13 Haphazard [Part-13]

'I don't even know what to think of this anymore. *Sigh* I knew there was something wrong with whatever they were teaching but... Then again I can't really blame them. It did achieve some sort of peace. Not only that, it takes time to achieve the peace that they were hoping for. Especially in their times, someone even having the idea of peace must have been shocking.

And it is hard to let of revenge and the feelings of hatred just because someone else preaches of love.

Why did my brain have to over think so much? Maybe I can find some medicine to make my brain slow down or something...'

Veronica sighed yet again and thought back to how she had come to very bad conclusions after overthinking for a whole night.

The first hokage, he was probably a war criminal now that she thought about it. Not only that, he hunted down the innocent tailed beasts and sealed them inside people and claimed that these beasts were natural disasters of some sort. He took away their freedom and made many jinchuuriki have such a terrible life. Or maybe, she guessed, it were some other people who did that.

The second hokage, he was a fine leader and yet he had sown the seeds for the Uchiha's hatred although that wasn't his purpose. He failed to notice that not only Danzo, but also Hiruzen had a dark side to them and that Hiruzen wouldn't be able to handle all of this mess by himself. He might have been the best hokage of the first three since he didn't let his hatred for the Uchiha blind him of his decisions as a Hokage. Although he couldn't prevent war from happening even though the whole purpose of the village was to stop war.

The third hokage, he's just... Well, Veronica understand why he can't do a lot of things but he let himself get caught up in the council's mess and forgot that he was the Hokage. He could do anything he wanted.

He not only didn't help the Uzumaki clan, and the other small clans which stayed in Uzushio, but also decided to go through with the Uchiha massacre. He could've easily handled the situation by giving them more credit and raising the publics opinion about them when the rumors had just started. As a leader he should've been able to see that coming at least. Or maybe at least come to a better solution then having Itachi go rogue. He couldn't even handle Naruto, he gave him up in the orphanage and didn't check that he was being left out and bullied. He was indecisive. And although he was a good shinobi but being a leader was not his forte.

He also couldn't handle Orochimaru, which Veronica was guessing that he may have turned out okay if the village had shown him love, and the worst of it all might have been that he let Danzo continue his ways.

Jiraiya neglected Naruto and his duties as his god parent and never got serious about teaching him. He wasted all of Naruto's potential by just teaching him the rasengan and nothing else. Although he was a hero, he was still a coward just like his teacher.

Tsunade was never a good Hokage and never will be because of her mental state. She was also a coward but she never even bothered clean up some of the mess left behind by Hiruzen or take steps to improve the quality of the village. She just left things as they were. However, to Veronica she was better than Hiruzen was. Although they both were very good shinobi but in other matters... They were still idiots.

But she might have mostly been bothered by the fact that Tsunade hadn't been declared a missing nin. Veronica was sure that a lot of shinobi who had gone rogue like Tsunade had been declared as missing nin and for Tsunade to be the fifth Hokage... It was a bit unsettling.

Veronica knew that it was hypocritical of her to even think about this as she was sure that if she was in there place then she would've been the one to release Kaguya instead of Madara or Obito. She knew that she might have turned out be a lot worse than they did.

*I'm not even going to get mad anymore, I just have to learn to expect the lowest from people, even the ones I thought the highest of.*

Sighing, she decided to meditate (taking deep breaths and calming all her senses not Chakra building) and tuned out the rest of what the teacher had been teaching her. She usually never missed class and payed attention but she already knew everything and didn't feel like listening to her teacher go on and on about how great of a village Konoha was and how some animals bred.

Soon enough, classes were over. Deciding to go straight back home, she informed her friends and just said she was tired when they asked why. She could see Shikamaru clearly not buying her excuse but didn't bother to say anything. He would ask her if he was really that curious and Veronica wasn't in the mood to humor his thoughts.

Just as she was about to leave, she noticed Naruto's 'former' bullies eyeing Naruto again. She knew immediately that the moment she left they would separate him from the others and bully him again. Sighing yet again, she grabbed Naruto and took off to Kakashi's house.

They quickly reached the place and Veronica undid the seal and went in with Naruto. He was surprised to find a seal there instead of the usual lock. She explained that there always had been a lock but Kakashi had it changed for her so she wouldn't have any problems coming in and out.

<You can go change and stuff. I'm thinking of training for a while.>

"Hey um... Vero-chan?"-Naruto

Veronica raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue.

"Are you ok? You look... like you need to let out some stress."-Naruto

Veronica contemplated whether she should tell him what she had deduced about the the Hokages. She didn't want to 'ruin' his innocence. Not yet at least. And she didn't want to be targeted by the ANBU following him.

'Well, he isn't really all that innocent. The village has already made his mind a lot more 'unbreakable'. I doubt this would actually affect him as much.

Why is this even affecting ME this much? Probably because I used to believe that at least the first hokage was a 'perfect' man. Same with the sanins too. I guess I'm just a big disappointed. I guess this was a good thing for me to learn that everybody isn't perfect. At least I know that when Naruto becomes Hokage he slowly and steadily makes amends and fixes his predecessors mistakes.

Or maybe the stress is piling up... I'll probably break soon enough...'

*Expectation is the root of all headache.*

In the end, she just told him that she hadn't slept at all the previous night and was just tired. She put on her mask and he seemed to have bought the excuse. She knew that bottling up all her feelings was not the way to go but, she had never been taught to do anything else. She had learned through out her life (/lives) to be independent. She hadn't even been able to depend on Lily fully and... Coming here, she didn't know what else to do.

The two kids just sat down while Naruto ate some of Veronica's cookies.

Naruto was always fond of his friend. At first he thought she didn't like talking much but then he realized that she always had so much to say. She just chose not to say it.

<You know, where I came from there was someone I idolized. He said, 'I don't quit, I don't run and I never go back on my word.'>

Naruto had stars in his eyes as he heard this while Veronica chuckled seeing this adorable side of him. It was fun seeing him fanboy over his own future self.

"Yea, I'll become someone like that Veronica! I'll be Hokage!!! Believe it!"-Naruto

"Of course I believe it..."-Veronica

They both had silly smiles on their faces while they laid on the floor.

It was still summer so the heat was unbearable to the two children. Veronica really wanted to lay down in the AC room that Lily had in her house right now. She chuckled at the memory of Lily and her just sitting in front of the AC, dressed as penguins, while her husband brought them food. Lily's husband, Haneul, had laughed so much seeing them like that.

After a little spar, they decided to study a bit. Veronica helped Naruto by giving him hints from time to time. She had only lit a fire in Naruto and gently pushed him in the right direction. He was doing fine on his own after that.

'Well, I will be done by the basics soon enough. I should probably ask why Naruto can't do the clone jutsu so that Kakashi could actually do something to help since Iruka hasn't realized the reason why he can't do it is because of his vast chakra.

Or I'll just have to find a way to go to the Hokage. I still don't understand how Naruto was made of fun because he couldn't pass the exam before in the series. All the children in his class were his age, which meant that they also must not have passed the exam right? Whatever, its just a waste of time to think about this now.

I'll start with tree climbing and water walking, or whatever I find, after I'm done with this Naruto issue. But then there will be the problem of explaining where I learnt it all from. I'll do it after I find some sort of teacher or maybe just pester Kakashi to tell me. I'll also have a couple of fights with Sasuke and let him see that Naruto is just as strong as he is right now so he won't have that inferiority complex of his... Hopefully he won't. There was also that superiority complex of his but I guess that may just run in the Uchiha family.'

Veronica's thoughts drifted off to her regular meditation and she couldn't help but be thankful for Kakashi for encouraging, as much as he could, her to do it regularly. It wasn't that noticeable before but now she could see her chakra flow being more calm and her reserved increasing bit by bit.

'I wonder why he quit the ANBU so late though. It was clear to everyone that it had taken a toll on his mental health, I don't know what to expect from him had I not met him when I did.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't really the mess in his house that made me sure that he was suffering, was it? It might just have been the lack of light in the house, or maybe the blood stained clothes, probably from Rin or Obito's death, that he just couldn't bear to throw out by himself.

Well, I'm glad I met him when I did. I guess we both saved each other in a way.'

She soon forgot to ask Kakashi why Naruto couldn't do the clone jutsu after being done with her inner musings.