Road to Konoha Present Day:
"He defeated a Chunin before he graduated?"
"Hime he defeated an elite Jonin before he was a ninja, I honestly don't see what's so shocking about that."
"He beat Zabuza with pure luck, and a Doujutsu, so that doesn't count. He beat Mizuki single handedly, with a weapon he hadn't been trained to use. That speaks volumes about his actual skill level, and that trick he pulled to get Mizuki! I see why you like the kid Jiraiya."
"Yes he's a wonderful kid. Now we don't have much time before we get to Konoha, are you going to let me finish the story? We have quite a ways to go.
Konoha Twelve Months, Fourteen Days Ago:
"Oh, Bugger." They were surrounded, and the ninja didn't look like they were going to listen to reason. "If you'd just put your weapons down and let…"
"Kill the demon!"
"Look he's killed two academy sensei"
"Actually Mizuki's a traitor, and I'm still alive." Iruka managed to say, not that it seemed like anyone would listen to him.
"He's a monster kill Him!" Nope, not listening.
During the shouting the assembled ninja closed in on Naruto. But when they were ten feet Jiraiya managed to shunshin between the groups. "What's going on here?"
"He killed two academy sensei and stole the Scroll of Seals, now he's come to kill us all!" Jiraiya had to fight the urge to face palm, Iruka had managed to stand up by himself and was carrying the Scroll of Seals, while Mizuki was clearly rolling on the floor in pain whimpering to himself.
"Obviously you need to get your eyes checked." Jiraiya took up a combat stance, "I will not let you attack a Konoha-nin unprovoked. Especially when it's my godson, who just caught a traitor!"
"Jiraiya's siding with the demon! Kill him!" someone shouted from the back.
"Yeah! Kill him." Came another voice from the back
'Something's wrong here,' thought Jiraiya, 'no Konoha-nin would be that stupid. He's obviously trying to rile up the mob into attacking me. An assassination attempt? Danzo!' Now on guard for a surprise attack Jiraiya subtly moved, so anyone trying to back stab him would be right in Naruto's sights, the one person in Konoha he really trusted to watch his back. Quickly flashing some subtle hand signs he informed Naruto to be on the look out for surprise attacks.
"Ero-Sennin, should I make a path out?"
"No, we'll wait for the Hokage to come here. No fighting unless they attack first." The mob tried to come closer, but Jiraiya began to pour out killing intent, like it was water on a hot day.
As the mob began to back away the voices from the back called, "Cowards! We'll kill the Demons by ourselves" Three cloaked and masked Anbu shoved their way to the front of the mob. Drawing odd tip less tanto they began to circle Jiraiya and Naruto.
"They're Anbu Naruto. You can use that technique if you want. It's less likely to kill them then your new toy anyway." As he finished talking the three Anbu charged two going for him and one for Naruto. Easily dodging their swords Jiraiya delivered a crushing kick to one that sent him flying into the other.
"UGH." Naruto grunted in pain behind him, apparently the Anbu had tried to kill Iruka, and Naruto had stopped the blade with his shoulder. Seeing the 'Demon' injured was apparently enough of a motivation for the mob, they charged screaming battle cries and death threats. Before the Anbu could pull his tanto out of Naruto's shoulder a Shadow clone grabbed his arm holding him in place. The clone then held his hand out to, palm down, Naruto, who placed his own hand three inches below his clone's hand, palm up. "Let me show you a move I've been working on all year." Blue energy began to swirl in the space between their hands. "RASENGAN," Naruto screamed while slamming the Rasengan into the Anbu's stomach. The force of the blow was enough to send the man flying into three others behind him.
Naruto was disappointed in the ninjas who were attacking him. They were weak Sasuke was more than a match for them, hell even Kiba was more than a match for most of them. But they didn't seem interested in giving up so he could respect them for that, not that it would stop him from breaking their limbs. After about five minutes of Jiraiya and Naruto kicking weakling ass. The Hokage himself arrived, flanked by fifty Anbu.
"I WILL NOT TOLERATE MY SHINOBI FIGHTING AMONGST THEMSELVES!" the amount of killing intent Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage released was enough to bring Jiraiya to his knees. "EXPLAIN YOURSELVES."
"The Demon killed two academy sensei and stole the Scroll of Seals, and then he attacked us!" an injured Anbu with a curiously spiral shaped wound on his chest shouted.
"You know, it's really annoying when people keep proclaiming your death right in front of you." Iruka, who still had the Scroll of Seals slung over his shoulder, said to Mizuki, who during the confusion had tried to crawl away on his hand and knees, Iruka had prevented his escape by the efficient method of sitting on his back.
"Obviously you need to get your eyes checked." The Hokage said flatly. Turning to Iruka the Hokage said, 'Since anything Jiraiya and Naruto say will be decried as lies by the majority of Konoha, tell me what the hell happened here?"
"As far as I can tell, this bastard," Iruka gave the whimpering Mizuki a thump on the head, "sabotaged Naruto's final exam. Then, with the promise of joining a secret Anbu subgroup, he convinced Naruto to steal the scroll of seals and bring it here. I found Naruto first and figured out hat had happened just before Mizuki showed up; Naruto beat him with some clever underhanded tactics. Then as we were dragging this guy back to Konoha proper, so you could pass judgment on his scheming ass, this mob showed up and attacked us, although those three Anbu," he pointed to three now bound and gagged Anbu, who had attempted to escape during his speech, "riled them up and attacked first."
"Gather the mob up and take them to T&I's lockdown for questioning. I'll personally see to it that these four," he gestured to the three bound Anbu and Mizuki, "are taken care off. Jiraiya, Naruto, come with me." After delivering his prisoners personally to a high security cell, and the tender care of Morino Ibiki, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Mitarashi Anko, The Hokage took Jiraiya and Naruto to his office. "Now Naruto explain to me what happened?"
After Naruto's long winded and rant heavy retelling of what happened that night the Hokage leaned several important things. One, Naruto's test was obviously sabotaged with a Genjutsu designed to make him answer questions incorrectly and give him a headache that would interfere with the next part of the test. Two, Naruto was a gullible idiot. Three Naruto had more chakra the Jiraiya almost five times the amount, even without the fox. Four, he had managed to not only unseal the Uzu no Tsubasa, but to use it effectively without any training. And five Jiraiya had managed to teach him Rasengan, a signature move of the Yondaime, second only to the Hirashin no jutsu in fame and power. Conclusion, Naruto needed more mental training, but was definitely shinobi material; it would be a shame to lose him because of the incident with Mizuki. "Naruto I have decided to uphold Iruka's judgment you pass, and as for capturing the traitor Mizuki, I am retroactively assigning it to you as a B-rank mission, depending on what information he has I may upgrade it to an A-rank. Dismissed." As they turned to leave the Hokage continued, in a warm grandfatherly voice, instead of his formal debriefing voice he had used earlier, "And Naruto, good job."
Smiling Naruto headed home looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow for the first time in almost five years.
Naruto woke at half past noon, looking at the clock he realized he only had fifteen minutes to get to the Hokage tower for his ninja registration card appointment. Pulling on his trademark orange jumpsuit and grabbing Uzu no Tsubasa he ran out of his apartment as fast as he could. After trying a variety of poses and face paints, all of which the Hokage refused to accept, he finally settled on a picture of him grinning wickedly with the Uzu no Tsubasa slung over his shoulders.
"Finally, Naruto, it took you long enough to take a normal picture!" the Hokage grumbled as he did the paperwork for Naruto's official registration.
There was a patter of small feet running down the hall just before the door to the Hokage's office burst open. "FIGHT ME OLD MAN!" skidding into the room was a small boy wearing what had to be the stupidest hat Naruto had ever seen, along with an overlarge scarf. Naruto wondered briefly if he should stop the kid before he hurt himself trying to fight the Hokage. But his decision not to interfere was rendered pointless, when the kid managed to trip over his own scarf and slammed his face into the floor. "Alright, who tripped me?" the kid looked up and saw Naruto sitting in the chair across form the Hokage. "It was you wasn't it!" he shouted while running at Naruto
Naruto grabbed the kid by his shirt and held him a foot off the ground. "You tripped over your own stupidly long scarf, brat. If I tripped you you'd know it."
As they were shouting at each other a man wearing the standard dark blue Konoha shinobi uniform with his Hitai-ate on a bandana and dark sunglasses stormed into the room. "Unhand him you fiend! That's the Hokage's Grandson!"
Naruto took a long look at the Brat, before gently setting him on the ground. Before the boy could do more than look smug Naruto punted him across the room. "Like I care!" Naruto decided that with his meeting done he was going to have a nice quiet day maybe have some victory ramen at Iciruka's. the main problem was that the brat from the Hokage's office had been following him for hours. "Okay, I've officially had enough, are you even trying?" he said to the kind who was trying to hide behind a sheet painted to look like the wooden fence he was standing next to. Unfortunately for him, he was holding it sideways and his fingers and toes were clearly visible.
"Wow how'd you know I was there?"
"I've been trying to ignore you for hours you really need to work on your stealth."
"You were able to see through my perfect disguises? The rumors about you must really be true! I'll tell you what, you teach me the jutsu you used to defeat the old man and I'll call you boss."
Needless to say the chance to corrupt the kid made him agree to it. He'd love to see the old man's face when the kid, Konohamaru apparently, used this techniques on him. "So what do you have against the old man anyways?" Naruto was quite curious about what would drive a little kid like Konohamaru into doing something as suicidal as charging the Hokage with a kunai.
"I'm named after the village, easy name to remember right?" Konohamaru looked sad as he began telling his story, "but no one ever calls me my name, it's always 'Honorable Grandson' or something, all they see is my grandfather. If I beat him and take the title of Hokage then they'll definitely recognize me as me! I would be free of the shadow of the Hokage!"
Naruto interrupted him with a bop on the head. "Idiot, Being Hokage is a lot more than that; it's not something that you can take. You have to earn it. That's why its my dream to become Hokage. If I ever become Hokage that'll mean I've proven that I'm the strongest ninja in the village, the best one to protect it. The Hokage has to be able to give up everything for the village! Even his life!" Naruto looked down, "or his son." He said quietly. "If you want to be Hokage you'll have to beat me! Become stronger than I am and prove that you'll protect the village better than I can and you'll become Hokage. But it's a hard road ahead, and there are no shortcuts on the way there."
"Found you!" looking up the saw the man from earlier, Ebisu, Konohamaru's personal tutor. "Come we have work to do, you must master hundreds of jutsu to even be qualified to be Hokage, and you'll never learn them without my shortcuts!"
"No way! Boss is a way better teacher than you! I already learned the technique he used to beat the old man! Watch this, Orioke no Jutsu!" Transforming into a brown haired version of Naruto's Orioke no jutsu and taking a suggestive pose he was surprised to see it do nothing to Ebisu.
"How perverted! You cant stay around that boy any longer! You've gotten dumber already!"
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto surrounded Ebisu with clones, each clone then made the hand seal for the Orioke no jutsu, "Harem no jutsu" suddenly being surrounded by thirty nubile blondes was more than Ebisu could handle. He crumpled to the ground nose gushing blood.
"That was awesome boss! You defeated him with one move!" Konohamaru looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you're going to be Hokage and I want to be Hokage that menas were rivals, huh?"
"Nothing wrong with being rivals, I already have two other people who consider me there rival. One of which you could call my best friend." NArut waved as he left, "I got a busy day tomorrow, I need to get ready. Later Konohamaru!"
Konoha Twelve Months, Thirteen Days Ago:
Naruto was running late, he didn't want to put away his goggles; after all they were the best birthday present he ever got, but he wasn't sure where to wear his hitai-ate. After half an hour of tying it to random parts of his clothes and body, he settled for the standard on the forehead location and just pushed his goggles onto the top of his head. "I can't believe how late I am!" Naruto was the last person there other than Iruka-sensei. Naruto waved to his few friends as he came in. Noticing that Sasuke was looking more emo than usual Naruto decided to see what was wrong. "Oi Duck-butt what's wrong? We just graduated! You shouldn't look so grim!" but Sasuke was apparently so far into his own little world that he didn't notice.
"Naruto! Leave Sasuke-kun alone!" In the years since they stopped talking to each other Sakura's personality had devolved into pure mindless fangirl. Sometimes Naruto thought he saw flashes of the strong willed, courageous girl she used to be, it really broke his heart.
Ignoring her Naruto tried to look Sasuke in the eyes, but the angle was all wrong. Finally hoping on the desk in front of Sasuke, Naruto poked Sasuke in the forehead forcing him to look up at Naruto. Sasuke's eyes widen fractionally, "Naruto what are…" But unfortunately for everyone involved at that moment the student behind Naruto decided to stretch, he bumped into Naruto, knocking him forward, straight into Sasuke's face. "…you doing here?" Sasuke actually managed to finish his sentence despite the near fatal, at least as far as Naruto was concerned, kiss. Naruto on the other hand was rolling on the floor clutching his throat, his skin an unpleasant green color, the only noises he seemed capable of making were gagging ones. "Naruto, why did you have ramen for breakfast?" Sasuke asked the gagging Naruto, "I'm sure that can't be healthy. No wonder you're so short."
The rest of the class was shocked by Sasuke's non-reaction; 'maybe he really is gay…' was the thought of the majority of the males in the class. The women in the class room only had one thought at the moment, 'KILL!' They descended on the defenseless Naruto like a swarm of angry hornets.
Sasuke had propped the unconscious Naruto in his usual seat. "Please tell me that was a horrible nightmare," Naruto said to Sasuke when he woke up.
"The beating or the kiss?"
"Both?"
"Nope both happened."
"How can you be so calm? Or was that not your first kiss."
"I'm just glad you managed to pass. I was worried when you failed the other day. You're my rival; if you do badly I look bad."
While they had been talking Iruka sensei had come into the room and started calling the names of graduates and assigning them to teams. "Team seven will be, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto…" Naruto and Sasuke fist bumped at this piece of news. "… And…" the whole room was silent every girl in the room had their fingers crossed, the boys were smart enough to keep their mouths shut, Kami forbid they made a noise and the girls couldn't hear who was the third team member. "…Hyuuga Hinata."
A/n Congratulations to Meck Viking for correctly guessing the source Final Fantasy IX, the Uzu no Tsubasa was heavily inspired by the butterfly sword from said game. One internet cookie for you good sir!