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Naruto POV

"You know, I wouldn't be out of bread if you didn't keep eating it all," I said to Kikuko. She was in her usual ninja clothing. Black and purple was easier to hide in then black and red, otherwise, she would've worn those colors. I myself wear orange and black. After all, it's not like red would go with my yellow hair. I say yellow because it's too, well, yellow, to be blonde. Her clothing goes more because she has black hair. I don't even know why she does. I mean, she's supposed to be my clone, yet I don't have black hair and neither did my parents. To answer the question of why I called her a clone, I'll have to go back a few years.

It was my sixth birthday, and I was at Ichiraku's again. By then, I'd already known I was an outcast, understood that it meant no one would ever want to willingly be in close proximity to me. Well, except for Ichiraku and his daughter. I could never understand why they were the only people who treated me like a person. Still don't.

Anyway, I was just eating my ramen (beef, if you were wondering), when I heard some women on the street. They mentioned my name a couple of times, so I got curious and abandoned my ramen to go listen. When I heard them say that I was a "demon child", I of course got curious as to what that meant. My curiosity didn't last long. Every child, including me, was told, at one time or another, of the story of the Kyuubi, or nine-tailed demon fox, so I found out right away that they thought I was the Kyuubi. They used some really colorful language that I didn't understand at the time and I am not willing to repeat what they said. After that, they started talking about how if I joined ninja school, I would be a bad influence on the other kids. Then another mentioned that I wouldn't even be able to learn any jutsu at all anyway. After all, I was just "some demon brat" to them.

That was the statement that got me motivated to be the best ninja there ever was. I'm still striving for that even now, even though I'm way ahead of even Sasuke Uchiha, the "best" in my class. But anyway, I got started right away. Most of the time, when I feel like I've been issued a challenge, I will fulfill that challenge to the best of my abilities. That was one of those times, and I felt like she challenged my ability to be a ninja. So of course, the first thing I do is sneak into the Hokage's place. After all, if he's the best ninja in the village, then he must have some really cool skills in there. So I stole the scroll of sealing, same one I stole again today, though that time, I didn't get caught. I wonder, to this day, how I got past ANBU class ninja security when I was only six. That sure says a lot about their security back then.

Anyway, I took the scroll and went out to the training grounds, also the same as tonight, and got to reading. I only mastered one jutsu back then, and that was the Kage bunshin. So I technically wasn't lying when I told Iruka I learned that jutsu from the scroll. I only didn't mention when I did. After that, I put the scroll back and started practicing to begin ninja school.

Near my first month or so, the Hokage found me practicing. I panicked a little, thinking he'd found out I took his scroll. Thankfully, he just thought I was nervous that he caught me out training by myself, thought I thought he would tell me to go back home. He commented on how well I was doing for my age and asked who my instructor was. The look on his face when I told him I didn't have one and was practicing for ninja school was priceless. I'd never, to this day, seen anyone look as surprised as he did. He looked at me like I'd just grown three heads, turned purple, and started talking in an alien language.

After a couple minutes of him having his brain fart, I got back to practicing, a little mad because, to me, it meant he didn't think I could do it either, just like those women. After a few more minutes, he came out of it and asked if I'd like him, the strongest ninja in the village, to train me. I was sceptical at first, but after I found out he was genuinely offering, I jumped for joy. Literally. He had another brain fart when I jumped up about twice my height, but he was obviously prepared, at least a little, for unexpected things from me and so that one didn't last as long.

Now to the actual clone part. It happened one day when I was experimenting in secret with the Kage bunshin. It was about a year later and I had entered ninja school, feigning stupidity because I thought it would be funny to see there faces when I graduated with the highest grades. Or, that was my plan, until they sprung the actual test on me, the bunshin test. I didn't think I could use my Kage bunshin because they'd just said bunshin. Besides, I didn't want to show them I'd learned a forbidden jutsu. But I'm getting a few years ahead of myself here. So I was experimenting on the Kage bunshin, just randomly changing parts of the jutsu, spawning clones that looked more like demons then clones, when suddenly, a girl pops into existence, instead of the monster clone I'd expected. She'd been about my age (duh) and no matter what I did, she wouldn't disappear. I only got the idea a little bit later to enroll her in ninja school as well. I'd noticed she had about the same personality as the real me, so I figured we could just enroll her and have her not hide how good our jutsu was to further remove suspicion from myself. It kind of backfired when they saw how good she (I) was and imediately recruited her for ANBU work. I got a little satisfaction out of it, knowing that, technically, the class was actually impressed with my skills.

She eventually got to be assigned as the Hokage's personal ANBU assistant, all without anyone finding out who she really was. It took a while getting to that point, though. I mean, it was basically my mind in a girl's body and she had a bit of trouble getting used to being a girl. So from then on, we were doing pretty good. I'd found out a way to exchange each other's memories, to learn what the other learned, and we improved even faster, her learning specific things one day while I'd learn completely different things, and then at the end of the day, we'd both know each technique. It took a while to come up with the name Kikuko, though. But when I did, it just stuck. We both liked the name and she's been Kikuko ever since. We live in the same apartment (we're technically the same person, remember?) and she brings in all the money from being an ANBU, though she makes me do all the shopping. I know she doesn't have time, but it's kind of hard for me to go shopping sometimes, being hated across the village as the "demon brat" and "demon child".

Now you're probably wondering why we called it my bread instead of our bread, right? Well, it's because she simply doesn't have the time to come home most of the time anymore. I only saw her about once in the last month. Though, based on what she said, that was bound to change.

"Well I love sandwiches, okay? And it seems like you'd have had enough time to restock in the last month, anyway," she said, in response to my earlier statement.

"Hated around the village, remember?" I told her, pointing to myself.

"Oh yeah," she said, sheepishly. "Keep forgetting about that, what with me not being hated all the time. Plus, no one really ever talks about you when you're not around, so it's even harder to remember."

"Yes, you've said that before. Anyway, why does the Hokage want you to monitor me?"

"Oh, forgot about that for a little. He just wants to make sure you didn't learn any other jutsu from the scroll, because it was only about thirty minutes after you got the scroll that you performed the Kage bunshin. Bad idea, by the way. So anyway, he said I could take a couple of months off, basically, because that's how long I'm supposed to monitor you."

"Oh, so you can do the shopping now?" I asked her, trying to burst her bubble.

"Aww, man! Can't you do it?" I knew she was just kidding, so I gave her the joking look I usually give her when she jokingly says something stupid. "Yeah, yeah, I'll do the shopping. So anyway, we going to do this or what?"

Knowing what she was talking about, I replied, "Man, why does it have to hurt so much if we don't do it for a couple of months?" I sighed. "Lets just get this over with." Gritting my teeth, I started the memory jutsu, living out her last month's worth of memories, while she lived out mine. Just as I expected, when it was over I felt like my brain would explode, that's how big a headache I got.

"Ugh," we both moaned at the same time.

"I would congratulate you on graduating any other time, but it hurts too much to think straight right now," Kikuko said, holding her head. I could barely hear her over the pounding in my ears. Together, we went to get some pain killers and then threw ourselves onto our beds and fell asleep instantly, despite the killer headaches.

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"Ugh, come on, this is so annoying!"

It was the next day and I was waiting with my teammates for our instructor to arrive. Because I was labeled as "dead last", I was paired with the two "most skilled" ninja in my class. Sasuke was leaning on a wall, looking like he was seriously depressed. Either that, or he was pretty tired. Sakura Haruno was standing up. She was pacing until I'd said what I did.

"Oh, come on, Naruto, you're so annoying. Why are you complaining so much? If you're going to be a real ninja, then you need to learn to be patient!" Even though she said that, I could tell she was just as annoyed as I was, if not more so. I could tell she was trying to act mature in front of Sasuke. All for nothing, though. I can't count how many times she's screamed out his name like one of those giddy fangirls of his. I can tell that he doesn't like that. He gets real quiet whenever a fangirl comes and screams his name. He probably doesn't know he's making it worse. Or he knows that if he responds, they'll get even crazier. I can't tell which.

"I'm being patient," I retorted. "And real ninja don't make their students they haven't even properly met yet wait for two hours waiting for them when they've just been standing outside the door reading the latest book in the Icha Icha series." Sakura looked at me like I was just making it up. I knew it was true. I saw him freeze up reading his perverted novel. Well, technically I didn't see him. Let me explain; whenever we're in close enough proximity (within about two hundred feet of each other), me and Kikuko can see, hear, smell, feel, and taste anything the other does. Well, if we use the special jutsu I created. Let's just say I did a lot of jutsu experimenting when I was younger. Kikuko was hiding out at the end of the hallway, watching our silver-haired instructor. Just as Sakura was about to say something-probably denounce me as being a complete idiot-our sensei walked in, pretending to be nonchalant. I knew better.

"Well, here I am," he said, acting as if he wasn't just reading the book that I clearly saw him put away while he was still outside the door. "Although I don't have an Icha Icha book on me, I'm quite impressed with how you detected me." I decided to mess with him.

"Oh, please. You hid it in your back pocket when you were still outside." His one visible eye widened. Yep, he was definitely lying, and I didn't even need a clone to be able to tell.

"How did you know that?" He said, not even trying to hide it anymore.

"Yeah, how did you Naruto? Or was that just a lucky guess?" Sakura asked, folding her arms over her chest. Even Sasuke-though he was trying hard to keep him unreadable expression-looked at least a little curious.

"You can't be serious," I said, trying to yank on my teammate's chains. "Someone is outside the door for two whole hours and you don't notice his chakra? And you call yourselves the best ninja in our class? Wow."

"Even so," the silver-haired ninja said. "How could you have known what book I was reading?"

"You were in a position that assured me you were reading a book, and judging from the age your chakra seemed, it could have only been that book, or at least one of them. So am I right in assuming then, by you're reaction, that it was the latest book?" Now he-and my teammates-looked even more shocked.

"Meet me on the roof in two minutes," he said after calming down a bit. It took him about a minute or two. Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves. I turned back to my teammates, who were now both looking at me with undisguised shock. I decided to tease them a bit further.

"Here's a good piece of advice for ya: never judge a book by its cover. Now you'd best get headed to the roof, before silver-head drops you two out," I said, disappearing in my own puff of smoke and leaves.

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Up on the roof, the three had calmed down considerably, probably thinking that was the extent of my hidden abilities. Man, it would be so fun to prove them wrong. Kikuko was on a nearby rooftop, looking in all the directions I couldn't. You could never be too prepared for a sneak attack. It's happened to me more than once before.

"So," Silver-hair started, "tell me a little about yourselves: likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future... that sort of thing."

"So you're gonna go first, right?" I asked him.

"Why not? My name's Kakashi, I have a lot of likes and dislikes, hobbies... hmmm... dreams for the future: not going to tell you."

"So all we learned about him is his name," Sakura whispered. I knew at least two of his hobbies already. One: testing his students. Two: reading those perverted books of his.

"So, now that that's out of the way, how about you start first," he said, pointing to me.

"Well, my name's Naruto Uzumaki, my hobbies are reading, practising my jutsu, and making myself look stupider than I am so I can laugh at the expressions on people's faces when they learn about that one," I said, chuckling a bit at Sakura and Sasuke's expressions. "I like books, cats, dogs, ramen, sandwiches, learning new jutsu, and laughing at the expressions on people's faces when they learn that I'm smarter than I appear to be. I dislike fangirls, perverts, and people who ignore other people." I chuckled again at their expressions, plus Kakashi's. "My dream for the future is to become Hokage and get recognised by everyone in the village." I'm not too far away, actually, considering Kikuko is the Hokage's private ANBU, the one he trusts more than any other. Pretty ironic, what with this huge secret we're keeping from him about us being the same person.

"Okay, next," Kakashi said after he calmed down. Again.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have many dislikes, and I don't really like anything. I can't really call it a dream, but I have an ambition. To revive my clan and to... kill a certain man." I knew exactly who he was talking about and considering that person is still an undercover Konoha ninja who didn't really kill the rest of the Uchiha, I wouldn't forgive him if he did. Long story short, Itachi-Sasuke's older brother-was a fellow ANBU to Kikuko and was told to kill all of his family. I, technically she, stopped him and provided clones, live one's that looked bloody, to make it look like he killed them. Surprisingly, no one noticed (no one ever seems to notice things in this village). We hid his real family somewhere remote and Itachi has been getting them supplies. Sasuke obviously still thinks it was real. I'll have to fix that when I catch him alone.

"Okay, and lastly, the girl."

"My name is Sakura Haruno, the things I like... the person I like is... uhm? My dream for the future? Uhm?" She was looking at Sasuke the whole time she was talking. What do girls see in him? And he tries his best to tune them out, too. Then Sakura yelled out, "oh yeah!" It actually kind of scared me. "What I dislike is Naruto."

"Like I care what you think."

"My hobby is...," and she kept looking at Sasuke. Wow, obsession much?

"So," Kakashi said, looking like he wanted to get it over with. "Now that we're done with introductions, tomorrow we'll get to our duties."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, I figured we could do something with just the four of us."

"I repeat: like what?"

"Survival training."

"Why is our first duty a training?" Sakura spoke up. "Didn't we do enough training at the academy?"

"Well this isn't a normal training. Because this time, your opponent is going to be me."

"Are you going to get to the point or not?" I asked him, knowing there was something else. He just chuckled.

"What's so funny sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Well, the point is, of the 27 graduates, only 9 will move on to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. The training is a very difficult test with a fail rate of over 66%!"

'Whoa,' I thought. 'Pretty tough.'

"So anyway, tomorrow you'll have to show your real skills. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. Oh, and skip breakfast, you might throw up.

'Heh, not me!" I thought, planning on eating breakfast anyway.

"The details are on this paper," he said, handing them out. Sasuke crushed his immediately after reading it. I didn't have to read mine, I knew I could pass whatever he could throw at me.

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The next day, we were out in the training grounds. Instead of letting Kakashi hide out this time, I immediately grabbed him and dragged him over. He set up a timer on one of three training stumps.

"Okay, it's set to noon," he said. "Here are two bells." He held them up. "Your task is to get them from me before time runs out. The person who doesn't get a bell won't get lunch. I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps, I'll also eat lunch right in front of you."

'So that's why he told us to not eat anything,' I thought, feeling a little bad for the other two, who obviously followed that instruction.

"You only need to get one bell," he continued. "There are only two, so at least one of you will be tied to the stump. Not only that, but the one who doesn't get a bell will fail and get sent straight back to the academy. You can use shuriken and kunai if you want. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

'If I came at you with the intent to kill, it might be a long battle, but I'll at least make you bloody as hell,' I thought.

"But you'll be in danger!" Sakura shouted.

'You got that right.'

"I'm a trained professional. I can handle myself. Okay then, start when I say." It was about a minute later before he said anything else. "Start!" And so the test was started.

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A/N: So how was this? I seem to have a lot more motivation for this than for my other fics on this profile. I will finish them, but as I have said before, it will take a while. Naruto is a pretty long series. Things will and have happened differently in this story. If I grew up like Naruto-no parents and hated-and still had most of my personality, I really think I would've acted like Naruto did in the fic and done the things he did. Don't mind me if I sometimes refer to Naruto as me in my author's notes, because it really feels like it is me. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The next chapter I'm going to post is going to be a new fic-you'll find out which-and I will work on that for two chapters. Then I will work on transferring one of my other fics from Omnitroid1. Just one more note. I won't go too terribly into detail on how the characters look unless they wear something different than in the manga Or its a new character altogether. I'm just lazy like that. Also, I'm using the online manga for referencing, so don't blame me if some things sound different to all you people who read the actual, paper paged books. There, I think that's all I have to say. See ya in the next one, omnitroid out.