People should look up The Golden Power by DBAinsw, and Children of an Elder God. Not on , search on google, epic work.

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When they returned they went straight to Tsunade's office in the Fire Shadow tower to report a successful mission, sort of.

Kakashi made the report, though he had written out a report on the way back as well, being such a high class mission, they gave a verbal report. Sakura took over to relay how she treated Kankurou, which impressed Tsunade. When it got to them splitting up she asked Kakashi to explain his reasoning.

"Well, as a puppet user I assumed he used poison, like Kankurou." He looked at Naruto who nodded. "So I figured Naruto, with his Shadow clones would be best suited to fight that kind of opponent."

"Okay, carry on your report."

After Kakashi had finished his report Naruto had to explain his battle against Sasori. He basically told them the same thing he told Gaara and his siblings, though he took care to slip in the fact that the only thing he used from either Kakashi or Jiraiya's teachings was the Rasengan.

At the end of Naruto's story Tsunade took a small moment to glare at Kakashi before responding. "Well done, Naruto. Taking out an S class ninja alone is no small feat. You're all dismissed, take a few days to rest. Kakashi, I'd like to speak for a moment."

Kakashi sighed in defeat and didn't move, Sakura made to go at the dismissal but Naruto didn't move. "Yes, Naruto?"

"Um, can I speak with you for a minute, alone?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, you wait outside." She pointed to Kakashi. Sakura looked questioningly at Naruto but Kakashi ushered her outside with him.

"Okay Naruto, what do you want to talk about?"

Instead of answering immediately Naruto glanced about the room suspiciously. There had been mention in the spy journals of things seen or heard from the office of one of the Shadows, he couldn't remember which one but that didn't matter, really. Sasori wasn't the only person with spies, Jiraiya had spies himself.

Making a decision Naruto made some Shadow clones.

"What are you doing, Naruto. If this is some prank you'll regret it."

"No, no prank Granny." The clones transformed into thick stone blocks, making an open cubicle. "I'm just being paranoid, can we talk in here?"

"Paranoid, what about, what is that anyway?"

"Come on, please?"

Tsunade sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, her curiosity was peaked however so she relented. "Fine, this better be good though." She stepped into the three sided cell. Behind her another Naruto Transformed into a fourth stone slab and a Naruto jumped up to form a stone slab roof. Finally the last Naruto stood in the corner and formed a Rasengan, creating a flickering blue light in the small cell as well as circulating the air and making a humming sound.

"What is that for?" Tsunade said, her voice raised slightly as she eyed the Rasengan wearily.

"It's interference. Sound and Chakra interference, useful huh?"

Tsunade took a moment and found that she couldn't sense anything outside the cell because of the sheer amount of Chakra swirling around inside due to the Rasengan. "Okay, now that we're isolated from the world, what's going on?"

Narut pulled out the upgraded Bingo Book. "I found this sealed in Sasori's storage scroll where he kept his puppets, I was reading through it when something happened."

"What do you mean by 'upgraded' ?" Tsunade was eyeing the book as if it were gold, which it was, really.

"Don't worry, you can have it." He opened the page to the bit on Uchiha Itachi. He pointed to the bit about the massacre being ordered. "Look here, there's four names, right?" He gave her the book, she began reading it, her eyes wide. "Well, I can only read three of the names, but my clones read four, so we, I, think there's a seal of some sort on my memories, more than one actually."

Tsunade forced herself to stop reading the book to respond. "Seals, memory seals? Why the hell would you have memory seals?"

"I don't know, I don't remember, duh!" Naruto said exasperatedly. "Can you get rid of them, Will you get rid of them? Please?"

At the desperation in his voice Tsunade turned her full attention away from the book, though even the glimpse she had seen of it made her want more. "Okay, Naruto. I can have a look. Come here, I'll shave your hair off so I can get a good look."

"What?!" Naruto backed away. "Can't you do anything without shaving all my hair off?!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Oh relax, I can grow it back for you, it's not hard."

Naruto relaxed a little. "You can do that? Well.. okay." He stepped forward and pointed his head at her.

Tsunade's hand glowed green and she began slowly moving it over the surface of Naruto's scalp, his sunny locks falling away in its wake. "Out of curiosity, what would you have done if I said no?"

Naruto shrugged. "What could I do, You're the only person I can really turn to."

Tsunade's eyebrow rose. "What about Kakashi or Jiraiya? They're both seal artists, Jiraiya more so than anyone else."

"I'm feeling a bit disillusioned with them at the moment, I think in the space of a few minutes, while he was trying to distract me by talking, Sasori taught me more about being a Ninja than either of them have ever done."

Tsunade stepped back, pushing lightly on Naruto's shoulder for him to raise his head. "What kind of stuff?" She refrained from asking how that it was possible Jiraiya hadn't taught him anything over the course of their trip, not to mention she knew he had taught Naruto both summoning and the Rasengan.

"Did you know Shadow Clones can send information back to the user?" Tsunade nodded. "I didn't."

"What about summoning or the Rasengan? I know he taught those to you."

Naruto shrugged. "I guess so, though it was more leaving me to learn it myself, it just hurts being neglected so much, y'know?"

Tsunade smiled sadly and rubbed his now bald head, resisting the urge to laugh at him due to how stupid he now looked. "Okay well, I'll have a look at these for you, turn around." She had to stifle a gasp at what she saw, all over his head were little moles, where he had none over the rest of his body. Moles being a type of skin lesion she assumed they were taken care of by his healing ability, so they had to be seals.

She decided to explain what she was doing as she went. "Seals like these are generally disguised as moles by using a simple technique to compact the sealing script into a dot. I can't remove them, Jiraiya might be able to, but I can isolate them. What that means is that they will be dormant, even when you learn something which should trigger the seal, they won't activate, is that okay?" Naruto nodded.

She set about individually 'unpacking' each seal then applying a simple containment seal over each. Since the seals were purely reactive she merely had to isolate them, nothing fancy like a more invasive seal would require, just a few hand seals and a drawing her glowing finger around the seal. It took almost ten minutes however, due to how many seals were present.

"Okay, all done. How long would you like your hair? Same as before?"

"Yeah, please." She put her hand on his head and it glowed a light green, soon the glow spread across his entire scalp and his hair began to grow rapidly, in mere moments he again sported a head full of sunshine blond spikes. "Thanks, Granny."

"It's okay. Here, read this, who does it list as ordering the massacre?" She pointed to the section in Uchiha Itachi's bio that it mentioned who ordered him to commit the massacre.

"It says Danzo, Homura, Koharu and.. Sarutobi... Isn't that the Old Man's name?" Tsunade nodded sadly. "But why would he order Sasuke's family killed? I thought he was one of the good guys, he was always so nice."

Tsunade put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "He always was one of the good guys, Naruto but being the leader of a hidden village is hard, Ninja business is ugly. I'm sure he tried to reason with them before it came to that." Naruto nodded. "It seems the memory seals are dormant, you will never get back what you lost, but that might be a good thing."

"What do you mean?"

Tsunade sighed. "I mean, you've had a hard life, it's possible that you've experienced some traumatic events, the memories of which have been taken from you."

"Traumatic like what?"

"I don't know, Naruto. Frankly, I don't want to know. There was one seal however which wasn't a memory seal, it was a compunction seal. I don't know what it compelled you to do but I have a good idea."

"What?"

Tsunade paused and blew out a breath. "You've never broken a promise, right? Ever?" Naruto nodded slowly. "Did Sarutobi ever get you to promise something when you were younger?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just think about it, did he ever incite you to make a promise? Maybe a promise to be loyal or something like that?"

Naruto thought about it for a minute. "I... I think I promised him I'd be loyal, love the village, protect the village, be Hokage. It was so long ago, I thought he'd be disappointed if I didn't promise."

Tsunade nodded solemnly. "Okay, well, I thought so. Now don't go mad, let me explain. I didn't seal that seal yet, I want to test it, see if we can figure out what it did before sealing it off."

"So, I've still got some compunction seal on my head?"

"Yes, but don't worry, I think I've figured it out. Now, I want you to promise me that you'll punch one of your hands with the other constantly until I tell you it's okay to stop. But after you've promised I want you not to do it, okay?"

"Uh, didn't you just tell me it's okay to stop?"

"No, if you stop before I say it's okay, you'll be breaking your promise, okay? Now come on."

Naruto sighed. "Fine. I promise to punch one hand with the other until you say it's okay to stop." Immediately he began doing just that. Though he didn't seem surprised by it.

"Naruto, why are you doing that?"

"I promised."

"But it's silly, why not break your promise?"

"Yeah, it is silly, but a promise is a promise."

"Can you break your promise?"

Naruto thought for a bit and began staring at his hands, one still punching the other, a dawning look of horror formed on his face. "I can't stop, why can't I stop!?"

"Okay, it's okay to stop, calm down, Naruto." Naruto immediately stopped, he stared at his hands in horror, knowing what it meant.

Seeing the look Tsunade's heart melted a little. "I'm sorry Naruto." She slowly enveloped him in a hug. "Don't worry, I'll seal that one off too." She reached round while hugging him and made a circle on his head with a glowing finger. "There you go. Now, promise me you'll stop hugging me right now."

Naruto chuckled a little, muffled lightly by her chest. "I promise." He didn't move for several minutes.

When they finally stepped apart, Naruto's eyes still glistened slightly but he looked happier. "Thank you, Granny."

"That's okay, Naruto." She stroked his cheek lightly. "I wonder what other promises you've made over the years? You probably should take some time to think about it, think about whether you want to keep any of them."

Naruto nodded solemnly. "Yeah."

"I'm going to recommend you go talk to one of the Yamanaka's about this. They know far more about psychology than I do, It would be best to make sure you're okay."

Naruto nodded lightly but didn't respond. "Now I know that look, come on, it's okay to ask for help. Promise me you'll go talk to one of them?"

Naruto chuckled lightly. "Sure, Granny. I promise."

"Okay kiddo, off you go, Kakashi's still waiting outside, though it serves him right. Send him in on your way out."

"Okay." The clone holding a Rasengan slowly dissipated it before dispelling, the stone slabs around them dissipated as well, leaving them standing in the middle of Tsunade's large office.

Naruto headed out, waving behind him. Quickly, when he wasn't looking Tsunade summoned a small slug into the palm of her hand. "Find Jiraiya, tell him to get to my office, now."

"Yes, Mistress." The slug then dispersed with a small poof of smoke.

She then walked slowly around her desk to her chair, ignoring Kakashi's entrance and greeting until she was properly situated.

"Now, Kakashi I'm sure you're aware of why I asked you to stay behind." She made a point not to apologise for making him wait since he did that often enough.

"Ah something to do with Naruto's report?"

"Indeed." She adopted her intimidating posture, elbows on the desk, hands together in front of her mouth. "Up until now I had thought you taught Naruto the Shadow Clone technique, I had excused your teaching Sasuke the Chidori since Naruto knew the Rasengan. I had thought Sakura slightly neglected when I began teaching her because she only knew some illusory techniques, but due to he small Chakra capacity, it is to be expected she couldn't be taught techniques similar to those two."

She sat back, staring at Kakashi evenly. "Tell me Kakashi, what have you taught Naruto, you were his only teacher for a year were you not?"

Obviously knowing he was in the wrong, Kakashi began trying to excuse himself. "I had planned to teach Naruto Elemental manipulation when he returned, Jiraiya and I-"

"I don't care about Jiraiya or your plans, you were Naruto's teacher for one year, in that time what did you teach him?"

"I spent a lot of time on teamwork and tactics because Team Seven, especially Sasuke and Naruto, tended to clash rather than mesh." Kakashi paused but Tsunade merely stared at him. "In terms of techniques I taught Naruto how to use his Chakra to adhere to surfaces."

After a few moments when Kakashi didn't say anything else Tsunade sighed and dropped her hands. "I see. Was this your own negligence or were you pressured into it?"

After a while when Kakashi didn't answer Tsunade slammed her hand down on her desk, surprising him. "Answer me Kakashi!"

He sighed wearily. "The Third ordered that Naruto be kept behind the rest of his team, in terms of personal teaching. I don't know why, I hope he wanted for Naruto to become independent as a Ninja but I can't see how this would've helped."

Tsunade rubbed her forehead. "Great, just great. I warn you now, if you're lying... Ugh. Well you mentioned planning to teach Naruto Elemental manipulation. Better late than never I guess. Well it's up to Naruto as to whether or not you get that privilidge."

"Excuse me, Lady Tsunade, what do you mean?"

"I mean, Kakashi, you cannot be trusted with his teaching anymore, nor could you ever have been it seems."

"But..."

"I don't care, Kakashi. You know what I would've done if I had been ordered to neglect one of my students? I would have ignored that order because it's wrong. I'm personally taking charge of Naruto's training, obviously I'll have to deligate but it seems I can't trust anyone else on this."

Kakashi deflated. "Yes, my Lady."

"Ugh, come here, you're obviously still exhausted, let me look at your eye." Kakashi moved forward and removed his headband, revealing his Sharingan.

Tsunade put her hand over it, glowing green. "Eugh, this thing really is bad for you. I think I've fixed any permanent damage but you should go to the hospital and rest for a few days."

"Of course, Thank you Lady Tsunade." She waved him off and he walked out of the office rather than disappearing as he usually did.

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Naruto didn't know much about the Yamanaka clan, all he did know was knowledge about Yamanaka Ino which was transferable such as their specialisation in mind techniques or their blond hair. As such, he found himself in front of the Yamanaka flower shop.

Naruto didn't know about Ino's mother, but he knew that Inoichi was a Ninja and that he practiced the Yamanaka family techniques, so he figured he would either have to talk to Ino or her father. He could try and find another member of the family through them but they would want to know why he did and so would probably find out anyway, making it useless to bother.

Naruto didn't know Ino very well but he knew she was Sakura's friend, even if they didn't admit it. He didn't fancy the idea of Sakura finding out as he knew she would ask all sorts of questions, not to mention the fact that he had made a big promise to Sakura, one she had virtually made him make, and he had been avoiding thinking about that since he had left the Fire Shadow Tower.

As such he was leaning towards talking with Yamanaka Inoichi, though that would be dependent upon what the man thought of him.

When he entered the shop a little bell above the door rang and a rather bored looking blond man looked up from his seat behind the counter. He had obviously been roped into being there and did not appreciate it.

The blond man looked up when he heard the bell, Naruto scrutinised his face to judge his reaction. He didn't seem bothered that Naruto had walked into his shop, but his eyes did flicker to Naruto's stomach. Naruto knew that didn't mean the man had any bad feelings toward him but he still felt uncomfortable suddenly around him. As such the decision was made to look for Ino instead.

"Hello, can I help you?"

Naruto fidgeted nervously. "Ah yeah, is Ino around?"

The man looked at Naruto warily. "What do you need to see her for?"

Feeling even more uneasy Naruto really didn't want to discuss it with the man. "Ah, it's private, is she around?"

Inoichi's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I'm sure you can tell me."

"I'm sure it can't be that private, don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

Naruto figured Inoichi had somehow come to the conclusion that he was looking to ask Ino out, he had seen the protective look before but at the same time he also thought the man might be trying to protect Ino from him because of who he was. Having already been stressed out Naruto snapped far more easily than usual. "Fine! I want to talk to her because your clan is supposed to be good with psychology and I need some help, I decided not to talk to you because the first thing you did when I walked in was look at my stomach and I'm sick of it, I think by now I deserve more than that!" Naruto huffed at the end of his rant. "Do you know where Ino is?"

Inoichi showed his experience as a Ninja, he didn't even blink at Naruto's outburst. "Id be happy to help you, but you're right. I'll go find Ino, I think she's in her room." He left before Naruto could thank him or apologise.

Naruto calmed quickly and berated himself for taking his stress out on what amounted to a total stranger.

A few moments later Ino came bounding out the same door he left from. "Oh hey Naruto, what's up? Daddy said you wanted to see me?"

Inoichi came out a few moments later. "Ah yeah, do you have a few minutes?"

Now confused Ino answered. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Um, I'd rather tell you in private." Ino looked questioningly at her dad who just nodded at her. "Okay, sure. Come up to my room."

Naruto followed as she lead. On his way past Ino he said. "Sorry about that."

The blond man nodded. "I understand."

When they got to Ino's rooms she sat on her bed and Naruto took a chair. "Okay so, what did you want to talk about?"

Naruto fidgeted for a moment. "You can't tell anyone about this, okay?"

"Okay." Ino replied slowly. Suddenly feeling that this was more serious than she had thought, she had assumed Naruto wanted help wooing Sakura or something.

"It's just, Tsunade said I should talk to a Yamanaka and you're the only one I know so... I hope you don't mind."

Ino shook her head. "I don't mind... What's going on, you sound really serious, you never sound serious."

Naruto chuckled. "Hah, yeah I guess. It's just..." Naruto paused, unsure of how to begin. "I found something wrong with my memory, my clones could remember something which I couldn't. Anyway, a clone had a look and found some seals on my head hidden as moles."

Ino's eyes widened when she realised the implications. "Yeah, I know. So I asked Granny and she uh, what did she call it, she isolated them, so they don't work anymore but there was another one, a compunction seal which made it so I couldn't go back on a promise, no matter what."

Ino's wide eye look slowly melted into confusion. "Promises, but you shouldn't break promises anyway, why put a seal like that on someone?"

"Yeah, you'd think but when you're a little orphan with nobody and a nice old man asks you to promise to protect the village and all this other stuff, you say it, no questions asked. You don't know what you're doing but you're stuck with it for the rest of your life."

"What?! You don't mean, the Third did..." Naruto nodded. "Oh my god!" Her hands rose to her mouth as if to protect her from the horror. "Why would he do that?"

Naruto looked at her for a moment. "If I do this." He pointed at his stomach. "What does that mean to you?"

Ino looked at him confused. "Your stomach? What the hell, Naruto?"

Naruto raked his hand through his hair and sighed. "I guess you would've found out anyway. I only found out when we graduated. I'm like Gaara, I've got one of the Tailed Beasts sealed inside me."

"Oh my god!" Ino paused. "Which one?!"

Naruto looked at her incredulously. "Oh right, duh. So they wanted to make sure you were loyal, but why wouldn't you be?"

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, There were a lot of memory seals and I only know what one of them did, It made me forget anything bad about the Third, my guess is a lot of the others were to erase some traumatic event or another, people don't exactly like me in this village you know." Ino nodded wordlessly, recalling with shame how she had treated Naruto in their few brief meetings at the Academy. "I don't really mind that, it's probably for the best and it's over now but I don't know how much of my life I've forgotten, how many of the people I've looked up to aren't who I think they are, I feel like so much of my life is a lie, you know?" Ino nodded.

Naruto noticed Ino seemed at a loss as to what to say or do, though she obviously felt bad for his situation, maybe he should have talked to Inoichi, he was without a doubt more experienced than Ino, and thus more likely to be helpful, but too late now. "Anyway, Granny told me to come talk to a Yamanaka. You're the only one I know so... well, I don't even know why she told me to come talk to you, do you?"

Ino took a moment to compose herself, it was a lot of information and she was still reeling but she had been taught to distance herself in a professional situation so she put her thoughts to the back of her mind and thought about Naruto's situation. "I guess she wanted to make sure you're okay, I'm sure it's hard and you must feel like your world's turned upside down, so you need to work through it. I can give you some advice and be someone to talk to but that's the best I can do really, there's no mind technique for this sort of thing."

Naruto nodded. "Okay, so what's your advice?"

"Okay well, firstly think about all the promises you've made and make a decision yourself on whether you want to keep them, if you were forced or tricked into making them, especially with a seal like that on you then it's not wrong to go back on it." Naruto nodded. "About the memories, seals like that require a very specific trigger, one which has to be present when they're applied, so anyone you're certain you've met since they were applied you can be sure you remember everything about them. Other than that you'll have to decide whether you want to dig into your past and face the cosnequences of whatever's there or whether you want to move on from here and live for the future. Personally I know I'd want to know, but it's almost certain there's nothing nice to be found, I don't think it would be worth it, honestly." Naruto nodded again, solemnly.

"Lastly, god I can't believe I'm gonna say this. You have to decide whether you want to stay loyal to the village. You never got the choice before like we all did when we became Ninja. From the sounds of it this village has deeply betrayed you, but I want you to know that I'm here for you, and I'm sure the rest of the rookies are too." Ino hesitated for a moment before shooting forward and embracing a surprised Naruto in a hug. "I'm so sorry, it's so unfair but it's over now." She hugged him for a few more moments before moving back awkwardly. "Sorry about that, it was totally unprofessional.

"That's okay, thanks Ino, I really appreciate it."

"That's okay Naruto, you can come talk to me any time you want, okay?"

Naruto decided he needed to do some serious thinking, but he also needed to do some training, he had a lot to catch up on, so he went to find an empty training ground and do both.