The Sandaime smiled wearily as he watch the young boy dressed in rags, excitedly exclaim over his new accommodation. 'Oh Minato how we have failed you,' sighed the Hokage silently as he waited for Naruto to finish exploring his new apartment. It was not a very large or fancy apartment, built as emergency accommodation after the Kyubbi attack, it could best be described as Spartan at best and yet its new owner clearly loved it.
Meanwhile Naruto at that moment was lost in nostalgia. 'Wow I haven't seen this for a few years,' thought Naruto fondly as he ran his hand gently over the end of his bed. 'Not since the complex was destroyed in the Pain attack.'
"How is it, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked with a kind smile. The two had only reunited today, with the Sandaime being pleasantly surprised to hear that Naruto's living conditions were not as bad as he originally thought, and how Naruto had somehow built his own living space and survived on his own.
Intrigued, he had asked Naruto to lead him to his cabin. To his surprise, it was almost strategically placed in a section of Konoha's forests that hardly anyone entered, but Naruto couldn't have know that…could he?
"Its great! Thanks Old Man," Naruto exclaimed, recalling the Hokage to the present.
Giving the boy a warm smile, Sarutobi Hiruzen ruffled Naruto's sun-kissed blond hair. "I'm glad you like it Naruto, now, there are clothes in your room, Why don't you wash up while I go and do some work and I'll come back in an hour or so to take you out for dinner?"
"Great!" exclaimed Naruto as he dashed off to his room.
The smile fell from the old man's face as he turned to the door and ordered his Anbu to assemble in his office. 'A watch will need to be organised,' mused the Hokage, 'He cannot be allowed to fall off the radar again. Anything could have happened to the boy.' And with that thought he and his escort shushined away.
Naruto's apartment building was located on the edge of the academy complex, built as emergency housing for homeless ninja after the Kyuubi attack. His apartment was on the top floor of the apartment building furthest from the stairs. Making it easy for the ANBU team assigned to guard him to do so. The apartment itself was small, being comprised of a combined living area and kitchenette, a small bathroom and one bedroom. It was sparsely furnished, but comfortable.
The front door opened onto a long room, approximately three metres by six metres, with two windows flanking the door and two doors on the opposite wall leading to the bedroom and bathroom. To the right was the sitting area, it had a two seater brown couch pushed up against the wall with a side table at each end and a red fire symbol wall hanging above it. In front of the couch was a round beige rug with green trimming and a large green leaf symbol in the centre and against the back wall was two large bookcases on either side of the bedroom door.
To the left of the front door was Naruto's kitchen comprising of a sink under the window with a cupboard underneath, a small worktop with two more cupboards underneath along the side wall with two upper cupboards above it, a small gas range, a small refrigerator by the door to the bathroom and a rubbish bin just by the front door. In the middle of the space was a small four seater table and chairs.
His bedroom was even more sparsely furnished with only a single bed, a side table, small wardrobe and a chest of draws at which Naruto now stood. "Ah I remember this!" he exclaimed happily as he pulled out a white t-shirt with the fire symbol on the front and a pair of orange cargo shorts. "This was my uniform for the first few years of the academy before I outgrew it and needed to buy my own outfits. I should really get something in black and orange like Ero-sannin got for me." Naruto said wistfully to himself as he moved toward the bathroom to wash up.
It may not have been the most fancy of places but the apartment was now home once more.
After a quick wash, Naruto dressed himself before Kurama reminded him to check what he had available in his new apartment. Naruto mentally slapped himself for forgetting to do that, Kakashi-sensei had always emphasised the need to inventory available resources when entering any new situation.
His bedroom contained one bed with two pillows, sheets and one blanket, with a spare blanket in the wardrobe as well as a couple of towels.
"This is not enough for the winter brat. It seems that the person who prepared this apartment knew who it was for." Kurama growled.
Naruto shrugged, used to the hate and fear of the villagers. In fact, it was so prominent he could actually see and smell their hatred and anger, so much so that it was almost suffocating, another reason why he had decided to retreat to the forest for an extended period of time.
Moving on, he opened the chest of draws on the wall facing the bed, finding 6 pairs of grey shorts with inner lining, along with 6 white T-shirts with the Uzumaki symbol on the front. By the bedroom door he found a pair of child-sized, blue ninja sandals.
"These look of higher quality, probably commissioned by your Third Hokage, still it looks like the supplier decided to try and make you suffer in the cold, or worse." Kurama let out a snarl at evil humans could sometimes display.
"Its all right Kurama. I just need to show them that they don't need to be afraid. Breaking the cycle of hate starts with us remember?" Naruto said, but it still hurt, being ostracised and mistreated like this.
In the bathroom he had five packets of soap and two bottles of shampoo, two tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush and one hair brush in the cupboard beneath the sink as well as a small first aid kit. "Well at least I have enough toiletries to last a while," he said to himself.
The bookcase nearest the couch was empty waiting for Naruto to fill it with training scrolls and academy books, but the bookcase between the two doors was half filled with scrolls and books. At head height Naruto fond a set of maths, reading and writing primers as well as a beginner's cookbook and a scroll detailing basic home maintenance such as cleaning techniques and reminders too turn of taps and lights before leaving the apartment. 'To bad I couldn't use these last time, they would have been handy.' On two shelves below the books, Naruto found reams of paper, blank scrolls, a box of pencils and a beginner's calligraphy set.
In the kitchen Naruto found some basic cleaning products and a bucket below the sink as well as a step stool so that he could reach the taps. The next cupboard contained set of four plates, bowls and cups and in the draw above Naruto found four sets of chopsticks, four spoons and a set of cooking utensils. In the last lower cupboard he found a small kettle, a wok and three cooking pots of various sizes, of which only the kettle had been used in his previous life.
Naruto then dragged over a chair so that he could reach the upper cabinets. The top shelf of the first cabinet was packed solid with ration bars of various flavours and the lower shelf with various varieties of cereal. Naruto let out a loud whoop as he opened the second cabinet to find it chock full of instant ramen cups, premium brand.
'I haven't had some of those flavours for a while,' thought Naruto as he hopped down, 'but I wish there was a little more variety like maybe some rice or canned foods. Oh well, I'll just have to collect my own food from the forest.'
Whilst true that Naruto's early diet consisted almost entirely of ramen, leading to his severe lack of growth the first time around, and though he did in fact love ramen, instant ramen he could take or leave. It was not till Naruto's travels with Jiraiya that he was able to sample the many other foods on offer and obtain the nutrients that his starving body craved, leading to his late growth spurt that surprised so many on his return.
For much of his childhood instant ramen was his only option owing to his inability to cook and as it was the only thing sold to him, albeit at an inflated price, that was guaranteed not to be spoilt or just past it's use-by date.
Last but not least Naruto moved to examine the contents of his small fridge, which of course, was empty. Naruto sighed, "Well, I can just continue to hunt and forage for food in the forest I guess."
Naruto looked at the time on the clock above the stove and saw that he still had half an hour or so till the Hokage was due back. He walked over to the bookcase and grabbed a pencil from the box and a couple of pieces of paper and sat down at the table to practice his hand writing while he waited for the Hokage to arrive.
'Once I get control enough to write properly I can move on to brush work and hand sign practice,' he thought with a sigh, 'one step at a time I suppose, at least I'm learning patience at last.' He chuckled to himself as he finished one page and moved onto the next.
When the Hokage arrived a little while later to pick up Naruto he smiled proudly to see him so industrious. "So Naruto, what would you like to have for dinner?"
"Ramen!" cried Naruto excitedly as he jumped up from the table and hurried over to the Hokage's side.
"Ramen it is." chuckled the Hokage as the two made their way out the door.
As they left, Hiruzen mentally noted how Naruto was not dressed for the winter, seeing as only his upper body was bundled up, and how he was wearing shorts. He also noted how Naruto didn't seem to mind. "Perhaps he has built up a tolerance to the cold after living in the forest for so long." he mused. "Or perhaps it is a side effect of the kyuubi being sealed in him." He decided to ignore it for now.
"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, how m-may I help you, Hokage-sama?" greeted a now nervous Teuchi Ichiraku as he took note of his newest client. His usual friendly welcome had tapered off in shock at seeing the Sandaime Hokage of all people in his modest ramen shop. While Hiruzen did visit the village restaurants, he had rarely if ever visited the cheaper restaurants, seeing as most eating outs had occurred in the company of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, his old teammates, and had served more as formalities to their usual round of back-and-forth bickering over his policies than a pleasant lunch with old friends.
"I'd like to order a bowl of ramen for Naruto-kun here, as well as another for me," offered Hiruzen with a kind smile as he took his seat at one of the stools in front of the counter and hoisted Naruto onto another; it wasn't the first nor the last time civilians would scramble in front of him, and he had been on the receiving end of this behavior for what was soon to be three generations. His response to a person scrambling over themselves due to his presence was as natural as making hand seals to the aged Kage at this stage of his life.
"Coming right up!" said Teuchi as his bluster quickly returned. Gazing down to his side, Teuchi pointed towards the sink where a clean stack of ramen bowls sat. "Ayame, help me prepare the bowls," instructed Teuchi to a small white bandana that seemed to be bobbing around the restaurant hurriedly as Hiruzen sat a little straighter up to see peculiar sight. Standing next to the ramen chef was a young girl who couldn't be older than ten years old at the stove as she quickly began to set out the bowls and chop vegetables.
"Your apprentice?" asked a curious Sarutobi as he glanced up to see the ramen chef's gentle smile as he gazed down at the girl.
"No Hokage-sama, this is actually my daughter. I'm teaching her how to run the stand so that she can take over once I'm old and grey," answered Teuchi with a warm smile in his daughter's direction. Teuchi turned back around to get started on the two bowls but noticed that his daughter was starting to sweat and looked rather tired.
"Ayame, come sit down and take a break to eat dinner; say hello to the Hokage and young boy I was telling you about, Naruto." said Teuchi while Naruto nodded with a grin on his face. (Ayame had only just started helping at the stand and had not met Naruto before)
Stepping out from behind the counter, the brown-haired girl plopped down on the stool next to Naruto with a tired sigh. She was dressed in white kitchen clothing and an apron, and her face was lightly covered with sweat and grease. Despite her poor appearance and apparent exhaustion, she turned to the young boy and mustered the energy to give him a small smile as she introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Ichiraku Ayame. What's your name?"
"I'm Uzumuaki Naruto! It's nice to meet you Ayame-chan!" said Naruto happily, shooting her a friendly smile.
Naruto continued to smile at Ayame as she slowly felt the growing desire to cuddle the little blonde with the angelic smile. "Kawaii!" She screamed mentally.
However, to her idsmay, her father reminded her that she had to return home and finish her homework. Sighing, she finished her ramen at a speed that put Naruto to shame.
"I need to go home first, Naruto-kun, but you'll be seeing me again, ok?"
"Alright, Bye Ayame-chan! See you soon!" Naruto replied, waving as she left.
The blond was feeling down since he was looking forward to reconnecting to his Ayame-neechan again.
That is, until a bowl of ramen was set down before said blonde by Ayame's father. Naruto's eyes had followed the bowl of ramen since he noticed it in Teuchi's hand all the way to its being placed in front of the boy. Teuchi had barely let go of the bowl when the young boy pounced and began to devour his meal.
Soon, both Naruto and the sandaime were happily inhaling the two bowls of rich, steaming, noodlely broth placed before them.
"So Naruto," started Sandaime after a moment of silent eating, "How do you like your new home?"
"It's great Old Man, thank you so much." exclaimed Naruto happily.
"You are most welcome Naruto. Is there anything else you can think of that you would like?" asked the kindly old man.
"Well," started Naruto hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"I would like to a shinobi, please Old Man." said Naruto in a rush.
"Do you know what it means to be a shinobi?" asked the Hokage gravely, somewhat taken aback.
"Hai, it means I would become stronger and able to protect everyone." exclaimed Naruto excitedly waving his hands in the air.
"Everyone means even those that dislike you, Naruto," clarified the Hokage gently.
The smile fell from Naruto's face as a look of sadness overcame his young features. "They don't mean too Old Man," said Naruto gently, "They are only sad and frightened. If I protect them and their precious people they won't have to be sad or frightened ever again and then I'll be able to free them from their hate, believe it."
'Oh my,' thought the Hokage, "Very well Naruto I will allow you to become a ninja. But remember it is a great responsibility and so you must work very hard."
"Hai, Old Man, thank you." cried Naruto as he launched himself forward and hugged the Hokage exuberantly.
"Your parents would have been so very proud of you Naruto," the Hokage chuckled as he ruffled the young boy's hair affectionately.
"You knew my parents?" asked Naruto innocently.
"Indeed I did. But before you ask, I'm sorry but I can't tell you who they were until you are older but know that they were great people and loved you very much. They were heroes…" The old Hokage looked to the sky as his eyes became moist. "They were the best shinobi our village had to offer."
Naruto had stopped slurping his ramen, listening intently to his jiji.
"Ah." The Sandaime suddenly exclaimed. "Before I forget." He then pulled a red book out of his sleeve, a book Naruto knew all too well.
The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi
The first book ever written by Jiraya-sensei
Naruto wordlessly received the gift as the Sandaime ruffled his hair with a warm smile. "Happy belated birthday, Naruto-kun."
"Thanks..jiji." Was all Naruto could choke out, his tears dripping onto his new grey shorts.