“I give you, your savior!” Sarutobi said, holding the baby out in front of him. Inside, he was smiling. He had just proclaimed Uzumaki Naruto as the jailor of Kyuubi, protector of Konoha, as appointed by the now dead fourth Hokage. Now the village would see Naruto as the hero he was, for without him, it would have been impossible to save Konoha. The Yondaime had needed a newborn baby, and only this one had been born today. Without Naruto, Konoha wouldn’t exist any longer. Sarutobi prepared to allow Naruto to bask in the cheers of the public.

What he got was very different. A villager muttered, “So that’s the Kyuubi?”

Another one spoke up. “So it’s not dead!”

A third villager yelled, “Kill it while it’s weak!” And before any of the ninja could react, the crowd became an angry mob.

Sarutobi clutched Naruto closer to him, protecting him from the villagers grasping hands. His mind was reeling in shock. He had never expected this to happen! The villagers were turning on their savior, and would kill him if given the chance. Sarutobi tried to reason with them. “He is not the Kyuubi!” But the mob wasn’t listening, and was trying to kill the boy. Sarutobi didn’t want to give this call, it would terrify the villagers, but he had no choice. “ANBU! Crowd Control!”

In a flash, the ANBU, Konoha’s elite black ops squadron, moved in to halt the crowd. Some chuunin were helping, and the Jounin were pushing back a good portion of the crowd. A gennin team was trying to assist as well. There was a boy with brown haired one with a scar over his nose, a young female with red eyes, and a male with shoulder-length silver hair.

Unfortunately, the later of the three gennin was either siding with the villagers or was over enthusiastic. He took up a place in front of the Hokage, where the rabble was thickest, and began beating them off. But one of his flailing arms knocked the baby out of Sarutobi’s arms, and right into the middle of the mob. Sarutobi might have imagined it, but he swore he saw a sadistic smirk on the gennin’s face.

“Mizuki, you clumsy oaf!” The gennin’s Jounin sensei yelled. “Iruka, catch him!” The other boy gennin on the team dived for the baby, but was knocked away by the crowd. As Sarutobi and almost all the ninja in attendance watched in shocked horror, the baby was caught by someone in the middle of the mob.

But the person who caught him wasn’t a villager. In fact, he wasn’t even a normal shinobi. Once the villagers realized who caught him, they all shied away from the man they recognized on sight. For with his milky white eyes and cold, regal features, it was impossible to not recognize Hyuuga Hiashi.

One of the braver villagers edged up to the Hyuuga clan head. “Good catch, sir. Now we give you the pleasure of finishing of the demon yourself!” But he backed away at the cold glare Hiashi was sending at him.

“If I heard Hokage-san correctly, this infant only contains the Kyuubi. It is not the fox itself.” Hiashi said in cold monotone. Everything about that man was cold. “It would be foolish to kill him. That could release the fox.” At that, the villagers blanched in fright. Hiashi walked up towards the pavilion the Hokage was standing on. “Hokage-san, I wish to speak with you in private.”

The Hokage agreed instantly. He and Hiashi had always gotten along well, if he could tolerate the ‘Hokage-san’ instead of the traditional ‘Hokage-sama’. But Sarutobi had no idea what Hiashi was going to ask.

Once they were alone in his office with Naruto, his question was instantly answered. “Hokage-san, I wish to adopt Naruto into the Hyuuga clan. He will not be safe by himself. The common rabble outside will forget the fright I just placed in them, and be screaming for his blood this time tomorrow. Plus, he is young enough to undergo the ritual of adoption and attunement, so he will gain our bloodline limit.”

Sarutobi rocked back in his chair, attempting to hide the great shock he had just been given. Not only was Hiashi, the coldest and most reclusive clan head anywhere, suggesting that he adopt Naruto, but he was also suggesting that the boy undergo the ritual of adoption and attunement! That ritual was how clans were originally formed!

In the beginning, only one person had the bloodline of a specific clan. One person originally held the Byakugan, and another held the Inuzaka dog gift, and another had bugs living under their skin, and so on and so forth. Then one particularly gifted shinobi had come up with the jutsu that was now known as the ritual of adoption and attunement. It involved minor blood transfusions, then a complicated technique which had the small amount of blood pass on it’s unique characteristics to the rest of the blood. That was how the modern day clans were formed. Well, all except the Uchiha. They had evolved from the Hyuuga, and had been forced to make their clan without the ritual. Sarutobi wasn’t clear on the specifics, but he knew that the first Uchiha head was known for his five wives and all of them were usually walking around with big smiles on their faces.

All in all, Hiashi’s offer was extremely good. Naruto would be a member of the most prestigious clan of Konoha, and brought up to be an extremely good shinobi. Then a worry crossed the Hokage’s mind. “Which house would he be in?”

Instantly, Hiashi grasped the Hokage’s concerns. “Main house.”

That fixed one worry. “And are your elders in accordance with your plan?” Like all clans, the Hyuuga had a council of elders that gave advice and held as much power as the clan head. But unlike most of the other clans, the Hyuuga elders were much more willing to use their power.

“By the time they figure it out, it will be too late.” Hiashi said, with something that bordered on an emotion coming into his voice. Sarutobi shook his head to clear it. He had to have imagined that. Hiashi couldn’t possibly sound satisfied!

Sarutobi grinned, all of his worries dispelled. “Well, then, I see-” he began, but was interrupted by his secretary entering the room.

“Hokage-sama!” she spoke out rapidly. “This- This has never happened before! It’s impossible for them all to be here! It’s impossible!”

Sarutobi made a soothing gesture. “Calm down, Mihale-chan. Who’s here?”

“All of other twelve clan heads!” she stammered out. Sarutobi inhaled deeply. The only other time all of the thirteen clan heads had gathered, war had been about to break out.

“Send them in. Immediately!” Sarutobi snapped. Mihale nodded, then exited the room.

The doors opened wide, and twelve people walked in. There was the pink-haired, emerald eyed Haruno Kosumo, leader of the Haruno. Next was the dark haired and brooding Uchiha Fuguku, lord of the Uchiha clan. The third head to enter was wearing dark glasses, and had a high collar. That signified him as Aburame Shibi, leader of the bug wielders. After him was the red-eyed man, Yuuhi Iriai, leader of the clan full of Konoha’s foremost genjutsu specialists. The intimidating woman known as Inuzaka Nidaho followed him, and she was followed by her large dog.

Coming after the dog was Sarutobi’s own brother, Sarutobi Goitro, who had taken over for Sarutobi as leader of his clan. Then came Yamanaka Inoichi, Nara Shikaku, and Akamichi Chouza, leaders of their clans, and the best of friends. Then came the leaders of the three lesser known clans. There was Tenoshi, leader of the Shinkotama clan that was famous for their weapon skills. Then there was Mitarashi Torahi, who’s clan was the only one that held any bonds with the mythical dragons anymore. Finally, the youngest of the group, was Hatake Kakashi, the new (as his father had died a few years ago) leader of the Hatake, Konoha’s premier assassins.

As was customary, they all waited a minute for the fourteenth clan head, the leader of the Uzumaki clan. But all, save one family, of the Uzumaki had been destroyed years ago. And that family had always had one boy born to them. It was as if they were all unable to have female children, or more then one. So the Uzumaki clan had been slowly dieing for years. But they had been the most powerful clan. They had been masters of sealing jutsus, and almost all of their clan jutsus had had to do with Spirals, Sealing or Summoning. The Uzumaki had been so powerful that even now, with the last remaining member being a baby already in the room, the thirteen heads waited for a moment just to make sure that one wouldn’t be arriving. After it was clear that no Uzumaki was coming, all of the clan heads turned to the Hokage.

Fuguku stepped forward, so he was slightly ahead of the others. “Hokage-sama, it has come to our attention that Hiashi-san is planning on adopting the young Uzumaki into the Hyuuga clan. He waited for the Hokage’s answering nod. “Well, I believe that would be a problem. You see, we all desire the same thing. Naruto would be a great benefit to the Uchiha clan.”

Haruno Kosumo looked at the Uchiha in disgust. “We all wish to adopt Naruto-kun, but some of us just want to see him raised like a boy, not a tool or a ‘benefit.’”

Fuguku snorted. “Regardless of our motives, we each wish to adopt him. And that presents a problem.”

“I believe the Hyuugas have precedence, as I have saved this child from certain death.” Hiashi stated. At that, all of the clan heads began arguing furiously.

The Hokage was now gaping in shock. All thirteen of Konoha’s most prominent clans were arguing over who would raise the boy! They all wanted it badly, from Hyuuga Hiashi, the leader of the most prominent clan, to Shinkotama Tenoshi, whose clan had been under ridicule for not having many special abilities that would be labeled as bloodlines. All thirteen of them wanted this! A devious idea was forming in Sarutobi’s mind. It would be excellent for Naruto, good for Konoha, and get these annoying leaders out of his office so he could get to work!

He slammed his hand on the desk, silencing the clan heads effectively. “All thirteen of you want the same thing, correct?” Without hesitation, all thirteen people nodded. “Then I believe this falls under the Rule of the Nidaime.” All the clan heads gaped at him.

Back in the Nidaime’s reign, the clans had frequently desired the same thing, whether it be territory, abilities, or techniques. That often led to outright fighting in the streets, and severely weakened. So he had declared that if all of the clans wanted the same thing, they would be forced to share it, no matter what it was.

Kakashi stepped forward. “Are you actually suggesting that we share this boy?” The Hokage nodded. Kakashi thought for a moment. “That would actually make a great deal of sense. Naruto would get the powers and abilities of the fourteen most powerful clans in Konoha, which would make him one of the most powerful ninja around. Also, he would be extremely loyal to the village, as loyalty here is one of the traits all of us share. Finally, it would cut this discussion short. I agree to your idea, Hokage-sama.”

All of the other clan heads were shocked. The youngest among them, who was only there because there was no one else among his clan to represent them, had provided a very accurate summation of all of the good parts of the Hokage’s plan. It really had no drawbacks that they could think of. Now the only thing standing in their way was the pride of twelve clan heads.

Goitro, the Hokage’s brother, nodded his head. “I agree with Hatake-san. I will agree to this.” Slowly, all of the clan heads began nodding their agreement, until only two were left: Hiashi and Fuguku.

The two were engaged in a stare down. It was no secret that the two clans detested each other, and hated giving concessions to each other. Then, at the same time, both nodded, giving their consent simultaneously. Sarutobi smiled. “OK then. Meet me and Naruto downstairs in the alter room.” All buildings had an alter to Kami in it, so that they might all pay tribute to him. It was also where adoption rituals took place. The Hokage rose, and carried the sleeping Naruto out of the office. A moment later, the clan heads followed him.

By the time they made it to the alter room, Sarutobi had already set up the ritual. The candles where in the correct places, the runes drawn, and thirteen small ritual daggers were placed around Naruto, who was lying in the center of the room. The baby had just woken up, and was looking around in confusion.

After a moment, the clan heads surrounded Naruto in a loose circle. They each picked up one of the daggers, and examined it. They were, of course, flawless. They were also designed to draw blood quickly, and cause a minimum of pain. Hiashi decided that if he couldn’t just adopt Naruto by himself, he could at least go first. He rolled up his sleeve, and, using the ceremonial dagger, slashed his palm.

Blood instantly welled up in the palm, and he clenched his hand to make it pool. Then Hiashi spoke the ritual words. “I, Hyuuga Hiashi, adopt Uzumaki Naruto into the clan of Hyuuga. May he be a proud member of the clan.” He then used the silver dagger to poke a small hole in Naruto’s shoulder, and dripped some of his blood in it. As soon as he was sure that some went in, he began the seals for the adoption and attunement jutsu. As soon as the last was done, he touched the index finger of his non-bleeding hand to Naruto’s shoulder, and cried “Setsozoku! (Join)” There was a flash of light, and Naruto changed. His blonde hair developed black streaks, and for a moment, the white of the Byakugan shone in his eyes before it turned back to his regular blue. “Welcome, Hyuuga Uzumaki Naruto.” Then Hiashi stepped back, his part complete.

Never one to be shown up by his rival for long, Fuguku stepped forward next, his palm already bleeding. “I, Uchiha Fuguku, adopt Hyuuga Uzumaki Naruto into the clan of Uchiha. May he be a proud member of the clan.” He dripped blood into the hole already in Naruto, then went into the handseals for the jutsu. Once he touched Naruto’s forehead, Naruto’s eyes, for a brief moment, turned the red of the Sharingan, then reverted back to blue. “Welcome, Hyuuga Uchiha Uzumaki Naruto.” Then he stepped back and joined Hiashi.

The other eleven clan heads began to do their part in the ritual. When Kosumo finished his part, Naruto’s hair turned pink, then back to it’s black/blonde hybrid. After Tenoshi finished his part, Naruto flexed his leg, easily putting it behind his head. He had become double jointed, like all Shinkotamas. Then Goitro performed the jutsu, and Naruto’s arms and legs lengthened a small amount. The Inuzaka matriarch was next, and her adoption jutsu didn’t do anything to Naruto physically. However, a small puppy was placed next to him, also just born. The puppy immediately nuzzled into Naruto.

Shikaku went up next, and after his jutsu, Naruto’s shadow moved a little. After Chouza’s jutsu, Naruto put on a little weight. After Inoichi performed his jutsu, Naruto’s face thinned slightly. The next one to perform his jutsu was Aburame Shibi, and it had the most surprising results. After he performed it, a couple of centipedes crawled into the hole as well. At the looks everyone was giving him, Shibi said, “I’m as surprised as you are. Ordinarily, it’s kikai and many more then that. But they won’t have any effects on Naruto, and you won’t even know that they’re there unless he needs them.” The heads continued to stare at him, but this time because no one ever really heard him speak before.

The Yuuhi clan head was the next to perform the jutsu, and afterwards, Naruto’s eyes turned a distinct shade of purple instead of his natural blue or the Yuuhi’s red. Torahi, of the Mitarashi, went up next. His jutsu caused a coiling dragon birthmark to appear around Naruto’s bicep. Finally, Kakashi went up with his hand bleeding.

“I, Hatake Kakashi, adopt Hyuuga Uchiha Haruno Shinkotama Sarutobi Inuzaka Nara Akamichi Yamanaka Aburame Yuuhi Mitarashi Uzumaki Naruto into the clan of the Hatake. May he be a proud member of the clan.” After the jutsu, a small streak of Naruto’s hair turned silver. “Welcome, Hyuuga Uchiha Haruno Shinkotama Sarutobi Inuzaka Nara Akamichi Yamanaka Aburame Yuuhi Mitarashi Hatake Uzumaki Naruto.”

The thirteen clan heads and the Hokage surveyed the changed baby. Before the ceremony, Naruto had been an average sized baby with blonde hair and blue eyes. Now his hair was blonde, but streaked with black and silver. He was already as big as some babies who were one year old, due to the combined gifts of the Sarutobi and the Akamichi. His eyes were a dark shade of purple, and his face had a somewhat more aristocratic build. He had a dragon shaped birthmark around his right bicep, and he was now double jointed. Naruto was a very changed baby.

Hiashi turned to the others. “We shall now swear pact. We shall protect this boy from all who threaten him, and each raise him in a matter befitting our clans.” Everyone nodded, even Fuguku (though he did it grudgingly).

Kakashi walked over to the new baby that was his new adopted son. “He’s a tough one.” He said with a chuckle.

All of the other clan heads exchanged glances. Once again, the youngest among them had pointed out something they had missed. Naruto had just gone through thirteen adoption and attunement ceremonies. One ceremony made a baby scream in pain. But Naruto was unique.

Throughout the thirteen ceremonies, he had not cried once.

Five Years Later

“Hi, Hiashi-tou-san!” Naruto cried. Hiashi winced at the volume, something far above what most toddlers could achieve. Of course, Naruto was definitely not average. “What’re we doing today, Hiashi-tou-san?” As Naruto stared at him expectantly, the normally cold Hyuuga head couldn’t help but chuckle.

He had started doing that a lot since he met Naruto. As a baby, the boy was always grabbing everything he could, which led to embarrassing situations with the current maid at the Hyuuga compound. He also had been extremely convenient, as he and his constant wailing had gotten Hiashi out of countless meetings with branch house members, the council, and occasionally the Hokage.

Hiashi would have liked nothing better then to raise Naruto himself, but unfortunately, the other heads wouldn’t allow it. Naruto was part of their clans as well, and any one clan that raised him would be being unfair to the others. Not that any of them wouldn’t have done it if they could have gotten away with it.

So with all of the clans dickering over who would raise him, the Hokage had been forced to step in and appoint a neutral guardian to look over Naruto. ‘Picked a pretty good one as well.’ Hiashi thought, as he looked up from Naruto to the scarred visage of Naruto’s caretaker, Morino Ibiki.

The Morino had once been a great clan too, being Konoha’s premier interrogators and psychology analysts. But they had all been involved in an inter-clan war between the Morino and the Gekkou. Both clans had killed each other off until only one member was left on each side, and they were only alive because they had been best friends. Those two were Ibiki and Gekkou Hyate.

“Naruto-kun, please go play with Hinata while we talk for a moment.” Hiashi said. Naruto nodded, waved goodbye to ‘Ibiki-nee-san’, and went off to great his foster sister. Hiashi turned to Ibiki. “How has he been?”

“It’s been relatively uneventful, except for another two assassination attempts. Thanks again for the bodyguard. Hizashi is most helpful.” Ibiki said. Hiashi nodded his acknowledgment, and motioned for Ibiki to continue. “Naruto has also begun to,” Ibiki looked from side to side, to make sure no one was within hearing range. “manifest.”

Hiashi started in shock. When a child began to manifest, they were starting to show bloodline traits. “Which ones?” He asked urgently.

“Well, he was talking with a centipede the other day, which scared the crap out of me for a minute.” Ibiki said, shivering. It was a little known fact in Konoha that their premier interrogator was terrified of bugs. “He started yelling in pain once, and veins were throbbing around his eyes. Oh, and sometimes he starts talking with someone that isn’t their.”

Shock was concealed behind Hiashi’s cold face. ‘He’s manifesting the Byakugan, the Aburame Bug Contract, and the Haruno Inner Persona, all at the same time! Naruto has a lot of raw talent. I wasn’t able to access the Byakugan until I was eight, and he’s doing it at five!’ “Ibiki-san, you will be seeing less of Naruto in the next little while. He needs immediate training with us, the Haruno, and the Aburame.” Ibiki nodded in understanding. “Right now, Hokage-san will want to be informed of this, so I’ll take Naruto and his contingent to the tower straight away.” Ibiki nodded once again, then spun around and headed off in the direction of the prison.

Hiashi looked at the small knot of people that Ibiki left behind. There was one from every clan Naruto was a member of, including his own brother Hizashi. They were Naruto’s bodyguard. Ever since the day the villagers had discovered he held the kyuubi with in him, Naruto’s life had been put in constant danger. First, a maid had tried to kill the boy when he went to recover from the adoption ceremony. Then, a week later, a gennin decided that it would kill the demon. The attempts continuously escalated, until the villagers had started pooling their money to hire foreign ninja to assassinate him.

After the first Jounin from Suna had tried to kill him, and would have succeeded if Ibiki hadn’t intervened, it had become necessary to appoint an actual bodyguard. They contained the best and brightest from the thirteen clans, all sworn not to let petty clan issues interfere with the protection of their charge. There were the old, like Chouza’s father, Akamichi Chodo, to the extremely young, like eight year old Uchiha Itachi. And together, the thirteen of them looked after Naruto like a bunch of doting old uncles (or cousins or brothers) that would kill anyone who raised a hand to him. Hiashi made a hand signal, and the group formed a loose perimeter on the rooftops around the park.

Hiashi walked over to the sandbox, where Naruto and his foster sister Hinata were making a sand castle. He got there just in time to hear Naruto say, “This is the biggest one we’ve ever made, Hinata-chan! Now we should add some windows!” Hiashi couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at Naruto’s exuberance. Naruto spun around and beamed at his (one of many) foster father. “Hi again, Hiashi-tou-san! What’re we doing today?”

Quickly, Hiashi slapped back on his cold façade. “Today, Naruto-kun, we’re going to the Hokage’s. Then, we’re going to be beginning you ninja training.”

“COOL!” Naruto yelled. Hiashi winced. Sometimes, if he hadn’t been there, he would have doubted that this was a member of the Hyuuga clan. Hyuuga were usually cold, tactful, and above all, quiet. Naruto was as warm as a sunny day, blunt as a club, and loud enough to break eardrums. Shaking his head, Hiashi motioned for Naruto and Hinata to follow him, and they began to walk to the Hokage tower.

Once they got there, Hiashi quickly explained the situation. The Hokage grinned. “Well, Naruto-kun, you show great potential to be shinobi. We’ll be starting your training soon. But before we do that, are you sure you want to be a shinobi? It’s a hard and dangerous life, with little reward.”

Naruto thought about it for a minute, a look of serious concentration looking very strange on his five year old face. “I don’t want to a ninja.” The Hokage looked down in disappointment. “I want to be the best ninja ever! I’m gonna kick everyone’s butts, so no one tries to hurt me anymore!”

Hiashi and Naruto looked stunned by the declaration, while Hinata only gave out a small smile. She might not know much of what the people were talking about, but she did know her brother. Any challenge that he was given was quickly laughed at, then beaten.

“I thought you might say that.” The Hokage said, then reached into a drawer in his desk and withdrew a scroll. “This is your new training schedule. Understandably, every single one of your families took it upon themselves to help you out.” He handed the scroll over, and Naruto hastily broke the seal and thanked Kami that Ibiki had taught him how to read. He scanned the contents, and felt his jaw dropping.

The Schedule Read:

5:00 AM- 6:00 AM: Taijutsu with Sarutobi Clan
6:00 AM- 7:00 AM: Stealth and Tracking with Hatake Clan
7:00 AM- 8:00 AM: Chakra Control with Hyuuga Clan
8:00 AM- 9:00 AM: Psychology with Yamanaka Clan
9:00 AM- 10:00 AM: Animal Training with Inuzaka Clan
10:00 AM- 11:00 AM: Nature Studies with Aburame Clan
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM: Genjutsu with Yuuhi Clan
12:00 PM- 1:00 PM: Lunch with Akamichi Clan
1:00 PM- 2:00 PM: Tutoring with Haruno Clan
2:00 PM- 3:00 PM: Strategy with Nara Clan
3:00 PM- 4:00 PM: Weapons with Shinkotama Clan
4:00 PM- 5:00 PM: Ninjutsu with Uchiha Clan
5:00 PM- 6:00 PM: Anatomy with the Mitarashi Clan

As Naruto read through his schedule, he began to feel tired just looking at the amount of work he would have to do. “Oji-san, when am I going to get to sleep? Or make friends, or have fun?” He asked.

“Naruto-kun, this training will make you by far the best Ninja ever. You’ll get to sleep after you’re done with it. Besides, you’ll be making friends while you train. Any clans that have children will be teaching them when they teach you. I understand that most of them have kids, except for the Sarutobi and the Hatake. And my son’s wife is expecting, so there will be a child there too, soon.” The Hokage answered. “As for having fun, I’d be surprised if you didn’t enjoy your training very much.” At this, Naruto’s smile returned full force.

“Naruto-kun, I suggest you go home now and rest up. You’ll be working very hard tomorrow. Take Hinata with you, and drop her off at the Hyuuga compound please.” Hiashi said. Naruto nodded, then ran out the door. Hiashi and Sarutobi waited for a minute until they heard his footsteps die down.

“Now, Hiashi-san, what is the thing you have to tell me that you don’t want Naruto and Hinata to hear?” the Hokage asked.

Hiashi let out a sigh. “There were two more assassination attempts on Naruto within the last twenty-four hours. I managed to get the specifics from Hizashi and Itachi on our way here. Yesterday, at lunch, someone attempted to slip a high-grade poison into Naruto’s ramen. It was unsuccessful for one reason: the Akamichi. They can tell whenever something has been done to food, and Choda managed to stop Naruto from eating in time.” The Hokage let out a sigh of relief.

“And the second one?”

“That one was more… direct. Late last night, a team of six Jounin from grass attacked Naruto’s house. Three were killed by the traps Ibiki set up, while the bodyguard took care of the other half.”

“I… see. How many attempts does this make?”

“According to last count, Seventy-Three.”

The Hokage let out a long sigh of his own. “I will draft a letter to the minor villages that we can intimidate stating that any attack on Naruto constitutes a declaration of War on Konoha. That will stop the minor villages, but if I send it to the major ones, they will just try to do it on their own and frame someone else.”

Hiashi nodded. “Thank you, Hokage-san. For right now, we of the thirteen clans will make sure that Naruto can defend himself.” After that serious statement, the Hyuuga head remembered something that he had been told to ask the Hokage, and his face turned bright red. “Um, Hokage-san, there is one other matter.”

The Hokage raised an eyebrow at the current coloring of Hiashi. “And what would that be?”

“You, knowing all of the jutsus in Konoha and being a master of them all, would know the answer to this question. The adoption and attunement jutsu, how closely does it relate the subject to the caster?” He asked. The Hokage just looked at him for a moment. “I mean, say, Naruto. I look after him like I would my son, but how closely related to me is he?”

“Why do you ask that? I’ve heard that any not closely related to the clan head get relegated to the branch house. Is that why you-”

“No, nothing like that! It’s just that… well, my wife wants to marry Naruto to one of my daughters. She said something along the lines of ‘good breeding stock’, and I’m worried that if he is related as closely to me as a son, that that would be… incestuous.” Hiashi stammered out.

The Hokage suppressed a chuckle. “Ok, Hiashi, I will put you worries to rest. What the adoption and attunement jutsu does is augments the subjects blood, chakra, and body to somewhat mimic that of the caster while still retaining his original traits. So, it just took Naruto’s Uzumaki blood and morphed it to be more like yours.” Seeing that Hiashi wasn’t comprehending, the Hokage decided to explain it mathematically, the one way all Hyuugas understood. “You do know fractions, right?” Hiashi nodded. “So let’s imagine Naruto in fractions. Let’s say he has, maybe one hundred parts, all originally Uzumaki.” Hiashi nodded again.

“What the adoption and attunement ritual does is change one, at most two, of those parts. So when you performed the ritual on Naruto, he became 98 percent Uzumaki and 2 percent Hyuuga. The same happened with the other rituals. So, Naruto is at least, 74 percent Uzumaki. He is as directly related to you, as maybe, your wife’s cousin’s mother’s aunt’s grandchild is. If he marries Hinata, or more likely Hanabi as he sees Hinata like a best friend, there would be nothing incestuous about it.” Sarutobi explained.

Hiashi let out another sigh, this one of relief. “Thank you, Hokage-san. You’ve been most helpful.” At that, he turned and exited the room.

The Hokage grinned at Hiashi’s back. ‘Good luck Hiashi, because you are the seventh clan head to ask me that.’

The next morning, Ibiki woke Naruto up at 4:30 in the morning. “Good morning, Naruto-kun. You have enough time to eat and get a shower before you head off to the Sarutobi compound.” Naruto nodded groggily, then crawled out of his little bed to get dressed.

At exactly Five O’clock, Naruto arrived at the Sarutobi compound. A big, muscular man in a training outfit met him at the door. “On time! Good!” he said.

“Goki-nee-san! So you’re training me today?”

“For the next hour. Oh, and before we start, I’m going to have to ask you to call me Goki-sensei. After we’re done, you can go back nee-san. Ok?” Goki asked. After Naruto nodded, Goki said “Then follow me to the dojo.”

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the Sarutobi dojo. “Naruto, what’s Taijutsu?” Goki asked.

“When you fight with your fists and feet!” Naruto exclaimed.

“So just punching someone in a street fight is Taijutsu?” he asked. When Naruto nodded, Goki shook his head. “Wrong.” When Naruto looked at him in confusion, he said “That, Naruto, we call brawling. Taijutsu is about fighting to win. Every move should be something that is out to disable if not kill your opponent. If it’s not aimed to at least disable, it should be there to build up for another move that should. Every punch, kick, or even headbutt, should be used to aim to win. Do you understand?” Naruto thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Ok, Naruto. There are countless styles of Taijutsu, and eventually you will be learning quite a few. But for now, we should just work on your overall fighting. Here, punch that bag.” He gestured to a punching bag hanging from the ceiling of the dojo. Naruto walked up to it, and got in a fighting stance. He punched the bag, then paused, then punched it again.

“Stop!” Goki commanded. “You leave too much of an opening between punches. Anyone with half a brain could find that hole!” So for the next hour, Goki tried to correct some of the major flaws with Naruto’s hand-to-hand fighting skills. Some were obvious, like his punching speed. But others were more subtle, like the fact that when he punched with his left hand, he usually hooked it.

At two minutes before six, Goki stopped him. “Naruto, next up, head to the Hatake compound. Kakashi himself will be teaching you stealth.” Naruto nodded.

“Hai, sensei!” he shouted, and took off as fast as his five-year old legs could carry him. Soon enough, he was undergoing stealth and tracking training. That pretty much entailed a giant game of hide and go seek, only when Naruto was found, he was given pointers on what he did wrong. After the hour-long session, Naruto was able to hide from Kakashi for almost three minutes before being caught.

Then it was off to the Hyuuga compound, where Hiashi briefed Naruto on what chakra was, and how to control it involving handseals. “Now, Naruto-kun, try to muster up your chakra.”

“Which seal should I use?” Naruto asked.

Hiashi thought about it for a moment. “For you, I’d recommend ram.”

Naruto nodded, then placed his hands in the Ram Seal and tried to call up his chakra. The result almost blew Hiashi away, as a bright blue aura manifested itself around Naruto and a wind blew out from him. It was one of the strongest manifestations he had ever seen! “Naruto! Stop!” he yelled over the wind. Naruto instantly let the seal go, then looked up at Hiashi.

“How did I do, Hiashi-sensei?” he asked. He had been told to call everyone sensei in training, no matter what their relation to him was outside of training.

“W-Well, Naruto-kun, it is clear that you have a lot of chakra.” Hiashi stammered out. Then he put his normal look back on and said, “So now, we focus on control. Try to focus all of your chakra onto your left hand.” Naruto complied, and the bright blue aura was confined to the space around his hand.

“Now force it out through your palm.” Hiashi commanded, and there was a stream of chakra flowing out of Naruto’s palm.

“Time for the control exercise. Take this leaf, and try to use chakra to make it hove two inches from your hand.” He put a leaf on Naruto’s hand, and Naruto began to expel chakra. The leaf rocketed up, finally stopping a good two feet in the air. Naruto frowned, and lessened his chakra output. The leaf lowered slightly. Naruto fiddled with it again, and it blasted up higher then before.

Hiashi went over to explain the exercise to Hinata, who was taking the lesson with them. She got it instantly, so Hiashi went back to watch Naruto struggle. At the end of the hour, Naruto had managed to get his output down to one foot worth of chakra. ‘This is going to take a while.’

After Chakra Control, Naruto was off to Psychology with Yamanaka Inoichi. As he got to the Yamanaka house, he was greeted at the door by his friend Ino. “Hi, Ino-nee- I mean Ino-chan!” He wasn’t sure why, but last month, a lot of his mothers had told him to think of their daughters as his friends, not his sisters. So he did, except for Hinata, whom he just couldn’t get the sister image out of his head with.

“Hi, Naruto-kun!” Ino shouted, waving enthusiastically. “Come on, daddy’s in the living room!” She pulled him by the hand to where Inoichi was waiting. They spent the next hour learning all about the human brain. Afterwards, with his own head spinning, Naruto went off to his next lesson with the Inuzakas.

There, he met his friend Kiba. He and Kiba always liked to play tag in the park, and playing pranks on some random villagers. He also saw Hana, Kiba’s older sister. She was three years older then Naruto was, but still hung around with him a lot. Hana was also training to be a veterinarian. “Hi, Kiba-nee-san, Hana-chan! Hey, Hana-chan, where is he? Is he okay?”

Hana smiled at Naruto’s impatience, not that any of the Inuzaka’s were anything else when it came to dealing with their dogs. “He’s fine, Naruto-kun. He just ate a little too much too fast, so he threw up. He should be out any minute.” As soon as she finished speaking, a small grey dog ran up to Naruto and began licking his face.

“Kouken! I missed you, buddy!” He yelled as he gave his dog a hug. His dog, Kouken, barked back at you. “What do you mean it’s my fault?!” Naruto shouted. “You’re the one who ate too fast!” After a short argument between boy and dog, Hana broke it up.

“Come on! We’ve go to go train!” she said. Instantly, Naruto and his dog stopped yelling at each other, and went inside the Inuzaka complex, where they were soon being lectured on Animal Training.

‘This sounds exactly like Inoichi-tou-san’s lesson, only with dogs!’ Naruto thought while he struggled to stay awake.

Afterwards, he and Kouken went to the Aburame’s home, where Shibi talked about bugs a lot, and how they worked with nature. Every bug had a place in the great cycle of life, from the termites who chewed through trees, to the mosquitoes who bit people and made them itch. Naruto shared this lesson with his friend Shino, who was just like a smaller version of his father.

Next, it was time for Genjutsu Training with the Yuuhi Clan. Naruto entered the area owned by the red-eyed people, and suddenly his vision disappeared. Naruto spent a couple minutes panicking, then just decided to sit down and do nothing, so he wouldn’t run into anything. As soon as he sat, his vision returned and he saw a red-eyed man with a young red-eyed girl standing in front of him.

“Hi Iriai-sensei, Kurenai-chan! Why couldn’t I see a minute ago?”

The man answered, “Because, Naruto-kun, you were just affected by a genjutsu. Genjutsu attack the senses, and make you believe in illusions.”

Naruto thought about that for a minute. “That wasn’t fun!”

“But it was the best way to demonstrate a genjutsu.” Iriai said. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve already had chakra control training today, right?” Naruto nodded. “Then it should be easy to work on dispelling genjutsu.”

For the next hour, Iriai told Naruto and Kurenai how to dispel genjutsu. There were two ways: temporarily cutting off your chakra flow, or emitting so much chakra that the genjutsu was forced off. At the end of the lesson, Kurenai was able to pull off the first method with no trouble, and Naruto could do the second quite easily.

Then it was time for the lesson Naruto had been looking forward to most of all. Lunch with the Akamichis. But while he was aloud to gorge himself, he also learned while he was eating. Chouza talked about how to determine what was in your food by how it tasted, and how the tongue remembered something if it tasted it just once. Also, Naruto finally got to ask a question he had been wanting to know the answer to for some time.

“Chouza-sensei, why aren’t I fa-, I mean big boned, like the rest of you? I eat just as much, but I don’t get any fatt- more big boned.”

“Well, Naruto-kun, on an Akamichi, the food gets converted to whatever it is you need. On most of us, it gets converted to fat so we can turn it into energy easily. But on you- I’d better show you. Naruto, punch this table.” Chouza commanded.

“Hai!” Naruto yelled, then punched the sturdy oak table they had been eating at. Surprisingly, it splintered.

“On you, Naruto-kun, the food gets changed into muscle, making you much stronger then you should be. Once you start weight training and learning how to use chakra to enhance your punches, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could level buildings with three fingers.”

“COOL!”

Then it was time for the lesson Naruto was dreading most: tutoring with the Harunos. As soon as Naruto greeted his friend Sakura, and they sat down to be lectured by her father, Naruto put his head down and was sound asleep.

He was awoken ten minutes later by an eraser hitting him on the head. “Naruto! What were we just discussing?” Kosumo asked in a tone of voice that said that he knew Naruto hadn’t been paying attention.

Naruto was about to take a wild guess when he heard a voice in his head. Konoha before the Shodaime! It whispered. Naruto shrugged, and repeated what the voice had just said. Kosumo looked at him in shock.

“How did you know that?! I know you were sound asleep!” Kosumo asked incredulously.

“I’m not really sure. Someone told me to say it, so I did. It seemed like a good idea.” At this, Kosumo shook his head.

‘I can’t believe he’s manifesting at this age!’ He thought. Then his inner voice chimed in, ‘But it sounds kick ass! He’s manifesting the Haruno power before most of the others! Take that, Uchiha!’ Kosumo started to explain the Haruno bloodline to Naruto.

“Well, Naruto-kun, that voice you heard was, well, lets call him your ‘Inner Naruto’. Every Haruno clan member develops an Inner Persona, which often yells things in your head that you don’t want to say out loud. It’s pretty annoying, but it’s actually pretty helpful. You see, your inner persona never sleeps, so it’s always watching your surroundings. It can hold information, so even if your outer persona forgets it, the inner one will remind it. That’s why practically all Harunos are excellent scholars. We never forget stuff. The Inner Persona also allows you to focus on two totally different things at the same time, allowing you to effectively multitask. So, did you understand that?” Naruto shook his head, and Kosumo slapped his own forehead.

At this point, Naruto’s inner persona decided to speak up. ‘He’s pretty much saying that I’m here, I know stuff you don’t, and I’m damn useful! Got it?’ Naruto shook his head. “I understand, Kosumo-sensei.”

Then it was time for the strategy session with Nara Shikaku and his son, Nara Shikamaru. Shikaku was a genius, and Shikamaru was gaining on him quickly despite only being the same age as Naruto. The strategy lessons were pretty much Naruto sitting there, playing games of Shogi and Go against Shikamaru while Shikaku corrected them both when they did something stupid.

Then it was time for the weapons training with the Shinkotamas. At first, Naruto and Ten-Ten, youngest of the Shinkotamas, learned what the weapons were. Afterwards, Naruto could safely assume that there were a lot of weapons, and they all hurt really badly when you were hit with them.

Then Naruto and Ten-Ten practiced with shuriken. Ten-Ten was already pretty good at throwing them, but Naruto simply wasn’t getting it. He missed the target entirely over half the time. After a while of missing, he went up to Ten-Ten. “Ten-chan, what am I doing wrong?”

Ten-Ten watched Naruto throw another few shuriken, then corrected him. It turned out that something had been wrong with the placement of his fingers. Naruto thanked her, then went back to throwing.

Watching them from off to the side, Tenoshi was cackling inside his head. ‘HAH! My daughter’s closer to him then the others! Take that Yuuhi, Haruno, Yamanka, Inuzaka and Hyuuga! Oh, and Mitarashi! TAKE THAT, I’M WINNING!’

After Weapons Training, Naruto ran off to the Uchiha compound for training in the last of the three major jutsu branches: ninjutsu. He was met at the door by a lower-ranking Uchiha. “Come, Naruto-sama.” The servile man said. “Your trainer is this way.” He walked off, and Naruto followed him.

Soon, they made it to Naruto’s new ninjutsu sensei. “Itachi-nee-san! You’re my sensei here?”

Itachi cracked a slight grin. “Yes, Naruto-kun. I’m teaching you and Sasuke ninjutsu.” Naruto looked over at the other person in the room, a young Uchiha the same age as Naruto. Naruto’s face crinkled up in dislike. He and Sasuke had never really gotten along, with Naruto being somewhat closer to Itachi then Sasuke was.

The ninjutsu lesson was pretty interesting. Itachi explained about how chakra and hand seals were used in ninjutsu, then showed them a sample one, called Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Powerful Flame Technique). He then tried to get Naruto and Sasuke to perform it.

Both were having problems, until Naruto remembered Hiashi’s lessons on chakra control, and focusing chakra to one part of your body. Naruto managed to focus all of his chakra to his throat, and blow out a huge fireball. Sasuke looked angry that Naruto got it before he did, but Itachi praised his efforts lavishly.

It was time for the final lesson of the day: Anatomy with the Mitarashi. Naruto made it to the compound quickly, and was placed in a classroom-like setting, with a slightly scary woman standing up at the front of the room. “Ryusha-kaa-san! What good is anatomy?”

Ryusha, matriarch of the Mitarashi, sighed. “First, call me Ryusha-sensei during the lesson. Second, before I explain anything, we need to wait for Anko-chan to get here.” They waited for five minutes until a young girl staggered in, panting from running.

“Sorry, Kaa-san. Kurenai and I were playing, and I didn’t realize what time it was.”

“It’s fine, Anko-chan. Just take your seat, and we’ll start the lesson.” Anko was seated. “Well, Naruto, in answer to your question, I understand you’ve learned how throw weapons today?” Naruto nodded. “Anatomy teaches you where to throw those weapons. So you can disable instead of kill, kill instead of injure, or humiliate instead. Make sense?” Naruto nodded.

Soon enough, the lesson came to an end. “Ok, Naruto-kun, you can do whatever you want now.” Ryusha said.

“Okay! Bye, Ryusha-sensei! See ya later, Anko-chan!” Naruto called as he ran out of the room. As he ran through the village, he tried to decide where to do. ‘Home.’ He decided. ‘I need sleep!’ He passed through a group of villagers. “Excuse me!” he yelled as he made his way through.

Once he was through, he added more speed and ran off to his home. The villagers watched him go with a look of disgust on their faces. One turned to another. “The demon is getting bolder. We have to try again.”

“But none of the villages we approach will take the mission any more!” the second one said.

The first one grinned a sadistic smile. “So we contact different villages. I understand the Mist specialize in assassinations.”

It was the tenth of October, the day the Yondaime defeated Kyuubi. There was a large parade, with floats of the yellow-haired hero. There was liberal amounts of sake being consumed, by everyone everywhere. There were little kids staring at the Hokage Monument, swearing that they would be just like the Yondaime. And unnoticed by the drunken guards, there were three figures creeping over the wall.

Momochi Zabuza and his two chunin assistants were in town not to celebrate, but to do their job. And today, their job included killing the now six year old Uzumaki Naruto. ‘I hate being in this village.’ Zabuza thought. ‘It brings back so many bad memories. We’ve got to get this job done quickly.’ Zabuza was worried, because he had been forced to leave Haku back in Kiri while he performed this mission. ‘That girl needs to work on her heart of ice before she comes on assassination missions.’

“Ruko, who’s the target?” Zabuza asked as they bounded across rooftops. He knew already, but he liked to make sure his back up did as well.

The chunin swallowed, wondering how he got assigned to work with the demon of the mist. “Uzumaki Naruto, a young prodigy.”

“What clan?” Zabuza asked. He had never heard of an Uzumaki clan, and he was honestly curious which clan had adopted the boy.

“Umm, the dossier doesn’t say, but it says he’s been living with a Morino Ibiki.”

‘Hm. Never heard of a Morino clan before. Must be newly risen to the rank of high clan. At least it’s not them.’ Zabuza thought. He noticed that they were almost at the address, and halted the chunin. “We’re here.”

With a keen eye, Zabuza noticed several traps set all over the doors, windows, and walls of the building. ‘Hm, guess we weren’t the first attempt on this boy.’ The two chunin with Zabuza looked at the building, but noticed nothing.

“Zabuza-sama, are we entering?” one asked.

‘Idiots.’ Zabuza thought. “Yes. You enter first, so you can deal with any resistance. Then you” he gestured at the other chunin, will go in second to aid him in any way possible. Then me. I’ll be rearguard.” The two nodded, and entered the building in the designated order. In his head, Zabuza counted. ‘Five, four, three, two, one.’ When his count reached zero, a plume of fire erupted, incinerating the first chunin. The second one was quickly pierced by no less then eight kunai.

‘Nice traps! But now, in I go!’ Zabuza thought. Then he whispered “Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Technique)” and two more Zabuza’s appeared out of the water vapor in the air. They entered, followed closely by Zabuza. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he thanked his foresight as he saw both of the water clones being attacked by six bodyguards. ‘Wow. This kid is really well protected!’ Then both of his clones were destroyed. ‘These guys are good.’ He thought, and made twenty more clones to keep them busy. As the bodyguard engaged the clones, he slipped up the stairs.

‘Now where is it?’ He thought, ignoring the sounds of pitched battle coming from below. Zabuza slipped into one of the doors, and grinned as he saw a young boy sleeping soundly, cuddling a puppy. ‘Wow, this kid sleeps through everything! Well, easier to kill then. Better do this fast, and avoid the dog. I hate killing dogs!’ Zabuza drew Kubikiri Houcho off of his back, and drew it back to decapitate the boy.

But a flash of pain in his right arm caused him to drop the sword. He looked at his arm, and saw a tiny reptilian creature biting it! ‘Oh no! Not this clan!’ he thought, and spun around, pulling a kunai to slice the creatures off. But before he got the chance, they retracted into the sleeve of his attacker: Mitarashi Ryuto, third most powerful member of the Mitarashi clan.

“Zabuza-kun, how far you’ve stooped.” Ryoto said. “Being paid by angry villagers to kill a small boy. You’ve fallen far, Mitarashi Zabuza.”

Zabuza groaned. “Sister, it’s Momochi Zabuza now. I gave up that foolish clan name when I left Konoha and joined Kiri!”

“Didn’t you once have a code about not killing family members?” Ryoto asked.

“I still do, but I don’t plan on killing you, Ryoto. I’m simply going to incapacitate you, then fulfill my mission.”

Ryoto shook her head from side to side, making little tsking noises. “If you still maintain that code, then why are you trying to kill our nephew?”

For the first time in a long time, an emotion crossed Zabuza’s face: shock. “Nephew? He’s a member of our- I mean, your clan?”

“Is your information so bad that you didn’t know that Naruto over there is a member of all of the thirteen clans of Konoha? Yes, he is your nephew, and if you touch him, it will spark a war between Konoha and Kiri.”

Zabuza quickly schooled his face back to normal. ‘Why didn’t we know about this? I’m fairly certain that being adopted into thirteen clans is not a common thing!’ Zabuza stooped, never taking his eyes off of his sister, and picked up Kubikiri. He placed it back in it’s sheath. “Our information network needs a lot of work then. There is only one thing I refuse to do, and that is kill family. It was nice seeing you, sister.” He assumed a handseal, and a think bank of fog wafted in. When it cleared, Zabuza was gone.

Ryoto shook her head, then realized there was still fighting going on downstairs. But as soon as she remembered that, all sounds of battle ended, and Naruto’s room was quickly filled with his bodyguard. They were all breathing hard, but most were uninjured. The exception was Aburame Nokoto, who had a deep gash in his side. “Who was that?” Hizashi asked. “He was a cut above the other assassins!”

The Mitarashi bodyguard stated, “That was Mitarashi Zabuza, missing nin of Konoha. He abandoned the village ten years ago, and is now known as Momochi Zabuza, demon of the mist.”

Itachi nodded. “That makes sense. He did use all water jutsus, and he did sacrifice his comrades to enter the building.”

“I’d better go report this to the Hokage.” Ryoto said. “The rest of you, stay on guard. If the mist was smart, they would have sent two forces.” The bodyguard nodded, and dispersed. Ryoto jumped out the window, heading to the Hokage tower.

Zabuza, at this time, as already well out of Konoha. On the outside, he was cool and composed. But on the inside, his head was spinning. ‘There was no way our intelligence wouldn’t have noticed the fact that the kid was a member of thirteen clans. There is absolutely no way! And they sent me on this mission with only two lousy chunin that they knew I would sacrifice anyway!’

Zabuza growled out loud. “They set me up!” He headed back towards Kiri, where he would be getting Haku and leaving, before they could try again.

Ibiki sat in Naruto’s room, waiting for the boy to wake up. “Well, Naruto.” He said to the sleeping boy. “Your birthdays always are eventful.”

The next morning, at 4:30, Naruto woke up and saw Ibiki dozing by his bedside. “Hi, Ibiki-nii-san! What’re you doing here?”

The loud voice woke Ibiki up. ‘Only Naruto could be so loud in the morning.’ He thought, and then tried to think of a good excuse for him sitting by Naruto’s bedside that didn’t involve assassins. “Uh, I just wanted to wish you happy birthday!”

“OH YEAH! I forgot it was my birthday!” Naruto yelled. “Can I have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast?”

“Of course. I’ll get right on them.” Ibiki said, then ran out of the room thanking Kami that Naruto still accepted such weak excuses.

After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, Naruto ran off to begin his training regime. ‘Wow, it’s already been seven months since I started this stuff! It’s been a lot of fun!’ He skidded to a halt outside of the Sarutobi compound, where Goki was waiting for him.

“Happy birthday, Naruto-kun!” Goki said.

“Thanks, Goki-sensei! So, what’re we gonna do today? Work on forms? Increase my weight?”

Goki chuckled at his student’s enthusiasm. “Well, Naruto-kun, since it is your birthday, we’ll be doing something new!” His grin widened as Naruto jumped for joy at the news.

“What is it? What is it?” he questioned.

“Naruto-kun, you’ll be learning a new style of taijutsu!” Goki said, and Naruto grinned happily.

“Which one? I hope it’s a good one, not like that academy stuff.” Naruto said the word academy with disgust. He had learned their taijutsu style in a matter of weeks, and had judged it as terrible. It allowed no flexibility, and relied only on punches. Naruto loved surprising people, so needed more flexibility, and had discovered a talent for kicks. He had also learned the gentle fist style from Hiashi, and found it lacking.

“I’m letting you choose one of three styles.” Goki said. “Your choices are Iron Fist style, the Shimmering Foot Style, or the Slashing Falcon style.”

Naruto thought for a moment. He didn’t really like punching, and the first style had the word fist in it, so the Iron Fist was out. But both the Slashing Falcon and the Shimmering Foot sounded interesting. It was time for Naruto’s tired and true method of making hard choices: putting it to a vote. He had three people to ask. “Goki-sensei, which is better for you, the Shimmering Foot or the Slashing Falcon?”

Goki thought for a minute. “I prefer the Shimmering Foot myself.”

The next person to ask was himself. ‘Yo! Me! Which one’s better?’ Almost instantly, Inner Naruto answered. ‘Slashing Falcon! Up in the sky, slashing, like a falcon! Sounds damn useful and fucking awesome!’ ‘I just asked a question. No need for cursing!’

‘Ok, that’s one for each. Time for the tie breaker.’ “Kouken, which one do you think?” Naruto asked. The dog woofed at him, and Naruto looked back at Goki. “Shimmering foot it is!”

Goki blinked for a moment. “You understand what he says?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

The muscular Sarutobi shook his head to clear it of confusion, and then began to explain the basics of the Shimmering Foot style. It relied on rapid movement and almost entirely on kicks, leaving the hands free to use weapons and jutsus. Goki demonstrated by doing a few spinning kicks while doing Bunshin no Jutsu to confuse an imaginary enemy. Naruto ran out of his Taijutsu lesson at the end, holding a scroll with the basic katas of his new style.

At the Hatake compound, he was in for a similar gift. He found Kakashi in record time (three minutes) and hid for him for another record time (also three minutes). But right before the end of Stealth and Tracking, Kakashi stopped the lesson. “Naruto-kun, it’s your birthday. And because it’s your birthday, I have a gift for you!” Naruto cheered, and Kakashi pulled out a scroll.

“What’s that, Kakashi-sensei?”

“This, Naruto, is a copy of the jutsus of the Hatake. There are thirty-eight jutsus on this scroll, all incredibly advanced. All of these were created by Hatake members, and more will be added. It’s sort of like a rite of passage. To be recognized as an adult in the Hatake tradition, you must create an assassination jutsu.”

“Wow.” Naruto said, in awe that Kakashi was giving him such an important scroll. “Do you really think I can master them?”

“Maybe, but not for a while. I’ve only master Thirty-Two of them, and I made two of them!”

“Which ones?”

Kakashi unrolled the scroll, and Naruto could see that the techniques were in order D-Class Jutsus to S-Class Jutsus. He stopped at the B-class, and pointed at one. “Chidori.” He said proudly. Then he continued to unroll until he got to the S-class. “And it’s big brother, the Raikiri.”

Naruto looked at the Raikiri. “Cool!” He rolled the scroll back up. “I’ll try and master all of them!” He put the scroll in his bag next to the one about the Shimmering Foot, and then took off for his next lesson.

The rest of his day went like that. He learned something new at each lesson, or was given a gift. The Hyuuga’s gave him another scroll, this one detailing the Hyuuga jutsus. The Yamanka taught him the basics of their primary jutsu, Shintenshin no Jutsu. The Inuzaka’s gave Kouken a shiny new collar, because it was the dogs birthday as well. But they also gave Naruto a matching collar, which let him summon Kouken no matter where he was.

The Aburame gave him a small hive of bees, which he ran home to place in his room immediately. The bees gave him another form of security, and they attacked any unauthorized person who entered the room. Plus, they gave him an unending supply of honey.

The gift from the Yuuhi clan was more difficult. Naruto had soon discovered that while he could master most jutsus without effort, genjutsu took a little more time and concentration for him. But their gift was a scroll of low level genjutsu, which he vowed to learn as quickly as he could.

The Akamichi gave him a restaurant card, which would give him free food from any restaurant for a month. The Haruno’s taught him a jutsu that let Inner Naruto take over his body for a short amount of time. The Naras gave him a shiny new Shogi board. The Shinkotamas gave him a new kunai set.

Then he got to the Uchihas, and entered his usual training room. Sasuke wasn’t there, which confused Naruto a little. But then, instead of Itachi, Fuguku was waiting there. “Fuguku-tou-san! Where’s Itachi-sensei?”

“Itachi is currently on a mission, and won’t be here today.” Fuguku said. Naruto nodded. That made sense. It wasn’t the first time one of his tutors had had to leave for a mission. But usually, the tutor just left a lesson plan and Naruto followed it. A replacement, and a clan head at that, was extremely unusual.

“Now Naruto, demonstrate what you have learned from Itachi so far.” Naruto complied, and began performing the jutsus Itachi had taught him. He started with Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu, then moved on to the other ones. There was the basic Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique), an earth jutsu known as Doton: Maruishi Meiun no Jutsu (Earth Style: Boulder Doom Technique), then proceeded through his list of about fifteen jutsus.

‘Hm, he’s about middle gennin, as expected. Well, that’s just his ninjutsu knowledge. With everything else he’s learned included, he’s probably more like low chunin.’ Fuguku thought. “Naruto, I have a question to ask you.” Naruto ran up, breathless from performing so many jutsus in a row. “Naruto, which clan is your favorite?”

Naruto looked at him in confusion. “Fuguku-tou-san, I can’t favor one family over another. It’s impossible.” Fuguku nodded. That answer was all he needed to know.

“Ok, Naruto. You can go now.” Naruto took off, headed towards the Mitarashi residence. But when he got there, there were a couple guards at the door.

“What’s going on?” Naruto asked.

“Sorry, Naruto-kun. Anatomy training is canceled for the day.” One of the guards said. “It appears that Anko-chan has either run away or been kidnapped, and almost all of the clan members are searching for her.”

Naruto looked at him, his face blank with shock. But quickly, as he had been taught by his many senseis, he schooled his face back to normal. “Oh, ok. Tell Ryusha-kaa-san and the others that I hope they find her.”

The guard looked at him in pity. It was hard on a seasoned Mitarashi clan member to lose the heiress, but this kid was one of her best friends! Then, the guard remembered something, and he called Naruto just as he was walking away. “Naruto! Ryusha-sama asked me to give this to you, and tell you ‘happy birthday’.” He threw a scroll at Naruto.

Naruto quickly unrolled the scroll, and got a second shock. He sat down in surprise, gaping at the scroll. “This- This is, a blank summoning scroll for the dragon! You’re not supposed to get this until you’re fifteen!”

The guard chuckled. “Apparently, she feels you’re ready.”

“Thank you very much, Guard-san! And thank Ryusha-kaa-san thank you!” Naruto exclaimed, and ran home, practically skipping.

But another person in Konoha was feeling anything but joy. That person was Uchiha Fuguku. As soon as Naruto left, Fuguku had called a clan meeting, which consisted of every adult Uchiha except Itachi, who was on a mission. Also left out were the children. Sasuke was practicing his Goukakyuu, and their triplet daughters Kurochi, Hishin, and Metsuki were out playing in the streets of the Uchiha district.

“I have called this meeting to discuss our plans.” Fuguku stated. “As you all are aware, we have the superior bloodline in Konoha. But the Hokage refuses to acknowledge that simple fact, instead allowing those pathetic Hyuuga the spot of first clan.” That was met with angry murmuring by the rest of the Uchiha.

“So we must annihilate the Hyuuga. Unfortunately, that would never be allowed by the Hokage, and we would be destroyed by the other clans. But there is a simple way that will allow us to destroy the Hyuuga, and show them that we are in right here!”

Fuguku’s wife, Mikoto, asked “What would that be?”

“It is simple. All of the clans prize Naruto.” There was some more angry muttering. Unlike the other clans, the Uchiha had only adopted Naruto because he was a powerful asset to the clan. “And if he was with us, we would as well. But he grows too powerful, and out of all the clans, ours is the one he likes the least. What we must do is assassinate Naruto, and pin the blame on the Hyuugas. The other clans will side with us then, to avenge their precious fox, when we move to utterly crush the Hyuuga.”

The other Uchihas thought about that for a moment. On one hand, would be the death of a six year old boy. But on the other, they would be killing a demon, destroying their mortal enemies, and becoming the most powerful clan in Konoha in one fell swoop. A sadistic smirk crossed onto the faces of all the Uchiha, as one by one, they agreed to Fuguku’s plan.

“But there is one problem. And that is Itachi. He is utterly devoted to that boy, and won’t let anything happen to him. So we must, as much as it pains me, eliminate Itachi.” That sobered the room, as Itachi was generally well-liked throughout the clan. “Are there any volunteers to do this difficult task?”

There was a moment of silence, then Uchiha Shisui stood up. “I volunteer. Itachi is my best friend, and the best I can give him is a painless death.”

Fuguku nodded, closing his eyes. “Thank you, Shusui. Your bravery is commendable. Please see to it when he gets back from his mission. We will await your report before we begin the second part of our task.”

Itachi had just returned from his mission: a delivery to the nearby Waterfall village. Ordinarily, it would have taken about three days to do it, but Itachi had been worried about leaving Naruto for even a day, and had pumped all the chakra he could into his legs to get there and back in under a day. He went to his suite of rooms for a quick shower. He had just enough time to eat and get clean before he went on Naruto guard duty. Of course, ninja were exempt from that duty if they had been on a mission, but Itachi didn’t want to risk it with an assassination attempt earlier that morning.

But when he got to his suite, there was already someone there. “Shusui! Good to see you! What’re you doing here?” he asked, but then turned around to begin undressing for his shower. But Shusui didn’t answer his question. But he did hear Shusui moving, so assumed that he was going around Itachi so he could look at his face and not his back. But his assumption was dashed when the footsteps stopped and Shusui wasn’t in view. Then he heard a whisper, too low for most people to hear.

“I’m sorry.”

With only that as a warning, Itachi dodged as a katana lodged in the dresser he had been standing in front of. As Itachi followed the rule of ‘disable first, ask questions later’, he drew a kunai and threw it at Shusui’s arm. But Shusui moved to dodge, and slipped on an old shirt Itachi had thrown on the ground a couple of days ago. He fell… right into the path of Itachi’s kunai, which lodged in his chest. He fell down, bleeding heavily.

Itachi ran up, and pulled the kunai out. “I’ll just heal this really quickly, and you’ll be fine. Come on, stay with me man! I’ve got to heal this!” But just has his hand started glowing green with healing chakra, Shusui grabbed it.

“No… I deserve this.” He rasped out. “Itachi, you have more important things to worry about. The rest of the clan, the adults of the clan… They’re… after Naruto.” With that, and a last bloody rasp, Shusui lay dead.

“SHUSUI!” Itachi screamed, and held his dead friend for a minute. Then, his grief stricken brain processed Shusui’s last words. ‘No one touches my little brother! NO ONE!’ he thought, and looked up with eyes that blazed with the Mangekyou Sharingan. Like lightning, Itachi took off towards Naruto’s home.

At the home, the other members of the bodyguard were having a lot of trouble. They, and Ibiki, were being overwhelmed by the attacking Uchiha has. Hizashi was already down, but still alive. That was part of the overall plan to make it look like the Hyuuga were to blame for this. But the other ones were going down quickly. Ibiki was bleeding on the ground, and Ryoto was on her last legs. Chouda was absorbing a lot of punishment, and other members of the bodyguard were nursing various injuries.

Huddling in a corner of his room, where Ibiki had told him to hide, Naruto was shaking in fear with Kouken on his lap. All of his friends were down there, fighting unknown attackers, and he couldn’t do anything to help! ‘You dumbass, use the distress signal!’ Inner Naruto yelled. Naruto slapped his forehead when he remembered what Hiashi had said once Naruto learned how to flare his chakra.

Flashback

“Naruto, I’m going to teach you something very important.” Hiashi said. “If you ever, EVER, are under attack and you fear for your life, or that of your friends, flare your chakra as much as possible. All of us know your signature, and will move to help you quickly.”

End Flashback

Naruto got up, and stood on legs that were no longer trembling. He placed his hands in the ram seal, then focused his chakra. Soon, it was flaring brightly in a blue aura, as strong as he could make it. The aura filled up the room, and began casting light on the roof.

At the Hyuuga compound, Hiashi sensed the flare. He spit out the tea he had been drinking, and yelled, “Distress signal! All Hyuuga! Prepare for combat!”

All over Konoha, that scene was being replayed in eleven other clan compounds. Forces of countless shinobi rushed from their homes in their current state of dress, all going to protect the child that was one of them.

The Uchiha felt the flare too. Fuguku cursed. “The other clans will be here shortly! I’ll go take care of him! Some of you put on your disguises and continue this! The rest, act like you felt the signal too!” His family nodded, and some donned cowls. Fuguku rushed up the stairs, and into Naruto’s room, where he was still putting out that exceptional amount of chakra. It stopped as Naruto looked at Fuguku.

“Fuguku-tou-san! You got my signal!” he yelled, mistakenly believing that Fuguku was here to help against mysterious attackers.

“No, No, Naruto.” Fuguku said, finally allowing his hate of this boy to bubble to the surface. “I’m not here to save you. I’m the leader of those here to kill you!” With those words, he drew raised his katana, which was already slick with blood, and prepared to slay Naruto.

Naruto gaped in shock. ‘Why would Fuguku-tou-san want to kill me? He’s my tou-san! He swore never to hurt me!’ Naruto thought. But then Inner Naruto spoke to him once again, and Naruto began shaking in rage. “I see.” He said in an extremely calm voice. “You never were my tou-san.” He saw the blade arching down toward his face. But then he saw something odd: A kunai arching over his shoulder. Instinctively, Naruto dived to the ground, and a kunai passed right over where he had been before, right where he had seen it a moment ago. The kunai struck Fuguku in the hand, causing him to drop his sword with a curse.

Fuguku looked at Naruto, who was staring at him from the floor. But instead of the confused and hurt look he expected, he saw hate and rage glaring at him from red eyes with one comma in them. ‘Sharingan!’ Fuguku thought. ‘I’ve got to do this now, before he gets accustomed to it!’ He pulled the kunai out of his hand, and stabbed at Naruto. Naruto, though he saw it coming in advance, knew he couldn’t move in time.

But suddenly, the kunai stopped. A hand had grabbed Fuguku’s wrist, and the owner of that hand was now trembling in rage. “You tried to kill me.” Itachi said. “You tried to kill my little brother.” He looked Fuguku in the eye, and said, “I won’t kill you. I will, however, disable you so that someone can.” His Mangekyou Sharingan began spinning rapidly. “Tsukiyomi!” He yelled, and Fuguku was affected by the most powerful genjutsu an Uchiha could produce.

Fuguku found himself in a world that was shades of black and red, tied to a post. “Welcome to my world, Tou-san.” Itachi said. “I’m not very good at controlling it yet, but for the next hour, you will be burnt repeatedly by my Katon jutsus.” With an exhalation, a fireball torched Fuguku. He screamed in agony. “Fifty-Nine minutes, Fifty-nine seconds to go.”

Naruto had no idea what just happened. All he saw was Itachi-nii-san show up, look Fuguku-tou…, no Fuguku, in the eyes, and Fuguku had let out an earth shattering scream, and crumpled up on the floor. Itachi walked over to Naruto. “Are you ok, Naruto-kun?” Itachi asked, concern in his voice. Naruto looked up at Itachi, his eyes still red with one comma. Itachi gasped. “Naruto, you’ve awoken your sharingan!” That announcement, which once would have made Naruto jump for joy, only registered as a dull sound in Naruto’s mind. Suddenly, Naruto began getting extremely tired.

“Itachi-nii-san, I don’t feel so good.” He managed to get out. Itachi instantly realized what was going on.
“Naruto-kun, you’re suffering from chakra depletion. If we don’t teach you how to shut off your sharingan, it will kill you!” Naruto blanched in fright, and Itachi cursed himself for not being more tactful. “Naruto, look into my eyes.” Itachi said, stressing the importance with every word. Naruto looked up, and saw Itachi’s bladed sharingan dissolve into the regular sharingan, then slowly turn back into his dark eyes.

Some part of Naruto copied that movement, and his own Sharingan shut off. Itachi breathed a sigh of relief. ‘So the eye usually does have to copy other eyes shutting off before it knows how to do it itself. That makes an odd amount of sense.’ He looked down, and saw the boy had fallen asleep curled up in his lap. Itachi could hear the other clans arriving, assisting the beleaguered bodyguard. By this time tomorrow, there would be no Uchiha clan, save for Itachi, Sasuke, the three young girls, and Naruto.

Itachi looked at the sleeping boy, who he had devoted every fiber of his being to protect. “Well, Naruto-kun, it has been a very eventful birthday.”

Still in his evening clothes, Hiashi was in the middle of a pitched battle against unknown assailants. He dodged to the left, and a kunai flew past him. He retaliated with an open palm strike, knocking his attacker out cold. ‘Who are these people?!’ Hiashi thought. ‘This is more assassins then anyone has ever sent after Naruto before!’ He wrenched his mind back to the battle, and disarmed another attacker.

In the midst of the melee, the Hyuuga head found himself back-to-back with one of Naruto’s bodyguard that still had the fortune to be standing: Hatake Tanken, Kakashi’s cousin twice removed. “What is going on here, Hatake?!” Hiashi demanded as he crushed another skull.

Tanken breathed a sigh of relief. “Hiashi-sama, it is good to see you. We were on a modified patrol, because we’re short one due to Itachi being on his mission. But one of the security seals was triggered, and we came in as fast as we could. By the time we got here, Ibiki was already down and a couple of the assassins were climbing the stairs towards Naruto-sama’s room. We engaged immediately, and everything became a frenzy!”

“How many of you are still fighting?” Hiashi inquired calmly, as if he had not just used his Hyuuga techniques to shut down two chakra circulatory systems simultaneously.

“I’m not sure. Ibiki is down, as is Hizashi. Chouda went down fast, they just got him from behind. Ryoto put up a fight, I think she’s still going at it.” Sure enough, as he spoke those words, one of the cloaked attackers was thrown against a wall by tiny serpentine dragons. “Yeah, she’s still at it. Other then that, I don’t know.”

As the battle wore on, it became apparent that the attackers were being halted. They might have been numerous, but as the fight had progressed, more and more of the clans had shown up and aided the Hyuuga in stopping them. Soon, Naruto’s house, and the area around it, was covered with bodies, some alive, and some not.

In the middle of Naruto’s living room, the twelve clan heads were standing. They all quickly took stock of each other, and none had any wounds deeper then a slash along the arm. Then one of them noticed something off. There were twelve of them, but thirteen clans. “Where is Fuguku?” Kosumo asked.

From the top of the stairs, a young voice said “Right here.” The clan heads looked towards the voice, and were just in time to see an unconscious Fuguku being tossed at them. Hastily, Chouza caught him and put him down gently. At the top of the stairs was Itachi, and he was holding a very unconscious Naruto.

“Itachi-san!” Hiashi bellowed. “What is the meaning of this!? You’ve attacked a clan head!”

Itachi made quieting gestures with one hand, while the other arm cradled Naruto. “Shhh. I just got him to sleep!” he said quietly. He carefully walked down the stairs, and put Naruto on the couch which was thankfully empty. Then he walked over to the assembled heads and spoke in a more normal voice. “As to the reason I’ve attacked your precious clan head, you should be able to figure that out.”

The heads looked at each other, exchanging confused glances. Inoichi spoke up for all of them. “What do you mean, Itachi-san?”

Itachi gestured to the shrouded figures on the ground. “Have any of you bothered to take off their masks?” He looked at the blank faces that stared at him. “I didn’t think so.” Itachi walked over one figure, and pulled off his cowl. Dark eyes and dark hair met the eyes of the assembled heads. This man was clearly an Uchiha.

“Not enough evidence?” Itachi asked. He walked over to the next figure, and pulled off its mask, revealing another Uchiha face. Itachi slowly walked around the room, pulling all the masks off the bodies. Uchiha face after Uchiha face became uncovered. After all the faces in the room were bare (except Kakashi’s), Itachi turned back to the cluster of clan heads. “For those of you who can’t figure it out, the Uchiha clan were the attackers here. For some reason, they, or more specifically my dearest father over there, got it into their heads to kill Naruto. That would be a bad thing, in case you didn’t know that.” He grinned as all of the clan heads glared at him for his insolent attitude. “So I came in, and stopped tou-san from decapitating my little brother here, although he was doing a pretty good job by himself.”

The information was very difficult to handle for the clan heads. One of them, one who had sworn to protect and nurture a small boy, had tried to kill him for reasons unknown. All of the heads reacted very differently. Torahi, who was normally a very strong man, was already distraught from the loss of his beloved Anko, and began to cry. Chouza, Shikaku, and Inoichi all exchanged glances, with Chouza muttering something about needing a drink. Kakashi looked sick to his stomach, while Tenoshi had suddenly become very pale. Kosumo looked disgusted, and Shibi looked impassive, though the bugs buzzing angrily behind him told a different story. Iriai sat down hard, stunned that a fellow clan head could do such a thing. Nidaho knelt down to comfort her dog, who was whimpering. Goitro just shook his head, and murmured that he was getting too old for this shit. And Hiashi…

Hiashi looked livid. Those who had never seen an angry Hyuuga before were now treated to that sight. As a matter of fact, if Chouza hadn’t restrained him with a partial multisize jutsu, Hiashi showed every sign of charging at the unconscious Fuguku to destroy him. After a minute of fighting Chouza, who was thankful that Hiashi had forgotten he could use the jyuuken, he calmed down. Chouza released him, and Hiashi looked cold once again, though his left eyelid was twitching. “Itachi-san,” he asked. “What did you do to him?”

Itachi grinned a feral, bestial grin. “I’ve recently activated the final level of my Sharingan, which adds three powerful techniques. One is a genjutsu that transports the target to a world of my creation, where I control everything. In one second, he was just burned by Katon jutsus for an hour. It didn’t actually burn him, but it knocked him out.”

Hiashi’s eye stopped twitching. “That was most appropriate, Itachi-san.” He turned and looked at Naruto’s bodyguard (most of whom were unconscious) and Ibiki, who was also out cold. “Will Ibiki-san be alright?”

Inoichi walked over and did a hasty diagnosis. “He’ll be fine in an hour or two.”

Hiashi let out a cold smile. “He will have a lot of work to do when he feels better.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of many ninja landing outside, and the door flying open. It revealed the Hokage, who seemed to have brought most of ANBU with him. With a glance, he took in the very strange scene: a room full of unconscious Uchiha, twelve clan heads plus Itachi standing in a circle in the middle of the room, Naruto sleeping on the couch, and all of them occasionally shooting the unconscious Fuguku. Sarutobi breathed out a sigh. “Do I want to know?”

Kakashi made a small grin. “No, probably not, but you’d better.”

A couple of people let out a small chuckle. Sarutobi walked over to the gathering, and said, “About five minutes ago, I felt enough chakra here to be equal to a small war between villages. What exactly happened?”

Hiashi took a step forward, signifying that he would be serving as the spokesman right now. “We were all at home, when we felt Naruto’s distress signal. We immediately rushed here, where we saw his bodyguard and Ibiki engaged in combat. Quickly, we joined in and stopped the assailants.”

Itachi stepped forward, and continued the narrative. “Around that time, I was rushing here, having been warned of an attempt on Naruto by an… assassin sent after me.” Everyone noticed the pause before he said assassin. “I arrived just in time to stop Fuguku from cutting Naruto’s head off.”

Finally, Chouza stepped forward. “Then, after all of the clans had come, we joined forces and killed almost all of the attackers. Only afterwards did we learn that they were all Uchiha.”

The Hokage rubbed his head. “Blessed Kami.” He murmured. “Does anyone know why the Uchiha clan attacked Naruto?” Everyone shook their heads. “I didn’t think so. Well, after Ibiki wakes up, he will get to work. And, Inoichi, once Fuguku wakes up, you’ll have to interrogate him yourself.”

Inoichi sighed. “If there’s no other way.”

“ANBU!” The Hokage barked. “Take all Uchiha present save Itachi to either the prison cells or the morgue, depending on their condition! Take all other wounded parties to hospital!”

The ANBU barked as one, “HAI!” Then they began their allotted tasks. The Hokage turned back towards the gathering.

“Hiashi, take Naruto to the Hyuuga compound for the night. Everyone, get some rest. We’ll have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

The next morning, Itachi walked into the Hokage’s office. Without preamble, he asked “Hokage-sama, what exactly is going to happen?”

“In regards to what, exactly?” the old man responded. Itachi felt a vein in his temple begin pulsing.

“What will happen to the Uchiha clan?”

“As of right now, it has been determined by Inoichi-san that almost the entire Uchiha clan was at Naruto’s house, attempting to kill him. So as of right now, there are seven members of the clan remaining.” Itachi quirked an eyebrow, inviting him to continue. “The majority of the clan was executed, and their bodies incinerated, about an hour ago. There remains you, congratulations on becoming clan head by the way, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, Kurochi-chan, Hishin-chan, Metsuki-chan, and the former clan head.”

Itachi gaped. “He’s still alive?! Why is he still alive?!”

“Because we’ve been debating on whether or not to make it a public execution.”

Itachi stopped in mid-rant. “Ah. I see.”

The Hokage looked at Itachi gravely. “Itachi, there is a more pressing problem here then Uchiha Fuguku.”

“What could be more important then the ringleader of an assassination attempt on Naruto?”

“Naruto himself.” The Hokage said, leaning forwards on his desk. “Itachi, you told me last night that Naruto awoke his Sharingan?” Itachi nodded. “And are you aware then Naruto has also awoken his Inner Persona, Byakugan, Bug Contract, Beast Transformations, Dragon Powers, Akamichi Expansion, the Living Shadow of the Nara, the Inner Weapon, and his Monkey Abilities?”

Itachi gaped. Naruto had awoken all the major bloodlines he had been gifted with, at the age of six! “I was aware of most of them, but not the Inner Weapon or the Monkey Abilities.”

“Well, he has awoken Ten Bloodline abilities! As you can imagine, that is extraordinary for such a young boy.” Itachi nodded, still stunned. “But it is too much.”

Itachi shook his head to clear it. “Excuse me?”

“Naruto cannot handle all ten of them at the moment. He could handle one, maybe two, safely at the moment. But three or more are extremely dangerous. Naruto could overload his brain, killing him! It was no threat before yesterday, because his body could contain the nine bloodlines. But the tenth one throws his entire control out of balance, and the ten abilities within him could kill him.”

“Shit!” Itachi screamed, temporarily forgetting that he was in the presence of the Hokage. Then he remembered, and the old man was treated to this sight of the unshakable Uchiha Itachi blushing. “I apologize, Hokage-sama.”

“Quite understandable. I have let similar sentiments out over the course of the morning.”

Returning to the topic at hand, Itachi asked “How do you know this? No one else has had ten bloodlines at the same time before.”

The Hokage nodded. “But Naruto woke up at about five o’clock this morning. He immediately began screaming in pain. All of his bloodlines were acting up. The Hyuuga guarding him stated that, ‘his eyes turned red and grew a comma, veins popped up around them, his shadow started boiling, he suddenly put on twenty pounds, swords began appearing out of midair, lights shaped like dragons or monkeys began shining out of him, his dog started to howl, centipedes started swarming near him, and he started cursing fluently.’ In short, all of the signs of uncontrolled bloodlines.”

“Can we help him?” Itachi asked frantically.

“We can, but it will be… difficult.”

“How? What do we have to do?”

The Hokage took in a deep breath, then let Itachi know the bad news. “His bloodlines must be sealed.”

“WHAT?!” Itachi shouted. “YOU WANT TO SEAL HIS BLOODLINES?!” The Hokage made pacifying gestures with his hands, but Itachi continued to yell. “But that’s what makes him who he is! You take away his bloodlines, you take away Naruto! What the hell are you thinking?! Have you even asked Naruto if this is what he wants?!”

“I would,” the Hokage said. “But every time he wakes up, he begins screaming in agony.” That settled Itachi down, and the Hokage continued to explain. “Simply, the bloodlines are too much for his six-year old body. If he continues to contain them all, he will die.”

Itachi deflated. “You mean you’re taking them away from him?”

“Heavens no!” the Hokage said. “The seals won’t be permanent by any means. They will be able to be released by a seal master, or they will expire on their own. Besides, Naruto can handle, I’d say three of his bloodlines right now.”

Itachi breathed a sigh of relief. “You scared me there for a moment. We can seal all but the most powerful for right now. It would be best if he got to maintain the knowledge of the more powerful ones, so that he won’t have to relearn them later.” The Hokage nodded. “The Sharingan, the Byakugan, and the Mitarashi Dragon contract.”

The Hokage raised his hand. “Unfortunately Itachi, there are two problems with that. First, Naruto would have to make the decision of which bloodlines to choose. Since he is currently incapacitated, the people who know him best will have to pick.” He put his hand up again to forestall Itachi’s argument. “Yes, you will be included in that, but so will a couple of other people. I’d say Ibiki, Hiashi, Myself, and… Ryusha.”

Gaping, Itachi said “Me, I know. I can understand Ibiki, he’s been living with the boy for years. You treat him like a grandson, and anyone with half a brain can see how much Hiashi loves the boy, but Ryusha? Won’t she just try to make him take the Dragon Contract?”

“You don’t know Ryusha that well, Itachi.” The Hokage said, shaking his head. “Frankly, she’s the closest thing to a mother Naruto has. He deals with the other clan matriarchs as well, but he is closest to her as a son. She feels that he is as good as her own flesh and blood for multiple reasons. First, she loves him. Secondly, she feels indebted to him.”

“What for?”

“For Anko.” While sagely shaking his head, the Hokage said “Before Naruto got to know her, Anko was a scary little hell-raiser. She was an extremely terrifying girl. Once, she was caught dissecting a squirrel, trying to see how it worked. But after Naruto got to know her, She changed. Now she’s one of the sweetest, best-natured girls you could ever know, though she still has a scary side when she thinks no one’s looking.”

With the Hokage saying that, it raised another question for Itachi, one that had nothing to do with Naruto at all. “Has there been any progress in locating her?”

“The team I sent out to search for her hasn’t checked in yet. I should be receiving a message telling me of their progress later today.”

Back on topic, Itachi said, “You said there were two reasons why my suggestions wouldn’t work. What is the other one?”

“Because Itachi, right now, Naruto’s eyes can only handle one dojutsu-based bloodline. His eyes simply aren’t strong enough for more then one. So he could take either the Sharingan or the Byakugan right now, but not both.”

‘That makes sense. I didn’t think of that.’ The Uchiha genius thought. “Who will be doing the sealing?”

“My student Jiraya-kun stopped in town for… business.” The Hokage said, turning bright red at the word business. “So he has consented to be the sealer.”

“I’ll go get the others.” Itachi said.

“No need. I thought you might be coming soon, so I sent messengers out to the others. They should be here at any moment.”

As if his words had been a signal, the door opened and the Hokage’s assistant walked in. “Hokage-sama, the people you requested are here.”

“Send them in.”

She nodded, and bowed out of the room. Then three people that would make anyone shake in fear walked in. There was Morino Ibiki, scarred head of Interrogation. The fearful reputation he had had only increased by becoming Naruto’s guardian. Then came the seemingly ice-cold Hiashi Hyuuga. It was said by the villagers that his glare could freeze water from twenty feet. Finally, there was the matriarch of the Mitarashi clan, Ryusha. There were rumors circulating that she could kill thirty people with one technique, rumors that had probably been started by Ryusha herself.

The three sat down in the free chairs in the office, and the Hokage quickly explained the situation. The reactions varied. Ibiki muttered curses under his breath, Hiashi’s grip tightened on his chair arm, and Ryusha, already distraught over losing Anko, began to cry. Hiashi said, “The other heads must be notified of this.”

“I already have.” The Hokage said. “They stated that you four would be the best to decide what Naruto would want.”

The four exchanged glances, Ryusha wiped her eyes, and they began to debate which bloodlines Naruto would want. After a five minute debate between the four males hinging on their various powers, usefulness, and Naruto’s overall talent with them, Ryusha spoke up for the first time. “The Haruno inner persona. Naruto needs that.”

Ibiki scoffed. “That’s perhaps the most useless one!”

“Maybe to us, but to a six-year old boy, it’s crucial.” She said. “He’s grown to depend on his Inner Naruto, and taking him away would be like taking away his beset friend. Besides, it helps him learn things. If he keeps it around, it should retain the knowledge of the sealed bloodlines.”

The rest of them thought about that, and decided that it made sense.

Itachi spoke up next. “He needs the Mitarashi Dragon Powers.” Everyone looked at him questioningly. “From what I understand, the dragons are a summon that is very easily offended. If their power gets sealed, they might take it personally and withdraw their blessing. Am I correct, Ryusha?”

The matriarch nodded. “If we seal that one now, he’ll never get it back.”

“So that is two.” The Hokage said. “We have one spot remaining for him, and eight choices.”

“We can eliminate the Inuzuka abilities.” Itachi said. “He already has a bond with is dog, and can communicate with it, he just won’t be able to access the man-beast jutsus for a while.” That was met with simultaneous nods from the others. “The same with the Aburame insects. They’ll still be there, he just won’t be able to do any of the bug-basted techniques.”

“He can do without the Shinkotama limit for a little while.” Hiashi said. “He has enough weapons for right now.”

“The Nara and Akamichi abilities won’t be necessary for right now.” The Hokage piped in. “He will just have to watch what he eats and his shadow will revert to a normal persons. I will also remove the Sarutobi powers from the running. He simply has no need for them right now.”

“That leaves the Sharingan.” Itachi stated.

“And the Byakugan.” Hiashi finished.

The two stared at each other for a moment, their expressions unreadable. “What would be the drawbacks to sealing the Byakugan?” The Hokage asked.

“Simply, it is one of the hardest bloodline limits to use, and everyone starts learning it from a young age. If it is sealed now, he won’t be able to use it after it is unsealed for at least a year.” Hiashi responded.

“And the Sharingan?” Ibiki asked.

“He won’t get a chance to advance it.” Itachi answered. “It will remain at one comma until he gets it unsealed and gets practice using it.”

The five all exchanged looks. Itachi sat back with a sigh. “He will seal the Sharingan. It’s much less hassle to advance the Sharingan then to relearn the Byakugan.” The others sighed in relief. They had thought Itachi was going to be stubborn.

The Hokage clapped his hands. “I’m glad that’s settled. I’ll call Jiraya, and we’ll go down to where Naruto is.” Without another word, he launched into a jutsu that summoned a small bird. Then he scribbled down a quick note, and tied it to the bird’s leg. Immediately, the bird took off, looking for Jiraya. The Hokage got up, and walked out of the room with the others following him.

Soon, they arrived at the infirmary in the tower, where they Naruto sleeping seemingly peacefully. “He doesn’t look so bad to me.” Ibiki ventured.

“If you saw him without the genjutsu on, it would scare even you, Ibiki.” The Hokage said. Then he looked at his watch. “Well, you’re about to. It’s time to renew the genjutsu.” As he spoke, Naruto opened his eyes.

Immediately, he began screaming loud enough to make Ibiki hold his ears. Then he began to push against the restraints that were holding in onto the bed, his veins bulging and his eyes growing larger. Suddenly, his eyes turned bright red and grew a comma. Then veins started bulging more around his eyes. His scream turned high-pitched as his shadow began to literally start boiling. Kouken, who was sleeping nearby, began to howl and a small swarm of centipedes came out of the wall toward the boy.

“DOWN!” Itachi yelled, and pulled Ryusha to the ground. No sooner had he done that then a sword that had manifested out of nowhere flew through where her head had been. Suddenly the bed Naruto was on creaked, as he put on weight visibly. Then a winged lizard crawled out of Naruto’s sleeve and began roaring. At the same time, hair began to sprout on Naruto’s arms, making him appear more ape-like. Then Naruto stopped screaming. Instead, he began cursing.

“You ************* *******, Let me out of her before I **** you up! **** **** ****!” he yelled.

The Hokage walked toward Naruto, and went through a couple of seals. “Ninpo: Suimun Souken! (Ninja Arts: Sleep Creation)” he yelled, and tapped Naruto’s brow with his index finger. Immediately, Naruto fell asleep again.

Ibiki stared at the now peaceful-seeming boy. “Ok, I was wrong.” He said.

Another man walked into the Infirmary at that moment. He was as tall as Hiashi, and had long white hair that went down to almost his waist. He also had a face that seemed to be built for laughter, but was set in a hard scowl. “You’ve got some nerve calling me now, Sarutobi-sensei. I just had the best view, and she was perfect…” he said, almost drooling when he got to the last part. He stopped when he felt four sets of eyes glaring at him.

“My son is dieing because of bloodline related illness…” Hiashi began.

“And you’re pissed because you got called out of peeping?!” Ryusha finished.

The man waved his hands in front of him, trying to fend off an imaginary beating. “I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! I’ll get right on it!”

The Hokage gestured to the man. “For those of you who don’t know him, this is my student, Jiraya. He is a master of seals, the toad hermit, and… theauthoroftheichaichaparadicebooks.” He said, rushing that last part. He knew he hadn’t done a very good job when he felt the killing intent Ryusha was emanating. “Ryusha-san, we need him to help Naruto.” He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the killing intent go down a bit.

‘I’d better get started before she kills me!’ Jiraya thought. “Okay, Saru-sensei, which ones am I sealing?”

The Hokage quickly told him, and Jiraya nodded. “Makes sense. I’d better get started. But first, tell me where you these things to go.”

“One of his arms, around the shoulder.” The Hokage answered. Jiraya nodded, and rolled up Naruto’s right shirt sleeve. There, he saw the coiling dragon tattoo of the Mitarashi.

“I’d better use the other arm.” He said out loud, and rolled up Naruto’s other sleeve. “Back up.” He said to the others, and once they complied, he tapped Naruto and said “KAI!” Immediately, the genjutsu on Naruto was lifted, and the symptoms began again.

‘Better take care of the bugs first.’ Jiraya thought. ‘They’d make it a little hard to stand.’ He went through a couple of seals, and pressed his palm onto Naruto’s should. “Chisen Kinko!” he yelled, and there was a sound like a white-hot piece of metal being dunked in a water barrel. Naruto stopped cursing and screamed. When Jiraya removed his hand, there was a tattoo like a centipede’s head. As they watched, it extended into a whole centipede, coiling in a ring around his arm.

‘The shadow is creeping me out.’ He thought, and repeated the process right under the centipede. This time, it left a small ball of darkness, which extended into a black ring tattoo.

‘The dog is starting to kill my hearing.’ Another jutsu, and a tattoo shaped like a dog biting his tail appeared under the darkness.

Every time Jiraya repeated the jutsu, another tattoo joined the others in coiling around Naruto’s arm. A ring of swords followed the dog, and after that came a chain of monkeys formed into a loop. Then came a string of commas, and then a plain bumpy line finished it off. All in all, it looked like Naruto’s left bicep had just received some serious tattoos.

Jiraya backed up, breathing heavily. “There. He should be fine now.” As if to confirm his words, Naruto opened his eyes.

“Uh… Oji-san? Why am I strapped down?” he asked.

“Jiraya, thank you for your help.” The Hokage said. “You can go now.”

Jiraya nodded. “It was a pleasure, Saru-sensei.” Then he left, giggling about research.

The Hokage turned his attention back to Naruto. “It’s good to see you awake, Naruto-kun.” Naruto grinned in answer, though there seemed to be something different about it. Then it hit him: Naruto’s eyes were closed. They had always been open when he smiled before, showing the depth of the happiness and joy inside the boy. But now they were closed.

“Could you all leave the room for a minute?” The Hokage asked, and the four acquiesced, though all with some amount of grumbling. Once they were all gone, the Hokage turned back to Naruto. “What’s the matter, Naruto-kun?”

Naruto looked at him for a moment, then burst out into tears. Quickly, the Hokage released the restraints and grabbed Naruto in a hug. Naruto clung onto the Hokage as if he were a lifeline. In between sobs, Naruto gasped out, “Why did Fuguku-tou-san try to kill me? Why?!”

As the Hokage tried to think of a way to explain the reasoning of a power hungry bastard to a small boy, one thought crossed his mind. ‘Fuguku is having a slow, painful, public execution.’ He struggled through explaining to Naruto what had happened, and how his bloodlines had gone crazy.

Naruto thought about everything the Hokage had just said, and translated it to “So Fuguku-tou-san is a big doo-doo head, and I can’t use most of my powers because they’re sealed into my arm.”

“Basically.”

“So how do I get them out?”

“You’ll learn how eventually, Naruto-kun.” Naruto looked at him, and the Hokage said that that wouldn’t fly today. “Okay, Naruto-kun. Has anyone ever told you about the Uzumaki clan?”

Waiting outside the infirmary, Ryusha was slowly finding her equilibrium once again. Naruto had recovered. If only Anko were ok. As if in answer to her silent prayers, a chunin rushed in. “Ryusha-sama! Anko-sama has been found!” In a flash, the Mitarashi matriarch was on her feet.

“Where is she?!”

Five minutes later, Ryusha was talking to a nurse outside of Anko’s room in Konoha hospital. “Is my girl alright?” she asked, borderline hysterical.

“Anko will be fine.”

“Will be?! That means she wasn’t! What exactly happened?!”

The nurse sighed, knowing that Ryusha wouldn’t like what she was about to hear. “It appears Anko was kidnapped. She has scars on her arms, legs, and torso that I’m sure she didn’t have before she was kidnapped. But most importantly, she had something like this on her neck.” She shoved a piece of paper into Ryusha’s hands.

Ryusha stared at it, then it slid out of her limp fingers. The paper landed face up on the ground, showing a copy of Orochimaru’s cursed heaven seal.

An hour later, the Hokage was presiding over the very public execution of Uchiha Fuguku. “Uchiha Fuguku, you have been charged with high treason. You have attempted to kill loyal leaf ninja, solely to expand your own power. You have been sentenced unanimously by the council to death by Katon jutsu. Do you have any last words?”

Fuguku opened his mouth, and the Hokage sensed a speech coming that would make him a martyr to the villagers, playing on their hatred of Naruto. He moved to forestall it. “No need. Your actions have spoken for you. When you tried to kill a leaf shinobi, your actions spoke for you. When you attempted to kill a small child, your actions spoke for you. When you were preparing to frame our most prominent clan for this crime, your actions spoke for you. Now you die a traitor’s death.” The Hokage turned his back on Fuguku, and motioned for the executioner to come forward.

The executioner was an average looking man. He had brown hair, dark eyes, and a cruel set to his mouth that was to be expected of an executioner. He walked over to Fuguku, and bent over to tighten the ropes holding him to the stake so he couldn’t escape. Or at least, that’s what he appeared to be doing. In reality, the executioner was whispering in Fuguku’s ear.

“Ku Ku Ku Ku. Do you want to survive this, Fuguku-kun?”