A stuffy conversation

So a year went by in a mundane way, and some in training with the help of a group of clones. I, or a clone, would sit in classes and chat with classmates, but mostly with Mito, Hinata, Ino and Sakura.

One day, a classmate from a clone-less class started making fun of Sakura's forehead at the end, calling her "Lobasta". The girls, led by Ino, started to calm Sakura down, and Mito even suggested that I beat up the offender and make him apologise. I immediately confirmed that I could do that if I had to and if Sakura wanted me to. But the pink-haired girl refused, saying that even though he said a lot of unpleasant things to her, he was basically right, and that she has a big forehead and the truth can't be denied, no matter how unpleasant it is. Ino, on the other hand, calmed Sakura down by saying that she was still too young and that girls were like flowers whose full beauty would reveal itself with time... but that was still no reason to insult girls, and Ino insisted that she should take advantage of my suggestion, and Sakura agreed under her friend's urging.

Ino had the idea to take advantage of Sakura's offer, and within five minutes, the offender was on his knees, begging Sakura to forgive him... and also begging her not to cripple him by breaking his arms and legs... I went a bit overboard with the intimidation here. The guy was forgiven and let go, and all the girls looked at me with both approval and a little condemnation. The next day, I gave Sakura a beautiful headband that I had made by sprouting a pink, light, strong wood from a cherry stone with mokuton and decorating it with sakura blossoms that would not fade as they were nourished by the natural chakra in the air.

I gave this gift to Sakura, saying that her beauty had already begun to bloom for me. The girl put on the ring, thanked me and hugged me, and at that moment, Mito and Hinata looked at the pink-haired girl in an unfriendly way.

Sakura sounded a little vanilla when he said it, too much time in the company of four girls was probably a factor, and if this continued, I would soon start hanging myself from Uchiha shouting "Sasuke-kuku-u-u-u-un".

Although nobody seems to be paying much attention to Sasuke at the moment. In the end, after the tragedy, Sasuke is told that he is a poorly socialised and withdrawn boy who has no idea how much trouble he is in. The only thing Sasuke is good at is martial arts training, which Sasu is allowed to do after the tragedy that befell his clan, his own brother and the last Uchiha in the village.

Now, of course, the Uchis haven't been cut down yet, but you can already hear that something is brewing. Of course, I could do something about it, but I won't. The risk would be too great and the benefit too questionable. I don't want to make things worse and have a full-blown civil war in Konoha, like the one that took place in the Land of Water in the village of Hidden in the Mist. As it is, the Uchis will be wiped out quickly, and the other inhabitants will hardly be affected.

I have nothing against the Uchiha, but it's not a good trend. First, Indra - the founder of the Uchiha Clan and son of Rikudo Sennin - went to war against his brother Asura. Then Uchiha Madara - he wasn't made Hokage, so he brought Nine-Tailed Fox to Konoha and tried to destroy it. He also turns out to be a bit of an idiot, as he's always been a bit mad and has retreated from Konoha. Using the Eyes of God, which can even resurrect the dead, no, not his beloved Rin, he decides to plunge the entire world into Mugen Tsukiyomi - the Infinite Illusion, where everyone will be "happy". G is genius, only twelve out of ten. Next we have Itachi, well there's no comment here, he did what every senju in the Warring Clans era dreamed of doing, which was to slaughter the Uchiha Clan.

****

The only thing I could think of was Sasuke, the only survivor was our classmate Sasuke, who had been killed by the Uchiha Clan. Somewhere in the middle of the school year, Sasuke failed to show up for class, and soon we learned that the Uchiha Clan had been slaughtered, and the only survivor was our classmate Sasuke. The only survivor of Sasuke's class was our classmate Sasuke, who upon leaving the hospital was welcomed back to the academy by a group of sympathetic girls who wanted to help and support him in his hour of need. But he showed no reaction at all, behaving much as he had before. Now, however, the girls perceived this as unwavering, nonchalant, mysterious, and hiding a great deal of willpower.

And Sasuke... not long ago, he had a beloved older brother who cared for him and played with him and whom he longed to outdo. There was a loving mother, there was a father whose praise he longed to earn. There was a large, strong clan. Now he lives in a reality where his beloved brother turned out to be a traitor and slaughtered his entire Uchiha clan and had his parents killed right before Sasuke's eyes. When Sasuke's mother and father fell dead at the hands of his brother, Itachi told him that he was too weak and cast an illusion that showed Sasuke the moment of his parents' death and his brother's words about how weak he was for seventy-two hours straight. The last thing on his mind would be the girls.

Sasuke, on the other hand, who wanted to become stronger and get back at his brother, paid no attention to anyone and immersed himself in his studies. The girls, however, saw it differently and now saw Sasuke as the consummate genius, the mysterious, dramatic prince - the last survivor of the Uchiha Clan. Inevitably, this led to the girls falling in love with Sasuke and following him in droves. Ino and Sakura were not exempt from this fate, they even fought fiercely over the rivalry for Sasuke's heart and I even had to reconcile them for a long time. Now, Sakura and Ino spent half their time trying in vain to get Sasuke's attention, while the other half was spent studying and spending time with me, Mito and Hinata.

****

I did my physical training with a huge weight distributed over my whole body, which for me was equivalent to an increase in gravity. So when I had an excess of volume in my space pocket and the weight of the objects was equal to mine, it was equivalent to a doubling of gravity, i.e. 2G.

And soon, when my height was that of a thirteen-year-old and my weight increase reached 3G, I stopped growing so rapidly, and from the strain my muscles and bones began to thicken and harden, their energy capacity also increased. As a result, by the time I left the Academy, I was only slightly taller than my classmates.

The academy itself had a library, and there I read all the books and scrolls I could find, for it would be foolish to miss out on knowledge of techniques that were in the public domain. The scrolls and books described the E-rang techniques: Disguise, Transformation, Substitution and Illusionary Clone.

"Disguise allowed one to cover oneself with a layer of chakra and blend into one's surroundings like a chameleon; for effective use of the technique, it was advisable to wear a cloak to reduce visibility while disguised.

"Transformation allowed one to be enveloped in a layer of chakra that could take on a solid form and change the user's appearance. Essentially, you create a suit of chakra for yourself.

"Substitution gave you the ability to swap places with a small object impregnated with your chakra, you could simply impregnate a stump and swap places with it, or you could swap places with a shadow clone. This technique was developed by the Second Hokage as a simplified version of his Flying Thunder God spatial technique, which was later used by the Fourth Hokage.

"Illusory Clone is simply an illusory hologram that looks like the creator of the technique. This technique is used for deception; all attacks directed at the illusory clone pass through it as if I were phasing, so I can sometimes pretend to be an illusory clone to confuse the enemy and attack them suddenly.

In addition to these four techniques, the library contained a great deal of information on history, politics, and philosophical and scientific works on chakra. There was also information on Fuinjutsu, which allowed me to learn how to make explosive seals and seal scrolls to store things, but it was practically useless to me at this stage... although I had studied the basics of Fuinjutsu anyway.

I have also seen information about summoning, the shinobi can enter into cooperation contracts with various intelligent animals with chakra and summon them to the battlefield at the right time to help in battle. To find the right animal for you, you have to make a Reverse Call, which will transport you to a chakra animal habitat where you can make a contract... but the Reverse Call is very dangerous, as some creatures would rather devour you than make a contract. I would actually choose a dragon as my summoner, since Tatsu is the first character in my name, but I think the reptiles would probably eat me. I'd probably go for a snake call, but those bastards would definitely try to eat me without talking, so I'll go without a call for now and not take any unnecessary risks.

More useful knowledge for me was the Hand Seals; as well as describing the basic universal twelve seals, named after different animals - Bull, Horse, Rabbit, Bird, Tiger, Dragon, Monkey, Sheep, Rat, Snake, Dog and Pig - some unspoken seals were also described - Spider, Ship, Broken Monkey and a dozen more seals to concentrate chakra in certain areas of the body. I have adapted some of these seals to facilitate the creation of Hyoton and Mokuton.

Going to the academy was not stressful for me; I relaxed from training and talked to the girls, who got prettier every year. Sasuke and I share first place in the student rankings, and we get the highest marks everywhere. Mito, on the other hand, didn't give a damn about her studies. The academy was a place for her to socialise with her friends, not a place to learn useful skills and knowledge for survival as a shinobi. I tried to force her to study hard, but I failed. I decided to let her enjoy her childhood, I am the one with the adult mind and I can handle daily training with dozens of clones while she is just a little girl. So I just helped her not to fall to the bottom of the rankings, which wasn't going to work too well with her terrible chakra control due to the Nine-tailed Fox sealed inside her.

With Sasuke and Hinata, I had also collected data to improve Hoshingan, in total, I had spent one hundred and twenty thousand psi to gather information about the genome and try to blend it harmoniously with my genes, and it took another eighty-five skill points and half a month to rebuild my body to implement the new genes. My dojutsu reached the third stage of evolution, which required me to put one thousand six hundred chakra points into my eyes at a time, when I only had seven hundred chakra points.

But after waiting almost until graduation, I did the chakra-flesh clone trick again. The moment the third level of Hoshingan was activated, my eyes burned with pain again and I got another star in the middle of my iris.

So, having recovered and healed a little, I looked at my status and Hoshingan's descriptions:

≪Status

Health 5/101/25 per hour

Mana 252/252/46.3 per hour

Psi 13 256/13.3 per hour

Reatsu 10/305/50.8 per hour

Chakra 31/917/155 per hour

Skill points 1

Characteristics:

Strength 142

Dexterity 158

Stamina 202

Intelligence 212

Wisdom 203

126 Magic

"Hoshingan III 33 chakra per minute (The third stage dojutsu, created from the complete data of the Byakugan, Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan, Rinnegan and Tenseigan, as well as the Uzumaki and Senju genes. Activating the Hoshingan increases the clarity of vision to a range of 60 metres and extends the angle of vision to 270 degrees. Dojutsu allows one to see in the dark, through thick obstacles, the human secreted chakra, chakra circulation system and tenketsu, and increases reaction speed by forty percent. It also increases affinity with the water, earth and wind elemental chakras, and facilitates the creation of dual mixed elemental chakras. Also passively increases control and chakra count.)

****

Once, when Mito and I were eating in Ichiraku, a kindly Hokage grandfather came up to us and offered us ramen for the two children with such a strong fire will. We accepted the treat, but not before Mito asked if it was the pervert I had warned her about as a child, telling her not to take anything but to scream and run away from him. I assured her that it was our Hokage and he couldn't be a pervert... then looked at him more closely and added... "probably". The Hokage spoke in a whisper, but everyone could hear our conversation, and the Hokage was even choking on the smoke from his pipe.

The Hokage was also able to talk to the Hokage a few more times while he was eating ramen and trying to talk to us in a cute way. The older Hokage is also very indifferent to the younger brother of the Hokage and asks the Hokage how we are doing and how we are getting on. The old man tries to gain our trust and is actually quite successful, Mito does not know any tricks and tells us everything there is to know.

The reason for the summoning is that he doesn't even know that Mito is the one who is supposed to be the Hokage's friend, and he doesn't even know how he got there... but maybe they want to warn me about it, since I am friends with Mito and she is a Jinchuriki.

Maybe this summoning to the office of the ruler of Konoha will be a good time to show off my powers and gain the trust of the Hokage. Especially since the current Hokage, though a hardened politician, is still not a bad person, at least better than Danzo and his advisors.

He was in the middle of a fight, and I was sure I could escape, but I could always escape, and I could take Mito with me, which was a scenario I had prepared for, just in case. In fact, I don't think I need to flee the village now, since I haven't done anything wrong. The only difference was that if I revealed my possession of Mokuton, I would show that I could become a very powerful shinobi useful to Konoha, and for the sake of questionable research, the Hokage would not send such a shinobi to the dissection table... well, at least Hiruzen wouldn't do that.

And so I entered the office of the lord of Konoha and looked around. The office itself was located at the top of the tower of the Hokage residence. The office was round and quite spacious and had a great view over the village. In the middle of the office was the Hokage's desk, behind which Sarutobi Hiruzen was now sitting with a pipe in his mouth.

- Hello, Hokage-sama! - I greeted the old man as if I hadn't done anything wrong.

- Hello, Naruto-kun. Do you have something to tell me? - He asked the question immediately and looked at me sternly.

- Of course, I don't. I'm a shinobi and normally, I wouldn't answer such questions, maybe you're testing me to make me talk, I don't know, but I'll keep quiet just in case. - I replied, still trying to keep a straight face.

- Hmmmm..." Hiruzen puffed on his pipe, "All right, I'll ask you a direct question, do you have a command of the wood element or not? - Hokage asked and began to stare intently into my eyes.

- ... so where did I go wrong? - I asked a clarifying question.

- Sakura, her headband with the cherry blossoms that hadn't wilted in two years. I had overheard your classmate talking to her friends about this piece of jewellery when I was at the academy, and I was interested in the conversation. I examined the hoop and asked her who gave it to her, and she was happy to tell me that it was you who gave it to her. I know that you made the headband with the help of Mokuton, because I saw the use of the Wood Element techniques in action, and I also asked Sakura about her jewellery for a while and showed it to the expert, who also confirmed that the headband was made with the help of Mokuton.

- Yeah... that's what you call showing off for the girl..." I muttered to myself, "Ahem, I just made the headband out of a cherry tree I found in the forest, so you were wrong, Hokage-sama. - I replied.

- Naruto, it's too late for excuses, you've already given yourself away. - Hiruzen said smiling and puffed on his pipe.

- But it was worth a try, just in case it would have worked. - I grinned back awkwardly.

- So, do you have Mokuton? - The Hokage became serious again.

- No." I decided to stick to my line until the bitter end.

- Naruto, do I have to take you to the interrogation room to find out the truth? After all, I'm your Hokage and I need to know about your abilities so that I know what kind of mission I can trust you with. Do you possess the element of wood? - Hiruzen asked sternly.

- Maybe. - I replied evasively.

- Can you show me your progress in the element of wood? - Hokage stood up and took a potted plant from the windowsill, - Here, try to do something with it. - Hiruzen put the pot on his desk.

- I will try. - I used the frugal concentration seal with my right hand, meaning that I clenched my hand into a fist and stretched out my index and middle fingers, and the volumetric concentration seal with my left hand, meaning that I stretched out all my fingers. I was able to bring the two seals together to form a kind of tree with a trunk and roots, just the right kind of seal to use for Mokuton.

Closing my eyes, I switched on the Hoshingan for a moment and used it to increase Mokuton's control and at that moment, I sent tree chakra to the plant to stimulate its growth and immediately heard something snap... that tree grew and burst through the ceiling of the Hokage's office.

- Well, Hokage-sama, what do you think? - I asked awkwardly, opening my eyes and pointing at the plant.

- Ahem... not bad. Cat, are you all right? - Hiruzen said, looking up at the hole in the ceiling from where the white cat mask that the ANBU Kunoichi had dropped, which was actually hiding under the ceiling, had just fallen.

- I'm fine. - A purple-haired girl with a sword behind her shoulders crawled out of the hole, picking up the mask as she landed... the kunoichi keeping her hand on the hilt of her katana just in case, to protect the Hokage in case of danger.

Using the identification on this kunoichi, I got the information: "Yugao Yuzuki is a female/chakra user. Age seventeen, height one hundred and sixty-two centimetres, weight fifty-two kilograms, blood type A".

- Cat, stand back, go back to your place. - Hiruzen ordered as the girl put on her mask but kept her hand on her sword and only after the Hokage's words, she climbed back up onto the ceiling in a different place. Here, there were special recesses in the ceiling to guard the ruler of the village.

- Strange looking cats live in the Hokage's office, I would like to have one of those at home. - I said with a smile.

- Hehehe... ahem. - The Hokage laughed slightly, but hid his chuckle under his cough because of the smoke, "Well, Naruto-kun, I guess you know how rare your ability to use Mokutonu is, otherwise you wouldn't hide it so well... although you did screw up pretty badly because of that girl. - The old man smiled.

- I know, don't be annoying, Hokage-sama. - I really messed up, I can't argue with that.

- Alright, I'll have the tree removed and the ceiling repaired. - Hiruzen sat down in his chair and looked at me, "Naruto-kun, you're not hiding any more of your special powers from me, are you? - He stared intently into my eyes.

- No." I lied.

- Are you sure I'm not? - He asked the Hokage again, staring at me even more piercingly.

- Not really. - I lied again.

- ..." Hiruzen looked at me silently.

- ..." I also looked back silently.

- ...hmm... well... if you were a good shinobi, you wouldn't reveal too much information to the enemy. - Hiruzen said and let out a puff of smoke, - but you could tell more about your Hokage, or don't you trust your Hokage? - asked the old man.

- The Hokage is a kind of head of the shinobi village and shinobi are assassins and spies, so it's not a good idea to trust a head of assassins and spies, besides, rulers are usually very good politicians and trusting politics is even more stupid than trusting shinobi. Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but I do not trust you. - I answered honestly.

- Hmm..." the old man puffed on his pipe again, knowing that I didn't really trust him, considering the hidden facts about my parents and sister, "It's hard to argue with your words. Well, I won't insist anymore and try to win your trust with words, I'd rather do it with deeds. Naruto-kun, what do I have to do to make you trust your Hokage? - Hiruzen inquired.

- How about telling me who my parents were? - I suggested and the old man looked away, "That's why I don't trust you.

- Naruto-kun, your parents died as heroes during the Nine-Tailed Fox's attack on the village, and unfortunately, I have to hide the truth in order to protect you and the other orphaned children. A strong shinobi always has many enemies, and your parents were strong shinobi, so it is best that the enemies of your parents do not know that you exist... and so I have to hide the truth even from the children themselves, to keep them from talking too much and putting themselves in danger. - Said the Hokage.

- That's exactly the kind of answer a politician I wouldn't trust with my life would give. - I commented.

- I will tell you the truth when you are a Chuunin. - the old man said.

- Oh, political promises. - I said with a grin.

- Oh, Naruto-kun, you're right, as Hokage, I have to do a lot of things for the sake of the village, things that even I don't like sometimes, but believe me, I don't enjoy hiding information about my parents from you. - said the old man.

- ..." I just kept quiet.

- ...Hmmm... okay, Naruto-kun, maybe I should assign you a teacher for Master Mokuton? I have a shinobi in the ANBU who knows the Wood Element, and he was the one who helped me explore Sakura's Edge. Right now, you two are the only ones in Konoha who have Mokuton, so it's in my best interest that you master your element well so that you can protect yourselves. - Hiruzen said.

- Actually, it would be foolish to refuse a teacher, so I agree. And since I have the opportunity to ask the Hokage for something, may I also arrange for my training as an Iryenin at the hospital? Being able to heal yourself and your comrades is a very useful skill for shinobi who risk their lives. - I asked.

- Oh, that's no problem at all, but are you sure that you can handle both the Academy and the Mokutonu training at the same time? - The old man asked.

- Well... I can make shadow clones, I think I can handle anything with them. - Without any seals, I created a clone next to me.

- I wonder where you learned the forbidden B-ring technique. I wonder where you learned the forbidden B-ring technique, since they don't teach it at the academy and you haven't even graduated yet. Naruto, how did you learn Shadow Clone? - Hiruzen asked suspiciously, puffing on his cigarette.

- I saw a white-haired shinobi with an eye patch make a forked cross-shaped stamp on his left eye, so I tried to make a fork with the same stamp and within three days, I succeeded, but then I read in the library that the Shadow Clones were a forbidden B-ran technique created by Tobirama Senju. - I was lying.

- ..." the old man remained silent, "Alright, Cat, call Coon, I've found an apprentice for him here. - Hiruzen said, looking up at the ceiling where the Kunoichi went out through secret passageways to look for this Coon, and the Hokage also created a shadow clone that turned to me:

- Naruto-kun, while the originals are waiting for Coon, I'll take your clone to the hospital to train you as an Iryenin. Let's go. - Hiruzen's clone left the office and my clone followed.

- ..." I was silent, while Hiruzen also smoked his pipe in silence and looked at me.

Soon there was a knock at the office door.

- Come in. - Hokage broke the silence.

- You were summoned, Hokage-sama? - A man in an ANBU uniform entered the office, he also had a sword behind his back and a white mask with raccoon-like stripes on his face.

- Yes, Tenzo, this is Naruto Tatsumaki - he's the creator of the sakura flower ornament you were researching. I understand that Naruto-kun, like you, possesses the enhanced gene with the ability to control the element of wood, and I would like you to teach Naruto how to use the mokuton. - Said the Hokage.

- Understood, Hokage-sama, I will teach him everything I know. - The masked shinobi looked at me.

- Very well, you may go and get acquainted and begin your training. Naruto, you will go to the hospital tomorrow to complete your training as an Iryenin. - The Hokage said, "Dismissed.

- Let's go, apprentice. - This Tenzo the Raccoon nodded towards the exit.

As we walked down from the Hokage Tower to the street, Tenzo asked me:

- Are you planning to join the ANBU? It was not for nothing that the Hokage personally ordered me to train you.

- Actually, I hadn't planned for anyone to find out about my possession of Mokuton, I was thinking of training quietly, finishing the Academy, starting my own clan and having some beautiful wives... just the girl I gave the hoop to, I wanted to offer her as one of my wives. - I replied.

- Heh, good plans, but not too well thought out in detail. - Tenso replied.

- There you go. - I muttered as we walked out and headed for the next free training area.

My new teacher had decided to take off his ANBU mask to better connect with his pupil, and under the mask, Tenzo had a very ordinary face, except that his eyes had a noticeably larger iris than normal people's, which made the shinobi look a little strange. Tenzo had an excellent command of the element of wood and almost immediately began to teach me the various techniques of the Mokuton, first to assess my level of mastery of the element and then to fine-tune the training plan.

I also get to know Tenso a little on a personal level, but he talks a lot about Mokutong, so I like him as a teacher, and he is obviously a good person, who even offered me lunch... so that I could ingest the seed impregnated with his Tree Chakra, which he was able to track... anyway, the Hokage probably asked Tenso to keep an eye on me.

The next day, I went to the hospital to meet the instructors of the Iryenin class, to which I now send my clone every day and sometimes come for the sake of propriety, mainly for the practical classes where Iryenin shows how to properly use the techniques on the patients.

One of the interesting things was the information on the Chakra Circulation System, which showed a diagram of all the channels with all the tenketsu and gave details of the Chakra Hearth, but while ordinary Iryenin had to navigate through the diagram, I Hoshingan saw both the channels inside people and their tenketsu, which in principle Hyugi could also do, making them excellent healers.

It was at this medical course that I met an outstanding young Iryenin, Yakushi Kabuto, a grey-haired fellow with round glasses.

Kabuto and I got along quite well, and you could even say that we became friends, as our personalities were quite similar and we both hid quite a lot... although I was careful with this guy, as I knew that he was connected to both the ANBU root and Orochimaru, in short, not the good guys... although by definition, there are very few good guys in the village of assassins and spies.

The reason for this is that I am not usually a good guy when it comes to learning how to be a spy and an assassin, even if you are a good guy when it comes to fighting. Since Hashirama was the only one in Konoha who possessed Mokuton, he wanted the scroll to be given to someone who could also master the element of wood. Initially, the scroll was given to Tenzo, and now it was given to me, so I had to practice and master the techniques from the scroll, Coon himself could only do the most basic Mokuton techniques, though he had mastered them to jewel level, but he lacked the chakra for the rest. Since Coon was a strong shinobi with a rare enhanced genome, he was in high demand for ANBU missions, so when our lessons were over, Tenzo went back to his work and only checked on my progress in Mokuton a few times when he had a spare moment.

It's pretty obvious to me why the Hokage was so upset about my training in Mokuton and assigned such a busy shinobi to teach me, it was because of Mito, of course. Since I'm friends with a jinchuriki and also have mokuton, which is very effective in suppressing biju, I was taught the wood element for the safety of the village, so I can control the jinchuriki, and since I'm always near Mito, I can calm the girl down immediately if she starts getting violent.

Incidentally, if you think about it, the Biju were created from the chakra of the Ten-Tailed Shinju, which was itself a revived chakra tree, so the Tree Element chakra somehow suppresses the will of the Tailed Beasts, and they calm down.