"Know thy Self, Know thy Enemy, Know thy Angel"
by Quick-n-Popular
Disclaimer: "Naruto" and its characters are not my property.
Author's Note: Thank you for taking time to read this story. I hope it's entertaining and my creativity comes through.
Now, on with the story...
Chapter One: Soul Searching and Retrospection
Naruto Uzumaki was deathly quiet as he was brought into the Hokage's office where, not too long ago, he had made off with the village's Forbidden Scroll to meet up with a traitorous, manipulative, sensei. Mizuki.
Having tricked the boy into stealing the scroll, Mizuki later revealed to him a secret kept from him, since his birth; about Naruto being a Jinchuriki who contained the Nine Tailed Kyuubi inside him. Then after nearly killing Naruto's other sensei, Iruka Umino, who came to the boy's aid, Naruto defeated the traitor using the kinjutasu, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, that he learned from the scroll that he had taken; and beaten the man severely.
Now, after Iruka was taken in for medical treatment and Mizuki was carted off to the Torture and Interrogation Squad; Naruto awaited what kind of reprimand he was going to get from the Hokage for having stolen a highly secret scroll of the village's in an attempt to pass a false test to graduate from the Academy despite having previously failed his tests.
Hiruzen Sarutobi quietly sat smoking his pipe as the young blond teen squirmed restlessly in his seat. The Sandaime sighed as he then emptied the ash from his pipe before addressing the boy.
"I'm sure you're aware, Naruto-kun, that what you've done is more than enough to have severe consequences put upon you?" Upon opening his eyes he saw the boy nod, glumly.
He continued, "However, despite your criminal act, you've managed to help us capture the mastermind behind the night's incident and, in doing so, I've decided to absolve you of any charges would have been placed on you for your role into tonight."
The blond's eyes widened and he looked up with relief. "Thank you, Jiji." He said, happily.
Hiruzen nodded and then sighed tiredly as he set down his pipe and folded his hands on his desk. "This night has brought a lot into focus. A traitor working against the village at the Academy." He then looked sadly at the boy, "I imagine you have a lot a questions after what he revealed to you."
Naruto nodded, "Why wasn't I told?"
Hiruzen closed his eyes, "For two reasons. One, we needed to wait until you were at a point where you could handle this kind of information without your emotions getting the better of you. The Kyuubi is a being of complete hatred, Naruto-kun, and depending on the situation, it could try to manipulate you to some degree given the time." He smiled, "I AM pleased to see you're in control after this has been revealed the way it has."
Naruto nodded and then cocked his head questioningly, "What was the other reason?"
The Sandaime sighed and closed his eyes, "The other reason…" He then paused and looked at the portraits of his predecessors on the wall in deliberation before looking the boy in the eyes. "Naruto-kun, the Kyuubi has been tied to this village for a long time, you'll be surprised to know."
Naruto stirred, "….It has?"
The Hokage nodded, "Since its founding, really. The first person who became the Jinchuriki for the Kyuubi was Mito Uzumaki, the First Hokage's wife."
The blond teen boy was stunned, having learned none of this in class, among the times he had paid any attention, at least. He soon, however, was curious by something he caught on to.
"Mito Uzumaki? Uh, Jiji, am I related to her?"
Hiruzen smiled, "Maybe, maybe not. You do bare the same family name but I can't tell you at the moment if you are, Naruto-kun."
Naruto nodded but then asked, hesitantly, "How...many others contained the Kyuubi before me?"
Hiruzen sighed before opening a file cabinet and retrieved a file before bringing it to the desk. He sat down and put his hand on the before opening it and showed its contents to the boy.
"Just one other. Your mother, Naruto-kun. Kushina Uzumaki."
Naruto's body quivered as he looked down at the dossier with a picture of a red headed woman wearing a shinobi gear and a headband with the Konoha's symbol on it.
Naruto audibly swallowed as he asked his Jiji, "That's her? That's...M-Mom?"
Hiruzen nodded before he peeled the picture out of the file and handed it to the boy's shaking hands. He watched sadly as the boy handled the picture as if it were some kind of holy relic. He waited for a brief moment before continuing.
"Naruto-kun, for some reason an incident occurred the night you were born and the Kyuubi was released from your mother as a result. After the Kyuubi was sealed inside you, your mother's final requests from me were that you'd be treated like a hero in secret and be given some protection and anonymity on the knowledge that you held the Kyuubi." The Sandaime sighed, "Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Someone leaked the information."
Looking back, the blond boy finally understood why so many people knew something that shouldn't be so widely known. Well, a lot of people save for him and his classmates.
The Sandaime smiled sadly, "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I hope you can forgive this old man for keeping all of this from you until this night."
Still cradling the picture of his mother, smiled despite the turmoil of emotions going through his mind at the moment.
"I'm happy to being told now, Jiji." He frowned a bit though, "Is it because I'm learning about being a Jinchuriki that I now know this?"
The Sandaime nodded, "You're correct. As your mother's being a Jinchuriki was a secret of the village, you learning about your being one was a condition to releasing that information. Again, I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."
"What about my father?"
Hiruzen saw this coming and thought for a moment on how to answer.
"That will have to wait for the moment, Naruto. He too is a person we're guarding information on and you will know more about him when the time is right. Please just be a bit more patient."
Naruto while impatient on the inside nodded reluctantly before returning his gaze to the photo of his mother.
Looking at the clock on his wall, the Sandaime brought out a tattered leather bound book before speaking to Naruto.
"I will tell you more about your mother tomorrow, Naruto-kun. For now, I only have two things left to discuss with you tonight, Naruto-kun. The first is that I've decided to honor Iruka-kun's decision and allow you to graduate form the Academy and go on to the Team placement."
Naruto's smile brightened.
"Second," Hiruzen said as he handed over the wornout book to Naruto, "I'd like to give you something. You should know, Naruto-kun, that the Uzumaki were known for their talents in Fuinjutsu and barriers; your mother included. In this book are some of her notes on some of the things she studied, along with the things she had learned from Mito-sama before she had passed. Should you decide to venture into seal making, I hope it'll be of some benefit to you."
Naruto, once again, took another item related to his mother with trembling hands. Gathering up it and his mother's picture.
Hiruzen smiled in satisfaction of seeing the boy look so happy to some keepsakes of one of his parents.
' We may have waited too long' He thought to himself. He then stood and guided the boy out of the office as he gave him some instructions for what was to come.
"I recommend you getting a calligraphy set with the three months you have before the team placement, Naruto-kun. I, when I'm not busy, can assist you in practicing your brush strokes until Iruka can help as he has expressed a desire to help you on your time off. Come in on the 12th for your ID photo. Now, I will see you tomorrow."
Naruto nodded and he bid the Hokage a good night before leaving.
The following day at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Inoichi Yamanaka had just opened the shop and began the tedious start of the day before noticing a new customer coming in.
"Welcome." He said. He successfully hid his surprise as to who came in.
Naruto Uzumaki looked around the shop in silent wonder before nodding back at the man.
"Hi," Naruto returned, "Um, I'm needing some flowers for….some family who have passed…" He was awkward as he had never interacted with the Yamanaka before aside from his run-ins with Ino at the Academy.
Inoichi, astute as he was, was surprised that the infamous boy now knew some of his family (due to their sensitive information) but as to which one the boy was told about, he didn't know right now. However, he was glad the boy had knowledge finally.
He nodded to the boy, "I'll get my daughter to help you as I am busy at the moment. Ino! Come here please."
There was a rustle behind a curtained backroom where Ino Yamanaka emerged looking curiously at her father before noticing Naruto in her family's store and raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Hey, Naruto. What are you doing here?"
Naruto surprised to see a familiar face and realizing the other man being her father and this was their place of business, blinked but soon came back to ask for what he came here for.
"I, uh, need some flowers for some of my family's graves."
Ino, surprised due to her knowledge that the boy was supposedly an orphan, turned to her father. "You want me to handle this, Daddy?"
Inoichi nodded, "Unless you want to take care of the book keeping from yesterday?"
Ino grimaced and quickly shook her head before sighing dramatically, "Alright, come with me, Naruto, and I will help you pick out some nice ones."
Naruto nodded and followed after her as Inoichi watched with some interest before resuming his tasks.
Naruto followed the platinum blond haired girl as she pointed out several flowers he could use. Also, explaining their symbolism.
"First, you could use some Aster flowers," Which were purple colored, "They represent patience, love, and wisdom."
Naruto nodded and kept it in mind as Ino directed him to another flower.
"Camellia's are more in regard to a lover who's passed away, so I don't think it'd apply to your needs."
Naruto nodded.
Ino then showed him a white, star-shaped, flower. "Anemone are bought here a lot due to their symbolism of protection, anticipation, and sacrifice." Ino then smiled, "Seeing the look on your face, I'll bet this is one you'll want to get."
Naruto nodded, "You're right."
Ino then showed him the last option, which was a blue Iris. "The blue Iris is one of our newer additions and represents hope and faith." She turned to him and was surprised to be looking over each of the ones she mentioned with a serious expression. Given that he was troublemaker and did horrible at the Academy, it was a bit shocking. Her eyes, then widened as she saw a hitae-ate on his forehead, which she seemed to have missed upon seeing him.
"Hold on a second, I thought you failed the Academy's Exam!"
Naruto, startled by her outburst, grinned sheepishly before thumbing towards his headband, "Some things happened but I got to graduate due to helping out the village on something."
Ino, surprised, but ever the gossip queen, looked interested. "Really? Well, I'm glad you weren't left out. Was this an option available to all of us?"
Naruto shook his head, "I was a special case."
Ino giggled, "You can say that again." She then returned to the sale of her store's flowers, "So, which ones do you like?"
Naruto selected the Anemones due to his mother's protection and sacrifice for him. He decided on the Blue Irises for Mito Uzumaki's memory even though he still wasn't sure he and she were related.
Ino helped him pick an appropriate number of the two and brought them to her father who wrapped them delicately in paper.
"Does your family's grave site have a vase?" Inoichi asked.
Naruto nodded, "My mother's does and so does the other, I was told."
Inoichi nodded and rang up the sale, giving Naruto a discount for being a first time customer.
"Thanks, I'll be sure to come by in the future to replace their flowers." Naruto said.
"You better." Ino said, cheekily, "Do you mind if I ask a question?"
Naruto shrugged, "Sure, I guess."
Ino nodded, "When did you find out about your family?"
"Ino…" Inoichi warned.
Naruto watched as the girl started to retract her question but he stopped her, "I just found out recently, to be honest." He then nodded to her and her father, "Thank you for helping me. See you later at the Academy, Ino." He then took his leave.
Watching the Uzumaki teen leave, Ino recovered from her embarrassment from carelessly asking a somewhat insensitive question and turned to her father who had gone back to his book keeping.
"Say, Daddy. Did you know his family?"
Inoichi paused and considered how to answer. Knowing how hard it was to lie to his daughter after having trained her in their family jutsu and her growing observational skills. He was amused at her sudden interest in Naruto, which was nice considering most of the time she would like to talk about was the Uchiha boy.
He finally said, "I have met them in the past but I can't really tell you anything about them at this time. Now, go finish you're lunch and then go help your mother."
Ino rolled her eyes at her father answering her, yet not answering her completely, and then ending the discussion.
"Yeah, yeah…" She muttered before going to back to their kitchen.
Naruto walked to Konoha's cemetery finding only one visitor. This spiky, gray haired man, was at a large stone that had names written on it and stood still, not reacting as Naruto walked past him to go to a pair of unmarked graves that only held a wooden sign indicating their clan, if they had one, and a vase for flowers. Only the one on the left did, showing the whirlpool symbol of the Uzumaki.
Naruto had been given the locations of the grave sites this morning by the Hokage's secretary, forwarding his Jiji's information to him as he was currently busy as of the moment (for which he wrote an apology).
The boy set and arranged some of the white flowers into his mother's vase. Being unaware of any religious prayers to use and not being particularly religious himself, he settled to just close his eyes and make an internal message to a mother he had never met.
'Mom… I'm finally learning about you. Sorry it's taking this long to visit...'
He opened his eyes a bit later and then looked to the grave site next to his mothers which had no indicator of clan but according to the information he had it was definitely his father's grave site. He made a similar moment of thoughts toward the site.
'Dad… I hope to learn more about you soon.'
He sighed before leaving the area and going to a grave site that was more open as to who was buried there. Mito Uzumaki had a large headstone with her name, life dates, and her clan symbol engraved on her headstone. Signs of her grave site being well taken care for was obvious as there were hardly any weeds around.
The blond teen placed the Blue Irises in her vase but chose to just observe her name and headstone briefly before leaving the cemetery.
Naruto went back to his apartment and was surprised to find someone waiting for him there.
"Iruka-sensei!"
Iruka smiled as he waved in greeting. "Hey, I've finally been released from the hospital and thought I'd see how you're doing. Wanna catch up over some ramen?"
Naruto grinned as he nodded enthusiastically.
Hours later, having just finished a dinner at the Nara residence with her father and mother, Ino yawned tiredly as they made their back to their home attached to their Flower Shop.
Coming through the commercial district, she soon spotted Naruto walking with their teacher, Iruka-sensei, at a leisurely pace with Naruto laughing and smiling as their teacher talks about something she couldn't hear. However, to Ino, she was more focused on something else.
She'd obviously seen Naruto looking smug or laughing at his pranks in class but none of those times reflected on what she was seeing now with the blond teen's body language and the emotion he was exhibiting. The two then disappeared and she continued on home with her family pondering this new observance.
As they entered their home, Ino asked her father a question.
"Daddy, why would someone who seems so loud and desperate for attention be so different elsewhere?"
Inoichi turned to look at her, "Where have you noticed this?"
Ino looked evasively to the side, curling the strands of her pony tail with her fingers, "Nowhere, really. I'm just asking."
Inoichi didn't look convinced but just sighed and answered her.
"Some people, especially those who've experienced trauma or had a difficult life, sometimes present themselves differently in different settings."
Ino looked at the floor in deep thought.
'Is that true? Is Naruto just putting up a front because something has happened to him? I know he's an orphan but is there something more to that?'
After a moment she looked up, "Thanks, Daddy. I was just concerned over something I saw."
Inoichi nodded and then smiled, "I'm glad you're paying more attention to things and people. Just remember that knowing something and acting on something come with their own responsibilities."
Ino nodded.
To be continued….
A/N II: Well here's the slow start. But I'm just working through what I want to write so please bare with me as I navigate through these waters to write the kind of story I want to write.
Thank you for reading.
Until the next update,
Q-n-P
