The Hokage looked sad. He hadn't wanted to burden Naruto with the knowledge of the fox at such a young age.
"You said you figured out my reason for keeping your heritage a secret. How comes you didn't do better at the academy then? From the reports I got, you just passed the exams. Congratulations for that by the way." The Hokage wanted to know.
"Thanks, but think about it. What do the villagers fear more? A stupid and weak demon or a smart and powerful one? It was simply self-preservation. I am way stronger and smarter than everybody thinks." Naruto said.
"How strong?" The Hokage asked. "And how did you manage to keep all the training you must have done a secret? I only saw you training some times in the training grounds and then you didn't give the impression of being strong."
"That was my shadow clone, old man. I learned that jutsu by watching Kakashi Hatake test his team when I was nine. He had them fight against his clone in the true genin test. I had memorized the handseal and tried to learn that jutsu as it looked really useful, way better than the clone we learn at the academy, which I still have problems with even after thousands of hours of chakra control training." Naruto admitted. "That damn jutsu just uses too little chakra."
"You can do shadow clone jutsu? You know that it is a forbidden jutsu?" He asked.
"No, I didn't until now. I never had any problems except in the beginning when I dispelled too many clones after training at once. That was a terrible headache I got."
"You use your clones for training?" The Hokage asked interested.
"Sure. It's the best training method there is. At least for me. I can make a thousand clones without ending winded. And with the memory transfer after they dispel they were perfect for me to gain skills, experience and knowledge." Naruto said shrugging his shoulders.
"But why didn't you tell me?" The Hokage asked.
"I couldn't. If the council had any idea that I was getting strong on my own, they would have tried to stop me. I needed all the time I could get to get strong enough to just flip them the bird once I graduated. You know how they treat me. If I had shown my true skills I would have been able to graduate earlier, that much I know you'd have done for me, but what then? A genin still isn't strong enough to be safe from a bunch of determined civilians, especially not if the council would try to make everything I did look like the fox did it. And there would have been the possibility of a jonin just failing the team I was on under the pretence of us not having the necessary skills. Then it would have been back to the academy, under the control of the civilian council.
"And then they would have known that I was stronger than they 'allowed' me to become and would have sabotaged me more. No, I needed to have at least high level chunin skills to be sure to pass the real genin test for sure or you then having a reason to keep me in the active duty roster even if the jonin on my team failed me out of hatred for the fox. While I haven't been beaten up since the Uchiha massacre, the civilians do all they can to screw me over. Shops overcharge me or just deny me service, parents tell lies about me to their children, teachers sabotage my education and the hospital staff only treats me if you force them to. Hell, the only place I can go to eat is Ichiraku's. And I can't live from ramen alone, even if I pretended to do so. Thankfully I don't get the food a clone eats. Alone thinking about eating so much ramen makes me sick. I hate cup ramen by the way. I only like the ramen at Ichiraku's.
"Do you really wonder that I couldn't trust anybody until I was out of the influence of the civilian council? Now that I have graduated and am a ninja, I am under your jurisdiction and you are one of the few people that don't hate me." Naruto explained.
The Hokage understood. He had tried to help Naruto, but he was right. With the council having stolen much of the Hokage's power in the short time between Minato's death and his reinstallation, there wasn't much he could have done for the boy without being accused of favouritism and pushed out of the position of Hokage, leaving Naruto without protection. When Naruto had been found next to the bodies of his dead mother and dieing father, Minato had only managed to get his final wish out that Naruto should be treated like the hero he was for keeping the fox imprisoned. He hadn't told the villagers about Naruto's status, but it had somehow got out. His law came too late and the villagers were shouting for Naruto's death.
"You said you know about the true genin test?" The Hokage asked looking over his intertwined hands.
"Yes, my knowledge was also part of the reason I got results to just pass, at the bottom of my class. The only genin-to-be that is guaranteed to pass is Sasuke. The council will never allow for their precious Last Uchiha to fail and order whoever will be his jonin sensei to pass his team. That is the only possibility for me to surely pass. I know that Ino, Shikamaru and Choji will be put on a team as the three clans have had a bond over generations and are always on the same team if three of them are in the same graduation class. The next clan heirs are Hinata, Kiba and Shino. A classical tracking team, therefore they would normally be put in one team. Those six are the only ones in my class that also have the skill to pass the genin test for sure if they get fair senseis.
"So if I wanted to truly get out of the civilian council's jurisdiction I needed to get on a team that was sure to pass, aka Sasuke's team. I hate the bastard, but I can push my feelings aside if it means you are the only one who can give me orders. To be honest, if I hadn't been sure that I would have been hunted down and brought back by the ANBU I would have run away years ago. While I like you, with a whole village hating me that was not a difficult decision."