Chapter 27

Last Time:

'Customizable notification tone… voice recorder…interesting…' Samui thought as she left.

Now:

~ Konohagakure No Sato – With Hiruzen ~

'Dammit, what the hell am I supposed to be doing here?' Hiruzen internally demanded as he stepped into the Hokage Tower. He and the rest of his team had been summoned to the Hokage tower for some major mission, but he had been the last to be notified. 'And before I could even finish my ramen..' Hiruzen thought with a whine. "Well, here's everything." Hiruzen muttered as he knocked on the door to the Kage's office. "Enter." A monotone voice replied to him. Hiruzen shook his head and opened the door.

Inside, Kushina and Minato were waiting for him along with a man that had long blond hair in a ponytail and the same eyes Ino had. "Hiruzen Namikaze, reporting for duty, Hokage-sama." Hiruzen said and bowed before his father. He looked up to see the hurt flash over his father's face, then it was concealed. "Stand up, Hiruzen-kun." The man with blond hair said as he put his hand on Hiruzen's shoulder. Hiruzen quickly stood up and looked around. "Where is everyone?" Hiruzen asked, noticing he was the only one present in the office.

"We wanted to talk to you privately, Sochi-kun." Kushina said in a soft tone. "Is this pertaining to ninja matters?" Hiruzen asked in a harsh tone. "No, but.." "Then I ask to be excused, Hokage-sama." Hiruzen said and turned to leave. "Hiruzen Uzumaki Namikaze, you will turn back around and come back here to be submitted to a mind search!" Minato shouted at him. "Under what grounds?" Hiruzen demanded. "Standard protocol." Inoichi replied. Hiruzen sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "What if the Kyuubi interferes?" Hiruzen asked.

"In order to avoid said difficulty, we will have to have you unconscious for this procedure." Inoichi replied. "Fine, when does it begin?" Hiruzen asked. "Right now." Minato said. With that, an Anbu appeared behind Hiruzen and hand chopped the back of his neck, knocking him out. "Get him to the Interrogation and Information building and strap him down. Inoichi, you stay here." Minato said. The two Anbu saluted and quickly shunshinned away.

Minato turned to Inoichi and spoke. "You know what is to be done?" he asked. "Hai Hokage-sama. I am to go into young Hiruzen's mind and try to find the source of his hatred towards you or why he hates you to such an extreme degree." Inoichi replied with worry in his eyes. "But, sir.." Inoichi began, only to be cut off by Minato. "You are to avoid making contact with the Kyuubi at all costs. Good luck." Minato said. "But…" Before Inoichi could ask, Minato dismissed him.

~ T&I Cell ~

Inoichi sighed as he looked at the young Namikaze heir strapped down before him. "Hopefully, we'll be able to reunite you with your family and sort out this entire mess, kid. Right now, they really need you." Inoichi muttered. Ever since the kid had moved out of the Namikaze mansion, the Namikaze family had been a complete mess. Kushina chose to run around and look for him and try to make amends, despite the fact that Hiruzen wasn't interested and completely ignored her duties as a kunoichi and a matriarch.

Minato had been a complete wreck. He had been pulling Anbu teams from patrols or missions in order to find where his son was staying. If that wasn't enough, his paperwork was piling up and he doing the bare minimum to scrape by. If it hadn't been for Shikaku helping pick up the slack, he would have been kicked out of office a while ago. Inoichi shook his head as he took a seat in front of the unconscious Namikaze. "Here goes nothing." Inoichi mumbled as he placed his hand on Hiruzen's head and closed his eyes.

~ Hiruzen's Mindscape ~

Inoichi opened his eyes and saw he was in a dark dimly lit hallway and ankle deep in water. "What's this.." Inoichi wondered as he slowly made his way forwards. He saw nothing but a bright light as he made his way deeper and deeper into Hiruzen's mind. After a few minutes, he made it to a circular well-lit room. In the center of the room was a large stem that connected to the whole brain. "Hello, Inoichi-san." A voice behind him said.

Inoichi turned to see Hiruzen standing there with his hands in his pockets leaning against a wall. "What are you doing here?" Inoichi asked Hiruzen warily. "This jutsu is supposed to give me access, not the other way around. Only people with major amounts of training can materialize in their mindscape." Inoichi said. "Yea, well most people don't really have a giant Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed in them, do they?" Hiruzen asked. A loud demonic laughter echoed through the circular room and Inoichi shivered.

"Don't worry, he's still locked up nice and tight. I'm just here to make sure you don't do anything you aren't supposed to do, like seal memories or erase a few of them. You are more than welcome to look around, that is why my parents sent you in here isn't it?" Hiruzen asked. "Hiruzen, it's not like that." Inoichi said in a calm voice. "Sure it is. Now come on, I'll give you the grand tour." He said as he pushed off the wall and snapped his fingers.

A door materialized before them and Hiruzen opened it. "Come along.." He said. Inoichi sighed and followed Hiruzen. 'Not like I have much of a choice..' HE complained. As soon as he stepped in the room, he was in an all white room. "Where are we?" Inoichi asked. "My memory cortex. Surely you, a Yamanaka, would know what that is?" Hiruzen asked. "What are we doing here?" Inoichi demanded. "Sh.. The shows' starting." Hiruzen replied.

Inoichi turned to a blank wall and a scene appeared on it. It was a younger version of Hiruzen running through the Namikaze mansion yelling for his big brother. "When is.." Inoichi began, only to be cut off by Hiruzen. "The day after my 6th Birthday. I was going to get my big brother so I could show him my presents." Hiruzen replied with a sour smile. Inoichi watched as the young Namikaze searched the entire house, but came up empty. "I went to ask my mommy where my big bro was. She said she wasn't sure, so she and I searched again." Hiruzen commented.

Inoichi watched as they both searched for Naruto. "Well, we didn't find anything, so we went to daddy dearest. He sent out a few Genin to search, but to no avail." Hiruzen said. "I was crushed when my mother told me my brother ran away. I asked her if he was coming back, but she just replied "I doubt it." Hiruzen stated with his lips mimicking Kushina's voice on the screen. "Well, I was crushed. But I couldn't stay clinging to that, now could I?" Hiruzen asked Inoichi.

"So, I trained under my mother for taijutsu and ninjutsu and under my father for chakra manipulation and strategy." Hiruzen continued. On the wall a large shot of the Hokage's office came into view. "It was a few weeks after I turned 7…the usual big bash, great presents, etc. I showed up like a good son to daddy's office for training, but he wasn't there." Hiruzen continued. "Like any good boy wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, I took a seat behind his desk." Hiruzen told Inoichi.

"What…what did you find?" Inoichi asked cautiously. The screen flickered to a large binder with Naruto's medical records. "The reason why my big brother was.. Inept at the ninja arts." Hiruzen replied as he materialized a seat for Inoichi to sit in. A copy of the record came onto the wall. "Apparently, he wasn't unable to use chakra or lazy. IT happened when I was a baby and he was taking care of me in the yard." Hiruzen replied as Inoichi took a seat.

"Someone was gunning for me. Why? To disable my chakra network. I had to ask myself, why would someone want to disable my chakra network? I was just a kid. Made no sense. Fortunately, Daddy dearest was filling in the clues. He left notes on the poison and how it would have affected me and the Kyuubi." Hiruzen said. Inoichi's eyes grew wide. This kid new of his burden since he turned seven?! "Of course, I connected the dots. The weird seal on my stomach, why my father focused on chakra control so much, why my mother doted on me and not my brother, and why I was attacked and my brother was caught in the crossfire." Hiruzen finished.

"Of course, I couldn't really tell my parents what I had learned. So I placed everything the way I found it and pretended to be the good son. When father came back to his office, he was shocked to see me there. He ran to his desk and sealed the records. I never did see him the same way after that.." Hiruzen said. "But that brought up more questions than it answered. Where was big bro? Why couldn't we find him? Why did he leave?" Hiruzen wondered.

"Well, for the rest of that time I played the idiot and kept on with training as usual and even trained with Jiraiya and Tsunade. I kept asking on occasion about Naruto to my father, but he always stumbled and made up some fake excuse. It was obvious he was lying, so the question was.." "Why would he lie.." Inoichi muttered. "Correct. Then, when I turned 11, the Uchiha Massacre happened. Almost all of them were wiped out with the exception of Sasuke and two or three ninja who were out on missions." Hiruzen said.

"That very night, my father erased Itachi's name as heir to the Uchiha clan and named Sasuke." Hiruzen finished. "That made me curious. The circumstance by which the clan heir title transferred. So I decided to look into Village custom's and found out something interesting." Naruto continued. "But I don't have to tell you, do I? You are a clan head." Inoichi nodded "The changing of the clan heir title.." Inoichi muttered. "Exactly!" Hiruzen replied.

"Imagine my surprise to find out the only way to change clan heads without bloodshed is to disown the current one." Hiruzen mused. "My brother was no idiot. He must have known this." Hiruzen reasoned. "Which is why he left. Imagine my disgust at this. A once happy memory became a grizzly reminder." Hiruzen said. "Colorful colors became dull, the smiles on my parent's faces became sick and twisted." Hiruzen said in an enraged tone. "And the looks of shame on my godparent's face became…justified."

Hiruzen said in a cold tone. "When I confronted them about it, my mother tried to tell me it was for the good of the clan and the village. My father soon followed with the same tune. I could see the hurt on their faces and was..disgusted by it. For me, they were willing to cry and beg, but for my brother they just cast him out with smiles on their faces. That very same night I packed up and left" Hiruzen finished. "From then on, I was on my own. I had nothing but some clothes and a dream to find my brother. And someone who will stay anonymous.." Hiruzen began. "Who?" Inoichi asked.

"Let's call them Jot. It was one person, but this helps keep them in the shadows. Anyway, Jot helped me by giving me a place to stay. They sealed it off from spying and chakra so only I could enter. They also applied a seal to my chest." Hiruzen said as he showed Inoichi a tattoo of a sun on his left side. "So that they couldn't just track me down." Hiruzen finished. "And I'm sure you know what happened since I graduated and became a Genin. The mission to wave, my increased training, and my denying their training." Hiruzen finished.

"And so ends our tale of woe. You have everything they wanted you to find out. Now go." Hiruzen said as he got up from his seat. With that, Inoichi was ejected from his mind and flung back into his own.

~ Inoichi's Body ~

Inoichi gasped as he woke up. He looked to the sleeping Hiruzen with wide eyes, and then turned to see the Hokage waiting at the door. He scowled at the man, but rose to his feet and went to give them what they asked for.

A/N: Now we know what happened, but not what everyone felt. We'll be going a bit in depth into Kushina and Minato's personal feelings.