Ch 25

(That night)

Up in the Tower below the village's mountain monument, the Hokage was currently standing by his window and looking out across the greater part of the hidden leaf. With the hour drawing late and his paperwork sitting mostly complete on his desk, Hiruzen had opted to use this time for a short meditation session, as evident by his calm demeanour, the pipe hanging from his lips, and his hands poised comfortably behind his back.

After all the events that'd transpired over the week, the man had been given much cause to consider and many troubles to resolve. It wasn't just issues stemming from the Uchiha Clan and their still absent matriarch, but also the entirety of Konohagakure, and how the actions made on the night of the incident had led to this exact moment.

Unbeknownst to most, Hiruzen knew what the Uchiha had been planning. Following the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha and the death of the Fourth Hokage, the village leadership had placed the entire clan under close surveillance, as they suspected that the Uchiha may have been involved with the situation due to their clan's history and their kekkei genkai's ability to control the beast. Their sudden isolation from the rest of the community and their involvement from many of the village's political circles, as well as the sudden influx of mistrust from their neighbours, ultimately rekindled the hatred they had for the Senju-influenced government. Thus, the highest-ranking members of the clan, began organizing a coup de-tat.

In preparation for the coup, not only did the Uchiha attempt to insert spies from their clan into Konoha's administrative structure, but they also began stockpiling weapons, ammunition, and explosives should their removal of the village's leadership fail and lead into a confrontation between them and the rest of Konohagakure. The answer as to where the Uchiha were secretly stockpiling all of their weapons and bombs in preparation for the assault on the leaf had been revealed on the night the massacre took place, when the entire Police Headquarters and its basement packed with paper bomb ordinance was spectacularly destroyed.

While Hiruzen had become aware of Itachi's actions against his clan in an effort to stop the conflict from boiling over, what the man did not foresee was the clan's entire supply of war equipment detonating and taking out two city blocks. It was for that reason the Hokage immediately dispatched his forces to secure the area, so as to avoid other innocent villagers wandering into the site and getting caught up in the fires of whatever was going on.

And so, in a single night, not only did the Uchiha's murky plans to overthrow the village government go up in flames, but so did their temporary ammunition bunker.

The thought of it still made Hiruzen shiver at how close they came to all-out war.

As it was later revealed to him, thanks to the untimely detonation of the police headquarters, Itachi's systematic extermination of his clan, and a number of other factors, the young ANBU was effectively stopped from slaughtering every single member of his clan. Not only had Mikoto and the clan's strongest Uchiha been sent on a mission prior to the attack, but a small number of Uchiha had been lucky to not fall to the boy's blade. Because Itachi focused on taking out the hard core fanatics and the biggest supporters of the coup first in case he was stopped prematurely, the people who ended up being spared from his wrath were the members of the clan who had the least involvement in the events, including a few of the young families, some of the elderly, and the children.

Apparently he was saving them for last if he ended up carrying out his massacre to its fullest. After what happened on that night, these people ended up being spared.

"I guess we have Naruto to thank for that," Hiruzen thought to himself while inhaling his pipe and removing it from his lips. "If he hadn't been in the police station at the time, many more innocent people would've died."

Naruto had been the wild card in this entire scenario. Who would've thought that a seven year old boy with such a seemingly poor reputation around the village could be a deciding factor in the Uchiha Clan's survival? Whether this was an action performed by the Gods or not was a mystery. However, what was abundantly clear was that the youngster had proven himself a surprisingly valuable member of the village's community. Many of the Uchiha owe their survival thanks in part to him, and it was due to his interference in the matter that the families of the clan had the chance to start anew, rebuild, and grow again- hopefully for the better.

But another matter had come up during the night. It was the issue concerning Naruto's predecessors- his parents. Now while it was perfectly normal for a child, particularly an orphan, to ask about their parents and who they were, Hiruzen wouldn't be able to tell the youngster about his due to their occupations and positions in the village.

Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his mother was the former jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox- the Kyuubi. This was problematic for a number of reasons because not only was the former responsible for saving the people from the Kyuubi when it went on a rampage seven years ago, but when the fox escaped its original host, Naruto ended up becoming its newest one. In essence, what the blond wound up becoming was the carrier of one of the most powerful and dangerous creatures on the face of the planet, and he had absolutely no knowledge of it.

At least by the villager's understanding of the term "carrier".

All the adults in the village knew he was the new jinchuriki. The only reason he hadn't found out yet was because the Hokage had secretly made the decree that anyone who should tell Naruto he was the fox's host would suffer serious consequences. The people who were exempt from this rule were either members or the boy's family or people who were close to his family- including Hiruzen himself, Minato's mentor Jiraiya, and Kushina's best friend Mikoto- and even then the trio had made the agreement that they would inform the child when he has come of age, so that he could start learning to control the beast.

So in summary, to tell Naruto who his parents were would inevitably open up the conversation as to what'd happened to them, and why everything was as it was. But how Naruto would respond to this information and what he would do was beyond Hiruzen's knowledge, as it could result in him either accepting the news or taking it out on the rest of the village.

To illicit an extreme emotional response from the boy also ran the risk of setting the beast loose a second time. That was something that Hiruzen wanted to try to avoid.

However, since Naruto had brought it up, Hiruzen was deeply considering actually telling him about his family. The thought weighed heavily on his mind, as he continued to debate whether it was a good idea to tell Naruto everything he knew about his family or only the important bits. After all, the child didn't need to know about the Kyuubi, but if he figured it out by himself, which he seemed more than capable of doing, the Hokage wouldn't hesitate to explain the reasons.

But in considering all of this, Hiruzen was once again brought back to a problem that has been plaguing his thoughts since he first discovered this. Though seemingly insignificant on first glance, it was a subject that only he and a handful of other people were fully aware of.

"Naruto doesn't have the Kyuubi inside of him," the Third thought, at the same time looking across at the pictures of the Hokage lining the wall nearby. When his eyes landed on the Fourth, which was conveniently hidden behind the cupboard and out of sight, so much so that a shadow was cast over the blond man's face, the elder couldn't help but breathe a heavy sigh. "Though I understand your reasoning for giving your son the chance to choose what he really wants to do with his life, I can't help but think there is a much deeper sense and meaning to what you have done." After all, Minato never did anything without good reason.

But such was the fickleness of life.