FicWad

A/N: Hello once again to Chapter Three of Shifted Reality. I cant really think of anything to say now but be sure to check the AN at the end.

Chapter Three: Recovery

Over the next two weeks Konohagakure resembled a kicked ant pile more than a Hidden Village. The news started with the Nara and Aburame clans, both saying that Naruto had been nearly murdered in a completely unprovoked attack on his person. Of course, the other ninety percent of Konoha nearly went to war with itself over the attack. At the center of the debate were the six attackers. Most were parading them as heroes trying to rid Konoha of its cancer. The other faction, mainly the Naras and Aburames, with a few smaller entities like the Ichirakus and the Urahara Shop valiantly defended Naruto. The Hokage had to watch where he stepped very carefully, lest he push too hard and push himself right out of the Hokage's Tower.

At the Academy, very little got done for the first few days. Every student had a different account of what had happened, despite not one of them having better than third hand knowledge from Shikamaru and Shino. Still order was eventually established and life went on in the Academy.

Outside the Academy, things were not so simple, as the Hokage was experiencing firsthand the week after the attack. Sarutobi Hiruzen resisted the urge to stroke his throbbing temples, as that would be a sign of weakness, something that he could absolutely not afford to show in front of these people. Homura and Koharu used to be his teammates, but Danzo had always been a staunch opponent of his.

“Let me handle the situation Hokage-sama. I can easily make sure that the six men who attacked Uzumaki-san will never be heard from again.”

“No Danzo. Right now, the last thing we need is for the criminals in question to just vanish overnight. We just have to wait for the commotion to die down before dealing with them.”

“Waiting too long could have its own consequences Hiruzen.”

“I am well aware of that also Homura. But Right now, almost anything I do will worsen the situation eventually. If they go to court, they will be released, and then we will have to deal with Naruto's mother. There is no way that Anko would let an acquittal stand.”

“The woman is deranged. She should have never been given the responsibility of caring for the child.”

“Her son was a breath away from death Koharu. She is understandably upset at the moment. That is another reason why I am not releasing the six men. Anko might take it upon herself to avenge Naruto before they go to trial.”

“Regardless, your stalling tactic won't last much longer.” Homura reached into his robes and withdrew several papers stapled together. “Here are the petitions from the Shinobi Council, the Villagers Council, and the Merchants Alliance. Each one wants an update of the progress of the investigation into the attack. Also, the Shinobi Council wants an update on Uzumaki-sans status.”

Giving up on maintaining a strong facade, Hiruzen released an explosive sigh, leaning back into the overstuffed chair, reaching for his pipe and tobacco and turning to face the large windows behind the desk. “Tell the Council that Naruto is still in a coma, and the rest that investigations take time. Leave the reports and go.” Homura set the papers on the desk and the three exited the office after excusing themselves. “What would you have done Minato?” Sarutobi whispered, staring at his successor and predecessor's likeness carved in stone. “I am seriously getting too old for this shit.”

Anko had settled into something of a routine over the past seven days. She would wake up in the morning at home; get a shower, dress and head over to the hospital. She would check all the monitors to make sure that everything was what was normal for Naruto at the moment, and drag a chair next to the bed. Next Anko would take out a scroll from one of her pouches and start reading to him. She vaguely recalled reading somewhere that some coma patients sometimes recalled being read to and that helped them recover. She had no idea of the validity of the claims, but she was willing to try anything to get her son back. This scroll was on how to create a seal, how to mesh the myriad symbols together and make a functioning array. After reading for a few hours, she would leave and go to Ichiraku's for lunch, where she would update Ayame and Teuchi on Naruto's condition. After lunch she would return to the hospital to sit at his side. After the Academy let out for the day, Shino and Shikamaru would come by to visit for an hour or two before going home. When the sun started to set she would open the box of ramen she got from Ichiraku's and eat it. Anko would chat amiably with the nurse that was immediately in charge of Naruto, Inoue Orihime. She was a very friendly and outgoing girl, always having a smile for Anko.

Anko learned to keep a sharp eye on the girl however, as she was pretty clumsy. The first time she had tripped over one of the legs of the EEG machine. Anko had leaped to her feet, barely catching the expensive piece of electronics before it smashed into the floor. Despite that, Orihime was the most well-intentioned person Anko knew.

Anko also spent a good amount of time over at the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Headquarters. Ibiki had been more than happy to help her work through her anger. She had watched the tapes of the interrogations of the six men, as well as the recollections she had from the shadow clone that had observed. Each time she saw the tapes again, she wanted to smash something, which Ibiki obliged her with. Apparently, the Torture and Interrogation building had a room filled with many delicate objects that she could really let loose in. When she questioned Ibiki about the room he smiled slightly.

“We find it is a good idea to have an area specially designed to let victims let off a little steam. There are a few shops in the village that donate things to us when they have surplus that they absolutely must get rid of. I figured that the stuff was probably going to be destroyed anyways, why not destroy in a constructive way?”

“Well, I do agree that it is cathartic and makes me feel a lot better.”

“Honestly, if it were up to me, I would put those six in a room, take you down to the armory, let you load up and let you loose on them. But the political atmosphere being what it is, the Hokage has to step lightly.”

Every once in a while, the Hokage would drop by to check up on Anko and Naruto. He almost never stayed more than an hour, claiming that he was still dealing with the council.

A knock at the door interrupted her from her reverie. Anko twisted in her seat to see who was there. A man in a chunin tactical vest was zipped up over his chest and an old scar crossed the bridge of his nose. He held a large bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“Um... Hello Mitarashi-san. My name is Umino Iruka. I am a teacher at the Academy and instruct Naruto's class. I came by to see how he was doing. I had heard he was pretty bad for a while but he is doing better now.”

At any other time she would have sat back and thought about how cute he was, but now she just turned back to her son. “The doctors say he was real touch-and-go for the first day or two, but he has been stable for a couple days now.”

“Well, that is good. Iruka set the flowers in an empty vase in the nightstand and pulled up a chair at the foot of the bed. “I am sorry for not coming sooner, but things have been really hectic out there since the attack.”

“So I've heard.”

Iruka sat there silently for a few minutes. “You know, if there is anyone that can pull through, Naruto is definitely the one.”

“Do say that because of the demon in him?”

“What? No, I say that because he has not achieved his dream yet, and he wouldn't let himself die before that happened.”

Anko chuckled once. “There is that...” She was silent for another minute. “What did Naruto do to deserve this? He has had to deal with the repercussions of having that fucking fox in him his entire life. Did you know that nine of the eleven members of the Konoha Council voted to execute him when he was born? And when the Sandaime classified his condition as a S-class secret so that the adults wouldn't tell their children about the Kyuubi, they still managed to poison their children against him by saying that he is someone to be avoided, that he is a an evil child. Did you know he has only two real friends?” She turned to look at the chunin with a look of utter despondence on her face. “I try to give him a halfway decent birthday and he ends up in a coma.”

“Hey, look, this is not your fault. I know for a fact that Naruto does not blame you, so neither should you. You have done a very good job of raising Naruto. In any just about any other situation, he could have grown up to hate the village that despises him so. Instead you raised him to aspire to the highest post attainable, that of the Hokage's office. Trust me, you have done nothing wrong. It is the villagers who have done wrong, by hating and maligning a totally innocent child.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Everyone has their moments of weakness. It only means you are human.” Iruka got to his feet and put an hand on her shoulder. “Naruto will pull through. I have no doubt about it.” With that he exited the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

The next week passed in much the same fashion as the first, with one notable exception. On the second Wednesday after the attack, the Hokage announced that the six men involved in the attempted murder had been convicted by way of special military tribunal.

The Hokage was sitting in a seat by Naruto's bed with Anko. “How is Naruto doing?”

“About the same. The doctors say that he has gone into a persistent vegetative state. Basically he is brain dead, they say.” The Hokage said nothing. The pair sat and made small talk. After a while Anko got up and walked to the door. “I am going to go out for a while. I've been sitting here for the last couple of days and I need to blow some shit up. Feel free to stay as long as you want.” Anko left the room and took the stairs down to the first floor.

Walking down the street with her hand in her pockets the crowd picked up on her mood parting around her, whispering behind their hands. Anko ignored them; know if she gave them the least bit of attention that she would probably kill someone. She stopped by the house just long enough to pick up some tools to exercise with and roof hopped to the training grounds that surrounded the village. She started off with target practice, burying the kunai halfway up the hilts. Anko worked herself to exhaustion, barely remembering to take off her shoes before collapsing into her bed. She really didn't like spending too much time at the house anymore, because it was too quiet without Naruto.

She woke early the next morning. It had been a particularly bad night. She had been having nightmares for years but ever since the attack, they had been worse. Before it was usually about her master, whether seeing the experiments in his lab, or the branding of the Heaven Curse Seal, she usually woke from those in a cold sweat relatively quickly. These lasted most of the night, and that was what made them worse. Sighing, she got out of bed and made her morning toilet. She had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and headed out to the training ground to work off some steam before going to visit the hospital. Orihime had joked that the hospital had become her home, and she only visited the house.

An hour into her workout session, the training ground resembled a war zone. All of the trees in a fifty yard radius had been stripped of their leaves, and several had been rendered down to mulch. At one point there had been a large boulder at one end of the training ground, but that had also been destroyed. The target dummies that she had set up were missing limbs and sizable chunks of the torso. One had been cut in half. She returned home still unsatisfied, her workout leaving her with plenty of nervous energy to spare, and even more tired than before. To top it off, she was now sore and grumpy. She went straight upstairs and tossed herself onto her still slightly-damp sheets. Wrinkling her face in disgust, she ripped them off and chucked them in the hamper.

Honestly, all she wanted was a week-long A-rank mission, something that required lots of killing. Climbing into the shower for the second time that day, and not it was barely noon, she pitied the first person to piss her off. Not that it would take anything to set her off at the moment. She just stood in the shower, in a hazy state somewhere less than consciousness but more than sleep. She didn't know how long she stayed like that, but by the time she came to, the water was cold and she was starting to prune. Grumbling she got out, dressed in a third outfit and decided to try to get some reading done. Anko walked right by the bird sitting on the windowsill too wrapped up in her own world to notice it until it gave a very loud, very piercing cry. Anko froze and rotated on the spot to face the messenger bird. She saw the insignia for the Konoha Hospital on the flat document case on its back. She lunged at the bird, only to have it take to the air in startlement. The hawk returned a moment later giving Anko a look that told her what would happen if she tried to snatch it again.

Moving more carefully this time, she pulled the flattened scroll out of the document case, ignoring the bird as it took to the air once again. Her hands trembled as she unfolded the paper. Anko remembered that Orihime said that they would send a messenger hawk to her house of anything were to happen to Naruto while she was away. Unconsciously holding her breath she read the letter.

Mitarashi-san,

This is a notice from the Konoha General Hospital. Please come and see Doctor Yakushi Sano at your earliest convenience.

She stopped reading it there; not wanting to continue in case it said that something had happened to Naruto. Dropping the letter in the middle of the room the dashed to the door racing to the hospital. She arrived blowing hard. Anko stumbled to the receptionist’s desk; the nurses behind it had risen in alarm. She waved them off. “Where is Yakushi Sano?” she gasped. One of the nurses looked to her compatriots with a worried glance before responding.

“He is with a patient at the moment. If it is urgent you see him, we can call...” she trailed off as Anko was running full tilt down the hall. She took the stairs three at a time and skidded past the door to Naruto's room. The ANBU guards were gone, which did not bode well. Practically breaking the door down, she saw that the room was pretty full, with Doctor Yakushi, the Hokage, the four ANBU, Orihime, Nara Shikaku and Aburame Shibi and their sons in attendance.

But what held her attention was an upright Naruto, looking worse for the wear, but alert. Silently she approached him, gaining speed as the distance closed, until she cocked back a fist and blew him from his bed. Everyone erupted at that, but she ignored them all. She hopped over the bed and bent down to pick him up by the front of his hospital dress. She then pulled him into a bear hug, squeezing him tightly. Eventually, she heard Naruto gasping, so she released him and set back on the bed.

She looked him in the eye, anger and love warring for dominance. “I swear to fucking god, Naruto, if you ever pull anything like this I will slit your throat myself.” That might have been an odd way for a parent to express their happiness at the return of a child, but Anko was anything but normal. Naruto may not have understood what the hell she was talking about, but he did know that she was just showing her love in the best way she knew.

“Okay, does anyone want to talk to me instead of talking over me now that Mom is here?”

Anko looked to the doctor in concern. He shrugged. “I figured you would want to be here for him, so I decided to wait on you. He has lost some of his short term memory so he remembers nothing.”

“Alright then. What is the last thing you remember Naruto?”

“Well, the last thing is probably unwrapping Shino's present at my birthday yesterday.” The temperature in the room dropped sharply at that. Naruto looked around confused. “What? What did I say?”

“Naruto,” Anko said softly, “after we went home after the party, you snuck out of the house to go see the Kyuubi Day Festival. When you were out, you were attack, and severely injured.”

“But I feel perfectly fine now,” Naruto interrupted, becoming more bewildered.

“There is a reason for that. I found you as the men were beating you and got you help. The thing is, you have been in a coma for the last two weeks.”

Naruto was silent for a minute, absorbing the story. Then a grin cracked his face in two. “Alright I get it. Everyone is getting me back for pranking them, right.”

“Naruto, look in the mirror here.” Anko passed Naruto a large hand held mirror. What he saw shocked him. His head was covered in yellow bristle that was spider webbed with white. Naruto slowly raised a hand to feel his scalp, flinching back at first when he touched one of the scars. Wherever hair grew over the scars, it was now a pure, snowy white in contrast to the yellow strands on the rest of his head. Pulling his hospital gown downs he saw two puckered white scars on his chest, below and to the right of his left nipple, as well as a thick, ropy scar across his stomach. Finally, there were three white lines clearly visible extending the length of his right bicep. Tentatively he touched them, as if not quite believing that they were real.

“What happened to me?” Anko quietly told him how badly he had been injured in as detached and clinical way as possibly, trying to avoid going into any great detail.

“I see,” he whispered. “Hey old man, what about the guys who attacked me?”

“Not to worry. They have been dealt with,” the elderly Hokage answered.

Next the Aburame clan head stepped forward. “Naruto-kun, Shikaku and I wish to tell you that while the commune has treated you reprehensibly, there were those who entreated for your convalescence.”

When Shikaku saw Naruto's complete lack of comprehension he sighed and rolled his eyes. “What the smartass here means to say is while the way that the village treated you sucks, everyone here was praying for you.”

“Oh, well, that is very nice to know, I guess.” The Hokage chucked at the boy's ill ease at being told that there were so many people who were watching over him.

“Alright then. I think we have intruded here long enough.” The Hokage gathered all the adults and led them out, leaving Shikamaru and Shino behind.

“So how has school been while I was out?”

“Things were very... interesting for a few days after your attack.” Shino said from behind the upturned collar of his coat.

“Everyone was guessing what had really happened. Of course, none of them were right.” Suddenly he grinned. “It should be interesting to see everyone's reaction to your scars at school though.” Naruto ignored that in favor of examining his hair in the mirror. He had to admit, along with his whisker birthmarks on his cheeks, the pattern of white hair among the yellow gave him an exotic air. The door opened behind the group again, and the doctor stuck his head in.

“Mitarashi-san, may I speak to you for a minute please?”

Glancing back to Naruto for a second she nodded and exited the room. The pair stood in from of the room as Yakushi spoke. “Well, Naruto seems to be as well as can be expected. His brain seems to be behaving normally, and there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage. The Kyuubi's healing factor has fixed him completely as far as we can tell. The only mental effect of the attack is his loss of short term memory for that evening. I don't want him performing any strenuous activity for at least a week. That includes shinobi training.”

“He isn't going to like that.”

“I would imagine not, but I would rather him not overexert himself and injure himself before he is completely recovered.”

“I thought you said that the Kyuubi had fixed everything?”

“It appears that it has, but as you can imagine we have no experience with this kind of healing. I am just being safe for now.”

“What about school?”

“He can resume attendance when we release him, on the condition that he refrains from any physical or chakra exertion. I can speak with the Academy about that.”

“Is there anything else, any medication, or foods?”

“No, no medication. However he will be suffering from some muscular atrophy, so when he resumes his training he will have to work to attain his previous condition.” He turned and walked away and Anko reentered the room.

“Hey brat, ready to get out of here?” Naruto was off of the bed faster than you can say “hell yeah!”

Anko opened the window and jumped out, landing on a roof across the street. Naruto turned back to Shikamaru and Shino. “See you tomorrow guys,” He waved as he followed his mom out of the window.

“I'm getting out of here before someone troublesome comes.”

“For once, Shikamaru, I agree.”

Naruto did not feel normal. Over the past six years, he had developed considerable physical strength and lots of stamina. So he couldn't figure out why a bit of roof hopping was tiring him out so much. He had been traveling by roof for two years now, and could go from one side of the village to the other without losing a bit of breath, but he was barely halfway home, and he was gasping like an old geezer. Anko looked around when she noticed that Naruto wasn't at her side, noticing that he had fallen behind her and slowed down to let him catch up.

Naruto stopped and leaned on his knees gasping. “What's wrong with me? I feel like someone punched me in the gut, and I can't get my wind back.”

“You have been on your ass doing nothing for two weeks, brat. Your muscles have deteriorated. It's called atrophy. We are going to have to work twice as hard as usual to get you back in shape”

Naruto grimaced, straightening. “This sucks. Remind me to never get knocked into a coma again.” Anko grinned slightly at that. Leave it to Naruto to make a joke at his own expense.

Anko changed direction unexpectedly heading away from the house. “Hey Mom, where we goin?”

“Well, you just got out of the hospital, so I figure we are due for a little celebration.”

“Mom, I'm still in my hospital gown. My ass his hanging out. I can't go anywhere like this!”

“Well, I was thinking of going to Ichiraku's for an all-you-can-eat meal, but we can go home instead.”

“That’s below the belt Mom.” Naruto was torn. All the ramen he could eat and go out practically naked, or less ramen later with more clothes. He was at the point where he was starting to take his self-image seriously, and his whole image would be ruined if he was spotted at a restaurant only little more than his birthday suit. Plus the gown had flowers on it. Pink flowers. After considering the merits of both sides, his stomach won out, overriding his inner fashionista. Ramen was ramen, even if he would look like an idiot while eating it.

Anko leaned back and laughed. “Oh my God Naruto. You are so predictable.”

“Shut it. Your entire diet consists of dango and sake.”

“Watch it brat. I am the one that is going to be paying for your ramen.”

Naruto turned away heading to the ramen stand, the words “hardass” and “ramen Nazi” drifting back. Scowling a moment, Anko grinned evilly. She knew the perfect way to get her hands on the ultimate blackmail.

Naruto got some very strange looks when he arrived, one mother scowling impressively as she covered her daughter's eyes to keep her from seeing the blond's muscled ass. Anko waited a few minutes until Naruto's ramen had arrived and he was slurping it up before whipping out an instant camera and snapping a shot off before he knew what had happened. When he did, his face darkened to a dangerous shade, the other diners’ not-so-subtle snickers not helping.

Trying valiantly to not collapse into a laughing fit, Anko sat down next to Naruto, avoiding an elbow, knife hand thrust and an errant heel, all delivered while eating his ramen without anyone else notice. draping her tan trench coat over his shoulder. Naruto looked at her and gave her a very direct stare. “You do realize that child abuse is a crime.”

“Aw, come on. That was just too good a chance to pass up. You would have done it to me of our roles were reversed.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn't have ogled your ass.”

“I did not ogle your ass.”

“Well, the girl over there had her eyes covered, I doubt her mother is interested in me at all, and those two guys haven't looked away from their meal the entire time we were here.”

“It wasn't me. I wouldn't ogle my son's ass.”

“Whatever pervert.”

“Watch it runt, or do you want to pay for your own noodles?”

Sullenly he turned back to his lunch and ignored her until they got home. Anko went up to her room and when she returned to the main floor, she could hear the distinctive sound of flesh impacting wood. Naruto was out back training. Anko shook her head. If she didn't know better, she would say that Naruto had been talking to Maito Gai or Rock Lee, but she had been scrupulous in keeping the handful of meetings between her and the green spandex-clad jounin as short a possible when Naruto was with her, but he seemed to have contracted Gai's fanaticism for training anyways. If he ever started preaching about lapping Konoha or scaling the Hokage Rock on his hands, she would have to do something, probably involving a large hammer and short term amnesia.

Regardless, she was glad to know that he took his training seriously. Shikamaru had not managed to rub his lazy ass personality off on her son, which would have been almost as bad as Naruto emulating Gai.

Anko called him after a couple of hours for dinner. He stumbled in, his shirt and pants sopping wet. Anko pinched her nose and jabbed at the ceiling when he came in range of her nose. Smiling insolently, he took his sweet time, lingering around her for a few seconds longer than necessary. Sure it was petty, but revenge was revenge.

The next day Anko woke him up by summoning a couple of snakes and wrapping him up completely. Naruto approached the Academy slowly, grin on his face. He was definitely looking forward to shocking his classmates. He arrived early to set up his welcome present for Iruka up. The few students that had arrived early with Naruto saw his form hunched over by the teacher’s desk in his trench coat and sighed. Naruto would never change they supposed. Putting the final touches on his present, Naruto left the room He wandered about the grounds for half an hour, killing time. He wanted to arrive when the classroom was full, just as Iruka was calling the room to order. It would make his surprise all the more enjoyable.

When the final bell had rung, Naruto raced back to the classroom. Striding in nonchalantly, he slowly crossed the front of the room, allowing everyone to get a good look at him. He was wearing a similar outfit to his normal attire, the only difference being instead of wearing a loose long sleeved shirt; he was wearing a billowing blue sleeveless tunic, one that gaped in the front to show the two puncture scars and the slash scar on his stomach, as well as the three parallel scars on his right bicep. Shikamaru sighed in annoyance. “Showoff,” he whispered to his friend as she took his seat next to the Nara.

“Dude, after everything I have been through, this is the least I should get. Quiet, Iruka is about to get his welcome back gift.”

Shikamaru put his head down in his arms. He wanted nothing to do with the eruption that was about to occur. Iruka had sat down after calling the room to order after using his trademark head amplifying “demon head” jutsu. Absently Naruto made a mental note to ask Iruka to teach him that jutsu one day. Iruka tugged harder on the seemingly stuck drawer. Naruto's smile grew a little feral.

With a mighty heave, Iruka finally opened the door, only to wish he hadn’t. Honestly, he should have seen this coming as he fell backwards, a spring loaded pop up fanged snake colored in the distinctive brown and white pattern of a Japanese pit viper jumping out at him, exploding in his face a covering Iruka’s face in makeup. There was a white foundation, with eye liner, lipstick and the stuff that gave girls cheeks that rosy hue. The effect was of a man dressing up as a geisha. Badly. Naruto fell out of his chair as the ceiling started to dance on the walls from the laughter, anime-style, but not loudly enough to drown out a very irritated “NARUTO!” Oh, yeah, things were back to normal.

Naruto was still giggling as he walked home late from school. Iruka had assigned him detention predictably, and Naruto had spent an hour scraping gum off the bottom of all the desks and tables in the school. But it had been totally worth it. Other than that, today had been better than usual, everyone clamoring for him to tell what had happened to him that fateful night two weeks ago. So he sat on the green lawn at lunch, consuming the delicious bento his mother had made him, showing off his scars. He figured that they should get some show, after all the trouble he had gone to get them. Even Sakura-chan had paid attention to him, which he was sure to be the height of his week.

Anko met the ten year old at the door as he entered the house. “Ah ah, turn around, we're heading right back out.” Confused, he did as he was told.

“Where are we going Mom?”

“The Hokage wants to speak to you.”

“What about?”

“That would be telling,” although she knew exactly what it was he wished to discuss. The recent attack on Naruto had convinced the old man the necessity of revealing certain secrets to the boy.

Ten minutes of roof hopping found the mother-son pair at the doors admitting entrance to the Hokage's Tower. The two guards let them through without challenge. Naruto kept pestering her with questions as a ten year old was wont to do all the way up the flights of stairs to the top where the Hokage's office was.

“Mitarashi Anko and Uzumaki Naruto for the Hokage,” Anko said as she approached the chunin that head secretarial duty today. Again they were waved through the doors immediately.

The Hokage looked up from his towering stacks of paperwork at the intrusion, eager for anything to break the mind-numbing sameness of paperwork. “Ah, Anko-san, Naruto-kun, what a pleasant surprise.”

“Ohayo Grandpa!” Naruto squeaked out, one hand waving a furious hello. He loved being able to visit the old man in the Hokage's Tower whenever he was able.

“And a very good day to you also Naruto-kun.”

Anko walked forward and sat down in one of the armchairs set in front of the desk for visitors. Naruto followed suit, draping his tan trench coat over the back of the chair, allowing the Hokage to see him dressed in the loose blue tunic and white pants. Sarutobi set his paperwork aside and steepled his fingers. He had been trying to think of a diplomatic way to bring up the topic of today's discussion but had not succeeded. “Naruto-kun,” he said in an unusually grave voice, “how are you feeling?” He decided to start off with something relatively neutral and then work his way up to the big stuff.

“I'm okay. Sometimes my arms ache or I get a bad headache, but other than that, I feel great.”

“That is very good to know. There are two reasons I wanted to speak to you today. The first is an S-class secret, something that concerns you personally.”

Naruto scrunched his face up in confusion. Why would the Hokage know something secret about him and classify it so highly? “Really? What is it? Is it a bloodline? Some super secret jutsu my mom and dad left for me?”

“In a manner of speaking.” He sighed. There really was no easy way to say this. “Naruto-kun, tell me what you know about the Yondaime and the Kyuubi.”

“Well, the Yondaime was known as Konoha's Yellow Flash for his secret jutsu, the Flying Thunder God Technique. The Kyuubi was the greatest of the tailed beasts and attacked Konoha ten years ago, when he and the Yondaime killed each other.”

“That is very good Naruto, but not entirely factual.” Naruto was confused. “What I mean to say is that the Yondaime was not able to kill the Kyuubi ten years ago, but he was able to defeat it. He created a special seal to be used on a newborn child, one that would imprison the Kyuubi in him or her.” He sat back with bated breath waiting for the boy in front of him to make the logical conclusion.

“But the Kyuubi was defeated on October 10th. That means... that I am the Kyuubi?” Hiruzen winced at the lost expression on Naruto's face. Fortunately he was spared having to explain further by Anko's intervention.

Anko snatched Naruto's chin and forced him to look at her. “Naruto, do you think that I would adopt a demon, let a demon live in my house, just down the hall from where I sleep?” When Naruto didn't answer, she continued. “Naruto, the Kyuubi was an engine of hatred and destruction. It had no conscience and no sympathy for those it harmed. Are you anything like that? No you are not. You are a kind, smiling child who doesn't know how to hate. You are my son, not the bastard demon in you.” Hiruzen averted his gaze as she pulled Naruto into a hug. Anko cleared her throat a minute later signaling that it was okay for him to look back.

“Why did the Yondaime choose me to seal the bastard fox into?”

“Well, there are two reasons for that Naruto-kun. You see, only a newborn would be able to handle the stress of having a demon inserted into its body, and there were only three children born that day. He didn't want to force this burden on another family when he wasn't willing to do so himself. So he chose his own son to become the jailer for the Kyuubi.”

Naruto's eyes were as big as saucers. “That means that the Yondaime...”

“Yes, that Namikaze Minato was your biological father.”

Naruto slumped back in his chair, a stunned expression adorning his features. “So, what about my biological mother?”

“Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato were not married. Your mother died after giving birth to you, the youki from the Kyuubi killed her in her weakened state.”

“So they are both dead.” He looked down, absolutely dejected.

“But I do have some good news for you Naruto-kun. Starting tomorrow I am going to start training you as my successor as Hokage.” That immediately broke Naruto out of his funk.

“Seriously? Does that mean that you will be teaching me all kinds of super strong jutsu?”

“No, unfortunately not. Most of what I am going to be teaching you is on the administrative end of things, how to file the paperwork, read documents, assign missions, and deal with diplomats and foreign dignitaries.”

“Aw man, that sounds so boring though.”

“And it is. Naruto-kun, being Hokage is not just about being the strongest ninja in the village. In fact, I would say that your ability as a ninja is the least important aspect of being Hokage. You will rarely get to see combat, save for the chance that Konoha itself comes under attack. Being a good judge of character, being able to tell fact from fiction, and the ability to assign missions and send ninja out when you know that not all will return are all more important. If you can't make hard decisions then it doesn't matter how strong you are.”

Naruto nodded slowly although it was clear that he understood very little of the Hokage's speech. Hiruzen sighed. “Well, come here tomorrow after school and we will talk more. But for now, I think that you should be getting home.” Naruto waved a distracted goodbye and walked out the door. Anko gave the elderly Hokage a nod and followed her son out the door also.

The next day a cheery Naruto appeared at the Hokage Tower a half past four, more than ready to begin his training. Hiruzen explained the first duty of the Hokage, managing paperwork. He had his chunin secretary, a Nara, divide his work into two piles today. One was for the Hokage, mission requests, salary increases, that kind of thing that only the Hokage could decide on. The second pile was made of less sensitive work, shinobi requesting a new hitai-aite for example. Sarutobi carefully explained what kind of requests were to be approved and what were to be vetoed. Setting Naruto in a small desk beside his, Hokage and apprentice set to work. Every once in a while the Hokage would pick up a stack of papers that Naruto had finished with and check to see how he had signed them. There were a couple of instances where a request that should have been vetoed got passed and vice versa, and the Hokage pointed these out, along with why each should go one way or the other.

Naruto picked up on the paperwork surprisingly quickly, given how low his grades in the Academy were. Two hours passed quickly and both were leaving the Tower for home. Anko greeted him by jumping him from the ceiling as he entered the house before asking how training to be Hokage was.

“Kid, I've heard Sarutobi-sama say that paperwork is a Kage's greatest foe, so you better get used to it.”

“How did I know you were going to have a great big laugh at my expense,” he muttered, only sending Anko into greater gales.

A/N: Well, Naruto is all better now. For those of you who dont like random cameos, that is tough. The nurse in the last chapter wasn't the character from Bleach, I was just borrowing her form and name. There will be actual character cameos however, but not many. For the most part they will only have short appearances.

Next time on Shifted Reality: Chapter Four: Graduation!