Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the things affiliated with it.

AN: Sorry for the very long wait, but I'm lazy and my life isn't dull enough for me to just around and write. Can someone send me a list of jutsus, preferably lots of genjutsu? Enjoy this chapter. Naruto the Great:

Summary: What if Naruto woke up one day when he was younger and saw that the only way to stop people from hating him was to get strong and strove early on to reach that goal of strength? How would this affect the others? Read to find out.

Prequel to First Missions:

"Kakashi, don't you think it would be wise to at least show up reasonably close to on time for your Hokage," The third spoke exasperatedly "We were supposed to meet 3 hours ago. Where have you been?"
"Hmm, oh sorry, were you saying something?" Kakashi replied distractedly. He was about to go back to his book when he caught the look the Hokage was giving.

'If only looks could kill, or at the very least torture,' Was the thought going through the Hokage's head.
"Mn, oh yea about my team. Well where to start..." Kakashi started to stare off into space "I guess I'll start with the obvious. Sasuke appears to be decent, but is, as expected, at a lower level than his brother was. Next is Sakura, well to put it one way, I don't have a clue. She never really was given a chance to show her skill for..."

"Naruto decided to prank her didn't he?" The Hokage cut Kakashi off, then chuckled at the memory of Naruto's first real prank on him.

Flashback
The Hokage was just walking along without a worry when he began to approach the Hokage Monument. He glanced up to look at his own face, only to find in its place a carving of a goat's head. The third instantly began to panic and was about to start charging through the village for an explanation, when he heard laughter to his right.

There on the rail was the kitsune, with a fist shoved in his mouth trying to cut down on his laughter.

"What? What are you laughing at Naruto?" The Hokage was instantly suspicious. All Naruto could manage was another smothered laugh and a point at the third. "What is it Naruto, spit it out?"

"You should have seen your face when you looked up, Onji." Naruto managed to gasp out, once he had regained some control over himself.

"That was you?" Hokage said pointing at the monument.

"Yep." Naruto said without fear. He then brought his hands up in a seal, mumbled something, and leaped off the railing and walked away in the hopes of not getting in trouble.

"Why you, little brat." Hokage was raising his fist higher and higher when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that his bust was back to normal. 'Genjutsu, eh? That was pretty good.' He admired the boy's skill, by then forgetting to hunt down Naruto, who got away without a single bruise.

Flashback end
"Yes, sir," Kakashi replied lazily "He seemed to put a genjutsu of sorts on her. Once under it she, um, seemed to be enjoying herself." Kakashi put it bluntly, remembering the image of Sakura's blush, passionate embrace of nothing, and her moans.

"Ah, well we knew the boy would attempt something like that." Hokage said with a smile. "And what do you think of Naruto?"

"He is... remarkable. Not only did he use a genjutsu I didn't know, he found a way to hide it and other jutsus from my Sharigan." The third seemed only a little surprised by that, having taught the boy himself, "He also came up with a flawless, fully thought out plan and brought Sasuke into it. They made a good team."

"I see. From now on, I want you to monitor them closely. They may get higher missions sooner than they think, depending on their success rate." Hokage said, "Now leave."

Meanwhile "Mf, good," Naruto pronounced while eating his favorite food, ramen, at his favorite place to get it, Ichiraku. Naruto had been there a good hour and a half. He just kept eating and eating. He was almost full when someone stepped into the restaurant.

"Naruto-kun." Was all the new arrival had to say before he put down his ramen, and turned to look at his best friend.

"Oh, hey Hinata chan. What brings you here?" Naruto asked, only slightly surprised to see her.

"I wanted to speak with you. I'll meet you at the usual place." Hinata spoke softly, but that didn't stop the man from behind the counter to stop in surprise. It was his first time hearing her speak a full sentence without stuttering.

"Hai." Naruto answered before diving into another bowl of ramen and devouring its contents in under a minute. "Well, I shouldn't keep her waiting. I guess I can last until dinner." With that said, Naruto jumped off his stool and ran out of Ichiraku.

He jumped on top of the roof of a nearby building and hopped from one to the next until arriving at the spot where the two had first met. He leaped off the building and ran to the training ground.

He arrived to find Hinata lying in the grass looking up at the sky. She had taken a liking to cloud watching ever since being introduced to Shikamaru. Naruto just walked up silently and lay down in the grass next to her, looking up.

"Naruto-kun, did you have to pass a test?" Hinata began.

"Hai, we had to get a bell from our sensei to pass, but there were only 2 bells and 3 of us," Naruto answered and then continued "It was supposed to teach us the value of teamwork or something like that. So I chose to seek out Sasuke and we, while using a Shikamaru like plan, each got a bell."

"Oh, what about your third teammate, Sakura-san I believe." Hinata inquired.

Naruto just started laughing and took a full 5 minutes to calm down enough to start telling Hinata.

"Well, I'll start with the obvious, she didn't pass on her own. Of course I guess it would be pretty hard for her to pass after I found her and she bugged me about where Sasuke was..."

"You pranked her didn't you?" Hinata asked slyly. Naruto was the only person she felt she could ask anything.

"Yea, I guess you could say that. But, I consider it to be more of a 'Super Prank'." Naruto said this with pride. "I found her in the trees, just wandering around for Sasuke and muttering things about love and handsome, etc. So I snuck up behind her, all the while forming the seals for my favorite prank genjutsu.

"The 'Fantasy to Reality' genjutsu." Hinata guessed. She after all had helped him design the technique. She, with her byakugan activated, could see through the technique. This had annoyed Naruto, for he hated to have Genjutsu that could be beaten easily. Naruto had worked for 2 months on hiding it, at least halfway, from her byakugan. She was ensnared by it on April Fools day last year, Naruto's favorite day of the year.

He had crept up next to her, while doing the hand seals, and then launched the prank attack on her. For the next half-hour she was locked in her fantasy and didn't come out until Naruto finally got tired of watching and laughing. Naruto still didn't know quite what her fantasy had been, he had never asked, and she was glad of that.

"Hai, and her fantasy was very vivid." Naruto said before snickering "We found her rolling around on the ground kissing the air, hugging the air, and moaning. It was a sight to be seen."

The mental image of this event flashed through Hinata's head causing her to start giggling softly. Naruto loved the sound of her laughing.

"How about you did you have a test?" Naruto asked switching subjects.

"We had to track Kurenai-sensei. Shino-san sent bugs throughout the forest to find her, Kiba-san and Akamaru used their noses, and I activated my Byakugan. We found her in under 30 minutes, the fastest time yet." Hinata said with as much pride as she could muster.

"Wow, your team has all the right abilities to become hunter-nin with all of your tracking skills." Naruto praised.

"I suppose, but I want to be a normal ninja not a hunter-nin." Hinata said. For the next 2 hours they just lay there next to each other, talking occasionally. Finally Naruto decided he should head back, he was getting hungry again.

"Neh, Hinata I think I'm going to head back and go on the hunt for a good restaurant." Naruto spoke as he leaped up to his feet.

"Okay, Naruto-kun, I might need to head back soon." Hinata said and slowly got to her feet. She was sad to see Naruto go she had found herself wanting to spend more time with him than she used to.

Naruto was about to leave when he came up with an idea.

"Hey, Hinata, want to join me for dinner?" Naruto invited.

"Sure, as long as it's not ramen." Hinata teased.

"Alright, alright. How about that rice restaurant. I heard that they have good chicken. How about it." Naruto asked.

"Okay, lead the way." Hinata instructed, so Naruto turned and began to mock march towards the restaurant. After a while he slowed down enough so that he and Hinata walked side by side. Once inside the mainstream of the village, Hinata began to shrink.

"Ano, Hinata what's wrong?" Naruto asked softly to Hinata, who was clearly trying to become as small as possible.

"The stares, they bother me." Hinata answered weakly. Naruto didn't mention anything else as both he and Hinata took a seat at the restaurant. They both ordered Chicken with fried rice.

"Hinata, do you have a mission tomorrow?" Naruto asked while they waited.

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei said we would have one. Do you?"

"Yea, Kakashi-sensei didn't say what we would be doing though." Naruto answered before their food arrived. The food had mounds of chicken covered in a luscious sauce, with lots of fried rice, and steamed vegetables to top it off. Naruto instantly began to devour all of the food in front of him while Hinata, with proper etiquette, began to eat calmly.

Nothing more was said during dinner, as for Naruto was too busy eating to talk and Hinata was too busy watching Naruto to say anything. As soon as the dinner was over they began to talk.

"Hinata, after your mission is done how about we go and train together. Sound good." Naruto suggested.

"Sounds good, see you tomorrow then. Bye Naruto-kun." With her farewell said she got up and left for her mansion.

'Hmm, that was pretty fun. I've noticed that the more time I spend with Hinata-chan, the better the rest of the week seems.' Naruto thought. 'Oh well, now off to train.

Next Day

Naruto woke up easily at 4:30 and quickly got dressed. He ran into the kitchen and made himself some bacon and eggs, Hinata had told him it was a good breakfast before a big day.

While he ate he perused the book in front of him. It was a book on the top 100 Go strategies. Naruto was trying to learn all of them before his next match with Shikamaru, that way he would at least not be beaten to embarrassment.

He then shoved his dishes into the sink and ran off towards the library. Once he got inside he searched quickly for any books on the feared Sharigan. He found only 3 books that looked like they actually held anything useful. He then went to his favorite chair and began reading.

"...the Sharigan is possibly the most feared Bloodline Limit known to our world. With the ability to see through all illusions and copy any non- bloodline technique, it can make its user quite formidable. The Sharigan belongs only to a select few of the Uchiha clan..."

"Hmm, does that mean Kakashi-sensei is a distant member of the clan or did he get an operation to have it put in." Naruto pondered aloud he then read on.

"...it appears to have only 2 true weaknesses. The first being the most common way to beat the Sharigan, taijutsu. A Sharigan-user's greatest fear is a master of taijutsu. The second weakness is a layer of genjutsu put one on top of the other. These layers can sometimes interact either confusing the user or just distracting them."

"Hmm, so now I know 2 ways to beat Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke, if he ever learns how to use his bloodline limit." Naruto counted off the ways. "Taijutsu and layers of genjutsu. I guess I should go off and work on one of them some more." He then vaulted off his chair and ran to he and Hinata's spot.

When 10: 20 rolled around Naruto could be found breathing in gasps and trying to keep his eyes opened. Yet despite all of this his face bore the smile of accomplishment, he had finished his ultimate technique. He had begun working on the technique ever since he had learned of advanced genjutsu, which was almost 3 years ago.

He dragged himself home and flopped onto the floor of his shabby apartment, creating dents for each of the objects around his wrists and ankles. He then managed to literally crawl to his dresser and open one of his drawers. Inside the drawer was the only thing that was to get him through the day, a soldier pill.

Once swallowed, he leaped to his feet and jogged out the door to the Hokage's office. He strutted in and looked around for his team. As expected there were only 2 members. The emotionless Sasuke and fan-girl Sakura stood together, not talking.

"Ohayo, Sakura-san and Uchiha-san." Naruto called out before he stood near them. They sat there waiting, waiting, and waiting, until...

"Kakashi-sensei your late!!!" Sakura screamed.

"Gomen, I got lost on the road of life."

"Whatever," Was all Sasuke said. He then looked for his blonde teammate, only to find him sleeping against the wall, a liquid coming from the edge of his mouth. "Wake up, dobe."

Naruto showed no signs of waking, or any other signs that he was alive other than a loud breathing sound. The kunoichi was getting mad, so she walked right up to Naruto, pulled back her fist, and...

"Aww!!!" Was the cry heard, but it came not from Naruto, instead it came from Sakura. She had punched right at Naruto's head, only to hit the wall right behind him.

'A Bunshin, eh?' Kakashi observed.

"Oi, did I miss anything?" Naruto called from behind the trio. His hair was pulled back into his customary messy ponytail and his clothes were hidden by a cloak. His look appeared innocent, but the marker in his hand looked suspicious.

"Okay team, now that you're all here, let's get our mission." Kakashi cut off a raging Sakura from shouting at Naruto.

"Alright!" Naruto shouted while pumping his fist in the air. He walked with Team 7 to the booth to get what should've been a simple, boring mission. But Naruto fixed that...

"Let's see... Okay you guys have an escort mission, it's level D and to the Hidden Cloud Village. Good luck." Iruka announced before moving on to the next team.

"Wait a second," Kakashi mumbled "Escort missions are supposed to be Level C and up. How'd we get one, and why is it D rank?"

"It's in the D rank for Lord Hokage-sama put it there and you have it because I said so." Iruka snapped at Kakashi, causing him to start.

"Alright, alright u don't have to get snappy." Kakashi replied lazily. "Let's go team and find who we're guarding." He then ushered his pupils away and into the meeting room.

Once they were there they met a surly looking old man with a crooked cane and a eyes to match. He walked towards them and hit the blonde over the head.

"I requested high level ninja and you give me kids. I swear, your village is falling down around you." The man said in a grumpy tone and then limped off. "What are you waiting for hurry up."

So it began...

Onji – According to YYH simply means 'Old Man'. If this is wrong please inform me.

Expect the next chapter in a week or so. Until next time...