Alright everyone here is my newest story. Before anyone starts reading allow me to clarify a few things:

Naruto will begin at around the same level Sasuke was at in the anime/ Manga. That means he'll be strong for a Genin but that's it. I also intend to keep him from being godlike or to OP in this story, so don't expect him to be taking on Zabuza with just his pinky straight out of the academy...actually I wouldn't even expect that if he were to later make Jonin.

I am a bit rusty on my writing skills, so please be forgiving when it comes to grammatical errors; however, feel free to point them out to me at your leisure and I will attempt to fix them.

Finally NEVER expect a beginning chapter dialogue to be this long. Everything else will typically be in the AN from this point forward.

Anyway here's the first chapter of Legend of Naruto Namikaze. Please read the Author Notes at the bottom of the page and enjoy the read!

Dialogue

Thoughts

Demonic dialogue

Demonic Thoughts

Important Information

CHAPTER 1: Battle in the Forest

Minato Namikaze, 4th Hokage of Konoha, sat in his office working on the several large stacks of paperwork littering his desk.

Letting out a sigh, He stood from his seat and walked to his office window. Looking outside he could see the entire village. Many considered the village Hidden in the Leaves to be the most powerful in the world, but to him it meant so much more. It meant home, a place he'd gladly die to protect.

As he gazed at the village below, he saw the people go about their business on the streets and the children playing. Seeing their happy and peaceful faces reminded him of why he'd accepted this job so long ago. He held his gaze for a few more moments before reluctantly returning to his desk feeling newfound motivation swell within him.

As he sat back in his chair preparing to once again do battle against his immortal foe, he caught sight of something that gave him pause. As he silently gazed at the lone picture frame that rested on his desk, he was reminded of another reason he had chosen to become leader of the Hidden Leaf.

He stared at the family photo of him and his wife Kushina Namikaze holding their 5 year old son a few seconds longer before returning to his paperwork. Only this time with an ever present smile on his face.

In a forested area near the outskirts of Konoha

"Here he comes." a 13 year old Sasuke Uchiha thought as he jumped behind a tree, barely dodging the kunai thrown at him.

"That's right; keep all your attention on me." He smirked, leaping away from the tree and throwing several shuriken of his own in the direction of the Kunai.

He stopped in the center of the clearing and drew a Kunai from his holster. Taking a defensive stance, he silently scanned the surrounding forest while waiting for the next attack.

He held his breath as several seconds passed without incident, before cursing under his breath and dashing towards the wooded area ahead.

He knew that if the enemy had stopped attacking him it meant that either they had given up, something he knew wouldn't happen, or they had went after his teammate. Which meant two more things: 1. His teammate was likely dead. 2. If he didn't re-position he would be to.

Sasuke sprinted through the forest at breakneck pace, only to stop when he came across a giant boulder surrounding by overgrown brush; an excellent hiding place.

He ran towards the boulder, his mind already thinking of ways to avenge his teammate when he heard a sharp whistling noise behind him.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he spun around, kunai in hand, only to come face to face with the man who had been attacking his team all day.

" Tch, so much for making a new plan." He bitterly thought as they briefly circled one another before Sasuke finally charged, ready to strike.

Meanwhile inside the same area

"Where is he? I can't see anything in these woods." A 13 year old Naruto quietly grumbled, crouched on a tree branch. Sasuke had just dived behind a tree for cover several dozen yards from him, and he still couldn't find where the enemy was striking from. Their attacker wasn't only skilled, but these tree's made finding anyone almost impossible.

"That's the point of this exercise, Naruto," Naruto jumped slightly as he heard a calm voice behind him but remained when he felt the kunai at his throat.

. "The ability to hide from, locate, and if necessary neutralize your enemy is crucial to a ninja's survival. The element of surprise will decide a battle more times than strength alone. It's critical to remain hidden, quiet, and watchful for your opponent." The voice lectured before tapping Naruto's throat with the knife.

"You're dead." The man calmly stated as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sighing loudly Naruto moved to edge of the clearing that he, Sasuke, and Sasuke's older brother Itachi were training in. Since he was now "dead" all he could do was wait and see if Sasuke had fared any better than he had. Silently he sat down on a fallen tree and watched the surrounding forest.

He only had to wait a few minutes for the Uchiha brothers to walk out of the woods in front of him, and judging by Sasuke's scowling face, sporting a few cuts, it was pretty obvious who had won..

"He caught me when I was repositioning." Sasuke answered Naruto's questioning look, before moving to sit next on the tree next to the blond haired boy.

They both stared at Itachi knowing that a lecture wasn't far behind.

This wouldn't have happened on a normal day. On a normal day Itachi would have helped them with their taijutsu and melee combat. After that, he would've tested them by having them fight each other as he watched; giving advice if he saw a mistake and praise for improvement. H

But this wasn't a normal day. He had surprised them by testing their stealth, sensing, and combat abilities. A test that they had obviously failed since neither had yet to even spot the black haired ANBU, let alone counter any of his attacks thus far. Desperation had begun to set in after the 7th attempt.

"Who wants to go first?" Itachi asked, his voice as calm as it had been after their last 7 failures.

Neither boy spoke for several seconds, with neither wanting to admit their failings; however, as usual one person couldn't stay silent for long.

"It was my fault," Naruto spoke, his eyes fixated on the ground.

"After last time, we decided to try and lure you out by one of us acting as bait to draw your attention and the other to stay hidden and find you. Since Sasuke is faster than I am." Naruto said pointing at Sasuke with his thumb for emphasis. "We decided that he'd be the bait while I tried to find you."

"And what would have done if you had found me?" Itachi calmly questioned.

"I would've tried to get behind you while you were distracted and attacked you with taijutsu. I was hoping to surprise you or at the very least make you turn to fight me. That would've given Sasuke enough time to attack you as well. We were hoping you'd be off balance long enough for us to beat you, or at least get a few hits in." Naruto finished.

"And were did your plan go wrong?" Itachi asked

"It went great at first:" Naruto said looking up at Itachi. "You started to attack Sasuke as soon as he went into the clearing, but even then I couldn't find you. I was so determined to find where you had attacked from that I never noticed you moving behind me until you already had a kunai at my throat…literally." Naruto said touching his throat where the kunai had been. "It was easy after that. You didn't even have to track Sasuke after you killed me since you already knew which direction he ran in. All you had to do was "kill" him."

"Okay Sasuke," Itachi said meeting is younger brother's gaze. "Do you want to add anything?"

"Yes," Sasuke nodded his head in a voice devoid of emotion, though everyone could tell he was clearly annoyed at their most recent failure. "After you threw those Kunai at me I was so focused on keeping your attention that it took me several seconds to notice you had switched your attention off of me. When I did finally notice, I tried to find a new place to hide since you knew where I was, but by that time you had already found me." Sasuke finished as he shifted his attention from Itachi to the ground.

"Is that all?" Itachi asked.

"No" Sasuke said shaking his head once before looking up to Itachi. "It wasn't just Naruto's fault for the plans failure. I was supposed to keep your attention long enough for Naruto to find you, and since I failed to do that the fault is equally mine. Not to mention we both created and agreed on the plan, it wouldn't be right to put all of the blame on him." Sasuke stated, not liking to admit that he too was at fault for the plans failure.

"Do either of you want to know what I think you did wrong?" Itachi asked rhetorically before continuing.

"While the overall plan was flawed in a few areas, I'll only go over the main issues." Itachi said as he looked toward Naruto "Naruto, while you hid fairly well, you were located so far in the woods that you could barely see the clearing. How do you think you're going spot a trained ninja, who specializes in stealth, when you can hardly see anything at all? If this had been a real fight then every moment you take locating me is another moment I can use to locate and kill you or your comrades. That being said, there were several spots located closer to the clearing that would have hid you while giving you the extra visibility to find me. Moreover, you must also always be aware of your surroundings even while looking elsewhere; which brings me to my next point. You were so focused on trying to find me that I managed to get within a few feet of you without you even realizing it. Had this been a real fight I could have killed you, and you would have entered the next world wondering what had happened. It's extremely important to stay alert and never be so focused on something that you leave yourself defenseless to attack." Itachi finished as he looked over to Sasuke.

"As for you Sasuke, once you figured out that I had stopped attacking you the first thing you did was retreat. You didn't even think about helping Naruto fight me, and just assumed I had already killed him. I won't go much further into it since you were correct this time, but it is important that you know that you should never abandon your comrades. I hope that when you do get into a real fight you remember that, I may be strong but I would have died several times if my comrades hadn't saved me. A ninja who relies solely on his own power, no matter how strong he may be, will not live long, and will have few friends in the short time he does." Itachi waited a few seconds to let what he had said sink in before he continued. "Other than that, you had the same problem as Naruto did in staying alert. You were so focused on getting away from me that you didn't even notice I was following you the whole time. If this were a real fight I would have slit your throat instead of giving you a chance to fight me." Itachi finished before looking up at the sun which had begun to slowly sink.

"Any questions?" Itachi said getting the attention of the two boys.

"No." Sasuke merely stated as sat there thinking of another plan to beat his older brother.

"Only that we're going to beat you the next time and it'll be fun watching you explain to your squad how the great Captain Itachi Uchiha got beat by two academy students," Naruto stated as he grinned at the thought of finally beating the infamous ANBU captain.

"As amusing as that would be Naruto, you'll have to wait a while longer before trying to embarrass me." Itachi stated, though Naruto swore he heard the slightest hint of amusement in his voice.

"Huh, why is that?" Naruto questioned while tilting his head to the side.

"It's going to be getting dark in the next few hours, so we're heading back to the compound." Itachi stated earning a questioning glance from Sasuke and a shocked look from Naruto.

"These two truly love to train. If they can keep up that determination then they really will grow into talented shinobi." Itachi thought before continuing to talk to the two young boys.

"Both of you are taking your graduation exam tomorrow, and nothing would be worth upsetting mother, father, and especially Lady Kushina. I would fear for my life if either of you were to fail due to lack of sleep." Itachi explained as he motioned for the two boys to follow him; however, neither Naruto nor Sasuke moved a muscle. Sasuke looked as if he was in deep thought, and Naruto appeared to be trying to find a way for them to stay here longer.

"We've never left this early before. Even if it is the day before the exam, we should be able to train at least another hour?" Sasuke thought but didn't voice his opinion as he stared at his older brother with questioning eyes.

It wasn't that Sasuke was scared of his older brother, although as an ANBU Captain Itachi could likely kill them both without blinking an eye, he simply knew Itachi always had a good reason for everything he did. That being said, it didn't mean he wouldn't try to figure things out. If there was anything else to figure out that is; and he did have a tendency to read too much into his older brother's actions at times.

"Oh come on Itachi we can train for a bit longer. Please, I promise we'll both pass the exam with flying colors." Naruto pleaded. It wasn't often that Itachi found time to train with both Naruto and Sasuke, and Naruto always wanted it to last as long as possible to get the most of each training session.

"Besides." Naruto thought. "Everyone knows the academy exam will only cover the basics plus a few random E ranked jutsu for good measure. Me and Sasuke could pass the exam in our sleep, and still have time to spare!"

"I know that you'll both pass, but humor me anyway." Itachi stated before deciding to give them another reason for their early departure. "Besides I have an important mission to prepare for so even if you both could stay out here longer I can't, and since father has already made it clear that he doesn't want either of you in this forest without someone nearby your both coming with me." Itachi finished in a tone that left no room for argument, as he turned around and began walking back to the Uchiha Compound.

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice. Let's go." Sasuke told Naruto nonchalantly as he began following Itachi.

Seeing Sasuke walk towards his brothers retreating form, Naruto sighed heavily before moving to catch up with the others.

"I still wish we could have trained for a while longer." Naruto thought as he caught up to the two Uchiha's.

As the trio walked Naruto and Sasuke broke into small talk about their Graduation Exam tomorrow; however, it consisted mainly of Naruto talking about who he thinks will graduate and Sasuke throwing in a comment every so often about what he's heard the exam will consist of. While this was going on Itachi couldn't help but feel as if something was off. As he walked, Itachi quietly drew a kunai he kept hidden in his left sleeve without alerting either Sasuke or Naruto, and waited as the odd feeling he had sensed mere moments before suddenly disappear without a trace. After a few more seconds passed without incident, he silently slid the kunai back into his sleeve and began idly listening to the two boys' conversation but never taking his mind off of his surroundings or forgetting the odd feeling he had felt mere moments prior.

Chapter 1 end

Leaf Village Intelligence Division Update: Hidden Mist Village Assessment (Summary)

Despite facing Civil War and several attempted Coups for most of her tenure, it appears that the 5th Mizukage still maintains a firm grip over the Hidden Mist Village. It is believed that most, if not all, of her most hardliner opposition to her reformist policies have either fled or have been killed off leaving the Hidden Mist Village unified under her rule.

With this in mind, we can expect a resurgence in Shinobi from the Hidden Mist village in area's that they have long since abandoned due to the civil unrest requiring more shinobi to be placed in the Land of Water. A key area that we believe may see an increased Hidden Mist presence is the island of Rorra, which lies just east of the Land of Hot Tea. Rorra's ownership has long been disputed between the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud, but due to the civil unrest that had plagued the Hidden Mist until recently the Hidden Cloud has managed to establish several outposts on the island. If the Hidden Mist attempts to re-take or establish a presence in Rorra then it could result in renewed clashes between the Shinobi of the Cloud and Mist. We have taken the liberty of deploying assets W and J to Rorra to gather intelligence about any clashes that may take place, and to gather possible information on the strength of the forces deployed. Sadly we lack operatives close enough to either the Mizukage or the Raikage to know exactly how far either will be willing to fight for Rorra; however, it is unlikely that any possible incident will result in a declaration of war in the near future from either side.

We can also expect that security at the border of the land of Rain will begin to grow more lax now that the Hidden Mist is now unified. This will allow our agents easier access into the nation that has long since been difficult to send and receive information from the few operatives we have inside the war-torn nation.

We can expect trade with the Hidden Mist to increase as they begin to allow more access to their nation, including possible missions from area's previously affected by the civil unrest; however, we should be cautious of the amount of missions we accept from the region until a balance with the resurgent village can be struck. It is also possible that we may receive offers from the Mizukage for joint operations to take place as a way of showing us, and more importantly the Raikage, that the Hidden Mist still has the power to maintain its position as one of the 5 great nations.

The precise strength of the Hidden Mist is unknown at this time due to lack of operatives with access to relevant information. However, due to the prolonged conflict in the Hidden Mist, and considering the amount of Shinobi that the Mist held under the 4th Mizukage before the civil unrest began; we believe that the Hidden Mist has far fewer shinobi than any other hidden village in the 5 great nations (please see full report of Hidden Mist Military Structure, for a complete breakdown of the Hidden Mist current known military force). While it is likely the Hidden Mist has enough shinobi to properly guard its borders, it is unlikely that they have enough veteran shinobi to launch a decisive attack against the Hidden Leaf Village or the Land of Fire at this time. Despite this low threat level it is recommended that we deploy at least 6 more squads to the eastern border of the land of Fire in case the Hidden Mist attempts to probe our defenses in the near future.

ANBU Commander Fang

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Alright everyone this is it for the first Chapter of the story. I have to say it I must have revised this chapter 20 times from when I first wrote it in November of last year. In the end I'm fairly happy with how it turned out overall. Anyway, I'll try to update at least once a month, but I won't make any promises on it. Be sure to give me feedback on how great or terrible I did. If you spot any kind of grammatical or spelling errors, then please send me a PM and I will work on fixing as many of these as I can. Also did you like the Hidden Mist Assessment? To be honest the idea of putting assessments like that into the chapter came from CaptainLaughs story "Genin to Hokage" if you haven't checked either him or his stories out I suggest you give it a shot! Thank you all and have a great day.

Post REWRITE Author's Notes:

Guess who's back everyone? Sorry for the hiatus, things have been a bit tough lately but now I'm finished with school and have a Bachelor degree! To celebrate my break, I've decided to rewrite my story with some major touch ups. This decision didn't come easy for me as I know there are many people who liked my fanfic the way it was; however, I believe this is the right thing to do and it will also allow me to update faster. I should point out that this rewrite will mainly focus on eliminating unnecessary details and improving readability without changing the overall storyline; however, certain events may have changed or have been taken out altogether. That being said everything related to the overall plot will still happen as it would have in the original story. Till next time! Guardian's Blade out.