Name: Nidaime no Sairin

Naruto x Senju Tobirama (not Yaoi)

Pairing unknown

Action/Adventure

Summary: Uzumaki Naruto always enjoyed discovering new places and locations in Konohagakure. One night, after entering a cave, he decides to venture inside only to find the most beautiful waterfall he had ever seen. Once inside the cave, Naruto finds a lone rock that contained black markings. Thinking nothing of it, Naruto touches the black marking. What happens then no one could ever predict. Romantic pairings are still undecided.

Chapter 1 – Discovery

Beta: Kyuubi123

It was a bright sunny day in Konohagakure, and one Uzumaki Naruto, aka Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, now nine years old, was abusing his tiny legs running throughout the main pathways that crossed the village.

He ignored the dirty looks he received along the way, getting used to them a long time ago. As long as he could remember, the majority of the villagers looked at him like that. He figured that his pranks were the issue. A bright smile could be seen on his face, though, as he had just came back from visiting a beautiful waterfall he had found near one of the training grounds. The mental picture was engraved in his head as he entered the Hokage's Administrative Building. Naruto ignored everyone inside the building as he ran past the hallways. He almost bumped himself against a man with silver hair that defied gravity, but managed to evade him, while running. The jounin in person looked at Naruto's back before smiling and walking away.

Ever since he was seven years old, Uzumaki Naruto always enjoyed exploring the various sights of the hidden village in the leaves.

The Sandaime Hokage shared with him once that a long time ago, before the village foundation; the entire area was a large forest, filled with caves and waterfalls. Every new sight Naruto discovered he would then talk to the Sandaime about it in lively detail. The boy could feel the warmth of the old man's smile when the boy talked about the many sights in Konohagakure. The boy ignored the protest coming from the Hokage's secretary as he immediately barged inside the village leader's office, alerting the Anbu staff that protected the Hokage. Hiruzen Sarutobi, however, merely smiled at the energetic boy, already used to his antics, especially when the boy wanted to tell him about a new sight he discovered in Konohagakure. Despite it all, he needed to scold the boy a bit for barging inside.

"Naruto-kun, how many times have I told you not to come in like this?"

"Sorry jiji, it's just that I managed to find another waterfall today and it's even more awesome than the last one." Hiruzen smirked as he looked at how happy the lad was.

When Hiruzen took him away from the orphanage, he was worried about his state of mind. It was his hope that Naruto would have a normal childhood or as normal as it can be, considering everything. Despite the fact that Naruto had no friends whatsoever, Hiruzen was glad that the boy had found such interest to occupy his mind. In addition, the usual pranks severally diminished, so the paperwork diminished. He heard the boy describing the location and smiled even more at the words described by Naruto to describe this new location. It was quite amusing to see a nine-year old trying, but failing, to use big words. After the kid finished explaining, Hiruzen smiled warmly at Naruto.

"That's indeed quite a beautiful scenery Naruto-kun." The kid's face brightened at Hiruzen's answer. "However, I do remember you're supposed to be at the academy right now."

Just like Hiruzen expected and fought every urge not to laugh aloud, Naruto's exuberant face turned immediately into a deep scowl.

"But jiji, it's so boring there…all we ever do is listen to Iruka-sensei's boring lectures." Hiruzen released a sigh at the comment he heard time and time again. The boy just could not settle down and focus.

Right then, Hiruzen had decided to approach this manner more thorough.

Perhaps, he could reach to Naruto using his hobbies and his dream of becoming a strong shinobi in the future.

"Naruto-kun, if you aim to be Hokage one day like you want to be, acquiring knowledge at the academy is crucial for an aspiring Hokage." Hiruzen smiled as the boy paid attention to his words, he always did. "The most important knowledge is provided by the Academy. Once you master the basics, it is much easier to improve your skills and abilities, which will only help you in the future. Trust me on this Naruto-kun, it may be boring as you say, but if you work hard enough, you will have a very important edge. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Naruto nodded, but he felt like he was receiving a reprimand from the kind old man to whom he respected dearly. Hiruzen caught on the downtrodden face and gently lifted Naruto's head to maintain eye contact. "There is no need to be sad, Naruto-kun…all I want is for you to apply yourself harder at the Academy…trust me…it will only benefit you in the future."

Naruto nodded once more, now with a relieved smile on his face.

"I will try jiji, believe me. Just you wait. I will be the best student at the academy and I'll make you proud." The grandfather figure smiled dearly, caressing the kid's hair gently.

"You already make me proud Naruto-kun…now go on then. And, don't worry about Iruka-sensei. I will explain to him that you had a small fever and could not attend today. Go home and think about what we just talked about." Naruto energetically straightened up and nodded resolutely, before running back towards the door. Hiruzen watched Naruto leave and wondered if the boy truly paid attention to his small lecture about the Academy. The boy inherited his mother's energetic behavior, no doubt but Naruto was also son of the Yondaime Hokage. Hiruzen mused that bright yellow hair and blue eyes were not the only inheritance he received from his father.

===With Naruto===

No sooner had the boy left the Hokage's Office; then he marched straight to a training ground he knew no one ever used. It was close to his apartment building, so he could see the training ground from his window. The kid always wanted to see awesome techniques, but he never got to, as no one used this location. Taking into account the stuff he saw at the academy, Naruto devised a small training regimen. Like Iruka-sensei instructed before starting physical exercises, stretching the muscles was important. That being said, he did the routine he performed at the academy with a couple of laps around the training ground followed by some sit-ups and push-ups.

With that done, Naruto performed the set of Katas he was taught at the academy. The training grounds had no targets to practice on, so he settled for the trees instead.

The first ones hurt like hell, but Naruto pushed through the pain, thinking about what the Hokage said to him earlier today. For some reason he could not identity, every time he performed it at the academy, people would point at him and laugh at his expense. He tried asking what the funny part was, only to receive more mocking laughter in return. The teachers would simply brush his questions off telling him to repeat the positions more and more. Like he was told before, he repeated the exercise, pounding on the thick tree, while trying to ignore the bleeding knuckles in his hands. When the pain became too unbearable, he stopped and took a seat on the ground for a moment. He figured that it was enough taijutsu training for the moment and started some chakra control exercises. He remembered that Iruka-sensei always told him to practice this exercise, as it would help his ninjutsu in the future.

Naruto grabbed a lone leaf and placed it on his forehead. To the regular person in training, this exercise required very little effort, since most children have very little chakra to use. Naruto was the opposite, hence why drops of sweat began to pour from his face as he struggled to keep the leaf attached to his forehead. Of course, Naruto's difficulty was unfamiliar to the lad, as nobody ever stopped to inform him about it. All everyone said to him was that he was doing it wrong, but nobody bothered to explain what he was doing wrong. As it always happened, he was not able to hold it for long. The three regular ninjutsu practice wasn't much different from the chakra control exercise as the techniques required very little chakra to perform. The Kawarimi and Henge were no picnic, but Naruto managed to perform it eventually. The Bunshin, however, still eluded him as the results were always the same.

Naruto sighed in dismay as he saw the dead looking clone in front of him.

The same experience occurred throughout the day as he tried repeatedly, but with the same result. Eventually, even his chakra reserves were not enough and he collapsed in the middle of the training ground.

===Three hours later===

When he opened his eyes once more, it was already nighttime. The boy let out a curse at his stupidity as he quickly got up and looked around. Remembering the training, if that could be considered as such, Naruto sighed once more. Contrary to what he believed when he decided to train, Naruto did not feel like he progressed. His movements were the same as he performed at the academy. If Mizuki-sensei were here, he would say the same thing to him. Kicking a stone in frustration, he marched towards his apartment with a pout. As he walked, however, a noise reached his ears, which was strange, considering that he had not heard it when he was training. He stopped abruptly looking around the direction of the sound. The noise was similar to the waterfalls Naruto enjoyed searching throughout the village.

However, it was strange. He did not know of any waterfalls close to his house. Deciding on a specific direction, Naruto walked a bit, realizing that the sound got louder.

He passed through his apartment building and entered the forest behind it. Ten minutes of walking inside the forest later, he could see a small entrance to a cave. A smile appeared as he had found yet another. Quickly entering the barely illuminated cave, the boy walked through the narrow pathway. The noise reverberated throughout the passageway. When the walkway ended, Naruto's eyes immediately lost their usual focus as he could not describe it. The area around the waterfall wasn't much to be considered. The water, however, was what caught Naruto's attention. Of course, it was blue just like the others, but Naruto could see directly behind the water. Looking at the lake, Naruto was also shocked to see the bottom without much difficulty. It was a mesmerizing vision as he became hypnotized by the deep azure color. Deciding to spelunk, Naruto looked around the waterfall, but saw nothing in particular aside from the crystalline blue waterfall.

As he was about to leave the place, through the same passageway, Naruto's eyes locked on something that did not belong to the scenery.

Near the lake margin, one rock was slightly taller than the others were and the boy could see some sort of dark mark engraved on the stone. The cave lacked sufficient light, so he could not see what it was. When he caressed the marking however, Naruto became startled as a ledge seemed to open right where he stood. His screams of fear echoed throughout the cave, but no one was around to hear and once more, Uzumaki Naruto passed out, this time because of a slight head bump.

The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was that he was no longer inside the cave he was spelunking before. This place had the same wall structure, but this time he could see little torches illuminating it. Naruto could see the same black markings he saw earlier, but instead of a big one, he now saw multiple markings, sprawled all over the room. When Naruto looked behind him, however, he screamed in fright as he realized he was not alone in this place.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked trembling as he looked at the man, trying to recognize him. He was tall, fair-skinned with white shaggy hair. The man's outfit consisted of dark blue armor and he wore a different forehead protector bearing the symbol of Konohagakure. His face looked menacing enough and Naruto felt like the man was looking at his very soul. However, something about his face was familiar to the young Uzumaki. The man in question frowned at the strange boy's question and crossed his arms in irritation.

"I'd like to ask you the same question boy and how did you find this place?" His voice also made Naruto tremble in fear and he felt compelled to answer the man.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto." The boy gulped as he saw the man frowning, but answered the second question. "I was exploring a cave when I accidentally opened a ledge and fell. When I woke up, I was here." The man in question stayed silent as he observed the kid for a while. He could not find any chakra fluctuations, meaning that he was telling the truth. In addition, he could tell that it was the kid's chakra that touched the seal array he had left on the top floor. With that out of the way, the strange man immediately lowered his killing intent, allowing Naruto to breathe normally once more. Naruto, for his turn, looked at the man and wondered what was going on here. This man was very familiar to him, but he could not remember. Suddenly, though, the image clicked as he remembered seeing the stranger's face a lot. Actually, he saw his face every day. The thought of terror once more invaded his senses as he pointed at the stranger with trembling hands.

"Are you a ghost?" There was simply no way the Nidaime Hokage would appear before him. The man had died a long time ago…like fifty years ago.

"That's a rather rude question, boy. But to answer all of your questions, my name is Senju Tobirama, known as the Nidaime Hokage of Konohagakure." The Nidaime was about to continue, but Naruto interrupted.

"How can you be here talking to me? You're dead!" Naruto screamed, before covering his mouth frightened as he saw the look once more.

"You'd well not to interrupt me again boy…I don't enjoy repeating myself." Naruto gulped in fear, but nodded. "As I was saying, my name is Senju Tobirama, but the one before you is a mere fragment of the original. Foreseeing my inevitable death at the Second Great Ninja War, I decided to seal a part of my essence here so that I can be of use to Konohagakure in the future. It was my hope that either one of my students would find this place, so that I could bestow upon them my legacy. I even chosen this very place as I used to gather with them here." Tobirama stated, before looking at the kid before him. He said his name was Uzumaki Naruto and Tobirama indeed verified it through his sensory abilities. However, there was another chakra that the Nidaime felt and he remembered it as belonging to another person, that being his sister-in-law, Hashirama's wife. Tobirama's mind worked fast in estimating that a long time has passed since his death.

Naruto heard the man's explanation, but understood very little. His face was proof enough as he struggled to make sense of everything.

"Are you a ghost or not?" Tobirama stared at the boy in deep irritation at his stupidity. He was clear before.

"No, I'm not a ghost boy. Now tell me just how many years have passed since my death?" Naruto still was not convinced, but answered nonetheless.

"I don't know…about fifty years…give or take…I was never good at history." Come to think about it, he was not good at other subjects as well. Nidaime, however, simply acknowledged the information with a grunt, already processing his choices. Naruto saw the man place two fingers on the ground, before closing his eyes. Immediately after doing so, one Senju Tobirama was bombarded by information he processed using his chakra sensing technique. Extending his senses, he frowned, as he could not sense any Senju presence in Konoha. He was able to sense many Uchiha, which made him frown even more, from sheer disgust at that accursed clan. He could not sense one of his students Uchiha Kagami, but he sensed a familiar presence in another Uchiha, perhaps his student's offspring. A fond smile appeared on his face as he recognized Hiruzen's presence, though it is much weaker now. Saru must be close to seventy now if what the kid said was true. He could not find traces of Shimura Danzou at first, so he extended its reach a little. When he found it, Tobirama realized once more that he had chosen his successor wisely.

He could feel Danzou's chakra; however, there were also traces of Uchiha and even his older brother. T

Tobirama always felt pride knowing that he was able to raise his students to become fine shinobi. Naruto felt the temperature in the room drop as he looked at Tobirama. Naruto had never felt so scared in his life. The Nidaime Hokage looked pissed at something and he was afraid that it was he the cause of it. Perhaps today was the day he died, after all. Taking a step back in fright, Naruto's foot moved a small stone, causing the Nidaime to look at him right away with those menacing eyes. The pressure was still unbearable. Like before, however, the second hokage stopped to look at the child more thoroughly. The intention behind sealing a part of his essence was for the Nidaime to give his legacy to either one of his students. However, neither one of them were adequate right now. However, the boy in front of him…Tobirama always had the ability to find potential candidates.

This boy's chakra capacity was on pair with his own when he was a child and it would only grow with time, even with the aid of the fox that was now inside of him.

Naruto, in the meantime, wondered if he was seeing things. Perhaps the wound caused by the fall damaged his brains and now he was hallucinating. He was talking to the Nidaime Hokage for Kami's sake.

"Tell me boy…" Naruto looked up abruptly, swallowing nervously. Hallucination or not, the Nidaime's stare was quite fearsome. "The very reason I am here in the first place is to pass on my knowledge so that Konoha can use it for its benefit. I had hoped that either one of my students would find this place, but they did not. You were the one who found this place and as such, I have decided to grant you my legacy, all the knowledge I collected throughout my time shall be yours." Naruto's eyes widened at the prospect of learning from this man, but he immediately slapped his forehead in exasperation.

"Wait a minute…how could you be real? I don't understand….one minute I fell and hit my head…the next I'm seating in some sort of cave talking to a man that was killed fifty years ago. Am I going crazy here?"

Nidaime saw the boy pulling his hair frantically. Indeed, to a boy with no knowledge of the intricacies of fuuinjutsu, his sudden appearance like this was incredibly suspicious.

At least, the kid had bothered to check Tobirama's facts before accepting everything at face value.

"My presence here was already explained to you. In addition, the mind can only produce certain scenarios that you've already been through before. It is simply impossible for your mind to create all this, even everything I just told you." Naruto blinked a couple times in confusion at the explanation, before his face morphed into sudden clarification. Tobirama saw it and could not help but show a smirk in amusement. The naivety of a child, he mused. "Now, since we clarified that you're not hallucinating, I need you to tell me everything about your life, the skills you already possess and your weaknesses. In order for me to tutor you to the best of my abilities, I need to understand everything about you and I ask you not to lie to me or alter the facts. I will know when that happens and will deal with it accordingly." Once more, Naruto flinched at the sudden spike in killing intent. The man asked him about his life as well as other things. With a sigh, the boy took a seat and began his rather short tale.

Throughout the story, the only movement that Naruto could spot was Tobirama's eyebrow. They either frowned or lifted slightly, which the boy assumed, indicated anger and surprise.

Tobirama, for his part, began to look at the kid in a new light, while hearing Naruto's story. Surprisingly so, Naruto's story was not as colorful as Tobirama would expect from a child, a child born in Konoha no less. His brother always envisioned a place where children could be nothing but children. Naruto, on the other hand, hadn't had a nice life growing up. He did not know why people looked at him with disdain, but Tobirama had a distinctive guess as he remembered how his sister-in-law was treated when she came to Konoha. People respected her because she became the Shodaime's wife, but everyone looked at her with extreme caution and even fear at her back, assuming that the beast could come out and attack them. Naruto's treatment appeared to be even worse as people openly mistreated the boy. When he heard that Hiruzen could not help him all the time, Tobirama frowned. His successor would not stand for these things and would solve the issue in the blink of an eye. Perhaps, Hiruzen's old age had caught up to him.

"Well, that's it about my life so far. About my skills, I'm at the academy, but I can't say I have much skill to tell you about." The Nidaime raised his eyebrow once more. "My chakra control sucks, I can't seem to perform the academy style taijutsu, I can't throw a shuriken or kunai like i should, don't get me started on genjutsu and I can't even perform the regular three ninjutsu required of me. At least, that's what my teachers say to me. But they are all a bunch of jerks. They all say that I'm doing it wrong, but neither one bothered to tell me what I'm doing wrong!" Despite the rather foul language, Nidaime nodded, reaching that conclusion before Naruto told him. If the entire village treated him with disdain, the academy teachers would not be any different. Once more, Tobirama wondered if Hiruzen was on the verge of dying from old age.

"I see…"

Naruto looked at the man while taking some time to recover his breath. He did not know why, but in between his explanation, he started shouting in indignation. Perhaps it was because the person in front of him was the first that actually bothered to listen to him, instead of making wrong assumptions. Tobirama, for his turn, decided not to dwell on the kid's story much. Also, Hiruzen must have his reasons for not telling about the fox. For now, Tobirama would keep that secret.

"Since our goal here is to focus entirely on your skills as a shinobi, I will provide you with answers that your teachers failed to provide." Naruto frowned but said nothing. At least, he would give him one answer. "The majority of the problems you are facing at the academy is due your larger than average chakra capacity. Memorize this…the more chakra you have, the harder it will be to control it. Genjutsu, the art of illusion, requires good control over your chakra. One with no sense of chakra control just cannot perform low ranked ninjutsu. I shall aid you in correcting this as well as teaching you taijutsu and shurikenjutsu. With my aid, I can guarantee to correct all these in less than three months. Throughout this period, we can cover important topics for a shinobi, like strategy, infiltration and stealth. After the three months, I shall begin to teach you all of my techniques…one by one." Naruto looked at the man with wide eyes at such prospect.

"You really believe I can do it…sensei?" Tobirama smirked at the term of respect.

"One aspect you'll learn from me is that I don't bother saying anything aside from the pure and logical truth. I would not bother saying so if I believed otherwise." Naruto smiled and nodded in appreciation.

"Ok when do we start?" Tobirama smirked at the eagerness, but he had to deal with one important issue first.

"Tomorrow, after the academy, you will come here and we shall begin. However, before you leave, we must take care of something first. When I created the seal, I had stored enough chakra to last this conversation. My extension in this place requires a steady supply of chakra, and I do not have said luxury." Naruto blinked once more in confusion and the Nidaime began to understand that perhaps it was best if he used smaller words to explain things. At least for now he would adhere to it, but when they began to cover advanced knowledge, Naruto's vocabulary would have to improve drastically. "In simpler terms, I need you to give me some of your chakra every day to sustain me."

"Ah, you could have said that from the beginning, sensei. But how can I train without my chakra?" Nidaime nodded in the negative at the question, as absurd as it was.

"I do not require all of your chakra. Depending on the level of your training, I shall increase the amount, but nothing too extreme." Naruto nodded once more with a smile on his face.

He would make the old man proud and he would do so by training with the Nidaime Hokage.

===Author Note===

Ok, here is the first chapter of my new story.

If anyone is interested about how the Nidaime appeared before Naruto, when the Nidaime Hokage faced Kumo, he created a shadow clone to perform the essence sealing in secret. It's the same technique that Minato used on Naruto to appear inside his consciousness. About the story, the events will not suffer much change. I'm still stuck on a couple of basic choices like Naruto's genin team and his jounin-sensei. I can tell right now that his affinity will be both wind and water.

I am open to as many ideas as possible, so feel free to provide them.