Differences
It has been eight years since the dreaded attack on Konohagakure and the village has recovered but the damage runs deep. Scars take time to heal, the ax forgets but the tree never does. Hiruzen doubts anyone alive on that day would forget the presence of a biju of such power, that was a problem for him and certain young blond. At the moment the aged Hokage was walking down the street in his robes, certainly a rare sight but a pleasant one for the civilians of the village. They waved and sent the kage smiles but once they saw the child walking with him the smiles turned cold, eyes looked away, hushed whispers spread throughout the streat. The boy in question was a child no more than eight years of age, he had eyes as blue as the sky, untamed blond hair with tanned skin. The thing that stood out the most was not his attire, while he wore bright orange shorts and a white t-shirt with a red spiral on the back which many considered to be too bright although didn't phase the boy. No, it was his whisker like marks on his cheeks that gave him away as the 'hero of the village', the jailer to the most powerful entity on the planet.
"Jiji we are going to Ichiraku, right? Cause if we aren't I'm gonna have to fight you ttebayo!" yelled the child walking right next to the most powerful man in the village.
"Yes Naruto-kun we are, and if you're good we can go see Minha-chan to get you food for your house." Hiruzen told the now identified Naruto. "Awsome, race ya there!" Naruto proceeded to rocket off toward the ramen stand, surprising that a child had that kind of speed. Maybe it had something to do with him housing the Kyubi, jinchuriki where they were built differently. They were stronger, faster, tougher and had more chakra than anyone else. They had reflexes unmatched among the shinobi population but each one had a unique skill 'gifted' by their biju. The two tailed hellcat gave her host flexibility and reflexes. These were head and shoulders above even jinchuriki, it rumored that the host of the shukaku only needed sleep once a month. Naruto was fast, and not just fast for an eight year old, he could go toe to toe against freshly minted genin and win. Most of the time, he also had stamina that could outpace any genin and if garnered correctly these gifts would make him nigh untouchable on the battlefield. Hiruzen thought about this while he sat down next to Naruto in the ramen stand who looked to be pouting. "What wrong Naruto-kun" he asked in faux sincerity, he knew the answer.
"Jiji, you're too slow, if you walked any slower I could have pulled a prank and got away with before you even showed up!" He yelled out the last part. Ahh yes his pranks, they were ingenious. Well at least if they were not targeted to you, the execution of said pranks were perfect as well as the getaway. He would only get caught if ANBU got involved, most chunin gave up after seeing how nifty and quick Naruto could be as well as that insane amount of stamina he had for an eight year old. It was like trying to catch an oiled pig on a hot summer sunday.
"You know it's not fair to say I'm slow, it's just you're too quick. These old bones of mine are starting to catch up to me." It wasn't necessarily a lie, Hiruzen wasn't even close to slow but his age was catching up to him. "Anyway Jiji, what about this academy business? You said something about it being different this year. What is it?" The blond questioned while slurping his noodles down like they were going to get up and run away. The Saindiame wanted to give the legacy of the fourth something other than his son, so he applied the civilian council power redistribution as well as adding a fuinjutsu corps to the shinobi ranks. He also finally managed to train the chunin in the subjects needed, update the courses and had Jiryia make that fuinjutsu test.
"Yes Naruto this year is special, the Yondaime himself came up with the new Academy schedule and I have finally put the pieces together. You and your classmates will be the first ones to receive these new courses. I expect big things out of you Naruto." The wizened man finished with a soft smile on his face. Naruto returned the favor with one of his own real smiles. Sure he could run around yelling and smiling like a fool but the hokage could see through the cracks in the mask. Naruto was lonely, plain and simple. Nobody his age would play with him, almost everyone would ignore him and those who didn't treated him with indifference. Hiruzen hoped the Academy would rectify some of these problems. He knew if this went on, Konoha would have an unstable child with a cataclysm in his stomach. "Come on Naruto-kun that's enough ramen for now. We will visit Minha-chan to get some healthy food, you don't want to stay short forever do you?" He just chuckled when he saw Naruto sticking his tongue out at him, while saying goodbye to Techi and Ayame. Truly kind people they were.
While walking to their next destination Hiruzen saw it. He saw something that gave him hope, few and far between he could see an odd smile thrown toward the duo's way. More specifically at Naruto. Time heals all wounds, and it sure helps that Konoha has to forgive a cute little blond boy.
Arriving at their destination, the blond boy jumped over the cart to give the older women behind the cart a fierce hug. "Minha-neechan, Jiji was making fun of my height again." Naruto whined to the women, returned the hug and whispered in his ear "maybe if you didn't eat so much ramen you would be taller."
"Not you too!" Naruto proceeds to mope in the corner of the stall. Minha just giggled at the child's antics. Minha was 27 years old with black hair tied into a bun, with a brown apron on over a white long sleeve shirt and a black skirt which ended right at her knees. "It's good to see you Minha-chan, how's your family?" Hiruzen asked while grabbing fruits, vegetables, bread and other goods needed for a growing boy. "It's been going well, little Shinra is a handful, you know the terrible twos. He still is my pride and joy, even though he manages to find my last nerve and strangle it half to death." They shared a good laugh, Hiruzen knowing all too well the troubles of parenting. Hiruzen proceeded to show her all the goods he wanted to buy and paid for them. With a little 'thanks for being nice to Naruto' extra.
"Bye Minha-neechan, see ya next week!" He waved at her while walking away. She yelled back, "Maybe next time I see you, you won't be so short!" Naruto fell face first at the response he got back. He dusted himself off and got back into rhythm with his Jiji. Their final destination was a weapon shop for Naruto. Any self respecting ninja prospect needed the proper tools to prepare themselves, plus if Naruto was anything like his parents or his lineage Hiruzen would need to buy all the ink and paper he could get his hands on. The look on Naruto's face was priceless, if only Hiruzen had a camera. The walls were filled to the brim with explosive notes, smokes bombs, ninja wire, kunai, shurkin and even swords such as tantos or katanas. The hokage knew he had the boy hook, line and sinker. "Naruto-kun I myself am going to gift you these tools in order to become a strong shinobi, all I ask in return is that I wish to see the fruits of your labor every month."
"The what every month?" The whiskered blond asked. He was only eight to be fair and rarely did Naruto read anything other than manga. "It means I want to see the progress you make at the end of each month." Hiruzen finished with a chuckle at the childlike innocence he had. Naruto nodded in agreement. "Let's get you some real shinobi clothes, something other than that orange." Seriously how could this kid hide from anyone with those bright orange shorts on. "But Jiji I like orange." Hiruzen knew what to do.
"Naruto, do you want to be strong?"
He nodded, "I want to be the strongest Hokage ever!"
"Well Hokages don't wear orange so let's get you some better clothes."
Naruto could only mumble something about making all of Konoha orange when he became Hokage. Maybe when he did become Hokage he could do that but right now he was no more than a child. They walked into the clothes section and tried on a few outfits until they found one that worked. The settled on black shinobi pants that tucked into black shinobi sandals, he made sure he got a pair with extra pockets on them. He had a dark grey long sleeve shirt that had the ends wrapped in tape around his wrists. He wore a mesh shirt underneath. The weirdest part about the outfits was the mast the adored his face, much like a certain resident scarecrow in the village. The mask matched his shirt and Hiruzen figured to be variations such as short sleeves when it was hotter and a black overcoat that went down to about his shins for when it was cold. The only thing Naruto wanted to add a pair of dark red forearm bracers, he needed some color in this outfit. He also bought a set of high quality kunai, shuriken, 400ft of shinobi grade wire, a pack of smoke bombs, and almost bought out the store in ink and paper fit for fuinjutsu. The aged man didn't let Naruto see how much the price was, he was spoiling his grandson after all. No price was too steep to set this young man on a proper path to become stronger. They left the only weapon shop that would allow Naruto to shop there without the Hokage. "Naruto if you need anymore equipment or weapons make sure to come back to this exact store, they will treat you fairly. Now let's head back to your home, after all you have a big day tomorrow at the academy." Hiruzen was sure Naruto was excited for tomorrow, so excited he doubted the blond ball of energy would get much if any sleep tonight. "Of course Jiji! I'm gonna be super strong and then when I become a ninja I'll challenge you for the hat and then I'll make ramen free for everyone! Then I'll…." This continued until they got to Naruto's apartment. They unsealed the scrolls they put the food and weapons in so they could put them away. "Naruto, use those tools only to train when you're not at the academy and clean up a little bit. It's getting a little… 'dusty' in here, ok?" Naruto had the decency to blush. "You got it, cleaning first and then get ready for tomorrow." Hiruzen shook his head in agreement and took his leave. Naruto had a lot to do if he wanted his house clean by tomorrow. The hokage had a meeting with the civilian and shinobi council later today. Maybe he should let the civilians listen just for fun, when they heard that the redistribution of power they were against was in full force until he told them that their beloved fourth Hokage wrote it up. Suddenly it wasn't such a bad idea, kami bless Minato.
The next day
Naruto was over the moon when he woke up, he managed to get a wink of sleep last night so he was raring to go. He made some oatmeal, two bananas and some milk. The blond child put on his new clothes, wrapped his wrists, raised his mask and donned his red bracers. He was ready, so he started walking to the Academy. He got there and checked where his class was at, Teacher Iruka Umino, the classroom number was right after that. He arrived to see his class, there were so many kids there it was unbelievable, he wanted to say hey to everyone but there was always later. The first priority was to pick a seat, he wasn't early nor was he late so most of the seats were taken up except one seat next to a kid with raven hair in the shape of a duck butt. He snickered to himself, storing that little piece of information for a later date. Naruto walked to the last row and sat himself down next to him and proceeded to wait. Which was never his strong suit but he tried his best, if not for him do it for Jiji. The kid next to him looked at him for a second, smirked and went back to looking out the window. 'Fine I didn't want to talk to you anyway' Naruto thought, so for the next five minutes he proceeded to bounce his leg to keep the excitement building up. Finally after what felt like too long three men walked in. All of them are wearing standard Konoha uniforms.
"My name is Iruka Umino, I will be your teacher for the next four years and these are my colleges helping me. We have Mizuki who will be training you in physical exercises, ken and taijutsu. To the right of him we have Sekko, he will be teaching you how to control and grow your chakra. Finally I will be teaching you the history of the world, how to survive in it and how to thrive in any environment." Iruka could admit he was slightly nervous, his first class on this new system was full of clan heirs from every major clan in Konoha. The man named Sekko stepped forward and spoke. The man had crew cut brown hair, a lithe build with a deep scar running from his left eye across his face to his other eye. He wasn't blind but Naruto was sure he couldn't see anything for a few days after whatever that was. "I will be teaching you on how to control, use and grow your chakra. Your chakra will grow as you grow, change as you change. All of our chakra when visible is blue, the more dense it is the darker it will be and vise versa. There are pros and cons to dense and light chakra. The denser your chakra the more power you can put into your jutsus without overloading them but it's harder for you to mold your chakra for jutsus. The lighter your chakra the easier it is to perform low cost jutsus and it's easier to mold. Most of your chakra will be lighter since you are just unlocking or some of you from clans should have your chakra unlocked, raise your hands if you already unlocked your chakra." Most of the 'special' looking kids raised their hands, even the kid right next to him with the duck butt. Sekko-sensei continued, "All those that have unlocked their chakra wait patiently while we get everyone caught up, those who haven't unlocked their chakra come to the front one by one." So Naruto being in the last row was the last person to unlock their chakra, great no pressure. Everyone before managed to do it, their chakra were light in color ranging from sky blue to one kid who had an average blue color and apparently for a civilian that was impressive.
When he was walking up he caught Sekko-sensei eye's, they held no hate or indifference, all Naruto could get from them was professionalism. "Ok young man what's your name?" He asked more so for the class then for himself. Sekko knew who this child was but held no hate for him, he would treat him like everyone else here like a professional would. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He stated plainly. "Naruto make this ram symbol and close your eyes." Naruto closed them. "Look deep inside and look for your warmth. When you find it pull it out with all of your strength."
Naruto found it almost immediately the problem was it wouldn't budge. He had to concentrate, so he blocked out everyone and forced on pulling. He kept going until he felt it move then, it washed over him like a raging wave breaking against a cliffside. Everyone else saw a blond kid look like he was constipated for three minutes, Sekkko-sensei even tried to tell him to stop. Right after he said that everyone saw it, a raging dark blue aura surrounded Naruto. It even cracked the wood at the young blonds feet. It was like looking into the deepest parts of the ocean, never ending. Then it stopped when Sekko slapped Naruto hands out of the ram symbol so he wouldn't pull out too much chakra. Naruto opened his eyes and found everyone staring at him like he grew a second head and some boobs. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked afraid he messed up. Sekko responded formally, well the best he could after he saw a small child do that. "No you did just fine Naruto, go back to your seat." So he did and all the eyes on the room followed him. "Class we will get started on the history of Konoha now, can anyone tell me the name of the four hokages...:'' Iruka started talking when Naruto got to his seat. He was a little tired but nothing the great Uzumaki Naruto couldn't handle. Then he heard the duck butt boy talk to him. "My name Sasuke." The aforementioned Sasuke whispered to him. "I'm Naruto." I whispered back.
"Naruto, Sasuke, do you have something to say to the class?" The irritated Iruka questioned, how could you already be talking in his class? It hasn't even been thirty seconds yet. They both shook their heads. "Good, now since we know who they are…" This was going to be a long four years, when Naruto looked back at Sasuke he saw him give a smirk and Naruto in kind pulled down his mask and gave him a foxy grin. Maybe it would go by a little faster with a certain raven haired boy.
The ripples from a stone thrown were changing the current of a river.
I will only post when I have the next chapter already written and the max I will post of a single story is 2-3 a month for now. I don't want to burn myself out since the next chapter is a long one. Thank you for reading and criticism is always welcome. Peace out.