Chapter 8

Inu's head tilted. "Wonder what he found that's so interesting..."

The woman beside him shrugged. "We can find out later."

He nodded, his body beginning to vanish into wisps of smoke. "I'll leave to get some rest, be seeing you."

She set herself onto a more comfortable position watching as the little blond sat down once again in his previous seat.

-0-

Naruto meanwhile smiled as he sat down, reading over the paragraph once again just for that smile to stay on his face.

"It was Hashirama Senjuu and Uchiha Madara that founded Konoha, allying the powerful Senjuu and Uchiha clans and uniting the clans that were based around the continent's central region. While their respective Mokudon and Sharingan bloodlines were extremely powerful, it does not appear at this time that any of their descendents have inherited their Kekei-Genkai!"

An Uchiha clan without the Sharingan?

It was no guarantee Tobi hadn't manifested the thing or stolen it but this had the potential to make things far less complicated!

He kept on reading.

-0-

It was night when he finally stepped out of the libraries halls, shivering in the cold evening air, regretting the fact that he hadn't brought a jacket with him.

Suddenly he felt a weight settle on his shoulders stumbling forward a little as it settled before he looked to see someone had placed a thick, orange coat over his shoulders.

He looked to thank whoever it was when the words died on his lips, replaced by a frown and a glare.

Orochimaru raised a slender eyebrow. "Should I assume you don't like this coat anymore?" He asked, a note of glibness in his tone.

"What are you doing here?"

"When I heard you were out here without a coat I was behooved to bring one to you."

Naruto blinked. "Behooved by who?"

"Tsunade of course." He pointed and Naruto turned to look, finding a slug resting on the branch of a nearby tree. "She's busy at the hospital or she would have come herself." He commented. "Come. I'll walk you home and you can answer some of my questions. One of which being how you know what 'behoove' means?"

"No thanks." Naruto said turning to walk the long way home. "I'll-"

Snakes slithered around his waist, coiling tightly and lifting, leaving his little legs dangling in the air.

"I insist, lets talk you and I." The snake drawled, pulling him up to his side as he marched down the road.

The youth struggled, hands pulling and pushing at the snakes but with the limbs of a four year old he might as well have been trying to bend steel.

"So what did they stick in your head that's gotten you so riled up about me Naruto-kun?" He asked as though commenting n the encroaching winter.

"You're a creepy bastard, that's what! Let me out of this."

"Evidently they also taught you some more colorful words to go along with 'behooved' to your limited repertoire. Alright then. Lets not talk about me. What fabrications did they stick in your head about Jiraiya?"

"What's it matter to you anyway!?" Naruto glowered, arms crossed now, having given up on freeing himself. "Don't pretend like you gave a da-"

Orochimaru stopped, standing still in the road as he turned to look at Naruto, the serpentine yellow eyes boring a hole into the boys skull.

"Naruto-kun. You're young, and confused. You can count that as your saving grace or you'd be in a great deal of pain right now."

The blond met the serpent's gaze blinking in curious bewilderment.

Orochimaru turned and kept on walking, waiting for a moment before speaking again. "Now tell me. What was it they stuck in that head of yours about Jiraiya?"

Naruto looked down considering whether he should answer or not.

Finally, he did speak. "Ero-sennin was always peeping on girls in the hotsprings."

"Hah!" The snake barked out a laugh. "That does sound like him. What did he look like in these memories of yours?"

"Big, taller than anyone else in the village, 'cept maybe Chouji's dad-"

"Chouji?"

"Akimichi."

"Ahh."

"-white hair that he could make into a personal shield. Dressed up like a kabuki, wood sandals and everything."

A smirk graced the pale man's face one born of seemingly fond remembrance.

"He was also the first one that taught me the water walking and summoning-"

Orochimaru stopped again, turning to look at him. "Taught you? You learned how to manipulate chakra?"

That made Naruto pause hesitating for a moment before his mind came to a hasty decision, a quick plan forming in his head as he deduced where this could lead.

"Yeah!"

The snakes set him down, uncoiling from his waist.

"Show me." The man demanded.

With a thought Naruto pushed chakra to his feet

-0-

Seeing that her charge was in the safe hands of Konoha's snake summoner, the young woman that had been tailing them pulled away, doubling back towards the librarian who was beginning to gather his things as she approached, making as much noise as possible so as to not give the man a heart attack.

When he looked up, he was visibly startled to see one of Konoha's normally unseen special operators standing infront of him.

"The boy who was here. He asked you about a book, what was he inquiring about?"

-0-

Naruto struggled to focus, his underdeveloped coils trying to adapt to this new strain he was putting on them. He raised up his foot, about to place it on the wall before the sannin's voice stopped him.

"You're using too much."

"This is what I always used." He protested putting his foot down.

"Your memories are on the right track...but your body doesn't know what its doing." He shot back placing a hand on his chin. "Still...this is interesting. You mentioned summoning, show me the seals."

And Naruto formed them, watching Orochimaru's curious face as he did.

The sannin knelt, getting himself at eye level with the youth pulling out a kunai from his pouch and offering it hilt first.

"How well can you throw one of these?"

Naruto grinned and Orochimaru could tell it was false. The boy was manipulating him...or trying to. Failing miserably but the effort was there "How bout you and I make a deal?" He asked.

The snake raised a slender eyebrow he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

-0-

It was the next morning that Sarutobi found himself in his office, reading over a series of files discussing a zoning dispute between the Hyuuga and the Akimichi clans when the door to his office opened, revealing his pale skinned student.

"Orochimaru, what can I do for you?"

Not mincing words the man smirked in that familiar way of his. "I'm here to nominate Uzumaki Naruto for early academy enrollment."

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