Once Iruka niisan has left for his training, Naruto gets out his fuuinjutsu supplies and prepares for a long day of working on his pet project. Maybe after lunch he'll go play with his friends. Naruto studies fuuinjutsu all morning, making mental notes of anything that will help with his project. After a satisfying lunch of ramen, he heads out to play with his friends.
The next day, Iruka niisan is gone before Naruto wakes up. Naruto has some ramen for breakfast, goes out and plays with his friends until lunchtime then runs home, because he wants to start practicing his fuinjutsu, dammit! Naruto spends several painstaking hours drawing out seals and trying to activate them, only to have them fail. Eventually, with his Gamabunta plushie sitting beside him, Naruto makes a seal that actually works.
It has the effect of making Gamabunta stick to him.
Great. Just great. Iruka niisan specifically told him not to make random things stick to himself. No matter how hard he tries, Naruto cannot get Gamabunta unstuck.
When Iruka niisan finally gets home, Naruto shyly says, "I kinda accidently stuck Gamabunta to myself and I can't get him off."
Iruka niisan sighs and shows Naruto how to make the counter-seal.
Naruto doesn't do any experimenting for the next few days, instead playing with his friends and studying. One day he brings his friends over to his apartment and they read the Whirlpool history book together. Shikamaru makes up his mind to get a copy of his own, and Hinata says she will see if the Hyuuga library has a copy. Choji asks if anyone wants a chip.
When Naruto does get back to experimenting, he accidently sets the table on fire. Immediately, he lets all the water out of one of Iruka niisan's River Holding Seals. The water puts out the fire, but it also floods the apartment. Naruto reverses the seal, but he puts too much chakra into it and everything close to him ends up a bit too dry. At least his Whirlpool history book wasn't ruined.
He does not tell Iruka about it though.
After that scare, Naruto takes a break from fuuinjutsu and spends his time pulling pranks with Hinata. They even manage to rope Shikamaru and Choji into one of the pranks.
It turns out Hinata's grandfather does not like having his hair braided with pink ribbons while he is taking a power nap.
When Naruto works up the courage to start practicing his fuinjutsu again, he does it outside. Sitting under a tree in the forest with his friends mucking around nearby, Naruto practices drawing seals. When he tries activating them, only one works. It blows up in his face, making his hair stand on end and his face turn black.
Naruto blinks a few times.
"Naruto, are you okay?" asks Hinata, rushing over followed closely by Shikamaru and Choji.
"Uh-huh," Naruto nods. "I think I could adapt this seal to throw out paint."
The paint throwing seal takes a few days to perfect, but when Naruto does perfect it, he and his friends repaint several rooms in the Hyuuga, Akimichi and Nara compounds. They carefully set up each seal to throw out its paint as soon as someone walks into the room.
Hinata's mean cousin Neji walks into the kitchen one afternoon looking for a drink and the entire kitchen, including him, is splattered with green paint.
Choji's second cousin on his dad's side walks into the Akimichi dojo and gets splattered with orange paint. He runs out of the dojo in terror when he sees the Uzumaki crest splattered onto the floor before his very eyes.
Shikamaru's first cousin twice removed enters the Nara clan's meeting hall only to have bright, neon yellow paint start flying everywhere. He decides he is too old for this and goes home without telling anyone what happened. They'll find out soon enough on their own.
The day after the successful paint-pranks, Naruto goes back to practicing his fuuinjutsu. Once again he practices outside with his friends hanging around and occasionally dragging him into a game.
"So, what does this do?" Hinata asks one day, pointing at the seal Naruto just drew.
Naruto is pretty sure he got something wrong, but he grins and says, "Let's find out!" Then he activates the seal.
For a moment nothing happens. Then with a deep rumble the ground beneath them begins to shake. All across the Hidden Leaf, the Earth trembles. The dogs at the Inuzuka compound start barking up a storm. After a few seconds the earthquake passes and the seal stops glowing.
Hinata stares at Naruto.
"You just made an earthquake," says Shikamaru, stupidly stating the obvious.
"Aw, I dropped my chips," whines Choji.
Much later, when Iruka gets home from training, Naruto shyly sidles up to him. "Um, Iruka niisan," Naruto says, hands clasped behind his back while nervously scuffing the floor with one foot. "You know that earthquake we had today?" Naruto looks at the floor and then at Iruka and back at the floor.
"Yes, what about the earthquake we had today?" asks Iruka.
"I may or may not have caused it," Naruto says.
"And how did you cause an earthquake?" asks Iruka, wanting to know if Naruto knows how he did it.
"It may or may not have been because of energy rebounding into the ground from the seal I may or may not have made a mistake on but activated anyway."
Iruka sighs. Of course that's what happened.
Naruto has moved on the second fuuinjutsu text book now, and the excitement of testing new fuuinjutsu techniques keeps him from pulling any pranks. Of course, this time he sticks carefully to the examples in the book. He does not want to cause any tsunamis. Out of pure interest, he also spends some time developing his earthquake seal, but on a much smaller scale.
Then one day, Naruto makes a mistake and a huge ghostlike figure appears. Naruto consults the help section of the book to see what it is. Apparently it is a shinigami. The method for getting rid of it does not work.
Naruto reads the entire help section to figure out what to do. Then he consults the first fuuinjutsu text book's help section. It says: in case of accidental summoning of a shinigami (see figure one) seek help immediately in case it steals your soul. Naruto screams and runs to find Iruka niisan.
Hinata follows him but Choji and Shikamaru simply keep watching the clouds.
Joe the Shinigami was having a boring day until he was summoned. When he saw the blonde child he thought, Who is this kid? I've never been summoned by a blonde. But then he saw the Uzumaki symbol on the front of the boy's orange t shirt.
That explains everything, thinks the Shinigami, nodding to himself. Another Uzumaki is learning fuuinjutsu. He must be the kid with the blonde father - Kushina's kid. After musing for a bit while the Uzumaki tries to figure out what to do, Joe decides to read over the boys shoulder. It seems he's given up on the second fuuinjutsu book and is consulting the first one. This is going to be good.
The little Uzumaki screams and starts running. Probably to find an Umino. They always run to find their Umino teacher. Joe floats along behind him, noting that this is not the Hidden Whirlpool but the Hidden Leaf. He knows the Hidden Leaf because his Uzumaki friend Mito used to summon him for a chat every now and again. The little Hyuuga girl with Kushina's son follows them through the village.
As the two children run past with Joe floating along behind them, the people they pass either scream and run away or pull out katanas and kunai. That is, everyone except the Uchihas, who simply sigh and shake their heads, and the old Hokage who takes his pipe out of his mouth and stares as they pass. It seems the Uchiha know not to stress too much over Uzumakis doing strange things.
Kushina's blonde son arrives at a training ground where a jounin is training three genins, one of whom Joe recognizes.
"Make him leave! Make him leave make him leave!" Kushina son screams, running up to Iruka Umino. "The book said he might steal my soul!"
"Calm down, Naruto," says Iruka. "It's just Joe. Joe doesn't steal people's souls." Then he turns to Joe. "Hey Joe. How have you been? I haven't seen you since my level two test."
"I take it this is his first time summoning a shinigami?" asks Joe. "Usually Uzumakis start younger."
"I only got my hands on him a year ago," says Iruka. "And I had to start his education from scratch."
"Ah, well let me know if you want a chat sometime," says Joe. "You know Mito used to summon me all the time."
"Are you friends?" asks Naruto, wide eyed.
"Yes," says Joe. "I'm Joe. I was your Mum's first accidental Shinigami summon too."
"Really?" Naruto's entire face lights up.
"You look just like her, but with yellow hair."
"Really? That's awesome, Dattebayo!"
"He even inherited her verbal tic," says Joe sentimentally, putting his hand on his chest.
"I'm going to have to send you back before you break an S rank law," says Iruka. "I'll summon you some other time."
A few days later, Iruka comes home to find Naruto, once again standing with his hands behind his back and scuffing his foot on the floor in that adorable way of his.
"What did you do this time?" asks Iruka, taking note of the cat-sized phoenix sitting on Naruto's shoulder.
"I may or may not have accidentally summoned a unicorn and a phoenix," admits Naruto nervously. Then he looks up at Iruka and frantically adds, "But it's okay - I gave the Unicorn to Hinata since we don't have room in our apartment!"
Shaking his head, Iruka says, "You are so lucky we're allowed pets here."
"You mean I can keep Sparky?" asks Naruto, a smile lighting up his face.
Naruto does indeed keep Sparky the Phoenix. The last few days before the final round of the Chunin Exams approach rapidly. Naruto has worked his way through the second fuuinjutsu book. Level one fuuinjutsu is covered in books one and two, while level two is covered in books three and four. Naruto knows he must master books one and two before he can move on to book three. He spends hours each day practicing with Sparky on his shoulder.
On the last day of Iruka niisan's training, Naruto accidentally cuts himself on one of his fuuinjutsu papers. It doesn't hurt, but it gives him enough of a fright that he knocks over his bottle of ink, spilling it across the dining table. The rain had kept him inside that day so he is working at home. Now that he is out of paper, Naruto cannot practice drawing seals, since he is not allowed to touch Iruka niisan's supply of fuuinjutsu paper without permission.
But Naruto is sure he has the seal he's been working on right and really wants to test it. So Naruto does the one thing Iruka niisan alway warned him never to do. He writes the seal on his arm in his own blood. The seal activates instantly, and suddenly Naruto wishes he'd listened to Iruka niisan.