A Changing Vision Of The Future

Chapter 11: Pictures and facepaint

'Come in!' Hiruzen said. The old man was sitting at his desk, surrounded with a pretty decent mountain of paperwork, the blonde his mischief was mostly the main cause of his daily torture session.

Naruto and Iruka walked into the office where the old Hokage was seated. They both sat down on the chairs that were in front of the large paper filled desk. Naruto was sitting awkwardly on his chair in silence looking at his shoes.

'I'm sorry Jii-san! I didn't do it on purpose to cause all this trouble!' The young Uzumaki burst out, breaking the silence in the room.

'It is alright Naruto!' Hiruzen replied with a reassuring voice to the blonde. 'I know that tonight was a pretty though one, and I want to assure you that you aren't in any trouble.'

Naruto quickly calmed down when the old man spoke up.

'Lord Hokage! I'd like to inform that Uzumaki Naruto has graduated last night and would gladly request to take some time to change the team formations you had planned.' Iruka-sensei spoke up with an very official voice.

The Professor nodded at the scar nosed man's request and wrote it on a note for later. 'Don't worry Iruka, I assure you that I shall look into it!' Looking form the chunin to the blonde, 'Naruto, as for you. I want to make some things clear to you.'

The boy looked up into the eyes of the old man 'Yes... But Mizuki-sens- I mean Mizuki said I was the Nine tailed fox, is it true?' He mumbled softly, not looking into the old man's eyes.

'You. Are. Not. The. Kyuubi!' Hiruzen burst out sternly, making the blonde flinch slightly with a small hint of fear.

'But-' The boy attempted to talk was interrupted by Hiruzen.

'Naruto, listen good to me because this is important to know, and I want you to keep this good in mind. If I have a kunai and a sealing scroll, if I seal the kunai in the scroll. Is the scroll now the kunai or the scroll?' Hiruzen asked the boy.

Naruto looked at the Hokage. 'No.. it is still a scroll, just with a kunai inside.' He answered.

Hiruzen nodded in approval, 'Yes, correctly Naruto. You are still you, not the Kyuubi! And even if people keep thinking that, then you have to change their minds with talking, and if that doesn't works change it with your actions. Then with time they shall acknowledge you for sure!'

'You really think that would work?' Naruto asked, his eyes were showing the small lights of hope and life again.

'Of course! I believe in you, so does Iruka-sensei.' The Hokage encouraged, looking at Iruka who also nodded with a smile to the blonde. 'Now... as for the other matters....' Hiruzen took out a file and handed it to the young fox container.

Naruto took the paper from the hands of the old man and scanned the contents. 'Wha.....?' Looking up from the paper in confusion to the God of Shinobi.

'It is the information of next week when and where the ninja registration, when the team assignments are and of course, the orientation where you also will meet your jonin sensei.' Hiruzen answered the boy. Naruto nodded, showing that he understood what the old man was saying.

'Now! Go home and rest a bit. If you have any questions feel free to come any time!' The Third said, shooing the two out of his office. Once the two were gone he sat down on his chair and glared at the enormous mountain of paperwork before him. 'I shall beat you one day, or it will be the day I shall retire!' He vowed, still glaring at the sliced tree stuff

The rest of the following days were calm and nothing really happened, except for some ramen eating record that was broken by the blonde. Naruto was bored and was banned from pranking by the Hokage since the paint prank from last time, and it didn't help that the patrol unit through Konoha increased their awareness of the blonde so another prank like that would not happen anytime soon. The boredom almost killed the blonde out.

Since many others were keeping an eye on the blonde while the old Hokage fought with his massive mountains of paperwork, the rest of the village days were quite peaceful with no strange or dangerous incidents occurring.

Hiruzen was happy that his surrogate grandson passed the first part of becoming a ninja, the first step closer to becoming Hokage. He hoped he still could be there when the day approached when he was finally relieved from the stupid had and could see others suffer under the mountains of paperwork and politics, he would grant the boy much luck in the future of finding a way to beat the horrible and massive stacks of daily torture.

XOXOXOX

Today was the ninja registration, where the freshly graduated genin had to take a picture for their forms that were required for the program. It would make it easier for the jonin sensei to find weak and strong points on the forms without having to stalk their soon-to-be students.

The young Uzumaki was debating with himself, he didn't know how to let his picture stand out of all the others. He wanted to find a way to look awesome n his ninja form. He had two choices: painting his face or shaving his hair.

Nah! He chose the face paint. It would be too much of a drag to shave his hair the right way, without ruining it. Some time later his face was fully painted with red and white colors.

'Are you sure about this kid?' The photographer asked. 'This is gonna be on your file for a really long time, if you don't realize that.'

'No! I am sure of it!' The blonde said determined.

The man sighed, 'Alright then! Don't come back complaining okay?' Preparing himself to make the picture. 'Say cheese!'

Naruto quickly took a weird(?) pose when the camera flashed with a bright light. The picture would be too much for most, in the eyes of the blonde the pose and face paints were awesome. After the photographer left to shoot some more fresh genin, Naruto left and went to his only and favorite ramen stand for lunch. Upon arriving he was greeted by the owners of the Ichikaru ramen stand, Teuchi and Ayame. He talked with them happily about his graduation while he ordered and devoured serval bowls of different kinds of ramen. After the blonde was done he went home and waited for the results of his picture from his ninja form.

He was called back a day later by the old man. Hiruzen was not very satisfied or should I say happy about the photo the blonde managed to take for his form and demanded that the young Uzumaki would retake it. Sadly for the poor old man the blonde used his Oirike No Jutsu to knock him out again to let him agree on the picture. Before the blonde could leave a young boy tripped his way into the office of the Third Hokage, trying to assault the old man but tripped over his own scarf.

The boy now recognized as Sarutobi Konohamaru, honored grandson of the Third Hokage, started to accuse the blonde for tripping him, effectively pissing Naruto off and earning a hard bonk on his head.

The blonde was being stalked by the ten year old the rest of the day. They spent some time together, peeked into a woman's hot spring, learned some perverted ninjutsu and knocked out a closet pervert with the perverted ninjutsu.

At the end of the day two things happened to the jinchuuriki, one he learned the boy that there were no shortcuts in life and two, also his own cause, he was declared a rival by a ten year old that had zero experience with real ninja stuff and thingies.