Copycat Regime

Chapter One

A Naruto Fanfiction

Naruto Uzumaki was a boy no older than twelve, who had only recently learned the jutsu that gave him the ability to create clones, the Shadow Clone jutsu. After saving his teacher, Iruka Umino, from certain death at the hands of the assistant teacher, Mizuki Ibaraki, Naruto was sitting in Training Ground 13, trying to figure out a certain aspect of his new jutsu. Naruto was not a stupid boy; he realized that this jutsu had more uses to it than just a good way to overpower an opponent. When he had dispelled the thousand clones from the fight with Mizuki, he noticed that he had knowledge of exactly how Mizuki was beaten, from every single angle.

It did not take any type of genius to figure out what must have happened. Obviously, the clones somehow retained the memories of their short lives, and when they were dispelled, that knowledge was passed on to the original Naruto. The ways this type of technique could be used was endless, especially since the clones were unfailingly loyal to the original Naruto, and ONLY him. He could only wonder how he could use this technique to further his strength and training so he would become Hokage of the Leaf Village (Konoha) even sooner.

An additional fact about the jutsu that Naruto happened to realize was that anything the original Naruto had on him at the time of using the technique would also be cloned on to each Naruto clone. In theory, if the true Naruto was in possession of 10 kunai, then the clones would each hold 10 kunai, and better yet, they were solid! Naruto could create thousands about thousands of weapons by using this jutsu, if only for a limited time. The real treat though, was the fact that the original Naruto had been holding on to the Forbidden Scroll at the time of the first cloning. Thus, Naruto now held a copy (actually, he held several) of the Forbidden Scroll.

Normally, Naruto would not be using this to his advantage, and would try to immediately return it to the leader of his village, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Yet, Naruto realized the effects that the scroll could have on his training and jutsu repertoire. With that, he decided to overlook the scroll and see what he could add to his skill set (which was currently very small). This was the real reason Naruto had come to this training ground, so he could read the scroll without any type of interruption, and maybe even start to learn a technique or two before turning in for the night.

Opening the scroll, Naruto began to become extremely ecstatic at the chance of being even closer to his final dream of Hokage, so he could become the center of attention for all the people in his village, and eventually… maybe even the entirety of the Shinobi World. As the scroll unraveled, the first technique (the Shadow Clone) appeared to Naruto, and he immediately skipped over it, having no further use of it. The second jutsu seemed to pique his interest much, much more.

"Shadow Clone Explosion, eh?" Naruto smirked while reading aloud, "this is definitely going to be added to my new arsenal of abilities".

Luckily, the jutsu only required the addition of a ram and tiger seal at the end of the normal Shadow Clone jutsu. Quickly memorizing what he had to do, Naruto formed the seals and activated his newest technique. What appeared was the normal shadow clone, but if an individual were to look closely, they could see that it had a bit more chakra radiating off from its cloned body.

"Hmm, I wonder how effective the explosion is", Naruto questioned to himself before reaching for one of his kunai in his right-side pouch. Moving five feet away from the clone, Naruto threw the kunai at the clone's head, waiting to see what happened.

"BOOM!" and the clone detonated, creating a crater that spread 8 feet in diameter. Naruto had been blasted back quite a few yards, yet still extremely conscious and grinning widely.

"Damn, need to make sure not to be as close next time, or put less chakra into the clone", he noted in his mind before walking back to where he had set down the scroll before trying out the jutsu.

His attention now back on the scroll, Naruto slid his gaze a bit lower, looking to see which jutsu was next on the list. His eyes widened as he noticed there were multiple notes on the Shadow Clone jutsu on this list. Given this chance, Naruto decided to see what other abilities his clones had when summoned.

Shadow Clone Jutsu

Abilities include the following:

1. Can retain memories of their time 'alive', transferring the information back to the original user.

2. Chakra is much more flexible than the original user's, allowing for jutsu to be used in every element, though not to the degree of a master.

3. With enough concentration, the user can form the clones to his or her exact specifications, leading to a specialty in a certain area, or the ability to use jutsu much more efficiently in a certain element.

Naruto realized now, that he had definitely hit upon a goldmine. This was the start of a new rise for him; he would be able to gain power in no time. He had clones that could specialize in each element at the tips of his fingers. Keeping this in mind, he formed the needed hand seals for the Shadow Clone jutsu, while still concentrating on "FIRE".

As he opened his eyes to see what was created, he saw 30 clones in front of him, with a small flame insignia branded on to each of their foreheads. Seeing that his technique was obviously a success, Naruto decided to quickly move on to the other 4 main elements. As he finished doing the last element, he opened his eyes to see what he had created.

In total, there were 150 clones. 30 of them with the flame insignia, 30 with a small droplet of water, 30 with a lightning bolt, 30 with a small pebble, and 30 with a tornado insignia. As Naruto looked at each group, he smiled to himself, thinking that he could start an army if he really wished to. Before that though, he needed to start training this group of clones.

Looking once again to the scroll, he found a section titled 'ELEMENTAL'. Quickly looking for a jutsu in each element, he memorized what he needed to before he started to let his gaze wander around the scroll once again, where he noticed a section entitled 'SEALS'. Thinking of how complex and useful his own seal (to hold the Kyuubi at bay) was, he decided to take a look. Within this portion of the scroll, Naruto discovered the one seal that would change his destiny forever, and grant him the power he needed to conquer.

"Reality Clone Seal", Naruto read off slowly, ideas already starting to form within his head.

According to the footnote below the drawing of the seal, this would apparently anchor a Shadow Clone to reality, permanently (or at least until it was killed). While normally, this seal would take up about half of a high-level Jonin's chakra supply; this had no effect on Naruto, who had as much chakra as a Kage. Granted, this would only allow him to perform the seal 5 times a day before his supply would be exhausted (while still maintaining about 200 clones a day), he could still use it over the course of a couple of weeks, and start creating an army of permanent clones… actual humans.

Not wasting any time whatsoever, Naruto started practicing the seal on a spare copy of the scroll, trying to master the way it was drawn. Luckily, penmanship had always been one of his fortes, leading to him being able to draw it somewhat perfectly within the next half an hour. As soon as he had gotten it down, he called over a clone from each of the elements, and slowly but surely wrote the correct seal on each of their bodies, then Naruto proceeded to inject the needed chakra amount in to each seal before falling asleep and watching the rest of the clones disperse.