Author's note!

Another chapter of everyone's favorite fanfic! I wish anyway :3

Still, a big thanks to those who reviewed. I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm happy with the results. Also, thanks for the correction a certain reviewer gave me. I won't make that mistake again, at least.

IMPORTANT!

It took me a while, but I've finally decided on how the Konoha Ninja Academy works in my particular alternate universe. This is an example of plot hole filling for those of you who care (after all, if Naruto has already failed to graduate twice by the time he finally does graduate, why are his classmates his age?). The Academy is a two-year, intensive course designed to turn a civilian into a minimally capable Genin, or to give the children of one of the ninja clans a more thorough grounding in a wider variety of ninja lore than just their clan techniques. Civilian students start earlier than their counterparts from an established clan and are expected to fail the first time through(either their graduation exam or the Genin test). At this point, Naruto has already failed to graduate once, and has just started his second time through the academy (his first remediation). That means he and the rest of what will one day be the 'Rookie Nine' are in the same class. Since he has already completed a full two-year term, he can apply for graduation early his second time through the first year curriculum. In canon, he failed then too and had to repeat the second year with the same class before graduating.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Naruto had been so incredibly excited in the wake of the revelation of his clan, bloodline limit, training scrolls, and . . . well, everything that had happened, that he overlooked a serious point. "Ugh! How am I supposed to train without a sparring partner!" Naruto looked again at the scroll rolled out in front of him and reread the key phrase. 'It is important, not only to practice kata, but also to spar with another ninja to increase one's understanding of the techniques.' It was frustrating to have come so far in such a short time, only to hit a roadblock like this. He could work on a technique for hours, but without someone to practice with, he couldn't know if he was making any progress at all!

"And that Silent Killing Technique sounded so cool too!" he whined aloud before picking up Akisame and his scrolls and starting off towards his apartment, thinking the whole time about how he could get someone to spar with. Sakura-chan will just think I'm asking her on another date and tell me no. Naruto admitted to himself. It wasn't an easy admission to make, either. Back before she'd met Ino, he and Sakura had been friends of a sort. However, while he'd tried to hold onto one of the few people to treat him kindly, she had become just another one of the popular girls in his class.

Oh, and a Sasuke-obsessed fangirl. Couldn't forget that. Naruto shook his head to clear it. No. I will not turn into a brooding bastard like Sasuke-teme. Still, that was one of his classmates out. More thought ruled out Shikamaru. The Nara was too lazy to put in the effort. That, in turn, ruled out Choji by association, since it seemed like he and his best friend were tied together at the wrist or something. Kiba was also out. Even though the two had a mutual appreciation of pranks, none of the Inuzuka could stand to spend time with him in close quarters without staring and growling in the back of their throats. The rest of the class was readily eliminated because they were, to quote the class slacker 'Troublesome' in one way or another. In the end, he was down to only two options: Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga. Both were quiet and reserved, but Hinata seemed like the best person to ask for help. Since she has that fever so often she probably doesn't get to train much. I could help her with training after the Academy lets out on days when she's feeling well, and when she's not feeling well enough for training she can help me practice the Silent Killing Technique! After all, it seemed like a fair proposition to him, and since Hinata was so nice it certainly couldn't hurt to ask. That decided, the remainder of the trip back to his apartment passed in relative happiness for the blonde.

Unfortunately for Naruto's happiness and peace of mind, he'd read the section of the instructional scroll that dealt with the maintenance of swords. As he was using an old rag and some oil to clean the blade, he felt a sudden depression under his fingers. "What the?" he asked and looked down at the sword and removed the cloth, only to see something that had definitely not been there before.

Etched into the blade were the words:

Yo no naka o

nani-ni tatoemu

Naruto stared in shock for a bare minute before sheathing the blade with exaggerated care, eyes wide. "I knew there was something wrong with it," he said as he picked the blade up and held it at arm's length as he carefully made his way out of his apartment. "Stupid too long sword in a too small sheathe. The old man gave me a possessed sword!"

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The door to his office crashed open with enough noise to rival a small fireworks display. For a fraction of a second, Sarutobi thought that an assassin had run afoul of one of the security seals that surrounded the hallway.

What he saw when he looked up was far stranger. Naruto Uzumaki was holding the sword he had been so eager to possess, the very one taken out of the office just a few hours before, like it was an Inland Taipan. Such was his shock that the Hokage failed to comment until Naruto had already laid the weapon on his desk and regained something of his usual personality.

"What's the big idea, old man! You gave me a cursed sword!" Naruto accused, eyeing the blade in question warily despite the fact that he was now more than three feet away from it. This gave Sarutobi pause. His first impression was that Naruto must have been almost injured to have been treating the blade with such care. But to call it cursed . . . Something strange must have happened.

"Alright, Naruto, calm down and tell me what happened," he ordered the young blonde. The story that Naruto related was . . . well, unexpected seemed to fit the bill. Given the surprise with what had to be a set of expansion seals on the scabbard, Sarutobi could understand why the boy was spooked. He was just preparing to explain how a sword could fit into a sheathe that appeared to be too small to contain it when the blonde continued.

"-ething like 'Yo no neko' or 'Ya na noko' or-"

"Yo no naka o?" the Third asked his attention well and truly acquired.

"Yeah! That was it!" Naruto yelled before suddenly turning suspicious, "How'd you know that?"

"It's the first line of a rather well-known poem," Sarutobi explained as he picked up the sword and began to draw it from its sheathe, already slipping into his teaching voice. He'd barely begun to draw the blade when his danger sense spiked. Unfortunately, by that time it was too late.

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Naruto's eyes widened as a blast of what looked like chain lightning fried the Hokage, the Hokage's desk, and most of the wall behind the desk. His jaw was just falling open in shock when the "Hokage" burst into a cloud of smoke and was replaced by an equally fried looking painting. Naruto turned his head to see the old man standing by the wall looking at his desk in shock. Shock, however quickly turned into concern as he looked over at the blonde.

"Naruto, I need to know. Did you cut yourself on that blade? Even bleed on it from an open cut?" the Third asked, his eyes glittering with concern.

"No," Naruto responded, confused.

"Did you channel chakra into it? Or say your full name while holding it?" the old man continued.

Naruto had to stop and think for a moment before he answered, "No,"

The Hokage stopped and thought carefully for several seconds. "There are other ways of activating a truly cursed weapon, but the odds of you having accidentally triggered any of them are remote to say the least," he concluded aloud.

"That," he continued, indicating his somewhat cooked work area, "was most likely the result of a security seal on either the sword or the sheath."

"So, it isn't cursed?" Naruto asked, still wary of the blade.

"Likely not,"

"But what about the writing on it?" he demanded persistently.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, those words are the start of a rather well-known poem," The Hokage, once again using his 'Professor' voice continued. "If you would kindly draw the sword, I'll check to make sure. However, it is most likely that the weapon is entirely benign." After a moment the Hokage corrected himself, "Well, as benign as any mastercrafted heirloom blade ever is."

Naruto, still eyeing the sword suspiciously asked, "And you're certain it won't try to kill me like it did you?"

The old man laughed aloud at that as he picked up his pipe, "Since it didn't do you any harm when you drew it to train, I can only conclude that it recognizes you as its wielder. I suspect that the security seals built into it decided I was attempting to steal it and reacted accordingly."

At that statement, Naruto winced and the Hokage immediately picked up on it, raising an eyebrow in inquiry. "In my clan scrolls, it said that the Uzumaki didn't put up with thieves," Naruto explained, "I'd sort of forgotten about that," he said as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Sarutobi chuckled a bit at that, "Most clans don't," he said with a wry smile before nudging the sword closer to Naruto with his pipe.

Naruto, in turn, cautiously took hold of his sword. When it did not immediately attempt to electro-fry him, he began to carefully draw it. Once it was fully drawn, he laid it down beside the scabbard to show how much longer the blade was than the sheathe that held it. Then he blinked in surprise, "Hey! The writing's gone!"

"Strange," the Hokage said as he looked at the blade. "When you said that the blade was longer than the sheathe I expected it to be significantly longer." The old man shook his head slightly, "I suppose they were simply being subtle in their attempt at surprise," he said, though even Naruto could tell that he wasn't quite satisfied with the explaination. "Now, you said that the words appeared when you were cleaning the blade, correct?" When Naruto nodded, the Hokage continued, "Then if you would run your hand down the flat of the blade?" he requested.

Naruto did as he was asked and the same kanji as before appeared on the blade. "Living in this world - to what shall I compare it?" the Hokage translated from the somewhat archaic script. "Alright, Naruto, turn it over and do the same on the opposite side," Once again, Naruto did as the Hokage directed.

That time, however, nothing happened. Naruto looked from the blade of his sword to the old man inquiringly. Sarutobi, in turn looked surprised. "Strange, I expected to see the other half of the poem."

Once again nervous, Naruto asked, "So, is that a bad thing?"

The Hokage frowned in thought before answering. "No, no I don't believe so. For whatever reason they simply didn't put the other half of the poem on the blade. Perhaps it was part of a lock-and-key system within Whirlpool. Part of a way to access the clan's secrets. I doubt we will ever know for certain."

Suddenly disappointed at not being able to solve the mystery, Naruto nodded before perking up, "So it's not cursed? Alright!" he yelled before grabbing the sword, sheathing it, and taking off out the door pausing only long enough to yell back a quick, "Thanks, old man!" at the Hokage.

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Now that he knew that Akisame wasn't going to try and kill him, his enthusiasm for training had come back twofold. Since he'd already practiced with his new sword for the day, that meant jutsu practice. Quickly unrolling his family's techniques he skipped he bit at the beginning and jumped down to read the title for the first entry then seemed to almost collapse in on himself, "Aw, man! Mizu Bunshin! Bunshin is my worst technique!" And this one seemed even harder than the one they taught at the academy. On the other hand . . . These aren't just any jutsu. These are my family's jutsu. Reaffirming, if only to himself, his dedication Naruto continued to read. "So the hand seals are Snake, Bird, and Tiger, huh? And I need a source of water to perform it?"

Naruto took a break from reading long enough to fill three of his bowls from the sink and set them on the floor. "Alright!" he said as he carefully made the three hand seals, trying to use the same amount of chakra as he normally would with the academy version of the technique. In this particular case focusing on making as many clones as possible with the chakra he put into the technique, he yelled, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

For once things appeared to be going well. Each of the bowls yielded up a stream of water that began to form what looked like a body.

That was roughly the point at which the plumbing that served the sink burst as all the excess chakra Naruto had put into the technique tried to draw enough water from his surroundings to create more clones. The explosion of water as the pressure equalized also served to neatly derail Naruto's focus on the jutsu with predictable results.

A suddenly soaked Naruto looked around his now soaking wet apartment almost blankly for a moment before glaring at the three inches of water on the floor and stomping off to get a mop.

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In the end it had taken until after dark to finish the initial cleanup after his water clone disaster, so it wasn't until the next day that Naruto had a chance to practice the new technique again. "This time, I'll just use a stream," he grumbled, "Should have thought of that the first time."

On the other hand, he admitted to himself, if I hadn't had that accident I probably wouldn't have reread that section in the scroll. And the entry on the water clone had contained some interesting information that he'd managed to miss the first time he read it. I can actually control these clones. That means I can have them watch me while I do kata so they can make sure my forms are right. It was just too bad that a clone that took too much damage would collapse back into water. If he'd actually been able to spar with his clones . . .

Naruto shook the thought off. It would have been neat, but it wouldn't work so there was no point acting like the Bastard about it.

Running through the hand seals again he called out the technique. Only to have it blow up in his face as his poor chakra control caused the jutsu to fail. Naruto growled at the mistake. He'd done better last night before the plumbing went and failed on him. Still he'd try again and again if he had to. Today was an off day from the academy, so it wasn't like there was anything else to do anyway.

In the end, it took forty-three attempts to get the technique down to the point that he could use it without it failing spectacularly and another fourteen to get the number of clones he wanted (more or less) when he used it. Exhausted and covered in scuff marks though he was, Naruto couldn't help but be impressed with himself. He wasn't even out of the academy yet, but he knew a C-ranked ninjutsu! "Heh, I am totally awesome!" he yelled before grinning at his half-dozen clones.

"Alright, guys! Spread out so one of you can see me from every angle and make sure these kata look exactly like what's on the scroll, okay?"

The training session that followed was quite probably the most annoying one ever. It seemed every ten seconds one of the clones would stop him and make a correction to his movements and every fifteen two or more of the clones would start arguing about the proper way of completing the form and have to pull out the scroll to decide who was right. Still, at the end of three hours Naruto was able to go all the way through the first kata of his family's Kenjutsu style without the clones stopping him to correct a movement.

Then, just to make sure, he ran through it two more times before calling it a night. As he finally settled down to sleep that night, he did so with an exhausted but satisfied smile on his face.

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By contrast, the next day at the academy was even harder to deal with than normal. Classes were boring and taijutsu was worse than that.

Getting beaten was never fun, but it hurt more after learning so much the day before. Since no jutsu were allowed in sparring he couldn't use his new C-ranked jutsu to gain an advantage and since weapons weren't allowed he couldn't use any of what he'd started learning the day before about his family's Kenjutsu style. As a result, he got humiliated by Kiba who wasn't restricted by a weapon requirement in his family's style.

The fact that Kiba was honestly better than him at Taijutsu, for the moment at least, didn't help the matter. In fact, in his rush to leave after his classes were over for the day, he nearly forgot to talk to Hinata.

Fortunately, the pale-eyed girl was still around when he went looking for her.

"Hey, Hinata!" he said exuberantly when he doubled back and found her exiting their class room. Almost immediately he noticed that the Hyuga's face was very red. "Oh, are you not feeling well, Hinata?"

The pale-eyed girl swallowed heavily before responding haltingly, "N-no N-naruto, I'm a-alright."

Naruto gave her a concerned look for a moment before asking, "Are you sure?" at her hurried nod he continued, "Well, I was wondering if you would like to help me with some training after class," he said while scratching at the back of his head nervously, his eyes nearly squinted shut in a nervous grin.

The sudden thumping sound a few seconds later had him opening his eyes only to find that Hinata had passed out. Quickly moving to her side, he dropped to his knees and began to try to check her temperature and shake her awake all at the same time. However, before he could do much more than determine that she was still alive, the door to the classroom opened and a red-eyed Kunoichi stepped into the room.

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And that's the end of another chapter! I considered writing more on this, but I really couldn't come up with a better place to end it. Besides its taken nearly twice as long as I thought it would for me to get an update out.

Like it? Love it? Loathe it? Click that shiny review button and let me know. I can't get better without feedback :)

Until the next update,

Shaydewalker