13A/N: Adventure/Family/Humor slash many other genres, who knows. Hi there, AUselessMicroFluff here, starting out on a new story for this great Anime...I hope I can be a good storyteller...been watching Naruto since who knows when, just got into writing for it now while working on my RealitySHIFT story. Favorite, follow and review if you liked. This will be the last long A/N ever.
Disclaimer shit: Naruto is not mine or I wouldn't be here. Got it? Yea.. of course you do.
Full summary: Having been sheltered for almost 12 years of his life, all Naruto Namikaze wants is to become a Konoha Shinobi like his father and rightfully claim the Hokage name he holds. So when he's finally given the opportunity to go to the Academy, he eagerly dives right in for the adventure -little does he know that there was a reason why he was kept away from it all...
Eh, Well whatever happens, one thing is certain: come hell or high water, Naruto is going to be taking the Shinobi world by storm -and hopefully everyone would be alive by then. (Slight AU, retelling of the anime series to a point) OOC possible, with random moments.
[~]
There were always the stories, you know?
It was obvious
While most were verbally visable, there were others...
...Unspoken...
Ones kept away, hidden behind mountains of lies, deceit, manipulations...
...just whispers in the wind...
But of course, there was one that threatened the balance of peace
And it started with one...
...small...
...spark...
That day...
The truth wouldn't be known for quite a while. They had made sure of that. And it was better for the sake of all that it remained that way
It had to be
They made sure that everything remained the same. They said everything needed to be kept under wraps, the people oblivious to what is in front of them...
...even if their appearances betrayed their knowledge
They all had to move on, forcefully
All in all, a state of normalcy
There wouldn't be another slip up anytime soon. Everyone made sure of that
Lies were the way to go
Besides...
...that was the way the world worked, right?
[~]
"...the morning of October 10 was just like a day none other. People were going about their daily routines, ninja were off about in missions. Konoha was in a state of peace, and many believed it to be this way forever.
But they were wrong.
Somewhere along the hours of 8-10 pm, Konohagakure fell into a state of emergency: the attack of the nine tailed fox demon, having been released from its jinchuuriki. It lashed its great big tails around, sending trees and nearby areas into oblivion, the ground began to shake and tremble, and seas of water began to quake and rage across the land.
The village was no longer safe.
The best of the best ninja came and held back the beast at bay, but many had lost their lives noneless. People were evacuated, many were gravely injured, but the Fox kept on going. As it began to seem like there was to be no hope left, the Yondaime Hokage, recently elected, formulated a plan to put an end to the chaos and was prepared to risk his life to kill the demon...
...But at the last second, our previous hokage, Sandaime Hiruzen Sarutobi, took the winning shot -at the cost of his life, showing without a doubt his title as the God of the Shinobi. In his last dying breath, he proclaimed the threat to the village to be no more, and wished for the Yondaime to continue his legacy of peace and prosperity..."
.
.
.
"...Hm."
Silence.
"Well...to hell with this! I've made up my mind!"
To Each Their Own
Prologue
- Let's keep this simple -
[~]
A hard back book was flung carelessly across a large room, its surfaces that were clearly shown to have taken a beating...taking another beating from its temporary owner. The book smacked itself onto the wall, which was decorated with little pieces of paper with kanji symbols and other squiggles -no doubt they were seals that kept anyone inside.
Like a prison. At least, that's how its prisoner established it.
Little blue cerulean eyes watched mischievously from afar as the book left a dent onto said wall. Watched as said book half slid-half hit the floor with a slam that echoed for a short moment before there was silence. Silence and some little huffs of breath before a loud, cute gasp was heard.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Those same little blue eyes widened with realization as the book's pages were flayed around, with some having separated from its bindings due to the force of the throw, Oh crud...he thought in a panic, dad's not gonna like the fact that I broke it already... and it's not even mine, dattebayo!
Little footsteps made their way towards the wall and stopped; little hands began to grab the old pages and furiously cram them into the sections they belonged to. The child began to dart around that area quickly, all the while thinking, I'm safe. No one saw me, so no one will place blame. Remember: if you don't get caught, then you won't get in trouble, especially with-
There was a sudden feeling of cold behind..
Wait...! I think-
"Oh? What happened here?"
The child, a young boy, shrieked as the book was dropped from his hands in shock. This resulted in another high scream as the book made hard contact with his toe. He began to jump around in pain before turning around to face the sneaky visitor.
"Inu chan...!," he growled as he began to quickly rub his toe, "not nice!"
'Inu chan', or basically, the grayish-white haired ANBU captain with the trademark mask, stood in front of him, marvelling at the dent in the wall before turning around to look at the book, which was once more in its spot on the floor with its pages displayed and some scattered around. He ended up looking back at the boy, chuckling at how he was fuming about the pain in a comical way before picking the book up and shaking his head.
"Maa, maa, Naruto. Don't need to be angry at me for ruining...your hasty attempt at a cover up."
Said blond stopped jumping around, snapping his gaze back to the person at hand. "You heard that? How?"
"You were speaking your thoughts aloud," the gray and black wearing teen said with light humor in his words as the blonde pouted, "What with your mother having been just like you...What was that about the whole 'If you don't get caught, you won't get in trouble' philosophy you were speaking so confidently?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He was hoping he'd gotten that aspect of himself broken out, but it couldn't be helped. Not like it would matter, anyway. Inu -this not being his actual name and attempts at obtaining it not fruitful- was his favorite ANBU, besides the ones that mostly came around to hand him food or check up on his health or his dad. It was only fortunate that it had been no one else, or he wouldn't have been able to explain himself so casually. He settled on giving him a thumbs up and a chuckle to lessen any punishment.
Just because Inu was his favorite didn't mean the guy was going to go easy on him.
"Yea, yea! That's right and true, dattebayo~!"
Okay. So that sounded bad.
"Well..I don't think I should be happy that I'm rubbing off on you," Inu nodded his head slowly before returning his gaze back to the book. "And do I really need to know why this happened by any chance?"
Naruto tensed. "Um...No?"
They both looked at the book in his hand. Three more pages mysteriously fluttered off, and the small rope that held the binding together snaked its way out, therefore making the book itself even more unstable.
If Inu had his mask off, his eyebrow would be raised by now.
"Uh...well..You see..."
The boy began to balance on his feet back and forth, hands behind his back and playing with the fabric of his light orange shirt, face with his whiskered cheeks facing downward but eyes looking right at him through slightly long spiky, yellow bangs. A picture of an angel to get out being in trouble that only I could pull off, Naruto thought slyly. It always works...
"Inu chan...if anyone asks, it was an accident, yea?," he said with innocence. "Please please pleeaaaase, 'ttebayo? I don't want to be banned from taking anything out..." Too bad his foxy grin ruined the show.
The ANBU tilted his head slightly. "Ok. I'll play your notion, Naru chan." Here was his favorite part. He bent down, lowering himself to the boy's level. "But how should I cover it up then?" He asked.
Naruto stopped rocking himself, noting no anger in his voice. Here we go. "I wanted to see how far it could fly?" He suggested.
"By throwing it?"
"Yup!" The boy grinned. "Or, if that doesn't work, then maybe it fell off my desk. That makes much more sense, right?"
"...um, ok..." the teen nodded. "But that doesn't explain why the pages came off like that. This book is old, Naruto. But not that old."
Naruto held his mouth open before forming it into a slight pout as he racked his brain for more ideas.
"But...what if we said it was a really high desk?," he added with hyperactive hand motions. "Like, really, REALLY high, ne? Will that work?"
"Yea... right. Your desk is short, unless it happened to be as high as the hokage monument, that will not convince anyone."
"Huh. Then how about we go about and blame Tora?" Blue eyes twinkled brightly. "You could say you were returning them and the cat happened to run into you and attacked you like crazy, dattebayo!"
"Could work...if the book happened to look like it were mauled," Inu quipped cheerfully as he brandished the piece of literature safely. "Really unbelievable, since I don't do D missions anymore, and I'm an ANBU captain. People won't take me seriously if I were ambushed by a cat. In fact, they'd laugh."
"Well, if you want, I could do the mauling part...whatever mauling is," Naruto offered happily. "Hey, Inu chan, what's mauling? Is it bad? How can I learn it? I bet if you taught me I can-"
"No, no. That's okay. But I give you props for trying to blame it on hell incarnate."
Naruto frowned. "Aww, and that demon animal was my best excuse...everyone uses it. Would have gotten away with it too if I knew what mauling was. Next in line... Maybe we can say it got run over?"
Inu flipped through a broken page from the book. "Run over by what, Naruto?"
"By...uh...um...," the blonde paced around, thinking of something. Inu found this cute, as the boy tended to remind him of his sensei. " ...lemme think..."
Silence.
"Anything?"
Naruto sighed. "No... so I didn't think that one through." He kicked the floor softly with his toe and focused back to ideas on the figurative drawing board. "Let's skip that: can we say someone stepped on it?," he suggested once again, snapping his fingers as it hit him. "Yea! Someone stepped on it, and made the pages come out and-"
"But there are no footprints." Inu pointed out.
Naruto smiled while rubbing his hands gleefully. "Oh hohoho~, don't worry about that, my ANBU friend, I can make some, dattebayo~! Just gimme here-"
"Oh no, no, no...!" The ANBU teen held the book above him as he held back the grabby arms of the bubbly boy, rubbing the blond's hair in fondness as he held him in place. "Lets...try not to go about thinking of ideas that would require abusing the book any more than it can handle, alright?"
"D'aww, you're no fun... it would have been believable, 'ttebayo." Naruto frowned slightly. "But you're not going to tell dad, are you?"
Inu looked at the book once more and sighed. It was adorable to see how the whiskered boy tried to come up with viable reasons explain the book's condition, though it wouldn't have done much anyways. Since he was the one that took it out, it was he who would be getting flack for returning it in its current state to the Konoha great library...but then again, he couldn't really blame the kid. It was easy to see that his sensei's son was bored and frustrated...
...from the damage to the wall...and the choice of book...
Anyone who happened to be Naruto would have been. But still...
"No, no. Don't worry. I won't say a word. He won't be mad."
As he began to shuffle the pages around before closing it back up again, he could see the little blonde running back towards a small bed, disheveled orange covers with little red uzumaki spirals decorating the fabric piled on one side, and darting towards his right side where he could see five more books, two piled and three scattered around, pages open. All having been read, seeing as how the boy ran back with them in his hands and placed them at his feet.
"All done with those?" Inu asked cheerfully before looking back at the book in his hands: The History of the great Hokage being its name, along with stories about Konoha's finest ninja. "And are not destroyed in any way?"
He emphasized "destroyed" slightly, tone not escaping Naruto's sensitive ears.
"Aww, you're still not gonna let that go, are you, Inu chan, 'ttebayo?"
Sigh. "Well, I am the one whose taking these out for you, Naruto. And with one book down for the count..."
"Yea, yea, yea. They're fine," Naruto grinned, hands on his waist. "Don't worry about it. You can see for yourself, though if you could only teach me Henge, I could easily take the blame..."
He stopped mid way to embrace the ANBU captain in a sudden hug, nuzzling him. To say the gray haired teen was taken aback was an understatement. Naruto was more nervous than ever as well, and thus after a minute of friendly contact he let go and stepped back with a lop sided grin.
"Um..."
"Hehehe.. always like that. That was a thanks, Inu chan buddy! For the books? They were fun to read, especially the hokage one! You always know what kinds I like!"
Inu smiled. "Oh? And why is that?"
"Because one day, I'll be Hokage!" The blond exclaimed with slight boast. His cerulean orbs shone bright like diamonds as he nodded his head fiercely with determination the more he kept thinking about it. " Hokage, hokage, hokage..." the word rolled off his tongue in good spirits. "The Godaime Hokage Naruto Namikaze, dattebayo! That has a nice ring to it, don't you think, aniki?"
He could see Inu flinch slightly from the word "aniki" but didn't say anything. Probably not used to being called that. Meh. Need that for part one of my plan even though I do think of him as a fun brother, Naruto reasoned. He continued on his barrage for pretend candidacy with gusto.
"I will be the next hokage of this village!" He proclaimed. "I'll be better than my dad or any of those other cheap knockoffs in that book ever were..."
"But the Konoha Kage weren't-"
"But to do that," Naruto rubbed his hands slyly, totally ignoring whatever the ANBU captain had to say, "I'll need to be a ninja of Konoha and rise up the ranks."
The boy looked at his friend/makeshift brother, the grin on his face growing wider with every passing second as target comically sweatdropped.
"Why are you looking at me- WHOA!"
Naruto pounced onto the teen, grabbing the gray vest and giving it a tug as he clung on. Inu struggled to keep still and remain standing, but the weight of a 7 year old wasn't fun to maintain, especially when he was moving around like a bundle of energy.
"I don't care what my dad says," he said firmly while keeping his eyes focused on the slits of the mask. "Inu chan, I know my dad won't let me walk off to the academy, and I can't go outside to train or hang out with people like me...," the blond slowly let go of the teen and stepped back, eyes now distant and hurting. "I'm stuck here, and even if I have you, dad and the rest of the ANBU coming here to play with me, I'm still bored and lonely."
Naruto looked at the books on the floor and smiled weakly, holding one in his hands and clutching it tightly. "Reading those books are what makes me happy, and having you read me stories about ninjas and hokages make me want to be one so badly, 'ttebayo. But dad always says that he doesn't want me to be a ninja because Ill get hurt and I'm 'special'...Whatever that's supposed to mean."
Inu looked at the boy, his charge and surprisingly, someone he would call his little brother, with a lowered head as the blond began to speak once more with restraint.
"...so please...I know I'm small. I know I'm not that smart, but..."
Naruto gently lowered the book back with the rest and then suddenly pointed a finger at the teen, jabbing it into his vest with every once of strength that he could muster and successfully making Inu stumble back a bit. "...you gotta help me become a ninja! I don't care what my Kage dad has to say about it! Just train me, train me, train me dattebayo~!"
"But Naruto..."
"Oi! Even if it has to be a secret...I'm not going to let my dream die!" He fought back forming tears. This was no time to cry. "...I'm going to be the best of the best -the next Hokage, stronger than dad ever was! I'm going to show him that I don't need to be kept away from the people because he's too nervous about my safety!"
With that, he clenched his fingers into a tight grip and stomped one foot onto the floor to seal the emotional deal (he hoped). "Train me so I can be the best, dattebayo~! Besides, most kids would be entering classes soon...!"
"...I just gotta be a ninja!" A clenched fist into the air with a dramatic pose finished off his speech.
None of them said anything after a while. The room they were in once again grew quiet, and the small echoes of distant footsteps were heard outside the halls as once or twice, a person would make their way inside the hokage's living quarters to fix a few things or bring in a few foods -ones that were given clearance, that is. Most of the current Hokage's -the Yondaime- personal and important items and treasures were kept in his smaller office/ temporary home -Naruto included. Inu and most of the carefully selected ANBU black ops were given access to the home, and ordered to protect the boy at all costs.
They were the only family, besides the Hokage, that Naruto knew.
So it didn't strike him as strange that Naruto would choose him, out of everyone he could get attached to, to help him in his merry way towards his dream. Inu had been around the boy so much that he made efforts -painstaking efforts- to arrange times to come into his room and play with him, teach him to read, write, and talk about things on his mind...
Naruto was, after all, lonely in his room...ever since that day...
Just looking at the blond's blue eyes digging themselves further into his soul made him want to look away. It hurt him whenever the boy looked sad or bored. Whenever he had pleaded to learn Henge so that he could go outside and talk to others...
...to secretly enter the academy.
Oh, he knew the meaning underneath the meaning as to why Henge became such a frequent visitor in conversations. But with this...being asked to tutor the boy privately on being a ninja? If anyone found out about this, or even found out that the books he had been bringing to Naruto were henged...
He had to follow the rules. That was what he was trained to do.
He had to say no to the request, even if it would hurt the kid. Even if it hurt him. The boy regarded him as a friend and older brother that he never had. But just like denying the lesson on Henge-ing, Naruto was not to be taught anything about being a ninja. He was advised by the boy's father, his sensei (saddened as he spoke) and by the council themselves. (Though Danzo suspiciously agreed against the Yondaime, which remained a small little bug that pestered their minds.)
Naruto wasn't supposed to know anything about himself other than the fact that he was the son of the Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Nothing else. If questions should arise, it would be answered simply "Its for your safety," and a pat on the back, maybe some toys or books and nothing else. Hell, even ninja books weren't to be shown in his presence.
But he had broken that rule.
So why couldn't he say no? It was an easy order to follow. Just say "No, Naruto. That path will only bring you pain and suffering. Your father will not want to cry if you leave him a lone man." He can patch up the blunder and push the boy's interest elsewhere. Perhaps he could be a good teacher.
But why?
Why did he instead choose to say yes and watch those blue eyes light up like fireflies at night? To see the little ball of sunshine smile wide and squeal like crazy, to see him happy? To feel him wrapping his small arms around his waist and hugging tightly?
Why...
The sight hit a nerve, and somehow, the rebellious nature of what he had done made him feel slightly warm all over.
Yea, maybe he needed a little brother. Sensei was practically his pseudo-father, and Naruto ironically fit the bill, plus more. He needed people, and having been around Naruto and Minato were positive turning points.
Yea, that had to be it.
Fuck the council, Inu spat the name out of the group of Elders that were bent on barring the boy from liberties mentally. Naruto leapt into his arms and laughed, oblivious to the mental decision going on in his head. Naruto...Naruto is not a little kid to be kept in the dark. He is stable, energetic and eager to see his dream out no matter what. And even if Sensei has his hands tied at the moment, nothing...absolutely NOTHING should come between that...
...Not even fear.
"But what should we tell dad?" Naruto questioned suddenly as he remained within the warm embraces of the captain. "I don't want to not follow his rule...But I wanna be a ninja so I can become hokage!"
"You do know he could just name you his successor and that's it, right? You don't even need to go through the long haul."
Naruto frowned. "Nah. The Hokage has to be someone strong and brave with precious people to defend. If I want to be a Hokage, I need to be a great ninja so I can gain all those and more,' ttebayo! No cheating, I want to be just like those Kage before! Yeah! I wanna be super cool and have flashy jutsu and be awesome!"
"...But I thought you said they were 'cheap knockoffs'?"
Pause. "They still are."
Sigh. "I won't ever understand your logic, Naruto."
"Hehe, That's what dad says!"
[~]
Somewhere off in the main part of the Hokage building, one Minato Namikaze sneezed on his paperwork, dropping ink into some important document and knocking over his thirteenth cup of coffee. Oh Damn, must be allergy season, he assumed.
[~]
"...right."
"But no, really," the blond yawned out as he stretched his hands and scratched his head. "What do I say? I don't want him to get mad."
Inu picked up the books from the floor before leading Naruto back to his bed. "We'll think of something, ne?"
The seven year old rubbed his eyes and smiled. "Okay...we have a lot of time. We start tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
"Aww...you're not going to lie to me, right? That's what dad said...but he didn't really lie that time though..."
"I'll try to get things arranged then." Inu smiled as he ruffled the blonde's hair and left the room, throwing in a "goodnight" for added measure.
"Alright! Inu sensei, Inu sensei dattebayo~!" Naruto chanted with glee before throwing the covers over himself, but first taking a look outside of the small window a few inches above his bed on the wall. Normally, he would have been tempted to use the bed's wooden railing to peek a view at the village below, but this time he settled for the sky gaze, which did not disappoint. The sun looked as if were starting to set, with its mixtures of pink, red, blue and periwinkle decorating the clouds and giving depth to the heavens above, making it seem magical.
A magical view for a magical set of events that just happened.
I'm going to be a ninja! I'm going to be a ninja! Naruto repeated over and over in his head, the excitement stirring his tummy and making him want to jump around like crazy. That was if he could, of course. There was that fatigue that was starting to kick in, and his eyes slowly began to droop until they screamed for closure. I'm going to be a ninja...my dream...and then I'm going to take the hat...and then I won't be so lonely anymore...
Isn't that great...
...Kurama chan?
A small orange blob that Naruto could barely make out popped into his vision. The blonde forcefully opened his eyes wider to get a better look at his friend -imaginary to him, of course. A small fox, orange coloured with bits of red and yellow adorning the tips of its ears and push tail made its way to the right side of the bed and curled itself into a ball, peeking out to look at him with one eye glowing like fire as it spoke in mental link. Go to sleep, you runt. You're killing me with your excitement.
But I'm so happy datteba-
Be happy another time! I don't want to hear you repeating yourself over and over or you'll drive me insane, kit.
Sigh. Alright, alright, no need to be mean... Naruto smiled before letting sleep reign over. I just don't like not talking to you like a real person when people are 'round, 'ttebayo. They will think I'm still a baby for having an imaginary friend...
...Yet when they are gone, you persist on using our mental link. I can never understand your logic sometimes.
Heeey, that's what Inu cha- sensei and daddy say to me!
I wonder why...Sigh.
Whatever. Goodnight 'rama chan...
Hn.
Well, that's it. This story will follow the series to a point. There will be changes, hopefully some humor, same old Naruto goofiness.
Next chapter: Child no more! Naruto Namikaze here!
See you when I get another chapter out.