Getting Started
"Hmm. What other techniques are in this scroll?" mused Naruto. He already knew Kage Bunshin so it occurred to him that he could try and find more interesting techniques in the scroll, but everything in the scroll required more chakra control than he had. Even after refining his control after seeing his future, he had not made mind-blowing progress. He wondered many times if getting on friendlier terms with the Nine Tails would help him in some way, but he decided to plan more before actually going that far.
Over the two years he'd known about his future, he spent more time than ever studying and training himself to prepare for what the future held. He tried walking on his apartment walls, standing on bathtub water, balancing leaves he brought home and pretty much everything he could do without rousing suspicion. He also out himself through lots of exercises he saw Taijutsu students do on the training fields to strengthen his body. He had a couple of Kage Bunshin doing his academy assignments and reading for him while he himself did things he needed to do personally such as learn cooking and workout. He still didn't know if he was stronger than the other students of his class since he really couldn't risk Mizuki asking someone other than him to get the Scroll of Seals and as a result lose his excuse to where he learned Kage Bunshin from.
Speaking of his class, he realized that no one took him seriously there. He wasn't just the class clown, he was the class joke. He was the student no one had any expectations from, he was just a person that occupies space and most of the students would rather he not show up at all. There were however a few people that treated him neutrally like Shikamaru and Choji, and one that even admired him for his beliefs and actions. He also understood that constantly pining for Sakura's affections would only lessen his value in her eyes, he'd need to be as interesting and skilled as Sasuke to even hope to gain any attention from her. He didn't know about interesting but he sure as hell intended to outshine Sasuke in skill no matter what.
After seeing that all the techniques in the scroll required at least Jonin level skill in manipulating elements, he gave up trying to accomplish anything from the scroll and focus on how he intended to handle Mizuki. After a while, Iruka showed up with a stern face.
"Found the nosebleeder!" Naruto said with a foxy grin.
"You idiot! I found you!" Iruka screamed with a comically annoyed expression. "Why would you take that scroll Naruto?"
Naruto told him his reasons and remembered that Mizuki was supposed to strike right at that moment. Quickly grabbing Iruka by the hand, he jumped aside as numerous kunai embedded themselves into the cabin wall.
Iruka followed the direction of the bladed weapons and found Mizuki sneering at them from a tree branch.
"Mizuki? What- is what Naruto said true? Why?!"
Mizuki laughed. "I don't think I need to answer any of your questions Iruka but since we're here, I'll tell you. All I want is power, and I can get all that power by taking that scroll that brat holds, you know the things a man can do with that scroll right? Now hand it over and I may be kind enough to spare you."
"Naruto run back to the village with the scroll, I'll hold Mizuki of-"
But his words fell on deaf ears. For the first time ever Naruto had the chance to see if all his training paid off. He knew that Mizuki outranked him. He knew he didn't stand a chance against Mizuki in a one on one fight. He knew he had no experience in real combat. But he knew that he had the freedom to use the technique that defined his fighting style in his dream.
"Leave this to me sensei! KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" he yelled.
Where in his dream stood a thousand now stood nearly thrice the amount. Naruto was overjoyed that his chakra control training had paid off and as a result he managed to divide his chakra better than he thought.
Iruka's mouth hung open. Mizuki dropped his Fūma Shuriken. Naruto grinned.
"Ready Mizuki-sensei?" said Naruto while his clones snickered and got ready to pounce.
Mizuki turned around only to see all routes of escape blocked by blonde clones.
"Where you going? I thought you wanted this scroll?" said Naruto. "Well you can have it!" and with that Naruto threw the large scroll with all his might at Mizuki's face where it landed with a smack and a crunch on the nose.
"Full marks for precision, extra for the broken nose." said Iruka who had regained some composure. "Now lets see how well you know the Academy Taijutsu Style." He added smiling.
"With pleasure sensei!"
-Fifteen Minutes Later-
"It seems you know your stuff Naruto." said Iruka.
Mizuki groaned.
"Hehehe I think I went a bit overboard." Naruto said scratching the back of his head.
More groans.
"Nonsense!" Iruka walked over to Mizuki's prone form and kicked him. "This piece of shit deserves worse, taking advantage of Academy students. Right, that reminds me. Come here Naruto. And close your eyes."
"Don't kiss me."
"IDIOT!"
"Ehehe sorry."
Naruto did as he said. He felt a piece of cloth wrap around his forehead and remembered that this was when he got promoted to Genin. He had forgotten in the excitement of the battle.
"Open your eyes, you little baka."
Naruto saw Iruka smiling at him with a bare forehead.
"Congratulations on making Genin. You are now a ninja of The Village Hidden in the Leaves!"
Naruto felt his eyes water and rushed Iruka into a hug.
The Next Day
'Ah, finally. Two years have passed… now I can start being serious.'
Dumping the orange abominations in the trash bin, Naruto put on a black T-shirt with a small red Uzumaki swirl near the back of the neck with mesh armor underneath and a pair of green camo pants. He had white tape on both arms and legs hiding the weights usually hidden by his orange jacket. He tied his forehead protector around his left hip so his hair covered his forehead and shadowed his eyes.
He looked himself in the mirror. "Hmm. Definitely more human."
Academy
As he walked in a student pointed and said "What're you doing here? Don't you know only people who passed the test can come here?"
Naruto pointed to his hip where his forehead protector was and smiled. "I did pass."
The boy looked unconvinced but let it slide.
Naruto looked around the class. Hinata was blushing and stealing glances at his direction, Shikamaru was passed out on his desk, Choji was eating chips, Kiba was laughing along with his group of delinquent friends, Shino was sitting near an open window, Ino was making eyes at Sasuke while he had hands intertwined in front of his face while he brooded. He took a seat far away from Sasuke as he remembered what happened in his dream when he took a seat next to him. He wanted his first kiss to be memorable in a completely different way. And with a girl.
He watched as Sakura walked into the classroom and took a seat next to Sasuke and an idea popped into Naruto's mind. Why didn't he take advantage of the numerous times Sasuke was bound to choose power over the team to prove to Sakura that he wasn't worth it? And not just because he had a thing for her, because he honestly thought he wasn't worth it. People like Sasuke didn't deserve happiness. They only know how to take away happiness.
He wouldn't go against Sasuke from the start as he hasn't done any of the horrible things yet, but he also wouldn't allow him to do any of those terrible crimes either. And if he still ended up being the same person he saw in his dream, he would kill him without regret.
"Okay quiet down all of you! From today you are a ninja of the Hidden Leaf. But you're only Genin, so you'll be put into cells of three with a Jonin sensei to teach you. Also, we tried to balance the team according to strength of its members so no team is weaker than the next."
The students all started voicing their outrage at the fact that they wouldn't get to pick their team.
Naruto already knew where this was headed.
"Team 7: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto-"
Sakura hung her head at this. Naruto frowned noticing this but immediately turned back to Iruka.
"-and Uchiha Sasuke."