Naruto: The Chosen Undead

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Chapter no.17 The Day Hiruzen Truly Saw Naruto

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Morning had come slowly, and for once, Hiruzen was grateful. After last night's chaos, a slow morning was more than welcome. He sat at his desk, surrounded by the ever-growing mountain of paperwork that seemed to taunt him with its endlessness. But today, his task was simple: going through the genin registration forms and finalizing the candidates for the jonin to choose from. A small smile crept onto his face as he reviewed the names, each one representing a future leaf of the village.

He could have let his team handle it.

They were more than capable of combing through those forms. Kami knew how much he relied on them to keep up with all the paperwork in Konoha. It wasn't that he couldn't do it himself, but it ate away at his time—time he wished he had more of.

Then, as he reached the final registration form, his smile faltered, replaced by a frown. There was no form for Naruto.

Of course. How could he forget? Naruto hadn't properly graduated.

What do I do now? he mused, rubbing his temples. He couldn't just have the boy repeat the year like a failure or let him rot away in the genin reserves. But how could he make it happen without it seeming forced or showing blatant favoritism?

"Cat," he called, his voice more stern than intended.

In an instant, the Anbu operative appeared in front of his desk, her presence as silent as a shadow. The purple hair, the cat-like porcelain mask, and the katana on her hip—her most distinct features that spoke of her identity.

"Bring me Naruto Uzumaki," he ordered, watching her bow before disappearing in a whirl of leaves and reappearing moments later with…with something he wasn't prepared to see.

There he stood—Naruto Uzumaki—but not the Naruto Hiruzen was expecting.

The boy wore armor, not just any armor, but an ensemble of metal that encased him from head to toe, gleaming in the soft morning light. A broken sword hung at his hip, and a beautiful shield rested on his back, looking as though they belonged to the armory of a royal samurai rather than to a twelve-year-old shinobi.

Hiruzen felt his breath hitch, his mind momentarily thrown into chaos. The sheer quality of his armor and weapons… He'd seen a lifetime's worth of steel in the Great Shinobi Wars and in countless diplomatic missions to faraway lands, yet this was different. Better. This wasn't something forged in their hidden village, nor by any blacksmith in the Land of Fire.

Steel of this caliber—he couldn't help but wonder if even the samurai of the Land of Iron could create such a masterpiece.

"Naruto?" he finally managed to say, his voice cracking slightly, betraying his shock.

How did this boy—a boy who could barely manage to keep his own clothes intact—end up with such equipment?

Hiruzen's mind raced with questions, jumping to thoughts he shouldn't entertain. If all of Konoha could be equipped with armor like this… The tactical advantage, the protection it could provide… His imagination started to run wild, but he knew better. He forced that line of thought to stop before it reached its conclusion.

It was dangerous to think that way—to let greed seep into the core of his responsibilities as Hokage.

He took a breath and steadied himself. Right now, it wasn't about Konoha's military strength or potential armament.

It was about Naruto.

It was always about Naruto, wasn't it?

"Yes," Naruto said, taking off his helmet.

Hiruzen tried to hide his surprise, keeping his voice calm as he said, "That's some unique...equipment for a ninja." He was hoping Naruto might offer more—maybe an explanation, maybe a story about where he got it.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Naruto replied stiffly, his tone formal and distant, like he was trying to play a role he wasn't quite comfortable with.

Hiruzen felt a pang in his chest. The way Naruto said "Hokage-sama," the way he stood there—rigid, like he was imitating someone else's idea of a soldier—didn't fit him at all. Naruto's usual energy, his vibrant spirit, was buried under this new demeanor. He looked like a boy trying to wear a mask that didn't belong to him, trying to be someone he thought he should be.

It was unsettling, but Hiruzen remembered what Inoichi had told him, the words echoing in his mind: Naruto needs time to himself, to think and understand his own emotions. Give him a week before trying to reconnect.

A week. Kami, Hiruzen wasn't sure if he could last that long without trying to fix whatever was broken between them, to find the old Naruto hiding behind that armor. But he had to respect Naruto's process. The boy needed to come to terms with everything in his own way.

So, despite the questions burning inside him—questions he knew Naruto must have too—Hiruzen just said, "I don't think that equipment is good for being a ninja."

"Why not?!" Naruto snapped back, his eyes narrowing.

The intensity in his voice took Hiruzen by surprise, like he'd struck a nerve he didn't even know was there. Why was Naruto so defensive about this armor? Whoever gave it to him, whatever it meant to him, Hiruzen realized it held a deeper significance—a history he wasn't privy to. It wasn't just about the armor; it was about something—or someone—that he didn't know.

"Well, the armor is too heavy to be functional for a ninja," Hiruzen said, trying to keep his tone even, to avoid triggering that defensive wall Naruto had put up.

"I have no problem fighting with it," Naruto said flatly, his voice laced with a kind of certainty that suggested experience.

Experience? That word stuck in Hiruzen's mind. What had Naruto been through?

"Can you move around for me?" Hiruzen asked. Naruto obliged, jumping to the side and running a short distance.

"Naruto," Hiruzen said, his brow furrowing, "why are you using chakra enhancement?"

He almost didn't expect the question to come out of his mouth, but the realization hit him hard. Chakra enhancement was a basic technique—channeling chakra into your muscles to increase speed and strength. So basic, in fact, that it wasn't even considered a jutsu. Any child who'd mastered the leaf-sticking exercise could do it, but it wasn't something you did constantly. It was draining, even for skilled jonin. For Naruto to do it for something as basic as moving in heavy armor was...

"Isn't that how you're supposed to move?" Naruto asked, genuine confusion on his face.

"Naruto," Hiruzen asked, his voice steady, "how often do you use chakra enhancement like this?"

"All the time," Naruto said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I just don't use it when I'm sleeping."

And in that moment, everything fell into place.

Hiruzen finally understood.

The reason why Naruto was able to perform his pranks and escape the chunin so easily—the reason why he was always one step ahead of everyone in those moments. It wasn't luck or sheer stubbornness; it was because he lived in a constant state of chakra enhancement. While most shinobi could barely sustain it for a few minutes, Naruto—this boy with a chakra pool so vast it rivaled the best of them—could use it without even thinking.

Hiruzen swallowed hard, the weight of this realization settling over him. Naruto had been walking around with this untapped potential, this incredible reservoir of strength, and he didn't even know how extraordinary it was.

And yet, Hiruzen couldn't shake the feeling that he'd only scratched the surface of the changes happening to the boy standing before him.

"Who taught you this?" Hiruzen asked, his throat dry, each word sticking like sandpaper.

"The academy teachers," Naruto replied with a casual shrug, and Hiruzen felt the blood drain from his face.

He took a deep breath, struggling to contain the storm of emotions swirling inside him. The people he trusted—his own shinobi, the very educators he had handpicked to shape the next generation—had gone behind his back.

They taught Naruto incorrectly but did it in such a subtle way that they technically weren't wrong. Chakra enhancement like Naruto's was possible, sure, but nobody did it, even if they had the chakra reserves or control for it. Why? Because it was counterproductive, harmful even.

Using chakra enhancement all the time would limit the natural growth of the body, making it dependent on chakra instead of building real muscle strength. It would stunt his potential in the long run, and that thought sent a chill down Hiruzen's spine.

How much more had Naruto been taught incorrectly? Hiruzen wondered. How many more cracks were hidden in the foundation of his training, left there by those who were supposed to be guiding him?

He had to fix this. Somehow.

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 9, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!