Naruto Namikaze

Chapter One: The Same! But Different?

The early morning sun had just begun to rise, now peeking over the horizon of buildings that blocked its view from shining out the village that stretch out before it. While each ray of sunlight crept its way through the blinds of every bedroom, it's heat had caused the due laid over from the cool night air, to steam its way back up into the air, placing a beautiful blanket of fog over the village of Konohagakure. While a beautiful sight in its own right, the added effect of fog added to the mystic that was, the most powerful Shinobi Village in the entire Shinobi world. Proudly among the top of this village was its most awe inspiring aspect, the Hokage Mountain, each face being lit up from the ever warming embrace of the sun overhead, revealing four etched visages, of the Four Hoakges of the Hidden Leaf.

Were one so inclined to follow through the village, just below the Hokage Mountain, they could turn left and begin to follow a long busy road of markets beginning to open their doors, and civilians beginning their early shopping, they could see that a house sat towards the end of this road. Though there was no mailbox with a last name for any deliveries there was a small perch in which a carrier bird could settle itself with a dish for food and water each with a covering over it to protect it from the weather, should it be hungry or thirsty from its journey. Of course a set-up such as that would be well within the norm for a shinobi household which is exactly what sat in front of the perch.

However the calm looking exterior, the normal looking two story house, and its basic perch for carrier birds to rest at, was where the normalcy ended for the house which held two very special individuals. One of whom was gone to his office to begin a lot of work involving the graduating class of Shinobi, and the other well, doing something a little different involving graduation as well.


~BANG~

~BANG~

Two poppers went off from the top of Hokage mountain sending streamers and confetti like shreds of colored paper floating down to the freshly awakened citizens of Konoha. While of course many were disturbed from having been woken up from the loud banging, at such an early hour, they couldn't help but notice the effort placed. Especially after an enormous banner found itself rolling out just over the Hokage faces, reading out, "Naruto Namikaze is officially a Shinobi!" Before anyone could rightly act to the sudden banner now covering the Hokage Mountain, a blonde child of barely four foot nine, could barely be seen at the middle of the banner.

"My name is Naruto Namikaze! And I'm going to be the next Hokage!" The self-proclaimed next Hokage, Naruto had one foot out knee bent, giving him a heroic looking pose as he overlooked what had begun to form a decent sized crowd just below him as he finished his call. Despite a few chuckles and laughs at first, it was followed by scattered applause which became louder, and closer together until the entire civilian crowd, who had not known about the Genin test being that day, but were familiar with Naruto as well as his father, began cheering quiet loudly actually. Not only were there civilians but even a few higher ranked shinobi were there as well, though at first they felt like getting a closer look at their palm from the sheer arrogance and ear splitting volume so early, they had been taken in by the way, Naruto had endeared himself to everyone he met, so they began cheering as well.

"Yeah go Naruto!" after the sudden shout from a fellow classmate in the crowd, a chant had followed soon after, "Naruto! Naruto! Naruto! Naruto!" Naruto of course sitting atop the mountain could only bask in the attention and gave a fist pump into the air, before hopping off of the mountain to join every below cheering for him.


IN REALITY HOWEVER! A sleeping form of Naruto could be seen drooling on his favorite pillow of course with a large frog on the front of it, mumbling to himself in his sleep, "Yeah…I'm the best….next hokage…snoooooore" Unfortunately for Naruto he also tried to pump his arm while sleeping and promptly threw himself off the bed, colliding with his not so soft hardwood floors, "Oof!"

"Aww man, not again!" now tangled up in his blanket and face planted on the ground with his legs somehow managing to still stay up on his bed, Naruto was quiet awake, and slightly embarrassed. After freeing himself from the entrapping blanket that he had narrowly escaped from he reached over to his night stand checking his clock before immediately dropping it, "Awh crap! I'm late!"

Quickly grabbing his jacket from the closet as well as trying to pull up a pair of black pants while running down his hallway as well as his steps he managed to trip again before finally pulling up his pants from around his ankles allowing him to move without immediately crashing. "Ah! Why do I always manage to oversleep on important days!" though his shout was out to no one it was obvious he was hoping for some kind of answer from someone.

After running out the door he noticed a note stuck to the gate, "Good Luck Naruto!" probably from one of the neighbors, it may have been something simple but it did calm Naruto down, he may have been late, but it's not like they wouldn't let him take it anyway just being a few minutes late. It didn't mean he could take his time either though, so after a short breath he continued his run towards the Academy.


Poking his head out of the examination room was the familiar scarred face of Chuunin Instructor, Iruka Umino, "Sakura Haruno!"

The pink haired girl quickly perked her head up, "Hai Sensei." Her voice sounded small likely nervous due to the pressure of the final test being before her now, she then slowly stood from her seat and walked towards the room in which she was called from.

"Alright we're going to need you to perform a Bunshin to make two full copies." He then motioned for her to begin whenever she was ready and quietly awaited her attempt.

"Hai." Focusing her chakra and performing the seal, she without incantation brought with two poofs of smoke two, complete clones who both turned then nodded at their sensei, as he jotted down her score.

"Pass!" After giving her the good news he followed it with a smile and motioned to his right where a table sat with several leaf headbands, as well as his fellow instructor Mizuki, who sat on the other side of the table.

Several students later however, Iruka smiled as he came up on a name he was looking forward to seeing, stepping up from his seat, he did as he had done previously and once opening the door called out the next name on the list, "Naruto Namikaze." A quick glance however had shown that the boy had not been present which would not be good, if he didn't take the test by the time the others had finished and been assigned teams he had no guarantee he'd be allowed a squad.

The nearby door busting open however was a relief to the Chuunin Instructor as Naruto was the face that quickly came through, "Sorry I'm late Iruka-sensei!" Scratching the back of his head as he open did when embarrassed the blonde haired Academy Student took a few steps towards Iruka to follow him into the back room, as he'd already turned to wait.

"Late again dobe?" Naruto turned to see the source of the cool sounding voice to see a leaned back boy, around his age, khaki shorts, with a blue shirt that adorned a high collar, two forearm sleeves, and oddly spiked hair which if somewhere were so inclined to mention looked similar to a duck's feathers.

Naruto could only smile after hearing the insult after shoving a hand forward in front of the boy who'd spoke out, "It's good to see you too Sasuke-Teme!"

Sasuke smiled as well before taking Naruto's hand in a friendly shake before, returning to his laid back position, "You better make sure to pass, dobe, I'd rather not have to explain being friends with someone who couldn't pass the Genin Exam!"

Laughing at the joke for just a moment before being just a foot away from the door, "Same goes for you Sasuke, I'd hate to see what your brother's reaction would be if you failed!"

Before Sasuke could retort Naruto had entered the examination room and saw as both Iruka and Mizuki sat and waited till Naruto was ready, "Alright Naruto we're going to need two complete clones for you to be able to pass. Now we know that even though you've done well on all your other tests, you still have to pass this one as well to make it. The only reason I mention this is because we know of your difficulty with Bunshin, so just try your best!" Iruka, tried to give him the most reassuring smile he could, but if Iruka had learned anything about Naruto, it was when he gave the smile he was giving right know, he had already come up with something.

"No worries Iruka-sensei, I've got something even better, well actually my Dad came up with it, but it works!" Naruto spoke proudly of his father's ability to help with the fact; Naruto had a difficult time controlling the freakish amounts of chakra he possessed. However that neither surprised nor shocked the two instructors, that was until they saw the position in which his hands rose up, in the form of a cross with two fingers on each hand, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

While both instructors were shocked they could only smile at how well the boy had done, especially considering the fact that, he'd just passed a Genin exam using an A Ranked jutsu. "Congratulations Naruto! You pass!" As before Iruka simply motioned over to the table of leaf headbands for Naruto to choose from.

"Ya hooo!" Excitement was definitely one of the few things Naruto could never hide, and considering he had just graduated to become a Genin meant the world to him, so after a quick leap into the air he dashed over grabbing a headband.

"Now remember Naruto be back here tomorrow for the team assignments!" Iruka smiled at his student happy to have so many talented future shinobi especially in his short time of teaching, "Oh! And don't even think of asking your dad the teams beforehand!"

That last remark had caught Naruto stiff as he was tying his headband firmly onto his forehead, "Gah! Fine! Hehe, like it matters! I'll be Hokage one day no matter which team I'm on!" Iruka hadn't said anything else after his little burst of excitement and just let him leave; after all he still had plenty more students to go through before his day was over.


There were a lot of places Naruto felt like going to celebrate his new headband and the fact he was now a Genin, his first step of being Hokage, 'Mmmm, I should go get some ramen from old man Ichiraku! Maybe I should get Sasuke to go too, I bet he's just getting his headband right about now.' After a moment of thinking though and a few steps closer to Ichiraku he realized, 'Ah, I bet he's off with Itachi celebrating, high class, hmm…I wonder if dad's busy!'

With a smile Naruto quickly turned on his heel, and began to sprint back where he had come from, it was kind of nice to have the Hokage tower next to the school, but it would have been nicer, if Naruto had thought about visiting his dad in the first place.

Knock

Knock

"Er… Come in?" Minato had been in a meeting with Kakashi Hatake for the last few hours discussing a variety of things, not having another meeting schedule he figured whoever it was must have really needed something.

"Dad! Hey Kakashi!" after given permission Naruto had quickly popped into the room greeting the two older men, both of whom probably being the most reliable in the entire village to Naruto anyway.

"Ah Naruto! Judging by the headband I'm guessing everything went well then?" The broad smile Minato gave was one of the few Kakashi had seen that looked completely genuine since, Kushina was gone, and he was just happy his former sensei could still manage to have one especially with how tragically it had went.

"Yeah! You should have seen their faces after I used a Kage Bunshin, instead of a regular Bunshin, haha I thought their eyes were going to bug out of there head!" Naruto's grin had been just as ear splitting as Minato's and left Kakashi feeling relieved that the two had still managed to be so happy even through everything, though he knew that seeing as how Naruto was a Genin now, Minato had to make a choice.

Kakashi had begun reaching for his jacket pouch which held his favorite book and called out to his former Sensei, "Minato-sensei, I'm going to let you guys celebrate, we can always finish this up tomorrow, Naruto, I'm sure I'll see you soon as well." After a quick way from the two blondes in the room, Kakashi quickly shunshined in a poof of leaves and smoke.

"Naruto…" Minato had dreaded this moment, it was often he'd thought about just not telling Naruto at all, and just hoping he'd never be in a position where he'd find out on his own, but seeing as how after ten years, the Kyuubi had not reappeared anywhere, he'd be sure that Madara would be searching for any sign of the demon's chakra. Should that ever happen with Naruto he'd want him to be strong enough should he need to defend himself, "First I want to tell you how proud I am of you, for being able to pass the Genin exam today! Also how proud your mother would be, you certainly did better than she on the written parts." At that the two shared a laugh from the tales he'd shared about his mom, the Red Habanero, she was great at Ninjutsu, and had tons of charka, but wasn't much for book smarts, something that Naruto had to work at great lengths to even be average at.

Minato had sighed a bit knowing he was finally about to reveal something that could potentially change Naruto's outlook not only on himself but the world as a whole. "Naruto, you uh, know that they teach you at the Academy about the day I defeated the Nine Tails right?"

"Yeah sure, that you and my mom fought him and you sealed him into her, while she was dying so that she would take him with her right? She's like one of the greatest heroes ever!" Naruto beamed at the thought that both his parents had been some of the greatest names in Konoha history but the disheveled look on his dad's face said there was more to it. "Right?"

Bringing his head back up to look Naruto in the eyes, he sat back against his desk after standing up and walking to be in front of it, "Actually Naruto, that is not true." He'd seen that Naruto immediately react and was about to barrage him with questions before he put a hand up, "Something that very few people know, and by few I mean, only five people in the entire world know what happened." The promise of information so secret the only thing Naruto could do was sit down in a nearby chair and listen.

"The Kyuubi did not attack the village of its own volition, not that it wouldn't have had it the chance, but it was not his own actions, yet the actions of a masked man thought to be long dead." Naruto was about to question who was the masked man, and how had he made the Kyuubi attack Konoha in the first place, but again was silenced by Minato's hand raised to signal he needed to just listen.

"The masked man, we believe is Madara Uchiha." Minato had spoken at barely a whisper, he may have had secrecy seals lined all around his office, but it still was not information he liked to give out in any circumstance, that one of the most dangerous individuals in the world was alive.

Naruto himself found it hard to believe, but hearing it from his dad, he didn't know what else to do other than believe him, but instead of asking any questions he simply waited not wanting to interrupt.

"We still do not know exactly how or why, but according to Itachi Uchiha it is something to do with the Sharingan, and that all in the Uchiha bloodline can do." It was easier to continue with the information, now that he'd started, but he still had to fight to keep talking, knowing that he was getting closer to the whole reason the topic was being brought up.

"It is because of that ability Naruto that I could not allow the Kyuubi to be destroyed because if it had, it would have been reborn at least two years ago, you cannot kill anything that is pure chakra, and that is exactly what the Kyuubi is, a being of pure uncontrolled chakra." It was at this point that Minato had tried his best to hint to what Naruto needed to ask, and without fail he had soon began to speak.

"Well if you didn't destroy the Nine Tails, then what happened to him?" for some unknown reason Naruto felt a tingling in his stomach, the kind you get in an uncomfortable situation, or when you know the answer is going to be something you don't want to know.

"Naruto, when your mother was dying, and I knew what Madara was after I had to act quickly, so I…" Minato had paused for a moment, thinking whether he should just hint at it, or come straight out with it and just say, knowing his son, he opted to go with the second, "I sealed him inside of you Naruto, you are the jailor of the Nine Tails Bijuu."

After hearing the news, Naruto was unsure of how to act, looking down he gripped his stomach which still held that uncomfortable tingling, "So I'm the Nine Tails?" Naruto looked back up to his father whose face was also torn as if he'd made the worst mistake possible.

"No Naruto, of course not." Walking over to Naruto Minato patted him on the head ruffling his hair, "I'm pretty sure if you were, you'd have some ears to match those whiskers on your face." Minato gave his son the best smile he could after all he was a hero as well holding that beast away from the village so that it could not harm anyone else.

Though the fact that his dad had made the point to tell him when he was a bit older and could understand the situation better, he still had an important question, "Why me though?" Naruto's unsure question was met with a proud smile from Minato.

"Well you are my son, so I figured if anyone could hold the strongest beast in the world it would be you!" This time a genuine smile had appeared on both blondes, especially Minato as the whole ordeal had gone better than he ever could have expected it to go, "Well it's not too late now, if you want to go get some ramen, eh Naruto?" Minato had pulled up a familiar looking kunai, sealed wrapped around the hilt and a sly smile spread across his face as usual, and with a nod from Naruto the pair quickly vanished in a double yellow flash.


Author's Note: Well this is the first Official Chapter of Naruto Namikaze: The Genin Chronicles Book One of a Trilogy. I know it was a bit of a slow start, and still kind of feels slow, but this chapter held a lot of information both character wise, and story wise. Hopefully things will pick up after team selections, which to be honest likely won't change, but you'll find out why after I post it. Remember, I'd love some advice, and any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Of course mentions will go out for those who help, and will even get accredited for their specific ideas!

By the way shout out to my first review from a Starbeam79. And to answer the question of another reviewer, yes sir, I do like pie.

Until next time!