Naruto Uzumaki : The Greatest Prodigy

Chapter 7


Welcome back guys. I hope you're enjoying the story so far and thanks for supporting the story so much. I never thought that I would get this much positive response from you guys so THANK YOU for that and here's the new chapter. Enjoy.


(Talking - Human)

(Thinking - Human)

(Talking - Bijuu and summons)

(Thinking - Bijuu and summons)


Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.


(With team 12)

It was another beautiful morning in Konohagakure and the newly formed Team 12 members waited at the training ground for their lazy sensei to arrive. Today would be their first mission as genin.

Hana and Yugao were talking excitedly with each other and speculating about what kind of mission they would get, but Naruto stood quietly, his eyes closed, enjoying the morning sun on his face. After relieving such a heavy burden the day before when he had revealed one of his secrets to his teammates, he felt relaxed and lucky to have met people like them.

Even after they had learned that he held the kyuubi no kitsune within himself and was the son of the fourth Hokage, they still treated him like they always had. He hadn't told them everything about himself, but that would come in time. The important thing was that he now felt that he could trust them with anything.

"Naruto-kun," Hana said.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at her as she spoke. "So what kind of mission do you think we'll be getting today?"

"I don't think they'll give us anything important or dangerous on our first day," he responded calmly.

"Don't be silly Naru, you'll see, we'll be doing a dangerous mission," Yugao said with a small smirk. "We're shinobi now, not academy students, and we can handle some serious stuff. But don't worry, I'll be there to protect you if anything happens."

Naruto shook his head but didn't respond to her. Then Hana continued. "You know Naruto-kun, I had a talk last night with my mother."

"What does that have to do with me?" Naruto asked her.

Hana narrowed her eyes at him playfully. "You still kept a lot of things hidden from us yesterday."

Yugao looked at her with a confused expression.

"What things are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"I talked about what you told us yesterday and asked a bit about your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, and my mother told me that she was the granddaughter of the first Hokage Hashirama Senju," Hana said. "That makes you his great grandson."

"WHATTTT?" Yugao said in shock and looked at Naruto. "Y-you're also related to the first Hokage?"

"I don't think that's anything important, so I didn't mention it," Naruto responded calmly.

Hana looked at him with a smile. "I know that you have lot more secrets. But I just wanted to tell you that we understand and will wait for you to tell us more about you whenever you're ready."

Naruto leaned his back against the training post and closed his eyes.

"So that's what you meant, when you said yesterday that you want to live up to your ancestors' names," Yugao muttered. "You're so hard to figure Naru."

Naruto didn't respond and a few minutes later, Shikaku arrived in a shunshin and greeted then lazily. "Good morning brats, you're pretty early."

"At least you could show some excitement sensei," Yugao muttered in annoyance. "we're going on our first ever mission today."

"Troublesome," he said in reply with the shrug of his shoulders. "Anyway, let's get going. We have a long day ahead of us."


(Mission office)

"Team 12 reporting for duty, sir." Shikaku spoke, coming to stand with his team in front of the Hokage, who was sitting with his advisers.

He was really looking forward to this and couldn't wait to see the reaction of his genins, as during the whole walk Hana and Yugao had only talked about how they were going to fight some enemy shinobi or guard some important person. Oh how he was going to love those shocked faces when they came to reality.

"Ahh team 12, so you guys are here for your first mission today." The Hokage looked at each one in turn and settled on Naruto with a smile.

"But before that, I would like to have a talk with you both." The Hokage looked at the girls seriously, getting their full attention. "Your sensei told me that Naruto shared some of his secrets with you and I am very proud of you both on how you handled the news. I also hope that you will not mistreat his trust in you and will keep it a secret from others."

"We understand Hokage-sama, Naruto is very dear friend and we are happy that he trusted us with such a big thing and we will never do anything which puts him or our village in any danger," Yugao responded, and Hana nodded in agreement, getting a gentle smile from the elderly Hokage.

"I am happy that Naruto was able to make such wonderful friends," he continued. "Anyway, coming back to your mission, let's see what we have. We have a request to babysit one of the council member's grandson, or walking dogs, or cleaning the river..."

As he went through the mission requests, the genins stared at him with wide eyes, as if he had grown a second head. Shikaku could tell by their faces exactly what they were thinking. They were ninjas now; surely the Hokage must be jockeying with them. They weren't going to do that kind of work.

"I think there must be some kind of mistake Hokage-sama," Yugao interrupted. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow with an amused expression and Shikaku smirked. "I mean, we are shinobi now. Surely we're not going to do those kinds of missions, right?"

"I don't see anything wrong with it Yugao-chan. These are all missions that will be assigned to the genin teams," the Hokage responded calmly.

"B-but how c-can they be called missions?" Yugao stuttered. "Anybody can do those."

"Don't question people who are superior to you, genin. You will do whatever mission you're ordered to do, without any questions." Koharu, who was sitting next to the Hokage, scolded Yugao.

Yugao looked down and apologized. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama."

"Don't be too hard on them Koharu, it's their first day here," Hiruzen said in their defence as he looked at the young genins in front of him. "These D-rank missions are assigned to every new genin team to build up their teamwork, and they also help increase village economy, so you see that they are very important."

"A mission is a mission Hokage-sama, it doesn't matter what it is," Naruto stated with a stoic look, addressing the Hokage formally. Shikaku was glad for that, as it would not have looked good for Naruto to call the Hokage 'Jii-chan' while he was on duty.

But the Hokage sighed at Naruto's response and inwardly cursed Itachi for having so much influence on him.

"We will take a river cleaning mission Hokage-sama," Shikaku said, wanting to get out of there, as it was beginning to get too troublesome for him.


"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Hana shouted in frustration as she stood in the middle of the river with a stick in her hand and a bucket on her back.

"You're not the only one," Yugao said. She then turned towards her sensei, who was lying under the shade of a tree with Hana's puppies. "Come on sensei, at least help us out here."

Shikaku opened his eyes. "This mission is for you guys to improve your teamwork. So stop complaining and finish up your work fast. We have other things to do after this."

"But sensei this is wrong, don't you see you're doing a crime by forcing child labour? I mean, look at him." Yugao pointed towards Naruto, who was working quietly. He looked up at the mention of his name. "Don't you feel his pain? He's so small and just a child and you're forcing him to do this cruel work."

Naruto's eyes gleamed at her comment. If she wanted to tease him, he'd give it right back. "Talk about yourself. I'm perfectly fine and I'm not some small child. I'm a shinobi."

"Ohh right, you're a shinobi now... but you're still a small child." She pointed towards his height and grinned.

Naruto glared at her. Until then, he had been working quietly and having a great time listening to all the complaining his two teammates were doing. But Yugao's teasing was too annoying to ignore. Why did people always mention his height? He was only 10.

"As I remember, you guys were talking about how you were going to fight an enemy shinobi or guard some important person," Naruto mocked. "But you should be happy with this work. Standing in the middle of a river is about as dangerous as you two can handle. But don't worry. I'm here to save your sorry asses."

Yugao and Hana in return glared at him and Yugao smirked. "Don't try to act smart in front of me, Uzumaki. Besides, you should worry about yourself. I've heard there are ghosts around here who kidnap squirts like you, so be careful."

Naruto felt a little shocked at her comment. She couldn't know he was scared of ghosts. Shisui used to tell him stories about them and how dangerous they are, but he had never told the girls of his fear.

"Don't joke like that, and let me do my work," Naruto responded, no longer wanting to continue the conversation.

Then Hana smirked. "Are you scared of ghosts Naruto-kun?"

"No," he replied quickly.

"Then why are you sweating, standing in the river?" Yugao asked with a teasing smile.

Both girls laughed out loud, and Naruto felt embarrassed that his attempt to mock them had backfired.

"What a drag," Shikaku muttered, looking at their interaction. "Stop fooling around and finish up the mission."


After doing few more D-ranked missions over the following days, Team 12 stood together at the Training Grounds.

"This is the worst possible start for of our career," Yugao stated tiredly. "This is really child labour sensei."

"Quit complaining purple-chan," Shikaku responded. "You will be doing these types of missions until you're ready for something more advanced. From now on, we'll do some missions in the morning, and later we will do some training here to keep your skills up."

The three genins nodded at him, and he continued. "I want to know, have you guys completed the tree climbing and water walking exercises?"

"Yup...my Mother already taught that to me," Hana responded.

Yugao also nodded. "I've also completed that".

Shikaku then looked at Naruto. He knew Naruto had the most chakra out of them all so it could be difficult for him to control it, but the Hokage had told him that Naruto had spent some time training with Itachi and Shisui and he wondered what they had taught him.

"I also know that sensei," Naruto responded.

Shikaku nodded, pleased. That meant less work for him, not having to explain all the chakra and chakra control things. He could now move on to some advanced training.

"That's good, it means you have decent chakra control to start training in your chakra element nature." He took out three papers from his pocket and held them in front of his students. "Take these chakra papers and channel chakra into them. This will show us what element you have an affinity for."

"What does chakra element and affinity mean sensei?" Hana asked in confusion as she looked at the paper in her hand.

"There are five basic types of chakra elemental natures. They are fire, wind, water, lightning and earth. Most people's chakra naturally leans toward a certain element." Shikaku explained. "These slips of paper will help us find yours. It'll tear in half for wind, burn for fire, get soggy for water, crumble if you have earth, and if you're lightning nature, the paper will wrinkle."

He then told them to channel chakra one by one and it was Hana who was first. She channelled some of her chakra into the paper and as a result, the paper crumbled.

"You got affinity for earth," Shikaku said. He then told Yugao to do the same her paper got soggy.

"So I got affinity for water," Yugao muttered.

Then it was Naruto's turn, who quickly channelled his chakra into the paper, already guessing that the paper would burn, because of his ability to use fire - style jutsus. So he was surprised when the paper split in half and then both parts wrinkled. His teammates were also looking at him in surprise.

"That's quite interesting. It's quite a rare combination you got there Naruto," Shikaku said with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait...what does that mean?" Yugao questioned confusingly.

"It means he has an affinity for both wind and lighting," Shikaku responded.

"I can see that sensei... but how can he have affinity for two elements?" Yugao asked. "You said that people's chakra nature leans towards a central element and yet here he has two chakra natures."

"Well, that is true but some people are gifted naturally with two elements. You can also develop your second affinity by training in it and you can also do jutsu of other elements, but that will take too much chakra out of you at your stage. Most jounin have two chakra natures, as it is one of the requirements for becoming a jounin." Shikaku explained.

"But you also should be aware that all five chakra elemental natures balance each other out equally," Shikaku said.

"How?" Hana asked.

"To put it simply, fire, water, lightning, wind and earth each have an elemental advantage and disadvantage connecting them to the other elements," Shikaku explained. "For example, fire is stronger than wind, but at the same time, it's weak against water. Each element has an advantage over another and is weak to another."

"Ahh...this so complicated," Hana said, rubbing her forehead.

"You guys wanted something interesting today, so I decided to give you something, so don't bother me with it." Shikaku shrugged. "I shouldn't be even teaching you about this. Many shinobi don't even start their elemental training until they're chunnin level. But you guys have enough chakra, so I decided to go with it."

"Soo, what are we going to do now sensei?" Naruto asked. Shikaku just shrugged his shoulders. "Unfortunately for you guys, I am not a ninjutsu specialist, so I will have to arrange something for you all. But don't worry. I will get some low level jutsu tomorrow for you to start with."

"Also I am going to apply some weight seals on you three, so you will do your daily missions and training with the seals on," Shikaku added. "It will help to increase your speed and improve your chakra control."

He then applied the seals on them and activated them. At their activation, the genins suddenly struggled to stand straight.

"I think you're trying to kill us sensei, at least show some mercy on us," Hana muttered.

"You'll get used to it in time," Shikaku said. "Don't you want to get strong? Now come on, give me 20 laps of the field."

"You are crazy," Yugao and Hana muttered at the same time.

Naruto was also having a little difficulty but not as much as the other two. Itachi and Shisui had used some weights before for him to train. But these were much heavier, he realized, as he joined his teammates in the run.

Some hours later, the three genins were sitting and relaxing quietly after their hard workout session. After running, they had done some shurikenjutsu practice, some taijutsu training, and then decided on their team formation.

"Ahh...I am so tired," Hana muttered.

"You all did well today. Get used to this from now on. This will be our daily schedule," Shikaku told them and got a glare from Hana and Yugao in return.

Naruto looked up at the sky and realized that it was already evening and the sun was going to go down soon. He stood to leave.

"Where are you going Naru?" Yugao asked.

"The sun is going to set soon," he answered. "So I'm going to enjoy the view as I have nothing else important to do right now."

His teammates and sensei looked at him in surprise. "Well then can I come with you," Hana said. "I also don't have anything to do now."

Naruto thought for a moment and then nodded. Hana grinned at him then looked at Yugao. "What about you Yugao?"

Yugao nodded and looked at their lazy sensei. "Come on sensei come with us."

"Troublesome," Shikaku muttered before accepting their offer. It would be good bonding time.


(Hokage Monument)

"Wowww..." Both Hana and Yugao said in awe at the view before them. They were standing on the Fourth Hokage's head looking out at the sunset as it ignited their whole village into a fiery work of art.

"This is soo beautiful. I have never seen anything like this in my life," Yugao whispered.

"I always used to come here with the Hokage to enjoy the view. It's always peaceful here and it's the only place I can talk to him," Naruto said, looking at great stone face of his father. Shikaku and his teammates smiled in response.

Shikaku was enjoying the time as well. Just leaving every troublesome thing behind while relaxing was exactly the kind of thing he liked to do.

"Can I ask you something Naruto?" Yugao said, breaking the silence. Naruto looked at her and nodded.

"Why didn't you ever talk much in the class?" She asked.

Naruto thought about his academy days. He'd had his priorities clear from the start even before the academy and he had not been there to have fun or to make friends and nobody had really interested him there. To him, all the other students had seemed to have it so easy and knew nothing of the outside world.

He looked at her. "There was nothing to talk about and nobody understood me there. They were all living in their fantasy worlds, thinking nothing was wrong in this world."

"They were not doing anything wrong with that," Shikaku said. "That's what they were supposed to do and that's what you were supposed to do. That's why we have an academy to let students make friends before becoming ninja."

"Then why did you start to talk and hangout with us?" Hana asked.

Naruto chuckled a little before saying. "You guys were the first ones who came to me to talk without crumbling or just telling me how strong I was or how cute I was, or asking me out on a date."

"Which girl in her right mind would like to go on a date with you?" Yugao muttered, earning a glare from him.

"Are you serious?" Hana said with a surprised look.

Naruto nodded. "Why did you want to become kunoichi?"

"I am not from any clan and even in my family not many people became shinobi," Yugao answered. "Only my father and grandfather were shinobi. I'm actually the first ever kunoichi from my family. So I wanted to become as strong as possible so I can make my parents proud of me."

"I also wanted to become a kunoichi to make my mother and my clan proud of me," Hana said.

Naruto nodded, not really surprised by their responses. He had already heard that kind of thing from others as well. But at least they were serious with their training and careers.

"You know, you always say that you want to become Hokage. But you never mentioned any particular reason." Yugao said. "Is it because of who your ancestors were and wanting to live up to them?"

Naruto hesitated to tell them his real reasons. The last time he had told his dreams to his former classmates, they had laughed at him. He wondered if his teammates would understand him. "That's not totally wrong. I want to live up to my predecessors' names. But my main reason is that I want to stop all the fighting in this world."

His answer seemed to surprise his teammates. "What do you mean by that Naruto?" Shikaku asked.

Naruto looked ahead towards the setting sun and thought for a moment before he spoke. "I may not have seen any war or anyone dying in front of me. But I know war brings meaningless deaths and suffering. Shinobi kill each other in the name of the village."

"But to stop that I need power and the people only listen to those who have power. So I want to be the greatest ninja ever, great enough that I can erase all meaningless fighting from this world. And being Hokage will give me the power to do that."

"I'm surprised to hear you talk so mature," Shikaku said. "You're only 10 and yet you talk of the shinobi world as if you've experienced it."

"Yeah, you sometimes talk really weird," Yugao said. "It's very hard to figure you out. The moment I think I understand you, you go and say something like this."

Naruto chuckled a little, but there was some bitterness in it. "I can totally agree with you on that Yugao," he said. "I don't even know myself up till now. I am still trying to figure myself out. Am I the jinchuriki of the kyuubi, just a village weapon to be used in war, or am I Naruto Uzumaki on whom some people trusted what they had left behind?" He spoke bitterly. So many people expected great things from him, and it felt like a burden.

"Stop talking nonsense," Yugao said, glaring at him. "I told you before it doesn't matter if you have a fucking kyuubi sealed in your gut or if you're the son or great grandson of the Hokage. You're still your own person, you have your own life in front of you to do what you want, nothing is written in stone and everyone carves their own path. And stop putting so much pressure on yourself because of your family name. The Naru I know will never crack under any pressure. He can overcome anything."

Naruto looked at her in surprise and then smiled a moment later. "When did you became this smart 'purple-chan'?"

Hana and Shikaku smiled at them.

"Alright, that's enough, it's getting late," Shikaku said. "Go and rest, you will have a busy day again tomorrow." He wanted to leave as soon as possible because he had some very important topics to discuss with the Hokage. "Don't be late tomorrow," he added before vanishing in the leaves.

The genins looked at each other and then bid each other good night before going their separate ways.


(Hokage office)

"I'm concerned and alarmed by Naruto's thinking," Shikaku said to the Hokage a few minutes later. "These should not be the thoughts of any 10 year old child. It's not good for Naruto to have these kinds of thoughts."

Hokage was troubled at his words. "This is indeed troubling Shikaku."

"Yeah... he is feeling too much pressure because of so many expectations," Shikaku said.

"Keep an eye on him Shikaku, and don't let him do anything unnecessary." Hiruzen said. "I am worried that Danzo might make a move on him. He always kept a close eye on his progress. I have already informed Naruto about him and told him to be careful."

"But on the other hand, it's also good that Naruto opened up with his teammates. After the death of Shisui and Itachi going rogue, he has started to act cold and has been closing himself off from people around him. It is good to see that he is overcoming that."

"Also his teammates are very understanding," Shikaku said. "They tease him, but underneath it all, they always support him. I think they are good for him."

"Yes indeed, I am certain now that my decision to put him on a team with those two was the right one." Hiruzen commented with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Well that's all I wanted to discuss with you," Shikaku said with a bow. "I will be taking my leave now."

Hiruzen nodded. "Please look after him, Shikaku."

"Don't worry, I will." Shikaku responded before exiting the office and leaving the elderly Hokage alone.


TO BE CONTINUED...

How do you like the story so far? I know it's quite slow-going but now a lot more interesting things are going to start.

I just wanted to develop Naruto's character a little more, explain his ideologies and get him closer to his teammates. That's why I revealed the knowledge of the Kyuubi to them this early.

Also, the chunnin exams are going to start pretty soon and so will the arriving of our toad sage Jiraiya, but before that some C-rank missions.

Also, on when Naruto and Yugao will start dating. I think it's too early for that-he is only 10 at the moment, let him enjoy his days of being single before having to deal with a "troublesome relationship." But I am sure they will start dating before the canon events start.

So stay tuned guys and if you have any questions or want to suggest your ideas for the story please share them with me.

Also PLEASE don't forget to leave your reviews on the story. It really helps me to write, soo PLEASE don't forget.

Alright thanks for being here and I will see you next time. And please leave a review.