Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate it! Also, this story being up seems to have generated some views for my last story as well, and while I really don't mind, I have no plans at the moment to continue that story. It has the same general idea as this one, but I really rushed it, and kind of ruined a couple of the plot mechanics I really wanted to use. So for now, this is my only focus; we'll see later if I can handle more than one story at once! (Although, is there anything in particular I do better in that one than this one? Let me know)
So, it's still not definite (there are still some chapters to go before I decide on a final pairing), but Naruto/Ino is in the lead. I am kind of sick of reading Naruto/Hinata and Naruto/Sakura, not because they're bad pairings (they make the most sense), but just because 90% of stories that have romance at all either use those two exclusively or in a harem.
Well, on the topic of the story, this chapter will introduce a central plot of the story. For those that read it and don't get it, see the bottom Author's Notes, I'll explain where I'm going there. Also, NEW POLLS (Perhaps the most important polls in terms of how you influence this fic)
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Yeah, I do not own Naruto. Honestly, would you believe me if I said I did?
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Naruto had immediately rushed home. Well, as fast as he could with Aya slowing him down. He was excited to be able to study scrolls on ninjutsu, being able to his chakra was going to be really fun. But his conversation with Sarutobi had introduced another factor into this whole thing; having shown Sarutobi his chakra, it was now assumed that he would go into the Ninja Academy and, eventually, become a ninja. So he knew he would have to look at the other scrolls in addition to the ninjutsu one. And, wanting to save the best for last he decided to start with the Academy scroll, then taijutsu, then study until the Academy on ninjutsu! Although he wondered if the Hokage would give him a new scroll if he finished with these…
It was then Naruto realized he had another problem. Naturally, he imagined the ninjutsu would be obvious, perhaps destructive, when used. Unfortunately, leaving the residential district would be impossible, and doing it in the residential district even worse. The only option left was in his room in the orphanage. The orphanage was designed to survive ninja raids, so he supposed that he would be unlikely to damage it any more than adult ninja could. The problem was that he didn't want to attract attention, but there was no place he could be alone. Orphans lived in rooms of two, for companionship purposes, and Naruto hadn't had much interest in his roommate before. He would have to talk to her about keeping quiet about the ninjutsu training.
Naruto held in his excitement until the caretakers called out bedtime. Naruto walked nonchalantly into his room to find that his roommate was already there. He tried to remember the girl's name. It was…. Tenten, he believed.
"Hello, Tenten-kun. I need to talk to you about something," Naruto said, putting on the best smile he could.
"Yeah, what?" Tenten said offhandedly, clearly not interested in her roommate (who had "ignored" her all the years before).
"Well, you know what ninja are, right Tenten?" he said.
"Yes, I see them around sometimes… what about them?" she responded.
"Well, you see, I recently got some scrolls about becoming a ninja, and I wanted to try them out. However, the caretakers would obviously be concerned if they did find out, so please don't tell them!" Naruto said. He suspected she would agree, after all, she had nothing to lose.
"Hmmmm…. sure, but you'll have to do me a favor then…" Tenten answered, surprising Naruto. Naruto gestured for her to continue. "You see, I've been stocking up on some ninja equipment myself," she began, while pulling out a box full of old kunai knives, senbon, and some daggers from under her bed. "The caretakers would never let me have these kunai if they knew about them, but I've been wanting to practice with them for a while now. So, I won't tell them if you don't tell them when I start throwing these in here, okay?" she asked, a bit nervous about having shown her secret stash of weapons to someone. She didn't want to lose them.
Now, Naruto could understand people, especially children. They were all so simple. He knew that she would ordinarily not show anyone those weapons, but his natural charisma had opened her up enough to reveal them. A worthy tactical advantage, if he did say so himself. If the caretakers found out about the weapons, the caretakers would not only not let her keep them, but likely throw her out too. After all, kids weren't even allowed to bring ceramic bowls up to their rooms for fear that they would shatter them and use the pieces as weapons. Sure, it was an irrational thought, but these were orphans, so you never knew when one would snap… Naruto shook his head, focusing again. Now he knew that he would get in trouble for the weapons if they were ever found, at least he would if they figured out he knew, since unlike ninjutsu, there would be solid evidence of their existence, such as holes in the wall and metal chips on the floor once the kunai wore out completely. He also knew that, even if he refused, he now had a weapon against Tenten. He could not have to deal with the weapons and practice at the same time, with no fear of Tenten telling. But making an enemy of a roommate he would have for two more years didn't sound appealing…
"Fine, I won't tell if you won't. I'll be up for a couple more hours reading, so don't turn off the lights." Naruto said coolly, having lost interest in the conversation once he realized that he had an advantage in information over this Tenten girl. It didn't matter how mean he was, she could no longer squeal on him. Tenten nodded and climbed into bed. Sure, she wanted to try out the weapons, but it had been a long day and she was tired. Trying out weapons could wait until tomorrow, as she passed out like the log that all tired young children became.
Naruto pored over his scrolls, selecting and opening the Academy one. He began reading and soon found that it was like a history scroll, with some common ninja facts once in a while. He began skimming; he knew he would have to relearn it all once he got into the Academy anyways, until he got to one very interesting sentence. The scroll stated that because chakra was a combination of mental and physical energies, only a combination of training your body and training your mind could achieve maximum chakra capacity. In addition, both of these trainings would help in taijutsu fights, where quick thinking and strong bodies made all the difference. 'Looks like it's time for me to start working out," Naruto thought uncaringly. If it would give him more chakra, then he would gladly spend time training himself. Deciding that that was all the progress he would make for the night, Naruto also clambered into bed. After all, a child could surpass the limits of his age by only so much, so he had to sleep too.
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The next day he woke up and went through the same routine as always. He got up, brushed his teeth, showered, ate some food… well, the food was unusual. Usually they stocked these cheap and healthy meals that contained everything vital to survival and growth, but were rather bland and tasteless. Today they served a more delicious meal, he didn't know why. Then they went through the scheduled lesson, this whole month had been about managing your money properly, before declaring free time for the rest of the day. Dinner would be served in a couple hours, then bedtime. However, this time they once again warned everyone not to leave the residential district under any conditions. Naruto decided he would go running, he would have to if he wanted more chakra.
As he ran, he heard the sounds of a celebration. He continued to run until he came to the street connecting the residential district to the ninja district. Once there, he stopped running and look into the ninja district to see dancing, music, and drinking. He had been wondering why the residential district had been so empty, it was because today was a party… It was only once he saw an enormous effigy of a fox being burned down that he remembered. This was the day the Yondaime had killed the Kyuubi, so everyone was partying. He turned away, bored once the riddle was solved, until he noticed a man on the wall between the two districts. Naruto squinted and saw a man with silver hair and a facemask, whom he recognized as the man he had thrown the ball too. Naruto was curious why he was not partying, but not curious enough to ask. He began to run along the street away from the celebration, and he turned a corner heading back to the orphanage. He had already been running for 2 hours, it was almost dinner time.
As Naruto turned the corner and disappeared, the brooding Kakashi had turned his head in Naruto's direction, and had seen him just as he disappeared. More importantly, he had noticed Naruto's hair. However, Kakashi was drunk, and seeing the hair only made him sadder. It reminded him of the Yondaime, and therefore of Obito and the other comrades of his who had died. He frowned and drank more liquor. Today was a day for happiness for all but the Yondaime's pupil. Though there was regret for the Yondaime's death in everyone, Kakashi felt it the most. Kakashi drank another sip, which was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back, as a smile appeared on his face and he fell off the wall. Today he was going to reread every Icha Icha book he owned, it was a day for partying!
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That night, as Tenten threw her kunai against the wall, Naruto studied his taijutsu scroll. The reason Tenten could throw her weapons at all was Naruto. Just before she had thrown her first kunai, an action that would later become second-nature to her, Naruto had told her to stop. She had asked why, and he had explained.
"Tenten, you will surely be caught if you're going to poke holes in our walls…" Naruto explained as Tenten nodded. "But I have an idea, so don't worry," Naruto had reassured the sad looking girl. He had taken two kunai and rubbed them together until their tips became dull. He had then taken a pillow and leaned it against the wall, and the put a second pillow on top of the one, bringing it up to shoulder-height. He had then told her, "Go ahead now Tenten. You won't be able to pierce the pillows, just put them back when you're done." Tenten had been appreciative, and had not even noticed that Naruto was smiling.
You see, Naruto had no competition. In the orphanage, there was not much to compete in, besides races the kids would sometimes do, but Naruto had not had any interest in physical training, until he learned its uses with chakra. So he had intentionally waited until just as Tenten was about to throw before he explained and solved the problem for her. He had made this a competition; he had wanted to see if she could see as far ahead as he could. Evidently not, since she had been about to get them both in a bunch of trouble. Having won that mental contest, Naruto was happy as he got back to work. Little did he realize that that was only number two on his list of ambitions; become a master of chakra, and win. And Naruto was born to fulfill his ambitions, once he got them.
Naruto had begun reading the taijutsu scroll. It was boring as hell, but Naruto could care less. It was knowledge that would help him master chakra, since the other scroll had said taijutsu used the same resources as chakra; mental and physical strength. Naruto was reading through the scroll when he realized something sad. These were extremely basic kata. There were only 5 stances for him to cycle through, and some tips on how to properly punch, kick, and move while fighting. He was now almost dreading the ninjutsu scroll, after all, if it was as simple as this scroll he might already know what it taught! However, Naruto knew that, at least for the six months until he went back to the Hokage, he would be able to find something to do that would help him with his chakra. After all, the scroll couldn't contain nothing of value, and he could always build on what it taught. He brought himself back to the present and continued reasing the scroll before getting on his feet and going through the stances. The book had said to repeat the stances three or four times a day for weeks before speeding up all the way, but Naruto felt that such a thing would be stupid. After two repeats, his body felt attuned to the movements and he could already go through all the stances at his maximum speed almost flawlessy. He decided that physical training would be important for this too, if he wanted to go faster.
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The next day repeated the last day, albeit without the good food, a fact that Naruto was a bit unhappy about. Good food was, well, good. However, at night as he opened up the third and final scroll, he suddenly felt himself being watched. This was a new sensation. For some reason he could feel his actions being watches, he just instinctively knew from where, and he could almost make out the shape of this person; how he could do this, he did not know. He turned around slowly to find that Tenten was watching him.
"Hey, Naruto, what are you doing?" she asked.
"Nothing much, go back to throwing your kunai, you have gotten much better," Naruto nonchalantly responded. He was exaggerating there. In fact, he had picked up a kunai for fun and threw it, only to find that he was already better than she was. However, he saw no reason to tell her this, and training with kunai was something he would be forced to do in the Academy soon anyways, he did not want to bother with that yet… not while there was stuff about this fascinating chakra to be learned.
Tenten smiled and nodded, doubling her efforts at throwing. Naruto almost laughed; he just could not understand why people listened to him so attentively, but he supposed it could hardly hurt. As he went back to his scroll, he opened it and, as soon as he did, found to his bewilderment a small card slipped out and hit the ground. He picked it up and put it back on the scroll, and began reading. The first thing he noticed was that most of these were chakra control techniques, not actual ninjutsu, and that there were only three actual ninjutsu; kawirimi, henge, and bunshin. Naruto thought that these sounded useful, but he restrained himself and looked back at the top. He would read everything in the scroll, then decide on the order. As he read more about leaf balancing and tree walking, he could not help but smile; chakra was really cool!
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(Time passed: 5 months 28 days)
Naruto knew that he was only a day away from going back to see the Hokage, and he could not help but be impatient. Everything in that scroll was too simple. He had mastered the chakra control exercises, he was able to water walk while floating leaves now, he could perform the three ninjutsu, the taijutsu scroll was laughable, and he had memorized the Academy scroll on his second reading of it. In fact, only a couple of interesting things had happened. For one, he had gotten into the habit of throwing Tenten's kunai when she fell asleep, since he figured it was the least she could unknowingly do for him keeping her secret. He kind of enjoyed throwing two at once from both ands and getting them to hit each other and then both hit the pillow. Sure, after they hit each other he had trouble predicting their trajectory, but he had gotten much better very quickly, though his only comparison for speed was Tenten. He could not help but wonder if she was slow; it was a mean thought, but he picked up on this stuff so much faster than she did.
More importantly, Naruto had discovered something that he did not even realize the importance of. Chakra was so simple for him, so easy to understand, that after he had practiced the ninjutsu for a while, he began being able to do them without hadseals. After all, the seal regulated the way his chakra moved, and Naruto could feel, almost even see, the way his chakra moved through his body. He found the seals to be unnecessary, though it sometimes helped when he was trying to do two really quickly after eachother, since sometimes chakra from one would leak over into the other without handseals, though this had improved along with his handseals. The scroll did not mention anything about doing jutsu without seals, but Naruto supposed it must be normal, though tomorrow would be the perfect opportunity to ask the Hokage about it. He was also hoping to get some new scrolls, since these had not lasted long. He climbed into bed and willed himself to sleep, eventually succeeding only after he stopped trying so hard. His final thoughts before falling asleep were, 'I wonder if my parents were ninja too… I wonder what they were like…' During the day, he found that he could care less about who his parents were. It was a sad fact hat he was an orphan, but life wasn't bad, and he was positive that knowing his parents wouldn't change anything, though it might make his life more complicated. He would ponder it more, but a night of dreamless sleep awaited him; but he thought it was normal.
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Okay, I'm going to point out some stuff about the story here. I would have done it in the story, but InARealPickle pointed out that it was annoying, and though I hadn't noticed as I read it, I also wrote those noted to begin with. Thanks for the constructive criticism, and let me know if there's anything else I need to fix. Speaking of fixing, I still need a Beta, though I suppose I can do without.
Naruto has enormous stamina. I mean, the seal was designed to slowly feed chakra into Naruto, so for him to be a tank so early, he had to have something there to begin with. Not godlike, but more than the norm.
Also, I know co-ed rooms in sounds unrealistic, but I wanted to use an actual Naruto character, since I'm bad with names, so I could only think of one who has been used in an orphanage before. Besides, these are the cootie-years, so unless you can warrant two 5 year olds getting busy, the roommates would talk to each other, nothing more, and the caretakers would know it.
Also, you'll notice that I made it so Naruto's chakra discovery really begins on what is his birthday, since his mother died during childbirth two weeks before the Kyuubi, and the story started two weeks before the festival. It's not really important, but it kind of represents that Naruto was born to be a great ninja, but he doesn't know it. I also put in constant references to Minato, as far as Naruto's charisma. I just felt like it would be cool that Naruto, who doesn't care much for people, happens to be really good with , Naruto may seem overpowered, but bear in mind two things; he doesn't know what normal power is, he's never seen another ninja fight, and he doesn't have any ninja-to-be friends except maybe Tenten, who doesn't care about ninjutsu (though he is far better than her with weapons, if that tells you anything).
I also like that they burned the Kyuubi. I just feel like it's ironic, since that would never work against the real deal. They should've put the effigy in a storage scroll, since that would've been more realistic.
Finally, Naruto will be an all around ninja. He may eventually learn genjutsu and fuuinjutsu, review if you have an opinion on it. He is a genius, but he has trouble making himself care except when he gets a goal. Since he's fascinated by chakra, he's quickly progressing through anything to help him get better with chakra. Later, when he gets new goals, he'll get better at those faster too. The main conflict here is that Naruto has no real interest for friends or Konoha, only chakra and competition. What will this mean later?
Now for the polls. The relationship poll and element polls will only affect the story superficially, which is important, but not as important as these polls, which WILL INFLUENCE THE STORY.
Naruto's sensei?
Naruto's teammates. Should he even have any?
Describe Academy years, or skip it to get to the good stuff? More exposition if I do, faster if I don't.
Favorite country? (This will involve Naruto, I don't want to give to much away, but what is your favorite place in the Naruto universe?)
Sorry for mega long Author's Notes. Again, please review!