It was starting to affect the boy's grades, and he knew it would only get worse. He inwardly shook his head at the fools that acted against the boy. If he were any other student, they would have been overjoyed to have such a studious child.
One day, the young boy had wandered into his office out of boredom. The Hokage had been out in a meeting, but the blonde had found another way to entertain himself. When his meeting was finished, he surprised to walk in and find the boy entrenched in one of the fuinjutsu books he kept in his bookshelf.
To say that he and his guards were on edge would be an understatement. It went without saying that watching a jinchuriki meddle with fuinjutsu was beyond stressful. When asked why he chose that particular book, the boy had gazed up at him and simply replied it was because the swirl symbol on cover was the same as the one on all of his shirts.
With that simple explanation, he and the guards stationed around the room had let out a sigh of relief. Sarutobi knew Naruto was not the kind of person to enjoy sitting still or reading, so to see the boy so calm and focused, on a book of all things, was nothing short of astonishing. After a short debate in his head, he had gladly lent the boy the book, and a week later the boy returned asking for the next volume. This continued on and on, and now the boy was starting to exhaust the beginner fuinjutsu books that he kept in his office.
The Sandaime stopped his trip down memory lane and turned his attention back to the young boy in front of him.
"I'm sorry to hear that Naruto. Do you want Kitsune to go with you to talk with the teacher into letting you back in?"
The boy shook his head vigorously. "Nah, he's just a boring old coot anyway. I'd rather you teach me some awesome jutsu instead! Come on jiji, please?"
The old man chuckled as he replied, "I'm sorry Naruto, but I'm busy as it is," motioning to the mountain of paper that littered his desk and the ground around him. "Maybe in a week or two we can schedule a day for just the two of us, or, at the very least, free up some time for some ramen?"
The young boys eyes lit up in excitement, and his sound of approval echoed off the walls of the room.
"Kitsune, please escort Naruto back to the academy and, while you're there, ensure that the teacher is aware of my displeasure of the situation." Over Naruto's sounds of disappointment, Kitsune nodded understanding the message. "And before you go back, maybe just show a little something to Naruto to appease his curiosity."
Naruto perked up again. "Do you mean it?"
"Only if you promise to behave yourself until Iruka returns from his leave," replied the Sandaime with a serious expression.
"You got it jiji! And I never break a promise!"
He chuckled at the verbal tick as he waved Kitsune, who was still holding the boy by his collar, out of his office. He continued to hear the boy's muffled screams for release as they made their way down the hall.
He sighed and leaned back into his chair. Naruto was always a breath of fresh air and it was good for Kitsune to show at least some emotion. Naruto was someone who refused to be ignored and demanded attention. When Naruto had first met Kitsune, he refused to stop bugging the teenager about how his mask's whisker marks were similar to his own. After a nasty run in with some drunk villagers, Kitsune had intervened on Naruto's behalf and they had taken to each other immediately afterwards.
As similar as the two were, Hiruzen reflected upon how they would follow different paths. Kitsune was a perfect example of what Naruto would have turned into had Danzo gotten his hands on him. A perfect, lethal, empty shell of a person with nothing but loyalty to the village.
Naruto was too bright and cheerful for that. Hiruzen was content his decision to keep the boy from starting his career too early. He already had the guilt of one child soldier on his conscience, and he didn't want to add another. He made one final gaze at the fourth picture hanging on his wall of a mop of golden hair, before resigning himself back to the paper stacked in front of him.
Naruto was so happy he could almost skip as he made his way through Konoha. He would never actually skip, no never, for that wasn't very shinobi-like. No sir. But he was so excited he couldn't help but at least giggle. He had finally done it. He had made his way through jiji's library of beginner fuinjutsu books, and now, he held a new, blue book under his arm. He could finally start moving on to the advanced stuff!
His mood slightly soured, and he made a tiny pout.
Well, not really the advanced stuff. Jiji had said he still had to move on to the medium-level books, but hey, that was still an improvement! His determination back in his eyes, he vowed to be the best ninja in the village at fuinjutsu, just like the Yondaime was before him.
Though he would never admit it, Naruto was very self-conscious when it came to his own talent. Sure, he liked to talk big and would fight tooth and nail to back it up, but whenever he had to compare himself to the likes of Sasuke or even Kitsune, he would feel disappointed in his own ability.
Not for a lack of trying. He would spend hours trying to mimic what Nee-chan and Kitsune-san would teach him, but he still felt as though he was coming up short. The fact that he had advanced to his current level of fuinjutsu all by himself made him beam and swell with pride. He had become entranced the second he'd laid his eyes on that book in jiji's office.