PRE-STORY NOTES, some rambling:

I really like smart protagonists, and I figured that Naruto would be more interesting if he was smart. Of course, he's not gonna be 1-upping every single person, because I want the higher-skilled ninjas to also be smart.

I really hate Naruto's dub voice, so I just imagine that he sounds like Edward Elric/Tamaki Suoh.

The Hyuuga in this fic will have normal-looking brown eyes, they only become white when the Byakugan is activated.

GENJUTSU DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS FIC

ONLY BASE SHARINGAN - NO MANGEYKOU POWERS, NO RINNEGAN, NO ALIENS, NO REANIMATION JUTSU, NO SUBSTITUTION JUTSU, NO ASHURA/INDRA REINCARNATION

The Uchiha Massacre did happen, but it was on a smaller scale; Most of the survivors are chunin-ranked Uchiha and lower. Sasuke is the clan's future heir, though all his friends and direct family died.

I might create a prequel fic that is comprised of oneshots, in order to give more context to this fic.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!

We open with our main character, a boy with vibrant blonde hair, whsiker-like marks on his cheeks, and deep blue eyes, Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto walks down a street nonchalantly on his way to the academy, ignoring the angry glares from some villagers as he passes by. A smile comes across his face as he reaches his first stop: the building that houses his jade-eyed, pink-haired love, Sakura Haruno. He walks up the path to the porch and knocks on the door 7 times, signifying that it's him at the door.

At that moment, Sakura opens the door and gives her boyfriend a hug. Naruto responds by giving her a light kiss on her forehead.

Of course, neither of them would show their affection for each other in public – Naruto, much to Sakura's chagrin, insisted that they keep their relationship a secret, fearing that she would become a pariah like him.

The young lovebirds then make their way to the Uchiha compound to rendezvous with their longtime friend, Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto's apartment building was right near the compound, but Naruto would always pick up Sakura first and then round back, claiming it was for the purpose of exercise. Truthfully, Naruto just enjoyed having alone time with her, however short it may be during their walk to the compound.

"Hey, bastard, you ready to go to the academy?", Naruto playfully jabbed. "Of course I am, dipshit." Was Sasuke's reply as the boys grinned and shook hands.

"I will never understand boys and their banter.", Sakura thought.

Like most other days, the walk to the academy was uneventful. The preteens would talk about life in general, such as Naruto's latest misadventures (although today, he just kept giggling and saying," you'll see!"), Sasuke's training, their upcoming exam, and an anime that each of the 3 were watching. That is, until, the Hokage Wall came into view. Sakura and Sasuke dropped their jaws and their eyes widened as they saw what Naruto was giggling about.

All the hokages' faces had been painted on! It was an intricate job; Naruto had managed to make them all resemble clowns!

"You really outdid yourself this time, dope." Sasuke smirked, but his voice was calm.

Sakura, on the other hand, was mildly furious. She pretty much screamed, "YOU IDIOT, YOU PAINTED THE HOKAGES' FACES?!"

Naruto began to run as Sakura chased him through their path to the academy, the 2 only bothered to stop because they had reached Ino's house.

"Hey forehead, you're early." Was Ino's remark toward the Pinkette. "Well, I do know that pigs have inconsistent sleeping schedules" was Sakura's retort. The 2 bickered for awhile as Naruto caught his breath. See, although he could outrun all the chunin and jonin who would chase him after one of his elaborate pranks, Naruto still didn't have the greatest stamina (after all, he was a little too thin for a boy his age). Finally having caught his breath, Naruto proclaimed that the trio should wait for Sasuke to stop by.

It was then that Sasuke, at his slow pace (not that he made any effort to go faster), caught up with the rest.

Ino decided to (once again) shoot her shot; "Oh Sasuke, would you like to go on a date with me? –"

"No." Sasuke quickly replied.

Today was a special day for the academy kids, because it was the day that they would take their genin exam. It was in the classroom while waiting for Iruka-sensei that Naruto began his daily quest to get Sasuke to show some emotion (although he was pretty open with Naruto, Sasuke was still quite callous towards the rest of his peers). Naruto had climbed up onto Sasuke's desk, staring him down.

"Today's the day, y'know. I'm gonna get you to show this class that you're not as emo as you pretend to be." Naruto was determined. Suddenly, however, the student who sat in the desk in front of Sasuke moved his head back, laughing at a friend's joke. His head hit Naruto's backside, causing him to fall forward and kiss Sasuke!

Both boys started hacking and coughing, appreciative of the fact that only their lips made contact. Sasuke was till pissed, though, and a frown came upon his face as he growled, "Dope, I will murder you!" Naruto immediately perked up at this, and began triumphantly laughing. "I did it!" he cheered, "I finally got you to show some emotion, y'know!" Sasuke facepalmed, and his fangirls swooned, as indeed, Naruto had succeeded in his goal.

It was then that Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei walked into the classroom and told the students to take their seats and begin the exam.

The exam was difficult, but Naruto really didn't have a lot of trouble (although, to say that he had an easy time would be a lie). Part of why he vandalized the hokage monument was to make up for all the pranking he didn't do due to his studying.

Once the written exam was over, Naruto met up with his friends during the break. Sasuke said it was harder than he expected, Sakura said it was easy, Ino said the same, Shikamaru said it was troublesome, Choji said he was hungry, Kiba said he could barely understand it, Shino said it was of average difficulty, and Hinata said she probably didn't do very well.

"Just about what I expected each of them to say…" Naruto absentmindedly thought. Naruto normally would've been more involved in the conversation, but he had other things in mind at the moment.

The break was over and Naruto was eventually called for the physical exam. He had to make 1 clone comprised of his Chakra. Simple enough, right?

Naruto pressed his index fingers together and focused his chakra. Slowly, a humanoid shape began to take form next to Naruto, but it was repulsive. The clone that Naruto created was almost transparent, and it seemed to collapse on itself almost immediately.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, you fail." Iruka's voice had a hint of sadness and disappointment to it.

"He did create a clone, Iruka, and his grades have steadily increased throughout the year. We could pass him.", Mizuki countered.

"No, Mizuki, as much as I hate to say it, that clone is pathetic. Please leave, Naruto." Naruto obeyed.

Truthfully, Naruto could make a good clone, albeit with some difficulty due to needing to suppress his chakra, but this time, he intentionally created a clone that resembled a dead fish more than himself. The reason? He was suspicious of Mizuki-sensei. The man had been cold towards him, but one day near the middle of the year, Mizuki let something slip to Naruto about asking his parents to be useful for once, knowing Naruto is an orphan. After that mishap, Mizuki made an effort to get closer to Naruto, having conversations on a rooftop every day, and Naruto let him, because he felt that something was really off about Mizuki. Mizuki didn't know this, but Naruto noticed that Mizuki would sometimes look anxious, and the anxiety seemed to increase as Naruto honed his chakra in class better. Sometimes, Naruto would glance a look of disgust on Mizuki's face too. Naruto knew that he shouldn't trust him…

Naruto wasn't pleased with the idea of failing on purpose, but he figured that if he got worried over nothing, he could just show Iruka-sensei a proper clone later, and he'd graduate right then and there.

Naruto informed his friends, feigning sadness, that he failed the exam, but (smirking) that he would see them later.

"Look, that brat doesn't have a headband, he must've failed.", a young woman quietly remarked. Her friend responded by saying that "Such is to be expected of a demonic little pest like him." Naruto scowled, not knowing why he was hated so much, and made his way to where he'd usually talk to Mizuki.

Mizuki showed up at their meeting spot about 3 hours after the genin exam was over. He sat on a building with Naruto, and began to speak.

"There is another way to pass the exam, Naruto." He said. "In the hokage's office, there is a 'forbidden scroll'. If you manage to locate and retrieve it, all you have to do is learn a jutsu from it and meet me in the wide clearing 1 mile due east from the center of the Ichigo Forest at midnight. Got it?"

Naruto thought about it. "So that's why he's been acting so weird lately – he wants me to unwittingly betray the village? I could just turn him in, now, but Hiruzen would have some trouble convicting him if there's no evidence – it'd be his testimony against mine, and I know who the council would side with. Not to mention, I kinda wanna read that scroll… I got it! I'll just create a bunch of clones and use them to confuse him as to who's who! Then, I'll lure him to someone I can trust and tell them what's happening. It won't be easy, but I can pull it off."

"I'll do it, Mizuki-sensei."

Stealing the forbidden scroll was easier than Naruto thought it'd be. He just had to sneak into the hokage's office, show Hiruzen his "Ultimate relentless kage killer sexy girl jutsu" and the old man passed out from a nosebleed. Naruto then found the scroll and took it. He felt bad about making Hiruzen pass out like he did, so he pushed the little button to call for Hiruzen's assistant before leaving.

It was barely mid-afternoon when Naruto made it to the rendezvous point, so he decided he'd open the scroll and read it. He quickly figured out that if he channeled more chakra into the scroll, more jutsu would appear in response. Naruto's eyes immediately fell upon 2 notable jutsu: The first was the hiraishin, an S-rank space-time ninjutsu. It used a seal as a checkpoint to which the user could teleport to at any point (among other uses). The hiraishin was particularly intriguing because the notes under it included that it was created by the 4th hokage, Minato Namikaze, Naruto's personal hero.

The 2nd notable jutsu was the shadow clone jutsu, a B-rank (jonin-level) jutsu. This was interesting because the shadow clone produced solid clones by using more chakra and activating it to be solid, as opposed to the regular chakra clones, which were just the user's chakra shaped to look like them (and could easily be disposed of by just touching them due to their almost gaseous nature). Other than that, the shadow clone was much like the simpler chakra clone, sending its memories back to the user once dispelled. He copied down the main formula for both jutsu and got to work on the shadow clone jutsu.

Little did Naruto know that his encounter with Mizuki was going to be nothing like either of them thought it'd be.

Sakura was walking to Ichiraku's with Sasuke (they had to admit that they understood why Naruto liked it so much), both having changed into their casual outfits and being upset that Naruto failed the physical exam. They both felt that Naruto deserved better, as both of them knew he was lonely – they were his girlfriend and best friend, after all.

It was after they each had a big bowl of miso chicken ramen – Naruto's favorite – that Sakura began to express her worries.

"Sasuke, we should check up on Naruto. He was really looking forward to becoming a genin with us – we haven't seen him in 4 hours!" she suggested.

Sasuke replied with a simple "Hn." And they made their way to Naruto's apartment.

Upon arrival, the 2 friends notice an ANBU in a cat mask leaving Naruto's apartment. Both of them are confused, wondering if Naruto's latest prank really warrants such a reaction, or if Naruto's gotten himself in some real trouble this time. They decide to try and find Naruto, wherever he may be.

3 hours since Naruto began to read the scroll

"Damn it, Naruto, stealing the forbidden scroll? What are you up to?!" Iruka's mind was going haywire, in equal parts concern and anger, as he searched the forest for Naruto.

By now, the sun was close to setting, enveloping the sky in an orange hue, and the forest in increasing darkness. " Where the Hell are you?"

Naruto had already learned the shadow clone jutsu a while ago, so to practice it, Naruto sent a slew of shadow clones to scout, and they were ordered to dispel when they saw someone coming his way. Meanwhile, Naruto and a few clones stayed in the clearing to copy down jutsu from the forbidden scroll.

"Mud wall, water dragon… These are famous jutsu! How are they forbidden? And they're coupled in with some real dangerous jutsu too…"

Suddenly, Naruto felt as if he remembered something, and he instantly knew what that feeling was. One of his scouts had dispelled itself to inform him that someone was coming. Naruto quickly used a storage seal to hide his copy of the forbidden scroll, then dispelled the rest of the clones in the clearing, and looked towards the person who was arriving.

"Oh, hi, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto put on a smile – it wasn't fake, Naruto definitely liked Iruka, but he felt the need to play the tole of an oblivious child for a little longer. "I learned a jutsu from the scroll and now I can pass, just like Mizuki-sensei said!"

Iruka's eyes narrowed at the mention of Mizuki. "Mizuki's the one who told me what you did!"

Naruto suddenly felt another clone dispel.

"Naruto, hand over the forbidden scroll!", Mizuki yelled.

Iruka quickly put the pieces together. "Mizuki must've told Naruto that he would become a genin if he stole the scroll…. Bastard!"

Naruto scolded himself in his mind for not realizing that Mizuki lied about meeting him at midnight. He found a more pressing matter, though, as he saw Mizuki reach into his pocket.

"Iruka-sensei, watch out!"

Iruka had no time to react; Naruto pushed him to the side and was suddenly impaled by a kunai that hit him right in the eye. Naruto screamed in pain as he went flying back and was slumped against a tree, breathing heavily, but still wide awake.

Iruka stood in front of Naruto, ready to defend him, as Naruto pulled the kunai out of his eye.

Naruto then felt another clone dispel.

Sakura and Sasuke hid in some bushes at the side of the clearing. Sakura was about to make a run for Naruto to see if he was OK, but Sasuke held her back and told her that they would get bodied by Mizuki. Sakura reluctantly agreed, and stayed hidden.

Mizuki began to boast. "Come on, Iruka, if I kill that demon fox, I'd be doing the village a favor!" His words did not go unnoticed by Naruto, who was clutching his bloody eye and was genuinely bewildered at the mention of a being everyone thought was killed by the 4th Hokage. "W-What are you talking about? What demon fox?", he asked. Iruka warned Mizuki to stop, that talking about it was forbidden, but Mizuki kept going.

"The 9-tailed fox is a being of pure chakra; it is the beast that attacked Konoha 11 and a half years ago and did away with thousands of innocent people – and despite what the academy's taught, it isn't dead! It's you, Naruto! YOU'RE the beast!"

Sakura and Sasuke audibly gasped, unintentionally revealing their positions to the chunin in the clearing. They both immediately denied it. How could Naruto, the kindest and most innocent person they know, have killed all those people? They ran towards Naruto. Sasuke stood behind Iruka with a kunai in-hand, trying to ignore the tears streaming down his face. Meanwhile, Sakura let her tears flow freely, grasping onto Naruto protectively as if he was leaving the world.

Naruto's eye widened, as he understood everything now. Why most of the village hated him, why he received so many angry glares, why his old apartment was arsoned and why he was even beaten by a group of villagers before he received regular ANBU guards.

The kids' heads shot up as Iruka cut in, "Don't listen to him, Naruto, you are NOT the beast, it's just sealed within you! It's like kunai sealed within a scroll, do you understand?!"

Naruto didn't have a lot of time to think it over, as Mizuki quickly threw a multitude of shuriken at Iruka, whose arm and legs were disabled by them. Iruka desperately told Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke to run, but Sasuke and Sakura were frozen in fear, while anger bubbled within Naruto.

Naruto stood up and lifted his hand away from the injured eye, a faint red glow in its place being visible for half of a second after he did so. Naruto's eye was back, somehow unharmed. Everyone else, shuddered. Eyes don't grow back! And that kunai had been embedded in Naruto's socket when it hit!

Naruto let out a shallow breath. "Mizuki… If you lay a hand on Iruka-sensei, Sakura, or Sasuke, I'm going to kill you."

Mizuki mockingly asked, "You and what army?"

Naruto replied, "This army!" as all of his scout clones rushed into the clearing, surrounding Mizuki. Mizuki laughed at this, "I can fight you ten times and I wouldn't even break a sweat!"

"Then fight me a hundred times!" Naruto yelled, as he put his fingers in a cross position and focused his chakra, creating a hundred shadow clones in a single instant.

Mizuki laughed again, "A few simple clones will do nothing! All I have to do is touch them and they'll vanish! After all they are your clones!" Mizuki began to laugh again, but was cut off by a clone that punched him square across the jaw.

Shaking his head to get rid of the pain, Mizuki realized that Naruto had learned the shadow clone jutsu. Mizuki then got ready to fight, and utilized all the jutsu he knew to try and defeat Naruto and his hundred clones. It was ultimately a futile effort, as Naruto beat Mizuki to a bloody pulp.

Panting over Mizuki's unconscious body, Naruto turned to his friends, hesitantly asking, "Do you guys hate me now?..."

Sakura and Sasuke took offense to this, and Sasuke was the first to speak. "Of course not, dope!" he exclaimed. Sakura spoke next, "How could we hate you for something you have no control over?! We're like a family and we love you!" Iruka smiled as Sakura hugged Naruto, knowing that all the loneliness he'd felt for all his life is chipped away when he has his friends near him.

Sasuke tensed up as he saw a group of people approaching, but calmed down once he realized that they were ANBU accompanied by the hokage. Naruto hesitantly broke off his hug and approached the squad, holding the scroll in-hand. "Hey, Cat, hey, Inu, sorry but Mizuki tricked me into stealing this. Sorry for knocking you out too, Hiruzen." Naruto bowed and presented the scroll, which Hiruzen gently took. None were shocked by Naruto referring to the hokage as simply "Hiruzen", as they knew how tight the bond was between the two. Before the kids left, Hiruzen reminded them to keep the night's events a secret. Then, Iruka stopped Naruto and said, "I think you're forgetting something."Naruto teared up as he received a Konoha ninja headband from Iruka, signifying his promotion to genin.

That night, Sasuke and Sakura walked Naruto home. As they stood in front of his door, Naruto turned around and said, "Thank you guys… For standing by me." Naruto shook Sasuke's hand. Sakura have him another hug and said "Anytime, Naruto. I meant it, by the way. We love you. Especially me." Naruto's friends smiled and ran off before Naruto could say anything else.

Naruto has some studying to do.

What do you think? It's my first fic so please be kind.