A/N Thanks for the reviews. I was not expecting such good reviews. I have a lot of problems while writing dialogues and that will become apparent in this chapter. I am working on it but it will take some time. Again if you find any grammatical errors please inform me as I do not have a beta as yet. I know I was hypocritical when I said that I will decide the pairing on the plot and then went on and said it will be NarutoHinata. Yes there is a very high possibility that that will be the pairing but there might be a few changes depending on the plot. They are certainly not going to fall for each other instantly.

Da-Deranged-Dude: I have not thought of the pairings as yet since Naruto is very young for that. Thanks for the review though.

TheDon1023: Yes that's the idea. I have some great anti-cliché ideas they only need to be implemented. Rest assured that I have put a lot of thought into this fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and never will.

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Naruto was currently lying on the ground panting with exhaustion. He had just finished his days training. The scroll which he had borrowed from the library turned out be very interesting; it was a scroll describing the different methods of chakra control. He was currently practicing the tree walking exercise. It had been a week since he had begun but his progress was pretty slow compared to the speed he had learnt the Henge technique. He had reached the top of tree but getting down slowly was proving to be a problem. Other people would have declared that they have finished the exercise as soon as they reached the top most branches of the tree but not Naruto; after all he was a perfectionist.

It had been exactly a week since he had 'borrowed' the scroll from the library. The first chakra control technique described in the scroll was tree walking. At first Naruto thought it would be a fairly easy task however that was till he read that he couldn't use his hands. After reading all there was on the tree walking exercise he hid the scroll under a tile in his apartment and quickly made his way to the always vacant training ground which he had discovered recently. He henged himself as a regular shinobi so that no one would recognize him, the villagers already feared him for some unknown reason and he did not want them to find out that he was doing extra training than what he was supposed to at the academy.

As soon as Naruto reached the training ground he dispelled the henge. He knew that the exercise would require his full concentration at least at the beginning. He made his way over to a tree sizing it up. He held a Kunai in his hand to help him mark the position he would reach as was suggested in the scroll. He took a deep breath to calm himself and began molding chakra at the sole of his feet just as the scroll had instructed. Till now Naruto had followed the scroll to a tee. After he felt that he had molded enough chakra at the sole of his feet he began his trek up the tree. His trek ended prematurely as he unceremoniously fell being pushed of the tree as soon as he placed his feet on the bark. Naruto scowled from his position on the ground. He had followed all the instructions on the scroll but had failed miserably. He quickly got up and dusted his feet. He knew exactly what had occurred. He had used too much chakra and hence was pushed off. He tried again this time using way less chakra than he had used in his first try. He smiled as he was not thrown off the bark. He quickly took a few steps but felt that he was slipping. He quickly jumped off avoiding another fall.

After a few more tries Naruto frowned, the exercise was much more difficult than he had expected. He was either using too much chakra or too less and finding the right balance was proving to be a pain in the butt, literally as he fell quite a few times.

Most of the day went in the same manner with Naruto trying and failing to go more than a few steps. Naruto finally quit when the sun began to set. He had been practicing for more than seven hours now only to stop for a few quick cups of instant ramen and a nutrition bar. He went back to his apartment fairly disappointed with his progress but he did not let it get him down. Tomorrow will be a new day and he would keep trying until he had the exercise mastered.

As the days went by Naruto improved exceptionally reaching the top of the tree within a week, which did not seem possible after his first day's performance.

Two months later

Naruto had completely mastered the tree walking exercise to the point where he could do it while being henged and leaping from one tree to another. He kept thinking of different uses of the tree walking exercise and had found the exercise to be useful in more ways than one. Surprisingly the tree walking exercise improved his henge technique to the point where he felt he had completely mastered it. He could suppress his chakra completely and henge into a villager and he doubted that even the Anbu would be able to detect him. The tree walking exercise had greatly improved his physical stamina and his dodging ability. He was fairly sure he could dodge any weapon thrown at him if he was in the midst of a few trees. He knew the exact amount of chakra he would require to jump from one branch to another and he could do it at varying heights. He also felt his chakra reserves getting larger as he could continue practicing for a very long time without worrying about chakra depletion. He knew he had unusually large chakra reserves for someone his age. He had heard that the tree walking exercise was for gennins and he could do it easily for a long time without even feeling a dent on his chakra reserves. He was quite happy with his discovery but he knew that due to his large chakra reserves he would need a lot more chakra control. So for now he decided to continue to improve his chakra control.

The next exercise on the scroll was the water walking technique. Naruto looked at the scroll mildly impressed with the complexity of the particular exercise. Whereas in the tree walking technique there was actually a hard surface which helped in gripping but while water walking it was all chakra.

The next day Naruto went in search for a secluded water body. He was already familiar with most of the village but had yet to find a water body where he could train in peace. His search soon to come to an end when he heard a rumbling noise while passing training ground 44. He headed towards the rumbling noise which sounded suspiciously like a water fall. He soon came upon a gate marked 'Gate 13' and found a signboard. His eyebrows rose as he read what was written on the board. In big black letters it was written 'Do not trespass if you value your life.'

Naruto scoffed reading the board, after all what danger could there be in a training ground. He was confident that he could tackle any wildlife that he may encounter. He jumped over the gate and made his way to the rumbling noise. A growling noise stopped him in his track. Naruto quickly crouched into a fighting stance ready for any animal but what he saw made him gasp. A huge white tiger stood a few feet away from him growling as white foam formed around its mouth. Naruto certainly did not expect this. He quickly jumped on a tree narrowly missing from being pounced on. Naruto wiped his brow of sweat thanking Kami that he had mastered tree walking. The tiger seeing that it had missed pounced at its prey that was on standing horizontally on the bark of a tree. Naruto smirked as he saw the tiger pounce at him; the tiger had fallen into his trap. Just as the tiger was about to reach him he jumped onto a nearby tree and watched in satisfaction as the tiger smashed into the trunk of the tree which he had only just vacated. His look of satisfaction soon turned into a frown as the tiger quickly recovered. The tiger again lunged at him but Naruto was ready for it as he again performed the same trick. He knew that the tiger may be ferocious beast but it was dumb. A few more lunges and hits and the tiger was down for the count.

Naruto smirked at the fallen beast satisfied that he hardly required any effort to down the ferocious beast. He was sure others his age would have been hard pressed to take on the huge tiger that is if they had not already pissed themselves. His training was starting to pay off and that induced a great felling of satisfaction in him.

He did not encounter any other beast on his way to the waterfall. He looked around in awe as he finally reached the waterfall. The scenery was better than anything he had ever seen. There was a nice clearing of short grass which gave way to a fairly large pond at the end of which there was a huge waterfall. It was a perfect training ground for Naruto. It was fairly far away from the civilization and he sure that not many people would dare to come here and if that was not enough it had everything that he required for his chakra control training. He decided there and then that this was going to be his permanent training ground.

After having a nice lunch of milk and a few nutrition bars Naruto was set to begin his training. He did all the calming exercises and stretched a bit. He tentatively took a step in the pond and quickly jumped back. The water was ice cold and it was going to be very painful to fall in it and judging from how his tree walking work out had started, he was going to fall in very soon. Readying him for the cold which was going to hit him anytime he gathered chakra under his feet and took a tentative step, to his pleasant surprise it did not sink. He quickly took another step which too did not sink. He smiled at the surprising result and took a few more steps. His success got to him as he leaped in the air and that seemed to be his undoing as he splashed into the ice cold water. He screamed as he jumped out of the water and ran to the shore. The fall had hurt as he felt himself going numb with cold. He quickly shook of the feeling as he regained his bearings. 'Note to self never get too excited when on ice cold water' he thought sourly.

The rest of the day he did not fall in as he kept his utmost concentration at all times. He was slowly getting better and was now able to jog on the water. Naruto was surprised at his quick success. He guessed that the tree walking had helped him as he was prepared this time and luckily he had found the right amount of chakra he required at the soles of his feet for water walking. He was right as completely mastering the tree walking exercise had improved his chakra control by leaps and bounds.

The rest of the week went much in the same way the only difference was that Naruto never fell in the water again. He had begun running on the water by the end of the week but he was not yet happy. He wanted to master the skill completely as he had done with the tree walking technique.

The next three months Naruto spent mastering the water walking technique and by the time he had finished his skill in water walking equaled that of the elite jounins if not better. He could literally crawl on water if he so wanted. Unlike tree walking Naruto practiced all kinds of motions on water. He learnt to sit and sleep on water which actually required a lot more effort than he expected as concentrating chakra on his posterior proved much more difficult than on his feet but his chakra control had improved so much he did it in a few days. After quite a few falls his body became accustomed to the extreme cold of the spring water. Again like tree walking water walking seemed to further improve his henge if that was even possible, he was completely sure that even the Hokage would have problems detecting him, that is if he did not try too hard as a powerful 'Kai' would still remove the illusion. His stamina increased drastically which was not surprising as training till you fell from exhaustion seemed to do that to a person.

Naruto also improved his tree walking as he would invariably meet the huge tigers on his way to the waterfall. He also learned to stick to trees using other parts of his body. The tigers actually became a source of enjoyment for Naruto. They also made him much better at dodging as they were quite agile and ferocious. One time Naruto gathered three of them and his dodging and tree walking skills were really put to the test as even tigers dumb as they were began anticipating his next move. After that Naruto made it a habit to gather two or three of them and 'play' with them. Naruto unknowingly was also improving his battle instincts dodging the tigers as he continued to outwit the tigers.

Meanwhile the academy instructors were happy that they did not have to teach the demon scum as he hardly came to the academy. Unknown to them Naruto was becoming much better than any student in the academy and they were going to be in for a big surprise when the year end exam arrived.

Naruto sighed as he walked up to the chunnin guards standing guard in front of the Hokage tower. 'What a waste of training time' Naruto thought sourly. The guards ignored him as he went past them, they would have reacted in a much different manner had the Hokage not warned them. Naruto knocked on the door as he waited for the Hokage. "Come in" came a gruff voice from the other side. Naruto opened the door and walked in his gait of a confident man. The Hokage's eyebrow shot up taking in Naruto's attire. Instead of the shocking orange jumpsuit the blonde prodigy was dressed in black shinobi pants and a dark blue sleeveless top which did nothing to hide his toned biceps. What surprised him more was the confidence with which Naruto carried himself.

Naruto coughed to get the Hokage's attention who was staring at him like he had seen a ghost. That seemed to get the Hokage's attention as he stopped staring.

"Ah Naruto it's good to see you" Sarutobi Sasuke said as he gave the blonde a warm smile.

"Same here Hokage-Sama" Naruto said bowing.

Sarutobi frowned at Naruto's greeting, normally the boy would have exclaimed childishly with a goofy smile adorning his face.

"No need to be so formal Naruto" the Hokage said chuckling uneasily.

Naruto looked up and grinned which seemed to ease the Hokage who was beginning to worry.

'I am just repeating what I read in a scroll' Naruto said the fox like grin still on his face. It was not everyday that a child his age could render the Hokage speechless.

'Ah so you have been studying I see' The Hokage said.

'Yes and you already know that' Naruto replied further shocking the Sandaime. The Hokage had not counted on the boy knowing that he was sometimes being patrolled by the Anbu.

'Yes that's true, but that's not the reason I called you here Naruto, I have called you to discuss a very important matter Naruto' He said a serious expression on his visage.

Naruto stood up straight hearing the Hokage's tone. He looked at the Hokage expectantly.

Sarutobi smiled seeing the boy's reaction. 'So he's finally getting serious' Sarutobi thought.

'I've decided to help you in your training' the Sandaime said as if he was merely stating the weather.

Naruto face vaulted, not even in his dreams had he expected that the Hokage would help him in his training.

Sarutobi smirked seeing his reaction. 'Take that you stupid council members' He thought.

Naruto's grin soon turned into a happy smile as he threw caution to the wind and lunged at the Hokage hugging him as if his life depended on it.

Sarutobi was taken aback by Naruto's reaction but soon returned the hug as he smiled a happy smile. Finally he would be able to help the son of his predecessor. He had taken a long time to think about it but after seeing the villager's treatment of Naruto he had thrown caution to the wind and decided to help the boy.

Even though the academy teachers thought he did not know about what they were doing he did. His Anbu had informed him that the Ninja Academy teachers did very little to help the boy and the poor boy had taken it upon himself to learn whatever he could by taking scrolls from the library. He was very impressed when the Anbu had informed him that Naruto had taught himself the Henge no Jutsu. If he was impressed before he was astonished when he heard that the boy had learnt the tree walking skill.

He was very happy that Naruto was progressing so well but he was also worried because the boy did not have any friends and always kept to himself. He knew if he left the boy alone the results would be very bad. Loneliness often led people to do stupid things. Therefore he decided that he would ask one of his Anbu to secretly train the boy and get to know him better. Now it was only a matter of who to pick since very few Anbu were neutral to the boy for what he held in him. After a lot of thought he decided to let out a small secret about the boy to one of his Anbu and he was sure that would burry any resentment the Anbu had for the boy.

"So who's going to train me Jiji" Naruto said going back to his own way of addressing the Hokage. He knew that the Sandaime could not train him as he was far too busy. He had already deduced that it was going to be one of the Anbu who was going to be his sensei.

Sarutobi smirked and signaled for one of his Anbu to reveal him.

The Anbu appeared out of the shadows in which he was hiding surprising Naruto. Naruto had become exceptionally competent in sensing people and he having missed the Anbu spoke volumes of the Anbu's skills.

The Anbu removed the mask and turned to face him.

"You're new sensei is…."

A/N: Read and review please. Reviews motivate me to write more. The chapter length will keep increasing as I get better at writing.

So who do you think is going to be Naruto's new sensei? It's an easy guess and I think most of will know who it is.

Later folks…..