Hey guys, I know its been a while since I've updated and honestly, I should have left this story dead with the amount of time that I have spent away from it. The only reason that I decided to come back and work on it again is because I'm not happy with where I left off on it and I hated leaving it unfinished. So I plan on editing the chapters that I have out already and continuing the story from there. I don't really have set times that I plan on updating, but I am going to be trying to get chapters out as often as I possibly can in between my normal schedule.

Anyways, I definitely plan on continuing this story especially for those of you who really liked it and while the first 5 updates will be fixing the things that I don't like about my story, the rest of the updates will be continuing from where we left off at.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do however, own a headband so I could be a ninja if I wanted to. Anyways on to the story.

Answers Of The Heart

What is the will of fire?

Some will tell you that it is the belief that all of Konohagakure is one family unit. All of the shinobi that share in this belief will lay down their lives for the prosperity of the village and their families.

Others will say that the Hokage is the embodiment of the will of fire. The Shodai Hokage, Senju Hashirama co-founded Konoha to end the fighting and deaths of children, The Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama created the ninja academy and many laws to ensure the survival of Konoha and the yondaime, Namikaze Minato sacrificed himself to seal the kyuubi to ensure his villages safety.

While these definitions might satisfy the hearts of many in the village of Konohagakure, with time, one child will grow to find his own meaning and absolutely change the elemental nations forever. This is his story; one of hardships and challenges. The tale of a legend in the making.

It all started with a question, one that would shake the foundation of the Shinobi world forever.

"Do you know what the will of fire is?" An old man asked the child of seven years sitting next to him on top of the Hokage Monument.

"Ugh, this question again jiji?! Why do you always ask me this?" The boy grew an agitated look on his face "You never even tell me what it is when I tell you that I don't know."

The old man looked at his younger companion, he could see the irritation in his blue eyes and how his whiskered face was slumped with a slight frown. The old man could easily hide his amusement but even so, he still had to smile at the way the blonde child next to him was reacting.

Since Uzumaki Naruto had first told him that he wanted to follow in his footsteps the man had consistently asked him about the will of fire, patiently waiting for the day that Naruto would give some kind of correct answer. The boy wanted to take over his position as the Hokage and honestly, Sarutobi Hiruzen hoped that Naruto could be the one he passed the hat off to. Without even knowing it, even at the age of seven the boy was a shining example of the will of fire.

You could say that Naruto was something like a pariah. He was constantly being ridiculed by the village, called names such as demon brat, murderer and freak and yet, instead of retaliating back, he would still try and help others around the village without expecting anything in return. Others in the village refused to see it, but Hiruzen could see how much Naruto cared about the village. He could see the passion and the care in Naruto's eyes, even the pain and sorrow after being constantly rejected by the villagers. But most of all, he could see the determination to not give up. Lesser men couldn't handle a piece of what Naruto endured and yet, it was easy to say that Naruto would be there for his village no matter what! Even if he wasn't wanted.

"Hey Jiji, if you can't tell me then can you give me a hint?"

"I suppose I could. Look out at the village Naruto-kun," the Hokage gestured down towards the village that they were sitting above "tell me, what do you see?"

Naruto looked down at the village and at first, he noticed the trees and the buildings, all of which had a golden tone because of the setting sun. While it was an amazing sight, the boy didn't think that his Jiji had that in mind when he asked the question.

Taking another inspection, the blonde boy noticed the villagers, small as ants because of the distance, moving throughout the village, most likely heading home to spend the rest of their night. "I see the villagers Jiji, why?" The blonde answered, not understanding why he was asked the question.

Nodding his head, the Hokage then said, "Now let me ask you this," The Hokage turned to face Naruto as a light breeze ruffled the robes at his back elegantly "What do the shinobi provide for the people of this village?"

Naruto thought about it for a second, he didn't want to sound stupid in front of the man he looked up to the most. "Well I guess they keep the people safe. In your stories, you've told me about bad people in and outside of the village. The shinobi protect the village from all of the bad stuff, right?" Naruto was getting nervous at the way that his Jiji was staring at him, hoping that he didn't answer the question wrong.

Slowly, an appreciative smile cracked on the old man's face and he responded, "Very good Naruto! You are indeed correct. The Shinobi are responsible for the safety of the village. If you ever want me to consider making you the next hokage then you must continue to love your village, you must do everything in your power to protect its people, even the ones that don't treat you right. I want you to be the strongest and the smartest that you can be. Do you know what the most important part about being Hokage is?"

Naruto was listening carefully, why would he ever turn down free advice to become the Hokage. Especially if the advice just so happened to come from one. But even still he could not stop himself from his childish response, "Oh oh, is the most important thing about being the Hokage to be recognized by everyone as the greatest? Or maybe it's having a super cool and powerful jutsu!" The boy answered passionately. With a second thought he added, "Because if it is then I'm going to get everyone to remember my name, Dattebayo!"

Hiruzen couldn't stop himself from laughing in amusement at the very naïve answer. 'Hah, Naruto-kun reminds me of Hashirama-sensei, I have to remember that he's a little on the slow side.'

"Hey! Are you laughing at me, Jiji!?"

"No Naruto-kun, you just remind me of someone from my childhood. But to answer the question, no, the most important thing isn't being recognized by everyone or even having powerful jutsu." He was stopped for a second by a whine "The most important thing about being the hokage is to find something you love about the village. You need to build friendships with the people of the village and fight for those friendships."

The old man stopped his rant for just a second to collect his thoughts, this subject was one of great importance to him.

"The will of fire is the want no, the very need to protect the village from anything even if it means that you have to lay your life on the line. There are no short cuts to becoming the Hokage, you will have to train as hard as you can and you will have to learn a lot. You would be the ultimate guardian of this village which means that you are responsible for everything that happens, good or bad. Do you think you can do that?" Hiruzen finished what he had to say with a passion coming from his heart. He didn't want to break the kids dreams by telling him all of this. He did however have an idea but, for it to work, Naruto would still have to strive for his position even after knowing what he would be in for.

The blonde sat there for a while, digesting the information that he just received. Honestly, it scared him that he would be responsible for so much, but he was Uzumaki Naruto and a little bit of responsibility wasn't going to scare him away!

After collecting his thoughts, Naruto gained a look in his eyes that matched the fire in his heart. He was going to be the best no matter what. "You bet I can handle it Dattebayo! Just you wait, I'm going to be the best Hokage this village has ever seen. I'm going to make you and this village proud of me and I'm going to be the strongest ninja ever!"

"I already am proud of you my boy and your parents would be to," The Hokage muttered to himself.

The blonde didn't hear what his idol said, "What did you say Jiji?"

Thinking quick on his feet the old man said, "Good, now I have enrolled you into the ninja academy so that you can start on your path to recognizing your dream. The academy starts in one month so until then, I suggest you start preparing for the curriculum. I suppose I could also teach you a thing or two as well. After all, I can't have my successor be unprepared." The Hokage finished with a grin on his aged face.

"What!? Really! That's awesome Jiji, I'm going to be so amazing!" Naruto had stars in his eyes and a smile so big that Hiruzen thought his face might split in half. "So, when can we start Jiji?"

"We can start tomorrow. I want you to meet me at the Hokage tower tomorrow morning so that we can get started. However, I also want you to keep this a secret Naruto. Nobody is allowed to know that I am teaching you." The man had a very strong tone to his voice because of how important this was.

"Aww, why not Jiji?"

Hiruzen couldn't tell him the real reason because it had to do with the kyuubi hiding in Naruto's gut and the political repercussions, so instead he gave another reason that wasn't necessarily wrong. "Because as the Hokage I am not supposed to take any students. It wouldn't be fair to other possible students. You have to keep it a secret or you might never become a ninja. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded his head back at his new sensei. He might have been sad that he couldn't yell out to the world that his sensei was THE Hokage but he didn't want to lose his shot at gaining his dreams. He was going to give his all and make sure that he learned everything that he could from his sensei.

"I believe that you should start heading home Naruto-kun. It is getting late and you need to be getting your sleep because tomorrow will be a long day for you."

Standing up, the blonde said, "Okay Jiji, I'll see you tomorrow." With that Naruto started walking home.

As he walked away, Hiruzen noticed that his clothes were starting to get ragged. He could see holes and tears in his shirt. 'Maybe tomorrow I should take him to get some new clothes.' Finished with his thoughts, it was time to get himself to bed as well.

The next day

Naruto had just gotten out of bed and he was excited. 'Today is the day that I begin my ninja training. I'm going to be the best in no time!" He quickly took off his pajamas and put on his tan shorts and his white shirt that sported the symbol of Konoha. After a quick breakfast of cereal and a cup of ramen, he slid on his sandals and left his apartment to go to the tower for his first training session.

On his way to the tower he noticed just how nice the day was. The sun was out, shining brightly. He could hear a couple birds singing their melodies and feel the warm breeze from the wind. Naruto looked around and could see that the villagers that noticed him were keeping a wide birth while anyone that didn't see him were carrying on with their lives. With a tightening of his fist, he vowed to himself that he would gain the strength to protect these people whether they wanted him to or not.

As he was passing through a market district, a woman that he assumed was carrying groceries, tripped on a rock and fell along with her produce. While most of the people who were shopping in the market place continued on without a second thought to the unfortunate woman, Naruto decided to stop and help her gather her belongings.

Upon grabbing a couple bags of produce to return to the woman, she looked at him, instantly understanding who he was, "Hey! Get away from my groceries you thieving monster!" The woman shouted, instantly gathering the attention of the markets patrons, who had previously ignored the woman.

"B-but I…" Naruto tried to say before he was rudely cut off by the woman, "You were going to steal my groceries, but I caught you! Set them down and leave, or else."

The blonde boy of seven years sighed before setting the bags down in front of the woman, "Here, I was just trying to help you." The boy said as he continued his trip to the Hokage's tower, clearly upset.

He didn't do anything except for attempting to be helpful and yet, the woman pushed him away with disgust. He could even hear the bystanders speaking in hushed voices about the occurrence. This kind of thing always happened to him where ever he went in the village and it really upset him. The only thing that brightened his mood back up was the fact that his Jiji would be starting his training today and that the old man had faith that Naruto could overcome his hardships and be better for it. After all, the harder the challenge, the sweeter the reward!

10 minutes later

Finally, he made his way in front of the tower that his ninja training would start in. Stepping in, he told the secretary that he was here to see the hokage. "Give me a minute to let Hokage-sama know that you are here." The lady said to him and he was pleasantly surprised when she didn't even glare at him or say anything mean.

Walking back moments later, the lady said, "Alright Naruto, Hokage-sama is ready for you. You may go in to see him now."

With a 'thank you' Naruto walked down the hall towards the office of the village's leader and stepped in through the door.

Upon stepping in, Naruto saw the very man he was looking for in all of his old glory sitting behind a desk doing paperwork. "Hey jiji, I'm ready for the day!"

Looking up, the old paper pusher responded back, "Ah Naruto, just the person that I wanted to see-"the Kage put on the ceremonial hat that was sitting on his desk and grabbed a scroll that was sitting under it before he stood up "now follow me. Let's go on a walk."

"Um, Okay?" The boy was confused, he thought that he was going to start on his training. So, with confusion clear on his face, Naruto followed after his Jiji.

An hour later

Naruto found himself standing on an isolated training ground away from the village. Before going to the training grounds, the Hokage had taken him to lunch as a small detour. "Now Naruto-kun, this will be where we train every day for the next month until you start at the academy. Every morning when you wake up I want you to come straight here so that we can begin. Do you have any questions?"

"Yeah, so what are we going to start on? I bet your going to teach me something cool like breathing fire or blowing stuff up!" The blonde student was so excited that Hiruzen thought that he might explode or even spontaneously combust. 'The kid needs a chill pill.' He thought to himself with a sweat drop.

"Calm down Naruto. We must learn the basics first. Now before we start I have a couple of rules that I need to go over with you."

"Huh? Why do we need rules?"

"The rules are important. You have to follow all of them or I will not teach you and I will not allow you to become a ninja. Now there will be three rules that you must follow. Rule number one, like I previously said, you are not allowed to tell anyone I am teaching you unless I tell you beforehand that it is alright." The old man unraveled the scroll that he brought from his office and released a couple of scrolls from it. "Because of the fact that it cannot be known that I am teaching you, part of the lessons that I will give you this month will be about stealth. Two of these books are about being stealthy and keeping secrets and I want you to read them…" He was cut off by a groan but he continued before his young student could speak. "Don't whine about the scrolls. I expect you to read them and I will test you on them. Anyways, rule number two, there are ten different scrolls here. I expect you to read each one, to be a ninja you must be smart. Knowledge is more important than any jutsu. Some of the scrolls will be on history, others will be about chakra theory. I have marked the scrolls from one to ten in the order that I want you to read them. The final rule is that you will follow anything that I tell you to do without question or I will punish you."

He knew it would be a lot to take in at first for Naruto but he wanted to lay down the law in the beginning. Hiruzen was willing to take Naruto as far as he could go but he would have to work for it and Hiruzen was expecting perfection.

"I'll do it dattebayo! I'm going to follow all of your rules and get super strong. Can we get started now!?"

"Of course, let me go over what we will be learning over the month and then we can get you started. Now please sit down." Naruto made a great showcase of a fish on land as he basically flopped on the ground in his excitement.

"Over the course of the month I will be helping you start on your taijutsu training and unlocking your chakra. We will also work on some basics such as throwing shuriken, chakra control exercises and stealth training. If you impress me with your skills and your academics then I might teach you a couple of jutsu."

The blonde ball of energy shot up to his feet with a fist in the air "Im going to master everything and make you teach me all of your jutsu. You hear me Jiji, I'm going to be the best dattebayo!"

The Sandaime Hokage had a glint in his eye after hearing Naruto's proclamation "Let's see how much you can take Naruto."

Six hours later

Naruto's seven-year-old body couldn't take anymore, his arms and legs felt like lead and they burned with exertion. His sensei started the training by making Naruto run laps around the training field. After he was done, he had to stretch and start doing pushups and when he could no longer do those he had to start doing the basic katas for a taijutsu style. That wouldn't be so bad but, his sensei forced him to hold each stance and go over them repeatedly to build muscle memory.

"Good job Naruto, you can take a break." Naruto sighed in relief as he dropped the stance he was currently in. "Come here. We are going to start learning about chakra."

The monkey summoner waited for his young charge to come over and sit in front of him before he began, "Do you know anything about chakra, Naruto-kun?"

The Uzumaki thought about it for a second before he responded, "Is it some kind of snack? Cause I'm hungry now." Hiruzen's first response was to face palm however he managed to hold himself in check. Barely.

"No Naruto, it is not a snack. We are almost done for the day then I will treat you to dinner. Chakra is the manifestation of our physical and spiritual energies mixed together. With chakra, ninja can use jutsu, move faster or even hit harder. I'm not going to worry about teaching you the theory behind it, I want you to read the scroll on chakra tonight. I will however teach you how to use your chakra. Now first sit down in a position like this." Hiruzen sat down with his legs crossed in front of him in a meditative position. "Then make the ram handsign like me. This handsign will help you pull on your chakra until you get used to it. Now close your eyes and dig down inside of you and find your chakra. It should feel warm."

Naruto did as he was told and started digging down to find his chakra. After twenty minutes, he finally found it and started to pull on it. What happened next completely caught Hiruzen off guard. HIruzen was not by any means a sensor however the amount of chakra that Naruto pulled out was absolutely massive especially considering it was his first time drawing it out. 'If this is the amount that he can draw on for his first time then the years to come will be very interesting. The amount that he pulled on is comparable to some of the jounin in the village, his control is bound to be terrible for a long time.'

"Excellent job Naruto! I'm going to take you to get ramen as a treat."

"Yata! Here I come Ichiraku's, give me all the ramen." Naruto had a scary glint in his eye, Hiruzen thought that he might have to get a loan with the amount of ramen that was about to be consumed.

'What kind of monster have I created.' Hiruzen thought with tears in his eyes as he was dragged by his blonde student.

Thirty minutes later

Hiruzen's eye was twitching, how did Naruto finish off twenty large bowls of ramen. It just didn't make any sense. If Orochimaru didn't defect from the village then he would have been hired study Naruto and find out how it was even possible.

'Slurp, slurp.' "Ahhh, that hit the spot. Is something wrong Jiji?" Naruto asked after finishing his twentieth bowl of ramen.

"What!? I wasn't thinking about hiring a missing nin to figure out one of the mysteries of the universe!" The old man said a little too quickly.

"Um okay? Well, I'm going to head home Jiji. I'll see you tomorrow." The blonde stood up and gave his Jiji a hug. Right before he was going to leave, Hiruzen whispered to him so no one would hear, "Make sure you study from the scrolls tonight. And also practice pulling on your chakra until you don't need the ram sign." Naruto nodded and said 'Goodbye' before he left.

'That boy is going to be quite the shinobi when he is older, I'm excited to see what he makes of himself." With that thought, Hiruzen payed for their meal before heading home for himself.

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office

"This sucks, why can't my real self stay here while I go help Naruto-kun with his training. I'm going to show him." The old man pouted to himself before he burst in a puff of smoke, leaving his creator with a massive headache.

End chapter

AN: I'm a little late on the Naruto fanfic train, you see I was on my computer writing this when I pulled up a video, the video had a black cat and a broken mirror in it and so I had to stop writing this or else I would have had bad luck for 7 years. Turns out that even without working on this that I ended up with bad luck anyways. Oh well. But in all seriousness, I've had this idea for a story for about a year now and I've finally decided to write it.

Revised: Now I'm really late on the Naruto Fanfiction train, hopefully somebody will read it… Anyway, this is the first chapter's revision, I'll be working on the new and improved ch. 2 tomorrow and hopefully get that out quickly. Once I have all five chapters redone, we will be getting into some new stuff. Let me know how this is, until then see ya next time!