Re-write: 10.07.2022 15:50

Naruto was an enigma.

Shunned by most of the village population and ignored by the other half, only a handful of people like him and care about him in any way.

But despite what most people would call his shitty life, he neither gives up nor gives in.

He stands up with a smile and fights back.

Being a ninja was his life's dream, and people's recognition was something he always craved. That's why it was his life's goal to become Hokage.

And after successfully passing the Genin exams, albeit, under very different circumstances than the others, he came one step closer to his dream.

"Should we wake him up?", Sakura asked her sensei curiously.

"No, that's alright. Let him sleep a bit more, he had a long day yesterday," her sensei replied and left the room.

"Ramen...", a sleepy Naruto drooled absent-minded from his sleep.

During his first C-rank mission, he had been ambushed by the Missing-nins of Kiri and had to fight them.

That would already make the mission a B-rank, something far too high for genin, but they still moved on after hearing Tazuna's story

That was a bad decision.

Because the moment they entered the land of waves, they were ambushed again by another Missing-nin.

The worst thing was that it was Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. Long story short, they almost defeated him, to which I mean Kakashi almost killed him when a hunter-nin came and killed him instead and dragged his body away.

Only after they had rested in Tazuna's house did they release that the missing-nin was an accomplice of Zabuza.

After this shocking revelation, Kakashi took no chances and immediately trained his team for the inevitable fight they had so foolishly decided on. Naruto and Sasuke had the hardest time training, as Sasuke had only average Chakra control and Naruto had abysmal Chakra control.

But a rivalry had its advantages: One of them didn't like being weaker than his rival and gave everything to be stronger than him. Both boys had to go to their limits to surpass the other.

Kakashi watched the two boys in amazement, they really gave it their all, and all because he said they were weaker than Sakura because she tried first. He smiled inside himself.

Sometimes his genius, it was almost frightening.

When it was almost bedtime for normal people, they were able to climb the tree without any problems, but unfortunately they were both very exhausted. So after dragging themselves to Tazuna's house, they practically devoured the food that Tazuna's daughter Tsunami had prepared for them as a thank you for their father's help.

This was when Inari, Tsunami's son, expressed his unease with the ninjas, telling them that trying to help them was pointless because Gato was too strong, and that they knew no hopelessness.

This in turn made Naruto angry enough to shout at the boy and storm off into the forest. He trained even more, even though he was already exhausted, which caused him to pass out in the forest. When he finally woke up, he saw a beautiful girl who told him that being strong means protecting someone you care about. She eventually left before Sasuke found him, but not without telling him that he was a boy, which made Naruto seriously doubt his sexuality.

But sleeping on the floor, without a blanket and on the cold floor, was not exactly conducive to good health, so as soon as he was back in the house, he made his way to the dormitory and slept through the rest of the morning and his guard shift as well. Kakashi decided to let him sleep a little longer, he deserved it.

Kakashi and his two genin with Tazuna in tow walked along the path that led to the unfinished bridge. They had made good progress in the few days they had been here and the few things left to do were the security check and the removal of the loose material scattered on the bridge.

He looked back at his two genins from his book. The first time he took over a team, he hadn't thought much of it. Sure, he had practically the most questionably powerful Dojutsu on his team, and a literal nuclear bomb that could wipe out an entire nation if triggered. But no pressure.

And now look at them, they are doing a mission normally reserved for Chunin or higher before they even have elemental training or a large arsenal of Jutsus. He sighed and looked up at the blue sky. Was this some kind of curse that afflicts all teams with a seven as their registration number?

"Is something bothering you, Sensei?" asked Sakura worriedly. Kakashi really couldn't hear the worry in the others' voices anymore, Tsunami had made sure of that after she had become his personal nurse. It was a very long recovery for Kakashi to hear a middle-aged widow telling him her vows and he was too polite to silence her.

But Sakura had nothing to do with his annoyance, so he didn't take his anger out on her.

"It's okay, I'm just a little tired now." said Kakashi, like the liar he is.

"All right," Sakura waved it off, she hadn't really asked out of the goodness of her heart, maybe a little, but she wanted to take her mind off the mission. This was definitely not how she had imagined her first mission outside the village.

Sasuke kept his hands in his pockets. He was steeling himself for the confrontation that would inevitably come soon. He trained hard, they only trained their Chakra control for about an hour a day, the rest they used to improve their strength and dexterity, something Naruto excelled at. He was still the first of the two to master tree walking, no matter what Naruto said.

The quartet continued down the path and soon came across mist.

Kakashi slipped his book back into his pocket and idly twirled a Kunai around his index finger while looking at the surroundings with a bored expression.

Sakura looked much more startled and also took out one of her Kunai and clutched it tightly.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and looked ahead, already reaching for one of his Shuriken in his pocket.

In the distance, the bridge became clearer and more distinct.

The battle would begin sooner than he had expected.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and heard the sounds of battle around him. Or was it below him? Wait, where was he again?

"It's simple, you come with us or we kill the boy, your choice." was heard from a floor below him, shattering his sleep state and taking his surroundings.

He was Naruto Uzumaki, the most fearsome ninja there is, and the next Godaime Hokage!

Tsunami was having a crisis by now. "No, don't hurt him, I'm coming with you. Please just let him go!"

The bandit just smiled: "That's great, but we have time. How about we..." the bandit began, but Inari kicked him in the chin.

"Stay away from my mother!" He screamed with rage.

"You little bastard." The other bandit grated and raised his axe to strike.

"NO!" Tsunami screamed in undisguised horror.

The bandit struck with his axe, intent on splitting the boy's skull open.

Poof*

Except that his body went up in smoke after he hit the axe head in the head.

"Over here, you scum!" called a voice behind them, and when they turned around, a blond boy was standing there with the smaller one strapped over his shoulder.

Naruto grinned, his kawamiri working at the last second. He was glad that he had created several shadow clones before the fight, one of which had the brilliant idea of replacing himself with Inari. And since it was a shadow clone of his, he could technically take credit for that action.

"Who the hell are you, you brat?" one of the bandits shouted at him.

Naruto just grinned, "I am Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage and the most brilliant ninja!"

He nodded briefly and two shadow clones jumped from the roof onto the bandit's head and knocked him down with a kick.

The force was strong enough to break the jetty they were standing on, causing them to fall unconscious into the water..

He created two more shadow clones who collected the bandits and tied them up while he set Inari down and signalled his clones to guard the house.

"Sorry I'm so late, but heroes always come at the right time!" He gave him a big smile. "What you did there to protect one of your precious people was really great!" He declared and patted him on the shoulder, at which Inari blushed at the praise.

"These shadow clones will protect your family should more of them come. I will make my way to the bridge to save your grandfather." He gave him one last smile, jumped onto a branch and made his way into the forest.

Sasuke dodged another barrage of senbons, how many did his enemy have?

The floor of the bridge in the ice dome where he was trapped was littered with senbons, some of which were smeared with his blood.

He was proud, they all knew that, but even he accepted that his enemy was stronger than him, and he had to swallow a large part of his pride to even think that!

A quick dodge to the right, two steps back and a roll to the left. The never-ending Senbon rain did not slow down, but his body did. His stamina waned and his muscles screamed in protest.

He couldn't do this for longer, maybe a few minutes, and all his fire jutsus were ineffective against the ice mirrors, he didn't know how they didn't melt, but somehow they didn't.

A roll forward, a step to the left, he raised his left arm to block the incoming senbons. It was like a really deadly dance, Sasuke thought to himself.

Kakashi didn't fare any better. He was in a complete stalemate and therefore could not free Sasuke from his prison. He couldn't even make sure he was all right, the big cleaver Zabuza was swinging around as if weightless was too much of a distraction.

"Fear not! A new challenger enters the ring!" A dozen voices rang out from the forest.

The fight came to a halt as Zabuza stood up and looked towards the forest while Kakashi mimicked him with one of his kunais.

The Senbon onslaught also stopped momentarily and Sasuke, God forbid, was gracious with a grin.

Reinforcements arrived for him, and by the sound of it, worth a whole army.

Soon the sounds of footsteps and jumping grew louder and the next moment a tsunami of orange flooded the forest. Over 200 Narutos or so came running out of the forest and rushed screaming towards their enemies.

Zabuza's eyes widened considerably. These were more shadow clones than he had ever seen in his life. And all this from a simple genin?!

He didn't have much time to think about it, because a hundred of these little grunts pounced on him, not trying to defeat him, but just grabbing some of his limbs and occasionally trying to stab him.

But that was all Kakashi needed to gain an advantage. Soon he resumed his fight with Naruto clones to help him and hindered Zabuza whenever possible.

Meanwhile, the remaining hundred entered the dome and were immediately hit by well-aimed senbons. After half of the troops had been decimated inside the dome, the rest remained outside.

The original was one of the first, not wanting to miss out on the fun. This was indeed a bad decision, for now he and Sasuke were trapped inside the dome.

"I don't suppose you have a plan to get out of here?" asked Sasuke rhetorically.

"Shut up, didn't you see how brilliant my clones were?!" said Naruto to the other boy, dodging Senbons to his right.

"Yeah, really awesome, now we're both stuck here." He replied, taking a few steps back to dodge another Senbon.

This went on for several minutes, both dodging and silently agreeing on a plan. The shadow clones outside couldn't do much except watch and wait for any instructions. They could not go in, as they would be popped the second they entered.

Naruto took a step to the right and raised his arm to ward off the incoming senbons. When he turned to see how Sasuke was doing, he saw that something was different about the boy.

"Hey Sasuke, how come your eyes are red?" he asked, as if they weren't fending off life-threatening attacks.

Sasuke, so busy trying not to die, didn't even notice that something was different. Until he caught a glimpse of the red in the mirror as he swerved once again.

A genuine smile crept onto his face. At last he had unlocked his clan's Kekkei Genkai. The Sharingan.

One step back, two to the left and one roll back.

Naruto, who had less finesse than Sasuke, was hit more often, causing his movements to become sluggish.

It was a pity that this meant he was unable to dodge the next barrage of senbons coming at him.

His eyes widened, was this it for the coming Godaime Hokage?!

A rough shove pushed him out of the way and made him fall on his back.

When he looked back his mouth dropped open, Sasuke had pushed him to save him. And now his right side was covered with senbon needles.

"...why?"

"Tsk, you're too slow, stupid." Were his last words before he fell forward, his body motionless.

He stared at Sasuke, holding the latter's limbs in his arms.

"It's a shame it had to come to this. He was a very strong opponent, but unfortunately he wasn't strong enough-"

"Shut up."

A red stain surrounded both boys and the blond's fingernails became more pronounced and longer. A low growl came from Naruto, who gripped Sasuke tighter.

The red mist now hovered over Naruto and formed the Kyubi's head.

He smiled darkly at the missing Nin, showing his teeth in all their glory, and let out a mighty roar, blowing the mist away.

"You bastard..." Naruto growled almost like a wild animal. Slowly he raised his head and pierced the enemy with two red eyes, two tomoes in one of them, the other had one.

Slowly, he let go of Sasuke's body, which fell to the ground, and stood up. Naruto let out a cry of rage that caused the rest of the mist to retreat, lifting the mist Jutsu and allowing Kakashi and Zabuza to see what was going on.

The pupil of Kakashi's only Sharingan eye constricted considerably and memories of the tenth of October came flooding back to him. His breathing became heavier and more rigid and his hands began to tremble.

'This killing intent, this boy is a Jinchuriki!' Zabuza's own eyes widened and he put two and two together. That was why he could summon so many shadow clones. He was the same as Yagura.

"Haku! Get out!" he shouted, but it was too late, for Naruto was already moving faster than the S-Rang ninjas could perceive. Except for Kakashi and his eye, who saw the movement clearly and how Naruto's fist hit the enemy ninja's mask with rage and shattered it. He wondered why Naruto was so angry until he saw Sasuke's limp body lying on the ground and got a face of horror.

He looked away and back at his own enemy, who was about to stop the berserk Jinchuriki from beating up his accomplice, if Kakashi didn't intervened.

"I am your fight, not them," he gritted his teeth, suppressing the anger that comes from seeing one of your students killed.

Zabuza just grunted and attacked faster. The clones that had helped Kakashi were destroyed the moment the original used the Kyubi's Chakra. He charged at Kakashi intending to end this quickly, but Kakashi made sure to give him one a run for his money.

He dodged a blow to the head, a stab to the abdomen was parried and a counter-attack with the flat side of the giant sword was blocked. Zabuza pushed the tiny Kunai hilt away and was about to decapitate Kakashi with the crescent moon of his blade. As he knocked him to the ground and fell on top of him, trapping his head inside the moon, he smiled that the fight was as good as over.

He was right, the fight was almost over, but before he could finish Kakashi off, his body dissolved, revealing itself to be a shadow clone. His eyes widened and he immediately turned to fend off any attacks.

Back at Naruto, he beat his opponent to a pulp. The earlier ice mirrors that had trapped him before were now just a nuisance. With each hit he emitted an unholy cry of rage, mixing his own voice with the Kyubi's malice. He lunged for a final blow, sending the nin straight into the railing, which shattered and dropped the ice user's body into the vast sea.

After one fight was decided, the next one was almost over too. Kakashi was a few metres away from Zabuza and was already bringing his palms to the ground preparation for his final attack.

"Summoning: Headhunter Jutsu!" shouted Kakashi.

At first nothing happened, but then suddenly dogs came out of the ground where Zabuza was standing and bit his limbs, restricting his movements.

Kakashi took this as his signal and made quick hand signals. A moment later, he had a violent lightning-ball n his palms, aimed at Zabuza.

"Raikiri!" he shouted and sprinted with Chakra towards the missing nin.

"That's very strange. Do you think Obito knows about this?" a half-something said to himself, watching the fight a few feet away.

"Of course he doesn't, you idiot. If he did, he would have told us. Hey, no need to call me that, I was just asking!" the creature complained to itself?

"We should go back and report." and with that the thing dived back into the ground, leaving no trace.

The hissing lightning faded as Kakashi withdrew his hands from Zabuza's torso. His heart was pierced and he had failed in his task.

With a final grunt, the mist demon sank to the ground, dead and lifeless in its own pool of blood.

"He's still alive!" a voice called from behind him. Turning, he saw Naruto kneeling over Sasuke's body, Sakura to his right. At first he thought Naruto had said that to ease the pain, to convince himself he was still alive, he would have known he did such a thing, he did it every time he visited the stone. But then he looked closer to the supposedly dead body; there he could see it, very slight movements of Sasuke's breath.

Sasuke was still alive!

He sighed inwardly with relief. None of his students had died today. His fatigue and euphoria clouded his mind and he began to laugh hysterically.

To anyone else he would have looked insane, but after what that damned C-RANK mission had involved, he was just glad no one had suffered permanent damage. Cut him some slack, he and his team had been through an A-rank mission after all, and without casualties, not counting the bridge workers. Soon Sakura joined in his laughter, not in the sense of "Ha, ha, what a good joke", but more in the sense of "Ha, ha, I'm having a nervous breakdown and I don't know how to deal with it, so I'll just start laughing".

It was no surprise that Naruto joined them with even more hysterical laughter.

A rough grunt came from Sasuke and one of his eyes opened slightly. The laughter immediately stopped and Team 7 held their breath to make sure it was not a dream.

"Shut up..." and closed his eyes again.

The laughter resumed.

Sasuke did not wake up from his unconsciousness until the next day. Sakura was at his side and told Sensei and Naruto immediately, in less than a minute his bed was crowded with his teacher and teammates.

"What happened while I was unconscious?" he asked, still shaken from the residual sleep in his body.

"Well, I defeated the enemy thanks to my awe and Kakashi-sensei killed Zabuza! Then this guy Gato came with so many mercenaries but me and Kakashi-sensei defeated them with my clones and then the villagers came and hunted them out of the village. We actually captured Gato and he surrendered his whole money to us. Most of it went to Wave, but we all got our own share. Do you know how much ramen I can buy with that!" narrated Naruto dramatically in his best storyteller voice, getting hit on his head for the last comment from Sakura. "You can't just use all the money we got for ramen Naruto!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and looked expectantly at his sensei, but to his surprise he only nodded. Sasuke's eyes widened, how could the fool, the dead-last, outdo him?

How could he be weaker than him! An elite Uchiha, with his clan's prized Kekkei Genkai! He can't let that happen, only an Uchiha can be an- "Oh, and after the fight, we discovered that I have the red eye thingy too!" With this information, Naruto interrupted the Uchiha's inner musings.

"...What?"

Naruto grinned and activated his Sharingan. His left had one Tomoe and his right had two. Sasuke looked stunned, accidentally activating his own Sharingan.

"...What?"

"Believe me, that was the same reaction I had when I found out." said Kakashi and turned to the next page of his perverted book.

"Wait, does that mean I'm an Uchiha?!" Naruto remarked... Angry? Sasuke was puzzled, why would he be angry about that, after all the Uchiha's women were proud to take the Uchiha name, if the Uchiha's had ever dated anyone outside of their clan.

"Why are you upset about this?" remarked Sasuke, as if it were a challenge.

"Perhaps we should give them a little more privacy. We're not supposed to interfere in internal clan affairs, after all." Kakashi whispered to Sakura, who only nodded and silently followed her sensei out of the room.

"Huh? Isn't it obvious that I don't want to be a stuck-up brick and a bastard like you?" he said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Why, you!" Naruto couldn't dodge Sasuke fast enough and was knocked to the ground by him. Being the proud blond that he is, and the Uchiha...s both too stubborn to apologise, they activated their Sharingan and charged at each other.

Both participants had to apologise to Tsunami afterwards for ruining the room and to themselves for causing such shit.

A/N

I only started writing about 5 months ago, but this chapter is much better and longer than the original. Thanks for reading, this fic is inspired by "Sharingan Rats".

I've always wanted a Sharingan!Naruto without him being a Madara 2.0. Have you read "Legacy?" Of course you have, it was your first fanfiction you ever read after all.

Do yourself a favour and read it again and then tell me if you still like it after reading other fanfics.

Anyway, the next chapters will not be in the order they were published. I plan to rewrite the earlier chapters when I had less experience. I'll start with this story.

I hope you like it and have a nice day!

'Kamui!'