AN: This one took me a while to get out. I've been busy binging all the movies before I rewatch Shippuden (again).

To "Da besta OrC" who left me a massive review, thank you for that! I really appreciate the feedback, if you'd like to then DM me because I did want to address some of the points you brought up.

A red and white robed elderly man sat at his desk smoking from an old wooden wipe. In front of him sat bounds of paperwork stacked so tall that it was a miracle the paper wasn't toppling over. Around the room sat various other individuals, all doing other mundane and menial tasks. Some were cleaning the facility, others were also engrossed in paperwork duties. Behind the old man were massive windows that reached wall to wall. Through the glass one could peer out over the entire village. The city-goers looked as if they were ants from that distance.

Across the room were two doors, massive just like their window counterparts. On each side of the door stood two men standing at high alert, both in traditional jonin garb. One of the high ranking ninja yawned, his outstretched palm covering the majority of his face. "You feel that?"

The other jonin gave a light chuckle, "Oh yeah, he's moving quick today."

"Yup, only a matter of time until-" before he could finish his sentence the yawning Jonin raised his left arm up to prevent the double door from striking him in the face, "Naruto shows up…"

The other jonin, now stepping forward and grabbing the orange clad boy by the back of his coat, raised a question to the man at the desk by the windows. "Lord Hokage, it seems you have a visitor. Is now a good time or should-"

"I don't care if it is a good time or not!" Naruto yelled, unzipping his jacket and breaking from the man's grasp. He ran to the desk of the Hokage and slammed his hands on it, causing the mountain of paperwork to begin wobbling. "You have some explaining to do, OLD MAN!" He yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the man in question.

Hiruzen sighed, letting out a deep puff of smoke from his mouth. "I suppose you're right, this cannot be put off forever now can it. But, as you can see I am a bit swamped with paperwork at the moment. I could come see you afterwards."

Naruto glared and let a devious smile crawl onto his face, "Oh, this paperwork right here? You know, I can get pretty angry old man," he finished his statement with a little pound on the table, causing the towers of paperwork to wobble even more. "It would be really unfortunate if I, oh I don't know, got so upset I started punching and banging everything around me."

The Hokage could feel a massive sweat drop from his head. "Alright alright, you win." With a wave of his hand he made an order to dismiss everyone from his room. "It is best we have this conversation in private." He brought his hands together in a clasp and within moments the door had clicked shut, and the windows were now black. The only source of light in the room now being a few select places in which torches were lit.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" Naruto asked, amazed at the display of power he just witnessed. He knew jutsu could be used for almost anything, but that looked like magic.

"Seals and exceptional chakra control," the old man chorted, smiling at the fact he could still amaze the youths of his village. "You don't get to become Hokage by just outliving your competitors. I've got quite the repertoire of abilities, not to mention the accolades I've managed to accomplish," he let out a hearty laugh, "ah but that's a conversation for another day. I'm sure you didn't come all the way here just to hear some old war stories."

Naruto shook his head, "You're right, what I want are answers," a serious look casted itself upon the boy, "how come you never told me about the Fox?"

Hiruzen's face scrunched, "How could I? You're just a boy, you weren't ready for such news. You were meant to have a normal life."

"You know better than anyone that the life I had was far from normal!" Naruto almost slammed the desk, his emotions now starting to get the better of him. "The way I struggled, the way everyone looks at me, the way I had to go through life and have no idea why. Well, now I know why they hate me, but I want to know why me?"

Hiruzen stepped over to the boy, placing a hand onto his shoulder. "I'm sorry Naruto, but you were the only option that the fourth Hokage had." Naruto's eyes widened in realization. His hero, his idol, had been the one to mark him with this curse. "The powers of the fox are strong, and he needed a newborn vessel that could handle such a beast. You may not know your parents, but they were incredibly strong shinobi. Minato knew that you would be strong enough to hold the Fox at bay, and he was right," following this Hiruzen squatted down to be at eye level with Naruto, "you are very strong. And I know your parents would be proud of you." Following this explanation Hiruzen took Naruto into a tight hug.

Naruto couldn't hold back the tears that were creeping into his eyes. Information overload was an understatement. "S-so you knew them… my parents, I mean."

Hizen squeezed a little tight before letting go. "Yes, they were incredibly powerful assets to this village. On the night you were conceived they made me promise two things before they passed." After saying this he turned away and looked toward the black abyss that was once the windows of his office. "First, do not inform you of the fox spirit until you were appointed to the rank of genin. Second, do not reveal their names to you until you are appointed to the rank of chunin." His face contorted, purposefully facing away from the blonde. Half truths may have been somewhat true, but they were also half false. The Third did not take kindly to being made to lie, but he had to do what he felt was best for the boy.

Naruto was at a loss for words. "I just don't understand. Why keep this all from me? I feel so… I feel so conflicted. I trusted you like a grandfather, I never expected you to have been keeping all this from me."

Hizen turned around, walking toward the boy once again. "Let me make this up to you. I know I cannot fix the mistakes of the past, but the last thing I want is for our relationship to be ruined because of this. I'll show you just how to use that new jutsu of yours, and a few of my own if you behave during training."

Naruto stood, mouth agape, "Wait, how did you know about my new jutsu?!" The boy's mind was easily distracted. On top of that, the prospect of having even a single training session with the Hokage was something he just couldn't pass up.

"Oh Naruto my boy," he leaned in closely, a serious and grave expression making it to his face, and with an eerie monotone voice he uttered, "I see all that happens in my village."

Naruto gulped, 'Maybe I shouldn't have stolen that scroll after all…'

'Due to unforeseen circumstances the team placements shall be delayed by one week. Please be sure to do any and all preparation before Monday.'

Ino stood in disbelief of what she had just read, "What…"

"Oh, it says that-"

"Choji I can read. I am just… surprised," her tone was calm, albeit very confused. Ino's mind couldn't help but wander back to her encounter this morning. 'There's no way he knew about this right? I wonder if he was somehow involved in this being delayed… or what if the team formations are being delayed because he passed? What if… ' The girl's mind continued to trail off into different possibilities and explanations.

"Hey, everything alright?" Choji asked, breaking her out of her stupor by waving a hand in front of her face.

Ino shook her head and cleared her thoughts. "I'm fine, just lost in thought, why?"

"I don't know, you just looked lost. You didn't even say goodbye to Shikamaru," Choji said pointedly.

Ino looked to her right where a specific spikey haired individual used to be standing. She turned, and nearly jumped when she saw him just leisurely walking away. "Hey, where are you going!" She yelled as she ran toward him, Choji following suit.

"I have some things I need to take care of," the boy's tone was just as lazy as his stride.

Ino scoffed, "Oh, like watching clouds or playing board games?"

Shikamaru shook his head, muttering a few words underneath his breath that Ino couldn't hear clearly. She didn't need to, she figured it was probably something along the lines of 'troublesome woman.' He stopped, causing Ino to bump into him, then Choj to bump into Ino. Glancing over his shoulder he carried a look of seriousness, his tone drastically shifting to match the look on his face. "I have to see someone, it is very important that I take care of this."

Ino stood blanky, blinking a few times in shock. The seriousness of his tone, the words he carried with him. It was all too reminiscent of another blonde. She crossed her arms, "Well, I also have something important to do." After making sure she got the last word Ino stormed off, her pride too bold for her to not be the first one of the trio to leave the building.

Choji stood for a few moments before yawning and taking out a bag of chips. "One more week of preparation means one more week of food. God is real."

Shikamaru on the other hand was already making his way out of the academy and toward the village library. He could not help but shake the feeling in his gut that something just wasn't right. He had never heard of a delay in team formations in the past. This could only point to one of a few possibilities. Either there were issues with the jonin instructors, or there were issues with the graduates. Shikamaru had been well aware of Konoha's 3 man squad formation in the past. Wondering if that was potentially the issue he began recounting his classmates who had passed. There were 26 kids who had passed the exam, meaning the class was one short of having the proper amount of graduates.

On top of that, there was still the issue that Naruto posed. Shikamaru still could not put a finger on why the boy was subject to immense disdain. Not to mention his wild stamina and chakra pool, ability to somehow never sustain any injuries for longer than a few hours. Something just wasn't right with him.

Shikamaru finally arrived at the doors to the village library. A large ocular building with double doors at the entrance. The seal of the land of fire adorned the double doors in the center, acting as a means to keep the door shut. The orange and brick building welcomed ninja and civilian entry, although to gain access to the ninja archives one would have to bypass a coded door which involved having a ninja id and a leaf headband.

With finally having achieved his graduation Shikamaru now had entrance to that part of the library. Or so he thought.

His leaf headband scan was accepted, although his ninja id was not. He pondered the lock in front of him, a blaring red keypad with the words " D" running across it from left to right. Behind him he could hear a slight laugh.

"Ah, looks like someone's antsy about reading up on those confidential archives." Shikamaru turned to see a man with a leaf headband and chunnin garb. He was of average build, short brown buzzed hair and eyes to match. A scar ran down from his left ear all the way to his chin. "Graduation is today, guess you didn't get a chance to meet with your sensei yet, did yah? Else you'd know about your current limbo rank."

Shikamaru looked at the man and wasn't sure if he should feign ignorance to try and get more information, or to just be honest. With this notion of a limbo rank, and that his access code was denied, Shikamaru began to piece together that perhaps there was yet another test in store. "Actually, our team formations were delayed by a week. I wanted to go read up on some information, but it looks like that'll be a problem won't it."

The man rubbed his chin, thinking out loud, "Ah I guess after the trouble that the boy caused it's only expected for the placements to be delayed."

Shikamaru couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "The boy, that wouldn't happen to be a blonde kid with whisker marks would it?"

The man froze in his shoes, a detail that Shikamaru would not miss. "Ah, maybe I shouldn't have said…" the man cursed quietly under his breath before putting his hands together and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

'Naruto, just what did you get yourself into this time,' Shikamaru thought as he made his way out of the library.

"So you're saying if I use a shadow clone to train it'll help me with figuring things out faster?" Naruto asked, eyes widened in shock.

"Precisely. This feature of the ability is a blessing and a curse. You see, the longer a clone lives the more memories that it has. If a clone lives for eight hours you will receive eight hours of mental information at once. Multiple this by a hundred and now you've mentally exhausted yourself by roughly a month. The incoming headache would be… unpleasant, to say the least." The Kage stroked his chin as he explained the technique. The two were still in the room, Hiruzen multitasking, explaining to Naruto and catching up on paperwork.

"How come I didn't get a crazy headache last night then? I definitely made a thousand clones, maybe more?" Naruto pondered aloud.

Hiruzen stamped another page, "I would assume it is a combination of a few factors. For one, your clones will come into existence as exact clones of you. Everyone had the exact same thought: stop Mizuki. On top of that the clones lasted for maybe five minutes total before you were finished. All you saw was Mizuki and a bunch of clones, similar to the clones themselves. The memories you received most likely just blended in with the ones you made. I also wouldn't be surprised if your little fox friend's chakra helped with ensuring you didn't take a ton of mental damage."

Naruto processed the information before snapping his fingers and running over to the Hokage desk. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," the wait continued for almost a minute before the boy continued. "Couldn't you just use shadow clones to do your paperwork? That would free up so much time, and then you would be able to relax, and-"

Hiruzen raised a hand at the notion, stopping the boy. "Naruto, every Kage knows that you should never use shadow clones to do your paperwork. I've seen it before, and the results… they weren't exactly the best."

Naruto pouted, his idea of getting more training time with his grandfather figure vanishing. "Okay, well maybe just for today you can use them. I'm still expecting some training time."

The Hokage let out a laugh before agreeing. 'Just one day of shadow clone paperwork shouldn't hurt… too much right?' He put together the cross hand sign, a clone of himself popping into existence. The clone pulled out a pipe, lit it, then began doing work. The real Hiruzen walked over to behind Naruto while dispelling the seals in the room. The door clicked and swung open, the window now let in light. Before anyone would notice Hiruzen grabbed Naruto by the back of his coat and used the body flicker jutsu, wisping the two away leaving behind a swirl of leaves.

Naruto fell to his knees, nearly vomiting from the rapid movement. He gasped for air and looked around. "W-what just happened?"

The Hokage chucked, "That's just a body flicker jutsu. Something that you will learn, in time."

The boy looked out beyond the field in amazement. The Hokage tower could be seen a massive distance away. "Wow, we traveled so far so fast. How can I learn this?! It would be so awesome to move fast like that, I would be unstoppable."

Hiruzen patted Naruto on the head, "One step at a time young Naruto. While the body flicker jutsu is great for traveling distances, actually using it in combat is an achievement not many can attest to. I can only think of a couple people who have been successful in greatly modifying their combat abilities with chakra. Using too much or too little can create massive issues for the user. Having incredible chakra control is key, something that you don't have."

Naruto frowned at the idea of his chakra control being bad. "Oh come on, my control isn't THAT bad right?!"

Hiruzen combatted him, "An individual who is capable of making a thousand shadow clones, but not even making a single regular clone correctly, has immense chakra that they are incapable of controlling. Don't think of this as a fatal flaw Naruto, it just means that it would be best for you to focus on techniques that require pouring in a ton of chakra, control be damned." The old man knew exactly what to say to cheer the boy up. "Now, let me show you a thing or two."

Knock knock knock knock

Silence.

The knocking continued, louder than before.

Once again, silence.

Ino sighed and slouched down, her back against the door. She figured that it was only a matter of time until he returned. The sun kept moving, but still no Naruto. "I guess it was a long shot." She looked at the door in front of her. Locked, no answer. She was stuck outside, in an area of the village that she very much did not want to be stuck in alone. 'Well, we are ninjas now… guess someone should test his home defenses.' A devious thought hatched in her mind as a smirk slowly tugged at the corner of her lips. She casually took out a pin from her hair and began fidgeting with the lock on his door. 'Not even ninja sealed, come on, this is just too easy.' A few fidgets later and then a click and the door was open. Ino let herself in and immediately her face became pale.

"Oh god, he really needs to open a window." With her statement said she walked over to the kitchen, just to stop in her tracks when she stepped on his kitchen floor. 'I am very surprised this floor is not as sticky as a toddler's hands.' She took a better look around the apartment. Considering Naruto was just barely a teenager living on his own, it was fairly clean. Stuffy, and it was obvious that nothing had been wiped in a while, but pretty good condition all things considered. Ino sighed, 'I just hope this works. Gotta make it up to him, and maybe he'll actually talk to me after.'

Is it extremely weird to break into a friend's apartment in order to try and get them to talk to you? Probably. Even still, Ino figured Naruto would appreciate the gesture, considering how much of an oddball he is. More time passed, the sun setting at this point. Ino sighed as she stepped out of the apartment, locking it in the process, only to look into the dark eyes of Shikamaru?

"W-What are you doing here?" Ino stammered, face red from the embarrassment of being caught. 'I knew I should've used the window to leave…'

Shikamaru countered, "I feel like I could ask you the same thing, you do realize this is Naruto's apartment?" Ino continued to sputter sounds for a few moments, nothing of comprehension. "Whatever, I just came here to ask him a few things and give him a warning about team placements."

Ino took the opportunity to change the subject, "What do you mean, warning about team placements?"

Shikamaru let out a deep sigh, "It's a drag, but turns out there is another test for us to take. I figured I'd warn Naruto, considering one more failure in the academy and he's gone for good." Ino smiled at the gesture, before realizing this also meant she was potentially at risk too.

She grabbed Shikamaru by the collar, "Another test?!"

The sun was setting on three individuals standing near a stone between a treeline and a lake. The stone had a circular platform with the center jutting out on top. The hair of one of the men was similar to the center of the stone, a gravity defying silver. His face was mostly covered by a mask that went up from his body suit all the way to his nose. Next to him was Naruto and then the Hokage.

"You did very well today Naruto, I'm very proud of you," Hiruzen said, hand ruffling Naruto's hair. The silver haired man stayed silent and Naruto was holding back tears. "On this stone there are the names of the fallen heroes of our village. We have one at every training ground, a symbol that reminds us to never stop fighting. These shinobi protected you and everyone else in the next generation. They gave everything they had, and one day this village might just call upon you to do the same."

Naruto choked on his words. He hugged the old man, thanking him. "I'm sorry about earlier, I just couldn't believe everything y'know. I should've guessed there was some reason you never told me."

Hiruzen hugged him back, "Maybe I should've told you before, but that's all in the past now." The two stood in silence for a moment before the silver haired man disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I guess it is getting late," almost as if on cue his stomach began to rumble, "man, we've been out here so long I almost forgot to eat." The Hokage laughed.

"You're right, it might be time one of us returns to work and the other grabs food." The Hokage then made a hand sign and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind a few bills in his wake.

Naruto stood, eye twitching at somehow being the last one to leave. "Well, at least he's paying!" He snatched the money from the ground and began walking toward his favorite place. The sun was just barely going down now, he would have plenty of time before they closed. Even with the extra time he couldn't contain his excitement, and within moments he was running full speed to Ichiraku. He stumbled in, still covered dirt from his training and with beads of sweat running down the side of his face. "Hey ol' man, I'll have the usual, but make it three bowls this time!" A big smile grew on his face. He couldn't help but think about how nicely the day had turned out, despite how upset he was in the morning. His mind replayed the events, recalling his conversation with Ino. He felt bad for being so cold to her. His feelings were definitely displaced.

'Sure, at first her reason for being nice to me might've been because of that, but it isn't like she didn't help me out a ton. Without her I probably wouldn't have gotten nearly as close to Shikamaru and Choji. Plus, helping out with her shop part time really did help me with money. After finding out about the Fox it would've been way easier for her to just ignore me or even hate me like everyone else, and she didn't. She did the opposite! Ugh I'm so dumb.' By this point the boy had completely shielded his eyes with the table, embarrassed and feeling awful about his previous actions.

"I figured you'd be here." A soft spoken voice broke him out of his thoughts.

'Oh great, now I'm hearing voices. I coulda sworn that sounded exactly like Ino.'

"If you don't wanna talk to me then that's fine, but at least listen. Shikamaru warned me of something and I gotta warn you." Ino couldn't believe she was watching Naruto not eat the steaming bowl of ramen in front of him. Something was definitely off.

'Wait, that IS Ino!' Naruto flipped his head up and saw the blonde, a sheepish smile coming to his face. "Oh hey, I didn't realize you were here. I was thinking about a lot of stuff, and, uh," he couldn't find the words to say. A silence drifted between the two before Naruto's gulp sliced through it. "I just wanna say I'm sorry for how I acted this morning."

Ino blinked a few times in surprise. 'That was easy…'.

Naruto began to vent word vomit, releasing all of his concerns and filling Ino in on what had happened earlier in the day. How he couldn't believe the news he heard, and then how heartbroken he had felt when he realized that the Hokage knew about everything and never told him. How bad it made him feel that he lashed out at a friend who helped him. Everything he could think just came right out his mouth. It was easy to talk to Ino like this, she already knew the secrets he couldn't tell anyone else. "That's everything, basically. I don't know why I did but I just felt like I owed you an explanation. But now that's it, everything is off my chest. I got no more secrets, and now that I know about that thing we have no more secrets between us and we can go back to being friends, like normal y'know!" His run on sentence sentences were tough to follow, but Ino knew there was still just one more thing that had to be said.

"I'd like for everything to go back to normal, but there's something I should probably tell you first…" her face now red in embarrassment.

Naruto looked up, ramen in mouth, "Huh, what is it?"

"I uh… sort of broke into your apartment earlier."

…

…

"You're kidding right?"

AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. In the upcoming one we'll get to see what Hiruzen showed Naruto. And now that Shadow Clones are properly explained (and nerfed) I can go about diversifying his kit. Next chapter we're going to see team placements and maybe even some rivalries… ooOooO sneak peak.