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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"Read"-Dialogues

'Review'-Thoughts

COMMENT-Summon/ Biju

Naruto and rest of the rookies - 12 yrs. Old

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Chapter 1- The Inflection Point

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It's almost funny how everything goes wrong on the 10th of October, his birthday: he lost his parent to the Kyuubi and got the damn fox sealed into him the same day and 5 years later, he was thrown out of the orphanage on the same day. He was thrown out of the academy classroom for the first time a year later on the same day and failed the academy test for the first time three years later, on the same day.

It was on the same fucking day last year that Mizuki tricked him into stealing the forbidden scroll and as if all those events weren't enough to make him absolutely hate the day with all his passion, we finally have today, the 10th of October, when the guy he considered his best friend and the closest thing to a brother stabbed him thrice with a god-damned assassination technique and fled the leaf village to join its most notorious missing-ninja, Orochimaru, who assassinated the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, his grandfather in all but blood, the first person who looked at him with something other than hatred and suspicion: with kindness and love.

He fought into hold the tears that threatened to slip past him when he thought of the old man. With a sigh he decided, this year was the clear winner of the worst 10th of October competition, as he slowly lost consciousness, lying in a puddle of his blood.

"No...…Naruto…..." He heard a pained shout and just as he lost the battle with consciousness he saw a tall silver-haired man with a half mask rushing towards him.

'Kakashi…...' he thought and he knew no more.

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Kakashi had once believed that he was cursed to lose all people that he held close to his heart. He had no choice but to adhere once more to his belief as he held the still body of his student: his sensei's only son close to him.

He shed tears of blood from his Sharingan as he came to the conclusion from the three cauterized stab wounds on his student's torso that it was his prized technique: The Chidori that did this to him.

Just as Kakashi had lost all hope, he heard a faint sound of heart beat from Naruto's deathly pale body that gave him a small glimmer of hope and spurred him to rush to the village, towards the best medic in the world, who also saw his student as the closest thing to her son.

'Never thought that I'll ever say this, but thank you Kyuubi' Kakashi thought to himself as he rushed to the village at high speeds by channeling lightning chakra to his legs to increase his speed.

He finally let out a breath of relief as he saw the village gates from a distance, 'Finally'.

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Five Days Later

Konoha Hospital

Outside the ICU

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"How long will it take for him to wake up?" Jiraiya enquired.

"Maybe tonight or by the latest tomorrow evening, if it weren't for the Kyuubi we would be having his funeral" She replied to her teammate with teary eyes.

"I never thought I'd ever say this, but I miss his screaming" Jiraiya admitted.

"Most of the village misses it, but they're never going to admit it" Tsunade muttered back.

She continued "How's Kakashi?"

"Still trying to drown himself in sake the last I saw him" Jiraiya replied with a despondent sigh at the state of the legacy of his friend Sakumo Hatake.

He continued, "How are the kids that accompanied him?"

"Neji and Shikamaru will be fine with a few days of rest; Kiba will need at least another week to stand up on his own and Choji will need a full month to leave the hospital bed. If it weren't for the sand sibling we would have been burying all of them today" She replied with a shudder, imagining what that would have done to their families and friends.

"I went back to the place where they fought the sound ninja and identified who they managed to kill" Jiraiya said with a grim smile.

Seeing Tsunade's questioning look, he elaborated, "Three of the sound four and their leader"

"What about the fourth one?"

"Well, I asked Shikaku's kid about his opponent and he told me that he dropped a tree on her and he was pretty sure he crushed her legs under it."

"If you couldn't find her body that means she escaped with her life and went back to Orochimaru"

"Not exactly" Jiraiya replied and continued, "I found a small white snake dead near a fallen tree, it was killed with a single stab wound"

"That means someone else has her..."

"Yup" he replied with a grim expression and continued, "I think Danzo's up to his old tricks again"

"Are you sure that he's behind it?" Tsunade asked with a troubled look on her face.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's him" he took a deep breath and continued bitterly, "but we'll never find proof"

"Not even sensei was able to pin anything on him" Tsunade reminded him and continued with a grimace, "My grand-uncle taught him a little too well"

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Time-Skip

Same Day

Evening

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In his short life Naruto has endured many hardships that could break any man, if he were of lesser fortitude. His mental strength was the only reason that he remained relatively sane with an overwhelmingly positive approach to life. But there's a breaking point for everyone, a point in life that changes a person drastically, Naruto was now at such a point.

The sub-conscious mind is a powerful thing, and repeatedly seeing the person you once considered a brother stabbing a hand covered with lightning triggers can change you…...sometimes even break you.

Naruto suddenly sat-up muttering, "Sasuke…" with hatred fueled by his righteous anger at being stabbed thrice with the Chidori and being left for dead in a pool of his own blood and abandoning the village for the traitor Orochimaru: the one who killed his grandfather in all but blood, the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Godaime Hokage watched in bitterness, seeing anger and hatred in face of the happy-go lucky blonde who had just woken up, knowing that the boy had lost his adorable naivety in the worst possible way.

"Naruto" She said drawing the attention of the blonde.

"Baa-Chan" he nodded and asked grimly "How bad was it?"

"If it weren't for the Kyuubi we wouldn't be having this conversation" She replied with a grimace and continued, "The three Chidori's through your chest were the most serious one's: the first two punctured both your lungs and the last one pierced your heart, luckily that the Kyuubi was able to mend all three wounds by the time Kakashi brought you to the village. In addition to that, you had broken both your arms and legs, fractured your spine and the worst case of chakra exhaustion, that's what kept you down for the past five days "

She explained his injuries to him in a detached tone as she saw him getting even more pissed off at Sasuke.

"How are the other?" He suddenly asked with fear evident in his voice.

"They'll survive" She said grimly and seeing his alarmed expression she elaborated, "Neji and Shikamaru will be fine with a few days of rest; Kiba will need at least a week of continuous treatment to stand up on his own and Choji will need a full month of treatment as he took all the three Akimichi pills and burned away all his body fat. They all woke up two days ago and are very worried about you" She replied.

"When can I leave?" Naruto asked with worry in his tone.

"Don't worry brat you can leave tomorrow morning, I just need to keep you under observation to ensure you won't die" She replied with a snarky tone and turned away to leave the room.

"By the way, you have a lot of visitor's brat, they'll be coming in soon" She called out as she exited the room, leaving Naruto alone in the room with his thoughts that steadily grew darker as his mind recreated the battle in the valley in his mind.

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"Naruto, glad to see that you're finally awake" He heard a voice with a lazy tone from the doorway, that snapped him out of his thoughts.

Naruto turned his head to the door way and saw Shikamaru, who had his left arm covered in bandages to the shoulder, "Shikamaru!" He greeted his friend, "Glad to see that you're alive"

Shikamaru sighed as he walked into the room, "Not for the lack of trying by that damned foul mouthed kunoichi, if it weren't for Temari I wouldn't be here" he admitted.

He took a seat on the foot of the bed and asked him, "So how are you feeling?" seeing the saw the numerous amount of bandages covering his friend.

Naruto tried to sit up, failing badly and replied with a frown, "Not too good", he continued in a brighter tone, "I'll be allowed to leave tomorrow though"

"With that amount of bandage? Not gonna happen pal" Shikamaru replied with a snort.

"I heal pretty fast" Naruto replied evasively.

"I'll believe it when I see it. So…...Sasuke did this to you" Shikamaru asked in a sad and angry tone.

"He did" Naruto replied with anger in his tone and hands tightening to fists and continued with hatred in his tone, "Stabbed me thrice with the Chidori"

"What are you going to do if you see him again? Still going to save him and bringing him back to the village?" Shikamaru asked sarcastically.

"Oh I'm going to save him alright" Naruto snarled back, "I'll extend him the same courtesy that the village extends to missing-nin's, a chance for surrender and if he doesn't surrender, he comes home in a body bag, probably with lesser limbs" he said in anger.

"Good, I thought I might have to hear you go on talking about rescuing Sasuke from Orochimaru like Sakura is blabbing out" Shikamaru replied to the still seething Naruto in a neutral tone.

"What if I had told you that I wanted to save him?" Naruto asked with curiosity.

"I would have agreed with you, but if I ran into him before you did, I would have killed him for what he did to you and what happened to Choji and Kiba" He admitted without shame and ended his speech with anger, an unseen expression on his face, which usually displayed laziness.

He continued, "Sakura's waiting outside to see you and convince you to help her save her Sasuke-Kun from Orochimaru" he concluded in a mocking tone.

"Didn't she hear what the bastard did to me?" he asked with anger and incredulity at the girl's stupidity, evident in his voice.

"She did, she's saying it must have been an accident and he must not have been thinking straight" Shikamaru replied with a shrug.

"If that's all she wants to say, kindly tell her to fuck off" Naruto replied with vitriol in his voice.

"That's not all" he replied and continued, "Tsunade-sama wants to add him to the bingo book and Sakura's coming to plead for your help in convincing Tsunade to drop the plan"

"Not gonna happen even in her wildest fucking dreams" he replied with a snort and asked with curiosity evident in his tone, "Who else is waiting outside?"

"Well, besides Sakura there's Hinata, Lee, Ino, Tenten, Guy-Sensei, Asuma-Sensei, Kurenai-Sensei, Iruka-Sensei, the Ichiraku ramen stand owners, the three brats that call you boss; Jiraiya- Sama and Tsunade-Sama were with you for the past five days without sleeping, Jiraiya-Sama left just before you woke up to pull out Kakashi-Sensei from the bar" he concluded.

"Hmm…" Naruto just hummed in acknowledgement as he felt a surge of affection for the self-proclaimed Super-Pervert and Baa-Chan.

"Anyway, I'm leaving, I have to take rest" Shikamaru replied to Naruto and walked out of the room.

'It must be a dream come true for any Nara, days of lazing around doing nothing…but he can't enjoy it even slightly because his friends are in the ICU' thought the ANBU concealed in the room, feeling a slight stab of pity for the mental anguish the boy was certainly going through.

"Come on in all of you" Naruto shouted suddenly inviting his visitors into the room, "I want to get this over with and go to sleep" he grumbled out in a low tone to the ANBU that appeared at his bedside to stop his visitor's.

The ANBU gave a nod and suddenly vanished from the room just as door to the room opened and admitted the 14 people Shikamaru mentioned.

"Hey guy's" Naruto called out in a low tone to his visitors.

"Yosh! Naruto-Kun! Don't allow these injuries to hold you back from the spring time of youth" Guy screamed out giving a thumbs up which was mimicked by Lee.

"Of course I won't" Naruto scoffed out.

"Yosh, Naruto-Kun is still bursting with the flames of youth, to remember this I will run 500 laps around Konoha on my hands. Come my faithful student let's explode with the flames of youth" Guy shouted out and left the room in high speeds in his hands followed by Lee, presumably to do the same with loud scream of "Yosh"

Leaving highly embarrassed 12 people in the room and Naruto with huge sweat drops.

"Glad to see that they are doing well" Naruto announced to the room to break the awkward atmosphere in the room.

"Well as they say, they are in the spring time of youth" Asuma replied with a small grin and continued, "How are you kid? From what I've heard you are really lucky to be alive"

"Way to drop the mood Asuma Sensei" Sakura bit out and continued, "And stop exaggerating, Sasuke-Kun would never do something like that to anyone, let alone Naruto, tell them Naruto, it was an accident right?" She asked, turning to Naruto.

'Kami, was she always this fucking stupid? Smartest kunochi in our batch, my ass' Naruto thought to himself, unknown to him the rest of the room thought along the same line.

Sakura continued, not noticing the clenching of Naruto's fists and his throbbing forehead vein, "And Tsunade-sama is going to declare Sasuke-Kun a missing-nin for a small misunderstanding between friends. You have to help me convince her to allow us to save Sasuke-Kun"

Naruto finally had in enough and started in a sarcastic tone "It sure was an accident, he accidently used a fucking assassination jutsu and stabbed me in the chest three times; bitch can you even fucking believe what's coming out of your mouth and as for asking Baa-Chan to relent on his missing-nin status, well tough luck bitch, not gonna happen" he concluded with coldness evident in his eyes.

"And I'll tell you this right now, if I am the one who's lucky enough to find him, I'll fucking rip apart his limbs one by one and gouge out both his precious eyes and then drag him to the village" Naruto declared in a cold tone that had a sort of finality that stunned everyone and made Sakura run away from the room in tears.

"Well, I don't know what the fuck else she was expecting from me and If you all came to visit me to beg for Sasuke, then there's the fucking door" he said pointing at the door.

"Of course not" Asuma scoffed as everyone nodded, showing their agreement, "That mad son of a bitch endangered my student's life and he left the village to become the student of a traitor, who also killed my father"

"Well time to clear out boys and girls, it's time for him to rest and I have to change his bandages" Tsunade suddenly called out from the doorway, interrupting Asuma's tirade.

They all nodded and started leaving the room one after the other, wishing him a speedy recovery.

"ANBU leave us" Tsunade barked out and the ANBU squad suddenly left the room one after the other using the body flicker technique.

"Come in pervert and don't forget to put up the damn privacy barriers" She barked out again.

The self-proclaimed super-pervert jumped into the room through the open window and went through a set of hand seals and called out "Toad Style: Privacy Barrier"

Suddenly the three of them were covered with a dome of orange shade in the shape of a toad, blocking the sound from escaping the dome.

"Toad style?" Naruto questioned Jiraiya.

"Well, they are techniques taught to toad summoner's, there are many techniques that are reserved and taught only to the summoner's of the toad clan" He replied.

"We can talk about that later brat but I've got news. Mist rebellion ended successfully and the rebel leader Mei Terumi has taken over as the Godaime Mizukage after killing the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura Karatachi. The chakra of the three tailed turtle has dispersed and by their estimation, it will take at least three full years for it to completely reform. Since they are after the Biju, the Akatsuki's movement will be stalled at least for three years" Jiraiya informed them.

"So they won't be coming after me or the other jinchuuriki for another three years" Naruto exclaimed with relief.

"This is good news Jiraiya, what else have you got?" Tsunade asked with relief evident in her tone.

"Well, the damn Uchiha brat has reached Orochimaru, but since he was late, Orochimaru had to switch into another body, so he won't be getting the Sharingan for another three years. There's no doubt that he's going to train the brat during the time he's trapped in his current vessel" Jiraiya replied to Tsunade's question.

He then turned to Naruto and said "Naruto, this gives me a small window to train you without being chased by the Akatsuki, that is if you are interested"

"Of course I'm interested, I want to be prepared for whoever comes after me in the future" Naruto exclaimed with enthusiasm and finally let out a true smile that lit up his face.

"Good to see that you haven't lost your spirit brat, but this is not going to be like the training we did before, it's going to be extremely tough on you both mentally and physically" Jiraiya warned, he then added "I'll be taking you out of the village for training. We'll be leaving the day after Tsunade releases you, so be ready to leave, got it?"

Naruto nodded to Jiraiya's words and soon drifted off to sleep dreaming about training and becoming strong.

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Time-Skip

Two Days later,

Evening

Konoha Gates

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"Well brat, all set?" Jiraiya asked his young companion as they met at the village gates.

Naruto nodded showing his assent.

However, they were not the only ones at the gates, they were beings seen off by the Godaime Hokage Tsunade and her assistant Shizune, accompanied by his friends and their Jounin-Sensei's including Kakashi who was finding it hard to meet the eyes of his student, Iruka-Sensei and Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku.

They all looked on as Naruto walked off to the distance accompanied by Jiraiya. He suddenly turned around and shouted, "I'll be back in three years, Konoha get ready for my return"

They jumped on to the nearest tree and started tree-hoping and finally moved out of sight of the people who came to see them off.

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Edited:22/11/2017

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