Fanfic #3 The Flow of Change by StoryTelleroftheMist(naruto)

This is a really good story about Naruto being kind of mentored by Danzo and it doesn't trust bash everyone else. Also the either is going through stuff so wish him well if you read it.

Synopsis: Correctly placed stones can change the course of a river, and the rise and fall of entire civilizations can be altered. Impersonating Sasuke after team selections proves to be a bad decision on Naruto's part and Sakura extracts her pound of flesh in revenge...the consequences of which shake the foundations of the future and Naruto's beliefs. Shimura Danzo just takes the advantage.

Rating: K

Words: 97k

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13603087/1/The-Flow-of-Change

Here's the first chapter:

(Academy: Team Selection Day)

Naruto smirked as he looked at the tied up form of Sasuke at his feet, smiling he formed the seals of the Transformation Jutsu and turned into an exact copy of the jerk.

He'd done it! He beat the bastard and now all he had to do was show Sakura-chan how awesome he was!

He opened the window and moved out quietly. Soon he was down to the ground and ran towards where he knew Sakura generally had her lunch.

…

(Streets of Konoha: Sometime Later)

Sakura huffed angrily as she worked her way from the academy. Today had not been a good day in the end.

She had been the happiest in her life when Iruka-sensei had announced that she was the only Kunoichi in the entire grade to have made it onto a team with Sasuke.

Take that Ino-Pig! True Love conquers all!

But nothing other than that had gone according to her plan after that. Sasuke had been too shy to even consider having lunch with her and had run off, then their teacher had arrived for the meeting 4 hours later than the scheduled time only to inform them that they weren't really Genin yet and would have to pass his own test for them to be accepted as ninja of the village. She had tried to ask Sasuke out for some evening Tea or even dinner, as both of them were the best test-takers in the entire batch and she was sure that he would atleast say yes if for nothing then to talk about the test and maybe revise a few things from the Academy to help them tomorrow. She thought that she had almost succeeded too until the idiot Naruto had intervened and Sasuke had disappeared from her sight.

How she hated that idiot! Couldn't he get a clue!? She wasn't interested in him in the slightest! She was sure that if the idiot had not been so annoying then she could have atleast managed to get Sasuke to revise the syllabus with her over tea in the least.

To top it all off not only had the idiot taken Sasuke's first kiss! Later he had disguised himself as Sasuke of all people and attempted to kiss her!

A nuisance! Her mother was right, he was just a damn nuisance!

At that moment Sakura made a split second decision that would change the fate of the elemental nations for generations to come.

'Afterall,' she thought, 'he was always going around pranking people around the village, so I'll just give him a little payback for trying to trick me.'

Now she just had to figure where he lived.

…

(With Naruto: Night Time)

Naruto slurped the remnants of the last bowl, just the 3rd for tonight before he paid his tab at Ichiraku and moved towards his house. He was so happy that he was on a team with Sakura-chan, but Iruka-sensei had pulled a fast one on him by putting in Sasuke too. Why couldn't Iruka-sensei just see how awesome a ninja he was, he didn't need the jerk on his team-ttebayo!

Walking along, he thought about what kind of test Kakashi-sensei would have for them tomorrow.

Bah! No matter what he'd show everyone he was the best-ttebayo! And then he'd beat the bastard and Sakura-chan would see how awesome he was and love him!

He finally reached his apartment and opened the door, only to be sprayed with a pile of what seemed to be half-cooked ramen as he took the first step inside.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Naruto opened his eyes slowly to see that he was covered from head to toe in noodles and soup, he fell to his knees as he looked at his precious rations for the week.

Poor ramen, now all he had was a bit of rice in the pantry and he wasn't sure whether it was still there or not. The rats tended to be rather nasty.

Suddenly the prospect of not having breakfast seemed much better now that he couldn't have any even if he wanted.

Naruto just hoped that his sensei would take them on a cool mission to rescue a princess or capture some bandits…and he'd get paid for it. He really needed money now.

Cup ramen was not cheap. Plus tomorrow was rent day, and he just had enough to cover for rent and one morning run for milk before he ran out completely.

He picked off a few noodles from his jacket, the soup ran down his body frame and was now uncomfortably seeping between his feet and the sandals. Truly this was not his day.

*Knock*

Who could it be at this time? Did old man Hokage come to visit?

Naruto opened the door, the gruff face in the hallway sadly belonged to the landlord and not the kind old man he had been hoping for.

"What are you doing in here?" The landlord asked, his voice underlying annoyance at having to talk to this…thing that the Hokage had thrust onto his property. That was the only time he had regretted agreeing to manage a property on shinobi lease terms.

"You are supposed to keep the property clean," the landlord spoke, "So clean up this mess."

Naruto scowled a little, he did not need to be told this. Sure he didn't keep everything neatly but he didn't keep his house dirty.

"…also today is rent day, so make it fast."

Naruto gave the man a surprised look before glancing at the calendar, today was actually rent day.

"Yeah, I'll get it," Naruto spoke, he moved into the kitchen and put his hand behind the fridge. Now that he thought about it, maybe even milk was out of his range once he paid rent today. Soon his grasping had caught hold of his dear Gama-chan.

'This feels a bit lighter than yesterday' Naruto thought as he opened the clasp to find that only a single Ryou and a slip of paper inside. Naruto hesitantly opened the paper to find a drawing of a face giving him a raspberry.

So someone broke into his apartment, wasted all his ramen and took off with his savings.

Naruto's shoulders dropped, he barely had any money on him after paying for dinner, and without his savings he didn't have enough to cover his rent.

He hoped that the landlord would understand.

…

Naruto's hopes were dashed quite swiftly when the landlord refused to give him any concessions. Naruto had tried to argue that now that he was a ninja he could go on missions and he'd pay the rent by the next week; and that the only reason he didn't have any money was because someone had broken in and taken all his savings.

But the landlord would have none of it. For the first time in years Satoshi Kijiro saw hope at the end of the tunnel, he could finally have the thing out of his property - no one could question him for kicking out a tenant unable to pay rent and therefore he had no fear of the Hokage butting in to advocate for the boy either.

He should really thank the pink-haired girl he saw getting into the Apartment earlier, she may not have known about the thing's status considering how young she was, but she had unknowingly solved a problem which had plagued him for years. He would ensure that no break-in was reported to police, he could do that much for her.

So half an hour later Naruto found himself on the street, still covered in soup and looking at the window of what used to be his home.

Halfway across Konoha a pink-haired genin counted the ryou in her hand. The idiot deserved it for ruining her day, the money wasn't a lot but it would probably be enough to cover for a new dress. Now that she thought about it Sasuke-kun always wore blue, so maybe he liked that colour.

Naruto walked around the village as he saw lights go out of different houses, he felt really icky from all the dried soup in his clothes and really felt like taking a shower and sleeping in his bed.

Too bad neither of them were a possibility at this time. The landlord had not even given him time enough to grab his stuff and told him to leave immediately. So currently he was dirty, had no clothes or supplies and was out on the street. He thought about going to the old man Hokage to ask for a loan, but it was too late and he would probably be asleep.

It was at times like these that Naruto really doubted himself. In the past he had asked himself the reasoning for such behaviour by other people, only to be given vague answers by the Hokage. That had been until Mizuki happened and Naruto came to know why everyone in the village seemed to treat him like dirt.

For once, Naruto felt angry as he glanced at the Hokage monument and looked at the face of the Fourth Hokage. He was the reason everything bad happened to Naruto, he was the one that sealed the fox inside his stomach and condemned him to this life.

If he didn't exist…Naruto would have been much happier.

But then suddenly something snapped him back, the dark trail of thoughts was gone and Naruto was back to his normal self.

Shaking his head, Naruto cleared his mind. The fourth had fulfilled his duty as the Hokage, he had saved the village and paid for it with his life. He was a hero to everyone in the village including Naruto.

But for one, Naruto wondered why the Fourth chose him? Was it just easy to pick a no name orphan? Did his parents object when he was taken, or did they give him to the Fourth in order to protect the village?

Were they ninja? Did they love him?

…Were they still alive?

Countless rounds of questioning with the Hokage had yielded no result, he was just told that they were great ninja who perished fighting the Nine Tails, but he was never given a name. Even his surname Uzumaki was said to have been given in honour of some old ally of the village.

Naruto continued to ponder on the questions until he was out of the main residential area of the village. Slowly it began to dawn on him that he needed to sleep soon or he would be late for his test tomorrow. Considering the fact that it was already late, Naruto decided to just sleep at the training ground itself, he washed his jacket at a nearby stream and then plopped himself under a tree and dozed off.

(Next Morning)

Sasuke muttered a few curses under his breath as he made his way to the training ground. It was not that Sasuke was not an early riser, he woke up early everyday for his training, but a reporting time of 5: 00 AM in the morning was still too early for him.

He arrived at the training ground a good ten minutes before the allotted time to find the dobe snoring against a tree trunk, his ridiculous orange jacket slung on a nearby branch.

'What kind of an idiot sleeps before a test,' Sasuke thought. He was of the mind to awaken Naruto as they had little time before Kakashi showed up but shrugged the thought aside. If the dobe slept through the test and failed, it would be his fault alone. Plus losing the deadweight would only be beneficial in the long run.

Soon enough Sakura walked towards them with lidded eyes, for once she did not move next to Sasuke and greet him and instead opted to sit next to a tree near her crush. She seemed to lack her usual energy and was currently glaring at the blonde who was peacefully snoring next to them.

'I'm not going to wake him up,' she thought, she tried to stay awake herself but she had never really been a morning person and soon enough sleep claimed her.

'Idiots' was all Sasuke thought, 'I guess I'll be the only one passing today.'

(Training Ground: 9: 45 AM)

Sasuke for his part was seething with rage, he had been waiting since 5: 00 AM for Kakashi, and unlike his teammates he had not taken the luxury to take a nap.

Sakura had woken up an hour ago, embarrassed at having fallen asleep in front of Sasuke. She had attempted to greet him and talk about the test but her efforts had been rebuffed as usual.

Naruto for his part had woken up about ten minutes ago and was currently washing his face at a nearby stream.

Finally, five hours after the designated time their teacher decided to show up and informed them about the bell test.

…

(Training Ground: Evening)

Naruto struggled against his bindings, this was really not funny.

Not at all.

In the end, he had been tied to a stump and had to be fed by Sasuke of all people, they had managed to pass the test in the end but his teammates and teacher had conveniently forgotten about him being tied to a post when they had learned about the result.

The process of getting free of the bindings had been long and painful, but in the end he had somehow managed to get free. Cutting off the remaining ropes he had instinctively started moving towards Ichiraku before realising that what little money he had wouldn't be enough for even one bowl of miso.

He couldn't use his emergency ration as his apartment was no longer his.

Naruto's stomach growled.

'Today sucks,' Naruto thought. He had no food and had little idea of where he could get any. Sure, old man Teuchi would feed him for free, but Naruto was determined to not burden the guy anymore than he already had since his childhood.

Plus he was now a ninja, he had to learn to endure like Iruka sensei said.

A raindrop fell on his cheek rousing him from his thoughts.

'Alright, today royally sucks,' Naruto thought as he started running, he couldn't really go to his old apartment and it was really unlikely that he would be allowed to take shelter under a shed by anyone.

Naruto thought about going to Iruka-sensei, surely his old teacher could let him bunk for one night before he could go on a mission and get paid. But unfortunately Naruto had no idea where his academy instructor lived, the same was the case with his teammates and majority of his classmates.

'I could still go…there,' Naruto thought, he was a bit unsure but the worsening weather made the decision for him. He only had the clothes he was currently wearing and if they got soaked he wouldn't have anything to wear at all.

The 'there' in Naruto's thoughts was an abandoned building in an enclosed compound Naruto had used for hiding a few years ago. It had been his go-to place for storing pranking supplies and otherwise hiding when he was feeling particularly low. It was a pretty standard but old 2 storeyed-house in a compound on the outskirts of the village. The compound had a much bigger house on the other side which was owned by an old lady who sometimes stayed in the village. Nobody really ever came near that abandoned building and it had been a perfect getaway for the boy before he had been given his apartment by the Hokage.

Naruto ran as fast as he could and made it to the compound, recalling from his earlier nightly visits he moved a big rock near the wall and was glad to find that the tunnel he had constructed years ago was still mostly intact. He crawled through, grimacing as he had originally not dug it with his current size in mind but ultimately got through. Once inside he pulled a rag he had found near the training ground over his body and jumped into the canopy before rushing to his destination.

Once outside the building, Naruto crawled to the first floor and reached to a window, his usual entry point in the earlier days and pressed at a spot where he knew that the wood had been tender.

*Click*

'Mission Success,' Naruto smiled as he slid the window open and quietly made his way inside closing the window behind him. The place was just as he remembered from a few years ago, cold dark and dusty. But anything beat soaking out in the rain, so he'd take it.

Moving downstairs Naruto made his way to the kitchen, he opened a cabinet and slowly raised the bottom to reveal his 'safe' as had been. He was pleased to see that almost everything he hid here was still intact, the cool cloak he had once snatched from the Hokage's office, a few tools for pranks, a set of blunt kunai and shuriken, some ninja wire and a lot of other things.

But most importantly it contained something Naruto had preserved as a treasure during his younger years – A jar of honey.

Naruto distinctly remembered, he had once slid into a bakery, the guy at the counter didn't know him so he had been able to purchase a 'honey toast' on that day. Naruto had loved it and purchased it everyday until a mean old lady replaced the guy and he was shooed away from the shop. Buying honey by itself had been ridiculously expensive, atleast for him – so he had taken a more roundabout and risky route. He had overheard a boy in class talk about how his father raised bees for honey and how awesome it was to get some yourself.

Naruto for his part had understood that he just needed to raid a hive and he would get honey; so with a kunai in hand he had stabbed the first honeycomb he came across. Alas no one told him about how badly the bees stung. At the end of the day Naruto managed to get enough to fill a small jar, and had preserved the sweet treat for a special occasion.

Well, he became a genin today, so that counted as special. Plus Iruka-sensei said that honey never went bad, so he could probably eat it. Naruto opened the jar, he put his forefinger inside and savoured his first meal for the day.

By the gods, this thing was like the ramen of sweets!

Naruto emptied the jar quickly, it was quite small in size but he was feeling much better now that he had atleast had something to eat. Licking off the last remnants Naruto put the jar down, the rain outside was still going strong and he decided that he would spend the night here. With that Naruto milled around, it was really dark in the hallway as there were no windows, and Naruto couldn't even light a candle as someone might come to check. Thankfully he had always been able to see slightly better than others in the dark and made it to the storage under the stairs. He hoped that he atleast find a pillow or a dusty blanket, it was quite chilly and sleeping on his hand left it really numb in the morning.

With those thoughts Naruto touched the handle and turned it.

Suddenly the flooring under his feet disappeared and his body was in free fall.

(Underground: ROOT HQ)

Danzo Shimura had been having a normal day, as far as he was concerned that is. He had a meeting with the Hokage with respect to the new Genin team selections, his suggestions to alter the current teams were considered and then summarily dumped; that was no surprise. After the meeting he had received information from some of his contacts at the Fire Capital that the Umehushi Clan had been trying to revive the Hidden Tree Village in the Northern area of Fire Country and had dispatched a team of 4 members of ROOT to locate and assassinate the current clan head. His brother would be framed for the murder, and without someone to head the organisation the movement would fizzle out.

As it stood now, Danzo had been inspecting a network of tunnels under the Compound of the Kuroki clan, a trading-clan which had originally resided near the area where the village had been founded. The Shodaime had offered them a large tract of land inside the walls and they had built their compound in the village, these tunnels had been dug by them towards the end of the First Great Shinobi war to store provisions of their trade in times of crisis.

A trade which Danzo controlled now. As it stood, a majority of those of the Kuroki bloodline had left the village over the years, preferring to settle either at the massive port city of Genkai to the south or the Fire Capital wherein traders were appreciated more. The only remaining member with the claim to these lands was an old woman who often alternated between living in Konoha and Genkai, and would soon permanently shift to Genkai leaving this land in the care of Akemi Fushiki, also known as Agent #25 of the 4th Platoon of ROOT.

The compound by itself was vast, covered with thick vegetation and near the outskirts of the village, away from the more 'noble' shinobi residential areas and clan compounds and therefore poorly patrolled, making it the perfect place for running his operations.

Danzo had been in the midst of planning his operation when one of his agents had approached him and signalled that something urgent had cropped up. Apparently someone had used one of the secret entrances to the underground without any prior authorisation and therefore it was concluded that it was the work of an intruder.

The nearest team had swarmed the entrance and the intruder had been caught.

It was unsurprising, but what really caught Danzo's attention was the identity of the intruder.

It was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Uzumaki Naruto himself who had accidentally accessed the North Entrance to the underground. Apparently the Jinchuriki was unable to use his chakra to stick to walls and had taken a free fall of over a hundred and thirty feet which broke his right leg, cracked the bones in his right arm and also broke quite a few ribs. He had been rendered unconscious by the operatives and was currently bandaged and tied to a bed with an IV drip.

"Report," Danzo spoke gesturing to his medic.

"Patient's name is Uzumaki Naruto," the medic answered robotically, "Right leg is damaged to a great extent, bones broken at multiple locations, right shoulder dislocated from impact and multiple hairline fractures over the entire body frame, 4 of his ribs have broken and one had managed to pierce his right lung. The bleeding has been stopped and patient is recovering at an exceptional rate. We are currently in the process of injecting glucose into his bloodstream as the calorie demand for regeneration has caused his blood sugar levels to collapse. Should regain consciousness in about 6-8 hours."

Danzo nodded to her before turning his attention back to the Jinchuriki. The situation with his new base had suddenly become far more complicated. Generally, any such intruder would be incapacitated, interrogated and killed before his body was destroyed.

Unfortunately Uzumaki Naruto was a far too important figure in the village to just 'disappear' overnight. Such an incident would lead to complete chaos, and the last thing Danzo needed was more people sniffing near his business; that was without accounting for the fact that losing the Jinchuriki would make the village far weaker.

The second choice was that they would patch up the Jinchuriki and put him under a Genjutsu to have him believe all he had seem was a dream. His subordinates would seal off the Entry point used by Uzumaki, who would wake up from where he had disappeared without any recollection of the base. The option was viable and could be implemented immediately, but Danzo's mind was conjuring up a third possibility; one by which he could obtain what he had been desiring since many years.

Danzo had petitioned since the sealing that the Jinchuriki (boy) be raised separately and in complete secrecy. With proper instruction and training, the aid of the demon inside him and the blood of the strongest shinobi in the continent flowing through his veins the boy could very well have been the village's greatest strength in any battle.

Alas Hiruzen had refused to see the logic in his words, and had revealed the identity of the Jinchuriki to the masses; a mistake he attempted to rectify by enacting a secrecy law. A seemingly pointless gesture as almost every functional adult who had been residing in the village 12 years ago knew about it. Danzo had extensively argued that there was a reason as to why Mito-sama's and Kushina Uzumaki's status as containers were classified secrets, but then again Hiruzen had been an idealistic fool and had gone ahead with the illogical implementation of the wish of a dead man.

Danzo had stopped petitioning for the boy to be trained for a few years, he had looked from afar how the potential for the strongest weapon had been replaced by a blundering idiot that desecrated village property for his amusement. He had instead tried to focus on getting his old body into shape, Orochimaru's research on the Shodaime's cells had managed to create a prosthetic arm for him; but it wasn't stable yet and his reaction time and strength was a far cry from what it had been in his prime. He had since tried to delve into utilising the Sharingan's forbidden abilities, something he had been pondering since a few weeks but not yet implemented.

His interest in the Jinchuriki had piqued a week ago when he had received reports about the incident with Mizuki, an indication that Orochimaru was no longer honouring his end of the bargain by staying away from village affairs. Apparently the boy had managed to defeat a trained Chunin by himself, and could utilise Shadow Clones in a manner never heard of before. But Danzo had chucked the report after reading it, Hatake Kakashi was far too close to the Hokage to try and approach the Jinchuriki without raising any suspicion.

But suddenly the Jinchuriki had landed right into his base. Hatake was doing a pretty lousy job at being a teacher to his own Sensei's son if he had let the boy wander around in nearly abandoned clan districts…and Danzo was not going to let this chance pass at any cost. From what he knew the Jinchuriki was starved for acknowledgement from the village populace, and therefore adopted a cheery persona and loud personality which managed to atleast produce annoyance from those he was around. While Danzo was sure that the promise of a flashy technique would be more than enough to buy a fleeting loyalty from the boy, it had become clear after the Mizuki incident that the boy knew very little about himself and would likely be willing to go to any extent for that information. Information that Danzo possessed.

The only question was how much had already been revealed to the boy recently, the conversations the boy had with Hiruzen after the incident with Mizuki were shrouded in a veil of secrecy and Danzo had no idea of just how much information had been revealed to the boy.

Did he know of his lineage? Of his mother's clan? Of how his status as a Jinchuriki had been passed down the line of the Uzumaki clan?

The only was to know about it was a fishing inquiry, which could be executed by asking questions to the boy. It had been nearly impossible before, but now Danzo had him exactly where he wanted.

"Inform me immediately once he wakes up," Danzo then made his decision, if no one had started looking for the boy till now, then he was good until the next meeting with his team. Which meant that Danzo would have atleast 2 hours of time to probe the boy, even assuming that the boy took 8 hours to wake up. Danzo would use this time to plan as to how he could utilize the information he possessed to obtain the boy's loyalty.

"Call F u to the base," Danzo commanded. Just in case the boy became unstable and lashed out, Danzo would have his memories of the base erased and dump him in the hospital. Nobody would be any wiser even in that scenario.

(Sometime Later: With Naruto)

Naruto awoke as he saw himself to be surrounded by water, he slowly got up to see that there were various pipes running around the area and there seemed to be ankle deep water everywhere; it was dark but it didn't really feel cold.

'Great,' Naruto thought, 'Did I fall into a sewer or something?'

Naruto looked up but there was no hole in sight, meaning he was no longer under his earlier secret base and had most likely floated somewhere with the water.

'Atleast I didn't drown,' Naruto thought as he walked, it was pretty dark here but he could still see a bit ahead of him.

"Come Here." A voice called out to him.

There was someone down here? Great! Maybe they could tell him how to get out of this.

"Hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage-ttebayo!"

Naruto spoke up and ran over to where the voice had come from, having someone in here with him was a major booster for his mood.

"Here," the voice called out again, "Come just a little further."

Naruto ran until he came across what appeared to be iron bars running into the darkness of the ceiling, reluctantly he passed through them as the voice beckoned him.

*Shudder*

It took all his might, and quite a bit of luck for Naruto to dodge the swing of a massive claw which would have surely killed him. The force of his jump carried him beyond the bars again as 2 massive eyes opened in the darkness beyond the bars.

"So my Jailor finally comes in for a visit," a massive jaw opened up to reveal jagged sharp teeth, the darkness slowly faded to reveal a giant fox, nine tails swishing behind it, "Though you are just a runt, a shame I wasn't able to kill you."

"Y-you!" Naruto shouted, "You're the Nine-tailed Fox!"

"You seem to atleast have a brain," the fox grinned, "Now how about you come back in here and we finish what we had just started."

Naruto stumbled back a bit, there were few times he had felt this kind of fear. Once it had been years ago when a drunkard had attacked him with a broken bottle, and a week ago when Mizuki threw that massive Shuriken at him.

Slowly his breath stabilised and his fear was replaced by anger. This goddamned fox was the reason for all his troubles, without it he would still have parents and no one would ignore or hate him like they did right now.

"Where the hell am I!?" Naruto half-wondered half-asked as he looked around for a clue, Mizuki said that the fox was sealed inside his stomach so why the hell were they in a sewer of all places?

"This is your mindscape," The Kyuubi spoke, "How fitting for it to manifest as a sewer, speaks volumes about a pathetic being such as yourself."

"The hell are you talking about!?" Naruto shouted, they were in his mind!?

And it was a sewer!? Yuck!

"The little stunt you pulled nearly got us killed," The Kyuubi spoke, "The only reason you are even surviving right now is my chakra. Without it you would already be dead. Be grateful for this gift of life."

Red chakra floated across the water from inside the cage, it swirled around Naruto before it completely surrounded him.

"Now go," The Kyuubi spoke, "I have no need to talk to runts such as you."

The red chakra suddenly seemed to cave in on itself and smothered Naruto who screamed in panic.

(ROOT Base)

"-aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh" Naruto got up with a start to find that he was no longer in a sewer, instead it was a white ceiling and only once place he knew had white ceilings.

Looking around Naruto could say that he was in a hospital. He tried to move his arms but both his arms and his feet were bound. He could only see with his left eye as his right eye seemed to have been bandaged and so were his arms and a major chunk of his body.

'Did I fall into an old pit or something?' Naruto distinctly remembered that Iruka-sensei had said something about how many clans dug pits underneath their houses to store supplies in time of need, and often to hide themselves as well.

Finally calming down Naruto recalled what had happened, he had just turned the handle to the storage and then he suddenly fell down a dark tunnel and landed hard on his leg. The last memory he had was of a masked guy like the ANBU rushing to him before he passed out.

'Great, one day of being a ninja and I'm in the Hospital.' Naruto grumbled mentally as he saw a long haired guy move into the room.

"You are awake," okay, judging from the voice this was a lady and not a guy as he thought.

Naruto tried to nod but his neck hurt.

"Do not move," the lady spoke, "You have multiple broken bones and hairline fractures, moving will only cause pain until they are healed."

Naruto simply blinked. The woman then moved near the door and pressed a button.

"Uzumaki-san has regained consciousness," she spoke, "Inform Danzo-sama immediately."

Danzo-sama? Was he the new doctor?

A few moments later a weathered old man slid into the room, half of his face was covered in bandages and he was walking by using a cane. The lady bowed to the man before he came near Naruto and sat on a chair.

"Uzumaki-san," Danzo spoke, "My name is Shimura Danzo."

Naruto felt himself get a bit scared, this man had really impassive eyes.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, though I believe you do not know me."

Naruto tried to talk, but these guys had bandaged his mouth as well.

Impassively Danzo made a gesture, and the lady moved near him and slit the bandages in a way that let him talk.

"No sir," Contrary to what everyone thought Naruto wasn't really rude, it was just that acting politely had caused people to just outright ignore him. Atleast when he was loud, people acknowledged that he existed, if only by conveying annoyance.

But right now Naruto knew he had to be polite, something about this crippled old man had alarm bells ringing in his mind.

Danzo himself had been surprised, he had half-expected the boy to shout about being let out of the hospital; but he seemed more subdued now. Maybe the clownish idiot was just a created persona.

Danzo looked on at the blonde intrigued by his recovery, he moved some of the slit bandages to see that a major portion of the face had been healed without leaving any scars. The IV drip had seemingly provided the boy's body with enough calories to boost his already inhuman healing abilities.

"Truly marvellous," Danzo spoke, weighing his words cautiously, "You heal even faster than your mother used to."

WHAT!?