Blind (Discontinued)

21

"How about you ask them yourself?" Hiruzen replied.

"What do you mean to imply, Lord Third? That they're in this room? There's only ANBU in here, so unless they made ANBU while I was gone, that doesn't make much sense," Itachi said, confused.

"If they want to make their presence known, they will. And if they wish to explain everything that has happened to them since you left, I give my FULL permission," Hiruzen said cryptically, glancing at Naruto and Sasuke in the back near the door.

'What do you think, Naruto? Tell him or not?'

'I'm game if you are. The old man seems to trust him, so why shouldn't we?'

'Sounds good enough for me. I'll go first, I guess.'

Sasuke stepped forward so he was now shoulder to shoulder with Itachi, who took in the appearance of the young ANBU now standing right next to him. He had raven colored hair that was sticking up slightly in the back and bangs that framed his fox themed mask. Itachi vaguely recalled the two ANBU that had entered last both had fox themed masks, though he didn't dwell on it.

"Lord Hokage. We have have decided."

Itachi had a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious ANBU was actually his beloved little brother. His suspicion was confirmed when the young ANBU turned to him and took off his mask.

"Sasuke...?" Itachi breathed with a hint of unsureness in his voice.

Sasuke smirked as the other ANBU walked up beside him, causing Itachi to narrow his eyes in recognition. He remembered that blond hair...

When Naruto took off his mask, his eyes were closed, only allowing Itachi to see the scars from Naruto's struggle with the shurikan two years ago. He wanted to build some suspense before letting Itachi see his differently colored eyes.

Itachi involuntarily gasped as his eyes took in Naruto's facial features.

"What happened," Itachi demanded, his overprotective brotherly instincts kicking in. If someone did something to harm him... Lord, have mercy on them.

Naruto opened his eyes and took in Itachi's features up close. It had been forever since Naruto had seen his older brother figure. Naruto sensed Itachi's distress and mentally nudged Sasuke, signaling him to start explaining.

"Don't worry, no one attacked Naruto. In fact, the only one to blame, as far as we can tell, is Naruto himself. It all started five days before we graduated from the academy," Sasuke began. The two of them told the story tag team style, with Itachi listening intently and making an occasional comment or question here and there. Once they were done, Itachi now knew for sure that Naruto was the Jinchuriki of The Nine Tails, aka Kurama, like he'd suspected for years now. He was also impressed that his young pseudo brother had managed to befriend the "beast" like he had.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I haven't given either of you a birthday gift in about ten years. What can I do to make it up to you?" Itachi said after a long silence.

Itachi's eyes widened in surprise as both Naruto and Sasuke ran to him and hugged him tightly.

"This is the best birthday present you could ever give me... I don't need anything else to know you care," Naruto mumbled into Itachi's shoulder as tears flowed from his eyes.

"I've missed you guys..." Itachi said softly as he wrapped his arms around his two little brothers, a tear escaping down his cheek.

"We've missed you, too," Sasuke said, revealing that he, too, was crying. Both boys were incredibly glad to know that their older brother/brother figure hadn't actually slaughtered his friends and family before defecting from the village. They were even happier knowing that he was back.

Suddenly, though, something dawned on Naruto. "Hey, Itachi? Do you have a place to stay now that you're back?"

"If you don't, you can stay at my place with me," Sasuke offered, knowing what Naruto was getting at. Who in their right mind would let a former rogue ninja rent a place at any reasonable price?

"Actually, Itachi is the heir to the Uchiha clan, meaning that, if he wanted, he could take up residence in the Uchiha compound, which has been receiving the attention it needs to remain habitable," Hiruzen informed them. He'd known that one day Itachi would come back and would need a place to stay, and since he was the oldest son of the former Uchiha Clan head, he had the rights to the place. But of course, he couldn't tell the Civilian Council that, so he told them Sasuke would inherit the compound when he turned 16 unless informed otherwise.

"Really?!" exclaimed Naruto and Sasuke at the same time.

"Yes. So, Itachi. What is your verdict? Officially claim the title as the head of the Uchiha Clan, or pass it on to your younger brother, Sasuke?"

Itachi brought a hand up to his chin as he thought about it. Eventually, he settled on his decision. "I'm going to let Sasuke be head of our clan. The villagers and Citizen Council most likely would not take well to me becoming the head. It would be unwise to put myself and Sasuke into a situation like that," he declared.

"I understand. I'll call the Citizen Council and the Clan Council together later today to make it official. And while we're at it," Hiruzen said, turning to look at Naruto. "I know it's only your fifteenth birthday, but as the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto, you have the rights to both the Uzumaki and the Namikaze clan names. Many people don't know this, but your father was secretly the head of the the Namikaze Clan, while your mom was technically the long lost heir to the Uzumaki Clan, which makes you the heir to both.

"Now, under normal circumstances, if the clan heirs of two different clans got married, the first child would be made the clan head of the father's clan while the second child would take the mother's clan. But, since this obviously is not a normal circumstance, you will be allowed to take on both clan names if you wish. Eventually, when you get married and have children, the same thing would apply, only instead it would be modified slightly to account for your second clan name," Hiruzen concluded, earning a variety of looks from those who were occupying the room.

"What do you mean, slightly modified?" Kakashi asked, sensing the semi-obvious confusion the blond in question was feeling.

"If Naruto were to marry another clan head, then there would be three clan names to deal with instead of the usual two since he would be the clan head of two clans instead of one. But, if he were to get married to a branch member, a regular ninja, or a civilian, there would just be two clan names to be passed down. Does that clear up any confusion?" Hiruzen asked. Naruto and a few others nodded and Hiruzen continued. "Now, Naruto. Are you willing to take on the burden of being the head of not one, but two clans?"

Naruto took a breath before replying with a, "Yes, yes I am."

Hiruzen smiled. "I'm glad to hear that, Naruto, although you should know that since you are supposed to be blind and both councils don't know that you aren't blind, there may be those who are against you becoming the head of either clan. Now, there are ways of keeping them quiet, but it would require at least one clan head backing you up."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other before grinning and turning back to the Hokage. "Don't worry about that, old man. Just make sure Sasuke becomes the head of his clan first," Naruto replied.

Hiruzen gave the two of them a knowing look. "That I will," he said, smiling smugly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YES, THAT JUST HAPPENED! NARUTO AND SASUKE BOTH ARE ABOUT TO BECOME CLAN HEADS!!! And yes, I DO know that the Namikaze aren't actually a clan, but for the sake of this story, they are. I mean, COME ON! I created an ENTIRE CLAN so why can't I have Minato come from a clan, too? And while I'm at it, why not make him be the head of his clan?

Dedicated to Austinbanner because their stories are AMAZING!