Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"Turn in what you can," Iruka had told Naruto before.

The boy hadn’t turned in any of the assigned homework since the academy started, no matter how much Iruka had nagged him. He thought maybe Naruto was afraid of failure and would rather not start at all than be told that he did poorly. It was a wonder that the previous instructor never made a note of it, though.

Now that he looked at what Naruto turned in, he had a bad feeling that the answer was something else.

“Naruto,” Iruka said, trying his best to not sound upset. “This isn’t in kanji or hiragana.”

“It’s how I’ve always written,” Naruto grumbled.

“That doesn’t make it any more correct.” Iruka flipped through the rest of what could be generously called answers. Some squiggles could be actual characters if he squinted, but for the most part, everything was practically just actual squiggles. “Naruto, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer me honestly.”

Naruto looked doubtful.

“There are no wrong answers, and you won’t get in trouble.”

“Okay,” Naruto said, still lacking the usual bravado and volume Iruka had gotten used to in the last few weeks.

“Can you read?” Iruka asked.

“... No,” Naruto admitted.

“How have you been keeping notes?” Iruka asked. 

“No one at the orphanage would teach me, they always kicked me out! So I made my own,” Naruto said proudly. He grabbed the papers from Iruka’s hands and pointed to some squiggles. “See, this is ‘U’ and it’s in Uzumaki twice. And this one is ‘Z’. But I write my name the way Jiji taught me instead.”

Naruto walked him through all the squiggles he used, and Iruka started seeing the patterns. It was like hiragana, but with fewer symbols and no punctuation. New sentences just became new paragraphs as far as Iruka could tell.

“You’ve made your own code,” Iruka concluded. “You adapted so you could still keep a written record.”

“I what?”

“You made it so you could read and write your own way. You did a very good job,” Iruka said. “But you still need to learn standard written language.”  

“Do I have to? You said I made my own code! And I write with it!”

“You’ll need to read missions in the future, and they won’t be written in your code,” Iruka pointed out. “And other people won’t be able to read your mission reports either.”

Naruto grumbled but acquiesced.

Even if he hadn’t, Iruka would have found a way to make him. While it was the first year at the academy, students were still expected to know the basics of reading and writing. At the very, very minimum, they should know how to write their names. He’d wonder how Naruto passed the entrance exam, but Naruto was a special case. He likely didn’t even know there was an entrance exam.

“We’ll get you started with hiragana. It’s a lot like your code, I’m sure you’ll get it fast.”

“You think so?” Naruto asked. “You think I’ll be good at it?”

“Really,” Iruka said. “Stay after class tomorrow, and we’ll see about getting you started on reading.”

“I’ll be the best at reading, Iruka-sensei! Believe it!”

And there was the loud, excitable boy he knew. Now, Iruka just needed to find something to get Naruto’s attention for the actual reading part. He doubted the kid would appreciate the typical starter books if he realized they were meant for toddlers.

The next day, Iruka brought a chart for hiragana and whatever beginner books he had. He had two hiragana-only books that’d help with getting Naruto used to using the kana. He also had a good handful of furigana books, so the boy could start associating some kanji with hiragana.

They were old, from back when he was a genin and still babysitting little kids. Worn with time and repeated use.

He was about to leave his apartment when he turned back and grabbed one more book. Older than the rest and a little singed. It was one of the last things he had from his life before the Kyuubi. His mother said a friend of a friend had given it to her to proofread since she was one of the few shinobi in the village who was better than mediocre at seals.

It didn’t have an author on the cover, but he knew his Bingo Books as well as any other shinobi and it was easy to guess who had written it. It was just as easy to guess that a specific little boy was her son if someone just looked past whatever hate they held in their heart.

It would probably be treason if he outright told Naruto what his mother’s name probably was. There was likely a reason why the Hokage never told anyone and why it was like her name was wiped from seemingly every public record. Still, he could give Naruto this, from one orphan with few things from their parents to another with even less.

After class, Iruka sat Naruto down with the chart, and they worked through the hiragana chart together.

“‘A’ in your code matches this one here, but ‘K’ doesn’t have its own symbol,” Iruka explained. “When you put your ‘K’ and ‘A’ together, you get ‘Ka’, this one. Everything in this row has ‘A’ in it, and everything in this column has ‘K’ in it.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Naruto said. “If both have ‘A’, why isn’t ‘A’ in ‘Ka’? None of the ‘K’ ones look the same, and none of the ‘A’ ones look the same, too!”

“It’s just the way it is.”

“When I’m Hokage, I’m making everyone use mine instead,” Naruto grumbled.

Iruka ruffled Naruto’s hair. “You’ll have to learn how to read first before you can become Hokage.”

Iruka set Naruto on translating his essay from the other day as practice while he finished grading the other students’ essays. The scratching of pen and pencil was punctuated with the occasional grumble. It was an hour and a half’s work for Naruto to finish translating.

“I’m done!” Naruto shouted, slamming his pencil on the desk. “That took forever.”

“I’m proud of you,” Iruka said. He went to pick up the essay and added it to his stack to grade. He ruffled Naruto’s hair and the boy lit up. “It’s about dinner time now, so we should head out.”

Naruto was up on his feet and halfway out the door before Iruka called him back.

“Take these, see what you can read,” Iruka said, handing over the books he had brought this morning. “Don’t worry about returning them. You can keep them.”

“I can?” Naruto asked.

“Those are yours now,” Iruka assured. “You’ll need to practice reading to be the best, like throwing kunai and shuriken.”

Naruto stared at the books in his hands, gently stroking the top book’s cover with a thumb. He looked up at Iruka, and his grin was dazzling.

–

Naruto sat in his apartment, too big and too empty for one small child, staring at one of the books from the pile Iruka had given him.

It had his spiral.

Not the one that was on every shinobi vest or on his shirt with the red background like a picture, though that was still at the bottom of the cover next to… a pepper? Anyways. No, this was the one on the armband that Jiji had given him and told him he needed to wear. Even if it was black ink instead of white stitching, Naruto knew it was the same thing. It was something that Jiji had told him was his and made it seem really important. That it was special and Naruto’s.

So why was it on the front of the book? This book about fuuinjutsu?

They hadn’t gotten to seals yet. Iruka-sensei said they would learn about storage scrolls and exploding tags sometime next year. This was a beginner’s book, though, and it had hiragana so he didn’t need to know the kanji. He could still read it.

Naruto cracked the book open and hoped that he’d find something more that was also his. The reading was difficult, but he could follow the pictures and diagrams. The book called for inks and brushes that Naruto didn’t have. The book said he could also use blood, but it was messy and he kept healing before he could collect enough in a bowl to even use to draw seals.

He wasn’t going to give up just because he didn’t have brushes and ink. Whatever fuuinjutsu was, the spiral meant it was his, and he was going to learn it. It was his and he wasn’t going to let it go.

The next day, Naruto waited until Iruka-sensei was distracted with finishing the week’s grading to ask about spare brushes and ink. He was handed some worn brushes and a large bottle of cheap black ink without much question, which was good because he was worried Iruka-sensei would ask if he was going to make exploding seals. He really wasn’t going to, but no one ever seemed to believe him when he said he wasn’t going to do anything bad. Sometimes Iruka-sensei did, but Iruka-sensei was weird even though he was nice.

Then, Naruto was left with the weekend to really learn fuuinjutsu.

And fuuinjutsu was hard.

There were so many symbols and marks, none of which were the ones that Iruka-sensei had shown him earlier that week, and they weren’t kanji either. There was something about things being called “fuuinjutsu” that weren’t actually fuuinjutsu, but everyone called them fuuinjutsu techniques anyway, like the Yondaime’s Hiraishin.

Something about storage? Time? Space? But space wasn’t storage, so it wasn’t really fuuinjutsu? Chakra translation? What was that even supposed to mean? Chakra was the energy stuff that Iruka-sensei was teaching them how to feel, but what was it translating? Or was it being translated?

Not knowing kanji made figuring things out even harder. It took well beyond sunset for him to figure out enough to draw a seal, but he wouldn’t be Naruto if he gave up! He’d be the best at this, no matter how long it took! And he was starting to connect some of the words to kanji! Though that was because the words just kept appearing over and over, like chakra and fuuinjutsu and ink.

He used ramen cups he kept from dinner to hold ink and water so they wouldn’t stain any of the few bowls he had. They were too light, and he had to tape them to the table so he wouldn’t keep almost knocking them over, but they worked well enough. 

Storage seals seemed boring, but the book insisted that he had to master different kinds of basic storage seals before he could master cooler things. It looked like the book was almost entirely about the basics of storage seals. Then it started talking about chakra translation again, so he moved on to just making the seal. He did his best to copy the pictures that showed how to hold the brush. The old brushes made the lines wispy, and his symbols were a lot larger than the ones in the book, but he thought his first storage seal and the book’s basic storage seal looked similar enough.

There was only one way to find out. After pushing the energy Iruka-sensei had them feeling into the seal, Naruto only had one and a half chairs. The other half was in splinters across the floor.

Maybe he should have tried a kunai first. Or maybe he’d have metal shards instead.

At least nothing exploded into flames.

He tried again, this time going over the lines again with just the very tip of the brush so there wouldn’t be gaps in the ink, and it would look exactly like the book’s. It took a few tries because it kept leaving blotches, but he had a storage scroll that stored and released a kunai! Then he tried storing multiple kunai. And shuriken. Even the remaining half of that chair from before. All of them popped in and out of the scroll perfectly. He kept making seals until he ran out of paper with enough space to draw on and started wondering what else he could do.

The ink dried right away when he pushed chakra. He had accidentally splashed some water on an active seal earlier, and the ink didn’t wash away. If he pulled everything out and poured water on the seal, though, it did wash away.

Cutting a seal apart was weird because it stopped working, but not entirely. If he taped the paper back together with some smaller bits of paper and ink to fill in the gaps, it seemed to work again, even if it looked really weird.

Maybe a pencil would work if he made the lines solid like ink?

Pencil lines were thinner than brush lines, so Naruto drew the seal on the back of some old homework. He was pretty sure that since the pencil lines and printed homework questions were made of different things, the seal wouldn’t count the homework questions as part of the seal, based on how the book only said to make sure not to draw on top of other ink. He traced the lines over and over until he could feel them through the other side of the paper to make sure every bit of the lines was filled without gaps, so he wouldn’t have another half-chair accident.

It took way more chakra for some reason, but it worked! His eraser didn’t rub away the lines, not that it worked very well normally, but the lead didn’t smear.

He drew the seal again and again until he really was well and truly out of paper, but he wanted to keep going. He needed to keep going. Fuuinjutsu was his somehow, even if he didn’t know how. It was his, and his seal worked. He was going to learn everything there was about fuuinjutsu, and he was going to be the best at it.

But first, he needed more paper.

The book said he didn’t need fancy paper yet, which was good because he absolutely could not afford it. Maybe he could ask Jiji for more money to buy it, but he had a feeling the answer would be no. He’d have to prove that he deserved the fancy paper before he asked. Jiji always had a lot of regular paper, though! He could ask for some of that.

The clock said it was late into the night, late enough where the red-light district crowd had died down already, but Jiji was always in the office super late anyway. He always told Naruto that he needed to sleep early to be strong, but Naruto was pretty sure that wasn’t true since Jiji was always in the office no matter what time Naruto went to visit and he was the Hokage. Plus, Naruto never felt much more tired if he didn’t sleep at night. Naruto checked that he could see that Jiji’s office light was on before he leapt out of his window.

After he was out of the red-light district, the walk was quiet. The only sound was his footsteps as he ran to the tower.

The people in the upper floors of the tower usually weren’t mean to him, only as gruff as they were with anyone else unless he was pulling a prank. Even the creepy guy with the bandages only aggressively frowned at him, but he didn’t sneer. He looked more like he had to take a really bad dump. Something about him felt really off, though, so Naruto never said that to his face.

A lot of the ANBU were nice to him, though, and he generally trusted them. Tonight wasn’t any different.

Naruto waved to Red-Monkey Mask and Blue-Dog Mask in front of Jiji’s office. He was a little disappointed Red-Raccoon Mask wasn’t here. Sometimes, he gave Naruto ramen coupons. He felt something slip into his pocket, though. He didn’t know which ANBU it was, but he found a granola bar in his pocket. He whispered his thanks as quietly as he could. Red-Raccoon Mask told him that he couldn’t let others know that sometimes ANBU gave him stuff and made sure Naruto knew that it was really important that he kept this a secret, even from the Hokage.

He also said something about that only being true for ANBU masks that have drawings on them and not to trust the blank masks. Which was weird because Naruto had never seen a blank ANBU mask before, but he also didn’t know what the different colors of the masks meant either.

“Hi, Jij!” Naruto trotted over to the chair across from the old man and plopped himself down. “Why are you here so late?”

“I could ask the same about you, Naruto,” the Hokage said, putting down his pen and smoking pipe. “It’s well past time for you to be sleeping. What has brought you to my office tonight?”

“I ran out of paper and thought maybe you had spares since you have all of this,” Naruto explained, gesturing to the mountains of paperwork on Jiji’s desk. “Iruka-sensei’s teaching me how to read!”

“Ah, Iruka mentioned,” Jiji said. “Is it going well?”

“Yeah! He gave me a book on seals!” Naruto explained. “I’ve been working on that really hard since it’s got the spiral you gave me!”

Jiji gave Naruto an intense look that he couldn’t really understand, but Jiji nodded after coming to some sort of conclusion. “A book on seals, you say?”

“Storage seals! It has the easier-to-read words Iruka-sensei showed me, but I think I know the kanji for chakra and seals now,” Naruto proudly explained. “I can make a storage seal now, too! Wanna see?”

“Of course, Naruto.” Jiji still had an intense stare but he did pull out ink, paper, and a brush for Naruto. The ANBU from outside also walked into the room for some reason. “Go ahead.”

The extra eyes made Naruto nervous, but he had spent all afternoon drawing the seal dozens of times and it was simple to focus solely on ink and paper as he traced out newly familiar lines. He looked about for something to store before remembering the granola bar in his pocket. He placed it on the seal and with a push of chakra, the granola bar was gone. Another push and it was back.

“Tada!” Naruto waved the granola bar. “It took a whole afternoon, but I can do it and I can use a pencil to do it, too! It takes a lot more chakra though.”

“A pencil? Can you show me?” Jiji asked. He dug through his desk for a pencil and handed that and a new sheet of paper over to Naruto.

Naruto showed him and Jiji asked to see the pencil version of the seal. He waved the ANBU out of the room, and Naruto swore he saw some movement from the ceiling, too. Sneaky ANBU.

“Naruto, am I to understand you learned all this from a book by yourself in a single afternoon?”

“I’m not lying, Jiji!”

“I’m not saying you are. I am very pleased that you picked it up so quickly,” Jiji said. Something about it made Naruto feel like there was something funny he wasn’t understanding. Adults were weird. “It has been a long time since Konoha has had a seal master within her walls. It’s a very rare skill these days. Maybe you could be the next one someday, Naruto.”

“Yeah?”

Jiji pulled out a large stack of paper for Naruto. He hesitated before pulling out some brushes, ink, and pencils as well. “I will look for any suitable fuuinjutsu books, but most are written with much more experienced shinobi in mind. You will have to work very hard on your reading and writing skills. I’ll have Iruka deliver them to you after class in a few weeks.”

“You… You really believe I can be the next seal master?” Naruto asked. “You’re not just saying that?”

“I really do,” Jiji assured. “While a Kage should be well-versed in all areas, most are known for a specialty. Tobirama-sensei was well known for his seal work.”

“Then I’m gonna be the next seal master, and then I’m gonna take the hat from you, old man!” Naruto stated.

“I look forward to my second retirement,” Jiji laughed. “But you will need to sleep at a reasonable time before that can happen. Now off you go, Naruto. If you need anything more, you know you are always welcome when I have time.”

“Thanks! Good night, Jiji.” Naruto hugged him before running off with his new supplies. He was sleepy but still vibrating from Jiji having faith in him.

–

Naruto stayed after class every day to practice reading more with Iruka-sensei.

Slowly, the books made more sense as Iruka-sensei explained the kanji. Hiragana was easier to learn, but figuring out if he was splitting the sounds right was confusing. Other than the two hiragana-only books that had spacing in the writing, the writing was a bit too crowded for Naruto to easily distinguish different words.

Reading them out loud made it easier sometimes, but Naruto didn’t want to always be saying what he was reading. Besides, he wouldn’t be allowed to since they weren’t allowed to talk during tests. And shinobi were supposed to be sneaky! Reading out loud all the time would not be sneaky. Naruto was still mainly focused on the fuuinjutsu book, motivated by his tie to it, whatever it may be. He studied reading with the fervor of someone trying to unlock his past.

Maybe in another world, Naruto didn’t have this drive and focus. He didn’t find this thing that felt like it belonged to him.

In another world, Iruka never realized that Naruto couldn’t read and never gave him the book that was absolutely not written by Uzumaki Kushina.

In another world, Naruto just never turned in any written work altogether and was written off as a slacker. A prankster who wouldn’t amount to much of anything and only became a genin under some unique circumstances.

In another world, where no one had true faith in Naruto being good at anything, he wore neon orange and loudly shouted that he would become the Hokage from every rooftop, hoping for attention, any attention. Even if it was just getting yelled at, it meant someone looked at him. He had Iruka and Jiji and the family that ran the ramen stand, but no one genuinely believed he could amount to anything, at least not until after the academy. 

In another world, several people who knew Naruto’s parents felt some degree of disappointment at how his genius parents passed down none of that talent and intellect to their child. Several of them did what they could to try to help, knowing that his situation wasn’t his fault, but laws they disagreed with held them back. They had hope that someday he could grow into the amazing person they knew that he could have been if his parents were alive, but it wasn’t true faith.

(Later, they would be so proud of him for becoming the hero that his parents knew he would become. They’d eat their doubts and genuinely smile about it.)

In this world…

Well, in this world, he didn’t have the same craving for attention from anyone and had a dream that others thought he could achieve.

He saw a bright orange outfit that he really wanted, but the voucher Jiji included in his month’s allowance only allowed for one shinobi-quality outfit. Maybe if no one had ever really paid him any attention, he would have gotten it to force people to, but he didn’t need that now. Not with the high of Iruka-sensei and Jiji telling him he did a good job. Besides, it didn’t have enough pockets if he wanted to become a seal master. He’d need more space to keep all his supplies on him until he could figure out getting specific things out of storage seals on clothes.

It turned out that cloth had too many holes to count as solid lines when he tried, so he couldn’t even just store everything into seals on his clothes. And what if it got ripped during a fight?

He’d figure that out in the future.

He flipped through more outfits until he found cargo pants that were still orange but darker to the point of almost being brown. They came with a black jacket with deep pockets on the inside lining. It was too large for him, but he could roll up the ends and bandage them down. Plus, if he could keep this one for a long time, maybe he could come back for the other one next time!

He brought the outfit to the desk, and they gave him the shirts and other stuff that the voucher included. It was nice of Jiji to include everything in the voucher. Naruto could never predict how much the shop would charge him before, and it made budgeting hard. Jiji didn’t look happy when Naruto told him that and said he’d handle it. And then gave a speech on how being Hokage meant treating every citizen of Konoha kindly and fairly, which Naruto thought everyone should do for everyone. People were always mean to him for no reason and they were mean to his neighbors and friends in the red-light district, too.

When Naruto became Hokage, he’d teach everyone to be kind to others!

Back to vouchers, though. If only he could get a voucher for food, then he wouldn’t have to try to guess how many fees shopkeepers added onto the tag prices!

At that thought, Naruto took out a notepad and carefully wrote to ask Jiji if he could write a voucher for groceries as well. The notepad was full of writing, mostly in hiragana, but there was kanji here and there.

Ramen was great, but one of the books Iruka-sensei gave him said that if he didn’t eat vegetables, he’d be short, and he wanted to be tall. Vegetables and other stuff were expensive, though, and they tasted gross and didn’t look at all like the pictures in the book. It didn’t say that he couldn’t just add vegetables and stuff to his ramen! Then the vegetables would taste like ramen! The vegetables at Ichiraku tasted good! But he’d need to ask them about fruits because he tried with an apple earlier.

It was not good.

Lesson learned. Don’t dunk apple slices in ramen.

Naruto stopped by his apartment to drop off his new belongings before heading over to the tower to ask about vouchers for not-mushy apples. Daytime meant Jiji had to talk to other old people, so Naruto had to wait outside in the hallway for almost two hours before he was allowed in. He passed the time by asking Red-Weasel Mask and Green-Rat Mask to proofread his notes from that morning and teach him the kanji for what he wrote.

Green-Rat Mask ignored him but Red-Weasel Mask rewrote Naruto’s notes into kanji and had Naruto copy them over onto another page before making a small show of burning the originals, much to Naruto’s delight. Naruto asked Red-Weasel Mask to do it again but Green-Rat Mask drenched the still-smoldering ashes in water and told Red-Weasel Mask to stop being such a child in public.

Red-Weasel Mask was really stiff afterwards, and Naruto wanted to fight Green-Rat Mask for being mean. Before he could give into his impulse to kick Green-Rat Mask, Jiji called Naruto into his office. Naruto would just have to remember to prank Green-Rat Mask later. It was dumb that Green-Rat Mask was being rude to Red-Weasel Mask for no reason.

Besides, it was Naruto who asked! Not Red-Weasel Mask! At least blame the right person!

Like Naruto expected, Jiji was not happy when Naruto asked for a voucher for food that looked more like the ones in the book. He said he’d handle it and would send something along with the books later.

–

It took another couple of weeks before Iruka-sensei finally gave Naruto a package at the beginning of class. In that time, Naruto had almost caught up to his classmates in reading ability. Iruka-sensei and Jiji said he was really smart.

The package was small. Tiny, even.

Maybe Jiji wasn’t able to find a lot of stuff? He did say that fuuinjutsu was rare. Maybe it was because there weren’t a lot of books and people who taught it? Naruto had asked Iruka-sensei about fuuinjutsu lessons at the academy and a lot of it was just copying stuff. There wasn’t anything like explanations on what parts did what and what happened when they were changed, like the book had.

Naruto was even more restless than usual. He kept bouncing his leg until Shikamaru moaned at him to stop shaking the table.

He waited until class let out and not a second longer to open the package. Inside was a scroll that had a seal that was very similar to the one Naruto had first learned from. He had no idea what the differences meant, though. They weren’t anything covered in the book he had.

A helpful note told him to push chakra into the seal.

Out popped another, larger scroll. Unrolled, it had several other storage seals with different labels that Naruto could mostly read. He unsealed the one that was marked Allowance. Along with the usual things Naruto expected, it had a note that said to go with Iruka after class to get groceries.

“Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei!” Naruto shouted. He sealed everything else back in and ran over to Iruka-sensei, waving the note at him. “Are you doing your grocery shopping today? Jiji said to go with you!”

“Ah, Hokage-sama mentioned that at our last meeting,” Iruka-sensei replied. “He said you told him the food you were buying didn’t look right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto confirmed. “Like apples, they had squishy brown spots. Some other stuff is fuzzy? I know cucumbers are fuzzy but some are really fuzzy.”

“Were those the only ones left when you were there?” Iruka asked.

“No? Why?”

“If you wait too late to get groceries, other people will pick all the best things already,” Iruka-sensei explained. “A lot of the groceries are delivered to the store on Mondays, so today will be better than later in the week for choosing your apples.”

“You can choose your own?” Naruto asked. “I’ve never done that.”

“What do you mean?”

“The workers ask me what I want and then they give me the bags and tell me how much everything is.”

Iruka-sensei frowned. “Has it always been like this?”

Naruto nodded.

“What about when you buy school supplies?”

“They let me pick, but I don’t think the price they give me is right,” Naruto answered. “I add things all up when I’m getting them, but I miss adding something, I guess. Then I end up paying more than I thought I would.”

“Point out the stores that do that.” Iruka-sensei shoved papers into his bag instead of his usual way that didn’t wrinkle that paper. “Let’s head out.”

–

As they walked to the store the Hokage had directed him to, Iruka’s stomach sank deeper and deeper as Naruto pointed out every store that treated him like shit. Pardon his language. Wait, no, don’t pardon it because this was absolutely fucking bullshit.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Iruka wouldn’t have cared as much, but things changed. He met a little ball of sunshine. He was wary at first, but then grew to care for the precocious boy. Stunted by a poor upbringing but so bright when given the opportunity.

He memorized every single shop that Naruto pointed out while his small hand was clenched tightly at the bottom of Iruka’s vest.

He knew they knew what a threat he could be. Maybe not in combat, but he was granted audience with the Hokage even for personal matters and was trusted with almost every major clan’s heir. It was hardly a secret that he was favored by several of the most influential people in the village. Getting on his bad side was a very rare occurrence, but, when it happened, it mattered.

No, he wouldn’t be able to ruin them. He wouldn’t even be able to get back at them the way that he wanted, though he desperately wanted to fall back into his prankster days. Still, he’d figure out a way to make them hurt where it mattered to them.

When the shopkeepers happily greeted him as usual, his smile was all teeth and his eyes full of anger. 

The shopkeepers flinched.

Good.

–

A week later, those specific shops received notices that their taxes and licensing fees would be increased by one percent. They raised a fuss with the civilian council, but, well. Konoha had always been a shinobi village under a dictatorship.

–

Naruto didn’t get to look at more of the package until after Iruka-sensei left.

He wasn’t that upset though because they had dinner together! Naruto never had dinner with someone other than Jiji before. Iruka-sensei made a tomato soup thing with eggs and they ate it over rice. Naruto never had someone cook for him before. The ramen chef didn’t count because it was a restaurant, they cooked for anyone who paid. But Iruka-sensei cooked just for Naruto!

But he was also excited about fuuinjutsu! He was going to learn more!

The scrolls that popped out from the storage seal smelled fresh, not dusty like Naruto thought they would. The books were much more worn. He guessed it made sense since, if there weren’t many books on fuuinjutsu, they were probably really old or rare. Maybe they gave him books they had a lot of copies of and made copies of others so he wouldn’t get stuff on them and ruin them.

The random spots of blood were weird, though.

Almost everything in the scrolls was written in the same hand as Red-Weasel Mask. Oh. Maybe Red-Weasel Mask got in trouble earlier. Naruto would have to find a way to apologize. Maybe better tasting granola bars? The one the other ANBU gave him tasted gross. If they had to eat those all the time, they’d have to be sick of them, right?

Iruka-sensei had promised to teach him stuff about cooking. He would ask about it then.

A few scrolls had the same swirl and pepper symbol the book had and he took a peek at them, but they were really confusing. He ended up picking up the scroll labeled Explanations instead in hopes that it would explain all the confusing things.

It was a list of notes, written by Red-Weasel Mask. Inside was a numbered list where each note referenced a scroll. As Naruto unrolled it, the later sections were written by someone else with messier handwriting, followed by Red-Weasel Mask writing the scroll name.

Did someone else get in trouble and was punished by copying and writing notes? It probably didn’t involve Naruto. He didn’t remember any other ANBU being scolded near him.

Red-Weasel Mask was someone who had helped him before, so Naruto decided to read the scrolls in the order that Red-Weasel Mask took notes. He was going to trust Red-Weasel Mask even though the first scroll was a weird one called Sensing Your Seals, whatever that meant. Well, he might as well get started.

Chapter One: Chakra.

He was supposed to meditate to feel his chakra, but he was pretty sure that was just the stuff Iruka-sensei had been teaching them in class. He could already pull his chakra out to use to activate storage seals, so he skimmed until he was on chapter two.

Chapter two said he needed some leaves. He’d have to get them in the morning. It was already dark out and he couldn’t stay up until the night crowd left.

He moved onto the next scroll, Customizing Storage Seals, and thought it was the perfect tattoo for keeping all his belongings with him. Then, just seven more until he got to Fuuinjutsu Tattoos, which looked like it’d solve a lot of his problems.

He’d get there in no time.

He did not, in fact, get to the Fuuinjutsu Tattoos scroll in no time.

First, he had a hard time reading everything and spent more time looking through the dictionary than actually reading.

After that, it took three more weeks before he was finally able to walk up and down a tree ten times without falling. He couldn’t water walk at all. One of Red-Weasel Mask’s notes suggested that he try tree walking while sticking leaves to himself with chakra and he was doing that every day and still made no progress with water walking.

He checked the tower after class for ages before he saw Red-Weasel Mask again. The other ANBU wasn’t Green-Rat Mask, but Red-Raccoon, so it was probably safe. Naruto ran over and handed Red-Weasel Mask a slip of paper.

Red-Weasel Mask tilted his head.

“Granola bars in a storage seal!” Naruto explained. “Iruka-sensei helped me make them!”

“Granola bars?” Red-Weasel Mask asked.

“To say thanks for all the scrolls,” Naruto said. “ANBU ones taste really bad, so I made these! I asked Chouji about stuff to add in to make it healthier. Did you know the Akimichi have a lot of restaurants and shops? Because they do. So many.”

“Don’t I get one?” Red-Raccoon Mask asked.

Naruto pulled a small bag out from his backpack and tossed it over. Red-Raccoon Mask laughed and pocketed it.

“Thanks. If an Akimichi helped you make this, it’s going to be so much better than ours,” Red-Raccoon Mask said. He nodded to Red-Weasel Mask. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

Nice, Red-Raccoon Mask was okay with this! Green-Rat Mask was probably just a meanie, then.

“You are more than welcome for the scrolls,” the ANBU said. He tucked the paper away somewhere. “Thank you for the granola bars. I will be sure to give you a review and compare them to our ration bars.”

“They’re called ration bars?” Naruto asked. “That sounds cooler than granola bars. Can I ask you for help for another thing?”

“I may or may not be of assistance.”

“Uh. Okay,” Naruto replied. “I’m trying to water walk. I can walk up and down trees with ten leaves now, but I still keep falling into the pond. Do you have any tips?”

“Ten leaves? Very impressive,” Red-Weasel Mask praised. Naruto puffed up. One more person who thought he did a good job! “Wait here.”

Red-Weasel Mask got a cup of water from the water cooler down the hall. He used some jutsu to make a dent in the floor and poured the water in.

“I’m not fixing that,” Red-Raccoon Mask said.

Red-Weasel Mask ignored him and gestured for Naruto to move closer. “Try on this, please.”

Naruto did as requested.

“I see,” the ANBU said. “You are maintaining a constant rate of chakra output.”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?” Naruto asked. “That’s what I did on the trees and with the leaves.”

“Trees and leaves are solid objects,” Red-Weasel Mask explained. “Water is liquid and moves when you interact with it. Because it’s moving, your chakra has to move with it.”

“But my foot is just on top of it,” Naruto said. “It’s not moving anything.”

“To simplify, liquids are always moving to some degree, even when it looks like they are still,” Red-Weasel Mask replied. “Solids stay still.”

“So my chakra has to move with all of the water?” Naruto asked.

“Just the water that you want to water walk on.”

“You mean the top of the water?” 

“Not quite. Let me demonstrate.” Red-Weasel Mask stuck his finger into the sort-of puddle so it was halfway to the bottom. Then, he flipped into a handstand. “You can walk at any depth of water, given enough practice.”

“Damn, no need to show off, Weasel,” Red-Raccoon Mask chimed in. “You’re going to give me a complex.”

“Then you need more training,” Red-Weasel Mask retorted, but he righted himself again. With a sweep of his hands, the water was back in the cup and the floor no longer had a hole in it. He poured the water into one of the potted plants and threw the cup away before returning to Naruto. “I recommend starting on a smaller body of water rather than a pond. It’ll be easier to get a feel of the water’s movement. Possibly a bathtub or a bin.”

“Oh. That’s a good idea,” Naruto said. “Then I won’t have to do laundry so much.”

“That is another benefit, yes,” Red-Weasel Mask agreed. “You can also submerge your feet in water and let your chakra get a feel of the water around you.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Everything has chakra, including water. If you can feel the chakra, it will be easier. Is there anything else I can help with?”

“That’s it! Thanks again!” Naruto said. “And let me know how the granola bars taste!”

Naruto waved at both ANBU and ran off to train some more.

–

Damn it, Itachi, Genma thought. Genma had been working so hard to keep Danzo’s interest in Naruto as minimal as possible. If the councilman caught wind of Naruto’s sudden escalation in ability over the last few months, things were going to get messy.

It was easier when Naruto had been doing poorly at the academy, but now that he had people helping him, his abilities were growing like a weed.

Maybe he should have expected it.

Naruto was already friendly with the ANBU that Genma trusted. He should have predicted that Itachi would reciprocate. Even though the kid was odd, he did have a little brother Naruto’s age that he talked about a lot. He probably missed spending more time with Sasuke like before he joined ANBU. The difference was that Naruto could technically talk to Itachi while he was on duty.

Naruto mentioned something about Itachi giving him notes? Genma knew about the fuuinjutsu books the Sandaime had given Naruto, but what notes? Itachi was writing training material for Naruto?

When the hell did Itachi even have time? ANBU missions were time-consuming, Genma barely had time to piss. It wasn’t like they had much downtime between missions. They were only in the village long enough to resupply and catch a full night’s sleep if they were lucky.

Was it even allowed?

It was a bit of a gray area that no one else had touched before. It could be argued that improving the skills of the village’s greatest weapon was part of his duties. Plus, the Hokage already gave Naruto some additional fuuinjutsu studies material. Itachi was just… expanding. 

Technically, Itachi wasn’t prevented from interacting more with Naruto. It was mainly Kakashi and people who were close to Minato and Kushina in general. Genma was almost certain Kakashi was sent out on back-to-back missions to keep him from trying to kidnap Naruto and pull a runner. Or Kakashi was sending himself on them for reasons better discussed with a Yamanaka.

Meanwhile, Itachi wasn’t associated with Minato and was only passingly associated with Kushina before he joined the academy. It was theoretically safer.

Not that it mattered if the Hokage decided he didn’t like it. Military dictatorship and all.

Don’t get him wrong, Genma loved that Naruto was progressing so rapidly. He knew Naruto’s parents would be so proud of him. The issue was that Naruto’s parents weren’t there to protect him and now that was Genma’s job since no one else seemed to want to do it. At least Kakashi had the decency to warn him about the shit the old creeper was doing so Genma could intervene.

It irked Genma to no end that Mizuki was one of Naruto’s instructors, but it was useful. His hatred for Naruto was clear to any shinobi worth their salt. Still, it made him the clear choice for a scapegoat when Genma broke into the academy and fudged Naruto’s grades so that he was still trending towards being a mediocre student.

Fuck, was he going to have to drag Kakashi in to actively help?

They both knew Root still had to exist somewhere. Danzo would never disband it fully, regardless of orders. Genma knew all about hiding in the shadows, he just needed to find which ones Danzo was hidden in.

Not that the Sandaime listened when anyone brought this up. He refused to see how sketchy Danzo was even though Kakashi had literally told the Hokage that Danzo tried to kill the Hokage and it was confirmed.

Was the old man going senile?

Regardless, he needed to have a talk with Itachi. Possibly Shisui, too, since whenever one was involved, the other was sure to be close by. He just needed to figure out how much he should tell them.

Shit, did he need to bring in other people, too?

Iruka? To help with the grades?

He needed to trade some favors to get door guard duty sooner rather than later. And he needed to figure out who he wanted as his partner for it when he talked to Naruto. Tenzo, maybe? Damn it, this sucked.

–

“NARUTO!” Iruka yelled. He walked into the bushes and grabbed the boy by his collar. “Would you care to explain why you just happened to not be present when everyone else was unexpectedly pelted by water?”

They were doing dodging practice, something that Iruka thought was best before they started weapon throwing training. Everyone had been split into groups of five and paired with a group of upper years Iruka had borrowed. Moving target practice for one and dodging practice for the other. However, when the first group was about to start, they were pelted on all sides by water.

Naruto mumbled some unintelligible excuses.

“You are coming with me after class. Now go clean this mess up.”

“Okay, Iruka-sensei,” Naruto said.

Iruka noted that he didn’t actually look repentant, but Naruto went to do as ordered. He watched Naruto pack away cups? He was using cups to launch water? There were far fewer cups than he would have expected from how much water was thrown around. Maybe the boy forgot where he put some of them.

After class, Iruka marched Naruto over to the tower and into the Hokage’s office.

“I was told you pranked your class, Naruto,” the Hokage said. “Care to tell me why?”

Naruto grumbled and kicked at the floor.

“Naruto,” the Hokage admonished. “This was a dangerous situation. Even if they were only training weapons, you could have seriously injured someone.”

“Oh… I’m sorry,” Naruto said. “I don’t want anyone to actually get hurt.”

“Now, please, tell me why you did this.”

“They’re mean,” Naruto mumbled.

“Did they do something to you?”

“Ami’s a big bully!” Naruto shouted, suddenly furious. “She’s mean to Sakura all the time!”

“She is?” Iruka asked.

“And her friends, too!” Naruto continued. “They make fun of Sakura and make her cry a lot!”

“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Iruka asked. “You can trust me to handle these situations.”

“I told the last sensei about Ami being mean, but he didn’t believe me,” Naruto replied. “I tried telling other people, too, but they didn’t believe me either.”

“Do you remember who you told?” asked the Hokage.

“I don’t remember, it was a while ago,” Naruto grumbled. “Usually it’s okay because they don’t do anything when Ino’s here, but whenever she’s not at school, they go back to being mean. Ino wasn’t here today, so I thought if I could distract them, then they wouldn’t have time to be mean to Sakura.”

“You still caused a dangerous situation,” the Hokage said. “However, in light of the extenuating circumstances, I believe that you shouldn’t be given too harsh of a punishment.”

“Extenuating?” Naruto asked.

“To make more forgivable,” Iruka explained.

“Oh,” Naruto said. “Are you going to do anything about the bullies?”

“I’ll handle it,” Iruka answered. “I promise.”

“That’s okay then,” Naruto said, nodding firmly.

“I’ll leave the decision up to your sensei,” the Hokage said. “Anything else?”

“How did you fit so much water into those cups?” Iruka asked Naruto. “I swear I saw a lot more water hit them than what can fit in those things.”

Naruto took off his backpack and pulled out a few used ramen cups. He held one up for them to see. “Seals!”

“Can I take a look?” asked the Hokage. Naruto handed one to each of them and the Hokage inspected the intricate designs Naruto had inked onto them. “What do these do, exactly?”

“This one’s a storage seal to hold water. This one pushes water out of the seal and works with this one to make it faster. This one stops and starts pushing and cuts off water shooting out so it’s not just a big stream,” Naruto explained, pointing to each seal as he went. “These parts link them all together and tie it to a timer and chakra battery. And then this one turns the whole thing on and off.”

“Quite impressive, but please have supervision next time you do something like this,” the Hokage said. “I think it’s time for this old man to take a break from paperwork and go on a bit of a walk. Would either of you care to join me outside? I’d like to see how the cup works.”

Naruto cheered.

He grabbed Iruka’s hand and tugged him down the hallway, the Hokage and his guards following behind them. Laughter filled the halls the entire way down, only interrupted by Naruto shouting that the cups needed more water.

–

Jiji had taken them to a training ground that he said was privileged, meaning no one would bother them, to play with the water cups. Jiji couldn’t stay long but he laughed more than Naruto had seen in a while, so that was good. 

Everyone said the battery seals could hold a lot of chakra, but Naruto didn’t feel like that was true. He just shrugged and charged the cups fully for everyone. It didn’t take him much effort but everyone was impressed anyway.

Jiji let Naruto and Iruka-sensei stay for longer because Iruka-sensei asked if the cups could be changed to throw other things, too. So far, it hadn’t worked very well, but they were going to try again another day. They ended up having another water fight afterwards that ended with Naruto tackling Iruka-sensei into the training ground’s pond when he stopped to refill.

Iruka-sensei left a bit later after telling Naruto that he still had detention for the rest of the week for creating a dangerous situation.

“It’s not that you really did a bad thing. It’s good to want to defend your classmate. Protecting a Konoha citizen from danger, even from another Konoha citizen, is a good thing. Though, please tell me about any more bullying in the future instead,” Iruka-sensei had said. “But you could have hurt other people, too. What if the cups had started later than you thought and water sent a kunai towards Sakura instead?”

Naruto sat on the edge of the pond with his feet in the water. He hadn’t bothered rolling up his pants since he was still really wet from the water fight. He did lay his jacket out to dry, though. 

He tried to get a feel of the water like Red-Weasel Mask had said, but he couldn’t get it. 

A figure dropped down next to him and Naruto wanted it to be noted that he didn’t squeak, but he did fling himself away.

“Yo!” the Red Mask greeted. Naruto was pretty sure the mask was supposed to be a bird. It had a beak, at least. “What’re you up to, kid?”

“Feeling water,” Naruto answered warily. “Are you kicking me out?”

“Nah, the Hokage said you could be here, so it’s fine.” Red-Bird Mask gestured to Naruto’s clothes. “You sure did a good job of feeling the water, though.”

“No, not like that,” Naruto replied. He scooted across the floor and dunked his legs back into the pond. “The water’s chakra.”

“Ah, that makes much more sense,” Red-Bird Mask said, nodding. “How’s it going so far?”

“Bad,” Naruto groaned, kicking at the stupid pond water. “Do you know how to do it?”

“Sensing chakra in water or water walking?” Red-Bird Mask asked. “Either way, the answer is yes.”

“Any advice?”

“Hm, how much sensing can you do?” Red-Bird Mask asked. “You’re kind of young to be trying to sense nature chakra.”

“I’m not little,” Naruto griped. “The ANBU Red-Weasel Mask said it would help with water walking.”

“Oh! That makes more sense!” Red-Bird Mask said, somehow perking up even more. “He’s right, it does help. Usually, people don’t do that until they’re already really good at water walking. Weasel is a genius, but he has a habit of forgetting other people aren’t.”

Naruto deflated. He definitely wasn’t a genius. He’d probably disappoint Red-Weasel Mask.

“Hey now, don’t be like that,” Red-Bird Mask said. “Even if you’re not a genius like him, one of the best shinobi I know always says you can be a genius of hard work. Besides, not a lot of people are geniuses like Weasel. Don’t compare yourself to him, he’s a weirdo.”

“He’s not weird!” Naruto defended. “He’s really nice and he helped me with tree walking already!”

“Wait a minute, are you that kid he was writing those notes for?” Red-Bird Mask asked.

Naruto nodded.

“Nice, he thinks you’re really talented,” Red-Bird Mask said. “And obviously you’re a genius of hard work, too, if you’re still training now.”

“He does?”

“Sure does,” Red-Bird Mask assured. “When he’s your- when he sees you around the village, he sees some of those seals you make. Says you’ve got a real talent for them. I see him writing some more notes sometimes when we’re out of the village."

More notes! And Red-Weasel Mask saw his seals! Naruto really only kept those in his apartment, so that was kind of confusing. Oh! Maybe he saw the ones from today!

“I made something!” Naruto bragged. He grabbed one of his cups, still full from the dunking he and Iruka had earlier, and made sure Red-Bird Mask was watching. Then, he turned it on.

“Oh, hell yeah,” Red-Bird Mask said. “Can I buy that off you?”

“You can have it,” Naruto said, handing it over. Then he grabbed another and handed it over to Red-Bird Mask, too. “Can you give one to Red-Weasel Mask, too?”

“I am definitely giving you money for this,” Red-Bird Mask said. He pulled out a ridiculously large wad of cash from somewhere and shoved it in one of Naruto’s jacket pockets. “This kind of work deserves to be compensated.”

“Compensated?”

“You did work so I’m paying you for this.”

“Oh.” Naruto took a look at the money and holy crap. “This is way too much money. Do you want some back?”

“Kid, I would give you more money if I had it on me. Actually, consider that the down payment,” Red-Bird Mask replied. “I’ll give you part two next time I see you.”

“What! No! That’s too much!”

“Compensation! We just talked about it!”

“No, it’s okay! This is more than enough money!”

They argued back and forth until Red-Bird Mask gave in when Naruto said that he didn’t know when they’d next see each other and that Red-Bird Mask keeping that much money on his person all the time was a bad idea.

“Fine, you and your logic,” Red-Bird Mask grumbled. “How about I help you with sensing chakra?”

“I think that’s fair,” Naruto agreed. It wouldn’t be stupid amounts of money and it would help Naruto make even better seals in the future.

“Alright then,” Red-Bird Mask said. He held his hand out, palm up. “Put your hand on mine and try to feel my chakra. It should be easier since there will be more of it.”

Naruto put his hand in Red-Bird Mask’s and focused as hard as he could. “I feel something…  staticky? Is that your chakra?”

“Sort of! Let me try something,” Red-Bird Mask said. Something about what Naruto was feeling shifted. “How about now? What does it feel like?”

“Like… ramen.” 

“What.”

“You’ve eaten ramen, right?” Naruto asked. It would be a tragedy if Red-Bird Mask never had.

“Yeah, but I still don’t get it.”

“When you drink all the warm soup at the end and then you’re all warm, too,” Naruto explained, patting his stomach for emphasis. “That’s what it feels like.”

“So it makes you feel warm?” Red-Bird Mask asked. “That’s neat. Okay, one more test.”

Another shift and Naruto felt… He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it? “It’s like I want to run really fast?”

“Huh,” Red-Bird Mask replied, sounding as confused as Naruto felt. “Never heard it described like that before. Still, that’s cool that you can feel it.”

“So I’m not doing something wrong?” Naruto asked.

“Nothing wrong, just a little different,” Red-Bird Mask assured. “Okay, I lied earlier. Now one more test.”

Naruto laughed, but complied. There was another shift, slower than the previous times, and… huh. “I feel something, but not really? I can tell it’s there, but I can’t really feel it.”

“That’s possibly because I’m making sure I keep out all of my elemental chakra,” Red-Bird Mask explained. “I don’t use water release, so this should be pretty close to neutral chakra.”

“What do you mean neutral chakra?”

“Chakra often has a nature to it. What you felt before were lightning, fire, and wind release,” Red-Bird Mask explained. “You said they were staticky, warm, and made you feel like you wanted to be fast, right?”

Naruto nodded.

“There are also yin and yang, but we’re just focusing on the elements for now,” Red-Bird Mask said. Naruto just rolled with it. “What you felt is something like the base building block of chakra.”

Naruto stared at Red-Bird Mask blankly.

“Another way to explain… Wait, ramen! Okay, so basically all ramen has soup, right?” Red-Bird Mask asked. “Think of neutral chakra as broth. Adding elemental chakra to it is like different soup flavors. There are tonkatsu, shoyu, and other flavors, but they all have broth in them.”

“So I have to find the broth in the water?”

“Yup! It’s going to feel a bit different since that’s nature chakra instead of elemental chakra, but that should be fine.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Yeah, but it’s not important right now. The only real distinction you need to know is that chakra nature is the element that your chakra prefers to default to,” Red-Bird Mask waved off. “But for sensing, all you need to know right now is that water chakra is water chakra.”

It took almost an hour, but he did it!

At one point, Red-Bird Mask gave a more thorough lesson on how different people’s chakra felt different and how everyone had their own natural mix of elements. He also said that Naruto was probably trying to sense chakra that felt like his own in the water, but it didn’t match because Naruto probably wasn’t a water nature.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try water jutsu,” Red-Bird Mask said. “But it’ll be harder. Genius of hard work, though, right?”

Then he started talking about how some people can feel other people’s chakra without being in physical contact and Naruto was back to being confused.

“I’m getting ahead of myself,” Red-Bird Mask said, cutting himself off. “Now that you can sense my chakra well, I’m sure you’ll get sensing water chakra down in no time. Good job, kid.”

“Thanks, Red-Bird Mask!” Another person who said he did a good job! He was at four people now! 

“You can just call me Crow,” Crow said. “No need for the color and saying mask. Same for Weasel.”

“But there are different colors and you’re all wearing masks,” Naruto pointed out. He’d never actually said what he called them out loud before now that he thought about it. He didn’t usually talk to them, just a few who were friendly. Maybe saying mask was overkill. 

“Then I can be special!”

“Okay, you can be just Crow since you’re helping me,” Naruto agreed. “And Weasel can be just Weasel since he’s helping me, too.”

“Woo!” Crow pumped his fist. He turned to look at the sky and then back at Naruto. “Okay, kid. It’s getting late. You should probably head home.”

Naruto protested, but Crow pulled him to his feet and made sure Naruto had the wad of money in his pocket before ruffling Naruto’s hair and escorting him out of the gate. Naruto was still reluctant to leave his new friend.

“I’ll see you again soon,” Crow said. “You’ll have to show me that you figured out water walking, right?”

Naruto took a gamble and hugged Crow. He was really nice and spent so much time with Naruto, it was probably okay, right? Crow stilled for a bit but hugged Naruto back.

“Good night, kid,” Crow said. Naruto got one more hair ruffle before he finally started walking home.

–

“Aw man,” Kiba groaned when Naruto told him about his punishment at lunch the next day. “A week of detentions for some water? That sucks.”

“Iruka-sensei and Jiji said it could have hurt people,” Naruto replied.

“Jiji?” Kiba asked. “I thought you were an orphan?”

“Jiji isn’t related to me,” Naruto explained. “He’s old though, so I call him Jiji.”

“So who’s Jiji? The ramen chef?”

“Jiji’s the Hokage!”

“You’re totally lying, no way,” Kiba said. “Why would the Hokage care about some random kid?”

“I’m not lying!”

More bickering led to Naruto tackling Kiba to the ground. They rolled around in the dirt and it was more laughter than argument at the end. Lunch ended and Kiba didn’t bring it up again, but Naruto still thought about it.

Why did Jiji always have time for him?

Naruto was still thinking about it when he was let out of detention.

Did it have something to do with why everyone seemed to hate him? Other kids were allowed in most restaurants, including orphans. And the other kids at the orphanage were taught to read and weren’t kicked out like he was when he was younger.

What was that motto? Once can be coincidence but twice is enemy action? What if it was every time?

Without even thinking about it, Naruto found himself standing in front of the tower. Not that it was far from the academy. Naruto climbed up the stairs and settled into a chair to wait for Jiji to call him in.

Half an hour later, when another meeting had just started, someone dropped into the seat next to him.

“Hey, kid,” Red-Raccoon greeted. Naruto hadn’t even noticed that he was one of the ANBU on duty. “You look like you’re thinking about something serious.”

Naruto shrugged, still distracted by said serious things.

“You can talk to me about it,” Red-Raccoon offered. “Talking about things helps me a lot when I feel stuck.”

Red-Raccoon waited while Naruto collected his thoughts, mulling over what to ask without outright asking what was up with Jiji.

“Do you know why everyone hates me?” Naruto settled on asking. “I never did anything, but people are mean to me anyway."

“That’s not something I can tell you,” Red-Raccoon said, obviously caught off guard by what Naruto asked.

Naruto slumped in his chair. Did that mean he knew but couldn’t tell Naruto? Or that he didn’t have an answer? Either way, it still meant Naruto didn’t know.

Red-Raccoon looked at Red-Cat, the other ANBU on duty. After a few seconds, Red-Cat nodded back. Naruto had no idea what was communicated, but it must have signaled something because Red-Raccoon turned back towards Naruto.

“Do you remember how I had you promise to keep how you get snacks from ANBU a secret, even from the Hokage?” Red-Raccoon asked.

“Yeah?”

“And you’ve kept that promise?”

“I keep all my promises!” Naruto replied.

“A little quieter, please,” Red-Raccoon said. “This conversation has to be a secret, too. This time is a lot more important than secret candy.”

“But why?” Naruto kept his voice much quieter. “Isn’t keeping secrets from the Hokage bad?”

“A lot of secrets can be, but this one is different,” Red-Raccoon said. “This is about finding out that there are secrets about you that no one can tell you.”

“If they’re about me, why can’t you tell me?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Is it really complicated or do you just not want to tell me?” Naruto asked. “Because adults like to say things are complicated when they just mean they don’t feel like explaining or they think kids are too dumb to understand it.”

“We really do, don’t we?” Red-Raccoon snorted. “I promise this is actually complicated. There are things I can’t tell you because it would be treason.”

“Treason’s bad,” Naruto said. “Are you sure you should be telling me? I don’t want you to get in trouble for me.”

“That’s also complicated,” Red-Raccoon said. “But it’s treason for reasons that aren’t right. There are things you deserve to know but we’re not allowed to tell you.”

“Can I know why you’re not allowed to tell me at least?”

“That’s also complicated.”

“Is there anything that isn’t complicated?” Naruto huffed. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just keep learning fuuinjutsu. You’re already doing a great job,” Red-Raccoon said. Even though Naruto was upset, it still made him feel warm. “Crow told me about how you were learning sensing?”

Naruto nodded. “But I still can’t water walk yet.”

“Kid, you are so far ahead of your age group, you don’t even know,” Red-Raccoon said.

“I am?” He didn’t feel like it. He still had so many of the scrolls to get through.

“You are. And that’s something I’m also going to ask you to promise to keep secret,” Red-Raccoon said. “Getting too good too fast gets bad attention.”

“So I have to stop training?”

“No, you just have to keep it secret.”

“How am I going to keep it secret?” Naruto asked. “I train outside and so does everyone else.”

“I’ll ask Weasel and Crow about a place,” Red-Raccoon promised. “You can trust them, too.”

“Are you sure?”

“You can trust ANBU with red masks,” Red-Raccoon said, tapping his own mask. “They’re not exactly on the same team as me, but we’re in the same group. If that changes, I’ll let you know. But don’t trust the other ones, okay?”

“Like with the blank masks?”

“Just like that.”

“How do I know if something is supposed to be too good for me to know yet, though?” Naruto asked. “Is sensing too good? What about fuuinjutsu?”

“If you’re not sure, ask one of the red-masked ANBU,” Red-Raccoon said. “I know this is confusing, but I promise we’re trying to protect you.”

“How do I know you really are, though? You could just be doing a treason thing right now and I’ll get in trouble, too,” Naruto pointed out. “How do I know you aren’t setting me up?”

Red-Raccoon paused. They stared at each other in tense silence, but Naruto wasn’t willing to give in. There were a lot of secrets involved and a lot of trust Red-Raccoon was asking of him. This could be an actual crime and, while he didn’t think Jiji would actually put him to death, he still could and that was scary enough.

Finally, Red-Raccoon moved. He took off his mask and Naruto saw an ANBU’s face for the first time.

“My name is Shiranui Genma,” Red-Raccoon, Genma, said. His smile was soft and there was a barely noticeable chip in one of his teeth. He had a funny tan line across his forehead and Naruto wanted to poke it. “It’s nice to meet you, Naruto.”

–

It really wasn’t Genma’s fault that he had that conversation with Naruto at a time where Naruto was just starting to question the Hokage. He wasn’t a Yamanaka, he couldn’t read minds.

It definitely wasn’t his fault that Hiruzen had poor excuses when Naruto started questioning him. It was like the man never thought that Naruto would have any deeper thought about his treatment.

It could have been an easy mistake to make. Naruto was already doing poorly in his studies since he began. Sure, he improved in the last few months, but habits were hard to break, and they were used to thinking of him as a bit of a dolt. No one, Genma included, accounted for the possibility that Naruto was much smarter than he seemed, even after his startlingly rapid growth. The boy just never had the words or information to do anything about it before.

It wasn’t Genma’s fault that Naruto took all the information he had and put it all together the way that he did.

Genma had said to keep learning fuuinjutsu and had asked about sensing. Naruto took that to mean sensing seals. There was one on his stomach that spread internally throughout his entire body. Most of the seal was internal, and he couldn’t read it properly. The only part he recognized was the spiral. Maybe a part that meant prison? But he thought he had to be wrong, because why would he have some sort of prison seal on him?

He also found a seal on his arm patch that Hiruzen had given him. A part was about following. Was he being followed?

Finally, they didn’t realize just how stubborn Naruto was.

Hiruzen refused to give him real answers for whatever reason. Genma couldn’t because it would be treason. That meant it was probably because of orders, orders that most likely came from the Hokage.

Genma was honest with him, as honest as he was able to be, and that meant more than anything to Naruto. That honesty was more than Naruto had ever gotten from anyone. Genma implied answers existed, just that Naruto couldn’t have them. That still meant there were answers for Naruto to find.

Naruto trusted Genma. If Genma said he could trust the ANBU with red masks, ANBU like Weasel and Crow, then Naruto would trust them. They probably wouldn’t be able to give him answers either, but maybe they could give him hints like they already have.

No matter what, Naruto would get answers. He would find out who he really was.

–

A little while later, Naruto found a note in his backpack, written in familiar handwriting. He had no idea when Weasel could have slipped it in. He hadn’t seen any of the red-masked ANBU in over a week.

He still followed the instructions to find some place after class.

He walked down streets until he stepped into a forest, then he started making turns at trees that were described in excruciating detail. How did Weasel remember how many branches were on the left and how many were on the right from the exact angle Naruto would be standing at? Was Naruto going to have to write things with this much detail when he was older?

When he finally got to a fancy-looking training ground, with all the bits and bobs anyone could want. Surprisingly, it was Crow who greeted him.

“You’re not Weasel,” Naruto helpfully pointed out.

“Dang, way to call me disappointing,” Crow said. Before Naruto could start panicking, Crow came over and ruffled his hair. “Weasel got some time off, so he’s spending it with family. We thought someone should meet you here so you didn’t think you got lost.”

“Oh. Well, I got here,” Naruto said. “Wherever here is.”

“It’s an old training ground that Weasel and I used to use a long time ago,” Crow explained. “We got it cleaned up and added some cool things for you!”

“If you two used to use it, how are you sure no one else will find it?” Naruto asked.

“They, uh, died,” Crow said, faltering. “During the Kyuubi attack.”

“I’m sorry. Did you know them?”

“Not well, but Weasel used to,” Crow answered. “But! We’re here to train, not be sad about that past!”

“You’re staying to train me?” Naruto thought he was just going to be left alone to do his own thing. “Aren’t you really busy?”

“None of us have the time to consistently train you, but I’m more village-bound than the rest are,” Crow replied. “So it’s probably just going to be me helping you out.”

“But why do you want to train me?”

“It’s… complicated.”

Naruto should have seen that one coming.

“Raccoon told us we need to let people keep thinking you’re dumb for big adult reasons. Can’t let people know that you’re actually super smart but we don’t want you to actually be dumb,” Crow continued. “Plus, I like you. My free time is at weird hours, so how do you feel about ditching class every now and again to hang out with your favorite ANBU?”

Crow made him run through the obstacle course. Not even in a fun “go as fast as possible” way. He had Naruto go through each part slowly until he was happy with Naruto having the technique down before moving onto the next. Sometimes it felt like Naruto had done the same jump a hundred times before Crow was satisfied.

Two hours later, Naruto was flat on his back on the ground. His hands ached and he could feel sore muscles in places he had never thought about before.

“I have to go soon, so let’s stop here,” Crow said, finally taking mercy on Naruto. He gently poked one of Naruto’s unmoving arms. “Are you okay? Maybe I was a bit overkill.”

Naruto uselessly flopped his arm. “Ugh.”

Crow unsealed sandwiches and water bottles and placed them next to Naruto. “For when you get up, but I can’t stay until then.”

“It’s okay,” Naruto mumbled. “I’ll get up soon.”

“That’s good. Anything you want to ask me before I get going?”

Naruto hummed as he thought. There were so many questions he had about everything. Genma had told him some truths though, so maybe Crow would, too. Even though it probably wasn’t the type of question Crow meant, Naruto finally asked, “Do you know anyone with the same family name as me? Uzumaki?”

Crow was silent for a while.

“It’s complicated?” Naruto asked when the silence got too uncomfortable.

“Yes and no,” Crow answered. “What I can tell you, though, is that the first Hokage was married to Uzumaki Mito.”

–

Uzumaki Mito.

Naruto had a name now, the name of someone important. Or at least married to someone important.

So where did the other Uzumaki go? He’d never seen or heard of another one in the village. And why Uzumaki Mito was called Senju Mito during a lesson on the first Hokage. Maybe she dropped her old last name after marrying into the Senju clan? How did family names work when people got married?

Just as much as he’d never heard of another Uzumaki in the village, he hadn’t heard of any Senju in the village either. What happened? They were a founding clan, they couldn’t just disappear. The Uchiha were still here and they founded Konoha together with the Senju, that much he knew from class.

He went to the library and asked for books about the Senju family, not wanting anyone else to know who he was really looking into. A lot of the books and scrolls were about the war and founding of Konoha, but that wasn’t what he was looking for.

He was looking for something much closer to home.

Finally, he found it.

A book with the Senju family tree. Notable figures had pictures of them, too. Helpful little blurbs told Naruto that several were renowned for their fuuinjutsu abilities, like Jiji’s Tobirama-sensei.

He stared at Mito’s face for a long time.

Did they really have the same eye shape or was he just wishing? What about their ears? It didn’t help that she was an adult in the pictures and he was just a kid. Her face had angles and stuff while his was just round. He wished that the photo was more than just a flat black-and-white square on paper or that he had someone else to ask.

His eyes drifted to other pictures underneath Mito’s, passing over them when nothing stood out to him. He stopped on a sad paragraph about how Tsunade was the last living member of the Senju line.

Wait.

He looked at Tobirama’s picture and then went back down to Tsunade’s. Both had light hair. Tobirama’s spiked up all over like Naruto’s did, too. Their eyes were dark-colored, unlike his, but... 

He needed to know more.

Jiji was Tsunade’s sensei, but that meant he would either tell Naruto a lot or nothing at all. He couldn’t ask Iruka-sensei since he wasn’t supposed to be a really great student for his own safety. Maybe there was something about her that wouldn’t be weird for him to ask about? Being the last Senju couldn’t be the only thing she was known for, right? She was trained by a Hokage! She had to be awesome!

Naruto’s maybe-last living relative wasn’t just awesome. She was really, really awesome! She could destroy mountains with one punch! People couldn’t poison her because she would cure it on the fly! She had a seal that stored so much chakra! And she was part of the Sannin! Naruto wasn’t sure what that meant, but she was so awesome she had a title!

So did two others, but one was a traitor and one was a creepy pervert who spied on people at hot springs, so he really had no interest in either of those. Jiraiya trained the Yondaime and Naruto didn’t know if that raised his opinion of Jiraiya or lowered his opinion of Namikaze Minato.

Or maybe Namikaze Minato became awesome on his own! Naruto was just going to believe that because he was going to be awesome on his own, too!

Wait.

No, he wasn’t.

He had Crow and Weasel and Genma. Maybe he even had Iruka, too. Jiji might be a liar, but he still helped Naruto with the fuuinjutsu books. He had people who believed in him enough to go out of their way to help him. He wasn’t doing this alone.

Huh. When did that happen?

He was firmly dazed with those thoughts. Would it be weird if he thanked them? Brought them a bowl of ramen? More granola bars didn’t feel like they would cut it for such a big thing. What kind of seals would be useful for them? He only really knew storage and ejection seals with modifications so far, could he make anything useful with those?

Was this what it felt like to have a family?

–

Shisui stared at the seals Naruto had just given him. And stared. And stared. And stared some more.

“Can you explain to me what these do one more time?” he asked.

“It keeps everything you put into it the exact same way until you take it out,” Naruto said like this was some simple feat followed up with an explanation of storing multiple things and only pulling them out one at a time like it was easy.

“It doesn’t get warm? Older? Rust if it’s wet?”

“No?”

“And you’re sure it works the way you just said it does? Nothing gets scrambled?”

“I put some ice cream in one for a couple weeks and it didn’t melt. Sandwiches were still sandwiches,” Naruto said like it was simple and not something that violated all the fuuinjutsu knowledge that Shisui knew. Maybe Shisui was dumb? He’d have to ask around. “The sandwiches you left were kind of warm so I thought you might like cold stuff cold and hot stuff hot? Ramen worked, too!”

Shisui kept staring.

“Do… Do you not like it?” Naruto asked nervously. “Is it because I couldn’t figure out how to add security to it?”

Shisui’s head snapped up. “Kid, I love this, this is amazing!”

Naruto was focused on food, which was already amazing and he was absolutely going to capitalize on that. Shisui could also keep so many ice packs for injuries. Heat packs, too.

But what if this worked for people, too? It could save lives! They could keep injuries in stasis until they could get to a medic! Even if it couldn’t work for living people, it was still going to be great for autopsies. They could get blood samples to the lab before they deteriorated and help create antidotes. Keep limbs in viable condition for reattachment.

Obviously, he couldn’t have Naruto test it. Hell, he might never even tell Naruto that any of these were even tested on people. Maybe if it could keep someone in stasis, he could tell Naruto they did it in an emergency while on a mission. That was a small lie and would be fine, right?

If this worked, Shisui had no idea how he could ever repay Naruto. Same with Itachi and Genma, since Naruto gave him little packs to give to them, too. 

Shisui picked Naruto up and spun him around.

“Alright! You’ve got me for maybe three hours, what do you want to learn? Anything you want me to teach you, it’s yours.”

There was something funny about how Naruto asked Shisui to teach him Shunshin. It was even funnier that it came up because Sasuke had bragged about his cousin Shisui being the best at it. They spent the entire three hours going through exercises that would help Naruto use it as well as Shunshin no Shisui, taught by Shunshin no Shisui himself.

Not that Naruto knew that.

For all of Shisui’s goofiness, he was a perfectionist when it came to techniques, all the way down to the very basics. With his primary ANBU duties being monitoring his clan, a lot of his time under the mask was spent training new recruits. That was the only teaching he had ever done and the only tiny child he had ever trained was Itachi, which didn’t really count.

He halved his routine for recruits and worked Naruto through the training circuit until he was satisfied with Naruto being able to do it on his own. That was something Naruto could do on his own without supervision.

Next was the fun part. Fun for Shisui at least.

“Why,” Naruto panted. “Do you need to throw stuff at me?”

“You need total awareness of your body!” Shisui yelled. He lobbed more rocks at Naruto. “If you’re going fast but can’t tell what’s around you, you’re going to slam into a tree! We’re starting with the basics!”

Honestly, Naruto wasn’t terrible at dodging, but Shisui was pretty sure he was better than that when he was younger. The academy must be slacking or something because the kid was improving fast in just an hour. Maybe he’d ask Itachi how Sasuke was doing.

“This sucks!” Naruto yelled back.

“Wait until I pull out those water cups,” Shisui laughed.

More rocks went sailing, this time from a shadow clone behind Naruto. Another shadow clone was picking up more rocks or breaking up large rocks into smaller ones. Naruto rolled to dodge, groaning as he got off the floor again.

“We can stop if you want,” Shisui offered, just in case Naruto was actually tired. “We can keep going next time.”

Naruto threw a pebble back at him. “I’m not a quitter!”

The kid lasted another half hour before he collapsed on the floor. And was then promptly up again after three bowls of still-piping-hot ramen.

Those seals were going to be amazing on long missions.

After leaving Naruto with the promise of giving the others the seals, Shisui went to T&I and knocked on Ibiki’s office door.

“Knock knock,” Shisui called out. “Anyone home?”

He let himself into the office without even waiting for an answer. Ibiki knew him by now, he showed up regularly enough.

“If you’re trying to convince me to help you write a proposal for interrogating prisoners with the power of friendship again,” Ibiki said. “Then you can walk your ass right out of my office.”

“It’s not the power of friendship! It’s sound psychology,” Shisui argued. “And I’m going to get approval to test it someday.”

“Get out.”

“Nah, that’s not what I’m here for.” Shisui threw himself into the chair opposite Ibiki. “Got any prisoners that you need dead and don’t really care how or when it happens?”

“Are you okay?” Ibiki asked, actually showing concern. “Are you going out of your way to kill someone? I’m not a Yamanaka, but if you’re having a mental breakdown-”

“What? No,” Shisui replied, waving away that idea. “I just have something I want to test and hopefully nothing bad will happen to them. I don’t want to kill anyone. We might need a Yamanaka though.”

“For you?”

“I changed my mind, I want to kill you.”

Ibiki dodged the kunai with the deftness of someone too used to nonsense.

A poor soul spent the next week in and out of a scroll, not that they felt most of it. Inoichi, the only Yamanaka that Ibiki and Shisui both trusted to do something off the books for them, confirmed that their mind was still fully intact.

Shisui still wasn’t about to shove a comrade into the seal though. If it came up, then it would be worth trying. Knowing how A-Rank-on-up missions go, he’d have an opportunity to try sooner or later.

Onward to the next part of his to-do list. How was he going to pay Naruto?

–

The money issue itself was solved by Kakashi of all people.

They tried to do the math on how much they should pay Naruto and no one was really able to give a real answer. The old receipts they were able to find were from long ago, back when Uzushio was still around. Other receipts were for commissions or from individuals who had extremely varying price ranges. They argued several times, going around in circles.

Kakashi just took the opportunity when it presented itself.

He had wealth from a dead clan that he actively did not want. They asked if it would look suspicious, but he pointed out that he was mentally unstable enough where if he took all his clan money out of the bank, no one would be surprised if he just made a bonfire with it. Apparently, it was a dream he once had. Some Yamanaka made a note somewhere.

It was surprisingly self-aware of him. It scared them all a little. Either he was about to self-immolate or retire. Hopefully retire because Tenzo and Itachi were the closest things they had to strong water users and Kakashi could possibly overpower them. Maybe if Itachi were older, but he didn’t have enough chakra yet.

Kakashi promised he’d play into the bonfire idea and invite them. Genma asked him not to. Tenzo, ever supportive of his captain, volunteered to bring firewood. Itachi slapped his hand over Shisui’s mouth before he could chime in.

After that, the main problem was that none of Team Ro actually knew taxes.

They were shinobi. They all had the default account Konoha Bank set up for all genin, and deductions were automatically taken from their pay. If they paid Naruto directly, would they be committing tax evasion? Are there any fees for taking out that much money from an account all at once? What paperwork was there? Did they even want there to be paperwork? Probably not.

And did Naruto even have a bank account? Where would he keep the money if he didn’t? Storage seals could get lost and it would look weird if Naruto suddenly kept a scroll on him all the time.

Itachi and Shisui tried using the Sharingan to memorize tax laws to review during downtime on missions, but it wasted too much chakra and they weren’t going to bring in more people just to figure out taxes. It would have been extremely useful if Fugaku had started training Itachi for Clan Head duties like contracts and taxes, but he was more focused on things like how to kill people. Itachi would have preferred being an accountant.

They decided to just commit tax evasion or fraud or whatever the proper term was.

–

It was one of the rare times where Itachi had a break.

Normally, he would spend it with his precious little brother, but it was ten in the morning and Sasuke was in class. Instead, he left a note for Naruto to meet him at the training ground. Like the last few times they’d met, Itachi quizzed Naruto on the homework he knew Sasuke had done that week to make sure that skipping classes and answering things incorrectly wasn’t causing any issues with his knowledge. Shisui had let slip to Naruto that Itachi, Weasel, had skipped class all the time and Itachi had to reinforce that Naruto still needed to know the lessons even if he wasn’t present.

They didn’t tell him Itachi used to send a kage bunshin to class. It would be too identifying and Naruto might get the same ideas.

“Well done, Naruto,” Itachi praised. He had to admit that Naruto’s answers were more detailed and thought out than Sasuke’s. Like Shisui, he was attributing this to the academy’s standards. And that he might be as much of a perfectionist in theory as Shisui was in technique. “Is there anything you would like to focus on today?”

Naruto pulled out one of the several scrolls Itachi was able to copy for him from his mother’s secret box of Kushina’s old belongings. He aimed to copy all of the scrolls, but it was a project he had yet to complete.

“I think I figured out adding security to the storage seal, but I can’t test it because it’s just me,” Naruto said. “Can you try using it?”

“And what exactly will happen if the security works?” Itachi was not going to activate a seal without knowing the details. He remembered Kushina. He remembered the stories about her insanity with seals. No matter how sweet Naruto was, he was still Kushina’s progeny and an Uzumaki.

His mother used to joke that he had stress lines on his face as a baby because Kushina would constantly put seals on his toys.

“It’s supposed to shoot paint out towards you,” Naruto said. “Maybe other stuff if it works.”

That wasn’t so bad.

“I want to put it on my arm.”

There it was.

“And why do you want to put a secured complex storage seal on your arm?” Itachi asked.

“It’s not that complex! It’s basically the same one I gave you, just with a bit of defense stuff,” Naruto whined. Itachi was starting to understand why Shisui said people found geniuses annoying to talk to. Maybe he should apologize to him. No, Shisui was annoying, too. “Someone broke into my apartment last week and stole Gama-chan.”

“And Gama-chan is?”

“My wallet.”

“How much was in it?” They hadn’t found any bank accounts under Naruto’s name while they were digging through records, so that meant…

“Everything,” Naruto said. “Everything I saved. My stipends, the money Crow gave me, my food vouchers.”

“Do you have an exact number? I will find whoever stole from you and I will make sure you are made whole.”

“No, it’s okay! It’s not a big deal,” Naruto said. “It happens sometimes. I just need someone to test if the seal works.”

Itachi did not tell Naruto that it was quite literally part of his job that he was paid for to look after Naruto’s well-being. Maybe he took it more seriously than most, but he was lucky to have a mission that centered around the protection and growth of someone rather than the missions Genma was rumored to be sent on.

“Regular occurrence does not mean it is right,” Itachi said instead. “I will look into it.”

“You’re not going to kill them, right?” Naruto asked nervously. “ANBU get missions for killing people, but you don’t need to kill them for stealing from me, okay?”

“I will not kill them,” Itachi promised. He was never going to, but it was very kind of Naruto to make sure. Itachi would most likely put them in a genjutsu until they learned better. “Show me the seal you made. With your abilities, I fully believe we can have this inked on you today.”

With liberal use of the Sharingan to tie the seal to Naruto’s chakra system, a paint-covered Itachi helped Naruto draw the seal on his inner arm and activate it. After watching the chakra flow in and around the seal, he determined that it wasn’t a seal that anyone other than another jinchuuriki could have tattooed onto their body. The paper version used significantly less but still several times more than the non-secured variant, which was already quite a lot.

With experimenting, they realized that the time stasis only worked as long as there was an adequate supply of chakra in the seal. Shisui called it experimenting, at least. Itachi thought it was just a fancy way of saying that he ran half a mission covered in melted ice cream.

Itachi was able to power the seal for two months if he dedicated an entire day's worth of chakra to it, but he would be out of commission for anything else for the entire twenty four hours. Without that, it was still a good storage scroll.

On missions, he only put in enough to keep the seal going for a few days. Longer if he had the preparation time.

It was something Naruto never noticed because of his abundance of chakra. Kakashi provided a seal for determining seal charge. Then, they calculated that Naruto could pump enough chakra into the seal to power it for two years before he felt a little bit winded. They had absolutely no idea how long Naruto could actually keep it charged for and refused to think about how much his chakra would grow as he aged. That was a problem for later.

Maybe this was how Uzumaki were so powerful with seals. The kinds of seals they made needed so much chakra that any other shinobi would never apply them so liberally in battle. It made sense, given Naruto’s seals and the ones that Kushina had made.

Naruto was disappointed when Itachi told him that other people wouldn’t be able to use the seal.

“But why? I’m not feeling any kind of drain when I use it,” Naruto complained.

“You have much more and much denser chakra than other people,” Itachi explained. “What feels like a lot of chakra for other people can feel like nothing to you.”

“That sucks, I designed it just for your team.” Naruto pouted but let it go.

Soon, it was time for Itachi to leave.

“I promise to return Gama-chan next time I see you,” Itachi said, despite Naruto’s protests. “Grow strong and stay safe.”

–

Weasel didn’t keep that promise.

–

Shisui knew that Danzo was a bastard who couldn’t be trusted, but it wasn’t like they had a choice.

When the councilman requested a secret meeting while Itachi was away, Shisui assumed that he was going to die. Maybe he wouldn’t but he made preparations anyway. He put all of his weapons, everything he owned, all the money he had on him, and all the money the bank would let him withdraw on short notice into a seal Naruto gave him. A crow, a friend of his summons, would deliver it to Naruto in a week if Shisui didn’t return.

If he returned sometime after that, it’d be fine. It was just material possessions, they could be replaced. Still, they would mean the world to one little boy. He wondered if anyone would even tell Naruto that his friend Crow died. Or would he just think he was abandoned?

He had promised once, months ago, that if he left ANBU and Naruto could sense and find him in the village, they could be friends. Would Naruto look for him? Naruto could already tell when Itachi was on guard duty all the way from the academy if he was at the edge of the building and Itachi didn’t contain his chakra. By that, he meant days where Itachi was doing his weird training exercises for Naruto.

If he lived, Shisui was going to tell the rules to go fuck themselves and throw his weight around to befriend if not adopt Naruto. It probably wouldn’t work, but he could run fast and Naruto was pretty great at Shunshin already for an eight-year-old. Maybe they could just go on the lam.

Between his savings and the money they shoved into Naruto’s arm seal, they should have enough money to live on a farm for the rest of their lives. Multiple lifetimes, even if they were spending lavishly.

Naruto would be delighted to eat twenty bowls of ramen a day.

“You cannot eat twenty bowls of ramen every day,” Itachi whispered as he frantically did whatever he could to heal Shisui. Too bad they never focused much on medical jutsu. Internal wounds were out of their depth.

“No, but Naruto can,” Shisui laughed. He coughed up blood.

“Laughing will make things worse,” Itachi warned.

“I’m dying, Itachi,” Shisui said. “The least I deserve is to be able to laugh.”

“You are not going to die,” Itachi replied. “That is an order from an ANBU captain.”

“Paperwork’s not through yet. And why is my thirteen-year-old cousin a captain before me, again?”

“Politics.”

Shisui coughed up more blood from laughing. “I hate politics.”

He asked Itachi to bring him to the cliffs so he could see one of his favorite places one last time. Once there, he stepped to the edge by himself. Itachi tried to follow, but Shisui’s legs still worked and he was determined to have at least a little bit of independence.

Besides, he had a plan.

Danzo ripping out his eye was bad but ripping out his own eye was even worse. Sadly, it had to be done. He was a liability now. He could feel the blood filling what little space was left in his lungs. Kotoamatsukami was better left with someone who would live to use it.

“Show me the future we both dreamed of,” Shisui told Itachi. “Do a better job than Kakashi. Don’t mope in front of the Memorial Stone all the time.”

He couldn’t see so he pretended that Itachi was crying from emotions, not that he had ever actually seen him cry. He was blind, he could pretend that it wasn’t the blood dripping from his mouth.

“Protect the village and the Uchiha name,” Shisui said. “And I ask you selfishly, look after Naruto as well. He deserves more than what he’s been given in life.”

He started walking backwards, hoping that Itachi was too busy panicking about holding one of Shisui’s eyes to stop him. “And now I will give you one more thing. The Mangekyou.”

“What are you doing?”

“Let this be my dying wish, Itachi.” Shisui felt his foot slip off the edge of the cliff. “A new power to help you protect the ones we love.”

“Shisui!”

The last thing Shisui felt was impact, but not from him dropping into the Naka River. Something slammed into his chest and chakra encased him.

Then he felt nothing.