Today. Today was the day that Naruto had sat through all those boring lectures for. The day where he would finally start his journey to accomplish dream. Become the strongest ninja ever born, believe it!

Rushing through his daily morning routine, Naruto had a choice to make. Should he go and meet those who would be his teammates and possibly friends? The ones who he would need to trust on to not let him for dead when things got rough? Or go visit his old class to boast about his great accomplishment, and prove to them that the class clown had done it? That the one they'd made fun of for so long was ahead of them in the shinobi path?

A difficult choice clearly, and Naruto struggled with it as he tried to think of all the ups and downs. If only he could be at two places at once…

"Wait…" Naruto muttered as he remembered the unique jutsu that had led him to wearing the headband in the first place. With a hand seal and a poof of smoke, an exact replica of the blond stood before him.

"I'm a genius!" Naruto and his clone both exclaimed in unison as they started dancing around the place. Having fixed his problem, both Narutos set their way towards the Academy, which was quite the amusing scene for the civilians of the area as they wondered about their sanity.

Now before the doors of the so familiar building, they bid each other goodbye as the original Naruto made his way towards his old classroom. Naruto stopped himself from opening the door in one big swoop, "This is no way for Naruto Uzumaki to make his appearance, I need something showier. But what?"

Naruto quietly stayed put for a moment, checking what he carried with him. Kunais, shurikens, some wires and an unused paint bucket that he had been saving to prank that Sasuke prick. "Perfect." Naruto said with a grin, and with that he went to work.

Luckily for him, nobody was in the classroom yet, not even the early bird that was Iruka-sensei. Which was perfect for the blond to start his preparations.

Knowing he was on a short deadline, Naruto decided to use his clones once again that day. And with a squadron full of Narutos, he managed to finish in record time.

With a grin and simultaneous poofs of smoke that signalled his clone's dismissal, Naruto went to hide. Now all he had to do was wait…

-o-

Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he woke up from his unexpected nap. Coming to his senses, the sound of excited chattering reached his ears. Through the small gap that the closet he had hidden in had, Naruto could see how the before empty classroom was now brimming with his classmates' familiar faces, who were up to their usual antics.

'Shikamaru sleeping, Choji eating, and girls fawning over that Sasuke-jerk. All alright with the world…' Naruto thought, although with a slight tinge of sadness at the realization that nobody seemed to care that he wasn't there, no one confused about his absence.

But pushing through those negative thoughts, he pulled on a thread that was right beside him. 'Let the show… Begin!'

And with that, a dozen chalkboard erasers fell from the roof, lifting up a smokescreen that filled the classroom. The mass of students left out confused screams, wondering what was going on. As the artificial smokescreen dissipated, the sound of contraptions going on could be heard as a blinding light emerged out of nowhere, and the next instant, all the students were covered in shiny orange paint from head to toes.

It took some moments for them to react, but when they did the whole classroom transformed into an angry mob thirsty for revenge. "Who did it? Who was the dumbass that did this?" Came the shouts of revenge for the culprit of that prank.

One perspicacious boy noticed, in all of his blinding rage, the answer to their questions.

In plain sight, hanging above the chalkboard was a poster that read "Naruto Uzumaki has graduated! See ya later suckas" written in bold letters alongside a childish drawing of what barely resembled Naruto.

That was the last drop needed as all the students' patience reached its limit. And in unison and with strength, they all shouted together one singular, infamous name.

"Naruto!"

And the blond devil himself stifled a laugh as he closed the door of the classroom in his way, calmly walking down the hallway.

-o-

Naruto chuckled as the excitement still hadn't worn off. "That couldn't have gone any better!"

Shaking the thoughts of his successful prank off, he hurried his steps. Maybe he would be able to arrive just in time to learn who his team was!

But before he could advance one more step, a massive headache appeared out of nowhere that made his vision a swirl of colors, as a flood of vivid imagery came to him. Feelings embedded in them and sensations all around them. Overwhelming.

Naruto panted while grasping his knees, taking all his strength just to not fall over and pass out in that instant. Minutes passed like this, with his headache gradually diminishing to a supportable level.

Now with the ability of rational thought instead of his brain feeling like one big mush, Naruto could think about what happened. And the first thing that stood out to him was his memories; brand new ones that he didn't even remember happening moments before, but he could now remember in detail as if he himself had experienced them. And with the feelings he experienced during it.

The part that completely shocked him was that the memories seemed to be part of the clone he had sent out to receive his team.

It took some good minutes and increased brain activity for the blond to reach the correct conclusion, which was that he remembered everything that his clones experienced.

"Which. Is. Awesome!" Naruto yelled in excitement, already thinking of all the possibilities this side effect of the jutsu could have. Bristling with excitement, Naruto ran out of the building to find the nearest training ground.

-o-

Naruto laid on his back, his clothes all dirtied as he breathed heavily in pure exhaustion. 'Making clones… is way more tiresome than I thought…' Naruto thought in between panting.

All in all, Naruto's experiments determined that his clones were more limited than he thought. If he made too many, they would disappear after a short while and leave him completely drained. Their durability was also a serious problem, dissipating at anything stronger than poking it with the finger. And at last, they were all him. Which meant that they thought the exact same way as him and reached the same conclusions as he did, so they wouldn't speed up his training in one singular thing.

But he could use them to train multiple things at once. And even that came with its negative effects because he learned that the memories would sometimes get mixed up, making the information obtained useless. He would really have to be careful about that.

However, before he could think anymore about what he'd learned, he remembered. " See you tomorrow at Training Ground 11 at 6 AM in order to become official genin ." Official genin. Those words made him pale up. All he had worked for, all now suddenly once again out of his grasp?

'How come this happened in the first place?'

-o-

Naruto clone stood uncomfortably to the side where his teammates sat, after all one wrong movement and all the stuff he had learned would disappear alongside him. If he did that, the boss would kill him.

Before he could think of his fragile mortality any further, the coarse voice of his sensei interrupted him.

Calling the attention from the three little genin was a man that couldn't look any plainer. Wearing the standard uniform, simple brown hair that striked the perfect balance between unruly and straight that made it completely ordinary, and monotone eyes that bore no care for the situation. All in all, what Naruto pictured when he thought what the average shinobi looked like, which was quite disappointing for the blond.

And if he had heard his chattering teammate right, his strength and feats were the same as the man himself. So there went his hopes of having a worldwide known ninja training him.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about being left to die by this man. Although his eyes carried the slightest tint of wariness to them every time he stared at him, it wasn't accompanied with the anger most people seemed to have for him.

And lucky him, his sensei seemed way more concerned with his other teammate, the blue haired girl that could probably pass as Sasuke's sister with her 'indifferent to the world' expression. Apparently she came from some prestigious clan with every member acting like nobility, kinda like the Hyuga clan in that regard.

"Alright brats, as evidenced by the headband you're wearing right now, you have all passed the final test the Academy had for you." Naruto grinned at that, all his efforts during the Academy landing him in this place.

"Now you may be thinking you are all officially new genin, and on the path to start your shinobi career. But you think wrong." Naruto's grin vanished, his eyes widening in concern.

"W-what do you mean by that sensei?" Naruto couldn't help but sputter the question.

"I mean that there's still one final evaluation to see if you're worthy of the genin rank." And Naruto's whole world was crushed in millions of pieces with those simple words. After all he had had to do to graduate, he still hadn't gotten it? Naruto looked to his side to check on his teammates reaction, but he appeared to be the only one surprised by this news.

"Now, in order to understand this test I will tell you the purpose this team would have if you three passed. We are one of the three Guard and Recovery teams, with the objective of transporting different types of valuables and the escorting of people that pay our service. With the rare infiltration mission to retrieve documents from the enemy's hands." Naruto perked out from his disillusionment at that, curious as to why he was part of this team.

'After all, I'm not the most discreet person according to others…' Naruto thought as he absentmindedly looked at his orange jacket, something he had been ridiculed for many times already.

"In this test you will have to pass through a series of traps to get a scroll that is 'vital for the Village's security' in this theoretical situation. And don't go in careless, because these traps will kill you if you make a mistake." Naruto palidated a bit at the thought, he wasn't expecting for his life to be in danger so early.

"And that's all the information I can give you, see you tomorrow at Training Ground 11 at 6 AM in order to become official genin." And the next time Naruto blinked, the man was gone, having left only a spiral of leaves that drifted into the air.

"Woah… Did you guys see that?" Naruto asked as he turned around to face his teammates with bewildered eyes. Only to meet air.

"Wait what?" Naruto couldn't help but sputter out as his teammates were already about to leave.

And he would have stopped them, if it hadn't been for an unfortunate piece of glass in the ground that cut through his sandals and made him poof into nothingness.

-o-

"So that means… that if I fail tomorrow's test I will be… not a genin?" Naruto's color left him at that revelation, his body becoming stiff.

"I need to train!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh man, oh man what am I gonna do?!" Naruto mumbled to himself as he frantically walked around the training ground.

"That's it!" He exclaimed as a revelation reached him. "To Iruka-sensei!" And then he was gone, leaving behind only a trail of dust.

-o-

"Please Iruka-sensei? I can't fail after coming so far!" Naruto begged with teary eyes at the exhausted Iruka who had been in the middle of correcting tests.

"Sorry Naruto, but I won't be of much use until my wounds finish healing." Naruto flinched at the statement, after all he had been the reason for one of them.

Naruto deflated a bit, now what would he do? He could try and learn a new seal, but that would be a hard task to pull off in one night. Or he could just pray to the lucky stars and hope that everything went right, say what he did for every Clone Jutsu test.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, Iruka-sensei interrupted him as he handed him a book. Brows furrowed, Naruto couldn't help but ask, "How's a book supposed to help?"

"Why don't you read the title?" And so the blond did. 'Chakra Control With Your Feet!' Naruto didn't know how to respond, and could only look at his former sensei confused.

"I admit the title is a bit weird, but in it you can learn how to do Tree Walking!"

"Tree Walking?" He asked even more confused. But Iruka only smiled wonder at that.

"Yes, tree walking. It's a skill that you should have learned while in here but because you graduated earlier you will have to learn on your own. Tree walking consists of focusing chakra on the sole of your feet to stick to a surface. This exercise is meant to give you a better grasp on your chakra and how to manipulate it to have different properties." Iruka-sensei explained as Naruto thoughtlessly nodded.

"Alright! Thanks Iruka-sensei!" And without waiting for a response, Naruto took off leaving Iruka alone once again.

He sighed, "I wonder if letting you pass was the right decision…"

Now that he was back by himself, Iruka couldn't help but think about what had happened that night.

'Yes, at the end nobody ended up hurted because of it, but it still makes me worry. What if it manifests itself again on one of Naruto's missions, who will be there to calm him down?' Iruka asked himself with endless worry.

But he could do nothing more than pray for his student's safety. Better believe it as Naruto always said.

-o-

Naruto calmly whistled as he trudged through one of the countless forests inside his village to practice tree walking. Now he knew why it was called that and not wall walking, as evidenced by the hole he had left in one of his apartment's walls when trying out the exercise.

Having decided he was on a good enough spot, Naruto slowly followed each instruction from the scroll.

As he had done before, he gathered his chakra by the sole of his feet until he had a good enough amount fo chakra flowing before he went running towards the tree and tried his luck, and as before, the bark immediately exploded after some steps that sent him flying off roughly towards a fortunately placed bush.

He gave this some more tries without the results changing, obviously he needed to change something. 'But what?' Naruto wondered.

"Maybe more chakra is the answer!" And without thinking about the logic behind it any further, Naruto rushed towards the tree with double the amount of before.

Expectedly, Naruto went flying off again, only this time with speed akin to one of a shuriken and having left a gaping hole on the tree.

Naruto decided to give it a few more tries, fortunately with clones in order for him not to receive the backlash from his ideas. 'At least I've figured out a way they can help in training…' He thought absentmindedly.

With the same results, Naruto finally decided that the idea was not cutting it, and chose to lower the chakra instead.

To his surprise, it worked! His clone took some good 5 steps before he shot off the tree. And at this Naruto kept decreasing the amount with every time managing to get further up ahead. At least until it didn't.

Having reduced the chakra for the tenth time, Naruto went to try again but this time his chakra stopped sticking him to the tree.

"That's weird…" Naruto said in slight disappointment at his grand idea not being the definite solution for his problems.

Now he was certain he was using the right amount, but for some reason it didn't work! Did he just need to practice more? Naruto asked himself confused, but nonetheless continued.

This was gonna be a looooooong night.