Summary:
A Jiraiya who takes his godfather responsibilities seriously teaches a young Naruto the Shadow Clone jutsu. In Naruto's hands this jutsu is a training tool unlike any other. But to a young boy growing up in a village that ignores and fears him, the Shadow Clone is more than a method for gaining power. It is an escape.
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Naruto, or any of its characters and concepts. These belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Viz Media, Shonen Jump and other related parties. This is the one and only disclaimer I will make for this story. It relates to the entire fic.
Author's Notes:
This is a redo of my first fanfic; 'The Tale of Uzumaki Naruto', which didn't turn out to my satisfaction. The story has changed significantly from its conception, to the point where even the core concept has become unrecognizable. I can't even call it the same story any more. As such; the name has been changed.
The Beginning
Naruto
Pain lanced through Naruto's mind.
Crying out, the child waved his arms desperately as gravity took its due. It felt like tiny explosions went off inside his head.
As he hit the ground, he smashed his knee into a tree root, then his back crashed painfully against a sharp rock.
The blond just stayed in place for a while, whimpering and clutching his leg as he waited for the pain to go away.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Sleep was absolutely forbidden. He knew that, but he'd been so tired, and that tree had been really comfortable. He'd only closed his eyes for a second!
Naruto forced himself to stand with a grunt. Most of the bruises from the fall had already disappeared, but he knew his headache was only just starting.
Limping home, he at least wanted to reach his bed before the day was out. He knew from experience there would be a few hours before he was capable of doing much of anything.
As he hobbled through the streets of The Village Hidden in the Leaf, the only looks he got were cold and merciless.
Nobody offered to help.
Not that he'd expect them to.
Naruto had few friends, and even fewer fans.
Twenty minutes later, he stumbled into his apartment. Obaa-chan wasn't there unfortunately, so he'd have to manage on his own.
Getting some ice-cream from the freezer, Naruto sighed contentedly as the cold hit his brain. Despite the good food, his mood was ruined. He was supposed to help the Ichiraku's with cleaning today, but he couldn't now. He could barely walk.
Why did he have to fall asleep!? He got more than enough rest each night. He even measured it! 10 hours should be more than enough, even for growing boys!
Scowling down at his trembling hands, he tried to ignore the molten iron flowing through his spine by going over everything he'd seen today.
Some of his clones' memories had been washed away by the overload, but he still retained the highlights and enough broken pieces to make out something comprehensible.
The Uchiha were restless. That's what Sasuke's older brother had told him yesterday. He had confirmed that today: How the police were more aggressive than usual. They were making more and more arrests lately, and the civilians tended to look at them the same way they looked at him.
The blond sighed tiredly. While that was important on a political level, there wasn't much he could really do about it. He was probably the only person that was less liked than the Uchiha at the moment, not to mention the tiny detail of him being all of seven years old.
He wanted to help though. It didn't feel right to leave his friend hanging. Sasuke was one of two friends Naruto had his own age. It was more than a little irritating to realize there was nothing he could do to help his clan.
The fact that these problems with the Uchiha were popping up… Naruto really didn't like it. Sasuke didn't talk about it much, but Naruto knew it was bothering him too.
Naruto's body locked up as another cascade of fire raced all the way down to his toes.
Whimpering, Naruto crawled under the covers of his bed, drawing his legs up to his chin as he tried to pass out.
Two hours later, he finally managed to fall asleep.
Since learning the Shadow Clone technique when he was six years old, Naruto had made five rules for abusing it like it owed him money. These five rules had come about after months of trial and error and far too many migraines.
The first was to not make too many clones, lest he suffer the mental backlash from all those memories returning upon the clones' dispersion
The second was to not let a single clone last too long. The reasoning being the same as the first rule. His brain could only receive so much information at once without protesting.
The third was to not dispel all the clones at once. It was much more preferable for the memories to settle and his mind to relax before being bombarded with another set of them.
This necessitated a clone dispelling and creation schedule that Naruto had to keep himself to religiously if he didn't want to be assaulted by horrible headaches all the time. Thanks to this rule, he had been able to double the amount of clones he had been able to use previously - going from 4 clones to 8 overnight.
Very useful, that.
The fourth rule, and the one he had most problems with, was: 'Don't sleep outside the schedule'. All his clones disappeared the moment the original lost consciousness, so he needed to stay awake to uphold rule three.
The fifth and final rule had nothing to do with efficiency or avoiding migraines. It simply forbade any clone from eating. That was all.
This rule came from the one time he'd seen a clone dispel after a meal.
Half-digested food and other… things had simply exploded out of it.
It was the single most disgusting thing he had ever witnessed. Since then, no clone had so much as drunk water. It wasn't like they needed to anyways. They only lasted a few hours on average, and while they did get hungry, that hunger didn't transfer to the original in any way.
"Are you still here boy? We're closing in ten minutes." The librarian said, scowling down at him.
Naruto looked up at the first word, but he didn't move straight away. He was reluctant to go. There was over two hours until he was scheduled to dispel. Surely there was some way to get around this inconvenience.
"Could I take this with me?" He gestured at the adventure novel he was currently reading, the colorful illustrations on the cover showcasing a samurai standing before an oncoming storm.
The woman's face didn't get any friendlier. In fact, she just scowled harder. Naruto could see the discomfort clear on her face, as well as not a little fear.
"Without a library pass, you are not allowed to borrow the institution's books." The woman said, her tone clipped and professional - as if reading from a document.
Naruto wanted to sigh. He'd tried to get a library pass before, but there was no one willing to write one up for him. He'd been promised one three times by now from three different people and nothing had come of it.
He could probably try to push harder, but it was clear the librarians wanted nothing to do with him. This one was no exception.
With an air of resignation, he placed the book back in its place before he trudged towards the exit.
The moment he was out of sight, he darted aside, found an empty table, and used the Transformation Technique to turn into a chair. He stayed like that for almost half an hour, his chakra was getting dangerously low before he heard the sound of a door closing and noticed the lights flickering off.
Reverting to his original form, the blond grinned a devilish smile.
Sneaking back to where he'd been before, he continued to read. The windows provided more than enough light.
"Hey 'Raya, what's with the seal on my back?" Naruto asked, trying to reach between his shoulder blades to the thing he'd only seen through the eyes of another him. It only appeared when he was actively channeling chakra - like his jinchūriki seal - but it was much smaller and looked completely different.
"Hmm?" His godfather looked up from the page he was writing, squinting confusedly at him.
Naruto wasn't convinced. That had been far too deliberate a movement to be true confusion.
"The seal on my back? Who put it there? What does it do? It doesn't look like my father's style." Naruto repeated, swinging his feet back and forth.
He didn't know much about sealing styles. But he had a suspicion, and seeming more knowledgeable than he was would help in verifying it.
"Oh, that old thing? Yeah. That's mine." Jiraiya answered, waving the question away as if it was no big deal.
"Mhm…" Naruto mused, a little placated by the easy admission. "What does it do though?"
"Ahh…" Jiraiya looked uncomfortable, face squeezing into a grimace as he put down his brush. "It stops you from revealing your status to others. It was a compromise with Sarutobi-sensei so I'd be allowed to tell you in the first place. I could probably remove it now if you promise not to tell anyone."
"My… status?" Naruto scrounged his brow in confusion. "You mean the Kyuubi thing? Or who my dad is?"
The white haired man coughed, looking amused. "Both. It'd be dangerous if others knew."
Naruto refrained from commenting that clearly half the village already knew the first one. Still, he was confused. "Tell people? Why would I tell people?"
Jiraiya winced. "Yeah… That's the seal. It's an anchoring charm to sustain a genjutsu. It doesn't physically stop you, but it makes you not want to talk about it."
Naruto blinked as he checked himself for genjutsu influence. Even a 'kai', didn't change anything. But then, he'd done that a lot in the Academy. There'd been no change then either, and he'd apparently had this for years.
A shiver went down his back. "Yeah. I think I want that removed, please."
Jiraiya nodded. "I'll bring it up with Sarutobi-sensei."
A few days later - seal on his back fully removed - Naruto waved goodbye as Jiraiya left through the village gates.
His godfather had explained why it was necessary many times, but that didn't make it any easier to see one of the few people that liked him leave.
Feeling his left arm being squeezed, the blond looked up at his guardian.
Nazumi Hatori, 78 years old, retired Kunoichi, older than the Sandaime and the village of Konohagakure itself. She had been one of the unaffiliated ninja that had joined the burgeoning village at its inception.
She had survived the first two world wars on the front lines, and spent the last as a high ranking operative in the village's intelligence division. A security clearance of 8 out of a possible 10, and the one entrusted to take care of him in his godfather's absence.
She was a strict and no-nonsense disciplinarian. She disliked his pranks and Jiraiya's perverted tendencies and easygoing nature. She was also filled with a deep and pervasive kindness born from experiencing bloodshed and suffering. She was the one who had had the largest role in his upbringing.
Naruto was fairly sure she was the only reason he was still sane. With how much everyone hated his guts, and the other two authority figures in his life being far too busy to take care of him, without her…
He didn't want to think about it.
Jiraiya was the one that taught him how to sneak and prank people, helped him with jutsu and told him stories about his parents. Nazumi was the one that had taught him how to read and write. She was the one that had taught him how to eat without making a mess, and how to clean up after himself.
She had taught him manners and how to talk. Most importantly however, she had taught him how to think.
Naruto had entered the Academy at 5 years old, but practically everything he knew before he started school he'd learned from Nazumi.
The grey haired woman smiled down at him before turning them around and heading for their apartment. "Have you done your homework yet, Naruto?" She asked in her usual raspy 'old woman' voice.
The blond nodded enthusiastically. He had. Both the history and math ones from Iruka-sensei, and the logic puzzles Nazumi was so fond of.
Not personally maybe, though that depended on if you counted clone labor as personal labor or not.
"Good. We'll stop by Ichiraku's on our way back as a reward for all your good work. How does that sound?"
Even if the blond could have contained his eagerness at that, his stomach would have betrayed him.
Author's Notes:
Yes, I'm aware that Naruto is quite OoC (Out of Character) in this.
Most notably, he is too smart compared with canon Naruto. He's one of the 'prodigy' children, even.
There is a reason I chose to do it this way beyond that I enjoy writing smarter characters. That reason being that I needed a smarter protagonist to tell the story I wanted to tell. If I'd used the intelligence of canon Naruto, he'd take too long to reach the conclusions I need him to reach.
In practice he's still a ways below Itachi, Kakashi, his father, and even Sasuke, but he's far more intelligent than any normal child his age has any right to be.
For those that are worried about OCs (Original Characters); yes, I am going to use them. They won't take over the story or anything, but I'll use them quite liberally to flesh out the background of the world.
Nazumi, the first major one to get introduced, is Naruto's guardian in this fic. Jiraiya hired her once it became clear he couldn't take care of the little rascal himself. And while Jiraiya is still Naruto's primary guardian, Nazumi is the one that raised him.
She's an OC because there weren't any canon characters that came close to the profile I needed.
She'll be a regular side character in the earlier chapters, though her story relevance starts and ends at her role as Naruto's caretaker/grandmother figure.
Warning for any future readers: This story is very technical in its writing. I will go very in-depth about the systems of chakra and various jutsu, mostly because that is what I enjoy writing.
If that isn't your cup of tea, then you probably won't enjoy this story very much. You could probably skim over those scenes if you're only after plot and character development, but you'd end up skipping a lot of the story as a result.
Finally, due to the nature of this story, I have far too much to say. There is too much stuff happening once this story really gets going, and I can't write it all out in full. All the scenes I deem critical are written out completely of course, but I've written a lot of summaries of events, and I often gloss over time periods where a lot of stuff happens.
This is pretty much unavoidable, as I'd end up with a fic rivaling the word count of the Wheel of Time otherwise. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but not by much. That means I have broken the 'show don't tell' rule a few too many times for me to feel comfortable with it.
If you can look past these flaws, I promise to do my very best to write a story you will enjoy.