-Hiruzen-

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Hiruzen is checking up on Naruto. Being in his own apartment rather than the orphanage is better, but not by much. There's a reason most children don't live on their own. Thankfully, Naruto seems to be doing rather well. Hiruzen wasn't even requiring taxes from Naruto, and he was still doing them (rather well, too!)

Still, Hiruzen worries about Naruto. So he is visiting the child today, just to make sure that he's doing alright.

Naruto seems to be very eager to make conversation. That's good. He may be isolated, but he still tries to reach out. He's even apparently made friends with Sasuke Uchiha! Hopefully they will be good for each other.

"And I'm learning all sorts of cool stuff! Not from the Academy, they only talk about boring stuff that doesn't really help me at all there. But Fuzzy is an awesome teacher! He tells me all sorts of awesome things while I dream!"

Hiruzen promptly chokes on his tea.

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-Naruto-

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Naruto doesn't know why Jiji started choking, but he likes Jiji so he tries to help. How do you help a choking person? Didn't Iruka-sensei mention that a while ago? Something about pressure and fists and stomachs? OH! Naruto can punch Jiji's stomach!

Naruto doesn't know why Jiji passed out, but he doesn't want to leave Jiji on the floor. Naruto dutifully clears the couch and puts Jiji there. That's probably more comfortable for him!

A few minutes later, Jiji wakes up. Naruto isn't sure why his face seems greyer than usual, but he seems ok. Should Naruto be doing something? Oh! Jiji might be hungry! Naruto can go make cup ramen for him!

Before Naruto can get far, Jiji stops him. It's a little weird that Jiji wants to see Naruto's stomach, but it's probably fine. Jiji's nice, so Naruto isn't worried.

Jiji calms down after looking at Naruto's stomach. Does he just like bellies a lot or something? That's really weird.

"Naruto, please don't listen to those dreams. I don't know exactly what... Fuzzy... tells you, but it's very important that you don't listen to him. He will only hurt you if you keep listening to him. Please tell me if these dreams keep appearing consistently, or if he tells you anything worrying. Alright?"

Naruto agrees, mostly to get Jiji off his back. Fuzzy is a dream, and he's Naruto's dream, and he's absolutely never been petty or spiteful or anything. He teaches Naruto cool stuff! And he talks to Naruto way more often than Jiji does. Besides, how should Naruto stop listening to him? Stop sleeping? He's tried that before, not fun.

"And Naruto, did you say that Fuzzy complains about taxes? Why would he do that? I don't make you pay taxes. At least, I made sure you won't be required to pay taxes until you reach adulthood or graduate and become a ninja. If someone told you otherwise, I can go speak with the taxation department to make sure they know not to make you pay."

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-Kurama-

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...

That old man is going to die.

Kurama is going to feast on his guts and raze everything he loves to the ground.

WHAT WAS ALL THAT MATH FOR?!

...

No. Kurama has to make sure Naruto doesn't take the old man's advice first. Giving him something interesting to think about should distract him from whatever suspicions that old fart might have planted in his mind.

Actually, why not kill two birds with one stone?

"Hey kid, you've been keeping up with your history classes right? Remember that review we did on the Third Ninja War last week? That picture of the Lord Fourth Hokage certainly looked familiar... "

The next day, Naruto snuck into some old records (that really needed better security), shrieked in pure joy, got caught, escaped, and no one could bring him down for the next week. Poor Hiruzen practically got a heart attack on the spot. His only saving grace was that Kurama encouraged Naruto to "keep it as his cool special secret", because he didn't feel like dealing with all the drama.

And if Kurama also encouraged Naruto to give Hiruzen the cold shoulder for not telling him the "best secret ever", it was totally justified.

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A/N - Someone asked me to start making longer chapters. I was kind of thinking to try doing that anyway, but the whole thing that inspired me here was "snapshots" of Naruto's life. So while I'll try to make them more than the little 300-word chapters I've been putting out, don't expect them to ever get to be particularly long, at least for now

Also, on the subject of bloodline limits, while I love the idea of them I also like to make them more unique than just a unique elemental bloodline. Scorch release is cool and all, but wouldn't it be way cooler to have a unique power like the Sharingan? So from that perspective, I like to think of the emotional powers as Naruto's bloodline. He could totally pass them on to kids in my head canon. That's why I wanted to introduce them early. And while I don't mention them a lot, they're a huge part of what makes Naruto so good at being sneaky.