Sarutobi Hiruzen had just left another Civilian Council meeting where many called for the removal of his honorary grandson Naruto to be removed from the rank of ninja, all in an effort to get the last loyal Uchiha the personal and undivided attention of Kakashi Hatake as his personal sensei. He couldn't believe the gaul of those people, to demand anything regarding his ninja to his face, and realized that he had in fact been going soft in his older age as many had accused him, namely Danzo. He simply just didn't have the energy to constantly fight them all, and had been simply holding the Hokage seat in flux without doing much to promote or strengthen Konoha but rather try and maintain the status quo and that needed to change.
This meeting though also highlighted that despite everything Naruto had already accomplished in his short month as a genin, that the people of this village would probably never fully accept him as anything other than a demon container which was a true shame. The young blond had already within one month grown more than any genin in his long memory, and was finally putting all his talents towards more productive things that bettered the village, and yet they still condemned him for things outside of his control. If he didn't think half of his ninja and the entirety of the civilian population would mutiny, he would probably name the young jinkurichi his successor today and be completely happy with the decision.
Naruto was growing so fast and so strong, thinking outside the box and bringing fresh perspectives to long held beliefs, his ability with the shadow clones had already outstripped his predecessor, the inventor of the technique and he would only continue to grow better and stronger as the time went on. He was actually looking forward to his next meeting with the young genin, to learn what he came up with in regards to his pin-clone idea and how well it would work in increasing communication between him and his ninja out in the world. That he would also be getting a new secretary with instant access to that communication system, and who had helped him discover the secret to getting through all his kage paperwork, he decided he should prepare a gift in return and knew just the thing after learning from Kakashi that Guy told him about his mother and Clan.
Making a stop in his personal archives, he then returned to his office to see the blond genin dominating his thoughts of late, and another darker haired kunoichi seemingly a few years older that he didn't recognize, sitting outside his office being watched carefully by his current secretary as they were seemingly waiting on him. After a quick greeting to Naruto, and who he introduced as Naru, the two youngsters were led into the office where the privacy seals were put in place before their discussion began. Naru was introduced as Blood Clone #5, and his new secretary which really impressed the older Hokage who saw very little visible resemblance between the pair, and knew very few if any would ever make the connection.
Their discussion then continued on to the creation of already 700 pin-clones, and how they were composed of two henged clones for an added layer of safety and their capabilities. He had a pin-clone currently being tested by another non-descript shadow clone running top speed as far as he could since last night, and they were hoping to reveal the result of that test now. In order to do that, he had Naru send out a pulse of chakra that resonated through every clone he had, including every pin-clone, as the first test to send out an emergency alert to see if the pin-clones picked it up and knew now to check in.
Within moments, Naru and Naruto both got quiet and were seemingly listening to something only they could hear before smiles bloomed out on their faces that showed the first real resemblance between the pair. The test was a success, the pin-clone was near the Wind and Fire border, had received the emergency beacon call to report in, and sent a small memory of their current location and health status of their runner from a good distance away to prove it worked outside of Konoha too. They would need to run more tests with other teams that didn't include a Naruto clone to truly test if the pin-clones did everything they were hoping, but for an initial test run it was definitely a success.
The Third Hokage was blown away at the simplicity and success of that first test, as this could revolutionize their ability to contact teams in the field and relay important information between each other, and couldn't be prouder of what his surrogate grandson had come up with. Obviously durability and more distance and long term tests needed to be done, but already it was looking to be a very valuable tool to add to their ninja's arsenal and ability to alter orders and share information. When he saw the storage seal with 700 completed pin-clones ready for distribution, he could only smile at the amazing feat and amount of chakra it took to put something together on this scale and once again wondered just how long it would take Naruto to rise up through the ranks at this rate.
They talked about how to distribute these to his ninja as they picked up missions at the mission desk, and to start out small until they could be better field tested and the need for a few simple codes that could be sent out in order to specify certain orders or commands. Right now they simply had the emergency beacon call to report in, but they could test others over the next few days and start a whole new field of communication that would be legendary. The elderly hokage wondered for a moment about making Naruto a tokubetsu jounin on the spot for his total mastery of the shadow clone and how valuable of a resource he now was going to be to the entirety of their ninja forces, but wanted his young "grandson" to be given the same chances and experiences as his other ninja were and let him make his own way in the world.
Soon, their discussion got off from the pin-clones and moved into Naruto's continued shadow clone training in the Facility and what else he was learning and working on. He was glad to see his own son had just today given the young blond a valuable lesson in the Wind Element and was curious to see how well Naruto took to those ideas and implemented them into his repertoire. Learning of his beginning sword practice because of Guy's mentioning of Kushina and her taijutsu style he was also learning from the Taijutsu specialist, brought their discussion around to Naruto's parents, something he had been both hoping and dreading.
"No Naruto," began the elderly hokage with a happy smile at the young blond, "I am not mad at Guy in the least for telling you about your mom or giving you the basics to begin learning her taijutsu style as it is your birthright. I know you have asked me many times in the past about your parents, and I always put you off ...I just want you to know I was only doing it to protect you. Now that you are a genin and away from any civilian control, I am glad to give you some details, but please be patient as there are still many things I can't tell you about until you are stronger and better able to protect yourself from enemies."
"Can you tell me who my dad was?" asked Naruto instantly, with an excited gleam in his eyes that was a painful reminder to the old Hokage of his successor, and his inability to answer the first question he asked.
"That unfortunately is one of the things that will have to wait," continued Hiruzen with a sad smile directed at the now disappointed young blond, "your father had many very powerful enemies both inside and outside this village and I will not risk that information getting out until you are at least a chunin. I can, however, give you more information on Kushina, the Uzumaki Clan, and the legacy they left for you."
"Really?" asked a now wide-eyed and excited Naruto, eager and glad to receive any information about his mother and Clan. "Do they have a really cool bloodline?"
"Yes and no," laughed Hiruzen at the excitement and then confusion on Naruto's face at his answer, before settling in for a long discussion about an almost extinct Clan of remarkable power.
The next half an hour was spent telling Naruto everything he could about the Uzumaki Clan, their relation to the Senju Clan, their dense chakra sometimes manifesting in certain members as chakra chains capable of holding down Bijuu like in the case of his mother, their legendary Fuinjutsu, and their status as leaders of Uzushiogakure. With every explanation of powers and skills known among them, he also provided examples, and in the case of Fuinjutsu even gave the young blond several very valuable volumes of Uzumaki Fuinjutsu written by the First Hokage's wife, and first container of the Kyubi, Mito Uzumaki. He also gave Naruto a book written by his mother on her chakra chains and experience as the second Jinkurichi of the Kyubi, including lessons taught to her from Mito herself in preparing her for her role and the effect of the Bijuu's youkai (demonic chakra) on a Jinkurichi.
Naruto was blown away at the amount of information he learned about the Uzumaki Clan, and past members known to Hiruzen, even more amazed at the gifts he was given and the connection it provided him to his mother and their Clan. He promised to take incredible care of all the materials and not lend them out to anyone, and even promised to learn everything else he could from them and make his Clan and his mother proud. The elderly hokage could only look on in wonder and amazement at the dedication and likeness to Kushina he saw in her son, and was again reminded of his earlier pledge to start doing better for his village than simply maintaining the status quo.
"Naruto, before you go, I have one more thing I wanted to bring up with you," replied Hiruzen to the happy blond who seemed in much better spirits than almost any time he could remember, "now that you are a recognized adult in the village as one of my genin, I was wondering if you wanted to purchase your apartment building. As you know, there is only one other resident living in your building, and currently I am the owner of record since I couldn't let anyone else have the ability to kick you out ...and was hoping you might take it over and use it for your clones. Kaide Mursenki is a retired and disabled shinobi who has lived on the ground floor for years, and doesn't pay rent so he will have no say in anything you decide to do to the building, and then you can expand your clones above ground as well."
"Um ...I'm not sure I have much available money at the moment, my clones are going through my resources pretty quickly setting up their businesses and identities," answered Naruto with a thought, "but I do like the idea."
"Good," answered the Hokage, "I'll draft up this bill of sale ...the payment has already been made in the form of your help with the paperwork shadow clone recommendation. Take this to the records department downstairs and they will provide you with the property's deed."
"Thanks Jiji," replied an excited and somewhat overwhelmed young genin after such a productive and amazing meeting where he learned so much about his mother, his Clan, and several avenues of research and study to advance his shinobi career. "I'll leave the pin-clones with Naru here to help you distribute, and get out of your way."
Naruto quickly left the Hokage's office and went to the records department to get the deed to his apartment complex, and then high-tailed it back to the Facility to check on his clones' progress and went through with spawning another large batch of 2000 clones who he split up into two groups. The first smaller group was going to go through the apartment building cleaning up the trash and making a list of repairs and materials needed to get the place in better shape, while the larger group was tasked with starting to read through and practice whatever came up from the Mito Uzumaki journals on Fuinjutsu. He was going to retreat and read his mother's journal himself as he didn't want to pawn that task off to anyone else, as he was eager to learn everything he could about the woman who birthed him and shared his burden as a jinkurichi.
With so much activity going on in both the Facility and his apartment complex, he retreated to one of the few spots in the village that he could enjoy the peace and quiet while having a wonderful view, on top of the Fourth Hokage's spikey haired head. He spent hours pouring over the journal of Kushina Uzumaki as the afternoon shifted to evening, and stayed until the light from the moon was the only thing illuminating his little hidden spot. He could honestly say that he had never felt better in any point in his life than he did at that moment, learning about and reading his own mother's words, having achieved his first dream to becoming a ninja, and in his own mind at least, well on the way to becoming the next Hokage of the Leaf.
His mother was wicked smart and funny, and her passion for Fuinjutsu and the Leaf easily shown through in her writings, and Naruto absorbed every single bit of it he could and had never felt closer to her than he did at that moment. Unfortunately, the lack of light forced him to move on with his day, go and get some ramen, and then return to his underground Facility to check on his clones' progress and add another large batch of clones to all the various jobs and tasks. His apartment complex was completely cleaned and new materials had already been purchased to make all the necessary repairs and construction changes he wanted, but held off until the day time so as not to bring too much attention to it.
Instead, he went through all four of his awesome Wind Element techniques, having got them each down quite well at this point, and decided to redistribute those working on each of the skills to combine into one Futon group that would continue working on them all. This left him with a large number of clones looking for more things to do, and he was quick to set them up to the continued task of learning Uzumaki Fuinjutsu, or in this case, putting more clones to work on Mito's and Kushina's journals. Since he had a relatively lazy day of training himself, he decided to up his resistance seals again and start an evening physical workout that would have crippled him a month ago, but was now simply building him up stronger.
By the time he was ready to drop into bed almost three hours later, he gladly spawned another 2000 clones to continue to add to the numbers already working on things throughout the night while he recovered and slept. When he woke up, he again went to the Facility and spawned another large batch of clones, this time with the express purpose of doing construction and repair work on his apartment building, with the leftovers filling in the gaps from those who dispersed throughout the night while priming Fuinjutsu tags. He was pretty amazed at how much of the Fuinjutsu material his clones had gone through, at least until he realized that he had more than ten thousand clones doing nothing but working on it all through the night and was really pleased.
Since the green beasts of Team Guy were still out on their mission, he did his own thing that morning to warm up and train like a crazy person, just with less shouting about youth than he was getting used to from the unusual pair. By the time for his team meeting, he met a smug Sasuke and a practically drooling and dreaming Sakura in their usual spots as he waited for the fifteen or so minutes until Kakashi usually arrived. He was curious what his jounin leader would have for them today after yesterday's team and individual battles against Team 10, but wasn't too worried either way as he still had plenty to work on.
When Kakashi arrived, he continued from the previous day's lesson on team formations and strategies when facing other teams, and variations on those themes depending on the type of team we were facing. This led into a small lesson on evaluating other ninjas and teams from quick glances and inferring based on those observations what they might specialize in, as a way to be more prepared for any different style of opponent. Using Team 10 for example, Choji's size made him an obvious taijutsu close range tank style fighter and if we paid attention we would have seen him front and center of his group at the very beginning of yesterday's team battle, protecting his two teammates, who both happened to be mid to long range fighters who did not excel in individual matchups.
Team 7 by comparison was a difficult team to prepare for, as Naruto was the more tank style protector, but Sasuke was so aggressive that he tended to dominate the role that should be for Naruto. That both young boys could fight from either close, mid, or long range also made them very difficult opponents for more specialized fighters, as they simply had too many options when taking on an opponent of any style of fighting and still kept a tactical advantage. Kakashi also mentioned Sakura was easily seen as a backup fighter, as she didn't come across as someone who trained a lot from her lack of defined muscles, had two really aggressive and in your face teammates that often overshadowed her in any combat situation, and her infatuation with Sasuke made her instantly defer to him and take a back seat role.
Kakashi didn't say it in a mean or hurtful way, and instead stressed that they should play to those strengths and Sakura should learn some of the longer range fighting techniques, and supplementary skills like healing or genjutsu to compliment her already heavy front line team. Likewise, Sasuke and Naruto both needed to become well rounded and shore up those skills within a team setting to better match up against others. They could also really overpower others if they worked together as both had strengths in both taijutsu and ninjutsu that were simply better than most people their level, though he stressed that they still had a long way to go in order to compete with those of a higher level.
Sasuke's sharingan, when it awoke, was a taijutsu and ninjutsu game changer and almost unreal in the amount of benefits it granted its user, something Sasuke was very smug about when it was explained, but also curious how his sensei knew so much about his Clan's famous bloodline. Naruto's chakra reserves and shadow clones were similarly a taijutsu and ninjutsu game changer on a level most their age couldn't hope to compete against, and if he ever learned his Clan's fabled Fuinjutsu, would be a real force to be reckoned with. Sakura had great chakra control and potential to become a first rate medic or genjutsu user if she simply trained more and cared more about her career and life as a ninja, but would probably need a tragic reality check to get that message to sink in, as was the case with a lot of young genin unprepared for the true harsh realities of the world they lived in.
By the time lunch came around, all three members of Team 7 were looking at their sensei in various states of shock and amazement at his ability to break down their styles and show their strengths, weaknesses, and areas to work on in order to really improve. It was almost comical how much they had underestimated their jounin sensei to be that accurate in his assessments of their skills, while both complementing, teaching, and humbling them in order to motivate them to improve. When Naruto asked how he knew so much, they were again surprised to learn he had become a genin at 5, a chunin at 6, and a jounin at 12 as he was raised during the Third Shinobi War when the Academy and Konoha was trying to bolster their numbers.
He was a true prodigy, like few before or after him, and despite his lazy exterior, was one of the strongest jounin of the village currently and definitely one of the most famous and recognizable. It was kind of a stunning moment for the three young genin to realize just how good their sensei truly was, after having thought him a lazy pervert of little skill. To learn he was the student of the Fourth Hokage simply floored them all, and they all started to look at the one-eyed shinobi in a completely new light.
That discussion that late morning day was actually one of the first instances of Team 7 truly starting to understand one another and actually grow closer as a team. It was solidified as a turning point in their ninja careers as well when they arrived that afternoon at the mission desk, and Kakashi asked if there were any C-Rank missions as he felt his team was finally ready for the next step in their careers, whether they were truly ready or not was not important as the boys earned it and Sakura needed the wake up call. That both Sasuke and Naruto had been complaining just the other day about getting the chance to do better missions as they were somewhat fed up with the customary D-Rank chores, and had handily defeated Team 10 in their team and individual battles was also a point for them.
"C-Rank?" asked the Third Hokage who was sitting with Iruka at the mission desk as he occasionally would, and getting the mentioned Academy instructor to instantly look to him for the verdict. "You think they are ready?"
"Are they ever?" asked Kakashi back to his village's Leader with his customary one-eyed smile. "Nevertheless ...they earned this chance."
"Very well, I'll get Iruka here to go get your client," replied the Third Hokage as he reached into a box next to him, "as you will be leaving the village, we have a newly developed communication device we are currently testing ...please put this pin somewhere on your clothes, and send it a bit of chakra and a brief message if you ever have an emergency ...it's supposed to send me an alert, and I would like all our ninja to have one as we test them in the field."
The hokage then handed Kakashi four of the Uzushiogakure Spiral clone-pins for every member of his team along with a mission scroll that had all of Team 7 nervous or excited for various reasons. Naruto made no mention of the clone-pin at all when handed one, and ignored the brief glances from Sasuke, who obviously recognized the spiral symbol that his blond teammate wore on everything for as long as he could remember, as he carefully put it on one of his dark orange bandoliers. Sakura was oblivious to the byplay, as her nerves were too much for her, and her shaking hand took some time to put the pin on her outfit, as her thoughts were consumed with leaving the protection and safety of the village for the first time in her life, and wondering if she was really ready for something like this.
"These little brats are the ninja I hired?" came the slurred voice of a drunk man being led in the room by Iruka. "Pink hair, duckbutt, and blondie? Are you sure these kids are really ninjas?"
"I assure you Tazuna-san, these are some of our finest genin, and they are led by my best jounin, Kakashi Hatake," answered Hiruzen Sarutobi easily, as the three nick-named genin all glared at the new arrival, but thankfully managed to hold their tongues from saying anything.
"A jounin huh?" grumbled the partly drunk older looking man, wearing a well worn traveler's cloak and holding a large half-empty bottle of saki as he looked over Kakashi and eventually seemed satisfied, "as long as you protect me and my bridge."
"Okay Team 7," started Kakashi as he turned to his team with his customary one-eyed smile, "we are protecting Tazuna-san here as he finishes building a bridge near Wave Country, this will most likely take a month, so go home and pack accordingly ...we will depart from the main gate at 0800 tomorrow morning."
"0800?" asked a grinning Naruto to his sensei, "aren't you usually on the road of life at that time in the morning?"
"Brat," hissed Kakashi back, but without any heat in it as the Hokage and Iruka both poorly attempted to cover sudden laughter at their favorite blonde's handling of Kakashi's famous perpetual tardiness, and the glare he sent them, "I'll take a different road tomorrow morning."
"Then I'll see you at the gate," answered Naruto with a smile, before turning to Iruka and asking if he was free for a trip to Ichiraku's tonight in celebration of his first mission out of Konoha.
Iruka was quick to accept the invitation, hoping for the chance to hang out with the young blonde before he left for a month and give him a few pointers and tips to ensure he remained safe. He then went back to work as Kakashi reminded Tazuna and his genin to meet tomorrow morning at the gate before vanishing in a shunshin. The genin then left for their homes to prepare their travel packs for the long mission, with Naruto heading first to his underground Facility to make sure his clones had all their assignments in place while he was gone.
He was a little nervous about how his clones would survive long term without him present to replace those lost, but hoped that with the inclusion of his blood clones that everything he had begun in Konoha would remain without him to keep it running. He spawned another large batch of clones, and had them fill in the gaps in his organization while limiting the amount that went to research & development until he returned. He tasked his blood clones with prioritizing keeping his growing civilian businesses going, as those would be the first noticed if he started losing his clones, but to insure they kept the continual spawning of clones to keep his chakra in constant flux.
Naruto left the Facility after another hour of picking up some of the things his clones had finished with, including several dozen storage scrolls and chakra draining seals and over a hundred explosive tags. He then returned to his apartment and packed and loaded some of those storage scrolls with anything he thought he might need, including an armory of weapons just in case. He then left to meet with Iruka for dinner at Ichiraku's, excited to get the chance to catch up with the older chunin, eat at his favorite ramen stand, and finally go on a real mission outside of Konoha.