Naruto New beginnings.

A three year old Naruto sat in a tree at the edge of the village. Looking at the Hokage Mountain, Naruto looked at his father's face.

"Father." Naruto thought to himself. Even after living for three years with his parents love, saying those words, even to him-self felt strange. What was stranger was that he had or was having an almost fairytale childhood. He had a number of friends, and everyone in the village treated him like royalty for being the fourths son. But as much as he enjoyed it, it felt strange, and he made sure never to take any of it for granted.

"All right. Back to work." Naruto said and sticking to the side of the tree, walked down the trunk. Ever since he could walk, Naruto had started training to build his strength and stamina back to what it used to be, somewhat without his parents knowledge. When his friends called him to play, he played a game or two, then snuck off to train and exercise. He had managed to re-master focusing his chakra to his feet and could run up and down surfaces all day.

"All right now for a real test." Naruto said to himself and formed a cross shaped seal

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" He shouted, dredging up all his chakra. There was an explosion and when it cleared there were about two hundred clones littering the field.

"Ah is that all?" Naruto asked as fatigue set in and he dropped to his knees and the jutsu dispersed.

"Man, I really need to work harder." He said when he heard a cough behind him. Freezing up, Naruto turned to see his father's student and one of his oldest friends standing behind him, his uncovered eye wide.

"Um hey, Kakashi, how's it goin." He said, dropping his "Normal kid mask"

"Fine Naruto, your father sent me to find you." He said

"Oh, ok he said, and knew he was in trouble if Kakashi was sent to find him. Naruto got to his feet and started to walk but the chakra fatigue set in again and he almost fell flat on him face when a strong hand caught him by the collar of his shirt.

"I think 200 hundred shadow clones are a bit much for someone your age." He said before setting Naruto on his shoulders and taking off at speed toward home.

"Naruto what have you been doing!?" Kushina asked desperately after seeing the state her son was in.

"I found him in the forest at the edge of the village doing chakra exercises and creating clones." Kakashi said.

"Now son, you're not ready for the clone jutsu yet, I mean you're not even enrolled in the academy yet." Minato said."

"Actually, he was practicing the Kage bunshin no jutsu." Kakashi said, and Naruto's parents eyes widened.

"Really, and how many did he make?" Minato asked but it was Naruto, who answered,

"Only two hundred, but give me a month or two and I'll be up to a thousand." He said confidently, and his mother's jaw dropped as his father's eyes widened.

"All right dear, but now we must get dressed up to go to Hinata-samas birthday, she said as she led him into the house, Minato following them.

"I wish I could be there, but the war with cloud just ended and their emissary has arrived to sign the peace treaty." Minato said, triggering something in Naruto's mind. "Hinata's birth day", he said to himself, and then it hit him. This was the day that Hinata was kidnapped and the cloud emissary was killed. Fortunately, Naruto kept his mouth shut as his mother bathed and dressed him in an official kimono.

"You look great Naru-chan." Kushina said adoringly as Naruto looked in the mirror. Kushina learned years ago that her son's hair grew one way, every way, much like his fathers, but like his fathers, it added to his appeal. Dressed in a dark orange kimono with yellow sun prints, he looked like a prince.

"I do look good, don't I?" Naruto asked amazed, because had never worn clothes this nice in any life.

"Alright, vain one, we're going to be late." Kushina said, dressed in her own green kimono, her long red hair braided.

"Hold on." Naruto said as he just remembered something. Run-ins to his room he dug under his bed and drew out the wrapped present he had bought with the allowance his parents had started giving him. He ran back to his mother and told him he was ready The two arrived at the front gate of the Hyuga compound, and were greeted accordingly.

"Kushina-sama, Naruto-sama, greetings." Hiashi said. He had come to greet his friend's wife and child himself.

"Hiashi-sama, greetings." Kushina said and bowed, and bopped her son on the head to get him moving.

"Uh, a pleasure Hiashi-sama." Naruto said awkwardly.

"Ha Ha, your son reminds me of you when we were younger Kushina." Hiashi said good-naturedly dropping the honorific

"So I've been told." She said.

"Come come." He said and led them into the reception hall. Naruto saw a table piled high with presents and added his own.

"Hey Naruto." A familiar voice said. Turning his head he saw his best friend Sasuke Uchiha standing behind him smiling. Of all the things that had changed during his second birth, it was Sasuke. Instead of being withdrawn and sulky, he was all smiles since the day best friends Kushina Uzumaki, Mikoto Uchiha, and Hikari Hyuga had introduced their children to each other. The three had been best friends since day one, Sasuke and Hinata being drawn almost magnetically to Naruto's open, sunny personality, and Naruto becoming friends easily from remembering them from his first life, or at least he thought he did. He found that Sasuke had become like he was by trying to crawl out of his brothers shadow, and that Hinata suffered much the same way, only with her entire family. Naruto had grown to love both of them deeply, deeper than he had in his first life. He remembered Hinata confessing her love for him before his final battle with Pain and he had not forgotten them. He wondered if Hinata would feel the same way this time around. Speaking of his other best friend, she was hiding behind her mother's leg, since she was still shy, as she was the first time.

"Hinata-chan." Naruto said as he as Sasuke walked toward them.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun." She said and ran toward them and embraced them both. Shy as Hinata was, she was almost a different person around her two most precious people.

"Happy birthday Hinata-chan." Naruto told her. The birthday was a rather stodgy affair where everyone had to stand around and look dignified, especially the three children being from such important families. After the fiftieth had complimented them for no apparent reason than they were from good families, Naruto had had enough. Elbowing each of his friends, Naruto gave them a broad smile then when no one was looking, formed a cross-shaped hand seal.

"Kage bunshin." He whisper, and three clones of Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke popped into existence in front of the three originals.

"Act like us the rest of the night ok." He whispered to them, then grabbed his friend's hands and they snuck out.

"Naruto-kun, I don't think you should have done that." Hinata told him

"Who cares, I'm just glad to be out of there." Sasuke said.
"Lets run back to our houses and change, and then meet back here to play." Naruto said.

"Sounds good." Sasuke said.

"Hinata-chan, you in?" Naruto asked

"A.. All right." She said and snuck back into the house to change as Naruto and Sasuke ran home to change. They gathered back at the front of the compound and played until they were exhausted and the sun went down. They peeked back into the party from time to time to see that nothing had changed, so Naruto snuck in and liberated the presents, and taking them to an out of the way place, Hinata opened them. Most of the presents were "Practical" Gifts of books and cloths. Hinata set them aside with small sighs, but squealed when she came to Naruto's present, a small fox plushy. She squealed again when she opened Sasuke's gift, a small snake plushy.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, Thank you" she said.

"I'm going to see if the party is over." Sasuke said and left. Hinata gave a huge yawn and snuggled close to Naruto, which caused him to smile, and in a second she was asleep. Sasuke silently slipped into the room.

"The party is over." He said.

"Well, Hinata-chan just fell asleep." He said

"eh?? Let's just sleep here tonight and deal with it tomorrow." Naruto told him and slowly slipped down to the floor from his sitting position, Hinata's head resting on his chest.

"Ok" Sasuke said and laid down next to his friends, and all three were asleep. Naruto wasn't sure what woke him up, but he found his eyes open as he heard footsteps running toward them, and for the second time that day, he remembered what day it really was. Slowly lifting Hinata's head off his chest he eased out of the stock room they had hidden in and heard the footsteps grow closer. A ninja came running around the corner holding Hinata, are so he thought.

"Hey, jack ass!" Naruto yelled as the man skidded to a halt

"Out of the way brat." He said

"Look under your arm jerk." He said and the man looked down to see the shadow clone disperse.

"What the…." The man tried to say before Naruto hit him in the chest with a Rasengan.

"Uh." The man said before flying backward.

All right, the first chapter of my Naruto new beginnings stories.