AN: When I began writing this, I didn't have much experience in writing (I still don't), so I'm sure that many things won't go down well with everyone. Nevertheless, I'd like to finish this story in a decent manner, so I'd appreciate it if you stuck until the end and read through the various ways I try to deal with the story's shortcomings before complaining about an aspect of the story you don't like - I may have already answered that question later on in the story.

Also, I should warn you that I almost completely disregarded canon, so many actions the MC does will be completely different to canon. Enjoy.

I don't own Naruto.

Rebirth

I can never forget that day – the day it all started. Before that day, I had just been an average 17-year-old student. There was nothing remotely special about me. Well, apart from the fact that I loved anime much more than most people do. I wasn't an otaku though! It's just that I loved daydreaming about living in the anime world. There was one anime in particular that I loved – Naruto. The story of that little brat turning into one of the greatest ninja ever really appealed to me much more than anything else.

So it was an average day, not too sunny and not too cloudy, and I was walking back home from school. I lived near one of my friends so I was walking with him. The streets were busy as always with the traffic of people returning from work. I was just casually talking to my friend about one of our teachers when suddenly, I heard a woman scream. My friend and I whipped our heads round, just as everyone else nearby did, and we saw a woman on the edge of the road, a few metres behind us, reaching out to the middle of the road. Why was she reaching out? Well, there was a little girl standing in the middle of the road. I remember hearing a loud beep, and turning to see a huge truck rushing towards the girl. The driver was trying, in vain, to slow down the truck.

When I saw the truck, everything stopped. Colours faded from the world, and each beat of my heart echoed loudly. It was then that I realized that the girl was about to get run over. My eyes widened ever so slowly as the truck crept closer to the girl.

The little girl's about to die! I've got to do something!

As soon as those thoughts flashed through my mind, the world returned back to normal. I exploded into action, bursting forwards at a speed even I didn't believe I could achieve. Out of the corner of my eye, I realized that my friend was doing the same.

Huh, what was that saying again? Birds of a feather flock together? I guess it's true.

We reached the girl simultaneously, both of us pushing her with our outreaching hands. Seeing that she was safe, I half-sighed.

Why did I half-sigh? Well, because the truck smashed into me before I could complete the sigh. I was pushed back against my friend, and we both flew back several metres before hitting the ground. I landed on my right arm, and I remember hearing a loud snap.

Well, I'm pretty sure I just broke my arm. I'm done for, aren't I?

My friend had smacked his head against the ground when he landed, undoubtedly killing him instantly. A fraction of a second later, the truck's huge tires ran over my fragile, human body. After a while, I could no longer hear the multiple snapping of my bones.

Goodbye, world.

The lights bled out of my eyes until all I could see was darkness. I saw nothing, I felt nothing, and I heard nothing. In that moment, I well and truly believed that I had died.

I wonder if I'll see my friend.

I kept on drifting in the nothingness for what seemed like forever. Then again, I was dead, so maybe I couldn't really sense the passing of time.

Wow, death is even more boring than my history classes…

Suddenly, I felt something. It was like a tug deep inside me, like someone was trying to pull my very soul.

And it hurt.

I would have cried out if I could, but the darkness was suffocating me. Then I began feeling a rushing sensation, as if I was being pulled at a very high speed. The darkness began getting stripped away in strands, replaced by blinding light.

What's going on? Did I survive?

The pain soon became unbearable, and just as I felt as though I was about to faint, my senses exploded. There was light everywhere, I was freezing cold, the noise was deafening, and my senses were just generally overloaded. Slowly, my senses calmed down until I could open my eyes. When I opened them, I was greeted by a pleasant sight – another human.

I survived!? How!?

As my eyes slowly focused on the human, I realized I was looking at a woman. The first thing that I noticed was that she had flowing red hair. I then saw her eyes, which were coloured a blue like the ocean. Her skin was slightly pale, as though she had recently exerted herself.

Is this a nurse or is it heaven?

I would have carried on musing over her beauty if I hadn't realized that she was holding me. Shocked, I looked down at myself and almost had a heart attack.

I was a baby! I was in the body of a baby!

I tried moving my arms, but it proved too hard for me.

Oh yeah, babies are too weak to move when they are just born… wait, why am I so calm about this!?

I needed explanations immediately, but instead, the woman turned away from me and began talking to someone behind her.

I couldn't hear much.

Then a man appeared from behind her. The man had messy yellow hair and faint blue eyes. He seemed like the kind of guy that all the girls would fall for.

What is going on!? There's no way that this guy is a nurse as well!

When they began talking again, I heard the name "Minato".

Wait, what!? … Now that I look at him, that guy really is Minato! That means that the woman is Kushina! What are two Naruto characters doing here?

Then I caught the word "Kyuubi", and I instantly understood everything. I had been reincarnated into Naruto's body.

… I don't even know what to say… hell yeah! I've been reincarnated!

Because of my extreme excitement, I forgot about the situation we were in. After a while, when I had calmed enough, I remembered what had happened in the anime. They were going to seal Kurama into me. Sure enough, when I turned my head slightly I could vaguely see Kurama chained to the ground. I was tired, and I couldn't focus my eyes properly, so I drifted in and out of consciousness. When I felt something warm splatter onto me, I forced myself awake.

This warm liquid… blood! It's this scene again!

I could do nothing as I watched my parents saying their final words to me before dying. I had never really been close to them (well, I had never been close to them), but I still loved them in the anime, and watching them die in real life was even sadder than watching them die in the anime. Unfortunately, I knew that it had to happen since I couldn't do anything. I didn't blame Kurama since I knew that he was being hypnotized by Obito. I just felt sad. Soon enough, they died, and I was left in silence for a while.

So I've been reincarnated into the Narutoverse… I sure am glad now that I was a devoted Naruto fan, that extra knowledge will be vital from now on…

A few minutes later, Hiruzen arrived, followed by a large number of ninja. When he saw the dead bodies of my parents and the mark on my stomach, he understood everything that had happened. What followed was him saying stuff about how Minato and Kushina had died as heroes and that I would be seen as a hero. I tried staying awake, but my new-born body was having none of that, so I succumbed to sleep pretty quickly.

...

When I woke up, I found myself in Hiruzen's office. The man himself was talking to several ninja, but the forms were too blurry to recognize. After a while, he dismissed them and walked to me. Looking straight into my eyes, he said, "You are a hero, and you will become a legend. Believe in yourself."

I smiled for the sake of making him happy, and he smiled at my response before walking off.

You bet I will.

...

I was sent to an orphanage after a few weeks of living with Hiruzen. I spent the majority of my days sleeping, eating and planning what I would do with this amazing chance. I was too young to begin ninja training, so I began seriously thinking about the possible effects of every event I was planning to change.

I might do something about the Uchiha Clan Massacre, maybe steal a Sharingan or two… but how will I avoid guards, and who will I get the eyes from? There are so many factors to consider…

At that point my thoughts were interrupted when a spoonful of mush was forced messily into my mouth. Already, despite being a toddler, I could sense the hatred that the orphanage workers had for me, and I was disturbed by the animosity they showed towards a child that could barely move.

Of course, I couldn't do anything to them precisely because of the fact that I needed them to survive, so I could do nothing other than to grit my teeth and act like a typical child.

...

My first birthday passed by agonizingly slowly. My body was still too underdeveloped to perform more than a few laps around the orphanage garden, which would leave me exhausted for most of the day, so I couldn't seriously begin training yet, and I wasn't allowed out of the orphanage at all, resulting in 12 months of virtually nothing for me to do. Only a few things kept madness at bay.

Firstly, after my ears were finally developed enough for me to be able to hear adults speaking clearly, I realized that the language spoken was Japanese. I had never really thought about what it would mean if I had to learn an entirely new language, so I was relieved when I discovered that I didn't have to learn a foreign language.

Secondly, chakra - simple as that.

At first, I knew what I was looking for, but I didn't know how to find it. I spent several weeks struggling in vain to detect any form of chakra, and I was saved by the orphanage workers almost 2 months after I had been born.

From what I understood of their gossip, it was mandatory for orphanages to allow all of the children to feel the sensation of chakra at least once in hope that the children would be able to unlock their chakra independently. This session came in the form of a kunoichi who had volunteered to give the children their taste of chakra. She went round the orphanage, holding each child's hands in her own and, from what I could tell, pouring chakra through their hands from one of her palms to another.

When it came to my turn, I almost burst out laughing at the look on her face. She was gritting her teeth and breathing heavily, as if scared that I would attack her. She roughly grabbed my hands and sent a surge of chakra through my hands for a fraction of a second before leaping back like she had been stung.

If anything, I was the one that had been stung. The surge of chakra that she had released had been far too much for what a normal baby would be able to handle, and if it wasn't for the fact that I had the pain tolerance of an adult and was a Jinchuuriki, I'm sure it would have hurt enough for me to scream out loud.

At any rate, the mocking mood that I was in quickly descended into rage.

I'm a kid! A fucking kid! Why is she doing that to a kid!? Is she mental!? … No, wait – everyone here is like her! Everyone's mental here, treating a kid like a monster!

Although I was seething, I was still able to remember the sensation of chakra flowing through my hands. Because of that, I was able to finally detect chakra a few days later.

What can I say about it? It felt like the air around me was a little denser than usual, and I could sense disruptions in the air far easier. Inside my body, it felt even stranger – it was as if I was constantly being stroked, but inside my body rather than on my skin.

After unlocking my chakra, I finally felt confident enough to pay Kurama a visit, so one night, instead of falling asleep, I lay still in my bed, picturing the sewers that characterized the Kyuubi's prison. I wasn't aware of exactly how long I had spent in this way, but all I could tell was that the transition between lying in bed and lying in the sewers was blurred, and soon I found myself facing Kurama's prison.

"Kyuubi! If you don't mind, can we talk for a bit?" I called out, staring intently into the darkness beyond the seal. After a while I felt disturbances in the air, and I could tell that Kurama was rousing. I waited patiently for him to approach the seal, and I could soon glimpse a pair of demonic eyes glaring down at me. After a few seconds passed in silence, I took the initiative.

"Nice to meet you, Kyuubi-san," I began. I added the respectful suffix to hopefully give him a better starting impression of me. "I'm Naruto."

I had the feeling he wanted to say something, so I paused and waited for him to speak. "… You're a kid," he pointed out in the end.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you surprised at the fact that I can talk? Or that I know about you?"

"Both."

Although he only said one word, I could feel his expectation – I could sense that he wanted me to explain. Not willing to aggravate him, I swiftly began speaking.

"What I'm about to tell you, I'm only telling you because you can't tell anyone else, and because by telling you this I want to gain your approval. In other words, I want your power."

The Kyuubi snorted. "Typical humans. I've lost interest, so go away." He closed his eyes and began retreating.

"Please, not so fast, Kurama-san."

When I said his name, his eyes shot open and he shoved his face as close to the seal as possible, allowing me to see his entire face.

"How do you know my name?" He growled the question softly, but his voice was dripping with nothing but killing intent.

"That is what I was about to explain to you, Kurama-san. However, I want a guarantee that you will cooperate with me in the future in return for telling you this."

"Hah! Don't get cocky, human. Besides, what use is an empty promise that I can break at any time?"

I smirked. "Tell me, Kurama-san: do you hate the Juubi?"

As I expected, his eyes narrowed and his face tensed visibly. "Of course. But what I want to know is, how does a child like you know about the Ten-Tails?"

"Alright, I'll stop stalling now." So I proceeded to tell him about my unique situation – namely, the fact that I had reincarnated. It took him a while to believe.

"So, how are you going to prove that this entire universe was simply what you called an 'anime' in your world?"

"Well, I should know things that I have no right knowing. Ask me a question, and see if I can answer it."

A slight smirk danced on his face. "Alright then, how about this: where is the Juubi currently sealed?"

I sighed in relief. Honestly, he might have asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to, but thankfully this was simple.

"In the moon, and it is currently being guarded by Hamura Otsutsuki's descendants."

The Kyuubi stared at me as if I was some kind of mutant. "… You…"

"Now do you believe me?"

He shook his head vigorously. "Wait! … Let me ask you one more question."

I nodded. "Of course, feel free."

"Tell me… why you think I attacked Konoha…"

"Sure. A guy who was pretending to be Madara Uchiha used his Mangekyo Sharingan to force you to attack the village." I could almost laugh at how smoothly this was going.

"… You're right, but what do you mean when you say he was pretending to be Madara?"

"Exactly what I said. Although Madara had already controlled your mind before, the man that controlled your mind this time is Madara's apprentice – Obito Uchiha."

The Kyuubi rose up in shock. "How… oh, that's how you know. I see, I believe you now."

"Finally!" I exclaimed. "Now, do you promise to allow me to use your chakra freely?"

The Kyuubi snorted again. "In your dreams. Sure, I owe you for telling me about Obito and Madara, but I don't owe you that much." Completely ignorant of my growing irritation, the Kyuubi settled its head on its paws and shut its eyes.

I resisted the urge to facepalm in anger – I needed to give Kurama a good impression after all.

"Hey, did I tell you that I also know what's going to happen in the future?"

"… And why should I care?"

"Maybe because a certain Juubi will be making an appearance?"

Kurama's eyes shot open as it got on its paws again in surprise.

"At the expense of the rest of the tailed beasts?"

The Kyuubi growled. "Well then, you'd better make sure that doesn't happen, don't you?"

I sighed yet again. "But don't you see, Kurama-san, that protecting you will be easier with your help? I mean, in case you haven't noticed, I'm just a child."

The moments of silence that followed raised my hopes.

"… Argh, fine!" Kurama exclaimed. "I won't actively try to take over your body whenever you use my chakra. Happy?" He gave me a dirty look before retreating back to the darkness behind him. "Now leave me alone before I regret my decision."

I beamed at him. "Thanks, Kurama-san! I guess I'll see you another time!"

And I promptly collapsed in my bed, too tired to think after the draining talk with Kurama.

...

I didn't dare to use Kurama's chakra while I still lived in the orphanage, but I didn't have any problem using my normal chakra. After playing around with chakra or a while, I came to the conclusion that my chakra control was too good to be true.

I can already keep a leaf stuck to my forehead after only 4 months… while it's true that I don't have an incredible amount of chakra, realistically speaking, I shouldn't be able to do the leaf concentration exercise, considering the prisoner inside me…

After a bit of pondering, I came to the conclusion that it must have had something to do with my reincarnation.

Since chakra didn't exist in our world, I was subconsciously used to a world without chakra. However, now that I've been plunged in a world with chakra, I can sense the differences between having and not having chakra far more keenly than the average person, giving me a higher sensitivity to chakra…

At any rate, I had good chakra control. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain this level of chakra control as I grew since my chakra reserves would likely grow faster than my chakra control, but this was still far better than any child could hope for.

…

I was seriously beginning to dislike the orphanage. Since I was banned from leaving the premises I was very limited in what I could do. Every day I would either stay in my room, planning my exact moves in the future or training my chakra control, or I would try to do some exercise in the orphanage garden. Even this was troublesome, as the kids had detected how I was mistreated by the adults and took it upon themselves to make my life as miserable as possible. Of course, it didn't work, since I usually just ended up hiding from them in the premises, but it was getting quite annoying.

And it's all because of the adults. They're the cause of all of this! I swear I am never forgiving the adults that have treated me so badly…

The adults themselves could be split into three groups: one that ignored me – which I didn't mind, one that feared me – which I found hilarious, and one that hated me. Needless to say, I hated the third group the most. Unfortunately for me, most of the orphanage workers fit into the third category.

Eventually, I just couldn't stand living in the orphanage any more. The Hokage had a habit of visiting every few months on the pretence of making sure that the orphanage wasn't understaffed and underequipped, but I knew that he really visited just to check up on me. It was on one of these days that I approached him when he was about to leave the orphanage.

"Hokage-san," I called out softly, trying to act a bit more like a two-year-old would. He turned around and, upon recognizing me, smiled and bent down a little.

"Ah, Naruto. How are you?" he asked. I almost pitied him for the way he tried to be overly kind. When he came to visit the orphanages I usually behaved like any other child in front of him, so he no doubt regretted the fact that he couldn't get closer to me because of my politeness.

"I'm fine. Well… not really…" I looked down and sighed deeply, putting on a face of dissatisfaction.

"Oh? What's wrong?" he asked, genuinely looking concerned.

"Well… the truth is that… I don't feel comfortable living here…"

He frowned and straightened a little. "What do you mean? Are you not being treated well?"

I shook my head. "I think it would be better if I lived by myself," I suggested. The Hokage's eyes widened a fraction before returning to their usual size.

"Naruto, wait here for me a bit. I'll come back after talking with the orphanage workers." He swiftly made his way back into the orphanage, and I couldn't help smirking in satisfaction.

After waiting for a few minutes, I saw Hiruzen walking back to me, unable to hide the slight frown on his face. "Naruto, I've had a talk with the workers, and we've come to an agreement. Once your third birthday arrives, you will be free to leave the orphanage, and I will prepare a house for you to live in. Until then, you are going to have to remain in the orphanage. Is that okay?"

I was slightly disappointed, but it seemed this was the best I could hope for. "Yes, and thank you, Hokage-san."

His face relaxed and he bade me goodbye before leaving the orphanage.

…

It was a few weeks later that I finally felt that my chakra reserves were large enough for me to try out a jutsu for the first time. Waiting until the sky was inky-black and the orphanage had fallen into complete silence I snuck out to the garden, careful to avoid making loud noises. I knew that there was a chance that I was being watched by ninja like ANBU or Root members, but there was nothing I could do about that.

Breathing deeply to calm myself, I formed the traditional clone seal by crossing my right index and middle fingers with my left index and middle fingers to form a plus sign. Immediately, I felt the chakra inside me rumble and begin to spin around my body, and I could tell that the next step would be to guide the chakra out of my body to form a clone. I wasn't sure exactly how to complete this next step, but the chakra began exiting my body naturally as soon as I thought about it.

No way… is it really this easy?

As soon as this thought ran through my mind my concentration was broken, and the chakra that had been leaving my body quickly retreated back in via my abdomen.

Great… turns out it isn't that easy…

As I quickly found out, using the jutsu required a high level of concentration. Every time I began directing the chakra out of my body, my focus would shatter and the chakra would rush back to my body. However, this wasn't the only problem – as I began getting closer and closer to performing the jutsu, the Kyuubi's Bijuu chakra inside me also began interrupting the process. I could tell that it wasn't intentional – it was just that the Bijuu chakra was more potent than normal chakra, so the imbalance in chakra potency would break my concentration.

To cope with this, I began altering the amount of chakra I let out. Whenever I detected Bijuu chakra exiting my body, I would recall some of my own chakra to create the correct chakra potency. It took a while, but soon I was able to keep the chakra out of my body long enough to transform its shape.

Then came the next hurdle. As I placed my focus on changing the shape of the chakra, some of it would leak back into my body, ruining its shape and my concentration yet again.

This is turning out to be incredibly hard…

In the end, I wasn't able to complete it that night, so I repeated the process several times. It took me almost two weeks to finally use the technique for the first time, and an additional week to consistently use it. At first I limited myself to one clone, but I soon became comfortable with making several clones. After I was confident enough that the clones would last at least an hour unattended, I began ordering the clones to sneak out of the orphanage and familiarize themselves with the town – after all, I had still not even glimpsed anything past the street the orphanage was on.

The next jutsu I worked on was the Rasengan. Now, I know that this jutsu was far too high-level for me to start learning this early, but honestly, it was the only jutsu I knew that didn't use hand seals. I knew the different steps required to learn it, so I began attempting to learn this technique.

…

Eventually my third birthday arrived, and the Hokage came to escort me to my house. It was located near the outskirts of the village and was in bad condition, but I didn't really mind. Once we got there the Hokage showed me around for a bit before getting up to leave.

"I'm going to have to leave you now, Naruto, for I am a very busy man. If you ever need me, just pop into my office, okay?"

"Hokage-san, wait a second please," I called out, and he turned around without delay. "Um… if you don't mind… can you please teach me one easy jutsu?"

"You want to learn a jutsu?" he asked before smiling softly, amusement visible in his eyes. "Why don't we wait until you're a little older, okay?"

I shook my head. "But I need this jutsu! Otherwise, I'll find it hard to live!" I insisted.

He frowned. "And what on earth is this jutsu that's so vital to your survival?" he asked, evidently surprised at my insistence.

"I need to learn the Henge jutsu to change the way I look – if I don't, I just know that I won't be treated well. I mean, I wasn't treated well in the orphanage…"

After a few moments of silence he relented, sighing and nodding. "Fine, I'll show you the jutsu and write down the details in a scroll. Is that enough?"

So he proceeded to show me the jutsu and hand over a scroll about the jutsu. After thanking him and seeing him off, I immediately began learning the Henge jutsu. Using a large number of shadow clones, I was able to learn the jutsu in a few hours, and I instantly put it to use when I went out to shop for furniture - the Hokage had given me a decent amount of money to start off with and told me that he would send money every month.

Returning home at night, I crashed onto my bed and fell asleep instantly.

…

The next day I got up early, since I had a ton of things that I wanted to do. The entire time I got ready, I had one thought constantly buzz through my head.

From now on, everything will be different to the Naruto plot…

The first thing that I did was make my way to the Uchiha Clan complex. The land that the Uchiha owned was vast, almost comparable to a third of the village, but there was one entry point that was well-known, so I made my way there, taking several scrolls I had borrowed from the library the previous day with me. I then used Henge to transform into a black-haired kid and sat down near the entrance, close enough to see it clearly but far enough so that it wasn't too suspicious, and pretended to read. It took a while, but after several hours I spotted a young Shisui leaving the Uchiha complex. I immediately followed him, making no attempt to hide myself. He didn't react in any way, but I was sure that he had spotted me.

The path he took led us further out of the village until we could see the city walls. It was in an alley near the walls that he finally confronted me, a hand on the handle of the tanto on his back and his Sharingan eyes spinning madly.

"I refuse to believe that you're just a normal kid who wants to see me use jutsu – my eyes can see through your Henge. What do you want?" he asked, his voice steely but not aggressive.

I quickly dispelled the Henge and raised my hands to show that I wasn't equipped, and he dropped his arm in response – although he didn't deactivate his Sharingan.

"As expected, Shisui Uchiha. I'm Naruto, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki," I introduced myself.

He nodded as he recognized me. "How can I help you, Naruto?"

I sighed deeply.

This is going to be one hell of a confession.

"Can we talk somewhere more private? Or maybe you could cast a genjutsu around us with your Sharingan to ensure no one detects us?"

He raised an eyebrow at the peculiar request, but nevertheless fulfilled and stared at me expectantly.

"Alright. What I'm about to tell you next will be unbelievable at first, but I can assure you that I am telling the truth, and I'm willing to prove it to you as well…"

So then I proceeded to explain to him the details of my reincarnation. Now, before you get any ideas, I didn't just tell him this because I felt like it. I had specifically planned to inform Shisui first for several reasons: he was strong enough to protect this secret; he didn't have such an important position that I couldn't approach him easily; and I could trust him.

While I spoke to him, I watched his face to see any sign of hostility but, barring a slight widening of the eyes, he didn't show any reaction to what I said at all.

"So how are you going to prove all of this?" he asked me.

I thought carefully. I needed to give him a piece of information that I had no right knowing, and that was somehow linked to him. Eventally, I settled on something, although I wasn't completely sure of its reliability.

"… I know about what the Uchiha Clan is planning," I said. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly and leaned forwards but remained silent, so I took this as a sign to continue. I mouthed the next part. "Rebellion."

After a few seconds of dead silence, he took a deep breath and rocked back on the balls of his feet. "I… can't believe it…"

"I can even tell you who would have killed you."

His face shot up and his Sharingan eyes spun madly. "Who?" he almost whispered intensely.

"Danzo."

Again, this caused him to lapse into silence. I let him debate with himself for a while, and after a few minutes he finally looked up again.

"… Why are you telling me all this?" he asked.

"Because I need at least one person to know the truth, and I know I can trust you."

He smirked ever so slightly and deactivated his Sharingan. "Naruto… I'm going to have to leave now, but don't be afraid to simply inform the Uchiha guards that you want to see me, got it?"

"Sure. Also, you can tell Itachi everything I told you, but no one else – not even the Hokage."

He nodded and shook my hand. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Naruto," he said before leaving.

First task of the day done…

Next, I visited the library (using a Henge transformation) and borrowed a ton of scrolls on various ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu and basically anything useful to a ninja. I took these scrolls home and copied them all onto my own scrolls (of which I had bought a huge number) using shadow clones. Then I got some shadow clones to work on these various jutsu. As for myself? I pulled out some scrolls and began working on fuinjutsu.

The reason why I began working on fuinjutsu was because I had several ideas and theories regarding it which I wanted to test out – namely, if fuinjutsu was only performable when using Japanese kanji in addition to strange symbols and markings.

You see, back in my old world, I had been studying English in order to migrate to the USA to find a job there. Now, with this partial knowledge of the English language, I wanted to try making seals. So first, I got a blank piece of paper and wrote 'bag' on it in English. I poured a little chakra into it, and I could suddenly feel a strange sensation arising from the seal, as if I was sticking my hand down a hole when I touched the seal.

Experimentally, I placed an apple against the seal and poured my chakra into both the seal and the apple, causing the apple to simply vanish. When I poured chakra into the seal it was as if I was grasping the apple, so I could tell the apple was inside the seal. Pouring more chakra into the seal in the direction of the apple caused the apple to exit the seal, appearing in my hands.

I see, just as I thought… Japanese writing focuses heavily on handwriting neatness, and a single incorrect stroke can completely ruin the meaning of the character being written… on the other hand, English is far more accepting of messy handwriting, so I don't need to go through the months of handwriting training to make my own seal…

I then attempted the same thing but in Japanese, and this time it didn't work.

As I thought, handwriting is vital for fuinjutsu…

So I spent the rest of the day testing out various theories on fuinjutsu. In the end, I came to a final conclusion on what fuinjutsu really entailed.

Simply put, fuinjutsu is the same as ninjutsu, just expressed differently. To perform a jutsu, manipulation of chakra and intention is needed. The manipulation of chakra is done using hand seals in ninjutsu and through writing and drawing marks for fuinjutsu. The intention or purpose always stems from the person performing the jutsu.

Using that logic, if one has extremely good chakra control, one can miss out the 'manipulation of chakra' step, since that person already has a high ability to control chakra. I guess that would explain how with enough training you can reduce the hand seals needed to perform ninjutsu…

However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. When I tried to make a more complicated seal, I found that I needed to be clearer with my words and I usually had to write more. For other seals which I had a vague idea how they would work but nothing concrete, nothing would work – I guess that was down to me lacking a clear intention on what I wanted to happen.

Finally, I found that for seals which used elemental chakra, I couldn't make them at all, which was probably down to the fact that I couldn't make elemental chakra.

Nevertheless, I was very happy with my results, so I called it quits after a while and went to sleep.

…

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. After Shisui informed Itachi all about me we began to meet up in the Forest of Death, where they would help me train and I would tell them a bit more about the future and potential opponents. I also spent time learning the Rasengan and various other techniques I had obtained from the library, although none of them had the destructive power of the Rasengan.

Now, I had already explained why I told Shisui about my reincarnation. However, the truth of the matter was that the biggest factor which helped me decide to tell Shisui was his Kotoamatsukami genjutsu given by his Mangekyo Sharingan, and what I would do with it. This also had something to do with why I told Itachi about me secret as well.

You see, although I'm not exactly wired to the Konoha radio, Shisui and Itachi have been able to provide me with rumours and information, and I've found out that Kumogakure would be sending an envoy to Konoha in an attempt to end the Third Shinobi World War which was taking place. Naturally, I knew that this was a front to obtain the Hyuuga's Byakugan, so I quickly formed a plan based on Shisui's eye and Itachi. When the envoy was a few days away from arriving, I began executing the plan.

First, I would get Shisui to use his genjutsu on Danzo. This took a huge amount of convincing though, as Shisui hadn't wanted to use up the genjutsu – which could only be cast every 10 years – in one eye. Nevertheless, he didn't eventually concede to my plan, and proceeded to hunt Danzo down and implant false memories which implied that I had saved Danzo's life multiple times and that I was actually an adult sealed in a child's body.

I wasn't completely sure of how well this would work, but I was delighted when the very same day, as I was preparing to sleep, I found Danzo knocking on my door.

"… Danzo-san? How can I help you?"

He shook his head ever so slightly. "Please, just Danzo. I don't deserve your respect, sensei."

It took all of my willpower not to gape. "I-if you say so…"

"So, any new orders? I assume that's why you sent a messenger to get me," he expanded.

"Yeah… mainly, keep doing everything you are, keep my existence a secret, stop trying to harm Hiruzen, and assign Itachi to protect Hiashi's daughter on the day the peace treaty will be signed. Also, I'll need you for some other stuff later, so how can I get in touch with you quickly?"

"I will inform Itachi of my whereabouts so that he can relay messages. Now, in case you have anything else to say sensei, I will have to depart."

… That… was the weirdest experience ever… Danzo calling me sensei…

On the day when the Hyuuga affair was to take place, ironically, I could do nothing but stay at home, while Itachi was protecting Hinata and Shisui was working for the village. Needless to say, I was too stressed and nervous that day to train properly, so I went out for a walk instead.

…

The next day, after meeting up with Shisui as usual, he I discovered that my plan had been a success – Itachi had stopped Hiashi from killing the Kumo ninja that had snuck into the house to abduct Hinata. Instead, the ninja had been captured and sent back to Kumo, who denied accusations that the peace treaty had simply been a cover for obtaining the Hyuuga heir. To back up this claim they eventually signed the peace treaty, and Konoha was confident that the Third Shinobi World War would soon come to an end.

I mean, I never doubted my plan in the first place…

…

It wasn't something obvious, but gradually, I began realizing that Itachi was daydreaming more often during our training. At first, I had no idea whatsoever could cause Itachi to stress over, but when I saw his contemplating look mixed with a strange reaction – that made him look guilty – I could only think of one answer: a girl.

The question was – which girl could cause Itachi's conscience to be so divided? So one day, with the excuse that I wanted to have a holiday for one day, I cancelled our training and got Shisui to stalk Itachi. He went on to employ the help of one of his friends, who was a Hyuuga, and with his Byakugan the friend was able to determine who the very few people that Itachi interacted with were. Finding out their names was easy – a simple shadow clone using Henge convinced them to say their names – but at first their names were simply refusing to ring bells.

"What was your name again?"

"It's Izumi Uchiha… why?" the young brunette asked.

… Izumi… Uchiha?

It turned out that the shadow clone simply burst out of existence from the sheer shock, and the information rushed into my head.

Izumi Uchiha… I remember that name… but I didn't know it was a girl! Damn, I guess not even I could remember everything about Naruto. But I guess I understand now why Itachi was blanking out during training – as far as I can remember, she must be the girl that Itachi helped during the Kyuubi attack…

At that point I had made up my mind to pair up Izumi and Itachi, or at the very least try. So when Itachi arrived later that day, I suggested something to him.

"Hey Itachi, I met this nice Uchiha called Izumi. Do you know her?"

His expression, if anything, seemed to harden a little. "Yes. Why?"

"I was thinking that she could join our training sessions."

"… Can she be trusted?" I may have been hearing things, but I was sure that I could detect hope in his voice.

"As far as I know, yes – although I won't reveal my secret to her yet just to be on the safe side."

It was safe to say that Itachi seemed to concentrate much better during the training after that. As we were about to leave I suggested to Itachi to get to know Izumi, and then I turned to Shisui.

"Your Mangekyo ability has a 10 year cool-down, right?"

He nodded, no longer finding it strange that I knew things like that.

"Well, you can reduce the cool-down time drastically by injecting Hashirama's cells into your body."

He stared at me. "… And where exactly am I supposed to get the cells of a deceased person?"

"Danzo. It's your choice, but if you choose to do it just tell him what I told you."

He nodded, slightly dazed in shock, and we walked out of the forest.

…

In the end, I decided to go with Shisui to Danzo. Shisui got the Hashirama cells injected into his body, and I convinced Danzo to give me one of his Sharingan, which was implanted into my eye.

You see, I always believed that Danzo had obtained all of the Sharingan in his arm from the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Turns out that I was wrong – Orochimaru had implanted it into his body a long time ago, which explained why Danzo wore bandages over his arm even before the Uchiha Clan Massacre. The arm apparently used to be owned by one of Orochimaru's test subjects, called Shin, but eventually Orochimaru simply ripped it out of Shin and implanted it into Danzo.

So anyway, Shisui began getting Hashirama cells injected into him and I got a three-tomoe Sharingan implanted into my left eyeball. The Sharingan, as I quickly found, was extremely useful – watching someone doing a jutsu a single time allowed me to memorize the hand seals needed and have the chakra fluctuations for that jutsu imprinted into my mind, allowing me to perform the jutsu rapidly.

Itachi questioned me as to where Danzo had obtained his Sharingan, but he quietened down when I explained to him the story of Shin.

It may have helped that Izumi had chosen to arrive in that precise moment…

As I quickly found out, Itachi really did have feelings for Izumi, although they weren't strong enough to qualify it as love. Seeing this, Shisui took every chance to tease Itachi, and Izumi jumping in to his defence only made it worse for him.

So the first time Izumi had joined us, while Itachi was enduring Shisui's teasin, she approached me slowly and asked me a few questions.

"You're… Naruto, right?" I nodded. "How come you're training so hard even though you're a kid?"

I resisted the urge to smirk at the last part. "I know many things you don't, and I know the future is a very unpleasant place, so I'm preparing for it."

She raised her eyebrows. "You're quite intelligent for a kid," she stated.

This time, I resisted the urge to grind my teeth together. "Well, knowledge is power."

"And power corrupts," she said with a small smile.

"… Really? Well then, answer this: if you had the chance to save a dying relative, but you needed to accept power that would corrupt you, would you do it?"

She thought for a while, eventually shrugging and shaking her head. "It depends. Besides, I'd have to actually be in that situation for me to be able to make a choice."

"… Trust me; if there ever came a time when you were in that situation, you wouldn't be able to make the choice. Being a ninja means you must learn what to sacrifice to gain something else. It's not all fun and games."

I doubt she ever saw me as a 'kid' after that.