Naruto stood calmly in the most important office in the village, blue eyes locked on an old man behind the desk. Behind the desk sat an elderly, balding man in white robes with a white and red hat denoting a Hokage of the Village hidden in the Leaves.
The blond handed the Forbidden scroll he had been tricked to steal to the aged Hokage. The third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, accepted the scroll and nodded solemnly before walking out into the hallway to return the scroll to its resting place.
When Sarutobi returned Naruto was standing before his desk with his teacher Iruka pointing to his wrists and explaining something. Sarutobi decided to wait and see what exactly they were talking about.
Naruto nodded and held out his hands palm up. A second later two twin double sided eighteen inch blades ejected from his sleeve before locking into position.
With a flex of his wrists the blades unlocked and slide back up his sleeves, hiding in the folds.
"A very interesting weapon Naruto-kun, mind if I ask where you acquired them?"
"I asked the Anbu if I could take them from Mizuki-teme after they knocked him unconscious."
The old Hokage lifted an old wooden smoking pipe to his lips and channeled some fire natured chakra to his fingers lighting his tobacco.
"And why would you want the weapons of a traitor, Naruto-kun. Surely we can have your own made for you."
"You know as well as I do my life old man, nobody would make me weapons if I asked for them. I also know how useful they are, my clone never even saw the blades coming."
Sarutobi sagged slightly at hearing that the shop owners were once more refusing Naruto's patronage. He had tried for years to help the civilians get over their pain while trying to help Naruto but, it seemed that the villagers were more vindictive then he thought.
The young blond rubbed at his chest while narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Old man, why do I remember the log my clone was holding hitting his chest when Mizuki tried to stab him?"
Iruka smiled widely at his adoptive little brother.
"Hokage-sama, if I may?"
The old man chuckled kindly, "Go ahead Iruka-kun; after all you've been his teacher both inside and outside the academy for years now. Yes, I know."
Iruka and Naruto had whipped their heads towards their wizened leader when he told them that he knew of their secret training.
Iruka bowed sharply, "I'm sorry for not informing you of our training Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi merely smiled and waved it off, "let it never be said that I'll punish a teacher for wanting to teach. Besides, most of the expected graduates this year have the help of their clans. I just classified your help under the same heading."
"Thank you Hokage-sama." Iruka said gratefully while reaching over, grabbing Naruto's head and pushing down making him mirror the brown haired chunin's position.
"Iruka-Sensei! Let go!"
Naruto ultimately got free and smiled, not the blinding fake smile that he showed the villagers as they glared at him but, a soft smile showing true gratefulness and affection.
"Thanks Old man, I don't know what I would've done without Iruka-nee."
The scarred brown haired chunin smiled brightly and wrapped his arm around his adoptive brother's shoulders while wiping the beginnings of a tear from his eye.
"Okay Naruto, the Kage Bunshin No Jutsu is an advanced form of the Bunshin No Jutsu. It's also a kinjutsu as its chakra cost is so high that the wrong people using it could kill them from chakra exhaustion. This jutsu however allows for solid and cognitive clones who can act on their own and react to changing situations. They are often used for scouting as when they are dispelled or killed the memories of that clone will return to the original. You must be careful not to overuse this jutsu at once as the mental backlash can cause serious damage."
"Iruka-sensei, what do you count as overusing a jutsu?"
"O, um just don't make any more than twenty clones at a time Naruto. And don't dispel them all at once."
The wise Hokage smiled as he watched Naruto finally showing his mental faculties as he understood Iruka's lesson without a problem. But sadly he still needed to make sure the blond took the lesson from this life experience as well.
"Now, Naruto I realize that you were only obeying instructions from a superior and are in no way in trouble. One cannot blame the student for believing the teacher. However, we lost a very promising genin today and I want you to use that to drive home a very important lesson. A shinobi must always look underneath the underneath; it is through this that we see the truth of things."
The young blonds face was impassive but one look at his expressive bright blue eyes showed the grief and determination spawn from this event.
I'll remember you Shi, we may not have been friends but as of this moment we were comrades and I will live this life to the fullest. Watch over me, all my events are in the name of the lesson you taught me in that dark forest.
"I understand, Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi watched on in pride, Minato your son will truly be something else. I haven't seen determination like that since you went to get Kushina from those Kumo-nin.
"Old man? In the forest, Mizuki told me something. He said that I have the Kyuubi sealed inside me. Is that true?"
The aged Hokage and Iruka stiffened slightly, eyes noticeably wider as they stared at Naruto. The blond just stared back at the Hokage, determination to get the truth coupled with a deep fear of what the truth could mean.
Sarutobi sagged lower as the tension in the room rose. "Yes, Naruto. The tailed beasts are monsters made of pure chakra, as such they don't truly have a physical body and can't be killed. The only way to defeat a tailed beast is to seal it into an item."
Brown eyes gazed into bright blue.
"Or a person."
"Yes Naruto, people who have a tailed beast sealed within them and are granted abilities are called Jinchurikin. It means literally the power of Human sacrifice. The Kyuubi is the only tailed beast that cannot be sealed into an object and has so much power that it must be sealed into a child who's chakra coils are still flexible otherwise it would simply blow out of the subjects chakra coils and be released again. To save the village the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi into your body at the cost of his own soul."
The newly made ninja slowly rocked on his heals as his eyes dimmed from the days traumas.
"I understand Hokage-sama. Could I please be dismissed? I think I need to go."
Brown eyes softened, "Yes, of course Naruto. Don't be afraid to come visit me to talk about this later."
Naruto nodded his head and started walking towards the window and making hand signs before suddenly disappearing in a puff of smoke.
The Warehouse
Naruto stumbled tiredly to his bed and crashed down onto it. All his brain wanted was to shut down but his mind refused as he had to consider how the events of the last twenty-four hours had changed him.
The greatest shinobi of this village and a brand new genin both gave their lives directly for the village. I'm always talking about becoming a shinobi and Hokage but I didn't really understand the losses that were required. I have to be willing to die for the village, I have to give it everything I have.
The Old man told me that a Jinchurikin like me were able to use powers from the tailed beasts. The Kyuubi tried to destroy the village, well you damn fox. Now you're going to be its finest protector.
With his decision made his mind finally shut off and the world descended into darkness.
The next day
The young blond woke up as the sun peaked through the holes in the warehouse wall. He rolled over onto his back and gazed up at the cracked and rusted roof.
"Well I have a couple hours from before the team announcements, maybe I can get some training in."
Naruto held up his hands in a cross like symbol, "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu."
Twenty-two identical blonds appeared in clouds of white smoke.
"Hu, I guess I need to work on my control some."
The blond pointed to the clones.
"You guys can all do the jutsu I know can't you?"
One of the clones stepped up, "Well I know everything you know but I'm not sure if that means I can use them."
Another clone stepped up, "Guess we should just experiment then."
The first clone crossed his fingers, "Henge."
With a puff of smoke Iruka stood in his place, "Well I guess this means we can use chakra."
The original looked on with analytical blue eyes, "Alright then, five of you work on the Henge, I want to be able to do it without hand signs like the teme. Five of you work on the Shunshin, that puff of smoke when we appear is going to get us killed. I can't even see until it clears. See if you can work on getting the smoke to get away, I think it's because we use too much chakra. Another five work on the tree walking exercise that Iruka-sensei taught us. You last five work on the Bunshin, just because we have Kage Bunshin doesn't mean we should neglect the original. And you two use Henge to get into the library and check out some scrolls about water walking or anything else you can think of. Use the Akira and Shinto aliases; I think they already have library cards."
"Yes Sir!"
The clones quickly dispersed to carry out their assignments. Naruto smiled, if what Iruka told him was true than he was about to gain all the experience of practicing that the clones experienced.
They can only give me experience though, Iruka said to worry about mental backlash but never commented on any type of physical disadvantage so I'm assuming they cannot transfer any physical improvements from exercise.
Naruto stripped off his orange coat and black undershirt before tossing them away and walking over to a training post Iruka had helped him move in a year earlier. He lowered his center of gravity while spreading his legs and started launching punches into the hard wood.
The sound of flesh hitting wood and the sounds of jutsu practice continued for two hours before the blond decided he needed to get ready and go to the academy for team placements.
Naruto walked over to a corner of the warehouse and reached up to a pipe hanging from the ceiling, with the turn of a valve cold water started to splash down onto the young blonds body washing away sweat.
The soaked blond turned off his makeshift shower and hung up his pants to dry and toweled off before pausing as his eyes glazed over. His clones had just managed to get the Henge down so that he could do it without hand signs.
Several seconds later Naruto exploded into smoke revealing an average looking black haired man in his thirties who then exploded to reveal Naruto continuing to walk forward drying himself off.
"Finally" Naruto was positively giddy, now he could show his true talents and not get Iruka in trouble for teaching him outside of class. The blond knew that if anyone found out Iruka had been helping him that he would be subjected to the same treatment as the blond himself.
Naruto strapped on the hidden blades that he had stolen from Mizuki the night before and experimented extending and retracting them as he walked forward.
He opened up an old beat-up metal locker to reveal his nighttime outfit.
Five minutes later he was outfitted in a dark blue long sleeve shirt, over his shirt was a black vest with many pockets and a sheath sown into the back. Black pants with many pockets held kunai and shuriken pouches on his thighs, white combat bandages started above the ankles and descended into thick black combat boots.
Tying his blue forehead protector around his head and flicking his hair out and over it. With a grin he walked over to his bed and removed his tanto from his nightstand and put it into the sheath on his back.
Finally, the blond grabbed four bands off his nightstand and put one around each of his ankles and wrists before surging chakra to them all making the kanji for weight appear on each of them.
Naruto's body sagged slightly before he slowly straightened back up and wrapped a dark maroon scarf around his neck and over his mouth before running up the wall and out the skylight.
Underneath his blood colored scarf Naruto smirked as his eyes seemed to shine while he looked out over Konoha, "It's the birth of a brand new Uzumaki."
Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading this. I am trying to get out as many chapters as I can, fortunately they are pretty short so it's not hard lol. I'd love if any of my readers, I won't be so arrogant as to call you fans yet lol, would be willing to comment on whats been written so far. I would like it if you could also offer suggestions such as how strong should I make Naruto. I'd also like votes on the possible love interest of Naruto; options are Hinata, Haku, Ino, or Kin. Sorry but no Sakura love interest in my stories.