Once again I don't own Naruto.
I'm using this story to practice my writing since Naruto by itself is better since I understand the world the most and it lets me set up a Naruto for future stories based on this one. Any tips or advice is always welcome and just so you know Madara will be the final villain in terms of strength. Kaguya might get in the story but it won't be as a final boss nor at the same level of power she had.
Naruto Namikaze was 10-year-old academy student who had just finished another day going over material his parents had already taught him. Currently he walking down the busy streets of Konoha easily recognized by everyone due to his long slicked back yet still spiky blond that reached the middle of his back. He was wearing his normal outfit of a sleeveless orange hoodie and white shorts along with the standard blue ninja sandals.
He excitedly waved to the civilians who pointed at him happy to see the son of their Hokage.
Yes, everything was going great except for one thing Naruto underneath his infectious grin had never truly been happy not to say he was depressed but he always felt an itch that never quite went away while he was inside the village. The only time it lessened was when he would stargaze from the top the hokage monument.
He put a stop to that train of thought upon seeing his family's quaint little house that no one would think belonged to the leader of the strongest village. Upon enter "Hey I'm home mom!" He yelled as walked in and saw her watching over his little sister Uzume Uzumaki (who much like him showed that Minato had strong genes with blonde hair and blue eyes) while she cooked. The small 2-year-old child was utterly enraptured by Kushina's long red hair and seemed to be having fun getting tangled in it.
It and had been 2 years since the Kyubi had been released into the village and Kushina had lost half the fox with only the portion she kept letting her survive though permanently removing her from active service. Still even after that she looked much the same as she had before.
"Oh, Naruto your back how was your day?" She asked while working on what was going to be dinner for the day. Absently mindedly she summoned a chakra chain and hovered it above Uzume letting the child have something a bit less annoying to play with than her hair.
"Same as usual just repeated material and I'm still the 2nd best student in class right behind Itachi Uchiha though I'm pretty sure he's about to try graduating early so I don't think my placement will be accurate for long." Naruto explained as he went upstairs to his room to rest.
As he entered his room which was rather sparse since he didn't really care too much for decorating his room with unimportant things he looked outside and for the first time he knew exactly what he wanted he would just need a bit of time. For now, he decided he would train until dinner so started working on the most recent thing his father told him about leaf cutting.
'All I have to do is convert my chakra to a wind nature and just cut." As he attempted to do this with one the leaves he had around his room since he started trying this a month ago, he managed to cut half way though the leaf.
'Better but not enough power that time.' He though as continued to practice for an hour until he was called down for dinner. As he walked to the table he saw his father Minato writing in a small scroll he used when he had flashes of inspiration.
"So Naruto have you made any progress yet?" He asked while jotting down an idea for a thrown rasengan that came to him while teaching his son about chakra natures.
"Not yet but I'm close to a breakthrough." Naruto responded while looking around and seeing Kakashi lounging on the couch. Upon seeing him he reached down and grabbed his slipper and threw it straight at the young teen's head only for Kakashi to dodge it without looking.
"Naruto what has you so worked up did something nice happen today?" He asked in the most mocking manner possible knowing Naruto preferred for any guest to announce themselves after his surprise meeting with Guy.
At this point, Naruto knew to ignore him when he got like this there was only irritation waiting at the end of that conversation.
"Don't worry your working on something that takes most people years to learn and master to be this far in only 3 months is impressive." Minato complemented before digging into his food.
The rest of the night was a quiet affair with everyone either leaving or retreating to their rooms to sleep for the day.
As he lay in his bed he started planning again and decided the first thing he would learn in preparation for his departure would be chakra sensing and who better than his father.
The next morning Naruto could be found walking into the Hokage's office not getting stopped once on his way in a side benefit of being the Hokage's son.
"Naruto what's going on you don't usually visit me unless your mother sent you here on an errand?" Minato asked upon noticing his son's presence in the otherwise empty room.
"I wanted to ask if you could make a shadow clone to teach me how to sense chakra." It wasn't a huge take and Minato had more than enough time to do it.
"I'll do you one better." Upon saying this he stood up and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and activated one of the markers connected to his personal training ground.
It took Naruto a second to recover from the rather sudden teleportation that left him feeling like his stomach had been turned upside down. "Urgh." He covered his hands with his mouth to prevent his breakfast from coming right back up.
"Sorry I forgot that some people can't take it well." He sheepishly explained before straightening up.
"Now most people who are sensors take ambient chakra from the environment over a set distance and get their information from that are you with me so far?" at this Naruto nodded "Good however my way is little different" Minato lowered one hand to the ground a pulsed his chakra in two motions a sweeping wave out that as it returned was met with another wave. "What I do is I send one wave of chakra out to act like a sonar doing so alerts people to my exact location though so in addition to that I send out a secondary wave as the first is returning to cancel it and bring the information from the first back with the second when it bounces off the first wave." He explained standing up.
"I think I understand it would be like chasing someone only for them to suddenly disappear from your sight." To Naruto he knew this was exactly what he would need if he didn't want to be found. Naruto ran over to his father embracing him in happiness "Thanks I really appreciate this." He said breaking away from the hug only to feel his father's hand on his head.
Minato grinned while ruffling his hair. "You're my son I can always make some time to do small things like this." With that said the two relaxed enjoying the small moment with Minato not knowing it would be the last one he would be having for many years.
Things continued like this for next few week a cycle of Naruto slowly preparing gather supplies and useful techniques such as a method he found in the library that explained how to open the gate of opening and remove the body's natural limiters. He'd also emptied out his savings he was planning to use on ninja gear once he was older but with his new plan there would be no use letting it sit there and go to waste.
With his preparations done Naruto could be found 4 weeks later sitting on his bed a note to his family in hand explaining himself to them. He was wearing his usual outfit figuring it would be fine for most terrain he would be going through on his goal and dream to travel the Elemental Nations. His first stop was to go south and catch a ship north bound to the Land of Lightning since from what he understood the Land of Bears was a hard to traverse area with poisonous ravines. Just thinking of his course though the world he was already excited.
"I'll be back." He whispered into the house knowing everyone was asleep and wouldn't hear him but doing more for himself.
With his goal in mind he opened his window and set off into the night not looking even once.
The next day when Minato woke he had an immediate sense of wrongness assault him. As a ninja and a damn good one at that he trusted his senses and did a quick sweep of the house only to notice there was no chakra in Naruto's room.
"Kushina get up now we need to check Naruto's room!" He yelled while shaking his wife from her sleep.
"Huh?" She slowly woke up only to bolt up once her brain processed what Minato said and the urgency he had spoken with. She leapt out the bed getting there before Minato only to see an open window.
She immediate panicked thinking the worse only to be stopped from going on a rampage by her husband's light touch on her shoulder.
"Kushina there's a note it could be nothing serious." Minato knew he was lying but he had to hold out hope his son just was out training early.
"Yo I wasn't quite sure how to say this to both of you but here goes nothing. I'm leaving the village not because of any problems or something of the sort but I decided I want to live free and explore the world that's my dream and being a ninja and being tied down to a village isn't something I want right now. I'm sorry if I'm worrying you but I won't apologize for leaving a chance to live my dream wasn't something I could pass on. I left this note to say see you later I'll be back not too soon though."
"Signed Naruto Namikaze." Kushina read out not quite believing her own words. Not even reacting to Minato's arm closing around her.
Minato held her knowing she was shaken by what she read. While comforting her he silently made a shadow clone to go mobilize the ANBU and find that idiot son of his. To their disappointment, the ANBU would come up emptyhanded on account of the very technique Minato has taught his son.
It had 2 months since his departure and he had never felt more alive in his life. Naruto had been busy after making his way out of Fire he had explored the Land of Tea while practicing the first gate and wind manipulation.
Currently Naruto could be found at the peak of a mountain in Tea eating some dango he had saved for himself to enjoy once he finished climbing the mountain.
"That was definitely worth the 3-hour climb." He noted while checking his supplies only to notice his sandals were trashed not having been made to endure a hike of this nature.
Naruto frowned at he planned his next move. "I could go down buy some new sandals and maybe a bit of that tea for the road after all Tea country products are notoriously hard to import due to high demand." After thinking on the matter, he decided with this course of action.
"First Gate Open!" He yelled out at internally he felt the constraints naturally placed on the body disappear. After opening the first gate he let the sensation wash over him trying to make his body remember this feeling, his goal was that once he mastered this gate he could keep it open permanently once his body was use to the strain.
As Naruto made his way down the mountain he couldn't help but wonder what his family was up to and if they were taking his departure well.
Jiraiya could only sigh in frustration at the news he was just told and looked at his student in a way that would let him know just how exasperated he was with him.
"Let me get this straight the boy while no prodigy is one of the best students at the academy right and should be scraping around the strength of a slightly experienced genin am I right so far?" He asked less for reassurance but mostly to address the ridiculous situation.
A nod from Minato.
"Okay just making sure and the boy seems to have caught a strong case of wanderlust and knows how evade our ANBU using your own technique more than likely?"
Another nod.
"I see where this is going and you want me and the toads to find him while also looking out for any activity from Orochimaru, and just to make this task nigh impossible you want me to convince Tsunade to come back to the Village right?"
One more nod to make it official.
For Jiraiya this was shaping up to be a bad day called back to his student's house to see a distraught Kushina trying to keep herself together for her daughter and Minato looking almost twice his age the stress of the situation having obviously caught up to him.
One last look at Kushina and he knew would accept this mission she was trying but he could see the whole mess was slowly affecting her health and there was nobody in the village with chakra powerful enough to put her under and make her rest soundly for a while.
His decision made he stood up and posed. "Well how could I say no to a story like that to think even once surpassed my student would still need me why I think it'll make a good chapter in The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant!" he spoke adding some enthusiasm trying to make them chuckle after all they both looked like they needed it.
Minato smiled knowing that his sensei was doing it for his sake and hoped as he watched him leave that if nothing else some good news would come of this.