Chapter 1: The Initial Stage


The morning was a bright and sunny one. Crowds of people were milling around on the streets, sometimes seeing a familiar face and interacting. The gentle wind blew through the scene, and quiet chatter was heard. It was a picture of absolute peace and tranquility, and happiness was evident from the content looks on the pedestrians' faces. However, the chatter died down and joyful expressions vanished, almost in a slow wave. The cause for this drastic mood shift was evident: a young boy with golden hair and bright blue eyes was strolling down the street. Almost instinctively, villagers began to shift in order to get away from the boy. Disgusted expressions contrasted the complete and utter disregard of the boy's existence. Obviously, these actions were nothing new, judging by the almost rehearsed looks that they had attached to them. Ordinarily, these minute things would have easily hurt an average person, even driving them to the point of madness. However, the target seemed to be unable to care less. The boy was nonchalantly gazing at products lined up in the windows of small shops even as their respective owners drew their blinds. Naruto Uzumaki was used to this. After his sensei's death, small things like these barely affected him. Anyways, he had much better things to do than wail about his unfair treatment by the ignorant citizens of Konoha. He had long learned that life wasn't fair.

Naruto looked ahead, into the bright morning sun. Today was one of the most important days of his life. If all went well, he would no longer be forced to wear the title of a helpless civilian. He had waited for this day, worked down to his last drops of energy each and every day. Today was the day when he would graduate from the Academy and finally become an official shinobi of the Leaf. Naruto knew that he would easily be able to pass under normal circumstances, but even a glimpse of his daily life showed that his were anything from that state. Naruto was no fool. He knew that some teacher with a misdirected vendetta would attempt to sabotage his exams. Heck, they'd been doing it for his entire academic career! The boy shook his head. Those fools who would deliberately hamper the progress of one of the Academy's most promising potential shinobi simply because of their own ignorance did not even deserve to wear the title of teacher.

Naruto noticed that he was seeing more children accompanied by parents as he went on. Ignoring the slight pain in his heart, he noted that the Academy must be close. He looked critically at some children walking a significant distance in front of him.

"It appears that the Academy's standards have dropped even further." Naruto sighed. There was a reason why the village of Konoha, arguably the most powerful of the hidden villages, was laughed at. Its shinobi were less highly trained killing machines and more kids who wanted to go on an adventure. Naruto snapped out of his thoughts as he stepped on the brick path leading up to the Academy's gates. Ducking behind one of the many large trees that surrounded the school's wall, he took a small piece of paper and stuck it to his chest. Opening one of his hands, he sent chakra to the area and saw an intricate seal appear on his palm. His sensei had explained about his condition and his… tenant, for lack of a better term, and how those factors had affected his ability to mold chakra outside of his body. However, Naruto had found a way to bypass the obstacle using his custom made seals. He pressed the now glowing palm against his forehead.

"Activate!" he whispered. Almost immediately, the image of slightly tall, lean Naruto with his golden locks and haunted, blue eyes was replaced with an average-looking brown haired boy whom at which no one would look twice. Naruto had been using this trick for over a year now. It had allowed him to enter his class with significantly less occurrences with his fellow shinobi in training. Naruto slipped back into the crowd, mingling in the swarm of excited children.

"What are you gonna do during the break?" Naruto heard one of many voices repeating the essentially same phrase. The idea of break was on everyone's minds, and naturally so, considering the civilian school-like setup that had been implemented in the Academy.

"Probably just play! I can't wait!" A voice returned the question. Naruto rolled his eyes. One could not even begin to imagine these children becoming cold, heartless killers within a few years. But then again, he mused, a few years had done quite a bit to change himself.

"I know right? It's going to be awesome!" Naruto exited the crowd once he passed the gates that signified entrance into the school grounds. He immediately began to head towards his classroom, avoiding any unnecessary talk with others. He changed his appearance nearly every week and he himself was obviously disliked, so it wasn't as if he and his illusion had any close friends to begin with. He encountered little trouble in the hallways and managed to reach the room within a couple of minutes. Standing before the large wooden door, Naruto paused. Something was slightly off. Naruto gripped the doorknob, but was unable to twist. The door seemed to be locked. Sighing, Naruto simply got out a small bottle of ink and a brush. He drew a temporary seal on the offending object and sent a chakra current through the intricate design. With a click, the door swung open. He canceled his illusion and packed up his supplies. Walking through the door, Naruto's instincts screamed at him to duck.

WOOOOOOOOOSH! A kunai imbedded itself into the wall of the hallway directly behind him. Shoving the realization that he had narrowly escaped from being impaled in his own classroom out of his mind, Naruto looked at where he had calculated the kunai had originated from. It was cleverly concealed, but a small, dangling rope told the boy that it was a preset trap. Whirling to his right, Naruto swung his left foot in a perfect arc. However, it was blocked by a metallic object. Spotting a disturbance in the shadows, Naruto used his brush to deflect a stab at his heart.

"Who are you? This isn't funny at all!" When he got no response, Naruto decided that talking and reasoning was useless. His mind raced, calculating all of the possibilities of his assailant's identity. It could be someone with a grudge against him, but that was unlikely. No one knew about his expertise in sealing, and so his opponent wouldn't have locked the door. The most likely possibility was that the person simply had wanted to be left alone, and being in a dark room while others were happily interacting outside strengthened that idea. However, the kunai trap showed that they had a blatant indifference to another being injured. That, combined with their proficiency in taijutsu, left only a few options. Naruto went with the most likely one.

"Teme? Do you want to be expelled on your last day?" Naruto's opponent paused for a split second, giving Naruto all the evidence and time that he needed. Naruto kicked Sasuke straight in his stomach, sending the boy flying. Quickly constructing a seal on some scrap paper, Naruto slapped it onto the last Uchiha's chest. Naruto then calmly strode over to the lught switch and turned them on, illuminating the classroom. Blinking a few times to remove the effects of sudden light change, Naruto looked to the other end of the classroom to find the raven-haired boy glaring at him.

"So, teme, would you like to explain?" Both of the residents of the room knew that Naruto knew the reason. Thus, neither was surprised when a silence fell upon the two once again. After a minute, Sasuke spoke.

"Remove this paralyzing technique!" Naruto looked at him, uninterested. Walking closer he noticed slight anticipation on the other boy's face.

"It'll come off in a few minutes. Why don't you enjoy your time-out until then?" Naruto expected another complaint, but was surprised when all the other boy did was smirk.

"Idiot." Naruto realized his mistake when he stepped on a thin, barely seeable wire, breaking it. Strong cables shot at him from every corner of the room. Before he could react, Naruto was bound head to toe. Not only that, but his initial momentum caused him to rather unceremoniously fall down right next to Sasuke. This time, Naruto glared while the other boy smirked.

"How do ya like that, teme?" Naruto glared harder. This always happened. Naruto nearly always beat Sasuke initially, only to have an unexpected event (more often than not courtesy of Sasuke's fangirls) give the raven-haired boy the advantage. To the class, it appeared that Sasuke won every time. This time, Naruto would remain bound for the entire class to see while Sasuke would be silently gloating at his desk, free from the temporary paralysis seal. There was no way that Naruto would allow it to end the same way this time.

"Shut your mouth, teme!" Naruto rolled over and touched his fingers to his seal construct. The design glowed blue for a moment.

"What did you do, dobe?" The Uchiha's panicked voice was like music to Naruto's ears.

"Well, I simply may have made the trap… I dunno… permanent?" Naruto relished the moment when Sasuke's eyes nearly doubled in size. Naruto wouldn't lose anything by being seen in this position, but Sasuke had his reputation of being the rookie of the year to maintain. Suddenly, Naruto thought of an excellent plan.

"Listen, teme, why don't we both release each other and be on our way? It is our last day, after all!" The Uchiha looked at him, suspicious. Ordinarily, Naruto would never make that proposition, and Sasuke knew it. He shook his head.

"Okay, fine. I guess it would be entertaining to see the class's reaction to their favorite classmate beaten by the dead last!" Sasuke's eyes widened again. After a few seconds, he grudgingly nodded.

"Okay. I can't release you unless I can move myself, so you'll have to unbind me first." The Uchiha knew that he was putting Naruto into an extremely advantageous position, but he had no choice. Sasuke cut of his chakra flow to the cables. Naruto got up as the offending articles slackened, and stretched.

"Ah! That was nice!" He then picked up the still paralyzed Sasuke and placed him in his seat, moving his limbs and shifting his expression to make him look perfectly natural. Naruto painted additional symbols onto the seal construct.

"What are…. Mmph! Mmph!" Naruto was barely able to prevent himself from laughing at Sasuke's plight.

"As you can see, I've prevented you from speaking. I've also added… something else. Don't worry; the seal will disappear in about… I'd say 15 minutes!" Naruto then walked away to sit in his own seat at the back of the classroom, leaving the Uchiha to his fate.

A few minutes later, the bell rang, and all of Naruto's classmates poured in from the door. The chatter remained even as the students began to disperse into their own seats. However, the relatively peaceful mood ws shattered by two girls' argument.

"I'M GOING TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN!" The two, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, were two of Sasuke's biggest fangirls. Day in and day out they fought over the last Uchiha. The only thing that prevented Naruto from cracking and giving them a piece of his mind was the fact that they were probably better kuniochi than most of the other students.

"NO WAY! I AM!" Sakura sprinted down the aisle and claimed the coveted seat.

"Sasuke-kun wants me to sit here too, right?" Sakura cooed. To the Uchiha's horror and to Naruto's delight, Sasuke nodded, a blue light barely visible through his shirt. Everyone else who was watching the fiasco paused. Sasuke Uchiha had accepted Sakura? Some checked outside just to make sure that the world wasn't ending.

"SAAAAAAAAAAAASUUUUUUUUUUUUKEEEEEEEEEEE-KUUUUUUUUU UN!" Sakura screamed in delight and began snuggling against the object of her affection. Everyone expected Sasuke to throw her off, but Naruto's seal still held. Sasuke was forced to endure ten minutes of Sakura fawning over him. Naruto, in the meantime, had placed an array of silencing seals around him and was roaring in silent laughter. That was the scene that Iruka Umino walked into.

"SHUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUP!" Iruka screamed. Naruto stoped laughing and became serious. He couldn't afford to trip up here simply because of this little prank. The class eventually returned to order. Naruto's seal curled up and vanished. Iruka opened his mouth.

"I don't want to slip into a long speech about what it means to be a shinobi. You should know that already. However, I have a few words to tell you. Never forget your goals, dreams and ambitions. When you are a shinobi, you will undoubtedly be faced with challenges that you will believe impossible to overcome. That is only natural. However, the message that I want all of you to remember is this: the strongest are not so because they aim to hurt; they are so because they aim to protect. With that, I wish you good luck for your exams. Should you pass, you will enter an entirely different world. Chances are, this will be the last time I talk to you." The ominous message underlying Iruka's words gave birth to a silence, one that even the most hyper of students partook in. The students who were once acting as if they were going on a field trip now just seemed to be accepting the true face of the occupation that they were aiming for. Naruto barely suppressed a snort. It was about time. He glanced at the pile of papers that had appeared on his desk, courtesy of built-in storage scrolls (Naruto's own idea, by the way. Iruka owed him one.) and sighed. Written exams. Always such a bore. Naruto sped through the questions, some actually helpful, most useless. Who invented the spring kunai, calculate the velocity of a shuriken, what valley connects Fire Country with Rice Country, and so on. Naruto finished about half an hour before time was up and doodled various seal structures on his papers to wait. The written exam was always made to be pathetically easy. The true test was in the physical exams.

"All right! Time's up!" The papers vanished, melting into the wooden faces of their respective desks.

"Follow me to your physical exams!" With a loud grinding noise, all of the students pushed back their seats and got up. Naruto stretched. Time to get real. He followed at the back of the class as they walked to the practice field.


There were three main portions of the physical exam: weapons, taijutsu, and general fitness. All three were relatively simple to pass by the Academy's standards; only the weakest and least skilled of participants would fail it. Naruto managed to land a bull's eye on every kunai and shuriken that he threw. He had trained specifically of accuracy due to the potential danger a badly thrown seal-equipped kunai could create. The general fitness portion was pretty easy as well. Even though he spent most of his time in the library researching and creating new seal designs, Naruto still trained his body every day. Then it was time to do the last area that was tested. His taijutsu was horrible. Not only did his hateful teachers show him wrong stances and the like, but he was always denied entrance to any kind of training class. To make things even worse, this was the only portion of the exam that was public. Everyone would see him fail, once again. Naruto sighed.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Hearing his name called, Naruto walked into the ring. He had to show proper technique against the teacher that he was facing. If the rules were to last for three minutes or something like that, Naruto could have actually passed. However, his technique was worse than some first-years.

"Okay, Naruto, come on!" At least he was facing Iruka-sensei. The man was the only teacher that treated him like everyone else. Any other instructor would never let him out without more than a few bruises.

Naruto tensed, and then sprang. Iruka met his punch with one of his own, and smoothly transitioned into another attack. However, Naruto's no-style street fighting technique threw him off balance. He barely had time to block Iruka's kick before falling to the ground.

"Come on, Naruto! Is that all?" Iruka-sensei seemed disappointed. The man seemed to think that Naruto had completed the rest of his exams in a similar fashion. Naruto frowned. He wouldn't go down without proving himself first.

"AAAHHHH!" With a yell that surprised the scarred chuunin, Naruto twisted his body and threw a devastating right hook. Although Iruka dodged the attack, Naruto used the momentum and swung his left leg in an arc. With a sickening crunch, Naruto landed a hit. The sound of Naruto's heel impacting Iruka's chest was heard from many dozen meters away. The instructor obviously had not expected the attack, and was reeling back from momentary pain. Naruto used that precious time to strike his teacher one more time, this time in his… area. All of the males in the audience winced. However, Iruka wasn't a chuunin for nothing. He shot out his hand in a focused strike and threw Naruto to the ground. Before the boy could move, Iruka temporarily paralyzed Naruto with a weak lightning jutsu.

"Although you managed to land some good hits, your technique was deplorable. I'm sorry, but I am forced to fail you on this part of the exam." Naruto's heart sunk for a second, but the depression was suddenly converted into anger. He had fought perfectly fine! It was his teachers' fault for not showing him the proper technique! Why was he suffering the consequences?

"However, I will admit that you fought well regardless. Because of that and your scores in all of the other categories, I will pass you if you're able to pass the ninjutsu portion." Naruto was stunned. He still had a chance!


Finally, it was the last test. All of the students had come back to the classroom. An instructor had called them in one by one by last name. Thus, Naruto was forced to wait until they got to the end of the alphabet.

"Sasuke Uchiha!" It was practically his turn now. Naruto had hoped that he could gather information about the test based on previous participants, but the students who had gone in before him seemed to have taken an alternate route to go outside. He was blind, tactically speaking.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto got out of his seat and slowly meandered over to the door. Entering, he saw Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei seated behind a large desk. The wooden surface of the piece of furniture seemed to have been once filled with forehead protectors, but now there was but a few remaining. It appeared as if everyone else before him had passed. Naruto tried to think of this as a sign that the test was rather simple, but failed to conceive the possibility that anything was ever simple for him. Indeed, a foreboding air took to the room's atmosphere as Naruto placed himself before the two chuunin.

"All right, Naruto. All you have to do is perform the bunshin technique and you pass." Naruto swallowed. He had painted seal onto his arms beforehand in order to successfully use chakra. It should be fine. Placing his hands into the hand-seal position for show, Naruto channeled chakra into the painted constructs and began the technique.

"Stop! Are you trying to cheat?" Naruto looked up. Mizuki had gotten out of his chair and was pointing at his arm.

"What's wrong, Mizuki?" Iruka looked at his subordinate questioningly.

"He has something on his arms! He's obviously cheating!" Naruto stared, stunned. How had the man found out? He had planned this very moment for months, making sure that there was no problem. He had even added an anti-detection section to the construct just to make sure. There was only one explanation: the chuunin had done research on him, most likely to find any way to fail him. Naruto cringed. The worst part was that it had worked. He could do nothing as Mizuki lifted his sleeves and showed the intricate patterns to Iruka, leaving the man shocked and visibly disappointed at Naruto.

"I thought that you actually wanted to, that you had worked hard to become a shinobi. Now you do this? You've betrayed me, Naruto." Nothing could have hurt the boy more at that moment. However, showing weakness would make the moment even sweeter for Mizuki. Naruto shifted his expression into a poker face.

"Well? Get out!" Mizuki's smirk was poorly concealed as he shoved the blonde boy out of the room. Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets and walked aimlessly.

"You passed? That's my boy!" Shouts of praise and bouts of laughter could be heard all around him as all of his classmates celebrated their graduation. Naruto slowly dragged himself to a small, wooden swing in the shadow of a tree and sat on it.

"Is he the one?" Some people seemed to have caught sight of him.

"Yeah. The demon."

"I'm glad he isn't a shinobi." The ignorant whispers ignited something in Naruto. The Leaf refused to accept him. It was true. The entire system was corrupt. Naruto felt anger boiling up inside of him, increasing as more vengeful thoughts seeped into his mind. If Konoha didn't want him as their shinobi, then he'd make it to the top another way. The shinobi system itself was broken; it was a useless, battered construct that only brought pain and suffering. Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice someone approach him.

"Naruto-kun, are you okay?" Naruto looked up. Mizuki-sensei seemed to have come to offer his apologies. However, his tone was clearly fake. The man was definitely not an actor.

"Iruka and I feel bad about failing you, so we decided to give you an alternate test." The man paused. Naruto continued to stare with an uninterested gaze. The probability that the man was lying to see his hope only to squash it was high. However, Mizuki took it as interest.

"All you have to do is steal the scroll of seals! If you can do that, you'll become an official ninja of the Leaf!" Naruto mentally laughed. How stupid did this man think he was? Obviously, the chuunin was setting him up to get caught and then would take the scroll for his own use. However, and idea popped into Naruto's head. Mizuki was the one who was ultimately responsible for his failure, so he did deserve a little punishment. Naruto smirked. He knew just exactly what to do.


It was late at night when the alarm went off. The announcement that the scroll of seals had been stolen was voiced throughout the entirety of the village. Mizuki smirked. The idiot demon had fallen for the bait. He mingled in a crowd of fellow chuunin just to make sure of the announcement's authenticity, not that the demon was intelligent enough to call his bluff.

"Who the hell is stupid enough to steal that?" All of the chuunin seemed to share the same, singular idea. That was all he needed. Mizuki took off in the direction of the forest. He had to be quick, before anyone else found the boy. Speeding across rooftops, Mizuki reached the entrance to the maze of trees. Jumping among the vegetation, he reached the rendezvous point in nearly no time at all. Sure enough, the idiot demon was there, along with the scroll.

"Naruto! You did it!" Mizuki called out in his friendliest voice. He jumped down from his perch and walked towards the blonde boy.

"Yeah! Does this mean that I'm a genin now?" Mizuki smiled as well as he could.

"Of course! As soon as you hand that over, you will become an official shinobi!" Internally, Mizuki cackled. It was all he could do to not express his true feelings out loud. It was just so easy!

"Okay! Here you go, Mizuki-sensei!" The boy handed the large scroll over to the chuunin, who gladly accepted it.

"Okay Naruto. However, before we leave, I have to do something." The boy leaned closer, seemingly excited at the phrase.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" With a cry of satisfaction, Mizuki threw a large fuma-shuriken directly at Naruto. He roared with insane laughter when it cut Naruto in half. However, he was more than a little surprised when Naruto reformed.

"H-how?" Naruto's happy expression had vanished, now replaced by a cold, unfeeling look. He motioned to his surroundings. There were lines of blue energy running everywhere, twisting and mingling to form elaborate designs.

"You have been caught in my illusion seal ever since you arrived at this location. You have been in a checkmate for a long time. Now, I bid you farewell. I won't miss you." Mizuki's panicked eyes latched onto the scroll that Naruto now held. Before his lips could form the question, the chuunin saw the paper that he held. It sported a large, magnified seal construct, resembling a modified exploding tag.

"N-N-NOOOOOOOOO…..!" Mizuki's cry of anguish was cut off when the explosion blasted him into shreds. Naruto simply turned around and walked away from the bloody mess. Mizuki's punishment had been served, and Naruto would be able to claim that he had heard the explosion and had come to find that the traitorous thief of the scroll of seals had accidently blown himself up. He was sure to be promoted for that. Naruto smirked. Even though Mizuki had initially prevented him from becoming a shinobi, it was ironically through him that Naruto had eventually become so.

"Well, all's good for now." Naruto sped back to the village. It was time for the next chapter in the history of the world. Beware of Naruto Uzumaki.


That's the first 'real' chapter completed. Thanks to all of you that reviewed, I really appreciate it! I'll leave author's notes at the end of each chapter, in which I'll answer questions, give updates, etc. Please don't hesitate to give me any constructive criticism and advice about the story, be it pertaining to the plot or to my writing itself. Finally, please continue to read and review!