The Hokage was really surprised to see an unknown ninja and Iruka Umino bringing back the scroll and having a knocked out and bound Mizuki Touji with them. The masked ninja walked over to him and handed him the forbidden scroll back. Then Iruka started to tell what had happened.
"Hokage Sama, I caught up with the thief, Mizuki in the west forest and after he told me he had stolen the scroll to learn the forbidden jutsus and sell the scroll to the highest bidder; once he had done that I attacked him.
Over the fight Mizuki managed to beat me in taijutsu and I was kicked back into a tree. Mizuki didn't waste time to throw another windmill shuriken at me while I was down. I was sure that that would be my end when Dark Phoenix appeared and intercepted the windmill shuriken Mizuki threw at me.
He then threw the windmill shuriken back at Mizuki but he dodged. Mizuki gloated about having been missed, but Dark Phoenix had tied ninja wire to the shuriken and pulled it back where it hit Mizuki in the back.
After that he was knocked out by a senbon that was obviously covered in some poison. He bound him with more ninja wire and we came back here." Iruka reported.
The Hokage was confused. He didn't have a ninja that went by the codename Dark Phoenix. But the boy was obviously strong and on their side. The scroll he had been given back was the original.
So the boy didn't intend to steal it. Curious. He would have to ask the boy once they were alone.
"Thank you for the report and bringing back the forbidden scroll, Iruka. That was good work. I think it would be best if you went to the hospital and let them check you if there was anything worse than bruises done. I need you ready for duty." The Hokage said.
Iruka bowed and left the room. The Hokage now turned his look to the boy.
"I would really like to know who you are. I don't know any ninja in my ranks with the codename Dark Phoenix." The Hokage said sternly.
"If you would send your ANBU guards out of the room Hokage Sama, I will tell you. I don't want my identity be known to anybody but you." Naruto said politely.
"Why would I send my guards out for this if you could try to attack me?" The Hokage asked.
"I may be strong, but I am sure you could take me out without problem, Hokage Sama. The only thing I require is a bit of privacy as I am about to reveal two S rank secrets of the village." Naruto said.
The Hokage concentrated his senses on the boy. He felt his chakra being suppressed, so there was no way to get any clues about the boy's identity. What kind of village secrets could the boy know? Well, if he wanted to find out, he would have to take the risk.
It was really small after all. He didn't become Hokage while being weak. He gave his guards the sign to leave the office. Once they were out of the office, he activated the privacy seals.
"So, now we are completely undisturbed. Now tell me who you are." He ordered.
Naruto raised his hands slowly to not have the old man attack him and pulled down his lower face mask and his hood.
"My name is Naruto Namikaze, third jinchuriki of the Kyubi." He said seriously.
To say the Hokage was shocked was an understatement. He had never even suspected that Naruto could know about those two things.
"Naruto? Is that really you?" He asked.
"Yes, old man. And if I hadn't figured out by now that having me use my Dad's name would have got his enemies after me I would be really pissed with you for lying to me whenever I asked one or both of the two questions I had all my life.
Who my parents were and why the villagers all hate me." Naruto stated while clearly showing his displeasure to the Hokage.
"How do you know that? Who told you?" The Hokage asked, furious that somebody would have broken his law.
"Well, I found out about the fox shortly before the Uchiha massacre. If I see Itachi I will have to thank him for getting rid of my most brutal tormentors.
They once caught me and beat me up in a lonely alley. When they left me there bloody and probably thinking that I was unconscious, they talked about how I deserved that because I was the Kyubi container and should just die. They only didn't kill me directly because you would have found out and taken measures.
About my parents I found out when I had to clean your storage room after that prank against the grocer in the north part of the village. I accidentally spilled blood on the seal that was keeping the box with the kanji for 'Fourth' on it closed. I looked into the box after the seal opened and found my parents' marriage certificate and my birth certificate.
I found out about the location of their house and went there. Well, you can guess the rest of the information I told you, like that I am the third jinchuriki for the fox when I say that I found both their diaries." Naruto explained.
The Hokage looked sad. He hadn't wanted to burden Naruto with the knowledge of the fox at such a young age.
"You said you figured out my reason for keeping your heritage a secret. How comes you didn't do better at the academy then? From the reports I got, you just passed the exams. Congratulations for that by the way." The Hokage wanted to know.
"Thanks, but think about it. What do the villagers fear more? A stupid and weak demon or a smart and powerful one? It was simply self-preservation. I am way stronger and smarter than everybody thinks." Naruto said.
"How strong?" The Hokage asked. "And how did you manage to keep all the training you must have done a secret? I only saw you training some times in the training grounds and then you didn't give the impression of being strong."
"That was my shadow clone, old man. I learned that jutsu by watching Kakashi Hatake test his team when I was nine. He had them fight against his clone in the true genin test.
I had memorized the handseal and tried to learn that jutsu as it looked really useful, way better than the clone we learn at the academy, which I still have problems with even after thousands of hours of chakra control training." Naruto admitted.
"That damn jutsu just uses too little chakra."
"You can do shadow clone jutsu? You know that it is a forbidden jutsu?" He asked.
"No, I didn't until now. I never had any problems except in the beginning when I dispelled too many clones after training at once. That was a terrible headache I got."
"You use your clones for training?" The Hokage asked interested.
"Sure. It's the best training method there is. At least for me. I can make a thousand clones without ending winded. And with the memory transfer after they dispel they were perfect for me to gain skills, experience and knowledge." Naruto said shrugging his shoulders.
"But why didn't you tell me?" The Hokage asked.
"I couldn't. If the council had any idea that I was getting strong on my own, they would have tried to stop me. I needed all the time I could get to get strong enough to just flip them the bird once I graduated. You know how they treat me.
If I had shown my true skills I would have been able to graduate earlier, that much I know you'd have done for me, but what then? A genin still isn't strong enough to be safe from a bunch of determined civilians, especially not if the council would try to make everything I did look like the fox did it.
And there would have been the possibility of a jonin just failing the team I was on under the pretence of us not having the necessary skills. Then it would have been back to the academy, under the control of the civilian council.
"And then they would have known that I was stronger than they 'allowed' me to become and would have sabotaged me more. No, I needed to have at least high level chunin skills to be sure to pass the real genin test for sure or you then having a reason to keep me in the active duty roster even if the jonin on my team failed me out of hatred for the fox.
While I haven't been beaten up since the Uchiha massacre, the civilians do all they can to screw me over. Shops overcharge me or just deny me service, parents tell lies about me to their children, teachers sabotage my education and the hospital staff only treats me if you force them to. Hell, the only place I can go to eat is Ichiraku's.
And I can't live from ramen alone, even if I pretended to do so. Thankfully I don't get the food a clone eats. Alone thinking about eating so much ramen makes me sick. I hate cup ramen by the way. I only like the ramen at Ichiraku's.
"Do you really wonder that I couldn't trust anybody until I was out of the influence of the civilian council? Now that I have graduated and am a ninja, I am under your jurisdiction and you are one of the few people that don't hate me." Naruto explained.
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