What is UP MY DUDES! It is WEDNESDAY MY DUDES! Actually it's Monday. But they don't need to know that now do they? *sigh* alright, imma about to be honest with y'all. I'm getting old. Damn I'm freaking 26, but being a restaurant manager ages you! 10/10 would not recommend! I have grey hairs! Like dude! Anyways, sure that's not why y'all are here, so let's pop off!

Know I ended on a sad note last time, and I'm sorry to say, it will be like that for a little while. Not really sure when we are jumping back to the positive vibes, who knows where this story will go! Not me! Well, anyways!

ENJOY!

—

Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at himself in the mirror. He stared at the wrinkles and small scars here and there that spoke of a long life of hard work and countless challenges. Yet no lines rapidly appeared after the years he felt he just aged. No more scars were cut in regardless of the pain he felt. It was the same face he saw everyday reflecting back at him when he woke up to prepare for work. Yet as he grabbed his brush, the memories crept back upon him, with a clarity that made his heart ache.

"Naruto, we need to talk."

The dark bundle paused in his work with the doctor. Once more working with the ball. Unseen by Naruto, a slight hand motion had the doctors vacate the room. And another cause the Anbu to vanish silently.

Hiruzen opened his mouth and began to brush his teeth, with none of the vitality he usually had.

The Hokage closed the door behind them, blocking out the faces of his students. When the door shut it was the two of them.

Sarutobi felt his heart clench in ways he could barely remember happening in the past when Narutos' head tilted to the side. A move so like him.

"Naruto, we need to discuss your progress. As well as the medical jutsu that you are frequently requesting." Much too frequently, Hiruzen thought to himself.

The threads shrank down a little, but a hand coming up to rub the back of his head, told the Hokage exactly what Narutos' face would look like right now. A sheepish smile.

"This is no laughing matter Naruto." There was no anger in his voice, but the bundle shrank even more at his words.

"Iwasaki has informed me that you have stopped pushing yourself. That you'll stop at the slightest moment becomes difficult. That you have stopped progressing at all."

The old man watched as Naruto's hands began to wave in front, as if to show them off.

"I know of your hands. And how quickly you learned to use them. But Tenzo, the man who taught you to do them, told me that you haven't practiced them in two days now."

He placed his toothbrush in its cup, failing to notice its lack of toothpaste that he had forgotten to use. Still focused on the way Naruto's body had turned, clearly feeling guilty.

Sarutobi sighed softly, hating what he had to do, knowing it could kill the poor boy, "Naruto…it pains me a great deal…but I'm going to remove you from the ninja program."

He walked out of the bathroom, his mind far away as he threw on his coat. He saw his grandson running with his two little friends around the courtyard but could barely focus on what the child was doing, but he heard him. Oh lord did he hear him.

"I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever!"

A pain like no other tore through his body.

Naruto's body flinched backwards, almost as if repelled by the words.

Sarutobi chose to rip it off as if it were a bandage, for the both of them, "You are becoming addicted to the Iryojutsu, which makes you unreliable in the field. Your legs, which you have put zero effort in, are unresponsive. You are unable to communicate. Before this incident, you were the bottom of your class. Showing no effort in your studies, barely passing your bukijutsu test, and losing most of your spars. But most importantly Naruto, you are not doing anything to change this. You have not practiced in the fields, studied in the library or attended any of the make-up classes that Iruka-sensei most definitely offers. You do not try to change your standing in the class rankings, but believe you will make it by pure luck it seems. That is why, come tomorrow, your name will not be included in the Genin team assignments."

With each statement, the boy recoiled and curled up further. And when the Hokage was finished, it appeared as if a massive motionless ball of yarn was on the bed.

The image of the boy was burned into his mind. It didn't resemble him in any way. There was no bright eyed boy with wild hair and an even wilder smile to be seen. A dark mass had taken its place, and Sarutobi feared that he had hurt the boy so deeply, that dark was on the inside as well.

The Hokage couldn't bear to witness what he had wrought, so he turned to the door, and opening it he came face to face with his students. Who said nothing as they observed the flow of tears pour down the old man's face. They knew ripping away a child's dream, especially this child's, was a painful matter.

The Third Hokage sighed, his body and mind weary regardless that his day had just started. A glint of sun burned into his eye, and decades of skills helped him locate the source. And his heart clenched once more as he set his eyes atop the Fourth Hokage's head. Minato Namikaze. The father. His successor. As he stared at the mountain, he made a decision. A simple hand gesture and an Anbu guard was immediately in front of him.

"'Washi, head to my office and inform Amaya to reschedule my meetings today. I have to speak with someone."

A simple nod was all he got in response before the masked ninja disappeared. With that, the Hokage began to walk. A slight rustle occurred to his side, notifying him of another's presence.

"Yes Soku?"

"Might I ask where you are going Hokage-sama, so my squad can secure your path and location."

Sarutobi smiled, but it was not a happy one, "I am going to apologize to a no doubt upset father."

The two remaining Anbu members looked at each other, but when neither knew how to respond, they chose to simply follow the man and do whatever was required of them.

—

Iruka sighed as he stared at the boisterous class. He knew he could force them all to be silent with a simple display of chakra. But as he gazed at the class and only saw one blond, he found he didn't have it in him today.

Surprisingly Kiba was the first to notice his sensei's presence. The man standing at the front of the class silently, gave off some strange vibes. Enough to make Kiba quiet down and face the front. Slowly but surely the rest of the class began to notice, and the volume gradually dropped down.

"No, I'M sitting here Ino-pig!"

"I was here first Forehead!"

Well, most of the class quieted down. Iruka said nothing, his footsteps silent as he walked across the room.

The bickering continued to grow as the pair's faces got closer, and the yelling got louder.

Sakura opened her mouth to yell, when she noticed Iruka peeking over Ino's shoulder, a patient look on his face.

"Sensei!" She called out loudly, both in greeting and as a warning to Ino.

"Nice try Forehead, no going to fall for tha-" the blonde started but a clearing of a throat behind her stopped the words flowing from her mouth.

She snapped her head over, ignoring the groan as her long hair slapped Sakura in the face with practiced ease.

Ino stood up off of Sakura and started to apologize, "I'm sorry Sensei, we were just getting-," A simple hand raise by the man stopped her.

"If you would be so kind as to take your seats ladies." The quiet voice concerned everyone in the room. But the two girls nodded and both quickly made their way to the one open seat next to Sasuke.

Iruka sighed internally before speaking again, "The two open seats in the front row if you don't mind." His tone made it clear it was not a request.

Subdued, they turned around and walked to their now assigned seats. Iruka looked up and noticed that Sasuke, of course, paid zero attention to the encounter and stared out the window with a harsh glare. Once more the teacher sighed internally before making his own way to the desk in the front of the class.

Clearing his throat he addressed, "Congratulations. You have passed the academy and are now recognized as Genin. Probationary, however, until your Jounin sensei deems it full time."

Many of the students frowned and looked back and forth looking for an explanation, but none was forthcoming.

"Now that you are all qualified ninjas, I need everyone here to understand something." He looked around making eye contact with all of them, before continuing, "You are adults. You are each responsible for your actions and even more so for the consequences after. You will face challenges in each of your futures, and how you respond will define who you become in your life. Being a ninja is not easy. And the more you progress, the more those hardships will build up." He swallowed, "And after a time they will begin to take a toll on you."

The class was silent as the man carried on, "So, in your future missions, I want you to be aware of this. Your mind is your greatest ninja tool for a reason. Use it. Do not think rashly, but analyze, plan, then execute. Too many ninja careers end early because of foolish mistakes."

If anyone heard the change of his tone, they didn't comment, the silence in the room was palpable.

"So think before you act, that is the final lesson I will teach you." Nodding that they were suitably forewarned as best he could, Iruka picked his list of teams, and began to read off the teams. However, more confusion set in, when he got to Team 7.

"Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and your Jounin sensei, Kakashi Hakate."

Amidst the cheers from Sakura about her being on a team with Sasuke, a voice called out, "Sensei? Why are there only two people on that team?"

Iruka looked up from his paper to the newly graduated Genin, "Ah, Hiko. Team seven has some…..circumstances. Their sensei will be explaining it in more detail later. However they will be receiving a third teammate of that I can assure you."

In the middle row, a dark haired boy scowled at that, thinking of another one he had to drag along.

Slowing me down.

Iruka continued to list off names and their sensei, and as he did so, older ninja began to meander in.

When Iruka finished, he looked up to the class. Last year he had sworn he would end on a good note, to leave them with one last message, but today, he couldn't find it in him.

"Good luck."

"Alright team three!" A man's voice called out.

Slowly but surely, the squads started to get called for and walked off. A single girl stood still as her sensei called for her team, wanting to go ask what had happened to Naruto. But as her fingers began to poke at each other and she felt herself slide further into her jacket, she realized she couldn't and with a sad frown, followed after her sensei.

Finally, the class was only Iruka…and two students.

He looked at them, and for a second he felt a real smile come on as he wondered how Naruto would have handled Kakashi's lateness.

The last students watched as Iruka packed up his remaining supplies, an odd smile on his face before he looked up at them, "Feel free to get comfortable, you will be here for a while."

"Huh?" Iruka heard from Sakura, but he simply walked out of the room.

—

Kakashi stared at his team through the windows of the school. He had arrived almost an hour ago, but had yet to reveal himself to his students.

His students, He thought to himself, not for long.

He could already tell. The Uchiha was a loner. And Haruno was a fan girl. And that was enough for him to tell. They would fail.

Sasuke Uchiha. Last of the Uchiha clan. And as successfully as he was and most definitely top of his class, he wasn't ready to be a ninja. Ninja operated in teams for a reason. Unless you could massively overwhelm your opponent, teammates were essential. And when it all boiled down, Sasuke Uchiha wouldn't work with teammates. Even when Kakashi was a genin, he knew that he had to work with people. Sure, he hated it then.

Obito.

But he dealt with it to ensure the mission and the survival of Konoha. He grew up because he had to. Sasuke didn't think he did.

And then there was the fan girl. Kakashi knew a few things about this Sakura. Top of her class in academic marks. Excellent chakra control. Follows orders to a T and listens to the chain of command with little to no complaints. Kakashi flipped a page in his book as he dropped down from his tree.

So low physical aptitude. Tiny chakra pool. And unable to think for herself. Lovely.

He had seen other students who thought they could be genin. As he walked up the steps to the front of the academy, he thought back to them. Each failing because they failed to learn the lesson the bell test tried to impart on them. If they failed to understand teamwork, then they wouldn't pass. He knew of some who had passed the next time around, some even were drafted to other teams during the next school year and were able to cut their wait time. Each learning how to work as a teammate and ensure their partners survival. Or the others who couldn't pull their heads out of their ass and dropped out of the program entirely.

He slid into the building, not a sound as he walked down the tiled halls. His past failed students were just that, failures. But even those failures were better than…

He slid the door open.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched.

…this.

"Maa-maa, no need to yell." He said, his face taking on his signature carefree look, "I can honestly say, as far as first impressions go…"

He paused as he looked over the two, Haruno standing up, fuming and practically steam rising off her head, with the Uchicha scowling quietly in the back.

"...you two are incredibly disappointing." He finished with his eye smile.

Haruno's head snapped back as if his words hit her. And Uchicha's glare got worse, thinking it would no doubt bother Kakashi. It didn't.

"Typically I would have you two join me on the roof, where we would talk about your likes, dislikes, dreams and all that other team building stuff." Sakura perked back up as he spoke, but then was immediately shot back down, "However looking at you two boring kids, I find I couldn't care any less than I do right now. So here's the deal!" His upbeat voice and demeanor providing a drastic difference to his words.

"Tomorrow! Bright and early! As in 0500! Training field 23! Bring your best attitude and hardest drive and we'll try to get some training or something in. I'm sure we'll figure something out! Well if you have any questions, feel free to ask them now!"

Sakura's hand was already up before he even finished speaking. Kakashi's smile didn't dim at all as he looked back and forth between the two.

"Well? No questions? Alright then! See you tomorrow!"

And with that he turned right back around and walked out, ignoring the shouted questions to his back by a no doubt irate Sakura. He had porn/well-written literature to get back to.

"Can you do this?"

Jiraiya scoffed in response, but nothing else. His old teammate frowned at the lack of response. She had seen a great deal of sides of Jiraiya, scared, angry, violent, peaceful. Even broken. But somehow this was all of those all at once.

"What?" Tsunade asked the white haired man.

Shaking his head, Jiraiya looked at the woman in the eyes for a second, before he turned and once again stared at the subject of his dreams, nightmares, concerns and all around stressors. A motionless black ball.

"Just thinking about how you were agreeing with sensei on pulling Minato's kid from being a ninja. And what that did to him."

Tsunade growled and clenched her fist, a loud crack as her foot broke a layer of the concrete below. Neither noticed. Stepping forward she forced herself into the other Sannin's personal space. He didn't flinch.

"You know as well as I do that sensei had to do that. Naruto is unable to do more than move his hands right now! Keeping him in would just be cruel!"

"And what would Kushina think? An Uzumaki? Not a ninja?" He scoffed, lighter this time, "I can't imagine the storming and cursing that she would no doubt be doing right now. Enough to make me shiver." His body shook as he faked shivered, before his light tone dropped. "We have failed him. Both of us, Tsunade."

She tsked at his remark before turning away and releasing the tension in her fist. The bastard was unfortunately right.

"Can I do this, you ask? Probably? No. But someone has to. So it falls to me. Let's go see if I can talk some sense into a ball of yarn."

"Anything doc?"

Iwasaki looked up from his notepad as Jiraiya stepped his way into the room, his wooden geta strangely silent on the tiled floor. The stoney face of the iryonin did nothing to assuage the Sannin's worries.

"He is still unresponsive at the moment. We had a brief moment some time ago when someone mentioned ramen, but after, he became even more tightly coiled into this ball."

Sighing, Jiraiya looked at the bed, and the ball on top. He had no idea how Naruto was able to retract his body into the black ball roughly 10 inches in diameter. His understanding of mass meant that he was sure that the density of this ball was absolutely incredible. Any more shrinkage and contraction and it would be basically a rock.

"Ramen huh? Any idea why?"

Iwasaki sighed, "From what I understand, Naruto is obsessed with the stuff. And came to the realization, that," He paused and peeked over at the boy on the bed, "If he were to stay like this, then he would never get to eat ramen again."

The words were heard by the black mass, who in response, began to tighten and coil on themselves more. Iwasaki closed his eyes and looked away, as the boy fell further into the darkne-

"Oh lord, he's just like his mother."

The room froze. Anbu, charged with maintaining the secrecy of S-Class information, paused, fully aware they wouldn't be able to silence this man but unsure on how to proceed. Iwasaki's eyes shot open as he recalled a loud voice in a battlefield screaming that all she wanted was to finish this and go eat some ramen. And who that voice belonged to. His wide eyes grew even larger as he realized who he saw that woman spend the most amount of time with. The old iryonin's head snapped to the ball in realization. A ball that was no longer coiling.

"Jiraiya-sama…" A voice called out from the shadows.

"Shut it Anbu brat. Or I will make you." The threat was not responded to. Ignoring the hidden ninja, Jiraiya leaned forward towards the bed. "Yeah kid. I know who your mom was. Know about your dad too. Hell, I was at their wedding. And the day they found out about you." The ball of threads was frozen, not a single strand moved at this revelation.

"And I gotta say. With how powerful and hard working they were…I was expecting more." A chunk of the ball tightened and Jiraiya's eyes locked on that. Instincts born from hundreds to thousands of fights told him exactly what it was. He didn't need to see, hear or feel it to know. . A hand. Tightening into a fist.

"Oh? Pissed you off, have I?" The ball did not respond. He leaned even more forward. "Good."

The ball shook slightly at that. But Jirayia carried on.

"I watched the two of them. I watched them get hit with everything under the sun. Hardships and challenges you wouldn't even believe." A rapid jolt shivered through the ball.

A scoff.

"Oh don't believe me? Think that yours is that much worse. How about this then? Your mother? She wasn't from Konoha. Not originally. Her village? Her clan? Her home? Family and friends she grew up with? Wiped off the face of this earth. For all she knew, until you, she was the last Uzumaki."

The Anbu in the room flinched as Iwasaki took a deep breath in as his thought process was confirmed. Jirayia ignored them and kept pushing.

"I was there the day she found out. And I watched her break. And there wasn't anything I could do. Anything anyone could do. So she fell. Into a dark deep place. And just when we started thinking we would lose her too? She stood back up. She stopped being an envoy that day, rather she became a Konoha ninja. She remade herself. All of her hardships, the looks of pity and even scorn from some mistrustful morons, the self doubt, the struggles she went through. I watched it all happen. But everytime. Every. Single. Time. She got back up. Didn't matter what happened or who even put her ass in the ground. She stood back up. Till one day, she was the one putting them in the ground. As a real Konoha ninja"

Jiraiya took a final look at the ball, "Do you think you could do that? Stand up no matter what comes your way? If you truly ever wanted to be a ninja, prove it. Stand. The. Hell. Back. UP!"

With that, Jiraiya swirled and stormed his way out.

"Good Morning!" Kakashi said with an eye smile.

"YOU'RE LATE! AGAIN!"

Kakashi tilted his head and opened his one visible eye wide, "Really?" He lifted up his arm as if to check a watch, even though there was obviously not one there, "No, I'm not! I'm right on time, just as I said! 1045! You two are just early!"

He ignored the shouts and annoying comments from the girl, and observed the surrounding training ground, following the paths and tracks left by his wannabe students.

Sasuke trained for some time, stretching followed by basic Uchiha katas, then some throwing practice, decent aim. Heavy punches, clearly left handed just like Itachi. Sakura…sat and watched. Mediation at least? No, her chakra-flow is too agitated to have come from that. Wonderful. Fan-girls. Overall? Still boring.

"Well! Regardless!" He exclaimed joyfully, cutting off the pink haired girl mid-rant, having listened to exactly none of it, "Let's get some training done!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed and the Uchiha scoffed and shifted on his feet. But Kakashi could see he had their attention.

"What sort of training, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Whatever you want!" He exclaimed with a smile and a bright voice, not that they could see the smile, "We can do chakra exercises, or physical training, oh! Or we can work on how to use your Academy three for effective infiltration! Whatever you guys are feeling!"

Both of the children perked up at this, excited for a more personal training environment. But Kakashi didn't want to let their egos get too big so he took the initiative to cut them down and waved his hand in front of his face, "However, I can't train you on anything advanced, as you're not actually my students yet!"

They both froze at that, confusion covering their faces.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sakura, "Iruka-sensei said that you were to be our Jonin instructor!"

Kakashi nodded along with her sentence, "Oh yes! I'm supposed to instruct you on how to be an actual Genin until you are ready to be Chunin!" They both started looking a little relieved at this, so Kakashi kept talking, "That is…if I feel like it!"

Sakura's mouth dropped open, and Sasuke glared at the older ninja and growled out, "If you feel like it?!"

"Yup! Privilege of being a Jonin! I have to train a team, but if they aren't up to my standards? Back to the academy they go!"

Sasuke glared. Thoughts of violence and annoyance swirled in his head. He couldn't go back to the academy. He was already behind! Itachi graduated at six years old! Six years ahead of when Sasuke did the same, he couldn't make it seven. He would never be able to murder his brother if he was pushed back. He absently heard the dead weight start to say something, but he didn't care.

"How do we get you to be our sensei?" He interrupted.

The older man turned his one eye on him, "Hm? Oh that! Well…"

Sasuke frowned more and waited as the ninja strung them along, clearly enjoying the situation they were being put in.

"...you can't!"

"WHAT?!" Sasuke flinched at the shrill voice but internally reacted just the same.

"At least, not yet!"

He was doing this on purpose. To be annoying.

Don't let him rile you up. Don't let him rile you up. Don't let him rile you up.

Sasuke's internal mantra wasn't very effective as he could feel his knuckles tightening. Sakura on the other hand, didn't keep anything internal.

"What does that mean?!" She yelled.

"Maa-maa, keep it down would you." The man said nonchalantly, but then sighed dramatically, "Well I guess I'll have to explain it won't I?"

A third. A third go back. Sasuke stared at the leaf in his hand, his mind going over that number over and over again. In their class alone, the number of passing graduates was only 26.

Nine. Nine students could move up to Genin.

A third.

After dropping that ball on them, he climbed up to the boulder and laid back, and pulled out an orange book. Completely ignoring them.

A third.

Training that he promised? Turns out the bastard was too lazy to actually provide it. Any requests were met with the same excuse. Physical training? Too advanced. Chakra training? Too advanced. Infiltration? Too advanced. Other jutsus? He had looked down from his book at that one. And all Sasuke could remember before he stormed away, was the single laugh.

A third.

He walked over to the nearest tree and collapsed. He didn't sulk. He didn't give Kakashi the pleasure of seeing how much his disinterest bothered him.

A third.

And he began training. The leaf exercise was basic, but focus and chakra fluctuation helped build a solid foundation. Or so Iruka-sensei said.

A third.

But after almost thirty minutes of silence, Sasuke couldn't take it anymore.

A third.

He scowled and threw his leaf to the side and stormed over to Kakashi, who didn't react to him moving at all except by turning another page.

"Test me."

"Nope!"

Sasuke growled under his breath, "You said only nine graduates pass the Jonin tests right? Then let us take the test!"

"Nope! I told you, there have to be three of you little babies for the test to take place. We have to wait for the other teams, and when some eventually fail, we'll take one of the failures, and you can take my test then."

Sakura's voice popped up then, "And if nine people have already graduated before we take the test?"

Kakashi appeared to pause at this, before shrugging and going back to reading, "Well then if that happens we don't even need to take the test!"

Sasuke's fingernails dug into his palms, unknowingly drawing blood, "And you won't test the two of us beforehand? Just to know if you'd actually want to be our sensei?"

Kakashi stopped reading and tilted his book down, peering down at Sasuke, "What are you proposing?"

"Test us." At Kakashi's raised eyebrow, Sasuke kept talking, "We'll do the test twice if we have to, but give us a shot to not have to wait another year!"

"YEAH! And if we pass then you only have to worry about testing whoever else gets thrown with us!" Sakura added in.

The older ninja sat back and stared up at the clouds floating by, seemingly pondering their words.

"Alright, why not." The two potential genin head's popped up at this, "But if we do, then whatever result I tell you, it's final, understood?"

The two nodded and Sakura stood up and walked over to stand by Sasuke. The Jonin stretched on the rock before getting up and off the rock to stand facing the two. He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a pair of bells.

"Typically, with three of you, I would use two bells, but since there's only two of you, I guess we'll just have to go with one!" And with that, he tossed one of the bells back into the pouch on his hip.

"So! Here's how we'll do this, I have one bell, you two have exactly thirty minutes to take it from me! You don't have a bell by the end of the thirty minutes, you lose and go back to the academy!"

Sakura's eyes went wide at this, "But wait…that means…" And she turned and looked over at Sasuke.

Kakashi chuckled darkly at this, "Yup! Only one of you can pass and become my student!"

Sasuke was glaring at the ground at this, his mind a whirl as plans rushed into his head. He didn't believe there would be a test, so he hadn't prepared anything ahead of time, traps and the like, but that could be done quickly. There was just one problem.

A third.

"Ready-"

A third.

"Set-"

A third!

"GO!"

Sasuke's body moved. Plans to hide and build a strategy had been discarded the second the call was made. One bell. Only one of them could pass. Sakura was weak physically, loud, and only skilled with excessive amounts of knowledge. But he couldn't risk it. He doubled his chances, if she wasn't in the competition.

"URK!"

His throat chop was clean and precise, she didn't even realize it was coming till he struck. The moment his hand was off her neck she fell like a sack of potatoes. Sasuke hopped backwards, his mind frozen at his action.

It was the right thing to do…right?

The wind rustled through the training ground.

"Huh." Kakashi said, staring at Sakura, "You want to hear something crazy? In all my time doing this test, no one has ever thought to immediately take out the other team members."

His eye slowly tracked from her collapsed form to Sasuke, "Most aren't that pathetic."

Fury filled Sasuke's gut, and he opened his mouth to refute that harsh statement, but he didn't have that chance. Kakashi was on the other side of the field. Then he wasn't.

Sasuke didn't even get a chance to move. All of his skills, training and sparring, were completely useless. One moment Kakashi was in front of him, the next, Sasuke's vision was completely consumed by Kakashi's fist. Then there was darkness.

"I understand you've heard some…things Iwasaki-san."

Iwasaki had been a medical ninja for many years now. He had operated and worked on ninja or civilians on battlefields and in hospitals. Young or old. Scared or angry. He had worked in so many different environments that he learned to just…ignore it. Focus and ignore the stressors and solve the problem. He was incredibly skilled at not letting anything get to him.

But as Sarutobi Hiruzen, The God Of Shinobi, The Professor, Third Hokage of Konohagakure, looked him dead in the eye and spoke to him, Iwasaki could feel the sweat sliding down his forehead. There was no denying the man in front of him, to do so was to court death. And at his age, Iwasaki had ever interest in staying alive.

"Not a single thing Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi paused at that, and tilted his head slightly, "Is that so?"

A bead of sweat slid down the side of his head as the man nodded, "Yes, unfortunately at my age Hokage-sama, I am plagued with bouts of deafness at random intervals. I'm sure you can understand."

A pipe was seemingly pulled out of nowhere and a small fire jutsu lit the tobacco inside as the Hokage pulled a slow drag.

"Random bouts of deafness hm? How…convenient."

This time it was Iwasaki's turn to tilt his head, "Oh? Not particularly Hokage-sama, sometimes patients are telling me something and I have to ask them to repeat themselves. It is actually quite inconvenient at times."

A slow exhale of tobacco smoke filled the air, "...hm…so it would seem. So, that entire time that…Jiraiya was in the room? Completely deaf?"

Iwasaki's eyes got incredibly large and his mouth opened wide, "Jiraiya was there?!" His voice was the perfect image of complete shock, "I had thought I had seen something out of the corner of my eyes."

"I was under the impression you two had spoken."

Iwasaki's eyes furrowed in confusion, "Hm?" He rubbed his chin and seemed to be in deep thought, "Nope! Not that I can recall!"

Sarutobi rubbed his temple as the man in front of him brushed off his concerns.

"Very well, if that is how we are-"

It was a shift. Nothing noticeable to anyone who didn't spend every single day in this office would be able to see. The Hokage saw it. The tensing of his Anbu guard. Someone was moving quickly to the office. The voice of his secretary called out to whomever was moving quickly, but a quick response seemingly cut her off. A quick knock at the door followed by it rapidly opening.

The white doctor's coat and the familiar face of one of Iwasaki's assistants reassured the Anbu slightly, but they stayed in the ready position just in case. The out of breath man saw both of the two men he was looking for and bent over in relief.

"Ho-kage-sam-a -and- Iwa-sak-i-sa-ma," He pointed his thumb behind him, "Y-ou've -go-t to- come- see- thi-s."

"But how?" Iwasaki was calling frantically to the other doctors. Their unknowing shrugs were absolutely useless. The head doctor yelled and called for any form of explanation, answers as to how this had happened. Sarutobi didn't pay attention. Only stared silently. And watched.

Watched as a mass of threads, shaped roughly in the form of a boy. With a head. Two arms. And incredibly, two legs. Two legs. And as one lifted up, and took another step forward, the old man smiled and answered Iwasaki's first question.

"How you ask?" Naruto's hand lifted up over his head and the mass at the end tightened, as if clenched in a fist, "By being a ninja."

Well well well. Guess who's back biiiiiiooooooootttttttttcccccccccc*eeeesssssss! Oh gawd I missed this! Hopefully with this start I'll be able to start working on my other stories! Belllllllaaaaaaa I missssss yoooouuuuuu! Welp this has been fun, but it's time for this old man to go to bed :D Yes. I am old now. This blows. Still addicted to caffeine…yeahhhhhhhh. Alright how did I end it before? Ah! Yes!

OKAY BYE!