Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Ramen belongs to Naruto. Enough said.

Prologue

In life it is said you never value what you have until you lose it; for one person, Uzumaki Naruto the opposite could be said, He truly appreciated that which he never had. In his short life of 11 years, he lived a harsh life.

True he was never beaten, no mobs hunted him down on his birthday, or people curse him as a demon and murder. But neither did he receive a hug and comfort from nightmares, play with other children on his birthday, or be acknowledged as he walked down the street.

Growing up Naruto lived on the words of the Sandaime Hokage, the principles of the Hokage's and the Will of Fire that the Sandaime said was the embodiment of Konoha. Seeing the respect and attention given to the Sandaime; Naruto vowed to be Hokage one day.

Desperate to have the village see him (because how can you be Hokage if everyone ignores you) and not whatever makes their gaze fill with hate, Naruto resorted to pranks, especially when he perceived a wrong done against him. Now this lead to unexpected benefits, Naruto found many of the Shinobi principles and traps applied quite well to pranks; so therefore, in his opinion he was able to train while rightly delivering justice on those who wronged him.

Now because of his life, Naruto never thought twice when his teacher Mizuki came to him after he failed the graduation exam a second time with a chance at taking a hidden exam. It never occurred to him that breaking into the Hokage's office and stealing a scroll was wrong.

So in his joy over someone acknowledging him and this in his opinion was an easy exam, he was rightly confused when Iruka found him and treated him like a thief. That night Naruto learned three things that would shatter his life and give new meaning to the sayings of the Sandaime. The first was the reason why the village hated and ignored him, that he was the Kyuubi. The second was that he was the container or jailer of the Kyuubi and not the beast himself. The third and final thing he learned was that Iruka was like the Sandaime and that he saw him as Uzumaki Naruto an academy student of Konoha and its future Hokage.

With the words of the Sandaime proven true (That with time and effort the village will see the true you, Naruto) in the actions of Iruka; Naruto was justified in the beating he gave Mizuki for trying to kill Iruka, leaving Mizuki a groaning mass of flesh. With a sheepish laugh Naruto asked, "Did I go too far... Sensei?" hearing no reply Naruto turned around and found Iruka-sensei slumped on the ground unmoving. "Sensei?" asked Naruto as he came closer, but before he could touch Iruka the Sandaime with a group of Anbu and a pair of Medics appeared on the scene.

"Anbu take Mizuki into custody for questioning, Medics take Iruka to the hospital, treat for poison," ordered the Sandaime as he approached Naruto who still held the Scroll of Sealing; this reinforced the idea in Naruto's head that the Sandaime knew everything he did as he was doing it and he was just humoring him on his pranks.

As the Anbu and Medics left with their charges Naruto looked up at the face of the Sandaime fearful of what he would see. Looking down upon the village's hero the Sandaime pondered how to address the situation Naruto was in. "Mmm... He's finally learned about the Kyuubi a year before the Fourth wanted him to, but he is not ready to be a Genin and without Iruka's testimony the Elders will never allow him to graduate."While lost in his thoughts he noticed Naruto was swaying on his feet "Well that's to be expected since he just produced 150 Kage Bunshins tonight plus the training from earlier".

"Naruto why don't you go home and get some rest, Iruka will be fine and we can talk about what happened tomorrow," the Sandaime said as he took the scroll from Naruto. "Now don't talk about tonight to anyone until you have seen me first Naruto."

Naruto relaxed at these words "Thanks Jii-san, I'll see you tomorrow." and with that Naruto left for a deserved rest.

The morning sun shines through the window waking up the resident orange lover. Naruto groaned as he stretches to remove the kinks from his spine. "Note to self never fall asleep fully equipped mmm... wait!"Naruto hastily removed a scroll from one of his pockets.

"Who says pranks are worthless," he mutters to himself as he unrolled the scroll. You see in the progression of his pranks Naruto learned to carry a scroll with him so he could write down any observations of how effective his pranks were before too much time passes. So while he didn't read everything in the Scroll of Sealing, some of it he was unable to read, he did take notes on what there was. Like he noticed there were a lot of fujin-jutsu in the scroll and several jutsu that while he couldn't understand them completely he found out that they required something called elemental chakra training.

"So there were jutsu that need elemental chakra and knowledge of fujin-jutsu to perform, Mizuki said that scroll was full of some of the most powerful jutsu in the village," said Naruto as he looked over his scroll.

"Well first need to get some ramen, then got to meet Jii-san," said Naruto as he rolled up the scroll and got ready for his meeting with the Sandaime.

First Chapter up of a three part Naruto series

This was inspired by "A Drop of Poison" by Angel of Snapdragons a must read Naruto Fic.

This will update on and off as my muse switches between this and my other Bleach story "Protector & The Dragon" Which Chapter 3 will be soon, Probably this weekend, have a Math Final this Week.

Beta and edited by Sakura Williams.

Review and let me what you think.

PathKeeper