NARUTO : BORN TO LOVE AND LEAD

by happylove123

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze is a genius who pranks all 5 nations to do what he wants, to achieve peace. He brings hope for people drowning in darkness. His burdens are heavy. So, his sensei Kakashi, helps his future hokage as dutiful shinobi and helps himself in return and Shikamaru is the advisor & brother. Strong Naruto, Strong Kakashi, Grey Kyubi, Good Itachi. Kakanaru. No underage.

8. TWO APARTMENTS

Summary:

Kakashi gets to know his student more. It sends him on a roller coaster of emotions. Meanwhile, Naruto set up shop. Kakashi's interactions with Naruto in here will be the reason why the scales are tipped in Naruto's favor in future in the next chapter. Please note, the underline phrase will become a key card in this book's Fourth Ninja War.

CHAPTER 7 – TWO APARTMENTS

"Blondie here….target on sight." Naruto said in the walkie-talkie impassively.

"Pinkie here… ready to go." Sakura said irritatingly.

"Emo here….let's get this over with." Sasuke grumbled, clearly not liking his nickname.

"Good, capture the target." Kakashi gave orders with sadistic glee on his tone to his genins doing Tora, capturing mission.

Tora, the demon cat capturing mission was the hell mission every ninja no matter the rank hated. But it was rite of passage to start their ninja career for mint genins as it was to send the rookie ANBUs and chunins to chase Konoha's Orange hellion. Both were nimble, cunning, supposedly had lower strength than the pursuers but they could make them go on a wild spin with screams and scratches for hours.

On to the Tora catching mission. Naruto would have caught the cat quicker if he was alone. He was normally good with animals. His favorite past time was watching animals and birds in the forest. Most of his taijutsu styles followed that raw style. Animals were sensitive to human emotions and chakra, so they would react violently to Naruto's tenant. But Naruto had long honed his hunting skills without hiding his chakra. Once he learned to erase his chakra presence it became easier.

When he could not get eatables inside the village and he had to starve, he had to depend on his fishing and hunting skills to eat. He also learnt about gardening and different poisonous and non-poisonous herbs. Of course, he couldn't grow in his apartment, but he could grow them in his secret training grounds. Moreover, now he could grow rare plants inside Senju compound freely. He already had plans to recruit someone capitalizing that skill.

Tora was running away, and Naruto wanted to catch him. He couldn't erase his chakra without alerting his sensei but sending a clone secretly was not a problem. Moreover, he could mimic his chakra entirely to earth release and his new Mokuton chakra could soothe anything alive and give them a sense of security. Sakura was growling to being scratched antagonized the cat further. Kakashi had a heavy dog smell on him, thanks to his ninkens, he was not a help either and he would not want to help even if he could. Let us not talk about Sasuke's mood which was dark enough to scare away children.

Sakura tried to catch Tora, but it evaded her. Sasuke tried to corner but ended up with a scratch. The cat entered the next alley different from the spot Naruto was standing. He created a shadow clone and sent it behind the cat. Shortly after that he spoke to his team. "Target captured."

When his teammates along with his sensei reached the alley, original Naruto was standing with the cat safely in his arms. He was stroking the fur and looking at the cat lovingly.

Kakashi suspected Naruto's ability had to do something with his tenant. Sakura was jealous, Sasuke was irritated that how a dobe could do something he could not. Naruto's new behavior bothered him more than he would like to admit.

"Great! Let's go and report to the hokage." Kakashi said cheerily. Along with his three ducklings, Kakashi beelined to the mission office.

Daimyo's wife was waiting there. She clutched Tora tightly in her arms and began to smother the cat unknowingly.

'Good, the demon deserves it.' Sakura and Sasuke thought synchronically.

Naruto contemplated for a minute and took pity on the demon that couldn't verbalize its miseries. He went to the woman. "Excuse me, I think Tora is not feeling well." Naruto already knew who and how powerful that lady was. He was not going to let go of the opportunity.

"What do you mean genin? What happened to Tora?" the over-bearing woman shook Tora speaking progressively at high volumes.

Everyone in the room except two clueless genins, including the hokage and the hidden ANBU, tensed when her fiery gaze turned to Naruto.

"Nothing happened yet. But there is a reason he runs away from you." Naruto said reaching for Tora.

Tora, the demon cat squirmed and jumped into Naruto's reaching hands. Naruto caught the cat, supported it in his hands like a child and scratched behind its ears. The demon had had a blissful expression and began to doze like an angel cat. The Daimyo's wife narrowed her look at Naruto making everyone in the room except Sasuke and Sakura more anxious.

"Are you saying that there is something wrong with me and that's why he is running away?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and the ANBU were getting antsy.

Even the other two were starting to feel the tension rising in the room now. 'What are you doing moron/dobe?'

'Naruto, where did your normal intelligence go? She is Daimyo's wife, the most influential lady of the Fire nation.' Kakashi wanted to save his student. "Shijimi-sama, he is just a genin-"

Naruto stopped him before he could finish the sentence. "Seishitsu-sama!" Naruto's address stopped the talking Kakashi and the stressed hokage who was getting ready to intermediate. 'Ah, he knows who she is. Why am I surprised?'

The Daimyo's wife, Lady Shijimi's mood got better at the address, and she let the genin, who was holding her purring cat, speak. "It is nothing you do. It is just your perfume and the smell of your cosmetics. He is allergic to the smell. If you use something made of Gloxinia, Roses, Orchids or Freesia instead of Lilies, Amaryllis, lavender and pennyroyal, it will make you more beautiful and Tora here-" Naruto patted the cat's head fondly and smiled at the woman. "-cuddle with you. Just be gentle and not crowd him. He likes his space and sunshine just like all of us."

The woman looked at him in interest and gave more than the agreed amount to hokage.

"What is your name, little one?" The influential lady asked reaching for the cat after throwing away the Lily adorning her hair.

"Naruto, seishitsu-sama, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto replied and handed the cat to the lady which cuddled her owner.

Her eyes widened for few seconds before she turned to the hokage with a glare that delivered many warnings. She smiled at the kid. "Thank you."

The Daimyo's wife, who knew Kakashi well from Yondaime's time and had good impressions from the time he had done missions for the Daimyo, addressed him next. "He reminds me of someone who is close to the Fire Daimyo, my husband and like one of my nephews, Naruto here is also smart. Keep him safe and train him well Kakashi-san. Me and my husband will be waiting to hear great things about him. I hope you will help with that."

The hokage and Kakashi knew those words were as much as warning as much as protection. Simply saying, if something happened to Naruto, Daimyo would hold them accountable.

She left the room with a kind pat to Naruto's head.

Everyone in the room including the ANBU exhaled at the same time silently and looked at Naruto.

"Naruto, do you know who she is?" The hokage asked and Naruto gave him a good boy smile.

"Not particularly. I know she is important as you called her 'Madam'. But I call you, one of the most powerful shinobis and the strongest one in this room at any given moment, 'jiji'. Why should I fear her?" Naruto replied and Sandaime could not help but be pleased.

Kakashi could not help but snicker mentally. Within five minutes, Naruto curried favor with the three most influential people in Fire nation.

"Naruto, give respect to hokage." Sakura shouted and went to bonk him in the head. Naruto dodged it and went to the other side. Kakashi shifted a little, discreetly forming a barrier between Naruto and his teammates.

"It is ok Haruno-san." The hokage stopped her and continued to his surrogate grandson. "The D-rank missions are accumulating, and we can do without Tora capturing mission several times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. It is really good thing you did, Naruto." Naruto grinned with a hand scratching the back of his head with a hidden calculation in his eyes.

Kakashi chuckled at Naruto's behavior. At that point, he was convinced that Naruto could talk anyone to turn to his side if he wished.

After the hokage said it was alright for Naruto to call him jiji, Sakura was embarrassed and confused as to why would no one enable her and reprimand Naruto, like they did in the academy. Why was everything different after she graduated? Her imagined relationship with Sasuke-kun was not going as wished either. Without other girls interfering, not even Naruto was chasing and talking to her non-stop, she thought she could develop closeness with Sasuke as they were on the same team and spend more time together to secure a date soon. But her dreams remained daydreams and Sasuke did not give her a good face at least once in these few days.

Sasuke was already annoyed at the menial chores wrapped as missions and the time wasted without training. Moreover, he did not understand at first, but once he heard the word Daimyo, Sasuke realized Naruto was in good books with powerful clients already. Naruto was slowly shining over him after graduation, and he did not like that.

Team seven was leaving for the day when Naruto asked them to join for ramen. Sasuke refused with a scowl and Sakura followed him like a sheep. They left after Kakashi asked them to meet tomorrow morning. When Kakashi was about to leave, Naruto stopped him.

"What is it Naruto? I can't eat ramen with you today." Kakashi said without taking his eyes off the book.

"I know, sensei. I want to ask something else."

"What is it?"

"I want to do some extra D-rank missions." Naruto replied.

"That's an odd request. No one likes those chores."

"I need money." Naruto said and Kakashi flinched internally. He forgot that Naruto wasn't getting orphan stipend anymore since he was a ninja now and hence an adult. Sasuke might be an orphan, but he had clan money and the elders for back up, and Sakura had her parents to provide free food and accommodation. Naruto did not have the privilege and he had to work for everything in his life. His sensei's money was being cheated by the elders while his son had to do odd jobs to make ends meet. His sensei's son should not have to worry about money. Kakashi decided to split part of his money on team missions with Naruto, unknown to him.

"Sure Naruto. Go to mission office and tell them I agreed. I will send my ninken to confirm it." Kakashi knew the mission office would not believe Naruto's words. "No more than three D-rank missions per day though."

"Thanks sensei. I have my shadow clones. I will not let my extra work disturb our team missions." Naruto said with a smile and started to leave.

"Naruto, choose missions carefully." Kakashi said at the last minute vaguely insinuating something.

"Don't worry sensei. I will mostly choose clan missions and ninja chores." Naruto said gratefully for his warning to avoid hostile civilians.

"Smart boy." Kakashi commented looking at his student's back.

Kakashi still couldn't get used to new Naruto. Apart from his own ghosts regarding Naruto, he still got to get over how the blonde acted in front of other people and when he was alone.

It had been some days since they became team 7. Naruto was respectful and behave politely with his teammates. Once the teamwork exercises were done, Naruto would be lying on the ground as if it took most of his energy. Then he would wear a fake smile and go back to the village.

True to his words from the genin test, Naruto made efforts to talk to Sasuke and greeted Sakura every day. Sasuke never gave him good looks and always name called him. He found that Naruto avoided Sakura's attempts to punch him which she did way less than usual. Kakashi was happy that at least one of his genins was trying to get to know his teammates and put efforts for improving teamwork. The team was still working on team formation and teamwork exercises. Sasuke and Sakura weren't interested in those things. Sasuke only asked about individual training once a day while Sakura focused on him. Naruto was the one willing to go with his decisions without any complaints.

But what threw Kakashi off the loop was Naruto's exuberant behavior. Except for a few bouts of intelligence and a little respect, Naruto did not behave differently in front of people. But when it was just sensei and student, Naruto had a sharpness and calmness which was not shown in public, but the boy was still always cheerful.

Every morning, Kakashi visited his students in the training ground furtively, before visiting the memorial. Naruto would arrive before others and start sleeping but Kakashi was sure he was meditating. The other two would attempt to wake him up but Naruto would greet them and climb a tree before pretending to sleep again. Then he would wait patiently with the impatient two.

Kakashi would return from the memorial and hide in a tree again for half an hour to one hour to observe his students, before his public appearance. Naruto would always wake up after two hours, more or less the same time as Kakashi arrival as he was always late by three hours. Naruto would attempt polite small talk with them again which would go sometimes mildly well but would always end with an insult or a snide remark.

Naruto attempted to urge them to start running or training, which was bluntly refused by Sakura who was then joined by Sasuke with derision. "Naruto baka, stop pestering us. You don't have anyone to teach you not to disturb others and you don't have an inborn elegance like an Uchiha, especially Sasuke-kun. You are always sleeping but you advise us to train?! Why don't you use your time to learn academy subjects you failed instead, so you won't hold us back on missions and more importantly, no matter how much you train, Sasuke-kun will always be the strongest." "Hn. A clan-less orphan like you cannot beat me. Just because you learned some new words to talk, don't think the dead-last like you will win a fight." There lied the problem, his teammates took a day but realized that they passed because of Naruto of all people, and it was a huge blow to their ego. Naruto did not take well to their insults and truth to be told, Kakashi did not either. There was no need to involve Naruto's family in this problem.

Naruto stopped trying to help them after that and took to full time meditation. Some days, he would come and sit under the tree from where Kakashi was watching them. Kakashi was suspicious that Naruto sensed him, but Naruto never reacted or looked at him when he flared his chakra. Naruto would open a book and start reading quietly. Kakashi was curious about what he was reading and peeked at it to find that they were geography books with travel notes and anecdotes on five nations and wastelands on west beyond them. Kakashi could not hold back his surprise and jumped in front of his student who did not react at all, adding to his surprise.

"Naruto, how do you detect my presence? You did there that day on the forest and sometimes here, even now."

"Good morning, sensei! I could smell you."

"Morning! You can track me by smell?!"

"Nope. I just found out there is an additional smell other than the three of us and concentrated on finding a lightning chakra since I suspected it was you. Here you are."

"You are a sensor." Kakashi was taken aback.

"I am not an expert like you guys."

"You should not be. You are twelve." Kakashi deadpanned.

"Sensei, you were an ANBU captain at twelve."

"Trust me. You don't want to be like me."

"I know. I don't want to be sent on dangerous missions by measly council clodpolls. Hence, I expect you to keep this between us until later, maybe except the hokage."

Kakashi was amused by his colorful vocabulary. He doubted most dolts in the council would understand him. "Why are you reading geography books? It must be boring."

"You called me the number one most unpredictable ninja. I plan to be the number one ninja who is mostly unpredictable. Hence" Naruto pointed to the book. "Also, I want to know about things outside Konoha since we will start C-rank missions in few weeks, if my teammates patience is anything to go by, three at least and four utmost, I want to be ready. It is like what the Yamanakas say, it is the unknown that kills you the fastest. I would like to apply that to more than people."

"Good policy. Will make you live longer." Kakashi agreed. "Have you decided who to ask help from?" Kakashi reminded the agreement.

"Don't worry about it, sensei. Just do as you planned for the team. I will plan my schedule accordingly around it and most of my helpers will be busy during the daytime as they will be on duty anyway. I am planning for weekends and evening times. Don't have to tinker with our team schedule on my account. Moreover, if Sasuke doubts that you favor me, he will think you are giving me extra training and purposely holding him back. It will send him to darker side, and it will not end well for anyone including himself."

A week passed like that and squad one consisting of four of our favorite genins assembled in their hideout as planned.

At the camp near Naka River:

All of them finished eating as usual and Naruto called to the meeting.

"Shin, let's start with you."

"It is as we predicted. Kiba talks too much and Hinata does not talk. This is the first time for Kurenai-san to be jonin sensei. She is taking things slowly. We train in the mornings and do missions in the afternoons. She was right about that since the tired Kiba was better for D-rank missions' clients though the morning session would be better for our ear drums since under the hot sun, tired Kiba is a cranky Kiba. I can do without his whining."

"What about the weekends?"

"According to sensei, our weekends will be free until we start C-rank missions."

"Cho?"

"Our sensei did not provide any surprise either. But he is about doing missions in the morning and training in the afternoon. None of us wanted to deal with grouchy and irritated Ino after one day."

"It makes sense both had the same idea since your senseis are close to each other. If I am right, they will become a couple in few weeks." Naruto casually dropped a gossip bomb.

"Ah, troublesome!"

"Why their dating is troublesome for you, lazy Nara?" Shino was afraid his friend would die single because of his indolent nature.

Naruto and Choji laughed at the grumbling sloth.

"Training schedule?"

"Same. Free weekends until later."

Naruto shared his experience. "Our sensei did not start missions until yesterday. But according to him, if we did not get our teamwork down pat, we might be taking missions on Saturdays to get C-rank mission sooner, but Sundays are free. The session depends on his mood. Somedays training first other days missions first. Doesn't matter what time of day, Sakura whines and I had to pick up her slack. Sasuke emits aura darker than abyss at the chores."

"Don't they know what D-rank missions are. It is in academy books." Choji said munching the rice balls.

"They might have thought it must be simple ninja tasks, not weeding and painting for civilians." Shino guessed.

"Yeah, Sakura would have been like how the elite Uchiha like Sasuke-kun deserves special treatment and be exempted from these menial chores." Choji agreed.

"The emo king would have thought it was cutting his training time and grumbled that they should be weaker ones." Shikamaru quipped.

"Sakura would have agreed and they both must have thought the D-rank missions something to do with one's strength and not that it is a mandatory requirement to complete certain number of D-rank to go on C-rank missions." Shino agreed.

Naruto let them discuss and added on the last. "Yeah. They have not realized that D-ranks are the way of introducing new genins to the civilians and making them understand what ninjas are trying to protect and service comes first. Moreover, it helps applying our team co-ordination exercises starting from small tasks."

All four of them complain about D-rank missions, hell Ino and Kiba might complain, but they never said they did not want to do D-rank missions because they understand their purpose. The other three have less and less confidence in success of the team seven except Naruto, as he was already strong.

Naruto continued ignoring the judging looks. "This is what I have in mind for the schedule. We meet every Wednesday and Friday evening to discuss our progress unless we are on missions outside Konoha. If you are going on urgent C-rank missions, send your clone to leave a message on the whiteboard."

"Where is the board?" Choji was confused since nothing was in their camp spot. Their spot was nothing but a small cave with four hammocks, blankets and small writing tables.

"Are we changing places, Naruto?" Shino got the point immediately.

"I have placed small wards around us. That's why we could remain hidden in this spot on the border of three clans without detection for this long."

"We are lucky we had not been found out so far. Since we might be talking about confidential information like Uchiha gossip that day, we need a secure place." Shikamaru piped up.

Others agreed since they might share mission details from now on.

Choji was eager. "Where is our new spot?"

"Henge yourselves into civilians and disperse." Naruto changed himself into a civilian and asked them to meet each one of them in a different shop in different streets in the Redlight district.

All three of shunshinned away and Naruto cleaned their spot. He used earth, wind and water manipulation to clear away traces and redid the wards. By the time Naruto reached their new spot, Shikamaru had already fetched the other two. It was a cozy spot, not just a spot but an apartment. It had four medium-sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, a medium-sized kitchen, a spacious living room with Tv and game stations, a balcony with space for some potted plants, a well-furnished gym that also served as training room and a huge meeting room.

"Wow, it is awesome." Choji gasped and Shino agreed with a series of nods enthusiastically. "This is a huge improvement from what we had."

"Naruto warded the hell out of this place." Shikamaru pointed out the glowing seals. Naruto took blood and chakra from them to record access for their future entry into the apartment.

"Naru, this place is in your resident building?" Choji asked having noted when Shika fetched them.

"Yup. I got this in someone else's name. I wanted us to have a place to hang out and have proper meetings. Now that we are on serious stressful occupation, if you ever need a place to get away from everything.….. you know where to go." Naruto said with a tada gesture. "You are welcome to decorate your rooms as you like. Shika's room is there facing away from sun while mine is facing it. Shin can take up the one near balcony for your kikaichu to use the plants and flowers while Cho can use the one near the well-furnished kitchen and humongous fridge. Meet us in the Study room on the other right end opposite to gym in ten minutes after looking through the house."

Shino and Choji left when Shikamaru stopped his brother. "You joined three-fourths of the apartments on the floor together to redesign this apartment. How did your landlord agree for this much renovation in a rental house, or did you buy this place? How did he sell it to a someone even if that someone is not you?"

His brother always knew him well. Naruto gave him a meaningful smirk. "He lost money in gambling to an underground ringleader."

"You mean you are the ringleader who seduced him to gamble his money away and got this place."

"I bought 60% of this building on market rate. He needed a push for selling and the real me needed some peace in my apartment situated two floors directly above this apartment."

Shikamaru shook his head in amusement at Naruto's antics. But he also noticed other things. "So, you have an underground network in Red-light district doing other things."

"How will I afford this apartment then?"

"Half of this criminal district is in your control already, isn't it?" Shikamaru raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"You know me well Shika." Naruto tapped on the side of his head gesturing he was smart.

"It has nothing to do with smartness. I can speak 'Naruto', a language that needs more brainpower and patience." Shikamaru snorted making Naruto laugh loudly. "Let's go."

The study room had two parts, a meeting room and an open space serving as a small library. The meeting room is a glass sealed cubicle with large table surrounded by eight chairs, a whiteboard, a projector and screen, which took one third of the study room while the unsealed space outside the glass room had shelves of books, a small pantry and comfortable sofas.

All four of them gathered in the meeting room. Naruto reiterated what he said earlier about their meeting. "Shika would take over from here. The floor is yours my friend."

Shikamaru stood up with a laser pointer when Naruto dimmed the lights and projected the slides. "I am Nara Shikamaru. Code name: Deer; Job: Handler of Squad One; I call in this first meeting of Squad one. Today's agenda is delegating positions and talking about schedules to achieve high chunin rank in six months. Naruto will be recording minutes and next time we rotate."

Shikamaru's introduction and formal tone made it clear for Shino and Choji this was an arrangement agreed with Naruto to make things more formal. They sit straight and looked at the smiling Naruto.

"Before we go to the agenda, I would clear some details. Though we all became friends at the same time, you will be wondering why I know this place before you guys and some other things as well." Shikamaru started.

"We don't mind-" Choji started but Shino stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Let's listen first Cho. Our comrades know we don't care about that. There must be something else." Naruto gave an agreeable nod to Choji.

Shikamaru continued once they settled down. "We all know Naruto to a larger extent and the three of us to a certain extent, are holding back, wearing mediocre masks in public and hiding some things even from our parents. Well, you guys did. I did not have to hide from my parents because my father already knew it. To be honest, he was acquainted with Naruto first. Naruto, please explain."

Naruto then proceeded to explain in brief how he got guidance from Ibiki and Shikaku but hid that he was Ibiki's apprentice and could beat Shikaku in shogi with 50% success rate. "You guys know our hiding spot is always available. It is because Shikaku-san gave us permission. I have been spending time inside his clan compound with his family occasionally for a couple of years now and naturally we got closer. So, I am open to discuss many things with Shikaku-san and Shika priorly without putting him in danger. Getting involved with me brings inconveniences and unwanted enmity, so I wanted to meet your parents, or I wanted you to graduate first, so you could make an informed decision as adults, because ninjas are considered one. Still, I wanted to contact your parents first though you are graduated, but that day, you guys agreed that I will be make a hokage, so I adapted, and changed my plan to, do first and apology to parents later. I will come to that part after Shika is done."

"You will not make a hokage, you are my hokage. I told my father and he agreed with a shrug." Shikamaru reminded Naruto to the surprise of his friends.

"I know uncle is easy-going, but he did not mind?" Choji was surprised. "Nara-sama agreed?" Shino asked, both were not surprised by Naruto 'is' the hokage remark.

"Call him 'san'. He will scrunch his face every time you call him 'sama'." Naruto teased. "Onto the meeting." He gestured to Shikamaru.

"Let's discuss our schedules first. We will meet here on Wednesdays to discuss what we have practiced in our team and your private training. If we have doubts about techniques we have learned, we could do that here on Wednesdays. Fridays are for our all-out spars, jutsus and weekly tournament to test our strength on our camping spot. Saturdays are for learning new things. Theory here, physical there."

"So, learn new things on Saturday, practice for few days, ask doubts on Wednesday and test how much we have mastered it on Friday and repeat the cycle. Got it." Shino said earning approving nod from Shikamaru.

"This way we don't have to worry about what is taught by senseis in team time." Choji accepted.

"Take rest on Sundays. Spend them with your family and couple of hours on clan things." Shikamaru added lastly.

"Family is important guys, and you will have clan things to deal with since you are an adult now." Naruto piped in.

Shikamaru pointed to the whiteboard which had a table with all four of their names under which things like, weekly task, % completed, ninjutsu and other jutsu categories, meeting agenda, attendance or urgent message were tabulated.

"Here is where we will record our progress, since, apart from our personal plan, we might get help from our senseis on new jutsus, and clans might have certain schedule to teach techniques according to our clan rank, for example, in Shino's case, he will get a bigger hive as a graduation present and taught intermediate techniques which was improved and the next step on his current basic level and I and Choji have ours as well. Naruto thought one of our skills might overpower other and we might have to find a balance."

"Like, if I learn taijutsu from clan and Asuma sensei train me in taijutsu again, my taijutsu might have 60% progress while ninjutsu suffers to 20% which is the right amount planned for the month, but even if I know ninjutsu, I will unconsciously prefer hand to hand combat. So, in real fights where my opponent is a long-range fighter with weapons or a ninjutsu user, me whose go-to technique is a close range taijutsu, will be defeated." Choji inferred correctly.

"Smart Cho." Naruto praised appropriately.

"Taking a specialization before becoming chunin is not good for our career." Shino agreed.

"To avoid things like what Choji described happening unknowingly, we should record our training and monitor our progress here, so when we see it, we can reorganize our training every Saturday to a new weekly schedule and balance that. Like, Shino's arrows and chains are entirely new for him and need more help while me and Choji have an edge on that since we got the basic things like nunchucks and shadow jutsus down already. On the contrary, we have yet to learn clone jutsu, but Shino already knew bug clone and he has better chakra control than us."

"I have plans for your weapons guys, don't worry about that. Concentrate on ninjutsus and your clan jutsus when you are training alone." Naruto assured the worried Shino who was new to his weapons unlike Choji and Shikamaru who had comparatively more help on that from his senseis and clans, despite the other two needing Naruto's help as well.

"You guys can take your time and when we meet this Wednesday, you can write down on the board what do you want to learn first and if we have common things like chakra control techniques or clone jutsus, we can learn together. If not, no problem, our hokage can make clones for to each of us separately."

Naruto smirked but frowned the next second. "Guys, this is a serious meeting. We will make it as formal as possible and despite the secrecy, it is completely legal. If you keep calling me hokage in these meetings, it becomes a meeting for Coup d'état. Despite your true feelings behind that word, calling me that outside this room is a joke, but here, it makes a treason, something like the council elders do. Avoid that term of address. Just call me Naruto or my codename: Fox."

Shikamaru smirked as if he was waiting for that. "Taicho is right guys. Let's call him team leader or captain since we cannot call him senpai."

"Yoi, you were waiting for me there!" Naruto accused with a cheated look and Shino and Choji laughed.

"Take it easy taicho." Shino comforted with a smirk earning dirty look from Naruto.

"Have a chip, Naruto taicho." Choji added amusedly and Naruto sulked more to everyone's laughter.

Shikamaru invited Naruto to continue the meeting next. Naruto started with a piece of advice. "I strongly recommend you guys to read a couple of hours a week at least, either about ninja skills, history, geography or just common-sense books. I will give you guys outside information you should know before starting C-rank missions. Books are available on shelves there, check them out to learn about general things about a location before you leave for C-rank missions, like Land of needles has many bees and it is better to have antiseptics on hand because they affect chakra flow in the injured area. I can also give recent updates and general knowledge you should have on ninja world, regularly, like Kiri's civil war. You can spend some time on that information every day. Until you catch up, half an hour in the morning will do, you can use your clone to practice jutsus while you read on."

All three of them agreed and Naruto smiled. "As I said earlier, I am here to talk about your parents. They knew we were training but do not know to what extent. My plan is to let them know gradually."

"Will you be meeting our parents? Since they did not stop our acquaintance with you and already agreed to our private trainings, we can arrange a simple introductory dinner with them in the name of friendship." Shino proposed and Choji nodded to indicate the same.

"I am not planning on taking things that slow. I have another direct approach. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I will take missions issued by me in the names of a different civilians, to facilitate our meetings while you guys can tell your parents we will be meeting for our group training as you usually did these past years. On the other days, I can find ways to meet them in your homes in the name of missions. I have asked permission from Kakashi sensei to let me do three solo D-rank missions per day."

"Was he not suspicious? No one like chores anyway." Ever-kind Choji did not feel kindness to the D-rank missions. It was very telling about the missions' nature.

"Ah my friend, beggars cannot be choosers. I am poor, you forgot that. An orphan with no stipend cannot survive on one or two D-rank missions a day unless he wants to be homeless. He needs extra dough to pay his bills." Naruto said with a dramatic expression mimicking a poor guy.

But instead of the expected comedic effect, his friends recoiled as if someone had slapped them abruptly. They never had to work for food, rent and other basic necessities, so they forgot Naruto was working his ass off for years to earn money while they were enjoying their wealth without much thought. Naruto saw their guilty expressions and gave a comforting smile.

"Cheer up guys, you know I am not poor right? I mean, I may not be wealthy to buy a clan house, but this place is not shabby."

Shikamaru explained the issue. "It does not matter. If you are not as hard working and clever as you are and found many ways to make money priorly, your reality will be what we imagined."

"Shika is right. You have been struggling and putting efforts for years to be where you are now and just because you could overcome it, does not mean the situation had to occur. They are petty." Shino explained dryly hating the unfairness of it all.

"Well, they suck but imagine their face if they know Naruto owns multiple shops in Red Light district and if I had to guess, he might own more than ten shops." Choji smirked guessing the shops Naruto asked to meet earlier were his.

Naruto could not help but be proud of Choji. He had come a long way from an unassuming guy to a key player. "Circling back to the topic, since I can move freely, I will be picking up on one or two D-rank missions from each of your clans every week. That is to say, I want you guys to tell your fathers to deliberately post a mission that I will be picking up, to facilitate my visit to train you guys weekly once."

Shikamaru intervened at that time. "It is better to go with recurrent tasks. I am going with foraging grass for our clan deer. It is a task that can be posted regularly without suspicions. After few times, we can specifically ask for the same guy citing he is good."

"I can post missions for vegetable harvesting. We need help regularly as we use lot of home-grown vegetables for our restaurants." Choji declared.

"I will go with growing herbs for the hive. We always need help to grow them to keep up with our hive friends' needs." Shino stated.

Naruto gave a thumbs up and continued with the topic. "Let's discuss the schedule later but I will go to your homes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in rotation, so we could do one-on-one training. Let's say Monday I go with Cho, Shino and Shika will be free that day to do their own things, when I train Shino, Cho and Shika will be free. This way, all of you will have two days of the week to yourself for clan training or other trainings of your choice and we can even meet each other in other's homes on the same day, for you guys have more free days if a special situation occurs. Sundays are for rest, family and relaxing."

Shikamaru continued "The schedule can be chosen according to our preference. Don't worry if you are tired or just not feel like training that day, we can reschedule to catch up, as our taicho can always send clones to two homes at the same day."

"That's set. But I will be using henge and sometimes have to borrow your clan genins name to go to others' homes, like a Nara genin at Akimichi's or Akimichi at Aburame's. I will discuss with your father's/clan heads about it, which brings me to the main topic. Do you guys remember me telling not to share the techniques I had given you with your parents until you graduated?"

"Yeah. Is there something else behind it? I thought you said you taught us early for learning their advanced applications?" Choji inquired.

"That is true but remember, there is always two things that could be true at the same time. Not all things are one-word answers, some are multiple choice questions." Naruto imparted wisdom to his friends who firmly registered that in their minds. "I want to present these techniques, not to my friends' fathers, but to your clan heads."

"Ah, to us it is sharing between friends, but if presented to the clan, it is a tool for negotiation. What are you gonna ask for Naru? Do you want us to convince our fathers of something in advance before the actual meeting?"

"That's Shin's talk for buttering up our old men, if you don't get it." Shikamaru winked. Other two laughed and Shino glared at the smirking Nara.

"There is no need for that. I know your fathers support me, but they need something to offer the clan if the situation to support me ever occurred. But if it is what I want specifically, I thought about a lot, I don't want anything." Naruto said to the shocked gazes of his friends.

"Naruto, are you an idiot? This is a good chance to let them repay for letting you down all these years." Choji told forcefully delivering an unconscious insult implying how he felt about the situation. This was a good chance. The adults should pay for what Naruto was owed and moreover the elders of the clan did not deserve free things from Naruto as they never provided him anything citing political complications, not even food in their restaurants, though his father tried to change that.

"He is right. Logic states that you should get something of equal value, maybe their political support or votes for your chunin promotion." Shino fully supported the rip off of his clan elders as they failed to support another outcast like Naruto at least, indirectly, since their clan members are outcast themselves. By doing that, he thought they all defied the very 'logic' their clan was taught from the young age to use for controlling their emotions. His clan elders stopped his father multiple times and Shino wanted a payback.

Naruto shifted to his serious mode and stopped them with the raise of his hand. "You think I am doing all this because I want promotion, or I use your clans for the game of hokage title?"

Naruto looked at each of them in their eyes and spoke in a hard tone that Shikamaru was sure he heard from ANBU captain reporting to his father sometimes. "I am not doing this for you, or me. I am doing this for all of Konoha. Imagine what an Aburame with more chakra, an Akimichi with an adjustable weapon and Nara who can use shadows in the dark, could do? You guys are more prone to injuries than sturdy-companion-accompanied Inuzakas, internal-non-field-working Yamanakas and detect-jutsus-as-it-form Hyugas. But with these techniques, Aburame does not lack stamina, Akimichi does not have to physically feel their attacks and Nara clan is not vulnerable to higher chakra reserve opponents. Importantly, Konoha's strength will be tripled because there are hundreds of jonins, thousands of chunins and genins combined, in each of your clans. If they could all utilize the techniques I gave you properly, we could potentially save their lives. In a year and half, I expect 38% drop, in Injury Frequency rate and 10% drop, in Fatality rate of overall Konoha ninja force, just with your three clans."

Narutop took a deep breath and continued in the stunned gazes of his friends. "For that, I have to present this to your clan heads followed by a solid demonstration by you guys in chunin exams. Once you guys put it to practical use and proved their value in front of other nations, I can take next steps and present other techniques to other clans, making Konoha stronger, and our ninjas lives longer."

Shikamaru was in awe of his hokage again. He had experienced these kinds of moments before when Naruto talked about academy strengths, or when he assigned him in charge of his information network acting with a base on Konoha's border. The sheer amount of time put in for planning and the countless efforts, physical and material, and the noble intention behind it was not something he had words to express with. But this topped all. Though all those other things helped Konoha, Naruto was also profited by that information, but this, this was solely for Konoha. The boy, no, the man standing there with an unbreakable spirit, was his taicho, his leader, his brother, his best friend and the hokage he would work for until his last breath. What would a shadow do without its Sun?

Shino was frustrated with himself for the first time in his life comparing his mentality to Naruto. He was not frustrated with the difference in their strength but the difference in visions made him disillusioned of himself. They were thinking small like a frog in a well while Naruto was already swimming among giant whales in the ocean. Whenever he thought his horizons were broadened Naruto would open a new door for him to a bigger world. Naruto's plans were made for generations to flourish and not just present. He was already acting like a hokage should. The amount of commitment this guy had shown to an undeserving village spoke to his kindness and tempered Shino's determination further. Naruto was hundreds of steps ahead of them and despite the distance, Shino had no doubts he would hundred percent dedicate himself and spare no efforts to follow his hokage through hell and back. His hokage deserved nothing less than that.

Choji always thought Naruto's heart was why he would make a good hokage. But seeing him now, with fire in his eyes, loyalty on words and a hyperintelligent brain, making multilayered plans with a single source for the good oh Konoha, he knew Naruto would make a great hokage. Then he remembered Naruto's strength and it left him speechless. With a gold of heart, savvy brain and a monstrous strength he will not make just a great hokage, he will become The Hokage, a hokage to surpass their predecessors. Choji wanted to be there to see that. He wanted to be one of those who helped Naruto to become that. For that, Choji had to walk on a path to change his views rapidly because he had realized a good heart makes a good ninja but along with good brain, it makes a great ninja. He knew it was not going to be easy, but Choji knew with all of his heart that there was no other path he would take. His hokage-sama was worthy of that after all.

All three of them bowed their hands in shame remembering their words.

Naruto gave them don't do that look and said to his friends kindly. "I always have faith in you guys. You don't to ever worry about that. This is a peace time and your parents wanted to have a sheltered childhood that they worked hard for. You cannot change in few days and there is nothing wrong that. It is just that our village is declining, and the worst part is even the top officials are lulled to a sense of false security and do not see many things that need attention. Still, it is unfair to ask three genins to shoulder the responsibility even the adults would hesitate to take on. But unfortunately, I have to bother you guys because I cannot do this alone. I have no one else to ask for help except you guys. I am terribly sorry but please help me to improve Konoha to overcome the upcoming perilous times." Naruto did a 90-degree bow at the end of his speech and all his friend scrambled from their seats to stop him.

Naruto stood up because of the noise only to find his three friends standing there with clenched fists and warrior like visages.

"Hoka-….Taicho, we are sorry. Thanks for reminding us to stop thinking from outside as audiences and remember we are on the fighting lines now. We will never forget we are ninjas, and our job is to protect our people. Have confidence in us taicho." Shikamaru apologized.

"We will look at the bigger picture, not just immediate benefits. We will do our duty unconditionally and successfully. We will make Konoha proud. Trust us Taicho." Shino had never been that passionate before.

"We will train until we fall down and stand up again for more. We will demonstrate those techniques to promote them in the upcoming chunin exams so all Konoha's clans could benefit. Believe in us taicho." Choji vowed.

"Of course, I have faith in you guys." Naruto said with 100% confidence and a smile that rivalled the sun. He then continued his speech with a mischievous tone. "Moreover, who said the applications of my techniques are over?"

"It is not?" Choji who always fell for Naruto's antics, asked in anticipation.

"The weapons and jutsus I gave you, to utilize those techniques and apply them successfully, are for your individual purposes. I have different idea in mind for applying by targeting a huge clan as one. If everything goes well, by the time we become jonin in three or four years, younger Aburame clan members will not be discriminated, Akimichi children will not be bullied, and the Nara clan will not be vulnerable."

All three of them sat up straight and looked at Naruto with eager eyes. "Is that possible?!" Shino was shaken. Today was too shocking for him.

"In just few years?!" Choji was dumbstruck thinking about not getting bullied.

"Making changes before becoming hokage? Only you Naru, only you!" Shikamaru said in fond exasperation.

Naruto changed to his laid-back attitude. "All in day's work boys, well, weeks in this case."

"How are you going to do those things troublesome blonde?"

"Want to know?" The two who earned for the carefree life Naruto had described the most, nodded while Shikamaru had a knowing glint even though he was curious. "Won't tell you. Hear from your parents."

All of them groaned and wanted to throw hands at the blonde. Naruto had a good laugh. "Shikamaru will talk about your delegated positions in the squad, next."

"Well, Aburame Shino, you will be squad one's Sentry; Updating clan information and genin information will be given to you. In addition, you will also be in charge of keeping an eye to not raise doubts about us and you will be a ninja scout, looking for potential candidates to join us later. In simple, our reputation and finding future candidates of Squad one will be under your jurisdiction. Codename: Beetle."

"I am guessing recruiting Kiba and maybe, Hinata will be my job?" Shino asked knowingly.

"Yep. But goad them to train more first. We need strength and heart." Naruto advised.

"Akimichi Choji, you will be the manager of this apartment, like restocking groceries, library books, medical supplies etc., and your main job is squad one's Spy." Shikamaru announced next.

"Me? Spy? Would not Shino cover that? And he is good at it." Choji was confused.

Naruto knew that would happen. "Nah Cho. You are closer to civilians than you think. Instead of sending a bug that can only listen to a happening conversation, you can learn more specific information from others."

Shikamaru comforted his friend. "You might not have noticed, but civilians tend to like your mellow attitude and talk to you more compared to us when four of us visit marketplaces in henge."

Shino supported him. "You can leisurely try a new restaurant asking the waiter or the nearby diner for recommendation on menu and start small talks to gather lot of news. It is not something you need to learn newly as you are already good at it."

Naruto took over again. "You can henge into a civilian and sneak into places flawlessly. You are very good at keeping the conversation flowing. Just keep doing that with deliberate guidance, you would make the very definition of spy. No one will know you are one until you tell them, not even your father will suspect that. While Shino round up ninjas, I want you to find allies in non-council related civilians. Do you know how I got two council members dismissed recently?"

"Yes." Choji was really impressed by Naruto when Shikamaru told them.

"Once I prove the old ones to be corrupted again, if we have reliable merchants, if you can find for us, we can subtly manipulate the civilian council to insert ones with genuine loyalty to Konoha unlike the ones now." Naruto dangled the carrot and of course, Choji would never refuse food, metaphorical or not.

"That's …. That's awesome. It is something I can do." Choji was happy he was good at something. He was afraid his friend would give him a position just to appease his feelings.

Shikamaru and Shino looked at each other knowingly and smiled at Choji and Naruto warmly.

Shikamaru rounded up the remaining things in the agenda. "So Choji is responsible for civilian and merchant information and maintenance. Codename: Bear; and me, I am your handler. Change of plans, schedules, meetings, treating lesser injuries, apparently coming with mock scenarios simulating original missions and other tactical trainings to train our minds will be under my jurisdiction. Next is Naruto. Though his job on Squad one is 'Instructor', I prefer Taicho."

"I second that." Shino said.

"I third that." Choji chirped.

Shikamaru smirked at the eye rolling Naruto. "It is official then. Uzumaki Naruto, Job: Taicho; without surprise, he will be in charge of stealth, weapon, other trainings and money which is sponsored entirely by our taicho for our training props and this apartment's operation. Every Wednesday, all of us will present the information you gathered here, so we decide future strategies."

"Naruto, do you really have no problem for money?" Shino was worried.

"I would like to believe I am richer than my parents when they were alive." Naruto said soothing his worries. Kushina was well paid for her seals and Minato was a S-class shinobi sought for many high ranked missions. So, they knew if Naruto was richer than them, he had comfortable money.

Shikamaru sighed. "That is all for today. This concludes the first official meeting of Squad One successfully. Troublesome!"

Naruto and others laughed at him. "We are actually surprised you held on this longer before saying 'troublesome' Shika." Choji grinned.

"I was expecting as soon as he said his codename and Job in the beginning, like, Job: Handler of Squad one, Troublesome!"

"I expected when I proposed there would be trainings on a weekday in between meetings." Naruto said and others agreed laughing together. The scowl on Shikamaru's face made them laugh more.

Few days later on the outskirts of Konoha:

Kakashi gave two days break to his genins and went on a solo mission. He was supposed to arrive later, but the mission ended before the expected time and Kakashi travelled all night and reached Konoha, in the ridiculously early morning on the second day. At the same time, Naruto, without henge, was doing his early morning physical training with Lee and Gai.

Kakashi smelled his blonde student as soon as he came in range. He was curious as to what his student was doing this early. When he tracked down, he came to an unexpected sight, Naruto, on a morning run with Gai and Lee.

The copy-nin's spiky blonde hair student in his old hideous neon orange jumpsuit, was running with Kakashi's self-declared Eternal Rival and his minion in matching green spandexes and deep black bowl cuts. The sight was colorful on its own, but what's more interesting was Naruto casually keeping up with them without any problem. Gai's training regimen was intense, even jonins find it hard to do it after thirty minutes. Gai's minion could do it because of practice, but how could Naruto?!

'Maybe Naruto is getting help for taijutsu from Gai. But the question is how long?' Kakashi was sure Naruto had been doing this for more than few days, with the ease which Naruto was doing the same routine as Konoha's Green Beast and Little Beast.

Why didn't Naruto come to him? Would Kakashi help him? He would ask him to wait for few days before he spent time with him and Sasuke. His team 7 was still working on formation and teamwork exercises. Still, Naruto didn't come to him though. He directly went to Gai. That fact disturbed him but what bothered him was Naruto was keeping up with Gai's speed. Just how much Naruto was holding back during his team spars?

Due to Sasuke's insistence, under the watchful eyes of Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke sparred twice during their time on team seven. Sasuke expected a land slide victory over the dead-last who lost to him in minutes until graduation, but it did not happen. It was close still Sasuke won, but the avenger was not satisfied with the near victory. At first, Kakashi was expecting many flaws in taijutsu since Naruto did not have a training partner except his clones, but Naruto had few openings at his stance. So, when he lost, Kakashi thought Naruto was holding back. When he observed further, Naruto really tried but he couldn't muster speed, but Kakashi was not a normal ninja. He decided to observe a few more spars before coming to a judgement on his mysterious student.

Kakashi was sure now that Naruto could not win because he was wearing Weights, and the weights method could only be suggested to him if his friend was the one training Naruto. Naruto's hideous jumpsuit covered those weights. Kakashi was only partially right because unknown to others, Naruto was wearing both gravity seals and Weights. His gravity seals were hidden from everyone except Squad One, who all received Weights and Gravity seals from him.

Gravity seals ranged from level 10 to 100 as the minimum level was 10 for normal environment surrounding human beings. If it became lower than that, people would become lightweight and start to float after certain levels. At high levels, they restricted one's movements. Naruto was on his level 80's now. There were only a handful of people in the ninja world capable of that.

Then there were his weights. Lee, Gai and Naruto all used weights. Gai had the most while Naruto had the least. Don't go thinking they are normal weights. According to Lee's count of seven on each leg, his Weights should normally weigh 1100 lbs. (500 kg) per leg, or 2030 lbs. (997 kg) total, but his Weights weigh much more than that. For civilians, 1000 kg might be astronomical but for ninjas, with chakra enhancement of their body, this much weight was not unbearable to carry. So, for a pure taijutsu expert like Lee, who had to overcome his handicap of lacking necessary chakra with just physical training, he needed not normal Weights, but Chakra Weights.

Chakra Weights were different because they were formed with Chakra, special materials and a seal on each of them. Some even had modes to use different levels of weight with the help of fuinjutsu, to switch them on and off, for the user to accelerate and adjust his speed, without taking it off. But Lee, who could not mold chakra to access seals, could not utilize them, and had to physically take out a certain number of Chakra Weight slabs to achieve different levels of speed, or take off his entire Weights to reach his maximum speed.

Currently Lee was wearing Chakra Weights weighing ten times more than normal Weights, a whooping 11000 lbs. (5000 kg) per leg or 22000 lbs. (10000 kg) in total, distributed among seven bands in each leg. Naruto was wearing 60% percent of that and with 84th Gravity seal level, he was at least twice as strong and fast as Lee and that was without Chakra enhancement. But it was not a right estimate because he could defeat Lee easily in a breeze if he wanted, as outwardly, Naruto only showed 40% of Weights, absolutely no show of gravity seals and his jumpsuit acting as armor weighing as much as 20% of Lee's weights. If Lee knew that Naruto could also open three Gates with his improved technique, he would be seriously hit, as he always bragged about how Naruto was a hard work genius like him, and not a born genius unlike their teammates.

Naruto wanted his physical strength to keep up with his growing chakra reserves, otherwise he would experience chakra poisoning by his own chakra and corruption by Kyubi's chakra. He took special consideration to tackle that issue by training as much as he trained on chakra control on physical training. After bitter experience, Naruto also found that one's chakra could always be sealed by numerous methods, so he wanted to be strong enough to break prison bars and hand cuffs made of military grade, with bare hands. So, he trained physically to take down jonins on fights without chakra. He made it a point, to continuously do physical training except when he was sleeping for five to six hours a day depending on the workload, continuously as much as his chakra control training, by making his jumpsuit into a steel armor weighing 4400 lbs. (2000 kg) riddled with seals for gravity control, chakra disguise and other functions. 24-hour chakra control training and 18-hour physical training made him a physical training freak as much as a chakra control freak.

The gravity seals on Naruto's jumpsuit started from 5 to make it light weighted as a normal cloth jumpsuit, to avoid problems if he was hoisted by his jumpsuit like Iruka did sometimes when catching him after pranks. Naruto was happier for his forethought when it first happened. Otherwise, he would have been found out if he investigated why Naruto's jumpsuit weighed like a horse.

In order not to get caught, Naruto had to switch on and off his armor in a span of half a second. So, Naruto regularly trained with different speeds and different chakra levels to utilize Chakra Weights and Gravity seals at will. To check his skill of using them in real life fights, he had personally participated in illegal underground arena fights outside Konoha, leaving blood clones in the village to take his place.

On the months before Kyubi festival in October, during chunin exams and biennial ANBU reviews happening once in two years resulting in copious amount of paper works, he had three to four months gap before the hokage personally saw him. Naruto sneaked out to make important plans and to hone his skills requiring physical training. With the Third Gate open on his spinal cord and on the way to open the Fourth Gate, Naruto could easily take bunch of jonins together, easily.

If he could clear out his limitations, he could fight multiple ANBU together with practiced ease, because within few days, with the help of four thousand clones a day, Naruto had mastered all the ninjutsus with the solid foundation he had laid gradually for years. He could do many B-rank jutsu seal less, A ranks with few seals, C-ranks with intonation and D and E-ranks with a thought. This was all possible by his newly formulated chakra theory. It was derived from old ones, giving him an advanced technique that brought him closer to chakra existing around him, that he could command at will, in smaller quantities.

With the chakra theories left by Nidaime and Shodaime and the spiritual energy theory left by Mito Uzumaki in the Senju-Uzumaki compound, Naruto got in touch with older ways of chakra manipulation. Shodaime's views on how he could use chakra and hand seals for Wood release while others could not, gave insights on Warring clan era chakra molding. Nidaime views on how based on his chakra sensing ability and sealing skills, he could seal the intangible souls of people, opened his world to in depth to forms of chakra existence. Combining with what Naruto had gathered and composed all these years from clans of Konoha, the hokage vault, elders' home, yup, he sneaked in there too, his father's notes, his mother's and great-grandmother Mito's scrolls, and the things he foraged from outside, Naruto evolved his half-baked chakra theory and improved his new chakra flow technique.

The final nail on the coffin came from the two unread Uzumaki scrolls he found from his last visit outside Konoha to the main island of Uzushiogakure, Uzumaki clan motherland, four months before graduation. After finding the Senju-Uzumaki compound, Naruto opened the scrolls finally and read them intoxicatedly. He wished he had opened them earlier. He did not open them before because they looked ancient. They were ancient even by Sandaime's terms. He could be attacked if opened and even with the clones, the original could be affected in the blast radius.

Naruto needed a safe place away from Konoha as he did not want to raise suspicions with unexpected factors. He had few options, but he did not want to damage the place that had ancient restrictions, like the Uzumaki island, which was his clan's holy land and their gravesite that should not be disturbed or the altar in the Uzumaki temple in Konoha, which was a cultural relic. Those places should not be damaged for the unknown and Naruto did not lose anything without the two scrolls, at least that was his thought until he opened them anyway. But Senju compound seal room had such comparable restrictions to the Uzumaki altar, of course, because of Mito-sama's and Nidaime's skills. He could open the ancient scrolls safely here and redo the seals later, after improving his fuinjutsu.

In the scrolls, he found information from when Senju and Uzumaki were together and was known as Senmaki clan. That information provided input on chakra usage before warring era dated as old as Rikodo Sennin sons' time and how the elder one created jutsus with hand seals while the younger one used 'bodily chakra method', a method that could manipulate basic chakra and elemental chakra with a thought without hand seals, like Minato's rasengan, which was merely chakra manipulation of one's basic chakra and gathering wind chakra, in short, elemental manipulation of nature's chakra or in rasengan's case, simply Wind manipulation. Kyubi scoffed at Naruto's comparison and assured him that compared to the successor of Ninshu's one particular jutsu, his father's jutsu was the pathetic attempt of a cheap copy. Naruto vowed to get the Kyubi to show his memory of the real one made by Ninshu's second leader.

With all the information he learnt, Naruto spent 240,000 hours (5 days with the original plus thousand clones and twice the efficiency with First Gate in brain open i.e., 120 hours*1001 people*2 times brain power) not to create a new, but to fine tune and enhance the chakra flow technique he was already formulating as he was on the right track with his earlier concept already. Ultimately, he came up with a new form of chakra molding and chakra flow concepts, which alone put him in the leagues of Shodaime and his Uzumaki ancestors.

When he finished and had a sense of accomplishment, Kyubi delivered his first genuine compliment. "Well done! You did good, Naruto. You are on right path. Keep practicing the new method for two weeks and get rid of that abomination limiting you, you could overpower your old monkey hokage with my help in a fight without major injuries."

Naruto gaped with his mouth wide open because that was the first time Kyubi had called his name without meaning it as a fishcake. He did not even hear the second part properly. Let's say, Naruto had a hearty meal of fourteen bowls of ramen to celebrate that particular achievement. If one had to guess, Naruto's joy at being called by his name by Kyubi was more than his joy at inventing a new way to use chakra and changing the wheels of ninjas' fate. Yes, at a mere age of twelve, Naruto had changed the course of ninja history extending ninja era over a span of another two centuries. He was not aware of that yet.

Naruto could not publish it to the world about his earth breaking invention and get the necessary recognition at this point. Kyubi felt it was a pity, so the mighty Kyubi no Kitsune gave him a gift for his accomplishment, that action said how significant Naruto's achievement was.

After four days of being assigned to team seven, Naruto had been using this new method and was rapidly improving. With no gates open, he could easily blow past many ANBU and jonins because he could throw jutsus after jutsus at them without spending much of his chakra. They could not even predict him because he used few hand seals to just incantations and a mere thought. He could use multiple E-rank jutsus in succession without a word or action and they would be sitting ducks.

In serious fights, Naruto would be able to fight Gai, who only had three Gates out of his eight Gates open, in a leisurely manner. Five Gates open Gai would be able to give Three Gate Naruto, a tough fight. What would happen when Naruto opened other gates was for the future. In a real fight, Kakashi and Naruto would be equals because Kakshi could use ninjutsu well and Naruto had no personal experience with his fighting style unlike with Gai. While Gai was a dangerous opponent, Kakashi was a deadly opponent. Kakashi had killed more than two thousand ninjas so far and he did not even like killing. Naruto with his blood clones was rapidly overcoming his lack of experience and slowly building momentum to counter that. Still, Kakashi would not win against him without sharinghan. Naruto was waiting for the chance to remove his limiters to confront his pseudo sensei and sensei Kakashi without sweating.

Naruto was now adapting to his new qualitative physical and quantitative chakra changes brought by his new technique. When Naruto got assigned to team 7, he increased his Gravity seals and Chakra Weights restriction, and left only 10% percent of his strength. That way, even if he slipped up, he would not be able to do more damage and expose his true levels. So, what Kakashi observed was technically true, and 10% of Naruto's strength was enough to deal with the 'rookie of the year' genin Sasuke.

Back to reality, seeing his casual training with physical training freaks now, Kakashi got his answer regarding Naruto's hidden strength even though he could only estimate his student was on par with Lee, who was well above Sasuke in taijutsu. Maybe to the hokage and him, though it was absurd as Naruto was kept on track with the help given by Senju heir, Naruto was taking help to improve the academy holes, recently, but apparently, his student had been doing that for a year at least. When many people supported Naruto in the bar that day, he was happy and did not think much, but he was wondering now, just how many of those people were already helping Naruto. His student might be getting help from more than the mysterious Senju heir.

Kakashi wanted to do his part too and was thinking about letting Naruto know the secret to shadow clones, if he did not know before. He was disturbed by the fact that Naruto didn't ask for his help. Even if he decided not to ignore Naruto, he knew he was supposed to concentrate more on Sasuke and he was planning to. Naruto reminded him of Obito's personality along with his sensei's. He was emotionally stable unlike Sasuke. Naruto did not need him as much as Sasuke did.

Kakashi was a genius and when he was Naruto's age, he was already an ANBU captain. It was his first-time teaching genins and he had no knowledge of how to teach anyone in his team. Kakashi's thoughts were still running wild. Though Naruto was displaying solid intelligence, he was a physical learner and not book smart. If only you know Kakashi. Kakashi could agree, though Sasuke was good, he wasn't a genius either, but teaching him would take less time than it would take Naruto. Sakura needed to get her body and other skills to an acceptable ninja level first. Moreover, the council would not approve Naruto's promotion before Sasuke became a chunin even if Naruto showed some skills. It was better to get Sasuke to chunin level first to get him promoted and concentrate on personally training Naruto next. 'I have time.' Kakashi thought to himself unknowing his own blonde student, who he was raking his brain this much for, had already set traps to derail his carefully laid plans in the chunin exams.

Kakashi's pondering went deeper. While he was training Sasuke, Kakashi could give Naruto a scroll like the Senju heir. If the hokage words were to be believed, Naruto could learn things just with the scroll. He should wait until they started C-rank missions at least. Naruto wanted to get stronger soon. If he knew the secret of shadow clones, he would spam it and attract the council's attention. Naruto needed not be a dead-last, but if he stood out, the council would use him as a tool. It was good Naruto was not over the top now. Like younger Kakashi, Sasuke didn't have the option to take things slow, because he was the last Uchiha and the council wanted to awaken his sharinghan. Kakashi didn't want Sasuke to end up like him. The only thing that helped Kakashi when he was little, was his sensei's guidance. So, he copied his sense's way and tried to do the same for Sasuke. His nickname was Copy-cat ninja (Copy-nin) after all.

Alternately, Kakashi wanted Naruto to be a child a little longer. Let him get used to ninja life at a steady pace, after all, he did not have the option to grow up slowly like other kids of his age. Once Sasuke was a Chunin, the council would not mind Kakashi teaching Naruto personally. Moreover, 'Naruto has time.' Kakashi thought to himself, unknowing he would regret this decision with all the forces conspiring against him to bring a war with his let-be-a-child-longer blonde student as the center, before he was twenty.

Kakashi was brought to reality by the sound of 'Yosh'-es coming from the self-proclaimed beasts approaching him. Gai saw Kakashi and appeared before him with musings of youth.

"Good morning my Eternal Rival! Are you returning from the mission this early in the morning? Your loyalty and commitment make the springtime of youth shine brighter, Kakashi. I will definitely do the same next time." Gai promised loudly with tears on his face, much to the ire of injured, tired and hungry Kakashi.

Kakashi was further irked when Naruto waved to him and reached them with mini-Gai in a leisurely pose like nothing was happening. Lee and Naruto stopped to look at the two jonins before continuing.

"Maa, maa, Gai, I didn't know you have a new training partner." Kakashi said in a nonchalant tone while observing his student who was doing push-ups with Gai's student, whose name was something like a boulder or cave.

"You mean Naruto? Naruto-kun's youth is quite inspiring Kakashi. He exercises with us some time." Gai said, not exposing Naruto and not lying to his friend but Kakashi knew better. After all these years, could he not tell when his friend was hiding something when caught red-handed?

"Oh, he does now. Doesn't he?" Kakashi said with sarcasm that went right above Gai's head.

Gai ranted about how his student Lee had found a youthful friend of his age in Naruto. Kakashi was looking at Naruto with his single eye. Kakashi could see Gai's minion finally had a friend outside his team. Naruto had the ability to find friends at odd places.

'Maybe I should ask Gai to help with Naruto's taijutsu or maybe Gai was already helping him.' Kakashi could not be sure about anything when it came to Naruto anymore. Kakashi, for all his genius, was finding it hard to keep up with the secrets of his multi-layered student.

"Kakashi, let's do a challenge now." Gai asked Kakashi enthusiastically.

At the same time Lee was pestering Naruto. "Naruto-kun, let's do a challenge to see who can do more push-ups."

"Mmm, did you say something?" Kakashi and Naruto said at the same time and looked at each other in mild surprise. It was unplanned by either of them, as it was Kakashi's go-to line whenever Gai spoke and he did not want to respond and Naruto was not listening to Lee, as he was eavesdropping on his sensei's conversation. So, when it happened, Kakashi gave an amused eye smile while Naruto smiled bashfully at his sensei. Kakashi was proud that one of his students was taking after him already.

"Damn your hip and cool attitude!" Both Lee and Gai at the said time.

"Bushy brows and Bushy brows sensei, I will see you later." Naruto turn tailed before Lee decided to expose Naruto was his eternal rival. Kakashi chuckled lightly at Naruto's nickname for the duo.

"Sure Naruto-kun!" "Bye Naruto-kun!", Konoha's spandex duo waved enthusiastically.

"We have precious friends. Let's do 100 laps around Konoha with our hands to celebrate Lee." said Gai.

"Let's make it 200 sensei. 100 for each." Lee encouraged his sensei.

"Lee!"

"Gai sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai sensei!"

"Let's leave before they start hugging each other with a seashore and sunset background. I could never dispel that genjutsu no matter what I tried." Naruto said leaving exaggeratingly shaking his head to forget that nightmare worthy picture from his thoughts. Too bad he had photographic memory.

"Trust me. Even I cannot dispel it and I have been trying for couple of years." Kakashi stated distastefully.

They left together in time and missed the youthful display of springtime that could make the viewers shudder.

"How long have you been training with them, Naruto?" Kakashi asked following his student.

"For two hours." Naruto replied cheekily without stopping. "You should go and take some rest before reporting to the hokage, sensei. He won't be in the office for another four hours and you look tired." Naruto advised Kakashi jumping to the rooftop.

Kakashi trailed behind him but didn't respond. He knew Naruto didn't want to talk about earlier, but it didn't mean he would not get the answers somehow.

"You are bleeding. Get your wounds treated first. Go to the hospital." Naruto said sniffing the air still hopping on the rooftops.

"Maa, maa, you are my student. Not my nurse. Don't worry. I can take care of myself." Kakashi said hoping Naruto would drop it.

"I know you can. But, will you?" Naruto asked and Kakashi didn't bother to reply. Naruto sighed.

"Follow me." Naruto said to Kakashi stepping in front of him and with hand on his pants pockets. Kakashi raised his single eyebrow in question. It was still early and there were not lot of ninjas travelling via rooftop to observe this weird situation of a genin stopping a jonin in his path.

"You come with me, and I will answer your questions from before. I won't answer all of them, but I will answer truly in brief, to at least one question. An exchange, in letting me treat your injuries. Deal?" Naruto hoped Kakashi would accept.

Kakashi gave a slight nod motioning Naruto to lead. Kakashi was touched because he knew Naruto did this for his sake. Naruto did not gain anything from this exchange and merely wanted him not to bleed more and suffer from his injuries. Kakashi gave a genuinely warm smile from the happy times of his past to the back of his sunshine student leading the way to his apartment. That much was true. Naruto was warm and bright as sunshine, no matter what. Kakashi would remember those particular words, many times throughout his lifetime, especially after they confirm their relationship. Who knew the contact-allergic Hatake would make a clingy-huggy Husband in the mornings?

Naruto reached his apartment and jumped in through the window. He dispelled the clone in the house. Thanks to people breaking into his apartment occasionally, he never let scrolls and weapons lying around.

Kakashi followed too. The apartment was different from the last time Kakashi visited. Last time he checked, it looked like a glorified garbage can.

Naruto asked him to sit on the sofa. Under the curious eyes of Kakashi, Naruto gave a storage scroll to his clone that was created seal-lessly, sending it to the kitchen, and made Kakashi sit in the living room after throwing a clean blanket taken from the storage scroll, over the sofa and nearby chairs. He threw some cushions and asked Kakashi to put his leg up.

'Neat Freak.' Kakashi could not picturize this Naruto leaving his apartment full of spoilt milk, dirty kitchen and unwashed laundry.

Naruto went to the bathroom and came back with the first-aid box. He actually took it out from the permanent storage seal on the left hand. He didn't want Kakashi to know about his fuinjutsu skills yet.

Kakashi looked at the apartment from his seat on the sofa. At all the times Kakashi had seen Naruto's apartment from the inside or outside, he was curious about the walls covered in drapes. The cloth screens were covering every wall. Apart from that, at present, everything was normal, without mess and well organized. Kakashi's eyes darted around the now clean apartment unlike the last time he saw it.

"I organized it in the evening." Naruto said answering his unvoiced question and Kakashi arched one eyebrow.

"That day evening…. after the visit from the hokage and you, I cleaned the apartment." Naruto explained.

"How did you find out about us coming to your home?" Kakashi asked, not very surprised since Naruto had been doing unpredictable things since graduation day.

"You mean your break-in?" Naruto teased.

"Maa, I prefer the term impromptu visit." Kakashi replied in style and Naruto laughed.

"Smell." Naruto said fetching some warm water and clean cloth. "I could smell you and the hokage's smoke. I have a better nose, probably the courtesy of my furry tenant."

Naruto earned a string of insults from the said furball for that comment.

"I know you are taking being a ninja seriously, Naruto. But I didn't know you have a knack for cleaning and organizing. Why leave the apartment like that when you like cleanliness that much?" Kakashi pointed to the blanket rolling his pants.

Kakashi started cleaning his wounds in the leg. Naruto went to get dustbin for discarding blood-stained towels while contemplating how to answer it. It was not a tough question, but his answer mattered because he did not know how Kakashi would react. Whether Kakashi cared or not, his reaction would affect Naruto emotionally and otherwise.

Naruto needed external advice and asked the only being who knew everything about him. 'What do I do?'

'I am not here for your emotional counsel, brat. But you are stupid, and I will help. I think you should tell him. It is time someone with power gave a shit and who knows? You can get sympathy points from him, and he can help you more than Uchiha brat.'

Naruto rolled his eyes at the Kyubi who liked to take a shot at every Uchiha every chance he got. 'How can I be sure he will care? He did not even check on me before?'

'Then give him a choice. Either he could know about this issue or about that eye-burning weirdos earlier. If he cares, he will make the right choice.'

'Thanks. That is helpful.'

Kyubi ignored the bumbling teen and retreated.

Don't do everything by yourself. Make some bonds and share your burdens. - A Crow's advice rang out in Naruto's head.

Kakashi was aware of Naruto's changing emotions as he did not bother to hide his facial expressions as always when they were alone. Kakashi did not know what made Naruto, who was wearing a mask all his life, trust him to let go of his emotions. But he was happy that Naruto was willing be to his true self in front of him and it made him value the blonde more than just his sensei's son. While tending the wound, he waited for Naruto to make a decision. He did not know how a cleaning question would spark trust issues, but he could wait for his student. He got nowhere to be. Naruto came back with a dustbin and clarity of mind making Kakashi look in anticipation.

Naruto took a deep breath. "My apartment was broken into sensei."

"What?!" Kakashi put his leg down in shock making it throb painfully.

Naruto pointed to his leg and signaled him to sit down. Kakashi ignored it and said in a forceful tone of steel. "Naruto, explain now."

Naruto shook his head making him frown. "Sensei, when you agreed to come here, I gave you a deal about answering the questions. I am invoking it now. Either I will answer your questions about the state of my house or about earlier incidents with those two. Pick one."

Kakashi knew what was important. He would never let his curiosity take priority over Naruto's safety. But Kakashi would not give in easily, so he gave his student a piercing look needing answers for both, but Naruto did not waver. Kakashi could negotiate too. "Fine. But you will be explaining everything about the break-in." 'So, I know who to maim later.'

Naruto agreed with a "Hai." He asked him to take back his seat on the sofa.

"That day the house was like that because I did not have time to clean up the mess after last time. I was upset about graduation and did not organize the apartment in time like I usually do." Naruto said flatly.

'Usual? Last time? Deep breathe Kakashi. Breathe. Don't lose your temper before you know everything.'

"How many times has this happened?"

"More than once."

Kakashi took another deep breath because Naruto's lets-discuss-weather tone, like nothing big was happening was adding to his simmering fury. "Have not you ever complained before to anybody about these?"

Naruto shrugged.

Kakashi sighed. "Just tell me when it happened for the first time?" 'So, my heart can break more.'

Naruto looked at the floor, suddenly looking like a small child and not the budding warrior, Naruto had been portraying himself to be since graduation. Kakashi felt bad or pressuring him, but he had to know to put an end to this. It could not happen again.

"When Naruto? Or just tell me, what happened the last time? Why didn't you say anything to hokage? Why didn't you say to me after meeting me?" Kakashi questioned carefully.

"I don't want to tell the old man and why would I tell you, sensei?" Naruto asked scratching his back head showing he was confused.

"Maa, ok, you did not know me well, I understand that. But why you did not want to tell the hokage? You yourself said, the hokage cared and your academy sensei too. They might not have cared enough but without any doubt, neither of them would condone this violence. They would have done something to prevent this." Naruto was surprised by his reaction. It felt eerily similar to the tone his sensei used on the bar that day to defend him from Ebisu and Kurenai. Yup, his clone was there in disguise.

"Ano, why are you angry?"

"Maa, Naruto, I am not angry." 'I am furious.'

Naruto was still looking confused because he really did not get why Kakashi would be angry. It was not like the first time this happened. They were common incidents to him for years, so pardon his confusion.

'Why is he looking confused? What is confusing about this? Why won't I be angry? Did he really think I will not care enough to be angry? Or…. something else had happened before and he was sure no one would care about this happening to him. Is that why he won't tell anything to hokage? Surely, Sandaime will never any tolerate physical attacks on Naruto, right? He is like hokage's surrogate grandson after all.' Kakashi was starting to doubt it because the old man did not even know Naruto was kidnapped and almost let him die.

Kakashi talked in a fake calm tone as if he was talking to an elementary child. "Naruto, breaking in is illegal. You should have complained about this to hokage. He would have punished the ones responsible so these things would not happen again. More than that, if someone break into your apartment, they will not stop there, they can attack you." Kakashi said with a late realization dreading his next words. "Did they…attack you? Naruto, be good and tell the truth?"

Naruto was beginning to realize Kakashi was not aware of the attacks and attempts on his life. That thought made him sad and happy. Happy that Kakashi didn't ignore his attacks knowingly and sad that Kakashi didn't check in on him. Naruto gave him the gauze to wrap his wounds with a small smile.

Kakashi reached for it and was confused by his sudden change in demeanor. What was there to smile about? It did not make sense at all. "Hmm…Naruto why are you smiling?"

"You really don't know anything sensei. Wrap the wound first."

Kakashi wasn't going to let this go. Despite Kakashi's stunted emotional growth, he could sense when something was amiss. Moreover, he was not going to take his blonde student's safety lightly.

"What don't I know? I know enough that you should take action when your apartment is broken into, especially by ninjas. What if it is enemy ninja from different village?" Kakashi taught his student patiently.

"It is not enemy ninjas from different village." Naruto mumbled ignoring Kakashi's outburst.

'Naruto knew the assaulters?! Who is it from Konoha?' Kakashi was thinking different possibilities regarding the civilian council and the elders who might want to do this to stop Naruto from taking graduation exam.

Naruto took the first aid kit and started cleaning Kakashi's other wounds. Kakashi flinched and wanted to stop first but decided to stay put if that kept Naruto talking.

"Then who is it, Naruto? Do you know who they are?" Kakashi did not give in. He was going to get answers one way or the other.

"Naruto, you said I would get answers." Kakashi pressed and Naruto sighed.

"Fine. But you cannot ask about my morning runs if I answer this." Naruto repeated again.

"Ok Naruto. But you better explain the whole truth." Kakashi, more or less ordered.

Naruto threw a kunai at the rope holding the screen covering the living room walls. They fell down to reveal what was written on the walls. Phrases like Die demon brat, Go to hell, Leave Konoha, Burn in hell, Go away demon brat were scattered on the walls with marks that looked like made of sharp things like knife, kitchen cleaver and even shuriken and kunai.

When Naruto said more than once, Kakashi did not expect more than ten break-ins, because some words were faded and some were not, telling they were from different times. If Kakashi had to estimate he would say at least, thirty to forty, signifying multiple break-ins a year. Kakashi saw the faded words monster outside Naruto's apartment that day when he visited with the hokage, but he didn't know that people came inside.

Kakashi suspected, on those many times he followed his students after late missions to know whether they reached home safely, Naruto always entered his house through the window because he did not want to see those words outside. But he had no idea about inside. All the screens and blankets made sense now. He could not bear to imagine six-year-old little Naruto had to sit in this shabby apartment, cleaning those words for hours, alone, with anger, sadness, frustration and unshed tears, say damn it all, just covered the walls with screens and continued to this live in this hellhole, because he had no other option. That picture was breaking his frozen heart, which he did not think was possible.

Kakashi was brought to reality by Naruto's voice. "Some civilians broke into my apartment. sensei. There were some ninjas too."

Kakashi expected that much. "Have you ever been there when they broke-in?"

"I did, the first few times." Naruto said tending to the wounds and Kakashi's composure began to crumble. The carefully condensed anger he was keeping at bay for years started to rage against the walls he built. It was a like a dam waiting to break and wreak havoc by destroying everything on its path.

"Few times? Didn't you tell anyone?" Kakashi was not sure he would like the answer.

"I did, the first few times."

As expected, Kakashi did not like the answer. 'How many times has this happened?' "What do you mean first few times? How many times have you been attacked?"

"The first time I was hit by the orphanage caretaker, I did not know it was wrong. But when I was hit by many children at once, I suspected something was wrong. But when it happened again under the eyes of adults, I knew it was wrong. I did not know it was all premediated first. I don't know who to or I should complain, but I blabbered to the old man with a large cap, who visited me and spoke to me kindly, about those mean people. Some days later, it happened again, but those people hurt me more and left external wounds because they were angry at me for something I was not aware."

Though Kakashi was furious and wanted to find those at the orphanage people immediately, he could not help but notice Naruto's tone never fluctuated throughout his speech as if an ANBU was talking about mission reports. 'Just how much practice you had to not let your weakness show to others? At what age did you stop crying? Just…. Naruto!'

"They were smart, sensei. Seeing my injuries, they locked me in a closet for two days so there would be no evidence to show the outside world. That was the first time I found out my wounds healed faster than others. I was a little happy, but I was more terrified because I was really different from others as they said. Even as a child, I knew normal people should not heal like that. So, I was more or less convinced that there was a reason for others to treat me like that."

"No, it was not-, how old-" Kakashi was stopped by Naruto's hand. '-were you when it happened.'

"If you want to know the full story, don't interrupt me. I don't like to talk about this, and I will not talk about his again, after today." Naruto said with a hard tone and Kakashi nodded with an understanding as to how hard it was to re-live the trauma.

Naruto still spoke with a flat tone as if it happened to someone else in fictions and not a living breathing him. "That was the first time something like that happened. So, I snooped around and found that they were angrier than usual because an old man who had highest power in Konoha, reprimanded them. I could not help but be happy that the random old man who was kind to me had defended me and he was also very powerful. The next time I saw him I confronted him not knowing I was shooting my own foot with that question."

Kakashi was curious how that could affect Naruto badly. "That old man introduced himself as the hokage making me want to be like him. Everything was going well for few weeks when it happened again. But this time, when I complained to the old man, the orphanage people said I was lying and there were no physical injuries as proof. The old man did not punish them severely, but he knew they were lying, so without proof, he could only reprimand. They become bolder and smarter too. At present, I know who was giving them ideas but at the time I was clueless as to what was happening. They slowly built my reputation as unruly and a liar. They said, since I know the old man was hokage, I have been acting arrogantly by spoiling food, picking fights and doing pranks and the like."

Kakashi could see what they were planning. "They enacted situations making me look like a disobedient child and complained to the hokage without context. The old man started advising me and slowly started to change from the grandfatherly figure to the hokage who put the village above others. One time, I got frustrated with the unfairness, I shouted that I was not a liar, and the old man was not wise enough to be a leader if he could not even find the truth about childrens' dealings. You are a ninja for years and you could guess what happened next."

Kakashi eye widened in realization as he was indeed able to guess what happened next.

"Now you know, huh sensei, why do I have enough sense to say I am right without saying others are wrong, especially to people who are more influential and privileged than me, which is just everybody in Konoha which I did not realize yet when I was much younger." Naruto gave a bitter laugh.

Kakashi winced at the bitter sound. It should not come from his cheerful student. He also got the message that Naruto developed ninja like qualities as a genin not because he wanted to but because he had to. Really, his student was good at disguise, negotiation, misdirection, stealth, in perfect control of emotions like seasoned chunins, unlike even clan children who were taught ninja skills from young age but these qualities, they came from experience.

Naruto continued. "The hokage did not see me for longer time after that incident and he started to believe what others said about me. They were also wise not to cross the limits so the hokage would not suspect them, after all, the old man was still aware of their unpleasant feelings towards me. So, they made someone fairly kind to me before, introduce me to pranks for retaliating against others in hopes that I would cause serious damage, that way they could portray me as a revenge seeking person who should be under watch and controlled. But I never wanted to harm others and did not pull any dangerous pranks, so they made other plans. They wanted me to pressurize to lose myself in anger though I did not know at that time, what they had in mind."

Kakashi was increasingly horrified with Naruto's increasingly sadder tone because Kakashi knew what they meant by losing himself. "As they expected, I was frustrated by their antics but instead of getting anger, I mistook that they wanted to see my tears." Naruto gave a humorless chuckle at his fortunate stupidity. "So, I squared my shoulders, put my heads up with a challenging look that said they could not bring me down by their actions, acted like their words did not affect me and pretended I was not angry or sad."

Naruto gave a haunted-unfocused look, a look that said something more painful was yet to come. "They could not make me a violent person, they could not make me angry, they could not make me let loose of my inner monster. So, they…"

Kakashi was frozen in shock but he still spoke out for his student, so he did not have to vocalize his pains. "So, they started violent attacks in groups. If the emotional pain did not make you lose yourself, the physical pain would. And you were young, so even if you accessed Kyubi's power, it would not last for long, since your body cannot withstand that dark chakra and they could easily bring you down. Then, they would pretend that you were a danger to others, as you were a child without any grasp of your power and argue that, even if others made you slightly dissatisfied, you would use it against people of Konoha indiscriminately. They would say you either needed to be detained in a holding cell or trained severely under strict supervision. They would isolate you either way and get complete hold of you and the Kyubi." Kakashi ended with shock and a suppressed rage, picturing it happen.

"Yeah. It was supposed to happen, but I was saved before it got out of hand by an acquaintance, who was wise and showed me kindness and instilled me values of being a ninja."

"Is that the person who died and not in KIA?" Kakashi asked seeing the grief on Naruto's face and carefully avoided the term 'suicide.'

Naruto nodded. "He was an embodiment of everything a ninja should be. Even if it not for him, there were other factors and they would not have got hold of Kyubi but I, Naruto as a person, was a different matter." Naruto gave a disappointed smile full of despair and some affection. Before Kakashi could ask, "None of their plans worked. I was growing up and they were becoming anxious. So…"

Naruto's words successfully turned Kakashi away from other factors and aroused his guilt overpowering his curiosity. Kakashi words came out strained as there was a lump in his throat made of fear and sadness, but he continued for Naruto not wanting him to verbalize his heart wrenching trauma of pain and torture. "So, they kidnapped you."

Naruto nodded. Kakashi opened and closed his mouth hesitatingly wondering when was the last time, he had to think much before talking. He decided to get on with it. "Naruto, when you were ther-"

Naruto abruptly stood up having finished tending to Kakashi's wounds during the conversation. Kakashi, with all the emotions coursing through him, did not feel the process at all.

Naruto took a few steps back with his face devoid of anything but determination. He folded his hands on his chest and looked at him penetratingly. "Since it is you, I will tell you this much. It happened. I survived. That's all I am going to say about that matter. I will not talk about that to anyone, ever, in my life. Don't bring that up again."

Kakashi nodded having got the message. He also had some things he would not share with anybody in his life, so he could understand. He just wanted Naruto not to end up like him but asking him more might end up harming than helping him. So, he got a handle on his emotions. "I just wanted to know why you did not tell the hokage after it happened. He would have helped you."

"I have my reasons and I also did not trust him at that point. The old man obviously hid that I was a jinchuriki and had always known why I was mistreated during all the times I cried to him about being treated differently. He never said anything and even advised me to prove myself to those ingrates to get their recognition. What a joke! Why should I care about what those imbeciles think and crave for their approval? He could have just trained me to be stronger and told me not to care about their comments, but he wanted me to take their bullshit, continue being their punching bag and still earn for their recognition. Does that make sense?"

Kakashi wanted to ask the same thing multiple times to Professor Sandaime. 'Maybe that's why all his students are weird like him. No logic, no rhyme, but still adamant their courses of actions are the best.'

Naruto did not know Kakashi was throwing shades at his absentee godfather. "I was young and hurt. I did not think much at that time but I understood the hokage made my life harder with his lies and was emotionally manipulating me to develop a subservient attitude so I could be Konoha's weapon in a time of need. He was not as good as I judged him to be. Also, I was aware that without the hokage's knowledge or hidden support or voluntary ignorance, someone in Konoha would not have this much power to have a set up to do devious things."

Kakashi's expression said it all. He knew the hokage's conscious ignorance had been a big problem to Konoha. The old man even let it go when someone tried to assassinate him, the hokage of Konoha.

"Moreover, what would the old man do? I did want to inform him, but I gave a deep thinking first, the more I thought, the more I understood that the old man would deal that issue as a hokage, to whom village was more important than everything and not a grandfatherly old man I knew him, or he pretended in front of me to be. Because jinchurikis did not have grandfathers, only those who wanted their power or disdained their power. A few of their friends and family might treat them better but I had neither except for a few bouts of kindness in my short life at that point. Moreover, as a hokage, he would do the same thing those sinners did, just with some lenience. He would either train me to use my powers so things like that would not happen again or send me out of Konoha to be picked up later as he could not things like that happen again and have his jinchuriki hate Konoha. But I know for sure, he would not do anything severe to those criminals because it would reflect on Konoha negatively. Don't you agree sensei?"

Kakashi agreed with a nod. Naruto's points were valid. With 80% certainty, that's what the old man would have done. "You are right."

Naruto continued after the approval. "Anyway, that day, I found help and ways to learn more to become strong. I was told about my position among the political situation in Konoha. I got to know my Uzumaki heritage. When I knew I was from a famous Uzumaki clan, which was as extinct as Senjus and similarly, related to the one of the founding clans of Konoha, Senju clan, by blood, my opinions about the old man plummeted further. I understood why he did not give me Senju or Uzumaki heritage, but he could have treated me better, materially at least, since my clans had no shortage of money to take care of a single child. Above that, after knowing with 100% certainty that I am from the Uzumaki clan and closely related to the founding clan as opposed to the hokage lies, I was not much angry that he denied my legacy but more furious about the fact that he was being a hypocrite about that. When I asked him about my surname, he told me how I was an orphan with no clan and Uzumaki surname was given to me because someone had to carry Uzumaki clan name to repay Konoha's debt to them."

Kakashi could understand more and more why Naruto called the hokage a hypocrite and was angrier at him than council. From Naruto's words, Kakashi could deal with people who wanted to harm him in a calm manner, ignore people who ignore him as if they were background picture, but people who came as kindly and acted sanctimoniously tested his patience. He did not want to know what Naruto would do if someone betrayed him completely, because according to Naruto, Iruka and the hokage was true in their concern at least partially.

Naruto continued after two breaths. "The old man deceived my birthright and wrapped it as great honor as if he was doing me a service by giving me my rightful name. He told me to not to shame the great clan that lent its name to an underserving orphan, as if offering my clan's name to me was an act of charity. Even if it was, who was he to award me that? He was not even from the Uzumaki clan. I was a born Uzumaki. It is my name, my right. He acted magnanimous as if he had any right to deny my family name. What a charlatan! To be frank, Uzumakis did not belong to Konoha. except me, no one has right to their heritage in this village. What is Konoha to take a name of someone from Uzushio's clan? I was beyond angry."

Kakashi swallowed in shame and despair as he did not have answers to those questions. 'Wait, if I Naruto knows he is an Uzumaki, does he know his mother's name? or…father's name?'

Naruto spoke as if he did not see the questions in Kakashi's eyes. "Though, I was not told about my parents' names as it was not public knowledge, it was enough to know one of my parents was from Uzumaki clan and I was confirmed by others that they were ninjas since civilians cannot have children with as much as chakra as me. My chakra levels are bigger even for Uzumaki levels without Kyubi and I had wind, water and lightning release. Uzumakis did not usually have lightning release, but it was one of primary natures and I must have strong genes of my other parent with my lack of red hair typical to Uzumakis."

Kakashi was in awe of his blood student. 'He got three primary chakra natures before ten years old?!'

Naruto took a sad tone, and he was swallowing hard to keep his emotions in check. "I hypothesized that my lightning release could only have come from the other comparatively stronger ninja parent with high chakra reserves. So even though I didn't know their name, I know they must have been ninjas. When I got to know my parents might have lived, served and died in Konoha, I was sad that they were like me too. They were gone and no one remembered them. None of his friends cared for their remaining family member and their life had no tangible proof and not a proper legacy."

Kakashi wanted to cry and held back his tears. He wanted to hug the child and tell him it was not true; his parents were not forgotten by their friends, but they were helpless because of the hokage's orders. He never wanted to curse the Sandaime before for that particular order as vicious as this moment. Kakashi clenched his fists hard enough that his nails dug into his palm making him bleed. He hoped that the pain would stop him from spilling his unshed tears and stop his instincts from apologizing to Naruto here and now.

Naruto let his sadness recede and continued confidently. "That's when I decided. My parents might not have their life, name, fame, wealth and friends any longer, but they still have their son. I will make them proud. I will become a great ninja like them. I will make this cursed village, which was deteriorating, into something good my parents would have felt safe leaving their jinchuriki child alone. I will become a hokage, not just hokage, I will become the best hokage that surpassed all other hokages."

Kakashi redeclared his earlier promise mentally and vowed to help Naruto achieve his goal. He firmly believed Naruto had the potential to be the best hokage and Kakashi would help him until he became one. Unknowingly, he changed his own plans on putting Naruto's training on backpedal.

Naruto continued oblivious to the zigzags of his career in his genin team. "When I asked the old man casually if my dead parents were ninjas, he agreed readily, he might have thought I would want to be a ninja if he agreed, but I could see he was not lying, and I could read him with all the lies he usually spouted to me. Seeing him sitting there and talking about my parents amiably like a grandfather, as if he did not let me go through hell on a daily basis because he voluntarily closed one of his eyes, I realized he was a con artist and a liar, but I did not react much."

Kakashi was interested in what happened next because Naruto gave a smirk like a Nara who had strategized thousand steps ahead in a shogi match. Naruto's voice turned normal too.

"Unlike the child Naruto, survivor Naruto who experienced many things in a short time, knew he could not go and shout at the hokage indignantly. My anger would be like a firecracker soaked in rain, no real power, just empty sound. Also, at that point. I was aware my life was entwined with politics and power. I could not survive without the old man's support, however small it might be and if I showed my claws to the highest authority of Konoha who had an inkling of liking towards me might have, he would remove his grandfather mask, and become my enemy who could make my life more hellish than what I had experienced in that hellhole. So, I rounded off my edges, hid my anger and pretended like nothing happened. I made him believe he was the one I listened to and valued more than others, just like he said he valued me like his surrogate grandson. After the anger subsided, I could see he really cared, just not as much as I would like."

Kakashi was amazed by Naruto's level-headedness. Naruto masked his emotions and did what he had to survive. As his student aptly described, he was not child Naruto anymore, but survivor Naruto. He did not throw tantrums like a child or acting out on his emotions by being disrespectful or broody, 'like me or Sasuke.' Kakashi could not help but compare. Also, Naruto did not turn destructive, 'again, like me or Sasuke' but decided to make his parents proud. 'What a great child! Sensei and Kushina-nee would be very proud.'

Naruto went on. "Well, the little Naruto who was clever enough to know more people were plotting against him, got smarter after…that incident. I understood in order to live safely, I had to hide my sharpness and not be blunt anymore. I must be shrewd and cunning if I had to survive, so survive I did."

Naruto gave a cheshire grin like a mischievous fox. "Since they portrayed me as a clown with no brains to boot, I happily accepted that I was clumsy and if they framed for me something, I apologized and said I did not think much about it and would not do that again, like an innocent boy in front of the hokage. I hid my intelligence and acted as a clueless dead-last who could not see their plots. They made me a prankster-" Naruto shrugged with a lopsided smirk as if saying Fair game. "I pranked them by involving ninjas and ANBUs. If the Konoha's military force was always after me, could they still frame me for the things they did and blame it on my pranks? I could not undo the damage they had done to my reputation already and I don't want to because if I fully cleared my name, I know I would attract their attention to make more devious plans. I had no one to back me up inside Konoha if that happened again. So, I decided to play the loud-mouthed, bright-clothed, dead-last prankster. Slowly, I changed my reputation, from the petty boy doing intentional harm to a clueless, harmless prankster, acting his age, in front of others and the hokage. I had a more than civil relationship with the old man again."

Kakashi would have whistled in approval if this was any other situation. Naruto cleared his name and bonded with the hokage without getting attention from the council. It was scary to think an orphan under ten years old, who was refused to be taught by others, could grasp the situation clearly, made incredible plans, and acted with clear intention, to make calculative bonds, all the while masking his feelings.

Kakashi finally found a rough estimate of Naruto's intelligence. 'Naruto is a genius. His battle IQ might rival sensei's if I trained him properly. If he can have copying ability like Sasuke would, then he might surpass every hokage sooner than expected. Wait, he is a sensor. He could learn jutsus easily by observing chakra molding. Kami, am I having a prodigy on my hands?'

Kakashi's brain was hyperventilating but still functioned appropriately. "Go on, tell me then how the break-ins could happen under the hokage's nose if you made up with him."

"Since I moved, no more orphanage people, to corner me at every chance. Since they could not get to me anymore without gaining the hokage's attention, someone leaked my address. They could not let ninjas live in this building as it was against the law, but civilians were a different matter. It was easy to arouse their emotions with the right words. 'See how that demon-brat is enjoying his life in luxury. He is living in a single bedroom apartment with the stipend from the tax we pay while we are suffering. Why does he get to enjoy nice things after taking so much from us?'" Naruto accurately mimicked the unassuming person in a crowd sowing discord.

That was another skill Kakashi noted Naruto had.

"When the first break-in happened, it was by people in the building. I complained to the hokage and he reprimanded the people, I suppose. Lot of people moved out and did not want to do anything with me again. That angered the people behind the scenes even more. Then the drunken people from the nearby bars appeared, to be punished again. They could not accept the hokage taking the side of the monster. So, more people with more anger did even more damage regularly and the civilian council took out their anger on the hokage by opposing many plans of welfare for ninja force. The hokage's secretary who hated me, let me know with a scowl that I was causing problems for the hokage describing bits and pieces, with his indirect approval."

Kakashi wanted to say something but shut up remembering that every time he supported the old hokage, Naruto had proofs dismantling his beliefs in that old man.

Naruto gave him a knowing look. "Sensei, I could smell well, remember? I smelled him inside the room. Moreover, I could see the old man's shadow with a cap, pipe and the smoke. I just told her, if at least one of them was severely punished to make an example, they would not try anymore and I can pull harmless pranks on others myself, making everyone problems go away, all the while suspecting the old man was listening. I was right, he made ANBU punish one of them with prior offences severely and released all the others with mere fines. The secretary was still there the next time I went to see the old man proving I was right further, as the other secretaries who refused to let me see the hokage before were fired without fail."

"Is she still working there?" Kakashi wanted to know. 'I am not planning anything, really. I am a law-abiding ninja who will not hurt the civilians. It is just between the hokage and a secretary, scaring hokage is a serious offence which I may or may not commit after today.'

Naruto gave a short laugh making Kakashi relax unconsciously. "No, she does not. The current one is actually quite friendly with me."

Naruto gave a mirthful smile. "After that event, I didn't say anything to him even if he asked. He thought his severe punishment worked and let it go." or he wanted it to be true so he could let go was left unsaid but understood by both parties. "But they did come back after some time. So, I set up traps. They sent disguised ninjas, chunins to be exact, to dismantle them and send a warning. I did not want to antagonize them further, so I did not tell Iruka sensei or get help to set up wards. Who knew they could probably send Jonin or ANBU level ninjas. So, I did nothing, and regular break-ins have happened since then. Every nice thing was broken, and every piece of furniture turned. I stopped cleaning at some point and had no money for repeated repairs. So, after some time, they broke-in, found the apartment was still broken and left uninterested." Naruto said with a shrug at the end.

Kakashi was really disappointed and angry with the people of Konoha. This was not why he had been risking his life to protect the village. This was not why Yondaime sacrificed his life and made his own son jinchuriki. Naruto was keeping the village safe every minute by keeping the demon at bay. But how were these people repaying him? Kakashi knew people glared and gossiped about Naruto. There was apparent neglect when Naruto was in orphanage. He recently found out Naruto was kidnapped. Later, he found out many things like he was sabotaged in the academy, denied service in shops, overcharged and got low end products. He was just glad that day his student could at least sleep peacefully in his own apartment despite its poor state. But what was he finding out? His home was broken into, vandalized and he lost money on repairing these things constantly. There was also the violence that had been going on for years. It was like the horrors would not stop.

'What was the hokage doing? Where was Tenzo? Might be sent on missions outside during those times. Why was the other ANBU watching Naruto didn't intervene? Why didn't they report it to hokage?' There were many questions, but Kakashi wanted answers for a specific one, urgently.

"Naruto, have you ever been harmed during those break-ins?" Kakashi asked praying to every Kami who was listening to him, hoping for a no.

Naruto, who was sitting on the other sofa chair stopped looking at Kakashi and turned to the ceiling.

"Break-ins really traumatize kids, sensei." He said dispelling the clone in kitchen and went to check on the boiling tea.

"You know that is not what I mean, Naruto." Kakashi didn't want to let this go. He wanted to know if his sense's son was attacked, no matter he didn't like this conversation. That way he could kill someone before plotting his own ultimate demise if that were true. He wanted to know how far his failures went.

"I don't know what you mean sensei. You asked for any harm and trauma is a kind of harm." Naruto said with a polite smile. Kakashi wanted to knock the blonde on the head. This was not the time for his cheekiness.

"Naruto-" Kakashi's words struck in his throat when Naruto returned to the living room and nodded his head in yes.

Just like every other time, not a single Kami granted his prayers shattering his hope once again. "When the object of your anger is in front of you, vulnerable and weak, of course you would want to hurt it." Naruto said with a sad smile.

That smile didn't belong on his student's face. Naruto should be cheerful, happy and wearing a warm smile, not this broken one. Kakashi decided to punish those who put it there.

"Do you know who did it? Wait, were you injured? Did you go to the hospital? Tell me their names." Kakashi ordered getting ready to wage a civil war in Konoha. 'I am going to slaughter them all, the drunkards, the despicable ninjas, orphanage people, the elders, the civilian council, some civilians, maim the hokage, Naruto's deadbeat godfather and after doing that, I am going to whisk away the blonde from Konoha as far as possible. When I am done, what Itachi did might look like a child's play.'

Kakashi did not realize he was already plotting treason and defection from Konoha, all for Naruto.

"Don't worry, sensei. Knowing those things won't help. I am alive, sitting in front of you with all fingers and toes intact, am not I?" Naruto placated.

"Naruto, either you talk now or I am going to ask the senile Sandaime." Kakashi warned rising from the sofa with good amount of KI that had been leaking since Naruto said yes to the attacks. There were cracks appearing on the dam Kakashi built and he was not keen on reenforcing it. He wanted to unleash his anger.

"Calm down, sensei, retrieve your KI. I don't want ANBU in my apartment." Naruto said making Kakashi regaining his KI.

"Sensei, sit down first. If you want to know, I was injured the first few times. After that, I learned not to come to my apartment through the front door before sunset. I entered through window right before ANBU night patrol. It did make them frustrated and they tried to get me outside, but all the chunins and ANBUs trailing me stopped them. One time, I led them to hokage's ANBUs Tori-san and Neko-san. I didn't know what happened next but I never got jumped again. Later, I found out Tori-san had helped to clean up their entire gang. So, they could only take out their frustration by break-ins. I did not want Tori-san to get into elders' eyes, so I did not ask any favors to remedy the break-ins. After I learnt clones, I could do an inspection beforehand and camp out in forest if there was a mob waiting here."

"Did they not get suspicious you were never present when they broke-in?" Kakashi was determined to get the full story today because he knew he would not get another chance to open up this matter with Naruto. He was aware Naruto would not co-operate.

"I don't know what you mean, sensei."

"Are you still going to pretend that I could not guess you thought about that issue as well. Tell me, what did you do and how did you handle it?" Kakashi gritted his teeth because he already had an idea about the solution that would make the cracks grow again.

"Sorry, I am not quite sharp you know." Naruto spoke with a fake-apology tone and Kakashi wanted to throw the cushions at his head.

"Well, go on." Kakashi nudged with a nod of his head.

Naruto exhaled loudly with his mouth. "Once in a while…I might have….made appearance to keep their anger in check. That way, they don't think about other solutions."

Naruto confirmed Kakashi's worst ideas, and the cracks grew exponentially threatening to break the dam holding his anger. "You know clones. Why not use it?"

"I don't want anyone to know I could do the clone jutsu until the last minute. After I failed the first time, I found out why I could not make clones and wanted to check something. As expected, out of all ninjutsus, clone jutsu was used in rotation for genin qualification but from the previous year I was about to take graduation exam, for the first time in Konoha's history, they made a ninjutsu, clone jutsu, the one jutsu apparently, I could not do and had no chance of doing, compulsory for graduation. When they control my scores on other categories, I would not be able to pass without that jutsu. If they found out I could overcome that obstacle of a clone jutsu, they would make other roadblocks that might deride me."

Kakashi could predict what happened next. "So, I laid down and took the abuse because it was better to play the game, with the moves I expected them to use than sending them to find the unexpected ones. I had practice anyway and I wanted to make my parents proud. I took the beat downs like an unskilled deadbeat ninja wannabe. It is better to bear some pain than expose my skills to become a ninja. After all, ninjas endure and protect right?"

Kakashi was angry that Naruto had to experience the practice for taking the beatings. At the same time, he was speechless about Naruto's impeccable gameplay and he could not help agreeing that Naruto was never a child, always a ninja. Kakashi laughed at himself for thinking to let Naruto take steady pace in ninja life. Naruto was a born ninja or born to be a ninja. Still, Kakashi answered without missing a beat proving once again, he was a born ninja or born to be ninja too. "Yes, that's what Shodaime said. Ninjas are someone who endure, to complete missions, to protect what they must."

"Yeah. So, I endured and protected my ambition. I will continue to do so until I reach my goals." Naruto declared.

Kakashi had seen jonins with less conviction and awareness about ninja's life. He was extremely proud and happy that Naruto decided to do good with those qualities instead of focusing on revenge, because not only it would spoil his student's life but also Konoha would not be able to stand the enemy, who could disguise himself and survive hell for more than a decade.

Kakashi focused on the matter at hand. "What about the injuries?"

"I was hospitalized once."

"I guess that would be the time the old man knew in the beginning. What about other times? Or when you intentionally got beat? Didn't you go to the hospital?"

"I heal faster and what would I tell those hospital people anyway? I was trying to cover up."

"With your intelligence, you could have certainly found convincing reasons." Naruto shrugged and Kakashi could guess the reason. He let out a sigh. "They refused to treat you, didn't they?"

"The skills I developed helped you today, didn't it?"

Naruto did not answer indirectly and left for the kitchen when the kitchen whistle sounded. But what said was enough for Kakashi to shake his head in more disappointment about Konoha and its inhabitants.

Naruto brought a bowl of soup to Kakashi. The soup was warm and suitable for breakfast for someone who had not eaten for a day. Kakashi gave a true smile at his very considerate student. Naruto deserved to see his true emotions at least a little, after he opened up this much. His student must receive his trust first if he wanted to be trusted back. Naruto poured himself a cup of tea and turned to the window. He doesn't want to make Kakashi uncomfortable when removing his mask and wanted to let him eat in peace making Kakashi appreciate his thoughtfulness more.

Having heard everything, looking at his student sitting there quite confidently and carrying him like a seasoned warrior, Kakashi composed him forcefully too. He decided to get a grip on his anger and let it out when he was alone. He contemplated everything he learnt.

Kakashi didn't know there were physical attacks on Naruto. Whenever he asked the hokage of Naruto's wellbeing before and during from the long-term mission, he always said Naruto was taken care of and there was nothing for him to worry about. After coming from the mission, he heard the same again. Kakashi also didn't want to be confronted by his sensei's clone, so he didn't check in personally, only seeing Naruto here and there during his pranks. He helped him indirectly like that time with Iruka, warning ANBU peers not to be rough during their chases, paying for some of ramen coupons making the Ichiraku stall give those coupons for free to use at times when he had less money and he also paid in advance for ramen on special occasions like birthdays, and passing a grade.

Now, it seemed, not checking personally was the bad decision. He should have at least sent Pakkun, his ninken dog, to visit Naruto. How many regrets could a person have? Kakashi was sure he had already reached the top ten on the list. How could he mess up this much? How many times so far had he let down the people who cared for him? Even now, Naruto was caring for him but he was making Naruto sad for his own curiosity.

"Sensei, the soup is getting cold. I made it with lot of effort, well my clone did. Don't waste it." Naruto urged him to drink.

Kakashi did not want to waste Naruto's effort. Even though he lost his appetite long ago, he picked up the bowl and took a sip without any expectations. He was pleasantly surprised for the first time today. He did not expect Naruto to be a good cook. He expected Naruto to be like him, an ok cook since neither of them had anyone to teach them cook, by hand. He forgot that he was hungry until he started eating and he was glad he did not miss this. He finished the bowl and set it on the coffee table.

Kakashi's mind returned to the issue after the taste left his tongue. "Why not relocate, Naruto? Probably to ninja district?"

Naruto brought him another bowl of soup which Kakashi started to drink unconsciously. "This was the only place which would take me so relocating to another civilian place was not an option. Since I am healed in hours after growing up, even if I wanted to complain, there was no way the hokage could deliver any punishment without proof and relocate me to ninja district as an exception. Even, if I had moved to ninja district, I would have been dead in a week." Naruto explained.

Kakashi wanted to say that was in the past but he was a ninja now but held back knowing Naruto would refuse his help. It was better to act first and tell later. Kakashi wanted to relocate Naruto near to or probably in, his or Gai's apartment building, so these atrocities would not be repeated again.

Also, Kakashi wanted to check something first. The Konoha ninjas that attacked Naruto defied hokage's decree of not harming Naruto. Unlike civilians, they could definitely tell the difference between monster and its container and yet they attacked a kid. Naruto's attacks were fatal if he was certain he would be dead in a week. So, before he shifted Naruto to ninja district, Kakashi wanted to be certain there was no one who could be dangerous or a potential danger to Naruto, residing in that building. Those ninjas might be ok in his book but they could be averse to Naruto like Kurenai, or worse. He didn't want to think about how many of those ninjas who had attacked Naruto, he smiled at, had amiable relationships with. That lead him to remember the ANBU peers.

"Naruto, the hokage doesn't know the attempts on your life, right? I mean before you moved here. Didn't the ANBU do anything?" Kakashi asked, afraid of the answer.

"He knew only when I had to go to the hospital twice. He did not know about other times because most ANBU didn't care. I didn't say anything either. You can already guess why. But under the ANBU who usually guarded the hokage, nothing happened, as if the orphanage people knew who was on shift when and where."

Kakashi suspected that much, and he was relieved that none of his former teammates knowingly ignored when Naruto was in danger.

"Are you done?" Naruto asked and Kakashi thought Naruto meant this conversation.

"Soup. If you are done, I can get you another bowl." Naruto said and Kakashi drank the remaining soup.

"Yes, but I don't need another serving." Naruto nodded.

"Naruto, now that you became ninja, it is illegal to attack you. You can defend yourself. You don't need to worry." Kakashi said seriously.

"It was always illegal to attack me. But the rules don't apply to me, sensei." Naruto said wryly. "I am also planning to defend myself but I had to bug my apartment electronically for evidence of defense, else they accuse me of unnecessary violence, and ward this place to keep the ninjas away. I can always say you helped to secure this place ninja style, as it was a criminal district and you did not want your student in danger."

"Yes. it will work. I could do that. Wait, you need me to cover up and not want me to help setting it up? I know your traps are good for civilians but to stop high rank ninjas, they are not enou-….. you knew how to draw wards, don't you?" Kakashi deadpanned, playfully narrowing his eyes at his student in an accusing tone.

Naruto stored the first aid box at the storage seal on his left hand with a smirk.

Kakashi got that it was a deliberate display. 'He is a sensor and now he knows fuinjutsu? What else? Is he going to do rasengan next?'

Seeing his expression, Naruto stood up laughing. He cleared Kakashi's bowls and his teacups and brought them to the kitchen. Kakashi stood up too, when he heard Naruto's voice. "I am an Uzumaki who wanted to bring glory to his clan. What do you think?"

Kakashi stood near the window and probed lazily. "How good are you at seals?"

"Try breaking in next time like you did that day, you will find out." Naruto teased. "All I can say is the people breaking-in would live, but they would live with regrets."

Naruto was opening some cupboards. "The day you visited was after graduation. They vandalized the apartment the day before graduation, because they knew, if I passed, I would become a ninja. They did not want that to happen and they could not pull me from the academy. So, they were frustrated and toppled my apartment. I was not in the right place after Mizuki and hokage, so I did not have the mind to organize the mess. Well, now that I became a ninja, I hoped that I could stand up for myself. So, I cleaned the apartment, once again." Naruto said and offered some cookies to Kakashi.

Kakashi refused and Naruto started eating. Kakashi was happy his blonde student hadn't given up under repeated blows, literally and metaphorically, and decided to stand up for himself. Kakashi decided to keep Naruto's spirit that way. He was also going to train the hell out of the blonde to protect himself better, so that, not even bunch of chunins would be able to touch him. Kakashi would not tolerate any more attacks on Naruto inside Konoha. Screw that, Naruto was not getting hurt until he became chunin if Kakashi had anything to say about it.

Kakashi was surprised at the wave of protectiveness he felt. He couldn't remember the last time he felt the same way. But if he had to guess, it was for the same boy, eight years ago, when he was about to fall from a tree. Kakashi saved the boy and carried him on his back to the orphanage, only that time he was 'Inu' wearing a hound mask, not Kakashi, wearing just a black mask.

"Now that I am your sensei, I would not let anyone attack my cute little genin. Don't worry." Kakashi said and ruffled Naruto's golden strands, the action which Naruto did not avoid this time.

Kakashi considered it a small victory in his book. It took two weeks to get here, but that was ok. For a person who had seen much violence in his short life for at least a decade, allowing this simple action was a great deal and Kakashi was happy that his student was starting to trust him even a little bit.

"But you should not leave spoilt milk, Naruto. What if you drank that unknowingly and got runs? You should throw that away regularly." Kakashi teased his student attempting to cheer the blonde up.

Naruto rolled his eyes at his sensei.

"I will not be harmed, sensei. I am immune to most poisons. Courtesy of my tenant, again. Even with all that, it was not on purpose. That milk didn't spoil because I left it for a long time. That milk was purchased a day before graduation day. The merchants don't like me much. They sold me that near expired one and I bought it because I ran out of groceries and the monthly merchants would not come for until a week later. I did not want to attend my last graduation exam on an empty stomach." Naruto explained and Kakashi's depression deepened. The vendor problem could also explain his student's obsession with ramen and the ramen shop was not open for breakfast making it harder for Naruto if there were no groceries or time to cook.

Kakashi knew the vendors sold low quality stuff but near spoiled products, this was ridiculous. Kakashi was bitter when he was subjected to glares and gossip when he was younger. But Naruto was mature enough to rise above them. Kakashi couldn't help but be extremely proud of Naruto for still living in Konoha or even smiling at all, every day, like a sunshine incarnate.

Naruto spoke doing something behind the big soup pot. "Well, you are treated and fed. You got your answers, and I have a day off. I want to take a shower and get to work, sensei."

Kakashi assumed Naruto's solo D-rank missions as work.

"Thanks for that, Naruto. Remember this, if you are attacked again or your apartment broke into, I want to be informed. I will find it even if you hide it and you won't like it when I do. So, do tell." Kakashi warned preparing to leave. He decided to take advantage of Naruto's habit of never closing the window. He didn't realize it was left open purposely in the hope that Inu would visit one day, like he usually did in the orphanage.

Naruto snickered internally at the thought of Kakashi uncovering his secrets but said nothing. Even Kyubi scoffed.

Kakashi was at the window but was stopped before jumping by Naruto.

"Here, sensei. Knowing you, you will eat soldier pills until tonight. Take this." Naruto said, giving him a food parcel made of disposable containers.

Kakashi was touched by Naruto's kindness and was about to refuse remembering his struggles to get groceries, but Naruto stopped him again. "I am ninja now. I can shop in ninja district. The Nara clans' shops are very friendly to me, which translates to Cho and Ino clans for other things as well. Akimichis have good quality vegetables at cheaper prices."

"Ah!" Kakashi took the parcel in realization. 'Considering his friendship with Nara clan heir, what he said must be true.'

"I don't like hospitals. It gives me creeps, my secret." Kakashi said in the way of exchanging some information to not let Naruto high and dry.

"I concluded that much. That's why I brought you here." Naruto smirked at his genius sensei.

"'Smartass." Kakashi snorted.

"Peanut butter. I like peanut butter cookies. Not chocolate chips." Kakashi said jumping out.

Naruto smiled and shook his head. He knew exactly why Kakashi liked that particular one, after all, it was his mother Kishina Uzumaki's favorite cookie flavor to bake.

After their conversation, if a bag of groceries suddenly appeared in Naruto's apartment, no one talked about it. And in return, if there was a new plant of aloe vera and thymus plant, served as antiseptics, appeared in Kakashi's apartment with detailed instructions and accessories to take care of them, no one knew about it. It was the start of the series of secrets between a fox and a hound.

Author's notes:

Introducing an important character in the next chapter. I have been rewriting chapters. Please wait until I catch up to the existing chapters before I upload new ones. I love writing this story. Please support. Thanks!