Prologue.
Chatter suddenly stopped as the small figure took another step through the hall, as the figure stepped through the hall, his orange cloak flew freely behind him from the wind in the hall, the red flames at the bottom of danced happily as he continued carefully to his destination.
"I'm here to put the rumors at ease," The Sandaime said to the clan heads gathered in front of him. He watched as all of them leaned forward, eager to here what the old man had to say. "The Yondaime is died defeating the Kyuubi, which is now also dead as well."
Loud cheering quickly cleared the somber mood that hung through the room. Their Yondaime had died defending them but his sacrifice did not go in vain, he had defeated Konoha's greatest threat and brought safety to them. The Yondaime was praised amongst the group as some hugged each other with tears in their eyes while the rest chatted animatedly between them.
"Although Minato's sacrifice is a great loss to Konoha we must press on, we must not let the loss of our loved ones push us down. We will not sleep until everyone left homeless has a bed. We will not rest until the dead have been laid eternally. We will not let the destruction destroy the Will of Fire within our hearts, today we rise from the ashes of our fallen to come back as the strongest village of all!"
A deafening roar was heard in the room as they all lifted their kunai as one, yelling their agreement with the Sandaime Hokage. He usually didn't do these kinds of talks but after the great blow the ninja felt to their moral, he felt as though he needed to give them a pep talk to bring them out of their stupor. A slight twinge of guilt touched his heart as he lied to his people. It had to be done; he would not forsake Minato's Legacy to a life of prejudice if he could help it.
"How did the Fourth kill the Kyuubi then?" Hyuuga Hiashi asked with a curious look on his face.
"The fourth defeated the Kyuubi by summoning the Shinigami. In exchange for his own life, the Death God killed the Kyuubi and took the life of Minato's as payment."
If there was a deafening roar when they had heard the Kyuubi had died, you could hear a pin drop at the silence in the room after hearing that news. The wide eyes of the Clan Heads made the small bundle at the Sandaime's desk giggling cutely.
The sandal of the cloak figure touched the tiled floor with small steps as the short boy continued down the hallway, each door with the same distance between each other creating a dull uniform along it. The place reminded the boy of a prison cell, used to hold the students in there for no apparent reason other than to attempt to give the students some form of innocence before they took their steps into the world as Shinobi. The long blonde hair of the boy stood freely on his head at different angles, falling over his forehead in a messy heap. His forehead protector was nowhere near his forehead, instead it was tied tightly around his bicep with the symbol of Konoha proudly emblazed the cold hard metal.
"Bunshin no Jutsu!" The child called again. A puff of smoke came forth and a clone appeared next to the boy with a deathly white complexion laying face down. The boy gritted his teeth angrily before trying again in frustration. He continued to try over and over again as two figures watched him from the corner.
"It's nothing out of the ordinary," Hiashi frowned. "All children attempt to learn ninjutsu early on in life. It's part of their nature to want to excel and be as strong as they can be as quickly as possible. Albeit it is a little odd that he's starting out at the age of two."
"That's not what I'm worried about," The Sandaime replied, his face mirroring Hiashi's for different reasons. "He's been doing this for a few days now and he still hasn't been able to do the technique even once. He's up before I leave the Manor practicing that same technique and is still doing it even when I get home, not even stopping until I'm about to go to bed. Even though he is sleeping and regenerating his Chakra he should still be completely wasted from the strain of constantly using his Chakra, he's only two."
Hiashi looked at the boy before quickly activating his Byakugan and scanning over the boy. His eyes widened as he saw the child glow brighter and brighter with chakra with every hand seal, literally choking the newly created clown with chakra. He turned to the Hokage and explained the situation before turning to leave. As he left he watched as the Sandaime Hokage moved in front of the boy and took his hands in his. He closed his hands over the child's fingers, moving them into a cross like fashion and whispering in his ears. Turning he moved his hand up and pushed the door out of the way.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
His steps slowed as he reached a door with two ANBU nin standing at the entrance of the door. Neither of them even bothered looking down as they both moved out of the way to allow the child entrance.
"Congratulations Naru-kun," The third smiled as he fastened the forehead protector around Naruto's head. The boy quickly removed the forehead protector scratching his forehead. "At Three years old you're the youngest Genin in the history of Konoha.
He slowly pushed the door open before taking small timid steps into the entry of the room.
He jumped quickly before burying his kunai into the neck of the nin in front of him. Flipping backwards he kicked low, sending leaves into the air before disappearing and reappearing in place of them, stabbing the enemy sneaking up behind him in the ribs before reappearing at his back and launching himself off his opponent to flip and throw the kunai backward at another enemy nin flashing through seals. His small feet touched clung to the branch above him as he hung upside down to see the three ninja hit the floor simultaneously, the Iwa sign on their forehead protectors flashing in the afternoon sun.
The room of ninja turned around to see the boy standing there. Yellow unruly hair covered his forehead and hung off the sides of his face in unruly sideburns. His hair at the back spiked out, the excess being held together by a loose red ribbon that hung just below his neck.
Dark blue sandals strapped themselves to his small feet and tapped themselves lightly as he took steps. His orange cloak with red flames dragged on the floor slightly as it hung over his shoulders.
"You never stop amazing me," The Kage smiled. "You're just like my grandson, you're like family."
The child looked up to see the smiling face of Asuma, his nephew perched on his shoulders, hugging his uncle's head tightly. He bent down and placed both his hands on his shoulders as the child on his head moved off and grabbed the sleeve of the boys arm.
"You've earned it, you'll make a fine Jonin," Asuma smiled at the five year old.
The entire room looked at him with interest, every seat scuffled slightly as some rose from their seats to get a glimpse of the boy standing there. Naruto looked around the room slightly shy as the other much older Jonin stared at the six year old in awe.
"Thank you for coming, Namikaze-sama," The one with the owl mask bowed before motioning him to the seat next to another boy slightly older than him.
"Finally," The owl mask continued as he looked down at his sheet. "The final team for this years ANBU selection is Uchiha Itachi, Kichimi Ayame with their team captain, Namikaze Naruto."