Naruto Uzumaki was having a bad day. Well, 'No worse than normal,' he thought as he dodged the rocks and bottles being thrown at him by the small mob of villagers. At age seven, he was small for his age, and his orange jumpsuit gave him the appearance of being a blonde fool. But, appearances can be deceiving, and the orange clad youngster was no exception.
The boy was extremely intelligent, bordering on genius, and he knew that deception was essential to his survival . He didn't quite know why the villagers hated him, although he suspected it had something to do with the cries of 'demon' that the villagers screamed at him at every opportunity.
Regardless of why they hated him, the boy knew that drawing any extra attention to himself, as being more than an orange clad troublemaker who was no threat, would not help his life expectancy. He laughed, silently, as he made his way into the forest, hiding behind a tree and losing the drunken mob as it ran into the opposite direction.
He was about to sigh in relief, when he heard the sound of someone crying. Wary, but curious, he peered behind the tree to see a small girl with white eyes, crying. Hating the sight of tears, Naruto shied away from his tree and moved over to the girl, who leapt up with a startled gasp. "What's your name?" Naruto asked. "H-hinata Hyuuga," she said. The girl, her voice shaking, asked "Who are you?' "Naruto Uzumaki," he answered. "Who gave you those bruises?" he asked, as he looked her over, noticing the bruises nearly hidden by the jacket she wore. "My father," she answered. Naruto, seeing the ashamed look on her face, averted his eyes and smiled at her. "Would you like to be friends?"
That's how it started. From that day on, Hinata and Naruto were inseparable. They did nearly everything together, from eating to training. Hinata, being a Hyuuga, had started training in her family's style at age five. Although Naruto could not learn the Hyuuga fighting style, he could, and did learn, the extensive chakra control exercises that were required for the gentle fist style. He and Hinata sparred together every day. Naruto's healing ability allowed him to keep fighting, even when hit by Hinata's strikes, which helped her refine her techniques without worrying about permanent damage.
Naruto, on the other hand, begged the hokage for some jutsus. After much pleading, the hokage gave him a scroll containing the three academy jutsus as well as a set of training weights and another scroll, a powerful taijutsu style. Naruto trained hard and learned the academy jutsus. When he found that he was unable to use the basic bushin jutsu, he had the hokage teach him kage bushin. When Naruto was eight, he and Hinata, whom had long outgrown her confidence problems, were sparring when she suprised him with a blow to the head. It was then that he met the kyubbi, whom, impressed with the boy's work ethic, agreed to help him by supplying his chakra when needed and allowing him to sign a summoning contract with the foxes.
When Naruto awoke and recovered from his shock, he quickly told Hinata. She now understood why his chakra control was so bad. He and Hinata began doing the tree walking and water walking chakra control exercises, with increased chakra control. Naruto learned how to summon the summoning jutsu from the hokage, whom also taught Hinata, letting her sign the lion contract.
It was then that the two kids told the hokage their plan to leave the village once they were strong enough. The old man, saddened by this, explained to Naruto that his father was the fourth, and that his father meant for him to be the hero of the village. Naruto still refused to stay, so sarutobi agreed.
After learning of their plan, Sarutobi intensified their training, doubling their weights and doubling their training time. After a few weeks, Naruto and Hinata learned the sunshine no jutsu. Naruto also began to practice the kaze-no-yaiba technique, while Hinata focused on learning medical jutsu and genjutsu. Her training with Naruto improved her jyuuken techniques so much that she began learning the kaiten and eight trigrams techniques.
While Naruto began memorizing where pressure points were, he began practicing his taijutsu, which was similar to the jyuuken, except it closed off pressure points. A master of the style could put his chakra directly into his opponent's muscles, causing them to shut down. There were three stages, and Naruto was working on the second.
After a month on this newly intensified program, Sarutobi led them to training ground forty-four. "This is the forest of death," said the third, gazing at his students. "This training ground is normally reserved for people of chunnin rank or higher .ferocious beasts. Deadly traps are located everywhere in this forest. You will be here for one month, so consider it survival training. Naruto, use this area to practice summoning the foxes chakra. And now is the time to practice summoning."
The old man smiled and turned to leave. "Oh, by the way, Naruto, using the kyuubis chakra will overwhelm your chakra points at first, since your body is not used to channeling demonic chakraso. The more you use it, the better." Finally, Sarutobi left. Naruto looked to Hinata and smiled. "Let's find a camp."
Naruto and Hinata searched and searched, and finally, after two attacks by tigers and giant bears and nearly getting skewered by several kunai traps, they finally found a cave. Hinata, who did not have Naruto's stamina, was asleep in seconds, so Naruto took first watch, making a dozen kage bunshins; some for sentries, the rest to scout the forest.
A few hours later, Hinata awoke. Naruto dispelled his clones and was startled to see knowledge of the forest enter his mind. He groaned, as exaustion made him pass out. When he awoke, he was so excited he grabbed Hinata and kissed her, causing the girl to nearly faint. 'N-naruto-kun," studdered the girl, her cheeks still red. "What's going on?" "Hinata, I think I found out something cool, but I need to test it first," he said. He made several dozen shadow clones, dividing them into three groups. He sent group one to practice the chakra control exercises, kunai balancing, and chakra gathering, which was maintaining a large amount of chakra for extended periods. This not only helped control, but also strengthened the chakra coils and his body. He sent group two to practice taijutsu. Group three worked on mastering the jutsus he knew. While his clones were away, Naruto and Hinata sparred. Then he practiced summoning the kyuubis chakra, his features changing as his teeth grew into fangs and his hands grew claws. He maintained the chakra for only a few seconds before he nearly passed out from exhaustion. He was saved by Hinata, who gave him a soldier pill and healed the injuries the foxes chakra caused to his body. When he regained his strength, he and Hinata spent the next few hours practicing. They each managed to summon a mid-level lion and fox.
To practice their stealth techniques, they hunted and fished. Naruto finally dispelled his clones and gasped as knowledge entered his mind. He grinned. "It worked, Hinata. Whatever my clones do, as long as I dispel them, I get the results."Hinata smiled. Over the next four weeks, Naruto and Hinata trained hard, with Naruto teaching Hinata the shadow clone jutsu,.then using Naruto's trick to have her clones practice her jyuuken techniques. She practiced her medical jutsu on Naruto, whose training with the kyuubis chakra often left him hurt and exhausted. She practiced her chakra control so much that she learned the chakra strings and chakra scalpel attacks, while beginning to work on creating long range jyuuken attacks.
Naruto, frustrated by the poor durability of his clones, began reinforcing them with chakra, which allowed for better taijutsu practice for him and Hinata, whom after constant attacks by multiple enemies, improved her byakugan's range to to over five hundred yards. Naruto, seeing Hinata's kaiten technique, began working with the kyubbi on creating an absolute defense similar to it. He created a technique, using the foxes chakra, called kitsune bi fox-fire. They practiced their jutsus so much that they didn't need handseals for the academy and kage bunshin jutsus.
Over the next year, Naruto mastered four more jutsu kage bushin daibakuha , kage shuriken jutsu kaze- no-yaiba, and his one original technique, kitsune bi. He and Hinata returned to the forest many times to refine their techniques. Hinata, on the other hand, mastered several medical jutsu and the chakra scalpel technique.
Now, at age nine, the two decided it was time they went to see the third. Saying good bye, he handed Naruto a scroll, saying it was his, by rights. Together, they sped out of the village.