Kakashi

Kakashi was finding himself more free lately after handing over his duties to Naruto. It had been fourteen years since the war, nearing fifteen.

That was why he could spend so much time on random things and drag Shikamaru along with him despite him being Naruto's advisor.

Currently they were at his apartment brainstorming.

"Let's write out what we know about Naruto first," said Kakashi. Shikamaru took a pen and paper and started writing shorthand what Kakashi dictated.

"He was born to Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage and Uzumaki Kushina on October 10, the day the Kyuubi attacked. Both of them passed away on the same day,"

"Sarutobi Hiruzen was his guardian but that changed to someone else. Attended academy at age of seven. Two years after the initial age of joining which is five. Studied under Umino Iruka. Graduated academy at age twelve and became genin under Hatake Kakashi's Team 7 along with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke,"

"Attempted Chunin exams during which he came into contact with two Sannin, Orochimaru and Jiraiya. Jiraiya took him in as his disciple and helped him sign a contract with the toads from Gama no kuni. Orochimaru placed a Cursed Seal on Sasuke which was suppressed by Hatake Kakashi.

"Successfully completed all missions during the Chunin exams but was deemed ineligible to become Chunin. Hiruzen Sarutobi passes away to Orochimaru's attack. Naruto helps defeat Gaara the Jinchuuriki,

"Accepted a mission to find the third Sannin, Senju Tsunade. First contact with Uchiha Itachi and Kisame of the Akatsuki who were collecting Bijuu. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke were blood brothers.

"Naruto successfully convinced Tsunade to become Fifth Hokage. Sasuke defects the village under instigation of Orochimaru. Naruto forms a team under leadership of Nara Shikamaru to intercept Sasuke from Orochimaru's subordinates, the Sound Four,"

Shikamaru winced at this part as he wrote. It was one of his first failures as a ninja that still haunted him to this day.

"Retrieval was unsuccessful. Found unconscious and lightly injured at the Valley of End by Hatake Kakashi and took a leave of two and a half years from thirteen to fifteen to train with the late Jiraiya-sama. Reached four tails stage during the training trip and heavily injured Jiraiya. Turned sixteen after helping Sunagakure retrieve Gaara from Akatsuki, reached fourth tail stage again and was suppressed by Hatake Kakashi with Jiraiya-sama's Seal."

It was news to Shikamaru that Naruto could release the power of the Kyuubi that early. He had no idea about it until many years later of knowing Naruto.

"Sai from Root joined Team Seven as Sasuke's replacement. Went on a mission with Yamanaka, Sai and Haruno Sakura and reunited with Uchiha Sasuke after his defection.

"Received news of Jiraiya-sama's death from Tsunade-sama and helped decipher his last message about his killer, Pain. Pain was the name of Uzumaki Nagato who was Jiraiya's student and one of Akatsuki's founders. Went on nowhere training trip to Mount Myōboku in Gama no kuni, a summoned world Jiraiya is connected to. He learnt Sage mode at Mount Myōboku.

"Helped save the village from Pain's attack on returning to Konoha and destroyed the rest of the Akatsuki members during the attack except Konan, who was also Jiraiya-sama's student and deemed hero by the village. Naruto claimed he met his deceased father while fighting Pain,"

Shikamaru paused while writing. He looked up at Kakashi and saw he too was deep in thought.

"Now that I write this, it sounds too interconnected. The names keep repeating. I don't know how it's connected yet but it's very suspicious."

"Yes. There are many strange points here and there. We ignored too many things all these years," agreed Kakashi, "Let's continue until we finish first before we start thinking about this."

They kept goings through major events they knew about Naruto. The more they wrote, the more fishy it sounded. Finally, as twilight neared, they finished writing most of his deeds during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, it's aftermath, his mission on the moon, confessing to Hinata at age nineteen,his wedding with Hyūga Hinata, birth of Uzumaki Boruto at age twenty, birth of Uzumaki Himawari at twenty two and lastly his instatement as Seventh Hokage at age thirty two. Currently he was thirty three.

Kakashi was parched after speaking so long. He took a sip of water and massaged his temples. Shikamaru's wrist hurt after writing twenty pages full of tiny scribbles.

It was very exciting. The life of Uzumaki Naruto. Even though they skipped many things, it still filled up so many pages. And yet there were gaps and glitches. After refreshing themselves with tea, they returned back to the densely packed notes. They stared at the first page.

"Okay, so right off the bat, Naruto's guardian should have been someone connected to his parents. If not Sarutobi Hiruzen, then it should have been Jiraiya or you, the student of his father."

This time, Kakashi winced.

"Lord Jiraiya was out travelling and trying to uncover Orochimaru's hideouts. I couldn't because I was fourteen years old."

Shikamaru stared at him with narrowed eyes. It sounded like an excuse and both of them knew it.

"Then next, what does Umino Iruka know about Naruto?"

"We'll ask him later. What about you, Shikamaru? You were together with him in the academy."

Shikamaru recalled the first time he met Naruto.

"Naruto came quite late to the academy. Most of us already attended for two years before he joined. I saw him first when Iruka sensei was introducing him to our class in the middle of the semester,"

"He didn't speak to any of us when he came. I thought he was either shy or scared. Also, he was quite the loner. He always had a gloomy face."

"That's quite different from the Naruto most people know."

"Yeah, before we graduated the academy, he was very boisterous and noisy and always pulling pranks. The biggest prank he did was painting the Hogake monument twice."

"Kiba, Choji and I would usually hang out with him after school or even sometimes skip it. But that was all in the last three years of the academy."

Shikamaru frowned and thought much deeper. He remembered something.

"If I had to say..."

"Hm?"

"Naruto changed after the Uchiha clan massacre."

"Huh?"

"Yes, that was it! He used to be super moody and quiet but then one day he just started behaving all goofy and loud. I remember this because he broke character way too abruptly. He even started his rivalry with Sasuke after that. Prior to his change, he never had any interactions with him so it was very strange to me back then."

"This was almost a year after he joined."

A breakthrough. Kakashi had a gut feeling there was a breakthrough here.

Since they were talking about Uchiha, they turned back to the sheet with Itachi's name.

"Lord Sixth?"

"Hm?"

"You were present on that day Itachi met Naruto for the first time, right?

"Yes. Itachi and Kisame had infiltrated Konoha and engaged in battle with Kurenai, Asuma and I. I was put in a genjutsu by Itachi. When Sasuke found out about it, he followed Itachi and met up when he was capturing Naruto while they were on a mission to find Tsunade. Lord Jiraiya saved Naruto and Sasuke. I suppose it was one of the reasons Sasuke decided to leave back then."

"Hmm. But Lord Sixth, Itachi and Kisame came to capture Naruto, right? How did they know how Naruto looked? Because the time from their infiltration to finding Naruto despite him leaving the village was too short."

"Everyone in Konoha knew the face of Uzumaki Naruto because he was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. Itachi should have known his face since he was from Konoha too."

"Then, Lord Sixth, how did everyone in the village know Naruto's face? How come I never knew Naruto until he attended the academy?"

Kakashi froze. Yes. Naruto was a Jinchuuriki so there was no way he would be paraded around as a baby. He definitely was kept somewhere safe and away from the public. But then he started academy and suddenly everyone knew out of nowhere what he looked like?

And the gag order. The one Lord Third put forbidding everyone from talking about the Kyuubi. Wasn't it because everyone knew about it and treated Naruto strangely and asked the children to treat him the same way? How did they know? It would make sense for shinobi like him to know his face but the civilians?

"You wouldn't know about Naruto or the fact he was a Jinchuuriki because of Lord Third's gag order on the village. I think that order was placed a few months before the Uchiha incident."

"Gag order, huh?"

"So if I had to put this in order; The Kyuubi attack and Naruto's birth, him attending the academy, gag order, Uchiha Incident, Itachi's visit. So Itachi was also present before the gag order was put and since he was old enough when Naruto was born, he should have also witnessed the Kyuubi attacking, right?"

Kakashi's brain was stimulated. "When the Kyuubi attacked, the Uchiha didn't participate in the fight."

"Why?"

"Danzo ordered them to evacuate the citizens. I wanted to fight too but Uchiha Fugaku stopped me. He was Itachi's and Sasuke's father. Also..."

"...that night, the Kyuubi had the eyes of the Sharingan."

It kept circling around the Uchiha again and again.

"The one controlling the Kyuubi should have been Uchiha Obito, right?"

"Yes. It was Obito." Kakashi said pained.

"The Uchiha were very distant from Naruto though. Because of the fact that we say the Sharingan in the Kyuubi's eyes, it was suspected that Uchiha Fugaku was the one trying to control the Kyuubi. He was the only one strong enough to do it."

"There were a lot of tensions after that between the Uchiha and Konoha. And the Incident..."

"Happened because the Uchiha finally wanted to carry out a coup de etat," Shikamaru finished.

"In other words... the Uchiha homicide... was indirectly linked to the Kyuubi attack. And Uzumaki Naruto... was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki."

"I don't believe the Uchiha didn't know about Naruto," said Shikamaru, "They're too connected for them to not know."

Shikamaru read through a small column of names he wrote in the corner and made a new entry.

Sarutobi Hiruzen (deceased)

Danzo (deceased)

Homura Mikakado (deceased)

Koharu Utatane (deceased)

Uchiha Fugaku (deceased)

Uchiha Itachi ? (deceased)

He sighed. This was almost a dead end. All because those who had some chance of knowing Naruto at that stage were all dead.

He was contemplating using Edo Tensei to make them spit out what they knew. But, oh well. Too much trouble.