Chương 538: Naruto's Dilemma

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

November 1, x787.

"So, how have you all been since I last saw you?" Alfonzo asked after getting the introductions out of the way. "Have you all kept up your training."

"Of course!" Naruto shouted in reply. "I'm gonna be Hokage someday, you know? So, I gotta be the strongest."

"Yeah, right." Kiba shot back. "There's no way you're gonna be Hokage, Naruto. Because I'm gonna be the Hokage."

"Oh, yeah?" Naruto asked challengingly.

"Yeah!" Kiba replied in the same challenging tone. "Bring it on!"

With that, Naruto and Kiba started literally bumping heads over who would become Hokage. Meanwhile, everyone gave them a glance before returning to their own conversation.

"Hey, Alfonzo, where is Lici?" Ino asked after deciding to ignore the quarrelling idiots.

"She's at home with Amar'e." Alfonzo replied with a smile.

"Amar'e is so cute!" Carla squealed after just thinking about Amar'e.

"Amar'e?" Sakura asked in a confused tone. "Wait.! Does that mean she had the baby?"

"Yeah, she sure did." Alfonzo replied while smiling like a proud father. "He was born August twelfth. And he was big when he was born… Like really big. 13.2 lbs. to be exact."

Hearing that, the kids were astonished. Still, they were excited by the news.

"I really wanna see him." Hinata said quietly with a gentle smile on her face. "You are so handsome and Miss Elicia is so pretty. I bet he's really cute."

A moment later, after realizing that she called Alfonzo handsome, Hinata blushed furiously. Then, she quickly snapped her head in Naruto's direction. And when she realized he was still arguing with Kiba, Hinata exhaled a sigh of relief.

Having noticed Hinata's actions, Rika, who was sitting on the same couch as Alfonzo, grinned mischievously. Then, in a burst of speed, she disappeared from where she was sitting and reappeared next to Hinata while wrapping an arm around the timid girl's shoulders.

"Oh, it looks like someone's got a little crush." Rika said quietly, making sure that Naruto would not be able to hear her.

In the next instant, something no one thought was possible happened. Hinata's blush grew in intensity as it extended from her cheeks to her ears and neck. At the same time, steam started to shoot out from the top of her head.

"Hahahaha! Oh, this girl is the cutest little thing." Rika said as she laughed uproariously.

Before Rika could continue, Hinata vanished from her grasp, confusing everyone in the room. A moment later, after scanning the room, they found Hinata sitting on the couch where Rika once sat.

"Huh?" Hinata exclaimed in confusion when her field of view changed so unexpectedly.

"Okay, Rika, don't tease the poor girl too much." Alfonzo said while smiling wryly. "She's way too thin-skinned for someone like you."

"Tch! You always ruin my fun, Alfonzo." Rika grumbled. Still, she let it go and decided to remain sitting on the floor among the other kids.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Ino, Sakura, and Shino could only look between Alfonzo, Rika, and Hinata with awe in their gazes. And that caused the atmosphere to get awkward. So awkward, in fact, that Naruto and Kiba stopped their argument with confusion.

"Um… What happened?" Naruto asked while scratching his head. "I feel like we missed something."

"Beats me." Kiba replied while shifting his gaze between the faces of his classmates.

"*Bark!* *Bark!*" Akamaru added in agreement with Kiba.

That short conversation was enough to snap the other kids out of their stupors.

"Wait! Does that mean you moved Hinata onto the couch, Alfonzo?" Sasuke asked in an astonished tone. Then, he pointed at Rika and continued. "But I activated my Sharingan as soon as I felt her move. So, I kinda saw her get next to Hinata. But I couldn't see you move at all."

Hearing that, Rika could not help but pout. She was quite confident in her speed, after all. That was how she had never been seen by the enemy on a quest. Because, after shooting from a sniping point, she would quickly relocate to another vantage point. Yet, it was clear that Alfonzo outclassed her in speed. And by a lot.

'How the hell is someone so big so damn fast?' Rika asked herself while pouting at Alfonzo. 'Well, at least he's not so fast when it counts. At least, that's what Lici and the other girls say. I wonder when Shizuka is gonna get some. Maybe I should convince her that we could test it together. *Sigh* But if I'm not at least his girlfriend, he won't even consider it.'

Despite the thoughts running through her head, Rika glanced at Sasuke with interest. The fact that he could barely keep up with her movements was impressive. And she knew that his eyes were the only reason he could do so.

'I bet he would make a great marksman.' Rika thought to herself. 'With the ability to track a target like that, he'd probably be an even better shot than me. I wonder if he'd consider picking up magic guns. Actually, I wouldn't mind having an eye like that, too. That Kakashi guy has one, right? I wonder what it would take for me to get one? I'll have to ask Alfonzo about it later.'

Saeko was thinking the same as Rika, though in regards to swords instead of guns. And she was wondering if Sasuke was the one Alfonzo wanted her to training swordsmanship. She was also wondering if it would be possible for her to get a Sharingan for herself.

While Saeko and Rika drifted off into their own thoughts, Alfonzo reached for his lPhone, which he had sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then, after unlocking it, he started scrolling through the pictures he had taken.

"Well, if you wanna see him, I have a lot~~~ of pictures." Alfonzo said, replying to Hinata's earlier mumbling with a smile.

Then, Alfonzo scooted a little closer to Hinata before showing her the screen of his lPhone. And on the screen was a picture of Amar'e in his crib while he reached up towards the camera.

"Aww~~~~!" Hinata cooed while staring down at the lPhone screen.

While Sasuke scowled at not getting an answer to his question, Ino and Sakura were the first to move closer to Hinata so they could see the picture of Amar'e. Shortly afterwards, Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino also got closer in curiosity. Eventually, even Sasuke moved to see the pictures of Alfonzo's son.

"Huh? What's going on, now?" Naruto asked in a confused tone.

"I have no idea." Kiba replied, sounding just as confused as Naruto.

"They're looking at pictures of Alfonzo's son, Amar'e." Wendy said, explaining what was going on for Naruto and Kiba.

While Kiba was curious to see Alfonzo's pup, as he put it, Naruto acted in a much more explosive manner. As soon as he heard Wendy's explanation, Naruto dashed behind the couch. Then, he leaned forward from right behind Hinata. As a result, his face was directly to the left of Hinata's head. In fact, he was so close that his right cheek was touching Hinata's left one.

Unsurprisingly, Hinata's blush, that had receded after seeing the pictures of Amar'e, returned with a vengeance when she realized that her cheek was touching Naruto's. Then, steam once again shot out of her head before she fainted immediately.

"Huh?" Naruto exclaimed in confusion when he felt Hinata's weight on his head. Then, when he looked to his side and saw Hinata had fainted with a glowing red face, he panicked. "Hinata, are you okay? Alfonzo, something is wrong with Hinata, what should we do?"

In response, everyone sighed at Naruto's denseness. However, Alfonzo moved to lay Hinata down on the couch so that she could recover.

Naturally, that ended the picture viewing session. Then Alfonzo got back to the original topic.

"It sounds like all of you have been working hard while I was gone." Alfonzo said with a smile. "So, how about showing me your progress?"

The shinobi kids, other than Hinata, for obvious reasons, nodded in response. Then, after asking Miyuki to look after Hinata, Alfonzo led the eight children outside to check their progress. Wendy, Carla, Saeko, and Rika followed them in curiosity, as well.

When they got outside, Alfonzo spent about an hour assessing the progress of the children. Hinata and Miyuki even joined them after about a half an hour. And what Alfonzo saw impressed him.

With the exception of Naruto, the others had greatly increased their magic power control. However, when he saw that Naruto was still struggling to control his magic power, Alfonzo was not disappointed. He knew the reason for it, after all.

After that, he tested them in physical strength, shuriken technique, and hand-to-hand fighting, letting all of them spar with him for a few minutes each. Then, he had them all perform the three academy level Ninjutsu, the [Substitution Jutsu], the [Transformation Jutsu], and the [Clone Jutsu].

And once again, he was impressed with what he saw. Other than Naruto, the other eight kids were able to use all three Jutsu without issue. Naruto, on the other hand, was only able to perform two of the three. However, his [Clone Jutsu] was subpar, at best.

After all the test were over, Alfonzo invited the eight children to have dinner. And since Alfonzo would be cooking, they all accepted eagerly. However, everyone could tell that Naruto was quite down after having such a poor showing when it came to magic power control and the [Clone Jutsu].

After dinner, the nine kids left. However, as they were leaving, Alfonzo stopped Naruto to talk to him.

"Hey, Naruto, can I talk to you for a minute?" Alfonzo asked.

"Huh?" Naruto asked as he turned around. "What's up, Big Bro Alfonzo?"

Hearing that, the other kids also stopped, curious what Alfonzo would say to Naruto.

"You guys can head home." Alfonzo said, waving off the others. "I just wanna talk to Naruto for a second. He'll be right behind you, I promise."

Though they were curious, the others eventually turned back around and continued home. Then, Alfonzo sat down to the residence's veranda and patted the spot beside him, signaling Naruto to take a seat, as well.

"So, what's up, Big Bro Alfonzo?" Naruto asked once again after sitting down.

"I know you're disappointed in yourself because of how you did when it comes to magic power control and the [Clone Jutsu]." Alfonzo replied in a consoling tone. "And I won't say there's nothing to worry about. Because that could be a serious issue in the future."

Hearing that, Naruto lowered his head and clenched his fists in frustration.

"I've worked so hard to get it right." Naruto said in a frustrated tone. "But no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it."

By this point, though they were in the house, Wendy, Carla, Saeko, Rika and Miyuki were eavesdropping from the front door. And although Alfonzo knew they were there, he did not worry about their presence. Naruto, on the other hand, had no idea they were nearby.

"Yeah, I can see how hard you've worked." Alfonzo said while patting Naruto on the head. "And I know why you're having so much trouble."

"really?" Naruto asked as he lifted his head.

"Yeah." Alfonzo replied with a nod.

"Then, please tell me." Naruto asked eagerly. "And tell me what I should do. I don't wanna fail the graduation exam."

Unlike in the canon version of Naruto's story, Naruto had not taken the graduation exam early. And the reason for that was simple, he thought he would have more time to train with Alfonzo if he remained at the academy. He wanted to be strong enough to become the Hokage someday, after all.

"Chill out, Naruto." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "I'm gonna tell you. Just take it easy, alright?"

Instead of calming down like Alfonzo said, Naruto stared at him with great intensity, causing Alfonzo to smile even wider. And because he could see the eagerness in Naruto's eyes, he decided to not keep him waiting any longer.

"The reason you have so much trouble controlling your magic power is because of how much you have." Alfonzo explained, his expression turning serious as he spoke. "You outclass your friends in the amount of magic power by a lot. And because of how much you have, it's hard to control."

'I wanna tell him about Kurama, too.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'But for some dumb, fucking reason, the village decided to keep it a secret. And that's dangerous as hell. I mean, both Mito and Kushina were aware they were Jinchuriki. So, why the hell would they keep it a secret from Naruto. I need to talk to Hiruzen about this tomorrow. You know what, I'm gonna ask him about why their keeping it a secret that his father is Minato, too.'

To explain what a Jinchuriki is, we would have to talk about the Tailed Beasts. These Tailed Beasts are giant, sentient creatures created from magic power itself. However, they were not formed naturally. In this world, they were actually created by Zeref. They were the first of demons he created centuries ago.

However, unlike the rest of his demons, or rather, Etherious, they were simply the products of his first experiments to create life. Meaning, they did not have the same programming as the others. And because of that, he was unable to control them.

These Tailed beasts were a group of nine Beasts each having a number of tails from one to nine. And the number of tails denoted how powerful they were.

And when one of these Tailed Beasts is [Sealed] inside of a shinobi, that is when a Jinchuriki is created. AS for Mito, or rather Mito Senju, formerly Mito Uzumaki, she was the wife of Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage, and the first Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beast, the Nine-Tailed Fox, Kurama.

Then, just before Mito passed away from old age, Kurama was transferred to Kushina, or Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother, making her the second Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Unfortunately, because of the plots of others, with Danzo having a huge hand in them, Kushina was killed on the day she gave birth to Naruto. And to keep Kurama from rampaging, as well as to keep him as a strategic resource for the village, Minato Namikaze, Naruto's father and the Fourth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, sacrificed his life to [Seal] Kurama into the newborn Naruto.

But for some reason, after Minato and Kushina passed away, the village thought it was a good idea to keep the fact that he was a Jinchuriki and who his parents were a secret from Naruto. And Alfonzo intended to talk to Hiruzen about that, tomorrow after he finished working on the training grounds.

It should also be known that Minato wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero in the village. Because had the Nine-Tailed Fox not been [Sealed] inside him, it would have continued to rampage in the village. And that would have more than likely destroyed it in the end.

As for how he knew who Naruto's parents were? Well, he had no obvious reason to know about Kushina. But Minato's face was carved into the Hokage Rock, a monument like Mt. Rushmore for the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and Minato and Naruto were almost identical in every way. So, you would have to either be completely unobservant or a total moron to not be able to put two and two together. Which made Alfonzo question the collective intelligence of the citizens of the village.

On a side note, the species of nine-tailed foxes that could be found on Earth land are all offspring of Kurama after he mated with fox-type magical beasts over the years.

"That's also the reason you are having trouble making a decent clone." Alfonzo continued while pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. "But don't worry, I'll make sure you have damn near perfect control of your magic power by the time you graduate."

Hearing the confidence in Alfonzo's tone, Naruto finally calmed down a bit. However, his emotions had spiked by quite a bit, as well. Then, he flung himself at Alfonzo and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Big Bro." Naruto mutter quietly after getting his emotions under control.

As previously mentioned, Naruto has not been treated well by the citizens of the village for as long as he could remember. He had either been bullied or outright ignored for years. So, to have someone show so much concern, he was truly moved.

'He's just like Iruka-Sensei.' Naruto thought to himself while continuing to hug Alfonzo. 'I should introduce them some day. I bet they would get along great.'

With that thought, Naruto released Alfonzo. Then, he sprung up and started running after his friends.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Big Bro Alfonzo!" Naruto shouted while running away. "Bye!"

Meanwhile, the visitors from Magnolia simply watched him go. Then, once Naruto could no longer be seen, Alfonzo stood up from the veranda before turning around to return to the house. When he did, however, he saw the five ladies all staring at him with gentle smiles on their faces.

"Amar'e's really lucky." Saeko said while continuing to smile.

In response, the other ladies all nodded their heads while Alfonzo smiled.

"Anyway, I'm gonna hit the sack." Alfonzo said, deciding not to comment. "I gotta get up early to train and work. So, I'll see you all in the morning."

With that, Alfonzo stepped onto the veranda before entering the house and heading to his bedroom to get some sleep. Meanwhile, the ladies all watched him go. Then, they all decided to head to their bedrooms, as well.