The truth
Mia looked at her friends for a moment before getting up from her spot on the ground to ace the Hokage. She was nervous, worried that she had finally been caught in the act, that Hiruzen had seen through the disguise. She felt a little trapped looking up at the aged man and the chunin, but thankfully, her friends stood up with her. "We'll walk with you and wait outside while you guys talk," Hinata whispered in her ear softly.
Mia turned to her with a soft smile, "thank you," she whispered back.
Hiruzen nodded, "that is fine," he turned to face the opposite direction. "Please follow after me," he said as he made his way back inside of the academy building, Iruka, and his students followed after him silently. The group made their way inside and up the steps to the second floor where Hiruzen picked an empty office to have his meeting in. He stood by the office desk and waited for Mia to come in.
Mia hesitated, she wasn't sure if she wanted to be alone with the Hokage. The way that Iruka was positioned next to the door made her realize that he would not be joining them for the meeting, so she was even more anxious to have the meeting. "Don't worry, we'll be right here waiting for you, sis," Hinata reassured her, Mia nodded and walked into the room, Iruka closed the door behind them.
Now that the two of them were alone, Hiruzen let out a deep sigh as he made his way over to the chair behind the desk. "Please, have a seat," he said, his voice sounded a bit tired to Mia, but she chalked it up to just being old and overworked. Mia quickly took the seat in front of the desk and waited for Hiruzen to speak. Hiruzen took in a deep breath, gathered his thoughts, and let it out slowly, "Naruto...there are many things that you have done over the years to make me worry for you, but this recent event has put me to my limits."
Mia gulped, "so he did figure me out after all this time, huh? When did he find out? More importantly, who else knows about this?" She thought back to the way Iruka looked, he looked uncertain when he showed up before her and her friends, so there was a possibility that he did fully know about this. Yet.
The old man watched the little girl with golden brown curls for a long moment, waiting for her to answer. "Are you thinking over your recent actions to find an excuse to give me, or are you finally going to come clean on what you have done."
"I'm not sure what you want me to say...Hokage-sama," Mia said softly, and it was the truth. She had no idea how much of the truth Hiruzen knew, and how much of the lie he believed. Either way, Hiruzen did know one thing, that Naruto was Mia, with that in mind, Mia was curious to know when and how he found out.
Hiruzen sighed again, "alright, let me explain myself first. I recently got a letter about Naruto living in the abandoned section of the village with a little girl that went by the name of 'Mia'. I don't know who sent in that letter, nor do I know what their motives were, however, it did make me curious about the background of my academy's new's student. I had some ANBU search that section in secret, not too long after their search began, they came across a house that wasn't in as bad a shape as the ones surrounding it. Upon further investigation, they uncovered a few things. Would you like to know what those things were?"
Mia looked back at the old kage, worry slowly shrank to the back of her mind as curiosity took over. She thought that they had been more careful of not being caught. When Shikamaru was looking around the house, he found that the house wasn't connected to the rest of the village's usual power source, but instead, it was hooked up to multiple generators that were stored in the very back of the shed behind various gardening tools and supplies. The generators had a long lifespan so it was clear that they could use the house's electricity all they want without worrying about a bill coming in each month. The water supply was somewhat the same, but instead of a generator, it was an underground water supply that ran for miles under the house. They have no idea who could have done all of that work without anyone knowing about it, but even if they didn't know, they were still grateful since those things helped them stay off the radar until now.
But, that begs the question, how was it that they were found out? Naruto only ever wore his disguise outside of the house and made sure to keep himself out of view from the outside. "Even though the whole area was meant to be abandoned, could it be possible that there really other people they didn't know about hiding out there. Every time Shikamaru and the others were with me, which is pretty much all the time now, I haven't seen a single soul walking about, I didn't sense anyone either. So who?" As Mia kept thinking about who could have uncovered her secret, Hiruzen was patiently waiting for her to reply.
Mia frowned, deciding that she would rather resolve this problem quickly, she dropped her disguise. Her long curly hair turned into short, bright blond, his eyes turned from green to blue, and his whiskers reappeared. "Alright, I guess you caught me, but if you don't mind, I would like to have my identity as Mia to be kept intact here," Naruto stated with a sharp look in his eyes.
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair as he folded his hands together, "might I ask why that is?"
Naruto's hands clasped the top of his knees, catching the lace detailing of the hem of his light blue skirt. Without his curly hair and green eyes, Naruto felt strange to be in the outfit that he picked out with Hinata the night prior. That's when he realized, ever since he woke up, he had not to work any male-related clothing unless it was one of Shikamaru's or Chouji's sweaters, hoodies, and/or jackets. Of course, he wasn't the only one to barrow their jackets sometimes, Hinata usually lived in some of Chouji's sweaters, there was just something about it being oversized that made her want to steal them when he wasn't looking. Either way, Naruto felt that he needed to get back into his disguise if he wanted to feel like himself again.
"Um, well..." he looked down, "I feel safer as Mia. Everyone else seems to accept me more if they don't know who I really am."
Hiruzen nodded his head, he did realize a long time ago that the villagers would not accept Naruto for Naruto but only look at him as the Kyuubi. Because of that, he knew that it would take a lot to convince the council that Naruto becoming a ninja was best for everyone because of the situation that occurred at his birth. He knew that the villagers must have been doing more harm than good to him in secret without him knowing over the years. But the thing that really made him worry about Naruto was the fact that he had seemed to disappear from sight within the village. When he talked to the guards who contained the barrier over the village, they stated that Naruto was still inside of the village, however, no matter where they looked, no one was able to find him. Hiruzen was also aware that the villagers and ninjas still thought that Naruto was dead.
"Hmm, now that I am looking at you, you did seem to be enjoying your time here more than ever." Hiruzen stated, "I remember that the second day you entered, you wanted to quit, that was when I made a deal with you to stick it out until graduation. My hopes were for you to become a ninja so you could take a little more control over your life. But it seems that some people couldn't let you slide by on luck alone."
"Ha, you could say that since you don't know the full extent of what they did to me," Naruto thought.
"Can you explain what happened during the three months that you were missing?" Hiruzen asked, he was always curious about what happened that night since there was a report about Naruto's apartment building burning down without any other residents being harmed. If Naruto had been in that building, then there would have been evidence, not to mention that the seal on Naruto's stomach that kept the Kyuubi locked inside, would also keep healing his injuries.
Naruto frowned, "would it really matter now? What happened has already passed," he didn't expect anything good to happen by talking about his past now.
Hiruzen pressed his lips into a thin line, he realized that Naruto might not want to talk about his experiences since he had faced a lot of it alone. He felt guilty for making Naruto go through life alone, his childhood was nothing but worry and sorry, unlike Konohamaru's childhood which was filled with a lot of innocent and dreams. He wanted to know what really happened that night from Naruto himself, if anyone would not tell him anything, he hoped that Naruto would.
Naruto looked down in his lap, silently thinking about his response, "I would." He started, "but...I can't."
Hiruzen raised his eyebrow, "why? What happened?" He was really starting to worry now, if Naruto didn't want to talk about it, then it must have been something bad. He wanted to know what happened even more now.
Naruto shook his head as his mind automatically snapped back to that night months ago. The fear he had felt when he turned the corner and saw the building on fire. The horror he felt when he was taken away by Zen's men, the thought alone was enough to turn his stomach whenever he thought about it. He shook his head, "I can't talk about it, it's...it's just...too much..." tears started to spill out from his eyes, he didn't want to cry, but he couldn't stop the tears once they started.
Hiruzen's heart stopped and sank right there and then. He didn't really know if he wanted to know after all. He didn't think anyone in the village would go so far as to try to permanently scar the boy, but it seems that his worst fears had been realized. He cleared his throat, "very well, I won't pry. However, I would like to know who found you? Why didn't they let me know afterward?"
Naruto whipped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hands, "my friends, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji. They said they found me in a trashcan that was on fire, they did their best with the first aid...I was able to heal up in out hideout." He explained as he tried to calm himself down, he didn't want to tell him about Kyuubi, and he didn't think that Zen would get charged for his crimes either.
"I see," Hiruzen calmly thought about what he could do next since he didn't think that he would be able to do too much since so much time had passed. There are no witnesses, not that he expected anyone to come forward to be an eyewitness. From what he gathered, someone kidnapped Naruto and did bad things to him. What those things could be, he didn't want to know, not really. "Alright, so whoever took him must have planned ahead, but how far ahead did they plan? It must have been pretty far ahead if Naruto couldn't be found physically for almost three months. If it wasn't for that letter, then I guess I would have been forced to give up on searching for him sooner or later...Since the villagers have already declared him dead, and he's got a couple of friends to help him keep up his allies, then I think it might be better for him to assume this new identity until he can't anymore."
With a nod of his head, Hiruzen leaned forward, "this is what I am going to suggest for you, Naruto. Since you and your friends have already proven to be capable of taking care of yourselves already. Not to mention that the four of you have pulled together in a way to support you in your time of need, I think I will be willing to support your new identity as Mia. However," he gave the blond a pointed look when he saw him lift his head in surprise, "I want to make this very clear. You have to become Mia, don't allow anyone to discover your true identity unless you know that you can trust them. You must continue to keep your grades up, I don't care if you're the top of your class or the rookie of the year, as long as you have the grades required for your to pass. Also, make sure that you keep up with your training as well, being book smart can only take you so far, understood?"
Naruto nodded his head, "I understand."
"Good," Hiruzen got up from his seat, "from now on, you will remain as Mia. I want you to try to become the best ninja that you can be, once you become a ninja, I am sure that you can move out of that abandoned house and into the one that will be more suited to you." He gave him a small smile, "and your future family." Naruto stiffens, wondering what else he knew about him, Hiruzen said nothing else as he made his way over to the door. "Why don't you head back with your friends, class will be starting soon." He opened the door to see Iruka and his students still standing in the hallway, he smiled down at the clan heirs and heiress. He looked back at Naruto who already had his disguise back in place, "I look forward to hearing more great things from and about you, young lady."
With that, Hiruzen walked out of the office and followed Iruka to the entrance. Once the two were gone, Naruto, now looking like Mia once again, got up and made his way over to his friends. He wiped away the last of his face, and put on a bright smile as he approached them, "shall we get back to our lunch before class starts?"
Shikamaru watched him closely, "are you alright?" He asked worriedly, although he didn't let it show on his face, Naruto could still by the tone of his voice.
"Yeah, he just wanted to talk about what happened that night," he shook his head, "I didn't want to think about it, that's all."
Shikamaru and Hinata shared a look, they knew that the memories of that night were still fresh in Naruto's mind, so they understood his reaction. Chouji stepped closer to the disguised boy and gave him a tight hug, "would you like me to make you some ice cream when we get home?"
Naruto chuckled, "you don't have to," he said hugging his bag before pulling away. He looked at his friends, he was so grateful to have them, he didn't know how he could ever repay them. "Let's just get back to lunch while we still have time."
"Sounds like a plan," Hinata said happily. She went over to Naruto's side, snaking her arm around his, she gave him a big smile as she led the way back to their usual spot.
After school
It was time for Naruto to get to work, so Shikamaru was walking with him. Hinata and Chouji had gone on ahead to do their own thing before meeting up back up at the house. As they walked, Shikamaru kept subtly looking around them every so often for the whole walk to the library. Shikamaru would usually do that every so often every other day, but the action seemed to have increased in the last few minutes of the walk. "Hey, what's the matter?" Naruto asked softly as they got closer to the front of the library. Well, since they were still walking, Naruto stopped and turned to Shikamaru curiously, "why are you looking around more than usual, Shika?"
Shikamaru wasn't paying too much attention to where he was walking since he was looking around when he expected Naruto to be walking next to him still. "Oh, um, no reason, really, um, I was just..." But he could tell that Naruto didn't believe his lie by the look on his face, "okay, fine, listen. Let's keep walking, " Naruto nodded his head and they started walking again, "you remember that day when I said that we might now be alone in the E section?" He asked referring to the east side of the village.
"Yeah," the blond nodded, "why?"
"It's because I did sense someone there with us that day, but it was very faint. I don't know if I was just imagining things or what, but lately, ever since you started at the library, I have been noticing that faint trace of chakra whenever we start walking this route." Shikamaru explained, "and lately, it's been getting stronger."
"Oh..." Naruto nodded slowly, he looked thoughtful the rest of the way. When they were right in front of the library steps, Naruto turned to him. "Shika, listen, we should tell the old man about this."
Shikamaru looked at him in slight surprise, "are you sure?"
Naruto nodded, "yeah," he looked down at his feet, "I know that most of the time, he's busy, and...I, think it might be good to have him on our side. Going forward, the more power we have on our side, the better off I would feel. That's all," he finally placed a hand on his stomach, Shikamaru got the idea and nodded.
"I get it, well then, have a good day at work. I'll come to pick you up after, okay?" Naruto nodded and Shikamaru patted his head lightly, "Naruto makes me feel how a big brother would feel. I wonder if this is what a big brother should be like." With that in mind, he watched as Naruto made it into the building, disappearing behind the door before turning and going on his own way.
To be continued...