Chapter 19: Grandson
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Naruto sat the Hokage Residence, right in front of Hiruzen. He had his eyes stuck on Hiruzen like a hawk and observed his every movement with such accuracy.
"You know what you did Naruto?" Asked Hiruzen, walking back and forth in a very tired way. He had a facial expression that had much indifference in it. Naruto shook his head as a response.
"No, Hokage-sama. I do not know what I did," said Naruto, looking right towards Hiruzen with his sharp and dangerous azure eyes. Hiruzen glanced back at Naruto with a sigh.
"You managed to take down a chunin-level traitor that was about to get away with the Forbidden Scroll." Naruto nodded, though a bit confused at what Hiruzen was saying.
"Mizuki wasn't very strong for a chunin," said Naruto, blurting out something that some may interpret as just plain and old classic arrogance being said by Naruto himself.
"Hm, you may say that, but he is still indeed a chunin-rank opponent." Naruto still had a look of confusion plastered on his face.
"But I don't get it, he didn't seem all that strong to me. He is a chunin-level opponent, but he didn't show me any chunin-level capabilities." Hiruzen just chuckled at Naruto's words.
"Or maybe you were too strong and overwhelmed him with your power? Have you ever thought of that?" Hiruzen tried entertaining a new thought inside of Naruto's head.
"That doesn't change the fact that he was way too underwhelming when fighting him."
"Maybe or maybe not. But I do applaud you for your work on defeating Mizuki with. . . relative ease if you could say." Naruto nodded, slightly and lightly bowing towards Hiruzen, The Third Hokage.
"My pleasure, Hokage-sama," said Naruto, slowly turning around to walk to the door that was right behind him. Hiruzen watched as Naruto opened and closed the door as he went out of the room.
Once Naruto had left, Hiruzen gave out a heavy sigh.
God, I'm getting too old for this shit. Hiruzen thought, sitting down on the chair that was so used to sitting right down on. He looked up at the ceiling, contemplating about his current life.
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"Mission accomplished, Danzo-sama." Naruto now kneeled in front of Danzo now that he was at the ROOT Anbu HQ. He was pleased with Naruto's work as a ROOT member.
"Good. I was monitoring it all and saw that you made it seem like a coincidence that you ran into Mizuki." Naruto nodded, confirming what Danzo had seen or heard.
"I congratulate you on this mission, Naruto. I do have high hopes for you as one of the members of the ROOT Anbu." Naruto stayed silent, just listening to the praise that Danzo had given him. His eyes were faced down towards the ground.
"Though I do wonder, why didn't you kill Mizuki? Even though you had a choice, killing Mizuki would result in. . . protecting Konoha." Naruto did not tense or falter in any shape or form.
"The Hokage could have possibly be using his crystal ball to spy on the battle. If I were to take Mizuki's life, it would be raise suspicion and will get me into trouble. I was just trying not to take chances." Danzo hummed, nodding at Naruto's reason on why he didn't kill Mizuki.
"That brings up the question, what if Hiruzen let you off the hook for the death Mizuki?" Naruto didn't understand this question that he has just been asked by Danzo.
This question that he just asked is stupid. Naruto thought, already knowing what he had to say to make Danzo back- the fuck- off.
"No offense, Danzo. But if we were to add 'what if' to the sentence, we are talking about the probability of it happening and not it being guaranteed of happening. Every time I do something that could even remotely be considered 'bad', I'll lose trust that the Hokage has in me. So me being let off the hook is under 40 percent. Give or take." Danzo looked down at Naruto, narrowing his eyes at Naruto.
Teenage rebellion? Danzo questioned, his narrowed his piercing through Naruto's head. He indeed got him with this one.
"I guess. . . you are correct," said Danzo, agreeing to Naruto's problematic perception in life. Naruto stayed silent, getting a surge of smugness all throughout his body.
"You are excused for today, Naruto. I'll call you in once the time calls for it." Naruto nodded, quickly disappearing in a swirl of leaves that replaced his entire body.
What exactly are you up to?
~~~
It was the next day and they had a day off. The reasons were quite obvious to an extent. The jonin-senseis were being picked for them all during these few days off.
I have to get stronger much more quickly. Naruto thought, thinking about his current progress as a ninja. He was considered a prodigy in his generation alongside Satsuki; whom was weaker than him.
I need to get much stronger in a short amount of time. Is my training not enough? Yes, my training is most definitely not enough. If I want to defeat Obito, I'll need to be exceptionally strong to match him. Naruto thought, walking through the broad daylight.
But what do I need to get stronger? Naruto pondered, walking through Konoha with his hands in his pockets. As he continued to walk through the empty parts of Konoha, he started to notice something.
No, he started hearing something.
Naruto turned around and saw a square box that was supposed to be resembling a rock. Naruto shook his head, continuing his walk and ignoring the plain and pathetic disguise that was following him.
After quite some time, Naruto sighed, turning back around and seeing the rock box abruptly stop in its tracks. Naruto slowly walked towards it. "What do you want?" Asked Naruto, bringing up his feet and kicking the terrible disguise away in an instant.
"Wow! You're the real deal!" A kid with a long-blue scarf and a weirdly shaped he helmet that was gray/gray. There was slight hair appearing right out of the helmet.
"What do you want? Answer." Naruto had his eyes gazing right towards the kid. He just giggled in response.
"My name is Sarutobi Konohamaru! And I will be your new apprentice as of today!" Shouted Konohamaru, pointing his index finger towards Naruto's face.
"Pass. Go to the sensei that you've already been assigned." Naruto turned around and continued to walk away. He pushed his hands towards his pockets once more as he walked away from the kid.
"Hey! Ebisu-sensei is a joke! He doesn't teach me anything! I want to be Hokage and take the hat from my grandfather!" Naruto sighed, looking back towards Konohamaru.
"It doesn't matter, you already have a sensei. I'm only a genin and don't have a knack for teach people; kids too." Konohamaru grumbled rushing right beside Naruto.
"Come on! I don't even know why Ebisu-sensei is a jonin! He doesn't even do cool things." Naruto ignored him for a few seconds before he finally decided to talk to Konohamaru.
"I don't think you understand, Ebisu is a special jonin. He only specializes in one certain aspect and that is teaching people. Be grateful that you even have a teacher." Naruto continued to walk away in silence, leaving a pouting Konohamaru in the making.
~~~
Naruto dodged a punch from Satsuki. He then used his forearm to block a kick that was sent his way. "You're getting better," commented Naruto, jumping in the air and around Satsuki.
"Hn, it's expected." Satsuki watched as Naruto threw a kick while in mid-air. She reacted quickly, doing a kick of her own to block the kick that Naruto had sent towards her.
Naruto landed on the ground.
Without much hesitation, Naruto gained momentum and slid through Satsuki's legs. She abruptly stopped, gaining a whole load of red and pink all over her face.
"Pervert!" Yelled Satsuki, angrily glaring at Naruto as she closed her thighs. Naruto got up and regained his balance, glancing at Satsuki with a raised eyebrow.
"You misunderstand, I didn't even look up at all. You're also wearing a pair of pants and not a skirt. Your claim of me being a pervert is not valid at all. Just drop it. I win." Naruto dropped down to the ground, looking up to the sky.
"Tch, whatever. I'm out of your league anyway." Naruto shrugged, raising his eyebrow once more. "I thought you said you didn't care about looks? Your chances of dating Yu lowered." Naruto looked up towards the sky.
He heard a loud growl from Satsuki. "The hell did you say?!" Satsuki yelled, making her way towards Naruto in a very angry manner. Oh, Naruto said something wrong.
"What did I do?" Naruto asked, seemingly confused at what he could have possibly done to piss Satsuki off. "You know what you said! There's no way I'm ever dating him in my lifetime!" Satsuki grabbed Naruto's front part of his shirt and rocked him back and forth.
Naruto's head was bobbing at a ridiculous rate.
"How will you rebuild the clan then? If you date no one then there will be no clan being so-called 'rebuilt'." Satsuki looked at Naruto. She couldn't believe how weird Naruto looks.
No not his good-looking face, his facial expression.
It was just so. . . blank.
"I'll find someone, idiot." Satsuki growled at him, angry at Naruto's emotionless antics. He shrugged his shoulders, pointing towards the side of them. Satsuki looked towards where Naruto was pointing at and saw something weird.
"Who uses a square box-rock as a disguise?"
Naruto sighed, already knowing who the person is. "Konohamaru. You can stop using the disguise now." As soon as that was heard, the terrible disguise was suddenly thrown away.
"What's up sensei!" Shouted Konohamaru, grinning from ear-to-ear as he walked towards the two. Satsuki looked towards Naruto, an eyebrow raised right at him.
"You have a student now? Loser." Naruto shook his at her, disappointed at her comment. "He's not my student, he's begging me for him to be my student." Satsuki scoffed, looking down at Konohamaru.
"He looks like a bratty twerp."
"Hey! I'm not a twerp!" Yelled Konohamaru, glaring at Satsuki with fiery rage. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Konohamaru gritted hs teeth, disliking Satsuki's words directed at hm.
"What do you want? You should be with Ebisu or something." Konohamaru looked back at Naruto, his index finger pointing right towards Naruto. "I want you to be my sensei!" Announced Konohamaru, getting a disappointed sigh from Satsuki.
"Why?"
"It's because you're the Rookie of the Year." Satsuki did a slight cough to get their attention directed to her. "I was the Rookie of the Year also." Oh, she was at the brink of losing her cool once more.
"Hah! Your girlfriend is weird, sensei!"
Satsuki stopped for a second, her glare intensifying to a terrifying degree that made Konohamaru gulp in fear. "What the hell did you say?" Yelled Satsuki, marching over towards Konohamaru with intent to tear his head apart.
"Relax, Satsuki. I don't know why you're getting all defensive about it when you know it isn't true." Naruto placed his hand right on Satsuki's shoulder trying to calm her down. Oh, yeah, she definitely has to work on her cool.
Satsuki looked back at Naruto, annoyed at him for stopping her. Naruto raised an eyebrow towards her.
"Why is your face pink/red? Are you potentially sick? Do you have a fever? No, you don't usually get fevers since you're quite the healthy person. Though this might be a rare case." Naruto was puzzled, not knowing why Satsuki was so flustered.
"Hey! Can I be your apprentice?" Konohamaru tugged Naruto's shirt down. He looked down towards Konohamaru and raised an eyebrow. Naruto shook his head at Konohamaru.
"Why not?"
"Come back and ask me after you trained for at least 300 years. I'll consider doing it." Konohamaru huffed in annoyance, "I would be dead by then!" Naruto nodded at those words.
"Exactly."
"Come on! You're not fair at all."
"Look, Ebisu is here." Naruto pointed behind him, making Konohamaru look back and see a man with glasses. Konohamaru groaned, not wanting to be trained by Ebisu at all.
"There you are! What are you doing?"
"I'm going to be trained by some great and awesome dude like this person!" Konohamaru pointed towards Naruto. Ebisu placed two fingers on his glasses, pushing it up.
The two Rookies of the Year? Are they training together? It seems so. And it also seems like Konohamaru has interrupted their training session. Ebisu thought, walking towards Konohamaru.
"Come here, Honorable grandson. With my guidance and power, I'll show you the shortcut to becoming the Fifth Hokage." Naruto and Satsuki noted that Ebisu was quite the calm man.
"No way! You're absolutely lame!"
"I'm a special jonin that has lived quite the long life. I know the ins and outs better than the back of my hand." Konohamaru suddenly became confused at the meaning of the sentence.
"Now, let's go, Honorable Grandson. Like I said, I'll show you the shortcut on becoming the Fifth Hokage." Ebisu took Konohamaru's hand and slowly dragged him away. Naruto gained a puzzle look at what he had just repeated once again.
"There's absolutely no shortcut on becoming Hokage."
Ebisu turned around, Konohamaru following what he did and turned his head around also. "What did you say?" Asked Ebisu, once again adjusting his glasses b pushing it up.
"I said that there is no shortcut on becoming Hokage." Ebisu gazed at Naruto, eyes slightly narrowed. "Oh, yeah? What do you perhaps mean by that?" Challenged Ebisu, his gaze intensifying to narrowing eyes.
"It's quite self-explanatory, but to go more in-depth I'll do an actual explanation." Naruto gazed right back at Ebisu.
"This matter is neither opinion or subjective based — there is no deception, lies on what I'm about to say. Only objective facts exist on what I'm about to say." Naruto pushed his hands into his pockets.
"Just like how getting stronger takes time, it also takes time to become Hokage. Saying that there is a shortcut when talking about something in that caliber of topic is misleading."
"There is a reason why there has only been 4 Hokages total throughout the history of Konoha — they worked hard for their goal. It doesn't matter if they were considered prodigious in terms of shinobi abilities, they managed to work hard and become Hokage." Naruto looked at Konohamaru.
"I see it in you, Konohamaru. You don't like how you are treated like a royalty since you don't act like one. And your goal must be to become Hokage to get acknowledgement that you are your own person and not just the grandson of the current Hokage." Konohamaru widened his eyes at Naruto.
"How did you know tha-!" Naruto cut him off almost immediately.
"But hear this, there is a pattern that is quite noticeable throughout all the 4 Hokages that have served Konoha — they all have been acknowledged by the entire village beforehand." Konohamaru gained a puzzled look.
"The Hokage is not picked because of their brute strength and abilities. They need to have leadership and not just very powerful. The Daimyo is in charge of picking the Hokage of Konoha. Though there are numerous candidates that are chosen, the Daimyo needs to get persuaded by others to choose one person over the other for good reasons."
"This also means they need to be acknowledged too. If they are not acknowledged by the village, then the chances of them listening to the person will slim to none. Though you are probably not going to be chosen to become Hokage if you don't have acknowledgement from the village." Naruto finally finished his very brilliant speech.
He seems to be very intelligent. That intelligence and perception might even overshadow his own powers as a prodigious shinobi. Thought Ebisu, gazing at Naruto with his eyes.
"Well said, Naruto. Well said. I do agree with your words that you have said. And to show my understanding of the speech you have just said from your heart, I shall let you be the second sensei of the Honorable Grandson." Naruto stood there. . . frozen at those words.
It took some time for Naruto to process what he had just announced.
"What?"
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