Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'm working on changing that

Claimer: The plot, scenarios, and any other introduced characters and elements are mine, but I'll share if you ask

Notes & Foreword: this is my first fic so… yeah…

Takes place slightly ahead of current manga arc. Diedara's dead, Sasuke is still rouge and Naruto is still naïve. After the trails the last two Uchiha are lost Sakura begins to lose hope, Naruto refuses to quit and tries to renew her determination as his promise obliged him to; despite his personal wishes. I intend this to be long, and ill try too keep my chap's coming all best I can.

Please remember to review, constructive criticism welcome and needed. Flame if you want, but remember that if you do, I'll kill you and rape your father in prison.

Beware of strong lemons later: pairings are: NaruX?? And NaruX??

Like I'm gunna tell you

Regular speech

Inner thoughts or flashback speech

Kyuubi speech or general yelling

Kyuubi thought

­­­­ Related change of character focus or place, short changes is time

………………….. Long passages of time, unrelated change of character focus

Without any further ado, the main Presentation!

­­­­­­

Uzumaki Naruto sat on his haunches, looking down at the spot where once he sat tied to the log he was
perched on right now. Nearly four years had passed since then, when Naruto officially became part of team seven, and Naruto was no longer the hyper-active loudmouth he used to be. He was a new brand of hyperactive loudmouth, because now he could back up nearly all of his boasts. But despite his best efforts he couldn't keep all of his promises. Sasuke remained on the run, all signs of him lost, and the same was true for his brother, Itachi.

Naruto cursed as he recounted his failure, feeling just as helpless as he did those four years ago; tied to log he sat on now.

"One Kagebuushin… I couldn't take out just one of Itachi's Kagebuushin. I still haven't gotten to that level of skill… and that is my best jutsu" Naruto sat and thought, for once in his life, and tried to break down the fight and find an answer to his dilemma.

Itachi uses his jutsu so fast that even Kakashi could barely match his pace. And his Sharingan is even better than Sasuke's, sot that means he could know thousands of jutsu. How can I compete with that? Well... I might have more stamina than him… but I can't use mine as well as he can. I need to find some kind of weakness, some kind of trick to beat him. I need more jutsu than I have now, I need… more than I think I can get.

He let his head down with a sigh. He needed to master more powerful jutsu, and beat the Sharingan. Was it even possible for him to do all this? With Jiraiya MIA and Kakashi busy with missions Naruto had little resources on that end. Where else could he learn high-level techniques?

"The only other place I could learn a good jutsu would be…," he thought aloud. And the answer hit him like a train. He did it once before! If he could learn Kagebuushin, then just maybe…

But he faulted just a step away from the log. It was a forbidden scroll, he would bet he needed to be a Jounin or better to get access to the damn thing, and he knew he couldn't afford to try and steal it again. That would end his chances at being a Hokage . But there had to be other options, another way to learn what he needed to! As he charged away from the training ground, his belly rumbled (well, more like roared). He'd pay Old Man Ichiraku a visit; maybe he'd have an idea as to what to do.

A pile of bowls stood at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar, twenty strong and growing. Naruto as he waited for his next bowl to finish cooking spoke to his good friend behind the bar.

"Hey, old man, I need to find a good way to learn something, but I don't know where to go. Do you know of a way I could get some skill with new jutsu?"

Ichiraku thought for moment or two. "Well I don't know about Ninjutsu all that much, but if you wanna learn anything I know the Konoha Library is a great place to start."

Naruto's face wore a guilty grin. In his academy days he was supposed to go to the library several times. But he always managed to avoid going into a place of "serious learning" which was just as well. He was too loud to be allowed in more than once, at least the Naruto of those days was. But he still had no idea of what library procedure would be like.

But if they had ninja scrolls, it wasn't much of a choice in Naruto's mind. He would have to do what he would have once called unthinkable… he would actually have to think, in a library no less. Naruto, looking slightly glumly pulled his cash from his frog wallet and put the total cost on the counter and thanked Ichiraku. As he turned to leave he looked into his wallet, realizing he needed to get some more pocket money, and as he was closing it a paper shuriken made from a few bills of money flew into his wallet. Naruto turned to see a smiling Ichiraku, whose arm was outstretched, having thrown the paper shuriken.

"I only said I didn't know much about Ninjutsu," he said with a Naruto-like grin, "consider that a discount". Naruto walked on with a n even greater respect for Old Man Ichiraku

He stood before it, a massive titan that scared him just as much as Itachi, if Itachi had a curse seal, all nine Bijuu, and had eaten a bag of Akimichi red pills for lunch. Otherwise this was scarier.

Much Scarier.

It didn't seem so bad when he was working his way to the "Downtown" section of Konoha. Hell it seemed to be a real good idea even. But now the door may as well have the words "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" written in blood over the front door. Naruto slowly turned away and kept walking, but stopped only a short way down. He was looking, from a long way, the face of the hospital. He couldn't help but think of Sakura, whom this entire trip, indirectly, was for. Bound by his nindo, he turned about, and entered the Konoha library.