Hey everyone, this is my attempt at a certain idea I really like, which will be more developed later on in the story. I really want to see some reviews, so please post them. For more info and stuff see the bottom, though right quick I'll say that I need a beta.
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I don't own Naruto, and it's too troublesome to bother trying to steal it.
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Summary: The Yondaime Hokage was a sealing god, enough that, rather than put the Kyuubi in his son, he puts it in himself and then the seal kills him, drawing the Kyuubi into hell as well. Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki, died during childbirth (weeks earlier). Because the baby had been a secret to all but Sarutobi, Naruto was put into the orphanage along with all of the other orphans. See how Naruto develops in a world in which he has no influence from the Kyuubi (better chakra control), no drive for attention (he's not hated), and no drive for solitude (he's not famous).
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Naruto stared at the tan wall of the orphanage. He was in the communal room right now, staring at the wall. He had been doing that more often lately, and the caretakers had noticed.
"What do you think is wrong with him? Does he need a doctor?" one said.
The other responded, "I'm not sure. Only five years old and he stares at walls all day… but maybe it'll pass. Bear in mind he's never had parents before…"
Of course, the only flaw in their analysis was that Naruto had great blood in him. Good enough that he was doing what many aspiring ninja would learn only years later.
The orphanage was in the residential district of Konoha, and its young residents were required to stay in that district. However, in a place like Konoha there were still ninja everywhere. Wherever Naruto looked, he saw people he could identify as ninja, all wearing the same Leaf headband. He did not know much about ninja, education in the orphanage was centered more about civilian life and how to operate independently. (The orphanage could only support so many kids at once; some kids had to move out eventually.) However, Naruto had learned a couple of things at least. For one thing, ninjas of different ranks wore different stuff. The young, weak ones wore only a headband, and the older, stronger ones wore a vest. The rarest ones he saw, some that were many years older than him and far stronger, wore vests slightly different than the ones slightly weaker. He had learned their names; genin, chuunin, and jounin respectively.
Naruto wasn't sure how he could tell that some people were stronger than others. Oh, sure, he could list several things. They could teleport around, ran across the rooftops much more quickly, walked more adroitly, were more on guard… but there was one thing he could not describe, but that was unique to only the ninja he saw. And that was what he was doing right now. He was manipulating his chakra around him.
Of course, he didn't know what it was called, but he felt within him what he felt in those ninja, and not in anyone else in the orphanage. It was a beautiful thing, powerful, and yet so calming. At his will, it moved anywhere on his body. The feet were tougher than the hands, but as he grew more used to it, he found himself able to make it dance across his body.
With this realization, he became aware that the teleporting the ninja were doing was rooted in this force. He saw it flare as they disappeared, and dissipate as they reappeared. One of the most miraculous things about this force, something he loved, was that it was constantly improving. As he could train his body, he could train this force to become more responsive and, over time, his supply began to grow. As he wondered what on Earth this force was, he noticed that, though his caretakers, people he felt rather ambivalent to, looked uncomprehendingly at him as he manipulated it, when he did it outside ninja stared at him, and some asked him what his name was. He was not antisocial, but shy enough that he eventually decided to do it indoors only, though he preferred the outdoors….
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(2 Weeks Later)
Naruto now had a pretty good grasp on the "force", and he realized that, by releasing it from his body, he could actually affect the world around him! He had practiced releasing it from all over his body, and had found that while, say, lifting himself off the ground was impossible, and it made him really tired, he could roll a ball a couple feet in front of him. He would do this for his "friends" sometimes, to impress them. He didn't actually make friends. He felt that talking to people, while fun for a while, became boring after extended periods of time. And when he became friends with people, they wanted to hang around him a lot, which got on his nerves. He wasn't mean, just…. not overly kind. He didn't know why people were so drawn to him.
One of the caretakers walked up to him and smiled sweetly. "Hi Naruto-kun! Ready for your trip to the Hokage?" she said, with perhaps a little too much cheeriness. Though he supposed that it was her job to make a bunch of kids with no parents or independence happy…
"Yes," he responded calmly.
He didn't know why the Hokage saw him once every 6 months. He was the only kid whom the Hokage personally requested to see, but the Hokage never asked or told him anything important. He just asked him how his life was going, whether he needed anything, and if he had any questions. Well, for once, that might come in handy. After all, he knew that you had to be a strong ninja to be the Kage, and when he had become aware of the "force", he had seen an immense amount in the Hokage. So, who better to ask about than the Hokage himself?
Naruto looked up at the woman guiding him to the Hokage Tower. He knew the way there already, but he supposed it was for the best that someone guide him; who knows what people might think when a little kid walked through the ninja district by himself? The women seemed uncomfortable walking through this district, but Naruto had no idea why. He quite preferred this district to the residential one. Rather than banks, grocery markets, or clothing shops this district was full of awesome shops. Sure, there were clothing shops here too, but they had elegant ninja garb and cool ninja supplies. Naruto also loved the specialty shops, there were shops catering to certain ninja's, for lack of a better word, fetishes. All kinds of shops selling strange and unique food or highly irregular clothing or weapons were available. There was also the ninja supply store, which had all kinds of kunai, cloth, survival tools, tutorial books…
Naruto drew his thoughts away from those things and focused on the people around him. Ninjas were very interesting people; they seemed to get stranger as they got older. The young genin wore normal looking clothes, talked in groups about things, at least when Naruto could hear them, that normal kids would, and walked normally. Chuunin wore standard ninja clothing and colors, walked almost exclusively in groups of three, and talked almost exclusively about ninja things. They were the most boring. The jounin were the most fun to walk near. They wore strange clothing, talked about a myriad of things, walked with an adeptness that seemed unnatural, and often had strange behaviors and mannerisms. He observed as one jounin was chased around the rooftops by one of his comrades, laughing.
Suddenly a ball rolled up to him. Naruto picked it up and looked around for the owner. It was a silver haired man with a facemask covering all but one eye. He seemed to be a jounin, though the "force" in this one felt exceptionally large.
The man said, "Here, kid, mind throwing it to me?" Naruto watched as several ninja behind him, clearly walking with him, seemed upset at the holdup.
"Yeah, sure," Naruto said.
Naruto decided to use one of his cool "force" tricks where he pretended to throw the ball lightly, but user "force" to push the ball away from his hand, making an innocent toss as fast as a throw. As he did this, the jounin caught the ball, but his eye looked surprised at the stunt.
"Hey, kid, what's your name?" he asked.
Naruto's caretaker responded before Naruto could, saying, "I'm sorry if he caused you any trouble, but we must be going, we're late for an appointment with the Hokage! Sorry…"
"No problem," the man said unfazed. "See you later kid." But Kakashi (duh) ,though it may have seemed like an offhand comment, was going to carry through on that statement. He would find this boy later and talk to him. It was nigh impossible for a boy his age to use chakra, at least, not unless he was trained. And Kakashi had never heard of him…
Naruto just nodded and walked off, reminding himself that ninja could feel this "force" as well. Damn, he really needed to figure out what it was called….
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The Sandaime Hokage (for my sake, Sarutobi from now on) smiled as Naruto was brought in.
"Hello, Naruto-kun!" Sarutobi said, "and you may leave, Aya(completely, 100%, made up. I don't even know the rules for naming, but this seems like 1 of maybe 2 things that definitely needs to sound Japanese. Can anyone help with that?)."
"Hello, Sarutobi-san," Naruto answered.
"Thank you, Hokage-san" Aya replied as she bowed out.
"Well, Naruto-kun, you know the drill by now, so is anything new?" Sarutobi asked. Though he chuckled as he said this, he was really hoping Naruto would say something.
"Actually, Sarutobi-san, I have a question I want to ask you," Naruto said slowly
Sarutobi focused. 'This is new,' he thought. "Okay, Naruto-kun, shoot"
"What is this?" Naruto asked while channeling his chakra around his body, hoping Sarutobi would see it.
Well, Sarutobi did see it, and he had hundreds of emotions, all of them positive. Sure, it was shocking that the boy could sense his own chakra at his age, especially without guidance, and in any child this would be considered a sign that he was a prodigy. However, Sarutobi just could not force himself to be as surprised as he should have been. No one, save him and Jiraiya,, knew that Naruto's parents were the Yondaime Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki, both of them exceptional ninjas. Naturally, his origins had to be kept a secret. With the Yondaime dead from having "killed" the Kyuubi, and his mother having died during childbirth, no one could protect him from the enemies his father had amassed, especially when his mother's clan was now almost completely wiped out. Sure, he could have made it public and had the clans fight over the boy, but the Yondaime and his wife had kept it a secret so well, it seemed to make so much more sense to just leave the boy in the heands of the orphanage rather than start a civil war over a mere child. Although mere was an inappropriate word, considering what he was witnessing.
Going back to Naruto, Sarutobi realized that, in addition to his exceptional control, Naruto had more chakra than any genin, and, while not yet at chuunin capacity, it was too close for someone so young, small, and untrained. Sarutobi pulled out his legendary Professor knowledge.
"That, Naruto-kun," he began "is what we ninja call chakra. It is a combination of both our life-force, and our mental capacity, bound to a form that can influence the world around us. It is a powerful force, both for hurting and healing. It forms the basis for jutsu, which we ninja use for many purposes, mainly for fighting. Chakra can be attuned to different elements, or left in its raw form, though you will learn about this later, as you begin your ninja training. What you need to know is that, though nobody else your age is likely to be able to use chakra yet, it is necessary for most any ninja to learn how to form and control it."
Naruto had been nodding throughout the whole lesson. He had known most of the stuff, though it did clarify some things. He also made note of the fact that Sarutobi had assumed Naruto would go to the Academy already, an assumption Naruto was perfectly alright with; he would definitely go if it would help him learn about his chakra. He just loved chakra, it was perhaps one of the only things he truly loved at all. Flowing, dying, regenerating… it was beautiful. Naruto shook himself out of his reverie.
"Thank you Sarutobi-san, I appreciate the information. That leaves only two other questions; when will I go to the Academy, and when will I live by myself?" Naruto asked.
"The answer to both of those questions is the same. At seven years old you will begin attending the Academy and, if you so choose, you may live by yourself starting then too. Naturally, you will live in the apartments reserved for orphans just moving out of the orphanage, and you will have a stipend." the wizened Kage explained.
"Sounds good to me," Naruto said.
"Oh, yes, and one more thing, Naruto-kun. It seems a shame to force you to spend a whole 2 years without being able to get some guidance, but you are too young to be properly tutored. But I will give you these scrolls on the basis of taijutsu, basic ninjutsu, and knowledge covered in the Academy for you to look at," Sarutobi said as he pulled several scrolls out of his desk and handed them to Naruto, who held out his hands with some excitement. That simple response to this gift made Sarutobi feel like his decision was wise. It was a risk allowing someone so young to study on things more advanced then usual, he had seen good students go bad… but seeing the boy who rarely expressed emotions excited about something warmed his heart. He was sure once Naruto found people like him he would make friends and open up, but until then, he could learn if it suited him. 'Ahhh, Minato. If you were here, I'm sure you'd already be making him into a fine ninja. I'm sorry the best I can do is give him these scrolls'
Little did he realize that giving Naruto those scrolls would change the world, by giving Naruto the power to do what he wanted with the world. But that would take a while….wouldn't it?
"Thank you Sarutobi-kun!" (kun intentional, Naruto is appreciative) Naruto said as he bowed and then bolted out of the room, meeting up with Aya before setting off back to the orphanage. Naruto knew he would love the scroll on ninjutsu, but he didn't realize he would love the ones on taijutsu and the Academy knowledge just as much, albeit for different reasons.
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So, what do you think? Be sure to drop a comment, now that this is in the early stages of development I'll definitely take whatever you give me and apply it later. I know the dialogue is rigid and I'm bad with the Japanese stuff, but that's what I need a Beta for! (1 obvious transition later)
I NEED a beta. The beta must do a couple main things; fill in the Japanese script and proofread. I don't have time to learn Japanese, so filling in the jutsu names/name suffixes with their Japanese translations would be a huge help. Plus, 1 typo can ruin a chapter, and rereading my story 100 times won't be different than what I wrote the first time.
In addition, pairings are 100% in the air. It won't become a real relationship until much later anyways, so I'm flexible for now, just vote who and why and I'll pick whatever sounds the best. As for affinities I have my personal favorite, but if you have an opinion on the secondary, feel free to mention it. (Lightning will be the main, it's just cool… though if there's a lot of people who want something else, I'll change lightning to a secondary and make him have 3 affinities, he's a prodigy after all)
