Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any games, movies, shows, or other references that are made in any of my stories.

The Training Begins

Land of Iron

The Land of Iron, despite being a cold place, had always seemed to have an energy in it to be the best, even in a ninja driven world. During the past few years, the cold capital, seemed to have only gotten brighter, and more cheerful.

BOOM

The occasional pranks, might have had to do with that.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU UZUMAKI!"

Okay, maybe more frequent than occasional.

Eight year old Naruto Uzumaki was running down the streets, laughing like a maniac. Behind him was a mass of samurai, some had their armor painted a variety of neon pinks, yellows, and oranges. Others were dressed in kabuki and geisha outfits. He had grown to be around 4'3', and finally getting the nutrients he had been denied, had filled out to an average weight for his age. He was currently wearing a grey workout shirt, with a fishnet undershirt sticking out from under it. He wore dark grey pants, with a small pouch, in which he kept some of his practice kunai and shuriken, as well as some of his pranking supplies. On his feet were a peculiar pair of shoes. He wore a pair of tabi socks, and modified black ninja sandals, they looked like regular ninja sandals that went through the toes in the socks.

Turning through a few alleys, he turned back to find that he had lost them, only to run into man walking beside a cart.

Immediately he stood up and bowed in apology. "I am sorry sir."

"It is alright, you youngsters are always running around. Just make to take the time to slow down and enjoy the view sometimes. I am Amaru, might I know your name little one?"

Looking up, he saw middle-aged man standing at around 6'3'. He had a full black beard, with some streaks of grey, and hardened eyes, from years of experience. He was practically a wall of muscle, despite his age. He had bronze skin and calloused hands from long days of hard work, but still maintained a jovial air about him. "Arigato, Amaru-san. My name is Naruto Uzumaki." Months of having manners drilled into him by his adopted mother had almost gotten rid of his verbal tick.

"Uzumaki, huh. Naruto-san would you happen to be training to be a ninja?"

"I'm going to be the first samurai ninja, dattebayo! Damnit!"

"I see, then-"

"THERE HE IS GET THE DAMN BRAT!"

"Sorry Amaru-san, but I gotta run!"

Chuckling to himself as the oddly dressed samurai chased after the boy. "Things are going to be interesting soon. I can just feel it." He mused.

Naruto was making his way down the main road to the palace, as spectators fell to the ground holding their sides laughing. He was running up the steps, two at a time, towards the large open double doors with his pursuers right behind. The chasers tried to catch him before he crossed the threshold, but were too far behind to catch him. Naruto started laughing at them, until he felt an ominous presence behind him, and slowly turned around, shaking at what he saw.

Standing there with her hair casting a shadow over her face, a glint in her eyes, and the seemed to darken and get colder by the second. Shaking as he turned around, he came face to face with the most horrifyingly scary thing in existence. His mother.

"Naruto, you wouldn't happen to have any idea as to why the guards are running around like headless chickens, would you?"

"J-j-jiji told me that it would help my stealth, and that they were slacking off in their last training session."

"Well then, it seems I need to have a… chat, with your grandfather." As she stalked away, Naruto finally felt his body able to move again, he gave a sigh at avoiding the imminent danger. "This doesn't mean that you are off the hook young man, you are still grounded!"

"Aww." His shoulders slumped and he had a small storm cloud hanging above his head. Getting out of his momentary depression, Naruto headed toward the library, where he knew his grandfather would be at this time of day. As he entered the room, he reminisced upon the past three years.

Flashback

It had been about a week since Naruto was adopted by Mikomi, and all the paperwork had gone through, but he still kept his last name. As Mifune led his new grandson into the library, Naruto marveled at the size of the palace, and the sheer magnitude of books and scrolls in one room. "Naruto, in a few weeks we shall begin your training. Once your body has recovered from malnutrition, we will start the physical aspect of your training. I will teach you in the ways of the Samurai, if you wish to learn how to be a ninja, you will have to teach yourself most of it from the scrolls and books we have. This is because we do not have ninja in the Land of Iron. You will have to work hard to be a ninja, but I believe you can do it if you try."

"Hai, jiji! I will do my best."

"Now, to prepare, I want you to spend one hour a day reading in the library, I shall pick out what you need to learn."

"Uh, Jiji, I can't read that well." Naruto replied a bit ashamed of himself.

"I didn't expect you to have much knowledge in language, but perhaps you would like for your mother to help you, and spend a little longer to get to a satisfactory level."

"Arigato Jiji!" Naruto was happy to have a family for once, and they didn't insult him for not being taught much.

"Now, go get your mother and we will see if you can open the Uzumaki family scroll, okay?"

Filled with exuberance at the possibility of finding his family, he gave a quick "Hai!" and ran off to het his kaa-san. After he returned with Mikomi, he saw that Mifune had gotten the scroll and placed it on one of the large tables. The scroll itself wasn't very impressive, it was three feet long, and about nine inches in diameter. Other than the size, there was nothing impressive about it, it looked as if it were one of the scrolls that could be bought in a store. Waiting for his mom to sit in a chair, so he could sit on her lap, he got for reading the scroll.

"Naruto, I am going to prick your finger, so that you can open it." Mifune took out a small knife, which Naruto flinched away from, but drew comfort from his mother's arms around him. Taking Naruto's bleeding finger, he pressed it against a small swirl at the center of the scroll.

The scroll glowed blue for about ten seconds, until there was a flash of light and when they opened their eyes, the scroll had been rolled open, and a family tree was shown. A royal blue line started to glow in the tree, and following it, they saw Naruto's name appearing under Kushina's.

"It seems that I was correct about your mother. Naruto, whenever you wish, I will tell you any stories I can about your mother."

Naruto nodded with tears streaming down his face, in the arms of his mother.

Flashback End

He had learned to read and write after that, and was introduced to calligraphy, which he was told he would need. He learned mathematics, simple science, history, and a bit diplomacy. He was also drilled on etiquette by his mother, who had decided to handle that aspect after one family meal.

It hadn't been long after that, that Naruto started his physical training. At first it was simple exercises to get used to the physicality of the profession. Mikomi was adamant about not pushing Naruto hard, but he would sneak off to train on his own. He was physically at the same level as a newly graduated genin. He had unlocked his chakra at six, a year after starting, and he already had low kage level reserves. Due to the insane reserves, as well as his mother's want for him to have a bit of a childhood, Naruto had mostly done meditation and chakra control exercises. He had to start with tree climbing because the leaves would blow off of his body. The first time he tried, he released enough chakra, to make the leaves fly off and become embedded into the trees.

After that incident, he was not allowed to do the exercise, until he had completed the tree and water walking exercises. He was proficient in throwing weapons, basic chakra exercises, as well as stealth. He was able to sneak just about anywhere in the village, except for his grandfather, who he vowed to surprise him some day, and his mother, for he feared the consequences.

But the most important thing he learned about was his mother Kushina, and his clan. Mifune would regale Naruto with tales of his mother's exploits during her shinobi career, as well as her mischievous adventures as a prankster. He was happiest when Mifune told him of the letters she sent while pregnant. Each one always spoke of how she couldn't wait to meet her sochi, and she would spoil him rotten. The royal blue line, Naruto was later told, signified that part of the main family of Uzumaki's and technically considered the Prince and Heir of Uzushio. He planned to go back to Konoha one day, and retrieve the rest of his family's belongings, as well as find out who his father was.

His jiji said he had a surprise for him today. He hoped that he would finally get to learn how to fight, or learn a jutsu for once. He waited for his mother to finish torturing his grandfather for telling him to prank the guards.

When she left, she gave him a smile that made him shiver, and swear off pranking others.

…for the rest of the day.

Coming into Mifune's office, he saw his grandfather pale, and glaring at him. "I thought I told you not to tell your mother!"

"No way, old man. I am not going to test Kaa-san's anger. Not when I can shift it to someone else. And don't give me any crap, you would have done the same thing!"

Grumbling about disrespectful brats, Mifune got serious. "Now I have called you here to tell you that you will be stepping up your training. I have decided that you are ready to learn how to wield a blade. You will also be learning fuinjutsu from the Uzumaki scrolls in your usual time in the library. Also from the scrolls, you can start to learn ninjutsu and genjutsu, if you can do it, under my supervision, or the supervision of a senior samurai. If you do not follow this, I will stop teaching you, understood?"

"Hai, Jiji! When do we start?"

"Go warm up, I need to someone else real quick, then I will be out."

Naruto rushed to the door he was so excited. He ran into someone for the second time that day. "Amaru-san, what are you doing here?"

"Well I am an old friend of Mifune, and decided to drop by."

"Alright, jiji is right in his office. See you around Amaru-san!"

Amaru chuckled as Naruto ran off, walking into Mifune's office, he was greeted by a smiling Mifune.

"I take it, you have met Naruto?"

"Yes I did, and I can see the potential in him to be great. Speaking of which, I have an offer that I think you will like to hear."

20 Minutes Later

Mifune walked out to the training ground to see Naruto just finishing his stretches. Calling him over, Mifune began to explain what he would learn. "Now Naruto, you will not learn any katas when you are training. I will teach you every way I know of to swing and block with a blade. After that you will be ready to learn the style I have in mind."

"Why will I not be learning any katas, wouldn't that be better for me?"

"The style I have in mind, is not a style, but a discipline. Kushina told me of an Uzumaki sword practice, which was based upon the user's reactions and imagination. The way it works is, the user reacts to the opponents movements, and decides upon the best way to react to each strike. According to your mother, masters of the style would be able to see hundreds of ways to finish a fight against an opponent the moment they are attacked."

Naruto was in awe of the potential of such a style. He was going to be the most badass samurai-ninja ever.

Mifune handed Naruto a boken, and led him to the posts on the grounds. "Now, let us begin."

Konoha

In the past three years, the Hokage had regained much of the control he let go in his old age. The civilian council had lost a lot of power. He had taken back the Ninja Academy from their control, and had made reforms with the ninja council. The first batch of students under the new system would be starting soon. From what he heard, many of the clan heirs, and civilian council children would be joining.

He might make Kakashi become a sensei in the next few years. If he wasn't on a mission, he was training. When he came back from a mission to find out that Naruto had disappeared, Kakashi had stopped showing up late and staring at the memorial stone. He had even swore off Icha Icha. The only other thing he did was prank the civilians, who were against Naruto. He seemed to want to make their lives hell in a way only Naruto could.

After Naruto's disappearance, the ninja close to Naruto had been sure to go on any search parties for him. Although he shared their belief of him not being dead, he had to call the searches off after a few weeks, and not finding anything. They had been annoyed at him, but he assured them that, Naruto would have survived, and would probably make a name for himself in the coming years. Until then, they threw themselves into work.

Hiruzen had felt that he made enough mistakes in the past few years and he be damned if he didn't fix what he could.

AN: So here is chapter two, I hope you guys enjoyed it. This chapter was mostly filler to set up the story, and check in with how Konoha changed. I was able to get this chapter out faster than I could have hoped to. Please leave a positive review, if you choose to stop reading that is fine.

To make things clear, Naruto is two years older than the Rookie Nine. I am pretty sure it is non-canon that he failed three times. But in most stories I read like this, Naruto is somehow the same age as everyone else. How?

Also, I said that he had low kage levels of chakra when first unlocked it for a few reasons. The first is that he is an Uzumaki, notorious for their high chakra reserves, as well as a jinchuriki, also notorious for their high chakra reserves. Secondly, after he stole the scroll in the canon, he supposedly practiced kage bunshin for hours, before he was able to create thousands of clones against Mizuki, and didn't pass out from chakra exhaustion. During the fight against Gaara, he also summoned thousands clones, which were created using the last of his reserves. Thirdly, when Hiruzen was fighting Orochimaru, the ANBU captain commented that he had wasted chakra making only two clones.

For those of you waiting for Naruto to start spamming clones, it will happen eventually, I want him to develop his skills, not become S-rank within a month.

I will use Japanese for what I know, but I will mostly be using English for jutsu and such.

I hope you guys stick with my story. Ja ne.