Authors Notes:

Hello all and welcome to my second ever fanfiction attempt. To those who have been reading my other fanfic, it's safe to say that you have a general idea of how i write and what kind of things to expect. To those who have not been reading my other fanfic, shame on you for not being up to date.

This story is much like my first in the sense that i am not planning things ahead of time. It will be touch and go for most things as i make up ideas on the spot, but some things have been thought about intensely. As usual, any and all reviews and suggestions are gladly accepted and appreciated, so leave as many as you want. Also, this story will focus more on humor than any other genre, but will have actual serious moments unlike my other fanfic. So if you didn't/don't like my other fic then you wont like this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but i would like to reserve general rights for my OC.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a patient man. As the currently reinstated third Hokage, and renowned 'Kami of shinobi', it was his job to remain calm and level headed throughout any and all issues that occurred in order to best serve the village he led. He had maintained his cool throughout two of the great shinobi wars, the betrayal of his greatest student, as well as the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, which resulted in the loss of the fourth Hokage.

Yet as he stood in the dark hospital room of one Naruto Uzumaki, he couldn't bring himself to maintain an emotionless façade. Looking out of the large window, he felt a great sadness wash over him. His village, Konohagakure, the village created by his sensei, Hashirama Senju, and the proud wielder of the 'Will of Fire', had become but a shadow of its former self.

No longer could the elderly Sarutobi look out onto his village and feel proud of what he saw, no longer could he feel confident in the decisions he had made concerning the small child that now lay battered and broken in a hospital bed, hooked up to every machine possible just to keep him alive. He had grown soft in his old age, and with that softness, had come failure; failure to maintain order in his village, and more importantly, failure to keep the promise he had made to Naruto's parents.

His failure to keep such a simple promise, one that he was more than capable of keeping, had cost him more than he could ever hope. He had lost his right to call himself a good man that had done all he could for those who needed it, and he had lost his faith in the people of Konoha; all because of one child that most would consider trash.

But with this great loss, he had gained something of greater importance. He now had the will and determination to right the wrongs he had let slide, to attempt to make up for his mistakes, and to make sure that from now on Naruto would live the life he deserved. It didn't matter what methods he used, he didn't care about the consequences he would face, so long as the child was freed from the nightmare his life had become. And if Hiruzen was required to use fear and force to do so, then so be it.

"I promise Naruto, I will change things, no matter the consequences," he whispered to the sleeping boy.

"I believe that is something that I can assist you with," said a voice from one of the dark corners of the room.

"Danzō" Sarutobi said quietly. "It is good to see you arrived so fast"

The now named Danzō walked out from the shadows that concealed him. He was an elderly man with both his right eye and right arm wrapped in bandages, a cross shaped scar on his chin, and a walking cane held firmly in his left hand. Hiruzen wasn't surprised at the fact that the man had been able to enter the room without him noticing, he wasn't known as the shinobi of darkness for nothing.

"I thought I should arrive as quickly as I could, especially since it is not every day that you actually request my presence" Danzō replied.

Despite his usually emotionless and cold expression, Danzō had adopted a softer and more concerned look as he observed Naruto. This was not unnoticed by his old friend and Hiruzen couldn't help but smile in knowing that his long-time rival wasn't without a heart.

"Will he recover?" Danzō asked.

Hiruzen sighed quietly. "He will make a full recovery, physically, the fox is doing that much at least. I am not too sure about his mental recovery though; the villagers went beyond their usual beatings this time so I don't know how badly it effected his mind," he answered solemnly.

"Indeed. I never expected the civilians to go so far, even if there were ninja helping. Hopefully the boy will maintain the fortitude he has held for so long, because if he does not, more problems are sure to arise" Danzō replied.

"Naruto is strong, and his will is second to none. If anyone can pull through something like this, it's him," Hiruzen said firmly.

"True, but he is only seven years old. How much do you think he can take before he snaps?"

"I don't know" Hiruzen answered, taking another glance at the boys frail form. "I understand that it was your men that found him"

"It was"

"Then I owe you thanks. If not for ROOT Naruto would surely be dead, and with his death would come the murderous rage of the Kyuubi"

"There is no need to thank me old friend; I was only doing what was best for the village. Although I am still concerned by you allowing me to keep ROOT up and running in secret," Danzō said, hinting at the unasked question that had been circling his mind for a long time.

Hiruzen smirked, an action that slightly put Danzō on edge. "I may not approve of all of the training methods your ROOT operatives are put through, but I would be a fool if I denied that they were effective. I allowed you to maintain it for this exact circumstance," he explained calmly.

"So you allowed ROOT to stay so it could be used to save a single child?" Danzō asked in minor irritation.

"Of course not, although that was a fortunate bonus. No, I allowed ROOT to stay because I have finally reached my ropes end. I have grown soft Danzō, weak even, and in that weakness I have allowed the village to grow weak. The shinobi are nothing more than highly trained labourers, and the civilians have become pompous and self-centred under the protection of our walls. This is no longer the Konohagakure that Hashirama envisioned; it is a joke, and I intend to fix that"

"I am no longer going to be pushed around by the narrow minded fools that think they hold power in this village. I am the Hokage, and what I say is law. Things will change, whether they accept it or not, and the first change will be making up for my failure to uphold Minato's dying wish" Sarutobi explained with conviction.

"That's all good, and I admire your new outlook on things, but where does my ROOT fit into things?" Danzō asked curiously.

An almost wicked smile formed on the elderly Hokage's face. "What better way to heal a dying tree, than by starting at the roots. I do not intend to officially reinstate ROOT, and so long as it remains in the shadows, it can be of use to me. With your help, we could reshape Konoha into something to be respected and feared, but also loved and admired"

"And what if I refuse to help you? What if I use this as an opportunity to stab you in the back and take the title of Hokage all for myself?" Danzō inquired seriously.

"You and I both know that you aren't that cold hearted. Plus, with us working together like this, we will be able to have a say in what goes on in each other's area of the village. I get to alter how ROOT members are trained slightly, while you help me shape up the actual shinobi forces into something worthy of the village," Hiruzen said with a smile.

"I am wondering if you have perhaps lost your mind, but if since you are beginning to think more like me, I wouldn't so casually call you crazy just yet" Danzō muttered quietly.

"What was that?" Hiruzen asked with a glare.

"Nothing" he answered quickly.

"So do you wish to aid me in rebuilding this village?"

Danzō remained silent for a few moments, thinking over everything that Hiruzen had said. He could definitely see the benefits of such an alliance between them, and with the old Sarutobi allowing him to make suggestions to how Konoha did things, it opened up several opportunities. For one, his influence on things would carry more weight without him ever having to put himself directly in the spotlight, and he would be able to continue his shadowy activities with ROOT more leniently.

Pausing his thoughts momentarily, Danzō took another look at the practically comatose boy whose room they occupied. He didn't care all too much for the boy, even though he knew of the boy's parents, and was generally indifferent to what happened to him. If it was possible, he would gladly take the boy and train him as a weapon, as most jinchuuriki were; but should he be unable to obtain the boy, it would not be a huge loss. But the most important unasked question was still lingering in his mind. Why had Sarutobi decided to ask for his help so soon, and what did it have to with the boy.

"I accept, but first I need to know how this involves Naruto" he finally replied.

"Naruto can wait. I have plans for him, but they can wait until after he has recovered. However, you should know that he will play a key role in changing the village; if he wishes to of course" Hiruzen said.

Danzō gave his friend an odd questioning stare. "You won't force him to be a part of it?" he asked.

"No, I will not. Naruto will choose for himself, although I don't think he will hesitate to accept once I tell him what I want him to do" the Hokage answered with a gentle smile.

"Yes, the boy is quite insistent on becoming a ninja. A chance to personally help the Hokage make the village better would be nothing short of a dream come true for him" Danzō reasoned.

"Hopefully he sees it that way"

A calm silence settled on the room for a few minutes as the old rivals processed the fact that they were now allies once again. The only sound that interrupted the still night was the continuous beeping of the heart monitor connected to Naruto.

"I have something to show you. I was planning on keeping it a secret, but with this new alliance I believe it best to show my trust and allow you access to ROOT headquarters," Danzō said quietly. "I also believe that what I wish to show you will come in handy, especially if your plans for Naruto are what I think they are"

Hiruzen nodded. "Just make sure you have some of your men guard this room. At least I can rest easy knowing that ROOT won't be swayed by their own emotions," he said.

"I have had my men guarding it ever since he arrived. I might not care what happens to the boy but I will not risk someone putting the village in danger just for something as petty as revenge," Danzō stated firmly.

Hiruzen calmly walked over to Danzō and placed a hand on his left shoulder. As soon as he did, they both vanished in a swirl of leaves.

ROOT headquarters was exactly how Hiruzen expected it to be. A dark and damp series of large tunnels that extended under most of Konoha, allowing quick access to most of the more important locations of the village, including the Hokage tower. It wasn't surprising to realise that Danzō had been operating right under everyone's nose, in a rather literally sense of the phrase.

Without a word, Danzō began walking down one of the numerous tunnels, the old Sarutobi following shortly after. They walked for several minutes, neither saying a word to the other, and Hiruzen taking his time to observe the underground structure that had somehow gone unnoticed by most everyone in the village. He of course had known about it, but until now, he was under the assumption that it had been abandoned and unused for many years; oh, how wrong he was.

As they continued through the dark tunnels, Hiruzen noticed that the walls were quickly becoming much cleaner than they had been, along with several dull lights illuminating the tunnel up ahead. He guessed that they were finally reaching one of the actual base structures, of which he was sure there were many scattered throughout the underground maze.

"This is the medical section of ROOT. We usually only have to use it for new recruits, but thankfully it is fully capable of handling anything the hospital on the surface can" Danzō explained casually.

He quickly led the Hokage to the furthest medical room within the facility. Sarutobi noticed almost immediately, that temperature began declining drastically the closer they got to the room. It became concerning when each room they past appeared to have frost forming of the observation windows, and even more so when he noticed frost forming on the walls and floor. He could just feel that whatever Danzō was about to show him would be something to amaze.

They quickly reached the door of the furthest room, which had been almost completely frozen shut. The hallway that they stood in was ridiculously cold, with ice forming on almost every surface; Hiruzen considered using a fire jutsu to warm himself up, but he quickly stomped that idea out of his head.

"You might want to start circulating fire chakra through yourself, it's several degrees colder inside the room, and I am not in a position to explain how the Hokage froze to death," Danzō said with concealed amusement.

Hiruzen nodded before taking a deep breath and blowing out a steady stream of fire, which melted a small amount of ice on the floor. He was shocked to see the melted puddle of water quickly refreeze within seconds, and he was beginning to wonder just how cold it was in here. A quiet sigh of relief escaped him as he circulated the fire chakra throughout his body, its heat serving to warm him up in moments.

Once he was ready, Danzō opened the door. Unsurprisingly, it required some effort to break the ice that had formed around the door frame, and eventually the old war hawk was forced to use a small fire jutsu just to open the door far enough. The cold air that was instantly sucked from the room hit Hiruzen dead on and nearly froze the old man solid, something that Danzō thought of as amusing if the smile on his face was any indication.

"What on earth do you have locked up in here that can do this?" Hiruzen asked as his teeth chattered uncontrollably, a rather comedic sight to see.

"That" Danzō answered simply as he pointed to a bed in the centre of the room.

Hiruzen looked inside the room and towards where Danzō was pointing, his eyes widening to comical proportions as soon as he realised what he was looking at. Lying in the bed in the centre of the room was a young boy, probably a couple of years older than Naruto. He appeared to be in rough shape since most of his body was covered in bandages; the most heavily bandaged area's appeared to be the boys left arm, right leg, and his eyes.

Turning back to his old rival, Hiruzen gave the man a stern look. "Explain," he said calmly.

"I had ROOT raid one of Orochimaru's bases, which I found within fire country a few months ago" Danzō began. "They didn't find anything useful. All the test subjects had been slaughtered and mostly frozen; a lot of the base itself had been destroyed and frozen as well. Nothing in the base was salvageable, or so we thought"

The old war hawk took a deep breath of his own before breathing out a small stream of fire; it was incredibly cold inside the room after all. "We found this boy locked away in what appeared to be a sort of 'bunker' type room that was fitted with incinerators. Fortunately, the incinerators had been frozen, and the boy was still alive. From what we gathered, it seems he was one of Orochimaru's more powerful test subjects that failed miserably," he explained.

"What was he trying to accomplish with an ice user?" the Hokage questioned seriously.

Danzō snapped his fingers and a ROOT agent quickly entered the room holding a small file. The man quickly handed the file to Danzō before bowing and walking out of the room. The crippled elder handed Hiruzen the file and gestured for him to have a look.

"From what we did manage to dig out of the bases still functioning computers, the boy was not originally an ice user. It seems Orochimaru was playing with fusing chakra natures to make Kekkei Genkai; but he was also attempting to create something else entirely"

Hiruzen's eyes widened as he read further through the file. "He was trying to create a Rinnegan," he said in mild shock as he remembered that the boy's eyes were heavily bandaged. "Did he succeed?" he asked quickly.

"No" Danzō answered in slight disappointment. "Although, that doesn't mean he failed either," he added as he once again gestured to the file.

The elderly Hokage quickly began to read through the remaining notes of the file, his eyes narrowing more and more with each page he read. Once he finished reading it, he closed it and sighed in relief.

"Well, it's not a Rinnegan; thank Kami for that because I don't think anyone could stop him if he obtained that kind of power. However, this is a drastic change from his original goal of obtaining a Sharingan, perhaps he has given up on it" Sarutobi said hopefully.

"I doubt it. This is more than likely a mere side project for him; it would be devastating if he possessed both a Sharingan and a Rinnegan," Danzō countered.

"Still, the power this boy possesses is incredible. Even if he can't gain full access to what is theorised in these notes, he will still be a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, I can't see him being able to use his abilities to their full potential; the raw amount of chakra it would require to do so without killing him would be impossible to possess without becoming a jinchuuriki"

Danzō smirked. "That's why I need your help. With your consent, I am confident in my ability to train this boy to be able to use his powers to the best of his abilities; in fact, I think we could even incorporate him into your plan for Naruto. The two have the potential to become incredibly powerful shinobi, it only makes sense that they work together," he suggested with a smile.

"Are you confident this will work? Not that I don't see your point, but we aren't even sure that either of the boys will agree to go along with it"

"Don't worry about this one, he already agreed to my training several weeks ago. All that's left is to introduce the two and let things go from there"

"What if they do not get along?" Hiruzen asked.

"You and I both know that Naruto has an irritating ability to get people to like him, one way or another. If we are lucky it will work, and we will have a highly powerful two man team at our disposal," Danzō answered.

"Very well, but I will only use them in our plans if they agree to it. I might have had a change of heart but I will not force children to do something they do not wish to do" Sarutobi replied.

"So be it. I suggest we return to our duties and think over what we plan to do for the future of the village. We can meet again tomorrow to discuss things in finer detail"

"That sounds reasonable. I'll be going then, I still need to check on Naruto once more before I return to the office," Hiruzen said wearily.

"Before you go, I need to ask you something," Danzō said quickly.

Sarutobi paused and looked questioningly at his old friend. "And that would be?"

"Do you know?" the war hawk asked seriously, gesturing subtly to his bandaged arm.

The old Hokage smiled kindly and nodded his head. "Yes, I know exactly what you have under those bandages old friend, and I don't hold it against you. The Uchiha clan needed to be taken out, and I was too weak to do what needed to be done; I don't blame you for making the most of an opportunity like that, it is was ninja do is it not" he said quietly. "Who knows, it might be invaluable later on in our plans"

"I suppose that is one way of looking at it. I will see you tomorrow then; hopefully Naruto will have recovered by then" Danzō said before he walked out of the uncomfortably cold room.

Hiruzen took another look at the boy who was on the bed. From the file he had read, he knew that boy was nine years old, and he didn't match any blood samples they had, both standard and classified. If the old Sarutobi were to wager a guess, he'd say that his traitorous student had created the boy from scratch. That meant that the boy could potentially belong to multiple clans at the same time, or none at all; it also meant that he would have to be placed into a clan before others tried to claim him for their own.

This kind of thing had happened before; where orphans or clan-less individuals showed extreme potential in the ninja arts and were sought out by powerful clans in hopes of bolstering their reputation or power. If he was created from the blood of multiple clans then there would be chaos, unless of course, he was already enlisted into the care of a clan.

A sly smile formed on the old mans wrinkled face, a childish gleam shimmering in his dark eyes. He knew exactly how to fix this problem in a way that would not only save him from many a headache, but also push both the boy and Naruto closer together. A smug expression took over his features as he mentally patted himself on the back for being such a cunning old man. When Naruto woke up, he would be in for one hell of a surprise.

As soon as he woke up, Naruto knew exactly where he was. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still hurting all over then it would be the ever present smell of bleach and blood that always accompanied the hospital. This time however, there was one small difference; it was freezing cold. Naruto had been in the hospital enough times to know that the temperature never got too cold, and this definitely classified as cold.

"Damn, they locked me in a freezer didn't they" he muttered in irritation.

The villagers had always hated him, and the numerous beatings he had received from them had cemented that point into his mind. But locking him inside of a freezer and leaving him to die was a new level of low, even for them. He didn't even know there was a freezer in the hospital large enough to lock him in.

A quiet chuckle disturbed Naruto's inner thoughts. Opening his bright blue eyes, he realised that he wasn't actually locked in a freezer, just a really cold hospital room. The chuckle got louder as he looked around curiously, until his eyes locked onto the elderly Hokage sitting in the corner of the room. The old man was smiling warmly, smoking on a pipe, with a large fur coat draped over him.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up old man. Its fine when you aren't the one freezing," Naruto said angrily as he jumped out of his hospital bed.

He walked over to one of the chairs in the room which had his clothes folded on it. He quickly got dressed, only to find that it didn't help with the cold and he was still shivering slightly.

"Hey old man, why is it so cold in here?" he asked loudly.

"Sorry, I can't help it," answered a meek voice from behind him.

Naruto spun around quickly and locked his eyes onto the third occupant of the room. It was a boy, probably a couple of years older than him, with short shaggy grey/white hair. He couldn't make out much else in regards to the boys appearance, since most of the boy's body was covered in bandages, especially his eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked loudly; apparently, he couldn't say much without being overly loud.

"Naruto, I want you to meet your adopted brother. This is Izo Uzumaki," Sarutobi said with a mischievous smirk on his face.

The overly loud yell that quickly followed was like music to his aging ears. Things were going to change, and it was going to be fun.