Young Naruto Uzumaki, a 7 year old boy with bright blond hair, azure blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, and 3 whisker mark on each cheek, walked alone through the streets of the Village hidden in the leaves. It was mid day and the boy was just making his way home after a long day at the ninja academy.

'Dammit, why's Iruka-sensei always on my case, especially considering I'm way better than most of the kids in class, so what if I'm bad at the clone jutsu, no one even uses it.' Naruto thought irritably. Walking down the bright streets of the village Naruto ignored the cold looks of the villagers with practice easy as he opened the door to his lonely apartment and stepped inside.

Naruto made his way to his room where he took off his shoes and jumped on his small bed to relax while replaying today's events in his mind.

Naruto was tied up in the front of the class right by the teacher's desk facing all his classmates. He was kinda irritated since Iruka-sensei just assumed he was skipping class, which he was but he had a really good reason. All he did was sneak into those white eyed bastards compound and dye all their white clothes pink, which he only did because one of their members literally threw him out of a store and attacked him for no reason.

Anyways, here he was tied up in front of the whole class being yelled at for something everyone knew was hilarious. Looking up to the middle left side of the classroom he saw Hinata Hyuga. Hinata was a pretty nice girl, if just a little weird, she was the only one to escape his prank after all he had nothing against her, only the members of her clan that mistreated him in some way, and there were quite a few of them

"NARUTO ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?" Iruka yelled angrily, looking over at his teacher Naruto could practically see every vein in his neck and head protrude with the force of his fury.

'Wow, it looks like Iruka-sensei's really pissed off this time' Naruto thought grimly.

"And what about Hinata, it was her clan you embarrassed, don't you think you owe her an apology?" Iruka asked Naruto and as if to make him feel guilty he picked Naruto up using the ropes and made him face Hinata who looked incredibly lost and shy under his gaze.

"I'm not apologizing, I didn't do anything to her." Naruto said simply and if possible Iruka's face turned even redder at that before he took a few calming breaths.

"Fine, since you don't see anything wrong with what you did the whole class will have to review the basic 3 because of your screw up." Iruka said as the whole class groaned.

"Nice going Naruto, we always pay because of you" he heard Ino Yamanaka say. In Naruto's opinion she had no right to talk since she was a clan heiress but was weaker than Naruto by a huge margin.

"Yeah Naruto why can't you just be normal." Shikamaru Nara said but once again, Naruto believed he was in no position to talk being barely above Naruto in terms of ranking.

"Yeah, like Sasuke." A fangirl said. Those 3 words kicked off multiple conversations about how Sasuke was better than him which made his blood boil. Looking over at the other guy in question he saw that he looked calm and collected, like nothing going on around him mattered.

Once everyone had done the basic 3 it was Naruto's turn. Smirking he performed substitution flawlessly then he transformed into a naked girl with nothing but small clouds covering her assets. Once changing back Naruto looked around to see who was effected and realized that no one was which confused him, not even Iruka-sensei who usually would be passed out by now was effected.

'No one thinks it's funny Naruto, now do it right." Iruka said.

Rolling his eyes Naruto transformed into a flawless copy of Iruka then released the jutsu. "Ok Naruto, now the clone jutsu." Iruka said patiently, he knew Naruto had problems with this jutsu but hoped a bit of humility would help him get it in gear.

Suddenly Naruto was filled with nervousness and dread as he slowly made his way through the hand sighs then activating the jutsu and creating 2 half dead looking copies of himself. Looking at his work a deep shame filled Naruto as he lowered his head causing his bangs to cover his eyes.

Silence was all he heard.

No laughter.

No ridicule.

No taunts, just silence.

Looking at his classmates Naruto saw nothing but pity, annoyance, and indifference in their faces.

"Do you see now Naruto?" Iruka asked. "No one here is amused by your tricks. Everyone here is serious about becoming ninja, everyone except you."

"Class is dismissed." He said.

At those words Naruto began walking to the door when he felt a hand grab his shoulder. Turning around to see Iruka stopping him and giving him a look that told him to stay. After the class cleared, leaving just Naruto and Iruka he started.

"Naruto, I don't get it, you have so much potential, you're only jeopardizing your own future with these childish antics." Iruka said in an attempt to connect to Naruto but to no avail if Naruto's blank expression was to go by. Now fed up with his attitude, Iruka said something Naruto would never expect.

"You know, sometimes I wish you were like Sasuke." He whispered, but due to Naruto's enhanced hearing he was still able to hear it. With those words Naruto's heart skipped a beat and his blank expression broke for a second to reveal a look of pure hurt and pain. Turning towards the door Naruto ran as fast as he could straight out of the academy.

Iruka just watched him go." Do you think that was the best idea, Iruka?" asked Mizuki as he stepped out of the shadows.

"Yes, if he wants to be hokage or even a decent ninja like he says then I can't take it easy on him, he needs someone to measure himself by and hopefully see that he needs to stop playing around."

Naruto, instead of leaving the academy was outside the classroom and heard their conversation. He sighed, relieved that his favorite teacher only wants him to get stronger but he couldn't help but feel angry at him for going for such a low blow. He was sad to say he lost a bit of respect for the scarred chunin as he made his way home whipping away tears as he went.

Getting out of his bed with a wicked grin Naruto grabbed his pranking equipment and ran out the door ' lets see how Sasuke likes orange.' Naruto thought mischievously.

Even though it was night time and he had on all black getting into the Uchiha compound was pitifully easy, the guards weren't even trying to do their job. Once inside finding Sasuke was relatively simple as well, but for some reason the guy looked extremely excited about something so Naruto followed him only for them to end up at a lake with a wooden board walk that extended from the shore towards the center of the lake. After an hour of hiding in the trees around the lake Naruto got bored and turned to leave when a stoic looking man appeared next to Sasuke on the bored walk. 'must be his dad' Naruto thought sadly remembering his own lack of family. Settling down he watched as Sasuke turned towards the lake and flew through hand sighs before taking a large breath and spewing out a huge stream of fire that formed a massive fireball so powerful the surface water beneath it was forced away in waves. This continued for a few minutes before Sasuke stopped and turned towards his father expectantly. His expression changed to one of sadness as his father simply turned and walked back down the board walk before stopping and saying something Naruto couldn't hear. Sasuke's crestfallen expression switched to one of elation as he ran down the walk after his father before the 2 disappeared down the path back to the Uchiha compound.

Coming out of his hiding spot Naruto stared at the spot where the 2 just vacated, a combination of envy and bewilderment clear of his face. 'How the hell did he do that?' Naruto thought in awe before logic caught up to him. 'Oh yeah, he is a member of a famous clan, has a actual family and if I remember right his brother is an anbu. A family. Something I don't have. Maybe I should be more like him, maybe then, I could get people to like me.' Naruto thought depressingly before determination filled him. 'Screw that, I don't need anyone. I'll become stronger on my own. I don't need a clan. I've done ok so far, and if people don't like me for me than who needs them, believe it.' Naruto thought fiercely but still couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness. It was right then and there that Naruto made a vow to become strong in every sense of the word.

Grabbing his equipment he raced home to drop it off before grabbing a empty bag and bolting out the door to the shinobi library. After breaking in Naruto thought about what he might need. 'Ok if I want to get stronger I need to know my weakness.' He thought before grabbing a few taijutsu scrolls, a few elemental jutsu scrolls, books on genjutsu and a few random scrolls before exiting the library and making his way home. Once there he changed out of his black camo suit before looking through the scrolls and tossing all the ones that bored him back into the bag, including the elemental scrolls since they all contained clone jutsu. Naruto grinned maliciously after he found the taijutsu scrolls and began practicing the forms inside finding it surprisingly easy.

2 months later

It has been 2 months since Naruto had broke into the shinobi library and began training in the taijutsu style the scrolls mentioned called the whirling arc style. Apparently there were three scroll dedicated to it, one for the basics, another for intermediate users, and the last for advanced and master level users. It was a style that relied on a number of principles such as creating momentum to use against opponents as well as using their own strength against them, most of the attacks also utilize arc movements to maximize power, speed, and precision. After practicing the style for a 2 months Naruto began to wonder why it was in the shinobi library since it was common knowledge that the jutsu and scrolls in the library was only about genin and beginner level which was why it was so easy to break into, no one would waste their time with beginners stuff when they could steal A-ranked jutsu from the real library. But the whirling arc style was obviously a powerful taijutsu style that seemed to be ranked chunin level and above.

At the moment Naruto and his class were outside listening to Iruka-sensei explain what they would be doing today.

"Ok, today class all of you will participate in tournament style battles. For each win you will move up and the battles will become increasingly difficult, the winner of the tournament gets this scroll." He explained then held up a scroll to show everyone the prize they would be fighting for.

"Any questions?" Iruka asked just as several hands were raised "and yes, you have to do this for a grade" he said and watched amused as the raised hands lowered.

"Ok, lets get started." He said before explaining who would fight who.

The first round matches were rather uneventful seeing as most of them had civilian born children that lost quite easily. Naruto won his first match easy enough with a well placed punch to the solar plexus that sent his opponent flying out of the sparring circle. All the clan heirs obviously won their matches easily along with a few civilians like Sakura, Fuki, Takeshi, and rei, and a girl Naruto doesn't remember seeing before.

Choji and Shikamaru ended up fighting each other and surrendering so they were out, Hinata took out both Ino and Sakura and a few of the stronger civilian kids before she was beat by Shino, that just left Sasuke, Kiba, Naruto, Takeshi, mystery girl and Shino himself.

What surprised Naruto was the mystery girl now known as Ai. She had platinum blond waist length hair, dark brown eyes and was dressed in all black. She won her match easily and with overwhelming power and skill, knocking out her opponent with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent him spiraling out of the ring. Naruto was amazed he had never noticed her before and was excited to test himself against her along with the others in the tournament. He had an idea of how the other kids fought since he'd seen them so many time but this girl was an unknown.

"Next up Naruto vs Takeshi." Announced Iruka-sensei.

On his way up to the ring Naruto could hear the other students whispering about him.

"Wow, I'm surprised the loser made it this far" he heard.

"Don't worry it was probably just luck, he won't get past Takeshi." Someone else said.

Once inside the ring Naruto was prepared to prove them wrong, looking up the blond saw his opponent standing across from him smirking.

Most people thought Takeshi was a nice guy and he looked it but in reality he was an incredible asshole, he had brown hair and a large physique, you couldn't really see his eyes since he always wore sunglasses but he did have a small scar above his left eyebrow. He was also a little over confident and cocky, Naruto could use that.

"You should just give up deadlast, don't wanna get hurt do you?" Takeshi said arrogantly.

Keeping his cool, Naruto lowered himself into his stance with a smirk, his body turned sideways away from Takeshi with his right hand palm up, elbow half extended towards his opponent and fingers curled in a claw position while his left hand was simply left pressed against his side curled into a fist.

Seeing that his taunts weren't working he narrowed his eyes and got into the basic academy taijutsu stance.

"All ready, begin." Iruka announced before stepping back to give the fighters room.

Takeshi watched Naruto closely before dashing forward, his right fist pulled back, ready to strike once he was in range. After closing the distance Takeshi swung thinking Naruto would be to slow to react. Naruto's smirk widened into a full on grin as he watched the attack come closer and closer, moving so slow that he could practically see where is was going to be. Acting quickly Naruto side stepped around the punch so fast and so suddenly that to Takeshi and the onlookers it appeared as if Naruto simply disappeared. Now behind his opponent Naruto used his momentum against him by using his left knee to strike the bend of Takeshi's knee causing him to fall backwards slightly, then grabbing his left arm which allowed him to spin around and flip Takeshi over his shoulder causing him to land on his neck and instantly lose consciousness. This all happened in a span of 2 seconds so to everyone but the chunin instructors, it appeared as if Takeshi threw a punch and Naruto just disappeared before the larger boy was sent flying backwards knocked out with the blonde standing victoriously in his place.

Getting over his shock Iruka raised his hand to gather attention. "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." He announced as said boy walked out of the sparring circle and sat down on the grass away from everyone else waiting for his next fight.

"Whoa did you that?" someone said.

"Yeah he dropped Takeshi in one move." He heard someone else say which caused him to smile a little.

"It doesn't matter, all the rest are top notch he won't win." Someone else said. This caused him frown slightly before tuning everyone out to nap.

Naruto woke to Iruka yelling that it was his turn. Apparently Ai took out Kiba and Sasuke beat Shino. Getting into the circle Naruto saw that his opponent was Ai. Getting into his stance Naruto prepared himself knowing that this match would be a lot more difficult than the last. If this girl could beat Kiba, a guy whose clan specialized in taijutsu then she had to be the real deal.

"Good luck, Naruto" he heard his opponent say in a light but firm voice as she also sunk into her stance. Surprised by this all he could do was nod back dumbly.

"Begin" Iruka said sweeping his arm in between them to get them started. As soon as the match started Ai wasted no time in charging Naruto her speed far above his previous opponents. Once in range she feinted a right hook then followed up with a left roundhouse kick which Naruto blocked with both arms.

'Damn this chick is strong.' Naruto thought as he put more effort in throwing her off. Landing a few feet away she charged again but this time Naruto rushed to meet her which erupted into an Intense taijutsu exchange with neither side giving an inch.

'What's going on, a couple weeks ago this guy sucked, now he can keep up with me at full strength, was he holding back?' Ai thought confused as to how Naruto could have progressed so much in such a short amount of time.

As the exchange ended Naruto jumped back to get some room while mentally patting himself on the back, happy that he put so much time into learning the whirling arc style without it this would have ended already, but that made him wonder, just who the hell is this girl, she's as good as Sasuke.

Naruto smiled thinking about how it must look to see the dead last keeping up with one of the top students. What they didn't know was that his new style didn't just build up you're fighting skills but also forced the user to utilize all of their pre-existing physical ability in the most effective way possible. In Naruto's case, there was already a lot to work with since he had enough speed to outpace most chunin and some jonin, enough strength to knock out grown men with a single well placed blow, enough endurance to outlast anyone, and his perception, reflexes, and reaction time were nothing to sniff at either. All these factors combined with his new style allowed Naruto to fight in the most efficient way possible thus putting him on the same level as the top students in class.

Naruto breathed out at the same moment he dashed forward to increase his speed and to time his attack better. Over the course of his training Naruto learned just how important breathing was in a fight, with it he could increase his already monstrous stamina, put more power into his attacks, and time them perfectly to perform effective combo attacks.

Once Naruto closed in on Ai he began his assault. Crouching low under her guard he sprang up nearly connecting with a devastating uppercut which cause her to jump back on instinct. Grinning he appeared in front of her just as the few strands of her own hair that obstructed her view flowed out of the way, launching into an impressive string of attacks it seemed like he had Ai on the ropes until she turned out of the way of his left jab, grabbed his arm and flipped him over just like he had done with Takeshi but Ai used much more force, enough so that when he hit the mat he bounced a good foot into the air.

'Shit, I didn't mean to use that much force.' Ai thought but none the less went in for a choke hold while still holding on to Naruto's arm.

When Naruto hit the mat and bounced he was still able to keep from getting the wind knocked out of him by using the breathing techniques mentioned in the taijutsu scroll but still, that slam hurt like hell. While in the air Naruto looked over towards his class mates. A few held surprised expressions, no doubt feeling the impact Naruto just took, but others were laughing and smiling.

"Yeah, take him down Ai-chan." He heard Kiba say

Similar remarks followed which made Naruto burn with anger. He would show them, he wasn't done yet.

'I still got a few tricks.' He thought while grinning like a mad man.

While still in the air with Ai moving in for the kill Naruto had to think quick. Ai used his arm to pull him towards her but Naruto used his flexibility to bend backwards and launch his left knee over him and directly into Ai's gut causing her to hunch over. Naruto righted himself and with as much speed and strength as he could muster he raised his right foot above his head and brought it down full force onto Ai's exposed back sending her straight into the matt where she lay unmoving.

Naruto stood above her breathing heavily due to the adrenaline in his system and the elated feeling he got from his victory. Gazing down at his opponent he snapped out of his daze and rushed to check on her ignoring the whispers of the class.

"Hey, you ok?" the blond asked concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine" she said while rubbing her hear and chuckling lightly.

"Well I'm still sorry, it was only a spar, I should've hit you so hard." Naruto said nervously.

"Dude relax, I said I'm fine." Ai assured, waving off his concerns.

At the same time Iruka announced that Naruto was the winner of the whole tournament since it seemed that Sasuke went home for some family emergency.

Naruto was handed the scroll just as class was dismissed. He turned around making his way home while opening and reading the scroll. It was a chakra control exercise that was supposed to allow you to walk up vertical structure like trees and walls and even across ceilings.

'Oh yeah, with this my pranking and stealth will be unstoppable.' Naruto thought while laughing evilly.

He decided to stayed behind in the training ground until everyone had gone for the day and began practicing the tree climbing technique determined to get it down pact after all, Iruka-sensei does constantly say chakra control is a important skill for all ninja. There he stayed for hours, making great progress with the exercise, completely aware of the 3 sets of eyes watching him.