What if Naruto had a different father?
Life wasn't very easy for Naruto.
For some reason ignored and whispered behind his back by the majority of the village as a child and grew up to be a lonely individual. Maybe it had something to do with his appearance? Blond hair and grey eyes weren't that common in the land of fire, but if so why would the Yamanaka Clan be treated differently from him. Had it something to do with his oval face or the whisker marks he had on his cheeks? He didn't know.
No one liked to play with him. The other orphan kids would ignore him or tell him to leave them alone. The villager for some reason hated him, even though he did nothing from as far as he can remember.
Life was lonely for Naruto. Sometimes he would think about who his parents were.
Did they abandon him? Loved him? Why is he an orphan? It has gotten so bad that sometimes he would look at the Yondaime's Stone face and wish he was his father. To be the son of the Yellow Flash and Yondaime Hokage. That would be nice.
He even styled his hair after him, although his face structure and form were different, he thought he could pass as his cousin or so.
In his life, he didn't have a lot of friends or people who loved him. But that meant that the people who do love him, he would treasure and protect with everything he got.
His grandfather the Hokage, made sure the visit him and take him out for ramen whenever possible.
The ramen shop he regularly went to eat at had nice people who treated him with kindness and acknowledgement.
And a bit later his academy teachers, although like the rest of the villagers at first, quickly grew on him and were the parental figure he needed in his life.
That doesn't mean he did nothing to get more acknowledgement.
Naruto was a troublemaker the moment he could walk. Pranking the regular civilians and ninjas alike. This of course got him in a lot of trouble.
But the people finally saw him with different eyes, a different demeanour, that's all he ever wanted. And if he needs to prank them to understand, then so be it!
XXXX
On a certain sunrise morning one could, you would need to squint your eyes, and see a figure right above the Yondaime Hokage painted his face in a Kabuki kind of manner.
This young blond boy was none other than Naruto. The resident self-proclaimed prankster king and also dead-last of his class.
Today would mark the last time he would attend the Academy because today was the graduation exam to become a genin.
Sure, he failed the last three exams but those were just bad luck. Today would be different. Today he would finally get his headband and become a ninja of the hidden leaf village.
But since his grandfather figure said that ninjas don't do pranks, although he probably said that to stop him from doing more mischief, he was going to make one giant prank that nobody could forget.
And what better way to do that on something everyone would see?
Yes, this prank is going into the history books.
XXXX
An unsuspecting Sandaime Hokage was currently busy signing, reading and sorting important documents. Yes, the job of the Hokage was 70% filled with paperwork. The rest are equally distributed to mission assignments and public appearances. If everybody knew what it means to be a Kage of any village, the upcoming children and most Jonin would kindly refuse the position if the opportunity ever arises. 'I'm way too old for this' thought Hiruzen and internally sighed. He would rather enjoy his pension the working in this job he left behind for another one. Wincing a bit for his tactlessness, he decided to take a quick break for the day and started to brew a tea for his nerves.
Having a teacup in hand he immediately felt a lot better and could feel his headache retreating. That is until he looked out the window to admire the Hokage before and after him and almost choked on this very hot tea.
There for everyone to see, the Hokage monument a memento to the leader of this village, defiled in paint to look like Kabuki make-up.
"NARUTO!"
XXXX
"NARUTO!"
Naruto lifted his head to look for the person who shouted his name. Until he released who it was and began laughing. He couldn't laugh for long, the ninjas came all to the same conclusion on who painted the Hokage monument. So he did what he did every time he was chased: Run for your life.
For Naruto, this was a daily occurrence. Nothing new, well except sometimes when the ninjas see through his traps he laid out, or trap him.
But none have managed to catch as of yet. Can they even be considered ninjas if they can't even catch a twelve-year-old? Or maybe it's because he is so awesome-
"NARUTO!" frozen from the shout of his voice behind him, he snaps his head behind him seeing an all too familiar face.
"Oh, Hey Iruka-sensei!" he didn't know how he always managed to catch him. All the other ninjas failed at finding Naruto, but somehow Iruka was always there when he thought he would be safe and dragged him to class.
"Not only are you late for class but you also painted the Hokage monument!" he yelled. Naruto's grin only got wider.
"Yeah! Pretty impressive ne?" Iruka just sighed for his favourite, although he would never admit it, antics. He knew lecturing him would do nothing and that's not even why he came to find him. Finding out that the monument was painted was something he only discovered because his colleague was running around trying to find someone. It didn't take a genius to add two and two together.
He lifted Naruto like a stray cat and dragged him back to the academy. Naruto meanwhile was enjoying this day. Nothing could ruin this moment.
XXXX
Alone on a swing, we could find Naruto staring at the fortunate students who passed the test. He didn't.
'Stupid Clone Jutsu!' he thought angrily, this is the fourth time he didn't manage to graduate because his clones all came out wrong. Substitution and Henge he could do perfectly, but this one Jutsu made him fail. It was just not fair.
Sulking in self-pity he couldn't see two figures watching him through the windows of the academy.
Iruka, who was saddened that Naruto didn't pass, sighed. Mizuki, assistant and best friend of Iruka, was not quite calm as he was. He was livid.
"Come on Iruka! He met the requirement to be a genin, minus the clone Jutsu. Nobody uses them anyway! " Mizuki argued.
Mizuki was like Iruka, blinded by hate and fear of the Nine-tails, but Naruto's good nature, naivety and smile quickly grew on him too and soon he also started to see that, Naruto was Naruto and nobody else.
Iruka sighed again. He knew that technically Naruto would be a genin rank. But he couldn't change the curriculum for passing. He is just a teacher and not the Hokage.
"We can't change the requirements, and the requirements clearly state that a genin must be able to do the academy three. If one is not able to, they have no business being a ninja."
This was going on for several minutes, arguing back and forth for one student. In the end, both agreed to speak with the Hokage.
"So Naruto didn't pass?" Hiruzen asked. Getting a nod as a response from the two teachers, he went to musing. "Normally this means that he would need to repeat another year."
"But-"
"But since he his a... 'special' case we can't let him not pass." Hiruzen was maybe biased, but he couldn't let his grandson be depressed because he failed the exams again. That and he thinks his wallet couldn't handle another depressed ramen eating from him.
"How about we get him a mock test?" Iruka suggest. Hiruzen thought about it.
"Do you have something in mind?"
XXXX
Naruto was sprinting through the forest. He couldn't believe it himself that he got so far. After hanging around the swing for a while Mizuki eventually confronted him for a mock test he could do.
All he needed to do was steal the Forbidden Scroll and learn a technique from them.
So far he managed to steal the scroll while bringing the village into a state of complete panic. Eventually, he managed to come to a stop in a clearing deep in the forest of Konoha and began completing step two of the mock test.
Problem was that the Forbidden scroll had not only a lot of Jutsu and techniques, but more than half of them he couldn't understand. Until he came across one he definitely could.
"Shadow Clones?" he read the passage as best as he could and tried to imitate the Hand signs. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" there was a lot of smoke but no clones. 'Maybe more Chakra?'
He tried once again. And again, and again, and again, and again-
1 hour later...
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" was heard before a poof signalled that something happened. Looking to his left he saw an identical face of him.
"Did we-", "do it?" blinking from this weird experience a smile crept on both of their faces before they both began to cheer loudly.
"Wait, how do you leave?" the original asked his clone. "Maybe I just need to think about it?" he gave as an answer and tried to think going back to the original.
What happened was unexpected, to say the least, because instead of vanishing in a poof of smoke as he appeared, he began to glow.
"Uh, are you doing this on purpose?" Naruto asked before his clone seemed the expand from the inside out. Seeing that this definitely shouldn't happen he jumped a safe distance away.
Good for him, because not a second later the clone exploded into a big explosion sending debris of earth and dust clouds his way. And also as a signal for his location.
"What the what?" he said to himself. Because as far as he read, this shouldn't have happened. He couldn't muse for long before Iruka found him though.
"Naruto what was that?!" he yelled, because why oh why did Naruto have to learn something so destructive.
"Oh, Iruka-sensei you finally found me!" he waved happily at him. Iruka who still was angry about his student's choice of Jutsu, even though he shouldn't be surprised that he wanted to learn something flashy, kept his act up.
"Yes, I did. Now could you tell me why you stole the forbidden scroll?! The whole village is in an uproar because of you!" Naruto gave a puzzled expression back.
"But I thought- Mizuki-sensei said I could do a mock test to graduate." Slowly piecing things together he didn't like where this was going.
"Mizuki? What are you talking-" he wanted to say more before he saw a giant Fuma Shuriken heading towards Naruto. "Watch out!" intercepting the shuriken with his back he looked back at the attacker.
"W-what is going on Iruka?" Naruto asked now fully terrified at the prospect of having his teacher tanking a fatal hit for him.
And not a moment later Mizuki jumped down from a nearby tree. "You did very good Naruto!" he said, "Now give me the Scroll and together you and I could become so much stronger than those leaf ninjas!" Naruto was now convinced something is wrong and he had a clue what it was. He fell into a trap!
"Don't listen to him Naruto leave and escape!" Iruka urged removing the giant shuriken from his back and turning to see Mizuki.
"You were always weak Iruka, not seeing him for the potential he has." he then turned to Naruto "With me, you could unlock this potential Naruto and become the strongest there is!"
Naruto scared. He was scared because he didn't what was going on. He knew what he can do and what happened, but his brain was frozen. So instead of answering, he ran away.
"NARUTO!"
XXXX
He ran and ran deeper into the forest until he got intercepted by Iruka again. Panicking Iruka tried to calm him down.
"Naruto, it's me! Let's get back to the leaf. I took care of Mizuki." He comforted, only to get a fist to the face and drop his Henge.
"How did you know it was me?" a now revealed Mizuki asked holding his definitely broken nose. He looked at Naruto before he too dropped his henge.
Both teachers stared at each other waiting for a reaction from the opposite. Naruto, who after running saw himself, followed them and watched hidden behind a tree.
"Why!? Why did you do this Mizuki?!" Iruka asked outraged. To which the Mizuki chuckled darkly. "Can't you see? His power could be so much more If he would be taught right! If I harness his power and take it for myself, I will be unstoppable! But you're in the way!"
Before he could run up to Iruka a kunai was thrown in the path and an angry Naruto emerged from the trees.
"Don't you dare touch Iruka! Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted with anger and tried to summon as many Shadow clones as possible. With a big smoke cloud, the whole clearing and the trees were littered with clones of himself.
'Shadow clones?' Iruka asked himself. 'But- what-' looking at Mizuki he saw that he also had a puzzled look on his face. Too bad the Shadow clones didn't give them time to think before charging at Mizuki.
"That's quite enough Naruto-kun." a gentle voice said beside him. Naruto knew that voice and look behind him. "Gramps?" he was stunned. What was the Hokage doing here and how long was he there.
Looking back at Iruka and Mizuki he could see both of them out of their combat stances and were holding their injuries. "You may be confused about what all this is, so let me explain. It was actually Mizuki who suggested this mock test." With a wide stare, he turned to Mizuki, who in turn gave him a sheepish smile "I'm sorry for deceiving you Naruto."
"This mock test was supposed to test if your loyalty was undoubted with the leaf. We wanted to see if you would give in to the prospect of power to abandon the leaf."
Naruto stared at nothing for a long time. 'So this was all a test?'
"Did- did I pass?" he asked uncertainly.
Hiruzen smiled, as well as Iruka and Mizuki. "Close your eyes Naruto." Iruka eventually replied. And before he knew it something was tied against his head. Opening his eyes he could see Iruka without a headband.
Touching Iruka's- his headband to make sure this wasn't all a dream, his eyes and the eyes of the clones who were still there, began to water slightly. Before ending in a mess of sobs from every clone and happy cheering from others. Many civilians would tell their kids that the forest was hunted after tonight. Meanwhile, the original one was hugging Iruka, ruining his vest, which he was fine with.
"Uh, I don't wanna ruin this moment, but I think me and Iruka should go see a medic. Iruka specifically." Mizuki pitched in and was ignored by everyone.
This marked the day where Naruto Uzumaki's journey to becoming a ninja started.
"Seriously, I think Iruka is passing out."
A/N
WHOOOOO
That was a dozzey. I hope you liked it and somewhat enjoyed the first chapter. Don't worry the first chapter is almost always the same. But after the next chapter, I will spice it a little up don't worry. It will go AU after wave, to which I mean it won't happen, and I have plans for this fic if it's well-received.
As you can see Naruto has a different Father than Minato, which is unknown to him, but you probably already know him. I did give MASSIVE hints. So unless you didn't read them you all should know who the father is. And yes, that will get an entire ARC for itself. Gotta sort out those daddy issues.
Where was I? Ah, yes right! I hope you have a wonderful day!
Farewell