"That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard, Minato, and I've known you for over two decades now. But as much as I hate to say it, that might actually work. Better take the yang half with you, though; his Uzumaki heritage will give him plenty of physical energy, more than he'll know what to do with really, and it'll let him balance out whatever effect the fox has. Doubling up just means he'll constantly have to struggle with hyperactivity."

"See, this is why I need you; you were always way smarter about this kind of thing. You're right, as always - I'll make sure to do that."

"Sealing Technique: Reaper Death Seal!"

And so it was that the Yondaime Hokage perished, leaving behind only his child to their fate as the village's latest human sacrifice. But unbeknownst to him - or, indeed, anyone - his last minute decision would have long lasting effects he could never have predicted...

And some that were regrettably straightforward.

In hindsight, it was perhaps woefully naive to assume that it would be sufficient to just swear Konoha's ninja force to secrecy on the subject of Naruto's status as a Jinchuriki and let it be known that any sharing of this information or resulting mistreatment would be punished to the full extent of Konoha's military law. Oh, it certainly had its advantages - making that the poorly held secret of Naruto Uzumaki all but completely drowned out any speculation on his parentage, and the draconian punishments he used when making an example of anyone caught made people extremely loath to even discuss the matter with anyone they didn't completely trust. In that sense, it was a masterstroke of counterintelligence that more than lived up to all the hopes he and Danzo had of it - to this day, he was almost completely certain no other nation's intelligence arms had put together the truth of Naruto's parentage. Certainly Iwa had not, as was made abundantly clear by the lack of relentless assassination attempts. And by punishing those who discriminated against the child, they had inculcated a sufficient degree of toeing the line that they didn't face any serious efforts to smother him in his sleep or drive him out on the streets. But the secret itself had not been kept to the Shinobi told, passed in whispered conversations and changing hands behind closed doors and told to those close, relatives and friends and lovers, until scarcely any in the village were not aware of which child had the fox sealed within them. And in terms of attitude... the inhabitants of Konoha had become experts at fulfilling the minimum required of them and not an iota further.

Those in charge of his raising at the orphanage certainly made sure he was fed, twice a day, and his diapers changed sufficiently often he was not marinating in his own excrement. They devoted the required amount of time to teaching him literacy, and did not lock him away in any enclosed space or "forget" about him. But there was not a single iota of warmth to be found from anyone there, because they couldn't make a rule about that, and there was scarcely anywhere in Konoha he could face a warmer reception. Mikoto Uchiha had offered to raise the boy, but he had had to shoot that down - even if the other clans could have been persuaded to tolerate the Uchiha having custody of the Kyuubi Jinchuriki after the suspicion they faced about the attack, outsiders being raised in that clan were sufficiently rare that it would draw far more attention to the boy from foreign agents than he could possibly survive. Jiraiya had promptly all-but fled the village upon his student's death, and Kakashi had thrown himself into the depths of Anbu, leaving him as the only one available with any measure of personal connection to the child. And he... Hiruizen was immensely busy, the task of being Hokage an enormous undertaking even before his first retirement, and he scarcely had any time to spend with his own children and grandchildren. Parents steered their children away from Naruto, or took them home if ever he went somewhere to play; his fellow orphans picked up their attitudes from their caretakers, and did not limit themselves to simply not being kind. And the shops, stalls, and pedestrians of Konoha were ever willing to find fault in his every action.

So she learns that she must not be Uzumaki Naruto.  (She's not sure she ever wanted to be him, anyway.)

She finds small places of safety and loneliness, because you can't be rejected that way.  (It is not locking her away if she closes the door herself.)

She watches.  She learns.  (That the thing that hurts the most is the care she'll never receive.)

One day, she asks the constant presence in her soul a question, after her morning inquiry is met with the usual growl of frustration-anger-resentment and wanting out like a trapped beast.  Which...well.  That's just true.  She can't do anything about it, though.  Hokage-sama and all the sneaky ninjas with the animal masks won't let her.  And she thinks something's wrong with the blank ones.  So she's not going anywhere near them.

Anyway she has a question for the fox.

<...Are you a kitsune?>

<'cause if you're a kitsune I might have an idea for something.  And maybe we can make things suck less for ourselves.  Please?>

"Am I a Kitsune? Tell me, brat, what do you think?"

She's in front of a cage, with immense, sturdy metal bars that somehow still seem totally inadequate for containing what's on the other side. It's enormous, so big it's hard to get a sense of scale, and its voice is like the thunderclaps, the nine tails behind it swirling almost hypnotically - but right now all that attention is focused on her, and even through the barrier she can tell it hates.

The tiny child looks at the creature her village calls a monster.

...She doesn't really quite believe them that it is, despite herself.

"...You have nine tails.  You're fox-shaped.  But kitsune aren't 'supposed to' exist.  They're in the fiction books and not the nonfiction ones, at least the ones they'll let me read.  So.  I don't know, and I don't wanna guess and be wrong, which would be even worse.  Like how everyone keeps guessing I'm a boy, because of what I look like.  Which is wrong.  And I want to fix that.

"So I wanted to ask.  Because I'm not sure, and - because just because you look like something, just because people think you are something, doesn't mean that's what you are on the inside.

"You wouldn't let me ask you questions like this if you were the monster everyone thinks I am."

The fox laughs.

"Oh, I am everything they say about me and more. I've shattered mountains, leveled cities, burnt down forests, and even eaten some of you gnats in my time. You mistake your situation; the only reason you yet breathe is this seal, not my mercy. But you're not the most insufferable of all the humans that have tried to enslave me, so I suppose I can answer this much. Yes, I am a kitsune, and of all the monsters in this world?"

He grins, showing enormous, sharp teeth.

"I'm the strongest."

She seems - outright confused by this line of conversation.  "Did I say I thought you were merciful?  I know I've been turned into the cage for a beast, o mightiest of kitsune, no matter that you are also a person.  But - if you will forgive my presumption...

"Neither of us were given a choice in this - and you're still choosing to humor me, despite everything.

"That's a different sort of strength.  But it's strength, too.

She pauses.

"...I don't wanna enslave you.  I just...

"Don't want people to get hurt.  Even though they suck.  Because hurting people is wrong and they can't make me.  I can choose who I am and I choose to be kind.

"...Which is why I can't let you go, because we both know that if you're let out in Konoha, you're gonna go hurting people afterwards.  And they won't let me out of Konoha, either.

"But I don't wanna - tell you what to do, other than that.

"Can I prove that to you somehow?"

"Flattery won't get you anywhere; if you truly didn't wish to enslave me, you would set me free. It's not like they wouldn't deserve what comes next. But you won't, and there will come a time when you decide that power is more important than your pretensions at principles and you'll try and take my strength for yourself. Your kind always do."

The sheer pressure of his gaze intensifies for several moments, and then returns to its resting force.

"I suppose if that day is inevitable, there's no loss in offering this much early. Grant me one of your senses, and I will heal you when you come to harm."

"...It might be fair, that you should hurt Konoha for how Konoha hurt you.  But...it wouldn't be right.  Because - then the hurting just - goes around again.  And everybody loses.

"And I want to let you go - but I'm trapped, too.  I...they have never been nice.  But I -

"They didn't leave me to die.  Even if it's because you'd kill them if I did.  Which...I think I probably owe you for the threats kind of on my behalf.  But...I can't leave them to die, because of that.  A lot of them...

"Konoha is full of people who wouldn't know what chakra seals are like if it bit them on the butt.  And...

"I guess what I want to ask, is, are they really to blame for what the ninjas do?  'cause...

"That doesn't...sound right?  Do you think it sounds right?

"...And...um...  Which sense would you like to use?  Or - let me look at...um...

"...that's a lot of...whatever this is.

"...Can I do a little bit of research, first?  I - don't know how this works, yet.  And I want to do this right."

(Which is to say, she wants to make it switchable, somehow.)

"Just by existing, these 'normal people' of yours prop up the system of ninjas. Is the blacksmith innocent of the lives taken by his blades, simply because he only made kunai at his forge? Are the hands of the parents who raise their children on the lies of ninja and bundle them off to war clean of blood? It is hardly as though they could miss it; killing is the only thing ninja are good for."

The fox sniffs dismissively, then shakes his head.

"The deal is only for your sight, hearing, or smell. I have no interest in what passes for a sense of touch among you humans, nor in limiting myself to experiencing whatever you cram into your mouth. As for when... right now or in a decade, it makes no difference to me. You mortals are the ones that are always in a hurry."

"...Then I'm gonna prove you wrong and be good for something that isn't violence.  I don't think they're gonna let me not be a ninja, but there's gotta be something.  

"...And you forgot medi-nin!  Senju-hime's hospital is right here!"

"...Really the problem is that some people are jerks, though.  Like...

"If Konoha didn't have to be scared of jerk ninjas like Kiri who kidnap their kids and all that, do you think they'd still train ninjas like this?  But the bad people train ninjas to do violence and somebody has to stop them.  And it mostly takes ninjas to stop ninjas!  But if there were less bad ninjas, people could do other things with their chakra.

"But until then they can't.  Because they'll die.  Or someone they care about will die.  Because they'll get hurt if they can't defend themselves.

"Would you blame the farmer, for feeding ninjas at kunai-point?"

"Medic nin could heal people other than your ninjas and a few lucky supporters, you could have peace if only you finally wiped out whoever your latest enemy is. Pah, if your pathetic village somehow managed to topple Kiri, or Iwa, or Kumo, it wouldn't be a month before they were facing off against some new enemy against which anything is justified, even if they had to split to do it. If there was more healing capacity than your military needed, they would be shipped off closer to the front where they each worked under capacity but brought your ninja back to the killing faster, or drafted to another department; perhaps one of your eugenics programs. Even if the farmers weren't collaborating, I'd still give them no pause before tearing out this rotten system by the roots.

"One day you'll die or screw up, and I'll put an end to this farce; you mortals always do. Until then, you're starting to reach the limits of my patience for the yammering of children."

"...What's a eugenics program?"

"Your village's pet super-soldier manufactury. Breeding - or as the case may be, vivisecting, transplanting, and grafting - the traits of different ninja together in the hopes that the results are powerful enough to make up for the expense of raising all the ones that die as infants or in childhood. The Shodaime's flesh seems like a perennial favorite, not that they have the slightest idea what they're doing there."

"...I don't know half of those words yet but the ones I do know make that sound really bad.  And not Will-of-Fire at all.  You don't have a good reason to lie like that, so...do you have any names?  'cause I think the Hokage will listen to me if I tell him this.  It's important."

"They do it with his approval, child. All the ninja villages have one. But no, I do not have any current names unless his friend Danzo Shimura is still involved, and it's been long enough you'd really think he'd have retired. I mostly don't get sound when I'm sealed up, that's the whole reason I was willing to make a deal for your hearing."

He paused, considering.

"I'm pretty sure the one who killed your mother was one of them, there aren't a lot of places you can get a Uchiha with Senju flesh grafted onto them, but I hadn't sensed them in the village for over a year before then so it's hard to be sure where they were in the meantime."

"...I'll talk to him, though.  It's not like he can kill me about it or ...whatever, if he's actually that awful.  ...Do you...have a name you'd like me to use?  By the way?  I, uh, everyone calls me Uzumaki Naruto.  When they're not calling me 'demon brat' or 'monster'.  ...Not sure I feel like a Naruto but it's.  Fine."

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune will do fine; it emphasizes all my best qualities."

Then there's a sensation like rushing water, and Naruto finds herself outside of the seal and back in her body. There was a feeling to it like she could have resisted, if only she knew how, but if so it requires some skill or practice she doesn't have yet.

She wasn't going to, though she does get out a "Thank you" if she can.  She's gotta write these things down before she forgets them!

The sandiame Hokage does not drop by Naruto all that frequently. Some visits can be justified by maintaining a close relationship with a powerful asset for the village, and he can get away with a bit more than due to his reputation as a sentimental old man and by disguising a few of his visits so that they don't all get noted upon. It's a lot more often then he visits most children, of course, but when it comes to a child's life an hour long visit every other week or so is not, actually, all that much.

Nevertheless, by quirk of timing it's only a few days after her first conversation with the fox that he happens to drop by.

"Hello there, Naruto!" He then winks, and theatrically covers his mouth; the next part of his message is a whisper. "I bet if we sneak out right now, the matrons will hardly notice you're missing until we get back."

"...That sounds like a good idea.  There's something 'portant we gotta talk about.  'cause it's bad, if it's true."  She's kept the scroll of her notes tied on her this whole time, even while she's asleep.

He nods very seriously. It's probably not actually a big deal, as he would reckon it, but this kind of thing can be really important to a child and it's hardly helpful not to take it seriously. In a couple of years they might really end up learning some things he'd rather be told, too, and it's much better to form the habit now if he doesn't have to force it. Plus, whatever Naruto came up with is probably an interesting diversion from his paperwork.

"Of course. Should we go get something to eat, and then find a private room where we can talk about it? The Anbu will keep away any listeners; they're pretty good at that." He smiles at the last bit, making sure to include Naruto in the joke.

She's just gonna...climb the Hokage like a tree, to murmur in his ear.

"...if you're sure you trust them.  The ones with the animals seem fine but the other ones are...weird.  I don't like them.  They look like they're trying to be nice to me when they know I know they're there, but they aren't, I can tell.  They move wrong.  They feel wrong.  ...who's in charge of them?  'cause.  Maybe it's related."

"All the anbu here are loyal to the village, Naruto, but if you think it's important I can make sure to rely on the ones I personally trust, and none of them will have blank masks."

Danzo isn't supposed to have any of his root ninjas on duty guarding Naruto, but Hiruizen just knows that if he talks to his old friend about it he'll say something about how the guards he's assigned clearly aren't adequate. And if he has to be informed of their presence by a literal child... he can't even say Danzo would be wrong. Still, he'll have to do something; having two seperate protection details that don't work together is just asking for a friendly fire incident, and if it doesn't it'll be because one of the groups ends up lowering their suspicion enough that they risk assuming an infiltrator just belongs to the other detail. It's not a sustainable solution, and if Naruto already has bad associations with root he'll have to bridge this gap by moving more normal anbu over off rotations to guard duty, and plug the holes with root agents.

"I'm afraid I can't give you details on anbu assignments. If any of our enemies even suspected you might know them, they wouldn't hesitate to try and kidnap and torture you to get at them, not to mention the risks of you just accidentally letting something slip. Even among professional anbu members, we try and keep the information as compartmentalized as possible; that's how you keep secrets. I promise you, though, they have the job for a reason and I'm confident they would never betray Konoha."

With Naruto already climbing on him, it's simplicity enough to shunshin them over to Yakiniku Q, his control of the technique fine enough not to ruffle a single hair on Naruto's head, and ask for one of their private rooms to dine in. The Akimichi take that kind of thing seriously.

"Wasn't asking who the ANBU are, Hokage-sama."  Her nose is wrinkled in disappointment at him.  "Just if there's someone in charge of them that I'm allowed to know about."

...'Naruto' is going to enjoy the good food, before the conversation starts.

Otherwise the opportunity to eat might get thrown out the window by 'angry'.

And when the food is consumed...

"Does Konoha have a..."  She sounds out the syllables, "eu-gen-ics, program, Hokage-sama?"

"Where did you hear that word, Naruto?"

"The Kyūbi-no-Kitsune," she carefully pronounces, "said that 'an Uchiha with Senju flesh grafted on to them' killed my mom.  And that you would absolutely know about programs like this if they operated in Konoha.  And he said a name, too, when I asked.  And I said I thought that the Will of Fire couldn't possibly allow that sort of thing.  ...Am I wrong about that?"

On the one hand...  Her mama's dead and that's really sad and maybe Hokage-sama is a hypocrite which would mean that she's gotta let the fox out and that would be really sad because it'd mean that everyone dies.  On the other: Keep up, old man.

The fox is talking to Naruto and he's listening. That's just about the worst scenario imaginable, and even in retrospect it's hard to be sure what went wrong. No, actually, once he raises that question it's obvious; the seal in use may have been designed by Minato Namikaze, but it was an untested design, and the only one who had the skill to diagnose any problems has spent the last few years systematically avoiding the village as much as possible. If there was a flaw, it's entirely possible nobody would have noticed until now, and it's a stroke of immense fortune that Naruto trusts him enough to talk to him rather than fall for its lies. He needs Jiraiya back here yesterday, and he doesn't give a damn how busy his student claims to be.

"The Kyuubi is not trustworthy, Naruto. Everything it says and does is aimed solely at destroying as much as possible; it hates everything else alive except itself. It knows a lot, yes, but it's also a consummate liar, including here; it was the one who killed your mother when she gave birth to you. She was the one who contained it before you, and when you were born it seized advantage of her distraction to kill her. As for eugenics programs, Konoha does not and never has had one of those. Hashirama and Madara were the first to start the village system, and in addition to their own clans they had their pick of the best people to recruit. That's why Konoha has so many clans today, and why we've never tried to have a eugenics program, much less one like Cloud where we try and kidnap kids from other villages. We've also been lucky in that Tobirama was as upstanding an individual as his brother and never even considered it, but I won't deny that if we didn't have those advantages I might have had some concern about one of my successor's successors straying from the will of fire and trying something."

"Hokage-sama, I know it's not trustworthy.  It has an agenda and that is 'getting me to let it out so it can kill everybody'.  It hasn't disguised that.  But I'm equally sure that it's not trying to kill literally everything, because it's human enough to talk.  To form an opinion that the existing system of ninja killing everybody sucks and want things that aren't that.  To call me 'not the most irritating brat' it's ever been bound to.  To admit doubt.  ...Investigate Danzo Shimura, Hokage-sama.  Please.  The worst you'll find is nothing.  It thinks you won't find anything.  It thinks it makes more sense that Danzo has retired from doing whatever he might have been doing.  But it was pretty sure he did something, when it could still see anything - which I know it can't right now because it tried to bargain with me that it'd heal me when I got hurt if I let it see or hear or smell - and that that something wasn't at all in line with the Will of Fire.  ...It thinks that if we had more medi-nin they'd get sent to battlefields instead of going out to heal more civilians.  And it can't have been expecting to gain anything from telling me any of this, because it's not like it trusts you further than I can throw you and I've made it very clear that I owe the people of Konoha too much to just let them die because they live here.  Even if they're jerks, they haven't killed me."

"...And another thing!

"You know what the Kyūbi-no-Kitsune could have told me, and didn't?

"He could have told me that you killed my parents.  And even if Konoha wasn't killed by a fox in that moment it would never have been safe."

"I would hope," he says, quietly, "that if he had said that, you would have seen through his deception. Your parents were loyal ninja of Konoha to the last, and it was a great tragedy that they both perished that night. This is a common thread with lying, that they will teach you in the academy later; a skilled liar, once identified, does not give the lie that is most damaging to believe but rather the least damaging one that will accomplish what they wish to do. By its own unambitiousness it seeks to give itself credibility. Any time you hear yourself asking 'but what motive could they have to pick this lie,' that question is itself the motive.

"I am wary, even in small ways, of doing things just because the fox suggests them. I am not too proud to admit that it is more clever than I, and just because I cannot see the ends it's working for does not mean the trap is not waiting to be sprung. But I do not think it would be doing you a favor, to fob you off with platitudes when you think you have good reason to be suspicious that something is going wrong. That's an attitude we want to nurture in our ninjas, not crush, and it seems to me possible that such a reaction is in turn the fox's actual goal here. If this is what it would take, for you to feel confident that it seeks to deceive you... I will have Danzo Shimura quietly investigated, though I cannot promise you will be cleared to know the details of what it finds."

She nods.  "Thank you."

...Would he like a - it's too late, he's getting a hug now.

"'m sorry to - put you in a dilemma like this.  He's your friend, or so I'm told.  But - if he's really doing the things the Kyūbi thinks he's doing - thinks he has done...  You need to know, Hokage-sama.

"...I really hope that things are as simple as you think they are.  That it's just some impersonal force of destruction lying to me.  But there's too many details and they came out all wrong.  In the wrong order, in the wrong shape.  I -"

She hiccups a breath, waves an arm to hold the conversational flow in place while she gets things back together, and picks up where she left off.

"It was something about the boasts, really.  'I've shattered mountains, razed cities, burned forests, and', quote, 'even eaten a few of you gnats in my time.  Of all the monsters...I'm the strongest.'.  And maybe it's some perfect liar that can lie with its feelings and probably-chakra and whatnot, but - it seemed more proud of being strong, than - of hurting anything.

"And maybe it's just lying to me, or picking the most agenda-y truth, but...it kept coming back to the thing it hated about ninja, the thing that made it want to, quote, 'tear the system out by its roots', unquote, was that they kept killing eachother.

"I don't think that you can say that and mean it like I felt without it being...

"...At least real enough that I want to see if there's a chance we could be Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.  I -"

"The Kyūbi keeps saying it's enslaved.  It's not wrong, even though there's not a better solution available, considering all the murder.  But think about the things we could do, if Konoha managed to create mutual trust of a sort.  Breaking's easier than making, but...I keep imagining raising cities instead of razing them."

He hugs Naruto back. He's often restrained on what kind of comfort he can offer Naruto, while keeping their relationship unsuspicious to spies, but he's already paid the cost of having a secret conversation; the least he can do is give them one of the hugs they deserve.

"I won't lie to you Naruto, I am very nervous about the fact that it can freely talk to you; I didn't expect it would be able to, and I've sent a message to our best sealmaster - my student Jiraiya - to make sure everything is functioning properly and it's not a sign that the seal is breaking down. And I would like to warn you in the strongest terms that Bijuu have tricked ninjas with far more experience than you; this is a healthy respect for its capabilities, not a dismissal of your efforts. But if you do it safely and if you are careful and if you agree to immediately tell me or Jiraiya as soon as it seems like something even might have gone wrong, and to consult with us before making any changes, you may make an attempt. And just to be completely explicitly clear - if you break these rules, and then come tell us, we won't be mad at you or punish you. These rules are to keep you and everyone else safe, not because we want to hurt you if you get tricked. I don't want you to find yourself in a situation where it talks you into doing something you promised not to and then traps you unable to tell us without admitting to having done something wrong."

"Yes sir."  She nods, oh-so-dreadfully-seriously for such a tiny little kid.  "I promise, I will."

"Good." He smiles at Naruto, and ruffles their hair. "What do you say we go grab some dango?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea."

It's a little over a week before the promised expert makes his appearance.

"From the east! From the west! From the north! From the south! My name echoes from the four corners of the world, its owner's fame undeniable! The legendary toad sage of Mount Myōboku himself, Jiraiya of the Sannin!"

The man has long, white hair and red markers on his face, plus a headband that bears the kanji for Oil rather than the more normal Leaf that every other shinobi Naruto has met makes use of, but these details might seem to be a bit less important compared to the fact that he just appeared out of a puff of smoke on the back of an enormous toad to make this bombastic introductory speech.

"...Hi."

He deflates at that, though thankfully not literally, and the toad disappears in another puff of smoke.

"Sheesh, kids these days, no appreciation for art. Fine, to business then; I hear sensei told you I was coming?"

She was definitely surprised!  He saw her blink!  It's just, well, she's used to hiding her emotions.  It makes her less noticeable.  And it's better when people don't notice her.

In answer to the question, she nods.  "You're here to look at the seal and make sure it's not - leaking, or anything, right?  I have a lot of questions.  Like, I can feel it, I'm pretty good at feeling things, but I don't really know what each bit does and I don't wanna poke it wrong!  That would be bad!

"Also I really probably ought to talk to the Kyūbi-san anyway, 'cause of - stuff, and things, even if they're not really much - so I'm glad you're here to keep an eye on that?  It was pretty surprising when it happened and I wanna make sure I'm not gonna fall over and break my skull if I do it again?

"Um.  And I'd like to learn about sealing, Jiraiya-san?  If there's...time, I guess?  I've been practicing my calligraphy!"  She gives him her best angelic grin, hands respectfully clasped behind her back as she looks up at him.  "I just don't really know the other bits yet..."

(And the mask she's donned wobbles precariously, about to fall from 'happy to see him' directly to 'completely (and honestly) devastated' if he says a firm 'no'.  He wouldn't disappoint a child like that, would he?  (She knows he would, if he had to.  He's a legendary ninja.  She knows what that means, though she comes at knowing it from a different direction.  She just hopes he doesn't.  Because...he doesn't treat her like a monster.  He's treating her like a kid.  And she wants to hold on to that, for all it's worth.  There's so much she's already had to let go, for nothing more than her own birth.))

"Good instincts, kid, messing with seals is extremely dangerous when you don't know what you're doing. Now, I'd be one of the world's biggest hypocrites if I told you never to do it, but believe me, this is one of those cases where you should do as I say, not as I do. The seal was fine when I last checked it, but it's been years since then and Bijuu can be slippery customers when they feel like it. Now, as for teaching you sealing... I'm a busy man, you don't get to be a legendary ninja and a bestselling author without figuring out that time is precious. On the other hand..."

He pauses, rubbing his chin; his face is an exaggerated display of thinking.

"Well, you also don't become a legendary ninja and author without learning a thing or two about time management. I suppose I could take some time out of my busy schedule to show you a thing or two, if you demonstrate you know how to have patience."

He grins at Naruto.

"Now I'm going to need to see your stomach, okay kid? The Kyubi isn't actually physically inside there but for complicated metaphysical reasons that's where it's easiest to view seals affecting the chakra gate in question."

She has plenty of patience.  And a positively beaming grin.

And once either she's gotten Jiraiya to somewhere she won't bash her head open if she falls over, or he gets her somewhere - she hopes he has a laboratory or something for this; she doesn't - she can show him what he needs to see.  The seal as it normally is, to start off with.

(She barely says a word as she goes, not even in what few symbols she knows of ninja sign, moving with near-silent tread and preternatural awareness.)

Apparently he doesn't seem to think that's necessary, because when you're Jiraiya you can clap your hands and pull a stone table out of the ground and somehow have it be clean and comfortable to lie on (he might be showing of juuust a little bit).

When he looks at the seal, he starts out with it looking the way it normally does, but that doesn't last as he quickly demonstrates the ability to zoom in, out, rotate it in multidimensional space, and view separate portions at the same time alongside each other. Apparently the seal is a lot more complicated then it looks at first, which is impressive since it looks quite complicated. Once he gets into it, there's a bit of a running commentary.

"Damn, Minato, what the hell were you thinking? I know you were a genius, but seriously, who the heck taught you it was a good idea to make a self modifying chakra filter and - oh, that's why. Huh, I'll be damned. But doesn't that- no, the outer structure keeps it meta stable so it never diverges too far from acceptable values. I swear, Uzumaki seals are actual witchcraft half the time. Now how about the overflow channels, are those working properly..."

It takes him a good twenty minutes to satisfy himself, but eventually he returns it to the default state.

"I'm not seeing any issues with the individual structures; I think it's an intended emergent behavior I just didn't notice until it activated. But to be sure, I'm going to have to see what it looks like in action, which means taking a look at the liminal space in person. Now hold still please, this might tickle."

He then pulls out a brush and a pot of ink, and starts drawing something broadly circular around where the seal displays.

She holds still, as best she can; she breathes very steadily.  "I know I can take me there, I kind of - remember how it goes - is this so you can come along?"

"That's right. It's much easier for you, since the seal stabilizing the space is designed to respond to you, but I need to do it manually."

"Fuin!"

And they're both in the dark cavern, standing in front of the bars.

"What's this? Was my having to deal with one human not enough torment for you?"

"He's checking to make sure the seal's not going to explode.  Sorry, I meant to ask before he started, but things just sort of kept happening.  In more hopefully positive news, since I'm here anyway and it's not secret or anything - Sarutobi-sama told me that Konoha is not supposed to have a eugenics program of any sort; that neither Senju Hashirama nor Uchiha Madara felt that they needed one, and that Senju Tobirama stuck by that position, and, quote, 'if we didn't have those advantages I might have had some concern that my successor's successor might stray from the Will of Fire and try something'.  So he's looking into some of the things you mentioned, Kyūbi-san, 'cause of that, and 'cause I asked nicely.

"...while we're on the subject of people, though -

"...I just now realized...you must have known a lot about my mom?  And uh...I don't know anyone else I could ask to tell me about her.  Even if Sarutobi-sensei thinks you just wanna destroy everything."

"There are few things I would like less than to talk about your mother with you. She averaged easily thrice as annoying as you are at your worst; if you really insist on learning more about her, bug the toad you brought with you. He actually liked your parents."

"That's toad sage to you, furball," Jiraiya replies distractedly.

"The day I call you a sage is the day Naraka freezes over. Forget escaping samsara, as a ninja you were doomed there from the start, but you can't even balance natural energy properly without assistance because you're too busy running from your problems to master yourself."

"What- hey! I'm not here to take criticism from someone who spent the time to learn ninshu just so they could tell everyone how much they hate them."

"...Thank you anyway; you didn't have to tell me that."

"What's ninshu?"

"It's an ancient method of chakra manipulation that responds directly to the user's will. You'd think that would be an advantage, but it's actually an enormous pain in the ass; giving ninjutsu specific hand seals and training to standardize their output so you can perform on command is way more important than you'd think. The stuff takes forever to learn and is an enormous pain to use in a fight, so mostly only monks bother to learn anything beyond the basics, but apparently it's worth the time to spend however many years figuring it out just so you can more efficiently tell everyone in a 5 mile radius how much you despise them if you're the Kyubi no Kitsune."

She slow-blinks at him.

"It sounds like the flexibility could be worth it, once you actually know how to do things with chakra at all, just from your description alone.  Bending a technique a little to the left, and suchlike.

"...Not to mention whatever I'm sure Kyūbi-san is about to tell you you're an idiot for not noticing."

"...If you can use it to tell everyone in a five-mile radius how much you despise them, though, why do we always literally run messages?  I mean, I guess there's interception concerns...Or is that distance because of Kyūbi-san's sheer strength?  Er.  My apologies, Kyūbi-san, it was rude of me to talk about you like you're not here, but I am really curious."

"...Also, Jiraiya-san, if Kyūbi-san spent however long mastering a rather obscure technique, doesn't that mean he's more likely to know whatever it is you may or may not be messing up with whatever 'natural energy' is?  He's clearly been around for a while, to know all this stuff."

"If you want to learn how to edit your techniques on the fly, it's almost always going to be a better idea to practice that than learn some other more complicated skill that might make it easier to then pick up adjusting it. And as for messages, the way it was explained to me is that distance takes time, being discriminate in who you send to takes time, sending complicated ideas takes time, and by the point where you're looking at something that can fake telepathy you're looking at decades of investment. Much easier, more convenient, and more secure to use ninja runners and just borrow a loudspeaker for announcements. Far be it from me to dissuade you from picking up some trick nobody else knows to even expect you're capable of, but there are a dozen things I'd recommend before ninshu.

"And yeah, of course I'd be a better sage if I took a decade off to master myself, not like ma and pa don't say as much every time I summon them. It's just that Konoha can't afford for me to be out of the field that long."

"...I don't think Kyūbi-san said anything that meant you'd need to be out of the field, though, Jiraiya-san?  I think Kyūbi-san implied that this was a problem with the way you reacted to stuff?  Not about some sort of actual technique problem.  Not that I know much about whatever natural energy is, beyond 'it's probably not chakra' and maybe 'it's related to sage-ness' - but still.  You can think anywhere."

"Spycraft is one of the worst places in the world to have a split focus, kid, right up there with sealing research and active combat. Taking a couple days off once in a while to run errands for sensei is one thing, especially when I can work it around my schedule, but with the kind of time and focus I'd need to get anywhere I doubt I could be even half as effective even with the commute to Myōboku as easy as it is.

"..."

She fixes him with a Look.  It is a Look that says 'I expected better from you (even if I don't know why.)'.

"You can think anywhere, Jiraiya-san.  And if you're so busy you don't have time to think, that's...not good.  Split focus is better than not being able to focus, ne?  But if you were that busy - why does Sarutobi-sama believe you have enough free time and effort to run errands for him?"

Jiraiya winces. "Thought I'd escaped those eyes when the brat got too old for them to work," he mutters, barely audible to Naruto's ears. Then he shakes himself, making a valiant attempt at rallying.

"I'm busy, but anything involving the fox is something else entirely. Last time he got loose, we lost a third of the village and the hokage died, and nobody else really has the expertise to check over Minato's work."

...She's gonna give him a hug.

"'m sorry.  Should've - I don't know what."

It was her fault that that happened, after all.  (As far as she knows.)

...She doesn't know what she'd do if a third of the village and Hokage-sama died overnight, now that she can experience things.  She's...trying to comprehend death.  But it's hard.  The idea that there is a time when people stop existing...  It's kind of terrifying.  Most of her life is a lot more constant.

Jiraiya will gingerly return the hug. It's no that he doesn't know full well how they're supposed to work so much as the person he's hugging that makes it awkward, but it's hardly Naruto's fault that he has issues and he's not the kind of person to take his problems out on a kid. What would he do if it was Minato- no, that thought still hurts too much. What would sensei do here?

"There, there. That's what I'm here to make sure doesn't happen. And I still need to check the last bits, but I'm pretty sure that this is intended behavior, for whatever reason, not a sign that the whole thing is coming down."

She nods.  "I thought so too."

"If you want to be obnoxious, you can do it somewhere I don't have to see and hear you. The one virtue of this prison is that I don't have to listen to you mortals yammering all the time, and right now I don't even get that."

"Yeah, yeah, big scary fox demon wants to take a nap."

He'll absentmindedly scoop up Naruto with one arm as he stands up to finish his examination, which takes him a few more minutes to accomplish.

"There's no flaws that I can see with it, which is about as good as I'm going to get. I'll have to make time to give it another look some time later to make sure it's staying that way, but there's nothing for it now."

Then he does something and suddenly Naruto is back in their body on the rock, with Jiraiya standing over them.

"...I suspect you might have seen something like what I think I saw about them, as well, if you are willing to treat them like a cranky toddler."

(She tries to send 'apology (for all of that)' to the Kyūbi.  ...Like, seriously, though, would you not feel like shit if your birth was somehow related to half your friends' friends having died and the death of your parents?)

If that actually works/gets a response, though, she really must ask if the Kyūbi...has... any parents.  The ninja books on that subject are clearly lost in their own genjutsu, after all.

(If the Kyuubi notices her message, he doesn't deign to respond in any way she can hear.)

"I can't say refusing to take enemies seriously has never backfired on me, but what's the point of being strong if you don't have more fun that way? Getting to be one of the strongest ninjas in the world has its perks. If he was free it'd be a different story, but he's not, so."

Jiraiya shrugs.

"Any questions come to mind, or should I go reassure sensei and get him to stop wearing a hole in the hokage tower carpets?"

"...What sort of questions would you ask you, if you were me?"

"If this happened to me at your age, I'd have wasted no time running off to do something that involved less sitting still, and let the questions hang. If you need to do that I won't be offended, I asked you to sit still for a while and you did a great job at it, but if you take more after my old teammate Oro you'd have a dozen questions you're just dying to ask. I don't think there's anything you need to know that you don't, since sensei says you're a sensible kid who's not going to go poking at the seal to see what'll happen, but curiosity and need aren't always the same thing."

That gets him a giggle, though it's a bit...hollow.

"Actually, I do have a couple of questions.  Kyūbi-san offered that he would - let me use his chakra to heal?  He said heal me with his chakra, I'm not really sure how that would work in practice but it's what he said - if I let him share one of my senses.  Is that something that can actually happen, first off, and second off, I'm thinking about how I'd wanna do that and I have a couple ideas for - fairness' sake - and a desire to make sure I can make sure he won't be looking while I'm in the bathroom, and I'm not sure I would be able to figure out how to do that all on my own?  ...Not that I think he'd care about that last bit but it's the principle of the thing to not let anyone peek!"

"It should definitely be possible; you're the one holding him there, which includes the ability to control how much access he has. Be very sure about making those kind of deals though; the seal will adapt to different amounts of energy flow, but if you free him enough he'll just be able to break it the rest of the way himself. Regeneration like that is very useful for ninjas but as an Uzumaki you should already heal better than average. As for hedging him out, your best bet is to make it part of the agreement. Deals are important when it comes to spiritual contracts, and while the seal isn't exactly that there's similarities; if you're not holding up your end of a deal with him preventing him from exercising it becomes way harder."

She nods.  "I'm gonna take some time and think it over.  But...I do think I'm gonna make that deal.  If I'm gonna prove to him that ninjas aren't entirely incapable of good...I'm gonna need it.  'cause I don't really think a lot of people will like that plan."

"Sensible, always a good idea to think over big decisions even when you think you know the answer. Good luck, kid."

He then ruffles Naruto's hair for a moment, and disappears in a puff of smoke.

...Well, that sure did happen.

What now?

...Writing up an agreement, maybe?

That seems...reasonable.

How do bigger nin usually handle stuff like that?  She'll go...look that up real quick.  The library doesn't lie to her.

...Wow, legal stuff is complicated!

So is medi-nin stuff but that's something she was expecting.

Agreement (Draft) between Kyuubi-no-Kitsune and Uzumaki Naruto

Statement of Purpose: Kyuubi-no-Kitsune desires to be able to experience the world.  Uzumaki Naruto desires the assistance of Kyuubi-no-Kitsune in healing wounds.  The Kyuubi-no-Kitsune has previously expressed a desire to trade access to one of Uzumaki Naruto's senses for the said assistance in healing; Uzumaki Naruto has certain privacy concerns but is amenable to the concept in principle.

Therefore, Uzumaki Naruto proposes the following:

1) Let the terms 'day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second', and 'time' mean their natural language equivalents,

2) Let the terms 'use-day', 'use-hour', 'use-minute', 'use-second', and 'use-time' mean '(exercise of) the right to access one of Uzumaki Naruto's senses for an equivalent period of time',

3) Let 'sense' refer to the following senses, as single units:

  a. Sight,

  b. Hearing,

  c. Smell and Taste,

  d. Touch, Proprioception, and Interoception,

4) Let 'healing' mean 'activities necessary for the care and treatment of wounds, illnesses, maladies, or other conditions detrimental to health, including but not limited to poison and starvation',

5) Let the agreement be as follows:

  a. The Kyuubi-no-Kitsune will grant access to their chakra, and as necessary assist in shaping chakra, to enable Uzumaki Naruto to augment their healing,

  b. Uzumaki Naruto will grant access to their senses to the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune, under the following rules:

    i) Use-time will accrue at a one to one ratio with the passage of time,

    ii) Use-time may be expended to access one sense at a one to one ratio of use-time expended to time spent with access to that sense, and may be expended for multiple senses at a time,

    iii) Should space-time jutsu or perceptual distortion sufficiently obscure the passage of sidereal time as to render the accrual of use-time uncertain, use-time shall accrue according to the passage of time as perceived or measured by best efforts, but upon return to an environment or state in which the passage of time is not affected by said jutsu or distortion, any reserved use-time shall be capped to the amount of sidereal time passed plus twenty-four hours,

    iv.) Uzumaki Naruto reserves the right to bar access to the sense of sight for any duration, and to all senses for no more than an hour per day without additional negotiation.

  c. Uzumaki Naruto may grant exceptions to the above rules at their discretion, including but not limited to unilateral grant of use-time or access to senses without expenditure of use-time.

  d. Kyuubi-no-Kitsune may grant access to their chakra for purposes not outlined above at their discretion.

  e. Kyuubi-no-Kitsune and Uzumaki Naruto may make further agreements trading in use-time.

  f. Uzumaki Naruto may not force the expenditure of use-time by any means.

  g. Uzumaki Naruto may not force Kyuubi-no-Kitsune to access their senses, save as is necessary to perform healing or determine whether healing is necessary.

...There, that should do it.  Now how can she show it to...

...Well, that would be simple.

She attempts to pull the Kyuubi's attention to what she's looking at - the agreement she has in mind.

Unfortunately, he can't see through her eyes without an agreement or being significantly more loose than he already is; it's not that he's completely blind to what's going on around her, but what he experiences doesn't really count as vision, particularly for the purposes of reading text. No matter how she tugs on him, that doesn't change, but anchored as he is if she keeps tugging from the right angle it feels almost like she's pulling herself towards him, like she does when she goes to visit his cage.

...Sure.  She can work with that.

Then once again she will find herself in front of an enormous cage.

"What is it this time? More visitors to bother me with?"

"I, uh, no, and I'm sorry about the surprise last time, and the bothering too really...Um, I was thinking about that offer you made, and I thought it was a good idea but I wanted to make sure I could keep you from - peeking in the bath or something - so I wanted to have some rules and I wanted to make sure we could be on the same page about them and I wanted them to be fair and hopefully ar-bi-tra-ble, so I started looking at how the older people do it, and uh, contracts are complicated?  -- oh no I forgot to do a penalty clause!  For me, not for you, you've got enough problems.  Umm I'll be right back -"

She vanishes from the Kyuubi's cell, and inserts a subclause after c.

    i.) In the event that no negotiation can successfully occur, after the first hour, there shall be an accrual of use-time equal to three times the time spent in breach.  In a situation as described by section 5.b.iii (Space-time jutsu and perceptual distortions), such penalty use-time accrues separately, up to an amount equal to three times the cap calculated in that section.

And then she's back.

"There!  Uh.  Hm.  Now that I'm thinking about some of this I'm worried about, like, possession and stuff, and how that might interact with...like, any of this.  Or bloodline thieves, like, I heard the Hyuuga do some weird sealing thing to 'branch family' members so nobody can steal their eyes, and even if we manage to actually successfully disguise me as somebody who doesn't have a fox demon sealed inside her, someday, that might go badly, if they try to figure out what's going on and go try taking 'the part of me that regenerates' for transplanting or...something...  I kind of got sidetracked by the introductory medi-nin textbooks.  ...Where's a seal master when you need him?  I gotta know if you're, stuck to my body or stuck to my soul.  Because this space is really weird with how I feel like I'm different in it, but Jiraiya got in with physical access to me, and I didn't see him collapse, like I heard the Yamanakas do if they do deep dives or whatever with their special mind-viewing thingy, and you don't have an external physical form probably, but there was something about my mom's pregnancy being bad for the last seal and I dunno if that's different with this one?

"...Oh no..."

She seems to be suddenly - grieving?

"Um, Kyuubi-san, is there anything we could do to make being stuck in here more comfortable than...uh, being stuck in a cage?  Like, I can't...  You've been in something like this for so long that...

"Okay I'm not actually sure what I can and can't do in here, or outside, but...I could maybe try and make it not so...

"I don't think we treat enemy nin this bad!  You're just, stuck in a cage in the dark forever!  And it's all metal-y!  Even the torturer cells have gotta have, like, cots and stuff!  Not that that makes them any less, uh...prison cells where you put people you're planning on torturing.  I really don't get why people do that.  It seems...kinda counterproductive.  'cause I know if somebody was threatening me with," she carefully enunciates, "grievous bodily harm, or, even worse, actually hurting me, I'd either want to stab them really hard and therefore not give them anything whatsoever, or just focus on telling them what they want to hear so they'll stop rather than bothering to tell them particularly true things.  It's - I've used the second strategy before, let's put it that way.  I haven't been tortured though.  I think.  I dunno why I thought you might want to know that.  Just...Sometimes people say stupid stuff and the easiest way to get them to shut up is to fake --"

She sighs.

"Konoha isn't very nice when you start looking closer.  It's just nicer than average.  But wrecking Konoha means that the even meaner villages will do more awful things.  I'd like to help you make ninja stop being awful to people, you know?  It's just that...The plan of trying to kill them all is a stupid plan.  Because it won't work.  There's too many of them to take on alone, or even with - your brothers and sisters?  The other Tailed Beasts.  Because even nine of you can't really...

"The hidden villages would just scatter some more - numerous enough that you couldn't chase all of them, powerful enough they'd still pose a threat.  That's how ninja work, really.  Or uh.  The tactics books say that, at least.  Not sure how much the idea works out in practice with all the big stompy household names being big and stompy and also pretty visible.  ...Like you, actually.  Huh.  But like.  Seriously, you can't burn away the line of thought that lead us to Hidden Villages by making ninja need to hide better - that would just...

"Make the survivors more desperate.  More willing to do horrible things, to survive.  'Cause being a horrible thing unto others usually means they'll do horrible things to you and anyone they think might support you, if they think it'll make you stop.  I think.  I'm kinda guessing, and that wasn't quite what I wanted to say.  But ninja don't give up that easy and surely you must know that.  You weren't always sealed like this.  ...And there's already evidence that your plan wouldn't work: missing-nin.  Sneaky ninja that aren't even on a village's leash, even if the Hidden Villages themselves also suck.  How are you proposing to stop that with a destructive rampage?"

"Idiot child, this prison you're seeing is a metaphor, a representation of the seal's restraints upon me. There isn't actually metal grafted to the boundary of your soul. As for your concerns... there isn't any ninja, alive or dead, that can hide from me. For you the villages seem like a permanent fixture, but I was there long before Konoha came about and I'll be there long after they're gone and forgotten - whether by my hands or their own."

"...Well duh.  It still looks like it's more uncomfortable than necessary, though.  And my concern with your plan isn't that you couldn't find one village.  It's that no matter how good you are at finding villages, you can't wreck all of them at once, and you'd need to.  Otherwise you'll never be able to catch all of them, because they'll all scatter if it looks like that's the best plan to survive."

There's a deep rumbling sound almost beyond hearing, like the suggestion of a mocking laugh on an unimaginable scale.

"The rats may flee from me all they wish, but ninja as fast as your fourth are the exception, and I won't make the mistake of letting any Uchiha slip away again. That cursed line will end for good, and everyone else will simply die tired. There is a reason that jinchūriki like you are hailed as strategic assets by your silly villages despite how little of our power you have access to."

"...Why're they cursed?"

"They brought it upon themselves."

"...But how?"

There's a deep rumbling noise of annoyance, and the fox's tails begin to gyrate behind them as Naruto learns what it's like to be subject to the glare of an entity with eyes larger than her entire body. Suddenly it's very clear that for all their evident strength, these bars are the only thing between her and an entity as powerful as her entire village, and that its claims of annoyance might not have been entirely bluster. Either by due to some component of the seal or action of the fox, she can't feel the weight of its presence, but there's nonetheless a feeling buzzing in the back of her teeth; almost like the water line receding before a wave.

"...I know it's obvious to you, Kyūbi-sama.  There's a lot of things that are.  But it's really not obvious to me - like the thing with Jiraiya, I still don't know what natural energy is besides 'probably not chakra' - and if you're saying things like 'one of the biggest clans in Konoha is cursed' - I want to take that seriously, but even though I think I actually do trust you, despite the, uh, reasons I shouldn't - I need more information, on - who and how and why, and all the other stuff like that - to actually act on what you're saying is true."

"And I am not just some hapless oracle to answer every question about Indra's folly that strikes your pitiful mind for the joy of your learning. You may be my jailer, for now, but don't make the mistake of overestimating yourself."

"...Of course not, Kyūbi-sama.  I'm sorry for letting my questions run away with me.  I will do better to restrain them in the future."

She seems...a little bit sad, but the shutdown feels like a familiar pain.  One she's used to.  One that she doesn't really notice anymore.  One that positively has a script for how it goes.

(She is just a child.  That she has apparently learned all the politenesses necessary to deliver a formal apology for having too many questions at her age and rendered it rote is...probably bad.)

She also files that little nugget of information about 'Indra' - "responsible for Uchiha being cursed?  It was described as a folly" - that the Kyūbi let slip away in her brain for later.

"I did come here for a reason, and I shouldn't forget it - I've written up a proper contract for what you offered me a little while ago, and I want to let you take a look at it.  And if it's good, we can do it, and if it's bad, we can probably work something out?  I know I'm not supposed to tell you this, it's, like, bad business practice, but I want to give you a chance to see the world.  I'd get really pissed off about being locked up in a cage that doesn't even have any windows too, and I don't wanna hurt people like that.  Not if there's something I can do about it.  And I can do something, so I wanna do something."

...Does she...have that lever?  Surely she must.

"...Iiiii'm just going to figure out how to actually do this real quick.  Eheh."

It takes a bit of doing; what you have with you in a mindscape has a lot more to do with your perceptions than what you look like outside, and Naruto does not have an especially strong self conception of being 'a person who carries this contract with me.' Still, she does remember physically carrying it, which helps. The first few tries that successfully manage a scroll are covered in gibberish rather than words, but if she keeps at it sooner or later she'll find herself with her writing in her hands.

"...Rrright.  There we go.  Uh, I don't know if you can read, actually, but - if you can, here's the agreement I was hoping you'd agree to?  For sharing my senses in exchange for help with healing."

What in the seven realms? Does she think this is a court of law, to slip something past him to her advantage if she decides to word things in a needlessly confusing manner to obfuscate her goals? If so, more fool she; such a trick with the exact letter of the agreement might suffice with a minor spirit, but while the seal will certainly prevent him from taking anything he's offered the only bound to hold up his own end is his pride. He scans over it anyway, in case her purpose becomes clear, but when nothing seems evident he snorts.

"Still spending ten words to do the work of one, I see. How typical of mortals; for creatures with so little time, you certainly have the strangest priorities. Very well; the bargain is struck."

...Well.  Yes, actually, she did think that she could do something like that and be a nigh-inexhaustible medic-nin.  But also she wanted to make the agreement be, feel - sufficiently real to herself, the Kyuubi, and everyone else.

Anyway.  Now she needs to hold up her end.  Seal, do the thing?  Pretty please?

"I am kind of trying to demonstrate to others that you're a person.  Forces of pure destruction don't do contracts."

"You underestimate your kind. They will believe whatever is convenient for them to believe, as they always do."

It's not as though believing him both so intelligent a conservationist to not be permitted speech and a mindless beast produced the slightest cognitive dissonance, nor any of the other prejudices humans loved to cling to in the face of all evidence. When the deal goes through, however, he's distracted from his thoughts by the sensation. It's not freedom, not more than the barest imitation thereof, but between the various seals used to bind him and the hateful eyes he's had precious little of the stuff recently, and even this pale reflection is a relief.

"...I can't say that you're wrong.  They treat me like I'm one of Sand's nin-puppets rather than a person, half the time, and I'm not sure what's worse.  But the thing is, we can change what's convenient for them to believe.  And I'm gonna darn well try when I get bigger.  'm trying now, but like...I'm a kid so it's easy to say I'm wrong because they think I don't know anything.  Which is dumb when I spend most of my time in the library, but I haven't found anything obvious to rub their faces in yet.  If the thing about Danzo-sama turns out, though...  Maybe we'll start getting somewhere."

He hasn't had any optimism about humans in almost a millennium, but he's made his point on that score several times over. As for how she spends her free time... well, part of him wishes she would spend more of it in forests now that he has some access to her senses, but the ones they have in Konoha make a mockery of the idea of wilderness and frankly the reminder of what he can't have might make it more painful anyway. He's certainly not going to stoop to asking for it.

"I suppose there are worse hobbies you could have."

"...Anyway.  Uh.  Anything you want to look at, if I have the chance?  If not, I guess I'll go...do whatever I would otherwise have been doing."

"There is not."

And even if it were in her power to show him something he would genuinely enjoy rather than feeling bittersweet about, he certainly would not give her the leverage.

"...Alright.  Let me know if there is something you want to see, 'kay?  I may be keeping you stuck in here but - that doesn't mean I have to be like....how most of Konoha treats me, about it."

And she resurfaces from the seal-space, feeling...

Honestly, mentally exhausted and wanting to see a friendly adult, but it's not like the Hokage could or should drop everything he's doing to see to her.

She's just going to wander around, instead, or something.

Maybe go stare at the Uchiha for a while, because, like...they're cursed apparently, and that's weird?  They're, like, occasionally nice to her.  She doesn't get how that's got anything to do with curses.

They certainly don't look cursed! They're not exactly universally beloved, but that seems easily explained by the fact that they're police officers, and many of the shopkeepers seem happy about their presence in pretty much the same way they aren't happy about hers.

...Sheeeee now has more questions to ask Hokage-sama when she has a chance.

Like 'Why are all our police Uchiha and nobody else is police', and 'did you know that apparently they're cursed, I didn't get much out of Kyubi-san before he got tired of answering my questions but like apparently they're totally cursed', and '...wait a minute, who's Indra, again?  Like he's totally gotta be important if he can curse the Uchiha...'

...Also 'when was this Indra supposedly involved in something that cursed the Uchiha', for that matter.

Maybe she will have to ask an Uchiha something.

She's not sure.

Just walking up to one at random and going 'Hi, uh, do you know why the demon fox said you're cursed, and who's Indra anyway'...is a bad plan.

It's just the only one she has right now.  Well, the only one that she can actually pull off without knowing nin stuff.  Sneaking into their archives or whatever might tell her things but she can't do that yet.  ...Not that she's going to do this, either, it's just the only plan she could make.

There aren't a lot of ways for Naruto to get news. She has no parents to tell her, no circle of friends to breathlessly talk about what they heard from their parents, no older acquaintances inclined to gossip uncaring of who hears them, and certainly doesn't have a subscription to any of the newspapers permitted to publish in Konoha. Despite all that, for once she's scarcely delayed behind those who do, if only because it would be practically impossible not to hear about it. It's not every day that Orochimaru of the Legendary Three, beloved war hero and suspected by some of being the future Godiame, flees the village pursued by Anbu. It's not very often that someone successfully escapes the Anbu, either. The day after the it's hard to go five minutes without someone espousing their own guesses as to what could have happened, and the lack of official story only feeds the flames of rumors.

You presume she can't eavesdrop like a talented amateur.  She's a ninja.

...Anyway.  That's...

Odd.

She hopes the Hokage is going to show up soon; she has some followup questions.

The hokage does not show up to visit her promptly! Perhaps more worrying is his lack of public appearances in general; the day after the attack he made a speech in public asking people to remain calm and report anything suspicious to the ANBU, so he's presumably still alive, but the Hokage tower has been on lockdown and he hasn't been seen on his usual walking route or sitting down to restaurants either.

Rumors start filtering around about Orochimaru having betrayed Konoha for a Iwa or Kumo, about him having murdered some of his fellow Konoha ninja, about him having done unethical experimentation, about him having been a pedophile - the more disturbing, the more popular. To Naruto's good fortune, at least none of those rumors seem to involve the fox.

That's...

Actually mixed news, really.

...Damn it all, if she wants information she's going to have to either sneak into Hokage Tower, or tell somebody a secret.

...She's gonna ask the Kyuubi for advice on which.

This is probably a stupid plan, but some advice is probably better than no advice, and clearly the Kyuubi knows chakra stuff!

So after there is no Sarutobi Hiruzen plucking her out of the audience on the day of the speech, she settles into a thinking pose that is also a meditative one, and pulls herself into the seal-space.

"...Kyuubi-san.  You heard about the Orochimaru thing, right?  I...can't see how it couldn't be connected to the tip you gave me, which is good, but...

"I dunno.  I feel like it's not over.  I mean not even accounting for the bit where Orochimaru is absolutely going to go missing-nin.  Which.  That's.  Bad.  If we run into him at some point, and he's not mind-controlled - if he did a tenth of what the gossip says, uh...You can probably eat him if you want.  I certainly won't stop you.

"But...

"It doesn't make sense.  The sort of stuff you're saying he would have had to have done, to have the Sharingan - and mokuton! -

"That takes time, doesn't it?  And the Sannin are - were - pretty busy with stuff that doesn't seem like it could possibly work around an evil-science schedule.

"...So I guess what I'm asking is if you wanna help me make sure Konoha chased off the right bad guy.  Since he hurt you too.

"Right now I'm thinking there's two ways to go about this.  One of them is figuring out if the Uchiha or their records can narrow down potential Sharingan thefts.  The other is pestering the Hokage.  But both of them are gonna need me to be better at sneaking than I am right now and they won't let me look at the useful books yet.  So, uh.  I was maybe hoping you might want to help.  Which is silly, because you don't want to, ne?  But I feel like I'd've really messed up if it turns out you do want to help with this for whatever reason.  So...do you?"

"If your village is foolish enough to tear itself apart without even involving its enemies, I don't see why I should help you stop it."

"Because Konoha wants to stop the people who ...genjutsu'd? you, about as much as you do - and they can't do that if they're busy infighting."

"None of these fools have the slightest chance of managing it even if they weren't, either. He fought your precious Yondiame - do you really think his predecessor will have better luck?" 

The toad managing it would be... not impossible, but he has no intention of crediting that blasphemous fool in the slightest. He'll simply have to defeat the damnable Uchiha himself when next he wins his freedom.

"Oh, probably not alone he couldn't.  But there's a few things that are different about being ambushed while your wife's giving birth and ambushing someone who has no reason to believe anyone even knows what they look like with a squad of ninja that could probably give you a run for their money at their back.  Teamwork!  It solves problems!  And we have a Sealmaster.  Not to mention a bunch of angry Uchiha, for what that's worth; they hate eye thieves."

That's hardly the most compelling pitch he's ever heard - for one thing, he hates the rest of the Uchiha very nearly as much as the one who last stole his freedom, and for another he's far from convinced that such a force could succeed regardless of his help. It's not as though the Yondiame or his wife weren't seal masters themself, with plenty of time to secure the location for Naruto's birth ahead of time, and neither they nor any of the squads of Anbu assisting them had proven up to the task. Still, it's not as though he has much to lose here, and if he can arrange things so that the masked man dies dealing Konoha an injury, he would count it as a victory.

"What, then, are you proposing?"

"..." There's a part of her that's already spitting out plans, but...  "I, uh, I don't exactly know yet; I didn't expect I'd get this far.  But...  If nothing else, your help in figuring out the assassin's - means, motive, and opportunity? - could go a long way.  This stuff doesn't normally come out of nowhere but Konoha was surprised.  Which is, frankly, scary as - whatever - because we're supposed to be ninja.  Knowing what the enemy's planning to do before they do it is, like, the whole hat of being...whatever it is ninja are supposed to be.  Not the flashy power contests."  She's positively dripping with loathing of her own upon the subject.  "...Like it's cool that, say, Senju Hashirama could grow entire forests, or whatever, but...

"It's not sneaky at all.  And we're supposed to be Hidden Villages!  Do people not know how to read?!"

"It's naught but a reflection of their arrogance; as though a village of ninja could be hidden anyway without their twisted karma serving as a beacon for anyone with eyes to see. As for the motive, is it not obvious? There is nothing that you humans would not do for power."

"...I mean, the power to do something about shit you don't like is something I'd spend a lot on, like, I want to put a stop to Bloody Mist someday, not that I really expect I'll get the chance - but...What's the point of power without purpose?  If I'm...gonna be Hokage some day, or something - I gotta know what the heck I'm going to do with the entire village's lives placed in my hands.  Or else it's just...

"Pointless to pretend I have the position - that the position is even one worth having, if it's something easily occupied by nothing in a person-shape.

"I just don't get why people...

"...I mean, I'm clearly talking about something you have a lot more experience with than I do.

"...it's hard to not do that, I mean, I'm a kid.  Even if I'm 'mature for my age' precisely because of these people and my trying to keep up with the way people treat you.  But that's something you really hate too, huh.  People who just...

"Value their belief in their superiority above all reason and make other people's lives awful because of it.  Not even because of the demon thing most of the time.  I saw someone being mean to - I mean, didn't you see that shopkeeper being awful to old lady Washimoto last week?  Before I distracted them.  ...I should probably be more concerned about that being a thing my existence does to people than I actually am, but I guess it did something good this time...."

He doesn't have any similar concerns; for all that he is far stronger than any human, he benefits from the surety of purpose that comes from having wrestled with these questions centuries ago.

"Power to do something, certainly, but time and time again mortals have shown they lack the slightest regard about what sort they use. No matter what goal they tell themselves they have set out to achieve, you'll find humans are willing to embrace whatever methods they think will supply themselves that power, and ninjas are among the worst of them. No, if you wish to determine who your mysterious traitor is, you'll need to focus on the other two prongs - who was capable of it, and who wouldn't have been caught trying."

"Mhm.  Which is why, and I'm sure you're about to tell me that this is a terrible idea, but - I think we should probably talk to the Uchiha.  Because it's their spooky eyes that fucked us over, but - clearly not by their whim.  So the question is, whose eyes does this guy have to begin with?"

They're right, it is a terrible idea. Unfortunately, he's knows all too well that being aware something is a terrible idea is not enough by half to stop a human from doing it so long as they can convince themselves their other options are worse. Still, if there's one benefit to the damnable shinigami's bindings, it's that the isolation they enforce offers him some measure of protection against the eyes of misery. Not so good as being able to slay the offending ninja, perhaps, but a protection all the same. 

"His eyes possessed the power of the kaleidoscope, but there are no shortage of such fools to have come from that accursed people."

"...The power of what now?  There's more than their copy-nin...  Stuff?  And the genjutsu affinity..."

She looks rather taken aback.

"The power of the kaleidoscope. A Uchiha who slays their own kin may burn their life from both ends in exchange for temporary power."

There's no hiding the disgust in his words.

"...Okay, those words made slightly more sense than just the kaleidoscope thing, but also, what?  How?  Why?  What does it even do?  Why does it necessarily involve kinslaying?  ...How the expletive did they even find that out to begin with?  The more I hear about this, the more I am convinced that they are absolutely cursed, because what in the Sage's name is wrong with these people's magic eyes?"

"If you're still so eager to talk with the Uchiha, you can ask them yourself."

"Kyūbi-san, what I'm eager to do is track down the person that killed my mother and father and hurt you.  Or - no.  Not even eager, really.  Just - terrified enough that they'll come back for another go at - whatever it was they wanted your power for - that any knowledge of our enemy feels like hope that I'll get to have a future, even if I shouldn't let myself have any such thing.  I'm, like, six.  I know nothing about, like, anything chakra-related, except the sort of basic 'it exists' things; they're 'not for little kids' according to the librarians and I'm not good enough to get around them yet.  I'm not gonna survive an S-ranked nin's farts if they decide they want me dead, and, well, they probably will, eventually.  ...and...  ...I don't know why they did this at all, but...I doubt they have good intentions if they felt the need to compel you into something you'd have done anyway, and they'd have known you would have done anyway - given what even the least informed people know of bijuu.  It's just that I think that the path to enough information about this guy to actually know him as more than what you remember from one incident - enough to track them down and put a stop to whatever it is they wanted a mind-whammied bijuu for - is gonna have to go through the Uchiha clan leadership, with the angle of the eyes, or the Hokage, for...I hope he has something... neither of whom I can even talk to right now, Hokage-sama being sequestered and me not even knowing any Uchiha, and...I need help.  You're the only person I can think of who might give it."  ...She blinks back the beginnings of a full-on bawl.  "...I don't even know why I believe in you that much, but apparently I do."

"...Sorry about that," she finishes, with a distressing amount of sincerity.

Despite all his centuries of experience, he doesn't exactly have a script for dealing with crying children. He would kill them when they were in the way, yes, but outside of him meting out judgment people usually knew to keep their children well enough away from him. He doesn't like her, much less enough to help her for her own sake, but there's nothing to be gained by being cruel either; instead he sits there in a somewhat awkward silence, thinking.

"There is another option," he finally allows. "You could leave. Even without releasing me, my power is more than sufficient to destroy any who would stop you. Simply go far enough that none of those who seek you could find you."

And if Konoha resists her leaving strongly enough he gets to decimate it on the way out, well. Perhaps he could multitask.

...Okay, now she's crying, for real.

"...I think there are some problems with that plan," she says, when she's gotten most of the tears and hitched-silent sobs and sniffles over with, "but...thank you.  For offering it.  Especially when you really don't have to - probably shouldn't - let me borrow your power, if I'm going to go all missing-nin about it.  ...If things got so bad here I couldn't stay, if it was Konoha that was the real problem, I'd probably just release you straight out, to be honest.  If Konoha had so broken from the Will of Fire that I stopped believing in it.  But...  Running away from this problem in particular can't solve it, because we don't know where the scary guy came from or where he went, and I don't even know how to break a genjutsu if he catches me somewhere.  Let alone deal with whatever else the eyes can do.  Or the mokuton.  The only way out of this seems like it's gotta be through.  I just...need to figure out how I'm gonna get through.  's complicated to talk to important people when you're their dirty little secret at best, for the Hokage, and, like, no relation whatsoever, on the other hand.  I could maybe try 'I think I might have learned things that the wider Konoha maybe shouldn't know, and want to be sure I don't carelessly spread clan secrets' to get my foot in the door..."  She seems to actually have something like a plan, now.  "Which, by the way, thank you for telling me.  I think it's really going to help.  Even if it's not secret, it's gonna...Look better, if I actually believe what I'm saying."

He could break the sharingan's genjutsu on her, and indeed any other genjutsu he pleased, but it would require her to grant him more freedom than she has and for him to have a reason to do it. Moreover, making such an offer would be if anything more reason for her to go to the Uchiha, and there's still a chance she'll think better of it. 

"Very well."

"...Thank you, again, Kyūbi-san, for your counsel.  It's probably not something you care about much, but...you really did help."

And now, it is time for her to find a vaguely important-looking Uchiha.  While avoiding eye contact.  She's pretty sure that's a thing with Sharingan-genjutsu, for whatever reason.

It's not that easy to just walk into the Uchiha compound, but even with Naruto being who she is there's an easy guess for why a little kid would be wandering around staring at the ground. One of the Uchiha on gate duty appears next to her in a swirl of leaves.

"Hey kid, are you lost?"

"...mmmno.  I don't really know where I should be going, but that's not being lost.  But I was hoping I could speak to someone?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

It's not really part of his job description at the moment, but what the heck, it's not like he's busy.

"I'm - not really sure yet.  And I'm not sure how much of what I'd need to tell you to explain should be kept private.  But there's probably definitely some of that.  I don't think any specifics of Sharingan power levels are public."

"And you think you know something you shouldn't?"

It's a bit of a weird phrasing, especially referring to it as a Sharingan's power level, but maybe someone blabbed about something without paying attention to their surroundings or something; it wouldn't be the first time, though it's not exactly common. Or maybe the kid's just wrong, or playing pretend, but humoring them doesn't really harm anything.

"Mm.  I think I know something that maybe the rest of Konoha doesn't need to.  Whether I need or don't need to know is a more complicated question.  Thus the wanting to talk to somebody."

That's an even weirder way to phrase it.

"Alright, how about we get out of the street, and then you can tell me all about it."

He's not going to bring them into the compound proper, but there's a little room for the guards to sit while they're on gate duty with one way glass out and it should be plenty to assuage them of whatever they're worried about.

Sure, that's reasonable.  Even if she's gonna get hives from her nerves at being in a secondary location.  ...Not literally.

"...Does 'the power of the kaleidoscope', in connection to the Sharingan, mean anything to you?"

Oh, yeah. That would explain it, wouldn't it. If he goes to his boss with this they're going to want him to figure out who was being an idiot about it, but it can sometimes take a little doing to pry that kind of info out of kids.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. What exactly did you hear?"

"Mm.  Not much, really, the broad details of what the person speaking believed the ...activation conditions... were, and that it drains the bearer's life-force in exchange for power.  But you do recognize the importance of it.  ...Which suggests that someone who has made themself an enemy of Konoha having those eyes...would be, uh, bad, right?"

That's not completely accurate, but it's close enough to the truth that he's willing to bet the kid knows the real activation conditions. The Uchiha reputation has enough problems as it is without their comrades getting paranoid about them killing friends or teammates for power. And the enemy of Konoha bit... whichever idiot cousin of his thought it was a good idea to fan those rumors again is in for a world of hurt.

"It would be. That's one of the reasons we're so strict with our own, since a Uchiha turning traitor would be even worse than a normal ninja doing it."

"...I have no reason to believe that any Uchiha clan member in good standing was involved in...the incident that involved that Sharingan.  I have some reason to believe that the eye or eyes in question may have been stolen, because the idea of one of Konoha's founding clans desiring to command widespread destruction of their village is honestly absurd.  And I'd really like to talk to someone who has the authority to go through the clan's records, about that.

"...I figure you must keep some, given the, uh," she makes a wide gesture, "general... everything, that people will apparently try, to steal a bloodline ability with."  ...She carefully doesn't-shudder.  "I would, if I was trying to keep the Sharingan in known hands.  At least of, well, whether anyone found the body."

"Those are pretty sensitive documents you're asking about, kid. Giving an outsider access would require direct permission of Fugaku-sama himself, and that's without getting into anyone who was on a classified mission where you'd need to somehow convince the Hokage."

It's need to know information, and frankly Naruto doesn't. There's also one obvious guess about where someone out to destroy the village would get a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, and that one's in enough history books to make the records unnecessary.

"I promise you, though, we take it incredibly seriously - trust our own interests, if nothing else. Why don't you give me some more specifics on where you got your information, and I'll see about double checking things?"

"I wasn't thinking I'd rate access myself, no, just...  ...that it would help them narrow down some things.  ...And given what Hokage-sama is presently busy with, if I could actually ask him I bet we'd have it.  Not that I have a particular belief in a connection between the use of a particularly fancy Sharingan some years back, and the sudden betrayal of Orochimaru - but.  It's plausibly evidence one way or the other in that matter, as well as a potential lead on the actual culprit behind something else entirely.  ...That said, I don't know how much you're cleared to know about what I know."

Yes, he's aware that she's the Jinchuriki for the nine-tailed demon fox. Obviously. He'd have to be an idiot to somehow not be. That doesn't change the fact that telling Naruto about it would be an S ranked crime that would put him in a world of trouble, even if - or perhaps especially if - they already know. That said, he also doesn't want to have to tell his boss that he needs someone else to go interview a kid to learn who was telling them clan secrets.

"I'm an experienced Chunin, an officer in the KKB, and of course a member of the Uchiha clan." His eyes spin red with the Sharingan for a moment, though they fade to black immediately afterwards. "If someone has been sharing clan secrets that shouldn't have been, I'm cleared for any relevant investigation and arrests."

If it's someone in Anbu they might try to kick up a fuss, of course, but he almost hopes it is. They've been trying to claim the right to police themselves for a while, but anyone with a brain can see how bad an idea that is and putting an end to that nonsense would be satisfying for a lot of them.

She's staring at his ear as he shows off.

"...I don't think you could possibly arrest my source right now; their identity is... not one you're allowed to know, as far as those duties are concerned."  ...Even if everyone knows, and everyone knows everyone knows, and etcetera.

"...I suppose I can tell you that they do not, themself, have a Sharingan, nor the desire to possess one.  But I'm getting really tired of trying to talk around the metaphorical chakra beast in the room."  Somehow, she keeps a straight face through that line, despite the very literal chakra beast in the room, but her amusement at what she just said is probably obvious to the Kyuubi, if no-one else.  "So can we get to the point already?  Regardless of how I came to know this information about the Sharingan - does someone hostile to Konoha's interests, armed with a powerful tool of your bloodline, not concern the Uchiha Clan enough to even alert the clan's leadership?  Because as it is, I am rather concerned that this unknown enemy of ours will attempt to strike again; Sage knows I've no idea why they haven't tried again before now - and if they do, presently I won't even be informed of the potential threats, let alone remotely capable of posing any sort of obstruction to their goals, should they attempt to get at the source for the information I have, through me.  I'm quite sure that they would do that, to be clear.  The last time they tried, they did worse things besides."

Who could their source possibly be, such that covering them up by alluding to the Kyuubi seems like a sensible plan? Unfortunately he can't follow up on it himself, since they've made it clear they're not going to be cooperative and pressing them runs into the same village secret he's not allowed to reveal.

"Fugaku-sama is a very busy man, but I can assure you that he'll give a danger to the village his full attention."

"Which you're going to go tell him about now, right, Uchiha-san?  Since my concerns about what I need to keep secret have been dealt with, and right now what matters is what we can do to keep Konoha safe from that threat?  Perhaps if I knew the information would be put to use I could convince my source to divulge details of the threat that they, probably quite correctly, think would be pointless to tell to me."

She hits him with her best 'I Am Doing Something Important So Stop Wasting Everyone's Time' impression, to follow up - arms crossed, slight frown, tapping her foot at just this particular speed, tap tap tap tap tap...

She's waiting, impatiently.

She's a kid, and not even a particularly scary one to boot. Even Itachi wouldn't have had that much look trying it at her age, and as things stand her impression is more cute than convincing.

"I'm still on gate duty, kid; I'm not about to go running off. Besides, you haven't given me nearly enough to information to be worth interrupting Fugaku-sama with when he's at work."

Yeah, she expected that, but it was worth a try.  Sometimes people humor cute kids.

"...Well.  I can't give you any further information without an understanding of which secrets you are allowed to know.  So I will be going now, and perhaps if Hokage-sama approves it I can tell someone something sometime.  On the other hand, he's busy.  Getting that permission may take a while."

She's leaving now.  ...Unless?

"Someone will find you for a followup."

...Well, they are ninja.

She'll give them a week before she resorts to more drastic measures.

Meanwhile, in the seal-space...

"...Well, that went a way.

"...I have just had a horrible and probably dangerous idea.  Which is to say, uh, is it possible for me to learn how you - sensed - the Sharingan and the mokuton?  Or is that a 'being the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune' thing?  Because if I could...

"...Basically, the idea is that I go hunting for evidence of bloodline limits on people they shouldn't be.  All sneaky-like.  Because nobody's gonna expect that from someone who isn't even an Academy student yet - let alone the functionally-clanless me."

It's not just possible for her; chakra was always meant to be a tool for connecting with others, and extending that to finding them over short distances is one of the easier possible tricks. It would require diligence and practice to get anything out of, but no particular inherent ability. Unfortunately, like everything else humans have done with the Chakra they got their hands on being able to track people is a potent weapon of war, and he has no intention of helping with that in the slightest. 

"I am the most powerful sensor in the world, child. Do you think if it were that simple your village would not have found them already?"

"I don't know if they've thought to look.  I know there's, like, sensor-nin, but - I don't know.  It feels like it should be obvious, but a lot of things I think are obvious...  Aren't, obvious?  Apparently?  ...I don't know."

She slumps a bit, rather obviously dejected.  "I just...

"I can't do anything.  The village is all but on fire, we're both in danger from someone who wants who-knows-what with your power, and I'm just this - leaf on the wind, helplessly blown about by the forces of the powerful.  I want to help - to be more than this useless dead weight only valuable because of my being attached to you - and they won't even let me learn how I could, yet.  The closest I can get is anatomy textbooks, and I feel like that's practically accidental."

"I wouldn't be surprised. It's the only discipline shinobi learn that isn't completely useless, so it only makes sense that after learning how to weaponize it they stopped paying it the slightest attention."

She...  Blinks, surprised at the declaration.

"...What is chakra for, then?  I could argue that there's utility enough in earth jutsu for constructive purposes, and goodness knows Senju Hashirama practically built half of Konoha with mokuton, but...  You have something in mind."

"To know and see yourself and others as they truly are, and in achieving Samadhi bring an end to conflict."

She blinks.

"...I wish I'd had someone here to witness you saying that, because given your past actions if I just tell the Hokage that that's what you think chakra is for, he's gonna think I've lost it.  But I believe you.

"...Explains why you're so good at - what was it, ninshu?  Too.  ...What's Samadhi?"

"Samadhi is one of the eight steps on the path of enlightenment laid out by the Sage."

"...Huh.  With all the vague reverence we have for him, you would think I'd have heard of all that before.  ...I guess nobody considers philosophy very important to teach little kids.  I probably could look it up, but - I'd rather learn from you?"  That she will be learning about the Sage's philosophy somehow is practically a consequence of her being.  "If you'd teach me."

"...I can understand why you might not want to.  I just..."

She trails off, making some sort of inchoate gesture of - yearning.

"You sound so sincere, when you're talking about this.  And - for all that this feels somehow selfish - I'd rather learn from someone who really believes in what they're teaching, than some dry scholarly history thereof."

“Whyever would I want that? Anything I taught you, you would just put to use as a ninja.”

"...I'm not sure how a philosophy of pursuing wisdom and enlightenment, and peacefully ending conflict, is useful to ninja, Kyuubi-san, but if it is, then it's clearly sorely needed.  I'm not going to lie to you and say I'm not going to train in the Academy - because I want to learn chakra-assisted architecture, really, that and medicine, and the Academy is the only path I have to any sort of training right now - but by teaching this to me, you will have the ability to teach me your point of view, which is - really important, if you want people, and me, to not be, do, bad things.  To teach me exactly why you speak the word 'ninja' with such disgust, when you and they both often feature as the monsters under the bed in the stories people tell eachother.  ...I don't want to be a ninja, Kyuubi-san.  I want to change the world, so that nobody ever has to be another me - another human sacrifice to the person they believe is at best an uncaringly murderous god.  So that one day I can let you out and trust that you won't immediately murder everyone I care about, because they won't be doing the stuff that makes you hate them so much anymore.  That's what I see, when I look for the Will of Fire and dream about the futures I'd like to have."

She pauses, catching her metaphysical breath.

"...I...

"This is clearly something that you care a lot about, and it would be horribly disrespectful of you as a possible sensei to pressure you to decide right now, so...I'm going to leave you some privacy, I guess; you know how to get my attention if you want it."

And unless Kyuubi-sama - and how did that happen?  At what point did the regard she holds him in grow so high? - says otherwise, she will leave him in peace, for now.

The Kyuubi listens in silence until she leaves. In his youth he would have thought much the same, but the sage's children and students had not even waited for his body to cool before forging Ninshu into weapons of war, and in the years since humans had not permitted a single source of knowledge to refrain. For all that they could not match his power, the sheer creativity that humans were willing to devote to twisting things to violence was something he had never been able to equal.

Meanwhile, she's going to go - well first she's going to write down what the Kyuubi told her, maybe even seal it (like, with wax; she's not quite Uzumaki-brained enough to invent a seal seal like that,) and ask the librarian to witness that she came in with the paper sealed up - and then she's going to find the dictionary entry for Samadhi.  ...And maybe, also, cry.  Something feels like grief, and heartache, and...

She has a few guesses as to why.

According to the library Samadhi is a type of meditation employed by Shaivism, a religion commonly followed in the southwest of the continent, with the goal of achieving absolute focus. Some scholarship suggests that it may have been a result of syncretism with the then-widespread Theravāda monks, but any records of the period in question are unclear and the latter religion has fallen out of favor.

...Huh.  Interesting.  If not relevant to the present question.

Do either of them trace their philosophy back to the Sage of Six Paths, though?

There’s no shortage of religions that tie the sage into their mythology; in much of Konoha and Fire Country, for instance, he is worshipped as one of the Kami. Neither Shaivism nor Theravāda are exceptions to this; the former holds him to be an incarnation of the god of preservation, while the latter venerates him as the great teacher.

...So the Theravāda were closer to the actual, extant person of the Sage, judging by the choice of epithet.  Are there any around here?  Do they trace back further still?

There don't seem to be any big temples in Konoha, but there are a handful scattered around the lands of Fire, River, and Tea; even in the heart of their worship they aren't as popular as the Kami, but there are evidently enough of them to justify a few pagodas here and there.

...She'll have to check them out, when they start letting her out of the village.

...That day, however, is a long ways away.

She doesn't like that, but it's what she's working with.

Speaking of military secrets, where is Hokage-sama?  She's getting dangerously bored of hurrying up and waiting without even anything to do in the meantime except practice calligraphy.

The hokage is apparently still busy, though now it's getting to the point that other people are starting to remark upon it - mostly still cautiously, but the Konoha rumor mill is ever hungry. 

Despite everything going up amongst the village's upper brass, however, the lower levels of the bureaucracy still churn on. In this case, that takes the form of one of the academy Chunin instructors stopping by Naruto's orphanage to talk to kids about life as a ninja and encourage them to join the academy for the upcoming years. The pitch is obviously tailored to the audience, with a lot of focus on adventure and excitement and being a hero, but it's not any less popular amongst its target audience for being blatant propaganda.

...She spends most of the pitch making snarky comments under her breath, having a much more accurate apprehension of ninja life from her reading - but...  She does approach the recruiter.

For all his personal opinions, the fact that this is a recruitment he's not allowed to fuck up has been very thoroughly impressed on him. He talks to everyone who was in line before her first, because there's no reason to play favorites for her, but when it's her turn he smiles at Naruto with a pretty good facsimile of cheer.

"So, are you also considering becoming a ninja?"

"...I think that certain skills I probably need to learn are only available to me by way of the Academy.  I do have a couple questions, though."

"I'm glad to hear it. What questions are these?"

"Firstly: No-one but a very small group of people has ever been glad to hear my questions in their life; please, don't bother faking enthusiasm.  Secondly: How much does training at the Academy mean that I'm committing to being a ninja when I'm older, and what level of choice does a ninja have regarding the missions they can be sent on?  I am direly displeased at the idea that - for example - I might one day be told I 'must' recreate something like the incident that left me here.  It would be profoundly against the Will of Fire, for one."

"Sometimes people who aren't a good fit for being ninja don't graduate the academy, but if you work hard, there shouldn't be any problems. Missions are usually decided on by your team leader and the Hokage, and if you become a chunin you'll have the opportunity to be a leader yourself, but of course Konoha takes into account the opinions of ninja on what kind of missions they want to take."

She nods.  "There's someone I need to speak with about some of the paperwork, but...Well, I suppose that settles it."

"...I believe this is quite possibly the point at which I actually get some access to the books on chakra that aren't painfully vague?"

"Yes, you'll have access to all kinds of information to help you learn once you start attending the academy."

It's about a day after the academy instructor comes through that she hears back from the Uchiha, this time in the form of a shinobi in their teens stopping by the orphanage to deliver a message. They lack the Chunin flak vest, but their clothing still prominently displays the Uchiha mon.

"Naruto Uzumaki?"

"...Yes?"

"Lady Uchiha would like to meet with you at your convenience. Are you free this evening?"

A nod.  "Yes."  Oh, dear Sage, she wasn't actually expecting to merit the personal attention of a clan head.  "I would be glad to meet with her.  Ah, did she give you further details on when and where I'm expected...?"

"She suggested at six, if you were available. The guards will have been notified to let you through, but if they give you any trouble you may present this token."

He offers a thin disc embossed with a stylized Uchiwa in the traditional colors for her to take.

She nods, and secrets the disc away on her person.  "Then I will gladly be there at six."  And spending the remaining hours of the day trying to figure out if she even has an outfit that would be suitable to meet a noble in.

The courier nods in acknowledgement, and dissapears in a swirl of leaves.

...She will have to make do with her outfit; she's an orphan, it's not like she has access to Uzumaki clan resources since the idea of there being one is just laughable - but she does think she's done well, considering.  ...She used most of the time she had available to sew a half-decent Uzumaki mon onto her fanciest outfit - in, admittedly, entirely the wrong colors, because, well, red doesn't really go well with greens, whatsoever - but it will have to do.

As promised, the guards at the gate don't give her any trouble, and one of them leads her down the main street to the extremely fancy building that serves as the Uchiha main residence. Her blond hair stands out even more in this setting than it usually does in Konoha, but either the fact that she was invited into the compound or her escort seems to have served to prevent whispers from following her as she walks.

...That's honestly an unusual level of courtesy to experience.  Most people don't seem to bother waiting until she's out of their presence to... ...gossip.

When her escort knocks on the door, it's opened by a woman with long straight black hair in casual clothing.

"Thank you, I'll take care of things from here."

As the guard disappears in another swirl of leaves, she turns her gaze downwards to Naruto. "Come in. I'm just finishing dinner, but if you've already eaten I won't insist."

It takes a good ten seconds for her brain to reboot and start generating a response to the new and surprising circumstances.

"...I haven't eaten, no.  ...I wouldn't want to impose..."  But the food does smell delicious, and her stomach rumbles, on a traitorous cue.

"It's no imposition. My husband is working late today, so it's just you and my youngest; feel free to sit wherever."

Presumably, the boy about Naruto's age already seated is said youngest; he looks as though he'd love to twitch impatiently, but his manners are too good for it.

She waves, politely, if somewhat shyly, at him.

(...She is, honestly, something of a kindred spirit.)

He's briefly baffled by the gesture, but after a moment he tries waving back.

She beams at him.  ...And carefully, carefully, sets aside her emotions around the trust that Uchiha-dono is showing by letting her be here, with him, without even supervision.

And about a minute later Mikoto Uchiha brings three dishes of beef udon and nukazuke to the table.

The boy reaches for the food with his chopsticks, but after glancing at his mother, he takes the time to speak first.

She joins in the gesture, by mannerly rote, and...

Doesn't quite know what to do but let this dinner happen.  She will not be shattering the mood if she can help it.

The talk mostly stays superficial as Sasuke tears his way through his meal as quickly as he politely can, but once he finishes all bets are off.

"Are you going to be going to the Academy this year?"

"I do plan to.  There's too much I need to learn, to hope I'll be able to find it some other way.  The good chakra books probably aren't even available to Academy students, but - I don't really have much else to work with, given everything.

"I'm hoping to learn fuinjutsu, and maybe ninshu.  Though that doesn't seem like something the Academy would teach, really."

"Well, if you want to learn things that aren't at the academy, you should graduate early. Like my brother, he finished everything in just 2 years!"

"Sasuke, what did we say about bragging?"

"Not to. But mom, I wasn't talking about me!"

She blinks.  "...That sounds like a lot of homework."

"Exactly, you've got to be a genius to finish early."

"...Maybe?  I don't know what the coursework is like there but if it's really mostly written work I'd be very surprised.  And when it comes to learning how to move and stuff, the Sharingan is a huge advantage, ne?  ...I don't know if I'd be in so much of a hurry, though.  I don't like violence."

That's a baffling thing to say; Sasuke's face scrunches up in confusion, and they instead focus on the other parts of what Naruto said.

"Well, you've gotta be good with shuriken and kunai and taijutsu and ninjutsu, but I've been practicing most of those forever."

"Mhm, and that's the other part of why it was easier for your brother to graduate so fast.  You've already been doing things the Academy has to teach."

"You haven't? You should come practice shuriken with me, you don't have much time left."

He looks genuinely worried about the prospect.

...Oh no, he's being so earnest and kind.

"...If my guardians are alright with that, I'd love to."  More for the joy of having a friend, rather than because of any interest in shuriken qua shuriken, but...

Sage's breath.  She's done for.

"I do practice what I can; sneaking, mostly.  But the things in the Academy curriculum are there because the students are expected to have to learn them.  It's like...

"A shopkeep's kid is gonna know lots of math in math class, right?  And you're part of a big ninja clan that does ninja things.  But the math class isn't built for the shopkeep's kid who's already had lots of chances to learn math things - it's made for the...well, orphans who've never had a chance to learn things at their mother's knee.  For people who don't know anything about anything, so that they can know things about stuff."

"Then we need to go ask them."

"I'm sure nobody at the orphanage will have a problem with you practicing for the academy, but there's nothing wrong with being responsible and asking first."

She nods to Mikoto's statement.  "I'm sure they won't, really, it's just the principle of the thing.  I don't want to go missing."  ...Oh dear.  She actually said that?  The food must be getting to her.

That's a very concerning thing to say!

"Sasuke, why don't you go practice throwing shuriken yourself for a bit while I talk to Naruto?"

Why doesn't he ever get to listen to the interesting conversations?

"Hmmph."

Sasuke tromps outside, grabbing his practice shuriken pouch hanging by the door.

"...He's a good kid."  And she feels like she's never really had a chance to be a kid at all.  "And I'm - desperately honored by the way you trusted me to be around him, Uchiha-dono.  There aren't a lot who would, even with Jiraiya's seal of approval on, well.  The chakra beast in the room.  ...Which is kind of a funny saying when you know they're, like, people."  She waves at where the seal would be, if it were presently visible.

"...I'm guessing that there's some things you want to know about that, with some of what you might have been told recently.  And, uh, what I just said, which - I should say, that was about two thirds a joke, a third of not wanting to accidentally cause the Hokage to drop everything for a different manhunt than the one he's currently on, and a third, well, I can't say I'm not worried that if someone did start trouble or try to make me do... All of that stuff that people usually want to throw around huge gobs of chakra for... that I wouldn't be able to handle all of the...  Various angles of defending myself from that sort of pressure, without bad consequences for myself or for others.  Even if I think the Kyuubi and I would be in agreement on not doing that, it's...  I don't want to put that to the test, and if it does come to that, I don't want to go quietly, or - or be helpless.  Especially if whoever went for the Kyuubi that one time, comes back for another go.  ...So I guess it's a good thing Sasuke-kun wants to help me practice..."  She seems like she's only realizing that bit now, with a faintly shocked overtone to it.  "...That's four thirds, but still.  ...Don't really think it's a...  Real, live thing.  Just...I'm uncomfortably aware of how kidnappable I could be if I was careless - there are a couple kids who actually do seem to vanish every year, I think - and how many powerful people probably want to have control of me, you know?  The humor is what the Yamanakas call a coping mechanism.

"...I'm surprised I actually said it, really.  But...This has been -

"I can only hope that if my mother had survived that she would have been as good and kind as you, to have opened the softest places of your home to this young girl you don't really know."

...Oh.  Now she's crying.  ...This may as well happen.

There's a lot of things she wants to say to that, but the first thing she does is hug Naruto. Most of the things she wishes she could say she is emphatically forbidden from, but this at least is not even arguably treason. She lets Naruto cry it out for several moments before she speaks another word.

"That's a lot for one person to take on their own shoulders."

"...It is," she says, with a sort of determined finality to it, as she finally stops being bonelessly collapsed in Mikoto's embrace.  "But I couldn't willingly put this burden on anyone else, knowing how heavy it is.  Knowing that most people would treat the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune like a mad beast, or a god, or worse, a tool of the slaughter that he tells me he despises.  Which, in a textbook-worthy example of irony, is why he hates ninja so much.  ...I think he learned from the Sage.  Or at least, he attributed the idea of Samadhi and transcending the want for violence to the Sage, and the Theravāda monks who still carry that word around also attribute their teachings to the Sage as their great teacher.  While some of the sects who apparently took on the same practice are busy worshipping the Sage as a kami, which - I can't really put into words why that's a reason they wouldn't have known him but the other monks would have because of that contrast in how they elevated him but I'm dead sure it is - ...I'm sorry, I keep thinking about that bit of knowledge ever since I found it when I was only expecting to see some mention of Samadhi and whatnot coming from the Sage, and I don't even know if I'm going to need to argue the point to Hokage-sama at this point, but I can't seem to stop trying to plan it out in advance...."  She takes a moment to catch her breath.

"...I'm not sure I was supposed to tell you any of that, really, but I'm pretty sure it's only the precise way I learned all this knowledge that is the secret secret here.  Despite everyone already knowing it, and knowing everyone knows it, and so on.  ...How on earth that works I really don't know, but it does seem to and at this point I don't even want to ask.  It seems...absurd.  And it probably has, like, three other reasons for existing that are also secrets because I'm just...  Tangled up in intrigue like a fly in a spider's web, I'm pretty darn sure.  ...We still don't know who it was that attacked the village to begin with, or why they thought they needed to use a genjutsu about it, as far as I know.  Though it's not like anybody's telling me anything about this.  Even though I'm involved."

That's a lot to take in at once, and she's not sure she believes most of it - no, that's the wrong approach. Naruto clearly believes it, and while someone feeding them lies or misleading truths is objectively pretty concerning the immediate priority is what they're going to do - and what they think they need to do - about it.

"That's the problem with talking to adults; we have so much experience being right that it's harder to stop and notice when we're not. I'm not really any different, most of the time, but at least I can try. That was why you first came to the Uchiha compound, right? Because you learned something?"

She nods, and kind of leans into the hug that she hadn't exactly left but had loosened up on a bit.  "Yeah.  I did.  The Kyuubi said - oh, what were the exact words - I was trying to convince him that he'd get more things that he wanted if he helped me sic Konoha on the person that he says put a Sharingan genjutsu on him during the rampage, and he said that their eyes had 'the power of the kaleidoscope' - as if I was supposed to know what that meant - which, when I tried to get actual details out of him, he said it was a form of the Sharingan that could burn lifeforce for power, and something about getting a Sharingan to do that being linked to kinslaying.  ...Which doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about Sharingan to dispute it.  ...He also thinks they're cursed, which, on the long shot that you have any idea who this is, was something to do with 'Indra's folly'?  I couldn't find any mention of that name in the history books, though..."

"...And, uh, relevantly, in a 'most people aren't this good at lying' way, the Sharingan being involved in that incident came up when he accused Konoha of having an eugenics program, a little while before I thought of trying to play the Kyūbi's 'I hate ninja so much that I use ninshu to project my utter disdain for them over a five mile radius' thing - I have someone who can corroborate that one directly, actually, though they're busy - to convince him that no matter who won in a fight between Konoha and Mysterious Sharingan-Haver, there would probably be less ninja - which...

"Is all I believe I can really say about that, because I'm certainly not saying the specifics - but you can draw your own conclusions about it, probably.  ...I'm not sure it was Orochimaru, though.  Which also isn't something I can't tell you, I think."

"So he told you about the Mangekyo sharingan, and that it was involved in the attack?"

She sighs slightly.

"A lot of elders aren't going to be happy about that knowledge getting spread, but we can't exactly put the egg back in the shell, so they'll just have to deal. Do you know how the Sharingan changes look over time? When we first awaken it, it's usually just one tomoe circling the pupil, but over time a second or third one appear, and its abilities get stronger alongside the change. For most people, once you've gotten to three that's the end of it, but occasionally you'll get someone desperate enough to try for more. If a fellow Uchiha someone is close to dies and they're at fault, our eyes can evolve one last time and grant even more power. The full details aren't known, since we haven't had anyone in the clan with a pair since the second war, but Madara had a pair that we believe gave him the ability to control the Bijuu. 

"As for the other bits, I'm not sure who they could have meant by Indra. It's not the most common Uchiha name, but there are still dozens of people it could have been even if it's one of the ones we know about, and I haven't heard any stories about one of them being associated with a curse."

She nods.  "It's not like I'm going to spread it around even if I do now know it.  What weakens one shinobi of Konoha weakens all shinobi of Konoha.  ...Though now I'm wondering where on earth eyes like that could even have come from, since most of the time you wouldn't have two Uchiha on the same team...  And it's not very likely that Madara's eyes have survived this long; I suppose I could ask the Kyuubi if they'd know if the eyes in question were Madara's.  ...Are you sure about that 'death of a fellow Uchiha' thing?  I wouldn't put it past the capabilities of the Sharingan to somehow know that on sight, but at the same time, it feels...  Absurdly finicky.  Too finicky to be real.  And strangely distant from what I know the Sharingan can do; knowing a doujutsu on-sight feels more like a Byakugan thing.  ...Not that I intend to go prying into clan secrets, if you're, eh, fudging the truth a little bit, but it seems odd to me that eyes with that specific set of conditions could have activated since then as they likely must have.  It's not like Konoha pairs Uchiha with Uchiha most of the time, ne?"

"That's what all the records say. I expect it would work even if someone wasn't acknowledged as part of the clan for some reason, though, and they don't need to have activated their own sharingan. As for transplanting the Sharingan... the only one I know who has successfully had it done is Hatake Kakashi, but that's enough to show it's not impossible in principle, and we've had to work very hard to keep other people from getting a chance to try. I'd certainly rather believe that than some Uchiha gone rogue or raised outside of Konoha, but it still leaves the problem that has stymied all of us since then of where they would have gotten it."

"...Well, presumably, from an Uchiha.  But that's obvious.  The question is which Uchiha have been in a situation that went horribly wrong enough to maybe make their eyes do the thing.

"...Which leaves an immediate line of question of what happened to the eye that Hatake Kakashi didn't get transplanted.  Since, uh, normally you have to take eyes like a Sharingan from their bearer's cold dead skull, and all."

"According to the reports, it was crushed under fallen rocks with the rest of him. But even if it wasn't, that wouldn't explain it; Obito's eyes weren't even fully evolved, much less Mangekyo, and there weren't any other Uchiha that died at the right time to change that."

"...Okay, but what if the eye transplant counted?  Leaving aside how much I'm still wondering if that even matters...  I haven't badgered the other conditions out of the Kyuubi yet, they didn't seem relevant, but - can you say, for sure, that they couldn't have been met?  ...Wait a minute, how...  Sorry, I just suddenly became viscerally aware of how old the Kyuubi must be, because he said, and I quote, 'There are no shortage of such fools to have come from that accursed people', about that particular Sharingan, and here we are with Mangekyo Sharingan being...  What, once or twice in a generation at best?"

"I think I'm misunderstanding something, because I'm not sure what you think the eye transfer has to do with it? As for the Bijuu, our clan records say they've been around for at least a millennia by now."

"If Obito thought his teammates were dying, and he was at fault.  ...Or, for that matter, if Kakashi did, though for all I know that would only evolve the one eyeball since it's the only one that was his at the time..."

"...Anyway, did they actually find the body, afterwards?  Surely earth jutsu would allow one to check..."

"The mission in question was deep in enemy territory and they had to flee in a hurry, but the medic on their team confirmed it was damaged beyond use. As for a possible evolution, we had the opportunity to examine Kakashi's eye very thoroughly after he returned from that mission, and we wouldn't have missed it being a Mangekyo sharingan."

She'll leave unsaid how many in the clan had been looking for an excuse to pluck it from his socket; it's probably obvious enough if someone thinks about it but that doesn't make it a pleasant thing to discuss.

It really is, judging by the reflexive grimace.

"...Didn't both of Kakashi's teammates die on that mission?  ...Let alone the question of whether one has to know about the Mangekyo to activate it; I'm getting less convinced there's something here as time goes on, but I'm still confused."

"No, while Hatake Kakashi has had... rather unfortunate luck with his teammates, I believe the other member of his squad perished months later in an entirely different front of the third war."

"...Kami preserve, that poor man.  Two tragedies are so much worse than one.  ...I guess the end result is that she's still not around to ask if she actually saw the body, though.  ...I'm going to go ask Kyuubi-sama a question about whether he believes he'd recognize the person who went after him.  And then I want to...  At least look into eliminating some suspects, if that turns out alright."

And so she does, casting her attention inward.  "...Hello, Kyuubi-san.  Have you been paying attention to the discussion so far?"

"Despite my better judgment."

She doesn't let it show, beyond a small nod of acknowledgement, but somehow, she finds this self-deprecatingly amusing.

"...Would you be willing to look through some pictures, or something, to see if your assailant was one of them?  Or help me produce a sketch, for that matter."

"He was wearing concealing robes and a full facial mask that covered everything besides his Sharingan. I wouldn't have the slightest issue recognizing his spirit, but any human can put on such a disguise."

"...Hm."  Now how is she going to salvage something from this?  "...Every human can put on a robe and mask.  But not every human can put on every robe and mask, to say nothing of what the robe and mask might mean.  That they did that instead of hengeing...  Even just knowing their build and height and maybe skin color, those things could help.  They'd narrow things down, if not prove anything in particular yet.  ...I don't know if there are - identifying details, to a Sharingan, either, but if anyone would know..."  She carefully avoids directly saying that Mikoto is one of the people who might.  "...I still want to try.  ...Are there...any things that might carry or leave spiritual traces, that we could check, for that matter?"  She's going to get something from this if there's anything to be had at all, dammit.

Fine, he can sketch the masked man's Mangekyo pattern. He could do more detail by sharing his memories, but he only got a good look for about a second and the seal absolutely forbids it besides.

...It does?  Even if she asks it pretty please?  She'd like to be able to communicate at the speed of thought instead of having to push herself in here!  C'mon, at least let him use ninshu?  It's really important!  Even if she has to strictly delimit it!

And she's going to see if she can get how tall the man was and how far apart his eyes were and if he had noticeable affinities and all that stuff out of those few seconds of memory, if she can.  She kind of expects Kyūbi-san's memory to be - pretty good, maybe too good even.  (She can just imagine the things a perfect memory of something horrible could do to someone.)  It's got to be really good, or he wouldn't have so much of it.  ...Kami, she kind of can't believe she's speaking to someone who very probably knew the Sage.

And did the robes have any patterns on them?  Were they made out of a particular sort of fabric that Kyūbi-san could tell?  What sort of material was the mask, what did it depict?  Did it look like it was professionally made, or sloppy?

"...Sorry I'm bothering you with all these questions.  I don't want to keep poking these memories; they...sound really painful.  Genjutsu used for such purposes as these are utterly terrifying.  It's just...

"Important that we do what we can, to track this guy down and stop him.

"And every detail about this man is -

"One more stroke in the character, no matter how small.  One more thread to pull on?  For all I know there's one specific guy who makes masks like this one and we can find him in customer records.  ...I mean probably not, but I'd feel like such an idiot if it was so and I missed it."

...At least the pattern of the Mangekyo is actually pretty easy to draw for herself when it's described; her practice for fuinjutsu holds her in good stead.

(The block on sharing memories is one of the stricter locks in the seal, and doesn't come apart just because Naruto wants it to. Minato Namikaze may have been breaking entirely new ground on jinchuriki seals, but the consequences of giving a bijuu unfiltered access to their jailer's mind is the kind of mistake that ends up in horror stories.)

"Hmm. I don't recognize the design - not that I would necessarily expect to, but it means it's definitely not Madara's and isn't someone on the inside pulling a fast one with Kagami or Naka's eyes before they burned either. The spiral mask doesn't really look distinctive enough to narrow it down, but I can put some feelers out in case."

"...That's weird.  Whose eyes could it be?  I mean, I'm still vaguely suspicious of Obito's not-entirely-confirmed death, but he only would have had the one left...

"...Unless Orochimaru or whoever it was who threw him to the wolves - I just do not think that even the Sannin can create huge experimental complexes on their own while they're all busy being the Sannin - had the ability to create viable Sharingan that someone who'd met the right conditions could activate, but, uh, I'd think we'd all have heard about that by now, ne?  That's the kind of information that becomes as badly kept a secret as the identity of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki in no time flat."  ...She can't keep herself from laughing, but it's to hide the worry.

"...At least, knowing this, we can prove that most Uchiha were completely incapable of being whoever this was."

"Yes, as long as you don't expect them to agree in public. Getting the elders to say something is beyond the power of the sharingan is an... unfortunately difficult task, even when they didn't do it and don't want to be accused of doing it."

"Pffh.  Ha.  Oh dear.  I don't think we need them to say that, as much as we need them to agree that the Sharingan that did this particular thing is confirmably not in the possession of an Uchiha loyal to Konoha and they are just as concerned about that fact as everyone else ought to be.  Because they really ought to be.  Someone weaponizing the Bijuu...  That's really bad."

She nods.

"And more importantly as far as some people are concerned, weaponized by someone who isn't on our side. In the meantime, if someone like that does show up, my advice is to cover and close your eyes while making as much noise as possible. It's not foolproof, but even the most capable ninjas would take seconds to force them open without risking injury to your ability to see, and seconds are a long time in a fight between Jonin. It seems unlikely that they would be bold enough to try it in the village, but it's better to have a plan."

Personally she thinks it's more than merely unlikely that they would make the attempt, what with how they haven't in the intervening years and their one attempt involved striking at a helpless opponent well away from any possible reinforcements, but Naruto is nervous about it and she'd never forgive herself for dismissing that fear if it was wrong besides.

She nods, and without really shifting in stance somehow nonetheless really looks like she wants another hug.

"It does seem unlikely, but the whole thing seems unlikely, so...  Who knows.  ...Thank you."

Mikoto has two kids of her own - she's more than capable of interpreting that without any help. She'll just quietly hug Naruto for a few minutes in silence.

"Now, is there anything else you want to get off your chest, or can I tell Sasuke he can come back inside if he wants?"

"...Think I could maybe go out to him.  It'd be kinder.  ...There's a lot I maybe want to tell you, but a lot of it is..."

"Speculative and secondhand.  So I don't want to...  Make any accusations of people in good standing.  But...

"When I asked the Kyūbi who he thought would be running an eugenics program that Konoha wasn't supposed to have, since, uh, Uchiha eyes, and the flesh of Senju Hashirama, don't normally end up in the same people...

"He didn't say Orochimaru.  And yet, the Hokage found him, instead of some other guy.  ...I don't think Hokage-sama would be able to fake being surprised by what I asked him, when this started.  I don't think he lied when he said we really aren't supposed to have any sort of eugenics program.  But...  I would be very careful around some of the other people who wield power in Konoha.  I don't know what they might want, but...It already smacks of attempted bloodline theft, and possibly collaborating with whoever it was who attempted to wreck our village.  ...That's the other thing that has me worried about being kidnapped.  Just, so you know.  ...Oh, Sage's breath, I probably really am in some kind of danger from them already by existing if they've already stooped to doing whatever backwards nonsense this was...  I'd convinced myself for a minute there that with no opportunity for an outsider to get near, the threat of - worse than the social situation I've been in since I could start thinking - was really actually unlikely, but no, it's really not, and it's gotta be near and subtle...  Please, Mikoto-sama, be careful, yourself.  There's gotta be a reason you weren't allowed to do any of this, despite clearly wanting to, until I kinda forced your hand, and...

"I bet whoever it is isn't gonna be happy that I have found an ally and hopefully a - a friend."  ...She doesn't say the word she really means, but she expects that Uchiha Mikoto already knows.

"I will be. There's some rumors we've been suspicious of ourselves, but someone doing experiments involving grafting flesh onto a Uchiha are the kind of thing that merit a much more thorough look."

She then ruffles Naruto's hair. Lord third will complain, but as long as she mostly sticks to violating the spirit instead of the letter she doesn't think he'll be able to do much if she presents it as a fait accompli. He owes them after a screwup of this magnitude on his watch anyway.

"I'd be delighted if Sasuke had a friend with him at the academy. Please, feel free to come over any time."

"I'd be delighted to visit on a more regular basis.  I couldn't possibly disappoint Sasuke-kun, after all.  He'd be so sad.  I just can't.  The idea of a sad Sasuke makes me want to give the real him a hug."

"...If there's anything you'd like Hokage-sama to know, by the way, I could probably tell him for you.  About the - rumors that you don't like.  He's promised me he'll listen if I tell him things, and maybe that was because of Kyuubi-sama, but I'm not above using that for the good of the Leaf - once I can actually get in touch with him again, I don't know why we didn't arrange for something if I'm going to walk around while holding S-class secrets but next time we meet I'm gonna fix that... -", and her voice dips out of the frustrated grumble it was in as she gets to her reasons.  "...I just...  An injury to any of us is an injury to all of us.  And I want to return the favor you've done in tending to my own emotional wounds."

"I can talk to the third if I have to. I don't want to imply you aren't capable, or that the problems you're dealing with aren't serious, but as an adult it's my job to solve problems for kids, not your job to solve problems to make me happy.  You've got a lot on your shoulders already, and while I might not look it, I'm still a Jonin."

"...I know.  It's not like trying to appease people has helped much anyway.  I'm offering to help because I want to.  Not - I - you've done so much.  And maybe it's basic decency, but that basic decency...

"So many just haven't learned it.

"So I do, I suppose, feel like I ought to.  But it's because of...

"The sort of person I want to be.  ...A lot like you, or what I've seen so far at least, really."

Mikoto smiles at her.

"From what I've seen, you're on track to grow up to be a good person already. But if you really want to help... you could talk to him about the inclusion of Lord First's DNA. Since we'd just be repeating to him what you told us, he might take it more seriously from the source."

She nods.  "I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that, but I'll be sure to tell him, in case I actually haven't."

A few moments pass.

"...Is there anything else you'd like to say, or shall I go play - er, I mean, practice - with Sasuke now?"

"I think as long as you know you're welcome to come back later, that's everything i wanted to say right now. As for what you end up doing with him... well, you're not wrong that the Academy is prepared to teach people who don't know what they're doing. I think he'd be perfectly delighted to practice with you, but if you'd rather distract him with a game I won't say anything if you don't."

She nods in agreement, giggling, 'steals' another hug for the road, and makes her way outside.

The training-playing-bonding passes, uneventfully; she shows off her acrobatics and her sneaking skills.  She's actually pretty decent at target practice, despite herself; she has very good hand-eye coordination.

...Several days later, the Hokage's office door is no longer buried under a pile of classified paperwork, and she's still looking for Hatake Kakashi's gloomcloud.

Upon his return to public life, the Hokage made another speech, this time with the goal of putting to rest the ever intensifying rumors. Yes, there was human experimentation performed, yes by one of the sannin, and yes, some of the victims were citizens of Konoha. Thanks to the warning passed on by one of her loyal citizens, however, they had been caught in the act, and the labs were thoroughly dismantled with the research burnt. He swears before the crowds that this tragedy will not be permitted to happen again, and that even now Konoha's anbu are tirelessly pursuing Orochimaru. Things don't completely calm afterwards, but they are certainly calmer; for many people, that there is an official story at all is sufficient if the Hokage is still alive. And if the Sandiame seems slightly less spry and active than he used to, well, the fact that he had emerged victorious from a fight with another S rank ninja was enough to prove he was still as dangerous as ever.

it would, admittedly, be something of a lie to say he was free now, but the most urgent of the paperwork and meetings that piled up in his absence has been dealt with by now, and he needed an excuse to put off the rest of it anyway. A discreet hand signal has his secretary send Naruto on in. 

"Hokage-sama."

...They don't normally meet in his office.

"Is...  Everything alright?"

Because, well.  He doesn't look it.

"...Or, well.  Nevermind if everything's alright, nothing about what's been going on lately is alright - but go talk to a Yamanaka about that, rather than me, maybe.  I think that's their job?  ...Maybe I should be talking to a Yamanaka, it's not like we're not both going through some stuff, lately..."

"...Anyway.  There are a couple things I want to talk to the hat about.  And one thing I want to talk to Hatake Kakashi about, if where he's gotten off to isn't a secret, so I figured I'd ask you if he was busy and if not I guess I can write him a note since I can't find him for whatever reason.  But most of those things aren't really...  time-sensitive.  Only, like, 'before the Academy starts up' sorts of time limits.  So we're gonna go get ramen, because you need to be anywhere but in this office.  C'mon, old man."

"I'm fine, just... feeling my years more than I used to, is all. Getting something to eat is a great idea, though, I've been spending too much time in this chair."

On the way there he steers the conversation mostly to polite nothings, but when they're seated with food he finally lets things wrap back towards more serious matters.

"What did you want to see young Hatake for? It's no surprise he's busy, most of our Jonin are right now."

"I want to see if his Sharingan, from Uchiha Obito, matches the pattern of the Sharingan that the Kyuubi told me got him.  Once it's in the right mode, which, I don't know if he knows how to do that, but I wasn't told to not tell him what I know.  To - maybe, hopefully - either rule out a potential source of that Sharingan, or.  Well.  If it does match, that's...

"That would be, bad, but also good, but probably mostly bad.  Definitely something, at least...

"Oh, and, while we're on the subject of other people I'd like to speak with, I have something I want to ask Jiraiya-sama for help with.  I don't think the Yondaime expected some of the things that are frustrating me with his seal-work."

"You think Kakashi-"

There's a look of pure confusion on the hokage's face for a moment, her words having overcome his poker face.

"Naruto, I'm not sure what ideas the fox has been putting in your head or why you think you can identify a sharingan, but I can assure you that I am absolutely certain that Hatake Kakashi was not responsible for the attack six years ago. Besides which, if I had the slightest suspicion he was I wouldn't let you anywhere near him!"

"...Yes, obviously he couldn't have been responsible for this.  The perpetrator had two functional Sharingan eyes.  But as far as I know, Konoha hasn't recovered Uchiha Obito's body, which is therefore one of the few places a Sharingan might have been recovered from, even in poor condition, and who knows what someone could have done with -

"...I did mention the bit where apparently the person who did it smelled like Senju Hashirama's corpse?  Or something, I forget if there was a specific analogy...  Still, evidently Made With Hashirama Bits.

"I'm almost certain I did, but Uchiha Mikoto-sama wasn't sure you knew; we spoke a few days ago, since I figured that the Kyuubi might be more likely to divulge information if it looked like that information would actually, well, not be pointless to tell me about.

"Anyway.  The thought is, if Hatake-san's Sharingan manifests the same evolved pattern as the unidentified one, we might have a lead on where the Sharingan involved could have come from.  It doesn't match records of Uchiha Madara's, for example."

"I'll confess, I don't really follow the logic. If you know the attacker had two sharingan, then even if Obito's eye had been recoverable they would have had to get another eye from somewhere. Why wouldn't they have just gotten both eyes from there without bothering with Obito's? Eye surgery is also an extremely delicate process even with an intact eye to transfer, and Rin Nohara was a skilled medic. if she felt it was irreparably destroyed, it's rather unlikely someone else had done better."

Trying to drive a wedge between Naruto and Kakashi is not what he had expected of the fox. The closest he could imagine to a motive would be if the creature wanted to prevent the man from being assigned as Naruto's Jonin teacher, and as explanations for behavior went it was far from satisfying. That implied it was the Uchiha's doing, and their motive was all too obvious. He'd have to have a talk with them about not trying to overreach just because other matters were occupying him.

"...Hokage-sama.  Whoever it was that did this, had medics on par with Orochimaru.  As is evident from how your looking for those medics turned up literally Orochimaru, and who knows what else.  Are you sure he couldn't have done it, especially with the resources he had?

"If the answer is no, then I think that proves my point."

She finally stops fixing Hiruzen with her patent-pending 'I Am Disappointed In Your Critical Thinking Skills' Look(tm), as she begins expositing.

"The activation conditions for the Mangekyo Sharingan are definitely highly specific, though I'm not certain they're as specific as the clan or the Kyuubi have, apparently independently, concluded.  And they'd be horribly hard to produce in a lab, no matter whose thoughts you believe on what they are, so that rules out cloning.  So the search is narrow, and it's better to attempt to disprove the few possibilities of natural Mangekyo Sharingan than send ourselves on a wild goose chase for ones that don't exist.  Which is why I want to find out if Kakashi's Sharingan manifests the same pattern, if it even can, or if it manifests a different one.  Because if it is a different one, we know it wasn't Uchiha Obito's.  Or are at least pretty sure.  ...Come to think of it, I don't actually know what meaning, if any, that the patterns have, just that the assailant's...pinwheel thing...did not match Madara's...

"...Let me put it this way.  I want to - run this experiment - to hopefully rule out that it was Uchiha Obito's Sharingan that was used.  If it does turn up the same pattern, that's...

"Probably its own whole can of worms, actually!  But if we don't rule it out, we can't be sure that we're not passing up a potential major lead on the person who tried to use the Kyuubi as a deadly weapon."

"...who succeeded in using the Kyūbi-no-Kitsune as a deadly weapon," she murmurs, after a pause.

The hokage sighs, showing the weight of his years.

"Naruto. If there is one thing I have learned, in all my years as a ninja, it is that simple explanations are almost always correct. There are, on rare occasions, masterminds who will evade this maxim for a time, but even then their efforts are heavily reliant on luck. Complicated explanations involving someone having someone having a way to reconstruct damaged eyeballs, one of the most difficult of all the body's organs to repair, from a corpse in a warzone that they had no way to predict in advance would be there or easy way to know where is, and also have an entirely separate way of obtaining other sharingan eyes that they used to get a second eye... it simply doesn't happen, especially not when whatever their other method of obtaining eyes is would be sufficient. By far the most likely explanation in my mind as to how the assailant obtained the sharingan is that they got it the same way everyone else does, by being born to a Uchiha parent. Bloodline clans are usually more careful about that than the average person, but more careful is very much a relative term, and there are no shortage of young men lead around by their hormones who would then not admit to it afterwards."

"...Yeah, sure, if it's just a regular Sharingan - but I'd put money on that not being easier to arrange for the... especially tragic, Mangekyo.  The eye with the power of the kaleidoscope, the Kyuubi called it.  The eye of a kinslayer, he said - and Uchiha Mikoto said something very similar, even if significantly different in the details.  If there was a way to artificially induce that particular evolution, the Uchiha would not have nearly had such a thing become all but history to them - but it has, so that's significantly more - weight on the scale - towards the theory that there isn't one and if you want a Mangekyo Sharingan you must find one that already exists, or arrange for one in - well, a mastermind plot!  That's what you'd need, to pull that off!

"And we still have no conclusive proof that Obito is dead.  Just guessing, even if it's particularly smart guesses.  So even if it has to be an Uchiha by blood - which the experiment I want to try could disprove - we still haven't ruled that source of a Sharingan out.  Especially with the unknown potential of Senju Hashirama's unique weirdness involved!  It may normally be the simple answer, but in this case, the simple answer leaves too many questions open!"

"...I don't want it to be Obito's Sharingan.  Obito's Sharingan is just the one that's the easiest to hopefully rule out."

"If obtaining these powers truly does require slaying one's kin, then I expect the most likely role Obito could have played is as their victim. But even that is not a likely occurrence by my eyes; there were many Uchiha that were softer targets than the students of Minato Namikaze, and no shortage of them died in combat during the wars. To kill a ninja, even one of a notable clan, is not the sort of thing that requires a master plan, only power and ruthlessness and a modicum of subtlety. I will have your request relayed to Hatake Kakashi, but he is a loyal Jonin in good standing, so it will be up to him if he decides to answer."

Privately, Hiruizen strongly suspects the response will be no, but perhaps an excuse to meet with Naruto that doesn't touch on the obligations Kakashi feels like he failed will work where others have not. The young man has surprised him before.

"...I just want to talk with him, for a bit.  The...  I'm calling it an experiment because I came up with the idea by thinking about what didn't make sense about some of the things that were claimed, but it's not...

"I don't want to poke his eyes with a stick or anything.  I just...

"Hope I can find a constructive channel for his grief.  It's - I swear it's like I can feel it, like this... impossibly dark lodestone of self-loathing."

"...Anyway.  Uh, what else was there that I wanted to speak to you about...

"...Oh, right.  The Academy.  There was a recruiter who came by the orphanage, and - well, I don't want to be a hired killer, but it's not like there's other ways to learn how to shape chakra that the village will let me pursue, unless there's a lot in those few books on Theravāda meditation practices that I missed the implications of.  ...Well, no, I'm almost certain there is, because none other than the Kyuubi - by complete coincidence of word choice; I asked him what he believed chakra was for and he said it was for, oh, what was it, I'm sure I wrote it down, it was something about communication and transcending the need for violence through enlightenment - well, it corroborates the idea that that sect actually learned from the Sage as they claim, but anyway if there is such a thing I haven't found it.  So given that, I do think it would be my best chance of learning what I actually want to know, if I attended.  But I don't really...

"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to attend the Academy as Uzumaki Naruto, no matter what my future plans are.  So I kind of want to not attend as him."

"You want to attend in disguise? Hmm. That would be a rather difficult task, since you're known to be of the right age and not trained in infiltration; there's no way it would fool everyone. But perhaps with some calculated rumors about you being trained in black ops instead, maybe even pretend we've reopened Root, and combine it with a crash course in infiltration training... it might be possible to fool enough people, at least if you were a late transfer. That would be no easy task, though, and if you told anyone who you really were it would blow the whole thing wide open - worse than nothing, even, since it would be a red flag that you had something to hide."

"...Hokage-sama, everyone already knows the thing I'm supposedly hiding."

She flicks a finger at where the seal lies.

"And I've grown up having to deal with the consequences of that being an open secret.  They're not good consequences.

"If you think I haven't learned how to hide in plain sight, I really think you should think again about how Konoha has treated me.  I may not be attacked by random passers-by, but Uzumaki Naruto is not going to contribute to a calm learning environment when everyone has been told to fear the demon.  As if they're not making a self-fulfilling prediction..."

"...Still, if that's the sort of cover story you're thinking of...

"I couldn't do that.  I'm not sure how you could.  The Will of Fire is not fond of even pretending to send children to war, is it not?"

"Ah, I suppose it's not surprising that kids your age wouldn't have heard of Root. It was a program established by the Nidaime, after he had noted some of the problems with ANBU's effectiveness. Because ANBU recruited from prominent ninja in the regular forces, many of their identities were essentially open secrets with their strengths and weaknesses known by other villages. This made them both less effective at covert operations and that when they clashed with other ninja forces, said ninja had an easier time knowing what to expect. It also meant that lots of the time ANBU had spent time training skills that weren't useful in their new role, and missed or lacked emphasis on important fundamentals. The idea behind Root was to make a parallel training system to the academy and Genin squads, where we put candidates through a decade of specialized instruction and end up with a more skilled and less casualty prone ANBU corps. I ended up disbanding it after the problems started mounting and it failed to live up to its promises, but when it existed it was sufficiently similar to how other villages train their jinchuriki that if we clamped down on rumors we spread about it as you left the public eye it might fool Kumo and Iwa."

"...On the one hand some of that does make sense if you look at it from the right direction of sideways.  On the other hand...

"This I know about Konoha: It was founded because both the Senju and Uchiha had gotten fed up with the idea of children raised for war.

"I can't understand how we still justify spitting on that resolve.

"If the Academy is failing to train the appropriate skills in its genin-candidates, then the solution is to change the Academy, or do some sort of periodic retraining, not...

"Do whatever that is."

"...I'm not against the idea of a story where I'm receiving some sort of specialized training as a cover, maybe I've been sent to the Fire Temple or something, but...

"That sort of training, I can't..."

She feels like she's going to be sick.

"That's how other villages treat the people they've attempted to cage what they believe to be monsters within?  Shoving them down a dark hole - don't lie to me that this wasn't so secret that they probably didn't even get proper names - and...  I don't even want to know?  And they're still alive?  Villages like those continue to wage atrocity upon atrocity because they call it strength?

"I can't...

"If I ever..."

She pauses, and huffs out a shaky breath.

"Oh, kami.  You have just done more to convince me that ninja and the hidden village system are an abomination unto the Sage that must be stopped than the Kyuubi ever could have."

She meets his eyes, and despite her age, there is a solemn, aching grief in them, borne from this sudden knife to the back.

"If Konoha has herself raised children as deniable assets, stopping only because it was not effective -"

She cuts herself off, and resumes, picking through the words she says like they're a minefield - "...I am concerned, Sarutobi Hiruzen, that the Will of Fire you once told me of, is, was, or has become...  nothing but political genjutsu.  Some pleasant illusion, all while the knife in the dark of necessary sacrifice slits our throats.  I don't want to find out what I'd do, if it was.  ...I haven't met him, but...  I refuse to become Uchiha Itachi, refuse to let what remains of my childhood be sacrificed to the shinobi world's demand for weaponry.  I've already lost so much more than I should have, to exactly that.

"Sage's breath, Hokage-sama.  I don't understand how you could think this is okay."

"Of course they have names. The goal was to prevent Konoha's enemies from having an information advantage against our most loyal ninja, not to throw their lives away. ANBU is an elite force filled with some of our finest ninja, not a dumping ground for people sent to die. The difference is that there are vast differences in what you need to know to make a good impression on clients, reassure people that you're there protecting them from attacks, intimidate foes away from costly conflicts where our clients might get hurt, and so forth, when compared to what is needed to hunt down spies and assassins trying to infiltrate the village."

Her rhetoric is very concerning, though at least for all his manipulations the beast hasn't been subtle. He should have known it was a mistake to give a demon unmonitored access to a child's mind; hopefully his student will have a solution.

"...Hokage-sama.  Deniable assets that do black ops, are not remotely the same specialization as counterintelligence."

She buries her face in her hands for a moment, clearly frustrated-exhausted.

"Maybe this is all just some massive miscommunication, but can you honestly tell me that I'm wrong about the sorts of things I fear Root operatives were trained to do?  Or the other villages, who believe that Root's training is equivalent to their programs for jinchuuriki?  Lies are often tempered with truths, and I know you know I know that.  So if you're planning to lie with that...  What truths could it possibly be playing upon, that aren't horrifying?"

A good minute passes before she speaks again.

"...I can't think of a collection of possible truths about those programs that don't make that comparison look horrible, Hokage-sama, unless I start by assuming that Konohagakure isn't especially good at ethics compared to other villages.  And that, itself, is concerning."

"...Also, stop looking at me like that.  The idea that because I occasionally speak with the Kyuubi, that all my opinions are therefore his manipulations, is stupid.  I might be a child but that doesn't mean I can't think for myself, and the Kyuubi barely gives me the time of day when I try talking with him.  Sure, I get the impression that he despises me marginally less than most humans, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't believe I'm at best an idealistic fool in my own right, if not another of the shinobi he despises in the making.  My opinions about the Kyuubi are based on actual research of the few things he lets slip, but then you're presuming that he's the sort of mastermind you just told me most often isn't real if you expect that he's really calculating everything he does to that degree.  He may be as old as the Sage, but really, do you actually believe that he's this mastermind when all the stories we have agree that he mostly just smacks stuff until it stops bothering him?"

"...Frankly, though, for all his high-minded words, the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune is an utter hypocrite, repaying blood with blood as he has tried to.  Self-defense is one thing, but preemptive eradication is about as bad as the ninja he claims to despise.  Even if we don't consider the things he did under genjutsu to be his own actions."

"...This whole, absurd, thing, came about because I want to prove his bitter outlook wrong, though, you know?"  Her voice has...  Softened.  Like she is trying to tread gently around an open wound.  "I...  I want to do enough good with chakra, that he will have to consider me."

"I would not count on being able to force consideration from someone who doesn't want to give it."

The fact that Naruto didn't seem completely blind to its faults yet was better than he feared, but still something that would need dealing with. If he was less busy, perhaps he could try himself, but as things stood if he went that route he'd be better off just tightening the seal straight off and dealing with the consequences. But did he even have anyone who he could trust to do better?

"...I know, Hokage-sama.  But what else can I possibly do but try?  It's -

"It's the Will of Fire.  It's the next step on the path that Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara set out upon when they founded Konohagakure and ended the Senju-Uchiha feud with it.  It's hoping for peace."

"...I'm gonna let you think about that for a bit.  I need to go think about - all this - myself.  Hokage-sensei."

She...

She needs to talk to somebody.

Kyuubi-sama.  Mikoto-sama.  Even Jiraiya - not that he's around.  The Hokage's very own Will of Fire, the things he tried to teach her - his Fire is all but ash.  The foundations of her world are shaking beneath her.  She looks positively ill - pale, shellshocked - as she slips out of the restaurant.  She doesn't understand anymore.  She doesn't know what to do.

She can't run.  She can't break Sasuke-kun's heart, her first earnest friend, or betray Mikoto-sama's trust.  But the Hokage has broken her trust today, and this she knows: he will never have it again.  Certainly never so unconditionally as he did.

She walks.

«I'm sorry, Kyuubi-san.  I really did think he'd be better,» she says, from the surface of her mind.

«I should have known.  He clearly didn't care to pull his friend out of the darkness, if what you said about the eugenics is true.  And if that's true, then what else will he stand aside and let happen because it's easier?»

Her feet meander towards the Uchiha compound, independent of her conscious attention.  Her heart aches, and this is - perhaps the only place she has found someone who truly cared to soothe its pains because they hurt her.