Chapter 1: Extra Credit for Graduation

Naruto was tree jumping through the forest looking for the clearing he needed to find to pass his extra credit for the Genin exam. "Mmm, where is it? I feel like I've been searching for this place forever! I'm not going to have time to learn a cool new jutsu." It had been 2 hours since Naruto since Naruto took the Forbidden Scroll from its hiding spot. He was glad that he had spent so much time with the old man; he often got bored watching the old man do paperwork and played in the Hokage's office. He had one day came across the big scroll before, but it had suddenly been taken from him by and Anbu ninja wearing a Dog mask before he could open it. Sarutobi had hid it in a different spot but Naruto found it again in a few days.

Originally, Mizuki had told Naruto that he would have 3 hours to complete his assignment or he would fail the graduation exam. The council would be meeting that night and he, the Hokage, and many of the Shinobi would be in attendance and the scroll would be the least guarded then. Naruto was to learn a jutsu from the scroll and he would earn his extra credit and therefor become a ninja of the village. However, Mizuki did not count on the council to run on longer than he had expected. The topics were of course the exam's results and suggestions for the teams' assignment. Not surprisingly, Sasuke was the most sought after teammate for the parents of many of the graduating class. Each thinking that they could use their daughters as wives for the "Last Loyal Uchiha" or gain his favor. There were others who suggested that under an apprenticeship, Sasuke would flourish, especially if he managed to unlock the Sharingan. At the mention of the powerful doujutsu, almost every eye turned to Hatake Kakashi. Said jounin was in the corner of the room reading from his infamous orange book and giggling to himself. He looked up, seemingly surprised that everyone was staring at him, but went right back to reading his book. At that time, there was a great commotion outside the meeting hall and Ebisu broke into the council meeting. Sarutobi looked at the ninja who was teaching his grandson and noticed suspicious dried blood on him that suggested a massive nosebleed but what really got his attention were the words that he yelled out, "The Forbidden Scroll has been stolen by Uzumaki Naruto!"

Meanwhile, Naruto had come to a stop in a clearing with a pyramid made from the nearby river. "There's Mizuki's signal, I made it." He open the scroll and looked at the first jutsu listed, "Hmm, Shadow Clone Jutsu. Oh no, not another clone jutsu! But I've never heard of shadow clones, lets give it a try." Naruto skipped over most of the technical notes of the jutsu, his eyes losing focus until he found the instructions on how to perform the jutsu. Luckily it only included one handsign, the very one he had practiced for months trying to perform the regular clone jutsu. Regular clones were just illusions made up of the smallest bit of chakra from his chakra points; however shadow clones were tangible being capable of interacting with the world and others independent of the caster. This required some form of chakra push from his central chakra network, which needed less control. Naruto stood ready and gathered his chakra and yelled out (Shadow Clone Jutsu) and 20 clones poofed into existence in front of him. "Hole in One!" he yelled out but as he was cheering he noticed that the clones slowly faded away until they disappeared. "Hmm, maybe I didn't use enough chakra?" He tried again gathering but decided on only making 5 clones this time. He yelled out the jutsu again and 5 clones appeared before Naruto. As he inspected his doppelgangers he noticed that 2 looked like they were fading away, 2 of them seemed fine, and the last one looked like he had been bored into the Akimichi family. Naruto stood closer as he examined the clone and was surprised that it looked like it was still expanding until "Kaboom" rang out through the forest.

Naruto got up, coughing from the soot that had been created from the explosion. "What the hell just happened?" Looking back into the scroll, he noticed a small note scribbled to the side of the jutsu, "Caution: clones can be used to create explosions if too much chakra is focused on it." Naruto kept trying to make the clones. Some had fallen apart, others had faded away, and a few more had exploding around the clearing. Determined to get it right, he yelled out the jutsu one last time and dove behind some rocks to shield himself from anymore explosions. He waited for a few seconds before popping his head out from cover and saw 10 copies of himself staring back at himself. Figuring it was safe to come out, he went up to look at the clones. He started poking and pulling on the clones and they got aggravated and started to hit him. After the small brawl with himself, Naruto leaned back and relaxed underneath the stars that were showing. Figuring that he might have time to learn one more jutsu to show off his greatness, he skimmed through the scroll to find another jutsu to learn. He saw a couple Katon one but knew that if he started blowing fire around, people would accuse him of copying Sasuke. There was one jutsu that caught his eye, it had no name but it did show a picture of a seal. Fuuinjutsu had been interesting to Naruto, after all he used them to store his precious belongings as he found that they were not safe in his apartment where people could occasionally break in and ransack his things. Also, he learned long ago their usefulness in many of his pranks he would pull across the village. Looking into the scroll he copied the seal on the ground to the specifications that the scroll suggested, using his blood in place of ink as it was suggested. He began going through the many handsigns when Iruka arrived in the clearing. "Naruto, what do you think you're doing," Iruka yelled at his student. "Earning extra credit for the exam! I already learned one jutsu and now I'm about to do another so you have to pass me," replied Naruto. Iruka was surprised by this, and in that moment Naruto had finished his handsigns and was about to slam his palms on the seal. "Naruto, stop!" Naruto looked up to see the scared look on his teachers face as he completed the jutsu. Iruka could only look on as his student vanished in a flash of light.

At first Iruka stood dumbfounded at the spot where Naruto disappeared. He thought that maybe Naruto was pulling on of his pranks on him but when he hadn't shown up laughing at him he changed his man. He sealed the scroll left on the ground and handed it to the Anbu who had followed him, copied the seal that Naruto had drawn and was headed back to the Hokage tower to make his report. He ran into Mizuki not far from the clearing where Naruto disappeared. If Mizuki was surprised to see Iruka there, he hid it well. "So Iruka, did you manage to find the demon brat?" Iruka glared at his co-teacher and said "NARUTO disappeared claiming that he was going to use some new jutsu to pass the graduation exam. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" Mizuki calmly lied and replied," Me? No way. He probably made that up so he could get away with stealing the scroll. Did you happen to find the scroll with him?" "Yes, and its already on its way back with one of Hokage's Anbu." "Well great job Iruka, guess we should head back then." Mizuki stood out of the way, letting Iruka pass him before he could see the look of frustration on his face. "Damn, the scroll is out of my reach now and will probably be hidden by I got back. At least that demon is gone and without him, I'm in the clear."

Naruto woke up with the worst headache he had ever had. He looked around and noticed that he was lying in front of a giant door. He noticed other doors around him, but they all looked different from each other. He stood amazed in the middle in of the room when he suddenly heard a voice speak behind him. "Ah, another visitor, I sure am popular tonight." Naruto looked around but he could not see anyone, "is that a ghost?" The voice suddenly laughed and said," No, I am not a ghost young traveler; I am simply the Guardian of the universes. I have many names, but you may just call me Ansem." As the voice finished speaking, a tall man dressed in a white lab coat and blonde hair stepped in front of Naruto. Naruto didn't feel any hostile intent from the strange man who had suddenly appeared in front of him and gave a smile and stuck his hand out, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be Hokage one day and get everyone to acknowledge me, believe it!" Ansem was surprised by the friendliness of the young shinobi in front of him and smiled back at the boy. "Hokage, you say? Well I believe I can help you then Naruto. You see all these doors surrounding us?" Naruto nodded. "They are links to different worlds, with many adventures that you can take. There will be many strange things that you will encounter but you will become stronger. However, travelers are very rare and many may try and attack you or use you in some way; however I believe that it's something you may have experience before?" Naruto who had had been looking around at the doors suddenly turned back to Ansem with a wide eye expression. "How do you know that?" Ansem replied, "Oh, I know many things that happen in the different worlds, as for you, I'm afraid that is not my secret to tell." Naruto looked up and noticed the troubled look on Ansem's face and understood that the old man would not tell him. "However, know this Naruto. When you do discover the secret surrounding you, you must promise me not to let it get the best of you. I understand that it may hurt you but think of your precious ones, the ones you vow to protect and never stray from your dream of becoming the strongest Hokage." Naruto then did something that surprised the 2 of them, he hugged Ansem. "Thank you for believing in me." Shocked as he was, Ansem returned the hug back knowing that the young child had faced many hardships in his life and would face many more before it was finished. "Now Naruto, I know you are eager to check out the new worlds but maybe you should head back home for now? There will be always be time to explore. But I feel like you should get back before they worry too much about you. It's easy, just go through those doors behind you and picture where you want to go." Naruto stood back wiping the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes at the emotions he was going through. "Will I see you again Ansem?" Ansem replied, "In time, I will not always be here at the crossroads but we will meet again my young friend." Naruto grinned and stood before the doors to go back to the elemental nations. 'Where do I want to go?' his stomach gave out its suggestion with the reminder that it had been hours since he last ate. "Ichiraku's it is then!" he yelled out as he pushed open the door.

Author's note:

So this is my first story I'm posting on fanfic. This chapter was a little longer than I originally thought it would take (over 2,000 words I still can't believe it) but I prefer reading long chapters so that's what I wrote.

To start off, I couldn't think of a name for who Naruto would meet at the crossroads of the universes but for some reason the name Ansem came to me. While I wasn't trying to bring in the Kingdom Hearts character I guess it fits. Naruto will run into Sora and the others from KH but he may not follow the same storyline they do.

I do have some ideas for the other universes that Naruto will stumble into in but I'm always open to suggestions.

Also, Naruto will run into other Travelers such as himself in the other universes so I can also use some ideas for that.

I also don't know what to do about pairings just yet, or if there will be a harem in this story or not. So I will consider suggestions for that as well.

One more thing, Naruto will be able to bring things along with him from other universes I just haven't decided on what. Also I'm not sure if Naruto will bring others in his travels.

I may do polls if I just can't decide on something on my own and they will appear on my profile, as soon as I learn how to do that.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story that I've wrote so far, would love to hear what you have to say about it. I will update when I can, so maybe by next week I should have another chapter up. We'll just have to see.