-CHAPTER 2-

Naruto woke up blearily to a room filled with hushed voices and the inviting smell of ramen. He smiled when he remembered what had happened last night. Curious to see what had changed, he looked over the side of his bed and immediately noticed several differences that would have alarmed him had he not had an idea of what had happened.

The first was that his previously messy room, which used to be littered with scrolls and empty ramen cups scattered about haphazardly, was now spotless. The place looked as if it'd been cleaned only ten minutes ago, and there was a shine in his apartment that he couldn't recall seeing since...ever.

The second was a group of people, four girls and three guys, huddled next to a surprisingly large map of the continent pinned to his wall. They had plain, unassuming faces and unremarkable brown hair, and were clad in grey jumpsuits cut like his. All of them wore forehead protectors from each of the hidden villages, with the exception of a girl sitting on the couch watching the group. She had a silent air of authority, a very average face with small eyes and a bored expression, and a pair of oddly familiar gray goggles hung around her neck. Naruto looked back at the map and realized that the whole thing was annotated with detailed notes, footnotes, comments and diagrams, and that an even more written-on map of Konoha hung next to it.

The last thing he noticed was the steaming bowl of Ichiraku's on the table. Not sure if it was for him or someone else, he cleared his throat. The people in the room looked at him curiously before returning to their work, and the girl with the goggles blinked at him slowly. "Oh. You're awake. Just a moment." The girl made a clone of herself that dispersed right after being created. Assuming she had sent a message to someone, Naruto got up and made himself comfortable with the ramen. Hey, if no one else was eating it, it must be his.

He was barely ten seconds into his ramen when two people body flickered into his room through the open window and promptly sat down on the couch next to the girl who had spoken before. One was a girl with long blond hair, a soft well-rounded face, a white jumpsuit, and white goggles on her forehead. She smiled mischievously in a way that Naruto almost recognized.

The other was a black guy with jet-black hair and blond tips, wearing a black jumpsuit and black goggles tied around his waist. He relaxed into the couch patiently, comfortably lounging and waiting for someone to speak. Naruto was about to ask what the hell they were doing on his couch when the blond girl piped up.

"Hi. I'm Luna. The guy next to me is Raiden, and the girl next to him is Uzumi. We're-"

"Just Rai, please."

The girl smirked at him, then turned back to Naruto. "Whatever. Do you want the long version or the short one?"

Naruto furrowed his brow. He figured if he thought hard enough, he could figure this out, but he didn't quite want to bother at the moment. "Short."

"We're you. Rai and I are the two clones you made last night, before you went to sleep. Uzumi is a clone we made later. We-"

"Wait. What? Why don't you look like me, then?"

Luna sighed and rolled her eyes. "Because that's confusing. And boring. And repetitive. We figured that at least the people who were leading the clones should look different from you, if only so we'll know who's leading what and why. It made things easier. A lot easier."

Naruto blinked. "But Uzumi looks just like her clones." He pointed out.

Rai snorted. "Yeah, but that's just a personal preference thing. Blend into your surroundings and all that. She's the leader of Infiltration."

"...So then how do they know she's the leader?"

Luna bounced impatiently. "The goggles, silly. Only leaders get a pair."

Naruto nodded slowly. This was beginning to make sense, at least...

"...Okay...So you're all me...on the inside, at least?"

Luna crinkled her forehead in thought. "Technically. But I think, somewhere along the line, we decided that even acting like you is boring. I mean, as clones, we've been acting like you our entire lives! It's nice- refreshing I guess- to be someone else, if only for a short while. And even if we get poofed, you can bring us right back again from memory. It works out!" she said, with a bright smile and two thumbs up.

Rai spoke up. "But you don't have to make every clone distinct. Just around five of us, maybe a couple more. There are some people you have to meet. The other leaders."

Naruto still looked confused. "But why have you changed? And why have you changed so much? Is there something wrong with being me?"

Luna laughed and shook her head. "No, you're perfectly fine. It's just...there are a thousand yous running around now. It's a little hard to be you- well, me- when there are a bunch of people running around being you. It got stale, so I decided to be someone else for a change. The me I am now."

Naruto tilted his head curiously. "Do you two lead anything?"

Rai shrugged casually. "No, we just make sure everything is running smoothly and look to "expand our horizons", as they say. We're the quickest thinkers, save for Rukona probably, and the ones to go to if there's a major problem or someone has an awesome idea."

"Rukona?"

Luna grimaced smugly. "The Tactics leader. She's behind the Hokage Faces, with Jack and Makima, the Training and Transformation leaders, respectively."

Naruto shook his head in confusion for a moment. "Okay, do me a favor and list all the teams you have already."

Luna counted off on her fingers. "Training, Pranking, Tactics, Infiltration, and Transformation. There used to be a Collection Team, but they got pretty much everything we needed as far as scrolls and weapons go last night, so we're not sure what to do with them."

Naruto pushed away the now-empty bowl of ramen and tipped the chair onto its back legs. "How about a Learning Team? We could have hundreds of us reading things in the library at once, starting with the restricted ninja library and working towards the useful information in the civilian ones."

The leaders blinked. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What, you guys didn't think about that?"

Luna spoke slowly. "We've been...heavily occupied. But that's a good idea. I'll send the message to Sunny right now."

"And Sunny is...the former head of the Collection Team?"

Luna grinned as she made a clone and dispelled it. "You're catching on."

Naruto paid attention as the message passed to everyone, but could tell that the message wasn't meant for him. Sometime in the night, they had figured out a way to attach priority to the information they sent when dispelled to targeted clones. The only thing left to do was develop real telepathy, but even the original could tell that was rather far off, even with hundreds of clones researching jutsu theory. He sighed.

"What have you been doing for food all this time? Clones have to eat, don't they?"

Rai scratched behind his head. "Remember that Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu that was in one of the scrolls we picked up?" Naruto nodded after spending a moment searching his now massive memory reserves. Apparently he had a lot of information sitting there, just waiting to be looked at. "We all spent a few minutes learning it. The people who made the jutsu assumed that the only reason someone would ever want to use so much chakra is to fight other people, but they were wrong. It's hard, but not impossible, to multiply inanimate objects indefinitely. So we did it with food. Specifically, cup ramen." He pointed at a bewildered Naruto. "You, my friend, could feed a village if you needed to, with your chakra reserves. Hell, with us as your clones you practically are a hidden village, especially when we get stronger, the lot of us."

Naruto blinked. A scary thought occurred to him.

"Wait. Wait a second. How many clones of me are running around out there?"

Luna smirked confidently. "How many clones of you? None. It's a lot easier to get around the city and generally do stuff when you don't look like a demon container. Some of us are even small children or adults for Infiltration's purposes, and many of us are animals that we've already figured out. How many clones are there that are coming from you? Over a thousand. It's amazing, Naruto. We're everywhere."

Naruto glanced back at the map that a small part of the Infiltration Team was looking

at and balked as he realized that each forehead protector was meant to infiltrate said hidden village, and that the notes made were all secrets -of clans, people, even Konoha in its entirety. He almost panicked. This was a lot of information in only one person's hands.

Uzumi spoke up for the first time since her quiet morning greeting. "I like my job, and I'm good at it." she said tonelessly, still staring at different parts of the map, seemingly mentally sorting out information.

Rai spoke almost reverently. "Uzumi used the Transformation Team's ideas to large effect. The "Fly on the Wall" concept is no longer just a concept, and clones have infiltrated virtually every part of the city..."

Luna looked askance at Uzumi. "Except for one. But we're not quite sure what it is yet. ROOT."

Uzumi spoke like she was reading from a textbook. "ROOT was an organization founded by one Shimura Danzo, but it was disbanded years ago. Supposedly. The more I bug him, and the people who report to him, the more I do not think that's the case."

Naruto sweatdropped heavily. So he was discovering covert operations in his sleep now? Great. He might as well just join Black Ops now. His eyes lit up at the thought. As a matter of fact...

"Hey," he said, getting Luna's and Rai's attention. "How much stronger have we gotten? With the training and tactics and stuff."

Rai laughed softly. "Much stronger. Having a few hundred clones constantly training on everything that could possibly be trained for hours on end will do that to a guy. We're still filling out holes, especially in your taijutsu and chakra control, but we're quickly getting past that. Go visit Jack and Rukona if you want details- they'll be happy to see you." Naruto nodded, smiling widely. Maybe ANBU Black Ops...then Hokage in a few years wasn't such a far off goal after all...

"But first!" Luna stood up. "You have to get your picture taken, remember? We've been talking long enough."

Naruto blinked, then rushed to put on his forever-orange jumpsuit and forehead protector. He'd completely forgotten that today was supposed to be the day he got his picture taken for his official ninja license. He was a flurry of activity as he made his bed (his clones made such an effort to keep the place clean, after all) and began to jump out the window.

Before he headed out the window, he looked around his room. The leaders were discussing something as the infiltration clones were noting and calculating distances and the limits of clone travel. He noted that it was getting kind of crowded in the tiny apartment.

'I'm going to need a bigger place...' He stored the thought in one of the rapidly growing "see later" files in his brain. Naruto body flickered out of the window, noting with pleasure that he could easily cross incredibly long distances with his chakra reserves.

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It was about an hour later when Naruto was handing the Hokage his picture personally. While going through the tedious process of finding a photographer and getting a picture taken and developed, he'd been thinking hard about recent developments. He'd gone through his memories methodically, checking up on the reports Luna and Rai had made clones write and memorize hourly for his convenience. Seeing those, he finally realized what he was doing, and just how big it was. It was with a light heart but a heavy mind he went to talk to the Hokage.

"Hey, old man...Can I ask you about something?"

The Hokage looked down at the boy. He loved him like a grandson, and could tell when he was troubled by something, which he obviously was. He figured it had to do with learning about the Kyuubi, and was prepared to vehemently deny his claims of being a demon if it came to it. "Yes, Naruto, what is it?"

Naruto hesitated. What should he ask first? "It's...it's about the Shadow Clone jutsu. Has anyone ever let their clones go free for a really long time?"

The Hokage looked at the boy, concerned. "No...The technique is chakra-intensive. It takes chakra to perform and sustain that jutsu, so anyone who uses it dispels his clones right after finishing. Why?"

Naruto wasn't about to tell him that his clones were running free. That would surely send the Hokage into a panic. Hundreds of pranksters? How would Konoha survive? He grinned inwardly at the thought.

"Well, I almost feel as if it's an incomplete technique." The Hokage blinked. "Has anyone ever tried to make clones that create their own chakra? Or clones that can take more than one hit? Or tried to create...you know...actual people?"

The old man stared incredulously at the boy and fished around for an answer. 'What is this child thinking...?' "No...That would take either advanced sealwork or ingenious jutsu modification, and either way the chakra reserves required would be impossibly enormous. People -normal ninja I mean- simply don't have the strength for that. Besides, why would anyone ever need a shadow clone that lasts more than a few hours? It would be mentally exhausting and physically depleting."

Naruto noted that his mind was constantly compartmentalizing the influx of information from clones popping all over the country. If he closed his eyes and tried to receive everything that was coming in at once, the information became unbearable and he risked shutting down his brain. After the first time he'd dispelled a thousand clones at once, his subconscious had learned what to look at and what not to, so he didn't need to do it consciously. His massive and still growing reserves easily took care of the physical depletion problem as well. Naruto nodded to himself. He had his answers.

Naruto stood up slowly. "Old Man...Thank you." The Hokage's eyebrows shot up behind the brim of his hat. "You were there for me when no one else was, and you always wanted the best for me...Even if you did keep a few secrets. I want you to know that it wasn't in vain. I AM going to be Hokage, and, after that, I WILL bring peace to the shinobi world!" He turned around and walked out decisively and proudly, leaving behind a slightly baffled Hokage.

'The fire in his eyes...That's a determination I've rarely seen.' The Hokage puffed on his pipe and blew a smoke ring. 'Minato...You would be proud of your son. I am.' Sarutobi chuckled softly, then glanced wryly at the mountain of paperwork teetering on the desk. He picked up the top packet and sighed in resignation.