A/N:

Thanks for reading the first chapter of my first fanfic. Please review so I know how I'm doing! Thanks and enjoy:

The frame of a small boy could be seen amongst the shadows cast by the flashlight he held firmly in his shaking hand. He sat amongst open books and scrolls strewn across the floor of Konoha's Shinobi archives.

Despite the fact that he was very much alone, the library having been vacated hours earlier, he still felt nervous at the thought of being caught. " U-U-U, Urami, Utogake, ah! Uzumaki!" the boy exclaimed, finally he flipped through the pages of the book that currently occupied the spot in front of him.

"The Uzumaki clan were distant relatives of the Senju…known for their sealing techniques and longevity as well as abnormally large chakra reserves and healing abilities…they were one of the most prominent clans in uzushiogakure. close allies of konohagakure no sato, ninjas of the leaf adopted the Uzumaki clan symbol into their attire as pictured."

The picture in the book showed a flak jacket with the now identified Uzumaki swirl on the back. The boy smiled, and put the book in his "read-everything-that's-important" pile before turning to his notebook and scribbling down the following:

"as per my name sake, I've found a lead, next step is to find out about any Uzumaki's in Konoha…also I better learn as much about sealing as I can"

It was going to be a long night, but the boy was on a mission, he would discover why the villagers hated him, he would follow through on his leads about the Uzumaki clan, he would copy down as many training scrolls as he could, he would learn to defend himself or his name wasn't Uzumaki Naruto!

Flashback one week ago:

It was October 10th, his birthday, the day he had learned to dread the most in his four years spent amongst the living. He was good at hiding, running, surviving but on this day the mob had an Inuzuka with them. You can't run from that thrice be damned nose.

His five year old legs sprinted as quickly as they could through the back allies to escape his pursuers, but after an hour's chase he'd finally tripped and now lay defenseless in the street. He curled into a ball and proceeded to breath as meditatively as he could, and recited his mantra " I am the sun each day I go down only to rise once again" he said this quietly to himself trying to ignore the pain as various feet and objects collided with his body, until he faded into the dark.

End flash back

Naruto looked at his watch; it was almost dawn, time to pack up. After a hurried concealing of his nightly activates, the boy snuck out of the Library and quietly slunk home. He sighed as he pushed his apartment door open, stealing one last glance at the Hokage monument, now bathed in a brilliant orange light, before entering his little refuge.

Sure the paint was cracked, the light bulbs flickered, only one of the stoves two burners worked, and his shower only ran cold water, but all in all he liked the place. It was the only home he had, his greatest treasure.

Naruto set his backpack down by his bedside as he prepared for sleep, brushing his teeth in front of a cracked mirror, and changing into his sleeping clothes. Lastly he emptied about a dozen, newly filed notebooks from his backpack into his "useful information box".

Smiling to himself at a job well done, a very tired Naruto drifted off to sleep.

Time skip three years:

The academy, a place where young aspiring ninjas gathered to learn the essentials of their chosen trade, or at least that's what the fliers said. Naruto growled in mild annoyance, he had avoided coming here for three years so he could focus on his training.

He was proud of himself, in just three years he'd come a long way, gone was the temperamental, attention seeking, loud mouth, overly proud, for lack of a better word…brat.

He'd also gotten a lot stronger, both physically, as to his daily training regimen and in effectiveness mastering seal after seal, honing his chakra control, learning everything he could from the books he had at his disposal. Sure he had a long way to go before he was ready to be a ninja, but he was on the right track.

He'd also learned a lot about his past once he started his quest for his identity the answers just kept piling up, though he was still left with a lot more questions.

He knew for a fact that the Kyuubi was sealed within him. The clues where just so blaringly obvious that he had to wonder why no one else his age had figured it out. I mean the seal on his stomach aside, people called him a demon, and his birthday was the same day as the bloody Kyuubi attack he supposed his healing and insane amount of chakra could be attributed to his bloodline but when he focused really hard he could actually sense the foreign yokai entering his body.

He had tried to talk to the fox several times, usually through meditation, but for all his attempts all he got was silence.

He actually pitied the villagers; they were so in need of a scape goat, so sad, pathetic and weak that they took their anger out on him! At the same time he couldn't keep himself from hating them, for hating him, he didn't want to hate them, he wanted to be a good person but…he was lonely he had learned long ago that he would always be lonely and that loneliness fed his hatred, nurtured it, kept it alive so that he was always grappling with himself.

Most of the time his compassionate side won, he kept his nose out of trouble and an eye out for a stranger in need. Few ever accepted his help when he offered it but he was pleased with himself for at least trying. It was the same as with his Fuinjutsu training he knew as long as he kept trying, everything would come together in time.

*thwack* pain briefly consumed Naruto's body as he was snapped out of his reflection, having traded his awareness of his surroundings (namely the parents of his soon to be classmates glaring daggers at him) for a momentary reflection on some of his personal growth, he had failed to realize the door he had been walking towards was not open.

He quickly dusted himself off ignoring the laughter of both the children and their parents as he pushed through the doors and headed into room 102. He had a feeling this would be a long day.

He made his way to the back of the currently empty classroom and sat in the farthest corner from the door, positioning himself in the best possible angle to watch as the rest of the students filed in, babbling excitedly amongst themselves.

"An Inuzuka, an Aburame, that one's definitely a Hyuuga" Naruto thought, noting the red clan markings, full body coverings, and white-ish pupiless eyes that signified each clan, scanning the rest of the room he spotted a Akimichi munching on some chips while talking to a bored looking boy, whom Naruto assumed was a Nara, solely due to clan stereotypes and the fact the Akimichi and Nara clans were fairly friendly.

Naruto's view was obstructed as the Inuzuka whom had previously been chattering at the Aburame (a wholly one sided conversation as he'd yet to hear the dark haired boy say so much as a word) noticed the blonde sitting in the back corner and with a toothy grin leapt onto the desk directly in front of Naruto.

"Hey" the Inuzuka said loudly, causing all eyes to turn in their direction "your that retard who walked into the front door, right?" the boy paused for a moment before letting his grin grow even wider "you'll never be a ninja! You can't even pay attention to your surroundings!" the boy started to laugh in Naruto's face, causing the rest of the room to join him, as they remembered how stupid the blonde had looked, walking into a closed door.

Apparently the Inuzuka was not very good at noticing his surroundings either as an eraser hit him in the back of the head "take your seats Gakis, this is the Shinobi academy not the Zoo" the voice belonged to a brown haired man whose only distinguishing feature was the horizontal scar across his nose.

The man, who introduced himself as Umino Iruka, then launched into a longwinded speech about the purpose of the academy and what they would learn there. Naruto had paid attention at first, but slowly his thoughts drifted back to his recent interaction with the young Inuzuka, whom he had learned was named Kiba.

The boy along with the rest of his class mates clearly saw him as an idiot, in part due to his clanless status, but mostly due to the fact that he had walked straight into a closed door in broad daylight. It didn't help that his classmate's parents had actually insulted him amongst themselves, thinking he didn't hear.

It was then that he got an idea, one that would shape the rest of his academy career, and forever garner him the title of "the most unpredictable ninja". Naruto had always enjoyed pranks, he knew it was mostly his desire for recognition and attention that drew him to pranking, and while he wanted to be above such immature displays he also had to admit that it was good training, with no friends, family or training partners how else would he get to practice stealth and evasion?

This would be his greatest prank, greater than the time that he'd put a red coloration seal on all of the public drinking fountains in town. It had taken ANBU a full day to figure out what was going on, and by then people were already "bloody water" as if it was some sort of bad omen.

Putting on his goofiest smile he leaned back in his chair and kicked his legs up onto his desk, grinning even more wildly as he noticed the tic marks appearing over his sensei's head. By lunch he had been sent out of class twice, yelled at practically every other minuet, and managed to convince everyone in class he was a grad A loud mouth delinquent with the mental capacity of a sea slug.

Sitting alone on the only swing in the academy Naruto could not help but envy the other children as they laughed and played, "it must be nice to have friends" Naruto shook his head violently, no self-pity he had to be strong.

Naruto scanned the grounds looking for the broody kid, to his irritation he found him making a point of ignoring several of the girls who had begun to gather around him. "Uchiha Sasuke!" he shouted making his way over to the stump the dark haired boy currently occupied.

The boy in question only flicked his eyes towards Naruto before resuming his brooding stance. Naruto's fists balled, his dislike for the boy before him was real, he had tried, long ago to befriend him, but he like everyone else simply told him to go away. He paused for a moment, thinking of something to say that would both irritate Sasuke, and add to his Idiotic image. "From now on we are Eternal Rivals!" Naruto did his best to emulate a certain green clad Jounin he had encountered.

Not waiting for a response Naruto began to rant about the "flames of youth", and how Sasuke's "hip" attitude would not deter him from victory, however before he could finish his rant he was interrupted by a pink haired member of Sasuke's flock.

He didn't really pay that much attention to what she said/shrieked, instead he found himself noticing how cute she was, how her short pink hair and bright green eye's seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. Shaking his head he walked off, effectively cutting the girl off, ignoring the insults that were being hurled in his direction he entered the classroom, and waited for the fun to begin.

A/N

Just to clarify, Naruto is not "In love" with Sakura, he simply has a crush on her, It will probably fade as he matures (ie fairly quickly…) Naruto is smart and fairly mature for his age, but he is still a child, hence many of his actions are childish, even his "greatest prank" idea to act the fool is more out of a desire to make a fool of his classmates and the village than it is to hide his abilities.

Anyway as I said in the description pairings are undecided, as soon as I figure out how to make a poll I will so yall can help with that bit. Emmm what else? Oh yeah please write some constructive reviews, all suggestions are welcome, so are flames as long as they have some form of suggestion…

Peace out.

leafyyou