Chapter 1: Genetics

The boy looked with blank eyes as he stood within the market street of Konoha. Dead bodies littered within the streets as a stream of blood flowed throughout the village.

The overcharged emotional hatred that the villagers had forcibly repressed for the boy had furiously burst open with a vengeance, when they learned that the boy had passed his shinobi graduation exam, after being carefully guided by some discrete prodding from some nefarious elements in the village; who wished to gain political leverage in the village by trying to manipulate that atmosphere for pursuing their own agenda and succeed in their goals.

Once the boy had passed, on the very same day after some time, some of the people who had regularly tormented the boy in his childhood were brutally murdered and their mutilated corpses had been displayed in the village square, with a forged note that literally screamed that the boy had done it. Add the fact that it was done on the anniversary of the Kyuubi attack and with the flaming words written in the forged note; along with some provocative speeches by the agents of the people who masterminded this scheme; this act had broken the forced restraint of the villagers and they were lost to a frenzy of bloodlust and lost all sense of logic and reasoning. Rumors that the boy had stolen the sacred scroll of seals in an attempt to release the Kyuubi added to their zeal as well.

The villagers in the mad frenzy of revenge had killed the only two persons in the village who had ever cared for the boy. Iruka Umino was killed by the villagers for the crime of passing the demon child, while the third hokage had been betrayed by his own shinobi and was murdered.

Then, the crowd in bloodlust had turned to hunt the boy and murder him. However, once the boy learned of the death of his two parental figures, he entered a catatonic state where his mind went numb with the shock. Such severe psychological trauma, exacerbated with the extreme amount of physical torture inflicted upon him removed the final vestiges of humanity in him. He simply allowed the crowd to do whatever it wished. He now had no desire to live.

However, the crowd in their frenzy to kill the boy forgot to factor in one crucial element. The demon sealed in the boy was not willing to end its existence in such a manner. Due to the nature of assault the boy's mind had endured, his brain shut down allowing the demon to temporarily gain control of his body.

The result was too catastrophic to imagine.

2/3rds of the village population was exterminated, or rather to say subjected to genocide by the demon possessed child.

The plan concocted by the person who had orchestrated these attacks to gain control of the village had backfired magnificently. Konoha was now damaged beyond repair.

As the child stared blankly at him, Council member Danzo glared at the boy who had single handedly destroyed all his plans. All his scheming, planning and maneuvering had come to naught. He trembled in incandescent rage. His Root forces had been exterminated. The shinobi forces were totally incapable of handling the boy and 65% of Konoha Ninja Forces were now extinct. However, the civilian damage was the highest. In the 11 years it had been imprisoned in the boy, the demon had cultivated an extreme hatred for the villagers of the village when it witnessed the extreme xenophobia the villagers had exhibited towards its prisoner. It had relished in its temporary freedom, and finally it had achieved its goal. More than 90% of Konoha's civilian population had been the direct target of the demon's attention. Konoha would never rise again.

As Danzo watched everything he had hope for crumble, he saw that the demon had finally released its hold on the boy, and that the boy had finally reverted to his catatonic state.

He may have lost, but he would gain some satisfaction by killing the one who had cost him everything. As Danzo was about to move towards the boy, loud ringing laughter rang throughout the streets.

Danzo turned around and saw the one person who would probably have enjoyed what had happened.

Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin stood in the blood strewn street clearly savoring what had happened.

He looked at Danzo and smirked, "You were always too ambitious for your own good, Danzo. In your bid to gain power, you overlooked one fact. You never involve demons in the affairs of humans. I too had created the same plan you used, but I abandoned it, because I knew it would have this effect. You, in your greed and haste did, and as a result today you have destroyed Konoha itself. I must say I have to thank you, in a way you did do my work for me. I always did say that Konoha was too corrupt to survive. It was only a matter of time before the village destroyed itself and I must say it has been & in a rather spectacular fashion," he again laughed loudly as Danzo scowled.

"I didn't anticipate this turn of events. If I had known this would happen, I would have never involved the demon," the crippled man spat with disgust.

Orochimaru shook his head, "Probably not like this, but you definitely would not have left him alone. He is a rather valuable commodity, is he not? Even at a fraction of all the unlimited power in the world sealed within him, he has brought down one of the 5 major powers in the world. No wonder, that almost every nation in the world covets them. Poor child, born the son of the greatest of our kind; oh yes, I admit it, Minato surpassed even me, but still, to be hated and shunned by the very ones he protected, such is the fate of Jinchuuriki," the man sighed dramatically.

"They are needed, but not wanted, however, today I believe the world has learnt a valuable lesson; either treat them well or don't create them at all. The world will be thanking you, Danzo. You will be remembered as the fool who taught the world a valuable lesson. Because of your actions, from now on, either Jinchuuriki will cease to exist or they will be treated like royalty. Sad that the one who was responsible for these turn of events will not experience that," he mocked the man.

Danzo growled, "Why are you here?"

"I am here for the boy. Oh, don't look at me like that. You think I will let the one who fulfilled my ambition be left like this, to be hunted by the world? My shinobi are already exterminating all the remnants of Konoha. Soon, no single person will be living in this place. Once, their job is done, I will bury the village and mark it as a mausoleum. Only my two former teammates will remain alive along with me as the remainders and the proudest achievements of what used to be KONOHA!"

Before Danzo could reply, he fell down dead as a white bone pierced him, and as it sprouted out of his chest Kimimaro Kaguya walked in.

"Well done, Kimimaro-kun, take the child and bring him to Kabuto. I want him to be cared for very well. Now leave, while I finish my preparations," he ordered as the white haired teenager went towards the vacant looking boy and led him away. The boy did not react at all and let himself be herded away like a sheep.

An hour later, the greatest explosion in the history of the shinobi world reduced and buried an entire village. On that day, status quo was changed in the shinobi world, as only 4 major powers remained. Jiraiya and Tsunade were heartbroken with grief.

9 Months Later

In one of the many bases of Orochimaru, Kabuto Yakushi looked at the glass jar in front of him. In it was the most prized genetic experiment of Orochimaru.

Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi was in suspended animation. He had been subjected to many genetically altering experiments that would have been impossible to conduct on normal shinobi or human beings.

When he had arrived, his mind had been so heavily fractured and damaged beyond repair, that they had no other alternative but to use a forbidden technique and completely erase every vestige of human emotions within him to spare the torture his hellish memories inflicted upon him. Even the intensity of those memories was dampened.

The technique was used in such a severe level, that he lost most of his memories. He forgot most of the events that had occurred in his life. He barely remembered his name, and those of his meager acquaintances that he had had once upon a time. However, the memories of the day of graduation were firmly entrenched in his mind, that and many of the memories of the various instances of psychological abuses he had suffered were still there. But at the same time, due to the brilliance of Orochimaru's techniques, he no longer felt any type of emotion whatsoever.

Orochimaru's aim in experimenting on him was to create the perfect shinobi. His body was being genetically engineered to peak levels. Knowledge of certain fighting arts was forcibly imprinted in his mind.

However, the ultimate pinnacle of his bioengineering skills was successfully proven when he managed to finally integrate the cellular samples taken from the corpse of the Nidaime Hokage into the boy.

As he had once failed to integrate the cellular structure of the Shodai who happened to be the elder brother of the Nidaime, in order to recreate the ability of Mokuton; Orochimaru had this time decided to take a more calculated and subtle approach. While not as powerful as his brother, the Nidaime was still a very powerful shinobi who ranked among the 5 most powerful ninja of all time. What Orochimaru intended to achieve was to give Naruto the same level of mastery the Nidaime had in his elemental abilities. The Nidaime had taken elemental chakra manipulation to the highest level biologically. His body had attuned itself and refined his two elemental natures of water and lightning particularly to the level where they were almost like a second skin to him. Added to the fact that he was also a master of Genjutsu was just an icing on the cake.

However, the operation was not without its side effects upon Naruto. While his regenerative abilities allowed him to survive the rigor of the operations, his body underwent drastic changes. His body structure changed and he now resembled a teenaged version of a hybrid of Naruto and the Nidaime. While he retained his looks, his hair was now white and resembled the ancient Hokage's hair. He also attained the distinctive markings the Nidaime had on his face, and his whiskers were now gone. He now had three brown markings like tree branches, one from the bottom of the chin rising up to the point below his mouth and two of them arising from behind his ears and falling just short of reaching the gap between the nose and the spots just below the eyes. His eyes also became brown instead of blue colored.

And to Orochimaru's immense delight, he displayed that he had indeed acquired the two elemental natures and they were rapidly beginning to evolve to the level of the deceased hokage. Orochimaru in his exuberance implanted the knowledge of some of the powerful water and lightning techniques he knew to the boy.

Today however, was a special day. They were about to initiate the final phase in the experiment, after which the boy would be removed from suspended animation and tested out.

As Kabuto looked up, he saw Orochimaru busy with a certain sealing array.

Orochimaru had decided that Naruto's mind was in a too fragmented state and it had to be renewed completely. Simply put, he was going to wipe the boy's mind completely, and install a new set of memories. In this set of memories, the boy would retain the memories of his village tormenting him, and him slaughtering the village, but at the same time, he would be removed of all sorts of emotion, but, and this was the brilliant part, he would not be removed of rational thinking. In short, he would be nothing but a perfect fighting machine with unparalleled intelligence and a being devoid of most of the human emotions. This would, according to Orochimaru, in theory, mitigate any emotional damage the boy may otherwise undergo. The boy for all purposes would be what would be termed in scientific terms as a robot with sentience.

Orochimaru had taken great pains to ensure that the Kyuubi didn't interfere in his work. However, he had not realized that the amount of experimentation he had done on Naruto would have actually destroyed the boy, if not for the Kyuubi's hastened regenerative abilities and that had had rather unexpected consequences, which he was about to find out soon.

As Orochimaru was nearing the end of his operations, suddenly the entrance to the room was blown wide open and the entire Akatsuki stepped in.

Madara Uchiha stepped forward, and spoke, "Did you really think you could hide him from us, Orochimaru? You were too busy in experimenting on your new pet, that you actually ignored us, as you will now learn to regret. Hand over the Jinchuuriki, and we will make your death quick and painless."

Orochimaru scoffed and prepared to battle, however, he knew that his chances were slim. Therefore, he decided to awaken Naruto and field test him to even out the odds somewhat. However, in his haste, he forgot that his operation was still incomplete. He had finished the planting of memories and the removal of emotions; however he had not yet sealed the technique, which meant that although the boy had lost all emotions, he was not barred from learning them again. That would prove to be both a boon and a curse in the future for Naruto.

As the battle near them hastened, the Kyuubi which had been severely weakened made a rather rash decision.

"So, he is here, I must now hurry or else all will be lost. I don't know whether this will work. The seal forbids me, but it has now weakened thanks to the snake, and there is the faintest chance that this may work," it grumbled and began to unleash all its chakra.

As the fox began to unleash all its chakra, the combat in the room stopped. Madara tried to use his Sharingan to subdue the Kyuubi, however because of the condition that Naruto now was in, his Tsukuyomi was not even worth a damn, and therefore Kyuubi was not impeded.

The Kyuubi piled on tail upon tail of chakra, until it began to seep out through various forced cuts from the boy's body. The seal had until then prevented the Kyuubi from escaping from the boy's body, however, the weakening had dampened its effect, and the Kyuubi had theorized that although it couldn't escape from the area in which the seal was proscribed, it could in theory escape by forcing its way out of other areas of the boy's body. The success rate for this was well below 1 percent, but the Kyuubi was beyond caring.

It should have cared. The seal reacted, albeit lately and as soon as it sensed that a part of the Kyuubi's sentience leaking out, it clamped down.

So, in essence, the Kyuubi was now trapped between Naruto and the outside world, and as the seal had not expected this anomaly, it overloaded. Because of the augmented physical characteristics of the boy's body, thanks to Orochimaru's experimentation, the Kyuubi was forcibly ejected out of Naruto.

However, the chakra overload piled and imploded in itself creating a wormhole that began to suck everything in the area. Because, he was unconscious, Naruto was instantly sucked in and to the horror of everybody vanished.

However, as the very force that was tethering the chakra itself was cut off, the chakra had no recourse but to detonate. And so it did, the Kyuubi, Orochimaru and the entire Akatsuki, including even Madara and Pein were annihilated in what was termed forever in the shinobi world as 'the day of the black sun.'

The entire rice country was devastated by the explosion. Even though he was gone, the child of prophecy had brought balance to the world. However, his adventures were far from over. His new life was about to begin.

As Naruto woke up groggily, he was surprised to find himself in a forest. He stood up to see where he was and to get his bearings. His body was still injured and there were lacerations on his body, however most of the cuts were healed. As he walked forward, he suddenly stopped.

In front of him, a mile away, stood Konoha. But that was not possible. Konoha was dead. Suddenly, he grabbed his head and sat down as a searing pain shot in his head. As the memory modification process initiated by Orochimaru had been interrupted, his memories were now a jumbled mess. He remembered the torture the villagers inflicted upon him as well as the murders of Iruka and the old man. He also remembered bits and traces of him losing control and slaughtering what appeared to be…villagers and shinobi.

He stood and stared at the village. He could now leave and never return. But that would lead to another slew of problems. However, he came to the conclusion that he had very little information. He had no recollection of what had happened. He did not know whether he had come back to the past, or to another dimension. So, his most promising option would be to enter the village.

As he moved forward, suddenly he buckled and collapsed. As he groaned, his brain was assaulted by memories, feelings and thoughts of another being. As he lay there moaning, after an hour when his body had stabilized he got up to his knees panting. The new set of memories he gained were of…him!

As weird as it was, Naruto had gained the memories of…Naruto! So, his initial estimate had been correct. He was in the past or more accurately a parallel dimension. However, as two souls could not exist in the same plane at the same time, the soul of the apparently weaker Naruto had been absorbed into him. But, the Kyuubi was not present in him, and if the soul of the younger Naruto was gone, that meant that he had perished, and that would mean the seal on his body would be activating right now and…

He sank to the ground as the most massive spike of chakra he had ever seen erupted as screams and shouts were heard from the village. Naruto could not bear the strain anymore and collapsed.

He never saw the ANBU come near him, accompanied by the Hokage as they carried him into the village.

In the hospital Sarutobi was pacing frantically. When the spike of chakra had erupted, he had feared that the demon had ruptured the seal and had escaped. He had first gone to the boy's apartment, but it had burnt to cinders. Soon, he traced the boy's chakra signature to the forest outside the wall and raced there. His shock at seeing the new appearance of the boy was mitigated by the sheer panic and hysteria gripping the village.

As he was musing in his thoughts, he was interrupted by the head healer.

"How is he?" the hokage asked immediately.

"He is tired, and has undergone severe strain. However, as far as we can say, he is completely normal. But his new condition is baffling. We tested him for bloodline capability taking in his new appearance and the results were…well…surprising," the healer spoke in a hushed tone.

"Surprising? How?" the hokage asked.

"Take a look," the healer gave the charts to the hokage.

As Sarutobi looked at it, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"This is…," he whispered.

"Yes," the healer continued, "That boy is a direct descendant of the Nidaime. He has inherited his abilities exactly. His body is also showing similarities physically. We don't understand how it is possible," the man threw his arms up in exasperation.

"Let me see him," the hokage spoke and without waiting for a response barged in.

He lifted the boy's shirt and gaped. The seal was gone.

Gulping, the old man channeled some chakra in the spot.

Empty. No trace of the demon. No residual chakra as well.

"Hokage-sama," the healer asked tremulously. He knew the ramifications of such an occurrence.

"The demon is gone! It is really, really gone!" the hokage exclaimed loudly.

"That is… excellent news, hokage-sama," the man whispered as his eyes began to glow.

"This explains it. The demon must have been suppressing his abilities and now with its departure, it has manifested," the hokage spoke in a whisper.

An ANBU came in and stopped near the hokage, "Hokage-sama, the crowd is getting restless. You must do something," he spoke in a near panic.

As he made to move forward, Sarutobi stopped as a bevy of thoughts flew into his mind.

"Rat," he spoke to the ANBU wearing the rat mask, "Wait outside, and announce to the crowd that I shall be making a formal announcement in ten minutes, and allow no one and I mean no one, into this chamber until then. Execute anybody, who tries to circumvent that, regardless of their station," the hokage ordered the ANBU who looked perplexed, but departed nevertheless to obey his leader's orders.

"Doctor, please forgive me for this," Sarutobi muttered as he suddenly knocked out the doctor before the man could as much as twitch.

As the man slumped, Sarutobi began to weave a number of seals, and after finishing, applied that seal on the doctor's forehead.

"You will as of now, forget what has happened here," the hokage spoke in a soft tone as the man lay in his hands, unaware and unconscious. "You will forget everything that you have learned about this boy's heritage. When asked by anyone, you will state that Naruto Uzumaki perished, and that the demon departed with him, that is all," the hokage spoke and those words were imprinted subconsciously in the doctor's mind. The technique the old hokage had used was a hidden hypnotism technique taught to him by the first hokage, one which would subconsciously impart orders into a person, to make them compliant.

After that, the hokage again rapidly made some seals, and summoned Enma, the Monkey Summon Clan King.

"Sarutobi, what is the meaning of this? Why have you called me now?" Enma asked as he materialized within the hospital chambers.

"Enma, time is short, and I need your help, something of monumental importance has occurred," Sarutobi spoke quickly as he looked at his old friend.

"I sense that something has occurred in the spiritual plane," Enma spoke as he sniffed the air, and then his eyes fell upon Naruto. "Sarutobi, is that…" the grizzled ape spoke in surprise when the hokage nodded interrupting the ape.

"For some unknown reasons, the Kyuubi perished tonight, leaving the boy's body. Furthermore, apart from that, drastic changes have occurred to his physique. He automatically aged by at least six years approximately, and above all else, we have learned that he is a descendent of Tobirama sensei," the hokage spoke in a soft tone.

Even Enma's eyes widened, "So, you want me to…," the ape began when Sarutobi interrupted hastily.

"Yes, this boy is the last living male of the Senju line as of now, and he cannot be allowed to fall under the thrall of the Go-Ikenban (Council of village elders) at any cost. He has suffered enough already without this to add on his plate. I will announce to the village that the jinchuuriki has perished as well. I want you to take him to the Monkey Caves now, and then send a message to Tsunade asking her to meet me on the sly. Hurry, Enma, I cannot wait anymore, the villagers are getting restless," the hokage urged and the ape nodded his head in agreement.

"Very well, I shall comply for now, but we need to talk later, Sarutobi," Enma replied softly as he made the seals for the reverse summoning as he grabbed the bed Naruto was on and vanished in a puff of smoke, as Sarutobi left to face the music.

The village of Konoha had broken into celebrations as the news of the death of the Kyuubi had spread, and spontaneous celebrations broke out everywhere.

Once Sarutobi had made his announcement, the roar of joy that had emerged from the crowd had rent open the skies itself, and the villagers had descended into drunken revelry. The council after hearing Sarutobi's deposition as well as that of the doctor, had accepted the news as well, much to his relief. Danzo had demanded to see the dead body, but Sarutobi replied by stating that Naruto's body had turned to ashes when the Kyuubi had rampaged and there unfortunately was no body to show, and although skeptical Danzo had acquiesced at that moment. Sarutobi had even taken the extra precaution of mind-wiping the members of the ANBU squad who had helped him in bringing Naruto to the village hospital, and even the ANBU 'Rat' as well, as collateral insurance to ensure that the truth would stay buried. He and Enma were now the only beings alive that knew that Naruto Uzumaki was still alive.

That night, as the celebrations had begun, Sarutobi had deigned to join, and his people had left him alone to mourn the child, who they knew was close to the old hokage.

As he eyed the celebrations, Sarutobi felt a sickening bile rise in his throat which he forced down with revulsion.

It was said that Konoha was supposedly the beacon of humanity amongst the great five hidden villages; the moral compass that built its foundations on bonds, love and friendship. The only words that Sarutobi could associate with those that so heavily embraced those notions was: 'utter bullshit'.

Konoha was no different than its sister villages for at the end of the day a shinobi would forever remain a shinobi. All the altruistic word games and hollow reassurances were nothing more than a front to cover the ugliness of the way of the ninja.

How else could he explain the hypocrisy that ran rampant through Konoha? They worshiped the ground prodigies from bloodline wielding clans walked on, their blood giving them the 'spark' of greatness only rarely attainable by other people of their generation and treated their common peers who were not so lucky with despicable shoddiness.

And yet, when it came to the current topic of their celebration, all these noble people, all these 'kindhearted' people, seemed to lose their warmth and humanity and viewed that person as a being whose worth was less than the dirt they trod upon with their feet.

That more than all, convinced Sarutobi that he had made the right decision when he had sent the boy away with Enma.

Suddenly, his reverie was broken as a monkey summoned itself into his chambers.

"Sarutobi-san, Enma-dono has asked me to bring you to his location, now. Tsunade-hime has arrived as well, and one more thing, the child has awakened," the ape spoke in a low gravelly tone as Sarutobi nodded.

"Very well, Hiroshi, let us be off then," he spoke as he laid a hand on the ape's shoulders as it weaved the hand seals needed for the reverse summoning, and both hokage and summon vanished in a plume of smoke.

They reappeared on the outskirts of a cave, in a hidden hilly terrain, which the Hokage instantly recognized as the area near the forests of Otafuku-Gai. As he walked in, he noticed Enma, Tsunade and another young woman, whom he recognized as Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice standing around a bed upon which the boy was sleeping.

"Tsunade, I apologize for this inconvenience, but I hope you understand that I had no other choice," he spoke as he eyed his student and surrogate daughter.

"Hai, sensei," she replied in a quiet tone. Sarutobi looked at her in surprise at her quiet tone. For the first time in a long time, she looked forlorn and confused. He grudgingly realized that it would have to be a shock to her as well, after all, she had believed herself to be the last of her clan, and now, she had learned that her grand-uncle had a descendent. It was a lot to take in.

"Do you have any doubts as to the veracity of my claims?" he asked and she softly shook her head.

"No, I have conducted the tests on the genetic markups myself, and well, he is the descendent of Tobi-jisan. So, I have decided to accept your request, and decided to take him in. But, who is he, sensei, and where did he come from?" Tsunade asked in a vexed tone. It appeared as if she had been holding back that question for a long time, which was apparent from her tone as Sarutobi let out a sigh of relief knowing that Tsunade would take the boy in after all.

"He is or rather was," Sarutobi paused for a minute as he replied, "the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. For some inexplicable reason, the Kyuubi suddenly perished yesterday and left this plane of existence. And even more surprising was that within moments after it left, his physiology and his appearance changed drastically. He actually aged by around six years! I have never seen anything like that, can you explain why that happened?" he asked as he looked at Tsunade who looked stunned.

"I don't know, Sensei, I may have to conduct some tests myself to ascertain the truth…," the slug Sannin admitted. "But still, you haven't answered my question. Who exactly is he? What is his heritage? Whose son is he?" she asked again as Sarutobi shrugged.

"We don't know. Minato was the one, who made him into a jinchuuriki, and he died before he could reveal to us who he was; all we found at the scene was a newborn child lying above the dead body of the Yondaime Hokage, that is all. I am afraid the secret of his parentage will remain a secret for all time," Sarutobi shrugged as Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"The boy is waking up," Enma interrupted and everybody turned around to see Naruto waking up. As the boy looked up at them all, Sarutobi stepped forward with a kind smile.

"Naruto, I would like you to meet Tsunade of the Sannin," the old man introduced the two. Naruto nodded quietly. Tsunade was surprised to see no reaction at all from the boy, but she hid it well.

"What brings you here?" the boy asked them quietly.

Sarutobi's eyebrows rose. He shrugged, "It has been revealed that you are the descendent of the Nidaime. Tsunade is the last surviving member of that clan and therefore she is your only relative alive. As such, she has come to offer you a home."

At this, Naruto stared at the woman. Had he been the Naruto of old, this would have elicited a very different kind of response.

Naruto shrugged, "Thank you, but it is not necessary. I do not wish to impose."

Sarutobi's eyes rose higher. Something was definitely wrong. This was uncharacteristic of the boy. Tsunade also hid her surprise well.

"Naruto, she is your relative! You must stay with her. Your new status brings you enemies as well. You surely understand that, right?" the old man reasoned.

Naruto looked at the Sannin, "Who exactly are you supposed to be? My grandmother or something?" he asked her quietly.

A vein ticked in Tsunade's temple as Sarutobi hastily began to cough while Shizune turned purple. Enma on the other hand, gave a hearty laugh.

"Of sorts, yes. But you will not call me grandmother," the Sannin glared as she looked at the boy.

"Would you rather I call you 'old woman', then?" the boy asked in the same tone as Sarutobi stepped back in surprise. Shizune paled further praying that her teacher remain calm.

Tsunade eyed the boy. Something was very…different about this boy.

"Grandmother will be fine. You are the only person who will be allowed to call me that. Remember," and with that the Sannin walked out in a huff.

Sarutobi spoke up, "Tsunade and I have reached an agreement. As of now, you will reside with her permanently. It would cause unnecessary problems in the village, if your newly discovered heritage were to be revealed. It is precisely for this reason that I have secreted you away from the village. The accident, whatever it was has caused the Kyuubi which was sealed within you to depart, which as you may notice has wrought many drastic changes in you as well. I have managed to convince the villagers that you perished in that accident as well. As of now, you will gain a new identity and a new name and live as Tsunade's grandson, so that this may never be discovered. Are you okay with this?" the old hokage slowly asked, as Naruto took in all the information quietly without batting an eyelash.

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever you say. It doesn't matter, either way."

Sarutobi looked at the boy and nodded and walked out followed by Enma and Shizune.

Outside the room, he was met by the Sannin.

"Noticed it, did you?" she asked her teacher as the old man looked at her with his eyes brimming with questions.

"Yes. I don't understand. He is never this quiet or unresponsive. He was a massive prankster and loudmouth. However, since the demon left he has changed too much, and too drastically. I don't understand," the old hokage sighed as he massaged his temple in annoyance.

Tsunade spoke quietly, "It is possible that the fox had repressed his abilities forcibly. The traits you described match the behavior exhibited sometimes by foxes. Now that its oppressive presence is gone, perhaps the true nature of the boy is going to come out," she mused.

Sarutobi sighed, "So, this is what he would have been like without the fox, is that what you are saying?" he asked his student, who nodded in reply.

"Yes, even I sense something disturbing about the child, Sarutobi. He has no emotions, no reflexive behaviors from what I observed, and that is a dangerous trait in a shinobi. He didn't even react to the change of surroundings, and no other child of his age would remain so deadpan at hearing what you explained to him. It appears that it is as if he has lost his humanity itself, when the fox departed. You were right in bringing him to the princess, if anyone can heal him, it is her," Enma spoke in agreement as well.

"Very well, Tsunade. I will leave him in your care, take care of him," Sarutobi spoke as Tsunade nodded in agreement. "You will have to keep his existence a secret. As of now, this boy is the last living male descendant of the Senju clan, and if the Go-Ikenban learns of it, they will not rest until they force you and him back into the village, but I will give you as much time as possible, do you understand?" Sarutobi asked as Tsunade nodded.

"You will have to give up your nomadic lifestyle and settle down somewhere, somewhere remote and inaccessible by any normal means, can you understand that as well?" Sarutobi continued and she nodded hesitantly. Shizune's face broke into a small smile at that.

"Well, I must leave now; I cannot leave Konoha unattended for long. I will devise a proper new identity for him and send the details to you through Enma," Sarutobi spoke as he walked inside to say goodbye to the boy. It would be another five years before they would see each other again.

As he left, he left behind him a grandmother and a grandson, who would spend the next five years trying to establish a relationship, and during that time, Tsunade would learn just how special, her new grandson really was.

Five years later, Konoha would explode with frenzy as the news of the hidden Senju clan heir would resonate in its streets. The heir of the Senju clan and the grandson of Tsunade of the Sannin, Senju Raiha, the one who would rock the foundations of the village to its core.

P.S. Reposted, but with major differences. As you all may have realized, the world in which he resided was the canon world (the one shown in the Manga), and as of now, he has come into a parallel dimension, where everything is different.

P.P.S. The Naruto who perished was aware of the Kyuubi being sealed within him, even though he was around six years old at the time, as seen when Sarutobi tells the dimension hopping Naruto about the Kyuubi's departure in a casual manner, thereby proving that he believes this Naruto to be the same one that he knew, even though it is not the case.

P.P.P.S. No, he will not gain Mokuton, and he will not gain the toad summons, I have something else planned for that.

P.P.P.S. And, no, no pairings decided, way too early for that.

P.P.P.P.S. Just a final remainder, as of now, Naruto is a thirteen year old boy, who has come into this world, and the other Naruto of this world who perished when he came into this world was six years old, which means that the time flow is different in this dimension and lags behind the Canon world by seven years. However, the major events like The Hyuuga Kidnapping and The Uchiha Massacre are yet to happen, as the events will not exactly happen as per Canon in this parallel dimension and are yet to happen later, after he returns to the village, in my story.