Chapter 3

News of Naruto's ascension to Rokudaime Hokage had gotten around rather quickly. The Land of Waves was the first to find out, and then various others including the Land of Moon, and the Land of Spring. Both had been gracious enough to assist in funding, and sending materials needed. As it turns out, Naruto had actually gone back to the Land of Moon during his training trip with Jiraiya. The two had foiled an attempted assassination on the king and prince's life, and now they were showing their gratitude.

Sakura knew all of this because she, and Sai were one of the few people who had access to certain knowledge that the Hokage hadn't divulged yet. The girl was currently checking on her comatose sensei, the former Hokage, Tsunade. Well, formerly comatose now. The woman was sitting up, and looked more annoyed than anything.

"Sensei, you're awake." Sakura smiled.

"Of course I am, I'm not going to die so easily." She yawned. "How long has it been?"

"Almost 3 weeks." Sakura said. "The village is still recovering, but we're safe thanks to the new Hokage."

"New Hokage?" She asked.

"Yes when it appeared you wouldn't wake up, the Daimyo elected the Rokudaime Hokage, he's been making a lot of changes to the village." She said. "Some are questionable, but the others are pretty reasonable."

"Who was made Hokage in my place?" Tsunade asked wanting to know who her student apparently agreed with.

"That's—well you should probably go see for yourself once you're better, the shock might—sensei wait!" she exclaimed before running after the former Hokage.

Konoha – Hokage Tower

"The new Academy curriculum is quite intriguing." Iruka said. "I can see why you decided to make these changes, but why make history an optional class?"

"If they're going to go into battle which they will eventually, I want them to be able to fight effectively, I want them to actually come home successful, I want them to come home alive, and not in a body bag." He said. "We lost 8 genin teams during the attack, they were out on missions that should've been simple."

"I heard about those teams."

"Yeah, the families were notified, it was a hard thing to do." Naruto said. "To tell someone their child is dead, that's why I made the changes."

"Elemental transformation, water walking, tree walking, chakra control, and learning at least three jutsu." Iruka said. "I noticed that you dissuaded us from promoting rivalry, and I can actually agree with that considering how things have gone."

"Students need to learn to help each other because once they become shinobi all they'll have is each other, anyone with a god complex, fan girl attitude, or thinks they're better than everyone because of their birth needs to be brought down to reality." Naruto said. "Iruka from here on out I don't want to see another dead last."

"That's a tall order, but I'll do my best Hokage-sama."

"Call me by my name, you of all people—"

"Sensei wait he—"

The door opened to reveal a very awake Tsunade, the woman took in the sight before her. Iruka was standing in front of her former desk, a desk that was currently occupied by one Naruto Uzumaki. He was wearing the Hokage robe, and was surrounded by paperwork although a good majority of it was stacked on the floor.

"Might be in a meeting." Sakura finished.

"Granny, your awake." Naruto said happily. "I thought for sure I was going to have to take drastic measures to wake you up."

"He picked you?" she asked. "Of all people he picked you."

"Shikaku Nara was the one who nominated him, and from there Naruto's ascension was pretty much set in stone, it helped that the Daimyo actually liked him." Iruka explained.

Tsunade looked to Naruto, something was different about him. It was strange yet felt familiar, it reminded her of Kushina. But, not the good part. The part of her that was supposed to be feared for good reason.

'Could he have—no, there's no way he should even know about her.' Tsunade chalked it up to Naruto being more mature now. Which made sense since he was the Hokage now. He had to grow up.

Naruto glanced at the window. Someone was watching him, and it wasn't a ROOT operative this time. The last one had been dealt with when Boar had 'mistaken' him for an assassin. It was quite remarkable how effective the Anbu was. But this person was a bit farther away, and were smart enough to blend into a crowd. He had to address this before someone got hurt.

Activating sage mode, he locked onto the chakra with ease, and was able to immediately recognize it. He could never forget the chakra signature of his best friend, but he wasn't sure if that was still the case. Sasuke was here, but the big question was why? Why would he come back now of all times?

'Could he have killed Itachi?' the blonde wondered. 'If he did then is it possible that he told him the truth about the Uchiha Massacre?' Naruto frowned. 'If that bastard is here to take revenge then the only thing he'll find is a Rasengan to the gut.'

That's when a thought suddenly occurred to him. Danzo was a going to become a problem, hell his spying was becoming annoying, but there was a chance of him trying something like a coup. If Sasuke wanted revenge then why not at least offer him up that sneaky warhawk? There was something wrong with the old man, his chakra was rotten, and dark like tar. It made Naruto physically sick just looking at it. He had definitely done something horrible to his body to make it more powerful.

'If I can talk with Sasuke then maybe we won't have to fight.'

He didn't want to have to potentially kill the Uchiha, but if it came to it. If Sasuke wanted to hurt the village as a whole then he would have to be put down. Even if it hurt Naruto's heart, he would put Sasuke down for good if necessary.

Konoha – Hokage Monument – Nighttime

"You took your sweet time, I was waiting for hours." Naruto said.

Sasuke had been waiting patiently to make sure that this wasn't a trap. There was no telling what Naruto had up his sleeve now. Apparently he was a sensor now because if he wasn't then this meeting wouldn't be happening tonight. Sasuke couldn't help, but notice Naruto's hair. The red reminded him of Karin.

Naruto had changed his outfit, but it was obvious he wasn't going to give up orange. The blonde was even wearing his Kage robe. There was something strange about it though.

"You're Hokage now." Sasuke said. "It looks like we both achieved our life goals." He leaned against the railing. "Itachi is dead."

"That explains why your chakra is so muddled, you killed him, and avenged your clan." Naruto said. "Revenge is a hell of a thing since you never know who can hold a grudge longer." Naruto sighed. "I know the truth about the massacre."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Found out when I became Hokage, but I want you to tell me why you came here." Naruto said. "I'd prefer to talk this out rather than fight you in hope that we can come to some kind of agreement."

"Agreement, how can you say that when you know what they did to my clan?!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Hey, Madara Uchiha pushed my clan to near extinction, and destroyed my ancestral homeland along with thousands of it's people, but you don't see me vowing vengeance against you." Naruto said.

"That's…" he clenched his fists.

"Don't fight, just talk to me for once." Naruto pushed.

"Fine." He said much to Naruto's surprise. "Talk, and if I don't like what I hear then I'm taking matters into my own hands even if I have to strike you down."

'Talk about edgy.' The blonde silently said. "I can't let you kill Homaru and Koharu, but Danzo is a threat to everyone including the other villages, and can't be allowed to exist any longer."

"Danzo."

"Yeah, I suspect he's going to try to use his remaining ROOT operatives to start a coup sometime in the near future." Naruto said. "I can't outright kill him because of the possible backlash, plus I'm pretty sure he has some kind of body modification because his chakra is dark like tar, it's like bunch of it doesn't belong to him."

"You'd give me Danzo?" Sasuke asked wanting to confirm this. 'Madara said the old man was rotten, but for Naruto of all people to say this…'

"Sure, but there's a catch." He smiled.

1 Week Later – Konoha – Hokage Tower

The sealing techniques that the Uzumaki created were difficult to understand at first, but after studying the scrolls, and practicing. Naruto found himself getting better at the art, and realizing just how dangerous these techniques really were. One such seal, simply called Absorption allowed the user to absorb jutsu, and send it back with 100x time more power. Absorbed jutsu could also be broken down and absorbed to recover chakra.

"Quintessence." Naruto mused as he read Honerva's notes. "A self sustaining energy, she called it life itself." He flipped the page, and read more. "She used it to advance Uzushiogakure's technology, and…it kept her from aging."

This was Interesting.

"Says here it gave her increased chakra capacity beyond that of the Jūbi." Naruto said. "Jūbi—wait there's a ten tails?!"

'Don't yell!' the Kyubi exclaimed. 'And, don't worry about that thing it's sealed up tight so it can never get out; the old man made sure of it.'

"Old man?" the blonde inquired. "You're father?"

'Hmph, you could call him that.' The fox said. 'He created the Tailed Beasts when he sealed the Jūbi.'

"Sounds like a pretty powerful guy."

'He was.' The fox sighed.

"You miss him a lot huh?"

'He was the only one of your kind that I truly respected.' The fox stated.

"When people see you as nothing more than a monster, respect is the last thing you want to give them." Naruto said. "They hate you."

'And you hate them right back.'

"When your only crime in their eyes is existing, right?"

The fox was silent for a few moments before answering.

'You still haven't let go of all of your hate, and resentment.' He stated. 'It's still here.'

"And it'll never truly go away." The blonde sighed. "That hate is going to be a part of me until the day I die, and the best I can do is lessen it as much as possible." He smiled. "I'll have to do something about all that hate you have in your heart too, it isn't good to let it fester."

The fox was silent for a few moments before speaking again.

'It will take more than a few talks to get to me, I'm not like that brat Uchiha.'

Naruto laughed.

"I figured as much." He said leaning back. "It's going to take a while for us to really be friends, but I think we're on the right track!"

The fox was silent, the blonde was tiring him out by just talking. The blonde wasn't going to get to him so easily like he did the others. This required more than talking, and the fox wasn't going to give in so easily.

Now back to Honerva's notes so that he could keep learning. The young Hokage needed to know more about his ancestor, and what drove her to almost destroy the world.

"Destroy the world…" he frowned. "The world is already in danger, and I haven't thought of a way to save anyone."

He sighed.

"Honerva, what was it that made you snap?" He wondered. "Was it the power that got to you or maybe something else?"

Judging by her notes she was clearly a smart woman. So why did she turn on everyone? Did the power get to her or did she discover something that caused her descent into insanity? Would he end up like her?

This was something he feared, following Honerva's example by becoming a threat to everyone. He didn't want to hurt the people he cared about nor the people who looked to him for guidance. It was unthinkable, but a possibility.

He continued reading until he came to another seal she had developed, along with an entry. He proceeded to read it carefully, but within ten seconds his eyes widened. The entry described her prediction of her descendant becoming Hokage, fighting an enemy that comes from the stars, and ruling the stars themselves.

"What the hell?"

This was insane by all means, but a large part of him believed this. He didn't know what it was, but something inside of him was getting excited. And, with good reason. But, first he had to deal with a parasite.

Chapter 3 End