4

Please Forgive Me

The Third sat in his office early in the morning. He had sent somebody to look for Kakashi and, knowing him, Hiruzen had at least two hours before he showed up. Sighing, the Hokage tried to find something to distract himself. Briefly he considered one of those colorful books that Jiraiya had sent him.

Suddenly, with a cloud of smoke, the Copy Ninja appeared in the Hokage's office, just as the seasoned shinobi had build up enough courage to start reading his previous student's novel. "You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?" The silver haired man asked.

"Yes Kakashi… I wanted to talk to you about Naruto." Sarutobi replied. "Did you know that he was attacked last night?" He questioned.

"What happened? Is He alright?" Shocked at the piece of news, the jounin immediately asked in concern. Then, after a second, anger at his student being attacked started to set in. "Who did it?" He asked, expecting it to be one of those brainless villagers that still viewed Naruto as a demon. The answer he received, surprised him even more than the news that one of his genin students was attacked within the past twenty four hours.

Sarutobi looked directly into Kakashi's eye and responded. "Uchiha Itachi."

Needless to say, it took the Hayate's brain a couple of seconds to process the fact that an S rank criminal had attacked one of his students. "You can't be serious, Hokage-sama. Uchiha Itachi attacking Naruto? How could that happen?"

The Hokage looked at the Copy Ninja with a bit of disappointment. "It seems that after you team meeting, Naruto was feeling a bit distraught… So he decided to take a break from the ignorance of the villages and fell asleep outside the village." He informed. "It was when he was making his way back that he was attacked by the missing-nin, Uchiha Itachi." Sarutobi explained.

Kakashi kept silent for a few moments. He knew too well what the Sandaime had meant by distraught. "Hokage-sama, you have to understand… I feel it is my obligation with Obito… Sasuke is from the same clan and he needs somebody to train him on his bloodline." The silver haired man tried to get his point across. "And I believe that I am the best choice, since I'm the only one who still have a Sharingan and is still affiliated to the village." He said in his defense.

The Third simply shook his head in responds. "So you owed to you fallen teammate?" He reiterated the point that the younger shinobi had tried to make. "What about your sensei? You do know that Naruto is his son, do you not?" The Hokage asked.

The Copy Ninja looked down at the floorl. He was one of the few people that actually knew that Naruto was the Yondaime's son, though he never knew who the mother was, but still he could not help but feel that his debt with Obito was far larger. "I know, Hokage-sama, but still, Sasuke is that last of Obito's clan! He would have wanted me to train him!" The jounin desperately wanted to explain himself.

By now, the Hokage was beginning to get angry. "You think that Obito would have wanted you to focus only on training Sasuke?" Sarutobi's eyes wer e a combination of anger and disappointment. "Please, do not insult his memory."

The comment hurt Kakashi. How could the Hokage even think that he would do anything to insult his teammate's momory?

But Kakashi did not have time to voice his opinion as the Sandaime started again. "First Obito would not even think of giving one student preference over another; that is something that your sensei tried to teach you." He began. "Second, your tea is the exact image as your old one. You have a famous teacher, except that in this new team the instructor seems to like playing favorites, you have a prodigy, a girl who tries to keep everyone together, and a boy that some consider thrash but actually has incredible potential." The Thrid stated. "Now tell me, who has Obito's position in this team?" Sarutobi questioned.

Kakashi was silent for a few seconds. Slowly, the shame that he felt started to turn into anger. "So you want me to leave Sasuke and go train Naruto, since he's your favorite…" The Copy Ninja did not ask.

"No I just want you to stop saying that it is because of Obito." The Hokage stated firmly. "The truth is that you want to train Sasuke simply because of his natural talent and because he reminds you of how you used to be." The Sandaime said, raising his voice.

"It's not that!" Kakashi tried to defend himself.

"Yes it is!" The Third insisted. "Because if you would have had the slightest bit of interest in Naruto, you would have found out that you owed to Obit to take care of him!" The Hokage said. Deep in his heart, the seasoned shinobi was going to enjoy seeing Kakashi's face after the jounin heard what he was about to reveal.

"What do you mean…?" The silver haired man asked with caution.

Sarutobi continued to stare down the younger man. "You never bothered to find out who Naruto's mother was, did you Kakashi?" The Hokage questioned.

Now Kakashi was confused. "What does Naruto's mother have to do in all of this?" The Copy Ninja asked.

"If you have bothered to investigate, you would have find out that Naruto's mother was Uchiha Kagome." The Sandaime finished.

The silver haired man was surprised once again. That piece of information had shocked him beyond anything that they had talked about until then. "You don't mean…" The man said weakly.

"Yes, Naruto's mother was Uchiha Obito's sister." The Hokage responded. "Naruto is your fallen teammate's nephew. He's more connected to that eye of yoru than Sasuke could ever be." Sarutobi revealed.

Kakashi sat down as he shock had not subsided completely. The silver haired shinobi brought his hand up to his covered eye. How could he have done this? How could he have done this to Naruto? To Obito? To his own sensei?

"Does he have a Sharingan?" Kakashi finally asked.

Even thought the Hokage would have very much enjoyed telling the jounin the truth, he had already promised Naruto that he would not. "No…" He answered. "You know that the Namikaze and the Uchiah clan were very different. I do not think that Naruto would be able to activate it since it seems that his Namikaze heritage have overpowered the Uchiha."

Kakashi nodded numbly.

"And you do not have to worry about Naruto's training anymore." The Third continued. "From now, until the Chunin Exam starts, I will be supervising his training." The Sandaime finished.

The Copy Ninja nodded once again and asked to be dismissed.

The Hokage knew that Kakashi had a lot to think about and decided to let him go.

The silver haired jounin walked aimlessly through the village four hours. It was almost six o'clock in the afternoon, around the time when rain started to fall, that Kakashi found himself in front of the memorial stone. The man fell on his knees and starred at the name Uchiha Obito.

"I'm sorry…" He muttered. "The Hokage is right… The reason why I wanted to train Sasuke was because he's a prodigy and I've been using your name as a way to justify myself." The jounin admitted. "And to top it all, I ignored and neglected Naruto… My student… Your nephow… Sensei's son…" He chocked for a second. " I failed you and Minato-sensei… Please… Forgive me." Kakashi begged and finally started his way home. On the way, tears fell from bothhis eyes and beneath his headband.

It was the moring of the Chunin Exam and Naruto was currently at the Hokage's office. The Sandaime had called him to the tower earlier that morning, telling him that he needed to meet him right away. Five minutes later, the blodn was knocking on the Hokage's window, and now he was waiting around as the seasoned shinobi searched the room for something.

"Ah! Here it is!" Sarutobi exclaimed as he held a scroll.

Naruto noticed that the Namikaze clan's symbol was imprinted on the scroll's seal. "What is that, Old Man?" The genin asked, looking at the parchment with curiosity.

"Well, since you have done so well in your training and learned very single jutsu in the scrolls I gave you, I have decided to you this." He signaled to the scroll. "Think of it as a present for all of your hard work." The Sandime gave the young man the parchment. "It is a summoning scroll for an ancient weapon." The Third explained. "Only a member of the Namikaze clan are able to summon it and use it." The Hokage said smiling. "The hand seals necessary for the summoning are inside as well."

Naruto opened his present. Inside were the series of hand seals needed, a bunch of stuff the ignored, and some sort of symbol similar to the Namikaze insignia as its center.

"Normally, you would need to carry the scroll everywhere and use it to perform the summoning jutus by placing a bit of your blood into the seal." The Third commented. "But since this is a specific clan jutus, you can replace the scroll with a summoning tattoo… In fact, if you hurry, you could get the tattoo done before the Chunin Exam starts, Naruto-kun." The Hokage said, smiling at the young shinobi.

The spiky haired blond closed the scroll and looked at the Hokage. "Thanks, Old Man." The Jinchuuriki said with a half a smile as he turned around and jumped out of the window.

Several hours later, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were standing outside Room 301, waiting for the last member of their team. "Kakashi-sensei, where is Naruto?" Sakura asked. "The exam begins in a few minutes and he still hasn't shown up."

The Uchiha was pacing in the hall anxiously. "Is he coming?" The young man asked.

"I'm sure he is." The silver haired jounin responded. "He'll be here, don't worry…" He said, his eyes shifting back and forth, almost nervously. "But before he does, there is something really important that I need to talk to you two about." He suddenly started again. "It's about Naruto… You see, during this past month he has… Sort of changed." The man informed.

"What do ou mean, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked in confusing. "How did he changed.

Kakashi did not really how to answer the girl's question. The Hokage had only said that Naruto was not the same anymore, but he had not given any specifics, and the silver haired shinobi had been unable to muster enough courage to face the spiky haired boy during the previous month. In fact, the famed nin was not sure if he would be able to face him now.

Before the jounin had time to make up an answer for the pink haired kunoichi's question, all three Leaf nins heard footsteps comng from down the hall.

All three turned around to see who was coming, they try to figure out who was walking towards them, but it was not until they saw the whisker marks on his face that they recognized him. "Naruto…" Sakura said in a low voice.

The two genin were left dumbfound. Their teacher saying that the blond had changed was a massive understatement, since, from their perspective, it seemed that the boy had undergone a complete transformation. His orange jumpsuit and blue sandals were gone, now the spiky haired teen wore a pair black sandals, dark blue pants, a navy color undershirt, and a black, long-sleeved jacket over it. A spiral symbol was presnt on the backside of his jacket and on the shoulder, and his hair had grown a lot longer during the mast month since it almost covered his Leaf headband now.

Naruto passed them without saying a single word. The only prove of acknowledgement between the members of Team Seven was the small second in which the blodn genin looked directly at his teammate's eyes.

When the Jinchuuriki was in front of the door, he stopped and looked back. "It's time for us to enter." Naruto said with a monotonous voice as he pushed the door open.

All three genin entered the testing room. Immediately, they were welcomed with the glares from all other participants.

"Sasuke-kun!" Suddnely, a blue and yellow appeared on Team Seven's field of view and latched itself onto the Uchiha. Anger started to seep into Sakura right away.

"Stop bothering Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!" Sakura shouted at the girl that was hugging the raven haired boy.

"This is so troublesome." A black haired boy said lazily as he approached the group while a boy eating potato chips followed fight behind him.

Naruto, who was not paying much attention to the two girls bickering, turned his gaze towards his former classmates Shikamaru and Chouji as the stood before the group for a second before looking back up to the roof.

"Whoa! I sthat Naruto? I can't be! He never looked so serious or stood so quiet before" The Nara though as he regarded the blond leaning against the wall.

"Well… It seems that the Rookie Nine are all together again!" An arrogant voice was heard as Kiba made his way towards the others, his dog, Akamaru, barking from inside of the boy's jacket. Behind the Inuzuka were, a blue haired girl with pale eyes and a boy wearing sunglasses. Hinata and Shino followed the hooded teen as he reached the group. Kiba took a second to look at everyone. "Hold on a second!" He suddenly said. "Where is the Dobe? I don't see him anywhere!" The brown haired boy wondered out loud.

It was at that moment that the member of the Rookie Nine felt a strong aggressive presence spike up in the room. All of their eyes turned to the source, and, for the first time, that the rest of Teams Eight and Ten noticed the blond leaning against the wall.

"Naruto! Is that you?" Kiba called out. "Due you've changed!" The Inuzuka said as he walked towards the spiky haired boy. The hooded teen stopped on his track the moment his eyes met Naruto's. A cold chill went down the brown haired boy's back.

"Hey… Billboard-brow, what happened to Naruto?" Ino asked in a whispered as she moved closer to her former best friend.

The pink haired girl bit her lips. " I don't know Ino-pig." She answered. "It's the first time that I've seen him in a month… Something must have happened during that period of time." The Haruno said.

"You guys are really causing a bad first impression." A gray haired Leaf nin wearing glasses said as he walked towards them. "Especially the blond one with the attitude."

Sasuke immediately stepped forward. "And who are you suppose to be?" The raven haired boy asked the older shinobi.

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto." The young man responded. "And you guys should try to keep a low profile… You are the Rookie Nine after all, already infamous around here, and this year's bunch is pretty tense as it is." He commented as he glanced around the room. "In all my year of taking these exams, I've never seen such a touch group of genins brought together."

The younger nins looked around as well. All they found were glares.

"For example…" Kabuto started again. "You have the team from Hidden Rain, they're extremely irritable… Not to mention the genins from Suna, especially the one with the gourd on his back, he gives me the creeps." The grey haired teen admitted.

"You seem to know a lot about this exam." Sakura commented with curiosity.

"Well, that comes with the territory when this is your seventh time taking the exam…" Kabuto said, blushing slightly in embarrassment and scratching the back of his head. "But each try bring new things." He said as he composed himself. "Like the team from Otogakure, it's the first time in this exam, and they just get to sent one team since they're such a small village." The grey haired genin informed.

Suddenly, someone from the crow threw a pair of kunai at Kabuto. The Leaf genin was able to dodge them with ease, but then a boy covered in bandaged appeared right in front of the grey haired genin and swung his fist forward at the Konoha nin's face.

Just barely, Kabuto was able to move his head back and evade that attack as well. When everything seemed fine, the Leaf genin's glass suddenly broke and he started spewing blood from the mouth and the ears.

"Don't think lightly of the Sound." The bandaged boy said as a girl with long hair and boy with blue haired walked forward and stood by him.

"Yeah! By the end of the exam all three of us Oto nin will be…" The boy started to say but suddenly stopped when he felt something on the back of his neck. Between him and the bandaged genin stood Naruto with a kunai held up to both of their necks.

"I think that the two of you should calm down." The blond said in a monotonous tone. "Unless you want to start something…" Naruto finished, pushing the blades even closer to their necks.