Naruto yawned as he woke up in his hippo pajamas. Sadly sighing, he slid his feet out from under the covers, he looked around at his small, messy apartment. He had just failed the Academy for the first time. Putting on his normal clothes, which consisted of the usual orange jumpsuit and sandals, he ran out of his apartment door, ignoring the evil glares sent his way.
The young, eight year old Naruto didn't understand why he was hated so much by the villagers; he hadn't even done anything to gain their malice in the first place. Quickly dashing into the Hokage Tower, he ignored the cries of the ANBU as they attempted to stop him. Reaching the correct room, Naruto burst in, much to the ire of the ANBU and the amusement of the Hokage.
"Hey, jiji! I need my allowance!"
Smiling, Hiruzen handed Naruto an envelope consisting of 50,000 yen. Taking the envelope, Naruto bowed, said a quick, "Arigato!" before scurrying away to pay off his rent, and, hopefully, this time buy some clothes other than his dirty jumpsuit.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto did not enjoy how his jumpsuit looked on him. He still like the color orange, but his jumpsuit had the "kill-me-now" kind of orange on display. It wasn't really his fault either; the shopkeepers all hadn't even allowed him to buy from them, so he had to keep his old clothing. Skipping into several shops, he was promptly kicked out by the owners, proclaiming he was a 'demon' and that he should 'never come back.' Naruto sighed in depression, almost breaking out into tears, before a large hand came to rest on one of his shoulders.
Turning around, he came face to face with the Hokage. "Hokage-jiji!" Naruto cried happily. Hiruzen smiled sadly, before saying, "Is something the matter, Naruto?"
"Yeah...every time I enter a shop, the people kick me out and call me 'demon brat.' I don't even know why!" Naruto cried sadly, looking down. Sarutobi sighed sadly, looking Naruto in the eyes.
"Well, my boy, why don't I show you to one of my favorite shops? I know you'll find whatever you want there."
"Sure thing, jiji!" Naruto bounced happily, all signs of depression long gone. Climbing onto his grandfather figures back, he wrapped his arms around Hiruzen's chest, grinning madly. The Hokage began walking briskly towards a shop near to the Hokage tower, which was owned by a longtime friend of Minato, Naruto's father.
Once they arrived, the Hokage allowed Naruto off of his back as they stepped into the shop.
"Ah, Hiruzen, it's been awhile hasn't it? How may I help you?" asked a middle-late aged man.
"I need you to help this young boy find what he needs, Daisuke. You know who he is, correct?"
Narrowing his eyes, Daisuke then broke out into a wide smile. 'Hmph. I didn't know Minato and Kushina had a child. He looks just like Minato.'
"Sure, sure! What do ya' need, kid?"
Naruto gazed up at the old man with a disbelieving expression. "Y-you won't kick me out?" he said timidly. The shopkeepers eye twitched angrily.
'Dammit; how could they do this to an innocent child?' Looking over at Naruto, he quickly noticed that he was trembling in fear. 'Oh crap!' Realizing he was leaking killing intent, he quickly masked his emotions, before leaning down to look in Naruto's eyes. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. What do you need?" Daisuke asked kindly, seeing the approving look on Hiruzen's face.
"Young Naruto here needs some new clothes and some Shinobi tools. I'd say one tanto, 10 training kunai and around 20 shuriken. Put some weight and resistance seals in there as well." Leaning in closer to Daisuke's ear, he whispered, "Be sure to pack lots of sealing materials. I want him to learn some fuinjutsu to carry on his parents' legacies." Nodding in understanding, Daisuke went to the back of the store with a leather bag, filling it with the required items.
A few minutes later, a bubbling Naruto and satisfied Hokage walked out of the store, with a grinning shopkeeper sending them off. "Yo, jiji! Thanks for all this stuff!" Naruto said, turning to face his grandfather figure.
Chuckling, the Sandaime patted Naruto's spiky blond hair. "You're welcome, my boy. However, do you know what those ink bottles and papers are for?"
"Er...to write on?" Naruto deadpanned with wide blue eyes. Hiruzen face vaulted before straightening himself up again, with a sweatdrop at the back of his head. "Well, not quite. It's to practice the art of sealing, or fuinjutsu."
Naruto turned away, pouting. "Bah. Sounds boring." Turning back around, he said, "Hey, jiji! Teach me some cool ninjutsu!" he pleaded. The Sandaime smiled knowingly.
"Well then, Naruto, what if I told you that the technique that the Yondaime was known for originated from fuinjutsu?" Naruto immediately did a 180 from his dislike of the sealing arts, gaining stars in his eyes.
"Teach me fuinjutsu, Hokage-jiji!"
Chuckling, Hiruzen said, "Once we get back to the tower, I'll give you some scrolls on fuinjutsu made by the Yondaime himself; how does that sound?"
"YATTA! Hokage-jiji, you're the best!" Naruto exclaimed in joy.
"However, if you have any trouble with the sealing, you are to immediately come to me, okay? Fuinjutsu is a dangerous art; the slightest mistake could mean death."
"Don't worry jiji! I'll learn sealing and I'll surpass the Yondaime, believe it!" Naruto crowed. Sarutobi smiled, patting Naruto on the back. "I'm sure you will Naruto. I'm sure you will."
"Hmm...let's see...calligraphy? Aw man, this is such a drag!"
In another part of town, nearly all of the males in the Nara compound sneezed.
"Troublesome," Shikaku muttered. "Someone troublesome must be talking about us."
"But I have to surpass the Yondaime, so I have to do this!" Naruto said determinedly. Pulling out several sheets of paper, Naruto began practicing his calligraphy, dabbing his brush in one of his many ink bottles from time to time.
Sighing, Naruto turned to look at the time. Already, an hour had passed from when he had begun practicing. Deciding that now was time to take a break from writing, he turned to one of the many other scrolls. One especially caught his attention.
'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? Another bunshin? Aw, this sucks! But jiji did say to look at this one first, I guess, so...' Unrolling it, he saw several written notes on it that explained how the kage bunshin could be used.
"1. The kage bunshin no jutsu has several unique functions. Unlike normal bunshin, kage bunshin creates tangible clones that can physically interact with other objects.
2. Whenever a kage bunshin dispels, all of the clone's memories and experiences are returned to the user. However, this can cause severe memory backlash if there are too many clones or if the clone has not been dispelled for a long time.
3. Kage bunshin uses A LOT OF CHAKRA! Most Jonin cannot create more than three kage bunshin at a time, so use them sparingly."
However, beneath all of these notes, there lay a message directly aimed at Naruto from the Hokage.
"Naruto, you have massive amounts of chakra, so I have given you this technique so that you can train better and more efficiently, since I know how badly you want to become Hokage and surpass the Yondaime. Still, please exercise caution when using this jutsu, and if you need any help, COME SEE ME!
-Hokage-jiji"
"YATTA! Thanks jiji! Now I can really train!" Standing up, Naruto put on his resistance and weight seals. The Hokage had explained their functions to Naruto; the resistance seals would change how the air flowed around him, so he would physically feel like he was walking in water. The weight seals were just that; weights that could increase in weight when chakra was added. Walking to one of the many clearings in the forest, Naruto pulled out his taijutsu scroll.
"'Basics in Taijutsu.' Okay I guess...here goes nothing! Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto cried, pushing in a good amount chakra. With a loud 'POOF,' a large cloud of smoke appeared. When the smoke cleared enough to see, fifty identical clones of Naruto could be seen. Naruto grinned. Never before had he succeeded in making a normal clone, much less 50 of them; and they were all solid!
"5 clones, read this scroll on taijutsu! Once you guys are done reading, dispel one by one so I don't get memory backlac-backhash?"
"Do you mean 'backlash' boss?" one of the clones said.
"Yeah, that! I want the rest of the clones to go through the katas individually, and dispel after an hour of training in groups of 5, each between a minute!"
"You got it boss!" 50 clones said simultaneously, before setting their minds to their work. After 10 minutes, the clones reading the scroll began to dispel, their knowledge going back into Naruto and the rest of his clones. The effect was noticeable, as the clones began to move with far more confidence and power, as opposed to when they had been unsure as of what to do.
Naruto himself began working on getting used to his weight and resistance seals, running laps around the clearing and doing 10 pushups, situps, and pullups after every lap. After completing 20 laps, Naruto began to feel the effects of training so intensely, beginning to feel tired even though he was a stamina demon. 10 more laps saw Naruto beginning to wear down for real, as he started slowing down, and could barely pull himself up above the tree branch he was working with.
Finally collapsing to the ground, Naruto waited for 5 minutes, trying to catch his breath, before his clones began to disperse. Every time they dispelled, Naruto winced, feeling the training that his clones did. After 9 minutes, after all of his clones had dispersed, Naruto pulled himself to his feet, wincing and rubbing his sore muscles. Dragging himself all the way back to his apartment, Naruto promptly collapsed on his bed and passed out.
Unbeknownst to him, Hiruzen watched over Naruto in his crystal ball, smiling the entire time as Naruto took a much needed nap.
Yawning, Naruto woke up from his long nap. Looking at the time, Naruto noticed that it was already time for lunch. Quickly getting dressed, Naruto grabbed his frog wallet, Gama-chan, and quickly dashed over to get Ichiraku's Ramen. However, Naruto's fastest speed with his resistance seals on was only a quick jog, so it took a while to even get there. Panting, Naruto ignored the hateful stares of those around him, opting to simply sit down on one of the benches.
"Hey, Teuchi-san! I'll have five bowls of miso ramen and six bowls of beef ramen!" Naruto said enthusiastically.
Chuckling, Teuchi went to the back, saying happily, "Anything for our favorite customer." 30 minutes later, Ayame came out with 11 bowls of ramen sitting on a tray. Placing it down in front of Naruto, she giggled as she watched Naruto inhale the ramen with his usual gusto. "So, Naruto, how's your day been?" Ayame said curiously as Naruto looked up from his sixth bowl of ramen.
"It's sucked! I mean, I've been training really hard and stuff, but having all of those resistance seals really made it hard, Dattebayo! Still, I need to get really strong so I can become Hokage; believe it!" Naruto finished with a shout, grinning. At that moment, Teuchi came walking back out of the back room.
"You'll need to train really hard to become Hokage Naruto, so you can't slack off now," Teuchi said admonishingly. "You still have a long way to go."
"Yeah, but I'll train really hard and then I'll DEFINITELY become Hokage!" Naruto finished with a fist in the air. After finishing his eleventh bowl of ramen, he pulled out Gama-chan and left the money on the table. "Bye Teuchi-san, Ayame-neechan! I'm gonna go train!" he shouted as he ran away from the ramen stand.
Several minutes later, Naruto stood at training ground seven, unzipping his pack and rolling out his taijutsu scrolls. Running through the basic stretches, Naruto grunted in pain as he attempted to do the splits, pushing through the sharp, burning sensation. After finishing his stretches, Naruto rolled over so that we was on all fours, starting on his 50 push-ups and sit-ups. After finishing, Naruto got up on shaking limbs, as the weight seals had taken a toll on him.
Running through the academy katas, Naruto kept at it for around 30 minutes before allowing his arms and shoulders to slump down, before collapsing, taking a drink of water from his jug.
He was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders, letting out a cry of protest, before his eyes focused on who was shaking him. He held back the urge to vomit when he saw a horrible green jumpsuit, worn by a man with a bowl cut and the largest eyebrows he had ever seen. "MY YOUTHFUL CHILD! IT IS SO GREAT TO SEE YOU SO YOUTHFULLY FANNING YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH! MY NAME IS MIGHT GUY, KONOHA'S BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST!" Gai said, tears of Youth flowing from his eyes.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto… Ugh..., Gai-san, can you please stop shaking me…" Naruto cried miserably. He was suddenly dropped to the ground and lied there in a dazed heap, with swirls for eyes.
"MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND, I AM SO SORRY! AS PUNISHMENT, I WILL RUN 500 LAPS AROUND THE WALLS OF KONOHA!" Gai proclaimed.
"Uh, Gai-sensei, I was wondering if you could help with my taijutsu...I wasn't really taught by my instructors, because for some reason they all hate me…so can you please help me, sensei!" Naruto pleaded with round, watering eyes.
"YOSH NARUTO! I, THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA, WILL HELP YOU FAN YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Naruto simply sweatdropped, before chuckling nervously.
Naruto collapsed onto the ground of training ground seven, panting with sweat and groaning in pain. His body was covered in bruises that were, though healing quickly due to the Kyuubi's chakra, were still quite painful. He had gone through training hell with Gai, and he had spent the entire afternoon working on his physical conditioning.
"Very good, Naruto!" Gai said slightly more sedately. "Tomorrow we will work on finding you a most Youthful style to call your own!" Naruto only focused on taking deep breaths, trying not to pass out. After he had regained control over himself, he shakily said, "O-okay, Gai...sensei," he gasped out between breaths. Gai simply flashed his sparkling smile before jumping away through the trees.
Lying on the dirt for another 10 minutes, Naruto took large gulps of water before pushing himself up to stand on trembling legs, all the while cursing up a storm. He made his way back to his apartment, though he collapsed multiple times, drawing curious and spiteful looks from those around him.
Flopping down on his bed and groaning in despair, Naruto sighed. "Dammit, here comes the worst jutsu ever…"
Timeskippu no Jutsu!
Dammit, Naruto! Next time, warn me when you break the fourth wall!
Ahem...Back to the story.
"Hey, dobe, get away from Hinata; like she'd ever want to be with you," Kiba said
spitefully, drawing a few chuckles, but overall the class went on as if nothing had happened. "Besides, what are you doing here? This is for people who passed only."
Naruto grinned evilly. Now that he was finally a ninja, he could stop hiding his abilities, as only the Hokage could legally order him around now, rather than the civilian council that was the cause of most of his problems. "Kiba, unless you are blind, which for a mutt like you wouldn't be a surprise, you should be able to see that there is indeed a Hitai ate resting upon my forehead, indicating that I have passed the exam." This drew some surprised glances and loud laughs from the majority of the class, as they watched the class dobe verbally humiliate Kiba. As he made to lunge to attack Naruto, Iruka suddenly walked in, forcing Kiba to take a seat next to him, all the while shooting glares at Naruto.
Naruto was extremely bored as Iruka began to give a long winded speech that Iruka himself took no interest in. He almost dozed off before he heard Iruka call out his name. "Team Seven under Kakashi Hatake: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura….."
People were surprised when Naruto didn't cheer or anything, instead settling for a loud yawn, trying to doze off once again.
"...And Uchiha Sasuke."
At this Naruto literally jumped onto the roof, giving Iruka a big surprise and the rest of the academy students a near heart attack. "THE FUCK! WHY AM I ON A TEAM WITH THAT EMO-TEME!" Naruto yelled. This was followed by the screeching sounds of Sasuke's fan-club, demanding that he apologize for slandering the last Uchiha.
Iruka sweatdropped. "Er, Naruto? When did you learn the tree climbing exercise?" After all, tree climbing was usually only taught to genin by their jonin-sensei.
Naruto shrugged it off with a dismissive wave. "That...is a secret!" he exclaimed proudly, causing Iruka to sweatdrop. "O-k….getting back to announcing the teams…." everything around Naruto seemed to blur out amidst the angry glares sent his way by Kiba, Sasuke and his fanclub.
"So now that I'm done announcing your teams, your new jonin-sensei will be here to pick you up shortly." After around an hour of waiting, all the other teams had left with their sensei, and only Team Seven was left sitting around. Sasuke began to brood like the emo he was again, while Sakura began screeching about how she hated waiting. Naruto simply sighed, as he waited for the person he affectionately knew as Inu-san kept him waiting...again.
After another hour of waiting, Naruto was finally fed up, as he had sensed Kakashi the entire time hiding in a bush, likely reading the erotica known as Icha Icha, made by his own godfather. He hollered out, "Inu-san, if you don't come out right now, I'll go to your house and burn down your entire Icha Icha collection!"
Kakashi began sweating in the bush. He knew, as one of Naruto's many teachers, that he had never broken a promise, which unfortunately, made Naruto's threat entirely too probable for his liking. Walking out of the bush with a hand behind his back, he said sheepishly, "Maa, maa, Naruto, did you have to go so far?"
"Evidently, yes."
"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched, forcing Kakashi and Naruto to wince and cover their ears, lest they go deaf. Sasuke simply, in typical Uchiha fashion, "Hn'd" in agreement. Kakashi sweatdropped. 'She's far too like her mother for her own good. Guess that's one thing I'll have to beat out of her.' "Well, my first impression of all of you is...well, you're boring," he deadpanned. "Meet me on the roof." With that, he shunshined away.
Sasuke turned back around, only to find that Naruto had suddenly vanished. Sakura was all to distracted, and also missed Naruto's exit. Unfortunately, that meant they also missed out on how he left.
With a Yellow Flash.
