Naruto: Cautious Ninja

A little while later and a couple miles out from the Hokage Monument, after switching off the water main at his apartment to stop the spillover and explaining to the landlady his situation, which earned him a slap over the head from a fan and another warning, Naruto soon found himself shuffling back up to his flat. Dressed in his usual attire, three-quarter green cargo shorts and orange jumper with blue short sleeves and arrow marks on each, the blonde scrubbed the top of his head while mumbling all sorts of complaints under his breath. This somber mood continued as he pushed open the door to his apartment and slipped off his sandals.

"Man… that hurt like hell," he groaned, feeling the bump that had risen from his sudden and violent exit from the bathroom earlier. "Next time I'll get my facts straight before I start slapping my hands over stuff. I don't want to end up summoning some malevolent demon that wants to destroy the entire village by accident. Man… that would be embarrassing."

Yeah, pretty sure it would be more than just embarrassing.

After kicking the door closed and marching into his kitchen, the boy decided that he would warm himself up a nice, hot instant ramen cup to try and rid himself of his head pains and have a comfortable sit-down to mull away his thoughts. This was the exact plan of action he had formed for the beginning of the day the moment he re-entered his kitchen, until he got the shock of a lifetime when he spotted the Third Hokage just standing on the other side of his kitchen table and staring towards him expectantly.

The boy yelped in alarm and leapt back, only to realize seconds later who it was he was looking back at.

"Hokage-jiji?" Naruto gulped, placing a hand over his heart. "Geez, you scared the shit out of me."

"I tend to do that to people from time to time, though it's honestly not my intention," Hiruzen replied with an amused voice while keeping his gaze fixed on the child. "Would you like to have a seat? You look ragged…"

"Oh sure, I'll just… HEY, WAIT A SEC!" Naruto suddenly shouted before pointing accusingly at the elder. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO SAY THAT! THIS IS BREAKING AND ENTERING, GRAMPS!"

The Third Hokage chuckled, "Oh is it? My apologies."

"You don't mean that," the blonde sulked, watching the Hokage pull his signature pipe into view and pop it between his lips. The youngster followed him with his eyes as he maneuvered around the table. "So what brings you all the way to my apartment? It can't be allowance day already. Was it something I did?"

"No."

"Seriously. Because if it's got something to do with every single piece of furniture in the academy being stuck to the ceiling, I would like to put forward a plea of innocence," the boy stated firmly and quickly.

"Really?"

"I didn't do it."

"Well isn't that getting straight to the point," Hiruzen murmured observantly as he lit his pipe and turned to face the youngster completely. Allowing his small smile to remain, he looked the jinchuriki over and noticed how stiff his posture was. "Don't worry, boy. I'm not here to bring you in. I'm just here to check to see how you're doing."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Naruto looked around his kitchen for a moment to see if anything was out of place. If there was any chance of a bug or an ANBU hiding in the vents, he would know. This was his home after all. He needed to be vigilant. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in the old man's voice, nor was there any shift in his expression. Poker faced as usual. Breathing out a plume of smoke, the elder gestured around the room. "Has anything unusual happened to you this morning? Did you… notice anything suspicious or odd in the last hour or just a few minutes ago?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head, taking a moment to ponder. "Not really. Although… I did try performing a summoning jutsu on myself, which backfired quite badly."

"A summoning jutsu?" Hiruzen inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, on this," Naruto lifted his jacket and tapped at the Eight Trigrams pattern that was still visible. The Hokage nearly choked on his own pipe when he sucked in air, but he quickly covered up his uncharacteristic response while the blonde's gaze was averted downwards. "It's really weird. I never noticed I had this thing on my stomach before… maybe because I always had my shirt on whenever I tried using jutsu. What do you think, Hokage-jiji?"

When he looked up, he found the Third hovering right in front of him and leaning towards his exposed belly. If his suddenly being here in his apartment didn't scare the shit out of Naruto that time, then this surely did.

"Ah… don't do that!" the jinchuriki shouted.

Hiruzen murmured an apology before biting down on his pipe and scrutinizing the seal. It was fortunate the blonde kept his shirt up while making his analysis otherwise his thought processing in this regard would have been cut short. The elder scratched his chin as he took a closer look at the markings. "It doesn't appear corrupted, damaged or warped in any way… however…" He brought his hand up and ran his fingers over what he assumed to be the anomaly. "The boy's own chakra fluctuated as a result of his curious endeavor. Most interesting. The seal may have been tampered with yet the balance and strength of the barrier remains the same as before. The gate is still shut tight."

"I guess I can take that as a good thing…"

Unable to contain it any longer, the snickering Naruto started laughing hysterically, "Hey! Ha-ha! That tickles! Stop that! W-What are you doing, oji-san?"

"Oh. Sorry, Naruto. Just thinking," Hiruzen exclaimed, standing up to full height once more. Playing his investigation off with a warm smile, he then looked down at the blonde seriously for a second as the boy lowered his jumper and dusted himself down. "He hasn't released the Nine-Tails nor has the fox made any attempts to break free. Though it shouldn't be physically possible, there is no doubt that the powerful chakra signature that the sensor division picked up came off of young Naruto. Due to the unpredictable nature of Uzushiogakure sealing techniques, my guess is that by hitting the seal the boy must have unlocked some of his chakra that may have been accidentally sealed away when the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him."

Like untying a knot in a length of string.

But did Naruto realize it himself that he was the one that had managed to generate enough chakra to scare the living daylights out of the surveillance team?

Considering that nothing disastrous had occurred since the boy's little inquiry, not to mention Naruto wasn't doing anything that would be considered a threat, the Third concluded that maybe it was best to just leave things as they were and allow the boy to work things out for himself. He already had massive stamina and an abnormally high chakra signature, so he probably wouldn't notice.