The Konoha academy was bustling with activity as the newly graduated genin arrived to discover who they were going to be teamed with during their time as genin.
However there was one room that was unusually quiet.
Naruto was simply sitting in his normal seat, thinking over everything that had happened over the past couple of days. From obtaining the Hōgyoku, meeting Kyūbi, learning about his parents, meeting the Hokages grandson Konohamaru and of course, his sudden growth spurt that made him the second tallest in the class.
The Hōgyoku had broken all of his mental barriers since then and he had to admit, he felt great. He had quickly discovered that all the barriers on his memories had been broken, so he now possessed photographic, instant recall memory that allowed him to go over everything he ever saw in the academy, including the way other students treated him.
Like how Sakura always belittled him and even on occasion, physically abused him, sure he had liked the attention before, but since having his mind forced to operate at full capacity, he no longer cared about negative attention.
Then there was of course the shortest member of the class, Hyūga Hinata. With his newly awakened mental capacities, it didn't take long to realise that the girl acted around him like practically every other girl acted around Sasuke, which he finally managed to realise meant she had a crush on him. But then he thought about what she did for him… nothing. She never talked to him, preferring to hide in her jacket. She didn't take the time to get to know him as a person, just like Sasuke's fangirls. It was then that he realised something… admiration is the farthest emotion from understanding.
It was this line of thinking that made him decide to do something he would've never even attempted to do before now, he would talk to Sasuke as nothing more than an acquaintance… after he got there that is.
The minutes passed and the room began to flood with students, each of whom turned eerily quiet upon seeing the blond that looked so similar to their deadlast loser AND the Yondaime Hokage.
"So, what are you working on right now Yoku-chan?" Naruto asked in his mind.
"Why do you insist on calling me that now?" the small orb replied to his question.
"Because calling you Hōgyoku all the time kinda gets a little annoying… makes you sound like nothing more than an object," he answered calmly.
"I am an object."
"With a conscious, as far as I'm concerned that makes you more than just an object."
"Fine then, and to answer your question, I am currently breaking the barriers on your potential to convert your chakra into one of the five base elements, to put it bluntly, I am increasing the number of affinities you possess."
"I take it that I still only have one at the moment."
"That assumption is correct."
"How long will it take for you to unlock my affinities for every element?"
"It should take approximately one to two days for me to break all of those barriers ."
"Then what will your next point of call be?"
"I will then begin to unlock your ability to combine certain elements to create subelements."
"I see."
He waited in the uncomfortable silence, fully aware of why they were looking at him like that, they probably didn't recognise him… hell it took him by complete surprise when he saw himself in the mirror after waking up from his first night of sleep after finding the Hōgyoku.
Eventually the door opened to reveal the prince of Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke. Upon seeing the blond, Sasuke couldn't help but blink at his strange new appearance, however he decided that whatever had happened to him was nothing to do with him, so he went and sat in his usual seat, the one right beside Naruto.
There was silence before Sasuke asked something.
"I take it you're the dobe."
"Yeah… however I'm not going to be staying like that for long," came the quiet reply.
"Heh, just because you've got a new look doesn't mean you're a new person."
"That is true. Now, I have a question for you."
"Go ahead."
"How can you handle all the admiration you receive?" Naruto asked genuinely.
"It's harder than it appears."
"Because admiration is the farthest emotion from understanding there is," Naruto stated, causing several students to blink in disbelief at what he was saying, "I remember I used to admire you, that admiration turned to jealousy but I never truly knew you as a person, just what you were capable of," he admitted, causing the stunned Uchiha to look at him in shock, "however, I have decided that I will try my hardest to understand you instead of simply see you, so until we understand each other, are you prepared to call a truce?" he finished, holding out his hand for the dark haired boy to shake should he decide to accept the deal.
After several moments, the dark haired avenger did what no one expected, he grasped the blonds hand and said a single word "truce."
Releasing their handshake, both boys proceeded to sit quietly, both waiting for the everyday stampede that was Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino racing each other to get the seat next to Sasuke.
"Hey, Naruto."
"Yes Sasuke?"
"When Sakura and Ino arrive, please don't move for them," Sasuke asked the blond politely, shocking the rest of the class with his demeanour.
"Very well, neither of them will take this seat."
Not long after saying that, the telltale stampede was heard, before the door was flung open, revealing the blond and pinkette, side by side, each trying to push through the door before the other.
"Hah! I won forehead!"
"In your dreams Ino-pig! My foot came in first!"
"Actually Ino's foot was approximately 2.7 millimetres in front of yours Sakura," Naruto said, putting his newly unrestricted brainpower on show.
"Huh? Naruto-baka? Is that you?" both the girls asked in confusion as they looked at the mop of spiky blond hair and then the chillingly dark eyes.
"That is correct."
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Sakura shouted at him.
"Do you see this?" he responded, pointing towards his hitae-ate, "it was given to me by the Hokage himself. Apparently no one from my family has ever been capable of using, simply because they have all had too much chakra to form a stable illusionary construct," he explained, earning several disbelieving looks off the other members of the class.
"Like I care, now move so I can sit next to Sasuke-kun!"
"No."
Both Sakura and Ino froze. Naruto had just said no to Sakura. Whoever this person was, he was NOT Naruto.
"Alright, who are you? You're definitely NOT Naruto-baka, he would never say no to me!"
"First things first, I AM Naruto, however I have had a few… upgrades, that have caused me to think over everything that has happened in my life. During my thinking I came to the realisation that you have done nothing but belittle and physically abuse me in an attempt to make yourself feel valued. To put it simply, I have come to the realisation that you are NOT the perfect person I was once so blind to see you as and as such, my infatuation with you has died."
"What do you mean by that? Name one time I've been horrible to you."
"Then name one time you have been nice to me."
"EVERYONE SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" came the familiar voice of Iruka as he used the patented 'demon head technique' to get the classes attention.
Sakura sat down next to the now cold blond. However she began to think over every interaction she had with him before. Ten minutes later at the end of Iruka's speech about making Konoha proud, she had begun to realise just what the blond had meant.
In every encounter she could remember, she had always talked down to him or ended up hitting him for some reason or another, usually something trivial.
"Team seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke," silence, everyone looked to see a pair of apathetic faces and one depressed one.
"Are you alright Sakura?" Iruka asked concerned about his pink haired student.
"Y-yeah," she replied in a much more subdued manner than she normally did.
Iruka continued with the team announcements when he heard that, he knew something was wrong, but he just didn't know what it was.
When the class was dismissed for lunch, Sakura proceeded to try and find the blond and apologize for her previous actions. However she simply couldn't find him after losing both him and Sasuke in the crowd.
XXX
"So… what did you mean when you said upgrades?" Sasuke asked as the duo occupied an unused classroom for lunch.
"I'm afraid that I don't understand you well enough to give you that information yet… perhaps in time I will, but not yet," Naruto replied.
"I see, however don't expect me to tell you my secrets if you won't tell me yours."
"I understand what you are saying, however, I would rather tell you after I know you are trustworthy."
"I guess I can see where you're coming from," Sasuke admitted, "so you've given up on Sakura… do you plan on chasing someone else instead?"
"No I don't. I had originally thought about the Hyūga's actions around me and realised that she admired me like most of the girls in our class admire you… I don't want to enter a pathetic excuse of a relationship like that."
"So you at least understand one of the reasons I don't like them… but since I'm an Uchiha, I also have to make sure that any woman I enter a relationship with is strong, otherwise I would be dishonouring my ancestors."
"I see… so not only do you have to deal with there not being enough girls that don't admire you, but also having to find one that's strong as well," the blond proceeded to summarise.
"Yeah…"
"..."
"I think it is time we headed back now," Naruto said calmly as he put his empty bento away and left for their normal classroom, with the last Uchiha not far behind.
XXX
"So this is Uzumaki's apartment… it's quite a dump," a tall man with spiky silver hair, a face mask that covered his mouth and a slanted hitae-ate hiding his left eye said as he was shown around the blonds apartment by the Hokage himself.
"I know Kakashi, now if you would please sit down, I would like to give you some new orders," the aged leader told him sternly, causing the masked ninja to sit on one of the chairs surrounding Naruto's kitchen table, "I want you to pass team 7 regardless of your own personal opinions."
"May I ask why?"
"To put it simply, I'm concerned about Naruto. At the moment he doesn't actually have anything keeping him loyal to Konoha, I want that to change… even if it is just his team."
"So you want me to pass them to ensure Naruto's loyalty to Konoha, is that everything you want?"
"No Kakashi, I know this isn't normal but I want you to start training team 7 straight off the bat instead of giving them time to adjust to taking missions for Konoha."
"Why? We both know it is custom to give genin a three month period to adjust to their new roles in the village… why change it now?"
"Because Naruto is evolving."
"Huh?"
"By the time the three month period is up, Naruto could very well possess every bloodline in history, I want him to be capable of at the very least utilizing each of them, which means making sure he is fully trained up on the basics."
"I seriously doubt that it is even possible for someone to possess more than two bloodlines, let alone every last one," Kakashi said apathetically.
"(sigh) Kakashi, I will tell you something that I don't want you to tell anyone. Within the forbidden scroll was a small orb that is the source of every bloodline in history," Sarutobi told him, shocking the Jōnin in the process, "when Naruto stole the scroll… he merged with the orb, it is now a part of him and is slowly unlocking every last bit of potential he possesses."
"Every last bit of potential he possesses?"
"According to Naruto, the orb has told him that he will be a god when it is finished unlocking his power," the old ninja told the younger man, earning nothing more than a disbelieving stare off the silver haired Jōnin.
"And you actually believed him?"
"You haven't felt the power that orb possesses… when Naruto channelled its power, I felt more fear than I have ever known before, even the Kyūbi itself paled in comparison to the power I felt that instant."
"Fine then, I'll train them straight off the bat, however that doesn't mean he'll learn everything I have to teach," Kakashi said, still unconvinced by the Hokages reasoning, "and if I have to pass them, then I won't test them on their teamwork like I'm supposed to."
"As long as you make sure Naruto is given something within Konoha to hold on to then I don't care what you do."
"Hai Hokage-sama."
XXX
The classroom was empty except for team 7, two of which were sitting quietly, while the other was fidgeting restlessly.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura proceeded to walk over to her blond teammate before opening her mouth and saying what she had wanted to say since the team assignments.
"I'm sorry."
"Your apology is rejected," Naruto responded coldly.
"What?"
"I said your apology is rejected. If you are truly sorry then prove it by not acting like you have for so long."
Sakura was left stupefied by the blonds declaration. He DIDN'T forgive her. But he did give her a chance at redemption, one she would have to work hard to earn. One that had far more meaning than a simple apology.
"I will," she muttered quietly, before sitting down once again.
After another hour, Naruto and Sasuke were still sitting quietly (well Naruto was conversing with Kyūbi since she woke up from her beauty sleep) while Sakura was pacing up and down while occasionally muttering curses at their tardy sensei under her breath.
Suddenly the door opened revealing a lanky man wearing the standard Konoha Jōnin attire, with the exception of the slanted hitae-ate covering one eye, the mask covering his mouth and the gravity defying silver hair.
Quickly looking at his students, Kakashi couldn't help but freeze upon seeing the familiar face of his deceased sensei staring straight at him, with a set of cold, grey and black eyes.
Shaking himself out of his shocked state, Kakashi said what he had planned to since before he had arrived.
"My first impression is… I don't like you."
"The feelings mutual," Naruto said what everyone was thinking.
"Right… meet me on the roof," and with that said, the strange man vanished in a puff of smoke.
XXX
"Alright, now that you're all here, tell me about yourselves," the masked nin said once the trio had ascended the stairs to the roof.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, that is all you need to know aside from my skills which you can only accurately ascertain by testing yourself," the Hōgyoku's host said before anyone else could answer.
"That isn't really what I was after."
"And yet that is all you are getting."
"Fine then… you duckbutt," Kakashi said pointing towards Sasuke.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke and I agree with Naruto."
"Haruno Sakura, same."
"Great, I haven't managed to learn anything because of the mini-Minato," the silver haired ninja thought as he rolled his eyes at their introductions.
"Fine then, I'll demonstrate what sort of introduction I'm after. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like things and dislike others, I have many hobbies and my dream for the future is not something I can tell children."
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and you aren't getting any more off me."
"Same."
"Not until you give us something useful."
"(sigh) fine then… now normally I am required to test your teamwork, but to be perfectly honest with you, I'm too lazy to do that so we'll just start training tomorrow and try to get you up to a decent level while taking on the odd D-rank mission here and there," Kakashi told them casually, "anyway, meet me at training ground three at seven am tomorrow, ya ne," and with that, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"Well then, I'll see you two tomorrow, until then," Naruto said before jumping from the roof, taking advantage of his newly reinforced body to land unscathed, before heading off to get some ramen… which he hadn't had since Iruka took him for some before the scroll incident.
XXX
Naruto was sitting quietly at his usual seat in Ichiraku's ramen, watching as the owner of the stall looked at him strangely.
"Thanks… itadakimasu," the blond said politely before beginning to chow down on the noodles in the way only he could.
"So what happened to you Naruto? You look so different it's scary."
"I'm simply evolving Teuchi-ojisan," the blond said, temporarily stopping to speak.
"Evolving? How can you be evolving?"
"That is my secret ojisan… another bowl please," the blond said placing the empty bowl in front of the chef.
"Heh, other than being better mannered, you are still the Naruto we know and love," the old man said swapping the bowl for a full one, "so you're a ninja now huh? Who's on your team?"
"Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura."
"The asshole and 'the most beautiful girl in the world'" Teuchi said, putting extra emphasis on the part he was once told about Sakura.
"Due to my evolution, I have altered my perception of them and am now proceeding to try and understand them as people rather than objectify them like I did before."
"This evolution thing sounds like it's changed you in more ways than one."
"My evolution is still occurring, however at the moment, my brain is functioning at 100% capacity when a human brain is only supposed to work at 5% capacity… of course it's going to change me," the blond explained to the cook.
"Wow… that sounds impressive."
"It is."
"…"
"…"
"Another bowl please."