Naruto Uzumaki was not what people would consider an average ninja of the village hidden in the leaves, and with good reason. A normal ninja wouldn't have been getting attacked by the villagers and ninja's ranging from Genin to Jonin from the ages of 1 to 5, a normal ninja wouldn't have needed to learn to defend herself by age six against most basic threats, and some advanced ones, and most ninja would not have already been a special Chunin by age seven.
There were a wide range of reasons for the girl's special treatment, and if not for the Hokage's personal recommendation to the girl, she would have likely never been allowed to graduate from the academy, let alone become a Chunin if the civilian council had anything to say about it.
A single extraordinary incident had been part of the reason for the girl's rapid advancement, though it was not something that the Hokage liked to be reminded of, mostly due to the many lives changed by the preceding incident.
Naruto had been out training on her own one night close to the beginning of the Kyuubi festival in Konoha, on a full moon oddly enough, trying to learn to defend herself against the civilians that seemed to take enjoyment out of hunting and hurting the girl every year, when she was distracted mid-punch by the arrival of another ninja, cloaked in a blank white mask similar to the ones that Anbu wore.
Only her advanced hearing allowed the girl to hear the ninja's arrival, and by the time she had managed to turn, she was doubled over coughing out blood while holding onto the blade that had pierced her gut held by the enemy ninja.
Focusing on the face of the other ninja that had just assaulted her, Naruto felt her anger and hatred rising up even as she could physically feel the blood leaking out from between her fingers and dripping down to the ground.
Everything went completely still all of a sudden for the girl, and she blinked in surprise when she noticed a leaf simply paused in midair behind the ninja that had stabbed her. But what became even more surprising was the person she saw beginning to walk out of the shadows between the trees.
This person was wearing a pure white kimono with a black cloth belt around his waist, and if Naruto had to liken the way he carried himself, she would say it was similar to the way that she had seen the stuck-up Hyuuga clan walk when out in public, though there was no arrogance surrounding this man, and his eyes showed a surprising amount of kindness and sadness in his wrinkled face.
"So, you are the next Uzumaki that's to be cursed by this world-altering power" the old man mumbled just loud enough for Naruto to overhear, confusing the young girl, who had no idea what he was talking about. When she tried to ask him to explain himself only a weak croak managed to escape from her lips as she felt her strength continuing to leave her body as she bled out.
"Beware young one" the man continued without explaining his previous statement, "the power that you are about to unlock has been known to both bring hope and despair, world peace and total destruction, and it's up to you to decide what path you would like to walk. The choices you make in years to come will weight heavily upon you, but do not give in to despair, for you have the fate of the entire world resting upon your shoulders."
"Hold your burden up proudly, and make the world see you with everything you have," the old man finished before disappearing completely from view, as though he had never been there to begin with, leaving the young girl still blinking in confusion.
She wasn't given time to contemplate whether or not the man had simply been a figment of her imagination or a hallucination caused by her coming death, for she was jerked back to reality by a feeling like someone pulling her forward by her gut, and time resumed all at once, only with a single, powerful difference.
The enemy ninja looked on with disinterested eyes down at his prey after stabbing her in the chest, and prepared to pull his blade free and leave the demon to die while he went to report to his superiors, until he noticed something alarming about the six year old that made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Where once her eyes were a bright cerulean, now they were pure blood red, and staring directly up into his own without blinking, and though her hands were shaking she held onto his own with a tight grip that should have been impossible for someone who had just been stabbed.
Putting all of his body weight into it the assassin tried to pull his blade free to no avail, as it seemed like this small girl had gained superhuman strength in a single moment, as her red eyes continued to simply stare up at him.
Abandoning his blade as all of his instincts screamed at him to flee, the ninja instead jumped away from the girl and reached down to his pouch to draw a kunai, refusing to run from a foe as unthreatening as a poorly-trained six year old girl.
Without averting her eyes from the man that had stabbed her, Naruto lifted up one hand out in front of her with her palm pointed at him, and began to focus on her anger, on the pain that was throbbing in her gut from the blade piercing her organs, on the way that she wanted to make him bleed, like he had done to her, and felt a both familiar and foreign presence in her mind cry out in response to her call.
The ninja had seen many things in his life, but he was absolutely floored and slightly horrified when a blade began to materialize in front of the girl from thin air. Wasting no time now that he could see the looming threat, the ninja tried to charge at the girl, unaware that he was sealing his fate.
Time once more began slowing down for Naruto as the ninja charged at her, though it wasn't a complete stop like last time, and the ninja was moving so slowly before her eyes that she was sure she would be able to make him feel the same pain well before he had a chance to swing his weapon.
Her chosen blade finished materializing, and Naruto took a firm grip of the hilt, feeling hundreds of years worth of memories not her own flooding her mind as she held the weapon for the first time in front of her. Using some of the memories she had been gifted, Naruto shifted the weapon so it was held diagonally between her and her opponent, and she firmly swung the weapon a single time diagonally downwards, so the tip of the blade was just barely above the ground, before time resumed running normally with the same pull on her gut as the last time.
The ninja had no idea what had happened, as he found himself standing behind the girl without seeing her move, and it took a moment before his body registered pain in his chest before he sunk to his knees and coughed out blood as his body betrayed him. Falling forward onto his face, the ninja breathed his last as blood began to soak through his clothing, a single diagonal cut across his torso becoming visible as his life left him.
Naruto was no better as the blade disappeared from her hands as though it had never been there in the first place, and she finally blinked for the first time in many minutes, her eyes returning to the bright blue they had been known for since her birth before she also sank to her knees, then onto her side as consciousness left her, leaving the girl curled up slightly around the blade still piercing her torso. The pair would not be found until the next morning by Anbu who had been sent out to track down the Uzumaki girl when she missed her usual visit to the Hokage, and was rushed to the hospital to be treated for the wound that was already beginning to heal.
Considering how much blood the girl had lost through the night none of the doctors thought that she would survive, but she was up and harassing the nurse assigned to her within only a few hours when the Hokage came in to speak with her about what had happened.
After hearing out everything Naruto remembered from the previous nights incident, including the attack of the unknown ninja and the appearance of the strange old man, Hiruzen felt like sitting down with an entire jug of sake as the long-forgotten memory of a footnote of history among the Uzumaki scrolls he had been able to read came to mind, something that not even Kushina, the only other Uzumaki he had spent an exceptional amount of time with was aware of.
Sighing as Naruto begged him for answers, Hiruzen carefully took a seat in a chair beside the bed the girl had been confined to, and explained what he knew as best he could about the ancient Uzumaki Kinjutsu "Uzumaki blade works."
The conversation took much longer then Hiruzen would have liked, as Naruto tried to pepper him with many questions he had no answers for, and the Hokage was finally able to leave the hospital room only after promising to search the Konoha library for anything about the strange clan ability that his granddaughter had unlocked.
Once the Hokage left Naruto looked down at her lap, as the memories of last night returned to her, something she had omitted from her report to the Hokage, and tried to come to terms with everything that had happened.
Lifting up one of her hands and holding it out palm-open as she remembered doing last night, Naruto tried to focus on the idea of summoning a weapon, but at first had no luck as the images in her mind kept breaking up or fading away after only a few seconds.
Just before the girl was about to give up for now and get some more sleep, a memory that felt much older then the girl finally seemed to lock in her mind, and the image of a beautiful blade finally began to materialize in front of her.
Holding back her excitement Naruto continued to focus, as a katana appeared before her with a blade made of blood-red metal, and once the end of the blade finished she closed her had around the hilt.
Looking at the weapon with reverence, Naruto became a bit more subdued as she remembered the warning the old man had given her before time sped back up, and she felt her eyes studying the weapon in her hand. Biting her lip as new determination surged through her body, Naruto made a promise to herself that she would use this new power to make the world a better place, and show that old man what an Uzumaki could accomplish when she put her mind to it.
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After the incident with the enemy ninja (which Naruto never learned anything more about, though she quickly forgot about the attack and refocused her efforts onto training to control her new link to her family) Hiruzen assigned a few ninja to begin training Naruto in a wider variety of skills when it became obvious that there were enemies on all sides that wanted to kill the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.
By the time the girl was seven she had advanced to the rank of special Chunin, just before a new class of Genin were about to graduate, offering Hiruzen a rare chance that he couldn't pass up, even though he knew it would annoy Naruto to no end.
"Hey lord Hokage, you said you wanted me to come in for something?" Naruto asked as she entered the office of the Hokage with a small smile on her face.
The young girl who had almost been killed by an unmarked ninja had changed a lot in the last year, as now she wore a black turtleneck sweater under her Chunin vest, and a pair of green camo pants with enough pockets to hold everything the girl could ever possibly want when on missions or just out exploring the village. There was a katana strapped to her back that she kept ready at all times, and her headband was wrapped around her waist like a belt to signify her as a ninja of Konoha.
Looking up from the paperwork he had just been going over, the Hokage smiled as he saw the appearance of his granddaughter in all but blood arrive, and set aside the work that he should have been doing so he could intertwine his fingers on the desk and look at the girl he had asked for "yes Naruto, I have a proposition for you that I think you will be interested in taking."
Pouting as she recognized the tone of voice the Hokage was using from many previous conversations with the man over the years, Naruto was just about to decline whatever he might be trying to talk her into, when the old man lifted up a hand to belay her complaints.
Once he was sure that she wasn't going to interrupt he began to explain what he wanted of one of his recent rising stars to do "a new class of Genin have just graduated, and I am in the middle of deciding which teams to put them all on, and which Jonin to assign to each team."
"I already don't like where this is going" Naruto mumbled with a sigh, but gestured for the old man to continue, knowing that she should at the very least hear him out before declining whatever he had on his mind.
"Kakashi has requested to take Sasuke Uchiha under his wing, but that's not the team I am concerned about" Hiruzen told the girl, gaining Naruto's attention at last "Yuuhi Kurenai made a request for Hinata Hyuuga to be under her care, and though she also requested Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, I feel that the current teams are a bit too specialized, especially the fact that my own son requested to reform the Ino-Shika-Cho team with the three clan heirs."
"Other ninja are so used to seeing that formation that it would be better to switch things up" Naruto echoed the Hokage's sentiments over the matter "what does that have to do with me?" She asked, clearly not seeing where a special Chunin fit into the equation.
"I was thinking of rearranging the teams a bit this year" Hiruzen told Naruto calmly, making the girl nod in agreement "Kakashi can still have Sasuke, since he's the only one that can train the boy to use his Sharingan if it is unlocked, but I feel that among the other graduating students a bit of variety is in order."
"Well first of all I'd stick the Nara with the Yamanaka regardless" Naruto advised her leader with a small smile "I've heard a bit about the current Yamanaka heiress, and she's among the few people likely to be able to get a Nara to put any effort in."
"Agreed, though I was curious what you thought of sticking the Hyuuga together with them instead of the Akamichi" Hiruzen suggested to the girl. Naruto responded by bringing a hand up to her chin and beginning to think about the changes such a pairing would make.
"Hinata is a wallflower and meek as a mouse, but I could see her working together with the Yamanaka and Nara" Naruto stated before beginning to laugh "I'm sure that Ino would be able to get the other girl to be a bit more outspoken with time to bond, and Hinata has none of the arrogance that the rest of the Hyuuga clan are known for, so she'd be willing to listen to the Nara's orders."
"Perhaps we could stick the Uchiha together with the Inuzuka and Aburame?" Naruto suggested helpfully to the Hokage "from what I've heard the Inuzuka heir is a hothead, but he's part of the clan that respects their team mates the most, and considering I've heard the Uchiha is a flight risk it might do him some good to have a rival like that, and the Aburame is cool like most of his clan, so he can provide a clear head to the team."
"That is not a half bad idea Naruto" Hiruzen agreed with the girl with a nod before moving on to the last prominent team idea he had "that leaves the Akimichi, Haruno, and a young boy that we rescued from the root program named Sai."
Hiruzen caught the way the girl's brow wrinkled at the reminder of the Root program, which she had interacted with at least once, and disliked for their lack of emotions, but Naruto pressed on "Haruno is a civilian, and Sai's background is virtually unknown, but it might not be a bad idea to put those three together. I've heard the Akimichi has body issues like some of his clan, and Haruno is very animated, so it might help the former Root to open up a bit."
"Very good" Hiruzen said as he wrote down the different teams the pair had discussed on a piece of paper before looking back at the girl "now for the actual reason I had called you up here. Do you think that you could act as a sort of apprentice under Jonin Yuuhi?"
"What brought this on?" Naruto asked in suspicion as she took a seat in one of the chairs facing the Hokage's desk before putting her feet up on top of the desk so she could lean back. She set her sword down against the desk beside her, and looked her leader in the eyes.
"As you know the Hyuuga clan are a thin sheet of ice that no one dares to cross, and they have been very edgy ever since the attempted kidnapping of their heiress, and remain paranoid about other villages trying to steal their Doujutus, so you will have multiple roles as part of the team."
"Your primary mission is to keep an eye on Hinata and her progress as a ninja alongside Jonin Yuuhi and perhaps teach the three in the field you excel in, but I'm sure that we both know the true reason why I'm putting you on this team" Hiruzen told the girl, giving her a knowing look that made the seven-year old turn away and scratch her cheek.
"At the moment Hinata has only the most basic ninja training, and Jonin Yuuhi is the most recently promoted Jonin in the village, so I'm sure that the Hyuuga are worried that their 'precious' heiress might be kidnapped by foreign ninja during a mission out of the village, and I'm being put on this team as additional assurance," Naruto summarized without looking at the Hokage.
"Correct, not to mention the fact that Jonin Yuuhi's a very specialized ninja, so I feel that she needs additional support to keep her Genin safe" Hiruzen pointed out, making Naruto wince.
"She may think that we're stepping on her toes by having a special Chunin assigned to her squad" Naruto reminded the aged ninja in concern, only making Hiruzen nod in understanding.
"Do not worry, I've already spoken with Jonin Yuuhi and explained the situation to her, and though she was slightly incensed that I had such little faith in her she understood the caution that we were taking with this situation. You will be under her direct command in the field, and only I can supercede her orders" the Hokage explained firmly.
"This seems far too cautious to me, but who am I to judge the Hokage on a matter like this" Naruto replied with a shrug as she jumped out of her chair and grabbed her katana as she made her way back to the office door so she could get down to it.
Just before leaving the girl turned her head to look over her shoulder at the Hokage, and he flinched when he noticed her eye was blood red instead of blue as she warned "I'm hoping that the Hyuuga Heiress will be able to rise to the occasion lord Hokage" before she departed, closing the door behind her quietly.
Sagging back in his chair after that meeting, the Hokage sighed aloud at how unstable Naruto had been ever since the incident, and groaned at the amount of joy she took out of harassing a poor old man like that when she got the chance.
Turning his chair so that he could look out the windows that dominated the entire back wall of his office, the Hokage could only hope that Kurenai would be ready to deal with the unstable Uzumaki in the coming days, and wonder what kind of influence she would have on the three impressionable Genin he had just given to her to influence.