"Sensei!" Naruto hollered while running towards the field, he seemed both angry and relieved. He came to a stop right in front of her. "Where have you been?!" He demanded.

"I apologize for my absence, something came up." Nina said smoothly.

He frowned, not seeing to particularly like this answer but thought it best to drop the topic.

'She must have her own reasons...' He thought.

"Whatever, can we start training now?"

"Sir, here's the report." Kushina placed a folder on the Head Council members' desk, whose eyes widened slightly upon seeing her.

Snapping out of his stupor, he blinked and quickly took the folder.

"Thank you. You are dismissed." He said with the slightest tremble in his voice.

She bowed briefly and turned to leave, a smile plastered on her face, she was excited to see her son again, the mission had taken longer than expected and she rarely went on such lengthy ones for fear of leaving Naruto alone. Regardless, she was ready to get back home and greet her son, her mood was bright and cheery as she made her way down the streets and towards her house.

Her smile dropped the instant she opened the door. From the quiet, she could tell that the house was empty.

'Of course. He's out training.'

A big announcement was made that day.

After Naruto had finished training, he was walking home when he saw a large crowd gathered around something. Curious, he wiggled his way to the front of the crowd. There was a single piece of paper hung on the lamppost and on it were the large words:

Legendary Sanin Senju Tsunade to be the Next Hokage!

"The princess is back?"

"Hokage? I know she's strong, but hasn't she been gone for a few years?"

"I can't wait to see her!"

"About time we had a female Hokage."

"She's been gone for so long, then the instant she comes back she's named Hokage?"

"She has Senju Hashirama's blood running through her, she must be a great leader."

There was loud chattering from the crowd, both cheers of excitement and statements of disapproval, through the former seemed to be more prevalent.

Naruto didn't know who this person was, but with a title like 'Legendary Sanin' she was sure to be a great shinobi, he hoped that he would get to see her. The paper also said that the ceremony would be taking place in two weeks.

'I'll definitely go!' He nodded to himself, then turned around and hurriedly slipped back out of the growing crowd.

A few days later, Naruto was aimlessly wandering the market streets when he heard someone call his name.

"Hey, Naruto!" A lively girl with light pink hair waved as she ran towards him.

"Sakura!" Naruto greeted with a smile. He had known her for the longest time, their parents had gone on a number of missions together and had instantly become friends, his mother had told him that both he and Sakura were just a few months old when they were introduced. Ever since then, they had remained close despite the fact that Naruto didn't attend the academy. She was also one of the only people that knew about his training.

"My team's going on a mission tomorrow!" She cheered.

"Another cat?" Naruto asked jokingly.

Sakura's face flushed.

"No!" She yelled, hitting him upside the head. "We're gonna find some bandits that have been causing trouble in the village. It's a C class too, Kakashi-sensei says we're the first team that was given a C class mission! All the others are still on D class ones." She stated proudly, hands on her hips.

Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing this.

"Bandits? Awww, why do you guys get to go on cool mission?" He complained. "I wanna go on missions like that!"

Sakura shrugged.

"I guess there's a reason people go to the academy to train. Having one person teach you is what they used to do back before the hidden villages were created, an academy with a bunch of teachers and stuff is so much better! Plus we get to do all types of missions!" She giggled excitedly, though Naruto didn't seem to share her opinions.

"Hey! My sensei is great! I wouldn't want to be on a team even if I could!" He huffed defensively, crossing his arms.

Sakura smiled at his gesture.

"Sure you wouldn't, anyways, let's go get some food!" She changed the subject before he could interrupt her. Dragging him by the arm, the two began deciding on what they wanted to eat.

The entire village was gathered by the Hokage Tower and it was impossibly loud with all the talking, cheering, and laughter mixed into one unanimous, incoherent noise. It was just past four in the afternoon and the next Hokage was about to be officially recognized, Naruto stood next to Sakura, Sasuke, Inami, and Kai, all of whom were longtime friends of his.

"Hey, have you guys seen this lady before?" Kai asked curiously.

"No, but i hear she's really old!" Inami giggled, earning her a punch on the arm from Sakura.

"She's one of the Legendary Sanin and I think she'll be a great leader." The pink haired girl stated.

"We don't even know her, why should an outsider get to be Hokage?" Sasuke had his eyes shut and his arms crossed.

"She's not an outsider though." Inami said matter-of-factly. "She's the First's granddaughter and she's lived here longer than we've been alive!"

Sasuke only responded with an indignant 'hm'.

The noise around them suddenly quieted, causing the children to glance around in confusion.

"Look!" Naruto whispered loudly, pointing to the balcony of the tower.

Two figures stood there, one of whom Naruto recognized as the chief elder, an old, hunched man whose wisdom was as remarkable as his age, and the other being a blonde woman who looked to be around thirty, Naruto's eyes widened when he realized that she was none other than the soon to be Hokage.

"Senju Tsunade, do you accept the burden of the position of Hokage? Will you take the future of Konoha as your own and accept the duty of protecting the people of our great village?" The aged voice of the old man boomed over the crowd.

Not a single sound could be heard among the villagers, they all stared up at the figures in anticipation.

"I accept." The woman spoke in a powerful voice.

"Then from this day forth, may Konoha rest easy with you at its head!"

Cheers and shouting shattered the silence as the villagers broke into applause.

An enormous celebration immediately took place afterwards, there was food, drink, and stands filled with everything from sparkers to charms.

Naruto and his friends squeezed their way through the people and finally made it to a row of stands selling all types of food.

After they had eaten their fill, they noticed a particularly crowded area, a large group of people are gathered around something. Curious as always, Naruto told the others he would be back then dashed towards the crowd.

He had managed to find his way to the center, looking up, he saw the new Hokage simply sitting on a chair, answering the dozens of questions that were being shouted by the crowd. She was patient with them and didn't seem to mind the volume with which the villagers 'spoke'.

Suddenly, a woman with short brown hair emerged from the crowd and began waving the people away.

"Alright, alright. Hokage-sama has business to attend to. Shoo!" She hollered at the crowd.

Soon, the mass of people had scattered, leaving only the two women.

"Hm?" The dark haired one noticed that there was still a boy standing a few feet away, simply staring at them with curious eyes.

"Hey kid, go play somewhere else." She waved him away.

He blinked for a second then turned and disappeared among the people.

"I don't have work until tomorrow, Shizune." Tsunade stated.

"Well, I thought I better do something before you exploded on them." Shizune scratched the back of her neck.

"Just in time too." Tsunade smirked. She was never fond of large crowds. "I'm going to get a drink." She stated, standing up and walking towards a nearby sake shop.

"W-Wait!" Shizune quickly ran after her. "You have work tomorrow!"

The sun hung high overhead as Naruto trained the next day. He had already told Nina all about the celebration last night and about the new Hokage.

"She's one of the Legendary Sanin! Plus the First Hokage was her granddad! That must be so cool!" He exclaimed while warming up that morning.

Nina only hummed in response and kept an eye on his stamina.

After he was finished running, Nina brought out a few peculiarly shaped blades, only some of which he was familiar with.

"I have decided to teach you how to use these weapons, each of them has their own purpose and specialty. This one is a kunai, the most common short blade that all shinobi use."

Naruto nodded, he had seen plenty of his friends training with them but had never used one himself.

She then pointed to the ones next to it.

"This is a shuriken, used for long range attack and occasional defense." She explained the use of each weapon, six in total.

Naruto did his best to absorb all the information he could, but the sheer excitement was enough to keep his mind racing.

'I wonder which one's the most difficult...' He oogled, staring at the blades as they gleamed under the sun.

"First you will learn to use the kunai, for a shinobi, it is the most essential among all blades." She handed him the dark, pointed weapon.

He turned it in his hand, smiling at the thought that he would be able to use something so dangerous.

Learning was not as easy as he had thought it would be.

Nina had him practice with targets first, he was to aim at a spot that she had marked on a large tree.

Throw after throw, he missed the X and by the time the sun had begun to set, there were dozens of kunai both lodged in the tree and lying on the grass nearby.

Naruto glared at the tall maple, it was as if that X was taunting him, daring him to try, and fail, again.

"We will end here today." Nina's voice snapped him out of his concentration.

He let out a tired sigh and managed a smile.

Both of them began to retrieve the kunai that were strewn around the tree, as he picked them up, he handed the blades to her. Soon, Naruto had found the last remaining kunai and handed it to her, however, she didn't move to take it.

"You will need something to practice with on your own." She said simply.

Naruto was surprised at this, he hadn't expected to be allowed to keep one. A bright smile spread across his face.

"Cool! Thanks for letting me borrow this! I'll take good care of it!" He shouted.

Nina raised an eyebrow at this, amused.

"You'll be owning many more in the future, now get yourself home." She turned and disappeared behind the trees as she always did.

The smile did not fade from his face as he dashed back home, the kunai tucked away in his pocket.

That night, Naruto couldn't help but stare at the gleaming weapon in his hands, his eyes swept across its simple handle and up towards the pointed tip, he knew it could injure, even kill, a person with a single blow; he had to be cautious when using it.

Carefully concealing his new treasure in the drawer of his nightstand, he laid down and closed his eyes, hoping that he could get some sleep before tomorrow came.

As Naruto continued his daily training, he continued to grow stronger and his chakra control improved immensely, although he himself could not see it. He listened to his friends as they told him of their missions, at first, there were only stories of helping an old man clean or plucking weeds from a widow's garden, but the tales soon grew to consist of fending off bandits from foreign nations or finding the hideouts of rogue ninja. Though he did not show it, Naruto desperately wanted to be there with them, he wanted to travel and see the outside world while also helping people. With each day he went to train with Nina, he got more and more distracted, his mind wandered as he daydreamed about what other nations and villages looked like, how the people there must live so differently. He made sure never to mention anything about it to Nina, however. He knew that he was lucky to learn from her and that she could simply refuse to continue teaching him at any time. He was still undoubtedly grateful that he was able to train under her but part of him wanted to be with his friends and to go on all the missions that they got to do.

Naruto opened the door to his home and headed up the stairs to his room. On the way, he passed an open door, one that was usually closed.

He stuck his head inside: empty. He knew his mother wouldn't want him in here; it was his father's room.

Things were very clean inside except for the thin layer of dust that coated all the furniture. His eyes scanned the semi-familiar room, he had only been in here a few times before, all without his mother's knowledge. His curious gaze landed on a podium-like display case, it was completely wooden expect for the glass cover that protected its contents.

He glanced back down the hall to make sure his mother wasn't there then stepped closer to the case.

Inside was an ancient looking book, its pages had browned with age though it seemed to be in great condition. Besides a few damaged edges, the book was pretty much all there. The text was small, almost like the books he had seen in the village archives, and was written in some sort of language he had never seen, there were some words he did recognize, however. His mother had never spoken about this book nor had he found out where his father got it from. He didn't dare lift the glass case, much less touch the book for fear of damaging it. Something so old must be pretty fragile, he reasoned. He decided that he wouldn't ask his mother about it... just not yet.

Quickly turning around, he tiptoed out of the room and silently entered his own. The sun had already set so he crawled under the covers and, after shifting around a bit, drifted to sleep.

Things continued as they were for a while longer, then one day there was a knock at the door. It came right after Naruto had returned from his training, he had only just made it to the top of the stairs when the sound prompted him to turn back around.

Making it down the steps once more, he opened the door.

Two men stood in front of him, both were dressed in green vests similar to the one his mother had. Their expressions gave Naruto a feeling of dread.

"Is this the residence of Uzumaki Kushina?" One of the men asked.

"Yes... who are you?" Naruto asked slowly.

"We regret to inform you that Uzumaki-san was fatally injured while on a mission, she died en route back to Konoha."

Naruto lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His mind was blank and his body was numb. He simply lay there, lacking the energy to do anything else.

It had almost been a week since he had gotten the news and this was how he had spent the days, only occasionally getting up and wandering around his room mindlessly. He hadn't left the house since he learned of the news. There was no way he would be going anywhere. Even the curtains of his room were drawn, blocking any light that might have wanted to peek through.

He simply didn't want to see anyone.

The next day, Naruto had managed to pull himself out of bed and get properly dressed.

Today was the funeral.

Stepping out of the house for the first time in a week made him shaky; he didn't want to be outside.

He kept his head down and walked slowly, soon finding himself in front of a certain black sculpture, the one that held the name of every shinobi who had perished in battle, the ones closer to the top were more faded, the ones at the base were more recent.

Naruto walked past the monument without giving it a single glance. He didn't want to have to see the newest addition.

He soon saw a large group of people, fully dressed in black, in front of a coffin. On either side of the coffin were village elders, the head councilman and elder stood behind the black casket, the Hokage with them.

Naruto approached the people and they parted for him as he passed, whispering their condolences. He didn't hear anything they said.

He stood at the very front of the crowd, his head was bowed like everyone else's, it was as if they were having an undeclared moment of silence. Everyone held a white rose in their hands, and after the Hokage's brief eulogy, which frankly meant nothing to Naruto, everyone went up and placed their rose on and around the coffin.

Naruto had chosen to stay back until everyone else had placed their flowers, he wanted to be the last to say goodbye to his mother.

Most people had left by the time Naruto approached the casket, flower gripped tightly, and placed a hand on its cold, smooth surface.

For a while, the boy only stared, a few tears dotting the ground beneath him. Finally, he took a deep breath and gently placed the rose at the center of the black lid, removed his hand, gave the pictures in front one last glance before turning and slowly began his trek home.

"Well, we've succeeded, haven't we?" The councilman said to the head elder. He leaned back against the wall of his office, arms crossed. He was a young man, well built with a sharp look to him.

The elder nodded solemnly.

"Now that Uzumaki-san is gone, we have access to the boy. I do wonder, though, was there no other way?" He questioned with a frown.

The younger man scoffed.

"The boy is young, easily influenced. Now that his mother is out of the picture, we can train him, mold him into a weapon, Konoha's secret weapon." He smirked. "Simple, really."