Chapter 4
Naruto woke up in a fine morning at the hospital, the IV tube still connected to his left arm. Besides his bed was the man he came to identify as grandpa, sleeping while sitting on chair. His snore could be heard around the room, and usually it was all it took for a normal ninja to laugh. The Hokage wasn’t in presence of normal ninja, however, for his guards were the ANBU (Black Ops). Naruto sit up and moved his hand to wake the old man, but then he stopped midway. The hokage looked so tired.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, however, wasn’t that old of a man for him to not notice the little things. A slight shift in the air and little creak from Naruto’s bed was all it take to wake the veteran of three shinobi world war. His head rose, neck cracking, and his sense instantly focused on everything going on around him. Being a sensor ninja had its perks.
“Good Morning, Naruto-kun” said Hiruzen, smiling at the young boy in front of him.
“Good Morning, Hokage-jiji!” Naruto replied with toothy grin. Naruto was always the happiest around Teuchi, mostly because of ramen, but Hiruzen is a close second.
Hiruzen, almost impulsively, moved his hand to ruffle the boy’s hair. It was soft. Good, the boy hasn’t been skipping taking a bath. Naruto half-heartedly move his little hands to stop the old man’s palm, but even the civilian nurse could see that Naruto really enjoyed Hiruzen making a mess of his hair.
Little childrens usually avoid show affections out of embarrassment, particularly boys when they came from their mom, but deep down they really desire it.
‘God he remind me of Asuma so much’ thought Hiruzen. This moment made him overlap Naruto with his own son when he was a child.
“Jiji, why are we at the hospital? Am I sick?” asked Naruto. He had been in hospital once or twice in his entire six years. He was a healthy boy, usually, but not even jinchuuriki is immune to sickness.
Hiruzen frowned at the question.
“Naruto-kun, what’s the last thing you remember?” Hiruzen asked back.
Naruto open his mouth, but then close it. His brow furrowed and he look down to the floor. It’s not that he didn’t remember about the drunk man, but it was because his mind wander to the previous night.
Hiruzen wasn’t pushing for an answer. Whether Naruto worked up courage to tell the truth or recalling yesterday’s memory, Hiruzen didn’t know, but he trust the boy to confide to him when he need it.
“It is magnificent, son”
Naruto shuddered at the image. ‘It was a dream’ Naruto thought. Why was he thinking so much about a stupid dream?
Naruto returned his gaze to the old hokage, his face was a serious expression that Hiruzen couldn’t really place.
Confusion and sadness. Mostly sadness.
“Jiji, do you know my mom?” Naruto asked, much to Hiruzen’s surprise.
Why in hell he brought this up? Why now of all time? Hiruzen had a feeling that his day would be like yesterday, with all the unknowns.
“Why do you ask, Naruto?” Hiruzen asked back, curious by what’s inside this young boy’s head. If it was anyone else, Hiruzen would’ve thought that they were purposefully changing topics.
But not this boy. He’s too innocent for that.
“If you do, i want to ask….. Did she have horns?” Naruto turned his eyes to the window as the ghost of his dream appeared on the glass. A figment of his imagination.
“Horns…. You mean like goat’s horns?” Hiruzen inquire. He could’ve just said that she did not, (as far as he knew, Kushina could’ve use a seal to make it invisible, who knows what the uzumakis are up to anyway? Wait…. Mito-Sama might conceal her horns with buns!) but he was too confused by the question itself.
“No… It was like rabbit ear….” Naruto look back to him, his eyes a little bit somber. Naruto didn’t really believe that dream woman to be his mom, but he was so starved of parental love, he jumped at any chance to know his parents.
Even if it means changing his name to that utterly long and mouthful name.
Hagoromo.
“No… Ehm… Your mother didn’t have horns” Hiruzen finally answered. She did have nine tails though, Hiruzen thought, suppressing a flinch as he remembered how Kushina's hair split into nine when angered. What a monstrous taijutsu. What a monstrous chakra befitting a jinchuuriki. It was both an awesome and horrifying sight to behold, and Hiruzen didn’t use awesome lightly.
“That means you know her, right?” Naruto asked again, surprising Hiruzen. Naruto never asked about his parents before and Hiruzen never informed him, but it was fairly perceptive of a young boy like him to pick up implications of his previous statement.
“How was she like? Do I look like her? Was she a shinobi? Did she like Ramen?” Naruto bombarded Hiruzen with questions. Hiruzen resisted the urge to sigh, not wanting to hurt the boy’s feeling. But, He wasn’t ready for this. Not really.
Hiruzen took a deep breath and closed his eyes. By the time he opened his eyes, he already made a decision.
“Alright... but before that, I want you to tell me what you remembered last night.” Hiruzen’s promise made Naruto light up like a firecracker.
“Umm…. Last night I was going to Ichiraku… Oh! Teuchi-Ojisan gave me a ramen with a lot of veggie” Naruto made disgusted face and the Hokage chuckled.
“I wanted to eat more and Ayame nee-san was about to make me the third bowl but Teuchi-Ojisan was being meeaaaannnnnn” Naruto puffed up his cheek, a little bit peeved as he remembered that, “Anyway, Ojisan promised to double my portion the next morning….. Which is today….”
Naruto only managed to yell a little before Hiruzen swiftly covered his mouth with the palm of his hand.
“Naruto-kun! This is hospital, you are bothering the other patients!”
One of the ANBU left the room to address concerned nurses and patients, assuring them that it was nothing important. That the shout came from someone who was addicted to ramen and need his fix.
Believe it or not, apprehending and securing someone who had gone crazy at Teuchi’s ramen was considered to be an A-rank mission, Apparently the secret ingredient could rarely activate the tenketsu in the body and gave someone herculean strength for a minute.
Even more bizarrely, one of the patient nodded sagely and confess that he was addicted to Teuchi’s ramen when he was young and Teuchi’s ramen business started to take of.
“Bht ma Ramhn (But my ramen!)”
“Oho! We have a severe withdrawal” the patient commented, his head shaking.
Of course, there was a reason why Teuchi could be so successful, even with the demon boy frequenting his ramen restaurant. It was in his blood. Rumor said that Teuchi’s Grandfather was a shinobi who found the legendary ramen recipe that made Madara, of all people, cry in happiness. That same legendary ramen recipe was lost in the war between Ramen and Tsukemen Faction, a war that Madara wanted participate in as an individual for he couldn’t bear the thought of losing his favorite food, only to be restrained from doing so by his younger brother. It was no accident that after Tsukemen Faction won Madara slaughtered them all on his own. Several Uchiha close to the brothers witnessed Madara personally headbutting the leader of Tsukemen Faction while screaming “I don’t want your cold ass noodle! Bring me back my Ramen!”
Legend said that Madara awakened Mangekyo Sharingan from the pain of losing the legendary ramen chef.
Anyway, Teuchi’s father was forbidden by Madara from becoming Shinobi, and the legendary Uchiha gave him a a task to recreate the recipe, a task he couldn’t complete with his lifetime. He entrusted that monumental task to Teuchi, who strived to rediscover it.
Even without the legendary ramen, though, his creation still bought people Ramen lover to tears. God knows what happened if Naruto ate the legendary ramen. He might never eat any normal food again.
“Teuchi will make double portion this afternoon, I promise!” Hiruzen said to the blond boy in an effort to calm him down, while still holding his mouth shut.
“Mromime? (Promise?)” Naruto stopped moving.
“Yes Naruto-kun I promise” Hiruzen promised, slowly removing his hand from Naruto’s mouth.
“Yatta!” Naruto jumped the bed several times until Hiruzen coughed. Naruto scratched his head, embarrassed, then he sit back on the bed.
“Naruto-kun, continue please” Hiruzen used his ‘hokage voice’.
“Hmm… I left Ichiraku and found this smelly man. He was mean to me, screaming to everyone” Naruto looked to the window, “He said he had a son. He thought I hurt his son?”
Naruto hug his legs close to his chest, with expression Hiruzen couldn’t decipher. “I don’t think I hurt his son, no one wants to play with me”
“Naruto” Hiruzen whispered, feeling bad for the boy.
“I don’t know what happened after that” Naruto’s expression turned into a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes “Now, tell me about my parents, Jiji!”
Hiruzen nodded to the silver haired ANBU, who acknowledged the silent command. The four masked ninja weave seals at the same time, then they touch the floor. A transparent barrier covered the room. To the outside it would look like the room darkened and Someone who eavesdropped would find the room completely silent. A barrier ninjutsu utilized by the ANBU whenever the Hokage need to talk about urgent matters outside his office.
Naruto looked a bit alarmed by the barrier ninjutsu erected by the ANBU bodyguards, but Hiruzen touch his shoulder, returning his focus on him.
“Shall I tell you who your mother was?” Hiruzen rhetorically ask him, fully expecting the boy to say yes.
“And father too?” Naruto gave a cheeky grin after saying that.
Hiruzen sighed. He’s not that surprised and truth to be told he wanted to tell him. However, it was in his duty to make sure the boy in front of him, like every children living inside the wall of Konoha, was secure within the village. Telling him that would make protecting him much harder.
But Hiruzen wasn’t the professor if he didn’t have a trick or two, one he learned from his master and polish together with his dear teammate.
Kakashi wouldn’t like it one bit.
“Yes, father too…. But you have to promise me, Naruto-kun…. Promise me this, and I will tell you everything” Hiruzen said, almost tiredly. From the corner of the room, Kakashi’s head perked up a little bit.
Naruto nodded repeatedly, too hasty in Hiruzen’s case. Well, he’s a child. Hiruzen would have 6 years, at least, to temper it with caution.
“You will not tell this to anyone… If you want to tell anyone about this, I will tell them instead. Promise?” Hiruzen said his term.
“Yes, jiji” Naruto enthusiastically nodded. Naruto didn’t really care about it, he was too fired up at the thought that he will finally know his parents.
“Promise?” Hiruzen repeated
“Yes, Promise!” Naruto whined.
“Pinky Promise?” Hiruzen offered the boy his pinky finger.
“Pinky Promise, Promise!” Naruto intertwined his own pinky to the old man.
Now that it’s done, Hiruzen wondered where to start. To be honest, he wasn’t really close to the household. Not really. Jiraiya was better at telling these tales, after all, Minato confide everything to his sensei. Not to mention talking about Kushina also opened a whole new can of worm. Uzushiogakure and Uzumaki Clan. How should he talk about it without having to touch the topic?
Hiruzen glanced at the big ball of joy in front of him. Oh well, he already going an inch, might as well go for a mile.
“It all started in Land of Whirlpools….”
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Meanwhile
“Captain, why are they stop moving?” the new guy in the ANBU group, with a bear-themed mask, asked the one using dog-mask.
Kakashi Hatake, captain of the ANBU bodyguard and hero veteran of the previous war, resist the urge to snark. Really, his nerve must be so stiff by the situation that happened, and he wasn’t really looking forward to act the good mentor. Not when he wasn’t in the know about what his old hokage prepared. The Hokage might hide it well, but being in a team with Danzo gave Hiruzen that element of unpredictability that Kakashi only liked when it was used against the old warhawk, not when it’s used against his sensei’s son.
“Genjutsu. Utakata (Ephemeral), See the pinky swear they did? That’s the medium” Kakashi explained, pointing at the (seemingly) petrified people. It was a rather high level genjutsu, one only requiring the target to focus on the person’s gesture, and if the user was a master in the art, like Itachi or Hiruzen, it was an excellent tool for secure communication.
“But why?” Bear asked, tilting his head just a little.
‘Because this secret is beyond S-rank’ Kakashi bite back the answer he wanted to say, as even mentioning it is a ground for penalty. “That is the Sandaime’s discretion alone. Keep your eyes sharp, we don’t want any enemy to slip through while he’s defenseless”
Thankfully the new guy get the idea. Not one word were uttered by the ANBU as they entered semi-meditation state to conserve chakra.