A/N: Big thanks to a guest, Diabolical planner and Slash Uzumaki for pointing out that I am a fucking idiot. I'd like to apologize for that major fuck up, that was the part I wrote the day I posted and I should have reread the last chapter before writing on this chapter.

That said, everything is fixed (I hope). If you find anything, please point it out. Thank you.


Three years had passed. Naruto had joined the academy two years ago but he didn't really get along with most of his class. Thus, he mostly stuck to himself.

He'd seen the stares of the parents every time they picked up their children. It had been worse on the first day. As soon as the parents had seen him, they grabbed their children and pulled them away from him, giving them a serious talk. After that, everyone had made sure to keep at least two arm lengths between them and him.

During recess, he'd sit behind a tree at the edge of the schoolyard and read or eat his breakfast. It wasn't all bad, there was that weirdo with the round eyes and thick eyebrows that was also an outsider and occasionally, they would hang out or train.

Lee was a peculiar boy. He was in the academy despite being unable to do any jutsu. Naruto had often wondered how that could work. But apparently, an exception had been made for Lee as he could still use chakra to enhance his body. Thus, he focused on taijutsu, not that he had a choice.

There was another person, a girl that always wore a qipao and had her hair in two buns atop her head. Tenten was rather tomboyish, getting in fights often and unlike many of the other kids, especially girls in their class, she took her workout serious.

Like Lee, she focused on the physical side of the ninja qualifications. She aspired to be a weapon mistress. Her aim was the best in class, if they weren't made of metal, she probably could throw three bullseyes on the same target, splitting the previous kunai. She had the highest score in shuriken throwing as well and was training with various other weapons.

Her father was a mountain of a man and owned a big weapons and armor store. He was also a blacksmith, making many of the items in his store himself. On the first day, he had eyed Naruto curiously but with kind eyes, not the cold, hard eyes he was used to.

When Naruto and Tenten had become friends, he even invited Naruto over and asked him to stay for lunch as well.


Right now though, Naruto sat on the swings in the school yard. School had ended an hour ago but he just sat there, disappointment written all over his face. He had failed again. He wasn't top of the class, far from it, but he knew everything he needed to.

His skill with shuriken and kunai was more than passable, of course nowhere near as good as Tenten's, he knew the history and theory required to only just manage the written portion of the exam and he could perform both kawarimi and henge. But he couldn't perform the bunshin to save his life. It had been his second attempt as well...

He had trained tirelessly for weeks, trying to get it down but all he achieved was a slightly less dead looking version. He had hope though, if Lee could pass with just the written and taijutsu portions of the exam, then it shouldn't be a big deal. Right?

After his first attempt, the instructor told him to improve his bunshin before retaking the exam. And he had improved it. Before they were pale, nearly white, now they were the right color. But they were still just lying on the floor or looking mangled and sick. It just wasn't enough.

His training had only gotten him this far, he had been unable to make any progress the next couple of weeks after getting to this point. So, he decided it had to be enough.

The instructor had given him a weird look when he performed the bunshin jutsu, not at all satisfied with the dead looking product of his hard work. When the instructor announced his failure, Naruto was disappointed and angry. He argued with the instructor, explaining the hard work he had put into improving his bunshin, saying that he had passed the other portions of the exam and even that he had the other two jutsu perfected to a point few of his classmates had achieved and even begging for an exception to be made, like they had for Lee. But to no avail.

Now he sat there on the swing. He wore his signature goggles over his eyes, hiding the tears that were collecting in his eyes, threatening to overflow. He kicked his legs out, lightly swinging, before jumping off. Naruto lifted the goggles to his forehead and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. 'No point in being upset about it.'

He got on his way home before getting an idea. Maybe Sarutobe-jiji could help him. He could make the academy make an exception for him! He was the hokage after all.


Five minutes later, he arrived at the hokage tower. He saw the giant version of his jiji's face stare down at him from the hokage monument and it put a smile on his face. If this worked, he might actually get his face up there someday.

He entered the building and walked right to the flight of stairs that lead up to the first floor, ignored the secretary's monologue about the homage currently being busy and not to be disturbed and threw open the door to the hokage's office. Hiruzen looked up, his face a mixture of surprise and shock, an orange book in his right and his pipe in the left hand. He choked on the smoke he had just inhaled and started coughing wildly, simultaneously trying to hide the orange book in one of his desk's drawers.

Naruto stared at him, a confused look on his face. The old man in front of him fumbling to hide what Naruto had identified as a porn book he had once seen in the small store on the village's outskirts, while coughing uncontrollably, was a strange sight to behold.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Hey jiji, are you busy? I can come back later if you want."

The hokage calmed himself, took a sip from his cup of tea and then smiled at Naruto.

"Don't worry about that, the paperwork can wait." Hiruzen prayed that Naruto wouldn't ask about the book, a guilty pleasure of his. It was the latest volume, his old student Jiraya had one of his summons deliver it last week.

To his surprise, Naruto had a knowing smile on his face now and a weird glint in his eye.

"Don't worry jiji, I won't tell anyone about that book. But I have to say I am surprised, I didn't think people your age still liked that stuff."

Hiruzen gave a huff. "How old do you think I am? The day a man stops appreciating the female form is the day he stops existing!"

Realizing what he had just proclaimed, almost a bit too loud and proud, he blushed a little, gave a little cough and adopted a more serious expression.

"How can I help you, Naruto-kun. Or did you come to visit me? It has been a while."

Naruto looked at the floor, not quite so sure all of a sudden but he made up his mind.

"I failed the final exam. Again."

The hokage looked surprised. How had he not heard of this before? And why was he not informed that Naruto had attempted the final exam twice now, if he understood correctly? He'd have to make an inquiry about that later. Putting this mental note down for later, he put his focus back on Naruto, who was looking at him expectantly.

"Sorry, Naruto-kun, could you repeat that?"

"I said that I passed the written portion and the physical portion. My taijutsu is a bit lacking but my shuriken and kunai jutsu are pretty good. I just scraped by in the written portion though. In failed the ninjutsu portion both times because I can't make a stupid bunshin."

Hiruzen looked curious. "Show me, Naruto-kun."

Naruto got ready, performing the hand signs and then pouring his chakra into the jutsu. The result was the familiar doppelganger, but instead of it standing to pose as a distraction, it was lying on the floor in fetal position. Naruto looked slightly embarrassed.

Hiruzen inspected the failure and immediately knew the problem, as an Uzumaki, Naruto had very dense chakra and a lot of it. Add the Kyubi to the mix and a technique that required that little chakra was beyond him with his level of control. It probably would still be if Naruto ever got to his level of control.

"I see… So, what did you want to ask me then, Naruto?"

"Well, after I failed the first time I trained the bunshin jutsu as hard as I could but it would not improve further then… Well, this." Naruto pointed at the bunshin, which chose this moment to puff out of existence.

He continued "There is a boy in my class, Lee, who can't use any jutsu and they made an exception for him. So I thought maybe you could make an exception for me?"

Naruto put on his best puppy eyes while waiting for the hokage's answer. He was slightly anxious, he had trained for nearly half a year to improve the bunshin but after two months, nothing seemed to work. The chakra control exercises didn't yield any improvements, either. If the hokage didn't do anything, he could bury his dream to become the hokage himself one day.

"I don't think that is a good idea, Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked like a deer in the headlights. Not wanting to let Naruto down, he quickly continued.

"It seems you have a problem with your chakra control, which is why the bunshin comes out like that. Have you tried doing more control exercises?"

Naruto just nodded.

"Well, if all you concentrated on between the two attempts at the finals was the bunshin no jutsu, then you probably won't be able to get it right, even if you had another year. But if I made an exception for you, it could easily be seen as favoritism and upset the other students."

Not to speak of the civilian council. Hiruzen really could do without that headache.

"How about this? I can give you a scroll with an alternative to the basic bunshin. It's an upgraded version, you could say."

He got up from his chair, fishing a scroll out of a cabinet behind him and walked over to Naruto. He held out the scroll and Naruto grabbed it, but the hokage didn't let go of it just yet.

"I'll give you a week to learn it and then you return the scroll to me. Make sure to use the entire week. Don't just learn how to make bunshin, learn the ins and outs and think about different applications for it, in and out of combat. And if you figure out the secret of the technique, I'll give you a special surprise."

With that said, he let go of the scroll. Naruto beamed at him. "Alright, jiji! When I come back in a week, you'd better have my surprise ready!"

Naruto had barely finished his sentence before he rushed out of the office. Hiruzen smiled and shook his head. 'Ah, to be young and full of energy.'

He looked to his left, where a pile of documents loomed, then to his right, at the drawer he had hidden his precious book. He sighed heavily. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Or a kage hat.


Naruto couldn't wait to open the scroll. He was so excited that he had sprinted the whole way from the hokage tower to his apartment.

Now, finally home, he opened the scroll and read it. It was called Kage Bunshin no jutsu, a technique that creates solid copies of the user that could act on their own.

For a moment, Naruto was uncertain, the image of a failed Bunshin popping into his mind. If this was a more advanced Bunshin, how would he be able to use it? But he pushed that thought aside.

If jiji thought he could do it, then it should be alright.


On the first day, Naruto had already managed to create a Kage Bunshin. Actually, it was more like an army of them. After that, he felt lightheaded, swaying on his feet and almost blacking out. He recovered quickly though.

The same couldn't be said for the clones, as of the original batch, only 28 Kage Bunshin had survived getting cramped into his bedroom. And it was still cramped like a restaurant during an Akimichi clan dinner.

Lesson learned, use less chakra and until you know how much, only use this jutsu outside. He should probably move his training to the forest...

He ordered the clones around a little and had them clean his apartment, do some shopping, simple stuff. The day wasn't even over and he had not only learned how to make them but already figured out a couple applications!

Having almost blacked out using the jutsu, Naruto decided that he should heed the hokage's advice and actually read the whole scroll. When he came to the section about the jutsu's chakra usage, he paled. He could have died from that!

Over the next few days, Naruto was constantly having his clones do chores, until he suddenly had an idea. If the clones could walk around and talk and stay around for a whole day, he could skip class unnoticed!

And so, he sent a clone to take his place in class while staying in and working out some more possible uses for the kage bunshin. It was past noon when Naruto screamed in shock. He was in so much trouble!

Apparently his clone paid about as much attention to Iruka's lectures as the original and a pissed off Iruka had thrown a book at his head, popping the clone in the process.

Now Iruka wasn't just pissed at him for not listening, he had also caught him skipping class! He frantically looked out of the window but couldn't see a pissed off, giant headed Iruka running down the street. Phew!

'Wait a minute.'

Naruto's mind went blank for a moment.

'How do I know that?'

He couldn't possibly know Iruka had popped his clone. He was nowhere near school. So how did he know Iruka was gonna tear him a new one?

'Hmm…'

The only one there was his clone. So did that mean…

Naruto created a single clone and told it to go into the kitchen and pick a ramen for lunch and then dispel itself. A minute later, he sweatdropped. Walking into the kitchen, his stash of ramen stood open but no cup had been taken out.

'This dumbass really couldn't decide! How can you be this indecisive! But I guess this is the secret jiji was talking about.'

Naruto smirked. That meant he had earned the special surprise!

"That calls for a celebration!"

For Naruto, that obviously meant one thing: Ramen. So, Naruto stared at the open cabinet. It was filled with every flavour of cup ramen konoha had to offer. Except vegetable of course. Yuck.

Naruto stood and stared. Chicken. Shrimp. Pork. Maybe his clone was onto something. How the hell was anyone supposed to make a decision when they were all so perfect?

But Naruto wasn't called a genius for nothing! Actually, no one ever called him that… Anyways, Naruto picked one cup of every flavour. This way, he didn't need to decide AND had plenty of ramen! It was supposed to be a celebration after all.

The water had just started steaming when Naruto heard a sound from his window.

"NARUTOOOOOO!"

Naruto flinched hard before slowly, mechanically turning his head around to see his teacher crouching on the windowsill.

Iruka's head looked like it was gonna burst. His face was a deep, dark red, on the verge of turning purplish. There were several visibly throbbing veins on his head and neck and his eyes were basically completely white from anger. It could only be worse if he was frothing at his mouth.

"Ah hey, Iruka-sensei… Hehe, he. What are you doing here?"

"I knew I would find you here! You skipped class today AND used a kage bunshin! That's not a jutsu an academy student should have access to! And what do you think you are doing skipping class! You know you can't afford falling even further behind!"

During his rant, Iruka had jumped down from the windowsill and walked up to Naruto. Which meant he was now within arm's reach. Iruka immediately made good of this by hitting Naruto over the head.

Naruto was now nursing a lump on his head.

"S-sorry, Iruka-sensei. But the hokage gave me the Kage Bunshin so I could pass the Bunshin part of the jutsu portion. And he only gave me one week to train with it and I wanted to take as much time as possible. Also, I wasn't even really missing the day. I know everything that happened up until you smashed the clone's head in!"

Iruka had a thoughtful expression at that.

"Tell me then, Naruto. What was my lecture about?"

Naruto tried to remember…

"Ummmm. Ah. The first shinobi war, maybe? The clone got bored and didn't listen..."

Naruto trailed off.

For his answer, Naruto received another hit on the head.

"NARUTO YOU SLACKER!" *BONK*

Now sporting three lumps total on his head, Naruto was furiously rubbing and nursing his head. "Ouch, dammit Iruka-sensei."

Iruka grabbed the back of Naruto's jacket and started pulling him out of the kitchen.

"No ramen for you today. You have detention!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


A/N:

Any criticism is welcome. Constructive criticism is of course preferred but if you wanna tell me that everything sucks then I'll thank you for taking the time. Please rate and review.

Sorry for the long wait. I will be honest, it probably won't get much better, but I'll try to make the updates at least a bit more regular. I had this chapter mostly done and then lost inspiration, then had a lot to do, then forgot about it before finding it in my cloud... Well. I'll make no promises. On the off chance I actually get more active writing again, let me know if you like this story or if you would prefer a different story to be continued. Maybe I could even two at once :D

No promises...