"Throughout the Elemental Nations, and all throughout its history some Shinobi grew to be legends, far surpassing all others. For some, this was done through powerful abilities or Bloodlines, after all, would Madara Uchiha ever have been as powerful as he was without his Sharingan? Would Hashirama Senju have been as powerful if it wasn't for his Mokuton? But there are those who have no special abilities, the ones who gain power purely through hard work and determination. The Third Hokage is perhaps the greatest living example of hard work personified, his legend as The Professor or God of Shinobi was not given because of a natural ability or bloodline, but because he had a goal and strived constantly for it."
The brown haired man paused to look around at the room of young academy students, this was his first class of the year, for both him and the new year of Ninja seeking to join the ranks of Genin in the Village Hidden in the Leaf.
All three ninja are wildly considered some of the most powerful men to have ever existed, pushing the boundaries of what all Shinobi thought were possible. But there is one last person I will mention of a Shinobi who mastered a single technique. Shisui of the Body Flicker, might not be the most famous Shinobi, but his mastery of the Body Flicker Technique, a fairly standard and simple Jutsu is legendary enough that his stories are told far and wide. And that class, is why Shisui Uchiha is going to be showing off what he can do for you, to show you what a true Shinobi of the Leaf can do."
He had always been a quiet person, he knew that the louder he was the more attention would be brought upon him, and that was the last thing that the young boy wanted. He knew that a Ninja's greatest strength was to be overlooked, for the bad people who wanted to hurt him to just not notice he existed.
That was what defined Naruto Uzumaki's life, the constant need to be hidden, to be silent. If people couldn't see him, they couldn't glare at him, they couldn't spit on him, they couldn't hate him if they couldn't see him. He knew this, knew it well and lived by it every day of his life.
As he listened to the nameless Academy Instructor, Naruto couldn't help but feel excited, he was going to become a Ninja, and there was going to be an elite ninja coming to show just what hard work could do. A ninja from a clan who was famous, not for his abilities granted to him by his special bloodline, but because of a Jutsu that nearly any Chunin could learn, something that Naruto could learn.
"Alright Class, it's time for Uchiha-San to give his demonstration, could all of you please head out in single file to the training grounds we showed you earlier in the day." As soon as he finished telling them to head out, the young children started running ahead, trying to be the first one to get to the training grounds. With one unnoticed exception, Naruto didn't run off, he didn't even leave the classroom through the front door. Instead the young blond took a nearby window, swinging, climbing and jumping up the side of the academy window (being careful to avoid any windows) before finding a perch where he could see the training grounds from above.
There, in the middle of the large academy training grounds, Naruto saw a man dressed in the traditional garb of an Uchiha Jonin, his dark clothes proudly displaying his clan emblem and his Jonin vest tightly fitted over it. He didn't look like the most impressive Ninja to Naruto, but f anyone knew that looks could be deceiving, it was the young boy on the roof. Almost as soon as the academy students arrived, Shisui Uchiha began to speak.
" As you guys were probably told, I'm Shisui Uchiha, also known as Shisui of the Body Flicker. I don't really think I'm the most famous Ninja, my cousin Itachi is much more powerful than me, but I guess they sent me here because of my winning personality" Here the black eyed Ninja paused slightly, as if waiting for laughter that never came before instantly getting right back into his speech.
"Ah, guess you need to know Itachi to get that joke. Where was I, ah yeah, I'm here today to give you guys a bit of a show, to show you what you can do with a whole lot of hard work and not much else. Now, I won't pretend that I had it hard, I still have an old clan that could help train me, but I'm not really a great Ninja because I'm the most powerful, or because I'm an Uchiha. I'm a great Ninja simply because I'm ready to put any amount of work in to protect this village and my family, ding what I did with the Body Flicker Jutsu isn't something that just anyone could do, even the Third Hokage has trouble mimicking my technique, or even tracking me while I'm using it. Now, enough chatting, you guys didn't show up here to listen to a boring guy talk, you wanted to see an awesome Ninja show of his skills."
The older Shinobi moved everyone away another five metres, moving them firmly out of Naruto's sight, and far away from anything that Shisui might do. As soon as everyone moved out of the way, the Uchiha began a short, and blindingly fast series of hand signs before letting loose a powerful blast of fire with the Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu completely burning down a small stack of training posts. Hearing cheers from somewhere below him, Naruto assumed that the vast majority of students were impressed with the Fire Jutsu, before Naruto could even try and remember the hand signs used, the Uchiha flew through a new series of them before a powerful gust of wind blew over the logs, settling the flames down and throwing the remaining training posts across the grounds, tumbling and bouncing before coming to a stop over 100 metres away.
The Uchiha below ended the demonstration after showing off a number of different Jutsu, sometimes Naruto would be nearly pushed back by a powerful gust of wind, and once he had to jump out of the way of a stream of fire shot into the sky. But overall it was just an exciting display of different techniques for the lone Ninja to admire. He would become strong like Shisui Uchiha, the blond wasn't sure if he wanted to be famous like the older Shinobi, but he would definitely become strong, strong enough to protect himself.
"So, what's a kid like you doing up here all by himself, if you aren't careful you could really hurt yourself" the sound of a voice shocked Naruto out of his thoughts, as he turned around Naruto glanced around, planning out every possible escape plan. All thoughts of escape were dashed when he saw that it was Shisui Uchiha himself who snuck up on the young boy.
"S..Sorry Uchiha-Sama. I just wanted to watch the demonstration."
"Ah, come on kid. Don't call me Uchiha-Sama, maybe if I was Fugaku-Sama you could address me that way, but you can just call me Shisui.
"Th...Thank you Shisui-Sama"
"Gah, kid, I meant don't call me Sa..Ah whatever, anyway why'd ya come up here instead of watching with your class, I doubt your Sensei would appreciate you not being with the class. Say kid, what's your name?"
"I'm.. Naruto Uzumaki Shisui-Sama, and Sensei didn't notice. I just.. I came here because.." The young blond paused, nervously shifting before continuing "I don't like being with people Shisui-Sama"
"Eh, that's not too strange I guess, I never liked being with anyone but Itachi-Nee. So, what did you think of me down there Naru-Chan ? See any cool Jutsu you want to learn?"
"Ah, I.. I'm not sure Shisui-Sama, they were very good, but...I don't know, aren't Ninja supposed to be stealthy? How can you do that if you use such flashy attacks?"
"Hmm, that's a pretty good question kid. Well, I don't usually use those kinds of attacks, but nothing makes kids want to be Ninja more than seeing flashy attacks. I'm more of a fan of more silent combat, using Shuriken or Kunai to fight."
"Ne...Shisui-Sama, could you..Ah, could I please see your Body Flicker Jutsu?"
"My, Body Flicker? Eh sure Naru-Chan, I don't see why not, it's a pretty dangerous Jutsu so don't try it out just because I make it look easy alright". After a nod from the much shorter Ninja, Shisui instantly disappeared from Naruto's sight before reappearing on the other side of the roof. There was nothing to show Naruto that Shisui was about to disappear, and no sign of it as it happened. Shisui was simply there one second, and then gone the next.
"Shisui-Sama that was awesome, I've never seen anyone do that so well, even Jiji can't just disappear like that. How do you do it when standing still? How do you nearly completely disappear? How fast do you go?" For the first time in the entire conversation, Naruto broke his shy speech patterns, firing question after question at the Uchiha as enthusiastically as his classmates had earlier.
"Just one question at a time. I can't tell you the secrets to the Body-Flicker yet, I just don't want you using it when your too young, it could be really dangerous. Wait, did you say nearly? Even the other Uchiha can't track me when I use the Body-Flicker, are you saying you actually saw me?"
"Ah..not really Shisui-Sama, I saw a little flash when you were coming back, but nothing else."
"That...That's really awesome, I'm not kidding when I said that nobody has been able to see me when I use that technique. Huh, you really are something special than kid."
"Ne...Shisui-Sama, I'm nothing real special, just Naruto. I...I better go back to class now Shisui-Sama, thanks for showing me" With that the young blond started climbing down the building, coming back the exact way he came up, before joining the last of his classmates as they sat down. Nobody noticed him come in through the window, nobody noticed that he wasn't with them on the walk up. Nobody noticed Naruto Uzumaki, except for the Jonin who followed him down, gazing thoughtfully at the young boy.
Author's Notes
Ah, a quick message to any of the roughly 10 people who have looked at my dull profile and thought, oh hey this guy doesn't suck, I'll see if he posts some more stuff. I am still working on Fate: Altered Zero, it's just I kind of git a bit...stuck with writing Saber. I would find her difficult enough to write if this was 100% canon, but because Waver is so different to both Shirou and Kiritsugu I find her really hard to write. I'll try and get back to it when I can, but at the moment my brain says write Naruto, so I'm writing Naruto.
Anyway, moving on. I want to give something a bit of a shot with Naruto that I thought of after reading a fanfic that just briefly mentioned Shisui, it wasn't one focused on him or anything, he was just really briefly mentioned and it kind of made me think about how awesome he is. Because let's face it, Shisui is really awesome. So I wanted to both write a Naruto story that focused on Shisui, and one that examined what it means to master low-level Jutsu.
Yeah, not the most inspiring start, but Shisui is awesome, and thus I'm writing about him. If you've got any questions feel free to leave them, I'll respond via PM unless it's going to spoil the story. Thanks for reading so far, and if you have any advice, please send it in, I'm not stupid enough to realize that I'm a kind of...let's go mediocre writer (but that could be a compliment) so if you've got more experience I'm happy to listen to it.