"The Hokage will see you." The vanilla Anbu pushes the door open and steps aside. It behind me with a quiet, ominous click as I walk in.
The old man is there behind his desk, as always, Hokage robes and hat donned and pipe within arm's reach. Except now his expression is flat, serious. The old man I know and love doesn't exist right now.
Alright Uzumaki, go time.
"Old man," I say with a respectful nod.
Wait. Damn. That didn't sound like Hokage-sama at all.
"Naruto," he replies with a nod of his own. Alright, that's enough screw ups for one life-altering meeting. Time to shut up.
"Have you seen your Academy results yet?" He asks.
"Yes, sir." Better.
The Sandaime quirks an eyebrow but continues nonetheless. "So you know that you've passed the Academy with first place marks in all of your relevant shinobi arts, just as you promised you would. Very impressive, I must say," he compliments. I grin, just a little. "However, there is still one more thing I require of you before I can declare you a shinobi of Konoha."
He steeples his fingers, Hokage hat casting eerie shadows over his features. "Do you have an answer for me, Naruto?" I slowly nod. "Let's hear it then."
I rock back on the balls of my feet, close my eyes, and focus on the flow of my chakra. Instantly the giddy, weightless feeling pools in my stomach. It calms the nerves that have been eating at me for months, if only for a moment. I open my eyes.
"My goal as a shinobi," I begin. "Is to become Hokage." The Sandaime's eyes narrow, but I soldier on, Sasuke's words echoing in my head.
"I want to become strong. Stronger than you, stronger than the Yondaime, stronger than anybody! I want to show the world that even a defective orphan can be a Kage.
"And, and, I want to learn what you see in Konoha. I want to learn what it is about Konoha that inspired the Hokage to do what they did. I want to make it my own, and to become stronger because of it. I want to understand!"
"How do you intend to do this?" He asks softly. My hands clench into fists.
"I... don't know," I finally admit. The words burn like a malformed katon jutsu in my throat, leaving behind an ugly taste in my mouth. "But I will soon, I swear!" I promise, fighting to keep the desperation out of my voice.
"Do you truly believe you can do these things?" He asks, not unkindly. "Not just any shinobi can become a Kage, after all."
"I do," I hastily assure him. "I know I'm not strong enough now. I don't know enough about my chakra yet or about the shinobi arts or any of that stuff, but I can learn. I know I can. I'll work harder, I'll put more time in at the training grounds, I'll-"
"I'm going to hold you to that, Naruto," The Sandaime interrupts, reaching behind his desk and pulling out a Konoha headband and a scroll the size of my forearm. I don't even dare breath. "I believe this is yours," he says. He offers me the headband with crinkled eyes.
"Just like that?"
"Were you expecting more?" He asks in amusement. I shrug uncomfortably.
"I... guess so." Before the words are even out of my mouth I want to take them back. I am literally being offered a Konoha headband and I'm standing here questioning it? I really must be as stupid as Sasuke keeps saying.
The Sandaime taps a finger on his desk, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Have a seat, Naruto. I think it's time I told you a story about my students." I blink in surprise, but quickly sit down nonetheless.
I've heard the stories of the famous Sannin before- or infamous depending on which you were referring to. Everyone has. But hearing it from their sensei himself would be another matter entirely.
"The day of their graduation, after they'd passed my test, I presented my Team 7 with an offer. An offer of knowledge. I offered to teach them of Konoha's history, of the details of its founding, its victories and its defeats, all of the things that the Academy didn't have time to cover in those days.
I offered to teach them of the softer shinobi arts, of politics and music and much, much more. I offered them everything I knew." The Sandaime leans back in his chair, staring at a point above my head.
"Orochimaru was the Rookie of the Year, and a perfect example of what a shinobi should be. Quiet, cunning, and capable of picking up anything taught to him almost unbelievably quickly. Anything related to Ninjutsu, that is." A sad smile tugs at the Sandaime's mouth. "He decided before I'd finished my sentence that it would be a waste of his time.
"Tsunade was much more polite about it. A studious girl, to be sure, with a truly ridiculous amount of control over her chakra. She had a fair share of appreciation for Konoha's history, but it wasn't difficult to see that her grandfathers and my predecessors had already filled her head with enough of it to last her a lifetime.
As far as she was concerned, she'd heard it all. So she refused me, citing the myriad of responsibilities that she had to tend to after our training, and how very sorry she was."
He chuckles. Reaching out, the Sandaime grabs his pipe and lights it with a snap of his fingers, a casual display of controlled elemental manipulation that I'm not afraid to admit to being jealous of. He takes a drag, exhaling the smoke in a steady stream toward the ceiling.
"When all was said and done, Jiraiya was the only one to stay behind. A dead last, a braggart, and a bit of a pervert, he was the only one to see any worth in the knowledge I had to offer. So every day after team training the two of us would sit down in front of the memorial stone and I'd tell him about Konoha and her past.
"Some days I'd tell him the story behind a name engraved on the stone, others I'd tell him about the first great shinobi war, and at times I told him about both.
I told him about the village's politics, of the politics all the Kage dealt with, even the politics surrounding the Daimyo. One day Jiraiya came to me with a question, and then another question, and then another after that.
He never feared looking foolish in front of me, and soon our one sided lectures evolved into spirited debates. Looking back on it now, I don't think I've ever been so pleased with any of my students before." The Sandaime smiles ruefully. A lazy tendril of smoke drifts out of his upturned lips.
"Despite that, he never did surpass Orochimaru in my eyes. He was a delightful student, to be sure, and a pleasure to trade thoughts with, but I don't think I ever considered him to be a rival to either of his teammates in shinobi terms. Not until they'd all grown up and their true selves had shown through." The old man nods gravely at my surprised look. "Indeed. It says something, doesn't it?
"Tsunade, a revolutionary medic and frighteningly strong kunoichi in her own right, grew hateful and bitter towards Konoha when her brother and the man she loved died. The Shodai and Nidaime's waxings were little more than a distant memory in the back of her mind.
She came to me in a tearful rage and told me she was leaving and never coming back, and all I could do was sign the papers and watch her walk out of the gates, never to return. She was an amazing student and an even more amazing woman, and it hurt more than I can put into words to see her go.
"Orochimaru, the one I saw unending potential in and held a similarly unending pride for, grew cold and monstrous in his pursuit of power. When the time came for me to retire I couldn't even consider making him Hokage. When I refused him, whatever might have remained of his affections towards Konoha died.
He began to steal Konoha's citizens away from their homes and perform inhuman experiments on them, in search of immortality of all things." The Sandaime grimaces. "It saddens me to this day to say that I was not surprised when I discovered all that he'd done." He places his pipe down on the table and sighs.
"And then comes Jiraiya, my faithful dead last." The old man shakes his head. "He took my knowledge and he made it his own, took my love for Konoha and did the same. Took the jokes and barbs from his teammates and made them his strength. He rose high in both rank and esteem, leading many a battle in both the second and the third great shinobi wars.
"Then he traveled far and wide across the Elemental Nations and beyond, his thirst for knowledge guiding him. Along the way he made friends, almost as many friends as there are shinobi in this village. And through these friends he formed the most powerful spy network Konoha has ever had the pleasure of knowing.
"He fought tooth and nail for every last jutsu and political alliance and never once faltered where his teammates fell, and he proved my fool self wrong. He became one of the greatest shinobi Konoha had ever seen; a spymaster and a war leader and a hero."
The Sandaime falls silent. I sink back in my stiff chair, attempting to absorb his words. My anxiety is long forgotten as I stare at the Sandaime, and it occurs to me that I shouldn't know this. That I don't deserve this knowledge, so personal and visibly painful to the old man across from me.
"Why are you telling me this?" I manage to ask.
"Because I want you to realize something, Naruto," he says intently. "I want you to realize that it isn't power and knowledge that makes a great shinobi. Orochimaru and Tsunade both had more than enough of that, and it did little for them in the end.
"It's the desire to improve yourself in all areas, not just those that suit you. The ability to set aside pride in yourself in exchange for personal betterment. Being able to embrace what is right, and not necessarily what is easy. That is what makes a shinobi great.
You don't have the strength or the knowledge that the Kage do, or even some of your peers. But you have the desire and the determination to learn." Reaching across his desk, the Sandaime grabs my hand and places the headband in it. "And that more than qualifies you to serve as a shinobi of Konoha."
For once in my life I can't think of a witty remark. "I- Thanks, old man."
"I assure you, it's my pleasure. And your scroll," he holds it out. Quickly tying the headband around my forehead, I snatch the scroll up, cradling it protectively under one arm. He grins. "I'm very proud of you Naruto. If you continue on the path you're on now, I have no doubt that when the day comes I'll be passing this hat on to you."
Freaking dust in my eyes. I swipe at them quickly, smiling brightly.
"Thanks. That means a lot."
"Now, I believe you have a team to meet with," The old man declares, rummaging through the papers on his desk before finally pulling one from the pile.
"You've been selected by Hatake Kakashi and your teammates will be Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Best not keep them waiting." The door creaks open, courtesy of the Anbu guarding the door. "I'll see you soon, Naruto."
The walk out of the Hokage Tower is spent in a hazy sort of awareness. I caress the smooth steel of my headband the whole way down the steps, tracing the engraved leaf. The weight of it feels right, like it belongs there on my forehead. Like I've just regained a part of myself I've been missing for a long, long time.
So Sasuke was right about the teams after all. Somehow that doesn't dismay me as much it usually would. I'm too giddy. Too excited to start my career as a shinobi.
Now which one was Sakura again?
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