to rebuild."

"Well what you don't know is that while the Kyuubi was defeated it was not killed."

She furrowed her eyebrows again. "What happened to it?"

Yukimura relaxed his stance. "It was imprisoned."

"Where?"

Yukimura shook his head. "Not in a place but in a person."

"What!?" That can't be.

Yukimura nodded his head. "Yes the Kyuubi was sealed away into a newborn child that night many years ago" he paused for a moment "for whatever reasons."

Everything seemed to fall into place after hearing that, the way the caretakers reacted to Naruto's name, the fact that he lived alone and his apartment. "It's locked up in Naruto isn't it?" she asked slightly bewildered.

"It was."

She picked up on the last word used and panicked. "Was? Is it free? Did it hurt Naruto?"

Yukimura rubbed his chin. "It is free after a certain point of view, and no it did not hurt Naruto."

"But then…"

"The Kyuubi has simply remembered what he was before in ages past."

She looked at him confused.

"The Kyuubi is just a form of an old god little one."

Her eyes widened. "So he really is Inari's brother?!"

"No. The Kyuubi in his true form was already old even before Inari was created."

"So he's not the older brother?"

Yukimura shook his head.

"How do you know so much about it?"

Yukimura smiled. "Why shouldn't I know about my own past?"

Tenten could feel her own heart in her throat. "You….. are…."

"My name is Yukimura little one, at one time a mortal, a god, the Kyuubi and recently a god once more. My own story is rather long and the whole thing is rather unimportant at the moment."

Tenten gulped. "What do you want?" she asked moving away from him.

"My freedom of course" Yukimura shook his head "sadly with Naruto's current seal while I could still leave, to regain all of my power I would need to kill him, something that I am unwilling to do. So while I search for a way to retrieve that part of myself from Naruto I and my other half are training him as best we can."

She gulped. "What will you do when you can recover that part from Naruto?"

"Eventually I will leave this world."

She narrowed her eyes and stopped moving. "So you'll abandon him?"

Yukimura looked out the window before he leveled a hard look towards her. "No parent should ever have to bury their child, I am in many ways immortal, a lifetime for you may pass and I wouldn't feel it, I do not want to have to bury another important person to me simply because I outlived them. I will leave this world when I know that Naruto is good and safe and that he can handle what may come his way."

"Oh"

"As you can imagine if people found out about Naruto meeting me they would do whatever it took to separate us."

"But did you attack the village?"

"There is far more related to the attack than people believe, sadly even if they found out the truth do you think that they would believe me if it came from my mouth? I the great evil fox that attacked their precious village? They would simply say that I am lying and that I have corrupted Naruto and that he needs to be killed because of it."

She gulped before giving him her best intimidating look. "How do I know that you aren't lying about being a god?"

Yukimura took a single step forward, his eyes turned white and his entire body changed, the outline remained but everything else from within him disappeared and was replaced with a view of mountain peaks where snow storms raged and the wind howled like a pack of wolves. In the distance, she could see a green field that looked like it was in the heart of summer. Tenten felt like she was being swallowed by some great force, she could see herself as a small ant against a mountain, no she realized that she far smaller than an ant and he was far greater then a mountain, she could feel it in every bone in her body.

Then just as he began Yukimura stopped and his body returned to normal. "I do hope that helped lend some credence to my words. What you experienced was a small taste of my true divinity given a form that you could understand."

She nodded.

"Good, right now you are in my god realm, time flows a bit differently here, when you shall awaken only one night shall have passed outside of the realm. Here though roughly two months shall pass until you have to leave."

"Can I leave earlier than that?"

"Sadly no, it takes time to adjust to my realm, leaving too early will hurt you, the same for staying more, currently you could stay another month before having to leave." A lie but it is for the best. "Now as I said before I do believe you have potential and Naruto views you as a friend so I will offer you what I and my other half have offered Naruto as well, we will train you in what we know to help make you stronger and achieve any dreams you may have."

"Any dreams?" She asked skeptically.

Yukimura nodded. "As long as you do not desire to start killing innocent people I don't see a problem."

"I would never do that!" she replied instantly.

"What is it that you desire then, what do you dream of at night?"

She hesitated and bit her lip before speaking. "I want to become a legend like the shinobi I keep hearing stories about, I want for people to remember my name like they to theirs."

And there it is, she cannot recall her own last name and desires to be remembered by others. "That will be a long and difficult road filled with hours upon hours of training, of sweat, blood and tears. Do you think you handle such a thing?"

"Yes! I heard about a lot of stories about legendary shinobi and I know they went through a lot of hardships."

"Oh, so you've found a role model?"

"Well, I wanted to know about a strong kunoichi and…"

"If you want to hear about a strong woman I could tell you about Arturia, Seras, the Dovakin and Sheppard."

She looked at him strangely and bit her lip. "Who are they?"

"Very strong women, who would make a much better role model."

"I have never heard of them."

"Well the first thing you need to understand is just how small this world truly is."Yukimura brought his hands together and a small light began to shine from between them before he opened them and revealed several colored and different sized globes. "Now let's talk about this planet."

Both Naruto and Sayaka were in the kitchen at the table waiting for Yukimura and Tenten to join them. Naruto was wearing a pair of short dark blue pants and a red T – shirt with white flames on it while Sayaka was wearing a dark green battle kimono.

Naruto was currently playing with a fork using it as he would a kunai. "Do you think that she will accept?"

Sayaka for her part was trying to simultaneously balance a spoon and a fork upon the uplifted part of a knife. "Yukimura can be charming when he desires it have no doubt about that."

"Really?"

Sayaka nodded. "Yes, he has gotten rather good at it, a while back we would throw in a friendship speech in the middle of the battle and then proceed to viciously beat our opponents down to get them to change sides."

Naruto gave her a bewildered look, "A friendship speech in the middle of a battle? That seems an odd choice, didn't the opponent attack you while making it?"

Sayaka shook her head and gave him a deadpan look. "Oddly enough no, they even had their own little speech ready to use."

"Does that occur often in fights?"

"It shouldn't, but it does from time to time. A well timed word or two can help weaken your opponent, something to make them lose their calm and become enraged or to break their wills and have them accept the killing blow with open arms."

Naruto shrugged. "Huh, I guess that makes sense."

"We planned on starting on this only later in your training, honestly at first we thought that with the whole ninja aspect such a thing wouldn't occur but we realized that we miscalculated."

Naruto nodded and then narrowed his eyebrows looking at Sayaka. "When are we going to talk about what you're keeping from me with the Hokage and Tenten living with me?"

"Tonight after Tenten goes to sleep, there is sadly more to the Hokage than you believe and the second part it is not as much as what we are hiding as what you overlooked."

He raised an eyebrow surprised at her statement. "What I overlooked?"

For a brief moment Sayaka's eyes yellow and she quickly placed the spoon and fork on the table. "They approach."

Naruto quickly strained in his chair and smiled, a moment later Yukimura and Tenten entered the kitchen. He noticed how Tenten had an astonished expression on her face, he knew that look, seeing such a large house after living in the orphanage would astound anyone. I wonder if he told her about the solar system and the other worlds he's been to. He waved at her. "Ten-chan!"

Tenten smiled weakly seeing him. "Naruto"

Yukimura placed a hand on Tenten's shoulder. "See he is quite alright and the woman there is my better half."

Tenten nodded towards the woman. "Good day mam."

Sayaka for her part only gave Tenten a small smile. "A pleasure my dear."

"Now Naruto why don't you give Tenten here a tour of the house and the surrounding lands?"

"Ok, come on Ten-chan" Naruto quickly grabbed Tenten by one arm and the two quickly began to leave the kitchen.

It wasn't until after that they felt Naruto and Tenten leave the area near the kitchen that the Yukimura and Sayaka spoke again.

"I take it things went well enough?"

"They went reasonably." Yukimura took a seat at the table. "It helped going through her memories."

Sayaka scoffed. "Of course it did. I take the shell shock and open palm tactic worked well enough?"

"I believe so yes, playing with some of her insecurities certainly helped things along."

"And if she decides to go against us?"

"I have a small backup plan that will prevent her from saying anything, her memories of our meeting will be wiped out and we will simply have to be more careful when she will be approached in the future."

Sayaka nodded. "Perhaps, still we cannot always go poking inside of her head, if we decide to approach her again in the future the strategy will need to be different."

Yukimura raised an eyebrow at her. "You believe that she should be abandoned?"

"It is a possibility, if she refuses once, she may refuse a second time, arranging a meeting with them later would be more difficult and slowly bringing her around would pose other problems as well if she falls prey to the Konoha mentality."

Yukimura nodded. "We will watch how the situation play's out for the time, we have two months to help convince her, some training and a few positive experiences would definitely help out."

"Indeed." Sayaka looked towards the kitchen window. "Naruto is pressing the issues on wanting to know what we are keeping from him related to the Hokage and Tenten living with him."

"Well, it's good to know that he is limiting to only that" Yukimura sighed "he should have figured the matter on her living with him on his own."

"My thoughts exactly, but it is understandable that he would still make some mistakes; we often have our vision become more narrow when we desire something to the point that we miss even the more obvious matters."

"The Hokage matter will be difficult to fully explain."

"Yes, considering that we cannot yet reveal the visions of the possibly future to him."

Both Naruto and Tenten were sitting on the small bench just outside of the house, Tenten was looking at the flowers, she was entranced by the ocean of color in front of her, flowers of all shapes and sizes were in front of her, with more colors then she imagined.

Naruto leaned into the bench. "They look great don't they?"

"Yeah."

"The two taught me how to make flower arrangements like that as well, I'm still not that good at it though."

Tenten bit her lip before asking the question that was on her mind. "Do you trust them Naruto?"

"Yes. This place is my real home and if I could I would never leave it."

Tenten nodded, looking towards the house. "It is amazing, so many rooms."

"It doesn't compare to the orphanage does it?"

"No it doesn't." She shuffled her feet. "It's just that after what Yukimura told me, I just find it hard to believe it. Yesterday I still thought that Konoha was the biggest place in the world. I didn't even know what the world was to begin with now I probably know more than some of the books in the world!"

Naruto chuckled.

She pouted. "It's not funny."

"Yes, it is more mind blowing, I had the same reaction when I first heard about it as well."

"So you've known them for a long time?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep, since I was four."

"How old are you now?"

"Um, five, almost six actually."

She gave him a skeptical look. "That's not a lot."

"Well, time flows differently here so I should be older than you by now." Naruto countered finishing with a smug smile.

"Oh?" she asked skeptically, before shaking her head, it wouldn't be that surprising. "It's just to accept all of this, it's like I'm under the eyes of two giants."

"Yes. You still have time to think about it, if you don't accept we can still be friends if you want to." Naruto finished the last part in a shy tone of voice.

Tenten nodded.

I need to push her a bit closer to accepting the offer and to have her adopt a different outlook on Konoha. "Do you know why I got to leave the orphanage?"

Tenten shook her head. "I thought you were adopted at first, it was odd that none of the caretakers at the orphanage wanted to talk about you. I guess because of your condition they were glad you left."

"I didn't exactly leave on my own two feet."

"Huh?"

Naruto looked away from her, not meeting her eyes. "I got attacked by a shinobi and the caretakers there didn't do anything to help me, they didn't even alert someone hoping that I would die."

"What!" she yelled "How could they do that!?"

"Because of what they think I hold" Naruto rubbed his stomach "a lot of people think that if they hurt me somehow the fox will get injured as well, some probably think that I am the fox."

"But that's stupid!"

"Doesn't really matter. After the attack I ended up in the hospital for two weeks and when I recovered the Hokage got me my own place with some guards. He chuckled. Apparently even he didn't trust the people at the orphanage anymore; I guess that I'm also the reasons why a few of them got changed there."

Tenten's eyes widened at hearing that. The Hokage must have sent them to prison because of what they did!

"The night of the attack was when I met Yukimura and Sayaka, and I spent over a year here before returning to Konoha."

"A year!?"

"Yep." Naruto smiled looking at the flowers in front of him. "The best year of my life, I actually felt like I had a family, I still do. I won't trade that away for anything."

Tenten looked at him bewildered shaking her arms. "But they'll leave you one day."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but in the end people still die, if they were mortal like us they die of old age and I would still lose them, I understand that they want to leave so they won't have to see me die of old age while they keep staying young and living. I'll cherish the time I have with them and remember it until the end."

Tenten just looked at Naruto, she wasn't sure what to say, he was right, from what she remembered her father had died when she very young and all that was left of him in her memories was a blurry image and a feeling of warmth from being around him.

"I have really great memories with them, you should see some of the places they took me, a top a high mountain, a beach."

"How? I mean I still don't know how this places even works."

"Well it's like this..."

Yukimura's eyes flashed white for a moment. "She is asleep now"

Sayaka nodded. "It has been a long day"

"I hope she will accept"

The three of them were currently in the living room.

"We still have time, don't worry about it Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded. "So can we talk about what the Hokage and why Tenten can't live with me?"

"Well consider the implications if she starts living with you Naruto-kun."

Naruto ran a few scenarios in his head but couldn't see what they were talking about. "It would take a while to get used to it, and I would have a lot of less space for my stuff, but I don't own that many in the first place."

"Naruto-kun you are thinking about the room itself and not the other issues."

Yukimura sighed. "Remember how differently people treat you if Tenten started living with you how do you think they would treat her?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You think the villagers would treat her just as badly?"

Yukimura nodded. "There is a distinct possibility of that. How do you think the academy instructors would treat her if they knew how close you two were?"

Naruto clenched his teeth. "So being seen with her for now is something that I will have to be careful about."

"Yes, you should be fine meeting in the woods away from prying eyes and in other places people can't see you for now at least. Perhaps later you two will be able to be seen in public together without causing too many problems for her."

Sayaka shifted in her chair for a moment. "And then there is the Hokage to consider."

Naruto looked surprised at the both of them. "Why would he have anything against such a thing, he supposedly sent me to the academy to help me make some friends did he?"

"True, however you must consider your status as well; right now it looks like he's trying to become an important figure in your life."

Naruto nodded. "Well he has succeeded to a degree I suppose."

"Yes, but now Tenten's presence may upset his plans for you."

"You two think he would hurt her?"

Yukimura shifted in his chair. "She is an orphan, so it would far less easier to get rid of her then a child that had parents."

"Do you think he would actually do that?"

Sayaka was the one who answered. "It is only speculation for the moment, however we believe that he has a plan for you; one that would involve isolation that would in effect mentally scar you, the treatment of the villagers would send you to a dark place with his presence being the great light in your life, with you willing to do anything for him. The Anbu guards had to have seen how you were treated at the orphanage and yet he still let it continue not lifting a finger until you were in serious jeopardy and even then he looked ready to send you back while keep the apartment as a back up."

Naruto's eyes widened. "And the academy…"

Sayaka nodded. "Allowing the treatment to continue there would keep you at a certain intellectual level he desired" for a brief moment Naruto remembered the sharp looks the Hogake had sent him when he had made a clever remark, "for every failed attempt he would appear to help cheer you up while also encouraging you to try harder next time, these interactions would strengthen the bond between the two of you."

He smacked on of his right fist into his left palm. "So I could be right, he helped me get access to the library in Konoha to keep a better eye, the people at Ichiraku's could in fact be working for him as well."

"Yes, it is a possibility."

Yukimura spoke up. "From what you've told us about your interactions with him, he seems to be trying to indoctrinate you, he is in effect slowly molding you into what he desires. And the psychological trauma that you could and what he believes are suffering is essential for it."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "All that talk about how great the Hokage's are, I thought he was trying to push me towards wanting the title, and the summons!"

"Yes he most likely has several pieces ready for his plan, including a teacher for you that would share his ideals. That person wouldn't even need to be in on the plan if he was of a mindset the Hokage approved."

Naruto's eyes widened. "If that person was already indoctrinated by the Hokage he would do the same thing to me unknowingly while still believing what he was saying."

"Exactly Naruto-kun."

Naruto clenched his fists. "I knew he had to be up to something!"

Yukimura made a small hand motion. "Now now calm down, we don't have any written proof of this, just observations and logical deductions."

"But it does make sense and I have been thinking about something similar, why hasn't the Sandaime been able to find a foster family for me? Or at least some sort of tutor?"

Yukimura coughed awkwardly. "I'll play the demon's advocate, perhaps he simply didn't think any regular family would have been enough and some may have been against you back then, perhaps he thought that a simple foster family couldn't protect you properly, worse case was that they could very easily functionally brainwashed you into their own tool."

Sayaka scoffed. "Oh and throwing him in the orphanage was a wise move?"

"He could have had his Anbu take care of me, with them spying on me he appears to have plenty of them."

Yukimura shook his head. "It was after the Kyuubi attack, so he probably needed as many boots on the ground as he could get Anbu included and he couldn't simply have them take care of you when they were needed on missions."

"But I still had a guard when I was little didn't I? Would it have been different if I was kept in an Anbu safe house or training room? If I ever snapped the best of the best would be there to cut me down."

Sayaka let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair. "Being in a room filled with killers who have given up their identities may not have sat well with him; you would have been loyal yes but only for because you did not know anything else. He would have wanted for you to love the village first so much so that you would have accepted to become one of those faceless ones if the situation called for it. Love is a powerful emotion Naruto-kun it can help to blind you to the truth; if you loved the village you could have easily overlooked its flaws and forgiven its peoples mistakes. With the Anbu you wouldn't have necessarily grown to love the village, and chances are with their missions and more critical thinking you would have ended up seeing the darker side of the village and been much more willing to go against it."

Naruto nodded. "And if he let a clan take care of me, that would have tipped the balance of power to much to in their favor and so to help maintain a balance I ended up in the orphanage, which also fits in with his plan. Do you the third will let me become a civilian if I fail the academy a third time?"

Sayaka sneered. "Not likely, he could use the opportunities to help give you a few bread crumbs about training and help you graduate thus making a stronger bond between the two of you."

"Like we have said before we believe the Hokage wants you good and stupid Naruto, if he is keeping track of the books you are reading and letting the academy instructors run wild it is because he wants you to only learn what he has approved off and nothing more, a smart weapon could turn against you at one point, best make sure it doesn't happen. Once you graduate a new person would come along to continue your indoctrination, the teacher and team would help create bonding moments thus making you believe that you had bonds with those people. The team would create a sort of family for you with the Hokage's chosen jounin watching over the whole thing to ensure it worked right. I wouldn't put it past him to arrange an accident for one of your team mates to help cement your loyalty to Konoha while growing to distain the rest of the world."

Naruto for his part looked horrified.

Sayaka continued. "Now, eventually he could have brought someone else to advance his plans for you, that toad summoner that he mentioned could give you all the attention you needed if he took you on as an apprentice and would further indoctrinate you. Getting acceptance and acknowledgment at that point, not to mention you could in theory have received it from the toads as well would have further cemented your loyalty to the village."

"So showing my real skills is out of the question for a long time possibly permanently?"

"No" Yukimura shook his head "the Hokage will die one day, and that will bring with it opportunities, you raising your skills slightly to be middle of the pack shouldn't affect things to much, if he tries something extreme like sending in a Yamanaka to mess with your head we have a back plan in store, that persons meddling in your head will have their presence momentarily awaken the Kyuubi. I doubt anyone would try to go through your head again if the knew that the Kyuubi would awaken because of it. Now the problem with Tenten is that he may see her as a threat for his plans if you grow to close too her."

"So what should I do? Stay away from her?"

"Not necessarily, we bring her to a level that the Hokage doesn't mind her presence near you."

Naruto's eye widened again. "I see, if she shows that she's loyal to Konoha and wants nothing else than to bring it glory the Hokage may very well accept her presence near me." He bit his own lip. "But he could still hurt her to cement my loyalty for the village couldn't he?"

"Sadly yes, if he wanted to have you hate a particular hidden village, still considering your situation he may refrain from that as it would send you into a rage and with the Kyuubi present that would spell disaster unless handled very carefully."

"So my chances of making any friends in the village have dropped considerably."

Sayaka placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed slightly in an reassuring manner. "We doubt he would make any big moves against a clan heir Naruto-kun."

"So making friends with them has become even more important."

Sayaka nodded. "He may still allow friendships that he doesn't see as threatening to his great plan."

"This sounds very bad."

Yukimura shrugged his shoulders. "Again it could all be wrong; perhaps he is simply incompetent and everything we have observed are just a string of coincidences."

"No I don't think so, those sharp looks he's sent me when I make an observation that's a bit too clever, mentioning the summons and the chances that I one day may sign a contract as well. He clearly has some plan for me and is making sure it stays on track."

"This is why we will need to tread carefully when revealing her to the Hokage Naruto-kun he has to think that her presence won't affect his great plan."

"We already have a plan for the landlord of your building, so her moving into the building won't be a problem for later."

"The rent and other expenses are a lot for her, if she finds a job it would cut into her training time. I still think her living with me is a better option, she wouldn't need to work as much and she would have time to train, any work she does would help us pay the bills."

Yukimura sent him a sharp look. "You do realize that living with someone especially in such a small apartment has its downsides?"

"I… don't mind."

"Very well, if she accepts we will accelerate things with her training to get her up to an acceptable level, once that occurs if she desires it she will move in with you."

"Do you think the Hokage may try to use a Yamanaka against me or her?"

"If he does we are prepared for such a thing on your front and can do the same for her. Back when we first started healing your mind we created a false front, a Yamanaka visited it several times in while you were in the hospital and couldn't tell it wasn't real. When Tenten accepts we will create something similar for her, this way should a Yamanaka try and enter your mind we will be prepared for the possibility."

"It's that strong?!"

"Yes, currently it has a lot of fake memories there of what the Hokage think you are doing while not under his watchful eye."

"Is it permanent?" he asked hopefully.

"Sadly no it still relies on my power to function; we are helping you to train your mind so that eventually it won't be needed."

"But could I learn to do such a thing?"

"It would be difficult, your training has been strengthening your mind as well, in time you will be able to change your mindscape to various degrees. To do what he have done would require that you learn memory partition."

"What is that?"

"It is the ability to partition your thoughts to form multiple independent thought processes. while normal people can only have a single room in their brain and focus on one thought, partitioning adds partitions to the one room to create multiple rooms."

"So if a Yamanaka were to enter on of those rooms and I make it look good enough they would think that it is the only room."

"Exactly"

"I can't wait to learn that."

"It is not an easy skill."

"I'm not afraid of the challenge."

Yukimura sighed. "It is not about being afraid. We will make some changes to see how to include this into your training as well."

Sayaka was the one who approached the issue they all knew had to be addressed. "Tenten will need to be turned against Konoha as well."

Naruto looked towards Sayaka. "I have already laid the seeds for such a thing."

Yukimura nodded. "As have I."

"Good now I believe this is enough for tonight we may continue this discussion tomorrow evening."

"Agreed, we will start teaching Tenten a few things tomorrow."

"Like what? a sudden jump in skill could raise a few eyebrows."

"We are aware of that, nothing to major, a few trips through the forests to teach her about hunting, work on her basics, reading and writing."

Naruto nodded. "Alright"

In a wide opened hill area with the surroundings battered by combat Yukimura and Sayaka's battered forms started at each other, their eyes having flashed golden for a moment.

"That could have gone better."

"True but it went well enough."

"The conversation about his parents will be far worse."

Yukimura scratched his head. "That's already giving me a headache."

"It will be an interesting one at that, I am curious as to what conclusions he will draw from everything, will he understand his parents reasons, his father's suicidal move and his mother's acceptance of it or will he hate them for it."

Yukimura nodded laying down on the ground. Damn good spar, it pays to have multiple avatars while in the realm. "A day to look forward to, it doesn't matter for now, let's go over how we will persuade Tenten about accepting our offer."

"Well the first thing we should do is..."

Tenten was currently sitting on the grass looking at the night sky thinking about the last few months she had spent in Yukimura's god realm. It had been the best experience of her short life, the second day in the realm she had spent traveling through a forest with Naruto, Yukimura and Sayaka, they had taken to showing her what plants could be eaten and which ones were poisonous. They encouraged her to ask questions if she didn't understand something and would always explain what she hadn't understood. Later on after returning to the house, Yukimura had taken to teaching her how read and write, to help fill in any gaps she had.

The rest of the afternoon had small sparing sessions between her and opponents the two had created, she had been grateful for that, fights did happen in the orphanage and going up against a variety of opponents during the sparring certainly helped her out. Any spar she had with Naruto would usually end up with her on the floor within a few moments after the start of the spar. Naruto was very advanced compared to her, and for the time they wanted her to work on her natural reflex and instincts before moving on to learning actually styles.

Later that night the four of them to her surprise had played something called a board game, called Jenga that Sayaka ended up winning.

To game included loading tray that was used to stack the initial tower which has eighteen levels of three blocks placed adjacent to each other along their long side and perpendicular to the previous level. Once the tower was built, the person who built the tower got the first move, moving in Jenga consisted of taking one and only one block from any level (except the one below the incomplete top level) of the tower, and placing it on the topmost level to complete it. Only one hand would be used at a time when taking blocks from the tower, blocks could still be bumped to find a loose block that would not disturb the rest of the tower. Any block that was moved out of place had to be returned to its original location before removing another block. The turn ended when the next person to move touched the tower or after ten seconds, whichever occurred first. The game ended when the tower fell in even a minor way, in other words, any piece falling from the tower, other than the piece being knocked out to move to the top. The winner was the last person to successfully remove and place a block.

She had to admit that it had been fun, a lot more fun than anything back at the orphanage. Things had continued mostly the same through out the weeks after that, Yukimura and Sayaka would teach her something in the morning either reading and writing, some base math or practical skills, followed by spending some time with Naruto around the house of the lands around it, the two of them often played various games together starting with shogi and other later on.

After lunch she would have some free time to do anything she desired, which mostly included sleeping for her. In the afternoon came more training in other fields, with a lot of sparing, her opponents had only gotten more diverse and after a while started wielding weapons. Towards the evening the four of them would gather from time to time and play cards or board games together, or if not they would do something they wanted.

She had found Yukimura and Sayaka dancing one evening and had been entranced by it, graceful twists and turns, intricate foot movement and the way Sayaka's skirt swished and swayed along with the beat of the music, sheasked the two for lessons after that. The had commented about pleasant memories that involved dancing, and Yukimura being good at it despite his two left legs, something that she didn't understand what that meant.

In the evening she would often find Naruto stargazing and he would tell her about what the night sky held, in the beginning she felt breeze chill her soul staring the night sky. One of the best parts about her stay was the food, it was amazing to her, it made the food at the orphanage look like second hand pig food and she still licked her lips thinking about the barbecue Yukimura had made during the second week of her stay. The deserts were not less mouth watering, for snacks she had eaten a different kind of fruit every night for a month straight. To her joy Yukimura had taught her how to make some of the foods he prepared, Naruto himself showed that he could to so as well. Apparently people back in Konoha didn't have jam and didn't know how to make it either, something that Naruto was working on fixing.

A lot of times she had gone out nature walking with one of the three, so that they could show her more of the fruits and plants that she could find in forests, Sayaka had taken to teaching her the basics about hunting and how to track animals and set traps. She had even learned how to wield a knife and make a wooden spear.

The days passed quickly for her, perhaps too quickly, she still had a hard time believing only one night would have passed upon her return to Konoha. She remembered the day Naruto had left the god realm, the day before that she had helped him cook breakfast and gathered vegetables from the garden with him. In the evening Naruto had taken her mountain climbing, it had taken them a few hours to get to the top, and they had both taken a nap after reaching the top of the mountain. She remembered waking up later and watching the night sky with Naruto, Yukimura's explanation of what lay beyond the sky still baffled her.

Flashback.

When she woke Tenten noticed how the it was nighttime already, the climb up had exhausted the both of them, she had Naruto's jacket on her shoulders. The weather felt perfect to her, not as hot as during the day, a cool breeze swept the mountain top and felt refreshing to her, the air felt cleaner at night. She saw Naruto sitting a few feet away from her looking up the night sky, her own gaze went up to is as well, the sky was clear and the stars shinned brighter then ever, taking a few steps she took a seat next to Naruto.

"It nice up here isn't it?"

She looked up at the inky blackness of the night sky she felt it was deep and ice cold and the sense of darkness to it, yet unlike before when she had feared it, now it seemed to have a comforting feeling to it, the darkness and it's mysteries were a welcomed presence to her. "Yes."

"After Yukimura explained to me about the stars I started looking up towards the night sky as often as I can."

"I still have a hard time believing everything he said."

"I had the same problem as well."

"Knowing it makes me feel so small, so insignificant, like I don't even matter."

Naruto wrapped a hand around her shoulders. "You're not insignificant to me Ten-chan." Naruto snuggled closer to her. "For me it holds the promise of great wonders and mysteries that we can't even begin to dream about yet. It helps to put things in perspective, it shows just how unique we are, out all the possibilities we were born in this world, we have a responsibility to live this life to its fullest because of it, no matter what may come."

Flashback end.

An hour later Sayaka had used her magic to help them get back to the house by creating a door in the side of the mountain, something that still boggled her, actual magic!.

And now her time to leave had come as well, she had traveled back to the same mountain top as she had with Naruto and looked up at the stars. I'll have to give them my answer in one week. She still asked herself if she should accept or not though a part of her already knew the answer, she felt like she had a family again, Yukimura didn't seem to act like the Kyuubi she had heard about.

Telling people about her experiences would probably end up with the two of them in trouble and possibly dead because of it. She needed still needed to return to the orphanage before she decided on anything all three of them wanted her to have some time away from them so she could think about the offer, she got up and began to make her way towards the door to return to the house.

As Tenten opened her eyes she found herself back in Naruto's apartment, wearing the same clothing she had worn months ago. No just last night, I forgot about them when they gave me other clothes to wear. She looked around the apartment by the light from the window she guessed it was morning, a few sandwiches were on the table with a note near them. Tenten got out of bed and read the note, apparently Naruto had gone up to water some of the plants on the roof and had left her some food on the table for her.

That's right he's making a small garden up there, I noticed he already had a few pots there already.

She did a few exercises Yukimura had showed her before going to the bathroom and eating, she considered waiting for Naruto in the room to say goodbye, thinking about what to tell the caretakers at the orphanage about her absence and how she could sneak back in she decided to go up to the rooftop and say her goodbyes.

A brief knock came when she opened the door, by instinct after touching the door handle she opened it and saw a woman in front of it that had a curious expression on her face. The woman had long brown hair that she kept secure with a headband and oblong shaped face, hazel eyes, a small nose and wore the standard shinobi outfit. Tenten narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Who are you?"

The woman in turn narrowed her eyes as well and gave her a critical look. "I could ask you the same thing little girl, and what exactly are you doing at Naruto's home?."

"I'm a friend." she countered.

"Odd he never mentioned you."

"Well I am" she responded and crossed her arms together "what are you supposed to be?" she asked sending her a glare.

"His former academy teacher"

"One of those people who were mean to him!" Naruto had told her how the people at the academy had treated him because of what he contained, even if the woman she now recognized had turned around somewhat.

The woman flinched. "I…"

"Katsue-sensei." The two of them looked to their left and noticed Naruto was standing near the exit of the hallway, his hands looked dirty.

Katsue smiled "Ah Naruto-kun I was just talking to your…" the woman seemed to weigh her words "friend."

Tenten growled a bit at the woman's words, she knew it was some sort of insult.

Naruto smiled. "Yeah this is Ten-chan, she's an old friend from the orphanage!"

Even if she had seen him act like that before his behavior still irked her, she had gotten used to his other personality and now she had to see Naruto wearing a mask.

"Ah I see."

Tenten stepped out into the hallway past the woman and towards Naruto, she hugged him briefly. "I'll see you around." Tenten sent a glare towards the woman before she left the building and began making her way back to the orphanage. She took in a breath of fresh air as she was walking through Konoha, they were in the middle of summer and all of the trees were green. I have one week to think about the offer, better make the most of it.

"Ano sensei, what are you doing here so early?"

"Oh, is someone upset to see me?" The woman faked being hurt.

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "Of course not sensei but isn't this place far from your home?"

Katsue smiled. "Actually it's not anymore."

Oh no.

Katsue got closer to Naruto and knelt on one knee in front of him padding him on the head. "You see I have a little surprise for you Naruto-kun."

Oh no, please no.

"I've moved her, the third room from the blocked out staircase in fact."

One world came to Naruto to sum up his current thoughts. Fuck!

"That's great sensei." He quickly shoved his head into her chest while hugging her to hide his face. Something else that I didn't count on in my plans, this just throws things into bigger chaos. Why did she have to move here? Naruto removed his head from her chest and gave the woman a bright cheerful smile. "Ano isn't this place smaller than what you had sensei?"

"Not really no, it is however much cheaper, my last apartment was on the second floor though and I had better accesses to the stairs. Still I felt like I needed a fresh start and decided to move, this place has plenty of rooms and is much cheaper than what I had before. Plus this way if you need help with anything I'll be right down the hall."

Well double damn. "Oh ok."

"Now about this friend of yours." she began in a more serious tone.

"Ten-chan!" What does she have with her?

"Yes, her, how well do you know her? Does she sleep over? Did she insist on staying over at your place last night?"

What is this? twenty questions? tsk I suppose she's concerned about someone taking advantage of me, admirable.

"Ano, I know her since I was at the orphanage, I think she lived on the streets while I was there, she was my first real friend but I lost touch with her after leaving the place. I kind of insisted she come over yesterday even when she didn't want to, and she just fell asleep after we ate."

"Ah, very well. Now I have to leave for work but we will still meet up for your training."

"At the usual place."

Katsue raised an eyebrow at him. "Not your apartment, now that both our homes are closer?"

"I really like it there, it's so much bigger! And it's green and really smells nice and feels easier to focus there."

"Well alright, for now at least, as a ninja we won't always have the pleasure of fighting where we desire."

He knew he should keep his mouth shut but he still said it anyways. "But now I do, don't I?"

Katsue smiled and nodded. "You're right."

Good another small spark of my so called genius shown, well now I need to change thing yet again to include this in my plans, her presence does raise questions about what I'll do regarding her training during the autumn and winter to keep it a secret from the Hokage's eyes.

Tenten's return to the orphanage had not been what she had expected, apparently the caretakers didn't even notice that she had been missing, such caring people. Even forgetting that part, the place she realized was far worse than the remembered, the house in the god realm couldn't even begin to compare to the orphanage.

Even on her trip back to the orphanage through Konoha, everything looked devoid of colors. She had decided to push past the first few things and try to find something good in the place, after racking her brain for three days she hadn't found anything. The conditions in the orphanage were far worse than she remembered; in part she couldn't help but remember the much better conditions from the god realm.

Now every little problem seemed to jump out at her, she could spot all of the stains on the bed dresses, the floor, and the cracks in the walls, how the wooden doors in the orphanage looked ready to fall apart from one good kick. She remembered the conversation she had with Yukimura about the orphanage and why Konoha didn't change the conditions at the place.

Flashback

The two were taking a break after a trip through the forest in which he had shown her some mushrooms that she had mixed up, during their small talk the conditions at the orphanage were brought up and Yukimura gave her an amused look. "Why change it?"

"Because that place has a lot of problems."

Yukimura nodded. "True, and do those facts help motivate you in any way?"

"Yes, I want to get out of the place."

Yukimura raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and how will you do that?"

"Well I help out around the market and I want to join the ninja academy."

"Why the academy?"

Tenten scratched her head. "Well, it's easy to get in and you get some help with the housing if you enroll at the academy."

"Ah and there we have the heart of the matter."

"What?"

"What they do there is to create the conditions that force you to unknowingly march to their tunes."

"Huh?"

"Think of it, you want to work to get out of the place, of course the only work you find is one that isn't paid all that well, but the people who are hiring you are making a small profit by not paying other people more. Likewise when you decide to work full-time, chances are it will still be in a shop in Konoha as people will have already met you, in this case you will help to keep the store going that is simply another small cog of the machine known as Konoha, and you serve it even without knowing it."

"But the academy…"

"Another place were you help the village by spilling your blood for it as a shinobi, the incentives are there to help guide you towards the academy, if you have enough talent and drive you advance towards the main classrooms, if not and you drop out you could still go back to the shop option, now chances are if you managed to stay in the middle of the pack you could still enter the shinobi work force. Did you know that the Yondaime Hokage was an orphan?"

"No."

"Well he was, so the question is why change anything if it works? If the orphanage was able to spew someone as strong as the Yondaime out why change anything at all with the place?"

"Because the place has so many problems that…"

"Help to motivate you to leave the place, and the only options are working in Konoha and trying to become a shinobi in Konoha, notice the only winner there?"

"Konoha!"

"Yes, so what if the conditions are a bad; if they drive you to succeed somehow then it is good enough; if the children are more aggressive with each other then eventually some will adapt and rise above the rest, something that would help Konoha."

"But what about the others?"

"Life is not fair, some will get lost along the way. If it was a better world it wouldn't occur, all that Konoha is doing is helping the processes along the way for its own benefit."

Flashback end

The next she had went with the other children to the market place to find any work they could and she could see some truth in what Yukimura had said, apparently one of the people that employed them at a shop had been in the orphanage and had worked just as they did, the store owner liked his attitude and hired him full-time to run the store. Slowly they would all drift to some place or another, the caretakers did make becoming a ninja sound like a good choice that had benefits for them, and for Konoha unknowingly to them.

It was during the fifth day that she stopped a fight between some children at the orphanage that the one she aided had tried to pick her pocket; she caught him only because some of the training she received. The child wasn't that strong physically and thus couldn't work at the market place but was somewhat good at stealth, trying to survive he eventually started stealing and getting better at it. Of course to her surprise she found out that the boy had been recommended for the academy. Yukimura's words rang through her head and she realized that he was right. Why change the conditions if they get results.

Tenten considered punching the boy for his attempt but in the end she let him go, making it clear that there would be consequences if he tried it again next time. As much as she wanted to strike the boy for what he attempted to do, she couldn't fault him, they were the same age and she knew that the pressure of the orphanage caretakers added up. The orphans their age were expected to start working somewhere and helping out in the market place was often their best choice but with his weaker strength he couldn't work there, that didn't make the pressure from the caretakers disappear though and the boy had simply become desperate.

She had briefly considered going to the Hokage with everything, but the chances of her being able to see him in the first place were slim, if she mentioned the Kyuubi her chances would rise but that also brought its own risks with it. Chances were high that Naruto could get killed or locked up somewhere until the people were sure that he was a loyal pawn.

Her fate wouldn't be that much better; perhaps she could get treated well for a while if Naruto would get taken down easily and Yukimura and Sayaka wouldn't go on a rampage through out Konoha. But what then, would she be given special treatment in the academy and during her career; that she would always be known as the girl who ratted out her friend, no Konoha would probably view him as the Kyuubi's pawn if they found out that Naruto was close to Yukimura.

She herself still had a hard time believing half the things Yukimura had told and showed her, the chances of other people in Konoha believing him were small, everything he had told her seemed so grand. Naruto would get locked up in a dark cell somewhere if the people of Konoha tried to verify what he told them. She realized that it could well take years for them to verify everything time in which Naruto would stay locked up.

They would mostly likely see everything as a possibly lie, something that wasn't too surprising, one needed to be in his presence to feel the difference between them and him. If they considered what he was telling them the truth, they could still keep Naruto locked up to milk him for information; if he didn't talk they could just keep him locked up until he did.

If the fact that he was a god came up the people of Konoha could be up in arms as it being a lie from the evil creature that attacked them and the chances that Naruto would lose his head rose astronomically, another word she hadn't known before visiting the god realm. This was considering if she herself didn't get locked up somewhere to be used as a pawn against Naruto or have her throat slit.

There was of course the last possibility that she would be sent back to the orphanage with a pat on the back for doing her duty to Konoha and be forgotten, slowly fading in obscurity, her only real accomplishment that she had told Konoha about Naruto, something that would stick with her, it wasn't the way she wanted to be remembered. She doubted that Konoha would just let Yukimura take his biju chakra and leave with it; most likely someone would fight to try and keep it to be used as a weapon.

Declining the offer and continuing on her own just didn't seem like an option, even with just a few months there she had gotten stronger than before, they had taught her a lot in the time she had been there. With that kind of help she could grow far stronger than on her own or with just the academy training and a sensei. Tenten shook her head, she knew that on some level she had decided to accept the offer when she had left the realm and had wanted to say yes to Naruto when she had woken up on the day of her return.

A small part of her had however kept telling her not to accept so quickly, even Naruto while in the god realm encouraged her to think about their offer for the week rather then accept immediately, Yukimura and Sayaka had done the same thing, they wanted her to think on their offer away from the shining lights.

All that did was to make it seem a lot better, when compared to reality, maybe I could continue on my own, it's still a path open to me, but it looks like it would get hampered by one thing or another, and I do have another option available to me one that is far brighter.

At the end of the week she would visit Naruto again to tell him her decision and sleep over again, it just felt like the best choice to her.

Both Sayaka and Yukimura were in the living room at the table playing shogi and drinking tea. Sayaka smiled as she moved another piece. "So she has accepted, the meeting was perhaps fortunate, their bonds are still fresh for her, if Naruto had spent more time here he may have forgotten about her."

"True, and while she may not have been the first on our list because of how her past varied."

Sayaka nodded. "She was still on it, in hindsight she should have chosen her first, because of her status she has more room to maneuver rather than the others who would be kept under stricter observation."

Yukimura moved a piece on the board himself. "In some variations she got adopted I did not want to ruin a potential family for her, life with them would have been much simpler, especially if she stayed away from us."

"That is in the past now, she has made her choice and joined us." Sayaka took another sip of her tea.

"Yes, let's revisit the plan for her."

The small group was gathered in the dojo, the four were in a small circle formation, they were all wearing Gi's.

"Well then we can begin your training in earnest, but like we told Naruto you must keep your full potential a secret until the right time."

"Why?"

Sayaka shifted her position towards her. "The ninja pride themselves on keeping secrets, you could consider it a test of becoming a ninja."

"Well..." she hesitated slightly.

Sayaka continued. "There is also the fact that it would draw a certain amount of attention to you if you revealed too much too soon. Geniuses don't just appear that often, worse because of Naruto's status your association with him may be seen in a bad light for the both of you."

"Huh but why? I can understand keeping your presence a secret but why the need to hide our abilities?"

"Remember that Naruto-kun in the eyes of the village is the jailor of the Kyuubi and thus many will want him to become a weapon, but not a clever one, if he becomes to smart he may get ideas of revenge for his earlier treatment and could plot against them."

"I... " if Konoha made conditions worse at the orphanage on purpose who's to say they wouldn't do something to Naruto as well.

Yukimura looked at her and spoke up since they entered the dojo. "If they wanted him as a true mindless weapon they would have trained him since birth, he wouldn't even be here he would be in some dark hole training to kill people, if not already out in the field doing so."

Sayaka continued moments after Yukimura finished speaking. "If he was supposed to have a normal childhood then his status would have been kept a secret in the first place and never revealed, but that carried the risk that he may not become a shinobi and that he could become smarter then he was needed to be."

Lastly Naruto turned towards her. "And so the last option appears, revealing my status would in effect turn the villagers against him, ensuring a harsher life, the situation in the orphanage would be worse, the academy would be as well. Everything to hinder me in some way or another to keep me from my full potential, and in the darkness that surrounded me there would be one light there."

A memory of their meeting in the market place flashed through her mind, it was something that he had said and that she had found odd. "The Hokage..."

"Yes."

"His presence in Naruto-kuns life would have been the great light that made everything better, the Hokage would visit him at the orphanage, would get him an apartment and would make sure to visit him from time to time. During their meeting he would help to indoctrinate Naruto with a sense of loyalty to Konoha above all else, with the Hokage as his light Naruto would be more than willing to become his weapon."

"But..that...why?"

Yukimura sighed. "Konoha at the end of the day is still a mercenary village and as such it needs money to continue to live, a regular army would get all of it's funding from their country, Konoha does not do such a thing. A mercenaries' morals often bend for the sake of money, a soldier has more difficulties refusing a mission, how could he truly refuse it? a mercenary knows what he's getting into, he knows it questionable but he still accepts it knowing it. It is far easier for a mercenary to refuse a mission; he still has the freedom to do so if he does not desire it, a soldier has to face the consequences if he refuses to do so."

Yukimura caught his breath before continuing. "Konoha is no different then the other villages, when their backs were against the wall with the Kyuubi attack what did they do? They channeled their hatred upon a new born child and continue to do so, believing that their mistreatment of him could somehow make things better, that it would help to heal their own wounds. The Hokage himself needs to keep everything afloat and so he makes sacrifices and balances things out, on one side the villagers can treat Naruto harshly to a degree, something to help take out some of their resentment and on the other side the Hokage gains a loyal weapon. Their oh so called great will of fire is nothing but ashes that a strong wind has not blown away yet."

Sayaka sighed her self then gave her a warm look. "Make no make mistake becoming a shinobi of any hidden village will have its fair share of what people consider darkness, shinobi are called upon to complete all sorts of tasks."

"Then what should I do? I... "

"You want to become strong correct? To be remembered in the history books? Well no one ever said that you can't, you don't have to follow the same path as others have before you."

"I don't?"

Sayaka shook her head. "No, if it doesn't exist then create a new one, walk a different path than what others would have you walk. It will not be easy but nothing in life ever is, Yukimura has told you stories of other heroines hasn't he?" Tenten nodded her head. "Did they walk the path that others laid out before them? Or did they strike out on their own? While it is true that we can use your training as a shinobi to help mask your real abilities, you don't have to let the mask become who you are, do not let it define you. Walk a different path, if you still desire to become a shinobi and believe that you can redeem the name, then do so, we will aid even if that is the case."

"You will?"

"Yes."

"Now let's take a small break before we move on to what your training will cover."

Yukimura rubbed his chin. "Well it is surprising that your teacher has moved into your building."

"And so nearby." Sayaka continued.

"Do you think it is the Hokage? Could she be working for him?"

Yukimura was the one that answered. "Well as a Konoha shinobi she does work for him, if you are referring is she's working with him in the matter concerning you. That is a small possibility, it wouldn't fit with the Hokage's plan of keeping you at a lower skill level that much is certain, unless we were wrong about it."

"No I doubt that."

"So do we, think about the other possibility Naruto-kun."

"I already have, she may be looking for some sort of redemption with training me, moving nearby may actually be more for her sake than my own. It could be some motherly instinct kicking in, or just a string of coincidences."

Sayaka nodded. "With your presence in the building, the number of people living in it has gone down it stand to reasons that she would deduce this as well, and that she could draw the conclusion that the landlord would drop the rent more to help attract other tenants."

"So it's more like a string of coincidences, then anything else."

"Well your actions did help Naruto-kun, you played on her emotions to help advance your plans, your mask worked very well on her. Your presence in the building is another factor to consider, sadly many would view living in the same building as you as something that should be avoided at all costs. Here it's because of the Hokage's actions of placing you in the building and while the landlord could try and make your life miserable he could never evict you as the Hokage could crush him, considering that he hasn't tried anything yet it is possible that he fears the Hokage, is already in his pocket or is more neutral towards you."

"Perhaps, but he could still be the Hokage's man, couldn't he? Just another person to monitor me."

"There is no evidence either to support or deny such a claim, the man would have another key for your apartment to enter it, but a high level ninja wouldn't even require such a thing, it more possible that the man is leaning towards being afraid of the Hokage to try anything."

"Hmm, you mentioned a while back that you had plans for him, what are they?"

Yukimura cut in. "Unfinished at the current time."

"And will they be done soon?"

"Yes, it should definitely give you a small boost when done, we still need to factor in your teacher's presence there, we may be able to use her in them."

"Ahh alright."

"Have you observed anything new about your teacher?"

"No, the same as before, she still looks like she sees training me as some sort of redemption for herself. Her missions have definitely left scars on her psyche and created a deep routed trauma, from what I have observed about her I've come to the conclusion that during in actual life and death fight she may freeze up, the trauma from her last mission has affected her far more then even she has realized."

"Those are still just observations, we don't know if has or has not had a psychic evaluation from someone, if so then they would have spotted such a thing."

"Unless they did and decided that it wasn't bad enough to properly affect her so they let her continue, I wouldn't put it past Konoha to do such a thing."

"That's enough for now you two, we can continue this at a later date, it appears Tenten is ready to continue."

The four of the group gathered in a circle again with Tenten still looking nervous.

"After your arrival in the god realm Sayaka and myself made several plans on how to properly train you and what to teach you specifically. While you may not have noticed he already started with helping your critical thinking ability and laid the ground work for making you ambidextrous. While watching you train before with Naruto we went over several kinds of martial arts that would suit you."

"Why can't she learn the same martial arts as myself? The Echani style may present some challenges but the rest shouldn't be that big of a difference."

Sayaka was the one to answer his question. "Understand that you are not learning the pure martial arts, they have elements from other martial arts mixed in with them as well."

"You are correct about the Echani art martial art, as she is far older then the required age for such a thing, using the time difference here we could possibly help her advance a bit into the art but she would still be miles behind of you."

"We will be teaching you the Niman and Sokan sword fighting form."

Tenten had to smile at that at least she had seen Naruto fight with his swords the last time she had been in the god realm when she had wielded several weapons herself.

"Now the first martial arts we will teach you related to close melee combat is called the Verdanaian strikes, they are by and large reactionary. Intercepting an opponent's strikes, the practitioner will draw the opponent in and let the kinetic energy from their opponent's attacks 'flow through' to their own fist, effectively turning their own attack against them. As a defensive art, this art is taught to mobilize from any stance, standing or sitting, this has already been mixed with Naruto's martial arts as well. The principles here are sound and when try and mix it with other martial arts as well."

"The second is Stava, it first evolved from a series of posture and balance exercises into a complete martial art that encompasses both empty-hand and weapon techniques. Stava however is intended to be a flexible set of principles instead of techniques, focusing on finding the lines of attack and defense in any combat situation and exploiting them to the student's benefit. Stava practitioners begin by learning basic stances and balance and then engage in weapons training by using staffs or cudgels but may in time progress to using battle-axes, swords, and eventually the bare-handed stage. Unlike other martial arts, the Stava stance is one of plain aggression."

"Why didn't you consider this style for me?"

Sayaka gave Naruto an amused look. "She actually did better with the weapons we presented her last time during the sparing than you did when we first tested you."

Tenten couldn't help but to grin a little after that.

"The next one is called Jeswandi, a very 'soft' martial art, it is the product of Bothan civil conflicts. This seven thousand year old martial" both Naruto and Tenten's eyes widened at that and their mouth were hanging wide open, "art was developed in ages past, when the Bothans were constantly engaged in clannish warfare. The style itself caters well to those who are not capable or willing to take damage from a full scale frontal assault. Using misdirection and smooth movements, the Jeswandi practitioner prides herself on her ability not only to avoid getting hit, but to use their opponent's aggression to their own benefit. The proficient Jeswandi stylist specializes in their ability to make a target enticing for their opponent, then being able to remove the target from harm's way and act in a fluid motion to take advantage of their opponent's failed strike. This can be done with simple throws or pushes, or by weaving their limbs into their opponent's form and flexing in such ways that joints or limbs are stressed or broken." Yukimura finished and gave the two a curious glance at seeing their face.

Sayaka chuckled. "I think you broke them with the age of the art."

Tenten let out a squeal of pure joy and started jumping around. "I get to learn something like that!?"

"Um" Yukimura paused for a moment "yes."

"That sounds incredible!"

"It is a rather old martial art, but the Echani isn't exactly a new style either. Now just as Naruto is learning Teräs Käsi or Steel Hand, we intend to teach it to you as well the art is brutally efficient, teaching its students how to step inside attacks to avoid damage while delivering viciously effective strikes themselves."

I wonder if they will train her to use the stealth style as well. "What about teaching her K'tara?"

Yukimura nodded. "It was considered but we decided to go with another style that may suit her better, it is still intended for stealth and ambush, it has the amazing kicks and uses an equal amount of punches, throws and locks to kill enemies quickly and quietly. Besides that we will begin to work more on your mind, as you could probably tell we worked hard to ensure Naruto has a keen mind, no easy task mind you." Tenten giggled and Naruto pouted.

"We already started covering ambidexterity, hunting and scouting before, now we will do what we can to bring you up to Naruto-kun's level, thanks to his time at the academy we now also have ways to teach you about chakra. Though we are still experimenting with some things, other results are very pleasing."

"Well what are we waiting for? let's get started!"

"Very well, now the first thing is..."

In a place surrounded by darkness a woman with long, flowing, wavy scarlet hair that reached to her lower back, with red pupils, wearing an elegant dark red kimono tied with a black sash around her waist stood over a shogi board smiling, the shogi pieces had each turned into human figures, a small white globe of light above the board shed light upon the darkness that surrounded her.

"And so you have chosen your first piece, an interesting one at that." The woman raised a piece from the board that had eyes with a ripple-like pattern which spread over them with light a purple sclera and irises. "I wonder how will she fare against my pieces and those of the others?"

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

The Ten Commandments of Reviewing - created by FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D, post them if you agree and use them yourself

1) Thou shalt point out the parts you enjoy

2) Thou shalt point out the parts you disliked, if any.

3) Thou shalt point out the parts you utterly hated and explain why

4) Thou shalt write with good grammar!

5) Thou shalt not give annonymous reviews, for the authors might want to reply to thine criticism!

6) Thou shalt not flame

7) Thou shalt write a four sentence paragraph minimum!

8) Thou shalt use constructive criticism!

9) Thou shalt review as much as possible, not merely once!

10) Thou shalt voice thine expectations

Wow 14215 words for this chapter. Completion date 07 V 2014 – publication date, mostly likely 5 VIII 2014

- Not that happy with this chapter

- I had to retcon something with the story this chapter; I was conflicted at the start about the issue as it would have raised a few questions about its creation and use before hand.

- Sadly the scenes with Tenten in the god realm were cut short as it would have made the chapter for to large and required to split it and I didn't want to drag things out to much.

- Yukimura and Sayaka don't have solid facts for their conclusions only observations and deductions.

- The new fighting styles are from Star Wars.

Story recommendations:

The Fourth's World By: dripley11

Minato doesn't die in the sealing and continues his reign, making plans to help deal with things, more importantly Naruto has a father growing up, throw in some hints of romance and you have a good story.

True Warriors Never Die By: Kenchi618

Another great one from Kenchi 681, the Bleach cha. feel like Bleach cha. and Naruto is well Naruto, some great fights are included as well.

And So Bind the Chains of Fate By: HMMaster

A nice mixture of Naruto and Bleach, the pacing is a lot slower then in other stories and in my opinion that helps things along, the characters are more fleshed out this way and changes occur from normal canon. The only problem are the slow updates.