Naruto was thinking about the past few years. He was now ten years old, and a lot had changed during that time. He was standing in the temple's kitchen preparing refreshments for Shikamaru and Hinata.
After the restoration of the temple, he made sure to show the place to all his friends and tell them that they were always welcome there. It was mainly used as a place for them to hang out or do their usual activities.
Shikamaru mostly came there to practice some sealing with Naruto. Today they were working on some new lessons together. Hinata was there to show Naruto her improvements in iryojutsu. She was on her way to becoming a great medic.
She was an apprentice under Tsunade and Shizune after showing promise in her training. She planned on becoming a front-line medic. She had great fighting power due to her taijutsu and Byakugan. Shizune was teaching her the use of senbons, and she took the lessons like fish to water.
If Naruto had to rank her fighting powers, she was high chunin in skill but low chunin due to the limitations of her age. Naruto himself had finally got promoted to Jonin. His other friends were all improving as well.
The general base skills of academy students had improved a lot. They predicted that by the time the first year of students of their program graduate, they would all be at a high genin level. Tsunade had taken charge of the hospital and was already working on making active shinobi become competent in first aid. The results were obvious. The mission success rates and the number of critical injuries had decreased.
Itachi and Shisui were both ANBU captains now. They were busy training with their teams and taking missions. Their conflicting schedules limited the amount of time they could spend time together. They still did their best to train together and work on their skills.
Sometimes they would just use their time to hang out and not do anything since they were all tired. Naruto was also sent on many missions across the nations. Most of his missions had political nature or high importance.
He was becoming quite well known. He had visited all the nations and was currently listed in bingo books as a B-rank Jonin. He was trying to downplay his abilities and skills. It was common practice among many shinobi.
While being recognized could have the advantage of being famous to the village and deter enemies or intimidate them in confrontations, it also meant that people would know about your techniques and what to expect in order to counter them.
Outside the village, Naruto mostly stuck to kenjutsu and fuinjutsu. He only used his spear for fights to hide the fact he was proficient with multiple weapons. He was keeping the picture of being an Uzumaki since it was one of their traditional weapons.
During the last years, he visited all the five major villages, which gave him a chance to evaluate his clone spy network. His clones were all in their designated positions, both as civilians and shinobi. Of course, the shinobi clones tend to stick to lower ranks.
They couldn't risk high degrees of injury even though the shinobi ones were all blood clones. They inclined towards chunin-level desk jobs. Through all this information, Naruto had a great outlook on what was happening in each village.
A shocker for him was the news of Zabuza and Mei's marriage. During his time in Kiri, he noticed the two were close, but he didn't know the extent. Mei was the current Mizukage, and Zabuza was her righthand.
His clones in Kumo and Iwa didn't have anything of great interest, but his clones in Suna managed to improve the relationship between the sand siblings. When he first started sending out his clones, he managed to give himself an opportunity to go to Suna while a clone took his place in Konoha.
He snuck into Garaa's room when he was alone, and a few prepared seals and a brief confrontation later, Naruto managed to fix his seal. Of course, he had to use a complicated seal that didn't alter the current seal's appearance.
He also had to make sure it would be invisible. It would allow Garaa to sleep and also keep the beast and the host separate. Naruto also had a quick chat with the Bijuu, which was eventful, to say the least.
Life was getting better for Naruto. he was publicly known as the heir of Danzo and ROOT, which was another change. After getting the approval of the daimyo, the existence of ROOT was revealed to those deemed necessary.
The clan heads and the ANBU. Of course, since it was a village secret, no one was allowed to talk about it. Itachi and Shisui were a bit apprehensive when they first learned about Naruto's direct involvement in ROOT.
They were aware of some basic stories about ROOT through Kakashi and Tenzo. They didn't have clearance to know more. They always thought that Naruto was just an heir to Danzo. It was a lengthy conversation.
Naruto had to apologize to them profusely, but they understood better than anyone. They were ANBU, and they weren't allowed to discuss their job with their family or even Naruto. Of course, Naruto knew that they were ANBU, but they weren't allowed to talk about their missions.
Naruto took a batch of cookies from the oven. Cooking was always important to him. During the war, they started this small ritual with his friends. They didn't have time to spend with each other with back-to-back missions and the amount of work they had to do.
It was hard to spend any time with each other, so they came up with this plan. Whenever they were together, even if there were only two of them, they would at least make one meal together. The food supplies were short, and there wasn't time for fancy meals, but they kept the ritual.
They would take whatever ingredients they had and make the meal together. This allowed them to ensure they were all eating since some of them tended to starve themselves to ensure there was food for others. They would lie that they have eaten and give their food to others.
Sakura and Ino were the ones who reprimanded them as the medics. They all made the pact to make the food and eat it together whenever they could. It also was an opportunity for them to spend time together.
At that point, they all carried a variety of seals with them at all times, so whenever they had missions, they would try to gather some rare or exciting ingredients. They all learned how to cook with what they had.
Most of what they made was soups with dried herbs and bones since meat was rare. It was watery, but it would keep their stomachs full. It was hard to come by protein sources or fresh vegetables, but they made do with what they could find.
This was why Naruto made a point of making food for his friends in this lifetime. Although they would never know the reason, it was a promise Naruto made, and he intended to stick with it. Every time without fail, if it was time mealtime when he was with his friends, he would have something prepared.
He sometimes would make them snacks or foods to take with them and eat later, but it was his job to ensure they ate well. During the war, some fights went on for days. There was no time to eat, sleep, or even rest for a few minutes.
Many died due to sheer exhaustion. Naruto could still feel the hunger sometimes. The emptiness in his stomach and nausea from not eating for so long. It hurt to see the state of malnutrition in all his friends. They were all skin and bones holding on to shreds of life.
It was one thing to fall on a battlefield and another to slowly die due to deteriorating health. They were alive, but they were dying little by little, becoming a shell that was just pushing forward. They didn't even know what they were fighting for. They just kept pushing.
Naruto would make sure that it would never happen again. War and conflict were a part of life, but a fight for the survival of the whole of humanity wasn't. Humanity wouldn't be threatened by the whims of gods. Life should continue.
Naruto put the snacks and some tea on the tray and headed to where Shikamaru and Hinata were playing shogi. Hinata was still shy and soft-spoken, but she was growing into the fierce tigress Naruto knew.
Speaking of tigers, about three months ago, Naruto gave her the tiger summoning contract as a sort of graduation gift. When they first started training together, Naruto told her that she would graduate from his training when she managed to make his back hit the ground in a spar.
It was an exciting fight, and Naruto had to release his seals a little to keep up with her relentless attacks. He was in a state of dodging and counterattacks when Hinata used a burst of chakra to augment her speed and slide into his defenses, hitting him in the stomach.
It was a brutal hit that made Naruto lose his balance. He didn't know she learned these sorts of techniques from Tsunade. He congratulated her and gifted her the contract. Since then, she had become even more fierce.
Her style was a combination of flowing movements and hand movements. Much like suiton, she could crash or flow. She leaned toward a particular defensive style where she lured the opponent in and would use close quarters to deliver vicious attacks.
Naruto watched the game between them. Naruto could still beat Shikamaru, but now their games were fifty-fifty. Naruto knew that soon enough, Shikamaru would surpass him, and he wasn't sad about it. It was still fun to play and test themselves.
Naruto even went to the Nara compound a few times to play with Shikaku. He was trying not to fall behind, so he was trying to rope everyone into the game. He played with Itachi, Shisui, and even Fugaku a few times.
His best memory was perhaps going to the Hyuga compound after giving Hinata the contract and playing with Hiashi. Naruto didn't expect it, but he lost the game. He was later told that there was a monthly shogi game going on between the clan heads after the third shinobi war, so most of them were pretty adept in the game. Naruto had a hard time thinking of Tsume playing the game, but after losing a game to her, he made a point of not underestimating her.
By now, Naruto was familiar with all the clan heads since he had a seat in the council. It was troublesome, just as his Nara friend would say, but he didn't have much choice with Danzo breathing down his neck.
Even Tsunade was in the meetings. She was serious about making a change to the village and wasn't afraid of telling anyone off. With Two of the sannin in the village and the third visiting regularly, she had quite the power and backing.
The most important news was perhaps about Itachi. He was offered an apprenticeship under the Hokage to take the hat when he was deemed ready. He was still an ANBU, but he was a co-captain with another ANBU for the time being, which reduced his number of missions and gave him more time to be in the village and with the Hokage to learn different lessons.
Naruto knew that it was only a formality, and they were only waiting for Itachi to reach his 20 before giving him the hat. Danzo was fuming at first at the idea but finally calmed down after thinking about how it would be easy for Naruto to take over once he himself came of age due to his closeness to Itachi.
It was also helpful to know it was a possibility since Itachi was still the heir and had to take care of his clan and police force and couldn't do so if he was the Hokage. His father could take care of those duties for the time being, but Uchiha was traditional, and as the firstborn, Itachi was the only person accepted to take on those roles.
Naruto didn't want to think about it. He wanted to enjoy his time with his friends. He closed his eyes close and relaxed. The temple's seals usually limited his sensing abilities, but he made a point of constantly checking around.
That was when he felt it. "Shikamaru, Hinata. I need you both to listen to me carefully and do exactly as I say." Naruto said in a severe tone.
