Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and a bunch of corporate dudes and dudettes. I don't own jack shit.

Since I can't speak japanese, and know only a bit based on anime and manga, I will be using terms in english and japanese interchangeably. If I know the jap, I'll use it, if not, english. I'll be using both canon and original jutsu in the story, and elements of other forms of media in this version of Naruto.

ENJOY!

-Flashback-

"Again!"

The 9 year old form of Naruto shakily stood up, his facial bruises already better than they were five minutes ago. His forehead and teeth were bloodied, his left arm was limp with only his right one supporting his shoulder. His clothes were torn, both his long-sleeved burnt orange shirt, and his deep green cargo shorts. His sandals were prematurely worn, and some of his patches of skin showed chakra burns. Yet, he still fought on.

Across from him was Senju Hashirama, the first Hokage of Konoha and the man titled as the modern God of Shinobi, his face locked into an uncharacteristic, serious frown. His arms were crossed over his chest as he looked towards his disciple.

Watching from the sidelines was Senju Tobirama, the younger brother of Hashirama and Second Hokage of the Village. He was famed for having the strongest affinity for water in history, superb chakra control, and an analytical mind. His frown, unlike his brother's, was one of his defining characteristics. Though he seemed to be cool and collected, unrufled as always, his thoughts were a bit less composed.

'How? How can this child take so much punishment and ask for more!? How can brother keep going along with this ridiculous situation!? The child is at death's doors, for Kami's sake!'

Naruto and Hashirama were oblivious to Tobirama's thoughts as Naruto took a deep breath, collecting himself, his chakra covering him in a shroud that numbed the pain and sped up his recovery, making him capable of dashing at Hashirama at speeds that were supposedly inimaginable to anyone his age, at least Low Jonin, though to the two Kage he might as well have been taking a leisure walk.

Naruto snapped out an arching right kick which Hashirama effortlessly dodged simply by tilting his head. The same happened for the kick barrage that followed before Naruto pulled out shuriken from his pouch, tossing them towards Hashirama before running through a slew of handsigns and thinking to himself 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'.

Three shuriken turned into 30, which Hashirama blocked by slamming his foot onto the thick treebranch he stood on, causing a wall of wood to emerge in front of him. Imagine his surprise when the wall was torn asunder by an explosion, with Naruto hopping through said wall, his clothes singed and skin burnt showing that he was very close to the initial point of explosion. He gathered chakra into his arm and swung at Hashirama's face again, though Hashirama once again simply tilted his head to the side. What was unexpected by the older man was the shockwave emitted from the punch, causing him to turn his head around and see more than just a few trees with their bark blasted off.

But. Hashirama was called the God of Shinobi for a reason.

Even with his focus turning towards the path of destruction, his leg automatically snapped towards Naruto, repeatedly hammering into his face and torso, throwing him away and causing him to slam into a thick tree trunk before slumping downwards.

Naruto, once again defying Tobirama's expectations, managed to slowly stand up, this time his left arm being not just limp from fatigue but exhibiting intense chakra burns. His legs were jelly as his knees shook and wobbled, and his eyes were lightly swimming. By now, even his hair was matted by blood. He managed to slurr out, despite all that "A-Again!"

"ENOUGH!"

Naruto, and Hashirama, both turned towards Tobirama with extreme amounts of surprise. Tobirama was the cool and collected one, he wasn't supposed to give angry shouts.

Said man jumped to the tree trunk in front of his brother, his red eyed glare doing nothing to the man who defeated Uchiha Madara "Brother, this is no longer training! By now you're just beating up a child!"

Hashirama's response was calm and nonchallant "If young Naruto says he can keep going, then I'll continue."

Tobirama clenched his fist as he spoke "He is being stupid, as are you, brother! I know he can heal fast, but going this far is only going to do him more bad than good! You are supposed to know restraint, especially when dealing with children...-"

Tobirama was suprised by the amount of Killing Intent he felt, raising his nerves to his skin. Surprisingly to him, the killing intent came not from Hashirama, but from behind him.

He turned around, only to see Naruto glaring at him with an impressive intensity, even for his standards. If he was Low Jonin level in most ninja skills, his glaring was well above that.

"I am not a child. The villagers... This village... Your student... And my father, made sure to fuck that up. I did not have the luxury of enjoying a childhood, I've been surviving despite the fact that the odds are always stacked against me. There are people that hate me for what I am, others that hate me for whom or what they see in me. There are those that hate me for the fact that I do not let them break me and my spirit. I've been fighting against them all this time, directly or indirectly, but I feel like, sooner or later, the level of the fighting is going to rise. Until then, all I can do is prepare and make sure that I become as strong as possible."

Hashirama watched on stonefaced as Naruto continued.

"This world is big, and new threats emerge all the time. You can never be strong enough. I'm smart enough to know that the dead are meant to rest, and neither cruel, nor stupid, enough to try to keep you away from your loved ones on the other side, and from the realm of shinigami, so the time I have with you is limited. I will be making full use of that time. If I can still stand, I will keep training. If I can still move, I will keep fighting. If I can breathe, I will keep learning."

Tobirama broke in at that "That is no life for anyone! At this rate, you'll kill yourself!"

"I either become strong enough to protect myself, my precious people and what I believe in, or I die on my own terms. Either choice is acceptable."

The resolve shining in Naruto's eyes made Tobirama's eyes widen as he looked back towards his brother "Aniiki! You knew this would happen from the start?"

Hashirama responded seriously "Indeed, I believed things would play out as such from what time I spent with Naruto. Tobirama, do not underestimate his resolve. Despite his feelings for the village, in him I see the will of fire burn brighter than in any other. So I treat him as I would like to be treated. Seriously. Like an adult. Having his limits pushed whenever possible. And it is working.

Last month he couldn't even attempt to get close to me. Now he's already forcing me to dodge. By this time next month, no, next week, I believe he'll force me to use my hands."

When Tobirama looked back at Naruto, he saw the result of his brother's speech. Naruto's will and fighting spirit burnt stronger than ever before, his legs had stopped shaking, and his arms had been painstakingly coiled back.

Tobirama reached a decision at that moment.

"Naruto, you said you could use Shadow clones. How many can you make and still spar with Aniiki?"

Naruto thought for a moment, looking inwards at his chakra capacity before answering "250. Maybe 300 if I push it."

"Very well then. I want 325 Shadow Clones of yours with me. I swear it on my Name and my title as the second Hokage that I will do my best to pound chakra control into you, and with Kami as my witness by the time you graduate you'll be fit to be a med-Nin."

Naruto's eyes widened with happiness, before a pensive look passed through his face. Then, his face set in that stubborn expression that meant he would have his way no matter what "My mother had water as her main chakra nature. By the time I dispell the Edo Tensei, I intend to make her, and you, proud of my control over water."

Tobirama let out a sigh, before his lips twitched almost imperceptibly into a small smile "Very well, Naruto. By the time we're finished, your water prowess will match mine. That is not optional. Me and brother might be unable to convince you to follow our legacy of protecting the leaf as it's leader, but you will carry on our legacies of terrifying your enemies with a mere mention of your name."

-Wave Country, Tazuna's Home-

"Kakashi."

"Zabuza."

The men were standing leisurely inside the dining room of Tazuna's. Kakashi as always was reading his book, and Zabuza seemed to be content in simply lounging around while Sasuke and Naruto filled their turn to keep watch. Sakura was also there, uselessly gawking at Sasuke.

"That Naruto brat... That's a pretty interesting apprentice you took there."

Kakashi's eye lazily drifted over the book as he answered "Oh, he isn't my apprentice. He is, for all intents and purposes, a regular, fresh-out-of-the-academy Genin."

"You're shitting me." The eyebrowless man spoke... With raised eyebrows? How the hell does that work?... Well, Kakashi wouldn't bother trying to decipher the mechanics of that, he could better spend his time reading, after all.

"Honest to Kami. In fact, for all his academy years he had some of the worst results in all his classes, always managing to just scrape by and pass to higher levels by the skin of his teeth. And then he goes and blows all of the previous academy records."

Zabuza whistled out loud "The kid managed to fool the entire command structure of your village? Pretty damn impressive for a brat his age, hell, for any age. That probably didn't sit well with a lot of people, deception aside, because of his status, I'd hazard."

At Kakashi's hard, sharp look Zabuza once again lifted an eyebrowless brow, god knows how, and spoke up casually "What? I was friends with one for the majority of my life, and his portrayal of his life in this village of yours added to the need to so completely fudge his results led me to this conclusion. They don't lead easy lives, having this condition pushed onto them without so much as a 'by your leave' only to be shunned by the same people they protect."

Kakashi's impetus deflated lightly at that, but he still spoke with a sharp tone "That is an S-rank village secret. Divulging it leads to summary execution, so hold your tongue from now on."

"Sheesh, I get it." Zabuza said with a careless wave of his hand, before resuming his previous thought "But still, his skills must've tickled some people the wrong way." Zabuza said lightly.

"They did."

Both A-rank shinobi jumped hard - which in civilian terms would equate to a single rapid, almost indistiguishible eye movement and finger twitch - at the easy tone of voice of the blonde. Or the simple fact that he made his way into the room without either of them noticing him. Or the fact that they still couldn't sense him, despite being in the same room as him!

"Showing people that the 'demon brat' wasn't just an attention-seeking idiot who hides his loneliness and inferiority complex behind a façade of cockiness and overconfidence was big enough a surprise, but when you add in my skills, skills that they purposefully tried to keep me from learning the basics of, only to find out that I already had them and even better than they themselves... It really tweaked at them something fierce."

"You do know" Zabuza drawled out "That your village probably doesn't trust you generally, right? Your... Status... aside, any shinobi showing such an unprecedented and unrecorded leap in skills automatically goes under the microscope. After all, spies are a serious issue for any hidden village."

Naruto just shrugged carelessly, leaning against the wall as he peeled a banana "Of course the people in charge don't trust me, both on an intelectual and instinctual level. These are people who have survived through war, wars in the case of some. To run a village is to be able to accurately assess it's needs and dispatch the appropriately skilled people in order to sate them, so they need to know the approximate skill of their people. To them I'm an unknown quantity, they don't know what my skillset is, what problems I'd be suited to taking care of, nor if I myself am a problem. If they trusted me regardless, then the village would have been dead and buried 13 times over."

Kakashi spoke hesitantly "And that... Doesn't bother you?"

Naruto's answer was predecessed by a snort "Of course it doesn't. Regardless of what happens, my tenant makes it so that I am always an unknown quantity, my actions already get superior scrutiny. I am aware of this, and as long as it doesn't hamper my goals, I don't really have a problem with it."

After that, Naruto's demeanor changed into mission mode "Kakashi, the bridge is almost complete, so we'll be storming Gato's compound soon. I think that you should train Sasuke and Sakura to the ground while you can, since this is the best possible mission to get them blooded. I'm using my contacts to block Gato's escape routes and communication lines outside of the island, so he's going to turtle into his fortress. I'll give some friends of mine a support call, to watch our backs and make sure Pinky and Duckbutt don't get their tongues shoved up their asses. Literally, maybe."

"You seem to have a pretty wide net of contacts, kid. Any notable names in your little black book?"

"Now now, Zabuza, that would be telling. But, I can tell you of this famous A-rank I've worked with, mostly bare-chested, competent with a sword, mouth always covered, you might know them."

Zabuza snorted lightly "Sucking up to me won't get you reduced fees."

"Actually, I was speaking about Mariah Zanzaji. The mostly bare-chested part is only when we're in private settings." Naruto said breezily, ignoring the wide eyes of both men.

Zabuza sputtered out "You know Zanzaji?" at the same time as Kakashi rushed out "You've seen Mariah Zanzaji topless?"

Naruto chuckled lightly as he walked out of the room, ignoring their questions as he spoke "I'll be holding down the perimeter with Haku, you can take 'broody and the trap' to that open clearing beyond the forest, it's great training grounds." And just like that, he vanished. And once again, neither Kakashi nor Zabuza sensed even a sliver of a presence for the entirety of the talk.

Zabuza shook off his daze first and spoke "That brat is terrifying."

Kakashi just nodded in agreement before returning to his book.

It was an interesting situation for everyone, that would only get more so in the following days.

-TBC-

Heyo, Le Me here. Back at it again, trying to get back up to speed. It's hard, writing after a period of drought, but I'll try to update whenever I can. Please leave a review for it is the lifeblood of people who do this for free, knowing the appreciation and esteem that people hold to our stories are high enough to take the time to tell us what we do right, and help correct what we do wrong.