Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Hokage's Exodus ❯ Making like tree's ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Hokage's Exodus

Chapter 1: We'll make like a tree.

Authors Notes: Here we go again. My take on Perfect Lionheart's challenge. Just thought I'd give it a shot. I doubt I'll be as good as some of the others, but perhaps I can do alright. On with the show!

If you're reading this, this is the written edition of the chapter due to all-round shoddiness on my behalf.

The scarecrow jonin Hatake Kakashi, former ANBU operative and sharingan wielder, knelt before his young, blond, whisker marked student: Uzumaki Naruto. His one visible eye flicked over the boy, committing every last detail to memory similar to how he so often gazed upon the memorial, as he filled his body with healing chakra, attempting to heal the more minor wounds caused in his fight while the Kyuubi tried to mend his broken lung, chest and ribs. Behind him the waterfall pounded rhythmically to the beat of the Bijuu's heart, fading, drawing closer to death.

How could this have happened? He had spent so much time and effort on his students, trying to get them to work alongside each other, teamwork and friendship filling their training periods. He had tried to help Naruto overcome his pained childhood and had done the same for Sasuke, one of his other students. He had tried so hard to develop them into better people. For a time, it had actually worked! But somehow...this had happened. His favourite student, the Uchiha, whom he shared the sharingan eye with, had not only betrayed the village, but his best friend and team-mate too! He might have killed him!

That made the Uchiha trash. Worse than trash even. He broke one of the first rules Kakashi had ever taught him. He used to believe that the boy was destined for greatness. That one day he would beat Itachi and restore the Uchiha clan. He was wrong. That clan would no longer be welcome in Konoha, at least not to him.

With a sigh of remorse, he picked up the boy, knowing that he had done all that he could. Shoving chakra into his swift, speedy feet, he shot away towards his home.

Two cerulean globes opened, hesitantly, gazing down into murky, shallow waters. His arms were pressed against the floor, partially submerged, holding him suspended between excruciating vertical pain, and the 'slightly' less painful floor. He wished that he could lie down, but he sensed that he needed to do something.

Slowly, painfully, making his way to his feet, he was greeted by an almost familiar scene: that of his own sewer-like mind, ruined through pain as a child and not of his own doing. Putting on his usual brave smile, he ran towards the Kyuubi, knowing that, as always, this would mean something significant.

If there's one thing in the world that he could not live with, it was being ignored. It was something he had grown up with, and, like all would, had done everything possible to receive as much attention as possible growing up. Albeit negative attention, he still craved it like cocaine.

And so, naturally, he disliked the image of a kyuubi, full bodied, turned decisively away from him. Seeing this, something in the boys head twitched and immediately set him off, causing much yelling about how great he was and his dreams for the future, of which does not need to be written here.

Naturally, the kyuubi wound up both pissed off and paying attention, even though Naruto's body desperately needed the attention he had been giving him.

“Naruto, you idiotic little freak. I'm attempting to save your worthless ass here. So don't just come in here and ASSUME that your messed up, immature, insatiable need for attention, caused by your being unable to handle a bit of suffering, matters the most! For my sake… grow the hell up Naruto. If you maybe acted like a ninja once in a while you'd get some more attention.”

And that hurt the poor, abused boy. There was something about being yelled at by someone who knew you so intimately that they noticed things you didn't that just…made the boy want to break down. And that was something he was unused to, putting up a blockage against those kinds of emotions for years. He could almost feel as a chunk of that wall broke away, but much of it was still left intact.

“Hey, well, uh, at least I, uh…have a body!”

The kyuubi - somehow - managed to grind its paw down and along its face in exasperation. After many millennia of existing, it had at least some understanding of how to communicate with humans. And that was forgetting the whole `understanding-how-to-torture-mortals' skill he had.

“Alright then Naruto. Seeing as you'll understand no other way, I have to be harsh about this. Okay?”

Naruto nodded, flaunting his ever present `bring it on' attitude.

“Good! Now listen closely. All your life you've been abused because of me. One of these reasons is your lack of chakra control, right?”

“Yeah! My teachers at the academy always used to mock me and send me out of class all day because of it! Then when I asked how to fix it, they said you can't!”

“What a load of crap. Naruto, the fact of the matter is, you CAN fix it. In fact, half the time you were in wav country you were helping it. No, your being out of Konoha changed nothing. It was the tree climbing exercise. And the water walking exercise? Same effect. For some reason, doing unusual things with your chakra and defying the laws of physics seems to make you a better ninja.” The kyuubi shrugged. “Now I personally can't teach you these things, I can perhaps come up with ideas or send you to people who I suspect will be able to.”

The kyuubi no kitsune, greatest of all demon lords finished its offer, with Naruto's mind whirring at what had just happened. He had been told that something he had loathed himself for, his poor chakra control, was fixable? Something had had Naruto feeling like trash, that its inability to be changed in the slightest was all a lie? Lesser men would have practically fallen over in both relief and pain, but not Naruto. Naruto saw this only as a good thing and was incapable of seeing it in a selfish light.

“Wait. Wait a minute. You said Henge wasn't a basic. What?!”

“Hahaha. Naruto you have a very special Henge. The typical one is simply a genjutsu that doesn't actually affect the body. Yours, on the other hand, physically alters your body. It is, quite

frankly, one of the most powerful ninjutsu to ever be created. And by a child, no less.”

Naruto was surprised, as well as overjoyed. One of his many goals was to have heaps of cool, flashy jutsu. And now he had another! He was quite happy.

“But still. Four jutsu is almost nothing. Like I said, ask the Sannin."

"Alright. I'll ask Jiraiya once I wake up. Erm...I will wake up... right?"

"Well duh. You think I'd waste time talking to about things as...trivial as this when your life needed saving? No way. You've got medics for that."

"Oh. Good." replied Naruto, well relieved.

"Now, something else I've noticed. The pink haired hag. Tell her to piss off and leave our body alone."

"WHAT?! Why would I tell Sakura-chan that!?"

"Well, for starters, she treats you like dirt. She practically asked you, the one person that has ever stuck by her, to go commit suicide in a most likely possible mission to save a bastard that

has done nothing but ignore you. She hits you for the slightest comments using excessive force. She yells at you and tells you how useless you are. She fails to meet any part of the word 'team'

at all, one of the few things your teacher got right."

"B-but...she's so nice!"

"Tell me Naruto, when has she ever once been nice to you?"

"Well...there...no...Erm...I don't know! I can't remember everything!"

"Well thankfully, I can. To answer my own question: Never. Think about it."

"Sure..."

"Now. Back onto the subject of your skills. They need development, possibly even reconstruction. You also need a specialty. Not sure exactly how to get someone to teach you that… Ah look.

Our time is up. When you wake up your reception may be harsh as to your missions failure, but you can deal with it. One last thing: Simply think in my direction and you'll be able to talk to

me, most of the time I'll reply. In my time I've seen a lot so I'm a fountain of knowledge. See ya! ”

I'm too fuzzed to be sure how, but the talk with the Kyuubi can be improved. It may happen without further effort as a side-effect of your rewrite. -Stephan Sokolow 1/14/09 2:55 AM

Naruto smiled in thanks, having someone being nice to him was a lovely change, before vanishing altogether from his mindscape.

A dazed Naruto blinked slowly, his eyes slowly coming to terms with the dull light in this room of the hospital that he was so accustomed to.

He almost smirked as he drew his nail along the side of his bedside table, marking the one hundredth visit to this intensive care unit of the hospital. He had almost missed this place having been five months since his last

visit, an all time record since he was four.

He yawned, his suffering and pain nothing new.

The door slowly opened and he was greeted by a very distraught Haruno, his mind's very image of perfection.

She glared at him as she made his way to him before raising her now chakra imbued fist and smashing him in the chest. Repeatedly. Right in the spot Sasuke's Chidori had pierced.

“Naruto! You idiot! How could you let him get away?! You promised me! You're the worst ninja ever!”

"Ugh...Sakura-chan...I'm sorry!"

"NO! Sorry doesn't cut it! Now I'll never see him again! Why can't you ever be nice to me?!"

More bashing. Ask yourself why Sakura is acting like this and don't accept any explanation which uses a word more derogatory than "fangirl" or "deluded". (You'll probably end up either showing or implying her crying in the rewrite once the anger wears out a bit) -Stephan Sokolow 1/14/09 2:57 AM

Naruto suddenly remembered the words of the Kyuubi and violently lashed out at her, smashing her into the wall.

“You…you bitch! What the fuck did I ever do to deserve such treatment?! I've only ever been nice to you, telling you how pretty you are and cheering you up when the gay bastard treated you, like everyone else as trash!

Then, because you're a friend I promise to try save him, fighting through multiple Jounin level sound ninja to try save him then nearly DIE attempting to help him?! You're really just like everyone else in this city! Sakura

Haruno: Get out of my life. You are no longer worth my time.”

Sakura, completely bat shit insane, screamed before attempting to kill the `annoying' blonde before her. She was, luckily for Naruto, stopped by Kakashi.

“Sakura. What happened here?”

Using all of her bitchiness to her advantage, as well as Kakashi's obvious dislike of Naruto she replied, tears in her voice “Ka-…Kakashi-sensei…Naruto he… he hit me! I just walked in here to ask him how he was and he

smashed me into a wall!”

“Naruto! How could you?! You're trash! Nothing more than trash! I told you the very first day we became a team that those who do not care about their team are nothing more than trash. And now…I'm utterly

disappointed in you. I would have thought that Sakura would deserve far better treatment than this.”

Naruto sat in his bed, speechless, in shock. The Kyuubi had been right…They all hated him. All of them. Well maybe not Tsunade or Shizune…Or Jiraiya…but still. Everyone else wanted his blood. If only he could leave. He

no longer wanted to be Hokage of a village such as this.

“Leave me alone.” Was his eventual response, its chilling, hatred filled sound resonating in each of their ears.

“Gladly!” Cried Sakura, Kakashi following her glumly.

“Naruto did WHAT?!”

“He brutally attacked me!”

Ask me for help with this when I've had more rest and I'll help you come up with an alternate way to get Naruto on the village's bad side. I tend to be good at alternate ways of bringing about a given state. -Stephan Sokolow 1/14/09 2:59 AM

Tsunade was shocked. She had not expected Naruto to ever lash out at the girl, regardless of how much she deserved to be beaten.

“But…Why?”

“I… I don't know!”

Her mother finally spoke up, the tears that had previously kept her silent now gone.

“That demon will pay for what he did to my girl! Such a sweet, caring thing is she, and he WILL pay. I have already spoken to the elders and we are all in agreement. After causing Sasuke to defect and now assaulting

another member of his team, Naruto WILL be executed. Or, if he so chooses can renounce all titles associating him with being a Konoha ninja and leave the village forever.”

Tsunade, who had been disbelieving before, was positively fuming now. How could those bastards constantly treat the boy so horribly?

With a sigh of submission, she asked that they leave her and Shizune be, at least until they could figure out what to do.

“Did you hear that? Those bigots… Ugh.”

“Tsunade-sama. Although I don't mean to be offensive to the Haruno girl, I don't think she can exactly be trusted. I suggest you get a Yamanaka to check both participants' memories.”

“Aye…Sounds like a good idea.”

Taking a swig of Sake straight from the bottle, she called for an ANBU with a button on her desk.

Immediately a member Shunshin'd in, wearing the cat mask.

“Oy, Yuugao. I need you to go get me… Ino Yamanaka. She's probably the only Yamanaka that doesn't mind Naruto, so I need her to check his memories over the last day. Then do a repeat check on Sakura. Once you've

got your info let me know.”

“Sure, Tsunade-sama. But first may I ask: why?”

“Although it isn't actually your business, I'll tell ya. I like you, you see. Sakura Haruno has claimed that Naruto Uzumaki assaulted her, violently. Now from her almost complete lack of bruising and her reputation for

hating Naruto, I doubt it. But no matter what happens the council has issued that he be killed. They've even gone so far as to have it signed by one of the daimyo's emissaries.”

“Ugh…bastards. Alright I'll have your info within an hour.”

She bowed as she left; her utter respect for her Hokage apparent.

“Now Shizune. What are we to do?”

“Ano…What do you mean? We can't overrule the Daimyo, regardless of what we want to do. No ninja will save his life…We're stuck.”

Leaning against her desk while gazing across her city, she pouted.

“He's not going to let them execute him. He'll leave. And if that's the case…why are we here?”

“I'm not sure what you mean, Tsunade-sama.”

“I mean what reason to we have to be in this fucking hell-hole? It is only because of Naruto that we're here. Since we've been here we've seen nothing but his abuse and made nothing but a whole bunch of political

enemies. And to top it all off now we're gonna be known as the duo that LOST Konoha's favourite little snob, Sasuke.”

Shizune, finally understanding, frowned. Her teacher, and best friend, was right.

“Cheh. Fuck this Shizune. Let's get out of here. You me and Naruto, back on the road, like old times. We can train him to be a medic, rather than that bitch Sakura, as well as show him a thing or two about the world.”

Watch Tsunade's language. She feels out of character. -Stephan Sokolow 1/14/09 3:04 AM

“Y'know. You're actually right. I was wrong in letting you come here. Its not worth us staying any longer. Lets give them as much hell as possible too!”

“You've got my attention. What do you suggest?”

“Stop us from becoming missing-nin! Simply release us from the ninja force. But being able to return to it at a later date would be nice. And take some others that are willing with us. Someone important if we can.”

“Heh. All good ideas, but I think we can cause a bit more havoc. All that later though. Until then: lets go get our `someone important'!”

Shizune smiled at the wild gleam in Tsunade's eye, the first time she had seen without her being drunk.

A young Hinata Hyuuga was interrupted from arranging her flowers when suddenly there came a knock on the door. Blushing madly, she made her way over to find none other than the Hokage and her assistant before

her.

“Hey.”

With that simple, disrespectful greeting the two made their way into her room, Shizune being dragged unwillingly due to their lack of welcome.

Hinata was shocked by it, courtesy being the staple food of her household.

“Are we alone?” Receiving a curt nod, she continued “Good. Look, you like Naruto right? Like you're mad about him. And you know how much the village hates him? Well on his recent mission he failed to retrieve Sasuke, much to his own dismay. Currently there are claims that, following this, he violently assaulted his own team mate: Haruno Sakura. The council have overreacted to this, and now are planning to execute or banish him.”

“Those…those…FUCKING BASTARDS!!” Hinata suddenly left her typical character, her protective feelings for Naruto sending all typical character actions out the window.

Probably more believable for her to be speechless with a mix of shock and rage than for her to swear. (Starting with shock, quickly fading to rage) -Stephan Sokolow 1/15/09 6:56 PM

“What are we going to do? We have to convince them to stop! You can't let this happen! You're the Hokage!” Perhaps you might add something like "a hint of panic now tinting the anger in her voice"? -Stephan Sokolow 1/15/09 7:24 PM

“Hinata, I'm sorry. As much as I wish I could cancel this, I cannot. The daimyo has stamped approval on it. But we are going to take their supposedly `brilliant' idea of banishing him, and use it to undermine them. We're going to leave alongside him, taking the Hokage hat with him. We aren't going to even become missing-nin for this! We're going to take, alongside with the Hokage hat, money and special items that we can use as ninja. We'll take the two of you on as apprentices as well, teaching you medical jutsu. Keen? You'll have Naruto all to yourself!”

Her mind stopped even thinking about the question with the final comment.

“Can we leave now?”

Tsunade, with a laugh, replied “Sorry. We don't even have Naruto signed onto this yet, let alone prepare laws to take place so that we don't get in trouble. But at the most we will be leaving tomorrow night. Probably gonna destroy something beforehand, just for the hell of it.”

Hinata grinned evilly and nodded her agreement one final time. It's essentially impossible for a person to fully shed who they are. I'd suggest equating her look to an evil kitten. It's still cute no matter how evil its expression is. -Stephan Sokolow 1/15/09 7:57 PM

Naruto was pissed. He had so far only had four visitors. One was Ino and she was only there under Hokage orders. She had barely said a word upon entering, although her hug and thanks for at least trying to save Sasuke was nice. Much nicer than Sakura, that's for sure.

Apart from her, there had been Shikamaru and Kiba, even if briefly, and Jiraiya.

He had had a long chat about how pissed off he was with him who seemed to understand perfectly. He had even promised him more training after talking about his meeting with the Kyuubi, as well as extensive chakra control practice.

That had been the brightest point of his day thus far.

His chest had finally healed up and he was at the receptionist's desk being signed out when he found himself tackled to the ground.

A small, lavender-eyed girl had wrapped herself around him, looking like she actually cared. It made Naruto feel fantastic. Not far behind her were Tsunade and Shizune, both with fake smiles. He could tell they were grim and apprehensive about something.

“Oy, granny Tsunade. What's the matter?”

“Naruto, come with me. We must talk.”

Naruto, usually one to ask questions, could sense just how serious she currently was, which made him uneasy, but he followed her into `his' room without question.

“And you're serious about the whole `execution' thing?”

“Dead serious, Naruto. Those bastards want you drawn and quartered, your body eaten, your head stuck on a pole at the city gate, and the pole set on fire.” Was his response from Tsunade who had just finished her arduous explanation for the second time that day, with the added info from Ino.

Turns out Sakura had hit Naruto, not the other way around. Sakura also had something…wrong with her and was going to be checked out more thoroughly by the experienced members of the Yamanaka clan.

Naruto, who had recently begun looking inward to focus on things around him finally nodded. “Alright. I'm in. Then again, how could I not be? Its either this or die, horribly, as you described before.”

Tsunade smiled, although already expecting this answer, it was still nice to hear. The blonde Hokage then stood up, appendages wobbling.

“Come on Naruto. Lets go. You need to get some things ready, such as ninja tools and anything else you want to bring with you. The other two are already gearing up. Meet me in my house at nightfall, around nine o'clock, my office. We could well be leaving tonight, if we get everything finished.”

“Alright. See you then.”

Naruto now stood before his old, shoddy, empty apartment building, the metallic fencing around it doing nothing beneficial for its sterile image. The cracked walls, fading paint and never-ending cold that seemed to emit in this area brought back cruel memories. Thoughts of being assaulted, stolen from, insulted and tormented filled his defiled mind.

He would not miss this hell hole, not one bit.

He shoved chakra into his legs, ignoring the stairs. As he made his way up he realized he had miss-judged the distance significantly and was now going to miss, possibly impaling himself on the sharp barbed wire he had recently erected, or perhaps one of the many traps around the place. Through sheer instinct he shot chakra out of his back, propelling him forwards.

Hurtling forwards it looked as though he would not make it. Through sheer luck he landed on the railing, although he was angled at ninety degrees off the rail, hanging as though a lantern for a festival. Shoving chakra to his feet he forced himself to remain in contact with the metal railing. Using the same technique he had just used he emitted a blast of chakra out of his back, bringing him back to a vertical position. Nifty. A new technique! He thought to himself.

With his feet now set directly upon the railing alongside the path that lead to his door, he slowly began to feel more and more confident with his movement as he walked up and down the length of it.

It was similar to the tree-climbing and water-walking exercise, although slightly more difficult due to the different substance, as well as the area he was able to emit from.

“Oy, Kyuubi! Is this what I think it is?”

“Aye, Naruto. It's helping your chakra control, quite extensively in fact. `Konoha's most unpredictable ninja' comes through again, neh?”

“Heh. I suppose so. Cheers, I'll share this with the girls.”

Suddenly feeling a lot closer to his inhabitant, he smiled before making his way inside. The Kyuubi had been nice to him of late, the least he could do was to return the favour.

As he went around collecting his things he contacted the Kyuubi again:

“Hey Kyuubi. I was just wondering. Seeing as you're stuck inside me, quite possibly for a long time, is there anything I can do to make your life a bit easier?”

“Wow. I'm surprised you asked. But actually, there is. You've noticed how fucking damp it is in here, right? Well if you go ask a Yamanaka or genjutsu user to help out, they can teach you how to mess around with things. Such as opening all the doors in this place. It's one of the reasons you're a lot worse of a ninja than you could be, you have almost no access to your memories. That's both of our faults. Your subconscious mind trying to protect yourself, and me trying to stop you from suffering. I had no idea that the combined efforts would result in this. Sorry.”

“You mean…I can get a lot better with, almost, no work? I'll go get Ino once I'm done!” Naruto replied happily.

As the door shut behind him, Naruto looked around the room that made up Ino's flower shop; smiling. This had always been a nice place in his opinion, the colors and smells of the room setting off a strange peace in his

mind. Gazing up and down the rows, colors bouncing at his mind forming a fractal, he noticed his target: Ino.

Making his way over to her, he realized he had no idea what to say. When he thought about it he realized he had never held a proper conversation with a girl his age before. They always told him to shut up, with the

exception of Hinata who just fainted. Strange girl, that one.

Frantically considering how to begin a conversation, everything sounding too idiotic for a girl like this, he was shocked to hear: “Oh. Hey, Naruto. What do you want?”

Hearing such a simple, clean question made him smile. Not many people spoke to him as though he was human.

“Heh, hey Ino. You know how you were looking around my head earlier? Well I was wondering if you noticed anything weird in there.”

Ino almost laughed. His head was seriously messed up, a level of mentality equalling that of someone suicidal.

“Yeah Naruto. It was…horrible. The flooding of the sewers, the lack of light and all those locked doors…You've clearly got some things in there that I DO NOT want to see.”

Naruto's heart almost sunk, although he had been expecting such an answer.

“Ah. Well I was wondering if you could help me out? I seem to only be able to enter the place when I'm in pain. And when I-” “Hang on. You can enter that…hellish place? By yourself? But…that's impossible! There's no

way you can do it alone!”

“Seriously? I've been in there multiple times. Never knew it was a big deal.”

“What?! We learnt all about mindscapes in the academy! We did a study on them for three days. All ninja should know about them!”

He rubbed his head sheepishly before answering “Heh. I guess that's one of the lessons I missed.”

Turning her head sideways, she squinted at him. Suddenly he felt an impossibly sweet sensation, before having it ripped away. “You're lying. That day you got sent out of the class by our teacher for…asking a question?

What?! They wouldn't let you back in…that is really weird!”

“Well…to be honest…now that I think about it…the teachers did send me out a lot. At least they didn't beat me!”

“Erm…why would they have beaten you? That's silly to even bring up!”

“Well you see I get beaten a lot. By adults, or ninja. Occasionally it is really serious. Like LIFE THREATENING serious. Actually, most of the time it's like that. Ah well, I guess I have simply gotten used to it.”

“That's…horrible! How could someone ever hit you! You're such a nice guy! A bit annoying, sure, but you always mean well!”

Naruto shrugged in response, the sheepish rub returning.

“Anyway…I was wondering if you could help me out with some of the things in my head?”

“Sure Naruto. Although I'm a bit busy at the moment, I can meet you at your place around…nine-o'clock?”

“Hrm. Sorry, at nine I've got a meeting with the Hokage. And after that…well…it's confidential. But if you can come to her office around then, it should be all good.”

“Confidential, aye? Bet you and her are gonna have a really `special' time with her. I mean you have been spending a lot of time with her. Jiraiya would be proud.” She said while poking her tongue out.

Naruto simply rolled his eyes, smiled and left with a thanks.

Naruto entered the room that was the Hokage's office, looking around this familiar room. The insignia on the wall, the desk, the chairs, everything he saw in a strangely new light. During his time on his hospital bed, and

while he had gathered his belongings, he had been thinking; unusual for this demon-cursed child.

He was seeing the entire world in a different light, noticing them with more clarity as well as noticing the people more along the lines of how they truly acted. Sine if it…made him sad.

“Ah. Naruto. Welcome to the show. Everything sorted?”

“Nearly everything, Tsunade-baachan. I asked Ino if she'd come up here and help me with my mind. According to…” Glancing around the room he spotted Hinata, unbeknownst towards his `lovely' tenant and happily

gazing about the room, simply happy to be in the same room as her `Naruto-kun' again, as well as being able to spend a prolonged amount of time with him.

“I heard that kit…”

Smiling, he continued “According to someone my mind has some strange things inside, so she's going to come around and give me tips on how to fix it.”

“Ah. Are you sure that it's wise that she be poking around your head? Certain `things' in there may scare her.”

“Don't worry. I'll make sure certain `foxy things' don't bother her.”

“Alright, excellent. Now we are currently reviewing our plan, and we're pretty happy. I have just sent Shizune off to collect a large amount from the treasury, one hundred million ryo, to be exact. On top of that I am going

to go collect a few scrolls, such as the forbidden scroll and a few summoning scrolls.”

“Why do you need them? I've already got the frog scroll, and you've already got the slug contract. Why would we need any others?”

“God Naruto, you're a real idiot sometimes, ya'know?”

“Hey it's not my fault no one ever taught me anything!”

“It's simple logic you dipshit!”

“Old hag!”

“Annoying blonde!”

Hinata, perturbed by the scene before, managed to speak up. She knew that if she ever wanted Naruto's attention she was going to have to work for it, and this was one of the many ways she could accomplish it.

“Eh…Hokage-sama…If you'll a-allow me to speak? The reason it's so good to have multiple scrolls N-Naruto-kun is so that…so that you c-can use them in different ways. For instance…If you have the f-frog summoning

scroll you can't exactly have them help you climb trees like the m-monkeys, can they?”

“Well I suppose that's true. But if that's so then why doesn't everyone in the village borrow from one another? Like having everyone sign Kakashi's dog contract, as well as the monkey one?”

“Naruto. It just isn't done like that. They're prized possessions, some of the most powerful ninja techniques around. They also cost a whole bunch of chakra to use. They're kept heavily looked after, although I can take

them from anyone…I…like…” The Hokage paused mid-sentence. She had always known she was allowed to take them, being her ninja village and all. She had just never taken up the offer. And with Naruto's mention of

the dog contract, a powerful ally to have, as well as a few other more hidden scrolls, such as the turtles.

“Hinata. Come. You and I are going to collect a few summoning scrolls from around the town. Then we'll collect the rest of our equipment. Naruto, you wait here for your little girlfriend.”

“She's not my-Oh whatever…”

Glancing around the room Naruto found Hinata's pale white eyes widened in disbelief. In contrast to the moon, it made her look quite beautiful, something Naruto had never noticed about her before.

Quite the contrary, Hinata was thinking about a completely different blond and raging at her, hard. Ino had gone behind her back, even though everyone knew SHE had dibs on Naruto? She would have all of hell to pay

when she saw her. If she had asked to share, it would have been fine. But nooo, she had to go and be selfish. Bitch.

Tsunade, looking at the two kids knowingly simply laughed and signaled Hinata to follow her, to which she complied.

Tsunade made her way towards Kakashi's apartment, a small building on the edge of town in an empty building. She had sent her little `apprentice to be' off to find Gai and sign the turtle scroll. She had a Hokage stamp,

so it should be no trouble. Kakashi, on the other hand, would most likely constantly pretend to ignore her. If he did that, she'd smash him into a wall. Joy.

Shunshin-ing into his apartment building she whipped out her skeleton key, capable of unlocking any door in the city and entered.

She was not at all surprised to find porno posters all over the wall while Kakashi lay, inebriated, watching porn on the couch.

“Oh! Heeey Tssunade! How's it-” he hiccupped “going?”

“Ugh I can't believe I let myself get into such a state. And seeing it coming from you is all the more disgusting. Regardless, I need to sign the dog summoning contract. It's important, for the safety of the village and what

not.”

“Suuure baby, but what's in it for me? Can I feel up those big old jugs of yours?”

Tsunade sighed, rolling her eyes. “Sure Kakashi. Grope away, AFTER I sign.” She replied, planning on smashing him into a wall the moment he made his way towards her and her well protected chest.

Performing the seals he summoned a small dog, covered in red fur. Strapped to its back was a scroll, on its face: fear.

“H-here you go Kakashi...”

Kakashi formed `U's' with his eyes, indicating his happiness. The dog literally emitted a `phew' before disappearing back to wherever it came from, probably some canine coven elsewhere. Kakashi passed her the scroll

which she signed deftly after biting her thumb, blood being the necessary sacrifice. She immediately felt a connection to the dogs, as she did to the slugs.

Glancing up she saw a lecherous grin on Kakashi's surprisingly handsome face, revealed only now as he was horribly drunken, uncaring whether or not his face be seen.

Breaking her promise she flooded chakra into her soon to be rebellious arms, smashing him directly in the jaw and hurtling him into a wall. After receiving Ino's report on Naruto's mind earlier and discovering how badly

Kakashi had treated her closest male friend, she found this ever so satisfying.

Making her way out, her task complete, she shattered his door into a thousand pieces, smiling all the while.

Hinata's mission, on the other hand, had gone quite smoothly, meeting with a calmer, yet somehow stranger Gai, something that had managed to disturb her, without even knowing how.

All the same, she had completed her mission and was heading back when she bumped into Kiba.

The dog boy had come running around the corner near his compound, coincidentally close by to Gai's house, tears streaming down his face.

“K-Kiba-kun? What's the matter?”

“It's...Akamaru...He got owned by those fuckin' sound bastards...he might not make it...and I just don't know what to do! He's like my best friend in the whole world...”

“Oh Kiba...I'm so sorry...but I sort of have to go meet with the H-hokage now...sorry I can not be there for y-you...”

Kiba's face suddenly contorted, a sudden feeling of rejection mixing and mingling with his previous fear and distress, a cocktail of pain.

“B-but Hinata-chan...I...I need you now!”

Hinata felt elated and complimented both, and yet she shook her head in refusal and ran off, leaving Kiba feeling completely dejected. He assumed she was going off for her `Nawuto-kun' or some shit. He spat in her

direction.

Naruto had been waiting a good twenty minutes before Ino showed up. He had been sitting grumpily that entire time. Regardless of his slow steps into maturity lately, he was still practically a child in every since, prone to

getting angry with things he didn't like. One of those things was inactivity, something he had suffered from for far too long.

As Ino walked through the door, quite late, he shot up, prepared to berate her.

She immediately shot an ocular dagger at him to which he replied to by sitting down. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but even a woman scorned had nothing on a Kunoichi in a bad mood. Naruto realized it was

probably not a good idea to ask why.

“So, Naruto. I've got a few books here on how to enter one's mind and what to do within...” she sighed, clearly not her favourite place to be. “And seeing as you can occasionally enter on your own it probably applies once

you're in there. Can I go now? I've got better things to do than hang out with y-”

Suddenly the door crashed open, a cackling Shizune entering. Her eyes gleamed evilly while her small hands were filled with larger bags of money than she should have been able to carry. Being a typical goody-good,

something this mischevious brought out a different side in herm something not commonly seen by anyone but Tsunade. And that only happened when she somehow managed to get her drunk.

“Eh?! Shizune-chan? What are you doing? Is it even YOU there?”

“HAHAHA yes Naruto, it is I. I have our one hundred million Ryo. I take it the girls will be back from signing the scrolls soon. Following that Tsunade will sign our and her papers, issue a few decrees, and we'll be rid of

this hell-hole for a looong time.”

Ino, thoroughly shocked by this little speech from the Hokage's assistant, piped up. “Be rid of this hell-hole? Are you guys...leaving? No way. The Hokage can't leave! Neither can you Naruto! What's going on?!”

Shizune looked at the younger blonde and begin to think within her own mind. “Do we tell her...or not... she could be a useful ally if she chooses to come with us...but if she doesn't then she could rat on us...or she could

simply pine after us for a while... fuck it. I am gonna tell her.”

“Okay, look, Ino. It's like this. Naruto came after me and Tsunade to convince us to be Hokage. Without him, it wouldn't have happened. We love the little guy.” Naruto blushed at the compliment. “But, as you probably

know, your village does not. He's practically their whipping boy.”

“That's a bit of an exaggeration. I mean sure, people don't exact think Naruto is the greatest, but that's because he's always pulling pranks!”

“Tell me, does that constitute calling him a, and I quote from at least ninety-five percent of Konoha's population: `a demon'. No? I thought not. You know the result of his recent mission to receive Sasuke, correct? He

failed. The council has claimed him now as forcing the boy to go, and, as you know, someone who assaults his own team members. They have now got the Daimyo's permission to have exiled or killed and they desperately

want the latter. Seeing as they want to hurt the only reason me and Tsunade are here, we're going to fuck. Them. Up.” She smiled, flashing somehow sharp teeth. “We're leaving, taking treasures and scrolls with us, as

well as a lot of money. Oh, and Hinata! Should be fun!”

Ino was speechless. Her village could treat someone like that? Someone that acted so nice all the time? It was...idiotic. She would be thinking about this little tid-bit of information for a long time, definitely discussing it with her parents.

“I...I have to leave...I...I need to think about what you've said...I...Are you serious?”

“Completely and utterly” replied Tsunade, of who had just entered her own, large office, closely followed by Hinata.

“We've got the two scrolls sorted, dog and turtle. Now all we've got to do is issue some laws, collect some jutsu scrolls and blow this joint.”

Ino nodded, shocked into a silent stupor, and left, almost crying. Everything she had placed her trust in was now nothing more than…evil. Pure evil, treating Naruto so cruelly. Thinking back, she remembered how during

the academy Naruto had been so nice to everyone, chatting to them when no one else would, giving them all compliments, making jokes to cheer them up and so much more. But all anyone had ever done was treat him

like dirt, seeing as it was the normal thing to do. How…utterly depressing. Especially seeing how she had partaken in the tyrannical way they had berated him. Leaving, she shed a tear.

The Hokage looked at her fellow blonde female and smiled, another one, perhaps, to join their ranks at a later date.

“Now, let's finish the job. I'll write out a few laws. You guys watch out for anyone that might barge in on us.”

She walked to her hard wooden desk; one passed down since her grandfather, pulled out a scroll and began to write.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga as chunin of Konoha.

Smiling at her first decree, she continued.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare that I take Hinata Hyuuga as my second apprentice.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare that I take Naruto Uzumaki as my third apprentice.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare that Shizune, Hinata Hyuuga, Naruto Uzumaki and I, Tsunade Senju, all be released from the ninja service of Konoha and that all

previous obligations are removed.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare that Jiraiya the toad sannin hereby joins the ranks of Konoha's ninja and is promoted to jounin.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare Jiraiya to be my successor as the sixth hokage of Konoha.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare the entire Hokage's collection of scrolls to become my property.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare Sasuke Uchiha is now seen as a missing-nin and is set to KOS status.

As the fifth hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, hereby declare that no ninja may follow me without my direct permission. Any that do are to be immediately executed.

Now done with her task she covered it with countless seals and traps set to go off if anyone attempted to destroy the scrolls.

Walking to the `paperwork' section of the desk, she reached in and pulled out some mission scrolls she had prepared earlier: six C-ranks, four B-ranks, three A-ranks and one S-rank.

Happy with her now complete handiwork, she stamped the lot and made her way to the door, her small team following.

The team raced towards her mansion knowing that if they didn't make it out of town before midnight then ANBU would see them leave and the time before the elders realized what had happened and sent teams after

them.

Reaching the mansion that was Tsunade's house; they entered and made their way to a small library filled with countless pieces of fiction and history pieces from around the world.

Their leader, Tsunade, then made her way to the far wall. Pulling a small, green book from it, the wall itself began to recede into the ceiling, pulled by some unseen force. Each member of the team marvelled at what was

in front of them. Before them were rows and rows of scrolls on shelves, ranging through each of the five elements, clan specific jutsu, ninja style scrolls, medical textbooks too and finally, the majestic `forbidden section'.

As the girls began to seal onto bags, containment seals, and fill them with scrolls, Naruto's eyes were drawn into the clan section as though some unknown power was calling him. Walking alongside columns he could spot

names of clans such as the Aburame, Akimichi, Haruno, Inazuka and so on. As he came to the end of the section there were four especially large scrolls on platforms, as though they were `the best'.

As he looked them over the one on the far right caught his eye. `Namikaze', was written on it, and he felt as though it belonged to him. Looking up he noticed a red sign and some kanji. Seeing as he could not read kanji,

he reached out to grab the Namikaze scroll, eyes wide and excited.

From back at the end of the row, Hinata, who had been sent to retrieve all clan scrolls, had just spotted her love reaching towards the Namikaze scroll. Glancing up, she quickly read the warning sign: `Do not attempt to

open one of these four special scrolls if it does not fit your own bloodline. They have been set to fill any non-clan members with both poison and a violent chakra. It will cause immediate and irreversible death'.

Hinata looked back down as Naruto bit his thumb and ran the blood over the scroll, senses screaming at her to stop him.

“Naruto-kun! No! Stop! You'll die!”

Naruto, who had just finished opening the scroll paused and looked up.

“Hinata? What are you on about?”

Hinata, seeing that her foxy blonde was fine immediately came to the conclusion that Naruto was a Namikaze, and, feeling quite sheepish, replied “Ano…nothing…don't worry.”

Naruto shrugged and began to look over the scroll. He discovered the language within was quite complex and as such he would have to read it at a later date, hiding it in his pocket. He felt as though only he should be

allowed to learn from it, seeing as it `belonged to him'.

Shizune ran around to see what the commotion was about, finding a distraught Hinata and a confused Naruto. The two were simply standing there so she yelled at them to work, which they immediately obliged, placing

scrolls in countless bags.

Once completed, they all followed Tsunade outside, everything set.

“Okay guys, the time is 11:04 pm. That means we still have 55 minutes, tops, before we have to get out of here. We have two options: leave now giving us an extra 56 minutes at the least on the bastards in this city, or, the

far more fun option: wreck the city. I vote the latter.”

“Seconded” Naruto piped up, to which the other two girls in the party nodded.

“So what exactly should we do?” was Shizune's question.

Naruto, being the prankster of Konoha smiled. Now that he had some willing aids in his pranks he could pull off a lot of things he was previously incapable of.

“Alright guys, just listen up.”

The three adoring-of-Naruto females moved in closer to hear the blonde boys plan, smiling brighter and brighter as he spoke. A good plan.

As the party made their way out of the city at 11:48 according to Tsunade they all chorused in laughter. It had been fun pulling off the prank, and Naruto now felt, for one of the first times in his life, accepted by his peers

and colleagues as ninja. It was a great feeling.

“Alright guys, we better get going. But where to?”

The group pondered this a while before Naruto had an idea. “How about wave village? Me and team seven did a mission there and we saved it from this…mad-man. They even named their bridge after me! It was sweet

as. We'd definitely be more welcome there than anywhere else, at least for now.” Naruto smiled, remembering his old friends.

“Let's go!” Naruto assumed agreement and sprinted off, smiling, with his three closest friends in tow leaving Konoha behind for good.

Authors conclusion: Well there you have it, chapter one of The Hokage's Exodus. I thought the name was the next best thing to 'The Missing Hokage', and, seeing as both Jonque and RaiderXV had the same title, I thought

I should keep well away from it. I suggest you check both of those authors out, a comparison would be good, even if I came out as worse. Both are in my favourite author's section.

Next chapter posted within two weeks.

Note that I am looking for a beta, so anyone interested I'd love to hear from you.

Tuesday, 9th December: Multiple changes made to this chapter, both to do with characters and grammar. Hopefully improved.

Thanks to wingsofeagle for the save.