4 Plans

[Hiruzen's Office]

It was late afternoon, it had been a few hours after Hiruzen met with the Yamanaka clan head. He was in the room smoking his pipe and watching his crystal ball. He had just seen the attack on Naruto. For a second, he had been worried but his worries vanished when Neko came to Naruto's aid.

'That attack was not anyone from the civilian council, Kakashi's team has an eye on them. I would have known if one of them planned some of them. Who could it be?... One of the clans?... it might be one of their members but the clan heads would not have ordered something like this... Danzo?... possible but unlikely, the plan was too sloppy for it to be him..... might just be someone who holds a grudge. Neko's report should have more information. ' Hiruzen thought.

[Undisclosed Location]

In a dimly lit hall, a man is sitting on a large chair, he looks old and it looks like age has caught up with him. There is another person in front of him, kneeling on one knee, wearing a mask.

"So there was an attack on the jinchuriki?" The old man said, it sounded more like a statement than a question. His voice was even and did not betray any emotion.

"Yes, Danzo-sama. He was working alone." The masked shinobi said still kneeling.

"Did you dispose of the assailant?" Danzo asked.

"Yes." said the shinobi.

Danzo said nothing for a while before asking, "How many people were assigned to protect him?"

"Just one." replied the shinobi still kneeling.

'That will probably change now... Hiruzen will probably assign more guards to him as well as a sensor. The boy is living alone now.... should I just ask him to become part of the root? I could tempt him with power..... no that would be too direct Hiruzen has already taken a clear stance on this, I can not face him head-on right now.' Danzo thought, trying to think of a way to get the 4-year-old jinchuriki under his control.

'Maybe I could just force a scenario where he has to join root....' Danzo mused for a while before a slight smirk could be seen on his face.

"Tell Team 3 to report to me immediately." Danzo said to the masked shinobi and he flickered away.

[Hokage Office]

".....Hokage-sama the kunai was thrown with the intent to kill, it was aimed straight for his heart, Gojo just happened to bend a bit just at the right time and the kunai hit his shoulder." Neko finished explaining the attack on Naruto.

'Could Naruto have reacted to kunai?....no probably not he is only four.' Hiruzen thought.

"I understand. What of the assailant?" Hiruzen asked.

"..... Hokage-sama I tried to trace that assailant, but I could find no trace of them." Neko said sounding a little defeated. This surprised the old hokage.

'If it was just another shinobi we would have caught him or at least found a trace..... could it be that someone got to him first?... but that would require quite the skilled shinobi to erase any trace of what happened... or it could be a rogue shinobi that got away?.... but that would be quite a dangerous shinobi to just disappear without a trace.' Hiruzen thought trying to figure out what he was dealing with.

'There is someone behind the scenes and Naruto is important to their goals that much is certain.' Hiruzen concluded in his mind.

"That is fine. Neko, I am assigning you an A-rank mission, you will be the team leader, pick two other members, one has to be a sensor, and the other one a specialist at defensive jutsu.Both of them have to be from the anbu. Your mission will be to protect Naruto, and his safety will be your only priority for at least the next two weeks. Is that clear?" Hiruzen asks.

"Yes sir." Neko says her voice filled with determination.

[Couple hours later]

Hiruzen is sitting in his office, doing paperwork as usual. Then the door opened and a blonde man walked through the door. Seeing him Hiruzen signaled his anbu to leave.

"Hokage-sama I am here to report on Gojo." Inoichi says after entering the office. Hiruzen motioned him to sit down. Inoichi sat down and explained his encounter with the 4-year old to the old Hokage.

"I started off by introducing myself to him and he did the same. He was wary of me at first but he calmed down a bit after I started talking to him. There were times when he would look back and see where his 'Neko-neechan' was. He felt a lot more secure when she was also in the room with us, so I let her stay. After about half an hour or so he was a lot more comfortable and we could converse better." he said.

The Hokage listened intently not missing a single word.

"He is a wary and cautious child, it borders paranoia. Though that will change over time as he has more positive interactions."

"The boy is very intelligent, he learned to read on his own by listening to adults read to stories to children at the orphanage and reading books at the library. He is very diligent and observant. He is like any other kid very curious about the world around him. His hobby is to spend hours on end in the Konoha library, learning new things."

"Whenever the topic of the orphanage would come up, everything about him would change, his face would become expressionless. He would either just not say anything and stare at me or speak in an apathetic tone."

"When I tried asking him about his scars and burn marks his body stiffened for a second and then his shoulders drooped. He looked down at his knees and his hands started fidgeting. He never said how he got them or who caused it, he just said that he fell down the stairs. Talking about them made him very uncomfortable."

"When I tried talking to him about the people that attacked him. He was surprised that I knew about it but then his face lost all expression and he spoke in that apathetic tone again."

"It is only my first meeting with him but in my opinion, he is apathetic towards the people who have wronged him. He is almost incapable of feeling anything towards them. It is probably a coping mechanism, he subconsciously does not like to think about them and the things they did, so he feels nothing towards them and thus does not need to think about them."

"But he is also ashamed of the scars on his body, he does not like to talk about them but they are certainly a subject of shame for him and he would rather lie about how he got them than tell us the truth. "

"After this, I tried to change the subject and talk about the library. When we started to talk about the library, he was very excited and told me about all the books he read and the new things he learned. After talking for a while, he admitted that it was the first time someone spoke to him and listened to what he was saying."

"The boy has nothing against the village but does not feel anything towards it either. He has had very few positive interactions with the villagers, me being one of them. I would say that making some friends and socializing will be important for him. Other than that I would like to have a session with him every month." Inoichi said.

"Hmm... I understand, but on the condition that I also listen in, I want to know how their son is doing." the old Hokage said and the clan head nodded.

[With Naruto]

Naruto was walking back home after talking to Inoichi, he was quite happy it was the first time he had such a long conversation with anybody. It felt really nice when someone wanted to talk to him and listen to what he was saying. Although it was a bit awkward and first and uncomfortable when Inoichi asked about the orphanage, they got through it quickly.

'That old man was awesome.... I hope I get to talk to him again sometime.' Naruto thought as he skipped through the streets. He could feel the stares and some glares but he was too happy to care about that right now.

'Maybe I should get some ramen...' Naruto thought as he suddenly became even happier than before.

[Root Base]

"Team 3 your mission is to separate the target from the Anbu. You will use any means possible to do so. The operation will be a week from now. Here is the information on the target." Danzo says as he tosses a scroll to the leader of Team 3.

"Failure will not be tolerated." Danzo said as he dismissed them.

After he dismissed Team 3 there was still one root shinobi in the room.

"It is your responsibility to leak information about the jinchuriki. Make sure you leak it to the right people, I don't want Hiruzen to know until it is too late. A week from now I want you to make and lead the mob of civilians and shinobi that will attack the jinchuriki after he is separated from his guard." Danzo said.

"Corner the jinchuriki but do not hurt him too much. Instead, use your genjutsu skills to...."