AN: Sorry this took so long to get out, I was stuck on one part and rewrote it many times before deciding on something that sounded at least somewhat okay in my head. I can't promise that the next chapter will be out soon but it shouldn't take nearly as long as this one did to write. Thank you all for your patience and please leave a review!

Italics - thoughts/letters/books/scrolls

Bold - Demon speaking

Bold Italics - Demon thoughts

Underline - Jutsu

-The Next Few Months Before the Academy-

In the time remaining before the academy starts, Naruto's life seems to get a bit better. The villagers still don't treat him well but he doesn't expect them to just get over their fears anytime soon, not until he has a chance to prove to them that he isn't the Kyubi itself. He has a handful of shops he can go to that won't just kick him out and the Ichirakus have treated him like a normal person. He has visited Ichiraku Ramen quite a few times over the years since Shisui first brought him there on his fifth birthday. It's the only place he feels truly accepted within the village walls currently.

His training with Shisui has continued as it has for the last year. A rotating schedule of sparring and chakra control.

His sparring has slowly increased in both speed and danger. With the addition of kunai in the spars, and every so often his tanto just so he can get used to the weight in combat scenarios, with this the risk of injury has drastically increased than if they stuck to standard full contact or blunted weapons. Luckily there have been no major injuries yet, only some minor cuts and bruises on Naruto's end.

For chakra control, he's still doing only tree walking but Shisui has said that he has nearly mastered the exercise to his standard. Naruto also discovered that mastered in Shisui's mind meant going up and down for an hour and then learning to sit vertically on the tree for another thirty minutes.

The afternoons are still where history, weapon throwing, and learning the katas for and practicing Shisui's chosen kenjutsu style are happening. Even though he hasn't said it to Naruto yet, Shisui is extremely proud of the boy's dedication and drive to learn all he can. It'll still be a few years before he is truly combat-ready in any field but great progress has been made. In the evenings, while alone in his room at the orphanage, he either reads the beginners' sealing book or practices calligraphy.

Of course, like most things in this accursed world, not everything has been going great recently. For starters, the matron at the orphanage was suddenly replaced one day and none of the kids know why. Naruto actually kind of liked the lady who used to work there. While she didn't go out of her way to make him feel special like some of the other kids, she didn't treat him badly for his situation either. The new lady in charge however would go out of her way to make his life harder. Whether it would be not letting him play with the other kids, making him clean up after everyone else, or serving him smaller portions of whatever meal was made that night.

The changing of the matron wasn't all that had happened though. At one point, Shisui had to postpone his training for one week because he was assigned an important mission. Now, normally something like that wouldn't affect Naruto at all, besides the lack of training for however long the mission lasted, but Naruto decided on the second day to take a walk to the Hokage tower to see his Jiji and continue his studies into seals. He wanted the Sandaime's opinion on where he stood on calligraphy before even making his first seal anyway so why not spend some time with the old man while he works. It was on his way to the tower that he noticed the villagers were a bit more vocal about their displeasure with him and that he most likely would be entering the ninja academy soon. While he normally would've shrugged off the insults, one conversation, in particular, did catch his attention.

"Hey, isn't that the demon brat over there?" One civilian said to another.

"Ya, I think it is. Have you heard it might be joining the academy this year around?"

"I have and I don't like that thing being around the other kids, Someone needs to take care of him before he can gain any knowledge or strength and decides to take its revenge on us. We should really finish what the fourth started."

"Someone should but that isn't gonna happen with Hokage-sama wrapped around his finger and his ever-present guards hiding somewhere." The second civillian said before whispering something that Naruto missed, he however didn't miss the evil glint in the first civillian's eyes in response to what the other said.

All Naruto allowed himself to do in the moment was inwardly sigh and think "If they knew I could already fight like an experienced academy student" He shook his head quickly, getting rid of that thought already guessing the reactions if anyone knew, and continued toward his destination with a small forced smile on his face and while he'd never show it in front of the villagers, that conversation did anger him a bit but there's nothing he can do about it without them using it as a sign that he's the Kyubi.

-Meanwhile Deep in Naruto's Mind-

A single red-slitted eye opened and looked at its surroundings, inspecting its current prison. What it saw wasn't terrible when compared to its previous prisons. It may be trapped behind the seal like a caged animal, which admittedly is exactly what it is, but at least it's not pinned to a moon or sitting in water permanently. The eye closed again and with a huff as it went back to sleep seeing as the slight bit of anger in Naruto's system wasn't enough to use to manipulate its jailor.

-Back In The Real World-

Naruto had just stepped into the Hokage tower and had to suppress a full-blown smile at the calm aura that seemed to reside in the building. On his way to the stairs, he happily returned the waves of a few ninjas who never had an issue with him during the few occasions he found himself here before his training started. Once up them, he walked to the end of the hallway, knocking on the only door this far down, and waited.

"Enter" Came the muffled voice of the Hokage before Naruto opened the door and entered. Upon entering he saw the grandfatherly smile on the old man's face. "Ah Naruto my boy, what brings you to my office today?"

Naruto's small smile turned genuine as soon as the door shut. "Well with sensei out on a mission, I figured I could hang out with you and maybe get your opinion on my calligraphy skills before even attempting a seal. I've practiced almost every night since you got me the calligraphy set." He said with some excitement in his voice and eyes. Hiruzen chuckles lightly and motions for Naruto to take a seat on the small couch in the office.

"Alright my boy, you can hang out here. Just don't go using this as a way to get information from my meetings" Hiruzen says with another chuckle. "Get to work on your calligraphy and I'll give you a review before you leave." Naruto nods and takes a seat on the couch, removing his calligraphy kit from his bag, and starts to draw out kanji in comfortable silence.

So for the next eight hours that's how the time was mostly spent. Occasionally Hiruzen would ask Naruto about his training or about a random scenario to see how Naruto's mind worked. One such scenario went as follows.

"Say Naruto, my boy, if you were faced with the choice of sacrificing your life to save the village but leaving someone with a heavy burden in return or watching everything burn and you likely die in a fight that you know you can't win, what would you do?" Hiruzen asked.

Naruto stops writing Kanji and looks up at the kage in thought "Do you mean like the fourth when he sealed the Kyubi into me?" he finally asked after a silent moment.

Hiruzen smiles and gives a nod "Yes, just like the situation that Minato-kun found himself in on that night."

"Well," Naruto starts before pausing "I wouldn't wish this burden on anyone but I can't say I'd have done any differently from him. I think I also would've preferred to use my own kid over some orphan for the sealing, the pain of being alone is enough without the hatred of the fox being thrown at you, at least with that option I could leave the kid something so they aren't just outcasted." he finishes with a far off look in his eyes as he thinks about what's happened already in his short life.

Hiruzen had a proud smile on his face but a hint of sadness was shown in his eyes. He was proud that the will of fire that the village was built on burned brightly in his surrogate grandson, He was sad that he had failed to fully protect Naruto from the hate in the world and the burden he was forced to carry until he was older. It also saddened him that he couldn't tell the boy about his parents just yet but he knew it was for the safety of the boy and the village or so Hiruzen keeps telling himself. Hiruzen didn't doubt that if told to keep the information to himself, Naruto wouldn't reveal it to anyone. No, he was more worried about a certain elder than whether or not he could trust a six-year-old. He was certain that Danzo probably already knew of the boy's heritage and was just waiting for his chance to do something about it and finally get the weapon he desired.

"Noble way of trying to handle it, much like the fourth would've done. He chose what he thought was the best outcome with what he was given." Hiruzen says with a sigh, and for the first time that Naruto could remember, his tough but somehow still grandfatherly facade slipped allowing his age to show through momentarily.

"Do you think he made the right choice Jiji?" Naruto asks while trying his best to keep the sadness out of his voice.

Hiruzen pauses to really think about how he's going to answer what seems like an innocent question. Normally he would've just answered honestly, saying that he honestly didn't know if it was the correct choice, but something in the back of his head was telling him to give some details of that night. With one look over at Naruto, he makes up his mind.

"Naruto, im gonna be honest, I honestly don't know if he made the right choice some days. There's a lot about that night that is unknown to me, things that'll probably stay as unknowns for a long time to come if not forever. What I do know is that somehow the Kyuubi was released, it somehow appeared in the middle of the village, and the event was used by the elders to steal some of the power from the Hokage position before I could fully take over again." Hiruzen says while leaning back in his chair, watching the boy for his reaction. He watches a few emotions flow across the boy's face but the big ones are sadness and anger. Before Hiruzen can comment, Naruto asks something else.

"Released? What do you mean it was released?" As soon as the words hit Hiruzen, he curses lightly to himself. With a sigh, he realizes he now has to explain more than he wanted to, but there is some positive to this. He can use it to tell Naruto about his mother. With a flick of his wrist and a few quick hand seals, the ANBU leave the room and a blue light spreads across the walls, ceiling, and floor.

"Before I continue Naruto, some of this information is considered an SS rank secret. The normal punishment for revealing this information would be immediate execution with no trial. However, it's another secret revolving around you that only we can talk about. If some of what im about to explain gets leaked, it could put you in more danger than you already are. Do you understand?"

Naruto has to take a deep breath to steady himself, then he nods for the Hokage to continue.

"You are not the first container of the Kyuubi, in fact, you are the third container, or Jinchuriki as they are called" He raises his hand to stop Naruto from responding

"The first was Mito Uzumaki, the wife of Hashirama Senju the first Hokage, and she sealed the fox into herself after the fight between Hashirama-sama and Madara Uchiha. She held the fox well into old age and only transferred it to the second Jinchuriki when she was about to die. The second was a woman named Kushina Uzumaki. She was brought from Uzushiogakure for the purpose of becoming the second host. I do not doubt that she would still be the host if it wasn't for that night. You see the seal is at its weakest when they are about to give birth."

Naruto's eyes go wide at what that one line could imply while Hiruzen continues to explain

"From that reaction, I see you understand where this is going. Kushina was set to and did give birth to a healthy baby boy, and that boy is indeed you. This is where the unknowns of that night come into play. The fourth was there to monitor the seal so it didn't break and release the fox, I honestly have no clue what changed so suddenly to allow that to happen. It wasn't long after your birth that the fox appeared in the village and only twenty or so minutes before Minato appeared and commenced his fight that ended in the sealing of the fox into you and his death. Every day I wish it had been me to sacrifice their life but Minato wouldn't have allowed me to take his place because it was his duty as a Kage to lay down his life." Hiruzen finishes with a deep sigh and a long hit from his pipe that he lit at some point during the explanation.

Naruto is overwhelmed with emotions due to all of the new information. He's extremely happy to at least know of part of his family, even if he'll never meet them. He's extremely sad because he'll never get to meet his mother and because she held the same burden that he currently does. But there's also some anger at whatever caused the fox's release, making it so he didn't have any real family of his own. Although he considers Hiruzen like a grandfather and Shisui has become like a brother to him, it's still not the same as a real blood family. Subconsciously his hand goes to his stomach where the seal is located.

While Naruto is distracted, Hiruzen slowly puts his pipe down before launching out of his chair with an outstretched hand towards the corner. Before anyone but a kage-level shinobi could realize it, Hiruzen had a hand wrapped tightly around the throat of a blank-masked ANBU member. "What a fool Danzo is, thinking I wouldn't notice his damn puppets spying on me and Naruto, in my own office at that" He thinks before snapping the ANBU's neck with a simple flick of the wrist. Even at his age, he is more than enough to take down a small army, one lonely spy in his office was nothing. As he drops the body it bursts into flames, very quickly erasing all evidence besides the mask. Hiruzen scoffs and walks back to his chair, he takes a seat and repacks his pipe before taking another puff.

What Hiruzen missed, was Naruto wasn't quite as distracted as he thought. Now Naruto is just wide-eyed at the display of raw speed and power out of someone he saw as a gentle old man even if he is the Hokage. Although this isn't the first death he's seen, seeing it happen with such overwhelming power and speed on display is different. When he saw the civilians get killed, the power difference was expected but seeing just how much farther ahead a Kage is compared to what he assumed was an ANBU is a display he never thought he'd see. After a few minutes, Naruto turns to Hiruzen with a single question in mind.

"Jiji, why'd you kill that ANBU? I thought they were the elites of the ninjas and helped a lot."

With an unnoticeable flinch, because he was hoping Naruto hadn't seen that, he does come up with an answer. After pulling out a standard ANBU mask he turns to Naruto.

"While they are ANBU, they aren't mine. My ANBU wears animal masks with a colored stripe to depict rank like this mask." He says holding up a dog mask with a blue stripe under the left eye

"The ANBU I killed was wearing a featureless mask with NE written on the forehead. They are a division of ANBU that never should have existed in my opinion and was supposed to be disbanded many years ago by the fourth.

They were originally created by Lord Second to handle missions that we didn't want to be connected to the village during war times. They have never 'officially' existed on paper besides two pieces of paper that only the current Hokage can access.

If you ever come into contact with them, I want you to flare your chakra as high as you can to alert every ninja possible. These are not good people and they haven't been under Hokage's command ever since the fourth tried to rid of them. He warned me that they probably weren't disbanded in his final letter before death and as you can see he was obviously correct. Do you understand?" Naruto nods "Good, now do you have any questions about your mother for me?"

Naruto is quiet for a moment before asking two questions in rapid succession "Did she love me and did she leave anything for me?"

"Of course she loved you, I've never seen anyone happier to be having a child, even with all the added risks and worry from being a Jinchuriki I don't think anyone could deny the love she had for you. As for if she left you anything im not sure, if she did it would be in your parent's house" He gave Naruto a look that said to stay quiet immediately after seeing the outburst that was sure to come

"I can't let you have the house until you know of your father and I have a talk with those who live by the property or else it could cause a major outburst of why you're staying at that house. While im sure they probably suspect the truth if they've taken a look at you, I have to be cautious in how it's handled due to the many egos that could end up involved." As he finishes saying that he realizes that he's given up enough information for the boy to probably suspect who his father is through one single sentence because there's only one man that lived in this village that he resembles.

However, Naruto has known he looks like the fourth, It's kind of hard to not notice at some point when there's a giant carving of his head overlooking the village. This does make one of his theories that he thought was insane sounding seem more realistic now though. When he used to wonder who his parents were, he always liked to think his father was Minato due to the resemblance but for an orphan who's hated by the village that he was seen as a hero of, that idea seemed as if it was completely insane.

He isn't gonna focus on that now though, instead, he's gonna focus on what he knows is a fact. Kushina Uzumaki, the second Jinchuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune, is his mother and now he knows for sure she loved him. That thought brings out one of his rare genuine smiles reserved only for Hiruzen and Shisui. Hiruzen seeing no outburst or any other questions coming leans back in his chair, getting back to work, while letting the boy process everything without anything else being added.

After a while, the privacy seal drops, and the ANBU returns back to their normal positions. Naruto gets back to doing his calligraphy and Hiruzen eventually runs more scenarios by him, making sure to avoid anything that could cause another long conversation. Before Naruto leaves for the night he does get Hiruzen's opinion on his calligraphy, getting the okay to practice the first seal in the book. The rest of this week continued in much the same manner with Naruto visiting the Hokage when he wasn't busy.