Before you read this, let me make one thing clear. This story is an abandoned story. This account is being used to archive my abandoned stories.

Furthermore, my active account is "Advent of Shadows."

1. Point of Divergence

'It's great to be back.' Naruto Uzumaki thought as he stepped outside of the Administration Building of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

He had only arrived back in the village about two hours ago. Of course, he had spent those two hours with his team and sensei talking to the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, about the mission that they had just completed.

It seemed that a long debriefing was required for teams of genin that went on A-rank missions, especially when they fought the Demon of the Hidden Mist and an ice using shinobi. The thought of his battle with Haku still sent shivers down his spine. The boy was on a whole other level than Naruto, though the blond had still managed to win their fight. He was not quite sure how that happened though.

Interlocking his fingers behind the back of his head, Naruto began to walk down the street with a content smile upon his face. He had just been paid for his part in an A-rank mission, which meant that he could afford all the ramen he could eat and then some.

It was a little later than Naruto normally ate dinner, but that was to be expected. It took a couple days to get back to the village from the Land of Waves, and the time it took to debrief had only made it later.

It did not take long before Naruto was standing in front of the Ichiraku Ramen stand with a big smile on his face. He immediately released his hands from their interlocked position behind his head and brushed the canvas covering that surrounded the ramen stand aside to enter.

"I was beginning to think you stopped liking this place." Teuchi said with a small grin as he stood behind the bar, looking at Naruto. It was easy to see that his eyes held a hint of happiness at seeing the young blond.

"No! Never! I'll always love this place and your food!" Naruto declared with fierce denial.

Teuchi just chuckled at hearing that. "Calm down, Naruto. I was just teasing you. While I make you a bowl of ramen, why don't you tell me where you've been? The only reason you'd go a whole month without being here was if you were in the hospital or on a mission after all."

"I'd like to hear that too." Iruka Umino said as he entered the stand with a smile on his face. "I just heard that you were back, Naruto. I figured you'd head here as soon as you got off. Ramen's on me tonight."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei; you're the best." Naruto said with a big smile. Not having to pay meant that he would be able to buy more ramen in the long run.

Taking a seat next to the boy, the chunin said, "It's not a problem. So, why don't you tell us all about your mission? I was there when Lord Hokage gave you it. If I recall correctly, it was a C-rank bodyguard mission to escort a bridge builder to the Land of Waves so that he could finish a bridge."

"That's right!" Naruto said as he remembered Iruka being in the room when he demanded that Team Seven get a better mission. "But… it wasn't a C-rank mission. Kakashi-sensei said it turned into an A-rank mission."

Those words seemed to cause Iruka and Teuchi to go wide eyed. From a normal rookie genin, they would have said that he was exaggerating, but they had known Naruto long enough to be able to tell the truth just by hearing his tone and seeing his facial expressions.

"What happened?" Iruka asked.

That question prompted Naruto into telling them all about the journey to the Land of Waves, including the fight with the Demon Brothers of the Hidden Mist.

After Naruto got to the part about them departing on the boat to the Land of Waves, he paused for a moment.

"Wouldn't it just be a B-rank mission then?" Teuchi asked. In a major hidden village, it was expected of civilians to understand certain aspects of shinobi life. Being as old as he was, Teuchi knew even more than most.

"That's not even the half of it." Naruto said with a grim smile. "On the boat ride, our client, Tazuna, told us about how some rich dude named Gato wanted him dead since a bridge would cause him problems, or something like that."

'Gato… he's a very rich shipping magnate, unless I'm mistaken.' Iruka thought. 'I've heard rumors of him being a crime lord as well.'

"On the way to old man Tazuna's house, we were attacked again. It was only one ninja… but he was on Kakashi-sensei's level. He's name was Zabuza Momoshi."

"Do you mean Zabuza Momochi?" Iruka asked, eyes going even wider.

"Err… yeah, that's what I meant. He had this big ass sword." Naruto answered with a nod of his head.

"Naruto, he's one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. There are not many ninja in our village that could have defeated someone on his level. You see, he wasn't just an ordinary member of the Seven Swordsmen. He was one of the strongest of the Seven Swordsmen in the village's history. His generation of the Seven Swordsmen was unparalleled in both skill and ruthlessness. He was…."

"He was the Demon of the Hidden Mist, a man known for butchering everyone taking the Graduation Exams while he wasn't even a student. Yeah, he told us that." Naruto interrupted, seeing where Iruka was going. "Kakashi-sensei told us a bit more about him when we were headed home."

Teuchi set a bowl of miso ramen in front of that point, causing Naruto to take a bite before continuing his story. It was easy to see that neither one of them would have been too thrilled if he took a break from the story to eat his ramen. It was an enthralling story, after all.

Naruto covered the first battle with Zabuza, their training with Kakashi, the tale of Kaiza's death, his meeting with Haku, and the battle at the bridge in as much detail as he could possibly give, though he remained vague about how he beat Haku in the end.

By the end of the story, Naruto had five empty bowls of ramen in front of him and a full stomach.

"So after we saved the day, we buried Zabuza and Haku and guarded old man Tazuna until the bridge was completed. Two weeks later, we came home, and here I am." Naruto said with a yawn. "I'm tired though. If you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep. Kakashi-sensei gave us the rest of the week off since we did an A-rank mission. I want to get up early tomorrow and get some training in."

'He's already accomplishing things I did not expect of him… at least not this soon.' Iruka thought with a small smile. "Hey Naruto, how would you like to learn a few new things during your break?"

Hearing the offer surprised Naruto. "What do you mean, Iruka-sensei?"

"Well, it sounds like you're going to have a lot of free time, and you said that your sensei is always later. So, I thought I'd offer to teach you a few things in my free time after class tomorrow. I might not know jutsu as powerful as your sensei does, but I still know quite a few things." Iruka said.

"I'd like that, Iruka-sensei. Where should we meet?" Naruto asked, excited about learning something new.

"Meet me at the Academy tomorrow. We can't start until my class ends though, so you might not want to come too early." Iruka said as he placed a hand on the blond's head and ruffled his hair.

"Alright, I'll be there!" Naruto promised as he rose to his feet. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Naruto." Teuchi said.

"See you tomorrow." Iruka said as he waved to his former and once again student.

"He's something else." Teuchi said with a chuckle once Naruto was gone. "What kind of genin demands a more challenging mission and ends up with an A-rank mission?"

Iruka could not help but laugh in agreement with his old friend. Much like Naruto, he had come to like Ichiraku Ramen as a result of the way he was treated by the owner. When his parents died in the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's attack, Teuchi and his father had treated him quite well and never ignored him. That was a rarity for Iruka growing up. It was easy to forget that a boy orphaned by the fox's attack even existed, after all. Too many people were focused solely on rebuilding the village and treasuring the time that they had with their families as a result of them surviving the chakra monster's attack.

"He'll accomplish great things. Mark my words." Teuchi said with a sigh of contentment. It was easy to tell that he truly believed his statement with every fiber of his being. "I'm sure your training will help him too. I do find it strange that you would offer training like you did though. With how busy you are because of your class, I'd think it would be hard to spare much time training a genin. If I recall correctly, most people don't offer to train a genin without receiving permission from said genin's jonin-sensei."

"I have the time, and asking Kakashi would merely be a formality. When it comes right down to it, I'm a more experienced teacher than Kakashi, and Naruto needs all the training he can get. From his time in the Academy, I can tell that he needs to work on the fundamentals."

Teuchi merely nodded, though he did not follow Iruka completely. As informed as he was, he did not know too much about ninja training at all.

"I suppose I should eat now. I got distracted by Naruto's story." Iruka said as he picked up his chop sticks and began to eat the ramen that sat before him.

"You'd better. Naruto wouldn't be too happy if he found out that his favorite chunin wasted ramen." Teuchi said with a light chuckle. The boy was hard to pin down, it seemed. He was hyperactive most of the time, but he also seemed to adopt a very serious attitude at times. He demonstrated that during certain parts of the story.

In response, Iruka just ate faster.

The next morning, Naruto woke up about ten minutes before eight o'clock, though his alarm clock had been set for ten o'clock. He was not going to complain about waking up early.

After a cup of ramen for breakfast, Naruto got dressed in his normal attire and left his apartment. He made sure to grab his frog shaped wallet before he left too.

Since he had gotten paid the night before, he decided to go to the store and get some new clothes. He liked his orange jumpsuit just fine, but he only had the one. Given his past experiences living alone, he was able to realize that constantly wearing something and washing it on a nearly nightly basis could cause it to accumulate wear and tear much quicker. That was why he was going to get some new clothes.

It did not take long for Naruto to find his favorite ninja tools shop, Tamura Ninja Tools. He had only been there once so far, despite the fact that it was his favorite ninja shop. It was one of the few shops that only catered to registered shinobi of the village. Without a forehead protector on, it was hard to get too far past the door before being asked to leave.

He quickly entered the shop that had a giant shuriken emblem above the front door. When he was inside, he saw that the only person inside was the owner, an older man by the name of Hideki Tamura. He was standing behind the counter that circled around the store. The purpose for the large counter, according to the man, was to prevent anyone from getting too close to the weapons that were hung on the walls. The rest of the shop was filled with racks that held clothing suitable for shinobi. Most of the clothing looked like civilians would wear it, but it was made of a higher quality and was much more durable.

"Hello, young Uzumaki." Hideki said with a kind smile. From Naruto's experience the last time he was in the shop, the old man smiled every time he talked to a customer.

Naruto nodded politely. He knew that the old man was not interested in talking anyway. Being nice to customers just made them more inclined to buy from him.

He quickly moved over to the clothing section, and began looking for something suitable to wear. It did not take him long to realize that none of the clothes in the section were orange.

"Do you have any orange clothes?" Naruto asked as he looked back at Hideki.

"No, I can't say I do. I can order some if you'd like though…." Hideki said, trailing off. Orange clothes made specifically for a ninja… that always required a custom order.

"Never mind…." Naruto said as he put his hands in his pockets and began to walk back towards the door. It seemed that he would not get to get any new clothes after all.

He stopped halfway to the door though. A few flashbacks of the mission to the Land of Waves hit him all of the sudden.

'Maybe I should get something other than orange….' Naruto thought as he turned back to look at the racks of clothing. Remembering the mission had caused him to remember how being so hyperactive and loud had almost cost him his life. If Haku had not saved him from Zabuza's shuriken, then he would have been critically injured during the mission at the very least… Sasuke might have died as well….

Naruto scanned through the racks and found a basic set of ninja attire like Kakashi and Iruka wore underneath their flak jackets. Once he found the sets in his size, he grabbed three of them. He also grabbed three plain pairs of dark blue fingerless gloves.

As he walked towards the counter, he stopped one more time to pick up a short sleeve black shirt and a pair of black sandals. He then placed all of the clothes on the counter and said, "I'd also like four new shuriken holsters stocked. Make two of them dark blue and two of the black. Oh, and I need a fully stocked hip pouch as well."

Hideki smiled a little bigger at that order. The kid had just ordered sixty shuriken, fifteen kunai, twenty paper bombs, and a few other ninja tools on top of all the clothes.

He quickly went to the backroom and came back a few minutes later with all that Naruto had asked for. Placing it on the counter in front of Naruto, he said, "That will be four thousand, two hundred thirty-nine ryo."

Without hesitation, Naruto pulled out his wallet and paid for the order. When all of the money for the order was on the counter, Hideki was able to see that Naruto could have easily paid for three orders like that with nearly a thousand ryo left.

'Most genin don't have that type of cash….' Hideki thought as he put the ryo up. He did not feel like questioning it though. "Have a nice day."

"Thanks… you too." Naruto said as he grabbed all of the equipment and headed home to put it up. Later, he would go to the Academy to meet up with Iruka. He still had hours until he needed to be there though.