8 years after the Kyūbi attack

The sprawl of abandoned warehouses in Konoha were unusually active. These buildings had been heavily damaged by the attack of the Kyūbi. The owners of the land had either sold it to the village or perished in the attacks and as such the vast majority of them laid empty. Naturally, this made it a hotspot for delinquents and hooligans.

This is where we find Naruto Uzumaki. A cheerful and upbeat boy with blond hair and blue eyes as well as whisker marks on his cheeks.

"Ow...Is that all you clowns got? I'm sure your grandma hits harder than that!"

All of that mixed in with a smidgen of stupid.

The three boys surrounding him looked to be around the age of 11. Two of them were pinning Naruto by his arms and shoulders against the wall of a warehouse and the last one and apparent leader-who had just sunken his fist into Naruto's stomach-stood in front of the poor blond.

"Ok let's try this again...Give us your money,"said the leader in an irritated tone of voice ," You know this is my territory so you either gotta pay ...let's call it taxes or we're gonna teach you a real lesson or my name isn't Hashiro."

Naruto for his part hung his head low and began to shake.

The lead hoodlum seemed amused and leaned in towards Naruto and said,"Don't cry...we'll be quick-"

Whatever the boy meant to say was cut off by borderline hysterical laughter from Naruto. The shaking obviously being him trying to reign his amusement at the boys' attempt to intimidate him.The laughter continued for a good minute before Naruto regained his composure and made eye contact with the leader who was less than 6 inches away from his face.

"Listen here you asshole! I'm not afraid of you and I never will be!" exclaimed the boy ,"I have bigger fish to fry than you losers anyways so let's get this over with!"

With those words Naruto headbutted the leader before driving his foot up into the crotch of the leader. The triumphant feeling the two moves generated were wiped away when he remembered he was still being held up. This thought came a split second before a fist closed in on him and then pain.

Naruto:Rising Above

The battered form of Naruto was sitting propped against the same wall he was pinned against earlier. His face had bruises which were already beginning to heal and his white shirt was torn and covered in spots of blood. In essence, he got messed up.

With a groan and a few curses , Naruto stood up and began to make his way back home. He didn't need to go to the hospital. He'd be all good in the morning.

'I mean it's not like it was the first time Kenji and his puppies beat me up this badly.' thought the boy.

Naruto used to stay in the orphanage until just over a year back when the Hokage came to visit him.

Flashback

Naruto was waiting outside the Hokage's office. To be more accurate, he was tied up while an irate woman sat next to him. She had spiky brown hair and intense brown eyes that were reminiscent of a dog's eyes. She also had two red markings on both of her cheeks.

The door to the Hokage's office opened and an elderly man dressed in the traditional robes of a Kage stood in the doorway.

"Ah Tsume-san, Naruto-kun. What can I do for you? "

The lady rose and gestured towards Naruto saying"Thank you for your time Hokage-sama. I just wanted to inform you an earlier...incident."

At these words Naruto burst into a near hysterical blabber,"Jiji! Hey old man have you been working out? You're looking great. Anyways, I don't even know why this lady tied me up! I was walking through the street minding my own-"

Tsume's anger had risen over the course of Naruto's speech before she finallysnapped and said,"This kid threw catnip all over the Inuzuka clan's grounds! He put it in the kennels,on the ground and,"by now the Hokage had begun to notice an oddly minty smell wafting from Tsume.

"He put traps that were flinging the damn stuff absolutely everywhere! "growled a rather peeved,catnip covered Clan Head.

The Hokage smiled before saying to Tsume,"Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention Tsume,"he then sent a glance towards the bound Naruto"Naruto-kun and I have a lot to talk about."

"Thank you very much Hokage-sama."said the Clan Head before she left the area.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sent a weary look towards Naruto',Oh Naruto...you really know how to test me.'

"Neko. Untie him"

A shadowy blur raced into the room and before Naruto could even say a single word, there was a streak of silver before the ninja wire tying him fell to the ground. The ANBU saluted the Hokage before disappearing in a blur similar to how she entered. Naruto ,for his part, began feeling all over his body for a cut or any damage from the weird masked lady's shirt and found nothing. 'Who even has purple hair anyways?' thought the rather surprised boy.

"Naruto. Let's go for ramen. I feel rather famished. My treat."

said the Hokage and quicker than you could say free food, Naruto stood in front of the Hokage and was already tugging on the front of his robe.

"Lead the way old man!" exclaimed an excited Naruto.

'Am I really old? He complemented me earlier ...'

Of course, the depressing thoughts of the village leader were unheard by Naruto who was practically dragging the Hokage along.

Ichiraku Ramen~ 5 minutes later

To say today went as planned for Naruto would be a total lie. His prank on the Inuzuka clan excluded of course. He acquired the catnip from a petshop near to the orphanage. 'It's not like that old bat didn't deserve it anyways,' thought Naruto before smirking,'that'll teach him to insult me again!'Unfortunately, the pet store hag wasn't the only one who treated him like he was less than nothing. In fact, it was a feeling he got from a majority of the people he's encountered. There wasn't anything too crazy ,but people were just rude and impolite to him. If they ever acknowledged his presence. 'That's what pranks were for anyways' thought the boy.

When one's very existence was denied, one would tend to find way to cope or handle this type of dilemma. That's not to say Naruto was above pranking others for fun or for revenge. As a matter of fact , the Inuzuka clan were simply unfortunate victims of a revenge plot.

Two weeks ago,Hiro Inuzuka had humiliated Naruto by insulting him and calling him weak, stupid and everything else in the book. He then stole Naruto's pocket money from him and left. What hurt the most though was how no one even batted an eye towards the scene and instead carried on as if nothing happened. He then swore revenge on Hiro and despite not being able to find his house per se, Naruto simply decided to prank as large an area as possible. After a few hours of painstaking trap setting and a liberal amount of catnip later, Hiro was swarmed by at least 10 cats. Unfortunately, so was virtually everyone else in the Inuzuka district. Needless to say, Naruto learnt that running from angry people who had dogs as pets was not easy at all.The crazy lady caught him after barely 5 minutes had passed before tying him up and going to the Hokage tower.

Naruto , to his credit, was able to bounce back from his disappointment at being caught rather easily after being offered lunch by the old man. The old man was so cool. He had cool clothes and everyone respected him. He even had a whole bunch of people in masks who followed his every command! Naruto began to chuckle in a disturbing manner without noticing that he was already at his destination and as his imagination spiralled out of control ,his laughter grew in volume before-

"NARUTO!" shouted the Hokage. He had already been about to sit down and order a meal before hearing the asylum-worthy laughter from outside the restaurant and he had exited the stand to investigate.

"Oh! Look at that! We're here...hahahaha...ha," said a now thoroughly embarrassed Naruto after spotting all the confused and fearful gazes everyone in the street was sending him.

"Just come inside Naruto..." said an exasperated Hiruzen. 'Honestly, it's this kid is a few

cards short of a deck...'

Keeping his rude,if not somewhat accurate, observation to himself. The Hokage simply chose to watch as the boy interacted with the cook and the cook's young daughter.

"I tell ya Ayame-chan! You should've been there! The look on his face was...priceless!"said an animated Naruto to a giggling Ayame"Oi old man! What's keeping you? I'm starving out here!"

Teuchi Ichiraku,the eponymous owner of the stand,simply chuckled before stepping up to Naruto with a steaming ball of ramen,"Here you go you brat. Miso ramen with extra naruto

Naruto let out something between a pleased sigh and exasperated groan before muttering a quick prayer and slurping the ramen in hastily.To make matters worse the boy was trying to speak while eating,"I've told you before Teuchi-jiji. My *SLURP* name means maelstrom *SLURP* it is not a damn ramen topping! "

The friendly family had been essential to Naruto's social development. They had fed him one day when he walked into the stand at the young age of five on a rather rainy day and he had nearly left the stand on reflex upon realising what he had done but Teuchi had simply told him to sit down and gave him a meal on the house. It's no surprise Naruto grew to love the dish. After letting the boy complete his meal ,Hiruzen asked him a question.

"Naruto,what do you want to do?" said the legendary shinobi.

The boy without a moment's hesitation pointed at him and exclaimed,"I want to be Hokage! So you better watch out Hokage-jiji because I'm coming for your fancy hat!"

Hiruzen smiled at the boy's determination before saying," Very well then, I'll register you to attend the academy. I expect you to do your best. Do you understand me Naruto? "

The boy nodded rapidly before hugging the veteran shinobi and exclaimed, "Don't worry jiji,I'll have your office before you know it!"

The Hokage smiled and said,"That's the spirit now listen since you're going to attend the academy now. You have to leave the orphanage,but the village will provide you with an apartment and give you an allowance each month to spend on food and whatever you may need."

The Hokage stood and paid for the food before looking to Naruto and rubbed his hand on the boy's saying, "I can't wait to see you in these robes...Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock and joy before a wide smile appeared on his face.

Flashback end

That day was one of the most precious memories he's had in his whole life. Unfortunately, even that memory wasn't enough ro rise Naruto's spirits. Naruto's apartment was in the district adjacent to the abandoned warehouse district otherwise known as the ganglands. These gangs weren't anything more than a collection of kids of various backgrounds and they fought over the district. It was not anything too out of control and as a whole did not affect the village in any serious form, so the gangs were essentially given free reign in what was seen as a low-value area of the village. The ANBU only took care of gangs that had adults in them and had more sinister plans than fighting for a lowly spit of land. Naruto had been roughed up by the gangs before and while he had shaken it off before , he couldn't continue on like this. If there's one thing about Naruto it was that he always tried to hold his head up high no matter what his circumstances were. That wasn't to say he was always successful ,but he tried his best. Today, though had been enough. He couldn't-no he wouldn't let these chumps beat him down. His pride wouldn't allow it. He was a ninja-in-training for ramen's sake!

Naruto walked up the stairs to his apartment while imagining himself taking down all of the gangs and posing over their defeated bodies. He knew that he was a long way away from being able to take down anyone of the gangs as he was now.

"I need to get stronger," said Naruto while admiring his view of the village from outside his rooftop apartment. He admired the view before taking a deep breath in and shouting,"LISTEN AND LISTEN WELL! MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI ,FUTURE HOKAGE, AND I WON'T GIVE UP NO MATTER WHAT! I NEVER GIVE UP AND THAT'S MY NINJA WAY!"

The sun cast a bright light over the village. The view was so good it brought tears to Naruto's eyes...well not exactly...

"GAH!My eyes! It burns! Stupid sun!"said a peeved Naruto who was clutching his eyes in pain.He cursed the big ball of fire once more before entering his apartment.

Konoha Academy ~ 1 year later

Iruka Umino was never one for the frontlines. He made genin at 12 and stayed at that rank for two years before being allowed to take his first Chūnin exams in Suna. It was during the final stage there where he got his scar from thanks to a rather bloodthirsty Suna ninja with a penchant for wind chakra enhanced shuriken. Despite nearly having the top half of his head cut off he managed to win the bout. He impressed the judges with his wit and profiency in earth jutsu. He spent a few years doing missions and running border patrol before finally landing his dream post at the academy. Yet, in all his years at the academy he has never,had a class so completely and utterly frustrating yet paradoxically filled with so much potential.

Iruka prided himself on his punctuality and his professionalism. He was also able to pay close attention to detail that was why upon entering his classroom and closing the door behind him ,he was still able to identify his students without having to even look at the door. He cracked open a book while he waited for his first student.

Click*

The door opened softly and light footsteps echoed throughout the empty room and Iruka without missing a beat said,"Good morning Hinata."

A mousy-looking girl with dark blue hair and pale lavender eyes smiled at her sensei before responding,"G-good morning Iruka-sensei."

Hinata is the heiress of the Hyūga clan and surprisingly she was one of the nicest people one could ever meet. There was apparent discontent within the Hyūga clan due to her meekness,but that probably was just gossip from the female teachers.

The two of them sat in silence,until more and more students filled in with Iruka identifying them all despite never once looking up from his book before they entered the class.

'Two sets of footsteps.One seems to be shuffling and the smell of potato chips is in the air'thought Iruka as he observed these details in less than a second.

"Good morning Choji. Good morning Shikamaru."

Choji and Shikamaru were the heirs of the Akimichi and Nara clan. These two clans along with the Yamanaka clan were part of a formation of shinobi that were well-suited to capture and interrogation. Between the intellect of the Nara, the physical prowess of the Akimichi and the world-rerenowned mindwalking skils of the Yamanaka amonst other skills they were a match made in heaven.

Iruka noticed a faint buzzing sound and without any preamble greeted Shino Aburame the heir to the Aburame. The boy looked towards Iruka and gave him a polite nod before moving on. The Aburame were known for their use of insects in battle that lived in their bodies and fed on their chakra in exchange for being servile to the Aburame.

'If only they weren't so creepy... ' thought Iruka. There was no doubt that the Aburame clan were loyal to the village,but come on... bugs inside you. That was not up most people's alley. 'It'd be better if they at least let people see how they looked like,'thought Iruka.

A squeal of laughter from the girls of the class let everyone know who had entered and to be honest if one didn't know that the boy who just entered was-

"Sasuke-kun! Over here there's a seat for you! It even has your name on it!"exclaimed one girl and indeed scrawled into the chair's surface were the words 'Sasuke Uchiha '. The boy walked in and to be honest like most Uchiha he had this grace in his step and intense facial expression. To make matters worse he was that kid. The brother of the current ANBU commander -who was apparently a shoe-in for the Hokage's hat- and the son of the current head of the Uchiha clan,Fugaku Uchiha. The Uchiha were currently without a doubt the most influential clan in the village if not continent. They used to run the Police Force but due to the numbers of shinobi having decreased following the Kyūbi attack many of their ranks had either rejoined the normal ranks or joined the ANBU. In fact, they were some of the first to volunteer for the vacant spaces and it was a bit of a reality check to everyone that despite them being rather standoffish and rather rude to those below them ,they truly cared about the village. Although if Iruka had a few more drinks he'd be more than willing to wax lyrical to anyone about how jealous he was of the Uchiha clan.

'I mean a large clan district ,prestige and one hell of a bloodline... who wouldn't be jealous?'That wasn't even mentioning how quite a few Uchiha-male or female - seemed to have no end of people lining up to be with them. Case in point as Iruka noticed the smell of dogs and looked towards the door to greet Tsume Inuzuka's son Kiba and his canine partner ,but before a word could even leave his mouth Iruka heard loud shouting and saw a blur of purple and pink knock Kiba over and send him tumbling ass over teakettle into the opposite wall. The cause or rather causes of Kiba's pain were Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno. Ino-the heiress of her clan- and Sakura -the child of two former shinobi - were two girls who like many others were enamoured with Sasuke. They both tried to argue about who got to sit next to the boy,but Iruka ,having decided to begin his lesson , took a deep breath in and shouted,"KEEP IT DOWN YOU BRATS!"

Now while most teachers would think that a loud shout was more than enough to quieten down the class,Iruka also used a little something called the Big Head Jutsu...needless to say a giant,screaming head tended to calm things down quite efficiently.

Iruka rose and proceeded to the board and was about to begin his lesson when he heard what sounded like a person running down the hall at full speed.The person tried to stop at Iruka's door but ran a little past and slipped before falling to the ground. Iruka observed the boy,perhaps the most enigmatic member of his class, as he tried to rush through an apology/explanation.

"Iruka-sensei!"began Naruto brightly,"Man you're looking great today! Anyways, sorry I'm late but these two stupid jerks wanted to try mess with me so I gave them the old left and right special and then all of a sudden like thirty of them came out of nowhere and I would've stayed and fought ,but I didn't want to be late again so I h-had to take the l-long way t-to avoid them! Pleasebelieveme!"

Throughout Naruto's speech Iruka's facial expression grew sterner and sterner causing Naruto to falter in his apology. Iruka gave him a flat look before saying,"You know Naruto you could've come up with a better explanation than that. I know you overslept Naruto..." said Iruka with a small smirk on his face.

Naruto for his part looked shocked and even a little scared ,but before his mind could conjure up any explanation for how his sensei became psychic overnight his sensei then said,"I didn't know you liked pandas so much Naruto...that cap suits you."

Naruto ,upon seeing everyone in the class smiling and pointing at his head, reached up and upon feeling the familiar softness of his trusty panda cap,he simply pulled it over his head and lowered his head to the ground and just laid there.

Iruka looked at Naruto and said,"Now get to your seat. Don't worry about detention we haven't begun yet..."

Naruto brightened up immediately and after springing to his feet and pocketing the cap said, "Thanks Iruka-sensei! You're the-"

"Panda-chan,"interrupted Iruka. Raucous laughter erupted following Iruka's nickname and Naruto blushed before carrying on towards his seat.

The day did not have anymore noteworthy events and the only part of the lecture that was enjoyable was the usual chakra and jutsu theory. The students had already unlocked their chakra reserves in the first week of the academy and as such they had had lessons on exactly how the energy worked and how to control it. Despite, Naruto's absentmindedness at times he enjoyed these the most. The idea of waving his hands around and then launching massive fireball to his enemies just seemed appealing to him. Apparently this was theory meant to be spread out over the course of their time at the academy ,but the Hokage, having been embarrassed by a rather pathetic showing by some Konoha genin at the Chūnin exams two years ago, decided to experiment with a new curriculum which in essence got the majority of theory out of the way during the earlier years of the Academy as well as the Academy taijutsu, the Zaidanken (Foundation Fist) as well as the basic three ninjutsu:Henge (Transformation ), Kawarimi (Substitution) and the Bunshin (Clone).During the last two years of the academy, the children to receive training of a higher quality and intensity in all of various fields ,but the students were also able to select certain fields to specialise in or omit-outside of the main three fields of course- thus enabling them to be unique shinobi upon their graduation. This was of course mixed with mandatory, physical conditioning throughout their entire time there. Nevertheless, chakra theory and history lessons were able to guide Naruto onto the path of making his first jutsu. One day, Iruka had been speaking about the Kage's of various villages and one thing that was apparent was that they all had some unique aspects to their fighting style. From the Shodaime Hokage's Mokuton that could pin even the Kyūbi down to the Sandaime Raikage's Black Lightning techniques.

'Let's be real here.. it's black lightning. The only thing that could top that would be black fire shooting from your eyes or something 'thought Naruto as he imagined being able to set something on fire just by staring real hard at it. Anyways ,the Kage all had unique and exclusive moves. Thus, Naruto being Naruto decided he'd need his own personal bag of tricks as a future Hokage and after a few months of failure he had finally created the first one. He just needed a name...maybe something like-

A piece of chalk slammed into his nose and he looked indignantly towards the source before gaining a nervous expression on his face as he caught the irritated gaze of Iruka.

"So...Panda-chan...care to share your thoughts? "said a mildly peeved Iruka. He knew the boy was good at heart and he was also quite eager to learn about the mechanics of chakra and jutsu. In fact, he'd been bugging Iruka after class since two months ago and his questions had ranged from the effectiveness of different handseals to chakra control exercises. In fact, he had half a mind that Naruto was trying to create his own jutsu.Multiple.He dismissed those as looking at the boy who'd been staring intently at various objects and people after Iruka had asked him a question before spacing out had made Iruka's skepticism come to the fore . "Anyways Naruto as I was saying which handseal is better for jutsu requiring power Tiger or Ram? Be careful you just might get detention " said Iruka in a singsong voice.

Naruto paled before saying,"The tiger handseal is more suited for producing power while the ram is more suited for techniques requiring control or for gathering one's chakra."

Iruka looked at him sternly before smiling and said,"Good answer Naruto! I guess you won't have detention after all."

The rest of the class were surprised he managed to answer the question as he wasn't what one would call academically inclined and that's being polite. The majority shrugged it off after all even a broken clock is right twice a day. A few of the rest looked towards the blond in interest.

That day ~ Warehouse district

Naruto walked through the very edge of the ganglands before stopping in front of a specific warehouse. He took a deep breath in before yelling,"HEY KASAI, SHINDAN! GET YOU AND YOUR BITCH OF A LEADER OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

The large door opened up before Hashiro walked out with his two goons flanking him. The four boys stood facing each other before Hashiro spoke, "Oh look it's just the little brat...What are you doing here? Here to join the Hashiro Three?"

Kasai and Shindan chuckled at their leader's joke but were cut off by Naruto saying,"Let's make this simple. Me vs the three of you at once. If i win you guys have to pay for something I want and paint whisker marks on your cheeks and keep them on for the next month and if I lose I'll do whatever you say for three months. One month for each of you. So what do say?"

The members of the Hashiro Three looked at each other before nodding. Naruto spat onto the palm of his right hand and Hashiro mirrored him before they shook hands and all four of them took their stances. The Hashiro Three were in the textbook stance of the Zaidaiken(Foundation Fist) and were surrounding Naruto on three sides. Fortunately, they were all in his line of sight. Naruto took his own stance that was similar to the delinquents but his hands were not clenched into fists but his fingers were curled almost like they were making claws and his knees were bent deeper. Naruto waited a good ten seconds before having to dodge a punch from Kasai. He grabbed the front of the boy's shirt with his left before delivering a right cross straight to the temple of the boy. A loud crack echoed out as Kasai collapsed from the strength of the blow. He wasn't given much time to celebrate as Shindan connected with a roundhouse kick to his side that caused him to slam into the nearby wall. He had to quickly duck a punch from Hoshiro before barely managing to roll out of the way of a stomp kick from Shindan. The two boys pressed their advantage and attacked Naruto in surprisingly good synchronicity before Hashiro finally nailed a back kick that sent Naruto skidding across the floor. Now given some space to breathe,Naruto rose to his feet before forming going through three quick handseals before even as the two boys closed in .Tiger. Ram. Dragon .

Naruto smirked and barely a second later shouted,"Rinkai Hoshi(Critical Star)!"

Shindan and Hashiro were just about to be within arm's reach of Naruto before a flash of blue unlike any they've ever seen pulsed out of the boy's body. The light was so bright, it felt like the boys had looked into ten suns. Their eyes began to water even as they stumbled from the disorientation causing light. Naruto, seeing an opportunity to end this, ran towards Shindan before nailing across the jaw with his right fist and it was all over for him today. He waited for the boy to open his eyes and said,"Well Hashiro it's been good ,but I've gotta run!"

With that said, Naruto ran up to the boy before driving a powerful fist into the boy's chin causing Hashiro to be launched onto his back. He was still conscious when Naruto straddled his chest and leaned down towards him and said,"By the way this is payback for two years ago..."

With that said Hashiro looked towards the blue-eyed monster that now had a devious smirk on his face. The last thing Hashiro saw was a fist closing in and then darkness.

Original techniques

Rinkai Hoshi(Critical Star) :C-rank. Supplementary. Naruto's first created jutsu. He channels a large amount of his chakra to all parts of his body before releasing it in an extremely bright flash of light. May cause temporary blindness,disorientation,irritation in the eyes and mild headaches. Strength of the jutsu depends on the amount of chakra used and the distance between the user and it's target. Not suitable for use when fighting in a team.

Zandaiken (Foundation Fist)

A/N:This is my first attempt at writing anything and I've introduced some changes to the story a lot of which you would have picked up on in this chapter. There is more changes afoot and I'm sure one or two will surprise you. As for the pairing it's early days but I could try to do a Harem or I will simply pick a girl. Let me know what you think. Read,Review and Share. Thank you.