Chapter 18: Who are you?

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Dialogue

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 18: Who are you?

"Arg…" Naruto grunted.

He looked down at his clothes. "I need to buy new ones…" His black kimono was completely ruined by all the white paint that had landed on it. There was no chance he could clean that up.

At least he had money now. They had already received the payment from last week's jobs, so he could buy something a bit better.

He looked up at the sky. 'It's still early, I should go now. I can pick up some new clothes and groceries before going back home.'

He stopped at a nearby corner and scanned his surroundings, making sure there was no one around.

"Change." After the cloud of smoke cleared, he now had the identical looks of his teammate Sasuke.

He didn't like doing this, but it was the only way they would sell anything to him. Once he was ready, he continued to make his way to the commercial center of the village.

"Oh, it's Mister Uchiha!"

People greeted him politely and even bowed to him as he passed.

'Maybe I should choose someone more inconspicuous next time. This form always brings too much attention even if the discounts are good.'

He hurried his steps and found a decent clothing shop that should have what he was looking for.

As he was placing his hand on the door handle and about to open it, he heard a female voice yell from his side.

"Sasuke! Is that you?"

He turned his head to look and found someone familiar. It was the blonde girl who graduated from the academy at the same time as he did… Yamanaka Ino.

"What a coincidence to find you here." Ino approached him with excited steps and grabbed onto his arm. "Oh! Are you going to buy new clothes? Do you want me to help you choose? I'm really knowledgeable about fashion."

"Hm…" He tried to imitate Sasuke's grunt of 'no need' but he wasn't sure if he got it right.

"And who may this be?"

Naruto looked up and found another familiar face. It was Yamanaka Inoichi, the man who had first visited him at the hospital along with the Hokage. The one who went inside his mind that one time.

"Papa, look, Sasuke is here!" Ino exclaimed.

Inoichi gave Naruto a piercing glance with his strange blue eyes. "I don't know who this is, but it is definitely not Uchiha Sasuke."

"What are you talking about?" Ino asked.

"That transformation jutsu is well made, but it will not fool the eyes of a Jonin." Inoichi said.

Ino immediately let go of his arm and took several steps backward. Her face changed to one of anger. "Who are you?! How dare you impersonate my beloved Sasuke!"

"I assume you are a ninja or at least an academy student. Then you should know that using the transformation jutsu is forbidden while outside a mission or a training exercise." Inoichi gave him a stern glare. "I will have to ask you to remove the jutsu and reveal your real identity." That was not a request, but an order.

The altercation had taken the attention of several bystanders who were watching the event unfold.

"Fine…" Naruto knew the rules. He had no choice but to obey now.

"Kai…" After the smoke cleared, they could all see the form of Naruto, dressed in his paint-stained kimono.

"Uzumaki… I should have guessed. You are his teammate after all and the transformation was extremely accurate, so it had to be someone who had observed him in close detail." Inoichi said.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled. She was more than ready to jump at him and beat him up but was stopped by her father. "Let me go, I can't forgive this!"

"Calm down." Inoichi did not miss the look on the faces of the civilians. He then glanced at Naruto, his clothes, and the shop he was about to go into and… he understood the situation. "Why don't we talk inside the shop? Away from all these prying eyes." He then dragged his daughter inside while she complained.

Naruto followed behind the Jonin. "They won't sell anything to me if I look like this." He muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Ino turned to look at him. The anger in her eyes had not dissipated one bit.

"Hey! What are you doing here? I already told you we have nothing to sell you!" The shopkeeper came yelling at him.

Naruto had already been in this shop before, so he was not surprised by the reaction.

But Inoichi and his daughter were different.

The Jonin had known that Naruto was not well received by the civilians since the news about his relation to the Kyubi was made public. But he did not know it was that bad. 'Does the Hokage know?... I will have to speak with him about this.' If this situation continued, things could get bad.

As a mind healer, he had seen it many times before. A ninja who feels like he has been mistreated by his own village and starts to develop resentment towards it that will eventually become hatred. Those will usually become traitors.

In the case of Naruto, it was even worse. He was not a replaceable ninja. He was the one and only Jinchuriki of the Kyubi. They could not afford to lose him for something silly like being mistreated by the villagers.

"See? I told you. Without the transformation jutsu… no one will sell me anything." Naruto told the Jonin.

"Naruto, what did you do to these people to make them this angry?" Ino asked. She knew he was infamous for his pranks, so she assumed that Naruto must have done something terrible to the shop owner to make him so angry.

"I have not done anything to him or any of the other civilians," Naruto told her. "They hate me for a different reason."

"Naruto… we cannot mention that…" Inouichi warned him.

"Dad? What is he talking about?" Ino asked.

"It is a village secret, Ino. I cannot speak about it." the Jonin said.

"A village secret that the civilians know about but I can't?" This did not make sense to her. If it was a high-rank secret, then the civilians would have no business knowing about it.

'But what kind of secret could Naruto have?' She wondered.

"Wanna know?" Naruto asked her and she nodded. She was really curious about this now. Even her previous anger had been forgotten.

"Naruto!" Inouichi warned again.

"The Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyubi inside me when I was a baby. The civilians fear and hate me because they think I am the Demon himself."

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