The 18 year old Naruto Uzumaki looked at Iruka in shock. The weight on his forehead was unmistakable.
"Congratulations. You graduate!" Iruka grinned at him, sounding so proud of him.
Naruto's lip trembled, his emotions in such turmoil he didn't even hear Iruka offer to treat him for ramen. Finally. After 3 failed exams, the cluster that was Mizuki-sensei's fake makeup test, learning the horrible truth of the Nine-Tails being sealed inside him and Iruka risking his life to defend him. Finally, after all that heartache, he'd done it. He was a ninja.
"Naruto?" Iruka asked, frowning in concern.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried, leaping forward and tackling his big brother figure in a hug.
"Ow, hey, that hurts!" Iruka groaned as the blond aggravated his injuries, but he held Naruto tightly.
When they both had their moment, Iruka helped them both to stand. "Come on, we should report to Lord Hokage. And we really need to get the Forbidden Scroll back."
"Right, right," Naruto agreed easily.
Naruto went to grab the Forbidden Scroll while Iruka went to bind the unconscious form of Mizuki after Naruto's many, many Shadow Clones had beaten him to a pulp. Naruto froze when an odd feeling hit him. It was like he was underwater, but he could still breathe. He felt weightless…
"Naruto?" Iruka called from where he was finishing his check of his shibari work on Mizuki. He looked up, and the blond Jinchuuriki had vanished. The Forbidden Scroll was still on the ground, so Iruka didn't have the thought the teen had really turned traitor and grabbed it and ran. He seemed to have simply vanished.
"Naruto!" Iruka called in worry, but he got no answer.
Naruto blinked open his eyes. "Wha… Where am I?" he wondered. He seemed to be standing in a white void. Not a white room, a void. No walls, no floor, no ceiling, it was as if there was nothing but Naruto and… white.
"That's a little complicated to explain," said a baritone voice with an odd accent from behind him.
Naruto whirled around. He blinked up at a tall man. Naruto was a bit sensitive about his short height of 5'6 even at age 18, hoping and praying for another growth spurt to hit him. But this guy was a solid 6'2. More than just his mere size, though, he had a… presence. As Naruto looked up at the man, he felt like an ant looking up at a giant. Something about him, something Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on but couldn't ignore, made him feel like… more. More than Naruto, and more than anyone Naruto had ever met. Not even Old Man Hokage when he was in a serious mood and full regalia managed to be as effortlessly imposing as this man was just standing there. The friendly smile on his lips went a long way to make Naruto feel more comfortable, but the man was still pretty intimidating.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked, taking in details. The stranger was dressed in a simple long-sleeve t-shirt and cargo pants with civilian sandals on his feet. Clear, blemish-free skin and a natural tan. Classically handsome features you'd expect to see on a movie poster. Built like a statue, even in loose clothes it was clear he was made of muscle with broad shoulders that tapered down to a tight waist. What drew Naruto's attention the most, though, were the pointy ears. Where he expected to see a rounded curve, there was instead an elongated tip.
"Many names. You can call me John for now," 'John' introduced himself. "You're Naruto Uzumaki, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," Naruto nodded. A horrible thought occurred to him. "Wait, are you the Nine-Tailed Fox?!" Naruto demanded, blurting out the question with his usual lack of filter.
"No, no, I'm not him," John shook his head. "You'll have to meet him on your own time. Though, a little piece of advice, be patient when you two first get to know each other. He's angry and bitter as all get out, but who wouldn't be after 18 years crammed in a cell with no visitors or entertainment? What I'm saying is don't take it personally if he lashes out. Believe it or not, I have some experience with having to share my body, and I sincerely hope you two have a happier ending than I did in that regard."
Naruto relaxed at the confirmation he wasn't face-to-face with the monster who'd attacked the Hidden Leaf Village the day he was born. But with that theory discarded, he found himself at a loss. "Ok… so, John, seriously, where are we?"
"Like I said, it's a little complicated," John answered, his voice still having that odd accent. He was perfectly understandable to Naruto, but the stress and inflection were completely foreign to the ninja hopeful's ear. Almost like John was speaking a second language, but almost everyone in the Elemental Nations spoke the same language. Was he from a different continent? "In very simple terms, we're inside my head."
"Eh?" Naruto asked. "That some kind of joke?"
"No joke. Let me clarify. Our bodies are on my ship, the Invictus. You're unconscious right now. I took your sleeping mind and brought it here to a construct inside my own mind," John said, expression open and honest.
"Like Ino's weird family Jutsu? The Yamanaka Clan?" Naruto asked, struggling to wrap his head around the concept John was describing. He never claimed to be the sharpest kunai in the pouch.
"Close enough, I suppose," John shrugged.
"Wait, did you say your ship?! What am I doing on a ship?! The ocean is hundreds of miles from my village!" Naruto freaked out as he fully processed John's words.
"Not that kind of ship," John chuckled, apparently finding something funny.
"What other kind is there?" Naruto demanded, still panicking at the thought that he was so far from home.
"Ok, maybe it'll be easier if I just show you," John said. He snapped, and in an instant the white void was replaced. Naruto adjusted to the abrupt shift in surroundings and saw they were now in some kind of hospital room. It looked straight out of the future, but the angled bed with multiple complicated pieces of machinery set up beside it was pretty hard to mistake for anything else. Naruto saw his own sleeping body laid under the covers, John standing next to it and laying one hand on his forehead.
"This is the room our bodies are in right now," said the John Naruto had been talking to. "Look out the window."
Naruto turned to look for said window, and almost fainted. "This… am I dreaming?" he breathed as he stared at the view.
"Well, you're asleep. You're really in this room on the Invictus, though. And that's the actual view out the window," John said gently.
"We're in outer space?" Naruto asked incredulously, rubbing his eyes before taking a second look. But, no, it stayed the same. A big sphere hanging in a pool of black, colored blue and green and white. The moon hung behind it. If Naruto looked close enough, he could even recognize the Elemental Nations, like looking at a full-color map.
"Ok, perhaps I should have started with this. Naruto, I'm an alien," John said, rubbing his neck with a self-conscious air.
"I… I got abducted by an alien?" Naruto said in disbelief. This shit didn't actually happen. Even in a world of chakra and Jutsu, some things were reserved for the realm of pure fantasy and fiction. "Wait, you're not going to probe me, are you?!"
"Not that kind of alien," John snorted. He snapped again and they were back in the white void, with the addition of two high-backed chairs that looked obscenely comfortable. "Take a seat, I've got a lot of explaining to do."
Naruto debated making a run for it. But he finally figured either this really was some kind of coma dream or, if John was to be believed, his body was unconscious on John's spaceship while some weird mental Jutsu had pulled Naruto's mind into the alien's. If the former, no harm in playing along and enjoying the ride. If the latter… well, what would be the point of running? He wasn't going anywhere without John's permission. So Naruto sat down across from John.
"So… let's just establish the basics first. Who, what, when, where, and why," John said after steepling his fingers. "As to who, like I said I have many names, but if you look at my birth certificate then I'm John Blake. As to what, I'm a Progenitor, which I can fully delve into later. As to when, it is approximately 15 minutes after I 'abducted' you from the forests outside the Hidden Leaf Village in Fire Country in the Elemental Nations on your homeworld. As to where, we're on my ship, the Invictus, currently in orbit at one of the Lagrange points for your planet. As to why, I wanted to make you an offer."
"What offer? And why me? Did you just pick me at random out of all the people in the world?" Naruto asked.
"On the contrary, you ended up on a very short list of potential candidates after me and my team screened all 2 billion and change sapient individuals who call your world home," John said. "I finally decided to approach you first with my proposal when I saw how you risked your life to come to Iruka Umino's aid. You got guts, kid, and heart. You have your flaws, as we all do, but I decided you were the one I'd pitch first."
"Oh." Naruto tried and failed to hide how he felt all special that John had picked him. Literally out of all the people on his planet, HE, Naruto Uzumaki, had been John's top pick. But for what, exactly? "Pitch what? I'm listening."
"We'll need to cover a lot of nitty-gritty details before I'm satisfied you can give true informed consent whether or not to go through with it. But I'd like to adopt you into my species, Naruto. I'd like to make you a Progenitor," John told him.
Naruto gulped. "Do… does that mean I'd have to come with you? Leave home?" was the first thing he asked.
"Oh, no, perish the thought. Yes or no, I'm dropping you back at the Hidden Leaf Village. I'm not kidnapping you, Naruto. I just needed you on the Invictus so we could have this talk and, if you agree to switch species, have access to all the equipment necessary to rewrite your DNA," John rushed to reassure.
Naruto relaxed. "Whew. Alright. But… why would you 'adopt' me in the first place? What do you get out of it?"
"There's a lot I need to explain," John sighed. "In a nutshell, I'm one of the last Progenitors in the galaxy. If you agree to this, you'll become part of a very controlled experiment to try and bring Progenitors back from the brink of extinction."
"Oh no! I'm sorry, John, it must be horrible to be alone like that," Naruto gasped, his mind struggling to imagine being the last of a dying people.
"You'd think that, but I actually killed most of the Progenitors myself," John said nonchalantly. "That probably makes me sound like a horrible person, but you don't have the whole story. Progenitors are, quite frankly, the most dangerous species in the Milky Way. Until I came along, every Progenitor in the galaxy was locked in a never-ending series of wars with each other and every 'inferior' species with a death toll in the trillions since it started. Trillion with a 't', Naruto. There are countless skeletons in the family closet, and I did what I did to protect the galaxy as a whole. I hunted down and murdered every Progenitor who I couldn't convince to stop fighting in the Progenitor War. It took me a long time to make up my mind to go through with this repopulation experiment, because the last thing I want is to be responsible for bringing back the horror of that chapter in galactic history."
Naruto would have to be blind to miss the haunted look in John's eyes. "You did the right thing, John," he found himself saying. "You did what you did to save all those who would have died if you'd done nothing."
"So I tell myself," John said, sounding a lot older than he looked. He shook his head. "Anyway, me and the handful of 'peaceful' or 'good' Progenitors have made due since the end of the Progenitor War. But one of the smartest women I've ever known managed to convince me we should give this 'adoption' strategy a try. We'd go to pre-interstellar worlds with intelligent life. We'd pick one, just one, person to turn into a Progenitor if they were onboard. Then we'd sit back and observe. If they didn't abuse their power, if they proved they could be a good Progenitor, then one day when their people discovered space flight they'd get to join the Galactic League and I'd get a brother or sister. If they turned out bad, though… well, the damage would be confined to just one planet."
"'Just' a planet," Naruto repeated. "That hurts my head, but I guess I see how it makes sense. So, it's like a test? If I go through with this, I need to prove I won't let Progenitor power go to my head and act like a total asshole before I get to join the 'family'?"
"That's accurate," John nodded.
"Okay… what makes Progenitors so dangerous?" Naruto asked.
"A big part of it was our level of technology, which was easily the most advanced in known space. I won't be giving you the schematics, so you'll be stuck with the tools and scientific understanding of your world. But even relying on just our biology, we had the potential to become the closest thing to gods as physically possible," John said, a distant look in his eyes. "I'll be blunt, Naruto. For better or worse, if you don't get yourself killed, then you could one day end up conquering your whole planet. That's how powerful a Progenitor can be if they play their cards right."
Naruto gulped. "How?" he asked, not sure he really wanted to know.
"There's two things you need to understand about how a Progenitor's powers work: the Connection and the Runes," John said, leaning back in his chair. "Your species already has psychic potential, so this won't seem too outlandish. You call it 'chakra' and the use of it 'Jutsu'. It was actually a side project for my team to study what makes your species' methods unique out of all the other psychic species in the galaxy, but that's neither here nor there. Back to the Connection and the Runes. In essence, the Runes are a series of what you'd think of as Jutsu encoded into every Progenitor's DNA. There's dozens of them, each capable of incredible things if you feed enough energy or chakra into them. You can even combine different Runes to make new powers. With enough chakra, a Progenitor can essentially hack reality to do whatever the hell they want by spelling out the desired effect with their Runes. The Connection is how they get that much chakra. The Connection is the term for a permanent psychic bond between you and another person that lets you share chakra."
"Share chakra? That's supposed to be impossible," Naruto frowned.
"Well, it's not," John shrugged. "I'm living proof. I have billions of Connections in my personal network."
Naruto had goosebumps. "You can borrow chakra from billions of people whenever you want?" he asked in awe. No wonder John seemed to have a tangible aura of power.
"I mean, I trained hard to get as strong as I could on my own merits so I only had to borrow energy when I needed to. But to answer your question, yes, I can," John nodded.
"You weren't kidding about being god-like," Naruto gave a breathy chuckle. "If I got Connections with just everyone in the village, I'd be the strongest person on the planet. Imagine if I had Connections with everyone in the world!"
"There's multiple strings and conditions surrounding making a Connection, Naruto. But yes, that is the general idea," John nodded. "The standard Progenitor MO during the Progenitor War was to force the Connection on as many people as possible, use it as mind control to turn every 'Thrall' into the perfect soldier, and then turn any Thralls not engaged in active warfare into breeding stock to produce more Thralls. Most Progenitors even sucked so much chakra out of a Thrall they died just to get a quick fix. I've never husked anyone in my network of 'Wards' as I call them, and I hope you don't either. But you should know the option is there."
Naruto was appalled. "I'd rather die than kill someone just to get some extra juice for a Jutsu!"
"Which is one of the many reasons you made it onto the list of people from your planet I was willing to consider 'adopting'," John grinned. "But the point is, with a big enough network to fuel you and the right combination of Runes, there's nothing you won't be able to do. I repeat, potentially conquer your planet. Not saying you have to, but once you reach a certain threshold it'll seem as easy as changing a lightbulb, the only thing stopping you will be your own decision not to do it."
"Now I get why you're being so careful in trying to bring the Progenitors back," Naruto said. "So, how do you make a Connection?"
John, oddly enough, looked embarrassed. "I want to preface this by saying that I don't make the rules. This is how Progenitors were designed, literally. That's a whole other story I can tell you later. But I'm looking you in the eye and telling you I'm serious when I say this: the only way to make a Connection is for someone to drink your cum."
"... Eh?" Naruto tilted his head, sure he'd heard wrong.
"The proteins and enzymes that form the organic basis for making a Connection are produced by a male Progenitor's prostate and mixed into his seminal fluid. Female Progenitors are a different story, but you're not a woman so that's all academic. It's possible to artificially produce them, but not with your planet's current level of tech. So if you go through with this, Naruto, then you can only make a Connection if someone drinks your cum. Not straight from the tap, necessarily, but your semen has to end up in their stomach and absorbed into their bloodstream for the Connection to take. Just telling it like it is." John kept a straight face throughout his explanation.
"... Right. So you're saying I not only have to convince someone to let me borrow their chakra for life, they also need to swallow my jizz. That'll be easy." Naruto's sarcasm was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"I never said the other person had to be willing. Like I mentioned earlier, most Progenitors throughout history kidnapped and force-fed every Thrall they set their eyes on. When that didn't mean outright raping them, it involved a truly gross practice of jerking off into specialized vats and shoving an attached nozzle down the subject's throat. How you make the Connection is up to you, Naruto, assuming you say yes to the adoption. I'm just letting you know the necessary requirements," John said solemnly.
Naruto frowned as he realized what John was telling him. He tilted his head. "How'd you do it?"
"I offered, and they said yes. Though a big part of why most of them agreed was because of something I haven't gotten to yet. I call it the Change or the Gift depending on what mood I'm in." John got a quirk to his lips. "For all the benefits a Progenitor gets out of having a Connection, there's benefits for the Thrall as well. Every time he or she gets a dose of the proteins, they get restored to their optimum physical condition. It's a combination of rewriting their DNA and psychic healing. Every Thrall has world-class fitness for their species, a genius IQ with a photographic memory, and is rejuvenated to the prime of youth. Most of my Wards feel that randomly getting tired now and then when I tap them for energy is worth getting the perfect body, perfect mind, and functional immortality."
"Whoa. But, wait, what about when you grow old and die? Or do Progenitors not even do that like normal people?" Naruto asked, starting to get a headache from trying to keep track of all this new information.
"I'll spare you the medical lecture and just say that Progenitors stop aging when they make their first Connection. I was a relatively late bloomer for waiting until I was 40. If you go through with the adoption, you'll have the option of freezing yourself forever at 18 or waiting until you're the age you want to be forever barring accident or injury. And with the Healing Rune, you can recover from pretty much anything that doesn't kill you instantly provided you can cover the chakra cost. So as long as I stay alive and all my Wards keep getting 'fed' regularly, whether directly or via a synthesized cocktail, we're all going to live for a very long time," John laid out.
"Living forever… I can't even," Naruto hung his head. "I mean, will I even still be me if I become a Progenitor? So much sounds like it'll change and we haven't even covered everything yet."
"We have nothing but time, Naruto. There's a time dilation effect to mental constructs like this. We could spend days talking and less than a minute will go by in the 'real' world. I will answer all your questions, give you all the time you need to think it over. But this can only end one of two ways: you say yes, I make you a Progenitor, and send you back home to live your new life. Or you say no and I move on to the next candidate on the list," John explained patiently.
Naruto felt a frisson of alarm. "But what if that other person turns into a 'bad' Progenitor?"
"They're on my list because I think they'd be a 'good' Progenitor. But the risk is there, Naruto," John told the blond.
That opened up a whole other can of worms. Naruto wasn't sure he trusted himself with all the power a Progenitor had, and he could appreciate he didn't even have a full idea of all they could do yet. But he sure as hell didn't trust anyone else with it. "Tell me everything I need to know," he said, mind already made up. If it had to be someone, if John was going to bless someone from Naruto's world with godhood, it would have to be Naruto. And he'd just have to do it the 'right' way. So he would. Believe it.
They talked for hours, Naruto almost wishing he could take notes. John was a lot less boring than Iruka-sensei. They talked about the Change, all the ways a Thrall (though Naruto decided to follow John's example and use the term Ward) would be altered. They talked about the Connection, exactly how a psychic network worked and functioned. They talked about Runes, John giving some rough figures for just how energy-intensive the psychic powers could be. And they talked about Progenitors, their unique biology, all the things Naruto would lose and new things he would gain once leaving his birth species behind.
In the end, when John had run out of things they hadn't already covered, Naruto set his shoulders.
"I'll do it, John."
John stared deep into Naruto's eyes. "Point of no return, Naruto Uzumaki. Yes or no, final answer. Do you want to become a Progenitor?"
Faced with the closest thing to divinity he was ever likely to meet, Naruto felt his resolve be tested. And it didn't break. "Yes."
"So be it."
And the next thing Naruto knew, he was waking up in a hospital bed. Not the one on the Invictus, one in the Leaf Village Hospital. For a few drowsy seconds, Naruto wondered if the whole conversation with John Blake had been a dream. Then he reached up to scratch an itch on the side of his head, and he felt it. Eyes wide, Naruto traced the half-expected but unfamiliar shape of a pointed ear.
A doctor, probably alerted by the spike in his heart rate, came into the private room. "Ah, you're awake. Good evening, Mr. Uzumaki. How are you feeling today?"
"A bit dizzy and thirsty, but I'm alright," Naruto answered, bringing his hand down to rest in his lap. His other had an IV hooked up to the back and a clamp on one finger.
"Good. I'm just going to ask some routine questions," the doctor said, looking down at his clipboard. "Full name?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"Birthday?"
"October 10th, Year XXX."
"Address?"
Naruto gave the location and unit number of his shitty apartment.
"Who is the current Hokage?"
"Old Man Hokage, the Third. Um, pretty sure his real name is Hiruzen Sarutobi."
The doctor nodded and went to check the instruments hooked up to Naruto more closely. "Well, this all looks good here. You're awake and coherent. No signs of any head trauma or intoxication. I think you'll be just fine… all things considered. Now, Lord Hokage wanted to see you when you woke up. He'll be with you shortly." With that, the man turned and walked out.
Naruto glanced at the clock. It said it was a little past 9, and the darkness outside the window suggested it was in the evening. The sun had just been rising when Iruka gave him his headband and then Naruto got abducted by John, so it had been about 15 hours if Naruto had his math right. Which matched up with how long John said he'd be away while his DNA was rewritten by the 'adoption' process.
It was all lining up. Naruto was becoming more and more certain it had all been real. He was a Progenitor now. Which would mean… Naruto hesitantly checked under his gown at his crotch, looking for one of the more ridiculous changes John had warned him about.
Okay, yep, definitely a Progenitor. That wasn't the twig and berries he had last time he checked. Naruto set the gown and sheets back down, not sure if he was more pleased or freaked out with the massive upgrade to his equipment. But John had told him, and Naruto had still agreed. No one to blame but himself if he had a problem with it.
The door opened again, and Naruto perked up when his sorta-grandpa and the village leader walked in. "Old Man Hokage! Oh, I'm so sorry about stealing the Forbidden Scroll. Mizuki tricked me and I wanted to be a ninja so bad and… I'm just really sorry," tumbled out of his mouth in a rush.
The almost-70 year old military dictator gave a wan smile. "All is forgiven, Naruto. That's honestly the last thing on my mind right now. I'm more concerned about you."
"What happened?" Naruto asked, curious what had occurred after he'd been spirited away to the Invictus earlier.
"Iruka took his eyes off you for a second and you simply vanished. We looked high and low, but there was no sign of what happened to you. Then, again as if from nowhere, you appeared at the entrance to this hospital an hour ago. We've been examining you for any injuries, and even just the preliminary results show something… significant has happened to you," the Hokage explained in a weary voice. He really was getting too old for his job, had to come out of retirement when the Fourth died and everything, Naruto remembered.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, no kidding. A patient getting their DNA rewritten is probably a first for the doctors you had look me over."
"Naruto… what happened to you?" Old Man Hokage asked, his gaze concerned and wary in equal measure.
Naruto reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Um… I got abducted by an alien who offered to adopt me into his species. And I said yes. And now here we are. No joke, Old Man Hokage."
"... Very well then. Guess that's confirmation we're not alone in the universe," the elderly warrior nodded, taking the extraordinary claim at face value with remarkable poise. "May I ask why you agreed? And please don't say because you thought it'd be cool."
"Give me a little credit, Old Man Hokage," Naruto griped. "I agreed because becoming a Progenitor sounded like a good deal. And, well, if it wasn't me it would have been someone else John picked to adopt. I figured better me than some stranger who got all this power."
"Power? How do you mean?" the Hokage asked with interest.
Naruto could count the people he truly trusted on one hand. Old Man Hokage was one of them. So Naruto was honest. He explained to the man about the Progenitors, the Connection, the Runes, and the Change. He wasn't as eloquent as John had been, but he got the important stuff across.
"Extraordinary," the Hokage sighed, having lit his pipe at some point. "Assuming this John Blake was being truthful, you've been given a substantial gift, Naruto."
"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "So, what are we going to tell people?"
"The truth of the Progenitors and how you were taken aboard a spaceship will be sealed as an S-rank secret. You will tell no one, Naruto, without my or a future Hokage's permission. If the wrong people learned about this, there would be chaos. Not everyone would take the news of aliens well, to say nothing of those who would get a little too interested with the Change and your potential power," the Hokage said gravely. "If anyone asks, you spontaneously developed a Bloodline Limit and spent the day undergoing tests and checks to divine its extent and your new abilities."
"Gag order, got it. I just magically got a Bloodline Limit out of nowhere instead of from alien science. Sure," Naruto nodded, not trying too hard to hide how dubious he thought that sounded.
"Stranger things have happened, Naruto," the Third shrugged. "And they have to start somewhere, don't they?"
"I guess," Naruto nodded. "But what happens now? I mean, am I even really a Genin now or did Iruka just try to make me feel better? Am I going to get placed on a team or get special training to try and work on the Runes and all my other training? Lots to think about, Old Man Hokage."
"So far as I'm concerned, Naruto, you earned enough 'extra credit' in apprehending Mizuki in order to pass the Academy Exam. You will indeed be part of the team placements that will occur next week. While rather extraordinary, this Progenitor 'Bloodline Limit' is yours and yours alone. Don't ask me what we will do about it; you tell me," Hiruzen said with a tired but warm smile.
Naruto beamed at the level of trust one of his only friends had in him. Then he tried to really think. "Well, the fact is that the more Connections I make, the more chakra I'll have to use for the Runes and just in general. But there's good, bad, and just plain weird parts to the Change. And it's not like there's a real time crunch since I'll stop aging as soon as I make my first Connection. How about I decide on my own whether to make the offer to a person I like or who I think will say yes? I mean, you're the Hokage. If you think of any women or men who are willing to have their DNA rewritten and deal with the side-effects, feel free to offer to them on my behalf. Assuming they're willing to drink a sperm sample in the first place. In the meantime, I'll just train and try to be the best ninja I can be."
"That sounds agreeable," the Hokage nodded. "Now, it's gotten rather late. I could use some sleep. You'll be discharged in the morning, and then you'll be free for 5 days before the team assignments at the Academy. Other than getting your Shinobi ID photo taken, you'll have nothing to do. Remember, you can come to me with anything, Naruto."
Naruto grinned. "Thanks, Old Man Hokage. Oh, and I forgive you for keeping the whole Nine-Tails thing secret from me. If this whole Progenitor thing hadn't happened, I'd probably be more upset, but after hearing some of the stuff out of John's mouth about what goes on in the galaxy, it just doesn't seem that big a deal."
"I appreciate your forgiveness, Naruto. I always planned to tell you at some point, I just never felt you were really ready. Maybe I didn't give you enough credit, but the past is past. Though for the record, your status as the Nine-Tails' container is also an S-rank secret. You may tell people at your discretion, but it is a matter of village security so don't shout it from the rooftops, understood?" Hiruzen checked.
"Yeah, not like I have anyone to tell," Naruto shrugged. "And half the village knows already anyway, that's why they hate my guts. But explain something to me. Mizuki seemed to think I actually WAS the Nine-Tails in human form. Is that what most villagers in the know think or was he just crazy? Well, crazier than he already was, but… y'know what I mean."
"The Sealing Arts are one of the most complicated and least understood of all Jutsu, Naruto," the Hokage sighed. "Most ninja don't even have more of an understanding than how to work a Storage Scroll or Explosion Tag. The Fourth was a master, and the seal he used to imprison the Nine-Tails in your body is flawless. But to the ignorant masses, who didn't know or even really WANT to know the details… that is one of the more popular opinions among the villagers, from my understanding."
"People are idiots," Naruto huffed. "If I really was the Fox, why treat me like shit and provoke me? And if I'm just the living jail cell for the Fox, then what's the point of treating me bad? Not like it'll affect him."
"It's irrational, yes, my boy, but sadly hatred very rarely follows any real logic," the Sarutobi elder sighed.
"Well, whatever. I've dealt with it my whole life, at least now I know. And I'll prove them all wrong when I end up Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto pumped his fist.
"I'm sure you will," Hiruzen said without sarcasm, smiling proudly at the blond.