Disclaimer: I do not own naruto.

Konohagakure no sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, a ninja village that seemed bustling with life, one wouldn't expect that not even eight years ago did the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the ninth Biju attack. 8 years ago a masked man had invaded Konohagakure no sato, Village Hidden in the Leaves, to free the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the ninth Biju, from Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina, the Nidaime Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and then take control over the Biju to destroy Konoha. He had been victorious in that right until the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had freed the Kyuubi of the masked man's control, then distracted the masked man while, unknown to Minato at the time, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had sealed the Kyuubi's Yang chakra into the Yondaime's newborn daughter, Hitomi, and the Yin chakra into Kushina, otherwise risk her dying from the forceful separation.

"I did it! I did it! Did you see that Tou-san?!", Yelled an excited eight-year old girl. Said girl was 3'6" with long crimson hair cascading to her waist bouncing with her every jump, azure blue eyes conveying her excitement. She was currently wearing a slightly loose dark blue shirt that danced with each excited bounce while her black shorts stuck to her legs like glue, while currently barefoot. She was Namikaze-Uzumaki Hitomi, jailor of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and daughter of Konoha no Kiroii Senkou(Konoha's Yellow Flash), Namikaze Minato and Konoha no Aka Shi(Konoha's Red Death), Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina and the younger twin of Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto.

She was hopping around madly, excited that she had just mastered the first step to water nature manipulation, her natural affinity, which was to collect water from a body of water and mold it to cover your hand like a glove or mitten.

A tall 6' man was watching with azure blue eyes full of mirth and joy as his daughter splashed herself with the recently collected water while still bouncing excitedly. Shaking his sunshine blonde-haired head amusedly while grinning. Said man was wearing typical jonin navy blue, skintight turtleneck, navy blue anbu styled pants with forest green jonin flack jacket and standard blue shinobi sandals. But what made him stand out most was the short-sleeved long white cloak that reached mid-shin with red flames licking the hem and the words 'Yondaime Hokage' imprinted in red kanji upon the back of his cloak. He is the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato.

Upon hearing the shout a pale woman of 5'7" walked into the backyard training ground her husband and daughter were currently training she smiled proudly at the small redhead while her teal eyes showed mirth. This bombshell of a woman had long slender arms and legs, an impressive bust, and beautifully cascading long crimson hair, much like her daughter, that fell to the back of her knees. She was wearing a forest green apron over a white zipped up dress and blue sandals. She was Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina, Konoha no Aka Shi(Konoha's Red Death).

"You'll be a great kunoichi in no time Hitomi-chan, just like your Kaa-chan! ", exclaimed the man as he laughed heartily along with his wife, now standing next to him, while Hitomi kept grinning.

"And then I will become Hokage! Dattebane! ", Laughed the girl.

But what they didn't seemed to notice was a certain spiky sunshine haired blonde, wearing a black shirt and white pants, watching from the window of his room, glaring at the happy family, teal eyes glowering with both disgust and hate and yet his face a cold expressionless mask, emotions not to be seen in normal eight-year old boys, but this child was no normal boy, oh no, because this 3'8" child held power beyond comparison to that of a jinchuuriki, for he held a gift from kami herself. Something manifested with the power of both himself and kami.

Walking away from the window he took a quick glance around his room and noticed, like always, his room was plain. Very plain. It was large, with which he was thankful for, almost the size of an apartment in and of itself. The walls were a plain white, a dull color but he had become accustomed to it. There was a queen-sized bed in the corner furthest from the door, a closet in the corner opposite the bed with a dresser aligned next to it, both comfortably large and made of oak, next to that he had large bookcases containing scrolls of Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, etc. that he had copied from the Namikaze library, his father's library. He also had a desk that was in the center of the room with an easel and several boxes full of paints and canvases stacked around the back of the easel. He had discovered his love of art when bored one day and started drawing before it turned into a hobby.

Sighing at the lack of expression in his room, though he knew why that was. It was because his parents were too busy dealing with his arrogant brat of a sister to help him whether it be for training, advice or just to talk they would always brush him off and tell him not to bother them while they go and coddle Hitomi and give her whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it and that just pissed him off. Shaking his head of those thoughts he thought back to the day he had received his gift and how his life changed so much in that moment.

Flashback

The tears burned his blue eyes as they rolled down his cheeks, they stung at the corners of his eyes, relentlessly pouring from his blue orbs with the liquid.

A six-year old Naruto was currently on his bed crying. He had just asked his parents if they could train him along with his sister, Hitomi, but they said no again! He didn't understand why he couldn't be trained as well as his sister, but every time he asked they would tell him to stop bothering them and that Hitomi needed the training more since she housed the demon fox and she had to learn to control it. When he would plead again his mother would command him to go to his room and that he was grounded, while his sister would just look on with a certain smugness that ticked him off. Ever since she was proclaimed the Hero of Konoha for being the Jinchuuriki she had let it go to her head and became an arrogant bitch who demanded that she have whatever she wanted. She would always tease him about how their parents loved her more or that he could die tomorrow and that their parents wouldn't even care. He wasn't stupid or clueless in fact he was rather very smart for someone his age, some might even say prodigal, coupled with his photo-graphic memory he could learn things at an astonishingly faster rate than others, and that's how he knew that his parents loved Hitomi more than him and not just by a little, he knew that they would choose her over him in a heartbeat any day.

As he continued to cry he almost missed the angelic voice he heard in his head. It sounded like a choir singing. "Dry your tears, child. For I bring a special gift. ", Before his mind could register what happened he blacked out.

He was floating. He could feel a weight under him, it was soft and seemed to hum melodiously. He liked the tune and before he knew it he was humming the soft tune as well. He felt something embrace him, it was so comfortable. He didn't want to leave the embrace but unfortunately his comfort left him to pull back. Groaning at the loss of comfort he blearily opened his eyes to see what could only be described as beauty given human form and then some.

Before him stood a pale woman of 5'7" with long silver hair seeming to flair out and away from her body and lazily swish back and forth. She had gorgeous silver eyes that held compassion and wisdom well beyond what he could comprehend. An angelic heart-shaped face sporting full red luscious lips set in a graceful, caring smile. She wore a white kimono that hugged her body and showed her curves in all the right places. But what really caught his attention was the near impossibly perfect figure of the woman, it was more eye catching than Tsunade, and the Slug Princess could catch a lot of eyes. Shaking his blush off and the thoughts out of his brain he focused on the face of the woman who was smirking at him.

"W-who are you? ", he asked slightly intimidated by her powerful yet calming, motherly aura. Looking around he saw they were in a white void devoid of anything and everything.

Smiling kindly she replied, "I am Kami, Naruto-kun. And I am here to give you a present.", She held out her hand and out of nothing an item, the likes of which he had never seen, shimmered into existence.

Naruto was stunned, firstly because of this woman's proclamation of her supposed identity, which something told him to believe her whether it was just how she spoke or just being in her presence, he just didn't want to deny it. And also this stranger who he had never met before just shows up and hands him a pair of gauntlets, looking at the armor pieces he was taken aback by their appearance, amazed at the godly works of art before him.

The gauntlets were beautiful in design. They were made near entirely of pointed scales the colors of glowing electric blue, soft light blue and pure bone white, the colors were arranged so that they were ordered randomly. The only pieces that were not made up of scales were the talons that represented the 'claws' of the gauntlet. The gauntlet could cover the whole of his forearm, including his fingers, like a second skin.

These weapons. He felt a strange connection, but could not place it. It was like they were calling him, screaming at him to pick them up, to use them, to wield them. And before he could register it, "Fenikkusu Tsume(Phoenix Talons).", he breathed, mesmerized by the gauntlets. He felt a pull towards the weapons, as if… they were a missing piece of himself, a long lost brother that he welcomed with open arms.

Hearing his words she grinned, 'Good he can feel the connection, now to seal the deal.', She thought giddily. If all went to plan she would have her champion of the elemental nations and he would fight for her and in the name of justice. Pushing those thoughts away she focused on the completely mesmerized child in front of her, she chuckled at his expression of awe.

Snapping back to reality by the angelic sound of her voice he focused on the woman in front of her, if she really was kami. "So where are we?", he said forgetting that he wasn't at home, if he could even call it that.

"We are in your mindscape, the representation of your subconscious and state of your mind, and as you can clearly see yours is bland, no color, no imagination and no emotion.", she said, her voice going sour near the end. She had seen what his parents had done for him, or really lack there of, and she was disgusted that such people could neglect their child for another, even if the child needed the control over the power inside them.

"My mindscape?", he asked confusedly, tilting his head to the side, an action Kami found so cute as to elicit a laugh out of her. He had heard about mindscapes from when Hitomi would bring friends over, one such friend would be Yamanaka Ino of the Yamanaka clan that specialize in mind jutsu. The two would scream about their techniques to the world like idiots, arguing whose was best. He could remember something about physical representation of the mind and how it represents how you are and how you act.

"Yes but no more time for questioning, just listen,", at his nod she continued, "As I have said my name is Kami and I bring you a gift. Feel honored as this is the first weapon of its kind, it is a weapon made by infusing my unique power with a part of your soul, effectively making you it's sole possessor and user. This sword holds power far beyond ningen comprehension and ability. And the reason I have chosen to give you this is because I wish for you to become my champion or representative on this plain.", By then end Naruto was in awe. Fusing the power of a god, not just any god but, the god and a part of his soul and she literally made weapons of mass destruction to be used by him and him alone. "Before you say otherwise I must tell you that this is a duty that you cannot decline as it holds the world as you know it in the balance.", she said smiling a sad motherly smile, she knew that wouldn't sit well with him. His life had been just that, a situation he was forced to live with, a life where he had to suffer for others' choices. Her voiced took a serious edge when she spoke again, "There is a threat coming, if left unchecked it could destroy the world as you know it, with these weapon you will have the power to save this world from it's disaster."

"What kind of threat?", he asked, still slightly angry from pushed into another situation where his opinion didn't matter and forced to go along with it… again.

"Akatsuki", she spat. Seeing him about to speak she silenced him with a shake of the head, indicating she couldn't speak more of it or why.

He sighed, he was tired of not having a say at all in his life. He looked at the gauntlets again, once again taking in their beauty before tearing his eyes away and meeting the goddess' stare with his own, a bright fire of determination shining in his teal eyes, a raging inferno unwavering and confident.

He had made his decision…

Flashback end

Ever since that day he had been training and learning from the ninja arts to mastering the 'Fenikkusu Tsume'. He had even learned more about his gauntlets. How it is based on a specific element, only difference is that it gave him near god-like control over said element, which so happened to be fire.

During his experimental training with his gauntlets he had been able to figure out that he would be able to achieve a higher form of the gauntlets' power, right now he had unlocked Spark, the Initial release, he had guessed that he would need to train extensively to reach the power of the next level Hybrid release, Salamander. During his dreams he would be visited by Kami for advice or information on his new gauntlets, only rarely though, that's how he knew about the releases. He was told that he would reach Salamander, and maybe powers higher than that, when the gauntlets deemed him ready, in a sense. And so he trained himself into the ground. Along with training his gauntlets and shinobi skills he had found his gauntlets gave him minor physical changes as time went on, the physical change from acquiring the gauntlets was that his hair had started turning an almost glowing electric blue, though he was told by Kami that his hair would eventually, possibly in several years, become more dominantly blue with blonde tips. The change from gaining his Salamander release a year ago was that his eyes were more slanted now, plus his pupils had stretched only slightly to resemble a slit and his canines had elongated slightly so not much of a difference.

His Safaia-en(Sapphire Flames), as he had taken to calling it, was many times more powerful than normal fire or chakra induced fire so much so that it was almost laughable. His control over the glowing blue flames let him use it to it's full potential as a small spark enough to replace a lighter, as he had taken to doing after watching a bearded jounin do it around the village, or as a roaring blue hellfire. His fire was a very amazing thing indeed, he had even created a technique that let him utilize the flames as jets below his feet essentially giving himself the ability to fly.

With the help of Kami and her teachings he had grown exponentially stronger at an incredible rate. Every day he would travel to a secluded training area that he was sure little to no people, shinobi or civilian, would be able to find or see what he was doing there. His usual preference of area was the prohibited and jonin-and-above exclusive training area, Area 44 a.k.a. 'The Forest of Death', which he had affectionately dubbed his 'Playground'. The reason he liked this training area was that it was secluded so no one by purpose or accident would find out about his training, most if not all ninja avoided this specific training ground because of the reported man-eating plants, larger than normal animals with an even bigger bloodlust, and once someone said he saw a mutant animal during his sweep of the forest. But the reason he loved it most was that he could drop everything; the emotional masks, the hatred, the sadness. And he could be what he truly was; an emotionally deprived child without comfort.

Looking to the sky, he absently noticed it was clear. Great training weather, he mused. Estimating that it was close to noon, by the position of the sun, he took his one-strap bag from its resting place, leant against the easel. Securing it to his back with a 'click' of the strap he formed the half-ram seal of his, permanently, gauntlet covered right hand and disappeared in a wisp of blue flames fading to white, slightly scorching the carpeted floor.

Appearing in another wisp of blue flames, he drank in the sight around him. It was his favorite spot when coming into the forest of death. It was a large clearing inside the foot of a cliff, with rocks dotting the landscape every so often. To his right he saw the springs, theses springs took up nearly a quarter of the clearing, attached to the side of the cave, and were natural water springs. In the middle of the biggest spring in the middle of the others, there was a small grassy island several times bigger than what was needed for him to sit himself in the middle. This was his meditation spot with the soft seating, calm, cool breezes and the surrounding crystal waters that shone a brilliant clear blue and at night during a full moon the water would shine, more so than before, a brilliant myriad of bright colors from cracks in the walls, completely contrasting the dark blanket that was the ceiling, so high that he had forgotten how high it was that it was so dark. To his left was what one would call an all-purpose body workout area. There were thick logs he used for his pull-ups and sit-ups. There were wooden posts he set up to correctly flow with the katas he worked with to achieve maximum efficiency. And the rest of the area was dotted in different aspects of training the body. And directly behind him was a house he had built not long ago, shortly after finding this place, by using the power of his gauntlets that had dug out the cavern in which he currently stood. The house was stacked with food to last years. There was also all the nesecities he would need to survive and also live a clean, healthy lifestyle and the best part was that no one would be able to find it as he had used his flames to carve out a huge chunk of a mountain-sized cliff and built everything in there, meaning the whole clearing had been created inside the cliff, and how no one had found it yet was due to the ingenious idea to build it in literally the most secluded spot in the forest that not even the snake-lady knew about it, he knew this because he had listened in on a conversation she had with the Hokage about the chunin exams being held in several years in Konoha, she had listed every other zone and area in the forest other than his, which he had dubbed 'Fenikkusu Kakurega'(The Phoenix's Lair). It was his home away from that place. He refused to call the Namikaze estate, more like mansion, anything even related to the warmth one would express about their beloved abode. The whole cavern was lined with torches of blue fire, his Safaia-en.

Focusing on his training he started warming up with stretches, and when done with that he went on to his training which consisted of 200 push-ups, 200 crunches, 200 pull-ups, 200 one-handed push-ups with each arm, 100 laps around the clearing. Once done with those he would then move toward a log with enough spacing for wide attacks and proceed to punch the log 400 times with each arm then kick the log 400 times with each leg. This process would usually take hours as he was still an eight year old, no matter how prodigal he was.

Finishing his last set he stood straight as he felt the wind caress his sweaty, glistening skin, the beads off sweat rolling down his forehead and the burning sensation in his muscles, and he smiled, proud that he managed to keep up this training without waning or bending to his body's protests and pushing himself harder, until he hit his limit then broke through that barrier. And his efforts showed, he had a body completely drained of baby fat, toned but lean muscles making up his body.

Cooling down he headed into the house, it was a two story house with two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living area and a kitchen, all made completely out of whatever material he could get his hands on over the past two years. Padding his way toward the bathroom on the first floor he stripped and proceeded to take a shower and then dry himself off. When he got out of the shower he dressed in an extra set of clothing he kept here for just such purposes. Flashing home in his blue flames he then proceeded downstairs for food.

Walking downstairs he heard Hitomi's shouting about how she was excited for the Academy tomorrow, sighing to himself he walked right past the happy family without so much as a glance and took out a bowl and a set of chopsticks, walking over to the table he scooped the last of the ramen into his bowl, sat down and ate while ignoring his family, instead focusing on the food in front of him. But it seemed someone had a different idea.

"Hey!", ignoring the shout he continued eating his food until it was swiped from his hands. Looking up he stared emotionlessly at the enraged face of Hitomi. "What do you think you are doing!?", She had all but screamed at him, she looked like she was going to blow up with how red her face was from anger, he wished she did, he really did.

"I am eating my dinner.", he said coldly without so much as flinching.

Glaring at him, she spat, "This is my dinner, baka! A loser like you doesn't get dinner."

Before he could retort his mother cut in, "Naruto don't steal your sister's food, you've had enough."

Looking at her with those same dead eyes. "But-"

Before he could reply his father stood up and pointed to the stairs, "No buts, go to your room.", he commanded.

Getting up off the chair he walked to the stairs, but stopped at the first step, looking back with those cold dead eyes, why did he have those eyes? "Enjoy your meal, after all you wouldn't want to be fall asleep on an empty stomach", his cold voice carrying through out the room. Without waiting for a response he left to go to his room.

Snorting, Hitomi replied, "That baka, who does he think he is. ", She sneered. Shrugging off the weird statement the two elder Namikazes focused on their daughter, eating like a pig, but they didn't care. And with that they returned to their food.

The next morning found Naruto calmly walking several steps behind the Namikaze family toward the Academy. He ignored all the stares and praises the civilians threw at them and instead thought about the new technique he was working on.

The technique in question was an idea he gained from his father's signature move, the Rasengan. In theory the Rasengan was pure chakra that one would guide towards their palm and then rotate the chakra in many different directions, essentially creating a spinning ball of pure chakra. What he wanted to do was use the blue flames, given to him by his Fenikkusu Tsume, to recreate the technique except make it better. In theory he would concentrate the fire to his palm then push it out while concentrating a greater portion of the flames into a small sphere while rapidly spinning the chakra in many different directions in his palms. Then flames would gather around the sphere creating a ring of rapidly spinning, what he guessed would most likely be, white flames. Maybe in the future he could add another ring or a few, who knows maybe something else as well.

Focusing on where he was he found that he had arrived at he academy, looking left he saw Hitomi with her friends and heirs to their respective clans all in plain civilian clothes. They weren't notable enough to him to remember, all he knew was that they were the heirs to their respective clans. Yamanaka Ino and Hyuuga Hinata. Losing interest he scanned the rest of the children present there was the Inuzuka clan heir, Kiba, the Aburame clan heir, Shino, the Nara clan heir, Shikamaru, and the Akimichi clan heir, Choji all in civilian clothes as well. There were many other forgetful faces, not that he would try to remember.

Walking past them all he entered the academy, the state of the building was ordinary to say the least and slightly decaying to say the worst. Ignoring everyone around him he focused on his assigned classroom, 209 if he heard correctly from his sister's shouting. Stopping in front of the door he heard two voices inside. Leaning his ear against the door he tried to make out what was being said.

"…To teach a bunch of spoiled brats this year, Iruka.", an irate voice grumbled.

"Calm down Mizuki I'm sure they aren't that bad.", said a more calm, kinder voice. This must be that Iruka person he thought.

"That's what you always say.", Mizuki, he assumed, growled.

At that thought he didn't care anymore and opened the door, surprising the two chunin senseis, and took a seat in the seat in the corner next to the window, and stared at the two shinobi at the front.

By that time the rest of the children outside ran into the room screaming and laughing. The female clan heirs sitting at the front with a pink-haired civilian girl who seemed self-conscious about her forehead, and damn was it big. He saw two of the male clan heirs from outside sitting next to him, he raised an eyebrow to which he got a nod in return from the Nara, and a toothy grin and wave from the Akimichi, which he returned with a nod to each.

He returned his attention toward the chunins at the front and listened to the one who introduced himself as Umino Iruka, the most noticeable of things about him were his scar across the bridge of his nose and his brown spiked ponytail. At one point the man had asked the class to introduce themselves. They went row by row until he went, last of course as Hitomi said with several of her friends laughing at him as he ignored them.

"Would you please tell us your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams?", asked Iruka with a kind smile, gesturing toward Naruto.

Locking eyes with the boy, Iruka felt a chill go down his spine though he tried to suppress it, Naruto's cold teal eyes seem to see through him, straight to his soul, as if judging him. After a moment he stood and spoke with an emotionless drawl that still held a cold edge to it. "Namikaze Naruto, I like almost too little to actually care, I hate too many things to actually list, and my hobbies are my own,", here his voice turned darker, colder almost deadlier as he finished, "and my dream… is to completely annihilate, to destroy, to kill… certain people…", He finished and sat down as if nothing happened. The chunin were surprised and a little put off that a kid so young would actually want to kill. The children in the room were horrified, white as a sheet and had pissed themselves at the thought that maybe he was talking about them for some reason, but none more so than Hitomi, she knew that she had done many hurtful things toward her brother, sometimes with help from her friends, and that he had done nothing in return, so, she thought, he could be talking about her, and the way he said it had her full belief that he could and would do it.

Returning to the lesson to take everyone's mind off of Naruto he continued and eventually all the kids continued to listen hoping to forget what was said. As Naruto listened to man he found that what ever he said he made it somehow incredibly boring, sighing he returned his thoughts to his techniques again. Absently he realized that whatever Iruka taught them, he had learned at least a year ago.

By the time class was over he had thought out already half of the theory on his new flaming sphere-like technique. He would call it Rasen Fenikkusuringu(Spiraling Phoenix Ring). He had theorized that with the amount of fire chakra in the technique it would emit a strong heat, hopefully one so powerful that it would burn objects that were merely within a certain range of the technique. His thoughts were cut off as he heard the lunch bell, standing out of his seat he walked out of the academy and toward the field outside.

Once outside he caught sight of the two that sat next to him in class along with two others walk up to him. "Hiya, my names Inuzuka Kiba and these are my friends Shino, Shikamaru and Choji wanna sit with us?", the grinning Inuzuka practically shouted. Taking a closer look at them Naruto saw that their most distinguishing features were Kiba's red fang tattoos on his cheeks and his short spiky brown hair, he couldn't see much of Shino as he had on a coat that hid most of his body from view and wore sunglasses as well as having short black hair. Shikamaru had a black pineapple style hair-do, like Iruka's, and slouched posture, he was currently gazing at the sky, mumbling the word troublesome every so often. The Akimichi was rather 'plump', had light brown hair that stuck up from his head and on his cheeks were two identical red swirls, he seemed to be a nervous eater if the way he was going through bag after bag of chips was any indication.

Turning away from the group he replied, "I have things to do.", his cold tone didn't seem to take them by surprise, but it did seem to anger the feral boy. Just as the Inuzuka was about to yell his head off at him he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, looking back to the owner of said appendage it was the Aburame, he shook his head and signaled for them to leave. Growling with clenched fists, Kiba threw a glare at the blonde.

"You're not worth the effort to be friends with anyway, Hitomi is way cooler than you!", he spat, emphasizing the 'way' as he threw one last glare at the emotionless blonde before turning and stomping away with his group lagging behind. one of the reasons he had declined to socialise with them, or anyone of his classmates for that matter, was the fact that though they would ask to be his friend, he knew that more often than not the kids that he would befriend would really only use him to get to Hitomi.

Shaking his head he looked around the playground before spotting a tree several meters away, it was a tall tree and had plenty of branches for shade, with a shrug he leapt effortlessly onto one of the tree's higher branches and relaxed into a lying position, his form obscured by leaves and branches, he stayed like that for the rest of their break until they were called in to listen to another boring lecture.

As Naruto walked into the academy room he saw that he had caught most of the class' attention, most of the guys including the Inuzuka were glaring at him, the girls were either looking at him with hearts in their eyes or sneaking glances every so often with a blush before turning back to the front only to glance at him again and continue the cycle. He sighed, not exactly his idea of a perfect first day.

8 years later

A tanned figure sped through the forest, blasting off of tree branches in seconds, covering extreme distances in seconds flat in a show of blurring blue flames. Bolting through the foliage the flames dissipated until the faded out, it revealed the obviously male figure in a crouch. The tanned young man seemed to be roughly six feet tall. The face of the figure was sharp, without an ounce of fat, his slanted teal eyes caught every detail and feature of his surroundings, blue-green orbs cold, guarded and calculating as they drank in his destination. Standing to his full height he let his glowing blue hair flow with the passing winds. It had grown, the dominantly blue hair had two blonde-tipped spikes of hair standing tall from his head like horns, very reminiscent of the rikudo sennin, as well as three 'tails' of blue hair that ended in blonde tips, the three 'tails' hung to his waist though they usually swung about like they had a mind of their own. Two of the 'tails' of hair sprouted from the corners of his spiky shoulder-length blue hair while the third emerged from the center of the end of the bottom of the hair, he had long, thin sideburns that grew over his jawline as a neat, thin beard, exactly like a certain chain smoking jonin, though he had two 'teeth' that grew from the beard sitting a little ways away from the corners of his cigarette smoking lips, a habit he picked up from watching a jonin by the name of Sarutobi Asuma train, he had to admit the man was skilled, and it was a good thing no one ever caught him smoking, neglected or not it would be bad, but today he just couldn't care enough to hide it, though he should have seeing as his fan girls were now in love with his more 'mature' appearance.

The figure wore a white sleeveless open shirt that hung to his knees with a raised collar and on the back of the shirt was an azure blue swirl that resembled a fire of sorts with two azure flaming wings drawn as though they were coming out of the fire, exposing his muscular but lean body. He wore long, tight camouflage pants consisting of splotches of glowing azure blue, light soft white-blue and pure bone white, with the ends sinking into standard black shinobi sandals that exposed his toes. The entirety of his forearms and down were made up of teardrop shaped scales of glowing azure blue, light soft white-blue and pure bone white that lead into pure white talons as fingernails, they seemed to radiate an odd warmth as they shone exposed in the morning light opposed to being hidden behind bandages like for the last eight years. The figure was none other than Namikaze Naruto.

"Hn, I lost them.", he grunted referring to the horde of screaming fangirls that had chased him from the Namikaze compound the second he opened the door, he had been running for only a little while but he knew he would need to get going soon, he had an exam today, but not just any exam, he had his genin exam today, the turning point in his life, whether he become ninja depended on this exam, although he knew about the real test but he didn't know what it was, but he had a pretty good idea what it had to be, so he trained in what he needed to pass the exam as well as his other skills.

With a grunt Naruto bolted in the direction of the academy, intent on getting their before he was barred from the exam for coming late, which according to his internal clock was in five minutes. He snorted, five minutes? He could make it in one, and so with a small amount of increased effort his speed increased as he was now a blur to the untrained eye, and those of weaker ninja.

Namikaze Minato was sitting in his office in the Hokage tower doing the bane of all kages. Paperwork. But his mind wasn't focused on it, his mind was focused on something else or rather someone else, that someone being his son, or really lack there of. Over the years since he had refused to train Naruto he had isolated himself from the family. His requests for places to go had become less frequent until they just stopped, the requests for training stopped right after that day ten years ago when he refused to train him, Naruto had ran to his room, back then he didn't care, and that sickened him, how could he not care about his own son, how could he neglect him for so long. He sighed, he had to fix this. Maybe if he offered to train him, then again was Naruto even in the shinobi academy? Standing up from his worn, oaken desk he walked to the entrance of the office, the two gargantuan, oaken double doors standing in front of him creaked open as he pulled on the handle, peaking his head through he saw his rather plain secretary, "Imi-san,", said girl turned her attention to the blond man looking at her, "could you get the file on my son, Naruto.", although confused on why he would need his own son's file she nodded her head and headed off to the shinobi archives to find the requested file.

Minato sighed as he closed the doors with a creak and sat back down in his soft chair. When he went home he would talk with Kushina about this in hopes she felt the same and that they could bring naruto back into the family.

What he didn't know was that Kushina felt the exact same about Naruto, she was sad that he didn't consider himself part of the family to the point of only showing his face during dinner, and even then he wouldn't always eat with them or even at the estate but going to a resteraunt or a friend's house she guessed. She hated what she did, Mito-sama always cherished family and she tried to emulate that, but it seems she didn't do a good a job as she thought.

Noise. That was all he could hear when Naruto walked into his designated classroom of eight years. All the genin-hopefuls were shouting at the top of their lungs, about what, he didn't give a damn, the two worst offenders would be Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, gone from self-conscious introvert to annoyingly loud, pale howler monkey, wearing a red qipao outlined in white adorned with a white circle on both the back and front of the sleeveless dress which showed her obviously underdeveloped body, blue shinobi sandals and black biker shorts. Her bright pink hair hung to her waist, doing nothing to hide her abnormally larger forehead hanging over her jade green eyes. The equally loud Yamanaka had pale blond hair in a high ponytail reaching her waist with one large bang covering her right pale blue eye all the way down to her pale jaw. Wearing a sleeveless, baggy purple shirt, medical tape wrapped around her stomach to ensure she stayed thin, and black, skintight biker shorts underneath a deep purple skirt with white bracers on her arms outlined in blue and blue shinobi sandals.

What annoyed him most was that they didn't take training seriously and instead focused on looks and boys, namely him.

"Naruto-kun!", they screeched in unison, how he hated it.

"Hn.", he grunted, not really wanting to deal with them, they had only gotten more annoying as the years past, so had all the other girls in their class. If they weren't targeting him as their obsession, they were targeting Sasuke.

He felt bad for the Uchiha, he really did, losing more than half of your clan because they had tried to overthrow the Hokage, only for said Hokage to wipe them out in a single night, and because of Sasuke's father spearheading the coup, the man was publically executed. The worst part was that eight year old Sasuke had pleaded and begged the Hokage to let his father go, only for his father to sneer at him and call him coward and a disgrace to the Uchiha name because of how he groveled for someone's life and didn't handle their death like a shinobi should. Sasuke had been a mess after that, it took the combined effort of the rest of the clan, and even Naruto himself, to get Sasuke back to the boy he once was. After that Sasuke and he had grown closer due to Naruto fighting with Sasuke frequently to let him blow off some of his anger and frustration, he had even been invited over for dinner several times where he had met Sasuke's brother and mother, Itachi and Mikoto respectively, and he had taken a particular fondness to Mikoto, she was so motherly that he couldn't help but just want that in his life, a mother that cared for him.

"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!", shaken from his thought he turned his attention to the front of the classroom from the chair he had unconsciously sat in, to see Iruka shouting at the room of teens, absentmindedly he saw that Sasuke had sat next to him, like always, with a calm smirk on his pale face.

The averagely sized Uchiha wore his usual high collared deep blue short sleeve shirt with the Uchiha symbol, a white and red uchiwa(fan) on the back of the collar. His white shorts reached his knees, showing pale skin before it ended taped off standard, blue shinobi sandals. Blue tinted black hair stuck out from the back of the boy's head looking very reminiscent of a chicken's rear end, to jaw length bangs framed a smirking face, coal black eyes stared uninterestedly at the talking man infront. his attire was finished white white armwarmers and a blue Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead.

Not long after they sat down did Iruka start to speak, his most distinguishing features were his tanned skin, the scar across the bridge of his nose ending at the middle of each cheek and his dark brown hair tied in an upward spiking ponytail, he was wearing the standard konoha shinobi garb, his warm brown eyes roamed over his class, he was always a kind man, especially to his students, until they piss him off that is.

Further thoughts were shaken from their minds by the man's voice, "Today is the day that, if you succeed, you will become genin, the lowest of the ranks among ninja, now the graduation test is on one of the academy three jutsu, the bunshin no jutsu, now we'll start alphabetically, when I call your name please follow me through to room 109. Now lets begin, Aburame Shino, if you would.", said bug-user nodded and followed his soon-to-be late sensei out of the classroom.

As time passed all of the other gennin-to-be had gone, the remaining participants were stuck in the room still, not knowing who had passed and who had not as the children who had already taken the test had gathered outside presumably. Soon their sensei had come through the door again, this time it was his turn, he didn't hesitate and quickly followed his teacher through the halls and into another room, this room looked exactly like the other classroom, desks lined the walls in rows, sitting front row in one of these desks was a shoulder length silver haired man with a bandanna on his head as opposed to his colleagues headband, he was dressed in the usual chunnin garb, same as Iruka, this was Touji Mizuki.

As both Mizuki and Iruka settled in their seats Iruka turned his attention the waiting blonde, standing at the front of the classroom, "Alright Naruto please produce three bunshin and you can pass.", well that was easy, he had perfected this jutsu ages ago, even though there really was not much use of them other than a distraction, but he knew that a distraction might one day save your life, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to him when three other narutos 'poof'ed into existence flanking the original's sides, though it seemed to take the two chunnin by surprise, after taking a long white clothed headband he left the room just as Iruka congratulated him.

Naruto was casually walking through the halls with his new headband tied around his forehead, the tails of said headband flowing down his back coming to rest at his waist, mixing with his tails of hair. Upon reaching the entrance to the academy he was greeted to the sight of many families congratulating their kids on becoming genin, or consoling them for their failure, although the scene pained him, it was only slightly so he didn't give a damn. Hearing his name called he turned with a small smile as he recognized that voice almost instantly, he leisurely walked toward the smiling group of three Uchiha; Sasuke, Itachi and Mikoto.

"Come on Naruto-kun we're gonna go celebrate remember?", Mikoto beamed, she had been waiting since this morning for their celebratory meal, she was just so proud of those two. Practically dragging both Naruto and Sasuke by the arm with Itachi smiling amusedly all the while, she lead them over toward a restaurant several blocks away from the academy, the new barbeque place B-B-Q.

"Aniki! aniki!", She sighed, she had been trying to find him for a while but he was nowhere in the academy. Hitomi sat on a bench, depressed. No matter where she looked in the academy she couldn't find her brother. Her brother, that brought back memories.

After several years of being an arrogant tyrant to her 'friends' she had been called out on it, apparently she had bullied one of her 'targets' a little too harshly and because of it the kid broke down into tears, after seeing this the mother had asked what had happened, the kid had explained that she had bullied him very harshly and hurt him, the mother was shocked at hearing this, the Yondaime's angel of a daughter hurt someone? She snorted, that's probably what everyone thought of her because of her innocent acts and blaming everything on Naruto. That brought a deep pain in her chest, she had blamed all of her misdoings and pranks on Naruto, she didn't even care about his feelings, or him as a person, at all back then and that sickened her.

After the mother talked with her parents they had argued the point until they had reached an agreement, they would watch her and what she did more closely to see if her being innocent was all an act. At the time she had been too arrogant and had thought that no one could touch her because she was the Yondaime's daughter and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, but she was so wrong. After observing her actions for a week her parents were deeply shocked, their sweet little angel was really a conniving little devil. After this revelation they had been hit with an even bigger shock that had hurt so very deeply, they had neglected their sweet, innocent child and punished him severely for each prank that he had actually never committed the whole time, they had taken their daughter's word over their son's without any actual proof that he had done it or given him any time to explain.

They had felt so horrible after that and had promised to change things, starting with her. They had beaten humility into her, Kushina literally had beaten her, and had made sure she knew that what she did was wrong and she should never have done or ever do again. It had taken several years but they had succeeded, they had made Hitomi into a more humane and acceptable person, by their standards. Because of this they had started to try to reconnect with Naruto, only to realize too late that because they had been moulding Hitomi into a better person, they had neglected Naruto again! Her parents had cried so hard that night, Kushina wouldn't even get out of bed for the rest of the week, Minato had to attend to business as Hokage but even then you could tell that he was not fully there at all. She had sworn to herself that she would reconnect with her brother and bring him back into the family, she had been the source of his pain but now she was going to be the light to his family. But she didn't really have any way of getting to connect with her brother as he would avoid them like the plague most times, she didn't have a clue on how she-

'That's it!', With a beaming smile and a forming plan she raced off toward the Namikaze compound, intent on succeeding with her plan no matter what.

The next morning found a mop of blonde hair sticking out from under ruffled sheets. "Oh… my head.", a distinctly male voice called out from under the white sheets, rising into a sitting position the mop of blonde hair was revealed to be Naruto, all dressed, "Wha…", He groggily opening azure eyes he scanned is surroundings. It was his bedroom back at the compound, looking out of the window he saw the shining sun in the sky, "Too early for this…", He mumbled as he pulled the covers over his head and tried to fall asleep. "Damn sun… You shiny teme(bastard)", He mumbled, the tiredness slowly started to fade from his eyes, though he willed it back to him, he had almost succeeded in sleeping once again, sweet sweet sleep…

BANG, BANG, BANG!

"Aniki! Get up its time for the Academy, we have team selections today!", That voice, she had taken his peaceful sleep and scared it away with her loud voice and constant banging on the door. He could almost feel the peace mocking him as it flew away from his grasp, he thought he was going to cry.

With a grumble he pushed himself out of bed, looking down he saw he still wore the same clothing as yesterday, with a shrug he sleepily trudged towards his wardrobe, taking out an exact same pair of clothes he headed for the door, opening the door he was met with a blinding smile from Hitomi, her pink lips pulled into a huge grin as she stood, more like bounced in place, in front of him. She wore an orange, long sleeve, skintight turtleneck with a red uzumaki clan swirl on the front and back, black shinobi pants that fit like a glove under a short, deep blue skirt. A black belt that held up two small, brown pouches at the back and one on each side, along with a kunai holster taped to her left thigh. Her crimson hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, her short blue hitai-ate worn proudly on her forehead.

Without a word he moved passed her after closing the door, he walked toward the bathroom to get changed.

She sighed depressingly, was she really so bad to him that he even ignored her attempts to reconnect with him? Her face lit up when she remembered her plan. Her eyes burned with determination. 'I will get my brother back! That's a promise of a lifetime, dattebane! ', With that last thought she stalked off toward the front of the compound, she knew that Naruto would most likely leave through the window of the bathroom, it was his nature to avoid them, just like they had neglected him.

Flipping through the air as if almost like on a trampoline, Naruto took his sweet time to get to the Academy, usually if he escaped his fan girls and still had plenty of time until the academy started he would roof-hop toward the academy but he would do flips and the like on the way, it was just one of his simple pleasures in life as a soon-to-be-shinobi, though what made it thrilling was when he would channel his sapphire fames, or safaia-en as he had taken to calling them, and push it to his legs in a way that they would act as thrusters and lift him higher into the blue skies, he loved the feeling.

Sighing at his internal clock telling him to go to the Academy he pushed off hard from the roof of a small house and leapt high into the sky, using his safaiajetto(sapphire jets), almost vanishing within its untouchable blanket of blue.

Yes.

The figure was falling, the height was unbelievably high.

This is it.

His speed increased dramatically as he fell to the solid earth miles below broke the sound barrier as the wind rushed against him, it's futile attempt at stalling his descent.

This is the feeling.

A cocoon of sparkling azure flames burst into life, encompassing the figure like a protective barrier from the howling, opposing winds.

This is the feeling he had waited for.

The ground was fast approaching. The civilians and ninja seemed to be clueless at the potential demise.

This is the feeling he longed for.

The figure was so close to the ground, just passing the height of the mountain. he looked like a flaming blue star

This…

He fell passed the height of the hokage tower.

… is the feeling…

Fell passed the roof of a civilian home.

… of life…

So close to the ground. A meter… fifty centimetres… twenty-five centimetres… ten centi-

He swerved upwards at the last second, grinning like a madman, now that is how you live. He was but a flaming blue blur as he raced toward the academy.

The first step of many…