This is the scene that the Hokage, one of his students, and a team of ANBU stumbled. The team took no haste in collecting the bodies, leaving the Sandaime to console the adopted-Uchiha. Orochimaru could only keep his face still and think on how the maelstrom was meant for great things.

--------------------

It had been around six years since that day. Now, at the end of his seventh year in the academy, he was getting ready for 'graduation'.

Since what seemed to be Iwa's final attack, the council resisted against nullifying the treaty and recalling the war again, much to the relief of the Sandaime. Instead, a squad of shinobi were instructed to try and teach Naruto how to use his newfound Kyūbi chakra and Mokuton, the latter having not awakened since then while on conscious effort.

The team consisted of newly-created Team Ro, specially selected for a certain ex-ROOT's implanted Mokuton and Chakra stabilizing abilities. The first years of training were gruelling, but the initiative was cancelled before what would've been the brunette's third year of specialized education. After expressing an interest in stealth and infiltration when he was ten, however, he was taken under Hatake Kakashi as the silverette's official apprentice.

Under the fifteen-year-old's request, he was retired from ANBU to start taking on genin teams to teach alongside Naruto. He had always brought his younger student along (much to the dismay of said Uchiha) and so far had failed each and every single brat that stumbled along their way. Had they found a suitable team, Naruto would have been promoted to genin. Since they had not, he will have the chance to graduate with his previous classmates.

And if another team failed, well... Naruto would still be promoted. The two surrogate brothers would just have to keep trying.

...

Naruto stared in betrayed silence at the Third. "What's... going on?"

The Sandaime sighed, dragging a hand down his face and steadying himself for the incoming headache. "Naruto, meet your birth family."

It had been the day before graduation that Naruto had been called into the Sandaime's office. All the boy remembered of it was that the mask was really, really ugly- like, a deformed cat- and that he had all but kidnapped him. Unable to keep his balance, and with the repercussions of a two-manned shunshin, the raven was still just trying to process the people around him.

The blonde man- The Fourth Hokage, his mind supplied- was staring at him with wide, wonder-filled eyes. Naruto felt his mouth sour. He wasn't a mascot. "Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto wanted to snort and say 'Of course it's me, you dumbass. Jiji just called me by my name,' but instead kept his lips pressed into a thin line. He nodded once firmly, rubbing at his eyes. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Call me Tou-san, Naruto," Minato's gentle smile downturned slightly, causing Naruto to twitch with annoyance. The Uchiha kept himself from snarling a retort, and instead, heeded slightly. One of the lessons his older brother had taught him was to always try to keep his emotions in check, unless it could be used to his advantage. No need to anger the Yellow Flash of the Leaf. He straightened, bowing minutely and keeping his arms straight at his sides.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," and he paused for a second in thought, and after a second of uncomfortable silence, tacked on; "Legally, you are not my father. I'd prefer it if we kept our relationship strictly professional for right now and let it lead where it may."

Naruto took the three seconds of stunned surprise to examine the group. Minato was standing closest to the Sandaime, fire-rimmed cloak hanging off his neck by the crimson rope that held it closed. The rim of his thin coat flopped ungracefully, brought down by the folds in the cloth. His arms were outside of the sockets belonging to the trademark overwear, folded over his chest in a calm manner. Underneath, he wore his standard jōnin outfit without his vest or his hitai-ate, letting his long hair flop into his face.

The first movement after Naruto's little outburst belonged to Kushina. She donned a modified version of her previously standard genin outfit, except now it reached past her knees and was worn in a dark brown. Her hitai-ate hung from her neck loosely, and shifted as she brought her hands upwards to clasp them together.

Tsunade held a bottle of sake, looking fully sick of his shit. Or, that might just be how she always looks. Jiraiya was uninterested but had glanced up at him once or twice, from what the boy could tell.

His imouto was a light purple-eyed blonde with spikey bangs and two whisker-marks on each cheek. Her hair was messily brought up into to pigtails that went down past her shoulder blades. The hair in those was tangled as well, which honestly looked... kind of uncomfortable. She had on a fishnet top with a neon-orange cropped t-shirt drawn over it, black shinobi-standard pants that were bandaged near the ankles and long sandals that bunched up mid-calf. Another feature he noticed was that she was extremely short, probably only chalking up four-foot-eleven if she stood on the tips of her toes. The maelstrom winced slightly.

His otouto had red hair and was sporting a black hoodie and blood-red cargo pants. They bagged at the bottom and were obviously pulled down slightly to look cooler (wouldn't that be detrimental to his movement though? Well, Naruto didn't really care. As long as it wasn't him, he was fine) Unlike everyone else, he had black combat boots instead of sandals. He was smirking and has his arms crossed like his dad. His hair was long-cut as well, obviously also taking this inspiration from his father. His eyes were heterochromic, his left a deep oceanic-blue and his right a similar colour to his sister's. He was significantly taller than said girl, probably reaching five-foot-seven (little did Naruto know, this height difference was caused by the blonde's obsession of ramen, and her refusal to eat anything else until she was ten).

Naruto continued for the hell of it. Politeness was to be rewarded is what jiji taught him, though, that philosophy had gone to shit these past few years. He opened his mouth to ask if the children were to attend the graduation ceremony. Before he could start though, Minato cut him off.

Eyes narrowed, the Blondaime walked forward with an authoritative step. The Uchiha froze as the man clapped a hand on his shoulder. He leaned in closer marginally, eyes sharp and focused on the door behind him. "You're my son," he bit. His tone was... off. It was if he was trying to prove someone. Like he was trying to prove himself. "We're family. You have a mother and little siblings to take care of. Are you just going to abandon us like this?" Naruto wondered just how hypocritical that sentence was for future reference, but Minato repeated himself firmly. "We're family."

Almost succumbing to a nod, the maelstrom managed to resist the 'Hokage-voice' as was affectionately dubbed by Kakashi. After snapping from his stupor, he contained his explosion of anger but couldn't stop himself from jerking the man's hand away hotly. He seethed, eyes moving to lock with his biological fathers'.

"You aren't my family anymore," he ground out. "I've been reasonable. What part of that do you not understand?" He took a step back in retreat, meeting the wall. Minato leaned in closer, and Naruto could start feeling the upcoming of a sensory overload. The grey hoodie he donned was feeling rough against his back, and in a last resort, twisted the knob on the door and turned around.

That is when the Yondaime Hokage noticed the uchiwa on his back, large and proud and stark against the dull colour of his hoodie.

"An Uchiha crest..." Minato whispered quietly, though Menma caught it.

"He stole a Clan Crest?!" The red-haired boy screeched, immediately reaching to rip the ironed-on patch off his back. He pushed a still confused Minato out of the way, but was stopped with a bone-crushing hold on his wrist.

The brunette in front of him was gently guiding his wrist away, other hand still gripping the knob of the door for dear life. The boy's Sharingan spun in a lazy motion, fully developed and glaring against the dimmed room. The air pressure became heavy, and with a soft yet unsettling smile, Naruto dropped the shorter's hand.

"I'd prefer it if you not," he all but snarled, lightening his presence afterwards. "The Uchihas are my wards. My family."

Minato swallowed, reeling back in surprise at the red-coloured dōjutsu. "So it was true. You unlocked the Sharingan," he breathed, raising a hand to rub at his chin. Naruko behind him, however, didn't like the attitude her black-haired brother was giving.

"They took you in because of your stupid Sharingan!" She snarked. Naruto didn't react, brushing her off. "You would've been all alone if it weren't for their pitiful asses- mmphf!" Kushina muffled her daughter, drawing back. The Uchiha sighed, letting his chakra fade and anger dissipate.

"Yondaime-sama, if that is all, I'd like to be getting home in time for dinner," he drawled. "My surrogates are making katsudon, and I'd prefer eating it hot."

It took a few seconds, but Minato managed to bring himself out from his sulk. Naruto's eyes narrowed in challenge, minutely trying to decipher the blonde's expression. At first, it looked like he had been expecting this 'new' surprise, but that couldn't have been right. He let it go when the Yondaime nodded him away. Naruto made sure to close the door behind him before he shunshinned away.

The room went silent again. Hiruzen raised a questioning eyebrow at Minato, because as per their agreement, the blonde hadn't been able to speak of everything he had learned in Naruto's reports until the group had returned to Konoha.

"When Naruto turned six years old, the villagers managed to stab a hole through his stomach," Hiruzen said quietly, eyes on his paperwork once more. "He unlocked the Sharingan and consequently, was taken in by the Uchiha. When he was seven, five Iwa shinobi managed to sneak into Konoha borders in pursuit of the boy. Naruto somehow unlocked Mokuton, which is practically impossible since he has no affinity for water nor earth, and slaughtered them. Now, while he might not be a prodigy, he worked hard to be acknowledged," he finished.

Minato froze at the mention of 'Mokuton' and 'Water Affinity' but said nothing. Nobody noticed.

Tsunade growled at the God of Shinobi. "Stop telling tales, sensei! Mokuton died with my Jiji!"

The Sandaime sighed, ignoring her. "Overall, Naruto would be around high-chūnin level if he had a few years of experience, but he does not and all his knowledge is booksmart," Hiruzen smiled. "So, right now, at best, he would reach a fresh-chūnin level. He is currently under tutelage of one of my most trusted jōnin, but Minato-kun can tell you all about that if he desires to."

Minato ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Can you please explain to me why your choice for his wards were never explained in your letters? Or how you didn't stick to his original housing plan and just gave him to whoever you wanted to?"

"You never asked."

...

"And then he said that they were my family," Naruto grumbled, looking down at his palms. The raven was sitting down beside Satsuki, his older sister leaning on him slightly. Satsuki sighed.

"Remember what Kakashi-san said? It's okay to forgive," she asked quietly, still enjoying the other's presence. Naruto shook his head.

"No," his angry tone sobered down to a depressed one. "Maybe," and running a hand down his face, he corrected himself for a third time. "I don't know. They abandoned me, Satsuki. It's weird to just... They're... They just appeared!" he shifted into a more comfortable position, so that he could look at his older sister. "They appeared like nothing even happened!"

Her hair was swept back into a loose ponytail, the back of her head still looking like a duck's ass even after so many years of harsh grooming. Her long, spiky bangs were swept to the side so that she could see without impairment. She had a plain white shirt on, with an unzipped blue jacket overtop. She also had a black skirt and black shorts underneath.

Satsuki smirked at his mental analysis. "See something you like?"

Naruto smacked her over the head. "Do you know how wrong that is? One, we're siblings, two, no. I was thinking about where to hide bodies if any boys come near you," Satsuki blinked, rubbing the back of her noggin.

"I thought that was dad's job?" Naruto shrugged.

"He's my son and he's going to live in my house!" a screech. Naruto froze, looking down. Satsuki looked at him sympathetically, rubbing his shoulder. He stood, shaking off the smaller ravenette.

"I'll be right back, Satsuki," he mumbled, flinching when his surrogate mother's voice was heard.

"If he's your son, why did you abandon him?!" Mikoto screamed at her childhood friend, Kushina.

Satsuki followed behind him, and when they got inside, they smiled.

"Hi, Kaa-san," they said in unison. Kushina brightened, thinking that Naruto was talking to her.

"Hello, sochi!" she greeted, lunging at Naruto arms outstretched. Naruto narrowed his eyes, and played an emotionless mask. In a flash of black, he appeared behind Kushina, who had fallen over. He let out a feral growl.

"What the heck? Don't touch me, please," he grumbled.

My previous container is still quite the exuberant one, isn't she?

Naruto blinked at Kurama's snarl, before shaking his head slightly and sighing. The grumpy furball musn't be in a good mood with all the emotions that Naruto was bottling up. "Hello, Kushina-sama. It's odd to see you in these parts of the Uchiha Compound," and then turned back to his mother with a smile on his face. "Where's Tou-san? He said he'd give me and Satsuki a scroll," the lie rolled off his tongue as his inner turmoil bubbled. Was a normal life too much to ask?

"It's Satsuki and I, jeez," Satsuki crossed her arms. "I thought you'd get it after all of these years."

Mikoto sweatdropped at their antics but none of her tension let up. Glancing at her old academy

"I think your Tou-san is in the kitchen having tea," she said, a bit too quickly. "Run along now-"

"He is not your Tou-san! Your Tou-san is waiting for you at home!" Kushina cut her off, screaming right in Naruto's ear.

After the ringing in the maelstrom's head resided, Naruto could feel something akin to just-done-with-this-shit bubbling up in his chest. There was silence.

Thinking she had won him over, Kushina took Naruto by the hand to lead him out the door.

"Can't you follow simple instructions?" Naruto murmured, forcefully yanking his hand out of Kushina's unmoving grasp as he ignored the tears of longing start to prick at his eyes. "You are not my Kaa-san. Namikaze Minato is not my Tou-san. Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruko is not my Imouto. Namikaze-Uzumaki Menma is not my Otouto. You are not my family. You are not my family. You are not my family," he said, like he was trying to convince himself. It was the same tone as his father's previously.

But in truth, he desperately wished they were his family. He wanted to fit with them with all his heart, but his head told him that he should be happy as he is and that they've hurt him once and won't hesitate to hurt him again. He wanted to be happy, but...

Dignity.

Pride.

Self-respect.

If he gives in now, he throws away everything he had worked hard for. So, he retreats like the coward he is, masking his hurt with misplaced anger.

"You are not my family, so stay away from me," his voice cracked, and while he wanted to rip her and her family apart and pretend they don't exist, he wasn't willing to commit high treason. After a few seconds of silence, he calmly walked upstairs to his room, and locked the door. Satsuki went upstairs to check on him.

Mikoto looked at her ex-best-friend. "I'm disappointed in you, Kushina."

...

"Namikaze-Uzumaki Menma, please enter class 1-C for your exam," Iruka called, checking something off on his clipboard. Today was the graduation exams, and everyone was bustling and excited to see newly-minted genin. Naruto was still salty about last night, but he was also excited. His Uncle said that if he'd pass, then he'd teach him a new technique.

"Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruko, please enter class 1-C for your exam," Iruka called again a minute later, and Menma walked into class with a coal black leaf hitai-ate pushing up his bangs. It didn't do much, and the symbol was obscured by the red hair, but it was there.

"Beat that, Nii-san," Menma said smugly, pointing at his hitai-ate for emphasis. He was having to gloat over his horde of fangirls, whom of which had swarmed him as soon as he had entered the room again.

When the 'heroes of the village' had returned, they were given fangirls and fanboys alike. It disgusted Naruto.

"Sit down. Your loud mouth is annoying the shit out of everyone," he clipped, eyes flashing dangerously. It only took one cold shower for the Uchiha's day to be ruined, and this morning, it was like he had been sprayed with ice.

"Stop being a dick, Nii-san!" Naruko called, arriving in the room with a blue hitai-ate tied around her neck. "Just because Menma did better than you could ever do doesn't mean you have to be a jackass about it!"

Naruto repressed his surge of anger, tacking his head to the side and rolling his shoulders back. 

"Don't get on his shit-list," munch munch. Choji had shrimp chips. "He'll make you dance. It's humiliating."

"Dance?"

"He means to fight," A certain lazy Nara said. "Quiet down. Your loud noises are troublesome."

They had to anyways. The fangirls returned to their seats around a certain red-haired Yondaime lookalike, and their silver-haired sensei entered the room. He had a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a pen in his mouth, muffling his next words.

"Namikaz-" Mizuki paused. "Oh, sorry Naruto. Your name and Naruko's names are so alike. Uchiha Naruto, please enter class 3-B for your exam."

The exams were in two rooms for efficiency reasons. Nobody really complained until a genin to-be would find themselves in the wrong classroom. The cooler-headed boy rose from his seat, cracking his back and shoving his hands into his pockets as he sauntered off to the next class over.

When Naruto entered the room, Mizuki was sitting in a chair in front of him. The silverette smiled at him.

"Now Naruto, all you have to do is the Kawarimi no Jutsu, the Bunshin no Jutsu, and the Henge no Jutsu. Kawarimi first," The chūnin looked down at his papers once more, absentmindedly throwing ten wooden skewers at Naruto. Naruto flew through his handseals and proceeded in replacing himself with the log provided at the other side of the room. Mizuki looked up, and nodded, though mostly to himself.

"Okay, great. Now, please preform the Henge no Jutsu."

Naruto drew his hands together, before yelling out a quick 'Henge!' and turning into Uchiha Itachi.

...

(Behind the Chalkboard...)

"How sweet! Naruto chose his brother," Mikoto gushed, shaking Fugaku violently. The man sputtered, foaming at the mouth. Kushina was about to tell her off, and start arguing about Naruto's 'real family', but then Minato rested a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Kushina settled on sening them a glare.

"What did you expect?" The Head of the Uchiha groaned lightly, but he did not groan because Fugaku would not steep that low. "I'm starting to think that Naruto likes Satsuki and Itachi more than us!" Mikoto stopped shaking him, and while he didn't laugh or smile, there was an amused air around him.

"He spends most of his time hanging out with siblings. I wouldn't doubt that," Mikoto smiled. Kushina fumed in the background.

...

"Alright, now you have to make three working clones and you pass," Iruka spoke up from the hallway. He leaned on the doorframe.

"I thought you were doing the other students?" Mizuki glanced at him. Instead, the scar-nosed chūnin waved his clipboard in the air, a smile on his face.

"Naruto's the last one. We accidentally put him before Ino because of the Uzumaki-Namikazes," he said. Mizuki nodded. Little did Naruto know, he was both Iruka and Mizuki's favourite student and they purposefully made him last so that they could do his test together.

Naruto blinked. "Um, Mizu-sensei? Does it matter what type of clones I make?"

Iruka and Mizuki conversed silently with their eyes, and after ten seconds of silence, Naruto spoke up again. "Um? Hello?"

"Ah! Naruto! Um," Iruka coughed into his hand. "No. Any type of clone is fine, as long as there are three of them."

Naruto put his index and middle fingers into a cross. Iruka raised a brow. Naruto smirked-

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

-and proceeded in creating twenty-nine clones, who were all sitting the seats behind him. Iruka and Mizuki's jaws dropped but were collected quickly.

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was extremely chakra taxing since for every clone you make your chakra halves. So, if you have three clones including you, each clone has a quarter of your chakra and you are left with a quarter yourself. The jutsu itself is chakra taxing, also. It is, after all, a B-Rank technique. The Taijū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was slightly different and infinitely more taxing, being an A-Ranked or S-Ranked jutsu when used correctly.

Using this technique on the field productively would be hard unless you had heaps of chakra, which Naruto happened to support (even without the help of the Kyuubi. His Uzumaki blood was quite prominent in that aspect).

"You..." Mizuki trailed off. Iruka finished for him.

"P-Pass..." Iruka smiled weakly, still surprised from before.

Naruto smiled brightly, dispelling his clones in one giant puff of smoke. He walked up to the table, snatched a black headband, and walked back to the classroom.

Tying his hitai-ate around his head, the black hair that usually was caught in his eyes was pushed back, showing off his face in its full glory. He gave a foxy smirk to Satsuki.

"I pass!"

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edited as of 02/05/2020

FINALLY! Writing with one hand is really really hard, and I lost interest in the middle, oops. Anyways! I'm so sorry it took this long to get out! I have no excuse. I really am sorry. Anyways, see you in the next chapter (which I promise won't take half a month to get out next time)!