Blind (Discontinued)

12

"He has the WHAT sealed inside him?!" Keisuke asked incredulously. Currently, the four ANBU were sitting in one of Tenzo's temporary wooden houses in one of the more secluded training grounds. It was probably a really good thing, too, considering one of the loudest ANBU members EVER was currently reading Naruto's file with the rest of his team.

"Calm down, Keisuke. We may be in a secluded training ground hardly anyone uses, but that doesn't mean no one does," said Keisuke's brother, Ryosuke.

"Ryosuke is right, Keisuke. You wouldn't want to be the one to spill such sensitive information, am I right?" Kakashi said, eyebrow raised.

Keisuke gulped as he paled considerably, silently apologizing.

"Good. Now, back to Naruto's... Situation. It's understandable why this was kept a secret. Just imagine all the hardship he would have faced if everyone knew," Kakashi continued. What they were talking about was the revelation that the Nine Tailed Fox that had atacked about 12 years prior, was sealed inside Naruto, making him a Jinchuriki, as well as his heritage.

Everyone knew Naruto as Naruto Uzumaki, when in reality his name was ACTUALLY supposed to be Naruto Namikaze, and he was actually the son of Minito Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, who had both died the night Minito had fought and seemingly defeated the Fox. The one who sealed the Fox into the newborn Naruto had been his dad, the Fourth, which ended up killing the young Hokage from A) to much chakra used in the seal; and B) blood loss from being stabbed in the chest, along with his wife, by the Fox. Kushina ended up helping her husband seal half of the Fox into her son and the other half into Minito, making her die from nearly the same reasons her husband did.

Everyone had mourned the deaths of The Yellow Flash and The Red Hot Habanero, though no one knew the two had a son, nor that they'd sealed half of the demon into him. No one, except for Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who would later tell the leader of the Uchiha clan and his wife, who agreed to help raise the young Jinchuriki along side their two sons, Itachi, the oldest, and Sasuke, who was just a few months older than Naruto.

"If people had known what Naruto housed inside him, you can bet that some of the more bitter villagers wouldn't be able to see Naruto for himself. Lord Third was wise to keep this mostly to himself, only telling a select few individuals. He was especially wise to keep this from Danzo," Tenzo said, cringing slightly when he said Danzo's name.

"I agree. And the fact that he's now telling us this information means that we are among the few he trusts the most. Let's not betray that trust," Kakashi replied solemnly. The other three nodded in agreement and, since they'd already looked through Sasuke's and Takumi's files, gathered the files and left, heading for the Hokage's office yet again.

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Sasuke had given up on waking Naruto up. He turned to Takumi and asked if he could help him carry the slumbering Uzumaki back to his house, to which Takumi readily agreed. Now carrying Naruto on his back, Sasuke was talking to Takumi about the expectations that came with being in on their little secret.

"Since Naruto decided to show you his eyes, it means he trusts you. We both do. And I trust you to keep everything that happened in the last two hours a complete secret, and I will not hesitate to show no mercy of you betray that trust. I also expect you to come to as many training sessions as you can, which are held whenever team 7 has a day off, unless you are told otherwise. Got it?" Sasuke asked.

Takumi just nodded, not entirely sure what to say. He had never been in a situation like this before, so this was a completely new experience for the young Takahashi.

"Good," Sasuke said.

Once they reached Naruto's door, Sasuke had Takumi unlock it and let them in. The two worked together to take Naruto's shoes off and left them by the door, doing the same with their shoes. Sasuke went to Naruto's room and put the sleeping Naruto to bed.

Sasuke walked into the living room area and plopped onto a couch. Takumi was sitting in a chair just a few feet away. The two just sat and stared at each other for about fifteen minutes before exhaustion caught up to them and they slowly nodded off while still in Naruto's living room.

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"So you've decided?" asked Lord Third, aka Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Yes, we have, Lord Hokage. We have agreed that, if the three of them are willing, we will take them on and train them to the absolute best of our abilities," stated Kakashi.

Hiruzen smiled. He was glad that these four ANBU, who were amongst the most trusted ninja of all the Leaf Village, had shown their true colors were just what he'd expected: Loyal and trustworthy. "That's wonderful news. And how would you like to ask them?"

"Privately, tomorrow, at the training ground they seem to converge at."

Hiruzen nodded his approval. "Sounds good. I wish you the best of luck, although I'd like to ask, what are you going to do with Sakura Haruno, Kakashi?"

"Despite the fact that she is constantly fangirling over her two teammates, she does have some excellent chakra control. I'd like to think that, with some training, she'd make a truly exceptional medical ninja, maybe even skilled enough to join the ANBU Black Ops."

Hmmm... More high praise for a member of his team. I guess I was right to pair them all up with Kakashi... "Is that so? And who would you have train her to be such a ninja?"

"Lady Tsunade, Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen cocked an eyebrow at that. "And do you know of her current whereabouts? Do you plan on finding her yourself and dragging her back just to teach your student medical ninjutsu?"

"If that's what needs to be done, yes."

This caused Hiruzen to smile. "Very well. Tomorrow, you four will go confront your possible future apprentices, and afterwards you will go search for Lady Tsunade with instructions to bring her back in any way necessary."

The four ANBU before him bowed and yelled, "Yes, Lord Hokage!" in unison before leaving to go enjoy the rest of the day.

After the four left, Hiruzen chuckled at his plan. "Happy birthday... Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze," he muttered with a smile.

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Hello! Did you like the information contained and revealed in this chapter? I know I did! Also, this chapter was originally written when I was half asleep, but was full of some really good content, so when Writers_Mom and I rewrote it, most of it was just cosmetics and stuff like that. All in all, this is a chapter I'm really proud of!

This chapter is dedicated to one of my best friends, @teamleobaby! Helping her ever so slightly with her Naruto fanfic has helped inspire me in ways unimaginable!

And this chapter brings up my total word count to: approximately 18330 words!

PS: I have a new Naruto fanfic that I just started publishing today called Defectors of the Leaf, and I'd love it if you went and checked it out!