1A/N: Review, please, and I need a beta! See end A/N for more.

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto

Naruto continued his laps around the forest near the southeastern edge of Konoha. He was comfortable in knowing that he had trained his senses well enough to know when most ninja were nearing. Only those ninja that were trying to hide would be able to sneak up on him, and Naruto knew that if a high level ninja wanted to find him, then he would be found.

Right now was one of Naruto's physical training sessions. He had long ago requested an 'advance' in his allowance from the Hokage's assistant (the Hokage only met with him in emergencies), and the request had gone through. It had been under the pretext of new clothes and books, but he had really gone and bought some weights. They were nothing fancy; just a few 20-30 pound weights that looked like bracelets and a 40 pound vest. He had one on each arm and one on each leg. He had long ago realized that while the arm ones were the hardest to continue lifting, even while he was running, they were also the hardest for him to train. His legs were very strong (or so he thought), but Naruto thought that to throw a punch he would need tons more arm strength.

Unfortunately, taijutsu was not something easily learned through a book, and the Academy training sessions were terrible. Either the teachers were focusing only on the high-level taijutsu practitioners, where Naruto did not (or at least, he didn't think he wanted) to be at, or they were helping the fangirls along, which meant in class Naruto trained at the level of a fangirl. Needless to say, Naruto's taijutsu was not too good.

Then again, Naruto hardly cared. He was focusing as hard as he could on his ninjutsu. He now knew the basic three; henge, kawirimi, and bunshin. He had practiced his chakra control until the smoke he left was negligible. He had also practiced them without handseals, but he had found this rendered them far less effective. Instead, he tried to make his hand so quick with the seals that no one would be able to take advantage of the time spent focusing his chakra. He could do almost 2 handseals per second, and while he knew that he would need to be faster, he knew no jutsu requiring enough handseals for that to be a problem.

In addition, he had noticed something not really touched upon in the book, which he could only assume had been too obvious to need to be mentioned. His chakra capacity expanded nearly exponentially with his combined knowledge and stamina. Unfortunately, he still had no idea how to go about testing his levels.

Naruto had been avoiding a prominent problem. He would eventually need to get an instructor. Naruto simply didn't know who to ask. It had to be someone who was not in the village often, so that they would not be able to observe him often enough to see what he was hiding, or make a fuss about it. But as far as Naruto knew, only high level ninja went out for extended periods of time, and they would never teach Naruto, especially while he was pretending to be an average academy student. Because really, academy students would usually be too weak to learn even a single high level jutsu, nevertheless to warrant testing of chakra level or affinity. Besides, Naruto had read somewhere that you had to be at least 12 before your chakra affinity was greater than 90 percent certain. Naruto was planning on figuring out why that was later. Perhaps his chakra affinity was currently malleable enough to be altered to his choosing! If so, he had better start soon. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Naruto decided to start some stance exercises. He began going through some poses he saw in a book; it may not have been good taijutsu training, but it was better than nothing.

Suddenly, Naruto felt a chakra presence on the verge of his little training area, and he immediately leapt out of the sheltered wood and ran towards a Konoha street, hoping that whoever it was had not seen him.

Kakashi had just been walking along with Kurenai on the street. She was busy yelling on about all the Icha Icha he read; Kakashi could care less, he's heard it all before.

"…..And another thing, what if some poor impressionable child saw it? What would they think when the prodigious Kakashi is walking down the street shamelessly reading porn? And how do you think it makes women feel….." Kurenai ranted.

Kakashi just sighed. This would be…. troublesome.

Kurenai suddenly jerked upright and said, "Kakashi; do you feel that?"

Kakashi sensed around him, and surely enough, there was a rather formidable presence of chakra just to their left, in a wooded area.*1

"Shall we check it out?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah," Kurenai said. It was not so much the fact that there was someone using chakra in Konoha that bothered them, but that a ninja with high-Chuunin/low Jounin chakra level was training so far out of view so early. They were just curious. As they neared the location of the chakra source, they could see only blonde hair and some blue clothes, shapes were hard to make out through the trees. As Kurenai took one more step forward, the figure leaped away from the clearing rapidly and into the streets.

As Kurenai prepared to lunge forward, Kakashi help her back.

"It's not worth it, Kurenai. Even if you could catch him*2, he clearly does not want to be seen and you'd only make him upset. Besides, he clearly has no evil intentions; he was just training." Kakashi reasoned.

"Yeah, but did you recognize him? I think I know most Chuunin with that kind of chakra…" said Kurenai as she put her hand to her chin thinking.

"Hey, don't stress about it. I'm sure we'll see him around town."

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!!" Naruto yelled at himself. He had slipped up. All this time he had spent hiding his skill, and he had lost focus. He had kept his chakra under wraps, barely revealing half, he thought, but regardless, his inattentiveness had let a couple ninja get too close. Naruto figured they must have been Jounin. Even when he was not fully focused, he still would've sensed anyone lower. Now Naruto would be forced to take his precautions. He'd have to buy new clothes, find a new place to train……..

Naruto let the thought trail off there. He realized that he had one more option. He needed a teacher… and these people had seen him training… and they were Jounin. He wondered if he could find a way to get one of them to train him. He had heard only the name of one, Kurenai. He would observe this Kurenai and see if she could be trusted. Perhaps he could also learn whom she had been with.

As Naruto was walking down the road to a clothing store, he noticed many of his classmates walking down the street. Naruto put on his calm façade and prepared to greet them.

"Hello Shikamaru" Naruto said.

"Hey…. Naruto" Shikamaru said, clearly struggling to remember the name. Surprisingly, Naruto smiled at this, unperturbed.

"Hey Shikimaru. Where have you all been?" Naruto asked while gesturing to the party behind Shikimaru.

"We just went out to eat and we were going to head to a movie. Do you want to… er… come?" Shikimaru asked awkwardly. It was clear to Naruto that of the group behind him Shikimaru was not the leader, snd was not comfortable with inviting more people into the group. No one else seemed to care either way.

"Nah, see ya around!" Naruto said while continuing on his way.

Shikimaru couldn't rationalize Naruto's behavior. He responded totally unlike how Shikimaru would expect. Shikimaru had actually remembered Naruto's name, but had been thinking about something else. Naruto seemed to be made even more happy that his name had been forgotten! Then he seemed to frown when invited to hang out with his classmates. Just as he was about to realize something….

"Hey, Shikimaru, would you mind tuning back in to Planet Earth and putting your lazy butt in traction?" Ino yelled while practically choking Sasuke.

"Troublesome…" Shikimaru thought as he allowed the thought to drift away.

Naruto spied his target coming out of a dango shop. He saw that she was talking to a female friend, whom he was reasonably certain was not the person she had been with before. Naruto believer her name was Anko. Sadly, Naruto felt that this woman would be a wholly inappropriate teacher for him. She was largely into genjutsu, and as a newly instated Jounin she would be quick to report to the Hokage any student with potential. She was out… it was sad because she was kind of pretty, and really was a good fighter…

Naruto shook his head. He was on a 'mission' of a kind, so he had to keep his head on the mission. Suddenly the two girls spotted someone and made a beeline for that person. Naruto saw that it was a gray haired man who wore a mask that covered half of his face, and he was reading an Icha Icha magazine… who was it that Naruto had heard that read those magazines? He had heard a rumor that it was both the Hokage and…. Hatake Kakashi! Of course, he recognized it now. And from the way the three were talking, Naruto felt reasonably certain that Kakashi had been the one to see him. Suddenly….

Yamato was upset. Not about being a jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi. Nay, he had long ago accepted his fate in that regard. It was the glares. He hated the glares people sent him. It just made him so mad! In his frustration, he took a pebble and sent it over a few buildings.

Naruto's hand reflexively shot up to catch the speeding pebble that may have otherwise brained him. He recoiled in surprise, only to trip over backwards and lose his concentration. Suddenly, he felt glares from all the ninja in the street towards his prone figure.

"What the hell was that? Just my damn luck!" Naruto cursed internally as he turned away from the ninjas and jumped away, careful not to expose any defining features. Now he was glad that he had bought new clothes, but then he groaned. He was going to have to buy another pair! His wallet was taking a huge hit for the sake of secrecy.

Kakashi had been talking to the two annoyed, and rather pretty, girls when he felt something whiz by. Probably a rock. A second later he felt an enormous chakra spike. This was the size of a high Jounin! It was incredible! He turned along with the girls to see a young looking man wearing all black holding a rock and looking pissed. He immediately rose and bounded away, but not before Kakashi noticed that his chakra levels had been reduced to almost nothing; a civilian at best. Kakashi thought about it, and then decided to bound after the man. The blond hair looked familiar.

Kurenai swore that that chakra felt familiar. It was the same as the ninja's in the clearing, there was just much, much, much more of it! The amount of chakra was almost stifling. Then it got reduced to nothing and she watched as a blond haired figure ran away. She turned to Kakashi, only to find that he had already given chase.

"What the fuck was that?" Anko demanded, having regained her voice after being so surprised.

"Not a clue" Kurenai responded, though now she was curious.

Naruto stopped near a tree, sure that he had gotten away. He relaxed next to it. He had run almost 15 minutes at full sprint with all of his weights on, and he was pretty tired. He closed his eyes before he felt a pressure around his arms, and then his entire torso. He opened his eyes, only to see a smiling eye looking at him, and to see a wire binding him to the tree.

"Well hello there! Who are you?" Kakashi asked.

'I've got to remain calm… what should I do? He may instruct me, or he may rat me out! Hmmmm… I can't do this. I can't hide my power from these higher-ups. But maybe I don't have to… screw the plan!' Naruto thought, his patience for the plan wearing thin. He had planned on waiting until he hit Jounin level, then surprising everyone around him with a show of heroism and getting a quick promotion, and possibly securing him a higher position than he would have by steadily climbing the ranks. But he realized now that this was stupid; he would never be able to pull it off. It was funny how when you blindly followed something for years, you lost sight of how ridiculous it truly was. He felt a glimpse of his alternate reality self thinking of a pink haired girl and realizing the same thing. Huh.... that was strange, Naruto thought.

"Hello Kakashi! You caught up to me I see! However, I'm clearly young and weak and I've done nothing wrong, so if you'd just let me go…." Naruto half-heartedly pleaded.

"No way… what's your name? I think I've seen you in the academy before…" Kakashi thought.

"Giving up, Naruto admitted "Yeah, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm an academy student."

Kakashi's eye shot up in surprise. "No way… Did you make that chakra spike?" Kakashi asked, unbelieving that an academy student created that much power.

"Heh, yeah, I lost focus," Naruto admitted with a grin.

'Amazing,' Kakashi thought. 'A kid with this much power… Perhaps I should tell the Hokage and ask if he can get moved up early? Or perhaps if he can get tutored…'

"How much training do you have?" Kakashi asked.

"None, really" the boy responded.

'No, I can't let a prodigy this HUGE go… and that he could hide it speaks even more to his power. Perhaps I should…' Kakashi considered.

"Hey, what do you know how to do?" Kakashi asked.

"Well…." Naruto faltered, "I know the basic three without handseals, and some chakra exercises I read about in a book, like water walking and tree walking."

'So little? Then it couldn't hurt… and it will make for a helluva surprise later' Kakashi thought.

"So, you hide your true talents because… nevermind, I don't care. Here, kid, I think you have some potential, and I'd hate for you to become weak due to the academy so… I'll let you keep up whatever ruse you're doing, and I'll help you a bit with your training too" Kakashi said.

'This could not have gone better', Naruto thought. 'I get to continue to hide, which, even if my plan is… well, just plain stupid, could still provide some benefits later, and I get some training! Perhaps he can finally tell me how strong I am!'

"Sounds good! Now, will you untie me?" Naruto joked.

"Sure… OK, meet me tomorrow at training ground 24, maybe around 3:00. I'll try to get to know where you're at then. If you need directions, just ask a ninja, they'll know" Kakashi said before disappearing.

Naruto was overjoyed. He would get training, at last. Friends, who needs them, allies, who cares? But power, power was important. Nothing to kill over, but still important….."

2A/N: The story is starting to form here. Naruto's training will up, along with action and social interaction. First 4-5 chapters will probably be setup for the entire rest of the story, his future and whatnot. I still need a beta, but , equally importantly, I need reviews! There are a couple of review polls that will last a few chapters, such as

Main elemental affinity/secondary affinity

Senseis(s)

Pairing(s) (for anyone, not just Naruto)

1* While training, Naruto unconsciously lets some of his chakra leak out. The fact that he's lost in thought probably exacerbates this problem.

2* Naruto does not realize it, but he is pretty fast. Also, Kakashi is lazy, and likes when other pople are lazy too (hence, rivalry with Mr. Gai)