The Sage's Request

I do not own Naruto

Please forgive the little grammar errors. I literally typed this out in a flurry and posted. I'll take the time to edit it later on. Gotta post when I can due to my crazy schedule :/

"You will no longer be the Naruto you know today. You truly are the child of prophecy. You going back in time will not strip that from you. I will seek out you and you alone. I leave the path up to you. The knowledge you possess is not a map to follow. I have faith in your decisions. Look within yourself and plan as you see fit. I'm not sending you back to preserve the time line. I'm sending you back to save people and defeat Madara. It is up to you to decide what path you take. Know that you can take council with my children. They will help guide you. Please raise your palms to me. Know that my chakra will resonate in you. You will not become like me, my chakra will become a part of you. You must seek out these changes and master them. Once everything is settled you will have a chakra that is truly unique." Naruto slowly raised her palms to the sage and then everything went black.

Unknown Location

Naruto's mind was cloudy and her body ached with pain that she had never experienced before. Every part of her being pulsed with a power she'd never known. She attempted to sit up first trying to move her arm to turn her body over, but sharp needle like stabs activated with the slight movement of her fingers. Her mouth opened on reflex but only a silent cry escaped. Her face contorting in agony as her mouth hung open. The woman using all the self control she could summon to not allow it to slam shut on reflex. Her chest heaved in excruciating spasms that she feared would overwhelm her. She remained on the hard surface of whatever place she was and waited for the fire in her body to hopefully settle to something bearable. She finally opened her eyes and the dark room, if she could even call it that, wasn't a place that she recognized. Dirty cement floors, moldy bare stone walls, water pooled in sections of the floor further away from her. An unnaturally cold draft swept across the room and assaulted her body without remorse. Every slight breeze that swept across her limps caused her skin to seize the young woman shivered harshly. The pain of involuntary movement shot through her muscles. Her body protested every vibration but she could do nothing but moan as the waves of pain ebbed and flowed with the merciless draft.

"Kurama are you there? Do you know where we are?" Naruto sighed when she was left with nothing but silence. It seemed like hours had passed. The body doing what it did best and the debilitating involuntary movements being less and less. Naruto spent her time on the floor testing her limps little by little. First her fingers, spreading and closing her open hand, then clenching her aggravated digits into a clumsy fist. Her noodle like arms finally finding their way from the ice like floor and when every breath she took didn't send tremors through her entire system she decided it was finally time to get off her flat prison. Naruto slowly took in a long deep breath and then attempted to roll onto her stomach. Her poor teeth ground together with every minute movement. Her actions as graceful as a tortoise turned on its shell. After much frustrated ministration the injured blond finally managed to crawl onto her hands and knees. She knew that standing without assistance was well outside of her current capabilities so the next hour was spent slowly dragging herself across the rooms brutal frozen tundra like a sleep deprived baby. When she finally reached the wall she happily granted her screaming muscles the break they'd been crying for. Naruto didn't realize how exhausted she was until her heavy lids decided for her that it was time to take a break. When the blond opened her eyes once more what little light she had was now completely gone. A slight glow could be seen from a small window directly above her head. Naruto once again assessed her body and was relieved that every movement no longer shot pain through her limbs but the fatigue she felt was like nothing she had ever experienced. She used the wall as a brace and stood shakily on bambi like legs. She went to use chakra climb the wall but to her utter disbelief, nothing happened. She could feel a storm brewing inside of her but had no access to it. Panic briefly surged within her but her battle hardened mind quickly settled and she decided to struggle through what she new was going to be a hard climb up the crates stacked along the wall. She climbed the crates on the wall for what felt like forever and finally pulled herself out of the window and away from the barren room. The unforgiving winter air assaulted her every sense but the blond trudged away from the window with determination. She stuck to the shadows away from prying eyes and finally "found" some clothing to cover herself with. She wrapped her feet in an old shirt and her body in a greatly over-sized shirt and tattered blanket. She wondered around what she assumed was Konoha's many alleys taking in the village that had been completely lost to her. The blond woman stared at the faces of people she didn't know, listened to the voices she could not recognize, breathed the air filled with scents that she hadn't smelt in years, and the emotional dam within her quickly filled to capacity and it took everything she had not to break down and cry in the alley of a street she could no longer identify.

She was truly back. This was really Konoha. She really did have a chance to save her home and the people that she loved so dearly. The people that she had failed so completely, so miserably. Naruto trudged past a broken full length mirror propped against a wall in the alley and abruptly halted her steps. The sudden stop causing her stomach to lurch forward and her hair to fall in front of her eyes. She shakily took her hand and gently swept the offending locks out of her line of sight and scanned the foreign face in the cracked glass and slowly traced her whiskered cheeks. Whiskers that she could barely identify under the disgustingly thick layer of filth caked to her face. She aggressively wiped at the surface of the mirror but the foreign body of an infant didn't disappear from the reflective glass before her. Naruto quickly pulled back her hand and stared at her unblinkingly. Her head felt like lead as she lifted it to meet the reflection once again. She reached out and hesitantly touched the small girl's likeness and could do nothing as her mind shut down at the realization. She was a child, not even a child, she was a toddler. Her eyes took in her head of matted, filthy brown hair, incredibly short stature, baby face, emaciated cheeks, and the hauntingly blue eyes of a woman that had seen too much too soon. Those were not the eyes of a child and she had no idea how she was going to get away with having them.

Naruto breathed in deeply and decided it was more important to find out what the date was before making any sort of plans. She followed her ears to the market and stayed in the shadows. She found a newspaper and gawked at the heading. She wasn't even two. Her birthday was still months away. There was much planning that needed to be done but she wanted to make sure that she was completely undisturbed, so she stole some food and extra clothing and disappeared into the forest of death. It took her multiple days but she finally made it to the central tower. The staggeringly long trek through the nostalgic forest allowed her body to heal further and once she finally reach the tower that brought a surge memories that she didn't want and currently didn't have the capacity to handle she found a room and took up residence there until she could pull a plan together.

Forst of Death Tower

In the following weeks, she hesitantly planned out her next few steps, her plan wasn't very detailed at the moment but it was enough for her to get started. Her first week in the tower was more mental than anything else. Her body was adjusting a lot slower than she was accustom to even though the initial pain that she experienced was gone random pain would still shoot through her body. Naruto learned quickly and rather painfully that patience was something she was going to have to take more into account. Her first attempt at using chakra was a complete failure. Her attempt at producing a simple fire jutsu to start a fire set her entire chakra network into a frenzy. Bolts of pain shot through her entire being and she collapsed to the floor. When she awoke again, the entire day was had been lost. The residual pain lasted for days and she had no clue as to what had happened. The second week she spend almost in constant meditation. Once she dove into herself the first time she realized that her chakra was "dormant" but instead of being pulled at her chakra core it was like her body had been flooded with chakra and then abruptly shut down. There was no flow just chakra on top of chakra in every extremity of her body. After careful deliberation and couple of failed attempts of discharging chakra from her body she decided to test out a theory. So she started to meditate like she did back in the academy when they were learned to unlock their chakra. And low and behold Naruto was right and when she unlocked her chakra it was like a dam had been broken and her body struggled to find balance. She spent her entire 3rd week trying to get her chakra to calm down. The feeling was like nothing she'd ever felt. It wasn't that she had horrible control over her chakra but that it felt so strong. A potency she just wasn't used to and needed further investigation. Naruto realized very quickly that she couldn't move forward until she had assessed her current abilities. She analyzed her chakra which felt completely different. She still needed to investigate more about the changes but she couldn't really tell as of yet since she was rushing. She knew she needed to be out of the forest by her birthday. She'd already wasted 2 weeks adjusting to her body and access her chakra. Her current plan consisted of adjusting to her new body. Her coordination was lacking due to her toddler body not having the muscle memory she was accustomed to. Something she would have to work on daily. She tested her chakra control and could already walk on walls so at least all was not lost. She had the capacity of a chunin currently, exceptional for an almost 2 year old. So Naruto did what she never had a chance to do before, she started on chakra control right away before her capacity became something she couldn't control. If she started now with her chunin reserves than she had the opportunity to have control like she'd never had a chance to have before. With her small body she quickly realized that until she developed more her old fighting style wasn't something she could use. She'd have to train in areas foreign to her in order to be battle ready earlier. So she was going to have to train in areas that used to be her weaknesses and make them her strengths which by the time she was older would make her more formidable. The two events that stood out the most to her were the Hyuuga Incident and the Uchiha Massacre. She had a year and four months before Hinata turned 3 and a bit more than 5 years before the massacre. Both time frames that she felt confident in working with at the moment. She needed to expand her capacity quickly so that she could again utilize the shadow clones jutsu. She knew a way to do it but wasn't looking forward to it because it was extremely painful. She needed access to the Uzumaki Clan house, vault and temple as well as access to her father's library and assets.

Random Alley

With her list of things to do and tentative plan in place Naruto left the forest of death so that she could be "discovered" by the Uchiha police force. She "collapsed" near the station and pulsed her chakra to alert a nearby patrol. A four man patrol investigated the chakra pulse and found a young girl shivering on the ground. Naruto was expecting reactions of disgust at "the filthy demon child" but surprising nothing she had every experienced happened. In fact, it was the exact opposite of her expectations. The group saw her tiny body and rushed down from the rooftops. The leader of the group gingerly picked Naruto up and has her head swept across is jonin vest, 3 distinct whisker marks appeared beneath the grime on her face. Recognition dawned in his coal black eyes and his head shot upward to meet the gazes of his subordinates.

"Takeo!" the man spoke quickly in a gravely tone. The young teen standing across from him stood at attention on reflex.

"Hai, Taicho." he responded automatically."

"Head to Hokage Tower and report immediately that the high alert missing child has been recovered within the walls and that I'm taking her to the hospital. Report that her condition is not good but non-life threatening." the orders barked out promptly in a tone that didn't allow any room for interpretation.

"You two head back to headquarters and deliver the same report to Fugaku-sama. Also include that I will be on stand by with the child until I'm relieved." After delivering his final orders the taicho didn't wait for a response and disappeared in a shun-shin. His subordinates doing the same already receiving their orders.

The taicho shun-shined to the hospital and appeared at the front desk. He had wrapped Naruto up in his cloak so the nurse couldn't see the state of the child he was holding. He told her that the child was just found and needed to be seen by a doctor to see if she was ok. The nurse tried to take the child from his arms but he refused and stated that she was in his care until he was relieved of his duty by order of the Hokage. The nurse backed away quickly when she heard the Hokage's title and rushed them back to a private room usually reserved for ninja and then left them quickly to get a doctor. The taicho contemplated about the baby in his arms but his thoughts were cut short when a doctor arrived.

The doctor rushed into the room, the nurse right behind him. "What happened?" asked the doctor as he motioned for the cloaked child to be placed on the bed. The taicho placed the child on the bed and unwrapped the cloak so the doctor could exam her while he reported.

"My team was on a routine patrol in a civilian residential district and felt a small chakra pulse. We back tracked and looked down into an alley and found the toddler unconscious on the ground. I picked her up to bring her to the hospital as protocol calls for but noticed that she was a high priority missing child that was reported from a couple of weeks ago." The taicho's report was crisp and his tone free of emotion even though his eyes hadn't left the toddler the entire time. The doctor nodded along during the report as he examined the fragile body on the body. Anger rising the longer he assessed her condition.

Naruto had put on the shirt that she had original used as shoes so the clothing was absolutely filthy. She made it a point not to bath for many days in preparation for being found so that the state of her body would be more believable. She obviously showed signs of severe malnourishment due to the circumstances she found herself in when she awoke in that basement. Even with the regular meals that she had been eating since her arrival such extreme malnourishment would take a great amount of time before improvement could be seen. She was simply skin and bones.

The doctor sucked in air when he removed the shirt and saw her rib cage. He tightly clenched the stethoscope in his hand before releasing the tension in his fist and ghosting the tiny ribcage with his finger tips. She was basically a breathing skeleton. He was deeply disturbed by what he was looking at during the examination.

The doctor slowly stepped back from the bed and turned to the nurse that was hovering anxiously behind him. "She's not in any immediate danger but she is still physically frail and in need of extended care. Take her to the washroom give her a through bath." The doctor sighed hollowly as he give his order and stepped to the side so she could approach the bed. The nurse went eyed when she finally got a clear look at the bundle that she had attempted to hold when the taicho first brought her in, but before she could grab the tiny blond the Hokage bursted into the examination room.

The doctor turned around quickly to reprimand the intruder but sputtered before swallowing his words. "Ho … Hokage-sama" the poor doctor greeted pitifully. The doctor was confused by the Hokage's presence until the captain who had brought the child there bent to his knee and bowed his head as soon as the Hokage appeared.

"Wha … what are you doing here, Hokage-sama?" The doctor hastily attempted to question the Hokage's presence. The Hokage ignored the doctor's question and briskly approached the bed to look at Naruto and was appalled by what he saw. He tried to keep his anger under control not straying his attention from the sickly toddler on the bed.

"Report." the Hokage robotically ordered the captain. The captain stayed kneeling and again explained where Naruto was found and the state that she was in since the doctor had just completed his initial exam. The Hokage clenched his fists as he listened to the report. Once the captain completed his report he waited silently for the Hokage's reply. The Hokage took a slow deep breath before even attempting to speak. "Thank you taicho for your quick response. Report to my office tomorrow morning for a more detailed debriefing." The absence of emotion and the intense atmosphere in the small room was all the invitation the taicho needed to hastily leave the suffocating space.

Once the captain left the room the Hokage bent down to the bed and pulled the black cloak that laid no the edge of the bed and gently pulled it to cover the vulnerable little girl. He turned to the doctor and made eye contact before he spoke again. "Is there an if there anything that should be elaborated on from the captain's report?"

"No Hokage-sama, as the taicho reported, she is severely malnourished but stable. I need to do more testing to see the true extent of the damage but there were no wounds to be found on the girl and she is only in a poor physical state." The doctor softly reported. "I was going to have the nurse bath the child so that I could better exam her, if that is ok with you Hokage-sama?" The doctor waited tensely for a reply.

"This child is of great importance. The utmost care should be used while she is in your care." The Hokage slowly spoke as he turned back to the small child in the bed.

"What is the child's name Hokage-sama? She needs to be properly admitted." The doctor inquired quietly. The tenseness of the room crawling over him like ants.

"She is to admitted under the Sarutobi name and no other questions should be asked about her identity." The Hokage ordered promptly as he turned to look at the doctor. The fire in his eyes killing any attempt at an argument to the contrary. An ANBU appeared kneeling next to the Hokage as the doctor turned to leave the room.

"This ANBU will watch over the room at all times and once the child has been clean and stabilized I am to be informed immediately." The Hokage ordered coldly. The doctor halted his steps before nodding shakily.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Nurse bath her and let me know as soon as you are done." The doctor said his peace and left the room as fast as his feet would care him. The nurse looked pleadingly at the imposing figure that the aged Hokage made and hesitated to move any closer to the child. Seeing this the Hokage let out a pained sigh and looked at the child once more.

"Take good care of her." The Hokage stated solemnly and left in a shun-shin before the nurse could reply.

Hokage's Office

The Hokage returned to his office completely pissed off and abruptly released his killing intent for a second before completely cutting it back off. Ninja around the village felt the spike of killing intent and went on alert. ANBU quickly appeared in the Hokage's office only to find him sitting at his desk with his back to the door quietly looking out the window. One ANBU slowly approached their leader.

"Is everything ok, Hokage-sama?" The ANBU, Rabbit, asked while standing in front of his leader's desk. Other ANBU appeared in the room on alert waiting for orders. The Hokage released a slow long sigh and turned his chair slowly around to face the ANBU. They all dropped to a knee. He raised a hand to halt them from kneeling but it was already too late so he softly dropped his hand to the desk.

"Our top priority missing child has been found. Call back all operatives that are currently still out looking for her but ensure that all of them stay silent about the status of the situation until told otherwise." The Hokage ordered coldly. The ANBU left the office and Shikaku entered right after them. He immediately noticed that something was wrong and stood in front of the desk at attention, which was very much not like him, waited for his Hokage to acknowledge him. The Hokage spoke as if talking to himself, not looking at Shikaku but instead standing from the large leather chair and turning to again look out the large window.

"The more time that passes the more I feel that I've made a grand mistake" silence continued between the two men until the Hokage finally turned around and faced his visitor and said very softly but filled with many emotions that Shikaku couldn't immediately place "They have found the child" Shikaku's eyes widened quickly and then his face turned stoney.

"Where? … When? … What is the child's condition?" Shikaku asked the Hokage in a stern tone, having already assumed the worse since he'd guessed that the spike in killing intent was due to something involving the child and it must have been incredibly bad for the Hokage to lose control like that.

"As of right now she is being held in a secured private room in the hospital, but I'll be moving her to a more secure location once the doctor has finished a complete assessment of her condition. She is … stable but unconscious, severely malnourished and not due to the fact that she has been missing for so long. The extent of her malnourishment is being assessed right now but from what I saw this has been going on for many many many months possibly longer than a year. I've only ever seen a child look like that during my younger years when I watched children young like myself starving due to the winter and war. I've seen it on myself, how long it takes for the body to waste away and nothing but skin and bones are there held together by your own sheer will. And I can't for the life understand how such a thing has happened within these walls, in my village …. right under my own nose." The Hokage dictated in tone withered with self hate, shame, unbridled anger, and unease. Shikaku could feel the Hokage's killing intent slowly start to rise again. The pressure in the room building and the weight pressing down on his shoulders and making his breathing more shallow.

"Someone or many people have been lying to me." The Hokage continued to speak. "The child in that bed is not the child I've been checking up on for these past months. That child is not the child, I've received reports on. That is not the child that I held in my arms so many times that I've lost count. And I want to know how this happened? Who planned it? When was it executed? And I want all those involved brought before me. Do you understand what I'm asking of you Shikaku?" The Hokage waited quietly not even looking at the man but Shikaku knew exactly what he was asking and understood that very soon somebody or many people were going to pay the ultimate price for such deception.

"I understand Hokage-sama. Shikaku bowed deeply and left his head down waiting for the man to release him so he could begin his investigation.

"You are dismissed. I'll summon you to see the child as soon as the doctor has been debriefed and I've moved her to a more secure location. You are dismissed."

Shikaku's Office

Shikaku quickly left the office and walked briskly to his own. As soon has he entered and closed the door he slid down the side of the door and breathed deeply trying to catch his own breath. He hadn't been that close to killing intent that potent for such a long time. In fact not since the war and even then the Hokage's killing intent was leagues stronger than most he'd experienced and it wasn't even directed towards him. "Troublesome" Shikaku complained to himself as he racked his mind on who to send where to start the investigation and then went about notifying everyone to meet in his office. When everyone arrived he quickly debriefed them on what they were investigating without giving away too many of the important details. They knew they were investigating an orphanage but they were to go in undercover and also undetected to search the entire facility to see what all they could find out about anything that didn't look as it should be. As Shikaku was writing up some things to further look into about the investigation, an ANBU appeared and informed him that the Hokage had requested that he meet him at the hospital.

Naruto's Room

Naruto awakened from a much needed nap. She had been bathed by the nurse and then examined again by the doctor. She quickly realized that even after bathing her, the nurse and doctor didn't realize who she was. She assumed that even though people "knew" that "Naruto Uzumaki" was the container of the Kyuubi, they didn't know what she looked like since apparently she had been locked away in that basement for so long. Something that she didn't remember ever hearing about happening or had any memory of at all. She tried to meditate and enter her mindscape to question Kurama but couldn't get past some sort of barrier that was blocking her from reaching the space that she shared with her old friend. She became increasingly frustrated and left her mind. Her eyes fluttered open and immediately looked on to a set of eyes that she hadn't seen in many many years. She didn't say word and only stared blankly at the Hokage as Shikaku stood up against the wall near the door a bit out of sight quietly watching the exchange. The Hokage reached out to Naruto slowly and stopped quickly when tears started to fall from her eyes. He softly asked if she was ok and the tears fell even faster from her eyes but the girl didn't move. Naruto's mind was racing trying to figure out what she should do. Her earlier plan was completely escaping her when she needed it the most. She realized that she was crying but could do nothing to stop the tears. She opened her mouth to say something but the only thing that left her throat was a soft, slightly hoarse cry and the Hokage immediately moved forward and pulled the child from the bed and into his embrace. He gently seated himself in the chair next to the bed and placed the now hysterically crying girl in his lap and tried to comfort her by swaying his torso gently like a rocking chair and shushing her cries as he softly patted her back in a circle and repeatedly telling the small child that everything was ok and that she was safe now. As Naruto calmed down from her mental breakdown she decided it was better to not speak at all and just watch and gather what she could from the questions asked and the conversations that the adults were having around her. The Hokage thought that maybe Naruto was in shock and decided that instant that she was to be held at his compound until at least the investigation was completed and a safe, more permanent arrangement could be made for her.

"Shikaku" The Hokage spoke softly as to not startle the finally calming child in his arms. The man in questions said nothing. He simply stepped out of the shadow of the wall and made himself visible to his leader.

"I'm going to house her at my compound." The Hokage started explaining. Shock must have shown somewhere on Shikaku's face because the Hokage paused patting the child's had and lifted his hand in a wait a moment motion before continuing the comforting ministration. "At least until the completion of the investigation. I want to know exactly where she is until I know who's behind this. Then we can place her somewhere more permanent." The Hokage finished and Shikaku seemed satisfied with that plan. Naruto was surprised hearing the Hokage tell Shikaku of his plans but laid still in his embrace not letting on that she was listening to the conversation.

Shikaku was visibly disturbed by what he'd witnessed. "Inoichi should be brought in to do a psychiatric evaluation on the child whenever you feel that she is up to it, Hokage-sama."

"I agree. Thank you for the suggestion, Shikaku." The Hokage stated quietly. Sighing again as he thought to himself. He would have definitely overlooked that because he was so focused on protecting her from physical harm and insuring that whatever had been going on never had the chance to happen again.

"You should call the council for a meeting so that the formalities can be taken care of and inform them that the child had been found and is being cared for." Shikaku suggested lowly making sure that he didn't disturb the child himself.

The Hokage tensed slightly upon hearing the statement. "I'm against holding any sort of meeting until after the investigation." Before Shikaku could chime in he quickly continued speaking. "Because informing them may hinder the investigation." the Hokage sighed. Shikaku's eyes widened at the insinuation. Not that he hadn't thought of it himself but it thinking of possibilities and hearing those possibilities come from the Hokage himself were two completely different things. "The fact is that I have been tricked. And the only way that is possible is if someone with power has pulling some strings and I want to follow whatever trail that presents itself as far as it will go."

Shikaku was shocked that the Hokage was willing to take this fight to the top but was very happy about the decision but didn't voice his opinion on it. He simply agreed and left to inform Inoichi. Since he was going to have to speak to him anyways since whomever they brought in would be interrogated by him and Inoichi only since they wanted as few people involved in this as possible. Basically two birds with one stone, which was perfectly fine with the shaken Nara. Less for work for him anyway. He trudged out of the hospital rather than shun-shining to his destination. He need the extra time to think through what all his recent conversation meant.

The Hokage held Naruto and rocked her a bit longer after Shikaku left the room. The rhythmic motions lulling Naruto to sleep. It had been too long since she had felt so safe. When the tiny snore left the little body in his arms he looked gently at the thin face resting ask his shoulder and took in what felt like his hundredth deep breath. He gently rose from the chair and placed the frail girl in the bed and covered her securely in the plain white blankets. He hovered above her shortly and then turned to leave for his office. He hesitated at the door and turned to look at her once more. The moon shining slightly through the crack in the curtain shining on her overly pale skin. He clenched the door frame with is fingers almost causing the wood to splinter under the pressure. He released his grip and started his walk to the tower once more. He could only wait for the investigation to be completed and then retribution would rain down like fire from the sky. He had already decided when he saw the tears pouring from her eyes. No quarter would be given. No one would be forgiven. Anyone involved would pay fulling until he was completely satisfied and he would personally be there to see them take their last agony filled breath.

Chapter End

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter.

This is one I've had on my mind for a long time