200 My SI Stash #100 - Samsara by Seeker1629 (Naruto)

-Recently published SI Naruto fic~ I really like fics where there's not only the MC POV, but the author seems to be experimenting with no MC POV at all or just a fair amount depending on how the story goes! Really refreshing takes on SI fics.

*Old man SI to Naruto. Expect a more-mature and also some Fuinjustu Naruto!

Sypnosis: An old man's life had been defined by deception and death. He had not expected to die peacefully in his sleep at an old age but he had been relieved. Life was suffering. Death should have been the end. An undeserved peace.

It wasn't.

Follow this old man as he lives through another life of violence and grief through the eyes of those whose lives he twists.

Rated: ???

Words: 7.2K

Posted on: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/samsara-naruto-si.829524/#post-65351574 (Seeker1629)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1.1-1.2.2 (exceptional)

"Kurama, Son of Hagomoro Otsutsuki," said a high pitched voice, "I have some critical information to offer you." Kurama opened his eyes and went from lying down to fully alert within a fraction of a second. His chakra flared and the seal containing him struggled against the sudden burst for a moment before it channelled the chakra away leaving Kurama feeling drained.

He had been ignoring the brat. There had been no point in talking to him. The seal had been created four years ago, it had not degraded enough to be destroyed. He stared at the child who stood on the other side of his prison. The floating transparent glass sphere that contained him letting him see the child who stood on top of the massive skyscraper.

"How do you know that name?" he snarled. His voice was deep and he felt the whole false sub-dimension that seal created shake. The Nine-tails felt sick at the thought of this human knowing his name. Knowing about father. The young human felt almost no fear. Kurama flared his chakra and slammed his tails against the prison he was in. He ignored the pain and the chakra drain. It was worth the flare of fear and worry that the spawn felt.

Kurama cursed when he felt the flicker of fear vanish.

"Irrelevant." said the boy meeting Kurama's eyes, his tone calm even after Kurama raked his claws across the boundaries of the prison, "Simply know that Kaguya has an active agent. This agent has managed to engineer the creation of a Rinnegan and subsequently summon the husk of the Ten-Tails. Sometime during the next twenty years, the nine fragments of the beast are to be collected and used to bring her back."

Kurama fell silent. The boy wasn't lying. Or at least he believed that he was telling the truth. Kurama had always hated his empathic senses. It rarely told him something useful. What was the point of knowing that humans were nothing more than savage beasts full of envy, hate and fear? But he had never doubted it before this moment.

The boy continued. "The man who enslaved you and had you attack the village is also a part of this organization and he was nurtured by Madara prior to the man's death. It is highly unlikely that they will stop here. Please be wary."

Suddenly, he understood.

"You want me to serve you," he said, his breathing speeding up, tails moved behind him, agitated. "You've found a way to lie to me and have decided to manipulate me. LEAVE!"

"I will leave." said the human his tone as calm as before and showing none of the fear he felt, "But know that I have spoken the truth. Remember that I know your name. I know of your father and Kaguya. Please use your connection with your siblings to keep an eye on them. I believe that they need to seal you last. So if you lose track of them then you can be certain that Akatsuki has started to move."

He bowed and left.

Kurama found himself staring incredulously at the vacated spot. This four-year-old revealed a secret that no human had ever known...unless one of his idiotic siblings revealed the secret to a human. But that didn't explain why he knew about Kaguya or the Rinnegan. Even his siblings wouldn't tell anyone about that.

For the first time since his imprisonment, after several long decades, he reached for the bond he had with his siblings. Kurama paused moments before he used it.

Kushina's spawn had known about it. Was this all a plot to get him to reach out to his siblings?

The fragment of the Ten-Tails paced within his cage. The sight of the human city, one larger than any he had ever imagined, infested with millions of the pests, something that normally infuriated him was ignored.

Kurama felt like a fool. He should have extracted everything he could have from the brat. He would have to drag the boy back here and then make him talk.

He carefully ignored the part of him that feared that the boy was speaking the truth.

Chapter 1.2.1

"We must act!" said his old friend. His lone eye meeting the others in the secure meeting room one at a time. "Any weakness we show will only worsen our situation."

Shikaku's voice was flat, almost distracted as he spoke to Danzo. "That is precisely what the Raikage wants," he said, his fingers drumming on the table the four of them sat around. "We don't have the numbers for a fight against Kumo at this point."

Danzo scoffed. "You disappoint me Nara." he said glaring at the young man, "remember that we have never outnumbered any of our enemies in decades. Victory is about more than just numbers."

"Enough." he interrupted. His tone was calm but silence rapidly filled the room. Hiruzen stared at his advisors. Dragon, the Head of his ANBU divisions. Danzo, his greatest advisor and Shikaku Nara, his Jonin commander and easily one of his best strategists. And they argued like toddlers.

Kumo was testing their borders with increasing regularity. At first, they used proxies, clones and summons irregularly. Mercenaries had been captured and they had led to dead ends as the proxies who had been compelled to hire them via genjutsu had failed to reveal anything useful under Genjutsu. Initially, his suspicions had been on Iwa given that it had been his border with Waterfall that was being tested. For a long time, he had wondered if he would be faced with another war so soon after the Kyuubi attack. Then, Kumo had betrayed their hospitality and had proceeded to attempt to kidnap several Hyuuga children.

Hiruzen had capitulated to their demands. A tentative, unstable peace had resumed and Konoha had spent the past year and a half growing stronger. The Hyuuga were furious even now and he was certain that their support was impossible for him to gain but Konoha was safe from the predations of war.

It should have been enough. It would have been enough if Kumo wasn't so very eager to test him. Slowly the picture had become clear. It hadn't been Iwa or Waterfall or Grass that were testing them. They were mere distractions while the borders of his country were tested, analyzed and torn apart and now they had sent some a couple of teams to settle on their border with the Hidden Sound. Hiruzen found it quite likely that the new country was nothing more than a puppet of the Raikage. It would hardly be the first time and it explained the information vacuum from the country quite well.

"Our response must be measured," he said, staring at Danzo who suppressed his fury. "Konoha is not ready for another full-scale war. Should another war ignite it will be our last."

Shikaku looked surprised and even Danzo was stunned. It was not something he would have admitted to anyone else. It would not do for the Hokage to consider his people insufficient but the cold hard truth was that another war would be Konoha's ruin. They had survived the Third War at great cost. Their recovery had been badly disrupted by the Kyuubi's rampage and the subsequent skirmishes and the five years since had allowed them to recover slightly but it was not enough.

His people might win the first battle but they would lose the last without question. It was not a matter of skill, talent, motivation or morale. They didn't have the supplies, soldiers or allies for total war.

Hiruzen turned to Shikaku and Dragon. "I believe that you have read the reports as well," he said, feeling ashamed at his failure. Sensei would have been disappointed. He would have done better. "We have yet to recover to pre-war status and you can be certain that our enemies would be glad to take advantage of that weakness should another Great War begin."

Shikaku looked thoughtful. Dragon, whose face was shielded by his mask, revealed his worry through his body language. Danzo was furious.

"We have yet to recover fully." said Danzo, fury barely suppressed, "but we still stand above our foes. Iwa was depopulated during the war and Kumo learned that testing us was unwise. They ran from us!"

He sighed as the conversation degenerated. He was honoured by the faith that Danzo had in their village but Hiruzen knew full well that even if they won the war at this moment their country wouldn't survive for long afterwards. Konoha had made a great many enemies in its century of existence. He doubted that it would survive if it was weakened to that point.

"They ran from Minato." he corrected. "They retreated in good order and came out of the Third war in a better position than us. Two fully trained Jinchuuriki. More Jonin than we can field and in all likelihood at least twice as many chunin."

His old friend scoffed. "You and I both know that most of their shinobi are nothing." he said, waving his good arm, "Weak. Unmotivated. Dull. They are a little better than blunt instruments. Our abilities far surpass theirs." The man smiled. A cold one full of a promise of pain. "And we have the most powerful Bijuu in our service."

Anger blazed through him but he let it out with a silent breath. It left and Hiruzen found fatigue catching up to him. It was late in the evening and he had been up from the last seventeen hours. He sent a surge of chakra to reinforce himself further. Clarity returned and for an instant, his aches and pains vanished. He winced at the thought of the pain returning once he reduced his reinforcement.

"Naruto is six," he said, trying and failing to keep his tone calm, his chakra flared. Shikaku winced and his slouch vanished. It was fortunate that the seals that ensured their security also absorbed his chakra to fuel itself. "He won't be on the level of Killer B or the host of the Two-Tails for years."

"He can be," said Danzo. "He can already access the chakra of the beast. It is only a matter of training-"

This time he did not try to stay civil.

"Leave," he said, turning to Shikaku and Dragon with the last of his patience. "We shall continue this later. Expect my summons in the evening. I expect some solutions regarding the issues discussed."

Shikaku who was nearly suffocating under the chakra that Hiruzen was releasing bowed quickly. Dragon nodded soon after and led the Clan Head out of the room using the seal on his shoulder as the key needed to leave their secure sub-dimension. Then the Hokage turned to Danzo who looked relaxed. Hiruzen was certain that most would see nothing more than a calm old Shinobi. He could see, feel, that his old friend was ready for a fight.

"I do believe that I was clear that Naruto was not to be a subject of discussion," he said. Especially when Danzo's shortsighted actions would likely lead to a mentally unstable S-rank shinobi who would have the ability to release the Kyuubi at will. He respected the work that Root did for the sake of Konoha. Few others would even know of their sacrifice but Hiruzen was not blind to how many lives their work had saved. How many wars had been averted thanks to their work but it was nothing more than stupidity to expect such a training process to work successfully on a Jinchuuriki.

Root would allow Naruto to have strength, discipline and skill but it would remove any vestige of humanity from the boy. Already Naruto was cold and obsessed with training. A prodigy, certainly, but much like every other prodigy, he had witnessed he struggled to relate to ordinary people. Sensei, Orochimaru, Minato, Kakashi...time and again he had seen geniuses struggle with their emotions and their relationships. Sensei had the support of his brother and the Senju Clan. Orochimaru had thrived while Tsunade and Jiraiya had balanced him out and Minato had been the best of them thanks to his loved ones. His successor had even managed to drag Kakashi out of the darkness.

Naruto was shunned to the point that the boy had taken to using Henge from the day he had learned it to hide from the village. He trusted only a select few people and doubted and questioned almost everything even if he was cautious enough to try and hide his thoughts. Hiruzen should not have waited until Naruto had accidentally used the Kyuubi chakra to adopt him. Politics be damned, he owed that much to Minato.

"He is a Jinchuuriki," said Danzo, his tone cold. "He must serve and your sentimentality is limiting him. You know full well that he should already be in training."

"He is training."

Danzo snorted. "You call throwing Kunai, chakra control practice and learning some basic techniques training?" he said, scorn dripping. "He needs to learn to draw on the beast's chakra."

Hiruzen found his mood darkening. Danzo knew full well the cost of starting such training when Naruto's chakra system was still developing. It was entirely likely that unless he had truly, fully, inherited the Uzumaki chakra from his mother his growth would be stunted forever.

But arguing with Danzo was futile.

"He will do so when it is appropriate," he said. Danzo noted his tone and understood the dismissal of the subject.

"They are moving forward with their plans," he said, careful not to specify anything even in this secure room.

The abilities of the Mangekyou were varied and powerful. It would be unwise to assume that the Uchiha couldn't listen in to their conversations.

"Keep me updated," he said. A warning in his tone. This would be his duty. He didn't want to think about what Danzo thought was appropriate for the Uchiha. "I plan to speak to their leader soon."

A nod was all he received before Danzo stood and left.

Hiruzen leaned back against his chair and let go of his reinforcement for an instant. A moment that was less than a tenth of a second before returning it to normal. The pain overcame his fatigue and he was wide awake.

He didn't have time to rest. Not yet.

The old Hokage pulled some of the reports out from the storage seal on his wrist. He had received them from his internal threat assessment team. The Hyuuga and Uchiha were displeased. The Daimyo was eagerly holding his foolish son hostage and his ANBU were so thoroughly gutted by the past two decades that he needed to relax standards to get them up to the minimum required numbers in accordance with his plans.

His chakra flared and mind blazed. The ill-effects of age were numbed for the moment. He nodded at Bear who delivered his dinner. Hiruzen took a bite, the taste was bland and apologized to his daughter and grandsons. He would miss another meal with them.

The Hokage got to work.

Chapter 1.2.2

Hiruzen loved to study Konoha anonymously.

It was a simple truth that few were completely honest to the Hokage about their troubles or concerns. A combination of fear and awe removed anyone with that title from the normal people. It made the simplest method of finding troubles, simply asking, an impossibility unless he did it subtly from a distance through proxies. It made unbiased observation impossible as his presence disrupted the area he was in.

Thankfully he had a great many techniques to get over such a hurdle. Invisibility, transformations that even Hyuuga couldn't bypass, the Crystal Orb of Pericognition, Shadow Clones that were transformed, hearing enhancement etc. Any of these techniques would be more than enough to get past the ordinary denizen of his country. He had refined even his transformation to the point that it was impossible to identify.

That was precisely what he was using right now. A simple transformation into an ordinary shopkeeper. Clothing, gait, smell and even the hair was just right to be normal yet unnoticeable. The market place was busy even this late at night. Seal based lights lit the streets and the sounds of thousands of people occupied his ears. He filtered out most of the conversation but his senses allowed him to sense the lack of hostility or worry. His people walked around him, some shoved him out of the way when he moved too slowly, but for the most part, they were relaxed and at ease.

He smiled behind his transformation even as the civilian he was supposed to be ambled forward into the less developed districts of his domain. It had been annoying to force his bodyguards to leave but it was worthwhile.

As the city around him began to grow poorer the transformation he wore began to shift slightly. Clothing gained just a little bit more dust, his form some muscle and his expression grew colder. He stopped hiding the Kunai he stored with the seals on his wrists and hung them from his belt openly, subtly shadow cloning them when no one was watching.

The worn-out housing, the pervasive smell of refuse, relatively poor streets and garbage the polluted it was something he hated to see. Worse still were the people who moved around with fatigue as they returned from jobs that demanded everything and provided little in return. It was a sign of his failure. A clear demonstration of his limits just as the teeming market place had been a sign of the work that Sensei and Lord Hashirama had done.

Yet, there was little he could do to solve these problems at the moment. His former allies had proven to be...difficult. His support base little more than faded remnants of their glory. The clans were as unruly as ever and the dual threats of Kumo and Iwa were unceasing. He simply lacked the money and resources needed to renovate the Second District. Had the Senju survived it would have been their duty to manage the area but with their deaths and the Clan itself losing most of its land thanks to Tsunade's gambling debts there was little wealth to spare. Not when he would need every last fragment for the wars to come.

Hiruzen shook his head in dismay. Memories of the energetic brat he had taught warring with the broken, drunken woman who roamed the country burning her inheritance away and spurning her duties.

It was a measure of the depth of his failures that she was not the student he failed the most.

The Hokage sped up. He moved into an alleyway. Ignored the filth pouring out of the large garbage containers and changed his transformation for the last time and reinforced his body to the maximum. He took the form of a middle-aged ninja and rapidly ran up the walls and took to the rooftop pathways.

He moved faster than most could see. His body ached but it was a good ache. It made him feel alive instead of tempting him into a coffin. The cold, sharp wind washed his worries away. He laughed openly at the incredulous glance a young lady gave him as he blazed past her home fast enough that she saw little more than a blur.

A minute later, too soon, he was back home. He dialled back his reinforcement slightly and winced as the cost of his moment of freedom came back to haunt him. He jumped off the roof and landed near his estate. His transformation had faded.

It took a moment for his barriers to test him and another for the ANBU guards on his family and Naruto to ensure that he was not a threat. A flare of his chakra with his palm underneath the handle of the large gate had it open. A final test.

He nodded at the plainclothes ANBU guards who were manning the gates and walked in. They did not bow and instead stayed careful and aware, only acknowledging him with a salute. He smiled at them. They were new to ANBU but had stayed disciplined when it would have been natural to kneel or bow.

A glance at the moon told him all he needed to know. He was late, again, but he had expected it. It was why he had used some of his time to study Konoha. Takara was always tired. Konohamaru tended to ensure that and Naruto was quite punctual when it came to sleep timings. He would be up early in the morning but with midnight being merely an hour away he could only expect them to be asleep.

Thus, it was a surprise to see Takara waiting in the dining room with her son sleeping in her lap.

"Father," she said and then flicked her head towards the plates covered on the table she was kneeling next to. "Please have a meal. I doubt you've eaten enough."

Hiruzen felt a flood of apprehension. It was not like her to bother. She had long since given up on bothering to look after him.

"Thank you," he said. Not mentioning the plain dinner he had taken back in his office a couple of hours prior. A quick prayer to the Sage and he started to eat his simple meal of fried fresh fish and rice.

The taste was nostalgic and he realized why his daughter was awake. Hiruzen closed his eyes and cursed his foolish self. Biwako would have laughed at him and then proceeded to make his life hell for forgetting their anniversary.

He gazed at Takara feeling a bitter surge of emotion as he saw Biwako in her calm, cold expression. "Thank you," he repeated, though for different reasons. Takara accepted it with a gracious nod but he could tell that this was just another barrier between them.

"I'll put him to sleep." She said, "Naruto is training outside, he was waiting for you. Please tell him to go rest after speaking to him."

He hesitated and she left before he could respond.

He sighed. Hiruzen didn't even have the energy to curse the familiar silence that filled the room. He glanced at his meal and quickly choked it down, unwilling to squander it, the taste had been exquisite but he barely felt it now.

Hiruzen left the plate to his servants and moved to the training grounds where he could feel Naruto's powerful chakra, with his Yamananka derived sensory technique, flickering in a familiar pattern of rising to a peak, maintain and fall that belonged to him while meditating or creating seals. At this range, he could feel the slight tinge of the Kyuubi's acidic chakra that marked Naruto at the edge of his senses.

He was greeted with the sight of a training ground that was mostly neat...with the noticeable exception of a large part that seemed to have been scooped up by a giant kunai.

He suppressed his sigh and glanced at the blonde who was sitting on the ground. Naruto looked at him with a sheepish expression. Naruto had been experimenting with storage seals again.

Hiruzen would never want the child to stop improving his talents but his unconventional and frequently ridiculous uses of Seals, something that often had unexpected results, was not something he liked. The ANBU would likely keep both Naruto and his family safe and the training grounds in his backyard was surrounded by powerful barrier seals but he had the feeling that it would not be enough.

The Kyuubi chakra powered explosive seal had been proof of that.

"What happened?" he asked, voice dry.

Naruto smiled. "A storage seal with an alteration to the demarcation area with high-end Chakra investment." He said, "It's situational but it should allow for non-living things to be consumed into the seal in large areas...for as long as one can invest a ton of chakra."

Hiruzen considered that. It was possible but…"I imagine that it is very, very easy to disrupt."

His smile vanished. "You're right," he admitted begrudgingly, "I'll try to see if I can stabilize that but it's pretty unlikely with the current level of affinity I have for space-time based phenomenon."

The Hokage smiled at the formal, defensive tone. It was rather adorable to see the child take his criticism so seriously when no other five year old could have done anything like this. Minato and Kushina would be proud. It was one of the few childish behaviours he got to see from Naruto. Yet, even as he considered the seal in greater detail he could see Naruto carefully shunting his emotions away. Bringing himself back into complete control.

It was things like this more than his sheer skill at the Sealing Arts that convinced Hiruzen that Naruto was a genius. He was clumsy when it came to social manipulations but he was learning faster than any normal child could have done. Still, he was glad that the boy had let go of his self-control, even if it was only for a moment, his years in the orphanage had not allowed Naruto to freely express himself.

"Do you want to test out any other seals?" he asked. Certain of the answer that he would receive.

Naruto smiled and nodded. He pulled out three rolls of paper, low quality, with a fair amount of chakra infused within them. Then he closed his eyes, his expression a picture of concentration, three threads emerged from his right hand and attached themselves to the papers. Naruto opened his eyes and flicked his hand outwards. The papers took an unnatural path through the air, the strings rather than gravity directing their flight, and landed a couple of meters from them.

"Watch this," he said, eyes closed again, his face once more a mask of concentration. Hiruzen noted that the papers were the same to his chakra senses. And then blinked rapidly after turning his head instinctively. He suppressed his immediate reaction to flare his chakra and attack.

The papers had produced an intense light for less than a tenth of a second. He had reacted more or less instantly but the three papers had worked together to move and point themselves right at his eyes. It was probably why the chakra strings were used. Naruto had to coordinate and move them and he hadn't figured out how to do that with a seal.

Naruto waited patiently for HIruzen's eyes to recover. "Decent," he said honestly. "But it needs to be triggered with greater ease."

The blonde nodded with a disconcertingly cold expression. "Understood." he said, then tilted his head, "Was the effect decent?"

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes," he said, still seeing spots flashing in his eyes. Reinforcement on his eyes had made the effects worse. "It will be quite useful in a lot of contexts but you do know that such Blinders are commonly made. You could have used a preexisting one as a baseline."

"I know," he said with a shrug, relaxing slightly, "but the main objective was to see if I could make one on my own with limited resources and it was an easy seal to alter and test with limited harm if I made a mistake."

Hiruzen chuckled. "It's good to see that you're taking safety seriously," he said, glad to see the maturity he had come to expect from Naruto. His adopted grandson was normally quite cautious but when it came to testing the ideas he had he was rather reckless and impatient. "But you should go to bed."

Naruto nodded. He didn't meet Hiruzen's eyes. "Sorry." he said, tone morose, "But I just had to test this out and I didn't want to ruin my room...I'll clean the training field and get some rest."

Hiruzen nodded and Naruto began to use his chakra strings to clean up the terrain. The Hokage would use some Earth Elemental techniques to fix the damage to the ground. He considered the near six-year-old and Danzo's words. The academy was starting its second semester of the year soon. It was not too late to have him join.

Hiruzen would be the first to crush Danzo should his friend propose excessive training for Naruto but he couldn't deny some simple facts. Naruto was a Jinchuuriki and a genius. He was physically better than most, skilled and emotionally mature. The academy would not be a struggle for him. Indeed, Hiruzen suspected that barring the Genjutsu and some other aspects which required strict control he would not struggle at all but then the academy was meant to do more than just provide skills needed to graduate. It was a system where the children who were Konoha's future made lifelong friends and if there was one thing that Naruto lacked it was peers.

A friend, rivals, competition and or even just a small group to play with would do wonders for Naruto. As it stood Naruto shunned almost everyone. He ignored the villagers. Disregarded them utterly and was cautious around Takara and Hiruzen despite it being nearly a year and a half since his adoption.

It wasn't a surprise. Naruto was a genius. He would not have taken long to realize that the orphanage and the village as a whole were subtly hostile but the effects it was having on him could problematic in the long run. It was a cruel thought but Naruto was a Jinchuuriki. His loyalty was not something Konoha could afford to risk.

He ignored the furious part of him that reminded him that this wouldn't even be a concern if the average person of his domain wasn't willing to scapegoat Naruto for being a prison. Kushina would have butchered the fools. He had no doubt she was tempted to kill them all from the pure world.

"Naruto," he called out. The Jinchuuriki paused in his attempts to clean the area and looked at him. Hiruzen waved him closer and spoke when he arrived. "What do you think about the academy?"

It took an instant for his charge to figure out what Hiruzen was thinking. "I have six months left before I can join." he pointed out.

"Exceptions can be made for skilled candidates," he said, thinking of the large list of exceptions the clans had made sure to include when the academy had first been proposed. It would be nice to make use of them for once.

"Skilled?" he muttered and paused for a long moment before deciding to speak. "Is this because of the Nine-Tails?" Naruto's eyes went towards his belly where underneath his black shirt the Seal that imprisoned the Nine-Tails manifested. Hiruzen could see a small part of it sneak around Naruto's neck like an ink serpent.

"No.," he said firmly, lying and speaking the truth, he was suggesting it because of Naruto's status though for indirect reasons, "It is because you possess the skills and maturity needed to thrive in the academy."

Naruto looked sceptical but nodded. "Wouldn't it be more useful to have me trained separately so that I can learn to use the Nine-Tails chakra?" he said. "I doubt that the academy can teach me that."

It took Hiruzen a moment to understand why Naruto was asking such a question and another to realize why he looked so worried. Until now, Naruto's entire life had been decided by the Nine-tails in one way or another. Hiruzen should have expected the boy to suspect that same for this.

"It can teach you other, more important things," he said firmly, "You can truly learn of the will of fire, the basics of the Shinobi arts in more detail and best of all you will have friends and rivals who can help you learn better."

Naruto said nothing. He didn't meet Hiruzen's eyes. The Hokage placed a hand of Naruto's shoulder.

"Give it a chance," he said. "It will go well." Hiruzen would ensure it. The teachers would be getting a message from him to make sure of that. He wasn't willing to leave it on faith after the mess at the orphanage.

Naruto was sceptical but he was polite enough to nod. "Understood." he said, then hesitated, "Can you teach me some things before the academy starts? I'm not from a Clan or anything. I don't want to fall behind the others there."

Hiruzen laughed at the thought but entertained the notion. "What would you like to learn?"

Naruto smiled, "Some more sealing!" he said. "Oh! And some cool elemental ninjutsu."

"Tomorrow," he promised, trying to decide what to cancel from his itinerary, leading Naruto back to their home, glad to see the concern vanish from his demeanour.