Strength From Within (A Naruto Neglect Book)

9

-Edited-

Four months had passed, and it was now only a month until the new school year started, as well as the new syllabus for the academy. Naruto would without a doubt be ready for said syllabus, but did not want to enter school so early despite pestering from people who claimed to 'see his potential'. As if the fact that he was already under the 'close' eye of Minato, who seemed to hate him (who was he kidding, Minato definitely hated him) as Daidai and forgotten that he had a 'son' called Naruto, was enough. Apparently it wasn't.

Kurama had informed him on the many downsides of being a child prodigy. They had time on their hands, for now, and wasting it on things that would hinder him, such as bratty children, attention from nosy adults (damn Minato was annoying), and academy training that could wait until he would get the most benefit from some of those things. For now, their best option was staying on the down low as much as possible. Needless to say, although disappointed that he had to wait to officially become a ninja, Naruto couldn't agree with that logic.

It would keep him from being a target until he was older and could safely defend himself from a range of threats that may rise up over the years. At the moment he was nothing special, nobody would try to attack him simply because he was related to the Hokage or because he held the Kyuubi as practically nobody knew he was either of those things.

Kurama had a plan too, regarding furthering of his training which would start to be set into place,but he needed more help than just Kurama for it to work. And as such, he was walking towards his Godmother Tsunade's house with Shizune beside him.

They were greeted at the door by Tsunade, who gestured for them to enter. "Welcome, Daidai, Shizune. I've prepared us some tea, so just come on in and sit down." The pair did, and Tsunade sat as well, taking a sip of her tea.

"You have some explaining to do, Naruto?" Asked Shizune, slightly confused about the situation, having only been told that he needed to confess something to the pair and to meet them there. Tsunade had a decent idea of course, but Shizune was in the dark with only a few vague ideas.

"Yeah, Shizune-nee. I need to tell somebody about all of this." He said, gesturing to his hair, his eyes, and then his stomach. Shizune widened her eyes, thoughts running through her head. He trusts me enough to tell me? She was excited about that, but tried to hide it, which in hindsight was the better option. A sigh turned her attention to Naruto, who, although a little shaky, seemed completely relaxed.

"I presume you know the fox is sealed within me, no?" Naruto said quietly, almost hesitant to speak, partly because he was treading dangerous ground, and they all knew it, and partly because he was a tad scared about what the women would say. He would deny any claims that he was scared, of course. If anyone else (*cough* a sleepy Kurama who would be coming to his senses any minute now *cough*) found out... Naruto didn't want it to come to that.

The pair nodded, before Naruto continued. "I must let you know a few things first. I cannot tell you everything about what happened to me. I will reveal what I can, but it might not satisfy all your questions,"

Although they wanted to argue, the pair said nothing, knowing of how evasive about the tailed beast sealed within him Naruto had been since 'the change'. "Secondly, you are not permitted to disclose this information to anyone else, for it is not yours to tell. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Naruto."

After waking Kurama up from a nap, Naruto looked at the women, gave them a nervous smile, and begun to speak. "So it all started when I was training one day. I had just unlocked my chakra, and I began to find this fascinating thing within it. It was darker than my chakra, but there was an underlying longing and sadness. Now I know it was just the fox wanting a family, but hey, we all need to be loved by someone. Anyway, I went I'm search of it, and eventually the chakra consumed me. I'd used a lot of my own when exploring it, I'd subconsciously begun emitting it while meditating, so I'm lucky nobody found me. Anyway, my lack of chakra allowed him to send his chakra through the seal. The seal was designed for the chakra to leak out so I could use it, so that's how he was able to. It took me to my mindscape where I met him, the Kyuubi and member of my family."

———

It took about half an hour for him to tell his story, including conversations with Kurama asking whether or not to include certain information. He wasn't confident enough with his own judgment, he was still learning after all.

Naruto explained most of what had happened to them, leaving out only a few pieces of information that he had been explicitly told not to reveal by Kurama. He couldn't reveal everything, especially some of the ways that he trained and the majority of the information relating to his bloodline skills. Even though the two women could be trusted, he couldn't run the risk of anyone suspicious of him interrogating them and finding out information that they shouldn't know.

Deception is one of a Ninja's greatest weapons after all, and it would give him the upper hand if he was the only one who knew all of his skills. He didn't need to worry about needing a sensei to train him and know his skills so that they could help him improve, he had Kurama for that, and that would suffice for now. He knew that he had to be very careful about the way he played things, since the future was uncertain and he didn't want to take a risk that lead to his downfall later on.

"Wow," Shizune breathed, taking in the information that she had learnt. In all honesty there hadn't been too much, just enough to give them a good idea of what was going on, but not enough to make complete conclusions about his skill level.

"I understand that you didn't tell us everything, but that still is quite intriguing. You certainly do continue to amaze," said Tsunade, thinking a little bit. She hadn't been too surprised about the fact that Naruto had been doing seperate training, even if she didn't know how much, but the other information she learnt was interesting, particularly the fact that Kurama had altered his DNA. When she had looked at the results of the blood test, a lot of the bloodline from the Uzumaki was greatly present, along with some other unknown DNA. It almost seemed that there was nothing left to connect him to Namikaze Minato, but that wasn't true. But this altering was quite special, and Tsunade was just hoping it was something only biju could do. She did not want to have to deal with altered DNA in this lifetime.

Naruto nodded, running his hand through his hair. He had considered asking something that he and Kurama had been trying to figure out, but decided against it. There must have been a reason that Minato had begun disliking him as Daidai, although he hadn't come up with anything more than that he was jealous or worried of his potential.

"At least that talk is over, I wish to tell you more, but I'm sure you know very well why I haven't."

Tsunade nodded, speaking up in response to him. "And because we know why, we can see just how mature you're becoming." She gave him a look of approval, something that made him proud to receive. Naruto knew that she didn't give them to many people, and even though he had a hunch that Tsunade would give them to him more in the future, he still was glad for it.

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you a little more, there was this plant I saw in the training ground and it was quite interesting," he told them with a smile. The adults returned the smile and happily talked to him about less important things from there on. Naruto was just glad that the discussion had gone well, and was happy that they could be taking a little break that all three of them needed and enjoyed.