Chapter 037

Doing as suggested, Hinata and Ino grabbed the available seat in the office and sat down as Naruto, and the others stood in front of them. Sandaime then said seriously, "What you're about to hear is a major SS-Class secret and can never be revealed to anyone without my, Tsunade, or Naruto's permission especially. Hyuuga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, you both must swear an oath of secrecy promising to never divulge what you're about to hear! Do you both swear the oath of secrecy?"

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, both girls nodded their head, "Yes."

"That's good to hear," Sandaime said, "Now tell us, how much do you both know about the son and surviving heir of Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage?"

Hinata and Ino blinked at this in confusion.

"Surviving heir," Hinata questioned in surprise.

"That's not possible," Ino shot back, "According to the history books, Yondaime and his entire family died in Kyuubi's attack. His family was the last of the clan that was formerly one of Konoha's three strongest clan; the Namikaze clan! That clan has been completely wiped out years ago without a survivor!"

"That's not entirely true," Tsunade interjected, "Yondaime's son survived that attack and has been living here in this very village ever since."

"What," Ino said in disbelief.

"Yondaime's son is really alive," Hinata asked in surprise.

"He is," Naruto said, causing both girls to look at him, "He's here, in this building. In fact, he's in this very room."

Hinata and Ino looked around expecting a new person to enter and stepped forward. But nothing happened until…

"Hina-chan…Ino-chan," Naruto said softly, capturing their attention, "I am Senju Uzumaki Naruto, son and sole heir of Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage. However…"

Both girls looked straight at him as he slowly removed his ninja mask, allowing them for the first time in all the years he knew them to finally see his full face.

"My birth name is Namikaze Naruto, the son and sole heir of Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage," Naruto revealed, "And I'm also the sole survivor of the Namikaze clan."

The girls' eyes widened like dish plates on hearing this earth-shattering revelation. Upon studying his eye and facial features they saw the undeniable resemblances he had with Minato since they saw many pictures of him in their history books. It was so unreal. Standing before them was Yondaime's very one son and surviving legacy, Naruto, the boy whom they attend school, hangout, became friends with and grew very affectionate of. Hinata and Ino did the only thing girls do under these indescribable events; they fell forward off their seats and fainted…

(A While Later)

Ino and Hinata were started to stir and gradually open their eyes. They found themselves lying down on futons with wet wash rags folded and placed over their heads. Tsunade, Sandaime, and the others entered the room six minutes both Hinata and Ino woke up.

"About time you two woke up," Naruto said with his ninja still off his face and hanging around his neck, "I was afraid that my revealing who my father is caused the both of you to fall into a self-induced coma."

Both girls were silent. They wanted to say something to him but didn't know the right words to say. So many thoughts and questions were going through their minds in regards to Yondaime, the Namikaze clan, and Tsunade's connections to all of this. Hinata was the first to break the silence, "Naruto-kun…Your father was Yondaime?"

"Yes," Naruto assured.

"…B…But…," Ino started while trying to piece everything together, "Your mother is Tsunade-sama and Yondaime was married to Kushina-sama! Are you saying that your father had Tsunade-sama as a secret wife who later gave birth to you?!"

Tsunade and Naruto sweat-dropped at this and the fact that Sandaime, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shizune, Koharu and Homura were chuckling at what they heard did little to help the situation. Regaining his composure, Sandaime stepped forward and said, "It'll be best if I explain everything from the beginning. This story also involves both of your fathers and the Kyuubi incident eleven years ago in more ways than you know…"

Hearing that last part made Hinata and Ino realize they were going to learn a lot more than they were bargaining for…

XXXX

(Location Unknown; Later That Afternoon)

Itachi was sitting on the ground on top of a mountain while the still heavily battered and weakened Kisame was recuperating from his battle with Kakashi and Naruto. Both Akatsuki nins had expected the mission to be somewhat less troubling since they were dealing with an eleven-year-old boy who was neither Genin or Chuunin, and possess no Bijuu, or so they and the rest of the Akatsuki nins think. Neither Itachi nor Kisame expected Naruto to cause them so much trouble with Kakashi to later add to the mix.

Itachi said very little after both he and his partner escaped the wraths of Naruto's mother, the Toad Sannin and the rest who follow after them. It interested Itachi to no end that an eleven-year-old kid who wasn't of Uchiha bloodline descend managed to overpower and defeat his Mangekyou Sharingan. In the beginning, Itachi believed for a time that the Mangekyou Sharingan could only be defeated by another Uchiha possessing the Mangekyou Sharingan. The fact that Naruto managed to do it without having the Uchiha bloodline limit amazed him in spite of the fact that his head started hurting from just thinking about it, literally.

"Damn," Itachi muttered under his breath, acknowledging that he still hasn't recovered from his unexpected defeat to Naruto, who hasn't even laid a finger on him and yet managed to inflict such an injury to him.

"I underestimated this Naruto," Itachi contemplated, "I should have observed and studied him more…"

Kisame walked over to his partner and saw that he was in deep thought. After a couple of minutes, Kisame spoke, "That Naruto brat is quite a character. If he was to become anything like you, he'd have made quite a member of the Akatsuki."

"Perhaps," Itachi said, "But from the looks in Naruto's eyes, we both know that's not going to happen."

"…," Kisame.

"Naruto is not what he presents himself to be," Itachi stated, "Judging from the way he strategically fought us, he's far beyond Genin or even Jounin level. He's possibly at an Elite Jounin or ANBU level. His mother is Tsunade after all and I'm sure she's trained him all his life."

"Raised and trained by the Slug Sannin," Kisame said, "That's explains the boy's inhuman strength. I felt every blow he gave me and surprisingly they were getting harder."

"From the way Naruto fought you," Itachi explained, "It's clear that he might have been trained by more than one person other than his Chuunin sensei at the academy…perhaps by another Jounin, ANBU, or Sannin."

Kisame knew that it wasn't Orochimaru, an ex-Akatsuki nin who left their organization some time ago. Although a Snake Sannin however, Kisame was aware that Orochimaru wasn't as strong as Itachi and was in fact afraid of him. Therefore it had to be the other one…

"Jiraiya," Kisame answered. Itachi simply nodded his head, "Either him or Kakashi."

"You may be able to fight Jiraiya almost evenly, but I cannot," Kisame said.

"You are right," Itachi agreed, "Though we're almost even however, if I were to fight him, I would lose. If we both fought him, in the best-case scenario we would kill him, but we also would die."

Itachi looked up into the sunset, "Even if we had more men, the result would be the same."

"So Naruto is being trained by two Sannins you believe," Kisame asked.

"I don't know for sure. But if that's the case, then I don't know for how long Jiraiya might have taught Naruto. However when I did battle with Naruto in his mind, I acknowledged that Naruto's kenjutsus (sword techniques) are lacking. I was able to mete out some series of injuries and assaults upon the young boy. If I had engaged him in actual kenjutsu, chances of my success over him might have been stronger."