***
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the professor, recognized as one of the most powerful people in the elemental continent, trainer of a team of S-ranks and leader of Konohagakure was, currently … busy with paperwork …
It was a complicated and wasteful arrangement for a ninja as powerful as a Kage to be stuck looking over papers … but it was also a necessity …
Kages were the 'show piece', the ‘strength’ and ‘face,’ of a ninja village … sure, a village might have stronger ninjas than its Kage, it wasn't even uncommon … but a Kage needed to be someone ‘famous’ … A village needed a powerhouse at the helm for the simple ‘face’ and ‘reputation’ it gives …
For Daimios, Nobles and rich merchants, they weren't talking with a simple lawyer or accountant … They were making deals with a man capable of decimating a city … They were dealing with an army of a single person … That … That made them hand out the coin, the prestige …
But most importantly … this also made sure the ‘competition’ didn't have any funny ideas …
A hidden village couldn't ever be without the security offered by a Kage and its strong ninja …
Clan heads, jounin trainers, Heads of departments …
Out of the thousands of ninja Konohagakure employed, the village itself could never be caught without at least a quarter of its power being present … and most of that power had to be in the form of powerhouses such as Hiruzen himself …
Everytime Hiruzen ever thought of leaving, a single thought came to his mind … What if they send a S-rank inside the village as soon as he leaves ? …
Konoha’s seal work was the best out of the villages, its barriers sturdier, its sensor seals peerless … but it was a dying art … Seal masters were a rare breed and the villages were the last place on the list of where those people go … The fact that Jiraya stayed with Konoha out of loyalty was a miracle …
But what scared Hiruzen was the simple fact that destruction could arrive in a blink of an eye …
If Hiruzen decided to rampage in those streets ? … How long would he have with no opposition ? … One minute ? Two ? … That was more than enough time to level an entire district and leave …
The losses would be crippling …
Hiruzen still remembers the moments he had to order such a thing himself … to make use of konoha's powerhouses to wreak havoc in moments, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake … all in a bid to cripple its enemies during their wars …
With a heavy sigh, Hiruzen got back to the papers … Konoha's overall appeal to the Daimios of the land of fire was dwindling … non-affiliated mercenary companies were on the rise once more and they were being backed by some wealthy names … they were offering their services for cheap and cutting Konoha's business … It might be time for another chunin exam soon … Konoha's strength was still crippled by the Kyuubi and the Daimios were taking the opportunity to cut on the bis with their own forces …
[Hiruzen] - Nobles … -
Hiruzen muttered, managing the constant bickering of nobility while his village lacked strength was a headache … Demands for concessions in their contracts were already flooding his table and there was only so much pressure Hiruzen could apply before having to fold … He just would have to choose carefully, which ones to keep supporting and which ones to call the bluff …
Konoha couldn't afford another estate war at the moment, the other villages would pounce at the opportunity to nab the contracts for themselves …
Hiruzen would have to carefully pull out his ninjas and endure … the next generation was already blooming with talents and the incentives for child bearing families were already bearing fruit, the next generation was booming with numbers even as Konoha's coffers bled …
***
Konoha has a wealth of powerhouses and so-called ‘loud ninjas’ … While the likes of Sakumo Hatake and even his son, young Kakashi were the hidden blade that killed cleanly … They were not truly feared, feared in battle sure … but not truly feared, they were not true deterrents …
Currently, Konoha hosted only a few of those and one the most recognizable ones was in the Hokage tower making a request that would be summarily denied for most ninjas …
***
[Maito Guy] - Hokage-sama, I humbly request permission and assistance with raising an apprentice … -
Maito Guy was kneeled with his head bashed into the ground … the man's expressiveness was excessive … but almost everything about him was …
***
Maito Guy … Konoha's Green Beast was one of the few deterrents Konoha had left in the wake of the Kyuubi …
The taijutsu master was quite literally a Green blur to most other ninjas … a Beast of destruction leaving broken bodies in his wake …
Ninjas below chunin were literally trampled by the Man … simply pushed out of the way with enough force to snap spines …
Hiruzen could only imagine what Guy looked like for his opponents … the green aura of the removed limiters and a snarling beast clad in steel plate moving faster than most could react to … A green blur that smashed to paste anyone too slow to move out of the way, breaking through any C rank barrier jutsu without breaking stride …
And now … with Konoha's finances already tight … Maito Guy was asking for Konoha's support in him raising a disciple …
***
[Hiruzen] - Guy-san, Konoha's finances are stretched tight at the moment, we can't afford the necessary resources to fast track an apprentice … -
Maito Guy bashed his head on the floor once more with enough force to make Hiruzen wince at the possible damage to the floor.
[Maito Guy] - I will cover the expenses out of pocket, I have full confidence in my apprentice’s future, his youth burns bright Hokage-sama … -
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Hiruzen could see the tears of genuine emotion running down over Guy’s face …
[Maito Guy] - My humbly request is for the permission to have a competent Med-nin over a long term contract … no taxes … -
The last part was said in barely a whisper, almost like an afterthought … but for Hiruzen’s trained ear it might as well have been another shout …
Hiruzen winced slightly … Med-nins were a rare breed … their services were constantly in high demand and the revenue that even an average Chunin med brought was higher than most Jounins … keeping one away from the roster long term …
Hiruzen was trying to come up with a way to turn this around when Yūgao came through the open window with a face that betrayed stress and annoyance but most importantly … she was carrying young Naruto on her back … a smiling young Naruto whose eyes were lively like Hiruzen had never seen before …
Before Yūgao could even bow and open her mouth to talk, Hiruzen was already standing up from his chair.
[Hiruzen] - Chunin Yūgao, report now … -
*** *** ***
Maito Guy was a passionate man, many may see him as simple-minded, but a stupid ninja, a Jounin does not make …
Maito knew that Hokage-sama would bow to his request, with some concessions, probably give him a team to train instead of his single apprentice … and that was fine, young Lee would blossom with friends to train with, and Guy knew that the Hokage would give him a team tailored for his strengths …
Guy felt at the edge of his awareness that a ninja was coming, he knew that Hokage-sama felt too … any ninja using the open window to the tower had better have a very good reason … it was for urgent news only after all …
When Guy saw Yūgao flying through the window with young Naruto on her back … a SMILING young Naruto on her back, Guy knew that his request was put on hold …
Having known about Konoha's charge and new odd prodigy, Guy hoped that he would not be requested to leave … it always pays to keep an eye out for the future ‘leaves’ of konoha's mighty Tree …
[Hiruzen] - … Report now -
Guy smiled as Hokage-sama allowed him to stay …
***
[Yūgao] - Yes Hokage-sama … All things went over the same over most of the day, young Naruto woke up, performed light workout, took a quick shower and ate a meal of mainly bread and cold cuts with milk … -
Yūgao scavenged her memory for the boring normal day to day of the boy at the start of her 12h shift …
[Yūgao] - … then, from 1000 to 1900 young Naruto was deep into a meditative state, 1905 he got up from his meditations and started performing stretches and light calisthenic exercises, nothing out of the ordinary … -
Yūgao made sure to include the ‘normancy’ of the situation, even though nine hours of meditation was long, it wasn't something that Naruto had never done …
[Yūgao] - … approximately thirty minutes later, Naruto removed all of his clothes and began prodding himself with chakra … that caught my attention and I focused my sensorial skills … -
Yūgao hoped to convey that she wasn't sleeping in her shift … she was paying a normal, recommended and safe amount of attention as soon as something out of the ordinary happened, she was already ready …
[Yūgao] - … moments later, young Naruto began performing Kata-less chakra usage, resulting in a heavy muscle spasm at which point I immediately sprinted to stop him with a shushin Kata … -
Yūgao took a brief moment to look up at her Hokage … receiving a small nod for her efforts …
[Yūgao] - … moments before my arrival, young Naruto was pushing out chakra beyond the supposed limits for someone his age … -
Not that this would mean much … They were already used to young Naruto's penchant for pushing extremes without bothering with pain … They already tested him for any rare medical condition that might have made him numb to pain, but all results showed that he felt it, it just didn't affect him like it should …
[Yūgao] - … seeing the problem, I struck his navel to disrupt whatever was happening and began the process of treating any possible injuries he might have from the spasms … -
Yūgao gave a small pause to list the injuries she encountered … they were on the light side overall, just normal injuries from overtraining …
[Yūgao] - … the heaviest injury sustained was a torn muscle in the arm, everything else was normal injuries from overtraining … microfractures all over his skeleton and some ruptured capillaries … With the Mystic Palm treatment and Naruto's own accelerated healing, his injuries were a non-factor in quick order … -
Yūgao gave a small pause as she wasn't sure how to approach the next part …
[Yūgao] - During my treatment, I noticed that young Naruto's demeanor changed, to my surprise I didn't quite hear what Naruto said to me, so I asked him to repeat himself … that's when he asked to be called Jay and made a joke about where my hands were as I was treating him … I … wasn't quite sure how to deal with this development so I immediately rushed here with him … -
***
As Yūgao was starting her report, Jay let his mind wander over everything so far …
Jay was well aware that during the initial periods of a shell's life, his ‘auto-pilot’ acted like a machine, it was a bit of a risky maneuver but dealing with the problems of a ‘baby-brain’ trying to process the fullness of his conscience wasn't any fun … like trying to run a Modern game into really old hardware … you technically could … if you lowered the graphics and framerate until the game wasn't playable …
And while that could push the body to adapt faster and let Jay start doing his thing sooner …
It was dreadfully boring … the solution Jay arrived at was simple … just run a simplified ‘consciousness’ a ‘Jay-little’ if you will, and let it collect information and learn until the shell developed enough to sustain the full consciousness with no problems.
Of course that came with its own set of problems, the shell was, most of the time, categorized as a savant of some kind, with hints of psychopathy that many times made his ‘parents’ concerned for their progeny …
While Jay respected it and generally tried to make a break as carefully as he could … he also didn't really like dealing with parental relationships, they generally didn't work out great, so ‘orphan’ was always a preference for Jay, the lack of starting resources only made the challenge more interesting …
Though this time, Jay was rolling high out of his mind …
‘Naruto’ was an orphan … but he was also a protected military asset that was being well taken care of … He also had inheritances that he would collect as soon as he was deemed responsible enough for them … From what Jay could gather his parents were V.I.Ps …
And to top it all off … Jay was in a militarized regime … children grew up soon and matured fast … better yet, ‘prodigies’ were relatively common and expected to have quirks …
Jay still couldn't believe his luck, his shell attracted almost no bad attention while it developed, Jay had resources at his disposal, his parentage gave him pull and his emotional changes were easily explainable by simply waving them away as a breakthrough in his understanding as a quirky genius … Jay could act normally and have his behavior be chalked up as ‘maturing’ …
Jay mentally shook his head before deciding to check up on how Sulky Foxy was doing …
[Jay] “ This feels almost too easy … What about you Foxy ? Still giving me the silent treatment ? I assure you, I am quite capable of multitasking my attention to annoy you into speaking, I know a vast collection of musics and I can sing way out of tune … “
Jay felt the Fox stir …
[Kurama] “ As if you are worthy of my name … “
Rolling his eyes, Jay gave a slightly malicious smile as he started to think about a music that survived eons unchanged due to its memetic nature …
[Jay] “ Neeeever gonna give you up, nEeeVer gonnA Let yoU downnn … “
Jay started singing way out of tune in his mind as he patiently waited for a good window in the conversation … When Yūgao finally reached almost the end of her report, Jay had his chance to give commentary on the situation with the proper comedic timing …
[Jay] - Sorry to interrupt Yūgao-san, but we didn't come here immediately, I had to put some clothes on first … -
Jay kept his placid and amused smile as the Hokage turned to look at him, Hiruzen's pipe was almost falling out of his mouth while Jay saw the green clad man in there with them doing his best to not laugh …
Jay could vaguely assume that he was the ‘Green Beast’ of konoha he read about …
***
Hiruzen almost couldn't believe his ears … Yūgao’s report lit a blaze of hope in his heart but listening to the boy himself make a JOKE at the end of it ? …
Hiruzen smiled, happy that Minato’s legacy was more than brilliance wrapped around a cold shell, the boy finally bloomed …
In his grandfatherly voice, Hiruzen turned to the boy.
[Hiruzen] - Naruto-kun, how did you even figure out how to do Katas ? -
Seeing an actual smile behind those eyes brought relief into Hiruzen's heart.
[Jay] - Well, chakra can ‘pull’ and ‘push’ things right ? Like wall-walking … So why not use it to push and pull the body as you are moving ? That would make you much stronger right ? Because now you have your chakra and your muscles doing the work … -
***
In Jay's mind Kurama roared and bashed the bars of his prison as the annoying music kept playing.
[Kurama] “I WILL KILL YOU, I WILL KILL YOU, STOP THIS SONG THIS INSTANT OR I SWEAR ON MY NAME, I KURAMA WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS AND EAT YOUR SOUL !! ”
The singing stopped.
[Jay] “Hi Kurama, nice to finally know you name, a pleasure to meet you … so, wanna finally talk about something or … ”
Kurama gritted his teeth in rage … but closed his eyes and turned, he wouldn't give the satisfaction …
[Jay] “ … A nap ? A nap it is then, good talk Kurama, have a nice sleep “
***
[Jay] - … But as I was focusing the chakra, I felt that every time I moved my body, the chakra’s ‘flow’ changed with my movements, I wanted to see which movements did what, so that's probably why Yūgao-san saw me spasming around, I was just mapping random movements to the chakra flow, the hands were especially effective at it, that's why ninjas use handseals for complex jutsus isn't it ? … I was trying to feel for the finer details so I guess I did end up using a bit too much chakra … in my defence, they are hard to feel using so little … Sorry about that … -
***
Hiruzen listened with rapt attention as young Naruto described the discovery of Handseals and Taijutsu Katas from simple observation and deduction … Though the boy's chakra control and his perception for his own chakra are incredibly developed …
[Hiruzen] - That's incredible my boy, but never mind that … you are very lively today, what happened ? -
[Jay] - I was thinking about things while meditating … I feel like I have to understand the things around me … I never understood why people were always smiling or talking all the time … But I noticed that my caretakers and some of my trainers were starting to look at me differently over the years because I wasn't acting right … So I started paying a bit more attention to how people interacted and how to do that … Today I feel like I kind of figured it out ? … I feel like I should mark this somehow … I don't know, It feels right you know ? Like a new me … But how do I become a new person ? … When I was thinking about it, it just hit me … -
Jay opened his arms and gave a bright smile like someone who just figured a puzzle and was happy to show it to their friends.
[Jay] - … Everyone knows ‘Naruto’, but I didn't choose to call myself Naruto … Can’t I just … change it ? It's just a name so … I like birds, the blue ones are nice so I asked Yūgao-san to call me Jay, as I feel like that's my new me … -
Jay nodded to himself, making sure to stuff his chest with pride and the look of a child that would NOT accept anything but ‘yes’ without a tantrum.
***
