"But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil."

To Slay the Wind

Chapter One: The Tip of the Iceberg

There was a particular playground in Konohagakure that was different from the others. Of the many playgrounds that adorned the village, sprinkled in amongst various neighborhoods and suburbs, this one stood out for several reasons. The first being that it was the one closest in proximity to the various shinobi clan districts of the village. This prestigious location alone ensured that the modest sized playground was nonetheless pristine in condition, with neatly trimmed botany and evenly cut green grass. It was well equipped with various training equipment and a full jungle gym set, for any budding young ninja-to-be to hone their young bodies and minds, or simply to have fun. The park was unique.

And then there was the macabre scenery to take into consideration.

Blood adorned the bars of the robust jungle gym and splattered against the splintered training posts nearby. All was relatively silent in the late afternoon hours, the sun's descent bathing the quiet playground in a golden glow that made the blood now drying on the wood shimmer darkly. Soft crying could be heard from a boy cradling a broken leg, while two other bodies lay unmoving nearby, save for the steady rise and fall of their breath. Alive, but unconscious.

Two more young boys stood at a distance, mouth agape at the mild carnage of the scene before them. Their faces were fixed in looks of both awe and terror, unable to move due to equal parts fear and astonishment of the person responsible for their current predicament as well as the damage sustained to the other boys in the park.

The culprit was dressed in a simple white and black combo, with a few streaks of red peppering his plain shirt. Blood, both his and theirs. In the light of the setting sun, it looked as though the kid, blonde hair and whisker-marked, was bathed in a gaudy orange. He stood silently a few feet away from the two astonished onlookers, instead towering over the glasses wearing older boy still cradling his injured leg. The older boy looked at the blonde haired one with absolute fear and no small amount of loathing. The one bathed in orange simply smiled back, nursing his own injured arm indifferently.

It was a cold smile.

This is the scene that a wolf-masked ANBU arrived upon.

The two onlookers, still in a daze, shook out of their stupor with the arrival of the black ops operative, but he ignored their bewildered ramblings in lieu of observing what had happened for himself. Quickly coming to an understanding of the situation, he promptly turned to the two still rambling boys and addressed them in a deep voice and oddly reassuring tone.

"Naka-san, Akimichi-san, please return to your clan compounds immediately. The park will be closing soon and I would prefer your parents not have to come and find you."

The bigger of the two witnesses, a boy who's cheeks were adorned with the standard Akimichi-clan swirls, turned to the masked shinobi in surprise and nodded while the other, a kid with an uncanny resemblance to the current Jounin Commander, didn't take his eyes off of the boy basked in orange.

"What about him?"

The ANBU didn't need to turn to know who the Nara boy was talking about. "He'll be fine. Now go."

After a few seconds of hesitation, the duo headed the ANBU's orders and began to head back to their respective clan compounds further down the road. Before they got too far, the larger of the two turned back to the ANBU.

"He didn't start it. He was only trying to help us…. Just so you know."

The Nara's intent gaze seemed to back up the boy's claims, but if the masked shinobi took comfort in that fact it was impossible to see behind the emotionless visage of a wolf.

"Noted, Akimichi-san. Now go."

As the two boys disappeared out of sight, the ANBU groaned internally as his eyes once again clocked three shinobi headbands adorning the three now unconscious teens. The boy, basked in orange, still stood there, blood coloring his fists and cheeks, looking nonplussed.

"We gonna see the old man now, Wolf-san?"

The boy didn't turn to face him but somehow knew who he was. Not unsurprising given the number of times the two of them had come into contact with one another. The boy often got into trouble, but this time may have been too far for even the rogue child.

The Hokage would decide.

"They say an iceberg manages to hide ninety percent of its mass below the waves of the ocean; that only ten percent of it is ever seen by the naked eye. That's pretty impressive given the fact that some of these icebergs are the size of mountains, and yet still they remain afloat at sea. Fascinating, don't you think?"

He was answered by a baleful stare, not altogether unexpected, but amusing nonetheless. The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen - dubbed 'The Professor' by his endearing shinobi rank and file - chuckled softly at the waves of mild resentment being sent his way by the boy sitting across from him. Even with a battered face, blood marred cheeks and a broken arm, the boy still had fire in him.

But fire was only so impressive for an angry eight year old to have. Fire, without intent or reason or conviction, was easy to extinguish. Especially in the young and naive. The boy before him, however clever he was for his age, was still very much both of those things. His current condition attested to as much.

"Now take that same aptitude for secrecy that an iceberg possesses, that same ability to hide one's true self, and apply it to the life of a man. If a man were capable of doing so much, but was perceived to only be effective at doing a tenth or a quarter of that, would that man prosper in the world?"

Despite his attempts to tone things down for the child to understand more easily, Sarutobi half-expected to find a bewildered look on the boys face. Instead, with nary a second for contemplation, the boy merely shook his head in the negative. For eight years old, the boy was bright indeed. Just as he was meant to be.

"No, he wouldn't. And do you know why?"

Again, the boy hardly took a moment to think before responding, his flighty anger at Hiruzen momentarily forgotten. "Because no one would know what he was really capable of. That ignorance would mean he wouldn't be given many jobs or trusted to do things other than what little others saw him capable of doing."

A fair response.

"Close enough, Naruto-kun. While no 'rule of life' is ever all encompassing, something you'll learn about the world at large as you get older, there is one major acceptance to this particular rule across the board, but I'll tell you more about that later.

"However, let me correct you of a dangerous notion which you worded inappropriately. You said 'he wouldn't be given many jobs'. Nobody is ever 'given a job' in this world. No one worth respecting, anyhow. One must go out and take opportunity for themselves or they will wither and die forgotten. That is the way of the strong and of the righteous. No free tickets, never forget that."

Something shifted in the room. He'd done it again.

He'd gone and lapsed into his Professor mindset without batting an eye. If the dark scowl on the boy's face was anything to go by - as well as the sudden pressure now pushing against him - he was preaching to the choir. Hiruzen allowed himself an internal wince when he remembered just who he was talking to. Naruto had hardly been 'given' anything in his life. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Now, I know you're well aware of that fact of life," he tried to placate. "I'm simply hammering it home. A slip of the tongue one day can very well lead to a lapse in action the next."

The scowl didn't lessen but the slight pressure in the room did. His migraine abated as well, even as he signalled for the ANBU outside the walls to remain there with a quick spike of chakra. He'd need to get the boy to work on controlling his emotions better. Add that to the laundry list of must-do's'.

All in due time, he assured himself.

"Now, while we're on the subject of taking 'opportunities' that one is presented with," here Hiruzen paused to steeple his fingers in front of him, a firm frown fixed upon his aged face, "...explain to me how you ended up getting your arse handed to you by a group of my gennin?"

Anyone else may have withdrawn in embarrassment at the casual way in which the Hokage addressed their battered state, or perhaps warning bells would have sounded at the dangerous growl behind the words 'my gennin'. Attacking a shinobi of Konoha, regardless of rank, was a capital offense after all. But the boy in front of Hiruzen was not anybody else.

Naruto's scowl shifted to a look of affrontement before returning full force, waving his hands madly in front of what he felt was a senile old man clearly misspeaking. "Did you even see those guys, jiji? If anything, I kicked their butts! Besides, your 'gennin' totally had it coming. They were bullying this fat kid and his sleepy looking friend, who weren't doing anything but watching the clouds (for some odd reason), just because they belonged to a clan. Last I checked, you can't choose how you're born."

'Ah, so that was what triggered him. The injustice of being held accountable for one's circumstance,' Hiruzen mused. After their last meeting had gone so well, Naruto had refrained from brawling for a good month now. It was only a matter of time before he got into trouble again, but something intense had to spark his anger to lead him to do what he'd not done since his days in the orphanage. Seeing others getting picked on for being born a certain way would easily do it.

"And so you fight them, all three of them - trained and graduated gennin - by yourself?" Hiruzen didn't let his understanding of the poor boy show on his face, nor his slight astonishment that Naruto had come out the victor so handily.

"Yup."

"And by some stroke of luck, you manage to beat them -"

"Hey, it was not luck!"

"- getting your ass handed to you along the way -"

"It was three on one, you crazy old man!"

"- and then, quite literally, kick them while they're down?"

The Sandaime frowned at the end, but Naruto wouldn't be denied.

"I was just making sure they learned their lesson!"

"By nearly crippling them? Hardly equal punishment for a little school house taunting, wouldn't you say?"

"Crippling them? That glasses wearing bastard nearly broke my arm!"

"After you attacked them! We both know your injury will heal. His won't!"

Naruto growled at that, but couldn't deny the truth of the matter.

"So you shatter the boy's leg after you won?" Hiruzen leaned forward, a dangerous note entering his voice as Naruto continued on unabated.

"The same one he used to kick the fat kid." He hadn't meant to hurt the bastard too badly, but he'd be damned if he was going to apologize.

"He'll be lucky if he walks again! One of the village's shinobi, my shinobi!"

The air between the two became heated, the Hokage's office stifling as Naruto attempted to cop out.

"I was just protecting others; enforcing the law."

That did it.

"Damnit Naruto, the law is on their side! The law says I dole out the punishments in this village, not you. The same law says you were the attacker and they were the victims. That law applies to everyone, including you - especially you! The LAW states your life is now forfeit should I so choose claim it, do you understand me!?"

The pressure returned to the room, this time of Hiruzen's doing. The bookshelf shook, his desk creaked, and the boys eyes dilated in what the Sandaime recognized all too readily was a sign of fear. Most chuunin may have wet themselves by now, but the boy was made of sterner stuff than that. The pressure remained a while longer, but just as it began to abate, and Hiruzen worried he'd gone too far to impress upon the child the misappropriation of his actions, Naruto's eyes narrowed challengingly.

"...I did what was right."

An exasperated sigh exploded from the eldest Sarutobi as he looked to the heavens for patience. The boy was incorrigible and he was simply too old for the stubbornness of a self-righteous eight-year-old. It reminded him too much of himself when he was young, of a pouting Jiraiya, of his own son…

"What am I going to do with you, Naruto?"

He hadn't meant to voice it, but the boy had heard it nonetheless.

Immediately upon hearing the long-suffering sigh from the old man and seeing his eyes wrinkle in weariness, Naruto slumped his shoulders and looked down at the table, absentmindedly adjusting his arm in his sling. He wanted to be right, he was right, but not at the cost of wearing the old man out. Despite everything he'd been told in the past year, the Hokage was still… precious to him.

"I'm sorry, jiji..."

Hiruzen's eyes opened at the softly spoken words and gazed at the repentant looking boy in front of him. The boy was only eight, he reminded himself. Perhaps he was being too hard on him. They weren't in a time of war like he had been at his age, and Naruto was definitely not at risk of being complacent in his studies or neglectful of his duties. Indeed, the boy hardly ever paused from his self-imposed 'unique' brand of training, the fruits of which were being shown today. Routinely pranking chuunin tracker teams wasn't something any other eight year old could brag about, let alone besting an entire gennin unit by himself in taijutsu. By the time he graduated the academy, Hiruzen had no doubt he'd be giving ANBU a wild run for their money. If anything the boy trained too much, and perhaps cared too much as well, for a village that oftentimes tested even the Hokage's patience.

Konoha had not been kind to Naruto.

Nonetheless, the child wore his heart almost on his sleeve, and was a hot-tempered brawler to boot. The orphanage he'd been pulled out from attested to as much. All in all, things could have been worse - much worse. And yet Naruto had to be better. Hiruzen needed him to be better.

Life was not fair.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I caught that."

Naruto seemed to hesitate but repeated in a firmer voice. "I said, I'm sorry."

"Are you really? Or are you just saying that?" The Hokage analyzed the blonde boy shrewdly, seeing right through his juvenile deceit.

Naruto looked away, his cheeks threatening to bulge indignantly, but he refrained. "I'm sorry I broke the boy's leg… and I'm sorry I upset you." He turned to face the man he respected more than anyone in the village, his face hardening as much as a boy's could. "But I'm not sorry for doing the right thing."

Hiruzen met his gaze with a steely one of his own.

The boy would learn.

An image of his son appeared in his mind's eye, standing next to two other kids and his own student, Jiraiya.

Yes, the boy would learn.

Just not all at once.

A small part of Hiruzen perhaps never wanted Naruto to 'learn'. The same part of him that had allowed his sensei's granddaughter to escape into the greater Hi No Kuni area to bury her sorrow in drink and gambling. The same part of him that had refused to disabuse Jiraiya of his foolish notions of world peace being a tangible reality. The same part of him that chose to trust in the better half of his most talented and ultimately most treacherous student.

The part of him that cared - that bled - for Konoha and the world around it. His aching heart.

But his sympathy would only serve to weaken the boy in the long run, which is why he didn't rescue little Naruto from the glares and contempt of the village. He hadn't expected the news of his jinchuuriki status to get out, but he wasn't going to always be there to protect the child. No. Naruto had to be strong on his own. And looking at the boy now, his defiant cerulean blue eyes almost challengingly meeting his own dark ones, he knew he'd made the right choice. Unforgivable, perhaps, but the boy was strong.

And would be stronger yet.

"Enough of this. You must learn that for every action taken, there is an equal and negative reaction. There's no use in locking you up, though I could have you barred from ever entering the academy for this. You're set to start this month, are you not?" Naruto's face froze in shock, a myriad of emotions playing out in his eyes before an unsuitable defiance settled in. Clearly the boy had thought of this being a repercussion and also knew an impossibility. Damn.

"Luckily for you, we both know that's never going to happen given your circumstance. Instead…" Hiruzen searched for the words, for the proper punishment, before an idea struck him. "...yes. Consider yourself grounded from ramen for a month."

The look of horror that dawned on the blonde's face was priceless.

"Trust me, by the end of the day, no ramen stand, restaurant, eatery, or supermarket will dare serve you any of your precious 'food of the gods' until you punishment is up. And before you say anything, yes, I can, in fact, do that. I'm the Hokage."

The smirk Hiruzen wore as he pointed at the hat he was wearing - the oh, so heavy hat - was positively shit-eating and a little scary on his aged and experience-battered face, but it was lost on a suddenly pale and gaping Naruto. No doubt prison almost looked better to the fanatically addicted blonde.

"Now then, as to the second part of your punishment, I'll be having you read through the entirety of the Shinobi History of Konoha once again." That wasn't so bad, the boy thought. He'd get to read about the Hokage's again, his favorite topic. "As well as that of our neighbors." That gave Naruto pause. Hi no Kuni had a lot of neighbors. "And our current shinobi allies. Furthermore, you'll be reporting on such learnings to me daily, before and after your so called 'training'. Oral reports in the morning, written ones in the evening. Fail to recite enough relevant information for the time allotted or misquote an event, name, or piece of trivia and I extend your ban on ramen for a week per occurrence. Lastly, I will begin to supervise your physical training once a week. If you manage to impress me, and that's a big if, I will do so twice a week and begin running you through various chakra exercises as well as some of the more basic chakra theories immediately relevant to your progress. Is this understood?"

Naruto just stared at the man numbly before nodding his head. It wouldn't be until later that evening that the elation of receiving more time with the old man, as well as time spent actually being trained by the Kami no Shinobi, would set in. For now all he had absorbed was that he had a lot of boring and irrelevant reading to do and absolutely no ramen to comfort him. The bastard.

"Oh, and of course there will be no pranking." Yes, the smiling old man was definitely a bastard. "On a side note, I must say I'm surprised a knucklehead like yourself could best three of my gennin. Impressive… for a child."

This got Naruto's attention and he momentarily forgot the horrors awaiting him in the library.

"Ha! Your gennin were a joke, jiji. If all your shinobi start out like that, it's a wonder they ever get to be jounin before they're as ancient as you are! I'll be taking that hat from you in no time."

Hiruzen chuckled at the blondes confidence and subtle slight on his age, the boy's blind exuberance bringing light back into the office once more.

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Naruto. They were hardly the top of their class, you know."

"Face it, jiji. I'm the best." Naruto's smile stretched across his blood marred face, his thin whisker marks highlighting the dimples on display.

"Please. I said' impressive'. Not unprecedented. I, myself, was taking on multiple chuunin level opponents when I was your age."

"Mhmm. Sure."

"It's true. I was more capable back then than you are now."

The boy's smirk didn't lessen. So much of Jiraiya was in him, so much of Orochimaru too, but what he saw in that smirk was the face of his eldest son - a face he would no longer see. Hiruzen, vindictive, nonetheless felt his heart clench for what he was about to do.

"So was your father."

With that all the warmth in the office seemed to have fled along with Naruto's smile, leaving a dimmed and hollow room with two damaged people refusing to look away from one another.

Yeah, the old man could be a real bastard.

"Your father wasn't just a good shinobi, Naruto. He was a great one. A legendary one that came around once in a generation if you were lucky. You know this, but you can't possibly comprehend it."

The boy sat there, numbly listening, nonetheless processing everything the Sandaime was saying and committing it to memory. Talks about his father were rare - very rare. Talks about anything other than his damned burden were few and far between with the old man. Kyuubi this, kyuubi that. The occasional catch up session here and there. Never his parents. Never his father.

Never the Yondaime.

"I too was legendary, if I'm being honest. But times were different then. Your father was raised in the aftermath of a war, and was barely a young man before he partook at the bloody head of the next great one. I was brought up in the time before the Hidden Villages, a time of warring clans and constant danger and likewise was a child soldier even as the shadows of the first Great War fell. We had to be strong to survive, your father and I. So did my students and so too did many others who were also great but never lived long enough to reflect on it."

Naruto seemed to deflate just a touch, his small frame disappearing into the shadows of the chair he sat in. He thought he was strong today, but the old man always had a way of grounding him, of bringing him back to reality. He was just the village pariah. He was no Namikaze Minato.

The Professor could easily read the thoughts rushing into the young Uzumaki's head.

"Strength comes out of necessity, but it also wells up from within. We had that type of strength, the other Hokage's and I, throughout our early lives before we ever led a man in battle. Just like you do, as a jinchuuriki. But the unfortunate burdens of the village and the terrible nature of war are two very separate things, Naruto. And you need to be prepared for when you discover that horror first hand."

The old man rose and strolled to the large glass window that faced the Hokage Monument, staring intently at something Naruto couldn't see himself.

"Otherwise, the price you'll pay when you're confronted by that horror - by the sight of your own hands - will be steep… So steep. Then, even the strongest of us won't shield you from its destruction."

The silence was heavy and Naruto found his throat dry and unresponsive. He took it as a sign to remain quiet, and so for once he did.

"The iceberg, Naruto-kun. Do you remember?"

It took a moment for the boy to comprehend that the Sandaime had spoken, let alone about something so random. A lot had happened since the start of their conversation.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. You said it hides most of itself underwater."

Hiruzen was glad the boy could recall the piece of trivia, even if the boy's formal response grated on him. The demands of the hat were often large and sometimes small, but always constant. Innocence had little place before the weight of its brim.

"Precisely. People are like icebergs. You think you see the real them, only to find out it was but a facet of their true selves. We all hide a little of ourselves from the world, choosing in some way or another who to show the truth too, and how much of it at that. Shinobi especially so.

"Your father was like an iceberg personified. Cool headed. Calming. His potential seemed massive, daunting even, upon first sight… but when you got to know him - really know him, as few people ever did - you began to see how limitless it really was." Hiruzen then whispered to himself. "And how terrifying."

"I thought you said a man couldn't make it in the world like that." Naruto had thankfully not heard the last part. He wasn't ready for that yet.

The Sandaime hmm'd to himself. "Oh? While true as a generality, I recall claiming a standing exception to such a 'rule', did I not?" The confused boy nodded. "And do you know what exception that is, Naruto-kun?"

The answer dawned on him like a load of bricks hitting his head, and Naruto could already feel his face hardening in understanding.

"A shinobi," he said quietly.

A good shinobi knows when to act and how to act. When to be seen, and when to cease existence. To be invisible. To hide beneath the underneath... Your father was not a good shinobi, Naruto. He was a great one. And you can be too, one day. But for now, hide. Keep your head down. Push yourself until you can't push anymore, and then push further. No one will support you, encourage you, or praise you, but none of that matters because in the end you'll be better than all of them.'

"Ah, yes. A shinobi. A liar and an assassin. Deception is paramount to survival in the life of a shinobi, to the success of the mission. Do you understand what I'm saying child?"

"You wish me to… hide? To reserve my potential?"

"Yes, and, well… no. Make no mistake..." Hiruzen turned away from the window, arms coming out from behind his back to grip the boy gently by the shoulders, a tender look of pride on his face.

"...I wish for you to blossom, Naruto. To grow and grow, like the trunk of a great tree, its canopy stretching out to shade all others. But while doing so, I expect you to be mindful. Mindful of your actions and their consequences. Today is a fine example. I expect you to be a ghost until the opportune moment to not do so. A good shinobi can turn invisible, but a great one can cease to exist unless he or she chooses otherwise. Your father was a great shinobi. No one saw him coming until it was too late. Can you be that shinobi Naruto? Can you be something more?"

It wasn't a question. For reasons beyond explanation, Naruto had always clung to the legend of the Yondaime. Of how he'd saved the village countless times over, of how he'd been the youngest Kage to ever ascend the throne while the previous kage lived, and how in his last act he'd defied death itself to reign in the greatest of the destructive bjuu. When he'd been told by the old man just what he held and who had put it there, only a year ago to date, Naruto had known there was no going back. He would be a shinobi as he was no doubt always meant to be. He would excel, he would dawn the hat, and overcome anything his damned father - the great and mysterious Namikaze Minato - could ever hope to be.

Could he be more? He'd bet his life on it.

He knew this. The Hokage knew this. And the other individual in the room, hidden by shadows and deceit, also knew this.

They were all counting on it.

"I'll be more." Naruto looked deep into the eyes of his predecessor. "Believe it."

Naruto had just left the room, rather forcefully, trailing painfully behind an exasperated Biwako. Hiruzen's wife was muttering dark things under her breath while dragging the boy to the hospital by his ear. Decades had passed and his wife was still as hot headed as she was in their youth, not unlike Kushina had been. No doubt the crazy old woman was going to force the stubborn boy to apologize to his 'victims' before forcing him to be examined by a healer, disregarding the fact that the woman herself was a capable medi-nin. Hiruzen loved his wife, but sometimes she truly was too much.

He wouldn't have her at all if it weren't for the uncanny speed of the Yondaime that night. The speed Hiruzen wishes Minato had possessed the night his son had died.

His musings were cut off by the emergence of a figure from the shadows.

"The boy is an idiot."

Hiruzen snorted as he pulled out his pipe from a drawer and began filling it with tobacco from his pouch. Biwako had swiftly disabused him of using it around someone as young and impressionable (by him, anyway) as Naruto. Clearly she neglected to weigh in how stressful dealing with their surrogate grandson was. Damned woman.

"He's his mother's son in many ways," he replied around a mouthful of okum. The visitor from the shadows sat across from him, his masked face regarding him with a level of stoicism that chiseled rock and marble would be hard pressed to match, though a sense of aloofness was almost forced in his shoulders.

"Too many ways." The masked man sounded displeased, but Hiruzen knew his ANBU Commander long enough to know that wasn't nearly the case. "Nonetheless…"

"He's progressing faster than expected, I know." Hiruzen absently nodded to the unspoken words. "Tell me, Inu, what level were your tools. Fresh academy students?"

"They were perhaps high-gennin level, I'll admit. Veteran gennin, not quite chuunin. They played their part well, however unaware of it that they were." Inu seemed to take the serious injury of ignorant operatives as one would take to news that it might rain. Apathetically. "Do you think he got your hidden message? Your lecture was rather long winded, as usual."

"Oh, he got it alright." Hiruzen chuckled at being called long winded. Adressing the Hokage in such a matter would put lesser men in a world of hurt, but 'Inu' was a man of the world. He had the Hokage's trust, and to a slightly lesser extent, his respect. He could talk plainly to an extent. "The boy has an uncannily keen ability to see beneath the underneath. He also knows me well enough to know that I would never punish him for doing the right thing, even if the right thing is not so always easy to ascertain. Regardless, the next time he does get into a fight or breaks the law for the sake of others, I promise you he won't get caught. Class dismissed."

"Hm. Smugness doesn't suite you, Hokage-sama."

"I've good right to be smug. He's strong and will grow more capable yet. He lacks the direct apprenticeship I provided for Orochimaru early on in life, nor has he been given the direct tutelage of advanced shinobi such as yourself or Itachi. His taijutsu is self-taught, academy proficient and then honed to suit his speed and agility. His limited grasp on chakra theory and formidable application of the kawirimi and henge are beyond what should be possible for a child. Much like my successor, his is a slow burn of growth and progress, not a meteoric one. While gifted but not altogether unprecedented in talent now, his ability to be self-taught and follow his own path, backed by the growing support of myself and the impressive strength of the Kyuubi, will likely usher forth a shinobi the leaf has not seen the likes of in twenty years, perhaps longer."

The ANBU Commander could only nod at his leader's dissertation of their little pet project. The boy was indeed a 'slow-burn' as the Hokage had put it, but clearly already stood head and shoulders above his current peers. That gap would only increase exponentially over time.

"What he needs now are ties," Hiruzen continued. "Bonds. And for those bonds to be as strong as his convictions are. All the strength and speed and jutsu in the world will mean nothing if the child is no longer certain of what or who he fights for. Then, he'd be nothing more than a danger."

"That shouldn't be too difficult." 'Inu' hid his dislike for bonds and emotional attachment well. His own dispositions to weakness on the battlefield aside, he had to admit that loyalty could not be instilled in such a strong willed boy so late in his growth period. His love of the leaf would have to come about in a more traditional, albeit sentimental, manner. "He's likely to be a part of the greatest generation of shinobi the village has ever seen. All the clan heirs save one or two are in his age bracket. It's rather unprecedented."

"Don't misunderstand me, Inu. These bonds, friendships, what have you… they must come about naturally. No meddling, no isolating or blackmailing, no scheming. We may play the puppet masters in all other affairs concerning young Naruto, for the sake of the village, but it will be for naught if we remove his choice of friends and allies. We'd be no better than my old friend."

It went unsaid who Hiruzen's 'old friend' was. Danzo Shimura was a ghost among Konoha's higher ups and stricken from more records than many heroes had ever been on to start with. He and his Ne (Root) organization shaped the past two decades for better and worse. The complete opposite of Hiruzen in many ways, but Inu had a suspicion the old war hawk would be surprised to find the Professor employing similar tactics as his nemesis in regards to the villages sole jinchuuriki.

Bad blood between the two legends aside, they were different parts of the same coin. The Kami no Shinobi and the Yami no Shinobi.

The Balance of the Bloody Blade.

"Understood. Something tells me the boy will have little issues accumulating these bonds you so desperately desire him to have. He has… a peculiar way about him. His eccentricities may not do him any favors now, but I feel in the long run, they may become a boon to him, smoothing out his more violent tendencies."

Hiruzen chuckled again, refilling his pipe with a twinkle in his eyes. "Indeed, he has his uniqueness, as do most great shinobi. However, I'd be lying if I said he wasn't the most stubborn and frankly angriest child I've ever met. Not the tantrum type of angry or the lash out at everyone type of angry. The deep, bone rooted anger that festers in the blood. He's angry at the world for reasons he may still not fully comprehend, even after everything I've told him."

"Something I was against," Inu reminded him, a hint of disappointment covering his tone.

"And like I said then, the choice was mine and mine alone, seeing as Jiraiya wasn't available. You didn't see him, Inu. That night in the orphanage… if I didn't tell him then and there, we may have lost him forever."

Hiruzen drifted off, lost in the memory of yesteryear, and Inu let him. Silence and smoke filled the room once more until finally the ANBU Commander spoke, bringing the discussion back on track.

"So you will begin to train the boy, or at least, help guide him in the right direction. I see you're intent on having him be as knowledgeable about the world we live in as to the ways in which he'll kill the people therein." He got an amused nod from the Sandaime for his wording. "In turn, I will continue to test and assess him through various means at random increments in his life. My machinations will be subtle and just often enough to gauge his growing ability and fortitude in all things. Finally, we will encourage more time and encounters with his peers, nothing more, in the hopes that the boy cements ties to the village and his generation in particular."

"Sounds about right. Regardless, they need to be the best. Not just for Naruto's sake, but for the tree's vitality. War is coming, that much we know is certain. There can be no lackness in this generation. No easy outs, no simple gennin graduation tests. They need to be killers and they need to be patriots…" The Hokage spoke no louder than a whisper but his powerful will was present in each syllable. "And it has to be soon."

"How soon?" his subordinate queried, already running through a number of possibilities in his keen mind.

Hiruzen sighed. "I won't readily risk early promotion for Naruto, however much his skills may eventually demand otherwise. He's no good to us as a loner."

"He may atrophy with those below him. It's a risk." Beneath his mask, the black ops leader almost frowned at the thought.

"One I'm ready to take with certain allotments outside of the academy. I will not leave him to the wolves, mind you, nor will I risk another child prodigy going to his side."

….

Silence once again reigned at the unspoken word that lingered in the room.

'Itachi.'

Instead of arguing over the right and wrongs of that dreaded night once more, both silently decided to drop it and continue on. The less they spoke of either of those complicated - and even horrifying - men, the better.

"No, he will graduate on course alongside his peers."

"When?"

"The standard academy graduation age is now 14. Let's push the entire class to 12."

"And the civilian children who may struggle to keep pace?" Inu knew the answer but wanted to hear it from his friend and leaders mouth nonetheless.

"Then they'll have to manage with another class or drop out of the program altogether. The village demands it. Not every leaf on the tree can be precious at all times."

The look the Hokage leveled at the black ops shinobi said quite frankly that he was done with the 'moral' prodding he'd been receiving so far and thus the dog-masked ANBU took heed of the warning.

"Then I shall take my leave." Standing up, Inu looked intently at his commander. "I hope you know what you're doing, Sandaime-sama."

"Me too. We're placing a lot of our hopes on that child. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Naruto."

Behind the shelter of his mask, and his multiple other masks, Inu smiled - an altogether unpleasant image if it had been visible. "Indeed. Despite his characteristic traits pointing straight at his loudmouthed mother..."

"...he is truly his father's son."

Hiruzen gazed back at the man wearily. "I know. That's exactly what I'm worried about."

Inu's smile vanished, and a second later so too did he.

The quiet of the office became deafening once more. Hiruzen slumped softly back into his chair with an exhausted breath. Only then did he allow the Hokage Hat to fall from his head and onto the table with a muted thump.

Leadership - the heaviest burden of all.