5 year old Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze threw himself as much as he could into his pushups. "Must—Get—Stronger—" He thought as he worked. "Protect, Kaa-chan—Hachi—Saito." Ever since the day his twin brothers had been born, Naruto was determined to get stronger. Since the Kyuubi had attacked, and Naruto was forced to watch his parents come inches, centimeters, from dying by the Kyuubi's potent teeth, claws, and powerful chakra, over and over, as they fought the beast. As the neast approached the walls of the city, his Tou-san had led the monster into a clearing, with strange writing all across the ground. Naruto, hiding in a tree right on the edge of the clearing, had seen the Kyuubi scream in pain as his father and mother shouted strange words in the howling wind, and then Naruto was helpless as pain hit him, and when he woke up, he was back athis house, lying on the couch.
"I never want to feel helpless again." Naruto reflected as he moved onto his back, beginning curl-ups. He didn't know exactly what he was doing, but when he saw the scary man in the green jumpsuit fighting Kakashi-nii, he decided he would do some of the same things the scary man did, since he seemed to be both scary and strong. "Protect Kaa-chan! Protect—Tou-san!" He mentally repeated as his arms and core burned from the work.
ANBU Captain Hatake Kakashi was bored. He had just finished a fairly easy mission, the somewhat lackluster climax of which had been dispatching a B-rank missing-nin from Suna, and now he had nothing to do. While it was true that Kakashi was extremely lazy, he also did not enjoy doing nothing. Idly he wandered by the training grounds. Really he should be training but… meh.
A high-pitched grunting sound startled him as it reached his ears, catching his interest. Did perhaps someone finally castrate Gai? He walked towards the training ground , pushing aside bushes, and was surprised to find Naruto there, pumping away at his exercises.
"Kakashi-nii!" Naruto bounded up to him, a massive grin on his face.
"What are you doing, Naruto?"
"I'm training! I gotta be stronger to protect my family!" Naruto shoved his fis in the air, bouncing up and down with excitement.
'Hmmm…'thought Kakashi. 'This could be interesting; or at least entertaining…' "If you want, I could give you… oh, a spot of help…" Kakashi said out loud. Naruto ran up to Kakashi and hugged him tightly. "Thank you thank you thank you…" Kakashi just turned and tousled Naruto's hair.
A week later, Shizune saw Kakashi and Naruto right next to each other on a park bench with a book in between them. Kakashi was pointing out for Naruto something on the page, and Naruto was nodding along, a strange (for Naruto) focused look on his face. Shizune was shocked! Was this the same Kakashi who hadn't cared about anything since his teammates had died?"
"So this is what the great ANBU Captain does in his spare time, huh?" Teased Shizune as she approached the pair. "What are you two doing?"
"Hi Shizune-nee-chan!" Naruto yelled out. "Kakashi-nee—Kakashi-sensei—is teaching me to be a ninja!" Shizune stared at Kakashi, who looked a little abashed. "Why aren't your parents helping you?" Shizune asked to sate her curiosity.
Naruto's smile quickly faded into a frown. "Tou-san is busy being Hokage, and Kaa-chan is with the twins most of the time. Also she says I'm too young, But I'm not too young!Kakashi-sensei was a ninja when he was seven!" Naruto very cutely pouted. Shizune just had to giggle at that. "Don't worry Naruto," she said, "I'll help you be a ninja too." She smiled at him. "Really, nee-chan?" He asked, his eyes shining. "Of course!"
Naruto ran up to hug Shizune, but after a couple seconds, Kakashi pulled him off.
"Sorry, Naruto, but I promised your father I'd have you back a minute ago. Time for you to head home."
Naruto started to trudge off dismally back home, but before he got very far, Kakashi called out. "Don't be so down about it. Tell you what, Naruto, tomorrow I'll you something extra cool, to make up for it, alright?" Naruto turned around and waved happily, before running home. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi walked by Shizune as she headed back to the hospital to talk to Lady Tsunade. "If you're going to teach him Shizune-san, could you please work with him on learning about chakra and chakra control? I don't have time to teach him everything he could learn."
Shizune looked back at him, tilting her head in surprise. "Are you sure he's ready for that?" Kakashi gave a short bark of laughter. "He's absorbing information at an incredible rate. We may soon have another prodigy on our hands. And I, unlike others, do not throw that word around lightly." Shizune gaped at him. "I'll enlist Tsunade-sama to help too, if what you said is, in fact, true." She looked back as Naruto turned the corner, far down the street. "He's going to be great." Kakashi gave his signature eye-smile. "Yes." He said, more to himself than to her. "Yes, he really will."
Six-year-old Naruto walked into his home. Leaves balanced on his arms and forehead, held there by chakra. "Kaa-san," he called out to his mother. "Look at what I can do!"
"That's great honey" She responded, not looking up from feeding a messy Saito. "Could you come help me feed the twins? They're being a little troublesome today. Aren't you darling?" She cooed.
As he helped spoon the mush into Hachi's mouth, he plucked up his courage to ask his mother an important question.
"Hey Kaa-chan, can you teach me to use fuinjutsu?" He asked hopefully. Kushina started, and smiled widely at him. "You want to learn fuinjuts? That's my little Uzumaki!" She patted his head, but then her face fell. "Ano, I'm sorry, but I need to help the twins first." She frowned. "But I'll tell you what. Take this book, Level One Fuinjutsu, and take it to your jiji. He's very good at fuinjutsu, and I'm sure he'd agree to help you, if you asked nicely."
Naruto bit his lip. "Thanks Kaa-chan. I-I've got to go. S-See you." He ran out the door.
Kushina was too focused on the twins to notice a tear trailing down his cheek.
Naruto bent over, panting, at his favorite training ground. Around him, kunai and shuriken peppered the targets. 'Maybe,' he thought, 'Maybe if I train harder she'll notice me more.' The day had started out so well. He had been learning about chakra control and wall walking from Shizune-nee and Tsunade-baa-chan, when Orochimaru-san, Tsunade's old teammate, had shown up. When he saw Naruot he got an odd gleam in his eyes and promised Naruto a gift. Seconds later, something sharp hit his neck, and he was knocked out. When he came to, he heard a chilling laugh. "Kukuku. Experiment successful." And he felt Tsunade holding him tight and crying softly. "What's wrong Baa-chan?" He had asked. Apparently she'd been worried the snake-head had done something terrible, but the only difference he could feel was that thinking was now easier and faster. But, considering who the "gift" came from, he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.
Naruto was distracted from these depressing thoughts by an unknown presence in his training grounds. Automatically, he threw a kunai toward the intruder, but it was quickly blocked by black-haired boy Naruto recognized as being near his own age.
"Sorry," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I kinda got carried away there."
"Oh it's no problem." The other boy waved it off. "Are you training to be a ninja? You seem a bit young."
"Oh, yeah, I am. But as for young, you're sure one to talk—clearly you've trained as well, or you couldn't have blocked my kunai." The black-haired boy smiled. "Very insightful of you. I'm Uchiha Itachi by the way."
"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."
"Mm. Nice to meet you. Anyway, I train because my family strongly, ah, encouraged me to. To bring the Uchiha clan power."
Naruto cocked his head. "That's your reason for being a ninja?"
"Yes."
Naruto stared at Itachi for about ten seconds.
"That's a stupid reason to train."
Itachi was understandably a little miffed. "What's wrong with my reason for training?" He asked.
Naruto thought for a moment, then spoke. "Well, if that's your only reason for training, then you won't be very motivated to succeed, and your training won't be as effective." Itachi was a bit mollified, but asked Naruto anyway. "What's your reason for training then?"
Naruto proudly smiled. "I train so that I can protect my family, my Kaa-chan, and my little otoutos."
Itachi considered this for a moment, and then nodded. "Your reason is a good reason." They went their separate ways to train in companiable silence in the training ground.
A while later, Naruto noticed Itachi put a hand to his mouth and exhale a large ball of flame.
"What's that, Itachi?"
"That's a fire jutsu that all Uchiha learn; It's a ritual of passage of sorts." Naruto stared in awe. 'Wow. Elemental ninjutsu sound really cool.' Thought Naruto.
Later that night, he slipped into the back section of the library, where he knew jutsu scrolls were stored. 'Hmm… Wind to work with Itachi's fire, Water to combat it, and Fire because we're in Fire country… Hey! Dual Sword Basic Uzumaki Style! And… ooh… making new sword styles? Yes, I think so… Uzumaki secret techniques.' Naruto clenched his fist, the one not holding the scrolls. 'Mine by right. What next….'
An hour later, Naruto stealthily left the library with a bag full of books and scrolls he had "borrowed" from his parent's library.
In a few days, Naruto's birthday arrived. Naruto's parents set up a small celebration of course, with Jiraiya and Naruto's Godmother, Tsunade. Naruto enjoyed the celebration, and for him it was over much too soon, as Minato still had Hokage duties and the twins still needed a stroll around the park. For Naruto, the birthday celebration was special, as it was one of the few times that he got all the attention, instead of his little brothers. Once his parents and Jiraiya left, he was pleased, and touched, to find that Kakashi and Shizune were going to have their own little celebration, along with the Sandaime Hokage, Itachi, and Tsunade, who stayed as well. At the second, more affectionate party, he received what he called his "ninja gifts." Kakashi gave him a book on shape manipulation of chakra and jutsu creation, which was a subject he had been especially interested, and the book came along with the promise of close assistance in the future. Tsunade promised to teach him all about medical jutsu,and gave him a book of anatomy so he could start learning already. Perhaps the best gift of all, however, came from Hiruzen Sarutobi. The wizened old man took Narutoto get shinobi equipment at Tegami Higurashi's weapon shop. Naruto picked up some weet new clothes, armor, chakra kunai, shuriken, ninja wire and other such ninja tools.
The greatest acquisition, however, came at the end of the expedition. As the God of Shinobi took their purchases up to the counter, Naruto noticed something in a dark corner of the shop, and reached out and pulled from the shadows a beautiful pair of katana, without a speck of dust on them. "They're so beautiful…" He murmured as he stared at the blades, and tested one with a finger. "And still sharp…" a thin trickle of blood ran down his finger.
"Ah!" Tegami cried out. "At last! Someone to match the blades! Oh, Sandiame-sama, you have no idea how long I've waited for someone to pick up those blades! Tell me, child," He knelt before Naruto, "How do those feel in your hands? How do they feel to you?" Naruto sat for a minute, a thoughtful look on his face. "They feel…natural, I guess." Looking up, he was shocked to see a tear running down Tegami's cheek.
"For you, young sir, those blades are free."
Emotions flitted across Naruto's face; shock, amazement, wonder. "But why?"
Tegami Higurashi smiled at him. "You see, this is one of my old sesei's greatest creations. The blades are extremely charkra conducive, and yet are as hard as diamond and sharp enough to cut through a silk cloth gently placed on top. They are beauty incarnate when wielded competently together. I could not part with them to anyone else."
"Th-Thank you." Naruto whispered, in awe of the blades. Suddenly, the shopkeeper reverted back to a cheerful attitude.
"Will that be all?"
As they walked back to Naruto's home, Naruto finally worked up the courage to ask Sarutobi about learning fuinjutsu. "Why do you ask" Sarutobi had questioned. "Wouldn't it Kushina be better suited to teaching you?
Naruto's face fell into a sad frown. "She's busy helping the twins. She gave me this book and told me to ask you to teach me. Seeing the heartbroken look on Naruto's face, Hiruzen could not bring himself to say no. "Of course I will! How about two hours after noon every other day? We can start today, if you'd like. The first hour we'll practice drawing and writing, and the next hour we'll spend on the theory and practical application of seals. Sound good?"
Naruto literally jumped for joy.
"Deal, old man!"
A week later, the "old man" reflected on Naruto's progress. He had lead his village through two Great Shinobi Wars, and he had seen many strange and wonderful things.
But the way Naruto learned fuinjutsu shocked even him.
The boy took to it the way birds take to flying the first time they spread their wings. Naruto started fuinjutsu level 1 and just breezed through it. Naruto with fuinjutu was a duck to water. Not only did he understand fuinjutsu far beyond what he should have learned in a week, he was a true genius when it came to creating and creatively applying seals, learned or his own creations. While it was true that he still had a long way to go with accurately drawing and writing the seals, Hiruzen predicted that within a few years Naruto would surpass him in terms of theory. He shook his head. How Minato could have neglected his prodigy of a son was beyond him.
Back at the house, the man in question was himself thinking about Naruto, wondering what he was doing. "Hey Kushi-chan?" He asked her as she was wiping off a counter messy with accumulated ramen juice from a family full of lovers. "Have you seen Naruto recently?" Kushina slowly shook her head. "No, not since dinner." Minato checked Naruto's room. No blond-haired child. He then checked the twin's room. No Naruto. By now, Minato was a bit panicked. Where could he have gone? At the point of hyperventilation, he checked the last place he would've expected Naruto to be, and of course there he was, sitting in the library surrounded by heavy books and scrolls, furiously scribbling on one of many sheets of paper. Minato stood in the doorway, thoroughly bemused. What could Naruto be doing?
The answer was not what he had expected.
"Researching elemental chakra for jutsu creastion, researching two-sword styles throughout the centuries, and developing potential fuinjutsu theories."
Minato blinked. Twice. "Keep up the good work, son." He left the room, totally confused. Out in the hallway, he shook his head. He must have misheard, and Naruto was just reading for pleasure. Maybe he should lay off the work a little bit. It was causing him to hear strange things.
Most mornings, Naruto trained and sparred with Itachi. Both of them knew four or five different jutsu, and the knew how to work together near flawlessly; Itachi with his genjutsu focus, and Naruto with his rapidly improving genjutsu. Naruto the hammer, and Itachi the scalpel. In the afternoons, he learned and practiced fuinjutsu; and then he learned, played, and trained with Kakashi-nii, Shizune-nee, and Tsunade-baa-chan. With them, he studied the human body, worked his kenjutsu, practiced stealth and detection, and developed his own taijutsu syle; part Senju, part Goken, part Ryuko (Uzumaki secret technique) and part purely original Naruto. Evenings were reserved for studying history, fuinjutsu, developing ideas for new jutsu, and sneaking into the library to "borrow" more books and scrolls. Although secret, it was undeniable that Naruto's growth was incredible, matched only by the genius of the Uchiha clan and Naruto's sparring partner, Itachi himself.
One day, as Naruto and Itachi jumped back from a bout of taijutsu, preparing to send their techniques at each other, screams pierced the air of their training ground, number 44, the Forest of Death. Naruto and Itachi looked at each other. They knew each other's minds in that instant, and they blurred forward through the screams. In a clearing between the trees, they were shocked to find Orochimaru standing over a girl, clearly another aspiring shinobi, very young, about the same age as Itachi. "Expiriment failed." The sannin said coldly. "You are of no more use to me." Orochimaru disappeared in a swirl of leaces, but the girl continued screaming, holding her neck. Naruto and Itachi jumped down to her. "Quick, we have to get her to Lady Tsunade." Naruto said to Itachi, who just nodded. Naruto picked her up carefully and set off through the leaves, Itachi following close behind, keeping watch for any aggressors.
As she was carried, the girl's screams died out, and she just sobbed, holding tightly onto Naruto's shoulder. "He's gone… Orochimaru-sama left me…" she would mutter brokenly, before crying out in anguish "I hate you white snake! I'll kill you" where she would again begin screaming holding her neck.
"It's alright." Naruto would murmur to her. "We'll help you."
When the aspiring kunoichi woke up from her pain-induced unconsciousness, she heard voices talking quietly on the other side of the room. Years of experience had taught her to pretend to sleep while she determined if they were a threat. Wary, she listened carefully in on their conversation.
"I'll kill him! That bastard! How could he do something like that to anyone, especially a seven-year old girl! He deserves a slow, painful death for that."
The other voice interjected, nearly emotionless. "Calm down, Naruto. Remember, we're not even ninja yet."
"Come on Itachi, you know we're already strong enough to be a genin, at least. Withing a decade, we'll strong enough to match Orochimaru-teme, together."
"But first, we need a plan. Use logic, my friend. You have a brain in there… ah, somewhere. I think. Use it."
The girl heard a growl. "Shut up, Itachi. It's just—He-He just deserves to die."
At this point, the girl had determined that they were only there to help her, so she spoke up.
"If you're going ofter the snake-teme, at least let me have the final blow. I deserve at least that much." She gave a blood-thirsty grin. The blond, the first one to speak, smiled at her. "I like the way you think. If you're down for it, go ahead." Th Uchiha, based off of the distinctive black hair and black eyes, also responded. "If you like, you can come and spar with us. We can tell you're pretty strong. That's the only reason I'm offering this. You see, we're pretty strong in out own right." The blode straightened up. "Oh! Sorry. My name's Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, and this is Itachi Uchiha. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand. Once again the purple-haired girl grinned, and she also stuck out her hand to shake his. "I'm Anko. Anko Mitarashi."
Mikoto Uchiha like to use the time she spent doing the family dieshes to think. Today, her thoughts were focused around her oldest son, Itachi. Mikoto had so wished for a normal childhood for Itachi, but her husband Fugaku had decided that Itachi would begin his nija training at age 5. Itachi's way of never showing emotions, along with the amount of time he spent training, practicing with weapons, and working on his chakra control made it hard for him to make friends. Mikoto reflected, as she scrubbed a dirty pan with her wet cloth, on how happy she had been to gind that Itachi had made his first real friend, especially since it was the son of Mikoto's own close friend, Kushina.
Naruto had the passion and emotion to more than make up for Itachi's outward stoicism. And yet, he had a drive and determination all of his own. Mikoto had expected Itachi to train less now that he had a friend, but instead, to her great surprise, he trained harder, with a passion and fire she had not seen before in him, as Naruto trained with him. When Mikoto had asked why, they both had said "To protect our precious people" with a small smile, shared with each other. So entranced was she in her reflections, that she did not notice her cloth, soiled from repeated use, was now making the pan more dirty than clean.
Naruto was the next victim ofher wandering thoughts. He trained as hard as Itachi, and from what she could find out from the Sandaime Hokage, and Kakashi, both of who had been teaching him, Naruto was as much a genius as Mikoto's own son. She thought, perhaps, that he spent more time training with Itachi than he spent with his own family. Come to think of it, when Mikoto visited Kushina, almost always she was with the twins, but only rarely did Mikoto see Naruto, usually only flitting from one room to another. The people closest to him, as far as she could tell, were Hiruzen Sarutobi, Lady Tsunade, her apprentice Shizune, and ANBU Captain Kakashi. Mikoto was both curious and concerned for the boy she was rapidly considering almost a son of her own.
And then there was the newest addition o their little troop; a young girl name Anko. When Anko came on to the scene, both boys had increased their already insane training dramatically. Mikoto knew almost nothing about the girl—just that she had a troubled past, and that she knew some snake jutsu. The three—Itachi, Naruto, and Anko—were quickly becoming the closest of friends, and Mikoto wanted to help. She put down her thrice-scrubbed pot on the counter, an idea forming in her head. They would be starting the academy this year—maybe it was time to become a jonin-sensei.