Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 3

Although still kind of bored, Naruto found life as an active shinobi much more interesting than being in the academy. His years of intense training had made him surpass Genin level a while ago but having the opportunity to make use of his skills was in no way worse than sitting in a class listening to things he already knew.

Soon after his graduation, he was given another suit. Since Kakashi argued that he wouldn't need top speed for the first couple of missions and by means of punishment for exposing a peeping Jiraiya, his suit was 10 levels above the last one. Jiraiya spent 2 days in the hospital after he got attacked by a mob of angry women who were alerted by his young student.

He had now completely mastered his Shunshin no jutsu. He was told not to use it yet because of possible assaults. His father had made himself quite the unpopular man when he used this technique to kill over 50 Stone shinobi in no time. Right now, the blonde Genin wasn't strong enough to defend himself against high level enemies yet so it was decided that he shouldn't attract too much attention for the moment.

The perverted hermit was now out of the village, searching for what's left of the family on his student's mother's side. The Hitomi clan lost most of its members in an attack years ago and were now a group of wanderers. Jiraiya wasn't expecting to return anytime soon. Before he left, he gave Naruto instructions for learning his father's Rasengan and two other jutsus.

With the help of Kakashi and Gai, the demon vessel was well on his way with the third stage of the Uzumaki Kenamju taijutsu style. He opted for not using it yet as he preferred to master the complete style first and then combine it with the other two styles he knew and his growing arsenal of jutsus.

The yellow haired prodigy had befriended fellow genius Uchiha Itachi, who had grown increasingly upset with his power obsessed clansmen. Itachi offered to help his young friend in learning some new kunai and shuriken tricks. With Kakashi away on missions more often he was finally asked to step in as Naruto's ninjutsu sensei.

One day, as the two had just finished another tiring training session, they both sat down next to a small lake.

"Ano, Itachi ni-san. What is your family like," Naruto asked his young sensei.

"The Uchiha clan is one of the strongest clans in Konoha, but also the biggest group of morons," he replied as he threw a stone in the water from which smoke was still rising up, an after effect from practicing Katon: Karyuu Endan over the lake.

"Why are you calling your relatives by that name? They are your family!" Naruto angrily exclaimed.

"Naruto, having a family isn't always as great as it seems. I know that's hard for you to understand since you've never know your biological family but believe me, it's true."

From the look on his friend and student's face Itachi saw that the boy was lost. He continued. "My family is completely obsessed with being the strongest. I am the most talented of all of them and therefore they always push me to become stronger and stronger so that one day the can rule Konoha. I'm sick and tired of them, can you imagine that Naruto-kun? Being sick and tired of your own blood?"

Naruto shook his head. Not because he didn't understand Itachi's problems, but because he couldn't believe the behaviour of his family towards him. The two stood up as Naruto decided to speak up once again. "Itachi ni-san, from now on we live our life the way we want to and we follow our own dreams. What is your dream?"

Itachi, surprised by the boy's wise words, thought for a second and then smiled. "My dream is to be happy with the people around me, become a strong shinobi and protect the ones I love."

Both smiled as they walked away. The evening came fast as the wind increased in power.

"Oh, and my wish is to go on a date with your nee-chan, she's hot Naruto!" Itachi said before running away from the killing intent released by the blonde.

"You stay away from Shizune-chan Itachi ni-san. She's too old for you and too good for you. She would kick your lame Uchiha ass and so will I, you better know it!" Naruto yelled while chasing his raven-haired sensei.

Now that he had started active duty for Konoha, Nara Shikaku was called in to teach him a thing or two about the strategic side of being a shinobi. He also groomed the wanna-be Hokage in assessing war simulations and then thinking of a tactic to win. Naruto still often played against his sensei's son Shikamaru, who despite not even having started his academy classes, proved to be an extremely talented tactician. The result was Naruto losing embarrassingly time after time, much to his own frustration.

Naruto spent most of his spare time hanging out with his Shogi partner Shikamaru and his other close friend Akimichi Chouji. Both these boys were due for academy training in a year's time. They had asked their Genin friend to teach them something. Naruto happily showed off his skills and ended up teaching them some basic chakra control exercises. Still, most of their time was spent pulling pranks on others and staring at passing clouds.

Having to endure the constant glares from the villagers, Naruto one day couldn't handle it anymore. He snapped and hospitalised two shop owners who accused him of stealing their goods. When they called him a demon and told him to leave the village to die somewhere else he gave them a beating they'll never forget.

After he barely survived the trashing he'd gotten from his kaa-san, he was handed over to Morino Ibiki, at that time a very talented and aspiring interrogator. He had requested a captured enemy shinobi to try some new techniques on, but was instead given Naruto as Sandaime argued that Ibiki's 'sessions' would help the boy in controlling his temper and keeping his cool in stressful situations.

After an emergency meeting it was decided that Naruto ought to have more contact with children his age. Hyuuga Hizashi suggested using the time he would spend with them smart by maybe teaching them some chakra control like he had done to Shikamaru and Chouji. The plan got accepted by everyone, including Naruto himself and soon he was found teaching Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Shino, Hinata and Ino how to use their chakra effectively through walking up trees and on water. Making new friends visibly improved his state of mind as he regained some of his loud personality and started to smile a lot more again.

The events as of late had strengthened Naruto's ultimate desire, to become Hokage so that everyone would acknowledge him. His determination had returned to him and he had thrown himself back into his heavy training.

Outside his missions and teaching his new friends, Itachi continued to help the young boy in learning him ninjutsu of an increasing difficulty. The Rasengan was coming along fine as well. Naruto couldn't train on it as often as he would have liked to but he was now able to perform the first two parts of the technique without using a second hand.

Not everyone was always happy with his returning 'normal' character. One day, Naruto used one of the Uzumaki sealing techniques he recently learned to put an invisible seal on the door to the Hokage's office. The Third, who was reading some papers when he walked through the door was caught off guard and was knocked over. Konoha's number one prankster was subsequently punished through a new, extra heavy weighted suit, a visit from his big friend Ibiki and pink hair for two weeks.

Word had come from Jiraiya that he had found the remaining members of the Hitomi clan. They agreed on taking their new family member in for a while to teach him their techniques on the condition that he would come to them and travel with them for the time being. The perverted hermit would return to the village shortly after the upcoming Chuunin exams, which would be held in the Hidden Village of Waterfall three months from now. He and Naruto would then go back to see the Hitomi

The thought of learning about his second bloodline limit exited the young boy, who was told by his Jounin sensei Hizashi that his team would be going to the Waterfall village to take part in the exam.

Sandaime found it time to step down as the Hokage after years of loyal service. Reluctantly, Tsunade accepted his request to become Godaime and leave the hospital to her apprentice Shizune.

Not much later Godaime and her predecessor called in Itachi. News had reached them that Konoha traitor Orochimaru planned on attacking the Uchiha clan. When everyone sat down in the Hokage's office, Itachi opened his mouth.

"Hokage-sama, I understand why Orochimaru wants to attack us. I believe he's after our eyes, isn't that right?"

Tsunade simply nodded as she spoke. "Although it seems suicide to attack a whole clan by yourself, it's still a sannin we're talking about. He's known for his resourcefulness so he's probably figured out a way to pull it off.

The third took over. "We have heard that he has joined a group called Akatsuki, an organisation filled with S-class missing-nins. He might have been able to have them helping him, but I can assure you that he's found a way. If it's the eyes he's after he will leave someone alive. My only guess can be your brother Sasuke. We've been told that he has even more potential than you."

"We know how you feel about most of your family members. In all honesty their behaviour has pushed me on the brink of taking a few of them out myself." Tsunade spoke with clenched fists. "However, not every Uchiha is bad and we can't afford to lose one of the strongest clan's in the village to an enemy."

"Therefore we will send you off on a permanent mission to join Akatsuki as a spy together with Kisame, a spy from Hidden Mist. Try to find out about that group and see what you can do about that awful snake." The Hokage finished as she loosened her grip on her chair.

As it turned out, Orochimaru's attacked couldn't be prevented. Soon after Itachi had joined Akatsuki, the snake sannin was forced to leave as he feared the power of the young Uchiha. He had indeed planned on using his group mates there to help him in killing off the clan but was now forced to use a new kinjutsu he was developing, Kuchiyose no jutsu: Edo Tensei. He disguised his warriors as Uchiha clansmen and killed them off one by one. When Sasuke came home late from his shuriken training he saw, what he thought to be, Itachi killing his parents.

With Itachi leaving the village for a long time, Naruto was without a ninjutsu sensei once again. It was decided that once Sandaime had completely handed over his role as the Hokage to Tsunade, he would combine his job as advisor to the new leader with the prospecting role of training the blond Genin in the art of ninjutsu. He had many reasons for taking this responsibility.

Equipped with knowledge of over a thousand jutsus and having a track record of delivering top notch shinobi, there probably wasn't a better teacher than him. Besides that, he saw this as an opportunity to retaliate for the countless pranks he had to endure up until now.

Also, having been Hokage for so long started to wear his aging body down as he did not have the chance to train that much over the years. As an attack from his former student was a realistic thing to occur, he wanted to be prepared for him to do what he failed to accomplish many years ago. Training with Naruto would benefit both.

A more personal reason to train the young boy was that he was afraid that he would not live long enough to pass on his ape summoning contract to his grandson Konohamaru. As he was the last carrier of the contract he needed to pass it on to someone, who in turn could pass the torch when his grandson was ready for it. He made his new student swear to do exactly that after which Naruto sighed the contract with his blood.

Before this happened, Sarutobi summoned Enma while Naruto called Gamabunta forth. The two tribe leaders were asked to accept each other and to work together when the time came. The toad boss quickly agreed, though Enma, proud as he is, demanded that the young boy proved his worth first. He was not allowed to summon any ape until he was able to defeat the former Hokage in an all-taijutsu fight.

Naruto had no other choice but to accept reluctantly. Soon the two were training regularly. They would have daily ninjutsu sessions as well as occasional sparring battles. Naruto had been complaining about not being able to train his Uzumaki taijutsu style enough as he was not allowed to use it outside Konoha. Sarutobi though provided him with just the opportunity he needed to hone his skills further. At the same time, the old man had found someone to train with to regain some of his former glory. This way both were kept happy.

Naruto had been whining for a while about not getting any interesting missions. The boy had grown more and more arrogant about his own abilities. He argued that those 'stupid guarding missions for weak Genins, not a talented shinobi like him'.

After a while, Tsunade gave in and sent his team off on a B-rank mission. They were to head off to a small merchant village where news had gotten through that a squad from the Stone Village were on their way to assassinate a wealthy mining entrepreneur, whose successful business had cost Stone a lot of money.

The mission proved to be a turning point in Naruto's behaviour. He was getting used to getting things his way and had taken his lucky status of having the best senseis for granted. He slacked off during training and sometimes didn't even show up. He had become the type of person he used to hate…

…cocky and full of himself.

The mission was a disaster as Stone had sent a squad, comprising of three Chuunin and three Jounin. During the battle that came, the three Genin managed to defeat all the Chuunin and even one Jounin, but while Hizashi was fighting off the enemy's leader, the remaining Jounin killed Naruto's team mate Aburame Taiko and beat his other companion Inuzuka Hana and himself to an inch from their own deaths. Had Hizashi not defeated his opponent before sealing the tenketsu point of the attacking Stone shinobi, Naruto and Hana would have been dead now.

Back in Konoha, Naruto and his remaining team mate spent a few days in the hospital recovering from their wounds. Thinking back on his recent behaviour, he realised what a fool he had been and that he really needed to make some changes to his attitude. He swore to himself this would never happen again. He had to protect his precious people at all costs and show his sincere appreciation to all his senseis for putting so much time in him.

As soon as he was released from the hospital, he went to his favourite equipment shop and bought himself a new weighted suit, fifteen units above the one he was wearing. Tsunade was very surprised to see that her son, for the first time ever, used his money to buy something other than ramen or birthday presents for herself and Shizune.

To make sure he would get used to his new suit, he asked Hana's canine partner Toroko to chase him for three hours every morning when he was running around the village, allowing him to bite him if he was caught. Toroko happily accepted and soon turned out to be quite the pain in the ass, in every meaning.

One night, he took all his teachers, along with his family and remaining team mate to a nice sushi restaurant.

In tears he apologised for his attitude and swore to train harder than ever before so he could protect them from then on.

With Kyuubi's help, he reduced his sleeping requirements to only one night per week, during which he asked to be toughened up mentally by the great Youkai. Between six and nine in the morning he would run around the village to increase his speed. Then after breakfast he practised his arsenal of jutsus until twelve when he ate something. Until four, Gai would help him in his taijutsu training, followed by either Anko or Sarutobi teaching him more jutsus. At eight, he had some more food before seeing Nara Shikaku for strategic training and battle simulation.

At night, when the rest of Konoha was sound asleep, the boy would work on his new jutsus and train his chakra control by moving large boulders. He was to keep this regime up until it was one week before it was time to move to Hidden Waterfall for the Chuunin exam.

During this week, Naruto and Iko were introduced to their new team mate. Yakshiro Onane. They spent the week working on their team skills as they would definitely need them.

When they arrived at Hidden Waterfall they were told that the exam would have only two parts. During the first test, they had to protect a carriage from three enemy Chuunin. Because they had been together for only one week, the three found it tough to use their combined skills as their communication and team work wasn't all that. The test was designed in a way that two of the Chuunin would attack one of the Genin Chuunin, while the remaining Chuunin the Genin's team mates busy.

It wasn't until the end when Naruto used his Tajyuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique) to even the odds that they were able to gain some ground and hold the fortress. When the hour was finished, they were finally told they passed the first test.

Immediately, preliminary battles were held to narrow down the amount of Chuunin hopefuls to 24. During these battles Onane, still tired from the first test, was defeated easily, leaving only Naruto and Hana on course for promotion.

During these finals, 2 weeks later, individual skills were more important, enough for both Naruto and Hana to turn Chuunin as they both showed that they possessed the qualities needed for this middle rank. The blonde Uzumaki even went on to the final in which he lost to someone with much more experience and some really freaky jutsus. He was forced to retire after he was caught in a genjutsu which made him feel the pain of his death over and over again. When it was released he had no strength left to stand up, let alone fight.

A grand total of six new Chuunin returned to Konoha. After all the celebrating was finished, all were put into new squads except for Naruto. Jiraiya was set to return in a month's time to take the boy to his long lost family. He was supposed to arrive earlier but after accepting an invitation to open a brand new hot spring resort in Wave Country, he decided to hang around a little longer to 'inspect the facilities a bit further'. Until his return, Naruto was told to keep on training.

Not letting his recent promotion get to his head, he frantically started his tough training regime again, with the exception of allowing himself three nights of sleep now. During two of those nights, Kyuubi would continue to train his psyche while during the third night he was given a break from it all so he could sleep in peace.

He would still run from six till nine in the morning. Then he ate something and trained his family taijutsu with Gai. At one, Anko would train him for two hours followed by Sarutobi, with whom he trained on his ninjutsu and had the occasional sparring match.

Then from six till eight he would run again before heading off to see his family and friends. During the nights he stayed up he would train his body as Jiraiya had left instructions for him to get himself as physically strong as possible.

When, in the morning it was time to start running again, his hairy tenant would give him a boost to wake him up and revitalise him.

Sometimes he would train his friends, who could now walk up trees and were learning to stand on water now.

Naruto every now and then bought some flowers from the Yamanaka flower shop to surprise his mother and sister, who started to like the boy's changes more and more.

The days went by quickly. Naruto found that his strength had increased dramatically. Sarutobi proposed a small exam to measure his current level so that when he returned they could assess his growth by doing the same exam again.

With Kyuubi constantly replenishing his chakra, Naruto was asked to perform every jutsu he knew, even the most insignificant one. It took him a while, but when he finished, he had achieved an impressive 57 mastered techniques, one of which caused his male audience to lose a lot of blood.

Then he had to perform his skills again, though this time without refilling his chakra. Starting at the least consuming jutsu he went on to perform 32 series of hand seals before finally losing consciousness. Sarutobi was proud to see the boy being able to do so many jutsus, even more because the long list already included some decent elemental techniques.

After regaining his strength he was to have a taijutsu only fight with the former Hokage. Kakashi would time how long the boy could hold his opponent off. Seven hellish minutes later, Naruto's legs were about to give in, when Sarutobi finished the job using Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Hidden Leaf Supreme Taijutsu Technique: One-Thousand Years of Pain), which Kakashi had copied because he believed it could always come in handy.

The night Jiraiya returned to the village, all went out for a meal. The perverted hermit was found jaw-dropping when he heard his apprentice could now create a complete Rasengan in each of his hands at the same time. The test results were also quite shocking to him as he'd never imagined his former sensei to perform such a degrading technique. Soon everyone was laughing and saying he should be the last person on earth to complain about something degrading as being degrading was the toad summoner's motto.

The young Uzumaki was told to travel light as he would have to wear his new family's outfit anyway once he got there. He was also ordered to leave his weighted suit at home as they by now quite thick suit made him look chubby. Instead, Jiraiya promised to teach him a technique through which he could use his own chakra to increase his gravitational force without looking like his Akimichi friend.

The next day, a tearful goodbye took place. Tsunade had a hard time letting her son go. Despite the fact that he hadn't even reached his seventh's birthday yet, he had matured far beyond his age.

As he walked through the village gates, he turned around and looked at the former Hokage. "When I get back you'd better be ready for me Sarutobi-sensei. I will feel no remorse in beating up an old man!"

"You do that my boy," was his sensei's reply. "Enma is waiting for you and getting impatient. He asks me if I've made a mistake letting a weakling like you sign his tribe's contract."

The respondent showed him his trademark foxy grin and turned his back on the village. "Come one boy, tine to go," Jiraiya said. "Your family awaits you."

A/N

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