"You must understand, Naruto, that what you have told me is unsettling. The knowledge you hold of the future is a burden you should not pass on to others without strict consideration," Hiruzen told him in a tired tone, closing his eyes in thought.
Naruto agreed easily. "Of course. I didn't even want to tell you, but I kinda need your help for most of what I want to alter," he responded seriously.
The older shinobi frowned at him without opening his eyes.
"If you change one thing than you are liable to change many more as an unintended result; we must discuss the merits and risks of whatever it is you have in mind before even beginning to implement the first alteration," he responded in the same tone.
"Aw, c'mon, Old man Hokage. How much could shift out of place by making a few friends earlier?" Naruto asked him with a frown.
Hiruzen turned toward the jinchūriki and finally opened his eyes with a raised eyebrow at the boy- no, this teenager, in mind and maturity if nothing else, he silently corrected, and said, "Who did you have in mind? I sensed something about the youngest Uchiha during your memories with Jiraiya-san, and a similar if different result from the red-haired child."
"Oh... well, Sasuke sooner or later. Probably sooner to try and keep him from becoming too introverted and focused on killing Itachi and getting revenge above all else," Naruto answered. "And Gaara definitely ranks up there. Even now he's probably fending off an assassination attempt in his home village! If I can befriend him as a child it might help contain how murderous he'd become later!"
Hiruzen shook his head slowly in sorrow at hearing such a situation awaited each boy in the times ahead. "Is that all?" He questioned.
Naruto shook his own head no.
"Friend-wise probably, but there's a lot of other stuff to get a handle on before it's too late, Old man Hokage. It might be possible to wrangle up Yakushi Kabuto and get a foothold into Orochimaru's network for starters." He responded, then with a nod of the head he added, "Maybe we could try and do something about Amegakure before Nagato becomes completely lost inside of his grief and Pain-persona - I do not want to fight his Six Paths or the Rinnegan again! He could have helped out in so many ways if he had lived, and I know he has it in him to perform good again!"
While jinchūriki and Hokage spoke nearby, an unwelcome pair of ears listened in from below. The wood beneath the sash of the window captured every word and detail intimately, as it had been so since Tenzō was enfolded into the ANBU - and the hidden Root immediately thereafter - three years prior.
In part, the Mokuton-endowed nin's nature was to be sure that the Hokage would always have a ready-guard prepared to react and as a warning in place should an attempt to kidnap or even kill him occur, or a henge-user try to replace him at some point in order to deceive Konoha and the Council. But in truth, his primary reason for the deception was to record down anything that might help the Root secure the future of Konoha. Any mission that might be seen as too awkward to be carried out upon the Hokage's orders, either in public or in private, whether the Sandaime chose to present the details to Danzō-sama or not, would be dealt with at the discretion of the hidden Root in secret, and often at certain lengths and a healthy time-dilation to be sure the Hokage or those who had brought the information forth in the first place would never grew suspicious as their goals were fulfilled and enemies neutralized.
The information that Tenzō overheard that afternoon both alarmed him and, he was certain, would need to be relayed to the elder figure at the earliest opportunity.
"Enough, enough. Yes, Naruto, your ambitions are fair and just! But we can not just set about altering every little thing that you would like to see done." Hiruzen argued after hearing the rest of Naruto's plans for the weeks ahead.
His eyes narrowed to thin slits and his frown sharpened unconsciously. "Why not?" He questioned in annoyance.
"To begin with? You yourself said this may not even be the same dimension you were born in, and though much of what you declared of the future aligns with what I would likely had done in the the same situations, I can affirm that there are discrepancies here and there regarding your information that point to the odds of even more differences in this world. We can not guarantee that events have fully transpired the same in this past or will stay along similar routes in the future if you continually poke at them!" Hiruzen answered in slowly rising annoyance as well, if disappointment.
Naruto hmphed to himself in frustration and pushed up to his feet, feeling uncharitably irritated. This was not going the way he had thought - foolishly hoped, even - that it would have, which was why he had not initially wanted to alert the Sandaime to his presence. The desire to speak with the old man well and alive again had been too strong to ignore, however, and now it seemed that he should have tried harder to do just that anyway and kept at things on his own.
"Fine. Have it your way! But I'm not just going to sit here on my haunches all day long and wait around for the Akatsuki to get a move on picking us all off at their leisure!" With that said he pushed to his feet and headed for the open window's ledge.
"Where are you going?" The Hokage demanded as he strode forward as well, again preparing to stop Naruto if need be.
"Training!" Naruto snapped over one shoulder as he rolled out the window toward the ground below.
He hit with a low thud and rolled through it, popping back to his feet with a slight slouch of disorientation from the size difference between his older body and the younger one - just one of the things he would need to adjust to before he started gallivanting out of the village.
After a moment Naruto shook his head to clear it, then began jogging quickly off toward the old training grounds he had used for so long as a child the first time around.
The Hokage watched him go with a feeling of unease replacing his anger. You really should have handled that better, Hiruzen, he thought slowly, turning in the direction of the door as someone stepped in without knocking.
Stupid old man! Thunk. Stupid Madara Uchiha! Thunk. Stupid me! Thunk.
With every annoyed thought he threw an old and shoddily-cast kunai toward the mark on the tree down-range about thirty feet, nearly half an hour after departing the Hokage Tower. The slightly battered tools strayed off the path he was aiming for every time, but all he cared about at the moment was that they were at least staying in the crudely drawn chalk circle he had put there who-knows-how-long-ago.
Another few throws later and he had to go and fetch them again.
A hastily summoned Shadow Clone moped as it leisurely walked forward and tore the objects free with more force than needed, leaving rents in the surface of the wood deeper than the knives had originally penetrated.
"Come on, come on! Haven't got all day!" Naruto grumbled.
His duplicate heard from across the distance and made a face, responding in distaste, "Yeah, we kinda do!"
"Well what are we going to do about it?" Naruto shot back.
His Shadow Clone frowned in thought, stopping where he was.
Naruto eyeballed himself standing there, considering. "Don't bother. Kyūbi and I already went over the facts - mostly growls and threats on the fox's part - and old man Hokage's the only one we can confide in for the moment." He stated.
A low whistling sound pierced the air as a proper kunai thrown with practiced ease and surety sunk into his duplicates forehead and carried on into the tree behind, wedging itself deep enough for the tip to emerge from the back and leave a narrow fissure splintering off from the point of contact.
Naruto spun around to see a tall nin wearing a dog or fox-faced-plate and the usual black and gray clothing of an ANBU, worn armor scarred from odd scratches, striding easily around the underbrush some distance away.
"Huh?" He uttered in surprise; normally the ANBU tasked to keeping watch on him avoided such a blatant approach, and to see one just boldly step out of the shadows put him slightly on guard after the better part of a day in thought. Mizuki's betrayal was suddenly bright and fresh in his mind.
"Sshh," the voice that emerged from beneath the mask was slightly hollowed due to the porcelain, but it was one that after a few moment's thought he recognized, drawing a curious frown across his face.
Naruto relaxed his guard momentarily as he stared at who he suspected to be Yamato beneath that mask. Did the Hokage change his mind, after-all? He wondered. I doubt a Jōnin would just show themselves so easily otherwise, and perhaps he chose one I would trust, outside of Kakashi-sensei.
Still, he hesitantly asked, "Yamato-taicho?"
The other shinobi did not show any signs of recognizing that name. He simply carried onward and only slowed after the distance had been cut down to several feet of open space. Naruto watched him uncertainly. Turning and walking around to observe the boy, the face-plate tilted to the side as if in silent curiosity, and after doing two full rounds the presumed-man stopped slightly behind the jinchūriki's back.
That same flicker of uncertainty held for an instant - just one overly-long moment - before he felt it strengthen immediately into unease, and that further into doubt.
This isn't right!
Shunshining away and turning around to face the ANBU, his eyes honed in on the flashing hand-seals being performed in that time and was instantly put on guard again. "I don't know if you are who I think you are," he began, molding chakra and raising a handful of tentative clones with the practically-ancient hand-seals for them, and then the world seemed to shudder beneath all of their feet and whether he was on guard or not no longer mattered.
The ANBU's own final hand-seal had come and gone during his short-lived warning, and the chakra already sent into the field only minutes ago, shortly before emerging, was manifested into Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide. A yawning fissure divided the land from underneath Naruto and his clones before they could even react, delivering the lot of them into the underlying Wood Release: Four-Pillar Prison Technique.
Naruto's eyes widened as he fell into the open cage and was instantly crushed against the miniscule bars at the front of it. Tendrils and branches surged forward and upward to drive his body into an awkwardly arched position, splaying his fingers apart to prevent any further hand-seals, and nearly smothering him as his chest was compressed. He gagged on the branch that spread into his mouth and trapped his upper and lower jaw apart, shoving his tongue toward the back of his throat to keep him from crying out.
His clones were crushed into smoke again and those cages melded into his own, forming a dozen handholds all around it. "Nggh!" The panicked sound barely escaped from his mouth. He tried reaching for the Kyūbi's chakra, but a dense barrier seemed to have arisen between he and the tailed beast, and Naruto was suddenly, absolutely certain, that the man ahead of him was indeed Yamato. No one else was capable of such Mokuton creations, or suppressing a bijū.
Breath! He thought desperately, struggling to inhale enough air through his nostrils. He could barely keep his thoughts from spiraling out of control, but it came to him that the Hokage would not have sent Yamato to bind him in such a manner. His fears bespoke of another man that might very well seek out a future-sent jinchūriki - Danzō himself. He couldn't have - it shouldn't be possible - he began to hyperventilate.
The ANBU rose from his momentarily-kneeling posture and strode forward calmly. Unlike Naruto, his mind was clear and focused on his duties to the village - and the hidden Root. If the Hokage would not mine the information from the future, even if partially inaccurate, than it would be utilized as such information had been for years now, to benefit Konoha from out of the shadows. Lifting the light-yet-firm prison and its query into the air and then settling it over the shoulders, Yamato kicked off from the dirt a short distance before turning back and closing the divided land once more. With that done, he rushed back into the forest around them.
If his attention had not been focused singularly upon Naruto and covering his own tracks, however, he may well have taken note of the other boy within the area, who was only just approaching that particular training field when the ANBU had struck.
The youngest Uchiha stared after them for a very long time.
The Hokage looked at the unexpected and, more so, bold intruder to his office.
"Kakashi-san? What can I do for you at this moment?" He questioned mildly.
Hakate Kakashi sniffed at the air in curiosity before blanching. "What died in here?" The Jōnin wondered aloud, momentarily distracted from answering.
Hiruzen let out a grim laugh. "A slight accident with Naruto. I'll have it dealt with later- come over here if you wish to discuss something, the smell is kept at bay through the wind drifting inward." He responded.
Kakashi nodded his head and stepped forward quickly. "I wish to take-over the Uchiha survivor's education and well-being," he stated firmly in answer to the Sandaime's question.
Hiruzen quickly riffled through any action the Copy Ninja had displayed over the last few weeks that might have forewarned of this action, and then further back still. Unfortunately, he couldn't recognize a single instance leading up to this moment.
"What brought this about?" He asked, giving Kakashi his full attention.
"As the sole other Konohan-shinobi capable of the Sharingan, to begin with, I can teach him to bring it out sooner and gain dominance of the power in a safe manner. Relatively speaking." He answered.
"'Relatively speaking'?" Hiruzen quoted dryly, and Kakashi nodded his head.
"Of course. He is a ninja-to-be, after-all, and there will be danger involved for him; but hardly as much as he would have to endure on his own, and I can guide him and train him in preparation for the difficulties laying ahead of him as the last Uchiha," the Copy Ninja responded. "He remains in just as much danger as the Hyūga-heiress of being kidnapped by another village, and frankly, I'm amazed no one has dared to try - not even Kumo." When the Hokage made no motion to speak, he added, "But aside from that, I suspect that without a proper force in his life to guide him and teach him, the chances of him safely making it to even Chūnin level fall's with every passing month."
Hiruzen remained silent for such a length of time after that that Kakashi began to wonder if the Hokage had taken ill, but at last he sighed. "Very well. If he will agree, you may take Sasuke Uchiha on as your unofficial pupil." He stated wearily.
"I could easily- wait, what?" Kakashi began and paused in mid-protest. "You're agreeing?" He asked, not quite able to accept that things had been accomplished so easily.
Hiruzen gave him a low scowl. "Yes, you have my permission to take the last Uchiha under your wing, Hatake!" He answered shortly.
Kakashi frowned beneath his mask. "I didn't expect it to be that easy after such a length of silence," he responded honestly.
Hiruzen's face didn't change. "Drudge up the required paperwork after you have his agreement and I'll sign the waiver." The Hokage warned in an ominous tone that unsettled the Jōnin, "You will be responsible for Sasuke Uchiha's survival from that point forward!"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," he answered respectfully at last. Turning and retreating back through the door he began working his way toward the Uchiha compound as a starting point to search out the child.
Hiruzen grimaced once the Jōnin was gone.
"Look at what you've already begun in the wake of your arrival, Naruto. The only reason I even agreed to this is to try and maintain what loyalty, what few ties to Konoha that I can for the boy!" He exhaled warily, not liking what was to come for the youngest of the three remaining Uchiha-line at all if history stayed true to its path. "Better to interfere now and hope to guide the sails of change reluctantly rather than not at all."
Look what you've managed to wrap us up into now, boy! A vicious snarl echoed across the walls of the sewer.
Naruto grimaced at the fox. "How was I supposed to know he'd do that? Yamato never showed any signs of this in the future, even if he did threaten to use force as an instrument of training." He responded defensively.
Really? The Kyūbi demanded in a tone that if it weren't the fox, Naruto might have taken as sarcasm rather than a biting rhetoric. I thought you were supposed to be smarter after eight years; but of course not. Your attention has wavered ever since the moment you left that office! It growled at him.
Naruto growled right back at it. "I can get us out of this if you'd let me return to my body!"
The Kyūbi's eyes flared and the full brunt of his killing intent stabbed at Naruto sharply. Do not presume to argue with me, child! You think I desire to speak with you? The damage you were invoking in an effort to break free would have destroyed us if I allowed it to go onward! The fox roared.
Naruto picked himself up off the floor about five seconds after being blown over by the rush of chakra-suffused wind, grimy water dripping off of his hair and clothing.
Do not fight the cage. Have you forgotten the control over my fellow bijuu that the line of Senju possesses? That cursed blood and nature is imbued within our captor, and you will not escape as you are- so invoke your precious Sage Mode if you want a way to weaken the bindings and slip free! The Kyūbi growled at him.
Naruto stared at it almost blankly for several seconds before smacking himself in the forehead for not thinking of that sooner.
But he noticed a flaw in that plan. "He's gonna freak out and really draw on the suppression techniques if I do that." He argued.
Kyūbi's tails flicked back and forth in rapid agitation before he settled down onto his front paws again, looking away from Naruto. Do as you will, if you do not kill us first, it stated, and with that dismissal Naruto found his form drifting back and away from the cage of steel and rising toward consciousness again, to return to his own cage of wood.
End Chapter Two.