7A Sages Prodigy
This story has been adopted by me from SAOFan22. I was previously acting as a beta for this story but after some unfortunate circumstances they decided to turn it over to me.
The idea for this story belongs to SAOFan22 and Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. I own only the ideas which I feel best fit the storyline laid out for me.
Chapter 1 – Off to a sorry start
In the aftermath of the Nine Tails attack on the Hidden Leaf Village, all was silent on the former battlefield until the piercing cry of a new born baby rang out through the stillness of the great village.
In the fresh clearing created by the majestic battle between the evil fox and their beloved fourth Hokage, stood the predecessor of the recently deceased: Hiruzen Sarutobi. In his day he had been one of the best shinobi to ever grace the battle field. Although he had never been as strong as his predecessors, he had still managed to make a few names for himself; including the 'Great Professor' or 'The God of Shinobi'.
However, staring out at the destruction wrought by his students' young protégé, he did not feel much like a God of Shinobi.
The Kyuubi had managed to take out a small portion of the village before the 4th had managed to push back the wrathful beast; together they had made the surrounding area into little more than a massive crater staining the earth.
He stared sadly down at the bodies of their new hero - Minato - and his wife - Uzumaki Kushina. He knew that he should have been the one to sacrifice himself, to seal the Kyuubi before Minato could give his own young life. He wished more than anything that he could go back in time and change what had happened, stopped the child from knocking him out so that he could have faced the fox.
But now Minato and Kushina were dead and Sarutobi had been left behind with a newly orphaned infant with a seal on his belly and no way of protecting the child from the events that were sure to follow. A controlled Jinchuriki gave a village great power and the loss of Kushina meant that Naruto would have to be trained in her place.
Hiruzen knew that the council of elders would be clamouring for the boy to be isolated from the village and trained as soon as he could walk; they wanted an obedient, skilful tool and he was loath to give them one. He would never do that to Minato's child.
The Third hurried towards the middle of the crater where the infant was still bawling his eyes out, sensitive to the negative energy of mass destruction that surrounded him for hundreds of yards in each direction.
The aged Hokage picked up the blonde (he's most certainly a baby Minato) and cooed to him quietly; patting him on the back and smiling when the crying lessened in volume.
The council would not have him. Hiruzen vowed then and there that h would do whatever it took to allow the boy to grow up surrounded by children his age and not forced into a career path without his own explicit agreement.
There was a shimmer of air accompanying the arrival of two ANBU: one wore a Dog mask with gravity defying silver hair and the other sported a Tiger mask and brown spikey locks.
"Minato sensei…" The dog masked ANBU choked out in a sob. This behaviour was very out of character for the young ANBU but Hiruzen turned a blind eye as the young man mourned the loss of his late teacher.
"Seal their bodies and return them to the village" the Third ordered softly, curling his arms tighter around the – now sleeping – baby and heading back towards the still standing tower.
Sarutobi frowned as he looked at his wooden pipe sitting innocently upon what used to be his old (still cluttered dammit!) desk. He would never puff over his successor's recently orphaned baby but after the stress of the day he was desperately craving some good old tobacco.
He sighed lightly wishing his advisors would shut up for a minute and think about the person instead of the greater good. He knew that if push came to shove he would put the well-being of the village over the individual…But this was about Minato's child, and they had plenty of choices regarding how to handle the situation.
Why on earth they were nattering on about telling everybody what had happened and then making it an S-class secret was anybody's guess. He was all for locking the truth away inside this room, allowing Naruto to grow up like a normal child and then telling the child when he was old enough to understand.
He knew that as soon as Danzo had found out what had happened he would want to adopt Naruto into his – disbanded – root system so that he could make use of the Kyuubi's awesome power; but Naruto was one child the Hokage would fight tooth and nail to protect from the old war-hawks greedy clutches.
He had just opened his mouth to inform the old councillors of his decision when the door burst open and very nearly shot off its hinges. The loud noise woke the exhausted baby and evoked another round of waterfalls from the child's screwed up eyes.
"Jiraiya…" He ground out between his teeth, the stress of the day taking over his mind as he forgot the fact that Jiraiya had been out of the village when the Kyuubi attacked and would be unlikely to know about his student.
"Sensei? I saw-I thought I saw… Where's Minato? I saw Kakashi and he mentioned something about the Kyuubi, what happened to Kushina?"
Jiraiya's tone had become more and more desperate as time went on and by the end of it his eyes were suspiciously shiny. The sage had probably already realised that he wouldn't get a favourable answers to his query's.
"The Kyuubi attacked the village Jiraiya, we're not sure what happened but we know that something went wrong with the birthing process-"
"Naruto! Is that-"
Jiraiya's mouth snapped shut as he finally paid attention to the quieting cries emitting from the small bundle in the Hokage's arms.
"Minato and Kushina both lost their lives thwarting the Kyuubi's attempts at rising again.
Sealing the beast into Naruto was their only chance and now my advisors and I are deciding how best to keep the situation under wraps, isn't that right Koharu? Homura?"
"Now see here Sarutobi! We can't just leave everyone in the dark about the end result of all their hard fighting! People lost their lives against that monster, and you're saying that their family members will not even gain some closure for their deaths?
"Eh? You-you IDIOTS!" Jiraiya roared, finally realising the situation he had walked into. "You want to make Naruto the scapegoat, let them pour all of their grief into him? You don't have a clue what that will do to a child, especially one with the power and hate of a bijuu roiling around inside of him."
"We'd just be giving them the truth-"
"You've never done that before! Why on earth would you start now?"
The conversation was getting progressively louder and Naruto's eyes were starting to screw up once more. Sarutobi suppressed the growing ache in the back of his head and interrupted the pointless argument.
"Enough! This conversation is getting us no-where. The must do what is best for the village-"
Homura smirked and Jiraiya's expression quickly grew thunderous. Sensing an explosion as big as fire country herself, Sarutobi pressed onwards forcefully,
"But there's no reason it can't be the best for Naruto as well. We shall not reveal what has happened to the Kyuubi, only that he has been banished back to the shadowland" – which was where everyone had been told the Kyuubi had been banished to after Uzumaki Mito had died – "Naruto shall be housed with someone who knows him and where he comes from and shall be told the truth when he is ready.
Aside from that, not a word of today's events shall leave this room. Do I make myself clear?"
He stared hard at his advisors until they bowed their heads slightly in acquiescence.
"You both may leave. Jiraiya, I need to speak with you further."
When the door had closed behind the old coots Jiraiya let out a huff of air and slid bonelessly into the seat across from the recently re-installed Hokage, allowing his head to fall down heavily onto the desk.
"I can't believe it… he was supposed to – he was the one-"
"Jiraiya." The Hokage waited until Jiraiya's head lifted slightly from the desk, a red mark adorned his abused forehead. "I can entrust no-body else with this task.
The white haired Sannin frowned slightly before his eyes opened wide with shock.
"I can't do that! Me with a baby? He wouldn't last a day!"
"Jiraiya, you are the only one who can bring him up in the right way and teach him to harness the Kyuubi's power if it becomes necessary."
Sarutobi's eyes narrowed as Jiraiya continuously shook his head in a mixture of shock and denial.
"You have no choice in this matter, you can put your network on hold until he is fully aware and then you may take him with you on your travels. I will make this an S-rank mission for as long as he is under your care, you have no right to refusal."
Jiraiya struggled with words for a moment, looking like a man who had found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Eventually his head slammed back down on the table again and he let out a long, low pitched groan.
"I should be careful with what you do to yourself Jiraiya, you don't have that many brain cells to lose."
The mop of white hair fell to the side and Sarutobi found one small, the resignation and grief buried just underneath a glare of mock hate.
Sarutobi held out the squirming baby for Jiraiya to gingerly pick out of his arms.
"You should be alright; I don't think he's venomous"
A small bubble of dry laughter shot out from the 40 year olds throat as he tucked the blond into his chest. He stared at the small boy for a moment before stating, "We're leaving today"
The Hokage frowned in disagreement. "That's not a good idea, you shouldn't travel with a new born and you'll both be perfectly fi-"
"No. No-one else has hair like that and it's obvious he's not mine, people will start to realise. I'm not staying cooped up for three years. I have a couple of houses dotted about here and there that we can use and I think we'll both be happier away from… well, out and about anyway."
There was silence for a few moments as Jiraiya allowed Naruto to play with his index finger, pulling back when his appendage strayed a little too close to the brats mouth for his liking.
"Alright, take him out. You will receive monthly payments into your bank account and I expect you to keep in regular contact."
Jiraiya nodded lightly and stood up, moving towards the door.
"And Jiraiya?
The man stopped a foot from the door handle and half turned back towards his old mentor.
"I think it would be better for both of us if you used the window, hmmm?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened a fraction and he quickly scooted over to one of the frames lining the wall, threw it open and hopped out with a "Bye sensei!" Tossed over his shoulder.
The Hokage sighed in half amusement and half dread, signalling for one of his ANBU to close the window whilst he schooled his features and prepared himself for the dreaded encounter that was about to follow. Remembering his previous desire, he lit up his pipe and concentrated on puffing up the heavenly artefact.
AU: Right! A new story and I haven't even finished my other two, I know but I will not be stopping any of them-they just might take me a while to finish. This one has to be done for the unfortunate SAOFan22 (see beginning) who originally got this story in motion.
The next chapter will skip straight to Jiraiya and Naruto's return to the village and should be spiced up with lots of ninja business. I hope you enjoy and I would be very happy for any reviews on what you think of this story so far.