Naruto: Chronicles of the Uchiha
Chapter 2
~~~Next Morning…
The streets of Konoha bustled with happy villagers going about their lives. A small boy, with his shiniest golden locks walked around them, snaking past legs to make sure that he didn't bump into anyone.
The admission form, now all filled out was still clutched to his chest like a lifeline. For, he had to make sure he didn't accidentally lose it.
No, that won't do at all.
He had never been to this part of the village. It was the main shopping district, acting as the nerve center for the entire village.
He had never needed to.
He always stayed in his clan compounds. They had everything he ever needed anyway. They were really nice and cozy, they made him feel safe.
Safer than he felt now from all the cold glares and snide remarks being sent his way from all those he caught eyes from.
He still got those occasional stares or remarks in his clan too, but they were a lot lesser in his own clan grounds. They were used to his presence there on a day-to-day basis. The rest of the village wasn't.
Plus, he wasn't oblivious as to the reason for said treatment towards him exclusively. His mother had told him everything before she passed away a few months back.
His father and grandfather had done bad things to the village and hurt a lot of people in the village before the past two Hokages had put a stop to their actions.
That thought made him smile, thinking about his dream. His eyes raised their level upwards, to see the mountain shadowing the back of the village with two sacredly carved faces watching over them all at all times.
That was his dream.
He would have his face up there too one day.
He would become Hokage.
Because it was the last promise he made to his mother before she passed away.
~~~Hokage Tower…
His soft footsteps made their way in front of the large tower that stood tall smack bang in the middle of the village.
His deep sky-blue eyes widened in awe, looking at the tower with nothing but pure admiration in his eyes. He had never seen such a large tower and now he was a little sad that he hadn't come here before now.
It was so pretty and huge.
He broke off his thoughts when a Jounin gave him a slight nudge and went about without so much as an apology. His eyes gazed at the back of the man before turning back to the tower with a small smile, the form now clutched ever so tightly by his chest.
He walked through the large hallways of the tower, stopping every now and then to see and read the small things written underneath some portraits of important figures stacked on the walls. He admired the teak wood walls of the tower and the shining wooden floor that made him feel almost self-conscious about stepping on.
He walked on like a lost man in an unknown world. Several Genins, Chunins, Jounins, and even some doctors and normal civilians had walked past him now.
No wonder this tower was in the middle of the village. It not only had the Hokage but everyone came here so it made complete sense to his innocent mind.
He tried to stop some people to ask them for directions to where he was supposed to go in such a large building but no one was stopping for him. Either everyone was too busy or no one wanted to help him.
He thought it was the first one… a little uncertainly.
Finally, after going on confused through the first two floors, he reached a point where he saw a middle-aged lady sitting on a table, right beside a door that had only one Kanji over it.
Hokage.
He had no doubt that this was the place he was supposed to go to. He walked up to the desk, first looking around to see if he had to get a number in a line like yesterday. He stood there innocently for a few minutes when he finally saw a man just walk to her before she did something in her book and let him go in.
He smiled, finally seeing there was no line or need for any waiting, and walked up to the desk. Just like yesterday, he stood up on his toes, his face peering over the edge up to his nose.
"Miss…" his soft voice spoke up startling her in surprise. She looked up and blinked to see two cute and most beautiful sky-blue eyes blinking back at her. She was about to smile when realization dawned on her as to who he was and her face was masked in a neutral expression.
"What can I do for you?" she asked curtly, without so much as a hint of emotion in her voice. The blonde though smiled seeing she wasn't sending him away or talking to him rudely like some people had done before and put his form on the table with one hand and clutched the edge of the table with both of them for a little added support.
"Can I meet the Hokage please?" he asked politely in his soft voice making her crease her eyebrows together in a knit.
She had half a mind to tell him off rudely, but she was still on duty, and as her duty stated she had to treat everyone who came to her equally.
Even him….
"Not right now. No," she answered in her curt voice and turned her eyes down to the register. The blonde bit his lip softly and nodded nervously.
"Alright miss, how long do I have to wait?" he asked making her look up, this time with a hint of annoyance laced in her eyes.
"I told you not right now, didn't I? The Hokage is a very busy man and only entertains people who have made a prior appointment with him," she answered his query as professionally as possible and returned to her work. She nodded hesitantly yet again, inwardly glad she was answering his questions so nicely.
"What's this appointment miss? How can I get one?" he asked innocently making her let out a tired sigh. He would leave her alone to her piling work until she had cleared off all his doubts.
She looked at those innocent wide curious eyes that were looking to absorb each word she said.
Nope, not at all was he leaving her alone simply by himself. Now her full attention was on him to get him away as quickly as possible.
"An appointment is a fixed time you have to get before you can meet him. He has many people who want to see him and he can't meet with everyone, right? So you get an appointment beforehand to get a meeting with him. Do you understand now?" she asked tiredly and got a happy nod from the bubbly boy. She sighed in relief that he was at least smart and she wouldn't have to waste any more time playing this rapid-fire round with him.
"Can I get an appointment too?" he asked happily. A sigh slipped past her lips and she nodded tiredly. No matter how much she wanted to refuse him, he had all the right to meet the man and get an appointment. Her finger trailed down the register to get a free slot and stopped at the first one.
Her eyes turned up to the blonde staring at her intently and she nodded to him making him beam happily.
"There's a slot free for you. Come back and meet him in two weeks. Come back after lunch, I'll fix you an appointment then." she said simply and looked down at the register to book it. The azure sky-blue eyes widened in shock at her words.
"But the Academy starts in two days and tomorrow is the last day to be admitted. Can't it be before then?" he asked hurriedly. His voice carried the worry that was now etched in his heart when he saw her shake her head in a negative straight away.
"No, all the slots until they are filled. You can't meet him before then," she said curtly and wanted to resume her work when his voice cut through her thoughts again.
"Please miss, I won't take long. Just five minutes, I just have to get him to stamp this see…" he said pulling up his arm to show his form with the blank place for his stamp. Her frown deepened into a scowl as her patience was now getting thinned by the second. She shook her head with a clenched jaw and his eyes now turned pleadingly wide. "… I'll be really quick please…" he said softly but was cut off as the irate receptionist slammed her hands on her desk softly, startling him out of his wits.
"Don't you understand boy? He doesn't have time to meet and entertain children like you all day. Now go and come back for your appointment. If you wanted to enter so bad why didn't you come earlier?" she said in a neutral voice barely hanging on to her patience and his features visibly saddened at that.
"I didn't know until yesterday and got my form from a boy who had an extra with him. The Academy lady had given out all forms already, please just a few minutes…" he said softly his voice quivering with desperation and the secretary had finally had enough now.
"Stop your whining kid!" she said rudely making his eyes widen in surprise. "If you wanted to enter so much, then you should have come earlier and get it done like everyone else did. Didn't your parents teach anything about the Academy before now? Now go and whine to them and stop disturbing me, I have work to attend to." she said in a tone of finality and returned to her work, happy that she didn't get any more whining from that annoying boy. The sound of a soft sniffle reached her ears when she heard his hands slip down from her table and she looked up to see him retreat a couple of steps back.
He was holding his form in both his hands now and his silky golden hair now shadowed his eyes. His pained eyes looked at the form while barely holding back a sob.
"I don't have any parents miss…" he said in such a small voice that she would have missed it had the hallway not been so silent. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw small drops slipping down his cheeks and down on the paper clutched in his tiny hands. Her heart clenched at the sight when he spoke up with a polite tone, shocking her to the core at his form of respect even after the way she had treated him.
"I'm sorry miss, it's my fault. I shouldn't have forced you like that and disturbed you from your work. Thank you for answering all my questions so nicely and giving me your time. I'll take my leave now…" he said softly with a slight sniffle, rising from his bow to wipe his nose sloppily with his sleeve. Her astonished eyes watched him walk past her table silently and throw the form in the dustbin kept to the side.
Guilt crept up her heart and she bit her lip. No matter who he was, he was still a little child and didn't know what to do without his parents to tell him. And it pained her heart that she was treating the child for the wrongdoing of his forefathers.
The child did not deserve this kind of behavior from her.
She broke her thoughts to call out to him to get ready to amend her mistakes, only to see him already gone and the now empty hallway making her guilt increase two folds.
'Guess you can't amend a mistake if the opportunity has already passed away..'
Her train of thoughts went on, unaware of a pair of narrowed stoic amber eyes watching the empty hallway quite intently from the sidelines.
Tobirama Senju stood by his door, his arms crossed while he leaned with his back to the wall. He had come out to see what this conversation was about and to get his next set of paperwork that hadn't been brought in, only to catch an earful of the last part of the conversation.
Needless to say, with what he heard he wasn't pleased in the slightest. This was his village, and no child should be treated the way that boy had been treated just now. For some matter, the boy seemed a little familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it for the life of him. And that annoyed him to no end, he wasn't a man to be left with unanswered questions. Everyone knew that about him.
He walked up to the receptionist's desk who looked back tiredly to see who it was. Her eyes widened in shock at seeing Tobirama himself standing there, albeit not looking at her instead his eyes were now dead set on the dustbin kept to the side. She stood up scrambling the messed up piles of paper hurriedly, knowing how eyeing the man could be for such trivial matters.
"H-Hokage-sama!? What can I do for you?" she asked with a slight stutter of nervousness and cursed herself for it inwardly. He paid her no heed and walked to the dustbin that had caught his eyes now, and picked out the small slip of paper laid on the top.
His eyes narrowed in on the sloppily filled form. Especially the small wet spots now marring its surface, no doubt made by the tears of that innocent child. He focused his thoughts on the form itself and read it thoroughly as he was used to like always.
Konoha Shinobi Admissions Programme
Admittee's name:- My name is Naruto Uchiha.
Mother's Maiden Name:- My Kaa-chan's name is Mia Namikaze.
Father's name:- My Tou-san's name is Izuna Uchiha
" Legal Guardian/Father's name:- Umm I don't know about that but I'll tell you after I ask Kagami Oji-san.
Clan Status (If any):- I am from the Uchiha clan.
Age:- I am five but I'll be six in two weeks.
Reasons for joining the Academy (To be filled in by the admittee):- Shinobi are cool, my Tou-san was a great one from what my Kaa-chan told me. Even my Jiji was a very Strong Shinobi. And I want to be one like him. Oh, and I want to be the First Uchiha Hokage! believe it!
Pledge to loyalty for the village (To be filled in by the admittee):- I love my village I will cherish my village as my mother cherished it but I don't know what this pledge is, I'll get it after I find it. So please give me a little time to find it alright?
Tobirama, the man known for masking his emotions to the utmost across the elemental nations couldn't help the mall smirk that was now etched on his face while his eyes read past the words in pure curiosity.
The cute way he had filled out the form, and how he had forgotten to add his own picture to it made it quite clear to him that the child didn't have the slightest bit of idea how to fill a form and had tried his best regardless of that, to the best of is knowledge. But seeing the way he filled the form highlighted the acute sense of Diplomacy even for a child this age. The small tear stains had smudged up his already sloppy handwriting a bit but he could make out all of it quite clearly.
He was surprised for a moment to read his father's name but now it made sense to him why his secretary had been so adamant about sticking to the rules, particularly with him.
Now that made sense.
His eyes left the form and looked up to the nervous secretary. His gaze narrowed in on the woman who shivered a little, gulping softly in nervousness from the man's intense stare.
"Why didn't you let the child meet me?" he asked stoically, though the dangerous glint behind it wasn't lost to the woman.
"Y-You see Hokage-sama, there was no time slot left in your timing register and…" her voice was cut off by the piercing voice of the man whose eyes had narrowed even further at her slight stuttering voice.
"I have a little free time in between my appointments. Surely a few minutes between any one of them could have been discerned for the child since the matter was so trivial as just to need my stamp of approval. So why?" he asked again in a steel-like voice making her gulp down her nervousness and try to speak but he cut her off again.
"You hate him," he stated, leaving no room for arguments. Her eyes widened in shock when he slapped the truth in her face and she shook her head vigorously. He paid her lies no heed and continued on completely undeterred.
"He is his father's son, yes. He has his grandfather's blood coursing through his veins, yes. He is related to two traitorous shinobi of the village, yes." he said stoically and watched her look at him speak as if he was an alien of sorts, no doubt shocked by his words, but he didn't stop.
"But he is a part of this village. He has done nothing wrong. He doesn't even have anyone to teach him how to fill a form properly…" he spoke pointedly, slapping the form on the desk for emphasis over his point. The woman flinched at the slapping sound but peered her gaze over the cutely filled form, feeling even more guilty and ashamed than ever before. Now the window to amend her mistake looked even more distant than ever.
"How would you feel if you were an orphan and someone slapped that point straight into your face, her words full of disgust and loathing?" he asked coldly. She couldn't meet his accusing eyes with her own and turned them down to her feet in shame. She shrunk visibly under his stare that he held for a moment, before picking the form up and walking away.
But just before he walked down the stairs he stopped for his final parting words.
"Go home and don't return tomorrow," he said blankly and the secretary snapped her neck up to stare at his back with horror-stricken eyes.
"H-hokage-sama?!" she stuttered out in shock and he glanced back with his lone visible eye to make himself quite clear now.
"You're fired," he said simply and walked down the stairs leaving a stunned and shell-shocked kunoichi behind.
Author's Notes:
Alright, I know this chapter doesn't differ much from the original, but I've got plans to make subtle changes, even diverge the plot a bit as we go along.
So, why am I posting this chapter today instead of tomorrow? Well, I'm traveling across states, so it's best to post it now.
(Spoiler Alert) — I can't stop myself from brainstorming new power-ups for Naruto! The original author, NxSE, hinted at giving Tsunade Wood Release. I'm considering that too. But realistically, with Wood Release, Tsunade would become way too overpowered compared to Naruto. Think about it: Hashirama could wipe out Madara's full Susanoo and Kurama combo with his Wood Release alone.
Just handing Uchiha abilities to Naruto—even the Eternal Mangekyo—wouldn't balance things out enough. So, I thought, why not go big and give Naruto something epic? I've already got an idea: Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes and all his techniques! We're talking Infinity, Lapse: Blue, Reversal: Red, Infinite Void, and even Hollow Purple.
Why? Because TOOO MUCH JUJUTSU KAISEN RUNNING IN MY HEAD. I can't shake this Six Eyes obsession, and new power variants are just popping into my head non-stop.
One more detail: Naruto's initial eye design will resemble the Six Eyes, with additional abilities added as his Mangekyo powers.
Oh, and readers—feel free to suggest a Kekkei Genkai you think would be a good fit for him!